From 115e9ec44cf2bfa42295efc3b59e9a80f90dfdab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Susheel Varma Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:49:40 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Commit new papers --- data/covid/ack-preprints.csv | 71 +- data/covid/papers.csv | 138 +- data/papers.csv | 1040 +-- data/papers.json | 15082 ++++++++++++++++----------------- 4 files changed, 8166 insertions(+), 8165 deletions(-) diff --git a/data/covid/ack-preprints.csv b/data/covid/ack-preprints.csv index 25db6f20..fe1abfb6 100644 --- a/data/covid/ack-preprints.csv +++ b/data/covid/ack-preprints.csv @@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ PPR704142,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4544777,Use of Sodium Valproate and Other PPR610240,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2496392/v1,"Natural history of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study","Pell J, Hastie C, Lowe D, McAuley A, Mills N, Winter A, Black C, Scott J, O'Donnell C, Blane D, Browne S, Ibbotson T.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-30,Y,,,,"Previous studies on the natural history of long-COVID have been few and selective. Without comparison groups, disease progression cannot be differentiated from symptoms originating from other causes. The Long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS) is a Scotland-wide, general population cohort of adults who had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection matched to adults never infected. Serial, self-completed, online questionnaires collected information on pre-existing health conditions and current health: 26 symptoms and health-related quality of life, six, 12 and 18 months after the index test. Those previously infected also self-reported current recovery status (fully, partially or not recovered). Here we show that, of those with previous symptomatic infection, 35% reported persistent incomplete/no recovery, 12% improvement and 12% deterioration. At six and 12 months, one or more symptom was reported by 71.5% and 70.7% respectively of those previously infected, compared with 53.5% and 56.5% of those never infected. Altered taste, smell and confusion improved over time compared to the never infected group and adjusted for confounders. Conversely, late onset dry and productive cough, and hearing problems were more likely following SARS-CoV-2 infection than among those never infected. Whilst resolution of some symptoms of long-COVID (altered taste/smell and confusion) is reassuring, late onset cough and hearing problems in some individuals merits further investigation.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-2496392/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2496392/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR610240; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR610240&type=FILE&fileName=EMS163766-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR625922,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.01.23286627,Effectiveness of successive booster vaccine doses against SARS-CoV-2 related mortality in residents of Long-Term Care Facilities in the VIVALDI study,"Stirrup O, Shrotri M, Adams NL, Krutikov M, Azmi B, Monakhov I, Tut G, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-03-03,Y,,,,"We evaluated the effectiveness of 1-3 booster vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2 related mortality among a cohort of 13407 older residents of long-term care facilities (LTCFs) participating in the VIVALDI study in England in 2022. Cox regression was used to estimate relative hazards of SARS-CoV-2 related death following booster vaccination relative to 2 doses (after 84+ days), stratified by previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and adjusting for age, sex and LTCF capacity. Each booster provided additional short-term protection relative to primary vaccination, with consistent pattern of waning to 45-75% reduction in risk beyond 112 days.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.01.23286627; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR625922; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR625922&type=FILE&fileName=EMS171894-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/03/03/2023.03.01.23286627.full.pdf PPR506156,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.09.22276196,Accelerated waning of the humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in obesity,"van der Klaauw AA, Horner EC, Pereyra-Gerber P, Agrawal U, Foster WS, Spencer S, Vergese B, Smith M, Henning E, Ramsay ID, Smith JA, Guillaume SM, Sharpe HJ, Hay IM, Thompson S, Innocentin S, Booth LH, Robertson C, McCowan C, Mulroney TE, O’Reilly MJ, Gurugama TP, Gurugama LP, Rust MA, Ferreira A, Ebrahimi S, Ceron-Gutierrez L, Scotucci J, Kronsteiner B, Dunachie SJ, Klenerman P, Park AJ, Rubino F, Stark H, Kingston N, Doffinger R, Linterman MA, Matheson NJ, Sheikh A, Farooqi IS, Thaventhiran JED, PITCH Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-14,N,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of severe Covid-19. However, the effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in people with obesity is unknown. Here we studied the relationship between body mass index (BMI), hospitalization and mortality due to Covid-19 amongst 3.5 million people in Scotland. Vaccinated people with severe obesity (BMI>40 kg/m 2 ) were significantly more likely to experience hospitalization or death from Covid-19. Excess risk increased with time since vaccination. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we conducted a prospective longitudinal study of the immune response in a clinical cohort of vaccinated people with severe obesity. Compared with normal weight people, six months after their second vaccine dose, significantly more people with severe obesity had unquantifiable titres of neutralizing antibody against authentic SARS-CoV-2 virus, reduced frequencies of antigen-experienced SARS-CoV-2 Spike-binding B cells, and a dissociation between anti-Spike antibody levels and neutralizing capacity. Neutralizing capacity was restored by a third dose of vaccine, but again declined more rapidly in people with severe obesity. We demonstrate that waning of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced humoral immunity is accelerated in people with severe obesity and associated with increased hospitalization and mortality from breakthrough infections. Given the prevalence of obesity, our findings have significant implications for global public health.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/06/14/2022.06.09.22276196.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.09.22276196; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR506156; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.09.22276196 -PPR550732,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.27.22280397,Vaccine effectiveness for preventing COVID-19 hospital admission during pregnancy: a population-based cohort study in England during the Alpha and Delta waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,"Bosworth ML, Schofield R, Ayoubkhani D, Charlton L, Nafilyan V, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Gillies C, Akbari A, Knight M, Wood R, Hardelid P, Zuccolo L, Harrison C.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-09-27,Y,,,,"

Objective

To estimate vaccine effectiveness (VE) for preventing COVID-19 hospital admission in women first infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy, and assess how this compares to VE among women of reproductive age who were not pregnant when first infected.

Design

Population-based cohort study using national, linked Census and administrative data.

Setting

England, United Kingdom, from 8 th December 2020 to 31 st August 2021.

Participants

815,4777 women aged 18 to 45 years (mean age, 30.4 years) who had documented evidence of a first SARS-CoV-2 infection in NHS Test and Trace data or Hospital Episode Statistics.

Main outcome measures

A hospital inpatient episode where COVID-19 was recorded as the primary diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for calendar time of infection and sociodemographic factors related to vaccine uptake and risk of severe COVID-19, were used to estimate VE as the complement of the hazard ratio for COVID-19 hospital admission.

Results

Compared with unvaccinated pregnant women, the adjusted rate of COVID-19 hospital admission was 76% (95% confidence interval 69% to 82%) lower for single-vaccinated pregnant women and 83% (75% to 88%) lower for double-vaccinated pregnant women. These estimates were similar to those found for non-pregnant women: 79% (76% to 81%) for single-vaccinated and 82% (80% to 83%) for double-vaccinated. Among those vaccinated more than 90 days before infection, being double-vaccinated was associated with a greater reduction in risk than being single-vaccinated.

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccination is associated with reduced rates of severe illness in pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2, and the reduction in risk is similar to that for non-pregnant women. Waning of vaccine effectiveness occurs more quickly after one dose of a vaccine than two doses.

What is already known on this topic

Being pregnant is a risk factor for severe illness and mortality following infection with SARS-CoV-2. Existing evidence suggests that COVID-19 vaccines are effective for preventing severe outcomes in pregnant women. However, research directly comparing vaccine effectiveness between pregnant and non-pregnant women of reproductive age at the population level are lacking.

What this study adds

Our study provides real-world evidence that COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of hospital admission by a similar amount for both women infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy and women who were not pregnant when infected, during the Alpha and Delta dominant periods in England.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/09/27/2022.09.27.22280397.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.27.22280397; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR550732; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR550732&type=FILE&fileName=EMS155049-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR279444,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.21251297,The changing characteristics of COVID-19 presentations: A regional comparison of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalised patients during the first and second wave,"Atkin C, Kamwa V, Reddy-Kolanu V, Parekh D, Evison F, Nightingale P, Gallier S, Ball S, Sapey E.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-08,Y,,,,"

Background

This study assesses COVID-19 hospitalised patient demography and outcomes during wave 1 and wave 2, prior to new variants of the virus.

Methods

All patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab between 10 th March 2020 and 5 th July 2020 (wave 1) and 1 st September 2020 and 16 th November 2020 (wave 2) admitted to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust were included (n=4856), followed for 28 days.

Results

Wave 2 patients were younger, more ethnically diverse, had less co-morbidities and disease presentation was milder on presentation. After matching for these factors, mortality was reduced, but without differences in intensive care admissions.

Conclusion

Prior to new SARS-CoV-2 variants, outcomes for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 were improving but with similar intensive care needs.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/02/08/2021.02.07.21251297.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.21251297; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR279444; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR279444&type=FILE&fileName=EMS116132-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR550732,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.27.22280397,Vaccine effectiveness for preventing COVID-19 hospital admission during pregnancy: a population-based cohort study in England during the Alpha and Delta waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,"Bosworth ML, Schofield R, Ayoubkhani D, Charlton L, Nafilyan V, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Gillies C, Akbari A, Knight M, Wood R, Hardelid P, Zuccolo L, Harrison C.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-09-27,Y,,,,"

Objective

To estimate vaccine effectiveness (VE) for preventing COVID-19 hospital admission in women first infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy, and assess how this compares to VE among women of reproductive age who were not pregnant when first infected.

Design

Population-based cohort study using national, linked Census and administrative data.

Setting

England, United Kingdom, from 8 th December 2020 to 31 st August 2021.

Participants

815,4777 women aged 18 to 45 years (mean age, 30.4 years) who had documented evidence of a first SARS-CoV-2 infection in NHS Test and Trace data or Hospital Episode Statistics.

Main outcome measures

A hospital inpatient episode where COVID-19 was recorded as the primary diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for calendar time of infection and sociodemographic factors related to vaccine uptake and risk of severe COVID-19, were used to estimate VE as the complement of the hazard ratio for COVID-19 hospital admission.

Results

Compared with unvaccinated pregnant women, the adjusted rate of COVID-19 hospital admission was 76% (95% confidence interval 69% to 82%) lower for single-vaccinated pregnant women and 83% (75% to 88%) lower for double-vaccinated pregnant women. These estimates were similar to those found for non-pregnant women: 79% (76% to 81%) for single-vaccinated and 82% (80% to 83%) for double-vaccinated. Among those vaccinated more than 90 days before infection, being double-vaccinated was associated with a greater reduction in risk than being single-vaccinated.

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccination is associated with reduced rates of severe illness in pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2, and the reduction in risk is similar to that for non-pregnant women. Waning of vaccine effectiveness occurs more quickly after one dose of a vaccine than two doses.

What is already known on this topic

Being pregnant is a risk factor for severe illness and mortality following infection with SARS-CoV-2. Existing evidence suggests that COVID-19 vaccines are effective for preventing severe outcomes in pregnant women. However, research directly comparing vaccine effectiveness between pregnant and non-pregnant women of reproductive age at the population level are lacking.

What this study adds

Our study provides real-world evidence that COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of hospital admission by a similar amount for both women infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy and women who were not pregnant when infected, during the Alpha and Delta dominant periods in England.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/09/27/2022.09.27.22280397.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.27.22280397; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR550732; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR550732&type=FILE&fileName=EMS155049-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR691339,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2832054/v1,Insights into the implementation of a whole genome sequencing report form (SRF) to reduce nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 within UK hospitals: a qualitative process evaluation using normalisation process theory,"Leiser R, McLeod J, Mapp F, Stirrup O, Blackstone J, Illingwo CJ, Nebbia G, Price JR, Snell LB, Saluja T, Breuer J, Flowers P.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-13,Y,,,,"

Background:

Here we report on a process evaluation conducted as part of a large multisite non-randomised trial of the effectiveness of a whole genome sequence report form (SRF) to reduce nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 through changing infection prevention and control (IPC) behaviours during the COVID − 19 pandemic. We detail how the SRF was implemented across a heterogeneous purposive sub-sample of hospital trial sites (n = 5/14).

Methods:

We conducted in-depth interviews from diverse professional staff (N = 39). Inductive thematic analysis initially explored participants’ accounts of implementing the SRF. The resulting data driven themes, concerning the way the SRF was used within sites, were then coded in relation to the key tenets of normalisation process theory (NPT).

Results:

Factors that enabled the implementation of the SRF included: elements of the context such as health care professional passion; the existence of whole genome sequencing (WGS) infrastructure; effective communication channels, the creation of new connections across professionals and teams; the integration of SRF-led discussions within pre-existing meetings and the ability of a site to achieve a rapid turnaround time. In contrast, we found factors that constrained the use of the SRF included elements of the context such as the impact of the Alpha-variant overwhelming hospitals. In turn, dealing with COVID-19 breached the limited capacity of infection prevention and control (IPC) to respond to the SRF and ensure its routinisation.

Conclusion:

We show preliminary support for the SRF being an acceptable, useable and potentially scalable way of enhancing existing IPC activities. However, the context of both the trial and the alpha wave of COVID-19 limit these insights. Clinical trial number https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN50212645, Registration date 20/05/2020",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-2832054/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2832054/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR691339; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR691339&type=FILE&fileName=EMS180239-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR660616,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.12.23289914,Effectiveness of Sotrovimab and Molnupiravir in community settings in England across the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages: emulated target trials using the OpenSAFELY platform,"The OpenSAFELY collaborative, Tazare J, Nab L, Zheng B, Hulme WJ, Green ACA, Curtis HJ, Mahalingasivam V, Higgins R, Schultze A, Bhaskaran K, Mehrkar A, Schaffer A, Smith RM, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Eggo RM, Walker AJ, Marks M, Brown M, Maringe C, Leyrat C, Evans SJW, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Sterne JAC, Tomlinson LA, Douglas IJ.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-05-16,Y,,,,"

Background

The effectiveness of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody and antiviral therapies against severe COVID-19 outcomes is unclear. Initial benefit was shown in unvaccinated patients and before the Omicron variant emerged. We used the OpenSAFELY platform to emulate target trials to estimate the effectiveness of sotrovimab or molnupiravir, versus no treatment.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we derived population-based cohorts of non-hospitalised high-risk individuals in England testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 during periods of dominance of the BA.1 (16/12/2021-10/02/2022) and BA.2 (11/02/2022-21/05/2022) Omicron sublineages. We used the clone-censor-weight approach to estimate the effect of treatment with sotrovimab or molnupiravir initiated within 5 days after positive test versus no treatment. Hazard ratios (HR) for COVID-19 hospitalisation or death within 28 days were estimated using weighted Cox models.

Results

Of the 35,856 [BA.1 period] and 39,192 [BA.2 period] patients, 1,830 [BA.1] and 1,242 [BA.2] were treated with molnupiravir and 2,244 [BA.1] and 4,164 [BA.2] with sotrovimab. The estimated HRs for molnupiravir versus untreated were 1.00 (95%CI: 0.81;1.22) [BA.1] and 1.22 (0.96;1.56) [BA.2]; corresponding HRs for sotrovimab versus untreated were 0.76 (0.66;0.89) [BA.1] and 0.92 (0.79;1.06) [BA.2].

Interpretation

Compared with no treatment, sotrovimab was associated with reduced risk of adverse outcomes after COVID-19 in the BA.1 period, but there was weaker evidence of benefit in the BA2 period. Molnupiravir was not associated with reduced risk in either period.

Funding

UKRI, Wellcome Trust, MRC, NIHR and HDRUK.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/05/16/2023.05.12.23289914.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.12.23289914; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR660616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR660616&type=FILE&fileName=EMS175947-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR625199,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4322399,Baby and Maternal Outcomes Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy: A National Population-Based Matched Cohort Study,"Lindsay L, Calvert C, Shi T, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LE, Hopkins L, Goulding A, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Bhaskaran K, Katikireddi SV, McCabe R, McCowan C, Simpson C, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R, Stock SJ.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-20,N,,,,"Background: Understanding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy on maternal and perinatal outcomes informs clinical decision-making.

Methods: We undertook a national, population-based, matched cohort study to investigate associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and, separately, COVID-19 vaccination just before or during pregnancy and the risk of adverse baby and maternal outcomes among women in Scotland with a singleton pregnancy ending at ≥20 weeks gestation. Baby outcomes examined were stillbirth, neonatal death, extended perinatal mortality, preterm birth (overall, spontaneous, and provider-initiated), small-for-gestational age, and low Apgar score. Maternal outcomes were admission to critical care or death, venous thromboembolism, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and pregnancy-related bleeding. Conditional logistic regression models were used to derive odds ratios adjusted for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Findings: Our infection analyses of 4,074 women with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection matched on maternal age, season of conception, and gestational age at infection/matching to 12,222 uninfected controls, found that infection was associated with an increased risk of preterm (aOR=1·36, 95% CI 1·16-1·59) and very preterm birth (aOR=1·90, 95% CI 1·20-3·02), maternal admission to critical care or death (aOR=1·72, 95% CI 1·39-2·12), and venous thromboembolism (aOR=2·53, 95% CI 1·47-4·35). Our vaccination analyses found no evidence of increased risk for any baby or maternal outcomes following vaccination.InterpretationSARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with adverse baby and maternal outcomes, but COVID-19 vaccination is not. COVID-19 vaccination remains the safest way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Funding: Our thanks to the EAVE II Patient Advisory Group and Sands charity for their support. COPS is a sub-study of EAVE II, which is funded by the Medical Research Council (MC_PC_19075) with the support of BREATHE – The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health [MC_PC_19004], which is funded through the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and delivered through Health Data Research UK. Additional support has been provided through Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government DG Health and Social Care and the Data and Connectivity National Core Study, led by Health Data Research UK in partnership with the Office for National Statistics and funded by UK Research and Innovation. COPS has received additional funding from Tommy’s charity. SJS is funded by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellowship (209560/Z/17/Z). SVK acknowledges funding from a NRS Senior Clinical Fellowship (SCAF/15/02), the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/2) and the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU17).

Declaration of Interests: AS and CR were members of the Scottish Government’s COVID-19 Advisory Group. AS is a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) risk stratification subgroup and the Scottish Government’s Committee on Pandemic Preparedness. CR is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling and the MHRA Covid 19 Vaccine Benefit and Risk Working Group. AS is a member of AstraZeneca’s Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Advisory Group. All roles are unremunerated. SVK was co-chair of Scottish Government’s Expert Reference Group on Ethnicity and COVID-19. All others have nothing to declare.

Ethics Approval: COPS has ethical approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee, South East Scotland 02 (REC 12/SS/0201: SA 2) and information governance approval from the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (2021-0116).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4322399; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR625199; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4322399 @@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ PPR293775,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.04.21252931,A common TMPRSS2 va PPR302793,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3803364,"A Common TMPRSS2 Variant Protects Against Severe COVID-19","David A, Parkinson N, Peacock TP, Pairo-Castineira E, Khanna T, Cobat A, Tenesa A, Sancho-Shimizu V, Group II, Group GI, Casanova J, Abel L, Barclay WS, Baillie JK, Sternberg M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-12,N,,,,"Background: The human protein transmembrane protease serine type 2 (TMPRSS2) plays a key role in SARS-CoV-2 infection, as it is required to activate the virus’ spike protein, facilitating entry into target cells. We hypothesized that naturally-occurring TMPRSS2 human genetic variants affecting the structure and function of the TMPRSS2 protein may modulate the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: We focused on the only common TMPRSS2 non-synonymous variant predicted to be damaging (rs12329760 T to C, p.V160M), which has a minor allele frequency of ~25% in the population. We analysed the association between the rs12329760 and COVID19 severity in 2,244 critically ill patients with COVID-19 from 208 UK intensive care units recruited as part of the GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality In Critical Care) study. Logistic regression analyses were adjusted for sex, age and deprivation index. For in vitro studies, HEK293 cells were co-transfected with ACE2 and either TMPRSS2 wild type or mutant (TMPRSS2V160M). A SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus entry assay was used to investigate TMPRSS2V160M ability to promote viral entry.

Findings: We show that the T allele of rs12329760 is associated with a reduced likelihood of developing severe COVID19 (OR 0.87, 95%CI:0.79-0.97, p=0.01). This association was stronger in homozygous individuals when compared to the general population (OR 0.65, 95%CI:0.50-0.84, p=1.3×10-3). We demonstrate in vitro that this variant, which causes the amino acid substitution valine to methionine, impacts the catalytic activity of TMPRSS2 and is less able to support SARS-CoV-2 spike-mediated entry into cells.

Interpretation: TMPRSS2 rs12329760 is a common variant associated with a significantly decreased risk of severe COVID19. Further studies are needed to assess the expression of the TMPRSS2 across different age groups. Moreover, our results identify TMPRSS2 as a promising drug target, with a potential role for camostat mesilate, a drug approved for the treatment of chronic pancreatitis and postoperative reflux esophagitis, in the treatment of COVID19. Clinical trials are needed to confirm this.

Funding: Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, UKRI Future Leader’s Fellowship, Health Data Research UK

Declaration of Interests: On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethics Approval Statement: Research ethics committees (Scotland 15/SS/0110, England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 19/WM/0247).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3803364; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR302793; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3803364 PPR557473,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.12.22281016,Quantifying changes in the IFR and IHR over 23 months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in England,"Eales O, Haw D, Wang H, Atchison C, Ashby D, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Chadeau-Hyam M, Elliott P, Riley S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-10-13,Y,,,,"

Background

The relationship between prevalence of infection and severe outcomes such as hospitalisation and death changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study estimated swab positivity in England approximately monthly from May 2020 to 31 March 2022. This period covers widespread circulation of the original strain, the emergence of the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants and the rollout of England’s mass vaccination campaign.

Methods

Here, we explore this changing relationship between prevalence of swab positivity and the infection fatality rate (IFR) and infection hospitalisation rate (IHR) over 23 months of the pandemic in England, using publicly available data for the daily number of deaths and hospitalisations, REACT-1 swab positivity data, time-delay models and Bayesian P-spline models. We analyse data for all age groups together, as well as in two sub-groups: those aged 65 and over and those aged 64 and under.

Results

During 2020, we estimated the IFR to be 0.67% and the IHR to be 2.6%. By late-2021/early-2022 the IFR and IHR had both decreased to 0.097% and 0.76% respectively. Continuous estimates of the IFR and IHR of the virus were observed to increase during the periods of Alpha and Delta’s emergence. During periods of vaccination rollout, and the emergence of the Omicron variant, the IFR and IHR of the virus decreased. During 2020, we estimated a time-lag of 19 days between hospitalisation and swab positivity, and 26 days between deaths and swab positivity. By late-2021/early-2022 these time-lags had decreased to 7 days for hospitalisations, and 18 days for deaths.

Conclusion

Even though many populations have high levels of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 from vaccination and natural infection, waning of immunity and variant emergence will continue to be an upwards pressure on IHR and IFR. As investments in community surveillance are scaled back, alternative methods should be developed to accurately track the ever changing relationship between infection, hospitalisation and death.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/10/13/2022.10.12.22281016.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.12.22281016; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR557473; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR557473&type=FILE&fileName=EMS155665-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR687720,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.06.23292295,Spatio-temporal surveillance and early detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: a retrospective analysis,"Cavallaro M, Dyson L, Tildesley MJ, Todkill D, Keeling MJ.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-07,Y,,,,"The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been characterized by the repeated emergence of genetically distinct virus variants of increased transmissibility and immune evasion compared to pre-existing lineages. In many countries, their containment required the intervention of public health authorities and the imposition of control measures. While the primary role of testing is to identify infection, target treatment, and limit spread (through isolation and contact tracing), a secondary benefit is in terms of surveillance and the early detection of new variants. Here we study the spatial invasion and early spread of the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron (BA.1 and BA.2) variants in England from September 2020 to February 2022 using the random neighbourhood covering (RaNCover) method. This is a statistical technique for the detection of aberrations in spatial point processes, which we tailored here to community PCR (polymerase-chain-reaction) test data where the TaqPath kit provides a proxy measure of the switch between variants. Retrospectively, RaNCover detected the earliest signals associated with the four novel variants that led to large infection waves in England. With suitable data our method therefore has the potential to rapidly detect outbreaks of future SARS-CoV-2 variants, thus helping to inform targeted public health interventions.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/07/07/2023.07.06.23292295.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.06.23292295; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR687720; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR687720&type=FILE&fileName=EMS178687-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR215604,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.17.20196469,Renin-angiotensin system inhibitors and susceptibility to COVID-19 in patients with hypertension: a propensity score-matched cohort study in primary care,"Haroon S, Subramanian A, Cooper J, Anand A, Gokhale K, Byne N, Dhalla S, Acosta-Mena D, Taverner T, Okoth K, Wang J, Chandan JS, Sainsbury C, Zemedikun DT, Thomas GN, Parekh D, Marshall T, Sapey E, Adderley NJ, Nirantharakumar K.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-18,Y,,,,"

Introduction

A significant proportion of patients with Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) have hypertension and are treated with renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, namely angiotensin-converting enzyme I inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) or angiotensin II type-1 receptor blockers (ARBs). These medications have been postulated to influence susceptibility to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The objective of this study was to assess a possible association between prescription of RAS inhibitors and the incidence of COVID-19 and all-cause mortality.

Methods

We conducted a propensity-score matched cohort study to assess the incidence of COVID-19 among patients with hypertension who were prescribed ACE inhibitors or ARBs compared to patients treated with calcium channel blockers (CCBs) in a large UK-based primary care database (The Health Improvement Network). We estimated crude incidence rates for confirmed/suspected COVID-19 among those prescribed ACE inhibitors, ARBs and CCBs. We used a Cox proportional hazards model to produce adjusted hazard ratios for COVID-19 comparing patients prescribed ACE inhibitors or ARBs to those prescribed CCBs. We further assessed all-cause mortality as a secondary outcome and a composite of accidents, trauma or fractures as a negative control outcome to assess for residual confounding.

Results

In the propensity score matched analysis, 83 of 18,895 users (0.44%) of ACE inhibitors developed COVID-19 over 8,923 person-years, an incidence rate of 9.3 per 1000 person-years. 85 of 18,895 (0.45%) users of CCBs developed COVID-19 over 8,932 person-years, an incidence rate of 9.5 per 1000 person-years. The adjusted hazard ratio for suspected/confirmed COVID-19 for users of ACE inhibitors compared to CCBs was 0.92 (95% CI 0.68 to 1.26). 79 out of 10,623 users (0.74%) of ARBs developed COVID-19 over 5010 person-years, an incidence rate of 15.8 per 1000 person-years, compared to 11.6 per 1000 person-years among users of CCBs. The adjusted hazard ratio for suspected/confirmed COVID-19 for users of ARBs compared to CCBs was 1.38 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.95). There were no significant associations between use of ACE inhibitors or ARBs and all-cause mortality, compared to use of CCBs. We found no evidence of significant residual confounding with the negative control analysis.

Conclusion

Current use of ACE inhibitors was not associated with the risk of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 whereas use of ARBs was associated with a statistically non-significant 38% relative increase in risk compared to use of CCBs. However, no significant associations were observed between prescription of either ACE inhibitors or ARBs and all-cause mortality during the peak of the pandemic.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/118117066/s12879_021_05951_w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.17.20196469; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR215604; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR215604&type=FILE&fileName=EMS96164-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR687720,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.06.23292295,Spatio-temporal surveillance and early detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: a retrospective analysis,"Cavallaro M, Dyson L, Tildesley MJ, Todkill D, Keeling MJ.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-07,Y,,,,"The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been characterized by the repeated emergence of genetically distinct virus variants of increased transmissibility and immune evasion compared to pre-existing lineages. In many countries, their containment required the intervention of public health authorities and the imposition of control measures. While the primary role of testing is to identify infection, target treatment, and limit spread (through isolation and contact tracing), a secondary benefit is in terms of surveillance and the early detection of new variants. Here we study the spatial invasion and early spread of the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron (BA.1 and BA.2) variants in England from September 2020 to February 2022 using the random neighbourhood covering (RaNCover) method. This is a statistical technique for the detection of aberrations in spatial point processes, which we tailored here to community PCR (polymerase-chain-reaction) test data where the TaqPath kit provides a proxy measure of the switch between variants. Retrospectively, RaNCover detected the earliest signals associated with the four novel variants that led to large infection waves in England. With suitable data our method therefore has the potential to rapidly detect outbreaks of future SARS-CoV-2 variants, thus helping to inform targeted public health interventions.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/07/07/2023.07.06.23292295.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.06.23292295; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR687720; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR687720&type=FILE&fileName=EMS178687-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR625471,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4376992,Identifying Long Covid Using Electronic Health Records: A National Observational Cohort Study in Scotland,"Jeffrey K, Woolford L, Maini R, Basetti S, Batchelor A, Weatherill D, White C, Hammersley V, Millington T, Macdonald C, Quint J, Kerr R, Kerr S, Shah SA, Fagbamigbe AF, Simpson C, Katikireddi SV, Robertson C, Ritchie LD, Sheikh A, Daines L.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-03-07,N,,,,"Background: Long COVID is a debilitating multisystem condition. To estimate prevalence and identify risk factors, we analysed routinely collected data from almost the entire adult population of Scotland.

Methods: A cohort of adults (≥18 years) resident in Scotland between March 1, 2020, and October 20, 2022, was created by linking data from primary care, secondary care, laboratory testing and prescribing. Four outcome measures were used to identify long COVID: clinical codes, free text in primary care records, free text on sick notes, and a novel operational definition. The latter was developed using Poisson regression to identify clinical encounters indicative of long COVID from a sample of negative and positive COVID-19 cases matched on time-varying propensity to test positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Findings: Of 5,104,198 participants, 90,712 (1·8%) were identified as having long COVID by one or more outcome measures. Clinical codes were rarely recorded (n=1,092, 0·02%). More people were identified using free text (n= 8,368, 0·2%), sick notes (n=14,471, 0·3%) and the operational definition (n=73,767, 1·4%). Compared with the general population, a higher proportion of people with long COVID were female, middle-aged, overweight/obese, had at least two comorbidities, were immunosuppressed, shielding, or hospitalised within 28 days of testing positive, and had tested positive before Omicron became the dominant variant.

Interpretation: The prevalence of long COVID presenting in general practice was estimated to be 0·02 - 1·8%, depending on the measure used. Of the four outcome measures used, clinical codes identified the fewest cases. With limited use of long COVID clinical codes, we consider free text analysis to be the most promising approach should future surveillance of long COVID at a national level be required.

Funding: Chief Scientist Office (Scotland) and Medical Research Council.

Declaration of Interest: AS reports grants from HDRUK, grants from NIHR, grants from MRC, grants from ICSF, during the conduct of the study; and Member of Scottish Government's CMO COVID-19 Advisory Group and Standing Committee on Pandemics. CR reports support from PHS and MRC. CS reports grants from MBIE (New Zealand), Ministry of Health (New Zealand), and HRC (New Zealand). JKQ reports grants from MRC, HDR UK, GlaxoSmithKline, BI, Asthma+Lung UK, and AstraZeneca and consulting fees from GlaxoSmithKline, Evidera, AstraZeneca, Insmed. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval: The EAVE II study obtained approvals from the West of Scotland Research Ethics Committee (reference: 22/WS/0071), and the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (reference: 1920-0279).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4376992; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR625471; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4376992 PPR697303,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3168263/v1,Impact of vaccination on the association of COVID-19 with arterial and venous thrombotic diseases: an OpenSAFELY cohort study using linked electronic health records,"Cezard G, Denholm R, Knight R, Wei Y, Teece L, Toms R, Forbes H, Walker A, Fisher L, Massey J, Hopcroft L, Horne E, Taylor K, Palmer T, Arab MA, Coronado JC, Ip S, Davy S, Dillingham I, Bacon S, Mehrkar A, Morton C, Greaves F, Hyams C, Smith GD, MacLeod J, Chaturvedi N, Goldacre B, Whiteley W, Wood A, Sterne J, Walker V.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-25,Y,,,,"With the approval of NHS England, we quantified associations between COVID-19 diagnosis and cardiovascular diseases in different vaccination and variant eras using linked electronic health records for ~40% of the English population. We defined a ‘pre-vaccination’ cohort (18,210,937 people) in the wild-type/Alpha variant eras (January 2020-June 2021), and ‘vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated’ cohorts (13,572,399 and 3,161,485 people respectively) in the Delta variant era (June-December 2021). The incidence of each arterial thrombotic, venous thrombotic and other cardiovascular outcomes was substantially elevated during weeks 1-4 after COVID-19, compared with before or without COVID-19, but less markedly elevated in time periods beyond week 4. Hazard ratios were higher after hospitalized than non-hospitalized COVID-19 and higher in the pre-vaccination and unvaccinated than the vaccinated cohort. COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of cardiovascular events after COVID-19 infection. People who had COVID-19 before being vaccinated are at higher risk of cardiovascular events for at least two years.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3168263/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR697303 PPR686624,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.03.23291596,Risk of COVID-19 death in adults who received booster COVID-19 vaccinations: national retrospective cohort study on 14.6 million people in England,"Ward I, Robertson C, Agrawal U, Patterson L, Bradley DT, Shi T, Lusignan Sd, Hobbs R, Sheikh A, Nafilyan V.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-05,Y,,,,"

Importance

The emergence of the COVID-19 vaccination has been critical in changing the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, with estimates suggesting vaccinations have prevented millions of deaths worldwide. To ensure protection remains high in vulnerable groups booster vaccinations in the UK have been targeted based on age and clinical vulnerabilities.

Objective

We sought to identify adults who had received a booster vaccination as part of the autumn 2022 campaign in England yet remained at increased risk of postbooster COVID-19 death and compared to non-COVID-19 risk.

Design, Setting, and Participants

We undertook a national retrospective cohort study using data from the 2021 Census linked to electronic health records. We fitted cause-specific Cox models to examine the association between health conditions and the risk of COVID-19 death and all-other-cause death for adults aged 50-100-years in England vaccinated with a booster in autumn 2022. Our total population was 14,644,570 people; there were 6,800 COVID-19 deaths and 150,075 non-COVID-19 deaths.

Exposure

Sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, ethnic group, region), disability, body mass index, and diagnosis of a health condition defined from QCovid2.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The primary outcome of this study was COVID-19 death. The secondary outcome was all-cause non-COVID-19 deaths.

Results

Having learning disabilities or Down Syndrome (hazard ratio=5.07;95% confidence interval=3.69-6.98), pulmonary hypertension or fibrosis (2.88;2.43-3.40), motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia or Huntington’s disease (2.94, 1.82-4.74), cancer of blood and bone marrow (3.11;2.72-3.56), Parkinson’s disease (2.74;2.34-3.20), lung or oral cancer (2.57;2.04 to 3.24), dementia (2.64;2.46 to 2.83) or liver cirrhosis (2.65;1.95 to 3.59) was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 death. Individuals with cancer of the blood or bone marrow, chronic kidney disease, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypotension or fibrosis, or rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus had a significantly higher risk of COVID-19 death relative to other causes of death compared with individuals who did not have diagnoses.

Conclusions, and Relevance

We identify groups who are at increased risk of postbooster COVID-19 death relative to non-COVID-19 deaths. Policy makers should continue to priorities vulnerable groups for subsequent COVID-19 booster doses to minimise the risk of COVID-19 death.

Funding

National Core Studies–Immunity, National Core Studies–Data and Connectivity, Health Data Research UK, and the Medical Research Council .

Key Points

Question: What health conditions are associated with increased risk of postbooster COVID-19 death in adults who received a COVID-19 vaccination in autumn 2022?

Findings:

Certain groups were found to be at overall higher risk of postbooster COVID-19 death (e.g., learning disability or Down Syndrome) and certain groups were found to have significantly higher relative risk of COVID-19 death compared to other non-COVID-19 causes (e.g., cancer of the blood or bone marrow). Meaning: This work has implications for prioritisation of vaccination booster doses worldwide. We highlight which groups with health conditions are at elevated risk of postbooster COVID-19 death.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/07/05/2023.07.03.23291596.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.03.23291596; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR686624; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR686624&type=FILE&fileName=EMS178585-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -37,10 +37,10 @@ PPR539139,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.01.22279473,Rebound in asthma exacerba PPR503564,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.07.22276080,"Non-pharmacological therapies for post-viral syndromes, including Long COVID: A systematic review","Chandan JS, Brown KR, Simms-Williams N, Bashir NZ, Camaradou J, Heining D, Turner GM, Rivera SC, Hotham R, Minhas S, Niratharakumar K, Sivan M, Khunti K, Raindi D, Marwaha S, Hughes SE, McMullan C, Marshall T, Calvert MJ, Haroon S, Aiyegbusi OL.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-07,Y,,,,"

Background

Post-viral syndromes (PVS), including Long COVID, are symptoms sustained from weeks to years following an acute viral infection. Non-pharmacological treatments for these symptoms are poorly understood. This review summarises evidence for the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for symptoms of PVS. It also summarises the symptoms and health impacts of PVS in individuals recruited to studies evaluating treatments.

Methods and findings

We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for PVS, as compared to either standard care, alternative non-pharmacological therapy, or placebo. The outcomes of interest were changes in symptoms, exercise capacity, quality of life (including mental health and wellbeing), and work capability. We searched five databases (Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, MedRxiv) for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 1 st January 2001 to 29 th October 2021. We anticipated that there would be few RCTs specifically pertaining to Long COVID, so we also included observational studies only if they assessed interventions in individuals where the viral pathogen was SARS-COV-2. Relevant outcome data were extracted, study quality appraised using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool, and the findings were synthesised narratively. Quantitative synthesis was not planned due to substantial heterogeneity between the studies. Overall, five studies of five different interventions (Pilates, music therapy, telerehabilitation, resistance exercise, neuromodulation) met the inclusion criteria. Aside from music-based intervention, all other selected interventions demonstrated some support in the management of PVS in some patients.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed a lack of robust evidence evaluating non-pharmacological treatments for PVS, including Long COVID. Considering the prevalence of prolonged symptoms following acute viral infections, there is an urgent need for clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for patients with PVS as well as what may work for certain sub-groups of patients with differential symptom presentation.

Registration

The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO [CRD42021282074] in October 2021 and published in BMJ Open in 2022.

Author summary

Why was this study done? The prevalence of Long COVID following exposure to SARS CoV-2 is substantial, and the current guidance provides few evidence-based treatment options for clinicians to suggest to their patients. Due to the similarities in presentation of other post-viral syndromes (PVS), and the lack of consensus in management approaches, there is a need to synthesise the available data on PVS to both support patients with PVS predating the pandemic, and those with Long COVID. What did the researchers do and find? This is the first comprehensive systematic review of the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for patients with PVS, including Long COVID. We identified four non-pharmacological treatments (Pilates, telerehabilitation, resistance exercises and neuromodulation) which have shown promise in those who have experienced signs and symptoms related to PVS. What do these findings mean? In this study, we identified few trials assessing the effectiveness of non-pharmacological therapies to support the management of symptoms of PVS. Considering the prevalence of PVS, including Long COVID, there is an urgent need for clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of non-pharmacological therapies to support these patients.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/06/07/2022.06.07.22276080.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.07.22276080; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR503564; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR503564&type=FILE&fileName=EMS162209-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR178072,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-36375/v1,"Informing the public health response to COVID-19 (and lessons learnt for future pandemics): a systematic review of risk factors for disease, severity, and mortality.","Flook M, Jackson C, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Muckian MD, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Jia Y, Murray JL, Ritchie LD, Robertson C, Stock SJ, Wang X, Woolhouse MEJ, Sheikh A, Stagg HR.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-19,Y,,,,"

Background:

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has challenged public health agencies globally. In order to effectively target government responses, it is critical to identify the individuals most at risk of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), developing severe clinical signs, and mortality. We undertook a systematic review of the literature, to present the current status of scientific knowledge in these areas and describe the need for unified global approaches, moving forwards, as well as lessons learnt for future pandemics.

Methods:

Medline, Embase and Global Health were searched to the end of April 2020, as well as the Web of Science. Search terms were specific to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19. Comparative studies of risk factors from any setting, population group and in any language were included. Titles, abstracts and full texts were screened by two reviewers and extracted in duplicate into a standardised form. Data were extracted on risk factors for COVID-19 disease, severe disease, or death and were narratively and descriptively synthesised.

Results:

1,238 papers were identified post-deduplication. 33 met our inclusion criteria, of which 26 were from China. Six assessed the risk of contracting the disease, 20 the risk of having severe disease and ten the risk of dying. Age, gender and co-morbidities were commonly assessed as risk factors. The weight of evidence showed increasing age to be associated with severe disease and mortality, and general comorbidities with mortality. Only seven studies presented multivariable analyses and power was generally limited. A wide range of definitions were used for disease severity.

Conclusions:

The volume of literature generated in the short time since the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 has been considerable. Many studies have sought to document the risk factors for COVID-19 disease, disease severity and mortality; age was the only risk factor based on robust studies and with a consistent body of evidence. Mechanistic studies are required to understand why age is such an important risk factor. At the start of pandemics, large, standardised, studies that use multivariable analyses are urgently needed so that the populations most at risk can be rapidly protected. This review was registered on PROSPERO as CRD42020177714.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-36375/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-36375/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR178072; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR178072&type=FILE&fileName=EMS100333-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR485354,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.19.22274037,The variability and performance of NHS England’s “Reason to Reside” criteria in predicting hospital discharge in acute hospitals in England. An observational study,"Sapey E, Gallier S, Evison F, Hodson J, McNulty D, Reeves K, Ball S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-04-20,Y,,,,"

Objectives

NHS England (NHSE) advocates using “reason to reside” (R2R) criteria to generate a binary outcome, which supports discharge related clinical decision making. The proportion of patients without R2R and their rate of discharge are reported daily, by acute hospitals in England. R2R is however, not based upon an inter-operable standardised data model (SDM), nor has its performance been validated against its purpose. We aimed to understand the degree of inter- and intra-centre variation in R2R related metrics reported to NHSE, define a SDM implemented within a single centre Electronic Health Record to generate an eR2R, and evaluate its performance in predicting subsequent discharge.

Design

Retrospective observational cohort study using routinely collected health data.

Setting

122 NHS Trusts in England for national reporting and an adult acute hospital in England for local reporting.

Participants

6,602,706 patient-days were analysed using 3 months national data and 1,039,592 patient-days, using 3 years single centre data.

Main outcome measures

Variability in R2R related metrics reported to NHSE. Performance of eR2R in predicting discharge within 24 hours.

Results

There were high levels of intra and inter-centre variability in R2R related metrics (p<0.0001), but not in eR2R. Informedness of eR2R for discharge within 24 hours was low (J-statistic 0.09 – 0.12 across three consecutive years). In those remaining in hospital without eR2R, 61.2% met eR2R criteria on subsequent days (76% within 24 hours), most commonly due to increased NEWS2 (21.9%) or intravenous therapy administration (32.8%).

Conclusions

R2R related performance metrics are highly variable between and within acute Trusts in England. Although case-mix or community care provision may account for some variability, the absence of a SDM is a major barrier to meaningful interpretation of these metrics. The performance of eR2R based on two alternative SDM’s was poor, such that they could not meaningfully contribute to clinical decision making or evaluation of performance.

Summary

What is known

There is considerable pressure on hospital bed capacity and significant variation in hospital discharges with concerns raised about delays in discharge planning across National Health Service Trusts. To address this, the UK Government developed a policy and criteria to identify in-patients in whom discharge home, or to a less acute setting, should be considered. The criteria, called “reasons to reside” (R2R) have been promoted as a tool to improve discharge planning and are a mandated metric for central reporting. The performance of R2R has not been assessed.

What this study adds

This study suggests a low performance of the R2R criteria as a clinical tool to identify patients suitable for discharge, and questions its usefulness as a reported metric in its current form. There is significant intra and inter-centre variability in both the reported proportion of patients not meeting R2R criteria, and the proportion of patients not meeting R2R criteria who were later discharged. The proportion of patients not meeting R2R criteria correlates poorly with their rate of discharge over the subsequent 24 hours and the performance of the R2R criteria as dichotomous test to identify patients suitable for discharge is low. Further, the R2R criteria are not a stable phenomenon, with more than half of those who remain in hospital without R2R, subsequently acquiring a R2R during the admission.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/04/20/2022.04.19.22274037.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.19.22274037; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR485354; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR485354&type=FILE&fileName=EMS144570-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR699913,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4523754,Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Severity: A UK-Wide Cohort Study (COVIDENCE UK),"Hajmohammadi H, Talaei M, Fecht D, Wang W, Vivaldi G, Faustini S, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR, Sheikh A, Mudway I, Griffiths CJ.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-08-01,N,,,,"Background: The association between air quality and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is poorly understood. We investigated this association using serological individual-level data adjusting for a wide range of confounders, in a large population-based cohort (COVIDENCE UK).

Methods: We assessed the associations between long-term (2015–19) nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤2.5 µm [PM2.5]), exposures with SARS-CoV-2 infection, level of antibody response among those infected, and COVID-19 disease severity. We used serological data from 10,489 participants in the COVIDENCE UK cohort, and estimated annual average air pollution exposure at each participant’s home postcode.

Findings: After controlling for potential confounders, we found a positive association between 5-year NO2 and PM2.5 exposures and the risk of seropositivity: a per-unit increase in NO2 (μg/m3) was associated with an increasing risk of seropositivity of 0.8% (95% CI 0·2 to 1·5; p-for-trend 0.016). For PM2.5, a per-unit increase (μg/m3) was associated with an increasing risk of seropositivity of 4.9% (–0·1 to 10·2; p-for-trend 0·051). In addition, we found that NO2 was positively associated with higher antibody titres (p-for-trend 0·013) among seropositive participants, with no evidence of an association for PM2.5.

Interpretation: Our findings suggest that the long-term burden of air pollution increased the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection and has important implications for future pandemic preparedness. This evidence strengthens the case for reducing long-term air pollution exposures to reduce the vulnerability of individuals to respiratory viruses.

Funding: NIHR, school of primary care research (SPCR). NIHR ARC North Thames. NIHR Health Protection Research Units in Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards and Environmental Exposures and Health, partnerships between Imperial College London and The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).Barts Charity (MGU0570, MGU0459, MGU0466).Pharma Nord, the Fischer Family Foundation, DSM Nutritional Products, the Exilarch’s Foundation, the Karl R Pfleger Foundation, the AIM Foundation, Synergy Biologics, Cytoplan, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Research Network (52255; 52257), the Health Data Research UK BREATHE Hub, the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (MC_PC_19004), Thornton & Ross, Warburtons, Matthew Isaacs (personal donation), Barbara Boucher (personal donation), and Hyphens Pharma.

Declaration of Interest: AS is a member of the Scottish Government Chief Medical Officer’s COVID-19 Advisory Group and its Standing Committee on Pandemics. He is also a member of the UK Government’s NERVTAG’s Risk Stratification Subgroup. ARM declares receipt of funding in the last 36 months to support vitamin D research from the following companies who manufacture or sell vitamin D supplements: Pharma Nord, DSM Nutritional Products, Thornton & Ross and Hyphens Pharma. He also declares support for attending meetings from the following companies who manufacture or sell vitamin D supplements: Pharma Nord and Abiogen Pharma. He also declares participation on the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the Chair, DSMB, VITALITY trial (Vitamin D for Adolescents with HIV to reduce musculoskeletal morbidity and immunopathology). He also declares unpaid work as a Programme Committee member for the Vitamin D Workshop. He also declares receipt of vitamin D capsules for clinical trial use from Pharma Nord, Synergy Biologics and Cytoplan. CJG is supported by the NIHR ARC North Thames. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4523754; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR699913; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4523754 PPR570165,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.11.22282217,"Digital ethnicity data in population-wide electronic health records in England: a description of completeness, coverage, and granularity of diversity","Pineda-Moncusí M, Allery F, Delmestri A, Bolton T, Nolan J, Thygesen J, Handy A, Banerjee A, Denaxas S, Tomlinson C, Denniston AK, Sudlow C, Akbari A, Wood A, Collins GS, Petersen I, Khunti K, Prieto-Alhambra D, Khalid S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-11-11,N,,,,"

Background

The link between ethnicity and healthcare inequity, and the urgency for better data is well-recognised. This study describes ethnicity data in nation-wide electronic health records in England, UK.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using de-identified person-level records for the England population available in the National Health Service (NHS) Digital trusted research environment. Primary care records (GDPPR) were linked to hospital and national mortality records. We assessed completeness, consistency, and granularity of ethnicity records using all available SNOMED-CT concepts for ethnicity and NHS ethnicity categories.

Findings

From 61.8 million individuals registered with a primary care practice in England, 51.5 (83.3%) had at least one ethnicity record in GDPPR, increasing to 93·9% when linked with hospital records. Approximately 12·0% had at least two conflicting ethnicity codes in primary care records. Women were more likely to have ethnicity recorded than men. Ethnicity was missing most frequently in individuals from 18 to 39 years old and in the southern regions of England. Individuals with an ethnicity record had more comorbidities recorded than those without. Of 489 SNOMED-CT ethnicity concepts available, 255 were used in primary care records. Discrepancies between SNOMED-CT and NHS ethnicity categories were observed, specifically within “Other-” ethnicity groups.

Interpretation

More than 250 ethnicity sub-groups may be found in health records for the English population, although commonly categorised into “White”, “Black”, “Asian”, “Mixed”, and “Other”. One in ten individuals do not have ethnicity information recorded in primary care or hospital records. SNOMED-CT codes represent more diversity in ethnicity groups than the NHS ethnicity classification. Improved recording of self-reported ethnicity at first point-of-care and consistency in ethnicity classification across healthcare settings can potentially improve the accuracy of ethnicity in research and ultimately care for all ethnicities.

Funding

British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre led by Health Data Research UK.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Ethnicity has been highlighted as a significant factor in the disproportionate impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality. Better knowledge of ethnicity data recorded in real clinical practice is required to improve health research and ultimately healthcare. We searched PubMed from database inception to 14 th July 2022 for publications using the search terms “ethnicity” and “electronic health records” or “EHR,” without language restrictions. 228 publications in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 304 publications between 2020 and 2022 were identified. However, none of these publications used or reported any of over 400 available SNOMED-CT concepts for ethnicity to account for more granularity and diversity than captured by traditional high-level classification limited to 5 to 9 ethnicity groups.

Added value of this study

We provide a comprehensive study of the largest collection of ethnicity records from a national-level electronic health records trusted research environment, exploring completeness, consistency, and granularity. This work can serve as a data resource profile of ethnicity from routinely-collected EHR in England.

Implications of all the available evidence

To achieve equity in healthcare, we need to understand the differences between individuals, as well as the influence of ethnicity both on health status and on health interventions, including variation in the behaviour of tests and therapies. Thus, there is a need for measurements, thresholds, and risk estimates to be tailored to different ethnic groups. This study presents the different medical concepts describing ethnicity in routinely collected data that are readily available to researchers and highlights key elements for improving their accuracy in research. We aim to encourage researchers to use more granular ethnicity than the than typical approaches which aggregate ethnicity into a limited number of categories, failing to reflect the diversity of underlying populations. Accurate ethnicity data will lead to a better understanding of individual diversity, which will help to address disparities and influence policy recommendations that can translate into better, fairer health for all.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/11/11/2022.11.11.22282217.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.11.22282217; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR570165; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.11.22282217 -PPR500788,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1694090/v1,"Health care use attributable to COVID-19: A propensity matched national electronic health records cohort study of 249,390 people in Wales, UK.","Kennedy J, Parker M, Seaborne M, Mhereeg M, Walker A, Walker V, Denaxas S, Kennedy N, Katikireddi S, Brophy S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-01,Y,,,,"

Background:

To determine the extent and nature of changes in infected patients’ healthcare utilization, we studied healthcare contact in the 1-4 weeks and 5-24 weeks following a COVID-19 diagnosis compared to propensity matched controls.

Methods:

: Survival analysis was used for time to death and first clinical outcomes including clinical terminology concepts for post-viral illness, fatigue, embolism, respiratory conditions, mental and developmental conditions, fit note, or hospital attendance. Increased instantaneous risk for the occurrence of an outcome for positive individuals was quantified using hazard ratios (HR) from Cox Regression and absolute risk was quantified using relative risk (RR) from life table analysis.

Results:

: Compared to matched individuals testing negative, surviving positive community-tested patients had a higher risk of post-viral illness (HR: 4.57, 95%CI: 1.77-11.80, p=0.002), fatigue (HR: 1.47, 95%CI: 1.24-1.75, p<0.001) and embolism (HR: 1.51, 95%CI: 1.13-2.02, p=0.005) at 5-24 weeks post-diagnosis. In the four weeks after COVID-19 higher rates of sick notes were being issued for community-tested (HR: 3.04, 95%CI: 0.88 to 10.50, p<0.079); the risk was reduced after four weeks, compared to controls. Overall healthcare attendance for anxiety, depression was less likely in those with COVID-19 in the first four weeks (HR: 0.83, 95%CI: 0.73-1.06, p=0.007). After four weeks, anxiety, depression is less likely to occur for the positive community-tested individuals (HR: 0.87, 95%CI: 0.77-1.00, p=0.048), but more likely for positive hospital-tested individuals (HR: 1.16, 95%CI: 1.00-1.45, p=0.053). Although statistical associations between positive infection and post-infection healthcare use are clear, the absolute use of healthcare is very.

Conclusions:

: Community COVID-19 disease is associated with increased risks of post-viral illness, fatigue, embolism, depression, anxiety and respiratory conditions. Despite these elevated risks, the absolute healthcare burden is low. Either very small proportions of people experience adverse outcomes following COVID-19 or they are not presenting to healthcare. Trial registration: Data held in SAIL databank are anonymised and therefore, no ethical approval is required. All data in SAIL has the permission from the relevant Caldicott Guardian or Data Protection Officer and SAIL-related projects are required to obtain Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP) approval. The IGRP approval number for this study is 1259.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1694090/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1694090/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR500788; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR500788&type=FILE&fileName=EMS148375-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR699913,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4523754,Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Severity: A UK-Wide Cohort Study (COVIDENCE UK),"Hajmohammadi H, Talaei M, Fecht D, Wang W, Vivaldi G, Faustini S, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR, Sheikh A, Mudway I, Griffiths CJ.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-08-01,N,,,,"Background: The association between air quality and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is poorly understood. We investigated this association using serological individual-level data adjusting for a wide range of confounders, in a large population-based cohort (COVIDENCE UK).

Methods: We assessed the associations between long-term (2015–19) nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤2.5 µm [PM2.5]), exposures with SARS-CoV-2 infection, level of antibody response among those infected, and COVID-19 disease severity. We used serological data from 10,489 participants in the COVIDENCE UK cohort, and estimated annual average air pollution exposure at each participant’s home postcode.

Findings: After controlling for potential confounders, we found a positive association between 5-year NO2 and PM2.5 exposures and the risk of seropositivity: a per-unit increase in NO2 (μg/m3) was associated with an increasing risk of seropositivity of 0.8% (95% CI 0·2 to 1·5; p-for-trend 0.016). For PM2.5, a per-unit increase (μg/m3) was associated with an increasing risk of seropositivity of 4.9% (–0·1 to 10·2; p-for-trend 0·051). In addition, we found that NO2 was positively associated with higher antibody titres (p-for-trend 0·013) among seropositive participants, with no evidence of an association for PM2.5.

Interpretation: Our findings suggest that the long-term burden of air pollution increased the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection and has important implications for future pandemic preparedness. This evidence strengthens the case for reducing long-term air pollution exposures to reduce the vulnerability of individuals to respiratory viruses.

Funding: NIHR, school of primary care research (SPCR). NIHR ARC North Thames. NIHR Health Protection Research Units in Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards and Environmental Exposures and Health, partnerships between Imperial College London and The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).Barts Charity (MGU0570, MGU0459, MGU0466).Pharma Nord, the Fischer Family Foundation, DSM Nutritional Products, the Exilarch’s Foundation, the Karl R Pfleger Foundation, the AIM Foundation, Synergy Biologics, Cytoplan, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Research Network (52255; 52257), the Health Data Research UK BREATHE Hub, the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (MC_PC_19004), Thornton & Ross, Warburtons, Matthew Isaacs (personal donation), Barbara Boucher (personal donation), and Hyphens Pharma.

Declaration of Interest: AS is a member of the Scottish Government Chief Medical Officer’s COVID-19 Advisory Group and its Standing Committee on Pandemics. He is also a member of the UK Government’s NERVTAG’s Risk Stratification Subgroup. ARM declares receipt of funding in the last 36 months to support vitamin D research from the following companies who manufacture or sell vitamin D supplements: Pharma Nord, DSM Nutritional Products, Thornton & Ross and Hyphens Pharma. He also declares support for attending meetings from the following companies who manufacture or sell vitamin D supplements: Pharma Nord and Abiogen Pharma. He also declares participation on the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the Chair, DSMB, VITALITY trial (Vitamin D for Adolescents with HIV to reduce musculoskeletal morbidity and immunopathology). He also declares unpaid work as a Programme Committee member for the Vitamin D Workshop. He also declares receipt of vitamin D capsules for clinical trial use from Pharma Nord, Synergy Biologics and Cytoplan. CJG is supported by the NIHR ARC North Thames. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4523754; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR699913; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4523754 PPR436099,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.22.21268252,Rapid increase in Omicron infections in England during December 2021: REACT-1 study,"Elliott P, Bodinier B, Eales O, Wang H, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Jonnerby J, Tang D, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-24,Y,,,,"

Background

The highest-ever recorded numbers of daily severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in England has been observed during December 2021 and have coincided with a rapid rise in the highly transmissible Omicron variant despite high levels of vaccination in the population. Although additional COVID-19 measures have been introduced in England and internationally to contain the epidemic, there remains uncertainty about the spread and severity of Omicron infections among the general population.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission–1 (REACT-1) study has been monitoring the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England since May 2020. REACT-1 obtains self-administered throat and nose swabs from a random sample of the population of England at ages 5 years and over. Swabs are tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and samples testing positive are sent for viral genome sequencing. To date 16 rounds have been completed, each including ∼100,000 or more participants with data collected over a period of 2 to 3 weeks per month. Socio-demographic, lifestyle and clinical information (including previous history of COVID-19 and symptoms prior to swabbing) is collected by online or telephone questionnaire. Here we report results from round 14 (9-27 September 2021), round 15 (19 October - 05 November 2021) and round 16 (23 November - 14 December 2021) for a total of 297,728 participants with a valid RT-PCR test result, of whom 259,225 (87.1%) consented for linkage to their NHS records including detailed information on vaccination (vaccination status, date). We used these data to estimate community prevalence and trends by age and region, to evaluate vaccine effectiveness against infection in children ages 12 to 17 years, and effect of a third (booster) dose in adults, and to monitor the emergence of the Omicron variant in England.

Results

We observed a high overall prevalence of 1.41% (1.33%, 1.51%) in the community during round 16. We found strong evidence of an increase in prevalence during round 16 with an estimated reproduction number R of 1.13 (1.06, 1.09) for the whole of round 16 and 1.27 (1.14, 1.40) when restricting to observations from 1 December onwards. The reproduction number in those aged 18-54 years was estimated at 1.23 (1.14, 1.33) for the whole of round 16 and 1.41 (1.23, 1.61) from 1 December. Our data also provide strong evidence of a steep increase in prevalence in London with an estimated R of 1.62 (1.34, 1.93) from 1 December onwards and a daily prevalence reaching 6.07% (4.06%, 9.00%) on 14 December 2021. As of 1 to 11 December 2021, of the 275 lineages determined, 11 (4.0%) corresponded to the Omicron variant. The first Omicron infection was detected in London on 3 December, and subsequent infections mostly appeared in the South of England. The 11 Omicron cases were all aged 18 to 54 years, double-vaccinated (reflecting the large numbers of people who have received two doses of vaccine in this age group) but not boosted, 9 were men, 5 lived in London and 7 were symptomatic (5 with classic COVID-19 symptoms: loss or change of sense of smell or taste, fever, persistent cough), 2 were asymptomatic, and symptoms were unknown for 2 cases. The proportion of Omicron (vs Delta or Delta sub-lineages) was found to increase rapidly with a daily increase of 66.0% (32.7%, 127.3%) in the odds of Omicron (vs. Delta) infection, conditional on swab positivity. Highest prevalence of swab positivity by age was observed in (unvaccinated) children aged 5 to 11 years (4.74% [4.15%, 5.40%]) similar to the prevalence observed at these ages in round 15. In contrast, prevalence in children aged 12 to 17 years more than halved from 5.35% (4.78%, 5.99%) in round 15 to 2.31% (1.91%, 2.80%) in round 16. As of 14 December 2021, 76.6% children at ages 12 to 17 years had received at least one vaccine dose; we estimated that vaccine effectiveness against infection was 57.9% (44.1%, 68.3%) in this age group. In addition, the prevalence of swab positivity in adults aged 65 years and over fell by over 40% from 0.84% (0.72%, 0.99%) in round 15 to 0.48% (0.39%,0.59%) in round 16 and for those aged 75 years and over it fell by two-thirds from 0.63% (0.48%,0.82%) to 0.21% (0.13%,0.32%). At these ages a high proportion of participants (>90%) had received a third vaccine dose; we estimated that adults having received a third vaccine dose had a three- to four-fold lower risk of testing positive compared to those who had received two doses.

Conclusion

A large fall in swab positivity from round 15 to round 16 among 12 to 17 year olds, most of whom have been vaccinated, contrasts with the continuing high prevalence among 5 to 11 year olds who have largely not been vaccinated. Likewise there were large falls in swab positivity among people aged 65 years and over, the vast majority of whom have had a third (booster) vaccine dose; these results reinforce the importance of the vaccine and booster campaign. However, the rapidly increasing prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in England during December 2021, coincident with the rapid rise of Omicron infections, may lead to renewed pressure on health services. Additional measures beyond vaccination may be needed to control the current wave of infections and prevent health services (in England and other countries) from being overwhelmed.

Summary

The unprecedented rise in SARS-CoV-2 infections is concurrent with rapid spread of the Omicron variant in England and globally. We analysed prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and its dynamics in England from end of November to mid-December 2021 among almost 100,000 participants from the REACT-1 study. Prevalence was high during December 2021 with rapid growth nationally and in London, and of the proportion of infections due to Omicron. We observed a large fall in swab positivity among mostly vaccinated older children (12-17 years) compared with unvaccinated younger children (5-11 years), and in adults who received a third vs. two doses of vaccine. Our results reiterate the importance of vaccination and booster campaigns; however, additional measures may be needed to control the rapid growth of the Omicron variant.",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/94586/2/science.abn8347.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.22.21268252; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR436099; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR436099&type=FILE&fileName=EMS141883-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR500788,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1694090/v1,"Health care use attributable to COVID-19: A propensity matched national electronic health records cohort study of 249,390 people in Wales, UK.","Kennedy J, Parker M, Seaborne M, Mhereeg M, Walker A, Walker V, Denaxas S, Kennedy N, Katikireddi S, Brophy S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-01,Y,,,,"

Background:

To determine the extent and nature of changes in infected patients’ healthcare utilization, we studied healthcare contact in the 1-4 weeks and 5-24 weeks following a COVID-19 diagnosis compared to propensity matched controls.

Methods:

: Survival analysis was used for time to death and first clinical outcomes including clinical terminology concepts for post-viral illness, fatigue, embolism, respiratory conditions, mental and developmental conditions, fit note, or hospital attendance. Increased instantaneous risk for the occurrence of an outcome for positive individuals was quantified using hazard ratios (HR) from Cox Regression and absolute risk was quantified using relative risk (RR) from life table analysis.

Results:

: Compared to matched individuals testing negative, surviving positive community-tested patients had a higher risk of post-viral illness (HR: 4.57, 95%CI: 1.77-11.80, p=0.002), fatigue (HR: 1.47, 95%CI: 1.24-1.75, p<0.001) and embolism (HR: 1.51, 95%CI: 1.13-2.02, p=0.005) at 5-24 weeks post-diagnosis. In the four weeks after COVID-19 higher rates of sick notes were being issued for community-tested (HR: 3.04, 95%CI: 0.88 to 10.50, p<0.079); the risk was reduced after four weeks, compared to controls. Overall healthcare attendance for anxiety, depression was less likely in those with COVID-19 in the first four weeks (HR: 0.83, 95%CI: 0.73-1.06, p=0.007). After four weeks, anxiety, depression is less likely to occur for the positive community-tested individuals (HR: 0.87, 95%CI: 0.77-1.00, p=0.048), but more likely for positive hospital-tested individuals (HR: 1.16, 95%CI: 1.00-1.45, p=0.053). Although statistical associations between positive infection and post-infection healthcare use are clear, the absolute use of healthcare is very.

Conclusions:

: Community COVID-19 disease is associated with increased risks of post-viral illness, fatigue, embolism, depression, anxiety and respiratory conditions. Despite these elevated risks, the absolute healthcare burden is low. Either very small proportions of people experience adverse outcomes following COVID-19 or they are not presenting to healthcare. Trial registration: Data held in SAIL databank are anonymised and therefore, no ethical approval is required. All data in SAIL has the permission from the relevant Caldicott Guardian or Data Protection Officer and SAIL-related projects are required to obtain Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP) approval. The IGRP approval number for this study is 1259.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1694090/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1694090/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR500788; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR500788&type=FILE&fileName=EMS148375-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR602053,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4144534,Pregnancy Outcomes Following Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Scotland: A Population-Based Cohort Study,"Stock SJ, Moore E, Calvert C, Carruthers J, Donaghy J, Denny C, Hillman S, Hopcroft LE, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Taylor B, Auyeung B, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Ritchie LD, Rudan I, Simpson C, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-27,Y,,,,"Background: We aimed to assess and compare short-term pregnancy outcomes following SARS- CoV-2 Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant infection in pregnancy.

Methods: We conducted a national population-based cohort study of women who had SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy between May 17, 2021 and January 31, 2022. Outcomes were any maternal critical care admission within 21 days of infection and maternal critical care admission for COVID-19; and preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation); stillbirth; neonatal death and low Apgar score (<7/10; term births only) in births within 28 days of infection. We used time periods when variants were dominant in the general Scottish population, based on ≥50% cases being S gene-positive (Delta; May 17 - December 14, 2021) or negative (Omicron; December 15, 2021 - January 31, 2022) as surrogates for variant infections. Analyses used logistic regression, adjusting for maternal age, deprivation, ethnicity, gestation and vaccination status. Sensitivity analyses included restricting to those with first confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection; and use of time periods where Delta and Omicron were ≥90% dominant.

Findings: Compared to infections in the Delta period, SARS-CoV-2 infections in pregnancy in the Omicron period were associated with lower maternal critical care admission risk (0·26% versus 1·8%; adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] 0·25, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0·14-0·44) and preterm birth within 28 days of infection (1·8% versus 4·2%; aOR 0·57; 95% CI 0·38-0·87). There was imprecision around estimates of low Apgar scores due to low numbers (aOR Omicron vs Delta 0·72 95% CI 0·23-2·32). There were fewer stillbirths in the Omicron period vs Delta (4·3 (2/462) per 1000 births versus 20·3 (13/639) per 1000) and no neonatal deaths during Omicron (0/460; 0 per 1000 versus 4/626; 6·3 per 1000]) so numbers were too small to support adjusted analyses. Findings in sensitivity analyses were similar to main analyses.

Interpretation: Pregnant women infected with SARSCoV-2 were substantially less likely to have a preterm birth or maternal critical care admission during the Omicron period than during the Delta period.

Funding: Wellcome Trust, Tommy’s charity, Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, Health Data Research UK, National Core Studies – Data and Connectivity, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government DG Health and Social Care, Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office, National Research Scotland.

Declaration of Interest: AS and CR were members of the Scottish Government's COVID-19 Advisory Group. AS and CR are members of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) risk stratification subgroup and the Scottish Government’s Committee on Pandemic Preparedness. CR is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling. AS is a member of AstraZeneca's Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Advisory Group. SVK was co-chair of Scottish Government’s Expert Reference Group on Ethnicity and COVID-19. No other authors declared conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval: The COVID-19 in pregnancy in Scotland (COPS) study has ethical approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee, South East Scotland 02 (REC 12/SS/0201: SA 2) and information governance approval from the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (2021-0116). All data were housed within Public Health Scotland and accessed only by approved researchers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4144534; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR602053; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR602053&type=FILE&fileName=EMS164149-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR530169,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.08.22278532,Clinical effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccine against Omicron infection in residents and staff of Long-Term Care Facilities: a prospective cohort study (VIVALDI),"Stirrup O, Shrotri M, Adams NL, Krutikov M, Nacer-Laidi H, Azmi B, Palmer T, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Baynton V, Tut G, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-08-09,Y,,,,"

Background

Successive SARS-CoV-2 variants have caused severe disease in long-term care facility (LTCF) residents. Primary vaccination provides strong short-term protection, but data are limited on duration of protection following booster vaccines, particularly against the Omicron variant. We investigated effectiveness of booster vaccination against infections, hospitalisations and deaths among LTCF residents and staff in England.

Methods

We included residents and staff of LTCFs within the VIVALDI study ( ISRCTN 14447421 ) who underwent routine, asymptomatic testing (December 12 2021-March 31 2022). Cox regression was used to estimate relative hazards of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and associated hospitalisation and death at 0-13, 14-48, 49-83 and 84 days after dose 3 of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination compared to 2 doses (after 84+ days), stratified by previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and adjusting for age, sex, LTCF capacity and local SARS-CoV-2 incidence.

Results

14175 residents and 19973 staff were included. In residents without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, infection risk was reduced 0-83 days after first booster, but no protection was apparent after 84 days. Additional protection following booster vaccination waned, but was still present at 84+ days for COVID-associated hospitalisation (aHR: 0.47, 0.24-0.89) and death (aHR: 0.37, 0.21-0.62). Most residents (64.4%) had received primary course of AstraZeneca, but this did not impact on pre- or post-booster risks. Staff showed a similar pattern of waning booster effectiveness against infection, with few hospitalisations and no deaths.

Conclusions

Booster vaccination provides sustained protection against severe outcomes following infection with the Omicron variant, but no protection against infection from 3 months onwards. Ongoing surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in LTCFs is crucial.

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted residents in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). Booster vaccination provides sustained moderate protection against severe outcomes, but no protection against infection was apparent from around 3 months onwards. Ongoing surveillance in LTCFs is crucial.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10162662/1/ofac694.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.08.22278532; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR530169; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR530169&type=FILE&fileName=EMS152512-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR471508,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.22.22271707,Vitamin D Supplements for Prevention of COVID-19 or other Acute Respiratory Infections: a Phase 3 Randomised Controlled Trial (CORONAVIT),"Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Greenig M, Talaei M, Perdek N, Pfeffer P, Vivaldi G, Maltby S, Symons J, Barlow NL, Normandale A, Garcha R, Richter AG, Faustini SE, Orton C, Ford D, Lyons RA, Davies GA, Kee F, Griffiths CJ, Norrie J, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Relton C, Martineau AR.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-03-23,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES

To determine whether population-level implementation of a test-and- treat approach to correction of sub-optimal vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] <75 nmol/L) influences risk of all-cause acute respiratory infection (ARI) or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

DESIGN

Phase 3 open-label randomised controlled trial (CORONAVIT) utilising trials-within-cohorts (TwiCs) methodology.

SETTING

United Kingdom.

PARTICIPANTS

6200 adults aged 16 years or older, who were not already taking vitamin D supplements at baseline.

INTERVENTIONS

Offer of a postal finger-prick test of blood 25(OH)D concentration with provision of a 6-month supply of higher-dose vitamin D (3200 IU/day, n=1550) or lower-dose vitamin D (800 IU/day, n=1550) to those with blood 25(OH)D concentration <75 nmol/L, vs. no offer of testing or supplementation (n=3100). Follow-up was from 17 th December 2020 to 16 th June 2021.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The primary outcome was the proportion of participants experiencing at least one doctor- or swab test-confirmed ARI of any cause. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of participants developing swab test-confirmed COVID-19. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios and associated 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

Of 3100 participants offered 25(OH)D testing, 2958 (95.4%) accepted, and 2690 (86.8%) had 25(OH)D <75 nmol/L and were sent vitamin D supplements (1356 higher-dose, 1334 lower-dose). 76 (5.0%) vs. 87 (5.7%) vs. 136 (4.6%) participants in higher-dose vs. lower-dose vs. no offer groups experienced at least one ARI of any cause (odds ratio [OR] for higher-dose vs. no offer 1.09, 95% CI 0.82-1.46; lower-dose vs. no offer 1.26, 0.96-1.66). 45 (3.0%) vs. 55 (3.6%) vs. 78 (2.6%) participants in higher-dose vs. lower-dose vs. no offer groups developed COVID-19 (OR for higher-dose vs. no offer 1.13, 0.78-1.63; lower-dose vs. no offer 1.39, 0.98-1.97).

CONCLUSIONS

Among adults with a high baseline prevalence of sub-optimal vitamin D status, implementation of a population-level test-and-treat approach to vitamin D replacement did not reduce risk of all-cause ARI or COVID-19.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov no. NCT04579640

SUMMARY BOX

What is already known on this topic?

Vitamin D metabolites support innate immune responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other respiratory pathogens. Sub-optimal vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D <75 nmol/L) associates with increased susceptibility to all-cause acute respiratory infections (ARI) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Phase 3 randomised controlled trials of vitamin D to prevent COVID-19 have not yet reported.

What this study adds

This phase 3 randomised controlled trial, including 6200 participants, shows that implementation of a population-level test-and-treat approach to oral vitamin D replacement at a dose of 800 IU or 3200 IU per day did not reduce risk of all-cause ARI or COVID-19 among adults with a high baseline prevalence of sub-optimal vitamin D status.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/06/24/2022.03.22.22271707.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.22.22271707; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR471508; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR471508&type=FILE&fileName=EMS149098-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -55,8 +55,8 @@ PPR530735,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.08.22278576,Outcome of COVID-19 in hos PPR384241,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.13.21261889,Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific and heterologous immune responses after natural infection in elderly residents of Long-Term Care Facilities,"Tut G, Lancaster T, Butler MS, Sylla P, Spalkova E, Bone D, Kaur N, Bentley C, Amin U, Jadir AT, Hulme S, Ayodel M, Dowell AC, Pearce H, Margielewska-Davies S, Verma K, Nicol S, Begum J, Blakeway D, Jinks E, Tut E, Bruton R, Krutikov M, Shrotri M, Giddings R, Azmi B, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L, Moss P.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-08-18,Y,,,,"Long term care facilities (LTCF) provide residential and/or nursing care support for frail and elderly people and many have suffered from a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although mortality rates have been high in LTCF residents there is little information regarding the features of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity after infection in this setting or how this may influence immunity to other infections. We studied humoral and cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in 152 LTCF staff and 124 residents over a prospective 4-month period shortly after the first wave of infection and related viral serostatus to heterologous immunity to other respiratory viruses and systemic inflammatory markers. LTCF residents developed high levels of antibodies against spike protein and RBD domain which were stable over 4 months of follow up. Nucleocapsid-specific responses were also elevated in elderly donors but showed waning across all populations. Antibodies showed stable and equivalent levels of functional inhibition against spike-ACE2 binding in all age groups with comparable activity against viral variants of concern. SARS-CoV-2 seropositive donors showed high levels of antibodies to other beta-coronaviruses but serostatus did not impact humoral immunity to influenza or RSV. SARS-CoV-2-specific cellular responses were equivalent across the life course but virus-specific populations showed elevated levels of activation in older donors. LTCF residents who are survivors of SARS-CoV-2 infection thus show robust and stable immunity which does not impact responses to other seasonal viruses. These findings augur well for relative protection of LTCF residents to re-infection. Furthermore, they underlie the potent influence of previous infection on the immune response to Covid-19 vaccine which may prove to be an important determinant of future vaccine strategy.

One sentence summery

Care home residents show waning of nucleocapsid specific antibodies and enhanced expression of activation markers on SARS-CoV-2 specific cells",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/08/18/2021.08.13.21261889.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.13.21261889; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR384241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR384241&type=FILE&fileName=EMS133205-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR445332,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.22269651,"Pre-COVID-19 pandemic health-related behaviours in children (2018-2020) and association with being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (2020-2021): a retrospective cohort study using survey data linked with routine health data in Wales, UK","Marchant E, Lowthian E, Crick T, Griffiths L, Fry R, Dadaczynski K, Okan O, James M, Cowley L, Torabi F, Kennedy J, Akbari A, Lyons R, Brophy S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-22,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Examine if pre-COVID-19 pandemic (prior March 2020) health-related behaviours during primary school are associated with i) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and ii) testing positive between 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2021.

Design

Retrospective cohort study using an online cohort survey (January 2018 to February 2020) linked to routine PCR SARS-CoV-2 test results.

Setting

Children attending primary schools in Wales (2018-2020), UK who were part of the HAPPEN school network.

Participants

Complete linked records of eligible participants were obtained for n=7,062 individuals. 39.1% (n=2,764) were tested (age 10.6±0.9, 48.9% girls) and 8.1% (n=569) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (age 10.6±1.0, 54.5% girls).

Main outcome measures

Logistic regression of health-related behaviours and demographics were used to determine Odds Ratios (OR) of factors associated with i) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and ii) testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Results

Consuming sugary snacks (1-2 days/week OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.04 – 1.49; 5-6 days/week 1.31, 1.07 – 1.61; reference 0 days) can swim 25m (1.21, 1.06 – 1.39) and age (1.25, 1.16 – 1.35) were associated with an increased likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2. Eating breakfast (1.52, 1.01 – 2.27), weekly physical activity ≥ 60 mins (1-2 days 1.69, 1.04 – 2.74; 3-4 days 1.76, 1.10 – 2.82, reference 0 days), out of school club participation (1.06, 1.02 – 1.10), can ride a bike (1.39, 1.00 – 1.93), age (1.16, 1.05 – 1.28) and girls (1.21, 1.00 – 1.46) were associated with an increased likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Living in least deprived quintiles 4 (0.64, 0.46 – 0.90) and 5 (0.64, 0.46 – 0.89) compared to the most deprived quintile was associated with a decreased likelihood.

Conclusions

Associations may be related to parental health literacy and monitoring behaviours. Physically active behaviours may include co-participation with others, and exposure to SARS-CoV-2. A risk versus benefit approach must be considered given the importance of health-related behaviours for development.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

Investigation of the association of pre-pandemic child health-related behaviour measures with subsequent SARS-CoV-2 testing and infection. Reporting of multiple child health behaviours linked at an individual-level to routine records of SARS-CoV-2 testing data through the SAIL Databank. Child-reported health behaviours were measured before the COVID-19 pandemic (1 January 2018 to 28 February 2020) which may not reflect behaviours during COVID-19. Health behaviours captured through the national-scale HAPPEN survey represent children attending schools that engaged with the HAPPEN Wales primary school network and may not be representative of the whole population of Wales. The period of study for PCR-testing for and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 includes a time frame with varying prevalence rates, approaches to testing children (targeted and mass testing) and restrictions which were not measured in this study.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/04/29/2022.01.21.22269651.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.22269651; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR445332; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR445332&type=FILE&fileName=EMS142585-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR542738,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.09.22279759,Nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination,"Liew F, Talwar S, Cross A, Willett BJ, Scott S, Logan N, Siggins MK, Swieboda D, Sidhu JK, Efstathiou C, Moore SC, Davis C, Mohamed N, Nunag J, King C, Roger Thompson AA, Rowland-Jones SL, Docherty AB, Chalmers JD, Ho L, Horsley A, Raman B, Poinasamy K, Marks M, Kon OM, Howard L, Wootton DG, Dunachie S, Quint JK, Evans RA, Wain LV, Fontanella S, de Silva TI, Ho A, Harrison E, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Brightling C, Thwaites RS, Turtle L, Openshaw PJ.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-09-09,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced.

Methods

Plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data.

Findings

Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months. Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months with high plasma neutralising titres against all variants. Of 180 with complete data, 160 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG responses, indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination.

Interpretation

The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity.

Research in context

Evidence before the study

While systemic immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is important in preventing severe disease, mucosal immunity prevents viral replication at the point of entry and reduces onward transmission. We searched PubMed with search terms “mucosal”, “nasal”, “antibody”, “IgA”, “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “convalescent” and “vaccination” for studies published in English before 20 th July 2022, identifying three previous studies examining the durability of nasal responses that generally show nasal antibody to persist for 3 to 9 months. However, these studies were small or included individuals with mild COVID-19. One study of 107 care-home residents demonstrated increased salivary IgG (but not IgA) after two doses of mRNA vaccine, and another examined nasal antibody responses after infection and subsequent vaccination in 20 cases, demonstrating rises in both nasal IgA and IgG 7 to 10 days after vaccination.

Added value of this study

Studying 446 people hospitalised for COVID-19, we show durable nasal and plasma IgG responses to ancestral (B.1 lineage) SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants up to 12 months after infection. Nasal antibody induced by infection with pre-Omicron variants, bind Omicron virus in vitro better than plasma antibody. Although nasal and plasma IgG responses were enhanced by vaccination, Omicron binding responses did not reach levels equivalent to responses for ancestral SARS-CoV-2. Using paired plasma and nasal samples collected approximately 12 months after infection, we show that nasal IgA declines and shows a minimal response to vaccination whilst plasma antibody responses to S antigen are well maintained and boosted by vaccination.

Implications of all the available evidence

After COVID-19 and subsequent vaccination, Omicron binding plasma and nasal antibody responses are only moderately enhanced, supporting the need for booster vaccinations to maintain immunity against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Notably, there is distinct compartmentalisation between nasal IgA and plasma IgA and IgG responses after vaccination. These findings highlight the need for vaccines that induce robust and durable mucosal immunity.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/09/09/2022.09.09.22279759.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.09.22279759; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR542738; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR542738&type=FILE&fileName=EMS154137-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR498079,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.25.493397,Distinct antigenic properties of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5,"Willett BJ, Kurshan A, Thakur N, Newman J, Manali M, Tyson G, Logan N, Murcia PR, Snell LB, Edgeworth JD, Zhou J, Sukhova K, Amirthalingam G, Brown K, Charleston B, Malim MH, Thomson EC, Barclay WS, Bailey D, Doores KJ, Peacock TP.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-25,Y,,,,"Over the course of the pandemic variants have arisen at a steady rate. The most recent variants to emerge, BA.4 and BA.5, form part of the Omicron lineage and were first found in Southern Africa where they are driving the current wave of infection. In this report, we perform an in-depth characterisation of the antigenicity of the BA.4/BA.5 Spike protein by comparing sera collected post-vaccination, post-BA.1 or BA.2 infection, or post breakthrough infection of vaccinated individuals with the Omicron variant. In addition, we assess sensitivity to neutralisation by commonly used therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. We find sera collected post-vaccination have a similar ability to neutralise BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5. In contrast, in the absence of vaccination, prior infection with BA.2 or, in particular, BA.1 results in an antibody response that neutralises BA.4/BA.5 poorly. Breakthrough infection with Omicron in vaccinees leads to a broad neutralising response against the new variants. The sensitivity of BA.4/BA.5 to neutralisation by therapeutic monoclonal antibodies was similar to that of BA.2. These data suggest BA.4/BA.5 are antigenically distinct from BA.1 and, to a lesser extent, BA.2. The enhanced breadth of neutralisation observed following breakthrough infection with Omicron suggests that vaccination with heterologous or multivalent antigens may represent viable strategies for the development of cross-neutralising antibody responses.",,pdf:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2022/05/25/2022.05.25.493397.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.25.493397; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR498079; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR498079&type=FILE&fileName=EMS145422-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR450800,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.03.22270365,Post-peak dynamics of a national Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic during January 2022,"Elliott P, Eales O, Bodinier B, Tang D, Wang H, Jonnerby J, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-02-06,Y,,,,"

Background

Rapid transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has led to the highest ever recorded case incidence levels in many countries around the world.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study has been characterising the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus using RT-PCR test results from self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly-selected participants in England at ages 5 years and over, approximately monthly since May 2020. Round 17 data were collected between 5 and 20 January 2022 and provide data on the temporal, socio-demographic and geographical spread of the virus, viral loads and viral genome sequence data for positive swabs.

Results

From 102,174 valid tests in round 17, weighted prevalence of swab positivity was 4.41% (95% credible interval [CrI], 4.25% to 4.56%), which is over three-fold higher than in December 2021 in England. Of 3,028 sequenced positive swabs, 2,393 lineages were determined and 2,374 (99.2%) were Omicron including 19 (0.80% of all Omicron lineages) cases of BA.2 sub-lineage and one BA.3 (0.04% of all Omicron) detected on 17 January 2022, and only 19 (0.79%) were Delta. The growth of the BA.2 Omicron sub-lineage against BA.1 and its sub-lineage BA.1.1 indicated a daily growth rate advantage of 0.14 (95% CrI, 0.03, 0.28) for BA.2, which corresponds to an additive R advantage of 0.46 (95% CrI, 0.10, 0.92). Within round 17, prevalence was decreasing overall (R=0.95, 95% CrI, 0.93, 0.97) but increasing in children aged 5 to 17 years (R=1.13, 95% CrI, 1.09, 1.18). Those 75 years and older had a swab-positivity prevalence of 2.46% (95% CI, 2.16%, 2.80%) reflecting a high level of infection among a highly vulnerable group. Among the 3,613 swab-positive individuals reporting whether or not they had had previous infection, 2,334 (64.6%) reported previous confirmed COVID-19. Of these, 64.4% reported a positive test from 1 to 30 days before their swab date. Risks of infection were increased among essential/key workers (other than healthcare or care home workers) with mutually adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) of 1.15 (95% CI, 1.05, 1.26), people living in large compared to single-person households (6+ household size OR 1.73; 95% CI, 1.44, 2.08), those living in urban vs rural areas (OR 1.24, 95% CI, 1.13, 1.35) and those living in the most vs least deprived areas (OR 1.34, 95% CI, 1.20, 1.49).

Conclusions

We observed unprecedented levels of infection with SARS-CoV-2 in England in January 2022, an almost complete replacement of Delta by Omicron, and evidence for a growth advantage for BA.2 compared to BA.1. The increase in the prevalence of infection with Omicron among children (aged 5 to 17 years) during January 2022 could pose a risk to adults, despite the current trend for prevalence in adults to decline. (Funded by the Department of Health and Social Care in England.)",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/02/06/2022.02.03.22270365.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.03.22270365; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR450800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR450800&type=FILE&fileName=EMS143530-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR498079,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.25.493397,Distinct antigenic properties of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5,"Willett BJ, Kurshan A, Thakur N, Newman J, Manali M, Tyson G, Logan N, Murcia PR, Snell LB, Edgeworth JD, Zhou J, Sukhova K, Amirthalingam G, Brown K, Charleston B, Malim MH, Thomson EC, Barclay WS, Bailey D, Doores KJ, Peacock TP.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-25,Y,,,,"Over the course of the pandemic variants have arisen at a steady rate. The most recent variants to emerge, BA.4 and BA.5, form part of the Omicron lineage and were first found in Southern Africa where they are driving the current wave of infection. In this report, we perform an in-depth characterisation of the antigenicity of the BA.4/BA.5 Spike protein by comparing sera collected post-vaccination, post-BA.1 or BA.2 infection, or post breakthrough infection of vaccinated individuals with the Omicron variant. In addition, we assess sensitivity to neutralisation by commonly used therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. We find sera collected post-vaccination have a similar ability to neutralise BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5. In contrast, in the absence of vaccination, prior infection with BA.2 or, in particular, BA.1 results in an antibody response that neutralises BA.4/BA.5 poorly. Breakthrough infection with Omicron in vaccinees leads to a broad neutralising response against the new variants. The sensitivity of BA.4/BA.5 to neutralisation by therapeutic monoclonal antibodies was similar to that of BA.2. These data suggest BA.4/BA.5 are antigenically distinct from BA.1 and, to a lesser extent, BA.2. The enhanced breadth of neutralisation observed following breakthrough infection with Omicron suggests that vaccination with heterologous or multivalent antigens may represent viable strategies for the development of cross-neutralising antibody responses.",,pdf:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2022/05/25/2022.05.25.493397.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.25.493397; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR498079; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR498079&type=FILE&fileName=EMS145422-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR600925,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.20.23284849,Comparative effectiveness of Paxlovid versus sotrovimab and molnupiravir for preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes in non-hospitalised patients: observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform,"Zheng B, Tazare J, Nab L, Mehrkar A, MacKenna B, Goldacre B, Douglas IJ, Tomlinson LA.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-22,Y,,,,"

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of Paxlovid vs. sotrovimab and molnupiravir in preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes in non-hospitalised high-risk COVID-19 adult patients.

Design

With the approval of NHS England, we conducted a real-world cohort study using the OpenSAFELY-TPP platform.

Setting

Patient-level electronic health record data were obtained from 24 million people registered with a general practice in England that uses TPP software. The primary care data were securely linked with data on COVID-19 infection and therapeutics, hospital admission, and death within the OpenSAFELY-TPP platform, covering a period where both Paxlovid and sotrovimab were first-line treatment options in community settings.

Participants

Non-hospitalised adult COVID-19 patients at high risk of severe outcomes treated with Paxlovid, sotrovimab or molnupiravir between February 11, 2022 and October 1, 2022.

Interventions

Paxlovid, sotrovimab or molnupiravir administered in the community by COVID-19 Medicine Delivery Units.

Main outcome measure

COVID-19 related hospitalisation or COVID-19 related death within 28 days after treatment initiation.

Results

A total of 7683 eligible patients treated with Paxlovid (n=4836) and sotrovimab (n=2847) were included in the main analysis. The mean age was 54.3 (SD=14.9) years; 64% were female, 93% White and 93% had three or more COVID-19 vaccinations. Within 28 days after treatment initiation, 52 (0.68%) COVID-19 related hospitalisations/deaths were observed (33 (0.68%) treated with Paxlovid and 19 (0.67%) with sotrovimab). Cox proportional hazards model stratified by region showed that after adjusting for demographics, high-risk cohort categories, vaccination status, calendar time, body mass index and other comorbidities, treatment with Paxlovid was associated with a similar risk of outcome event as treatment with sotrovimab (HR=1.14, 95% CI: 0.62 to 2.08; P=0.673). Results from propensity score weighted Cox model also showed comparable risks in these two treatment groups (HR=0.88, 95% CI: 0.45 to 1.71; P=0.700). An exploratory analysis comparing Paxlovid users with 802 molnupiravir users (11 (1.37%) COVID-19 related hospitalisations/deaths) showed some evidence in favour of Paxlovid but with variation in the effect estimates between models (HR ranging from 0.26 to 0.61).

Conclusion

In routine care of non-hospitalised high-risk adult patients with COVID-19 in England, no substantial difference in the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes was observed between those who received Paxlovid and sotrovimab between February and October 2022, when different subvariants of Omicron were dominant.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/01/22/2023.01.20.23284849.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.20.23284849; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR600925; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR600925&type=FILE&fileName=EMS163205-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR555346,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2129185/v1,COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection in early pregnancy and the risk of major congenital anomalies: a national population-based cohort study,"Wood R, Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcoft L, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor J, Loane M, Dolk H, Morris J, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons C, Katikireddi S, O’Leary M, McAllister D, Shi T, Simpson C, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-10-06,Y,,,,"Evidence on associations between COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of congenital anomalies is limited. We conducted a national, population-based, matched cohort study to estimate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and, separately, SARS-CoV-2 infection between six weeks pre-conception and 19 weeks and six days gestation and the risk of [1] any congenital anomaly and; [2] non-genetic anomalies. Mothers vaccinated in this pregnancy exposure period mostly received an mRNA vaccine (73.7% Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and 7.9% Moderna mRNA-1273). Of the 6,731 babies whose mothers were vaccinated in the pregnancy exposure period, 153 had any congenital anomaly and 120 had a non-genetic anomaly. Primary analyses found no association between vaccination and any anomaly (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] = 1.01, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 0.83–1.24) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.81–1.22). Primary analyses also found no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and any anomaly (aOR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.66–1.60) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.57–1.54). Findings were robust to sensitivity analyses. These data provide reassurance on the safety of vaccination, in particular mRNA vaccines, just before or in early pregnancy.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35771-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2129185/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR555346; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR555346&type=FILE&fileName=EMS155419-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR534199,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1955486/v1,Early pregnancy outcomes following COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection: a national population-based matched cohort study,"Stock* S, Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hillman S, Hopcoft L, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Pan J, Taylor J, Almaghrabi F, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons C, Katikireddi S, McCowan C, Murray J, O’Leary M, Ritchie L, Shah S, Simpson C, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-08-19,Y,,,,"There are limited data regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in early pregnancy. This may contribute to vaccine hesitancy in people who are pregnant, or who are planning pregnancy. We conducted a population-level matched cohort study assessing associations between COVID-19 vaccination and miscarriage (pregnancy loss prior to 20 weeks gestation) and ectopic pregnancy. We used electronic health records of all female residents in Scotland who were vaccinated between 6 weeks preconception and 19 weeks 6 days gestation (for miscarriage; n = 18,780) or 2 weeks 6 days gestation (for ectopic; n = 10,570). Primary analyses used unvaccinated women from the pre-pandemic period as controls (historical controls) matched (3:1) on maternal age, gestational age at vaccination, and season of conception; with adjustment for maternal deprivation level, rural/urban status and clinical vulnerability. Supplementary analyses used unvaccinated women from the pandemic period as controls (contemporary controls). Analyses of outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection were undertaken with infection rather than vaccination as the exposure. Following COVID-19 vaccination, the rate of miscarriage was 9.1% (n = 1,716) and ectopic pregnancy 1.2% (n = 126). Primary analyses found no association between vaccination and miscarriage (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] = 1.02, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 0.96–1.09) or ectopic pregnancy (aOR = 1.13, 95% CI = 0.92–1.38). Primary analyses also found no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. Results of supplementary analyses were similar to primary analyses. Given that SARS-CoV-2 infection in later pregnancy carries substantial risks to women and babies, our findings support current recommendations that vaccination remains the safest way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies from COVID-19.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1955486/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR534199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR534199&type=FILE&fileName=EMS153081-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33937-y.pdf @@ -82,12 +82,12 @@ PPR532697,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.13.22278733,QCovid 4 - Predicting risk PPR506599,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.15.22276423,How acceptable is rapid whole genome sequencing for infectious disease management in hospitals? Perspectives of those involved in managing nosocomial SARS-CoV-2,"Flowers P, McLeod J, Mapp F, Stirrup O, Blackstone J, Snell LB, Peters C, Thomson E, Holmes A, Price J, Partridge D, Shallcross L, de Silva TI, Breuer J.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-16,Y,,,,"

Structured summary

Background

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) for managing healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) has developed considerably through experiences with SARS-CoV-2. We interviewed various healthcare professionals (HCPs) with direct experience of using WGS in hospitals (within the COG-UK Hospital Onset COVID-19 Infection (HOCI) study) to explore its acceptability and future use.

Method

An exploratory, cross-sectional, qualitative design employed semi-structured interviews with 39 diverse HCPs between December 2020 and June 2021. Participants were recruited from five sites within the larger clinical study of a novel genome sequencing reporting tool for SARS-CoV-2 (the HOCI study). All had experience, in their diverse roles, of using sequencing data to manage nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Deductive and inductive thematic analysis identified themes exploring aspects of the acceptability of sequencing.

Findings

The analysis highlighted the overall acceptability of rapid WGS for infectious disease using SARS-CoV-2 as a case study. Diverse professionals were largely very positive about its future use and believed that it could become a valuable and routine tool for managing HCAIs. We identified three key themes ‘1) ‘Proof of concept achieved’; 2) ‘Novel insights and implications’; and 3) ‘Challenges and demands’.

Conclusion

Our qualitative analysis, drawn from five diverse hospitals, shows the broad acceptability of rapid sequencing and its potential. Participants believed it could and should become an everyday technology capable of being embedded within typical hospital processes and systems. However, its future integration into existing healthcare systems will not be without challenges (e.g., resource, multi-level change) warranting further mixed methods research.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/06/16/2022.06.15.22276423.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.15.22276423; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR506599; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR506599&type=FILE&fileName=EMS146081-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR602604,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4244745,The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Treated Incidence of Psychotic Disorders in South London,"Spinazzola E, Meyer Z, Gray Z, Azlan A, Wratten C, Rayat M, Hiscott L, Kyriacou L, Cottrell D, Pritchard M, Quattrone A, Stewart R, Forti MD, Murray R, Quattrone D.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-11-08,N,,,,"Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of psychotic disorders has not yet been investigated. We, therefore, carried out an incidence study to ascertain rates of first-episode psychosis (FEP) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in South London.

Methods: We screened the clinical records of all individuals living in the London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth who were referred to the early intervention in psychosis services before (from 1 March 2019 to 28 February 2020) and during (from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021) the COVID-19 pandemic. We used Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to estimate the risk populations stratified by sex and age group. We computed crude and sex-age standardised FEP incidence per 100,000 persons-year. We used Poisson regression to calculate the incidence rate ratio (IRR) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and to examine the incidence variation by sociodemographic factors.

Findings: A total of 321 incident cases of FEP were identified during the COVID-19 pandemic accounting for a crude rate of 70·1 (95% CI 62·39 - 77·73) per 100,000 person-year. The crude rate for the year before was 47·5 (95% CI 41·25 - 53·81). The incidence variation between the two years accounted for an adjusted IRR of 1·46 (95% CI 1·23 – 1·76).

Interpretation: The pandemic resulted in a 46% spike in the rates of first-episode psychosis. This finding should inform public health research and demonstrates the need for adequate resources for mental health secondary services.

Funding: DQ is supported by MRC/UKRI CARP (MRC CARP grant MR/W030608/1). ES and MDF are supported by MRC SRF Fellowship to MDF (MRC MR/T007818/1). RMM and RS are supported by NIHR BRC at SLaM and KCL. RS is further supported by NIHR ARC South London and DATAMIND HDR UK Mental Health Data Hub (MRC grant MR/W014386).

Declaration of Interest: None to declare.

Ethical Approval: CRIS is an anonymised system for analysing patient data, which was granted ethical approval by the Oxfordshire Research Ethics Committee (reference 08/H0606/71). All information accessed and analysed in CRIS is regularly monitored and audited. Ethical approval for this study was granted by the CRIS Oversight Committee (reference 20-061 to DQ).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4244745; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR602604; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4244745 PPR501055,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1656915/v1,"Long-COVID in Scotland Study: a nationwide, population cohort study","Pell J, Hastie C, Lowe D, McAuley A, Winter A, Mills N, Black C, Scott J, O'Donnell C, Blane D, Browne S, Ibbotson T.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-24,Y,,,,"BACKGROUNDWith increasing numbers of people infected with SARS-CoV-2, a better understanding of long-COVID is required to inform health and social care support.METHODSA nationwide, ambidirectional, population cohort was constructed of adults in Scotland with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test from April 2020 to May 2021 and a matched, never infected comparison group. Recovery status, symptoms, quality of life, impaired daily activities, hospitalization and death were ascertained via repeated self-completed questionnaires, at 6, 12 and 18-months follow-up, and linkage to hospitalization and death records.RESULTSThe cohort comprised 31,486 symptomatic and 1,795 asymptomatic infected individuals, and 62,957 never infected individuals. Of the former, 1,856 (6%) had not recovered and 13,350 (42%) only partially. Lack of recovery was associated with severe (hospitalized) infection, older age, female sex, deprivation, respiratory disease, depression and multimorbidity. Twenty-four persistent symptoms were independently associated with previous infection including breathlessness (OR 3.44, 95% CI 3.29–3.59), palpitations (OR 2.51, OR 2.37–2.67), chest pain (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.97–2.24), and confusion (OR 2.93, 95% CI 2.78–3.08). Pre-infection vaccination was associated with reduced risk of seven symptoms. Previous symptomatic infection was also associated with poorer quality of life (EQ-5D median 75 vs 80, p < 0.001) and impairment across all daily activities. Asymptomatic infection was not associated with adverse outcomes.CONCLUSIONSThe sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection are wide-ranging and not explained by confounding. The risk of long-COVID is greater following severe infections requiring hospitalization and absent following asymptomatic infection, whilst pre-infection vaccination may be protective.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1656915/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1656915/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR501055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR501055&type=FILE&fileName=EMS145691-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR436211,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.23.21268276,Risk of myocarditis following sequential COVID-19 vaccinations by age and sex,"Patone M, Mei XW, Handunnetthi L, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Shankar-Hari M, Watkinson P, Khunti K, Harnden A, Coupland CA, Channon KM, Mills NL, Sheikh A, Hippisley-Cox J.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-25,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

In an updated self-controlled case series analysis of 42,200,614 people aged 13 years or more, we evaluate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and myocarditis, stratified by age and sex, including 10,978,507 people receiving a third vaccine dose. Myocarditis risk was increased during 1-28 days following a third dose of BNT162b2 (IRR 2.02, 95%CI 1.40, 2.91). Associations were strongest in males younger than 40 years for all vaccine types with an additional 3 (95%CI 1, 5) and 12 (95% CI 1,17) events per million estimated in the 1-28 days following a first dose of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, respectively; 14 (95%CI 8, 17), 12 (95%CI 1, 7) and 101 (95%CI 95, 104) additional events following a second dose of ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, respectively; and 13 (95%CI 7, 15) additional events following a third dose of BNT162b2, compared with 7 (95%CI 2, 11) additional events following COVID-19 infection. An association between COVID-19 infection and myocarditis was observed in all ages for both sexes but was substantially higher in those older than 40 years. These findings have important implications for public health and vaccination policy.

Funding

Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.23.21268276; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR436211; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR436211&type=FILE&fileName=EMS141882-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/12/25/2021.12.23.21268276.full.pdf PPR415631,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.03.21265877,REACT-1 round 15 interim report: High and rising prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England from end of September 2021 followed by a fall in late October 2021,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Eales O, Bodinier B, Wang H, Haw D, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-03,Y,,,,"

Background

The third wave of COVID-19 in England coincided with the rapid spread of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 from the end of May 2021. Case incidence data from the national testing programme (Pillar 2) in England may be affected by changes in testing behaviour and other biases. Community surveys may provide important contextual information to inform policy and the public health response.

Methods

We estimated patterns of community prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England using RT-PCR swab-positivity, demographic and other risk factor data from round 15 (interim) of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study (round 15a, carried out from 19 to 29 October 2021). We compared these findings with those from round 14 (9 to 27 September 2021).

Results

During mid- to late-October 2021 (round 15a) weighted prevalence was 1.72% (1.61%, 1.84%) compared to 0.83% (0.76%, 0.89%) in September 2021 (round 14). The overall reproduction number (R) from round 14 to round 15a was 1.12 (1.11, 1.14) with increases in prevalence over this period (September to October) across age groups and regions except Yorkshire and The Humber. However, within round 15a (mid- to late-October) there was evidence of a fall in prevalence with R of 0.76 (0.65, 0.88). The highest weighted prevalence was observed among children aged 5 to 12 years at 5.85% (5.10%, 6.70%) and 13 to 17 years at 5.75% (5.02%, 6.57%). At regional level, there was an almost four-fold increase in weighted prevalence in South West from round 14 at 0.59% (0.43%,0.80%) to round 15a at 2.18% (1.84%, 2.58%), with highest smoothed prevalence at subregional level also found in South West in round 15a. Age, sex, key worker status, and presence of children in the home jointly contributed to the risk of swab-positivity. Among the 126 sequenced positive swabs obtained up until 23 October, all were Delta variant; 13 (10.3%) were identified as the AY.4.2 sub-lineage.

Discussion

We observed the highest overall prevalence of swab-positivity seen in the REACT-1 study in England to date in round 15a (October 2021), with a two-fold rise in swab-positivity from round 14 (September 2021). Despite evidence of a fall in prevalence from mid- to late-October 2021, prevalence remains high, particularly in school-aged children, with evidence also of higher prevalence in households with one or more children. Thus, vaccination of children aged 12 and over remains a high priority (with possible extension to children aged 5-12) to help reduce within-household transmission and disruptions to education, as well as among adults, to lessen the risk of serious disease among those infected.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/11/03/2021.11.03.21265877.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.03.21265877; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR415631; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR415631&type=FILE&fileName=EMS138032-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR436211,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.23.21268276,Risk of myocarditis following sequential COVID-19 vaccinations by age and sex,"Patone M, Mei XW, Handunnetthi L, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Shankar-Hari M, Watkinson P, Khunti K, Harnden A, Coupland CA, Channon KM, Mills NL, Sheikh A, Hippisley-Cox J.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-25,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

In an updated self-controlled case series analysis of 42,200,614 people aged 13 years or more, we evaluate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and myocarditis, stratified by age and sex, including 10,978,507 people receiving a third vaccine dose. Myocarditis risk was increased during 1-28 days following a third dose of BNT162b2 (IRR 2.02, 95%CI 1.40, 2.91). Associations were strongest in males younger than 40 years for all vaccine types with an additional 3 (95%CI 1, 5) and 12 (95% CI 1,17) events per million estimated in the 1-28 days following a first dose of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, respectively; 14 (95%CI 8, 17), 12 (95%CI 1, 7) and 101 (95%CI 95, 104) additional events following a second dose of ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, respectively; and 13 (95%CI 7, 15) additional events following a third dose of BNT162b2, compared with 7 (95%CI 2, 11) additional events following COVID-19 infection. An association between COVID-19 infection and myocarditis was observed in all ages for both sexes but was substantially higher in those older than 40 years. These findings have important implications for public health and vaccination policy.

Funding

Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.23.21268276; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR436211; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR436211&type=FILE&fileName=EMS141882-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/12/25/2021.12.23.21268276.full.pdf PPR372315,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.16.21260651,Evaluating discharges and readmissions using a COVID Virtual Ward model: a retrospective data study assessing patient outcomes and the likely staffing commitment,"Gallier S, Atkin C, Reddy-Kolanu V, Parekh D, Zou X, Evison F, Ball S, Sapey E.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-07-20,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has placed a catastrophic burden on acute hospitals. In an attempt to reduce admissions and enable safe early discharge, a COVID virtual ward (CVW) care pathway has been supported by NHS England. This includes discharging people who meet objective criteria based on acuity scores and oxygen saturations, with pulse oximeters and daily phone calls for up to 14 days. Observational studies have reported the safety of this system, but without describing the outcomes from usual care.

Methods

A retrospective study using routinely collected health data from all adults with a confirmed positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) swab result between 1 st June 2020 and 31 st Jan 2021 who attended the Emergency Department or Acute Medical Unit at QEHB, which does not have a CVW service. Criteria for CVW were applied using data from the first 24 hours of presentation to hospital and subsequent health outcomes were included for 28 days, including re-presentation, re-admission, ITU escalation and death. Results were compared to reported studies based in secondary care.

Results

During the study period, 26,127 patients presented to QEHB hospital. 2301 had a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab. Of these, 1730 (75.2%) did not meet the criteria for the CVW and 571 (24.8%) did. Of the 571, 325 (56.9%) were discharged home within 24 hours and 246 (43.1%) were admitted for 24 hours or longer. Those admitted were older, with increased co-morbidities, 80.9% required hospital-supported acute therapies after the first 24 hours and 10.6% died. Of the 325 discharged, 44 were readmitted (13.5%), 30 (9.2%) with COVID-related symptoms, 5 (1.5%) required ITU and 1 patient (0.3%) died. These results were comparable to published studies with a CVW service.

Discussion

In the current study, discharging patients without a CVW did not confer a greater risk of re-presentation, re-admission, ITU escalation or death. The majority of patients who remained in hospital despite meeting the CVW criteria did so for the provision of treatments or acute assessments. It remains uncertain whether a CVW delivers improvements in hard outcomes, and further research is needed.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/07/20/2021.07.16.21260651.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.16.21260651; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR372315; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR372315&type=FILE&fileName=EMS131153-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR607583,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.24.23284916,"Real-world effectiveness of molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab on preventing hospital admission among higher-risk patients with COVID-19 in Wales: a retrospective cohort study","Evans A, Qi C, Adebayo L, Underwood J, Coulson J, Bailey R, John G, Edwards A, Cooper A, Lyons RA, Akbari A.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-25,Y,,,,"

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab with no treatment in preventing hospital admission or death in higher-risk patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the community.

Design

Retrospective cohort study of non-hospitalised adult patients with COVID-19 using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Setting

A real-world cohort study was conducted within the SAIL Databank (a secure trusted research environment containing anonymised, individual, population-scale electronic health record (EHR) data) for the population of Wales, UK.

Participants

Adult patients with COVID-19 in the community, at higher risk of hospitalisation and death, testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 between 16 th December 2021 and 22 nd April 2022.

Interventions

Molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab given in the community by local health boards and the National Antiviral Service in Wales.

Main outcome measures

All-cause admission to hospital or death within 28 days of a positive test for SARS-CoV-2.

Statistical analysis

Cox proportional hazard model with treatment status (treated/untreated) as a time-dependent covariate and adjusted for age, sex, number of comorbidities, Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, and vaccination status. Secondary subgroup analyses were by treatment type, number of comorbidities, and before and on or after 20 th February 2022, when omicron BA.1 and omicron BA.2 were the dominant subvariants in Wales.

Results

Between 16 th December 2021 and 22 nd April 2022, 7,103 higher-risk patients were eligible for inclusion in the study. Of these, 2,040 received treatment with molnupiravir (359, 17.6%), nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (602, 29.5%), or sotrovimab (1,079, 52.9%). Patients in the treatment group were younger (mean age 53 vs 57 years), had fewer comorbidities, and a higher proportion had received four or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (36.3% vs 17.6%). Within 28 days of a positive test, 628 (9.0%) patients were admitted to hospital or died (84 treated and 544 untreated). The primary analysis indicated a lower risk of hospitalisation or death at any point within 28 days in treated participants compared to those not receiving treatment. The adjusted hazard rate was 35% (95% CI: 18-49%) lower in treated than untreated participants. There was no indication of the superiority of one treatment over another and no evidence of a reduction in risk of hospitalisation or death within 28 days for patients with no or only one comorbidity. In patients treated with sotrovimab, the event rates before and on or after 20 th February 2022 were similar (5.0% vs 4.9%) with no significant difference in the hazard ratios for sotrovimab between the time periods.

Conclusions

In higher-risk adult patients in the community with COVID-19, those who received treatment with molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, or sotrovimab were at lower risk of hospitalisation or death than those not receiving treatment.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/01/25/2023.01.24.23284916.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.24.23284916; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR607583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR607583&type=FILE&fileName=EMS163499-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR161915,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.11.089409,An integrated in silico immuno-genetic analytical platform provides insights into COVID-19 serological and vaccine targets,"Ward D, Higgins M, Phelan JE, Hibberd ML, Campino S, Clark TG.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-13,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has a major global health and socio-economic burden. It has instigated the mobilisation of resources into the development of control tools, such as diagnostics and vaccines. The poor performance of some diagnostic serological tools has emphasised the need for up to date immune-informatic analyses to inform the selection of viable targets for further study. This requires the integration and analysis of genetic and immunological data for SARS-CoV-2 and its homology with other human coronavirus species to understand cross-reactivity.

Methods

We have developed an online “immuno-analytics” resource to facilitate SARS-CoV-2 research, combining an extensive B/T-cell epitope mapping and prediction meta-analysis, and human CoV sequence homology mapping and protein database annotation, with an updated variant database and geospatial tracking for >7,800 non-synonymous mutation positions derived from >150,000 whole genome sequences. To demonstrate its utility, we present an integrated analysis of SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins, both being vaccine and serological diagnostic targets, including an analysis of changes in relevant mutation frequencies over time.

Results

Our analysis reveals that the nucleocapsid protein in its native form appears to be a sub-optimal target for use in serological diagnostic platforms. The most frequent mutations were the spike protein D614G and nsp12 L314P, which were common (>86%) across all the geographical regions. Some mutations in the spike protein (e.g. A222V and L18F) have increased in frequency in Europe during the latter half of 2020, detected using our automated algorithms. The tool also suggests that orf3a proteins may be a suitable alternative target for diagnostic serologic assays in a post-vaccine surveillance setting.

Conclusions

The immuno-analytics tool can be accessed online ( http://genomics.lshtm.ac.uk/immuno ) and will serve as a useful resource for biological discovery and surveillance in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. Further, the tool may be adapted to inform on biological targets in future outbreaks, including potential emerging human coronaviruses that spill over from animal hosts.",,pdf:https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13073-020-00822-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.11.089409; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR161915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR161915&type=FILE&fileName=EMS93637-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR538705,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.30.22279427,A qualitative process evaluation using the behaviour change wheel approach: Did a whole genome sequence report form (SRF) used to reduce nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 within UK hospitals operate as anticipated?,"Flowers P, Leiser R, Mapp F, McLeod J, Stirrup O, Illingworth CJ, Blackstone J, Breuer J.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-09-01,Y,,,,"

Purpose

To conduct a process evaluation of a whole genome sequence report form (SRF) used to reduce nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 through changing infection prevention and control (IPC) behaviours. Here using qualitative behavioural analyses we report how the SRF worked.

Methods

Prior to a multisite non-randomised trial of its effectiveness, the SRF was coded in relation to its putative behaviour change content (using the theoretical domains framework (TDF), the behaviour change wheel (BCW) and the behaviour change technique taxonomy (BCTTv1)). After the SRF had been used, through the peak of the Alpha variant, we conducted in-depth interviews from diverse professional staff (N=39) from a heterogeneous purposive sub-sample of hospital trial sites (n=5/14). Deductive thematic analysis explored participants’ accounts of using the SRF according to its putative content in addition to inductive exploration of their experiences.

Results

We found empirical support for the putative theoretical mechanisms of ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Behavioural regulation’, as well as for intervention functions of ‘Education’ and ‘Persuasion’ and ‘Enablement’, and for particular BCTs ‘1.2 Problem solving’, ‘2.6 Biofeedback’, ‘2.7 Feedback on outcomes of behaviour’, and ‘7.1 Prompts and cues’. Most participants found the SRF useful and believed it could shape IPC behaviour.

Conclusions

Our process evaluation of the SRF provided granular and general support for the SRF working to change IPC behaviours. Our analysis highlighted useful SRF content. However, we also note that, without complementary work on systematically embedding the SRF within routine practice and wider hospital systems, it may not reach its full potential to reduce nosocomial infection.

What is already known on this subject?

Health psychology remains under-exploited within infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions For genomic insights to be understood by a range of health care professionals and elicit changes in IPC behaviour, ways of translating complex genomic insights into a simple format are needed. These simple translation tools can be described as whole genome sequence report forms (SRFs) Nothing is currently known about the use of SRFs, for SARS-CoV-2 or other infections, to change hospital-based IPC behaviour. Health psychological tools such as the behaviour change wheel (BCW), the theoretical domains framework (TDF), and the behaviour change technique taxonomy (BCTTv1) are widely used to develop behaviour change interventions but are rarely used to evaluate them Contemporary guidance on conducting process evaluations highlights the value of explicitly theorising how an intervention is intended to work before systematically examining how it actually worked in practice

What does this study add?

The paper presents a novel worked example of using tools from health psychology within a qualitative process evaluation of using an SRF during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK hospitals This paper is the first to report how people experienced using whole genome sequence report forms (SRFs) in order to change hospital-based IPC behaviour We provide qualitative evidence detailing empirical support for much of the SRF’s putative content, including casual mechanisms ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Behavioural regulation’, intervention functions such as ‘Education’ and ‘Enablement’, and for particular BCTs: ‘1.2 Problem solving’, ‘2.6 Biofeedback’, ‘2.7 Feedback on outcomes of behaviour’, and ‘7.1 Prompts and cues’",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/09/01/2022.08.30.22279427.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.30.22279427; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR538705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR538705&type=FILE&fileName=EMS153681-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR607583,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.24.23284916,"Real-world effectiveness of molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab on preventing hospital admission among higher-risk patients with COVID-19 in Wales: a retrospective cohort study","Evans A, Qi C, Adebayo L, Underwood J, Coulson J, Bailey R, John G, Edwards A, Cooper A, Lyons RA, Akbari A.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-25,Y,,,,"

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab with no treatment in preventing hospital admission or death in higher-risk patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the community.

Design

Retrospective cohort study of non-hospitalised adult patients with COVID-19 using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Setting

A real-world cohort study was conducted within the SAIL Databank (a secure trusted research environment containing anonymised, individual, population-scale electronic health record (EHR) data) for the population of Wales, UK.

Participants

Adult patients with COVID-19 in the community, at higher risk of hospitalisation and death, testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 between 16 th December 2021 and 22 nd April 2022.

Interventions

Molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab given in the community by local health boards and the National Antiviral Service in Wales.

Main outcome measures

All-cause admission to hospital or death within 28 days of a positive test for SARS-CoV-2.

Statistical analysis

Cox proportional hazard model with treatment status (treated/untreated) as a time-dependent covariate and adjusted for age, sex, number of comorbidities, Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, and vaccination status. Secondary subgroup analyses were by treatment type, number of comorbidities, and before and on or after 20 th February 2022, when omicron BA.1 and omicron BA.2 were the dominant subvariants in Wales.

Results

Between 16 th December 2021 and 22 nd April 2022, 7,103 higher-risk patients were eligible for inclusion in the study. Of these, 2,040 received treatment with molnupiravir (359, 17.6%), nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (602, 29.5%), or sotrovimab (1,079, 52.9%). Patients in the treatment group were younger (mean age 53 vs 57 years), had fewer comorbidities, and a higher proportion had received four or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (36.3% vs 17.6%). Within 28 days of a positive test, 628 (9.0%) patients were admitted to hospital or died (84 treated and 544 untreated). The primary analysis indicated a lower risk of hospitalisation or death at any point within 28 days in treated participants compared to those not receiving treatment. The adjusted hazard rate was 35% (95% CI: 18-49%) lower in treated than untreated participants. There was no indication of the superiority of one treatment over another and no evidence of a reduction in risk of hospitalisation or death within 28 days for patients with no or only one comorbidity. In patients treated with sotrovimab, the event rates before and on or after 20 th February 2022 were similar (5.0% vs 4.9%) with no significant difference in the hazard ratios for sotrovimab between the time periods.

Conclusions

In higher-risk adult patients in the community with COVID-19, those who received treatment with molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, or sotrovimab were at lower risk of hospitalisation or death than those not receiving treatment.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/01/25/2023.01.24.23284916.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.24.23284916; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR607583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR607583&type=FILE&fileName=EMS163499-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR488094,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.29.22274267,Multi-omics identify LRRC15 as a COVID-19 severity predictor and persistent pro-thrombotic signals in convalescence,"Gisby JS, Buang NB, Papadaki A, Clarke CL, Malik TH, Medjeral-Thomas N, Pinheiro D, Mortimer PM, Lewis S, Sandhu E, McAdoo SP, Prendecki MF, Willicombe M, Pickering MC, Botto M, Thomas DC, Peters JE.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"Patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) are at high risk of severe COVID-19. Here, we performed longitudinal blood sampling of ESKD haemodialysis patients with COVID-19, collecting samples pre-infection, serially during infection, and after clinical recovery. Using plasma proteomics, and RNA-sequencing and flow cytometry of immune cells, we identified transcriptomic and proteomic signatures of COVID-19 severity, and found distinct temporal molecular profiles in patients with severe disease. Supervised learning revealed that the plasma proteome was a superior indicator of clinical severity than the PBMC transcriptome. We showed that both the levels and trajectory of plasma LRRC15, a proposed co-receptor for SARS-CoV-2, are the strongest predictors of clinical outcome. Strikingly, we observed that two months after the acute infection, patients still display dysregulated gene expression related to vascular, platelet and coagulation pathways, including PF4 (platelet factor 4), which may explain the prolonged thrombotic risk following COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/05/01/2022.04.29.22274267.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.29.22274267; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR488094; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR488094&type=FILE&fileName=EMS149480-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR525831,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.29.22278186,Comparative effectiveness of BNT162b2 versus mRNA-1273 boosting in England: a cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP,"Hulme WJ, Horne EM, Parker EP, Keogh RH, Williamson EJ, Walker V, Palmer T, Curtis HJ, Walker A, Mehrkar A, Morley J, MacKenna B, Bacon SC, Goldacre B, Hernán MA, Sterne JA, the OpenSAFELY collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-07-30,Y,,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 booster vaccination programme in England used both BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 vaccines. Direct comparisons of the effectiveness against severe COVID-19 of these two vaccines for boosting have not been made in trials or observational data.

Methods

On behalf of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY-TPP database to match adult recipients of each vaccine type on date of vaccination, primary vaccine course, age, and other characteristics. Recipients were eligible if boosted between 29 October 2021 and 31 January 2022, and followed up for 12 weeks. Outcomes were positive SARS-CoV-2 test, COVID-19 hospitalisation, and COVID-19 death. We estimated the cumulative incidence of each outcome, and quantified comparative effectiveness using risk differences (RD) and hazard ratios (HRs).

Results

1,528,431 people were matched in each group, contributing a total 23,150,504 person-weeks of follow-up. The 12-week risks per 1,000 people of positive SARS-CoV-2 test were 103.2 (95%CI 102.4 to 104.0) for BNT162b2 and 96.0 (95.2 to 96.8) for mRNA-1273: the HR comparing mRNA-1273 with BNT162b2 was 0.92 (95%CI 0.91 to 0.92). For COVID-19 hospitalisations the 12-week risks per 1,000 were 0.65 (95%CI 0.56 to 0.75) and 0.44 (0.36 to 0.54): HR 0.67 (95%CI 0.58 to 0.78). COVID-19 deaths were rare: the 12-week risks per 1,000 were 0.03 (95%CI 0.02 to 0.06) and 0.01 (0.01 to 0.02): HR 1.23 (95%CI 0.59 to 2.56). Comparative effectiveness was generally similar within subgroups defined by the primary course vaccine brand, age, prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and clinical vulnerability.

Conclusion

Booster vaccination with mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine was more effective than BNT162b2 in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 hospitalisation during the first 12 weeks after vaccination, during a period of Delta followed by Omicron variant dominance.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/07/30/2022.07.29.22278186.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.29.22278186; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR525831; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR525831&type=FILE&fileName=EMS151978-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR417646,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1051010/v1,COVID-19 vaccination rates and SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women in Scotland,"Stock S, Carruthers J, Calvert C, Denny C, Donaghy J, Goulding A, Hopcroft L, Hopkins L, McLaughlin T, Pan J, Shi T, Taylor J, Agrawal U, Auyeung B, Katikireddi S, McCowan C, Murray J, Simpson C, Robertson C, Vasileiou E, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-09,Y,,,,"We describe SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Scotland in a prospective cohort of all pregnant women in Scotland drawn from national databases. As of mid-October 2021, the Covid-19 in pregnancy in Scotland (COPS) cohort included linked data on a total of 139,136 pregnancies in 126,749 women. Up to September 30, 2021, a total of 22,779 COVID-19 vaccinations had been administered to 16,229 pregnant women. Vaccine coverage was substantially lower in pregnant women than in the general female population of reproductive age (23.7% of women giving birth in September 2021 were fully vaccinated compared to 74.9 % in women 18-44 years). Of the 4,274 cases of COVID-19 in pregnancy (confirmed by SARS-CoV-2 viral reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction) between December 2020 (the month the COVID-19 vaccination programme started in Scotland) and September 2021 inclusive, 629 women (14.7%) were admitted to hospital and 89 (2.1%) were admitted to critical care. Of the COVID-19 cases occurring in pregnant women, 81.7% (3,491/4,274; 95% CI 80.5-82.8) were in unvaccinated women. Of the COVID-19 associated hospital admissions, 93.0% (585/629; 95% CI 90.7-94.8) were in women who were unvaccinated at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Of the COVID-19 associated critical care admissions 98.9% (88/89; 95% CI 93.9-100) were in women who were unvaccinated at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. The extended perinatal mortality rate for women who gave birth within 28 days of COVID-19 diagnosis was 15.9 per 1000 births (95% CI 7.8 to 31.0; background rate in 2020 6.3 per 1,000 total births [95% CI 5.7-7.1]; background rate 2019 5.7 per 1,000 total births [95% CI 5.0-6.4]). All baby deaths occurred after pregnancies in women who were unvaccinated at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Addressing low vaccine uptake rates in pregnant women is imperative to protect the health of women and babies.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01666-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1051010/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR417646; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR417646&type=FILE&fileName=EMS138218-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -117,8 +117,8 @@ PPR411044,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.14.21264965,REACT-1 study round 14: Hi PPR605135,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4066712,Using National Electronic Health Records for Pandemic Preparedness: Validation of a Parsimonious Model for Predicting Excess Deaths Among Those With COVID-19,"Mizani MA, Dashtban MH, Pasea L, Lai AG, Thygesen JH, Tomlinson C, Handy A, Mamza JB, Morris T, Khalid S, Zaccardi F, Macleod MJ, Torabi F, Canoy D, Akbari A, Berry C, Bolton T, Nolan J, Khunti K, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Sudlow C, Banerjee A, CVD-COVID-UK Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-03-25,N,,,,"Background: Throughout the pandemic, research, public health, and policy emphasised prediction and surveillance of excess deaths, which have mostly occurred in older individuals with underlying conditions, highlighting importance of baseline mortality risk, infection rate (IR) and pandemic-related relative risk (RR). We now use national, pre- and post-pandemic electronic health records (EHR) to develop and validate a model incorporating these factors for prediction of excess deaths.

Methods: In development (Clinical Practice Research Datalink) and validation (NHS Digital Trusted Research Environment) cohorts in primary and secondary care EHR in England, we included 3·8 million and 35·1 million individuals aged ≥30 years, respectively. For model development, we predicted excess deaths using baseline one-year all-cause mortality risk and assumed RR=3 and IR=10%. For model validation, we observed number of excess deaths from March 2020 to March 2021. We used baseline mortality risk, IR and RR (assumed and observed) to predict excess deaths related to COVID-19.

Findings: Among individuals with at least one high-risk condition, baseline (pre-pandemic) 1-year mortality risk at one year was 4·46% (95% CI 4·41–4·51) and 3.55% (3.54-3.57) in development and validation cohorts, respectively. In our original published model, we predicted 73,498 COVID-19 deaths over 1 year for the population of England. From 1st March 2020 to 1st March 2021, there were 127,020 observed excess deaths. Observed RR was 4·34 (4·31-4·38, 95% CI) and IR was 6·27% (6·26-6·28, 95%CI). In the validation cohort, predicted excess deaths over one year were 100,338 compared with the observed 127,020 deaths with a ratio of predicted to observed excess deaths of 0.79. We found that vaccination had a negligible effect on overall RR or IR between 1st December 2020 and 1st March 2021, compared to the likely effect of under-reported COVID-19 cases from the pre-vaccination period.

Interpretation: We show that a simple, parsimonious model incorporating baseline mortality risk, one-year infection rate and relative risk of the pandemic can be used to predict excess deaths. Our analyses show that EHR could inform pandemic planning and surveillance, despite limited use in emergency preparedness to-date. Although infection dynamics are important in prediction of morbidity and mortality, future models should take greater account of underlying conditions and their associated risks.

Funding Information: The British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre (grant No SP/19/3/34678, awarded to Health Data Research (HDR) UK) funded co-development (with NHS Digital) of the trusted research environment, provision of linked datasets, data access, user software licences, computational usage, and data management and wrangling support, with additional contributions from the HDR UK data and connectivity component of the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser’s National Core Studies programme to coordinate national Covid-19 priority research. Consortium partner organisations funded the time of contributing data analysts, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and clinicians. AB, MAM, MHD and LP were supported by research funding from AstraZeneca. AB has received funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), British Medical Association, and UK Research and Innovation. AB, SD and HH are part of the BigData@Heart Consortium, funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative-2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 116074. K.K. is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands (ARC EM) and NIHR Lifestyle BRC.

Declaration of Interests: JBM and TM are employees of AstraZeneca. KK is chair of the ethnicity subgroup of the Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and director of the University of Leicester Centre for Black Minority Ethnic Health. KK and AB are trustees of the South Asian Health Foundation (SAHF). CS is Director of the BHF Data Science Centre. All other authors report no competing interests.

Ethics Approval Statement: Approval for the study in CPRD was granted by the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee (20_074R) of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The North East-Newcastle and North Tyneside 2 research ethics committee provided ethical approval for the CVD- COVID-UK research programme (REC No 20/NE/0161).
",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4066712; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR605135; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4066712 PPR425049,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.22.21266512,Association of COVID-19 with arterial and venous vascular diseases: a population-wide cohort study of 48 million adults in England and Wales,"Knight R, Walker V, Ip S, Cooper JA, Bolton T, Keene S, Denholm R, Akbari A, Abbasizanjani H, Torabi F, Omigie E, Hollings S, North T, Toms R, Di Angelantonio E, Denaxas S, Thygesen JH, Tomlinson C, Bray B, Smith CJ, Barber M, Smith GD, Chaturvedi N, Sudlow C, Whiteley WN, Wood A, Sterne JAC, for the CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT consortium and the Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing COVID-19 National Core Study.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-24,Y,,,,"

Importance

The long-term effects of COVID-19 on the incidence of vascular diseases are unclear.

Objective

To quantify the association between time since diagnosis of COVID-19 and vascular disease, overall and by age, sex, ethnicity, and pre-existing disease.

Design

Cohort study based on population-wide linked electronic health records, with follow up from January 1 st to December 7 th 2020.

Setting and participants

Adults registered with an NHS general practice in England or Wales and alive on January 1 st 2020.

Exposures

Time since diagnosis of COVID-19 (categorised as 0-6 days, 1-2 weeks, 3-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-26 and 27-49 weeks since diagnosis), with and without hospitalisation within 28 days of diagnosis.

Main outcomes and measures

Primary outcomes were arterial thromboses (mainly acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke) and venous thromboembolic events (VTE, mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep vein thrombosis). We also studied other vascular events (transient ischaemic attack, haemorrhagic stroke, heart failure and angina). Hazard ratios were adjusted for demographic characteristics, previous disease diagnoses, comorbidities and medications.

Results

Among 48 million adults, 130,930 were and 1,315,471 were not hospitalised within 28 days of COVID-19. In England, there were 259,742 first arterial thromboses and 60,066 first VTE during 41.6 million person-years follow-up. Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for first arterial thrombosis compared with no COVID-19 declined rapidly from 21.7 (95% CI 21.0-22.4) to 3.87 (3.58-4.19) in weeks 1 and 2 after COVID-19, 2.80 (2.61-3.01) during weeks 3-4 then to 1.34 (1.21-1.48) during weeks 27-49. aHRs for first VTE declined from 33.2 (31.3-35.2) and 8.52 (7.59-9.58) in weeks 1 and 2 to 7.95 (7.28-8.68) and 4.26 (3.86-4.69) during weeks 3-4 and 5-8, then 2.20 (1.99-2.44) and 1.80 (1.50-2.17) during weeks 13-26 and 27-49 respectively. aHRs were higher, for longer after diagnosis, after hospitalised than non-hospitalised COVID-19. aHRs were also higher among people of Black and Asian than White ethnicity and among people without than with a previous event. Across the whole population estimated increases in risk of arterial thromboses and VTEs were 2.5% and 0.6% respectively 49 weeks after COVID-19, corresponding to 7,197 and 3,517 additional events respectively after 1.4 million COVID-19 diagnoses.

Conclusions and Relevance

High rates of vascular disease early after COVID-19 diagnosis decline more rapidly for arterial thromboses than VTEs but rates remain elevated up to 49 weeks after COVID_19. These results support continued policies to avoid COVID-19 infection with effective COVID-19 vaccines and use of secondary preventive agents in high-risk patients.

Key points

Question

Is COVID-19 associated with higher long-term incidence of vascular diseases?

Findings

In this cohort study of 48 million adults in England and Wales, COVID-19 was associated with higher incidence, that declined with time since diagnosis, of both arterial thromboses [week 1: adjusted HR [aHR] 21.7 (95% CI 21.0-22.4) weeks 27-49: aHR 1.34 (1.21-1.48)] and venous thromboembolism [week 1: aHR 33.2 (31.3-35.2), weeks 27–49 1.80 (1.50-2.17)]. aHRs were higher, for longer, after hospitalised than non-hospitalised COVID-19. The estimated excess number of arterial thromboses and venous thromboembolisms was 10,500.

Meaning

Avoidance of COVID-19 infection through vaccination, and use of secondary preventive agents after infection in high-risk patients, may reduce post-COVID-19 acute vascular diseases.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/11/24/2021.11.22.21266512.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.22.21266512; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR425049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR425049&type=FILE&fileName=EMS140221-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR357531,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.15.21258542,"Casirivimab and imdevimab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial","RECOVERY Collaborative Group, Horby PW, Mafham M, Peto L, Campbell M, Pessoa-Amorim G, Spata E, Staplin N, Emberson JR, Prudon B, Hine P, Brown T, Green CA, Sarkar R, Desai P, Yates B, Bewick T, Tiberi S, Felton T, Baillie JK, Buch MH, Chappell LC, Day JN, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Juszczak E, Lim WS, Montgomery A, Mumford A, Rowan K, Thwaites G, Weinreich DM, Haynes R, Landray MJ.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-06-16,Y,,,,"

SUMMARY

Background

REGEN-COV is a combination of 2 monoclonal antibodies (casirivimab and imdevimab) that bind to two different sites on the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of REGEN-COV in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial, several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus a single dose of REGEN-COV 8g (casirivimab 4g and imdevimab 4g) by intravenous infusion (REGEN-COV group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality assessed first among patients without detectable antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 at randomisation (seronegative) and then in the overall population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT04381936 ).

Findings

Between 18 September 2020 and 22 May 2021, 9785 patients were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus REGEN-COV or usual care alone, including 3153 (32%) seronegative patients, 5272 (54%) seropositive patients and 1360 (14%) patients with unknown baseline antibody status. In the primary efficacy population of seronegative patients, 396 (24%) of 1633 patients allocated to REGEN-COV and 451 (30%) of 1520 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·80; 95% CI 0·70-0·91; p=0·0010). In an analysis involving all randomised patients (regardless of baseline antibody status), 944 (20%) of 4839 patients allocated to REGEN-COV and 1026 (21%) of 4946 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·94; 95% CI 0·86-1·03; p=0·17). The proportional effect of REGEN-COV on mortality differed significantly between seropositive and seronegative patients (p value for heterogeneity = 0·001).

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, the monoclonal antibody combination of casirivimab and imdevimab (REGEN-COV) reduced 28-day mortality among patients who were seronegative at baseline.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research (Grant ref: MC_PC_19056).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.15.21258542; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR357531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR357531&type=FILE&fileName=EMS127953-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/preview/7415985/1-s2.0-S0140673622001635-main.pdf -PPR412915,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.28.21265615,Transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in a strictly-Orthodox Jewish community in the UK,"Waites W, Pearson CA, Gaskell KM, House T, Pellis L, Johnson M, Gould V, Hunt A, Stone NR, Kasstan B, Chantler T, Lal S, Roberts Ch, Goldblatt D, Marks M, Eggo RM, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-10-29,Y,,,,"Some social settings such as households and workplaces, have been identified as high risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Identifying and quantifying the importance of these settings is critical for designing interventions. A tightly-knit religious community in the UK experienced a very large COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, reaching 64.3% seroprevalence within 10 months, and we surveyed this community both for serological status and individual-level attendance at particular settings. Using these data, and a network model of people and places represented as a stochastic graph rewriting system, we estimated the relative contribution of transmission in households, schools and religious institutions to the epidemic, and the relative risk of infection in each of these settings. All congregate settings were important for transmission, with some such as primary schools and places of worship having a higher share of transmission than others. We found that the model needed a higher general-community transmission rate for women (3.3-fold), and lower susceptibility to infection in children to recreate the observed serological data. The precise share of transmission in each place was related to assumptions about the internal structure of those places. Identification of key settings of transmission can allow public health interventions to be targeted at these locations.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4666911/7/Waites_etal_2022_Transmission-dynamics-of-sars-cov.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.28.21265615; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR412915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR412915&type=FILE&fileName=EMS137713-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR312539,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.08.21255100,REACT-1 round 10 report: Level prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 swab-positivity in England during third national lockdown in March 2021,"Riley S, Eales O, Haw D, Walters CE, Wang H, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-15,Y,,,,"

Background

In England, hospitalisations and deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 have been falling consistently since January 2021 during the third national lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first significant relaxation of that lockdown occurred on 8 March when schools reopened.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study augments routine surveillance data for England by measuring swab-positivity for SARS-CoV-2 in the community. The current round, round 10, collected swabs from 11 to 30 March 2021 and is compared here to round 9, in which swabs were collected from 4 to 23 February 2021.

Results

During round 10, we estimated an R number of 1.00 (95% confidence interval 0.81, 1.21). Between rounds 9 and 10 we estimated national prevalence has dropped by ∼60% from 0.49% (0.44%, 0.55%) in February to 0.20% (0.17%, 0.23%) in March. There were substantial falls in weighted regional prevalence: in South East from 0.36% (0.29%, 0.44%) in round 9 to 0.07% (0.04%, 0.12%) in round 10; London from 0.60% (0.48%, 0.76%) to 0.16% (0.10%, 0.26%); East of England from 0.47% (0.36%, 0.60%) to 0.15% (0.10%, 0.24%); East Midlands from 0.59% (0.45%, 0.77%) to 0.19% (0.13%, 0.28%); and North West from 0.69% (0.54%, 0.88%) to 0.31% (0.21%, 0.45%). Areas of apparent higher prevalence remain in parts of the North West, and Yorkshire and The Humber. The highest prevalence in March was found among school-aged children 5 to 12 years at 0.41% (0.27%, 0.62%), compared with the lowest in those aged 65 to 74 and 75 and over at 0.09% (0.05%, 0.16%). The close approximation between prevalence of infections and deaths (suitably lagged) is diverging, suggesting that infections may have resulted in fewer hospitalisations and deaths since the start of widespread vaccination.

Conclusion

We report a sharp decline in prevalence of infections between February and March 2021. We did not observe an increase in the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 following the reopening of schools in England, although the decline of prevalence appears to have stopped. Future rounds of REACT-1 will be able to measure the rate of growth or decline from this current plateau and hence help assess the effectiveness of the vaccination roll-out on transmission of the virus as well as the potential size of any third wave during the ensuing months.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/04/15/2021.04.08.21255100.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.08.21255100; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR312539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR312539&type=FILE&fileName=EMS122836-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR412915,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.28.21265615,Transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in a strictly-Orthodox Jewish community in the UK,"Waites W, Pearson CA, Gaskell KM, House T, Pellis L, Johnson M, Gould V, Hunt A, Stone NR, Kasstan B, Chantler T, Lal S, Roberts Ch, Goldblatt D, Marks M, Eggo RM, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-10-29,Y,,,,"Some social settings such as households and workplaces, have been identified as high risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Identifying and quantifying the importance of these settings is critical for designing interventions. A tightly-knit religious community in the UK experienced a very large COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, reaching 64.3% seroprevalence within 10 months, and we surveyed this community both for serological status and individual-level attendance at particular settings. Using these data, and a network model of people and places represented as a stochastic graph rewriting system, we estimated the relative contribution of transmission in households, schools and religious institutions to the epidemic, and the relative risk of infection in each of these settings. All congregate settings were important for transmission, with some such as primary schools and places of worship having a higher share of transmission than others. We found that the model needed a higher general-community transmission rate for women (3.3-fold), and lower susceptibility to infection in children to recreate the observed serological data. The precise share of transmission in each place was related to assumptions about the internal structure of those places. Identification of key settings of transmission can allow public health interventions to be targeted at these locations.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4666911/7/Waites_etal_2022_Transmission-dynamics-of-sars-cov.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.28.21265615; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR412915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR412915&type=FILE&fileName=EMS137713-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR312488,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.13.21255342,Protocol for the COG-UK hospital onset COVID-19 infection (HOCI) multicentre interventional clinical study: evaluating the efficacy of rapid genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in United Kingdom NHS hospitals,"Blackstone J, Stirrup O, Mapp F, Panca M, Copas A, Flowers P, Hockey L, Price J, Partridge D, Peters C, de Silva T, Nebbia G, Snell LB, McComish R, Breuer J, the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-15,N,,,,"

Introduction

Nosocomial transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been a significant cause of mortality in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of rapid whole genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, supported by a novel probabilistic reporting methodology, to inform infection prevention and control (IPC) practice within NHS hospital settings.

Methods and analysis

COG-UK HOCI (COG-UK Consortium Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections study) is a multicentre, prospective, interventional, superiority study. Eligible patients must be admitted to hospital with first confirmed SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive test result >48h from time of admission, where COVID-19 diagnosis was not suspected upon admission. The projected sample size for 14 participating sites covering all study phases over winter-spring 2020/2021 in the United Kingdom is 2,380 patients. The intervention is the return of a sequence report, within 48 hours in one phase (rapid local lab) and within 5-10 days in a second phase (mimicking central lab use), comparing the viral genome from an eligible study participant with others within and outside the hospital site. The primary outcomes are the incidence of Public Health England (PHE)/IPC-defined SARS-CoV-2 hospital-acquired infection during the baseline and two interventional phases, and proportion of hospital-onset cases with genomic evidence of transmission linkage following implementation of the intervention where such linkage was not suspected by initial IPC investigation. Secondary outcomes include incidence of hospital outbreaks, with and without sequencing data; actual and desirable changes to IPC actions; periods of healthcare worker (HCW) absence. A process evaluation using qualitative interviews with HCWs will be conducted alongside the study and analysis, underpinned by iterative programme theory of the sequence report. Health economic analysis will be conducted to determine cost-benefit of the intervention, and whether this leads to economic advantages within the NHS setting.

Ethics and dissemination

The protocol has been approved by the National Research Ethics Service Committee (Cambridge South 20/EE/0118). This manuscript is based on version 5.0 of the protocol. The study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.

Study Registration number

ISRCTN50212645

Strengths and limitations of this study

The COG-UK HOCI study harnesses the infrastructure of the UK’s existing national COVID-19 genome sequencing platform to evaluate the specific benefit of sequencing to hospital infection control. The evaluation is thought to be the first interventional study globally to assess effectiveness of genomic sequencing for infection control in an unbiased patient selection in secondary care settings. A range of institutional settings will participate, from specialist NHS-embedded or academic centres experienced in using pathogen genomics to district general hospitals. The findings are likely to have wider applicability in future decisions to utilise genome sequencing for infection control of other pathogens (such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, norovirus, clostridium difficile and antimicrobial resistant pathogens) in secondary care settings. The study has been awarded UK NIHR Urgent Public Health status, ensuring prioritised access to NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) research staff to recruit patients. The study does not have a randomised controlled design due to the logistics of managing this against diverse standard practice.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e052514.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.13.21255342; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR312488; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.13.21255342 PPR286480,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.17.21251928,Mortality after surgery with SARS-CoV-2 infection in England: A population-wide epidemiological study,"Abbott TEF, Fowler AJ, Dobbs TD, Gibson J, Shahid T, Dias P, Akbari A, Whitaker IS, Pearse RM.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-20,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To confirm the incidence of perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and associated mortality after surgery.

Design and setting

Analysis of routine electronic health record data from National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England.

Methods

We extracted data from Hospital Episode Statistics in England describing adult patients undergoing surgery between 1 st January 2020 and 31 st October 2020. The exposure was SARS-CoV-2 infection defined by ICD-10 codes. The primary outcome measure was 90-day in-hospital mortality. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, Charlson co-morbidity index, index of multiple deprivation, presence of cancer, surgical procedure type and admission acuity. Results are presented as n (%) and odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals.

Results

We identified 1,972,153 patients undergoing surgery of whom 11,940 (0.6%) had SARS-CoV-2. In total, 19,100 (1.0%) patients died in hospital. SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a much greater risk of death (SARS-CoV-2: 2,618/11,940 [21.9%] vs No SARS-CoV-2: 16,482/1,960,213 [0.8%]; OR: 5.8 [5.5 – 6.1]; p<0.001). Amongst patients undergoing elective surgery 1,030/1,374,985 (0.1%) had SARS-CoV-2 of whom 83/1,030 (8.1%) died, compared with 1,092/1,373,955 (0.1%) patients without SARS-CoV-2 (OR: 29.0 [22.5 −37.3]; p<0.001). Amongst patients undergoing emergency surgery 9,742/437,891 (2.2%) patients had SARS-CoV-2, of whom 2,466/9,742 (25.3%) died compared with 14,817/428,149 (3.5%) patients without SARS-CoV-2 (OR: 5.7 [5.4 – 6.0]; p<0.001).

Conclusions

The low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in NHS surgical pathways suggests current infection prevention and control policies are highly effective. However, the high mortality amongst patients with SARS-CoV-2 suggests these precautions cannot be safely relaxed.

Summary boxes

What is already known on this topic

High mortality rates have been reported amongst surgical patients who develop COVID-19 but we don’t know how this compares to the concurrent surgical population unaffected by COVID-19. Strict infection prevention and control procedures have substantially reduced the capacity of surgical treatment pathways in many hospitals. The very large backlog in delayed and cancelled surgical procedures is a growing public health concern.

What this study adds

Fewer than 1 in 100 surgical patients are affected by COVID-19 in the English National Health Service. Elective surgical patients who do develop COVID-19 are 30 times more likely to die while in hospital. Infection prevention and control procedures in NHS surgical pathways are highly effective but cannot be safely relaxed.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/02/20/2021.02.17.21251928.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.17.21251928; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR286480; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR286480&type=FILE&fileName=EMS117258-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR225520,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.12.20211227,High and increasing prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 swab positivity in England during end September beginning October 2020: REACT-1 round 5 updated report,"Riley S, Ainslie KEC, Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-10-14,Y,,,,"

Background

REACT-1 is quantifying prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among random samples of the population in England based on PCR testing of self-administered nose and throat swabs. Here we report results from the fifth round of observations for swabs collected from the 18th September to 5th October 2020. This report updates and should be read alongside our round 5 interim report.

Methods

Representative samples of the population aged 5 years and over in England with sample size ranging from 120,000 to 175,000 people at each round. Prevalence of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, estimation of reproduction number (R) and time trends between and within rounds using exponential growth or decay models.

Results

175,000 volunteers tested across England between 18th September and 5th October. Findings show a national prevalence of 0.60% (95% confidence interval 0.55%, 0.71%) and doubling of the virus every 29 (17, 84) days in England corresponding to an estimated national R of 1.16 (1.05, 1.27). These results correspond to 1 in 170 people currently swab-positive for the virus and approximately 45,000 new infections each day. At regional level, the highest prevalence is in the North West, Yorkshire and The Humber and the North East with strongest regional growth in North West, Yorkshire and The Humber and West Midlands.

Conclusion

Rapid growth has led to high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in England, with highest rates in the North of England. Prevalence has increased in all age groups, including those at highest risk. Improved compliance with existing policy and, as necessary, additional interventions are required to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community and limit the numbers of hospital admissions and deaths from COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/10/14/2020.10.12.20211227.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.12.20211227; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR225520; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR225520&type=FILE&fileName=EMS98335-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -131,11 +131,11 @@ PPR585732,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.16.22283578,"Higher dose corticosteroi PPR558653,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.13.22281031,Indirect effects of the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary care for cardiovascular disease in the UK: an electronic health record analysis across three countries,"Wright FL, Cheema K, Goldacre R, Hall N, Herz N, Islam N, Karim Z, Moreno-Martos D, Morales DR, O’Connell D, Spata E, Akbari A, Ashworth M, Barber M, Briffa N, Canoy D, Denaxas S, Khunti K, Kurdi A, Mamas M, Priedon R, Sudlow C, Morris EJ, Lacey B, Banerjee A.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-10-17,Y,,,,"

Background

Although morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 have been widely reported, the indirect effects of the pandemic beyond 2020 on other major diseases and health service activity have not been well described.

Methods

Analyses used national administrative electronic hospital records in England, Scotland and Wales for 2016-2021. Admissions and procedures during the pandemic (2020-2021) related to six major cardiovascular conditions (acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, stroke/transient ischaemic attack, peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysm, and venous thromboembolism) were compared to the annual average in the pre-pandemic period (2016-2019). Differences were assessed by time period and urgency of care.

Results

In 2020, there were 31,064 (−6%) fewer hospital admissions (14,506 [-4%] fewer emergencies, 16,560 [-23%] fewer elective admissions) compared to 2016-2019 for the six major cardiovascular diseases combined. The proportional reduction in admissions was similar in all three countries. Overall, hospital admissions returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Elective admissions remained substantially below expected levels for almost all conditions in all three countries (−10,996 [-15%] fewer admissions). However, these reductions were offset by higher than expected total emergency admissions (+25,878 [+6%] higher admissions), notably for heart failure and stroke in England, and for venous thromboembolism in all three countries. Analyses for procedures showed similar temporal variations to admissions.

Conclusion

This study highlights increasing emergency cardiovascular admissions as a result of the pandemic, in the context of a substantial and sustained reduction in elective admissions and procedures. This is likely to increase further the demands on cardiovascular services over the coming years.

Key Question

What is the impact in 2020 and 2021 of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admissions and procedures for six major cardiovascular diseases in England, Scotland and Wales?

Key Finding

In 2020, there were 6% fewer hospital admissions (emergency: -4%, elective: -23%) compared to 2016-2019 for six major cardiovascular diseases, across three UK countries. Overall, admissions returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, but elective admissions remained below expected levels.

Take-home Message

There was increasing emergency cardiovascular admissions as a result of the pandemic, with substantial and sustained reduction in elective admissions and procedures. This is likely to increase further the demands on cardiovascular services over the coming years.",,pdf:https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/12374/1/2022.10.13.22281031v1.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.13.22281031; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR558653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR558653&type=FILE&fileName=EMS155821-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR486740,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.26.22274332,"Community factors and excess mortality in the COVID-19 pandemic in England, Italy and Sweden","Parkes B, Stafoggia M, Fecht D, Davies B, Bonander C, de’ Donato F, Michelozzi P, Piel FB, Strömberg U, Blangiardo M.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-04-27,Y,,,,"

Background

Analyses of COVID-19 suggest specific risk factors make communities more or less vulnerable to pandemic related deaths within countries. What is unclear is whether the characteristics affecting vulnerability of small communities within countries produce similar patterns of excess mortality across countries with different demographics and public health responses to the pandemic. Our aim is to quantify community-level variations in excess mortality within England, Italy and Sweden and identify how such spatial variability was driven by community-level characteristics.

Methods

We applied a two-stage Bayesian model to quantify inequalities in excess mortality in people aged 40 years and older at the community level in England, Italy and Sweden during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020–February 2021). We used community characteristics measuring deprivation, air pollution, living conditions, population density and movement of people as covariates to quantify their associations with excess mortality.

Results

We found just under half of communities in England (48.1%) and Italy (45.8%) had an excess mortality of over 300 per 100,000 males over the age of 40, while for Sweden that covered 23.1% of communities. We showed that deprivation is a strong predictor of excess mortality across the three countries, and communities with high levels of overcrowding were associated with higher excess mortality in England and Sweden.

Conclusion

These results highlight some international similarities in factors affecting mortality that will help policy makers target public health measures to increase resilience to the mortality impacts of this and future pandemics.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/05/09/2022.04.26.22274332.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.26.22274332; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR486740; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR486740&type=FILE&fileName=EMS144662-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR290302,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.26.21252512,REACT-2 Round 5: increasing prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies demonstrate impact of the second wave and of vaccine roll-out in England,"Ward H, Cooke G, Whitaker M, Redd R, Eales O, Brown JC, Collet K, Cooper E, Daunt A, Jones K, Moshe M, Willicombe M, Day S, Atchison C, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Riley S, Ashby D, Barclay WS, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-01,Y,,,,"

Background

England has experienced high rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting in particular minority ethnic groups and more deprived communities. A vaccination programme began in England in December 2020, with priority given to administering the first dose to the largest number of older individuals, healthcare and care home workers.

Methods

A cross-sectional community survey in England undertaken between 26 January and 8 February 2021 as the fifth round of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-2 (REACT-2) programme. Participants completed questionnaires, including demographic details and clinical and COVID-19 vaccination histories, and self-administered a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) test to detect IgG against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. There were sufficient numbers of participants to analyse antibody positivity after 21 days from vaccination with the PfizerBioNTech but not the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine which was introduced slightly later.

Results

The survey comprised 172,099 people, with valid IgG antibody results from 155,172. The overall prevalence of antibodies (weighted to be representative of the population of England and adjusted for test sensitivity and specificity) in England was 13.9% (95% CI 13.7, 14.1) overall, 37.9% (37.2, 38.7) in vaccinated and 9.8% (9.6, 10.0) in unvaccinated people. The prevalence of antibodies (weighted) in unvaccinated people was highest in London at 16.9% (16.3, 17.5), and higher in people of Black (22.4%, 20.8, 24.1) and Asian (20.0%, 19.0, 21.0) ethnicity compared to white (8.5%, 8.3, 8.7) people. The uptake of vaccination by age was highest in those aged 80 years or older (93.5%). Vaccine confidence was high with 92.0% (91.9, 92.1) of people saying that they had accepted or intended to accept the offer. Vaccine confidence varied by age and ethnicity, with lower confidence in young people and those of Black ethnicity. Particular concerns were identified around pregnancy, fertility and allergies. In 971 individuals who received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the proportion testing positive was high across all age groups. Following a single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after 21 days or more, 84.1% (82.2, 85.9) of people under 60 years tested positive (unadjusted) with a decreasing trend with increasing age, but high responses to a single dose in those with confirmed or suspected prior COVID at 90.1% (87.2, 92.4) across all age groups.

Conclusions

There is uneven distribution of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the population with a higher burden in key workers and some minority ethnic groups, similar to the pattern in the first wave. Confidence in the vaccine programme is high overall although it was lower in some of the higher prevalence groups which suggests the need for improved communication about specific perceived risks. Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, or a single dose following previous infection, confers high levels of antibody positivity across all ages. Further work is needed to understand the relationship between antibody positivity, clinical outcomes such as hospitalisation, and transmission.",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/86241/2/REACT%202%20round%205%20preprint.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.26.21252512; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR290302; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR290302&type=FILE&fileName=EMS117860-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR449587,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.01.22270235,Hospitalisation for COVID-19 predicts long lasting cerebrovascular impairment: A prospective observational cohort study,"Tsvetanov KA, Spindler LRB, Stamatakis EA, Newcombe VF, Lupson VC, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Outtrim JG, Elmer A, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, The Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, The NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, The Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility, The CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-02-02,Y,,,,"Human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has multiple neurological consequences, but its long-term effect on brain health is still uncertain. The cerebrovascular consequences of COVID-19 may also affect brain health. Here we assess cerebrovascular health in 45 hospitalised patients using the resting state fluctuation amplitudes (RSFA) from functional magnetic resonance imaging, in relation to disease severity and in contrast with 42 controls. Widespread changes in frontoparietal RSFA were related to the severity of the acute COVID-19 episode, as indexed by COVID-19 WHO Progression Scale, inflammatory and coagulatory biomarkers. This relationship was not explained by chronic cardiorespiratory dysfunction, age, or sex. Exploratory analysis suggests that the level of cerebrovascular dysfunction is associated with cognitive, mental, and physical health at follow-up. The principal findings were consistent across univariate and multivariate approaches. The results indicate chronic cerebrovascular impairment following severe acute COVID-19, with the potential for long-term consequences on cognitive function and mental wellbeing.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/dc24fc5e-7064-4af8-a659-777a57181201/download; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.01.22270235; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR449587; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR449587&type=FILE&fileName=EMS143509-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR303187,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.26.21254390,Regional performance variation in external validation of four prediction models for severity of COVID-19 at hospital admission: An observational multi-centre cohort study,"Wickstrøm KE, Vitelli V, Carr E, Holten AR, Bendayan R, Reiner AH, Bean D, Searle T, Shek A, Kraljevic Z, Teo J, Dobson R, Tonby K, Köhn- Luque A, Amundsen EK.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-26,N,,,,"

Background

Several prediction models for coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) have been published. Prediction models should be externally validated to assess their performance before implementation. This observational cohort study aimed to validate published models of severity for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 using clinical and laboratory predictors.

Methods

Prediction models fitting relevant inclusion criteria were chosen for validation. The outcome was either mortality or a composite outcome of mortality and ICU admission (severe disease). 1295 patients admitted with symptoms of COVID-19 at Kings Cross Hospital (KCH) in London, United Kingdom, and 307 patients at Oslo University Hospital (OUH) in Oslo, Norway were included. The performance of the models was assessed in terms of discrimination and calibration.

Results

We identified two models for prediction of mortality (referred to as Xie and Zhang1) and two models for prediction of severe disease (Allenbach and Zhang2). The performance of the models was variable. For prediction of mortality Xie had good discrimination at OUH with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) 0.87 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.79-0.95] and acceptable discrimination at KCH, AUROC 0.79 [0.76-0.82]. In prediction of severe disease, Allenbach had acceptable discrimination (OUH AUROC 0.81 [0.74-0.88] and KCH AUROC 0.72 [0.68-0.75]). The Zhang models had moderate to poor discrimination. Initial calibration was poor for all models but improved with recalibration.

Conclusions

The performance of the four prediction models was variable. The Xie model had the best discrimination for mortality, while the Allenbach model had acceptable results for prediction of severe disease.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10134231/1/journal.pone.0255748.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.26.21254390; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR303187; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.26.21254390 +PPR449587,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.01.22270235,Hospitalisation for COVID-19 predicts long lasting cerebrovascular impairment: A prospective observational cohort study,"Tsvetanov KA, Spindler LRB, Stamatakis EA, Newcombe VF, Lupson VC, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Outtrim JG, Elmer A, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, The Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, The NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, The Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility, The CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-02-02,Y,,,,"Human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has multiple neurological consequences, but its long-term effect on brain health is still uncertain. The cerebrovascular consequences of COVID-19 may also affect brain health. Here we assess cerebrovascular health in 45 hospitalised patients using the resting state fluctuation amplitudes (RSFA) from functional magnetic resonance imaging, in relation to disease severity and in contrast with 42 controls. Widespread changes in frontoparietal RSFA were related to the severity of the acute COVID-19 episode, as indexed by COVID-19 WHO Progression Scale, inflammatory and coagulatory biomarkers. This relationship was not explained by chronic cardiorespiratory dysfunction, age, or sex. Exploratory analysis suggests that the level of cerebrovascular dysfunction is associated with cognitive, mental, and physical health at follow-up. The principal findings were consistent across univariate and multivariate approaches. The results indicate chronic cerebrovascular impairment following severe acute COVID-19, with the potential for long-term consequences on cognitive function and mental wellbeing.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/dc24fc5e-7064-4af8-a659-777a57181201/download; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.01.22270235; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR449587; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR449587&type=FILE&fileName=EMS143509-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR160431,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092296,Ethnicity and risk of death in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 infection in the UK: an observational cohort study in an urban catchment area,"Sapey E, Gallier S, Mainey C, Nightingale P, McNulty D, Crothers H, Evison F, Reeves K, Pagano D, Denniston A, Nirantharakumar K, Diggle P, Ball S.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-09,N,,,,"

Background

Studies suggest that certain Black and Asian Minority Ethnic groups experience poorer outcomes from COVID-19 but these studies have not provided insight into potential reasons for this. We hypothesised that outcomes would be poorer for those of South Asian ethnicity hospitalised from a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, once confounding factors, health seeking behaviours and community demographics were considered and that this might reflect a more aggressive disease course in these patients.

Methods

Patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection requiring admission to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust(UHB) in Birmingham UK between 10 th March 2020-17 th April 2020 were included. Standardised Admission Ratio(SAR) and Standardised Mortality Ratio(SMR) were calculated using observed COVID-19 admissions/deaths and 2011 census data. Hazard Ratio (aHR) for mortality was estimated using Cox proportional hazard model adjusting and propensity score matching.

Results

All patients admitted to UHB with COVID-19 during the study period were included (2217 in total). Fifty-eight percent were male, 69.5% White and the majority (80.2%) had co-morbidities. Eighteen and a half percent were of South Asian ethnicity, and these patients were more likely to be younger, have no co-morbidities but twice the prevalence of diabetes than White patients. SAR and SMR suggested more admissions and deaths in South Asian patients than would be predicted and they were more likely to present with severe disease despite no delay in presentation since symptom onset. South Asian ethnicity was associated with an increased risk of death; both by Cox regression (Hazard Ratio 1.4 (95%CI 1.2–1.8) after adjusting for age, sex, deprivation and comorbidities and by propensity score matching, matching for the same factors but categorising ethnicity into South Asian or not (Hazard ratio 1.3 (1.0-1.6)).

Conclusions

Those of South Asian ethnicity appear at risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes, further studies need to establish the underlying mechanistic pathways.","The objective of this study was to determine if specific ethnic groups are at higher risk of dying from covid-19 infection. They found that those of South Asian ethnicity may be at risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes. However, further studies are required to understand this better.",pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/7/1/e000644.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092296; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR160431; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092296 PPR225505,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.12.20211342,Network Graph Representation of COVID-19 Scientific Publications to Aid Knowledge Discovery,"Cernile G, Heritage T, Sebire NJ, Gordon B, Schwering T, Kazemlou S, Borecki Y.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-10-14,N,,,,"

Introduction

Numerous scientific journal articles have been rapidly published related to COVID-19 making navigation and understanding of relationships difficult.

Methods

A graph network was constructed from the publicly available CORD-19 database of COVID-19-related publications using an engine leveraging medical knowledgebases to identify discrete medical concepts and an open source tool (Gephi) used to visualise the network.

Results

The network shows connections between disease, medication and procedures identified from title and abstracts of 195,958 COVID-19 related publications (CORD-19 Dataset). Connections between terms with few publications, those unconnected to the main network and those irrelevant were not displayed. Nodes were coloured by knowledgebase and node size related to the number of publications containing the term. The dataset and visualisations made publicly accessible via a webtool.

Conclusion

Knowledge management approaches (text mining and graph networks) can effectively allow rapid navigation and exploration of entity interrelationships to improve understanding of diseases such as COVID-19.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10119352/1/e100254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.12.20211342; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR225505; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.12.20211342 PPR433539,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.16.21267934,Predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a multi-ethnic cohort of United Kingdom healthcare workers: a prospective nationwide cohort study (UK-REACH),"Martin CA, Pan D, Melbourne C, Teece L, Aujayeb A, Baggaley RF, Bryant L, Carr S, Gregary B, Gupta A, Guyatt AL, John C, McManus IC, Nazareth J, Nellums LB, Reza R, Simpson S, Tobin MD, Woolf K, Zingwe S, Khunti K, Abrams KR, Gray LJ, Pareek M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-17,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Healthcare workers (HCWs), particularly those from ethnic minority groups, have been shown to be at disproportionately higher risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) compared to the general population. However, there is insufficient evidence on how demographic and occupational factors influence infection risk among ethnic minority HCWs.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 Outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) cohort study. We used logistic regression to examine associations of demographic, household and occupational predictor variables with SARS-CoV-2 infection (defined by PCR, serology or suspected COVID-19) in a diverse group of HCWs.

Results

2,496 of the 10,772 HCWs (23.2%) who worked during the first UK national lockdown in March 2020 reported previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. In an adjusted model, demographic and household factors associated with increased odds of infection included younger age, living with other key workers and higher religiosity. Important occupational risk factors associated with increased odds of infection included attending to a higher number of COVID-19 positive patients (aOR 2.49, 95%CI 2.03–3.05 for ≥21 patients per week vs none), working in a nursing or midwifery role (1.35, 1.15– 1.58, compared to doctors), reporting a lack of access to personal protective equipment (1.27, 1.15 – 1.41) and working in an ambulance (1.95, 1.52–2.50) or hospital inpatient setting (1.54, 1.37 – 1.74). Those who worked in Intensive Care Units were less likely to have been infected (0.76, 0.63–0.90) than those who did not. Black HCWs were more likely to have been infected than their White colleagues, an effect which attenuated after adjustment for other known predictors.

Conclusions

We identified key sociodemographic and occupational risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst UK HCWs, and have determined factors that might contribute to a disproportionate odds of infection in HCWs from Black ethnic groups. These findings demonstrate the importance of social and occupational factors in driving ethnic disparities in COVID-19 outcomes, and should inform policies, including targeted vaccination strategies and risk assessments aimed at protecting HCWs in future waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 11811602",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.16.21267934; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR433539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR433539&type=FILE&fileName=EMS141796-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/12/17/2021.12.16.21267934.full.pdf -PPR160431,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092296,Ethnicity and risk of death in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 infection in the UK: an observational cohort study in an urban catchment area,"Sapey E, Gallier S, Mainey C, Nightingale P, McNulty D, Crothers H, Evison F, Reeves K, Pagano D, Denniston A, Nirantharakumar K, Diggle P, Ball S.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-09,N,,,,"

Background

Studies suggest that certain Black and Asian Minority Ethnic groups experience poorer outcomes from COVID-19 but these studies have not provided insight into potential reasons for this. We hypothesised that outcomes would be poorer for those of South Asian ethnicity hospitalised from a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, once confounding factors, health seeking behaviours and community demographics were considered and that this might reflect a more aggressive disease course in these patients.

Methods

Patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection requiring admission to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust(UHB) in Birmingham UK between 10 th March 2020-17 th April 2020 were included. Standardised Admission Ratio(SAR) and Standardised Mortality Ratio(SMR) were calculated using observed COVID-19 admissions/deaths and 2011 census data. Hazard Ratio (aHR) for mortality was estimated using Cox proportional hazard model adjusting and propensity score matching.

Results

All patients admitted to UHB with COVID-19 during the study period were included (2217 in total). Fifty-eight percent were male, 69.5% White and the majority (80.2%) had co-morbidities. Eighteen and a half percent were of South Asian ethnicity, and these patients were more likely to be younger, have no co-morbidities but twice the prevalence of diabetes than White patients. SAR and SMR suggested more admissions and deaths in South Asian patients than would be predicted and they were more likely to present with severe disease despite no delay in presentation since symptom onset. South Asian ethnicity was associated with an increased risk of death; both by Cox regression (Hazard Ratio 1.4 (95%CI 1.2–1.8) after adjusting for age, sex, deprivation and comorbidities and by propensity score matching, matching for the same factors but categorising ethnicity into South Asian or not (Hazard ratio 1.3 (1.0-1.6)).

Conclusions

Those of South Asian ethnicity appear at risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes, further studies need to establish the underlying mechanistic pathways.","The objective of this study was to determine if specific ethnic groups are at higher risk of dying from covid-19 infection. They found that those of South Asian ethnicity may be at risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes. However, further studies are required to understand this better.",pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/7/1/e000644.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092296; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR160431; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092296 PPR520994,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1831644/v1,"COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy: views and vaccination uptake rates in pregnancy, a mixed methods analysis from the Born In Wales study","Mhereeg M, Jones H, Kennedy J, Seaborne M, Parker M, Kennedy N, Beeson S, Akbari A, Zuccolo L, Davies A, Brophy S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-07-20,Y,,,,"

Background:

Vaccine hesitancy amongst pregnant women has been found to be a concern during past epidemics. This study aimed to 1) estimate COVID-19 vaccination rates among pregnant women in Wales and their association with age, ethnicity, and area of deprivation, using electronic health records (EHR) linkage, and 2) explore pregnant women’s views on receiving the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy using data from a survey recruiting via social media (Facebook, Twitter), through midwives, and posters in hospitals (Born in Wales Cohort). Methods This was a mixed-methods study utilising routinely collected linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) (Objective 1) and the Born-In-Wales Birth Cohort participants (Objective 2). Survival analysis was utilised to examine and compare the length of time to vaccination uptake in pregnancy, and variation in uptake by; age, ethnicity, and deprivation area was examined using hazard ratios (HR) from Cox regression. Codebook thematic analysis was used to generate themes from an open-ended question on the survey. Results Population-level data linkage (objective 1) Within the population cohort, 32.7% (n = 8,203) were vaccinated (at least one dose of the vaccine) during pregnancy, 34.1% (n = 8,572) remained unvaccinated throughout follow-up period, and 33.2% (n = 8,336) received the vaccine postpartum. Younger women (< 30 years) were less likely to have the vaccine and those living in areas of high deprivation were also less likely to have the vaccine (HR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.95). Asian and other ethnic groups were 1.12 and 1.18 times more likely to have the vaccine in pregnancy compared to women of White ethnicity (HR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.25) and (HR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.37) respectively. Survey responses (objective 2) 69% of participants stated that they would be happy to have the vaccine during pregnancy (n = 207). The remainder, 31%, indicated that they would not have the vaccine during pregnancy (n = 94). Reasons for having the vaccine included protecting self and baby, perceived risk level, and receipt of sufficient evidence and advice. Reasons for vaccine refusal included lack of research about long-term outcomes for the baby, anxiety about vaccines, inconsistent advice/information, and preference to wait until after the pregnancy. Conclusion Potentially only 1 in 3 pregnant women would have the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, even though 2 in 3 reported they would have the vaccination, thus it is critical to develop tailored strategies to increase its acceptance rate and to decrease vaccine hesitancy. A targeted approach to vaccinations may be required for groups such as younger people and those living in higher deprivation level areas.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1831644/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR520994; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR520994&type=FILE&fileName=EMS151343-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1831644/latest.pdf PPR382446,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.12.21261987,Characterising the persistence of RT-PCR positivity and incidence in a community survey of SARS-CoV-2,"Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Haw D, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Page AJ, Prosolek SJ, Trotter AJ, Le Viet T, Alikhan N, Jackson LM, Ludden C, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P, Riley S, The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-08-13,Y,,,,"

Background

Community surveys of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR swab-positivity provide prevalence estimates largely unaffected by biases from who presents for routine case testing. The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) has estimated swab-positivity approximately monthly since May 2020 in England from RT-PCR testing of self-administered throat and nose swabs in random non-overlapping cross-sectional community samples. Estimating infection incidence from swab-positivity requires an understanding of the persistence of RT-PCR swab positivity in the community.

Methods

During round 8 of REACT-1 from 6 January to 22 January 2021, of the 2,282 participants who tested RT-PCR positive, we recruited 896 (39%) from whom we collected up to two additional swabs for RT-PCR approximately 6 and 9 days after the initial swab. We estimated sensitivity and duration of positivity using an exponential model of positivity decay, for all participants and for subsets by initial N-gene cycle threshold (Ct) value, symptom status, lineage and age. Estimates of infection incidence were obtained for the entire duration of the REACT-1 study using P-splines.

Results

We estimated the overall sensitivity of REACT-1 to detect virus on a single swab as 0.79 (0.77, 0.81) and median duration of positivity following a positive test as 9.7 (8.9, 10.6) days. We found greater median duration of positivity where there was a low N-gene Ct value, in those exhibiting symptoms, or for infection with the Alpha variant. The estimated proportion of positive individuals detected on first swab, P 0 , was found to be higher for those with an initially low N-gene Ct value and those who were pre-symptomatic. When compared to swab-positivity, estimates of infection incidence over the duration of REACT-1 included sharper features with evident transient increases around the time of key changes in social distancing measures.

Discussion

Home self-swabbing for RT-PCR based on a single swab, as implemented in REACT-1, has high overall sensitivity. However, participants’ time-since-infection, symptom status and viral lineage affect the probability of detection and the duration of positivity. These results validate previous efforts to estimate incidence of SARS-CoV-2 from swab-positivity data, and provide a reliable means to obtain community infection estimates to inform policy response.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/08/13/2021.08.12.21261987.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.12.21261987; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR382446; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR382446&type=FILE&fileName=EMS132863-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR365249,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259452,"Persistent symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection in a random community sample of 508,707 people","Whitaker M, Elliott J, Chadeau-Hyam M, Riley S, Darzi A, Cooke G, Ward H, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-07-03,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

Long COVID, describing the long-term sequelae after SARS-CoV-2 infection, remains a poorly defined syndrome. There is uncertainty about its predisposing factors and the extent of the resultant public health burden, with estimates of prevalence and duration varying widely.

Methods

Within rounds 3–5 of the REACT-2 study, 508,707 people in the community in England were asked about a prior history of COVID-19 and the presence and duration of 29 different symptoms. We used uni-and multivariable models to identify predictors of persistence of symptoms (12 weeks or more). We estimated the prevalence of symptom persistence at 12 weeks, and used unsupervised learning to cluster individuals by symptoms experienced.

Findings

Among the 508,707 participants, the weighted prevalence of self-reported COVID-19 was 19.2% (95% CI: 19.1,19.3). 37.7% of 76,155 symptomatic people post COVID-19 experienced at least one symptom, while 14.8% experienced three or more symptoms, lasting 12 weeks or more. This gives a weighted population prevalence of persistent symptoms of 5.75% (5.68, 5.81) for one and 2.22% (2.1, 2.26) for three or more symptoms. Almost a third of people (8,771/28,713 [30.5%]) with at least one symptom lasting 12 weeks or more reported having had severe COVID-19 symptoms (“significant effect on my daily life”) at the time of their illness, giving a weighted prevalence overall for this group of 1.72% (1.69,1.76). The prevalence of persistent symptoms was higher in women than men (OR: 1.51 [1.46,1.55]) and, conditional on reporting symptoms, risk of persistent symptoms increased linearly with age by 3.5 percentage points per decade of life. Obesity, smoking or vaping, hospitalisation, and deprivation were also associated with a higher probability of persistent symptoms, while Asian ethnicity was associated with a lower probability. Two stable clusters were identified based on symptoms that persisted for 12 weeks or more: in the largest cluster, tiredness predominated, while in the second there was a high prevalence of respiratory and related symptoms.

Interpretation

A substantial proportion of people with symptomatic COVID-19 go on to have persistent symptoms for 12 weeks or more, which is age-dependent. Clinicians need to be aware of the differing manifestations of Long COVID which may require tailored therapeutic approaches. Managing the long-term sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the population will remain a major challenge for health services in the next stage of the pandemic.

Funding

The study was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care in England.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Recent systematic reviews have documented the wide range of symptoms and reported prevalence of persistent symptoms following COVID-19. A dynamic review of Long COVID studies (NIHR Evidence) in March 2021 summarised the literature on the prevalence of persistent symptoms after acute COVID19, and reported that most studies (14) were of hospitalised patients, with higher prevalence of persistent symptoms compared with two community-based studies. There was limited evidence from community studies beyond 12 weeks. Another systematic review reported a median of over 70% of people with symptoms lasting at least 60 days. A review of risk factors for Long COVID found consistent evidence for an increased risk amongst women and those with high body mass index (BMI) but inconsistent findings on the role of age and little evidence concerning risks among different socioeconomic or ethnic groups which are often not well captured in routine healthcare records. Long COVID is increasingly recognised as heterogenous, likely underpinned by differing biological mechanisms, but there is not yet consensus on defining subtypes of the condition.

Added value of this study

This community-based study of over half a million people was designed to be representative of the adult population of England. A random sample of adults ages 18 years and above registered with a GP were invited irrespective of previous access to services for COVID-19, providing an estimate of population prevalence that was representative of the whole population. The findings show substantial declines in symptom prevalence over the first 12 weeks following Covid-19, reported by nearly one fifth of respondents, of whom over a third remained symptomatic at 12 weeks and beyond, with little evidence for decline thereafter. Risk factors identified for persistent symptoms (12 weeks or more) suggestive of Long COVID confirm some previous findings - an increased risk in women, obese and overweight individuals and those hospitalised for COVID-19, with strong evidence for an increasing risk with age. Additional evidence was found for an increased risk in those with lower income, smoking or vaping and healthcare or care home workers. A lower risk was found in those of Asian ethnicity. Clustering identified two distinct groups of individuals wit h different symptom profiles at 12 weeks, highlighting the heterogeneity of clinical presentation. The smaller cluster had higher prevalence of respiratory and related symptoms, while for those in the larger cluster tiredness was the dominant symptom, with lower prevalence of organ-specific symptoms.

Implications of available evidence

There is a high prevalence of persistent symptoms beyond 12 weeks after acute COVID-19, with little evidence of decline thereafter. This highlights the needs for greater support for patients, both through specialised services and, for those from low-income settings, financial support. The understanding that there are distinct clusters of persistent symptoms, the most common of which is dominated by fatigue, is important for the recognition and clinical management of the condition outside of specialised services.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259452; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR365249; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR365249&type=FILE&fileName=EMS129876-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/07/03/2021.06.28.21259452.full.pdf @@ -148,8 +148,8 @@ PPR373640,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.21.21260926,"Increasing SARS-CoV-2 ant PPR278785,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.03.21251004,Ethnic differences in COVID-19 mortality during the first two waves of the Coronavirus Pandemic: a nationwide cohort study of 29 million adults in England,"Nafilyan V, Islam N, Mathur R, Ayoubkhani D, Banerjee A, Glickman M, Humberstone B, Diamond I, Khunti K.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-05,Y,,,,"

Background

Ethnic minorities have experienced disproportionate COVID-19 mortality rates in the UK and many other countries. We compared the differences in the risk of COVID-19 related death between ethnic groups in the first and second waves the of COVID-19 pandemic in England. We also investigated whether the factors explaining differences in COVID-19 death between ethnic groups changed between the two waves.

Methods

Using data from the Office for National Statistics Public Health Data Asset on individuals aged 30-100 years living in private households, we conducted an observational cohort study to examine differences in the risk of death involving COVID-19 between ethnic groups in the first wave (from 24 th January 2020 until 31 st August 2020) and second wave (from 1 st September to 28 th December 2020). We estimated age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) in the two waves stratified by ethnic groups and sex. We also estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for ethnic-minority groups compared with the White British population, adjusted for geographical factors, socio-demographic characteristics, and pre-pandemic health conditions.

Results

The study population included over 28.9 million individuals aged 30-100 years living in private households. In the first wave, all ethnic minority groups had a higher risk of COVID-19 related death compared to the White British population. In the second wave, the risk of COVID-19 death remained elevated for people from Pakistani (ASMR: 339.9 [95% CI: 303.7 – 376.2] and 166.8 [141.7 – 191.9] deaths per 100,000 population in men and women) and Bangladeshi (318.7 [247.4 – 390.1] and 127.1 [91.1 – 171.3] in men and women)background but not for people from Black ethnic groups. Adjustment for geographical factors explained a large proportion of the differences in COVID-19 mortality in the first wave but not in the second wave. Despite an attenuation of the elevated risk of COVID-19 mortality after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and health status, the risk was substantially higher in people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani background in both the first and the second waves.

Conclusion

Between the first and second waves of the pandemic, the reduction in the difference in COVID-19 mortality between people from Black ethnic background and people from the White British group shows that ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 mortality can be addressed. The continued higher rate of mortality in people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani background is alarming and requires focused public health campaign and policy changes. *VN and NI contributed equally to this paper

Research in context

Evidence before this study

A recent systematic review by Pan and colleagues demonstrated that people of ethnic minority background in the UK and the USA have been disproportionately affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, compared to White populations. While several studies have investigated whether adjusting for socio-demographic and economic factors and medical history reduces the estimated difference in risk of mortality and hospitalisation, the reasons for the differences in the risk of experiencing harms from COVID-19 are still being explored during the course of the pandemic. Studies so far have analysed the ethnic differences in COVID-19 mortality in the first wave of the pandemic. The evidence on the temporal trend of ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 mortality, especially those from the second wave of the pandemic, is scarce.

Added value of this study

Using data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Public Health Data Asset on 29 million adults aged 30-100 years living in private households in England, we conducted an observational cohort study to examine the differences in the risk of death involving COVID-19 between ethnic groups in the first wave (from 24 th January 2020 until 31 st August 2020) and second wave (from 1 st September to 28 th December 2020). We find that in the first wave all ethnic minority groups were at elevated risk of COVID-19 related death compared to the White British population. In the second wave, the differences in the risk of COVID-19 related death attenuated for Black African and Black Caribbean groups, remained substantially higher in people from Bangladeshi background, and worsened in people from Pakistani background. We also find that some of the factors explaining these differences in mortality have changed in the two waves.

Implications of all the available evidence

The risk of COVID-19 mortality during the first wave of the pandemic was elevated in people from ethnic minority background. An appreciable reduction in the difference in COVID-19 mortality in the second wave of the pandemic between people from Black ethnic background and people from the White British group is reassuring, but the continued higher rate of mortality in people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani background is alarming and requires focused public health campaign and policy response. Focusing on treating underlying conditions, although important, may not be enough in reducing the inequalities in COVID-19 mortality. Focused public health policy as well as community mobilisation and participatory public health campaign involving community leaders may help reduce the existing and widening inequalities in COVID-19 mortality.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-021-00765-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.03.21251004; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR278785; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR278785&type=FILE&fileName=EMS116038-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR417361,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.08.21265312,"Understanding COVID-19 trajectories from a nationwide linked electronic health record cohort of 56 million people: phenotypes, severity, waves & vaccination","Thygesen JH, Tomlinson C, Hollings S, Mizani M, Handy A, Akbari A, Banerjee A, Cooper J, Lai A, Li K, Mateen B, Sattar N, Sofat R, Torralbo A, Wu H, Wood A, Sterne JAC, Pagel C, Whiteley W, Sudlow C, Hemingway H, Denaxas S.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-09,Y,,,,"

Background

Updatable understanding of the onset and progression of individuals COVID-19 trajectories underpins pandemic mitigation efforts. In order to identify and characterize individual trajectories, we defined and validated ten COVID-19 phenotypes from linked electronic health records (EHR) on a nationwide scale using an extensible framework.

Methods

Cohort study of 56.6 million people in England alive on 23/01/2020, followed until 31/05/2021, using eight linked national datasets spanning COVID-19 testing, vaccination, primary & secondary care and death registrations data. We defined ten COVID-19 phenotypes reflecting clinically relevant stages of disease severity using a combination of international clinical terminologies (e.g. SNOMED-CT, ICD-10) and bespoke data fields; positive test, primary care diagnosis, hospitalisation, critical care (four phenotypes), and death (three phenotypes). Using these phenotypes, we constructed patient trajectories illustrating the transition frequency and duration between phenotypes. Analyses were stratified by pandemic waves and vaccination status.

Findings

We identified 3,469,528 infected individuals (6.1%) with 8,825,738 recorded COVID-19 phenotypes. Of these, 364,260 (11%) were hospitalised and 140,908 (4%) died. Of those hospitalised, 38,072 (10%) were admitted to intensive care (ICU), 54,026 (15%) received non-invasive ventilation and 21,404 (6%) invasive ventilation. Amongst hospitalised patients, first wave mortality (30%) was higher than the second (23%) in non-ICU settings, but remained unchanged for ICU patients. The highest mortality was for patients receiving critical care outside of ICU in wave 1 (51%). 13,083 (9%) COVID-19 related deaths occurred without diagnoses on the death certificate, but within 30 days of a positive test while 10,403 (7%) of cases were identified from mortality data alone with no prior phenotypes recorded. We observed longer patient trajectories in the second pandemic wave compared to the first.

Interpretation

Our analyses illustrate the wide spectrum of severity that COVID-19 displays and significant differences in incidence, survival and pathways across pandemic waves. We provide an adaptable framework to answer questions of clinical and policy relevance; new variant impact, booster dose efficacy and a way of maximising existing data to understand individuals progression through disease states.

Research in Context

Evidence before the study

We searched PubMed on October 14, 2021, for publications with the terms “COVID-19” or “SARS-CoV-2”, “severity”, and “electronic health records” or “EHR” without date or language restrictions. Multiple studies explore factors associated with severity of COVID-19 infection, and model predictions of outcome for hospitalised patients. However, most work to date focused on isolated facets of the healthcare system, such as primary or secondary care only, was conducted in subpopulations (e.g. hospitalised patients) of limited sample size, and often utilized dichotomised outcomes (e.g. mortality or hospitalisation) ignoring the full spectrum of disease. We identified no studies which comprehensively detailed severity of infections while describing disease severity across pandemic waves, vaccination status, and patient trajectories.

Added value of this study

To our knowledge, this is the first study providing a comprehensive view of COVID-19 across pandemic waves using national data and focusing on severity, vaccination, and patient trajectories. Drawing on linked electronic health record (EHR) data on a national scale (56.6 million people alive and registered with GP in England), we describe key demographic factors, frequency of comorbidities, impact of the two main waves in England, and effect of full vaccination on COVID-19 severities. Additionally, we identify and describe patient trajectory networks which illustrate the main transition pathways of COVID-19 patients in the healthcare system. Finally, we provide reproducible COVID-19 phenotyping algorithms reflecting clinically relevant stages of disease severity i.e. positive tests, primary care diagnoses, hospitalisation, critical care treatments (e.g. ventilatory support) and mortality.

Implications of all the available evidence

The COVID-19 phenotypes and trajectory analysis framework outlined produce a reproducible, extensible and repurposable means to generate national-scale data to support critical policy decision making. By modelling patient trajectories as a series of interactions with healthcare systems, and linking these to demographic and outcome data, we provide a means to identify and prioritise care pathways associated with adverse outcomes and highlight healthcare system ‘touch points’ which may act as tangible targets for intervention.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/11/09/2021.11.08.21265312.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.08.21265312; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR417361; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR417361&type=FILE&fileName=EMS138265-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR265251,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249724,Development and evaluation of rapid data-enabled access to routine clinical information to enhance early recruitment to the national clinical platform trial of COVID-19 community treatments,"Cake C, Ogburn E, Pinches H, Coleman G, Seymour D, Woodard F, Manohar S, Monsur M, Landray M, Dalton G, Morris AD, Chinnery PF, Hobbs FR, Butler C, UK COVID-19 National Core Studies Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-15,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges for rapidly designing, initiating, and delivering therapeutic clinical trials. PRINCIPLE is the UK national platform investigating repurposed therapies for COVID-19 treatment of older people in the community at high risk of complications. Standard methods of patient recruitment were failing to meet the required pace and scale of enrolment. This paper describes the development and appraisal of a near real-time, data-driven, ethical approach for enhancing recruitment in community care by contacting people with a recent COVID-19 positive test result from the central NHS Test and Trace service within 24-48 hours of their test result.

Methods

A multi-disciplinary team was formed to solve the technical, ethical, public perception, logistical and information governance issues required to provide a near-real time (within 24-48 hours of receiving a positive test) feed of potential trial participants from test result data to the research team. PRINCIPLE was also given unique access to the Summary Care Record (SCR) to ensure safe prescribing, and to enable the trial team to quickly and safely bring consented patients into the trial. A survey of the public was used to understand public perceptions of the use of test data for this proposed methodology.

Results

Prior to establishing the data service, PRINCIPLE registered on average 87 participants per week. This increased by up to 87 additional people registered per week from the test data, contributing to an increase from 1,013 recruits to PRINCIPLE at the start of October 2020 to 2,802 recruits by 20 th December 2020. While procedural caveats were identified by the public consultation, out of 2,639 people contacted by PRINCIPLE following a positive test result, no one raised a concern about being approached.

Conclusions

This paper describes a novel approach to using near-real time NHS operational data to recruit community-based patients within a few days of presentation with acute illness. This approach increased recruitment, and reduced time between positive test and randomisation, allowing more rapid evaluation of treatments and increased safety for participants. End-to-end public and patient involvement in the design of the approach provided evidence to inform information governance decisions.

Trial registration

PRINCIPLE is funded by UK Research and Innovation and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research. EudraCT number: 2020-001209-22 ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN86534580 REC number: 20/SC/058 IRAS number: 281958",,pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2e47c438-bed2-4d19-bf8f-3b0584f66a99/download_file?safe_filename=Cake_et_al_2022_Development_and_evaluation.pdf&file_format=pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249724; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR265251; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR265251&type=FILE&fileName=EMS110588-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR445654,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.22269605,Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in residents of Long-Term Care,"Krutikov M, Stirrup O, Nacer-Laidi H, Azmi B, Fuller C, Tut G, Palmer T, Shrotri M, Irwin-Singer A, Baynton V, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L, The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Recently there has been a rapid, global increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections associated with the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529). Although severity of Omicron cases may be reduced, the scale of infection suggests hospital admissions and deaths may be substantial. Definitive conclusions about disease severity require evidence from populations with the greatest risk of severe outcomes, such as residents of Long-Term Care Facilities (LTCFs).

Methods

We used a cohort study to compare the risk of hospital admission or death in LTCF residents in England who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the period shortly before Omicron emerged (Delta dominant) and the Omicron-dominant period, adjusting for age, sex, vaccine type, and booster vaccination. Variants were confirmed by sequencing or spike-gene status in a subset.

Results

Risk of hospital admission was markedly lower in 1241 residents infected in the Omicron-period (4.01% hospitalised, 95% CI: 2.87-5.59) compared to 398 residents infected in the pre-Omicron period (10.8% hospitalised, 95% CI: 8.13-14.29, adjusted Hazard Ratio 0.50, 95% CI: 0.29-0.87, p=0.014); findings were similar in residents with confirmed variant. No residents with previous infection were hospitalised in either period. Mortality was lower in the Omicron versus the pre-Omicron period, (p<0.0001).

Conclusions

Risk of severe outcomes in LTCF residents with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant was substantially lower than that seen for previous variants. This suggests the current wave of Omicron infections is unlikely to lead to a major surge in severe disease in LTCF populations with high levels of vaccine coverage and/or natural immunity.

Trial Registration Number

ISRCTN 14447421",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.22269605; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR445654; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR445654&type=FILE&fileName=EMS142621-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/01/27/2022.01.21.22269605.full.pdf PPR359256,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.17.21259103,REACT-1 round 12 report: resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in England associated with increased frequency of the Delta variant,"Riley S, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Prosolek SJ, Trotter AJ, Le Viet T, Alikhan N, Jackson LM, Ludden C, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P, The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-06-21,Y,,,,"

Background

England entered a third national lockdown from 6 January 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a successful vaccine rollout during the first half of 2021, cases and hospitalisations have started to increase since the end of May as the SARS-CoV-2 Delta (B.1.617.2) variant increases in frequency. The final step of relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in England has been delayed from 21 June to 19 July 2021.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmision-1 (REACT-1) study measures the prevalence of swab-positivity among random samples of the population of England. Round 12 of REACT-1 obtained self-administered swab collections from participants from 20 May 2021 to 7 June 2021; results are compared with those for round 11, in which swabs were collected from 15 April to 3 May 2021.

Results

Between rounds 11 and 12, national prevalence increased from 0.10% (0.08%, 0.13%) to 0.15% (0.12%, 0.18%). During round 12, we detected exponential growth with a doubling time of 11 (7.1, 23) days and an R number of 1.44 (1.20, 1.73). The highest prevalence was found in the North West at 0.26% (0.16%, 0.41%) compared to 0.05% (0.02%, 0.12%) in the South West. In the North West, the locations of positive samples suggested a cluster in Greater Manchester and the east Lancashire area. Prevalence in those aged 5-49 was 2.5 times higher at 0.20% (0.16%, 0.26%) compared with those aged 50 years and above at 0.08% (0.06%, 0.11%). At the beginning of February 2021, the link between infection rates and hospitalisations and deaths started to weaken, although in late April 2021, infection rates and hospital admissions started to reconverge. When split by age, the weakened link between infection rates and hospitalisations at ages 65 years and above was maintained, while the trends converged below the age of 65 years. The majority of the infections in the younger group occurred in the unvaccinated population or those without a stated vaccine history. We observed the rapid replacement of the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant of SARS-CoV-2 with the Delta variant during the period covered by rounds 11 and 12 of the study.

Discussion

The extent to which exponential growth continues, or slows down as a consequence of the continued rapid roll-out of the vaccination programme, including to young adults, requires close monitoring. Data on community prevalence are vital to track the course of the epidemic and inform ongoing decisions about the timing of further lifting of restrictions in England.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.17.21259103; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR359256; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR359256&type=FILE&fileName=EMS128173-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/06/21/2021.06.17.21259103.full.pdf +PPR445654,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.22269605,Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in residents of Long-Term Care,"Krutikov M, Stirrup O, Nacer-Laidi H, Azmi B, Fuller C, Tut G, Palmer T, Shrotri M, Irwin-Singer A, Baynton V, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L, The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Recently there has been a rapid, global increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections associated with the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529). Although severity of Omicron cases may be reduced, the scale of infection suggests hospital admissions and deaths may be substantial. Definitive conclusions about disease severity require evidence from populations with the greatest risk of severe outcomes, such as residents of Long-Term Care Facilities (LTCFs).

Methods

We used a cohort study to compare the risk of hospital admission or death in LTCF residents in England who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the period shortly before Omicron emerged (Delta dominant) and the Omicron-dominant period, adjusting for age, sex, vaccine type, and booster vaccination. Variants were confirmed by sequencing or spike-gene status in a subset.

Results

Risk of hospital admission was markedly lower in 1241 residents infected in the Omicron-period (4.01% hospitalised, 95% CI: 2.87-5.59) compared to 398 residents infected in the pre-Omicron period (10.8% hospitalised, 95% CI: 8.13-14.29, adjusted Hazard Ratio 0.50, 95% CI: 0.29-0.87, p=0.014); findings were similar in residents with confirmed variant. No residents with previous infection were hospitalised in either period. Mortality was lower in the Omicron versus the pre-Omicron period, (p<0.0001).

Conclusions

Risk of severe outcomes in LTCF residents with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant was substantially lower than that seen for previous variants. This suggests the current wave of Omicron infections is unlikely to lead to a major surge in severe disease in LTCF populations with high levels of vaccine coverage and/or natural immunity.

Trial Registration Number

ISRCTN 14447421",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.22269605; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR445654; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR445654&type=FILE&fileName=EMS142621-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/01/27/2022.01.21.22269605.full.pdf PPR241057,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233932,REACT-1 round 6 updated report: high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 swab positivity with reduced rate of growth in England at the start of November 2020,"Riley S, Ainslie KEC, Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-20,Y,,,,"

Background

England is now in the midst of its second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple regions of the country are at high infection prevalence and all areas experienced rapid recent growth of the epidemic during October 2020.

Methods

REACT-1 is a series of community surveys of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR swab-positivity in England designed to monitor the spread of the epidemic and thus increase situational awareness. Round 6 of REACT-1 commenced swab-collection on 16th October. A prior interim report included data from 16th to 25th October for 85,971 participants. Here, we report data for the entire round on 160,175 participants with swab results obtained up to 2nd November 2020.

Results

Overall weighted prevalence of infection in the community in England was 1.3% or 130 people per 10,000 infected, up from 60 people per 10,000 in the round 5 report (18th September to 5th October 2020), doubling every 24 days on average since the prior round. The corresponding R number was estimated to be 1.2. Prevalence of infection was highest in North West (2.4%, up from 1.2%), followed by Yorkshire and The Humber (2.3% up from 0.84%), West Midlands (1.6% up from 0.60%), North East (1.5% up from 1.1%), East Midlands (1.3% up from 0.56%), London (0.97%, up from 0.54%), South West (0.80% up from 0.33%), South East (0.69% up from 0.29%), and East of England (0.69% up from 0.30%). Rapid growth in the South observed in the first half of round 6 was no longer apparent in the second half of round 6. We also observed a decline in prevalence in Yorkshire and The Humber during this period. Comparing the first and second halves of round 6, there was a suggestion of decline in weighted prevalence in participants aged 5 to 12 years and in those aged 25 to 44 years. While prevalence remained high, in the second half of round 6 there was suggestion of a slight fall then rise that was seen nationally and also separately in both the North and the South.

Conclusion

The impact of the second national lockdown in England is not yet known. We provide here a detailed description of swab-positivity patterns at national, regional and local scales for the period immediately preceding lockdown, against which future trends in prevalence can be evaluated.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/11/20/2020.11.18.20233932.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233932; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR241057; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR241057&type=FILE&fileName=EMS104966-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR230575,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.26.20219725,"Declining prevalence of antibody positivity to SARS-CoV-2: a community study of 365,000 adults","Ward H, Cooke G, Atchison C, Whitaker M, Elliott J, Moshe M, Brown JC, Flower B, Daunt A, Ainslie K, Ashby D, Donnelly C, Riley S, Darzi A, Barclay W, Elliott P, for the REACT study team.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-10-27,Y,,,,"

Background

The prevalence and persistence of antibodies following a peak SARS-CoV-2 infection provides insights into its spread in the community, the likelihood of reinfection and potential for some level of population immunity.

Methods

Prevalence of antibody positivity in England, UK (REACT2) with three cross-sectional surveys between late June and September 2020. 365104 adults used a self-administered lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) test for IgG. A laboratory comparison of LFIA results to neutralization activity in panel of sera was performed.

Results

There were 17,576 positive tests over the three rounds. Antibody prevalence, adjusted for test characteristics and weighted to the adult population of England, declined from 6.0% [5.8, 6.1], to 4.8% [4.7, 5.0] and 4.4% [4.3, 4.5], a fall of 26.5% [-29.0, −23.8] over the three months of the study. There was a decline between rounds 1 and 3 in all age groups, with the highest prevalence of a positive result and smallest overall decline in positivity in the youngest age group (18-24 years: −14.9% [-21.6, −8.1]), and lowest prevalence and largest decline in the oldest group (75+ years: −39.0% [-50.8, −27.2]); there was no change in antibody positivity between rounds 1 and 3 in healthcare workers (+3.45% [-5.7, +12.7]). The decline from rounds 1 to 3 was largest in those who did not report a history of COVID-19, (−64.0% [-75.6, −52.3]), compared to −22.3% ([-27.0, −17.7]) in those with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed on PCR.

Discussion

These findings provide evidence of variable waning in antibody positivity over time such that, at the start of the second wave of infection in England, only 4.4% of adults had detectable IgG antibodies using an LFIA. Antibody positivity was greater in those who reported a positive PCR and lower in older people and those with asymptomatic infection. These data suggest the possibility of decreasing population immunity and increasing risk of reinfection as detectable antibodies decline in the population.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/10/27/2020.10.26.20219725.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.26.20219725; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR230575; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR230575&type=FILE&fileName=EMS101563-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR233362,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.30.20223123,High prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 swab positivity and increasing R number in England during October 2020: REACT-1 round 6 interim report,"Riley S, Ainslie KEC, Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-03,Y,,,,"

Background

REACT-1 measures prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in representative samples of the population in England using PCR testing from self-administered nose and throat swabs. Here we report interim results for round 6 of observations for swabs collected from the 16th to 25th October 2020 inclusive.

Methods

REACT-1 round 6 aims to collect data and swab results from 160,000 people aged 5 and above. Here we report results from the first 86,000 individuals. We estimate prevalence of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, reproduction numbers (R) and temporal trends using exponential growth or decay models. Prevalence estimates are presented both unweighted and weighted to be representative of the population of England, accounting for response rate, region, deprivation and ethnicity. We compare these interim results with data from round 5, based on swabs collected from 18th September to 5th October 2020 inclusive.

Results

Overall prevalence of infection in the community in England was 1.28% or 128 people per 10,000, up from 60 per 10,000 in the previous round. Infections were doubling every 9.0 (6.1, 18) days with a national reproduction number (R) estimated at 1.56 (1.27, 1.88) compared to 1.16 (1.05, 1.27) in the previous round. Prevalence of infection was highest in Yorkshire and The Humber at 2.72% (2.12%, 3.50%), up from 0.84% (0.60%, 1.17%), and the North West at 2.27% (1.90%, 2.72%), up from 1.21% (1.01%, 1.46%), and lowest in South East at 0.55% (0.45%, 0.68%), up from 0.29% (0.23%, 0.37%). Clustering of cases was more prevalent in Lancashire, Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire, West Midlands and East Midlands. Interim estimates of R were above 2 in the South East, East of England, London and South West, but with wide confidence intervals. Nationally, prevalence increased across all age groups with the greatest increase in those aged 55-64 at 1.20% (0.99%, 1.46%), up 3-fold from 0.37% (0.30%, 0.46%). In those aged over 65, prevalence was 0.81% (0.58%, 0.96%) up 2-fold from 0.35% (0.28%, 0.43%). Prevalence remained highest in 18 to 24-year olds at 2.25% (1.47%, 3.42%).

Conclusion

The co-occurrence of high prevalence and rapid growth means that the second wave of the epidemic in England has now reached a critical stage. Whether via regional or national measures, it is now time-critical to control the virus and turn R below one if further hospital admissions and deaths from COVID-19 are to be avoided.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/11/03/2020.10.30.20223123.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.30.20223123; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR233362; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR233362&type=FILE&fileName=EMS103475-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -163,11 +163,11 @@ PPR367549,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.08.21260185,REACT-1 round 13 interim r PPR371208,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.14.21260488,SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Lateral Flow Assay for antibody prevalence studies following vaccine roll out: a Diagnostic Accuracy Study,"Cann A, Clarke C, Brown J, Thomson T, Prendecki M, Moshe M, Badhan A, Elliott P, Darzi A, Riley S, Ashby D, Willicombe M, Kelleher P, Randell P, Ward H, Barclay WS, Cooke G.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-07-16,Y,,,,"

Background

Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) have the potential to deliver affordable, large scale antibody testing and provide rapid results without the support of central laboratories. As part of the development of the REACT programme extensive evaluation of LFIA performance was undertaken with individuals following natural infection. Here we assess the performance of the selected LFIA to detect antibody responses in individuals who have received at least one dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

Methods

This is a prospective diagnostic accuracy study.

Setting

Sampling was carried out at renal outpatient clinic and healthcare worker testing sites at Imperial College London NHS Trust. Laboratory analyses were performed across Imperial College London sites and university facilities.

Participants

Two cohorts of patients were recruited; the first was a cohort of 108 renal transplant patients attending clinic following SARS-CoV-2 vaccine booster, the second cohort comprised 40 healthcare workers attending for first SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, and 21 day follow up. A total of 186 paired samples were collected.

Interventions

During the participants visit, capillary blood samples were analysed on LFIA device, while paired venous sampling was sent for serological assessment of antibodies to the spike protein (anti-S) antibodies. Anti-S IgG were detected using the Abbott Architect SARS-CoV-2 IgG Quant II CMIA.

Main outcome measures

The accuracy of Fortress LFIA in detecting IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 compared to anti-spike protein detection on Abbott Assay.

Results

Using the threshold value for positivity on serological testing of ≥7.10 BAU/ml, the overall performance of the test produces an estimate of sensitivity of 91.94% (95% CI 85.67% to 96.06%) and specificity of 93.55% (95% CI 84.30% to 98.21%) using the Abbott assay as reference standard.

Conclusions

Fortress LFIA performs well in the detection of antibody responses for intended purpose of population level surveys, but does not meet criteria for individual testing.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/07/16/2021.07.14.21260488.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.14.21260488; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR371208; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR371208&type=FILE&fileName=EMS130798-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR626309,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2573712/v1,How much did the Covid-19 shielding policy cost in Wales? A Retrospective Cost analysis within the EVITE Immunity study,"Sewell B, Farr A, Akbari A, Carson-Stevens A, Edwards A, Evans BA, John A, Torabi F, Dale J, Jolles S, Kingston MR, Lyons J, Lyons RA, Porter A, Watkins A, Williams V, Snooks H.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-03-06,Y,,,,"

Background:

The EVITE Immunity study investigates the effects of shielding Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) people during the COVID-19 pandemic on health outcomes and healthcare costs in Wales, UK, to help prepare for future pandemics. Shielding was intended to protect those at highest risk of serious harm from COVID-19. We report the cost of implementing shielding in Wales.

Methods:

The number of people shielding was extracted from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. Resources supporting shielding between March and June 2020 were mapped using published reports, web pages, freedom of information requests to Welsh Government and personal communications (e.g. the office of the Chief Medical Officer for Wales).

Results:

At the beginning of shielding, 117,415 people were on the shielding list. The total additional cost to support those advised to stay home during the initial 14 weeks of the pandemic was £13,307,654 (£113 per person shielded). This included the new resources required to compile the shielding list, inform CEV people of the shielding intervention and provide medicine and food deliveries. The list was adjusted weekly over the 3-month period (130,000 people identified by June 2020) therefore the cost per person shielded lies between £102 and £113.

Conclusion:

This is the first evaluation of the cost of the measures put in place to support those identified to shield in Wales. However, no data on opportunity cost was available. The true cost of shielding including its budget impact and opportunity costs need to be investigated to decide whether shielding is a worthwhile policy for future health emergencies.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-2573712/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2573712/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR626309; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR626309&type=FILE&fileName=EMS171864-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR397279,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.16.21263629,Access to personal protective equipment in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: results from a nationwide cohort study (UK-REACH),"Martin CA, Pan D, Nazareth J, Aujayeb A, Bryant L, Carr S, Gray LJ, Gregary B, Gupta A, Guyatt AL, Gopal A, Hine T, John C, McManus IC, Melbourne C, Nellums LB, Reza R, Simpson S, Tobin MD, Woolf K, Zingwe S, Khunti K, Pareek M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-09-21,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To determine the prevalence and predictors of self-reported access to appropriate personal protective equipment (aPPE) for healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) during the first UK national COVID-19 lockdown (March 2020) and at the time of questionnaire response (December 2020 – February 2021).

Design

Two cross sectional analyses using data from a questionnaire-based cohort study.

Setting

Nationwide questionnaire from 4 th December 2020 to 28 th February 2021.

Participants

A representative sample of HCWs or ancillary workers in a UK healthcare setting aged 16 or over, registered with one of seven main UK healthcare regulatory bodies.

Main outcome measure

Binary measure of self-reported aPPE (access all of the time vs access most of the time or less frequently) at two timepoints: the first national lockdown in the UK (primary analysis) and at the time of questionnaire response (secondary analysis).

Results

10,508 HCWs were included in the primary analysis, and 12,252 in the secondary analysis. 3702 (35.2%) of HCWs reported aPPE at all times in the primary analysis; 6806 (83.9%) reported aPPE at all times in the secondary analysis. After adjustment (for age, sex, ethnicity, migration status, occupation, aerosol generating procedure exposure, work sector, work region, working hours, night shift frequency and trust in employing organisation), older HCWs (per decade increase in age: aOR 1.2, 95% CI 1.16-1.26, p<0.001) and those working in Intensive Care Units (1.61, 1.38 – 1.89, p<0.001) were more likely to report aPPE at all times. Those from Asian ethnic groups compared to White (0.77, 0.67-0.89, p<0.001), those in allied health professional (AHPs) and dental roles (vs those in medical roles; AHPs: 0.77, 0.68 – 0.87, p<0.001; dental: 0.63, 0.49-0.81, p<0.001), and those who saw a higher number of COVID-19 patients compared to those who saw none (≥21 patients 0.74, 0.61-0.90, p=0.003) were less likely to report aPPE at all times in the primary analysis. aPPE at all times was also not uniform across UK regions (reported access being better in South West and North East England than London). Those who trusted their employing organisation to deal with concerns about unsafe clinical practice, compared to those who did not, were twice as likely to report aPPE at all times (2.18, 1.97-2.40, p<0.001). With the exception of occupation, these factors were also significantly associated with aPPE at all times in the secondary analysis.

Conclusions

We found that only a third of HCWs in the UK reported aPPE at all times during the period of the first lockdown and that aPPE had improved later in the pandemic. We also identified key sociodemographic and occupational determinants of aPPE during the first UK lockdown, the majority of which have persisted since lockdown was eased. These findings have important public health implications for HCWs, particularly as cases of infection and long-COVID continue to rise in the UK.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 11811602

What is already known on this topic

Access to personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucial to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from infection. Limited data exist concerning the prevalence of, and factors relating to, PPE access for HCWs in the United Kingdom (UK) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What this study adds

Only a third of HCWs reported having access to appropriate PPE all of the time during the first UK national lockdown. Older HCWs, those working in Intensive Care Units and those who trusted their employing organisation to deal with concerns about unsafe clinical practice, were more likely to report access to adequate PPE. Those from Asian ethnic groups (compared to White ethnic groups) and those who saw a high number of COVID-19 were less likely to report access to adequate PPE. Our findings have important implications for the mental and physical health of HCWs working during the pandemic in the UK.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10152293/1/Martin2022-PPE.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.16.21263629; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR397279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR397279&type=FILE&fileName=EMS135495-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR443102,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.13.22269211,"Assessing the clinical severity of the Omicron variant in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, using the diagnostic PCR proxy marker of RdRp target delay to distinguish between Omicron and Delta infections – a survival analysis","Hussey H, Davies M, Heekes A, Williamson C, Valley-Omar Z, Hardie D, Korsman S, Doolabh D, Preiser W, Maponga T, Iranzadeh A, Wasserman S, Boloko L, Symons G, Raubenheimer P, Viljoen A, Parker A, Schrueder N, Solomon W, Rousseau P, Wolter N, Jassat W, Cohen C, Lessells R, Wilkinson RJ, Boulle A, Hsiao N.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Emerging data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (VOC)is associated with reduced risk of severe disease. The extent to which this reflects a difference in the inherent virulence of Omicron, or just higher levels of population immunity, is currently not clear.

Methods

RdRp target delay (RTD: a difference in cycle threshold value of RdRp - E > 3.5) in the Seegene Allplex™ 2019-nCoV PCR assay is a proxy marker for the Delta VOC. The absence of this proxy marker in the period of transition to Omicron was used to identify suspected Omicron VOC infections. Cox regression was performed for the outcome of hospital admission in those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the Seegene Allplex™ assay from 1 November to 14 December 2021 in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, public sector. Vaccination status at time of diagnosis, as well as prior diagnosed infection and comorbidities, were adjusted for.

Results

150 cases with RTD (proxy for Delta) and 1486 cases without RTD (proxy for Omicron) were included. Cases without RTD had a lower hazard of admission (adjusted Hazard Ratio [aHR] of 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.34-0.91). Complete vaccination was protective of admission with an aHR of 0.45 (95%CI 0.26-0.77).

Conclusion

Omicron has resulted in a lower risk of hospital admission, compared to contemporaneous Delta infection in the Western Cape Province, when using the proxy marker of RTD. Under-ascertainment of reinfections with an immune escape variant like Omicron remains a challenge to accurately assessing variant virulence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.13.22269211; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR443102; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR443102&type=FILE&fileName=EMS142448-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR340395,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.13.21257144,REACT-1 round 11 report: low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community prior to the third step of the English roadmap out of lockdown,"Riley S, Haw D, Walters CE, Wang H, Eales O, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Le Viet T, Alikhan N, O’Grady J, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P, The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-05-17,Y,,,,"

Background

National epidemic dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infections are being driven by: the degree of recent indoor mixing (both social and workplace), vaccine coverage, intrinsic properties of the circulating lineages, and prior history of infection (via natural immunity). In England, infections, hospitalisations and deaths fell during the first two steps of the “roadmap” for exiting the third national lockdown. The third step of the roadmap in England takes place on 17 May 2021.

Methods

We report the most recent findings on community infections from the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study in which a swab is obtained from a representative cross-sectional sample of the population in England and tested using PCR. Round 11 of REACT-1 commenced self-administered swab-collection on 15 April 2021 and completed collections on 3 May 2021. We compare the results of REACT-1 round 11 to round 10, in which swabs were collected from 11 to 30 March 2021.

Results

Between rounds 10 and 11, prevalence of swab-positivity dropped by 50% in England from 0.20% (0.17%, 0.23%) to 0.10% (0.08%, 0.13%), with a corresponding R estimate of 0.90 (0.87, 0.94). Rates of swab-positivity fell in the 55 to 64 year old group from 0.17% (0.12%, 0.25%) in round 10 to 0.06% (0.04%, 0.11%) in round 11. Prevalence in round 11 was higher in the 25 to 34 year old group at 0.21% (0.12%, 0.38%) than in the 55 to 64 year olds and also higher in participants of Asian ethnicity at 0.31% (0.16%, 0.60%) compared with white participants at 0.09% (0.07%, 0.11%). Based on sequence data for positive samples for which a lineage could be identified, we estimate that 92.3% (75.9%, 97.9%, n=24) of infections were from the B.1.1.7 lineage compared to 7.7% (2.1%, 24.1%, n=2) from the B.1.617.2 lineage. Both samples from the B.1.617.2 lineage were detected in London from participants not reporting travel in the previous two weeks. Also, allowing for suitable lag periods, the prior close alignment between prevalence of infections and hospitalisations and deaths nationally has diverged.

Discussion

We observed marked reductions in prevalence from March to April and early May 2021 in England reflecting the success of the vaccination programme and despite easing of restrictions during lockdown. However, there is potential upwards pressure on prevalence from the further easing of lockdown regulations and presence of the B.1.617.2 lineage. If prevalence rises in the coming weeks, policy-makers will need to assess the possible impact on hospitalisations and deaths. In addition, consideration should be given to other health and economic impacts if increased levels of community transmission occur.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/05/17/2021.05.13.21257144.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.13.21257144; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR340395; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR340395&type=FILE&fileName=EMS124703-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR443102,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.13.22269211,"Assessing the clinical severity of the Omicron variant in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, using the diagnostic PCR proxy marker of RdRp target delay to distinguish between Omicron and Delta infections – a survival analysis","Hussey H, Davies M, Heekes A, Williamson C, Valley-Omar Z, Hardie D, Korsman S, Doolabh D, Preiser W, Maponga T, Iranzadeh A, Wasserman S, Boloko L, Symons G, Raubenheimer P, Viljoen A, Parker A, Schrueder N, Solomon W, Rousseau P, Wolter N, Jassat W, Cohen C, Lessells R, Wilkinson RJ, Boulle A, Hsiao N.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Emerging data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (VOC)is associated with reduced risk of severe disease. The extent to which this reflects a difference in the inherent virulence of Omicron, or just higher levels of population immunity, is currently not clear.

Methods

RdRp target delay (RTD: a difference in cycle threshold value of RdRp - E > 3.5) in the Seegene Allplex™ 2019-nCoV PCR assay is a proxy marker for the Delta VOC. The absence of this proxy marker in the period of transition to Omicron was used to identify suspected Omicron VOC infections. Cox regression was performed for the outcome of hospital admission in those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the Seegene Allplex™ assay from 1 November to 14 December 2021 in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, public sector. Vaccination status at time of diagnosis, as well as prior diagnosed infection and comorbidities, were adjusted for.

Results

150 cases with RTD (proxy for Delta) and 1486 cases without RTD (proxy for Omicron) were included. Cases without RTD had a lower hazard of admission (adjusted Hazard Ratio [aHR] of 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.34-0.91). Complete vaccination was protective of admission with an aHR of 0.45 (95%CI 0.26-0.77).

Conclusion

Omicron has resulted in a lower risk of hospital admission, compared to contemporaneous Delta infection in the Western Cape Province, when using the proxy marker of RTD. Under-ascertainment of reinfections with an immune escape variant like Omicron remains a challenge to accurately assessing variant virulence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.13.22269211; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR443102; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR443102&type=FILE&fileName=EMS142448-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR247290,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.30.20239806,REACT-1 round 7 interim report: fall in prevalence of swab-positivity in England during national lockdown,"Riley S, Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-02,Y,,,,"

Background

The second wave of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in England has been characterized by high growth and prevalence in the North with lower prevalence in the South. High prevalence was first observed at younger adult ages before spreading out to school-aged children and older adults. Local tiered interventions were in place up to 5th November 2020 at which time a second national lockdown was implemented.

Methods

REACT-1 is a repeated cross-sectional survey of SARS-CoV-2 swab-positivity in random samples of the population of England. The current period of data collection (round 7) commenced on 13th November 2020 and we report interim results here for swabs collected up to and including 24th November 2020. Because there were two distinct periods of growth during the previous round 6, here we compare results from round 7 (mainly) with the second half of round 6, which obtained swabs between 26th October and 2nd November 2020. We report prevalence both unweighted and reweighted to be representative of the population of England. We describe trends in unweighted prevalence with daily growth rates, doubling times, reproduction numbers (R) and splines. We estimated odds ratios for swab-positivity using mutually-adjusted multivariable logistic regression models.

Results

We found 821 positives from 105,123 swabs giving an unweighted prevalence of 0.78% (95% CI, 0.73%, 0.84%) and a weighted prevalence of 0.96% (0.87%, 1.05%). The weighted prevalence estimate was ∼30% lower than that of 1.32% (1.20%, 1.45%) obtained in the second half of round 6. This decrease corresponds to a halving time of 37 (30, 47) days and an R number of 0.88 (0.86, 0.91). Using only data from the most recent period, we estimate an R number of 0.71 (0.54, 0.90). A spline fit to prevalence showed a rise shortly after the previous period of data collection followed by a fall coinciding with the start of lockdown. The national trends were driven mainly by reductions in higher-prevalence northern regions, with prevalence approximately unchanged in the Midlands and London, and smaller reductions in southern lower-prevalence regions. Sub-regional analyses showed variable changes in prevalence at the local level including marked declines in the North, but also local areas of growth in East and West Midlands. Mutually adjusted models in the most recent period indicated: people of Asian ethnicity, those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods, and those living in the largest households, had higher odds of swab-positivity.

Conclusion

Three weeks into the second national lockdown in England there has been a ∼30% proportionate reduction in prevalence overall, with greater reductions in the North. As a result, inter-regional heterogeneity has reduced, although average absolute prevalence remains high at ∼1%. Continued monitoring of the epidemic in the community remains essential until prevalence is reliably suppressed to much lower levels, for example, through widespread vaccination.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/12/02/2020.11.30.20239806.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.30.20239806; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR247290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR247290&type=FILE&fileName=EMS107598-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR683852,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3054644/v1,Implementing Germ Defence digital behaviour change intervention via all primary care practices in England to reduce respiratory infections during the COVID-19 pandemic: an efficient cluster randomised controlled trial using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Ainsworth B, Horwood J, Walter SR, Miller S, Chalder M, De Vocht F, Denison-Day J, Elwenspoek M, Curtis H, Bates C, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Goldacre B, Collaborative TO, Craggs P, Amlot R, Francis N, Little P, MacLeod J, Moore M, Morton K, Rice C, Sterne J, Stuart B, Towler L, Willcox M, Yardley L.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-06-29,Y,,,,"

Background:

Germ Defence (www.germdefence.org) is an evidence-based interactive website that promotes behaviour change for infection control within households. To maximise the potential of Germ Defence to effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19 the intervention needed to be implemented at scale rapidly.

Methods:

: With the approval of NHS England, we implemented an efficient two-arm (1:1 ratio) cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) to examine the effectiveness of randomising implementation of Germ Defence via GP practices across England, UK, compared with usual care. GP practices randomised to the intervention arm (n=3292) were emailed and asked to disseminate the Germ Defence intervention to all adult patients via mobile phone text, email or social media. GP practices randomised to the usual care arm (n=3287) maintained standard management for the 4-month trial period after and then asked to share Germ Defence with their adult patients. The primary outcome was the rate of GP presentations for respiratory tract infections (RTI) per patient. Secondary outcomes comprised rates of acute RTIs, confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses, suspected COVID-19 diagnoses, COVID-19 symptoms, gastrointestinal infection diagnoses, antibiotic usage, hospital admissions. The impact of the intervention on outcome rates was assessed using negative binomial regression modelling within the OpenSAFELY platform. The uptake of intervention by GP practice, and by patients were measured via website analytics.

Results:

: Germ Defence was used 310,731 times. The average satisfaction score after using the website was 7.52 (0-10 not at all to very satisfied, N = 9933). There was no evidence of a difference in the rate of RTIs between intervention and control practices (rate ratio (RR) 1.01, 95%CI 0.96, 1.06, p=0.70). This was similar to all other eight health outcomes. Patient engagement within intervention arm practices ranged from 0- 48% of a practice list. Practices with high levels of intervention uptake (>11%) had a lower proportion of minority ethnic groups.

Conclusions:

: We demonstrated that rapid large-scale implementation of a digital behavioural intervention can be evaluated with a novel efficient prospective RCT methodology analysing routinely collected patient data entirely within a trusted research environment. Trial registration: This trial was registered in the ISRCTN registry (14602359) on 12 August 2020.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3054644/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3054644/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR683852; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR683852&type=FILE&fileName=EMS178343-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR258079,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.24.20248822,Estimated transmissibility and impact of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 in England,"Davies NG, Abbott S, Barnard RC, Jarvis CI, Kucharski AJ, Munday JD, Pearson CAB, Russell TW, Tully DC, Washburne AD, Wenseleers T, Gimma A, Waites W, Wong KLM, van Zandvoort K, Silverman JD, Diaz-Ordaz K, Keogh R, Eggo RM, Funk S, Jit M, Atkins KE, Edmunds WJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-26,Y,,,,"A novel SARS-CoV-2 variant, VOC 202012/01 (lineage B.1.1.7), emerged in southeast England in November 2020 and is rapidly spreading towards fixation. Using a variety of statistical and dynamic modelling approaches, we estimate that this variant has a 43–90% (range of 95% credible intervals 38–130%) higher reproduction number than preexisting variants. A fitted two-strain dynamic transmission model shows that VOC 202012/01 will lead to large resurgences of COVID-19 cases. Without stringent control measures, including limited closure of educational institutions and a greatly accelerated vaccine roll-out, COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths across England in 2021 will exceed those in 2020. Concerningly, VOC 202012/01 has spread globally and exhibits a similar transmission increase (59–74%) in Denmark, Switzerland, and the United States.",,pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/9064b3e4-39f9-402c-8fa2-b689efda98b4/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.24.20248822; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR258079; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR258079&type=FILE&fileName=EMS109285-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR683852,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3054644/v1,Implementing Germ Defence digital behaviour change intervention via all primary care practices in England to reduce respiratory infections during the COVID-19 pandemic: an efficient cluster randomised controlled trial using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Ainsworth B, Horwood J, Walter SR, Miller S, Chalder M, De Vocht F, Denison-Day J, Elwenspoek M, Curtis H, Bates C, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Goldacre B, Collaborative TO, Craggs P, Amlot R, Francis N, Little P, MacLeod J, Moore M, Morton K, Rice C, Sterne J, Stuart B, Towler L, Willcox M, Yardley L.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-06-29,Y,,,,"

Background:

Germ Defence (www.germdefence.org) is an evidence-based interactive website that promotes behaviour change for infection control within households. To maximise the potential of Germ Defence to effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19 the intervention needed to be implemented at scale rapidly.

Methods:

: With the approval of NHS England, we implemented an efficient two-arm (1:1 ratio) cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) to examine the effectiveness of randomising implementation of Germ Defence via GP practices across England, UK, compared with usual care. GP practices randomised to the intervention arm (n=3292) were emailed and asked to disseminate the Germ Defence intervention to all adult patients via mobile phone text, email or social media. GP practices randomised to the usual care arm (n=3287) maintained standard management for the 4-month trial period after and then asked to share Germ Defence with their adult patients. The primary outcome was the rate of GP presentations for respiratory tract infections (RTI) per patient. Secondary outcomes comprised rates of acute RTIs, confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses, suspected COVID-19 diagnoses, COVID-19 symptoms, gastrointestinal infection diagnoses, antibiotic usage, hospital admissions. The impact of the intervention on outcome rates was assessed using negative binomial regression modelling within the OpenSAFELY platform. The uptake of intervention by GP practice, and by patients were measured via website analytics.

Results:

: Germ Defence was used 310,731 times. The average satisfaction score after using the website was 7.52 (0-10 not at all to very satisfied, N = 9933). There was no evidence of a difference in the rate of RTIs between intervention and control practices (rate ratio (RR) 1.01, 95%CI 0.96, 1.06, p=0.70). This was similar to all other eight health outcomes. Patient engagement within intervention arm practices ranged from 0- 48% of a practice list. Practices with high levels of intervention uptake (>11%) had a lower proportion of minority ethnic groups.

Conclusions:

: We demonstrated that rapid large-scale implementation of a digital behavioural intervention can be evaluated with a novel efficient prospective RCT methodology analysing routinely collected patient data entirely within a trusted research environment. Trial registration: This trial was registered in the ISRCTN registry (14602359) on 12 August 2020.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3054644/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3054644/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR683852; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR683852&type=FILE&fileName=EMS178343-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR287082,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.18.21251973,REACT-1 round 9 interim report: downward trend of SARS-CoV-2 in England in February 2021 but still at high prevalence,"Riley S, Walters CE, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-23,Y,,,,"

Background and Methods

England entered its third national lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic on 6th January 2021 with the aim of reducing the daily number of deaths and pressure on healthcare services. The real-time assessment of community transmission study (REACT-1) obtains throat and nose swabs from randomly selected people in England in order to describe patterns of SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. Here, we report data from round 9a of REACT-1 for swabs collected between 4th and 13th February 2021.

Results

Out of 85,473 tested-swabs, 378 were positive. Overall weighted prevalence of infection in the community in England was 0.51%, a fall of more than two thirds since our last report (round 8) in January 2021 when 1.57% of people tested positive. We estimate a halving time of 14.6 days and a reproduction number R of 0.72, based on the difference in prevalence between the end of round 8 and the beginning of round 9. Although prevalence fell in all nine regions of England over the same period, there was greater uncertainty in the trend for North West, North East, and Yorkshire and The Humber. Prevalence fell substantially across all age groups with highest prevalence among 18- to 24-year olds at 0.89% (0.47%, 1.67%) and those aged 5 to12 years at 0.86% (0.60%, 1.24%). Large household size, living in a deprived neighbourhood, and Asian ethnicity were all associated with increased prevalence. Healthcare and care home workers were more likely to test positive compared to other workers.

Conclusions

There is a strong decline in prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in England among the general population five to six weeks into lockdown, but prevalence remains high: at levels similar to those observed in late September 2020. Also, the number of COVID-19 cases in hospitals is higher than at the peak of the first wave in April 2020. The effects of easing of social distancing when we transition out of lockdown need to be closely monitored to avoid a resurgence in infections and renewed pressure on health services.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/02/23/2021.02.18.21251973.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.18.21251973; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR287082; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR287082&type=FILE&fileName=EMS117383-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR167068,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.19.20106278,Benefit-risk analysis of health benefits of routine childhood immunisation against the excess risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa,"Abbas K, Procter SR, van Zandvoort K, Clark A, Funk S, Mengistu T, Hogan D, Dansereau E, Jit M, Flasche S, LSHTM CMMID CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-26,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

National immunisation programmes globally are at risk of suspension due to the severe health system constraints and physical distancing measures in place to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim is to compare the health benefits of sustaining routine childhood immunisation in Africa against the risk of acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infections through visiting routine vaccination service delivery points.

Methods

We used two scenarios to approximate the child deaths that may be caused by immunisation coverage reductions during COVID-19 outbreaks. First, we used previously reported country-specific child mortality impact estimates of childhood immunisation for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcal, rotavirus, measles, meningitis A, rubella, and yellow fever (DTP3, HepB3, Hib3, PCV3, RotaC, MCV1, MCV2, MenA, RCV, YFV) to approximate the future deaths averted before completing five years of age by routine childhood vaccination during a 6-month COVID-19 risk period without catch-up campaigns. Second, we analysed an alternative scenario that approximates the health benefits of sustaining routine childhood immunisation to only the child deaths averted from measles outbreaks during the COVID-19 risk period. The excess number of infections due to additional SARS-CoV-2 exposure during immunisation visits assumes that contact reducing interventions flatten the outbreak curve during the COVID-19 risk period, that 60% of the population will have been infected by the end of that period, that children can be infected by either vaccinators or during transport and that upon child infection the whole household would be infected. Country specific household age structure estimates and age dependent infection fatality rates are then applied to calculate the number of deaths attributable to the vaccination clinic visits. We present benefit-risk ratios for routine childhood immunisation alongside 95% uncertainty range estimates from probabilistic sensitivity analysis.

Findings

For every one excess COVID-19 death attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infections acquired during routine vaccination clinic visits, there could be 84 (14-267) deaths in children prevented by sustaining routine childhood immunisation in Africa. The benefit-risk ratio for the vaccinated children, siblings, parents or adult care-givers, and older adults in the households of vaccinated children are 85,000 (4,900 - 546,000), 75,000 (4,400 - 483,000), 769 (148 - 2,700), and 96 (14 - 307) respectively. In the alternative scenario that approximates the health benefits to only the child deaths averted from measles outbreaks, the benefit-risk ratio to the households of vaccinated children is 3 (0 - 10) under these highly conservative assumptions and if the risk to only the vaccinated children is considered, the benefit-risk ratio is 3,000 (182 - 21,000).

Interpretation

Our analysis suggests that the health benefits of deaths prevented by sustaining routine childhood immunisation in Africa far outweighs the excess risk of COVID-19 deaths associated with vaccination clinic visits, especially for the vaccinated children. However, there are other factors that must be considered for strategic decision making to sustain routine childhood immunisation in African countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include logistical constraints of vaccine supply chain problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, reallocation of immunisation providers to other prioritised health services, healthcare staff shortages caused by SARS-CoV-2 infections among the staff, decreased demand for vaccination arising from community reluctance to visit vaccination clinics for fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infections, and infection risk to healthcare staff providing immunisation services as well as to their households and onward SARS-CoV-2 transmission into the wider community.

Funding

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1157270)

Research in context

Evidence before the study

National immunisation programmes globally are at risk of disruption due to the severe health system constraints caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the physical distancing measures to mitigate the outbreak. The decrease in vaccination coverage increases the proportion of susceptible children at risk of increased morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. Outbreaks of vaccine preventable disease have been observed during previous interruptions to routine immunisation services during an ongoing infectious disease epidemic, such as during the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, when most health resources were shifted towards the Ebola response which led to decreasing vaccination coverage and consequently outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Added value of this study

We estimated the benefit-risk ratio by comparing the deaths prevented by sustaining routine childhood immunisation for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcal, rotavirus, measles, meningitis A, rubella, and yellow fever vaccines with the excess COVID-19 deaths associated with vaccination clinic visits. The benefit of routine childhood immunization programmes in all the 54 countries of Africa is higher than the COVID-19 risk associated with these vaccination clinic visits.

Implications of all the available evidence

Routine childhood immunisation programmes should be safeguarded for continued service delivery and prioritised for the prevention of infectious diseases, as logistically possible, as part of delivering essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. The current immunisation service models will require adaptation, including physical distancing measures, personal protective equipment, and good hygiene practices for infection control at the vaccination clinics, and have to be complemented by new immunisation service models for sustaining routine childhood immunisation in the African countries during the COVID-19 risk period.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30308-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.19.20106278; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR167068; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR167068&type=FILE&fileName=EMS90726-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR496331,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.09.22274846,"Assessing the impacts of timing on the health benefits, cost-effectiveness and relative affordability of COVID-19 vaccination programmes in 27 African Countries","Liu Y, Pearson CA, Madriz Montero A, Torres-Rueda S, Asfaw E, Uzochukwu B, Drake T, Bergren E, Eggo RM, Ruiz F, Ndembi N, Nonvignon J, Jit M, Vassall A.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-10,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 vaccine supply shortage in 2021 constrained rollout efforts in Africa while populations experienced waves of epidemics. As supply picks up, a key question becomes if vaccination remains an impactful and cost-effective strategy given changes in the timing of implementation.

Methods

We assessed the impact of timing using an epidemiological and economic model. We fitted our mathematical epidemiological model to reported COVID-19 deaths in 27 African countries to estimate the existing immunity (resulting from infection) before substantial vaccine rollout. We then projected health outcomes for different programme start dates (2021-01-01 to 2021-12-01, n = 12) and roll-out rates (slow, medium, fast; 275, 826, and 2066 doses/ million population-day, respectively) for viral vector and mRNA vaccines. Rollout rates used were derived from observed uptake trajectories. We collected data on vaccine delivery costs by country income group. Lastly, we calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and relative affordability.

Findings

Vaccination programmes with early start dates incur the most health benefits and are most cost-effective. While incurring the most health benefits, fast vaccine roll-outs are not always the most cost-effective. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of 0.5xGDP per capita, vaccine programmes starting in August 2021 using mRNA and viral vector vaccines were cost-effective in 6-10 and 17-18 of 27 countries, respectively.

Interpretation

African countries with large proportions of their populations unvaccinated by late 2021 may find vaccination programmes less cost-effective than they could have been earlier in 2021. Lower vaccine purchasing costs and/or the emergence of new variants may improve cost-effectiveness.

Funding

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Health Organization, National Institute of Health Research (UK), Health Data Research (UK)",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/05/10/2022.05.09.22274846.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.09.22274846; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR496331; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR496331&type=FILE&fileName=EMS149567-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -175,8 +175,8 @@ PPR487927,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.03.22274602,Accident and emergency (AE PPR606872,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4302481,Application of Federated Analytics in Health Data Research for Reducing Risks Involved in Data Sharing,"Oskoui SE, Retford M, Barnes R, Postlethwaite N, Hunter KJ, Thompson S, Orton C, Ford D, heys s, Kennedy J, McNerney C, Peng J, Ghanbariadolat H, Rees S, Mulholland RH, Sheikh A, Burgner D, Brockway ML, Azad MB, Rodriguez N, Zoega H, Stock SJ, Calvert C, Miller J, Fiorentino N, Racine A, Haggstrom J.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-12-14,N,,,,"Background: The use of federated networks can reduce the risk of disclosure for sensitive datasets by removing the requirement to physically transfer data. Federated networks support federated analytics, a type of privacy-enhancing technology (PET) enabling trustworthy data access and analysis.

Objectives: We aim to outline the methodology used by the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) and its partners the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank and Aridhia Informatics in implementing a federated network infrastructure and consequently testing federated analytics using test data provided for an ICODA exemplar project, the International Perinatal Outcome in the Pandemic (iPOP) Study. The ICODA Workbench - a trusted research environment (TRE) - was used to send federated requests to access this test data held within SAIL Databank.

Results: This project is the first example for successfully implementing a federated network for ICODA. The integration testing made use of aggregate-level data from the iPOP Study as the first step in putting in place the necessary technical and user experiences for future project studies using individual-level datasets from multiple data nodes. While the federated network was established, federated analytics was not used in the analysis of the iPOP Study due to challenges from a data standard, data governance, technology, skills and project duration perspective.

Conclusions: Creating federated networks requires an extensive amount of investment from a funding, data governance, technology, training, and people perspective. For future data scalability and providing researchers with a secure and robust data analysis platform to perform joint multi-site collaboration, establishing a federated network should be built into the medium to long term plans for study projects who are interested in using federated analytics. Federated networks have an enormous potential in bringing together national and international health care datasets and aiding the collaborative research effort within the healthcare sector to address key public health questions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4302481; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR606872; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4302481 PPR293368,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.03.21252856,REACT-1 round 9 final report: Continued but slowing decline of prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 during national lockdown in England in February 2021,"Riley S, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-06,Y,,,,"

Background

England will start to exit its third national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on 8th March 2021, with safe effective vaccines being rolled out rapidly against a background of emerging transmissible and immunologically novel variants of SARS-CoV-2. A subsequent increase in community prevalence of infection could delay further relaxation of lockdown if vaccine uptake and efficacy are not sufficiently high to prevent increased pressure on healthcare services.

Methods

The PCR self-swab arm of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission Study (REACT-1) estimates community prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England based on random cross-sections of the population ages five and over. Here, we present results from the complete round 9 of REACT-1 comprising round 9a in which swabs were collected from 4th to 12th February 2021 and round 9b from 13th to 23rd February 2021. We also compare the results of REACT-1 round 9 to round 8, in which swabs were collected mainly from 6th January to 22nd January 2021.

Results

Out of 165,456 results for round 9 overall, 689 were positive. Overall weighted prevalence of infection in the community in England was 0.49% (0.44%, 0.55%), representing a fall of over two thirds from round 8. However the rate of decline of the epidemic has slowed from 15 (13, 17) days, estimated for the period from the end of round 8 to the start of round 9, to 31 days estimated using data from round 9 alone (lower confidence limit 17 days). When comparing round 9a to 9b there were apparent falls in four regions, no apparent change in one region and apparent rises in four regions, including London where there was a suggestion of sub-regional heterogeneity in growth and decline. Smoothed prevalence maps suggest large contiguous areas of growth and decline that do not align with administrative regions. Prevalence fell by 50% or more across all age groups in round 9 compared to round 8, with prevalence (round 9) ranging from 0.21% in those aged 65 and over to 0.71% in those aged 13 to 17 years. Round 9 prevalence was highest among Pakistani participants at 2.1% compared to white participants at 0.45% and Black participants at 0.83%. There were higher adjusted odds of infection for healthcare and care home workers, for those working in public transport and those working in education, school, nursery or childcare and lower adjusted odds for those not required to work outside the home.

Conclusions

Community prevalence of swab-positivity has declined markedly between January and February 2021 during lockdown in England, but remains high; the rate of decline has slowed in the most recent period, with a suggestion of pockets of growth. Continued adherence to social distancing and public health measures is required so that infection rates fall to much lower levels. This will help to ensure that the benefits of the vaccination roll-out programme in England are fully realised.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/06/2021.03.03.21252856.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.03.21252856; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR293368; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR293368&type=FILE&fileName=EMS118777-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR166764,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.20.20107904,Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in children at a specialist centre: outcome and implications of underlying ‘high-risk’ comorbidities in a paediatric population,"Issitt R, Booth J, Bryant W, Spiridou A, Taylor A, du Pré P, Ramnarayan P, Hartley J, Cortina-Borja M, Moshal K, Dunn H, Hemingway H, Sebire N.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-25,Y,,,,"

Background

There is evolving evidence of significant differences in severity and outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children compared to adults. Underlying medical conditions associated with increased risk of severe disease are based on adult data, but have been applied across all ages resulting in large numbers of families undertaking social ‘shielding’ (vulnerable group). We conducted a retrospective analysis of children with suspected COVID-19 at a Specialist Children’s Hospital to determine outcomes based on COVID-19 testing status and underlying health vulnerabilities.

Methods

Routine clinical data were extracted retrospectively from the Institution’s Electronic Health Record system and Digital Research Environment for patients with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses. Data were compared between Sars-CoV-2 positive and negative patients (CoVPos / CoVNeg respectively), and in relation to presence of underlying health vulnerabilities based on Public Health England guidance.

Findings

Between 1 st March and 15 th May 2020, 166 children (<18 years of age) presented to a specialist children’s hospital with clinical features of possible COVID-19 infection. 65 patients (39.2%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus. CoVPos patients were older (median 9 [0.9 - 14] years vs median 1 [0.1 - 5.7.5] years respectively, p <0.001). There was a significantly reduced proportion of vulnerable cases (47.7% vs 72.3%, p =0.002), but no difference in proportion of vulnerable patients requiring ventilation (61% vs 64.3%, p = 0.84) between CoVPos and CoVNeg groups. However, a significantly lower proportion of CoVPos patients required mechanical ventilation support compared to CoVNeg patients (27.7 vs 57.4%, p <0.001). Mortality was not significantly different between CoVPos and CoVNeg groups (1.5 vs 4% respectively, p =0.67) although there were no direct COVID-19 related deaths in this highly preselected paediatric population.

Interpretation

COVID-19 infection may be associated with severe disease in childhood presenting to a specialist hospital, but does not appear significantly different in severity to other causes of similar clinical presentations. In children presenting with pre-existing ‘COVID-19 vulnerable’ medical conditions at a specialist centre, there does not appear to be significantly increased risk of either contracting COVID-19 or severe complications, apart from those undergoing chemotherapy, who are over-represented.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/05/25/2020.05.20.20107904.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.20.20107904; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR166764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR166764&type=FILE&fileName=EMS91012-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR301060,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.20.21254010,Older biological age is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes: A cohort study in UK Biobank,"Wang Q, Codd V, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Musicha C, Bountziouka V, Kaptoge S, Allara E, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Wood AM, Thompson JR, Petersen SE, Harvey NC, Danesh JN, Samani NJ, Nelson CP.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Older chronological age is the most powerful risk factor for adverse coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) outcomes. It is uncertain, however, whether older biological age, as assessed by leucocyte telomere length (LTL), is also associated with COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

We associated LTL values obtained from participants recruited into UK Biobank (UKB) during 2006-2010 with adverse COVID-19 outcomes recorded by 30 November 2020, defined as a composite of any of the following: hospital admission, need for critical care, respiratory support, or mortality. Using information on 131 LTL-associated genetic variants, we conducted exploratory Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses in UKB to evaluate whether observational associations might reflect cause-and-effect relationships.

Findings

Of 6,775 participants in UKB who had tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 in the community, there were 914 (13.5%) with adverse COVID-19 outcomes. The odds ratio (OR) for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was 1·17 (95% CI 1·05-1·31; P=0·004) per 1-SD shorter usual LTL, after adjustment for chronological age, sex and ethnicity. Similar ORs were observed in analyses that: adjusted for additional risk factors; disaggregated the composite outcome and reduced the scope for selection or collider bias. In MR analyses, the OR for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was directionally concordant but non-significant.

Interpretation

Shorter LTL, indicative of older biological age, is associated with higher risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes, independent of several major risk factors for COVID-19 including chronological age. Further data are needed to determine whether this association reflects causality.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and British Heart Foundation.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/22/2021.03.20.21254010.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.20.21254010; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR301060; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR301060&type=FILE&fileName=EMS120573-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR435279,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.20.21268098,"Therapies for Long COVID in non-hospitalised individuals - from symptoms, patient-reported outcomes, and immunology to targeted therapies (The TLC Study): Study protocol","Haroon S, Nirantharakumar K, Hughes SE, Subramanian A, Aiyegbusi OL, Davies EH, Myles P, Williams T, Turner GM, Chandan JS, McMullan C, Lord J, Wraith D, McGee K, Denniston A, Taverner T, Jackson L, Sapey E, Gkoutos G, Gokhale K, Leggett E, Iles C, Frost C, McNamara G, Bamford A, Marshall T, Zemedikun D, Price G, Marwaha S, Simms-Williams N, Brown K, Walker A, Jones K, Matthews K, Camaradou J, Saint-Cricq M, Kumar S, Alder Y, Stanton DE, Agyen L, Baber M, Blaize H, Calvert M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-21,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Individuals with COVID-19 frequently experience symptoms and impaired quality of life beyond 4-12 weeks, commonly referred to as Long COVID. Whether Long COVID is one or several distinct syndromes is unknown. Establishing the evidence base for appropriate therapies is needed. We aim to evaluate the symptom burden and underlying pathophysiology of Long COVID syndromes in non-hospitalised individuals and evaluate potential therapies.

Methods and analysis

A cohort of 4000 non-hospitalised individuals with a past COVID-19 diagnosis and 1000 matched controls will be selected from anonymised primary care records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and invited by their general practitioners to participate on a digital platform (Atom5™). Individuals will report symptoms, quality of life, work capability, and patient reported outcome measures. Data will be collected monthly for one year. Statistical clustering methods will be used to identify distinct Long COVID symptom clusters. Individuals from the four most prevalent clusters and two control groups will be invited to participate in the BioWear sub-study which will further phenotype Long COVID symptom clusters by measurement of immunological parameters and actigraphy. We will review existing evidence on interventions for post-viral syndromes and Long COVID to map and prioritise interventions for each newly characterised Long COVID syndrome. Recommendations will be made using the cumulated evidence in an expert consensus workshop. A virtual supportive intervention will be coproduced with patients and health service providers for future evaluation. Individuals with lived experience of Long COVID will be involved throughout this programme through a patient and public involvement group.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval was obtained from the Solihull Research Ethics Committee, West Midlands (21/WM/0203). The study is registered on the ISRCTN Registry (1567490). Research findings will be presented at international conferences, in peer-reviewed journals, to Long COVID patient support groups and to policymakers.

Article Summary

Strengths and limitations of the study

The study will generate a nationally representative cohort of individuals with Long COVID recruited from primary care. We will recruit controls matched on a wide range of demographic and clinical factors to assess differences in symptoms between people with Long COVID and similar individuals without a history of COVID-19. We will use a newly developed electronic patient reported outcome measure (Symptom Burden Questionnaire™) for Long COVID to comprehensively assess a wide range of symptoms highlighted by existing literature, patients, and clinicians. Immunological, proteomic, genetic, and wearable data captured in the study will allow deep phenotyping of Long COVID syndromes to help better target therapies. A limitation is that a significant proportion of non-hospitalised individuals affected by COVID-19 in the first wave of the pandemic will lack confirmatory testing and will be excluded from recruitment to the study.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.20.21268098; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR435279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR435279&type=FILE&fileName=EMS141852-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/12/21/2021.12.20.21268098.full.pdf +PPR301060,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.20.21254010,Older biological age is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes: A cohort study in UK Biobank,"Wang Q, Codd V, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Musicha C, Bountziouka V, Kaptoge S, Allara E, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Wood AM, Thompson JR, Petersen SE, Harvey NC, Danesh JN, Samani NJ, Nelson CP.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Older chronological age is the most powerful risk factor for adverse coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) outcomes. It is uncertain, however, whether older biological age, as assessed by leucocyte telomere length (LTL), is also associated with COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

We associated LTL values obtained from participants recruited into UK Biobank (UKB) during 2006-2010 with adverse COVID-19 outcomes recorded by 30 November 2020, defined as a composite of any of the following: hospital admission, need for critical care, respiratory support, or mortality. Using information on 131 LTL-associated genetic variants, we conducted exploratory Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses in UKB to evaluate whether observational associations might reflect cause-and-effect relationships.

Findings

Of 6,775 participants in UKB who had tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 in the community, there were 914 (13.5%) with adverse COVID-19 outcomes. The odds ratio (OR) for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was 1·17 (95% CI 1·05-1·31; P=0·004) per 1-SD shorter usual LTL, after adjustment for chronological age, sex and ethnicity. Similar ORs were observed in analyses that: adjusted for additional risk factors; disaggregated the composite outcome and reduced the scope for selection or collider bias. In MR analyses, the OR for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was directionally concordant but non-significant.

Interpretation

Shorter LTL, indicative of older biological age, is associated with higher risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes, independent of several major risk factors for COVID-19 including chronological age. Further data are needed to determine whether this association reflects causality.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and British Heart Foundation.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/22/2021.03.20.21254010.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.20.21254010; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR301060; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR301060&type=FILE&fileName=EMS120573-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR700382,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.31.23293419,The impact of COVID-19 on medication reviews in English primary care. An OpenSAFELY-TPP analysis of 20 million adult electronic health records,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Wood C, Speed V, Fisher L, Curtis HJ, Schaffer AL, Walker AJ, Croker R, Brown AD, Cunningham C, Hulme WJ, Andrews CD, Butler-Cole BF, Evans D, Inglesby P, Dillingham I, Bacon SC, Davy S, Ward T, Hickman G, Bridges L, O’Dwyer T, Maude S, Smith RM, Mehrkar A, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-31,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to routine activity in primary care. Medication reviews are an important primary care activity to ensure safety and appropriateness of ongoing prescribing and a disruption could have significant negative implications for patient care.

Aim

Using routinely collected data, our aim was to i) describe the SNOMED CT codes used to report medication review activity ii) report the impact of COVID-19 on the volume and variation of medication reviews.

Design and setting

With the approval of NHS England, we conducted a cohort study of 20 million adult patient records in general practice, in-situ using the OpenSAFELY platform.

Method

For each month between April 2019 - March 2022, we report the percentage of patients with a medication review coded monthly and in the previous 12 months. These measures were broken down by regional, clinical and demographic subgroups and amongst those prescribed high risk medications.

Results

In April 2019, 32.3% of patients had a medication review coded in the previous 12 months. During the first COVID-19 lockdown, monthly activity substantially decreased (−21.1% April 2020), but the rate of patients with a medication review coded in the previous 12 months was not substantially impacted according to our classification (−10.5% March 2021). There was regional and ethnic variation (March 2022 - London 21.9% vs North West 33.6%; Chinese 16.8% vs British 33.0%). Following the introduction of “structured medication reviews”, the rate of structured medication review in the last 12 months reached 2.9% by March 2022, with higher percentages in high risk groups (March 2022 - care home residents 34.1%, 90+ years 13.1%, high risk medications 10.2%). The most used SNOMED CT medication review code across the study period was Medication review done - 314530002 (59.5%).

Conclusion

We have reported a substantial reduction in the monthly rate of medication reviews during the pandemic but rates recovered by the end of the study period.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/07/31/2023.07.31.23293419.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.31.23293419; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR700382 PPR648088,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.13.23288469,"Empagliflozin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial","Horby PW, Staplin N, Peto L, Emberson JR, Campbell M, Pessoa-Amorim G, Basnyat B, Thwaites L, Van Doorn R, Hamers RL, Nel J, Amuasi J, Rawal M, Ghosh D, Douse J, Hamilton F, Kerry A, Thu-Ta P, Widdrington J, Green C, Desai P, Stewart R, Phong NT, Baillie JK, Buch MH, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Juszczak E, Knight M, Lim WS, Montgomery A, Mukherjee A, Mumford A, Rowan K, Thwaites G, Mafham M, Haynes R, Landray MJ, RECOVERY Collaborative Group.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-04-19,Y,,,,"

SUMMARY

Background

Empagliflozin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its anti-inflammatory, metabolic and haemodynamic effects.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label trial, several possible treatments are compared with usual care in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Eligible and consenting adults were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus empagliflozin 10mg once daily for 28 days or until discharge using web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality. On 3 March the independent data monitoring committee recommended that the investigators review the data and recruitment was consequently stopped on 7 March. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT04381936 ).

Findings

Between 8 July 2021 and 6 March 2023, 4271 patients were randomly allocated to receive either empagliflozin (2113 patients) or usual care alone (2158 patients). Overall, 289 (14%) patients allocated to empagliflozin and 307 (14%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.82-1.13; p=0.64). There was no evidence of significant differences in duration of hospitalisation (median 8 days vs. 8 days) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (79% vs. 78%; rate ratio 1.03; 95% CI 0.96-1.10; p=0.44). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, there was no evidence of a significant difference in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (16% vs. 17%; risk ratio 0.95; 95% CI 0.84-1.08; p=0.44).

Interpretation

In adults hospitalised with COVID-19, empagliflozin was not associated with reductions in 28-day mortality, duration of hospital stay, or risk of progressing to invasive mechanical ventilation or death.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research (Grant ref: MC_PC_19056), and Wellcome Trust (Grant Ref: 222406/Z/20/Z).

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04381936 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04381936 ISRCTN50189673 http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN50189673",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/04/19/2023.04.13.23288469.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.13.23288469; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR648088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR648088&type=FILE&fileName=EMS174483-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR277515,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.01.21250839,Extremely high SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a strictly-Orthodox Jewish community in the UK,"Gaskell KM, Johnson M, Gould V, Hunt A, Stone NR, Waites W, Kasstan B, Chantler T, Lal S, Roberts Ch, Goldblatt D, Eggo RM, Marks M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-03,Y,,,,"

Background

Ethnic and religious minorities have been disproportionately affected by SARS-CoV-2 worldwide. The UK strictly-Orthodox Jewish community has been severely affected by the pandemic. This group shares characteristics with other ethnic minorities including larger family sizes, higher rates of household crowding and relative socioeconomic deprivation. We studied a UK strictly-Orthodox Jewish population to understand how COVID-19 had spread within this community.

Methods

We performed a household-focused cross-sectional SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey specific to three antigen targets. Randomly-selected households completed a standardised questionnaire and underwent serological testing with a multiplex assay for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies. We report clinical illness and testing before the serosurvey, seroprevalence stratified by age and gender. We used random-effects models to identify factors associated with infection and antibody titres.

Findings

A total of 343 households, consisting of 1,759 individuals, were recruited. Serum was available for 1,242 participants. The overall seroprevalence for SARS-CoV-2 was 64.3% (95% CI 61.6-67.0%). The lowest seroprevalence was 27.6% in children under 5 years and rose to 73.8% in secondary school children and 74% in adults. Antibody titres were higher in symptomatic individuals and declined over time since reported COVID-19 symptoms, with the decline more marked for nucleocapsid titres.

Interpretation

In this tight-knit religious minority population in the UK, we report one of the highest SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence levels in the world to date. In the context of this high force of infection, all age groups experienced a high burden of infection. Actions to reduce the burden of disease in this and other minority populations are urgently required.

Funding

This work was jointly funded by UKRI and NIHR [COV0335; MR/V027956/1], a donation from the LSHTM Alumni COVID-19 response fund, HDR UK, the MRC and the Wellcome Trust. The funders had no role in the design, conduct or analysis of the study or the decision to publish. The authors have no financial relationships with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Research In Context

Evidence before the study

In January 2020, we searched PubMed for articles on rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst ethnic minority groups and amongst the Jewish population. Search teams included “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, seroprevalence, “ethnic minority”, and “Jewish” with no language restrictions. We also searched UK government documents on SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst minority groups. By January 2020, a large number of authors had reported that ethnic minority groups experienced higher numbers of cases and increased hospitalisations due to COVID-19. A small number of articles provided evidence that strictly-Orthodox Jewish populations had experienced a high rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection but extremely limited data was available on overall population level rates of infection amongst specific ethnic minority population groups. There was also extremely limited data on rates of infection amongst young children from ethnic minority groups.

Added value of the study

We report findings from a population representative, household survey of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst a UK strictly Orthodox Jewish population. We demonstrate an extremely high seroprevalence rate of SARS-CoV-2 in this population which is more than five times the estimated seroprevalence nationally and five times the estimated seroprevalence in London. In addition the large number of children in our survey, reflective of the underlying population structure, allows us to demonstrate that in this setting there is a significant burden of disease in all age groups with secondary school aged children having an equivalent seroprevalence to adults.

Implications of the available evidence

Our data provide clear evidence of the markedly disproportionate impact of SARS-CoV-2 in minority populations. In this setting infection occurs at high rates across all age groups including pre-school, primary school and secondary school-age children. Contextually appropriate measures to specifically reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 amongst minority populations are urgently required.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/02/03/2021.02.01.21250839.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.01.21250839; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR277515; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR277515&type=FILE&fileName=EMS115861-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -185,14 +185,14 @@ PPR625587,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4369346,"The Impact of the COVID-19 Pande PPR454366,https://doi.org/,Inferring Risks of Coronavirus Transmission from Community Household Data,"House T, Riley H, Pellis L, Pouwels KB, Bacon S, Eidukas A, Jahanshahi K, Eggo RM, Walker AS.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-02,N,,,,"The response of many governments to the COVID-19 pandemic has involved measures to control within- and between-household transmission, providing motivation to improve understanding of the absolute and relative risks in these contexts. Here, we perform exploratory, residual-based, and transmission-dynamic household analysis of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) data from 26 April 2020 to 15 July 2021 in England. This provides evidence for: (i) temporally varying rates of introduction of infection into households broadly following the trajectory of the overall epidemic and vaccination programme; (ii) Susceptible-Infectious Transmission Probabilities (SITPs) of within-household transmission in the 15-35% range; (iii) the emergence of the Alpha and Delta variants, with the former being around 50% more infectious than wildtype and 35% less infectious than Delta within households; (iv) significantly (in the range 25-300%) more risk of bringing infection into the household for workers in patient-facing roles pre-vaccine; (v) increased risk for secondary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools are open; (vi) increased risk for primary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools were open since the emergence of new variants.",,arxiv:https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.04605v3; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR454366 PPR187496,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.20151852,"Effect of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: Preliminary results from a multi-centre, randomized, controlled trial","Horby P, Mafham M, Linsell L, Bell JL, Staplin N, Emberson JR, Wiselka M, Ustianowski A, Elmahi E, Prudon B, Whitehouse A, Felton T, Williams J, Faccenda J, Underwood J, Baillie JK, Chappell L, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Lim WS, Montgomery A, Rowan K, Tarning J, Watson JA, White NJ, Juszczak E, Haynes R, Landray MJ.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-15,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been proposed as treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the basis of in vitro activity, uncontrolled data, and small randomized studies.

Methods

The Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 therapy (RECOVERY) trial is a randomized, controlled, open-label, platform trial comparing a range of possible treatments with usual care in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. We report the preliminary results for the comparison of hydroxychloroquine vs. usual care alone. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality.

Results

1561 patients randomly allocated to receive hydroxychloroquine were compared with 3155 patients concurrently allocated to usual care. Overall, 418 (26.8%) patients allocated hydroxychloroquine and 788 (25.0%) patients allocated usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 1.09; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.96 to 1.23; P=0.18). Consistent results were seen in all pre-specified subgroups of patients. Patients allocated to hydroxychloroquine were less likely to be discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (60.3% vs. 62.8%; rate ratio 0.92; 95% CI 0.85-0.99) and those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline were more likely to reach the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (29.8% vs. 26.5%; risk ratio 1.12; 95% CI 1.01-1.25). There was no excess of new major cardiac arrhythmia.

Conclusions

In patients hospitalized with COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine was not associated with reductions in 28-day mortality but was associated with an increased length of hospital stay and increased risk of progressing to invasive mechanical ventilation or death.

Funding

Medical Research Council and NIHR (Grant ref: MC_PC_19056).

Trial registrations

The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT04381936 ).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.20151852; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR187496; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR187496&type=FILE&fileName=EMS87168-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2022926?articleTools=true PPR601867,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3970707,Predicting and Validating Risk of Pre-Pandemic and Excess Mortality in Individuals With Chronic Kidney Disease,"Dashtban M, Mizani MA, Denaxas S, Nitsch D, Quint J, Corbett R, Mamza JB, Morris T, Mamas M, Lawlor DA, Khunti K, CVD-COVID consortium, Sudlow C, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-24,N,,,,"Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased risk of baseline mortality and severe coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, but analyses of risk across different CKD stages, multimorbidity and demographic factors in population-based data are lacking. In people with CKD, we investigated comorbidities, and 1-year pre- and post-COVID-19 mortality.

Methods: In linked primary and secondary care electronic health records (CPRD data) for 3,862,012 individuals aged ≥ 30 years registered with a practice between 1997 and 2017, we identified individuals with CKD. We analysed prevalence of common comorbidities across incident and prevalent CKD, CKD stages, ethnic groups, sex, and age, using validated, openly available phenotypes. Using our published model, we estimated 1-year mortality at baseline and during the COVID-19 pandemic at different levels of population infection rate (IR) and relative risk (RR) of mortality associated with the pandemic. We used CPRD data for model development and contemporary English population during pandemic (NHS Digital Trusted Research Environment (TRE) for England: n=54 million (CKD: 2.3 million) from 1 March 2020 until 1 March 2021) for validation.

Findings: We identified 294,381 (mean age 72.5 years; and female: 59%) and 55,691 (mean 74.8 years and female: 62%) individuals with incident and prevalent CKD, respectively. Co- and multi-morbidity were more common in prevalent than incident CKD. Among individuals with incident CKD, 64% had ≥1 other moderate- or high-risk condition for COVID-19 mortality. In incident CKD, the pre-pandemic 1-year mortality increased with age (e.g., 1.4% and 12.5% with 1 comorbidity, and <50 years and >80 years respectively), stage of CKD (e.g., 2.7% and 28.8% with 2 comorbidities, and stage 1 and stage 5 CKD, respectively) and number of underlying conditions (e.g. 0.8% and 6.4% in <50 years, and 8.1% and 20.1% in >80 years for 0 and 3+ conditions, respectively). At IR 10%, we predicted 31003 and 46505 (at RR 2 and 3) excess deaths over 1 year in individuals with CKD. Observed excess deaths, IR and RR were 46,473, 6.55 and 4.65, respectively . Our validation results indicate the potential of predicting direct impact of a pandemic using pre-pandemic, large-scale EHR data.

Interpretation: Individuals with CKD have high burden of comorbidities and multimorbidity, high risk of pre-pandemic mortality and predictable high risk of mortality during the pandemic, signalling prioritisation for treatment of underlying disease, non-pharmaceutical measures, and vaccination.

Funding Information: This study was funded by AstraZeneca UK Ltd. The British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre (grant No SP/19/3/34678, awarded to Health Data Research (HDR) UK) funded co development (with NHS Digital) of the trusted research environment, provision of linked datasets, data access, user software licences, computational usage, and data management and wrangling support, with additional contributions from the HDR UK data and connectivity component of the UK governments’ chief scientific adviser’s national core studies programme to coordinate national covid-19 priority research. Consortium partner organisations funded the time of contributing data analysts, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and clinicians.

Declaration of Interests: DN is Director of Informatics Research for the UK Kidney Association and on the steering group for two Glaxo-SmithKline-funded studies in Sub Saharan Africa, unrelated to this research. All other authors declare no competing interests.JQ has received grants from Asthma UK, AstraZeneca, British Lung Foundation, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GSK, IQVIA, MRC
and The Health Foundation, and personal fees for advisory board participation or speaking fees from AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline. JBM and TM are employed by AstraZeneca UK Ltd, a biopharmaceutical company. DAL has received funding from Wellcome, the European Research Council (ERC Advanced grant and a Horizon 2020 grant), US National Institute of Health, Diabetes UK, Roche Diagnostics and Medtronic Ltd for research unrelated to that presented here. KK is director of the University of Leicester Centre for Black Minority Ethnic Health, trustee of the South Asian Health Foundation, and chair of the ethnicity subgroup of the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), he has acted as a consultant, speaker or received grants for investigator-initiated studies for AstraZeneca, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, Lilly and Merck Sharp & Dohme, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer, Berlin-Chemie/Menarini Group, Janssen and Napp. AB is supported by research funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), British Medical Association, AstraZeneca, and UK Research and Innovation, and Trustee of the South Asian Health Foundation. HH is a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator. FA and HH are funded by the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. HH work is supported by: 1. Health Data Research UK (grant No. LOND1), which is funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Department of Health and Social Care (England), Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), British Heart Foundation and Wellcome Trust. AB and HH are part of the BigData@Heart Consortium, funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative-2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 116074. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA; it is chaired, by DE Grobbee and SD Anker, partnering with 20
academic and industry partners and ESC. Other authors report no conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval Statement: Approval for the study was granted by the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee (20_074R) of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The North East-Newcastle and North Tyneside 2
research ethics committee provided ethical approval for the CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT research programme (REC No 20/NE/0161).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3970707; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR601867; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3970707 -PPR512040,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.28.22276983,"Outcomes of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection during resurgence driven by Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5 compared with previous waves in the Western Cape Province, South Africa","Davies M, Morden E, Rosseau P, Arendse J, Bam J, Boloko L, Cloete K, Cohen C, Chetty N, Dane P, Heekes A, Hsiao N, Hunter M, Hussey H, Jacobs T, Jassat W, Kariem S, Kassanjee R, Laenen I, Roux SL, Lessells R, Mahomed H, Maughan D, Meintjes G, Mendelson M, Mnguni A, Moodley M, Murie K, Naude J, Ntusi NAB, Paleker M, Parker A, Pienaar D, Preiser W, Prozesky H, Raubenheimer P, Rossouw L, Schrueder N, Smith B, Smith M, Solomon W, Symons G, Taljaard J, Wasserman S, Wilkinson RJ, Wolmarans M, Wolter N, Boulle A.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-28,Y,,,,"

Objective

We aimed to compare clinical severity of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 infection with BA.1 and earlier variant infections among laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in the Western Cape, South Africa, using timing of infection to infer the lineage/variant causing infection.

Methods

We included public sector patients aged ≥20 years with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 between 1-21 May 2022 (BA.4/BA.5 wave) and equivalent prior wave periods. We compared the risk between waves of (i) death and (ii) severe hospitalization/death (all within 21 days of diagnosis) using Cox regression adjusted for demographics, comorbidities, admission pressure, vaccination and prior infection.

Results

Among 3,793 patients from the BA.4/BA.5 wave and 190,836 patients from previous waves the risk of severe hospitalization/death was similar in the BA.4/BA.5 and BA.1 waves (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.01; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.92; 1.12). Both Omicron waves had lower risk of severe outcomes than previous waves. Prior infection (aHR 0.19, 95% CI 0.16; 0.22) and vaccination (aHR 0.24; 95% CI 0.15; 0.39 for boosted vs. no vaccine) were protective.

Conclusion

Disease severity was similar amongst diagnosed COVID-19 cases in the BA.4/BA.5 and BA.1 periods in the context of growing immunity against SARS-CoV-2 due to prior infection and vaccination, both of which were strongly protective.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.28.22276983; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR512040; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR512040&type=FILE&fileName=EMS146568-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/100817/8/1-s2.0-S1201971222006154-main.pdf PPR265323,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.13.21249725,The cellular immune response to COVID-19 deciphered by single cell multi-omics across three UK centres,"Stephenson E, Reynolds G, Botting RA, Calero-Nieto FJ, Morgan M, Tuong ZK, Bach K, Sungnak W, Worlock KB, Yoshida M, Kumasaka N, Kania K, Engelbert J, Olabi B, Spegarova JS, Wilson NK, Mende N, Jardine L, Gardner LC, Goh I, Horsfall D, McGrath J, Webb S, Mather MW, Lindeboom RG, Dann E, Huang N, Polanski K, Prigmore E, Gothe F, Scott J, Payne RP, Baker KF, Hanrath AT, van der Loeff ICS, Barr AS, Sanchez-Gonzalez A, Bergamaschi L, Mescia F, Barnes JL, Kilich E, de Wilton A, Saigal A, Saleh A, Janes SM, Smith CM, Gopee N, Wilson C, Coupland P, Coxhead JM, Kiselev VY, van Dongen S, Bacardit J, King HW, Rostron AJ, Simpson AJ, Hambleton S, Laurenti E, Lyons PA, Meyer KB, Nikolic MZ, Duncan CJ, Smith K, Teichmann SA, Clatworthy MR, Marioni JC, Gottgens B, Haniffa M, Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease-National Institute of Health Research (CITIID-NIHR) COVID BioResource Collaboration.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-15,Y,,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in excess morbidity and mortality as well as economic decline. To characterise the systemic host immune response to SARS-CoV-2, we performed single-cell RNA-sequencing coupled with analysis of cell surface proteins, providing molecular profiling of over 800,000 peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a cohort of 130 patients with COVID-19. Our cohort, from three UK centres, spans the spectrum of clinical presentations and disease severities ranging from asymptomatic to critical. Three control groups were included: healthy volunteers, patients suffering from a non-COVID-19 severe respiratory illness and healthy individuals administered with intravenous lipopolysaccharide to model an acute inflammatory response. Full single cell transcriptomes coupled with quantification of 188 cell surface proteins, and T and B lymphocyte antigen receptor repertoires have provided several insights into COVID-19: 1. a new non-classical monocyte state that sequesters platelets and replenishes the alveolar macrophage pool; 2. platelet activation accompanied by early priming towards megakaryopoiesis in immature haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and expansion of megakaryocyte-primed progenitors; 3. increased clonally expanded CD8 + effector:effector memory T cells, and proliferating CD4 + and CD8 + T cells in patients with more severe disease; and 4. relative increase of IgA plasmablasts in asymptomatic stages that switches to expansion of IgG plasmablasts and plasma cells, accompanied with higher incidence of BCR sharing, as disease severity increases. All data and analysis results are available for interrogation and data mining through an intuitive web portal. Together, these data detail the cellular processes present in peripheral blood during an acute immune response to COVID-19, and serve as a template for multi-omic single cell data integration across multiple centers to rapidly build powerful resources to help combat diseases such as COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/01/15/2021.01.13.21249725.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.13.21249725; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR265323; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR265323&type=FILE&fileName=EMS110618-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR512040,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.28.22276983,"Outcomes of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection during resurgence driven by Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5 compared with previous waves in the Western Cape Province, South Africa","Davies M, Morden E, Rosseau P, Arendse J, Bam J, Boloko L, Cloete K, Cohen C, Chetty N, Dane P, Heekes A, Hsiao N, Hunter M, Hussey H, Jacobs T, Jassat W, Kariem S, Kassanjee R, Laenen I, Roux SL, Lessells R, Mahomed H, Maughan D, Meintjes G, Mendelson M, Mnguni A, Moodley M, Murie K, Naude J, Ntusi NAB, Paleker M, Parker A, Pienaar D, Preiser W, Prozesky H, Raubenheimer P, Rossouw L, Schrueder N, Smith B, Smith M, Solomon W, Symons G, Taljaard J, Wasserman S, Wilkinson RJ, Wolmarans M, Wolter N, Boulle A.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-28,Y,,,,"

Objective

We aimed to compare clinical severity of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 infection with BA.1 and earlier variant infections among laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in the Western Cape, South Africa, using timing of infection to infer the lineage/variant causing infection.

Methods

We included public sector patients aged ≥20 years with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 between 1-21 May 2022 (BA.4/BA.5 wave) and equivalent prior wave periods. We compared the risk between waves of (i) death and (ii) severe hospitalization/death (all within 21 days of diagnosis) using Cox regression adjusted for demographics, comorbidities, admission pressure, vaccination and prior infection.

Results

Among 3,793 patients from the BA.4/BA.5 wave and 190,836 patients from previous waves the risk of severe hospitalization/death was similar in the BA.4/BA.5 and BA.1 waves (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.01; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.92; 1.12). Both Omicron waves had lower risk of severe outcomes than previous waves. Prior infection (aHR 0.19, 95% CI 0.16; 0.22) and vaccination (aHR 0.24; 95% CI 0.15; 0.39 for boosted vs. no vaccine) were protective.

Conclusion

Disease severity was similar amongst diagnosed COVID-19 cases in the BA.4/BA.5 and BA.1 periods in the context of growing immunity against SARS-CoV-2 due to prior infection and vaccination, both of which were strongly protective.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.28.22276983; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR512040; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR512040&type=FILE&fileName=EMS146568-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/100817/8/1-s2.0-S1201971222006154-main.pdf PPR357631,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258690,SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank,"Douaud G, Lee S, Alfaro-Almagro F, Arthofer C, Wang C, McCarthy P, Lange F, Andersson JL, Griffanti L, Duff E, Jbabdi S, Taschler B, Keating P, Winkler AM, Collins R, Matthews PM, Allen N, Miller KL, Nichols TE, Smith SM.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-06-15,N,,,,"There is strong evidence for brain-related abnormalities in COVID-19 1–13 . It remains unknown however whether the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection can be detected in milder cases, and whether this can reveal possible mechanisms contributing to brain pathology. Here, we investigated brain changes in 785 UK Biobank participants (aged 51–81) imaged twice, including 401 cases who tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 between their two scans, with 141 days on average separating their diagnosis and second scan, and 384 controls. The availability of pre-infection imaging data reduces the likelihood of pre-existing risk factors being misinterpreted as disease effects. We identified significant longitudinal effects when comparing the two groups, including: (i) greater reduction in grey matter thickness and tissue-contrast in the orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus, (ii) greater changes in markers of tissue damage in regions functionally-connected to the primary olfactory cortex, and (iii) greater reduction in global brain size. The infected participants also showed on average larger cognitive decline between the two timepoints. Importantly, these imaging and cognitive longitudinal effects were still seen after excluding the 15 cases who had been hospitalised. These mainly limbic brain imaging results may be the in vivo hallmarks of a degenerative spread of the disease via olfactory pathways, of neuroinflammatory events, or of the loss of sensory input due to anosmia. Whether this deleterious impact can be partially reversed, or whether these effects will persist in the long term, remains to be investigated with additional follow up.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258690; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR357631; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258690 PPR394718,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.10.21263372,Localising Vaccination Services: Qualitative Insights on an Orthodox Jewish Collaboration with Public health during the UK coronavirus Vaccine Programme,"Kasstan B, Mounier-Jack S, Letley L, Gaskell KM, Roberts CH, Stone NR, Lal S, Eggo RM, Marks M, Chantler T.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-09-15,Y,,,,"Ethnic and religious minorities have been disproportionately affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and are less likely to accept coronavirus vaccinations. Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish neighbourhoods in England experienced high incidences of SARS-CoV-2 in 2020-21 and measles outbreaks (2018-19) due to suboptimal childhood vaccination coverage. The objective of our study was to explore how the coronavirus vaccination programme (CVP) was co-delivered between public health services and an Orthodox Jewish health organisation.

Methods:

included 28 semi-structured interviews conducted virtually with public health professionals, community welfare and religious representatives, and household members. We examined CVP delivery from the perspectives of those involved in organising services and vaccine beneficiaries. Interview data was contextualised within debates of the CVP in Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish print and social media. Thematic analysis generated five considerations: i) Prior immunisation-related collaboration with public health services carved a role for Jewish health organisations to host and promote coronavirus vaccination sessions, distribute appointments, and administer vaccines ii) Public health services maintained responsibility for training, logistics, and maintaining vaccination records; iii) The localised approach to service delivery promoted vaccination in a minority with historically suboptimal levels of coverage; iv) Co-delivery promoted trust in the CVP, though a minority of participants maintained concerns around safety; v) Provision of CVP information and stakeholders’ response to situated (context-specific) challenges and concerns. Drawing on this example of CVP co-delivery, we propose that a localised approach to delivering immunisation programmes could address service provision gaps in ways that involve trusted community organisations. Localisation of vaccination services can include communication or implementation strategies, but both approaches involve consideration of investment, engagement and coordination, which are not cost-neutral. Localising vaccination services in collaboration with welfare groups raises opportunities for the on-going CVP and other immunisation programmes, and constitutes an opportunity for ethnic and religious minorities to collaborate in safeguarding community health.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/09/15/2021.09.10.21263372.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.10.21263372; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR394718; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR394718&type=FILE&fileName=EMS135122-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR294760,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.09.21252736,"Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial","The RECOVERY Collaborative Group, Horby PW, Estcourt L, Peto L, Emberson JR, Emberson JR, Staplin N, Spata E, Pessoa-Amorim G, Campbell M, Roddick A, Brunskill NE, George T, Zehnder D, Tiberi S, Aung NN, Uriel A, Widdrington J, Koshy G, Brown T, Scott S, Baillie JK, Buch MH, Chappell LC, Day JN, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Juszczak E, Lim WS, Montgomery A, Mumford A, Rowan K, Thwaites G, Mafham M, Roberts D, Haynes R, Landray MJ.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-10,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Treatment of COVID-19 patients with plasma containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies may have a beneficial effect on clinical outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) several possible treatments are being compared with usual care in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to receive either usual care plus high titre convalescent plasma or usual care alone. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality.

Findings

Between 28 May 2020 and 15 January 2021, 5795 patients were randomly allocated to receive convalescent plasma and 5763 to usual care alone. There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between the two groups: 1398 (24%) of 5795 patients allocated convalescent plasma and 1408 (24%) of 5763 patients allocated usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio [RR] 1·00; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0·93 to 1·07; p=0·93). The 28-day mortality rate ratio was similar in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including in those patients without detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at randomisation. Allocation to convalescent plasma had no significant effect on the proportion of patients discharged from hospital within 28 days (66% vs . 67%; rate ratio 0·98; 95% CI 0·94-1·03, p=0·50). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, there was no significant difference in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death (28% vs . 29%; rate ratio 0·99; 95% CI 0·93-1·05, p=0·79).

Interpretation

Among patients hospitalised with COVID-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research (Grant refs: MC_PC_19056; COV19-RECPLA).",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/90411/7/1-s2.0-S0140673621008977-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.09.21252736; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR294760; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR294760&type=FILE&fileName=EMS119130-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR179126,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.22.20137216,"Proteomic blood profiling in mild, severe and critical COVID-19 patients","Patel H, Ashton NJ, Dobson RJ, Andersson L, Yilmaz A, Blennow K, Gisslen M, Zetterberg H.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-23,N,,,,"The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic manifests itself as a mild respiratory tract infection in the majority of individuals leading to COVID-19 disease. However, in some infected individuals, this can progress to severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), leading to multi-organ failure and death. The purpose of this study is to explore the proteomic differences between mild, severe and critical COVID-19 positive patients. Blood protein profiling was performed on 59 COVID-19 mild (n=26), severe (n=9) or critical (n=24) cases and 28 controls using the OLINK inflammation, autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurology panels. Differential expression analysis was performed within and between disease groups to generate nine different analyses. From the 368 proteins measured per individual, more than 75% were observed to be significantly perturbed in COVID-19 cases. Six proteins (IL6, CKAP4, Gal-9, IL-1ra, LILRB4 and PD-L1) were identified to be associated with disease severity. The results have been made readily available through an interactive web-based application for instant data exploration and visualization, and can be accessed at https://phidatalab-shiny.rosalind.kcl.ac.uk/COVID19/ . Our results demonstrate that dynamic changes in blood proteins that associate with disease severity can potentially be used as early biomarkers to monitor disease severity in COVID-19 and serve as potential therapeutic targets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.22.20137216; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR179126; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.22.20137216; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85877-0.pdf -PPR294758,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.08.21253110,Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection according to baseline antibody status in staff and residents of 100 Long Term Care Facilities (VIVALDI study),"Krutikov M, Palmer T, Tut G, Fuller C, Shrotri M, Williams H, Davies D, Irwin-Singer A, Robson J, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-10,Y,,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 infection represents a major challenge for Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) and many residents and staff are now sero-positive following persistent outbreaks. We investigated the relationship between the presence of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies and subsequent infection in this population.

Methods

Prospective cohort study of infection in staff and residents in 100 LTCFs in England between October 2020 and February 2021. Blood samples were collected at baseline (June 2020), 2 and 4 months and tested for IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid and spike protein. PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 was undertaken weekly in staff and monthly in residents. The primary analysis estimated the relative hazard of a PCR-positive test by baseline antibody status, from Cox regression adjusted for age and gender, and stratified by LTCF.

Findings

Study inclusion criteria were met by 682 residents and 1429 staff. Baseline IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid were detected in 226 residents (33%) and 408 staff (29%). A total of 93 antibody-negative residents had a PCR-positive test (0.054 per month at risk) compared to 4 antibody-positive residents (0.007 per month at risk). There were 111 PCR-positive tests in antibody-negative staff (0.042 per month at risk) compared to 10 in antibody-positive staff (0.009 per month at risk). The adjusted hazard ratios for reinfection in staff and residents with a baseline positive versus negative antibody test were 0.13 (95% CI 0.05-0.40) and 0.39 ((95% CI: 0.19-0.77) respectively. Of 12 reinfected participants with data on symptoms, 11 were symptomatic. Antibody titres to spike and nucleocapsid were comparable in PCR-positive and PCR-negative cases.

Interpretation

The presence of IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid was associated with substantially reduced risk of reinfection in staff and residents for up to 10 months after primary infection.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We performed a systematic search of MEDLINE (Ovid) and MedRxiv on 18 January 2021 for studies in LTCFs that described the risk of infection in individuals who were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 compared to individuals who were seronegative. Search terms were deliberately broad to improve capture of relevant literature and included “SARS-CoV-2”OR “COVID-19” OR “coronavirus” AND “care home” OR “nursing home” OR “long term care facility” with no date or language restrictions. We did not identify any publications that focussed on risk of reinfection in seropositive individuals, but subsequent to our search one study has been published using data from two LTCFs in London, UK. This study reported a 96% reduction in the odds of reinfection in individuals who were seropositive compared to those who were seronegative based on 4-month follow-up in 161 participants. We found 10 studies that performed seroprevalence surveys in either staff or staff and residents in LTCFs in 8 cohorts. Five of these were carried out in response to SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks within the care homes, either as part of the subsequent investigation or as post-infection surveillance. The largest of these, which enrolled both staff and residents, was performed in 6 LTCFs and performed longitudinal antibody testing.

Added value of this study

We undertook a cohort study in staff and residents from 100 LTCFs in England to investigate whether individuals with evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection could be infected twice. Staff and residents were offered up to three rounds of antibody testing and antibody results were linked to PCR test results which were obtained weekly from staff and monthly from residents through the national SARS-CoV-2 testing programme. This study, which was conducted in >2000 staff and residents, suggests that antibodies provide high levels of protection against reinfection for up to 10 months. Almost all cases of reinfection were symptomatic, but no cases required hospital treatment. Amongst those with detectable baseline antibodies, quantitative antibody titres against spike protein and nucleocapsid were comparable between cases of reinfection and those who did not become reinfected.

Implications of all available evidence

Despite high background rates of infection in LTCFs, the overall risk of reinfection was low in this population. This is broadly consistent with findings from large cohort studies of hospital staff, but, importantly, extends the evidence of substantial protection to frail elderly, who are vulnerable to severe outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 due to age-related changes in immunity (immune-senescence) and high levels of comorbidity. The low risk of reinfection in our study suggests identification of immune correlates of protection in this population will require pooling of data across multiple cohorts. As vaccination coverage in residents approaches 100% in England, it will be important to understand whether vaccination and natural infection provide comparable levels of protection against infection. Such insights will inform future policy decisions regarding re-vaccination schedules in LTCF, and the longer-term need for non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as asymptomatic testing and visitor restrictions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.08.21253110; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR294758; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR294758&type=FILE&fileName=EMS119128-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/10/2021.03.08.21253110.full.pdf PPR593389,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.05.23284214,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Antipsychotic Prescribing in individuals with autism, dementia, learning disability, serious mental illness or living in a care home: A federated analysis of 59 million patients’ primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY","The OpenSAFELY Collaborative:, Macdonald O, Green A, Walker A, Croker R, Curtis H, Brown A, Butler-Cole B, Andrews C, Morton C, Evans D, Inglesby P, Dillingham I, Massey J, Fisher L, Bacon S, Davy S, Ward T, Hulme W, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O’Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Wood I, Parkes N, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-07,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected health and social care services. We aimed to explore whether this impacted the prescribing rates of antipsychotics within at-risk populations.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we completed a retrospective cohort study, using the OpenSAFELY platform to explore primary care data of 59 million patients. We identified patients in five at-risk groups: autism, dementia, learning disability, serious mental illness and care home residents. We then calculated the monthly prevalence of antipsychotic prescribing in the population, as well as the incidence of new prescriptions in each month over the study period (Jan 2019-Dec 2021).

Results

The average monthly rate of antipsychotic prescribing increased in dementia from 82.75 patients prescribed an antipsychotic per 1000 patients (95% CI 82.30-83.19) in Q1 2019 to 90.1 (95% CI 89.68-90.60) in Q4 2021 and from 154.61 (95% CI 153.79-155.43) in Q1 2019 to 166.95 (95% CI 166.23-167.67) in Q4 2021 in care homes. There were notable spikes in the rate of new prescriptions issued to patients with dementia and in care homes. In learning disability and autism groups, the average monthly rate of prescribing per 1000 decreased from 122.97 (95% CI 122.29-123.66) in Q1 2019 to 119.29 (95% CI 118.68-119.91) in Q4 2021, and from 54.91 (95% CI 54.52-55.29) in Q1 2019 to 51.04 (95% CI 50.74-51.35) in Q4 2021 respectively.

Conclusions

During each of the lockdowns in 2020, we observed a significant spike in antipsychotic prescribing in the dementia and care home groups. We have shown that these peaks are likely due to prescribing of antipsychotics for palliative care purposes and may have been linked to pre-emptive prescribing, when on-site medical visits would have been restricted. Over the study period, we observed gradual increases in antipsychotic use in patients with dementia and in care homes and a decrease in their use in patients with learning disability or autism.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/01/07/2023.01.05.23284214.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.05.23284214; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR593389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR593389&type=FILE&fileName=EMS159469-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR294758,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.08.21253110,Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection according to baseline antibody status in staff and residents of 100 Long Term Care Facilities (VIVALDI study),"Krutikov M, Palmer T, Tut G, Fuller C, Shrotri M, Williams H, Davies D, Irwin-Singer A, Robson J, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-10,Y,,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 infection represents a major challenge for Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) and many residents and staff are now sero-positive following persistent outbreaks. We investigated the relationship between the presence of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies and subsequent infection in this population.

Methods

Prospective cohort study of infection in staff and residents in 100 LTCFs in England between October 2020 and February 2021. Blood samples were collected at baseline (June 2020), 2 and 4 months and tested for IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid and spike protein. PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 was undertaken weekly in staff and monthly in residents. The primary analysis estimated the relative hazard of a PCR-positive test by baseline antibody status, from Cox regression adjusted for age and gender, and stratified by LTCF.

Findings

Study inclusion criteria were met by 682 residents and 1429 staff. Baseline IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid were detected in 226 residents (33%) and 408 staff (29%). A total of 93 antibody-negative residents had a PCR-positive test (0.054 per month at risk) compared to 4 antibody-positive residents (0.007 per month at risk). There were 111 PCR-positive tests in antibody-negative staff (0.042 per month at risk) compared to 10 in antibody-positive staff (0.009 per month at risk). The adjusted hazard ratios for reinfection in staff and residents with a baseline positive versus negative antibody test were 0.13 (95% CI 0.05-0.40) and 0.39 ((95% CI: 0.19-0.77) respectively. Of 12 reinfected participants with data on symptoms, 11 were symptomatic. Antibody titres to spike and nucleocapsid were comparable in PCR-positive and PCR-negative cases.

Interpretation

The presence of IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid was associated with substantially reduced risk of reinfection in staff and residents for up to 10 months after primary infection.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We performed a systematic search of MEDLINE (Ovid) and MedRxiv on 18 January 2021 for studies in LTCFs that described the risk of infection in individuals who were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 compared to individuals who were seronegative. Search terms were deliberately broad to improve capture of relevant literature and included “SARS-CoV-2”OR “COVID-19” OR “coronavirus” AND “care home” OR “nursing home” OR “long term care facility” with no date or language restrictions. We did not identify any publications that focussed on risk of reinfection in seropositive individuals, but subsequent to our search one study has been published using data from two LTCFs in London, UK. This study reported a 96% reduction in the odds of reinfection in individuals who were seropositive compared to those who were seronegative based on 4-month follow-up in 161 participants. We found 10 studies that performed seroprevalence surveys in either staff or staff and residents in LTCFs in 8 cohorts. Five of these were carried out in response to SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks within the care homes, either as part of the subsequent investigation or as post-infection surveillance. The largest of these, which enrolled both staff and residents, was performed in 6 LTCFs and performed longitudinal antibody testing.

Added value of this study

We undertook a cohort study in staff and residents from 100 LTCFs in England to investigate whether individuals with evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection could be infected twice. Staff and residents were offered up to three rounds of antibody testing and antibody results were linked to PCR test results which were obtained weekly from staff and monthly from residents through the national SARS-CoV-2 testing programme. This study, which was conducted in >2000 staff and residents, suggests that antibodies provide high levels of protection against reinfection for up to 10 months. Almost all cases of reinfection were symptomatic, but no cases required hospital treatment. Amongst those with detectable baseline antibodies, quantitative antibody titres against spike protein and nucleocapsid were comparable between cases of reinfection and those who did not become reinfected.

Implications of all available evidence

Despite high background rates of infection in LTCFs, the overall risk of reinfection was low in this population. This is broadly consistent with findings from large cohort studies of hospital staff, but, importantly, extends the evidence of substantial protection to frail elderly, who are vulnerable to severe outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 due to age-related changes in immunity (immune-senescence) and high levels of comorbidity. The low risk of reinfection in our study suggests identification of immune correlates of protection in this population will require pooling of data across multiple cohorts. As vaccination coverage in residents approaches 100% in England, it will be important to understand whether vaccination and natural infection provide comparable levels of protection against infection. Such insights will inform future policy decisions regarding re-vaccination schedules in LTCF, and the longer-term need for non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as asymptomatic testing and visitor restrictions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.08.21253110; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR294758; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR294758&type=FILE&fileName=EMS119128-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/10/2021.03.08.21253110.full.pdf PPR186543,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.10.20150656,Diagnostic value of skin manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection,"Bataille V, Visconti A, Rossi N, Murray B, Bournot A, Wolf J, Wolf J, Ourselin S, Steves C, Spector T, Falchi M.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-11,Y,,,,"SARS-CoV-2 causes multiple immune-related reactions at various stages of the disease. The wide variety of skin presentations has delayed linking these to the virus. Previous studies had attempted to look at the prevalence and timing of SARS-COV-2 rashes but were based on mostly hospitalized severe cases and had little follow up. Using data collected on a subset of 336,847 eligible UK users of the COVID Symptom Study app, we observed that 8.8% of the swab positive cases (total: 2,021 subjects) reported either a body rash or an acral rash, compared to 5.4% of those with a negative swab test (total: 25,136). Together, these two skin presentations showed an odds ratio (OR) of 1.67 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.41-1.96) for being swab positive. Skin rashes were also predictive in the larger untested group of symptomatic app users (N=54,652), as 8.2% of those who had reported at least one classical COVID-19 symptom, i . e ., fever, persistent cough, and/or anosmia, also reported a rash. Data from an independent online survey of 11,546 respondents with a rash showed that in 17% of swab positive cases, the rash was the initial presentation. Furthermore, in 21%, the rash was the only clinical sign. Skin rashes cluster with other COVID-19 symptoms, are predictive of a positive swab test and occur in a significant number of cases, either alone or before other classical symptoms. Recognising rashes is important in identifying new and earlier COVID-19 cases.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/10/26/2020.07.10.20150656.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.10.20150656; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR186543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR186543&type=FILE&fileName=EMS87210-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR215745,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.15.20194795,"A short report: Acute, non-COVID related medical admissions during the first wave of COVID-19: A retrospective comparison of changing patterns of disease","Riley B, Packer M, Gallier S, Sapey E, Atkin C.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-18,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with social restrictions in the UK from 16 th March 2020. It was unclear if the lockdown period was associated with differences in the case-mix of non-COVID acute medical admissions compared with the previous year.

Methods

Retrospective data were collected for 1 st -30 th April 2019 and 1 st –30 th April 2020 from University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest hospitals in the UK with over 2 million patient contacts per year. The latter time period was chosen to coincide with the peak of COVID-19 cases in the West Midlands. All patients admitted under acute medicine during these time periods were included. COVID-19 was confirmed by SARS-Cov-2 swab or a probable case of COVID-19 based on World Health Organization diagnostic parameters. Non-COVID patients were those with a negative SARS-Cov-2 swab and no suspicion of COVID-19. Data was sourced from UHB’s in-house electronic health system (EHS).

Results

The total number of acute medical admissions fell comparing April 2019 (n = 2409) to April 2020 (n = 1682). As a proportion of total admissions, those aged under 45 years decreased, while those aged 46 and over did not change. The number of admissions due to psychiatric conditions and overdoses was higher in April 2020 (p < 0.001). When viewed as a proportion of admissions, alcohol-related admissions (p = 0.004), psychiatric conditions and overdoses (p< 0.001) increased in April 2020 than in April 2019. The proportion of patients who were in hospital due to falls also increased in April 2020 (p< 0.001). In the same period, the absolute number and the proportion of admissions that were due to non-specific chest pain, to musculoskeletal complaints and patients who self-discharged prior to assessment decreased (p = 0.02, p = 0.01 and p = 0.002 respectively). There were no significant differences in non-COVID-related intensive care admissions or mortality between the same months in the two years.

Conclusion

In this large, single-centre study, there was a change in hospitalised case-mix when comparing April 2019 with April 2020: an increase in conditions which potentially reflect social isolation (falls, drug and alcohol misuse and psychiatric illness) and a decrease in conditions which rarely require in-patient hospital treatment (musculoskeletal pain and non-cardiac chest pain) especially among younger adults. These results highlight two areas for further research; the impact of social isolation on health and whether younger adults could be offered alternative health services to avoid potentially unnecessary hospital assessment.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.15.20194795; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR215745; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR215745&type=FILE&fileName=EMS96159-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/09/18/2020.09.15.20194795.full.pdf PPR199535,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.20172643,The impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission across 130 countries and territories,"Liu Y, Morgenstern C, Kelly J, Lowe R, Jit M, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-08-12,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are used to reduce transmission of SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, empirical evidence of the effectiveness of specific NPIs has been inconsistent. We assessed the effectiveness of NPIs around internal containment and closure, international travel restrictions, economic measures, and health system actions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 130 countries and territories.

Methods

We used panel (longitudinal) regression to estimate the effectiveness of 13 categories of NPIs in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission with data from January - June 2020. First, we examined the temporal association between NPIs using hierarchical cluster analyses. We then regressed the time-varying reproduction number ( R t ) of COVID-19 against different NPIs. We examined different model specifications to account for the temporal lag between NPIs and changes in R t , levels of NPI intensity, time-varying changes in NPI effect and variable selection criteria. Results were interpreted taking into account both the range of model specifications and temporal clustering of NPIs.

Results

There was strong evidence for an association between two NPIs (school closure, internal movement restrictions) and reduced R t . Another three NPIs (workplace closure, income support and debt/contract relief) had strong evidence of effectiveness when ignoring their level of intensity, while two NPIs (public events cancellation, restriction on gatherings) had strong evidence of their effectiveness only when evaluating their implementation at maximum capacity (e.g., restrictions on 1000+ people gathering were not effective, restrictions on <10 people gathering was). Evidence supporting the effectiveness of the remaining NPIs (stay-at-home requirements, public information campaigns, public transport closure, international travel controls, testing, contact tracing) was inconsistent and inconclusive. We found temporal clustering between many of the NPIs.

Conclusion

Understanding the impact that specific NPIs have had on SARS-CoV-2 transmission is complicated by temporal clustering, time-dependent variation in effects and differences in NPI intensity. However, the effectiveness of school closure and internal movement restrictions appears robust across different model specifications taking into account these effects, with some evidence that other NPIs may also be effective under particular conditions. This provides empirical evidence for the potential effectiveness of many although not all the actions policy-makers are taking to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7861967?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.20172643; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR199535; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR199535&type=FILE&fileName=EMS92611-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -202,8 +202,8 @@ PPR441045,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.11.22269017,Healthcare workers’ view PPR438312,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.28.21268461,Rapid turnaround multiplex sequencing of SARS-CoV-2: comparing tiling amplicon protocol performance,"Constantinides B, Webster H, Gentry J, Bastable J, Dunn L, Oakley S, Swann J, Sanderson N, Fowler PW, Ma G, Rodger G, Barrett L, Jeffery K, Peto TE, Stoesser N, Street T, Crook DW.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-01,Y,,,,"Genome sequencing is pivotal to SARS-CoV-2 surveillance, elucidating the emergence and global dissemination of acquired genetic mutations. Amplicon sequencing has proven very effective for sequencing SARS-CoV-2, but prevalent mutations disrupting primer binding sites have necessitated the revision of sequencing protocols in order to maintain performance for emerging virus lineages. We compared the performance of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) Midnight and ARTIC tiling amplicon protocols using 196 Delta lineage SARS-CoV-2 clinical specimens, and 71 mostly Omicron lineage samples with S gene target failure (SGTF), reflecting circulating lineages in the United Kingdom during December 2021. 96-plexed nanopore sequencing was used. For Delta lineage samples, ARTIC v4 recovered the greatest proportion of ≥90% complete genomes (81.1%; 159/193), followed by Midnight (71.5%; 138/193) and ARTIC v3 (34.1%; 14/41). Midnight protocol however yielded higher average genome recovery (mean 98.8%) than ARTIC v4 (98.1%) and ARTIC v3 (75.4%), resulting in less ambiguous final consensus assemblies overall. Explaining these observations were ARTIC v4’s superior genome recovery in low viral titre/high cycle threshold (Ct) samples and inferior performance in high titre/low Ct samples, where Midnight excelled. We evaluated Omicron sequencing performance using a revised Midnight primer mix alongside prototype ARTIC v4.1 primers, head-to-head with the existing commercially available Midnight and ARTIC v4 protocols. The revised protocols both improved considerably the recovery of Omicron genomes and exhibited similar overall performance to one another. Revised Midnight protocol recovered ≥90% complete genomes for 85.9% (61/71) of Omicron samples vs. 88.7% (63/71) for ARTIC v4.1. Approximate cost per sample for Midnight (£12) is lower than ARTIC (£16) while hands-on time is considerably lower for Midnight (∼7 hours) than ARTIC protocols (∼9.5 hours).",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/01/01/2021.12.28.21268461.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.28.21268461; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR438312; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR438312&type=FILE&fileName=EMS142102-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR296449,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.21253364,Analysis of severe outcomes associated with the SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern 202012/01 in England using ICNARC Case Mix Programme and QResearch databases,"Patone M, Thomas K, Hatch R, Tan PS, Coupland C, Liao W, Mouncey P, Harrison D, Rowan K, Horby P, Watkinson P, Hippisley-Cox J.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-12,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

A new, more transmissible variant of SARS-CoV-2, variant of concern (VOC) 202012/01 or lineage B.1.1.7, has emerged in the UK. We estimate the risk of critical care admission, mortality in critical ill patients, and overall mortality associated with VOC B.1.1.7 compared with the original variant. We also compare clinical outcomes between these variants ‘ groups.

Methods

We linked a large primary care (QResearch), the national critical care (ICNARC CMP) and the COVID-19 testing (PHE) database and extracted two cohorts. The first was used to explore the association between VOC B.1.1.7 and critical care admission and 28-day mortality. The second to determine the risk of mortality in critically ill patients with VOC B.1.1.7 compared to those without. We used Royston-Parmar models adjusted for age, sex, region, other socio-demographics and comorbidities (asthma, COPD, type I and II, hypertension). We reported information on types and duration of organ supports for the two variants ‘ groups.

Findings

The first cohort included 198,420 patients. Of these, 80,494 had VOC B.1.1.7, 712 were critically ill and 630 died by 28 days. The second cohort included 3432 critically ill patients. Of these, 2019 had VOC B.1.1.7 and 822 died at the end of critical care. Using the first cohort, we estimated adjusted hazard ratios for critical care admission and mortality to be 1.99 (95% CI: 1.59, 2.49) and 1.59 (95% CI: 1.25-2.03) for VOC B.1.1.7 compared with the original variant group, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio for mortality in critical care, estimated using the second cohort, was 0.93 (95% CI 0.76-1.15) for patients with VOC B.1.1.7, compared to those without.

Interpretation

VOC B.1.1.7 appears to be more severe. Patients with VOC B.1.1.7 are at increased risk of critical care admission and mortality compared with patients without. For patients receiving critical care, mortality appears independent of virus strain.

RESEARCH IN CONTEXT

Evidence before this study

A new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, variant of concern (VOC) 202012/01, or lineage B.1.1.7, was detected in England in September 2020. The characteristics and outcomes of patients infected with VOC B.1.1.7 are not yet known. VOC B.1.1.7 has been associated with increased transmissibility. Early analyses have suggested infection with VOC B.1.1.7 may be associated with a higher risk of mortality compared with infection with other virus variants, but these analyses had either limited ability to adjust for key confounding variables or did not consider critical care admission. The effects of VOC B.1.1.7 on severe COVID-19 outcomes remain unclear.

Added value of this study

This study found a 60% higher risk of 28-day mortality associated with infection with VOC B.1.1.7 in patients tested in the community in comparison with the original variant, when adjusted for key confounding variables. The risk of critical care admission for those with VOC B.1.1.7 is double the risk associated with the original variant. For patients receiving critical care, the infecting variant is not associated with the risk of mortality at the end of critical care.

Implications of all the available evidence

The higher mortality and rate of critical care admission associated with VOC B.1.1.7, combined with its known increased transmissibility, are likely to put health care systems under further stress. These effects may be mitigated by the ongoing vaccination programme.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.21253364; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR296449; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR296449&type=FILE&fileName=EMS119297-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/12/2021.03.11.21253364.full.pdf PPR211707,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.04.20187781,Hydroxychloroquine for prevention of COVID-19 mortality: a population-based cohort study,"Rentsch CT, DeVito NJ, MacKenna B, Morton CE, Bhaskaran K, Brown JP, Schultze A, J Hulme W, Croker R, Walker AJ, Williamson EJ, Bates C, Bacon S, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, Evans D, Wing K, Inglesby P, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Wong AY, McDonald HI, Cockburn J, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Smeeth L, Douglas IJ, Dixon WG, Evans SJ, Tomlinson L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-09,Y,,,,"

Background

Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to inhibit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro, but early clinical studies found no benefit treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We set out to evaluate the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for prevention, as opposed to treatment, of COVID-19 mortality.

Methods

We pre-specified and conducted an observational, population-based cohort study using national primary care data and linked death registrations in the OpenSAFELY platform, representing 40% of the general population in England. We used Cox regression to estimate the association between ongoing routine hydroxychloroquine use prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in England and risk of COVID-19 mortality among people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Model adjustment was informed by a directed acyclic graph.

Results

Of 194,637 patients with RA or SLE, 30,569 (15.7%) received ≥ 2 prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine in the six months prior to 1 March 2020. Between 1 March 2020 and 13 July 2020, there were 547 COVID-19 deaths, 70 among hydroxychloroquine users. Estimated standardised cumulative COVID-19 mortality was 0.23% (95% CI 0.18–0.29) among users and 0.22% (95% CI 0.20–0.25) among non-users; an absolute difference of 0.008% (95% CI –0.051-0.066). After accounting for age, sex, ethnicity, use of other immunuosuppressives, and geographic region, no association with COVID-19 mortality was observed (HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.80–1.33). We found no evidence of interactions with age or other immunosuppressives. Quantitative bias analyses indicated observed associations were robust to missing information regarding additional biologic treatments for rheumatological disease. We observed similar associations with the negative control outcome of non-COVID-19 mortality.

Conclusion

We found no evidence of a difference in COVID-19 mortality among patients who received hydroxychloroquine for treatment of rheumatological disease prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in England.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Published trials and observational studies to date have shown no evidence of benefit of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for hospitalised patients who already have COVID-19. A separate question remains: whether routine ongoing use of hydroxychloroquine in people without COVID-19 protects against new infections or severe outcomes. We searched MEDLINE/PubMed for pharmacoepidemiological studies evaluating hydroxychloroquine for prevention of severe COVID-19 outcomes. The keywords “hydroxychloroquine AND (COVID OR coronavirus OR SARS-CoV-2) AND (prophyl* OR prevent*) AND (rate OR hazard OR odds OR risk)” were used and results were filtered to articles from the last year with abstracts available. 109 papers were identified for screening; none investigated pre-exposure prophylactic use of hydroxychloroquine for prevention of severe COVID-19 outcomes. Clinical trials of prophylactic use of hydroxychloroquine are ongoing; however, the largest trial does not expect to meet recruitment targets due to “…unjustified extrapolation and exaggerated safety concerns together with intense politicisation and negative publicity.” In the absence of reported clinical trials, evidence can be generated from real-world data to support the need for randomised clinical trials.

Added value of this study

In this cohort study representing 40% of the population of England, we investigated whether routine use of hydroxychloroquine prior to the COVID-19 outbreak prevented COVID-19 mortality. Using robust pharmacoepidemiological methods, we found no evidence to support a substantial benefit of hydroxychloroquine in preventing COVID-19 mortality. At the same time, we have shown no significant harm, and this generates the equipoise to justify continuing randomised trials. We have demonstrated in this study that it is feasible to address specific hypotheses about medicines in a rapid and transparent manner to inform interim clinical decision making and support the need for large-scale, randomised trial data.

Implications of all the available evidence

This is the first study to investigate the ongoing routine use of hydroxychloroquine and risk of COVID-19 mortality in a general population. While we found no evidence of any protective benefit, due to the observational nature of the study, residual confounding remains a possibility. Completion of trials for prevention of severe outcomes is warranted, but prior to the completion of these, we found no evidence to support the use of hydroxychloroquine for prevention of COVID-19 mortality.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4659478/1/rentsch_hcq.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.04.20187781; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR211707; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR211707&type=FILE&fileName=EMS94873-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR356941,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258735,Quarantine and testing strategies to reduce transmission risk from imported SARS-CoV-2 infections: a global modelling study,"Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Clifford S, Flasche S, Pickering S, Neil SJ, Galão RP, Edmunds WJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-06-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Many countries require incoming air travellers to quarantine on arrival and/or undergo testing to limit importation of SARS-CoV-2.

Methods

We developed mathematical models of SARS-CoV-2 viral load trajectories over the course of infection to assess the effectiveness of quarantine and testing strategies. We consider the utility of pre and post-flight Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and lateral flow testing (LFT) to reduce transmission risk from infected arrivals and to reduce the duration of, or replace, quarantine. We also estimate the effect of each strategy relative to domestic incidence, and limits of achievable risk reduction, for 99 countries where flight data and case numbers are estimated.

Results

We find that LFTs immediately pre-flight are more effective than PCR tests 3 days before departure in decreasing the number of departing infectious travellers. Pre-flight LFTs and post-flight quarantines, with tests to release, may prevent the majority of transmission from infectious arrivals while reducing the required duration of quarantine; a pre-flight LFT followed by 5 days in quarantine with a test to release would reduce the expected number of secondary cases generated by an infected traveller compared to symptomatic self-isolation alone, R s , by 85% (95% UI: 74%, 96%) for PCR and 85% (95% UI: 70%, 96%) for LFT, even assuming imperfect adherence to quarantine (28% of individuals) and self-isolation following a positive test (86%). Under the same adherence assumptions, 5 days of daily LFT testing would reduce R s by 91% (95% UI: 75%, 98%).

Conclusions

Strategies aimed at reducing the risk of imported cases should be considered with respect to: domestic incidence, transmission, and susceptibility; measures in place to support quarantining travellers; and incidence of new variants of concern in travellers’ origin countries. Daily testing with LFTs for 5 days is comparable to 5 days of quarantine with a test on exit or 14 days with no test.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/06/14/2021.06.11.21258735.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258735; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR356941; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR356941&type=FILE&fileName=EMS127927-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR450835,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.04.22270426,Appropriately smoothing prevalence data to inform estimates of growth rate and reproduction number,"Eales O, Ainslie KEC, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P, Riley S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-02-05,Y,,,,"The time-varying reproduction number ( R t ) can change rapidly over the course of a pandemic due to changing restrictions, behaviours, and levels of population immunity. Many methods exist that allow the estimation of R t from case data. However, these are not easily adapted to point prevalence data nor can they infer R t across periods of missing data. We developed a Bayesian P-spline model suitable for fitting to a wide range of epidemic time-series, including point-prevalence data. We demonstrate the utility of the model by fitting to periodic daily SARS-CoV-2 swab-positivity data in England from the first 7 rounds (May 2020 – December 2020) of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. Estimates of R t over the period of two subsequent rounds (6-8 weeks) and single rounds (2-3 weeks) inferred using the Bayesian P-spline model were broadly consistent with estimates from a simple exponential model, with overlapping credible intervals. However, there were sometimes substantial differences in point estimates. The Bayesian P-spline model was further able to infer changes in R t over shorter periods tracking a temporary increase above one during late-May 2020, a gradual increase in R t over the summer of 2020 as restrictions were eased, and a reduction in R t during England’ s second national lockdown followed by an increase as the Alpha variant surged. The model is robust against both under-fitting and over-fitting and is able to interpolate between periods of available data; it is a particularly versatile model when growth rate can change over small timescales, as in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This work highlights the importance of pairing robust methods with representative samples to track pandemics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.04.22270426; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR450835; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR450835&type=FILE&fileName=EMS143540-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/99415/2/Appropriately%20smoothing%20prevalence%20data%20to%20inform%20estimates%20of%20growth%20rate%20and%20reproduction%20number.pdf +PPR356941,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258735,Quarantine and testing strategies to reduce transmission risk from imported SARS-CoV-2 infections: a global modelling study,"Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Clifford S, Flasche S, Pickering S, Neil SJ, Galão RP, Edmunds WJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-06-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Many countries require incoming air travellers to quarantine on arrival and/or undergo testing to limit importation of SARS-CoV-2.

Methods

We developed mathematical models of SARS-CoV-2 viral load trajectories over the course of infection to assess the effectiveness of quarantine and testing strategies. We consider the utility of pre and post-flight Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and lateral flow testing (LFT) to reduce transmission risk from infected arrivals and to reduce the duration of, or replace, quarantine. We also estimate the effect of each strategy relative to domestic incidence, and limits of achievable risk reduction, for 99 countries where flight data and case numbers are estimated.

Results

We find that LFTs immediately pre-flight are more effective than PCR tests 3 days before departure in decreasing the number of departing infectious travellers. Pre-flight LFTs and post-flight quarantines, with tests to release, may prevent the majority of transmission from infectious arrivals while reducing the required duration of quarantine; a pre-flight LFT followed by 5 days in quarantine with a test to release would reduce the expected number of secondary cases generated by an infected traveller compared to symptomatic self-isolation alone, R s , by 85% (95% UI: 74%, 96%) for PCR and 85% (95% UI: 70%, 96%) for LFT, even assuming imperfect adherence to quarantine (28% of individuals) and self-isolation following a positive test (86%). Under the same adherence assumptions, 5 days of daily LFT testing would reduce R s by 91% (95% UI: 75%, 98%).

Conclusions

Strategies aimed at reducing the risk of imported cases should be considered with respect to: domestic incidence, transmission, and susceptibility; measures in place to support quarantining travellers; and incidence of new variants of concern in travellers’ origin countries. Daily testing with LFTs for 5 days is comparable to 5 days of quarantine with a test on exit or 14 days with no test.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/06/14/2021.06.11.21258735.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258735; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR356941; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR356941&type=FILE&fileName=EMS127927-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR279532,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.04.21251087,Staff-Pupil SARS-CoV-2 Infection Pathways in Schools: A Population Level Linked Data Approach,"Thompson DA, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Marchant E, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Hollinghurst J, North L, Lyons J, Torabi F, Davies G, Gravenor MB, Lyons R.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-08,Y,,,,"

Background

Better understanding of the role that children and school staff play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to guide policy development on controlling infection whilst minimising disruption to children’s education and wellbeing.

Methods

Our national e-cohort (n=500,779) study used anonymised linked data for pupils, staff and associated households linked via educational settings. We estimated the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for staff and pupils over the period August - December 2020, dependent on measures of recent exposure to known cases linked to their educational settings.

Results

The total number of cases in a school was not associated with a subsequent increase in the risk of testing positive (Staff OR per case 0.92, 95%CI 0.85, 1.00; Pupils OR per case 0.98, 95%CI 0.93, 1.02). Amongst pupils, the number of recent cases within the same year group was significantly associated with subsequent increased risk of testing positive (OR per case 1.12, 95%CI 1.08 – 1.15). These effects were adjusted for a range of demographic covariates, and in particular any known cases within the same household, which had the strongest association with testing positive (Staff OR 39.86, 95%CI 35.01, 45.38, pupil OR 9.39, 95%CI 8.94 – 9.88).

Conclusions

In a national school cohort, the odds of staff testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection were not significantly increased in the 14-day period after case detection in the school. However, pupils were found to be at increased risk, following cases appearing within their own year group, where most of their contacts occur. Strong mitigation measures over the whole of the study period may have reduced wider spread within the school environment.

What is known

Evidence of the role schools play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is limited Higher positivity rates are observed in school staff compared to pupils Lack of evidence on transmission pathways transmission into and within schools

What this study adds

First UK national level study of transmission between pupils and staff in a school environment during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Schools opening September-December 2020 was not associated with an increased subsequent risk of testing positive in staff Pupils were found to be at increased risk of testing positive, following cases appearing within their own year group",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56212/Download/56212__19426__59892786543a4e1983aa786d770d0e47.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.04.21251087; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR279532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR279532&type=FILE&fileName=EMS116161-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR221538,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.30.20204727,High prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 swab positivity in England during September 2020: interim report of round 5 of REACT-1 study,"Riley S, Ainslie KEC, Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-10-02,Y,,,,"

Background

REACT-1 is a community survey of PCR confirmed swab-positivity for SARS-CoV-2 among random samples of the population in England. This interim report includes data from the fifth round of data collection currently underway for swabs sampled from the 18th to 26th September 2020.

Methods

Repeated cross-sectional surveys of random samples of the population aged 5 years and over in England with sample size ranging from 120,000 to 160,000 people in each round of data collection. Collection of self-administered nose and throat swab for PCR and questionnaire data. Prevalence of swab-positivity by round and by demographic variables including age, sex, region, ethnicity. Estimation of reproduction number (R) between and within rounds, and time trends using exponential growth or decay model. Assessment of geographical clustering based on boundary-free spatial model.

Results

Over the 9 days for which data are available, we find 363 positives from 84,610 samples giving a weighted prevalence to date of 0.55% (0.47%, 0.64%) in round 5. This implies that 411,000 (351,000, 478,000) people in England are virus-positive under the assumption that the swab assay is 75% sensitive. Using data from the most recent two rounds, we estimate a doubling time of 10.6 (9.4, 12.0) days covering the period 20th August to 26th September, corresponding to a reproduction number R of 1.47 (1.40, 1.53). Using data only from round 5 we estimate a reproduction number of 1.06 (0.74, 1.46) with probability of 63% that R is greater than 1. Between rounds 4 and 5 there was a marked increase in unweighted prevalence at all ages. In the most recent data, prevalence was highest in the 18 to 24 yrs age group at 0.96% (0.68%, 1.36%). At 65+ yrs prevalence increased ∼7-fold between rounds 4 and 5 from 0.04% (0.03%, 0.07%) to 0.29% (0.23%, 0.37%). Prevalence increased in all regions between rounds 4 and 5, giving the highest unweighted prevalence in round 5 in the North West at 0.86% (0.69%, 1.06%). In London, prevalence increased ∼5-fold from 0.10% (0.06%, 0.17%) to 0.49% (0.36%, 0.68%). Regional R values ranged from 1.32 (1.16,1.50) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 1.63 (1.42, 1.88) in the East Midlands over the same period. In the most recent data, there was extensive clustering in the North West, Midlands and in and around London with pockets of clustering in other regions including the South West, North East and East of England. Odds of swab-positivity were ∼2-fold higher in people of Asian and Black ethnicity compared with white participants.

Conclusion

Rapid growth has led to high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in England among all regions and age groups, including those age groups at highest risk. Although there is evidence of a recent deceleration in the epidemic, current levels of prevalence will inevitably result in additional hospitalisations and mortality in coming weeks. A re-doubling of public health efforts is needed to return to a declining phase of the epidemic.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/10/02/2020.09.30.20204727.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.30.20204727; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR221538; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR221538&type=FILE&fileName=EMS97443-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR466607,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.07.22272026,"Trends, variation and clinical characteristics of recipients of antivirals and neutralising monoclonal antibodies for non-hospitalised COVID-19: a descriptive cohort study of 23.4 million people in OpenSAFELY","The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Green A, Curtis HJ, Higgins R, Smith R, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Mahalingasivam V, Drysdale H, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Andrews C, Bacon S, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Fisher L, Hickman G, Hopcroft L, Hulme WJ, Nab L, Massey J, McDonald O, Morley J, Morton CE, Park R, Walker AJ, Ward T, Wiedemann M, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, Tomlinson L, MacKenna B, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-03-10,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Ascertain patient eligibility status and describe coverage of antivirals and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMAB) as treatment for COVID-19 in community settings in England.

Design

Cohort study, approved by NHS England.

Setting

Routine clinical data from 23.4m people linked to data on COVID-19 infection and treatment, within the OpenSAFELY-TPP database.

Participants

Non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients at high-risk of severe outcomes.

Interventions

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid), sotrovimab, molnupiravir, casirivimab or remdesivir, administered in the community by COVID-19 Medicine Delivery Units.

Results

We identified 102,170 non-hospitalised patients with COVID-19 between 11 th December 2021 and 28 th April 2022 at high-risk of severe outcomes and therefore potentially eligible for antiviral and/or nMAB treatment. Of these patients, 18,210 (18%) received treatment; sotrovimab, 9,340 (51%); molnupiravir, 4,500 (25%); Paxlovid, 4,290 (24%); casirivimab, 50 (<1%); and remdesivir, 20 (<1%). The proportion of patients treated increased from 8% (180/2,380) in the first week of treatment availability to 22% (420/1870) in the latest week. The proportion treated varied by high risk group, lowest in those with Liver disease (12%; 95% CI 11 to 13); by treatment type, with sotrovimab favoured over molnupiravir/Paxlovid in all but three high risk groups: Down syndrome (36%; 95% CI 31 to 40), Rare neurological conditions (46%; 95% CI 44 to 48), and Primary immune deficiencies (49%; 95% CI 48 to 51); by ethnicity, from Black (10%; 95% CI 9 to 11) to White (18%; 95% CI 18 to 19); by NHS Region, from 11% (95% CI 10 to 12) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 23% (95% CI 22 to 24) in the East of England); and by deprivation level, from 12% (95% CI 12 to 13) in the most deprived areas to 21% (95% CI 21 to 22) in the least deprived areas. There was also lower coverage among unvaccinated patients (5%; 95% CI 4 to 7), those with dementia (5%; 95% CI 4 to 6) and care home residents (6%; 95% CI 5 to 6).

Conclusions

Using the OpenSAFELY platform we were able to identify patients who were potentially eligible to receive treatment and assess the coverage of these new treatments amongst these patients. Targeted activity may be needed to address apparent lower treatment coverage observed among certain groups, in particular (at present): different NHS regions, socioeconomically deprived areas, and care homes.

What is already known about this topic

Since the emergence of COVID-19, a number of approaches to treatment have been tried and evaluated. These have mainly consisted of treatments such as dexamethasone, which were used in UK hospitals,from early on in the pandemic to prevent progression to severe disease. Until recently (December 2021), no treatments have been widely used in community settings across England.

What this study adds

Following the rollout of antiviral medicines and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMABs) as treatment for patients with COVID-19, we were able to identify patients who were potentially eligible to receive antivirals or nMABs and assess the coverage of these new treatments amongst these patients, in as close to real-time as the available data flows would support. While the proportion of the potentially eligible patients receiving treatment increased over time, rising from 8% (180/2,380) in the first week of the roll out to 22% (420/1870) in the last week of April 2022, there were variations in coverage between key clinical, geographic, and demographic subgroup.

How this study might affect research, practice, or policy

Targeted activity may therefore be needed to address lower treatment rates observed among certain geographic areas and key groups including ethnic minorities, people living in areas of higher deprivation, and in care homes.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/06/01/2022.03.07.22272026.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.07.22272026; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR466607; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR466607&type=FILE&fileName=EMS145672-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -227,8 +227,8 @@ PPR414422,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3552864,"The Effect of Control Strategies PPR373497,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.22.21260416,"Obesity, Ethnicity, and Covid-19 Mortality: A population-based cohort study of 12.6 Million Adults in England","Yates T, Summerfield A, Razieh C, Banerjee A, Chudasama Y, Davies MJ, Gillies C, Islam N, Lawson C, Mirkes E, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Nafilyan V.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-07-23,Y,,,,"

Importance

Obesity and ethnicity are well characterised risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes, but the differential effects of obesity on COVID-19 outcomes by race/ethnicity has not been examined robustly in the general population.

Objective

To investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and COVID-19 mortality across different ethnic groups.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This is a retrospective cohort study using linked national Census, electronic health records and mortality data for English adults aged 40 years or older who were alive at the start of pandemic (24 th January 2020).

Exposures

BMI obtained from electronic health records. Self-reported ethnicity (white, black, South Asian, other) was the effect-modifying variable.

Main Outcomes and Measures

COVID-19 related death identified by ICD-10 codes U07.1 or U07.2 mentioned on the death certificate from 24 th January 2020 until December 28 th 2020.

Results

The analysis included white (n = 11,074,708; mean age 61.9 [±13.4] years; 54% women), black (n = 416,542; 56.4 [±11.7] years; 57% women), South Asian (621,691; 55.7 [±12.4] years; 51% women) and other (n = 478,196; 55.3 [±11.6] years; 55% women) ethnicities with linked BMI data. The association between BMI and COVID-19 mortality was stronger in ethnic minority groups. Compared to a BMI of 22.5 kg/m 2 in white ethnicities, the adjusted HR for COVID-19 mortality at a BMI of 30 kg/m 2 in white, black, South Asian and other ethnicities was 0.95 (95% CI: 0.87-1.03), 1.72 (1.52-1.94), 2.00 (1.78-2.25) and 1.39 (1.21-1.61), respectively. The estimated risk of COVID-19 mortality at a BMI of 40 kg/m 2 in white ethnicities (HR = 1.73) was equivalent to the risk observed at a BMI of 30.1 kg/m 2 , 27.0 kg/m 2 , and 32.2 kg/m 2 in black, South Asian and other ethnic groups, respectively.

Conclusions

This population-based study using linked Census and electronic health care records demonstrates that the risk of COVID-19 mortality associated with obesity is greater in ethnic minority groups compared to white populations.

Question

Does the association between BMI and COVID-19 mortality vary by ethnicity?

Findings

In this study of 12.6 million adults, BMI was associated with COVID-19 in all ethnicities, but with stronger associations in ethnic minority populations such that the risk of COVID-19 mortality for a BMI of 40 kg/m 2 in white ethnicities was observed at a BMI of 30.1 kg/m 2 , 27.0 kg/m 2 , and 32.2 kg/m 2 in black, South Asian and other ethnicities, respectively.

Meaning

BMI is a stronger risk factor for COVID-19 mortality in ethnic minorities. Obesity management is therefore a priority in these populations.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/07/23/2021.07.22.21260416.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.22.21260416; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR373497; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR373497&type=FILE&fileName=EMS132179-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR605310,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4237731,Insights into COVID-19 Epidemiology and Control from Temporal Changes in Serial Interval Distributions in Hong Kong,"Ali ST, Chen D, Lim WW, Yeung A, Adam DC, Lau YC, Lau EH, Wong JY, Xiao J, Ho F, Gao H, Wang L, Xu X, Du Z, Wu P, Leung G, Cowling BJ.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-10-04,N,,,,"Background: The serial interval distribution is used to approximate the generation time distribution, an essential parameter to infer the transmissibility (Rt) of an epidemic. However, serial interval distributions may change as an epidemic progresses rather than remaining constant.

Method: We examined detailed contact tracing data on laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Hong Kong during the five waves from January 2020 to July 2022. We reconstructed the transmission pairs and estimated time-varying effective serial interval distributions using Bayesian inferential framework with a sliding window of 7-14 days. We used regression models to identify the factors of temporal changes in serial intervals and quantify their respective impacts. Finally, we assessed the biases in estimating transmissibility using constant over time-varying serial interval distributions.

Findings: 2497 transmission pairs were identified for the ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-2 during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. We found clear temporal changes in mean serial interval estimates within each epidemic wave studied and across waves, with mean serial intervals ranged from 5.5 days (95% CrI: 4.4, 6.6) to 2.7 (95% CrI: 2.2, 3.2) days. The mean serial intervals shortened or lengthened over time, which were found to be closely associated with the temporal variation in COVID-19 case profiles and public health and social measures and could lead to the biases in predicting Rt.

Interpretation: Accounting for the impact of these factors, the time-varying quantification of serial interval distributions could lead to improved estimation of Rt, and provide additional insights into the impact of public health measures on transmission.

Funding Information: This study was supported by the Health and Medical Research Fund (project no. 20190712); the Collaborative Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (project No. C7123-20G); AIR@InnoHK administered by Innovation and Technology Commission, European Research Council (grant no. 804744); the Grand Challenges ICODA pilot initiative, delivered by Health Data Research UK and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation.

Declaration of Interests: BJC received honoraria from AstraZeneca, Fosun Pharma, GSK, Moderna, Pfizer, Roche, and Sanofi. The authors report no other potential conflicts of interest.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.29.22279351; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4237731; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR605310; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4237731 PPR270071,https://doi.org/,Key Questions for Modelling COVID-19 Exit Strategies,"Thompson RN, Hollingsworth TD, Isham V, Arribas-Bel D, Ashby B, Britton T, Challoner P, Chappell LHK, Clapham H, Cunniffe NJ, Dawid AP, Donnelly CA, Eggo R, Funk S, Gilbert N, Gog JR, Glendinning P, Hart WS, Heesterbeek H, House T, Keeling M, Kiss IZ, Kretzschmar M, Lloyd AL, McBryde ES, McCaw JM, Miller JC, McKinley TJ, Morris M, ONeill PD, Pearson CAB, Parag KV, Pellis L, Pulliam JRC, Ross JV, Tildesley MJ, Tomba GS, Silverman BW, Struchiner CJ, Trapman P, Webb CR, Mollison D, Restif O.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-21,N,,,,"Combinations of intense non-pharmaceutical interventions ('lockdowns') were introduced in countries worldwide to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Many governments have begun to implement lockdown exit strategies that allow restrictions to be relaxed while attempting to control the risk of a surge in cases. Mathematical modelling has played a central role in guiding interventions, but the challenge of designing optimal exit strategies in the face of ongoing transmission is unprecedented. Here, we report discussions from the Isaac Newton Institute 'Models for an exit strategy' workshop (11-15 May 2020). A diverse community of modellers who are providing evidence to governments worldwide were asked to identify the main questions that, if answered, will allow for more accurate predictions of the effects of different exit strategies. Based on these questions, we propose a roadmap to facilitate the development of reliable models to guide exit strategies. The roadmap requires a global collaborative effort from the scientific community and policy-makers, and is made up of three parts: i) improve estimation of key epidemiological parameters; ii) understand sources of heterogeneity in populations; iii) focus on requirements for data collection, particularly in Low-to-Middle-Income countries. This will provide important information for planning exit strategies that balance socio-economic benefits with public health.",,arxiv:https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.13012v4; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR270071 -PPR463503,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.02.22271623,"Baricitinib in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial and updated meta-analysis","RECOVERY Collaborative Group, Horby PW, Emberson JR, Mafham M, Campbell M, Peto L, Pessoa-Amorim G, Spata E, Staplin N, Lowe C, Chadwick DR, Brightling C, Stewart R, Collini P, Ashish A, Green CA, Prudon B, Felton T, Kerry A, Baillie JK, Buch MH, Day JN, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Juszczak E, Knight M, Lim WS, Montgomery A, Mumford A, Rowan K, Thwaites G, Haynes R, Landray MJ.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-03-03,Y,,,,"

SUMMARY

Background

We evaluated the use of baricitinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) 1/2 inhibitor, for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital because of COVID-19.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus baricitinib 4 mg once daily by mouth for 10 days or until discharge if sooner (baricitinib group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality assessed in the intention-to-treat population. A meta-analysis was conducted that included the results from the RECOVERY trial and all previous randomised controlled trials of baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT04381936 ).

Findings

Between 2 February 2021 and 29 December 2021, 8156 patients were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus baricitinib versus usual care alone. At randomisation, 95% of patients were receiving corticosteroids and 23% receiving tocilizumab (with planned use within the next 24 hours recorded for a further 9%). Overall, 513 (12%) of 4148 patients allocated to baricitinib versus 546 (14%) of 4008 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (age-adjusted rate ratio 0·87; 95% CI 0·77-0·98; p=0·026). This 13% proportional reduction in mortality was somewhat smaller than that seen in a meta-analysis of 8 previous trials of a JAK inhibitor (involving 3732 patients and 425 deaths) in which allocation to a JAK inhibitor was associated with a 43% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0.57; 95% CI 0.45-0.72). Including the results from RECOVERY into an updated meta-analysis of all 9 completed trials (involving 11,888 randomised patients and 1484 deaths) allocation to baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor was associated with a 20% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0.80; 95% CI 0.71-0.89; p<0.001). In RECOVERY, there was no significant excess in death or infection due to non-COVID-19 causes and no excess of thrombosis, or other safety outcomes.

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised for COVID-19, baricitinib significantly reduced the risk of death but the size of benefit was somewhat smaller than that suggested by previous trials. The total randomised evidence to date suggests that JAK inhibitors (chiefly baricitinib) reduce mortality in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 by about one-fifth.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research (Grant ref: MC_PC_19056).",,pdf:https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/preview/9409854/PIIS0140673622011096.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.02.22271623; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR463503; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR463503&type=FILE&fileName=EMS148878-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR186981,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.12.20152298,The effect of international travel restrictions on internal spread of COVID-19,"Russell TW, Wu JT, Clifford S, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ, Jit M, CMMID COVID-19 working group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Countries have restricted international arrivals to delay the spread of COVID-19. These measures carry a high economic and social cost. They may have little impact on COVID-19 epidemics if there are many more cases resulting from local transmission compared to imported cases.

Methods

To inform decisions about international travel restrictions, we compared the ratio of expected COVID-19 cases from international travel (assuming no travel restrictions) to the expected COVID-19 cases arising from internal spread on an average day in May 2020 in each country. COVID-19 prevalence and incidence were estimated using a modelling framework that adjusts reported cases for under-ascertainment and asymptomatic infections.

Findings

With May 2019 travel volumes, imported cases account for <10% of total incidence in 103 (95% credible interval: 76 − 130) out of 142 countries, and <1% in 48 (95% CrI: 9 − 95). If we assume that travel would decrease compared to May 2019 even in the absence of formal restrictions, then imported cases account for <10% of total incidence in 109-123 countries and <1% in 61-88 countries (depending on the assumptions about travel reductions).

Interpretation

While countries can expect infected travellers to arrive in the absence of travel restrictions, in most countries these imported cases likely contribute little to local COVID-19 epidemics. Stringent travel restrictions may have limited impact on epidemic dynamics except in countries with low COVID-19 incidence and large numbers of arrivals from other countries.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, UK Department for International Development, European Commission, National Institute for Health Research, Medical Research Council, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Countries are at different stages of COVID-19 epidemics, so many have implemented policies to minimise the risk of importing cases via international travel. Such policies include border closures, flight suspensions, quarantine and self-isolation on international arrivals. Searching PubMed and MedRxiv using the search: (“covid” OR “coronavirus” OR “SARS-CoV-2”) AND (“travel” OR “restrictions” OR “flight” OR “flights” OR “border”) from 1 January – 10 July 2020 returned 118 and 84 studies respectively, of which 39 were relevant to our study. These studies either concentrated in detail on the risk of importation to specific countries or used a single epidemiological or travel dataset to estimate risk. Most of them focused on the risk of COVID-19 introduction from China or other countries with cases earlier in 2020. No study combined country-specific travel data, prevalence estimates and incidence estimates to assess the global risk of importation relative to current local transmission within countries.

Added value of this study

We combined data on airline passengers and flight frequencies with estimates of COVID-19 prevalence and incidence (adjusted for underreporting and asymptomatic cases), to estimate the risk of imported cases, relative to the level of local transmission in each country. This allows decision makers to determine where travel restriction policies make large contributions to slowing local transmission, and where they have very little overall effect.

Implications of all the available evidence

In most countries, imported cases would make a relatively small contribution to local transmission, so travel restrictions would have very little effect on epidemics. Countries where travel restrictions would have a large effect on local transmission are those with strong travel links to countries with high COVID-19 prevalence and/or countries which have successfully managed to control their local outbreaks.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/07/14/2020.07.12.20152298.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.12.20152298; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR186981; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR186981&type=FILE&fileName=EMS87133-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR463503,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.02.22271623,"Baricitinib in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial and updated meta-analysis","RECOVERY Collaborative Group, Horby PW, Emberson JR, Mafham M, Campbell M, Peto L, Pessoa-Amorim G, Spata E, Staplin N, Lowe C, Chadwick DR, Brightling C, Stewart R, Collini P, Ashish A, Green CA, Prudon B, Felton T, Kerry A, Baillie JK, Buch MH, Day JN, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Juszczak E, Knight M, Lim WS, Montgomery A, Mumford A, Rowan K, Thwaites G, Haynes R, Landray MJ.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-03-03,Y,,,,"

SUMMARY

Background

We evaluated the use of baricitinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) 1/2 inhibitor, for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital because of COVID-19.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus baricitinib 4 mg once daily by mouth for 10 days or until discharge if sooner (baricitinib group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality assessed in the intention-to-treat population. A meta-analysis was conducted that included the results from the RECOVERY trial and all previous randomised controlled trials of baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT04381936 ).

Findings

Between 2 February 2021 and 29 December 2021, 8156 patients were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus baricitinib versus usual care alone. At randomisation, 95% of patients were receiving corticosteroids and 23% receiving tocilizumab (with planned use within the next 24 hours recorded for a further 9%). Overall, 513 (12%) of 4148 patients allocated to baricitinib versus 546 (14%) of 4008 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (age-adjusted rate ratio 0·87; 95% CI 0·77-0·98; p=0·026). This 13% proportional reduction in mortality was somewhat smaller than that seen in a meta-analysis of 8 previous trials of a JAK inhibitor (involving 3732 patients and 425 deaths) in which allocation to a JAK inhibitor was associated with a 43% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0.57; 95% CI 0.45-0.72). Including the results from RECOVERY into an updated meta-analysis of all 9 completed trials (involving 11,888 randomised patients and 1484 deaths) allocation to baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor was associated with a 20% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0.80; 95% CI 0.71-0.89; p<0.001). In RECOVERY, there was no significant excess in death or infection due to non-COVID-19 causes and no excess of thrombosis, or other safety outcomes.

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised for COVID-19, baricitinib significantly reduced the risk of death but the size of benefit was somewhat smaller than that suggested by previous trials. The total randomised evidence to date suggests that JAK inhibitors (chiefly baricitinib) reduce mortality in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 by about one-fifth.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research (Grant ref: MC_PC_19056).",,pdf:https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/preview/9409854/PIIS0140673622011096.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.02.22271623; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR463503; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR463503&type=FILE&fileName=EMS148878-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR601851,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3970709,Impact of First UK COVID-19 Lockdown on Hospital Admissions: Interrupted Time Series Study of 32 Million People,"Shah SA, Brophy S, Kennedy J, Fisher L, Walker A, Mackenna B, Curtis H, Inglesby P, Davy S, Bacon S, Goldacre B, Group OC, Agrawal U, Moore E, Simpson C, Macleod J, Cooksey R, Sheikh A, Katikireddi SV.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-24,N,,,,"Background: Uncontrolled infection and lockdown measures introduced in response have resulted in an unprecedented challenge for health systems internationally. Whether such disruption was due to lockdown itself and recedes when such measures are lifted is unclear. We assessed the short- and medium-term impacts of the first lockdown measures on hospital care for exemplar non-COVID-19 conditions in England, Scotland and Wales across diseases, sexes, and socioeconomic and ethnic groups.

Methods: We used OpenSAFELY (for England), EAVEII (Scotland), and SAIL Databank (Wales) to extract weekly hospital admission rates for cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory conditions (excluding COVID-19) from the pre-pandemic period until 25/10/2020 and conducted a controlled interrupted time series analysis. We undertook stratified analyses and assessed admission rates over seven months during which lockdown restrictions were gradually lifted.

Findings: Our combined dataset included 32 million people who contributed over 74 million person-years. Admission rates for all three conditions fell by 34.2% in England, 20.9% in Scotland, and 24.7% in Wales, with falls across every stratum considered. In all three nations, cancer-related admissions fell the most while respiratory-related admissions fell the least (e.g., rates fell by 40.5%, 21.9%, and 19.0% in England for cancer, cardiovascular-related, and respiratory-related admissions respectively). Unscheduled admissions rates fell more in the most than the least deprived quintile across all three nations. Some ethnic minority groups experienced greater falls in admissions (e.g., in England, unscheduled admissions fell by 9.5% for Whites, but 44.3%, 34.6%, and 25.6% for Mixed, Other and Black ethnic groups respectively). Despite easing of restrictions, the overall admission rates remained lower in England, Scotland, and Wales by 20.8%, 21.6%, and 22.0% respectively when compared to the same period (August-September) during the pre-pandemic years.

Interpretation: Hospital care for non-COVID diseases fell substantially across England, Scotland, and Wales during the first lockdown, with disruptions persisting for at least six months. The most deprived and minority ethnic groups were impacted more severely.

Funding Information: Medical Research Council; Health Data Research UK; Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; Scottish Government; National Institute for Health Research; Asthma UK-BLF; Wellcome Trust

Declaration of Interests: SVK is co-chair of the Scottish Government’s Expert Reference Group on ethnicity and COVID-19 and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies subgroup on ethnicity. AS is a member of the Scottish Government Chief Medical Officer’s COVID-19 Advisory Group and its Standing Committee on Pandemics, and NERVTAG’s Risk Stratification Subgroup. All other authors declare no conflict of interest related to this work.

Ethics Approval Statement: There were database-specific ethics approvals that allowed the use of the anonymised datasets for the current research study. These approvals were by the Health Research Authority (20/LO/0651) and LSHTM Ethics Board (21863) for OpenSAFELY, South East Scotland Research Ethics Committee 02 (12/SS/0201) and Public Benefit and Privacy Panel Committee of Public Health Scotland (1920-0279) for EAVE-II, and SAIL’s independent Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP) for the SAIL Databank.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001924/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3970709; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR601851; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3970709 PPR371921,https://doi.org/,Explainable Automated Coding of Clinical Notes using Hierarchical Label-wise Attention Networks and Label Embedding Initialisation,"Dong H, Suárez-Paniagua V, Whiteley W, Wu H.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-07-16,Y,,,,"Diagnostic or procedural coding of clinical notes aims to derive a coded summary of disease-related information about patients. Such coding is usually done manually in hospitals but could potentially be automated to improve the efficiency and accuracy of medical coding. Recent studies on deep learning for automated medical coding achieved promising performances. However, the explainability of these models is usually poor, preventing them to be used confidently in supporting clinical practice. Another limitation is that these models mostly assume independence among labels, ignoring the complex correlation among medical codes which can potentially be exploited to improve the performance. We propose a Hierarchical Label-wise Attention Network (HLAN), which aimed to interpret the model by quantifying importance (as attention weights) of words and sentences related to each of the labels. Secondly, we propose to enhance the major deep learning models with a label embedding (LE) initialisation approach, which learns a dense, continuous vector representation and then injects the representation into the final layers and the label-wise attention layers in the models. We evaluated the methods using three settings on the MIMIC-III discharge summaries: full codes, top-50 codes, and the UK NHS COVID-19 shielding codes. Experiments were conducted to compare HLAN and LE initialisation to the state-of-the-art neural network based methods. HLAN achieved the best Micro-level AUC and $F_1$ on the top-50 code prediction and comparable results on the NHS COVID-19 shielding code prediction to other models. By highlighting the most salient words and sentences for each label, HLAN showed more meaningful and comprehensive model interpretation compared to its downgraded baselines and the CNN-based models. LE initialisation consistently boosted most deep learning models for automated medical coding.",,arxiv:https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.15728v4; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR371921; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR371921&type=FILE&fileName=EMS130963-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR289244,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3789264,Effectiveness of First Dose of COVID-19 Vaccines Against Hospital Admissions in Scotland: National Prospective Cohort Study of 5.4 Million People,"Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Shi T, Kerr S, Agrawal U, Akbari A, Bedston S, Beggs J, Bradley D, Chuter A, Lusignan Sd, Docherty A, Ford D, Hobbs R, Joy M, Katikireddi SV, Marple J, McCowan C, McGagh D, McMenamin J, Moore E, Murray J, Pan J, Ritchie LD, Shah SA, Stock S, Torabi F, Tsang RSM, Wood R, Woolhouse M, Sheikh A.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-19,N,,,,"Background: The BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) and ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) COVID-19 vaccines have demonstrated high efficacy against infection in phase 3 clinical trials and are now being used in national vaccination programmes in the UK and several other countries. There is an urgent need to study the ‘real-world’ effects of these vaccines. The aim of our study was to estimate the effectiveness of the first dose of these COVID-19 vaccines in preventing hospital admissions.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study using the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) database comprising of linked vaccination, primary care, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing, hospitalisation and mortality records for 5.4 million people in Scotland (covering ~99% of population). A time-dependent Cox model and Poisson regression models were fitted to estimate effectiveness against COVID-19 related hospitalisation (defined as 1- Adjusted Hazard Ratio) following the first dose of vaccine.

Findings: The first dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine was associated with a vaccine effect of 85% (95% confidence interval [CI] 76 to 91) for COVID-19 related hospitalisation at 28-34 days post-vaccination. Vaccine effect at the same time interval for the ChAdOx1 vaccine was 94% (95% CI 73 to 99). Results of combined vaccine effect for prevention of COVID-19 related hospitalisation were comparable when restricting the analysis to those aged ≥80 years (81%; 95% CI 65 to 90 at 28-34 days post-vaccination).

Interpretation: A single dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA and ChAdOx1 vaccines resulted in substantial reductions in the risk of COVID-19 related hospitalisation in Scotland.

Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council); Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; Health Data Research UK.

Conflict of Interest: AS is a member of the Scottish Government Chief Medical Officer’s COVID-19Advisory Group and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats (NERVTAG) Risk Stratification Subgroup. CRS declares funding from the MRC, NIHR, CSO and New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment and Health Research Council during the conduct of this study. SVK is co-chair of the Scottish Government’s Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and ethnicity, is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) subgroup on ethnicity and acknowledges funding from a NRS Senior Clinical Fellowship, MRC and CSO. All other authors report no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval: Approvals were obtained from the National Research Ethics Service Committee, Southeast Scotland 02 (reference number: 12/SS/0201) and Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (reference number: 1920-0279).",,pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/197030199/SSRN_id3789264.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3789264; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR289244; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3789264 @@ -243,8 +243,8 @@ PPR184537,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.03.20145912,Ultraviolet A Radiation an PPR117001,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033050,"The effect of control strategies that reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China","Prem K, Liu Y, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Davies N, Jit M, Klepac P, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-03-12,Y,,,,"

BACKGROUND

In December 2019, a novel strain of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China. Since then, the city of Wuhan has taken unprecedented measures and efforts in response to the outbreak.

METHODS

We quantified the effects of control measures on population contact patterns in Wuhan, China, to assess their effects on the progression of the outbreak. We included the latest estimates of epidemic parameters from a transmission model fitted to data on local and internationally exported cases from Wuhan in the age-structured epidemic framework. Further, we looked at the age-distribution of cases. Lastly, we simulated lifting of the control measures by allowing people to return to work in a phased-in way, and looked at the effects of returning to work at different stages of the underlying outbreak.

FINDINGS

Changes in mixing patterns may have contributed to reducing the number of infections in mid-2020 by 92% (interquartile range: 66–97%). There are benefits to sustaining these measures until April in terms of reducing the height of the peak, overall epidemic size in mid-2020 and probability that a second peak may occur after return to work. However, the modelled effects of social distancing measures vary by the duration of infectiousness and the role school children play in the epidemic.

INTERPRETATION

Restrictions on activities in Wuhan, if maintained until April, would likely contribute to the reduction and delay the epidemic size and peak, respectively. However, there are some limitations to the analysis, including large uncertainties around estimates of R0 and the duration of infectiousness.

FUNDING

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, and Health Data Research UK.","This study looks at the control strategies in Wuhan, China. The study utilised computer simulation techniques to undertand the effectiveness of measures taken and the likely impact of reducing these measures.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033050; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR117001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR117001&type=FILE&fileName=EMS89045-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR676615,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.14.23291389,"Cohort Profile: Born in Wales - a birth cohort with maternity, parental, and child data linkage for life course research in Wales, UK","Jones H, Seaborne M, Kennedy N, James M, Dredge S, Bandyopadhyay A, Battaglia A, Davies S, Brophy S.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-06-15,Y,,,,"

Purpose

Parental and neonatal child health and education records have been linked to provide an entire country birth cohort, to examine what will improve the health and wellbeing of families growing up in Wales. Established in 2020, Born in Wales utilised data linkage techniques to connect information from the 2011 census with health, social care, and education routine data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We present the descriptive data available in the linked database, emphasise the robust data security and governance frameworks, and present the future expansion plans for the database beyond its initial development stage.

Participants

Descriptive information from 2011 to 2023 has been gathered from SAIL. This comprehensive dataset comprises over 400,000 child electronic records. To augment this data, the Born in Wales and primary school surveys have contributed quantitative and qualitative responses.

Findings to date

The cohort comprises all children born in Wales since 2011, with follow-up conducted until they finish primary school at age 11. 2,500 parents and 30,000 primary school children have been recruited for enhanced data collection and linkage to the data spine. The child cohort is 51%: 49% female: male, and 6% are from ethnic minority backgrounds. When considering age distribution, 26.8% of children are under the age of 5, while 63.2% fall within the age range of 5-11.

Future plans

Born in Wales will expand by 30,000 new births annually in Wales, while including follow-up data of children and parents already in the database. Supplementary datasets complement the existing linkage, including primary care, hospital data, educational attainment and social care. Future research includes exploring the long-term implications of COVID-19 on child health and development, the influence of environmental factors including climate change on health and examining the impact of parental work environment on child health and development.

Strengths and limitations of this study

Born in Wales has established a comprehensive, Wales-wide population-based database which consolidates clinical data from maternity, neonatal, child health, and education records. This national-scale database is supplemented by quantitative and qualitative results from surveys conducted by Born in Wales, providing rich insights into details that cannot be obtained through routinely collected data. The existence of this database enables further data linkage, facilitating life course research on the health and wellbeing of the Wales population. Missing data or errors in routine and administrative data may be constraint. A potential restriction of Born in Wales is the loss of data pertaining to individuals who relocate outside of Wales during pregnancy or after the child’s birth.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/06/15/2023.06.14.23291389.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.14.23291389; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR676615; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR676615&type=FILE&fileName=EMS177701-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR602096,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4260125,The Impact of the First Year of COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy in Brazil: An Ecological Study,"Aguilar S, Bastos LdSL, Maçaira P, Baiao FA, Simões P, Cerbino-Neto J, Ranzani O, Hamacher S, Bozza FA.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-10-27,Y,,,,"Background: Countries have used different strategies to prioritize who be vaccinated first during the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out. No consensus exists about the best strategy to be adopted by low-and-middle-income countries with limited access to vaccines. Brazil adopted an age-based calendar strategy to reduce mortality and the burden over the healthcare system. The impact of this strategy on preventing deaths and years of life lost was not estimated.

Methods: This ecological study analyses the dynamic of vaccination coverage and COVID-19 deaths in adults (≥20 years) during the first year of the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out (January-December, 2021) using nationwide data (DATASUS). We stratified the adult population into 20-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70+ years. The dynamic effect of the vaccination campaign on mortality rates was estimated using Differences-in-Differences. The prevented and preventable deaths (observed deaths higher than expected), and Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL), for each age group were obtained in a counterfactual analysis.

Findings: During the first year of COVID-19 vaccination 266,153,517 doses were administered, achieving 91% first-dose coverage. 380,594 deaths were reported, being 154,091 (40%) in 70+, and 136,804 (36%) from 50-59 or 20-49 years. The mortality rates of 70+ decreased 52% (RRR [95% CI]: 0.48 [0.43-0.53]) in 6 months, whereas rates for 20-49 were still increasing due to the low coverage (52%). The vaccination roll-out strategy prevented 59,618 deaths, 53,088 (89%) from those aged 70+ years. However, the strategy did not prevent 54,797 deaths, 85% from those under 60 years, being 26,344 (45%) only in 20-49, corresponding to 1,589,271 PYLL, being 1,080,104 PYLL (68%) from those aged 20-49 years.

Interpretation: The adopted aged-based calendar vaccination strategy initially reduced the mortality in the oldest, but did not significantly prevent the deaths of the youngest. Countries with high burden, limited vaccine supply and young population should consider other factors besides age to prioritise who to vaccine first.

Funding Information: This work is part of the Grand Challenges ICODA pilot initiative, delivered by Health Data Research UK and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation. This study was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. OTR is funded by a Sara Borrell grant from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CD19/00110). OTR acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and State Research Agency through the ""Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023"" Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program.

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval Statement: Data was publicly available, anonymized, and de-identified. Following ethically agreed principles on open data, this analysis did not require ethical approval in Brazil.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4260125; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR602096; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR602096&type=FILE&fileName=EMS164205-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR670288,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.31.23290774,POST-COVID ORTHOPAEDIC ELECTIVE RESOURCE PLANNING USING SIMULATION MODELLING,"Harper A, Monks T, Wilson R, Redaniel MT, Eyles E, Jones T, Penfold C, Elliott A, Keen T, Pitt M, Blom A, Whitehouse M, Judge A.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-06-05,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To develop a simulation model to support orthopaedic elective capacity planning.

Methods

An open-source, generalisable discrete-event simulation was developed, including a web-based application. The model used anonymised patient records between 2016-2019 of elective orthopaedic procedures from an NHS Trust in England. In this paper, it is used to investigate scenarios including resourcing (beds and theatres) and productivity (lengths-of-stay, delayed discharges, theatre activity) to support planning for meeting new NHS targets aimed at reducing elective orthopaedic surgical backlogs in a proposed ring fenced orthopaedic surgical facility. The simulation is interactive and intended for use by health service planners and clinicians.

Results

A higher number of beds (65-70) than the proposed number (40 beds) will be required if lengths-of-stay and delayed discharge rates remain unchanged. Reducing lengths-of-stay in line with national benchmarks reduces bed utilisation to an estimated 60%, allowing for additional theatre activity such as weekend working. Further, reducing the proportion of patients with a delayed discharge by 75% reduces bed utilisation to below 40%, even with weekend working. A range of other scenarios can also be investigated directly by NHS planners using the interactive web app.

Conclusions

The simulation model is intended to support capacity planning of orthopaedic elective services by identifying a balance of capacity across theatres and beds and predicting the impact of productivity measures on capacity requirements. It is applicable beyond the study site and can be adapted for other specialties.

Strengths and Limitations of this study

The simulation model provides rapid quantitative estimates to support post-COVID elective services recovery toward medium-term elective targets. Parameter combinations include changes to both resourcing and productivity. The interactive web app enables intuitive parameter changes by users while underlying source code can be adapted or re-used for similar applications. Patient attributes such as complexity are not included in the model but are reflected in variables such as length-of-stay and delayed discharge rates. Theatre schedules are simplified, incorporating the five key orthopaedic elective surgical procedures.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/06/05/2023.05.31.23290774.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.31.23290774; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR670288; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR670288&type=FILE&fileName=EMS176961-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR233548,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.01.20222315,Association between living with children and outcomes from COVID-19: an OpenSAFELY cohort study of 12 million adults in England,"Forbes H, Morton CE, Bacon S, McDonald HI, Minassian C, Brown JP, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Schultze A, DeVito NJ, MacKenna B, Hulme WJ, Croker R, Walker AJ, Williamson EJ, Bates C, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, Evans D, Wing K, Inglesby P, Drysdale H, Wong AY, Cockburn J, McManus R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Evans SJ, Bhaskaran K, Eggo RM, Goldacre B, Tomlinson LA.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Close contact with children may provide cross-reactive immunity to SARs-CoV-2 due to more frequent prior coryzal infections from seasonal coronaviruses. Alternatively, close contact with children may increase risk of SARs-CoV-2 infection. We investigated whether risk of infection with SARs-CoV-2 and severe outcomes differed between adults living with and without children.

Methods

Working on behalf of NHS England, we conducted a population-based cohort study using primary care data and pseudonymously-linked hospital and intensive care admissions, and death records, from patients registered in general practices representing 40% of England. Using multivariable Cox regression, we calculated fully-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) of outcomes from 1st February-3rd August 2020 comparing adults living with and without children in the household.

Findings

Among 9,157,814 adults ≤65 years, living with children 0-11 years was not associated with increased risks of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 related hospital or ICU admission but was associated with reduced risk of COVID-19 death (HR 0.75, 95%CI 0.62-0.92). Living with children aged 12-18 years was associated with a small increased risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection (HR 1.08, 95%CI 1.03-1.13), but not associated with other COVID-19 outcomes. Living with children of any age was also associated with lower risk of dying from non-COVID-19 causes. Among 2,567,671 adults >65 years there was no association between living with children and outcomes related to SARS-CoV-2. We observed no consistent changes in risk following school closure.

Interpretation

For adults living with children there is no evidence of an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. These findings have implications for determining the benefit-harm balance of children attending school in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funding

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council MR/V015737/1.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We searched MEDLINE on 19th October 2020 for population-based epidemiological studies comparing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease in people living with and without children. We searched for articles published in 2020, with abstracts available, and terms “(children or parents or dependants) AND (COVID or SARS-CoV-2 or coronavirus) AND (rate or hazard or odds or risk), in the title, abstract or keywords. 244 papers were identified for screening but none were relevant. One additional study in preprint was identified on medRxiv and found a reduced risk of hospitalisation for COVID-19 and a positive SARS-CoV-2 infection among adult healthcare workers living with children.

Added value of this study

This is the first population-based study to investigate whether the risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe outcomes from COVID-19 differ between adults living in households with and without school-aged children during the UK pandemic. Our findings show that for adults living with children there is no evidence of an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes although there may be a slightly increased risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection for working-age adults living with children aged 12 to 18 years. Working-age adults living with children 0 to 11 years have a lower risk of death from COVID-19 compared to adults living without children, with the effect size being comparable to their lower risk of death from any cause. We observed no consistent changes in risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe outcomes from COVID-19 comparing periods before and after school closure.

Implications of all the available evidence

Our results demonstrate no evidence of serious harms from COVID-19 to adults in close contact with children, compared to those living in households without children. This has implications for determining the benefit-harm balance of children attending school in the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/372/bmj.n628.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.01.20222315; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR233548; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR233548&type=FILE&fileName=EMS103455-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR670288,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.31.23290774,POST-COVID ORTHOPAEDIC ELECTIVE RESOURCE PLANNING USING SIMULATION MODELLING,"Harper A, Monks T, Wilson R, Redaniel MT, Eyles E, Jones T, Penfold C, Elliott A, Keen T, Pitt M, Blom A, Whitehouse M, Judge A.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-06-05,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To develop a simulation model to support orthopaedic elective capacity planning.

Methods

An open-source, generalisable discrete-event simulation was developed, including a web-based application. The model used anonymised patient records between 2016-2019 of elective orthopaedic procedures from an NHS Trust in England. In this paper, it is used to investigate scenarios including resourcing (beds and theatres) and productivity (lengths-of-stay, delayed discharges, theatre activity) to support planning for meeting new NHS targets aimed at reducing elective orthopaedic surgical backlogs in a proposed ring fenced orthopaedic surgical facility. The simulation is interactive and intended for use by health service planners and clinicians.

Results

A higher number of beds (65-70) than the proposed number (40 beds) will be required if lengths-of-stay and delayed discharge rates remain unchanged. Reducing lengths-of-stay in line with national benchmarks reduces bed utilisation to an estimated 60%, allowing for additional theatre activity such as weekend working. Further, reducing the proportion of patients with a delayed discharge by 75% reduces bed utilisation to below 40%, even with weekend working. A range of other scenarios can also be investigated directly by NHS planners using the interactive web app.

Conclusions

The simulation model is intended to support capacity planning of orthopaedic elective services by identifying a balance of capacity across theatres and beds and predicting the impact of productivity measures on capacity requirements. It is applicable beyond the study site and can be adapted for other specialties.

Strengths and Limitations of this study

The simulation model provides rapid quantitative estimates to support post-COVID elective services recovery toward medium-term elective targets. Parameter combinations include changes to both resourcing and productivity. The interactive web app enables intuitive parameter changes by users while underlying source code can be adapted or re-used for similar applications. Patient attributes such as complexity are not included in the model but are reflected in variables such as length-of-stay and delayed discharge rates. Theatre schedules are simplified, incorporating the five key orthopaedic elective surgical procedures.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/06/05/2023.05.31.23290774.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.31.23290774; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR670288; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR670288&type=FILE&fileName=EMS176961-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR233926,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.03.20220699,A prospective study of risk factors associated with seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare workers at a large UK teaching hospital,"Cooper DJ, Lear S, Watson L, Shaw A, Ferris M, Doffinger R, Bousfield R, Sharrocks K, Weekes MP, Warne B, Sparkes D, Jones NK, Rivett L, Routledge M, Chaudhry A, Dempsey K, Matson M, Lakha A, Gathercole G, O’Connor O, Wilson E, Shahzad O, Toms K, Thompson R, Halsall I, Halsall D, Houghton S, Papadia S, Kingston N, Stirrups KE, Graves B, Walker N, Stark H, De Angelis D, Seaman S, Bradley JR, Török ME, Goodfellow I, Baker S, the CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-04,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than the general population but risk factors for HCW infection are not well described.

Methods

We conducted a prospective sero-epidemiological study of HCWs at a UK teaching hospital using a SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay. Risk factors for seropositivity were analysed using multivariate logistic regression.

Findings

410/5,698 (7·2%) staff tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence was higher in those working in designated COVID-19 areas compared with other areas (9·47% versus 6·16%) Healthcare assistants (aOR 2·06 [95%CI 1·14-3·71]; p =0·016) and domestic and portering staff (aOR 3·45 [95% CI 1·07-11·42]; p =0·039) had significantly higher seroprevalence than other staff groups after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and COVID-19 working location. Staff working in acute medicine and medical sub-specialities were also at higher risk (aOR 2·07 [95% CI 1·31-3·25]; p <0·002). Staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds had an aOR of 1·65 (95% CI 1·32 – 2·07; p <0·001) compared to white staff; this increased risk was independent of COVID-19 area working. The only symptoms significantly associated with seropositivity in a multivariable model were loss of sense of taste or smell, fever and myalgia; 31% of staff testing positive reported no prior symptoms.

Interpretation

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs is heterogeneous and influenced by COVID-19 working location, role, age and ethnicity. Increased risk amongst BAME staff cannot be accounted for solely by occupational factors.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Addenbrookes Charitable Trust, National Institute for Health Research, Academy of Medical Sciences, the Health Foundation and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Specific risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers (HCWs) are not well defined. Additionally, it is not clear how population level risk factors influence occupational risk in defined demographic groups. Only by identifying these factors can we mitigate and reduce the risk of occupational SARS-CoV-2 infection. We performed a review of the evidence for HCW-specific risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We searched PubMed with the terms “SARS-CoV-2” OR “COVID-19” AND “Healthcare worker” OR “Healthcare Personnel” AND “Risk factor” to identify any studies published in any language between December 2019 and September 2020. The search identified 266 studies and included a meta-analysis and two observational studies assessing HCW cohort seroprevalence data. Seroprevalence and risk factors for HCW infections varied between studies, with contradictory findings. In the two serological studies, one identified a significant increased risk of seroprevalence in those working with COVID-19 patients (Eyre et al 2020), as well as associations with job role and department. The other study (Dimcheff et al 2020) found no significant association between seropositivity and any identified demographic or occupational factor. A meta-analysis of HCW (Gomez-Ochoa et al 2020) assessed >230,000 participants as a pooled analysis, including diagnoses by both RT-PCR and seropositivity for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and found great heterogeneity in study design and reported contradictory findings. Of note, they report a seropositivity rate of 7% across all studies reporting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in HCWs. Nurses were the most frequently affected healthcare personnel and staff working in non-emergency inpatient settings were the most frequently affected group. Our search found no prospective studies systematically evaluating HCW specific risk factors based entirely on seroprevalence data.

Added value of this study

Our prospective cohort study of almost 6,000 HCWs at a large UK teaching hospital strengthens previous findings from UK-based cohorts in identifying an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure amongst HCWs. Specifically, factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 exposure include caring for confirmed COVID-19 cases and identifying as being within specific ethnic groups (BAME staff). We further delineated the risk amongst BAME staff and demonstrate that occupational factors alone do not account for all of the increased risk amongst this group. We demonstrate for the first time that healthcare assistants represent a key at-risk occupational group, and challenge previous findings of significantly higher risk amongst nursing staff. Seroprevalence in staff not working in areas with confirmed COVID-19 patients was only marginally higher than that of the general population within the same geographical region. This observation could suggest the increased risk amongst HCWs arises through occupational exposure to confirmed cases and could account for the overall higher seroprevalence in HCWs, rather than purely the presence of staff in healthcare facilities. Over 30% of seropositive staff had not reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19, and in those who did report symptoms, differentiating COVID-19 from other causes based on symptom data alone was unreliable.

Implications of all the available evidence

International efforts to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs need to be prioritised. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs is heterogenous but also follows demonstrable patterns. Potential mechanisms to reduce the risk for staff working in areas with confirmed COVID-19 patients include improved training in hand hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE), better access to high quality PPE, and frequent asymptomatic testing. Wider asymptomatic testing in healthcare facilities has the potential to reduce spread of SARS-CoV-2 within hospitals, thereby reducing patient and staff risk and limiting spread between hospitals and into the wider community. The increased risk of COVID-19 amongst BAME staff cannot be explained by purely occupational factors; however, the increased risk amongst minority ethnic groups identified here was stark and necessitates further evaluation.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/341240/2/1-s2.0-S016344532200514X-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.03.20220699; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR233926; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR233926&type=FILE&fileName=EMS103610-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR415629,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.02.21265767,Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK),"Talaei M, Faustini S, Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Perdek N, Maltby S, Bigogno CM, Symons J, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-03,Y,,,,"

Background

Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.

Methods

We did a prospective population-based study in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-naive UK adults recruited between May 1 and November 2, 2020, without a positive swab test result for SARS-CoV-2 prior to enrolment. Information on 88 potential sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological risk factors was obtained through online questionnaires, and combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein were determined in dried blood spots obtained between November 6, 2020 and April 18, 2021. We used logistic and linear regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and adjusted geometric mean ratios (aGMRs) for potential determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity (all participants) and antibody titres (seropositive participants only), respectively.

Results

1696 (15.2%) of 11,130 participants were seropositive. Factors independently associated with increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity included frontline health/care occupation (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.48–2.33), international travel (1.20, 1.07–1.35), number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥5 vs. 0/week: 1.29, 1.06-1.57, P-trend=0.01), body mass index (BMI) ≥25 vs <25 kg/m 2 (1.24, 1.11–1.39), Asian/Asian British vs White ethnicity (1.65, 1.10–2.49), and alcohol consumption ≥15 vs 0 units/week (1.23, 1.04–1.46). Light physical exercise associated with decreased risk (0.80, 0.70–0.93, for ≥10 vs 0–4 h/week). Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies associated with factors including BMI ≥30 vs <25 kg/m 2 (aGMR 1.10, 1.02–1.19), Asian/Asian British vs White ethnicity (1.22, 1.04–1.44), frontline health/care occupation (1.24, 95% CI 1.11–1.39), international travel (1.11, 1.05–1.16), and number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥5 vs. 0/week: 1.12, 1.02-1.23, P-trend=0.01); these associations were not substantially attenuated by adjustment for COVID-19 disease severity.

Conclusions

Higher alcohol consumption and reduced light physical exercise represent new modifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recognised associations between Asian/Asian British ethnic origin and obesity and increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity were independent of other sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological factors investigated. Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies in people of Asian ancestry and in obese people were not explained by greater COVID-19 disease severity in these groups.

Funding

Barts Charity, Health Data Research UK.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.02.21265767; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR415629; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR415629&type=FILE&fileName=EMS138031-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR611882,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.01.23285333,Associations between reported healthcare disruption due to COVID-19 and avoidable hospitalisation: Evidence from seven linked longitudinal studies for England,"Green MA, McKee M, Hamilton O, Shaw RJ, Macleod J, Boyd A, The LH&W NCS Collaborative, and Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-02-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Health services across the UK struggled to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many treatments were postponed or cancelled, although the impact was mitigated by new models of delivery. While the scale of disruption has been studied, much less is known about if this disruption impacted health outcomes. The aim of our paper is to examine whether there is an association between individuals experiencing disrupted access to healthcare during the pandemic and risk of an avoidable hospitalisation.

Methods

We used individual-level data for England from seven longitudinal cohort studies linked to electronic health records from NHS Digital (n = 29 276) within the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration trusted research environment. Avoidable hospitalisations were defined as emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive and emergency urgent care sensitive conditions (1 st March 2020 to 25 th August 2022). Self-reported measures of whether people had experienced disruption during the pandemic to appointments (e.g., visiting their GP or an outpatient department), procedures (e.g., surgery, cancer treatment) or medications were used as our exposures. Logistic regression models examined associations.

Results

35% of people experienced some form of disrupted access to healthcare. Those whose access was disrupted were at increased risk of any (Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.80, 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) = 1.34-2.41), acute (OR = 1.68, CIs = 1.13-2.53) and chronic (OR = 1.93, CIs = 1.40-2.64) ambulatory care sensitive hospital admissions. There were positive associations between disrupted access to appointments and procedures to measures of avoidable hospitalisations as well.

Conclusions

Our study presents novel evidence from linked individual-level data showing that people whose access to healthcare was disrupted were more likely to have an avoidable or potentially preventable hospitalisation. Our findings highlight the need to increase healthcare investment to tackle the short- and long-term implications of the pandemic beyond directly dealing with SARS-CoV-2 infections.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/02/02/2023.02.01.23285333.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.01.23285333; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR611882; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR611882&type=FILE&fileName=EMS164989-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -256,8 +256,8 @@ PPR604849,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4063811,Prediction of Upcoming Global Inf PPR496265,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.10.22274890,Biopsychosocial response to the COVID-19 lockdown in people with major depressive disorder and multiple sclerosis,"Siddi S, Giné-Vázquez I, Bailon R, Matcham F, Lamers F, Kontaxis S, Laporta E, Garcia E, Arranz B, Dalla Costa G, Guerrero Pérez A, Zabalza A, Buron M, Comi G, Leocani L, Annas P, Hotopf M, Penninx B, Magyari M, Sørensen PS, Montalban X, Lavelle G, Ivan A, Oetzmann C, White MK, Difrancesco S, Locatelli P, Mohr D, Aguiló J, Narayan V, Folarin A, Dobson R, Dineley J, Leightley D, Cummins N, Vairavan S, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Rintala A, De Girolamo G, Preti A, Simblett S, Wykes T, Myin-Germeys I, Haro J, PAB members.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-10,N,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Changes in lifestyle, finances and work status during COVID-19 lockdowns may have led to biopsychosocial changes in people with pre-existing vulnerabilities such as Major Depressive Disorders (MDD) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

Methods

Data were collected as a part of the RADAR-CNS (Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse – Central Nervous System) programme. We analyzed the following data from long-term participants in a decentralized multinational study: symptoms of depression, heart rate (HR) during the day and night; social activity; sedentary state, steps and physical activity of varying intensity. Linear mixed-effects regression analyses with repeated measures were fitted to assess the changes among three time periods (pre, during and post-lockdown) across the groups, adjusting for depression severity before the pandemic and gender.

Results

Participants with MDD (N=255) and MS (N=214) were included in the analyses. Overall, depressive symptoms remained stable across the three periods in both groups. Lower mean HR and HR variation were observed between pre and during lockdown during the day for MDD and during the night for MS. HR variation during rest periods also decreased between pre-and post-lockdown in both clinical conditions. We observed a reduction of physical activity for MDD and MS upon the introduction of lockdowns. The group with MDD exhibited a net increase in social interaction via social network apps over the three periods.

Conclusions

Behavioral response to the lockdown measured by social activity, physical activity and HR may reflect changes in stress in people with MDD and MS.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.10.22274890; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR496265; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.10.22274890; pdf:https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/artpub/2022/271957/271957.pdf PPR465564,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.07.22271833,GWAS and meta-analysis identifies multiple new genetic mechanisms underlying severe Covid-19,"Pairo-Castineira E, Rawlik K, Klaric L, Kousathanas A, Richmond A, Millar J, Russell CD, Malinauskas T, Thwaites R, Stuckey A, Odhams CA, Walker S, Griffiths F, Oosthuyzen W, Morrice K, Keating S, Nichol A, Semple MG, Knight J, Shankar-Hari M, Summers C, Hinds C, Horby P, Ling L, McAuley D, Montgomery H, Openshaw PJ, Walsh T, Tenesa A, Scott RH, Caulfield MJ, Moutsianas L, Ponting CP, Wilson JF, Vitart V, Pereira AC, Luchessi A, Parra E, Cruz-Guerrero R, Carracedo A, Fawkes A, Murphy L, Rowan K, Law A, Hendry SC, Baillie JK, GenOMICC Investigators, SCOURGE Consortium, ISARIC4C Investigators, 23andMe.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-03-07,Y,,,,"Pulmonary inflammation drives critical illness in Covid-19, 1;2 creating a clinically homogeneous extreme phenotype, which we have previously shown to be highly efficient for discovery of genetic associations. 3;4 Despite the advanced stage of illness, we have found that immunomodulatory therapies have strong beneficial effects in this group. 1;5 Further genetic discoveries may identify additional therapeutic targets to modulate severe disease. 6 In this new data release from the GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality in Critical Care) study we include new microarray genotyping data from additional critically-ill cases in the UK and Brazil, together with cohorts of severe Covid-19 from the ISARIC4C 7 and SCOURGE 8 studies, and meta-analysis with previously-reported data. We find an additional 14 new genetic associations. Many are in potentially druggable targets, in inflammatory signalling (JAK1, PDE4A), monocyte-macrophage differentiation (CSF2), immunometabolism (SLC2A5, AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2, RAB2A). As with our previous work, these results provide tractable therapeutic targets for modulation of harmful host-mediated inflammation in Covid-19.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/03/07/2022.03.07.22271833.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.07.22271833; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR465564; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR465564&type=FILE&fileName=EMS161994-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR507260,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.14.22276391,Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake in people with kidney disease: an OpenSAFELY cohort study,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Parker EP, Tazare J, Hulme WJ, Bates C, Beale R, Carr EJ, Cockburn J, Curtis HJ, Fisher L, Green AC, Harper S, Hester F, Horne EM, Loud F, Lyon S, Mahalingasivam V, Mehrkar A, Nab L, Parry J, Santhakumaran S, Steenkamp R, Sterne JA, Walker AJ, Williamson EJ, Willicombe M, Zheng B, Goldacre B, Nitsch D, Tomlinson LA.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-06-16,Y,,,,"

Background

Kidney disease is a significant risk factor for COVID-19-related mortality. Achieving high COVID-19 vaccine coverage among people with kidney disease is therefore a public health priority.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we performed a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY-TPP platform. Individual-level routine clinical data from 24 million people in England were included. A cohort of individuals with stage 3–5 chronic kidney disease (CKD) or receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT) at the start of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out was identified based on evidence of reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate or inclusion in the UK Renal Registry. Individual-level factors associated with vaccine uptake were explored via Cox proportional hazards models.

Results

948,845 people with stage 3–5 CKD or receiving RRT were included. Cumulative vaccine coverage as of 11 th May 2022 was 97.5%, 97.0%, and 93.5% for doses 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and 61.1% among individuals with one or more indications for receipt of a fourth dose. Delayed 3-dose vaccine uptake was associated with non-White ethnicity, social deprivation, and severe mental illness – associations that were consistent across CKD stages and in RRT recipients. Similar associations were observed for 4-dose uptake, which was also delayed among care home residents.

Conclusion

Although high primary and booster dose coverage has been achieved among people with kidney disease in England, key disparities in vaccine uptake remain across demographic groups. Identifying how to address these disparities remains a priority to reduce the risk of severe disease in this vulnerable patient group.",,pdf:https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Factors_associated_with_COVID-19_vaccine_uptake_in_people_with_kidney_disease_an_OpenSAFELY_cohort_study/22035716/1/files/39108458.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.14.22276391; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR507260; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR507260&type=FILE&fileName=EMS146125-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR204608,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.20178137,Testing for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection in populations with low infection prevalence: the largely ignored problem of false positives and the value of repeat testing,"Sudlow C, Diggle P, Warlow O, Seymour D, Gordon B, Walker R, Warlow C.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-08-22,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Calls are increasing for widespread SARS-CoV-2 infection testing of people from populations with a very low prevalence of infection. We quantified the impact of less than perfect diagnostic test accuracy on populations, and on individuals, in low prevalence settings, focusing on false positives and the role of confirmatory testing.

Methods

We developed a simple, interactive tool to assess the impact of different combinations of test sensitivity, specificity and infection prevalence in a notional population of 100,000. We derived numbers of true positives, true negatives, false positives and false negatives, positive predictive value (PPV – the percentage of test positives that are true positives) and overall test accuracy for three testing strategies: (1) single test for all; (2) add repeat testing in test positives; (3) add further repeat testing in those with discrepant results. We also assessed the impact on test results for individuals having one, two or three tests under these three strategies.

Results

With sensitivity of 80%, infection prevalence of 1 in 2,000, and specificity 99.9% on all tests, PPV in the tested population of 100,000 will be only 29% with one test, increasing to > 99.5% (100% when rounded to the nearest %) with repeat testing in strategies 2 or 3. More realistically, if specificity is 95% for the first and 99.9% for subsequent tests, single test PPV will be only 1%, increasing to 86% with repeat testing in strategy 2, or 79% with strategy 3 (albeit with 6 fewer false negatives than strategy 2). In the whole population, or in particular individuals, PPV increases as infection becomes more common in the population but falls to unacceptably low levels with lower test specificity.

Conclusion

To avoid multiple unnecessary restrictions on whole populations, and in particular individuals, from widespread population testing for SARS-CoV-2, the crucial roles of extremely high test specificity and of confirmatory testing must be fully appreciated and incorporated into policy decisions.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/08/22/2020.08.19.20178137.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.20178137; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR204608; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR204608&type=FILE&fileName=EMS95538-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR162356,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.11.20097709,"Systemic corticosteroids show no benefit in severe and critical COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China: A retrospective cohort study","Wu J, Huang J, Zhu G, Liu Y, Xiao H, Zhou Q, Si X, Yi H, Wang C, Yang D, Chen S, Liu X, Liu Z, Wang Q, Lv Q, Huang Y, Yu Y, Guan X, Li Y, Nirantharakumar K, Cheng K, Peng S, Xiao H.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-14,Y,,,,"

Background:

Systemic corticosteroids are recommended by some treatment guidelines and used in severe and critical COVID-19 patients, though evidence supporting such use is limited.

Methods:

From December 26, 2019 to March 15, 2020, 1514 severe and 249 critical hospitalized COVID-19 patients were collected from two medical centers in Wuhan, China. We performed multivariable Cox models, Cox model with time-varying exposure and propensity score analysis (both inverse-probability-of-treatment-weighting (IPTW) and propensity score matching (PSM)) to estimate the association of corticosteroid use with the risk of in-hospital mortality among severe and critical cases.

Results:

Corticosteroids were administered in 531 (35.1%) severe and 159 (63.9%) critical patients. Compared to no corticosteroid use group, systemic corticosteroid use showed no benefit in reducing in-hospital mortality in both severe cases (HR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.08-2.89, p=0.023), and critical cases (HR=2.07, 95% CI: 1.08-3.98, p=0.028). In the time-varying Cox analysis that with time varying exposure, systemic corticosteroid use still showed no benefit in either population (for severe patients, HR=2.83, 95% CI: 1.72-4.64, p< 0.001; for critical patients, HR=3.02, 95% CI: 1.59-5.73, p=0.001). Baseline characteristics were matched after IPTW and PSM analysis. For severe COVID-19 patients at admission, corticosteroid use was not associated with improved outcome in either the IPTW analysis. For critical COVID-19 patients at admission, results were consistent with former analysis that corticosteroid use did not reduce in-hospital mortality.

Conclusions:

Corticosteroid use showed no benefit in reducing in-hospital mortality for severe or critical cases. The routine use of systemic corticosteroids among severe and critical COVID-19 patients was not recommended.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/05/14/2020.05.11.20097709.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.11.20097709; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR162356; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR162356&type=FILE&fileName=EMS91863-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR204608,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.20178137,Testing for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection in populations with low infection prevalence: the largely ignored problem of false positives and the value of repeat testing,"Sudlow C, Diggle P, Warlow O, Seymour D, Gordon B, Walker R, Warlow C.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-08-22,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Calls are increasing for widespread SARS-CoV-2 infection testing of people from populations with a very low prevalence of infection. We quantified the impact of less than perfect diagnostic test accuracy on populations, and on individuals, in low prevalence settings, focusing on false positives and the role of confirmatory testing.

Methods

We developed a simple, interactive tool to assess the impact of different combinations of test sensitivity, specificity and infection prevalence in a notional population of 100,000. We derived numbers of true positives, true negatives, false positives and false negatives, positive predictive value (PPV – the percentage of test positives that are true positives) and overall test accuracy for three testing strategies: (1) single test for all; (2) add repeat testing in test positives; (3) add further repeat testing in those with discrepant results. We also assessed the impact on test results for individuals having one, two or three tests under these three strategies.

Results

With sensitivity of 80%, infection prevalence of 1 in 2,000, and specificity 99.9% on all tests, PPV in the tested population of 100,000 will be only 29% with one test, increasing to > 99.5% (100% when rounded to the nearest %) with repeat testing in strategies 2 or 3. More realistically, if specificity is 95% for the first and 99.9% for subsequent tests, single test PPV will be only 1%, increasing to 86% with repeat testing in strategy 2, or 79% with strategy 3 (albeit with 6 fewer false negatives than strategy 2). In the whole population, or in particular individuals, PPV increases as infection becomes more common in the population but falls to unacceptably low levels with lower test specificity.

Conclusion

To avoid multiple unnecessary restrictions on whole populations, and in particular individuals, from widespread population testing for SARS-CoV-2, the crucial roles of extremely high test specificity and of confirmatory testing must be fully appreciated and incorporated into policy decisions.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/08/22/2020.08.19.20178137.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.20178137; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR204608; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR204608&type=FILE&fileName=EMS95538-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR178487,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.19.20135491,"Inhaled corticosteroid use and risk COVID-19 related death among 966,461 patients with COPD or asthma: an OpenSAFELY analysis","The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Schultze A, Walker AJ, MacKenna B, Morton CE, Bhaskaran K, Brown JP, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Drysdale H, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Quint J, Smeeth L, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-20,Y,,,,"

Background

Early descriptions of the coronavirus outbreak showed a lower prevalence of asthma and COPD than was expected for people diagnosed with COVID-19, leading to speculation that inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) may protect against infection with SARS-CoV-2, and development of serious sequelae. We evaluated the association between ICS and COVID-19 related death using linked electronic health records in the UK.

Methods

We conducted cohort studies on two groups of people (COPD and asthma) using the OpenSAFELY platform to analyse data from primary care practices linked to national death registrations. People receiving an ICS were compared to those receiving alternative respiratory medications. Our primary outcome was COVID-19 related death.

Findings

We identified 148,588 people with COPD and 817,973 people with asthma receiving relevant respiratory medications in the four months prior to 01 March 2020. People with COPD receiving ICS were at a greater risk of COVID-19 related death compared to those receiving a long-acting beta agonist (LABA) and a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) (adjusted HR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.08 – 1.75). People with asthma receiving high dose ICS were at an increased risk of death compared to those receiving a short-acting beta agonist (SABA) only (adjusted HR = 1.52, 95%CI = 1.08 – 2.14); the adjusted HR for those receiving low-medium dose ICS was 1.10 (95% CI = 0.82 – 1.49). Quantitative bias analyses indicated that an unmeasured confounder of only moderate strength of association with exposure and outcome could explain the observed associations in both populations.

Interpretation

These results do not support a major role of ICS in protecting against COVID-19 related deaths. Observed increased risks of COVID-19 related death among people with COPD and asthma receiving ICS can be plausibly explained by unmeasured confounding due to disease severity.

Funding

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council MR/V015737/1.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/06/20/2020.06.19.20135491.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.19.20135491; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR178487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR178487&type=FILE&fileName=EMS88284-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR408531,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.18.21265046,Comparative assessment of methods for short-term forecasts of COVID-19 hospital admissions in England at the local level,"Meakin S, Abbott S, Bosse N, Munday J, Gruson H, Hellewell J, Sherratt K, Funk S, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-10-18,Y,,,,"

Background

Forecasting healthcare demand is essential in epidemic settings, both to inform situational awareness and facilitate resource planning. Ideally, forecasts should be robust across time and locations. During the COVID-19 pandemic in England, it is an ongoing concern that demand for hospital care for COVID-19 patients in England will exceed available resources.

Methods

We made weekly forecasts of daily COVID-19 hospital admissions for National Health Service (NHS) Trusts in England between August 2020 and April 2021 using three disease-agnostic forecasting models: a mean ensemble of autoregressive time series models, a linear regression model with 7-day-lagged local cases as a predictor, and a scaled convolution of local cases and a delay distribution. We compared their point and probabilistic accuracy to a mean-ensemble of them all, and to a simple baseline model of no change from the last day of admissions. We measured predictive performance using the Weighted Interval Score (WIS) and considered how this changed in different scenarios (the length of the predictive horizon, the date on which the forecast was made, and by location), as well as how much admissions forecasts improved when future cases were known.

Results

All models outperformed the baseline in the majority of scenarios. Forecasting accuracy varied by forecast date and location, depending on the trajectory of the outbreak, and all individual models had instances where they were the top- or bottom-ranked model. Forecasts produced by the mean-ensemble were both the most accurate and most consistently accurate forecasts amongst all the models considered. Forecasting accuracy was improved when using future observed, rather than forecast, cases, especially at longer forecast horizons.

Conclusions

Assuming no change in current admissions is rarely better than including at least a trend. Using confirmed COVID-19 cases as a predictor can improve admissions forecasts in some scenarios, but this is variable and depends on the ability to make consistently good case forecasts. However, ensemble forecasts can make forecasts that make consistently more accurate forecasts across time and locations. Given minimal requirements on data and computation, our admissions forecasting ensemble could be used to anticipate healthcare needs in future epidemic or pandemic settings.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02271-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.18.21265046; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR408531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR408531&type=FILE&fileName=EMS137136-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR291347,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-279400/v1,Unraveling COVID-19: a large-scale characterization of 4.5 million COVID-19 cases using CHARYBDIS,"Prieto-Alhambra D, Kostka K, Duarte-Salles T, Prats-Uribe A, Sena A, Pistillo A, Khalid S, Lai L, Golozar A, Alshammari TM, Dawoud D, Nyberg F, Wilcox A, Andryc A, Williams A, Ostropolets A, Areia C, Jung CY, Harle C, Reich C, Blacketer C, Morales D, Dorr DA, Burn E, Roel E, Tan EH, Minty E, DeFalco F, de Maeztu G, Lipori G, Alghoul H, Zhu H, Thomas J, Bian J, Park J, Roldán JM, Posada J, Banda JM, Horcajada JP, Kohler J, Shah K, Natarajan K, Lynch K, Liu L, Schilling L, Recalde M, Spotnitz M, Gong M, Matheny M, Valveny N, Weiskopf N, Shah N, Alser O, Casajust P, Park RW, Schuff R, Seager S, DuVall S, You SC, Song S, Fernández-Bertolín S, Fortin S, Magoc T, Falconer T, Subbian V, Huser V, Ahmed W, Carter W, Guan Y, Galvan Y, He X, Rijnbeek P, Hripcsak G, Ryan P, Suchard M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-01,Y,,,,"

Background:

Routinely collected real world data (RWD) have great utility in aiding the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic response [1,2]. Here we present the international Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) [3] Characterizing Health Associated Risks, and Your Baseline Disease In SARS-COV-2 (CHARYBDIS) framework for standardisation and analysis of COVID-19 RWD.

Methods:

: We conducted a descriptive cohort study using a federated network of data partners in the United States, Europe (the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Germany, France and Italy) and Asia (South Korea and China). The study protocol and analytical package were released on 11 th June 2020 and are iteratively updated via GitHub [4].

Findings:

We identified three non-mutually exclusive cohorts of 4,537,153 individuals with a clinical COVID-19 diagnosis or positive test, 886,193 hospitalized with COVID-19 , and 113,627 hospitalized with COVID-19 requiring intensive services . All comorbidities, symptoms, medications, and outcomes are described by cohort in aggregate counts, and are available in an interactive website: https://data.ohdsi.org/Covid19CharacterizationCharybdis/. Interpretation: CHARYBDIS findings provide benchmarks that contribute to our understanding of COVID-19 progression, management and evolution over time. This can enable timely assessment of real-world outcomes of preventative and therapeutic options as they are introduced in clinical practice.",,pdf:http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/53956/1/Kostka_ce_unra.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-279400/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR291347; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR291347&type=FILE&fileName=EMS118164-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -265,16 +265,16 @@ PPR287050,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.22.21252185,Linked electronic health r PPR152986,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.16.20067504,"“The Effect of Inter-City Travel Restrictions on Geographical Spread of COVID-19: Evidence from Wuhan, China”","Quilty BJ, Diamond C, Liu Y, Gibbs H, Russell TW, Jarvis CI, Prem K, Pearson CA, Clifford S, Flasche S, Klepac P, Eggo RM, Jit M, CMMID COVID-19 working group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-04-21,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

To contain the spread of COVID-19, a cordon sanitaire was put in place in Wuhan prior to the Lunar New Year, on 23 January 2020, restricting travel to other parts of China. We assess the efficacy of the cordon sanitaire to delay the introduction and onset of local transmission of COVID-19 in other major cities in mainland China.

Methods

We estimated the number of infected travellers from Wuhan to other major cities in mainland China from November 2019 to March 2020 using previously estimated COVID-19 prevalence in Wuhan and publicly available mobility data. We focused on Beijing, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen as four representative major cities to identify the potential independent contribution of the cordon sanitaire and holiday travel. To do this, we simulated outbreaks generated by infected arrivals in these destination cities using stochastic branching processes. We also modelled the effect of the cordon sanitaire in combination with reduced transmissibility scenarios representing the effect of local non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Findings

In the four cities, given the potentially high prevalence of COVID-19 in Wuhan between Dec 2019 and early Jan 2020, local transmission may have been seeded as early as 2 - 8 January 2020. By the time the cordon sanitaire was imposed, simulated case counts were likely in the hundreds. The cordon sanitaire alone did not substantially affect the epidemic progression in these cities, although it may have had some effect in smaller cities.

Interpretation

Our results indicate that the cordon sanitaire may not have prevented COVID-19 spread in major Chinese cities; local non-pharmaceutical interventions were likely more important for this.

Research in Context

Evidence before this study

In late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detected in Wuhan, China. In response to the outbreak, authorities enacted a cordon sanitaire in order to limit spread. Several studies have sought to determine the efficacy of the policy; a search of PubMed for “coronavirus AND (travel restrictions OR travel ban OR shutdown OR cordon sanitaire) AND (Wuhan OR China)” returned 24 results. However other studies have relied on reported cases to determine efficacy, which are likely subject to reporting and testing biases. Early outbreak dynamics are also subject to a significant degree of stochastic uncertainty due to small numbers of cases.

Added value of this study

Here we use publicly-available mobility data and a stochastic branching process model to evaluate the efficacy of the cordon sanitaire to limiting the spread of COVID-19 from Wuhan to other cities in mainland China, while accounting for underreporting and uncertainty. We find that although travel restrictions led to a significant decrease in the number of individuals leaving Wuhan during the busy post-Lunar New Year holiday travel period, local transmission was likely already established in major cities. Thus, the travel restrictions likely did not affect the epidemic trajectory substantially in these cities.

Implications of all the available evidence

A cordon sanitaire around the epicentre alone may not be able to reduce COVID-19 incidence when implemented after local transmission has occurred in highly connected neighbors. Local non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce transmissibility (e.g., school and workplace closures) may have contributed more to the observed decrease in incidence in mainland China.",Quilty et al attempted to understand the effectiveness of inter-city travel restrictions on spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan. The results indicate that the cordon sanitaire may not have prevented COVID-19 spread in major Chinese cities; local non-pharmaceutical interventions were likely more important for this.,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/04/21/2020.04.16.20067504.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.16.20067504; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR152986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR152986&type=FILE&fileName=EMS90479-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR160805,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.07.20093849,The contribution of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections to transmission - a model-based analysis of the Diamond Princess outbreak,"Emery JC, Russell TW, Liu Y, Hellewell J, Pearson CA, Knight GM, Eggo RM, Kucharski AJ, Funk S, Flasche S, Houben RMGJ, CMMID 2019-nCoV working group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-11,Y,Transmission; Asymptomatic Infections; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Some key gaps in the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection remain. One of them is the contribution to transmission from individuals experiencing asymptomatic infections. We aimed to characterise the proportion and infectiousness of asymptomatic infections using data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Methods

We used a transmission model of COVID-19 with asymptomatic and presymptomatic states calibrated to outbreak data from the Diamond Princess, to quantify the contribution of asymptomatic infections to transmission. Data available included the date of symptom onset for symptomatic disease for passengers and crew, the number of symptom agnostic tests done each day, and date of positive test for asymptomatic and presymptomatic individuals.

Findings

On the Diamond Princess 74% (70-78%) of infections proceeded asymptomatically, i.e. a 1:3.8 case-to-infection ratio. Despite the intense testing 53%, (51-56%) of infections remained undetected, most of them asymptomatic. Asymptomatic individuals were the source for 69% (20-85%) of all infections. While the data did not allow identification of the infectiousness of asymptomatic infections, assuming no or low infectiousness resulted in posterior estimates for the net reproduction number of an individual progressing through presymptomatic and symptomatic stages in excess of 15.

Interpretation

Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections may contribute substantially to transmission. This is essential to consider for countries when assessing the potential effectiveness of ongoing control measures to contain COVID-19.

Funding

ERC Starting Grant (#757699), Wellcome trust (208812/Z/17/Z), HDR UK (MR/S003975/1)",The work investigates the cases of COVID-19 recorded on the diamond princess cruise ship. The work identifies that many cases were asymptomatic and are likely to contribute to transmission.,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.07.20093849; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR160805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR160805&type=FILE&fileName=EMS86859-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58699 PPR179288,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.22.20137273,Effect of Dexamethasone in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 – Preliminary Report,"Horby P, Lim WS, Emberson J, Mafham M, Bell J, Linsell L, Staplin N, Brightling C, Ustianowski A, Elmahi E, Prudon B, Green C, Felton T, Chadwick D, Rege K, Fegan C, Chappell LC, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Montgomery A, Rowan K, Juszczak E, Baillie JK, Haynes R, Landray MJ, RECOVERY Collaborative Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-22,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with diffuse lung damage. Corticosteroids may modulate immune-mediated lung injury and reducing progression to respiratory failure and death.

Methods

The Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 therapy (RECOVERY) trial is a randomized, controlled, open-label, adaptive, platform trial comparing a range of possible treatments with usual care in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. We report the preliminary results for the comparison of dexamethasone 6 mg given once daily for up to ten days vs. usual care alone. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality.

Results

2104 patients randomly allocated to receive dexamethasone were compared with 4321 patients concurrently allocated to usual care. Overall, 454 (21.6%) patients allocated dexamethasone and 1065 (24.6%) patients allocated usual care died within 28 days (age-adjusted rate ratio [RR] 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.74 to 0.92; P<0.001). The proportional and absolute mortality rate reductions varied significantly depending on level of respiratory support at randomization (test for trend p<0.001): Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third in patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (29.0% vs. 40.7%, RR 0.65 [95% CI 0.51 to 0.82]; p<0.001), by one-fifth in patients receiving oxygen without invasive mechanical ventilation (21.5% vs. 25.0%, RR 0.80 [95% CI 0.70 to 0.92]; p=0.002), but did not reduce mortality in patients not receiving respiratory support at randomization (17.0% vs. 13.2%, RR 1.22 [95% CI 0.93 to 1.61]; p=0.14).

Conclusions

In patients hospitalized with COVID-19, dexamethasone reduced 28-day mortality among those receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or oxygen at randomization, but not among patients not receiving respiratory support.

Trial registrations

The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT04381936 ).

Funding

Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research (Grant ref: MC_PC_19056).",,pdf:https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2021436?articleTools=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.22.20137273; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR179288; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR179288&type=FILE&fileName=EMS88343-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR180964,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.26.20140921,Short Communication: Vitamin D and COVID-19 infection and mortality in UK Biobank,"Hastie CE, Pell JP, Sattar N.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-28,N,,,,"

Purpose

Vitamin D has been proposed as a potential causal factor in COVID-19 risk. We aimed to establish whether blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration was associated with COVID-19 mortality, and inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection, in UK Biobank participants.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including 25(OH)D concentration, were linked to COVID-19 mortality. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and COVID-19 death, and poisson regression analyses for the association between 25(OH)D and severe COVID-19 infection.

Results

Complete data were available for 341,484 UK Biobank participants, of which 656 had inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection and 203 died of COVID-19 infection. Vitamin D was associated with severe COVID-19 infection and mortality univariably (mortality HR=0.99; 95% CI 0.98-0.998; p =0.016), but not after adjustment for confounders (mortality HR=0.998; 95% CI=0.99-1.01; p =0.696).

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between vitamin D concentrations and risk of severe COVID-19 infection and mortality. Recommendations for vitamin D supplementation to lessen COVID-19 risks may provide false reassurance.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.26.20140921; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR180964; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.26.20140921 PPR387421,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.18.21262222,"Association of COVID-19 vaccines ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 with major venous, arterial, or thrombocytopenic events: whole population cohort study in 46 million adults in England","CVD-COVID-UK consortium, Whiteley WN, Ip S, Cooper JA, Bolton T, Keene S, Walker V, Denholm R, Akbari A, Omigie E, Hollings S, Di Angelantonio E, Denaxas S, Wood A, Sterne JAC, Sudlow C, Writing committee.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-08-23,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Thromboses in unusual locations after the COVID-19 vaccine ChAdOx1-S have been reported. Better understanding of population-level thrombotic risks after COVID-19 vaccination is needed.

Methods

We analysed linked electronic health records from adults living in England, from 8 th December 2020 to 18 th March 2021. We estimated incidence rates and hazard ratios (HRs) for major arterial, venous and thrombocytopenic outcomes 1-28 and >28 days after first vaccination dose for ChAdOx1-S and BNT162b2 vaccines. Analyses were performed separately for ages <70 and ≥70 years, and adjusted for age, sex, comorbidities, and social and demographic factors.

Results

Of 46,162,942 adults, 21,193,814 (46%) had their first vaccination during follow-up. Adjusted HRs 1-28 days after ChAdOx1-S, compared with unvaccinated rates, at ages <70 and ≥70 respectively, were 0.97 (95% CI: 0.90-1.05) and 0.58 (0.53–0.63) for venous thromboses, and 0.90 (0.86-0.95) and 0.76 (0.73-0.79) for arterial thromboses. Corresponding HRs for BNT162b2 were 0.81 (0.74–0.88) and 0.57 (0.53–0.62) for venous thromboses, and 0.94 (0.90-0.99) and 0.72 (0.70-0.75) for arterial thromboses. HRs for thrombotic events were higher at younger ages for venous thromboses after ChAdOx1-S, and for arterial thromboses after both vaccines. Rates of intracranial venous thrombosis (ICVT) and thrombocytopenia in adults aged <70 years were higher 1-28 days after ChAdOx1-S (adjusted HRs 2.27, 95% CI:1.33– 3.88 and 1.71, 1.35–2.16 respectively), but not after BNT162b2 (0.59, 0.24–1.45 and 1.00, 0.75–1.34) compared with unvaccinated. The corresponding absolute excess risks of ICVT 1-28 days after ChAdOx1-S were 0.9–3 per million, varying by age and sex.

Conclusions

Increases in ICVT and thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1-S vaccination in adults aged <70 years were small compared with its effect in reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, although more precise estimates for adults <40 years are needed. For people aged ≥70 years, rates of arterial or venous thrombotic, events were generally lower after either vaccine.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57688/Download/57688__23941__69a222d696ec4cd991ed01d7cb47ee8e.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.18.21262222; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR387421; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR387421&type=FILE&fileName=EMS134400-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR180964,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.26.20140921,Short Communication: Vitamin D and COVID-19 infection and mortality in UK Biobank,"Hastie CE, Pell JP, Sattar N.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-28,N,,,,"

Purpose

Vitamin D has been proposed as a potential causal factor in COVID-19 risk. We aimed to establish whether blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration was associated with COVID-19 mortality, and inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection, in UK Biobank participants.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including 25(OH)D concentration, were linked to COVID-19 mortality. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and COVID-19 death, and poisson regression analyses for the association between 25(OH)D and severe COVID-19 infection.

Results

Complete data were available for 341,484 UK Biobank participants, of which 656 had inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection and 203 died of COVID-19 infection. Vitamin D was associated with severe COVID-19 infection and mortality univariably (mortality HR=0.99; 95% CI 0.98-0.998; p =0.016), but not after adjustment for confounders (mortality HR=0.998; 95% CI=0.99-1.01; p =0.696).

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between vitamin D concentrations and risk of severe COVID-19 infection and mortality. Recommendations for vitamin D supplementation to lessen COVID-19 risks may provide false reassurance.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.26.20140921; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR180964; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.26.20140921 PPR404742,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.07.21264681,Monitoring sociodemographic inequality in COVID-19 vaccination coverage in England: a national linked data study,"Dolby T, Finning K, Baker A, Dowd L, Khunti K, Razieh C, Yates T, Nafilyan V.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-10-07,Y,,,,"

Background

The UK began an ambitious COVID-19 vaccination programme on 8 th December 2020. This study describes variation in vaccination coverage by sociodemographic characteristics between December 2020 and August 2021.

Methods

Using population-level administrative records linked to the 2011 Census, we estimated monthly first dose vaccination rates by age group and sociodemographic characteristics amongst adults aged 18 years or over in England. We also present a tool to display the results interactively.

Findings

Our study population included 35,223,466 adults. A lower percentage of males than females were vaccinated in the young and middle age groups (18-59 years) but not in the older age groups. Vaccination rates were highest among individuals of White British and Indian ethnic backgrounds and lowest among Black Africans (aged ≥80 years) and Black Caribbeans (18-79 years). Differences by ethnic group emerged as soon as vaccination roll-out commenced and widened over time. Vaccination rates were also lower among individuals who identified as Muslim, lived in more deprived areas, reported having a disability, did not speak English as their main language, lived in rented housing, belonged to a lower socio-economic group, and had fewer qualifications.

Interpretation

We found inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination rates by sex, ethnicity, religion, area deprivation, disability status, English language proficiency, socio-economic position, and educational attainment, but some of these differences varied by age group. Research is urgently needed to understand why these inequalities exist and how they can be addressed.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We searched PubMed for publications on sociodemographic inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination coverage. Several studies have reported differences in coverage by characteristics such as ethnicity and religion, however these have focused on older adults and the clinically vulnerable who were initially prioritized for vaccination. There is little evidence on sociodemographic inequalities in vaccination coverage among younger adults and evidence is also lacking on coverage by a wider range of characteristics such as sex, disability status, English language proficiency, socio-economic position, and educational attainment.

Added value of this study

This study provides the first evidence for sociodemographic inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination coverage among the entire adult population in England, using population-level administrative records linked to the 2011 Census. By disaggregating the data by age group, we were able to show that disparities in coverage by some sociodemographic characteristics differed by age group. For example, a lower proportion of males than females were vaccinated in the young and middle age groups (18-59 years) but not in the older age groups, and vaccination rates were lowest among Black Africans in those aged ≥80 years but lowest among Black Caribbeans for all other age groups. Vaccination rates were also lower among individuals who identified as Muslim, lived in more deprived areas, reported having a disability, did not speak English as their main language, lived in rented housing, belonged to a lower socio-economic group, and had fewer qualifications.

Implications of all the available evidence

Many of the groups with the lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccination are also the groups that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, including severe illness and mortality. Research is urgently needed to understand why these disparities exist and how they can be addressed, for example through public health or community engagement programmes. Since the relationships between sociodemographic characteristics and vaccination coverage may differ by age group, it is important for future research to disaggregate by age group when examining these inequalities.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/10/07/2021.10.07.21264681.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.07.21264681; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR404742; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR404742&type=FILE&fileName=EMS136793-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR556407,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.07.22280819,A Multi-Granular Stacked Regression for Forecasting Long-Term Demand in Emergency Departments,"James C, Wood R, Denholm R.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-10-10,Y,,,,"

Background

In the United Kingdom, Emergency Departments (EDs) are under significant pressure due to an ever-increasing number of attendances. Understanding how the capacity of other urgent care services and the health of a population may influence ED attendances is imperative for commissioners and policy makers to develop long-term strategies for reducing this pressure and improving quality and safety.

Methods

We developed a novel Multi-Granular Stacked Regression (MGSR) model using publicly available data to predict future mean monthly ED attendances within Clinical Commissioning Group regions in England. The MGSR combines measures of population health and health service capacity in other related settings. We assessed model performance using the R-squared statistic, measuring variance explained, and the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), measuring forecasting accuracy. We used the MGSR to forecast ED demand over a 4-year period under hypothetical scenarios where service capacity is increased, or population health is improved.

Results

Measures of service capacity explain 41 ± 4% of the variance in monthly ED attendances and measures of population health explain 61 ± 25%. The MGSR leads to an overall improvement in performance, with an R-squared of 0.75 ± 0.03 and MAPE of 4% when forecasting mean monthly ED attendances per CCG. Using the MGSR to forecast long-term demand under different scenarios, we found improving population health would reduce peak ED attendances per CCG by approximately 600 per month after 2 years.

Conclusions

Combining models of population health and wider urgent care service capacity for predicting monthly ED attendances leads to an improved performance compared to each model individually. Policies designed to improve population health will reduce ED attendances and enhance quality and safety in the long-term.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/10/10/2022.10.07.22280819.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.07.22280819; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR556407; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR556407&type=FILE&fileName=EMS155538-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR252028,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.08.20246231,Artificial intelligence-enabled analysis of UK and US public attitudes on Facebook and Twitter towards COVID-19 vaccinations,"Hussain A, Tahir A, Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Gogate M, Dashtipour K, Ali A, Sheikh A.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-11,Y,,,,"

Background

Global efforts towards the development and deployment of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 are rapidly advancing. We developed and applied an artificial-intelligence (AI)-based approach to analyse social-media public sentiment in the UK and the US towards COVID-19 vaccinations, to understand public attitude and identify topics of concern.

Methods

Over 300,000 social-media posts related to COVID-19 vaccinations were extracted, including 23,571 Facebook-posts from the UK and 144,864 from the US, along with 40,268 tweets from the UK and 98,385 from the US respectively, from 1 st March - 22 nd November 2020. We used natural language processing and deep learning based techniques to predict average sentiments, sentiment trends and topics of discussion. These were analysed longitudinally and geo-spatially, and a manual reading of randomly selected posts around points of interest helped identify underlying themes and validated insights from the analysis.

Results

We found overall averaged positive, negative and neutral sentiment in the UK to be 58%, 22% and 17%, compared to 56%, 24% and 18% in the US, respectively. Public optimism over vaccine development, effectiveness and trials as well as concerns over safety, economic viability and corporation control were identified. We compared our findings to national surveys in both countries and found them to correlate broadly.

Conclusions

AI-enabled social-media analysis should be considered for adoption by institutions and governments, alongside surveys and other conventional methods of assessing public attitude. This could enable real-time assessment, at scale, of public confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccinations, help address concerns of vaccine-sceptics and develop more effective policies and communication strategies to maximise uptake.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/12/11/2020.12.08.20246231.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.08.20246231; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR252028; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR252028&type=FILE&fileName=EMS108377-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR319210,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.30.21256119,Association between oral anticoagulants and COVID-19 related outcomes: two cohort studies,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Wong AY, Tomlinson L, Brown JP, Elson W, Walker AJ, Schultze A, Morton CE, Evans D, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Powell E, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Eggo RM, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, Douglas IJ.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,"

Objectives

We investigated the role of routinely prescribed oral anticoagulants (OACs) in COVID-19 outcomes, comparing current OAC use versus non-use in Study 1; and warfarin versus direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in Study 2.

Design

Two cohort studies, on behalf of NHS England.

Setting

Primary care data and pseudonymously-linked SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing data, hospital admissions, and death records from England.

Participants

Study 1: 70,464 people with atrial fibrillation (AF) and CHA□DS□-VASc score of 2. Study 2: 372,746 people with non-valvular AF.

Main outcome measures

Time to test for SARS-CoV-2, testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 related hospital admission, COVID-19 deaths or non-COVID-19 deaths in Cox regression.

Results

In Study 1, we included 52,416 current OAC users and 18,048 non-users. We observed no difference in risk of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 associated with current use (adjusted HR, 1.01, 95%CI, 0.96 to 1.05) versus non-use. We observed a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (adjusted HR, 0.73, 95%CI, 0.60 to 0.90), and COVID-19 deaths (adjusted HR, 0.69, 95%CI, 0.49 to 0.97) associated with current use versus non-use. In Study 2, we included 92,339 warfarin users and 280,407 DOAC users. We observed a lower risk of COVID-19 deaths (adjusted HR, 0.79, 95%CI, 0.76 to 0.83) associated with warfarin versus DOACs. Similar associations were found for all other outcomes.

Conclusions

Among people with AF and a CHA□DS□-VASc score of 2, those receiving OACs had a lower risk of receiving a positive COVID-19 test and severe COVID-19 outcomes than non-users; this might be explained by a causal effect of OACs in preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes or more cautious behaviours leading to reduced infection risk. There was no evidence of a higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with warfarin versus DOACs in people with non-valvular AF regardless of CHA□DS□-VASc score.

Key points

What is already known on this topic

Current studies suggest that prophylactic or therapeutic anticoagulant use, particularly low molecular weight heparin, lower the risk of pulmonary embolism and mortality during hospitalisation among patients with COVID-19. Reduced vitamin K status has been reported to be correlated with severity of COVID-19. This could mean that warfarin, as a vitamin K antagonist, is associated with more severe COVID-19 disease than non-vitamin K anticoagulants.

What this study adds

In 70,464 people with atrial fibrillation, at the threshold of being treated with an OAC based on risk of stroke, we observed a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 related deaths associated with routinely prescribed OACs, relative to non-use. This might be explained by OACs preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes, or more cautious behaviours and environmental factors reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in those taking OACs. In 372,746 people with non-valvular atrial fibrillation, there was no evidence of a higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with warfarin compared with DOACs.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/04/30/2021.04.30.21256119.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.30.21256119; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR319210; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR319210&type=FILE&fileName=EMS123890-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR191930,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.24.20161281,Strategies to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 re-introduction from international travellers,"Clifford S, Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Liu Y, Chan YD, Pearson CAB, Eggo RM, Endo A, Flasche S, Edmunds WJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-24,Y,,,,"

Summary

To mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks from international travellers, many countries currently use a combination of up to 14 days of self-quarantine on arrival and testing for active infection. We used a simulation model of air travellers arriving to the UK from the EU or the USA and the timing of their stages of infection to evaluate the ability of these strategies to reduce the risk of seeding community transmission. We find that a quarantine period of 8 days on arrival with a PCR test on day 7 (with a 1-day delay for test results) can reduce the number of infectious arrivals released into the community by a median 94% compared to a no quarantine, no test scenario. This reduction is similar to that achieved by a 14-day quarantine period (median 99% reduction). Shorter quarantine periods still can prevent a substantial amount of transmission; all strategies in which travellers spend at least 5 days (the mean incubation period) in quarantine and have at least one negative test before release are highly effective (e.g. a test on day 5 with release on day 6 results in a median 88% reduction in transmission potential). Without intervention, the current high prevalence in the US (40 per 10,000) results in a higher expected number of infectious arrivals per week (up to 23) compared to the EU (up to 12), despite an estimated 8 times lower volume of travel in July 2020. Requiring a 14-day quarantine period likely results in less than 1 infectious traveller each entering the UK per week from the EU and the USA (97.5th percentile). We also find that on arrival the transmission risk is highest from pre-symptomatic travellers; quarantine policies will shift this risk increasingly towards asymptomatic infections if eventually-symptomatic individuals self-isolate after the onset of symptoms. As passenger numbers recover, strategies to reduce the risk of re-introduction should be evaluated in the context of domestic SARS-CoV-2 incidence, preparedness to manage new outbreaks, and the economic and psychological impacts of quarantine.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/07/25/2020.07.24.20161281.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.24.20161281; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR191930; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR191930&type=FILE&fileName=EMS87861-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR319210,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.30.21256119,Association between oral anticoagulants and COVID-19 related outcomes: two cohort studies,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Wong AY, Tomlinson L, Brown JP, Elson W, Walker AJ, Schultze A, Morton CE, Evans D, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Powell E, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Eggo RM, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, Douglas IJ.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,"

Objectives

We investigated the role of routinely prescribed oral anticoagulants (OACs) in COVID-19 outcomes, comparing current OAC use versus non-use in Study 1; and warfarin versus direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in Study 2.

Design

Two cohort studies, on behalf of NHS England.

Setting

Primary care data and pseudonymously-linked SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing data, hospital admissions, and death records from England.

Participants

Study 1: 70,464 people with atrial fibrillation (AF) and CHA□DS□-VASc score of 2. Study 2: 372,746 people with non-valvular AF.

Main outcome measures

Time to test for SARS-CoV-2, testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 related hospital admission, COVID-19 deaths or non-COVID-19 deaths in Cox regression.

Results

In Study 1, we included 52,416 current OAC users and 18,048 non-users. We observed no difference in risk of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 associated with current use (adjusted HR, 1.01, 95%CI, 0.96 to 1.05) versus non-use. We observed a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (adjusted HR, 0.73, 95%CI, 0.60 to 0.90), and COVID-19 deaths (adjusted HR, 0.69, 95%CI, 0.49 to 0.97) associated with current use versus non-use. In Study 2, we included 92,339 warfarin users and 280,407 DOAC users. We observed a lower risk of COVID-19 deaths (adjusted HR, 0.79, 95%CI, 0.76 to 0.83) associated with warfarin versus DOACs. Similar associations were found for all other outcomes.

Conclusions

Among people with AF and a CHA□DS□-VASc score of 2, those receiving OACs had a lower risk of receiving a positive COVID-19 test and severe COVID-19 outcomes than non-users; this might be explained by a causal effect of OACs in preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes or more cautious behaviours leading to reduced infection risk. There was no evidence of a higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with warfarin versus DOACs in people with non-valvular AF regardless of CHA□DS□-VASc score.

Key points

What is already known on this topic

Current studies suggest that prophylactic or therapeutic anticoagulant use, particularly low molecular weight heparin, lower the risk of pulmonary embolism and mortality during hospitalisation among patients with COVID-19. Reduced vitamin K status has been reported to be correlated with severity of COVID-19. This could mean that warfarin, as a vitamin K antagonist, is associated with more severe COVID-19 disease than non-vitamin K anticoagulants.

What this study adds

In 70,464 people with atrial fibrillation, at the threshold of being treated with an OAC based on risk of stroke, we observed a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 related deaths associated with routinely prescribed OACs, relative to non-use. This might be explained by OACs preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes, or more cautious behaviours and environmental factors reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in those taking OACs. In 372,746 people with non-valvular atrial fibrillation, there was no evidence of a higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with warfarin compared with DOACs.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/04/30/2021.04.30.21256119.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.30.21256119; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR319210; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR319210&type=FILE&fileName=EMS123890-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR208611,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.02.20185173,"Characteristics and outcomes of 627 044 COVID-19 patients with and without obesity in the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom","Recalde M, Roel E, Pistillo A, Sena AG, Prats-Uribe A, Ahmed W, Alghoul H, Alshammari TM, Alser O, Areia C, Burn E, Casajust P, Dawoud D, DuVall SL, Falconer T, Fernández-Bertolín S, Golozar A, Gong M, Lai LYH, Lane JC, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Mehta PP, Morales DR, Natarjan K, Nyberg F, Posada JD, Reich CG, Schilling LM, Shah K, Shah NH, Subbian V, Zhang L, Zhu H, Ryan P, Prieto-Alhambra D, Kostka K, Duarte-Salles T.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-03,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 may differentially impact people with obesity. We aimed to describe and compare the demographics, comorbidities, and outcomes of obese patients with COVID-19 to those of non-obese patients with COVID-19, or obese patients with seasonal influenza.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study based on outpatient/inpatient care, and claims data from January to June 2020 from the US, Spain, and the UK. We used six databases standardized to the OMOP common data model. We defined two cohorts of patients diagnosed and/or hospitalized with COVID-19. We created corresponding cohorts for patients with influenza in 2017-2018. We followed patients from index date to 30 days or death. We report the frequency of socio-demographics, prior comorbidities, and 30-days outcomes (hospitalization, events, and death) by obesity status.

Findings

We included 627 044 COVID-19 (US: 502 650, Spain: 122 058, UK: 2336) and 4 549 568 influenza (US: 4 431 801, Spain: 115 224, UK: 2543) patients. The prevalence of obesity was higher among hospitalized COVID-19 (range: 38% to 54%) than diagnosed COVID-19 (30% to 47%), or diagnosed (15% to 47%) or hospitalized (27% to 48%) influenza patients. Obese hospitalized COVID-19 patients were more often female and younger than non-obese COVID-19 patients or obese influenza patients. Obese COVID-19 patients were more likely to have prior comorbidities, present with cardiovascular and respiratory events during hospitalization, require intensive services, or die compared to non-obese COVID-19 patients. Obese COVID-19 patients were more likely to require intensive services or die compared to obese influenza patients, despite presenting with fewer comorbidities.

Interpretation

We show that obesity is more common amongst COVID-19 than influenza patients, and that obese patients present with more severe forms of COVID-19 with higher hospitalization, intensive services, and fatality than non-obese patients. These data are instrumental for guiding preventive strategies of COVID-19 infection and complications.

Funding

The European Health Data & Evidence Network has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 806968. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA. This research received partial support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), US National Institutes of Health, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Janssen Research & Development, and IQVIA. The University of Oxford received funding related to this work from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Investment ID INV-016201 and INV-019257). APU has received funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) [MR/K501256/1, MR/N013468/1] and Fundación Alfonso Martín Escudero (FAME) (APU). VINCI [VA HSR RES 13-457] (SLD, MEM, KEL). JCEL has received funding from the Medical Research Council (MR/K501256/1) and Versus Arthritis (21605). No funders had a direct role in this study. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Clinician Scientist Award programme, NIHR, Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government, NHS, or the Department of Health, England.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

Previous evidence suggests that obese individuals are a high risk population for COVID-19 infection and complications. We searched PubMed for articles published from December 2019 until June 2020, using terms referring to SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 combined with terms for obesity. Few studies reported obesity and most of them were limited by small sample sizes and restricted to hospitalized patients. Further, they used different definitions for obesity (i.e. some reported together overweight and obesity, others only reported obesity with BMI>40kg/m 2 ). To date, no study has provided detailed information on the characteristics of obese COVID-19 patients, such as the prevalence of comorbidities or COVID-19 related outcomes. In addition, despite the fact that COVID-19 has been often compared to seasonal influenza, there are no studies assessing whether obese patients with COVID-19 differ from obese patients with seasonal influenza.

Added value of this study

We report the largest cohort of obese patients with COVID-19 and provide information on more than 29 000 aggregate characteristics publicly available. Our findings were consistent across the participating databases and countries. We found that the prevalence of obesity is higher among COVID-19 compared to seasonal influenza patients. Obese patients with COVID-19 are more commonly female and have worse outcomes than non-obese patients. Further, they have worse outcomes than obese patients with influenza, despite presenting with fewer comorbidities.

Implications of all the available evidence

Our results show that individuals with obesity present more comorbidities and worse outcomes for COVID-19 than non-obese patients. These findings may be useful in guiding clinical practice and future preventative strategies for obese individuals, as well as provide useful data to support subsequent association studies focussed on obesity and COVID-19.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.02.20185173; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR208611; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR208611&type=FILE&fileName=EMS94639-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/09/03/2020.09.02.20185173.full.pdf -PPR247301,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.27.20238147,"Ethnicity, Household Composition and COVID-19 Mortality: A National Linked Data Study","Nafilyan V, Islam N, Ayoubkhani D, Gilles C, Katikireddi SV, Mathur R, Summerfield A, Tingay K, Tingay K, Asaria M, John A, Goldblatt P, Banerjee A, Khunti K.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Ethnic minorities have experienced disproportionate COVID-19 mortality rates. We estimated associations between household composition and COVID-19 mortality in older adults (≥ 65 years) using a newly linked census-based dataset, and investigated whether living in a multi-generational household explained some of the elevated COVID-19 mortality amongst ethnic minority groups.

Methods

Using retrospective data from the 2011 Census linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (2017-2019) and death registration data (up to 27 th July 2020), we followed adults aged 65 years or over living in private households in England from 2 March 2020 until 27 July 2020 (n=10,078,568). We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for COVID-19 death for people living in a multi-generational household compared with people living with another older adult, adjusting for geographical factors, socio-economic characteristics and pre-pandemic health. We conducted a causal mediation analysis to estimate the proportion of ethnic inequalities explained by living in a multi-generational household.

Results

Living in a multi-generational household was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 death. After adjusting for confounding factors, the HRs for living in a multi-generational household with dependent children were 1.13 [95% confidence interval 1.01-1.27] and 1.17 [1.01-1.35] for older males and females. The HRs for living in a multi-generational household without dependent children were 1.03 [0.97 - 1.09] for older males and 1.22 [1.12 - 1.32] for older females. Living in a multi-generational household explained between 10% and 15% of the elevated risk of COVID-19 death among older females from South Asian background, but very little for South Asian males or people in other ethnic minority groups.

Conclusion

Older adults living with younger people are at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality, and this is a notable contributing factor to the excess risk experienced by older South Asian females compared to White females. Relevant public health interventions should be directed at communities where such multi-generational households are highly prevalent.

Funding

This research was funded by the Office for National Statistics.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0141076821999973; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.27.20238147; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR247301; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR247301&type=FILE&fileName=EMS107607-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR249199,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242933,Pre-existing cardiovascular disease rather than cardiovascular risk factors drives mortality in COVID-19,"O’Gallagher K, Shek A, Bean DM, Bendayan R, Teo JTH, Dobson RJB, Shah AM, Zakeri R.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-04,Y,,,,"

Background

The association between cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, such as hypertension and diabetes, established CV disease (CVD), and susceptibility to CV complications or mortality in COVID-19 remains unclear.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study of consecutive adults hospitalised for severe COVID-19 between 1 st March and 30 th June 2020. Pre-existing CVD, CV risk factors and associations with mortality and CV complications were ascertained.

Findings

Among 1,721 patients (median age 71 years, 57% male), 349 (20.3%) had pre-existing CVD (CVD), 888 (51.6%) had CV risk factors without CVD (RF-CVD), 484 (28.1%) had neither. Patients with CVD were older with a higher burden of non-CV comorbidities. During follow-up, 438 (25.5%) patients died: 37% with CVD, 25.7% with RF-CVD and 16.5% with neither. CVD was independently associated with in-hospital mortality among patients <70 years of age (adjusted HR 2.43 [95%CI 1.16-5.07]), but not in those ≥70 years (aHR 1.14 [95%CI 0.77-1.69]). RF-CVD were not independently associated with mortality in either age group (<70y aHR 1.21 [95%CI 0.72-2.01], ≥70y aHR 1.07 [95%CI 0.76-1.52]). Most CV complications occurred in patients with CVD (66%) versus RF-CVD (17%) or neither (11%; p<0.001). 213 [12.4%] patients developed venous thromboembolism (VTE). CVD was not an independent predictor of VTE.

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, pre-existing established CVD appears to be a more important contributor to mortality than CV risk factors in the absence of CVD. CVD-related hazard may be mediated, in part, by new CV complications. Optimal care and vigilance for destabilised CVD are essential in this patient group.",,pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12872-021-02137-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242933; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR249199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR249199&type=FILE&fileName=EMS107885-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR247301,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.27.20238147,"Ethnicity, Household Composition and COVID-19 Mortality: A National Linked Data Study","Nafilyan V, Islam N, Ayoubkhani D, Gilles C, Katikireddi SV, Mathur R, Summerfield A, Tingay K, Tingay K, Asaria M, John A, Goldblatt P, Banerjee A, Khunti K.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Ethnic minorities have experienced disproportionate COVID-19 mortality rates. We estimated associations between household composition and COVID-19 mortality in older adults (≥ 65 years) using a newly linked census-based dataset, and investigated whether living in a multi-generational household explained some of the elevated COVID-19 mortality amongst ethnic minority groups.

Methods

Using retrospective data from the 2011 Census linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (2017-2019) and death registration data (up to 27 th July 2020), we followed adults aged 65 years or over living in private households in England from 2 March 2020 until 27 July 2020 (n=10,078,568). We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for COVID-19 death for people living in a multi-generational household compared with people living with another older adult, adjusting for geographical factors, socio-economic characteristics and pre-pandemic health. We conducted a causal mediation analysis to estimate the proportion of ethnic inequalities explained by living in a multi-generational household.

Results

Living in a multi-generational household was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 death. After adjusting for confounding factors, the HRs for living in a multi-generational household with dependent children were 1.13 [95% confidence interval 1.01-1.27] and 1.17 [1.01-1.35] for older males and females. The HRs for living in a multi-generational household without dependent children were 1.03 [0.97 - 1.09] for older males and 1.22 [1.12 - 1.32] for older females. Living in a multi-generational household explained between 10% and 15% of the elevated risk of COVID-19 death among older females from South Asian background, but very little for South Asian males or people in other ethnic minority groups.

Conclusion

Older adults living with younger people are at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality, and this is a notable contributing factor to the excess risk experienced by older South Asian females compared to White females. Relevant public health interventions should be directed at communities where such multi-generational households are highly prevalent.

Funding

This research was funded by the Office for National Statistics.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0141076821999973; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.27.20238147; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR247301; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR247301&type=FILE&fileName=EMS107607-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR369660,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.09.21260272,Optimising health and economic impacts of COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation strategies in the WHO European Region,"Liu Y, Sandmann FG, Barnard RC, Pearson CA, Pastore R, Pebody R, Flasche S, Jit M, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-07-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region differ in terms of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out speed. We evaluated the health and economic impact of different age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies across this demographically and socio-economically diverse region.

Methods

We fitted country-specific age-stratified compartmental transmission models to reported COVID-19 mortality in the WHO European Region to inform the immunity level before vaccine roll-out. Building upon broad recommendations from the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE), we examined four strategies that prioritise: all adults (V+), younger (20-59 year-olds) followed by older adults (60+) (V20), older followed by younger adults (V60), and the oldest adults (75+) (V75) followed by incremental expansion to successively younger five-year age groups. We explored four roll-out scenarios based on projections or recent observations (R1-4) - the slowest scenario (R1) covers 30% of the total population by December 2022 and the fastest (R4) 80% by December 2021. Five decision-making metrics were summarised over 2021-22: mortality, morbidity, and losses in comorbidity-adjusted life expectancy (cLE), comorbidity- and quality-adjusted life years (cQALY), and the value of human capital (HC). Six sets of infection-blocking and disease-reducing vaccine efficacies were considered.

Findings

The optimal age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies were sensitive to country characteristics, decision-making metrics and roll-out speeds. Overall, V60 consistently performed better than or comparably to V75. There were greater benefits in prioritising older adults when roll-out is slow and when VE is low. Under faster roll-out, V+ was the most desirable option.

Interpretation

A prioritisation strategy involving more age-based stages (V75) does not necessarily lead to better health and economic outcomes than targeting broad age groups (V60). Countries expecting a slow vaccine roll-out may particularly benefit from prioritising older adults.

Funding

World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Institute of Health Research (United Kingdom), the European Commission, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (United Kingdom), Wellcome Trust

Research in Context

Evidence before this study

We searched PubMed and medRxiv for articles published in English from inception to 9 Jun 2021, with the search terms: (“COVID-19” OR “SARS-CoV-2”) AND (“priorit*) AND (“model*”) AND (“vaccin*”) and identified 66 studies on vaccine prioritization strategies. Of the 25 studies that compared two or more age-based prioritisation strategies, 12 found that targeting younger adults minimised infections while targeting older adults minimised mortality; an additional handful of studies found similar outcomes between different age-based prioritisation strategies where large outbreaks had already occurred. However, only two studies have explored age-based vaccine prioritisation using models calibrated to observed outbreaks in more than one country, and no study has explored the effectiveness of vaccine prioritisation strategies across settings with different population structures, contact patterns, and outbreak history.

Added-value of this study

We evaluated various age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies for 38 countries in the WHO European Region using various health and economic outcomes for decision-making, by parameterising models using observed outbreak history, known epidemiologic and vaccine characteristics, and a range of realistic vaccine roll-out scenarios. We showed that while targeting older adults was generally advantageous, broadly targeting everyone above 60 years might perform better than or comparably to a more detailed strategy that targeted the oldest age group above 75 years followed by those in the next younger five-year age band. Rapid vaccine roll-out has only been observed in a small number of countries. If vaccine coverage can reach 80% by the end of 2021, prioritising older adults may not be optimal in terms of health and economic impact. Lower vaccine efficacy was associated with greater relative benefits only under relatively slow roll-out scenarios considered.

Implication of all the available evidence

COVID-19 vaccine prioritization strategies that require more precise targeting of individuals of a specific and narrow age range may not necessarily lead to better outcomes compared to strategies that prioritise populations across broader age ranges. In the WHO European Region, prioritising all adults equally or younger adults first will only optimise health and economic impact when roll-out is rapid, which may raise between-country equity issues given the global demand for COVID-19 vaccines.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.09.21260272; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR369660; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR369660&type=FILE&fileName=EMS130637-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR191969,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.22.20159772,Projecting contact matrices in 177 geographical regions: an update and comparison with empirical data for the COVID-19 era,"Prem K, van Zandvoort K, Klepac P, Eggo RM, Davies NG, Cook AR, Jit M, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-25,Y,,,,"Mathematical models have played a key role in understanding the spread of directly-transmissible infectious diseases such as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), as well as the effectiveness of public health responses. As the risk of contracting directly-transmitted infections depends on who interacts with whom, mathematical models often use contact matrices to characterise the spread of infectious pathogens. These contact matrices are usually generated from diary-based contact surveys. However, the majority of places in the world do not have representative empirical contact studies, so synthetic contact matrices have been constructed using more widely available setting-specific survey data on household, school, classroom, and workplace composition combined with empirical data on contact patterns in Europe. In 2017, the largest set of synthetic contact matrices to date were published for 152 geographical locations. In this study, we update these matrices with the most recent data and extend our analysis to 177 geographical locations. Due to the observed geographic differences within countries, we also quantify contact patterns in rural and urban settings where data is available. Further, we compare both the 2017 and 2020 synthetic matrices to out-of-sample empirically-constructed contact matrices, and explore the effects of using both the empirical and synthetic contact matrices when modelling physical distancing interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the synthetic contact matrices reproduce the main traits of the contact patterns in the empirically-constructed contact matrices. Models parameterised with the empirical and synthetic matrices generated similar findings with few differences observed in age groups where the empirical matrices have missing or aggregated age groups. This finding means that synthetic contact matrices may be used in modelling outbreaks in settings for which empirical studies have yet to be conducted.

Author summary

The risk of contracting a directly transmitted infectious disease such as the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) depends on who interacts with whom. Such person-to-person interactions vary by age and locations—e.g., at home, at work, at school, or in the community—due to the different social structures. These social structures, and thus contact patterns, vary across and within countries. Although social contact patterns can be measured using contact surveys, the majority of countries around the world, particularly low- and middle-income countries, lack nationally representative contact surveys. A simple way to present contact data is to use matrices where the elements represent the rate of contact between subgroups such as age groups represented by the columns and rows. In 2017, we generated age- and location-specific synthetic contact matrices for 152 geographical regions by adapting contact pattern data from eight European countries using country-specific data on household size, school and workplace composition. We have now updated these matrices with the most recent data (Demographic Household Surveys, World Bank, UN Population Division) extending the coverage to 177 geographical locations, covering 97.2% of the world’s population. We also quantified contact patterns in rural and urban settings. When compared to out-of-sample empirically-measured contact patterns, we found that the synthetic matrices reproduce the main features of these contact patterns.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/07/28/2020.07.22.20159772.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.22.20159772; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR191969; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR191969&type=FILE&fileName=EMS87995-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR150220,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.07.20056788,ACE-inhibitors and Angiotensin-2 Receptor Blockers are not associated with severe SARS-COVID19 infection in a multi-site UK acute Hospital Trust,"Bean DM, Kraljevic Z, Searle T, Bendayan R, O’Gallagher K, Pickles A, Folarin A, Roguski L, Noor K, Shek A, Zakeri R, Shah AM, Teo JT, Dobson RJ.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-04-11,Y,,,,"

Aims

The SARS-Cov2 virus binds to the ACE2 receptor for cell entry. It has been suggested that ACE-inhibitors (ACEi) and Angiotensin-2 Blockers (ARB), which are commonly used in patients with hypertension or diabetes and may raise ACE2 levels, could increase the risk of severe COVID19 infection.

Methods and Results

We evaluated this hypothesis in a consecutive cohort of 1200 acute inpatients with COVID19 at two hospitals with a multi-ethnic catchment population in London (UK). The mean age was 68±17 years (57% male) and 74% of patients had at least 1 comorbidity. 415 patients (34.6%) reached the primary endpoint of death or transfer to a critical care unit for organ support within 21-days of symptom onset. 399 patients (33.3 %) were taking ACEi or ARB. Patients on ACEi/ARB were significantly older and had more comorbidities. The odds ratio (OR) for the primary endpoint in patients on ACEi and ARB, after adjustment for age, sex and co-morbidities, was 0.63 (CI 0.47-0.84, p<0.01).

Conclusions

There was no evidence for increased severity of COVID19 disease in hospitalised patients on chronic treatment with ACEi or ARB. A trend towards a beneficial effect of ACEi/ARB requires further evaluation in larger meta-analyses and randomised clinical trials.",SARS-Cov2 viruses connect to a part of cells called ACE2 receptor to enter the cells. Beam et al. investigated the effect of a group of drugs called ACE-inhibitors on severity of covid-19 amongst 205 patients and shown that ACE-inhibitor drugs doesn’t increase short-term risk of COVID-19.,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.1924; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.07.20056788; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR150220; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR150220&type=FILE&fileName=EMS106919-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -282,8 +282,8 @@ PPR341253,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257267,"Colchicine in patients ad PPR581420,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.07.22283175,"Apixaban following discharge in hospitalised adults with COVID-19: Preliminary results from a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled platform clinical trial","Toshner MR, Gamble C, Baillie JK, Best A, Bedson E, Bradley J, Calvert M, Davies EH, Docherty AB, Gkioni E, Hughes DA, Jaki T, Jenkins RG, Jones A, Landray MJ, Mant J, McAuley DF, Openshaw PJ, Richards D, Wicks P, Summers C, HEAL-COVID Collaboration.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-12-07,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

The role of thromboprophylaxis in the post-acute phase of COVID-19 is uncertain due to conflicting results from randomised controlled trials and observational studies. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of post-hospital apixaban in reducing the rate of death and hospital readmission of hospitalised adults with COVID-19.

Methods

HEAL COVID is an adaptive randomised open label multicentre platform trial recruiting participants from National Health Service Hospitals in the United Kingdom. Here we report the preliminary results of apixaban comparison of HEAL-COVID. Participants with a hospital admission related to confirmed COVID-19 and an expected date of discharge in the subsequent five days were randomised to either apixaban 2.5 mg twice daily or standard care (no anticoagulation) for 14 days. The primary outcome was hospital free survival at 12 months obtained through routine data sources. The trial was prospectively registered with ISRCTN (15851697) and Clincialtrials.gov ( NCT04801940 ).

Findings

Between 19 May 2021 and 21 November 2022, 402 participants from 109 sites were randomised to apixaban and 399 to standard care. Seven participants withdrew from the apixaban group and one from the standard care group. Analysis was undertaken on an intention-to-treat basis. The apixaban arm was stopped on the recommendation of the oversight committees following an interim analysis due to no indication of benefit. Of the 402 participants randomised to apixaban, 117 experienced death or rehospitalisation during a median follow-up of 344·5 days (IQR 125 to 365), and 123 participants receiving standard care experienced death or rehospitalisation during a median follow-up of 349 days (IQR 124 to 365). There was no statistical difference in the rate of death and rehospitalisation (HR: 0·96 99%CI 0·69-1·34; p=0·75). Three participants in the apixaban arm experienced clinically significant bleeding during treatment.

Interpretation

Fourteen days of post-hospital anticoagulation with the direct oral anticoagulant apixaban did not reduce the rate of death or rehospitalisation of adults hospitalised with COVID-19. These data do not support the use of prophylactic post-hospital anticoagulation in adults with COVID-19.

Funding

HEAL-COVID is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research [NIHR133788] and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre [BRC-1215-20014*].",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/12/07/2022.12.07.22283175.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.07.22283175; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR581420; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR581420&type=FILE&fileName=EMS158329-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR494479,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.22.22274176,Association between household composition and severe COVID-19 outcomes in older people by ethnicity: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform,"Wing K, Grint DJ, Mathur R, Gibbs HP, Hickman G, Nightingale E, Schultze A, Forbes H, Nafilyan V, Bhaskaran K, Williamson E, House T, Pellis L, Herrett E, Gautam N, Curtis HJ, Rentsch CT, Wong AY, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, Tomlinson L, Goldacre B, Eggo RM.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-04-22,Y,,,,"Ethnic differences in the risk of severe COVID-19 may be linked to household composition. We quantified the association between household composition and risk of severe COVID-19 by ethnicity for older individuals. With the approval of NHS England, we analysed ethnic differences in the association between household composition and severe COVID-19 in people aged 67 or over in England. We defined households by number of generations living together, and used multivariable Cox regression stratified by location and wave of the pandemic and accounted for age, sex, comorbidities, smoking, obesity, housing density and deprivation. We included 2 692 223 people over 67 years in wave 1 (01/02/2020-31/08/2020) and 2 731 427 in wave 2 (01/09/2020-31/01/2021). Multigenerational living was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 for White and South Asian older people in both waves (e.g. wave 2, 67+ living with 3 other generations vs 67+ year olds only: White HR 1·61 95% CI 1·38-1·87, South Asian HR 1·76 95% CI 1·48-2·10), with a trend for increased risks of severe COVID-19 with increasing generations in wave 2. Multigenerational living was associated with severe COVID-19 in older adults. Older South Asian people are over-represented within multigenerational households in England, especially in the most deprived settings. The number of generations in a household, number of occupants, ethnicity and deprivation status are important considerations in the continued roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination and targeting of interventions for future pandemics.

Funding

This research was funded in part, by the Wellcome Trust. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4667116/7/Wing_etal_2022_Association-between-household-composition-and.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.22.22274176; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR494479; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR494479&type=FILE&fileName=EMS149524-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR447330,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.19.22268871,Cohort Profile: The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH),"Bryant L, Free RC, Woolf K, Melbourne C, Guyatt AL, John C, Gupta A, Gray LJ, Nellums L, Martin CA, McManus IC, Garwood C, Modhawdia V, Carr S, Wain LV, Tobin MD, Khunti K, Akubakar I, Pareek M.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-27,Y,,,,"Key Features of the UK-REACH Cohort (Profile in a nutshell) The UK-REACH Cohort was established to understand why ethnic minority healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk of poorer outcomes from COVID-19 when compared to their white ethnic counterparts in the United Kingdom (UK). Through study design, it contains a uniquely high percentage of participants from ethnic minority backgrounds about whom a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data has been collected. A total of 17891 HCWs aged 16-89 years (mean age: 44) have been recruited from across the UK via all major healthcare regulators, individual National Health Service (NHS) hospital trusts and UK HCW membership bodies who advertised the study to their registrants/staff to encourage participation in the study. Data available include linked healthcare records for 25 years from the date of consent and consent to obtain genomic sequencing data collected via saliva. Online questionnaires include information on demographics, COVID-19 exposures at work and home, redeployment in the workforce due to COVID-19, mental health measures, workforce attrition, and opinions on COVID-19 vaccines, with baseline (n=15 119), 6 (n=5632) and 12-month follow-up data captured. Request data access and collaborations by following documentation found at https://www.uk-reach.org/main/data_sharing .",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.19.22268871; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR447330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR447330&type=FILE&fileName=EMS142772-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154879/1/dyac171.pdf -PPR217801,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.22.20198754,"Ethnic differences in COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation, and mortality: an OpenSAFELY analysis of 17 million adults in England","The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Mathur R, Mathur R, Rentsch CT, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Hulme WJ, Schultze A, MacKenna B, Eggo R, Bhaskaran K, Wong AY, Williamson EJ, Forbes H, Wing K, McDonald HI, Bates C, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Evans D, Inglesby P, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Tomlinson L, Evans SJ, Grieve R, Harrison D, Rowan K, Khunti K, Chaturvedi N, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-23,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority populations, both in the UK and internationally. To date, much of the evidence has been derived from studies within single healthcare settings, mainly those hospitalised with COVID-19. Working on behalf of NHS England, the aim of this study was to identify ethnic differences in the risk of COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation and mortality using a large general population cohort in England.

Methods

We conducted an observational cohort study using linked primary care records of 17.5 million adults between 1 February 2020 and 3 August 2020. Exposure was self-reported ethnicity collapsed into the 5 and 16 ethnicity categories of the English Census. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to identify ethnic differences in the risk of being tested and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 related intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and COVID-19 mortality, adjusted for socio-demographic factors, clinical co-morbidities, geographic region, care home residency, and household size.

Results

A total of 17,510,002 adults were included in the study; 63% white (n=11,030,673), 6% south Asian (n=1,034,337), 2% black (n=344,889), 2% other (n=324,730), 1% mixed (n=172,551), and 26% unknown (n=4,602,822). After adjusting for measured explanatory factors, south Asian, black, and mixed groups were marginally more likely to be tested (south Asian HR 1.08, 95%CI 1.07-1.09; black HR 1.08; 95%CI 1.06-1.09, mixed HR 1.03, 95%CI 1.01-1.05), and substantially more likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared with white adults (south Asian HR 2.02. 95% CI 1.97-2.07; black HR 1.68, 95%CI 1.61-1.76; mixed HR 1.46, 95%CI 1.36-1.56). The risk of being admitted to ICU for COVID-19 was substantially increased in all ethnic minority groups compared with white adults (south Asian HR 2.22, 95%CI 1.96-2.52; black HR 3.07, 95%CI 2.61-3.61; mixed HR 2.86, 95%CI 2.19-3.75, other HR 2.86, 95%CI 2.31-3.63). Risk of COVID-19 mortality was increased by 25-56% in ethnic minority groups compared with white adults (south Asian HR 1.27, 95%CI 1.17-1.38; black HR 1.55, 95%CI 1.38-1.75; mixed HR 1.40, 95%CI 1.12-1.76; other HR 1.25, 95%CI 1.05-1.49). We observed heterogeneity of associations after disaggregation into detailed ethnic groupings; Indian and African groups were at higher risk of all outcomes; Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Caribbean groups were less or equally likely to be tested for SARS-CoV-2, but at higher risk of all other outcomes, Chinese groups were less likely to be tested for and test positive for SARS-CoV-2, more likely to be admitted to ICU, and equally likely to die from COVID-19.

Conclusions

We found evidence of substantial ethnic inequalities in the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, ICU admission, and mortality, which persisted after accounting for explanatory factors, including household size. It is likely that some of this excess risk is related to factors not captured in clinical records such as occupation, experiences of structural discrimination, or inequitable access to health and social services. Prioritizing linkage between health, social care, and employment data and engaging with ethnic minority communities to better understand their lived experiences is essential for generating evidence to prevent further widening of inequalities in a timely and actionable manner.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/09/23/2020.09.22.20198754.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.22.20198754; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR217801; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR217801&type=FILE&fileName=EMS96320-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR245783,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.24.20236802,"Characteristics, outcomes, and mortality amongst 133,589 patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases diagnosed with, and 48,418 hospitalised for COVID-19: a multinational distributed network cohort analysis","Tan EH, Sena AG, Prats-Uribe A, You SC, Ahmed W, Kostka K, Reich C, Duvall SL, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Duarte-Salles T, Bertolin SF, Hripcsak G, Natarajan K, Falconer T, Spotnitz M, Ostropolets A, Blacketer C, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Alser O, Lane JC, Dawoud DM, Shah K, Yang Y, Zhang L, Areia C, Golozar A, Relcade M, Casajust P, Jonnagaddala J, Subbian V, Vizcaya D, Lai LY, Nyberg F, Morales DR, Posada JD, Shah NH, Gong M, Vivekanantham A, Abend A, Minty EP, Suchard M, Rijnbeek P, Ryan PB, Prieto-Alhambra D.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-27,Y,,,,"

Objective

Patients with autoimmune diseases were advised to shield to avoid COVID-19, but information on their prognosis is lacking. We characterised 30-day outcomes and mortality after hospitalisation with COVID-19 among patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, and compared outcomes after hospital admissions among similar patients with seasonal influenza.

Design

Multinational network cohort study

Setting

Electronic health records data from Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) (NYC, United States [US]), Optum [US], Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (US), Information System for Research in Primary Care-Hospitalisation Linked Data (SIDIAP-H) (Spain), and claims data from IQVIA Open Claims (US) and Health Insurance and Review Assessment (HIRA) (South Korea).

Participants

All patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, diagnosed and/or hospitalised between January and June 2020 with COVID-19, and similar patients hospitalised with influenza in 2017-2018 were included.

Main outcome measures

30-day complications during hospitalisation and death

Results

We studied 133,589 patients diagnosed and 48,418 hospitalised with COVID-19 with prevalent autoimmune diseases. The majority of participants were female (60.5% to 65.9%) and aged ≥50 years. The most prevalent autoimmune conditions were psoriasis (3.5 to 32.5%), rheumatoid arthritis (3.9 to 18.9%), and vasculitis (3.3 to 17.6%). Amongst hospitalised patients, Type 1 diabetes was the most common autoimmune condition (4.8% to 7.5%) in US databases, rheumatoid arthritis in HIRA (18.9%), and psoriasis in SIDIAP-H (26.4%). Compared to 70,660 hospitalised with influenza, those admitted with COVID-19 had more respiratory complications including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and higher 30-day mortality (2.2% to 4.3% versus 6.3% to 24.6%).

Conclusions

Patients with autoimmune diseases had high rates of respiratory complications and 30-day mortality following a hospitalization with COVID-19. Compared to influenza, COVID-19 is a more severe disease, leading to more complications and higher mortality. Future studies should investigate predictors of poor outcomes in COVID-19 patients with autoimmune diseases.

What is already known about this topic

Patients with autoimmune conditions may be at increased risk of COVID-19 infection andcomplications. There is a paucity of evidence characterising the outcomes of hospitalised COVID-19 patients with prevalent autoimmune conditions.

What this study adds

Most people with autoimmune diseases who required hospitalisation for COVID-19 were women, aged 50 years or older, and had substantial previous comorbidities. Patients who were hospitalised with COVID-19 and had prevalent autoimmune diseases had higher prevalence of hypertension, chronic kidney disease, heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes as compared to those with prevalent autoimmune diseases who were diagnosed with COVID-19. A variable proportion of 6% to 25% across data sources died within one month of hospitalisation with COVID-19 and prevalent autoimmune diseases. For people with autoimmune diseases, COVID-19 hospitalisation was associated with worse outcomes and 30-day mortality compared to admission with influenza in the 2017-2018 season.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-pdf/60/SI/SI37/40544680/keab250.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.24.20236802; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR245783; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR245783&type=FILE&fileName=EMS107298-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR217801,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.22.20198754,"Ethnic differences in COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation, and mortality: an OpenSAFELY analysis of 17 million adults in England","The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Mathur R, Mathur R, Rentsch CT, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Hulme WJ, Schultze A, MacKenna B, Eggo R, Bhaskaran K, Wong AY, Williamson EJ, Forbes H, Wing K, McDonald HI, Bates C, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Evans D, Inglesby P, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Tomlinson L, Evans SJ, Grieve R, Harrison D, Rowan K, Khunti K, Chaturvedi N, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-23,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority populations, both in the UK and internationally. To date, much of the evidence has been derived from studies within single healthcare settings, mainly those hospitalised with COVID-19. Working on behalf of NHS England, the aim of this study was to identify ethnic differences in the risk of COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation and mortality using a large general population cohort in England.

Methods

We conducted an observational cohort study using linked primary care records of 17.5 million adults between 1 February 2020 and 3 August 2020. Exposure was self-reported ethnicity collapsed into the 5 and 16 ethnicity categories of the English Census. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to identify ethnic differences in the risk of being tested and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 related intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and COVID-19 mortality, adjusted for socio-demographic factors, clinical co-morbidities, geographic region, care home residency, and household size.

Results

A total of 17,510,002 adults were included in the study; 63% white (n=11,030,673), 6% south Asian (n=1,034,337), 2% black (n=344,889), 2% other (n=324,730), 1% mixed (n=172,551), and 26% unknown (n=4,602,822). After adjusting for measured explanatory factors, south Asian, black, and mixed groups were marginally more likely to be tested (south Asian HR 1.08, 95%CI 1.07-1.09; black HR 1.08; 95%CI 1.06-1.09, mixed HR 1.03, 95%CI 1.01-1.05), and substantially more likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared with white adults (south Asian HR 2.02. 95% CI 1.97-2.07; black HR 1.68, 95%CI 1.61-1.76; mixed HR 1.46, 95%CI 1.36-1.56). The risk of being admitted to ICU for COVID-19 was substantially increased in all ethnic minority groups compared with white adults (south Asian HR 2.22, 95%CI 1.96-2.52; black HR 3.07, 95%CI 2.61-3.61; mixed HR 2.86, 95%CI 2.19-3.75, other HR 2.86, 95%CI 2.31-3.63). Risk of COVID-19 mortality was increased by 25-56% in ethnic minority groups compared with white adults (south Asian HR 1.27, 95%CI 1.17-1.38; black HR 1.55, 95%CI 1.38-1.75; mixed HR 1.40, 95%CI 1.12-1.76; other HR 1.25, 95%CI 1.05-1.49). We observed heterogeneity of associations after disaggregation into detailed ethnic groupings; Indian and African groups were at higher risk of all outcomes; Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Caribbean groups were less or equally likely to be tested for SARS-CoV-2, but at higher risk of all other outcomes, Chinese groups were less likely to be tested for and test positive for SARS-CoV-2, more likely to be admitted to ICU, and equally likely to die from COVID-19.

Conclusions

We found evidence of substantial ethnic inequalities in the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, ICU admission, and mortality, which persisted after accounting for explanatory factors, including household size. It is likely that some of this excess risk is related to factors not captured in clinical records such as occupation, experiences of structural discrimination, or inequitable access to health and social services. Prioritizing linkage between health, social care, and employment data and engaging with ethnic minority communities to better understand their lived experiences is essential for generating evidence to prevent further widening of inequalities in a timely and actionable manner.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/09/23/2020.09.22.20198754.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.22.20198754; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR217801; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR217801&type=FILE&fileName=EMS96320-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR362014,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3864079,Indirect Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Infection in England: A Population Based Observational Study,"Kadambari S, Goldacre R, Morris E, Goldacre M, Pollard A.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-06-21,N,,,,"Background: Children are largely unaffected following Sars-CoV-2 infection with low rates of significant disease and the inflammatory syndrome MIS-C. However, the lives of children have been substantially disrupted by the pandemic through physical distancing measures and the impact on health systems and economies. In this study, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admissions for childhood respiratory infections, severe invasive infections, and vaccine preventable disease in England was assessed along with associated mortality outcomes.

Methods: In this population-based observational study, we examined hospital admission data from every National Health Service hospital from Mar 1 2017 to Feb 28 2021. We report monthly and annual numbers of individuals hospitalised with 19 common childhood respiratory, severe invasive, and vaccine preventable infections. We compare the frequency of admissions for these conditions before and after the onset of the pandemic in England and calculate percentage changes since Mar 1 2020 for each infection overall and by demographic characteristics including age, region, deprivation, and comorbidity, and quantify mortality outcomes.

Findings: In the 12 months from Mar 1 2020, there were significant reductions compared with the preceding 36 months in the numbers of children admitted for every infection studied except pyelonephritis. These reductions were seen in all geographic regions, Index of Multiple Deprivation categories, ethnic groups and in those with underlying comorbidities. Among the respiratory infections, the greatest percentage reductions were for influenza where the number of individuals admitted decreased by 94% (95% CI 88, 97) from 5,061 (annual mean from Mar 1 2017 - Feb 29 2020) to 290 in the 12 months after Mar 1 2020, and for bronchiolitis where the number of individuals admitted decreased by over 80% (95% CI 78, 83) from 41,777 (annual mean 2017–2020) to 7,883 in 2020-21. Among the severe invasive infections, percentage decreases ranged from 20% (95% CI 13, 26) for osteomyelitis to 54% (95% CI 51, 56) for meningitis. Among the vaccine preventable infections, the greatest reduction was for measles, where the number of individuals admitted in the 12 months after Mar 1 2020 (n=12) was 92% lower (95% CI 84, 96) than the average number admitted in the previous three years (n=143). Admissions for Neisseria meningitidis decreased by 70% (95% CI 55, 80), and admissions for Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and mumps more than halved. Alongside the decreases in admissions, there were also decreases in the absolute numbers of 60-day fatalities after admission for sepsis, meningitis, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, viral wheeze and upper respiratory tract infection (RTI). For pneumonia, although the absolute number of 60-day fatalities decreased (from a 3-year average of 159 to 115 after Mar 1 2020), the proportion of individuals admitted who died within 60 days increased (age-sex adjusted odds ratio 1.73, 95% CI 1.42, 2.11).

Interpretation: During the COVID-19 pandemic, a range of behavioural changes (adoption of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs)) and societal strategies (school closures, lockdowns and restricted travel) were used to reduce transmission of SARS CoV2 which have also significantly reduced transmission of common and severe childhood infections. NPIs could be used in the future to better protect healthcare systems and the most vulnerable children in society.

Funding Information: Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

Declaration of Interests: None to declare.

Ethics Approval Statement: Ethical approval to study the record-linked datasets was obtained from the Central and South Bristol Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee (04/Q2006/176). All patient records were pseudonymized by the data providers through encryption of personal identifiers.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10158356/1/Indirect%20effects%20of%20the%20covid-19%20pandemic%20on%20childhood%20infection%20in%20England%20population%20based%20observational%20study.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3864079; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR362014; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3864079 PPR360911,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3854605,"Changes in Neonatal Admissions, Care Processes and Outcomes in England and Wales During the COVID-19 Pandemic","Greenbury SF, Longford NT, Ougham K, Angelini ED, Battersby C, Uthaya S, Modi N.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-05-27,N,,,,"Background: The COVID-19 pandemic instigated multiple societal and healthcare interventions with potential to affect perinatal practice. We evaluated population-level changes in preterm and full-term admissions to neonatal units, care processes, and outcomes.

Methods: We obtained information from the National Neonatal Research Database on all admissions to National Health Service neonatal units in England and Wales from 2012-2020. We evaluated admissions by gestational age, ethnicity, and Index of Multiple Deprivation, and key care processes and outcomes. We calculated the differences in numbers and rates between April-June 2020 (spring), the first three months of national lockdown and December 2019-February 2020 (winter), prior to introduction of mitigation measures (COVID period), and compared them with the corresponding differences in the seven previous years. We considered the COVID period highly unusual if the difference was smaller or larger than all previous corresponding differences, and calculated the level of confidence in this conclusion.

Findings: Marked fluctuations occurred in all measures over the eight years with several highly unusual changes during the COVID period. Total admissions fell, having risen over all previous years (COVID difference: -1492; previous seven-year difference range: +100, +1617; p<0∙001); full-term Black admissions rose (+66; -64, +35; p<0∙001) whereas Asian (-137; -14, +101; p<0∙001) and White (-319; -235, +643: p<0∙001) admissions fell. Transfers to higher and lower designation neonatal units increased (+129; -4, +88; p<0∙001) and decreased (-47; -25, +12; p<0∙001), respectively. Total preterm admissions decreased (-350; -26, +479; p<0∙001). The fall in extremely preterm admissions was most marked in the two lowest socio-economic quintiles.

Interpretation: Our findings indicate substantial changes occurred in care pathways and clinical thresholds, with disproportionate effects on Black ethnic groups, during the immediate COVID-19 period, and raise the intriguing possibility that non-healthcare interventions may reduce extremely preterm births.

Funding Information: Medical Research Council; Health Data Research UK.

Declaration of Interests: NM reports grants outside the submitted work from the Medical Research Council, National Institute of Health Research, March of Dimes, British Heart Foundation, HCA International, Health Data Research UK, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, Prolacta Life Sciences, and Westminster Children’s Research Fund; NM is a member of the Nestle Scientific Advisory Board and accepts no personal remuneration for this role. NM reports travel and accommodation reimbursements from Chiesi, Nestle and Shire. All other authors report no declarations of interest.

Ethics Approval Statement: The study was undertaken under approval from the Health Research Authority and Health and Care Research Wales, and with the agreement of all NHS neonatal units in England and Wales.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3854605; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR360911; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR360911&type=FILE&fileName=EMS128455-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3854605 PPR302424,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.19.21253940,"COVID-19 Infection Risk amongst 14,104 Vaccinated Care Home Residents: A national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, United Kingdom, December 2020 to March 2021","Hollinghurst J, North L, Perry M, Akbari A, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-24,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Vaccinations for COVID-19 have been prioritised for older people living in care homes. However, vaccination trials included limited numbers of older people.

Aim

We aimed to study infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 for older care home residents following vaccination and identify factors associated with increased risk of infection.

Study Design and Setting

We conducted an observational data-linkage study including 14,104 vaccinated older care home residents in Wales (UK) using anonymised electronic health records and administrative data.

Methods

We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination, after landmark times of either 7 or 21-days post-vaccination. We adjusted hazard ratios for age, sex, frailty, prior SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination type.

Results

We observed a small proportion of care home residents with positive PCR tests following vaccination 1.05% (N=148), with 90% of infections occurring within 28-days. For the 7-day landmark analysis we found a reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for vaccinated individuals who had a previous infection; HR (95% confidence interval) 0.54 (0.30,0.95), and an increased HR for those receiving the Pfizer-BioNTECH vaccine compared to the Oxford-AstraZeneca; 3.83 (2.45,5.98). For the 21-day landmark analysis we observed high HRs for individuals with low and intermediate frailty compared to those without; 4.59 (1.23,17.12) and 4.85 (1.68,14.04) respectively.

Conclusions

Increased risk of infection after 21-days was associated with frailty. We found most infections occurred within 28-days of vaccination, suggesting extra precautions to reduce transmission risk should be taken in this time frame.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56588/Download/56588__19705__510f42860c3f499794d1ec266d43131d.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.19.21253940; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR302424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR302424&type=FILE&fileName=EMS120789-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -292,14 +292,14 @@ PPR639769,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.01.23287538,Trends in weight gain reco PPR645696,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.14.23287661,"Determining prescriptions in electronic healthcare record (EHR) data: methods for development of standardized, reproducible drug codelists","Graul EL, Stone PW, Massen GM, Hatam S, Adamson A, Denaxas S, Peters NS, Quint JK.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-04-17,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Objective

Epidemiological research using electronic healthcare records(EHR) informing everyday patient care uses combinations of codes (“codelists”) to define diseases and prescriptions (or phenotypes). Yet methodology for codelist generation varies, manifesting in misclassification bias, while there are drug-specific codelist considerations.

Materials and Methods

We developed methods to generate drug codelists, testing this using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum database, accounting for missing data in “attribute” search variables. We generated codelists for 1)cardiovascular disease and 2)inhaled Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) therapies, applying them to a sample cohort of 335,931 COPD patients. We compared searching on all search variables (A,”gold standard”) to B) chemical and C) ontological information only.

Results

In Search A we determined 165,150 patients prescribed cardiovascular drugs(49.2% of cohort), and 317,963 prescribed COPD inhalers (94.7% of cohort). Considering output per value set, Search C missed substantial prescriptions, including vasodilator anti-hypertensives (A and B:19,696 prescriptions; C:1,145) and SAMA inhalers (A and B:35,310; C:564).

Discussion

We recommend the full methods (A) for comprehensiveness. There are special considerations when generating adaptable and generalizable drug codelists, including fluctuating status, cohort-specific drug indications, underlying hierarchical ontology, and statistical analyses.

Conclusions

Methods:

must have end-to-end clinical input, and be standardizable, reproducible, and understandable to all researchers across data contexts.

LAY ABSTRACT

Health research using patient records informs everyday medicine, using groups of codes (“codelists”) to define diseases and drugs. Yet methods to create drug codelists are inconsistent, may not include physician expertise, nor be reported. We developed a reproducible method to create drug codelists, testing it using de-identified healthcare records. We generated codelists for 1) heart conditions and 2) inhalers to identify prescriptions in a sample group of 335,931 patients with chronic lung disease. We compared our full methods (Search A) to two restricted searches to show prescriptions can be missed if necessary considerations are not made. In search A, we determined 165,150 people (49.2% of sample group) prescribed drugs from the heart codelist. For lung inhalers, we determined 317,963 prescriptions (94.7% of group). Search C missed substantial prescriptions, for drugs lowering blood pressure by opening vessels (A and B:19,696 prescriptions; C: 1,145), and short-term inhalers opening airways (A and B: 35,310; C:564). We recommend full methods(A) for completeness. Drug codelist methods must be consistent, duplicable, and include physician input at all research stages, and have special considerations including status (eg, new, taken off market), disease, and drug categorical system. Quality methods should be freely accessible and usable across study contexts.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/04/17/2023.04.14.23287661.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.14.23287661; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR645696; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR645696&type=FILE&fileName=EMS174337-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR157865,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.20081810,Clinical classifiers of COVID-19 infection from novel ultra-high-throughput proteomics,"Messner CB, Demichev V, Wendisch D, Michalick L, White M, Freiwald A, Textoris-Taube K, Vernardis SI, Egger A, Kreidl M, Ludwig D, Kilian C, Agostini F, Zelezniak A, Thibeault C, Pfeiffer M, Hippenstiel S, Hocke A, von Kalle C, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Langenberg C, Lilley KS, Kuebler WM, Mülleder M, Drosten C, Witzenrath M, Kurth F, Sander LE, Ralser M.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-03,Y,,,,"

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global challenge. Highly variable in its presentation, spread and clinical outcome, novel point-of-care diagnostic classifiers are urgently required. Here, we describe a set of COVID-19 clinical classifiers discovered using a newly designed low-cost high-throughput mass spectrometry-based platform. Introducing a new sample preparation pipeline coupled with short-gradient high-flow liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, our methodology facilitates clinical implementation and increases sample throughput and quantification precision. Providing a rapid assessment of serum or plasma samples at scale, we report 27 biomarkers that distinguish mild and severe forms of COVID-19, of which some may have potential as therapeutic targets. These proteins highlight the role of complement factors, the coagulation system, inflammation modulators as well as pro-inflammatory signalling upstream and downstream of Interleukin 6. Application of novel methodologies hence transforms proteomics from a research tool into a rapid-response, clinically actionable technology adaptable to infectious outbreaks.

Highlights

- A completely redesigned clinical proteomics platform increases throughput and precision while reducing costs. - 27 biomarkers are differentially expressed between WHO severity grades for COVID-19. - The study highlights potential therapeutic targets that include complement factors, the coagulation system, inflammation modulators as well as pro-inflammatory signalling both upstream and downstream of interleukin 6.",This study successfully uses mass spectrometry to distinguish mild and severe forms of COVID ,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.20081810; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR157865; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR157865&type=FILE&fileName=EMS91998-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR293663,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.06.21252964,"Estimating the impact of reopening schools on the reproduction number of SARS-CoV-2 in England, using weekly contact survey data","Munday JD, I Jarvis C, Gimma A, Wong KL, Zandvoort Kv, Funk S, Edmunds WJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-08,Y,,,,"

Background

Schools have been closed in England since the 4th of January 2021 as part of the national restrictions to curb transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The UK Government plans to reopen schools on the 8th of March. Although there is evidence of lower individual-level transmission risk amongst children compared to adults, the combined effects of this with increased contact rates in school settings are not clear.

Methods

We measured social contacts when schools were both open or closed, amongst other restrictions. We combined these data with estimates of the susceptibility and infectiousness of children compared with adults to estimate the impact of reopening schools on the reproduction number.

Results

Our results suggest that reopening all schools could increase R from an assumed baseline of 0.8 to between 1.0 and 1.5, or to between 0.9 and 1.2 reopening primary or secondary schools alone.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that reopening schools is likely to halt the fall in cases observed in recent months and risks returning to rising infections, but these estimates rely heavily on the current estimates or reproduction number and the current validity of the susceptibility and infectiousness profiles we use.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4664036/1/Estimating%20the%20impact%20of%20reopening%20schools.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.06.21252964; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR293663; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR293663&type=FILE&fileName=EMS118856-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR693212,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.16.23292723,Evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admission related to common infections,"Fahmi A, Palin V, Zhong X, Yang Y, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Goldacre B, Mackenna B, Fisher L, Massey J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hand K, Staa TPv, OpenSAFELY collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-18,Y,,,,"

Background

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a multifaceted global challenge, partly driven by inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted antibiotic prescribing for common bacterial infections. This highlights the need to examine risk of hospital admissions related to common infections, excluding COVID-19 infections during the pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we accessed electronic health records from The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) through OpenSAFELY platform. We included patients with primary care diagnosis of common infections, including lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), and lower urinary tract infection (UTI), from January 2019 to August 2022. We excluded patients with a COVID-19 record 90 days before to 30 days after the infection diagnosis. Using Cox proportional-hazard regression models, we predicted risk of infection-related hospital admission in 30 days follow-up period after the diagnosis.

Results

We found 12,745,165 infection diagnoses from January 2019 to August 2022. Of them, 80,395 (2.05%) cases were admitted to hospital in the follow-up period. Counts of hospital admission for infections dropped during COVID-19, e.g., LRTI from 3,950 in December 2019 to 520 in April 2020. Comparing those prescribed an antibiotic to those without, reduction in risk of hospital admission were largest with LRTI (adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 0.35; 95% CI, 0.35-0.36) and UTI (adjusted OR 0.45; 95% CI, 0.44-0.46), compared to URTI (adjusted OR 1.04; 95% CI, 1.03-1.06).

Conclusion

Large effectiveness of antibiotics in preventing complications related to LRTI and UTI can support better targeting of antibiotics to patients with higher complication risks.

Key messages

- The main drivers of infection-related hospital admission are age, Charlson comorbidity index, and history of prior antibiotics. - Antibiotics are more effective in preventing hospital admission related to infections such as lower respiratory tract infection and urinary tract infection, rather than upper respiratory tract infection. - Common antibiotic types are associated with more reduction in the risk of infection-related hospital admission.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.16.23292723; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR693212 PPR213448,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.11.20192492,Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 in England: detection by community antigen surveillance,"REACT Study Investigators:, Riley S, Ainslie KEC, Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-11,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

Based on cases and deaths, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in England peaked in late March and early April 2020 and then declined until the end of June. Since the start of July, cases have increased, while deaths have continued to decrease.

Methods

We report results from 594,000 swabs tested for SARS-CoV-2 virus obtained from a representative sample of people in England over four rounds collected regardless of symptoms, starting in May 2020 and finishing at the beginning of September 2020. Swabs for the most recent two rounds were taken between 24th July and 11th August and for round 4 between 22nd August and 7th September. We estimate weighted overall prevalence, doubling times between and within rounds and associated reproduction numbers. We obtained unweighted prevalence estimates by sub-groups: age, sex, region, ethnicity, key worker status, household size, for which we also estimated odds of infection. We identified clusters of swab-positive participants who were closer, on average, to other swab-positive participants than would be expected.

Findings

Over all four rounds of the study, we found that 72% (67%, 76%) of swab-positive individuals were asymptomatic at the time of swab and in the week prior. The epidemic declined between rounds 1 and 2, and rounds 2 and 3. However, the epidemic was increasing between rounds 3 and 4, with a doubling time of 17 (13, 23) days corresponding to an R value of 1.3 (1.2, 1.4). When analysing round 3 alone, we found that the epidemic had started to grow again with 93% probability. Using only the most recent round 4 data, we estimated a doubling time of 7.7 (5.5, 12.7) days, corresponding to an R value of 1.7 (1.4, 2.0). Cycle threshold values were lower (viral loads were higher) for rounds 1 and 4 than they were for rounds 2 and 3. In round 4, we observed the highest prevalence in participants aged 18 to 24 years at 0.25% (0.16%, 0.41%), increasing from 0.08% (0.04%, 0.18%) in round 3. We observed the lowest prevalence in those aged 65 and older at 0.04% (0.02%, 0.06%) which was stable compared with round 3. Participants of Asian ethnicity had elevated odds of infection. We identified clusters in and around London, transient clusters in the Midlands, and an expanding area of clustering in the North West and more recently in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Interpretation

Although low levels of transmission persisted in England through to mid-summer 2020, the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 is now increasing. We found evidence of accelerating transmission at the end of August and beginning of September. Representative community antigen sampling can increase situational awareness and help improve public health decision making even at low prevalence.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/09/13/2020.09.11.20192492.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.11.20192492; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR213448; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR213448&type=FILE&fileName=EMS95011-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR693212,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.16.23292723,Evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admission related to common infections,"Fahmi A, Palin V, Zhong X, Yang Y, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Goldacre B, Mackenna B, Fisher L, Massey J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hand K, Staa TPv, OpenSAFELY collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-18,Y,,,,"

Background

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a multifaceted global challenge, partly driven by inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted antibiotic prescribing for common bacterial infections. This highlights the need to examine risk of hospital admissions related to common infections, excluding COVID-19 infections during the pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we accessed electronic health records from The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) through OpenSAFELY platform. We included patients with primary care diagnosis of common infections, including lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), and lower urinary tract infection (UTI), from January 2019 to August 2022. We excluded patients with a COVID-19 record 90 days before to 30 days after the infection diagnosis. Using Cox proportional-hazard regression models, we predicted risk of infection-related hospital admission in 30 days follow-up period after the diagnosis.

Results

We found 12,745,165 infection diagnoses from January 2019 to August 2022. Of them, 80,395 (2.05%) cases were admitted to hospital in the follow-up period. Counts of hospital admission for infections dropped during COVID-19, e.g., LRTI from 3,950 in December 2019 to 520 in April 2020. Comparing those prescribed an antibiotic to those without, reduction in risk of hospital admission were largest with LRTI (adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 0.35; 95% CI, 0.35-0.36) and UTI (adjusted OR 0.45; 95% CI, 0.44-0.46), compared to URTI (adjusted OR 1.04; 95% CI, 1.03-1.06).

Conclusion

Large effectiveness of antibiotics in preventing complications related to LRTI and UTI can support better targeting of antibiotics to patients with higher complication risks.

Key messages

- The main drivers of infection-related hospital admission are age, Charlson comorbidity index, and history of prior antibiotics. - Antibiotics are more effective in preventing hospital admission related to infections such as lower respiratory tract infection and urinary tract infection, rather than upper respiratory tract infection. - Common antibiotic types are associated with more reduction in the risk of infection-related hospital admission.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.16.23292723; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR693212 PPR305511,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3805856,An External Validation of the QCovid Risk Prediction Algorithm for Risk of Mortality from COVID-19 in Adults: National Validation Cohort Study in Scotland,"Simpson C, Robertson C, Kerr S, Shi T, Vasileiou E, Moore E, McCowan C, Agrawal U, Stagg H, Docherty A, Mulholland R, Murray J, Ritchie LD, McMenamin J, Hippisley-Cox J, Sheikh A.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-16,N,,,,"Background: The QCovid algorithm is a risk prediction tool for COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality that can be used to stratify patients by risk into vulnerability groups . We carried out an external validation of the QCovid algorithm in Scotland.

Methods: We established a national COVID-19 data platform using individual level data for the population of Scotland (5.4 million residents). Primary care data were linked to reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) virology testing, hospitalisation and mortality data. We assessed the performance of the QCovid algorithm in predicting COVID-19 hospitalisation and deaths in our dataset for two time periods: 1 March, 2020 to 30 April, 2020, and 1 May, 2020 to 30 June, 2020.

Findings: Our dataset comprised 5,384,819 individuals, representing 99% of the estimated population (5,463,300) resident in Scotland in 2020. The algorithm showed excellent calibration in both time periods with close correspondence between observed and predicted risks. Harrell ’s C for deaths in males and females in the first period was 0.946 (95% CI: 0.941 - 0.951) and 0.925 (95% CI: 0.919 - 0.931) respectively. Harrell’s C for hospitalisations in males and females in the first period was 0.809 (95% CI: 0.801 - 0.817) and 0.816 (95% CI: 0.808 - 0.823) respectively.

Interpretation: The QCovid algorithm shows high levels of external validity in predicting the risk of COVID- 19 hospitalisation and death in the population of Scotland.

Funding: Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme, funded through the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Health Data Research UK.

Declaration of Interests: Dr. Hippisley-Cox reports grants from MRC, grants from Wellcome Trrust, grants from NIHR, during the conduct of the study; other from ClinRisk Ltd, outside the submitted work. Dr. Sheikh reports grants from NIHR, grants from MRC, grants from HRR UK, during the conduct of the study. All other authors report no conflict of interest.

Ethics Approval Statement: Ethical permission for this study was granted from South East Scotland Research Ethics Committee 02 [12/SS/0201]. The Public Benefit and Privacy Panel Committee of Public Health Scotland, approved the linkage and analysis of the de-identified datasets for this project [1920-0279].",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3805856; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR305511; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3805856 PPR203834,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.17.20175117,Real-time spatial health surveillance: mapping the UK COVID-19 epidemic,"Fry R, Hollinghurst J, R Stagg H, A Thompson D, Fronterre C, Orton C, A Lyons R, V Ford D, Sheikh A, J Diggle P.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-08-21,Y,,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for robust data linkage systems and methods for identifying outbreaks of disease in near real-time. Using self-reported app data and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, we demonstrate the use of sophisticated spatial modelling for near-real-time prediction of COVID-19 prevalence at small-area resolution to inform strategic government policy areas. A pre-requisite to an effective control strategy is that predictions need to be accompanied by estimates of their precision, to guard against over-reaction to potentially spurious features of ‘best guess’ predictions. In the UK, important emerging risk-factors such as social deprivation or ethnicity vary over small distances, hence risk needs to be modelled at fine spatial resolution to avoid aggregation bias. We demonstrate that existing geospatial statistical methods originally developed for global health applications are well-suited to this task and can be used in an anonymised databank environment, thus preserving the privacy of the individuals who contribute their data.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55271/Download/55271__19477__8ee05d6fecff47d6a9e21d2b84e5de22.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.17.20175117; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR203834; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR203834&type=FILE&fileName=EMS95676-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR160456,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092734,The impact of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on health systems and household resources in Africa and South Asia,"Davies N, Sweeney S, Torres-Rueda S, Bozzani F, Kitson N, Barasa E, Procter SR, Quaife M, Eggo RM, Vassall A, Jit M, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-08,Y,,,,"

Background

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemics strain health systems and households. Health systems in Africa and South Asia may be particularly at risk due to potential high prevalence of risk factors for severe disease, large household sizes and limited healthcare capacity.

Methods

We investigated the impact of an unmitigated COVID-19 epidemic on health system resources and costs, and household costs, in Karachi, Delhi, Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Johannesburg. We adapted a dynamic model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and disease to capture country-specific demography and contact patterns. The epidemiological model was then integrated into an economic framework that captured city-specific health systems and household resource use.

Findings

The cities severely lack intensive care beds, healthcare workers and financial resources to meet demand during an unmitigated COVID-19 epidemic. A highly mitigated COVID-19 epidemic, under optimistic assumptions, may avoid overwhelming hospital bed capacity in some cities, but not critical care capacity.

Interpretation

Viable mitigation strategies encompassing a mix of responses need to be established to expand healthcare capacity, reduce peak demand for healthcare resources, minimise progression to critical care and shield those at greatest risk of severe disease.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission, National Institute for Health Research, Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, Royal Society, Research Councils UK.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We conducted a PubMed search on May 5, 2020, with no language restrictions, for studies published since inception, combining the terms (“cost” OR “economic”) AND “covid”. Our search yielded 331 articles, only two of which reported estimates of health system costs of COVID-19. The first study estimated resource use and medical costs for COVID-19 in the United States using a static model of COVID 19. The second study estimated the costs of polymerase chain reaction tests in the United States. We found no studies examining the economic implications of COVID-19 in low- or middle-income settings.

Added value of this study

This is the first study to use locally collected data in five cities (Karachi, Delhi, Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Johannesburg) to project the healthcare resource and health economic implications of an unmitigated COVID-19 epidemic. Besides the use of local data, our study moves beyond existing work to (i) consider the capacity of health systems in key cities to cope with this demand, (ii) consider healthcare staff resources needed, since these fall short of demand by greater margins than hospital beds, and (iii) consider economic costs to health services and households.

Implications of all the evidence

Demand for ICU beds and healthcare workers will exceed current capacity by orders of magnitude, but the capacity gap for general hospital beds is narrower. With optimistic assumptions about disease severity, the gap between demand and capacity for general hospital beds can be closed in some, but not all the cities. Efforts to bridge the economic burden of disease to households are needed.","The study aimed to mathmatically predict what the impact COVID-19 will be on hospitals and household income in cities in Africa and South Asia if measures are put in place to prevent the spread of infection, compared to no action. The authors found that a range of responses are needed to help spread the timing of peak in infections and to reduce the pressure on the health service.",pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/05/08/2020.05.06.20092734.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092734; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR160456; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR160456&type=FILE&fileName=EMS91085-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR223257,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.328328,MAJORA: Continuous integration supporting decentralised sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance,"Nicholls SM, Poplawski R, Bull MJ, Underwood A, Chapman M, Abu-Dahab K, Taylor B, Jackson B, Rey S, Amato R, Livett R, Gonçalves S, Harrison EM, Peacock SJ, Aanensen DM, Rambaut A, Connor TR, Loman NJ, The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-10-07,Y,,,,"Genomic epidemiology has become an increasingly common tool for epidemic response. Recent technological advances have made it possible to sequence genomes rapidly enough to inform outbreak response, and cheaply enough to justify dense sampling of even large epidemics. With increased availability of sequencing it is possible for agile networks of sequencing facilities to collaborate on the sequencing and analysis of epidemic genomic data. In response to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium was formed with the aim of rapidly sequencing SARS-CoV-2 genomes as part of a national-scale genomic surveillance strategy. The network consists of universities, academic institutes, regional sequencing centres and the four UK Public Health Agencies. We describe the development and deployment of Majora, an encompassing digital infrastructure to address the challenge of collecting and integrating both genomic sequencing data and sample-associated metadata produced across the COG-UK network. The system was designed and implemented pragmatically to stand up capacity rapidly in a pandemic caused by a novel virus. This approach has underpinned the success of COG-UK, which has rapidly become the leading contributor of SARS-CoV-2 genomes to international databases and has generated over 60,000 sequences to date.",,pdf:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2020/10/07/2020.10.06.328328.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.328328; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR223257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR223257&type=FILE&fileName=EMS97924-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR387586,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.21262209,Population birth outcomes in 2020 and experiences of expectant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a ‘Born in Wales’ mixed methods study using routine data,"Jones H, Seaborne M, Cowley L, Odd D, Paranjothy S, Akbari A, Brophy S.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-08-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Pregnancy can be a stressful time and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life. This study aims to investigate the impact of the pandemic on population birth outcomes in Wales, rates of primary immunisations and examine expectant mothers’ experiences of pregnancy including self-reported levels of stress and anxiety.

Methods

Population-level birth outcomes in Wales: Stillbirths, prematurity, birth weight and Caesarean section births before (2016–2019) and during (2020) the pandemic were compared using national-level routine anonymised data held in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. The first three scheduled primary immunisations were compared between 2019 and 2020. Self-reported pregnancy experience: 215 expectant mothers (aged 16+) in Wales completed an online survey about their experiences of pregnancy during the pandemic. The qualitative survey data was analysed using codebook thematic analysis.

Findings

There was no significant difference between annual outcomes including gestation and birth weight, stillbirths, and Caesarean sections for infants born in 2020 compared to 2016-2019. There was an increase in late term births (≥42 weeks gestation) during the first lockdown (OR: 1.28, p=0.019) and a decrease in moderate to late preterm births (32-36 weeks gestation) during the second lockdown (OR: 0.74, p=0.001). Fewer babies were born in 2020 (N=29,031) compared to 2016-2019 (average N=32,582). All babies received their immunisations in 2020, but there were minor delays in the timings of vaccines. Those due at 8-weeks were 8% less likely to be on time (within 28-days) and at 16-weeks, they were 19% less likely to be on time. The pandemic had a negative impact on the mental health of 71% of survey respondents, who reported anxiety, stress and loneliness; this was associated with attending scans without their partner, giving birth alone, and minimal contact with midwives.

Interpretation

The pandemic had a negative impact on mothers’ experiences of pregnancy; however, population-level data suggests that this did not translate to adverse birth outcomes for babies born during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/18632/1/Jones_etal_PO_Population_Birth_Outcomes_VoR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.21262209; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR387586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR387586&type=FILE&fileName=EMS134441-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR425646,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.27.21266930,Dosing interval strategies for two-dose COVID-19 vaccination in 13 low- and middle-income countries of Europe: health impact modelling and benefit-risk analysis,"Liu Y, Pearson CA, Sandmann FG, Barnard RC, Kim J, Flasche S, Jit M, Abbas K, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-11-28,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

In settings where the COVID-19 vaccine supply is constrained, extending the intervals between the first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine could let more people receive their first doses earlier. Our aim is to estimate the health impact of COVID-19 vaccination alongside benefit-risk assessment of different dosing intervals for low- and middle-income countries of Europe.

Methods

We fitted a dynamic transmission model to country-level daily reported COVID-19 mortality in 13 low- and middle-income countries in the World Health Organization European Region (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Serbia, North Macedonia, Turkey, and Ukraine). A vaccine product with characteristics similar to the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 (AZD1222) vaccine was used in the base case scenario and was complemented by sensitivity analyses around efficacies related to other COVID-19 vaccines. Both fixed dosing intervals at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks and dose-specific intervals that prioritise specific doses for certain age groups were tested. Optimal intervals minimise COVID-19 mortality between March 2021 and December 2022. We incorporated the emergence of variants of concern into the model, and also conducted a benefit-risk assessment to quantify the trade-off between health benefits versus adverse events following immunisation.

Findings

In 12 of the 13 countries, optimal strategies are those that prioritise the first doses among older adults (60+ years) or adults (20-59 years). These strategies lead to dosing intervals longer than six months. In comparison, a four-week fixed dosing interval may incur 10.2% [range: 4.0% - 22.5%; n = 13 (countries)] more deaths. There is generally a negative association between dosing interval and COVID-19 mortality within the range we investigated. Assuming a shorter first dose waning duration of 120 days, as opposed to 360 days in the base case, led to shorter optimal dosing intervals of 8-12 weeks. Benefit-risk ratios were the highest for fixed dosing intervals of 8-12 weeks.

Interpretation

We infer that longer dosing intervals of over six months, which are substantially longer than the current label recommendation for most vaccine products, could reduce COVID-19 mortality in low- and middle-income countries of WHO/Europe. Certain vaccine features, such as fast waning of first doses, significantly shorten the optimal dosing intervals.

Funding

World Health Organization",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/11/28/2021.11.27.21266930.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.27.21266930; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR425646; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR425646&type=FILE&fileName=EMS140311-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR387586,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.21262209,Population birth outcomes in 2020 and experiences of expectant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a ‘Born in Wales’ mixed methods study using routine data,"Jones H, Seaborne M, Cowley L, Odd D, Paranjothy S, Akbari A, Brophy S.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-08-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Pregnancy can be a stressful time and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life. This study aims to investigate the impact of the pandemic on population birth outcomes in Wales, rates of primary immunisations and examine expectant mothers’ experiences of pregnancy including self-reported levels of stress and anxiety.

Methods

Population-level birth outcomes in Wales: Stillbirths, prematurity, birth weight and Caesarean section births before (2016–2019) and during (2020) the pandemic were compared using national-level routine anonymised data held in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. The first three scheduled primary immunisations were compared between 2019 and 2020. Self-reported pregnancy experience: 215 expectant mothers (aged 16+) in Wales completed an online survey about their experiences of pregnancy during the pandemic. The qualitative survey data was analysed using codebook thematic analysis.

Findings

There was no significant difference between annual outcomes including gestation and birth weight, stillbirths, and Caesarean sections for infants born in 2020 compared to 2016-2019. There was an increase in late term births (≥42 weeks gestation) during the first lockdown (OR: 1.28, p=0.019) and a decrease in moderate to late preterm births (32-36 weeks gestation) during the second lockdown (OR: 0.74, p=0.001). Fewer babies were born in 2020 (N=29,031) compared to 2016-2019 (average N=32,582). All babies received their immunisations in 2020, but there were minor delays in the timings of vaccines. Those due at 8-weeks were 8% less likely to be on time (within 28-days) and at 16-weeks, they were 19% less likely to be on time. The pandemic had a negative impact on the mental health of 71% of survey respondents, who reported anxiety, stress and loneliness; this was associated with attending scans without their partner, giving birth alone, and minimal contact with midwives.

Interpretation

The pandemic had a negative impact on mothers’ experiences of pregnancy; however, population-level data suggests that this did not translate to adverse birth outcomes for babies born during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/18632/1/Jones_etal_PO_Population_Birth_Outcomes_VoR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.21262209; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR387586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR387586&type=FILE&fileName=EMS134441-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR265407,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.12.21249672,"Characteristics and outcomes of 118,155 COVID-19 individuals with a history of cancer in the United States and Spain","Roel E, Pistillo A, Recalde M, Sena AG, Fernández-Bertolín S, Aragón M, Puente D, Ahmed W, Alghoul H, Alser O, Alshammari TM, Areia C, Blacketer C, Carter W, Casajust P, Culhane AC, Dawoud D, DeFalco F, Duvall SL, Falconer T, Golozar A, Gong M, Hester L, Hripcsak G, Tan EH, Jeon H, Jonnagaddala J, Lai LY, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Morales DR, Natarajan K, Nyberg F, Ostropolets A, Posada JD, Prats-Uribe A, Reich CG, Rivera D, Schilling LM, Soerjomataram I, Shah K, Shah N, Shen Y, Spotniz M, Subbian V, Suchard MA, Trama A, Zhang L, Zhang Y, Ryan P, Prieto-Alhambra D, Kostka K, Duarte-Salles T.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-15,Y,,,,"

Purpose

We aimed to describe the demographics, cancer subtypes, comorbidities and outcomes of patients with a history of cancer with COVID-19 from March to June 2020. Secondly, we compared patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and patients hospitalized with influenza.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study using eight routinely-collected healthcare databases from Spain and the US, standardized to the Observational Medical Outcome Partnership common data model. Three cohorts of patients with a history of cancer were included: i) diagnosed with COVID-19, ii) hospitalized with COVID-19, and iii) hospitalized with influenza in 2017-2018. Patients were followed from index date to 30 days or death. We reported demographics, cancer subtypes, comorbidities, and 30-day outcomes.

Results

We included 118,155 patients with a cancer history in the COVID-19 diagnosed and 41,939 in the COVID-19 hospitalized cohorts. The most frequent cancer subtypes were prostate and breast cancer (range: 5-19% and 1-14% in the diagnosed cohort, respectively). Hematological malignancies were also frequent, with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma being among the 5 most common cancer subtypes in the diagnosed cohort. Overall, patients were more frequently aged above 65 years and had multiple comorbidities. Occurrence of death ranged from 8% to 14% and from 18% to 26% in the diagnosed and h ospitalized COVID-19 cohorts, respectively. Patients hospitalized with influenza (n=242,960) had a similar distribution of cancer subtypes, sex, age and comorbidities but lower occurrence of adverse events.

Conclusion

Patients with a history of cancer and COVID-19 have advanced age, multiple comorbidities, and a high occurence of COVID-19-related events. Additionaly, hematological malignancies were frequent in these patients.This observational study provides epidemiologic characteristics that can inform clinical care and future etiological studies.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/01/15/2021.01.12.21249672.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.12.21249672; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR265407; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR265407&type=FILE&fileName=EMS110647-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR609122,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.25.23285005,Call detail record aggregation methodology impacts infectious disease models informed by human mobility,"Gibbs H, Musah A, Seidu O, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Gray J, Adewole WA, Cheshire J, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-28,Y,,,,"This paper demonstrates how two different methods used to calculate population-level mobility from Call Detail Records (CDR) produce varying predictions of the spread of epidemics informed by these data. Our findings are based on one CDR dataset describing inter-district movement in Ghana in 2021, produced using two different aggregation methodologies. One methodology, “all pairs,” is designed to retain long distance network connections while the other, “sequential” methodology is designed to accurately reflect the volume of travel between locations. We show how the choice of methodology feeds through models of human mobility to the predictions of a metapopulation SEIR model of disease transmission. We also show that this impact varies depending on the location of pathogen introduction and transmissibility. For central locations or highly transmissible diseases, we do not observe significant differences between aggregation methodologies on the predicted spread of disease. For less transmissible diseases or those introduced into remote locations, we find that the choice of aggregation methodology influences the speed of spatial spread as well as the size of the peak number of infections in individual districts. Our findings can help researchers and users of epidemiological models to understand how methodological choices at the level of model inputs may influence the results of models of infectious disease transmission, as well as the circumstances in which these choices do not alter model predictions.

Author Summary

Predicting the sub-national spread of infectious disease requires accurate measurements of inter-regional travel networks. Often, this information is derived from the patterns of mobile device connections to the cellular network. This travel data is then used as an input to epidemiological models of infection transmission, defining the likelihood that disease is “exported” between regions. In this paper, we use one mobile device dataset collected in Ghana in 2021, aggregated according to two different methodologies which represent different aspects of inter-regional travel. We show how the choice of aggregation methodology leads to different predicted epidemics, and highlight the conditions under which models of infection transmission may be influenced by methodological choices in the aggregation of travel data used to parameterize these models. For example, we show how aggregation methodology changes predicted epidemics for less-transmissible infections and under certain models of human movement. We also highlight areas of relative stability, where aggregation choices do not alter predicted epidemics, such as cases where an infection is highly transmissible or is introduced into a central location.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.25.23285005; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR609122; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR609122&type=FILE&fileName=EMS163650-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/01/28/2023.01.25.23285005.full.pdf PPR272966,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.22.21250304,Rates of serious clinical outcomes in survivors of hospitalisation with COVID-19: a descriptive cohort study within the OpenSAFELY platform,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Tazare J, Tazare J, Walker AJ, Tomlinson L, Hickman G, Rentsch CT, Williamson EJ, Bhaskaran K, Evans D, Wing K, Mathur R, Wong AY, Schultze A, Bacon S, Bates C, Morton CE, Curtis HJ, Nightingale E, McDonald HI, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Davy S, MacKenna B, Cockburn J, Hulme WJ, Hulme WJ, Warren-Gash C, Bhate K, Nitsch D, Powell E, Mulick A, Forbes H, Minassian C, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Eggo RM, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-25,Y,,,,"

Background

Patients with COVID-19 are thought to be at higher risk of cardiometabolic and pulmonary complications, but quantification of that risk is limited. We aimed to describe the overall burden of these complications in survivors of severe COVID-19.

Methods

Working on behalf of NHS England, we used linked primary care records, death certificate and hospital data from the OpenSAFELY platform. We constructed three cohorts: patients discharged following hospitalisation with COVID-19, patients discharged following hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2019, and a frequency-matched cohort from the general population in 2019. We studied eight cardiometabolic and pulmonary outcomes. Absolute rates were measured in each cohort and Cox regression models were fitted to estimate age/sex adjusted hazard ratios comparing outcome rates between discharged COVID-19 patients and the two comparator cohorts.

Results

Amongst the population of 31,716 patients discharged following hospitalisation with COVID-19, rates for majority of outcomes peaked in the first month post-discharge, then declined over the following four months. Patients in the COVID-19 population had markedly increased risk of all outcomes compared to matched controls from the 2019 general population, especially for pulmonary embolism (HR 12.86; 95% CI: 11.23 - 14.74). Outcome rates were more similar when comparing patients discharged with COVID-19 to those discharged with pneumonia in 2019, although COVID-19 patients had increased risk of type 2 diabetes (HR 1.23; 95% CI: 1.05 - 1.44).

Interpretation

Cardiometabolic and pulmonary adverse outcomes are markedly raised following hospitalisation for COVID-19 compared to the general population. However, the excess risks were more comparable to those seen following hospitalisation with pneumonia. Identifying patients at particularly high risk of outcomes would inform targeted preventive measures.

Funding

Wellcome, Royal Society, National Institute for Health Research, National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, UK Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, Health and Safety Executive.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/04/13/2021.01.22.21250304.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.22.21250304; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR272966; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR272966&type=FILE&fileName=EMS114490-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -316,13 +316,13 @@ PPR181164,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.28.20141986,Protocol for the developme PPR296515,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.21253189,"Risk, clinical course and outcome of ischemic stroke in patients hospitalized with COVID-19: a multicenter cohort study","Sluis WM, Linschoten M, Buijs JE, Biesbroek JM, Hertog HMd, Ribbers T, Nieuwkamp D, Houwelingen RCv, Dias A, Uden IWv, Kerklaan JP, Bienfait HP, Vermeer SE, de Jong SW, Ali M, Wermer MJ, de Graaf MT, Brouwers PJ, Asselbergs FW, Kappelle LJ, van der Worp HB, Algra AM.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-12,N,,,,"

Background and purpose

The frequency of ischemic stroke in patients with COVID-19 varies in the current literature, and risk factors are unknown. We assessed the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of acute ischemic stroke in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Methods

We included patients with a laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted in 16 hospitals participating in the international CAPACITY-COVID registry between March 1 st and August 1 st , 2020. Patients were screened for the occurrence of acute ischemic stroke. We calculated the cumulative incidence of ischemic stroke and compared risk factors, cardiovascular complications, and in-hospital mortality in patients with and without ischemic stroke.

Results

We included 2147 patients with COVID-19, of whom 586 (27.3%) needed treatment at an intensive care unit (ICU). Thirty-eight patients (1.8%) had an ischemic stroke. Patients with stroke were older, but did not differ in sex or cardiovascular risk factors. Median time between onset of COVID-19 symptoms and diagnosis of stroke was two weeks. The incidence of ischemic stroke was higher among patients who were treated at an ICU (16/586; 2.7% versus 22/1561; 1.4%; p=0.039). Pulmonary embolism was more common in patients with (8/38; 21.1%) than in those without stroke (160/2109; 7.6%; adjusted RR: 2.08; 95%CI:1.52-2.84). Twenty-seven patients with ischemic stroke (71.1%) died during admission or were functional dependent at discharge and in-hospital mortality. Patients with ischemic stroke were at a higher risk of in-hospital mortality (adjusted RR 1.56; 95%CI:1.13-2.15) than patients without stroke.

Conclusions

In this multicenter cohort study, the cumulative incidence of acute ischemic stroke in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 was approximately 2%, with a higher risk in patients treated at an ICU. The majority of stroke patients had a poor outcome. The association between ischemic stroke and pulmonary embolism warrants further investigation.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.034787; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.21253189; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR296515; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.21253189 PPR256751,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.10.20245944,"Azithromycin in Hospitalised Patients with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial","Horby PW, Roddick A, Spata E, Staplin N, Emberson JR, Pessoa-Amorim G, Peto L, Campbell M, Brightling C, Prudon B, Chadwick D, Ustianowski A, Ashish A, Todd S, Yates B, Buttery R, Scott S, Maseda D, Baillie JK, Buch MH, Chappell LC, Day JN, Faust SN, Jaki T, Jeffery K, Juszczak E, Lim WS, Montgomery A, Mumford A, Rowan K, Thwaites G, Mafham M, Haynes R, Landray MJ, RECOVERY Collaborative Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-14,Y,,,,"

SUMMARY

Background

Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of azithromycin in hospitalised patients with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial, several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once daily by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or one of the other treatment arms). Patients were twice as likely to be randomised to usual care as to any of the active treatment groups. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT04381936 ).

Findings

Between 7 April and 27 November 2020, 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5182 patients to receive usual care alone. Overall, 496 (19%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 997 (19%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·00; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0·90-1·12; p=0·99). Consistent results were seen in all pre-specified subgroups of patients. There was no difference in duration of hospitalisation (median 12 days vs. 13 days) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (60% vs. 59%; rate ratio 1·03; 95% CI 0·97-1·10; p=0·29). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, there was no difference in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (21% vs. 22%; risk ratio 0·97; 95% CI 0·89-1·07; p=0·54).

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, azithromycin did not provide any clinical benefit. Azithromycin use in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients where there is a clear antimicrobial indication.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research (Grant ref: MC_PC_19056).",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/12/14/2020.12.10.20245944.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.10.20245944; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR256751; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR256751&type=FILE&fileName=EMS109114-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR235017,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.05.20223289,Longitudinal proteomic profiling of dialysis patients with COVID-19 reveals markers of severity and predictors of death,"Gisby J, Clarke CL, Medjeral-Thomas N, Malik TH, Papadaki A, Mortimer PM, Buang NB, Lewis S, Pereira M, Toulza F, Fagnano E, Mawhin M, Dutton EE, Tapeng L, Richard AC, Kirk PDW, Behmoaras J, Sandhu E, McAdoo SP, Prendecki MF, Pickering MC, Botto M, Willicombe M, Thomas DC, Peters JE.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-06,Y,,,,"End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients are at high risk of severe COVID-19. We measured 436 circulating proteins in serial blood samples from hospitalised and non-hospitalised ESKD patients with COVID-19 (n=256 samples from 55 patients). Comparison to 51 non-infected patients revealed 221 differentially expressed proteins, with consistent results in a separate subcohort of 46 COVID-19 patients. 203 proteins were associated with clinical severity, including IL6, markers of monocyte recruitment (e.g. CCL2, CCL7), neutrophil activation (e.g. proteinase-3) and epithelial injury (e.g. KRT19). Machine learning identified predictors of severity including IL18BP, CTSD, GDF15, and KRT19. Survival analysis with joint models revealed 69 predictors of death. Longitudinal modelling with linear mixed models uncovered 32 proteins displaying different temporal profiles in severe versus non-severe disease, including integrins and adhesion molecules. These data implicate epithelial damage, innate immune activation, and leucocyte-endothelial interactions in the pathology of severe COVID-19 and provide a resource for identifying drug targets.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/02/15/2020.11.05.20223289.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.05.20223289; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR235017; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR235017&type=FILE&fileName=EMS103818-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR341842,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3817437,Risk Factors for Developing COVID-19: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study (COVIDENCE UK),"Holt H, Talaei M, Greenig M, Zenner D, Symons J, Relton C, Young KS, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Ashman J, Rajpoot SS, Kayyale AA, Rifai SE, Lloyd PJ, Jolliffe DA, Finer S, Ilidriomiti S, Miners A, Hopkinson NS, Alam B, Pfeffer PE, McCoy D, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Breen G, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-01,N,,,,"Background: Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include older age, male sex, obesity, Black or Asian ethnicity and underlying medical conditions. Whether these factors also influence susceptibility to developing COVID-19 is uncertain.

Methods: We undertook a prospective, population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK) from 1 st May 2020 to 5 th February 2021 . Baseline information on potential risk factors was captured by an online questionnaire. Monthly follow-up questionnaires captured incident COVID-19. We used logistic regression models to estimate multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for associations between potential risk factors and risk of COVID-19.

Findings: We recorded 446 incident cases of COVID-19 in 15,227 participants (2.9%). Increased risk of developing COVID-19 was independently associated with Asian/Asian British vs . White ethnicity (aOR 2.31, 95% CI 1.35-3.95), household overcrowding (aOR per additional 0.5 people/bedroom 1.26, 1.11-1.43) , any vs . no visits to/from other households in previous week (aOR 1.33, 1.07-1.64), number of visits to indoor public places (aOR per extra visit per week 1.05, 1.01-1.09), frontline occupation excluding health/social care vs. no frontline occupation (aOR 1.49, 1.12-1.98), and raised body mass index (BMI) (aOR 1.51 [1.20-1.90] for BMI 25.0-30.0 kg/m 2 and 1.38 [1.05-1.82] for BMI >30.0 kg/m 2 vs. BMI <25.0 kg/m 2 ). Atopic disease was independently associated with decreased risk (aOR 0.76, 0.59-0.98). No independent associations were seen for age, sex, other medical conditions, diet, or micronutrient supplement use.

Interpretation: After rigorous adjustment for factors influencing exposure to SARS-CoV-2, Asian/Asian British ethnicity and raised BMI were associated with increased risk of developing COVID-19, while atopic disease was associated with decreased risk.

Trial Registration: It is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04330599).

Funding: Barts Charity, Health Data Research UK

Declaration of Interest: None to declare.

Ethical Approval: The study was sponsored by Queen Mary University of London and approved by
Leicester South Research Ethics Committee (ref 20/EM/0117).",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/148236929/holth2021risk.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3817437; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR341842; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR341842&type=FILE&fileName=EMS124907-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3817437 PPR609115,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.25.23284428,Primary care coding activity related to the use of online consultation systems or remote consulting: an analysis of 53 million peoples’ health records using OpenSAFELY,"Fonseca M, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Walters CE, Hickman G, Pearson J, Fisher L, Inglesby P, Bacon S, Davy S, Hulme W, Goldacre B, Koffman O, Bakhai M, The OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-28,Y,,,,"

Background

The pandemic accelerated work by the NHS in England to enable and stimulate use of online consultation systems across all practices, for improved access to primary care.

Objective

We aimed to explore general practice coding activity associated with the use of online consultation systems in terms of trends, COVID-19 effect, variation and quality.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, OpenSAFELY-TPP and OpenSAFELY-EMIS were used to query and analyse in situ records of electronic health record systems of over 53 million patients in over 6,400 practices, mainly in 2019-2020. SNOMED CT codes relevant to online consultation systems and written online consultations were identified. Coded events were described by volumes, practice coverage, trends pre- and post-COVID-19 and inter-practice and sociodemographic variation.

Results

3,550,762 relevant coding events were found in TPP practices, with code eConsultation detected in 84% of practices. Coding activity related to digital forms of interaction increased rapidly from March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, though we found large variation in coding instance rates among practices in England. Code instances were more commonly found among females, those aged 18-40, those least deprived or white. eConsultation coded activity was more commonly found recorded among patients with a history of asthma or depression.

Conclusions

We successfully queried general practice coding activity relevant to the use of online consultation systems, showing increased adoption as well as key areas of variation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The work can be expanded to support monitoring of coding quality and underlying activity. In future, large-scale impact evaluation studies can be implemented within the platform, namely looking at resource utilisation and patient outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/01/28/2023.01.25.23284428.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.25.23284428; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR609115; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR609115&type=FILE&fileName=EMS163624-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR697706,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.20.23292883,Impact of COVID-19 on recorded blood pressure screening and hypertension management in England: An analysis of monthly changes in Quality and Outcomes Framework indicators in OpenSAFELY,"Wiedemann M, Speed V, Cunningham C, Higgins R, Curtis HJ, Andrews C, Fisher L, Hopcroft LEM, Rentsch CT, Mahalingasivam V, Tomlinson L, Morton CE, Samuel M, Green ACA, Wood C, Brown A, Massey J, Walters C, Smith R, Inglesby P, Evans D, Maude S, Dillingham I, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, McManus RJ, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-26,Y,,,,"

Background

Cardiovascular disease management in primary care in England was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective

To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood pressure screening and hypertension management, based upon a national quality of care scheme (Quality and Outcomes Framework, QOF) across key demographic, regional, and clinical subgroups. To this end, we translated complex clinical quality of care schemes from text descriptions into reusable analytic code.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a population based cohort study was conducted on 25.2 million patient records in situ using OpenSAFELY-TPP. We included all NHS patients registered at general practices using TPP software between March 2019 and March 2023. Individuals that were eligible for blood pressure screening and with a diagnosis of hypertension were identified according to the QOF 2021/22 business rules. We examined monthly changes in recorded blood pressure screening in the preceding 5 years in patients aged ≥ 45, recorded hypertension prevalence, and the recorded percentage of patients treated to target (i.e., ≤ 140/90 mmHg for patients ≤ 79 years and ≤ 150/90 mmHg for patients ≥ 80 years) in the preceding 12 months, within demographic, regional, and clinical subgroups as well as the variation across practices.

Results

The overall percentage of patients aged ≥ 45 who had blood pressure screening recorded in the preceding 5 years decreased from 90% in March 2019 to 85% in March 2023. Recorded hypertension prevalence was relatively stable at 15% throughout the study period. The percentage of patients with a record of hypertension treated to target in the preceding 12 months reduced from a maximum of 71% in March 2020 to a minimum of 47% in February 2021 in patients aged ≤ 79 years, and from 85% in March 2020 to a minimum of 58% in February 2021 in patients aged ≥ 80 years before recovering. Blood pressure screening rates in the preceding 5 years remained stable in older age groups, patients with a record of learning disability, or care home status.

Conclusions

There was substantial disruption to hypertension management QOF indicators during the pandemic, which can likely be attributed to a general reduction of blood pressure measurement including screening. OpenSAFELY can be used to continuously monitor monthly changes in national quality of care schemes to identify changes in key clinical subgroups early and support prioritisation of recovery from disrupted care caused by COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/07/31/2023.07.20.23292883.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.20.23292883; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR697706 +PPR341842,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3817437,Risk Factors for Developing COVID-19: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study (COVIDENCE UK),"Holt H, Talaei M, Greenig M, Zenner D, Symons J, Relton C, Young KS, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Ashman J, Rajpoot SS, Kayyale AA, Rifai SE, Lloyd PJ, Jolliffe DA, Finer S, Ilidriomiti S, Miners A, Hopkinson NS, Alam B, Pfeffer PE, McCoy D, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Breen G, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-01,N,,,,"Background: Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include older age, male sex, obesity, Black or Asian ethnicity and underlying medical conditions. Whether these factors also influence susceptibility to developing COVID-19 is uncertain.

Methods: We undertook a prospective, population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK) from 1 st May 2020 to 5 th February 2021 . Baseline information on potential risk factors was captured by an online questionnaire. Monthly follow-up questionnaires captured incident COVID-19. We used logistic regression models to estimate multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for associations between potential risk factors and risk of COVID-19.

Findings: We recorded 446 incident cases of COVID-19 in 15,227 participants (2.9%). Increased risk of developing COVID-19 was independently associated with Asian/Asian British vs . White ethnicity (aOR 2.31, 95% CI 1.35-3.95), household overcrowding (aOR per additional 0.5 people/bedroom 1.26, 1.11-1.43) , any vs . no visits to/from other households in previous week (aOR 1.33, 1.07-1.64), number of visits to indoor public places (aOR per extra visit per week 1.05, 1.01-1.09), frontline occupation excluding health/social care vs. no frontline occupation (aOR 1.49, 1.12-1.98), and raised body mass index (BMI) (aOR 1.51 [1.20-1.90] for BMI 25.0-30.0 kg/m 2 and 1.38 [1.05-1.82] for BMI >30.0 kg/m 2 vs. BMI <25.0 kg/m 2 ). Atopic disease was independently associated with decreased risk (aOR 0.76, 0.59-0.98). No independent associations were seen for age, sex, other medical conditions, diet, or micronutrient supplement use.

Interpretation: After rigorous adjustment for factors influencing exposure to SARS-CoV-2, Asian/Asian British ethnicity and raised BMI were associated with increased risk of developing COVID-19, while atopic disease was associated with decreased risk.

Trial Registration: It is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04330599).

Funding: Barts Charity, Health Data Research UK

Declaration of Interest: None to declare.

Ethical Approval: The study was sponsored by Queen Mary University of London and approved by
Leicester South Research Ethics Committee (ref 20/EM/0117).",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/148236929/holth2021risk.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3817437; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR341842; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR341842&type=FILE&fileName=EMS124907-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3817437 PPR342175,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3590468,"Risk Prediction for Poor Outcome and Death in Hospital In-Patients with COVID-19: Derivation in Wuhan, China and External Validation in London, UK","Zhang H, Shi T, Wu X, Zhang X, Wang K, Bean D, Dobson R, Teo JT, Sun J, Zhao P, Li C, Dhaliwal K, Wu H, Li Q, Guthrie B.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-04,N,,,,"Background: Accurate risk prediction of clinical outcome would usefully inform clinical decisions and intervention targeting in COVID-19. The aim of this study was to derive and validate risk prediction models for poor outcome and death in adult inpatients with COVID-19.

Methods: Model derivation using data from Wuhan, China used logistic regression with death and poor outcome (death or severe disease) as outcomes. Predictors were demographic, comorbidity, symptom and laboratory test variables. The best performing models were externally validated in data from London, UK.

Findings: 4.3% of the derivation cohort (n=775) died and 9.7% had a poor outcome, compared to 34.1% and 42.9% of the validation cohort (n=226). In derivation, prediction models based on age, sex, neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, platelet count, C-reactive protein and creatinine had excellent discrimination (death c-index=0.91, poor outcome c-index=0.88), with good-to-excellent calibration. Using two cut-offs to define low, high and very-high risk groups, derivation patients were stratified in groups with observed death rates of 0.34%, 15.0% and 28.3% and poor outcome rates 0.63%, 8.9% and 58.5%. External validation discrimination was good (c-index death=0.74, poor outcome=0.72) as was calibration. However, observed rates of death were 16.5%, 42.9% and 58.4% and poor outcome 26.3%, 28.4% and 64.8% in predicted low, high and very-high risk groups.

Interpretation: Our prediction model using demography and routinely-available laboratory tests performed very well in internal validation in the lower-risk derivation population, but less well in the much higher-risk external validation population. Further external validation is needed. Collaboration to create larger derivation datasets, and to rapidly externally validate all proposed prediction models in a range of populations is needed, before routine implementation of any risk prediction tool in clinical care.

Funding Statement: HW and HZ are supported by Medical Research Council and Health Data Research UK Grant (MR/S004149/1), Industrial Strategy Challenge Grant (MC_PC_18029) and Wellcome Institutional Translation Partnership Award (PIII054). RD is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. DMB is funded by a UKRI Innovation Fellowship as part of Health Data Research UK MR/S00310X/1 (https://www.hdruk.ac.uk). KD is supported by LifeArc STOPCOVID award. This work uses data provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. XW is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number:81700006). QL is supported by National Key R&D Program (2018YFC1313700), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 81870064) and the “Gaoyuan” project of Pudong Health and Family Planning Commission (PWYgy2018-06).

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics Approval Statement: The derivation study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Shanghai Dongfang Hospital and Taikang Tongji Hospital. The external validation study operated under London South East Research Ethics Committee (reference 18/LO/2048) approval granted to the King’s Electronic Records Research Interface (KERRI).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.28.20082222; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3590468; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR342175; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3590468 +PPR697706,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.20.23292883,Impact of COVID-19 on recorded blood pressure screening and hypertension management in England: An analysis of monthly changes in Quality and Outcomes Framework indicators in OpenSAFELY,"Wiedemann M, Speed V, Cunningham C, Higgins R, Curtis HJ, Andrews C, Fisher L, Hopcroft LEM, Rentsch CT, Mahalingasivam V, Tomlinson L, Morton CE, Samuel M, Green ACA, Wood C, Brown A, Massey J, Walters C, Smith R, Inglesby P, Evans D, Maude S, Dillingham I, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, McManus RJ, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-07-26,Y,,,,"

Background

Cardiovascular disease management in primary care in England was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective

To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood pressure screening and hypertension management, based upon a national quality of care scheme (Quality and Outcomes Framework, QOF) across key demographic, regional, and clinical subgroups. To this end, we translated complex clinical quality of care schemes from text descriptions into reusable analytic code.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a population based cohort study was conducted on 25.2 million patient records in situ using OpenSAFELY-TPP. We included all NHS patients registered at general practices using TPP software between March 2019 and March 2023. Individuals that were eligible for blood pressure screening and with a diagnosis of hypertension were identified according to the QOF 2021/22 business rules. We examined monthly changes in recorded blood pressure screening in the preceding 5 years in patients aged ≥ 45, recorded hypertension prevalence, and the recorded percentage of patients treated to target (i.e., ≤ 140/90 mmHg for patients ≤ 79 years and ≤ 150/90 mmHg for patients ≥ 80 years) in the preceding 12 months, within demographic, regional, and clinical subgroups as well as the variation across practices.

Results

The overall percentage of patients aged ≥ 45 who had blood pressure screening recorded in the preceding 5 years decreased from 90% in March 2019 to 85% in March 2023. Recorded hypertension prevalence was relatively stable at 15% throughout the study period. The percentage of patients with a record of hypertension treated to target in the preceding 12 months reduced from a maximum of 71% in March 2020 to a minimum of 47% in February 2021 in patients aged ≤ 79 years, and from 85% in March 2020 to a minimum of 58% in February 2021 in patients aged ≥ 80 years before recovering. Blood pressure screening rates in the preceding 5 years remained stable in older age groups, patients with a record of learning disability, or care home status.

Conclusions

There was substantial disruption to hypertension management QOF indicators during the pandemic, which can likely be attributed to a general reduction of blood pressure measurement including screening. OpenSAFELY can be used to continuously monitor monthly changes in national quality of care schemes to identify changes in key clinical subgroups early and support prioritisation of recovery from disrupted care caused by COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/07/31/2023.07.20.23292883.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.20.23292883; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR697706; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR697706&type=FILE&fileName=EMS181988-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR320203,https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-438237/v1,COVID-19-related acute kidney injury; temporal changes in incidence rate and outcomes in a large UK cohort,"Jewell PD, Bramham K, Galloway J, Post F, Norton S, Teo J, Fisher R, Saha R, Hutchings S, Hopkins P, Smith P, Joslin J, Jayawardene S, Mackie S, Mudhaffer A, Holloway A, Kibble H, Akter M, Zuckerman B, Palmer K, Murphy C, Iatropoulou D, Sharpe CC, Lioudaki E.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,"

Background:

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common among patients hospitalised with COVID-19, and associated with worse prognosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology, risk factors and outcomes of AKI in patients with COVID-19 in a large UK tertiary centre.

Methods:

: We analysed data of consecutive adults admitted with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 across two sites of a hospital in London, UK, from 1st January to 13th May 2020.

Results:

Of the 1248 inpatients included, 487 (39%) experienced AKI (51% stage 1, 13% stage 2,and 36% stage 3). The weekly AKI incidence rate gradually increased to peak at week 5 (3.12 cases/100 patient-days), before reducing to its nadir (0.83 cases/100 patient-days) at the end the study period (week 10). Among AKI survivors, 84.0% had recovered renal function to pre-admission levels before discharge and none required on-going renal replacement therapy (RRT). Pre-existing renal impairment [odds ratio (OR) 3.05, 95%CI 2.24-4,18; p<0.0001], and inpatient diuretic use (OR 1.79, 95%CI 1.27-2.53; p<0.005) were independently associated with a higher risk for AKI. AKI was a strong predictor of 30-day mortality with an increasing risk across AKI stages [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.59 (95%CI 1.19-2.13) for stage 1; p<0.005, 2.71(95%CI 1.82-4.05); p<0.001for stage 2 and 2.99 (95%CI 2.17-4.11); p<0.001for stage 3]. One third of AKI3 survivors (30.7%), had newly established renal impairment at 3 to 6 months.

Conclusions:

: This large UK cohort demonstrated a high AKI incidence with a changing pattern over time and was associated with increased mortality even at stage 1. Inpatient diuretic use was linked to a higher AKI risk. One third of survivors with AKI3 exhibited newly established renal impairment already at 3-6 months.",,pdf:https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-438237/latest.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-438237/v1; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR320203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR320203&type=FILE&fileName=EMS123857-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR304173,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.27.21254452,Risk factors for developing COVID-19: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK),"Holt H, Talaei M, Greenig M, Zenner D, Symons J, Relton C, Young KS, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Ashman J, Rajpoot SS, Kayyale AA, Rifai SE, Lloyd PJ, Jolliffe DA, Finer S, Ilidriomiti S, Miners A, Hopkinson NS, Alam B, Pfeffer PE, McCoy D, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Breen G, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include older age, male sex, obesity, Black or Asian ethnicity and underlying medical conditions. Whether these factors also influence susceptibility to developing COVID-19 is uncertain.

Methods

We undertook a prospective, population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK) from 1 st May 2020 to 5 th February 2021. Baseline information on potential risk factors was captured by an online questionnaire. Monthly follow-up questionnaires captured incident COVID-19. We used logistic regression models to estimate multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for associations between potential risk factors and risk of COVID-19.

Findings

We recorded 446 incident cases of COVID-19 in 15,227 participants (2.9%). Increased risk of developing COVID-19 was independently associated with Asian/Asian British vs . White ethnicity (aOR 2.31, 95% CI 1.35-3.95), household overcrowding (aOR per additional 0.5 people/bedroom 1.26, 1.11-1.43), any vs . no visits to/from other households in previous week (aOR 1.33, 1.07-1.64), number of visits to indoor public places (aOR per extra visit per week 1.05, 1.01-1.09), frontline occupation excluding health/social care vs . no frontline occupation (aOR 1.49, 1.12-1.98), and raised body mass index (BMI) (aOR 1.51 [1.20-1.90] for BMI 25.0-30.0 kg/m 2 and 1.38 [1.05-1.82] for BMI >30.0 kg/m 2 vs . BMI <25.0 kg/m 2 ). Atopic disease was independently associated with decreased risk (aOR 0.76, 0.59-0.98). No independent associations were seen for age, sex, other medical conditions, diet, or micronutrient supplement use.

Interpretation

After rigorous adjustment for factors influencing exposure to SARS-CoV-2, Asian/Asian British ethnicity and raised BMI were associated with increased risk of developing COVID-19, while atopic disease was associated with decreased risk.

Funding

Barts Charity, Health Data Research UK",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/148236929/holth2021risk.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.27.21254452; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR304173; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR304173&type=FILE&fileName=EMS121246-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR158572,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.30.20084780,COVID-19 length of hospital stay: a systematic review and data synthesis,"Rees EM, Nightingale ES, Jafari Y, Waterlow N, Clifford S, Pearson CAB, Jombert T, Procter SR, Knight GM, CMMID Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-05,Y,,,,"

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on health systems, with rapidly increasing demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. As the pandemic escalates, determining the resulting needs for healthcare resources (beds, staff, equipment) has become a key priority for many countries. Projecting future demand requires estimates of how long patients with COVID-19 need different levels of hospital care. Methods We performed a systematic review to gather data on length of stay (LoS) of patients with COVID-19 in hospital and in ICU. We subsequently developed a method to generate LoS distributions which combines summary statistics reported in multiple studies, accounting for differences in sample sizes. Applying this approach we provide distributions for general hospital and ICU LoS from studies in China and elsewhere, for use by the community. Results We identified 52 studies, the majority from China (46/52). Median hospital LoS ranged from 4 to 53 days within China, and 4 to 21 days outside of China, across 45 studies. ICU LoS was reported by eight studies - four each within and outside China - with median values ranging from 6 to 12 and 4 to 19 days, respectively. Our summary distributions have a median hospital LoS of 14 (IQR: 10-19) days for China, compared with 5 (IQR: 3-9) days outside of China. For ICU, the summary distributions are more similar (median (IQR) of 8 (5-13) days for China and 7 (4-11) days outside of China). There was a visible difference by discharge status, with patients who were discharged alive having longer LoS than those who died during their admission, but no trend associated with study date. Conclusion Patients with COVID-19 in China appeared to remain in hospital for longer than elsewhere. This may be explained by differences in criteria for admission and discharge between countries, and different timing within the pandemic. In the absence of local data, the combined summary LoS distributions provided here can be used to model bed demands for contingency planning and then updated, with the novel method presented here, as more studies with aggregated statistics emerge outside China.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.30.20084780; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR158572; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR158572&type=FILE&fileName=EMS91902-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3 +PPR304173,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.27.21254452,Risk factors for developing COVID-19: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK),"Holt H, Talaei M, Greenig M, Zenner D, Symons J, Relton C, Young KS, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Ashman J, Rajpoot SS, Kayyale AA, Rifai SE, Lloyd PJ, Jolliffe DA, Finer S, Ilidriomiti S, Miners A, Hopkinson NS, Alam B, Pfeffer PE, McCoy D, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Breen G, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"

Summary

Background

Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include older age, male sex, obesity, Black or Asian ethnicity and underlying medical conditions. Whether these factors also influence susceptibility to developing COVID-19 is uncertain.

Methods

We undertook a prospective, population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK) from 1 st May 2020 to 5 th February 2021. Baseline information on potential risk factors was captured by an online questionnaire. Monthly follow-up questionnaires captured incident COVID-19. We used logistic regression models to estimate multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for associations between potential risk factors and risk of COVID-19.

Findings

We recorded 446 incident cases of COVID-19 in 15,227 participants (2.9%). Increased risk of developing COVID-19 was independently associated with Asian/Asian British vs . White ethnicity (aOR 2.31, 95% CI 1.35-3.95), household overcrowding (aOR per additional 0.5 people/bedroom 1.26, 1.11-1.43), any vs . no visits to/from other households in previous week (aOR 1.33, 1.07-1.64), number of visits to indoor public places (aOR per extra visit per week 1.05, 1.01-1.09), frontline occupation excluding health/social care vs . no frontline occupation (aOR 1.49, 1.12-1.98), and raised body mass index (BMI) (aOR 1.51 [1.20-1.90] for BMI 25.0-30.0 kg/m 2 and 1.38 [1.05-1.82] for BMI >30.0 kg/m 2 vs . BMI <25.0 kg/m 2 ). Atopic disease was independently associated with decreased risk (aOR 0.76, 0.59-0.98). No independent associations were seen for age, sex, other medical conditions, diet, or micronutrient supplement use.

Interpretation

After rigorous adjustment for factors influencing exposure to SARS-CoV-2, Asian/Asian British ethnicity and raised BMI were associated with increased risk of developing COVID-19, while atopic disease was associated with decreased risk.

Funding

Barts Charity, Health Data Research UK",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/148236929/holth2021risk.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.27.21254452; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR304173; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR304173&type=FILE&fileName=EMS121246-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR602738,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4023214,Challenging the Cultures of Racism at Work in the UK's Healthcare Sector,"Ramamurthy A, Bhabhbro S, Bruce F, Gumber A, Fero K.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-02-01,N,,,,"Background: In UK’s health care sector, racism is rampant. It impacts Black and Brown staff working in NHS at all levels. We aimed to explore and understand the stories and experiences of Black and Brown health care staff during the pandemic and previously in their working lives.

Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey and qualitative interviews with Black and Brown nurses, midwives and other healthcare staff. 308 respondents completed an online survey, and 45 people participated in the narrative interviews. Interviewees were contacted through meetings organised with several BME health and social care professional networks and the survey. In total, 353 Black and Brown staff members participated. The Critical Race Theory informed the data collection and analysis of the study.

Findings: The study findings report that racism is prevalent in the health and social care sector, and it is usually unreported. Most participants worked during the pandemic and reported experiences of racism before and during it. Our survey findings revealed that 52.6% of the Black and Brown staff experienced unfair treatment in the pandemic concerning Covid deployment, PPE or risk assessment provision. Similarly, 59% had experienced racism during their working lives, making it difficult to do their job; thus, 36% had left a job. Most participants reported that exclusion and neglect as a form of bullying were among the most widely recounted experiences that took a toll on their lives; for example, 53% said racism had impacted their mental health.

Interpretation: Our research underscores that the endemic culture of racism is a fundamental factor that must be recognised and called out. Colourblindness exacerbates racist practices. We argue that only implementing an active zero tolerance to racism policy with penalties for organisations that do not comply can change the status quo.

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK [AH/V008714/1, 2020].

Declaration of Interests: All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics Approval Statement: Ethics approval was obtained by Sheffield Hallam University Research Ethics Committee.
",,pdf:http://shura.shu.ac.uk/30208/1/SSRN-id4023214%20%281%29.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4023214; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR602738; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4023214 PPR393011,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.03.21262888,Risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and immune modifying therapies: a nationwide cohort study in the OpenSAFELY platform,"MacKenna B, Kennedy NA, Mehkar A, Rowan A, Galloway J, Mansfield KE, Bechman K, Matthewman J, Yates M, Brown J, Schultze A, Norton S, Walker AJ, Morton CE, Harrison D, Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hickman G, Ward T, Davy S, Green A, Fisher L, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Tazare J, Eggo RM, Evans D, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Tomlinson LA, Mathur R, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Lees CW, Evans SJ, Goldacre B, Smith C, Langan SM.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-09-10,N,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

It is unclear if people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) (joint, bowel and skin) and on immune modifying therapy have increased risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England we conducted a cohort study, using OpenSAFELY, analysingroutinely-collected primary care data linked to hospital admission, death and previously unavailable hospital prescription data. We used Cox regression (adjusting for confounders) to estimate hazard ratios (HR) comparing risk of COVID-19-death, death/critical care admission, and hospitalisation (March to September 2020) in: 1) people with IMIDs compared to the general population; and 2) people with IMIDs on targeted immune modifying drugs (e.g., biologics) compared to standard systemic treatment (e.g., methotrexate).

Findings

We identified 17,672,065 adults; of 1,163,438 (7%) with IMIDs, 19,119 people received targeted immune modifying drugs, and 200,813 received standard systemics. We saw evidence of increased COVID-19-death (HR 1.23, 95%CI 1.20, 1.27), and COVID-19 hospitalisation (HR 1.32, 95%CI 1.29, 1.35) in individuals with IMIDs overall compared to individuals without IMIDs of the same age, sex, deprivation and smoking status. We saw no evidence of increased COVID-19 deaths with targeted compared to standard systemic treatments (HR 1.03, 95%CI 0.80, 1.33). There was no evidence of increased COVID-19-related death in those prescribed TNF inhibitors, IL-12/23, IL7, IL-6 or JAK inhibitors compared to standard systemics. Rituximab was associated with increased COVID-19 death (HR 1.68, 95%CI 1.11, 2.56); however, this finding may relate to confounding.

Interpretation

COVID-19 death and hospitalisation was higher in people with IMIDs. We saw no increased risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes in those on most targeted immune modifying drugs for IMIDs compared to standard systemics.

RESEARCH IN CONTEXT

Evidence before this study

We searched PubMed on May 19 th , 2021, using the terms “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2” and “rheumatoid arthritis”, “psoriatic arthritis” “ankylosing spondylitis”, “Crohn’s disease” “ulcerative colitis” “hidradenitis suppurativa” and “psoriasis”, to identify primary research articles examining severe COVID-19 outcome risk in individuals with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) and those on immune modifying therapy. The studies identified (including matched cohort studies and studies in disease-specific registries) were limited by small sample sizes and number of outcomes. Most studies did not show a signal of increased adverse COVID-19 outcomes in those on targeted therapies, with the exception of rituximab. Additionally, disease-specific registries are subject to selection bias and lack denominator populations.

Added value of the study

In our large population-based study of 17 million individuals, including 1 million people with IMIDs and just under 200,000 receiving immune modifying medications, we saw evidence that people with IMIDs had an increased risk of COVID-19-related death compared to the general population after adjusting for potential confounders (age, sex, deprivation, smoking status) (HR 1.23, 95%CI 1.20, 1.27). We saw differences by IMID type, with COVID-19-related death being increased by the most in people with inflammatory joint disease (HR 1.47, 95%CI 1.40, 1.54). We also saw some evidence that those with IMIDs were more likely, compared to the general population, to have COVID-19-related critical care admission/death (HR 1.24, 95%CI 1.21, 1.28) and hospitalisation (HR 1.32, 95%CI 1.29, 1.35). Compared to people with IMIDs taking standard systemics, we saw no evidence of differences in severe COVID-19-related outcomes with TNF inhibitors, IL-17 inhibitors, IL-12/23 inhibitors, IL-6 inhibitors and JAK inhibitors. However, there was some evidence that rituximab was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19-related death (HR 1.68, 95%CI 1.11, 2.56) and death/critical care admission (HR 1.92, 95%CI 1.31, 2.81). We also saw evidence of an increase in COVID-19-related hospital admissions in people prescribed rituximab (HR 1.59, 95%CI 1.16, 2.18) or JAK inhibition (HR 1.81, 95%CI 1.09, 3.01) compared to those on standard systemics, although this could be related to worse underlying health rather than the drugs themselves, and numbers of events were small. This is the first study to our knowledge to use high-cost drug data on medicines supplied by hospitals at a national scale in England (to identify targeted therapies). The availability of these data fills an important gap in the medication record of those with more specialist conditions treated by hospitals creating an important opportunity to generate insights to these conditions and these medications

Implications of all of the available evidence

Our study offers insights into future risk mitigation strategies and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination priorities for individuals with IMIDs, as it highlights that those with IMIDs and those taking rituximab may be at risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. Critically, our study does not show a link between most targeted immune modifying medications compared to standard systemics and severe COVID-19 outcomes. However, the increased risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes that we saw in people with IMIDs and those treated with rituximab merits further study.",,pdf:https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/123456789/83106/2/Mathur%20Risk%20of%20severe%20COVID-19%20outcomes%20associated%20with%20immune-mediated%20inflammatory%20diseases%20and%20immune-modifying%20therapies%3a%20a%20nationwide%20cohort%20study%20in%20the%20OpenSAFELY%20platform%202022%20Published.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.03.21262888; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR393011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.03.21262888 PPR411876,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.25.21265475,Optimising the balance of acute and intermediate care capacity for the complex discharge pathway: computer modelling study during COVID-19 recovery in England,"Onen-Dumlu Z, Harper A, Forte P, Powell A, Pitt M, Vasilakis C, Wood R.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-10-26,Y,,,,"

Objectives

While there has been significant research on the pressures facing acute hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been less interest in downstream community services which have also been challenged in meeting demand. This study aimed to estimate the theoretical cost-optimal capacity requirement for ‘step down’ intermediate care services within a major healthcare system in England, at a time when considerable uncertainty remained regarding vaccination uptake and the easing of societal restrictions.

Methods

Demand for intermediate care was projected using an epidemiological model (for COVID-19 demand) and regressing upon public mobility (for non-COVID-19 demand). These were inputted to a computer simulation model of patient flow from acute discharge readiness to bedded and home-based Discharge to Assess (D2A) intermediate care services. Cost-optimal capacity was defined as that which yielded the lowest total cost of intermediate care provision and corresponding acute discharge delays.

Results

Increased intermediate care capacity is likely to bring about lower system-level costs, with the additional D2A investment more than offset by substantial reductions in costly acute discharge delays (leading also to improved patient outcome and experience). Results suggest that completely eliminating acute ‘bed blocking’ is unlikely economical (requiring large amounts of downstream capacity), and that health systems should instead target an appropriate tolerance based upon the specific characteristics of the pathway.

Conclusions

Computer modelling can be a valuable asset for determining optimal capacity allocation along the complex care pathway. With results supporting a Business Case for increased downstream capacity, this study demonstrates how modelling can be applied in practice and provides a blueprint for use alongside the freely-available model code.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/10/26/2021.10.25.21265475.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.25.21265475; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR411876; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR411876&type=FILE&fileName=EMS137621-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -353,14 +353,14 @@ PPR362420,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.24.21259374,A proteomic survival predi PPR361477,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.24.21259277,Risk factors for long COVID: analyses of 10 longitudinal studies and electronic health records in the UK,"Thompson EJ, Williams DM, Walker AJ, Mitchell RE, Niedzwiedz CL, Yang TC, Huggins CF, Kwong ASF, Silverwood RJ, Gessa GD, Bowyer RC, Northstone K, Hou B, Green MJ, Dodgeon B, Doores KJ, Duncan EL, Williams FMK, Steptoe A, Porteous DJ, McEachan RRC, Tomlinson L, Goldacre B, Patalay P, Ploubidis GB, Katikireddi SV, Tilling K, Rentsch CT, Timpson NJ, Chaturvedi N, Steves CJ, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-06-25,Y,,,,"

Background

The impact of long COVID is considerable, but risk factors are poorly characterised. We analysed symptom duration and risk factor from 10 longitudinal study (LS) samples and electronic healthcare records (EHR).

Methods

Samples: 6907 adults self-reporting COVID-19 infection from 48,901 participants in the UK LS, and 3,327 adults with COVID-19, were assigned a long COVID code from 1,199,812 individuals in primary care EHR. Outcomes for LS included symptom duration lasting 4+ weeks (long COVID) and 12+ weeks. Association with of age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, smoking, general and mental health, overweight/obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, and asthma was assessed.

Results

In LS, symptoms impacted normal functioning for 12+ weeks in 1.2% (mean age 20 years) to 4.8% (mean age 63 y) of COVID-19 cases. Between 7.8% (mean age 28 y) and 17% (mean age 58 y) reported any symptoms for 12+ weeks, and greater proportions for 4+ weeks. Age was associated with a linear increased risk in long COVID between 20 and 70 years. Being female (LS: OR=1.49; 95%CI:1.24-1.79; EHR: OR=1.51 [1.41-1.61]), having poor pre-pandemic mental health (LS: OR=1.46 [1.17-1.83]; EHR: OR=1.57 [1.47-1.68]) and poor general health (LS: OR=1.62 [1.25-2.09]; EHR: OR=1.26; [1.18-1.35]) were associated with higher risk of long COVID. Individuals with asthma (LS: OR=1.32 [1.07-1.62]; EHR: OR=1.56 [1.46-1.67]), and overweight or obesity (LS: OR=1.25 [1.01-1.55]; EHR: OR=1.31 [1.21-1.42]) also had higher risk. Non-white ethnic minority groups had lower risk (LS: OR=0.32 [0.22-0.47]), a finding consistent in EHR. . Few participants had been hospitalised (0.8-5.2%).

Conclusion

Long COVID is associated with sociodemographic and pre-existing health factors. Further investigations into causality should inform strategies to address long COVID in the population.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/07/10/2021.06.24.21259277.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.24.21259277; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR361477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR361477&type=FILE&fileName=EMS128902-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR116550,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.05.20031773,Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for COVID-19 using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship,"Russell TW, Hellewell J, Jarvis CI, Van Zandvoort K, Abbott S, Ratnayake R, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-03-08,Y,,,,"Adjusting for delay from confirmation-to-death, we estimated case and infection fatality ratios (CFR, IFR) for COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess ship as 2.3% (0.75%–5.3%) and 1.2% (0.38–2.7%). Comparing deaths onboard with expected deaths based on naive CFR estimates using China data, we estimate IFR and CFR in China to be 0.5% (95% CI: 0.2–1.2%) and 1.1% (95% CI: 0.3–2.4%) respectively.

Aim

To estimate the infection and case fatality ratio of COVID-19, using data from passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship while correcting for delays between confirmation-and-death, and age-structure of the population.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/12/eurosurv-25-12-3.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.05.20031773; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR116550; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR116550&type=FILE&fileName=EMS89041-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR269227,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249756,Factors associated with deaths due to COVID-19 versus other causes: population-based cohort analysis of UK primary care data and linked national death registrations within the OpenSAFELY platform,"Bhaskaran K, Bacon S, Evans S, Bates C, Rentsch C, MacKenna B, Tomlinson L, Walker A, Schultze A, Morton C, Grint D, Mehrkar A, Eggo R, Inglesby P, Douglas I, McDonald H, Cockburn J, Williamson E, Evans D, Curtis H, Hulme W, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Spiegelhalter D, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-20,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Mortality from COVID-19 shows a strong relationship with age and pre-existing medical conditions, as does mortality from other causes. However it is unclear how specific factors are differentially associated with COVID-19 mortality as compared to mortality from other causes.

Methods

Working on behalf of NHS England, we carried out a cohort study within the OpenSAFELY platform. Primary care data from England were linked to national death registrations. We included all adults (aged ≥18 years) in the database on 1 st February 2020 and with >1 year of continuous prior registration, the cut-off date for deaths was 9 th November 2020. Associations between individual-level characteristics and COVID-19 and non-COVID deaths were estimated by fitting age- and sex-adjusted logistic models for these two outcomes.

Results

17,456,515 individuals were included. 17,063 died from COVID-19 and 134,316 from other causes. Most factors associated with COVID-19 death were similarly associated with non-COVID death, but the magnitudes of association differed. Older age was more strongly associated with COVID-19 death than non-COVID death (e.g. ORs 40.7 [95% CI 37.7-43.8] and 29.6 [28.9-30.3] respectively for ≥80 vs 50-59 years), as was male sex, deprivation, obesity, and some comorbidities. Smoking, history of cancer and chronic liver disease had stronger associations with non-COVID than COVID-19 death. All non-white ethnic groups had higher odds than white of COVID-19 death (OR for Black: 2.20 [1.96-2.47], South Asian: 2.33 [2.16-2.52]), but lower odds than white of non-COVID death (Black: 0.88 [0.83-0.94], South Asian: 0.78 [0.75-0.81]).

Interpretation

Similar associations of most individual-level factors with COVID-19 and non-COVID death suggest that COVID-19 largely multiplies existing risks faced by patients, with some notable exceptions. Identifying the unique factors contributing to the excess COVID-19 mortality risk among non-white groups is a priority to inform efforts to reduce deaths from COVID-19.

Funding

Wellcome, Royal Society, National Institute for Health Research, National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, UK Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100109; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249756; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR269227; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR269227&type=FILE&fileName=EMS112324-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR204755,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.21.20177808,Quarantine and testing strategies in contact tracing for SARS-CoV-2,"Quilty BJ, Clifford S, Flasche S, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-08-24,Y,,,,"

Summary

Previous work has indicated that contact tracing and isolation of index case and quarantine of potential secondary cases can, in concert with physical distancing measures, be an effective strategy for reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (1). Currently, contacts traced manually through the NHS Test and Trace scheme in the UK are asked to self-isolate for 14 days from the day they were exposed to the index case, which represents the upper bound for the incubation period (2). However, following previous work on screening strategies for air travellers (3,4) it may be possible that this quarantine period could be reduced if combined with PCR testing. Adapting the simulation model for contact tracing, we find that quarantine periods of at least 10 days combined with a PCR test on day 9 may largely emulate the results from a 14-day quarantine period in terms of the averted transmission potential from secondary cases (72% (95%UI: 3%, 100%) vs 75% (4%, 100%), respectively). These results assume the delays from testing index cases’ and tracing their contacts are minimised (no longer than 4.5 days on average). If secondary cases are traced and quarantined 1 day earlier on average, shorter quarantine periods of 8 days with a test on day 7 (76% (7%, 100%)) approach parity with the 14 day quarantine period with a 1 day longer delay to the index cases’ test. However, the risk of false-negative PCR tests early in a traced case’s infectious period likely prevents the use of testing to reduce quarantine periods further than this, and testing immediately upon tracing, with release if negative, will avert just 17% of transmission potential on average. In conclusion, the use of PCR testing is an effective strategy for reducing quarantine periods for secondary cases, while still reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2, especially if delays in the test and trace system can be reduced, and may improve quarantine compliance rates.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/10/23/2020.08.21.20177808.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.21.20177808; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR204755; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR204755&type=FILE&fileName=EMS95490-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR410412,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.18.21264686,Regional excess mortality during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: a study of five European countries,"Konstantinoudis G, Cameletti M, Gómez-Rubio V, León Gómez I, Pirani M, Baio G, Larrauri A, Riou J, Egger M, Vineis P, Blangiardo M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-10-23,Y,,,,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on excess mortality from all causes in 2020 varied across and within European countries. Using data for 2015-2019, we applied Bayesian spatio-temporal models to quantify the expected weekly deaths at the regional level had the pandemic not occurred in England, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. With around 30%, Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, Castile-Leon (Spain) and Lombardia (Italy) were the regions with the highest excess mortality. In England, Greece and Switzerland, the regions most affected were Outer London and the West Midlands (England), Eastern, Western and Central Macedonia (Greece), and Ticino (Switzerland), with 15-20% excess mortality in 2020. Our study highlights the importance of the large transportation hubs for establishing community transmission in the first stages of the pandemic. Acting promptly to limit transmission around these hubs is essential to prevent spread to other regions and countries.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/10/23/2021.10.18.21264686.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.18.21264686; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR410412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR410412&type=FILE&fileName=EMS137364-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR339051,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.06.21256755,Clinical coding of long COVID in English primary care: a federated analysis of 58 million patient records in situ using OpenSAFELY,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Walker AJ, MacKenna B, Inglesby P, Rentsch CT, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Croker R, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Williamson EJ, Hulme WJ, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Tazare J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O’Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-05-13,Y,,,,"

Background

Long COVID is a term to describe new or persistent symptoms at least four weeks after onset of acute COVID-19. Clinical codes to describe this phenomenon were released in November 2020 in the UK, but it is not known how these codes have been used in practice.

Methods

Working on behalf of NHS England, we used OpenSAFELY data encompassing 96% of the English population. We measured the proportion of people with a recorded code for long COVID, overall and by demographic factors, electronic health record software system, and week. We also measured variation in recording amongst practices.

Results

Long COVID was recorded for 23,273 people. Coding was unevenly distributed amongst practices, with 26.7% of practices having not used the codes at all. Regional variation was high, ranging between 20.3 per 100,000 people for East of England (95% confidence interval 19.3-21.4) and 55.6 in London (95% CI 54.1-57.1). The rate was higher amongst women (52.1, 95% CI 51.3-52.9) compared to men (28.1, 95% CI 27.5-28.7), and higher amongst practices using EMIS software (53.7, 95% CI 52.9-54.4) compared to TPP software (20.9, 95% CI 20.3-21.4).

Conclusions

Long COVID coding in primary care is low compared with early reports of long COVID prevalence. This may reflect under-coding, sub-optimal communication of clinical terms, under-diagnosis, a true low prevalence of long COVID diagnosed by clinicians, or a combination of factors. We recommend increased awareness of diagnostic codes, to facilitate research and planning of services; and surveys of clinicians’ experiences, to complement ongoing patient surveys.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/05/13/2021.05.06.21256755.1.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.06.21256755; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR339051; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR339051&type=FILE&fileName=EMS124533-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR204755,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.21.20177808,Quarantine and testing strategies in contact tracing for SARS-CoV-2,"Quilty BJ, Clifford S, Flasche S, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-08-24,Y,,,,"

Summary

Previous work has indicated that contact tracing and isolation of index case and quarantine of potential secondary cases can, in concert with physical distancing measures, be an effective strategy for reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (1). Currently, contacts traced manually through the NHS Test and Trace scheme in the UK are asked to self-isolate for 14 days from the day they were exposed to the index case, which represents the upper bound for the incubation period (2). However, following previous work on screening strategies for air travellers (3,4) it may be possible that this quarantine period could be reduced if combined with PCR testing. Adapting the simulation model for contact tracing, we find that quarantine periods of at least 10 days combined with a PCR test on day 9 may largely emulate the results from a 14-day quarantine period in terms of the averted transmission potential from secondary cases (72% (95%UI: 3%, 100%) vs 75% (4%, 100%), respectively). These results assume the delays from testing index cases’ and tracing their contacts are minimised (no longer than 4.5 days on average). If secondary cases are traced and quarantined 1 day earlier on average, shorter quarantine periods of 8 days with a test on day 7 (76% (7%, 100%)) approach parity with the 14 day quarantine period with a 1 day longer delay to the index cases’ test. However, the risk of false-negative PCR tests early in a traced case’s infectious period likely prevents the use of testing to reduce quarantine periods further than this, and testing immediately upon tracing, with release if negative, will avert just 17% of transmission potential on average. In conclusion, the use of PCR testing is an effective strategy for reducing quarantine periods for secondary cases, while still reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2, especially if delays in the test and trace system can be reduced, and may improve quarantine compliance rates.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/10/23/2020.08.21.20177808.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.21.20177808; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR204755; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR204755&type=FILE&fileName=EMS95490-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR178438,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.20134742,Racial and ethnic determinants of Covid-19 risk,"Lo C, Nguyen LH, Drew DA, Graham MS, Warner ET, Joshi AD, Astley CM, Guo C, Ma W, Mehta RS, Kwon S, Song M, Davies R, Capdevila J, Lee KA, Lochlainn MN, Varsavsky T, Sudre CH, Wolf J, Cozier YC, Rosenberg L, Wilkens LR, Haiman CA, Le Marchand L, Palmer JR, Spector TD, Ourselin S, Steves CJ, Chan AT.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-20,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

Racial and ethnic minorities have disproportionately high hospitalization rates and mortality related to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). There are comparatively scant data on race and ethnicity as determinants of infection risk.

Methods

We used a smartphone application (beginning March 24, 2020 in the United Kingdom [U.K.] and March 29, 2020 in the United States [U.S.]) to recruit 2,414,601 participants who reported their race/ethnicity through May 25, 2020 and employed logistic regression to determine the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for a positive Covid-19 test among racial and ethnic groups.

Results

We documented 8,858 self-reported cases of Covid-19 among 2,259,841 non-Hispanic white; 79 among 9,615 Hispanic; 186 among 18,176 Black; 598 among 63,316 Asian; and 347 among 63,653 other racial minority participants. Compared with non-Hispanic white participants, the risk for a positive Covid-19 test was increased across racial minorities (aORs ranging from 1.24 to 3.51). After adjustment for socioeconomic indices and Covid-19 exposure risk factors, the associations (aOR [95% CI]) were attenuated but remained significant for Hispanic (1.58 [1.24-2.02]) and Black participants (2.56 [1.93-3.39]) in the U.S. and South Asian (1.52 [1.38-1.67]) and Middle Eastern participants (1.56 [1.25-1.95]) in the U.K. A higher risk of Covid-19 and seeking or receiving treatment was also observed for several racial/ethnic minority subgroups.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate an increase in Covid-19 risk among racial and ethnic minorities not completely explained by other risk factors for Covid-19, comorbidities, and sociodemographic characteristics. Further research investigating these disparities are needed to inform public health measures.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101029; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.20134742; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR178438; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR178438&type=FILE&fileName=EMS88297-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR237625,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.09.20228015,A time-resolved proteomic and diagnostic map characterizes COVID-19 disease progression and predicts outcome,"Demichev V, Tober-Lau P, Nazarenko T, Thibeault C, Whitwell H, Lemke O, Röhl A, Freiwald A, Szyrwiel L, Ludwig D, Correia-Melo C, Helbig ET, Stubbemann P, Grüning N, Blyuss O, Vernardis S, White M, Messner CB, Joannidis M, Sonnweber T, Klein SJ, Pizzini A, Wohlfarter Y, Sahanic S, Hilbe R, Schaefer B, Wagner S, Mittermaier M, Machleidt F, Garcia C, Ruwwe-Glösenkamp C, Lingscheid T, de Jarcy LB, Stegemann MS, Pfeiffer M, Jürgens L, Denker S, Zickler D, Enghard P, Zelezniak A, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Uhrig A, Müller-Redetzky H, Zoller H, Löffler-Ragg J, Keller MA, Tancevski I, Timms JF, Zaikin A, Hippenstiel S, Ramharter M, Witzenrath M, Suttorp N, Lilley K, Mülleder M, Sander LE, Ralser M, Kurth F, PA-COVID-19 Study group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-12,Y,,,,"COVID-19 is highly variable in its clinical presentation, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe organ damage and death. There is an urgent need for predictive markers that can guide clinical decision-making, inform about the effect of experimental therapies, and point to novel therapeutic targets. Here, we characterize the time-dependent progression of COVID-19 through different stages of the disease, by measuring 86 accredited diagnostic parameters and plasma proteomes at 687 sampling points, in a cohort of 139 patients during hospitalization. We report that the time-resolved patient molecular phenotypes reflect an initial spike in the systemic inflammatory response, which is gradually alleviated and followed by a protein signature indicative of tissue repair, metabolic reconstitution and immunomodulation. Further, we show that the early host response is predictive for the disease trajectory and gives rise to proteomic and diagnostic marker signatures that classify the need for supplemental oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation, and that predict the time to recovery of mildly ill patients. In severely ill patients, the molecular phenotype of the early host response predicts survival, in two independent cohorts and weeks before outcome. We also identify age-specific molecular response to COVID-19, which involves increased inflammation and lipoprotein dysregulation in older patients. Our study provides a deep and time resolved molecular characterization of COVID-19 disease progression, and reports biomarkers for risk-adapted treatment strategies and molecular disease monitoring. Our study demonstrates accurate prognosis of COVID-19 outcome from proteomic signatures recorded weeks earlier.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/11/12/2020.11.09.20228015.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.09.20228015; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR237625; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR237625&type=FILE&fileName=EMS104194-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR290304,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.27.21252593,Surgical activity in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide observational cohort study,"Dobbs TD, Gibson JAG, Fowler AJ, Abbott TE, Shahid T, Torabi F, Griffiths R, Lyons RA, Pearse RM, Whitaker IS.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-01,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To report the volume of surgical activity and the number of cancelled surgical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design and setting

Analysis of electronic health record data from the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales.

Methods

We used hospital episode statistics for all adult patients undergoing surgery between 1 st January 2020 and 31 st December 2020. We identified surgical procedures using a previously published list of procedure codes. Procedures were stratified by urgency of surgery as defined by NHS England. We calculated the deficit of surgical activity by comparing the expected number of procedures from the years 2016-2019 with the actual number of procedures in 2020. We estimated the cumulative number of cancelled procedures by 31 st December 2021 according patterns of activity in 2020.

Results

The total number of surgical procedures carried out in England and Wales in 2020 was 3,102,674 compared to the predicted number of 4,671,338. This represents a 33.6% reduction in the national volume of surgical activity. There were 763,730 emergency surgical procedures (13.4% reduction), compared to 2,338,944 elective surgical procedures (38.6% reduction). The cumulative number of cancelled or postponed procedures was 1,568,664. We estimate that this will increase to 2,358,420 by 31 st December 2021.

Conclusions

The volume of surgical activity in England and Wales was reduced by 33.6% in 2020, resulting in over 1,568,664 cancelled operations. This deficit will continue to grow in 2021.

Summary boxes

What is already known on this topic

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid change in the provision of care, including the suspension of a large proportion of surgical activity Surgical activity has yet to return to normal and has been further impacted by subsequent waves of the pandemic This will lead to a large backlog of cases

What this study adds

3,102,674 surgical procedures were performed in England and Wales during 2020, a 33.6% reduction on the expected yearly surgical activity Over 1.5 million procedures were not performed, with this deficit likely to continue to grow to 2.3 million by the end of 2021 This deficit is the equivalent of more than 6 months of pre-pandemic surgical activity, requiring a monumental financial and logistic challenge to manage",,pdf:https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/123456789/71298/2/Abbott%20Surgical%20activity%20in%20England%202021%20Published.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.27.21252593; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR290304; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR290304&type=FILE&fileName=EMS117861-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR534818,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.23.22279112,Prognostic accuracy of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study,"Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-08-23,Y,,,,"

Study Objective

Tools proposed to triage acuity in suspected COVID-19 in the ED have been derived and validated in higher-income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from the 27 th of August 2020 to 11 th March 2022 was conducted to assess performance of the PRIEST tool, NEWS2, TEWS, the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission.

Results

Of 446,084 patients, 15,397 patients (3.45%, 95% CI:34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST tool algorithm identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.47 (NEWS2) to 0.65 (PRIEST tool). Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

Use of the PRIEST score, NEWS2 and PMEWS at a threshold of a point higher would achieve similar accuracy to current clinical admission decision, with possible gains in transparency and speed of decision-making.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/08/23/2022.08.23.22279112.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.23.22279112; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR534818; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR534818&type=FILE&fileName=EMS153216-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR273714,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.25.21250356,Trends and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 vaccine recipients: a federated analysis of 57.9 million patients’ primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, Morton CE, MacKenna B, MacKenna B, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Croker R, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Hulme W, Green A, Rowan A, Fisher L, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O’Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-26,Y,,,,"

Background

On December 8th 2020, NHS England administered the first COVID-19 vaccination as part of an ambitious vaccination programme during a global health emergency.

Aims

To describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage by key clinical and demographic groups; to create a framework for near-real-time monitoring of vaccine coverage in key subgroups.

Methods

Working on behalf of NHS England we analysed 57.9 million patient records in situ and in near-real-time within the infrastructure of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) software vendors EMIS and TPP using OpenSAFELY. We describe vaccine coverage and time trends across a range of demographic and fine-grained clinical subgroups in eight Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority cohorts.

Results

20,852,692 patients (36%) received a COVID-19 vaccine between December 8th 2020 and March 17th 2021. Of patients aged ≥80 not in a care home (JCVI group 2) 94.7% received a vaccine, but with substantial variation by ethnicity (White 96.2% vaccinated, Black 68.3%) and deprivation (least deprived 96.6%, most deprived 90.7%). Overall, patients with pre-existing medical conditions were equally or more likely to be vaccinated with two exceptions: severe mental illness (89.5% vaccinated) and learning disability (91.4%). 275,205 vaccine recipients were identified as care home residents (priority group 1; 91.2% coverage). 1,257,914 (6.0%) recipients have had a second dose. Detailed characteristics of recipients in all cohorts are reported.

Conclusions

The NHS in England has rapidly delivered mass vaccination. We were able to deploy a data monitoring framework using publicly auditable methods and a secure, in-situ processing model, using linked but pseudonymised patient-level NHS data on 57.9 million patients with very short delays from vaccine administration to completed analysis. Targeted activity may be needed to address lower vaccination coverage observed among certain key groups: ethnic minorities, those living in deprived areas, and people with severe mental illness or learning disabilities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.25.21250356; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR273714; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR273714&type=FILE&fileName=EMS114826-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4663784/1/BJGP.2021.0376.full.pdf +PPR534818,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.23.22279112,Prognostic accuracy of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study,"Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-08-23,Y,,,,"

Study Objective

Tools proposed to triage acuity in suspected COVID-19 in the ED have been derived and validated in higher-income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from the 27 th of August 2020 to 11 th March 2022 was conducted to assess performance of the PRIEST tool, NEWS2, TEWS, the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission.

Results

Of 446,084 patients, 15,397 patients (3.45%, 95% CI:34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST tool algorithm identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.47 (NEWS2) to 0.65 (PRIEST tool). Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

Use of the PRIEST score, NEWS2 and PMEWS at a threshold of a point higher would achieve similar accuracy to current clinical admission decision, with possible gains in transparency and speed of decision-making.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/08/23/2022.08.23.22279112.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.23.22279112; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR534818; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR534818&type=FILE&fileName=EMS153216-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR112367,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.08.20021162,Feasibility of controlling 2019-nCoV outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts,"Hellewell J, Abbott S, Gimma A, Bosse NI, Jarvis CI, Russell TW, Munday JD, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ, Funk S, Eggo RM, CMMID nCoV working group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-02-11,Y,,,,"

Background

To assess the viability of isolation and contact tracing to control onwards transmission from imported cases of 2019-nCoV.

Methods

We developed a stochastic transmission model, parameterised to the 2019-nCoV outbreak. We used the model to quantify the potential effectiveness of contact tracing and isolation of cases at controlling a 2019 nCoV-like pathogen. We considered scenarios that varied in: the number of initial cases; the basic reproduction number R 0 ; the delay from symptom onset to isolation; the probability contacts were traced; the proportion of transmission that occurred before symptom onset, and the proportion of subclinical infections. We assumed isolation prevented all further transmission in the model. Outbreaks were deemed controlled if transmission ended within 12 weeks or before 5000 cases in total. We measured the success of controlling outbreaks using isolation and contact tracing, and quantified the weekly maximum number of cases traced to measure feasibility of public health effort.

Findings

While simulated outbreaks starting with only 5 initial cases, R 0 of 1.5 and little transmission before symptom onset could be controlled even with low contact tracing probability, the prospects of controlling an outbreak dramatically dropped with the number of initial cases, with higher R 0 , and with more transmission before symptom onset. Across different initial numbers of cases, the majority of scenarios with an R 0 of 1.5 were controllable with under 50% of contacts successfully traced. For R 0 of 2.5 and 3.5, more than 70% and 90% of contacts respectively had to be traced to control the majority of outbreaks. The delay between symptom onset and isolation played the largest role in determining whether an outbreak was controllable for lower values of R 0 . For higher values of R 0 and a large initial number of cases, contact tracing and isolation was only potentially feasible when less than 1% of transmission occurred before symptom onset.

Interpretation

We found that in most scenarios contact tracing and case isolation alone is unlikely to control a new outbreak of 2019-nCov within three months. The probability of control decreases with longer delays from symptom onset to isolation, fewer cases ascertained by contact tracing, and increasing transmission before symptoms. This model can be modified to reflect updated transmission characteristics and more specific definitions of outbreak control to assess the potential success of local response efforts.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Global Challenges Research Fund, and HDR UK.

Research in Context

Evidence before this study

Contact tracing and isolation of cases is a commonly used intervention for controlling infectious disease outbreaks. This intervention can be effective, but may require intensive public health effort and cooperation to effectively reach and monitor all contacts. When the pathogen has infectiousness before symptom onset, control of outbreaks using contact tracing and isolation is more challenging.

Added value of this study

This study uses a mathematical model to assess the feasibility of contact tracing and case isolation to control outbreaks of 2019-nCov, a newly emerged pathogen. We used disease transmission characteristics specific to the pathogen and therefore give the best available evidence if contact tracing and isolation can achieve control of outbreaks.

Implications of all the available evidence

Contact tracing and isolation may not contain outbreaks of 2019-nCoV unless very high levels of contact tracing are achieved. Even in this case, if there is asymptomatic transmission, or a high fraction of transmission before onset of symptoms, this strategy may not achieve control within three months.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30074-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.08.20021162; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR112367; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR112367&type=FILE&fileName=EMS159852-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR157839,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.20081711,Response strategies for COVID-19 epidemics in African settings: a mathematical modelling study,"Zandvoort Kv, Jarvis CI, Pearson CAB, Davies NG, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Jit M, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Checchi F, CMMID COVID-19 working group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-03,Y,,,,"

Background

The health impact of COVID-19 may differ in African settings as compared to countries in Europe or China due to demographic, epidemiological, environmental and socio-economic factors. We evaluated strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 burden in African countries, so as to support decisions that balance minimising mortality, protecting health services and safeguarding livelihoods.

Methods

We used a Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered mathematical model, stratified by age, to predict the evolution of COVID-19 epidemics in three countries representing a range of age distributions in Africa (from oldest to youngest average age: Mauritius, Nigeria and Niger), under various effectiveness assumptions for combinations of different non-pharmaceutical interventions: self-isolation of symptomatic people, physical distancing, and ‘shielding’ (physical isolation) of the high-risk population. We adapted model parameters to better represent uncertainty about what might be expected in African populations, in particular by shifting the distribution of severity risk towards younger ages and increasing the case-fatality ratio.

Results

We predicted median clinical attack rates over the first 12 months of 17% (Niger) to 39% (Mauritius), peaking at 2–4 months, if epidemics were unmitigated. Self-isolation while symptomatic had a maximum impact of about 30% on reducing severe cases, while the impact of physical distancing varied widely depending on percent contact reduction and R 0 . The effect of shielding high-risk people, e.g. by rehousing them in physical isolation, was sensitive mainly to residual contact with low-risk people, and to a lesser extent to contact among shielded individuals. Response strategies incorporating self-isolation of symptomatic individuals, moderate physical distancing and high uptake of shielding reduced predicted peak bed demand by 46% to 54% and mortality by 60% to 75%. Lockdowns delayed epidemics by about 3 months. Estimates were sensitive to differences in age-specific social mixing patterns, as published in the literature.

Discussion

In African settings, as elsewhere, current evidence suggests large COVID-19 epidemics are expected. However, African countries have fewer means to suppress transmission and manage cases. We found that self-isolation of symptomatic persons and general physical distancing are unlikely to avert very large epidemics, unless distancing takes the form of stringent lockdown measures. However, both interventions help to mitigate the epidemic. Shielding of high-risk individuals can reduce health service demand and, even more markedly, mortality if it features high uptake and low contact of shielded and unshielded people, with no increase in contact among shielded people. Strategies combining self-isolation, moderate physical distancing and shielding will probably achieve substantial reductions in mortality in African countries. Temporary lockdowns, where socioeconomically acceptable, can help gain crucial time for planning and expanding health service capacity.","Zandvoort et al. used mathematical modelling and simulation methods to predict the impact of various control scenarios on outcome of COVID-19 epidemics in three African countries. They’ve shown that mixed strategies, including moderate physical distancing and shielding are more likely to achieve substantial reductions in mortality in African countries. ",pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01789-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.20081711; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR157839; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR157839&type=FILE&fileName=EMS91299-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR291740,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.03.21252737,"Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers in the United Kingdom: UK-REACH ethico-legal research, qualitative research on healthcare workers’ experiences, and stakeholder engagement protocol","Gogoi M, Reed-Berendt R, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Wobi F, Gupta A, Abubakar I, Dove ES, Nellums LB, Pareek M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-03,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Introduction

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging evidence suggests that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds may be disproportionately affected. The UK-REACH project has been initiated to understand ethnic differentials in COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) through five inter-linked work packages. The ethico-legal work package (Work Package 3) aims to understand and address legal, ethical and acceptability issues around big data research; the healthcare workers’ experiences work package (Work Package 4) is a qualitative study exploring healthcare workers’ experiences during COVID-19 and; the stakeholder engagement work package (Work Package 5) aims to provide feedback and support with the formulation and dissemination of the project recommendations.

Methods and Analysis

Work Package 3 has two different research strands: (a) desk-based doctrinal research; and (b) empirical qualitative research with key opinion leaders. For the empirical research, in-depth interviews will be conducted digitally and recorded with participants’ permission. Recordings will be transcribed, coded and analysed using thematic analysis. In Work Package 4, online in-depth interviews and focus groups will be conducted with approximately 150 HCWs, from across the UK, and these will be recorded with participants’ consent. The recordings will be transcribed, coded and data will be analysed using thematic analysis. Work Package 5 will achieve its objectives through regular group meetings and in-group discussions.

Ethics and Dissemination

Ethical approval has been received from the London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority (Ref No. 20/HRA/4718). Results of the study will be published in open access journals, and disseminated through conference presentations, project website, stakeholder organisations, media and scientific advisory groups.

Registration Details

Registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number registry ( ISRCTN11811602 ).

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY

The dual approach of doctrinal and empirical research (Work Package 3) on the use of personal data by UK-REACH will give a comprehensive understanding of the ethical and legal implications of the study, and perceptions about its use of data. Qualitative research with healthcare workers in the UK on their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic (Work Package 4) will provide insight into personal behaviour, perceptions of risk and coping mechanisms adopted both inside and outside of the work environment. Stakeholder engagement (Work Package 5) from professional regulatory bodies and staff groups is embedded within the UK-REACH study to provide feedback on project activities and support with project recommendations. The target participants (key opinion leaders) for Work Package 3 empirical study will likely come from predominantly White backgrounds which may limit the breadth of views obtained in interviews. This limitation will be mitigated by active recruitment of opinion leaders from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and active interaction with Work Package 5. Due to the pandemic restrictions, interviews and focus group discussions will be conducted via online methods as a substitute for face-to-face meetings, posing practical and technological challenges for dynamic interaction with participants.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.03.21252737; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR291740; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR291740&type=FILE&fileName=EMS118538-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/03/2021.03.03.21252737.full.pdf @@ -373,8 +373,8 @@ PPR235696,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.05.20226662,Risk mitigating behaviours PPR607510,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4060371,Epidemiologic Information Discovery from Open-Access COVID-19 Case Reports Via Pretrained Language Model,"Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, lin h, Wong ZSY, Xu X, Sun Y.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-03-17,N,,,,"Although open-access data are increasing common and useful to epidemiological research, curation of such datasets is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Despite a major source of COVID-19 data, the regularly disclosed case reports were often written in natural language with unstructured format. Here we propose a computational framework that can automatically extract epidemiological information from open-access COVID-19 case reports. We develop this framework by coupling language model developed using deep neural networks with training samples compiled using an optimized data annotation strategy. When applying to the COVID-19 case reports collected from mainland China, our novel framework outstrips all other state-of-the-art deep learning models. The information extracted from our approach is highly consistent with that obtained from the gold-standard manual coding, with a matching rate of 80%. To implement our algorithm, we provide an open-access online platform that can accurately estimate epidemiological statistics in real-time with substantially reduced burden in data curation.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/342099/2/article.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4060371; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR607510; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4060371 PPR276958,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.30.21250777,Accuracy of four lateral flow immunoassays for anti SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: a head-to-head comparative study,"Jones HE, Mulchandani R, Taylor-Phillips S, Ades AE, Shute J, Perry KR, Chandra NL, Brooks T, Charlett A, Hickman M, Oliver I, Kaptoge S, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Wyllie D, COMPARE study investigators, EDSAB-HOME investigators.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-02-01,N,,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests are used for population surveillance and might have a future role in individual risk assessment. Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) can deliver results rapidly and at scale, but have widely varying accuracy.

Methods

In a laboratory setting, we performed head-to-head comparisons of four LFIAs: the Rapid Test Consortium’s AbC-19 ™ Rapid Test, OrientGene COVID IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette, SureScreen COVID-19 Rapid Test Cassette, and Biomerica COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test. We analysed blood samples from 2,847 key workers and 1,995 pre-pandemic blood donors with all four devices.

Findings

We observed a clear trade-off between sensitivity and specificity: the IgG band of the SureScreen device and the AbC-19 ™ device had higher specificities but OrientGene and Biomerica higher sensitivities. Based on analysis of pre-pandemic samples, SureScreen IgG band had the highest specificity (98.9%, 95% confidence interval 98.3 to 99.3%), which translated to the highest positive predictive value across any pre-test probability: for example, 95.1% (95%CI 92.6, 96.8%) at 20% pre-test probability. All four devices showed higher sensitivity at higher antibody concentrations (“spectrum effects”), but the extent of this varied by device.

Interpretation

The estimates of sensitivity and specificity can be used to adjust for test error rates when using these devices to estimate the prevalence of antibody. If tests were used to determine whether an individual has SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, in an example scenario in which 20% of individuals have antibodies we estimate around 5% of positive results on the most specific device would be false positives.

Funding

Public Health England.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We searched for evidence on the accuracy of the four devices compared in this study: OrientGene COVID IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette, SureScreen COVID-19™ Rapid Test Cassette, Biomerica COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test and the UK Rapid Test Consortium’s AbC-19™ Rapid Test. We searched Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Daily), PubMed, MedRxiv/BioRxiv and Google Scholar from January 2020 to 16 th January 2021. Search terms included device names AND ((SARS-CoV-2) OR (covid)). Of 303 records assessed, data were extracted from 24 studies: 18 reporting on the accuracy of the OrientGene device, 7 SureScreen, 2 AbC-19™ and 1 Biomerica. Only three studies compared the accuracy of two or more of the four devices. With the exception of our previous report on the accuracy of the AbC-19™ device, which the current manuscript builds upon, sample size ranged from 7 to 684. For details, see Supplementary Materials. The largest study compared OrientGene, SureScreen and Biomerica. SureScreen was estimated to have the highest specificity (99.8%, 95% CI 98.9 to 100%) and OrientGene the highest sensitivity (92.6%), but with uncertainty about the latter result due to small sample sizes. The other two comparative studies were small (n = 65, n = 67) and therefore provide very uncertain results. We previously observed spectrum effects for the AbC-19™ device, such that sensitivity is upwardly biased if estimated only from PCR-confirmed cases. The vast majority of previous studies estimated sensitivity in this way.

Added value of this study

We performed a large scale (n = 4,842), head-to-head laboratory-based evaluation and comparison of four lateral flow devices, which were selected for evaluation by the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s New Tests Advisory Group, on the basis of a survey of test and performance data available. We evaluated the performance of diagnosis based on both IgG and IgM bands, and the IgG band alone. We found a clear trade-off between sensitivity and specificity across devices, with the SureScreen and AbC-19™ devices being more specific and OrientGene and Biomerica more sensitive. Based on analysis of 1,995 pre-pandemic blood samples, we are 99% confident that SureScreen (IgG band reading) has the highest specificity of the four devices (98.9%, 95% CI 98.3, 99.3%). We found evidence that all four devices have reduced sensitivity at lower antibody indices, i.e. spectrum effects. However, the extent of this varies by device and appears to be less for other devices than for AbC-19. Our estimates of sensitivity and specificity are likely to be higher than would be observed in real use of these devices, as they were based on majority readings of three trained laboratory personnel.

Implications of all the available evidence

When used in epidemiological studies of antibody prevalence, the estimates of sensitivity and specificity provided in this study can be used to adjust for test errors. Increased precision in error rates will translate to increased precision in seroprevalence estimates. If lateral flow devices were used for individual risk assessment, devices with maximum specificity would be preferable. However, if, for an example, 20% of the tested population had antibodies, we estimate that around 1 in 20 positive results on the most specific device would be incorrect.",,pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/280339070/1_s2.0_S2352396421002073_main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.30.21250777; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR276958; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.30.21250777 PPR249097,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.03.20243535,OpenSAFELY: impact of national guidance on switching from warfarin to direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in early phase of COVID-19 pandemic in England,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Walker AJ, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Morton CE, Bacon S, Hickman G, Inglesby P, Bates C, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Hulme W, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-04,Y,,,,"

Background

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic the NHS recommended that appropriate patients anticoagulated with warfarin should be switched to direct acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs), requiring less frequent blood testing. Subsequently, a national safety alert was issued regarding patients being inappropriately co-prescribed two anticoagulants following a medication change, and associated monitoring.

Objective

To describe which people were switched from warfarin to DOACs; identify potentially unsafe co-prescribing of anticoagulants; and assess whether abnormal clotting results have become more frequent during the pandemic.

Methods

Working on behalf of NHS England we conducted a population cohort based study using routine clinical data from >17 million adults in England.

Results

20,000 of 164,000 warfarin patients (12.2%) switched to DOACs between March and May 2020, most commonly to edoxaban and apixaban. Factors associated with switching included: older age, recent renal function test, higher number of recent INR tests recorded, atrial fibrillation diagnosis and care home residency. There was a sharp rise in co-prescribing of warfarin and DOACs from typically 50-100 per month to 246 in April 2020, 0.06% of all people receiving a DOAC or warfarin. INR testing fell by 14% to 506.8 patients tested per 1000 warfarin patients each month. We observed a very small increase in elevated INRs (n=470) during April compared with January (n=420).

Conclusions

Increased switching of anticoagulants from warfarin to DOACs was observed at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in England following national guidance. There was a small but substantial number of people co-prescribed warfarin and DOACs during this period. Despite a national safety alert on the issue, a widespread rise in elevated INR test results was not found. Primary care has responded rapidly to changes in patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/12/04/2020.12.03.20243535.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.03.20243535; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR249097; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR249097&type=FILE&fileName=EMS107949-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf -PPR577327,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282810,Developing a research ready population-scale linked data ethnicity-spine in Wales,"Akbari A, Torabi F, Bedston S, Lowthian E, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Lyons J, Owen RK, Khunti K, Lyons RA.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-11-29,Y,,,,"

Introduction:

Ethnicity information is recorded routinely in electronic health records (EHRs); however, to date, there is no national standard or framework for harmonisation of the existing records. Methods and analysis The national ethnicity-spine uses anonymised individual-level population-scale ethnicity data from 26 EHR available through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. A total of 46 million ethnicity records for 4,297,694 individuals in Wales-UK over 22 years (between 2000 and 2021) have been compiled in a harmonised, deduplicated longitudinal research ready data asset. We serialised this data and compared distribution of records over time for four selection approaches (Latest, Mode, Weighted-Mode and Composite) across age bands, sex, deprivation quintiles, health board, and residential location, against the ONS census 2011. The distribution of the dominant group (White) is minimally affected based on the four different selection approaches. Across all other ethnicity categorisations, the Mixed group was most susceptible to variation in distribution depending on the selection approach used and varied from a 0.6% prevalence across the Latest and Mode approach to a 1.1% prevalence for the Weighted-Mode, compared to the 3.1% prevalence for the Composite approach. Substantial alignment was observed with ONS census with the Latest group method (kappa= 0.68, 95% CI [0.67,0.71]) across all sub-groups. Conclusion We provides a reproducible EHR based resource enabling the investigation and evaluation of health inequalities related to ethnic groups in Wales. This generalisable method informs opportunities for the transferability of this methodology across the UK to platforms with comparable routine data sources. Ethics and dissemination This work was supported by the Con-COV team funded by Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, ADR Wales funded by ADR UK through the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, funded by Health and Care Research Wales.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/11/29/2022.11.28.22282810.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282810; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR577327; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR577327&type=FILE&fileName=EMS157868-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR667569,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.23.23290408,Genetic architecture and shared mechanisms of common ‘neglected’ diseases,"Pietzner M, Denaxas S, Yasmeen S, Wörheide M, Schmidt HE, Uluvar B, Nepal A, Koprulu M, Carrasco-Zanini J, Arnold M, Vogt A, Kastenmüller G, Hemingway H, Langenberg C.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-05-28,Y,,,,"

Withdrawn Statement

The authors have withdrawn this manuscript owing to the paper being rewritten with a stronger focus on COVID-19 upon request from UK Biobank and to comply more clearly with the primary care data usage agreement. An updated version will be re-uploaded as soon as possible. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding authors.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/05/28/2023.05.23.23290408.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.23.23290408; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR667569; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR667569&type=FILE&fileName=EMS176610-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR577327,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282810,Developing a research ready population-scale linked data ethnicity-spine in Wales,"Akbari A, Torabi F, Bedston S, Lowthian E, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Lyons J, Owen RK, Khunti K, Lyons RA.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-11-29,Y,,,,"

Introduction:

Ethnicity information is recorded routinely in electronic health records (EHRs); however, to date, there is no national standard or framework for harmonisation of the existing records. Methods and analysis The national ethnicity-spine uses anonymised individual-level population-scale ethnicity data from 26 EHR available through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. A total of 46 million ethnicity records for 4,297,694 individuals in Wales-UK over 22 years (between 2000 and 2021) have been compiled in a harmonised, deduplicated longitudinal research ready data asset. We serialised this data and compared distribution of records over time for four selection approaches (Latest, Mode, Weighted-Mode and Composite) across age bands, sex, deprivation quintiles, health board, and residential location, against the ONS census 2011. The distribution of the dominant group (White) is minimally affected based on the four different selection approaches. Across all other ethnicity categorisations, the Mixed group was most susceptible to variation in distribution depending on the selection approach used and varied from a 0.6% prevalence across the Latest and Mode approach to a 1.1% prevalence for the Weighted-Mode, compared to the 3.1% prevalence for the Composite approach. Substantial alignment was observed with ONS census with the Latest group method (kappa= 0.68, 95% CI [0.67,0.71]) across all sub-groups. Conclusion We provides a reproducible EHR based resource enabling the investigation and evaluation of health inequalities related to ethnic groups in Wales. This generalisable method informs opportunities for the transferability of this methodology across the UK to platforms with comparable routine data sources. Ethics and dissemination This work was supported by the Con-COV team funded by Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, ADR Wales funded by ADR UK through the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, funded by Health and Care Research Wales.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/11/29/2022.11.28.22282810.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282810; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR577327; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR577327&type=FILE&fileName=EMS157868-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR218529,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.24.20200048,Genetic mechanisms of critical illness in Covid-19,"Pairo-Castineira E, Clohisey S, Klaric L, Bretherick A, Rawlik K, Parkinson N, Pasko D, Walker S, Richmond A, Fourman MH, Russell CD, Law A, Furniss J, Gountouna E, Wrobel N, Moutsianas L, Wang B, Meynert A, Yang Z, Zhai R, Zheng C, Griffiths F, Oosthuyzen W, Grimes G, Shih B, Keating S, Zechner M, Haley C, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Knight J, Summers C, Shankar-Hari M, Klenerman P, Turtle L, Ho A, Hinds C, Horby P, Nichol A, Maslove D, Ling L, McAuley D, Montgomery H, Walsh T, Shen X, Rowan K, Fawkes A, Murphy L, Ponting CP, Tenesa A, Caulfield M, Scott R, Openshaw PJ, Semple MG, Vitart V, Wilson JF, Baillie JK, The GenOMICC Investigators, The ISARIC-4C Investigators, The Covid-19 Human Genetics Initiative.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-09-25,Y,,,,"The subset of patients who develop critical illness in Covid-19 have extensive inflammation affecting the lungs 1 and are strikingly different from other patients: immunosuppressive therapy benefits critically-ill patients, but may harm some non-critical cases. 2 Since susceptibility to life-threatening infections and immune-mediated diseases are both strongly heritable traits, we reasoned that host genetic variation may identify mechanistic targets for therapeutic development in Covid-19. 3 GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality In Critical Care, genomicc.org ) is a global collaborative study to understand the genetic basis of critical illness. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 2244 critically-ill Covid-19 patients from 208 UK intensive care units (ICUs), representing >95% of all ICU beds. Ancestry-matched controls were drawn from the UK Biobank population study and results were confirmed in GWAS comparisons with two other population control groups: the 100,000 genomes project and Generation Scotland. We identify and replicate three novel genome-wide significant associations, at chr19p13.3 (rs2109069, p = 3.98 × 10 −12 ), within the gene encoding dipeptidyl peptidase 9 ( DPP9 ), at chr12q24.13 (rs10735079, p =1.65 × 10 −8 ) in a gene cluster encoding antiviral restriction enzyme activators ( OAS1, OAS2, OAS3 ), and at chr21q22.1 (rs2236757, p = 4.99 × 10 −8 ) in the interferon receptor gene IFNAR2 . Consistent with our focus on extreme disease in younger patients with less comorbidity, we detect a stronger signal at the known 3p21.31 locus than previous studies (rs73064425, p = 4.77 × 10 −30 ). We identify potential targets for repurposing of licensed medications. Using Mendelian randomisation we found evidence in support of a causal link from low expression of IFNAR2 , and high expression of TYK2 , to life-threatening disease. Transcriptome-wide association in lung tissue revealed that high expression of the monocyte/macrophage chemotactic receptor CCR2 is associated with severe Covid-19. Our results identify robust genetic signals relating to key host antiviral defence mechanisms, and mediators of inflammatory organ damage in Covid-19. Both mechanisms may be amenable to targeted treatment with existing drugs. Large-scale randomised clinical trials will be essential before any change to clinical practice.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.24.20200048; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR218529; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR218529&type=FILE&fileName=EMS96350-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03065-y.pdf PPR428677,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.03.21266112,Brain Injury in COVID-19 is Associated with Autoinflammation and Autoimmunity,"Needham E, Ren A, Digby R, Outtrim J, Chatfield D, Manktelow A, Newcombe V, Doffinger R, Barcenas-Morales G, Fonseca C, Taussig M, Burnstein R, Dunai C, Sithole N, Ashton N, Zetterberg H, Gisslen M, Edén A, Marklund E, Griffiths M, Cavanagh J, Breen G, Irani S, Elmer A, Kingston N, Bradley J, Taams L, Michael B, Bullmore E, Smith K, Lyons P, Coles A, Menon D, the Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-05,Y,,,,"COVID-19 has been associated with many neurological complications including stroke, delirium and encephalitis. Furthermore, many individuals experience a protracted post-viral syndrome which is dominated by neuropsychiatric symptoms, and is seemingly unrelated to COVID-19 severity. The true frequency and underlying mechanisms of neurological injury are unknown, but exaggerated host inflammatory responses appear to be a key driver of severe COVID-19 more broadly. We sought to investigate the dynamics of, and relationship between, serum markers of brain injury (neurofilament light [NfL], Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein [GFAP] and total Tau) and markers of dysregulated host response including measures of autoinflammation (proinflammatory cytokines) and autoimmunity. Brain injury biomarkers were measured using the Quanterix Simoa HDx platform, cytokine profiling by Luminex (R&D) and autoantibodies by a custom protein microarray. During hospitalisation, patients with COVID-19 demonstrated elevations of NfL and GFAP in a severity-dependant manner, and there was evidence of ongoing active brain injury at follow-up 4 months later. Raised NfL and GFAP were associated with both elevations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the presence of autoantibodies; autoantibodies were commonly seen against lung surfactant proteins as well as brain proteins such as myelin associated glycoprotein, but reactivity was seen to a large number of different antigens. Furthermore, a distinct process characterised by elevation of serum total Tau was seen in patients at follow-up, which appeared to be independent of initial disease severity and was not associated with dysregulated immune responses in the same manner as NfL and GFAP.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.03.21266112; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR428677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR428677&type=FILE&fileName=EMS141610-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/343727/3/awac321.pdf PPR185844,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.08.20148965,A case-control and cohort study to determine the relationship between ethnic background and severe COVID-19,"Zakeri R, Bendayan R, Ashworth M, Bean DM, Dodhia H, Durbaba S, O’Gallagher K, Palmer C, Curcin V, Aitken E, Bernal W, Barker RD, Norton S, Gulliford M, Teo JT, Galloway J, Dobson RJ, Shah AM.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-10,Y,,,,"

Background

People of minority ethnic background may be disproportionately affected by severe COVID-19 for reasons that are unclear. We sought to examine the relationship between ethnic background and (1) hospital admission for severe COVID-19; (2) in-hospital mortality.

Methods

We conducted a case-control study of 872 inner city adult residents admitted to hospital with confirmed COVID-19 (cases) and 3,488 matched controls randomly sampled from a primary healthcare database comprising 344,083 people resident in the same region. To examine in-hospital mortality, we conducted a cohort study of 1827 adults consecutively admitted with COVID-19. Data collected included hospital admission for COVID-19, demographics, comorbidities, in-hospital mortality. The primary exposure variable was self-defined ethnicity.

Results

The 872 cases comprised 48.1% Black, 33.7% White, 12.6% Mixed/Other and 5.6% Asian patients. In conditional logistic regression analyses, Black and Mixed/Other ethnicity were associated with higher admission risk than white (OR 3.12 [95% CI 2.63-3.71] and 2.97 [2.30-3.85] respectively). Adjustment for comorbidities and deprivation modestly attenuated the association (OR 2.28 [1.87-2.79] for Black, 2.66 [2.01-3.52] for Mixed/Other). Asian ethnicity was not associated with higher admission risk (OR 1.20 [0.86-1.66]). In the cohort study of 1827 patients, 455 (28.9%) died over a median (IQR) of 8 (4-16) days. Age and male sex, but not Black (adjusted HR 0.84 [0.63-1.11]) or Mixed/Other ethnicity (adjusted HR 0.69 [0.43-1.10]), were associated with in-hospital mortality. Asian ethnicity was associated with higher in-hospital mortality (adjusted HR 1.54 [0.98-2.41]).

Conclusions

Black and Mixed ethnicity are independently associated with greater admission risk with COVID-19 and may be risk factors for development of severe disease. Comorbidities and socioeconomic factors only partly account for this and additional ethnicity-related factors may play a large role. The impact of COVID-19 may be different in Asians.

Funding sources

British Heart Foundation (CH/1999001/11735 and RE/18/2/34213 to AMS); the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR BRC) at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London (IS-BRC-1215-20006); and the NIHR BRC at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London (IS-BRC-1215-20018).",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10117765/1/1-s2.0-S2589537020303187-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.08.20148965; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR185844; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR185844&type=FILE&fileName=EMS87258-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -383,7 +383,7 @@ PPR450173,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.03.22270391,"Device-assessed sleep and PPR186560,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.10.20151118,The 4C Initiative (Clinical Care for Cardiovascular disease in the COVID-19 pandemic) – monitoring the indirect impact of the coronavirus pandemic on services for cardiovascular diseases in the UK,"4C Initiative of the CVD-COVID-UK consortium, Ball S, Banerjee A, Berry C, Boyle J, Bray B, Bradlow W, Chaudhry A, Crawley R, Danesh J, Denniston A, Falter F, Figueroa J, Hall C, Hemingway H, Jefferson E, Johnson T, King G, Lee K, McKean P, Mason S, Mills N, Pearson E, Pirmohamed M, Poon M, Priedon R, Shah A, Sofat R, Sterne J, Strachan F, Sudlow C, Szarka Z, Whiteley W, Wyatt M.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-07-11,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Background

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affects cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) directly through infection and indirectly through health service reorganisation and public health policy. Real-time data are needed to quantify direct and indirect effects. We aimed to monitor hospital activity for presentation, diagnosis and treatment of CVDs during the pandemic to inform on indirect effects.

Methods

We analysed aggregate data on presentations, diagnoses and treatments or procedures for selected CVDs (acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, stroke and transient ischaemic attack, venous thromboembolism, peripheral arterial disease and aortic aneurysm) in UK hospitals before and during the COVID-19 epidemic. We produced an online visualisation tool to enable near real-time monitoring of trends.

Findings

Nine hospitals across England and Scotland contributed hospital activity data from 28 Oct 2019 (pre-COVID-19) to 10 May 2020 (pre-easing of lockdown), and for the same weeks during 2018-2019. Across all hospitals, total admissions and emergency department (ED) attendances decreased after lockdown (23 March 2020) by 57.9% (57.1-58.6%) and 52.9% (52.2-53.5%) respectively compared with the previous year. Activity for cardiac, cerebrovascular and other vascular conditions started to decline 1-2 weeks before lockdown, and fell by 31-88% after lockdown, with the greatest reductions observed for coronary artery bypass grafts, carotid endarterectomy, aortic aneurysm repair and peripheral arterial disease procedures. Compared with before the first UK COVID-19 (31 January 2020), activity declined across diseases and specialties between the first case and lockdown (total ED attendances RR 0.94, 0.93-0.95; total hospital admissions RR 0.96, 0.95-0.97) and after lockdown (attendances RR 0.63, 0.62-0.64; admissions RR 0.59, 0.57-0.60). There was limited recovery towards usual levels of some activities from mid-April 2020.

Interpretation

Substantial reductions in total and cardiovascular activities are likely to contribute to a major burden of indirect effects of the pandemic, suggesting they should be monitored and mitigated urgently.

Funding

British Heart Foundation, Health Data Research UK",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/07/11/2020.07.10.20151118.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.10.20151118; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR186560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR186560&type=FILE&fileName=EMS87270-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR516555,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.08.22277317,A national audit of pancreatic enzyme prescribing in pancreatic cancer from 2015 to 2023 in England using OpenSAFELY-TPP,"Lemanska A, Andrews C, Fisher L, Butler-Cole B, Mehrkar A, Roberts KJ, Goldacre B, Walker AJ, MacKenna B, The OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-07-10,Y,,,,"

Objectives

Cancer treatments were variably disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. UK guidelines recommend pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to all people with unresectable pancreatic cancer. The aim was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on PERT prescribing to people with unresectable pancreatic cancer and to investigate the national and regional rates from January 2015 to January 2023.

Data sources

With the approval of NHS England, we conducted this study using 24 million electronic healthcare records of people within the OpenSAFELY-TPP research platform. There were 22,860 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the study cohort. We visualised the trends over time and modelled the effect of COVID-19 with the interrupted time series analysis.

Conclusions

In contrast to many other treatments, prescribing of PERT was not affected during the pandemic. Overall, since 2015, the rates increased steadily over time by 1% every year. The national rates ranged from 41% in 2015 to 48% in early 2023. There was substantial regional variation with the highest rates of 50% to 60% in West Midlands.

Implications for Nursing Practice

In pancreatic cancer, if PERT is prescribed, it is usually initiated in hospitals by clinical nurse specialists and continued after discharge by primary care. At just under 50% in early 2023, the rates were still below the recommended 100% standard. More research is needed to understand barriers to prescribing of PERT and geographic variation to improve quality of care. Prior work relied on manual audits. With OpenSAFELY, we developed an automated audit allowing for regular updates.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4669666/1/Lemanska-etal-2023-a-national-audit-of-pancreatic-enzyme-prescribing.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.08.22277317; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR516555; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR516555&type=FILE&fileName=EMS150145-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR237477,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.11.20220962,Short-term forecasts to inform the response to the Covid-19 epidemic in the UK,"Funk S, Abbott S, Atkins B, Baguelin M, Baillie J, Birrell P, Blake J, Bosse N, Burton J, Carruthers J, Davies N, De Angelis D, Dyson L, Edmunds W, Eggo R, Ferguson N, Gaythorpe K, Gorsich E, Guyver-Fletcher G, Hellewell J, Hill E, Holmes A, House T, Jewell C, Jit M, Jombart T, Joshi I, Keeling M, Kendall E, Knock E, Kucharski A, Lythgoe K, Meakin S, Munday J, Openshaw P, Overton C, Pagani F, Pearson J, Perez-Guzman P, Pellis L, Scarabel F, Semple M, Sherratt K, Tang M, Tildesley M, Van Leeuwen E, Whittles L, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, ISARIC4C Investigators.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-11-13,Y,,,,"

Background

Short-term forecasts of infectious disease can aid situational awareness and planning for outbreak response. Here, we report on multi-model forecasts of Covid-19 in the UK that were generated at regular intervals starting at the end of March 2020, in order to monitor expected healthcare utilisation and population impacts in real time.

Methods

We evaluated the performance of individual model forecasts generated between 24 March and 14 July 2020, using a variety of metrics including the weighted interval score as well as metrics that assess the calibration, sharpness, bias and absolute error of forecasts separately. We further combined the predictions from individual models into ensemble forecasts using a simple mean as well as a quantile regression average that aimed to maximise performance. We compared model performance to a null model of no change.

Results

In most cases, individual models performed better than the null model, and ensembles models were well calibrated and performed comparatively to the best individual models. The quantile regression average did not noticeably outperform the mean ensemble.

Conclusions

Ensembles of multi-model forecasts can inform the policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic by assessing future resource needs and expected population impact of morbidity and mortality.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.11.20220962; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR237477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR237477&type=FILE&fileName=EMS104159-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/12/04/2020.11.11.20220962.full.pdf -PPR580141,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.02.22283026,Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: a cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP,"Lemanska A, Andrews C, Fisher L, Bacon S, Frampton A, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Davy S, Roberts KJ, Roberts KJ, Patalay P, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Walker A, The OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-12-05,Y,,,,"

Background

Healthcare across all sectors, in the UK and globally, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed healthcare services delivered to people with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023 to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, and drawing from a nationally representative OpenSAFELY-TPP dataset of 24 million patients (over 40% of the English population), we undertook a cohort study of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We queried electronic healthcare records for information on the provision of healthcare services across the pancreatic cancer pathway. To estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted the rates of healthcare services if the pandemic had not happened. We used generalised linear models (GLM) and the pre-pandemic data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict rates in March 2020 to March 2023. The 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values were used to estimate the significance of the difference between the predicted and observed rates.

Results

The rate of pancreatic cancer and diabetes diagnoses in the cohort was not affected by the pandemic. There were 26,840 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023. The mean age at diagnosis was 72 (±11 SD), 48% of people were female, 95% were of White ethnicity and 40% were diagnosed with diabetes. We found a reduction in surgical resections by 25% to 28% during the pandemic. In addition, 20%, 10% and 4% fewer people received BMI, HbA1c and liver function tests respectively before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was no impact of the pandemic on the number of people making contact with primary care, but the number of contacts increased on average by 1 to 2 per person amongst those who made contact. Reporting of jaundice decreased by 28%, but recovered within twelve months into the pandemic. Emergency department visits, hospital admissions and deaths were not affected.

Conclusions

The pandemic affected healthcare in England across the pancreatic cancer pathway. Positive lessons could be learnt from the services that were resilient and those that recovered quickly. The reductions in healthcare experienced by people with cancer have the potential to lead to worse outcomes. Current efforts should focus on addressing the unmet needs of people with cancer.

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157). This work was funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) grant reference MR/W021390/1 as part of the postdoctoral fellowship awarded to AL and undertaken at the Bennett Institute, University of Oxford. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS England, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) or the Department of Health and Social Care. Funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/12/05/2022.12.02.22283026.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.02.22283026; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR580141 +PPR580141,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.02.22283026,Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: a cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP,"Lemanska A, Andrews C, Fisher L, Bacon S, Frampton A, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Davy S, Roberts KJ, Roberts KJ, Patalay P, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Walker A, The OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-12-05,Y,,,,"

Background

Healthcare across all sectors, in the UK and globally, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed healthcare services delivered to people with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023 to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, and drawing from a nationally representative OpenSAFELY-TPP dataset of 24 million patients (over 40% of the English population), we undertook a cohort study of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We queried electronic healthcare records for information on the provision of healthcare services across the pancreatic cancer pathway. To estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted the rates of healthcare services if the pandemic had not happened. We used generalised linear models (GLM) and the pre-pandemic data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict rates in March 2020 to March 2023. The 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values were used to estimate the significance of the difference between the predicted and observed rates.

Results

The rate of pancreatic cancer and diabetes diagnoses in the cohort was not affected by the pandemic. There were 26,840 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023. The mean age at diagnosis was 72 (±11 SD), 48% of people were female, 95% were of White ethnicity and 40% were diagnosed with diabetes. We found a reduction in surgical resections by 25% to 28% during the pandemic. In addition, 20%, 10% and 4% fewer people received BMI, HbA1c and liver function tests respectively before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was no impact of the pandemic on the number of people making contact with primary care, but the number of contacts increased on average by 1 to 2 per person amongst those who made contact. Reporting of jaundice decreased by 28%, but recovered within twelve months into the pandemic. Emergency department visits, hospital admissions and deaths were not affected.

Conclusions

The pandemic affected healthcare in England across the pancreatic cancer pathway. Positive lessons could be learnt from the services that were resilient and those that recovered quickly. The reductions in healthcare experienced by people with cancer have the potential to lead to worse outcomes. Current efforts should focus on addressing the unmet needs of people with cancer.

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157). This work was funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) grant reference MR/W021390/1 as part of the postdoctoral fellowship awarded to AL and undertaken at the Bennett Institute, University of Oxford. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS England, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) or the Department of Health and Social Care. Funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/12/05/2022.12.02.22283026.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.02.22283026; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR580141; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR580141&type=FILE&fileName=EMS158207-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR602769,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3615999,Diabetes and COVID-19 Related Mortality in the Critical Care Setting: A Real-Time National Cohort Study in England,"Dennis JM, Mateen BA, Sonabend R, Thomas NJ, Patel KA, Hattersley AT, Denaxas S, McGovern AP, Vollmer SJ.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-06-05,N,,,,"Background:The importance of diabetes as a prognostic factor in people admitted to hospital critical care with COVID-19 is poorly understood and has not been quantified.

Methods:We used a real-time national database (COVID-19 Hospitalisation in England Surveillance System; CHESS), comprising data on COVID-19 related admissions to hospital in England requiring admission to a high dependency unit (HDU) or intensive care unit (ICU) between March 1, 2020 and May 17, 2020. The objective was to describe the relationship between diabetes and all-cause in-hospital mortality in adults, using Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, obesity, and other comorbidities. The primary analysis was restricted to a subset with sufficiently complete comorbidity status recording. Several sensitivity analyses, including on the unrestricted dataset, were carried out to verify the results.

Findings: Diabetes was independently associated with mortality in people admitted to critical care settings with COVID-19 in England; the proportion of 30-day mortality attributable to diabetes, after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, obesity, and other comorbidities, was 4·8% (95%CI 2·5-7·0). 14,639 COVID-19 related HDU and ICU admissions were reported during the study period, of which 6,142 were included in primary analysis, including 3,311 HDU (mean age 72), and 2,831 ICU admissions (mean age 58). 1,439 (23·4%) had diabetes. 1,847 individuals (30·1%) died during the study period. 30 day mortality was higher in people with diabetes than without (p < 0·001). People with diabetes were at increased risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1·28 [1·14, 1·42]). Results were consistent in subsets admitted to HDU only (adjusted HR 1·27 [1·09, 1·48]) and ICU (adjusted HR 1·31 [1·12, 1·54]). Sensitivity analyses were consistent with the primary analysis.

Interpretation:Diabetes is an independent prognostic factor for mortality in people with COVID-19 requiring HDU or ICU treatment. Quantification of this diabetes associated risk enables appropriate treatment decisions in people with diabetes and severe COVID-19.

Funding Statement: This study received no funding.

Declaration of Interests: APM declares previous research funding from Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca. SJV declares funding from IQVIA. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics Approval Statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Warwick BSREC (BSREC 119/19-20) and sponsorship is being provided by University of Warwick (SOC.28/19-20).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3615999; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR602769; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3615999 PPR594314,https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.06.23284202,Long Covid symptoms and diagnosis in primary care: a cohort study using structured and unstructured data in The Health Improvement Network primary care database,"Shah AD, Subramanian A, Lewis J, Dhalla S, Ford E, Haroon S, Kuan V, Nirantharakumar K.",,No Journal Info,2023,2023-01-09,Y,,,,"

BACKGROUND

Long Covid is a widely recognised consequence of COVID-19 infection, but little is known about the burden of symptoms that patients present with in primary care, as these are typically recorded only in free text clinical notes. Our objectives were to compare symptoms in patients with and without a history of COVID-19, and investigate symptoms associated with a Long Covid diagnosis.

METHODS

We used primary care electronic health record data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN), a Cegedim database. We included adults registered with participating practices in England, Scotland or Wales. We extracted information about 89 symptoms and ‘Long Covid’ diagnoses from free text using natural language processing. We calculated hazard ratios (adjusted for age, sex, baseline medical conditions and prior symptoms) for each symptom from 12 weeks after the COVID-19 diagnosis.

FINDINGS

We compared 11,015 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and 18,098 unexposed controls. Only 20% of symptom records were coded, with 80% in free text. A wide range of symptoms were associated with COVID-19 at least 12 weeks post-infection, with strongest associations for fatigue (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 3.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.59, 4.44), shortness of breath (aHR 3.14, 95% CI 2.88, 3.42), palpitations (aHR 2.75, 95% CI 2.28, 3.32), and phlegm (aHR 2.88, 95% CI 2.30, 3.61). However, a limited subset of symptoms were recorded within 7 days prior to a Long Covid diagnosis in more than 20% of cases: shortness of breath, chest pain, pain, fatigue, cough, and anxiety / depression.

CONCLUSION

Numerous symptoms are reported to primary care at least 12 weeks after COVID-19 infection, but only a subset are commonly associated with a GP diagnosis of Long Covid.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2023/01/09/2023.01.06.23284202.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.06.23284202; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR594314; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR594314&type=FILE&fileName=EMS159579-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR153348,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.18.20064774,"How many are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease? Rapid global, regional and national estimates for 2020","Clark A, Jit M, Warren-Gash C, Guthrie B, Wang HH, Mercer SW, Sanderson C, McKee M, Troeger C, Ong KI, Checchi F, Perel P, Joseph S, Gibbs HP, Banerjee A, Eggo RM, CMMID COVID-19 working group.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-04-22,Y,,,,"

Background

The risk of severe COVID-19 disease is known to be higher in older individuals and those with underlying health conditions. Understanding the number of individuals at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness, and how this varies between countries may inform the design of possible strategies to shield those at highest risk.

Methods

We estimated the number of individuals at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease by age (5-year age groups), sex and country (n=188) based on prevalence data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study for 2017 and United Nations population estimates for 2020. We also calculated the number of individuals without an underlying condition that could be considered at-risk because of their age, using thresholds from 50-70 years. The list of underlying conditions relevant to COVID-19 disease was determined by mapping conditions listed in GBD to the guidelines published by WHO and public health agencies in the UK and US. We analysed data from two large multimorbidity studies to determine appropriate adjustment factors for clustering and multimorbidity.

Results

We estimate that 1.7 (1.0 - 2.4) billion individuals (22% [15-28%] of the global population) are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. The share of the population at increased risk ranges from 16% in Africa to 31% in Europe. Chronic kidney disease (CKD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and chronic respiratory disease (CRD) were the most prevalent conditions in males and females aged 50+ years. African countries with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and Island countries with a high prevalence of diabetes, also had a high share of the population at increased risk. The prevalence of multimorbidity (>1 underlying conditions) was three times higher in Europe than in Africa (10% vs 3%).

Conclusion

Based on current guidelines and prevalence data from GBD, we estimate that one in five individuals worldwide has a condition that is on the list of those at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. However, for many of these individuals the underlying condition will be undiagnosed or not severe enough to be captured in health systems, and in some cases the increase in risk may be quite modest. There is an urgent need for robust analyses of the risks associated with different underlying conditions so that countries can identify the highest risk groups and develop targeted shielding policies to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, countries are considering policies of ‘shielding’ the most vulnerable, but there is currently very limited evidence on the number of individuals that might need to be shielded. Guidelines on who is currently believed to be at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness have been published online by the WHO and public health agencies in the UK and US. We searched PubMed (“Risk factors” AND “COVID-19”) without language restrictions, from database inception until April 5, 2020, and identified 62 studies published between Feb 15, 2020 and March 20, 2020. Evidence from China, Italy and the USA indicates that older individuals, males and those with underlying conditions, such as CVD, diabetes and CRD, are at greater risk of severe COVID-19 illness and death.

Added value of this study

This study combines evidence from large international databases and new analysis of large multimorbidity studies to inform policymakers about the number of individuals that may be at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness in different countries. We developed a tool for rapid assessments of the number and percentage of country populations that would need to be targeted under different shielding policies.

Implications of all the available evidence

Quantifying how many and who is at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness is critical to help countries design more effective interventions to protect vulnerable individuals and reduce pressure on health systems. This information can also inform a broader assessment of the health, social and economic implications of shielding various groups.","""This paper estimates the likely number of global population that would be at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. They estimate that 1.7 (1.0 - 2.4) billion individuals (22% [15-28%] of the global population) are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. The share of the population at increased risk ranges from 16% in Africa to 31% in Europe.""",pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/04/22/2020.04.18.20064774.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.18.20064774; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR153348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR153348&type=FILE&fileName=EMS90450-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf @@ -436,13 +436,14 @@ PPR379947,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.05.21259863,Recording of “COVID-19 v PPR273987,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3751318,Development and External Validation of Prognostic Models for COVID-19 to Support Risk Stratification in Secondary Care,"Adderley NJ, Taverner T, Price M, Sainsbury C, Greenwood D, Chandan JS, Takwoingi Y, Haniffa R, Welch C, Parekh D, Gallier S, Gokhale KM, Denniston A, Sapey E, Nirantharakumar K.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-25,N,,,,"Background: Existing UK prognostic models for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are limited by reliance on comorbidities, which are under-recorded in secondary care, and lack of imaging data among the candidate predictors. Our aims were to develop and externally validate novel prognostic models for adverse outcomes (death, intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission) in UK secondary care; and externally validate the existing 4C score.

Methods: Patients with COVID-19 admitted to University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) January-August 2020 were included. Candidate predictors included demographic variables, symptoms, physiological measures, imaging, laboratory tests. Final models used logistic regression with stepwise selection. External validation was performed in the CovidCollab dataset.

Findings: 1040 patients with COVID-19 were included in the derivation cohort; 288 (28%) died and 183 (18%) were admitted to ITU within 28 days of admission. Area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) for mortality was 0.791 (95%CI 0.761-0.822) in UHB and 0.767 (95%CI 0.754-0.780) in CovidCollab; AUROC for ITU admission was 0.906 (95%CI 0.883-0.929) in UHB and 0.811 (95%CI 0.795-0.828) in CovidCollab. Models showed good calibration. Addition of comorbidities to candidate predictors did not improve model performance. AUROC for the 4C score in the UHB dataset was 0.754 (95%CI 0.721-0.786).

Interpretation: The novel prognostic models showed good discrimination and calibration in derivation and external validation datasets, and outperformed the existing 4C score. The models can be integrated into electronic medical records systems to calculate each individual patient’s probability of death or ITU admission at the time of hospital admission. Implementation of the models and clinical utility should be evaluated.

Funding: Medical Research Council UK Research and Innovation.

Declaration of Interests: NJA, ES, KN, MP, AD, CS, TT and YT report a grant from UKRI MRC during the conduct of the study. ES reports grants from National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Wellcome Trust, MRC, Health Data Research UK (HDR-UK), British Lung Foundation, and Alpha 1 Foundation outside the submitted work. KN reports grants from MRC and HDR-UK outside the submitted work. DP reports grants from NIHR, MRC, and Chernakovsky Foundation outside the submitted work. All other authors have nothing to declare.

Ethics Approval Statement: Ethical approval was provided by the East Midlands – Derby REC (reference: 20/EM/0158) for the PIONEER Research Database.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/159150135/AdderleyN2022Develop.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3751318; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR273987; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3751318 PPR159091,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.02.20078642,Impact of ethnicity on outcome of severe COVID-19 infection. Data from an ethnically diverse UK tertiary centre,"Teo JT, Bean DM, Bendayan R, Dobson RJ, Shah AM.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-05-06,N,,,,"During the current COVID-19 pandemic, anecdotal reports suggest that BAME background patients may be disproportionately affected compared to White but few objective data are available. We took advantage of near real-time hospital data access and analysis pipelines to look at the impact of ethnicity in 437 consecutive patients admitted during March to King’s College Hospital NHS Trust in London. Our key findings are firstly that BAME patients are significantly younger and have different co-morbidity profiles than White individuals. Secondly, there is no significant effect of ethnicity itself on severe outcomes (death or ITU admission) within 14-days of symptom onset, with adjustment for age/sex/comorbidities.","The authors have withdrawn this manuscript because the data require additional analysis and a larger sample size. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as reference for the project.",pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/05/25/2020.05.02.20078642.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.02.20078642; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR159091; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.02.20078642 PPR341783,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3820510,Post-Acute COVID-19 Sequelae in Cases Managed in the Community or Hospital in the UK: A Population Based Study,"Whittaker HR, Gulea C, Koteci A, Kallis C, Morgan AD, Iwundu C, Weeks M, Gupta R, Quint J.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-04-06,N,,,,"Background: It is unknown whether post-COVID-19 sequelae differ depending on infection severity.

Methods: This population-based study using Clinical Practice Research Database Aurum included COVID-19 cases between 1st August - 17th October 2020 . Patients were classified as hospitalised (hospitalisation within two weeks of diagnosis) or non-hospitalised and followed up to three months. Event rates were calculated for new symptoms, diseases, prescriptions, healthcare utilisation and compared across groups with Cox regression. Outcomes were compared at 6 and 12 months prior to index date, equating to the first UK wave and a pre-pandemic period. Non-hospitalised group outcomes were stratified by age and sex.

Findings: Of 46,687 patients, 45,272 were managed in the community; 1,415 hospitalised. Hospitalised patients had higher risk of 13/26 symptoms and 11/20 diseases post-COVID-19 diagnosis than the community group. The largest differences were noted for rates per 100 000 person-weeks [95%CI] of breathlessness: 536 [432 - 663] v. 85 [77-93]; joint pain: 295 [221-392] v. 168 [158-179]; diabetes: 303 [225 - 416] v. 36 [32 - 42], hypertension: 244 [178-344] v. 47 [41-53]. Although low, rates of chest tightness, tinnitus and lung fibrosis were higher in the community group . The hospitalised group received more prescriptions and utilised more healthcare. 3·5% of the community group had a post-acute burden; anxiety, breathlessness, chest pain and fatigue were most frequently reported, alongside bronchodilator prescriptions. In those non-hospitalised, age and sex differences existed in rates of symptoms, diseases and prescriptions. Healthcare utilisation in the community group increased 28·5% post-COVID-19 relative to pre-pandemic.

Interpretation: Post-COVID-19 sequelae differ between hospitalised and non-hospitalised individuals, with age and sex-specific differences in symptoms, diseases and prescriptions post-COVID-19 in the community. Most people who have COVID-19 managed in the community have no ongoing issues. Post-COVID-19 follow-up and management strategies need to be tailored to specific needs.

Funding: This work is supported by BREATHE - The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health [MC_PC_19004].

Declaration of Interest: HRW, CG, AK, CK, AM, CI, MW have nothing to declare. RG is a current employee of Gilead Sciences, outside the submitted work. JKQ reports grants from AUK-BLF, The Health Foundation, grants and personal fees from AZ, BI, GSK, Bayer, grants from Chiesi, outside the submitted work.

Ethical Approval: This work is based on data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) obtained under license from the United Kingdom (UK) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The data is provided by patients and collected by the National Health Service (NHS) as part of their care and support.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.09.21255199; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3820510; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR341783; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR341783&type=FILE&fileName=EMS124847-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3820510 -PPR302376,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253371,Axes of Prognosis: Identifying Subtypes of COVID-19 Outcomes,"Whitfield E, Coffey C, Zhang H, Shi T, Wu X, Li Q, Wu H.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-24,Y,,,,"COVID-19 is a disease with vast impact, yet much remains unclear about patient outcomes. Most approaches to risk prediction of COVID-19 focus on binary or tertiary severity outcomes, despite the heterogeneity of the disease. In this work, we identify heterogeneous subtypes of COVID-19 outcomes by considering ‘axes’ of prognosis. We propose two innovative clustering approaches − ‘Layered Axes’ and ‘Prognosis Space’ – to apply on patients’ outcome data. We then show how these clusters can help predict a patient’s deterioration pathway on their hospital admission, using random forest classification. We illustrate this methodology on a cohort from Wuhan in early 2020. We discover interesting subgroups of poor prognosis, particularly within respiratory patients, and predict respiratory subgroup membership with high accuracy. This work could assist clinicians in identifying appropriate treatments at patients’ hospital admission. Moreover, our method could be used to explore subtypes of ‘long COVID’ and other diseases with heterogeneous outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/24/2021.03.16.21253371.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253371; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR302376; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR302376&type=FILE&fileName=EMS120764-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR276290,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.25.21249942,Development and external validation of prognostic models for COVID-19 to support risk stratification in secondary care,"Adderley NJ, Taverner T, Price M, Sainsbury C, Greenwood D, Chandan JS, Takwoingi Y, Haniffa R, Hosier I, Welch C, Parekh D, Gallier S, Gokhale K, Denniston AK, Sapey E, Nirantharakumar K.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-01-30,Y,,,,"

Objectives

Existing UK prognostic models for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are limited by reliance on comorbidities, which are under-recorded in secondary care, and lack of imaging data among the candidate predictors. Our aims were to develop and externally validate novel prognostic models for adverse outcomes (death, intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission) in UK secondary care; and externally validate the existing 4C score.

Design

Candidate predictors included demographic variables, symptoms, physiological measures, imaging, laboratory tests. Final models used logistic regression with stepwise selection.

Setting

Model development was performed in data from University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB). External validation was performed in the CovidCollab dataset.

Participants

Patients with COVID-19 admitted to UHB January-August 2020 were included.

Main outcome measures

Death and ITU admission within 28 days of admission.

Results

1040 patients with COVID-19 were included in the derivation cohort; 288 (28%) died and 183 (18%) were admitted to ITU within 28 days of admission. Area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) for mortality was 0.791 (95%CI 0.761-0.822) in UHB and 0.767 (95%CI 0.754-0.780) in CovidCollab; AUROC for ITU admission was 0.906 (95%CI 0.883-0.929) in UHB and 0.811 (95%CI 0.795-0.828) in CovidCollab. Models showed good calibration. Addition of comorbidities to candidate predictors did not improve model performance. AUROC for the 4C score in the UHB dataset was 0.754 (95%CI 0.721-0.786).

Conclusions

The novel prognostic models showed good discrimination and calibration in derivation and external validation datasets, and outperformed the existing 4C score. The models can be integrated into electronic medical records systems to calculate each individual patient’s probability of death or ITU admission at the time of hospital admission. Implementation of the models and clinical utility should be evaluated.

Article Summary

Strengths and limitations of this study

We developed novel prognostic models predicting mortality and ITU admission within 28 days of admission for patients hospitalised with COVID-19, using a large routinely collected dataset gathered at admission with a wide range of possible predictors (demographic variables, symptoms, physiological measures, imaging, laboratory test results). These novel models showed good discrimination and calibration in both derivation and external validation cohorts, and outperformed the existing ISARIC model and 4C score in the derivation dataset. We found that addition of comorbidities to the set of candidate predictors included in model derivation did not improve model performance. If integrated into hospital electronic medical records systems, the model algorithms will provide a predicted probability of mortality or ITU admission for each patient based on their individual data at, or close to, the time of admission, which will support clinicians’ decision making with regard to appropriate patient care pathways and triage. This information might also assist clinicians in explaining complex prognostic assessments and decisions to patients and their relatives. A limitation of the study was that in the external validation cohort we were unable to examine all of the predictors included in the original full UHB model due to only a reduced set of candidate predictors being available in CovidCollab. Nevertheless, the reduced model performed well and the results suggest it may be applicable in a wide range of datasets where only a reduced set of predictor variables is available. Furthermore, it was not possible to carry out stratified analysis by ethnicity as the UHB dataset contained too few patients in most of the strata, and no ethnicity data was available in the CovidCollab dataset.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/159150135/AdderleyN2022Develop.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.25.21249942; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR276290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR276290&type=FILE&fileName=EMS115610-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR302376,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253371,Axes of Prognosis: Identifying Subtypes of COVID-19 Outcomes,"Whitfield E, Coffey C, Zhang H, Shi T, Wu X, Li Q, Wu H.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-03-24,Y,,,,"COVID-19 is a disease with vast impact, yet much remains unclear about patient outcomes. Most approaches to risk prediction of COVID-19 focus on binary or tertiary severity outcomes, despite the heterogeneity of the disease. In this work, we identify heterogeneous subtypes of COVID-19 outcomes by considering ‘axes’ of prognosis. We propose two innovative clustering approaches − ‘Layered Axes’ and ‘Prognosis Space’ – to apply on patients’ outcome data. We then show how these clusters can help predict a patient’s deterioration pathway on their hospital admission, using random forest classification. We illustrate this methodology on a cohort from Wuhan in early 2020. We discover interesting subgroups of poor prognosis, particularly within respiratory patients, and predict respiratory subgroup membership with high accuracy. This work could assist clinicians in identifying appropriate treatments at patients’ hospital admission. Moreover, our method could be used to explore subtypes of ‘long COVID’ and other diseases with heterogeneous outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/03/24/2021.03.16.21253371.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253371; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR302376; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR302376&type=FILE&fileName=EMS120764-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR445586,https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.20.22269546,Vaccine hesitancy and access to psoriasis care in the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from a global patient-reported cross-sectional survey,"Bechman K, Cook E, Dand N, Yiu Z, Tsakok T, Meynell F, Coker B, Vincent A, Bachelez H, Barbosa I, Brown M, Capon F, Contreras C, De La Cruz C, Meglio PD, Gisondi P, Jullien D, Kelly J, Lambert J, Lancelot C, Langan S, Mason K, McAteer H, Moorhead L, Naldi L, Norton S, Puig L, Spuls P, Torres T, Urmston D, Vesty A, Warren R, Waweru H, Weinman J, Griffiths C, Barker J, Smith C, Galloway J, Mahil S.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-23,N,,,,"

Summary

Background

COVID-19 vaccination is efficacious at protecting against severe COVID-19 outcomes in the general population. However, vaccine hesitancy (unwillingness for vaccination despite available vaccination services) threatens public health. Individuals taking immunosuppression for psoriasis have been prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination, however there is a paucity of information on vaccine hesitancy in this population, including contributing factors. While global healthcare has been severely disrupted in the pandemic, the impact on access to psoriasis care and whether this may negatively influence vaccine uptake, is underexplored.

Objectives

To explore organisational and individual factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in individuals with psoriasis.

Methods

Individuals with psoriasis, identified through global patient organisations and social media, completed a cross-sectional self-reported online survey. The primary outcome was COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between predictor variables (organisational and individual factors) and outcome.

Results

Self-reported data from 802 individuals with psoriasis across 89 countries were available (65.6% female, median age 51 years [IQR 37-61], 43.7% taking systemic immunosuppression). Eight percent (n=63) reported vaccine hesitancy. Those reporting vaccine hesitancy were younger, more likely to be of non-white ethnicity, non-UK resident, have a lower BMI, not taking systemic immunosuppression and with shorter disease duration compared to those not reporting vaccine hesitancy. The commonest reasons for vaccine hesitancy were concerns regarding vaccine side-effects, that the vaccine is too new or that psoriasis may worsen post-vaccination. Forty percent (n=322) reported that their psoriasis care had been disrupted by the pandemic. These individuals were younger, of non-white ethnicity, with shorter duration and more severe psoriasis. Disruption to psoriasis care was associated with vaccine hesitancy (unadjusted OR 2.97 (95%CI 1.23-7.13), p=0.015), although not statistically significant in the adjusted model.

Conclusion

A minority of individuals with psoriasis from our study reported COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Similar to general population trends, vaccine hesitancy in our psoriasis sample is most common in younger age and ethnic minority groups. Our data highlight patient concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccination, which are important to address during patient-clinician interactions to help optimise vaccine uptake and mitigate risks from the ongoing pandemic in individuals with psoriasis.

Key points

What’s already known about this topic?

The COVID-19 vaccine is highly efficacious at protecting against severe COVID-19 outcomes in the general population. Vaccine hesitancy (unwillingness to receive vaccination despite available vaccination services) poses a major threat to global public health and is more common in women, younger age and ethnic minority groups in the general population. Individuals with psoriasis taking systemic immunosuppression were considered at high risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes and prioritised for vaccination, however there is a paucity of information on vaccine hesitancy in this group, including contributing factors. While global healthcare has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, access to psoriasis care and its potential impact on vaccine hesitancy is underexplored.

What does this study add?

A substantial proportion (40%) of individuals with psoriasis reported disrupted access to psoriasis care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disrupted care was most commonly reported in younger age and ethnic minority groups. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was reported by a minority (8%) of individuals with psoriasis. Those reporting vaccine hesitancy were younger and more likely to be of non-white ethnicity, in keeping with trends in the general population. The commonest reasons for vaccine hesitancy were concerns regarding vaccine side effects, that the vaccine is too new or that psoriasis may worsen post-vaccination. These concerns are important to address during patient-clinician interactions to help mitigate risks from the ongoing pandemic in individuals with psoriasis.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/01/23/2022.01.20.22269546.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.20.22269546; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR445586; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.20.22269546 PPR360902,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3854027,Reconstructing the Symptomatic-Case Epidemic from COVID-19-Related Deaths in England: A Spatiotemporal Modelling Study,"Nightingale E, Abbott S, Russell TW, group CCw, Medley GF, Brady O.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-05-26,Y,,,,"Background: The COVID-19 epidemic has differentially impacted communities across England, with regional variation in rates of confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths. Measurement of this burden changed substantially over the first months, as surveillance was expanded to accommodate the escalating epidemic. Laboratory confirmation was initially restricted to clinical need (“pillar 1”) before expanding to community-wide symptomatics (“pillar 2”). This study aimed to ascertain whether biases in case data resulting from varying testing coverage could be addressed by drawing inference from COVID-19-related deaths.

Methods: We fit a Bayesian spatio-temporal model to weekly COVID-19-related deaths per local authority (LTLA) throughout the first wave (1 January - 30 June 2020), with respect to the local epidemic timing and the age, deprivation and ethnic composition of its population. We drew predictions averaging these sources of case-fatality variation, and back-translated according to a population case fatality ratio estimated under community-wide testing.

Results: A model including temporally- and spatially-correlated random effects best accommodated the observed variation in mortality, after accounting for local population characteristics. Final predictions suggest a total of 276,219-420,491 cases over the first wave - an increase of 19-81% from the reported.

Conclusions: Limitations in testing capacity biased the observed trajectory of COVID-19 cases throughout the first wave. Basing inference on COVID-19-related mortality and higher-coverage testing later in the time period, we could explore the extent of this bias more explicitly. Evidence points towards substantial under-representation of initial growth and peak magnitude of symptomatic infections nationally, to which different parts of the country contribute unequally.

Funding Information:

The following funding sources are acknowledged as providing funding for the named authors:

This research was partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (NTD Modelling Consortium OPP1184344: GFM; OPP1183986: ESN). Royal Society (Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship: RL). Wellcome Trust (206250/Z/17/Z: TWR; 206471/Z/17/Z: OJB; 210758/Z/18/Z: SA).

The following funding sources are acknowledged as providing funding for the working group
authors:

This research was partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-001754: MQ; INV-003174: JYL, KP, MJ, YL; INV-016832: SRP; NTD Modelling Consortium OPP1184344: CABP; OPP1139859: BJQ; OPP1191821: KO'R). BMGF (INV-016832; OPP1157270: KA). CADDE MR/S0195/1 & FAPESP 18/14389-0 (PM). EDCTP2 (RIA2020EF-2983-CSIGN: HPG). Elrha R2HC/UK FCDO/Wellcome Trust/This research was partly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care (KvZ). ERC Starting Grant (#757699: MQ). ERC (SG 757688: CJVA, KEA). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme - project EpiPose (101003688: AG, KP, MJ, RCB, WJE, YL). FCDO/Wellcome Trust (Epidemic Preparedness Coronavirus research programme 221303/Z/20/Z: CABP, KvZ). This research was partly funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project 'RECAP' managed through RCUK and ESRC (ES/P010873/1: CIJ, TJ). HDR UK (MR/S003975/1: RME). HPRU (NIHR200908: NIB). Innovation Fund (01VSF18015: FK). MRC (MR/N013638/1: EF, NRW; MR/V027956/1: WW). Nakajima Foundation (AE). NIHR (16/136/46: BJQ; 16/137/109: BJQ, FYS, MJ, YL; 1R01AI141534-01A1: DH; Health Protection Research Unit for Modelling Methodology HPRU-2012-10096: TJ; NIHR200908: AJK, RME; NIHR200929: CVM, FGS, MJ, NGD; PR-OD-1017-20002: AR, WJE). Singapore Ministry of Health (RP). UK DHSC/UK Aid/NIHR (PR-OD-1017-20001: HPG). UK MRC (MC_PC_19065 - Covid 19: Understanding the dynamics and drivers of the COVID-19 epidemic using real-time outbreak analytics: NGD, RME, SC, TJ, WJE, YL; MR/P014658/1: GMK). Authors of this research receive funding from UK Public Health Rapid Support Team funded by the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Care (TJ). UKRI Research England (NGD). UKRI (MR/V028456/1: YJ). Wellcome Trust (206250/Z/17/Z: AJK; 208812/Z/17/Z: SC, SFlasche; 210758/Z/18/Z: JDM, JH, SFunk, SRM; 221303/Z/20/Z: MK; UNS110424: FK). No funding (AMF, DCT, YWDC).

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics Approval Statement: Approval for the use of anonymised linelist data was granted by Public Health England and the Department for Health and Social Care. Consent of individuals was not required as no patient identifiable information was used.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3854027; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR360902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR360902&type=FILE&fileName=EMS128447-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf +PPR340062,https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/sf7b6,"Depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK","Young KS, Purves KL, Hübel C, Davies M, Thompson KN, Bristow S, Krebs G, Danese A, Hirsch C, Parsons CE, Vassos E, Adey B, Bright S, Hegemann L, Lee YT, Kalsi G, Monssen D, Mundy J, Peel A, Rayner C, Rogers H, ter Kuile A, Ward C, York K, Lin Y, Palmos A, Schmidt U, Veale D, Nicholson T, Pollak T, Stevelink S, Moukhtarian T, Martineau A, Holt H, Maughan B, Al-Chalabi A, Chaudhuri KR, Richardson MP, Bradley J, Chinnery P, Kingston N, Papadia S, Stirrups K, Linger R, Hotopf M, Eley T, Breen G.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-05-14,N,,,,"

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a novel population-level stressor. As such, it is important to examine pandemic-related changes in mental health and to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms.

Methods:

Online questionnaires were administered to 34,465 individuals in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one third (n = 12,718) with prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments, allowing prospective investigation of symptom change. We examined changes in depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms using prospective, retrospective and global ratings of change assessments. We also examined the effect of key risk factors on changes in symptoms.Outcomes: Prospective analyses showed small decreases in depression (PHQ-9: - .43 points) and anxiety symptoms (GAD-7: -.33 points), and increases in PTSD symptoms (PCL-6: .22 points). Conversely, retrospective analyses demonstrated large significant increases in depression (2.40 points) and anxiety symptoms (1.97 points) and 55% reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic on a global change rating. Using both prospective and retrospective symptom measures, regression analyses demonstrated that worsening depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms were associated with i) prior mental health diagnoses, ii) female gender; iii) young age, and iv) unemployed or student status.Interpretation: We highlight the effect of prior mental health diagnoses on worsening mental health during the pandemic and confirm previously-reported sociodemographic risk factors. Discrepancies between prospective and retrospective measures of changes in mental health may be related to recall bias underestimating prior symptom severity.

",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154666/2/Krebs_Depression%2C%20anxiety%20and%20PTSD%20symptoms%20before%20and%20during%20the%20COVID-19%20pandemic%20in%20the%20UK_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/sf7b6; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR340062; doi:https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/sf7b6 PPR604071,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4016536,Mental Health During COVID-19: A Qualitative Study With Ethnically Diverse Healthcare Workers in the United Kingdom,"Qureshi I, Gogoi M, Al-Oraibi A, Wobi F, Chaloner J, Gray L, Guyatt AL, Hassan O, Nellums LB, Pareek M, Group UC.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-01-24,N,,,,"Background: Healthcare workers are experiencing deterioration in their mental health due to COVID-19. Ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is important that healthcare organisations consider the specific context and mental, as well as physical, health needs of an ethnically diverse healthcare workforce in order to better support them during, and after, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We undertook a qualitative work package as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers (UK-REACH). As part of the qualitative research, we conducted focus group discussions with healthcare workers between December 2020 and July 2021. Recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed.

Findings: We carried out 16 focus groups with a total of 61 participants. Several factors were identified which contributed to, and potentially exacerbated, the poor mental health of ethnic minority healthcare workers during this period including anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy); fear (of infection); trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death); guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones); and stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload).

Interpretation: COVID-19 has affected the mental health of healthcare workers. We identified a number of factors which may be contributing to a deterioration in mental health across diverse ethnic groups. Healthcare organisations should consider developing strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors.

Funding Information: UK-REACH is supported by the MRC-UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) rapid response panel to tackle COVID-19. Further details are listed in the main text.

Declaration of Interests: MP reports grants from Sanofi, grants and personal fees from Gilead Sciences and personal fees from QIAGEN, outside the submitted work. IQ, MG, FW, IQ, AAO, JC OH and LBN have no competing interests to declare.

Ethics Approval Statement: Ethical approval has been received from the London-Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority (Ref No 20/HRA/4718). All participants gave written informed consent.
",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.13.21267718; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4016536; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR604071; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4016536 -PPR603292,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4104602,"The Shock, the Coping, the Resilience: How Smartphone Application Use Reveals Covid-19 Lockdown Effects on Human Behaviour","Liu XF, Wang Z, Xu X, Wu Y, Zhao Z, Deng H, Wang P, Chao N, Huang Y.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-26,N,,,,"Lockdown policies significantly restrict human mobility and lower the chance of virus transmission through physical contact. However, a critical question that must be addressed is how these policies affect individuals’ behavioural and psychological well-being during and after confinement periods. Here, we analyse China’s five most stringent city-level lockdowns during 2021, treating them as natural experiments that allow for examination of behavioural changes in millions of people before, during, and after the lockdowns via patterns in smartphone application use. We made three fundamental observations. First, physical and economic activity-related apps experienced a steep decline in use, yet those that provide daily necessities retained high usage. Second, apps that fulfilled lower-level human needs, such as working, socialising, information seeking, and entertainment, saw an immediate and substantial increase in screen time. Those that satisfied higher-level needs, such as education, only drew a delayed attention. Third, human behaviour demonstrated resilience as most routines resumed as lockdowns lifted. Nonetheless, long-term lifestyle changes were observed as significant numbers of people chose to continue working and learning online, becoming “digital residents.” We argue that lockdowns must be brief and carefully planned to minimise negative impacts on human life. Our findings also lead us to predict a surge of new online businesses in the post-pandemic era as well as escalated cybersecurity threats. We also hope that our method enriches the toolbox for studying mobile phone usage and enables a new perspective for in-depth investigation of human behaviours.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4104602; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR603292; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4104602 PPR257169,https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.19.20248559,Changes in UK hospital mortality in the first wave of COVID-19: the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol prospective multicentre observational cohort study,"Docherty AB, Mulholland RH, Lone NI, Cheyne CP, De Angelis D, Diaz-Ordaz K, Donoghue C, Drake TM, Dunning J, Funk S, García-Fiñana M, Girvan M, Hardwick HE, Harrison J, Ho A, Hughes DM, Keogh RH, Kirwan PD, Leeming G, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Pius R, Russell CD, Spencer R, Tom BD, Turtle L, Openshaw PJ, Baillie JK, Harrison EM, Semple MG, for ISARIC4C investigators.",,No Journal Info,2020,2020-12-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Mortality rates of UK patients hospitalised with COVID-19 appeared to fall during the first wave. We quantify potential drivers of this change and identify groups of patients who remain at high risk of dying in hospital.

Methods

The International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK recruited a prospective cohort admitted to 247 acute UK hospitals with COVID-19 in the first wave (March to August 2020). Outcome was hospital mortality within 28 days of admission. We performed a three-way decomposition mediation analysis using natural effects models to explore associations between week of admission and hospital mortality adjusting for confounders (demographics, comorbidity, illness severity) and quantifying potential mediators (respiratory support and steroids).

Findings

Unadjusted hospital mortality fell from 32.3% (95%CI 31.8, 32.7) in March/April to 16.4% (95%CI 15.0, 17.8) in June/July 2020. Reductions were seen in all ages, ethnicities, both sexes, and in comorbid and non-comorbid patients. After adjustment, there was a 19% reduction in the odds of mortality per 4 week period (OR 0.81, 95%CI 0.79, 0.83). 15.2% of this reduction was explained by greater disease severity and comorbidity earlier in the epidemic. The use of respiratory support changed with greater use of non-invasive ventilation (NIV). 22.2% (OR 0.94, 95%CI 0.94, 0.96) of the reduction in mortality was mediated by changes in respiratory support.

Interpretation

The fall in hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients during the first wave in the UK was partly accounted for by changes in case mix and illness severity. A significant reduction was associated with differences in respiratory support and critical care use, which may partly reflect improved clinical decision making. The remaining improvement in mortality is not explained by these factors, and may relate to community behaviour on inoculum dose and hospital capacity strain.

Funding

NIHR & MRC

Key points / Research in Context

Evidence before this study

Risk factors for mortality in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 have been established. However there is little literature regarding how mortality is changing over time, and potential explanations for why this might be. Understanding changes in mortality rates over time will help policy makers identify evolving risk, strategies to manage this and broader decisions about public health interventions.

Added value of this study

Mortality in hospitalised patients at the beginning of the first wave was extremely high. Patients who were admitted to hospital in March and early April were significantly more unwell at presentation than patients who were admitted in later months. Mortality fell in all ages, ethnic groups, both sexes and in patients with and without comorbidity, over and above contributions from falling illness severity. After adjustment for these variables, a fifth of the fall in mortality was explained by changes in the use of respiratory support and steroid treatment, along with associated changes in clinical decision-making relating to supportive interventions. However, mortality was persistently high in patients who required invasive mechanical ventilation, and in those patients who received non-invasive ventilation outside of critical care.

Implications of all the available evidence

The observed reduction in hospital mortality was greater than expected based on the changes seen in both case mix and illness severity. Some of this fall can be explained by changes in respiratory care, including clinical learning. In addition, introduction of community policies including wearing of masks, social distancing, shielding of vulnerable patients and the UK lockdown potentially resulted in people being exposed to less virus. The decrease in mortality varied depending on the level of respiratory support received. Patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation have persistently high mortality rates, albeit with a changing case-mix, and further research should target this group. Severe COVID-19 disease has primarily affected older people in the UK. Many of these people, but not all have significant frailty. It is essential to ensure that patients and their families remain at the centre of decision-making, and we continue with an individualised approach to their treatment and care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.19.20248559; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR257169; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR257169&type=FILE&fileName=EMS109127-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/319416/4/Changes%2bin%2bin-hospital%2bmortality%2bin%2bthe%2bfirst%2bwave%2bof%2bCOVID-19%2ba%2bmulticentre%2bprospective%2bobservational%2bcohort%2bstudy%2busing%2bth.pdf +PPR603292,https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4104602,"The Shock, the Coping, the Resilience: How Smartphone Application Use Reveals Covid-19 Lockdown Effects on Human Behaviour","Liu XF, Wang Z, Xu X, Wu Y, Zhao Z, Deng H, Wang P, Chao N, Huang Y.",,No Journal Info,2022,2022-05-26,N,,,,"Lockdown policies significantly restrict human mobility and lower the chance of virus transmission through physical contact. However, a critical question that must be addressed is how these policies affect individuals’ behavioural and psychological well-being during and after confinement periods. Here, we analyse China’s five most stringent city-level lockdowns during 2021, treating them as natural experiments that allow for examination of behavioural changes in millions of people before, during, and after the lockdowns via patterns in smartphone application use. We made three fundamental observations. First, physical and economic activity-related apps experienced a steep decline in use, yet those that provide daily necessities retained high usage. Second, apps that fulfilled lower-level human needs, such as working, socialising, information seeking, and entertainment, saw an immediate and substantial increase in screen time. Those that satisfied higher-level needs, such as education, only drew a delayed attention. Third, human behaviour demonstrated resilience as most routines resumed as lockdowns lifted. Nonetheless, long-term lifestyle changes were observed as significant numbers of people chose to continue working and learning online, becoming “digital residents.” We argue that lockdowns must be brief and carefully planned to minimise negative impacts on human life. Our findings also lead us to predict a surge of new online businesses in the post-pandemic era as well as escalated cybersecurity threats. We also hope that our method enriches the toolbox for studying mobile phone usage and enables a new perspective for in-depth investigation of human behaviours.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4104602; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR603292; doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4104602 PPR387952,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.26.21262523,"Association between tocilizumab, sarilumab and all-cause mortality at 28 days in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A network meta-analysis","Godolphin PJ, Fisher DJ, Berry LR, Derde LP, Diaz JV, Gordon AC, Lorenzi E, Marshall JC, Murthy S, Shankar-Hari M, Sterne JA, Tierney JF, Vale CL.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-08-28,Y,,,,"

Objective:

To estimate pairwise associations between administration of tocilizumab, sarilumab and usual care or placebo with 28-day mortality, in COVID-19 patients receiving concomitant corticosteroids and non-invasive or mechanical ventilation, based on all available direct and indirect evidence.

Methods:

Eligible trials randomized hospitalized patients with COVID-19 that compared either interleukin-6 receptor antagonist with usual care or placebo in a recent prospective meta-analysis (27 trials, 10930 patients) or that directly compared tocilizumab with sarilumab. Data were restricted to patients receiving corticosteroids and either non-invasive or invasive ventilation at randomization. Pairwise associations between tocilizumab, sarilumab and usual care or placebo for all-cause mortality 28 days after randomization were estimated using a frequentist contrast-based network meta-analysis of odds ratios (ORs), implementing multivariate fixed-effects models that assume consistency between the direct and indirect evidence.

Results:

One trial (REMAP-CAP) was identified that directly compared tocilizumab with sarilumab and supplied results on all-cause mortality at 28-days. This network meta-analysis was based on 898 eligible patients (278 deaths) from REMAP-CAP and 3710 eligible patients from 18 trials (1278 deaths) from the prospective meta-analysis. Summary ORs were similar for tocilizumab [0.82 [0.71-0.95, P=0.008]] and sarilumab [0.80 [0.61-1.04, P=0.09]] compared with usual care or placebo. The summary OR for 28-day mortality comparing tocilizumab with sarilumab was 1.03 [95%CI 0.81-1.32, P=0.80]. The P value for the global test for inconsistency was 0.28.

Conclusion:

Administration of either tocilizumab or sarilumab was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality compared with usual care or placebo. The association is not dependent on the choice of interleukin-6 receptor antagonist.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR387952&type=FILE&fileName=EMS134466-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.26.21262523; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR387952; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR387952&type=FILE&fileName=EMS134466-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf PPR433132,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.13.21267718,Mental Health During COVID-19: A Qualitative Study with Ethnically Diverse Healthcare Workers in the United Kingdom,"Qureshi I, Gogoi M, Al-Oraibi A, Wobi F, Chaloner J, Gray L, Guyatt AL, Nellums LB, Pareek M.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-12-14,Y,,,,"

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Healthcare workers are experiencing deterioration in their mental health due to COVID-19. Ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, with a higher death rate and poorer physical and mental health outcomes. It is important that healthcare organisations consider the specific context and mental, as well as physical, health needs of an ethnically diverse healthcare workforce in order to better support them during, and after, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We undertook a qualitative work package as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers (UK-REACH). As part of the qualitative research, we conducted focus group discussions with healthcare workers between December 2020 and July 2021, and covered topics such as their experiences, fears and concerns, and perceptions about safety and protection, while working during the pandemic. The purposive sample included ancillary health workers, doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds. We conducted discussions using Microsoft Teams. Recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed.

Findings

We carried out 16 focus groups with a total of 61 participants. Several factors were identified which contributed to, and potentially exacerbated, the poor mental health of ethnic minority healthcare workers during this period including anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy); fear (of infection); trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death); guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones); and stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload).

Conclusion

COVID-19 has affected the mental health of healthcare workers. We identified a number of factors which may be contributing to a deterioration in mental health across diverse ethnic groups. Healthcare organisations should consider developing strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors. This paper will help employers of healthcare workers and other relevant policy makers better understand the wider implications and potential risks of COVID-19 and assist in developing strategies to safeguard the mental health of these healthcare workers going forward, and reduce ethnic disparities.

Key messages

What is already known about this subject

Healthcare Workers (HCWs) are experiencing deterioration of their mental health due to COVID-19 Ethnic minority populations and HCWs are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 More research is needed on the specific factors influencing the mental health of ethnically diverse healthcare workforces

What are the new findings

Prominent factors influencing the mental health and emotional wellbeing of this population include: anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy) fear (of infection) trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death) guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones) stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload)

How might this impact on policy or clinical practice in the foreseeable future

Healthcare organisations should consider the specific circumstances of these staff and develop strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors and help safeguard the mental health of their staff",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.13.21267718; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR433132; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR433132&type=FILE&fileName=EMS141782-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf; pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/12/14/2021.12.13.21267718.full.pdf PPR375947,https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.27.21261136,Potentially inappropriate prescribing of DOACs to people with mechanical heart valves: a federated analysis of 57.9 million patients’ primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY,"The OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Fisher L, Speed V, Curtis HJ, Rentsch CT, Wong AY, Schultze A, Massey J, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Wood M, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Croker R, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Smith B, Williamson E, Hulme W, Green A, Eggo RM, Forbes H, Tazare J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Meadows J, O’Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, Tomlinson L, MacKenna B, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,No Journal Info,2021,2021-07-29,Y,,,,"National guidance was issued during the COVID-19 pandemic to switch patients on warfarin to direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) where appropriate as these require less frequent blood testing. DOACs are not recommended for patients with mechanical heart valves. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of DOAC prescribing in people with a record of a mechanical heart valve between September 2019 and May 2021, and describe the characteristics of this population. We identified 15,457 individuals with a mechanical heart valve recorded in their records, of whom 1058 (6.8%) had been prescribed a DOAC during the study period. 767 individuals with a record of a mechanical heart valve were currently prescribed a DOAC as of May 31st 2021. This is suggestive of inappropriate prescribing of DOACs in individuals with mechanical heart valves. Direct alerts have been issued to clinicians through their EHR software informing the issue. We show that the OpenSAFELY platform can be used for rapid audit and feedback to mitigate the indirect health impacts of COVID-19 on the NHS. We will monitor changes in prescribing for this risk group over the following months.",,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/08/10/2021.07.27.21261136.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.27.21261136; html:https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR375947; pdf:https://europepmc.org/api/fulltextRepo?pprId=PPR375947&type=FILE&fileName=EMS132274-pdf.pdf&mimeType=application/pdf diff --git a/data/covid/papers.csv b/data/covid/papers.csv index 67f129dc..d2404e17 100644 --- a/data/covid/papers.csv +++ b/data/covid/papers.csv @@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 36825398,https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000948,Effectiveness and safety of coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines.,"Shi T, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,Current opinion in pulmonary medicine,2023,2023-02-24,Y,,,,"

Purpose of review

To review and summarise recent evidence on the effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and COVID-19 hospitalisation and death in adults as well as in specific population groups, namely pregnant women, and children and adolescents. We also sought to summarise evidence on vaccine safety in relation to cardiovascular and neurological complications. In order to do so, we drew primarily on evidence from two our own data platforms and supplement these with insights from related large population-based studies and systematic reviews.

Recent findings

All studies showed high vaccine effectiveness against confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and in particular against COVID-19 hospitalisation and death. However, vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 infection waned over time. These studies also found that booster vaccines would be needed to maintain high vaccine effectiveness against severe COVID-19 outcomes. Rare cardiovascular and neurological complications have been reported in association with COVID-19 vaccines.

Summary

The findings from this paper support current recommendations that vaccination remains the safest way for adults, pregnant women, children and adolescents to be protected against COVID-19. There is a need to continue to monitor the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines as these continue to be deployed in the evolving pandemic.",,html:https://journals.lww.com/co-pulmonarymedicine/Fulltext/9900/Effectiveness_and_safety_of_coronavirus_disease.53.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/MCP.0000000000000948; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10090353; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10090353?pdf=render 37126810,https://doi.org/10.7326/m21-4269,Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data.,"Hulme WJ, Williamson E, Horne EMF, Green A, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, MacKenna B, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Tomlinson L, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Palmer T, Goldacre B, Hernán MA, Sterne JAC.",,Annals of internal medicine,2023,2023-05-02,Y,,,,"The COVID-19 vaccines were developed and rigorously evaluated in randomized trials during 2020. However, important questions, such as the magnitude and duration of protection, their effectiveness against new virus variants, and the effectiveness of booster vaccination, could not be answered by randomized trials and have therefore been addressed in observational studies. Analyses of observational data can be biased because of confounding and because of inadequate design that does not consider the evolution of the pandemic over time and the rapid uptake of vaccination. Emulating a hypothetical ""target trial"" using observational data assembled during vaccine rollouts can help manage such potential sources of bias. This article describes 2 approaches to target trial emulation. In the sequential approach, on each day, eligible persons who have not yet been vaccinated are matched to a vaccinated person. The single-trial approach sets a single baseline at the start of the rollout and considers vaccination as a time-varying variable. The nature of the confounding depends on the analysis strategy: Estimating ""per-protocol"" effects (accounting for vaccination of initially unvaccinated persons after baseline) may require adjustment for both baseline and ""time-varying"" confounders. These issues are illustrated by using observational data from 2 780 931 persons in the United Kingdom aged 70 years or older to estimate the effect of a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Addressing the issues discussed in this article should help authors of observational studies provide robust evidence to guide clinical and policy decisions.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10152408; doi:https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-4269; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408?pdf=render 34994801,https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab400,COVID-19 vaccination uptake amongst ethnic minority communities in England: a linked study exploring the drivers of differential vaccination rates.,"Gaughan CH, Razieh C, Khunti K, Banerjee A, Chudasama YV, Davies MJ, Dolby T, Gillies CL, Lawson C, Mirkes EM, Morgan J, Tingay K, Zaccardi F, Yates T, Nafilyan V.",,"Journal of public health (Oxford, England)",2023,2023-03-01,Y,Vaccination; Cultural; Ethnicity; Social; Sociodemographic Factors; Demographic; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Despite generally high coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination rates in the UK, vaccination hesitancy and lower take-up rates have been reported in certain ethnic minority communities.

Methods

We used vaccination data from the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) linked to the 2011 Census and individual health records for subjects aged ≥40 years (n = 24 094 186). We estimated age-standardized vaccination rates, stratified by ethnic group and key sociodemographic characteristics, such as religious affiliation, deprivation, educational attainment, geography, living conditions, country of birth, language skills and health status. To understand the association of ethnicity with lower vaccination rates, we conducted a logistic regression model adjusting for differences in geographic, sociodemographic and health characteristics. ResultsAll ethnic groups had lower age-standardized rates of vaccination compared with the white British population, whose vaccination rate of at least one dose was 94% (95% CI: 94%-94%). Black communities had the lowest rates, with 75% (74-75%) of black African and 66% (66-67%) of black Caribbean individuals having received at least one dose. The drivers of these lower rates were partly explained by accounting for sociodemographic differences. However, modelled estimates showed significant differences remained for all minority ethnic groups, compared with white British individuals.

Conclusions

Lower COVID-19 vaccination rates are consistently observed amongst all ethnic minorities.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-pdf/45/1/e65/49527132/fdab400.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab400; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8755382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8755382?pdf=render +37729117,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000309,Training and testing of a gradient boosted machine learning model to predict adverse outcome in patients presenting to emergency departments with suspected covid-19 infection in a middle-income setting.,"Fuller GW, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Omer Y, Wallis L, Marincowitz C.",,PLOS digital health,2023,2023-09-20,Y,,,,"COVID-19 infection rates remain high in South Africa. Clinical prediction models may be helpful for rapid triage, and supporting clinical decision making, for patients with suspected COVID-19 infection. The Western Cape, South Africa, has integrated electronic health care data facilitating large-scale linked routine datasets. The aim of this study was to develop a machine learning model to predict adverse outcome in patients presenting with suspected COVID-19 suitable for use in a middle-income setting. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using linked, routine data, from patients presenting with suspected COVID-19 infection to public-sector emergency departments (EDs) in the Western Cape, South Africa between 27th August 2020 and 31st October 2021. The primary outcome was death or critical care admission at 30 days. An XGBoost machine learning model was trained and internally tested using split-sample validation. External validation was performed in 3 test cohorts: Western Cape patients presenting during the Omicron COVID-19 wave, a UK cohort during the ancestral COVID-19 wave, and a Sudanese cohort during ancestral and Eta waves. A total of 282,051 cases were included in a complete case training dataset. The prevalence of 30-day adverse outcome was 4.0%. The most important features for predicting adverse outcome were the requirement for supplemental oxygen, peripheral oxygen saturations, level of consciousness and age. Internal validation using split-sample test data revealed excellent discrimination (C-statistic 0.91, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.91) and calibration (CITL of 1.05). The model achieved C-statistics of 0.84 (95% CI 0.84 to 0.85), 0.72 (95% CI 0.71 to 0.73), and 0.62, (95% CI 0.59 to 0.65) in the Omicron, UK, and Sudanese test cohorts. Results were materially unchanged in sensitivity analyses examining missing data. An XGBoost machine learning model achieved good discrimination and calibration in prediction of adverse outcome in patients presenting with suspected COVID19 to Western Cape EDs. Performance was reduced in temporal and geographical external validation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000309; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511129?pdf=render 37311808,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y,"Natural history of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study.","Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Mills NL, Winter AJ, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-06-13,Y,,,,"Previous studies on the natural history of long-COVID have been few and selective. Without comparison groups, disease progression cannot be differentiated from symptoms originating from other causes. The Long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS) is a Scotland-wide, general population cohort of adults who had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection matched to PCR-negative adults. Serial, self-completed, online questionnaires collected information on pre-existing health conditions and current health six, 12 and 18 months after index test. Of those with previous symptomatic infection, 35% reported persistent incomplete/no recovery, 12% improvement and 12% deterioration. At six and 12 months, one or more symptom was reported by 71.5% and 70.7% respectively of those previously infected, compared with 53.5% and 56.5% of those never infected. Altered taste, smell and confusion improved over time compared to the never infected group and adjusted for confounders. Conversely, late onset dry and productive cough, and hearing problems were more likely following SARS-CoV-2 infection.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39193-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377?pdf=render 35724769,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2022.05.015,A retrospective cohort study predicting and validating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in individuals with chronic kidney disease.,"Dashtban A, Mizani MA, Denaxas S, Nitsch D, Quint J, Corbett R, Mamza JB, Morris T, Mamas M, Lawlor DA, Khunti K, CVD-COVID-UK Consortium, Sudlow C, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,Kidney international,2022,2022-06-17,Y,Mortality; Chronic Kidney Disease; Sars-cov-2,,,"Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased risk of baseline mortality and severe COVID-19, but analyses across CKD stages, and comorbidities are lacking. In prevalent and incident CKD, we investigated comorbidities, baseline risk, COVID-19 incidence, and predicted versus observed one-year excess death. In a national dataset (NHS Digital Trusted Research Environment [NHSD TRE]) for England encompassing 56 million individuals), we conducted a retrospective cohort study (March 2020 to March 2021) for prevalence of comorbidities by incident and prevalent CKD, SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality. Baseline mortality risk, incidence and outcome of infection by comorbidities, controlling for age, sex and vaccination were assessed. Observed versus predicted one-year mortality at varying population infection rates and pandemic-related relative risks using our published model in pre-pandemic CKD cohorts (NHSD TRE and Clinical Practice Research Datalink [CPRD]) were compared. Among individuals with CKD (prevalent:1,934,585, incident:144,969), comorbidities were common (73.5% and 71.2% with one or more condition[s] in respective data sets, and 13.2% and 11.2% with three or more conditions, in prevalent and incident CKD), and associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly dialysis/transplantation (odds ratio 2.08, 95% confidence interval 2.04-2.13) and heart failure (1.73, 1.71-1.76), but not cancer (1.01, 1.01-1.04). One-year all-cause mortality varied by age, sex, multi-morbidity and CKD stage. Compared with 34,265 observed excess deaths, in the NHSD-TRE and CPRD databases respectively, we predicted 28,746 and 24,546 deaths (infection rates 10% and relative risks 3.0), and 23,754 and 20,283 deaths (observed infection rates 6.7% and relative risks 3.7). Thus, in this largest, national-level study, individuals with CKD have a high burden of comorbidities and multi-morbidity, and high risk of pre-pandemic and pandemic mortality. Hence, treatment of comorbidities, non-pharmaceutical measures, and vaccination are priorities for people with CKD and management of long-term conditions is important during and beyond the pandemic.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2022.05.015; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2022.05.015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9212366; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9212366?pdf=render 35796183,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119,"SARS-CoV-2 infection risk among 77,587 healthcare workers: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, United Kingdom, April to November 2020.","Hollinghurst J, North L, Szakmany T, Pugh R, Davies GA, Sivakumaran S, Jarvis R, Rolles M, Pickrell WO, Akbari A, Davies G, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Torabi F, Fry R, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-07-07,Y,Public Health; Healthcare Workers; Infection Risk; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objectives

To better understand the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among healthcare workers, leading to recommendations for the prioritisation of personal protective equipment, testing, training and vaccination.

Design

Observational, longitudinal, national cohort study.

Setting

Our cohort were secondary care (hospital-based) healthcare workers employed by NHS Wales (United Kingdom) organisations from 1 April 2020 to 30 November 2020.

Participants

We included 577,756 monthly observations among 77,587 healthcare workers. Using linked anonymised datasets, participants were grouped into 20 staff roles. Additionally, each role was deemed either patient-facing, non-patient-facing or undetermined. This was linked to individual demographic details and dates of positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests.

Main outcome measures

We used univariable and multivariable logistic regression models to determine odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test.

Results

Patient-facing healthcare workers were at the highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection with an adjusted OR (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 2.28 (95% CI 2.10-2.47). We found that after adjustment, foundation year doctors (OR 1.83 [95% CI 1.47-2.27]), healthcare support workers [OR 1.36 [95% CI 1.20-1.54]) and hospital nurses (OR 1.27 [95% CI 1.12-1.44]) were at the highest risk of infection among all staff groups. Younger healthcare workers and those living in more deprived areas were at a higher risk of infection. We also observed that infection rates varied over time and by organisation.

Conclusions

These findings have important policy implications for the prioritisation of vaccination, testing, training and personal protective equipment provision for patient-facing roles and the higher risk staff groups.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896?pdf=render @@ -32,9 +33,8 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 37644002,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9,Neonatal and maternal outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination: a population-based matched cohort study.,"Lindsay L, Calvert C, Shi T, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Bhaskaran K, Katikireddi SV, McCabe R, McCowan C, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R, Stock SJ.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-08-29,Y,,,,"Understanding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy on neonatal and maternal outcomes informs clinical decision-making. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study to investigate associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and, separately, COVID-19 vaccination just before or during pregnancy and the risk of adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes among women in Scotland with a singleton pregnancy ending at ≥20 weeks gestation. Neonatal outcomes are stillbirth, neonatal death, extended perinatal mortality, preterm birth (overall, spontaneous, and provider-initiated), small-for-gestational age, and low Apgar score. Maternal outcomes are admission to critical care or death, venous thromboembolism, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and pregnancy-related bleeding. We use conditional logistic regression to derive odds ratios adjusted for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics (aORs). We find that infection is associated with an increased risk of preterm (aOR=1.36, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.16-1.59) and very preterm birth (aOR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.20-3.02), maternal admission to critical care or death (aOR=1.72, 95% CI = 1.39-2.12), and venous thromboembolism (aOR = 2.53, 95% CI = 1.47-4.35). We find no evidence of increased risk for any of our outcomes following vaccination. These data suggest SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes, and COVID-19 vaccination remains a safe way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies against infection.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539?pdf=render 36216011,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(22)00360-5,Pregnancy outcomes after SARS-CoV-2 infection in periods dominated by delta and omicron variants in Scotland: a population-based cohort study.,"Stock SJ, Moore E, Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hillman S, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Taylor B, Auyeung B, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Ritchie LD, Rudan I, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-10-07,Y,,,,"

Background

Evidence suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1·1.529) is associated with lower risks of adverse outcomes than the delta (B.1.617.2) variant among the general population. However, little is known about outcomes after omicron infection in pregnancy. We aimed to assess and compare short-term pregnancy outcomes after SARS-CoV-2 delta and omicron infection in pregnancy.

Methods

We did a national population-based cohort study of women who had SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy between May 17, 2021, and Jan 31, 2022. The primary maternal outcome was admission to critical care within 21 days of infection or death within 28 days of date of infection. Pregnancy outcomes were preterm birth and stillbirth within 28 days of infection. Neonatal outcomes were death within 28 days of birth, and low Apgar score (<7 of 10, for babies born at term) or neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection in births occurring within 28 days of maternal infection. We used periods when variants were dominant in the general Scottish population, based on 50% or more of cases being S-gene positive (delta variant, from May 17 to Dec 14, 2021) or S-gene negative (omicron variant, from Dec 15, 2021, to Jan 31, 2022) as surrogates for variant infections. Analyses used logistic regression, adjusting for maternal age, deprivation quintile, ethnicity, weeks of gestation, and vaccination status. Sensitivity analyses included restricting the analysis to those with first confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and using periods when delta or omicron had 90% or more predominance.

Findings

Between May 17, 2021, and Jan 31, 2022, there were 9923 SARS-CoV-2 infections in 9823 pregnancies, in 9817 women in Scotland. Compared with infections in the delta-dominant period, SARS-CoV-2 infections in pregnancy in the omicron-dominant period were associated with lower maternal critical care admission risk (0·3% [13 of 4968] vs 1·8% [89 of 4955]; adjusted odds ratio 0·25, 95% CI 0·14-0·44) and lower preterm birth within 28 days of infection (1·8% [37 of 2048] vs 4·2% [98 of 2338]; 0·57, 95% CI 0·38-0·87). There were no maternal deaths within 28 days of infection. Estimates of low Apgar scores were imprecise due to low numbers (5 [1·2%] of 423 with omicron vs 11 [2·1%] of 528 with delta, adjusted odds ratio 0·72, 0·23-2·32). There were fewer stillbirths in the omicron-dominant period than in the delta-dominant period (4·3 [2 of 462] per 1000 births vs 20·3 [13 of 639] per 1000) and no neonatal deaths during the omicron-dominant period (0 [0 of 460] per 1000 births vs 6·3 [4 of 626] per 1000 births), thus numbers were too small to support adjusted analyses. Rates of neonatal infection were low in births within 28 days of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection, with 11 cases of neonatal SARS-CoV-2 in the delta-dominant period, and 1 case in the omicron-dominant period. Of the 15 stillbirths, 12 occurred in women who had not received two or more doses of COVID-19 vaccination at the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy. All 12 cases of neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection occurred in women who had not received two or more doses of vaccine at the time of maternal infection. Findings in sensitivity analyses were similar to those in the main analyses.

Interpretation

Pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 were substantially less likely to have a preterm birth or maternal critical care admission during the omicron-dominant period than during the delta-dominant period.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Tommy's charity, Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, Health Data Research UK, National Core Studies-Data and Connectivity, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government Health and Social Care, Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office, National Research Scotland.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(22)00360-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(22)00360-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708088?pdf=render 35110546,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28248-1,"A population-based cohort study of obesity, ethnicity and COVID-19 mortality in 12.6 million adults in England.","Yates T, Summerfield A, Razieh C, Banerjee A, Chudasama Y, Davies MJ, Gillies C, Islam N, Lawson C, Mirkes E, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Nafilyan V.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-02-02,Y,,,,"Obesity and ethnicity are known risk factors for COVID-19 outcomes, but their combination has not been extensively examined. We investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and COVID-19 mortality across different ethnic groups using linked national Census, electronic health records and mortality data for adults in England from the start of pandemic (January 2020) to December 2020. There were 30,067 (0.27%), 1,208 (0.29%), 1,831 (0.29%), 845 (0.18%) COVID-19 deaths in white, Black, South Asian and other ethnic minority groups, respectively. Here we show that BMI was more strongly associated with COVID-19 mortality in ethnic minority groups, resulting in an ethnic risk of COVID-19 mortality that was dependant on BMI. The estimated risk of COVID-19 mortality at a BMI of 40 kg/m2 in white ethnicities was equivalent to the risk observed at a BMI of 30.1 kg/m2, 27.0 kg/m2, and 32.2 kg/m2 in Black, South Asian and other ethnic minority groups, respectively.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28248-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28248-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810846; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810846?pdf=render -35875883,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115,Long COVID and the cardiovascular system-elucidating causes and cellular mechanisms in order to develop targeted diagnostic and therapeutic strategies: a joint Scientific Statement of the ESC Working Groups on Cellular Biology of the Heart and Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases.,"Gyöngyösi M, Alcaide P, Asselbergs FW, Brundel BJJM, Camici GG, Martins PDC, Ferdinandy P, Fontana M, Girao H, Gnecchi M, Gollmann-Tepeköylü C, Kleinbongard P, Krieg T, Madonna R, Paillard M, Pantazis A, Perrino C, Pesce M, Schiattarella GG, Sluijter JPG, Steffens S, Tschöpe C, Van Linthout S, Davidson SM.",,Cardiovascular research,2023,2023-03-01,Y,Cardiac; cardiovascular; Covid-19; Long Covid; Post Covid,,,"Long COVID has become a world-wide, non-communicable epidemic, caused by long-lasting multiorgan symptoms that endure for weeks or months after SARS-CoV-2 infection has already subsided. This scientific document aims to provide insight into the possible causes and therapeutic options available for the cardiovascular manifestations of long COVID. In addition to chronic fatigue, which is a common symptom of long COVID, patients may present with chest pain, ECG abnormalities, postural orthostatic tachycardia, or newly developed supraventricular or ventricular arrhythmias. Imaging of the heart and vessels has provided evidence of chronic, post-infectious perimyocarditis with consequent left or right ventricular failure, arterial wall inflammation, or microthrombosis in certain patient populations. Better understanding of the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms of long COVID will aid in the development of effective treatment strategies for its cardiovascular manifestations. A number of mechanisms have been proposed, including those involving direct effects on the myocardium, microthrombotic damage to vessels or endothelium, or persistent inflammation. Unfortunately, existing circulating biomarkers, coagulation, and inflammatory markers, are not highly predictive for either the presence or outcome of long COVID when measured 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Further studies are needed to understand underlying mechanisms, identify specific biomarkers, and guide future preventive strategies or treatments to address long COVID and its cardiovascular sequelae.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/cvr/cvac115/46855438/cvac115.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470?pdf=render 35356660,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05008,"BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccinations, incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 hospitalisations in Scotland in the Delta era.","Shah SA, Robertson C, Rudan I, Murray JL, McCowan C, Grange Z, Buelo A, Sullivan C, Simpson CR, Ritchie LD, Sheikh A.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-03-26,Y,,,,"

Background

The emergence of the B.1.617.2 Delta variant of concern was associated with increasing numbers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and COVID-19 hospital admissions. We aim to study national population level SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 associated hospitalisations by vaccination status to provide insight into the association of vaccination on temporal trends during the time in which the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant became dominant in Scotland.

Methods

We used the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance (EAVE II) platform, covering the period when Delta was pervasive (May 01 to October 23, 2021). We performed a cohort analysis of every vaccine-eligible individual aged 20 or over from across Scotland. We determined the vaccination coverage, SARS-CoV-2 incidence rate and COVID-19 associated hospitalisations incidence rate. We then stratified those rates by age group, vaccination status (defined as ""unvaccinated"", ""partially vaccinated"" (1 dose), or ""fully vaccinated"" (2 doses)), vaccine type (BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), and coexisting conditions known to be associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes.

Results

During the follow-up of 4 183 022 individuals, there were 407 405 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases with 10 441 (2.6%) associated with a hospital admission. Those vaccinated with two doses (defined as fully vaccinated in the current study) of either vaccine had lower incidence rates of SARS-CoV-2 infections and much lower incidence rates of COVID-19 associated hospitalisations than those unvaccinated in the Delta era in Scotland. Younger age groups were substantially more likely to get infected. In contrast, older age groups were much more likely to be hospitalised. The incidence rates stratified by coexisting conditions were broadly comparable with the overall age group patterns.

Conclusions

This study suggests that national population level vaccination was associated with a reduction in SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 associated hospitalisation in Scotland throughout the Delta era.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05008; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8942298; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8942298?pdf=render -37729117,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000309,Training and testing of a gradient boosted machine learning model to predict adverse outcome in patients presenting to emergency departments with suspected covid-19 infection in a middle-income setting.,"Fuller GW, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Omer Y, Wallis L, Marincowitz C.",,PLOS digital health,2023,2023-09-20,Y,,,,"COVID-19 infection rates remain high in South Africa. Clinical prediction models may be helpful for rapid triage, and supporting clinical decision making, for patients with suspected COVID-19 infection. The Western Cape, South Africa, has integrated electronic health care data facilitating large-scale linked routine datasets. The aim of this study was to develop a machine learning model to predict adverse outcome in patients presenting with suspected COVID-19 suitable for use in a middle-income setting. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using linked, routine data, from patients presenting with suspected COVID-19 infection to public-sector emergency departments (EDs) in the Western Cape, South Africa between 27th August 2020 and 31st October 2021. The primary outcome was death or critical care admission at 30 days. An XGBoost machine learning model was trained and internally tested using split-sample validation. External validation was performed in 3 test cohorts: Western Cape patients presenting during the Omicron COVID-19 wave, a UK cohort during the ancestral COVID-19 wave, and a Sudanese cohort during ancestral and Eta waves. A total of 282,051 cases were included in a complete case training dataset. The prevalence of 30-day adverse outcome was 4.0%. The most important features for predicting adverse outcome were the requirement for supplemental oxygen, peripheral oxygen saturations, level of consciousness and age. Internal validation using split-sample test data revealed excellent discrimination (C-statistic 0.91, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.91) and calibration (CITL of 1.05). The model achieved C-statistics of 0.84 (95% CI 0.84 to 0.85), 0.72 (95% CI 0.71 to 0.73), and 0.62, (95% CI 0.59 to 0.65) in the Omicron, UK, and Sudanese test cohorts. Results were materially unchanged in sensitivity analyses examining missing data. An XGBoost machine learning model achieved good discrimination and calibration in prediction of adverse outcome in patients presenting with suspected COVID19 to Western Cape EDs. Performance was reduced in temporal and geographical external validation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000309; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511129?pdf=render +35875883,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115,Long COVID and the cardiovascular system-elucidating causes and cellular mechanisms in order to develop targeted diagnostic and therapeutic strategies: a joint Scientific Statement of the ESC Working Groups on Cellular Biology of the Heart and Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases.,"Gyöngyösi M, Alcaide P, Asselbergs FW, Brundel BJJM, Camici GG, Martins PDC, Ferdinandy P, Fontana M, Girao H, Gnecchi M, Gollmann-Tepeköylü C, Kleinbongard P, Krieg T, Madonna R, Paillard M, Pantazis A, Perrino C, Pesce M, Schiattarella GG, Sluijter JPG, Steffens S, Tschöpe C, Van Linthout S, Davidson SM.",,Cardiovascular research,2023,2023-03-01,Y,Cardiac; cardiovascular; Covid-19; Long Covid; Post Covid,,,"Long COVID has become a world-wide, non-communicable epidemic, caused by long-lasting multiorgan symptoms that endure for weeks or months after SARS-CoV-2 infection has already subsided. This scientific document aims to provide insight into the possible causes and therapeutic options available for the cardiovascular manifestations of long COVID. In addition to chronic fatigue, which is a common symptom of long COVID, patients may present with chest pain, ECG abnormalities, postural orthostatic tachycardia, or newly developed supraventricular or ventricular arrhythmias. Imaging of the heart and vessels has provided evidence of chronic, post-infectious perimyocarditis with consequent left or right ventricular failure, arterial wall inflammation, or microthrombosis in certain patient populations. Better understanding of the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms of long COVID will aid in the development of effective treatment strategies for its cardiovascular manifestations. A number of mechanisms have been proposed, including those involving direct effects on the myocardium, microthrombotic damage to vessels or endothelium, or persistent inflammation. Unfortunately, existing circulating biomarkers, coagulation, and inflammatory markers, are not highly predictive for either the presence or outcome of long COVID when measured 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Further studies are needed to understand underlying mechanisms, identify specific biomarkers, and guide future preventive strategies or treatments to address long COVID and its cardiovascular sequelae.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/cvr/cvac115/46855438/cvac115.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470?pdf=render 37067859,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000245,Sex differences in cardiovascular complications and mortality in hospital patients with covid-19: registry based observational study.,"Hockham C, Linschoten M, Asselbergs FW, Ghossein C, Woodward M, Peters SAE, CAPACITY-COVID Collaborative Consortium .",,BMJ medicine,2023,2023-02-14,Y,epidemiology; Heart Failure; Cardiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To assess whether the risk of cardiovascular complications of covid-19 differ between the sexes and to determine whether any sex differences in risk are reduced in individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular disease.

Design

Registry based observational study.

Setting

74 hospitals across 13 countries (eight European) participating in CAPACITY-COVID (Cardiac complicAtions in Patients With SARS Corona vIrus 2 regisTrY), from March 2020 to May 2021.

Participants

All adults (aged ≥18 years), predominantly European, admitted to hospital with highly suspected covid-19 disease or covid-19 disease confirmed by positive laboratory test results (n=11 167 patients).

Main outcome measures

Any cardiovascular complication during admission to hospital. Secondary outcomes were in-hospital mortality and individual cardiovascular complications with ≥20 events for each sex. Logistic regression was used to examine sex differences in the risk of cardiovascular outcomes, overall and grouped by pre-existing cardiovascular disease.

Results

Of 11 167 adults (median age 68 years, 40% female participants) included, 3423 (36% of whom were female participants) had pre-existing cardiovascular disease. In both sexes, the most common cardiovascular complications were supraventricular tachycardias (4% of female participants, 6% of male participants), pulmonary embolism (3% and 5%), and heart failure (decompensated or de novo) (2% in both sexes). After adjusting for age, ethnic group, pre-existing cardiovascular disease, and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, female individuals were less likely than male individuals to have a cardiovascular complication (odds ratio 0.72, 95% confidence interval 0.64 to 0.80) or die (0.65, 0.59 to 0.72). Differences between the sexes were not modified by pre-existing cardiovascular disease; for the primary outcome, the female-to-male ratio of the odds ratio in those without, compared with those with, pre-existing cardiovascular disease was 0.84 (0.67 to 1.07).

Conclusions

In patients admitted to hospital for covid-19, female participants were less likely than male participants to have a cardiovascular complication. The differences between the sexes could not be attributed to the lower prevalence of pre-existing cardiovascular disease in female individuals. The reasons for this advantage in female individuals requires further research.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000245.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083523?pdf=render 35239462,https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2031774,COVID-19 vaccine uptake and effectiveness in adults aged 50 years and older in Wales UK: a 1.2m population data-linkage cohort approach.,"Perry M, Gravenor MB, Cottrell S, Bedston S, Roberts R, Williams C, Salmon J, Lyons J, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Torabi F, Griffiths LJ.",,Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics,2022,2022-03-03,Y,Immunization; Adult; Vaccination; Effectiveness; Wales; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Vaccines,,,"Vaccination programs against COVID-19 vary globally with estimates of vaccine effectiveness (VE) affected by vaccine type, schedule, strain, outcome, and recipient characteristics. This study assessed VE of BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 vaccines against PCR positive SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospital admission, and death among adults aged 50 years and older in Wales, UK during the period 7 December 2020 to 18 July 2021, when Alpha, followed by Delta, were the predominant variants. We used individual-level linked routinely collected data within the Secure Anonymized Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Data were available for 1,262,689 adults aged 50 years and over; coverage of one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine in this population was 92.6%, with coverage of two doses 90.4%. VE against PCR positive infection at 28-days or more post first dose of any COVID-19 vaccine was 16.0% (95%CI 9.6-22.0), and 42.0% (95%CI 36.5-47.1) seven or more days after a second dose. VE against hospital admission was higher at 72.9% (95%CI 63.6-79.8) 28 days or more post vaccination with one dose of any vaccine type, and 84.9% (95%CI 78.2-89.5) at 7 or more days post two doses. VE for one dose against death was estimated to be 80.9% (95%CI 72.1-86.9). VE against PCR positive infection and hospital admission was higher for BNT162b2 compared to ChAdOx1. In conclusion, vaccine uptake has been high among adults in Wales and VE estimates are encouraging, with two doses providing considerable protection against severe outcomes. Continued roll-out of the vaccination programme within Wales, and globally, is crucial in our fight against COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21645515.2022.2031774?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2031774; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8993055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8993055?pdf=render 37118525,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00328-3,Strong peak immunogenicity but rapid antibody waning following third vaccine dose in older residents of care homes.,"Tut G, Lancaster T, Krutikov M, Sylla P, Bone D, Spalkova E, Bentley C, Amin U, Jadir A, Hulme S, Kaur N, Tut E, Bruton R, Wu MY, Harvey R, Carr EJ, Crick COVID Immunity Pipeline, Beale R, Stirrup O, Shrotri M, Azmi B, Fuller C, Baynton V, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L, Moss P.",,Nature aging,2023,2023-01-20,Y,,,,"Third-dose coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines are being deployed widely but their efficacy has not been assessed adequately in vulnerable older people who exhibit suboptimal responses after primary vaccination series. This observational study, which was carried out by the VIVALDI study based in England, looked at spike-specific immune responses in 341 staff and residents in long-term care facilities who received an mRNA vaccine following dual primary series vaccination with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1. Third-dose vaccination strongly increased antibody responses with preferential relative enhancement in older people and was required to elicit neutralization of Omicron. Cellular immune responses were also enhanced with strong cross-reactive recognition of Omicron. However, antibody titers fell 21-78% within 100 d after vaccine and 27% of participants developed a breakthrough Omicron infection. These findings reveal strong immunogenicity of a third vaccine in one of the most vulnerable population groups and endorse an approach for widespread delivery across this population. Ongoing assessment will be required to determine the stability of immune protection.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00328-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00328-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154221?pdf=render @@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 37697235,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-023-08555-8,"COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy: the impact of multimorbidity and smoking status on vaccine hesitancy, a cohort study of 25,111 women in Wales, UK.","Mhereeg M, Jones H, Kennedy J, Seaborne M, Parker M, Kennedy N, Akbari A, Zuccolo L, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Davies A, Nirantharakumar K, Brophy S.",,BMC infectious diseases,2023,2023-09-11,Y,Pregnancy; Smoking Status; Vaccine Uptake; Multimorbidity; Vaccine Hesitancy; Sail Databank; Covid-19 Vaccination,,,"

Background

Multimorbidity, smoking status, and pregnancy are identified as three risk factors associated with more severe outcomes following a SARS-CoV-2 infection, thus vaccination uptake is crucial for pregnant women living with multimorbidity and a history of smoking. This study aimed to examine the impact of multimorbidity, smoking status, and demographics (age, ethnic group, area of deprivation) on vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women in Wales using electronic health records (EHR) linkage.

Methods

This cohort study utilised routinely collected, individual-level, anonymised population-scale linked data within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Pregnant women were identified from 13th April 2021 to 31st December 2021. Survival analysis was employed to examine and compare the length of time to vaccination uptake in pregnancy by considering multimorbidity, smoking status, as well as depression, diabetes, asthma, and cardiovascular conditions independently. The study also assessed the variation in uptake by multimorbidity, smoking status, and demographics, both jointly and separately for the independent conditions, using hazard ratios (HR) derived from the Cox regression model.

Results

Within the population cohort, 8,203 (32.7%) received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, with 8,572 (34.1%) remaining unvaccinated throughout the follow-up period, and 8,336 (33.2%) receiving the vaccine postpartum. Women aged 30 years or older were more likely to have the vaccine in pregnancy. Those who had depression were slightly but significantly more likely to have the vaccine compared to those without depression (HR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.14, p = 0.002). Women living with multimorbidity were 1.12 times more likely to have the vaccine compared to those living without multimorbidity (HR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.19, p = 0.001). Vaccine uptakes were significantly lower among both current smokers and former smokers compared to never smokers (HR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.94, p < 0.001 and HR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.98, p = 0.015 respectively). Uptake was also lower among those living in the most deprived areas compared to those living in the most affluent areas (HR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.96, p = 0.002).

Conclusion

Younger women, living without multimorbidity, current and former smokers, and those living in the more deprived areas are less likely to have the vaccine, thus, a targeted approach to vaccinations may be required for these groups. Pregnant individuals living with multimorbidity exhibit a slight but statistically significant reduction in vaccine hesitancy towards COVID-19 during pregnancy.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-023-08555-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-023-08555-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10496238; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10496238?pdf=render 35387486,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.057888,Genetic Landscape of the ACE2 Coronavirus Receptor.,"Yang Z, Macdonald-Dunlop E, Chen J, Zhai R, Li T, Richmond A, Klarić L, Pirastu N, Ning Z, Zheng C, Wang Y, Huang T, He Y, Guo H, Ying K, Gustafsson S, Prins B, Ramisch A, Dermitzakis ET, Png G, Eriksson N, Haessler J, Hu X, Zanetti D, Boutin T, Hwang SJ, Wheeler E, Pietzner M, Raffield LM, Kalnapenkis A, Peters JE, Viñuela A, Gilly A, Elmståhl S, Dedoussis G, Petrie JR, Polašek O, Folkersen L, Chen Y, Yao C, Võsa U, Pairo-Castineira E, Clohisey S, Bretherick AD, Rawlik K, GenOMICC Consortium†, IMI-DIRECT Consortium†, Esko T, Enroth S, Johansson Å, Gyllensten U, Langenberg C, Levy D, Hayward C, Assimes TL, Kooperberg C, Manichaikul AW, Siegbahn A, Wallentin L, Lind L, Zeggini E, Schwenk JM, Butterworth AS, Michaëlsson K, Pawitan Y, Joshi PK, Baillie JK, Mälarstig A, Reiner AP, Wilson JF, Shen X.",,Circulation,2022,2022-04-07,Y,Cardiovascular diseases; Angiotensin-converting Enzyme 2; Genome-wide Association Study; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of COVID-19, enters human cells using the ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) protein as a receptor. ACE2 is thus key to the infection and treatment of the coronavirus. ACE2 is highly expressed in the heart and respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, playing important regulatory roles in the cardiovascular and other biological systems. However, the genetic basis of the ACE2 protein levels is not well understood.

Methods

We have conducted the largest genome-wide association meta-analysis of plasma ACE2 levels in >28 000 individuals of the SCALLOP Consortium (Systematic and Combined Analysis of Olink Proteins). We summarize the cross-sectional epidemiological correlates of circulating ACE2. Using the summary statistics-based high-definition likelihood method, we estimate relevant genetic correlations with cardiometabolic phenotypes, COVID-19, and other human complex traits and diseases. We perform causal inference of soluble ACE2 on vascular disease outcomes and COVID-19 severity using mendelian randomization. We also perform in silico functional analysis by integrating with other types of omics data.

Results

We identified 10 loci, including 8 novel, capturing 30% of the heritability of the protein. We detected that plasma ACE2 was genetically correlated with vascular diseases, severe COVID-19, and a wide range of human complex diseases and medications. An X-chromosome cis-protein quantitative trait loci-based mendelian randomization analysis suggested a causal effect of elevated ACE2 levels on COVID-19 severity (odds ratio, 1.63 [95% CI, 1.10-2.42]; P=0.01), hospitalization (odds ratio, 1.52 [95% CI, 1.05-2.21]; P=0.03), and infection (odds ratio, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.08-2.37]; P=0.02). Tissue- and cell type-specific transcriptomic and epigenomic analysis revealed that the ACE2 regulatory variants were enriched for DNA methylation sites in blood immune cells.

Conclusions

Human plasma ACE2 shares a genetic basis with cardiovascular disease, COVID-19, and other related diseases. The genetic architecture of the ACE2 protein is mapped, providing a useful resource for further biological and clinical studies on this coronavirus receptor.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057888; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057888; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9047645; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9047645?pdf=render 35140406,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01701-w,Vaccine effectiveness of heterologous CoronaVac plus BNT162b2 in Brazil.,"Cerqueira-Silva T, Katikireddi SV, de Araujo Oliveira V, Flores-Ortiz R, Júnior JB, Paixão ES, Robertson C, Penna GO, Werneck GL, Barreto ML, Pearce N, Sheikh A, Barral-Netto M, Boaventura VS.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-02-09,Y,,,,"There is considerable interest in the waning of effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and vaccine effectiveness (VE) of booster doses. Using linked national Brazilian databases, we undertook a test-negative design study involving almost 14 million people (~16 million tests) to estimate VE of CoronaVac over time and VE of BNT162b2 booster vaccination against RT-PCR-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes (hospitalization or death). Compared with unvaccinated individuals, CoronaVac VE at 14-30 d after the second dose was 55.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 54.3-55.7) against confirmed infection and 82.1% (95% CI: 81.4-82.8) against severe outcomes. VE decreased to 34.7% (95% CI: 33.1-36.2) against infection and 72.5% (95% CI: 70.9-74.0) against severe outcomes over 180 d after the second dose. A BNT162b2 booster, 6 months after the second dose of CoronaVac, improved VE against infection to 92.7% (95% CI: 91.0-94.0) and VE against severe outcomes to 97.3% (95% CI: 96.1-98.1) 14-30 d after the booster. Compared with younger age groups, individuals 80 years of age or older had lower protection after the second dose but similar protection after the booster. Our findings support a BNT162b2 booster vaccine dose after two doses of CoronaVac, particularly for the elderly.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01701-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01701-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9018414; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9018414?pdf=render -36719907,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086,Outcome of COVID-19 in hospitalised immunocompromised patients: An analysis of the WHO ISARIC CCP-UK prospective cohort study.,"Turtle L, Thorpe M, Drake TM, Swets M, Palmieri C, Russell CD, Ho A, Aston S, Wootton DG, Richter A, de Silva TI, Hardwick HE, Leeming G, Law A, Openshaw PJM, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-31,Y,,,,"

Background

Immunocompromised patients may be at higher risk of mortality if hospitalised with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with immunocompetent patients. However, previous studies have been contradictory. We aimed to determine whether immunocompromised patients were at greater risk of in-hospital death and how this risk changed over the pandemic.

Methods and findings

We included patients > = 19 years with symptomatic community-acquired COVID-19 recruited to the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK prospective cohort study. We defined immunocompromise as immunosuppressant medication preadmission, cancer treatment, organ transplant, HIV, or congenital immunodeficiency. We used logistic regression to compare the risk of death in both groups, adjusting for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, vaccination, and comorbidities. We used Bayesian logistic regression to explore mortality over time. Between 17 January 2020 and 28 February 2022, we recruited 156,552 eligible patients, of whom 21,954 (14%) were immunocompromised. In total, 29% (n = 6,499) of immunocompromised and 21% (n = 28,608) of immunocompetent patients died in hospital. The odds of in-hospital mortality were elevated for immunocompromised patients (adjusted OR 1.44, 95% CI [1.39, 1.50], p < 0.001). Not all immunocompromising conditions had the same risk, for example, patients on active cancer treatment were less likely to have their care escalated to intensive care (adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI [0.7, 0.85], p < 0.001) or ventilation (adjusted OR 0.65, 95% CI [0.56, 0.76], p < 0.001). However, cancer patients were more likely to die (adjusted OR 2.0, 95% CI [1.87, 2.15], p < 0.001). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidities, and vaccination status. As the pandemic progressed, in-hospital mortality reduced more slowly for immunocompromised patients than for immunocompetent patients. This was particularly evident with increasing age: the probability of the reduction in hospital mortality being less for immunocompromised patients aged 50 to 69 years was 88% for men and 83% for women, and for those >80 years was 99% for men and 98% for women. The study is limited by a lack of detailed drug data prior to admission, including steroid doses, meaning that we may have incorrectly categorised some immunocompromised patients as immunocompetent.

Conclusions

Immunocompromised patients remain at elevated risk of death from COVID-19. Targeted measures such as additional vaccine doses, monoclonal antibodies, and nonpharmaceutical preventive interventions should be continually encouraged for this patient group.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 66726260.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075?pdf=render 36834176,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043477,"Non-Pharmacological Therapies for Post-Viral Syndromes, Including Long COVID: A Systematic Review.","Chandan JS, Brown KR, Simms-Williams N, Bashir NZ, Camaradou J, Heining D, Turner GM, Rivera SC, Hotham R, Minhas S, Nirantharakumar K, Sivan M, Khunti K, Raindi D, Marwaha S, Hughes SE, McMullan C, Marshall T, Calvert MJ, Haroon S, Aiyegbusi OL, TLC Study.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2023,2023-02-16,Y,Rehabilitation; Systematic review; Pvs; Non-pharmacological Intervention; Covid-19; Long Covid; Post-covid-19 Condition; Post-Viral Syndromes; Post-acute Sequelae Of Sars-cov-2 Infection (Pasc),,,"

Background

Post-viral syndromes (PVS), including Long COVID, are symptoms sustained from weeks to years following an acute viral infection. Non-pharmacological treatments for these symptoms are poorly understood. This review summarises the evidence for the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for PVS.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for PVS, as compared to either standard care, alternative non-pharmacological therapy, or placebo. The outcomes of interest were changes in symptoms, exercise capacity, quality of life (including mental health and wellbeing), and work capability. We searched five databases (Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, MedRxiv) for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 1 January 2001 to 29 October 2021. The relevant outcome data were extracted, the study quality was appraised using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and the findings were synthesised narratively.

Findings

Overall, five studies of five different interventions (Pilates, music therapy, telerehabilitation, resistance exercise, neuromodulation) met the inclusion criteria. Aside from music-based intervention, all other selected interventions demonstrated some support in the management of PVS in some patients.

Interpretation

In this study, we observed a lack of robust evidence evaluating the non-pharmacological treatments for PVS, including Long COVID. Considering the prevalence of prolonged symptoms following acute viral infections, there is an urgent need for clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for patients with PVS.

Registration

The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO [CRD42021282074] in October 2021 and published in BMJ Open in 2022.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3477/pdf?version=1677135187; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043477; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9967466; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9967466?pdf=render +36719907,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086,Outcome of COVID-19 in hospitalised immunocompromised patients: An analysis of the WHO ISARIC CCP-UK prospective cohort study.,"Turtle L, Thorpe M, Drake TM, Swets M, Palmieri C, Russell CD, Ho A, Aston S, Wootton DG, Richter A, de Silva TI, Hardwick HE, Leeming G, Law A, Openshaw PJM, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-31,Y,,,,"

Background

Immunocompromised patients may be at higher risk of mortality if hospitalised with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with immunocompetent patients. However, previous studies have been contradictory. We aimed to determine whether immunocompromised patients were at greater risk of in-hospital death and how this risk changed over the pandemic.

Methods and findings

We included patients > = 19 years with symptomatic community-acquired COVID-19 recruited to the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK prospective cohort study. We defined immunocompromise as immunosuppressant medication preadmission, cancer treatment, organ transplant, HIV, or congenital immunodeficiency. We used logistic regression to compare the risk of death in both groups, adjusting for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, vaccination, and comorbidities. We used Bayesian logistic regression to explore mortality over time. Between 17 January 2020 and 28 February 2022, we recruited 156,552 eligible patients, of whom 21,954 (14%) were immunocompromised. In total, 29% (n = 6,499) of immunocompromised and 21% (n = 28,608) of immunocompetent patients died in hospital. The odds of in-hospital mortality were elevated for immunocompromised patients (adjusted OR 1.44, 95% CI [1.39, 1.50], p < 0.001). Not all immunocompromising conditions had the same risk, for example, patients on active cancer treatment were less likely to have their care escalated to intensive care (adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI [0.7, 0.85], p < 0.001) or ventilation (adjusted OR 0.65, 95% CI [0.56, 0.76], p < 0.001). However, cancer patients were more likely to die (adjusted OR 2.0, 95% CI [1.87, 2.15], p < 0.001). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidities, and vaccination status. As the pandemic progressed, in-hospital mortality reduced more slowly for immunocompromised patients than for immunocompetent patients. This was particularly evident with increasing age: the probability of the reduction in hospital mortality being less for immunocompromised patients aged 50 to 69 years was 88% for men and 83% for women, and for those >80 years was 99% for men and 98% for women. The study is limited by a lack of detailed drug data prior to admission, including steroid doses, meaning that we may have incorrectly categorised some immunocompromised patients as immunocompetent.

Conclusions

Immunocompromised patients remain at elevated risk of death from COVID-19. Targeted measures such as additional vaccine doses, monoclonal antibodies, and nonpharmaceutical preventive interventions should be continually encouraged for this patient group.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 66726260.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075?pdf=render 34148733,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.05.018,Mortality after surgery with SARS-CoV-2 infection in England: a population-wide epidemiological study.,"Abbott TEF, Fowler AJ, Dobbs TD, Gibson J, Shahid T, Dias P, Akbari A, Whitaker IS, Pearse RM.",,British journal of anaesthesia,2021,2021-06-11,Y,Surgery; Anaesthesia; epidemiology; Public Policy; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted elective and emergency surgery around the world. We aimed to confirm the incidence of perioperative severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and associated mortality after surgery.

Methods

Analysis of routine electronic health record data from NHS hospitals in England. We extracted data from Hospital Episode Statistics in England describing adult patients undergoing surgery between January 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. The exposure was SARS-CoV-2 infection defined by International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 codes. The primary outcome measure was 90 day in-hospital mortality. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index, Index of Multiple Deprivation, presence of cancer, surgical procedure type and admission acuity. Results are presented as n (%) and odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results

We identified 2 666 978 patients undergoing surgery of whom 28 777 (1.1%) had SARS-CoV-2 infection. In total, 26 364 (1.0%) patients died in hospital. SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a much greater risk of death (SARS-CoV-2: 6153/28 777 [21.4%] vs no SARS-CoV-2: 20 211/2 638 201 [0.8%]; OR=5.7 [95% CI, 5.5-5.9]; P<0.001). Amongst patients undergoing elective surgery, 2412/1 857 586 (0.1%) had SARS-CoV-2, of whom 172/2412 (7.1%) died, compared with 1414/1 857 586 (0.1%) patients without SARS-CoV-2 (OR=25.8 [95% CI, 21.7-30.9]; P<0.001). Amongst patients undergoing emergency surgery, 22 918/582 292 (3.9%) patients had SARS-CoV-2, of whom 5752/22 918 (25.1%) died, compared with 18 060/559 374 (3.4%) patients without SARS-CoV-2 (OR=5.5 [95% CI, 5.3-5.7]; P<0.001).

Conclusions

The low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in NHS surgical pathways suggests current infection prevention and control policies are highly effective. However, the high mortality amongst patients with SARS-CoV-2 suggests these precautions cannot be safely relaxed.",,pdf:http://www.bjanaesthesia.org/article/S0007091221003123/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.05.018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192173; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192173?pdf=render 34514500,https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459,The Impact of Cocirculating Pathogens on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/Coronavirus Disease 2019 Surveillance: How Concurrent Epidemics May Introduce Bias and Decrease the Observed SARS-CoV-2 Percentage Positivity.,"Kovacevic A, Eggo RM, Baguelin M, Domenech de Cellès M, Opatowski L.",,The Journal of infectious diseases,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Mathematical Modeling; Multiplex Testing; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Surveillance; Cocirculating Respiratory Viruses,,,"

Background

Circulation of seasonal non-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) respiratory viruses with syndromic overlap during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may alter the quality of COVID-19 surveillance, with possible consequences for real-time analysis and delay in implementation of control measures.

Methods

Using a multipathogen susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) transmission model formalizing cocirculation of SARS-CoV-2 and another respiratory virus, we assessed how an outbreak of secondary virus may affect 2 COVID-19 surveillance indicators: testing demand and positivity. Using simulation, we assessed to what extent the use of multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests on a subsample of symptomatic individuals can help correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity and improve surveillance quality.

Results

We find that a non-SARS-CoV-2 epidemic strongly increases SARS-CoV-2 daily testing demand and artificially reduces the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity for the duration of the outbreak. We estimate that performing 1 multiplex test for every 1000 COVID-19 tests on symptomatic individuals could be sufficient to maintain surveillance of other respiratory viruses in the population and correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity.

Conclusions

This study showed that cocirculating respiratory viruses can distort SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Correction of the positivity rate can be achieved by using multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests, and a low number of samples is sufficient to avoid bias in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-pdf/225/2/199/42224165/jiab459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960?pdf=render 36373099,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100533,Severity of BA.2 variant and vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease in Scotland.,"Kerr S, Robertson C, Hillman S, Grange Z, Sullivan C, Sheikh A.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-11-04,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9635838; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100533; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9635838; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9635838?pdf=render @@ -67,12 +67,12 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 36863848,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325152,Characteristics and predictors of persistent symptoms post-COVID-19 in children and young people: a large community cross-sectional study in England.,"Atchison CJ, Whitaker M, Donnelly CA, Chadeau-Hyam M, Riley S, Darzi A, Ashby D, Barclay W, Cooke GS, Elliott P, Ward H.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2023,2023-03-02,Y,epidemiology; Paediatrics; Adolescent Health; Infectious Disease Medicine; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To estimate the prevalence of, and associated risk factors for, persistent symptoms post-COVID-19 among children aged 5-17 years in England.

Design

Serial cross-sectional study.

Setting

Rounds 10-19 (March 2021 to March 2022) of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 study (monthly cross-sectional surveys of random samples of the population in England).

Study population

Children aged 5-17 years in the community.

Predictors

Age, sex, ethnicity, presence of a pre-existing health condition, index of multiple deprivation, COVID-19 vaccination status and dominant UK circulating SARS-CoV-2 variant at time of symptom onset.

Main outcome measures

Prevalence of persistent symptoms, reported as those lasting ≥3 months post-COVID-19.

Results

Overall, 4.4% (95% CI 3.7 to 5.1) of 3173 5-11 year-olds and 13.3% (95% CI 12.5 to 14.1) of 6886 12-17 year-olds with prior symptomatic infection reported at least one symptom lasting ≥3 months post-COVID-19, of whom 13.5% (95% CI 8.4 to 20.9) and 10.9% (95% CI 9.0 to 13.2), respectively, reported their ability to carry out day-to-day activities was reduced 'a lot' due to their symptoms. The most common symptoms among participants with persistent symptoms were persistent coughing (27.4%) and headaches (25.4%) in children aged 5-11 years and loss or change of sense of smell (52.2%) and taste (40.7%) in participants aged 12-17 years. Higher age and having a pre-existing health condition were associated with higher odds of reporting persistent symptoms.

Conclusions

One in 23 5-11 year-olds and one in eight 12-17 year-olds post-COVID-19 report persistent symptoms lasting ≥3 months, of which one in nine report a large impact on performing day-to-day activities.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2023/03/01/archdischild-2022-325152.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325152; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313975; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313975?pdf=render 37339333,https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104,"COVID-19 among adults living with HIV: correlates of mortality among public sector healthcare users in Western Cape, South Africa.","Kassanjee R, Davies MA, Ngwenya O, Osei-Yeboah R, Jacobs T, Morden E, Timmerman V, Britz S, Mendelson M, Taljaard J, Riou J, Boulle A, Tiffin N, Zinyakatira N.",,Journal of the International AIDS Society,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Mortality; HIV; South Africa; Cd4 Count; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Introduction

While a large proportion of people with HIV (PWH) have experienced SARS-CoV-2 infections, there is uncertainty about the role of HIV disease severity on COVID-19 outcomes, especially in lower-income settings. We studied the association of mortality with characteristics of HIV severity and management, and vaccination, among adult PWH.

Methods

We analysed observational cohort data on all PWH aged ≥15 years experiencing a diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infection (until March 2022), who accessed public sector healthcare in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Logistic regression was used to study the association of mortality with evidence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) collection, time since first HIV evidence, CD4 cell count, viral load (among those with evidence of ART collection) and COVID-19 vaccination, adjusting for demographic characteristics, comorbidities, admission pressure, location and time period.

Results

Mortality occurred in 5.7% (95% CI: 5.3,6.0) of 17,831 first-diagnosed infections. Higher mortality was associated with lower recent CD4, no evidence of ART collection, high or unknown recent viral load and recent first HIV evidence, differentially by age. Vaccination was protective. The burden of comorbidities was high, and tuberculosis (especially more recent episodes of tuberculosis), chronic kidney disease, diabetes and hypertension were associated with higher mortality, more strongly in younger adults.

Conclusions

Mortality was strongly associated with suboptimal HIV control, and the prevalence of these risk factors increased in later COVID-19 waves. It remains a public health priority to ensure PWH are on suppressive ART and vaccinated, and manage any disruptions in care that occurred during the pandemic. The diagnosis and management of comorbidities, including for tuberculosis, should be optimized.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.26104; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639?pdf=render 36369151,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34244-2,"Variant-specific symptoms of COVID-19 in a study of 1,542,510 adults in England.","Whitaker M, Elliott J, Bodinier B, Barclay W, Ward H, Cooke G, Donnelly CA, Chadeau-Hyam M, Elliott P.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-11-11,Y,,,,"Infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus is associated with a wide range of symptoms. The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission -1 (REACT-1) study monitored the spread and clinical manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 among random samples of the population in England from 1 May 2020 to 31 March 2022. We show changing symptom profiles associated with the different variants over that period, with lower reporting of loss of sense of smell or taste for Omicron compared to previous variants, and higher reporting of cold-like and influenza-like symptoms, controlling for vaccination status. Contrary to the perception that recent variants have become successively milder, Omicron BA.2 was associated with reporting more symptoms, with greater disruption to daily activities, than BA.1. With restrictions lifted and routine testing limited in many countries, monitoring the changing symptom profiles associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and effects on daily activities will become increasingly important.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34244-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34244-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651890?pdf=render -36189425,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100513,"BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination uptake, safety, effectiveness and waning in children and young people aged 12-17 years in Scotland.","Rudan I, Millington T, Antal K, Grange Z, Fenton L, Sullivan C, Buelo A, Wood R, Woolford L, Swann OV, Murray JLK, Cullen LA, Moore E, Haider F, Almaghrabi F, McMenamin J, Agrawal U, Shah SA, Kerr S, Simpson CR, Katikireddi SV, Ritchie SLD, Robertson C, Sheikh SA.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-09-28,Y,Scotland; United Kingdom; Children And Young People; Vaccine Effectiveness; Vaccine Uptake; Vaccine Safety; Vaccine Waning; Age Group 12-15 Years; Covid-19; Bnt162b2 Covid-19 Vaccination; Age Group 16-17 Years; National Prospective Cohort Study,,,"

Background

The two-dose BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine has demonstrated high efficacy against COVID-19 disease in clinical trials of children and young people (CYP). Consequently, we investigated the uptake, safety, effectiveness and waning of the protective effect of the BNT162b2 against symptomatic COVID-19 in CYP aged 12-17 years in Scotland.

Methods

The analysis of the vaccine uptake was based on information from the Turas Vaccination Management Tool, inclusive of Mar 1, 2022. Vaccine safety was evaluated using national data on hospital admissions and General Practice (GP) consultations, through a self-controlled case series (SCCS) design, investigating 17 health outcomes of interest. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic COVID-19 disease for Delta and Omicron variants was estimated using a test-negative design (TND) and S-gene status in a prospective cohort study using the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) surveillance platform. The waning of the VE following each dose of BNT162b2 was assessed using a matching process followed by conditional logistic regression.

Findings

Between Aug 6, 2021 and Mar 1, 2022, 75.9% of the 112,609 CYP aged 16-17 years received the first and 49.0% the second COVID-19 vaccine dose. Among 237,681 CYP aged 12-15 years, the uptake was 64.5% and 37.2%, respectively. For 12-17-year-olds, BNT162b2 showed an excellent safety record, with no increase in hospital stays following vaccination for any of the 17 investigated health outcomes. In the 16-17-year-old group, VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Delta period was 64.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 59.2-68.5) at 2-5 weeks after the first dose and 95.6% (77.0-99.1) at 2-5 weeks after the second dose. The respective VEs against symptomatic COVID-19 in the Omicron period were 22.8% (95% CI -6.4-44.0) and 65.5% (95% CI 56.0-73.0). In children aged 12-15 years, VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Delta period was 65.4% (95% CI 61.5-68.8) at 2-5 weeks after the first dose, with no observed cases at 2-5 weeks after the second dose. The corresponding VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Omicron period were 30.2% (95% CI 18.4-40.3) and 81.2% (95% CI 77.7-84.2). The waning of the protective effect against the symptomatic disease began after five weeks post-first and post-second dose.

Interpretation

During the study period, uptake of BNT162b2 in Scotland has covered more than two-thirds of CYP aged 12-17 years with the first dose and about 40% with the second dose. We found no increased likelihood of admission to hospital with a range of health outcomes in the period after vaccination. Vaccination with both doses was associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of COVID-19 symptomatic disease during both the Delta and Omicron periods, but this protection began to wane after five weeks.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council); Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; Chief Scientist's Office of the Scottish Government; Health Data Research UK; National Core Studies - Data and Connectivity.",,pdf:https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/19244/1/Rudan_etal_LRHE_BNT162b2_COVID_19_VOR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100513; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9514975; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9514975?pdf=render 36121907,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.122.060785,Association of COVID-19 With Major Arterial and Venous Thrombotic Diseases: A Population-Wide Cohort Study of 48 Million Adults in England and Wales.,"Knight R, Walker V, Ip S, Cooper JA, Bolton T, Keene S, Denholm R, Akbari A, Abbasizanjani H, Torabi F, Omigie E, Hollings S, North TL, Toms R, Jiang X, Angelantonio ED, Denaxas S, Thygesen JH, Tomlinson C, Bray B, Smith CJ, Barber M, Khunti K, Davey Smith G, Chaturvedi N, Sudlow C, Whiteley WN, Wood AM, Sterne JAC, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium and the Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing COVID-19 National Core Study.",,Circulation,2022,2022-09-19,Y,Thrombosis; Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Pulmonary embolism; Venous thrombosis; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces a prothrombotic state, but long-term effects of COVID-19 on incidence of vascular diseases are unclear.

Methods

We studied vascular diseases after COVID-19 diagnosis in population-wide anonymized linked English and Welsh electronic health records from January 1 to December 7, 2020. We estimated adjusted hazard ratios comparing the incidence of arterial thromboses and venous thromboembolic events (VTEs) after diagnosis of COVID-19 with the incidence in people without a COVID-19 diagnosis. We conducted subgroup analyses by COVID-19 severity, demographic characteristics, and previous history.

Results

Among 48 million adults, 125 985 were hospitalized and 1 319 789 were not hospitalized within 28 days of COVID-19 diagnosis. In England, there were 260 279 first arterial thromboses and 59 421 first VTEs during 41.6 million person-years of follow-up. Adjusted hazard ratios for first arterial thrombosis after COVID-19 diagnosis compared with no COVID-19 diagnosis declined from 21.7 (95% CI, 21.0-22.4) in week 1 after COVID-19 diagnosis to 1.34 (95% CI, 1.21-1.48) during weeks 27 to 49. Adjusted hazard ratios for first VTE after COVID-19 diagnosis declined from 33.2 (95% CI, 31.3-35.2) in week 1 to 1.80 (95% CI, 1.50-2.17) during weeks 27 to 49. Adjusted hazard ratios were higher, for longer after diagnosis, after hospitalized versus nonhospitalized COVID-19, among Black or Asian versus White people, and among people without versus with a previous event. The estimated whole-population increases in risk of arterial thromboses and VTEs 49 weeks after COVID-19 diagnosis were 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively, corresponding to 7200 and 3500 additional events, respectively, after 1.4 million COVID-19 diagnoses.

Conclusions

High relative incidence of vascular events soon after COVID-19 diagnosis declines more rapidly for arterial thromboses than VTEs. However, incidence remains elevated up to 49 weeks after COVID-19 diagnosis. These results support policies to prevent severe COVID-19 by means of COVID-19 vaccines, early review after discharge, risk factor control, and use of secondary preventive agents in high-risk patients.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060785; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060785; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9484653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9484653?pdf=render +36189425,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100513,"BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination uptake, safety, effectiveness and waning in children and young people aged 12-17 years in Scotland.","Rudan I, Millington T, Antal K, Grange Z, Fenton L, Sullivan C, Buelo A, Wood R, Woolford L, Swann OV, Murray JLK, Cullen LA, Moore E, Haider F, Almaghrabi F, McMenamin J, Agrawal U, Shah SA, Kerr S, Simpson CR, Katikireddi SV, Ritchie SLD, Robertson C, Sheikh SA.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-09-28,Y,Scotland; United Kingdom; Children And Young People; Vaccine Effectiveness; Vaccine Uptake; Vaccine Safety; Vaccine Waning; Age Group 12-15 Years; Covid-19; Bnt162b2 Covid-19 Vaccination; Age Group 16-17 Years; National Prospective Cohort Study,,,"

Background

The two-dose BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine has demonstrated high efficacy against COVID-19 disease in clinical trials of children and young people (CYP). Consequently, we investigated the uptake, safety, effectiveness and waning of the protective effect of the BNT162b2 against symptomatic COVID-19 in CYP aged 12-17 years in Scotland.

Methods

The analysis of the vaccine uptake was based on information from the Turas Vaccination Management Tool, inclusive of Mar 1, 2022. Vaccine safety was evaluated using national data on hospital admissions and General Practice (GP) consultations, through a self-controlled case series (SCCS) design, investigating 17 health outcomes of interest. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic COVID-19 disease for Delta and Omicron variants was estimated using a test-negative design (TND) and S-gene status in a prospective cohort study using the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) surveillance platform. The waning of the VE following each dose of BNT162b2 was assessed using a matching process followed by conditional logistic regression.

Findings

Between Aug 6, 2021 and Mar 1, 2022, 75.9% of the 112,609 CYP aged 16-17 years received the first and 49.0% the second COVID-19 vaccine dose. Among 237,681 CYP aged 12-15 years, the uptake was 64.5% and 37.2%, respectively. For 12-17-year-olds, BNT162b2 showed an excellent safety record, with no increase in hospital stays following vaccination for any of the 17 investigated health outcomes. In the 16-17-year-old group, VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Delta period was 64.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 59.2-68.5) at 2-5 weeks after the first dose and 95.6% (77.0-99.1) at 2-5 weeks after the second dose. The respective VEs against symptomatic COVID-19 in the Omicron period were 22.8% (95% CI -6.4-44.0) and 65.5% (95% CI 56.0-73.0). In children aged 12-15 years, VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Delta period was 65.4% (95% CI 61.5-68.8) at 2-5 weeks after the first dose, with no observed cases at 2-5 weeks after the second dose. The corresponding VE against symptomatic COVID-19 during the Omicron period were 30.2% (95% CI 18.4-40.3) and 81.2% (95% CI 77.7-84.2). The waning of the protective effect against the symptomatic disease began after five weeks post-first and post-second dose.

Interpretation

During the study period, uptake of BNT162b2 in Scotland has covered more than two-thirds of CYP aged 12-17 years with the first dose and about 40% with the second dose. We found no increased likelihood of admission to hospital with a range of health outcomes in the period after vaccination. Vaccination with both doses was associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of COVID-19 symptomatic disease during both the Delta and Omicron periods, but this protection began to wane after five weeks.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council); Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; Chief Scientist's Office of the Scottish Government; Health Data Research UK; National Core Studies - Data and Connectivity.",,pdf:https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/19244/1/Rudan_etal_LRHE_BNT162b2_COVID_19_VOR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100513; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9514975; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9514975?pdf=render 37263602,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad075,"Community factors and excess mortality in the COVID-19 pandemic in England, Italy and Sweden.","Parkes B, Stafoggia M, Fecht D, Davies B, Bonander C, De' Donato F, Michelozzi P, Piel FB, Strömberg U, Blangiardo M.",,European journal of public health,2023,2023-08-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Analyses of coronavirus disease 19 suggest specific risk factors make communities more or less vulnerable to pandemic-related deaths within countries. What is unclear is whether the characteristics affecting vulnerability of small communities within countries produce similar patterns of excess mortality across countries with different demographics and public health responses to the pandemic. Our aim is to quantify community-level variations in excess mortality within England, Italy and Sweden and identify how such spatial variability was driven by community-level characteristics.

Methods

We applied a two-stage Bayesian model to quantify inequalities in excess mortality in people aged 40 years and older at the community level in England, Italy and Sweden during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-February 2021). We used community characteristics measuring deprivation, air pollution, living conditions, population density and movement of people as covariates to quantify their associations with excess mortality.

Results

We found just under half of communities in England (48.1%) and Italy (45.8%) had an excess mortality of over 300 per 100 000 males over the age of 40, while for Sweden that covered 23.1% of communities. We showed that deprivation is a strong predictor of excess mortality across the three countries, and communities with high levels of overcrowding were associated with higher excess mortality in England and Sweden.

Conclusion

These results highlight some international similarities in factors affecting mortality that will help policy makers target public health measures to increase resilience to the mortality impacts of this and future pandemics.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckad075/50504334/ckad075.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad075; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393497; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393497?pdf=render -36543718,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402,SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination.,"Liew F, Talwar S, Cross A, Willett BJ, Scott S, Logan N, Siggins MK, Swieboda D, Sidhu JK, Efstathiou C, Moore SC, Davis C, Mohamed N, Nunag J, King C, Thompson AAR, Rowland-Jones SL, Docherty AB, Chalmers JD, Ho LP, Horsley A, Raman B, Poinasamy K, Marks M, Kon OM, Howard L, Wootton DG, Dunachie S, Quint JK, Evans RA, Wain LV, Fontanella S, de Silva TI, Ho A, Harrison E, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Brightling C, Thwaites RS, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, ISARIC4C Investigators, PHOSP-COVID collaborative group.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2022-12-19,Y,Vaccination; Mucosal immunity; Convalescent; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Immunity; Sars-cov-2 Variants; Nasal Antibody,,,"

Background

Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced.

Methods

In this follow up study, plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data.

Findings

Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months (p < 0.0001). Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months (p < 0.0001) with plasma neutralising titres that were raised against all variants compared to controls (p < 0.0001). Of 323 with complete data, 307 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal (1.46-fold change after 10 months, p = 0.011) and the median remained below the positive threshold determined by pre-pandemic controls. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG anti-S responses (R = 0.05, p = 0.18), indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination.

Interpretation

The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity.

Funding

This study has been supported by ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. ISARIC4C is supported by grants from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre provided infrastructure support for this research. The PHOSP-COVD study is jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation and National Institute of Health and Care Research. The funders were not involved in the study design, interpretation of data or the writing of this manuscript.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734?pdf=render 35192597,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003926,"Association of COVID-19 vaccines ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 with major venous, arterial, or thrombocytopenic events: A population-based cohort study of 46 million adults in England.","Whiteley WN, Ip S, Cooper JA, Bolton T, Keene S, Walker V, Denholm R, Akbari A, Omigie E, Hollings S, Di Angelantonio E, Denaxas S, Wood A, Sterne JAC, Sudlow C, CVD-COVID-UK consortium.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Thromboses in unusual locations after the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine ChAdOx1-S have been reported, although their frequency with vaccines of different types is uncertain at a population level. The aim of this study was to estimate the population-level risks of hospitalised thrombocytopenia and major arterial and venous thromboses after COVID-19 vaccination.

Methods and findings

In this whole-population cohort study, we analysed linked electronic health records from adults living in England, from 8 December 2020 to 18 March 2021. We estimated incidence rates and hazard ratios (HRs) for major arterial, venous, and thrombocytopenic outcomes 1 to 28 and >28 days after first vaccination dose for ChAdOx1-S and BNT162b2 vaccines. Analyses were performed separately for ages <70 and ≥70 years and adjusted for age, age2, sex, ethnicity, and deprivation. We also prespecified adjustment for anticoagulant medication, combined oral contraceptive medication, hormone replacement therapy medication, history of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, and history of coronavirus infection in analyses of venous thrombosis; and diabetes, hypertension, smoking, antiplatelet medication, blood pressure lowering medication, lipid lowering medication, anticoagulant medication, history of stroke, and history of myocardial infarction in analyses of arterial thromboses. We selected further covariates with backward selection. Of 46 million adults, 23 million (51%) were women; 39 million (84%) were <70; and 3.7 million (8.1%) Asian or Asian British, 1.6 million (3.5%) Black or Black British, 36 million (79%) White, 0.7 million (1.5%) mixed ethnicity, and 1.5 million (3.2%) were of another ethnicity. Approximately 21 million (46%) adults had their first vaccination between 8 December 2020 and 18 March 2021. The crude incidence rates (per 100,000 person-years) of all venous events were as follows: prevaccination, 140 [95% confidence interval (CI): 138 to 142]; ≤28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 294 (281 to 307); >28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 359 (338 to 382), ≤28 days post-BNT162b2-S, 241 (229 to 253); >28 days post-BNT162b2-S 277 (263 to 291). The crude incidence rates (per 100,000 person-years) of all arterial events were as follows: prevaccination, 546 (95% CI: 541 to 555); ≤28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 1,211 (1,185 to 1,237); >28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 1678 (1,630 to 1,726), ≤28 days post-BNT162b2-S, 1,242 (1,214 to 1,269); >28 days post-BNT162b2-S, 1,539 (1,507 to 1,572). Adjusted HRs (aHRs) 1 to 28 days after ChAdOx1-S, compared with unvaccinated rates, at ages <70 and ≥70 years, respectively, were 0.97 (95% CI: 0.90 to 1.05) and 0.58 (0.53 to 0.63) for venous thromboses, and 0.90 (0.86 to 0.95) and 0.76 (0.73 to 0.79) for arterial thromboses. Corresponding aHRs for BNT162b2 were 0.81 (0.74 to 0.88) and 0.57 (0.53 to 0.62) for venous thromboses, and 0.94 (0.90 to 0.99) and 0.72 (0.70 to 0.75) for arterial thromboses. aHRs for thrombotic events were higher at younger ages for venous thromboses after ChAdOx1-S, and for arterial thromboses after both vaccines. Rates of intracranial venous thrombosis (ICVT) and of thrombocytopenia in adults aged <70 years were higher 1 to 28 days after ChAdOx1-S (aHRs 2.27, 95% CI: 1.33 to 3.88 and 1.71, 1.35 to 2.16, respectively), but not after BNT162b2 (0.59, 0.24 to 1.45 and 1.00, 0.75 to 1.34) compared with unvaccinated. The corresponding absolute excess risks of ICVT 1 to 28 days after ChAdOx1-S were 0.9 to 3 per million, varying by age and sex. The main limitations of the study are as follows: (i) it relies on the accuracy of coded healthcare data to identify exposures, covariates, and outcomes; (ii) the use of primary reason for hospital admission to measure outcome, which improves the positive predictive value but may lead to an underestimation of incidence; and (iii) potential unmeasured confounding.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed increases in rates of ICVT and thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1-S vaccination in adults aged <70 years that were small compared with its effect in reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, although more precise estimates for adults aged <40 years are needed. For people aged ≥70 years, rates of arterial or venous thrombotic events were generally lower after either vaccine compared with unvaccinated, suggesting that either vaccine is suitable in this age group.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003926&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003926; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863280?pdf=render 33413610,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-020-00822-6,An integrated in silico immuno-genetic analytical platform provides insights into COVID-19 serological and vaccine targets.,"Ward D, Higgins M, Phelan JE, Hibberd ML, Campino S, Clark TG.",,Genome medicine,2021,2021-01-07,Y,Mutation; Epitopes; Surveillance; cross-reactivity; Immuno-informatics; Sars-cov-2; Covid; Human-coronavirus,,,"During COVID-19, diagnostic serological tools and vaccines have been developed. To inform control activities in a post-vaccine surveillance setting, we have developed an online ""immuno-analytics"" resource that combines epitope, sequence, protein and SARS-CoV-2 mutation analysis. SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins are both vaccine and serological diagnostic targets. Using the tool, the nucleocapsid protein appears to be a sub-optimal target for use in serological platforms. Spike D614G (and nsp12 L314P) mutations were most frequent (> 86%), whilst spike A222V/L18F have recently increased. Also, Orf3a proteins may be a suitable target for serology. The tool can accessed from: http://genomics.lshtm.ac.uk/immuno (online); https://github.com/dan-ward-bio/COVID-immunoanalytics (source code).",,pdf:https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13073-020-00822-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-020-00822-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7790334; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7790334?pdf=render +36543718,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402,SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination.,"Liew F, Talwar S, Cross A, Willett BJ, Scott S, Logan N, Siggins MK, Swieboda D, Sidhu JK, Efstathiou C, Moore SC, Davis C, Mohamed N, Nunag J, King C, Thompson AAR, Rowland-Jones SL, Docherty AB, Chalmers JD, Ho LP, Horsley A, Raman B, Poinasamy K, Marks M, Kon OM, Howard L, Wootton DG, Dunachie S, Quint JK, Evans RA, Wain LV, Fontanella S, de Silva TI, Ho A, Harrison E, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Brightling C, Thwaites RS, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, ISARIC4C Investigators, PHOSP-COVID collaborative group.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2022-12-19,Y,Vaccination; Mucosal immunity; Convalescent; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Immunity; Sars-cov-2 Variants; Nasal Antibody,,,"

Background

Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced.

Methods

In this follow up study, plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data.

Findings

Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months (p < 0.0001). Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months (p < 0.0001) with plasma neutralising titres that were raised against all variants compared to controls (p < 0.0001). Of 323 with complete data, 307 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal (1.46-fold change after 10 months, p = 0.011) and the median remained below the positive threshold determined by pre-pandemic controls. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG anti-S responses (R = 0.05, p = 0.18), indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination.

Interpretation

The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity.

Funding

This study has been supported by ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. ISARIC4C is supported by grants from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre provided infrastructure support for this research. The PHOSP-COVD study is jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation and National Institute of Health and Care Research. The funders were not involved in the study design, interpretation of data or the writing of this manuscript.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734?pdf=render 37363796,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100636,Comparative effectiveness of two- and three-dose COVID-19 vaccination schedules involving AZD1222 and BNT162b2 in people with kidney disease: a linked OpenSAFELY and UK Renal Registry cohort study.,"OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Parker EPK, Horne EMF, Hulme WJ, Tazare J, Zheng B, Carr EJ, Loud F, Lyon S, Mahalingasivam V, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Scanlon M, Santhakumaran S, Steenkamp R, Goldacre B, Sterne JAC, Nitsch D, Tomlinson LA, LH&W NCS (or CONVALESCENCE) Collaborative.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2023,2023-05-03,Y,Vaccination; Effectiveness; Chronic Kidney Disease; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Kidney disease is a key risk factor for COVID-19-related mortality and suboptimal vaccine response. Optimising vaccination strategies is essential to reduce the disease burden in this vulnerable population. We therefore compared the effectiveness of two- and three-dose schedules involving AZD1222 (AZ; ChAdOx1-S) and BNT162b2 (BNT) among people with kidney disease in England.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we performed a retrospective cohort study among people with moderate-to-severe kidney disease. Using linked primary care and UK Renal Registry records in the OpenSAFELY-TPP platform, we identified adults with stage 3-5 chronic kidney disease, dialysis recipients, and kidney transplant recipients. We used Cox proportional hazards models to compare COVID-19-related outcomes and non-COVID-19 death after two-dose (AZ-AZ vs BNT-BNT) and three-dose (AZ-AZ-BNT vs BNT-BNT-BNT) schedules.

Findings

After two doses, incidence during the Delta wave was higher in AZ-AZ (n = 257,580) than BNT-BNT recipients (n = 169,205; adjusted hazard ratios [95% CIs] 1.43 [1.37-1.50], 1.59 [1.43-1.77], 1.44 [1.12-1.85], and 1.09 [1.02-1.17] for SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19-related hospitalisation, COVID-19-related death, and non-COVID-19 death, respectively). Findings were consistent across disease subgroups, including dialysis and transplant recipients. After three doses, there was little evidence of differences between AZ-AZ-BNT (n = 220,330) and BNT-BNT-BNT recipients (n = 157,065) for any outcome during a period of Omicron dominance.

Interpretation

Among individuals with moderate-to-severe kidney disease, two doses of BNT conferred stronger protection than AZ against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease. A subsequent BNT dose levelled the playing field, emphasising the value of heterologous RNA doses in vulnerable populations.

Funding

National Core Studies, Wellcome Trust, MRC, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100636; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155829; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155829?pdf=render 36701357,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280943,Awareness and perceptions of Long COVID among people in the REACT programme: Early insights from a pilot interview study.,"Cooper E, Lound A, Atchison CJ, Whitaker M, Eccles C, Cooke GS, Elliott P, Ward H.",,PloS one,2023,2023-01-26,Y,,,,"

Background

Long COVID is a patient-made term describing new or persistent symptoms experienced following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission-Long COVID (REACT-LC) study aims to understand variation in experiences following infection, and to identify biological, social, and environmental factors associated with Long COVID. We undertook a pilot interview study to inform the design, recruitment approach, and topic guide for the REACT-LC qualitative study. We sought to gain initial insights into the experience and attribution of new or persistent symptoms and the awareness or perceived applicability of the term Long COVID.

Methods

People were invited to REACT-LC assessment centres if they had taken part in REACT, a random community-based prevalence study, and had a documented history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We invited people from REACT-LC assessment centres who had reported experiencing persistent symptoms for more than 12 weeks to take part in an interview. We conducted face to face and online semi-structured interviews which were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Analysis.

Results

We interviewed 13 participants (6 female, 7 male, median age 31). Participants reported a wide variation in both new and persistent symptoms which were often fluctuating or unpredictable in nature. Some participants were confident about the link between their persistent symptoms and COVID-19; however, others were unclear about the underlying cause of symptoms or felt that the impact of public health measures (such as lockdowns) played a role. We found differences in awareness and perceived applicability of the term Long COVID.

Conclusion

This pilot has informed the design, recruitment approach and topic guide for our qualitative study. It offers preliminary insights into the varied experiences of people living with persistent symptoms including differences in symptom attribution and perceived applicability of the term Long COVID. This variation shows the value of recruiting from a nationally representative sample of participants who are experiencing persistent symptoms.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280943&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280943; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879384; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879384?pdf=render 33845766,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1,"Informing the public health response to COVID-19: a systematic review of risk factors for disease, severity, and mortality.","Flook M, Jackson C, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Muckian MD, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Jia Y, Murray JLK, Ritchie LD, Robertson C, Stock SJ, Wang X, Woolhouse MEJ, Sheikh A, Stagg HR.",,BMC infectious diseases,2021,2021-04-12,Y,Mortality; Review; Morbidity; Coronavirus; Systematic review; risk factors; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has challenged public health agencies globally. In order to effectively target government responses, it is critical to identify the individuals most at risk of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), developing severe clinical signs, and mortality. We undertook a systematic review of the literature to present the current status of scientific knowledge in these areas and describe the need for unified global approaches, moving forwards, as well as lessons learnt for future pandemics.

Methods

Medline, Embase and Global Health were searched to the end of April 2020, as well as the Web of Science. Search terms were specific to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19. Comparative studies of risk factors from any setting, population group and in any language were included. Titles, abstracts and full texts were screened by two reviewers and extracted in duplicate into a standardised form. Data were extracted on risk factors for COVID-19 disease, severe disease, or death and were narratively and descriptively synthesised.

Results

One thousand two hundred and thirty-eight papers were identified post-deduplication. Thirty-three met our inclusion criteria, of which 26 were from China. Six assessed the risk of contracting the disease, 20 the risk of having severe disease and ten the risk of dying. Age, gender and co-morbidities were commonly assessed as risk factors. The weight of evidence showed increasing age to be associated with severe disease and mortality, and general comorbidities with mortality. Only seven studies presented multivariable analyses and power was generally limited. A wide range of definitions were used for disease severity.

Conclusions

The volume of literature generated in the short time since the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 has been considerable. Many studies have sought to document the risk factors for COVID-19 disease, disease severity and mortality; age was the only risk factor based on robust studies and with a consistent body of evidence. Mechanistic studies are required to understand why age is such an important risk factor. At the start of pandemics, large, standardised, studies that use multivariable analyses are urgently needed so that the populations most at risk can be rapidly protected.

Registration

This review was registered on PROSPERO as CRD42020177714 .",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8040367; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8040367?pdf=render @@ -109,8 +109,8 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 36841835,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-023-00614-0,Incidence determinants and serological correlates of reactive symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.,"Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Talaei M, Faustini S, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Richter AG, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Davies GA, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,NPJ vaccines,2023,2023-02-25,Y,,,,"Prospective population-based studies investigating associations between reactive symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and serologic responses to vaccination are lacking. We therefore conducted a study in 9003 adults from the UK general population receiving SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as part of the national vaccination programme. Titres of combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein were determined in eluates of dried blood spots collected from all participants before and after vaccination. 4262 (47.3%) participants experienced systemic reactive symptoms after a first vaccine dose. Factors associating with lower risk of such symptoms included older age (aOR per additional 10 years of age 0.85, 95% CI: 0.81-0.90), male vs. female sex (0.59, 0.53-0.65) and receipt of an mRNA vaccine vs. ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (0.29, 0.26-0.32 for BNT162b2; 0.06, 0.01-0.26 for mRNA-1273). Higher risk of such symptoms was associated with SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity and COVID-19 symptoms prior to vaccination (2.23, 1.78-2.81), but not with SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in the absence of COVID-19 symptoms (0.94, 0.81-1.09). Presence vs. absence of self-reported anxiety or depression at enrolment associated with higher risk of such symptoms (1.24, 1.12-1.39). Post-vaccination anti-S titres were higher among participants who experienced reactive symptoms after vaccination vs. those who did not (P < 0.001). We conclude that factors influencing risk of systemic symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination include demographic characteristics, pre-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 serostatus and vaccine type. Participants experiencing reactive symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination had higher post-vaccination titres of IgG/A/M anti-S antibodies. Improved public understanding of the frequency of reactogenic symptoms and their positive association with vaccine immunogenicity could potentially increase vaccine uptake.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-023-00614-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-023-00614-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9959934; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9959934?pdf=render 35104837,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04474-x,Altered TMPRSS2 usage by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron impacts infectivity and fusogenicity.,"Meng B, Abdullahi A, Ferreira IATM, Goonawardane N, Saito A, Kimura I, Yamasoba D, Gerber PP, Fatihi S, Rathore S, Zepeda SK, Papa G, Kemp SA, Ikeda T, Toyoda M, Tan TS, Kuramochi J, Mitsunaga S, Ueno T, Shirakawa K, Takaori-Kondo A, Brevini T, Mallery DL, Charles OJ, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium, Ecuador-COVID19 Consortium, Bowen JE, Joshi A, Walls AC, Jackson L, Martin D, Smith KGC, Bradley J, Briggs JAG, Choi J, Madissoon E, Meyer KB, Mlcochova P, Ceron-Gutierrez L, Doffinger R, Teichmann SA, Fisher AJ, Pizzuto MS, de Marco A, Corti D, Hosmillo M, Lee JH, James LC, Thukral L, Veesler D, Sigal A, Sampaziotis F, Goodfellow IG, Matheson NJ, Sato K, Gupta RK.",,Nature,2022,2022-02-01,Y,,,,"The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 variant emerged in 20211 and has multiple mutations in its spike protein2. Here we show that the spike protein of Omicron has a higher affinity for ACE2 compared with Delta, and a marked change in its antigenicity increases Omicron's evasion of therapeutic monoclonal and vaccine-elicited polyclonal neutralizing antibodies after two doses. mRNA vaccination as a third vaccine dose rescues and broadens neutralization. Importantly, the antiviral drugs remdesivir and molnupiravir retain efficacy against Omicron BA.1. Replication was similar for Omicron and Delta virus isolates in human nasal epithelial cultures. However, in lung cells and gut cells, Omicron demonstrated lower replication. Omicron spike protein was less efficiently cleaved compared with Delta. The differences in replication were mapped to the entry efficiency of the virus on the basis of spike-pseudotyped virus assays. The defect in entry of Omicron pseudotyped virus to specific cell types effectively correlated with higher cellular RNA expression of TMPRSS2, and deletion of TMPRSS2 affected Delta entry to a greater extent than Omicron. Furthermore, drug inhibitors targeting specific entry pathways3 demonstrated that the Omicron spike inefficiently uses the cellular protease TMPRSS2, which promotes cell entry through plasma membrane fusion, with greater dependency on cell entry through the endocytic pathway. Consistent with suboptimal S1/S2 cleavage and inability to use TMPRSS2, syncytium formation by the Omicron spike was substantially impaired compared with the Delta spike. The less efficient spike cleavage of Omicron at S1/S2 is associated with a shift in cellular tropism away from TMPRSS2-expressing cells, with implications for altered pathogenesis.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04474-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04474-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8942856; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8942856?pdf=render 35033224,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00543-9,Risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes among adults with asthma in Scotland: a national incident cohort study.,"Shi T, Pan J, Vasileiou E, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Public Health Scotland and the EAVE II Collaborators.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-01-13,Y,,,,"

Background

There is considerable uncertainty over whether adults with asthma should be offered booster vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and, if so, who should be prioritised for booster vaccination. We were asked by the UK's Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunisation to undertake an urgent analysis to identify which adults with asthma were at an increased risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes to inform deliberations on booster COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

This national incident cohort study was done in all adults in Scotland aged 18 years and older who were included in the linked dataset of Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II). We used data from EAVE II to investigate the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and the composite outcome of intensive care unit (ICU) admission or death from COVID-19 among adults with asthma. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for the association between asthma and COVID-19 hospital admission and ICU admission or death, stratified by markers of history of an asthma attack defined by either oral corticosteroid prescription (prednisolone, prednisone, and dexamethasone) in the 2 years before March 1, 2020, or hospitalisation for asthma before March 1, 2020. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity, previous hospitalisation, and vaccine status.

Findings

Between March 1, 2020, and July 27, 2021, 561 279 (12·7%) of 4 421 663 adults in Scotland had clinician-diagnosed-and-recorded-asthma. Among adults with asthma, 39 253 (7·0%) had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, of whom 4828 (12·3%) were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 (among them, an estimated 600 [12·4%] might have been due to nosocomial infections). Adults with asthma were found to be at an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admission (adjusted HR 1·27, 95% CI 1·23-1·32) compared with those without asthma. When using oral corticosteroid prescribing in the preceding 2 years as a marker for history of an asthma attack, the adjusted HR was 1·54 (95% CI 1·46-1·61) for those with three or more prescribed courses of oral corticosteroids, 1·37 (1·26-1·48) for those with two prescribed courses, 1·30 (1·23-1·37) for those with one prescribed course, and 1·15 (1·11-1·21) for those without any courses, compared with those aged 18 years or older without asthma. Adults with asthma were found to be at an increased risk of COVID-19 ICU admission or death compared with those without asthma (adjusted HR 1·13, 95 % CI 1·05-1·22). The adjusted HR was 1·44 (95% CI 1·31-1·58) for those with three or more prescribed courses of oral corticosteroids, 1·27 (1·09-1·48) for those with two prescribed courses, 1·04 (0·93-1·16) for those with one prescribed course, and 1·06 (0·97-1·17) for those without any course, compared with adults without asthma.

Interpretation

Adults with asthma who have required two or more courses of oral corticosteroids in the previous 2 years or a hospital admission for asthma before March 1, 2020, are at increased risk of both COVID-19 hospitalisation and ICU admission or death. Patients with a recent asthma attack should be considered a priority group for booster COVID-19 vaccines.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK, and Scottish Government.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00543-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758152 -34697502,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7,Neurological complications after first dose of COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Patone M, Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, Razvi S, Hunt D, Mei XW, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Watkinson P, Coupland CAC, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Ravanan R, Sheikh A, Robertson C, Hippisley-Cox J.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-10-25,Y,,,,"Emerging reports of rare neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection and vaccinations are leading to regulatory, clinical and public health concerns. We undertook a self-controlled case series study to investigate hospital admissions from neurological complications in the 28 days after a first dose of ChAdOx1nCoV-19 (n = 20,417,752) or BNT162b2 (n = 12,134,782), and after a SARS-CoV-2-positive test (n = 2,005,280). There was an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.15-3.92 at 15-21 days after vaccination) and Bell's palsy (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.08-1.56 at 15-21 days) with ChAdOx1nCoV-19. There was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.71 at 15-21 days) with BNT162b2. An independent Scottish cohort provided further support for the association between ChAdOx1nCoV and Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 2.32; 95% CI: 1.08-5.02 at 1-28 days). There was a substantially higher risk of all neurological outcomes in the 28 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test including Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 5.25; 95% CI: 3.00-9.18). Overall, we estimated 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome per 10 million people receiving ChAdOx1nCoV-19 and 145 excess cases per 10 million people after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. In summary, although we find an increased risk of neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines, the risk of these complications is greater following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01556-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105?pdf=render 35915784,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462,Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in England during February 2022: A series of cross-sectional community surveys.,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Tang D, Eales O, Bodinier B, Wang H, Jonnerby J, Whitaker M, Elliott J, Haw D, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-07-28,Y,"Rt-pcr, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction; Ct, Cycle Threshold; Nhs, National Health Service; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Omicron Variant; Ba.2 Sublineage; Random Community Surveys; Ukhsa, Uk Health Security Agency; B-spline, Basis Spline; Ltla, Lower-tier Local Authority; P-spline, Penalised Spline; Rim, Random Iterative Method",,,"

Background

The Omicron wave of COVID-19 in England peaked in January 2022 resulting from the rapid transmission of the Omicron BA.1 variant. We investigate the spread and dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the population of England during February 2022, by region, age and main SARS-CoV-2 sub-lineage.

Methods

In the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study we obtained data from a random sample of 94,950 participants with valid throat and nose swab results by RT-PCR during round 18 (8 February to 1 March 2022).

Findings

We estimated a weighted mean SARS-CoV-2 prevalence of 2.88% (95% credible interval [CrI] 2.76-3.00), with a within-round effective reproduction number (R) overall of 0.94 (0·91-0.96). While within-round weighted prevalence fell among children (aged 5 to 17 years) and adults aged 18 to 54 years, we observed a level or increasing weighted prevalence among those aged 55 years and older with an R of 1.04 (1.00-1.09). Among 1,616 positive samples with sublineages determined, one (0.1% [0.0-0.3]) corresponded to XE BA.1/BA.2 recombinant and the remainder were Omicron: N=1047, 64.8% (62.4-67.2) were BA.1; N=568, 35.2% (32.8-37.6) were BA.2. We estimated an R additive advantage for BA.2 (vs BA.1) of 0.38 (0.34-0.41). The highest proportion of BA.2 among positives was found in London.

Interpretation

In February 2022, infection prevalence in England remained high with level or increasing rates of infection in older people and an uptick in hospitalisations. Ongoing surveillance of both survey and hospitalisations data is required.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9330654; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9330654?pdf=render +34697502,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7,Neurological complications after first dose of COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Patone M, Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, Razvi S, Hunt D, Mei XW, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Watkinson P, Coupland CAC, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Ravanan R, Sheikh A, Robertson C, Hippisley-Cox J.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-10-25,Y,,,,"Emerging reports of rare neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection and vaccinations are leading to regulatory, clinical and public health concerns. We undertook a self-controlled case series study to investigate hospital admissions from neurological complications in the 28 days after a first dose of ChAdOx1nCoV-19 (n = 20,417,752) or BNT162b2 (n = 12,134,782), and after a SARS-CoV-2-positive test (n = 2,005,280). There was an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.15-3.92 at 15-21 days after vaccination) and Bell's palsy (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.08-1.56 at 15-21 days) with ChAdOx1nCoV-19. There was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.71 at 15-21 days) with BNT162b2. An independent Scottish cohort provided further support for the association between ChAdOx1nCoV and Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 2.32; 95% CI: 1.08-5.02 at 1-28 days). There was a substantially higher risk of all neurological outcomes in the 28 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test including Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 5.25; 95% CI: 3.00-9.18). Overall, we estimated 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome per 10 million people receiving ChAdOx1nCoV-19 and 145 excess cases per 10 million people after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. In summary, although we find an increased risk of neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines, the risk of these complications is greater following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01556-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105?pdf=render 36609574,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8,A population-based matched cohort study of major congenital anomalies following COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Loane M, Dolk H, Morris J, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons CL, Katikireddi SV, O'Leary M, McAllister D, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock SJ, Wood R.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-01-06,Y,,,,"Evidence on associations between COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of congenital anomalies is limited. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study using linked electronic health records from Scotland (May 2020-April 2022) to estimate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and, separately, SARS-CoV-2 infection between six weeks pre-conception and 19 weeks and six days gestation and the risk of [1] any major congenital anomaly and [2] any non-genetic major congenital anomaly. Mothers vaccinated in this pregnancy exposure period mostly received an mRNA vaccine (73.7% Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and 7.9% Moderna mRNA-1273). Of the 6731 babies whose mothers were vaccinated in the pregnancy exposure period, 153 had any anomaly and 120 had a non-genetic anomaly. Primary analyses find no association between any vaccination and any anomaly (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] = 1.01, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 0.83-1.24) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.81-1.22). Primary analyses also find no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and any anomaly (aOR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.66-1.60) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.57-1.54). Findings are robust to sensitivity analyses. These data provide reassurance on the safety of vaccination, in particular mRNA vaccines, just before or in early pregnancy.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35771-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346?pdf=render 35608440,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq4411,Twin peaks: The Omicron SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 and BA.2 epidemics in England.,"Elliott P, Eales O, Steyn N, Tang D, Bodinier B, Wang H, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Donnelly CA, Chadeau-Hyam M.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2022,2022-06-24,Y,,,,"Rapid transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant has led to record-breaking incidence rates around the world. The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study has tracked SARS-CoV-2 infection in England using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results from self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly selected participants aged 5 years and older approximately monthly from May 2020 to March 2022. Weighted prevalence in March 2022 was the highest recorded in REACT-1 at 6.37% (N = 109,181), with the Omicron BA.2 variant largely replacing the BA.1 variant. Prevalence was increasing overall, with the greatest increase in those aged 65 to 74 years and 75 years and older. This was associated with increased hospitalizations and deaths, but at much lower levels than in previous waves against a backdrop of high levels of vaccination.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9161371; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq4411; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161371; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161371?pdf=render 34432797,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255748,Regional performance variation in external validation of four prediction models for severity of COVID-19 at hospital admission: An observational multi-centre cohort study.,"Wickstrøm KE, Vitelli V, Carr E, Holten AR, Bendayan R, Reiner AH, Bean D, Searle T, Shek A, Kraljevic Z, Teo J, Dobson R, Tonby K, Köhn-Luque A, Amundsen EK.",,PloS one,2021,2021-08-25,Y,,,,"

Background

Prediction models should be externally validated to assess their performance before implementation. Several prediction models for coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) have been published. This observational cohort study aimed to validate published models of severity for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 using clinical and laboratory predictors.

Methods

Prediction models fitting relevant inclusion criteria were chosen for validation. The outcome was either mortality or a composite outcome of mortality and ICU admission (severe disease). 1295 patients admitted with symptoms of COVID-19 at Kings Cross Hospital (KCH) in London, United Kingdom, and 307 patients at Oslo University Hospital (OUH) in Oslo, Norway were included. The performance of the models was assessed in terms of discrimination and calibration.

Results

We identified two models for prediction of mortality (referred to as Xie and Zhang1) and two models for prediction of severe disease (Allenbach and Zhang2). The performance of the models was variable. For prediction of mortality Xie had good discrimination at OUH with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) 0.87 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79-0.95] and acceptable discrimination at KCH, AUROC 0.79 [0.76-0.82]. In prediction of severe disease, Allenbach had acceptable discrimination (OUH AUROC 0.81 [0.74-0.88] and KCH AUROC 0.72 [0.68-0.75]). The Zhang models had moderate to poor discrimination. Initial calibration was poor for all models but improved with recalibration.

Conclusions

The performance of the four prediction models was variable. The Xie model had the best discrimination for mortality, while the Allenbach model had acceptable results for prediction of severe disease.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0255748&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255748; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8386866; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8386866?pdf=render @@ -125,15 +125,15 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 37543047,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(23)00105-8,"Antipsychotic drug prescribing and mortality in people with dementia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective cohort study in Wales, UK.","Schnier C, McCarthy A, Morales DR, Akbari A, Sofat R, Dale C, Takhar R, Mamas MA, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Sudlow CL, Wilkinson T, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2023,2023-08-01,N,,,,"

Background

Concerns have been raised that antipsychotic drug prescribing, which has been associated with increased mortality in people with dementia, might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to social restrictions imposed to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2. We used multisource, routinely collected health-care data from Wales, UK to investigate prescribing and mortality variations in people with dementia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

In this retrospective cohort study, we used individual-level, anonymised, population-scale linked health data to identify adults aged 60 years and older with a diagnosis of dementia in Wales, UK. We used the CVD-COVID-UK initiative to access Welsh routinely collected electronic health record data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Patients who were alive and registered with a SAIL general practice on Jan 1, 2016, and who received a dementia diagnosis before the age of 60 years and before or during the study period were included. We explored antipsychotic drug prescribing rate changes over 67 months, between Jan 1, 2016, and Aug 1, 2021, overall and stratified by age and dementia subtype. We used time-series analyses to examine all-cause and myocardial infarction and stroke mortality over the study period and identified the leading causes of death in people with dementia between Jan 1, 2020, and Aug 1, 2021.

Findings

Of 3 106 690 participants in SAIL between Jan 1, 2016 and Aug 1, 2021, 57 396 people (35 148 [61·2%] women and 22 248 [38·8%] men) met inclusion criteria for this study and contributed 101 428 person-years of follow-up. Of the 57 396 people with dementia, 11 929 (20·8%) were prescribed an antipsychotic drug at any point during follow-up. Accounting for seasonality, antipsychotic drug prescribing increased during the second half of 2019 and throughout 2020. However, the absolute difference in prescribing rates was small, ranging from 1253 prescriptions per 10 000 person-months in March, 2019, to 1305 per 10 000 person-months in September, 2020. All-cause mortality and stroke mortality increased throughout 2020, while myocardial infarction mortality declined. From Jan 1, 2020, to Aug 1, 2021, 1286 (17·1%) of 7508 participants who died had COVID-19 recorded as the underlying cause of death.

Interpretation

During the COVID-19 pandemic, antipsychotic drug prescribing in people with dementia in the UK increased slightly; however, it is unlikely that this was solely related to the pandemic and this increase was unlikely to be a major factor in the substantial increase in mortality during 2020. The long-term increase in antipsychotic drug prescribing in younger people and in those with Alzheimer's disease warrants further investigation using resources with access to more granular clinical data. Although deprescribing antipsychotic medications remains an essential aspect of dementia care, the results of this study suggest that changes in prescribing and deprescribing practices as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are not required.

Funding

British Heart Foundation (via the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre led by Health Data Research UK), and the Scottish Neurological Research Fund.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(23)00105-8 36210437,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7,Hesitancy for receiving regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH study.,"Veli N, Martin CA, Woolf K, Nazareth J, Pan D, Al-Oraibi A, Baggaley RF, Bryant L, Nellums LB, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-10-10,Y,Vaccination; Ethnicity; Healthcare; Hesitancy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Regular vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may be needed to maintain immunity in 'at-risk' populations, which include healthcare workers (HCWs). However, little is known about the proportion of HCWs who might be hesitant about receiving a hypothetical regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or the factors associated with this hesitancy.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of questionnaire data collected as part of UK-REACH, a nationwide, longitudinal cohort study of HCWs. The outcome measure was binary, either a participant indicated they would definitely accept regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination if recommended or they indicated some degree of hesitancy regarding acceptance (probably accept or less likely). We used logistic regression to identify factors associated with hesitancy for receiving regular vaccination.

Results

A total of 5454 HCWs were included in the analysed cohort, 23.5% of whom were hesitant about regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Black HCWs were more likely to be hesitant than White HCWs (aOR 2.60, 95%CI 1.80-3.72) as were those who reported a previous episode of COVID-19 (1.33, 1.13-1.57 [vs those who tested negative]). Those who received influenza vaccination in the previous two seasons were over five times less likely to report hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination than those not vaccinated against influenza in either season (0.18, 0.14-0.21). HCWs who trusted official sources of vaccine information (such as NHS or government adverts or websites) were less likely to report hesitancy for a regular vaccination programme. Those who had been exposed to information advocating against vaccination from friends and family were more likely to be hesitant.

Conclusions

In this study, nearly a quarter of UK HCWs were hesitant about receiving a regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We have identified key factors associated with hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, which can be used to identify groups of HCWs at the highest risk of vaccine hesitancy and tailor interventions accordingly. Family and friends of HCWs may influence decisions about regular vaccination. This implies that working with HCWs and their social networks to allay concerns about SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could improve uptake in a regular vaccination programme.

Trial registration

ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389?pdf=render 36901540,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054534,Socioeconomic Background and Self-Reported Sleep Quality in Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).,"Collinge AN, Bath PA, Bath PA.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2023,2023-03-03,Y,Mental health; Health Promotion; Wellness; Physical Health; Health Disparities; Health Behaviors; Older Adults; Sleep Quality; Socioeconomic Background; Covid-19,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted sleep quality. However, research regarding older adults' sleep quality during the pandemic has been limited. This study examined the association between socioeconomic background (SEB) and older adults' sleep quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on 7040 adults aged ≥50 were acquired from a COVID-19 sub-study of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). SEB was operationalized using educational attainment, previous financial situation, and concern about the future financial situation. Sociodemographic, mental health, physical health, and health behavior variables were included as covariates. Chi-squared tests and binary logistic regression were used to examine associations between SEB and sleep quality. Lower educational attainment and greater financial hardship and concerns were associated with poor sleep quality. The relationship between educational attainment and sleep quality was explained by the financial variables, while the relationship between previous financial difficulties and sleep quality was explained by physical health and health behavior variables. Greater financial concerns about the future, poor mental health, and poor physical health were independent risk factors for poor sleep quality in older adults during the pandemic. Healthcare professionals and service providers should consider these issues when supporting older patients with sleep problems and in promoting health and wellness.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4534/pdf?version=1677842613; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054534; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10001974; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10001974?pdf=render -36921681,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2023.117271,"Letter to the editor regarding: ""A haemochromatosis-causing HFE mutation is associated with SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility in the Czech population"" clinica chimica acta 538 (2023) 211-215.","Atkins JL, Lucas MR, Pilling LC, Melzer D.",,Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry,2023,2023-03-13,Y,Iron; Haemochromatosis; Hfe; Covd-19,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10009995; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2023.117271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10009995; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10009995?pdf=render 36806073,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071261,Protocol for an OpenSAFELY cohort study collecting patient-reported outcome measures using the TPP Airmid smartphone application and linked big data to quantify the health and economic costs of long COVID (OpenPROMPT).,"Herrett E, Tomlin K, Lin LY, Tomlinson LA, Jit M, Briggs A, Marks M, Sandmann F, Parry J, Bates C, Morley J, Bacon S, Butler-Cole B, Mahalingasivam V, Dennison A, Smith D, Gabriel E, Mehrkar A, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, Eggo RMM.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-02-17,Y,Quality of life; Health Economics; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The impact of long COVID on health-related quality of-life (HRQoL) and productivity is not currently known. It is important to understand who is worst affected by long COVID and the cost to the National Health Service (NHS) and society, so that strategies like booster vaccines can be prioritised to the right people. OpenPROMPT aims to understand the impact of long COVID on HRQoL in adults attending English primary care.

Methods and analysis

We will ask people to participate in this cohort study through a smartphone app (Airmid), and completing a series of questionnaires held within the app. Questionnaires will ask about HRQoL, productivity and symptoms of long COVID. Participants will be asked to fill in the questionnaires once a month, for 90 days. Questionnaire responses will be linked, where possible, to participants' existing health records from primary care, secondary care, and COVID testing and vaccination data. Analysis will take place using the OpenSAFELY data platform and will estimate the impact of long COVID on HRQoL, productivity and cost to the NHS.

Ethics and dissemination

The Proportionate Review Sub-Committee of the South Central-Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee has reviewed and approved the study and have agreed that we can ask people to take part (22/SC/0198). Our results will provide information to support long-term care, and make recommendations for prevention of long COVID in the future.

Trial registration number

NCT05552612.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e071261.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071261; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943695; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943695?pdf=render +36921681,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2023.117271,"Letter to the editor regarding: ""A haemochromatosis-causing HFE mutation is associated with SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility in the Czech population"" clinica chimica acta 538 (2023) 211-215.","Atkins JL, Lucas MR, Pilling LC, Melzer D.",,Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry,2023,2023-03-13,Y,Iron; Haemochromatosis; Hfe; Covd-19,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10009995; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2023.117271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10009995; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10009995?pdf=render 36058413,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030,A prospective study of risk factors associated with seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare workers at a large UK teaching hospital.,"Cooper DJ, Lear S, Watson L, Shaw A, Ferris M, Doffinger R, Bousfield R, Sharrocks K, Weekes MP, Warne B, Sparkes D, Jones NK, Rivett L, Routledge M, Chaudhry A, Dempsey K, Matson M, Lakha A, Gathercole G, O'Connor O, Wilson E, Shahzad O, Toms K, Thompson R, Halsall I, Halsall D, Houghton S, Papadia S, Kingston N, Stirrups KE, Graves B, Townsend P, Walker N, Stark H, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, De Angelis D, Seaman S, Dougan G, Bradley JR, Török ME, Goodfellow I, Baker S.",,The Journal of infection,2022,2022-09-02,Y,Healthcare Workers; Sero-epidemiology; Risk Factor Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objectives

To describe the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods

We conducted a prospective sero-epidemiological study of HCWs at a major UK teaching hospital using a SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay. Risk factors for seropositivity were analysed using multivariate logistic regression.

Results

410/5,698 (7·2%) staff tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence was higher in those working in designated COVID-19 areas compared with other areas (9·47% versus 6·16%) Healthcare assistants (aOR 2·06 [95%CI 1·14-3·71]; p=0·016) and domestic and portering staff (aOR 3·45 [95% CI 1·07-11·42]; p=0·039) had significantly higher seroprevalence than other staff groups after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and COVID-19 working location. Staff working in acute medicine and medical sub-specialities were also at higher risk (aOR 2·07 [95% CI 1·31-3·25]; p<0·002). Staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds had an aOR of 1·65 (95% CI 1·32 - 2·07; p<0·001) compared to white staff; this increased risk was independent of COVID-19 area working. The only symptoms significantly associated with seropositivity in a multivariable model were loss of sense of taste or smell, fever, and myalgia; 31% of staff testing positive reported no prior symptoms.

Conclusions

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs is highly heterogeneous and influenced by COVID-19 working location, role, age and ethnicity. Increased risk amongst BAME staff cannot be accounted for solely by occupational factors.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/341240/2/1-s2.0-S016344532200514X-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870?pdf=render 36350810,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276781,"Primary hypertension, anti-hypertensive medications and the risk of severe COVID-19 in UK Biobank.","Pavey H, Kulkarni S, Wood A, Ben-Shlomo Y, Sever P, McEniery C, Wilkinson I.",,PloS one,2022,2022-11-09,Y,,,,"Hypertension appears to be one of the commonest comorbidities in COVID-19 patients, although whether hypertensive individuals have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 compared with non-hypertensives is unclear. It is also unclear whether the absolute level of systolic blood pressure, or the type of anti-hypertensive medication is related to this risk. Analyses were conducted using data from the UK Biobank and linked health records. Logistic regression models were fitted to assess the impact of hypertension, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and medications on the risk of severe COVID-19. 16,134 individuals tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus, 22% (n = 3,584) developed severe COVID-19 and 40% (n = 6,517) were hypertensive. Hypertension was associated with 22% higher odds of severe COVID-19 (Odds ratio (OR) 1.22; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12, 1.33), compared with normotension after adjusting for confounding variables. In those taking anti-hypertensive medications, elevated SBP showed a dose-response relationship with severe COVID-19 (150-159mmHg versus 120-129mmHg (OR 1.91; 95% CI 1.44, 2.53), >180+mmHg versus 120-129mmHg (OR 1.93; 95% CI 1.06, 3.51)). SBP <120mmHg was associated with greater odds of severe COVID-19 (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.11, 1.78). Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-II receptor blockers were not associated with altered risk of severe COVID-19. Hypertension is an important risk factor for COVID-19. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms is warranted in case of more severe strains or other viruses in the future.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276781&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276781; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9645600; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9645600?pdf=render 35502909,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095239,Impact on emergency and elective hospital-based care in Scotland over the first 12 months of the pandemic: interrupted time-series analysis of national lockdowns.,"Shah SA, Mulholland RH, Wilkinson S, Katikireddi SV, Pan J, Shi T, Kerr S, Agrawal U, Rudan I, Simpson CR, Stock SJ, Macleod J, Murray JL, McCowan C, Ritchie L, Woolhouse M, Sheikh A.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-05-03,Y,Public Health; Statistics And Research Methods; Population Trends,,,"

Objectives

COVID-19 has resulted in the greatest disruption to National Health Service (NHS) care in its over 70-year history. Building on our previous work, we assessed the ongoing impact of pandemic-related disruption on provision of emergency and elective hospital-based care across Scotland over the first year of the pandemic.

Design

We undertook interrupted time-series analyses to evaluate the impact of ongoing pandemic-related disruption on hospital NHS care provision at national level and across demographics and clinical specialties spanning the period 29 March 2020-28 March 2021.

Setting

Scotland, UK.

Participants

Patients receiving hospital care from NHS Scotland.

Main outcome measures

We used the percentage change of accident and emergency attendances, and emergency and planned hospital admissions during the pandemic compared to the average admission rate for equivalent weeks in 2018-2019.

Results

As restrictions were gradually lifted in Scotland after the first lockdown, hospital-based admissions increased approaching pre-pandemic levels. Subsequent tightening of restrictions in September 2020 were associated with a change in slope of relative weekly admissions rate: -1.98% (-2.38, -1.58) in accident and emergency attendance, -1.36% (-1.68, -1.04) in emergency admissions and -2.31% (-2.95, -1.66) in planned admissions. A similar pattern was seen across sex, socioeconomic status and most age groups, except children (0-14 years) where accident and emergency attendance, and emergency admissions were persistently low over the study period.

Conclusions

We found substantial disruption to urgent and planned inpatient healthcare provision in hospitals across NHS Scotland. There is the need for urgent policy responses to address continuing unmet health needs and to ensure resilience in the context of future pandemics.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221095239; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095239; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723811; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723811?pdf=render 37720555,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xops.2023.100388,A Datasheet for the INSIGHT University Hospitals Birmingham Retinal Vein Occlusion Data Set.,"Bilton EJ, Guggenheim EJ, Baranyi B, Radovanovic C, Williams RL, Bradlow W, Denniston AK, Mollan SP.",,Ophthalmology science,2023,2023-08-22,Y,Myocardial infarction; Retinal Vein Occlusion; Major Cardiovascular Events; Data Set; Biomedical Data,,,"

Purpose

Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is the second leading cause of visual loss due to retinal disease. Retinal vein occlusion increases the risk of cardiovascular mortality and the risk of stroke. This article describes the data contained within the INSIGHT eye health data set for RVO and cardiovascular disease.

Design

Data set descriptor for routinely collected eye and systemic disease data.

Participants

All people who had suffered an RVO aged ≥ 18 years old, attending the Ophthalmology Clinic at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) National Health Service (NHS) Trust were included.

Methods

The INSIGHT Health Data Research Hub for Eye Health is an NHS-led ophthalmic bioresource. It provides researchers with safe access to anonymized routinely collected data from contributing NHS hospitals to advance research for patient benefit. This report describes the INSIGHT UHB RVO and major adverse cardiovascular events data set, a data set of ophthalmology and systemic data derived from the United Kingdom's largest acute care trust.

Main outcome measures

This data set consists of routinely collected data from the hospital's electronic patient records. The data set primarily includes structured data (relating to their hospital eye care and any cardiovascular data held for the individual) and OCT ocular images. Further details regarding the available data points are available in the supplementary information.

Results

At the time point of this analysis (September 30, 2022) the data set was composed of clinical data from 1521 patients, from Medisoft records inception. The data set includes 2196 occurrences of RVO affecting 2026 eyes, longitudinal eye follow-up clinical parameters, over 6217 eye-related procedures, and 982 encountered complications. The data set contains information on 2534 major adverse cardiovascular event occurrences, their subtype, number experienced per patient, and chronological relation to RVO event. Longitudinal follow-up data including laboratory results, regular medications, and all-cause mortality are also available within the data set.

Conclusions

This data set descriptor article summarizes the data set contents, the process of its curation, and potential uses. The data set is available through the structured application process that ensures research studies are for patient benefit. Further information regarding the data repository and contact details can be found at https://www.insight.hdrhub.org/.

Financial disclosures

Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xops.2023.100388; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10500462; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10500462?pdf=render 37674175,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y,Using the COM-B framework to elucidate facilitators and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnant women: a qualitative study.,"Patterson L, Berry E, Parsons C, Clarke B, Little A, Beggs J, Chuter A, Jackson T, Hsia Y, McGrath H, Millman C, Murphy S, Bradley DT, Milligan S.",,BMC pregnancy and childbirth,2023,2023-09-06,Y,Pregnancy; Qualitative; Barriers; Facilitators; Com-b; Covid-19 Vaccination,,,"Since April 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been recommended for pregnant women. Despite this, COVID-19 vaccine uptake in this group is low compared to the non-pregnant population of childbearing age. Our aim was to understand barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant women in Northern Ireland using the COM-B framework, and so to make recommendations for public health interventions. The COM-B proposes that human behaviour is influenced by the extent to which a person has the capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact that behaviour. Understanding the factors underpinning behaviour through this lens helps discern what needs to change to change behaviour, therefore supporting the development of targeted interventions.This study consisted of eight semi-structured interviews with new/expectant mothers who did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant since April 2021, and a focus group with five participants who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant. Interview and focus group data were analysed using semi-deductive reflexive thematic analysis framed by a subtle realist approach. The COM-B was used to categorise codes and subthemes were developed within each COM-B construct.Within Psychological Capability, subthemes captured the need for consistent and reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and access to balanced and jargon-free, risk-benefit information that is tailored to the pregnant individual. The behaviour/opinions of family, friends, and local healthcare providers had a powerful influence on COVID-19 vaccine decisions (Social Opportunity). Integrating the COVID-19 vaccine as part of routine antenatal pathways was believed to support access and sense of familiarity (Physical Opportunity). Participants valued health autonomy, however experienced internal conflict driven by concerns about long-term side effects for their baby (Reflective Motivation). Feelings of fear, lack of empathy from healthcare providers, and anticipated guilt commonly underpinned indecision as to whether to get the vaccine (Automatic Motivation).Our study highlighted that the choice to accept a vaccine during pregnancy generates internal conflict and worry. Several participants cited their concern was primarily around the safety for their baby. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play a significant part when it comes to decision making about COVID-19 vaccines among pregnant women. HCPs and pregnant women should be involved in the development of interventions to improve the delivery and communication of information.",,pdf:https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472?pdf=render -35189888,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4,Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Talaei M, Faustini S, Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Perdek N, Maltby S, Bigogno CM, Symons J, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,Obesity; Diet; Serology; Alcohol; Exercise; Micronutrients; Lifestyle; Ethnicity; Occupation; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.

Methods

We did a prospective population-based study in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-naive UK adults recruited between May 1 and November 2, 2020, without a positive swab test result for SARS-CoV-2 prior to enrolment. Information on 88 potential sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological risk factors was obtained through online questionnaires, and combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein were determined in dried blood spots obtained between November 6, 2020, and April 18, 2021. We used logistic and linear regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and adjusted geometric mean ratios (aGMRs) for potential determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity (all participants) and antibody titres (seropositive participants only), respectively.

Results

Of 11,130 participants, 1696 (15.2%) were seropositive. Factors independently associated with  higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity included frontline health/care occupation (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.48-2.33), international travel (1.20, 1.07-1.35), number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.29, 1.06-1.57, P-trend = 0.01), body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (1.24, 1.11-1.39), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.65, 1.10-2.49) and alcohol consumption ≥15 vs. 0 units/week (1.23, 1.04-1.46). Light physical exercise associated with  lower risk (0.80, 0.70-0.93, for ≥ 10 vs. 0-4 h/week). Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies associated with factors including BMI ≥ 30 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (aGMR 1.10, 1.02-1.19), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.22, 1.04-1.44), frontline health/care occupation (1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.39), international travel (1.11, 1.05-1.16) and number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.12, 1.02-1.23, P-trend = 0.01); these associations were not substantially attenuated by adjustment for COVID-19 disease severity.

Conclusions

Higher alcohol consumption and lower light physical exercise represent new modifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recognised associations between South Asian ethnic origin and obesity and higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity were independent of other sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical, and pharmacological factors investigated. Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies in people of South Asian ancestry and in obese people were not explained by greater COVID-19 disease severity in these groups.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623?pdf=render 37124948,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100638,Severity of Omicron BA.5 variant and protective effect of vaccination: national cohort and matched analyses in Scotland.,"Robertson C, Kerr S, Sheikh A.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2023,2023-04-14,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100638; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100638; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10139952; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10139952?pdf=render +35189888,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4,Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Talaei M, Faustini S, Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Perdek N, Maltby S, Bigogno CM, Symons J, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,Obesity; Diet; Serology; Alcohol; Exercise; Micronutrients; Lifestyle; Ethnicity; Occupation; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.

Methods

We did a prospective population-based study in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-naive UK adults recruited between May 1 and November 2, 2020, without a positive swab test result for SARS-CoV-2 prior to enrolment. Information on 88 potential sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological risk factors was obtained through online questionnaires, and combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein were determined in dried blood spots obtained between November 6, 2020, and April 18, 2021. We used logistic and linear regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and adjusted geometric mean ratios (aGMRs) for potential determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity (all participants) and antibody titres (seropositive participants only), respectively.

Results

Of 11,130 participants, 1696 (15.2%) were seropositive. Factors independently associated with  higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity included frontline health/care occupation (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.48-2.33), international travel (1.20, 1.07-1.35), number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.29, 1.06-1.57, P-trend = 0.01), body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (1.24, 1.11-1.39), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.65, 1.10-2.49) and alcohol consumption ≥15 vs. 0 units/week (1.23, 1.04-1.46). Light physical exercise associated with  lower risk (0.80, 0.70-0.93, for ≥ 10 vs. 0-4 h/week). Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies associated with factors including BMI ≥ 30 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (aGMR 1.10, 1.02-1.19), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.22, 1.04-1.44), frontline health/care occupation (1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.39), international travel (1.11, 1.05-1.16) and number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.12, 1.02-1.23, P-trend = 0.01); these associations were not substantially attenuated by adjustment for COVID-19 disease severity.

Conclusions

Higher alcohol consumption and lower light physical exercise represent new modifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recognised associations between South Asian ethnic origin and obesity and higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity were independent of other sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical, and pharmacological factors investigated. Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies in people of South Asian ancestry and in obese people were not explained by greater COVID-19 disease severity in these groups.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623?pdf=render 36384890,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071932,Comparative effectiveness of sotrovimab and molnupiravir for prevention of severe covid-19 outcomes in patients in the community: observational cohort study with the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Zheng B, Green ACA, Tazare J, Curtis HJ, Fisher L, Nab L, Schultze A, Mahalingasivam V, Parker EPK, Hulme WJ, Bacon SCJ, DeVito NJ, Bates C, Evans D, Inglesby P, Drysdale H, Davy S, Cockburn J, Morton CE, Hickman G, Ward T, Smith RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Walker AJ, Evans SJW, Douglas IJ, MacKenna B, Goldacre B, Tomlinson LA.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-11-16,Y,,,,"

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of sotrovimab (a neutralising monoclonal antibody) with molnupiravir (an antiviral) in preventing severe outcomes of covid-19 in adult patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the community and at high risk of severe outcomes from covid-19.

Design

Observational cohort study with the OpenSAFELY platform.

Setting

With the approval of NHS England, a real world cohort study was conducted with the OpenSAFELY-TPP platform (a secure, transparent, open source software platform for analysis of NHS electronic health records), and patient level electronic health record data were obtained from 24 million people registered with a general practice in England that uses TPP software. The primary care data were securely linked with data on SARS-CoV-2 infection and treatments, hospital admission, and death, over a period when both drug treatments were frequently prescribed in community settings.

Participants

Adult patients with covid-19 in the community at high risk of severe outcomes from covid-19, treated with sotrovimab or molnupiravir from 16 December 2021.

Interventions

Sotrovimab or molnupiravir given in the community by covid-19 medicine delivery units.

Main outcome measures

Admission to hospital with covid-19 (ie, with covid-19 as the primary diagnosis) or death from covid-19 (ie, with covid-19 as the underlying or contributing cause of death) within 28 days of the start of treatment.

Results

Between 16 December 2021 and 10 February 2022, 3331 and 2689 patients were treated with sotrovimab and molnupiravir, respectively, with no substantial differences in baseline characteristics. Mean age of all 6020 patients was 52 (standard deviation 16) years; 59% were women, 89% were white, and 88% had received three or more covid-19 vaccinations. Within 28 days of the start of treatment, 87 (1.4%) patients were admitted to hospital or died of infection from SARS-CoV-2 (32 treated with sotrovimab and 55 with molnupiravir). Cox proportional hazards models stratified by area showed that after adjusting for demographic information, high risk cohort categories, vaccination status, calendar time, body mass index, and other comorbidities, treatment with sotrovimab was associated with a substantially lower risk than treatment with molnupiravir (hazard ratio 0.54, 95% confidence interval 0.33 to 0.88, P=0.01). Consistent results were found from propensity score weighted Cox models (0.50, 0.31 to 0.81, P=0.005) and when restricted to people who were fully vaccinated (0.53, 0.31 to 0.90, P=0.02). No substantial effect modifications by other characteristics were detected (all P values for interaction >0.10). The findings were similar in an exploratory analysis of patients treated between 16 February and 1 May 2022 when omicron BA.2 was the predominant variant in England.

Conclusions

In routine care of adult patients in England with covid-19 in the community, at high risk of severe outcomes from covid-19, those who received sotrovimab were at lower risk of severe outcomes of covid-19 than those treated with molnupiravir.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/379/bmj-2022-071932.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071932; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9667468 36215226,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230,Effect of a test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid-19: phase 3 randomised controlled trial (CORONAVIT).,"Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Greenig M, Talaei M, Perdek N, Pfeffer P, Vivaldi G, Maltby S, Symons J, Barlow NL, Normandale A, Garcha R, Richter AG, Faustini SE, Orton C, Ford D, Lyons RA, Davies GA, Kee F, Griffiths CJ, Norrie J, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Relton C, Martineau AR.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-09-07,Y,,,,"

Objective

To determine the effect of population level implementation of a test-and-treat approach to correction of suboptimal vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) <75 nmol/L) on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid 19.

Design

Phase 3 open label randomised controlled trial.

Setting

United Kingdom.

Participants

6200 people aged ≥16 years who were not taking vitamin D supplements at baseline.

Interventions

Offer of a postal finger prick test of blood 25(OH)D concentration with provision of a six month supply of lower dose vitamin D (800 IU/day, n=1550) or higher dose vitamin D (3200 IU/day, n=1550) to those with blood 25(OH)D concentration <75 nmol/L, compared with no offer of testing or supplementation (n=3100). Follow-up was for six months.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was the proportion of participants with at least one swab test or doctor confirmed acute respiratory tract infection of any cause. A secondary outcome was the proportion of participants with swab test confirmed covid-19. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios and associated 95% confidence intervals. The primary analysis was conducted by intention to treat.

Results

Of 3100 participants offered a vitamin D test, 2958 (95.4%) accepted and 2674 (86.3%) had 25(OH)D concentrations <75 nmol/L and received vitamin D supplements (n=1328 lower dose, n=1346 higher dose). Compared with 136/2949 (4.6%) participants in the no offer group, at least one acute respiratory tract infection of any cause occurred in 87/1515 (5.7%) in the lower dose group (odds ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval 0.96 to 1.66) and 76/1515 (5.0%) in the higher dose group (1.09, 0.82 to 1.46). Compared with 78/2949 (2.6%) participants in the no offer group, 55/1515 (3.6%) developed covid-19 in the lower dose group (1.39, 0.98 to 1.97) and 45/1515 (3.0%) in the higher dose group (1.13, 0.78 to 1.63).

Conclusions

Among people aged 16 years and older with a high baseline prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D status, implementation of a population level test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation was not associated with a reduction in risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection or covid-19.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04579640.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2022-071230.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358?pdf=render 34861180,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00491-4,Risk of COVID-19 hospital admission among children aged 5-17 years with asthma in Scotland: a national incident cohort study.,"Shi T, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Kerr S, Agrawal U, Shah SA, Simpson CR, Ritchie LD, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Public Health Scotland and the EAVE II Collaborators.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2021-11-30,Y,,,,"

Background

There is an urgent need to inform policy deliberations about whether children with asthma should be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and, if so, which subset of children with asthma should be prioritised. We were asked by the UK's Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunisation to undertake an urgent analysis to identify which children with asthma were at increased risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

This national incident cohort study was done in all children in Scotland aged 5-17 years who were included in the linked dataset of Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II). We used data from EAVE II to investigate the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation among children with markers of uncontrolled asthma defined by either previous asthma hospital admission or oral corticosteroid prescription in the previous 2 years. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for the association between asthma and COVID-19 hospital admission, stratified by markers of asthma control (previous asthma hospital admission and number of previous prescriptions for oral corticosteroids within 2 years of the study start date). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity, and previous hospital admission.

Findings

Between March 1, 2020, and July 27, 2021, 752 867 children were included in the EAVE II dataset, 63 463 (8·4%) of whom had clinician-diagnosed-and-recorded asthma. Of these, 4339 (6·8%) had RT-PCR confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. In those with confirmed infection, 67 (1·5%) were admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Among the 689 404 children without asthma, 40 231 (5·8%) had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, of whom 382 (0·9%) were admitted to hospital with COVID-19. The rate of COVID-19 hospital admission was higher in children with poorly controlled asthma than in those with well controlled asthma or without asthma. When using previous hospital admission for asthma as the marker of uncontrolled asthma, the adjusted HR was 6·40 (95% CI 3·27-12·53) for those with poorly controlled asthma and 1·36 (1·02-1·80) for those with well controlled asthma, compared with those with no asthma. When using oral corticosteroid prescriptions as the marker of uncontrolled asthma, the adjusted HR was 3·38 (1·84-6·21) for those with three or more prescribed courses of corticosteroids, 3·53 (1·87-6·67) for those with two prescribed courses of corticosteroids, 1·52 (0·90-2·57) for those with one prescribed course of corticosteroids, and 1·34 (0·98-1·82) for those with no prescribed course, compared with those with no asthma.

Interpretation

School-aged children with asthma with previous recent hospital admission or two or more courses of oral corticosteroids are at markedly increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admission and should be considered a priority for vaccinations. This would translate into 9124 children across Scotland and an estimated 109 448 children across the UK.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK, and Scottish Government.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00491-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00491-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8631918 @@ -144,14 +144,14 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 34850818,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223,"COVID-19 infection risk amongst 14,104 vaccinated care home residents: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, UK, December 2020-March 2021. ","Hollinghurst J, North L, Perry M, Akbari A, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-01-01,Y,,,,"vaccinations for COVID-19 have been prioritised for older people living in care homes. However, vaccination trials included limited numbers of older people. we aimed to study infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 for older care home residents following vaccination and identify factors associated with increased risk of infection. we conducted an observational data-linkage study including 14,104 vaccinated older care home residents in Wales (UK) using anonymised electronic health records and administrative data. we used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination, after landmark times of either 7 or 21 days post-vaccination. We adjusted HRs for age, sex, frailty, prior SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination type. we observed a small proportion of care home residents with positive polymerase chain reaction (tests following vaccination 1.05% (N = 148), with 90% of infections occurring within 28 days. For the 7-day landmark analysis we found a reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for vaccinated individuals who had a previous infection; HR (95% confidence interval) 0.54 (0.30, 0.95). For the 21-day landmark analysis, we observed high HRs for individuals with low and intermediate frailty compared with those without; 4.59 (1.23, 17.12) and 4.85 (1.68, 14.04), respectively. increased risk of infection after 21 days was associated with frailty. We found most infections occurred within 28 days of vaccination, suggesting extra precautions to reduce transmission risk should be taken in this time frame.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/1/afab223/42083726/afab223.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013?pdf=render 36609412,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324713,"Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Scottish neonates 2020-2022: a national, population-based cohort study.","Goulding A, McQuaid F, Lindsay L, Agrawal U, Auyeung B, Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hillman S, Hopcroft L, Hopkins L, McCowan C, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Ritchie L, Simpson CR, Taylor B, Fenton L, Pollock L, Gale C, Kurinczuk JJ, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock S, Wood R.",,Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition,2023,2023-01-06,Y,epidemiology; Neonatology; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To examine neonates in Scotland aged 0-27 days with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by viral testing; the risk of confirmed neonatal infection by maternal and infant characteristics; and hospital admissions associated with confirmed neonatal infections.

Design

Population-based cohort study.

Setting and population

All live births in Scotland, 1 March 2020-31 January 2022.

Results

There were 141 neonates with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection over the study period, giving an overall infection rate of 153 per 100 000 live births (141/92 009, 0.15%). Among infants born to women with confirmed infection around the time of birth, the confirmed neonatal infection rate was 1812 per 100 000 live births (15/828, 1.8%). Two-thirds (92/141, 65.2%) of neonates with confirmed infection had an associated admission to neonatal or (more commonly) paediatric care. Six of these babies (6/92, 6.5%) were admitted to neonatal and/or paediatric intensive care; however, none of these six had COVID-19 recorded as their main diagnosis. There were no neonatal deaths among babies with confirmed infection.

Implications and relevance

Confirmed neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection was uncommon over the first 23 months of the pandemic in Scotland. Secular trends in the neonatal confirmed infection rate broadly followed those seen in the general population, although at a lower level. Maternal confirmed infection at birth was associated with an increased risk of neonatal confirmed infection. Two-thirds of neonates with confirmed infection had an associated admission to hospital, with resulting implications for the baby, family and services, although their outcomes were generally good. Ascertainment of confirmed infection depends on the extent of testing, and this is likely to have varied over time and between groups: the extent of unconfirmed infection is inevitably unknown.",,pdf:https://fn.bmj.com/content/fetalneonatal/early/2023/01/05/archdischild-2022-324713.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324713; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313998; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313998?pdf=render 36098502,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.78427,"Effectiveness of rapid SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing in supporting infection control for hospital-onset COVID-19 infection: Multicentre, prospective study.","Stirrup O, Blackstone J, Mapp F, MacNeil A, Panca M, Holmes A, Machin N, Shin GY, Mahungu T, Saeed K, Saluja T, Taha Y, Mahida N, Pope C, Chawla A, Cutino-Moguel MT, Tamuri A, Williams R, Darby A, Robertson DL, Flaviani F, Nastouli E, Robson S, Smith D, Loose M, Laing K, Monahan I, Kele B, Haldenby S, George R, Bashton M, Witney AA, Byott M, Coll F, Chapman M, Peacock SJ, COG-UK HOCI Investigators, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, Hughes J, Nebbia G, Partridge DG, Parker M, Price JR, Peters C, Roy S, Snell LB, de Silva TI, Thomson E, Flowers P, Copas A, Breuer J.",,eLife,2022,2022-09-13,Y,Human; Microbiology; Infectious disease; Molecular epidemiology; Infection control; epidemiology; Global Health; Hospital-acquired Infection; Infection Prevention; Viral Genomics; Healthcare-associated Infection; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Viral sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 has been used for outbreak investigation, but there is limited evidence supporting routine use for infection prevention and control (IPC) within hospital settings.

Methods

We conducted a prospective non-randomised trial of sequencing at 14 acute UK hospital trusts. Sites each had a 4-week baseline data collection period, followed by intervention periods comprising 8 weeks of 'rapid' (<48 hr) and 4 weeks of 'longer-turnaround' (5-10 days) sequencing using a sequence reporting tool (SRT). Data were collected on all hospital-onset COVID-19 infections (HOCIs; detected ≥48 hr from admission). The impact of the sequencing intervention on IPC knowledge and actions, and on the incidence of probable/definite hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), was evaluated.

Results

A total of 2170 HOCI cases were recorded from October 2020 to April 2021, corresponding to a period of extreme strain on the health service, with sequence reports returned for 650/1320 (49.2%) during intervention phases. We did not detect a statistically significant change in weekly incidence of HAIs in longer-turnaround (incidence rate ratio 1.60, 95% CI 0.85-3.01; p=0.14) or rapid (0.85, 0.48-1.50; p=0.54) intervention phases compared to baseline phase. However, IPC practice was changed in 7.8 and 7.4% of all HOCI cases in rapid and longer-turnaround phases, respectively, and 17.2 and 11.6% of cases where the report was returned. In a 'per-protocol' sensitivity analysis, there was an impact on IPC actions in 20.7% of HOCI cases when the SRT report was returned within 5 days. Capacity to respond effectively to insights from sequencing was breached in most sites by the volume of cases and limited resources.

Conclusions

While we did not demonstrate a direct impact of sequencing on the incidence of nosocomial transmission, our results suggest that sequencing can inform IPC response to HOCIs, particularly when returned within 5 days.

Funding

COG-UK is supported by funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) (grant code: MC_PC_19027), and Genome Research Limited, operating as the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Clinical trial number

NCT04405934.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.78427; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.78427; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9596156; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9596156?pdf=render -35790970,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08202-z,Access to personal protective equipment in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: results from a nationwide cohort study (UK-REACH).,"Martin CA, Pan D, Nazareth J, Aujayeb A, Bryant L, Carr S, Gray LJ, Gregary B, Gupta A, Guyatt AL, Gopal A, Hine T, John C, McManus IC, Melbourne C, Nellums LB, Reza R, Simpson S, Tobin MD, Woolf K, Zingwe S, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMC health services research,2022,2022-07-05,Y,Personal Protective Equipment; Ethnicity; Healthcare Worker; Ppe; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Effective use of personal protective equipment (PPE) reduces this risk. We sought to determine the prevalence and predictors of self-reported access to appropriate PPE (aPPE) for HCWs in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted cross sectional analyses using data from a nationwide questionnaire-based cohort study administered between December 2020-February 2021. The outcome was a binary measure of self-reported aPPE (access all of the time vs access most of the time or less frequently) at two timepoints: the first national lockdown in the UK in March 2020 (primary analysis) and at the time of questionnaire response (secondary analysis).

Results

Ten thousand five hundred eight HCWs were included in the primary analysis, and 12,252 in the secondary analysis. 35.2% of HCWs reported aPPE at all times in the primary analysis; 83.9% reported aPPE at all times in the secondary analysis. In the primary analysis, after adjustment (for age, sex, ethnicity, migration status, occupation, aerosol generating procedure exposure, work sector and region, working hours, night shift frequency and trust in employing organisation), older HCWs and those working in Intensive Care Units were more likely to report aPPE at all times. Asian HCWs (aOR:0.77, 95%CI 0.67-0.89 [vs White]), those in allied health professional and dental roles (vs those in medical roles), and those who saw a higher number of COVID-19 patients compared to those who saw none (≥ 21 patients/week 0.74, 0.61-0.90) were less likely to report aPPE at all times. Those who trusted their employing organisation to deal with concerns about unsafe clinical practice, compared to those who did not, were twice as likely to report aPPE at all times. Significant predictors were largely unchanged in the secondary analysis.

Conclusions

Only a third of HCWs in the UK reported aPPE at all times during the first lockdown and that aPPE had improved later in the pandemic. We also identified key determinants of aPPE during the first UK lockdown, which have mostly persisted since lockdown was eased. These findings have important implications for the safe delivery of healthcare during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-022-08202-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08202-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9255515; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9255515?pdf=render 36227072,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocac203,Transforming and evaluating the UK Biobank to the OMOP Common Data Model for COVID-19 research and beyond.,"Papez V, Moinat M, Voss EA, Bazakou S, Van Winzum A, Peviani A, Payralbe S, Kallfelz M, Asselbergs FW, Prieto-Alhambra D, Dobson RJB, Denaxas S.",,Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Phenotyping; Electronic Health Records; Omop; Common Data Model; Medical Ontologies,,,"

Objective

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated the value of real-world data for public health research. International federated analyses are crucial for informing policy makers. Common data models (CDMs) are critical for enabling these studies to be performed efficiently. Our objective was to convert the UK Biobank, a study of 500 000 participants with rich genetic and phenotypic data to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) CDM.

Materials and methods

We converted UK Biobank data to OMOP CDM v. 5.3. We transformedparticipant research data on diseases collected at recruitment and electronic health records (EHRs) from primary care, hospitalizations, cancer registrations, and mortality from providers in England, Scotland, and Wales. We performed syntactic and semantic validations and compared comorbidities and risk factors between source and transformed data.

Results

We identified 502 505 participants (3086 with COVID-19) and transformed 690 fields (1 373 239 555 rows) to the OMOP CDM using 8 different controlled clinical terminologies and bespoke mappings. Specifically, we transformed self-reported noncancer illnesses 946 053 (83.91% of all source entries), cancers 37 802 (70.81%), medications 1 218 935 (88.25%), and prescriptions 864 788 (86.96%). In EHR, we transformed 13 028 182 (99.95%) hospital diagnoses, 6 465 399 (89.2%) procedures, 337 896 333 primary care diagnoses (CTV3, SNOMED-CT), 139 966 587 (98.74%) prescriptions (dm+d) and 77 127 (99.95%) deaths (ICD-10). We observed good concordance across demographic, risk factor, and comorbidity factors between source and transformed data.

Discussion and conclusion

Our study demonstrated that the OMOP CDM can be successfully leveraged to harmonize complex large-scale biobanked studies combining rich multimodal phenotypic data. Our study uncovered several challenges when transforming data from questionnaires to the OMOP CDM which require further research. The transformed UK Biobank resource is a valuable tool that can enable federated research, like COVID-19 studies.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article-pdf/30/1/103/47829607/ocac203.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocac203; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9619789; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9619789?pdf=render +35790970,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08202-z,Access to personal protective equipment in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: results from a nationwide cohort study (UK-REACH).,"Martin CA, Pan D, Nazareth J, Aujayeb A, Bryant L, Carr S, Gray LJ, Gregary B, Gupta A, Guyatt AL, Gopal A, Hine T, John C, McManus IC, Melbourne C, Nellums LB, Reza R, Simpson S, Tobin MD, Woolf K, Zingwe S, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMC health services research,2022,2022-07-05,Y,Personal Protective Equipment; Ethnicity; Healthcare Worker; Ppe; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Effective use of personal protective equipment (PPE) reduces this risk. We sought to determine the prevalence and predictors of self-reported access to appropriate PPE (aPPE) for HCWs in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted cross sectional analyses using data from a nationwide questionnaire-based cohort study administered between December 2020-February 2021. The outcome was a binary measure of self-reported aPPE (access all of the time vs access most of the time or less frequently) at two timepoints: the first national lockdown in the UK in March 2020 (primary analysis) and at the time of questionnaire response (secondary analysis).

Results

Ten thousand five hundred eight HCWs were included in the primary analysis, and 12,252 in the secondary analysis. 35.2% of HCWs reported aPPE at all times in the primary analysis; 83.9% reported aPPE at all times in the secondary analysis. In the primary analysis, after adjustment (for age, sex, ethnicity, migration status, occupation, aerosol generating procedure exposure, work sector and region, working hours, night shift frequency and trust in employing organisation), older HCWs and those working in Intensive Care Units were more likely to report aPPE at all times. Asian HCWs (aOR:0.77, 95%CI 0.67-0.89 [vs White]), those in allied health professional and dental roles (vs those in medical roles), and those who saw a higher number of COVID-19 patients compared to those who saw none (≥ 21 patients/week 0.74, 0.61-0.90) were less likely to report aPPE at all times. Those who trusted their employing organisation to deal with concerns about unsafe clinical practice, compared to those who did not, were twice as likely to report aPPE at all times. Significant predictors were largely unchanged in the secondary analysis.

Conclusions

Only a third of HCWs in the UK reported aPPE at all times during the first lockdown and that aPPE had improved later in the pandemic. We also identified key determinants of aPPE during the first UK lockdown, which have mostly persisted since lockdown was eased. These findings have important implications for the safe delivery of healthcare during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-022-08202-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08202-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9255515; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9255515?pdf=render 35879616,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w,Symptoms and risk factors for long COVID in non-hospitalized adults.,"Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, Hughes S, Myles P, Williams T, Gokhale KM, Taverner T, Chandan JS, Brown K, Simms-Williams N, Shah AD, Singh M, Kidy F, Okoth K, Hotham R, Bashir N, Cockburn N, Lee SI, Turner GM, Gkoutos GV, Aiyegbusi OL, McMullan C, Denniston AK, Sapey E, Lord JM, Wraith DC, Leggett E, Iles C, Marshall T, Price MJ, Marwaha S, Davies EH, Jackson LJ, Matthews KL, Camaradou J, Calvert M, Haroon S.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-07-25,Y,,,,"Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is associated with a range of persistent symptoms impacting everyday functioning, known as post-COVID-19 condition or long COVID. We undertook a retrospective matched cohort study using a UK-based primary care database, Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum, to determine symptoms that are associated with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond 12 weeks in non-hospitalized adults and the risk factors associated with developing persistent symptoms. We selected 486,149 adults with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 1,944,580 propensity score-matched adults with no recorded evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Outcomes included 115 individual symptoms, as well as long COVID, defined as a composite outcome of 33 symptoms by the World Health Organization clinical case definition. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for the outcomes. A total of 62 symptoms were significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection after 12 weeks. The largest aHRs were for anosmia (aHR 6.49, 95% CI 5.02-8.39), hair loss (3.99, 3.63-4.39), sneezing (2.77, 1.40-5.50), ejaculation difficulty (2.63, 1.61-4.28) and reduced libido (2.36, 1.61-3.47). Among the cohort of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, risk factors for long COVID included female sex, belonging to an ethnic minority, socioeconomic deprivation, smoking, obesity and a wide range of comorbidities. The risk of developing long COVID was also found to be increased along a gradient of decreasing age. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a plethora of symptoms that are associated with a range of sociodemographic and clinical risk factors.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01909-w.pdf 35793922,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059385,Deriving and validating a risk prediction model for long COVID-19: protocol for an observational cohort study using linked Scottish data.,"Daines L, Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Hammersley V, Weatherill D, Katikireddi SV, Kerr S, Moore E, Pesenti E, Quint JK, Shah SA, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-07-06,Y,Public Health; Protocols & Guidelines; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 is commonly experienced as an acute illness, yet some people continue to have symptoms that persist for weeks, or months (commonly referred to as 'long-COVID'). It remains unclear which patients are at highest risk of developing long-COVID. In this protocol, we describe plans to develop a prediction model to identify individuals at risk of developing long-COVID.

Methods and analysis

We will use the national Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, a population-level linked dataset of routine electronic healthcare data from 5.4 million individuals in Scotland. We will identify potential indicators for long-COVID by identifying patterns in primary care data linked to information from out-of-hours general practitioner encounters, accident and emergency visits, hospital admissions, outpatient visits, medication prescribing/dispensing and mortality. We will investigate the potential indicators of long-COVID by performing a matched analysis between those with a positive reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 infection and two control groups: (1) individuals with at least one negative RT-PCR test and never tested positive; (2) the general population (everyone who did not test positive) of Scotland. Cluster analysis will then be used to determine the final definition of the outcome measure for long-COVID. We will then derive, internally and externally validate a prediction model to identify the epidemiological risk factors associated with long-COVID.

Ethics and dissemination

The EAVE II study has obtained approvals from the Research Ethics Committee (reference: 12/SS/0201), and the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (reference: 1920-0279). Study findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences. Understanding the predictors for long-COVID and identifying the patient groups at greatest risk of persisting symptoms will inform future treatments and preventative strategies for long-COVID.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/7/e059385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199?pdf=render 35572721,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419,Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in double and triple vaccinated adults and single dose vaccine effectiveness among children in Autumn 2021 in England: REACT-1 study.,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Eales O, Bodinier B, Wang H, Haw D, Whitaker M, Elliott J, Walters CE, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-05-06,Y,School-aged children; Vaccine Effectiveness; Booster Dose; Children Vaccination; Sars-cov-2 Prevalence,,,"

Background

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection with Delta variant was increasing in England in late summer 2021 among children aged 5 to 17 years, and adults who had received two vaccine doses. In September 2021, a third (booster) dose was offered to vaccinated adults aged 50 years and over, vulnerable adults and healthcare/care-home workers, and a single vaccine dose already offered to 16 and 17 year-olds was extended to children aged 12 to 15 years.

Methods

SARS-CoV-2 community prevalence in England was available from self-administered throat and nose swabs using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in round 13 (24 June to 12 July 2021, N = 98,233), round 14 (9 to 27 September 2021, N = 100,527) and round 15 (19 October to 5 November 2021, N = 100,112) from the REACT-1 study randomised community surveys. Linking to National Health Service (NHS) vaccination data for consenting participants, we estimated vaccine effectiveness in children aged 12 to 17 years and compared swab-positivity rates in adults who received a third dose with those who received two doses.

Findings

Weighted SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was 1.57% (1.48%, 1.66%) in round 15 compared with 0.83% (0.76%, 0.89%) in round 14, and the previously observed link between infections and hospitalisations and deaths had weakened. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in children aged 12 to 17 years was estimated (round 15) at 64.0% (50.9%, 70.6%) and 67.7% (53.8%, 77.5%) for symptomatic infections. Adults who received a third vaccine dose were less likely to test positive compared to those who received two doses, with adjusted OR of 0.36 (0.25, 0.53).

Interpretation

Vaccination of children aged 12 to 17 years and third (booster) doses in adults were effective at reducing infection risk. High rates of vaccination, including booster doses, are a key part of the strategy to reduce infection rates in the community.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001493/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030?pdf=render 34301672,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053402,Sociodemographic inequality in COVID-19 vaccination coverage among elderly adults in England: a national linked data study.,"Nafilyan V, Dolby T, Razieh C, Gaughan CH, Morgan J, Ayoubkhani D, Walker S, Khunti K, Glickman M, Yates T.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-07-23,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To examine inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination rates among elderly adults in England.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

People living in private households and communal establishments in England.

Participants

6 655 672 adults aged ≥70 years (mean 78.8 years, 55.2% women) who were alive on 15 March 2021.

Main outcome measures

Having received the first dose of a vaccine against COVID-19 by 15 March 2021. We calculated vaccination rates and estimated unadjusted and adjusted ORs using logistic regression models.

Results

By 15 March 2021, 93.2% of people living in England aged 70 years and over had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. While vaccination rates differed across all factors considered apart from sex, the greatest disparities were seen between ethnic and religious groups. The lowest rates were in people of black African and black Caribbean ethnic backgrounds, where only 67.2% and 73.8% had received a vaccine, with adjusted odds of not being vaccinated at 5.01 (95% CI 4.86 to 5.16) and 4.85 (4.75 to 4.96) times greater than the white British group. The proportion of individuals self-identifying as Muslim and Buddhist who had received a vaccine was 79.1% and 84.1%, respectively. Older age, greater area deprivation, less advantaged socioeconomic position (proxied by living in a rented home), being disabled and living either alone or in a multigenerational household were also associated with higher odds of not having received the vaccine.

Conclusion

Research is now urgently needed to understand why disparities exist in these groups and how they can best be addressed through public health policy and community engagement.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e053402.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8313303; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8313303?pdf=render -37498081,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.84673,Eleven key measures for monitoring general practice clinical activity during COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study using 48 million adults' primary care records in England through OpenSAFELY.,"Fisher L, Curtis HJ, Croker R, Wiedemann M, Speed V, Wood C, Brown A, Hopcroft LEM, Higgins R, Massey J, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Macdonald O, Lewis T, Wood M, Myers M, Samuel M, Conibere R, Baqir W, Sood H, Drury C, Collison K, Bates C, Evans D, Dillingham I, Ward T, Davy S, Smith RM, Hulme W, Green A, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Cockburn J, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, MacKenna B, Goldacre B.",,eLife,2023,2023-07-27,Y,Human; epidemiology; Public Health; Primary Care; Global Health; Health Informatics,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on delivery of NHS care. We have developed the OpenSAFELY Service Restoration Observatory (SRO) to develop key measures of primary care activity and describe the trends in these measures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we developed an open source software framework for data management and analysis to describe trends and variation in clinical activity across primary care electronic health record (EHR) data on 48 million adults.We developed SNOMED-CT codelists for key measures of primary care clinical activity such as blood pressure monitoring and asthma reviews, selected by an expert clinical advisory group and conducted a population cohort-based study to describe trends and variation in these measures January 2019-December 2021, and pragmatically classified their level of recovery one year into the pandemic using the percentage change in the median practice level rate.

Results

We produced 11 measures reflective of clinical activity in general practice. A substantial drop in activity was observed in all measures at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By April 2021, the median rate had recovered to within 15% of the median rate in April 2019 in six measures. The remaining measures showed a sustained drop, ranging from a 18.5% reduction in medication reviews to a 42.0% reduction in blood pressure monitoring. Three measures continued to show a sustained drop by December 2021.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a substantial change in primary care activity across the measures we developed, with recovery in most measures. We delivered an open source software framework to describe trends and variation in clinical activity across an unprecedented scale of primary care data. We will continue to expand the set of key measures to be routinely monitored using our publicly available NHS OpenSAFELY SRO dashboards with near real-time data.

Funding

This research used data assets made available as part of the Data and Connectivity National Core Study, led by Health Data Research UK in partnership with the Office for National Statistics and funded by UK Research and Innovation (grant ref MC_PC_20058).The OpenSAFELY Platform is supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84673; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10374277; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10374277?pdf=render 35104687,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2022.103333,A common TMPRSS2 variant has a protective effect against severe COVID-19.,"David A, Parkinson N, Peacock TP, Pairo-Castineira E, Khanna T, Cobat A, Tenesa A, Sancho-Shimizu V, GenOMICC Consortium, ISARIC4C Investigators, Casanova JL, Abel L, Barclay WS, Baillie JK, Sternberg MJ.",,Current research in translational medicine,2022,2022-01-10,Y,Tmprss2; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Targeting The Host To Prevent Covid19 Severity,,,"

Background

The human protein transmembrane protease serine type 2 (TMPRSS2) plays a key role in SARS-CoV-2 infection, as it is required to activate the virus' spike protein, facilitating entry into target cells. We hypothesized that naturally-occurring TMPRSS2 human genetic variants affecting the structure and function of the TMPRSS2 protein may modulate the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods

We focused on the only common TMPRSS2 non-synonymous variant predicted to be damaging (rs12329760 C>T, p.V160M), which has a minor allele frequency ranging from 0.14 in Ashkenazi Jewish to 0.38 in East Asians. We analysed the association between the rs12329760 and COVID-19 severity in 2,244 critically ill patients with COVID-19 from 208 UK intensive care units recruited as part of the GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality In Critical Care) study. Logistic regression analyses were adjusted for sex, age and deprivation index. For in vitro studies, HEK293 cells were co-transfected with ACE2 and either TMPRSS2 wild type or mutant (TMPRSS2V160M). A SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus entry assay was used to investigate the ability of TMPRSS2V160M to promote viral entry.

Results

We show that the T allele of rs12329760 is associated with a reduced likelihood of developing severe COVID-19 (OR 0.87, 95%CI:0.79-0.97, p = 0.01). This association was stronger in homozygous individuals when compared to the general population (OR 0.65, 95%CI:0.50-0.84, p = 1.3 × 10-3). We demonstrate in vitro that this variant, which causes the amino acid substitution valine to methionine, affects the catalytic activity of TMPRSS2 and is less able to support SARS-CoV-2 spike-mediated entry into cells.

Conclusion

TMPRSS2 rs12329760 is a common variant associated with a significantly decreased risk of severe COVID-19. Further studies are needed to assess the expression of TMPRSS2 across different age groups. Moreover, our results identify TMPRSS2 as a promising drug target, with a potential role for camostat mesilate, a drug approved for the treatment of chronic pancreatitis and postoperative reflux esophagitis, in the treatment of COVID-19. Clinical trials are needed to confirm this.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2022.103333; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2022.103333; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8743599; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8743599?pdf=render +37498081,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.84673,Eleven key measures for monitoring general practice clinical activity during COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study using 48 million adults' primary care records in England through OpenSAFELY.,"Fisher L, Curtis HJ, Croker R, Wiedemann M, Speed V, Wood C, Brown A, Hopcroft LEM, Higgins R, Massey J, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Macdonald O, Lewis T, Wood M, Myers M, Samuel M, Conibere R, Baqir W, Sood H, Drury C, Collison K, Bates C, Evans D, Dillingham I, Ward T, Davy S, Smith RM, Hulme W, Green A, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Cockburn J, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, MacKenna B, Goldacre B.",,eLife,2023,2023-07-27,Y,Human; epidemiology; Public Health; Primary Care; Global Health; Health Informatics,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on delivery of NHS care. We have developed the OpenSAFELY Service Restoration Observatory (SRO) to develop key measures of primary care activity and describe the trends in these measures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we developed an open source software framework for data management and analysis to describe trends and variation in clinical activity across primary care electronic health record (EHR) data on 48 million adults.We developed SNOMED-CT codelists for key measures of primary care clinical activity such as blood pressure monitoring and asthma reviews, selected by an expert clinical advisory group and conducted a population cohort-based study to describe trends and variation in these measures January 2019-December 2021, and pragmatically classified their level of recovery one year into the pandemic using the percentage change in the median practice level rate.

Results

We produced 11 measures reflective of clinical activity in general practice. A substantial drop in activity was observed in all measures at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By April 2021, the median rate had recovered to within 15% of the median rate in April 2019 in six measures. The remaining measures showed a sustained drop, ranging from a 18.5% reduction in medication reviews to a 42.0% reduction in blood pressure monitoring. Three measures continued to show a sustained drop by December 2021.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a substantial change in primary care activity across the measures we developed, with recovery in most measures. We delivered an open source software framework to describe trends and variation in clinical activity across an unprecedented scale of primary care data. We will continue to expand the set of key measures to be routinely monitored using our publicly available NHS OpenSAFELY SRO dashboards with near real-time data.

Funding

This research used data assets made available as part of the Data and Connectivity National Core Study, led by Health Data Research UK in partnership with the Office for National Statistics and funded by UK Research and Innovation (grant ref MC_PC_20058).The OpenSAFELY Platform is supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84673; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10374277; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10374277?pdf=render 34132940,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-021-00765-1,Ethnic differences in COVID-19 mortality during the first two waves of the Coronavirus Pandemic: a nationwide cohort study of 29 million adults in England.,"Nafilyan V, Islam N, Mathur R, Ayoubkhani D, Banerjee A, Glickman M, Humberstone B, Diamond I, Khunti K.",,European journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-06-16,Y,Mortality; Ethnicity; Covid-19,,,"Ethnic minorities have experienced disproportionate COVID-19 mortality rates in the UK and many other countries. We compared the differences in the risk of COVID-19 related death between ethnic groups in the first and second waves the of COVID-19 pandemic in England. We also investigated whether the factors explaining differences in COVID-19 death between ethnic groups changed between the two waves. Using data from the Office for National Statistics Public Health Data Asset, a linked dataset combining the 2011 Census with primary care and hospital records and death registrations, we conducted an observational cohort study to examine differences in the risk of death involving COVID-19 between ethnic groups in the first wave (from 24th January 2020 until 31st August 2020) and the first part of the second wave (from 1st September to 28th December 2020). We estimated age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) in the two waves stratified by ethnic groups and sex. We also estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for ethnic-minority groups compared with the White British population, adjusted for geographical factors, socio-demographic characteristics, and pre-pandemic health conditions. The study population included over 28.9 million individuals aged 30-100 years living in private households. In the first wave, all ethnic minority groups had a higher risk of COVID-19 related death compared to the White British population. In the second wave, the risk of COVID-19 death remained elevated for people from Pakistani (ASMR: 339.9 [95% CI: 303.7-376.2] and 166.8 [141.7-191.9] deaths per 100,000 population in men and women) and Bangladeshi (318.7 [247.4-390.1] and 127.1 [91.1-171.3] in men and women) background but not for people from Black ethnic groups. Adjustment for geographical factors explained a large proportion of the differences in COVID-19 mortality in the first wave but not in the second wave. Despite an attenuation of the elevated risk of COVID-19 mortality after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and health status, the risk was substantially higher in people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani background in both the first and the second waves. Between the first and second waves of the pandemic, the reduction in the difference in COVID-19 mortality between people from Black ethnic background and people from the White British group shows that ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 mortality can be addressed. The continued higher rate of mortality in people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani background is alarming and requires focused public health campaign and policy changes.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-021-00765-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-021-00765-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8206182; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8206182?pdf=render 34304048,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485,Shorter leukocyte telomere length is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes: A cohort study in UK Biobank.,"Wang Q, Codd V, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Musicha C, Bountziouka V, Kaptoge S, Allara E, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Wood AM, Thompson JR, Petersen SE, Harvey NC, Danesh JN, Samani NJ, Nelson CP.",,EBioMedicine,2021,2021-07-23,Y,,,,"Background Older age is the most powerful risk factor for adverse coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) outcomes. It is uncertain whether leucocyte telomere length (LTL), previously proposed as a marker of biological age, is also associated with COVID-19 outcomes. Methods We associated LTL values obtained from participants recruited into UK Biobank (UKB) during 2006-2010 with adverse COVID-19 outcomes recorded by 30 November 2020, defined as a composite of any of the following: hospital admission, need for critical care, respiratory support, or mortality. Using information on 130 LTL-associated genetic variants, we conducted exploratory Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses in UKB to evaluate whether observational associations might reflect cause-and-effect relationships. Findings Of 6775 participants in UKB who tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 in the community, there were 914 (13.5%) with adverse COVID-19 outcomes. The odds ratio (OR) for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was 1·17 (95% CI 1·05-1·30; P = 0·004) per 1-SD shorter usual LTL, after adjustment for age, sex and ethnicity. Similar ORs were observed in analyses that: adjusted for additional risk factors; disaggregated the composite outcome and reduced the scope for selection or collider bias. In MR analyses, the OR for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was directionally concordant but non-significant. Interpretation Shorter LTL is associated with higher risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes, independent of several major risk factors for COVID-19 including age. Further data are needed to determine whether this association reflects causality. Funding UK Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and British Heart Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8299112; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8299112?pdf=render 35922409,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6,Dynamics of a national Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic during January 2022 in England.,"Elliott P, Eales O, Bodinier B, Tang D, Wang H, Jonnerby J, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-08-03,Y,,,,"Rapid transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has led to record-breaking case incidence rates around the world. Since May 2020, the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study tracked the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England through RT-PCR of self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly-selected participants aged 5 years and over. In January 2022, we found an overall weighted prevalence of 4.41% (n = 102,174), three-fold higher than in November to December 2021; we sequenced 2,374 (99.2%) Omicron infections (19 BA.2), and only 19 (0.79%) Delta, with a growth rate advantage for BA.2 compared to BA.1 or BA.1.1. Prevalence was decreasing overall (reproduction number R = 0.95, 95% credible interval [CrI], 0.93, 0.97), but increasing in children aged 5 to 17 years (R = 1.13, 95% CrI, 1.09, 1.18). In England during January 2022, we observed unprecedented levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially among children, driven by almost complete replacement of Delta by Omicron.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32121-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208?pdf=render @@ -160,23 +160,23 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 36680646,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6,Characterising patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms: evidence from nine UK longitudinal studies.,"Bowyer RCE, Huggins C, Toms R, Shaw RJ, Hou B, Thompson EJ, Kwong ASF, Williams DM, Kibble M, Ploubidis GB, Timpson NJ, Sterne JAC, Chaturvedi N, Steves CJ, Tilling K, Silverwood RJ, CONVALESCENCE Study.",,European journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-01-21,Y,Clustering; Longitudinal Studies; Symptom Patterns; Covid-19; Long Covid,,,"Multiple studies across global populations have established the primary symptoms characterising Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and long COVID. However, as symptoms may also occur in the absence of COVID-19, a lack of appropriate controls has often meant that specificity of symptoms to acute COVID-19 or long COVID, and the extent and length of time for which they are elevated after COVID-19, could not be examined. We analysed individual symptom prevalences and characterised patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms across nine UK longitudinal studies, totalling over 42,000 participants. Conducting latent class analyses separately in three groups ('no COVID-19', 'COVID-19 in last 12 weeks', 'COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago'), the data did not support the presence of more than two distinct symptom patterns, representing high and low symptom burden, in each group. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 in last 12 weeks' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of acute COVID-19, including loss of taste and smell, fatigue, cough, shortness of breath and muscle pains or aches. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of long COVID, including fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain or aches, difficulty concentrating and chest tightness. The identified symptom patterns among individuals with COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago were strongly associated with self-reported length of time unable to function as normal due to COVID-19 symptoms, suggesting that the symptom pattern identified corresponds to long COVID. Building the evidence base regarding typical long COVID symptoms will improve diagnosis of this condition and the ability to elicit underlying biological mechanisms, leading to better patient access to treatment and services.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244?pdf=render 35077449,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871,"Overall and cause-specific hospitalisation and death after COVID-19 hospitalisation in England: A cohort study using linked primary care, secondary care, and death registration data in the OpenSAFELY platform.","Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Hickman G, Hulme WJ, Schultze A, Curtis HJ, Wing K, Warren-Gash C, Tomlinson L, Bates CJ, Mathur R, MacKenna B, Mahalingasivam V, Wong A, Walker AJ, Morton CE, Grint D, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Inglesby P, Douglas IJ, McDonald HI, Cockburn J, Williamson EJ, Evans D, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Bacon S, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-01-25,Y,,,,"

Background

There is concern about medium to long-term adverse outcomes following acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), but little relevant evidence exists. We aimed to investigate whether risks of hospital admission and death, overall and by specific cause, are raised following discharge from a COVID-19 hospitalisation.

Methods and findings

With the approval of NHS-England, we conducted a cohort study, using linked primary care and hospital data in OpenSAFELY to compare risks of hospital admission and death, overall and by specific cause, between people discharged from COVID-19 hospitalisation (February to December 2020) and surviving at least 1 week, and (i) demographically matched controls from the 2019 general population; and (ii) people discharged from influenza hospitalisation in 2017 to 2019. We used Cox regression adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, obesity, smoking status, deprivation, and comorbidities considered potential risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes. We included 24,673 postdischarge COVID-19 patients, 123,362 general population controls, and 16,058 influenza controls, followed for ≤315 days. COVID-19 patients had median age of 66 years, 13,733 (56%) were male, and 19,061 (77%) were of white ethnicity. Overall risk of hospitalisation or death (30,968 events) was higher in the COVID-19 group than general population controls (fully adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 2.22, 2.14 to 2.30, p < 0.001) but slightly lower than the influenza group (aHR 0.95, 0.91 to 0.98, p = 0.004). All-cause mortality (7,439 events) was highest in the COVID-19 group (aHR 4.82, 4.48 to 5.19 versus general population controls [p < 0.001] and 1.74, 1.61 to 1.88 versus influenza controls [p < 0.001]). Risks for cause-specific outcomes were higher in COVID-19 survivors than in general population controls and largely similar or lower in COVID-19 compared with influenza patients. However, COVID-19 patients were more likely than influenza patients to be readmitted or die due to their initial infection or other lower respiratory tract infection (aHR 1.37, 1.22 to 1.54, p < 0.001) and to experience mental health or cognitive-related admission or death (aHR 1.37, 1.02 to 1.84, p = 0.039); in particular, COVID-19 survivors with preexisting dementia had higher risk of dementia hospitalisation or death (age- and sex-adjusted HR 2.47, 1.37 to 4.44, p = 0.002). Limitations of our study were that reasons for hospitalisation or death may have been misclassified in some cases due to inconsistent use of codes, and we did not have data to distinguish COVID-19 variants.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that people discharged from a COVID-19 hospital admission had markedly higher risks for rehospitalisation and death than the general population, suggesting a substantial extra burden on healthcare. Most risks were similar to those observed after influenza hospitalisations, but COVID-19 patients had higher risks of all-cause mortality, readmission or death due to the initial infection, and dementia death, highlighting the importance of postdischarge monitoring.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789178; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789178?pdf=render 35131989,https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000863,A clinical review of long-COVID with a focus on the respiratory system.,"Daines L, Zheng B, Pfeffer P, Hurst JR, Sheikh A.",,Current opinion in pulmonary medicine,2022,2022-02-07,N,,,,"

Purpose of review

Persistence of symptoms after acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), often described as long- COVID, is common and debilitating. In this article, we review the epidemiology, clinical features, and research priorities for long-COVID focusing on the respiratory system.

Recent findings

Breathlessness, cough and chest pain were the most commonly reported respiratory symptoms associated with long-COVID. In hospitalised patients, abnormalities on lung function testing or chest imaging were observed less commonly at 12 months compared to six months since discharge. Clinical assessment of patients with persisting symptoms after acute COVID-19 requires a comprehensive evaluation to exclude other possible causes for symptoms. With no robust current evidence for interventions to treat long-COVID respiratory symptoms, symptomatic treatment, supported self-management and pulmonary rehabilitation should be considered to help individuals with respiratory symptoms associated with long-COVID.

Summary

Long-COVID is a debilitating syndrome that often includes persisting respiratory symptoms and to a lesser degree, abnormalities in lung physiology or imaging. Respiratory features of long-COVID may reduce over time, yet resolution is not seen in all cases. Future research is needed to understand the natural history of long-COVID, identify factors associated with spontaneous improvement/persistence, investigate mechanisms for persisting symptoms, and test interventions to prevent and treat long-COVID.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612723; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/MCP.0000000000000863; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612723?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000863 -35192598,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003927,"First dose ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccinations and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis: A pooled self-controlled case series study of 11.6 million individuals in England, Scotland, and Wales.","Kerr S, Joy M, Torabi F, Bedston S, Akbari A, Agrawal U, Beggs J, Bradley D, Chuter A, Docherty AB, Ford D, Hobbs R, Katikireddi SV, Lowthian E, de Lusignan S, Lyons R, Marple J, McCowan C, McGagh D, McMenamin J, Moore E, Murray JK, Owen RK, Pan J, Ritchie L, Shah SA, Shi T, Stock S, Tsang RSM, Vasileiou E, Woolhouse M, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Several countries restricted the administration of ChAdOx1 to older age groups in 2021 over safety concerns following case reports and observed versus expected analyses suggesting a possible association with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). Large datasets are required to precisely estimate the association between Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination and CVST due to the extreme rarity of this event. We aimed to accomplish this by combining national data from England, Scotland, and Wales.

Methods and findings

We created data platforms consisting of linked primary care, secondary care, mortality, and virological testing data in each of England, Scotland, and Wales, with a combined cohort of 11,637,157 people and 6,808,293 person years of follow-up. The cohort start date was December 8, 2020, and the end date was June 30, 2021. The outcome measure we examined was incident CVST events recorded in either primary or secondary care records. We carried out a self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis of this outcome following first dose vaccination with ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2. The observation period consisted of an initial 90-day reference period, followed by a 2-week prerisk period directly prior to vaccination, and a 4-week risk period following vaccination. Counts of CVST cases from each country were tallied, then expanded into a full dataset with 1 row for each individual and observation time period. There was a combined total of 201 incident CVST events in the cohorts (29.5 per million person years). There were 81 CVST events in the observation period among those who a received first dose of ChAdOx1 (approximately 16.34 per million doses) and 40 for those who received a first dose of BNT162b2 (approximately 12.60 per million doses). We fitted conditional Poisson models to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Vaccination with ChAdOx1 was associated with an elevated risk of incident CVST events in the 28 days following vaccination, IRR = 1.93 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20 to 3.11). We did not find an association between BNT162b2 and CVST in the 28 days following vaccination, IRR = 0.78 (95% CI 0.34 to 1.77). Our study had some limitations. The SCCS study design implicitly controls for variables that are constant over the observation period, but also assumes that outcome events are independent of exposure. This assumption may not be satisfied in the case of CVST, firstly because it is a serious adverse event, and secondly because the vaccination programme in the United Kingdom prioritised the clinically extremely vulnerable and those with underlying health conditions, which may have caused a selection effect for individuals more prone to CVST. Although we pooled data from several large datasets, there was still a low number of events, which may have caused imprecision in our estimates.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed a small elevated risk of CVST events following vaccination with ChAdOx1, but not BNT162b2. Our analysis pooled information from large datasets from England, Scotland, and Wales. This evidence may be useful in risk-benefit analyses of vaccine policies and in providing quantification of risks associated with vaccination to the general public.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003927&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003927; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863261; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863261?pdf=render -35511729,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084,"COVID-19 risk factors amongst 14,786 care home residents: an observational longitudinal analysis including daily community positive test rates of COVID-19, hospital stays and vaccination status in Wales (UK) between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. ","Hollinghurst J, Hollinghurst R, North L, Mizen A, Akbari A, Long S, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"COVID-19 vaccinations have been prioritised for high risk individuals. Determine individual-level risk factors for care home residents testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Longitudinal observational cohort study using individual-level linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six older care home residents (aged 65+) living in Wales between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. Our dataset consisted of 2,613,341 individual-level daily observations within 697 care homes. We estimated odds ratios (ORs [95% confidence interval]) using multilevel logistic regression models. Our outcome of interest was a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. We included time-dependent covariates for the estimated community positive test rate of COVID-19, hospital inpatient status, vaccination status and frailty. Additional covariates were included for age, sex and specialist care home services. The multivariable regression model indicated an increase in age (OR 1.01 [1.00,1.01] per year), community positive test rate (OR 1.13 [1.12,1.13] per percent increase), hospital inpatients (OR 7.40 [6.54,8.36]), and residents in care homes with non-specialist dementia care (OR 1.42 [1.01,1.99]) had an increased odds of a positive test. Having a positive test prior to the observation period (OR 0.58 [0.49,0.68]) and either one or two doses of a vaccine (0.21 [0.17,0.25] and 0.05 [0.02,0.09], respectively) were associated with a decreased odds. Care providers need to remain vigilant despite the vaccination rollout, and extra precautions should be taken when caring for the most vulnerable. Minimising potential COVID-19 infection for care home residents when admitted to hospital should be prioritised.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac084/43520659/afac084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807?pdf=render 35814295,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00146-z,Machine learning to support visual auditing of home-based lateral flow immunoassay self-test results for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.,"Wong NCK, Meshkinfamfard S, Turbé V, Whitaker M, Moshe M, Bardanzellu A, Dai T, Pignatelli E, Barclay W, Darzi A, Elliott P, Ward H, Tanaka RJ, Cooke GS, McKendry RA, Atchison CJ, Bharath AA.",,Communications medicine,2022,2022-07-06,Y,Databases; Public Health,,,"

Background

Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) are being used worldwide for COVID-19 mass testing and antibody prevalence studies. Relatively simple to use and low cost, these tests can be self-administered at home, but rely on subjective interpretation of a test line by eye, risking false positives and false negatives. Here, we report on the development of ALFA (Automated Lateral Flow Analysis) to improve reported sensitivity and specificity.

Methods

Our computational pipeline uses machine learning, computer vision techniques and signal processing algorithms to analyse images of the Fortress LFIA SARS-CoV-2 antibody self-test, and subsequently classify results as invalid, IgG negative and IgG positive. A large image library of 595,339 participant-submitted test photographs was created as part of the REACT-2 community SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence study in England, UK. Alongside ALFA, we developed an analysis toolkit which could also detect device blood leakage issues.

Results

Automated analysis showed substantial agreement with human experts (Cohen's kappa 0.90-0.97) and performed consistently better than study participants, particularly for weak positive IgG results. Specificity (98.7-99.4%) and sensitivity (90.1-97.1%) were high compared with visual interpretation by human experts (ranges due to the varying prevalence of weak positive IgG tests in datasets).

Conclusions

Given the potential for LFIAs to be used at scale in the COVID-19 response (for both antibody and antigen testing), even a small improvement in the accuracy of the algorithms could impact the lives of millions of people by reducing the risk of false-positive and false-negative result read-outs by members of the public. Our findings support the use of machine learning-enabled automated reading of at-home antibody lateral flow tests as a tool for improved accuracy for population-level community surveillance.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00146-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00146-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259560?pdf=render +35511729,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084,"COVID-19 risk factors amongst 14,786 care home residents: an observational longitudinal analysis including daily community positive test rates of COVID-19, hospital stays and vaccination status in Wales (UK) between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. ","Hollinghurst J, Hollinghurst R, North L, Mizen A, Akbari A, Long S, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"COVID-19 vaccinations have been prioritised for high risk individuals. Determine individual-level risk factors for care home residents testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Longitudinal observational cohort study using individual-level linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six older care home residents (aged 65+) living in Wales between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. Our dataset consisted of 2,613,341 individual-level daily observations within 697 care homes. We estimated odds ratios (ORs [95% confidence interval]) using multilevel logistic regression models. Our outcome of interest was a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. We included time-dependent covariates for the estimated community positive test rate of COVID-19, hospital inpatient status, vaccination status and frailty. Additional covariates were included for age, sex and specialist care home services. The multivariable regression model indicated an increase in age (OR 1.01 [1.00,1.01] per year), community positive test rate (OR 1.13 [1.12,1.13] per percent increase), hospital inpatients (OR 7.40 [6.54,8.36]), and residents in care homes with non-specialist dementia care (OR 1.42 [1.01,1.99]) had an increased odds of a positive test. Having a positive test prior to the observation period (OR 0.58 [0.49,0.68]) and either one or two doses of a vaccine (0.21 [0.17,0.25] and 0.05 [0.02,0.09], respectively) were associated with a decreased odds. Care providers need to remain vigilant despite the vaccination rollout, and extra precautions should be taken when caring for the most vulnerable. Minimising potential COVID-19 infection for care home residents when admitted to hospital should be prioritised.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac084/43520659/afac084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807?pdf=render +35192598,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003927,"First dose ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccinations and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis: A pooled self-controlled case series study of 11.6 million individuals in England, Scotland, and Wales.","Kerr S, Joy M, Torabi F, Bedston S, Akbari A, Agrawal U, Beggs J, Bradley D, Chuter A, Docherty AB, Ford D, Hobbs R, Katikireddi SV, Lowthian E, de Lusignan S, Lyons R, Marple J, McCowan C, McGagh D, McMenamin J, Moore E, Murray JK, Owen RK, Pan J, Ritchie L, Shah SA, Shi T, Stock S, Tsang RSM, Vasileiou E, Woolhouse M, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Several countries restricted the administration of ChAdOx1 to older age groups in 2021 over safety concerns following case reports and observed versus expected analyses suggesting a possible association with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). Large datasets are required to precisely estimate the association between Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination and CVST due to the extreme rarity of this event. We aimed to accomplish this by combining national data from England, Scotland, and Wales.

Methods and findings

We created data platforms consisting of linked primary care, secondary care, mortality, and virological testing data in each of England, Scotland, and Wales, with a combined cohort of 11,637,157 people and 6,808,293 person years of follow-up. The cohort start date was December 8, 2020, and the end date was June 30, 2021. The outcome measure we examined was incident CVST events recorded in either primary or secondary care records. We carried out a self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis of this outcome following first dose vaccination with ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2. The observation period consisted of an initial 90-day reference period, followed by a 2-week prerisk period directly prior to vaccination, and a 4-week risk period following vaccination. Counts of CVST cases from each country were tallied, then expanded into a full dataset with 1 row for each individual and observation time period. There was a combined total of 201 incident CVST events in the cohorts (29.5 per million person years). There were 81 CVST events in the observation period among those who a received first dose of ChAdOx1 (approximately 16.34 per million doses) and 40 for those who received a first dose of BNT162b2 (approximately 12.60 per million doses). We fitted conditional Poisson models to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Vaccination with ChAdOx1 was associated with an elevated risk of incident CVST events in the 28 days following vaccination, IRR = 1.93 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20 to 3.11). We did not find an association between BNT162b2 and CVST in the 28 days following vaccination, IRR = 0.78 (95% CI 0.34 to 1.77). Our study had some limitations. The SCCS study design implicitly controls for variables that are constant over the observation period, but also assumes that outcome events are independent of exposure. This assumption may not be satisfied in the case of CVST, firstly because it is a serious adverse event, and secondly because the vaccination programme in the United Kingdom prioritised the clinically extremely vulnerable and those with underlying health conditions, which may have caused a selection effect for individuals more prone to CVST. Although we pooled data from several large datasets, there was still a low number of events, which may have caused imprecision in our estimates.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed a small elevated risk of CVST events following vaccination with ChAdOx1, but not BNT162b2. Our analysis pooled information from large datasets from England, Scotland, and Wales. This evidence may be useful in risk-benefit analyses of vaccine policies and in providing quantification of risks associated with vaccination to the general public.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003927&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003927; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863261; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863261?pdf=render 37034358,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101932,Contextualising adverse events of special interest to characterise the baseline incidence rates in 24 million patients with COVID-19 across 26 databases: a multinational retrospective cohort study.,"Voss EA, Shoaibi A, Yin Hui Lai L, Blacketer C, Alshammari T, Makadia R, Haynes K, Sena AG, Rao G, van Sandijk S, Fraboulet C, Boyer L, Le Carrour T, Horban S, Morales DR, Martínez Roldán J, Ramírez-Anguita JM, Mayer MA, de Wilde M, John LH, Duarte-Salles T, Roel E, Pistillo A, Kolde R, Maljković F, Denaxas S, Papez V, Kahn MG, Natarajan K, Reich C, Secora A, Minty EP, Shah NH, Posada JD, Garcia Morales MT, Bosca D, Cadenas Juanino H, Diaz Holgado A, Pedrera Jiménez M, Serrano Balazote P, García Barrio N, Şen S, Üresin AY, Erdogan B, Belmans L, Byttebier G, Malbrain MLNG, Dedman DJ, Cuccu Z, Vashisht R, Butte AJ, Patel A, Dahm L, Han C, Bu F, Arshad F, Ostropolets A, Nyberg F, Hripcsak G, Suchard MA, Prieto-Alhambra D, Rijnbeek PR, Schuemie MJ, Ryan PB.",,EClinicalMedicine,2023,2023-04-04,Y,Observational Research; Omop Cdm; Covid-19; Adverse Events Of Special Interest,,,"

Background

Adverse events of special interest (AESIs) were pre-specified to be monitored for the COVID-19 vaccines. Some AESIs are not only associated with the vaccines, but with COVID-19. Our aim was to characterise the incidence rates of AESIs following SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients and compare these to historical rates in the general population.

Methods

A multi-national cohort study with data from primary care, electronic health records, and insurance claims mapped to a common data model. This study's evidence was collected between Jan 1, 2017 and the conclusion of each database (which ranged from Jul 2020 to May 2022). The 16 pre-specified prevalent AESIs were: acute myocardial infarction, anaphylaxis, appendicitis, Bell's palsy, deep vein thrombosis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, encephalomyelitis, Guillain- Barré syndrome, haemorrhagic stroke, non-haemorrhagic stroke, immune thrombocytopenia, myocarditis/pericarditis, narcolepsy, pulmonary embolism, transverse myelitis, and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia. Age-sex standardised incidence rate ratios (SIR) were estimated to compare post-COVID-19 to pre-pandemic rates in each of the databases.

Findings

Substantial heterogeneity by age was seen for AESI rates, with some clearly increasing with age but others following the opposite trend. Similarly, differences were also observed across databases for same health outcome and age-sex strata. All studied AESIs appeared consistently more common in the post-COVID-19 compared to the historical cohorts, with related meta-analytic SIRs ranging from 1.32 (1.05 to 1.66) for narcolepsy to 11.70 (10.10 to 13.70) for pulmonary embolism.

Interpretation

Our findings suggest all AESIs are more common after COVID-19 than in the general population. Thromboembolic events were particularly common, and over 10-fold more so. More research is needed to contextualise post-COVID-19 complications in the longer term.

Funding

None.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101932; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101932; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072853; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072853?pdf=render -35051442,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471,Reduced amplification efficiency of the RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase target enables tracking of the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant using routine diagnostic tests.,"Valley-Omar Z, Marais G, Iranzadeh A, Naidoo M, Korsman S, Maponga T, Hussey H, Davies MA, Boulle A, Doolabh D, Laubscher M, Wojno J, Deetlefs JD, Maritz J, Scott L, Msomi N, Naicker C, Tegally H, de Oliveira T, Bhiman J, Williamson C, Preiser W, Hardie D, Hsiao NY.",,Journal of virological methods,2022,2022-01-18,Y,Surveillance; Diagnostic test; South Africa; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant,,,"Routine SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the Western Cape region of South Africa (January-August 2021) found a reduced RT-PCR amplification efficiency of the RdRp-gene target of the Seegene, Allplex 2019-nCoV diagnostic assay from June 2021 when detecting the Delta variant. We investigated whether the reduced amplification efficiency denoted by an increased RT-PCR cycle threshold value (RΔE) can be used as an indirect measure of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant prevalence. We found a significant increase in the median RΔE for patient samples tested from June 2021, which coincided with the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant within our sample set. Whole genome sequencing on a subset of patient samples identified a highly conserved G15451A, non-synonymous mutation exclusively within the RdRp gene of Delta variants, which may cause reduced RT-PCR amplification efficiency. While whole genome sequencing plays an important in identifying novel SARS-CoV-2 variants, monitoring RΔE value can serve as a useful surrogate for rapid tracking of Delta variant prevalence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409?pdf=render 32975552,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573,Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Children and Adolescents Compared With Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.,"Viner RM, Mytton OT, Bonell C, Melendez-Torres GJ, Ward J, Hudson L, Waddington C, Thomas J, Russell S, van der Klis F, Koirala A, Ladhani S, Panovska-Griffiths J, Davies NG, Booy R, Eggo RM.",,JAMA pediatrics,2021,2021-02-01,N,,,,"

Importance

The degree to which children and adolescents are infected by and transmit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is unclear. The role of children and adolescents in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on susceptibility, symptoms, viral load, social contact patterns, and behavior.

Objective

To systematically review the susceptibility to and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children and adolescents compared with adults.

Data sources

PubMed and medRxiv were searched from database inception to July 28, 2020, and a total of 13 926 studies were identified, with additional studies identified through hand searching of cited references and professional contacts.

Study selection

Studies that provided data on the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents (younger than 20 years) compared with adults (20 years and older) derived from contact tracing or population screening were included. Single-household studies were excluded.

Data extraction and synthesis

PRISMA guidelines for abstracting data were followed, which was performed independently by 2 reviewers. Quality was assessed using a critical appraisal checklist for prevalence studies. Random-effects meta-analysis was undertaken.

Main outcomes and measures

Secondary infection rate (contact-tracing studies) or prevalence or seroprevalence (population screening studies) among children and adolescents compared with adults.

Results

A total of 32 studies comprising 41 640 children and adolescents and 268 945 adults met inclusion criteria, including 18 contact-tracing studies and 14 population screening studies. The pooled odds ratio of being an infected contact in children compared with adults was 0.56 (95% CI, 0.37-0.85), with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 94.6%). Three school-based contact-tracing studies found minimal transmission from child or teacher index cases. Findings from population screening studies were heterogenous and were not suitable for meta-analysis. Most studies were consistent with lower seroprevalence in children compared with adults, although seroprevalence in adolescents appeared similar to adults.

Conclusions and relevance

In this meta-analysis, there is preliminary evidence that children and adolescents have lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, with an odds ratio of 0.56 for being an infected contact compared with adults. There is weak evidence that children and adolescents play a lesser role than adults in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at a population level. This study provides no information on the infectivity of children.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/2771181/jamapediatrics_viner_2020_oi_200071_1611604170.25358.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7519436; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573 +35051442,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471,Reduced amplification efficiency of the RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase target enables tracking of the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant using routine diagnostic tests.,"Valley-Omar Z, Marais G, Iranzadeh A, Naidoo M, Korsman S, Maponga T, Hussey H, Davies MA, Boulle A, Doolabh D, Laubscher M, Wojno J, Deetlefs JD, Maritz J, Scott L, Msomi N, Naicker C, Tegally H, de Oliveira T, Bhiman J, Williamson C, Preiser W, Hardie D, Hsiao NY.",,Journal of virological methods,2022,2022-01-18,Y,Surveillance; Diagnostic test; South Africa; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant,,,"Routine SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the Western Cape region of South Africa (January-August 2021) found a reduced RT-PCR amplification efficiency of the RdRp-gene target of the Seegene, Allplex 2019-nCoV diagnostic assay from June 2021 when detecting the Delta variant. We investigated whether the reduced amplification efficiency denoted by an increased RT-PCR cycle threshold value (RΔE) can be used as an indirect measure of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant prevalence. We found a significant increase in the median RΔE for patient samples tested from June 2021, which coincided with the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant within our sample set. Whole genome sequencing on a subset of patient samples identified a highly conserved G15451A, non-synonymous mutation exclusively within the RdRp gene of Delta variants, which may cause reduced RT-PCR amplification efficiency. While whole genome sequencing plays an important in identifying novel SARS-CoV-2 variants, monitoring RΔE value can serve as a useful surrogate for rapid tracking of Delta variant prevalence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409?pdf=render 34104901,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00093-3,Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection according to baseline antibody status in staff and residents of 100 long-term care facilities (VIVALDI): a prospective cohort study.,"Krutikov M, Palmer T, Tut G, Fuller C, Shrotri M, Williams H, Davies D, Irwin-Singer A, Robson J, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2021,2021-06-03,Y,,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 infection represents a major challenge for long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and many residents and staff are seropositive following persistent outbreaks. We aimed to investigate the association between the SARS-CoV-2 antibody status at baseline and subsequent infection in this population.

Methods

We did a prospective cohort study of SARS-CoV-2 infection in staff (aged <65 years) and residents (aged >65 years) at 100 LTCFs in England between Oct 1, 2020, and Feb 1, 2021. Blood samples were collected between June and November, 2020, at baseline, and 2 and 4 months thereafter and tested for IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike proteins. PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 was done weekly in staff and monthly in residents. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of a PCR-positive test by baseline antibody status, adjusted for age and sex, and stratified by LTCF.

Findings

682 residents from 86 LCTFs and 1429 staff members from 97 LTCFs met study inclusion criteria. At baseline, IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid were detected in 226 (33%) of 682 residents and 408 (29%) of 1429 staff members. 93 (20%) of 456 residents who were antibody-negative at baseline had a PCR-positive test (infection rate 0·054 per month at risk) compared with four (2%) of 226 residents who were antibody-positive at baseline (0·007 per month at risk). 111 (11%) of 1021 staff members who were antibody-negative at baseline had PCR-positive tests (0·042 per month at risk) compared with ten (2%) of 408 staff members who were antibody-positive staff at baseline (0·009 per month at risk). The risk of PCR-positive infection was higher for residents who were antibody-negative at baseline than residents who were antibody-positive at baseline (adjusted HR [aHR] 0·15, 95% CI 0·05-0·44, p=0·0006), and the risk of a PCR-positive infection was also higher for staff who were antibody-negative at baseline compared with staff who were antibody-positive at baseline (aHR 0·39, 0·19-0·82; p=0·012). 12 of 14 reinfected participants had available data on symptoms, and 11 of these participants were symptomatic. Antibody titres to spike and nucleocapsid proteins were comparable in PCR-positive and PCR-negative cases.

Interpretation

The presence of IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid protein was associated with substantially reduced risk of reinfection in staff and residents for up to 10 months after primary infection.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00093-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8175048; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8175048?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00093-3 33243817,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813,COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland (COPS): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.,"Stock SJ, McAllister D, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Stagg HR, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Hopkins L, Donaghy J, Ritchie L, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-11-26,Y,Obstetrics; epidemiology; Neonatology; Perinatology; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The effects of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy are not fully delineated. We will describe the incidence of COVID-19 in pregnancy at population level in Scotland, in a prospective cohort study using linked data. We will determine associations between COVID-19 and adverse pregnancy, neonatal and maternal outcomes and the proportion of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates associated with maternal COVID-19.

Methods and analysis

Prospective cohort study using national linked data sets. We will include all women in Scotland, UK, who were pregnant on or became pregnant after, 1 March 2020 (the date of the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Scotland) and all births in Scotland from 1 March 2020 onwards. Individual-level data will be extracted from data sets containing details of all livebirths, stillbirth, terminations of pregnancy and miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies treated in hospital or attending general practice. Records will be linked within the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, which includes primary care records, virology and serology results and details of COVID-19 Community Hubs and Assessment Centre contacts and deaths. We will perform analyses using definitions for confirmed, probable and possible COVID-19 and report serology results (where available). Outcomes will include congenital anomaly, miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy, preterm birth, neonatal infection, severe maternal disease and maternal deaths. We will perform descriptive analyses and appropriate modelling, adjusting for demographic and pregnancy characteristics and the presence of comorbidities. The cohort will provide a platform for future studies of the effectiveness and safety of therapeutic interventions and immunisations for COVID-19 and their effects on childhood and developmental outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland is a substudy of EAVE II(, which has approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee. Findings will be reported to Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e042813.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999?pdf=render 32873607,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000644,Ethnicity and risk of death in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 infection in the UK: an observational cohort study in an urban catchment area.,"Sapey E, Gallier S, Mainey C, Nightingale P, McNulty D, Crothers H, Evison F, Reeves K, Pagano D, Denniston AK, Nirantharakumar K, Diggle P, Ball S, All clinicians and students at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.",,BMJ open respiratory research,2020,2020-09-01,Y,Viral infection; respiratory infection; Clinical Epidemiology,,,"

Background

Studies suggest that certain black and Asian minority ethnic groups experience poorer outcomes from COVID-19, but these studies have not provided insight into potential reasons for this. We hypothesised that outcomes would be poorer for those of South Asian ethnicity hospitalised from a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, once confounding factors, health-seeking behaviours and community demographics were considered, and that this might reflect a more aggressive disease course in these patients.

Methods

Patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection requiring admission to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) in Birmingham, UK between 10 March 2020 and 17 April 2020 were included. Standardised admission ratio (SAR) and standardised mortality ratio (SMR) were calculated using observed COVID-19 admissions/deaths and 2011 census data. Adjusted HR for mortality was estimated using Cox proportional hazard model adjusting and propensity score matching.

Results

All patients admitted to UHB with COVID-19 during the study period were included (2217 in total). 58% were male, 69.5% were white and the majority (80.2%) had comorbidities. 18.5% were of South Asian ethnicity, and these patients were more likely to be younger and have no comorbidities, but twice the prevalence of diabetes than white patients. SAR and SMR suggested more admissions and deaths in South Asian patients than would be predicted and they were more likely to present with severe disease despite no delay in presentation since symptom onset. South Asian ethnicity was associated with an increased risk of death, both by Cox regression (HR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2 to 1.8), after adjusting for age, sex, deprivation and comorbidities, and by propensity score matching, matching for the same factors but categorising ethnicity into South Asian or not (HR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0 to 1.6).

Conclusions

Those of South Asian ethnicity appear at risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes. Further studies need to establish the underlying mechanistic pathways.",,pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/7/1/e000644.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000644; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467523?pdf=render -34446426,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1931,Risk of thrombocytopenia and thromboembolism after covid-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 positive testing: self-controlled case series study.,"Hippisley-Cox J, Patone M, Mei XW, Saatci D, Dixon S, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Watkinson P, Shankar-Hari M, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Griffin SJ, Sheikh A, Coupland CAC.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-08-26,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the association between covid-19 vaccines and risk of thrombocytopenia and thromboembolic events in England among adults.

Design

Self-controlled case series study using national data on covid-19 vaccination and hospital admissions.

Setting

Patient level data were obtained for approximately 30 million people vaccinated in England between 1 December 2020 and 24 April 2021. Electronic health records were linked with death data from the Office for National Statistics, SARS-CoV-2 positive test data, and hospital admission data from the United Kingdom's health service (NHS).

Participants

29 121 633 people were vaccinated with first doses (19 608 008 with Oxford-AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) and 9 513 625 with Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2 mRNA)) and 1 758 095 people had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. People aged ≥16 years who had first doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 mRNA vaccines and any outcome of interest were included in the study.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcomes were hospital admission or death associated with thrombocytopenia, venous thromboembolism, and arterial thromboembolism within 28 days of three exposures: first dose of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine; first dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine; and a SARS-CoV-2 positive test. Secondary outcomes were subsets of the primary outcomes: cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), ischaemic stroke, myocardial infarction, and other rare arterial thrombotic events.

Results

The study found increased risk of thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (incidence rate ratio 1.33, 95% confidence interval 1.19 to 1.47 at 8-14 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test (5.27, 4.34 to 6.40 at 8-14 days); increased risk of venous thromboembolism after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (1.10, 1.02 to 1.18 at 8-14 days) and after SARS-CoV-2 infection (13.86, 12.76 to 15.05 at 8-14 days); and increased risk of arterial thromboembolism after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (1.06, 1.01 to 1.10 at 15-21 days) and after SARS-CoV-2 infection (2.02, 1.82 to 2.24 at 15-21 days). Secondary analyses found increased risk of CVST after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (4.01, 2.08 to 7.71 at 8-14 days), after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (3.58, 1.39 to 9.27 at 15-21 days), and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test; increased risk of ischaemic stroke after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (1.12, 1.04 to 1.20 at 15-21 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test; and increased risk of other rare arterial thrombotic events after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (1.21, 1.02 to 1.43 at 8-14 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.

Conclusion

Increased risks of haematological and vascular events that led to hospital admission or death were observed for short time intervals after first doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 mRNA vaccines. The risks of most of these events were substantially higher and more prolonged after SARS-CoV-2 infection than after vaccination in the same population.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/374/bmj.n1931.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1931; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189?pdf=render 34018481,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.20.2100428,The potential for vaccination-induced herd immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant.,"Hodgson D, Flasche S, Jit M, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease (CMMID) COVID-19 Working Group.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Vaccination; Herd immunity; Seroprevalence; Sars-cov-2,,,"We assess the feasibility of reaching the herd immunity threshold against SARS-CoV-2 through vaccination, considering vaccine effectiveness (VE), transmissibility of the virus and the level of pre-existing immunity in populations, as well as their age structure. If highly transmissible variants of concern become dominant in areas with low levels of naturally-acquired immunity and/or in populations with large proportions of < 15 year-olds, control of infection without non-pharmaceutical interventions may only be possible with a VE ≥ 80%, and coverage extended to children.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/20/eurosurv-26-20-1.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.20.2100428&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.20.2100428; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8138959; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8138959?pdf=render +34446426,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1931,Risk of thrombocytopenia and thromboembolism after covid-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 positive testing: self-controlled case series study.,"Hippisley-Cox J, Patone M, Mei XW, Saatci D, Dixon S, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Watkinson P, Shankar-Hari M, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Griffin SJ, Sheikh A, Coupland CAC.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-08-26,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the association between covid-19 vaccines and risk of thrombocytopenia and thromboembolic events in England among adults.

Design

Self-controlled case series study using national data on covid-19 vaccination and hospital admissions.

Setting

Patient level data were obtained for approximately 30 million people vaccinated in England between 1 December 2020 and 24 April 2021. Electronic health records were linked with death data from the Office for National Statistics, SARS-CoV-2 positive test data, and hospital admission data from the United Kingdom's health service (NHS).

Participants

29 121 633 people were vaccinated with first doses (19 608 008 with Oxford-AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) and 9 513 625 with Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2 mRNA)) and 1 758 095 people had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. People aged ≥16 years who had first doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 mRNA vaccines and any outcome of interest were included in the study.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcomes were hospital admission or death associated with thrombocytopenia, venous thromboembolism, and arterial thromboembolism within 28 days of three exposures: first dose of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine; first dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine; and a SARS-CoV-2 positive test. Secondary outcomes were subsets of the primary outcomes: cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), ischaemic stroke, myocardial infarction, and other rare arterial thrombotic events.

Results

The study found increased risk of thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (incidence rate ratio 1.33, 95% confidence interval 1.19 to 1.47 at 8-14 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test (5.27, 4.34 to 6.40 at 8-14 days); increased risk of venous thromboembolism after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (1.10, 1.02 to 1.18 at 8-14 days) and after SARS-CoV-2 infection (13.86, 12.76 to 15.05 at 8-14 days); and increased risk of arterial thromboembolism after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (1.06, 1.01 to 1.10 at 15-21 days) and after SARS-CoV-2 infection (2.02, 1.82 to 2.24 at 15-21 days). Secondary analyses found increased risk of CVST after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (4.01, 2.08 to 7.71 at 8-14 days), after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (3.58, 1.39 to 9.27 at 15-21 days), and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test; increased risk of ischaemic stroke after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (1.12, 1.04 to 1.20 at 15-21 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test; and increased risk of other rare arterial thrombotic events after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (1.21, 1.02 to 1.43 at 8-14 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.

Conclusion

Increased risks of haematological and vascular events that led to hospital admission or death were observed for short time intervals after first doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 mRNA vaccines. The risks of most of these events were substantially higher and more prolonged after SARS-CoV-2 infection than after vaccination in the same population.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/374/bmj.n1931.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1931; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189?pdf=render 34942103,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)02754-9,"Two-dose ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine protection against COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths over time: a retrospective, population-based cohort study in Scotland and Brazil.","Katikireddi SV, Cerqueira-Silva T, Vasileiou E, Robertson C, Amele S, Pan J, Taylor B, Boaventura V, Werneck GL, Flores-Ortiz R, Agrawal U, Docherty AB, McCowan C, McMenamin J, Moore E, Ritchie LD, Rudan I, Shah SA, Shi T, Simpson CR, Barreto ML, Oliveira VA, Barral-Netto M, Sheikh A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2021-12-20,Y,,,,"

Background

Reports suggest that COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness is decreasing, but whether this reflects waning or new SARS-CoV-2 variants-especially delta (B.1.617.2)-is unclear. We investigated the association between time since two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine and risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes in Scotland (where delta was dominant), with comparative analyses in Brazil (where delta was uncommon).

Methods

In this retrospective, population-based cohort study in Brazil and Scotland, we linked national databases from the EAVE II study in Scotland; and the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, Acute Respiratory Infection Suspected Cases, and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection/Illness datasets in Brazil) for vaccination, laboratory testing, clinical, and mortality data. We defined cohorts of adults (aged ≥18 years) who received two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and compared rates of severe COVID-19 outcomes (ie, COVID-19 hospital admission or death) across fortnightly periods, relative to 2-3 weeks after the second dose. Entry to the Scotland cohort started from May 19, 2021, and entry to the Brazil cohort started from Jan 18, 2021. Follow-up in both cohorts was until Oct 25, 2021. Poisson regression was used to estimate rate ratios (RRs) and vaccine effectiveness, with 95% CIs.

Findings

1 972 454 adults received two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 in Scotland and 42 558 839 in Brazil, with longer follow-up in Scotland because two-dose vaccination began earlier in Scotland than in Brazil. In Scotland, RRs for severe COVID-19 increased to 2·01 (95% CI 1·54-2·62) at 10-11 weeks, 3·01 (2·26-3·99) at 14-15 weeks, and 5·43 (4·00-7·38) at 18-19 weeks after the second dose. The pattern of results was similar in Brazil, with RRs of 2·29 (2·01-2·61) at 10-11 weeks, 3·10 (2·63-3·64) at 14-15 weeks, and 4·71 (3·83-5·78) at 18-19 weeks after the second dose. In Scotland, vaccine effectiveness decreased from 83·7% (95% CI 79·7-87·0) at 2-3 weeks, to 75·9% (72·9-78·6) at 14-15 weeks, and 63·7% (59·6-67·4) at 18-19 weeks after the second dose. In Brazil, vaccine effectiveness decreased from 86·4% (85·4-87·3) at 2-3 weeks, to 59·7% (54·6-64·2) at 14-15 weeks, and 42·2% (32·4-50·6) at 18-19 weeks.

Interpretation

We found waning vaccine protection of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 against COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths in both Scotland and Brazil, this becoming evident within three months of the second vaccine dose. Consideration needs to be given to providing booster vaccine doses for people who have received ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Scottish Government, Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK, Fiocruz, Fazer o Bem Faz Bem Programme; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Translation

For the Portuguese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621027549/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02754-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8687670 33728401,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0178-4,Modelling COVID-19.,"Vespignani A, Tian H, Dye C, Lloyd-Smith JO, Eggo RM, Shrestha M, Scarpino SV, Gutierrez B, Kraemer MUG, Wu J, Leung K, Leung GM.",,Nature reviews. Physics,2020,2020-05-06,Y,Applied Mathematics; Complex Networks,,,"As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, mathematical epidemiologists share their views on what models reveal about how the disease has spread, the current state of play and what work still needs to be done.",Vespignani et al. used mathematical models to model the epidemic of covid-19 and to predict future scenarios for possible interventions and inform policy and practice.,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-020-0178-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0178-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7201389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7201389?pdf=render 36451358,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253,Hospitalisation for COVID-19 predicts long lasting cerebrovascular impairment: A prospective observational cohort study.,"Tsvetanov KA, Spindler LRB, Stamatakis EA, Newcombe VFJ, Lupson VC, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Outtrim JG, Elmer A, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration.",,NeuroImage. Clinical,2022,2022-11-07,Y,Cerebrovascular; Microvascular; Neurology; Cardiorespiratory; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has multiple neurological consequences, but its long-term effect on brain health is still uncertain. The cerebrovascular consequences of COVID-19 may also affect brain health. We studied the chronic effect of COVID-19 on cerebrovascular health, in relation to acute severity, adverse clinical outcomes and in contrast to control group data. Here we assess cerebrovascular health in 45 patients six months after hospitalisation for acute COVID-19 using the resting state fluctuation amplitudes (RSFA) from functional magnetic resonance imaging, in relation to disease severity and in contrast with 42 controls. Acute COVID-19 severity was indexed by COVID-19 WHO Progression Scale, inflammatory and coagulatory biomarkers. Chronic widespread changes in frontoparietal RSFA were related to the severity of the acute COVID-19 episode. This relationship was not explained by chronic cardiorespiratory dysfunction, age, or sex. The level of cerebrovascular dysfunction was associated with cognitive, mental, and physical health at follow-up. The principal findings were consistent across univariate and multivariate approaches. The results indicate chronic cerebrovascular impairment following severe acute COVID-19, with the potential for long-term consequences on cognitive function and mental wellbeing.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639388; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639388?pdf=render 33222494,https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605,Cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.,"Linschoten M, Peters S, van Smeden M, Jewbali LS, Schaap J, Siebelink HM, Smits PC, Tieleman RG, van der Harst P, van Gilst WH, Asselbergs FW, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.",,European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care,2020,2020-11-21,Y,Pulmonary embolism; Cohorts; Cardiac Complications; Patient Registry; Covid-19/coronavirus,,,"

Aims

To determine the frequency and pattern of cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Methods and results

CAPACITY-COVID is an international patient registry established to determine the role of cardiovascular disease in the COVID-19 pandemic. In this registry, data generated during routine clinical practice are collected in a standardised manner for patients with a (highly suspected) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection requiring hospitalisation. For the current analysis, consecutive patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 registered between 28 March and 3 July 2020 were included. Patients were followed for the occurrence of cardiac complications and pulmonary embolism from admission to discharge. In total, 3011 patients were included, of which 1890 (62.8%) were men. The median age was 67 years (interquartile range 56-76); 937 (31.0%) patients had a history of cardiac disease, with pre-existent coronary artery disease being most common (n=463, 15.4%). During hospitalisation, 595 (19.8%) patients died, including 16 patients (2.7%) with cardiac causes. Cardiac complications were diagnosed in 349 (11.6%) patients, with atrial fibrillation (n=142, 4.7%) being most common. The incidence of other cardiac complications was 1.8% for heart failure (n=55), 0.5% for acute coronary syndrome (n=15), 0.5% for ventricular arrhythmia (n=14), 0.1% for bacterial endocarditis (n=4) and myocarditis (n=3), respectively, and 0.03% for pericarditis (n=1). Pulmonary embolism was diagnosed in 198 (6.6%) patients.

Conclusion

This large study among 3011 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 shows that the incidence of cardiac complications during hospital admission is low, despite a frequent history of cardiovascular disease. Long-term cardiac outcomes and the role of pre-existing cardiovascular disease in COVID-19 outcome warrants further investigation.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjacc/article-pdf/9/8/817/49790126/ehjacc0817.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244?pdf=render -34174193,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00289-9,Vaccine effectiveness of the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 against SARS-CoV-2 infection in residents of long-term care facilities in England (VIVALDI): a prospective cohort study.,"Shrotri M, Krutikov M, Palmer T, Giddings R, Azmi B, Subbarao S, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Davies D, Tut G, Lopez Bernal J, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The Lancet. Infectious diseases,2021,2021-06-23,Y,,,,"

Background

The effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in older adults living in long-term care facilities is uncertain. We investigated the protective effect of the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca non-replicating viral-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; AZD1222) and the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA-based vaccine (BNT162b2) in residents of long-term care facilities in terms of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection over time since vaccination.

Methods

The VIVALDI study is a prospective cohort study that commenced recruitment on June 11, 2020, to investigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, infection outcomes, and immunity in residents and staff in long-term care facilities in England that provide residential or nursing care for adults aged 65 years and older. In this cohort study, we included long-term care facility residents undergoing routine asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 testing between Dec 8, 2020 (the date the vaccine was first deployed in a long-term care facility), and March 15, 2021, using national testing data linked within the COVID-19 Datastore. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we estimated the relative hazard of PCR-positive infection at 0-6 days, 7-13 days, 14-20 days, 21-27 days, 28-34 days, 35-48 days, and 49 days and beyond after vaccination, comparing unvaccinated and vaccinated person-time from the same cohort of residents, adjusting for age, sex, previous infection, local SARS-CoV-2 incidence, long-term care facility bed capacity, and clustering by long-term care facility. We also compared mean PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values for positive swabs obtained before and after vaccination. The study is registered with ISRCTN, number 14447421.

Findings

10 412 care home residents aged 65 years and older from 310 LTCFs were included in this analysis. The median participant age was 86 years (IQR 80-91), 7247 (69·6%) of 10 412 residents were female, and 1155 residents (11·1%) had evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. 9160 (88·0%) residents received at least one vaccine dose, of whom 6138 (67·0%) received ChAdOx1 and 3022 (33·0%) received BNT162b2. Between Dec 8, 2020, and March 15, 2021, there were 36 352 PCR results in 670 628 person-days, and 1335 PCR-positive infections (713 in unvaccinated residents and 612 in vaccinated residents) were included. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for PCR-positive infection relative to unvaccinated residents declined from 28 days after the first vaccine dose to 0·44 (95% CI 0·24-0·81) at 28-34 days and 0·38 (0·19-0·77) at 35-48 days. Similar effect sizes were seen for ChAdOx1 (adjusted HR 0·32, 95% CI 0·15-0·66) and BNT162b2 (0·35, 0·17-0·71) vaccines at 35-48 days. Mean PCR Ct values were higher for infections that occurred at least 28 days after vaccination than for those occurring before vaccination (31·3 [SD 8·7] in 107 PCR-positive tests vs 26·6 [6·6] in 552 PCR-positive tests; p<0·0001).

Interpretation

Single-dose vaccination with BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 vaccines provides substantial protection against infection in older adults from 4-7 weeks after vaccination and might reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, the risk of infection is not eliminated, highlighting the ongoing need for non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent transmission in long-term care facilities.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00289-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8221738; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00289-9 36691218,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059813,Evaluation of the shielding initiative in Wales (EVITE Immunity): protocol for a quasiexperimental study.,"Evans BA, Akbari A, Bailey R, Bethell L, Bufton S, Carson-Stevens A, Dixon L, Edwards A, John A, Jolles S, Kingston MR, Lyons J, Lyons R, Porter A, Sewell B, Thornton CA, Watkins A, Whiffen T, Snooks H.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-09-08,Y,immunology; Public Health; Health Policy; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

Shielding aimed to protect those predicted to be at highest risk from COVID-19 and was uniquely implemented in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinically extremely vulnerable people identified through algorithms and screening of routine National Health Service (NHS) data were individually and strongly advised to stay at home and strictly self-isolate even from others in their household. This study will generate a logic model of the intervention and evaluate the effects and costs of shielding to inform policy development and delivery during future pandemics.

Methods and analysis

This is a quasiexperimental study undertaken in Wales where records for people who were identified for shielding were already anonymously linked into integrated data systems for public health decision-making. We will: interview policy-makers to understand rationale for shielding advice to inform analysis and interpretation of results; use anonymised individual-level data to select people identified for shielding advice in March 2020 and a matched cohort, from routine electronic health data sources, to compare outcomes; survey a stratified random sample of each group about activities and quality of life at 12 months; use routine and newly collected blood data to assess immunity; interview people who were identified for shielding and their carers and NHS staff who delivered healthcare during shielding, to explore compliance and experiences; collect healthcare resource use data to calculate implementation costs and cost-consequences. Our team includes people who were shielding, who used their experience to help design and deliver this study.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has received approval from the Newcastle North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee (IRAS 295050). We will disseminate results directly to UK government policy-makers, publish in peer-reviewed journals, present at scientific and policy conferences and share accessible summaries of results online and through public and patient networks.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e059813.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059813; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9461087; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9461087?pdf=render +34174193,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00289-9,Vaccine effectiveness of the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 against SARS-CoV-2 infection in residents of long-term care facilities in England (VIVALDI): a prospective cohort study.,"Shrotri M, Krutikov M, Palmer T, Giddings R, Azmi B, Subbarao S, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Davies D, Tut G, Lopez Bernal J, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The Lancet. Infectious diseases,2021,2021-06-23,Y,,,,"

Background

The effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in older adults living in long-term care facilities is uncertain. We investigated the protective effect of the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca non-replicating viral-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; AZD1222) and the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA-based vaccine (BNT162b2) in residents of long-term care facilities in terms of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection over time since vaccination.

Methods

The VIVALDI study is a prospective cohort study that commenced recruitment on June 11, 2020, to investigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, infection outcomes, and immunity in residents and staff in long-term care facilities in England that provide residential or nursing care for adults aged 65 years and older. In this cohort study, we included long-term care facility residents undergoing routine asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 testing between Dec 8, 2020 (the date the vaccine was first deployed in a long-term care facility), and March 15, 2021, using national testing data linked within the COVID-19 Datastore. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we estimated the relative hazard of PCR-positive infection at 0-6 days, 7-13 days, 14-20 days, 21-27 days, 28-34 days, 35-48 days, and 49 days and beyond after vaccination, comparing unvaccinated and vaccinated person-time from the same cohort of residents, adjusting for age, sex, previous infection, local SARS-CoV-2 incidence, long-term care facility bed capacity, and clustering by long-term care facility. We also compared mean PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values for positive swabs obtained before and after vaccination. The study is registered with ISRCTN, number 14447421.

Findings

10 412 care home residents aged 65 years and older from 310 LTCFs were included in this analysis. The median participant age was 86 years (IQR 80-91), 7247 (69·6%) of 10 412 residents were female, and 1155 residents (11·1%) had evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. 9160 (88·0%) residents received at least one vaccine dose, of whom 6138 (67·0%) received ChAdOx1 and 3022 (33·0%) received BNT162b2. Between Dec 8, 2020, and March 15, 2021, there were 36 352 PCR results in 670 628 person-days, and 1335 PCR-positive infections (713 in unvaccinated residents and 612 in vaccinated residents) were included. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for PCR-positive infection relative to unvaccinated residents declined from 28 days after the first vaccine dose to 0·44 (95% CI 0·24-0·81) at 28-34 days and 0·38 (0·19-0·77) at 35-48 days. Similar effect sizes were seen for ChAdOx1 (adjusted HR 0·32, 95% CI 0·15-0·66) and BNT162b2 (0·35, 0·17-0·71) vaccines at 35-48 days. Mean PCR Ct values were higher for infections that occurred at least 28 days after vaccination than for those occurring before vaccination (31·3 [SD 8·7] in 107 PCR-positive tests vs 26·6 [6·6] in 552 PCR-positive tests; p<0·0001).

Interpretation

Single-dose vaccination with BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 vaccines provides substantial protection against infection in older adults from 4-7 weeks after vaccination and might reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, the risk of infection is not eliminated, highlighting the ongoing need for non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent transmission in long-term care facilities.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00289-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8221738; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00289-9 35595824,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12517-6,Transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in a strictly-Orthodox Jewish community in the UK.,"Waites W, Pearson CAB, Gaskell KM, House T, Pellis L, Johnson M, Gould V, Hunt A, Stone NRH, Kasstan B, Chantler T, Lal S, Roberts CH, Goldblatt D, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-05-20,Y,,,,"Some social settings such as households and workplaces, have been identified as high risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Identifying and quantifying the importance of these settings is critical for designing interventions. A tightly-knit religious community in the UK experienced a very large COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, reaching 64.3% seroprevalence within 10 months, and we surveyed this community both for serological status and individual-level attendance at particular settings. Using these data, and a network model of people and places represented as a stochastic graph rewriting system, we estimated the relative contribution of transmission in households, schools and religious institutions to the epidemic, and the relative risk of infection in each of these settings. All congregate settings were important for transmission, with some such as primary schools and places of worship having a higher share of transmission than others. We found that the model needed a higher general-community transmission rate for women (3.3-fold), and lower susceptibility to infection in children to recreate the observed serological data. The precise share of transmission in each place was related to assumptions about the internal structure of those places. Identification of key settings of transmission can allow public health interventions to be targeted at these locations.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12517-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12517-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121858; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121858?pdf=render 35143473,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531,SARS-CoV-2 antibodies protect against reinfection for at least 6 months in a multicentre seroepidemiological workplace cohort.,"Finch E, Lowe R, Fischinger S, de St Aubin M, Siddiqui SM, Dayal D, Loesche MA, Rhee J, Beger S, Hu Y, Gluck MJ, Mormann B, Hasdianda MA, Musk ER, Alter G, Menon AS, Nilles EJ, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group and the SpaceX COVID-19 Cohort Collaborative.",,PLoS biology,2022,2022-02-10,Y,,,,"Identifying the potential for SARS-CoV-2 reinfection is crucial for understanding possible long-term epidemic dynamics. We analysed longitudinal PCR and serological testing data from a prospective cohort of 4,411 United States employees in 4 states between April 2020 and February 2021. We conducted a multivariable logistic regression investigating the association between baseline serological status and subsequent PCR test result in order to calculate an odds ratio for reinfection. We estimated an odds ratio for reinfection ranging from 0.14 (95% CI: 0.019 to 0.63) to 0.28 (95% CI: 0.05 to 1.1), implying that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at baseline is associated with around 72% to 86% reduced odds of a subsequent PCR positive test based on our point estimates. This suggests that primary infection with SARS-CoV-2 provides protection against reinfection in the majority of individuals, at least over a 6-month time period. We also highlight 2 major sources of bias and uncertainty to be considered when estimating the relative risk of reinfection, confounders and the choice of baseline time point, and show how to account for both in reinfection analysis.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865659; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865659?pdf=render 36647111,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0,"Harmonising electronic health records for reproducible research: challenges, solutions and recommendations from a UK-wide COVID-19 research collaboration.","Abbasizanjani H, Torabi F, Bedston S, Bolton T, Davies G, Denaxas S, Griffiths R, Herbert L, Hollings S, Keene S, Khunti K, Lowthian E, Lyons J, Mizani MA, Nolan J, Sudlow C, Walker V, Whiteley W, Wood A, Akbari A, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2023,2023-01-16,Y,Population Health; Electronic Health Record; Reproducible Research; Common Data Model; Data Harmonisation; Sail Databank; Covid-19; Trusted Research Environments; Nhs Digital Tre For England,,,"

Background

The CVD-COVID-UK consortium was formed to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases through analyses of harmonised electronic health records (EHRs) across the four UK nations. Beyond COVID-19, data harmonisation and common approaches enable analysis within and across independent Trusted Research Environments. Here we describe the reproducible harmonisation method developed using large-scale EHRs in Wales to accommodate the fast and efficient implementation of cross-nation analysis in England and Wales as part of the CVD-COVID-UK programme. We characterise current challenges and share lessons learnt.

Methods

Serving the scope and scalability of multiple study protocols, we used linked, anonymised individual-level EHR, demographic and administrative data held within the SAIL Databank for the population of Wales. The harmonisation method was implemented as a four-layer reproducible process, starting from raw data in the first layer. Then each of the layers two to four is framed by, but not limited to, the characterised challenges and lessons learnt. We achieved curated data as part of our second layer, followed by extracting phenotyped data in the third layer. We captured any project-specific requirements in the fourth layer.

Results

Using the implemented four-layer harmonisation method, we retrieved approximately 100 health-related variables for the 3.2 million individuals in Wales, which are harmonised with corresponding variables for > 56 million individuals in England. We processed 13 data sources into the first layer of our harmonisation method: five of these are updated daily or weekly, and the rest at various frequencies providing sufficient data flow updates for frequent capturing of up-to-date demographic, administrative and clinical information.

Conclusions

We implemented an efficient, transparent, scalable, and reproducible harmonisation method that enables multi-nation collaborative research. With a current focus on COVID-19 and its relationship with cardiovascular outcomes, the harmonised data has supported a wide range of research activities across the UK.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9842203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9842203?pdf=render @@ -202,9 +202,9 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 33837377,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01310-z,Actionable druggable genome-wide Mendelian randomization identifies repurposing opportunities for COVID-19.,"Gaziano L, Giambartolomei C, Pereira AC, Gaulton A, Posner DC, Swanson SA, Ho YL, Iyengar SK, Kosik NM, Vujkovic M, Gagnon DR, Bento AP, Barrio-Hernandez I, Rönnblom L, Hagberg N, Lundtoft C, Langenberg C, Pietzner M, Valentine D, Gustincich S, Tartaglia GG, Allara E, Surendran P, Burgess S, Zhao JH, Peters JE, Prins BP, Angelantonio ED, Devineni P, Shi Y, Lynch KE, DuVall SL, Garcon H, Thomann LO, Zhou JJ, Gorman BR, Huffman JE, O'Donnell CJ, Tsao PS, Beckham JC, Pyarajan S, Muralidhar S, Huang GD, Ramoni R, Beltrao P, Danesh J, Hung AM, Chang KM, Sun YV, Joseph J, Leach AR, Edwards TL, Cho K, Gaziano JM, Butterworth AS, Casas JP, VA Million Veteran Program COVID-19 Science Initiative.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-04-09,Y,,,,"Drug repurposing provides a rapid approach to meet the urgent need for therapeutics to address COVID-19. To identify therapeutic targets relevant to COVID-19, we conducted Mendelian randomization analyses, deriving genetic instruments based on transcriptomic and proteomic data for 1,263 actionable proteins that are targeted by approved drugs or in clinical phase of drug development. Using summary statistics from the Host Genetics Initiative and the Million Veteran Program, we studied 7,554 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and >1 million controls. We found significant Mendelian randomization results for three proteins (ACE2, P = 1.6 × 10-6; IFNAR2, P = 9.8 × 10-11 and IL-10RB, P = 2.3 × 10-14) using cis-expression quantitative trait loci genetic instruments that also had strong evidence for colocalization with COVID-19 hospitalization. To disentangle the shared expression quantitative trait loci signal for IL10RB and IFNAR2, we conducted phenome-wide association scans and pathway enrichment analysis, which suggested that IFNAR2 is more likely to play a role in COVID-19 hospitalization. Our findings prioritize trials of drugs targeting IFNAR2 and ACE2 for early management of COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01310-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01310-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612986?pdf=render 35024157,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211059350,Digitally enabled flash glucose monitoring for inpatients with COVID-19: Feasibility and pilot implementation in a teaching NHS Hospital in the UK.,"Robbins T, Hopper A, Brophy J, Pearson E, Suthantirakumar R, Vankad M, Igharo N, Baitule S, Clark CC, Arvanitis TN, Sankar S, Kyrou I, Randeva H.",,Digital health,2022,2022-01-07,Y,Diabetes; Inpatient Care; Digital Health; Flash Glucose Monitoring; Covid-19,,,"

Background

COVID-19 placed significant challenges on healthcare systems. People with diabetes are at high risk of severe COVID-19 with poor outcomes. We describe the first reported use of inpatient digital flash glucose monitoring devices in a UK NHS hospital to support management of people with diabetes hospitalized for COVID-19.

Methods

Inpatients at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust with COVID-19 and diabetes were considered for digitally enabled flash glucose monitoring during their hospitalization. Glucose monitoring data were analysed, and potential associations were explored between relevant parameters, including time in hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia, and in range, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), average glucose, body mass index (BMI), and length of stay.

Results

During this pilot, digital flash glucose monitoring devices were offered to 25 inpatients, of whom 20 (type 2/type 1: 19/1; mean age: 70.6 years; mean HbA1c: 68.2 mmol/mol; mean BMI: 28.2 kg/m2) accepted and used these (80% uptake). In total, over 2788 h of flash glucose monitoring were recorded for these inpatients with COVID-19 and diabetes. Length of stay was not associated with any of the studied variables (all p-values >0.05). Percentage of time in hyperglycaemia exhibited significant associations with both percentage of time in hypoglycaemia and percentage of time in range, as well as with HbA1c (all p-values <0.05). The average glucose was significantly associated with percentage of time in hypoglycaemia, percentage of time in range, and HbA1c (all p-values <0.05).

Discussion

We report the first pilot inpatient use of digital flash glucose monitors in an NHS hospital to support care of inpatients with diabetes and COVID-19. Overall, there are strong arguments for the inpatient use of these devices in the COVID-19 setting, and the findings of this pilot demonstrate feasibility of this digitally enabled approach and support wider use for inpatients with diabetes and COVID-19.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211059350; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211059350; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8744149; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8744149?pdf=render 32656368,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2,What settings have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 transmission clusters?,"Leclerc QJ, Fuller NM, Knight LE, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Knight GM.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-06-05,Y,Transmission; Cluster; Coronavirus; Settings; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: Concern about the health impact of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in widespread enforced reductions in people's movement (""lockdowns""). However, there are increasing concerns about the severe economic and wider societal consequences of these measures. Some countries have begun to lift some of the rules on physical distancing in a stepwise manner, with differences in what these ""exit strategies"" entail and their timeframes. The aim of this work was to inform such exit strategies by exploring the types of indoor and outdoor settings where transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to occur and result in clusters of cases. Identifying potential settings that result in transmission clusters allows these to be kept under close surveillance and/or to remain closed as part of strategies that aim to avoid a resurgence in transmission following the lifting of lockdown measures. Methods: We performed a systematic review of available literature and media reports to find settings reported in peer reviewed articles and media with these characteristics. These sources are curated and made available in an editable online database. Results: We found many examples of SARS-CoV-2 clusters linked to a wide range of mostly indoor settings. Few reports came from schools, many from households, and an increasing number were reported in hospitals and elderly care settings across Europe. Conclusions: We identified possible places that are linked to clusters of COVID-19 cases and could be closely monitored and/or remain closed in the first instance following the progressive removal of lockdown restrictions. However, in part due to the limits in surveillance capacities in many settings, the gathering of information such as cluster sizes and attack rates is limited in several ways: inherent recall bias, biased media reporting and missing data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724?pdf=render +35133177,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8347,Rapid increase in Omicron infections in England during December 2021: REACT-1 study.,"Elliott P, Bodinier B, Eales O, Wang H, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Jonnerby J, Tang D, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2022,2022-02-08,Y,,,,"The unprecedented rise in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections during December 2021 was concurrent with rapid spread of the Omicron variant in England and globally. We analyzed the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and its dynamics in England from the end of November to mid-December 2021 among almost 100,000 participants in the REACT-1 study. Prevalence was high with rapid growth nationally and particularly in London during December 2021, with an increasing proportion of infections due to Omicron. We observed large decreases in swab positivity among mostly vaccinated older children (12 to 17 years) relative to unvaccinated younger children (5 to 11 years), and in adults who received a third (booster) vaccine dose versus two doses. Our results reinforce the importance of vaccination and booster campaigns, although additional measures have been needed to control the rapid growth of the Omicron variant.",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/94586/2/science.abn8347.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8347; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8939772; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8939772?pdf=render 33739254,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.11.2100256,"Case fatality risk of the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 in England, 16 November to 5 February.","Grint DJ, Wing K, Williamson E, McDonald HI, Bhaskaran K, Evans D, Evans SJ, Walker AJ, Hickman G, Nightingale E, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Bates C, Cockburn J, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, Bacon S, Davy S, Wong AY, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Douglas IJ, Mathur R, Blomquist P, MacKenna B, Ingelsby P, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, DeVito NJ, Hulme W, Tazare J, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, Eggo RM.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2021,2021-03-01,Y,Mortality; Coronavirus; Cfr; Case Fatality Risk; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Variant Of Concern,,,The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant of concern (VOC) is increasing in prevalence across Europe. Accurate estimation of disease severity associated with this VOC is critical for pandemic planning. We found increased risk of death for VOC compared with non-VOC cases in England (hazard ratio: 1.67; 95% confidence interval: 1.34-2.09; p < 0.0001). Absolute risk of death by 28 days increased with age and comorbidities. This VOC has potential to spread faster with higher mortality than the pandemic to date.,,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/11/eurosurv-26-11-2.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.11.2100256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.11.2100256; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7976383; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7976383?pdf=render 37221040,https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700,"Coverage, completion and outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessments in a multi-ethnic nationwide cohort of UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH Study.","Martin CA, Woolf K, Bryant L, Goss C, Gogoi M, Lagrata S, Papineni P, Qureshi I, Wobi F, Nellums L, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,Occupational and environmental medicine,2023,2023-05-23,Y,Ethnic Groups; risk assessment; Health Personnel; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

There are limited data on the outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessment in healthcare workers (HCWs) or the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic and occupational factors with risk assessment outcomes.

Methods

We used questionnaire data from UK-REACH (UK Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers), an ethnically diverse, nationwide cohort of UK HCWs. We derived four binary outcomes: (1) offered a risk assessment; (2) completed a risk assessment; (3) working practices changed as a result of the risk assessment; (4) wanted changes to working practices after risk assessment but working practices did not change.We examined the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk variables on our outcomes using multivariable logistic regression.

Results

8649 HCWs were included in total. HCWs from ethnic minority groups were more likely to report being offered a risk assessment than white HCWs, and those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report having completed an assessment if offered. Ethnic minority HCWs had lower odds of reporting having their work change as a result of risk assessment. Those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report no changes to their working practices despite wanting them.Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with lower odds of being offered a risk assessment and having adjustments made to working practices.

Discussion

We found differences in risk assessment outcomes by ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk factors. These findings are concerning and warrant further research using actual (rather than reported) risk assessment outcomes in an unselected cohort.",,pdf:https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/80/7/399.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065?pdf=render -35133177,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8347,Rapid increase in Omicron infections in England during December 2021: REACT-1 study.,"Elliott P, Bodinier B, Eales O, Wang H, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Jonnerby J, Tang D, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2022,2022-02-08,Y,,,,"The unprecedented rise in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections during December 2021 was concurrent with rapid spread of the Omicron variant in England and globally. We analyzed the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and its dynamics in England from the end of November to mid-December 2021 among almost 100,000 participants in the REACT-1 study. Prevalence was high with rapid growth nationally and particularly in London during December 2021, with an increasing proportion of infections due to Omicron. We observed large decreases in swab positivity among mostly vaccinated older children (12 to 17 years) relative to unvaccinated younger children (5 to 11 years), and in adults who received a third (booster) vaccine dose versus two doses. Our results reinforce the importance of vaccination and booster campaigns, although additional measures have been needed to control the rapid growth of the Omicron variant.",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/94586/2/science.abn8347.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8347; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8939772; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8939772?pdf=render 34911741,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320047,Impact of cardiometabolic multimorbidity and ethnicity on cardiovascular/renal complications in patients with COVID-19.,"Norris T, Razieh C, Zaccardi F, Yates T, Islam N, Gillies CL, Chudasama YV, Rowlands AV, Davies MJ, McCann GP, Banerjee A, Lam CSP, Docherty AB, Openshaw PJ, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Lawson CA, Khunti K, ISARIC4C investigators.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2022,2022-07-13,Y,epidemiology; risk factors; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Using a large national database of people hospitalised with COVID-19, we investigated the contribution of cardio-metabolic conditions, multi-morbidity and ethnicity on the risk of in-hospital cardiovascular complications and death.

Methods

A multicentre, prospective cohort study in 302 UK healthcare facilities of adults hospitalised with COVID-19 between 6 February 2020 and 16 March 2021. Logistic models were used to explore associations between baseline patient ethnicity, cardiometabolic conditions and multimorbidity (0, 1, 2, >2 conditions), and in-hospital cardiovascular complications (heart failure, arrhythmia, cardiac ischaemia, cardiac arrest, coagulation complications, stroke), renal injury and death.

Results

Of 65 624 patients hospitalised with COVID-19, 44 598 (68.0%) reported at least one cardiometabolic condition on admission. Cardiovascular/renal complications or death occurred in 24 609 (38.0%) patients. Baseline cardiometabolic conditions were independently associated with increased odds of in-hospital complications and this risk increased in the presence of cardiometabolic multimorbidity. For example, compared with having no cardiometabolic conditions, 1, 2 or ≥3 conditions was associated with 1.46 (95% CI 1.39 to 1.54), 2.04 (95% CI 1.93 to 2.15) and 3.10 (95% CI 2.92 to 3.29) times higher odds of any cardiovascular/renal complication, respectively. A similar pattern was observed for all-cause death. Compared with the white group, the South Asian (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.29) and black (OR 1.53 to 95% CI 1.37 to 1.72) ethnic groups had higher risk of any cardiovascular/renal complication.

Conclusions

In hospitalised patients with COVID-19, cardiovascular complications or death impacts just under half of all patients, with the highest risk in those of South Asian or Black ethnicity and in patients with cardiometabolic multimorbidity.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/108/15/1200.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320047; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678560?pdf=render 34596018,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.39.2001440,"Strategies to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 importation from international travellers: modelling estimations for the United Kingdom, July 2020. ","Clifford S, Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Liu Y, Chan YD, Pearson CAB, Eggo RM, Endo A, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Edmunds WJ, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) COVID-19 Working Group.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2021,2021-09-01,Y,,,,"BackgroundTo mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks from international air travellers, many countries implemented a combination of up to 14 days of self-quarantine upon arrival plus PCR testing in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.AimTo assess the effectiveness of quarantine and testing of international travellers to reduce risk of onward SARS-CoV-2 transmission into a destination country in the pre-COVID-19 vaccination era.MethodsWe used a simulation model of air travellers arriving in the United Kingdom from the European Union or the United States, incorporating timing of infection stages while varying quarantine duration and timing and number of PCR tests.ResultsQuarantine upon arrival with a PCR test on day 7 plus a 1-day delay for results can reduce the number of infectious arriving travellers released into the community by a median 94% (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 89-98) compared with a no quarantine/no test scenario. This reduction is similar to that achieved by a 14-day quarantine period (median > 99%; 95% UI: 98-100). Even shorter quarantine periods can prevent a substantial amount of transmission; all strategies in which travellers spend at least 5 days (mean incubation period) in quarantine and have at least one negative test before release are highly effective (median reduction 89%; 95% UI: 83-95)).ConclusionThe effect of different screening strategies impacts asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals differently. The choice of an optimal quarantine and testing strategy for unvaccinated air travellers may vary based on the number of possible imported infections relative to domestic incidence.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/39/eurosurv-26-39-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583?pdf=render 37346822,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2,First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY.,"Hopcroft LE, Curtis HJ, Brown AD, Hulme WJ, Andrews CD, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Eggo RM, Mahalingasivam V, Parker EPK, Tomlinson LA, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Goldacre B, Walker AJ, MacKenna B.",,Wellcome open research,2023,2023-06-09,Y,Vaccine; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programme in England was extended to include all adolescents and children by April 2022. The aim of this paper is to describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups amongst adolescents and children in England by August 2022. Methods: With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 3.21 million children and adolescents' records in general practice in England,  in situ and within the infrastructure of the electronic health record software vendor TPP using OpenSAFELY. Vaccine coverage across various demographic (sex, deprivation index and ethnicity) and clinical (risk status) populations is described. Results: Coverage is higher amongst adolescents than it is amongst children, with 53.5% adolescents and 10.8% children having received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Within those groups, coverage varies by ethnicity, deprivation index and risk status; there is no evidence of variation by sex. Conclusion: First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage is shown to vary amongst various demographic and clinical groups of children and adolescents.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033?pdf=render @@ -222,17 +222,17 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 34056579,https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2021.652669,"The Promise of AI in Detection, Diagnosis, and Epidemiology for Combating COVID-19: Beyond the Hype.","Abdulkareem M, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in artificial intelligence,2021,2021-05-14,Y,Artificial intelligence; Detection; Diagnosis; Medical imaging; epidemiology; Contact tracing; Social Control; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 has created enormous suffering, affecting lives, and causing deaths. The ease with which this type of coronavirus can spread has exposed weaknesses of many healthcare systems around the world. Since its emergence, many governments, research communities, commercial enterprises, and other institutions and stakeholders around the world have been fighting in various ways to curb the spread of the disease. Science and technology have helped in the implementation of policies of many governments that are directed toward mitigating the impacts of the pandemic and in diagnosing and providing care for the disease. Recent technological tools, artificial intelligence (AI) tools in particular, have also been explored to track the spread of the coronavirus, identify patients with high mortality risk and diagnose patients for the disease. In this paper, areas where AI techniques are being used in the detection, diagnosis and epidemiological predictions, forecasting and social control for combating COVID-19 are discussed, highlighting areas of successful applications and underscoring issues that need to be addressed to achieve significant progress in battling COVID-19 and future pandemics. Several AI systems have been developed for diagnosing COVID-19 using medical imaging modalities such as chest CT and X-ray images. These AI systems mainly differ in their choices of the algorithms for image segmentation, classification and disease diagnosis. Other AI-based systems have focused on predicting mortality rate, long-term patient hospitalization and patient outcomes for COVID-19. AI has huge potential in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic but successful practical deployments of these AI-based tools have so far been limited due to challenges such as limited data accessibility, the need for external evaluation of AI models, the lack of awareness of AI experts of the regulatory landscape governing the deployment of AI tools in healthcare, the need for clinicians and other experts to work with AI experts in a multidisciplinary context and the need to address public concerns over data collection, privacy, and protection. Having a dedicated team with expertise in medical data collection, privacy, access and sharing, using federated learning whereby AI scientists hand over training algorithms to the healthcare institutions to train models locally, and taking full advantage of biomedical data stored in biobanks can alleviate some of problems posed by these challenges. Addressing these challenges will ultimately accelerate the translation of AI research into practical and useful solutions for combating pandemics.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2021.652669/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2021.652669; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160471; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160471?pdf=render 34873584,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101212,Disentangling post-vaccination symptoms from early COVID-19.,"Canas LS, Österdahl MF, Deng J, Hu C, Selvachandran S, Polidori L, May A, Molteni E, Murray B, Chen L, Kerfoot E, Klaser K, Antonelli M, Hammers A, Spector T, Ourselin S, Steves C, Sudre CH, Modat M, Duncan EL.",,EClinicalMedicine,2021,2021-12-01,Y,"Vaccination; Side-effects; Early Detection; Mobile Technology; Self-reported Symptoms; Auc, Area Under The Curve; Bmi, Body Mass Index; Ci, Confidence Interval; Roc, Receiver Operating Curve; Lr, Logistic Regression; Iqr, Inter Quartile Range; Covid-19 Detection; Css, Covid Symptoms Study; Di, Data Invalid; Kcl, King's College London; Lfat, Lateral Flow Antigen Test; Nhs Uk, National Health Service Of The United Kingdom; O-az, Oxford-astrazeneca Adenovirus-vectored Vaccine; Pb, Pfizer-bointech Mrna Vaccine; Sars-cov-2, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus-2; Uk, United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Nothern Ireland; Bmem, Bayesian Mixed-effect Model; Rf, Random Forest; Covid-19, Coronavirus Disease 2019; Rtpcr, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome‐Related Coronavirus 2 (Sars-Cov-2)",,,"

Background

Identifying and testing individuals likely to have SARS-CoV-2 is critical for infection control, including post-vaccination. Vaccination is a major public health strategy to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection globally. Some individuals experience systemic symptoms post-vaccination, which overlap with COVID-19 symptoms. This study compared early post-vaccination symptoms in individuals who subsequently tested positive or negative for SARS-CoV-2, using data from the COVID Symptom Study (CSS) app.

Methods

We conducted a prospective observational study in 1,072,313 UK CSS participants who were asymptomatic when vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2) or Oxford-AstraZeneca adenovirus-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) between 8 December 2020 and 17 May 2021, who subsequently reported symptoms within seven days (N=362,770) (other than local symptoms at injection site) and were tested for SARS-CoV-2 (N=14,842), aiming to differentiate vaccination side-effects per se from superimposed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The post-vaccination symptoms and SARS-CoV-2 test results were contemporaneously logged by participants. Demographic and clinical information (including comorbidities) were recorded. Symptom profiles in individuals testing positive were compared with a 1:1 matched population testing negative, including using machine learning and multiple models considering UK testing criteria.

Findings

Differentiating post-vaccination side-effects alone from early COVID-19 was challenging, with a sensitivity in identification of individuals testing positive of 0.6 at best. Most of these individuals did not have fever, persistent cough, or anosmia/dysosmia, requisite symptoms for accessing UK testing; and many only had systemic symptoms commonly seen post-vaccination in individuals negative for SARS-CoV-2 (headache, myalgia, and fatigue).

Interpretation

Post-vaccination symptoms per se cannot be differentiated from COVID-19 with clinical robustness, either using symptom profiles or machine-derived models. Individuals presenting with systemic symptoms post-vaccination should be tested for SARS-CoV-2 or quarantining, to prevent community spread.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care, Wellcome Trust, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK National Institute for Health Research, UK Medical Research Council and British Heart Foundation, Chronic Disease Research Foundation, Zoe Limited.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101212; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101212; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8635464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8635464?pdf=render 36385522,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac077,Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary care for cardiovascular disease in the UK: an electronic health record analysis across three countries.,"Wright FL, Cheema K, Goldacre R, Hall N, Herz N, Islam N, Karim Z, Moreno-Martos D, Morales DR, O'Connell D, Spata E, Akbari A, Ashworth M, Barber M, Briffa N, Canoy D, Denaxas S, Khunti K, Kurdi A, Mamas M, Priedon R, Sudlow C, Morris EJA, Lacey B, Banerjee A.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2023,2023-06-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Although morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 have been widely reported, the indirect effects of the pandemic beyond 2020 on other major diseases and health service activity have not been well described.

Methods and results

Analyses used national administrative electronic hospital records in England, Scotland, and Wales for 2016-21. Admissions and procedures during the pandemic (2020-21) related to six major cardiovascular conditions [acute coronary syndrome (ACS), heart failure (HF), stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA), peripheral arterial disease (PAD), aortic aneurysm (AA), and venous thromboembolism(VTE)] were compared with the annual average in the pre-pandemic period (2016-19). Differences were assessed by time period and urgency of care.In 2020, there were 31 064 (-6%) fewer hospital admissions [14 506 (-4%) fewer emergencies, 16 560 (-23%) fewer elective admissions] compared with 2016-19 for the six major cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) combined. The proportional reduction in admissions was similar in all three countries. Overall, hospital admissions returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Elective admissions remained substantially below expected levels for almost all conditions in all three countries [-10 996 (-15%) fewer admissions]. However, these reductions were offset by higher than expected total emergency admissions [+25 878 (+6%) higher admissions], notably for HF and stroke in England, and for VTE in all three countries. Analyses for procedures showed similar temporal variations to admissions.

Conclusion

The present study highlights increasing emergency cardiovascular admissions during the pandemic, in the context of a substantial and sustained reduction in elective admissions and procedures. This is likely to increase further the demands on cardiovascular services over the coming years.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62054/Download/62054__26063__5453b00901174a7d9a0797547f023fba.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac077; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284263; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284263?pdf=render -36343994,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159,"Demographic, behavioural and occupational risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers: a retrospective observational study.","Cooper DJ, Lear S, Sithole N, Shaw A, Stark H, Ferris M, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 collaboration consortium, Bradley J, Maxwell P, Goodfellow I, Weekes MP, Seaman S, Baker S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-07,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than the general population. This group is pivotal to healthcare system resilience during the COVID-19, and future, pandemics. We investigated demographic, social, behavioural and occupational risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs.

Design/setting/participants

HCWs enrolled in a large-scale sero-epidemiological study at a UK university teaching hospital were sent questionnaires spanning a 5-month period from March to July 2020. In a retrospective observational cohort study, univariate logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator regression model was used to identify variables to include in a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Among 2258 HCWs, highest ORs associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity on multivariate analysis were having a household member previously testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (OR 6.94 (95% CI 4.15 to 11.6); p<0.0001) and being of black ethnicity (6.21 (95% CI 2.69 to 14.3); p<0.0001). Occupational factors associated with a higher risk of seropositivity included working as a physiotherapist (OR 2.78 (95% CI 1.21 to 6.36); p=0.015) and working predominantly in acute medicine (OR 2.72 (95% CI 1.57 to 4.69); p<0.0001) or medical subspecialties (not including infectious diseases) (OR 2.33 (95% CI 1.4 to 3.88); p=0.001). Reporting that adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was 'rarely' available had an OR of 2.83 (95% CI 1.29 to 6.25; p=0.01). Reporting attending a handover where social distancing was not possible had an OR of 1.39 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.9; p=0.038).

Conclusions

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and potential vaccine escape continue to threaten stability of healthcare systems worldwide, and sustained vigilance against HCW infection remains a priority. Enhanced risk assessments should be considered for HCWs of black ethnicity, physiotherapists and those working in acute medicine or medical subspecialties. Workplace risk reduction measures include ongoing access to high-quality PPE and effective social distancing measures.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063159.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078?pdf=render 34599903,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00380-5,COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths after BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccinations in 2·57 million people in Scotland (EAVE II): a prospective cohort study.,"Agrawal U, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Mulholland RH, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Amele S, Fagbamigbe AF, Vasileiou E, Grange Z, Shi T, Kerr S, Moore E, Murray JLK, Shah SA, Ritchie L, O'Reilly D, Stock SJ, Beggs J, Chuter A, Torabi F, Akbari A, Bedston S, McMenamin J, Wood R, Tang RSM, de Lusignan S, Hobbs FDR, Woolhouse M, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2021,2021-09-29,Y,,,,"

Background

The UK COVID-19 vaccination programme has prioritised vaccination of those at the highest risk of COVID-19 mortality and hospitalisation. The programme was rolled out in Scotland during winter 2020-21, when SARS-CoV-2 infection rates were at their highest since the pandemic started, despite social distancing measures being in place. We aimed to estimate the frequency of COVID-19 hospitalisation or death in people who received at least one vaccine dose and characterise these individuals.

Methods

We conducted a prospective cohort study using the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) national surveillance platform, which contained linked vaccination, primary care, RT-PCR testing, hospitalisation, and mortality records for 5·4 million people (around 99% of the population) in Scotland. Individuals were followed up from receiving their first dose of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) COVID-19 vaccines until admission to hospital for COVID-19, death, or the end of the study period on April 18, 2021. We used a time-dependent Poisson regression model to estimate rate ratios (RRs) for demographic and clinical factors associated with COVID-19 hospitalisation or death 14 days or more after the first vaccine dose, stratified by vaccine type.

Findings

Between Dec 8, 2020, and April 18, 2021, 2 572 008 individuals received their first dose of vaccine-841 090 (32·7%) received BNT162b2 and 1 730 918 (67·3%) received ChAdOx1. 1196 (<0·1%) individuals were admitted to hospital or died due to COVID-19 illness (883 hospitalised, of whom 228 died, and 313 who died due to COVID-19 without hospitalisation) 14 days or more after their first vaccine dose. These severe COVID-19 outcomes were associated with older age (≥80 years vs 18-64 years adjusted RR 4·75, 95% CI 3·85-5·87), comorbidities (five or more risk groups vs less than five risk groups 4·24, 3·34-5·39), hospitalisation in the previous 4 weeks (3·00, 2·47-3·65), high-risk occupations (ten or more previous COVID-19 tests vs less than ten previous COVID-19 tests 2·14, 1·62-2·81), care home residence (1·63, 1·32-2·02), socioeconomic deprivation (most deprived quintile vs least deprived quintile 1·57, 1·30-1·90), being male (1·27, 1·13-1·43), and being an ex-smoker (ex-smoker vs non-smoker 1·18, 1·01-1·38). A history of COVID-19 before vaccination was protective (0·40, 0·29-0·54).

Interpretation

COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths were uncommon 14 days or more after the first vaccine dose in this national analysis in the context of a high background incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and with extensive social distancing measures in place. Sociodemographic and clinical features known to increase the risk of severe disease in unvaccinated populations were also associated with severe outcomes in people receiving their first dose of vaccine and could help inform case management and future vaccine policy formulation.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Scottish Government, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00380-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00380-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8480963 36083213,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocac158,Translating and evaluating historic phenotyping algorithms using SNOMED CT.,"Elkheder M, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Qummer Ul Arfeen M, Kuan V, Lumbers RT, Denaxas S, Shah AD.",,Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Terminology; Phenotype; Ontology; Electronic Health Records; Snomed Ct,,,"

Objective

Patient phenotype definitions based on terminologies are required for the computational use of electronic health records. Within UK primary care research databases, such definitions have typically been represented as flat lists of Read terms, but Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) (a widely employed international reference terminology) enables the use of relationships between concepts, which could facilitate the phenotyping process. We implemented SNOMED CT-based phenotyping approaches and investigated their performance in the CPRD Aurum primary care database.

Materials and methods

We developed SNOMED CT phenotype definitions for 3 exemplar diseases: diabetes mellitus, asthma, and heart failure, using 3 methods: ""primary"" (primary concept and its descendants), ""extended"" (primary concept, descendants, and additional relations), and ""value set"" (based on text searches of term descriptions). We also derived SNOMED CT codelists in a semiautomated manner for 276 disease phenotypes used in a study of health across the lifecourse. Cohorts selected using each codelist were compared to ""gold standard"" manually curated Read codelists in a sample of 500 000 patients from CPRD Aurum.

Results

SNOMED CT codelists selected a similar set of patients to Read, with F1 scores exceeding 0.93, and age and sex distributions were similar. The ""value set"" and ""extended"" codelists had slightly greater recall but lower precision than ""primary"" codelists. We were able to represent 257 of the 276 phenotypes by a single concept hierarchy, and for 135 phenotypes, the F1 score was greater than 0.9.

Conclusions

SNOMED CT provides an efficient way to define disease phenotypes, resulting in similar patient populations to manually curated codelists.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10155637/1/ocac158.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocac158; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9846670; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9846670?pdf=render +36343994,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159,"Demographic, behavioural and occupational risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers: a retrospective observational study.","Cooper DJ, Lear S, Sithole N, Shaw A, Stark H, Ferris M, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 collaboration consortium, Bradley J, Maxwell P, Goodfellow I, Weekes MP, Seaman S, Baker S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-07,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than the general population. This group is pivotal to healthcare system resilience during the COVID-19, and future, pandemics. We investigated demographic, social, behavioural and occupational risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs.

Design/setting/participants

HCWs enrolled in a large-scale sero-epidemiological study at a UK university teaching hospital were sent questionnaires spanning a 5-month period from March to July 2020. In a retrospective observational cohort study, univariate logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator regression model was used to identify variables to include in a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Among 2258 HCWs, highest ORs associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity on multivariate analysis were having a household member previously testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (OR 6.94 (95% CI 4.15 to 11.6); p<0.0001) and being of black ethnicity (6.21 (95% CI 2.69 to 14.3); p<0.0001). Occupational factors associated with a higher risk of seropositivity included working as a physiotherapist (OR 2.78 (95% CI 1.21 to 6.36); p=0.015) and working predominantly in acute medicine (OR 2.72 (95% CI 1.57 to 4.69); p<0.0001) or medical subspecialties (not including infectious diseases) (OR 2.33 (95% CI 1.4 to 3.88); p=0.001). Reporting that adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was 'rarely' available had an OR of 2.83 (95% CI 1.29 to 6.25; p=0.01). Reporting attending a handover where social distancing was not possible had an OR of 1.39 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.9; p=0.038).

Conclusions

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and potential vaccine escape continue to threaten stability of healthcare systems worldwide, and sustained vigilance against HCW infection remains a priority. Enhanced risk assessments should be considered for HCWs of black ethnicity, physiotherapists and those working in acute medicine or medical subspecialties. Workplace risk reduction measures include ongoing access to high-quality PPE and effective social distancing measures.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063159.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078?pdf=render 35915500,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01947-x,The impact of changes in coding on mortality reports using the example of sepsis.,"Atkin C, Pankhurst T, McNulty D, Keogh A, Gallier S, Pagano D, Sapey E, Ball S.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Mortality; Sepsis; Morbidity; epidemiology; Clinical Coding; Real World Data,,,"

Objectives

NHS Digital issued new guidance on sepsis coding in April 2017 which was further modified in April 2018. During these timeframes some centres reported increased sepsis associated mortality, whilst others reported reduced mortality, in some cases coincident with specific quality improvement programmes. We hypothesised that changes in reported mortality could not be separated from changes in coding practice.

Methods

Hospital Episode Statistics from the Admitted Patient Care dataset for NHS hospitals in England, from April 2016 to March 2020 were analysed. Admissions of adults with sepsis: an International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10) code associated with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Clinical Classifications Software class 'Septicaemia (except in labour)', were assessed. Patient comorbidities were defined by other ICD-10 codes recorded within the admission episode.

Results

1,081,565 hospital episodes with a coded diagnosis of sepsis were studied. After April 2017 there was a significant increase in admission episodes with sepsis coded as the primary reason for admission. There were significant changes in the case-mix of patients with a primary diagnosis of sepsis after April 2017. An analysis of case-mix, hospital and year treated as random effects, defined a small reduction in sepsis associated mortality across England following the first change in coding guidance. No centre specific improvement in outcome could be separated from these random-effects.

Conclusion

Changes in sepsis coding practice altered case-mix and case selection, in ways that varied between centres. This was associated with changes in centre-specific sepsis associated mortality, over time. According to the direction of change these may be interpreted either as requiring local investigation for cause or as supporting coincident changes in clinical practice. A whole system analysis showed that centre specific changes in mortality cannot be separated from system-wide changes. Caution is therefore required when interpreting sepsis outcomes in England, particularly when using single centre studies to inform or support guidance or policy.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-01947-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01947-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9341053; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9341053?pdf=render 36150783,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00147-9,Data capture and sharing in the COVID-19 pandemic: a cause for concern.,"Dron L, Kalatharan V, Gupta A, Haggstrom J, Zariffa N, Morris AD, Arora P, Park J.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"Routine health care and research have been profoundly influenced by digital-health technologies. These technologies range from primary data collection in electronic health records (EHRs) and administrative claims to web-based artificial-intelligence-driven analyses. There has been increased use of such health technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic, driven in part by the availability of these data. In some cases, this has resulted in profound and potentially long-lasting positive effects on medical research and routine health-care delivery. In other cases, high profile shortcomings have been evident, potentially attenuating the effect of-or representing a decreased appetite for-digital-health transformation. In this Series paper, we provide an overview of how facets of health technologies in routinely collected medical data (including EHRs and digital data sharing) have been used for COVID-19 research and tracking, and how these technologies might influence future pandemics and health-care research. We explore the strengths and weaknesses of digital-health research during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss how learnings from COVID-19 might translate into new approaches in a post-pandemic era.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00147-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00147-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489064; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489064?pdf=render -36457326,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337,Seroepidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 on a partially vaccinated island in Brazil: Determinants of infection and vaccine response.,"Cerbino-Neto J, Peres IT, Varela MC, Brandão LGP, de Matos JA, Pinto LF, da Costa MD, Garcia MHO, Soranz D, Maia MLS, Krieger MA, da Cunha RV, Camacho LAB, Ranzani O, Hamacher S, Bozza FA, Penna GO.",,Frontiers in public health,2022,2022-11-14,Y,Vaccine; Antibody response; risk factors; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Seropositivity; Covid-19,,,"

Background

A vaccination campaign targeted adults in response to the pandemic in the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Objective

We aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and identify factors associated with seropositivity on vaccinated and unvaccinated residents.

Methods

We performed a seroepidemiologic survey in all residents of Paquetá Island, a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro city, during the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Serological tests were performed from June 16 to June 19, 2021, and adjusted seropositivity rates were estimated by age and epidemiological variables. Logistic regression models were used to estimate adjusted ORs for risk factors to SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in non-vaccinated individuals, and potential determinants of the magnitude of antibody responses in the seropositive population.

Results

We included in the study 3,016 residents of Paquetá (83.5% of the island population). The crude seroprevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in our sample was 53.6% (95% CI = 51.0, 56.3). The risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in non-vaccinated individuals were history of confirmed previous COVID-19 infection (OR = 4.74; 95% CI = 3.3, 7.0), being a household contact of a case (OR = 1.93; 95% CI = 1.5, 2.6) and in-person learning (OR = 2.01; 95% CI = 1.4, 3.0). Potential determinants of the magnitude of antibody responses among the seropositive were hybrid immunity, the type of vaccine received, and time since the last vaccine dose. Being vaccinated with Pfizer or AstraZeneca (Beta = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.8, 2.6) determined higher antibody titers than those observed with CoronaVac (Beta = 1.2; 95% CI = 0.9, 1.5).

Conclusions

Our study highlights the impact of vaccination on COVID-19 collective immunity even in a highly affected population, showing the difference in antibody titers achieved with different vaccines and how they wane with time, reinforcing how these factors should be considered when estimating effectiveness of a vaccination program at any given time. We also found that hybrid immunity was superior to both infection-induced and vaccine-induced immunity alone, and online learning protected students from COVID-19 exposure.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9706255; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9706255?pdf=render 36936592,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151,Covid-19 variants of concern and pregnancy.,"Stock SJ, Harmer C, Calvert C.",,BMJ medicine,2022,2022-03-02,Y,Pregnancy complications; Covid-19,,,,,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000151.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363?pdf=render +36457326,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337,Seroepidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 on a partially vaccinated island in Brazil: Determinants of infection and vaccine response.,"Cerbino-Neto J, Peres IT, Varela MC, Brandão LGP, de Matos JA, Pinto LF, da Costa MD, Garcia MHO, Soranz D, Maia MLS, Krieger MA, da Cunha RV, Camacho LAB, Ranzani O, Hamacher S, Bozza FA, Penna GO.",,Frontiers in public health,2022,2022-11-14,Y,Vaccine; Antibody response; risk factors; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Seropositivity; Covid-19,,,"

Background

A vaccination campaign targeted adults in response to the pandemic in the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Objective

We aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and identify factors associated with seropositivity on vaccinated and unvaccinated residents.

Methods

We performed a seroepidemiologic survey in all residents of Paquetá Island, a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro city, during the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Serological tests were performed from June 16 to June 19, 2021, and adjusted seropositivity rates were estimated by age and epidemiological variables. Logistic regression models were used to estimate adjusted ORs for risk factors to SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in non-vaccinated individuals, and potential determinants of the magnitude of antibody responses in the seropositive population.

Results

We included in the study 3,016 residents of Paquetá (83.5% of the island population). The crude seroprevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in our sample was 53.6% (95% CI = 51.0, 56.3). The risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in non-vaccinated individuals were history of confirmed previous COVID-19 infection (OR = 4.74; 95% CI = 3.3, 7.0), being a household contact of a case (OR = 1.93; 95% CI = 1.5, 2.6) and in-person learning (OR = 2.01; 95% CI = 1.4, 3.0). Potential determinants of the magnitude of antibody responses among the seropositive were hybrid immunity, the type of vaccine received, and time since the last vaccine dose. Being vaccinated with Pfizer or AstraZeneca (Beta = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.8, 2.6) determined higher antibody titers than those observed with CoronaVac (Beta = 1.2; 95% CI = 0.9, 1.5).

Conclusions

Our study highlights the impact of vaccination on COVID-19 collective immunity even in a highly affected population, showing the difference in antibody titers achieved with different vaccines and how they wane with time, reinforcing how these factors should be considered when estimating effectiveness of a vaccination program at any given time. We also found that hybrid immunity was superior to both infection-induced and vaccine-induced immunity alone, and online learning protected students from COVID-19 exposure.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9706255; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9706255?pdf=render 35440469,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0083,"Colchicine for COVID-19 in the community (PRINCIPLE): a randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial.","Dorward J, Yu LM, Hayward G, Saville BR, Gbinigie O, Van Hecke O, Ogburn E, Evans PH, Thomas NP, Patel MG, Richards D, Berry N, Detry MA, Saunders C, Fitzgerald M, Harris V, Shanyinde M, de Lusignan S, Andersson MI, Butler CC, Hobbs FR, PRINCIPLE Trial Collaborative Group.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2022-06-30,Y,Colchicine; Community; Primary Health Care; Randomised Controlled Trial; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Colchicine has been proposed as a COVID-19 treatment.

Aim

To determine whether colchicine reduces time to recovery and COVID-19-related admissions to hospital and/or deaths among people in the community.

Design and setting

Prospective, multicentre, open-label, multi-arm, randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial (PRINCIPLE).

Method

Adults aged ≥65 years or ≥18 years with comorbidities or shortness of breath, and unwell for ≤14 days with suspected COVID-19 in the community, were randomised to usual care, usual care plus colchicine (500 µg daily for 14 days), or usual care plus other interventions. The co-primary endpoints were time to first self-reported recovery and admission to hospital/death related to COVID-19, within 28 days, analysed using Bayesian models.

Results

The trial opened on 2 April 2020. Randomisation to colchicine started on 4 March 2021 and stopped on 26 May 2021 because the prespecified time to recovery futility criterion was met. The primary analysis model included 2755 participants who were SARS-CoV-2 positive, randomised to colchicine (n = 156), usual care (n = 1145), and other treatments (n = 1454). Time to first self-reported recovery was similar in the colchicine group compared with usual care with an estimated hazard ratio of 0.92 (95% credible interval (CrI) = 0.72 to 1.16) and an estimated increase of 1.4 days in median time to self-reported recovery for colchicine versus usual care. The probability of meaningful benefit in time to recovery was very low at 1.8%. COVID-19-related admissions to hospital/deaths were similar in the colchicine group versus usual care, with an estimated odds ratio of 0.76 (95% CrI = 0.28 to 1.89) and an estimated difference of -0.4% (95% CrI = -2.7 to 2.4).

Conclusion

Colchicine did not improve time to recovery in people at higher risk of complications with COVID-19 in the community.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/72/720/e446.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037186?pdf=render 37730605,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16523-9,Inequalities and mental health during the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK: a mixed-methods exploration.,"Lombardo C, Guo L, Solomon S, Crepaz-Keay D, McDaid S, Thorpe L, Martin S, John A, Morton A, Davidson G, Kousoulis AA, Van Bortel T.",,BMC public health,2023,2023-09-20,Y,Coronavirus; Mental health; Pandemic; United Kingdom; Inequalities; Social Determinants; Inequity; Adult Population; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The World Health Organisation declared the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Since then, the world has been firmly in its grip. At the time of writing, there were more than 767,972,961 million confirmed cases and over 6,950,655 million deaths. While the main policy focus has been on controlling the virus and ensuring vaccine roll-out and uptake, the population mental health impacts of the pandemic are expected to be long-term, with certain population groups affected more than others.

Methods

The overall objectives of our 'Coronavirus: Mental Health and the Pandemic' study were to explore UK adults' experiences of the Coronavirus pandemic and to gain insights into the mental health impacts, population-level changes over time, current and future mental health needs, and how these can best be addressed. The wider mixed-methods study consisted of repeated cross-sectional surveys and embedded qualitative sub-studies including in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with the wider UK adult population. For this particular inequalities and mental health sub-study, we used mixed methods data from our cross-sectional surveys and we carried out three Focus Group Discussions with a maximum variation sample from across the UK adult population. The discussions covered the broader topic of 'Inequalities and mental health during the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK' and took place online between April and August 2020. Focus Groups transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis in NVIVO. Cross-sectional survey data were analysed using STATA for descriptive statistics.

Results

Three broad main themes emerged, each supporting a number of sub-themes: (1) Impacts of the pandemic; (2) Moving forward: needs and recommendations; (3) Coping mechanisms and resilience. Findings showed that participants described their experiences of the pandemic in relation to its impact on themselves and on different groups of people. Their experiences illustrated how the pandemic and subsequent measures had exacerbated existing inequalities and created new ones, and triggered various emotional responses. Participants also described their coping strategies and what worked and did not work for them, as well as support needs and recommendations for moving forward through, and out of, the pandemic; all of which are valuable learnings to be considered in policy making for improving mental health and for ensuring future preparedness.

Conclusions

The pandemic is taking a long-term toll on the nations' mental health which will continue to have impacts for years to come. It is therefore crucial to learn the vital lessons learned from this pandemic. Specific as well as whole-government policies need to respond to this, address inequalities and the different needs across the life-course and across society, and take a holistic approach to mental health improvement across the UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16523-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10510114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10510114?pdf=render -35255491,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5,SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank.,"Douaud G, Lee S, Alfaro-Almagro F, Arthofer C, Wang C, McCarthy P, Lange F, Andersson JLR, Griffanti L, Duff E, Jbabdi S, Taschler B, Keating P, Winkler AM, Collins R, Matthews PM, Allen N, Miller KL, Nichols TE, Smith SM.",,Nature,2022,2022-03-07,Y,,,,"There is strong evidence of brain-related abnormalities in COVID-191-13. However, it remains unknown whether the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection can be detected in milder cases, and whether this can reveal possible mechanisms contributing to brain pathology. Here we investigated brain changes in 785 participants of UK Biobank (aged 51-81 years) who were imaged twice using magnetic resonance imaging, including 401 cases who tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 between their two scans-with 141 days on average separating their diagnosis and the second scan-as well as 384 controls. The availability of pre-infection imaging data reduces the likelihood of pre-existing risk factors being misinterpreted as disease effects. We identified significant longitudinal effects when comparing the two groups, including (1) a greater reduction in grey matter thickness and tissue contrast in the orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus; (2) greater changes in markers of tissue damage in regions that are functionally connected to the primary olfactory cortex; and (3) a greater reduction in global brain size in the SARS-CoV-2 cases. The participants who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 also showed on average a greater cognitive decline between the two time points. Importantly, these imaging and cognitive longitudinal effects were still observed after excluding the 15 patients who had been hospitalised. These mainly limbic brain imaging results may be the in vivo hallmarks of a degenerative spread of the disease through olfactory pathways, of neuroinflammatory events, or of the loss of sensory input due to anosmia. Whether this deleterious effect can be partially reversed, or whether these effects will persist in the long term, remains to be investigated with additional follow-up.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046077; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046077?pdf=render 33560344,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067,Association of Metformin with Susceptibility to COVID-19 in People with Type 2 Diabetes.,"Wang J, Cooper JM, Gokhale K, Acosta-Mena D, Dhalla S, Byne N, Chandan JS, Anand A, Okoth K, Subramanian A, Bangash MN, Jackson T, Zemedikun D, Taverner T, Hanif W, Ghosh S, Narendran P, Toulis KA, Tahrani AA, Surenthirakumaran R, Adderley NJ, Haroon S, Khunti K, Sainsbury C, Thomas GN, Nirantharakumar K.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2021,2021-04-01,Y,Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Metformin; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Infection,,,"

Objective

Diabetes has emerged as an important risk factor for mortality from COVID-19. Metformin, the most commonly prescribed glucose-lowering agent, has been proposed to influence susceptibility to and outcomes of COVID-19 via multiple mechanisms. We investigated whether, in patients with diabetes, metformin is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 and its outcomes.

Research design and methods

We performed a propensity score-matched cohort study with active comparators using a large UK primary care dataset. Adults with type 2 diabetes patients and a current prescription for metformin and other glucose-lowering agents (MF+) were compared to those with a current prescription for glucose-lowering agents that did not include metformin (MF-). Outcomes were confirmed COVID-19, suspected/confirmed COVID-19, and associated mortality. A negative control outcome analysis (back pain) was also performed.

Results

There were 29 558 and 10 271 patients in the MF+ and MF- groups, respectively, who met the inclusion criteria. In the propensity score-matched analysis, the adjusted hazard ratios for suspected/confirmed COVID-19, confirmed COVID-19, and COVID-19-related mortality were 0.85 (95% CI 0.67, 1.08), 0.80 (95% CI 0.49, 1.30), and 0.87 (95% CI 0.34, 2.20) respectively. The negative outcome control analysis did not suggest unobserved confounding.

Conclusion

Current prescription of metformin was not associated with the risk of COVID-19 or COVID-19-related mortality. It is safe to continue prescribing metformin to improve glycemic control in patients with.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/106/5/1255/41848481/dgab067.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928949 +35255491,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5,SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank.,"Douaud G, Lee S, Alfaro-Almagro F, Arthofer C, Wang C, McCarthy P, Lange F, Andersson JLR, Griffanti L, Duff E, Jbabdi S, Taschler B, Keating P, Winkler AM, Collins R, Matthews PM, Allen N, Miller KL, Nichols TE, Smith SM.",,Nature,2022,2022-03-07,Y,,,,"There is strong evidence of brain-related abnormalities in COVID-191-13. However, it remains unknown whether the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection can be detected in milder cases, and whether this can reveal possible mechanisms contributing to brain pathology. Here we investigated brain changes in 785 participants of UK Biobank (aged 51-81 years) who were imaged twice using magnetic resonance imaging, including 401 cases who tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 between their two scans-with 141 days on average separating their diagnosis and the second scan-as well as 384 controls. The availability of pre-infection imaging data reduces the likelihood of pre-existing risk factors being misinterpreted as disease effects. We identified significant longitudinal effects when comparing the two groups, including (1) a greater reduction in grey matter thickness and tissue contrast in the orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus; (2) greater changes in markers of tissue damage in regions that are functionally connected to the primary olfactory cortex; and (3) a greater reduction in global brain size in the SARS-CoV-2 cases. The participants who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 also showed on average a greater cognitive decline between the two time points. Importantly, these imaging and cognitive longitudinal effects were still observed after excluding the 15 patients who had been hospitalised. These mainly limbic brain imaging results may be the in vivo hallmarks of a degenerative spread of the disease through olfactory pathways, of neuroinflammatory events, or of the loss of sensory input due to anosmia. Whether this deleterious effect can be partially reversed, or whether these effects will persist in the long term, remains to be investigated with additional follow-up.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046077; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046077?pdf=render 35717168,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4,The contribution of hospital-acquired infections to the COVID-19 epidemic in England in the first half of 2020.,"Knight GM, Pham TM, Stimson J, Funk S, Jafari Y, Pople D, Evans S, Yin M, Brown CS, Bhattacharya A, Hope R, Semple MG, ISARIC4C Investigators, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Read JM, Cooper BS, Robotham JV.",,BMC infectious diseases,2022,2022-06-18,Y,Mathematical Modelling; Nosocomial Transmission; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 is known to transmit in hospital settings, but the contribution of infections acquired in hospitals to the epidemic at a national scale is unknown.

Methods

We used comprehensive national English datasets to determine the number of COVID-19 patients with identified hospital-acquired infections (with symptom onset > 7 days after admission and before discharge) in acute English hospitals up to August 2020. As patients may leave the hospital prior to detection of infection or have rapid symptom onset, we combined measures of the length of stay and the incubation period distribution to estimate how many hospital-acquired infections may have been missed. We used simulations to estimate the total number (identified and unidentified) of symptomatic hospital-acquired infections, as well as infections due to onward community transmission from missed hospital-acquired infections, to 31st July 2020.

Results

In our dataset of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in acute English hospitals with a recorded symptom onset date (n = 65,028), 7% were classified as hospital-acquired. We estimated that only 30% (range across weeks and 200 simulations: 20-41%) of symptomatic hospital-acquired infections would be identified, with up to 15% (mean, 95% range over 200 simulations: 14.1-15.8%) of cases currently classified as community-acquired COVID-19 potentially linked to hospital transmission. We estimated that 26,600 (25,900 to 27,700) individuals acquired a symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in an acute Trust in England before 31st July 2020, resulting in 15,900 (15,200-16,400) or 20.1% (19.2-20.7%) of all identified hospitalised COVID-19 cases.

Conclusions

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to hospitalised patients likely caused approximately a fifth of identified cases of hospitalised COVID-19 in the ""first wave"" in England, but less than 1% of all infections in England. Using time to symptom onset from admission for inpatients as a detection method likely misses a substantial proportion (> 60%) of hospital-acquired infections.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9206097; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9206097?pdf=render 32735547,https://doi.org/10.2196/20169,Can Robots Improve Testing Capacity for SARS-CoV-2?,"Cresswell K, Ramalingam S, Sheikh A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-08-12,Y,Virus; Infectious disease; Testing; Robotics; Pandemic; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"There is currently increasing interest internationally in deploying robotic applications for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing, as these can help to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to health care staff and patients. We provide an overview of key recent developments in this area. We argue that, although there is some potential for deploying robots to help with SARS-CoV-2 testing, the potential of patient-facing applications is likely to be limited. This is due to the high costs associated with patient-facing functionality, and risks of potentially adverse impacts on health care staff work practices and patient interactions. In contrast, back-end laboratory-based robots dealing with sample extraction and amplification, that effectively integrate with established processes, software, and interfaces to process samples, are much more likely to result in safety and efficiency gains. Consideration should therefore be given to deploying these at scale.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/8/e20169/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/20169; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7450371 34750106,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0376,Trends and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 vaccine recipients: a federated analysis of 57.9 million patients’ primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY.,"Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, Morton CE, MacKenna B, Green A, Hulme W, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Croker R, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson EJ, Rowan A, Fisher L, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2021-12-31,Y,Ethnic Groups; Vaccination; General Practice; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

On 8 December 2020 NHS England administered the first COVID-19 vaccination.

Aim

To describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups in the first 100 days of the vaccine rollout.

Design and setting

With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 57.9 million patient records in general practice in England, in situ and within the infrastructure of the electronic health record software vendors EMIS and TPP using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Vaccine coverage across various subgroups of Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority cohorts is described.

Results

A total of 20 852 692 patients (36.0%) received a vaccine between 8 December 2020 and 17 March 2021. Of patients aged ≥80 years not in a care home (JCVI group 2) 94.7% received a vaccine, but with substantial variation by ethnicity (White 96.2%, Black 68.3%) and deprivation (least deprived 96.6%, most deprived 90.7%). Patients with pre-existing medical conditions were more likely to be vaccinated with two exceptions: severe mental illness (89.5%) and learning disability (91.4%). There were 275 205 vaccine recipients who were identified as care home residents (JCVI group 1; 91.2% coverage). By 17 March, 1 257 914 (6.0%) recipients had a second dose.

Conclusion

The NHS rapidly delivered mass vaccination. In this study a data-monitoring framework was deployed using publicly auditable methods and a secure in situ processing model, using linked but pseudonymised patient-level NHS data for 57.9 million patients. Targeted activity may be needed to address lower vaccination coverage observed among certain key groups.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/72/714/e51.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0376; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589463; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589463?pdf=render @@ -252,11 +252,11 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 35715350,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010,Safety of COVID-19 vaccination and acute neurological events: A self-controlled case series in England using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Walker JL, Schultze A, Tazare J, Tamborska A, Singh B, Donegan K, Stowe J, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Curtis HJ, Williamson EJ, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Davy S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Hickman G, MacKenna B, Tomlinson L, Ca Green A, Fisher L, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Bates C, Evans SJ, Solomon T, Andrews NJ, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, McDonald HI.",,Vaccine,2022,2022-06-07,Y,Transverse Myelitis; Guillain-barré Syndrome; Vaccine Safety; Self-controlled Case Series; Bell’s Palsy; Covid-19 Vaccines,,,"

Introduction

We investigated the potential association of COVID-19 vaccination with three acute neurological events: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England we analysed primary care data from >17 million patients in England linked to emergency care, hospital admission and mortality records in the OpenSAFELY platform. Separately for each vaccine brand, we used a self-controlled case series design to estimate the incidence rate ratio for each outcome in the period following vaccination (4-42 days for GBS, 4-28 days for transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy) compared to a within-person baseline, using conditional Poisson regression.

Results

Among 7,783,441 ChAdOx1 vaccinees, there was an increased rate of GBS (N = 517; incidence rate ratio 2·85; 95% CI2·33-3·47) and Bell's palsy (N = 5,350; 1·39; 1·27-1·53) following a first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine, corresponding to 11.0 additional cases of GBS and 17.9 cases of Bell's palsy per 1 million vaccinees if causal. For GBS this applied to the first, but not the second, dose. There was no clear evidence of an association of ChAdOx1 vaccination with transverse myelitis (N = 199; 1·51; 0·96-2·37). Among 5,729,152 BNT162b2 vaccinees, there was no evidence of any association with GBS (N = 283; 1·09; 0·75-1·57), transverse myelitis (N = 109; 1·62; 0·86-3·03) or Bell's palsy (N = 3,609; 0·89; 0·76-1·03). Among 255,446 mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients there was no evidence of an association with Bell's palsy (N = 78; 0·88, 0·32-2·42).

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccines save lives, but it is important to understand rare adverse events. We observed a short-term increased rate of Guillain-Barré syndrome and Bell's palsy after first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine. The absolute risk, assuming a causal effect attributable to vaccination, was low.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533?pdf=render 37656609,https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwad179,Challenges in Estimating Effectiveness of 2 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Beyond 6 Months in England.,"Horne EMF, Hulme WJ, Keogh RH, Palmer TM, Williamson EJ, Parker EPK, Walker VM, Knight R, Wie Y, Taylor K, Fisher L, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Dillingham I, Bacon S, Goldacre B, Sterne JAC, Collaborative TO.",,American journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-09-01,N,severe acute respiratory syndrome; Covid-19; Covid-19 Vaccines,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwad179 34870142,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192,"Effectiveness of infection prevention and control interventions, excluding personal protective equipment, to prevent nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and call for action.","Jafari Y, Yin M, Lim C, Pople D, Evans S, Stimson J, Pham TM, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 working group, Read JM, Robotham JV, Cooper BS, Knight GM.",,Infection prevention in practice,2022,2021-11-29,Y,,,,"Many infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions have been adopted by hospitals to limit nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The aim of this systematic review is to identify evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions. We conducted a literature search of five databases (OVID MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, COVID-19 Portfolio (pre-print), Web of Science). SWIFT ActiveScreener software was used to screen English titles and abstracts published between 1st January 2020 and 6th April 2021. Intervention studies, defined by Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care, that evaluated IPC interventions with an outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in either patients or healthcare workers were included. Personal protective equipment (PPE) was excluded as this intervention had been previously reviewed. Risks of bias were assessed using the Cochrane tool for randomised trials (RoB2) and non-randomized studies of interventions (ROBINS-I). From 23,156 screened articles, we identified seven articles that met the inclusion criteria, all of which evaluated interventions to prevent infections in healthcare workers and the majority of which were focused on effectiveness of prophylaxes. Due to heterogeneity in interventions, we did not conduct a meta-analysis. All agents used for prophylaxes have little to no evidence of effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infections. We did not find any studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions including but not limited to screening, isolation and improved ventilation. There is limited evidence from interventional studies, excluding PPE, evaluating IPC measures for SARS-CoV-2. This review calls for urgent action to implement such studies to inform policies to protect our most vulnerable populations and healthcare workers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8628369; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8628369?pdf=render -35440465,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0689,Association between oral anticoagulants and COVID-19-related outcomes: a population-based cohort study.,"Wong AY, Tomlinson L, Brown JP, Elson W, Walker AJ, Schultze A, Morton CE, Evans D, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Powell E, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Eggo RM, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, Douglas IJ, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2022-06-30,Y,Warfarin; Factor Xa Inhibitors; Dabigatran; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Early evidence has shown that anticoagulant reduces the risk of thrombotic events in those infected with COVID-19. However, evidence of the role of routinely prescribed oral anticoagulants (OACs) in COVID-19 outcomes is limited.

Aim

To investigate the association between OACs and COVID-19 outcomes in those with atrial fibrillation and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2.

Design and setting

On behalf of NHS England, a population-based cohort study was conducted.

Method

The study used primary care data and pseudonymously-linked SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing data, hospital admissions, and death records from England. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for COVID-19 outcomes comparing people with current OAC use versus non-use, accounting for age, sex, comorbidities, other medications, deprivation, and general practice.

Results

Of 71 103 people with atrial fibrillation and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2, there were 52 832 current OAC users and 18 271 non-users. No difference in risk of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 was associated with current use (adjusted HR [aHR] 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95 to 1.04) versus non-use. A lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (aHR 0.77, 95% CI = 0.63 to 0.95) and a marginally lower risk of COVID-19-related death (aHR, 0.74, 95% CI = 0.53 to 1.04) were associated with current use versus non-use.

Conclusion

Among those at low baseline stroke risk, people receiving OACs had a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and severe COVID-19 outcomes than non-users; this might be explained by a causal effect of OACs in preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes or unmeasured confounding, including more cautious behaviours leading to reduced infection risk.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2022/04/19/BJGP.2021.0689.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037187; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037187?pdf=render -32393804,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2,Real-time tracking of self-reported symptoms to predict potential COVID-19.,"Menni C, Valdes AM, Freidin MB, Sudre CH, Nguyen LH, Drew DA, Ganesh S, Varsavsky T, Cardoso MJ, El-Sayed Moustafa JS, Visconti A, Hysi P, Bowyer RCE, Mangino M, Falchi M, Wolf J, Ourselin S, Chan AT, Steves CJ, Spector TD.",,Nature medicine,2020,2020-05-11,N,,,,"A total of 2,618,862 participants reported their potential symptoms of COVID-19 on a smartphone-based app. Among the 18,401 who had undergone a SARS-CoV-2 test, the proportion of participants who reported loss of smell and taste was higher in those with a positive test result (4,668 of 7,178 individuals; 65.03%) than in those with a negative test result (2,436 of 11,223 participants; 21.71%) (odds ratio = 6.74; 95% confidence interval = 6.31-7.21). A model combining symptoms to predict probable infection was applied to the data from all app users who reported symptoms (805,753) and predicted that 140,312 (17.42%) participants are likely to have COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0916-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7751267; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7751267?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2 34708157,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3,Estimating the duration of seropositivity of human seasonal coronaviruses using seroprevalence studies.,"Rees EM, Waterlow NR, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Lowe R, Kucharski AJ.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-12-21,Y,Catalytic model; Seroprevalence; Waning Immunity; Seasonal Coronavirus,,,"Background: The duration of immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still uncertain, but it is of key clinical and epidemiological importance. Seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoV) have been circulating for longer and, therefore, may offer insights into the long-term dynamics of reinfection for such viruses. Methods: Combining historical seroprevalence data from five studies covering the four circulating HCoVs with an age-structured reverse catalytic model, we estimated the likely duration of seropositivity following seroconversion. Results: We estimated that antibody persistence lasted between 0.9 (95% Credible interval: 0.6 - 1.6) and 3.8 (95% CrI: 2.0 - 7.4) years. Furthermore, we found the force of infection in older children and adults (those over 8.5 [95% CrI: 7.5 - 9.9] years) to be higher compared with young children in the majority of studies. Conclusions: These estimates of endemic HCoV dynamics could provide an indication of the future long-term infection and reinfection patterns of SARS-CoV-2.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721?pdf=render -37570411,https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152171,Patient Experiences of Communication with Healthcare Professionals on Their Healthcare Management around Chronic Respiratory Diseases.,"Zhang X, Buttery SC, Sterniczuk K, Brownrigg A, Kennington E, Quint JK.",,"Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)",2023,2023-07-31,Y,Communication; experience; Healthcare Professionals; Chronic Respiratory Disease,,,"

Background

Communication is an important clinical tool for the prevention and control of diseases, to advise and inform patients and the public, providing them with essential knowledge regarding healthcare and disease management. This study explored the experience of communication between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and people with long-term lung conditions, from the patient perspective.

Methods

This qualitative study analyzed the experience of people with chronic lung disease, recruited via Asthma & Lung UK (A&LUK) and COPD research databases. A&LUK invited people who had expressed a desire to be involved in research associated with their condition via their Expert Patient Panel and associated patients' groups. Two focus group interviews (12 participants) and one individual interview (1 participant) were conducted. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.

Results

Two main themes were identified and we named them 'involving communication' and 'communication needs to be improved. 'They included seven subthemes: community-led support increased the patients' social interaction with peers; allied-HCP-led support increased patients' satisfaction; disliking being repeatedly asked the same basic information; feeling communication was unengaging, lacking personal specifics and the use of medical terminology and jargon.

Conclusions

The study has identified what most matters in the process of communication with HCPs in people with long-term respiratory diseases of their healthcare management. The findings of the study can be used to improve the patient-healthcare professional relationship and facilitate a better communication flow in long-term healthcare management.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152171; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10418967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10418967?pdf=render +32393804,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2,Real-time tracking of self-reported symptoms to predict potential COVID-19.,"Menni C, Valdes AM, Freidin MB, Sudre CH, Nguyen LH, Drew DA, Ganesh S, Varsavsky T, Cardoso MJ, El-Sayed Moustafa JS, Visconti A, Hysi P, Bowyer RCE, Mangino M, Falchi M, Wolf J, Ourselin S, Chan AT, Steves CJ, Spector TD.",,Nature medicine,2020,2020-05-11,N,,,,"A total of 2,618,862 participants reported their potential symptoms of COVID-19 on a smartphone-based app. Among the 18,401 who had undergone a SARS-CoV-2 test, the proportion of participants who reported loss of smell and taste was higher in those with a positive test result (4,668 of 7,178 individuals; 65.03%) than in those with a negative test result (2,436 of 11,223 participants; 21.71%) (odds ratio = 6.74; 95% confidence interval = 6.31-7.21). A model combining symptoms to predict probable infection was applied to the data from all app users who reported symptoms (805,753) and predicted that 140,312 (17.42%) participants are likely to have COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0916-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7751267; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7751267?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2 +35440465,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0689,Association between oral anticoagulants and COVID-19-related outcomes: a population-based cohort study.,"Wong AY, Tomlinson L, Brown JP, Elson W, Walker AJ, Schultze A, Morton CE, Evans D, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Powell E, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Eggo RM, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, Douglas IJ, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2022-06-30,Y,Warfarin; Factor Xa Inhibitors; Dabigatran; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Early evidence has shown that anticoagulant reduces the risk of thrombotic events in those infected with COVID-19. However, evidence of the role of routinely prescribed oral anticoagulants (OACs) in COVID-19 outcomes is limited.

Aim

To investigate the association between OACs and COVID-19 outcomes in those with atrial fibrillation and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2.

Design and setting

On behalf of NHS England, a population-based cohort study was conducted.

Method

The study used primary care data and pseudonymously-linked SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing data, hospital admissions, and death records from England. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for COVID-19 outcomes comparing people with current OAC use versus non-use, accounting for age, sex, comorbidities, other medications, deprivation, and general practice.

Results

Of 71 103 people with atrial fibrillation and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2, there were 52 832 current OAC users and 18 271 non-users. No difference in risk of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 was associated with current use (adjusted HR [aHR] 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95 to 1.04) versus non-use. A lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (aHR 0.77, 95% CI = 0.63 to 0.95) and a marginally lower risk of COVID-19-related death (aHR, 0.74, 95% CI = 0.53 to 1.04) were associated with current use versus non-use.

Conclusion

Among those at low baseline stroke risk, people receiving OACs had a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and severe COVID-19 outcomes than non-users; this might be explained by a causal effect of OACs in preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes or unmeasured confounding, including more cautious behaviours leading to reduced infection risk.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2022/04/19/BJGP.2021.0689.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037187; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037187?pdf=render 34011491,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1137,Excess deaths associated with covid-19 pandemic in 2020: age and sex disaggregated time series analysis in 29 high income countries.,"Islam N, Shkolnikov VM, Acosta RJ, Klimkin I, Kawachi I, Irizarry RA, Alicandro G, Khunti K, Yates T, Jdanov DA, White M, Lewington S, Lacey B.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-05-19,Y,,,,"

Objective

To estimate the direct and indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic on mortality in 2020 in 29 high income countries with reliable and complete age and sex disaggregated mortality data.

Design

Time series study of high income countries.

Setting

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, England and Wales, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United States.

Participants

Mortality data from the Short-term Mortality Fluctuations data series of the Human Mortality Database for 2016-20, harmonised and disaggregated by age and sex.

Interventions

Covid-19 pandemic and associated policy measures.

Main outcome measures

Weekly excess deaths (observed deaths versus expected deaths predicted by model) in 2020, by sex and age (0-14, 15-64, 65-74, 75-84, and ≥85 years), estimated using an over-dispersed Poisson regression model that accounts for temporal trends and seasonal variability in mortality.

Results

An estimated 979 000 (95% confidence interval 954 000 to 1 001 000) excess deaths occurred in 2020 in the 29 high income countries analysed. All countries had excess deaths in 2020, except New Zealand, Norway, and Denmark. The five countries with the highest absolute number of excess deaths were the US (458 000, 454 000 to 461 000), Italy (89 100, 87 500 to 90 700), England and Wales (85 400, 83 900 to 86 800), Spain (84 100, 82 800 to 85 300), and Poland (60 100, 58 800 to 61 300). New Zealand had lower overall mortality than expected (-2500, -2900 to -2100). In many countries, the estimated number of excess deaths substantially exceeded the number of reported deaths from covid-19. The highest excess death rates (per 100 000) in men were in Lithuania (285, 259 to 311), Poland (191, 184 to 197), Spain (179, 174 to 184), Hungary (174, 161 to 188), and Italy (168, 163 to 173); the highest rates in women were in Lithuania (210, 185 to 234), Spain (180, 175 to 185), Hungary (169, 156 to 182), Slovenia (158, 132 to 184), and Belgium (151, 141 to 162). Little evidence was found of subsequent compensatory reductions following excess mortality.

Conclusion

Approximately one million excess deaths occurred in 2020 in these 29 high income countries. Age standardised excess death rates were higher in men than women in almost all countries. Excess deaths substantially exceeded reported deaths from covid-19 in many countries, indicating that determining the full impact of the pandemic on mortality requires assessment of excess deaths. Many countries had lower deaths than expected in children <15 years. Sex inequality in mortality widened further in most countries in 2020.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/373/bmj.n1137.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1137; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8132017; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8132017?pdf=render +37570411,https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152171,Patient Experiences of Communication with Healthcare Professionals on Their Healthcare Management around Chronic Respiratory Diseases.,"Zhang X, Buttery SC, Sterniczuk K, Brownrigg A, Kennington E, Quint JK.",,"Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)",2023,2023-07-31,Y,Communication; experience; Healthcare Professionals; Chronic Respiratory Disease,,,"

Background

Communication is an important clinical tool for the prevention and control of diseases, to advise and inform patients and the public, providing them with essential knowledge regarding healthcare and disease management. This study explored the experience of communication between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and people with long-term lung conditions, from the patient perspective.

Methods

This qualitative study analyzed the experience of people with chronic lung disease, recruited via Asthma & Lung UK (A&LUK) and COPD research databases. A&LUK invited people who had expressed a desire to be involved in research associated with their condition via their Expert Patient Panel and associated patients' groups. Two focus group interviews (12 participants) and one individual interview (1 participant) were conducted. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.

Results

Two main themes were identified and we named them 'involving communication' and 'communication needs to be improved. 'They included seven subthemes: community-led support increased the patients' social interaction with peers; allied-HCP-led support increased patients' satisfaction; disliking being repeatedly asked the same basic information; feeling communication was unengaging, lacking personal specifics and the use of medical terminology and jargon.

Conclusions

The study has identified what most matters in the process of communication with HCPs in people with long-term respiratory diseases of their healthcare management. The findings of the study can be used to improve the patient-healthcare professional relationship and facilitate a better communication flow in long-term healthcare management.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152171; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10418967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10418967?pdf=render 34265229,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768211032850,"Symptoms, complications and management of long COVID: a review.","Aiyegbusi OL, Hughes SE, Turner G, Rivera SC, McMullan C, Chandan JS, Haroon S, Price G, Davies EH, Nirantharakumar K, Sapey E, Calvert MJ, TLC Study Group.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2021,2021-07-15,Y,Infectious diseases; epidemiology; Public Health; Respiratory Medicine; Health Service Research; Covid-19; Long Covid; Post-Covid-19 Syndrome; Persistent Covid-19 Symptoms,,,"Globally, there are now over 160 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 3 million deaths. While the majority of infected individuals recover, a significant proportion continue to experience symptoms and complications after their acute illness. Patients with 'long COVID' experience a wide range of physical and mental/psychological symptoms. Pooled prevalence data showed the 10 most prevalent reported symptoms were fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain, joint pain, headache, cough, chest pain, altered smell, altered taste and diarrhoea. Other common symptoms were cognitive impairment, memory loss, anxiety and sleep disorders. Beyond symptoms and complications, people with long COVID often reported impaired quality of life, mental health and employment issues. These individuals may require multidisciplinary care involving the long-term monitoring of symptoms, to identify potential complications, physical rehabilitation, mental health and social services support. Resilient healthcare systems are needed to ensure efficient and effective responses to future health challenges.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768211032850; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768211032850; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8450986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8450986?pdf=render 33737684,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85877-0,"Proteomic blood profiling in mild, severe and critical COVID-19 patients.","Patel H, Ashton NJ, Dobson RJB, Andersson LM, Yilmaz A, Blennow K, Gisslen M, Zetterberg H.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,"The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic manifests itself as a mild respiratory tract infection in most individuals, leading to COVID-19 disease. However, in some infected individuals, this can progress to severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), leading to multi-organ failure and death. This study explores the proteomic differences between mild, severe, and critical COVID-19 positive patients to further understand the disease progression, identify proteins associated with disease severity, and identify potential therapeutic targets. Blood protein profiling was performed on 59 COVID-19 mild (n = 26), severe (n = 9) or critical (n = 24) cases and 28 controls using the OLINK inflammation, autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurology panels. Differential expression analysis was performed within and between disease groups to generate nine different analyses. From the 368 proteins measured per individual, more than 75% were observed to be significantly perturbed in COVID-19 cases. Six proteins (IL6, CKAP4, Gal-9, IL-1ra, LILRB4 and PD-L1) were identified to be associated with disease severity. The results have been made readily available through an interactive web-based application for instant data exploration and visualization, and can be accessed at https://phidatalab-shiny.rosalind.kcl.ac.uk/COVID19/ . Our results demonstrate that dynamic changes in blood proteins associated with disease severity can potentially be used as early biomarkers to monitor disease severity in COVID-19 and serve as potential therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85877-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85877-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7973581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7973581?pdf=render 32485082,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1924,Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers are not associated with severe COVID-19 infection in a multi-site UK acute hospital trust.,"Bean DM, Kraljevic Z, Searle T, Bendayan R, Kevin O, Pickles A, Folarin A, Roguski L, Noor K, Shek A, Zakeri R, Shah AM, Teo JTH, Dobson RJB.",,European journal of heart failure,2020,2020-06-01,Y,Hypertension; Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors; Disease Outcome; Covid-19,,,"

Aims

The SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for cell entry. It has been suggested that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB), which are commonly used in patients with hypertension or diabetes and may raise tissue ACE2 levels, could increase the risk of severe COVID-19 infection.

Methods and results

We evaluated this hypothesis in a consecutive cohort of 1200 acute inpatients with COVID-19 at two hospitals with a multi-ethnic catchment population in London (UK). The mean age was 68 ± 17 years (57% male) and 74% of patients had at least one comorbidity. Overall, 415 patients (34.6%) reached the primary endpoint of death or transfer to a critical care unit for organ support within 21 days of symptom onset. A total of 399 patients (33.3%) were taking ACEi or ARB. Patients on ACEi/ARB were significantly older and had more comorbidities. The odds ratio for the primary endpoint in patients on ACEi and ARB, after adjustment for age, sex and co-morbidities, was 0.63 (95% confidence interval 0.47-0.84, P < 0.01).

Conclusions

There was no evidence for increased severity of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients on chronic treatment with ACEi or ARB. A trend towards a beneficial effect of ACEi/ARB requires further evaluation in larger meta-analyses and randomised clinical trials.","This study aimed to determine whether or not two specific types of medication (ACE inhibitors and angiotensin-2 blockers - ACEi/ARB) used for hypertension or diabetes are associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection in a sample of 1,200 inpatients (one third of whom were taking the medications under investigation) in two London hospitals. The researchers used data from electonic medical notes and electronic health records. The patients who were taking the medication were, on average, older and had more underlying health conditions than patients who were not. After accounting for these differences in patient health the researchers found that the risk of severe COVID infection was not higher for patients taking ACEi/ARB. This finding is important for patients because it suggests that they should continue to take ACEi/ARB that have been presecribed to them.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.1924; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7301045; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7301045?pdf=render @@ -264,9 +264,9 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 34183342,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046392,"United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH): a retrospective cohort study using linked routinely collected data, study protocol.","Teece L, Gray LJ, Melbourne C, Orton C, Ford DV, Martin CA, McAllister D, Khunti K, Tobin M, John C, Abrams KR, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-28,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Adult Intensive & Critical Care; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 has spread rapidly worldwide, causing significant morbidity and mortality. People from ethnic minorities, particularly those working in healthcare settings, have been disproportionately affected. Current evidence of the association between ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes in people working in healthcare settings is insufficient to inform plans to address health inequalities.

Methods and analysis

This study combines anonymised human resource databases with professional registration and National Health Service data sets to assess associations between ethnicity and COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation and death in healthcare workers in the UK. Adverse COVID-19 outcomes will be assessed between 1 February 2020 (date following first confirmed COVID-19 case in UK) and study end date (31 January 2021), allowing 1-year of follow-up. Planned analyses include multivariable Poisson, logistic and flexible parametric time-to-event regression within each country, adjusting for core predictors, followed by meta-analysis of country-specific results to produce combined effect estimates for the UK. Mediation analysis methods will be explored to examine the direct, indirect and mediated interactive effects between ethnicity, occupational group and COVID-19 outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval for the UK-REACH programme has been obtained via the expedited HRA COVID-19 processes (REC ref: 20/HRA/4718, IRAS ID: 288316). Research information will be anonymised via the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank before release to researchers. Study results will be submitted for publication in an open access peer-reviewed journal and made available on our dedicated website (https://uk-reach.org/).

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e046392.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8245289; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8245289?pdf=render 35964473,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115237,"""We've all got the virus inside us now"": Disaggregating public health relations and responsibilities for health protection in pandemic London.","Kasstan B, Mounier-Jack S, Gaskell KM, Eggo RM, Marks M, Chantler T.",,Social science & medicine (1982),2022,2022-08-07,Y,Pandemic; Public Health; Judaism; Responsibility; London; Covid-19,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted ethnic minorities in the global north, evidenced by higher rates of transmission, morbidity, and mortality relative to population sizes. Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods in London had extremely high SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence rates, reflecting patterns in Israel and the US. The aim of this paper is to examine how responsibilities over health protection are conveyed, and to what extent responsibility is sought by, and shared between, state services, and 'community' stakeholders or representative groups, and families in public health emergencies. The study investigates how public health and statutory services stakeholders, Orthodox Jewish communal custodians and households sought to enact health protection in London during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-March 2021). Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted across these cohorts. Findings demonstrate that institutional relations - both their formation and at times fragmentation - were directly shaped by issues surrounding COVID-19 control measures. Exchanges around protective interventions (whether control measures, contact tracing technologies, or vaccines) reveal diverse and diverging attributions of responsibility and authority. The paper develops a framework of public health relations to understand negotiations between statutory services and minority groups over responsiveness and accountability in health protection. Disaggregating public health relations can help social scientists to critique who and what characterises institutional relationships with minority groups, and what ideas of responsibility and responsiveness are projected by differently-positioned stakeholders in health protection.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115237; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9357441; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9357441?pdf=render 35609019,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267176,Population birth outcomes in 2020 and experiences of expectant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A 'born in Wales' mixed methods study using routine data.,"Jones H, Seaborne M, Cowley L, Odd D, Paranjothy S, Akbari A, Brophy S.",,PloS one,2022,2022-05-24,Y,,,,"

Background

Pregnancy can be a stressful time and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life. This study aims to investigate the pandemic impact on pregnancy experience, rates of primary childhood immunisations and the differences in birth outcomes in during 2020 to those of previous years.

Methods

Self-reported pregnancy experience: 215 expectant mothers (aged 16+) in Wales completed an online survey about their experiences of pregnancy during the pandemic. The qualitative survey data was analysed using codebook thematic analysis. Population-level birth outcomes in Wales: Stillbirths, prematurity, birth weight and Caesarean section births before (2016-2019) and during (2020) the pandemic were compared using anonymised individual-level, population-scale routine data held in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Uptake of the first three scheduled primary childhood immunisations were compared between 2019 and 2020.

Findings

The pandemic had a negative impact on the mental health of 71% of survey respondents, who reported anxiety, stress and loneliness; this was associated with attending scans without their partner, giving birth alone, and minimal contact with midwives. There was no significant difference in annual outcomes including gestation and birth weight, stillbirths, and Caesarean sections for infants born in 2020 compared to 2016-2019. There was an increase in late term births (≥42 weeks gestation) during the first lockdown (OR: 1.28, p = 0.019) and a decrease in moderate to late preterm births (32-36 weeks gestation) during the second lockdown (OR: 0.74, p = 0.001). Fewer babies were born in 2020 (N = 29,031) compared to 2016-2019 (average N = 32,582). All babies received their immunisations in 2020, but there were minor delays in the timings of immunisations. Those due at 8-weeks were 8% less likely to be on time (within 28-days) and at 16-weeks, they were 19% less likely to be on time.

Interpretation

Whilst the pandemic had a negative impact on mothers' experiences of pregnancy. Population-level data suggests that this did not translate to adverse birth outcomes for babies born during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0267176&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9129046; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9129046?pdf=render -33220850,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32465-x,Urgent actions and policies needed to address COVID-19 among UK ethnic minorities.,"Mathur R, Bear L, Khunti K, Eggo RM.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-11-19,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S014067362032465X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32465-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7831890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7831890?pdf=render 34145260,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23935-x,Community factors and excess mortality in first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.,"Davies B, Parkes BL, Bennett J, Fecht D, Blangiardo M, Ezzati M, Elliott P.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-06-18,Y,,,,"Risk factors for increased risk of death from COVID-19 have been identified, but less is known on characteristics that make communities resilient or vulnerable to the mortality impacts of the pandemic. We applied a two-stage Bayesian spatial model to quantify inequalities in excess mortality in people aged 40 years and older at the community level during the first wave of the pandemic in England, March-May 2020 compared with 2015-2019. Here we show that communities with an increased risk of excess mortality had a high density of care homes, and/or high proportion of residents on income support, living in overcrowded homes and/or with a non-white ethnicity. We found no association between population density or air pollution and excess mortality. Effective and timely public health and healthcare measures that target the communities at greatest risk are urgently needed to avoid further widening of inequalities in mortality patterns as the pandemic progresses.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23935-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8213785; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8213785?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23935-x.pdf 34598993,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410,"Changes in neonatal admissions, care processes and outcomes in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic: a whole population cohort study.","Greenbury SF, Longford N, Ougham K, Angelini ED, Battersby C, Uthaya S, Modi N.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-10-01,Y,Public Health; Neonatology; Neonatal Intensive & Critical Care,,,"

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic instigated multiple societal and healthcare interventions with potential to affect perinatal practice. We evaluated population-level changes in preterm and full-term admissions to neonatal units, care processes and outcomes.

Design

Observational cohort study using the UK National Neonatal Research Database.

Setting

England and Wales.

Participants

Admissions to National Health Service neonatal units from 2012 to 2020.

Main outcome measures

Admissions by gestational age, ethnicity and Index of Multiple Deprivation, and key care processes and outcomes.

Methods

We calculated differences in numbers and rates between April and June 2020 (spring), the first 3 months of national lockdown (COVID-19 period), and December 2019-February 2020 (winter), prior to introduction of mitigation measures, and compared them with the corresponding differences in the previous 7 years. We considered the COVID-19 period highly unusual if the spring-winter difference was smaller or larger than all previous corresponding differences, and calculated the level of confidence in this conclusion.

Results

Marked fluctuations occurred in all measures over the 8 years with several highly unusual changes during the COVID-19 period. Total admissions fell, having risen over all previous years (COVID-19 difference: -1492; previous 7-year difference range: +100, +1617; p<0.001); full-term black admissions rose (+66; -64, +35; p<0.001) whereas Asian (-137; -14, +101; p<0.001) and white (-319; -235, +643: p<0.001) admissions fell. Transfers to higher and lower designation neonatal units increased (+129; -4, +88; p<0.001) and decreased (-47; -25, +12; p<0.001), respectively. Total preterm admissions decreased (-350; -26, +479; p<0.001). The fall in extremely preterm admissions was most marked in the two lowest socioeconomic quintiles.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate substantial changes occurred in care pathways and clinical thresholds, with disproportionate effects on black ethnic groups, during the immediate COVID-19 period, and raise the intriguing possibility that non-healthcare interventions may reduce extremely preterm births.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e054410.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283?pdf=render +33220850,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32465-x,Urgent actions and policies needed to address COVID-19 among UK ethnic minorities.,"Mathur R, Bear L, Khunti K, Eggo RM.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-11-19,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S014067362032465X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32465-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7831890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7831890?pdf=render 32880390,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa627,"Systemic Corticosteroids and Mortality in Severe and Critical COVID-19 Patients in Wuhan, China. ","Wu J, Huang J, Zhu G, Liu Y, Xiao H, Zhou Q, Si X, Yi H, Wang C, Yang D, Chen S, Liu X, Liu Z, Wang Q, Lv Q, Huang Y, Yu Y, Guan X, Li Y, Nirantharakumar K, Cheng K, Peng S, Xiao H.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2020,2020-12-01,Y,,,,"Systemic corticosteroids are now recommended in many treatment guidelines, although supporting evidence is limited to 1 randomized controlled clinical trial (RECOVERY). To identify whether corticosteroids were beneficial to COVID-19 patients. A total of 1514 severe and 249 critical hospitalized COVID-19 patients from 2 medical centers in Wuhan, China. Multivariable Cox models, Cox model with time-varying exposure and propensity score analysis (inverse-probability-of-treatment-weighting [IPTW] and propensity score matching [PSM]) were used to estimate the association of corticosteroid use with risk of in-hospital mortality in severe and critical cases. Corticosteroids were administered in 531 (35.1%) severe and 159 (63.9%) critical patients. Compared to the non-corticosteroid group, systemic corticosteroid use was not associated with beneficial effect in reducing in-hospital mortality in either severe cases (HR = 1.77; 95% CI, 1.08-2.89; P = 0.023), or critical cases (HR = 2.07; 95% CI, 1.08-3.98; P = 0.028). Findings were similar in time-varying Cox analysis. For patients with severe COVID-19 at admission, corticosteroid use was not associated with improved or harmful outcome in either PSM or IPTW analysis. For critical COVID-19 patients at admission, results were consistent with multivariable Cox model analysis. Corticosteroid use was not associated with beneficial effect in reducing in-hospital mortality for severe or critical cases in Wuhan. Absence of the beneficial effect in our study in contrast to that observed in the RECOVERY clinical trial may be due to biases in observational data, in particular prescription by indication bias, differences in clinical characteristics of patients, choice of corticosteroid used, timing of initiation of treatment, and duration of treatment.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/105/12/e4230/41829325/dgaa627.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7499588; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7499588?pdf=render 34782484,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217580,External validation of the QCovid risk prediction algorithm for risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality in adults: national validation cohort study in Scotland.,"Simpson CR, Robertson C, Kerr S, Shi T, Vasileiou E, Moore E, McCowan C, Agrawal U, Docherty A, Mulholland R, Murray J, Ritchie LD, McMenamin J, Hippisley-Cox J, Sheikh A.",,Thorax,2022,2021-11-15,Y,Clinical Epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The QCovid algorithm is a risk prediction tool that can be used to stratify individuals by risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality. Version 1 of the algorithm was trained using data covering 10.5 million patients in England in the period 24 January 2020 to 30 April 2020. We carried out an external validation of version 1 of the QCovid algorithm in Scotland.

Methods

We established a national COVID-19 data platform using individual level data for the population of Scotland (5.4 million residents). Primary care data were linked to reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) virology testing, hospitalisation and mortality data. We assessed the performance of the QCovid algorithm in predicting COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in our dataset for two time periods matching the original study: 1 March 2020 to 30 April 2020, and 1 May 2020 to 30 June 2020.

Results

Our dataset comprised 5 384 819 individuals, representing 99% of the estimated population (5 463 300) resident in Scotland in 2020. The algorithm showed good calibration in the first period, but systematic overestimation of risk in the second period, prior to temporal recalibration. Harrell's C for deaths in females and males in the first period was 0.95 (95% CI 0.94 to 0.95) and 0.93 (95% CI 0.92 to 0.93), respectively. Harrell's C for hospitalisations in females and males in the first period was 0.81 (95% CI 0.80 to 0.82) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.82), respectively.

Conclusions

Version 1 of the QCovid algorithm showed high levels of discrimination in predicting the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in adults resident in Scotland for the original two time periods studied, but is likely to need ongoing recalibration prospectively.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/77/5/497.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217580; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595052; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595052?pdf=render 35411997,https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.13752,"Outcomes of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Omicron-driven fourth wave compared with previous waves in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.","Davies MA, Kassanjee R, Rousseau P, Morden E, Johnson L, Solomon W, Hsiao NY, Hussey H, Meintjes G, Paleker M, Jacobs T, Raubenheimer P, Heekes A, Dane P, Bam JL, Smith M, Preiser W, Pienaar D, Mendelson M, Naude J, Schrueder N, Mnguni A, Le Roux S, Murie K, Prozesky H, Mahomed H, Rossouw L, Wasserman S, Maughan D, Boloko L, Smith B, Taljaard J, Symons G, Ntusi NAB, Parker A, Wolter N, Jassat W, Cohen C, Lessells R, Wilkinson RJ, Arendse J, Kariem S, Moodley M, Wolmarans M, Cloete K, Boulle A, Western Cape and South African National Departments of Health in collaboration with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa Affiliations.",,Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH,2022,2022-05-10,Y,Vaccination; Immunity; DELTA; Sub-Saharan Africa; Covid-19; Prior Infection; Omicron,,,"

Objectives

The objective was to compare COVID-19 outcomes in the Omicron-driven fourth wave with prior waves in the Western Cape, assess the contribution of undiagnosed prior infection to differences in outcomes in a context of high seroprevalence due to prior infection and determine whether protection against severe disease conferred by prior infection and/or vaccination was maintained.

Methods

In this cohort study, we included public sector patients aged ≥20 years with a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis between 14 November and 11 December 2021 (wave four) and equivalent prior wave periods. We compared the risk between waves of the following outcomes using Cox regression: death, severe hospitalisation or death and any hospitalisation or death (all ≤14 days after diagnosis) adjusted for age, sex, comorbidities, geography, vaccination and prior infection.

Results

We included 5144 patients from wave four and 11,609 from prior waves. The risk of all outcomes was lower in wave four compared to the Delta-driven wave three (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for death 0.27 [0.19; 0.38]. Risk reduction was lower when adjusting for vaccination and prior diagnosed infection (aHR: 0.41, 95% CI: 0.29; 0.59) and reduced further when accounting for unascertained prior infections (aHR: 0.72). Vaccine protection was maintained in wave four (aHR for outcome of death: 0.24; 95% CI: 0.10; 0.58).

Conclusions

In the Omicron-driven wave, severe COVID-19 outcomes were reduced mostly due to protection conferred by prior infection and/or vaccination, but intrinsically reduced virulence may account for a modest reduction in risk of severe hospitalisation or death compared to the Delta-driven wave.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/tmi.13752; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.13752; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115442; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115442?pdf=render @@ -285,8 +285,8 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 34732073,https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.121.034787,"Risk, Clinical Course, and Outcome of Ischemic Stroke in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: A Multicenter Cohort Study.","Sluis WM, Linschoten M, Buijs JE, Biesbroek JM, den Hertog HM, Ribbers T, Nieuwkamp DJ, van Houwelingen RC, Dias A, van Uden IWM, Kerklaan JP, Bienfait HP, Vermeer SE, de Jong SW, Ali M, Wermer MJH, de Graaf MT, Brouwers PJAM, Asselbergs FW, Kappelle LJ, van der Worp HB, Algra AM, CAPACITY-COVID Collaborative Consortium*.",,Stroke,2021,2021-11-04,Y,Intensive care units; Pulmonary embolism; incidence; Hospital Mortality; Patient Discharge; Covid-19,,,"

Background and purpose

The frequency of ischemic stroke in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) varies in the current literature, and risk factors are unknown. We assessed the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of acute ischemic stroke in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Methods

We included patients with a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) infection admitted in 16 Dutch hospitals participating in the international CAPACITY-COVID registry between March 1 and August 1, 2020. Patients were screened for the occurrence of acute ischemic stroke. We calculated the cumulative incidence of ischemic stroke and compared risk factors, cardiovascular complications, and in-hospital mortality in patients with and without ischemic stroke.

Results

We included 2147 patients with COVID-19, of whom 586 (27.3%) needed treatment at an intensive care unit. Thirty-eight patients (1.8%) had an ischemic stroke. Patients with stroke were older but did not differ in sex or cardiovascular risk factors. Median time between the onset of COVID-19 symptoms and diagnosis of stroke was 2 weeks. The incidence of ischemic stroke was higher among patients who were treated at an intensive care unit (16/586; 2.7% versus nonintensive care unit, 22/1561; 1.4%; P=0.039). Pulmonary embolism was more common in patients with (8/38; 21.1%) than in those without stroke (160/2109; 7.6%; adjusted risk ratio, 2.08 [95% CI, 1.52-2.84]). Twenty-seven patients with ischemic stroke (71.1%) died during admission or were functionally dependent at discharge. Patients with ischemic stroke were at a higher risk of in-hospital mortality (adjusted risk ratio, 1.56 [95% CI, 1.13-2.15]) than patients without stroke.

Conclusions

In this multicenter cohort study, the cumulative incidence of acute ischemic stroke in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 was ≈2%, with a higher risk in patients treated at an intensive care unit. The majority of stroke patients had a poor outcome. The association between ischemic stroke and pulmonary embolism warrants further investigation.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.034787; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.034787; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8607920; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8607920?pdf=render 35308309,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101346,"Healthcare workers' views on mandatory SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in the UK: A cross-sectional, mixed-methods analysis from the UK-REACH study.","Woolf K, Gogoi M, Martin CA, Papineni P, Lagrata S, Nellums LB, McManus IC, Guyatt AL, Melbourne C, Bryant L, Gupta A, John C, Carr S, Tobin MD, Simpson S, Gregary B, Aujayeb A, Zingwe S, Reza R, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-03-15,Y,,,,"

Background

Several countries now have mandatory SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for healthcare workers (HCWs) or the general population. HCWs' views on this are largely unknown. Using data from the nationwide UK-REACH study we aimed to understand UK HCW's views on improving SARS-CoV-2 vaccination coverage, including mandatory vaccination.

Methods

Between 21st April and 26th June 2021, we administered an online questionnaire via email to 17 891 UK HCWs recruited as part of a longitudinal cohort from across the UK who had previously responded to a baseline questionnaire (primarily recruited through email) as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) nationwide prospective cohort study. We categorised responses to a free-text question ""What should society do if people do not get vaccinated against COVID-19?"" using qualitative content analysis. We collapsed categories into a binary variable: favours mandatory vaccination or not, using logistic regression to calculate its demographic predictors, and its occupational, health, and attitudinal predictors adjusted for demographics.

Findings

Of 5633 questionnaire respondents, 3235 answered the free text question. Median age of free text responders was 47 years (IQR 36-56) and 2705 (74.3%) were female. 18% (n = 578) favoured mandatory vaccination (201 [6%] participants for HCWs and others working with vulnerable populations; 377 [12%] for the general population), but the most frequent suggestion was education (32%, n = 1047). Older HCWs (OR 1.84; 95% CI 1.44-2.34 [≥55 years vs 16 years to <40 years]), HCWs vaccinated against influenza (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.11-2.01 [2 vaccines vs none]), and with more positive vaccination attitudes generally (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.06-1.15) were more likely to favour mandatory vaccination, whereas female HCWs (OR= 0.79, 95% CI 0.63-0.96, vs male HCWs) and Black HCWs (OR=0.46, 95% CI 0.25-0.85, vs white HCWs) were less likely to.

Interpretation

Only one in six of the HCWs in this large, diverse, UK-wide sample favoured mandatory vaccination. Building trust, educating, and supporting HCWs who are hesitant about vaccination may be more acceptable, effective, and equitable.

Funding

MRC-UK Research and Innovation grant (MR/V027549/1) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Core funding was also provided by NIHR Biomedical Research Centres.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022000761/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101346; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8923694; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8923694?pdf=render 35265823,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101317,Variation in global COVID-19 symptoms by geography and by chronic disease: A global survey using the COVID-19 Symptom Mapper.,"Kadirvelu B, Burcea G, Quint JK, Costelloe CE, Faisal AA.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-03-06,Y,"Comorbidities; Pcr, Polymerase Chain Reaction; Covid-19; Covid-19 Symptoms; Covid Symptom Profile; Covid Symptoms Mapper; Covid Symptoms Survey; Covid-19, The Coronavirus Disease That First Appeared In 2019 Caused By The Sars-cov-2 Coronavirus.; Who, World Health Organization, A Specialized Agency Of The United Nations Responsible For International Public Health.",,,"

Background

COVID-19 is typically characterised by a triad of symptoms: cough, fever and loss of taste and smell, however, this varies globally. This study examines variations in COVID-19 symptom profiles based on underlying chronic disease and geographical location.

Methods

Using a global online symptom survey of 78,299 responders in 190 countries between 09/04/2020 and 22/09/2020, we conducted an exploratory study to examine symptom profiles associated with a positive COVID-19 test result by country and underlying chronic disease (single, co- or multi-morbidities) using statistical and machine learning methods.

Findings

From the results of 7980 COVID-19 tested positive responders, we find that symptom patterns differ by country. For example, India reported a lower proportion of headache (22.8% vs 47.8%, p<1e-13) and itchy eyes (7.3% vs. 16.5%, p=2e-8) than other countries. As with geographic location, we find people differed in their reported symptoms if they suffered from specific chronic diseases. For example, COVID-19 positive responders with asthma (25.3% vs. 13.7%, p=7e-6) were more likely to report shortness of breath compared to those with no underlying chronic disease.

Interpretation

We have identified variation in COVID-19 symptom profiles depending on geographic location and underlying chronic disease. Failure to reflect this symptom variation in public health messaging may contribute to asymptomatic COVID-19 spread and put patients with chronic diseases at a greater risk of infection. Future work should focus on symptom profile variation in the emerging variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is crucial to speed up clinical diagnosis, predict prognostic outcomes and target treatment.

Funding

We acknowledge funding to AAF by a UKRI Turing AI Fellowship and to CEC by a personal NIHR Career Development Fellowship (grant number NIHR-2016-090-015). JKQ has received grants from The Health Foundation, MRC, GSK, Bayer, BI, Asthma UK-British Lung Foundation, IQVIA, Chiesi AZ, and Insmed. This work is supported by BREATHE - The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health [MC_PC_19004]. BREATHE is funded through the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and delivered through Health Data Research UK. Imperial College London is grateful for the support from the Northwest London NIHR Applied Research Collaboration. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022000475/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101317; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8898170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8898170?pdf=render -37192798,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066398,Impact of pausing elective hip and knee replacement surgery during winter 2017 on subsequent service provision at a major NHS Trust: a descriptive observational study using interrupted time series.,"Jones T, Penfold C, Redaniel MT, Eyles E, Keen T, Elliott A, Blom AW, Judge A.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-05-16,Y,Knee; Hip; Human Resource Management; Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery,,,"

Objectives

To explore the impact of a temporary cancellation of elective surgery in winter 2017 on trends in primary hip and knee replacement at a major National Health Service (NHS) Trust, and whether lessons can be learnt about efficient surgery provision.

Design and setting

Observational descriptive study using interrupted time series analysis of hospital records to explore trends in primary hip and knee replacement surgery at a major NHS Trust, as well as patient characteristics, 2016-2019.

Intervention

A temporary cancellation of elective services for 2 months in winter 2017.

Outcomes

NHS-funded hospital admissions for primary hip or knee replacement, length of stay and bed occupancy. Additionally, we explored the ratio of elective to emergency admissions at the Trust as a measure of elective capacity, and the ratio of public to private provision of NHS-funded hip and knee surgery.

Results

After winter 2017, there was a sustained reduction in the number of knee replacements, a decrease in the proportion of most deprived people having knee replacements and an increase in average age for knee replacement and comorbidity for both types of surgery. The ratio of public to private provision dropped after winter 2017, and elective capacity generally has reduced over time. There was clear seasonality in provision of elective surgery, with less complex patients admitted during winter.

Conclusions

Declining elective capacity and seasonality has a marked effect on the provision of joint replacement, despite efficiency improvements in hospital treatment. The Trust has outsourced less complex patients to independent providers, and/or treated them during winter when capacity is most limited. There is a need to explore whether these are strategies that could be used explicitly to maximise the use of limited elective capacity, provide benefit to patients and value for money for taxpayers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066398; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066398; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193088?pdf=render 36498739,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11237163,Biopsychosocial Response to the COVID-19 Lockdown in People with Major Depressive Disorder and Multiple Sclerosis.,"Siddi S, Giné-Vázquez I, Bailon R, Matcham F, Lamers F, Kontaxis S, Laporta E, Garcia E, Arranz B, Dalla Costa G, Guerrero AI, Zabalza A, Buron MD, Comi G, Leocani L, Annas P, Hotopf M, Penninx BWJH, Magyari M, Sørensen PS, Montalban X, Lavelle G, Ivan A, Oetzmann C, White KM, Difrancesco S, Locatelli P, Mohr DC, Aguiló J, Narayan V, Folarin A, Dobson RJB, Dineley J, Leightley D, Cummins N, Vairavan S, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Rintala A, Girolamo G, Preti A, Simblett S, Wykes T, Pab Members, Myin-Germeys I, Haro JM, On Behalf Of The Radar-Cns Consortium.",,Journal of clinical medicine,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Stress; Heart rate; Multiple sclerosis; Physical Activity; Social Activity; Major Depressive Disorder; Depression Severity; Decentralized; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Changes in lifestyle, finances and work status during COVID-19 lockdowns may have led to biopsychosocial changes in people with pre-existing vulnerabilities such as Major Depressive Disorders (MDDs) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

Methods

Data were collected as a part of the RADAR-CNS (Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Central Nervous System) program. We analyzed the following data from long-term participants in a decentralized multinational study: symptoms of depression, heart rate (HR) during the day and night; social activity; sedentary state, steps and physical activity of varying intensity. Linear mixed-effects regression analyses with repeated measures were fitted to assess the changes among three time periods (pre, during and post-lockdown) across the groups, adjusting for depression severity before the pandemic and gender.

Results

Participants with MDDs (N = 255) and MS (N = 214) were included in the analyses. Overall, depressive symptoms remained stable across the three periods in both groups. A lower mean HR and HR variation were observed between pre and during lockdown during the day for MDDs and during the night for MS. HR variation during rest periods also decreased between pre- and post-lockdown in both clinical conditions. We observed a reduction in physical activity for MDDs and MS upon the introduction of lockdowns. The group with MDDs exhibited a net increase in social interaction via social network apps over the three periods.

Conclusions

Behavioral responses to the lockdown measured by social activity, physical activity and HR may reflect changes in stress in people with MDDs and MS. Remote technology monitoring might promptly activate an early warning of physical and social alterations in these stressful situations. Future studies must explore how stress does or does not impact depression severity.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/11/23/7163/pdf?version=1670311452; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11237163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738639?pdf=render +37192798,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066398,Impact of pausing elective hip and knee replacement surgery during winter 2017 on subsequent service provision at a major NHS Trust: a descriptive observational study using interrupted time series.,"Jones T, Penfold C, Redaniel MT, Eyles E, Keen T, Elliott A, Blom AW, Judge A.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-05-16,Y,Knee; Hip; Human Resource Management; Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery,,,"

Objectives

To explore the impact of a temporary cancellation of elective surgery in winter 2017 on trends in primary hip and knee replacement at a major National Health Service (NHS) Trust, and whether lessons can be learnt about efficient surgery provision.

Design and setting

Observational descriptive study using interrupted time series analysis of hospital records to explore trends in primary hip and knee replacement surgery at a major NHS Trust, as well as patient characteristics, 2016-2019.

Intervention

A temporary cancellation of elective services for 2 months in winter 2017.

Outcomes

NHS-funded hospital admissions for primary hip or knee replacement, length of stay and bed occupancy. Additionally, we explored the ratio of elective to emergency admissions at the Trust as a measure of elective capacity, and the ratio of public to private provision of NHS-funded hip and knee surgery.

Results

After winter 2017, there was a sustained reduction in the number of knee replacements, a decrease in the proportion of most deprived people having knee replacements and an increase in average age for knee replacement and comorbidity for both types of surgery. The ratio of public to private provision dropped after winter 2017, and elective capacity generally has reduced over time. There was clear seasonality in provision of elective surgery, with less complex patients admitted during winter.

Conclusions

Declining elective capacity and seasonality has a marked effect on the provision of joint replacement, despite efficiency improvements in hospital treatment. The Trust has outsourced less complex patients to independent providers, and/or treated them during winter when capacity is most limited. There is a need to explore whether these are strategies that could be used explicitly to maximise the use of limited elective capacity, provide benefit to patients and value for money for taxpayers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066398; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066398; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193088?pdf=render 33541353,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01872-8,The impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission across 130 countries and territories.,"Liu Y, Morgenstern C, Kelly J, Lowe R, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-02-05,Y,Quantitative; Pandemic; Health Impact Assessment; Public Health Intervention; Longitudinal Analysis; Policy Evaluation; Non-pharmaceutical Interventions; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are used to reduce transmission of SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, empirical evidence of the effectiveness of specific NPIs has been inconsistent. We assessed the effectiveness of NPIs around internal containment and closure, international travel restrictions, economic measures, and health system actions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 130 countries and territories.

Methods

We used panel (longitudinal) regression to estimate the effectiveness of 13 categories of NPIs in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission using data from January to June 2020. First, we examined the temporal association between NPIs using hierarchical cluster analyses. We then regressed the time-varying reproduction number (Rt) of COVID-19 against different NPIs. We examined different model specifications to account for the temporal lag between NPIs and changes in Rt, levels of NPI intensity, time-varying changes in NPI effect, and variable selection criteria. Results were interpreted taking into account both the range of model specifications and temporal clustering of NPIs.

Results

There was strong evidence for an association between two NPIs (school closure, internal movement restrictions) and reduced Rt. Another three NPIs (workplace closure, income support, and debt/contract relief) had strong evidence of effectiveness when ignoring their level of intensity, while two NPIs (public events cancellation, restriction on gatherings) had strong evidence of their effectiveness only when evaluating their implementation at maximum capacity (e.g. restrictions on 1000+ people gathering were not effective, restrictions on < 10 people gathering were). Evidence about the effectiveness of the remaining NPIs (stay-at-home requirements, public information campaigns, public transport closure, international travel controls, testing, contact tracing) was inconsistent and inconclusive. We found temporal clustering between many of the NPIs. Effect sizes varied depending on whether or not we included data after peak NPI intensity.

Conclusion

Understanding the impact that specific NPIs have had on SARS-CoV-2 transmission is complicated by temporal clustering, time-dependent variation in effects, and differences in NPI intensity. However, the effectiveness of school closure and internal movement restrictions appears robust across different model specifications, with some evidence that other NPIs may also be effective under particular conditions. This provides empirical evidence for the potential effectiveness of many, although not all, actions policy-makers are taking to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01872-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01872-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7861967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7861967?pdf=render 34340970,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0301,Clinical coding of long COVID in English primary care: a federated analysis of 58 million patient records in situ using OpenSAFELY.,"Walker AJ, MacKenna B, Inglesby P, Tomlinson L, Rentsch CT, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Croker R, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Williamson EJ, Hulme WJ, McDonald HI, Mathur R, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Tazare J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2021,2021-10-28,Y,Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19; Long Covid,,,"

Background

Long COVID describes new or persistent symptoms at least 4 weeks after onset of acute COVID-19. Clinical codes to describe this phenomenon were recently created.

Aim

To describe the use of long-COVID codes, and variation of use by general practice, demographic variables, and over time.

Design and setting

Population-based cohort study in English primary care.

Method

Working on behalf of NHS England, OpenSAFELY data were used encompassing 96% of the English population between 1 February 2020 and 25 May 2021. The proportion of people with a recorded code for long COVID was measured overall and by demographic factors, electronic health record software system (EMIS or TPP), and week.

Results

Long COVID was recorded for 23 273 people. Coding was unevenly distributed among practices, with 26.7% of practices having never used the codes. Regional variation ranged between 20.3 per 100 000 people for East of England (95% confidence interval [CI] = 19.3 to 21.4) and 55.6 per 100 000 people in London (95% CI = 54.1 to 57.1). Coding was higher among females (52.1, 95% CI = 51.3 to 52.9) than males (28.1, 95% CI = 27.5 to 28.7), and higher among practices using EMIS (53.7, 95% CI = 52.9 to 54.4) than those using TPP (20.9, 95% CI = 20.3 to 21.4).

Conclusion

Current recording of long COVID in primary care is very low, and variable between practices. This may reflect patients not presenting; clinicians and patients holding different diagnostic thresholds; or challenges with the design and communication of diagnostic codes. Increased awareness of diagnostic codes is recommended to facilitate research and planning of services, and also surveys with qualitative work to better evaluate clinicians' understanding of the diagnosis.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/71/712/e806.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8340730; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8340730?pdf=render 33875444,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045077,COVID-19 in patients with hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases: a single-centre cross-sectional study in East London.,"Dayem Ullah AZM, Sivapalan L, Kocher HM, Chelala C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-04-19,Y,Pancreatic Disease; Hepatobiliary Disease; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To explore risk factors associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and survival in patients with pre-existing hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) conditions.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

East London Pancreatic Cancer Epidemiology (EL-PaC-Epidem) Study at Barts Health National Health Service Trust, UK. Linked electronic health records were interrogated on a cohort of participants (age ≥18 years), reported with HPB conditions between 1 April 2008 and 6 March 2020.

Participants

EL-PaC-Epidem Study participants, alive on 12 February 2020, and living in East London within the previous 6 months (n=15 440). The cohort represents a multi-ethnic population with 51.7% belonging to the non-White background.

Main outcome measure

COVID-19 incidence and mortality.

Results

Some 226 (1.5%) participants had confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis between 12 February and 12 June 2020, with increased odds for men (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.2 to 2.04) and Black ethnicity (2.04; 1.39 to 2.95) as well as patients with moderate to severe liver disease (2.2; 1.35 to 3.59). Each additional comorbidity increased the odds of infection by 62%. Substance misusers were at more risk of infection, so were patients on vitamin D treatment. The higher ORs in patients with chronic pancreatic or mild liver conditions, age >70, and a history of smoking or obesity were due to coexisting comorbidities. Increased odds of death were observed for men (3.54; 1.68 to 7.85) and Black ethnicity (3.77; 1.38 to 10.7). Patients having respiratory complications from COVID-19 without a history of chronic respiratory disease also had higher odds of death (5.77; 1.75 to 19).

Conclusions

In this large population-based study of patients with HPB conditions, men, Black ethnicity, pre-existing moderate to severe liver conditions, six common medical multimorbidities, substance misuse and a history of vitamin D treatment independently posed higher odds of acquiring COVID-19 compared with their respective counterparts. The odds of death were significantly high for men and Black people.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/4/e045077.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045077; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057071; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057071?pdf=render @@ -297,11 +297,11 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 34328624,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9,30-Day Morbidity and Mortality of Bariatric Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Multinational Cohort Study of 7704 Patients from 42 Countries.,"Singhal R, Ludwig C, Rudge G, Gkoutos GV, Tahrani A, Mahawar K, GENEVA Collaborators, Pędziwiatr M, Major P, Zarzycki P, Pantelis A, Lapatsanis DP, Stravodimos G, Matthys C, Focquet M, Vleeschouwers W, Spaventa AG, Zerrweck C, Vitiello A, Berardi G, Musella M, Sanchez-Meza A, Cantu FJ, Mora F, Cantu MA, Katakwar A, Reddy DN, Elmaleh H, Hassan M, Elghandour A, Elbanna M, Osman A, Khan A, Layani L, Kiran N, Velikorechin A, Solovyeva M, Melali H, Shahabi S, Agrawal A, Shrivastava A, Sharma A, Narwaria B, Narwaria M, Raziel A, Sakran N, Susmallian S, Karagöz L, Akbaba M, Pişkin SZ, Balta AZ, Senol Z, Manno E, Iovino MG, Osman A, Qassem M, Arana-Garza S, Povoas HP, Vilas-Boas ML, Naumann D, Super J, Li A, Ammori BJ, Balamoun H, Salman M, Nasta AM, Goel R, Sánchez-Aguilar H, Herrera MF, Abou-Mrad A, Cloix L, Mazzini GS, Kristem L, Lazaro A, Campos J, Bernardo J, González J, Trindade C, Viveiros O, Ribeiro R, Goitein D, Hazzan D, Segev L, Beck T, Reyes H, Monterrubio J, García P, Benois M, Kassir R, Contine A, Elshafei M, Aktas S, Weiner S, Heidsieck T, Level L, Pinango S, Ortega PM, Moncada R, Valenti V, Vlahović I, Boras Z, Liagre A, Martini F, Juglard G, Motwani M, Saggu SS, Al Moman H, López LAA, Cortez MAC, Zavala RA, D'Haese C, Kempeneers I, Himpens J, Lazzati A, Paolino L, Bathaei S, Bedirli A, Yavuz A, Büyükkasap Ç, Özaydın S, Kwiatkowski A, Bartosiak K, Walędziak M, Santonicola A, Angrisani L, Iovino P, Palma R, Iossa A, Boru CE, De Angelis F, Silecchia G, Hussain A, Balchandra S, Coltell IB, Pérez JL, Bohra A, Awan AK, Madhok B, Leeder PC, Awad S, Al-Khyatt W, Shoma A, Elghadban H, Ghareeb S, Mathews B, Kurian M, Larentzakis A, Vrakopoulou GZ, Albanopoulos K, Bozdag A, Lale A, Kirkil C, Dincer M, Bashir A, Haddad A, Hijleh LA, Zilberstein B, de Marchi DD, Souza WP, Brodén CM, Gislason H, Shah K, Ambrosi A, Pavone G, Tartaglia N, Kona SLK, Kalyan K, Perez CEG, Botero MAF, Covic A, Timofte D, Maxim M, Faraj D, Tseng L, Liem R, Ören G, Dilektasli E, Yalcin I, AlMukhtar H, Al Hadad M, Mohan R, Arora N, Bedi D, Rives-Lange C, Chevallier JM, Poghosyan T, Sebbag H, Zinaï L, Khaldi S, Mauchien C, Mazza D, Dinescu G, Rea B, Pérez-Galaz F, Zavala L, Besa A, Curell A, Balibrea JM, Vaz C, Galindo L, Silva N, Caballero JLE, Sebastian SO, Marchesini JCD, da Fonseca Pereira RA, Sobottka WH, Fiolo FE, Turchi M, Coelho ACJ, Zacaron AL, Barbosa A, Quinino R, Menaldi G, Paleari N, Martinez-Duartez P, de Aragon Ramírez de Esparza GM, Esteban VS, Torres A, Garcia-Galocha JL, Josa M, Pacheco-Garcia JM, Mayo-Ossorio MA, Chowbey P, Soni V, de Vasconcelos Cunha HA, Castilho MV, Ferreira RMA, Barreiro TA, Charalabopoulos A, Sdralis E, Davakis S, Bomans B, Dapri G, Van Belle K, Takieddine M, Vaneukem P, Karaca ESA, Karaca FC, Sumer A, Peksen C, Savas OA, Chousleb E, Elmokayed F, Fakhereldin I, Aboshanab HM, Swelium T, Gudal A, Gamloo L, Ugale A, Ugale S, Boeker C, Reetz C, Hakami IA, Mall J, Alexandrou A, Baili E, Bodnar Z, Maleckas A, Gudaityte R, Guldogan CE, Gundogdu E, Ozmen MM, Thakkar D, Dukkipati N, Shah PS, Shah SS, Shah SS, Adil MT, Jambulingam P, Mamidanna R, Whitelaw D, Adil MT, Jain V, Veetil DK, Wadhawan R, Torres A, Torres M, Tinoco T, Leclercq W, Romeijn M, van de Pas K, Alkhazraji AK, Taha SA, Ustun M, Yigit T, Inam A, Burhanulhaq M, Pazouki A, Eghbali F, Kermansaravi M, Jazi AHD, Mahmoudieh M, Mogharehabed N, Tsiotos G, Stamou K, Barrera Rodriguez FJ, Rojas Navarro MA, Torres OM, Martinez SL, Tamez ERM, Millan Cornejo GA, Flores JEG, Mohammed DA, Elfawal MH, Shabbir A, Guowei K, So JB, Kaplan ET, Kaplan M, Kaplan T, Pham D, Rana G, Kappus M, Gadani R, Kahitan M, Pokharel K, Osborne A, Pournaras D, Hewes J, Napolitano E, Chiappetta S, Bottino V, Dorado E, Schoettler A, Gaertner D, Fedtke K, Aguilar-Espinosa F, Aceves-Lozano S, Balani A, Nagliati C, Pennisi D, Rizzi A, Frattini F, Foschi D, Benuzzi L, Parikh C, Shah H, Pinotti E, Montuori M, Borrelli V, Dargent J, Copaescu CA, Hutopila I, Smeu B, Witteman B, Hazebroek E, Deden L, Heusschen L, Okkema S, Aufenacker T, den Hengst W, Vening W, van der Burgh Y, Ghazal A, Ibrahim H, Niazi M, Alkhaffaf B, Altarawni M, Cesana GC, Anselmino M, Uccelli M, Olmi S, Stier C, Akmanlar T, Sonnenberg T, Schieferbein U, Marcolini A, Awruch D, Vicentin M, de Souza Bastos EL, Gregorio SA, Ahuja A, Mittal T, Bolckmans R, Wiggins T, Baratte C, Wisnewsky JA, Genser L, Chong L, Taylor L, Ward S, Chong L, Taylor L, Hi MW, Heneghan H, Fearon N, Plamper A, Rheinwalt K, Heneghan H, Geoghegan J, Ng KC, Fearon N, Kaseja K, Kotowski M, Samarkandy TA, Leyva-Alvizo A, Corzo-Culebro L, Wang C, Yang W, Dong Z, Riera M, Jain R, Hamed H, Said M, Zarzar K, Garcia M, Türkçapar AG, Şen O, Baldini E, Conti L, Wietzycoski C, Lopes E, Pintar T, Salobir J, Aydin C, Atici SD, Ergin A, Ciyiltepe H, Bozkurt MA, Kizilkaya MC, Onalan NBD, Zuber MNBA, Wong WJ, Garcia A, Vidal L, Beisani M, Pasquier J, Vilallonga R, Sharma S, Parmar C, Lee L, Sufi P, Sinan H, Saydam M.",,Obesity surgery,2021,2021-07-30,Y,Pandemic; Obesity Surgery; Bariatric Surgery; Revisional Surgery; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

There are data on the safety of cancer surgery and the efficacy of preventive strategies on the prevention of postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 in these patients. But there is little such data for any elective surgery. The main objectives of this study were to examine the safety of bariatric surgery (BS) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to determine the efficacy of perioperative COVID-19 protective strategies on postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 rates.

Methods

We conducted an international cohort study to determine all-cause and COVID-19-specific 30-day morbidity and mortality of BS performed between 01/05/2020 and 31/10/2020.

Results

Four hundred ninety-nine surgeons from 185 centres in 42 countries provided data on 7704 patients. Elective primary BS (n = 7084) was associated with a 30-day morbidity of 6.76% (n = 479) and a 30-day mortality of 0.14% (n = 10). Emergency BS, revisional BS, insulin-treated type 2 diabetes, and untreated obstructive sleep apnoea were associated with increased complications on multivariable analysis. Forty-three patients developed symptomatic COVID-19 postoperatively, with a higher risk in non-whites. Preoperative self-isolation, preoperative testing for SARS-CoV-2, and surgery in institutions not concurrently treating COVID-19 patients did not reduce the incidence of postoperative COVID-19. Postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 was more likely if the surgery was performed during a COVID-19 peak in that country.

Conclusions

BS can be performed safely during the COVID-19 pandemic with appropriate perioperative protocols. There was no relationship between preoperative testing for COVID-19 and self-isolation with symptomatic postoperative COVID-19. The risk of postoperative COVID-19 risk was greater in non-whites or if BS was performed during a local peak.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323543?pdf=render 35235826,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051,"Assessing the clinical severity of the Omicron variant in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, using the diagnostic PCR proxy marker of RdRp target delay to distinguish between Omicron and Delta infections - a survival analysis.","Hussey H, Davies MA, Heekes A, Williamson C, Valley-Omar Z, Hardie D, Korsman S, Doolabh D, Preiser W, Maponga T, Iranzadeh A, Wasserman S, Boloko L, Symons G, Raubenheimer P, Parker A, Schrueder N, Solomon W, Rousseau P, Wolter N, Jassat W, Cohen C, Lessells R, Wilkinson RJ, Boulle A, Hsiao NY.",,International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases,2022,2022-02-27,Y,South Africa; Clinical Severity; Sars-cov-2; Omicron Variant; Rdrp Target Delay,,,"

Background

At present, it is unclear whether the extent of reduced risk of severe disease seen with SARS-Cov-2 Omicron variant infection is caused by a decrease in variant virulence or by higher levels of population immunity.

Methods

RdRp target delay (RTD) in the Seegene AllplexTM 2019-nCoV PCR assay is a proxy marker for the Delta variant. The absence of this proxy marker in the transition period was used to identify suspected Omicron infections. Cox regression was performed for the outcome of hospital admission in those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the Seegene AllplexTM assay from November 1 to December 14, 2021 in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, in the public sector. Adjustments were made for vaccination status and prior diagnosis of infection.

Results

A total of 150 cases with RTD and 1486 cases without RTD were included. Cases without RTD had a lower hazard of admission (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.34-0.91). Complete vaccination was protective against admission, with an aHR of 0.45 (95% CI, 0.26-0.77).

Conclusion

Omicron has resulted in a lower risk of hospital admission compared with contemporaneous Delta infection, when using the proxy marker of RTD. Under-ascertainment of reinfections with an immune escape variant remains a challenge to accurately assessing variant virulence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8882068; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8882068?pdf=render 33993870,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w,Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the incidence and mortality of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: national interrupted time series analyses for Scotland and Wales.,"Alsallakh MA, Sivakumaran S, Kennedy S, Vasileiou E, Lyons RA, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Davies GA, EAVE II Collaborators.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-05-17,Y,Acute Exacerbation Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Covid-19 Lockdown,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing national lockdowns have dramatically changed the healthcare landscape. The pandemic's impact on people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains poorly understood. We hypothesised that the UK-wide lockdown restrictions were associated with reductions in severe COPD exacerbations. We provide the first national level analyses of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and first lockdown on severe COPD exacerbations resulting in emergency hospital admissions and/or leading to death as well as those recorded in primary care or emergency departments.

Methods

Using data from Public Health Scotland and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank in Wales, we accessed weekly counts of emergency hospital admissions and deaths due to COPD over the first 30 weeks of 2020 and compared these to the national averages over the preceding 5 years. For both Scotland and Wales, we undertook interrupted time-series analyses to model the impact of instigating lockdown on these outcomes. Using fixed-effect meta-analysis, we derived pooled estimates of the overall changes in trends across the two nations.

Results

Lockdown was associated with 48% pooled reduction in emergency admissions for COPD in both countries (incidence rate ratio, IRR 0.52, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.58), relative to the 5-year averages. There was no statistically significant change in deaths due to COPD (pooled IRR 1.08, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.33). In Wales, lockdown was associated with 39% reduction in primary care consultations for acute exacerbation of COPD (IRR 0.61, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.71) and 46% reduction in COPD-related emergency department attendances (IRR 0.54, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.81).

Conclusions

The UK-wide lockdown was associated with the most substantial reductions in COPD exacerbations ever seen across Scotland and Wales, with no corresponding increase in COPD deaths. This may have resulted from reduced transmission of respiratory infections, reduced exposure to outdoor air pollution and/or improved COPD self-management.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8126470; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8126470?pdf=render -33200120,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630,Ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Sze S, Pan D, Nevill CR, Gray LJ, Martin CA, Nazareth J, Minhas JS, Divall P, Khunti K, Abrams KR, Nellums LB, Pareek M.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-11-12,Y,Infection; Transmission; RACE; Death; Ethnicity; Outcome; Asian; Hispanic; Ethnic; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Black; Disporportionate; Itu Admission,,,"

Background

Patients from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the relationship between ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19.

Methods

Databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PROSPERO, Cochrane library and MedRxiv) were searched up to 31st August 2020, for studies reporting COVID-19 data disaggregated by ethnicity. Outcomes were: risk of infection; intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission and death. PROSPERO ID: 180654.

Findings

18,728,893 patients from 50 studies were included; 26 were peer-reviewed; 42 were from the United States of America and 8 from the United Kingdom. Individuals from Black and Asian ethnicities had a higher risk of COVID-19 infection compared to White individuals. This was consistent in both the main analysis (pooled adjusted RR for Black: 2.02, 95% CI 1.67-2.44; pooled adjusted RR for Asian: 1.50, 95% CI 1.24-1.83) and sensitivity analyses examining peer-reviewed studies only (pooled adjusted RR for Black: 1.85, 95%CI: 1.46-2.35; pooled adjusted RR for Asian: 1.51, 95% CI 1.22-1.88). Individuals of Asian ethnicity may also be at higher risk of ITU admission (pooled adjusted RR 1.97 95% CI 1.34-2.89) (but no studies had yet been peer-reviewed) and death (pooled adjusted RR/HR 1.22 [0.99-1.50]).

Interpretation

Individuals of Black and Asian ethnicity are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection compared to White individuals; Asians may be at higher risk of ITU admission and death. These findings are of critical public health importance in informing interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality amongst ethnic minority groups.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7658622; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7658622?pdf=render -33939953,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00634-6,"Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, and death in 17 million adults in England: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.","Mathur R, Rentsch CT, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Schultze A, MacKenna B, Eggo RM, Bhaskaran K, Wong AYS, Williamson EJ, Forbes H, Wing K, McDonald HI, Bates C, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Evans D, Inglesby P, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Tomlinson L, Evans SJW, Grieve R, Harrison D, Rowan K, Khunti K, Chaturvedi N, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected minority ethnic populations in the UK. Our aim was to quantify ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 outcomes during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

Methods

We conducted an observational cohort study of adults (aged ≥18 years) registered with primary care practices in England for whom electronic health records were available through the OpenSAFELY platform, and who had at least 1 year of continuous registration at the start of each study period (Feb 1 to Aug 3, 2020 [wave 1], and Sept 1 to Dec 31, 2020 [wave 2]). Individual-level primary care data were linked to data from other sources on the outcomes of interest: SARS-CoV-2 testing and positive test results and COVID-19-related hospital admissions, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and death. The exposure was self-reported ethnicity as captured on the primary care record, grouped into five high-level census categories (White, South Asian, Black, other, and mixed) and 16 subcategories across these five categories, as well as an unknown ethnicity category. We used multivariable Cox regression to examine ethnic differences in the outcomes of interest. Models were adjusted for age, sex, deprivation, clinical factors and comorbidities, and household size, with stratification by geographical region.

Findings

Of 17 288 532 adults included in the study (excluding care home residents), 10 877 978 (62·9%) were White, 1 025 319 (5·9%) were South Asian, 340 912 (2·0%) were Black, 170 484 (1·0%) were of mixed ethnicity, 320 788 (1·9%) were of other ethnicity, and 4 553 051 (26·3%) were of unknown ethnicity. In wave 1, the likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection was slightly higher in the South Asian group (adjusted hazard ratio 1·08 [95% CI 1·07-1·09]), Black group (1·08 [1·06-1·09]), and mixed ethnicity group (1·04 [1·02-1·05]) and was decreased in the other ethnicity group (0·77 [0·76-0·78]) relative to the White group. The risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection was higher in the South Asian group (1·99 [1·94-2·04]), Black group (1·69 [1·62-1·77]), mixed ethnicity group (1·49 [1·39-1·59]), and other ethnicity group (1·20 [1·14-1·28]). Compared with the White group, the four remaining high-level ethnic groups had an increased risk of COVID-19-related hospitalisation (South Asian group 1·48 [1·41-1·55], Black group 1·78 [1·67-1·90], mixed ethnicity group 1·63 [1·45-1·83], other ethnicity group 1·54 [1·41-1·69]), COVID-19-related ICU admission (2·18 [1·92-2·48], 3·12 [2·65-3·67], 2·96 [2·26-3·87], 3·18 [2·58-3·93]), and death (1·26 [1·15-1·37], 1·51 [1·31-1·71], 1·41 [1·11-1·81], 1·22 [1·00-1·48]). In wave 2, the risks of hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death relative to the White group were increased in the South Asian group but attenuated for the Black group compared with these risks in wave 1. Disaggregation into 16 ethnicity groups showed important heterogeneity within the five broader categories.

Interpretation

Some minority ethnic populations in England have excess risks of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and of adverse COVID-19 outcomes compared with the White population, even after accounting for differences in sociodemographic, clinical, and household characteristics. Causes are likely to be multifactorial, and delineating the exact mechanisms is crucial. Tackling ethnic inequalities will require action across many fronts, including reducing structural inequalities, addressing barriers to equitable care, and improving uptake of testing and vaccination.

Funding

Medical Research Council.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00634-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00634-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087292?pdf=render 33082154,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3731,Living risk prediction algorithm (QCOVID) for risk of hospital admission and mortality from coronavirus 19 in adults: national derivation and validation cohort study.,"Clift AK, Coupland CAC, Keogh RH, Diaz-Ordaz K, Williamson E, Harrison EM, Hayward A, Hemingway H, Horby P, Mehta N, Benger J, Khunti K, Spiegelhalter D, Sheikh A, Valabhji J, Lyons RA, Robson J, Semple MG, Kee F, Johnson P, Jebb S, Williams T, Hippisley-Cox J.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-10-20,Y,,,,"

Objective

To derive and validate a risk prediction algorithm to estimate hospital admission and mortality outcomes from coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) in adults.

Design

Population based cohort study.

Setting and participants

QResearch database, comprising 1205 general practices in England with linkage to covid-19 test results, Hospital Episode Statistics, and death registry data. 6.08 million adults aged 19-100 years were included in the derivation dataset and 2.17 million in the validation dataset. The derivation and first validation cohort period was 24 January 2020 to 30 April 2020. The second temporal validation cohort covered the period 1 May 2020 to 30 June 2020.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was time to death from covid-19, defined as death due to confirmed or suspected covid-19 as per the death certification or death occurring in a person with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the period 24 January to 30 April 2020. The secondary outcome was time to hospital admission with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Models were fitted in the derivation cohort to derive risk equations using a range of predictor variables. Performance, including measures of discrimination and calibration, was evaluated in each validation time period.

Results

4384 deaths from covid-19 occurred in the derivation cohort during follow-up and 1722 in the first validation cohort period and 621 in the second validation cohort period. The final risk algorithms included age, ethnicity, deprivation, body mass index, and a range of comorbidities. The algorithm had good calibration in the first validation cohort. For deaths from covid-19 in men, it explained 73.1% (95% confidence interval 71.9% to 74.3%) of the variation in time to death (R2); the D statistic was 3.37 (95% confidence interval 3.27 to 3.47), and Harrell's C was 0.928 (0.919 to 0.938). Similar results were obtained for women, for both outcomes, and in both time periods. In the top 5% of patients with the highest predicted risks of death, the sensitivity for identifying deaths within 97 days was 75.7%. People in the top 20% of predicted risk of death accounted for 94% of all deaths from covid-19.

Conclusion

The QCOVID population based risk algorithm performed well, showing very high levels of discrimination for deaths and hospital admissions due to covid-19. The absolute risks presented, however, will change over time in line with the prevailing SARS-C0V-2 infection rate and the extent of social distancing measures in place, so they should be interpreted with caution. The model can be recalibrated for different time periods, however, and has the potential to be dynamically updated as the pandemic evolves.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/371/bmj.m3731.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3731; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574532?pdf=render -34089614,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028,Cohort Profile: Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) Database.,"Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Ritchie LD, Agrawal U, Woolhouse M, Murray JL, Stagg HR, Docherty AB, McCowan C, Wood R, Stock SJ, Sheikh A.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-08-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/4/1064/40146583/dyab028.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245?pdf=render +33939953,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00634-6,"Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, and death in 17 million adults in England: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.","Mathur R, Rentsch CT, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Schultze A, MacKenna B, Eggo RM, Bhaskaran K, Wong AYS, Williamson EJ, Forbes H, Wing K, McDonald HI, Bates C, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Evans D, Inglesby P, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Tomlinson L, Evans SJW, Grieve R, Harrison D, Rowan K, Khunti K, Chaturvedi N, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected minority ethnic populations in the UK. Our aim was to quantify ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 outcomes during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

Methods

We conducted an observational cohort study of adults (aged ≥18 years) registered with primary care practices in England for whom electronic health records were available through the OpenSAFELY platform, and who had at least 1 year of continuous registration at the start of each study period (Feb 1 to Aug 3, 2020 [wave 1], and Sept 1 to Dec 31, 2020 [wave 2]). Individual-level primary care data were linked to data from other sources on the outcomes of interest: SARS-CoV-2 testing and positive test results and COVID-19-related hospital admissions, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and death. The exposure was self-reported ethnicity as captured on the primary care record, grouped into five high-level census categories (White, South Asian, Black, other, and mixed) and 16 subcategories across these five categories, as well as an unknown ethnicity category. We used multivariable Cox regression to examine ethnic differences in the outcomes of interest. Models were adjusted for age, sex, deprivation, clinical factors and comorbidities, and household size, with stratification by geographical region.

Findings

Of 17 288 532 adults included in the study (excluding care home residents), 10 877 978 (62·9%) were White, 1 025 319 (5·9%) were South Asian, 340 912 (2·0%) were Black, 170 484 (1·0%) were of mixed ethnicity, 320 788 (1·9%) were of other ethnicity, and 4 553 051 (26·3%) were of unknown ethnicity. In wave 1, the likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection was slightly higher in the South Asian group (adjusted hazard ratio 1·08 [95% CI 1·07-1·09]), Black group (1·08 [1·06-1·09]), and mixed ethnicity group (1·04 [1·02-1·05]) and was decreased in the other ethnicity group (0·77 [0·76-0·78]) relative to the White group. The risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection was higher in the South Asian group (1·99 [1·94-2·04]), Black group (1·69 [1·62-1·77]), mixed ethnicity group (1·49 [1·39-1·59]), and other ethnicity group (1·20 [1·14-1·28]). Compared with the White group, the four remaining high-level ethnic groups had an increased risk of COVID-19-related hospitalisation (South Asian group 1·48 [1·41-1·55], Black group 1·78 [1·67-1·90], mixed ethnicity group 1·63 [1·45-1·83], other ethnicity group 1·54 [1·41-1·69]), COVID-19-related ICU admission (2·18 [1·92-2·48], 3·12 [2·65-3·67], 2·96 [2·26-3·87], 3·18 [2·58-3·93]), and death (1·26 [1·15-1·37], 1·51 [1·31-1·71], 1·41 [1·11-1·81], 1·22 [1·00-1·48]). In wave 2, the risks of hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death relative to the White group were increased in the South Asian group but attenuated for the Black group compared with these risks in wave 1. Disaggregation into 16 ethnicity groups showed important heterogeneity within the five broader categories.

Interpretation

Some minority ethnic populations in England have excess risks of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and of adverse COVID-19 outcomes compared with the White population, even after accounting for differences in sociodemographic, clinical, and household characteristics. Causes are likely to be multifactorial, and delineating the exact mechanisms is crucial. Tackling ethnic inequalities will require action across many fronts, including reducing structural inequalities, addressing barriers to equitable care, and improving uptake of testing and vaccination.

Funding

Medical Research Council.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00634-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00634-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087292?pdf=render +33200120,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630,Ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Sze S, Pan D, Nevill CR, Gray LJ, Martin CA, Nazareth J, Minhas JS, Divall P, Khunti K, Abrams KR, Nellums LB, Pareek M.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-11-12,Y,Infection; Transmission; RACE; Death; Ethnicity; Outcome; Asian; Hispanic; Ethnic; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Black; Disporportionate; Itu Admission,,,"

Background

Patients from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the relationship between ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19.

Methods

Databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PROSPERO, Cochrane library and MedRxiv) were searched up to 31st August 2020, for studies reporting COVID-19 data disaggregated by ethnicity. Outcomes were: risk of infection; intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission and death. PROSPERO ID: 180654.

Findings

18,728,893 patients from 50 studies were included; 26 were peer-reviewed; 42 were from the United States of America and 8 from the United Kingdom. Individuals from Black and Asian ethnicities had a higher risk of COVID-19 infection compared to White individuals. This was consistent in both the main analysis (pooled adjusted RR for Black: 2.02, 95% CI 1.67-2.44; pooled adjusted RR for Asian: 1.50, 95% CI 1.24-1.83) and sensitivity analyses examining peer-reviewed studies only (pooled adjusted RR for Black: 1.85, 95%CI: 1.46-2.35; pooled adjusted RR for Asian: 1.51, 95% CI 1.22-1.88). Individuals of Asian ethnicity may also be at higher risk of ITU admission (pooled adjusted RR 1.97 95% CI 1.34-2.89) (but no studies had yet been peer-reviewed) and death (pooled adjusted RR/HR 1.22 [0.99-1.50]).

Interpretation

Individuals of Black and Asian ethnicity are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection compared to White individuals; Asians may be at higher risk of ITU admission and death. These findings are of critical public health importance in informing interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality amongst ethnic minority groups.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7658622; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7658622?pdf=render 35896970,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4,SARS-CoV-2 lineage dynamics in England from September to November 2021: high diversity of Delta sub-lineages and increased transmissibility of AY.4.2.,"Eales O, Page AJ, de Oliveira Martins L, Wang H, Bodinier B, Haw D, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,BMC infectious diseases,2022,2022-07-27,Y,Mutation; Genetic diversity; Transmission Advantage; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant,,,"

Background

Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, evolutionary pressure has driven large increases in the transmissibility of the virus. However, with increasing levels of immunity through vaccination and natural infection the evolutionary pressure will switch towards immune escape. Genomic surveillance in regions of high immunity is crucial in detecting emerging variants that can more successfully navigate the immune landscape.

Methods

We present phylogenetic relationships and lineage dynamics within England (a country with high levels of immunity), as inferred from a random community sample of individuals who provided a self-administered throat and nose swab for rt-PCR testing as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. During round 14 (9 September-27 September 2021) and 15 (19 October-5 November 2021) lineages were determined for 1322 positive individuals, with 27.1% of those which reported their symptom status reporting no symptoms in the previous month.

Results

We identified 44 unique lineages, all of which were Delta or Delta sub-lineages, and found a reduction in their mutation rate over the study period. The proportion of the Delta sub-lineage AY.4.2 was increasing, with a reproduction number 15% (95% CI 8-23%) greater than the most prevalent lineage, AY.4. Further, AY.4.2 was less associated with the most predictive COVID-19 symptoms (p = 0.029) and had a reduced mutation rate (p = 0.050). Both AY.4.2 and AY.4 were found to be geographically clustered in September but this was no longer the case by late October/early November, with only the lineage AY.6 exhibiting clustering towards the South of England.

Conclusions

As SARS-CoV-2 moves towards endemicity and new variants emerge, genomic data obtained from random community samples can augment routine surveillance data without the potential biases introduced due to higher sampling rates of symptomatic individuals.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417?pdf=render +34089614,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028,Cohort Profile: Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) Database.,"Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Ritchie LD, Agrawal U, Woolhouse M, Murray JL, Stagg HR, Docherty AB, McCowan C, Wood R, Stock SJ, Sheikh A.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-08-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/4/1064/40146583/dyab028.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245?pdf=render 34190735,https://doi.org/,The changing characteristics of COVID-19 presentations. A regional comparison of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalised patients during the first and second wave.,"Atkin C, Kamwa V, Reddy-Kolanu V, Parekh D, Evison F, Nightingale P, Gallier S, Ball S, Sapey E.",,Acute medicine,2021,2021-01-01,N,,,,"

Background

This study assesses COVID-19 hospitalised patient demography and outcomes during wave 1 and wave 2, prior to new variants of the virus.

Methods

All patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab between 10th March 2020 and 5th July 2020 (wave 1) and 1st September 2020 and 16th November 2020 (wave 2) admitted to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust were included (n=4856), followed for 28 days.

Results

Wave 2 patients were younger, more ethnically diverse, had less co-morbidities and disease presentation was milder on presentation. After matching for these factors, mortality was reduced, but without differences in intensive care admissions.

Conclusion

Prior to new SARS-CoV-2 variants, outcomes for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 were improving but with similar intensive care needs.",, 33085509,https://doi.org/10.7326/m20-4986,COVID-19 Mortality Risk in Down Syndrome: Results From a Cohort Study of 8 Million Adults.,"Clift AK, Coupland CAC, Keogh RH, Hemingway H, Hippisley-Cox J.",,Annals of internal medicine,2021,2020-10-21,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7592804?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-4986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7592804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7592804?pdf=render 35459950,https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzac031,Modelling the effect of COVID-19 mass vaccination on acute hospital admissions.,"Booton RD, Powell AL, Turner KME, Wood RM.",,International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care,2022,2022-05-01,N,Vaccination; Coronavirus; Mathematical Modelling; Bed Management; Hospital Capacity; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Managing high levels of acute COVID-19 bed occupancy can affect the quality of care provided to both affected patients and those requiring other hospital services. Mass vaccination has offered a route to reduce societal restrictions while protecting hospitals from being overwhelmed. Yet, early in the mass vaccination effort, the possible impact on future bed pressures remained subject to considerable uncertainty.

Objective

The aim of this study was to model the effect of vaccination on projections of acute and intensive care bed demand within a 1 million resident healthcare system located in South West England.

Methods

An age-structured epidemiological model of the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered type was fitted to local data up to the time of the study, in early March 2021. Model parameters and vaccination scenarios were calibrated through a system-wide multidisciplinary working group, comprising public health intelligence specialists, healthcare planners, epidemiologists and academics. Scenarios assumed incremental relaxations to societal restrictions according to the envisaged UK Government timeline, with all restrictions to be removed by 21 June 2021.

Results

Achieving 95% vaccine uptake in adults by 31 July 2021 would not avert the third wave in autumn 2021 but would produce a median peak bed requirement ∼6% (IQR: 1-24%) of that experienced during the second wave (January 2021). A 2-month delay in vaccine rollout would lead to significantly higher peak bed occupancy, at 66% (11-146%) of that of the second wave. If only 75% uptake was achieved (the amount typically associated with vaccination campaigns), then the second wave peak for acute and intensive care beds would be exceeded by 4% and 19%, respectively, an amount which would seriously pressure hospital capacity.

Conclusion

Modelling influenced decision-making among senior managers in setting COVID-19 bed capacity levels, as well as highlighting the importance of public health in promoting high vaccine uptake among the population. Forecast accuracy has since been supported by actual data collected following the analysis, with observed peak bed occupancy falling comfortably within the inter-quartile range of modelled projections.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article-pdf/34/2/mzac031/43704475/mzac031.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzac031 @@ -317,13 +317,13 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 34935001,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00282-8,Prevalence and duration of detectable SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibodies in staff and residents of long-term care facilities over the first year of the pandemic (VIVALDI study): prospective cohort study in England.,"Krutikov M, Palmer T, Tut G, Fuller C, Azmi B, Giddings R, Shrotri M, Kaur N, Sylla P, Lancaster T, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2022,2021-12-16,Y,,,,"

Background

Long-term care facilities (LTCFs) have reported high SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and related mortality, but the proportion of infected people among those who have survived, and duration of the antibody response to natural infection, is unknown. We determined the prevalence and stability of nucleocapsid antibodies (the standard assay for detection of previous infection) in staff and residents in LTCFs in England.

Methods

This was a prospective cohort study of residents 65 years or older and of staff 65 years or younger in 201 LTCFs in England between March 1, 2020, and May 7, 2021. Participants were linked to a unique pseudo-identifier based on their UK National Health Service identification number. Serial blood samples were tested for IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein using the Abbott ARCHITECT i-system (Abbott, Maidenhead, UK) immunoassay. Primary endpoints were prevalence and cumulative incidence of antibody positivity, which were weighted to the LTCF population. Incidence rate of loss of antibodies (seroreversion) was estimated from Kaplan-Meier curves.

Findings

9488 samples were included, 8636 (91·0%) of which could be individually linked to 1434 residents and 3288 staff members. The cumulative incidence of nucleocapsid seropositivity was 34·6% (29·6-40·0) in residents and 26·1% (23·0-29·5) in staff over 11 months. 239 (38·6%) residents and 503 women (81·3%) were included in the antibody-waning analysis, and median follow-up was 149 days (IQR 107-169). The incidence rate of seroreversion was 2·1 per 1000 person-days at risk, and median time to reversion was 242·5 days.

Interpretation

At least a quarter of staff and a third of surviving residents were infected with SAR-CoV-2 during the first two waves of the pandemic in England. Nucleocapsid-specific antibodies often become undetectable within the first year following infection, which is likely to lead to marked underestimation of the true proportion of people with previous infection. Given that natural infection might act to boost vaccine responses, better assays to identify natural infection should be developed.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756821002828/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00282-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8676418 37253531,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009997,Effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention to face the COVID-19 pandemic in Rio de Janeiro's favelas: difference-in-differences analysis.,"Batista-da-Silva AA, Moraes CB, Bozza HR, Bastos LDSL, Ranzani OT, Hamacher S, Bozza FA, Comitê Gestor Conexão Saúde.",,BMJ global health,2023,2023-05-01,Y,"Control strategies; Public Health; Intervention Study; Infections, Diseases, Disorders, Injuries; Covid-19",,,"

Introduction

Few community-based interventions addressing the transmission control and clinical management of COVID-19 cases have been reported, especially in poor urban communities from low-income and middle-income countries. Here, we analyse the impact of a multicomponent intervention that combines community engagement, mobile surveillance, massive testing and telehealth on COVID-19 cases detection and mortality rates in a large vulnerable community (Complexo da Maré) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Methods

We performed a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis to estimate the impact of the multicomponent intervention in Maré, before (March-August 2020) and after the intervention (September 2020 to April 2021), compared with equivalent local vulnerable communities. We applied a negative binomial regression model to estimate the intervention effect in weekly cases and mortality rates in Maré.

Results

Before the intervention, Maré presented lower rates of reported COVID-19 cases compared with the control group (1373 vs 1579 cases/100 000 population), comparable mortality rates (309 vs 287 deaths/100 000 population) and higher case fatality rates (13.7% vs 12.2%). After the intervention, Maré displayed a 154% (95% CI 138.6% to 170.4%) relative increase in reported case rates. Relative changes in reported death rates were -60% (95% CI -69.0% to -47.9%) in Maré and -28% (95% CI -42.0% to -9.8%) in the control group. The case fatality rate was reduced by 77% (95% CI -93.1% to -21.1%) in Maré and 52% (95% CI -81.8% to -29.4%) in the control group. The DID showed a reduction of 46% (95% CI 17% to 65%) of weekly reported deaths and an increased 23% (95% CI 5% to 44%) of reported cases in Maré after intervention onset.

Conclusion

An integrated intervention combining communication, surveillance and telehealth, with a strong community engagement component, could reduce COVID-19 mortality and increase case detection in a large vulnerable community in Rio de Janeiro. These findings show that investment in community-based interventions may reduce mortality and improve pandemic control in poor communities from low-income and middle-income countries.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009997; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009997; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230340; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230340?pdf=render 33635829,https://doi.org/10.1530/eje-20-1163,Increased COVID-19 infections in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a population-based study.,"Subramanian A, Anand A, Adderley NJ, Okoth K, Toulis KA, Gokhale K, Sainsbury C, O'Reilly MW, Arlt W, Nirantharakumar K.",,European journal of endocrinology,2021,2021-05-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

Several recent observational studies have linked metabolic comorbidities to an increased risk from COVID-19. Here we investigated whether women with PCOS are at an increased risk of COVID-19 infection.

Design

Population-based closed cohort study between 31 January 2020 and 22 July 2020 in the setting of a UK primary care database (The Health Improvement Network, THIN).

Methods

The main outcome was the incidence of COVID-19 coded as suspected or confirmed by the primary care provider. We used Cox proportional hazards regression model with stepwise inclusion of explanatory variables (age, BMI, impaired glucose regulation, androgen excess, anovulation, vitamin D deficiency, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease) to provide unadjusted and adjusted hazard risks (HR) of COVID-19 infection among women with PCOS compared to women without PCOS.

Results

We identified 21 292 women with a coded diagnosis of PCO/PCOS and randomly selected 78 310 aged and general practice matched control women. The crude COVID-19 incidence was 18.1 and 11.9 per 1000 person-years among women with and without PCOS, respectively. Age-adjusted Cox regression analysis suggested a 51% higher risk of COVID-19 among women with PCOS compared to women without PCOS (HR: 1.51 (95% CI: 1.27-1.80), P < 0.001). After adjusting for age and BMI, HR reduced to 1.36 (1.14-1.63)], P = 0.001. In the fully adjusted model, women with PCOS had a 28% increased risk of COVID-19 (aHR: 1.28 (1.05-1.56), P = 0.015).

Conclusion

Women with PCOS are at an increased risk of COVID-19 infection and should be specifically encouraged to adhere to infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Significance statement

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have an increased risk of cardio-metabolic disease, which have been identified as a risk factor for COVID-19. To investigate whether the increased metabolic risk in PCOS translates into an increased risk of COVID-19 infection, we carried out a population-based closed cohort study in the UK during its first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (January to July 2020), including 21 292 women with PCOS and 78 310 controls matched for sex, age and general practice location. Results revealed a 52% increased risk of COVID-19 infection in women with PCOS, which remained increased at 28% above controls after adjustment for age, BMI, impaired glucose regulation and other explanatory variables.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ejendo/article-pdf/184/5/637/45221794/eje-20-1163.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1530/EJE-20-1163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8052516; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8052516?pdf=render -37067557,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-023-07039-2,Variants of concern and clinical outcomes in critically ill COVID-19 patients.,DP-EFFECT-BRAZIL investigators.,,Intensive care medicine,2023,2023-04-17,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00134-023-07039-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-023-07039-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10108805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10108805?pdf=render 35413949,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29521-z,"Persistent COVID-19 symptoms in a community study of 606,434 people in England.","Whitaker M, Elliott J, Chadeau-Hyam M, Riley S, Darzi A, Cooke G, Ward H, Elliott P.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-04-12,Y,,,,"Long COVID remains a broadly defined syndrome, with estimates of prevalence and duration varying widely. We use data from rounds 3-5 of the REACT-2 study (n = 508,707; September 2020 - February 2021), a representative community survey of adults in England, and replication data from round 6 (n = 97,717; May 2021) to estimate the prevalence and identify predictors of persistent symptoms lasting 12 weeks or more; and unsupervised learning to cluster individuals by reported symptoms. At 12 weeks in rounds 3-5, 37.7% experienced at least one symptom, falling to 21.6% in round 6. Female sex, increasing age, obesity, smoking, vaping, hospitalisation with COVID-19, deprivation, and being a healthcare worker are associated with higher probability of persistent symptoms in rounds 3-5, and Asian ethnicity with lower probability. Clustering analysis identifies a subset of participants with predominantly respiratory symptoms. Managing the long-term sequelae of COVID-19 will remain a major challenge for affected individuals and their families and for health services.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29521-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29521-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9005552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9005552?pdf=render +37067557,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-023-07039-2,Variants of concern and clinical outcomes in critically ill COVID-19 patients.,DP-EFFECT-BRAZIL investigators.,,Intensive care medicine,2023,2023-04-17,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00134-023-07039-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-023-07039-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10108805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10108805?pdf=render 35144240,https://doi.org/10.2196/32543,Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Social Media Analysis for Pharmacovigilance of COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United Kingdom: Observational Study.,"Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Tahir A, Dashtipour K, Gogate M, Sheikh A, Hussain A.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-05-27,Y,Artificial intelligence; Vaccination; Public Health; Health Informatics; Natural Language Processing; Facebook; Social Media; Twitter; Sentiment Analysis; Infodemiology; Deep Learning; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The rollout of vaccines for COVID-19 in the United Kingdom started in December 2020. Uptake has been high, and there has been a subsequent reduction in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths among vaccinated individuals. However, vaccine hesitancy remains a concern, in particular relating to adverse effects following immunization (AEFIs). Social media analysis has the potential to inform policy makers about AEFIs being discussed by the public as well as public attitudes toward the national immunization campaign.

Objective

We sought to assess the frequency and nature of AEFI-related mentions on social media in the United Kingdom and to provide insights on public sentiments toward COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

We extracted and analyzed over 121,406 relevant Twitter and Facebook posts, from December 8, 2020, to April 30, 2021. These were thematically filtered using a 2-step approach, initially using COVID-19-related keywords and then using vaccine- and manufacturer-related keywords. We identified AEFI-related keywords and modeled their word frequency to monitor their trends over 2-week periods. We also adapted and utilized our recently developed hybrid ensemble model, which combines state-of-the-art lexicon rule-based and deep learning-based approaches, to analyze sentiment trends relating to the main vaccines available in the United Kingdom.

Results

Our COVID-19 AEFI search strategy identified 46,762 unique Facebook posts by 14,346 users and 74,644 tweets (excluding retweets) by 36,446 users over the 4-month period. We identified an increasing trend in the number of mentions for each AEFI on social media over the study period. The most frequent AEFI mentions were found to be symptoms related to appetite (n=79,132, 14%), allergy (n=53,924, 9%), injection site (n=56,152, 10%), and clots (n=43,907, 8%). We also found some rarely reported AEFIs such as Bell palsy (n=11,909, 2%) and Guillain-Barre syndrome (n=9576, 2%) being discussed as frequently as more well-known side effects like headache (n=10,641, 2%), fever (n=12,707, 2%), and diarrhea (n=16,559, 3%). Overall, we found public sentiment toward vaccines and their manufacturers to be largely positive (58%), with a near equal split between negative (22%) and neutral (19%) sentiments. The sentiment trend was relatively steady over time and had minor variations, likely based on political and regulatory announcements and debates.

Conclusions

The most frequently discussed COVID-19 AEFIs on social media were found to be broadly consistent with those reported in the literature and by government pharmacovigilance. We also detected potential safety signals from our analysis that have been detected elsewhere and are currently being investigated. As such, we believe our findings support the use of social media analysis to provide a complementary data source to conventional knowledge sources being used for pharmacovigilance purposes.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/5/e32543/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/32543; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9150729 36820079,https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00274-2022,Characteristics and risk factors for post-COVID-19 breathlessness after hospitalisation for COVID-19.,"Daines L, Zheng B, Elneima O, Harrison E, Lone NI, Hurst JR, Brown JS, Sapey E, Chalmers JD, Quint JK, Pfeffer P, Siddiqui S, Walker S, Poinasamy K, McAuley H, Sereno M, Shikotra A, Singapuri A, Docherty AB, Marks M, Toshner M, Howard LS, Horsley A, Jenkins G, Porter JC, Ho LP, Raman B, Wain LV, Brightling CE, Evans RA, Heaney LG, De Soyza A, Sheikh A.",,ERJ open research,2023,2023-01-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Persistence of respiratory symptoms, particularly breathlessness, after acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has emerged as a significant clinical problem. We aimed to characterise and identify risk factors for patients with persistent breathlessness following COVID-19 hospitalisation.

Methods

PHOSP-COVID is a multicentre prospective cohort study of UK adults hospitalised for COVID-19. Clinical data were collected during hospitalisation and at a follow-up visit. Breathlessness was measured by a numeric rating scale of 0-10. We defined post-COVID-19 breathlessness as an increase in score of ≥1 compared to the pre-COVID-19 level. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify risk factors and to develop a prediction model for post-COVID-19 breathlessness.

Results

We included 1226 participants (37% female, median age 59 years, 22% mechanically ventilated). At a median 5 months after discharge, 50% reported post-COVID-19 breathlessness. Risk factors for post-COVID-19 breathlessness were socioeconomic deprivation (adjusted OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.14-2.44), pre-existing depression/anxiety (adjusted OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.06-2.35), female sex (adjusted OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.21-2.00) and admission duration (adjusted OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02). Black ethnicity (adjusted OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.35-0.89) and older age groups (adjusted OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.14-0.66) were less likely to report post-COVID-19 breathlessness. Post-COVID-19 breathlessness was associated with worse performance on the shuttle walk test and forced vital capacity, but not with obstructive airflow limitation. The prediction model had fair discrimination (concordance statistic 0.66, 95% CI 0.63-0.69) and good calibration (calibration slope 1.00, 95% CI 0.80-1.21).

Conclusions

Post-COVID-19 breathlessness was commonly reported in this national cohort of patients hospitalised for COVID-19 and is likely to be a multifactorial problem with physical and emotional components.",,pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/early/2023/01/26/23120541.00274-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00274-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9790090; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9790090?pdf=render 35909058,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6,Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care (RECAP) risk prediction tool: derivation and real-world validation studies.,"Espinosa-Gonzalez A, Prociuk D, Fiorentino F, Ramtale C, Mi E, Mi E, Glampson B, Neves AL, Okusi C, Husain L, Macartney J, Brown M, Browne B, Warren C, Chowla R, Heaversedge J, Greenhalgh T, de Lusignan S, Mayer E, Delaney BC.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-07-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Accurate assessment of COVID-19 severity in the community is essential for patient care and requires COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores adequately validated in a community setting. Following a qualitative phase to identify signs, symptoms, and risk factors, we aimed to develop and validate two COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores. Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care-General Practice score (RECAP-GP; without peripheral oxygen saturation [SpO2]) and RECAP-oxygen saturation score (RECAP-O2; with SpO2).

Methods

RECAP was a prospective cohort study that used multivariable logistic regression. Data on signs and symptoms (predictors) of disease were collected from community-based patients with suspected COVID-19 via primary care electronic health records and linked with secondary data on hospital admission (outcome) within 28 days of symptom onset. Data sources for RECAP-GP were Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (RCGP-RSC) primary care practices (development set), northwest London primary care practices (validation set), and the NHS COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS; validation set). The data source for RECAP-O2 was the Doctaly Assist platform (development set and validation set in subsequent sample). The two probabilistic risk prediction models were built by backwards elimination using the development sets and validated by application to the validation datasets. Estimated sample size per model, including the development and validation sets was 2880 people.

Findings

Data were available from 8311 individuals. Observations, such as SpO2, were mostly missing in the northwest London, RCGP-RSC, and CCAS data; however, SpO2 was available for 1364 (70·0%) of 1948 patients who used Doctaly. In the final predictive models, RECAP-GP (n=1863) included sex (male and female), age (years), degree of breathlessness (three point scale), temperature symptoms (two point scale), and presence of hypertension (yes or no); the area under the curve was 0·80 (95% CI 0·76-0·85) and on validation the negative predictive value of a low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98·1-99·2; 1435 of 1453). RECAP-O2 included age (years), degree of breathlessness (two point scale), fatigue (two point scale), and SpO2 at rest (as a percentage); the area under the curve was 0·84 (0·78-0·90) and on validation the negative predictive value of low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98·9-99·7; 1176 of 1183).

Interpretation

Both RECAP models are valid tools to assess COVID-19 patients in the community. RECAP-GP can be used initially, without need for observations, to identify patients who require monitoring. If the patient is monitored and SpO2 is available, RECAP-O2 is useful to assess the need for treatment escalation.

Funding

Community Jameel and the Imperial College President's Excellence Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00123-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950?pdf=render -34173614,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x,Evolution and effects of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: a population analysis in 189 care homes in one geographical region of the UK.,"Burton JK, Bayne G, Evans C, Garbe F, Gorman D, Honhold N, McCormick D, Othieno R, Stevenson JE, Swietlik S, Templeton KE, Tranter M, Willocks L, Guthrie B.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2020,2020-10-20,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has affected care home residents internationally, but detailed information on outbreaks is scarce. We aimed to describe the evolution of outbreaks of COVID-19 in all care homes in one large health region in Scotland.

Methods

We did a population analysis of testing, cases, and deaths in care homes in the National Health Service (NHS) Lothian health region of the UK. We obtained data for COVID-19 testing (PCR testing of nasopharyngeal swabs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) and deaths (COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), and we analysed data by several variables including type of care home, number of beds, and locality. Outcome measures were timing of outbreaks, number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in care home residents, care home characteristics associated with the presence of an outbreak, and deaths of residents in both care homes and hospitals. We calculated excess deaths (both COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), which we defined as the sum of deaths over and above the historical average in the same period over the past 5 years.

Findings

Between March 10 and Aug 2, 2020, residents at 189 care homes (5843 beds) were tested for COVID-19 when symptomatic. A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed at 69 (37%) care homes, of which 66 (96%) were care homes for older people. The size of care homes for older people was strongly associated with a COVID-19 outbreak (odds ratio per 20-bed increase 3·35, 95% CI 1·99-5·63). 907 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recorded during the study period, and 432 COVID-19-related deaths. 229 (25%) COVID-19-related cases and 99 (24%) COVID-related deaths occurred in five (3%) of 189 care homes, and 441 (49%) cases and 207 (50%) deaths were in 13 (7%) care homes. 411 (95%) COVID-19-related deaths occurred in the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 19 (4%) deaths were in hospital, and two (<1%) were in one of the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. At the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 74 excess non-COVID-19-related deaths were reported, whereas ten non-COVID-19-related excess deaths were observed in the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. 32 fewer non-COVID-19-related deaths than expected were reported among care home residents in hospital.

Interpretation

The effect of COVID-19 on care homes has been substantial but concentrated in care homes with known outbreaks. A key implication from our findings is that, if community incidence of COVID-19 increases again, many care home residents will be susceptible. Shielding care home residents from potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and ensuring rapid action to minimise outbreak size if infection is introduced, will be important for any second wave.

Funding

None.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30012-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931?pdf=render 35567479,https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283,Shielding reduced incidence of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory arthritis but vulnerability is associated with increased mortality.,"Cooksey R, Underwood J, Brophy S, Atkinson M, Kennedy J, Choy E.",,"Rheumatology (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-06-01,Y,RA; As; PSA; Electronic Health Records; Inflammatory Arthritis; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Investigate whether individuals with inflammatory arthritis (IA), their treatments and shielding status affect the risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19 for the entire population of Wales, UK.

Methods

Retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked, anonymized electronic health data from SAIL Databank, including primary/secondary care, rheumatology, Office for National Statistics Mortality and COVID-19 laboratory data. Individuals aged 18 years and over testing positive for COVID-19 between March 2020 and May 2021 with READ Codes present for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis formed the study cases.

Results

A total of 1966 people with IA and 166 602 without tested positive for COVID-19. The incidence rate was 3.5% (1966/56 914) in IA, vs 6% in the general population (166 602/2 760 442), (difference: 2.5%, 95% CI: 2.4%, 2.7%, P ≤0.001). In an adjusted Cox proportional hazard model, IA was not associated with higher mortality (HR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.64, P=0.286). Significant risk factors included shielding (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.40, 1.64, P ≤0.001), hospitalization for previous infections (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.28, P ≤0.001), hospitalizations one year pre-pandemic (HR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.44, P ≤0.001) and glucocorticoid use (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.25, P ≤0.001).

Conclusions

Individuals with IA had a lower incidence of COVID-19, probably due to shielding. IA was not associated with increased mortality following COVID-19 infection; being vulnerable (shielded), comorbidities and other factors were associated with increased risk. These key risk factors can identify individuals with IA at greater risk from COVID-19 and advised to shield during high community prevalence.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62372/Download/62372__26337__5539f4f995224d80a2156218d11a03cb.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059?pdf=render +34173614,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x,Evolution and effects of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: a population analysis in 189 care homes in one geographical region of the UK.,"Burton JK, Bayne G, Evans C, Garbe F, Gorman D, Honhold N, McCormick D, Othieno R, Stevenson JE, Swietlik S, Templeton KE, Tranter M, Willocks L, Guthrie B.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2020,2020-10-20,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has affected care home residents internationally, but detailed information on outbreaks is scarce. We aimed to describe the evolution of outbreaks of COVID-19 in all care homes in one large health region in Scotland.

Methods

We did a population analysis of testing, cases, and deaths in care homes in the National Health Service (NHS) Lothian health region of the UK. We obtained data for COVID-19 testing (PCR testing of nasopharyngeal swabs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) and deaths (COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), and we analysed data by several variables including type of care home, number of beds, and locality. Outcome measures were timing of outbreaks, number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in care home residents, care home characteristics associated with the presence of an outbreak, and deaths of residents in both care homes and hospitals. We calculated excess deaths (both COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), which we defined as the sum of deaths over and above the historical average in the same period over the past 5 years.

Findings

Between March 10 and Aug 2, 2020, residents at 189 care homes (5843 beds) were tested for COVID-19 when symptomatic. A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed at 69 (37%) care homes, of which 66 (96%) were care homes for older people. The size of care homes for older people was strongly associated with a COVID-19 outbreak (odds ratio per 20-bed increase 3·35, 95% CI 1·99-5·63). 907 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recorded during the study period, and 432 COVID-19-related deaths. 229 (25%) COVID-19-related cases and 99 (24%) COVID-related deaths occurred in five (3%) of 189 care homes, and 441 (49%) cases and 207 (50%) deaths were in 13 (7%) care homes. 411 (95%) COVID-19-related deaths occurred in the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 19 (4%) deaths were in hospital, and two (<1%) were in one of the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. At the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 74 excess non-COVID-19-related deaths were reported, whereas ten non-COVID-19-related excess deaths were observed in the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. 32 fewer non-COVID-19-related deaths than expected were reported among care home residents in hospital.

Interpretation

The effect of COVID-19 on care homes has been substantial but concentrated in care homes with known outbreaks. A key implication from our findings is that, if community incidence of COVID-19 increases again, many care home residents will be susceptible. Shielding care home residents from potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and ensuring rapid action to minimise outbreak size if infection is introduced, will be important for any second wave.

Funding

None.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30012-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931?pdf=render 33617936,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012,Global and national estimates of the number of healthcare workers at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"McCarthy CV, Sandmann FG, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M.",,The Journal of hospital infection,2021,2021-02-20,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195670121000712/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121?pdf=render 35537476,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095245,Indirect effects of the pandemic: highlighting the need for data-driven policy and preparedness.,"Banerjee A, Sudlow C, Lawler M.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-05-10,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221095245; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890?pdf=render 34972825,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-01029-0,Improving local prevalence estimates of SARS-CoV-2 infections using a causal debiasing framework.,"Nicholson G, Lehmann B, Padellini T, Pouwels KB, Jersakova R, Lomax J, King RE, Mallon AM, Diggle PJ, Richardson S, Blangiardo M, Holmes C.",,Nature microbiology,2022,2021-12-31,Y,,,,"Global and national surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology is mostly based on targeted schemes focused on testing individuals with symptoms. These tested groups are often unrepresentative of the wider population and exhibit test positivity rates that are biased upwards compared with the true population prevalence. Such data are routinely used to infer infection prevalence and the effective reproduction number, Rt, which affects public health policy. Here, we describe a causal framework that provides debiased fine-scale spatiotemporal estimates by combining targeted test counts with data from a randomized surveillance study in the United Kingdom called REACT. Our probabilistic model includes a bias parameter that captures the increased probability of an infected individual being tested, relative to a non-infected individual, and transforms observed test counts to debiased estimates of the true underlying local prevalence and Rt. We validated our approach on held-out REACT data over a 7-month period. Furthermore, our local estimates of Rt are indicative of 1-week- and 2-week-ahead changes in SARS-CoV-2-positive case numbers. We also observed increases in estimated local prevalence and Rt that reflect the spread of the Alpha and Delta variants. Our results illustrate how randomized surveys can augment targeted testing to improve statistical accuracy in monitoring the spread of emerging and ongoing infectious disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-021-01029-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-01029-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727294; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727294?pdf=render @@ -335,9 +335,9 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 35085490,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00542-7,SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine effectiveness in England (REACT-1): a series of cross-sectional random community surveys.,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Bodinier B, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Donnelly CA, Elliott P, COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-01-24,Y,,,,"

Background

England has experienced a third wave of the COVID-19 epidemic since the end of May, 2021, coinciding with the rapid spread of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant, despite high levels of vaccination among adults. Vaccination rates (single dose) in England are lower among children aged 16-17 years and 12-15 years, whose vaccination in England commenced in August and September, 2021, respectively. We aimed to analyse the underlying dynamics driving patterns in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence during September, 2021, in England.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study, which commenced data collection in May, 2020, involves a series of random cross-sectional surveys in the general population of England aged 5 years and older. Using RT-PCR swab positivity data from 100 527 participants with valid throat and nose swabs in round 14 of REACT-1 (Sept 9-27, 2021), we estimated community-based prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and vaccine effectiveness against infection by combining round 14 data with data from round 13 (June 24 to July 12, 2021; n=172 862).

Findings

During September, 2021, we estimated a mean RT-PCR positivity rate of 0·83% (95% CrI 0·76-0·89), with a reproduction number (R) overall of 1·03 (95% CrI 0·94-1·14). Among the 475 (62·2%) of 764 sequenced positive swabs, all were of the delta variant; 22 (4·63%; 95% CI 3·07-6·91) included the Tyr145His mutation in the spike protein associated with the AY.4 sublineage, and there was one Glu484Lys mutation. Age, region, key worker status, and household size jointly contributed to the risk of swab positivity. The highest weighted prevalence was observed among children aged 5-12 years, at 2·32% (95% CrI 1·96-2·73) and those aged 13-17 years, at 2·55% (2·11-3·08). The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic grew in those aged 5-11 years, with an R of 1·42 (95% CrI 1·18-1·68), but declined in those aged 18-54 years, with an R of 0·81 (0·68-0·97). At ages 18-64 years, the adjusted vaccine effectiveness against infection was 62·8% (95% CI 49·3-72·7) after two doses compared to unvaccinated people, for all vaccines combined, 44·8% (22·5-60·7) for the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccine, and 71·3% (56·6-81·0) for the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine. In individuals aged 18 years and older, the weighted prevalence of swab positivity was 0·35% (95% CrI 0·31-0·40) if the second dose was administered up to 3 months before their swab but 0·55% (0·50-0·61) for those who received their second dose 3-6 months before their swab, compared to 1·76% (1·60-1·95) among unvaccinated individuals.

Interpretation

In September, 2021, at the start of the autumn school term in England, infections were increasing exponentially in children aged 5-17 years, at a time when vaccination rates were low in this age group. In adults, compared to those who received their second dose less than 3 months ago, the higher prevalence of swab positivity at 3-6 months following two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine suggests an increased risk of breakthrough infections during this period. The vaccination programme needs to reach children as well as unvaccinated and partially vaccinated adults to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and associated disruptions to work and education.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005427/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00542-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8786320 32384159,https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa068,Effectiveness of interventions targeting air travellers for delaying local outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2. ,"Clifford S, Pearson CAB, Klepac P, Van Zandvoort K, Quilty BJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Eggo RM, Flasche S.",,Journal of travel medicine,2020,2020-08-01,Y,,,,"We evaluated if interventions aimed at air travellers can delay local severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) community transmission in a previously unaffected country. We simulated infected air travellers arriving into countries with no sustained SARS-CoV-2 transmission or other introduction routes from affected regions. We assessed the effectiveness of syndromic screening at departure and/or arrival and traveller sensitisation to the COVID-2019-like symptoms with the aim to trigger rapid self-isolation and reporting on symptom onset to enable contact tracing. We assumed that syndromic screening would reduce the number of infected arrivals and that traveller sensitisation reduces the average number of secondary cases. We use stochastic simulations to account for uncertainty in both arrival and secondary infections rates, and present sensitivity analyses on arrival rates of infected travellers and the effectiveness of traveller sensitisation. We report the median expected delay achievable in each scenario and an inner 50% interval. Under baseline assumptions, introducing exit and entry screening in combination with traveller sensitisation can delay a local SARS-CoV-2 outbreak by 8 days (50% interval: 3-14 days) when the rate of importation is 1 infected traveller per week at time of introduction. The additional benefit of entry screening is small if exit screening is effective: the combination of only exit screening and traveller sensitisation can delay an outbreak by 7 days (50% interval: 2-13 days). In the absence of screening, with less effective sensitisation, or a higher rate of importation, these delays shrink rapidly to <4 days. Syndromic screening and traveller sensitisation in combination may have marginally delayed SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in unaffected countries.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article-pdf/27/5/taaa068/33666000/taaa068.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa068; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239177?pdf=render 35151397,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)00163-5,"Casirivimab and imdevimab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-02-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Casirivimab and imdevimab are non-competing monoclonal antibodies that bind to two different sites on the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein, blocking viral entry into host cells. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of casirivimab and imdevimab administered in combination in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

RECOVERY is a randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial comparing several possible treatments with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. 127 UK hospitals took part in the evaluation of casirivimab and imdevimab. Eligible participants were any patients aged at least 12 years admitted to hospital with clinically suspected or laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual care plus casirivimab 4 g and imdevimab 4 g administered together in a single intravenous infusion. Investigators and data assessors were masked to analyses of the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality assessed by intention to treat, first only in patients without detectable antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 infection at randomisation (ie, those who were seronegative) and then in the overall population. Safety was assessed in all participants who received casirivimab and imdevimab. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936).

Findings

Between Sept 18, 2020, and May 22, 2021, 9785 patients enrolled in RECOVERY were eligible for casirivimab and imdevimab, of which 4839 were randomly assigned to casirivimab and imdevimab plus usual care and 4946 to usual care alone. 3153 (32%) of 9785 patients were seronegative, 5272 (54%) were seropositive, and 1360 (14%) had unknown baseline antibody status. 812 (8%) patients were known to have received at least one dose of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In the primary efficacy population of seronegative patients, 396 (24%) of 1633 patients allocated to casirivimab and imdevimab versus 452 (30%) of 1520 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio [RR] 0·79, 95% CI 0·69-0·91; p=0·0009). In an analysis of all randomly assigned patients (regardless of baseline antibody status), 943 (19%) of 4839 patients allocated to casirivimab and imdevimab versus 1029 (21%) of 4946 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (RR 0·94, 95% CI 0·86-1·02; p=0·14). The proportional effect of casirivimab and imdevimab on mortality differed significantly between seropositive and seronegative patients (p value for heterogeneity=0·002). There were no deaths attributed to the treatment, or meaningful between-group differences in the pre-specified safety outcomes of cause-specific mortality, cardiac arrhythmia, thrombosis, or major bleeding events. Serious adverse reactions reported in seven (<1%) participants were believed by the local investigator to be related to treatment with casirivimab and imdevimab.

Interpretation

In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, the monoclonal antibody combination of casirivimab and imdevimab reduced 28-day mortality in patients who were seronegative (and therefore had not mounted their own humoral immune response) at baseline but not in those who were seropositive at baseline.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673622001635/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00163-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830904 -32951042,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207,"The impact of COVID-19 on adjusted mortality risk in care homes for older adults in Wales, UK: a retrospective population-based cohort study for mortality in 2016-2020. ","Hollinghurst J, Lyons J, Fry R, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Watkins A, Verity F, Lyons RA.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-01-01,Y,,,,"mortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases, which may lead to increased mortality risk. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. to analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4 years. we used anonymised electronic health records and administrative data from the secure anonymised information linkage databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020. we calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted HRs for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions. survival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1.72 (1.55, 1.90) compared with 2016. Compared with the general population in 2016-2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2.15 (2.11, 2.20) in 2016-2019 to 2.94 (2.81, 3.08) in 2020. the survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/1/25/42362959/afaa207.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151?pdf=render 36476601,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02055-6,Neural-signature methods for structured EHR prediction.,"Vauvelle A, Creed P, Denaxas S.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2022,2022-12-07,Y,Machine Learning; Electronic Healthcare Records; Signature Methods,,,"Models that can effectively represent structured Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) are central to an increasing range of applications in healthcare. Due to the sequential nature of health data, Recurrent Neural Networks have emerged as the dominant component within state-of-the-art architectures. The signature transform represents an alternative modelling paradigm for sequential data. This transform provides a non-learnt approach to creating a fixed vector representation of temporal features and has shown strong performances across an increasing number of domains, including medical data. However, the signature method has not yet been applied to structured EHR data. To this end, we follow recent work that enables the signature to be used as a differentiable layer within a neural architecture enabling application in high dimensional domains where calculation would have previously been intractable. Using a heart failure prediction task as an exemplar, we provide an empirical evaluation of different variations of the signature method and compare against state-of-the-art baselines. This first application of neural-signature methods in real-world healthcare data shows a competitive performance when compared to strong baselines and thus warrants further investigation within the health domain.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-02055-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02055-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9730578; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9730578?pdf=render 36426419,https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.14109,"""I don't mean to be rude, but could you put a mask on while I'm here?"" A qualitative study of risks experienced by domiciliary care workers in Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic. ","Prout H, Lugg-Widger FV, Brookes-Howell L, Cannings-John R, Akbari A, John A, Thomas DR, Robling M.",,Health & social care in the community,2022,2022-11-24,Y,,,,"Domiciliary care workers (DCWs) continued to provide care to adults in their own homes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on health outcomes of DCWs is currently mixed. The OSCAR study will quantify the impact of COVID-19 upon health outcomes of DCWs in Wales, explore causes of variation and extrapolate to the rest of the UK DCW population. An embedded qualitative study aimed to explore DCW experiences during the pandemic, including factors that may have varied risk of exposure to COVID-19 and adverse health and wellbeing outcomes. Registered DCWs working throughout Wales were invited to participate in a semi-structured telephone interview. 24 DCWs were interviewed between February and July 2021. Themes were identified through inductive analysis using thematic coding. Several themes emerged relating to risk of exposure to COVID-19. First, general changes to the role of the DCW during the pandemic were identified. Second, practical challenges for DCWs in the workplace were reported, including staff shortages, clients and families not following safety procedures, initial shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), DCW criticism of standard use PPE, client difficulty with PPE and management of rapid antigen testing. Third, lack of government/employer preparation for a pandemic was described, including the reorganisation of staff clients and services, inadequate or confusing information for many DCWs, COVID-19 training and the need for improved practical instruction and limited official standard risk assessments for DCWs. Pressure to attend work and perceptions of COVID-19 risk and vaccination was also reported. In summary, this paper describes the risk factors associated with working during the pandemic. We have mapped recommendations for each problem using these qualitative findings including tailored training and better support for isolated team members and identified the required changes at several socio-ecological levels.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/hsc.14109; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.14109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100139; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100139?pdf=render +32951042,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207,"The impact of COVID-19 on adjusted mortality risk in care homes for older adults in Wales, UK: a retrospective population-based cohort study for mortality in 2016-2020. ","Hollinghurst J, Lyons J, Fry R, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Watkins A, Verity F, Lyons RA.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-01-01,Y,,,,"mortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases, which may lead to increased mortality risk. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. to analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4 years. we used anonymised electronic health records and administrative data from the secure anonymised information linkage databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020. we calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted HRs for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions. survival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1.72 (1.55, 1.90) compared with 2016. Compared with the general population in 2016-2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2.15 (2.11, 2.20) in 2016-2019 to 2.94 (2.81, 3.08) in 2020. the survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/1/25/42362959/afaa207.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151?pdf=render 33087383,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043010,Understanding and responding to COVID-19 in Wales: protocol for a privacy-protecting data platform for enhanced epidemiology and evaluation of interventions. ,"Lyons J, Akbari A, Torabi F, Davies GI, North L, Griffiths R, Bailey R, Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Turner SL, Thompson D, Rafferty J, Mizen A, Orton C, Thompson S, Au-Yeung L, Cross L, Gravenor MB, Brophy S, Lucini B, John A, Szakmany T, Davies J, Davies C, Thomas DR, Williams C, Emmerson C, Cottrell S, Connor TR, Taylor C, Pugh RJ, Diggle P, John G, Scourfield S, Hunt J, Cunningham AM, Helliwell K, Lyons R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-10-21,Y,,,,"The emergence of the novel respiratory SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic have required rapid assimilation of population-level data to understand and control the spread of infection in the general and vulnerable populations. Rapid analyses are needed to inform policy development and target interventions to at-risk groups to prevent serious health outcomes. We aim to provide an accessible research platform to determine demographic, socioeconomic and clinical risk factors for infection, morbidity and mortality of COVID-19, to measure the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare utilisation and long-term health, and to enable the evaluation of natural experiments of policy interventions. Two privacy-protecting population-level cohorts have been created and derived from multisourced demographic and healthcare data. The C20 cohort consists of 3.2 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2020 with follow-up until 31 May 2020. The complete cohort dataset will be updated monthly with some individual datasets available daily. The C16 cohort consists of 3 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2016 with follow-up to 31 December 2019. C16 is designed as a counterfactual cohort to provide contextual comparative population data on disease, health service utilisation and mortality. Study outcomes will: (a) characterise the epidemiology of COVID-19, (b) assess socioeconomic and demographic influences on infection and outcomes, (c) measure the impact of COVID-19 on short -term and longer-term population outcomes and (d) undertake studies on the transmission and spatial spread of infection. The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage-independent Information Governance Review Panel has approved this study. The study findings will be presented to policy groups, public meetings, national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/10/e043010.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7580065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7580065?pdf=render 35434685,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100381,Dosing interval strategies for two-dose COVID-19 vaccination in 13 middle-income countries of Europe: Health impact modelling and benefit-risk analysis.,"Liu Y, Pearson CAB, Sandmann FG, Barnard RC, Kim JH, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Jit M, Abbas K.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-04-11,Y,"Quantitative Methods; Mathematical Modelling; Public Health Intervention; Vaccine Policy; Ve, Vaccine Efficacy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Voc, Variant Of Concern; Aefi, Adverse Events Following Immunisation; Mic, Middle Income Country",,,"

Background

In settings where the COVID-19 vaccine supply is constrained, extending the intervals between the first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine may allow more people receive their first doses earlier. Our aim is to estimate the health impact of COVID-19 vaccination alongside benefit-risk assessment of different dosing intervals in 13 middle-income countries (MICs) of Europe.

Methods

We fitted a dynamic transmission model to country-level daily reported COVID-19 mortality in 13 MICs in Europe (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Serbia, North Macedonia, Turkey, and Ukraine). A vaccine product with characteristics similar to those of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 (AZD1222) vaccine was used in the base case scenario and was complemented by sensitivity analyses around efficacies similar to other COVID-19 vaccines. Both fixed dosing intervals at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks and dose-specific intervals that prioritise specific doses for certain age groups were tested. Optimal intervals minimise COVID-19 mortality between March 2021 and December 2022. We incorporated the emergence of variants of concern (VOCs) into the model and conducted a benefit-risk assessment to quantify the tradeoff between health benefits versus adverse events following immunisation.

Findings

In all countries modelled, optimal strategies are those that prioritise the first doses among older adults (60+ years) or adults (20+ years), which lead to dosing intervals longer than six months. In comparison, a four-week fixed dosing interval may incur 10.1% [range: 4.3% - 19.0%; n = 13 (countries)] more deaths. The rapid waning of the immunity induced by the first dose (i.e. with means ranging 60-120 days as opposed to 360 days in the base case) resulted in shorter optimal dosing intervals of 8-20 weeks. Benefit-risk ratios were the highest for fixed dosing intervals of 8-12 weeks.

Interpretation

We infer that longer dosing intervals of over six months could reduce COVID-19 mortality in MICs of Europe. Certain parameters, such as rapid waning of first-dose induced immunity and increased immune escape through the emergence of VOCs, could significantly shorten the optimal dosing intervals.

Funding

World Health Organization.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100381; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100381; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996067; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996067?pdf=render 37124165,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.127934,"Effects of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on park crime in London, England: An interrupted time series analysis.","Hajna S, Cummins S.",,Urban forestry & urban greening,2023,2023-04-11,Y,Parks; Crimes; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

Park crimes may have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of lockdowns that limited the number of capable guardians in public spaces. Despite this, the impacts of the lockdowns on park crimes remain unknown. To help us understand the societal impacts of policies implemented during this period, we assessed how the onset of the COVID-19 restrictions impacted urban park crime levels in London, England.

Methods

We identified crimes that occurred in publicly accessible parks and gardens in the Greater London Authority (England, UK) between March 1, 2019 and February 28, 2021 by overlaying open-access crime data with greenspace data supplied by the Greater Information for Greater London service. Using interrupted time series analyses, we estimated seasonality-adjusted associations between the onset of COVID-19 restrictions and park crimes.

Results

Overall (1565.7, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1021.9 to 2109.5) and antisocial behaviour crimes (1772.7, 95% CI 823.6-2721.7) increased in London parks during the first full month of COVID-19 restrictions (April 2020). There were no notable trends in park crimes in London prior to the onset of restrictions, but overall and antisocial behaviour crimes decreased after the onset of restrictions at a rate of 156.4 (95% CI -220.25 to -92.51) and 164.7 (95% CI -280.68 to -48.74) crimes/months, respectively.

Conclusions

Overall park crimes increased during the first full month of the COVID-19 restrictions, largely driven by an increase in antisocial behaviours. Additional research is needed to identify the specific misdemeanours that accounted for this rise in antisocial behaviours and to investigate their downstream impacts (e.g. increases in policing costs or decreases in perceived park safety).",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10088280; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.127934; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10088280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10088280?pdf=render @@ -345,20 +345,20 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 35022215,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519,Indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic on childhood infection in England: population based observational study.,"Kadambari S, Goldacre R, Morris E, Goldacre MJ, Pollard AJ.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-01-12,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes for childhood respiratory infections, severe invasive infections, and vaccine preventable disease in England.

Design

Population based observational study of 19 common childhood respiratory, severe invasive, and vaccine preventable infections, comparing hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes before and after the onset of the pandemic in England.

Setting

Hospital admission data from every NHS hospital in England from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021 with record linkage to national mortality data.

Population

Children aged 0-14 years admitted to an NHS hospital with a selected childhood infection from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021.

Main outcome measures

For each infection, numbers of hospital admissions every month from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021, percentage changes in the number of hospital admissions before and after 1 March 2020, and adjusted odds ratios to compare 60 day case fatality outcomes before and after 1 March 2020.

Results

After 1 March 2020, substantial and sustained reductions in hospital admissions were found for all but one of the 19 infective conditions studied. Among the respiratory infections, the greatest percentage reductions were for influenza (mean annual number admitted between 1 March 2017 and 29 February 2020 was 5379 and number of children admitted from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 was 304, 94% reduction, 95% confidence interval 89% to 97%), and bronchiolitis (from 51 655 to 9423, 82% reduction, 95% confidence interval 79% to 84%). Among the severe invasive infections, the greatest reduction was for meningitis (50% reduction, 47% to 52%). For the vaccine preventable infections, reductions ranged from 53% (32% to 68%) for mumps to 90% (80% to 95%) for measles. Reductions were seen across all demographic subgroups and in children with underlying comorbidities. Corresponding decreases were also found for the absolute numbers of 60 day case fatalities, although the proportion of children admitted for pneumonia who died within 60 days increased (age-sex adjusted odds ratio 1.71, 95% confidence interval 1.43 to 2.05). More recent data indicate that some respiratory infections increased to higher levels than usual after May 2021.

Conclusions

During the covid-19 pandemic, a range of behavioural changes (adoption of non-pharmacological interventions) and societal strategies (school closures, lockdowns, and restricted travel) were used to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which also reduced admissions for common and severe childhood infections. Continued monitoring of these infections is required as social restrictions evolve.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/376/bmj-2021-067519.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487?pdf=render 34862222,https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386,'What is the risk to me from COVID-19?': Public involvement in providing mortality risk information for people with 'high-risk' conditions for COVID-19 (OurRisk.CoV).,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Manohar S, Lai AG, Hemingway E, Sofer I, Katsoulis M, Sood H, Morris A, Cake C, Fitzpatrick NK, Williams B, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, and members of the Health Data Research UK COVID-19 Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Panel.",,"Clinical medicine (London, England)",2021,2021-11-01,N,Mortality; Coronavirus; Patient And Public Involvement; Risk Information,,,"Patients and public have sought mortality risk information throughout the pandemic, but their needs may not be served by current risk prediction tools. Our mixed methods study involved: (1) systematic review of published risk tools for prognosis, (2) provision and patient testing of new mortality risk estimates for people with high-risk conditions and (3) iterative patient and public involvement and engagement with qualitative analysis. Only one of 53 (2%) previously published risk tools involved patients or the public, while 11/53 (21%) had publicly accessible portals, but all for use by clinicians and researchers.Among people with a wide range of underlying conditions, there has been sustained interest and engagement in accessible and tailored, pre- and postpandemic mortality information. Informed by patient feedback, we provide such information in 'five clicks' (https://covid19-phenomics.org/OurRiskCoV.html), as context for decision making and discussions with health professionals and family members. Further development requires curation and regular updating of NHS data and wider patient and public engagement.",,pdf:https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/21/6/e620.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386 35448463,https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12040276,MetaboListem and TABoLiSTM: Two Deep Learning Algorithms for Metabolite Named Entity Recognition.,"Yeung CS, Beck T, Posma JM.",,Metabolites,2022,2022-03-22,Y,Natural Language Processing; Named Entity Recognition; Deep Learning,,,"Reviewing the metabolomics literature is becoming increasingly difficult because of the rapid expansion of relevant journal literature. Text-mining technologies are therefore needed to facilitate more efficient literature reviews. Here we contribute a standardised corpus of full-text publications from metabolomics studies and describe the development of two metabolite named entity recognition (NER) methods. These methods are based on Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) networks and each incorporate different transfer learning techniques (for tokenisation and word embedding). Our first model (MetaboListem) follows prior methodology using GloVe word embeddings. Our second model exploits BERT and BioBERT for embedding and is named TABoLiSTM (Transformer-Affixed BiLSTM). The methods are trained on a novel corpus annotated using rule-based methods, and evaluated on manually annotated metabolomics articles. MetaboListem (F1-score 0.890, precision 0.892, recall 0.888) and TABoLiSTM (BioBERT version: F1-score 0.909, precision 0.926, recall 0.893) have achieved state-of-the-art performance on metabolite NER. A training corpus with full-text sentences from >1000 full-text Open Access metabolomics publications with 105,335 annotated metabolites was created, as well as a manually annotated test corpus (19,138 annotations). This work demonstrates that deep learning algorithms are capable of identifying metabolite names accurately and efficiently in text. The proposed corpus and NER algorithms can be used for metabolomics text-mining tasks such as information retrieval, document classification and literature-based discovery and are available from the omicsNLP GitHub repository.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/4/276/pdf?version=1647939572; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12040276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9031427; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9031427?pdf=render -34192199,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049,Staff-pupil SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways in schools in Wales: a population-level linked data approach.,"Thompson DA, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Marchant E, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Hollinghurst J, North L, Lyons J, Torabi F, Davies G, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.",,BMJ paediatrics open,2021,2021-05-10,Y,Disease transmission; Schools; Public Health; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Better understanding of the role that children and school staff play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to guide policy development on controlling infection while minimising disruption to children's education and well-being.

Methods

Our national e-cohort (n=464531) study used anonymised linked data for pupils, staff and associated households linked via educational settings in Wales. We estimated the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for staff and pupils over the period August- December 2020, dependent on measures of recent exposure to known cases linked to their educational settings.

Results

The total number of cases in a school was not associated with a subsequent increase in the odds of testing positive (staff OR per case: 0.92, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.00; pupil OR per case: 0.98, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.02). Among pupils, the number of recent cases within the same year group was significantly associated with subsequent increased odds of testing positive (OR per case: 1.12, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.15). These effects were adjusted for a range of demographic covariates, and in particular any known cases within the same household, which had the strongest association with testing positive (staff OR: 39.86, 95% CI 35.01 to 45.38; pupil OR: 9.39, 95% CI 8.94 to 9.88).

Conclusions

In a national school cohort, the odds of staff testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection were not significantly increased in the 14-day period after case detection in the school. However, pupils were found to be at increased odds, following cases appearing within their own year group, where most of their contacts occur. Strong mitigation measures over the whole of the study period may have reduced wider spread within the school environment.",,pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/5/1/e001049.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870?pdf=render 35184736,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02271-x,Comparative assessment of methods for short-term forecasts of COVID-19 hospital admissions in England at the local level.,"Meakin S, Abbott S, Bosse N, Munday J, Gruson H, Hellewell J, Sherratt K, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-21,Y,Forecasting; Infectious disease; outbreak; Real-time; Ensemble; Healthcare Demand; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Forecasting healthcare demand is essential in epidemic settings, both to inform situational awareness and facilitate resource planning. Ideally, forecasts should be robust across time and locations. During the COVID-19 pandemic in England, it is an ongoing concern that demand for hospital care for COVID-19 patients in England will exceed available resources.

Methods

We made weekly forecasts of daily COVID-19 hospital admissions for National Health Service (NHS) Trusts in England between August 2020 and April 2021 using three disease-agnostic forecasting models: a mean ensemble of autoregressive time series models, a linear regression model with 7-day-lagged local cases as a predictor, and a scaled convolution of local cases and a delay distribution. We compared their point and probabilistic accuracy to a mean-ensemble of them all and to a simple baseline model of no change from the last day of admissions. We measured predictive performance using the weighted interval score (WIS) and considered how this changed in different scenarios (the length of the predictive horizon, the date on which the forecast was made, and by location), as well as how much admissions forecasts improved when future cases were known.

Results

All models outperformed the baseline in the majority of scenarios. Forecasting accuracy varied by forecast date and location, depending on the trajectory of the outbreak, and all individual models had instances where they were the top- or bottom-ranked model. Forecasts produced by the mean-ensemble were both the most accurate and most consistently accurate forecasts amongst all the models considered. Forecasting accuracy was improved when using future observed, rather than forecast, cases, especially at longer forecast horizons.

Conclusions

Assuming no change in current admissions is rarely better than including at least a trend. Using confirmed COVID-19 cases as a predictor can improve admissions forecasts in some scenarios, but this is variable and depends on the ability to make consistently good case forecasts. However, ensemble forecasts can make forecasts that make consistently more accurate forecasts across time and locations. Given minimal requirements on data and computation, our admissions forecasting ensemble could be used to anticipate healthcare needs in future epidemic or pandemic settings.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02271-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02271-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8858706; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8858706?pdf=render -37717030,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6,The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of common infections in primary care and the change to antibiotic prescribing in England.,"Yang YT, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, Fisher L, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.",,Antimicrobial resistance and infection control,2023,2023-09-16,Y,Infection; Antibiotics; Primary Care; Antibiotic Stewardship; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Background

There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic altered the management of common infections in primary care. This study aimed to evaluate infection-coded consultation rates and antibiotic use during the pandemic and how any change may have affected clinical outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform analysed routinely collected electronic health data from GP practices in England between January 2019 and December 2021. Infection coded consultations and antibiotic prescriptions were used estimate multiple measures over calendar months, including age-sex adjusted prescribing rates, prescribing by infection and antibiotic type, infection consultation rates, coding quality and rate of same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infections. Interrupted time series (ITS) estimated the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on infection-coded consultation rates. The impact of the pandemic on non- COVID-19 infection-related hospitalisations was also estimated.

Results

Records from 24 million patients were included. The rate of infection-related consultations fell for all infections (mean reduction of 39% in 2020 compared to 2019 mean rate), except for UTI which remained stable. Modelling infection-related consultation rates highlighted this with an incidence rate ratio of 0.44 (95% CI 0.36-0.53) for incident consultations and 0.43 (95% CI 0.33-0.54) for prevalent consultations. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) saw the largest reduction of 0.11 (95% CI 0.07-0.17). Antibiotic prescribing rates fell with a mean reduction of 118.4 items per 1000 patients in 2020, returning to pre-pandemic rates by summer 2021. Prescribing for LRTI decreased 20% and URTI increased 15.9%. Over 60% of antibiotics were issued without an associated same-day infection code, which increased during the pandemic. Infection-related hospitalisations reduced (by 62%), with the largest reduction observed for pneumonia infections (72.9%). Same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infection increased from 1 to 10.5% between the second and third national lockdowns and rose again during 2022.

Conclusions

Changes to consultations and hospital admissions may be driven by reduced transmission of non-COVID-19 infections due to reduced social mixing and lockdowns. Inconsistencies in coding practice emphasises the need for improvement to inform new antibiotic stewardship policies and prevent resistance to novel infections.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725?pdf=render +34192199,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049,Staff-pupil SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways in schools in Wales: a population-level linked data approach.,"Thompson DA, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Marchant E, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Hollinghurst J, North L, Lyons J, Torabi F, Davies G, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.",,BMJ paediatrics open,2021,2021-05-10,Y,Disease transmission; Schools; Public Health; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Better understanding of the role that children and school staff play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to guide policy development on controlling infection while minimising disruption to children's education and well-being.

Methods

Our national e-cohort (n=464531) study used anonymised linked data for pupils, staff and associated households linked via educational settings in Wales. We estimated the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for staff and pupils over the period August- December 2020, dependent on measures of recent exposure to known cases linked to their educational settings.

Results

The total number of cases in a school was not associated with a subsequent increase in the odds of testing positive (staff OR per case: 0.92, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.00; pupil OR per case: 0.98, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.02). Among pupils, the number of recent cases within the same year group was significantly associated with subsequent increased odds of testing positive (OR per case: 1.12, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.15). These effects were adjusted for a range of demographic covariates, and in particular any known cases within the same household, which had the strongest association with testing positive (staff OR: 39.86, 95% CI 35.01 to 45.38; pupil OR: 9.39, 95% CI 8.94 to 9.88).

Conclusions

In a national school cohort, the odds of staff testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection were not significantly increased in the 14-day period after case detection in the school. However, pupils were found to be at increased odds, following cases appearing within their own year group, where most of their contacts occur. Strong mitigation measures over the whole of the study period may have reduced wider spread within the school environment.",,pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/5/1/e001049.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870?pdf=render 35291009,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac072,Intensity of COVID-19 in care homes following hospital discharge in the early stages of the UK epidemic.,"Hollinghurst J, North L, Emmerson C, Akbari A, Torabi F, Williams C, Lyons RA, Hawkes AG, Bennett E, Gravenor MB, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-05-01,Y,Older People; Care Homes; Hospital Discharge; Linked Data; Hawkes Process; Multi-level Model; Covid-19,,,"

Background

defining features of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries were the tragic extent to which care home residents were affected and the difficulty in preventing the introduction and subsequent spread of infection. Management of risk in care homes requires good evidence on the most important transmission pathways. One hypothesised route at the start of the pandemic, prior to widespread testing, was the transfer of patients from hospitals that were experiencing high levels of nosocomial events.

Methods

we tested the hypothesis that hospital discharge events increased the intensity of care home cases using a national individually linked health record cohort in Wales, UK. We monitored 186,772 hospital discharge events over the period from March to July 2020, tracking individuals to 923 care homes and recording the daily case rate in the homes populated by 15,772 residents. We estimated the risk of an increase in case rates following exposure to a hospital discharge using multi-level hierarchical logistic regression and a novel stochastic Hawkes process outbreak model.

Findings

in regression analysis, after adjusting for care home size, we found no significant association between hospital discharge and subsequent increases in care home case numbers (odds ratio: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.82, 1.90). Risk factors for increased cases included care home size, care home resident density and provision of nursing care. Using our outbreak model, we found a significant effect of hospital discharge on the subsequent intensity of cases. However, the effect was small and considerably less than the effect of care home size, suggesting the highest risk of introduction came from interaction with the community. We estimated that approximately 1.8% of hospital discharged patients may have been infected.

Interpretation

there is growing evidence in the UK that the risk of transfer of COVID-19 from the high-risk hospital setting to the high-risk care home setting during the early stages of the pandemic was relatively small. Although access to testing was limited to initial symptomatic cases in each care home at this time, our results suggest that reduced numbers of discharges, selection of patients and action taken within care homes following transfer all may have contributed to the mitigation. The precise key transmission routes from the community remain to be quantified.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac072/43616755/afac072.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8992303; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8992303?pdf=render +37717030,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6,The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of common infections in primary care and the change to antibiotic prescribing in England.,"Yang YT, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, Fisher L, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.",,Antimicrobial resistance and infection control,2023,2023-09-16,Y,Infection; Antibiotics; Primary Care; Antibiotic Stewardship; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Background

There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic altered the management of common infections in primary care. This study aimed to evaluate infection-coded consultation rates and antibiotic use during the pandemic and how any change may have affected clinical outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform analysed routinely collected electronic health data from GP practices in England between January 2019 and December 2021. Infection coded consultations and antibiotic prescriptions were used estimate multiple measures over calendar months, including age-sex adjusted prescribing rates, prescribing by infection and antibiotic type, infection consultation rates, coding quality and rate of same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infections. Interrupted time series (ITS) estimated the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on infection-coded consultation rates. The impact of the pandemic on non- COVID-19 infection-related hospitalisations was also estimated.

Results

Records from 24 million patients were included. The rate of infection-related consultations fell for all infections (mean reduction of 39% in 2020 compared to 2019 mean rate), except for UTI which remained stable. Modelling infection-related consultation rates highlighted this with an incidence rate ratio of 0.44 (95% CI 0.36-0.53) for incident consultations and 0.43 (95% CI 0.33-0.54) for prevalent consultations. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) saw the largest reduction of 0.11 (95% CI 0.07-0.17). Antibiotic prescribing rates fell with a mean reduction of 118.4 items per 1000 patients in 2020, returning to pre-pandemic rates by summer 2021. Prescribing for LRTI decreased 20% and URTI increased 15.9%. Over 60% of antibiotics were issued without an associated same-day infection code, which increased during the pandemic. Infection-related hospitalisations reduced (by 62%), with the largest reduction observed for pneumonia infections (72.9%). Same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infection increased from 1 to 10.5% between the second and third national lockdowns and rose again during 2022.

Conclusions

Changes to consultations and hospital admissions may be driven by reduced transmission of non-COVID-19 infections due to reduced social mixing and lockdowns. Inconsistencies in coding practice emphasises the need for improvement to inform new antibiotic stewardship policies and prevent resistance to novel infections.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725?pdf=render 35231023,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907,Changes in social contacts in England during the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and March 2021 as measured by the CoMix survey: A repeated cross-sectional study.,"Gimma A, Munday JD, Wong KLM, Coletti P, van Zandvoort K, Prem K, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Klepac P, Rubin GJ, Funk S, Edmunds WJ, Jarvis CI.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,"

Background

During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the United Kingdom government imposed public health policies in England to reduce social contacts in hopes of curbing virus transmission. We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study to measure contact patterns weekly from March 2020 to March 2021 to estimate the impact of these policies, covering 3 national lockdowns interspersed by periods of less restrictive policies.

Methods and findings

The repeated cross-sectional survey data were collected using online surveys of representative samples of the UK population by age and gender. Survey participants were recruited by the online market research company Ipsos MORI through internet-based banner and social media ads and email campaigns. The participant data used for this analysis are restricted to those who reported living in England. We calculated the mean daily contacts reported using a (clustered) bootstrap and fitted a censored negative binomial model to estimate age-stratified contact matrices and estimate proportional changes to the basic reproduction number under controlled conditions using the change in contacts as a scaling factor. To put the findings in perspective, we discuss contact rates recorded throughout the year in terms of previously recorded rates from the POLYMOD study social contact study. The survey recorded 101,350 observations from 19,914 participants who reported 466,710 contacts over 53 weeks. We observed changes in social contact patterns in England over time and by participants' age, personal risk factors, and perception of risk. The mean reported contacts for adults 18 to 59 years old ranged between 2.39 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.20 to 2.60) contacts and 4.93 (95% CI 4.65 to 5.19) contacts during the study period. The mean contacts for school-age children (5 to 17 years old) ranged from 3.07 (95% CI 2.89 to 3.27) to 15.11 (95% CI 13.87 to 16.41). This demonstrates a sustained decrease in social contacts compared to a mean of 11.08 (95% CI 10.54 to 11.57) contacts per participant in all age groups combined as measured by the POLYMOD social contact study in 2005 to 2006. Contacts measured during periods of lockdowns were lower than in periods of eased social restrictions. The use of face coverings outside the home has remained high since the government mandated use in some settings in July 2020. The main limitations of this analysis are the potential for selection bias, as participants are recruited through internet-based campaigns, and recall bias, in which participants may under- or overreport the number of contacts they have made.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that recorded contacts reduced dramatically compared to prepandemic levels (as measured in the POLYMOD study), with changes in reported contacts correlated with government interventions throughout the pandemic. Despite easing of restrictions in the summer of 2020, the mean number of reported contacts only returned to about half of that observed prepandemic at its highest recorded level. The CoMix survey provides a unique repeated cross-sectional data set for a full year in England, from the first day of the first lockdown, for use in statistical analyses and mathematical modelling of COVID-19 and other diseases.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8887739; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8887739?pdf=render 33827854,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n826,Linked electronic health records for research on a nationwide cohort of more than 54 million people in England: data resource.,"Wood A, Denholm R, Hollings S, Cooper J, Ip S, Walker V, Denaxas S, Akbari A, Banerjee A, Whiteley W, Lai A, Sterne J, Sudlow C, CVD-COVID-UK consortium.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-04-07,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe a novel England-wide electronic health record (EHR) resource enabling whole population research on covid-19 and cardiovascular disease while ensuring data security and privacy and maintaining public trust.

Design

Data resource comprising linked person level records from national healthcare settings for the English population, accessible within NHS Digital's new trusted research environment.

Setting

EHRs from primary care, hospital episodes, death registry, covid-19 laboratory test results, and community dispensing data, with further enrichment planned from specialist intensive care, cardiovascular, and covid-19 vaccination data.

Participants

54.4 million people alive on 1 January 2020 and registered with an NHS general practitioner in England.

Main measures of interest

Confirmed and suspected covid-19 diagnoses, exemplar cardiovascular conditions (incident stroke or transient ischaemic attack and incident myocardial infarction) and all cause mortality between 1 January and 31 October 2020.

Results

The linked cohort includes more than 96% of the English population. By combining person level data across national healthcare settings, data on age, sex, and ethnicity are complete for around 95% of the population. Among 53.3 million people with no previous diagnosis of stroke or transient ischaemic attack, 98 721 had a first ever incident stroke or transient ischaemic attack between 1 January and 31 October 2020, of which 30% were recorded only in primary care and 4% only in death registry records. Among 53.2 million people with no previous diagnosis of myocardial infarction, 62 966 had an incident myocardial infarction during follow-up, of which 8% were recorded only in primary care and 12% only in death registry records. A total of 959 470 people had a confirmed or suspected covid-19 diagnosis (714 162 in primary care data, 126 349 in hospital admission records, 776 503 in covid-19 laboratory test data, and 50 504 in death registry records). Although 58% of these were recorded in both primary care and covid-19 laboratory test data, 15% and 18%, respectively, were recorded in only one.

Conclusions

This population-wide resource shows the importance of linking person level data across health settings to maximise completeness of key characteristics and to ascertain cardiovascular events and covid-19 diagnoses. Although this resource was initially established to support research on covid-19 and cardiovascular disease to benefit clinical care and public health and to inform healthcare policy, it can broaden further to enable a wide range of research.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/373/bmj.n826.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413899; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413899?pdf=render 37080124,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.04.006,COVID-19 vaccination uptake in people with epilepsy in wales.,"Strafford H, Lacey AS, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Watkins A, Paterson J, Jennings D, Lyons RA, Powell HR, Kerr MP, Chin RW, Pickrell WO.",,Seizure,2023,2023-04-06,Y,"Epilepsy; Vaccination; Data Linkage; Electronic Health Records; Pandemic, Covid-19",,,"

Purpose

People with epilepsy (PWE) are at increased risk of severe COVID-19. Assessing COVID-19 vaccine uptake is therefore important. We compared COVID-19 vaccination uptake for PWE in Wales with a matched control cohort.

Methods

We performed a retrospective, population, cohort study using linked, anonymised, Welsh electronic health records within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank (Welsh population=3.1 million).We identified PWE in Wales between 1st March 2020 and 31st December 2021 and created a control cohort using exact 5:1 matching (sex, age and socioeconomic status). We recorded 1st, 2nd and booster COVID-19 vaccinations.

Results

There were 25,404 adults with epilepsy (127,020 controls). 23,454 (92.3%) had a first vaccination, 22,826 (89.9%) a second, and 17,797 (70.1%) a booster. Comparative figures for controls were: 112,334 (87.8%), 109,057 (85.2%) and 79,980 (62.4%).PWE had higher vaccination rates in all age, sex and socioeconomic subgroups apart from booster uptake in older subgroups. Vaccination rates were higher in older subgroups, women and less deprived areas for both cohorts. People with intellectual disability and epilepsy had higher vaccination rates when compared with controls with intellectual disability.

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccination uptake for PWE in Wales was higher than that for a matched control group.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.04.006; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.04.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10076248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10076248?pdf=render 33714592,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007,"Place and Underlying Cause of Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study of 3.5 Million Deaths in England and Wales, 2014 to 2020.","Wu J, Mafham M, Mamas MA, Rashid M, Kontopantelis E, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Gale CP.",,Mayo Clinic proceedings,2021,2021-02-16,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe the place and cause of death during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to assess its impact on excess mortality.

Methods

This national death registry included all adult (aged ≥18 years) deaths in England and Wales between January 1, 2014, and June 30, 2020. Daily deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared against the expected daily deaths, estimated with use of the Farrington surveillance algorithm for daily historical data between 2014 and 2020 by place and cause of death.

Results

Between March 2 and June 30, 2020, there was an excess mortality of 57,860 (a proportional increase of 35%) compared with the expected deaths, of which 50,603 (87%) were COVID-19 related. At home, only 14% (2267) of the 16,190 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, with 5963 deaths due to cancer and 2485 deaths due to cardiac disease, few of which involved COVID-19. In care homes or hospices, 61% (15,623) of the 25,611 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, 5539 of which were due to respiratory disease, and most of these (4315 deaths) involved COVID-19. In the hospital, there were 16,174 fewer deaths than expected that did not involve COVID-19, with 4088 fewer deaths due to cancer and 1398 fewer deaths due to cardiac disease than expected.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large excess of deaths in care homes that were poorly characterized and likely to be the result of undiagnosed COVID-19. There was a smaller but important and ongoing excess in deaths at home, particularly from cancer and cardiac disease, suggesting public avoidance of hospital care for non-COVID-19 conditions.",,pdf:http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025619621001397/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692?pdf=render 32781946,https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405,Key questions for modelling COVID-19 exit strategies.,"Thompson RN, Hollingsworth TD, Isham V, Arribas-Bel D, Ashby B, Britton T, Challenor P, Chappell LHK, Clapham H, Cunniffe NJ, Dawid AP, Donnelly CA, Eggo RM, Funk S, Gilbert N, Glendinning P, Gog JR, Hart WS, Heesterbeek H, House T, Keeling M, Kiss IZ, Kretzschmar ME, Lloyd AL, McBryde ES, McCaw JM, McKinley TJ, Miller JC, Morris M, O'Neill PD, Parag KV, Pearson CAB, Pellis L, Pulliam JRC, Ross JV, Tomba GS, Silverman BW, Struchiner CJ, Tildesley MJ, Trapman P, Webb CR, Mollison D, Restif O.",,Proceedings. Biological sciences,2020,2020-08-12,Y,Uncertainty; Mathematical Modelling; Epidemic Control; Exit Strategy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Combinations of intense non-pharmaceutical interventions (lockdowns) were introduced worldwide to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Many governments have begun to implement exit strategies that relax restrictions while attempting to control the risk of a surge in cases. Mathematical modelling has played a central role in guiding interventions, but the challenge of designing optimal exit strategies in the face of ongoing transmission is unprecedented. Here, we report discussions from the Isaac Newton Institute 'Models for an exit strategy' workshop (11-15 May 2020). A diverse community of modellers who are providing evidence to governments worldwide were asked to identify the main questions that, if answered, would allow for more accurate predictions of the effects of different exit strategies. Based on these questions, we propose a roadmap to facilitate the development of reliable models to guide exit strategies. This roadmap requires a global collaborative effort from the scientific community and policymakers, and has three parts: (i) improve estimation of key epidemiological parameters; (ii) understand sources of heterogeneity in populations; and (iii) focus on requirements for data collection, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. This will provide important information for planning exit strategies that balance socio-economic benefits with public health.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516?pdf=render 35310465,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1697,"Validating the QCOVID risk prediction algorithm for risk of mortality from COVID-19 in the adult population in Wales, UK.","Lyons J, Nafilyan V, Akbari A, Davies G, Griffiths R, Harrison EM, Hippisley-Cox J, Hollinghurst J, Khunti K, North L, Sheikh A, Torabi F, Lyons RA.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Risk Prediction Models; Sail Databank; Covid-19 Outcomes; Population Data-Linkage; Qcovid Algorithm,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 risk prediction algorithms can be used to identify at-risk individuals from short-term serious adverse COVID-19 outcomes such as hospitalisation and death. It is important to validate these algorithms in different and diverse populations to help guide risk management decisions and target vaccination and treatment programs to the most vulnerable individuals in society.

Objectives

To validate externally the QCOVID risk prediction algorithm that predicts mortality outcomes from COVID-19 in the adult population of Wales, UK.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using routinely collected individual-level data held in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. The cohort included individuals aged between 19 and 100 years, living in Wales on 24th January 2020, registered with a SAIL-providing general practice, and followed-up to death or study end (28th July 2020). Demographic, primary and secondary healthcare, and dispensing data were used to derive all the predictor variables used to develop the published QCOVID algorithm. Mortality data were used to define time to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 death. Performance metrics, including R2 values (explained variation), Brier scores, and measures of discrimination and calibration were calculated for two periods (24th January-30th April 2020 and 1st May-28th July 2020) to assess algorithm performance.

Results

1,956,760 individuals were included. 1,192 (0.06%) and 610 (0.03%) COVID-19 deaths occurred in the first and second time periods, respectively. The algorithms fitted the Welsh data and population well, explaining 68.8% (95% CI: 66.9-70.4) of the variation in time to death, Harrell's C statistic: 0.929 (95% CI: 0.921-0.937) and D statistic: 3.036 (95% CI: 2.913-3.159) for males in the first period. Similar results were found for females and in the second time period for both sexes.

Conclusions

The QCOVID algorithm developed in England can be used for public health risk management for the adult Welsh population.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1697/3337; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1697; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8900650; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8900650?pdf=render -32851419,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4,Vitamin D and COVID-19 infection and mortality in UK Biobank.,"Hastie CE, Pell JP, Sattar N.",,European journal of nutrition,2021,2020-08-26,Y,Vitamin D; Mortality; Covid-19,,,"

Purpose

Low blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration has been proposed as a potential causal factor in COVID-19 risk. We aimed to establish whether baseline serum 25(OH)D concentration was associated with COVID-19 mortality, and inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection, in UK Biobank participants.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including serum 25(OH)D concentration, were linked to COVID-19 mortality. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and COVID-19 death, and Poisson regression analyses for the association between 25(OH)D and severe COVID-19 infection.

Results

Complete data were available for 341,484 UK Biobank participants, of which 656 had inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection and 203 died of COVID-19 infection. 25(OH)D concentration was associated with severe COVID-19 infection and mortality univariably (mortality per 10 nmol/L 25(OH)D HR  0.92; 95% CI 0.86-0.98; p = 0.016), but not after adjustment for confounders (mortality per 10 nmol/L 25(OH)D HR 0.98; 95% CI = 0.91-1.06; p = 0.696). Vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency was also not independently associated with either COVID-19 infection or linked mortality.

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between 25(OH)D concentrations and risk of severe COVID-19 infection and mortality. Randomised trials are needed to prove a beneficial role for vitamin D in the prevention of severe COVID-19 reactions or death.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7449523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7449523?pdf=render 37429634,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpo.2023.0057,UK research data resources based on primary care electronic health records: review and summary for potential users.,"Edwards L, Pickett J, Ashcroft DM, Dambha-Miller H, Majeed A, Mallen C, Petersen I, Qureshi N, van Staa T, Abel G, Carvalho C, Denholm R, Kontopantelis E, Macaulay A, Macleod J.",,BJGP open,2023,2023-09-19,N,Population; Primary Health Care; Electronic Health Records; Primary Care Databases; Population Level Linked Data,,,"

Background

The range and scope of electronic health record (EHR) data assets in the UK has recently increased, which has been mainly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Summarising and comparing the large primary care resources will help researchers to choose the data resources most suited to their needs.

Aim

To describe the current landscape of UK EHR databases and considerations of access and use of these resources relevant to researchers.

Design & setting

Narrative review of EHR databases in the UK.

Method

Information was collected from the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway, publicly available websites and other published data, and from key informants. The eligibility criteria were population-based open-access databases sampling EHRs across the whole population of one or more countries in the UK. Published database characteristics were extracted and summarised, and these were corroborated with resource providers. Results were synthesised narratively.

Results

Nine large national primary care EHR data resources were identified and summarised. These resources are enhanced by linkage to other administrative data to a varying extent. Resources are mainly intended to support observational research, although some can support experimental studies. There is considerable overlap of populations covered. While all resources are accessible to bona fide researchers, access mechanisms, costs, timescales, and other considerations vary across databases.

Conclusion

Researchers are currently able to access primary care EHR data from several sources. Choice of data resource is likely to be driven by project needs and access considerations. The landscape of data resources based on primary care EHRs in the UK continues to evolve.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpo.2023.0057; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGPO.2023.0057 -37468148,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075133,Associations between self-reported healthcare disruption due to covid-19 and avoidable hospital admission: evidence from seven linked longitudinal studies for England.,"Green MA, McKee M, Hamilton OK, Shaw RJ, Macleod J, Boyd A, Katikireddi SV, LH&W NCS Collaborative.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2023,2023-07-19,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To examine whether there is an association between people who experienced disrupted access to healthcare during the covid-19 pandemic and risk of an avoidable hospital admission.

Design

Observational analysis using evidence from seven linked longitudinal cohort studies for England.

Setting

Studies linked to electronic health records from NHS Digital from 1 March 2020 to 25 August 2022. Data were accessed using the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration trusted research environment.

Participants

Individual level records for 29 276 people.

Main outcome measures

Avoidable hospital admissions defined as emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive and emergency urgent care sensitive conditions.

Results

9742 participants (weighted percentage 35%, adjusted for sample structure of longitudinal cohorts) self-reported some form of disrupted access to healthcare during the covid-19 pandemic. People with disrupted access were at increased risk of any (odds ratio 1.80, 95% confidence interval 1.39 to 2.34), acute (2.01, 1.39 to 2.92), and chronic (1.80, 1.31 to 2.48) ambulatory care sensitive hospital admissions. For people who experienced disrupted access to appointments (eg, visiting their doctor or an outpatient department) and procedures (eg, surgery, cancer treatment), positive associations were found with measures of avoidable hospital admissions.

Conclusions

Evidence from linked individual level data shows that people whose access to healthcare was disrupted were more likely to have a potentially preventable hospital admission. The findings highlight the need to increase healthcare investment to tackle the short and long term implications of the pandemic, and to protect treatments and procedures during future pandemics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10354595; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10354595?pdf=render +32851419,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4,Vitamin D and COVID-19 infection and mortality in UK Biobank.,"Hastie CE, Pell JP, Sattar N.",,European journal of nutrition,2021,2020-08-26,Y,Vitamin D; Mortality; Covid-19,,,"

Purpose

Low blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration has been proposed as a potential causal factor in COVID-19 risk. We aimed to establish whether baseline serum 25(OH)D concentration was associated with COVID-19 mortality, and inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection, in UK Biobank participants.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including serum 25(OH)D concentration, were linked to COVID-19 mortality. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and COVID-19 death, and Poisson regression analyses for the association between 25(OH)D and severe COVID-19 infection.

Results

Complete data were available for 341,484 UK Biobank participants, of which 656 had inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection and 203 died of COVID-19 infection. 25(OH)D concentration was associated with severe COVID-19 infection and mortality univariably (mortality per 10 nmol/L 25(OH)D HR  0.92; 95% CI 0.86-0.98; p = 0.016), but not after adjustment for confounders (mortality per 10 nmol/L 25(OH)D HR 0.98; 95% CI = 0.91-1.06; p = 0.696). Vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency was also not independently associated with either COVID-19 infection or linked mortality.

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between 25(OH)D concentrations and risk of severe COVID-19 infection and mortality. Randomised trials are needed to prove a beneficial role for vitamin D in the prevention of severe COVID-19 reactions or death.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7449523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7449523?pdf=render 33185016,https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41593,Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs and Susceptibility to COVID-19.,"Chandan JS, Zemedikun DT, Thayakaran R, Byne N, Dhalla S, Acosta-Mena D, Gokhale KM, Thomas T, Sainsbury C, Subramanian A, Cooper J, Anand A, Okoth KO, Wang J, Adderley NJ, Taverner T, Denniston AK, Lord J, Thomas GN, Buckley CD, Raza K, Bhala N, Nirantharakumar K, Haroon S.",,"Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)",2021,2021-05-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

To identify whether active use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increases susceptibility to developing suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared to the use of other common analgesics.

Methods

We performed a propensity score-matched cohort study with active comparators, using a large UK primary care data set. The cohort consisted of adult patients age ≥18 years with osteoarthritis (OA) who were followed up from January 30 to July 31, 2020. Patients prescribed an NSAID (excluding topical preparations) were compared to those prescribed either co-codamol (paracetamol and codeine) or co-dydramol (paracetamol and dihydrocodeine). A total of 13,202 patients prescribed NSAIDs were identified, compared to 12,457 patients prescribed the comparator drugs. The primary outcome measure was the documentation of suspected or confirmed COVID-19, and the secondary outcome measure was all-cause mortality.

Results

During follow-up, the incidence rates of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 were 15.4 and 19.9 per 1,000 person-years in the NSAID-exposed group and comparator group, respectively. Adjusted hazard ratios for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 among the unmatched and propensity score-matched OA cohorts, using data from clinical consultations in primary care settings, were 0.82 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.62-1.10) and 0.79 (95% CI 0.57-1.11), respectively, and adjusted hazard ratios for the risk of all-cause mortality were 0.97 (95% CI 0.75-1.27) and 0.85 (95% CI 0.61-1.20), respectively. There was no effect modification by age or sex.

Conclusion

No increase in the risk of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 or mortality was observed among patients with OA in a primary care setting who were prescribed NSAIDs as compared to those who received comparator drugs. These results are reassuring and suggest that in the absence of acute illness, NSAIDs can be safely prescribed during the ongoing pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/art.41593; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41593; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8252419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8252419?pdf=render +37468148,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075133,Associations between self-reported healthcare disruption due to covid-19 and avoidable hospital admission: evidence from seven linked longitudinal studies for England.,"Green MA, McKee M, Hamilton OK, Shaw RJ, Macleod J, Boyd A, Katikireddi SV, LH&W NCS Collaborative.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2023,2023-07-19,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To examine whether there is an association between people who experienced disrupted access to healthcare during the covid-19 pandemic and risk of an avoidable hospital admission.

Design

Observational analysis using evidence from seven linked longitudinal cohort studies for England.

Setting

Studies linked to electronic health records from NHS Digital from 1 March 2020 to 25 August 2022. Data were accessed using the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration trusted research environment.

Participants

Individual level records for 29 276 people.

Main outcome measures

Avoidable hospital admissions defined as emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive and emergency urgent care sensitive conditions.

Results

9742 participants (weighted percentage 35%, adjusted for sample structure of longitudinal cohorts) self-reported some form of disrupted access to healthcare during the covid-19 pandemic. People with disrupted access were at increased risk of any (odds ratio 1.80, 95% confidence interval 1.39 to 2.34), acute (2.01, 1.39 to 2.92), and chronic (1.80, 1.31 to 2.48) ambulatory care sensitive hospital admissions. For people who experienced disrupted access to appointments (eg, visiting their doctor or an outpatient department) and procedures (eg, surgery, cancer treatment), positive associations were found with measures of avoidable hospital admissions.

Conclusions

Evidence from linked individual level data shows that people whose access to healthcare was disrupted were more likely to have a potentially preventable hospital admission. The findings highlight the need to increase healthcare investment to tackle the short and long term implications of the pandemic, and to protect treatments and procedures during future pandemics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10354595; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10354595?pdf=render 33079204,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079,Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac procedure activity in England and associated 30-day mortality.,"Mohamed MO, Banerjee A, Clarke S, de Belder M, Patwala A, Goodwin AT, Kwok CS, Rashid M, Gale CP, Curzen N, Mamas MA.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Mortality; Cardiac; England; Procedures; Covid-19,,,"

Aims

Limited data exist on the impact of COVID-19 on national changes in cardiac procedure activity, including patient characteristics and clinical outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods and results

All major cardiac procedures (n = 374 899) performed between 1 January and 31 May for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 were analysed, stratified by procedure type and time-period (pre-COVID: January-May 2018 and 2019 and January-February 2020 and COVID: March-May 2020). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality for procedures performed in the COVID period. Overall, there was a deficit of 45 501 procedures during the COVID period compared to the monthly averages (March-May) in 2018-2019. Cardiac catheterization and device implantations were the most affected in terms of numbers (n = 19 637 and n = 10 453), whereas surgical procedures such as mitral valve replacement, other valve replacement/repair, atrioseptal defect/ventriculoseptal defect repair, and coronary artery bypass grafting were the most affected as a relative percentage difference (Δ) to previous years' averages. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement was the least affected (Δ -10.6%). No difference in 30-day mortality was observed between pre-COVID and COVID time-periods for all cardiac procedures except cardiac catheterization [OR 1.25 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.47, P = 0.006] and cardiac device implantation (OR 1.35 95% CI 1.15-1.58, P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Cardiac procedural activity has significantly declined across England during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a deficit in excess of 45 000 procedures, without an increase in risk of mortality for most cardiac procedures performed during the pandemic. Major restructuring of cardiac services is necessary to deal with this deficit, which would inevitably impact long-term morbidity and mortality.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/article-pdf/7/3/247/37776880/qcaa079.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465?pdf=render 34158305,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048333,Association between community-based self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and social deprivation explored using symptom tracker apps: a repeated cross-sectional study in Northern Ireland.,"McKinley JM, Cutting D, Anderson N, Graham C, Johnston B, Mueller U, Atkinson PM, Van Woerden H, Bradley DT, Kee F.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-22,Y,Public Health; Statistics & Research Methods; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships between the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms in the community-level and area-level social deprivation.

Design

Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design.

Setting

In the community in Northern Ireland, UK. The analysis period included the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions or 'lockdown' in 2020.

Participants

Users of two smartphone symptom tracker apps recording self-reported health information who recorded their location as Northern Ireland, UK.

Primary outcome measures

Population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and correlation between population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and area-level characteristics from measures of multiple deprivation including employment levels and population housing density, derived as the mean number of residents per household for each census super output area.

Results

Higher self-reported prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms was associated with the most deprived areas (p<0.001) and with those areas with the lowest employment levels (p<0.001). Higher rates of self-reported COVID-19 symptoms within the age groups, 18-24 and 25-34 years were found within the most deprived areas during the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions ('lockdown').

Conclusions

Through spatial regression of self-reporting COVID-19 smartphone data in the community, this research shows how a lens of social deprivation can deepen our understanding of COVID-19 transmission and prevention. Our findings indicate that social inequality, as measured by area-level deprivation, is associated with disparities in potential COVID-19 infection, with higher prevalence of self-reported COVID-19 symptoms in urban areas associated with area-level social deprivation, housing density and age.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e048333.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048333; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8228811; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8228811?pdf=render 35087703,https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465,Household Air Pollution and Respiratory Symptoms a Month Before and During the Stringent COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 in South Africa.,"Wright CY, Kapwata T, Abdelatif N, Batini C, Wernecke B, Kunene Z, Millar DA, Mathee A, Street R, Panchal R, Hansell A, Cordell R, Hey JV.",,Annals of global health,2022,2022-01-10,Y,,,,"

Background

Household air pollution (HAP) is associated with adverse human health impacts. During COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 (the most stringent levels), South Africans remained at home, potentially increasing their exposure to HAP.

Objectives

To investigate changes in fuel use behaviours/patterns of use affecting HAP exposure and associated HAP-related respiratory health outcomes during COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional online and telephonic survey of participants from an existing database. Logistic regression and McNemar's test were used to analyse household-level data.

Results

Among 2 505 participants, while electricity was the main energy source for cooking and heating the month before and during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4, some households used less electricity during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 or switched to ""dirty fuels."" One third of participants reported presence of environmental tobacco smoke in the home, a source of HAP associated with respiratory illnesses. Prevalence of HAP-related respiratory health outcomes were <10% (except dry cough). Majority of households reported cooking more, cleaning more and spending more time indoors during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 - potentially exposed to HAP.

Conclusion

Should South Africa return to Lockdown Levels 5 or 4, awareness raising about the risks associated with HAP as well as messaging information for prevention of exposure to HAP, including environmental tobacco smoke, and associated adverse health impacts will be necessary.",,pdf:http://www.annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.3465/galley/3414/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382?pdf=render @@ -374,11 +374,11 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 34127076,https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2,"Perceptions of anonymised data use and awareness of the NHS data opt-out amongst patients, carers and healthcare staff.","Atkin C, Crosby B, Dunn K, Price G, Marston E, Crawford C, O'Hara M, Morgan C, Levermore M, Gallier S, Modhwadia S, Attwood J, Perks S, Denniston AK, Gkoutos G, Dormer R, Rosser A, Ignatowicz A, Fanning H, Sapey E, PIONEER Data Hub.",,Research involvement and engagement,2021,2021-06-14,Y,data sharing; Commercial; Secondary Data Use; Anonymised Healthcare Data; National Data Opt-out,,,"

Background

England operates a National Data Opt-Out (NDOO) for the secondary use of confidential health data for research and planning. We hypothesised that public awareness and support for the secondary use of health data and the NDOO would vary by participant demography and healthcare experience. We explored patient/public awareness and perceptions of secondary data use, grouping potential researchers into National Health Service (NHS), academia or commercial. We assessed awareness of the NDOO system amongst patients, carers, healthcare staff and the public. We co-developed recommendations to consider when sharing unconsented health data for research.

Methods

A patient and public engagement program, co-created and including patient and public workshops, questionnaires and discussion groups regarding anonymised health data use.

Results

There were 350 participants in total. Central concerns for health data use included unauthorised data re-use, the potential for discrimination and data sharing without patient benefit. 94% of respondents were happy for their data to be used for NHS research, 85% for academic research and 68% by health companies, but less than 50% for non-healthcare companies and opinions varied with demography and participant group. Questionnaires showed that knowledge of the NDOO was low, with 32% of all respondents, 53% of all NHS staff and 29% of all patients aware of the NDOO. Recommendations to guide unconsented secondary health data use included that health data use should benefit patients; data sharing decisions should involve patients/public. That data should remain in close proximity to health services with the principles of data minimisation applied. Further, that there should be transparency in secondary health data use, including publicly available lists of projects, summaries and benefits. Finally, organisations involved in data access decisions should participate in programmes to increase knowledge of the NDOO, to ensure public members were making informed choices about their own data.

Conclusion

The majority of participants in this study reported that the use of healthcare data for secondary purposes was acceptable when accessed by NHS. Academic and health-focused companies. However, awareness was limited, including of the NDOO. Further development of publicly-agreed recommendations for secondary health data use may improve both awareness and confidence in secondary health data use.",,pdf:https://researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201435; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201435?pdf=render 33419870,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100254,Network graph representation of COVID-19 scientific publications to aid knowledge discovery. ,"Cernile G, Heritage T, Sebire NJ, Gordon B, Schwering T, Kazemlou S, Borecki Y.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2021,2021-01-01,Y,,,,"Numerous scientific journal articles related to COVID-19 have been rapidly published, making navigation and understanding of relationships difficult. A graph network was constructed from the publicly available COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) of COVID-19-related publications using an engine leveraging medical knowledge bases to identify discrete medical concepts and an open-source tool (Gephi) to visualise the network. The network shows connections between diseases, medications and procedures identified from the title and abstract of 195 958 COVID-19-related publications (CORD-19 Dataset). Connections between terms with few publications, those unconnected to the main network and those irrelevant were not displayed. Nodes were coloured by knowledge base and the size of the node related to the number of publications containing the term. The data set and visualisations were made publicly accessible via a webtool. Knowledge management approaches (text mining and graph networks) can effectively allow rapid navigation and exploration of entity inter-relationships to improve understanding of diseases such as COVID-19.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100254; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7798427; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7798427?pdf=render 35962974,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac158,Association between household composition and severe COVID-19 outcomes in older people by ethnicity: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Wing K, Grint DJ, Mathur R, Gibbs HP, Hickman G, Nightingale E, Schultze A, Forbes H, Nafilyan V, Bhaskaran K, Williamson E, House T, Pellis L, Herrett E, Gautam N, Curtis HJ, Rentsch CT, Wong AYS, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Tomlinson L, Goldacre B, Eggo RM.",,International journal of epidemiology,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Household; Older People; Ethnicity; Deprivation; Comorbidities; Multigenerational; Population-level; Covid-19; Opensafely,,,"

Background

Ethnic differences in the risk of severe COVID-19 may be linked to household composition. We quantified the association between household composition and risk of severe COVID-19 by ethnicity for older individuals.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we analysed ethnic differences in the association between household composition and severe COVID-19 in people aged 67 or over in England. We defined households by number of age-based generations living together, and used multivariable Cox regression stratified by location and wave of the pandemic and accounted for age, sex, comorbidities, smoking, obesity, housing density and deprivation. We included 2 692 223 people over 67 years in Wave 1 (1 February 2020-31 August 2020) and 2 731 427 in Wave 2 (1 September 2020-31 January 2021).

Results

Multigenerational living was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 for White and South Asian older people in both waves [e.g. Wave 2, 67+ living with three other generations vs 67+-year-olds only: White hazard ratio (HR) 1.61 95% CI 1.38-1.87, South Asian HR 1.76 95% CI 1.48-2.10], with a trend for increased risks of severe COVID-19 with increasing generations in Wave 2. There was also an increased risk of severe COVID-19 in Wave 1 associated with living alone for White (HR 1.35 95% CI 1.30-1.41), South Asian (HR 1.47 95% CI 1.18-1.84) and Other (HR 1.72 95% CI 0.99-2.97) ethnicities, an effect that persisted for White older people in Wave 2.

Conclusions

Both multigenerational living and living alone were associated with severe COVID-19 in older adults. Older South Asian people are over-represented within multigenerational households in England, especially in the most deprived settings, whereas a substantial proportion of White older people live alone. The number of generations in a household, number of occupants, ethnicity and deprivation status are important considerations in the continued roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination and targeting of interventions for future pandemics.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/51/6/1745/47882630/dyac158.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac158; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384728?pdf=render -32835195,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5,The effects of physical distancing on population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.,"Drake TM, Docherty AB, Weiser TG, Yule S, Sheikh A, Harrison EM.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2020,2020-06-12,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30134-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602?pdf=render 35079022,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28157-3,Regional excess mortality during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in five European countries.,"Konstantinoudis G, Cameletti M, Gómez-Rubio V, Gómez IL, Pirani M, Baio G, Larrauri A, Riou J, Egger M, Vineis P, Blangiardo M.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-01-25,Y,,,,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on excess mortality from all causes in 2020 varied across and within European countries. Using data for 2015-2019, we applied Bayesian spatio-temporal models to quantify the expected weekly deaths at the regional level had the pandemic not occurred in England, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. With around 30%, Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, Castile-Leon (Spain) and Lombardia (Italy) were the regions with the highest excess mortality. In England, Greece and Switzerland, the regions most affected were Outer London and the West Midlands (England), Eastern, Western and Central Macedonia (Greece), and Ticino (Switzerland), with 15-20% excess mortality in 2020. Our study highlights the importance of the large transportation hubs for establishing community transmission in the first stages of the pandemic. Here, we show that acting promptly to limit transmission around these hubs is essential to prevent spread to other regions and countries.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28157-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28157-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789777?pdf=render +32835195,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5,The effects of physical distancing on population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.,"Drake TM, Docherty AB, Weiser TG, Yule S, Sheikh A, Harrison EM.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2020,2020-06-12,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30134-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602?pdf=render 36982069,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065161,The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Adults with Major Depressive Disorder from Catalonia: A Decentralized Longitudinal Study.,"Lavalle R, Condominas E, Haro JM, Giné-Vázquez I, Bailon R, Laporta E, Garcia E, Kontaxis S, Alacid GR, Lombardini F, Preti A, Peñarrubia-Maria MT, Coromina M, Arranz B, Vilella E, Rubio-Alacid E, Radar-Mdd Spain, Matcham F, Lamers F, Hotopf M, Penninx BWJH, Annas P, Narayan V, Simblett SK, Siddi S, The Radar-Cns Consortium.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2023,2023-03-15,Y,Quarantine; Depression; Anxiety; Spain; Lockdown; Remote Measurement Technology; Sars-cov-2; Decentralized Study,,,"The present study analyzes the effects of each containment phase of the first COVID-19 wave on depression levels in a cohort of 121 adults with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) from Catalonia recruited from 1 November 2019, to 16 October 2020. This analysis is part of the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-MDD (RADAR-MDD) study. Depression was evaluated with the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), and anxiety was evaluated with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). Depression's levels were explored across the phases (pre-lockdown, lockdown, and four post-lockdown phases) according to the restrictions of Spanish/Catalan governments. Then, a mixed model was fitted to estimate how depression varied over the phases. A significant rise in depression severity was found during the lockdown and phase 0 (early post-lockdown), compared with the pre-lockdown. Those with low pre-lockdown depression experienced an increase in depression severity during the ""new normality"", while those with high pre-lockdown depression decreased compared with the pre-lockdown. These findings suggest that COVID-19 restrictions affected the depression level depending on their pre-lockdown depression severity. Individuals with low levels of depression are more reactive to external stimuli than those with more severe depression, so the lockdown may have worse detrimental effects on them.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/5161/pdf?version=1678866764; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065161; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10048808; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10048808?pdf=render -36992188,https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030604,"Household Composition and Inequalities in COVID-19 Vaccination in Wales, UK.","Lench A, Perry M, Johnson RD, Fry R, Richardson G, Lyons RA, Akbari A, Edwards A, Collins B, Joseph-Williams N, Cooper A, Cottrell S.",,Vaccines,2023,2023-03-07,Y,Vaccines; Vaccination; Households; Inequalities; Immunisation; Household Composition; Inequities; Covid-19,,,"The uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in Wales is high at a population level but many inequalities exist. Household composition may be an important factor in COVID-19 vaccination uptake due to the practical, social, and psychological implications associated with different living arrangements. In this study, the role of household composition in the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in Wales was examined with the aim of identifying areas for intervention to address inequalities. Records within the Wales Immunisation System (WIS) COVID-19 vaccination register were linked to the Welsh Demographic Service Dataset (WDSD; a population register for Wales) held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Eight household types were defined based on household size, the presence or absence of children, and the presence of single or multiple generations. Uptake of the second dose of any COVID-19 vaccine was analysed using logistic regression. Gender, age group, health board, rural/urban residential classification, ethnic group, and deprivation quintile were included as covariates for multivariable regression. Compared to two-adult households, all other household types were associated with lower uptake. The most significantly reduced uptake was observed for large, multigenerational, adult group households (aOR 0.45, 95%CI 0.43-0.46). Comparing multivariable regression with and without incorporation of household composition as a variable produced significant differences in odds of vaccination for health board, age group, and ethnic group categories. These results indicate that household composition is an important factor for the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination and consideration of differences in household composition is necessary to mitigate vaccination inequalities.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/3/604/pdf?version=1678670919; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030604; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10055803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10055803?pdf=render 35820692,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881,Clinical prediction models for mortality in patients with covid-19: external validation and individual participant data meta-analysis.,"de Jong VMT, Rousset RZ, Antonio-Villa NE, Buenen AG, Van Calster B, Bello-Chavolla OY, Brunskill NJ, Curcin V, Damen JAA, Fermín-Martínez CA, Fernández-Chirino L, Ferrari D, Free RC, Gupta RK, Haldar P, Hedberg P, Korang SK, Kurstjens S, Kusters R, Major RW, Maxwell L, Nair R, Naucler P, Nguyen TL, Noursadeghi M, Rosa R, Soares F, Takada T, van Royen FS, van Smeden M, Wynants L, Modrák M, CovidRetro collaboration, Asselbergs FW, Linschoten M, CAPACITY-COVID consortium, Moons KGM, Debray TPA.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-07-12,Y,,,,"

Objective

To externally validate various prognostic models and scoring rules for predicting short term mortality in patients admitted to hospital for covid-19.

Design

Two stage individual participant data meta-analysis.

Setting

Secondary and tertiary care.

Participants

46 914 patients across 18 countries, admitted to a hospital with polymerase chain reaction confirmed covid-19 from November 2019 to April 2021.

Data sources

Multiple (clustered) cohorts in Brazil, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States previously identified by a living systematic review of covid-19 prediction models published in The BMJ, and through PROSPERO, reference checking, and expert knowledge.

Model selection and eligibility criteria

Prognostic models identified by the living systematic review and through contacting experts. A priori models were excluded that had a high risk of bias in the participant domain of PROBAST (prediction model study risk of bias assessment tool) or for which the applicability was deemed poor.

Methods

Eight prognostic models with diverse predictors were identified and validated. A two stage individual participant data meta-analysis was performed of the estimated model concordance (C) statistic, calibration slope, calibration-in-the-large, and observed to expected ratio (O:E) across the included clusters.

Main outcome measures

30 day mortality or in-hospital mortality.

Results

Datasets included 27 clusters from 18 different countries and contained data on 46 914patients. The pooled estimates ranged from 0.67 to 0.80 (C statistic), 0.22 to 1.22 (calibration slope), and 0.18 to 2.59 (O:E ratio) and were prone to substantial between study heterogeneity. The 4C Mortality Score by Knight et al (pooled C statistic 0.80, 95% confidence interval 0.75 to 0.84, 95% prediction interval 0.72 to 0.86) and clinical model by Wang et al (0.77, 0.73 to 0.80, 0.63 to 0.87) had the highest discriminative ability. On average, 29% fewer deaths were observed than predicted by the 4C Mortality Score (pooled O:E 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.45 to 1.11, 95% prediction interval 0.21 to 2.39), 35% fewer than predicted by the Wang clinical model (0.65, 0.52 to 0.82, 0.23 to 1.89), and 4% fewer than predicted by Xie et al's model (0.96, 0.59 to 1.55, 0.21 to 4.28).

Conclusion

The prognostic value of the included models varied greatly between the data sources. Although the Knight 4C Mortality Score and Wang clinical model appeared most promising, recalibration (intercept and slope updates) is needed before implementation in routine care.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-069881.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913?pdf=render +36992188,https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030604,"Household Composition and Inequalities in COVID-19 Vaccination in Wales, UK.","Lench A, Perry M, Johnson RD, Fry R, Richardson G, Lyons RA, Akbari A, Edwards A, Collins B, Joseph-Williams N, Cooper A, Cottrell S.",,Vaccines,2023,2023-03-07,Y,Vaccines; Vaccination; Households; Inequalities; Immunisation; Household Composition; Inequities; Covid-19,,,"The uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in Wales is high at a population level but many inequalities exist. Household composition may be an important factor in COVID-19 vaccination uptake due to the practical, social, and psychological implications associated with different living arrangements. In this study, the role of household composition in the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in Wales was examined with the aim of identifying areas for intervention to address inequalities. Records within the Wales Immunisation System (WIS) COVID-19 vaccination register were linked to the Welsh Demographic Service Dataset (WDSD; a population register for Wales) held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Eight household types were defined based on household size, the presence or absence of children, and the presence of single or multiple generations. Uptake of the second dose of any COVID-19 vaccine was analysed using logistic regression. Gender, age group, health board, rural/urban residential classification, ethnic group, and deprivation quintile were included as covariates for multivariable regression. Compared to two-adult households, all other household types were associated with lower uptake. The most significantly reduced uptake was observed for large, multigenerational, adult group households (aOR 0.45, 95%CI 0.43-0.46). Comparing multivariable regression with and without incorporation of household composition as a variable produced significant differences in odds of vaccination for health board, age group, and ethnic group categories. These results indicate that household composition is an important factor for the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination and consideration of differences in household composition is necessary to mitigate vaccination inequalities.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/3/604/pdf?version=1678670919; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030604; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10055803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10055803?pdf=render 37248229,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3,Evidence-driven spatiotemporal COVID-19 hospitalization prediction with Ising dynamics.,"Gao J, Heintz J, Mack C, Glass L, Cross A, Sun J.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-05-29,Y,,,,"In this work, we aim to accurately predict the number of hospitalizations during the COVID-19 pandemic by developing a spatiotemporal prediction model. We propose HOIST, an Ising dynamics-based deep learning model for spatiotemporal COVID-19 hospitalization prediction. By drawing the analogy between locations and lattice sites in statistical mechanics, we use the Ising dynamics to guide the model to extract and utilize spatial relationships across locations and model the complex influence of granular information from real-world clinical evidence. By leveraging rich linked databases, including insurance claims, census information, and hospital resource usage data across the U.S., we evaluate the HOIST model on the large-scale spatiotemporal COVID-19 hospitalization prediction task for 2299 counties in the U.S. In the 4-week hospitalization prediction task, HOIST achieves 368.7 mean absolute error, 0.6 [Formula: see text] and 0.89 concordance correlation coefficient score on average. Our detailed number needed to treat (NNT) and cost analysis suggest that future COVID-19 vaccination efforts may be most impactful in rural areas. This model may serve as a resource for future county and state-level vaccination efforts.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226446; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226446?pdf=render 36446465,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065142,"Prevalence, pathophysiology, prediction and health-related quality of life of long COVID: study protocol of the longitudinal multiple cohort CORona Follow Up (CORFU) study.","Ghossein-Doha C, Wintjens MSJN, Janssen EBNJ, Klein D, Heemskerk SCM, Asselbergs FW, Birnie E, Bonsel GJ, van Bussel BCT, Cals JWL, Ten Cate H, Haagsma J, Hemmen B, van der Horst ICC, Kietselaer BLJH, Klok FA, de Kruif MD, Linschoten M, van Santen S, Vernooy K, Willems LH, Westerborg R, Warle M, van Kuijk SMJ.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-29,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Protocols & Guidelines; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The variety, time patterns and long-term prognosis of persistent COVID-19 symptoms (long COVID-19) in patients who suffered from mild to severe acute COVID-19 are incompletely understood. Cohort studies will be combined to describe the prevalence of long COVID-19 symptoms, and to explore the pathophysiological mechanisms and impact on health-related quality of life. A prediction model for long COVID-19 will be developed and internally validated to guide care in future patients.

Methods and analysis

Data from seven COVID-19 cohorts will be aggregated in the longitudinal multiple cohort CORona Follow Up (CORFU) study. CORFU includes Dutch patients who suffered from COVID-19 at home, were hospitalised without or with intensive care unit treatment, needed inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation and controls who did not suffer from COVID-19. Individual cohort study designs were aligned and follow-up has been synchronised. Cohort participants will be followed up for a maximum of 24 months after acute infection. Next to the clinical characteristics measured in individual cohorts, the CORFU questionnaire on long COVID-19 outcomes and determinants will be administered digitally at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after the infection. The primary outcome is the prevalence of long COVID-19 symptoms up to 2 years after acute infection. Secondary outcomes are health-related quality of life (eg, EQ-5D), physical functioning, and the prevalence of thromboembolic complications, respiratory complications, cardiovascular diseases and endothelial dysfunction. A prediction model and a patient platform prototype will be developed.

Ethics and dissemination

Approval was obtained from the medical research ethics committee of Maastricht University Medical Center+ and Maastricht University (METC 2021-2990) and local committees of the participating cohorts. The project is supported by ZonMW and EuroQol Research Foundation. Results will be published in open access peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented at (inter)national conferences.

Trial registration number

NCT05240742.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e065142.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709810; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709810?pdf=render 32616598,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01809-2020,Using imaging to combat a pandemic: rationale for developing the UK National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database. ,"Jacob J, Alexander D, Baillie JK, Berka R, Bertolli O, Blackwood J, Buchan I, Bloomfield C, Cushnan D, Docherty A, Edey A, Favaro A, Gleeson F, Halling-Brown M, Hare S, Jefferson E, Johnstone A, Kirby M, McStay R, Nair A, Openshaw PJM, Parker G, Reilly G, Robinson G, Roditi G, Rodrigues JCL, Sebire N, Semple MG, Sudlow C, Woznitza N, Joshi I.",,The European respiratory journal,2020,2020-08-13,Y,,,,"The National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) is a repository of chest radiographs, CT and MRI images and clinical data from COVID-19 patients across the UK, to support research and development of AI technology and give insight into COVID-19 disease https://bit.ly/3eQeuha",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/56/2/2001809.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01809-2020; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7331656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7331656?pdf=render @@ -387,15 +387,15 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 33710281,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab060,COVID-19 infection and attributable mortality in UK care homes: cohort study using active surveillance and electronic records (March-June 2020).,"Dutey-Magni PF, Williams H, Jhass A, Rait G, Lorencatto F, Hemingway H, Hayward A, Shallcross L.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-06-01,Y,Mortality; Morbidity; Older People; Long-term Care; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

epidemiological data on COVID-19 infection in care homes are scarce. We analysed data from a large provider of long-term care for older people to investigate infection and mortality during the first wave of the pandemic.

Methods

cohort study of 179 UK care homes with 9,339 residents and 11,604 staff. We used manager-reported daily tallies to estimate the incidence of suspected and confirmed infection and mortality in staff and residents. Individual-level electronic health records from 8,713 residents were used to model risk factors for confirmed infection, mortality and estimate attributable mortality.

Results

2,075/9,339 residents developed COVID-19 symptoms (22.2% [95% confidence interval: 21.4%; 23.1%]), while 951 residents (10.2% [9.6%; 10.8%]) and 585 staff (5.0% [4.7%; 5.5%]) had laboratory-confirmed infections. The incidence of confirmed infection was 152.6 [143.1; 162.6] and 62.3 [57.3; 67.5] per 100,000 person-days in residents and staff, respectively. Sixty-eight percent (121/179) of care homes had at least one COVID-19 infection or COVID-19-related death. Lower staffing ratios and higher occupancy rates were independent risk factors for infection.Out of 607 residents with confirmed infection, 217 died (case fatality rate: 35.7% [31.9%; 39.7%]). Mortality in residents with no direct evidence of infection was twofold higher in care homes with outbreaks versus those without (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.2 [1.8; 2.6]).

Conclusions

findings suggest many deaths occurred in people who were infected with COVID-19, but not tested. Higher occupancy and lower staffing levels were independently associated with risks of infection. Protecting staff and residents from infection requires regular testing for COVID-19 and fundamental changes to staffing and care home occupancy.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/4/1019/40971734/afab060.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab060; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989651; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989651?pdf=render 35027740,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00996-8,Multi-ancestry fine mapping implicates OAS1 splicing in risk of severe COVID-19.,"Huffman JE, Butler-Laporte G, Khan A, Pairo-Castineira E, Drivas TG, Peloso GM, Nakanishi T, COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, Ganna A, Verma A, Baillie JK, Kiryluk K, Richards JB, Zeberg H.",,Nature genetics,2022,2022-01-13,Y,,,,"The OAS1/2/3 cluster has been identified as a risk locus for severe COVID-19 among individuals of European ancestry, with a protective haplotype of approximately 75 kilobases (kb) derived from Neanderthals in the chromosomal region 12q24.13. This haplotype contains a splice variant of OAS1, which occurs in people of African ancestry independently of gene flow from Neanderthals. Using trans-ancestry fine-mapping approaches in 20,779 hospitalized cases, we demonstrate that this splice variant is likely to be the SNP responsible for the association at this locus, thus strongly implicating OAS1 as an effector gene influencing COVID-19 severity.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00996-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00996-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8837537; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8837537?pdf=render 35671273,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837,Optimising the balance of acute and intermediate care capacity for the complex discharge pathway: Computer modelling study during COVID-19 recovery in England.,"Onen-Dumlu Z, Harper AL, Forte PG, Powell AL, Pitt M, Vasilakis C, Wood RM.",,PloS one,2022,2022-06-07,Y,,,,"

Objectives

While there has been significant research on the pressures facing acute hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been less interest in downstream community services which have also been challenged in meeting demand. This study aimed to estimate the theoretical cost-optimal capacity requirement for 'step down' intermediate care services within a major healthcare system in England, at a time when considerable uncertainty remained regarding vaccination uptake and the easing of societal restrictions.

Methods

Demand for intermediate care was projected using an epidemiological model (for COVID-19 demand) and regressing upon public mobility (for non-COVID-19 demand). These were inputted to a computer simulation model of patient flow from acute discharge readiness to bedded and home-based Discharge to Assess (D2A) intermediate care services. Cost-optimal capacity was defined as that which yielded the lowest total cost of intermediate care provision and corresponding acute discharge delays.

Results

Increased intermediate care capacity is likely to bring about lower system-level costs, with the additional D2A investment more than offset by substantial reductions in costly acute discharge delays (leading also to improved patient outcome and experience). Results suggest that completely eliminating acute 'bed blocking' is unlikely economical (requiring large amounts of downstream capacity), and that health systems should instead target an appropriate tolerance based upon the specific characteristics of the pathway.

Conclusions

Computer modelling can be a valuable asset for determining optimal capacity allocation along the complex care pathway. With results supporting a Business Case for increased downstream capacity, this study demonstrates how modelling can be applied in practice and provides a blueprint for use alongside the freely-available model code.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268837&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611?pdf=render -33745917,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011,"The dynamics of procalcitonin in COVID-19 patients admitted to Intensive care unit - a multi-centre cohort study in the South West of England, UK.","Williams P, McWilliams C, Soomro K, Harding I, Gurney S, Thomas M, Albur M, Martin Williams O.",,The Journal of infection,2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7970419; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419?pdf=render 32991065,https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.14203,Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors and susceptibility to COVID-19: A population-based retrospective cohort study.,"Sainsbury C, Wang J, Gokhale K, Acosta-Mena D, Dhalla S, Byne N, Chandan JS, Anand A, Cooper J, Okoth K, Subramanian A, Bangash MN, Taverner T, Hanif W, Ghosh S, Narendran P, Cheng KK, Marshall T, Gkoutos G, Toulis K, Thomas N, Tahrani A, Adderley NJ, Haroon S, Nirantharakumar K.",,"Diabetes, obesity & metabolism",2021,2020-10-19,Y,Type 2 diabetes; Dpp-4 Inhibitor; Pharmaco-epidemiology; Sglt2 Inhibitor; Antidiabetic Drug,,,"Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are widely prescribed in people with type 2 diabetes. We aimed to investigate whether SGLT2 inhibitor prescription is associated with COVID-19, when compared with an active comparator. We performed a propensity-score-matched cohort study with active comparators and a negative control outcome in a large UK-based primary care dataset. Participants prescribed SGLT2 inhibitors (n = 9948) and a comparator group prescribed dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors (n = 14 917) were followed up from January 30 to July 27, 2020. The primary outcome was confirmed or clinically suspected COVID-19. The incidence rate of COVID-19 was 19.7/1000 person-years among users of SGLT2 inhibitors and 24.7/1000 person-years among propensity-score-matched users of DPP-4 inhibitors. The adjusted hazard ratio was 0.92 (95% confidence interval 0.66 to 1.29), and there was no evidence of residual confounding in the negative control analysis. We did not observe an increased risk of COVID-19 in primary care amongst those prescribed SGLT2 inhibitors compared to DPP-4 inhibitors, suggesting that clinicians may safely use these agents in the everyday care of people with type 2 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/dom.14203; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.14203; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7537530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7537530?pdf=render 33725121,https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250,COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: characteristics and outcomes in a multinational network of cohorts across three countries.,"Tan EH, Sena AG, Prats-Uribe A, You SC, Ahmed WU, Kostka K, Reich C, Duvall SL, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Duarte-Salles T, Bertolin SF, Hripcsak G, Natarajan K, Falconer T, Spotnitz M, Ostropolets A, Blacketer C, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Alser O, Lane JCE, Dawoud DM, Shah K, Yang Y, Zhang L, Areia C, Golozar A, Recalde M, Casajust P, Jonnagaddala J, Subbian V, Vizcaya D, Lai LYH, Nyberg F, Morales DR, Posada JD, Shah NH, Gong M, Vivekanantham A, Abend A, Minty EP, Suchard M, Rijnbeek P, Ryan PB, Prieto-Alhambra D.",,"Rheumatology (Oxford, England)",2021,2021-10-01,Y,Mortality; Hospitalization; Open Science; Autoimmune Condition; Observational Health Data Sciences And Informatics (Ohdsi); Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (Omop); Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Patients with autoimmune diseases were advised to shield to avoid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but information on their prognosis is lacking. We characterized 30-day outcomes and mortality after hospitalization with COVID-19 among patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, and compared outcomes after hospital admissions among similar patients with seasonal influenza.

Methods

A multinational network cohort study was conducted using electronic health records data from Columbia University Irving Medical Center [USA, Optum (USA), Department of Veterans Affairs (USA), Information System for Research in Primary Care-Hospitalization Linked Data (Spain) and claims data from IQVIA Open Claims (USA) and Health Insurance and Review Assessment (South Korea). All patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, diagnosed and/or hospitalized between January and June 2020 with COVID-19, and similar patients hospitalized with influenza in 2017-18 were included. Outcomes were death and complications within 30 days of hospitalization.

Results

We studied 133 589 patients diagnosed and 48 418 hospitalized with COVID-19 with prevalent autoimmune diseases. Most patients were female, aged ≥50 years with previous comorbidities. The prevalence of hypertension (45.5-93.2%), chronic kidney disease (14.0-52.7%) and heart disease (29.0-83.8%) was higher in hospitalized vs diagnosed patients with COVID-19. Compared with 70 660 hospitalized with influenza, those admitted with COVID-19 had more respiratory complications including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and higher 30-day mortality (2.2-4.3% vs 6.32-24.6%).

Conclusion

Compared with influenza, COVID-19 is a more severe disease, leading to more complications and higher mortality.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-pdf/60/SI/SI37/40544680/keab250.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171?pdf=render 33995410,https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052,Plasma Lectin Pathway Complement Proteins in Patients With COVID-19 and Renal Disease.,"Medjeral-Thomas NR, Troldborg A, Hansen AG, Gisby J, Clarke CL, Prendecki M, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Lightstone L, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Peters JE, Pickering MC, Thiel S.",,Frontiers in immunology,2021,2021-04-29,Y,Complement; Lectin; Coronavirus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Covid-19,,,"We do not understand why non-white ethnicity and chronic kidney disease increase susceptibility to COVID-19. The lectin pathway of complement activation is a key contributor to innate immunity and inflammation. Concentrations of plasma lectin pathway proteins influence pathway activity and vary with ethnicity. We measured circulating lectin proteins in a multi-ethnic cohort of chronic kidney disease patients with and without COVID19 infection to determine if lectin pathway activation was contributing to COVID19 severity. We measured 11 lectin proteins in serial samples from a cohort of 33 patients with chronic kidney impairment and COVID19. Controls were single plasma samples from 32 patients on dialysis and 32 healthy individuals. We demonstrated multiple associations between recognition molecules and associated proteases of the lectin pathway and COVID-19, including COVID-19 severity. Some of these associations were unique to patients of Asian and White ethnicity. Our novel findings demonstrate that COVID19 infection alters the concentration of plasma lectin proteins and some of these changes were linked to ethnicity. This suggests a role for the lectin pathway in the host response to COVID-19 and suggest that variability within this pathway may contribute to ethnicity-associated differences in susceptibility to severe COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695?pdf=render +33745917,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011,"The dynamics of procalcitonin in COVID-19 patients admitted to Intensive care unit - a multi-centre cohort study in the South West of England, UK.","Williams P, McWilliams C, Soomro K, Harding I, Gurney S, Thomas M, Albur M, Martin Williams O.",,The Journal of infection,2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7970419; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419?pdf=render 33782427,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3,Analysis of temporal trends in potential COVID-19 cases reported through NHS Pathways England.,"Leclerc QJ, Nightingale ES, Abbott S, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jombart T.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"The National Health Service (NHS) Pathways triage system collates data on enquiries to 111 and 999 services in England. Since the 18th of March 2020, these data have been made publically available for potential COVID-19 symptoms self-reported by members of the public. Trends in such reports over time are likely to reflect behaviour of the ongoing epidemic within the wider community, potentially capturing valuable information across a broader severity profile of cases than hospital admission data. We present a fully reproducible analysis of temporal trends in NHS Pathways reports until 14th May 2020, nationally and regionally, and demonstrate that rates of growth/decline and effective reproduction number estimated from these data may be useful in monitoring transmission. This is a particularly pressing issue as lockdown restrictions begin to be lifted and evidence of disease resurgence must be constantly reassessed. We further assess the correlation between NHS Pathways reports and a publicly available NHS dataset of COVID-19-associated deaths in England, finding that enquiries to 111/999 were strongly associated with daily deaths reported 16 days later. Our results highlight the potential of NHS Pathways as the basis of an early warning system. However, this dataset relies on self-reported symptoms, which are at risk of being severely biased. Further detailed work is therefore necessary to investigate potential behavioural issues which might otherwise explain our conclusions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86266-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605?pdf=render 36962513,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502,"Association between mobility, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and COVID-19 transmission in Ghana: A modelling study using mobile phone data.","Gibbs H, Liu Y, Abbott S, Baffoe-Nyarko I, Laryea DO, Akyereko E, Kuma-Aboagye P, Asante IA, Mitjà O, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-09-13,Y,,,,"Governments around the world have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions to limit the transmission of COVID-19. Here we assess if increasing NPI stringency was associated with a reduction in COVID-19 cases in Ghana. While lockdowns and physical distancing have proven effective for reducing COVID-19 transmission, there is still limited understanding of how NPI measures are reflected in indicators of human mobility. Further, there is a lack of understanding about how findings from high-income settings correspond to low and middle-income contexts. In this study, we assess the relationship between indicators of human mobility, NPIs, and estimates of Rt, a real-time measure of the intensity of COVID-19 transmission. We construct a multilevel generalised linear mixed model, combining local disease surveillance data from subnational districts of Ghana with the timing of NPIs and indicators of human mobility from Google and Vodafone Ghana. We observe a relationship between reductions in human mobility and decreases in Rt during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ghana. We find that the strength of this relationship varies through time, decreasing after the most stringent period of interventions in the early epidemic. Our findings demonstrate how the association of NPI and mobility indicators with COVID-19 transmission may vary through time. Further, we demonstrate the utility of combining local disease surveillance data with large scale human mobility data to augment existing surveillance capacity to monitor the impact of NPI policies.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021296?pdf=render 32619549,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012,Ultra-High-Throughput Clinical Proteomics Reveals Classifiers of COVID-19 Infection.,"Messner CB, Demichev V, Wendisch D, Michalick L, White M, Freiwald A, Textoris-Taube K, Vernardis SI, Egger AS, Kreidl M, Ludwig D, Kilian C, Agostini F, Zelezniak A, Thibeault C, Pfeiffer M, Hippenstiel S, Hocke A, von Kalle C, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Langenberg C, Lilley KS, Kuebler WM, Mülleder M, Drosten C, Suttorp N, Witzenrath M, Kurth F, Sander LE, Ralser M.",,Cell systems,2020,2020-06-02,Y,Mass spectrometry; High-throughput Proteomics; Swath-ms; Antiviral Immune Response; Clinical Classifiers; Covid-19 Infection,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global challenge, and point-of-care diagnostic classifiers are urgently required. Here, we present a platform for ultra-high-throughput serum and plasma proteomics that builds on ISO13485 standardization to facilitate simple implementation in regulated clinical laboratories. Our low-cost workflow handles up to 180 samples per day, enables high precision quantification, and reduces batch effects for large-scale and longitudinal studies. We use our platform on samples collected from a cohort of early hospitalized cases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and identify 27 potential biomarkers that are differentially expressed depending on the WHO severity grade of COVID-19. They include complement factors, the coagulation system, inflammation modulators, and pro-inflammatory factors upstream and downstream of interleukin 6. All protocols and software for implementing our approach are freely available. In total, this work supports the development of routine proteomic assays to aid clinical decision making and generate hypotheses about potential COVID-19 therapeutic targets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7264033 -35983770,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2022.27.33.2100885,"Recording of 'COVID-19 vaccine declined': a cohort study on 57.9 million National Health Service patients' records in situ using OpenSAFELY, England, 8 December 2020 to 25 May 2021.","Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Croker R, Hulme WJ, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Mathur R, Morton CE, Bacon SC, Smith RM, Evans D, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Walker AJ, Bates C, Hickman G, Ward T, Morley J, Cockburn J, Davy S, Williamson EJ, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Vaccination; Vaccine Hesitancy; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"BackgroundPriority patients in England were offered COVID-19 vaccination by mid-April 2021. Codes in clinical record systems can denote the vaccine being declined.AimWe describe records of COVID-19 vaccines being declined, according to clinical and demographic factors.MethodsWith the approval of NHS England, we conducted a retrospective cohort study between 8 December 2020 and 25 May 2021 with primary care records for 57.9 million patients using OpenSAFELY, a secure health analytics platform. COVID-19 vaccination priority patients were those aged ≥ 50 years or ≥ 16 years clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) or 'at risk'. We describe the proportion recorded as declining vaccination for each group and stratified by clinical and demographic subgroups, subsequent vaccination and distribution of clinical code usage across general practices.ResultsOf 24.5 million priority patients, 663,033 (2.7%) had a decline recorded, while 2,155,076 (8.8%) had neither a vaccine nor decline recorded. Those recorded as declining, who were subsequently vaccinated (n = 125,587; 18.9%) were overrepresented in the South Asian population (32.3% vs 22.8% for other ethnicities aged ≥ 65 years). The proportion of declining unvaccinated patients was highest in CEV (3.3%), varied strongly with ethnicity (black 15.3%, South Asian 5.6%, white 1.5% for ≥ 80 years) and correlated positively with increasing deprivation.ConclusionsClinical codes indicative of COVID-19 vaccinations being declined are commonly used in England, but substantially more common among black and South Asian people, and in more deprived areas. Qualitative research is needed to determine typical reasons for recorded declines, including to what extent they reflect patients actively declining.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/33/eurosurv-27-33-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9389857 36812516,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000007,A proteomic survival predictor for COVID-19 patients in intensive care.,"Demichev V, Tober-Lau P, Nazarenko T, Lemke O, Kaur Aulakh S, Whitwell HJ, Röhl A, Freiwald A, Mittermaier M, Szyrwiel L, Ludwig D, Correia-Melo C, Lippert LJ, Helbig ET, Stubbemann P, Olk N, Thibeault C, Grüning NM, Blyuss O, Vernardis S, White M, Messner CB, Joannidis M, Sonnweber T, Klein SJ, Pizzini A, Wohlfarter Y, Sahanic S, Hilbe R, Schaefer B, Wagner S, Machleidt F, Garcia C, Ruwwe-Glösenkamp C, Lingscheid T, Bosquillon de Jarcy L, Stegemann MS, Pfeiffer M, Jürgens L, Denker S, Zickler D, Spies C, Edel A, Müller NB, Enghard P, Zelezniak A, Bellmann-Weiler R, Weiss G, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Uhrig A, Zoller H, Löffler-Ragg J, Keller MA, Tancevski I, Timms JF, Zaikin A, Hippenstiel S, Ramharter M, Müller-Redetzky H, Witzenrath M, Suttorp N, Lilley K, Mülleder M, Sander LE, PA-COVID-19 Study group, Kurth F, Ralser M.",,PLOS digital health,2022,2022-01-18,Y,,,,"Global healthcare systems are challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need to optimize allocation of treatment and resources in intensive care, as clinically established risk assessments such as SOFA and APACHE II scores show only limited performance for predicting the survival of severely ill COVID-19 patients. Additional tools are also needed to monitor treatment, including experimental therapies in clinical trials. Comprehensively capturing human physiology, we speculated that proteomics in combination with new data-driven analysis strategies could produce a new generation of prognostic discriminators. We studied two independent cohorts of patients with severe COVID-19 who required intensive care and invasive mechanical ventilation. SOFA score, Charlson comorbidity index, and APACHE II score showed limited performance in predicting the COVID-19 outcome. Instead, the quantification of 321 plasma protein groups at 349 timepoints in 50 critically ill patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation revealed 14 proteins that showed trajectories different between survivors and non-survivors. A predictor trained on proteomic measurements obtained at the first time point at maximum treatment level (i.e. WHO grade 7), which was weeks before the outcome, achieved accurate classification of survivors (AUROC 0.81). We tested the established predictor on an independent validation cohort (AUROC 1.0). The majority of proteins with high relevance in the prediction model belong to the coagulation system and complement cascade. Our study demonstrates that plasma proteomics can give rise to prognostic predictors substantially outperforming current prognostic markers in intensive care.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000007&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931303; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931303?pdf=render +35983770,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2022.27.33.2100885,"Recording of 'COVID-19 vaccine declined': a cohort study on 57.9 million National Health Service patients' records in situ using OpenSAFELY, England, 8 December 2020 to 25 May 2021.","Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Croker R, Hulme WJ, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Mathur R, Morton CE, Bacon SC, Smith RM, Evans D, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Walker AJ, Bates C, Hickman G, Ward T, Morley J, Cockburn J, Davy S, Williamson EJ, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Vaccination; Vaccine Hesitancy; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"BackgroundPriority patients in England were offered COVID-19 vaccination by mid-April 2021. Codes in clinical record systems can denote the vaccine being declined.AimWe describe records of COVID-19 vaccines being declined, according to clinical and demographic factors.MethodsWith the approval of NHS England, we conducted a retrospective cohort study between 8 December 2020 and 25 May 2021 with primary care records for 57.9 million patients using OpenSAFELY, a secure health analytics platform. COVID-19 vaccination priority patients were those aged ≥ 50 years or ≥ 16 years clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) or 'at risk'. We describe the proportion recorded as declining vaccination for each group and stratified by clinical and demographic subgroups, subsequent vaccination and distribution of clinical code usage across general practices.ResultsOf 24.5 million priority patients, 663,033 (2.7%) had a decline recorded, while 2,155,076 (8.8%) had neither a vaccine nor decline recorded. Those recorded as declining, who were subsequently vaccinated (n = 125,587; 18.9%) were overrepresented in the South Asian population (32.3% vs 22.8% for other ethnicities aged ≥ 65 years). The proportion of declining unvaccinated patients was highest in CEV (3.3%), varied strongly with ethnicity (black 15.3%, South Asian 5.6%, white 1.5% for ≥ 80 years) and correlated positively with increasing deprivation.ConclusionsClinical codes indicative of COVID-19 vaccinations being declined are commonly used in England, but substantially more common among black and South Asian people, and in more deprived areas. Qualitative research is needed to determine typical reasons for recorded declines, including to what extent they reflect patients actively declining.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/33/eurosurv-27-33-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9389857 36315390,https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23834,"Risk and protective factors for new-onset binge eating, low weight, and self-harm symptoms in >35,000 individuals in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.","Davies HL, Hübel C, Herle M, Kakar S, Mundy J, Peel AJ, Ter Kuile AR, Zvrskovec J, Monssen D, Lim KX, Davies MR, Palmos AB, Lin Y, Kalsi G, Rogers HC, Bristow S, Glen K, Malouf CM, Kelly EJ, Purves KL, Young KS, Hotopf M, Armour C, McIntosh AM, Eley TC, Treasure J, Breen G.",,The International journal of eating disorders,2023,2022-10-31,Y,Mental health; Psychiatric disorders; Eating Disorders; Comorbidity; Suicidal Ideation,,,"

Objective

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with poor mental health, including increases in eating disorders and self-harm symptoms. We investigated risk and protective factors for the new onset of these symptoms during the pandemic.

Method

Data were from the COVID-19 Psychiatry and Neurological Genetics study and the Repeated Assessment of Mental health in Pandemics Study (n = 36,715). Exposures were socio-demographic characteristics, lifetime psychiatric disorder, and COVID-related variables, including SARS-CoV-2 infection/illness with COVID-19. We identified four subsamples of participants without pre-pandemic experience of our outcomes: binge eating (n = 24,211), low weight (n = 24,364), suicidal and/or self-harm ideation (n = 18,040), and self-harm (n = 29,948). Participants reported on our outcomes at frequent intervals (fortnightly to monthly). We fitted multiple logistic regression models to identify factors associated with the new onset of our outcomes.

Results

Within each subsample, new onset was reported by: 21% for binge eating, 10.8% for low weight, 23.5% for suicidal and/or self-harm ideation, and 3.5% for self-harm. Shared risk factors included having a lifetime psychiatric disorder, not being in paid employment, higher pandemic worry scores, and being racially minoritized. Conversely, infection with SARS-CoV-2/illness with COVID-19 was linked to lower odds of binge eating, low weight, and suicidal and/or self-harm ideation.

Discussion

Overall, we detected shared risk factors that may drive the comorbidity between eating disorders and self-harm. Subgroups of individuals with these risk factors may require more frequent monitoring during future pandemics.

Public significance

In a sample of 35,000 UK residents, people who had a psychiatric disorder, identified as being part of a racially minoritized group, were not in paid employment, or were more worried about the pandemic were more likely to experience binge eating, low weight, suicidal and/or self-harm ideation, and self-harm for the first time during the pandemic. People with these risk factors may need particular attention during future pandemics to enable early identification of new psychiatric symptoms.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/eat.23834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9874817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9874817?pdf=render 32997638,https://doi.org/10.1109/jbhi.2020.3027987,A Novel Intelligent Computational Approach to Model Epidemiological Trends and Assess the Impact of Non-Pharmacological Interventions for COVID-19.,"Ren J, Yan Y, Zhao H, Ma P, Zabalza J, Hussain Z, Luo S, Dai Q, Zhao S, Sheikh A, Hussain A, Li H.",,IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics,2020,2020-12-04,Y,,,,"The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a worldwide crisis in public health. It is crucial we understand the epidemiological trends and impact of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), such as lockdowns for effective management of the disease and control of its spread. We develop and validate a novel intelligent computational model to predict epidemiological trends of COVID-19, with the model parameters enabling an evaluation of the impact of NPIs. By representing the number of daily confirmed cases (NDCC) as a time-series, we assume that, with or without NPIs, the pattern of the pandemic satisfies a series of Gaussian distributions according to the central limit theorem. The underlying pandemic trend is first extracted using a singular spectral analysis (SSA) technique, which decomposes the NDCC time series into the sum of a small number of independent and interpretable components such as a slow varying trend, oscillatory components and structureless noise. We then use a mixture of Gaussian fitting (GF) to derive a novel predictive model for the SSA extracted NDCC incidence trend, with the overall model termed SSA-GF. Our proposed model is shown to accurately predict the NDCC trend, peak daily cases, the length of the pandemic period, the total confirmed cases and the associated dates of the turning points on the cumulated NDCC curve. Further, the three key model parameters, specifically, the amplitude (alpha), mean (mu), and standard deviation (sigma) are linked to the underlying pandemic patterns, and enable a directly interpretable evaluation of the impact of NPIs, such as strict lockdowns and travel restrictions. The predictive model is validated using available data from China and South Korea, and new predictions are made, partially requiring future validation, for the cases of Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. Comparative results demonstrate that the introduction of consistent control measures across countries can lead to development of similar parametric models, reflected in particular by relative variations in their underlying sigma, alpha and mu values. The paper concludes with a number of open questions and outlines future research directions.",,pdf:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6221020/9281055/09210178.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/JBHI.2020.3027987; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8545177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8545177?pdf=render 35967893,https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577,Factors influencing the mental health of an ethnically diverse healthcare workforce during COVID-19: a qualitative study in the United Kingdom.,"Qureshi I, Gogoi M, Al-Oraibi A, Wobi F, Chaloner J, Gray L, Guyatt AL, Hassan O, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.",,European journal of psychotraumatology,2022,2022-08-09,Y,Stress; Trauma; Anxiety; Mental health; Workforce; Healthcare; Ethnic Minority; Covid-19,,,"Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been reported to be experiencing a deterioration in their mental health due to COVID-19. In addition, ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is imperative that HCWs are appropriately supported and protected from mental harm during the pandemic. Our research aims to add to the evidence base by providing greater insight into the lived experience of HCWs from diverse ethnic backgrounds during the pandemic that had an impact on their mental health. Methods: We undertook a qualitative work package as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes among Healthcare workers (UK-REACH). As part of the qualitative research, we carried out 16 focus groups with a total of 61 HCWs between December 2020 and July 2021. The aim of the study was to explore topics such as their experiences, fears and concerns, while working during the pandemic. The purposive sample included ancillary healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds to ensure inclusion of underrepresented and disproportionately impacted individuals. We conducted discussions using Microsoft Teams. Recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: Several factors were identified which impacted on the mental health of HCWs during this period including anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy); fear (of infection); trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death); guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones); and stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload). Conclusion: COVID-19 has affected the mental health of HCWs. We identified a number of factors which may be contributing to a deterioration in mental health for participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Healthcare organisations should consider developing strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors, including recommendations made by HCWs themselves.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9364733; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733?pdf=render @@ -404,8 +404,8 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 36497616,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544,Association between Internet Usage and Quality of Life of Elderly People in England: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).,"Vidiasratri AR, Bath PA, Bath PA.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2022,2022-11-23,Y,Internet; Quality of life; Older People,,,"The WHO has stated that the number of senior citizens above age 65 across the world will double by the year 2050: in the UK, the whole population is projected to grow by about 2.5% over a decade, from mid-2018. Although people are living longer, they are not healthier in old age, and there is an increasing number of illnesses and disabilities in the ageing population, which have an impact on their overall well-being and quality of life (QoL). Alongside these trends, Internet technologies have improved and provide a wide range of information, including on medical and health issues. This study aimed to examine the association between the utilisation of the internet among older people in England and their QoL. This study utilised the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), a longitudinal study of a representative sample of people aged 50 and over in England. The data from Wave 9 were analysed using bivariate analysis and logistic regression. The results show a strong association between QoL and utilisation of the Internet in older people, even when adjusting for demographic variables and health. Higher use of the internet was associated with older people being less likely to have higher QoL. The excessive use of the internet for communication and gathering information also contributed to lower QoL. From the findings, poorer QoL was also found in people in older age groups, in those who are married, and those who never suffer from chronic diseases. Our findings suggest that the quality of life in older people might not only be associated with the frequency of usage but also the purpose for which the internet is used; however, this relationship is complex and further research should explore this in greater depth. Further research should also investigate how older people's use of the Internet changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of this on the QoL in older age.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15544/pdf?version=1669349785; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189?pdf=render 33711543,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103728,Explainable automated coding of clinical notes using hierarchical label-wise attention networks and label embedding initialisation.,"Dong H, Suárez-Paniagua V, Whiteley W, Wu H.",,Journal of biomedical informatics,2021,2021-03-09,N,Natural Language Processing; Multi-label Classification; Deep Learning; Attention Mechanisms; Automated Medical Coding; Label Correlation; Explainability,,,"

Background

Diagnostic or procedural coding of clinical notes aims to derive a coded summary of disease-related information about patients. Such coding is usually done manually in hospitals but could potentially be automated to improve the efficiency and accuracy of medical coding. Recent studies on deep learning for automated medical coding achieved promising performances. However, the explainability of these models is usually poor, preventing them to be used confidently in supporting clinical practice. Another limitation is that these models mostly assume independence among labels, ignoring the complex correlations among medical codes which can potentially be exploited to improve the performance.

Methods

To address the issues of model explainability and label correlations, we propose a Hierarchical Label-wise Attention Network (HLAN), which aimed to interpret the model by quantifying importance (as attention weights) of words and sentences related to each of the labels. Secondly, we propose to enhance the major deep learning models with a label embedding (LE) initialisation approach, which learns a dense, continuous vector representation and then injects the representation into the final layers and the label-wise attention layers in the models. We evaluated the methods using three settings on the MIMIC-III discharge summaries: full codes, top-50 codes, and the UK NHS (National Health Service) COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) shielding codes. Experiments were conducted to compare the HLAN model and label embedding initialisation to the state-of-the-art neural network based methods, including variants of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs).

Results

HLAN achieved the best Micro-level AUC and F1 on the top-50 code prediction, 91.9% and 64.1%, respectively; and comparable results on the NHS COVID-19 shielding code prediction to other models: around 97% Micro-level AUC. More importantly, in the analysis of model explanations, by highlighting the most salient words and sentences for each label, HLAN showed more meaningful and comprehensive model interpretation compared to the CNN-based models and its downgraded baselines, HAN and HA-GRU. Label embedding (LE) initialisation significantly boosted the previous state-of-the-art model, CNN with attention mechanisms, on the full code prediction to 52.5% Micro-level F1. The analysis of the layers initialised with label embeddings further explains the effect of this initialisation approach. The source code of the implementation and the results are openly available at https://github.com/acadTags/Explainable-Automated-Medical-Coding.

Conclusion

We draw the conclusion from the evaluation results and analyses. First, with hierarchical label-wise attention mechanisms, HLAN can provide better or comparable results for automated coding to the state-of-the-art, CNN-based models. Second, HLAN can provide more comprehensive explanations for each label by highlighting key words and sentences in the discharge summaries, compared to the n-grams in the CNN-based models and the downgraded baselines, HAN and HA-GRU. Third, the performance of deep learning based multi-label classification for automated coding can be consistently boosted by initialising label embeddings that captures the correlations among labels. We further discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the overall method regarding its potential to be deployed to a hospital and suggest areas for future studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103728; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103728 37193316,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xops.2023.100293,"A Datasheet for the INSIGHT Birmingham, Solihull, and Black Country Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Dataset.","Kale AU, Mills A, Guggenheim E, Gee D, Bodza S, Anumakonda A, Doal R, Williams R, Gallier S, Lee WH, Galsworthy P, Benning M, Fanning H, Keane PA, Denniston AK, Mollan SP.",,Ophthalmology science,2023,2023-02-26,Y,Diabetes mellitus; Diabetic retinopathy; Imaging; Dataset; Biomedical Data,,,"

Purpose

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common microvascular complication associated with diabetes mellitus (DM), affecting approximately 40% of this patient population. Early detection of DR is vital to ensure monitoring of disease progression and prompt sight saving treatments as required. This article describes the data contained within the INSIGHT Birmingham, Solihull, and Black Country Diabetic Retinopathy Dataset.

Design

Dataset descriptor for routinely collected eye screening data.

Participants

All diabetic patients aged 12 years and older, attending annual digital retinal photography-based screening within the Birmingham, Solihull, and Black Country Eye Screening Programme.

Methods

The INSIGHT Health Data Research Hub for Eye Health is a National Health Service (NHS)-led ophthalmic bioresource that provides researchers with safe access to anonymized, routinely collected data from contributing NHS hospitals to advance research for patient benefit. This report describes the INSIGHT Birmingham, Solihull, and Black Country DR Screening Dataset, a dataset of anonymized images and linked screening data derived from the United Kingdom's largest regional DR screening program.

Main outcome measures

This dataset consists of routinely collected data from the eye screening program. The data primarily include retinal photographs with the associated DR grading data. Additional data such as corresponding demographic details, information regarding patients' diabetic status, and visual acuity data are also available. Further details regarding available data points are available in the supplementary information, in addition to the INSIGHT webpage included below.

Results

At the time point of this analysis (December 31, 2019), the dataset comprised 6 202 161 images from 246 180 patients, with a dataset inception date of January 1, 2007. The dataset includes 1 360 547 grading episodes between R0M0 and R3M1.

Conclusions

This dataset descriptor article summarizes the content of the dataset, how it has been curated, and what its potential uses are. Data are available through a structured application process for research studies that support discovery, clinical evidence analyses, and innovation in artificial intelligence technologies for patient benefit. Further information regarding the data repository and contact details can be found at https://www.insight.hdrhub.org/.

Financial disclosures

Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10182318; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xops.2023.100293; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10182318; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10182318?pdf=render -34870256,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267,Optimising health and economic impacts of COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation strategies in the WHO European Region: a mathematical modelling study.,"Liu Y, Sandmann FG, Barnard RC, Pearson CAB, Pastore R, Pebody R, Flasche S, Jit M.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2021-11-30,Y,Europe; Health Economics; Mathematical Modelling; Policy Evaluation; Vaccine Policy; Multicountry Analysis; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region differ in terms of the COVID-19 vaccine supply conditions. We evaluated the health and economic impact of different age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies across this demographically and socio-economically diverse region.

Methods

We fitted age-specific compartmental models to the reported daily COVID-19 mortality in 2020 to inform the immunity level before vaccine roll-out. Models capture country-specific differences in population structures, contact patterns, epidemic history, life expectancy, and GDP per capita.We examined four strategies that prioritise: all adults (V+), younger (20-59 year-olds) followed by older adults (60+) (V20), older followed by younger adults (V60), and the oldest adults (75+) (V75) followed by incrementally younger age groups. We explored four roll-out scenarios (R1-4) - the slowest scenario (R1) reached 30% coverage by December 2022 and the fastest (R4) 80% by December 2021. Five decision-making metrics were summarised over 2021-22: mortality, morbidity, and losses in comorbidity-adjusted life expectancy, comorbidity- and quality-adjusted life years, and human capital. Six vaccine profiles were tested - the highest performing vaccine has 95% efficacy against both infection and disease, and the lowest 50% against diseases and 0% against infection.

Findings

Of the 20 decision-making metrics and roll-out scenario combinations, the same optimal strategy applied to all countries in only one combination; V60 was more or similarly desirable than V75 in 19 combinations. Of the 38 countries with fitted models, 11-37 countries had variable optimal strategies by decision-making metrics or roll-out scenarios. There are greater benefits in prioritising older adults when roll-out is slow and when vaccine profiles are less favourable.

Interpretation

The optimal age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies were sensitive to country characteristics, decision-making metrics, and roll-out speeds. A prioritisation strategy involving more age-based stages (V75) does not necessarily lead to better health and economic outcomes than targeting broad age groups (V60). Countries expecting a slow vaccine roll-out may particularly benefit from prioritising older adults.

Funding

World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Institute of Health Research (United Kingdom), the European Commission, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (United Kingdom), Wellcome Trust.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724?pdf=render 34810237,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217629,Prospective validation of the 4C prognostic models for adults hospitalised with COVID-19 using the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol.,"Knight SR, Gupta RK, Ho A, Pius R, Buchan I, Carson G, Drake TM, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Gamble C, Green CA, Halpin S, Hardwick HE, Holden KA, Horby PW, Jackson C, Mclean KA, Merson L, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Norman L, Olliaro PL, Pritchard MG, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Sheikh A, Solomon T, Sudlow C, Swann OV, Turtle LCW, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Docherty A, Semple MG, Noursadeghi M, Harrison EM, ISARIC Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium (ISARIC4C) Investigators, ISARIC4C investigators.",,Thorax,2022,2021-11-22,Y,Covid-19,,,"

Purpose

To prospectively validate two risk scores to predict mortality (4C Mortality) and in-hospital deterioration (4C Deterioration) among adults hospitalised with COVID-19.

Methods

Prospective observational cohort study of adults (age ≥18 years) with confirmed or highly suspected COVID-19 recruited into the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study in 306 hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales. Patients were recruited between 27 August 2020 and 17 February 2021, with at least 4 weeks follow-up before final data extraction. The main outcome measures were discrimination and calibration of models for in-hospital deterioration (defined as any requirement of ventilatory support or critical care, or death) and mortality, incorporating predefined subgroups.

Results

76 588 participants were included, of whom 27 352 (37.4%) deteriorated and 12 581 (17.4%) died. Both the 4C Mortality (0.78 (0.77 to 0.78)) and 4C Deterioration scores (pooled C-statistic 0.76 (95% CI 0.75 to 0.77)) demonstrated consistent discrimination across all nine National Health Service regions, with similar performance metrics to the original validation cohorts. Calibration remained stable (4C Mortality: pooled slope 1.09, pooled calibration-in-the-large 0.12; 4C Deterioration: 1.00, -0.04), with no need for temporal recalibration during the second UK pandemic wave of hospital admissions.

Conclusion

Both 4C risk stratification models demonstrate consistent performance to predict clinical deterioration and mortality in a large prospective second wave validation cohort of UK patients. Despite recent advances in the treatment and management of adults hospitalised with COVID-19, both scores can continue to inform clinical decision making.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN66726260.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/77/6/606.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8610617; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8610617?pdf=render +34870256,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267,Optimising health and economic impacts of COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation strategies in the WHO European Region: a mathematical modelling study.,"Liu Y, Sandmann FG, Barnard RC, Pearson CAB, Pastore R, Pebody R, Flasche S, Jit M.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2021-11-30,Y,Europe; Health Economics; Mathematical Modelling; Policy Evaluation; Vaccine Policy; Multicountry Analysis; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region differ in terms of the COVID-19 vaccine supply conditions. We evaluated the health and economic impact of different age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies across this demographically and socio-economically diverse region.

Methods

We fitted age-specific compartmental models to the reported daily COVID-19 mortality in 2020 to inform the immunity level before vaccine roll-out. Models capture country-specific differences in population structures, contact patterns, epidemic history, life expectancy, and GDP per capita.We examined four strategies that prioritise: all adults (V+), younger (20-59 year-olds) followed by older adults (60+) (V20), older followed by younger adults (V60), and the oldest adults (75+) (V75) followed by incrementally younger age groups. We explored four roll-out scenarios (R1-4) - the slowest scenario (R1) reached 30% coverage by December 2022 and the fastest (R4) 80% by December 2021. Five decision-making metrics were summarised over 2021-22: mortality, morbidity, and losses in comorbidity-adjusted life expectancy, comorbidity- and quality-adjusted life years, and human capital. Six vaccine profiles were tested - the highest performing vaccine has 95% efficacy against both infection and disease, and the lowest 50% against diseases and 0% against infection.

Findings

Of the 20 decision-making metrics and roll-out scenario combinations, the same optimal strategy applied to all countries in only one combination; V60 was more or similarly desirable than V75 in 19 combinations. Of the 38 countries with fitted models, 11-37 countries had variable optimal strategies by decision-making metrics or roll-out scenarios. There are greater benefits in prioritising older adults when roll-out is slow and when vaccine profiles are less favourable.

Interpretation

The optimal age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies were sensitive to country characteristics, decision-making metrics, and roll-out speeds. A prioritisation strategy involving more age-based stages (V75) does not necessarily lead to better health and economic outcomes than targeting broad age groups (V60). Countries expecting a slow vaccine roll-out may particularly benefit from prioritising older adults.

Funding

World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Institute of Health Research (United Kingdom), the European Commission, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (United Kingdom), Wellcome Trust.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724?pdf=render 32371477,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473,Rapid implementation of mobile technology for real-time epidemiology of COVID-19.,"Drew DA, Nguyen LH, Steves CJ, Menni C, Freydin M, Varsavsky T, Sudre CH, Cardoso MJ, Ourselin S, Wolf J, Spector TD, Chan AT, COPE Consortium.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2020,2020-05-05,Y,,,,"The rapid pace of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents challenges to the robust collection of population-scale data to address this global health crisis. We established the COronavirus Pandemic Epidemiology (COPE) Consortium to unite scientists with expertise in big data research and epidemiology to develop the COVID Symptom Study, previously known as the COVID Symptom Tracker, mobile application. This application-which offers data on risk factors, predictive symptoms, clinical outcomes, and geographical hotspots-was launched in the United Kingdom on 24 March 2020 and the United States on 29 March 2020 and has garnered more than 2.8 million users as of 2 May 2020. Our initiative offers a proof of concept for the repurposing of existing approaches to enable rapidly scalable epidemiologic data collection and analysis, which is critical for a data-driven response to this public health challenge.","Drew et al. decribe the use of a smart-phone App to track Covid-19 symptoms reported by users to track, in real time, information on newly infected individuals. It has been launched in the UK and US and has 2.8 million users and is used to rapidly identify emerging hot spots for infection.",pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/26b29c08-29bc-43d9-abb5-56c0c6af9efc/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009?pdf=render 33203640,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043828,"Estimated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer services and excess 1-year mortality in people with cancer and multimorbidity: near real-time data on cancer care, cancer deaths and a population-based cohort study.","Lai AG, Pasea L, Banerjee A, Hall G, Denaxas S, Chang WH, Katsoulis M, Williams B, Pillay D, Noursadeghi M, Linch D, Hughes D, Forster MD, Turnbull C, Fitzpatrick NK, Boyd K, Foster GR, Enver T, Nafilyan V, Humberstone B, Neal RD, Cooper M, Jones M, Pritchard-Jones K, Sullivan R, Davie C, Lawler M, Hemingway H.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-11-17,Y,Oncology; Health Informatics; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care services and overall (direct and indirect) excess deaths in people with cancer.

Methods

We employed near real-time weekly data on cancer care to determine the adverse effect of the pandemic on cancer services. We also used these data, together with national death registrations until June 2020 to model deaths, in excess of background (pre-COVID-19) mortality, in people with cancer. Background mortality risks for 24 cancers with and without COVID-19-relevant comorbidities were obtained from population-based primary care cohort (Clinical Practice Research Datalink) on 3 862 012 adults in England.

Results

Declines in urgent referrals (median=-70.4%) and chemotherapy attendances (median=-41.5%) to a nadir (lowest point) in the pandemic were observed. By 31 May, these declines have only partially recovered; urgent referrals (median=-44.5%) and chemotherapy attendances (median=-31.2%). There were short-term excess death registrations for cancer (without COVID-19), with peak relative risk (RR) of 1.17 at week ending on 3 April. The peak RR for all-cause deaths was 2.1 from week ending on 17 April. Based on these findings and recent literature, we modelled 40% and 80% of cancer patients being affected by the pandemic in the long-term. At 40% affected, we estimated 1-year total (direct and indirect) excess deaths in people with cancer as between 7165 and 17 910, using RRs of 1.2 and 1.5, respectively, where 78% of excess deaths occured in patients with ≥1 comorbidity.

Conclusions

Dramatic reductions were detected in the demand for, and supply of, cancer services which have not fully recovered with lockdown easing. These may contribute, over a 1-year time horizon, to substantial excess mortality among people with cancer and multimorbidity. It is urgent to understand how the recovery of general practitioner, oncology and other hospital services might best mitigate these long-term excess mortality risks.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e043828.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674020; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674020?pdf=render 32502389,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30133-x,"Effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 cases, deaths, and demand for hospital services in the UK: a modelling study.","Davies NG, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Gimma A, Edmunds WJ, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 working group.",,The Lancet. Public health,2020,2020-06-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Non-pharmaceutical interventions have been implemented to reduce transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the UK. Projecting the size of an unmitigated epidemic and the potential effect of different control measures has been crucial to support evidence-based policy making during the early stages of the epidemic. This study assesses the potential impact of different control measures for mitigating the burden of COVID-19 in the UK.

Methods

We used a stochastic age-structured transmission model to explore a range of intervention scenarios, tracking 66·4 million people aggregated to 186 county-level administrative units in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The four base interventions modelled were school closures, physical distancing, shielding of people aged 70 years or older, and self-isolation of symptomatic cases. We also modelled the combination of these interventions, as well as a programme of intensive interventions with phased lockdown-type restrictions that substantially limited contacts outside of the home for repeated periods. We simulated different triggers for the introduction of interventions, and estimated the impact of varying adherence to interventions across counties. For each scenario, we projected estimated new cases over time, patients requiring inpatient and critical care (ie, admission to the intensive care units [ICU]) treatment, and deaths, and compared the effect of each intervention on the basic reproduction number, R0.

Findings

We projected a median unmitigated burden of 23 million (95% prediction interval 13-30) clinical cases and 350 000 deaths (170 000-480 000) due to COVID-19 in the UK by December, 2021. We found that the four base interventions were each likely to decrease R0, but not sufficiently to prevent ICU demand from exceeding health service capacity. The combined intervention was more effective at reducing R0, but only lockdown periods were sufficient to bring R0 near or below 1; the most stringent lockdown scenario resulted in a projected 120 000 cases (46 000-700 000) and 50 000 deaths (9300-160 000). Intensive interventions with lockdown periods would need to be in place for a large proportion of the coming year to prevent health-care demand exceeding availability.

Interpretation

The characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 mean that extreme measures are probably required to bring the epidemic under control and to prevent very large numbers of deaths and an excess of demand on hospital beds, especially those in ICUs.

Funding

Medical Research Council.","The paper identifies the following; This paper identifies the influence of different interventions on COVID on cases, deaths, and demands for hospital services in the UK. This was achieved utilising modelling techniques. The paper concludes that the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 mean that extreme measures are probably required to bring the epidemic under control and to prevent very large numbers of deaths and an excess of demand on hospital beds, especially those in ICUs. However, Biobank is not very representative of age, ethniticity and deprivation.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30133-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30133-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7266572; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7266572?pdf=render @@ -417,8 +417,8 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 36769519,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12030872,Patterns of Healthcare Resource Utilisation of Critical Care Survivors between 2006 and 2017 in Wales: A Population-Based Study.,"Alsallakh M, Tan L, Pugh R, Akbari A, Bailey R, Griffiths R, Lyons RA, Szakmany T.",,Journal of clinical medicine,2023,2023-01-21,Y,Wales; Healthcare Resource Utilisation; Critical Care Survivorship,,,"In this retrospective cohort study, we used the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank to characterise and identify predictors of the one-year post-discharge healthcare resource utilisation (HRU) of adults who were admitted to critical care units in Wales between 1 April 2006 and 31 December 2017. We modelled one-year post-critical-care HRU using negative binomial models and used linear models for the difference from one-year pre-critical-care HRU. We estimated the association between critical illness and post-hospitalisation HRU using multilevel negative binomial models among people hospitalised in 2015. We studied 55,151 patients. Post-critical-care HRU was 11-87% greater than pre-critical-care levels, whereas emergency department (ED) attendances decreased by 30%. Age ≥50 years was generally associated with greater post-critical-care HRU; those over 80 had three times longer hospital readmissions than those younger than 50 (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 2.96, 95% CI: 2.84, 3.09). However, ED attendances were higher in those younger than 50. High comorbidity was associated with 22-62% greater post-critical-care HRU than no or low comorbidity. The most socioeconomically deprived quintile was associated with 24% more ED attendances (IRR: 1.24 [1.16, 1.32]) and 13% longer hospital stays (IRR: 1.13 [1.09, 1.17]) than the least deprived quintile. Critical care survivors had greater 1-year post-discharge HRU than non-critical inpatients, including 68% longer hospital stays (IRR: 1.68 [1.63, 1.74]). Critical care survivors, particularly those with older ages, high comorbidity, and socioeconomic deprivation, used significantly more primary and secondary care resources after discharge compared with their baseline and non-critical inpatients. Interventions are needed to ensure that key subgroups are identified and adequately supported.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/12/3/872/pdf?version=1674984751; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12030872; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9917699; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9917699?pdf=render 32878619,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3,COVID-19 length of hospital stay: a systematic review and data synthesis.,"Rees EM, Nightingale ES, Jafari Y, Waterlow NR, Clifford S, B Pearson CA, Group CW, Jombart T, Procter SR, Knight GM.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-09-03,Y,Length Of Stay; Hospitalisation; Icu Capacity; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Bed Demand,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on health systems, with rapidly increasing demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. As the pandemic escalates, determining the resulting needs for healthcare resources (beds, staff, equipment) has become a key priority for many countries. Projecting future demand requires estimates of how long patients with COVID-19 need different levels of hospital care.

Methods

We performed a systematic review of early evidence on length of stay (LoS) of patients with COVID-19 in hospital and in ICU. We subsequently developed a method to generate LoS distributions which combines summary statistics reported in multiple studies, accounting for differences in sample sizes. Applying this approach, we provide distributions for total hospital and ICU LoS from studies in China and elsewhere, for use by the community.

Results

We identified 52 studies, the majority from China (46/52). Median hospital LoS ranged from 4 to 53 days within China, and 4 to 21 days outside of China, across 45 studies. ICU LoS was reported by eight studies-four each within and outside China-with median values ranging from 6 to 12 and 4 to 19 days, respectively. Our summary distributions have a median hospital LoS of 14 (IQR 10-19) days for China, compared with 5 (IQR 3-9) days outside of China. For ICU, the summary distributions are more similar (median (IQR) of 8 (5-13) days for China and 7 (4-11) days outside of China). There was a visible difference by discharge status, with patients who were discharged alive having longer LoS than those who died during their admission, but no trend associated with study date.

Conclusion

Patients with COVID-19 in China appeared to remain in hospital for longer than elsewhere. This may be explained by differences in criteria for admission and discharge between countries, and different timing within the pandemic. In the absence of local data, the combined summary LoS distributions provided here can be used to model bed demands for contingency planning and then updated, with the novel method presented here, as more studies with aggregated statistics emerge outside China.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3 35354646,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629,Relationship between asthma and severe COVID-19: a national cohort study.,"Dolby T, Nafilyan V, Morgan A, Kallis C, Sheikh A, Quint JK.",,Thorax,2023,2022-03-30,Y,Asthma; Covid-19,,,"

Background

We aimed to determine whether children and adults with poorly controlled or more severe asthma have greater risk of hospitalisation and/or death from COVID-19.

Methods

We used individual-level data from the Office for National Statistics Public Health Data Asset, based on the 2011 census in England, and the General Practice Extraction Service data for pandemic planning and research linked to death registration records and Hospital Episode Statistics admission data. Adults were followed from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2021 for hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. For children, only hospitalisation was included.

Results

Our cohort comprised 35 202 533 adults and 2 996 503 children aged 12-17 years. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, pre-existing health conditions and vaccine status, the risk of death involving COVID-19 for adults with asthma prescribed low dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was not significantly different from those without asthma. Adults with asthma prescribed medium and high dosage ICS had an elevated risk of COVID-19 death; HRs 1.18 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.23) and 1.36 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.44), respectively. A similar pattern was observed for COVID-19 hospitalisation; fully adjusted HRs 1.53 (95% CI 1.50 to 1.56) and 1.52 (95% CI 1.46 to 1.56) for adults with asthma prescribed medium and high-dosage ICS, respectively. Risk of hospitalisation was greater for children with asthma prescribed one (2.58 (95% CI 1.82 to 3.66)) or two or more (3.80 (95% CI 2.41 to 5.95)) courses of oral corticosteroids in the year prior to the pandemic.

Discussion

People with mild and/or well-controlled asthma are neither at significantly increased risk of hospitalisation with nor more likely to die from COVID-19 than adults without asthma.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/03/29/thoraxjnl-2021-218629.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409?pdf=render -36333839,https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834,The impact of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown on presentations with psychosis to mental health services for older adults: An electronic health records study in South London.,"Simkin L, Yung P, Greig F, Perera G, Tsamakis K, Rizos E, Stewart R, Velayudhan L, Mueller C.",,International journal of geriatric psychiatry,2022,2022-10-24,Y,Dementia; Hallucinations; Delusions; Psychosis; Older Adults; Lockdown; Covid-19; Non-white Ethnicity,,,"

Objectives

Social distancing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic may have had adverse effects on older adults' mental health. Whereby the impact on mood is well-described, less is known about psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare characteristics associated with psychotic symptoms during the first UK lockdown and a pre-pandemic comparison period.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study we analysed anonymised records from patients referred to mental health services for older adults in South London in the 16-week period of the UK lockdown starting in March 2020, and in the comparable pre-pandemic period in 2019. We used logistic regression models to compare the associations of different patient characteristics with increased odds of presenting with any psychotic symptom (defined as hallucinations and/or delusion), hallucinations, or delusions, during lockdown and the corresponding pre-pandemic period.

Results

1991 referrals were identified. There were fewer referrals during lockdown but a higher proportion of presentations with any psychotic symptom (48.7% vs. 42.8%, p = 0.018), particularly hallucinations (41.0% vs. 27.8%, p < 0.001). Patients of non-White ethnicity (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-2.99) and patients with dementia (adjusted OR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.91-4.99) were more likely to be referred with psychotic symptoms during lockdown. While a weaker association between dementia and psychotic symptoms was found in the pre-COVID period (adjusted OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.19-2.03), interaction terms indicated higher odds of patients of non-White ethnicity or dementia to present with psychosis during the lockdown period.

Conclusions

During lockdown, referrals to mental health services for adults decreased, but contained a higher proportion with psychotic symptoms. The stronger association with psychotic symptoms in non-White ethnic groups and patients with dementia during lockdown suggests that barriers in accessing care might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419?pdf=render PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics analytics for the better understanding of metabolic diseases","Acharjee A, Agarwal P, Gkoutos G.",,Frontiers in endocrinology,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Biomarker; Therapeutic; Diagnostic; Metabolic Disease; Omics,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516571/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516571/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10516571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10516571?pdf=render +36333839,https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834,The impact of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown on presentations with psychosis to mental health services for older adults: An electronic health records study in South London.,"Simkin L, Yung P, Greig F, Perera G, Tsamakis K, Rizos E, Stewart R, Velayudhan L, Mueller C.",,International journal of geriatric psychiatry,2022,2022-10-24,Y,Dementia; Hallucinations; Delusions; Psychosis; Older Adults; Lockdown; Covid-19; Non-white Ethnicity,,,"

Objectives

Social distancing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic may have had adverse effects on older adults' mental health. Whereby the impact on mood is well-described, less is known about psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare characteristics associated with psychotic symptoms during the first UK lockdown and a pre-pandemic comparison period.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study we analysed anonymised records from patients referred to mental health services for older adults in South London in the 16-week period of the UK lockdown starting in March 2020, and in the comparable pre-pandemic period in 2019. We used logistic regression models to compare the associations of different patient characteristics with increased odds of presenting with any psychotic symptom (defined as hallucinations and/or delusion), hallucinations, or delusions, during lockdown and the corresponding pre-pandemic period.

Results

1991 referrals were identified. There were fewer referrals during lockdown but a higher proportion of presentations with any psychotic symptom (48.7% vs. 42.8%, p = 0.018), particularly hallucinations (41.0% vs. 27.8%, p < 0.001). Patients of non-White ethnicity (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-2.99) and patients with dementia (adjusted OR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.91-4.99) were more likely to be referred with psychotic symptoms during lockdown. While a weaker association between dementia and psychotic symptoms was found in the pre-COVID period (adjusted OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.19-2.03), interaction terms indicated higher odds of patients of non-White ethnicity or dementia to present with psychosis during the lockdown period.

Conclusions

During lockdown, referrals to mental health services for adults decreased, but contained a higher proportion with psychotic symptoms. The stronger association with psychotic symptoms in non-White ethnic groups and patients with dementia during lockdown suggests that barriers in accessing care might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419?pdf=render 33939952,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00949-1,COVID-19 and disparities affecting ethnic minorities.,"Morales DR, Ali SN.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9755653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00949-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653?pdf=render 34644365,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258484,Cohort profile: The UK COVID-19 Public Experiences (COPE) prospective longitudinal mixed-methods study of health and well-being during the SARSCoV2 coronavirus pandemic.,"Phillips R, Taiyari K, Torrens-Burton A, Cannings-John R, Williams D, Peddle S, Campbell S, Hughes K, Gillespie D, Sellars P, Pell B, Ashfield-Watt P, Akbari A, Seage CH, Perham N, Joseph-Williams N, Harrop E, Blaxland J, Wood F, Poortinga W, Wahl-Jorgensen K, James DH, Crone D, Thomas-Jones E, Hallingberg B.",,PloS one,2021,2021-10-13,Y,,,,"Public perceptions of pandemic viral threats and government policies can influence adherence to containment, delay, and mitigation policies such as physical distancing, hygienic practices, use of physical barriers, uptake of testing, contact tracing, and vaccination programs. The UK COVID-19 Public Experiences (COPE) study aims to identify determinants of health behaviour using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation (COM-B) model using a longitudinal mixed-methods approach. Here, we provide a detailed description of the demographic and self-reported health characteristics of the COPE cohort at baseline assessment, an overview of data collected, and plans for follow-up of the cohort. The COPE baseline survey was completed by 11,113 UK adult residents (18+ years of age). Baseline data collection started on the 13th of March 2020 (10-days before the introduction of the first national COVID-19 lockdown in the UK) and finished on the 13th of April 2020. Participants were recruited via the HealthWise Wales (HWW) research registry and through social media snowballing and advertising (Facebook®, Twitter®, Instagram®). Participants were predominantly female (69%), over 50 years of age (68%), identified as white (98%), and were living with their partner (68%). A large proportion (67%) had a college/university level education, and half reported a pre-existing health condition (50%). Initial follow-up plans for the cohort included in-depth surveys at 3-months and 12-months after the first UK national lockdown to assess short and medium-term effects of the pandemic on health behaviour and subjective health and well-being. Additional consent will be sought from participants at follow-up for data linkage and surveys at 18 and 24-months after the initial UK national lockdown. A large non-random sample was recruited to the COPE cohort during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, which will enable longitudinal analysis of the determinants of health behaviour and changes in subjective health and well-being over the course of the pandemic.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258484&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258484; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513913?pdf=render 32426117,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010348,Novel approaches to estimate compliance with lockdown measures in the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Sheikh A, Sheikh Z, Sheikh A.",,Journal of global health,2020,2020-06-01,Y,,,,,This is a summary of new methods for estimating phyiscal distancing and compliance with lockdown. I haven't scored the content because it isn't primary research.,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010348; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010348; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7211415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7211415?pdf=render @@ -438,16 +438,16 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 36749628,https://doi.org/10.2196/42449,Charting a Course for Smartphones and Wearables to Transform Population Health Research.,"Dixon WG, van der Veer SN, Ali SM, Laidlaw L, Dobson RJB, Sudlow C, Chico T, MacArthur JAL, Doherty A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2023,2023-02-07,Y,Research; Health; Clinical; Data; Digital; Devices; Wearable; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Person-generated Health Data; Population Health Research,,,"The use of data from smartphones and wearable devices has huge potential for population health research, given the high level of device ownership; the range of novel health-relevant data types available from consumer devices; and the frequency and duration with which data are, or could be, collected. Yet, the uptake and success of large-scale mobile health research in the last decade have not met this intensely promoted opportunity. We make the argument that digital person-generated health data are required and necessary to answer many top priority research questions, using illustrative examples taken from the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships. We then summarize the findings from 2 UK initiatives that considered the challenges and possible solutions for what needs to be done and how such solutions can be implemented to realize the future opportunities of digital person-generated health data for clinically important population health research. Examples of important areas that must be addressed to advance the field include digital inequality and possible selection bias; easy access for researchers to the appropriate data collection tools, including how best to harmonize data items; analysis methodologies for time series data; patient and public involvement and engagement methods for optimizing recruitment, retention, and public trust; and methods for providing research participants with greater control over their data. There is also a major opportunity, provided through the linkage of digital person-generated health data to routinely collected data, to support novel population health research, bringing together clinician-reported and patient-reported measures. We recognize that well-conducted studies need a wide range of diverse challenges to be skillfully addressed in unison (eg, challenges regarding epidemiology, data science and biostatistics, psychometrics, behavioral and social science, software engineering, user interface design, information governance, data management, and patient and public involvement and engagement). Consequently, progress would be accelerated by the establishment of a new interdisciplinary community where all relevant and necessary skills are brought together to allow for excellence throughout the life cycle of a research study. This will require a partnership of diverse people, methods, and technologies. If done right, the synergy of such a partnership has the potential to transform many millions of people's lives for the better.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e42449/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184?pdf=render 37587484,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9,Implementation of the trial emulation approach in medical research: a scoping review.,"Scola G, Chis Ster A, Bean D, Pareek N, Emsley R, Landau S.",,BMC medical research methodology,2023,2023-08-16,Y,Causal Inference; Observational Data; Target Trial; Trial Emulation,,,"

Background

When conducting randomised controlled trials is impractical, an alternative is to carry out an observational study. However, making valid causal inferences from observational data is challenging because of the risk of several statistical biases. In 2016 Hernán and Robins put forward the 'target trial framework' as a guide to best design and analyse observational studies whilst preventing the most common biases. This framework consists of (1) clearly defining a causal question about an intervention, (2) specifying the protocol of the hypothetical trial, and (3) explaining how the observational data will be used to emulate it.

Methods

The aim of this scoping review was to identify and review all explicit attempts of trial emulation studies across all medical fields. Embase, Medline and Web of Science were searched for trial emulation studies published in English from database inception to February 25, 2021. The following information was extracted from studies that were deemed eligible for review: the subject area, the type of observational data that they leveraged, and the statistical methods they used to address the following biases: (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias.

Results

The search resulted in 617 studies, 38 of which we deemed eligible for review. Of those 38 studies, most focused on cardiology, infectious diseases or oncology and the majority used electronic health records/electronic medical records data and cohort studies data. Different statistical methods were used to address confounding at baseline and selection bias, predominantly conditioning on the confounders (N = 18/49, 37%) and inverse probability of censoring weighting (N = 7/20, 35%) respectively. Different approaches were used to address immortal time bias, assigning individuals to treatment strategies at start of follow-up based on their data available at that specific time (N = 21, 55%), using the sequential trial emulations approach (N = 11, 29%) or the cloning approach (N = 6, 16%).

Conclusion

Different methods can be leveraged to address (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias. When working with observational data, and if possible, the 'target trial' framework should be used as it provides a structured conceptual approach to observational research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565?pdf=render 33821553,https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697,The impact of disruptions due to COVID-19 on HIV transmission and control among men who have sex with men in China.,"Booton RD, Fu G, MacGregor L, Li J, Ong JJ, Tucker JD, Turner KM, Tang W, Vickerman P, Mitchell KM.",,Journal of the International AIDS Society,2021,2021-04-01,Y,Modelling; Hiv Transmission; Men Who Have Sex With Men; People’s Republic Of China; Key And Vulnerable Populations; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting HIV care globally, with gaps in HIV treatment expected to increase HIV transmission and HIV-related mortality. We estimated how COVID-19-related disruptions could impact HIV transmission and mortality among men who have sex with men (MSM) in four cities in China, over a one- and five-year time horizon.

Methods

Regional data from China indicated that the number of MSM undergoing facility-based HIV testing reduced by 59% during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside reductions in ART initiation (34%), numbers of all sexual partners (62%) and consistency of condom use (25%), but initial data indicated no change in viral suppression. A mathematical model of HIV transmission/treatment among MSM was used to estimate the impact of disruptions on HIV infections/HIV-related deaths. Disruption scenarios were assessed for their individual and combined impact over one and five years for 3/4/6-month disruption periods, starting from 1 January 2020.

Results

Our model predicted new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths would be increased most by disruptions to viral suppression, with 25% reductions (25% virally suppressed MSM stop taking ART) for a three-month period increasing HIV infections by 5% to 14% over one year and deaths by 7% to 12%. Observed reductions in condom use increased HIV infections by 5% to 14% but had minimal impact (<1%) on deaths. Smaller impacts on infections and deaths (<3%) were seen for disruptions to facility HIV testing and ART initiation, but reduced partner numbers resulted in 11% to 23% fewer infections and 0.4% to 1.0% fewer deaths. Longer disruption periods (4/6 months) amplified the impact of disruption scenarios. When realistic disruptions were modelled simultaneously, an overall decrease in new HIV infections occurred over one year (3% to 17%), but not for five years (1% increase to 4% decrease), whereas deaths mostly increased over one year (1% to 2%) and five years (1.2 increase to 0.3 decrease).

Conclusions

The overall impact of COVID-19 on new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths is dependent on the nature, scale and length of the various disruptions. Resources should be directed to ensuring levels of viral suppression and condom use are maintained to mitigate any adverse effects of COVID-19-related disruption on HIV transmission and control among MSM in China.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.25697; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092?pdf=render -37123891,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143,Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities.,"Mansouri-Benssassi E, Rogers S, Reel S, Malone M, Smith J, Ritchie F, Jefferson E.",,Heliyon,2023,2023-04-03,Y,AI; Machine Learning; Data Privacy; Safe Haven; Disclosure Control; Trusted Research Environment,,,"

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare and medicine have increased in recent years. To enable access to personal data, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (otherwise known as Safe Havens) provide safe and secure environments in which researchers can access sensitive personal data and develop AI (in particular machine learning (ML)) models. However, currently few TREs support the training of ML models in part due to a gap in the practical decision-making guidance for TREs in handling model disclosure. Specifically, the training of ML models creates a need to disclose new types of outputs from TREs. Although TREs have clear policies for the disclosure of statistical outputs, the extent to which trained models can leak personal training data once released is not well understood.

Background

We review, for a general audience, different types of ML models and their applicability within healthcare. We explain the outputs from training a ML model and how trained ML models can be vulnerable to external attacks to discover personal data encoded within the model.

Risks

We present the challenges for disclosure control of trained ML models in the context of training and exporting models from TREs. We provide insights and analyse methods that could be introduced within TREs to mitigate the risk of privacy breaches when disclosing trained models.

Discussion

Although specific guidelines and policies exist for statistical disclosure controls in TREs, they do not satisfactorily address these new types of output requests; i.e., trained ML models. There is significant potential for new interdisciplinary research opportunities in developing and adapting policies and tools for safely disclosing ML outputs from TREs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764?pdf=render 35025917,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261142,Inpatient COVID-19 mortality has reduced over time: Results from an observational cohort.,"Bechman K, Yates M, Mann K, Nagra D, Smith LJ, Rutherford AI, Patel A, Periselneris J, Walder D, Dobson RJB, Kraljevic Z, Teo JHT, Bernal W, Barker R, Galloway JB, Norton S.",,PloS one,2022,2022-01-13,Y,,,,"

Background

The Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has seen two waves; the first starting in March 2020 and the second in late October 2020. It is not known whether outcomes for those admitted with severe Covid were different in the first and second waves.

Methods

The study population comprised all patients admitted to a 1,500-bed London Hospital Trust between March 2020 and March 2021, who tested positive for Covid-19 by PCR within 3-days of admissions. Primary outcome was death within 28-days of admission. Socio-demographics (age, sex, ethnicity), hypertension, diabetes, obesity, baseline physiological observations, CRP, neutrophil, chest x-ray abnormality, remdesivir and dexamethasone were incorporated as co-variates. Proportional subhazards models compared mortality risk between wave 1 and wave 2. Cox-proportional hazard model with propensity score adjustment were used to compare mortality in patients prescribed remdesivir and dexamethasone.

Results

There were 3,949 COVID-19 admissions, 3,195 hospital discharges and 733 deaths. There were notable differences in age, ethnicity, comorbidities, and admission disease severity between wave 1 and wave 2. Twenty-eight-day mortality was higher during wave 1 (26.1% versus 13.1%). Mortality risk adjusted for co-variates was significantly lower in wave 2 compared to wave 1 [adjSHR 0.49 (0.37, 0.65) p<0.001]. Analysis of treatment impact did not show statistically different effects of remdesivir [HR 0.84 (95%CI 0.65, 1.08), p = 0.17] or dexamethasone [HR 0.97 (95%CI 0.70, 1.35) p = 0.87].

Conclusion

There has been substantial improvements in COVID-19 mortality in the second wave, even accounting for demographics, comorbidity, and disease severity. Neither dexamethasone nor remdesivir appeared to be key explanatory factors, although there may be unmeasured confounding present.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261142&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757902?pdf=render +37123891,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143,Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities.,"Mansouri-Benssassi E, Rogers S, Reel S, Malone M, Smith J, Ritchie F, Jefferson E.",,Heliyon,2023,2023-04-03,Y,AI; Machine Learning; Data Privacy; Safe Haven; Disclosure Control; Trusted Research Environment,,,"

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare and medicine have increased in recent years. To enable access to personal data, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (otherwise known as Safe Havens) provide safe and secure environments in which researchers can access sensitive personal data and develop AI (in particular machine learning (ML)) models. However, currently few TREs support the training of ML models in part due to a gap in the practical decision-making guidance for TREs in handling model disclosure. Specifically, the training of ML models creates a need to disclose new types of outputs from TREs. Although TREs have clear policies for the disclosure of statistical outputs, the extent to which trained models can leak personal training data once released is not well understood.

Background

We review, for a general audience, different types of ML models and their applicability within healthcare. We explain the outputs from training a ML model and how trained ML models can be vulnerable to external attacks to discover personal data encoded within the model.

Risks

We present the challenges for disclosure control of trained ML models in the context of training and exporting models from TREs. We provide insights and analyse methods that could be introduced within TREs to mitigate the risk of privacy breaches when disclosing trained models.

Discussion

Although specific guidelines and policies exist for statistical disclosure controls in TREs, they do not satisfactorily address these new types of output requests; i.e., trained ML models. There is significant potential for new interdisciplinary research opportunities in developing and adapting policies and tools for safely disclosing ML outputs from TREs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764?pdf=render 34139154,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005,A time-resolved proteomic and prognostic map of COVID-19.,"Demichev V, Tober-Lau P, Lemke O, Nazarenko T, Thibeault C, Whitwell H, Röhl A, Freiwald A, Szyrwiel L, Ludwig D, Correia-Melo C, Aulakh SK, Helbig ET, Stubbemann P, Lippert LJ, Grüning NM, Blyuss O, Vernardis S, White M, Messner CB, Joannidis M, Sonnweber T, Klein SJ, Pizzini A, Wohlfarter Y, Sahanic S, Hilbe R, Schaefer B, Wagner S, Mittermaier M, Machleidt F, Garcia C, Ruwwe-Glösenkamp C, Lingscheid T, Bosquillon de Jarcy L, Stegemann MS, Pfeiffer M, Jürgens L, Denker S, Zickler D, Enghard P, Zelezniak A, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Uhrig A, Müller-Redetzky H, Zoller H, Löffler-Ragg J, Keller MA, Tancevski I, Timms JF, Zaikin A, Hippenstiel S, Ramharter M, Witzenrath M, Suttorp N, Lilley K, Mülleder M, Sander LE, PA-COVID-19 Study group, Ralser M, Kurth F.",,Cell systems,2021,2021-06-14,Y,Proteomics; Biomarkers; Physiological parameters; Machine Learning; Disease Prognosis; Clinical Disease Progression; Patient Trajectories; Longitudinal Profiling; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 is highly variable in its clinical presentation, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe organ damage and death. We characterized the time-dependent progression of the disease in 139 COVID-19 inpatients by measuring 86 accredited diagnostic parameters, such as blood cell counts and enzyme activities, as well as untargeted plasma proteomes at 687 sampling points. We report an initial spike in a systemic inflammatory response, which is gradually alleviated and followed by a protein signature indicative of tissue repair, metabolic reconstitution, and immunomodulation. We identify prognostic marker signatures for devising risk-adapted treatment strategies and use machine learning to classify therapeutic needs. We show that the machine learning models based on the proteome are transferable to an independent cohort. Our study presents a map linking routinely used clinical diagnostic parameters to plasma proteomes and their dynamics in an infectious disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201874 36845321,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2,"Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with COPD from the United States, South Korea, and Europe.","Moreno-Martos D, Verhamme K, Ostropolets A, Kostka K, Duarte-Sales T, Prieto-Alhambra D, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Ahmed WU, Blacketer C, DuVall S, Lai L, Matheny M, Nyberg F, Posada J, Rijnbeek P, Spotnitz M, Sena A, Shah N, Suchard M, Chan You S, Hripcsak G, Ryan P, Morales D.",,Wellcome open research,2022,2022-03-24,Y,COPD; Coronavirus; Epidemiology.; Sars-cov-2; Covid,,,"Background: Characterization studies of COVID-19 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are limited in size and scope. The aim of the study is to provide a large-scale characterization of COVID-19 patients with COPD. Methods: We included thirteen databases contributing data from January-June 2020 from North America (US), Europe and Asia. We defined two cohorts of patients with COVID-19 namely a 'diagnosed' and 'hospitalized' cohort. We followed patients from COVID-19 index date to 30 days or death. We performed descriptive analysis and reported the frequency of characteristics and outcomes among COPD patients with COVID-19. Results: The study included 934,778 patients in the diagnosed COVID-19 cohort and 177,201 in the hospitalized COVID-19 cohort. Observed COPD prevalence in the diagnosed cohort ranged from 3.8% (95%CI 3.5-4.1%) in French data to 22.7% (95%CI 22.4-23.0) in US data, and from 1.9% (95%CI 1.6-2.2) in South Korean to 44.0% (95%CI 43.1-45.0) in US data, in the hospitalized cohorts. COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort had greater comorbidity than those in the diagnosed cohort, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Mortality was higher in COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort and ranged from 7.6% (95%CI 6.9-8.4) to 32.2% (95%CI 28.0-36.7) across databases. ARDS, acute renal failure, cardiac arrhythmia and sepsis were the most common outcomes among hospitalized COPD patients.   Conclusion: COPD patients with COVID-19 have high levels of COVID-19-associated comorbidities and poor COVID-19 outcomes. Further research is required to identify patients with COPD at high risk of worse outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545?pdf=render -37561116,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.85332,Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: A cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP.,"Lemanska A, Andrews C, Fisher L, Bacon S, Frampton AE, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Davy S, Roberts K, Patalay P, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Walker AJ.",,eLife,2023,2023-08-10,Y,Human; Pancreatic cancer; epidemiology; Global Health; Healthcare; Healthcare Crisis; Covid-19; Healthcare Disruption,,,"

Background

Healthcare across all sectors, in the UK and globally, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed healthcare services delivered to people with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023 to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, and drawing from a nationally representative OpenSAFELY-TPP dataset of 24 million patients (over 40% of the English population), we undertook a cohort study of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We queried electronic healthcare records for information on the provision of healthcare services across the pancreatic cancer pathway. To estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted the rates of healthcare services if the pandemic had not happened. We used generalised linear models and the pre-pandemic data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict rates in March 2020 to March 2023. The 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values were used to estimate the significance of the difference between the predicted and observed rates.

Results

The rate of pancreatic cancer and diabetes diagnoses in the cohort was not affected by the pandemic. There were 26,840 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023. The mean age at diagnosis was 72 (±11 SD), 48% of people were female, 95% were of White ethnicity, and 40% were diagnosed with diabetes. We found a reduction in surgical resections by 25-28% during the pandemic. In addition, 20%, 10%, and 4% fewer people received body mass index, glycated haemoglobin, and liver function tests, respectively, before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was no impact of the pandemic on the number of people making contact with primary care, but the number of contacts increased on average by 1-2 per person amongst those who made contact. Reporting of jaundice decreased by 28%, but recovered within 12 months into the pandemic. Emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and deaths were not affected.

Conclusions

The pandemic affected healthcare in England across the pancreatic cancer pathway. Positive lessons could be learnt from the services that were resilient and those that recovered quickly. The reductions in healthcare experienced by people with cancer have the potential to lead to worse outcomes. Current efforts should focus on addressing the unmet needs of people with cancer.

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157). This work was funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) grant reference MR/W021390/1 as part of the postdoctoral fellowship awarded to AL and undertaken at the Bennett Institute, University of Oxford. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS England, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), or the Department of Health and Social Care. Funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967?pdf=render 36658423,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02158-7,The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular disease prevention and management.,"Dale CE, Takhar R, Carragher R, Katsoulis M, Torabi F, Duffield S, Kent S, Mueller T, Kurdi A, Le Anh TN, McTaggart S, Abbasizanjani H, Hollings S, Scourfield A, Lyons RA, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Davies G, Harris D, Handy A, Mizani MA, Tomlinson C, Thygesen JH, Ashworth M, Denaxas S, Banerjee A, Sterne JAC, Brown P, Bullard I, Priedon R, Mamas MA, Slee A, Lorgelly P, Pirmohamed M, Khunti K, Morris AD, Sudlow C, Akbari A, Bennie M, Sattar N, Sofat R, CVD-COVID-UK Consortium.",,Nature medicine,2023,2023-01-19,N,,,,"How the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected prevention and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is not fully understood. In this study, we used medication data as a proxy for CVD management using routinely collected, de-identified, individual-level data comprising 1.32 billion records of community-dispensed CVD medications from England, Scotland and Wales between April 2018 and July 2021. Here we describe monthly counts of prevalent and incident medications dispensed, as well as percentage changes compared to the previous year, for several CVD-related indications, focusing on hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes. We observed a decline in the dispensing of antihypertensive medications between March 2020 and July 2021, with 491,306 fewer individuals initiating treatment than expected. This decline was predicted to result in 13,662 additional CVD events, including 2,281 cases of myocardial infarction and 3,474 cases of stroke, should individuals remain untreated over their lifecourse. Incident use of lipid-lowering medications decreased by 16,744 patients per month during the first half of 2021 as compared to 2019. By contrast, incident use of medications to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, other than insulin, increased by approximately 623 patients per month for the same time period. In light of these results, methods to identify and treat individuals who have missed treatment for CVD risk factors and remain undiagnosed are urgently required to avoid large numbers of excess future CVD events, an indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02158-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02158-7 +37561116,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.85332,Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: A cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP.,"Lemanska A, Andrews C, Fisher L, Bacon S, Frampton AE, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Davy S, Roberts K, Patalay P, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Walker AJ.",,eLife,2023,2023-08-10,Y,Human; Pancreatic cancer; epidemiology; Global Health; Healthcare; Healthcare Crisis; Covid-19; Healthcare Disruption,,,"

Background

Healthcare across all sectors, in the UK and globally, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed healthcare services delivered to people with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023 to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, and drawing from a nationally representative OpenSAFELY-TPP dataset of 24 million patients (over 40% of the English population), we undertook a cohort study of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We queried electronic healthcare records for information on the provision of healthcare services across the pancreatic cancer pathway. To estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted the rates of healthcare services if the pandemic had not happened. We used generalised linear models and the pre-pandemic data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict rates in March 2020 to March 2023. The 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values were used to estimate the significance of the difference between the predicted and observed rates.

Results

The rate of pancreatic cancer and diabetes diagnoses in the cohort was not affected by the pandemic. There were 26,840 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023. The mean age at diagnosis was 72 (±11 SD), 48% of people were female, 95% were of White ethnicity, and 40% were diagnosed with diabetes. We found a reduction in surgical resections by 25-28% during the pandemic. In addition, 20%, 10%, and 4% fewer people received body mass index, glycated haemoglobin, and liver function tests, respectively, before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was no impact of the pandemic on the number of people making contact with primary care, but the number of contacts increased on average by 1-2 per person amongst those who made contact. Reporting of jaundice decreased by 28%, but recovered within 12 months into the pandemic. Emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and deaths were not affected.

Conclusions

The pandemic affected healthcare in England across the pancreatic cancer pathway. Positive lessons could be learnt from the services that were resilient and those that recovered quickly. The reductions in healthcare experienced by people with cancer have the potential to lead to worse outcomes. Current efforts should focus on addressing the unmet needs of people with cancer.

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157). This work was funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) grant reference MR/W021390/1 as part of the postdoctoral fellowship awarded to AL and undertaken at the Bennett Institute, University of Oxford. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS England, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), or the Department of Health and Social Care. Funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967?pdf=render 34252085,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162,Detecting behavioural changes in human movement to inform the spatial scale of interventions against COVID-19.,"Gibbs H, Nightingale E, Liu Y, Cheshire J, Danon L, Smeeth L, Pearson CAB, Grundy C, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 working group, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM.",,PLoS computational biology,2021,2021-07-12,Y,,,,"On March 23 2020, the UK enacted an intensive, nationwide lockdown to mitigate transmission of COVID-19. As restrictions began to ease, more localized interventions were used to target resurgences in transmission. Understanding the spatial scale of networks of human interaction, and how these networks change over time, is critical to targeting interventions at the most at-risk areas without unnecessarily restricting areas at low risk of resurgence. We use detailed human mobility data aggregated from Facebook users to determine how the spatially-explicit network of movements changed before and during the lockdown period, in response to the easing of restrictions, and to the introduction of locally-targeted interventions. We also apply community detection techniques to the weighted, directed network of movements to identify geographically-explicit movement communities and measure the evolution of these community structures through time. We found that the mobility network became more sparse and the number of mobility communities decreased under the national lockdown, a change that disproportionately affected long distance connections central to the mobility network. We also found that the community structure of areas in which locally-targeted interventions were implemented following epidemic resurgence did not show reorganization of community structure but did show small decreases in indicators of travel outside of local areas. We propose that communities detected using Facebook or other mobility data be used to assess the impact of spatially-targeted restrictions and may inform policymakers about the spatial extent of human movement patterns in the UK. These data are available in near real-time, allowing quantification of changes in the distribution of the population across the UK, as well as changes in travel patterns to inform our understanding of the impact of geographically-targeted interventions.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8297940; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8297940?pdf=render 36997856,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-023-03126-0,A clinical frailty scale obtained from MDT discussion performs poorly in assessing frailty in haemodialysis recipients.,"Anderson BM, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.",,BMC nephrology,2023,2023-03-30,Y,Mortality; Frailty; Haemodialysis; Hospitalisation; Clinical Frailty Scale,,,"

Background

The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a commonly utilised frailty screening tool that has been associated with hospitalisation and mortality in haemodialysis recipients, but is subject to heterogenous methodologies including subjective clinician opinion. The aims of this study were to (i) examine the accuracy of a subjective, multidisciplinary assessment of CFS at haemodialysis Quality Assurance (QA) meetings (CFS-MDT), compared with a standard CFS score via clinical interview, and (ii) ascertain the associations of these scores with hospitalisation and mortality.

Methods

We performed a prospective cohort study of prevalent haemodialysis recipients linked to national datasets for outcomes including mortality and hospitalisation. Frailty was assessed using the CFS after structured clinical interview. The CFS-MDT was derived from consensus at haemodialysis QA meetings, involving dialysis nurses, dietitians, and nephrologists.

Results

453 participants were followed-up for a median of 685 days (IQR 544-812), during which there were 96 (21.2%) deaths and 1136 hospitalisations shared between 327 (72.1%) participants. Frailty was identified in 246 (54.3%) participants via CFS, but only 120 (26.5%) via CFS-MDT. There was weak correlation (Spearman Rho 0.485, P < 0.001) on raw frailty scores and minimal agreement (Cohen's κ = 0.274, P < 0.001) on categorisation of frail, vulnerable and robust between the CFS and CFS-MDT. Increasing frailty was associated with higher rates of hospitalisation for the CFS (IRR 1.26, 95% C.I. 1.17-1.36, P = 0.016) and CFS-MDT (IRR 1.10, 1.02-1.19, P = 0.02), but only the CFS-MDT was associated with nights spent in hospital (IRR 1.22, 95% C.I. 1.08-1.38, P = 0.001). Both scores were associated with mortality (CFS HR 1.31, 95% C.I. 1.09-1.57, P = 0.004; CFS-MDT HR 1.36, 95% C.I. 1.16-1.59, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Assessment of CFS is deeply affected by the underlying methodology, with the potential to profoundly affect decision-making. The CFS-MDT appears to be a weak alternative to conventional CFS. Standardisation of CFS use is of paramount importance in clinical and research practice in haemodialysis.

Trial registration

Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT03071107 registered 06/03/2017.",,pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-023-03126-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-023-03126-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10062243; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10062243?pdf=render -37561812,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368,Call detail record aggregation methodology impacts infectious disease models informed by human mobility.,"Gibbs H, Musah A, Seidu O, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Gray J, Adewole WA, Cheshire J, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,PLoS computational biology,2023,2023-08-10,Y,,,,"This paper demonstrates how two different methods used to calculate population-level mobility from Call Detail Records (CDR) produce varying predictions of the spread of epidemics informed by these data. Our findings are based on one CDR dataset describing inter-district movement in Ghana in 2021, produced using two different aggregation methodologies. One methodology, ""all pairs,"" is designed to retain long distance network connections while the other, ""sequential"" methodology is designed to accurately reflect the volume of travel between locations. We show how the choice of methodology feeds through models of human mobility to the predictions of a metapopulation SEIR model of disease transmission. We also show that this impact varies depending on the location of pathogen introduction and the transmissibility of infections. For central locations or highly transmissible diseases, we do not observe significant differences between aggregation methodologies on the predicted spread of disease. For less transmissible diseases or those introduced into remote locations, we find that the choice of aggregation methodology influences the speed of spatial spread as well as the size of the peak number of infections in individual districts. Our findings can help researchers and users of epidemiological models to understand how methodological choices at the level of model inputs may influence the results of models of infectious disease transmission, as well as the circumstances in which these choices do not alter model predictions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843?pdf=render 34183745,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92874-w,Frailty assessed by administrative tools and mortality in patients with pneumonia admitted to the hospital and ICU in Wales.,"Szakmany T, Hollinghurst J, Pugh R, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Bailey R, Lyons RA.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-06-28,Y,,,,"The ideal method of identifying frailty is uncertain, and data on long-term outcomes is relatively limited. We examined frailty indices derived from population-scale linked data on Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and hospitalised non-ICU patients with pneumonia to elucidate the influence of frailty on mortality. Longitudinal cohort study between 2010-2018 using population-scale anonymised data linkage of healthcare records for adults admitted to hospital with pneumonia in Wales. Primary outcome was in-patient mortality. Odds Ratios (ORs [95% confidence interval]) for age, hospital frailty risk score (HFRS), electronic frailty index (eFI), Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), and social deprivation index were estimated using multivariate logistic regression models. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was estimated to determine the best fitting models. Of the 107,188 patients, mean (SD) age was 72.6 (16.6) years, 50% were men. The models adjusted for the two frailty indices and the comorbidity index had an increased odds of in-patient mortality for individuals with an ICU admission (ORs for ICU admission in the eFI model 2.67 [2.55, 2.79], HFRS model 2.30 [2.20, 2.41], CCI model 2.62 [2.51, 2.75]). Models indicated advancing age, increased frailty and comorbidity were also associated with an increased odds of in-patient mortality (eFI, baseline fit, ORs: mild 1.09 [1.04, 1.13], moderate 1.13 [1.08, 1.18], severe 1.17 [1.10, 1.23]. HFRS, baseline low, ORs: intermediate 2.65 [2.55, 2.75], high 3.31 [3.17, 3.45]). CCI, baseline < 1, ORs: '1-10' 1.15 [1.11, 1.20], > 10 2.50 [2.41, 2.60]). For predicting inpatient deaths, the CCI and HFRS based models were similar, however for longer term outcomes the CCI based model was superior. Frailty and comorbidity are significant risk factors for patients admitted to hospital with pneumonia. Frailty and comorbidity scores based on administrative data have only moderate ability to predict outcome.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92874-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92874-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8239046; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8239046?pdf=render +37561812,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368,Call detail record aggregation methodology impacts infectious disease models informed by human mobility.,"Gibbs H, Musah A, Seidu O, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Gray J, Adewole WA, Cheshire J, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,PLoS computational biology,2023,2023-08-10,Y,,,,"This paper demonstrates how two different methods used to calculate population-level mobility from Call Detail Records (CDR) produce varying predictions of the spread of epidemics informed by these data. Our findings are based on one CDR dataset describing inter-district movement in Ghana in 2021, produced using two different aggregation methodologies. One methodology, ""all pairs,"" is designed to retain long distance network connections while the other, ""sequential"" methodology is designed to accurately reflect the volume of travel between locations. We show how the choice of methodology feeds through models of human mobility to the predictions of a metapopulation SEIR model of disease transmission. We also show that this impact varies depending on the location of pathogen introduction and the transmissibility of infections. For central locations or highly transmissible diseases, we do not observe significant differences between aggregation methodologies on the predicted spread of disease. For less transmissible diseases or those introduced into remote locations, we find that the choice of aggregation methodology influences the speed of spatial spread as well as the size of the peak number of infections in individual districts. Our findings can help researchers and users of epidemiological models to understand how methodological choices at the level of model inputs may influence the results of models of infectious disease transmission, as well as the circumstances in which these choices do not alter model predictions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843?pdf=render 37712381,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.13.04101,Understanding and reporting odds ratios as rate-ratio estimates in case-control studies.,"Kerr S, Greenland S, Jeffrey K, Millington T, Bedston S, Ritchie L, Simpson CR, Fagbamigbe AF, Kurdi A, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Rudan I.",,Journal of global health,2023,2023-09-15,Y,,,,"

Background

We noted that there remains some confusion in the health-science literature on reporting sample odds ratios as estimated rate ratios in case-control studies.

Methods

We recap historical literature that definitively answered the question of when sample odds ratios (ORs) from a case-control study are consistent estimators for population rate ratios. We use numerical examples to illustrate the magnitude of the disparity between sample ORs in a case-control study and population rate ratios when sufficient conditions for them to be equal are not satisfied.

Results

We stress that in a case-control study, sampling controls from those still at risk at the time of outcome event of the index case is not sufficient for a sample OR to be a consistent estimator for an intelligible rate ratio. In such studies, constancy of the exposure prevalence together with constancy of the hazard ratio (HR) (i.e., the instantaneous rate ratio) over time is sufficient for this result if sampling time is not controlled; if time is controlled, constancy of the HR will suffice. We present numerical examples to illustrate how failure to satisfy these conditions adds a small systematic error to sample ORs as estimates of population rate ratios.

Conclusions

We recommend that researchers understand and critically evaluate all conditions used to interpret their estimates as consistent for a population parameter in case-control studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.13.04101; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10502767; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10502767?pdf=render 34849869,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab076,An overview of the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database: data quality and cohort analysis.,"Cushnan D, Bennett O, Berka R, Bertolli O, Chopra A, Dorgham S, Favaro A, Ganepola T, Halling-Brown M, Imreh G, Jacob J, Jefferson E, Lemarchand F, Schofield D, Wyatt JC, NCCID Collaborative.",,GigaScience,2021,2021-11-01,Y,Medical imaging; Machine Learning; Thoracic Imaging; Covid-19; Sars-cov2,,,"

Background

The National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) is a centralized database containing mainly chest X-rays and computed tomography scans from patients across the UK. The objective of the initiative is to support a better understanding of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 disease (COVID-19) and the development of machine learning technologies that will improve care for patients hospitalized with a severe COVID-19 infection. This article introduces the training dataset, including a snapshot analysis covering the completeness of clinical data, and availability of image data for the various use-cases (diagnosis, prognosis, longitudinal risk). An additional cohort analysis measures how well the NCCID represents the wider COVID-19-affected UK population in terms of geographic, demographic, and temporal coverage.

Findings

The NCCID offers high-quality DICOM images acquired across a variety of imaging machinery; multiple time points including historical images are available for a subset of patients. This volume and variety make the database well suited to development of diagnostic/prognostic models for COVID-associated respiratory conditions. Historical images and clinical data may aid long-term risk stratification, particularly as availability of comorbidity data increases through linkage to other resources. The cohort analysis revealed good alignment to general UK COVID-19 statistics for some categories, e.g., sex, whilst identifying areas for improvements to data collection methods, particularly geographic coverage.

Conclusion

The NCCID is a growing resource that provides researchers with a large, high-quality database that can be leveraged both to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as a test bed for building clinically viable medical imaging models.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/10/11/giab076/41395024/giab076.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab076; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633457; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633457?pdf=render 33493433,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30743-9,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on radiotherapy services in England, UK: a population-based study.","Spencer K, Jones CM, Girdler R, Roe C, Sharpe M, Lawton S, Miller L, Lewis P, Evans M, Sebag-Montefiore D, Roques T, Smittenaar R, Morris E.",,The Lancet. Oncology,2021,2021-01-22,Y,,,,"

Background

The indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes is of increasing concern. However, the extent to which key treatment modalities have been affected is unclear. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on radiotherapy activity in England.

Methods

In this population-based study, data relating to all radiotherapy delivered for cancer in the English NHS, between Feb 4, 2019, and June 28, 2020, were extracted from the National Radiotherapy Dataset. Changes in mean weekly radiotherapy courses, attendances (reflecting fractions), and fractionation patterns following the start of the UK lockdown were compared with corresponding months in 2019 overall, for specific diagnoses, and across age groups. The significance of changes in radiotherapy activity during lockdown was examined using interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis.

Findings

In 2020, mean weekly radiotherapy courses fell by 19·9% in April, 6·2% in May, and 11·6% in June compared with corresponding months in 2019. A relatively greater fall was observed for attendances (29·1% in April, 31·4% in May, and 31·5% in June). These changes were significant on ITS analysis (p<0·0001). A greater reduction in treatment courses between 2019 and 2020 was seen for patients aged 70 years or older compared with those aged younger than 70 years (34·4% vs 7·3% in April). By diagnosis, the largest reduction from 2019 to 2020 in treatment courses was for prostate cancer (77·0% in April) and non-melanoma skin cancer (72·4% in April). Conversely, radiotherapy courses in April, 2020, compared with April, 2019, increased by 41·2% in oesophageal cancer, 64·2% in bladder cancer, and 36·3% in rectal cancer. Increased use of ultra-hypofractionated (26 Gy in five fractions) breast radiotherapy as a percentage of all courses (0·2% in April, 2019, to 60·6% in April, 2020; ITS p<0·0001) contributed to the substantial reduction in attendances.

Interpretation

Radiotherapy activity fell significantly, but use of hypofractionated regimens rapidly increased in the English NHS during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in treatments for some cancers suggests that radiotherapy compensated for reduced surgical activity. These data will assist health-care providers in understanding the indirect consequences of the pandemic and the role of radiotherapy services in minimising these consequences.

Funding

None.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470204520307439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30743-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861?pdf=render @@ -463,10 +463,10 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 32702311,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30392-2,Effect of delays in the 2-week-wait cancer referral pathway during the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer survival in the UK: a modelling study.,"Sud A, Torr B, Jones ME, Broggio J, Scott S, Loveday C, Garrett A, Gronthoud F, Nicol DL, Jhanji S, Boyce SA, Williams M, Riboli E, Muller DC, Kipps E, Larkin J, Navani N, Swanton C, Lyratzopoulos G, McFerran E, Lawler M, Houlston R, Turnbull C.",,The Lancet. Oncology,2020,2020-07-20,Y,,,,"

Background

During the COVID-19 lockdown, referrals via the 2-week-wait urgent pathway for suspected cancer in England, UK, are reported to have decreased by up to 84%. We aimed to examine the impact of different scenarios of lockdown-accumulated backlog in cancer referrals on cancer survival, and the impact on survival per referred patient due to delayed referral versus risk of death from nosocomial infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Methods

In this modelling study, we used age-stratified and stage-stratified 10-year cancer survival estimates for patients in England, UK, for 20 common tumour types diagnosed in 2008-17 at age 30 years and older from Public Health England. We also used data for cancer diagnoses made via the 2-week-wait referral pathway in 2013-16 from the Cancer Waiting Times system from NHS Digital. We applied per-day hazard ratios (HRs) for cancer progression that we generated from observational studies of delay to treatment. We quantified the annual numbers of cancers at stage I-III diagnosed via the 2-week-wait pathway using 2-week-wait age-specific and stage-specific breakdowns. From these numbers, we estimated the aggregate number of lives and life-years lost in England for per-patient delays of 1-6 months in presentation, diagnosis, or cancer treatment, or a combination of these. We assessed three scenarios of a 3-month period of lockdown during which 25%, 50%, and 75% of the normal monthly volumes of symptomatic patients delayed their presentation until after lockdown. Using referral-to-diagnosis conversion rates and COVID-19 case-fatality rates, we also estimated the survival increment per patient referred.

Findings

Across England in 2013-16, an average of 6281 patients with stage I-III cancer were diagnosed via the 2-week-wait pathway per month, of whom 1691 (27%) would be predicted to die within 10 years from their disease. Delays in presentation via the 2-week-wait pathway over a 3-month lockdown period (with an average presentational delay of 2 months per patient) would result in 181 additional lives and 3316 life-years lost as a result of a backlog of referrals of 25%, 361 additional lives and 6632 life-years lost for a 50% backlog of referrals, and 542 additional lives and 9948 life-years lost for a 75% backlog in referrals. Compared with all diagnostics for the backlog being done in month 1 after lockdown, additional capacity across months 1-3 would result in 90 additional lives and 1662 live-years lost due to diagnostic delays for the 25% backlog scenario, 183 additional lives and 3362 life-years lost under the 50% backlog scenario, and 276 additional lives and 5075 life-years lost under the 75% backlog scenario. However, a delay in additional diagnostic capacity with provision spread across months 3-8 after lockdown would result in 401 additional lives and 7332 life-years lost due to diagnostic delays under the 25% backlog scenario, 811 additional lives and 14 873 life-years lost under the 50% backlog scenario, and 1231 additional lives and 22 635 life-years lost under the 75% backlog scenario. A 2-month delay in 2-week-wait investigatory referrals results in an estimated loss of between 0·0 and 0·7 life-years per referred patient, depending on age and tumour type.

Interpretation

Prompt provision of additional capacity to address the backlog of diagnostics will minimise deaths as a result of diagnostic delays that could add to those predicted due to expected presentational delays. Prioritisation of patient groups for whom delay would result in most life-years lost warrants consideration as an option for mitigating the aggregate burden of mortality in patients with cancer.

Funding

None.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10107201/1/Lyratzopoulos_main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30392-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116538; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116538?pdf=render 34750105,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0380,OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19.,"Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Croker R, Inglesby P, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Morton CE, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson EJ, Hulme WJ, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2021-12-31,Y,Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.

Aim

To describe the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice, taking respiratory disease and laboratory procedures as examples.

Design and setting

Working on behalf of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 23.8 million patient records in general practice, in situ using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Activity using Clinical Terms Version 3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 to September 2020 are described.

Results

Activity recorded in general practice declined during the pandemic, but largely recovered by September. There was a large drop in coded activity for laboratory tests, with broad recovery to pre-pandemic levels by September. One exception was the international normalised ratio test, with a smaller reduction (median tests per 1000 patients in 2020: February 8.0; April 6.2; September 6.9). The pattern of recording for respiratory symptoms was less affected, following an expected seasonal pattern and classified as 'no change'. Respiratory infections exhibited a sustained drop, not returning to pre-pandemic levels by September. Asthma reviews experienced a small drop but recovered, whereas chronic obstructive pulmonary disease reviews remained below baseline.

Conclusion

An open-source software framework was delivered to describe trends and variation in clinical activity across an unprecedented scale of primary care data. The COVD-19 pandemic led to a substantial change in healthcare activity. Most laboratory tests showed substantial reduction, largely recovering to near-normal levels by September, with some important tests less affected and recording of respiratory disease codes was mixed.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/72/714/e63.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589464?pdf=render 32234121,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.12.2000256,"Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, February 2020.","Russell TW, Hellewell J, Jarvis CI, van Zandvoort K, Abbott S, Ratnayake R, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2020,2020-03-01,Y,Coronavirus; outbreak; Severity; Asymptomatic; Case Fatality Ratio; Cruise Ship; Covid-19; Infection Fatality Ratio,"COVID-19, Improving Public Health","COVID-19, infection","Adjusting for delay from confirmation to death, we estimated case and infection fatality ratios (CFR, IFR) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Diamond Princess ship as 2.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89-6.7) and 1.3% (95% CI: 0.38-3.6), respectively. Comparing deaths on board with expected deaths based on naive CFR estimates from China, we estimated CFR and IFR in China to be 1.2% (95% CI: 0.3-2.7) and 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-1.3), respectively.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/12/eurosurv-25-12-3.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348?pdf=render -36648008,https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088,"Evaluating the cost of managing patients with cellulitis in Wales, UK: A 20-year population-scale study.","Humphreys I, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Graham-Woollard D, Morgan K, Noble-Jones R, Gabe-Walters M, Thomas M.",,International wound journal,2023,2023-01-17,Y,Longitudinal data; Cellulitis; Lymphoedema; Economic Burden; Sail Databank,,,"This study aimed to estimate costs associated with managing patients with cellulitis from the UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. The analysis was undertaken through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank, which brings together population-scale, individual-level anonymised linked data from a wide range of sources, including 80% of primary care general practices within Wales (population coverage ~3.2 million). The data covered a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019. All patients linked to the relevant codes were tracked through primary care settings, recording the number of general practice visits (number of days with an event recorded) and number of in-patient stays. Resources were valued in monetary terms (£ sterling), with costs determined from national published sources of unit costs. These resources were then extrapolated out to reflect UK NHS costs. This is the first attempt to estimate the financial burden of cellulitis using routine data sources on a national scale. The estimated direct annual costs to the Welsh NHS (£28 554 338) are considerable. In-Patient events and length of stay costs are the main cost drivers, with annual Welsh NHS estimates of £19 664 126 with primary care events costing £8 890 212. Initiatives to support patients and healthcare professionals in identifying early signs/risks of cellulitis, improve the accuracy of initial diagnosis, prevent cellulitis recurrence, and improve evidence-based treatment pathways would result in major financial savings, to both the Welsh and UK NHS. In light of these findings, Wales has developed the innovative National Lymphoedema cellulitis Improvement Programme to address these burdens; providing a proactive model of cellulitis care.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/iwj.14088; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041?pdf=render +36648008,https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088,"Evaluating the cost of managing patients with cellulitis in Wales, UK: A 20-year population-scale study.","Humphreys I, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Graham-Woollard D, Morgan K, Noble-Jones R, Gabe-Walters M, Thomas M.",,International wound journal,2023,2023-01-17,Y,Longitudinal data; Cellulitis; Lymphoedema; Sail Databank; Economic Burden,,,"This study aimed to estimate costs associated with managing patients with cellulitis from the UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. The analysis was undertaken through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank, which brings together population-scale, individual-level anonymised linked data from a wide range of sources, including 80% of primary care general practices within Wales (population coverage ~3.2 million). The data covered a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019. All patients linked to the relevant codes were tracked through primary care settings, recording the number of general practice visits (number of days with an event recorded) and number of in-patient stays. Resources were valued in monetary terms (£ sterling), with costs determined from national published sources of unit costs. These resources were then extrapolated out to reflect UK NHS costs. This is the first attempt to estimate the financial burden of cellulitis using routine data sources on a national scale. The estimated direct annual costs to the Welsh NHS (£28 554 338) are considerable. In-Patient events and length of stay costs are the main cost drivers, with annual Welsh NHS estimates of £19 664 126 with primary care events costing £8 890 212. Initiatives to support patients and healthcare professionals in identifying early signs/risks of cellulitis, improve the accuracy of initial diagnosis, prevent cellulitis recurrence, and improve evidence-based treatment pathways would result in major financial savings, to both the Welsh and UK NHS. In light of these findings, Wales has developed the innovative National Lymphoedema cellulitis Improvement Programme to address these burdens; providing a proactive model of cellulitis care.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/iwj.14088; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041?pdf=render 33531486,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21370-6,Author Correction: Genetic architecture of host proteins involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Pietzner M, Wheeler E, Carrasco-Zanini J, Raffler J, Kerrison ND, Oerton E, Auyeung VPW, Luan J, Finan C, Casas JP, Ostroff R, Williams SA, Kastenmüller G, Ralser M, Gamazon ER, Wareham NJ, Hingorani AD, Langenberg C.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-02-02,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21370-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21370-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854714; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854714?pdf=render -33704068,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.64827,Longitudinal proteomic profiling of dialysis patients with COVID-19 reveals markers of severity and predictors of death.,"Gisby J, Clarke CL, Medjeral-Thomas N, Malik TH, Papadaki A, Mortimer PM, Buang NB, Lewis S, Pereira M, Toulza F, Fagnano E, Mawhin MA, Dutton EE, Tapeng L, Richard AC, Kirk PD, Behmoaras J, Sandhu E, McAdoo SP, Prendecki MF, Pickering MC, Botto M, Willicombe M, Thomas DC, Peters JE.",,eLife,2021,2021-03-11,Y,Human; Cytokines; Proteomics; Inflammation; Medicine; Biomarkers; immunology; Longitudinal; End-stage Kidney Disease; Covid-19,,,"End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients are at high risk of severe COVID-19. We measured 436 circulating proteins in serial blood samples from hospitalised and non-hospitalised ESKD patients with COVID-19 (n = 256 samples from 55 patients). Comparison to 51 non-infected patients revealed 221 differentially expressed proteins, with consistent results in a separate subcohort of 46 COVID-19 patients. Two hundred and three proteins were associated with clinical severity, including IL6, markers of monocyte recruitment (e.g. CCL2, CCL7), neutrophil activation (e.g. proteinase-3), and epithelial injury (e.g. KRT19). Machine-learning identified predictors of severity including IL18BP, CTSD, GDF15, and KRT19. Survival analysis with joint models revealed 69 predictors of death. Longitudinal modelling with linear mixed models uncovered 32 proteins displaying different temporal profiles in severe versus non-severe disease, including integrins and adhesion molecules. These data implicate epithelial damage, innate immune activation, and leucocyte-endothelial interactions in the pathology of severe COVID-19 and provide a resource for identifying drug targets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.64827; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8064756; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8064756?pdf=render 36649943,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001704,Benefits of electronic charts in intensive care and during a world health pandemic: advantages of the technology age.,"Pankhurst T, Lucas L, Ryan S, Ragdale C, Gyves H, Denner L, Young I, Rathbone L, Shah A, McKee D, Coleman JJ, Evison F, Atia J, Rosser D, Garrick M, Baker R, Gallier S, Ball S.",,BMJ open quality,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Evaluation Methodology; Critical Care; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Aims and objectives

This study sets out to describe benefits from the implementation of electronic observation charting in intensive care units (ICU). This was an extension to the existing hospital wide digital health system. We evaluated error reduction, time-savings and the costs associated with conversion from paper to digital records. The world health emergency of COVID-19 placed extraordinary strain on ICU and staff opinion was evaluated to test how well the electronic system performed.

Methods

A clinically led project group working directly with programmers developed an electronic patient record for intensive care. Data error rates, time to add data and to make calculations were studied before and after the introduction of electronic charts. User feedback was sought pre and post go-live (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and financial implications were calculated by the hospital finance teams.

Results

Error rates equating to 219 000/year were avoided by conversion to electronic charts. Time saved was the equivalent of a nursing shift each day. Recurrent cost savings per year were estimated to be £257k. Staff were overwhelmingly positive about electronic charts in ICU, even during a health pandemic and despite redeployment into intensive care where they were using the electronic charts for the first time.

Discussion

Electronic ICU charts have been successfully introduced into our institution with benefits in terms of patient safety through error reduction and improved care through release of nursing time. Costs have been reduced. Staff feel supported by the digital system and report it to be helpful even during redeployment and in the unfamiliar environment of intensive care.",,pdf:https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/bmjqir/12/1/e001704.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9853220; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9853220?pdf=render +33704068,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.64827,Longitudinal proteomic profiling of dialysis patients with COVID-19 reveals markers of severity and predictors of death.,"Gisby J, Clarke CL, Medjeral-Thomas N, Malik TH, Papadaki A, Mortimer PM, Buang NB, Lewis S, Pereira M, Toulza F, Fagnano E, Mawhin MA, Dutton EE, Tapeng L, Richard AC, Kirk PD, Behmoaras J, Sandhu E, McAdoo SP, Prendecki MF, Pickering MC, Botto M, Willicombe M, Thomas DC, Peters JE.",,eLife,2021,2021-03-11,Y,Human; Cytokines; Proteomics; Inflammation; Medicine; Biomarkers; immunology; Longitudinal; End-stage Kidney Disease; Covid-19,,,"End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients are at high risk of severe COVID-19. We measured 436 circulating proteins in serial blood samples from hospitalised and non-hospitalised ESKD patients with COVID-19 (n = 256 samples from 55 patients). Comparison to 51 non-infected patients revealed 221 differentially expressed proteins, with consistent results in a separate subcohort of 46 COVID-19 patients. Two hundred and three proteins were associated with clinical severity, including IL6, markers of monocyte recruitment (e.g. CCL2, CCL7), neutrophil activation (e.g. proteinase-3), and epithelial injury (e.g. KRT19). Machine-learning identified predictors of severity including IL18BP, CTSD, GDF15, and KRT19. Survival analysis with joint models revealed 69 predictors of death. Longitudinal modelling with linear mixed models uncovered 32 proteins displaying different temporal profiles in severe versus non-severe disease, including integrins and adhesion molecules. These data implicate epithelial damage, innate immune activation, and leucocyte-endothelial interactions in the pathology of severe COVID-19 and provide a resource for identifying drug targets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.64827; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8064756; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8064756?pdf=render 32046816,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.5.2000080,Effectiveness of airport screening at detecting travellers infected with novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).,"Quilty BJ, Clifford S, CMMID nCoV working group2, Flasche S, Eggo RM.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2020,2020-02-01,Y,Surveillance; Effectiveness; Interventions; Emerging Infections; 2019-Ncov; Airport Screening; Thermal Scanning,,,"We evaluated effectiveness of thermal passenger screening for 2019-nCoV infection at airport exit and entry to inform public health decision-making. In our baseline scenario, we estimated that 46% (95% confidence interval: 36 to 58) of infected travellers would not be detected, depending on incubation period, sensitivity of exit and entry screening, and proportion of asymptomatic cases. Airport screening is unlikely to detect a sufficient proportion of 2019-nCoV infected travellers to avoid entry of infected travellers.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/5/eurosurv-25-5-2.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.2000080&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.2000080; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014668; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014668?pdf=render 35505938,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417,Multivariate profile and acute-phase correlates of cognitive deficits in a COVID-19 hospitalised cohort.,"Hampshire A, Chatfield DA, MPhil AM, Jolly A, Trender W, Hellyer PJ, Giovane MD, Newcombe VFJ, Outtrim JG, Warne B, Bhatti J, Pointon L, Elmer A, Sithole N, Bradley J, Kingston N, Sawcer SJ, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, and Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-04-28,Y,Memory; Cognition; Attention; Planning; Cognitive Assessment; Reasoning; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Preliminary evidence has highlighted a possible association between severe COVID-19 and persistent cognitive deficits. Further research is required to confirm this association, determine whether cognitive deficits relate to clinical features from the acute phase or to mental health status at the point of assessment, and quantify rate of recovery.

Methods

46 individuals who received critical care for COVID-19 at Addenbrooke's hospital between 10th March 2020 and 31st July 2020 (16 mechanically ventilated) underwent detailed computerised cognitive assessment alongside scales measuring anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder under supervised conditions at a mean follow up of 6.0 (± 2.1) months following acute illness. Patient and matched control (N = 460) performances were transformed into standard deviation from expected scores, accounting for age and demographic factors using N = 66,008 normative datasets. Global accuracy and response time composites were calculated (G_SScore & G_RT). Linear modelling predicted composite score deficits from acute severity, mental-health status at assessment, and time from hospital admission. The pattern of deficits across tasks was qualitatively compared with normal age-related decline, and early-stage dementia.

Findings

COVID-19 survivors were less accurate (G_SScore=-0.53SDs) and slower (G_RT=+0.89SDs) in their responses than expected compared to their matched controls. Acute illness, but not chronic mental health, significantly predicted cognitive deviation from expected scores (G_SScore (p=​​0.0037) and G_RT (p = 0.0366)). The most prominent task associations with COVID-19 were for higher cognition and processing speed, which was qualitatively distinct from the profiles of normal ageing and dementia and similar in magnitude to the effects of ageing between 50 and 70 years of age. A trend towards reduced deficits with time from illness (r∼=0.15) did not reach statistical significance.

Interpretation

Cognitive deficits after severe COVID-19 relate most strongly to acute illness severity, persist long into the chronic phase, and recover slowly if at all, with a characteristic profile highlighting higher cognitive functions and processing speed.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility (BRC-1215-20014), the Addenbrooke's Charities Trust and NIHR COVID-19 BioResource RG9402. AH is funded by the UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology Centre and Imperial College London Biomedical Research Centre. ETB and DKM are supported by NIHR Senior Investigator awards. JBR is supported by the Wellcome Trust (220258) and Medical Research Council (SUAG/051 G101400). VFJN is funded by an Academy of Medical Sciences/ The Health Foundation Clinician Scientist Fellowship. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S258953702200147X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584?pdf=render 33024096,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18783-0,Changing travel patterns in China during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Gibbs H, Liu Y, Pearson CAB, Jarvis CI, Grundy C, Quilty BJ, Diamond C, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 working group, Eggo RM.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-10-06,Y,,,,"Understanding changes in human mobility in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial for assessing the impacts of travel restrictions designed to reduce disease spread. Here, relying on data from mainland China, we investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of human mobility between 1st January and 1st March 2020, and discuss their public health implications. An outbound travel surge from Wuhan before travel restrictions were implemented was also observed across China due to the Lunar New Year, indicating that holiday travel may have played a larger role in mobility changes compared to impending travel restrictions. Holiday travel also shifted healthcare pressure related to COVID-19 towards locations with lower healthcare capacity. Network analyses showed no sign of major changes in the transportation network after Lunar New Year. Changes observed were temporary and did not lead to structural reorganisation of the transportation network during the study period.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18783-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18783-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7538915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7538915?pdf=render @@ -476,24 +476,24 @@ PMC9644982,https://doi.org/,Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on Care Homes in W 37650027,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1724,"A methodology to facilitate critical care research using multiple linked electronic, clinical and administrative health records at population scale.","Griffiths R, Herbert L, Akbari A, Bailey R, Hollinghurst J, Pugh R, Szakmany T, Torabi F, Lyons RA.",,International journal of population data science,2022,2022-07-18,Y,Intensive Care; Critical Care; Electronic Health Records; Icnarc; Linkable Research Data,,,"

Introduction

Critical Care is a specialty in medicine providing a service for severely ill and high-risk patients who, due to the nature of their condition, may require long periods recovering after discharge. Consequently, focus on the routine data collection carried out in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) leads to reporting that is confined to the critical care episode and is typically insensitive to variation in individual patient pathways through critical care to recovery.A resource which facilitates efficient research into interactions with healthcare services surrounding critical admissions, capturing the complete patient's healthcare trajectory from primary care to non-acute hospital care prior to ICU, would provide an important longer-term perspective for critical care research.

Objective

To describe and apply a reproducible methodology that demonstrates how both routine administrative and clinically rich critical care data sources can be integrated with primary and secondary healthcare data to create a single dataset that captures a broader view of patient care.

Method

To demonstrate the INTEGRATE methodology, it was applied to routine administrative and clinical healthcare data sources in the Secure Anonymised Data Linking (SAIL) Databank to create a dataset of patients' complete healthcare trajectory prior to critical care admission. SAIL is a national, data safe haven of anonymised linkable datasets about the population of Wales.

Results

When applying the INTEGRATE methodology in SAIL, between 2010 and 2019 we observed 91,582 critical admissions for 76,019 patients. Of these, 90,632 (99%) had an associated non-acute hospital admission, 48,979 (53%) had an emergency admission, and 64,832 (71%) a primary care interaction in the week prior to the critical care admission.

Conclusion

This methodology, at population scale, integrates two critical care data sources into a single dataset together with data sources on healthcare prior to critical admission, thus providing a key research asset to study critical care pathways.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1724; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464871?pdf=render 34270458,https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.21-0482,The Need for a Practical Approach to Evaluate the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines for Low- and Middle-Income Countries.,"Nsanzimana S, Gupta A, Uwizihiwe JP, Haggstrom J, Dron L, Arora P, Park JJH.",,The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene,2021,2021-07-16,Y,,,,"The global demand for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines currently far outweighs the available global supply and manufacturing capacity. As a result, securing doses of vaccines for low- and middle-income countries has been challenging, particularly for African countries. Clinical trial investigation for COVID-19 vaccines has been rare in Africa, with the only randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for COVID-19 vaccines having been conducted in South Africa. In addition to addressing the current inequities in the vaccine roll-out for low- and middle-income countries, there is a need to monitor the real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in these regions. Although RCTs are the superior method for evaluating vaccine efficacy, the feasibility of conducting RCTs to monitor COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness during mass vaccine campaigns will likely be low. There is still a need to evaluate the effectiveness of mass COVID-19 vaccine distribution in a practical manner. We discuss how target trial emulation, the application of trial design principles from RCTs to the analysis of observational data, can be used as a practical, cost-effective way to evaluate real-world effectiveness for COVID-19 vaccines. There are several study design considerations that need to be made in the analyses of observational data, such as uncontrolled confounders and selection biases. Target trial emulation accounts for these considerations to improve the analyses of observational data. The framework of target trial emulation provides a practical way to monitor the effectiveness of mass vaccine campaigns for COVID-19 using observational data.",,pdf:https://www.ajtmh.org/downloadpdf/journals/tpmd/105/3/article-p561.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.21-0482; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8592367; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8592367?pdf=render 36447940,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2665-9913(22)00305-8,Incidence and management of inflammatory arthritis in England before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-level cohort study using OpenSAFELY.,"Russell MD, Galloway JB, Andrews CD, MacKenna B, Goldacre B, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, Butler-Cole B, O'Dwyer T, Qureshi S, Ledingham JM, Mahto A, Rutherford AI, Adas MA, Alveyn E, Norton S, Cope AP, Bechman K, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,The Lancet. Rheumatology,2022,2022-11-03,Y,,,,"

Background

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence and management of inflammatory arthritis is not understood. Routinely captured data in secure platforms, such as OpenSAFELY, offer unique opportunities to understand how care for patients with inflammatory arthritis was impacted upon by the pandemic. Our objective was to use OpenSAFELY to assess the effects of the pandemic on diagnostic incidence and care delivery for inflammatory arthritis in England and to replicate key metrics from the National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit.

Methods

In this population-level cohort study, we used primary care and hospital data for 17·7 million adults registered with general practices using TPP health record software, to explore the following outcomes between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2022: (1) incidence of inflammatory arthritis diagnoses (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, and undifferentiated inflammatory arthritis) recorded in primary care; (2) time to first rheumatology assessment; (3) time to first prescription of a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) in primary care; and (4) choice of first DMARD.

Findings

Among 17 683 500 adults, there were 31 280 incident inflammatory arthritis diagnoses recorded between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2022. The mean age of diagnosed patients was 55·4 years (SD 16·6), 18 615 (59·5%) were female, 12 665 (40·5%) were male, and 22 925 (88·3%) of 25 960 with available ethnicity data were White. New inflammatory arthritis diagnoses decreased by 20·3% in the year commencing April, 2020, relative to the preceding year (5·1 vs 6·4 diagnoses per 10 000 adults). The median time to first rheumatology assessment was shorter during the pandemic (18 days; IQR 8-35) than before (21 days; 9-41). The proportion of patients prescribed DMARDs in primary care was similar before and during the pandemic; however, during the pandemic, fewer people were prescribed methotrexate or leflunomide, and more were prescribed sulfasalazine or hydroxychloroquine.

Interpretation

Inflammatory arthritis diagnoses decreased markedly during the early phase of the pandemic. The impact on rheumatology assessment times and DMARD prescribing in primary care was less marked than might have been anticipated. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using routinely captured, near real-time data in the secure OpenSAFELY platform to benchmark care quality on a national scale, without the need for manual data collection.

Funding

None.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4669009/1/Russell_etal_2022_Incidence-and-management-of-inflammatory.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(22)00305-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691150?pdf=render -35991675,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335,Primary healthcare protects vulnerable populations from inequity in COVID-19 vaccination: An ecological analysis of nationwide data from Brazil.,"Bastos LSL, Aguilar S, Rache B, Maçaira P, Baião F, Cerbino-Neto J, Rocha R, Hamacher S, Ranzani OT, Bozza FA.",,Lancet regional health. Americas,2022,2022-08-17,Y,Vaccine; Socioeconomic Factors; Human Development; Primary Healthcare; Low-and-middle-income Countries; Covid19,,,"

Background

There is limited information on the inequity of access to vaccination in low-and-middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we described the progression of the Brazilian immunisation program for COVID-19, and the association of socioeconomic development with vaccination rates, considering the potential protective effect of primary health care coverage.

Methods

We performed an ecological analysis of COVID-19 immunisation data from the Brazilian National Immunization Program from January 17 to August 31, 2021. We analysed the dynamics of vaccine coverage in the adult population of 5,570 Brazilian municipalities. We estimated the association of human development index (HDI) levels (low, medium, and high) with age-sex standardised first dose coverage using a multivariable negative binomial regression model. We evaluated the interaction between the HDI and primary health care coverage. Finally, we compared the adjusted monthly progression of vaccination rates, hospital admission and in-hospital death rates among HDI levels.

Findings

From January 17 to August 31, 2021, 202,427,355 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Brazil. By the end of the period, 64·2% of adults had first and 31·4% second doses, with more than 90% of those aged ≥60 years with primary scheme completed. Four distinct vaccine platforms were used in the country, ChAdOx1-S/nCoV-19, Sinovac-CoronaVac, BNT162b2, Ad26.COV2.S, composing 44·8%, 33·2%, 19·6%, and 2·4% of total doses, respectively. First dose coverage differed between municipalities with high, medium, and low HDI (Median [interquartile range] 72 [66, 79], 68 [61, 75] and 63 [55, 70] doses per 100 people, respectively). Municipalities with low (Rate Ratio [RR, 95% confidence interval]: 0·87 [0·85-0·88]) and medium (RR [95% CI]: 0·94 [0·93-0·95]) development were independently associated with lower vaccination rates compared to those with high HDI. Primary health care coverage modified the association of HDI and vaccination rate, improving vaccination rates in those municipalities of low HDI and high primary health care coverage. Low HDI municipalities presented a delayed decrease in adjusted in-hospital death rates by first dose coverage compared to high HDI locations.

Interpretation

In Brazil, socioeconomic disparities negatively impacted the first dose vaccination rate. However, the primary health care mitigated these disparities, suggesting that the primary health care coverage guarantees more equitable access to vaccines in vulnerable locations.

Funding

This work is part of the Grand Challenges ICODA pilot initiative, delivered by Health Data Research UK and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation. This study was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845?pdf=render 33319712,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01336-2,Towards semantic interoperability: finding and repairing hidden contradictions in biomedical ontologies.,"Slater LT, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2020,2020-12-15,Y,Automated Reasoning; Ontology Interoperability,,,"

Background

Ontologies are widely used throughout the biomedical domain. These ontologies formally represent the classes and relations assumed to exist within a domain. As scientific domains are deeply interlinked, so too are their representations. While individual ontologies can be tested for consistency and coherency using automated reasoning methods, systematically combining ontologies of multiple domains together may reveal previously hidden contradictions.

Methods

We developed a method that tests for hidden unsatisfiabilities in an ontology that arise when combined with other ontologies. For this purpose, we combined sets of ontologies and use automated reasoning to determine whether unsatisfiable classes are present. In addition, we designed and implemented a novel algorithm that can determine justifications for contradictions across extremely large and complicated ontologies, and use these justifications to semi-automatically repair ontologies by identifying a small set of axioms that, when removed, result in a consistent and coherent set of ontologies.

Results

We tested the mutual consistency of the OBO Foundry and the OBO ontologies and find that the combined OBO Foundry gives rise to at least 636 unsatisfiable classes, while the OBO ontologies give rise to more than 300,000 unsatisfiable classes. We also applied our semi-automatic repair algorithm to each combination of OBO ontologies that resulted in unsatisfiable classes, finding that only 117 axioms could be removed to account for all cases of unsatisfiability across all OBO ontologies.

Conclusions

We identified a large set of hidden unsatisfiability across a broad range of biomedical ontologies, and we find that this large set of unsatisfiable classes is the result of a relatively small amount of axiomatic disagreements. Our results show that hidden unsatisfiability is a serious problem in ontology interoperability; however, our results also provide a way towards more consistent ontologies by addressing the issues we identified.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-020-01336-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01336-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7736131; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7736131?pdf=render +35991675,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335,Primary healthcare protects vulnerable populations from inequity in COVID-19 vaccination: An ecological analysis of nationwide data from Brazil.,"Bastos LSL, Aguilar S, Rache B, Maçaira P, Baião F, Cerbino-Neto J, Rocha R, Hamacher S, Ranzani OT, Bozza FA.",,Lancet regional health. Americas,2022,2022-08-17,Y,Vaccine; Socioeconomic Factors; Human Development; Primary Healthcare; Low-and-middle-income Countries; Covid19,,,"

Background

There is limited information on the inequity of access to vaccination in low-and-middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we described the progression of the Brazilian immunisation program for COVID-19, and the association of socioeconomic development with vaccination rates, considering the potential protective effect of primary health care coverage.

Methods

We performed an ecological analysis of COVID-19 immunisation data from the Brazilian National Immunization Program from January 17 to August 31, 2021. We analysed the dynamics of vaccine coverage in the adult population of 5,570 Brazilian municipalities. We estimated the association of human development index (HDI) levels (low, medium, and high) with age-sex standardised first dose coverage using a multivariable negative binomial regression model. We evaluated the interaction between the HDI and primary health care coverage. Finally, we compared the adjusted monthly progression of vaccination rates, hospital admission and in-hospital death rates among HDI levels.

Findings

From January 17 to August 31, 2021, 202,427,355 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Brazil. By the end of the period, 64·2% of adults had first and 31·4% second doses, with more than 90% of those aged ≥60 years with primary scheme completed. Four distinct vaccine platforms were used in the country, ChAdOx1-S/nCoV-19, Sinovac-CoronaVac, BNT162b2, Ad26.COV2.S, composing 44·8%, 33·2%, 19·6%, and 2·4% of total doses, respectively. First dose coverage differed between municipalities with high, medium, and low HDI (Median [interquartile range] 72 [66, 79], 68 [61, 75] and 63 [55, 70] doses per 100 people, respectively). Municipalities with low (Rate Ratio [RR, 95% confidence interval]: 0·87 [0·85-0·88]) and medium (RR [95% CI]: 0·94 [0·93-0·95]) development were independently associated with lower vaccination rates compared to those with high HDI. Primary health care coverage modified the association of HDI and vaccination rate, improving vaccination rates in those municipalities of low HDI and high primary health care coverage. Low HDI municipalities presented a delayed decrease in adjusted in-hospital death rates by first dose coverage compared to high HDI locations.

Interpretation

In Brazil, socioeconomic disparities negatively impacted the first dose vaccination rate. However, the primary health care mitigated these disparities, suggesting that the primary health care coverage guarantees more equitable access to vaccines in vulnerable locations.

Funding

This work is part of the Grand Challenges ICODA pilot initiative, delivered by Health Data Research UK and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation. This study was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845?pdf=render 32405103,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30854-0,Estimating excess 1-year mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic according to underlying conditions and age: a population-based cohort study.,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Harris S, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Torralbo A, Shallcross L, Noursadeghi M, Pillay D, Sebire N, Holmes C, Pagel C, Wong WK, Langenberg C, Williams B, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-05-12,Y,,,,"

Background

The medical, societal, and economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has unknown effects on overall population mortality. Previous models of population mortality are based on death over days among infected people, nearly all of whom thus far have underlying conditions. Models have not incorporated information on high-risk conditions or their longer-term baseline (pre-COVID-19) mortality. We estimated the excess number of deaths over 1 year under different COVID-19 incidence scenarios based on varying levels of transmission suppression and differing mortality impacts based on different relative risks for the disease.

Methods

In this population-based cohort study, we used linked primary and secondary care electronic health records from England (Health Data Research UK-CALIBER). We report prevalence of underlying conditions defined by Public Health England guidelines (from March 16, 2020) in individuals aged 30 years or older registered with a practice between 1997 and 2017, using validated, openly available phenotypes for each condition. We estimated 1-year mortality in each condition, developing simple models (and a tool for calculation) of excess COVID-19-related deaths, assuming relative impact (as relative risks [RRs]) of the COVID-19 pandemic (compared with background mortality) of 1·5, 2·0, and 3·0 at differing infection rate scenarios, including full suppression (0·001%), partial suppression (1%), mitigation (10%), and do nothing (80%). We also developed an online, public, prototype risk calculator for excess death estimation.

Findings

We included 3 862 012 individuals (1 957 935 [50·7%] women and 1 904 077 [49·3%] men). We estimated that more than 20% of the study population are in the high-risk category, of whom 13·7% were older than 70 years and 6·3% were aged 70 years or younger with at least one underlying condition. 1-year mortality in the high-risk population was estimated to be 4·46% (95% CI 4·41-4·51). Age and underlying conditions combined to influence background risk, varying markedly across conditions. In a full suppression scenario in the UK population, we estimated that there would be two excess deaths (vs baseline deaths) with an RR of 1·5, four with an RR of 2·0, and seven with an RR of 3·0. In a mitigation scenario, we estimated 18 374 excess deaths with an RR of 1·5, 36 749 with an RR of 2·0, and 73 498 with an RR of 3·0. In a do nothing scenario, we estimated 146 996 excess deaths with an RR of 1·5, 293 991 with an RR of 2·0, and 587 982 with an RR of 3·0.

Interpretation

We provide policy makers, researchers, and the public a simple model and an online tool for understanding excess mortality over 1 year from the COVID-19 pandemic, based on age, sex, and underlying condition-specific estimates. These results signal the need for sustained stringent suppression measures as well as sustained efforts to target those at highest risk because of underlying conditions with a range of preventive interventions. Countries should assess the overall (direct and indirect) effects of the pandemic on excess mortality.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, Health Data Research UK.","This paper aims to estimate the excess number of deaths over 1 year associated with covid-19, based on age and underlying conditions. They found that age, sex and underlying conditions do influence background risk, and support the need for sustained stringent suppression measures. They have also developed an online risk calculator prototype which is openly available for anyone to use.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30854-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30854-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7217641 33661754,https://doi.org/10.2196/21547,Implementation of the COVID-19 Vulnerability Index Across an International Network of Health Care Data Sets: Collaborative External Validation Study.,"Reps JM, Kim C, Williams RD, Markus AF, Yang C, Duarte-Salles T, Falconer T, Jonnagaddala J, Williams A, Fernández-Bertolín S, DuVall SL, Kostka K, Rao G, Shoaibi A, Ostropolets A, Spotnitz ME, Zhang L, Casajust P, Steyerberg EW, Nyberg F, Kaas-Hansen BS, Choi YH, Morales D, Liaw ST, Abrahão MTF, Areia C, Matheny ME, Lynch KE, Aragón M, Park RW, Hripcsak G, Reich CG, Suchard MA, You SC, Ryan PB, Prieto-Alhambra D, Rijnbeek PR.",,JMIR medical informatics,2021,2021-04-05,Y,Prediction; Modeling; Observation; decision-making; Bias; Hospitalization; risk; Transportability; Prognostic Model; Datasets; External Validation; Covid-19; C-19,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 is straining health care systems globally. The burden on hospitals during the pandemic could be reduced by implementing prediction models that can discriminate patients who require hospitalization from those who do not. The COVID-19 vulnerability (C-19) index, a model that predicts which patients will be admitted to hospital for treatment of pneumonia or pneumonia proxies, has been developed and proposed as a valuable tool for decision-making during the pandemic. However, the model is at high risk of bias according to the ""prediction model risk of bias assessment"" criteria, and it has not been externally validated.

Objective

The aim of this study was to externally validate the C-19 index across a range of health care settings to determine how well it broadly predicts hospitalization due to pneumonia in COVID-19 cases.

Methods

We followed the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) framework for external validation to assess the reliability of the C-19 index. We evaluated the model on two different target populations, 41,381 patients who presented with SARS-CoV-2 at an outpatient or emergency department visit and 9,429,285 patients who presented with influenza or related symptoms during an outpatient or emergency department visit, to predict their risk of hospitalization with pneumonia during the following 0-30 days. In total, we validated the model across a network of 14 databases spanning the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Results

The internal validation performance of the C-19 index had a C statistic of 0.73, and the calibration was not reported by the authors. When we externally validated it by transporting it to SARS-CoV-2 data, the model obtained C statistics of 0.36, 0.53 (0.473-0.584) and 0.56 (0.488-0.636) on Spanish, US, and South Korean data sets, respectively. The calibration was poor, with the model underestimating risk. When validated on 12 data sets containing influenza patients across the OHDSI network, the C statistics ranged between 0.40 and 0.68.

Conclusions

Our results show that the discriminative performance of the C-19 index model is low for influenza cohorts and even worse among patients with COVID-19 in the United States, Spain, and South Korea. These results suggest that C-19 should not be used to aid decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings highlight the importance of performing external validation across a range of settings, especially when a prediction model is being extrapolated to a different population. In the field of prediction, extensive validation is required to create appropriate trust in a model.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2021/4/e21547/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/21547; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023380 34320164,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvab239,"The RECOVERY trial: cardiovascular implications of a large, simple randomized trial in COVID-19.","Pessoa-Amorim G, Mafham MM.",,Cardiovascular research,2021,2021-07-01,Y,Immunomodulation; Antiviral; Randomized Trial; Antithrombotic; Covid-19,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article-pdf/117/9/e110/39354428/cvab239.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvab239; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318096; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318096?pdf=render -33655079,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2,Impact of baseline cases of cough and fever on UK COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates: estimates from the Bug Watch community cohort study.,"Eyre MT, Burns R, Kirkby V, Smith C, Denaxas S, Nguyen V, Hayward A, Shallcross L, Fragaszy E, Aldridge RW.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Fever; Cough; United Kingdom; Diagnostic Testing Capacity; Covid-19; Swab Test,,,"Background: Diagnostic testing forms a major part of the UK's response to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with tests offered to anyone with a continuous cough, high temperature or anosmia. Testing capacity must be sufficient during the winter respiratory season when levels of cough and fever are high due to non-COVID-19 causes. This study aims to make predictions about the contribution of baseline cough or fever to future testing demand in the UK. Methods: In this analysis of the Bug Watch community cohort study, we estimated the incidence of cough or fever in England in 2018-2019. We then estimated the COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates required in the UK for baseline cough or fever cases for the period July 2020-June 2021. This was explored for different rates of the population requesting tests, four COVID-19 second wave scenarios and high and low baseline cough or fever incidence scenarios. Results: Under the high baseline cough or fever scenario, incidence in the UK is expected to rise rapidly from 250,708 (95%CI 181,095 - 347,080) cases per day in September to a peak of 444,660 (95%CI 353,084 - 559,988) in December. If 80% of these cases request tests, testing demand would exceed 1.4 million tests per week for five consecutive months. Demand was significantly lower in the low cough or fever incidence scenario, with 129,115 (95%CI 111,596 - 151,679) tests per day in January 2021, compared to 340,921 (95%CI 276,039 - 424,491) tests per day in the higher incidence scenario. Conclusions: Our results show that national COVID-19 testing demand is highly dependent on background cough or fever incidence. This study highlights that the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic must ensure that a high proportion of people with symptoms request tests, and that testing capacity is sufficient to meet the high predicted demand.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379?pdf=render +33655079,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2,Impact of baseline cases of cough and fever on UK COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates: estimates from the Bug Watch community cohort study.,"Eyre MT, Burns R, Kirkby V, Smith C, Denaxas S, Nguyen V, Hayward A, Shallcross L, Fragaszy E, Aldridge RW.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Fever; Cough; United Kingdom; Diagnostic Testing Capacity; Swab Test; Covid-19,,,"Background: Diagnostic testing forms a major part of the UK's response to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with tests offered to anyone with a continuous cough, high temperature or anosmia. Testing capacity must be sufficient during the winter respiratory season when levels of cough and fever are high due to non-COVID-19 causes. This study aims to make predictions about the contribution of baseline cough or fever to future testing demand in the UK. Methods: In this analysis of the Bug Watch community cohort study, we estimated the incidence of cough or fever in England in 2018-2019. We then estimated the COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates required in the UK for baseline cough or fever cases for the period July 2020-June 2021. This was explored for different rates of the population requesting tests, four COVID-19 second wave scenarios and high and low baseline cough or fever incidence scenarios. Results: Under the high baseline cough or fever scenario, incidence in the UK is expected to rise rapidly from 250,708 (95%CI 181,095 - 347,080) cases per day in September to a peak of 444,660 (95%CI 353,084 - 559,988) in December. If 80% of these cases request tests, testing demand would exceed 1.4 million tests per week for five consecutive months. Demand was significantly lower in the low cough or fever incidence scenario, with 129,115 (95%CI 111,596 - 151,679) tests per day in January 2021, compared to 340,921 (95%CI 276,039 - 424,491) tests per day in the higher incidence scenario. Conclusions: Our results show that national COVID-19 testing demand is highly dependent on background cough or fever incidence. This study highlights that the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic must ensure that a high proportion of people with symptoms request tests, and that testing capacity is sufficient to meet the high predicted demand.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379?pdf=render 35861678,https://doi.org/10.2196/36989,Developing a Long COVID Phenotype for Postacute COVID-19 in a National Primary Care Sentinel Cohort: Observational Retrospective Database Analysis.,"Mayor N, Meza-Torres B, Okusi C, Delanerolle G, Chapman M, Wang W, Anand S, Feher M, Macartney J, Byford R, Joy M, Gatenby P, Curcin V, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-08-11,Y,Phenotype; Surveillance; epidemiology; Public Health; Hospitalization; Social Class; Disease Management; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Electronic Health Record; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Bioportal; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Digital Tool; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Postacute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts,,,"

Background

Following COVID-19, up to 40% of people have ongoing health problems, referred to as postacute COVID-19 or long COVID (LC). LC varies from a single persisting symptom to a complex multisystem disease. Research has flagged that this condition is underrecorded in primary care records, and seeks to better define its clinical characteristics and management. Phenotypes provide a standard method for case definition and identification from routine data and are usually machine-processable. An LC phenotype can underpin research into this condition.

Objective

This study aims to develop a phenotype for LC to inform the epidemiology and future research into this condition. We compared clinical symptoms in people with LC before and after their index infection, recorded from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We also compared people recorded as having acute infection with those with LC who were hospitalized and those who were not.

Methods

We used data from the Primary Care Sentinel Cohort (PCSC) of the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) database. This network was recruited to be nationally representative of the English population. We developed an LC phenotype using our established 3-step ontological method: (1) ontological step (defining the reasoning process underpinning the phenotype, (2) coding step (exploring what clinical terms are available, and (3) logical extract model (testing performance). We created a version of this phenotype using Protégé in the ontology web language for BioPortal and using PhenoFlow. Next, we used the phenotype to compare people with LC (1) with regard to their symptoms in the year prior to acquiring COVID-19 and (2) with people with acute COVID-19. We also compared hospitalized people with LC with those not hospitalized. We compared sociodemographic details, comorbidities, and Office of National Statistics-defined LC symptoms between groups. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Results

The long-COVID phenotype differentiated people hospitalized with LC from people who were not and where no index infection was identified. The PCSC (N=7.4 million) includes 428,479 patients with acute COVID-19 diagnosis confirmed by a laboratory test and 10,772 patients with clinically diagnosed COVID-19. A total of 7471 (1.74%, 95% CI 1.70-1.78) people were coded as having LC, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.7-14.3) had a hospital admission related to acute COVID-19, and 6462 (86.5%, 95% CI 85.7-87.3) were not hospitalized, of whom 2728 (42.2%) had no COVID-19 index date recorded. In addition, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.73-14.28) people with LC were hospitalized compared to 17,993 (4.5%, 95% CI 4.48-4.61; P<.001) with uncomplicated COVID-19.

Conclusions

Our LC phenotype enables the identification of individuals with the condition in routine data sets, facilitating their comparison with unaffected people through retrospective research. This phenotype and study protocol to explore its face validity contributes to a better understanding of LC.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e36989/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/36989; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9374163 33612430,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00017-0,Indirect acute effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical and mental health in the UK: a population-based study.,"Mansfield KE, Mathur R, Tazare J, Henderson AD, Mulick AR, Carreira H, Matthews AA, Bidulka P, Gayle A, Forbes H, Cook S, Wong AYS, Strongman H, Wing K, Warren-Gash C, Cadogan SL, Smeeth L, Hayes JF, Quint JK, McKee M, Langan SM.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2021,2021-02-18,Y,,,,"

Background

There are concerns that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK might have worsened physical and mental health, and reduced use of health services. However, the scale of the problem is unquantified, impeding development of effective mitigations. We aimed to ascertain what has happened to general practice contacts for acute physical and mental health outcomes during the pandemic.

Methods

Using de-identified electronic health records from the Clinical Research Practice Datalink (CPRD) Aurum (covering 13% of the UK population), between 2017 and 2020, we calculated weekly primary care contacts for selected acute physical and mental health conditions: anxiety, depression, self-harm (fatal and non-fatal), severe mental illness, eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute alcohol-related events, asthma exacerbation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation, acute cardiovascular events (cerebrovascular accident, heart failure, myocardial infarction, transient ischaemic attacks, unstable angina, and venous thromboembolism), and diabetic emergency. Primary care contacts included remote and face-to-face consultations, diagnoses from hospital discharge letters, and secondary care referrals, and conditions were identified through primary care records for diagnoses, symptoms, and prescribing. Our overall study population included individuals aged 11 years or older who had at least 1 year of registration with practices contributing to CPRD Aurum in the specified period, but denominator populations varied depending on the condition being analysed. We used an interrupted time-series analysis to formally quantify changes in conditions after the introduction of population-wide restrictions (defined as March 29, 2020) compared with the period before their introduction (defined as Jan 1, 2017 to March 7, 2020), with data excluded for an adjustment-to-restrictions period (March 8-28).

Findings

The overall population included 9 863 903 individuals on Jan 1, 2017, and increased to 10 226 939 by Jan 1, 2020. Primary care contacts for almost all conditions dropped considerably after the introduction of population-wide restrictions. The largest reductions were observed for contacts for diabetic emergencies (odds ratio 0·35 [95% CI 0·25-0·50]), depression (0·53 [0·52-0·53]), and self-harm (0·56 [0·54-0·58]). In the interrupted time-series analysis, with the exception of acute alcohol-related events (0·98 [0·89-1·10]), there was evidence of a reduction in contacts for all conditions (anxiety 0·67 [0·66-0·67], eating disorders 0·62 [0·59-0·66], obsessive-compulsive disorder [0·69 [0·64-0·74]], self-harm 0·56 [0·54-0·58], severe mental illness 0·80 [0·78-0·83], stroke 0·59 [0·56-0·62], transient ischaemic attack 0·63 [0·58-0·67], heart failure 0·62 [0·60-0·64], myocardial infarction 0·72 [0·68-0·77], unstable angina 0·72 [0·60-0·87], venous thromboembolism 0·94 [0·90-0·99], and asthma exacerbation 0·88 [0·86-0·90]). By July, 2020, except for unstable angina and acute alcohol-related events, contacts for all conditions had not recovered to pre-lockdown levels.

Interpretation

There were substantial reductions in primary care contacts for acute physical and mental conditions following the introduction of restrictions, with limited recovery by July, 2020. Further research is needed to ascertain whether these reductions reflect changes in disease frequency or missed opportunities for care. Maintaining health-care access should be a key priority in future public health planning, including further restrictions. The conditions we studied are sufficiently severe that any unmet need will have substantial ramifications for the people with the conditions as well as health-care provision.

Funding

Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship, Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00017-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00017-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985613; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985613?pdf=render 32401709,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2,COVID-19: a public health approach to manage domestic violence is needed.,"Chandan JS, Taylor J, Bradbury-Jones C, Nirantharakumar K, Kane E, Bandyopadhyay S.",,The Lancet. Public health,2020,2020-05-10,Y,,,,,Chandan et al. comment on the effect the covid pandemic may have on domestic violence and propose surveillance for domestic violence is needed. ,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30112-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171?pdf=render 37284234,https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9,"The shock, the coping, the resilience: smartphone application use reveals Covid-19 lockdown effects on human behaviors.","Liu XF, Wang ZZ, Xu XK, Wu Y, Zhao Z, Deng H, Wang P, Chao N, Huang YC.",,EPJ data science,2023,2023-06-05,Y,Human behaviors; Natural Experiment; Lockdown; Smartphone Apps; Covid-19,,,"Human mobility restriction policies have been widely used to contain the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). However, a critical question is how these policies affect individuals' behavioral and psychological well-being during and after confinement periods. Here, we analyze China's five most stringent city-level lockdowns in 2021, treating them as natural experiments that allow for examining behavioral changes in millions of people through smartphone application use. We made three fundamental observations. First, the use of physical and economic activity-related apps experienced a steep decline, yet apps that provide daily necessities maintained normal usage. Second, apps that fulfilled lower-level human needs, such as working, socializing, information seeking, and entertainment, saw an immediate and substantial increase in screen time. Those that satisfied higher-level needs, such as education, only attracted delayed attention. Third, human behaviors demonstrated resilience as most routines resumed after the lockdowns were lifted. Nonetheless, long-term lifestyle changes were observed, as significant numbers of people chose to continue working and learning online, becoming ""digital residents."" This study also demonstrates the capability of smartphone screen time analytics in the study of human behaviors.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109?pdf=render -34098341,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414,Accuracy of four lateral flow immunoassays for anti SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: a head-to-head comparative study.,"Jones HE, Mulchandani R, Taylor-Phillips S, Ades AE, Shute J, Perry KR, Chandra NL, Brooks T, Charlett A, Hickman M, Oliver I, Kaptoge S, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Wyllie D, COMPARE study investigators, EDSAB-HOME investigators.",,EBioMedicine,2021,2021-06-04,Y,Seroepidemiology; Rapid Testing; Serosurveillance; Lateral Flow Devices; Covid-19,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests are used for population surveillance and might have a future role in individual risk assessment. Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) can deliver results rapidly and at scale, but have widely varying accuracy.

Methods

In a laboratory setting, we performed head-to-head comparisons of four LFIAs: the Rapid Test Consortium's AbC-19TM Rapid Test, OrientGene COVID IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette, SureScreen COVID-19 Rapid Test Cassette, and Biomerica COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test. We analysed blood samples from 2,847 key workers and 1,995 pre-pandemic blood donors with all four devices.

Findings

We observed a clear trade-off between sensitivity and specificity: the IgG band of the SureScreen device and the AbC-19TM device had higher specificities but OrientGene and Biomerica higher sensitivities. Based on analysis of pre-pandemic samples, SureScreen IgG band had the highest specificity (98.9%, 95% confidence interval 98.3 to 99.3%), which translated to the highest positive predictive value across any pre-test probability: for example, 95.1% (95% uncertainty interval 92.6, 96.8%) at 20% pre-test probability. All four devices showed higher sensitivity at higher antibody concentrations (""spectrum effects""), but the extent of this varied by device.

Interpretation

The estimates of sensitivity and specificity can be used to adjust for test error rates when using these devices to estimate the prevalence of antibody. If tests were used to determine whether an individual has SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, in an example scenario in which 20% of individuals have antibodies we estimate around 5% of positive results on the most specific device would be false positives.

Funding

Public Health England.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919?pdf=render 33444539,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(20)30559-2,Development and validation of the ISARIC 4C Deterioration model for adults hospitalised with COVID-19: a prospective cohort study.,"Gupta RK, Harrison EM, Ho A, Docherty AB, Knight SR, van Smeden M, Abubakar I, Lipman M, Quartagno M, Pius R, Buchan I, Carson G, Drake TM, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Gamble C, Green CA, Halpin S, Hardwick HE, Holden KA, Horby PW, Jackson C, Mclean KA, Merson L, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Norman L, Olliaro PL, Pritchard MG, Russell CD, Scott-Brown J, Shaw CA, Sheikh A, Solomon T, Sudlow C, Swann OV, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Noursadeghi M, ISARIC4C Investigators.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2021,2021-01-11,Y,,,,"

Background

Prognostic models to predict the risk of clinical deterioration in acute COVID-19 cases are urgently required to inform clinical management decisions.

Methods

We developed and validated a multivariable logistic regression model for in-hospital clinical deterioration (defined as any requirement of ventilatory support or critical care, or death) among consecutively hospitalised adults with highly suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who were prospectively recruited to the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium (ISARIC4C) study across 260 hospitals in England, Scotland, and Wales. Candidate predictors that were specified a priori were considered for inclusion in the model on the basis of previous prognostic scores and emerging literature describing routinely measured biomarkers associated with COVID-19 prognosis. We used internal-external cross-validation to evaluate discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility across eight National Health Service (NHS) regions in the development cohort. We further validated the final model in held-out data from an additional NHS region (London).

Findings

74 944 participants (recruited between Feb 6 and Aug 26, 2020) were included, of whom 31 924 (43·2%) of 73 948 with available outcomes met the composite clinical deterioration outcome. In internal-external cross-validation in the development cohort of 66 705 participants, the selected model (comprising 11 predictors routinely measured at the point of hospital admission) showed consistent discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility across all eight NHS regions. In held-out data from London (n=8239), the model showed a similarly consistent performance (C-statistic 0·77 [95% CI 0·76 to 0·78]; calibration-in-the-large 0·00 [-0·05 to 0·05]); calibration slope 0·96 [0·91 to 1·01]), and greater net benefit than any other reproducible prognostic model.

Interpretation

The 4C Deterioration model has strong potential for clinical utility and generalisability to predict clinical deterioration and inform decision making among adults hospitalised with COVID-19.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Department for International Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EU Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-)emerging Epidemics, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at University of Liverpool, NIHR HPRU in Respiratory Infections at Imperial College London.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(20)30559-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30559-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7832571 +34098341,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414,Accuracy of four lateral flow immunoassays for anti SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: a head-to-head comparative study.,"Jones HE, Mulchandani R, Taylor-Phillips S, Ades AE, Shute J, Perry KR, Chandra NL, Brooks T, Charlett A, Hickman M, Oliver I, Kaptoge S, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Wyllie D, COMPARE study investigators, EDSAB-HOME investigators.",,EBioMedicine,2021,2021-06-04,Y,Seroepidemiology; Rapid Testing; Serosurveillance; Lateral Flow Devices; Covid-19,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests are used for population surveillance and might have a future role in individual risk assessment. Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) can deliver results rapidly and at scale, but have widely varying accuracy.

Methods

In a laboratory setting, we performed head-to-head comparisons of four LFIAs: the Rapid Test Consortium's AbC-19TM Rapid Test, OrientGene COVID IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette, SureScreen COVID-19 Rapid Test Cassette, and Biomerica COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test. We analysed blood samples from 2,847 key workers and 1,995 pre-pandemic blood donors with all four devices.

Findings

We observed a clear trade-off between sensitivity and specificity: the IgG band of the SureScreen device and the AbC-19TM device had higher specificities but OrientGene and Biomerica higher sensitivities. Based on analysis of pre-pandemic samples, SureScreen IgG band had the highest specificity (98.9%, 95% confidence interval 98.3 to 99.3%), which translated to the highest positive predictive value across any pre-test probability: for example, 95.1% (95% uncertainty interval 92.6, 96.8%) at 20% pre-test probability. All four devices showed higher sensitivity at higher antibody concentrations (""spectrum effects""), but the extent of this varied by device.

Interpretation

The estimates of sensitivity and specificity can be used to adjust for test error rates when using these devices to estimate the prevalence of antibody. If tests were used to determine whether an individual has SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, in an example scenario in which 20% of individuals have antibodies we estimate around 5% of positive results on the most specific device would be false positives.

Funding

Public Health England.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919?pdf=render 33472631,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3,Evaluation and improvement of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) for COVID-19: a multi-hospital study.,"Carr E, Bendayan R, Bean D, Stammers M, Wang W, Zhang H, Searle T, Kraljevic Z, Shek A, Phan HTT, Muruet W, Gupta RK, Shinton AJ, Wyatt M, Shi T, Zhang X, Pickles A, Stahl D, Zakeri R, Noursadeghi M, O'Gallagher K, Rogers M, Folarin A, Karwath A, Wickstrøm KE, Köhn-Luque A, Slater L, Cardoso VR, Bourdeaux C, Holten AR, Ball S, McWilliams C, Roguski L, Borca F, Batchelor J, Amundsen EK, Wu X, Gkoutos GV, Sun J, Pinto A, Guthrie B, Breen C, Douiri A, Wu H, Curcin V, Teo JT, Shah AM, Dobson RJB.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-01-21,Y,Prediction model; Blood parameters; Covid-19; News2 Score,,,"

Background

The National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) is currently recommended in the UK for the risk stratification of COVID-19 patients, but little is known about its ability to detect severe cases. We aimed to evaluate NEWS2 for the prediction of severe COVID-19 outcome and identify and validate a set of blood and physiological parameters routinely collected at hospital admission to improve upon the use of NEWS2 alone for medium-term risk stratification.

Methods

Training cohorts comprised 1276 patients admitted to King's College Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust with COVID-19 disease from 1 March to 30 April 2020. External validation cohorts included 6237 patients from five UK NHS Trusts (Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, University Hospitals Southampton, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, University College London Hospitals, University Hospitals Birmingham), one hospital in Norway (Oslo University Hospital), and two hospitals in Wuhan, China (Wuhan Sixth Hospital and Taikang Tongji Hospital). The outcome was severe COVID-19 disease (transfer to intensive care unit (ICU) or death) at 14 days after hospital admission. Age, physiological measures, blood biomarkers, sex, ethnicity, and comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases) measured at hospital admission were considered in the models.

Results

A baseline model of 'NEWS2 + age' had poor-to-moderate discrimination for severe COVID-19 infection at 14 days (area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) in training cohort = 0.700, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.680, 0.722; Brier score = 0.192, 95% CI 0.186, 0.197). A supplemented model adding eight routinely collected blood and physiological parameters (supplemental oxygen flow rate, urea, age, oxygen saturation, C-reactive protein, estimated glomerular filtration rate, neutrophil count, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio) improved discrimination (AUC = 0.735; 95% CI 0.715, 0.757), and these improvements were replicated across seven UK and non-UK sites. However, there was evidence of miscalibration with the model tending to underestimate risks in most sites.

Conclusions

NEWS2 score had poor-to-moderate discrimination for medium-term COVID-19 outcome which raises questions about its use as a screening tool at hospital admission. Risk stratification was improved by including readily available blood and physiological parameters measured at hospital admission, but there was evidence of miscalibration in external sites. This highlights the need for a better understanding of the use of early warning scores for COVID.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348?pdf=render PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the usage of analgesics by cancer patients.,"Han J, Akbari A, Torabi F, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Rolles M, Arnold C, Huws D, Lawler M, Lyons R.",,International journal of population data science,,2022-11-25,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645061/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645061/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9645061; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9645061?pdf=render 34868617,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211048654,Towards nationally curated data archives for clinical radiology image analysis at scale: Learnings from national data collection in response to a pandemic.,"Cushnan D, Berka R, Bertolli O, Williams P, Schofield D, Joshi I, Favaro A, Halling-Brown M, Imreh G, Jefferson E, Sebire NJ, Reilly G, Rodrigues JCL, Robinson G, Copley S, Malik R, Bloomfield C, Gleeson F, Crotty M, Denton E, Dickson J, Leeming G, Hardwick HE, Baillie K, Openshaw PJ, Semple MG, Rubin C, Howlett A, Rockall AG, Bhayat A, Fascia D, Sudlow C, NCCID Collaborative, Jacob J.",,Digital health,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Artificial intelligence; Medicine; Imaging; general; Radiology; Respiratory; Machine Learning; Coronavirus Sars-Cov-2 Disease,,,"The prevalence of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 disease has resulted in the unprecedented collection of health data to support research. Historically, coordinating the collation of such datasets on a national scale has been challenging to execute for several reasons, including issues with data privacy, the lack of data reporting standards, interoperable technologies, and distribution methods. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 disease pandemic has highlighted the importance of collaboration between government bodies, healthcare institutions, academic researchers and commercial companies in overcoming these issues during times of urgency. The National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database, led by NHSX, British Society of Thoracic Imaging, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and Faculty, is an example of such a national initiative. Here, we summarise the experiences and challenges of setting up the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database, and the implications for future ambitions of national data curation in medical imaging to advance the safe adoption of artificial intelligence in healthcare.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076211048654; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211048654; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637703; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637703?pdf=render 36526319,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064910,Performance of scoring systems in selecting short stay medical admissions suitable for assessment in same day emergency care: an analysis of diagnostic accuracy in a UK hospital setting.,"Atkin C, Gallier S, Wallin E, Reddy-Kolanu V, Sapey E.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-16,Y,Internal Medicine; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine); Organisation Of Health Services,,,"

Objectives

To assess the performance of the Amb score and Glasgow Admission Prediction Score (GAPS) in identifying acute medical admissions suitable for same day emergency care (SDEC) in a large urban secondary centre.

Design

Retrospective assessment of routinely collected data from electronic healthcare records.

Setting

Single large urban tertiary care centre.

Participants

All unplanned admissions to general medicine on Monday-Friday, episodes starting 08:00-16:59 hours and lasting up to 48 hours, between 1 April 2019 and 9 March 2020.

Main outcome measures

Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the Amb score and GAPS in identifying patients discharged within 12 hours of arrival.

Results

7365 episodes were assessed. 94.6% of episodes had an Amb score suggesting suitability for SDEC. The positive predictive value of the Amb score in identifying those discharged within 12 hours was 54.5% (95% CI 53.3% to 55.8%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for the Amb score was 0.612 (95% CI 0.599 to 0.625).42.4% of episodes had a GAPS suggesting suitability for SDEC. The positive predictive value of the GAPS in identifying those discharged within 12 hours was 50.5% (95% CI 48.4% to 52.7%). The AUROC for the GAPS was 0.606 (95% CI 0.590 to 0.622).41.4% of the population had both an Amb and GAPS score suggestive of suitability for SDEC and 5.7% of the population had both and Amb and GAPS score suggestive of a lack of suitability for SDEC.

Conclusions

The Amb score and GAPS had poor discriminatory ability to identify acute medical admissions suitable for discharge within 12 hours, limiting their utility in selecting patients for assessment within SDEC services within this diverse patient population.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e064910.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064910; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764605; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764605?pdf=render -37105743,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0353,Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on incidence of long-term conditions in Wales: a population data linkage study using primary and secondary care health records.,"Qi C, Osborne T, Bailey R, Cooper A, Hollinghurst JP, Akbari A, Crowder R, Peters H, Law RJ, Lewis R, Smith D, Edwards A, Lyons RA.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2023,2023-04-27,Y,Diagnosis; Chronic disease; Anxiety; Primary Health Care; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has directly and indirectly had an impact on health service provision owing to surges and sustained pressures on the system. The effects of these pressures on the management of long-term or chronic conditions are not fully understood.

Aim

To explore the effects of COVID-19 on the recorded incidence of 17 long-term conditions.

Design and setting

This was an observational retrospective population data linkage study on the population of Wales using primary and secondary care data within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Method

Monthly rates of new diagnosis between 2000 and 2021 are presented for each long-term condition. Incidence rates post-2020 were compared with expected rates predicted using time series modelling of pre-2020 trends. The proportion of annual incidence is presented by sociodemographic factors: age, sex, social deprivation, ethnicity, frailty, and learning disability.

Results

A total of 5 476 012 diagnoses from 2 257 992 individuals are included. Incidence rates from 2020 to 2021 were lower than mean expected rates across all conditions. The largest relative deficit in incidence was in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease corresponding to 343 (95% confidence interval = 230 to 456) undiagnosed patients per 100 000 population, followed by depression, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, anxiety disorders, and asthma. A GP practice of 10 000 patients might have over 400 undiagnosed long-term conditions. No notable differences between sociodemographic profiles of post- and pre-2020 incidences were observed.

Conclusion

There is a potential backlog of undiagnosed patients with multiple long-term conditions. Resources are required to tackle anticipated workload as part of COVID-19 recovery, particularly in primary care.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/03/06/BJGP.2022.0353.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0353; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656?pdf=render 34286192,https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0083,Making trials part of good clinical care: lessons from the RECOVERY trial.,"Pessoa-Amorim G, Campbell M, Fletcher L, Horby P, Landray M, Mafham M, Haynes R.",,Future healthcare journal,2021,2021-07-01,N,Recovery; RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIALS; evidence-based medicine; Quality-by-design; Covid-19,,,"When COVID-19 hit the UK in early 2020, there were no known treatments for a condition that results in the death of around one in four patients hospitalised with this disease. Around the world, possible treatments were administered to huge numbers of patients, without any reliable assessments of safety and efficacy. The rapid generation of high-quality evidence was vital. RECOVERY is a streamlined, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial, which was set up in response to this challenge. As of April 2021, over 39,000 patients have been enrolled from 178 hospital sites in the UK. Within 100 days of its initiation, RECOVERY demonstrated that dexamethasone improves survival for patients with severe disease; a result that was rapidly implemented in the UK and internationally saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Importantly, it also showed that other widely used treatments (such as hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin) have no meaningful benefit for hospitalised patients. This was only possible through randomisation of large numbers of patients and the adoption of streamlined and pragmatic procedures focused on quality, together with widespread collaboration focused on a single goal. RECOVERY illustrates how clinical trials and healthcare can be integrated, even in a pandemic. This approach provides new opportunities to generate the evidence needed for high-quality healthcare not only for a pandemic but for the many other conditions that place a burden on patients and the healthcare system.",,pdf:https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/futurehosp/8/2/e243.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8285150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8285150?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0083 +37105743,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0353,Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on incidence of long-term conditions in Wales: a population data linkage study using primary and secondary care health records.,"Qi C, Osborne T, Bailey R, Cooper A, Hollinghurst JP, Akbari A, Crowder R, Peters H, Law RJ, Lewis R, Smith D, Edwards A, Lyons RA.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2023,2023-04-27,Y,Diagnosis; Chronic disease; Anxiety; Primary Health Care; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has directly and indirectly had an impact on health service provision owing to surges and sustained pressures on the system. The effects of these pressures on the management of long-term or chronic conditions are not fully understood.

Aim

To explore the effects of COVID-19 on the recorded incidence of 17 long-term conditions.

Design and setting

This was an observational retrospective population data linkage study on the population of Wales using primary and secondary care data within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Method

Monthly rates of new diagnosis between 2000 and 2021 are presented for each long-term condition. Incidence rates post-2020 were compared with expected rates predicted using time series modelling of pre-2020 trends. The proportion of annual incidence is presented by sociodemographic factors: age, sex, social deprivation, ethnicity, frailty, and learning disability.

Results

A total of 5 476 012 diagnoses from 2 257 992 individuals are included. Incidence rates from 2020 to 2021 were lower than mean expected rates across all conditions. The largest relative deficit in incidence was in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease corresponding to 343 (95% confidence interval = 230 to 456) undiagnosed patients per 100 000 population, followed by depression, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, anxiety disorders, and asthma. A GP practice of 10 000 patients might have over 400 undiagnosed long-term conditions. No notable differences between sociodemographic profiles of post- and pre-2020 incidences were observed.

Conclusion

There is a potential backlog of undiagnosed patients with multiple long-term conditions. Resources are required to tackle anticipated workload as part of COVID-19 recovery, particularly in primary care.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/03/06/BJGP.2022.0353.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0353; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656?pdf=render 36949447,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z,Inequalities in colorectal cancer screening uptake in Wales: an examination of the impact of the temporary suspension of the screening programme during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Bright D, Hillier S, Song J, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.",,BMC public health,2023,2023-03-22,Y,Colorectal Cancer; Inequalities; Bowel; Ethnicity; Cancer Screening; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Response to the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of cancer screening in the UK, and strong public messaging to stay safe and to protect NHS capacity. Following reintroduction in services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who may benefit from tailored interventions.

Methods

Records within the BSW were linked to electronic health records (EHR) and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Ethnic group was obtained from a linked data method available within SAIL. We examined uptake for the first 3 months of invitations (August to October) following the reintroduction of BSW programme in 2020, compared to the same period in the preceding 3 years. Uptake was measured across a 6 month follow-up period. Logistic models were conducted to analyse variations in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban/rural location, ethnic group, and clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) status in each period; and to compare uptake within sociodemographic groups between different periods.

Results

Uptake during August to October 2020 (period 2020/21; 60.4%) declined compared to the same period in 2019/20 (62.7%) but remained above the 60% Welsh standard. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019/20, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most income deprived group. Uptake continues to be lower in males, younger individuals, people living in the most income deprived areas and those of Asian and unknown ethnic backgrounds.

Conclusion

Our findings are encouraging with overall uptake achieving the 60% Welsh standard during the first three months after the programme restarted in 2020 despite the disruption. Inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities but variations in CRC screening in Wales associated with sex, age, deprivation and ethnic group remain. This needs to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in CRC screening to avoid exacerbating disparities in CRC outcomes as screening services recover from the pandemic.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10031708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10031708?pdf=render 36529825,https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-022-00777-2,The False Economy of Seeking to Eliminate Delayed Transfers of Care: Some Lessons from Queueing Theory.,"Wood RM, Harper AL, Onen-Dumlu Z, Forte PG, Pitt M, Vasilakis C.",,Applied health economics and health policy,2023,2022-12-18,Y,,,,"

Background

It is a stated ambition of many healthcare systems to eliminate delayed transfers of care (DTOCs) between acute and step-down community services.

Objective

This study aims to demonstrate how, counter to intuition, pursual of such a policy is likely to be uneconomical, as it would require large amounts of community capacity to accommodate even the rarest of demand peaks, leaving much capacity unused for much of the time.

Methods

Some standard results from queueing theory-a mathematical discipline for considering the dynamics of queues and queueing systems-are used to provide a model of patient flow from the acute to community setting. While queueing models have a track record of application in healthcare, they have not before been used to address this question.

Results

Results show that 'eliminating' DTOCs is a false economy: the additional community costs required are greater than the possible acute cost saving. While a substantial proportion of DTOCs can be attributed to inefficient use of resources, the remainder can be considered economically essential to ensuring cost-efficient service operation. For England's National Health Service (NHS), our modelling estimates annual cost savings of £117m if DTOCs are reduced to the 12% of current levels that can be regarded as economically essential.

Conclusion

This study discourages the use of 'zero DTOC' targets and instead supports an assessment based on the specific characteristics of the healthcare system considered.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-022-00777-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760184?pdf=render; pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40258-022-00777-2.pdf 32613083,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15922.2,"Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in England are at increased risk of death from COVID-19: indirect standardisation of NHS mortality data.","Aldridge RW, Lewer D, Katikireddi SV, Mathur R, Pathak N, Burns R, Fragaszy EB, Johnson AM, Devakumar D, Abubakar I, Hayward A.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-06-24,Y,Mortality; Minority Ethnic Groups; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: International and UK data suggest that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are at increased risk of infection and death from COVID-19. We aimed to explore the risk of death in minority ethnic groups in England using data reported by NHS England. Methods: We used NHS data on patients with a positive COVID-19 test who died in hospitals in England published on 28th April, with deaths by ethnicity available from 1st March 2020 up to 5pm on 21 April 2020. We undertook indirect standardisation of these data (using the whole population of England as the reference) to produce ethnic specific standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) adjusted for age and geographical region. Results: The largest total number of deaths in minority ethnic groups were Indian (492 deaths) and Black Caribbean (460 deaths) groups. Adjusting for region we found a lower risk of death for White Irish (SMR 0.52; 95%CIs 0.45-0.60) and White British ethnic groups (0.88; 95%CIs 0.86-0.0.89), but increased risk of death for Black African (3.24; 95%CIs 2.90-3.62), Black Caribbean (2.21; 95%CIs 2.02-2.41), Pakistani (3.29; 95%CIs 2.96-3.64), Bangladeshi (2.41; 95%CIs 1.98-2.91) and Indian (1.70; 95%CIs 1.56-1.85) minority ethnic groups. Conclusion: Our analysis adds to the evidence that BAME people are at increased risk of death from COVID-19 even after adjusting for geographical region, but was limited by the lack of data on deaths outside of NHS settings and ethnicity denominator data being based on the 2011 census. Despite these limitations, we believe there is an urgent need to take action to reduce the risk of death for BAME groups and better understand why some ethnic groups experience greater risk. Actions that are likely to reduce these inequities include ensuring adequate income protection, reducing occupational risks, reducing barriers in accessing healthcare and providing culturally and linguistically appropriate public health communications.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15922.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7317462; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7317462?pdf=render @@ -504,26 +504,26 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 34661663,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639,Association Between Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors and the Risk of Hospitalization or Death Among Patients With Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease and COVID-19.,"Izadi Z, Brenner EJ, Mahil SK, Dand N, Yiu ZZN, Yates M, Ungaro RC, Zhang X, Agrawal M, Colombel JF, Gianfrancesco MA, Hyrich KL, Strangfeld A, Carmona L, Mateus EF, Lawson-Tovey S, Klingberg E, Cuomo G, Caprioli M, Cruz-Machado AR, Mazeda Pereira AC, Hasseli R, Pfeil A, Lorenz HM, Hoyer BF, Trupin L, Rush S, Katz P, Schmajuk G, Jacobsohn L, Seet AM, Al Emadi S, Wise L, Gilbert EL, Duarte-García A, Valenzuela-Almada MO, Isnardi CA, Quintana R, Soriano ER, Hsu TY, D'Silva KM, Sparks JA, Patel NJ, Xavier RM, Marques CDL, Kakehasi AM, Flipo RM, Claudepierre P, Cantagrel A, Goupille P, Wallace ZS, Bhana S, Costello W, Grainger R, Hausmann JS, Liew JW, Sirotich E, Sufka P, Robinson PC, Machado PM, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Yazdany J, Kappelman MD, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Allianc, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA).",,JAMA network open,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Although tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors are widely prescribed globally because of their ability to ameliorate shared immune pathways across immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), the impact of COVID-19 among individuals with IMIDs who are receiving TNF inhibitors remains insufficiently understood.

Objective

To examine the association between the receipt of TNF inhibitor monotherapy and the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among adult patients with IMIDs.

Design, setting, and participants

This cohort study was a pooled analysis of data from 3 international COVID-19 registries comprising individuals with rheumatic diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis from March 12, 2020, to February 1, 2021. Clinicians directly reported COVID-19 outcomes as well as demographic and clinical characteristics of individuals with IMIDs and confirmed or suspected COVID-19 using online data entry portals. Adults (age ≥18 years) with a diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, or psoriasis were included.

Exposures

Treatment exposure categories included TNF inhibitor monotherapy (reference treatment), TNF inhibitors in combination with methotrexate therapy, TNF inhibitors in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy, methotrexate monotherapy, azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy, and Janus kinase (Jak) inhibitor monotherapy.

Main outcomes and measures

The main outcome was COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death. Registry-level analyses and a pooled analysis of data across the 3 registries were conducted using multilevel multivariable logistic regression models, adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics and accounting for country, calendar month, and registry-level correlations.

Results

A total of 6077 patients from 74 countries were included in the analyses; of those, 3215 individuals (52.9%) were from Europe, 3563 individuals (58.6%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 48.8 (16.5) years. The most common IMID diagnoses were rheumatoid arthritis (2146 patients [35.3%]) and Crohn disease (1537 patients [25.3%]). A total of 1297 patients (21.3%) were hospitalized, and 189 patients (3.1%) died. In the pooled analysis, compared with patients who received TNF inhibitor monotherapy, higher odds of hospitalization or death were observed among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy (odds ratio [OR], 1.74; 95% CI, 1.17-2.58; P = .006), azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy (OR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.30-2.61; P = .001), methotrexate monotherapy (OR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.57-2.56; P < .001), and Jak inhibitor monotherapy (OR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.21-2.73; P = .004) but not among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with methotrexate therapy (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.85-1.63; P = .33). Similar findings were obtained in analyses that accounted for potential reporting bias and sensitivity analyses that excluded patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis based on symptoms alone.

Conclusions and relevance

In this cohort study, TNF inhibitor monotherapy was associated with a lower risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among individuals with IMIDs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524310; pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2785080/izadi_2021_oi_210864_1633624160.94853.pdf 35288697,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01750-1,COVID-19 and resilience of healthcare systems in ten countries.,"Arsenault C, Gage A, Kim MK, Kapoor NR, Akweongo P, Amponsah F, Aryal A, Asai D, Awoonor-Williams JK, Ayele W, Bedregal P, Doubova SV, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Gordon-Strachan G, Mariam DH, Hensman D, Joseph JP, Kaewkamjornchai P, Eshetu MK, Gelaw SK, Kubota S, Leerapan B, Margozzini P, Mebratie AD, Mehata S, Moshabela M, Mthethwa L, Nega A, Oh J, Park S, Passi-Solar Á, Pérez-Cuevas R, Phengsavanh A, Reddy T, Rittiphairoj T, Sapag JC, Thermidor R, Tlou B, Valenzuela Guiñez F, Bauhoff S, Kruk ME.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-03-14,Y,,,,"Declines in health service use during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could have important effects on population health. In this study, we used an interrupted time series design to assess the immediate effect of the pandemic on 31 health services in two low-income (Ethiopia and Haiti), six middle-income (Ghana, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Thailand) and high-income (Chile and South Korea) countries. Despite efforts to maintain health services, disruptions of varying magnitude and duration were found in every country, with no clear patterns by country income group or pandemic intensity. Disruptions in health services often preceded COVID-19 waves. Cancer screenings, TB screening and detection and HIV testing were most affected (26-96% declines). Total outpatient visits declined by 9-40% at national levels and remained lower than predicted by the end of 2020. Maternal health services were disrupted in approximately half of the countries, with declines ranging from 5% to 33%. Child vaccinations were disrupted for shorter periods, but we estimate that catch-up campaigns might not have reached all children missed. By contrast, provision of antiretrovirals for HIV was not affected. By the end of 2020, substantial disruptions remained in half of the countries. Preliminary data for 2021 indicate that disruptions likely persisted. Although a portion of the declines observed might result from decreased needs during lockdowns (from fewer infectious illnesses or injuries), a larger share likely reflects a shortfall of health system resilience. Countries must plan to compensate for missed healthcare during the current pandemic and invest in strategies for better health system resilience for future emergencies.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01750-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01750-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770?pdf=render 32831176,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58699,The contribution of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections to transmission on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. ,"Emery JC, Russell TW, Liu Y, Hellewell J, Pearson CA, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Knight GM, Eggo RM, Kucharski AJ, Kucharski AJ, Funk S, Flasche S, Houben RM.",,eLife,2020,2020-08-24,Y,,,,"A key unknown for SARS-CoV-2 is how asymptomatic infections contribute to transmission. We used a transmission model with asymptomatic and presymptomatic states, calibrated to data on disease onset and test frequency from the Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak, to quantify the contribution of asymptomatic infections to transmission. The model estimated that 74% (70-78%, 95% posterior interval) of infections proceeded asymptomatically. Despite intense testing, 53% (51-56%) of infections remained undetected, most of them asymptomatic. Asymptomatic individuals were the source for 69% (20-85%) of all infections. The data did not allow identification of the infectiousness of asymptomatic infections, however low ranges (0-25%) required a net reproduction number for individuals progressing through presymptomatic and symptomatic stages of at least 15. Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections may contribute substantially to transmission. Control measures, and models projecting their potential impact, need to look beyond the symptomatic cases if they are to understand and address ongoing transmission.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58699; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58699; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7527238; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7527238?pdf=render -35260393,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099,Overcoming disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. ,"Doubova SV, Robledo-Aburto ZA, Duque-Molina C, Borrayo-Sánchez G, González-León M, Avilés-Hernández R, Contreras-Sánchez SE, Leslie HH, Kruk M, Pérez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.",,BMJ global health,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/7/3/e008099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410?pdf=render 34740937,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056601,Analysis of mental and physical disorders associated with COVID-19 in online health forums: a natural language processing study.,"Patel R, Smeraldi F, Abdollahyan M, Irving J, Bessant C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-11-05,Y,information technology; Health Informatics; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Online health forums provide rich and untapped real-time data on population health. Through novel data extraction and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, we characterise the evolution of mental and physical health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic among online health forum users.

Setting and design

We obtained data from three leading online health forums: HealthBoards, Inspire and HealthUnlocked, from the period 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2020. Using NLP, we analysed the content of posts related to COVID-19.

Primary outcome measures

(1) Proportion of forum posts containing COVID-19 keywords; (2) proportion of forum users making their very first post about COVID-19; (3) proportion of COVID-19-related posts containing content related to physical and mental health comorbidities.

Results

Data from 739 434 posts created by 53 134 unique users were analysed. A total of 35 581 posts (4.8%) contained a COVID-19 keyword. Posts discussing COVID-19 and related comorbid disorders spiked in early March to mid-March around the time of global implementation of lockdowns prompting a large number of users to post on online health forums for the first time. Over a quarter of COVID-19-related thread titles mentioned a physical or mental health comorbidity.

Conclusions

We demonstrate that it is feasible to characterise the content of online health forum user posts regarding COVID-19 and measure changes over time. The pandemic and corresponding public response has had a significant impact on posters' queries regarding mental health. Social media data sources such as online health forums can be harnessed to strengthen population-level mental health surveillance.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/11/e056601.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056601; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8573296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8573296?pdf=render +35260393,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099,Overcoming disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. ,"Doubova SV, Robledo-Aburto ZA, Duque-Molina C, Borrayo-Sánchez G, González-León M, Avilés-Hernández R, Contreras-Sánchez SE, Leslie HH, Kruk M, Pérez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.",,BMJ global health,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/7/3/e008099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410?pdf=render 34859617,https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.309,The clinical profile and associated mortality in people with and without diabetes with Coronavirus disease 2019 on admission to acute hospital services.,"Gokhale K, Mostafa SA, Wang J, Tahrani AA, Sainsbury CA, Toulis KA, Thomas GN, Hassan-Smith Z, Sapey E, Gallier S, Adderley NJ, Narendran P, Bellary S, Taverner T, Ghosh S, Nirantharakumar K, Hanif W.",,"Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism",2022,2021-12-03,Y,Diabetes; Complications; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

To assess if in adults with COVID-19, whether those with diabetes and complications (DM+C) present with a more severe clinical profile and if that relates to increased mortality, compared to those with diabetes with no complications (DM-NC) and those without diabetes.

Methods

Service-level data was used from 996 adults with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 who presented to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK, from March to June 2020. All individuals were categorized into DM+C, DM-NC, and non-diabetes groups. Physiological and laboratory measurements in the first 5 days after admission were collated and compared among groups. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate associations between diabetes status and the risk of mortality.

Results

Among the 996 individuals, 104 (10.4%) were DM+C, 295 (29.6%) DM-NC and 597 (59.9%) non-diabetes. There were 309 (31.0%) in-hospital deaths documented, 40 (4.0% of total cohort) were DM+C, 99 (9.9%) DM-NC and 170 (17.0%) non-diabetes. Individuals with DM+C were more likely to present with high anion gap/metabolic acidosis, features of renal impairment, and low albumin/lymphocyte count than those with DM-NC or those without diabetes. There was no significant difference in mortality rates among the groups: compared to individuals without diabetes, the adjusted HRs were 1.39 (95% CI 0.95-2.03, p = 0.093) and 1.18 (95% CI 0.90-1.54, p = 0.226) in DM+C and DM-C, respectively.

Conclusions

Those with COVID-19 and DM+C presented with a more severe clinical and biochemical profile, but this did not associate with increased mortality in this study.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/edm2.309; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.309; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8754243; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8754243?pdf=render +34378227,https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.14010,"Health-related quality of life, uncertainty and coping strategies in solid organ transplant recipients during shielding for the COVID-19 pandemic.","McKay SC, Lembach H, Hann A, Okoth K, Anderton J, Nirantharakumar K, Magill L, Torlinska B, Armstrong M, Mascaro J, Inston N, Pinkney T, Ranasinghe A, Borrows R, Ferguson J, Isaac J, Calvert M, Perera MTPR, Hartog H.",,Transplant international : official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation,2021,2021-09-16,Y,Isolation; Transplant; Mental health; Health-related Quality Of Life; Shielding; Covid-19,,,"Strict isolation of vulnerable individuals has been a strategy implemented by authorities to protect people from COVID-19. Our objective was to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQoL), uncertainty and coping behaviours in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional survey of adult SOT recipients undergoing follow-up at our institution was performed. Perceived health status, uncertainty and coping strategies were assessed using the EQ-5D-5L, Short-form Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (SF-MUIS) and Brief Cope, respectively. Interactions with COVID-19 risk perception, access to health care, demographic and clinical variables were assessed. The survey was completed by 826 of 3839 (21.5%) invited participants. Overall, low levels of uncertainty in illness were reported, and acceptance was the major coping strategy (92%). Coping by acceptance, feeling protected, self-perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 were associated with lower levels of uncertainty. Health status index scores were significantly lower for those with mental health illness, compromised access to health care, a perceived high risk of severe COVID-19 infection and higher levels of uncertainty. A history of mental health illness, risk perceptions, restricted healthcare access, uncertainty and coping strategies was associated with poorer HRQoL in SOT recipients during strict isolation. These findings may allow identification of strategies to improve HRQoL in SOT recipients during the pandemic.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8420473; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.14010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8420473; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8420473?pdf=render 32979970,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31966-8,Models for mortality require tailoring in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic - Authors' reply.,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Denaxas S, Williams B, Hemingway H.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-09-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673620319668/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31966-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7515579; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7515579?pdf=render 34244281,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611,"Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers in the UK: UK-REACH ethico-legal research, qualitative research on healthcare workers' experiences and stakeholder engagement protocol.","Gogoi M, Reed-Berendt R, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Wobi F, Gupta A, Abubakar I, Dove E, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-07-09,Y,Medical Ethics; Qualitative Research; Medical Law; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging evidence suggests that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds may be disproportionately affected. The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) project has been initiated to generate rapid evidence on whether and why ethnicity affects COVID-19 diagnosis and clinical outcomes in healthcare workers (HCWs) in the UK, through five interlinked work packages/work streams, three of which form the basis of this protocol. The ethico-legal work (Work Package 3) aims to understand and address legal, ethical and acceptability issues around big data research; the HCWs' experiences study (Work Package 4) explores their work and personal experiences, perceptions of risk, support and coping mechanisms; the stakeholder engagement work (Work Package 5) aims to provide feedback and support with the formulation and dissemination of the project recommendations.

Methods and analysis

Work Package 3 has two different research strands: (A) desk-based doctrinal research; and (B) empirical qualitative research with key opinion leaders. For the empirical research, in-depth interviews will be conducted digitally and recorded with participants' permission. Recordings will be transcribed, coded and analysed using thematic analysis. In Work Package 4, online in-depth interviews and focus groups will be conducted with approximately 150 HCWs, from across the UK, and these will be recorded with participants' consent. The recordings will be transcribed and coded and data will be analysed using thematic analysis. Work Package 5 will achieve its objectives through regular group meetings and in-group discussions.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been received from the London-Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority (Ref No 20/HRA/4718). Results of the study will be published in open-access journals, and disseminated through conference presentations, project website, stakeholder organisations, media and scientific advisory groups.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e049611.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361?pdf=render -34378227,https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.14010,"Health-related quality of life, uncertainty and coping strategies in solid organ transplant recipients during shielding for the COVID-19 pandemic.","McKay SC, Lembach H, Hann A, Okoth K, Anderton J, Nirantharakumar K, Magill L, Torlinska B, Armstrong M, Mascaro J, Inston N, Pinkney T, Ranasinghe A, Borrows R, Ferguson J, Isaac J, Calvert M, Perera MTPR, Hartog H.",,Transplant international : official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation,2021,2021-09-16,Y,Isolation; Transplant; Mental health; Health-related Quality Of Life; Shielding; Covid-19,,,"Strict isolation of vulnerable individuals has been a strategy implemented by authorities to protect people from COVID-19. Our objective was to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQoL), uncertainty and coping behaviours in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional survey of adult SOT recipients undergoing follow-up at our institution was performed. Perceived health status, uncertainty and coping strategies were assessed using the EQ-5D-5L, Short-form Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (SF-MUIS) and Brief Cope, respectively. Interactions with COVID-19 risk perception, access to health care, demographic and clinical variables were assessed. The survey was completed by 826 of 3839 (21.5%) invited participants. Overall, low levels of uncertainty in illness were reported, and acceptance was the major coping strategy (92%). Coping by acceptance, feeling protected, self-perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 were associated with lower levels of uncertainty. Health status index scores were significantly lower for those with mental health illness, compromised access to health care, a perceived high risk of severe COVID-19 infection and higher levels of uncertainty. A history of mental health illness, risk perceptions, restricted healthcare access, uncertainty and coping strategies was associated with poorer HRQoL in SOT recipients during strict isolation. These findings may allow identification of strategies to improve HRQoL in SOT recipients during the pandemic.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8420473; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.14010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8420473; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8420473?pdf=render 36093379,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079,Epidemiologic information discovery from open-access COVID-19 case reports via pretrained language model.,"Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.",,iScience,2022,2022-09-05,Y,Artificial intelligence; Virology; Machine Learning; Health Sciences,,,"Although open-access data are increasingly common and useful to epidemiological research, the curation of such datasets is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Despite the existence of a major source of COVID-19 data, the regularly disclosed case reports were often written in natural language with an unstructured format. Here, we propose a computational framework that can automatically extract epidemiological information from open-access COVID-19 case reports. We develop this framework by coupling a language model developed using deep neural networks with training samples compiled using an optimized data annotation strategy. When applied to the COVID-19 case reports collected from mainland China, our framework outperforms all other state-of-the-art deep learning models. The information extracted from our approach is highly consistent with that obtained from the gold-standard manual coding, with a matching rate of 80%. To disseminate our algorithm, we provide an open-access online platform that is able to estimate key epidemiological statistics in real time, with much less effort for data curation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477?pdf=render 34722933,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16507.1,The international Perinatal Outcomes in the Pandemic (iPOP) study: protocol.,"Stock SJ, Zoega H, Brockway M, Mulholland RH, Miller JE, Been JV, Wood R, Abok II, Alshaikh B, Ayede AI, Bacchini F, Bhutta ZA, Brew BK, Brook J, Calvert C, Campbell-Yeo M, Chan D, Chirombo J, Connor KL, Daly M, Einarsdóttir K, Fantasia I, Franklin M, Fraser A, Håberg SE, Hui L, Huicho L, Magnus MC, Morris AD, Nagy-Bonnard L, Nassar N, Nyadanu SD, Iyabode Olabisi D, Palmer KR, Pedersen LH, Pereira G, Racine-Poon A, Ranger M, Rihs T, Saner C, Sheikh A, Swift EM, Tooke L, Urquia ML, Whitehead C, Yilgwan C, Rodriguez N, Burgner D, Azad MB, iPOP Study Team.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-02-02,Y,Stillbirth; Low Birth Weight; Preterm Birth; Global Trends; Perinatal Outcomes; Covid-19; Pandemic Lockdowns,,,"Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant death worldwide, but the causes of preterm birth are largely unknown. During the early COVID-19 lockdowns, dramatic reductions in preterm birth were reported; however, these trends may be offset by increases in stillbirth rates. It is important to study these trends globally as the pandemic continues, and to understand the underlying cause(s). Lockdowns have dramatically impacted maternal workload, access to healthcare, hygiene practices, and air pollution - all of which could impact perinatal outcomes and might affect pregnant women differently in different regions of the world. In the international Perinatal Outcomes in the Pandemic (iPOP) Study, we will seize the unique opportunity offered by the COVID-19 pandemic to answer urgent questions about perinatal health. In the first two study phases, we will use population-based aggregate data and standardized outcome definitions to: 1) Determine rates of preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth and describe changes during lockdowns; and assess if these changes are consistent globally, or differ by region and income setting, 2) Determine if the magnitude of changes in adverse perinatal outcomes during lockdown are modified by regional differences in COVID-19 infection rates, lockdown stringency, adherence to lockdown measures, air quality, or other social and economic markers, obtained from publicly available datasets. We will undertake an interrupted time series analysis covering births from January 2015 through July 2020. The iPOP Study will involve at least 121 researchers in 37 countries, including obstetricians, neonatologists, epidemiologists, public health researchers, environmental scientists, and policymakers. We will leverage the most disruptive and widespread ""natural experiment"" of our lifetime to make rapid discoveries about preterm birth. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening or unexpectedly improving perinatal outcomes, our research will provide critical new information to shape prenatal care strategies throughout (and well beyond) the pandemic.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16507.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524299; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524299?pdf=render 32518842,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15786.1,Inferring the number of COVID-19 cases from recently reported deaths.,"Jombart T, van Zandvoort K, Russell TW, Jarvis CI, Gimma A, Abbott S, Clifford S, Funk S, Gibbs H, Liu Y, Pearson CAB, Bosse NI, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Eggo RM, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-04-27,Y,Estimation; Statistics; epidemics; outbreak; Modelling; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"We estimate the number of COVID-19 cases from newly reported deaths in a population without previous reports. Our results suggest that by the time a single death occurs, hundreds to thousands of cases are likely to be present in that population. This suggests containment via contact tracing will be challenging at this point, and other response strategies should be considered. Our approach is implemented in a publicly available, user-friendly, online tool.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15786.1; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15786.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7255910; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7255910?pdf=render 33588321,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276,Biological responses to COVID-19: Insights from physiological and blood biomarker profiles.,"Zakeri R, Pickles A, Carr E, Bean DM, O'Gallagher K, Kraljewic Z, Searle T, Shek A, Galloway JB, Teo JTH, Shah AM, Dobson RJB, Bendayan R.",,Current research in translational medicine,2021,2021-02-03,Y,Inflammation; Biomarkers; Classes; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Understanding the spectrum and course of biological responses to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have important therapeutic implications. We sought to characterise biological responses among patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19 based on serial, routinely collected, physiological and blood biomarker values.

Methods and findings

We performed a retrospective cohort study of 1335 patients hospitalised with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 (median age 70 years, 56 % male), between 1st March and 30th April 2020. Latent profile analysis was performed on serial physiological and blood biomarkers. Patient characteristics, comorbidities and rates of death and admission to intensive care, were compared between the latent classes. A five class solution provided the best fit. Class 1 ""Typical response"" exhibited a moderately elevated and rising C-reactive protein (CRP), stable lymphopaenia, and the lowest rates of 14-day adverse outcomes. Class 2 ""Rapid hyperinflammatory response"" comprised older patients, with higher admission white cell and neutrophil counts, which declined over time, accompanied by a very high and rising CRP and platelet count, and exibited the highest mortality risk. Class 3 ""Progressive inflammatory response"" was similar to the typical response except for a higher and rising CRP, though similar mortality rate. Class 4 ""Inflammatory response with kidney injury"" had prominent lymphopaenia, moderately elevated (and rising) CRP, and severe renal failure. Class 5 ""Hyperinflammatory response with kidney injury"" comprised older patients, with a very high and rising CRP, and severe renal failure that attenuated over time. Physiological measures did not substantially vary between classes at baseline or early admission.

Conclusions and relevance

Our identification of five distinct classes of biomarker profiles provides empirical evidence for heterogeneous biological responses to COVID-19. Early hyperinflammatory responses and kidney injury may signify unique pathophysiology that requires targeted therapy.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7857048; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7857048?pdf=render -37269003,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x,Non-adherence and non-persistence to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Shahzad H, Mahmood S, McGee S, Hubbard J, Haque S, Paudyal V, Denniston AK, Hill LJ, Jalal Z.",,Systematic reviews,2023,2023-06-02,Y,Meta-analysis; Intravitreal; Anti-vegf; Non-adherence; Macular; Non-persistence; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections play a key role in treating a range of macular diseases. The effectiveness of these therapies is dependent on patients' adherence (the extent to which a patient takes their medicines as per agreed recommendations from the healthcare provider) and persistence (continuation of the treatment for the prescribed duration) to their prescribed treatment regimens. The aim of this systematic review was to demonstrate the need for further investigation into the prevalence of, and factors contributing to, patient-led non-adherence and non-persistence, thus facilitating improved clinical outcomes.

Methods

Systematic searches were conducted in Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library. Studies in English conducted before February 2023 that reported the level of, and/or barriers to, non-adherence or non-persistence to intravitreal anti-VEGF ocular disease therapy were included. Duplicate papers, literature reviews, expert opinion articles, case studies, and case series were excluded following screening by two independent authors.

Results

Data from a total of 409,215 patients across 52 studies were analysed. Treatment regimens included pro re nata, monthly and treat-and-extend protocols; study durations ranged from 4 months to 8 years. Of the 52 studies, 22 included a breakdown of reasons for patient non-adherence/non-persistence. Patient-led non-adherence varied between 17.5 and 35.0% depending on the definition used. Overall pooled prevalence of patient-led treatment non-persistence was 30.0% (P = 0.000). Reasons for non-adherence/non-persistence included dissatisfaction with treatment results (29.9%), financial burden (19%), older age/comorbidities (15.5%), difficulty booking appointments (8.5%), travel distance/social isolation (7.9%), lack of time (5.8%), satisfaction with the perceived improvement in their condition (4.4%), fear of injection (4.0%), loss of motivation (4.0%), apathy towards eyesight (2.5%), dissatisfaction with facilities 2.3%, and discomfort/pain (0.3%). Three studies found non-adherence rates between 51.6 and 68.8% during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to fear of exposure to COVID-19 and difficulties travelling during lockdown.

Discussion

Results suggest high levels of patient-led non-adherence/non-persistence to anti-VEGF therapy, mostly due to dissatisfaction with treatment results, a combination of comorbidities, loss of motivation and the burden of travel. This study provides key information on prevalence and factors contributing to non-adherence/non-persistence in anti-VEGF treatment for macular diseases, aiding identification of at-risk individuals to improve real-world visual outcomes. Improvements in the literature can be achieved by establishing uniform definitions and standard timescales for what constitutes non-adherence/non-persistence.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42020216205.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080?pdf=render 37006328,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065,"Infections among individuals with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.","Hu Y, Hu K, Song H, Pawitan Y, Piehl F, Fang F.",,Brain communications,2023,2023-03-16,Y,Multiple sclerosis; Alzheimer’s disease; Infections; Parkinson’s Disease,,,"A link between neurodegenerative diseases and infections has been previously reported. However, it is not clear to what extent such link is caused by confounding factors or to what extent it is intimately connected with the underlying conditions. Further, studies on the impact of infections on mortality risk following neurodegenerative diseases are rare. We analysed two data sets with different characteristics: (i) a community-based cohort from the UK Biobank with 2023 patients with multiple sclerosis, 2200 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 3050 patients with Parkinson's disease diagnosed before 1 March 2020 and 5 controls per case who were randomly selected and individually matched to the case; (ii) a Swedish Twin Registry cohort with 230 patients with multiple sclerosis, 885 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 626 patients with Parkinson's disease diagnosed before 31 December 2016 and their disease-free co-twins. The relative risk of infections after a diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease was estimated using stratified Cox models, with adjustment for differences in baseline characteristics. Causal mediation analyses of survival outcomes based on Cox models were performed to assess the impact of infections on mortality. Compared with matched controls or unaffected co-twins, we observed an elevated infection risk after diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, with a fully adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of 2.45 (2.24-2.69) for multiple sclerosis, 5.06 (4.58-5.59) for Alzheimer's disease and 3.72 (3.44-4.01) for Parkinson's disease in the UK Biobank cohort, and 1.78 (1.21-2.62) for multiple sclerosis, 1.50 (1.19-1.88) for Alzheimer's disease and 2.30 (1.79-2.95) for Parkinson's disease in the twin cohort. Similar risk increases were observed when we analysed infections during the 5 years before diagnosis of the respective disease. Occurrence of infections after diagnosis had, however, relatively little impact on mortality, as mediation of infections on mortality (95% confidence interval) was estimated as 31.89% (26.83-37.11%) for multiple sclerosis, 13.38% (11.49-15.29%) for Alzheimer's disease and 18.85% (16.95-20.97%) for Parkinson's disease in the UK Biobank cohort, whereas it was 6.56% (-3.59 to 16.88%) for multiple sclerosis, -2.21% (-0.21 to 4.65%) for Parkinson's disease and -3.89% (-7.27 to -0.51%) for Alzheimer's disease in the twin cohort. Individuals with studied neurodegenerative diseases display an increased risk of infections independently of genetic and familial environment factors. A similar magnitude of risk increase is present prior to confirmed diagnosis, which may indicate a modulating effect of the studied neurological conditions on immune defences.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065/49588224/fcad065.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053639?pdf=render +37269003,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x,Non-adherence and non-persistence to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Shahzad H, Mahmood S, McGee S, Hubbard J, Haque S, Paudyal V, Denniston AK, Hill LJ, Jalal Z.",,Systematic reviews,2023,2023-06-02,Y,Meta-analysis; Intravitreal; Anti-vegf; Non-adherence; Macular; Non-persistence; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections play a key role in treating a range of macular diseases. The effectiveness of these therapies is dependent on patients' adherence (the extent to which a patient takes their medicines as per agreed recommendations from the healthcare provider) and persistence (continuation of the treatment for the prescribed duration) to their prescribed treatment regimens. The aim of this systematic review was to demonstrate the need for further investigation into the prevalence of, and factors contributing to, patient-led non-adherence and non-persistence, thus facilitating improved clinical outcomes.

Methods

Systematic searches were conducted in Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library. Studies in English conducted before February 2023 that reported the level of, and/or barriers to, non-adherence or non-persistence to intravitreal anti-VEGF ocular disease therapy were included. Duplicate papers, literature reviews, expert opinion articles, case studies, and case series were excluded following screening by two independent authors.

Results

Data from a total of 409,215 patients across 52 studies were analysed. Treatment regimens included pro re nata, monthly and treat-and-extend protocols; study durations ranged from 4 months to 8 years. Of the 52 studies, 22 included a breakdown of reasons for patient non-adherence/non-persistence. Patient-led non-adherence varied between 17.5 and 35.0% depending on the definition used. Overall pooled prevalence of patient-led treatment non-persistence was 30.0% (P = 0.000). Reasons for non-adherence/non-persistence included dissatisfaction with treatment results (29.9%), financial burden (19%), older age/comorbidities (15.5%), difficulty booking appointments (8.5%), travel distance/social isolation (7.9%), lack of time (5.8%), satisfaction with the perceived improvement in their condition (4.4%), fear of injection (4.0%), loss of motivation (4.0%), apathy towards eyesight (2.5%), dissatisfaction with facilities 2.3%, and discomfort/pain (0.3%). Three studies found non-adherence rates between 51.6 and 68.8% during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to fear of exposure to COVID-19 and difficulties travelling during lockdown.

Discussion

Results suggest high levels of patient-led non-adherence/non-persistence to anti-VEGF therapy, mostly due to dissatisfaction with treatment results, a combination of comorbidities, loss of motivation and the burden of travel. This study provides key information on prevalence and factors contributing to non-adherence/non-persistence in anti-VEGF treatment for macular diseases, aiding identification of at-risk individuals to improve real-world visual outcomes. Improvements in the literature can be achieved by establishing uniform definitions and standard timescales for what constitutes non-adherence/non-persistence.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42020216205.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080?pdf=render 35677101,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1715,"Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on community medication dispensing: a national cohort analysis in Wales, UK.","Torabi F, Akbari A, Bedston S, Davies G, Abbasizanjani H, Gravenor M, Griffiths R, Harris D, Jenkins N, Lyons J, Morris A, North L, Halcox J, Lyons RA.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Public Health; Covid-19; Dispensed Medication; Community Dispensing; Interactive Dispensing Dashboard,,,"

Background

Population-level information on dispensed medication provides insight on the distribution of treated morbidities, particularly if linked to other population-scale data at an individual-level.

Objective

To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on dispensing patterns of medications.

Methods

Retrospective observational study using population-scale, individual-level dispensing records in Wales, UK. Total dispensed drug items for the population between 1 st January 2016 and 31 st December 2019 (3-years, pre-COVID-19) were compared to 2020 with follow up until 27 th July 2021 (COVID-19 period). We compared trends across all years and British National Formulary (BNF) chapters and highlighted the trends in three major chapters for 2019-21: 1-Cardiovascular system (CVD); 2-Central Nervous System (CNS); 3-Immunological & Vaccine. We developed an interactive dashboard to enable monitoring of changes as the pandemic evolves.

Result

Amongst all BNF chapters, 73,410,543 items were dispensed in 2020 compared to 74,121,180 items in 2019 demonstrating -0.96% relative decrease in 2020. Comparison of monthly patterns showed average difference (D) of -59,220 and average Relative Change (RC) of -0.74% between the number of dispensed items in 2020 and 2019. Maximum RC was observed in March 2020 (D = +1,224,909 and RC = +20.62), followed by second peak in June 2020 (D = +257,920, RC = +4.50%). A third peak was observed in September 2020 (D = +264,138, RC = +4.35%). Large increases in March 2020 were observed for CVD and CNS medications across all age groups. The Immunological and Vaccine products dropped to very low levels across all age groups and all months (including the March dispensing peak).

Conclusions

Reconfiguration of routine clinical services during COVID-19 led to substantial changes in community pharmacy drug dispensing. This change may contribute to a long-term burden of COVID-19, raising the importance of a comprehensive and timely monitoring of changes for evaluation of the potential impact on clinical care and outcomes.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1715/3382; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1715; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9135049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9135049?pdf=render -37217302,https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827,External validation of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study.,"Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Omer Y, Wallis LA.",,Emergency medicine journal : EMJ,2023,2023-05-22,Y,risk management; Triage; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Tools proposed to triage ED acuity in suspected COVID-19 were derived and validated in higher income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from 27 August 2020 to 11 March 2022, was conducted to assess the performance of the PRIEST (Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage) tool, NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score, version 2), TEWS (Triage Early Warning Score), the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS (Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score) in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was intubation or non-invasive ventilation, death or intensive care unit admission at 30 days.

Results

Of the 446 084 patients, 15 397 (3.45%, 95% CI 34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST scores achieved good estimated discrimination (C-statistic 0.79 to 0.82) and identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.41 to 0.64. Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions, with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

No risk score outperformed existing clinical decision-making in determining the need for inpatient admission based on prediction of the primary outcome in this setting. Use of the PRIEST score at a threshold of one point higher than the previously recommended best approximated existing clinical accuracy.",,pdf:https://emj.bmj.com/content/emermed/early/2023/05/22/emermed-2022-212827.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554?pdf=render 33716109,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.002,Short durations of corticosteroids for hospitalised COVID-19 patients are associated with a high readmission rate.,"Chaudhry Z, Shawe-Taylor M, Rampling T, Cutfield T, Bidwell G, Chan XHS, Last A, Williams B, Logan S, Marks M, Esmail H.",,The Journal of infection,2021,2021-03-11,Y,Dexamethasone; Corticosteroids; Hospital; Readmissions; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Our objective was to describe the characteristics of patients admitted, discharged and readmitted, due to COVID-19, to a central London acute-care hospital during the second peak, in particular in relation to corticosteroids use.

Methods

We reviewed patients admitted from the community to University College Hospital (UCH) with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis between 1st-31st December 2020. Re-attendance and readmission data were collected for patients who re-presented within 10 days following discharge. Data were retrospectively collected.

Results

196 patients were admitted from the community with a diagnosis of COVID-19 and discharged alive in December 2020. Corticosteroids were prescribed in hospital for a median of 5 days (IQR 3-8). 20 patients (10.2%) were readmitted within 10 days. 11/20 received corticosteroids in the first admission of which 10 had received 1-3 days of corticosteroids. Readmission rate in those receiving 1-3 days of corticosteroids was 25%.

Conclusions

Most international guidelines have recommended providing up to 10 days of corticosteroids for severe COVID-19 but stopping on discharge. Our findings show shorter courses of corticosteroids during admission are associated with an increased risk of being readmitted and support continuing the course of corticosteroids after hospital discharge monitored in the virtual ward setting.",,pdf:http://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163445321001158/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948670; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948670?pdf=render +37217302,https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827,External validation of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study.,"Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Omer Y, Wallis LA.",,Emergency medicine journal : EMJ,2023,2023-05-22,Y,risk management; Triage; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Tools proposed to triage ED acuity in suspected COVID-19 were derived and validated in higher income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from 27 August 2020 to 11 March 2022, was conducted to assess the performance of the PRIEST (Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage) tool, NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score, version 2), TEWS (Triage Early Warning Score), the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS (Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score) in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was intubation or non-invasive ventilation, death or intensive care unit admission at 30 days.

Results

Of the 446 084 patients, 15 397 (3.45%, 95% CI 34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST scores achieved good estimated discrimination (C-statistic 0.79 to 0.82) and identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.41 to 0.64. Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions, with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

No risk score outperformed existing clinical decision-making in determining the need for inpatient admission based on prediction of the primary outcome in this setting. Use of the PRIEST score at a threshold of one point higher than the previously recommended best approximated existing clinical accuracy.",,pdf:https://emj.bmj.com/content/emermed/early/2023/05/22/emermed-2022-212827.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554?pdf=render 33050951,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01789-2,Response strategies for COVID-19 epidemics in African settings: a mathematical modelling study.,"van Zandvoort K, Jarvis CI, Pearson CAB, Davies NG, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Ratnayake R, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Jit M, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Checchi F.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-10-14,Y,Control; Response; Africa; Coronavirus; mathematical model; Low-income; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

The health impact of COVID-19 may differ in African settings as compared to countries in Europe or China due to demographic, epidemiological, environmental and socio-economic factors. We evaluated strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 burden in African countries, so as to support decisions that balance minimising mortality, protecting health services and safeguarding livelihoods.

Methods

We used a Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered mathematical model, stratified by age, to predict the evolution of COVID-19 epidemics in three countries representing a range of age distributions in Africa (from oldest to youngest average age: Mauritius, Nigeria and Niger), under various effectiveness assumptions for combinations of different non-pharmaceutical interventions: self-isolation of symptomatic people, physical distancing and 'shielding' (physical isolation) of the high-risk population. We adapted model parameters to better represent uncertainty about what might be expected in African populations, in particular by shifting the distribution of severity risk towards younger ages and increasing the case-fatality ratio. We also present sensitivity analyses for key model parameters subject to uncertainty.

Results

We predicted median symptomatic attack rates over the first 12 months of 23% (Niger) to 42% (Mauritius), peaking at 2-4 months, if epidemics were unmitigated. Self-isolation while symptomatic had a maximum impact of about 30% on reducing severe cases, while the impact of physical distancing varied widely depending on percent contact reduction and R0. The effect of shielding high-risk people, e.g. by rehousing them in physical isolation, was sensitive mainly to residual contact with low-risk people, and to a lesser extent to contact among shielded individuals. Mitigation strategies incorporating self-isolation of symptomatic individuals, moderate physical distancing and high uptake of shielding reduced predicted peak bed demand and mortality by around 50%. Lockdowns delayed epidemics by about 3 months. Estimates were sensitive to differences in age-specific social mixing patterns, as published in the literature, and assumptions on transmissibility, infectiousness of asymptomatic cases and risk of severe disease or death by age.

Conclusions

In African settings, as elsewhere, current evidence suggests large COVID-19 epidemics are expected. However, African countries have fewer means to suppress transmission and manage cases. We found that self-isolation of symptomatic persons and general physical distancing are unlikely to avert very large epidemics, unless distancing takes the form of stringent lockdown measures. However, both interventions help to mitigate the epidemic. Shielding of high-risk individuals can reduce health service demand and, even more markedly, mortality if it features high uptake and low contact of shielded and unshielded people, with no increase in contact among shielded people. Strategies combining self-isolation, moderate physical distancing and shielding could achieve substantial reductions in mortality in African countries. Temporary lockdowns, where socioeconomically acceptable, can help gain crucial time for planning and expanding health service capacity.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01789-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01789-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553800?pdf=render 37311637,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973,Number and timing of primary cleft lip and palate repair surgeries in England: whole nation study of electronic health records before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Etoori D, Park MH, Blackburn RM, Fitzsimons KJ, Butterworth S, Medina J, Mc Grath-Lone L, Russell C, van der Meulen J.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-06-13,Y,epidemiology; Paediatric Surgery; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To quantify differences in number and timing of first primary cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair procedures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021; 2020/2021) compared with the preceding year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020; 2019/2021).

Design

National observational study of administrative hospital data.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

Children <5 years undergoing primary repair for an orofacial cleft Population Consensus and Surveys Classification of Interventions and Procedures-fourth revisions (OPCS-4) codes F031, F291).

Main exposure

Procedure date (2020/2021 vs 2019/2020).

Main outcomes

Numbers and timing (age in months) of first primary CLP procedures.

Results

1716 CLP primary repair procedures were included in the analysis. In 2020/2021, 774 CLP procedures were carried out compared with 942 in 2019/2020, a reduction of 17.8% (95% CI 9.5% to 25.4%). The reduction varied over time in 2020/2021, with no surgeries at all during the first 2 months (April and May 2020). Compared with 2019/2020, first primary lip repair procedures performed in 2020/2021 were delayed by 1.6 months on average (95% CI 0.9 to 2.2 months). Delays in primary palate repairs were smaller on average but varied across the nine geographical regions.

Conclusion

There were significant reductions in the number and delays in timing of first primary CLP repair procedures in England during the first year of the pandemic, which may affect long-term outcomes.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/6/e071973.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964?pdf=render 33480434,https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267,"Complex differences in infection rates between ethnic groups in Scotland: a retrospective, national census-linked cohort study of 1.65 million cases.","Gruer LD, Cézard GI, Wallace LA, Hutchinson SJ, Douglas AF, Buchanan D, Katikireddi SV, Millard AD, Goldberg DJ, Sheikh A, Bhopal RS.",,"Journal of public health (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-03-01,Y,Infectious disease; epidemiology; Ethnicity,,,"

Background

Ethnicity can influence susceptibility to infection, as COVID-19 has shown. Few countries have systematically investigated ethnic variations in infection.

Methods

We linked the Scotland 2001 Census, including ethnic group, to national databases of hospitalizations/deaths and serological diagnoses of bloodborne viruses for 2001-2013. We calculated age-adjusted rate ratios (RRs) in 12 ethnic groups for all infections combined, 15 infection categories, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses.

Results

We analysed over 1.65 million infection-related hospitalisations/deaths. Compared with White Scottish, RRs for all infections combined were 0.8 or lower for Other White British, Other White and Chinese males and females, and 1.2-1.4 for Pakistani and African males and females. Adjustment for socioeconomic status or birthplace had little effect. RRs for specific infection categories followed similar patterns with striking exceptions. For HIV, RRs were 136 in African females and 14 in males; for HBV, 125 in Chinese females and 59 in males, 55 in African females and 24 in males; and for HCV, 2.3-3.1 in Pakistanis and Africans.

Conclusions

Ethnic differences were found in overall rates and many infection categories, suggesting multiple causative pathways. We recommend census linkage as a powerful method for studying the disproportionate impact of COVID-19.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267/36684631/fdaa267.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762?pdf=render -37315048,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091,LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting.,"Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.",,PloS one,2023,2023-06-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Uneven vaccination and less resilient health care systems mean hospitals in LMICs are at risk of being overwhelmed during periods of increased COVID-19 infection. Risk-scores proposed for rapid triage of need for admission from the emergency department (ED) have been developed in higher-income settings during initial waves of the pandemic.

Methods

Routinely collected data for public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa from the 27th August 2020 to 11th March 2022 were used to derive a cohort of 446,084 ED patients with suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission at 30 days. The cohort was divided into derivation and Omicron variant validation sets. We developed the LMIC-PRIEST score based on the coefficients from multivariable analysis in the derivation cohort and existing triage practices. We externally validated accuracy in the Omicron period and a UK cohort.

Results

We analysed 305,564 derivation, 140,520 Omicron and 12,610 UK validation cases. Over 100 events per predictor parameter were modelled. Multivariable analyses identified eight predictor variables retained across models. We used these findings and clinical judgement to develop a score based on South African Triage Early Warning Scores and also included age, sex, oxygen saturation, inspired oxygen, diabetes and heart disease. The LMIC-PRIEST score achieved C-statistics: 0.82 (95% CI: 0.82 to 0.83) development cohort; 0.79 (95% CI: 0.78 to 0.80) Omicron cohort; and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.79 to 0.80) UK cohort. Differences in prevalence of outcomes led to imperfect calibration in external validation. However, use of the score at thresholds of three or less would allow identification of very low-risk patients (NPV ≥0.99) who could be rapidly discharged using information collected at initial assessment.

Conclusion

The LMIC-PRIEST score shows good discrimination and high sensitivity at lower thresholds and can be used to rapidly identify low-risk patients in LMIC ED settings.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287091&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677?pdf=render 34785588,https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2021-001784,OpenSAFELY: impact of national guidance on switching anticoagulant therapy during COVID-19 pandemic.,"OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Walker AJ, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Morton C, Bacon S, Hickman G, Inglesby P, Bates C, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Hulme W, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas I, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Open heart,2021,2021-11-01,Y,Stroke; Medication Adherence; Healthcare Economics And Organisations; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Health Service (NHS) recommended that appropriate patients anticoagulated with warfarin should be switched to direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs), requiring less frequent blood testing. Subsequently, a national safety alert was issued regarding patients being inappropriately coprescribed two anticoagulants following a medication change and associated monitoring.

Objective

To describe which people were switched from warfarin to DOACs; identify potentially unsafe coprescribing of anticoagulants; and assess whether abnormal clotting results have become more frequent during the pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we conducted a cohort study using routine clinical data from 24 million NHS patients in England.

Results

20 000 of 164 000 warfarin patients (12.2%) switched to DOACs between March and May 2020, most commonly to edoxaban and apixaban. Factors associated with switching included: older age, recent renal function test, higher number of recent INR tests recorded, atrial fibrillation diagnosis and care home residency. There was a sharp rise in coprescribing of warfarin and DOACs from typically 50-100 per month to 246 in April 2020, 0.06% of all people receiving a DOAC or warfarin. International normalised ratio (INR) testing fell by 14% to 506.8 patients tested per 1000 warfarin patients each month. We observed a very small increase in elevated INRs (n=470) during April compared with January (n=420).

Conclusions

Increased switching of anticoagulants from warfarin to DOACs was observed at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in England following national guidance. There was a small but substantial number of people coprescribed warfarin and DOACs during this period. Despite a national safety alert on the issue, a widespread rise in elevated INR test results was not found. Primary care has responded rapidly to changes in patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/8/2/e001784.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2021-001784; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595296?pdf=render +37315048,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091,LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting.,"Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.",,PloS one,2023,2023-06-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Uneven vaccination and less resilient health care systems mean hospitals in LMICs are at risk of being overwhelmed during periods of increased COVID-19 infection. Risk-scores proposed for rapid triage of need for admission from the emergency department (ED) have been developed in higher-income settings during initial waves of the pandemic.

Methods

Routinely collected data for public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa from the 27th August 2020 to 11th March 2022 were used to derive a cohort of 446,084 ED patients with suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission at 30 days. The cohort was divided into derivation and Omicron variant validation sets. We developed the LMIC-PRIEST score based on the coefficients from multivariable analysis in the derivation cohort and existing triage practices. We externally validated accuracy in the Omicron period and a UK cohort.

Results

We analysed 305,564 derivation, 140,520 Omicron and 12,610 UK validation cases. Over 100 events per predictor parameter were modelled. Multivariable analyses identified eight predictor variables retained across models. We used these findings and clinical judgement to develop a score based on South African Triage Early Warning Scores and also included age, sex, oxygen saturation, inspired oxygen, diabetes and heart disease. The LMIC-PRIEST score achieved C-statistics: 0.82 (95% CI: 0.82 to 0.83) development cohort; 0.79 (95% CI: 0.78 to 0.80) Omicron cohort; and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.79 to 0.80) UK cohort. Differences in prevalence of outcomes led to imperfect calibration in external validation. However, use of the score at thresholds of three or less would allow identification of very low-risk patients (NPV ≥0.99) who could be rapidly discharged using information collected at initial assessment.

Conclusion

The LMIC-PRIEST score shows good discrimination and high sensitivity at lower thresholds and can be used to rapidly identify low-risk patients in LMIC ED settings.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287091&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677?pdf=render 36629015,https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221143449,Lack of transparent reporting of trial monitoring approaches in randomised controlled trials: A systematic review of contemporary protocol papers.,"Hsieh SF, Yorke-Edwards V, Murray ML, Diaz-Montana C, Love SB, Sydes MR.",,"Clinical trials (London, England)",2023,2023-01-11,Y,Systematic review; Randomised Controlled Trial; On-site Monitoring; Risk-based Monitoring; Protocol Paper; Central Monitoring; Trial Monitoring; Reporting Monitoring,,,"

Background

Monitoring is essential to ensure patient safety and data integrity in clinical trials as per Good Clinical Practice. The Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials Statement and its checklist guides authors to include monitoring in their protocols. We investigated how well monitoring was reported in published 'protocol papers' for contemporary randomised controlled trials.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted in PubMed to identify eligible protocol papers published in selected journals between 1 January 2020 and 31 May 2020. Protocol papers were classified by whether they reported monitoring and, if so, by the details of monitoring. Data were summarised descriptively.

Results

Of 811 protocol papers for randomised controlled trials, 386 (48%; 95% CI: 44%-51%) explicitly reported some monitoring information. Of these, 20% (77/386) reported monitoring information consistent with an on-site monitoring approach, and 39% (152/386) with central monitoring, 26% (101/386) with a mixed approach, while 14% (54/386) did not provide sufficient information to specify an approach. Only 8% (30/386) of randomised controlled trials reported complete details about all of scope, frequency and organisation of monitoring; frequency of monitoring was the least reported. However, 6% (25/386) of papers used the term 'audit' to describe 'monitoring'.

Discussion

Monitoring information was reported in only approximately half of the protocol papers. Suboptimal reporting of monitoring hinders the clinical community from having the full information on which to judge the validity of a trial and jeopardises the value of protocol papers and the credibility of the trial itself. Greater efforts are needed to promote the transparent reporting of monitoring to journal editors and authors.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17407745221143449; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221143449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021127; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021127?pdf=render 32355555,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104,COVID-19 must catalyse key global natural experiments.,"Been JV, Sheikh A.",,Journal of global health,2020,2020-06-01,Y,,,,,"""Been and Sheikh’s editorial about COVID-19, outlines the importance of two natural experiments: a- how different countries responded to the pandemic and its effects and b- impact of improvements in air quality on human and planetary health.""",doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7179980; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7179980?pdf=render 36802769,https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465,Applying machine learning classifiers to automate quality assessment of paediatric dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC-) MRI data.,"Powell SJ, Withey SB, Sun Y, Grist JT, Novak J, MacPherson L, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Morgan PS, Jaspan T, Bailey S, Mitra D, Auer DP, Avula S, Arvanitis TN, Peet A.",,The British journal of radiology,2023,2023-02-20,Y,,,,"

Objective

Investigate the performance of qualitative review (QR) for assessing dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC-) MRI data quality in paediatric normal brain and develop an automated alternative to QR.

Methods

1027 signal-time courses were assessed by Reviewer 1 using QR. 243 were additionally assessed by Reviewer 2 and % disagreements and Cohen's κ (κ) were calculated. The signal drop-to-noise ratio (SDNR), root mean square error (RMSE), full width half maximum (FWHM) and percentage signal recovery (PSR) were calculated for the 1027 signal-time courses. Data quality thresholds for each measure were determined using QR results. The measures and QR results trained machine learning classifiers. Sensitivity, specificity, precision, classification error and area under the curve from a receiver operating characteristic curve were calculated for each threshold and classifier.

Results

Comparing reviewers gave 7% disagreements and κ = 0.83. Data quality thresholds of: 7.6 for SDNR; 0.019 for RMSE; 3 s and 19 s for FWHM; and 42.9 and 130.4% for PSR were produced. SDNR gave the best sensitivity, specificity, precision, classification error and area under the curve values of 0.86, 0.86, 0.93, 14.2% and 0.83. Random forest was the best machine learning classifier, giving sensitivity, specificity, precision, classification error and area under the curve of 0.94, 0.83, 0.93, 9.3% and 0.89.

Conclusion

The reviewers showed good agreement. Machine learning classifiers trained on signal-time course measures and QR can assess quality. Combining multiple measures reduces misclassification.

Advances in knowledge

A new automated quality control method was developed, which trained machine learning classifiers using QR results.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465; doi:https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10161906; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10161906?pdf=render @@ -535,18 +535,18 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 34053260,https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0283,Exploring surveillance data biases when estimating the reproduction number: with insights into subpopulation transmission of COVID-19 in England.,"Sherratt K, Abbott S, Meakin SR, Hellewell J, Munday JD, Bosse N, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Funk S.",,"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences",2021,2021-05-31,Y,Transmission; Surveillance; Bias; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Time-varying Reproduction Number,,,"The time-varying reproduction number (Rt: the average number of secondary infections caused by each infected person) may be used to assess changes in transmission potential during an epidemic. While new infections are not usually observed directly, they can be estimated from data. However, data may be delayed and potentially biased. We investigated the sensitivity of Rt estimates to different data sources representing COVID-19 in England, and we explored how this sensitivity could track epidemic dynamics in population sub-groups. We sourced public data on test-positive cases, hospital admissions and deaths with confirmed COVID-19 in seven regions of England over March through August 2020. We estimated Rt using a model that mapped unobserved infections to each data source. We then compared differences in Rt with the demographic and social context of surveillance data over time. Our estimates of transmission potential varied for each data source, with the relative inconsistency of estimates varying across regions and over time. Rt estimates based on hospital admissions and deaths were more spatio-temporally synchronous than when compared to estimates from all test positives. We found these differences may be linked to biased representations of subpopulations in each data source. These included spatially clustered testing, and where outbreaks in hospitals, care homes, and young age groups reflected the link between age and severity of the disease. We highlight that policy makers could better target interventions by considering the source populations of Rt estimates. Further work should clarify the best way to combine and interpret Rt estimates from different data sources based on the desired use. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK'.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0283; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0283; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165604; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165604?pdf=render 34053271,https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266,Real-time monitoring of COVID-19 dynamics using automated trend fitting and anomaly detection.,"Jombart T, Ghozzi S, Schumacher D, Taylor TJ, Leclerc QJ, Jit M, Flasche S, Greaves F, Ward T, Eggo RM, Nightingale E, Meakin S, Brady OJ, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Medley GF, Höhle M, Edmunds WJ.",,"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences",2021,2021-05-31,Y,Algorithm; Surveillance; outbreak; Machine Learning; Asmodee; Trendbreaker,,,"As several countries gradually release social distancing measures, rapid detection of new localized COVID-19 hotspots and subsequent intervention will be key to avoiding large-scale resurgence of transmission. We introduce ASMODEE (automatic selection of models and outlier detection for epidemics), a new tool for detecting sudden changes in COVID-19 incidence. Our approach relies on automatically selecting the best (fitting or predicting) model from a range of user-defined time series models, excluding the most recent data points, to characterize the main trend in an incidence. We then derive prediction intervals and classify data points outside this interval as outliers, which provides an objective criterion for identifying departures from previous trends. We also provide a method for selecting the optimal breakpoints, used to define how many recent data points are to be excluded from the trend fitting procedure. The analysis of simulated COVID-19 outbreaks suggests ASMODEE compares favourably with a state-of-art outbreak-detection algorithm while being simpler and more flexible. As such, our method could be of wider use for infectious disease surveillance. We illustrate ASMODEE using publicly available data of National Health Service (NHS) Pathways reporting potential COVID-19 cases in England at a fine spatial scale, showing that the method would have enabled the early detection of the flare-ups in Leicester and Blackburn with Darwen, two to three weeks before their respective lockdown. ASMODEE is implemented in the free R package trendbreaker. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK'.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165581?pdf=render 36446449,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061849,Effect of lifting COVID-19 restrictions on utilisation of primary care services in Nepal: a difference-in-differences analysis.,"Kapoor NR, Aryal A, Mehata S, Dulal M, Kruk ME, Bauhoff S, Arsenault C.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-29,Y,Primary Care; Health Policy; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

An increasing number of studies have reported disruptions in health service utilisation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions. However, little is known about the effect of lifting COVID-19 restrictions on health service utilisation. The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of lifting COVID-19 restrictions on primary care service utilisation in Nepal.

Methods

Data on utilisation of 10 primary care services were extracted from the Health Management Information System across all health facilities in Nepal. We used a difference-in-differences design and linear fixed effects regressions to estimate the effect of lifting COVID-19 restrictions. The treatment group included palikas that had lifted restrictions in place from 17 August 2020 to 16 September 2020 (Bhadra 2077) and the control group included palikas that had maintained restrictions during that period. The pre-period included the 4 months of national lockdown from 24 March 2020 to 22 July 2020 (Chaitra 2076 to Ashar 2077). Models included month and palika fixed effects and controlled for COVID-19 incidence.

Results

We found that lifting COVID-19 restrictions was associated with an average increase per palika of 57.5 contraceptive users (95% CI 14.6 to 100.5), 15.6 antenatal care visits (95% CI 5.3 to 25.9) and 1.6 child pneumonia visits (95% CI 0.2 to 2.9). This corresponded to a 9.4% increase in contraceptive users, 34.2% increase in antenatal care visits and 15.6% increase in child pneumonia visits. Utilisation of most other primary care services also increased after lifting restrictions, but coefficients were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Despite the ongoing pandemic, lifting restrictions can lead to an increase in some primary care services. Our results point to a causal link between restrictions and health service utilisation and call for policy makers in low- and middle-income countries to carefully consider the trade-offs of strict lockdowns during future COVID-19 waves or future pandemics.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e061849.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061849; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709811; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709811?pdf=render -36929968,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02235-8,Impact of the temporary suspension of the Bowel Screening Wales programme on inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective register-based study.,"Bright D, Song J, Hillier S, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-11-24,Y,,,,"

Background

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of routine services in the UK National Health Service, including cancer screening. Following the reintroduction of services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who might benefit from tailored intervention.

Methods

BSW records were linked to electronic health record and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank Trusted Research Environment. We examined uptake in the first 3 months (from August to October, 2020) of invitations following the reintroduction of the BSW programme compared with the same period in the preceding 3 years. We analysed inequalities in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban and rural location, ethnic group, and uptake between different periods using logistic regression models.

Findings

Overall uptake remained above the 60% Welsh standard during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21 but declined compared with the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20 (60·4% vs 62·7%; p<0·001). During the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most deprived quintile. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Among low-uptake groups, including males, younger individuals (60-64 years), those living in most deprived areas, and ethnic minorities, uptake remains below the 60% Welsh standard.

Interpretation

Despite the disruption, uptake remained above the Welsh standard and inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities. However, variations associated with sex, age, deprivation, and ethnicity remain. These findings need to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in colorectal cancer screening such as co-producing information products with low-uptake groups and upscaling the use of GP-endorsed invitations and reminder letters for bowel screening.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, UK Medical Research Council, Administrative Data Research UK, and Health and Care Research Wales.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9691043; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02235-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043?pdf=render 35605170,https://doi.org/10.2196/37668,Differences in Clinical Presentation With Long COVID After Community and Hospital Infection and Associations With All-Cause Mortality: English Sentinel Network Database Study.,"Meza-Torres B, Delanerolle G, Okusi C, Mayor N, Anand S, Macartney J, Gatenby P, Glampson B, Chapman M, Curcin V, Mayer E, Joy M, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-08-16,Y,Phenotype; Hospitalization; Social Class; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Post–covid-19 Syndrome; Post–acute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts,,,"

Background

Most studies of long COVID (symptoms of COVID-19 infection beyond 4 weeks) have focused on people hospitalized in their initial illness. Long COVID is thought to be underrecorded in UK primary care electronic records.

Objective

We sought to determine which symptoms people present to primary care after COVID-19 infection and whether presentation differs in people who were not hospitalized, as well as post-long COVID mortality rates.

Methods

We used routine data from the nationally representative primary care sentinel cohort of the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (N=7,396,702), applying a predefined long COVID phenotype and grouped by whether the index infection occurred in hospital or in the community. We included COVID-19 infection cases from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We conducted a before-and-after analysis of long COVID symptoms prespecified by the Office of National Statistics, comparing symptoms presented between 1 and 6 months after the index infection matched with the same months 1 year previously. We conducted logistic regression analysis, quoting odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs.

Results

In total, 5.63% (416,505/7,396,702) and 1.83% (7623/416,505) of the patients had received a coded diagnosis of COVID-19 infection and diagnosis of, or referral for, long COVID, respectively. People with diagnosis or referral of long COVID had higher odds of presenting the prespecified symptoms after versus before COVID-19 infection (OR 2.66, 95% CI 2.46-2.88, for those with index community infection and OR 2.42, 95% CI 2.03-2.89, for those hospitalized). After an index community infection, patients were more likely to present with nonspecific symptoms (OR 3.44, 95% CI 3.00-3.95; P<.001) compared with after a hospital admission (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.56-2.80; P<.001). Mental health sequelae were more strongly associated with index hospital infections (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.64-2.96) than with index community infections (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.21-1.53; P<.001). People presenting to primary care after hospital infection were more likely to be men (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.25-1.64; P<.001), more socioeconomically deprived (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.24-1.63; P<.001), and with higher multimorbidity scores (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.26-1.57; P<.001) than those presenting after an index community infection. All-cause mortality in people with long COVID was associated with increasing age, male sex (OR 3.32, 95% CI 1.34-9.24; P=.01), and higher multimorbidity score (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.34-3.29; P<.001). Vaccination was associated with reduced odds of mortality (OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.03-0.35; P<.001).

Conclusions

The low percentage of people recorded as having long COVID after COVID-19 infection reflects either low prevalence or underrecording. The characteristics and comorbidities of those presenting with long COVID after a community infection are different from those hospitalized. This study provides insights into the presentation of long COVID in primary care and implications for workload.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e37668/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/37668; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384859 +36929968,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02235-8,Impact of the temporary suspension of the Bowel Screening Wales programme on inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective register-based study.,"Bright D, Song J, Hillier S, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-11-24,Y,,,,"

Background

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of routine services in the UK National Health Service, including cancer screening. Following the reintroduction of services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who might benefit from tailored intervention.

Methods

BSW records were linked to electronic health record and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank Trusted Research Environment. We examined uptake in the first 3 months (from August to October, 2020) of invitations following the reintroduction of the BSW programme compared with the same period in the preceding 3 years. We analysed inequalities in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban and rural location, ethnic group, and uptake between different periods using logistic regression models.

Findings

Overall uptake remained above the 60% Welsh standard during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21 but declined compared with the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20 (60·4% vs 62·7%; p<0·001). During the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most deprived quintile. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Among low-uptake groups, including males, younger individuals (60-64 years), those living in most deprived areas, and ethnic minorities, uptake remains below the 60% Welsh standard.

Interpretation

Despite the disruption, uptake remained above the Welsh standard and inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities. However, variations associated with sex, age, deprivation, and ethnicity remain. These findings need to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in colorectal cancer screening such as co-producing information products with low-uptake groups and upscaling the use of GP-endorsed invitations and reminder letters for bowel screening.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, UK Medical Research Council, Administrative Data Research UK, and Health and Care Research Wales.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9691043; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02235-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043?pdf=render 34261639,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1592,Risks of covid-19 hospital admission and death for people with learning disability: population based cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Williamson EJ, McDonald HI, Bhaskaran K, Walker AJ, Bacon S, Davy S, Schultze A, Tomlinson L, Bates C, Ramsay M, Curtis HJ, Forbes H, Wing K, Minassian C, Tazare J, Morton CE, Nightingale E, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Cockburn J, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Wong AYS, Eggo RM, Hulme W, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, Kuper H.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-07-14,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the association between learning disability and risk of hospital admission and death from covid-19 in England among adults and children.

Design

Population based cohort study on behalf of NHS England using the OpenSAFELY platform.

Setting

Patient level data were obtained for more than 17 million people registered with a general practice in England that uses TPP software. Electronic health records were linked with death data from the Office for National Statistics and hospital admission data from NHS Secondary Uses Service.

Participants

Adults (aged 16-105 years) and children (<16 years) from two cohorts: wave 1 (registered with a TPP practice as of 1 March 2020 and followed until 31 August 2020); and wave 2 (registered 1 September 2020 and followed until 8 February 2021). The main exposure group consisted of people on a general practice learning disability register; a subgroup was defined as those having profound or severe learning disability. People with Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy were identified (whether or not they were on the learning disability register).

Main outcome measure

Covid-19 related hospital admission and covid-19 related death. Non-covid-19 deaths were also explored.

Results

For wave 1, 14 312 023 adults aged ≥16 years were included, and 90 307 (0.63%) were on the learning disability register. Among adults on the register, 538 (0.6%) had a covid-19 related hospital admission; there were 222 (0.25%) covid-19 related deaths and 602 (0.7%) non-covid deaths. Among adults not on the register, 29 781 (0.2%) had a covid-19 related hospital admission; there were 13 737 (0.1%) covid-19 related deaths and 69 837 (0.5%) non-covid deaths. Wave 1 hazard ratios for adults on the learning disability register (adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, and geographical location) were 5.3 (95% confidence interval 4.9 to 5.8) for covid-19 related hospital admission and 8.2 (7.2 to 9.4) for covid-19 related death. Wave 2 produced similar estimates. Associations were stronger among those classified as having severe to profound learning disability, and among those in residential care. For both waves, Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy were associated with increased hazards for both events; Down's syndrome to a greater extent. Hazard ratios for non-covid deaths followed similar patterns with weaker associations. Similar patterns of increased relative risk were seen for children, but covid-19 related deaths and hospital admissions were rare, reflecting low event rates among children.

Conclusions

People with learning disability have markedly increased risks of hospital admission and death from covid-19, over and above the risks observed for non-covid causes of death. Prompt access to covid-19 testing and healthcare is warranted for this vulnerable group, and prioritisation for covid-19 vaccination and other targeted preventive measures should be considered.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/374/bmj.n1592.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1592; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8278652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8278652?pdf=render 32679111,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8,COVID-19 pandemic and admission rates for and management of acute coronary syndromes in England.,"Mafham MM, Spata E, Goldacre R, Gair D, Curnow P, Bray M, Hollings S, Roebuck C, Gale CP, Mamas MA, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Luescher TF, Denwood T, Landray MJ, Emberson JR, Collins R, Morris EJA, Casadei B, Baigent C.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-07-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Several countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have reported a substantial drop in the number of patients attending the emergency department with acute coronary syndromes and a reduced number of cardiac procedures. We aimed to understand the scale, nature, and duration of changes to admissions for different types of acute coronary syndrome in England and to evaluate whether in-hospital management of patients has been affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We analysed data on hospital admissions in England for types of acute coronary syndrome from Jan 1, 2019, to May 24, 2020, that were recorded in the Secondary Uses Service Admitted Patient Care database. Admissions were classified as ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-STEMI (NSTEMI), myocardial infarction of unknown type, or other acute coronary syndromes (including unstable angina). We identified revascularisation procedures undertaken during these admissions (ie, coronary angiography without percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI], PCI, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery). We calculated the numbers of weekly admissions and procedures undertaken; percentage reductions in weekly admissions and across subgroups were also calculated, with 95% CIs.

Findings

Hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome declined from mid-February, 2020, falling from a 2019 baseline rate of 3017 admissions per week to 1813 per week by the end of March, 2020, a reduction of 40% (95% CI 37-43). This decline was partly reversed during April and May, 2020, such that by the last week of May, 2020, there were 2522 admissions, representing a 16% (95% CI 13-20) reduction from baseline. During the period of declining admissions, there were reductions in the numbers of admissions for all types of acute coronary syndrome, including both STEMI and NSTEMI, but relative and absolute reductions were larger for NSTEMI, with 1267 admissions per week in 2019 and 733 per week by the end of March, 2020, a percent reduction of 42% (95% CI 38-46). In parallel, reductions were recorded in the number of PCI procedures for patients with both STEMI (438 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 346 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 21%, 95% CI 12-29) and NSTEMI (383 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 240 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 37%, 29-45). The median length of stay among patients with acute coronary syndrome fell from 4 days (IQR 2-9) in 2019 to 3 days (1-5) by the end of March, 2020.

Interpretation

Compared with the weekly average in 2019, there was a substantial reduction in the weekly numbers of patients with acute coronary syndrome who were admitted to hospital in England by the end of March, 2020, which had been partly reversed by the end of May, 2020. The reduced number of admissions during this period is likely to have resulted in increases in out-of-hospital deaths and long-term complications of myocardial infarction and missed opportunities to offer secondary prevention treatment for patients with coronary heart disease. The full extent of the effect of COVID-19 on the management of patients with acute coronary syndrome will continue to be assessed by updating these analyses.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31356-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983?pdf=render -37046260,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1,Associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and health service disruptions in 10 countries.,"Reddy T, Kapoor NR, Kubota S, Doubova SV, Asai D, Mariam DH, Ayele W, Mebratie AD, Thermidor R, Sapag JC, Bedregal P, Passi-Solar Á, Gordon-Strachan G, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Mehata S, Margozzini P, Leerapan B, Rittiphairoj T, Kaewkamjornchai P, Nega A, Awoonor-Williams JK, Kruk ME, Arsenault C.",,BMC health services research,2023,2023-04-12,Y,Health Services; Health Systems; Pandemic Response; Health System Resilience; Covid-19 Restrictions; Health Care Disruptions,,,"

Background

Disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in several countries. Yet, patterns in health service disruption according to country responses remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and disruptions in 31 health services in 10 low- middle- and high-income countries in 2020.

Methods

Using routine health information systems and administrative data from 10 countries (Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand) we estimated health service disruptions for the period of April to December 2020 by dividing monthly service provision at national levels by the average service provision in the 15 months pre-COVID (January 2019-March 2020). We used the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) index and multi-level linear regression analyses to assess associations between the stringency of restrictions and health service disruptions over nine months. We extended the analysis by examining associations between 11 individual containment or closure policies and health service disruptions. Models were adjusted for COVID caseload, health service category and country GDP and included robust standard errors.

Findings

Chronic disease care was among the most affected services. Regression analyses revealed that a 10% increase in the mean stringency index was associated with a 3.3 percentage-point (95% CI -3.9, -2.7) reduction in relative service volumes. Among individual policies, curfews, and the presence of a state of emergency, had the largest coefficients and were associated with 14.1 (95% CI -19.6, 8.7) and 10.7 (95% CI -12.7, -8.7) percentage-point lower relative service volumes, respectively. In contrast, number of COVID-19 cases in 2020 was not associated with health service disruptions in any model.

Conclusions

Although containment policies were crucial in reducing COVID-19 mortality in many contexts, it is important to consider the indirect effects of these restrictions. Strategies to improve the resilience of health systems should be designed to ensure that populations can continue accessing essential health care despite the presence of containment policies during future infectious disease outbreaks.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103?pdf=render 37358897,https://doi.org/10.2196/45849,Development of a Corpus Annotated With Mentions of Pain in Mental Health Records: Natural Language Processing Approach.,"Chaturvedi J, Chance N, Mirza L, Vernugopan V, Velupillai S, Stewart R, Roberts A.",,JMIR formative research,2023,2023-06-26,Y,Pain; Mental health; Annotation; Information Extraction; Natural Language Processing,,,"

Background

Pain is a widespread issue, with 20% of adults (1 in 5) experiencing it globally. A strong association has been demonstrated between pain and mental health conditions, and this association is known to exacerbate disability and impairment. Pain is also known to be strongly related to emotions, which can lead to damaging consequences. As pain is a common reason for people to access health care facilities, electronic health records (EHRs) are a potential source of information on this pain. Mental health EHRs could be particularly beneficial since they can show the overlap of pain with mental health. Most mental health EHRs contain the majority of their information within the free-text sections of the records. However, it is challenging to extract information from free text. Natural language processing (NLP) methods are therefore required to extract this information from the text.

Objective

This research describes the development of a corpus of manually labeled mentions of pain and pain-related entities from the documents of a mental health EHR database, for use in the development and evaluation of future NLP methods.

Methods

The EHR database used, Clinical Record Interactive Search, consists of anonymized patient records from The South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. The corpus was developed through a process of manual annotation where pain mentions were marked as relevant (ie, referring to physical pain afflicting the patient), negated (ie, indicating absence of pain), or not relevant (ie, referring to pain affecting someone other than the patient, or metaphorical and hypothetical mentions). Relevant mentions were also annotated with additional attributes such as anatomical location affected by pain, pain character, and pain management measures, if mentioned.

Results

A total of 5644 annotations were collected from 1985 documents (723 patients). Over 70% (n=4028) of the mentions found within the documents were annotated as relevant, and about half of these mentions also included the anatomical location affected by the pain. The most common pain character was chronic pain, and the most commonly mentioned anatomical location was the chest. Most annotations (n=1857, 33%) were from patients who had a primary diagnosis of mood disorders (International Classification of Diseases-10th edition, chapter F30-39).

Conclusions

This research has helped better understand how pain is mentioned within the context of mental health EHRs and provided insight into the kind of information that is typically mentioned around pain in such a data source. In future work, the extracted information will be used to develop and evaluate a machine learning-based NLP application to automatically extract relevant pain information from EHR databases.",,pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e45849/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45849; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440?pdf=render +37046260,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1,Associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and health service disruptions in 10 countries.,"Reddy T, Kapoor NR, Kubota S, Doubova SV, Asai D, Mariam DH, Ayele W, Mebratie AD, Thermidor R, Sapag JC, Bedregal P, Passi-Solar Á, Gordon-Strachan G, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Mehata S, Margozzini P, Leerapan B, Rittiphairoj T, Kaewkamjornchai P, Nega A, Awoonor-Williams JK, Kruk ME, Arsenault C.",,BMC health services research,2023,2023-04-12,Y,Health Services; Health Systems; Pandemic Response; Health System Resilience; Covid-19 Restrictions; Health Care Disruptions,,,"

Background

Disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in several countries. Yet, patterns in health service disruption according to country responses remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and disruptions in 31 health services in 10 low- middle- and high-income countries in 2020.

Methods

Using routine health information systems and administrative data from 10 countries (Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand) we estimated health service disruptions for the period of April to December 2020 by dividing monthly service provision at national levels by the average service provision in the 15 months pre-COVID (January 2019-March 2020). We used the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) index and multi-level linear regression analyses to assess associations between the stringency of restrictions and health service disruptions over nine months. We extended the analysis by examining associations between 11 individual containment or closure policies and health service disruptions. Models were adjusted for COVID caseload, health service category and country GDP and included robust standard errors.

Findings

Chronic disease care was among the most affected services. Regression analyses revealed that a 10% increase in the mean stringency index was associated with a 3.3 percentage-point (95% CI -3.9, -2.7) reduction in relative service volumes. Among individual policies, curfews, and the presence of a state of emergency, had the largest coefficients and were associated with 14.1 (95% CI -19.6, 8.7) and 10.7 (95% CI -12.7, -8.7) percentage-point lower relative service volumes, respectively. In contrast, number of COVID-19 cases in 2020 was not associated with health service disruptions in any model.

Conclusions

Although containment policies were crucial in reducing COVID-19 mortality in many contexts, it is important to consider the indirect effects of these restrictions. Strategies to improve the resilience of health systems should be designed to ensure that populations can continue accessing essential health care despite the presence of containment policies during future infectious disease outbreaks.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103?pdf=render 33453763,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(21)00005-4,Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the detection and management of colorectal cancer in England: a population-based study.,"Morris EJA, Goldacre R, Spata E, Mafham M, Finan PJ, Shelton J, Richards M, Spencer K, Emberson J, Hollings S, Curnow P, Gair D, Sebag-Montefiore D, Cunningham C, Rutter MD, Nicholson BD, Rashbass J, Landray M, Collins R, Casadei B, Baigent C.",,The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology,2021,2021-01-15,Y,,,,"

Background

There are concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on cancer care but there is little direct evidence to quantify any effect. This study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the detection and management of colorectal cancer in England.

Methods

Data were extracted from four population-based datasets spanning NHS England (the National Cancer Cancer Waiting Time Monitoring, Monthly Diagnostic, Secondary Uses Service Admitted Patient Care and the National Radiotherapy datasets) for all referrals, colonoscopies, surgical procedures, and courses of rectal radiotherapy from Jan 1, 2019, to Oct 31, 2020, related to colorectal cancer in England. Differences in patterns of care were investigated between 2019 and 2020. Percentage reductions in monthly numbers and proportions were calculated.

Findings

As compared to the monthly average in 2019, in April, 2020, there was a 63% (95% CI 53-71) reduction (from 36 274 to 13 440) in the monthly number of 2-week referrals for suspected cancer and a 92% (95% CI 89-95) reduction in the number of colonoscopies (from 46 441 to 3484). Numbers had just recovered by October, 2020. This resulted in a 22% (95% CI 8-34) relative reduction in the number of cases referred for treatment (from a monthly average of 2781 in 2019 to 2158 referrals in April, 2020). By October, 2020, the monthly rate had returned to 2019 levels but did not exceed it, suggesting that, from April to October, 2020, over 3500 fewer people had been diagnosed and treated for colorectal cancer in England than would have been expected. There was also a 31% (95% CI 19-42) relative reduction in the numbers receiving surgery in April, 2020, and a lower proportion of laparoscopic and a greater proportion of stoma-forming procedures, relative to the monthly average in 2019. By October, 2020, laparoscopic surgery and stoma rates were similar to 2019 levels. For rectal cancer, there was a 44% (95% CI 17-76) relative increase in the use of neoadjuvant radiotherapy in April, 2020, relative to the monthly average in 2019, due to greater use of short-course regimens. Although in June, 2020, there was a drop in the use of short-course regimens, rates remained above 2019 levels until October, 2020.

Interpretation

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sustained reduction in the number of people referred, diagnosed, and treated for colorectal cancer. By October, 2020, achievement of care pathway targets had returned to 2019 levels, albeit with smaller volumes of patients and with modifications to usual practice. As pressure grows in the NHS due to the second wave of COVID-19, urgent action is needed to address the growing burden of undetected and untreated colorectal cancer in England.

Funding

Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, NHS Digital, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(21)00005-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(21)00005-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808901; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808901?pdf=render 33782080,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512,Impact of COVID-19 national lockdown on asthma exacerbations: interrupted time-series analysis of English primary care data.,"Shah SA, Quint JK, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A.",,Thorax,2021,2021-03-29,Y,Asthma; Asthma Epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The impact of COVID-19 and ensuing national lockdown on asthma exacerbations is unclear.

Methods

We conducted an interrupted time-series (lockdown on 23 March 2020 as point of interruption) analysis in asthma cohort identified using a validated algorithm from a national-level primary care database, the Optimum Patient Care Database. We derived asthma exacerbation rates for every week and compared exacerbation rates in the period: January to August 2020 with a pre-COVID-19 period and January to August 2016-2019. Exacerbations were defined as asthma-related hospital attendance/admission (including accident and emergency visit), or an acute course of oral corticosteroids with evidence of respiratory review, as recorded in primary care. We used a generalised least squares modelling approach and stratified the analyses by age, sex, English region and healthcare setting.

Results

From a database of 9 949 387 patients, there were 100 165 patients with asthma who experienced at least one exacerbation during 2016-2020. Of 278 996 exacerbation episodes, 49 938 (17.9%) required hospital visit. Comparing pre-lockdown to post-lockdown period, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the level (-0.196 episodes per person-year; p<0.001; almost 20 episodes for every 100 patients with asthma per year) of exacerbation rates across all patients. The reductions in level in stratified analyses were: 0.005-0.244 (healthcare setting, only those without hospital attendance/admission were significant), 0.210-0.277 (sex), 0.159-0.367 (age), 0.068-0.590 (region).

Conclusions

There has been a significant reduction in attendance to primary care for asthma exacerbations during the pandemic. This reduction was observed in all age groups, both sexes and across most regions in England.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/9/860.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425?pdf=render 36544046,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00730-6,A survey on clinical natural language processing in the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2022.,"Wu H, Wang M, Wu J, Francis F, Chang YH, Shavick A, Dong H, Poon MTC, Fitzpatrick N, Levine AP, Slater LT, Handy A, Karwath A, Gkoutos GV, Chelala C, Shah AD, Stewart R, Collier N, Alex B, Whiteley W, Sudlow C, Roberts A, Dobson RJB.",,NPJ digital medicine,2022,2022-12-21,Y,,,,"Much of the knowledge and information needed for enabling high-quality clinical research is stored in free-text format. Natural language processing (NLP) has been used to extract information from these sources at scale for several decades. This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of clinical NLP for the past 15 years in the UK to identify the community, depict its evolution, analyse methodologies and applications, and identify the main barriers. We collect a dataset of clinical NLP projects (n = 94; £ = 41.97 m) funded by UK funders or the European Union's funding programmes. Additionally, we extract details on 9 funders, 137 organisations, 139 persons and 431 research papers. Networks are created from timestamped data interlinking all entities, and network analysis is subsequently applied to generate insights. 431 publications are identified as part of a literature review, of which 107 are eligible for final analysis. Results show, not surprisingly, clinical NLP in the UK has increased substantially in the last 15 years: the total budget in the period of 2019-2022 was 80 times that of 2007-2010. However, the effort is required to deepen areas such as disease (sub-)phenotyping and broaden application domains. There is also a need to improve links between academia and industry and enable deployments in real-world settings for the realisation of clinical NLP's great potential in care delivery. The major barriers include research and development access to hospital data, lack of capable computational resources in the right places, the scarcity of labelled data and barriers to sharing of pretrained models.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-022-00730-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00730-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770568; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770568?pdf=render 37060915,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00510-x,"Higher dose corticosteroids in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 who are hypoxic but not requiring ventilatory support (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.","RECOVERY Collaborative Group. Electronic address: recoverytrial@ndph.ox.ac.uk, RECOVERY Collaborative Group.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2023,2023-04-13,Y,,,,"

Background

Low-dose corticosteroids have been shown to reduce mortality for patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilatory support (non-invasive mechanical ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). We evaluated the use of a higher dose of corticosteroids in this patient group.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19. Eligible and consenting adult patients with clinical evidence of hypoxia (ie, receiving oxygen or with oxygen saturation <92% on room air) were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual care with higher dose corticosteroids (dexamethasone 20 mg once daily for 5 days followed by 10 mg dexamethasone once daily for 5 days or until discharge if sooner) or usual standard of care alone (which included dexamethasone 6 mg once daily for 10 days or until discharge if sooner). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality among all randomised participants. On May 11, 2022, the independent data monitoring committee recommended stopping recruitment of patients receiving no oxygen or simple oxygen only due to safety concerns. We report the results for these participants only. Recruitment of patients receiving ventilatory support is ongoing. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936).

Findings

Between May 25, 2021, and May 13, 2022, 1272 patients with COVID-19 and hypoxia receiving no oxygen (eight [1%]) or simple oxygen only (1264 [99%]) were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus higher dose corticosteroids (659 patients) versus usual care alone (613 patients, of whom 87% received low-dose corticosteroids during the follow-up period). Of those randomly assigned, 745 (59%) were in Asia, 512 (40%) in the UK, and 15 (1%) in Africa. 248 (19%) had diabetes and 769 (60%) were male. Overall, 123 (19%) of 659 patients allocated to higher dose corticosteroids versus 75 (12%) of 613 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·59 [95% CI 1·20-2·10]; p=0·0012). There was also an excess of pneumonia reported to be due to non-COVID infection (64 cases [10%] vs 37 cases [6%]; absolute difference 3·7% [95% CI 0·7-6·6]) and an increase in hyperglycaemia requiring increased insulin dose (142 [22%] vs 87 [14%]; absolute difference 7·4% [95% CI 3·2-11·5]).

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised for COVID-19 with clinical hypoxia who required either no oxygen or simple oxygen only, higher dose corticosteroids significantly increased the risk of death compared with usual care, which included low-dose corticosteroids. The RECOVERY trial continues to assess the effects of higher dose corticosteroids in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 who require non-invasive ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), National Institute of Health and Care Research, and Wellcome Trust.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00510-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00510-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10156147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10156147?pdf=render -37147628,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9,Ontology-driven and weakly supervised rare disease identification from clinical notes.,"Dong H, Suárez-Paniagua V, Zhang H, Wang M, Casey A, Davidson E, Chen J, Alex B, Whiteley W, Wu H.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2023,2023-05-05,Y,Phenotyping; Natural Language Processing; Rare Diseases; Ontology Matching; Clinical Notes; Weak Supervision,,,"

Background

Computational text phenotyping is the practice of identifying patients with certain disorders and traits from clinical notes. Rare diseases are challenging to be identified due to few cases available for machine learning and the need for data annotation from domain experts.

Methods

We propose a method using ontologies and weak supervision, with recent pre-trained contextual representations from Bi-directional Transformers (e.g. BERT). The ontology-driven framework includes two steps: (i) Text-to-UMLS, extracting phenotypes by contextually linking mentions to concepts in Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), with a Named Entity Recognition and Linking (NER+L) tool, SemEHR, and weak supervision with customised rules and contextual mention representation; (ii) UMLS-to-ORDO, matching UMLS concepts to rare diseases in Orphanet Rare Disease Ontology (ORDO). The weakly supervised approach is proposed to learn a phenotype confirmation model to improve Text-to-UMLS linking, without annotated data from domain experts. We evaluated the approach on three clinical datasets, MIMIC-III discharge summaries, MIMIC-III radiology reports, and NHS Tayside brain imaging reports from two institutions in the US and the UK, with annotations.

Results

The improvements in the precision were pronounced (by over 30% to 50% absolute score for Text-to-UMLS linking), with almost no loss of recall compared to the existing NER+L tool, SemEHR. Results on radiology reports from MIMIC-III and NHS Tayside were consistent with the discharge summaries. The overall pipeline processing clinical notes can extract rare disease cases, mostly uncaptured in structured data (manually assigned ICD codes).

Conclusion

The study provides empirical evidence for the task by applying a weakly supervised NLP pipeline on clinical notes. The proposed weak supervised deep learning approach requires no human annotation except for validation and testing, by leveraging ontologies, NER+L tools, and contextual representations. The study also demonstrates that Natural Language Processing (NLP) can complement traditional ICD-based approaches to better estimate rare diseases in clinical notes. We discuss the usefulness and limitations of the weak supervision approach and propose directions for future studies.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001?pdf=render 33521768,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8,Tackling immunosenescence to improve COVID-19 outcomes and vaccine response in older adults.,"Cox LS, Bellantuono I, Lord JM, Sapey E, Mannick JB, Partridge L, Gordon AL, Steves CJ, Witham MD.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2020,2020-11-09,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30011-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195?pdf=render +37147628,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9,Ontology-driven and weakly supervised rare disease identification from clinical notes.,"Dong H, Suárez-Paniagua V, Zhang H, Wang M, Casey A, Davidson E, Chen J, Alex B, Whiteley W, Wu H.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2023,2023-05-05,Y,Phenotyping; Natural Language Processing; Rare Diseases; Ontology Matching; Clinical Notes; Weak Supervision,,,"

Background

Computational text phenotyping is the practice of identifying patients with certain disorders and traits from clinical notes. Rare diseases are challenging to be identified due to few cases available for machine learning and the need for data annotation from domain experts.

Methods

We propose a method using ontologies and weak supervision, with recent pre-trained contextual representations from Bi-directional Transformers (e.g. BERT). The ontology-driven framework includes two steps: (i) Text-to-UMLS, extracting phenotypes by contextually linking mentions to concepts in Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), with a Named Entity Recognition and Linking (NER+L) tool, SemEHR, and weak supervision with customised rules and contextual mention representation; (ii) UMLS-to-ORDO, matching UMLS concepts to rare diseases in Orphanet Rare Disease Ontology (ORDO). The weakly supervised approach is proposed to learn a phenotype confirmation model to improve Text-to-UMLS linking, without annotated data from domain experts. We evaluated the approach on three clinical datasets, MIMIC-III discharge summaries, MIMIC-III radiology reports, and NHS Tayside brain imaging reports from two institutions in the US and the UK, with annotations.

Results

The improvements in the precision were pronounced (by over 30% to 50% absolute score for Text-to-UMLS linking), with almost no loss of recall compared to the existing NER+L tool, SemEHR. Results on radiology reports from MIMIC-III and NHS Tayside were consistent with the discharge summaries. The overall pipeline processing clinical notes can extract rare disease cases, mostly uncaptured in structured data (manually assigned ICD codes).

Conclusion

The study provides empirical evidence for the task by applying a weakly supervised NLP pipeline on clinical notes. The proposed weak supervised deep learning approach requires no human annotation except for validation and testing, by leveraging ontologies, NER+L tools, and contextual representations. The study also demonstrates that Natural Language Processing (NLP) can complement traditional ICD-based approaches to better estimate rare diseases in clinical notes. We discuss the usefulness and limitations of the weak supervision approach and propose directions for future studies.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001?pdf=render 33478953,https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-219517,Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of death from COVID-19: an OpenSAFELY cohort analysis based on two cohorts.,"Wong AY, MacKenna B, Morton CE, Schultze A, Walker AJ, Bhaskaran K, Brown JP, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Drysdale H, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,Annals of the rheumatic diseases,2021,2021-01-21,Y,Arthritis; Rheumatoid; Osteoarthritis; epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To assess the association between routinely prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and deaths from COVID-19 using OpenSAFELY, a secure analytical platform.

Methods

We conducted two cohort studies from 1 March to 14 June 2020. Working on behalf of National Health Service England, we used routine clinical data in England linked to death data. In study 1, we identified people with an NSAID prescription in the last 3 years from the general population. In study 2, we identified people with rheumatoid arthritis/osteoarthritis. We defined exposure as current NSAID prescription within the 4 months before 1 March 2020. We used Cox regression to estimate HRs for COVID-19 related death in people currently prescribed NSAIDs, compared with those not currently prescribed NSAIDs, accounting for age, sex, comorbidities, other medications and geographical region.

Results

In study 1, we included 536 423 current NSAID users and 1 927 284 non-users in the general population. We observed no evidence of difference in risk of COVID-19 related death associated with current use (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.14) in the multivariable-adjusted model. In study 2, we included 1 708 781 people with rheumatoid arthritis/osteoarthritis, of whom 175 495 (10%) were current NSAID users. In the multivariable-adjusted model, we observed a lower risk of COVID-19 related death (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.94) associated with current use of NSAID versus non-use.

Conclusions

We found no evidence of a harmful effect of routinely prescribed NSAIDs on COVID-19 related deaths. Risks of COVID-19 do not need to influence decisions about the routine therapeutic use of NSAIDs.",,pdf:https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/80/7/943.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-219517; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7823433; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7823433?pdf=render 36593100,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-322124,Response to: Correspondence on 'Cardiovascular disease and mortality sequelae of COVID-19 in the UK Biobank' by Jolobe.,"Raisi-Estabragh Z, Harvey NC, Petersen SE.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2023,2023-01-02,N,epidemiology; acute coronary syndrome; Covid-19,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-322124 33838587,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460,Competition between RSV and influenza: Limits of modelling inference from surveillance data.,"Waterlow NR, Flasche S, Minter A, Eggo RM.",,Epidemics,2021,2021-03-26,Y,Interaction; Competition; Influenza; Respiratory syncytial virus; Inference,,,"Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Influenza cause a large burden of disease. Evidence of their interaction via temporary cross-protection implies that prevention of one could inadvertently lead to an increase in the burden of the other. However, evidence for the public health impact of such interaction is sparse and largely derives from ecological analyses of peak shifts in surveillance data. To test the robustness of estimates of interaction parameters between RSV and Influenza from surveillance data we conducted a simulation and back-inference study. We developed a two-pathogen interaction model, parameterised to simulate RSV and Influenza epidemiology in the UK. Using the infection model in combination with a surveillance-like stochastic observation process we generated a range of possible RSV and Influenza trajectories and then used Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to back-infer parameters including those describing competition. We find that in most scenarios both the strength and duration of RSV and Influenza interaction could be estimated from the simulated surveillance data reasonably well. However, the robustness of inference declined towards the extremes of the plausible parameter ranges, with misleading results. It was for instance not possible to tell the difference between low/moderate interaction and no interaction. In conclusion, our results illustrate that in a plausible parameter range, the strength of RSV and Influenza interaction can be estimated from a single season of high-quality surveillance data but also highlights the importance to test parameter identifiability a priori in such situations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193815 @@ -569,9 +569,9 @@ PMC8855010,https://doi.org/,POS-894 PREDICTING PANDEMIC-RELATED EXCESS-DEATH USI 33724919,https://doi.org/10.2196/26627,Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Analysis of Public Attitudes on Facebook and Twitter Toward COVID-19 Vaccines in the United Kingdom and the United States: Observational Study.,"Hussain A, Tahir A, Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Gogate M, Dashtipour K, Ali A, Sheikh A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2021,2021-04-05,Y,Artificial intelligence; Vaccination; Public Health; Health Informatics; Natural Language Processing; Facebook; Social Media; Twitter; Sentiment Analysis; Infodemiology; Deep Learning; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Global efforts toward the development and deployment of a vaccine for COVID-19 are rapidly advancing. To achieve herd immunity, widespread administration of vaccines is required, which necessitates significant cooperation from the general public. As such, it is crucial that governments and public health agencies understand public sentiments toward vaccines, which can help guide educational campaigns and other targeted policy interventions.

Objective

The aim of this study was to develop and apply an artificial intelligence-based approach to analyze public sentiments on social media in the United Kingdom and the United States toward COVID-19 vaccines to better understand the public attitude and concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

Over 300,000 social media posts related to COVID-19 vaccines were extracted, including 23,571 Facebook posts from the United Kingdom and 144,864 from the United States, along with 40,268 tweets from the United Kingdom and 98,385 from the United States from March 1 to November 22, 2020. We used natural language processing and deep learning-based techniques to predict average sentiments, sentiment trends, and topics of discussion. These factors were analyzed longitudinally and geospatially, and manual reading of randomly selected posts on points of interest helped identify underlying themes and validated insights from the analysis.

Results

Overall averaged positive, negative, and neutral sentiments were at 58%, 22%, and 17% in the United Kingdom, compared to 56%, 24%, and 18% in the United States, respectively. Public optimism over vaccine development, effectiveness, and trials as well as concerns over their safety, economic viability, and corporation control were identified. We compared our findings to those of nationwide surveys in both countries and found them to correlate broadly.

Conclusions

Artificial intelligence-enabled social media analysis should be considered for adoption by institutions and governments alongside surveys and other conventional methods of assessing public attitude. Such analyses could enable real-time assessment, at scale, of public confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccines, help address the concerns of vaccine sceptics, and help develop more effective policies and communication strategies to maximize uptake.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26627/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/26627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023383 35932242,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac176,"Annual risk of falls resulting in emergency department and hospital attendances for older people: an observational study of 781,081 individuals living in Wales (United Kingdom) including deprivation, frailty and dementia diagnoses between 2010 and 2020.","Hollinghurst R, Williams N, Pedrick-Case R, North L, Long S, Fry R, Hollinghurst J.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Frailty; Dementia; Falls; Older People; Covid-19,,,"

Background

falls are common in older people, but associations between falls, dementia and frailty are relatively unknown. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on falls admissions has not been studied.

Aim

to investigate the impact of dementia, frailty, deprivation, previous falls and the differences between years for falls resulting in an emergency department (ED) or hospital admission.

Study design

longitudinal cross-sectional observational study.

Setting

older people (aged 65+) resident in Wales between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2020.

Methods

we created a binary (yes/no) indicator for a fall resulting in an attendance to an ED, hospital or both, per person, per year. We analysed the outcomes using multilevel logistic and multinomial models.

Results

we analysed a total of 5,141,244 person years of data from 781,081 individuals. Fall admission rates were highest in 2012 (4.27%) and lowest in 2020 (4.27%). We found an increased odds ratio (OR [95% confidence interval]) of a fall admission for age (1.05 [1.05, 1.05] per year of age), people with dementia (2.03 [2.00, 2.06]) and people who had a previous fall (2.55 [2.51, 2.60]). Compared with fit individuals, those with frailty had ORs of 1.60 [1.58, 1.62], 2.24 [2.21, 2.28] and 2.94 [2.89, 3.00] for mild, moderate and severe frailty respectively. Reduced odds were observed for males (0.73 [0.73, 0.74]) and less deprived areas; most deprived compared with least OR 0.75 [0.74, 0.76].

Conclusions

falls prevention should be targeted to those at highest risk, and investigations into the reduction in admissions in 2020 is warranted.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac176; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9356534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9356534?pdf=render 32413819,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050,Vitamin D concentrations and COVID-19 infection in UK Biobank.,"Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Ho F, Celis-Morales CA, Katikireddi SV, Niedzwiedz CL, Jani BD, Welsh P, Mair FS, Gray SR, O'Donnell CA, Gill JM, Sattar N, Pell JP.",,Diabetes & metabolic syndrome,2020,2020-05-07,N,Vitamin D; Ethnicity; Covid-19,,,"

Background and aims

COVID-19 and low levels of vitamin D appear to disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic individuals. We aimed to establish whether blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration was associated with COVID-19 risk, and whether it explained the higher incidence of COVID-19 in black and South Asian people.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including 25(OH)D concentration and ethnicity, were linked to COVID-19 test results. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and confirmed COVID-19, and the association between ethnicity and both 25(OH)D and COVID-19.

Results

Complete data were available for 348,598 UK Biobank participants. Of these, 449 had confirmed COVID-19 infection. Vitamin D was associated with COVID-19 infection univariably (OR = 0.99; 95% CI 0.99-0.999; p = 0.013), but not after adjustment for confounders (OR = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.998-1.01; p = 0.208). Ethnicity was associated with COVID-19 infection univariably (blacks versus whites OR = 5.32, 95% CI = 3.68-7.70, p-value<0.001; South Asians versus whites OR = 2.65, 95% CI = 1.65-4.25, p-value<0.001). Adjustment for 25(OH)D concentration made little difference to the magnitude of the association.

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between vitamin D concentrations and risk of COVID-19 infection, nor that vitamin D concentration may explain ethnic differences in COVID-19 infection.","This study aimed to investigate if low levels of vitamin D were associated with a higher likelihood of having COVID-19, which could be a cause of higher rates of COVID infection amoung black and South Asian people.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7204679; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050 -36962800,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843,Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health service utilization across regions of Ethiopia: An interrupted time series analysis of health information system data from 2019-2020.,"Mebratie AD, Nega A, Gage A, Mariam DH, Eshetu MK, Arsenault C.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-09-12,Y,,,,"The spread of COVID-19 and associated deaths have remained low in Ethiopia. However, the pandemic could pose a public health crisis indirectly through disruptions in essential health services. The aim of this study was to examine disruptions in health service utilization during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic across 10 regions in Ethiopia. We analyzed utilization of 21 different health services across all of Ethiopia (except the Tigray region) for the period of January 2019 to December 2020. Data were extracted from the Ethiopian district health information system (DHIS2). Monthly visits in 2020 were graphed relative to the same months in 2019. Interrupted time series analysis was used to estimate the effect of the pandemic on service utilization in each region. We found that disruptions in health services were generally higher in urban regions which were most affected by COVID. Outpatient visits declined by 52%, 54%, and 58%, specifically in Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa and Harari, the three urban regions. Similarly, there was a 47% reduction in inpatient admissions in Addis Ababa. In agrarian regions, the pandemic caused an 11% to 17% reduction in outpatient visits and a 10% to 27% decline in inpatient admissions. Visits for children with diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition also declined substantially while maternal health services were less affected. Our study indicates that disruptions in health services were more pronounced in areas that were relatively harder hit by the pandemic. Our results show that the Ethiopian health system has a limited capacity to absorb shocks. During future waves of COVID or future pandemics, the Ethiopian health system must be better prepared to maintain essential services and mitigate the indirect impact of the pandemic on public health, particularly in urban areas.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875?pdf=render 34145643,https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.17450,Describing the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in people with psoriasis: findings from a global cross-sectional study.,"Mahil SK, Yates M, Yiu ZZN, Langan SM, Tsakok T, Dand N, Mason KJ, McAteer H, Meynell F, Coker B, Vincent A, Urmston D, Vesty A, Kelly J, Lancelot C, Moorhead L, Bachelez H, Capon F, Contreras CR, De La Cruz C, Di Meglio P, Gisondi P, Jullien D, Lambert J, Naldi L, Norton S, Puig L, Spuls P, Torres T, Warren RB, Waweru H, Weinman J, Brown MA, Galloway JB, Griffiths CM, Barker JN, Smith CH, PsoProtect study group.",,Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV,2021,2021-08-19,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jdv.17450; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.17450; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8447018; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8447018?pdf=render 33075408,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.10.007,Factors associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes in patients with psoriasis-insights from a global registry-based study.,"Mahil SK, Dand N, Mason KJ, Yiu ZZN, Tsakok T, Meynell F, Coker B, McAteer H, Moorhead L, Mackenzie T, Rossi MT, Rivera R, Mahe E, Carugno A, Magnano M, Rech G, Balogh EA, Feldman SR, De La Cruz C, Choon SE, Naldi L, Lambert J, Spuls P, Jullien D, Bachelez H, McMahon DE, Freeman EE, Gisondi P, Puig L, Warren RB, Di Meglio P, Langan SM, Capon F, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, PsoProtect study group.",,The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,2021,2020-10-16,Y,Psoriasis; Immunosuppressants; risk factors; Hospitalization; Biologics; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The multimorbid burden and use of systemic immunosuppressants in people with psoriasis may confer greater risk of adverse outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the data are limited.

Objective

Our aim was to characterize the course of COVID-19 in patients with psoriasis and identify factors associated with hospitalization.

Methods

Clinicians reported patients with psoriasis with confirmed/suspected COVID-19 via an international registry, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the association between clinical and/or demographic characteristics and hospitalization. A separate patient-facing registry characterized risk-mitigating behaviors.

Results

Of 374 clinician-reported patients from 25 countries, 71% were receiving a biologic, 18% were receiving a nonbiologic, and 10% were not receiving any systemic treatment for psoriasis. In all, 348 patients (93%) were fully recovered from COVID-19, 77 (21%) were hospitalized, and 9 (2%) died. Increased hospitalization risk was associated with older age (multivariable-adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.59 per 10 years; 95% CI = 1.19-2.13), male sex (OR = 2.51; 95% CI = 1.23-5.12), nonwhite ethnicity (OR = 3.15; 95% CI = 1.24-8.03), and comorbid chronic lung disease (OR = 3.87; 95% CI = 1.52-9.83). Hospitalization was more frequent in patients using nonbiologic systemic therapy than in those using biologics (OR = 2.84; 95% CI = 1.31-6.18). No significant differences were found between classes of biologics. Independent patient-reported data (n = 1626 across 48 countries) suggested lower levels of social isolation in individuals receiving nonbiologic systemic therapy than in those receiving biologics (OR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.50-0.94).

Conclusion

In this international case series of patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis, biologic use was associated with lower risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization than with use of nonbiologic systemic therapies; however, further investigation is warranted on account of potential selection bias and unmeasured confounding. Established risk factors (being older, being male, being of nonwhite ethnicity, and having comorbidities) were associated with higher hospitalization rates.",,pdf:http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091674920314135/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.10.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566694; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566694?pdf=render +36962800,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843,Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health service utilization across regions of Ethiopia: An interrupted time series analysis of health information system data from 2019-2020.,"Mebratie AD, Nega A, Gage A, Mariam DH, Eshetu MK, Arsenault C.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-09-12,Y,,,,"The spread of COVID-19 and associated deaths have remained low in Ethiopia. However, the pandemic could pose a public health crisis indirectly through disruptions in essential health services. The aim of this study was to examine disruptions in health service utilization during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic across 10 regions in Ethiopia. We analyzed utilization of 21 different health services across all of Ethiopia (except the Tigray region) for the period of January 2019 to December 2020. Data were extracted from the Ethiopian district health information system (DHIS2). Monthly visits in 2020 were graphed relative to the same months in 2019. Interrupted time series analysis was used to estimate the effect of the pandemic on service utilization in each region. We found that disruptions in health services were generally higher in urban regions which were most affected by COVID. Outpatient visits declined by 52%, 54%, and 58%, specifically in Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa and Harari, the three urban regions. Similarly, there was a 47% reduction in inpatient admissions in Addis Ababa. In agrarian regions, the pandemic caused an 11% to 17% reduction in outpatient visits and a 10% to 27% decline in inpatient admissions. Visits for children with diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition also declined substantially while maternal health services were less affected. Our study indicates that disruptions in health services were more pronounced in areas that were relatively harder hit by the pandemic. Our results show that the Ethiopian health system has a limited capacity to absorb shocks. During future waves of COVID or future pandemics, the Ethiopian health system must be better prepared to maintain essential services and mitigate the indirect impact of the pandemic on public health, particularly in urban areas.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875?pdf=render 32845538,https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2020-0572,Cancer and Risk of COVID-19 Through a General Community Survey.,"Lee KA, Ma W, Sikavi DR, Drew DA, Nguyen LH, Bowyer RCE, Cardoso MJ, Fall T, Freidin MB, Gomez M, Graham M, Guo CG, Joshi AD, Kwon S, Lo CH, Lochlainn MN, Menni C, Murray B, Mehta R, Song M, Sudre CH, Bataille V, Varsavsky T, Visconti A, Franks PW, Wolf J, Steves CJ, Ourselin S, Spector TD, Chan AT, COPE consortium.",,The oncologist,2021,2020-09-07,Y,,,,"Individuals with cancer may be at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and adverse outcomes. However, evidence from large population-based studies examining whether cancer and cancer-related therapy exacerbates the risk of COVID-19 infection is still limited. Data were collected from the COVID Symptom Study smartphone application since March 29 through May 8, 2020. Among 23,266 participants with cancer and 1,784,293 without cancer, we documented 10,404 reports of a positive COVID-19 test. Compared with participants without cancer, those living with cancer had a 60% increased risk of a positive COVID-19 test. Among patients with cancer, current treatment with chemotherapy or immunotherapy was associated with a 2.2-fold increased risk of a positive test. The association between cancer and COVID-19 infection was stronger among participants >65 years and males. Future studies are needed to identify subgroups by tumor types and treatment regimens who are particularly at risk for COVID-19 infection and adverse outcomes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/oncolo/article-pdf/26/1/e182/41923952/oncolo_26_1_n_a.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2020-0572; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7460944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7460944?pdf=render 33623826,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16164.2,"The effectiveness of social bubbles as part of a Covid-19 lockdown exit strategy, a modelling study.","Leng T, White C, Hilton J, Kucharski A, Pellis L, Stage H, Davies NG, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease 2019 nCoV Working Group, Keeling MJ, Flasche S.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Exit Strategy; Covid-19; Contact Clustering; Social Bubble,,,"Background: ​ During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown, contact clustering in social bubbles may allow extending contacts beyond the household at minimal additional risk and hence has been considered as part of modified lockdown policy or a gradual lockdown exit strategy. We estimated the impact of such strategies on epidemic and mortality risk using the UK as a case study. Methods: ​ We used an individual based model for a synthetic population similar to the UK, stratified into transmission risks from the community, within the household and from other households in the same social bubble. The base case considers a situation where non-essential shops and schools are closed, the secondary household attack rate is 20% and the initial reproduction number is 0.8. We simulate social bubble strategies (where two households form an exclusive pair) for households including children, for single occupancy households, and for all households. We test the sensitivity of results to a range of alternative model assumptions and parameters. Results:  Clustering contacts outside the household into exclusive bubbles is an effective strategy of increasing contacts while limiting the associated increase in epidemic risk. In the base case, social bubbles reduced fatalities by 42% compared to an unclustered increase of contacts. We find that if all households were to form social bubbles the reproduction number would likely increase to above the epidemic threshold of R=1. Strategies allowing households with young children or single occupancy households to form social bubbles increased the reproduction number by less than 11%. The corresponding increase in mortality is proportional to the increase in the epidemic risk but is focussed in older adults irrespective of inclusion in social bubbles. Conclusions: ​ If managed appropriately, social bubbles can be an effective way of extending contacts beyond the household while limiting the increase in epidemic risk.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16164.2; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16164.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7871360; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7871360?pdf=render 36721180,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6,Tracking health system performance in times of crisis using routine health data: lessons learned from a multicountry consortium.,"Turcotte-Tremblay AM, Leerapan B, Akweongo P, Amponsah F, Aryal A, Asai D, Awoonor-Williams JK, Ayele W, Bauhoff S, Doubova SV, Gadeka DD, Dulal M, Gage A, Gordon-Strachan G, Haile-Mariam D, Joseph JP, Kaewkamjornchai P, Kapoor NR, Gelaw SK, Kim MK, Kruk ME, Kubota S, Margozzini P, Mehata S, Mthethwa L, Nega A, Oh J, Park SK, Passi-Solar A, Perez Cuevas RE, Reddy T, Rittiphairoj T, Sapag JC, Thermidor R, Tlou B, Arsenault C.",,Health research policy and systems,2023,2023-01-31,Y,Quality Of Care; Health Systems; Routine Health Information Systems; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 has prompted the use of readily available administrative data to track health system performance in times of crisis and to monitor disruptions in essential healthcare services. In this commentary we describe our experience working with these data and lessons learned across countries. Since April 2020, the Quality Evidence for Health System Transformation (QuEST) network has used administrative data and routine health information systems (RHIS) to assess health system performance during COVID-19 in Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Republic of Korea and Thailand. We compiled a large set of indicators related to common health conditions for the purpose of multicountry comparisons. The study compiled 73 indicators. A total of 43% of the indicators compiled pertained to reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH). Only 12% of the indicators were related to hypertension, diabetes or cancer care. We also found few indicators related to mental health services and outcomes within these data systems. Moreover, 72% of the indicators compiled were related to volume of services delivered, 18% to health outcomes and only 10% to the quality of processes of care. While several datasets were complete or near-complete censuses of all health facilities in the country, others excluded some facility types or population groups. In some countries, RHIS did not capture services delivered through non-visit or nonconventional care during COVID-19, such as telemedicine. We propose the following recommendations to improve the analysis of administrative and RHIS data to track health system performance in times of crisis: ensure the scope of health conditions covered is aligned with the burden of disease, increase the number of indicators related to quality of care and health outcomes; incorporate data on nonconventional care such as telehealth; continue improving data quality and expand reporting from private sector facilities; move towards collecting patient-level data through electronic health records to facilitate quality-of-care assessment and equity analyses; implement more resilient and standardized health information technologies; reduce delays and loosen restrictions for researchers to access the data; complement routine data with patient-reported data; and employ mixed methods to better understand the underlying causes of service disruptions.",,pdf:https://health-policy-systems.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9888332; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9888332?pdf=render @@ -584,16 +584,16 @@ PMC8855010,https://doi.org/,POS-894 PREDICTING PANDEMIC-RELATED EXCESS-DEATH USI 36084076,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273687,"""The vaccination is positive; I don't think it's the panacea"": A qualitative study on COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among ethnically diverse healthcare workers in the United Kingdom.","Gogoi M, Wobi F, Qureshi I, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Chaloner J, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.",,PloS one,2022,2022-09-09,Y,,,,"

Background

Globally, healthcare workers (HCWs) were prioritised for receiving vaccinations against the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Previous research has shown disparities in COVID-19 vaccination uptake among HCWs based on ethnicity, job role, sex, age, and deprivation. However, vaccine attitudes underpinning these variations and factors influencing these attitudes are yet to be fully explored.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative study with 164 HCWs from different ethnicities, sexes, job roles, migration statuses, and regions in the United Kingdom (UK). Interviews and focus groups were conducted online or telephonically, and recorded with participants' permission. Recordings were transcribed and a two-pronged analytical approach was adopted: content analysis for categorising vaccine attitudes and thematic analysis for identifying factors influencing vaccine attitudes.

Findings

We identified four different COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among HCWs: Active Acceptance, Passive Acceptance, Passive Decline, and Active Decline. Content analysis of the transcripts showed that HCWs from ethnic minority communities and female HCWs were more likely to either decline (actively/passively) or passively accept vaccination-reflecting hesitancy. Factors influencing these attitudes included: trust; risk perception; social influences; access and equity; considerations about the future.

Interpretation

Our data show that attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccine are diverse, and elements of hesitancy may persist even after uptake. This has implications for the sustainability of the COVID-19 vaccine programme, particularly as new components (for example boosters) are being offered. We also found that vaccine attitudes differed by ethnicity, sex and job role, which calls for an intersectional and dynamic approach for improving vaccine uptake among HCWs. Trust, risk perception, social influences, access and equity and future considerations all influence vaccine attitudes and have a bearing on HCWs' decision about accepting or declining the COVID-19 vaccine. Based on our findings, we recommend building trust, addressing structural inequities and, designing inclusive and accessible information to address hesitancy.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0273687&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273687; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9462779; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9462779?pdf=render 32855306,https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-321650,Prioritisation by FIT to mitigate the impact of delays in the 2-week wait colorectal cancer referral pathway during the COVID-19 pandemic: a UK modelling study.,"Loveday C, Sud A, Jones ME, Broggio J, Scott S, Gronthound F, Torr B, Garrett A, Nicol DL, Jhanji S, Boyce SA, Williams M, Barry C, Riboli E, Kipps E, McFerran E, Muller DC, Lyratzopoulos G, Lawler M, Abulafi M, Houlston RS, Turnbull C.",,Gut,2021,2020-08-27,Y,Colonoscopy; Colorectal Cancer; Colorectal Cancer Screening,,,"

Objective

To evaluate the impact of faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) prioritisation to mitigate the impact of delays in the colorectal cancer (CRC) urgent diagnostic (2-week-wait (2WW)) pathway consequent from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

We modelled the reduction in CRC survival and life years lost resultant from per-patient delays of 2-6 months in the 2WW pathway. We stratified by age group, individual-level benefit in CRC survival versus age-specific nosocomial COVID-19-related fatality per referred patient undergoing colonoscopy. We modelled mitigation strategies using thresholds of FIT triage of 2, 10 and 150 µg Hb/g to prioritise 2WW referrals for colonoscopy. To construct the underlying models, we employed 10-year net CRC survival for England 2008-2017, 2WW pathway CRC case and referral volumes and per-day-delay HRs generated from observational studies of diagnosis-to-treatment interval.

Results

Delay of 2/4/6 months across all 11 266 patients with CRC diagnosed per typical year via the 2WW pathway were estimated to result in 653/1419/2250 attributable deaths and loss of 9214/20 315/32 799 life years. Risk-benefit from urgent investigatory referral is particularly sensitive to nosocomial COVID-19 rates for patients aged >60. Prioritisation out of delay for the 18% of symptomatic referrals with FIT >10 µg Hb/g would avoid 89% of these deaths attributable to presentational/diagnostic delay while reducing immediate requirement for colonoscopy by >80%.

Conclusions

Delays in the pathway to CRC diagnosis and treatment have potential to cause significant mortality and loss of life years. FIT triage of symptomatic patients in primary care could streamline access to colonoscopy, reduce delays for true-positive CRC cases and reduce nosocomial COVID-19 mortality in older true-negative 2WW referrals. However, this strategy offers benefit only in short-term rationalisation of limited endoscopy services: the appreciable false-negative rate of FIT in symptomatic patients means most colonoscopies will still be required.",,pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/70/6/1053.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-321650; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7447105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7447105?pdf=render 35337642,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00018-8,"Implementation of corticosteroids in treatment of COVID-19 in the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK: prospective, cohort study.","Närhi F, Moonesinghe SR, Shenkin SD, Drake TM, Mulholland RH, Donegan C, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Girvan M, Hardwick HE, Ho A, Leeming G, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Pius R, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Spencer RG, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Harrison EM, Semple MG, Docherty AB, ISARIC4C investigators.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-04-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Dexamethasone was the first intervention proven to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 being treated in hospital. We aimed to evaluate the adoption of corticosteroids in the treatment of COVID-19 in the UK after the RECOVERY trial publication on June 16, 2020, and to identify discrepancies in care.

Methods

We did an audit of clinical implementation of corticosteroids in a prospective, observational, cohort study in 237 UK acute care hospitals between March 16, 2020, and April 14, 2021, restricted to patients aged 18 years or older with proven or high likelihood of COVID-19, who received supplementary oxygen. The primary outcome was administration of dexamethasone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone, or methylprednisolone. This study is registered with ISRCTN, ISRCTN66726260.

Findings

Between June 17, 2020, and April 14, 2021, 47 795 (75·2%) of 63 525 of patients on supplementary oxygen received corticosteroids, higher among patients requiring critical care than in those who received ward care (11 185 [86·6%] of 12 909 vs 36 415 [72·4%] of 50 278). Patients 50 years or older were significantly less likely to receive corticosteroids than those younger than 50 years (adjusted odds ratio 0·79 [95% CI 0·70-0·89], p=0·0001, for 70-79 years; 0·52 [0·46-0·58], p<0·0001, for >80 years), independent of patient demographics and illness severity. 84 (54·2%) of 155 pregnant women received corticosteroids. Rates of corticosteroid administration increased from 27·5% in the week before June 16, 2020, to 75-80% in January, 2021.

Interpretation

Implementation of corticosteroids into clinical practice in the UK for patients with COVID-19 has been successful, but not universal. Patients older than 70 years, independent of illness severity, chronic neurological disease, and dementia, were less likely to receive corticosteroids than those who were younger, as were pregnant women. This could reflect appropriate clinical decision making, but the possibility of inequitable access to life-saving care should be considered.

Funding

UK National Institute for Health Research and UK Medical Research Council.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750022000188/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00018-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8940185 -35471746,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x,The resilient intensive care unit.,"Salluh JIF, Kurtz P, Bastos LSL, Quintairos A, Zampieri FG, Bozza FA.",,Annals of intensive care,2022,2022-04-26,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) to respond to a crisis and demonstrated their fragility. Unsurprisingly, higher than usual mortality rates, lengths of stay (LOS), and ICU-acquired complications occurred during the pandemic. However, worse outcomes were not universal nor constant across ICUs and significant variation in outcomes was reported, demonstrating that some ICUs could adequately manage the surge of COVID-19.

Methods

In the present editorial, we discuss the concept of a resilient Intensive Care Unit, including which metrics can be used to address the capacity to respond, sustain results and incorporate new practices that lead to improvement.

Results

We believe that a resiliency analysis adds a component of preparedness to the usual ICU performance evaluation and outcomes metrics to be used during the crisis and in regular times.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a resilient health system. Although this concept has been discussed for health systems, it was not tested in intensive care. Future studies should evaluate this concept to improve ICU organization for standard and pandemic times.",,pdf:https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989?pdf=render +34716166,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268,Electronic reminders and rewards to improve adherence to inhaled asthma treatment in adolescents: a non-randomised feasibility study in tertiary care.,"De Simoni A, Fleming L, Holliday L, Horne R, Priebe S, Bush A, Sheikh A, Griffiths C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-10-29,Y,Asthma; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine); Paediatric Thoracic Medicine,,,"

Objective

To test the feasibility and acceptability of a short-term reminder and incentives intervention in adolescents with low adherence to asthma medications.

Methods

Mixed-methods feasibility study in a tertiary care clinic. Adolescents recruited to a 24-week programme with three 8-weekly visits, receiving electronic reminders to prompt inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) inhalation through a mobile app coupled with electronic monitoring devices (EMD). From the second visit, monetary incentives based on adherence of ICS inhalation: £1 per dose, maximum £2 /day, up to £112/study, collected as gift cards at the third visit. End of study interviews and questionnaires assessing perceptions of asthma and ICS, analysed using the Perceptions and Practicalities Framework.

Participants

Adolescents (11-18 years) with documented low ICS adherence (<80% by EMD), and poor asthma control at the first clinic visit.

Results

10 out of 12 adolescents approached were recruited (7 males, 3 females, 12-16 years). Eight participants provided adherence measures up to the fourth visits and received rewards. Mean study duration was 281 days, with 7/10 participants unable to attend their fourth visit due to COVID-19 lockdown. Only 3/10 participants managed to pair the app/EMD up to the fourth visit, which was associated with improved ICS adherence (from 0.51, SD 0.07 to 0.86, SD 0.05). Adherence did not change in adolescents unable to pair the app/EMD. The intervention was acceptable to participants and parents/guardians. Exit interviews showed that participants welcomed reminders and incentives, though expressed frustration with app/EMD technological difficulties. Participants stated the intervention helped through reminding ICS doses, promoting self-monitoring and increasing motivation to take inhalers.

Conclusions

An intervention using electronic reminders and incentives through an app coupled with an EMD was feasible and acceptable to adolescents with asthma. A pilot randomised controlled trial is warranted to better estimate the effect size on adherence, with improved technical support for the EMD.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e053268.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117?pdf=render +36936594,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000247,Measuring multimorbidity in research: Delphi consensus study.,"Ho ISS, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Akbari A, Davies J, Khunti K, Kadam UT, Lyons RA, McCowan C, Mercer SW, Nirantharakumar K, Staniszewska S, Guthrie B.",,BMJ medicine,2022,2022-07-27,Y,Medicine; epidemiology; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Research Design,,,"

Objective

To develop international consensus on the definition and measurement of multimorbidity in research.

Design

Delphi consensus study.

Setting

International consensus; data collected in three online rounds from participants between 30 November 2020 and 18 May 2021.

Participants

Professionals interested in multimorbidity and people with long term conditions were recruited to professional and public panels.

Results

150 professional and 25 public participants completed the first survey round. Response rates for rounds 2/3 were 83%/92% for professionals and 88%/93% in the public panel, respectively. Across both panels, the consensus was that multimorbidity should be defined as two or more long term conditions. Complex multimorbidity was perceived to be a useful concept, but the panels were unable to agree on how to define it. Both panels agreed that conditions should be included in a multimorbidity measure if they were one or more of the following: currently active; permanent in their effects; requiring current treatment, care, or therapy; requiring surveillance; or relapsing-remitting conditions requiring ongoing care. Consensus was reached for 24 conditions to always include in multimorbidity measures, and 35 conditions to usually include unless a good reason not to existed. Simple counts were preferred for estimating prevalence and examining clustering or trajectories, and weighted measures were preferred for risk adjustment and outcome prediction.

Conclusions

Previous multimorbidity research is limited by inconsistent definitions and approaches to measuring multimorbidity. This Delphi study identifies professional and public panel consensus guidance to facilitate consistency of definition and measurement, and to improve study comparability and reproducibility.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000247.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000247; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9978673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9978673?pdf=render 34965929,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-065834,GP consultation rates for sequelae after acute covid-19 in patients managed in the community or hospital in the UK: population based study.,"Whittaker HR, Gulea C, Koteci A, Kallis C, Morgan AD, Iwundu C, Weeks M, Gupta R, Quint JK.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-12-29,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To describe the rates for consulting a general practitioner (GP) for sequelae after acute covid-19 in patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 and those managed in the community, and to determine how the rates change over time for patients in the community and after vaccination for covid-19.

Design

Population based study.

Setting

1392 general practices in England contributing to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum database.

Participants

456 002 patients with a diagnosis of covid-19 between 1 August 2020 and 14 February 2021 (44.7% men; median age 61 years), admitted to hospital within two weeks of diagnosis or managed in the community, and followed-up for a maximum of 9.2 months. A negative control group included individuals without covid-19 (n=38 511) and patients with influenza before the pandemic (n=21 803).

Main outcome measures

Comparison of rates for consulting a GP for new symptoms, diseases, prescriptions, and healthcare use in individuals admitted to hospital and those managed in the community, separately, before and after covid-19 infection, using Cox regression and negative binomial regression for healthcare use. The analysis was repeated for the negative control and influenza cohorts. In individuals in the community, outcomes were also described over time after a diagnosis of covid-19, and compared before and after vaccination for individuals who were symptomatic after covid-19 infection, using negative binomial regression.

Results

Relative to the negative control and influenza cohorts, patients in the community (n=437 943) had significantly higher GP consultation rates for multiple sequelae, and the most common were loss of smell or taste, or both (adjusted hazard ratio 5.28, 95% confidence interval 3.89 to 7.17, P<0.001); venous thromboembolism (3.35, 2.87 to 3.91, P<0.001); lung fibrosis (2.41, 1.37 to 4.25, P=0.002), and muscle pain (1.89, 1.63 to 2.20, P<0.001); and also for healthcare use after a diagnosis of covid-19 compared with 12 months before infection. For absolute proportions, the most common outcomes ≥4 weeks after a covid-19 diagnosis in patients in the community were joint pain (2.5%), anxiety (1.2%), and prescriptions for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (1.2%). Patients admitted to hospital (n=18 059) also had significantly higher GP consultation rates for multiple sequelae, most commonly for venous thromboembolism (16.21, 11.28 to 23.31, P<0.001), nausea (4.64, 2.24 to 9.21, P<0.001), prescriptions for paracetamol (3.68, 2.86 to 4.74, P<0.001), renal failure (3.42, 2.67 to 4.38, P<0.001), and healthcare use after a covid-19 diagnosis compared with 12 months before infection. For absolute proportions, the most common outcomes ≥4 weeks after a covid-19 diagnosis in patients admitted to hospital were venous thromboembolism (3.5%), joint pain (2.7%), and breathlessness (2.8%). In patients in the community, anxiety and depression, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, general pain, nausea, chest tightness, and tinnitus persisted throughout follow-up. GP consultation rates were reduced for all symptoms, prescriptions, and healthcare use, except for neuropathic pain, cognitive impairment, strong opiates, and paracetamol use in patients in the community after the first vaccination dose for covid-19 relative to before vaccination. GP consultation rates were also reduced for ischaemic heart disease, asthma, and gastro-oesophageal disease.

Conclusions

GP consultation rates for sequelae after acute covid-19 infection differed between patients with covid-19 who were admitted to hospital and those managed in the community. For individuals in the community, rates of some sequelae decreased over time but those for others, such as anxiety and depression, persisted. Rates of some outcomes decreased after vaccination in this group.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/375/bmj-2021-065834.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-065834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8715128; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8715128?pdf=render +35471746,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x,The resilient intensive care unit.,"Salluh JIF, Kurtz P, Bastos LSL, Quintairos A, Zampieri FG, Bozza FA.",,Annals of intensive care,2022,2022-04-26,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) to respond to a crisis and demonstrated their fragility. Unsurprisingly, higher than usual mortality rates, lengths of stay (LOS), and ICU-acquired complications occurred during the pandemic. However, worse outcomes were not universal nor constant across ICUs and significant variation in outcomes was reported, demonstrating that some ICUs could adequately manage the surge of COVID-19.

Methods

In the present editorial, we discuss the concept of a resilient Intensive Care Unit, including which metrics can be used to address the capacity to respond, sustain results and incorporate new practices that lead to improvement.

Results

We believe that a resiliency analysis adds a component of preparedness to the usual ICU performance evaluation and outcomes metrics to be used during the crisis and in regular times.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a resilient health system. Although this concept has been discussed for health systems, it was not tested in intensive care. Future studies should evaluate this concept to improve ICU organization for standard and pandemic times.",,pdf:https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989?pdf=render 37321240,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(23)00113-x,Mental health in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.,"Ahmed N, Barnett P, Greenburgh A, Pemovska T, Stefanidou T, Lyons N, Ikhtabi S, Talwar S, Francis ER, Harris SM, Shah P, Machin K, Jeffreys S, Mitchell L, Lynch C, Foye U, Schlief M, Appleton R, Saunders KRK, Baldwin H, Allan SM, Sheridan-Rains L, Kharboutly O, Kular A, Goldblatt P, Stewart R, Kirkbride JB, Lloyd-Evans B, Johnson S.",,The lancet. Psychiatry,2023,2023-06-12,Y,,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic caused immediate and far-reaching disruption to society, the economy, and health-care services. We synthesised evidence on the effect of the pandemic on mental health and mental health care in high-income European countries. We included 177 longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional studies comparing prevalence or incidence of mental health problems, mental health symptom severity in people with pre-existing mental health conditions, or mental health service use before versus during the pandemic, or between different timepoints of the pandemic. We found that epidemiological studies reported higher prevalence of some mental health problems during the pandemic compared with before it, but that in most cases this increase reduced over time. Conversely, studies of health records showed reduced incidence of new diagnoses at the start of the pandemic, which further declined during 2020. Mental health service use also declined at the onset of the pandemic but increased later in 2020 and through 2021, although rates of use did not return to pre-pandemic levels for some services. We found mixed patterns of effects of the pandemic on mental health and social outcome for adults already living with mental health conditions.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S221503662300113X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(23)00113-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259832; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259832?pdf=render -36936594,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000247,Measuring multimorbidity in research: Delphi consensus study.,"Ho ISS, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Akbari A, Davies J, Khunti K, Kadam UT, Lyons RA, McCowan C, Mercer SW, Nirantharakumar K, Staniszewska S, Guthrie B.",,BMJ medicine,2022,2022-07-27,Y,Medicine; epidemiology; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Research Design,,,"

Objective

To develop international consensus on the definition and measurement of multimorbidity in research.

Design

Delphi consensus study.

Setting

International consensus; data collected in three online rounds from participants between 30 November 2020 and 18 May 2021.

Participants

Professionals interested in multimorbidity and people with long term conditions were recruited to professional and public panels.

Results

150 professional and 25 public participants completed the first survey round. Response rates for rounds 2/3 were 83%/92% for professionals and 88%/93% in the public panel, respectively. Across both panels, the consensus was that multimorbidity should be defined as two or more long term conditions. Complex multimorbidity was perceived to be a useful concept, but the panels were unable to agree on how to define it. Both panels agreed that conditions should be included in a multimorbidity measure if they were one or more of the following: currently active; permanent in their effects; requiring current treatment, care, or therapy; requiring surveillance; or relapsing-remitting conditions requiring ongoing care. Consensus was reached for 24 conditions to always include in multimorbidity measures, and 35 conditions to usually include unless a good reason not to existed. Simple counts were preferred for estimating prevalence and examining clustering or trajectories, and weighted measures were preferred for risk adjustment and outcome prediction.

Conclusions

Previous multimorbidity research is limited by inconsistent definitions and approaches to measuring multimorbidity. This Delphi study identifies professional and public panel consensus guidance to facilitate consistency of definition and measurement, and to improve study comparability and reproducibility.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000247.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000247; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9978673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9978673?pdf=render -34716166,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268,Electronic reminders and rewards to improve adherence to inhaled asthma treatment in adolescents: a non-randomised feasibility study in tertiary care.,"De Simoni A, Fleming L, Holliday L, Horne R, Priebe S, Bush A, Sheikh A, Griffiths C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-10-29,Y,Asthma; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine); Paediatric Thoracic Medicine,,,"

Objective

To test the feasibility and acceptability of a short-term reminder and incentives intervention in adolescents with low adherence to asthma medications.

Methods

Mixed-methods feasibility study in a tertiary care clinic. Adolescents recruited to a 24-week programme with three 8-weekly visits, receiving electronic reminders to prompt inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) inhalation through a mobile app coupled with electronic monitoring devices (EMD). From the second visit, monetary incentives based on adherence of ICS inhalation: £1 per dose, maximum £2 /day, up to £112/study, collected as gift cards at the third visit. End of study interviews and questionnaires assessing perceptions of asthma and ICS, analysed using the Perceptions and Practicalities Framework.

Participants

Adolescents (11-18 years) with documented low ICS adherence (<80% by EMD), and poor asthma control at the first clinic visit.

Results

10 out of 12 adolescents approached were recruited (7 males, 3 females, 12-16 years). Eight participants provided adherence measures up to the fourth visits and received rewards. Mean study duration was 281 days, with 7/10 participants unable to attend their fourth visit due to COVID-19 lockdown. Only 3/10 participants managed to pair the app/EMD up to the fourth visit, which was associated with improved ICS adherence (from 0.51, SD 0.07 to 0.86, SD 0.05). Adherence did not change in adolescents unable to pair the app/EMD. The intervention was acceptable to participants and parents/guardians. Exit interviews showed that participants welcomed reminders and incentives, though expressed frustration with app/EMD technological difficulties. Participants stated the intervention helped through reminding ICS doses, promoting self-monitoring and increasing motivation to take inhalers.

Conclusions

An intervention using electronic reminders and incentives through an app coupled with an EMD was feasible and acceptable to adolescents with asthma. A pilot randomised controlled trial is warranted to better estimate the effect size on adherence, with improved technical support for the EMD.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e053268.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117?pdf=render 36472984,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004124,Association between antidementia medication use and mortality in people diagnosed with dementia with Lewy bodies in the UK: A retrospective cohort study.,"Chen S, Price AC, Cardinal RN, Moylett S, Kershenbaum AD, Fitzgerald J, Mueller C, Stewart R, O'Brien JT.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-12-06,Y,,,,"

Background

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLBs) is a common cause of dementia but has higher mortality than Alzheimer's disease (AD). The reasons for this are unclear, but antidementia drugs (including acetylcholinesterase inhibitors [AChEIs] and memantine) symptomatically benefit people with DLB and might improve outcomes. We investigated whether AChEIs and/or memantine were associated with reduced hospital admissions and mortality.

Methods and findings

We performed a retrospective cohort study of those diagnosed with DLB between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2019, using data from electronic clinical records of secondary care mental health services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), United Kingdom (catchment area population approximately 0.86 million), as well as linked records from national Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data. Eligible patients were those who started AChEIs or memantine within 3 months of their diagnosis (cases) and those who never used AChEIs or memantine (controls). Outcomes included admission, length of stay, and mortality. Cox proportional hazard and linear regression models were used. Of 592 patients with DLB, 219 never took AChEIs or memantine, 100 took AChEIs only, and 273 took both AChEIs and memantine. The cohorts were followed up for an average of 896 days, 981 days, and 1,004 days, respectively. There were no significant differences in the cohorts' baseline characteristics, except for socioeconomic status that was lower in patients who never took AChEIs or memantine (χ2 = 23.34, P = 0.003). After controlling for confounding by sociodemographic factors (age, sex, marital status, ethnicity, socioeconomic status), antipsychotic use, antidepressant use, cognitive status, physical comorbidity, anticholinergic burden, and global health performance, compared with patients who never took AChEIs or memantine, patients taking AChEIs only or taking both had a significantly lower risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.48 to 0.93, p = 0.02; adjusted HR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.50 to 0.83, P = 0.001, respectively). Those taking AChEIs or both AChEIs and memantine had significantly shorter periods of unplanned hospital admission for physical disorders (adjusted coefficient -13.48, 95% CI = [-26.87, -0.09], P = 0.049; adjusted coefficient -14.21, 95% CI = [-24.58, -3.85], P = 0.007, respectively), but no difference in length of stay for planned admissions for physical disorders, or for admissions for mental health disorders. No significant additional associations of memantine on admission, length of stay, and mortality were found (all P > 0.05). The main limitation was that this was a naturalistic study and possible confounds cannot be fully controlled, and there may be selection bias resulting from nonrandom prescription behaviour in clinical practice. However, we mimicked the intention-to-treat design of clinical trials, and the majority of baseline characters were balanced between cohorts. In addition, our series of sensitivity analyses confirmed the consistency of our results.

Conclusion

In this study, we observed that use of AChEIs with or without memantine in DLB was associated with shorter duration of hospital admissions and decreased risk of mortality. Although our study was naturalistic, it supports further the use of AChEIs in DLB.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004124&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004124; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9725132; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9725132?pdf=render 34107928,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06509-x,Importance of patient bed pathways and length of stay differences in predicting COVID-19 hospital bed occupancy in England.,"Leclerc QJ, Fuller NM, Keogh RH, Diaz-Ordaz K, Sekula R, Semple MG, ISARIC4C Investigators, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Atkins KE, Procter SR, Knight GM.",,BMC health services research,2021,2021-06-09,Y,Length Of Stay; Hospitalisation; Bed Occupancy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Bed Pathway,,,"

Background

Predicting bed occupancy for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 requires understanding of length of stay (LoS) in particular bed types. LoS can vary depending on the patient's ""bed pathway"" - the sequence of transfers of individual patients between bed types during a hospital stay. In this study, we characterise these pathways, and their impact on predicted hospital bed occupancy.

Methods

We obtained data from University College Hospital (UCH) and the ISARIC4C COVID-19 Clinical Information Network (CO-CIN) on hospitalised patients with COVID-19 who required care in general ward or critical care (CC) beds to determine possible bed pathways and LoS. We developed a discrete-time model to examine the implications of using either bed pathways or only average LoS by bed type to forecast bed occupancy. We compared model-predicted bed occupancy to publicly available bed occupancy data on COVID-19 in England between March and August 2020.

Results

In both the UCH and CO-CIN datasets, 82% of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 only received care in general ward beds. We identified four other bed pathways, present in both datasets: ""Ward, CC, Ward"", ""Ward, CC"", ""CC"" and ""CC, Ward"". Mean LoS varied by bed type, pathway, and dataset, between 1.78 and 13.53 days. For UCH, we found that using bed pathways improved the accuracy of bed occupancy predictions, while only using an average LoS for each bed type underestimated true bed occupancy. However, using the CO-CIN LoS dataset we were not able to replicate past data on bed occupancy in England, suggesting regional LoS heterogeneities.

Conclusions

We identified five bed pathways, with substantial variation in LoS by bed type, pathway, and geography. This might be caused by local differences in patient characteristics, clinical care strategies, or resource availability, and suggests that national LoS averages may not be appropriate for local forecasts of bed occupancy for COVID-19.

Trial registration

The ISARIC WHO CCP-UK study ISRCTN66726260 was retrospectively registered on 21/04/2020 and designated an Urgent Public Health Research Study by NIHR.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-021-06509-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06509-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8188158; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8188158?pdf=render 37671353,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133,Public Involvement & Engagement in health inequalities research on COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of CIDACS/FIOCRUZ BAHIA.,"Dos Anjos Fonseca A, Pimenta DM, de Almeida MRS, Lima RT, Barreto ML, Ichihara MYT.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Brazil; Pandemic; Policymakers; Social Inequalities; Public Engagement; Community Groups; Public Involvement,,,"

Introduction

Health inequalities in Brazil have deepened on Covid-19 pandemic, and the most vulnerable people were the more affected. A multidisciplinary team from Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia developed a Social Disparities Index for Covid-19 (IDS-COVID-19) to support the evaluation of effects of health inequalities on the pandemic in Brazil. Public Involvement and Engagement were the pillars of this research because they allowed us to access first hand experiences about the social context in our country.

Objectives

This paper aims to describe our Public Involvement and Engagement experience by analysing our challenges, strategies, activities, results, and lessons learned during the construction of IDS-COVID-19.

Methods

The basis of the IDS-Covid-19 public engagement model was the participation of different social groups through methods and techniques that allow dialogue. Several activities and communication products supported the continuous interactions. Another guideline was the inclusion and the welcoming of participants from the beginning of the project to ensure that the participant's contributions could drive decision-making about the research.

Results

Participants made several contributions to the research as a new layer of information to the Index, and improvements were made to the interactive panel. They also compromised to support the dissemination and use of the product. Eight representatives of community groups and 29 policymakers participated in our engagement activities during the project. More than 500 people were in our open webinars. In addition, more than 140 news items about IDS-Covid-19 were published in national and international media.

Conclusions

We highlight as lessons learned the adaptation of some dissemination formats to the public, and the necessity of being flexible and accessible to participants. We strengthened the relationship with relevant stakeholders by exploring individual conversations by phone, WhatsApp, email, and interviews to produce a documentary that registered this whole experience. Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia has also embedded public engagement and involvement in the study agenda.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697?pdf=render -36456017,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288,"Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on timeliness and equity of measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations in North East London: a longitudinal study using electronic health records.","Firman N, Marszalek M, Gutierrez A, Homer K, Williams C, Harper G, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Robson J, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Public Health; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To quantify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the timeliness of, and geographical and sociodemographic inequalities in, receipt of first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Design

Longitudinal study using primary care electronic health records.

Setting

285 general practices in North East London.

Participants

Children born between 23 August 2017 and 22 September 2018 (pre-pandemic cohort) or between 23 March 2019 and 1 May 2020 (pandemic cohort).

Main outcome measure

Receipt of timely MMR vaccination between 12 and 18 months of age.

Methods

We used logistic regression to estimate the ORs (95% CIs) of receipt of a timely vaccination adjusting for sex, deprivation, ethnic background and Clinical Commissioning Group. We plotted choropleth maps of the proportion receiving timely vaccinations.

Results

Timely MMR receipt fell by 4.0% (95% CI: 3.4% to 4.6%) from 79.2% (78.8% to 79.6%) to 75.2% (74.7% to 75.7%) in the pre-pandemic (n=33 226; 51.3% boys) and pandemic (n=32 446; 51.4%) cohorts, respectively. After adjustment, timely vaccination was less likely in the pandemic cohort (0.79; 0.76 to 0.82), children from black (0.70; 0.65 to 0.76), mixed/other (0.77; 0.72 to 0.82) or with missing (0.77; 0.74 to 0.81) ethnic background, and more likely in girls (1.07; 1.03 to 1.11) and those from South Asian backgrounds (1.39; 1.30 to 1.48). Children living in the least deprived areas were more likely to receive a timely MMR (2.09; 1.78 to 2.46) but there was no interaction between cohorts and deprivation (Wald statistic: 3.44; p=0.49). The proportion of neighbourhoods where less than 60% of children received timely vaccination increased from 7.5% to 12.7% during the pandemic.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant fall in timely MMR receipt and increased geographical clustering of measles susceptibility in an area of historically low and inequitable MMR coverage. Immediate action is needed to avert measles outbreaks and support primary care to deliver timely and equitable vaccinations.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e066288.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415?pdf=render 32877352,https://doi.org/10.2196/19992,Using Smartphones and Wearable Devices to Monitor Behavioral Changes During COVID-19.,"Sun S, Folarin AA, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, Cummins N, Matcham F, Dalla Costa G, Simblett S, Leocani L, Lamers F, Sørensen PS, Buron M, Zabalza A, Guerrero Pérez AI, Penninx BW, Siddi S, Haro JM, Myin-Germeys I, Rintala A, Wykes T, Narayan VA, Comi G, Hotopf M, Dobson RJ, RADAR-CNS Consortium.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-09-25,Y,Mobility; Smartphones; Mobile Health; Behavioral Monitoring; Wearable Devices; Phone Use; Covid-19,,,"

Background

In the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment for COVID-19, countries have adopted nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing and full lockdown. An objective and quantitative means of passively monitoring the impact and response of these interventions at a local level is needed.

Objective

We aim to explore the utility of the recently developed open-source mobile health platform Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse (RADAR)-base as a toolbox to rapidly test the effect and response to NPIs intended to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Methods

We analyzed data extracted from smartphone and wearable devices, and managed by the RADAR-base from 1062 participants recruited in Italy, Spain, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. We derived nine features on a daily basis including time spent at home, maximum distance travelled from home, the maximum number of Bluetooth-enabled nearby devices (as a proxy for physical distancing), step count, average heart rate, sleep duration, bedtime, phone unlock duration, and social app use duration. We performed Kruskal-Wallis tests followed by post hoc Dunn tests to assess differences in these features among baseline, prelockdown, and during lockdown periods. We also studied behavioral differences by age, gender, BMI, and educational background.

Results

We were able to quantify expected changes in time spent at home, distance travelled, and the number of nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices between prelockdown and during lockdown periods (P<.001 for all five countries). We saw reduced sociality as measured through mobility features and increased virtual sociality through phone use. People were more active on their phones (P<.001 for Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), spending more time using social media apps (P<.001 for Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands), particularly around major news events. Furthermore, participants had a lower heart rate (P<.001 for Italy and Spain; P=.02 for Denmark), went to bed later (P<.001 for Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands), and slept more (P<.001 for Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). We also found that young people had longer homestay than older people during the lockdown and fewer daily steps. Although there was no significant difference between the high and low BMI groups in time spent at home, the low BMI group walked more.

Conclusions

RADAR-base, a freely deployable data collection platform leveraging data from wearables and mobile technologies, can be used to rapidly quantify and provide a holistic view of behavioral changes in response to public health interventions as a result of infectious outbreaks such as COVID-19. RADAR-base may be a viable approach to implementing an early warning system for passively assessing the local compliance to interventions in epidemics and pandemics, and could help countries ease out of lockdown.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/9/e19992/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/19992; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7527031 +36456017,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288,"Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on timeliness and equity of measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations in North East London: a longitudinal study using electronic health records.","Firman N, Marszalek M, Gutierrez A, Homer K, Williams C, Harper G, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Robson J, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Public Health; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To quantify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the timeliness of, and geographical and sociodemographic inequalities in, receipt of first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Design

Longitudinal study using primary care electronic health records.

Setting

285 general practices in North East London.

Participants

Children born between 23 August 2017 and 22 September 2018 (pre-pandemic cohort) or between 23 March 2019 and 1 May 2020 (pandemic cohort).

Main outcome measure

Receipt of timely MMR vaccination between 12 and 18 months of age.

Methods

We used logistic regression to estimate the ORs (95% CIs) of receipt of a timely vaccination adjusting for sex, deprivation, ethnic background and Clinical Commissioning Group. We plotted choropleth maps of the proportion receiving timely vaccinations.

Results

Timely MMR receipt fell by 4.0% (95% CI: 3.4% to 4.6%) from 79.2% (78.8% to 79.6%) to 75.2% (74.7% to 75.7%) in the pre-pandemic (n=33 226; 51.3% boys) and pandemic (n=32 446; 51.4%) cohorts, respectively. After adjustment, timely vaccination was less likely in the pandemic cohort (0.79; 0.76 to 0.82), children from black (0.70; 0.65 to 0.76), mixed/other (0.77; 0.72 to 0.82) or with missing (0.77; 0.74 to 0.81) ethnic background, and more likely in girls (1.07; 1.03 to 1.11) and those from South Asian backgrounds (1.39; 1.30 to 1.48). Children living in the least deprived areas were more likely to receive a timely MMR (2.09; 1.78 to 2.46) but there was no interaction between cohorts and deprivation (Wald statistic: 3.44; p=0.49). The proportion of neighbourhoods where less than 60% of children received timely vaccination increased from 7.5% to 12.7% during the pandemic.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant fall in timely MMR receipt and increased geographical clustering of measles susceptibility in an area of historically low and inequitable MMR coverage. Immediate action is needed to avert measles outbreaks and support primary care to deliver timely and equitable vaccinations.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e066288.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415?pdf=render 33785494,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046365,Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on remote mental healthcare and prescribing in psychiatry: an electronic health record study.,"Patel R, Irving J, Brinn A, Broadbent M, Shetty H, Pritchard M, Downs J, Stewart R, Harland R, McGuire P.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-03-30,Y,Psychiatry; Mental health; epidemiology; Telemedicine; Health Informatics,,,"

Objectives

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted mental healthcare delivery, with many services shifting from in-person to remote patient contact. We investigated the impact of the pandemic on the use of remote consultation and on the prescribing of psychiatric medications.

Design and setting

The Clinical Record Interactive Search tool was used to examine deidentified electronic health records of people receiving mental healthcare from the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. Data from the period before and after the onset of the pandemic were analysed using linear regression, and visualised using locally estimated scatterplot smoothing.

Participants

All patients receiving care from SLaM between 7 January 2019 and 20 September 2020 (around 37 500 patients per week).

Outcome measures

(i) The number of clinical contacts (in-person, remote or non-attended) with mental healthcare professionals per week.(ii) Prescribing of antipsychotic and mood stabiliser medications per week.

Results

Following the onset of the pandemic, the frequency of in-person contacts was significantly reduced compared with that in the previous year (β coefficient: -5829.6 contacts, 95% CI -6919.5 to -4739.6, p<0.001), while the frequency of remote contacts significantly increased (β coefficient: 3338.5 contacts, 95% CI 3074.4 to 3602.7, p<0.001). Rates of remote consultation were lower in older adults than in working age adults, children and adolescents. Despite this change in the type of patient contact, antipsychotic and mood stabiliser prescribing remained at similar levels.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a marked increase in remote consultation, particularly among younger patients. However, there was no evidence that this has led to changes in psychiatric prescribing. Nevertheless, further work is needed to ensure that older patients are able to access mental healthcare remotely.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/3/e046365.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046365; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8728386; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8728386?pdf=render 35866236,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05033,The road to recovery: an interrupted time series analysis of policy intervention to restore essential health services in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Doubova SV, Arsenault C, Contreras-Sánchez SE, Borrayo-Sánchez G, Leslie HH.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-07-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Recovery of health services disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic represents a significant challenge in low- and middle-income countries. In April 2021, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which provides health care to 68.5 million people, launched the National Strategy for Health Services Recovery (Recovery policy). The study objective was to evaluate whether the Recovery policy addressed COVID-related declines in maternal, child health, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) services.

Methods

We analysed the data of 35 IMSS delegations from January 2019 to November 2021 on contraceptive visits, antenatal care consultations, deliveries, caesarean sections, sick children's consultations, child vaccination, breast and cervical cancer screening, diabetes and hypertension consultations, and control. We focused on the period before (April 2020 - March 2021) and during (April 2021 - November 2021) the Recovery policy and used an interrupted time series design and Poisson Generalized Estimating Equation models to estimate the association of this policy with service use and outcomes and change in their trends.

Results

Despite the third wave of the pandemic in 2021, service utilization increased in the Recovery period, reaching (at minimum) 49% of pre-pandemic levels for sick children's consultations and (at maximum) 106% of pre-pandemic levels for breast cancer screenings. Evidence for the Recovery policy role was mixed: the policy was associated with increased facility deliveries (IRR = 1.15, 95%CI = 1.11-1.19) with a growing trend over time (IRR = 1.04, 95%CI = 1.03-1.05); antenatal care and child health services saw strong level effects but decrease over time. Additionally, the Recovery policy was associated with diabetes and hypertension control. Services recovery varied across delegations.

Conclusions

Health service utilization and NCDs control demonstrated important gains in 2021, but evidence suggests the policy had inconsistent effects across services and decreasing impact over time. Further efforts to strengthen essential health services and ensure consistent recovery across delegations are warranted.",,pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/jogh-12-05033.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05033; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921?pdf=render 37143610,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oead037,"SAIL study of stroke, systemic embolism and bleeding outcomes with warfarin anticoagulation in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (S4-BOW-AF).","Harris DE, Torabi F, Mallory D, Akbari A, Thayer D, Wang T, Grundy S, Gravenor M, Alikhan R, Lister S, Halcox J.",,European heart journal open,2023,2023-04-13,Y,Bleeding; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Warfarin; Pharmacotherapy; Inr Control,,,"

Aims

In patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) prescribed warfarin, the association between guideline defined international normalised ratio (INR) control and adverse outcomes in unknown. We aimed to (i) determine stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) and bleeding events in NVAF patients prescribed warfarin; and (ii) estimate the increased risk of these adverse events associated with poor INR control in this population.

Methods and results

Individual-level population-scale linked patient data were used to investigate the association between INR control and both SSE and bleeding events using (i) the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) criteria of poor INR control [time in therapeutic range (TTR) <65%, two INRs <1.5 or two INRs >5 in a 6-month period or any INR >8]. A total of 35 891 patients were included for SSE and 35 035 for bleeding outcome analyses. Mean CHA2DS2-VASc score was 3.5 (SD = 1.7), and the mean follow up was 4.3 years for both analyses. Mean TTR was 71.9%, with 34% of time spent in poor INR control according to NICE criteria.SSE and bleeding event rates (per 100 patient years) were 1.01 (95%CI 0.95-1.08) and 3.4 (95%CI 3.3-3.5), respectively, during adequate INR control, rising to 1.82 (95%CI 1.70-1.94) and 4.8 (95% CI 4.6-5.0) during poor INR control.Poor INR control was independently associated with increased risk of both SSE [HR = 1.69 (95%CI = 1.54-1.86), P < 0.001] and bleeding [HR = 1.40 (95%CI 1.33-1.48), P < 0.001] in Cox-multivariable models.

Conclusion

Guideline-defined poor INR control is associated with significantly higher SSE and bleeding event rates, independent of recognised risk factors for stroke or bleeding.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjopen/oead037/49878718/oead037.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oead037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10153743; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10153743?pdf=render @@ -621,15 +621,15 @@ PMC8855010,https://doi.org/,POS-894 PREDICTING PANDEMIC-RELATED EXCESS-DEATH USI 34135032,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043906,Realising the full potential of data-enabled trials in the UK: a call for action.,"Sydes MR, Barbachano Y, Bowman L, Denwood T, Farmer A, Garfield-Birkbeck S, Gibson M, Gulliford MC, Harrison DA, Hewitt C, Logue J, Navaie W, Norrie J, O'Kane M, Quint JK, Rycroft-Malone J, Sheffield J, Smeeth L, Sullivan F, Tizzard J, Walker P, Wilding J, Williamson PR, Landray M, Morris A, Walker RR, Williams HC, Valentine J, Data Enabled Trials Group Workshop Group members.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-16,Y,Clinical Trials; Health Informatics; Statistics & Research Methods,,,"

Rationale

Clinical trials are the gold standard for testing interventions. COVID-19 has further raised their public profile and emphasised the need to deliver better, faster, more efficient trials for patient benefit. Considerable overlap exists between data required for trials and data already collected routinely in electronic healthcare records (EHRs). Opportunities exist to use these in innovative ways to decrease duplication of effort and speed trial recruitment, conduct and follow-up.

Approach

The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), Health Data Research UK and Clinical Practice Research Datalink co-organised a national workshop to accelerate the agenda for 'data-enabled clinical trials'. Showcasing successful examples and imagining future possibilities, the plenary talks, panel discussions, group discussions and case studies covered: design/feasibility; recruitment; conduct/follow-up; collecting benefits/harms; and analysis/interpretation.

Reflection

Some notable studies have successfully accessed and used EHR to identify potential recruits, support randomised trials, deliver interventions and supplement/replace trial-specific follow-up. Some outcome measures are already reliably collected; others, like safety, need detailed work to meet regulatory reporting requirements. There is a clear need for system interoperability and a 'route map' to identify and access the necessary datasets. Researchers running regulatory-facing trials must carefully consider how data quality and integrity would be assessed. An experience-sharing forum could stimulate wider adoption of EHR-based methods in trial design and execution.

Discussion

EHR offer opportunities to better plan clinical trials, assess patients and capture data more efficiently, reducing research waste and increasing focus on each trial's specific challenges. The short-term emphasis should be on facilitating patient recruitment and for postmarketing authorisation trials where research-relevant outcome measures are readily collectable. Sharing of case studies is encouraged. The workshop directly informed NIHR's funding call for ambitious data-enabled trials at scale. There is the opportunity for the UK to build upon existing data science capabilities to identify, recruit and monitor patients in trials at scale.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e043906.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043906; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8211043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8211043?pdf=render 34458913,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab172,Potential test-negative design study bias in outbreak settings: application to Ebola vaccination in Democratic Republic of Congo.,"Pearson CAB, Edmunds WJ, Hladish TJ, Eggo RM.",,International journal of epidemiology,2022,2022-02-01,Y,Mathematical Modelling; Ebola; Outbreak Response; Drc; Test-negative Design,,,"

Background

Infectious disease outbreaks present unique challenges to study designs for vaccine evaluation. Test-negative design (TND) studies have previously been used to estimate vaccine effectiveness and have been proposed for Ebola virus disease (EVD) vaccines. However, there are key differences in how cases and controls are recruited during outbreaks and pandemics of novel pathogens, whcih have implications for the reliability of effectiveness estimates using this design.

Methods

We use a modelling approach to quantify TND bias for a prophylactic vaccine under varying study and epidemiological scenarios. Our model accounts for heterogeneity in vaccine distribution and for two potential routes to testing and recruitment into the study: self-reporting and contact-tracing. We derive conventional and hybrid TND estimators for this model and suggest ways to translate public health response data into the parameters of the model.

Results

Using a conventional TND study, our model finds biases in vaccine effectiveness estimates. Bias arises due to differential recruitment from self-reporting and contact-tracing, and due to clustering of vaccination. We estimate the degree of bias when recruitment route is not available, and propose a study design to eliminate the bias if recruitment route is recorded.

Conclusions

Hybrid TND studies can resolve the design bias with conventional TND studies applied to outbreak and pandemic response testing data, if those efforts collect individuals' routes to testing. Without route to testing, other epidemiological data will be required to estimate the magnitude of potential bias in a conventional TND study. Since these studies may need to be conducted retrospectively, public health responses should obtain these data, and generic protocols for outbreak and pandemic response studies should emphasize the need to record routes to testing.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/51/1/265/42555506/dyab172.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab172; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855996; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855996?pdf=render 34230034,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2021-000967,Increase in recruitment upon integration of trial into a clinical care pathway: an observational study. ,"Yip KP, Gompertz S, Snelson C, Willson J, Madathil S, Huq SS, Rauf F, Salmon N, Tengende J, Tracey J, Cooper B, Filby K, Ball S, Parekh D, Dosanjh DPS.",,BMJ open respiratory research,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"Many respiratory clinical trials fail to reach their recruitment target and this problem exacerbates existing funding issues. Integration of the clinical trial recruitment process into a clinical care pathway (CCP) may represent an effective way to significantly increase recruitment numbers. A respiratory support unit and a CCP for escalation of patients with severe COVID-19 were established on 11 January 2021. The recruitment process for the Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy-Respiratory Support trial was integrated into the CCP on the same date. Recruitment data for the trial were collected before and after integration into the CCP. On integration of the recruitment process into a CCP, there was a significant increase in recruitment numbers. Fifty patients were recruited over 266 days before this process occurred whereas 108 patients were recruited over 49 days after this process. There was a statistically significant increase in both the proportion of recruited patients relative to the number of COVID-19 hospital admissions (change from 2.8% to 9.1%, p<0.0001) and intensive therapy unit admissions (change from 17.8% to 50.2%, p<0.001) over the same period, showing that this increase in recruitment was independent of COVID-19 prevalence. Integrating the trial recruitment process into a CCP can significantly boost recruitment numbers. This represents an innovative model that can be used to maximise recruitment without impacting on the financial and labour costs associated with the running of a respiratory clinical trial.",,pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/8/1/e000967.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2021-000967; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261886?pdf=render -34850874,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083,Erratum to: An overview of the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database: data quality and cohort analysis. ,"Cushnan D, Bennett O, Berka R, Bertolli O, Chopra A, Dorgham S, Favaro A, Ganepola T, Halling-Brown M, Imreh G, Jacob J, Jefferson E, Lemarchand F, Schofield D, Wyatt JC, Collaborative NCCID.",,GigaScience,2021,2021-12-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/10/12/giab083/41395049/giab083.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578?pdf=render 37393924,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00860-7,"The unfinished agenda of communicable diseases among children and adolescents before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Child and Adolescent Communicable Disease Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2023,2023-06-29,Y,,,,"

Background

Communicable disease control has long been a focus of global health policy. There have been substantial reductions in the burden and mortality of communicable diseases among children younger than 5 years, but we know less about this burden in older children and adolescents, and it is unclear whether current programmes and policies remain aligned with targets for intervention. This knowledge is especially important for policy and programmes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to use the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019 to systematically characterise the burden of communicable diseases across childhood and adolescence.

Methods

In this systematic analysis of the GBD study from 1990 to 2019, all communicable diseases and their manifestations as modelled within GBD 2019 were included, categorised as 16 subgroups of common diseases or presentations. Data were reported for absolute count, prevalence, and incidence across measures of cause-specific mortality (deaths and years of life lost), disability (years lived with disability [YLDs]), and disease burden (disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs]) for children and adolescents aged 0-24 years. Data were reported across the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and across time (1990-2019), and for 204 countries and territories. For HIV, we reported the mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) as a measure of health system performance.

Findings

In 2019, there were 3·0 million deaths and 30·0 million years of healthy life lost to disability (as measured by YLDs), corresponding to 288·4 million DALYs from communicable diseases among children and adolescents globally (57·3% of total communicable disease burden across all ages). Over time, there has been a shift in communicable disease burden from young children to older children and adolescents (largely driven by the considerable reductions in children younger than 5 years and slower progress elsewhere), although children younger than 5 years still accounted for most of the communicable disease burden in 2019. Disease burden and mortality were predominantly in low-SDI settings, with high and high-middle SDI settings also having an appreciable burden of communicable disease morbidity (4·0 million YLDs in 2019 alone). Three cause groups (enteric infections, lower-respiratory-tract infections, and malaria) accounted for 59·8% of the global communicable disease burden in children and adolescents, with tuberculosis and HIV both emerging as important causes during adolescence. HIV was the only cause for which disease burden increased over time, particularly in children and adolescents older than 5 years, and especially in females. Excess MIRs for HIV were observed for males aged 15-19 years in low-SDI settings.

Interpretation

Our analysis supports continued policy focus on enteric infections and lower-respiratory-tract infections, with orientation to children younger than 5 years in settings of low socioeconomic development. However, efforts should also be targeted to other conditions, particularly HIV, given its increased burden in older children and adolescents. Older children and adolescents also experience a large burden of communicable disease, further highlighting the need for efforts to extend beyond the first 5 years of life. Our analysis also identified substantial morbidity caused by communicable diseases affecting child and adolescent health across the world.

Funding

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence for Driving Investment in Global Adolescent Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00860-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221?pdf=render +34850874,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083,Erratum to: An overview of the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database: data quality and cohort analysis. ,"Cushnan D, Bennett O, Berka R, Bertolli O, Chopra A, Dorgham S, Favaro A, Ganepola T, Halling-Brown M, Imreh G, Jacob J, Jefferson E, Lemarchand F, Schofield D, Wyatt JC, Collaborative NCCID.",,GigaScience,2021,2021-12-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/10/12/giab083/41395049/giab083.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578?pdf=render 32935062,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1383,Prospective data linkage to facilitate COVID-19 trials - A call to action.,"Paprica PA, Sydes MR, McGrail KM, Morris AD, Schull MJ, Walker R.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-08-11,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1383/2566; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1383; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253?pdf=render 33664493,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01275-z,The need for ethical guidance for the use of patient-reported outcomes in research and clinical practice.,"Cruz Rivera S, Mercieca-Bebber R, Aiyegbusi OL, Scott J, Hunn A, Fernandez C, Ives J, Ells C, Price G, Draper H, Calvert MJ.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-04-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01275-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01275-z 36992264,https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030680,"Determinants of Equity in Coverage of Measles-Containing Vaccines in Wales, UK, during the Elimination Era.","Perry M, Cottrell S, Gravenor MB, Griffiths L.",,Vaccines,2023,2023-03-17,Y,"Vaccination; Measles; Socioeconomic Factors; Immunisation; Mmr; Measles, Mumps And Rubella Vaccine",,,"In the context of the WHO's measles and rubella elimination targets and European Immunization Agenda 2030, this large cross-sectional study aimed to identify inequalities in measles vaccination coverage in Wales, UK. The vaccination status of individuals aged 2 to 25 years of age, alive and resident in Wales as of 31 August 2021, was ascertained through linkage of the National Community Child Health Database and primary care data. A series of predictor variables were derived from five national datasets and all analysis was carried out in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank at Swansea University. In these 648,895 individuals, coverage of the first dose of measles-containing vaccine (due at 12-13 months of age) was 97.1%, and coverage of the second dose (due at 3 years and 4 months) in 4 to 25-year-olds was 93.8%. In multivariable analysis, excluding 0.7% with known refusal, the strongest association with being unvaccinated was birth order (families with six or more children) and being born outside of the UK. Living in a deprived area, being eligible for free school meals, a lower level of maternal education, and having a recorded language other than English or Welsh were also associated with lower coverage. Some of these factors may also be associated with refusal. This knowledge can be used to target future interventions and prioritise areas for catch up in a time of limited resource.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/3/680/pdf?version=1679031223; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030680; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10057771; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10057771?pdf=render -36669843,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364,Implementation of a quality improvement programme using the Active Patient Link call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of childhood vaccinations: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation.,"Marszalek M, Hawking MKD, Gutierrez A, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Firman N, Robson J, Bedford H, Billington A, Moss N, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-01-20,Y,immunology; Public Health; Preventive Medicine; Community Child Health; Quality In Health Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

Call and recall systems provide actionable intelligence to improve equity and timeliness of childhood vaccinations, which have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will evaluate the effectiveness, fidelity and sustainability of a data-enabled quality improvement programme delivered in primary care using an Active Patient Link Immunisation (APL-Imms) call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of uptake in a multiethnic disadvantaged urban population. We will use qualitative methods to evaluate programme delivery, focusing on uptake and use, implementation barriers and service improvements for clinical and non-clinical primary care staff, its fidelity and sustainability.

Methods and analysis

This is a mixed-methods observational study in 284 general practices in north east London (NEL). The target population will be preschool-aged children eligible to receive diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and registered with an NEL general practice. The intervention comprises an in-practice call and recall tool, facilitation and training, and financial incentives. The quantitative evaluation will include interrupted time Series analyses and Slope Index of Inequality. The primary outcomes will be the proportion of children receiving at least one dose of a DTaP-containing or MMR vaccination defined, respectively, as administered between age 6 weeks and 6 months or between 12 and 18 months of age. The qualitative evaluation will involve a 'Think Aloud' method and semistructured interviews of stakeholders to assess impact, fidelity and sustainability of the APL-Imms tool, and fidelity of the implementation by facilitators.

Ethics and dissemination

The research team has been granted permission from data controllers in participating practices to use deidentified data for audit purposes. As findings will be specific to the local context, research ethics approval is not required. Results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and to stakeholders, including parents, health providers and commissioners.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/1/e064364.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487?pdf=render 33628949,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16020.1,The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children - A resource for COVID-19 research: Questionnaire data capture April-May 2020. ,"Northstone K, Howarth S, Smith D, Bowring C, Wells N, Timpson NJ.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-06-10,Y,,,,"The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) is a prospective population-based cohort study which recruited pregnant women in 1990-1992. The resource provides an informative and efficient setting for collecting data on the current coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In early March 2020, a questionnaire was developed in collaboration with other longitudinal population studies to ensure cross-cohort comparability. It targeted retrospective and current COVID-19 infection information (exposure assessment, symptom tracking and reported clinical outcomes) and the impact of both disease and mitigating measures implemented to manage the COVID-19 crisis more broadly. Data were collected on symptoms of COVID-19 and seasonal flu, travel prior to the pandemic, mental health and social, behavioural and lifestyle factors. The online questionnaire was deployed across the parent and offspring generations between the 9 th April and 15 th May 2020. 6807 participants completed the questionnaire (2706 original mothers, 1014 original fathers/partners, 2973 offspring (mean age ~28 years) and 114 partners of offspring). Eight (0.01%) participants (4 G0 and 4 G1) reported a positive test for COVID-19, 77 (1.13%; 28 G0 and 49 G1) reported that they had been told by a doctor they likely had COVID-19 and 865 (12.7%; 426 G0 and 439 G1) suspected that they have had COVID-19.  Using algorithmically defined cases, we estimate that the predicted proportion of COVID-19 cases fell between 1.03% - 4.19% depending on timing of measurement during the period of reporting. Data from this first questionnaire will be complemented with at least two more follow-up questionnaires, linkage to health records and results of biological testing as they become available. Data has been released as: 1) a standard dataset containing all participant responses with key sociodemographic factors and 2) as a composite release coordinating data from the existing resource, thus enabling bespoke research across all areas supported by the study.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16020.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7883314; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7883314?pdf=render -37650026,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1727,An overview of synthetic administrative data for research.,"Kokosi T, De Stavola B, Mitra R, Frayling L, Doherty A, Dove I, Sonnenberg P, Harron K.",,International journal of population data science,2022,2022-05-23,Y,Data Linkage; Statistical Disclosure Control; Data Utility; Synthetic Data; Data Confidentiality; Administrative Datasets,,,"Use of administrative data for research and for planning services has increased over recent decades due to the value of the large, rich information available. However, concerns about the release of sensitive or personal data and the associated disclosure risk can lead to lengthy approval processes and restricted data access. This can delay or prevent the production of timely evidence. A promising solution to facilitate more efficient data access is to create synthetic versions of the original datasets which are less likely to hold confidential information and can minimise disclosure risk. Such data may be used as an interim solution, allowing researchers to develop their analysis plans on non-disclosive data, whilst waiting for access to the real data. We aim to provide an overview of the background and uses of synthetic data and describe common methods used to generate synthetic data in the context of UK administrative research. We propose a simplified terminology for categories of synthetic data (univariate, multivariate, and complex modality synthetic data) as well as a more comprehensive description of the terminology used in the existing literature and illustrate challenges and future directions for research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1727; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464868; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464868?pdf=render +36669843,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364,Implementation of a quality improvement programme using the Active Patient Link call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of childhood vaccinations: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation.,"Marszalek M, Hawking MKD, Gutierrez A, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Firman N, Robson J, Bedford H, Billington A, Moss N, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-01-20,Y,immunology; Public Health; Preventive Medicine; Community Child Health; Quality In Health Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

Call and recall systems provide actionable intelligence to improve equity and timeliness of childhood vaccinations, which have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will evaluate the effectiveness, fidelity and sustainability of a data-enabled quality improvement programme delivered in primary care using an Active Patient Link Immunisation (APL-Imms) call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of uptake in a multiethnic disadvantaged urban population. We will use qualitative methods to evaluate programme delivery, focusing on uptake and use, implementation barriers and service improvements for clinical and non-clinical primary care staff, its fidelity and sustainability.

Methods and analysis

This is a mixed-methods observational study in 284 general practices in north east London (NEL). The target population will be preschool-aged children eligible to receive diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and registered with an NEL general practice. The intervention comprises an in-practice call and recall tool, facilitation and training, and financial incentives. The quantitative evaluation will include interrupted time Series analyses and Slope Index of Inequality. The primary outcomes will be the proportion of children receiving at least one dose of a DTaP-containing or MMR vaccination defined, respectively, as administered between age 6 weeks and 6 months or between 12 and 18 months of age. The qualitative evaluation will involve a 'Think Aloud' method and semistructured interviews of stakeholders to assess impact, fidelity and sustainability of the APL-Imms tool, and fidelity of the implementation by facilitators.

Ethics and dissemination

The research team has been granted permission from data controllers in participating practices to use deidentified data for audit purposes. As findings will be specific to the local context, research ethics approval is not required. Results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and to stakeholders, including parents, health providers and commissioners.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/1/e064364.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487?pdf=render 35308999,https://doi.org/,Axes of Prognosis: Identifying Subtypes of COVID-19 Outcomes.,"Whitfield E, Coffey C, Zhang H, Shi T, Wu X, Li Q, Wu H.",,AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium,2021,2021-01-01,N,,,,"COVID-19 is a disease with vast impact, yet much remains unclear about patient outcomes. Most approaches to risk prediction of COVID-19 focus on binary or tertiary severity outcomes, despite the heterogeneity of the disease. In this work, we identify heterogeneous subtypes of COVID-19 outcomes by considering 'axes' of prognosis. We propose two innovative clustering approaches - 'Layered Axes' and 'Prognosis Space' - to apply on patients' outcome data. We then show how these clusters can help predict a patient's deterioration pathway on their hospital admission, using random forest classification. We illustrate this methodology on a cohort from Wuhan in early 2020. We discover interesting subgroups of poor prognosis, particularly within respiratory patients, and predict respiratory subgroup membership with high accuracy. This work could assist clinicians in identifying appropriate treatments at patients' hospital admission. Moreover, our method could be used to explore subtypes of 'long COVID' and other diseases with heterogeneous outcomes.",,html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861682?pdf=render +37650026,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1727,An overview of synthetic administrative data for research.,"Kokosi T, De Stavola B, Mitra R, Frayling L, Doherty A, Dove I, Sonnenberg P, Harron K.",,International journal of population data science,2022,2022-05-23,Y,Data Linkage; Statistical Disclosure Control; Data Utility; Synthetic Data; Data Confidentiality; Administrative Datasets,,,"Use of administrative data for research and for planning services has increased over recent decades due to the value of the large, rich information available. However, concerns about the release of sensitive or personal data and the associated disclosure risk can lead to lengthy approval processes and restricted data access. This can delay or prevent the production of timely evidence. A promising solution to facilitate more efficient data access is to create synthetic versions of the original datasets which are less likely to hold confidential information and can minimise disclosure risk. Such data may be used as an interim solution, allowing researchers to develop their analysis plans on non-disclosive data, whilst waiting for access to the real data. We aim to provide an overview of the background and uses of synthetic data and describe common methods used to generate synthetic data in the context of UK administrative research. We propose a simplified terminology for categories of synthetic data (univariate, multivariate, and complex modality synthetic data) as well as a more comprehensive description of the terminology used in the existing literature and illustrate challenges and future directions for research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1727; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464868; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464868?pdf=render 33801002,https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190,A Novel Coupled Reaction-Diffusion System for Explainable Gene Expression Profiling. ,"Farouq MW, Boulila W, Hussain Z, Rashid A, Shah M, Hussain S, Ng N, Ng D, Hanif H, Shaikh MG, Sheikh A, Hussain A.",,"Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)",2021,2021-03-21,Y,,,,"Machine learning (ML)-based algorithms are playing an important role in cancer diagnosis and are increasingly being used to aid clinical decision-making. However, these commonly operate as 'black boxes' and it is unclear how decisions are derived. Recently, techniques have been applied to help us understand how specific ML models work and explain the rational for outputs. This study aims to determine why a given type of cancer has a certain phenotypic characteristic. Cancer results in cellular dysregulation and a thorough consideration of cancer regulators is required. This would increase our understanding of the nature of the disease and help discover more effective diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment methods for a variety of cancer types and stages. Our study proposes a novel explainable analysis of potential biomarkers denoting tumorigenesis in non-small cell lung cancer. A number of these biomarkers are known to appear following various treatment pathways. An enhanced analysis is enabled through a novel mathematical formulation for the regulators of mRNA, the regulators of ncRNA, and the coupled mRNA-ncRNA regulators. Temporal gene expression profiles are approximated in a two-dimensional spatial domain for the transition states before converging to the stationary state, using a system comprised of coupled-reaction partial differential equations. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed mathematical gene-expression profile represents a best fit for the population abundance of these oncogenes. In future, our proposed solution can lead to the development of alternative interpretable approaches, through the application of ML models to discover unknown dynamics in gene regulatory systems.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/6/2190/pdf?version=1616388230; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942?pdf=render 34227657,https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znab183,Machine learning risk prediction of mortality for patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2: the COVIDSurg mortality score.,"COVIDSurg Collaborative .",,The British journal of surgery,2021,2021-11-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-pdf/108/11/1274/47371055/znab183.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znab183; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344569; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344569?pdf=render @@ -645,9 +645,9 @@ PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm 34800427,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01825-0,"Aspirin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2021-11-17,Y,,,,"

Background

Aspirin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its anti-thrombotic properties. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of aspirin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial, several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The trial took place at 177 hospitals in the UK, two hospitals in Indonesia, and two hospitals in Nepal. Eligible and consenting adults were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to either usual standard of care plus 150 mg aspirin once per day until discharge or usual standard of care alone using web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment. The primary outcome was 28 day mortality. All analyses were done by intention to treat. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936).

Findings

Between Nov 1, 2020, and March 21, 2021, 14 892 (66%) of 22 560 patients enrolled into the RECOVERY trial were eligible to be randomly allocated to aspirin. 7351 patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to receive aspirin and 7541 patients to receive usual care alone. Overall, 1222 (17%) of 7351 patients allocated to aspirin and 1299 (17%) of 7541 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·96, 95% CI 0·89-1·04; p=0·35). Consistent results were seen in all prespecified subgroups of patients. Patients allocated to aspirin had a slightly shorter duration of hospitalisation (median 8 days, IQR 5 to >28, vs 9 days, IQR 5 to >28) and a higher proportion were discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (75% vs 74%; rate ratio 1·06, 95% CI 1·02-1·10; p=0·0062). Among patients not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, there was no significant difference in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (21% vs 22%; risk ratio 0·96, 95% CI 0·90-1·03; p=0·23). Aspirin use was associated with a reduction in thrombotic events (4·6% vs 5·3%; absolute reduction 0·6%, SE 0·4%) and an increase in major bleeding events (1·6% vs 1·0%; absolute increase 0·6%, SE 0·2%).

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, aspirin was not associated with reductions in 28 day mortality or in the risk of progressing to invasive mechanical ventilation or death, but was associated with a small increase in the rate of being discharged alive within 28 days.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), National Institute of Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust through the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01825-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01825-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8598213 35728939,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681,Reductions in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0-4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Etoori D, Harron KL, Mc Grath-Lone L, Verfürden ML, Gilbert R, Blackburn R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2022,2022-06-21,Y,Child Health; Health Services Research; Healthcare Disparities; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To quantify reductions in hospital care for clinically vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Birth cohort.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

All children aged <5 years with a birth recorded in hospital administrative data (January 2010-March 2021).

Main exposure

Clinical vulnerability defined by a chronic health condition, preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation) or low birth weight (<2500 g).

Main outcomes

Reductions in care defined by predicted hospital contact rates for 2020, estimated from 2015 to 2019, minus observed rates per 1000 child years during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-2021).

Results

Of 3 813 465 children, 17.7% (one in six) were clinically vulnerable (9.5% born preterm or low birth weight, 10.3% had a chronic condition). Reductions in hospital care during the pandemic were much higher for clinically vulnerable children than peers: respectively, outpatient attendances (314 vs 73 per 1000 child years), planned admissions (55 vs 10) and unplanned admissions (105 vs 79). Clinically vulnerable children accounted for 50.1% of the reduction in outpatient attendances, 55.0% in planned admissions and 32.8% in unplanned hospital admissions. During the pandemic, weekly rates of planned care returned to prepandemic levels for infants with chronic conditions but not older children. Reductions in care differed by ethnic group and level of deprivation. Virtual outpatient attendances increased from 3.2% to 24.8% during the pandemic.

Conclusion

One in six clinically vulnerable children accounted for one-third to one half of the reduction in hospital care during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e31.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837?pdf=render 34173574,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039,Schools and COVID-19: Reopening Pandora's box?,"Ziauddeen N, Woods-Townsend K, Saxena S, Gilbert R, Alwan NA.",,"Public health in practice (Oxford, England)",2020,2020-11-01,Y,Safety; Covid-19; School Re-Opening,,,"Schools in countries across the world are reopening as lockdown to slow progression of COVID-19 is eased. The UK government ordered school closures in England from March 20, 2020, later than the rest of Europe. A temporary and limited return for some year groups was trialled from June 2020. Teachers, school governors, the public and doctors have openly challenged the decision. The UK government has struggled to provide enough detailed information to convince the public, teachers and health practitioners, that effective systems for protection, including test, trace and isolate, are in place to prevent and manage outbreaks in schools. Risks of infection on reopening to children, staff and families must be weighed against the harms of closure to children's education and social development. The potential consequences, if the re-opening of schools is managed badly, is subsequent waves of COVID-19 infection leading to more deaths, further school closures and prolonged restrictions, losing any ground gained thus far. This article weighs the evidence for risks and benefits of reopening schools during the pandemic.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860?pdf=render -34939832,https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206,"Projections for primary hip and knee replacement surgery up to the year 2060: an analysis based on data from The National Joint Registry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.","Matharu GS, Culliford DJ, Blom AW, Judge A.",,Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,2022,2021-12-23,N,Total hip replacement; Total Knee Replacement; Demand; Future Numbers,,,"

Introduction

We estimated the number of primary total hip and knee replacements (THR and TKR) that will need to be performed up to the year 2060.

Methods

We used data from The National Joint Registry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man on the volume of primary THRs (n=94,936) and TKRs (n=100,547) performed in 2018. We projected future numbers of THR and TKR using a static estimated rate from 2018 applied to population growth forecast data from the UK Office for National Statistics up to 2060.

Results

By 2060, THR and TKR volume would increase from 2018 levels by an estimated 37.7% (n=130,766) and 36.6% (n=137,341), respectively. For both males and females demand for surgery was also higher for patients aged 70 and over, with older patients having the biggest relative increase in volume over time: 70-79 years (44.6% males, 41.2% females); 80-89 years (112.4% males, 85.6% females); 90 years and older (348.0% males, 198.2% females).

Conclusion

By 2060 demand for hip and knee joint replacement is estimated to increase by almost 40%. Demand will be greatest in older patients (70+ years), which will have significant implications for the health service requiring forward planning given that morbidity and resource use is higher in this population. These issues, coupled with two waves of COVID-19, will impact the ability of health services to deliver timely joint replacement to many patients for a number of years, requiring urgent planning.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206 34667060,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02730-2021,Global Initiative for Asthma Strategy 2021: executive summary and rationale for key changes. ,"Reddel HK, Bacharier LB, Bateman ED, Brightling CE, Brusselle GG, Buhl R, Cruz AA, Duijts L, Drazen JM, FitzGerald JM, Fleming LJ, Inoue H, Ko FW, Krishnan JA, Levy ML, Lin J, Mortimer K, Pitrez PM, Sheikh A, Yorgancioglu AA, Boulet LP.",,The European respiratory journal,2022,2021-12-31,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/59/1/2102730.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02730-2021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719459; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719459?pdf=render 34039579,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721,Changes in daily mental health service use and mortality at the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in 10 UK sites: a regression discontinuity in time design.,"Bakolis I, Stewart R, Baldwin D, Beenstock J, Bibby P, Broadbent M, Cardinal R, Chen S, Chinnasamy K, Cipriani A, Douglas S, Horner P, Jackson CA, John A, Joyce DW, Lee SC, Lewis J, McIntosh A, Nixon N, Osborn D, Phiri P, Rathod S, Smith T, Sokal R, Waller R, Landau S.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-05-26,Y,Mental health; Adult Psychiatry; Old Age Psychiatry; Organisation Of Health Services; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To investigate changes in daily mental health (MH) service use and mortality in response to the introduction and the lifting of the COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in Spring 2020.

Design

A regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) analysis of daily service-level activity.

Setting and participants

Mental healthcare data were extracted from 10 UK providers.

Outcome measures

Daily (weekly for one site) deaths from all causes, referrals and discharges, inpatient care (admissions, discharges, caseloads) and community services (face-to-face (f2f)/non-f2f contacts, caseloads): Adult, older adult and child/adolescent mental health; early intervention in psychosis; home treatment teams and liaison/Accident and Emergency (A&E). Data were extracted from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 May 2020 for all sites, supplemented to 31 July 2020 for four sites. Changes around the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy (23 March and 10 May, respectively) were estimated using a RDiT design with a difference-in-difference approach generating incidence rate ratios (IRRs), meta-analysed across sites.

Results

Pooled estimates for the lockdown transition showed increased daily deaths (IRR 2.31, 95% CI 1.86 to 2.87), reduced referrals (IRR 0.62, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.70) and reduced inpatient admissions (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.83) and caseloads (IRR 0.85, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.91) compared with the pre lockdown period. All community services saw shifts from f2f to non-f2f contacts, but varied in caseload changes. Lift of lockdown was associated with reduced deaths (IRR 0.42, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.66), increased referrals (IRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.60) and increased inpatient admissions (IRR 1.21, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.42) and caseloads (IRR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.12) compared with the lockdown period. Site-wide activity, inpatient care and community services did not return to pre lockdown levels after lift of lockdown, while number of deaths did. Between-site heterogeneity most often indicated variation in size rather than direction of effect.

Conclusions

MH service delivery underwent sizeable changes during the first national lockdown, with as-yet unknown and unevaluated consequences.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049721.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668?pdf=render +34939832,https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206,"Projections for primary hip and knee replacement surgery up to the year 2060: an analysis based on data from The National Joint Registry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.","Matharu GS, Culliford DJ, Blom AW, Judge A.",,Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,2022,2021-12-23,N,Total hip replacement; Total Knee Replacement; Demand; Future Numbers,,,"

Introduction

We estimated the number of primary total hip and knee replacements (THR and TKR) that will need to be performed up to the year 2060.

Methods

We used data from The National Joint Registry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man on the volume of primary THRs (n=94,936) and TKRs (n=100,547) performed in 2018. We projected future numbers of THR and TKR using a static estimated rate from 2018 applied to population growth forecast data from the UK Office for National Statistics up to 2060.

Results

By 2060, THR and TKR volume would increase from 2018 levels by an estimated 37.7% (n=130,766) and 36.6% (n=137,341), respectively. For both males and females demand for surgery was also higher for patients aged 70 and over, with older patients having the biggest relative increase in volume over time: 70-79 years (44.6% males, 41.2% females); 80-89 years (112.4% males, 85.6% females); 90 years and older (348.0% males, 198.2% females).

Conclusion

By 2060 demand for hip and knee joint replacement is estimated to increase by almost 40%. Demand will be greatest in older patients (70+ years), which will have significant implications for the health service requiring forward planning given that morbidity and resource use is higher in this population. These issues, coupled with two waves of COVID-19, will impact the ability of health services to deliver timely joint replacement to many patients for a number of years, requiring urgent planning.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206 36962407,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292,Health worker experiences of implementing TB infection prevention and control: A qualitative evidence synthesis to inform implementation recommendations.,"van der Westhuizen HM, Dorward J, Roberts N, Greenhalgh T, Ehrlich R, Butler CC, Tonkin-Crine S.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-07-07,Y,,,,"Implementation of TB infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in health facilities is frequently inadequate, despite nosocomial TB transmission to patients and health workers causing harm. We aimed to review qualitative evidence of the complexity associated with implementing TB IPC, to help guide the development of TB IPC implementation plans. We undertook a qualitative evidence synthesis of studies that used qualitative methods to explore the experiences of health workers implementing TB IPC in health facilities. We searched eight databases in November 2021, complemented by citation tracking. Two reviewers screened titles and abstracts and reviewed full texts of potentially eligible papers. We used the Critical Appraisals Skills Programme checklist for quality appraisal, thematic synthesis to identify key findings and the GRADE-CERQual method to appraise the certainty of review findings. The review protocol was pre-registered on PROSPERO, ID CRD42020165314. We screened 1062 titles and abstracts and reviewed 102 full texts, with 37 studies included in the synthesis. We developed 10 key findings, five of which we had high confidence in. We describe several components of TB IPC as a complex intervention. Health workers were influenced by their personal occupational TB risk perceptions when deciding whether to implement TB IPC and neglected the contribution of TB IPC to patient safety. Health workers and researchers expressed multiple uncertainties (for example the duration of infectiousness of people with TB), assumptions and misconceptions about what constitutes effective TB IPC, including focussing TB IPC on patients known with TB on treatment who pose a small risk of transmission. Instead, TB IPC resources should target high risk areas for transmission (crowded, poorly ventilated spaces). Furthermore, TB IPC implementation plans should support health workers to translate TB IPC guidelines to local contexts, including how to navigate unintended stigma caused by IPC, and using limited IPC resources effectively.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021216; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021216?pdf=render 36644660,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677,Evaluation of prototype risk prediction tools for clinicians and people living with type 2 diabetes in North West London using the think aloud method.,"Gardner C, Wake D, Brodie D, Silverstein A, Young S, Cunningham S, Sainsbury C, Ilia M, Lucas A, Willis T, Halligan J.",,Digital health,2023,2023-01-08,Y,Artificial intelligence; Internet; Diabetes; Qualitative; risk factors; Machine Learning; Health Informatics; Behaviour Change; Personalised Medicine; Digital Health,,,"The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in North West London (NWL) is relatively high compared to other parts of the United Kingdom with outcomes suboptimal. This presents a need for more effective strategies to identify people living with type 2 diabetes who need additional support. An emerging subset of web-based interventions for diabetes self-management and population management has used artificial intelligence and machine learning models to stratify the risk of complications from diabetes and identify patients in need of immediate support. In this study, two prototype risk prediction tools on the MyWay Diabetes and MyWay Clinical platforms were evaluated with six clinicians and six people living with type 2 diabetes in NWL using the think aloud method. The results of the sessions with people living with type 2 diabetes showed that the concept of the tool was intuitive, however, more instruction on how to correctly use the risk prediction tool would be valuable. The feedback from the sessions with clinicians was that the data presented in the tool aligned with the key diabetes targets in NWL, and that this would be useful for identifying and inviting patients to the practice who are overdue for tests and at risk of complications. The findings of the evaluation have been used to support the development of the prototype risk predictions tools. This study demonstrates the value of conducting usability testing on web-based interventions designed to support the targeted management of type 2 diabetes in local communities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412?pdf=render 37456658,https://doi.org/10.12688/hrbopenres.13667.1,Qualitative data sharing practices in clinical trials in the UK and Ireland: towards the production of good practice guidance.,"McCarthy M, Gillies K, Rousseau N, Wade J, Gamble C, Toomey E, Matvienko-Sikar K, Sydes M, Dowling M, Bryant V, Biesty L, Houghton C.",,HRB open research,2023,2023-02-06,Y,data sharing; Qualitative; trials; Focus Groups,,,"Background: Data sharing enables researchers to conduct novel research with previously collected datasets, thus maximising scientific findings and cost effectiveness, and reducing research waste. The value of sharing, even de-identified, quantitative data from clinical trials is well recognised with a moderated access approach recommended. While substantial challenges to sharing quantitative data remain, there are additional challenges for sharing qualitative data in trials. Incorporating the necessary information about how qualitative data will be shared into already complex trial recruitment and consent processes proves challenging. The aim of this study was to explore whether and how trial teams share qualitative data collected as part of the design, conduct, analysis, or delivery of clinical trials. Methods: Phase 1 involved semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews and focus groups with key trial stakeholder groups including trial managers and clinical trialists (n=3), qualitative researchers in trials (n=9), members of research funding bodies (n=2) and trial participants (n=1). Data were analysed using thematic analysis. In Phase 2, we conducted a content analysis of 16 participant information leaflets (PIL) and consent forms (CF) for trials that collected qualitative data. Results: Three key themes were identified from our Phase 1 findings: ' Understanding and experiences of the potential benefits of sharing qualitative data from trials', 'Concerns about qualitative data sharing', and ' Future guidance and funding'. In phase 2, the PILs and CFs received revealed that the benefits of data sharing for participants were only explained in two of the study documents. Conclusions: The value of sharing qualitative data was acknowledged, but there are many uncertainties as to how, when, and where to share this data. In addition, there were ethical concerns in relation to the consent process required for qualitative data sharing in trials. This study provides insight into the existing practice of qualitative data sharing in trials.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/hrbopenres.13667.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10345597; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10345597?pdf=render @@ -675,8 +675,8 @@ PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm 35105585,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054376,Development of an algorithm to classify primary care electronic health records of alcohol consumption: experience using data linkage from UK Biobank and primary care electronic health data sources.,"Fraile-Navarro D, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Agrawal U, Jani B, Fagbamigbe A, Currie D, Baldacchino A, Sullivan F.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-02-01,Y,Public Health; Primary Care; Health Informatics,,,"

Objectives

Develop a novel algorithm to categorise alcohol consumption using primary care electronic health records (EHRs) and asses its reliability by comparing this classification with self-reported alcohol consumption data obtained from the UK Biobank (UKB) cohort.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

The UKB, a population-based cohort with participants aged between 40 and 69 years recruited across the UK between 2006 and 2010.

Participants

UKB participants from Scotland with linked primary care data.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Create a rule-based multiclass algorithm to classify alcohol consumption reported by Scottish UKB participants and compare it with their classification using data present in primary care EHRs based on Read Codes. We evaluated agreement metrics (simple agreement and kappa statistic).

Results

Among the Scottish UKB participants, 18 838 (69%) had at least one Read Code related to alcohol consumption and were used in the classification. The agreement of alcohol consumption categories between UKB and primary care data, including assessments within 5 years was 59.6%, and kappa was 0.23 (95% CI 0.21 to 0.24). Differences in classification between the two sources were statistically significant (p<0.001); More individuals were classified as 'sensible drinkers' and in lower alcohol consumption levels in primary care records compared with the UKB. Agreement improved slightly when using only numerical values (k=0.29; 95% CI 0.27 to 0.31) and decreased when using qualitative descriptors only (k=0.18;95% CI 0.16 to 0.20).

Conclusion

Our algorithm classifies alcohol consumption recorded in Primary Care EHRs into discrete meaningful categories. These results suggest that alcohol consumption may be underestimated in primary care EHRs. Using numerical values (alcohol units) may improve classification when compared with qualitative descriptors.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e054376.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054376; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8808438; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8808438?pdf=render 35477868,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057579,Public opinion on sharing data from health services for clinical and research purposes without explicit consent: an anonymous online survey in the UK.,"Jones LA, Nelder JR, Fryer JM, Alsop PH, Geary MR, Prince M, Cardinal RN.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-27,Y,Information management; Mental health; Health Policy; Health Informatics,,,"

Objectives

UK National Health Service/Health and Social Care (NHS/HSC) data are variably shared between healthcare organisations for direct care, and increasingly de-identified for research. Few large-scale studies have examined public opinion on sharing, including of mental health (MH) versus physical health (PH) data. We measured data sharing preferences.

Design/setting/interventions/outcomes

Pre-registered anonymous online survey, measuring expressed preferences, recruiting February to September 2020. Participants were randomised to one of three framing statements regarding MH versus PH data.

Participants

Open to all UK residents. Participants numbered 29 275; 40% had experienced an MH condition.

Results

Most (76%) supported identifiable data sharing for direct clinical care without explicit consent, but 20% opposed this. Preference for clinical/identifiable sharing decreased with geographical distance and was slightly less for MH than PH data, with small framing effects. Preference for research/de-identified data sharing without explicit consent showed the same small PH/MH and framing effects, plus greater preference for sharing structured data than de-identified free text. There was net support for research sharing to the NHS, academic institutions, and national research charities, net ambivalence about sharing to profit-making companies researching treatments, and net opposition to sharing to other companies (similar to sharing publicly). De-identified linkage to non-health data was generally supported, except to data held by private companies. We report demographic influences on preference. A majority (89%) supported a single NHS mechanism to choose uses of their data. Support for data sharing increased during COVID-19.

Conclusions

Support for healthcare data sharing for direct care without explicit consent is broad but not universal. There is net support for the sharing of de-identified data for research to the NHS, academia, and the charitable sector, but not the commercial sector. A single national NHS-hosted system for patients to control the use of their NHS data for clinical purposes and for research would have broad support.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN37444142.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057579.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057579; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058801; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058801?pdf=render 35577541,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616,Changes in adolescents' planned hospital care during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of linked administrative data.,"Mc Grath-Lone L, Etoori D, Gilbert R, Harron KL, Woodman J, Blackburn R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2022,2022-05-16,Y,Social Work; Child Health Services; Adolescent Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To describe changes in planned hospital care during the pandemic for vulnerable adolescents receiving children's social care (CSC) services or special educational needs (SEN) support, relative to their peers.

Design

Observational cohort in the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data database (linked de-identified administrative health, education and social care records of all children in England).

Study population

All secondary school pupils in years 7-11 in academic year 2019/2020 (N=3 030 235).

Main exposure

Receiving SEN support or CSC services.

Main outcomes

Changes in outpatient attendances and planned hospital admissions during the first 9 months of the pandemic (23 March-31 December 2020), estimated by comparing predicted with observed numbers and rates per 1000 child-years.

Results

A fifth of pupils (20.5%) received some form of statutory support: 14.2% received SEN support only, 3.6% received CSC services only and 2.7% received both. Decreases in planned hospital care were greater for these vulnerable adolescents than their peers: -290 vs -225 per 1000 child-years for outpatient attendances and -36 vs -16 per 1000 child-years for planned admissions. Overall, 21% of adolescents who were vulnerable disproportionately bore 25% of the decrease in outpatient attendances and 37% of the decrease in planned hospital admissions. Vulnerable adolescents were less likely than their peers to have face-to-face outpatient care.

Conclusion

These findings indicate that socially vulnerable groups of children have high health needs, which may need to be prioritised to ensure equitable provision, including for catch-up of planned care postpandemic.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e29.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329?pdf=render -36729586,https://doi.org/10.2196/42965,Assessing the Feasibility of a Text-Based Conversational Agent for Asthma Support: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Observational Study.,"Calvo RA, Peters D, Moradbakhti L, Cook D, Rizos G, Schuller B, Kallis C, Wong E, Quint J.",,JMIR research protocols,2023,2023-02-02,Y,Artificial intelligence; Health; Asthma; Health education; Well-being; Behavior Change; Conversational Agent; Chatbot,,,"

Background

Despite efforts, the UK death rate from asthma is the highest in Europe, and 65% of people with asthma in the United Kingdom do not receive the professional care they are entitled to. Experts have recommended the use of digital innovations to help address the issues of poor outcomes and lack of care access. An automated SMS text messaging-based conversational agent (ie, chatbot) created to provide access to asthma support in a familiar format via a mobile phone has the potential to help people with asthma across demographics and at scale. Such a chatbot could help improve the accuracy of self-assessed risk, improve asthma self-management, increase access to professional care, and ultimately reduce asthma attacks and emergencies.

Objective

The aims of this study are to determine the feasibility and usability of a text-based conversational agent that processes a patient's text responses and short sample voice recordings to calculate an estimate of their risk for an asthma exacerbation and then offers follow-up information for lowering risk and improving asthma control; assess the levels of engagement for different groups of users, particularly those who do not access professional services and those with poor asthma control; and assess the extent to which users of the chatbot perceive it as helpful for improving their understanding and self-management of their condition.

Methods

We will recruit 300 adults through four channels for broad reach: Facebook, YouGov, Asthma + Lung UK social media, and the website Healthily (a health self-management app). Participants will be screened, and those who meet inclusion criteria (adults diagnosed with asthma and who use WhatsApp) will be provided with a link to access the conversational agent through WhatsApp on their mobile phones. Participants will be sent scheduled and randomly timed messages to invite them to engage in dialogue about their asthma risk during the period of study. After a data collection period (28 days), participants will respond to questionnaire items related to the quality of the interaction. A pre- and postquestionnaire will measure asthma control before and after the intervention.

Results

This study was funded in March 2021 and started in January 2022. We developed a prototype conversational agent, which was iteratively improved with feedback from people with asthma, asthma nurses, and specialist doctors. Fortnightly reviews of iterations by the clinical team began in September 2022 and are ongoing. This feasibility study will start recruitment in January 2023. The anticipated completion of the study is July 2023. A future randomized controlled trial will depend on the outcomes of this study and funding.

Conclusions

This feasibility study will inform a follow-up pilot and larger randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a conversational agent on asthma outcomes, self-management, behavior change, and access to care.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

PRR1-10.2196/42965.",,pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2023/1/e42965/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42965; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9936366 35130878,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02234-2,"Lifetime risk of cardiovascular-renal disease in type 2 diabetes: a population-based study in 473,399 individuals.","Zhang R, Mamza JB, Morris T, Godfrey G, Asselbergs FW, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-07,Y,Kidney; Type 2 diabetes; lifetime; Attributable Risk; Population Health; cardiovascular,,,"

Background

Cardiovascular and renal diseases (CVRD) are major causes of mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Studies of lifetime risk have neither considered all CVRD together nor the relative contribution of major risk factors to combined disease burden.

Methods

In a population-based cohort study using national electronic health records, we studied 473,399 individuals with T2D in England 2007-2018. Lifetime risk of individual and combined major adverse renal cardiovascular events, MARCE (including CV death and CVRD: heart failure; chronic kidney disease; myocardial infarction; stroke or peripheral artery disease), were estimated, accounting for baseline CVRD status and competing risk of death. We calculated population attributable risk for individual CVRD components. Ideal cardiovascular health was defined by blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, smoking, physical activity, diet, and body mass index (i.e. modifiable risk factors).

Results

In individuals with T2D, lifetime risk of MARCE was 80% in those free from CVRD and was 97%, 93%, 98%, 89% and 91% in individuals with heart failure, chronic kidney disease, myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral arterial disease, respectively at baseline. Among CVRD-free individuals, lifetime risk of chronic kidney disease was highest (54%), followed by CV death (41%), heart failure (29%), stroke (20%), myocardial infarction (19%) and peripheral arterial disease (9%). In those with HF only, 75% of MARCE after index T2D can be attributed to HF after adjusting for age, gender, and comorbidities. Compared with those with > 1, < 3 and ≥3 modifiable health risk behaviours, achieving ideal cardiovascular health could reduce MARCE by approximately 41.5%, 23.6% and 17.2%, respectively, in the T2D population.

Conclusions

Four out of five individuals with T2D free from CVRD, and nearly all those with history of CVRD, will develop MARCE over their lifetime. Early preventive measures in T2D patients are clinical, public health and policy priorities.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02234-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02234-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8822817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8822817?pdf=render +36729586,https://doi.org/10.2196/42965,Assessing the Feasibility of a Text-Based Conversational Agent for Asthma Support: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Observational Study.,"Calvo RA, Peters D, Moradbakhti L, Cook D, Rizos G, Schuller B, Kallis C, Wong E, Quint J.",,JMIR research protocols,2023,2023-02-02,Y,Artificial intelligence; Health; Asthma; Health education; Well-being; Behavior Change; Conversational Agent; Chatbot,,,"

Background

Despite efforts, the UK death rate from asthma is the highest in Europe, and 65% of people with asthma in the United Kingdom do not receive the professional care they are entitled to. Experts have recommended the use of digital innovations to help address the issues of poor outcomes and lack of care access. An automated SMS text messaging-based conversational agent (ie, chatbot) created to provide access to asthma support in a familiar format via a mobile phone has the potential to help people with asthma across demographics and at scale. Such a chatbot could help improve the accuracy of self-assessed risk, improve asthma self-management, increase access to professional care, and ultimately reduce asthma attacks and emergencies.

Objective

The aims of this study are to determine the feasibility and usability of a text-based conversational agent that processes a patient's text responses and short sample voice recordings to calculate an estimate of their risk for an asthma exacerbation and then offers follow-up information for lowering risk and improving asthma control; assess the levels of engagement for different groups of users, particularly those who do not access professional services and those with poor asthma control; and assess the extent to which users of the chatbot perceive it as helpful for improving their understanding and self-management of their condition.

Methods

We will recruit 300 adults through four channels for broad reach: Facebook, YouGov, Asthma + Lung UK social media, and the website Healthily (a health self-management app). Participants will be screened, and those who meet inclusion criteria (adults diagnosed with asthma and who use WhatsApp) will be provided with a link to access the conversational agent through WhatsApp on their mobile phones. Participants will be sent scheduled and randomly timed messages to invite them to engage in dialogue about their asthma risk during the period of study. After a data collection period (28 days), participants will respond to questionnaire items related to the quality of the interaction. A pre- and postquestionnaire will measure asthma control before and after the intervention.

Results

This study was funded in March 2021 and started in January 2022. We developed a prototype conversational agent, which was iteratively improved with feedback from people with asthma, asthma nurses, and specialist doctors. Fortnightly reviews of iterations by the clinical team began in September 2022 and are ongoing. This feasibility study will start recruitment in January 2023. The anticipated completion of the study is July 2023. A future randomized controlled trial will depend on the outcomes of this study and funding.

Conclusions

This feasibility study will inform a follow-up pilot and larger randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a conversational agent on asthma outcomes, self-management, behavior change, and access to care.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

PRR1-10.2196/42965.",,pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2023/1/e42965/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42965; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9936366 34508578,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab059,Desiderata for the development of next-generation electronic health record phenotype libraries.,"Chapman M, Mumtaz S, Rasmussen LV, Karwath A, Gkoutos GV, Gao C, Thayer D, Pacheco JA, Parkinson H, Richesson RL, Jefferson E, Denaxas S, Curcin V.",,GigaScience,2021,2021-09-01,Y,Electronic Health Records; Computable Phenotype; Ehr-based Phenotyping; Phenotype Library,,,"

Background

High-quality phenotype definitions are desirable to enable the extraction of patient cohorts from large electronic health record repositories and are characterized by properties such as portability, reproducibility, and validity. Phenotype libraries, where definitions are stored, have the potential to contribute significantly to the quality of the definitions they host. In this work, we present a set of desiderata for the design of a next-generation phenotype library that is able to ensure the quality of hosted definitions by combining the functionality currently offered by disparate tooling.

Methods

A group of researchers examined work to date on phenotype models, implementation, and validation, as well as contemporary phenotype libraries developed as a part of their own phenomics communities. Existing phenotype frameworks were also examined. This work was translated and refined by all the authors into a set of best practices.

Results

We present 14 library desiderata that promote high-quality phenotype definitions, in the areas of modelling, logging, validation, and sharing and warehousing.

Conclusions

There are a number of choices to be made when constructing phenotype libraries. Our considerations distil the best practices in the field and include pointers towards their further development to support portable, reproducible, and clinically valid phenotype design. The provision of high-quality phenotype definitions enables electronic health record data to be more effectively used in medical domains.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/10/9/giab059/40348225/giab059.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab059; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8434766; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8434766?pdf=render 35297548,https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369,"Beacon v2 and Beacon networks: A ""lingua franca"" for federated data discovery in biomedical genomics, and beyond.","Rambla J, Baudis M, Ariosa R, Beck T, Fromont LA, Navarro A, Paloots R, Rueda M, Saunders G, Singh B, Spalding JD, Törnroos J, Vasallo C, Veal CD, Brookes AJ.",,Human mutation,2022,2022-04-08,Y,data sharing; Clinical Genomics; Beacon; Data Discovery; Rest Api; Ga4gh,,,"Beacon is a basic data discovery protocol issued by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). The main goal addressed by version 1 of the Beacon protocol was to test the feasibility of broadly sharing human genomic data, through providing simple ""yes"" or ""no"" responses to queries about the presence of a given variant in datasets hosted by Beacon providers. The popularity of this concept has fostered the design of a version 2, that better serves real-world requirements and addresses the needs of clinical genomics research and healthcare, as assessed by several contributing projects and organizations. Particularly, rare disease genetics and cancer research will benefit from new case level and genomic variant level requests and the enabling of richer phenotype and clinical queries as well as support for fuzzy searches. Beacon is designed as a ""lingua franca"" to bridge data collections hosted in software solutions with different and rich interfaces. Beacon version 2 works alongside popular standards like Phenopackets, OMOP, or FHIR, allowing implementing consortia to return matches in beacon responses and provide a handover to their preferred data exchange format. The protocol is being explored by other research domains and is being tested in several international projects.",,pdf:http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/53310/1/Rambla_2022.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265?pdf=render 34228774,https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.11330,Association Between Administration of IL-6 Antagonists and Mortality Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Meta-analysis.,"WHO Rapid Evidence Appraisal for COVID-19 Therapies (REACT) Working Group, Shankar-Hari M, Vale CL, Godolphin PJ, Fisher D, Higgins JPT, Spiga F, Savovic J, Tierney J, Baron G, Benbenishty JS, Berry LR, Broman N, Cavalcanti AB, Colman R, De Buyser SL, Derde LPG, Domingo P, Omar SF, Fernandez-Cruz A, Feuth T, Garcia F, Garcia-Vicuna R, Gonzalez-Alvaro I, Gordon AC, Haynes R, Hermine O, Horby PW, Horick NK, Kumar K, Lambrecht BN, Landray MJ, Leal L, Lederer DJ, Lorenzi E, Mariette X, Merchante N, Misnan NA, Mohan SV, Nivens MC, Oksi J, Perez-Molina JA, Pizov R, Porcher R, Postma S, Rajasuriar R, Ramanan AV, Ravaud P, Reid PD, Rutgers A, Sancho-Lopez A, Seto TB, Sivapalasingam S, Soin AS, Staplin N, Stone JH, Strohbehn GW, Sunden-Cullberg J, Torre-Cisneros J, Tsai LW, van Hoogstraten H, van Meerten T, Veiga VC, Westerweel PE, Murthy S, Diaz JV, Marshall JC, Sterne JAC.",,JAMA,2021,2021-08-01,N,,,,"

Importance

Clinical trials assessing the efficacy of IL-6 antagonists in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 have variously reported benefit, no effect, and harm.

Objective

To estimate the association between administration of IL-6 antagonists compared with usual care or placebo and 28-day all-cause mortality and other outcomes.

Data sources

Trials were identified through systematic searches of electronic databases between October 2020 and January 2021. Searches were not restricted by trial status or language. Additional trials were identified through contact with experts.

Study selection

Eligible trials randomly assigned patients hospitalized for COVID-19 to a group in whom IL-6 antagonists were administered and to a group in whom neither IL-6 antagonists nor any other immunomodulators except corticosteroids were administered. Among 72 potentially eligible trials, 27 (37.5%) met study selection criteria.

Data extraction and synthesis

In this prospective meta-analysis, risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool. Inconsistency among trial results was assessed using the I2 statistic. The primary analysis was an inverse variance-weighted fixed-effects meta-analysis of odds ratios (ORs) for 28-day all-cause mortality.

Main outcomes and measures

The primary outcome measure was all-cause mortality at 28 days after randomization. There were 9 secondary outcomes including progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death and risk of secondary infection by 28 days.

Results

A total of 10 930 patients (median age, 61 years [range of medians, 52-68 years]; 3560 [33%] were women) participating in 27 trials were included. By 28 days, there were 1407 deaths among 6449 patients randomized to IL-6 antagonists and 1158 deaths among 4481 patients randomized to usual care or placebo (summary OR, 0.86 [95% CI, 0.79-0.95]; P = .003 based on a fixed-effects meta-analysis). This corresponds to an absolute mortality risk of 22% for IL-6 antagonists compared with an assumed mortality risk of 25% for usual care or placebo. The corresponding summary ORs were 0.83 (95% CI, 0.74-0.92; P < .001) for tocilizumab and 1.08 (95% CI, 0.86-1.36; P = .52) for sarilumab. The summary ORs for the association with mortality compared with usual care or placebo in those receiving corticosteroids were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.68-0.87) for tocilizumab and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.61-1.38) for sarilumab. The ORs for the association with progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death, compared with usual care or placebo, were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.70-0.85) for all IL-6 antagonists, 0.74 (95% CI, 0.66-0.82) for tocilizumab, and 1.00 (95% CI, 0.74-1.34) for sarilumab. Secondary infections by 28 days occurred in 21.9% of patients treated with IL-6 antagonists vs 17.6% of patients treated with usual care or placebo (OR accounting for trial sample sizes, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.85-1.16).

Conclusions and relevance

In this prospective meta-analysis of clinical trials of patients hospitalized for COVID-19, administration of IL-6 antagonists, compared with usual care or placebo, was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality.

Trial registration

PROSPERO Identifier: CRD42021230155.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/2781880/jama_shankarhari_2021_oi_210079_1628008971.18515.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.11330; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261689; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.11330 @@ -693,8 +693,8 @@ PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm 36719715,https://doi.org/10.2196/41248,Patterns in the Use of Heart Failure Telemonitoring: Post Hoc Analysis of the e-Vita Heart Failure Trial.,"Brons M, Ten Klooster I, van Gemert-Pijnen L, Jaarsma T, Asselbergs FW, Oerlemans MIFJ, Koudstaal S, Rutten FH.",,JMIR cardio,2023,2023-01-31,Y,Adherence; Heart Failure; Patient Monitoring; Remote Monitoring; Telemonitoring; Ehealth; Electronic Personal Health Record,,,"

Background

Research on the use of home telemonitoring data and adherence to it can provide new insights into telemonitoring for the daily management of patients with heart failure (HF).

Objective

We described the use of a telemonitoring platform-including remote patient monitoring of blood pressure, pulse, and weight-and the use of the electronic personal health record. Patient characteristics were assessed in both adherent and nonadherent patients to weight transmissions.

Methods

We used the data of the e-Vita HF study, a 3-arm parallel randomized trial performed in stable patients with HF managed in outpatient clinics in the Netherlands. In this study, data were analyzed from the participants in the intervention arm (ie, e-Vita HF platform). Adherence to weight transmissions was defined as transmitting weight ≥3 times per week for at least 42 weeks during a year.

Results

Data from 150 patients (mean age 67, SD 11 years; n=37, 25% female; n=123, 82% self-assessed New York Heart Association class I-II) were analyzed. One-year adherence to weight transmissions was 74% (n=111). Patients adherent to weight transmissions were less often hospitalized for HF in the 6 months before enrollment in the study compared to those who were nonadherent (n=9, 8% vs n=9, 23%; P=.02). The percentage of patients visiting the personal health record dropped steadily over time (n=140, 93% vs n=59, 39% at one year). With univariable analyses, there was no significant correlation between patient characteristics and adherence to weight transmissions.

Conclusions

Adherence to remote patient monitoring was high among stable patients with HF and best for weighing; however, adherence decreased over time. Clinical and demographic variables seem not related to adherence to transmitting weight.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01755988; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01755988.",,pdf:https://cardio.jmir.org/2023/1/e41248/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/41248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9929726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9929726?pdf=render 34266851,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100356,Development of a core competency framework for clinical informatics. ,"Davies A, Mueller J, Hassey A, Moulton G.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"Until this point there was no national core competency framework for clinical informatics in the UK. We report on the final two iterations of work carried out in the formation of a national core competency framework. This follows an initial systematic literature review of existing skills and competencies and a job listing analysis.MethodsAn iterative approach was applied to framework development. Using a mixed-methods design we carried out semi-structured interviews with participants involved in informatics (n=15). The framework was updated based on the interview findings and was subsequently distributed as part of a bespoke online digital survey for wider participation (n=87). The final version of the framework is based on the findings of the survey. Over 102 people reviewed the framework as part of the interview or survey process. This led to a final core competency framework containing 6 primary domains with 36 subdomains containing 111 individual competencies. An iterative mixed-methods approach for competency development involving the target community was appropriate for development of the competency framework. There is some contention around the depth of technical competencies required. Care is also needed to avoid professional burnout, as clinicians and healthcare practitioners already have clinical competencies to maintain. Therefore, how the framework is applied in practice and how practitioners meet the competencies requires careful consideration.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100356.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100356; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8286765; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8286765?pdf=render 36208161,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac426,CODE-EHR best practice framework for the use of structured electronic healthcare records in clinical research.,"Kotecha D, Asselbergs FW, Achenbach S, Anker SD, Atar D, Baigent C, Banerjee A, Beger B, Brobert G, Casadei B, Ceccarelli C, Cowie MR, Crea F, Cronin M, Denaxas S, Derix A, Fitzsimons D, Fredriksson M, Gale CP, Gkoutos GV, Goettsch W, Hemingway H, Ingvar M, Jonas A, Kazmierski R, Løgstrup S, Thomas Lumbers R, Lüscher TF, McGreavy P, Piña IL, Roessig L, Steinbeisser C, Sundgren M, Tyl B, van Thiel G, van Bochove K, Vardas PE, Villanueva T, Vrana M, Weber W, Weidinger F, Windecker S, Wood A, Grobbee DE, Innovative Medicines Initiative BigData@Heart Consortium, European Society of Cardiology, CODE-EHR international consensus group.",,European heart journal,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"Big data is central to new developments in global clinical science aiming to improve the lives of patients. Technological advances have led to the routine use of structured electronic healthcare records with the potential to address key gaps in clinical evidence. The covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the potential of big data and related analytics, but also important pitfalls. Verification, validation, and data privacy, as well as the social mandate to undertake research are key challenges. The European Society of Cardiology and the BigData@Heart consortium have brought together a range of international stakeholders, including patient representatives, clinicians, scientists, regulators, journal editors and industry. We propose the CODE-EHR Minimum Standards Framework as a means to improve the design of studies, enhance transparency and develop a roadmap towards more robust and effective utilisation of healthcare data for research purposes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/37/3578/46535456/ehac426.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac426; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452067; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452067?pdf=render -34038519,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab084,Developing a UK sarcopenia registry: recruitment and baseline characteristics of the SarcNet pilot.,"Witham MD, Heslop P, Dodds RM, Clegg AP, Hope SV, McDonald C, Smithard D, Storey B, Tan AL, Thornhill A, Sayer AA.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-09-01,Y,Recruitment; Older People; Registry; Sarcopenia,,,"

Background

sarcopenia registries are a potential method to meet the challenge of recruitment to sarcopenia trials. We tested the feasibility of setting up a UK sarcopenia registry, the feasibility of recruitment methods and sought to characterise the pilot registry population.

Methods

six diverse UK sites took part, with potential participants aged 65 and over approached via mailshots from local primary care practices. Telephone pre-screening using the SARC-F score was followed by in-person screening and baseline visit. Co-morbidities, medications, grip strength, Short Physical Performance Battery, bioimpedance analysis, Geriatric Depression Score, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Sarcopenia Quality of Life score were performed and permission sought for future recontact. Descriptive statistics for recruitment rates and baseline measures were generated; an embedded randomised trial examined the effect of a University logo on the primary care mailshot on recruitment rates.

Results

sixteen practices contributed a total of 3,508 letters. In total, 428 replies were received (12% response rate); 380 underwent telephone pre-screening of whom 215 (57%) were eligible to attend a screening visit; 150 participants were recruited (40% of those pre-screened) with 147 contributing baseline data. No significant difference was seen in response rates between mailshots with and without the logo (between-group difference 1.1% [95% confidence interval -1.0% to 3.4%], P = 0.31). The mean age of enrollees was 78 years; 72 (49%) were women. In total, 138/147 (94%) had probable sarcopenia on European Working Group on Sarcopenia 2019 criteria and 145/147 (98%) agreed to be recontacted about future studies.

Conclusion

recruitment to a multisite UK sarcopenia registry is feasible, with high levels of consent for recontact.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/5/1762/40349116/afab084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8437066; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8437066?pdf=render 36654802,https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10315,"A framework for understanding, designing, developing and evaluating learning health systems.","Foley T, Vale L.",,Learning health systems,2023,2022-05-20,Y,Quality improvement; Informatics; Implementation Science; Learning Health Systems; Learning Healthcare Systems,,,"

Introduction

A Learning Health System is not a technical project. It is the evolution of an existing health system into one capable of learning from every patient. This paper outlines a recently published framework intended to aid the understanding, design, development and evaluation of Learning Health Systems.

Methods

This work extended an existing repository of Learning Health System evidence, adding five more workshops. The total was subjected to thematic analysis, yielding a framework of elements important to understanding, designing, developing and evaluating Learning Health Systems. Purposeful literature reviews were conducted on each element. The findings were revised following a review by a group of international experts.

Results

The resulting framework was arranged around four questions:What is our rationale for developing a Learning Health System?There can be many reasons for developing a Learning Health System. Understanding these will guide its development.What sources of complexity exist at the system and the intervention level?An understanding of complexity is central to making Learning Health Systems work. The non-adoption, abandonment, scale-up, spread and sustainability framework was utilised to help understand and manage it.What strategic approaches to change do we need to consider?A range of strategic issues must be addressed to enable successful change in a Learning Health System. These include, strategy, organisational structure, culture, workforce, implementation science, behaviour change, co-design and evaluation.What technical building blocks will we need?A Learning Health System must capture data from practice, turn it into knowledge and apply it back into practice. There are many methods to achieve this and a range of platforms to help.

Discussion

The results form a framework for understanding, designing, developing and evaluating Learning Health Systems at any scale.

Conclusion

It is hoped that this framework will evolve with use and feedback.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9835047; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10315; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9835047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9835047?pdf=render +34038519,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab084,Developing a UK sarcopenia registry: recruitment and baseline characteristics of the SarcNet pilot.,"Witham MD, Heslop P, Dodds RM, Clegg AP, Hope SV, McDonald C, Smithard D, Storey B, Tan AL, Thornhill A, Sayer AA.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-09-01,Y,Recruitment; Older People; Registry; Sarcopenia,,,"

Background

sarcopenia registries are a potential method to meet the challenge of recruitment to sarcopenia trials. We tested the feasibility of setting up a UK sarcopenia registry, the feasibility of recruitment methods and sought to characterise the pilot registry population.

Methods

six diverse UK sites took part, with potential participants aged 65 and over approached via mailshots from local primary care practices. Telephone pre-screening using the SARC-F score was followed by in-person screening and baseline visit. Co-morbidities, medications, grip strength, Short Physical Performance Battery, bioimpedance analysis, Geriatric Depression Score, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Sarcopenia Quality of Life score were performed and permission sought for future recontact. Descriptive statistics for recruitment rates and baseline measures were generated; an embedded randomised trial examined the effect of a University logo on the primary care mailshot on recruitment rates.

Results

sixteen practices contributed a total of 3,508 letters. In total, 428 replies were received (12% response rate); 380 underwent telephone pre-screening of whom 215 (57%) were eligible to attend a screening visit; 150 participants were recruited (40% of those pre-screened) with 147 contributing baseline data. No significant difference was seen in response rates between mailshots with and without the logo (between-group difference 1.1% [95% confidence interval -1.0% to 3.4%], P = 0.31). The mean age of enrollees was 78 years; 72 (49%) were women. In total, 138/147 (94%) had probable sarcopenia on European Working Group on Sarcopenia 2019 criteria and 145/147 (98%) agreed to be recontacted about future studies.

Conclusion

recruitment to a multisite UK sarcopenia registry is feasible, with high levels of consent for recontact.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/5/1762/40349116/afab084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8437066; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8437066?pdf=render 34765951,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163,Net effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibition in different patient groups: a meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled randomized trials.,"Staplin N, Roddick AJ, Emberson J, Reith C, Riding A, Wonnacott A, Kuverji A, Bhandari S, Baigent C, Haynes R, Herrington WG.",,EClinicalMedicine,2021,2021-10-26,Y,Safety; Heart Failure; Randomized Trials; Ckd; Sodium-glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitors,,,"

Background

The net absolute effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors across different patient groups have not been quantified.

Methods

We performed a meta-analysis of published large (>500 participants/arm) placebo-controlled SGLT-2 inhibitor trials after systematically searching MEDLINE and Embase databases from inception to 28th August 2021 (PROSPERO 2021 CRD42021240468).

Findings

Four heart failure trials (n=15,684 participants), four trials in type 2 diabetes mellitus at high atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk (n=42,568), and three trials in chronic kidney disease (n=19,289) were included. Relative risks (RRs) for all cardiovascular, renal and safety outcomes were broadly similar across these three patient groups, and between people with or without diabetes. Overall, compared to placebo, allocation to SGLT-2 inhibition reduced risk of hospitalization for heart failure or cardiovascular death by 23% (RR=0.77, 95%CI 0.73-0.80; n=6658), cardiovascular death by 14% (0.86, 0.81-0.92; n=3962), major adverse cardiovascular events by 11% (0.89, 0.84-0.94; n=5703), kidney disease progression by 36% (0.64, 0.59-0.70; n=2275), acute kidney injury by 30% (0.70, 0.62-0.79; n=1013 events) and severe hypoglycaemia by 13% (0.87, 0.79-0.97; n=1484). There was no effect of SGLT-2 inhibition on risk of non-cardiovascular death (0.93, 0.86-1.01; n=2226), but a net 12% reduction in all-cause mortality remained evident (0.88, 0.84-0.93; n=6188). However, the risk of ketoacidosis was 2-times higher among those allocated SGLT-2 inhibitors compared to placebo (2.03, 1.41-2.93; n=159; absolute excess in people with diabetes ∼0.3/1000 patient years). A small increased risk of urinary tract infection was evident (1.07, 1.02-1.13; n=5384) alongside a known increased risk of mycotic genital infections. Overall, risk of lower limb amputations was increased by 16% (1.16, 1.02-1.31; n=1074), but this risk was largely driven by a single outlying trial (CANVAS).

Interpretations

The relative effects of SGLT-2 inhibition on key safety and efficacy outcomes are consistent across the different studied groups of patient. Consequently, absolute benefits and harms are determined by the absolute baseline risk of particular outcomes, with absolute benefits on mortality and on non-fatal serious cardiac/renal outcomes substantially exceeding the risks of amputation and ketoacidosis in the main patient groups studied to date.

Funding

MRC-UK & KRUK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171?pdf=render 36529816,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26357-x,Novel multimorbidity clusters in people with eczema and asthma: a population-based cluster analysis.,"Mulick AR, Henderson AD, Prieto-Merino D, Mansfield KE, Matthewman J, Quint JK, Lyons RA, Sheikh A, McAllister DA, Nitsch D, Langan SM.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-12-18,Y,,,,"Eczema and asthma are allergic diseases and two of the commonest chronic conditions in high-income countries. Their co-existence with other allergic conditions is common, but little research exists on wider multimorbidity with these conditions. We set out to identify and compare clusters of multimorbidity in people with eczema or asthma and people without. Using routinely-collected primary care data from the U.K. Clinical Research Practice Datalink GOLD, we identified adults ever having eczema (or asthma), and comparison groups never having eczema (or asthma). We derived clusters of multimorbidity from hierarchical cluster analysis of Jaccard distances between pairs of diagnostic categories estimated from mixed-effects logistic regressions. We analysed 434,422 individuals with eczema (58% female, median age 47 years) and 1,333,281 individuals without (55% female, 47 years), and 517,712 individuals with asthma (53% female, 44 years) and 1,601,210 individuals without (53% female, 45 years). Age at first morbidity, sex and having eczema/asthma affected the scope of multimorbidity, with women, older age and eczema/asthma being associated with larger morbidity clusters. Injuries, digestive, nervous system and mental health disorders were more commonly seen in eczema and asthma than control clusters. People with eczema and asthma of all ages and both sexes may experience greater multimorbidity than people without eczema and asthma, including conditions not previously recognised as contributing to their disease burden. This work highlights areas where there is a critical need for research addressing the burden and drivers of multimorbidity in order to inform strategies to reduce poor health outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26357-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26357-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760185; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760185?pdf=render 35023833,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802,Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction.,"Gadd DA, Hillary RF, McCartney DL, Zaghlool SB, Stevenson AJ, Cheng Y, Fawns-Ritchie C, Nangle C, Campbell A, Flaig R, Harris SE, Walker RM, Shi L, Tucker-Drob EM, Gieger C, Peters A, Waldenberger M, Graumann J, McRae AF, Deary IJ, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Visscher PM, Cox SR, Evans KL, McIntosh AM, Suhre K, Marioni RE.",,eLife,2022,2022-01-13,Y,Human; Prediction; Aging; Genetics; Proteomics; Genomics; Biomarker; epidemiology; Global Health; Epigenetic; Morbiditiy,,,"Protein biomarkers have been identified across many age-related morbidities. However, characterising epigenetic influences could further inform disease predictions. Here, we leverage epigenome-wide data to study links between the DNA methylation (DNAm) signatures of the circulating proteome and incident diseases. Using data from four cohorts, we trained and tested epigenetic scores (EpiScores) for 953 plasma proteins, identifying 109 scores that explained between 1% and 58% of the variance in protein levels after adjusting for known protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) genetic effects. By projecting these EpiScores into an independent sample (Generation Scotland; n = 9537) and relating them to incident morbidities over a follow-up of 14 years, we uncovered 137 EpiScore-disease associations. These associations were largely independent of immune cell proportions, common lifestyle and health factors, and biological aging. Notably, we found that our diabetes-associated EpiScores highlighted previous top biomarker associations from proteome-wide assessments of diabetes. These EpiScores for protein levels can therefore be a valuable resource for disease prediction and risk stratification.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71802; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990?pdf=render @@ -753,8 +753,8 @@ PMC7614905,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Individ 35189842,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1,"Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse in Major Depressive Disorder (RADAR-MDD): recruitment, retention, and data availability in a longitudinal remote measurement study.","Matcham F, Leightley D, Siddi S, Lamers F, White KM, Annas P, de Girolamo G, Difrancesco S, Haro JM, Horsfall M, Ivan A, Lavelle G, Li Q, Lombardini F, Mohr DC, Narayan VA, Oetzmann C, Penninx BWJH, Bruce S, Nica R, Simblett SK, Wykes T, Brasen JC, Myin-Germeys I, Rintala A, Conde P, Dobson RJB, Folarin AA, Stewart C, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Cummins N, Manyakov NV, Vairavan S, Hotopf M, RADAR-CNS consortium.",,BMC psychiatry,2022,2022-02-21,Y,Cohort study; Longitudinal; Major Depressive Disorder; Multicentre; Remote Measurement Technologies,,,"

Background

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is prevalent, often chronic, and requires ongoing monitoring of symptoms to track response to treatment and identify early indicators of relapse. Remote Measurement Technologies (RMT) provide an opportunity to transform the measurement and management of MDD, via data collected from inbuilt smartphone sensors and wearable devices alongside app-based questionnaires and tasks. A key question for the field is the extent to which participants can adhere to research protocols and the completeness of data collected. We aimed to describe drop out and data completeness in a naturalistic multimodal longitudinal RMT study, in people with a history of recurrent MDD. We further aimed to determine whether those experiencing a depressive relapse at baseline contributed less complete data.

Methods

Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse - Major Depressive Disorder (RADAR-MDD) is a multi-centre, prospective observational cohort study conducted as part of the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse - Central Nervous System (RADAR-CNS) program. People with a history of MDD were provided with a wrist-worn wearable device, and smartphone apps designed to: a) collect data from smartphone sensors; and b) deliver questionnaires, speech tasks, and cognitive assessments. Participants were followed-up for a minimum of 11 months and maximum of 24 months.

Results

Individuals with a history of MDD (n = 623) were enrolled in the study,. We report 80% completion rates for primary outcome assessments across all follow-up timepoints. 79.8% of people participated for the maximum amount of time available and 20.2% withdrew prematurely. We found no evidence of an association between the severity of depression symptoms at baseline and the availability of data. In total, 110 participants had > 50% data available across all data types.

Conclusions

RADAR-MDD is the largest multimodal RMT study in the field of mental health. Here, we have shown that collecting RMT data from a clinical population is feasible. We found comparable levels of data availability in active and passive forms of data collection, demonstrating that both are feasible in this patient group.",,pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860359?pdf=render 34416195,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01207-1,"Global, regional, and national progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for neonatal and child health: all-cause and cause-specific mortality findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Under-5 Mortality Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-08-17,Y,,,,"

Background

Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 has targeted elimination of preventable child mortality, reduction of neonatal death to less than 12 per 1000 livebirths, and reduction of death of children younger than 5 years to less than 25 per 1000 livebirths, for each country by 2030. To understand current rates, recent trends, and potential trajectories of child mortality for the next decade, we present the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 findings for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality in children younger than 5 years of age, with multiple scenarios for child mortality in 2030 that include the consideration of potential effects of COVID-19, and a novel framework for quantifying optimal child survival.

Methods

We completed all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality analyses from 204 countries and territories for detailed age groups separately, with aggregated mortality probabilities per 1000 livebirths computed for neonatal mortality rate (NMR) and under-5 mortality rate (U5MR). Scenarios for 2030 represent different potential trajectories, notably including potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of improvements preferentially targeting neonatal survival. Optimal child survival metrics were developed by age, sex, and cause of death across all GBD location-years. The first metric is a global optimum and is based on the lowest observed mortality, and the second is a survival potential frontier that is based on stochastic frontier analysis of observed mortality and Healthcare Access and Quality Index.

Findings

Global U5MR decreased from 71·2 deaths per 1000 livebirths (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 68·3-74·0) in 2000 to 37·1 (33·2-41·7) in 2019 while global NMR correspondingly declined more slowly from 28·0 deaths per 1000 live births (26·8-29·5) in 2000 to 17·9 (16·3-19·8) in 2019. In 2019, 136 (67%) of 204 countries had a U5MR at or below the SDG 3.2 threshold and 133 (65%) had an NMR at or below the SDG 3.2 threshold, and the reference scenario suggests that by 2030, 154 (75%) of all countries could meet the U5MR targets, and 139 (68%) could meet the NMR targets. Deaths of children younger than 5 years totalled 9·65 million (95% UI 9·05-10·30) in 2000 and 5·05 million (4·27-6·02) in 2019, with the neonatal fraction of these deaths increasing from 39% (3·76 million [95% UI 3·53-4·02]) in 2000 to 48% (2·42 million; 2·06-2·86) in 2019. NMR and U5MR were generally higher in males than in females, although there was no statistically significant difference at the global level. Neonatal disorders remained the leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years in 2019, followed by lower respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, congenital birth defects, and malaria. The global optimum analysis suggests NMR could be reduced to as low as 0·80 (95% UI 0·71-0·86) deaths per 1000 livebirths and U5MR to 1·44 (95% UI 1·27-1·58) deaths per 1000 livebirths, and in 2019, there were as many as 1·87 million (95% UI 1·35-2·58; 37% [95% UI 32-43]) of 5·05 million more deaths of children younger than 5 years than the survival potential frontier.

Interpretation

Global child mortality declined by almost half between 2000 and 2019, but progress remains slower in neonates and 65 (32%) of 204 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, are not on track to meet either SDG 3.2 target by 2030. Focused improvements in perinatal and newborn care, continued and expanded delivery of essential interventions such as vaccination and infection prevention, an enhanced focus on equity, continued focus on poverty reduction and education, and investment in strengthening health systems across the development spectrum have the potential to substantially improve U5MR. Given the widespread effects of COVID-19, considerable effort will be required to maintain and accelerate progress.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621012071/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01207-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8429803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8429803?pdf=render 34755628,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01546-4,"Global, regional, and national mortality among young people aged 10-24 years, 1950-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Adolescent Mortality Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-10-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Documentation of patterns and long-term trends in mortality in young people, which reflect huge changes in demographic and social determinants of adolescent health, enables identification of global investment priorities for this age group. We aimed to analyse data on the number of deaths, years of life lost, and mortality rates by sex and age group in people aged 10-24 years in 204 countries and territories from 1950 to 2019 by use of estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019.

Methods

We report trends in estimated total numbers of deaths and mortality rate per 100 000 population in young people aged 10-24 years by age group (10-14 years, 15-19 years, and 20-24 years) and sex in 204 countries and territories between 1950 and 2019 for all causes, and between 1980 and 2019 by cause of death. We analyse variation in outcomes by region, age group, and sex, and compare annual rate of change in mortality in young people aged 10-24 years with that in children aged 0-9 years from 1990 to 2019. We then analyse the association between mortality in people aged 10-24 years and socioeconomic development using the GBD Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite measure based on average national educational attainment in people older than 15 years, total fertility rate in people younger than 25 years, and income per capita. We assess the association between SDI and all-cause mortality in 2019, and analyse the ratio of observed to expected mortality by SDI using the most recent available data release (2017).

Findings

In 2019 there were 1·49 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval 1·39-1·59) worldwide in people aged 10-24 years, of which 61% occurred in males. 32·7% of all adolescent deaths were due to transport injuries, unintentional injuries, or interpersonal violence and conflict; 32·1% were due to communicable, nutritional, or maternal causes; 27·0% were due to non-communicable diseases; and 8·2% were due to self-harm. Since 1950, deaths in this age group decreased by 30·0% in females and 15·3% in males, and sex-based differences in mortality rate have widened in most regions of the world. Geographical variation has also increased, particularly in people aged 10-14 years. Since 1980, communicable and maternal causes of death have decreased sharply as a proportion of total deaths in most GBD super-regions, but remain some of the most common causes in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, where more than half of all adolescent deaths occur. Annual percentage decrease in all-cause mortality rate since 1990 in adolescents aged 15-19 years was 1·3% in males and 1·6% in females, almost half that of males aged 1-4 years (2·4%), and around a third less than in females aged 1-4 years (2·5%). The proportion of global deaths in people aged 0-24 years that occurred in people aged 10-24 years more than doubled between 1950 and 2019, from 9·5% to 21·6%.

Interpretation

Variation in adolescent mortality between countries and by sex is widening, driven by poor progress in reducing deaths in males and older adolescents. Improving global adolescent mortality will require action to address the specific vulnerabilities of this age group, which are being overlooked. Furthermore, indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to jeopardise efforts to improve health outcomes including mortality in young people aged 10-24 years. There is an urgent need to respond to the changing global burden of adolescent mortality, address inequities where they occur, and improve the availability and quality of primary mortality data in this age group.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621015464/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01546-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8576274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8576274?pdf=render -35296488,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552,"AlzEye: longitudinal record-level linkage of ophthalmic imaging and hospital admissions of 353 157 patients in London, UK.","Wagner SK, Hughes F, Cortina-Borja M, Pontikos N, Struyven R, Liu X, Montgomery H, Alexander DC, Topol E, Petersen SE, Balaskas K, Hindley J, Petzold A, Rahi JS, Denniston AK, Keane PA.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-16,Y,Ophthalmology; Health Informatics; Medical Retina; Medical Ophthalmology,,,"

Purpose

Retinal signatures of systemic disease ('oculomics') are increasingly being revealed through a combination of high-resolution ophthalmic imaging and sophisticated modelling strategies. Progress is currently limited not mainly by technical issues, but by the lack of large labelled datasets, a sine qua non for deep learning. Such data are derived from prospective epidemiological studies, in which retinal imaging is typically unimodal, cross-sectional, of modest number and relates to cohorts, which are not enriched with subpopulations of interest, such as those with systemic disease. We thus linked longitudinal multimodal retinal imaging from routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) data with systemic disease data from hospital admissions using a privacy-by-design third-party linkage approach.

Participants

Between 1 January 2008 and 1 April 2018, 353 157 participants aged 40 years or older, who attended Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a tertiary ophthalmic institution incorporating a principal central site, four district hubs and five satellite clinics in and around London, UK serving a catchment population of approximately six million people.

Findings to date

Among the 353 157 individuals, 186 651 had a total of 1 337 711 Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care episodes. Systemic diagnoses recorded at these episodes include 12 022 patients with myocardial infarction, 11 735 with all-cause stroke and 13 363 with all-cause dementia. A total of 6 261 931 retinal images of seven different modalities and across three manufacturers were acquired from 1 54 830 patients. The majority of retinal images were retinal photographs (n=1 874 175) followed by optical coherence tomography (n=1 567 358).

Future plans

AlzEye combines the world's largest single institution retinal imaging database with nationally collected systemic data to create an exceptional large-scale, enriched cohort that reflects the diversity of the population served. First analyses will address cardiovascular diseases and dementia, with a view to identifying hidden retinal signatures that may lead to earlier detection and risk management of these life-threatening conditions.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e058552.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293?pdf=render 35072136,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100029,GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare.,"Rehm HL, Page AJH, Smith L, Adams JB, Alterovitz G, Babb LJ, Barkley MP, Baudis M, Beauvais MJS, Beck T, Beckmann JS, Beltran S, Bernick D, Bernier A, Bonfield JK, Boughtwood TF, Bourque G, Bowers SR, Brookes AJ, Brudno M, Brush MH, Bujold D, Burdett T, Buske OJ, Cabili MN, Cameron DL, Carroll RJ, Casas-Silva E, Chakravarty D, Chaudhari BP, Chen SH, Cherry JM, Chung J, Cline M, Clissold HL, Cook-Deegan RM, Courtot M, Cunningham F, Cupak M, Davies RM, Denisko D, Doerr MJ, Dolman LI, Dove ES, Dursi LJ, Dyke SOM, Eddy JA, Eilbeck K, Ellrott KP, Fairley S, Fakhro KA, Firth HV, Fitzsimons MS, Fiume M, Flicek P, Fore IM, Freeberg MA, Freimuth RR, Fromont LA, Fuerth J, Gaff CL, Gan W, Ghanaim EM, Glazer D, Green RC, Griffith M, Griffith OL, Grossman RL, Groza T, Auvil JMG, Guigó R, Gupta D, Haendel MA, Hamosh A, Hansen DP, Hart RK, Hartley DM, Haussler D, Hendricks-Sturrup RM, Ho CWL, Hobb AE, Hoffman MM, Hofmann OM, Holub P, Hsu JS, Hubaux JP, Hunt SE, Husami A, Jacobsen JO, Jamuar SS, Janes EL, Jeanson F, Jené A, Johns AL, Joly Y, Jones SJM, Kanitz A, Kato K, Keane TM, Kekesi-Lafrance K, Kelleher J, Kerry G, Khor SS, Knoppers BM, Konopko MA, Kosaki K, Kuba M, Lawson J, Leinonen R, Li S, Lin MF, Linden M, Liu X, Udara Liyanage I, Lopez J, Lucassen AM, Lukowski M, Mann AL, Marshall J, Mattioni M, Metke-Jimenez A, Middleton A, Milne RJ, Molnár-Gábor F, Mulder N, Munoz-Torres MC, Nag R, Nakagawa H, Nasir J, Navarro A, Nelson TH, Niewielska A, Nisselle A, Niu J, Nyrönen TH, O'Connor BD, Oesterle S, Ogishima S, Wang VO, Paglione LAD, Palumbo E, Parkinson HE, Philippakis AA, Pizarro AD, Prlic A, Rambla J, Rendon A, Rider RA, Robinson PN, Rodarmer KW, Rodriguez LL, Rubin AF, Rueda M, Rushton GA, Ryan RS, Saunders GI, Schuilenburg H, Schwede T, Scollen S, Senf A, Sheffield NC, Skantharajah N, Smith AV, Sofia HJ, Spalding D, Spurdle AB, Stark Z, Stein LD, Suematsu M, Tan P, Tedds JA, Thomson AA, Thorogood A, Tickle TL, Tokunaga K, Törnroos J, Torrents D, Upchurch S, Valencia A, Guimera RV, Vamathevan J, Varma S, Vears DF, Viner C, Voisin C, Wagner AH, Wallace SE, Walsh BP, Williams MS, Winkler EC, Wold BJ, Wood GM, Woolley JP, Yamasaki C, Yates AD, Yung CK, Zass LJ, Zaytseva K, Zhang J, Goodhand P, North K, Birney E.",,Cell genomics,2021,2021-11-01,Y,,,,"The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) aims to accelerate biomedical advances by enabling the responsible sharing of clinical and genomic data through both harmonized data aggregation and federated approaches. The decreasing cost of genomic sequencing (along with other genome-wide molecular assays) and increasing evidence of its clinical utility will soon drive the generation of sequence data from tens of millions of humans, with increasing levels of diversity. In this perspective, we present the GA4GH strategies for addressing the major challenges of this data revolution. We describe the GA4GH organization, which is fueled by the development efforts of eight Work Streams and informed by the needs of 24 Driver Projects and other key stakeholders. We present the GA4GH suite of secure, interoperable technical standards and policy frameworks and review the current status of standards, their relevance to key domains of research and clinical care, and future plans of GA4GH. Broad international participation in building, adopting, and deploying GA4GH standards and frameworks will catalyze an unprecedented effort in data sharing that will be critical to advancing genomic medicine and ensuring that all populations can access its benefits.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100029; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8774288; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8774288?pdf=render +35296488,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552,"AlzEye: longitudinal record-level linkage of ophthalmic imaging and hospital admissions of 353 157 patients in London, UK.","Wagner SK, Hughes F, Cortina-Borja M, Pontikos N, Struyven R, Liu X, Montgomery H, Alexander DC, Topol E, Petersen SE, Balaskas K, Hindley J, Petzold A, Rahi JS, Denniston AK, Keane PA.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-16,Y,Ophthalmology; Health Informatics; Medical Retina; Medical Ophthalmology,,,"

Purpose

Retinal signatures of systemic disease ('oculomics') are increasingly being revealed through a combination of high-resolution ophthalmic imaging and sophisticated modelling strategies. Progress is currently limited not mainly by technical issues, but by the lack of large labelled datasets, a sine qua non for deep learning. Such data are derived from prospective epidemiological studies, in which retinal imaging is typically unimodal, cross-sectional, of modest number and relates to cohorts, which are not enriched with subpopulations of interest, such as those with systemic disease. We thus linked longitudinal multimodal retinal imaging from routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) data with systemic disease data from hospital admissions using a privacy-by-design third-party linkage approach.

Participants

Between 1 January 2008 and 1 April 2018, 353 157 participants aged 40 years or older, who attended Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a tertiary ophthalmic institution incorporating a principal central site, four district hubs and five satellite clinics in and around London, UK serving a catchment population of approximately six million people.

Findings to date

Among the 353 157 individuals, 186 651 had a total of 1 337 711 Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care episodes. Systemic diagnoses recorded at these episodes include 12 022 patients with myocardial infarction, 11 735 with all-cause stroke and 13 363 with all-cause dementia. A total of 6 261 931 retinal images of seven different modalities and across three manufacturers were acquired from 1 54 830 patients. The majority of retinal images were retinal photographs (n=1 874 175) followed by optical coherence tomography (n=1 567 358).

Future plans

AlzEye combines the world's largest single institution retinal imaging database with nationally collected systemic data to create an exceptional large-scale, enriched cohort that reflects the diversity of the population served. First analyses will address cardiovascular diseases and dementia, with a view to identifying hidden retinal signatures that may lead to earlier detection and risk management of these life-threatening conditions.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e058552.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293?pdf=render 35416614,https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0,Opportunities and Risks of UK Medical Device Reform.,"Han JED, Ibrahim H, Aiyegbusi OL, Liu X, Marston E, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ.",,Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science,2022,2022-04-13,Y,Regulations; Medical devices; In Vitro Diagnostics; Ce Mark; Ukca,,,"

Objectives

To identify the potential opportunities and risks around future UK regulatory reform of medical devices.

Design

A mixed methods approach, comprising a rapid literature review, one-to-one, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, a multidisciplinary stakeholder workshop, and a post-workshop survey.

Setting

United Kingdom.

Participants

32 key stakeholders across the medical device sector were identified both from the public and private sectors.

Results

Opportunities relating to regulatory independence were identified, including the potential to create and implement a regulatory framework that ensures availability of medical devices; innovation and investment potential; and safety to the citizens of the UK. The most significant risks identified included threats to the safety of individual patients and the wider health system arising from the delay in awaiting regulatory approval due to the shortage of approved bodies; and reduced competitiveness of UK market and device manufacturers. Recommendations were identified to mitigate risks, centred on harnessing broader cross-sector collaborations, promoting patient and public partnership, and maximizing international engagement.

Conclusions

The UK's medical device sector is at a time-critical juncture to construct a regulatory framework to navigate its exit of Europe and respond to Europe's transition to new medical device regulations whilst also addressing the ongoing demand for rapid approval for new devices in response to the global pandemic. Investment, capacity-building, and international engagement will play a central role in mitigating risks and maximizing opportunities for medical device regulation.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047?pdf=render 36113526,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(22)00332-1,"Mapping development and health effects of cooking with solid fuels in low-income and middle-income countries, 2000-18: a geospatial modelling study.",Local Burden of Disease Household Air Pollution Collaborators.,,The Lancet. Global health,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"

Background

More than 3 billion people do not have access to clean energy and primarily use solid fuels to cook. Use of solid fuels generates household air pollution, which was associated with more than 2 million deaths in 2019. Although local patterns in cooking vary systematically, subnational trends in use of solid fuels have yet to be comprehensively analysed. We estimated the prevalence of solid-fuel use with high spatial resolution to explore subnational inequalities, assess local progress, and assess the effects on health in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) without universal access to clean fuels.

Methods

We did a geospatial modelling study to map the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking at a 5 km × 5 km resolution in 98 LMICs based on 2·1 million household observations of the primary cooking fuel used from 663 population-based household surveys over the years 2000 to 2018. We use observed temporal patterns to forecast household air pollution in 2030 and to assess the probability of attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target indicator for clean cooking. We aligned our estimates of household air pollution to geospatial estimates of ambient air pollution to establish the risk transition occurring in LMICs. Finally, we quantified the effect of residual primary solid-fuel use for cooking on child health by doing a counterfactual risk assessment to estimate the proportion of deaths from lower respiratory tract infections in children younger than 5 years that could be associated with household air pollution.

Findings

Although primary reliance on solid-fuel use for cooking has declined globally, it remains widespread. 593 million people live in districts where the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking exceeds 95%. 66% of people in LMICs live in districts that are not on track to meet the SDG target for universal access to clean energy by 2030. Household air pollution continues to be a major contributor to particulate exposure in LMICs, and rising ambient air pollution is undermining potential gains from reductions in the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking in many countries. We estimated that, in 2018, 205 000 (95% uncertainty interval 147 000-257 000) children younger than 5 years died from lower respiratory tract infections that could be attributed to household air pollution.

Interpretation

Efforts to accelerate the adoption of clean cooking fuels need to be substantially increased and recalibrated to account for subnational inequalities, because there are substantial opportunities to improve air quality and avert child mortality associated with household air pollution.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:https://repository.kaust.edu.sa/bitstream/10754/686177/1/1-s2.0-S2214109X22003321-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00332-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9638039 36415305,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066,"Identifying unmet antithrombotic therapeutic need, and implications for stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation patients: a population-scale longitudinal study.","Torabi F, Harris DE, Bodger O, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Gravenor M, Halcox JP.",,European heart journal open,2022,2022-11-21,Y,Anticoagulation; Atrial fibrillation; Electronic Health Records; Stroke And Systemic Embolism,,,"

Aims

Guidelines recommend anticoagulation (AC) in atrial fibrillation (AF) to reduce stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) risk; however, implementation has been slow across many populations. This study aimed to quantify the potential impact of changing prevalence of AF, associated risk, and AC prescribing on SSE hospitalizations and death.

Methods and results

We evaluated temporal trends of AF, CHA2DS2-VASc, antithrombotic prescriptions, SSE hospitalizations, death, and their associations between 2012 and 2018 in a longitudinal cohort of AF patients in Wales UK. Multi-state Markov models were used to estimate expected SSE rates given the AC coverage, adjusting for CHA2DS2-VASc scores. SSE rates were modelled for various past and future AC scenarios. A total of 107 137 AF patients were evaluated (mean age = 74 years, 45% female). AF prevalence increased from 1.75 to 2.22% (P-value <0.001). SSE hospitalizations decreased by 18% (2.34-1.92%, P-value <0.001). Increased AC coverage from 50 to 70% was associated with a 37% lower SSE rate, after adjustment for individual time-dependent CHA2DS2VASc scores. The observed AC increase accounted for approximately 80 fewer SSE hospitalizations per 100 000/year. If 90% AC coverage had been achieved since 2012, an estimated 279 SSE per 100 000/year may have been prevented. Our model also predicts that improving AC coverage to 90% over the next 9 years could reduce annual SSE rates by 9%.

Conclusion

We quantified the relationship between observed AC coverage, estimating the potential impact of variation in the timing of large-scale implementation. These data emphasize the importance of timely implementation and the considerable opportunity to improve clinical outcomes in the Wales-AF population.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/2/6/oeac066/48439565/oeac066.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205?pdf=render diff --git a/data/papers.csv b/data/papers.csv index 41e5a4a9..18fc5f05 100644 --- a/data/papers.csv +++ b/data/papers.csv @@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 35915500,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01947-x,The impact of changes in coding on mortality reports using the example of sepsis.,"Atkin C, Pankhurst T, McNulty D, Keogh A, Gallier S, Pagano D, Sapey E, Ball S.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Mortality; Sepsis; Morbidity; epidemiology; Clinical Coding; Real World Data,,,"

Objectives

NHS Digital issued new guidance on sepsis coding in April 2017 which was further modified in April 2018. During these timeframes some centres reported increased sepsis associated mortality, whilst others reported reduced mortality, in some cases coincident with specific quality improvement programmes. We hypothesised that changes in reported mortality could not be separated from changes in coding practice.

Methods

Hospital Episode Statistics from the Admitted Patient Care dataset for NHS hospitals in England, from April 2016 to March 2020 were analysed. Admissions of adults with sepsis: an International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10) code associated with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Clinical Classifications Software class 'Septicaemia (except in labour)', were assessed. Patient comorbidities were defined by other ICD-10 codes recorded within the admission episode.

Results

1,081,565 hospital episodes with a coded diagnosis of sepsis were studied. After April 2017 there was a significant increase in admission episodes with sepsis coded as the primary reason for admission. There were significant changes in the case-mix of patients with a primary diagnosis of sepsis after April 2017. An analysis of case-mix, hospital and year treated as random effects, defined a small reduction in sepsis associated mortality across England following the first change in coding guidance. No centre specific improvement in outcome could be separated from these random-effects.

Conclusion

Changes in sepsis coding practice altered case-mix and case selection, in ways that varied between centres. This was associated with changes in centre-specific sepsis associated mortality, over time. According to the direction of change these may be interpreted either as requiring local investigation for cause or as supporting coincident changes in clinical practice. A whole system analysis showed that centre specific changes in mortality cannot be separated from system-wide changes. Caution is therefore required when interpreting sepsis outcomes in England, particularly when using single centre studies to inform or support guidance or policy.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-01947-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01947-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9341053; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9341053?pdf=render 35715992,https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.4941,Associating transcriptomics data with inflammatory markers to understand tumour microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma.,"Bahcivanci B, Shafiha R, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.",,Cancer medicine,2023,2022-06-18,Y,Hepatocellular carcinoma; Tumor Microenvironment; Gene Signature; Immune Deconvolution,,,"

Background

Liver cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death globally which is estimated to reach more than 1 million deaths a year by 2030. Among liver cancer types, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for approximately 90% of the cases and is known to have a tumour promoting inflammation regardless of its underlying aetiology. However, current promising treatment approaches, such as immunotherapy, are partially effective for most of the patients due to the immunosuppressive nature of the tumour microenvironment (TME). Therefore, there is an urgent need to fully understand TME in HCC and discover new immune markers to eliminate resistance to immunotherapy.

Methods

We analyse three microarray datasets, using unsupervised and supervised methods, in an effort to discover signature genes. First, univariate, and multivariate, feature selection methods, such as the Boruta algorithm, are applied. Subsequently, an optimisation procedure, which utilises random forest algorithm with three dataset pairs combinations, is performed. The resulting optimal gene sets are then combined and further subjected to network analysis and pathway enrichment analysis so as to obtain information related to their biological relevance. The microarray datasets were analysed via the MCP-counter, CIBERSORT, TIMER, EPIC, and quanTIseq deconvolution methods and an estimation of cell type abundances for each dataset sample were identified. The differences in the cell type abundances, between the adjacent and tumour sample groups, were then assessed using a Wilcoxon Rank Sum test (p-value < 0.05).

Results

The optimal gene signature sets, derived from each of the data pairs combination, achieved AUC values ranging from 0.959 to 0.988 in external validation sets using Random Forest model. CLEC1B and PTTG1 genes are retrieved across each optimal set. Among the signature genes, PTTG1, AURKA, and UBE2C genes are found to be involved in the regulation of mitotic sister chromatid separation and anaphase-promoting complex (APC) dependent catabolic process (adjusted p-value < 0.001). Additionally, the application of deconvolution algorithms revealed significant changes in cell type abundances of Regulatory T (Treg) cells, M0 and M1 macrophages, and T CD8+ cells between adjacent and tumour samples.

Conclusion

We identified ECM1 gene as a potential immune-related marker acting through immune cell migration and macrophage polarisation. Our results indicate that macrophages, such as M0 macrophage and M1 macrophage cells, undergo significant changes in HCC TME. Moreover, our immune deconvolution approach revealed significant infiltration of Treg cells and M0 macrophages, and a significant decrease in T CD8+ cells and M1 macrophages in tumour samples.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/172896799/Cancer_Medicine_2022_Bahcivanci_Associating_transcriptomics_data_with_inflammatory_markers_to_understand_tumour.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.4941; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9844659; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9844659?pdf=render 35038629,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.12.010,Investigating the association between COVID-19 vaccination and care home outbreak frequency and duration.,"Bradley DT, Murphy S, McWilliams P, Arnold S, Lavery S, Murphy J, de Lusignan S, Hobbs R, Tsang RSM, Akbari A, Torabi F, Beggs J, Chuter A, Shi T, Vasileiou E, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Reid H, O'Reilly D.",,Public health,2022,2021-12-18,Y,Vaccination; outbreak; Care Homes; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objectives

At the end of 2020, many countries commenced a vaccination programme against SARS-CoV-2. Public health authorities aim to prevent and interrupt outbreaks of infectious disease in social care settings. We aimed to investigate the association between the introduction of the vaccination programme and the frequency and duration of COVID-19 outbreaks in Northern Ireland (NI).

Study design

We undertook an ecological study using routinely available national data.

Methods

We used Poisson regression to measure the relationship between the number of RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes, and as a measure of community COVID-19 prevalence, the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey estimated the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in NI. We estimated the change in this relationship and estimated the expected number of care home outbreaks in the absence of the vaccination programme. A Cox proportional hazards model estimated the hazard ratio of a confirmed COVID-19 care home outbreak closure.

Results

Care home outbreaks reduced by two-thirds compared to expected following the introduction of the vaccination programme, from a projected 1625 COVID-19 outbreaks (95% prediction interval 1553-1694) between 7 December 2020 and 28 October 2021 to an observed 501. We estimated an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.53 of the outbreak closure assuming a 21-day lag for immunity.

Conclusions

These findings describe the association of the vaccination with a reduction in outbreak frequency and duration across NI care homes. This indicates probable reduced harm and disruption from COVID-19 in social care settings following vaccination. Future research using individual level data from care home residents will be needed to investigate the effectiveness of the vaccines and the duration of their effects.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8683272; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.12.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8683272; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8683272?pdf=render -36356998,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271,"Studying the Long-term Impact of COVID-19 in Kids (SLICK). Healthcare use and costs in children and young people following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection: protocol for an observational study using linked primary and secondary routinely collected healthcare data from England, Scotland and Wales.","Swann OV, Lone NI, Harrison EM, Tomlinson LA, Walker AJ, Seaborne MJ, Pollock L, Farrell J, Hall PS, Seth S, Williams TC, Preston J, Ainsworth JS, Semple FF, Baillie JK, Katikireddi SV, Akbari A, Lyons R, Simpson CR, Semple MG, Goldacre B, Brophy S, Sheikh A, Docherty AB.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-10,Y,epidemiology; Health Economics; Covid-19; Paediatric Infectious Disease &Amp; Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

SARS-CoV-2 infection rarely causes hospitalisation in children and young people (CYP), but mild or asymptomatic infections are common. Persistent symptoms following infection have been reported in CYP but subsequent healthcare use is unclear. We aim to describe healthcare use in CYP following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify those at risk of ongoing healthcare needs.

Methods and analysis

We will use anonymised individual-level, population-scale national data linking demographics, comorbidities, primary and secondary care use and mortality between 1 January 2019 and 1 May 2022. SARS-CoV-2 test data will be linked from 1 January 2020 to 1 May 2022. Analyses will use Trusted Research Environments: OpenSAFELY in England, Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in Wales and Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 in Scotland (EAVE-II). CYP aged ≥4 and <18 years who underwent SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) testing between 1 January 2020 and 1 May 2021 and those untested CYP will be examined.The primary outcome measure is cumulative healthcare cost over 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 testing, stratified into primary or secondary care, and physical or mental healthcare. We will estimate the burden of healthcare use attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infections in the 12 months after testing using a matched cohort study of RT-PCR positive, negative or untested CYP matched on testing date, with adjustment for confounders. We will identify factors associated with higher healthcare needs in the 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection using an unmatched cohort of RT-PCR positive CYP. Multivariable logistic regression and machine learning approaches will identify risk factors for high healthcare use and characterise patterns of healthcare use post infection.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was approved by the South-Central Oxford C Health Research Authority Ethics Committee (13/SC/0149). Findings will be preprinted and published in peer-reviewed journals. Analysis code and code lists will be available through public GitHub repositories and OpenCodelists with meta-data via HDR-UK Innovation Gateway.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063271.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708?pdf=render 35042645,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.061,"COVID-19 vaccine uptake, effectiveness, and waning in 82,959 health care workers: A national prospective cohort study in Wales.","Bedston S, Akbari A, Jarvis CI, Lowthian E, Torabi F, North L, Lyons J, Perry M, Griffiths LJ, Owen RK, Beggs J, Chuter A, Bradley DT, de Lusignan S, Fry R, Richard Hobbs FD, Hollinghurst J, Katikireddi SV, Murphy S, O'Reily D, Robertson C, Shi T, Tsang RSM, Sheikh A, Lyons RA.",,Vaccine,2022,2022-01-15,Y,Vaccines; Health care workers; Pandemic; Covid-19,,,"

Background

While population estimates suggest high vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection, the protection for health care workers, who are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure, is less understood.

Methods

We conducted a national cohort study of health care workers in Wales (UK) from 7 December 2020 to 30 September 2021. We examined uptake of any COVID-19 vaccine, and the effectiveness of BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) against polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. We used linked and routinely collected national-scale data within the SAIL Databank. Data were available on 82,959 health care workers in Wales, with exposure extending to 26 weeks after second doses.

Results

Overall vaccine uptake was high (90%), with most health care workers receiving theBNT162b2 vaccine (79%). Vaccine uptake differed by age, staff role, socioeconomic status; those aged 50-59 and 60+ years old were 1.6 times more likely to get vaccinated than those aged 16-29. Medical and dental staff, and Allied Health Practitioners were 1.5 and 1.1 times more likely to get vaccinated, compared to nursing and midwifery staff. The effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine was found to be strong and consistent across the characteristics considered; 52% three to six weeks after first dose, 86% from two weeks after second dose, though this declined to 53% from 22 weeks after the second dose.

Conclusions

With some variation in rate of uptake, those who were vaccinated had a reduced risk of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to those unvaccinated. Second dose has provided stronger protection for longer than first dose but our study is consistent with waning from seven weeks onwards.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.061; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.061; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8760602 +36356998,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271,"Studying the Long-term Impact of COVID-19 in Kids (SLICK). Healthcare use and costs in children and young people following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection: protocol for an observational study using linked primary and secondary routinely collected healthcare data from England, Scotland and Wales.","Swann OV, Lone NI, Harrison EM, Tomlinson LA, Walker AJ, Seaborne MJ, Pollock L, Farrell J, Hall PS, Seth S, Williams TC, Preston J, Ainsworth JS, Semple FF, Baillie JK, Katikireddi SV, Akbari A, Lyons R, Simpson CR, Semple MG, Goldacre B, Brophy S, Sheikh A, Docherty AB.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-10,Y,epidemiology; Health Economics; Covid-19; Paediatric Infectious Disease &Amp; Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

SARS-CoV-2 infection rarely causes hospitalisation in children and young people (CYP), but mild or asymptomatic infections are common. Persistent symptoms following infection have been reported in CYP but subsequent healthcare use is unclear. We aim to describe healthcare use in CYP following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify those at risk of ongoing healthcare needs.

Methods and analysis

We will use anonymised individual-level, population-scale national data linking demographics, comorbidities, primary and secondary care use and mortality between 1 January 2019 and 1 May 2022. SARS-CoV-2 test data will be linked from 1 January 2020 to 1 May 2022. Analyses will use Trusted Research Environments: OpenSAFELY in England, Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in Wales and Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 in Scotland (EAVE-II). CYP aged ≥4 and <18 years who underwent SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) testing between 1 January 2020 and 1 May 2021 and those untested CYP will be examined.The primary outcome measure is cumulative healthcare cost over 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 testing, stratified into primary or secondary care, and physical or mental healthcare. We will estimate the burden of healthcare use attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infections in the 12 months after testing using a matched cohort study of RT-PCR positive, negative or untested CYP matched on testing date, with adjustment for confounders. We will identify factors associated with higher healthcare needs in the 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection using an unmatched cohort of RT-PCR positive CYP. Multivariable logistic regression and machine learning approaches will identify risk factors for high healthcare use and characterise patterns of healthcare use post infection.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was approved by the South-Central Oxford C Health Research Authority Ethics Committee (13/SC/0149). Findings will be preprinted and published in peer-reviewed journals. Analysis code and code lists will be available through public GitHub repositories and OpenCodelists with meta-data via HDR-UK Innovation Gateway.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063271.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708?pdf=render 36806073,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071261,Protocol for an OpenSAFELY cohort study collecting patient-reported outcome measures using the TPP Airmid smartphone application and linked big data to quantify the health and economic costs of long COVID (OpenPROMPT).,"Herrett E, Tomlin K, Lin LY, Tomlinson LA, Jit M, Briggs A, Marks M, Sandmann F, Parry J, Bates C, Morley J, Bacon S, Butler-Cole B, Mahalingasivam V, Dennison A, Smith D, Gabriel E, Mehrkar A, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, Eggo RMM.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-02-17,Y,Quality of life; Health Economics; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The impact of long COVID on health-related quality of-life (HRQoL) and productivity is not currently known. It is important to understand who is worst affected by long COVID and the cost to the National Health Service (NHS) and society, so that strategies like booster vaccines can be prioritised to the right people. OpenPROMPT aims to understand the impact of long COVID on HRQoL in adults attending English primary care.

Methods and analysis

We will ask people to participate in this cohort study through a smartphone app (Airmid), and completing a series of questionnaires held within the app. Questionnaires will ask about HRQoL, productivity and symptoms of long COVID. Participants will be asked to fill in the questionnaires once a month, for 90 days. Questionnaire responses will be linked, where possible, to participants' existing health records from primary care, secondary care, and COVID testing and vaccination data. Analysis will take place using the OpenSAFELY data platform and will estimate the impact of long COVID on HRQoL, productivity and cost to the NHS.

Ethics and dissemination

The Proportionate Review Sub-Committee of the South Central-Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee has reviewed and approved the study and have agreed that we can ask people to take part (22/SC/0198). Our results will provide information to support long-term care, and make recommendations for prevention of long COVID in the future.

Trial registration number

NCT05552612.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e071261.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071261; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943695; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943695?pdf=render 34301672,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053402,Sociodemographic inequality in COVID-19 vaccination coverage among elderly adults in England: a national linked data study.,"Nafilyan V, Dolby T, Razieh C, Gaughan CH, Morgan J, Ayoubkhani D, Walker S, Khunti K, Glickman M, Yates T.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-07-23,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To examine inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination rates among elderly adults in England.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

People living in private households and communal establishments in England.

Participants

6 655 672 adults aged ≥70 years (mean 78.8 years, 55.2% women) who were alive on 15 March 2021.

Main outcome measures

Having received the first dose of a vaccine against COVID-19 by 15 March 2021. We calculated vaccination rates and estimated unadjusted and adjusted ORs using logistic regression models.

Results

By 15 March 2021, 93.2% of people living in England aged 70 years and over had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. While vaccination rates differed across all factors considered apart from sex, the greatest disparities were seen between ethnic and religious groups. The lowest rates were in people of black African and black Caribbean ethnic backgrounds, where only 67.2% and 73.8% had received a vaccine, with adjusted odds of not being vaccinated at 5.01 (95% CI 4.86 to 5.16) and 4.85 (4.75 to 4.96) times greater than the white British group. The proportion of individuals self-identifying as Muslim and Buddhist who had received a vaccine was 79.1% and 84.1%, respectively. Older age, greater area deprivation, less advantaged socioeconomic position (proxied by living in a rented home), being disabled and living either alone or in a multigenerational household were also associated with higher odds of not having received the vaccine.

Conclusion

Research is now urgently needed to understand why disparities exist in these groups and how they can best be addressed through public health policy and community engagement.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e053402.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8313303; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8313303?pdf=render 34939069,https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.781227,Effects of Negation and Uncertainty Stratification on Text-Derived Patient Profile Similarity.,"Slater LT, Karwath A, Hoehndorf R, Gkoutos GV.",,Frontiers in digital health,2021,2021-12-06,Y,Differential diagnosis; Ontology; Negation; Semantic Similarity; Context Disambiguation; Phenotype Profiles,,,"Semantic similarity is a useful approach for comparing patient phenotypes, and holds the potential of an effective method for exploiting text-derived phenotypes for differential diagnosis, text and document classification, and outcome prediction. While approaches for context disambiguation are commonly used in text mining applications, forming a standard component of information extraction pipelines, their effects on semantic similarity calculations have not been widely explored. In this work, we evaluate how inclusion and disclusion of negated and uncertain mentions of concepts from text-derived phenotypes affects similarity of patients, and the use of those profiles to predict diagnosis. We report on the effectiveness of these approaches and report a very small, yet significant, improvement in performance when classifying primary diagnosis over MIMIC-III patient visits.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2021.781227/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.781227; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8685209; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8685209?pdf=render @@ -41,8 +41,8 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 37243092,https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11050988,A Methodological Framework for Assessing the Benefit of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination following Previous Infection: Case Study of Five- to Eleven-Year-Olds.,"Pagel C, Wilde H, Tomlinson C, Mateen B, Brown K.",,Vaccines,2023,2023-05-16,Y,Health Policy; Mathematical Modelling; Covid-19; Paediatric Vaccines,,,"Vaccination rates against SARS-CoV-2 in children aged five to eleven years remain low in many countries. The current benefit of vaccination in this age group has been questioned given that the large majority of children have now experienced at least one SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, protection from infection, vaccination or both wanes over time. National decisions on offering vaccines to this age group have tended to be made without considering time since infection. There is an urgent need to evaluate the additional benefits of vaccination in previously infected children and under what circumstances those benefits accrue. We present a novel methodological framework for estimating the potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected children aged five to eleven, accounting for waning. We apply this framework to the UK context and for two adverse outcomes: hospitalisation related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and Long Covid. We show that the most important drivers of benefit are: the degree of protection provided by previous infection; the protection provided by vaccination; the time since previous infection; and future attack rates. Vaccination can be very beneficial for previously infected children if future attack rates are high and several months have elapsed since the previous major wave in this group. Benefits are generally larger for Long Covid than hospitalisation, because Long Covid is both more common than hospitalisation and previous infection offers less protection against it. Our framework provides a structure for policy makers to explore the additional benefit of vaccination across a range of adverse outcomes and different parameter assumptions. It can be easily updated as new evidence emerges.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11050988; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11050988; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10220644; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10220644?pdf=render 35022257,https://doi.org/10.1183/16000617.0121-2021,Predicting the pulmonary effects of long-term e-cigarette use: are the clouds clearing?,"Davis LC, Sapey E, Thickett DR, Scott A.",,European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society,2022,2022-01-12,Y,,,,"Commercially available since 2007, e-cigarettes are a popular electronic delivery device of ever-growing complexity. Given their increasing use by ex-smokers, smokers and never-smokers, it is important to evaluate evidence of their potential pulmonary effects and predict effects of long-term use, since there has been insufficient time to study a chronic user cohort. It is crucial to evaluate indicators of harm seen in cigarette use, and those potentially unique to e-cigarette exposure. Evaluation must also account for the vast variation in e-cigarette devices (now including at least five generations of devices) and exposure methods used in vivo and in vitroThus far, short-term use cohort studies, combined with in vivo and in vitro models, have been used to probe for the effects of e-cigarette exposure. The effects and mechanisms identified, including dysregulated inflammation and decreased pathogen resistance, show concerning overlaps with the established effects of cigarette smoke exposure. Additionally, research has identified a signature of dysregulated lipid processing, which is unique to e-cigarette exposure.This review will evaluate the evidence of pulmonary effects of, and driving mechanisms behind, e-cigarette exposure, which have been highlighted in emerging literature, and highlight the gaps in current knowledge. Such a summary allows understanding of the ongoing debate into e-cigarette regulation, as well as prediction and potential mitigation of future problems surrounding e-cigarette use.",,pdf:https://err.ersjournals.com/content/errev/31/163/210121.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/16000617.0121-2021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9488959; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9488959?pdf=render 34127076,https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2,"Perceptions of anonymised data use and awareness of the NHS data opt-out amongst patients, carers and healthcare staff.","Atkin C, Crosby B, Dunn K, Price G, Marston E, Crawford C, O'Hara M, Morgan C, Levermore M, Gallier S, Modhwadia S, Attwood J, Perks S, Denniston AK, Gkoutos G, Dormer R, Rosser A, Ignatowicz A, Fanning H, Sapey E, PIONEER Data Hub.",,Research involvement and engagement,2021,2021-06-14,Y,data sharing; Commercial; Secondary Data Use; Anonymised Healthcare Data; National Data Opt-out,,,"

Background

England operates a National Data Opt-Out (NDOO) for the secondary use of confidential health data for research and planning. We hypothesised that public awareness and support for the secondary use of health data and the NDOO would vary by participant demography and healthcare experience. We explored patient/public awareness and perceptions of secondary data use, grouping potential researchers into National Health Service (NHS), academia or commercial. We assessed awareness of the NDOO system amongst patients, carers, healthcare staff and the public. We co-developed recommendations to consider when sharing unconsented health data for research.

Methods

A patient and public engagement program, co-created and including patient and public workshops, questionnaires and discussion groups regarding anonymised health data use.

Results

There were 350 participants in total. Central concerns for health data use included unauthorised data re-use, the potential for discrimination and data sharing without patient benefit. 94% of respondents were happy for their data to be used for NHS research, 85% for academic research and 68% by health companies, but less than 50% for non-healthcare companies and opinions varied with demography and participant group. Questionnaires showed that knowledge of the NDOO was low, with 32% of all respondents, 53% of all NHS staff and 29% of all patients aware of the NDOO. Recommendations to guide unconsented secondary health data use included that health data use should benefit patients; data sharing decisions should involve patients/public. That data should remain in close proximity to health services with the principles of data minimisation applied. Further, that there should be transparency in secondary health data use, including publicly available lists of projects, summaries and benefits. Finally, organisations involved in data access decisions should participate in programmes to increase knowledge of the NDOO, to ensure public members were making informed choices about their own data.

Conclusion

The majority of participants in this study reported that the use of healthcare data for secondary purposes was acceptable when accessed by NHS. Academic and health-focused companies. However, awareness was limited, including of the NDOO. Further development of publicly-agreed recommendations for secondary health data use may improve both awareness and confidence in secondary health data use.",,pdf:https://researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201435; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201435?pdf=render -37407076,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639,Hospital admissions linked to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents: cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained infections in England.,"Wilde H, Tomlinson C, Mateen BA, Selby D, Kanthimathinathan HK, Ramnarayan P, Du Pre P, Johnson M, Pathan N, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Lai AG, Gurdasani D, Pagel C, Denaxas S, Vollmer S, Brown K, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT consortium.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2023,2023-07-05,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe hospital admissions associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents.

Design

Cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained SARS-CoV-2 infections using electronic health care record data.

Setting

England, July 2020 to February 2022.

Participants

About 12 million children and adolescents (age <18 years) who were resident in England.

Main outcome measures

Ascertainment of a first SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions: due to SARS-CoV-2, with SARS-CoV-2 as a contributory factor, incidental to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and hospital acquired SARS-CoV-2.

Results

3 226 535 children and adolescents had a recorded first SARS-CoV-2 infection during the observation period, and 29 230 (0.9%) infections involved a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. The median length of stay was 2 (interquartile range 1-4) days) and 1710 of 29 230 (5.9%) SARS-CoV-2 associated admissions involved paediatric critical care. 70 deaths occurred in which covid-19 or paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome was listed as a cause, of which 55 (78.6%) were in participants with a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. SARS-CoV-2 was the cause or a contributory factor in 21 000 of 29 230 (71.8%) participants who were admitted to hospital and only 380 (1.3%) participants acquired infection as an inpatient and 7855 (26.9%) participants were admitted with incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection. Boys, younger children (<5 years), and those from ethnic minority groups or areas of high deprivation were more likely to be admitted to hospital (all P<0.001). The covid-19 vaccination programme in England has identified certain conditions as representing a higher risk of admission to hospital with SARS-CoV-2: 11 085 (37.9%) of participants admitted to hospital had evidence of such a condition, and a further 4765 (16.3%) of participants admitted to hospital had a medical or developmental health condition not included in the vaccination programme's list.

Conclusions

Most SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions in children and adolescents in England were due to SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-2 was a contributory factor. These results should inform future public health initiatives and research.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/382/bmj-2022-073639.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942?pdf=render 32873607,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000644,Ethnicity and risk of death in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 infection in the UK: an observational cohort study in an urban catchment area.,"Sapey E, Gallier S, Mainey C, Nightingale P, McNulty D, Crothers H, Evison F, Reeves K, Pagano D, Denniston AK, Nirantharakumar K, Diggle P, Ball S, All clinicians and students at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.",,BMJ open respiratory research,2020,2020-09-01,Y,Viral infection; respiratory infection; Clinical Epidemiology,,,"

Background

Studies suggest that certain black and Asian minority ethnic groups experience poorer outcomes from COVID-19, but these studies have not provided insight into potential reasons for this. We hypothesised that outcomes would be poorer for those of South Asian ethnicity hospitalised from a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, once confounding factors, health-seeking behaviours and community demographics were considered, and that this might reflect a more aggressive disease course in these patients.

Methods

Patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection requiring admission to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) in Birmingham, UK between 10 March 2020 and 17 April 2020 were included. Standardised admission ratio (SAR) and standardised mortality ratio (SMR) were calculated using observed COVID-19 admissions/deaths and 2011 census data. Adjusted HR for mortality was estimated using Cox proportional hazard model adjusting and propensity score matching.

Results

All patients admitted to UHB with COVID-19 during the study period were included (2217 in total). 58% were male, 69.5% were white and the majority (80.2%) had comorbidities. 18.5% were of South Asian ethnicity, and these patients were more likely to be younger and have no comorbidities, but twice the prevalence of diabetes than white patients. SAR and SMR suggested more admissions and deaths in South Asian patients than would be predicted and they were more likely to present with severe disease despite no delay in presentation since symptom onset. South Asian ethnicity was associated with an increased risk of death, both by Cox regression (HR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2 to 1.8), after adjusting for age, sex, deprivation and comorbidities, and by propensity score matching, matching for the same factors but categorising ethnicity into South Asian or not (HR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0 to 1.6).

Conclusions

Those of South Asian ethnicity appear at risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes. Further studies need to establish the underlying mechanistic pathways.",,pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/7/1/e000644.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000644; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467523?pdf=render +37407076,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639,Hospital admissions linked to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents: cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained infections in England.,"Wilde H, Tomlinson C, Mateen BA, Selby D, Kanthimathinathan HK, Ramnarayan P, Du Pre P, Johnson M, Pathan N, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Lai AG, Gurdasani D, Pagel C, Denaxas S, Vollmer S, Brown K, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT consortium.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2023,2023-07-05,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe hospital admissions associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents.

Design

Cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained SARS-CoV-2 infections using electronic health care record data.

Setting

England, July 2020 to February 2022.

Participants

About 12 million children and adolescents (age <18 years) who were resident in England.

Main outcome measures

Ascertainment of a first SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions: due to SARS-CoV-2, with SARS-CoV-2 as a contributory factor, incidental to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and hospital acquired SARS-CoV-2.

Results

3 226 535 children and adolescents had a recorded first SARS-CoV-2 infection during the observation period, and 29 230 (0.9%) infections involved a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. The median length of stay was 2 (interquartile range 1-4) days) and 1710 of 29 230 (5.9%) SARS-CoV-2 associated admissions involved paediatric critical care. 70 deaths occurred in which covid-19 or paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome was listed as a cause, of which 55 (78.6%) were in participants with a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. SARS-CoV-2 was the cause or a contributory factor in 21 000 of 29 230 (71.8%) participants who were admitted to hospital and only 380 (1.3%) participants acquired infection as an inpatient and 7855 (26.9%) participants were admitted with incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection. Boys, younger children (<5 years), and those from ethnic minority groups or areas of high deprivation were more likely to be admitted to hospital (all P<0.001). The covid-19 vaccination programme in England has identified certain conditions as representing a higher risk of admission to hospital with SARS-CoV-2: 11 085 (37.9%) of participants admitted to hospital had evidence of such a condition, and a further 4765 (16.3%) of participants admitted to hospital had a medical or developmental health condition not included in the vaccination programme's list.

Conclusions

Most SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions in children and adolescents in England were due to SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-2 was a contributory factor. These results should inform future public health initiatives and research.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/382/bmj-2022-073639.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942?pdf=render 34430796,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2021.08.011,Association Between Accelerometer-Assessed Physical Activity and Severity of COVID-19 in UK Biobank.,"Rowlands AV, Dempsey PC, Gillies C, Kloecker DE, Razieh C, Chudasama Y, Islam N, Zaccardi F, Lawson C, Norris T, Davies MJ, Khunti K, Yates T.",,"Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes",2021,2021-08-20,Y,"Mvpa, Moderate To Vigorous Physical Activity; Covid-19, Coronavirus Disease 2019; Sars-cov-2, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2",,,"

Objective

To quantify the association between accelerometer-assessed physical activity and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes.

Methods

Data from 82,253 UK Biobank participants with accelerometer data (measured 2013-2015), complete covariate data, and linked COVID-19 data from March 16, 2020, to March 16, 2021, were included. Two outcomes were investigated: severe COVID-19 (positive test result from in-hospital setting or COVID-19 as primary cause of death) and nonsevere COVID-19 (positive test result from community setting). Logistic regressions were used to assess associations with moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), total activity, and intensity gradient. A higher intensity gradient indicates a higher proportion of vigorous activity.

Results

Average MVPA was 48.1 (32.7) min/d. Physical activity was associated with lower odds of severe COVID-19 (adjusted odds ratio per standard deviation increase: MVPA, 0.75 [95% CI, 0.67 to 0.85]; total, 0.83 [0.74 to 0.92]; intensity, 0.77 [0.70 to 0.86]), with stronger associations in women (MVPA, 0.63 [0.52 to 0.77]; total, 0.76 [0.64 to 0.90]; intensity, 0.63 [0.53 to 0.74]) than in men (MVPA, 0.84 [0.73 to 0.97]; total, 0.88 [0.77 to 1.01]; intensity, 0.88 [0.77 to 1.00]). In contrast, when mutually adjusted, total activity was associated with higher odds of a nonsevere infection (1.10 [1.04 to 1.16]), whereas the intensity gradient was associated with lower odds (0.91 [0.86 to 0.97]).

Conclusion

Odds of severe COVID-19 were approximately 25% lower per standard deviation (∼30 min/d) MVPA. A greater proportion of vigorous activity was associated with lower odds of severe and nonsevere infections. The association between total activity and higher odds of a nonsevere infection may be through greater community engagement and thus more exposure to the virus. Results support calls for public health messaging highlighting the potential of MVPA for reducing the odds of severe COVID-19.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2021.08.011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2021.08.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8376658; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8376658?pdf=render 37726825,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07606-4,Correction: Development and evaluation of rapid data-enabled access to routine clinical information to enhance early recruitment to the national clinical platform trial of COVID-19 community treatments.,"Cake C, Ogburn E, Pinches H, Coleman G, Seymour D, Woodard F, Manohar S, Monsur M, Landray M, Dalton G, Morris AD, Chinnery PF, UK COVID-19 National Core Studies Consortium, Hobbs FDR, Butler C.",,Trials,2023,2023-09-19,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07606-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10507817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10507817?pdf=render 37669983,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41476-9,Link prediction in complex network using information flow.,"Aziz F, Slater LT, Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Gkoutos GV.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-09-05,Y,,,,"Link prediction in complex networks has recently attracted a great deal of attraction in diverse scientific domains, including social and biological sciences. Given a snapshot of a network, the goal is to predict links that are missing in the network or that are likely to occur in the near future. This problem has both theoretical and practical significance; it not only helps us to identify missing links in a network more efficiently by avoiding the expensive and time consuming experimental processes, but also allows us to study the evolution of a network with time. To address the problem of link prediction, numerous attempts have been made over the recent years that exploit the local and the global topological properties of the network to predict missing links in the network. In this paper, we use parametrised matrix forest index (PMFI) to predict missing links in a network. We show that, for small parameter values, this index is linked to a heat diffusion process on a graph and therefore encodes geometric properties of the network. We then develop a framework that combines the PMFI with a local similarity index to predict missing links in the network. The framework is applied to numerous networks obtained from diverse domains such as social network, biological network, and transport network. The results show that the proposed method can predict missing links with higher accuracy when compared to other state-of-the-art link prediction methods.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41476-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10480459; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10480459?pdf=render @@ -75,26 +75,26 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 37263685,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070637,"Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domiciliary care workers in Wales, UK: a data linkage cohort study using the SAIL Databank.","Cannings-John R, Schoenbuchner S, Jones H, Lugg-Widger FV, Akbari A, Brookes-Howell L, Hood K, John A, Thomas DR, Prout H, Robling M.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Mental health; Social Medicine; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To quantify population health risks for domiciliary care workers (DCWs) in Wales, UK, working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

A population-level retrospective study linking occupational registration data to anonymised electronic health records maintained by the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank in a privacy-protecting trusted research environment.

Setting

Registered DCW population in Wales.

Participants

Records for all linked DCWs from 1 March 2020 to 30 November 2021.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Our primary outcome was confirmed COVID-19 infection; secondary outcomes included contacts for suspected COVID-19, mental health including self-harm, fit notes, respiratory infections not necessarily recorded as COVID-19, deaths involving COVID-19 and all-cause mortality.

Results

Confirmed and suspected COVID-19 infection rates increased over the study period to 24% by 30 November 2021. Confirmed COVID-19 varied by sex (males: 19% vs females: 24%) and age (>55 years: 19% vs <35 years: 26%) and were higher for care workers employed by local authority social services departments compared with the private sector (27% and 23%, respectively). 34% of DCWs required support for a mental health condition, with mental health-related prescribing increasing in frequency when compared with the prepandemic period. Events for self-harm increased from 0.2% to 0.4% over the study period as did the issuing of fit notes. There was no evidence to suggest a miscoding of COVID-19 infection with non-COVID-19 respiratory conditions. COVID-19-related and all-cause mortality were no greater than for the general population aged 15-64 years in Wales (0.1% and 0.034%, respectively). A comparable DCW workforce in Scotland and England would result in a comparable rate of COVID-19 infection, while the younger workforce in Northern Ireland may result in a greater infection rate.

Conclusions

While initial concerns about excess mortality are alleviated, the substantial pre-existing and increased mental health burden for DCWs will require investment to provide long-term support to the sector's workforce.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/6/e070637.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070637; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10255029; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10255029?pdf=render 34706900,https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2021-211706,Comparative analysis of major incident triage tools in children: a UK population-based analysis.,"Vassallo J, Chernbumroong S, Malik N, Xu Y, Keene D, Gkoutos G, Lyttle MD, Smith J, in collaboration with PERUKI (Paediatric Emergency Research in the UK and Ireland).",,Emergency medicine journal : EMJ,2021,2021-10-27,Y,Planning; Paediatrics; Major Incident; Clinical Care; Triage; Major Incidents,,,"

Introduction

Triage is a key principle in the effective management of major incidents. There is currently a paucity of evidence to guide the triage of children. The aim of this study was to perform a comparative analysis of nine adult and paediatric triage tools, including the novel 'Sheffield Paediatric Triage Tool' (SPTT), assessing their ability in identifying patients needing life-saving interventions (LSIs).

Methods

A 10-year (2008-2017) retrospective database review of the Trauma Audit Research Network (TARN) Database for paediatric patients (<16 years) was performed. Primary outcome was identification of patients receiving one or more LSIs from a previously defined list. Secondary outcomes included mortality and prediction of Injury Severity Score (ISS) >15. Primary analysis was conducted on patients with complete prehospital physiological data with planned secondary analyses using first recorded data. Performance characteristics were evaluated using sensitivity, specificity, undertriage and overtriage.

Results

15 133 patients met TARN inclusion criteria. 4962 (32.8%) had complete prehospital physiological data and 8255 (54.5%) had complete first recorded physiological data. The majority of patients were male (69.5%), with a median age of 11.9 years. The overwhelming majority of patients (95.4%) sustained blunt trauma, yielding a median ISS of 9 and overall, 875 patients (17.6%) received at least one LSI. The SPTT demonstrated the greatest sensitivity of all triage tools at identifying need for LSI (92.2%) but was associated with the highest rate of overtriage (75.0%). Both the Paediatric Triage Tape (sensitivity 34.1%) and JumpSTART (sensitivity 45.0%) performed less well at identifying LSI. By contrast, the adult Modified Physiological Triage Tool-24 (MPTT-24) triage tool had the second highest sensitivity (80.8%) with tolerable rates of overtriage (70.2%).

Conclusion

The SPTT and MPTT-24 outperform existing paediatric triage tools at identifying those patients requiring LSIs. This may necessitate a change in recommended practice. Further work is needed to determine the optimum method of paediatric major incident triage, but consideration should be given to simplifying major incident triage by the use of one generic tool (the MPTT-24) for adults and children.",,pdf:https://emj.bmj.com/content/emermed/early/2022/04/27/emermed-2021-211706.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2021-211706; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9510399; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9510399?pdf=render 36647111,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0,"Harmonising electronic health records for reproducible research: challenges, solutions and recommendations from a UK-wide COVID-19 research collaboration.","Abbasizanjani H, Torabi F, Bedston S, Bolton T, Davies G, Denaxas S, Griffiths R, Herbert L, Hollings S, Keene S, Khunti K, Lowthian E, Lyons J, Mizani MA, Nolan J, Sudlow C, Walker V, Whiteley W, Wood A, Akbari A, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2023,2023-01-16,Y,Population Health; Electronic Health Record; Reproducible Research; Common Data Model; Data Harmonisation; Sail Databank; Covid-19; Trusted Research Environments; Nhs Digital Tre For England,,,"

Background

The CVD-COVID-UK consortium was formed to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases through analyses of harmonised electronic health records (EHRs) across the four UK nations. Beyond COVID-19, data harmonisation and common approaches enable analysis within and across independent Trusted Research Environments. Here we describe the reproducible harmonisation method developed using large-scale EHRs in Wales to accommodate the fast and efficient implementation of cross-nation analysis in England and Wales as part of the CVD-COVID-UK programme. We characterise current challenges and share lessons learnt.

Methods

Serving the scope and scalability of multiple study protocols, we used linked, anonymised individual-level EHR, demographic and administrative data held within the SAIL Databank for the population of Wales. The harmonisation method was implemented as a four-layer reproducible process, starting from raw data in the first layer. Then each of the layers two to four is framed by, but not limited to, the characterised challenges and lessons learnt. We achieved curated data as part of our second layer, followed by extracting phenotyped data in the third layer. We captured any project-specific requirements in the fourth layer.

Results

Using the implemented four-layer harmonisation method, we retrieved approximately 100 health-related variables for the 3.2 million individuals in Wales, which are harmonised with corresponding variables for > 56 million individuals in England. We processed 13 data sources into the first layer of our harmonisation method: five of these are updated daily or weekly, and the rest at various frequencies providing sufficient data flow updates for frequent capturing of up-to-date demographic, administrative and clinical information.

Conclusions

We implemented an efficient, transparent, scalable, and reproducible harmonisation method that enables multi-nation collaborative research. With a current focus on COVID-19 and its relationship with cardiovascular outcomes, the harmonised data has supported a wide range of research activities across the UK.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9842203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9842203?pdf=render -36749628,https://doi.org/10.2196/42449,Charting a Course for Smartphones and Wearables to Transform Population Health Research.,"Dixon WG, van der Veer SN, Ali SM, Laidlaw L, Dobson RJB, Sudlow C, Chico T, MacArthur JAL, Doherty A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2023,2023-02-07,Y,Research; Health; Clinical; Data; Digital; Devices; Wearable; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Person-generated Health Data; Population Health Research,,,"The use of data from smartphones and wearable devices has huge potential for population health research, given the high level of device ownership; the range of novel health-relevant data types available from consumer devices; and the frequency and duration with which data are, or could be, collected. Yet, the uptake and success of large-scale mobile health research in the last decade have not met this intensely promoted opportunity. We make the argument that digital person-generated health data are required and necessary to answer many top priority research questions, using illustrative examples taken from the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships. We then summarize the findings from 2 UK initiatives that considered the challenges and possible solutions for what needs to be done and how such solutions can be implemented to realize the future opportunities of digital person-generated health data for clinically important population health research. Examples of important areas that must be addressed to advance the field include digital inequality and possible selection bias; easy access for researchers to the appropriate data collection tools, including how best to harmonize data items; analysis methodologies for time series data; patient and public involvement and engagement methods for optimizing recruitment, retention, and public trust; and methods for providing research participants with greater control over their data. There is also a major opportunity, provided through the linkage of digital person-generated health data to routinely collected data, to support novel population health research, bringing together clinician-reported and patient-reported measures. We recognize that well-conducted studies need a wide range of diverse challenges to be skillfully addressed in unison (eg, challenges regarding epidemiology, data science and biostatistics, psychometrics, behavioral and social science, software engineering, user interface design, information governance, data management, and patient and public involvement and engagement). Consequently, progress would be accelerated by the establishment of a new interdisciplinary community where all relevant and necessary skills are brought together to allow for excellence throughout the life cycle of a research study. This will require a partnership of diverse people, methods, and technologies. If done right, the synergy of such a partnership has the potential to transform many millions of people's lives for the better.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e42449/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184?pdf=render 36332519,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104905,Creation of a core competency framework for clinical informatics: From genesis to maintaining relevance.,"Davies A, Hassey A, Williams J, Moulton G.",,International journal of medical informatics,2022,2022-10-30,N,Informatics; Core Competencies; Competency Framework; Healthcare Workforce; Informaticians,,,"

Background

The United Kingdom's Faculty of Clinical Informatics (FCI) embarked on the creation of a core competency framework in response to the need to provide support to those working in clinical and health and social care that also hold informatics roles.

Methods

The work spanned several phases and utilised a mixed-methods approach consisting of interviews, surveys, job listing analysis, expert discussions and a systematic literature review. The work presented here explores the lessons learnt from the process of creating the framework and the next steps for ensuring its use and continued relevance.

Results

A core competency framework was generated with six domains, 36 sub-domains and 111 individual competency statements. A discussion and eight key recommendations are presented based on the development of this framework.

Conclusion

Definition of the target audience is important to manage scope and define purpose. The use of robust reproducible methods helps to establish a strong evidence base. Competency frameworks should be living documents, ideally presented in an accessible digital form to enable easy use and embedding in other tools (e.g. for accreditation or to search competencies).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104905 +36749628,https://doi.org/10.2196/42449,Charting a Course for Smartphones and Wearables to Transform Population Health Research.,"Dixon WG, van der Veer SN, Ali SM, Laidlaw L, Dobson RJB, Sudlow C, Chico T, MacArthur JAL, Doherty A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2023,2023-02-07,Y,Research; Health; Clinical; Data; Digital; Devices; Wearable; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Person-generated Health Data; Population Health Research,,,"The use of data from smartphones and wearable devices has huge potential for population health research, given the high level of device ownership; the range of novel health-relevant data types available from consumer devices; and the frequency and duration with which data are, or could be, collected. Yet, the uptake and success of large-scale mobile health research in the last decade have not met this intensely promoted opportunity. We make the argument that digital person-generated health data are required and necessary to answer many top priority research questions, using illustrative examples taken from the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships. We then summarize the findings from 2 UK initiatives that considered the challenges and possible solutions for what needs to be done and how such solutions can be implemented to realize the future opportunities of digital person-generated health data for clinically important population health research. Examples of important areas that must be addressed to advance the field include digital inequality and possible selection bias; easy access for researchers to the appropriate data collection tools, including how best to harmonize data items; analysis methodologies for time series data; patient and public involvement and engagement methods for optimizing recruitment, retention, and public trust; and methods for providing research participants with greater control over their data. There is also a major opportunity, provided through the linkage of digital person-generated health data to routinely collected data, to support novel population health research, bringing together clinician-reported and patient-reported measures. We recognize that well-conducted studies need a wide range of diverse challenges to be skillfully addressed in unison (eg, challenges regarding epidemiology, data science and biostatistics, psychometrics, behavioral and social science, software engineering, user interface design, information governance, data management, and patient and public involvement and engagement). Consequently, progress would be accelerated by the establishment of a new interdisciplinary community where all relevant and necessary skills are brought together to allow for excellence throughout the life cycle of a research study. This will require a partnership of diverse people, methods, and technologies. If done right, the synergy of such a partnership has the potential to transform many millions of people's lives for the better.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e42449/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184?pdf=render 35706489,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101428,Impact of ethnicity on the accuracy of measurements of oxygen saturations: A retrospective observational cohort study.,"Bangash MN, Hodson J, Evison F, Patel JM, Johnston AM, Gallier S, Sapey E, Parekh D.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-05-06,Y,Inequalities; Ethnicity; Oxygen Saturations,,,"

Background

Pulse oximeters are routinely used in community and hospital settings worldwide as a rapid, non-invasive, and readily available bedside tool to approximate blood oxygenation. Potential racial biases in peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements may influence the accuracy of pulse oximetry readings and impact clinical decision making. We aimed to assess whether the accuracy of oxygen saturation measured by SpO2, relative to arterial blood gas (SaO2), varies by ethnicity.

Methods

In this large retrospective observational cohort study covering four NHS Hospitals serving a large urban population in Birmingham, United Kingdom, consecutive pairs of SpO2 and SaO2 measurements taken on the same patient within an interval of less than 20 min were identified from electronic patient records. Where multiple pairs of measurements were recorded in a spell, only the first was included in the analysis. The differences between SpO2 and SaO2 measurements were compared across groups of self-identified ethnicity. These differences were subsequently adjusted for age, sex, bilirubin, systolic blood pressure, carboxyhaemaglobin saturations and the time interval between SpO2 and SaO2 measurements.

Findings

Paired O2 saturation measurements from 16,818 inpatient spells between 1st January 2017 and 18th February 2021 were analysed. The cohort self-identified as being of White (81.2%), Asian (11.7%), Black (4.0%), or Other (3.2%) ethnicities. Across the cohort, SpO2 was statistically significantly higher than SaO2 (p < 0.0001), with medians of 98% (interquartile range [IQR]: 95-100%) vs. 97% (IQR: 96-99%), and a median difference of 0.5% points (pps; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.5-0.6). However, the size of this difference varied considerably with the magnitude of SaO2, with SpO2 overestimating by a median by 3.8pp (IQR: 0.4, 8.8) for SaO2 values <90% but underestimating by a median of 0.4pp (IQR: -2.0, 1.4) for an SaO2 of 95%. The differences between SpO2 and SaO2 were also found to vary by ethnicity, with this difference being 0.8pp (95% CI: 0.6-1.0, p < 0.0001) greater in those of Black vs. White ethnicity. These differences resulted in 8.7% vs. 6.1% of Black vs. White patients who were classified as normoxic on SpO2 actually being hypoxic on the gold standard SaO2 (odds ratio: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.09-1.98, p = 0.012).

Interpretation

Pulse oximetry may overestimate O2 saturation, and this is possibly more pronounced in patients of Black ethnicity. Prospective studies are urgently warranted to assess the impact of ethnicity on the accuracy of pulse oximetry, to ensure care is optimised for all.

Funding

PIONEER, the Health Data Research UK (HDR-UK) Health Data Research Hub in acute care.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001584/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101428; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9096912; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9096912?pdf=render 35273122,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320325,Evaluation of antithrombotic use and COVID-19 outcomes in a nationwide atrial fibrillation cohort.,"Handy A, Banerjee A, Wood AM, Dale C, Sudlow CLM, Tomlinson C, Bean D, Thygesen JH, Mizani MA, Katsoulis M, Takhar R, Hollings S, Denaxas S, Walker V, Dobson R, Sofat R, CVD-COVID-UK Consortium.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2022,2022-05-25,Y,Atrial fibrillation; epidemiology; Electronic Health Records; drug monitoring; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To evaluate antithrombotic (AT) use in individuals with atrial fibrillation (AF) and at high risk of stroke (CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥2) and investigate whether pre-existing AT use may improve COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

Individuals with AF and CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥2 on 1 January 2020 were identified using electronic health records for 56 million people in England and were followed up until 1 May 2021. Factors associated with pre-existing AT use were analysed using logistic regression. Differences in COVID-19-related hospitalisation and death were analysed using logistic and Cox regression in individuals with pre-existing AT use versus no AT use, anticoagulants (AC) versus antiplatelets (AP), and direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) versus warfarin.

Results

From 972 971 individuals with AF (age 79 (±9.3), female 46.2%) and CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥2, 88.0% (n=856 336) had pre-existing AT use, 3.8% (n=37 418) had a COVID-19 hospitalisation and 2.2% (n=21 116) died, followed up to 1 May 2021. Factors associated with no AT use included comorbidities that may contraindicate AT use (liver disease and history of falls) and demographics (socioeconomic status and ethnicity). Pre-existing AT use was associated with lower odds of death (OR=0.92, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.96), but higher odds of hospitalisation (OR=1.20, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.26). AC versus AP was associated with lower odds of death (OR=0.93, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.98) and higher hospitalisation (OR=1.17, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.24). For DOACs versus warfarin, lower odds were observed for hospitalisation (OR=0.86, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.89) but not for death (OR=1.00, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.05).

Conclusions

Pre-existing AT use may be associated with lower odds of COVID-19 death and, while not evidence of causality, provides further incentive to improve AT coverage for eligible individuals with AF.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/108/12/923.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320325; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8931797; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8931797?pdf=render 33484944,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104216,"A fast, accurate, and generalisable heuristic-based negation detection algorithm for clinical text.","Slater LT, Bradlow W, Motti DF, Hoehndorf R, Ball S, Gkoutos GV.",,Computers in biology and medicine,2021,2021-01-16,Y,Text Mining Negation Detection Context Disambiguation Clinical Information Extraction,,,"Negation detection is an important task in biomedical text mining. Particularly in clinical settings, it is of critical importance to determine whether findings mentioned in text are present or absent. Rule-based negation detection algorithms are a common approach to the task, and more recent investigations have resulted in the development of rule-based systems utilising the rich grammatical information afforded by typed dependency graphs. However, interacting with these complex representations inevitably necessitates complex rules, which are time-consuming to develop and do not generalise well. We hypothesise that a heuristic approach to determining negation via dependency graphs could offer a powerful alternative. We describe and implement an algorithm for negation detection based on grammatical distance from a negatory construct in a typed dependency graph. To evaluate the algorithm, we develop two testing corpora comprised of sentences of clinical text extracted from the MIMIC-III database and documents related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients routinely collected at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust. Gold-standard validation datasets were built by a combination of human annotation and examination of algorithm error. Finally, we compare the performance of our approach with four other rule-based algorithms on both gold-standard corpora. The presented algorithm exhibits the best performance by f-measure over the MIMIC-III dataset, and a similar performance to the syntactic negation detection systems over the HCM dataset. It is also the fastest of the dependency-based negation systems explored in this study. Our results show that while a single heuristic approach to dependency-based negation detection is ignorant to certain advanced cases, it nevertheless forms a powerful and stable method, requiring minimal training and adaptation between datasets. As such, it could present a drop-in replacement or augmentation for many-rule negation approaches in clinical text-mining pipelines, particularly for cases where adaptation and rule development is not required or possible.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104216; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7910278 36647011,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-03031-y,Does acute kidney injury alerting improve patient outcomes?,"Atia J, Evison F, Gallier S, Hewins P, Ball S, Gavin J, Coleman J, Garrick M, Pankhurst T.",,BMC nephrology,2023,2023-01-17,Y,Acute Kidney Injury; Referral; Electronic Patient Records; Electronic Health Records; Patient Outcomes,,,"

Background

Electronic alerts (e-alerts) for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) have been implemented into a variety of different Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems worldwide in order to improve recognition and encourage early appropriate management of AKI. We were interested in the impact on patient safety, specialist referral and clinical management.

Methods

All patients admitted to our institution with AKI were included in the study. We studied AKI progression, dialysis dependency, length of hospital stay, emergency readmission, ICU readmission, and death, before and after the introduction of electronic alerts. The impact on prescription of high risk drugs, fluid administration, and referral to renal services was also analysed.

Results

After the introduction of the e-alert, progression to higher AKI stage, emergency readmission to hospital and death during admission were significantly reduced. More prescriptions were stopped for drugs that adversely affect renal function in AKI and there was a significant increase in the ICU admissions and in the number of patients having dialysis, especially in earlier stages. Longer term mortality, renal referrals, and fluid alteration did not change significantly after the AKI e-alert introduction.

Conclusions

AKI e-alerts can improve clinical outcomes in hospitalised patients.",,pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-022-03031-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-03031-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843843?pdf=render -37126810,https://doi.org/10.7326/m21-4269,Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data.,"Hulme WJ, Williamson E, Horne EMF, Green A, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, MacKenna B, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Tomlinson L, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Palmer T, Goldacre B, Hernán MA, Sterne JAC.",,Annals of internal medicine,2023,2023-05-02,Y,,,,"The COVID-19 vaccines were developed and rigorously evaluated in randomized trials during 2020. However, important questions, such as the magnitude and duration of protection, their effectiveness against new virus variants, and the effectiveness of booster vaccination, could not be answered by randomized trials and have therefore been addressed in observational studies. Analyses of observational data can be biased because of confounding and because of inadequate design that does not consider the evolution of the pandemic over time and the rapid uptake of vaccination. Emulating a hypothetical ""target trial"" using observational data assembled during vaccine rollouts can help manage such potential sources of bias. This article describes 2 approaches to target trial emulation. In the sequential approach, on each day, eligible persons who have not yet been vaccinated are matched to a vaccinated person. The single-trial approach sets a single baseline at the start of the rollout and considers vaccination as a time-varying variable. The nature of the confounding depends on the analysis strategy: Estimating ""per-protocol"" effects (accounting for vaccination of initially unvaccinated persons after baseline) may require adjustment for both baseline and ""time-varying"" confounders. These issues are illustrated by using observational data from 2 780 931 persons in the United Kingdom aged 70 years or older to estimate the effect of a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Addressing the issues discussed in this article should help authors of observational studies provide robust evidence to guide clinical and policy decisions.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10152408; doi:https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-4269; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408?pdf=render 37056776,https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146702,"SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses associate with sex, age and disease severity in previously uninfected people admitted to hospital with COVID-19: An ISARIC4C prospective study.","Parker E, Thomas J, Roper KJ, Ijaz S, Edwards T, Marchesin F, Katsanovskaja K, Lett L, Jones C, Hardwick HE, Davis C, Vink E, McDonald SE, Moore SC, Dicks S, Jegatheesan K, Cook NJ, Hope J, Cherepanov P, McClure MO, Baillie JK, Openshaw PJM, Turtle L, Ho A, Semple MG, Paxton WA, Tedder RS, Pollakis G, ISARIC4C Investigators.",,Frontiers in immunology,2023,2023-03-15,Y,Serology; Virus; Disease; immunology; Neutralisation; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic enables the analysis of immune responses induced against a novel coronavirus infecting immunologically naïve individuals. This provides an opportunity for analysis of immune responses and associations with age, sex and disease severity. Here we measured an array of solid-phase binding antibody and viral neutralising Ab (nAb) responses in participants (n=337) of the ISARIC4C cohort and characterised their correlation with peak disease severity during acute infection and early convalescence. Overall, the responses in a Double Antigen Binding Assay (DABA) for antibody to the receptor binding domain (anti-RBD) correlated well with IgM as well as IgG responses against viral spike, S1 and nucleocapsid protein (NP) antigens. DABA reactivity also correlated with nAb. As we and others reported previously, there is greater risk of severe disease and death in older men, whilst the sex ratio was found to be equal within each severity grouping in younger people. In older males with severe disease (mean age 68 years), peak antibody levels were found to be delayed by one to two weeks compared with women, and nAb responses were delayed further. Additionally, we demonstrated that solid-phase binding antibody responses reached higher levels in males as measured via DABA and IgM binding against Spike, NP and S1 antigens. In contrast, this was not observed for nAb responses. When measuring SARS-CoV-2 RNA transcripts (as a surrogate for viral shedding) in nasal swabs at recruitment, we saw no significant differences by sex or disease severity status. However, we have shown higher antibody levels associated with low nasal viral RNA indicating a role of antibody responses in controlling viral replication and shedding in the upper airway. In this study, we have shown discernible differences in the humoral immune responses between males and females and these differences associate with age as well as with resultant disease severity.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146702/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146702; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10087108; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10087108?pdf=render -35796183,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119,"SARS-CoV-2 infection risk among 77,587 healthcare workers: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, United Kingdom, April to November 2020.","Hollinghurst J, North L, Szakmany T, Pugh R, Davies GA, Sivakumaran S, Jarvis R, Rolles M, Pickrell WO, Akbari A, Davies G, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Torabi F, Fry R, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-07-07,Y,Public Health; Healthcare Workers; Infection Risk; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objectives

To better understand the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among healthcare workers, leading to recommendations for the prioritisation of personal protective equipment, testing, training and vaccination.

Design

Observational, longitudinal, national cohort study.

Setting

Our cohort were secondary care (hospital-based) healthcare workers employed by NHS Wales (United Kingdom) organisations from 1 April 2020 to 30 November 2020.

Participants

We included 577,756 monthly observations among 77,587 healthcare workers. Using linked anonymised datasets, participants were grouped into 20 staff roles. Additionally, each role was deemed either patient-facing, non-patient-facing or undetermined. This was linked to individual demographic details and dates of positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests.

Main outcome measures

We used univariable and multivariable logistic regression models to determine odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test.

Results

Patient-facing healthcare workers were at the highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection with an adjusted OR (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 2.28 (95% CI 2.10-2.47). We found that after adjustment, foundation year doctors (OR 1.83 [95% CI 1.47-2.27]), healthcare support workers [OR 1.36 [95% CI 1.20-1.54]) and hospital nurses (OR 1.27 [95% CI 1.12-1.44]) were at the highest risk of infection among all staff groups. Younger healthcare workers and those living in more deprived areas were at a higher risk of infection. We also observed that infection rates varied over time and by organisation.

Conclusions

These findings have important policy implications for the prioritisation of vaccination, testing, training and personal protective equipment provision for patient-facing roles and the higher risk staff groups.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896?pdf=render -37368589,https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489,Association between Residential Exposure to Air Pollution and Incident Coronary Heart Disease Is Not Mediated by Leukocyte Telomere Length: A UK Biobank Study.,"Kuo CL, Liu R, Godoy LDC, Pilling LC, Fortinsky RH, Brugge D.",,Toxics,2023,2023-05-28,Y,Pm10; Pm2.5; No2; Nox; Pm2.5 Absorbance; Pm2.5–10,,,"Higher air pollution exposure and shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) are both associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and share plausible mechanisms, including inflammation. LTL may serve as a biomarker of air pollution exposure and may be intervened with to reduce the risk of CHD. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to test the mediation effect of LTL in the relationship between air pollution exposure and incident CHD. Using the UK Biobank (UKB) data (n = 317,601), we conducted a prospective study linking residential air pollution exposure (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, NOx) and LTL to incident CHD during a mean follow-up of 12.6 years. Cox proportional hazards models and generalized additive models with penalized spline functions were used to model the associations of pollutant concentrations and LTL with incident CHD. We found non-linear associations of air pollution exposure with LTL and CHD. Pollutant concentrations in the lower range were decreasingly associated with longer LTL and reduced risk of CHD. The associations between lower pollutant concentrations and reduced risk of CHD, however, were minimally mediated by LTL (<3%). Our findings suggest that air pollution influences CHD through pathways that do not involve LTL. Replication is needed with improved measurements of air pollution that more accurately assesses personal exposure.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073?pdf=render +37126810,https://doi.org/10.7326/m21-4269,Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data.,"Hulme WJ, Williamson E, Horne EMF, Green A, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, MacKenna B, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Tomlinson L, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Palmer T, Goldacre B, Hernán MA, Sterne JAC.",,Annals of internal medicine,2023,2023-05-02,Y,,,,"The COVID-19 vaccines were developed and rigorously evaluated in randomized trials during 2020. However, important questions, such as the magnitude and duration of protection, their effectiveness against new virus variants, and the effectiveness of booster vaccination, could not be answered by randomized trials and have therefore been addressed in observational studies. Analyses of observational data can be biased because of confounding and because of inadequate design that does not consider the evolution of the pandemic over time and the rapid uptake of vaccination. Emulating a hypothetical ""target trial"" using observational data assembled during vaccine rollouts can help manage such potential sources of bias. This article describes 2 approaches to target trial emulation. In the sequential approach, on each day, eligible persons who have not yet been vaccinated are matched to a vaccinated person. The single-trial approach sets a single baseline at the start of the rollout and considers vaccination as a time-varying variable. The nature of the confounding depends on the analysis strategy: Estimating ""per-protocol"" effects (accounting for vaccination of initially unvaccinated persons after baseline) may require adjustment for both baseline and ""time-varying"" confounders. These issues are illustrated by using observational data from 2 780 931 persons in the United Kingdom aged 70 years or older to estimate the effect of a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Addressing the issues discussed in this article should help authors of observational studies provide robust evidence to guide clinical and policy decisions.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10152408; doi:https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-4269; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408?pdf=render 35909577,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1725,Educational achievements of children aged 10-11 years with cystic fibrosis. A data linkage study in Wales.,"Schlüter DK, Griffiths R, Akbari A, Taylor-Robinson D.",,International journal of population data science,2022,2022-06-27,Y,Education; Cystic Fibrosis; Data Linkage; Sail Databank,,,"

Introduction

As people with cystic fibrosis (CF) lead longer, healthier lives, educational qualifications and employment prospects are increasingly important. However, little is known about the social consequences of CF, in particular, any impact on educational achievements and the support children with CF receive in schools.

Objectives

To assess the educational achievements of children with CF in Wales compared to the general Welsh population, and the additional learning support children with CF receive in schools.

Methods

We conducted a population-scale data linkage study of all children born in Wales using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We used anonymised individual-level population-scale health and administrative data sources to identify children with CF born between 2000 - 2015, linked to educational attainment records. We calculated the percentage of children that reached expected levels in statutory assessment at age 10-11, Key Stage 2 (KS2), and compared this to educational outcomes in the general population. We also assessed the percentage of children with CF that received extra learning support.

Results

Out of 150 eligible children, 119 had KS2 results. 77% (95% CI: 69%-84%) of children achieved expected levels in English, 81% (95% CI: 73% -87%) in Mathematics and 82% (95% CI: 75% - 88%) in Science. In the comparable general Welsh population, 83.4% to 91.1% achieved the expected level in English, 84.9% to 91.6% in Maths, and 87.1% to 92.2% in Science across the years of the study. 70% of children with CF received extra learning support.

Conclusions

Children with CF in Wales may have worse educational achievements than the general population. More research is needed to inform policies and interventions to better support children with CF to reach their full educational potential and employment opportunities.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1725/3455; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1725; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9284509; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9284509?pdf=render +35796183,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119,"SARS-CoV-2 infection risk among 77,587 healthcare workers: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, United Kingdom, April to November 2020.","Hollinghurst J, North L, Szakmany T, Pugh R, Davies GA, Sivakumaran S, Jarvis R, Rolles M, Pickrell WO, Akbari A, Davies G, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Torabi F, Fry R, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-07-07,Y,Public Health; Healthcare Workers; Infection Risk; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objectives

To better understand the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among healthcare workers, leading to recommendations for the prioritisation of personal protective equipment, testing, training and vaccination.

Design

Observational, longitudinal, national cohort study.

Setting

Our cohort were secondary care (hospital-based) healthcare workers employed by NHS Wales (United Kingdom) organisations from 1 April 2020 to 30 November 2020.

Participants

We included 577,756 monthly observations among 77,587 healthcare workers. Using linked anonymised datasets, participants were grouped into 20 staff roles. Additionally, each role was deemed either patient-facing, non-patient-facing or undetermined. This was linked to individual demographic details and dates of positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests.

Main outcome measures

We used univariable and multivariable logistic regression models to determine odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test.

Results

Patient-facing healthcare workers were at the highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection with an adjusted OR (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 2.28 (95% CI 2.10-2.47). We found that after adjustment, foundation year doctors (OR 1.83 [95% CI 1.47-2.27]), healthcare support workers [OR 1.36 [95% CI 1.20-1.54]) and hospital nurses (OR 1.27 [95% CI 1.12-1.44]) were at the highest risk of infection among all staff groups. Younger healthcare workers and those living in more deprived areas were at a higher risk of infection. We also observed that infection rates varied over time and by organisation.

Conclusions

These findings have important policy implications for the prioritisation of vaccination, testing, training and personal protective equipment provision for patient-facing roles and the higher risk staff groups.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896?pdf=render 34706926,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217090,Drug prescriptions and dementia incidence: a medication-wide association study of 17000 dementia cases among half a million participants.,"Wilkinson T, Schnier C, Bush K, Rannikmäe K, Lyons RA, McTaggart S, Bennie M, Sudlow CL.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2022,2021-10-27,Y,Dementia; Pharmacoepidemiology; Record Linkage; Neuroepidemiology,,,"

Background

Previous studies have suggested that some medications may influence dementia risk. We conducted a hypothesis-generating medication-wide association study to investigate systematically the association between all prescription medications and incident dementia.

Methods

We used a population-based cohort within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank, comprising routinely-collected primary care, hospital admissions and mortality data from Wales, UK. We included all participants born after 1910 and registered with a SAIL general practice at ≤60 years old. Follow-up was from each participant's 60th birthday to the earliest of dementia diagnosis, deregistration from a SAIL general practice, death or the end of 2018. We considered participants exposed to a medication if they received ≥1 prescription for any of 744 medications before or during follow-up. We adjusted for sex, smoking and socioeconomic status. The outcome was any all-cause dementia code in primary care, hospital or mortality data during follow-up. We used Cox regression to calculate hazard ratios and Bonferroni-corrected p values.

Results

Of 551 344 participants, 16 998 (3%) developed dementia (median follow-up was 17 years for people who developed dementia, 10 years for those without dementia). Of 744 medications, 221 (30%) were associated with dementia. Of these, 217 (98%) were associated with increased dementia incidence, many clustering around certain indications. Four medications (all vaccines) were associated with a lower dementia incidence.

Conclusions

Almost a third of medications were associated with dementia. The clustering of many drugs around certain indications may provide insights into early manifestations of dementia. We encourage further investigation of hypotheses generated by these results.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/3/223.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217090; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8862053; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8862053?pdf=render -35468332,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4,Severity of omicron variant of concern and effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease in Scotland (EAVE II): a national cohort study with nested test-negative design.,"Sheikh A, Kerr S, Woolhouse M, McMenamin J, Robertson C, EAVE II Collaborators.",,The Lancet. Infectious diseases,2022,2022-04-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Since its emergence in November, 2021, in southern Africa, the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant of concern (VOC) has rapidly spread across the world. We aimed to investigate the severity of omicron and the extent to which booster vaccines are effective in preventing symptomatic infection.

Methods

In this study, using the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, we did a cohort analysis with a nested test-negative design incident case-control study covering the period Nov 1-Dec 19, 2021, to provide initial estimates of omicron severity and the effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease relative to 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose. Primary care data derived from 940 general practices across Scotland were linked to laboratory data and hospital admission data. We compared outcomes between infection with the delta VOC (defined as S-gene positive) and the omicron VOC (defined as S-gene negative). We assessed effectiveness against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, with infection confirmed through a positive RT-PCR.

Findings

By Dec 19, 2021, there were 23 840 S-gene-negative cases in Scotland, which were predominantly among those aged 20-39 years (11 732 [49·2%]). The proportion of S-gene-negative cases that were possible reinfections was more than ten times that of S-gene-positive cases (7·6% vs 0·7%; p<0·0001). There were 15 hospital admissions in S-gene-negative individuals, giving an adjusted observed-to-expected admissions ratio of 0·32 (95% CI 0·19-0·52). The booster vaccine dose was associated with a 57% (54-60) reduction in the risk of symptomatic S-gene-negative infection relative to individuals who tested positive 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Interpretation

These early national data suggest that omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation compared with delta. Although offering the greatest protection against delta, the booster dose of vaccination offers substantial additional protection against the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 for omicron compared with 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, National Core Studies, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government, UK Research and Innovation, and University of Edinburgh.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00141-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9033213 +37368589,https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489,Association between Residential Exposure to Air Pollution and Incident Coronary Heart Disease Is Not Mediated by Leukocyte Telomere Length: A UK Biobank Study.,"Kuo CL, Liu R, Godoy LDC, Pilling LC, Fortinsky RH, Brugge D.",,Toxics,2023,2023-05-28,Y,Pm10; Pm2.5; No2; Nox; Pm2.5 Absorbance; Pm2.5–10,,,"Higher air pollution exposure and shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) are both associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and share plausible mechanisms, including inflammation. LTL may serve as a biomarker of air pollution exposure and may be intervened with to reduce the risk of CHD. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to test the mediation effect of LTL in the relationship between air pollution exposure and incident CHD. Using the UK Biobank (UKB) data (n = 317,601), we conducted a prospective study linking residential air pollution exposure (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, NOx) and LTL to incident CHD during a mean follow-up of 12.6 years. Cox proportional hazards models and generalized additive models with penalized spline functions were used to model the associations of pollutant concentrations and LTL with incident CHD. We found non-linear associations of air pollution exposure with LTL and CHD. Pollutant concentrations in the lower range were decreasingly associated with longer LTL and reduced risk of CHD. The associations between lower pollutant concentrations and reduced risk of CHD, however, were minimally mediated by LTL (<3%). Our findings suggest that air pollution influences CHD through pathways that do not involve LTL. Replication is needed with improved measurements of air pollution that more accurately assesses personal exposure.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073?pdf=render 36526323,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068252,"Identification of risk factors associated with prolonged hospital stay following primary knee replacement surgery: a retrospective, longitudinal observational study.","Wilson R, Margelyte R, Redaniel MT, Eyles E, Jones T, Penfold C, Blom A, Elliott A, Harper A, Keen T, Pitt M, Judge A.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-16,Y,Knee; Rheumatology; Statistics & Research Methods; Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery; Adult Orthopaedics,,,"

Objectives

To identify risk factors associated with prolonged length of hospital stay and staying in hospital longer than medically necessary following primary knee replacement surgery.

Design

Retrospective, longitudinal observational study.

Setting

Elective knee replacement surgeries between 2016 and 2019 were identified using routinely collected data from an NHS Trust in England.

Participants

There were 2295 knee replacement patients with complete data included in analysis. The mean age was 68 (SD 11) and 60% were female.

Outcome measures

We assessed a binary length of stay outcome (>7 days), a continuous length of stay outcome (≤30 days) and a binary measure of whether patients remained in hospital when they were medically fit for discharge.

Results

The mean length of stay was 5.0 days (SD 3.9), 15.4% of patients were in hospital for >7 days and 7.1% remained in hospital when they were medically fit for discharge. Longer length of stay was associated with older age (b=0.08, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.09), female sex (b=0.36, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.67), high deprivation (b=0.98, 95% CI 0.47 to 1.48) and more comorbidities (b=2.48, 95% CI 0.15 to 4.81). Remaining in hospital beyond being medically fit for discharge was associated with older age (OR=1.07, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.09), female sex (OR=1.71, 95% CI 1.19 to 2.47) and high deprivation (OR=2.27, 95% CI 1.27 to 4.06).

Conclusions

The regression models could be used to identify which patients are likely to occupy hospital beds for longer. This could be helpful in scheduling operations to aid hospital efficiency by planning these patients' operations for when the hospital is less busy.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e068252.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068252; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764602?pdf=render -33045103,https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446,Socio-economic predictors of time to care home admission in people living with dementia in Wales: A routine data linkage study. ,"Giebel C, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Schnier C, Wilkinson T, North L, Gabbay M, Rodgers S.",,International journal of geriatric psychiatry,2021,2020-10-19,Y,,,,"Limited research has shown that people with dementia (PwD) from lower socio-economic backgrounds can face difficulties in accessing the right care at the right time. This study examined whether socio-economic status (SES) and rural versus urban living location are associated with the time between diagnosis and care home admission in PwD living in Wales, UK. This study linked routine health data and an e-cohort of PwD who have been admitted into a care home between 2000 and 2018 living in Wales. Survival analysis explored the effects of SES, living location, living situation, and frailty on the time between diagnosis and care home admission. In 34,514 PwD, the average time between diagnosis and care home admission was 1.5 (±1.4) years. Cox regression analysis showed that increased age, living alone, frailty, and living in less disadvantaged neighbourhoods were associated with faster rate to care home admission. Living in rural regions predicted a slower rate until care home admission. This is one of the first studies to show a link between socio-economic factors on time to care home admission in dementia. Future research needs to address variations in care needs between PwD from different socio-economic and geographical backgrounds.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448?pdf=render; pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5446 +35468332,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4,Severity of omicron variant of concern and effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease in Scotland (EAVE II): a national cohort study with nested test-negative design.,"Sheikh A, Kerr S, Woolhouse M, McMenamin J, Robertson C, EAVE II Collaborators.",,The Lancet. Infectious diseases,2022,2022-04-22,Y,,,,"

Background

Since its emergence in November, 2021, in southern Africa, the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant of concern (VOC) has rapidly spread across the world. We aimed to investigate the severity of omicron and the extent to which booster vaccines are effective in preventing symptomatic infection.

Methods

In this study, using the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, we did a cohort analysis with a nested test-negative design incident case-control study covering the period Nov 1-Dec 19, 2021, to provide initial estimates of omicron severity and the effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease relative to 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose. Primary care data derived from 940 general practices across Scotland were linked to laboratory data and hospital admission data. We compared outcomes between infection with the delta VOC (defined as S-gene positive) and the omicron VOC (defined as S-gene negative). We assessed effectiveness against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, with infection confirmed through a positive RT-PCR.

Findings

By Dec 19, 2021, there were 23 840 S-gene-negative cases in Scotland, which were predominantly among those aged 20-39 years (11 732 [49·2%]). The proportion of S-gene-negative cases that were possible reinfections was more than ten times that of S-gene-positive cases (7·6% vs 0·7%; p<0·0001). There were 15 hospital admissions in S-gene-negative individuals, giving an adjusted observed-to-expected admissions ratio of 0·32 (95% CI 0·19-0·52). The booster vaccine dose was associated with a 57% (54-60) reduction in the risk of symptomatic S-gene-negative infection relative to individuals who tested positive 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Interpretation

These early national data suggest that omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation compared with delta. Although offering the greatest protection against delta, the booster dose of vaccination offers substantial additional protection against the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 for omicron compared with 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, National Core Studies, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government, UK Research and Innovation, and University of Edinburgh.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00141-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9033213 33252680,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa252,A comparison of two national frailty scoring systems. ,"Hollinghurst J, Housley G, Watkins A, Clegg A, Gilbert T, Conroy SP.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-06-01,N,,,,"The electronic Frailty Index (eFI) has been developed in primary care settings. The Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS) was derived using secondary care data. Compare the two different tools for identifying frailty in older people admitted to hospital. Retrospective cohort study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank, comprising 126,600 people aged 65+ who were admitted as an emergency to hospital in Wales from January 2013 up until December 2017. Pearson's correlation coefficient and weighted kappa were used to assess the correlation between the tools. Cox and logistic regression were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs). The Concordance statistic and area under the receiver operating curves (AUROC) were estimated to determine discrimination. Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.26 and the weighted kappa was 0.23. Comparing the highest to the least frail categories in the two scores the HRs for 90-day mortality, 90-day emergency readmission and care home admissions within 1-year using the HFRS were 1.41, 1.69 and 4.15 for the eFI 1.16, 1.63 and 1.47. Similarly, the ORs for inpatient death, length of stay greater than 10 days and readmission within 30-days were 1.44, 2.07 and 1.52 for the HFRS, and 1.21, 1.21 and 1.44 for the eFI. AUROC was determined as having no clinically relevant difference between the tools. The eFI and HFRS have a low correlation between their scores. The HRs and ORs were higher for the increasing frailty categories for both the HFRS and eFI.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/4/1208/38839537/afaa252.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa252; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8244560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8244560?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa252 +33045103,https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446,Socio-economic predictors of time to care home admission in people living with dementia in Wales: A routine data linkage study. ,"Giebel C, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Schnier C, Wilkinson T, North L, Gabbay M, Rodgers S.",,International journal of geriatric psychiatry,2021,2020-10-19,Y,,,,"Limited research has shown that people with dementia (PwD) from lower socio-economic backgrounds can face difficulties in accessing the right care at the right time. This study examined whether socio-economic status (SES) and rural versus urban living location are associated with the time between diagnosis and care home admission in PwD living in Wales, UK. This study linked routine health data and an e-cohort of PwD who have been admitted into a care home between 2000 and 2018 living in Wales. Survival analysis explored the effects of SES, living location, living situation, and frailty on the time between diagnosis and care home admission. In 34,514 PwD, the average time between diagnosis and care home admission was 1.5 (±1.4) years. Cox regression analysis showed that increased age, living alone, frailty, and living in less disadvantaged neighbourhoods were associated with faster rate to care home admission. Living in rural regions predicted a slower rate until care home admission. This is one of the first studies to show a link between socio-economic factors on time to care home admission in dementia. Future research needs to address variations in care needs between PwD from different socio-economic and geographical backgrounds.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448?pdf=render; pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5446 37435691,https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.15207,"Testing for associations between HbA1c levels, polygenic risk and brain health in UK Biobank (N = 39 283).","Ranglani S, Ward J, Sattar N, Strawbridge RJ, Lyall DM.",,"Diabetes, obesity & metabolism",2023,2023-07-12,N,Type 2 diabetes; Cohort study; Population Study,,,"

Aim

To investigate whether continuous HbA1c levels and HbA1c-polygenic risk scores (HbA1c-PRS) are significantly associated with worse brain health independent of type 2 diabetes (T2D) diagnosis (vs. not), by examining brain structure and cognitive test score phenotypes.

Methods

Using UK Biobank data (n = 39 283), we tested whether HbA1c levels and/or HbA1c-PRS were associated with cognitive test scores and brain imaging phenotypes. We adjusted for confounders of age, sex, Townsend deprivation score, level of education, genotyping chip, eight genetic principal components, smoking, alcohol intake frequency, cholesterol medication, body mass index, T2D and apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 dosage.

Results

We found an association between higher HbA1c levels and poorer performance on symbol digit substitution scores (standardized beta [β] = -0.022, P = .001) in the fully adjusted model. We also found an association between higher HbA1c levels and worse brain MRI phenotypes of grey matter (GM; fully-adjusted β = -0.026, P < .001), whole brain volume (β = -0.072, P = .0113) and a general factor of frontal lobe GM (β = -0.022, P < .001) in partially and fully adjusted models. HbA1c-PRS were significantly associated with GM volume in the fully adjusted model (β = -0.010, P = .0113); however, when adjusted for HbA1c levels, the association was not significant.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that measured HbA1c is associated with poorer cognitive health, and that HbA1c-PRS do not add significant information to this.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/dom.15207; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.15207 35780805,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-8587(22)00158-9,"Associations of BMI with COVID-19 vaccine uptake, vaccine effectiveness, and risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes after vaccination in England: a population-based cohort study.","Piernas C, Patone M, Astbury NM, Gao M, Sheikh A, Khunti K, Shankar-Hari M, Dixon S, Coupland C, Aveyard P, Hippisley-Cox J, Jebb SA.",,The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology,2022,2022-07-01,Y,,,,"

Background

A high BMI has been associated with a reduced immune response to vaccination against influenza. We aimed to investigate the association between BMI and COVID-19 vaccine uptake, vaccine effectiveness, and risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes after vaccination by using a large, representative population-based cohort from England.

Methods

In this population-based cohort study, we used the QResearch database of general practice records and included patients aged 18 years or older who were registered at a practice that was part of the database in England between Dec 8, 2020 (date of the first vaccination in the UK), to Nov 17, 2021, with available data on BMI. Uptake was calculated as the proportion of people with zero, one, two, or three doses of the vaccine across BMI categories. Effectiveness was assessed through a nested matched case-control design to estimate odds ratios (OR) for severe COVID-19 outcomes (ie, admission to hospital or death) in people who had been vaccinated versus those who had not, considering vaccine dose and time periods since vaccination. Vaccine effectiveness against infection with SARS-CoV-2 was also investigated. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models estimated the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with BMI (reference BMI 23 kg/m2) after vaccination.

Findings

Among 9 171 524 participants (mean age 52 [SD 19] years; BMI 26·7 [5·6] kg/m2), 566 461 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during follow-up, of whom 32 808 were admitted to hospital and 14 389 died. Of the total study sample, 19·2% (1 758 689) were unvaccinated, 3·1% (287 246) had one vaccine dose, 52·6% (4 828 327) had two doses, and 25·0% (2 297 262) had three doses. In people aged 40 years and older, uptake of two or three vaccine doses was more than 80% among people with overweight or obesity, which was slightly lower in people with underweight (70-83%). Although significant heterogeneity was found across BMI groups, protection against severe COVID-19 disease (comparing people who were vaccinated vs those who were not) was high after 14 days or more from the second dose for hospital admission (underweight: OR 0·51 [95% CI 0·41-0·63]; healthy weight: 0·34 [0·32-0·36]; overweight: 0·32 [0·30-0·34]; and obesity: 0·32 [0·30-0·34]) and death (underweight: 0·60 [0·36-0·98]; healthy weight: 0·39 [0·33-0·47]; overweight: 0·30 [0·25-0·35]; and obesity: 0·26 [0·22-0·30]). In the vaccinated cohort, there were significant linear associations between BMI and COVID-19 hospitalisation and death after the first dose, and J-shaped associations after the second dose.

Interpretation

Using BMI categories, there is evidence of protection against severe COVID-19 in people with overweight or obesity who have been vaccinated, which was of a similar magnitude to that of people of healthy weight. Vaccine effectiveness was slightly lower in people with underweight, in whom vaccine uptake was also the lowest for all ages. In the vaccinated cohort, there were increased risks of severe COVID-19 outcomes for people with underweight or obesity compared with the vaccinated population with a healthy weight. These results suggest the need for targeted efforts to increase uptake in people with low BMI (<18·5 kg/m2), in whom uptake is lower and vaccine effectiveness seems to be reduced. Strategies to achieve and maintain a healthy weight should be prioritised at the population level, which could help reduce the burden of COVID-19 disease.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation and National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213858722001589/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(22)00158-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246477?pdf=render -37494295,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840,"Educational outcomes in childhood cancer survivors: A Scotland-wide record-linkage study of 766,217 schoolchildren.","Baughan N, Pell JP, Mackay DF, Clark D, King A, Fleming M.",,PloS one,2023,2023-07-26,Y,,,,"

Background

A cancer diagnosis during childhood greatly disrupts the lives of those affected, causing physical and psychological challenges. We aim to investigate educational outcomes among schoolchildren with a previous cancer diagnosis compared to their peers.

Methods

Individual records from four national education databases and three national health databases were linked to construct a cohort of all singleton schoolchildren born in Scotland attending Scottish local-authority schools between 2009-2013. Pupils previously diagnosed with any cancer, haematological cancers, and central nervous system (CNS) cancers, were compared to their unaffected peers with respect to five educational outcomes: special educational need (SEN), absenteeism, school exclusion, academic attainment, and unemployment. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic and maternity factors and chronic conditions.

Results

Of 766,217 pupils, 1,313 (0.17%) had a previous cancer diagnosis. Children with any cancer had increased odds of SEN (OR 3.26, 95% CI 2.86-3.71), absenteeism (IRR 1.82, 95% CI 1.70-1.94), and low attainment (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.52-3.03) compared to their peers. Similar findings were observed for haematological (SEN OR 2.62, 95% CI 2.12-3.24; absenteeism IRR 2.04, 95% CI 1.85-2.25; low attainment OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.31-3.61) and CNS (SEN OR 6.44, 95% CI 4.91-8.46; absenteeism IRR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51-2.04; low attainment OR 3.33, 95% CI 1.52-7.30) cancers. Lower exclusions were observed among children with any cancer (IRR 0.51, 95% CI 0.31-0.83) and CNS cancer (IRR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06-0.61). No associations were observed with unemployment.

Conclusions

This study highlights the wider impacts of childhood cancer on educational outcomes. These children need to be supported, as poor educational outcomes can further impact later health.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0286840&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705?pdf=render 35915784,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462,Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in England during February 2022: A series of cross-sectional community surveys.,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Tang D, Eales O, Bodinier B, Wang H, Jonnerby J, Whitaker M, Elliott J, Haw D, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-07-28,Y,"Rt-pcr, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction; Ct, Cycle Threshold; Nhs, National Health Service; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Omicron Variant; Ba.2 Sublineage; Random Community Surveys; Ukhsa, Uk Health Security Agency; B-spline, Basis Spline; Ltla, Lower-tier Local Authority; P-spline, Penalised Spline; Rim, Random Iterative Method",,,"

Background

The Omicron wave of COVID-19 in England peaked in January 2022 resulting from the rapid transmission of the Omicron BA.1 variant. We investigate the spread and dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the population of England during February 2022, by region, age and main SARS-CoV-2 sub-lineage.

Methods

In the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study we obtained data from a random sample of 94,950 participants with valid throat and nose swab results by RT-PCR during round 18 (8 February to 1 March 2022).

Findings

We estimated a weighted mean SARS-CoV-2 prevalence of 2.88% (95% credible interval [CrI] 2.76-3.00), with a within-round effective reproduction number (R) overall of 0.94 (0·91-0.96). While within-round weighted prevalence fell among children (aged 5 to 17 years) and adults aged 18 to 54 years, we observed a level or increasing weighted prevalence among those aged 55 years and older with an R of 1.04 (1.00-1.09). Among 1,616 positive samples with sublineages determined, one (0.1% [0.0-0.3]) corresponded to XE BA.1/BA.2 recombinant and the remainder were Omicron: N=1047, 64.8% (62.4-67.2) were BA.1; N=568, 35.2% (32.8-37.6) were BA.2. We estimated an R additive advantage for BA.2 (vs BA.1) of 0.38 (0.34-0.41). The highest proportion of BA.2 among positives was found in London.

Interpretation

In February 2022, infection prevalence in England remained high with level or increasing rates of infection in older people and an uptick in hospitalisations. Ongoing surveillance of both survey and hospitalisations data is required.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9330654; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9330654?pdf=render +37494295,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840,"Educational outcomes in childhood cancer survivors: A Scotland-wide record-linkage study of 766,217 schoolchildren.","Baughan N, Pell JP, Mackay DF, Clark D, King A, Fleming M.",,PloS one,2023,2023-07-26,Y,,,,"

Background

A cancer diagnosis during childhood greatly disrupts the lives of those affected, causing physical and psychological challenges. We aim to investigate educational outcomes among schoolchildren with a previous cancer diagnosis compared to their peers.

Methods

Individual records from four national education databases and three national health databases were linked to construct a cohort of all singleton schoolchildren born in Scotland attending Scottish local-authority schools between 2009-2013. Pupils previously diagnosed with any cancer, haematological cancers, and central nervous system (CNS) cancers, were compared to their unaffected peers with respect to five educational outcomes: special educational need (SEN), absenteeism, school exclusion, academic attainment, and unemployment. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic and maternity factors and chronic conditions.

Results

Of 766,217 pupils, 1,313 (0.17%) had a previous cancer diagnosis. Children with any cancer had increased odds of SEN (OR 3.26, 95% CI 2.86-3.71), absenteeism (IRR 1.82, 95% CI 1.70-1.94), and low attainment (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.52-3.03) compared to their peers. Similar findings were observed for haematological (SEN OR 2.62, 95% CI 2.12-3.24; absenteeism IRR 2.04, 95% CI 1.85-2.25; low attainment OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.31-3.61) and CNS (SEN OR 6.44, 95% CI 4.91-8.46; absenteeism IRR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51-2.04; low attainment OR 3.33, 95% CI 1.52-7.30) cancers. Lower exclusions were observed among children with any cancer (IRR 0.51, 95% CI 0.31-0.83) and CNS cancer (IRR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06-0.61). No associations were observed with unemployment.

Conclusions

This study highlights the wider impacts of childhood cancer on educational outcomes. These children need to be supported, as poor educational outcomes can further impact later health.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0286840&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705?pdf=render 34148733,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.05.018,Mortality after surgery with SARS-CoV-2 infection in England: a population-wide epidemiological study.,"Abbott TEF, Fowler AJ, Dobbs TD, Gibson J, Shahid T, Dias P, Akbari A, Whitaker IS, Pearse RM.",,British journal of anaesthesia,2021,2021-06-11,Y,Surgery; Anaesthesia; epidemiology; Public Policy; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted elective and emergency surgery around the world. We aimed to confirm the incidence of perioperative severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and associated mortality after surgery.

Methods

Analysis of routine electronic health record data from NHS hospitals in England. We extracted data from Hospital Episode Statistics in England describing adult patients undergoing surgery between January 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. The exposure was SARS-CoV-2 infection defined by International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 codes. The primary outcome measure was 90 day in-hospital mortality. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index, Index of Multiple Deprivation, presence of cancer, surgical procedure type and admission acuity. Results are presented as n (%) and odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results

We identified 2 666 978 patients undergoing surgery of whom 28 777 (1.1%) had SARS-CoV-2 infection. In total, 26 364 (1.0%) patients died in hospital. SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a much greater risk of death (SARS-CoV-2: 6153/28 777 [21.4%] vs no SARS-CoV-2: 20 211/2 638 201 [0.8%]; OR=5.7 [95% CI, 5.5-5.9]; P<0.001). Amongst patients undergoing elective surgery, 2412/1 857 586 (0.1%) had SARS-CoV-2, of whom 172/2412 (7.1%) died, compared with 1414/1 857 586 (0.1%) patients without SARS-CoV-2 (OR=25.8 [95% CI, 21.7-30.9]; P<0.001). Amongst patients undergoing emergency surgery, 22 918/582 292 (3.9%) patients had SARS-CoV-2, of whom 5752/22 918 (25.1%) died, compared with 18 060/559 374 (3.4%) patients without SARS-CoV-2 (OR=5.5 [95% CI, 5.3-5.7]; P<0.001).

Conclusions

The low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in NHS surgical pathways suggests current infection prevention and control policies are highly effective. However, the high mortality amongst patients with SARS-CoV-2 suggests these precautions cannot be safely relaxed.",,pdf:http://www.bjanaesthesia.org/article/S0007091221003123/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.05.018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192173; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192173?pdf=render 37022988,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004191,"Infant feeding method and special educational need in 191,745 Scottish schoolchildren: A national, population cohort study.","Adams LJ, Pell JP, Mackay DF, Clark D, King A, Fleming M.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-04-06,Y,,,,"

Background

While special educational needs (SEN) are increasingly recorded among schoolchildren, infant breastfeeding has been associated with reduced incidence of childhood physical and mental health problems. This study investigated relationships between infant feeding method and risk of all-cause and cause-specific SEN.

Methods and findings

A population cohort of schoolchildren in Scotland was constructed by linking together health (maternity, birth, and health visitor records) and education (annual school pupil census) databases. Inclusion was restricted to singleton children, born in Scotland from 2004 onwards with available breastfeeding data and who attended local authority mainstream or special schools between 2009 and 2013. Generalised estimating equation models with a binomial distribution and logit link function investigated associations between infant feeding method at 6 to 8 weeks and all-cause and cause-specific SEN, adjusting for sociodemographic and maternity factors. Of 191,745 children meeting inclusion criteria, 126,907 (66.2%) were formula-fed, 48,473 (25.3%) exclusively breastfed, and 16,365 (8.5%) mixed-fed. Overall, 23,141 (12.1%) children required SEN. Compared with formula feeding, mixed feeding and exclusive breastfeeding, respectively, were associated with decreased all-cause SEN (OR 0.90, 95% CI [0.84,0.95], p < 0.001 and 0.78, [0.75,0.82], p < 0.001), and SEN attributed to learning disabilities (0.75, [0.65,0.87], p < 0.001 and 0.66, [0.59,0.74], p < 0.001), and learning difficulties (0.85, [0.77,0.94], p = 0.001 and 0.75, [0.70,0.81], p < 0.001). Compared with formula feeding, exclusively breastfed children had less communication problems (0.81, [0.74,0.88], p = 0.001), social-emotional-behavioural difficulties (0.77, [0.70,0.84], p = 0.001), sensory impairments (0.79, [0.65,0.95], p = 0.01), physical motor disabilities (0.78, [0.66,0.91], p = 0.002), and physical health conditions (0.74, [0.63,0.87], p = 0.01). There were no significant associations for mixed-fed children (communication problems (0.94, [0.83,1.06], p = 0.312), social-emotional-behavioural difficulties (0.96, [0.85,1.09], p = 0.541), sensory impairments (1.07, [0.84,1.37], p = 0.579), physical motor disabilities (0.97, [0.78,1.19], p = 0.754), and physical health conditions (0.93, [0.74,1.16], p = 0.504)). Feeding method was not significantly associated with mental health conditions (exclusive 0.58 [0.33,1.03], p = 0.061 and mixed 0.74 [0.36,1.53], p = 0.421) or autism (exclusive 0.88 [0.77,1.01], p = 0.074 and mixed 1.01 [0.84,1.22], p = 0.903). Our study was limited since only 6- to 8-week feeding method was available precluding differentiation between never-breastfed infants and those who stopped breastfeeding before 6 weeks. Additionally, we had no data on maternal and paternal factors such as education level, IQ, employment status, race/ethnicity, or mental and physical health.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that both breastfeeding and mixed feeding at 6 to 8 weeks were associated with lower risk of all-cause SEN, and SEN attributed to learning disabilities and learning difficulty. Many women struggle to exclusively breastfeed for the full 6 months recommended by WHO; however, this study provides evidence that a shorter duration of nonexclusive breastfeeding could nonetheless be beneficial with regard to the development of SEN. Our findings augment the existing evidence base concerning the advantages of breastfeeding and reinforce the importance of breastfeeding education and support.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004191&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004191; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10079126; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10079126?pdf=render 36121907,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.122.060785,Association of COVID-19 With Major Arterial and Venous Thrombotic Diseases: A Population-Wide Cohort Study of 48 Million Adults in England and Wales.,"Knight R, Walker V, Ip S, Cooper JA, Bolton T, Keene S, Denholm R, Akbari A, Abbasizanjani H, Torabi F, Omigie E, Hollings S, North TL, Toms R, Jiang X, Angelantonio ED, Denaxas S, Thygesen JH, Tomlinson C, Bray B, Smith CJ, Barber M, Khunti K, Davey Smith G, Chaturvedi N, Sudlow C, Whiteley WN, Wood AM, Sterne JAC, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium and the Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing COVID-19 National Core Study.",,Circulation,2022,2022-09-19,Y,Thrombosis; Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Pulmonary embolism; Venous thrombosis; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces a prothrombotic state, but long-term effects of COVID-19 on incidence of vascular diseases are unclear.

Methods

We studied vascular diseases after COVID-19 diagnosis in population-wide anonymized linked English and Welsh electronic health records from January 1 to December 7, 2020. We estimated adjusted hazard ratios comparing the incidence of arterial thromboses and venous thromboembolic events (VTEs) after diagnosis of COVID-19 with the incidence in people without a COVID-19 diagnosis. We conducted subgroup analyses by COVID-19 severity, demographic characteristics, and previous history.

Results

Among 48 million adults, 125 985 were hospitalized and 1 319 789 were not hospitalized within 28 days of COVID-19 diagnosis. In England, there were 260 279 first arterial thromboses and 59 421 first VTEs during 41.6 million person-years of follow-up. Adjusted hazard ratios for first arterial thrombosis after COVID-19 diagnosis compared with no COVID-19 diagnosis declined from 21.7 (95% CI, 21.0-22.4) in week 1 after COVID-19 diagnosis to 1.34 (95% CI, 1.21-1.48) during weeks 27 to 49. Adjusted hazard ratios for first VTE after COVID-19 diagnosis declined from 33.2 (95% CI, 31.3-35.2) in week 1 to 1.80 (95% CI, 1.50-2.17) during weeks 27 to 49. Adjusted hazard ratios were higher, for longer after diagnosis, after hospitalized versus nonhospitalized COVID-19, among Black or Asian versus White people, and among people without versus with a previous event. The estimated whole-population increases in risk of arterial thromboses and VTEs 49 weeks after COVID-19 diagnosis were 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively, corresponding to 7200 and 3500 additional events, respectively, after 1.4 million COVID-19 diagnoses.

Conclusions

High relative incidence of vascular events soon after COVID-19 diagnosis declines more rapidly for arterial thromboses than VTEs. However, incidence remains elevated up to 49 weeks after COVID-19 diagnosis. These results support policies to prevent severe COVID-19 by means of COVID-19 vaccines, early review after discharge, risk factor control, and use of secondary preventive agents in high-risk patients.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060785; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060785; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9484653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9484653?pdf=render @@ -106,42 +106,42 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 36253471,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33937-y,A population-based matched cohort study of early pregnancy outcomes following COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hillman S, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Pan J, Taylor B, Almaghrabi F, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons CL, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Murray J, O'Leary M, Ritchie LD, Shah SA, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock SJ, Wood R.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-10-17,Y,,,,"Data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in early pregnancy are limited. We conducted a national, population-based, matched cohort study assessing associations between COVID-19 vaccination and miscarriage prior to 20 weeks gestation and, separately, ectopic pregnancy. We identified women in Scotland vaccinated between 6 weeks preconception and 19 weeks 6 days gestation (for miscarriage; n = 18,780) or 2 weeks 6 days gestation (for ectopic; n = 10,570). Matched, unvaccinated women from the pre-pandemic and, separately, pandemic periods were used as controls. Here we show no association between vaccination and miscarriage (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR], pre-pandemic controls = 1.02, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 0.96-1.09) or ectopic pregnancy (aOR = 1.13, 95% CI = 0.92-1.38). We undertook additional analyses examining confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection as the exposure and similarly found no association with miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. Our findings support current recommendations that vaccination remains the safest way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies from COVID-19.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33937-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9574832; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9574832?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33937-y.pdf 33319712,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01336-2,Towards semantic interoperability: finding and repairing hidden contradictions in biomedical ontologies.,"Slater LT, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2020,2020-12-15,Y,Automated Reasoning; Ontology Interoperability,,,"

Background

Ontologies are widely used throughout the biomedical domain. These ontologies formally represent the classes and relations assumed to exist within a domain. As scientific domains are deeply interlinked, so too are their representations. While individual ontologies can be tested for consistency and coherency using automated reasoning methods, systematically combining ontologies of multiple domains together may reveal previously hidden contradictions.

Methods

We developed a method that tests for hidden unsatisfiabilities in an ontology that arise when combined with other ontologies. For this purpose, we combined sets of ontologies and use automated reasoning to determine whether unsatisfiable classes are present. In addition, we designed and implemented a novel algorithm that can determine justifications for contradictions across extremely large and complicated ontologies, and use these justifications to semi-automatically repair ontologies by identifying a small set of axioms that, when removed, result in a consistent and coherent set of ontologies.

Results

We tested the mutual consistency of the OBO Foundry and the OBO ontologies and find that the combined OBO Foundry gives rise to at least 636 unsatisfiable classes, while the OBO ontologies give rise to more than 300,000 unsatisfiable classes. We also applied our semi-automatic repair algorithm to each combination of OBO ontologies that resulted in unsatisfiable classes, finding that only 117 axioms could be removed to account for all cases of unsatisfiability across all OBO ontologies.

Conclusions

We identified a large set of hidden unsatisfiability across a broad range of biomedical ontologies, and we find that this large set of unsatisfiable classes is the result of a relatively small amount of axiomatic disagreements. Our results show that hidden unsatisfiability is a serious problem in ontology interoperability; however, our results also provide a way towards more consistent ontologies by addressing the issues we identified.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-020-01336-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01336-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7736131; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7736131?pdf=render 35033224,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00543-9,Risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes among adults with asthma in Scotland: a national incident cohort study.,"Shi T, Pan J, Vasileiou E, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Public Health Scotland and the EAVE II Collaborators.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-01-13,Y,,,,"

Background

There is considerable uncertainty over whether adults with asthma should be offered booster vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and, if so, who should be prioritised for booster vaccination. We were asked by the UK's Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunisation to undertake an urgent analysis to identify which adults with asthma were at an increased risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes to inform deliberations on booster COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

This national incident cohort study was done in all adults in Scotland aged 18 years and older who were included in the linked dataset of Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II). We used data from EAVE II to investigate the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and the composite outcome of intensive care unit (ICU) admission or death from COVID-19 among adults with asthma. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for the association between asthma and COVID-19 hospital admission and ICU admission or death, stratified by markers of history of an asthma attack defined by either oral corticosteroid prescription (prednisolone, prednisone, and dexamethasone) in the 2 years before March 1, 2020, or hospitalisation for asthma before March 1, 2020. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity, previous hospitalisation, and vaccine status.

Findings

Between March 1, 2020, and July 27, 2021, 561 279 (12·7%) of 4 421 663 adults in Scotland had clinician-diagnosed-and-recorded-asthma. Among adults with asthma, 39 253 (7·0%) had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, of whom 4828 (12·3%) were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 (among them, an estimated 600 [12·4%] might have been due to nosocomial infections). Adults with asthma were found to be at an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admission (adjusted HR 1·27, 95% CI 1·23-1·32) compared with those without asthma. When using oral corticosteroid prescribing in the preceding 2 years as a marker for history of an asthma attack, the adjusted HR was 1·54 (95% CI 1·46-1·61) for those with three or more prescribed courses of oral corticosteroids, 1·37 (1·26-1·48) for those with two prescribed courses, 1·30 (1·23-1·37) for those with one prescribed course, and 1·15 (1·11-1·21) for those without any courses, compared with those aged 18 years or older without asthma. Adults with asthma were found to be at an increased risk of COVID-19 ICU admission or death compared with those without asthma (adjusted HR 1·13, 95 % CI 1·05-1·22). The adjusted HR was 1·44 (95% CI 1·31-1·58) for those with three or more prescribed courses of oral corticosteroids, 1·27 (1·09-1·48) for those with two prescribed courses, 1·04 (0·93-1·16) for those with one prescribed course, and 1·06 (0·97-1·17) for those without any course, compared with adults without asthma.

Interpretation

Adults with asthma who have required two or more courses of oral corticosteroids in the previous 2 years or a hospital admission for asthma before March 1, 2020, are at increased risk of both COVID-19 hospitalisation and ICU admission or death. Patients with a recent asthma attack should be considered a priority group for booster COVID-19 vaccines.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK, and Scottish Government.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00543-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758152 -37123891,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143,Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities.,"Mansouri-Benssassi E, Rogers S, Reel S, Malone M, Smith J, Ritchie F, Jefferson E.",,Heliyon,2023,2023-04-03,Y,AI; Machine Learning; Data Privacy; Safe Haven; Disclosure Control; Trusted Research Environment,,,"

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare and medicine have increased in recent years. To enable access to personal data, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (otherwise known as Safe Havens) provide safe and secure environments in which researchers can access sensitive personal data and develop AI (in particular machine learning (ML)) models. However, currently few TREs support the training of ML models in part due to a gap in the practical decision-making guidance for TREs in handling model disclosure. Specifically, the training of ML models creates a need to disclose new types of outputs from TREs. Although TREs have clear policies for the disclosure of statistical outputs, the extent to which trained models can leak personal training data once released is not well understood.

Background

We review, for a general audience, different types of ML models and their applicability within healthcare. We explain the outputs from training a ML model and how trained ML models can be vulnerable to external attacks to discover personal data encoded within the model.

Risks

We present the challenges for disclosure control of trained ML models in the context of training and exporting models from TREs. We provide insights and analyse methods that could be introduced within TREs to mitigate the risk of privacy breaches when disclosing trained models.

Discussion

Although specific guidelines and policies exist for statistical disclosure controls in TREs, they do not satisfactorily address these new types of output requests; i.e., trained ML models. There is significant potential for new interdisciplinary research opportunities in developing and adapting policies and tools for safely disclosing ML outputs from TREs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764?pdf=render 35858680,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-068946,Comparative effectiveness of ChAdOx1 versus BNT162b2 covid-19 vaccines in health and social care workers in England: cohort study using OpenSAFELY.,"Hulme WJ, Williamson EJ, Green ACA, Bhaskaran K, McDonald HI, Rentsch CT, Schultze A, Tazare J, Curtis HJ, Walker AJ, Tomlinson LA, Palmer T, Horne EMF, MacKenna B, Morton CE, Mehrkar A, Morley J, Fisher L, Bacon SCJ, Evans D, Inglesby P, Hickman G, Davy S, Ward T, Croker R, Eggo RM, Wong AYS, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Grint DJ, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Sterne JAC, Hernán MA, Goldacre B.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-07-20,Y,,,,"

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) and the ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) covid-19 vaccines against infection and covid-19 disease in health and social care workers.

Design

Cohort study, emulating a comparative effectiveness trial, on behalf of NHS England.

Setting

Linked primary care, hospital, and covid-19 surveillance records available within the OpenSAFELY-TPP research platform, covering a period when the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant was dominant.

Participants

317 341 health and social care workers vaccinated between 4 January and 28 February 2021, registered with a general practice using the TPP SystmOne clinical information system in England, and not clinically extremely vulnerable.

Interventions

Vaccination with either BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 administered as part of the national covid-19 vaccine roll-out.

Main outcome measures

Recorded SARS-CoV-2 positive test, or covid-19 related attendance at an accident and emergency (A&E) department or hospital admission occurring within 20 weeks of receipt of the first vaccine dose.

Results

Over the duration of 118 771 person-years of follow-up there were 6962 positive SARS-CoV-2 tests, 282 covid-19 related A&E attendances, and 166 covid-19 related hospital admissions. The cumulative incidence of each outcome was similar for both vaccines during the first 20 weeks after vaccination. The cumulative incidence of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection 20 weeks after first-dose vaccination with BNT162b2 was 21.7 per 1000 people (95% confidence interval 20.9 to 22.4) and with ChAdOx1 was 23.7 (21.8 to 25.6), representing a difference of 2.04 per 1000 people (0.04 to 4.04). The difference in the cumulative incidence per 1000 people of covid-19 related A&E attendance at 20 weeks was 0.06 per 1000 people (95% CI -0.31 to 0.43). For covid-19 related hospital admission, this difference was 0.11 per 1000 people (-0.22 to 0.44).

Conclusions

In this cohort of healthcare workers where we would not anticipate vaccine type to be related to health status, we found no substantial differences in the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection or covid-19 disease up to 20 weeks after vaccination. Incidence dropped sharply at 3-4 weeks after vaccination, and there were few covid-19 related hospital attendance and admission events after this period. This is in line with expected onset of vaccine induced immunity and suggests strong protection against Alpha variant covid-19 disease for both vaccines in this relatively young and healthy population of healthcare workers.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-068946.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-068946; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9295078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9295078?pdf=render +37123891,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143,Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities.,"Mansouri-Benssassi E, Rogers S, Reel S, Malone M, Smith J, Ritchie F, Jefferson E.",,Heliyon,2023,2023-04-03,Y,AI; Machine Learning; Data Privacy; Safe Haven; Disclosure Control; Trusted Research Environment,,,"

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare and medicine have increased in recent years. To enable access to personal data, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (otherwise known as Safe Havens) provide safe and secure environments in which researchers can access sensitive personal data and develop AI (in particular machine learning (ML)) models. However, currently few TREs support the training of ML models in part due to a gap in the practical decision-making guidance for TREs in handling model disclosure. Specifically, the training of ML models creates a need to disclose new types of outputs from TREs. Although TREs have clear policies for the disclosure of statistical outputs, the extent to which trained models can leak personal training data once released is not well understood.

Background

We review, for a general audience, different types of ML models and their applicability within healthcare. We explain the outputs from training a ML model and how trained ML models can be vulnerable to external attacks to discover personal data encoded within the model.

Risks

We present the challenges for disclosure control of trained ML models in the context of training and exporting models from TREs. We provide insights and analyse methods that could be introduced within TREs to mitigate the risk of privacy breaches when disclosing trained models.

Discussion

Although specific guidelines and policies exist for statistical disclosure controls in TREs, they do not satisfactorily address these new types of output requests; i.e., trained ML models. There is significant potential for new interdisciplinary research opportunities in developing and adapting policies and tools for safely disclosing ML outputs from TREs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764?pdf=render 34216888,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104556,NFnetFu: A novel workflow for microbiome data fusion.,"Bisht V, Acharjee A, Gkoutos GV.",,Computers in biology and medicine,2021,2021-06-08,Y,Clustering; Microbiome; Fuzzy Inference; Network Fusion,,,"Microbiome data analysis and its interpretation into meaningful biological insights remain very challenging for numerous reasons, perhaps most prominently, due to the need to account for multiple factors, including collinearity, sparsity (excessive zeros) and effect size, that the complex experimental workflow and subsequent downstream data analysis require. Moreover, a meaningful microbiome data analysis necessitates the development of interpretable models that incorporate inferences across available data as well as background biomedical knowledge. We developed a multimodal framework that considers sparsity (excessive zeros), lower effect size, intrinsically microbial correlations, i.e., collinearity, as well as background biomedical knowledge in the form of a cluster-infused enriched network architecture. Finally, our framework also provides a candidate taxa/Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) that can be targeted for future validation experiments. We have developed a tool, the term NFnetFU (Neuro Fuzzy network Fusion), that encompasses our framework and have made it freely available at https://github.com/VartikaBisht6197/NFnetFu.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104556; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104556; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8404037 35501368,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-022-01107-9,"Genetic analysis of the PCSK9 locus in psychological, psychiatric, metabolic and cardiovascular traits in UK Biobank.","Hay R, Cullen B, Graham N, Lyall DM, Aman A, Pell JP, Ward J, Smith DJ, Strawbridge RJ.",,European journal of human genetics : EJHG,2022,2022-05-02,Y,,,,"The association between severe mental illness (SMI) and cardiovascular and metabolic disease (CMD) is poorly understood. PCSK9 is expressed in systems critical to both SMI and CMD and influences lipid homeostasis and brain function. We systematically investigated relationships between genetic variation within the PCSK9 locus and risk for both CMD and SMI. UK Biobank recruited ~500,000 volunteers and assessed a wide range of SMI and CMD phenotypes. We used genetic data from white British ancestry individuals of UK Biobank. Genetic association analyses were conducted in PLINK, with statistical significance defined by the number of independent SNPs. Conditional analyses and linkage disequilibrium assessed the independence of SNPs and the presence of multiple signals. Two genetic risk scores of lipid-lowering alleles were calculated and used as proxies for putative lipid-lowering effects of PCSK9. PCSK9 variants were associated with central adiposity, venous thrombosis embolism, systolic blood pressure, mood instability, and neuroticism (all p < 1.16 × 10-4). No secondary signals were identified. Conditional analyses and high linkage disequilibrium (r2 = 0.98) indicated that mood instability and central obesity may share a genetic signal. Genetic risk scores suggested that the lipid-lowering effects of PCSK9 may be causal for greater mood instability and higher neuroticism. This is the first study to implicate the PCSK9 locus in mood-disorder symptoms and related traits, as well as the shared pathology of SMI and CMD. PCSK9 effects on mood may occur via lipid-lowering mechanisms. Further work is needed to understand whether repurposing PCSK9-targeting therapies might improve SMI symptoms and prevent CMD.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41431-022-01107-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-022-01107-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9712543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9712543?pdf=render -36648008,https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088,"Evaluating the cost of managing patients with cellulitis in Wales, UK: A 20-year population-scale study.","Humphreys I, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Graham-Woollard D, Morgan K, Noble-Jones R, Gabe-Walters M, Thomas M.",,International wound journal,2023,2023-01-17,Y,Longitudinal data; Cellulitis; Lymphoedema; Economic Burden; Sail Databank,,,"This study aimed to estimate costs associated with managing patients with cellulitis from the UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. The analysis was undertaken through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank, which brings together population-scale, individual-level anonymised linked data from a wide range of sources, including 80% of primary care general practices within Wales (population coverage ~3.2 million). The data covered a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019. All patients linked to the relevant codes were tracked through primary care settings, recording the number of general practice visits (number of days with an event recorded) and number of in-patient stays. Resources were valued in monetary terms (£ sterling), with costs determined from national published sources of unit costs. These resources were then extrapolated out to reflect UK NHS costs. This is the first attempt to estimate the financial burden of cellulitis using routine data sources on a national scale. The estimated direct annual costs to the Welsh NHS (£28 554 338) are considerable. In-Patient events and length of stay costs are the main cost drivers, with annual Welsh NHS estimates of £19 664 126 with primary care events costing £8 890 212. Initiatives to support patients and healthcare professionals in identifying early signs/risks of cellulitis, improve the accuracy of initial diagnosis, prevent cellulitis recurrence, and improve evidence-based treatment pathways would result in major financial savings, to both the Welsh and UK NHS. In light of these findings, Wales has developed the innovative National Lymphoedema cellulitis Improvement Programme to address these burdens; providing a proactive model of cellulitis care.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/iwj.14088; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041?pdf=render +36648008,https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088,"Evaluating the cost of managing patients with cellulitis in Wales, UK: A 20-year population-scale study.","Humphreys I, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Graham-Woollard D, Morgan K, Noble-Jones R, Gabe-Walters M, Thomas M.",,International wound journal,2023,2023-01-17,Y,Longitudinal data; Cellulitis; Lymphoedema; Sail Databank; Economic Burden,,,"This study aimed to estimate costs associated with managing patients with cellulitis from the UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. The analysis was undertaken through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank, which brings together population-scale, individual-level anonymised linked data from a wide range of sources, including 80% of primary care general practices within Wales (population coverage ~3.2 million). The data covered a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019. All patients linked to the relevant codes were tracked through primary care settings, recording the number of general practice visits (number of days with an event recorded) and number of in-patient stays. Resources were valued in monetary terms (£ sterling), with costs determined from national published sources of unit costs. These resources were then extrapolated out to reflect UK NHS costs. This is the first attempt to estimate the financial burden of cellulitis using routine data sources on a national scale. The estimated direct annual costs to the Welsh NHS (£28 554 338) are considerable. In-Patient events and length of stay costs are the main cost drivers, with annual Welsh NHS estimates of £19 664 126 with primary care events costing £8 890 212. Initiatives to support patients and healthcare professionals in identifying early signs/risks of cellulitis, improve the accuracy of initial diagnosis, prevent cellulitis recurrence, and improve evidence-based treatment pathways would result in major financial savings, to both the Welsh and UK NHS. In light of these findings, Wales has developed the innovative National Lymphoedema cellulitis Improvement Programme to address these burdens; providing a proactive model of cellulitis care.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/iwj.14088; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14088; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10333041?pdf=render 36385522,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac077,Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary care for cardiovascular disease in the UK: an electronic health record analysis across three countries.,"Wright FL, Cheema K, Goldacre R, Hall N, Herz N, Islam N, Karim Z, Moreno-Martos D, Morales DR, O'Connell D, Spata E, Akbari A, Ashworth M, Barber M, Briffa N, Canoy D, Denaxas S, Khunti K, Kurdi A, Mamas M, Priedon R, Sudlow C, Morris EJA, Lacey B, Banerjee A.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2023,2023-06-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Although morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 have been widely reported, the indirect effects of the pandemic beyond 2020 on other major diseases and health service activity have not been well described.

Methods and results

Analyses used national administrative electronic hospital records in England, Scotland, and Wales for 2016-21. Admissions and procedures during the pandemic (2020-21) related to six major cardiovascular conditions [acute coronary syndrome (ACS), heart failure (HF), stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA), peripheral arterial disease (PAD), aortic aneurysm (AA), and venous thromboembolism(VTE)] were compared with the annual average in the pre-pandemic period (2016-19). Differences were assessed by time period and urgency of care.In 2020, there were 31 064 (-6%) fewer hospital admissions [14 506 (-4%) fewer emergencies, 16 560 (-23%) fewer elective admissions] compared with 2016-19 for the six major cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) combined. The proportional reduction in admissions was similar in all three countries. Overall, hospital admissions returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Elective admissions remained substantially below expected levels for almost all conditions in all three countries [-10 996 (-15%) fewer admissions]. However, these reductions were offset by higher than expected total emergency admissions [+25 878 (+6%) higher admissions], notably for HF and stroke in England, and for VTE in all three countries. Analyses for procedures showed similar temporal variations to admissions.

Conclusion

The present study highlights increasing emergency cardiovascular admissions during the pandemic, in the context of a substantial and sustained reduction in elective admissions and procedures. This is likely to increase further the demands on cardiovascular services over the coming years.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62054/Download/62054__26063__5453b00901174a7d9a0797547f023fba.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac077; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284263; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284263?pdf=render -36719907,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086,Outcome of COVID-19 in hospitalised immunocompromised patients: An analysis of the WHO ISARIC CCP-UK prospective cohort study.,"Turtle L, Thorpe M, Drake TM, Swets M, Palmieri C, Russell CD, Ho A, Aston S, Wootton DG, Richter A, de Silva TI, Hardwick HE, Leeming G, Law A, Openshaw PJM, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-31,Y,,,,"

Background

Immunocompromised patients may be at higher risk of mortality if hospitalised with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with immunocompetent patients. However, previous studies have been contradictory. We aimed to determine whether immunocompromised patients were at greater risk of in-hospital death and how this risk changed over the pandemic.

Methods and findings

We included patients > = 19 years with symptomatic community-acquired COVID-19 recruited to the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK prospective cohort study. We defined immunocompromise as immunosuppressant medication preadmission, cancer treatment, organ transplant, HIV, or congenital immunodeficiency. We used logistic regression to compare the risk of death in both groups, adjusting for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, vaccination, and comorbidities. We used Bayesian logistic regression to explore mortality over time. Between 17 January 2020 and 28 February 2022, we recruited 156,552 eligible patients, of whom 21,954 (14%) were immunocompromised. In total, 29% (n = 6,499) of immunocompromised and 21% (n = 28,608) of immunocompetent patients died in hospital. The odds of in-hospital mortality were elevated for immunocompromised patients (adjusted OR 1.44, 95% CI [1.39, 1.50], p < 0.001). Not all immunocompromising conditions had the same risk, for example, patients on active cancer treatment were less likely to have their care escalated to intensive care (adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI [0.7, 0.85], p < 0.001) or ventilation (adjusted OR 0.65, 95% CI [0.56, 0.76], p < 0.001). However, cancer patients were more likely to die (adjusted OR 2.0, 95% CI [1.87, 2.15], p < 0.001). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidities, and vaccination status. As the pandemic progressed, in-hospital mortality reduced more slowly for immunocompromised patients than for immunocompetent patients. This was particularly evident with increasing age: the probability of the reduction in hospital mortality being less for immunocompromised patients aged 50 to 69 years was 88% for men and 83% for women, and for those >80 years was 99% for men and 98% for women. The study is limited by a lack of detailed drug data prior to admission, including steroid doses, meaning that we may have incorrectly categorised some immunocompromised patients as immunocompetent.

Conclusions

Immunocompromised patients remain at elevated risk of death from COVID-19. Targeted measures such as additional vaccine doses, monoclonal antibodies, and nonpharmaceutical preventive interventions should be continually encouraged for this patient group.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 66726260.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075?pdf=render -37368983,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294,"Relationship Among Diabetes, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease Phenotypes: A UK Biobank Cohort Study.","Brown OI, Drozd M, McGowan H, Giannoudi M, Conning-Rowland M, Gierula J, Straw S, Wheatcroft SB, Bridge K, Roberts LD, Levelt E, Ajjan R, Griffin KJ, Bailey MA, Kearney MT, Cubbon RM.",,Diabetes care,2023,2023-08-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

Obesity and diabetes frequently coexist, yet their individual contributions to cardiovascular risk remain debated. We explored cardiovascular disease biomarkers, events, and mortality in the UK Biobank stratified by BMI and diabetes.

Research design and methods

A total of 451,355 participants were stratified by ethnicity-specific BMI categories (normal, overweight, obese) and diabetes status. We examined cardiovascular biomarkers including carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), arterial stiffness, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and cardiac contractility index (CCI). Poisson regression models estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular death, with normal-weight nondiabetes as comparator.

Results

Five percent of participants had diabetes (10% normal weight, 34% overweight, and 55% obese vs. 34%, 43%, and 23%, respectively, without diabetes). In the nondiabetes group, overweight/obesity was associated with higher CIMT, arterial stiffness, and CCI and lower LVEF (P < 0.005); these relationships were diminished in the diabetes group. Within BMI classes, diabetes was associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarker phenotype (P < 0.005), particularly in the normal-weight group. After 5,323,190 person-years follow-up, incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular mortality rose across increasing BMI categories without diabetes (P < 0.005); this was comparable in the diabetes groups (P-interaction > 0.05). Normal-weight diabetes had comparable adjusted cardiovascular mortality to obese nondiabetes (IRR 1.22 [95% CI 0.96-1.56]; P = 0.1).

Conclusions

Obesity and diabetes are additively associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarkers and mortality risk. While adiposity metrics are more strongly correlated with cardiovascular biomarkers than diabetes-oriented metrics, both correlate weakly, suggesting that other factors underpin the high cardiovascular risk of normal-weight diabetes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123?pdf=render -34850818,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223,"COVID-19 infection risk amongst 14,104 vaccinated care home residents: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, UK, December 2020-March 2021. ","Hollinghurst J, North L, Perry M, Akbari A, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-01-01,Y,,,,"vaccinations for COVID-19 have been prioritised for older people living in care homes. However, vaccination trials included limited numbers of older people. we aimed to study infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 for older care home residents following vaccination and identify factors associated with increased risk of infection. we conducted an observational data-linkage study including 14,104 vaccinated older care home residents in Wales (UK) using anonymised electronic health records and administrative data. we used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination, after landmark times of either 7 or 21 days post-vaccination. We adjusted HRs for age, sex, frailty, prior SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination type. we observed a small proportion of care home residents with positive polymerase chain reaction (tests following vaccination 1.05% (N = 148), with 90% of infections occurring within 28 days. For the 7-day landmark analysis we found a reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for vaccinated individuals who had a previous infection; HR (95% confidence interval) 0.54 (0.30, 0.95). For the 21-day landmark analysis, we observed high HRs for individuals with low and intermediate frailty compared with those without; 4.59 (1.23, 17.12) and 4.85 (1.68, 14.04), respectively. increased risk of infection after 21 days was associated with frailty. We found most infections occurred within 28 days of vaccination, suggesting extra precautions to reduce transmission risk should be taken in this time frame.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/1/afab223/42083726/afab223.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013?pdf=render 37254630,https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13808,"Mid-life leukocyte telomere length and dementia risk: An observational and mendelian randomization study of 435,046 UK Biobank participants.","Liu R, Xiang M, Pilling LC, Melzer D, Wang L, Manning KJ, Steffens DC, Bowden J, Fortinsky RH, Kuchel GA, Rhee TG, Diniz BS, Kuo CL.",,Aging cell,2023,2023-05-30,Y,Cognition; Alzheimer's disease; Vascular dementia; Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Hallmarks Of Biological Aging,,,"Telomere attrition is one of biological aging hallmarks and may be intervened to target multiple aging-related diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease related dementias (AD/ADRD). The objective of this study was to assess associations of leukocyte telomere length (TL) with AD/ADRD and early markers of AD/ADRD, including cognitive performance and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phenotypes. Data from European-ancestry participants in the UK Biobank (n = 435,046) were used to evaluate whether mid-life leukocyte TL is associated with incident AD/ADRD over a mean follow-up of 12.2 years. In a subsample without AD/ADRD and with brain imaging data (n = 43,390), we associated TL with brain MRI phenotypes related to AD or vascular dementia pathology. Longer TL was associated with a lower risk of incident AD/ADRD (adjusted Hazard Ratio [aHR] per SD = 0.93, 95% CI 0.90-0.96, p = 3.37 × 10-7 ). Longer TL also was associated with better cognitive performance in specific cognitive domains, larger hippocampus volume, lower total volume of white matter hyperintensities, and higher fractional anisotropy and lower mean diffusivity in the fornix. In conclusion, longer TL is inversely associated with AD/ADRD, cognitive impairment, and brain structural lesions toward the development of AD/ADRD. However, the relationships between genetically determined TL and the outcomes above were not statistically significant based on the results from Mendelian randomization analysis results. Our findings add to the literature of prioritizing risk for AD/ADRD. The causality needs to be ascertained in mechanistic studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13808; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13808; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10352557; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10352557?pdf=render -32951042,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207,"The impact of COVID-19 on adjusted mortality risk in care homes for older adults in Wales, UK: a retrospective population-based cohort study for mortality in 2016-2020. ","Hollinghurst J, Lyons J, Fry R, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Watkins A, Verity F, Lyons RA.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-01-01,Y,,,,"mortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases, which may lead to increased mortality risk. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. to analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4 years. we used anonymised electronic health records and administrative data from the secure anonymised information linkage databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020. we calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted HRs for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions. survival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1.72 (1.55, 1.90) compared with 2016. Compared with the general population in 2016-2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2.15 (2.11, 2.20) in 2016-2019 to 2.94 (2.81, 3.08) in 2020. the survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/1/25/42362959/afaa207.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151?pdf=render +37368983,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294,"Relationship Among Diabetes, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease Phenotypes: A UK Biobank Cohort Study.","Brown OI, Drozd M, McGowan H, Giannoudi M, Conning-Rowland M, Gierula J, Straw S, Wheatcroft SB, Bridge K, Roberts LD, Levelt E, Ajjan R, Griffin KJ, Bailey MA, Kearney MT, Cubbon RM.",,Diabetes care,2023,2023-08-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

Obesity and diabetes frequently coexist, yet their individual contributions to cardiovascular risk remain debated. We explored cardiovascular disease biomarkers, events, and mortality in the UK Biobank stratified by BMI and diabetes.

Research design and methods

A total of 451,355 participants were stratified by ethnicity-specific BMI categories (normal, overweight, obese) and diabetes status. We examined cardiovascular biomarkers including carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), arterial stiffness, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and cardiac contractility index (CCI). Poisson regression models estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular death, with normal-weight nondiabetes as comparator.

Results

Five percent of participants had diabetes (10% normal weight, 34% overweight, and 55% obese vs. 34%, 43%, and 23%, respectively, without diabetes). In the nondiabetes group, overweight/obesity was associated with higher CIMT, arterial stiffness, and CCI and lower LVEF (P < 0.005); these relationships were diminished in the diabetes group. Within BMI classes, diabetes was associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarker phenotype (P < 0.005), particularly in the normal-weight group. After 5,323,190 person-years follow-up, incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular mortality rose across increasing BMI categories without diabetes (P < 0.005); this was comparable in the diabetes groups (P-interaction > 0.05). Normal-weight diabetes had comparable adjusted cardiovascular mortality to obese nondiabetes (IRR 1.22 [95% CI 0.96-1.56]; P = 0.1).

Conclusions

Obesity and diabetes are additively associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarkers and mortality risk. While adiposity metrics are more strongly correlated with cardiovascular biomarkers than diabetes-oriented metrics, both correlate weakly, suggesting that other factors underpin the high cardiovascular risk of normal-weight diabetes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123?pdf=render 36638616,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.106425,Klarigi: Characteristic explanations for semantic biomedical data.,"Slater LT, Williams JA, Schofield PN, Russell S, Pendleton SC, Karwath A, Fanning H, Ball S, Hoehndorf R, Gkoutos GV.",,Computers in biology and medicine,2023,2022-12-22,N,Phenotypes; Ontology; Enrichment Analysis; Semantic Analysis; Explicability; Phenotype Profiles; Semantic Explanation,,,"Annotation of biomedical entities with ontology classes provides for formal semantic analysis and mobilisation of background knowledge in determining their relationships. To date, enrichment analysis has been routinely employed to identify classes that are over-represented in annotations across sets of groups, such as biosample gene expression profiles or patient phenotypes, and is useful for a range of tasks including differential diagnosis and causative variant prioritisation. These approaches, however, usually consider only univariate relationships, make limited use of the semantic features of ontologies, and provide limited information and evaluation of the explanatory power of both singular and grouped candidate classes. Moreover, they are not designed to solve the problem of deriving cohesive, characteristic, and discriminatory sets of classes for entity groups. We have developed a new tool, called Klarigi, which introduces multiple scoring heuristics for identification of classes that are both compositional and discriminatory for groups of entities annotated with ontology classes. The tool includes a novel algorithm for derivation of multivariable semantic explanations for entity groups, makes use of semantic inference through live use of an ontology reasoner, and includes a classification method for identifying the discriminatory power of candidate sets, in addition to significance testing apposite to traditional enrichment approaches. We describe the design and implementation of Klarigi, including its scoring and explanation determination methods, and evaluate its use in application to two test cases with clinical significance, comparing and contrasting methods and results with literature-based and enrichment analysis methods. We demonstrate that Klarigi produces characteristic and discriminatory explanations for groups of biomedical entities in two settings. We also show that these explanations recapitulate and extend the knowledge held in existing biomedical databases and literature for several diseases. We conclude that Klarigi provides a distinct and valuable perspective on biomedical datasets when compared with traditional enrichment methods, and therefore constitutes a new method by which biomedical datasets can be explored, contributing to improved insight into semantic data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.106425; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.106425 +34850818,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223,"COVID-19 infection risk amongst 14,104 vaccinated care home residents: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, UK, December 2020-March 2021. ","Hollinghurst J, North L, Perry M, Akbari A, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-01-01,Y,,,,"vaccinations for COVID-19 have been prioritised for older people living in care homes. However, vaccination trials included limited numbers of older people. we aimed to study infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 for older care home residents following vaccination and identify factors associated with increased risk of infection. we conducted an observational data-linkage study including 14,104 vaccinated older care home residents in Wales (UK) using anonymised electronic health records and administrative data. we used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination, after landmark times of either 7 or 21 days post-vaccination. We adjusted HRs for age, sex, frailty, prior SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination type. we observed a small proportion of care home residents with positive polymerase chain reaction (tests following vaccination 1.05% (N = 148), with 90% of infections occurring within 28 days. For the 7-day landmark analysis we found a reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for vaccinated individuals who had a previous infection; HR (95% confidence interval) 0.54 (0.30, 0.95). For the 21-day landmark analysis, we observed high HRs for individuals with low and intermediate frailty compared with those without; 4.59 (1.23, 17.12) and 4.85 (1.68, 14.04), respectively. increased risk of infection after 21 days was associated with frailty. We found most infections occurred within 28 days of vaccination, suggesting extra precautions to reduce transmission risk should be taken in this time frame.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/1/afab223/42083726/afab223.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013?pdf=render 37468507,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37580-5,Biobank-scale methods and projections for sparse polygenic prediction from machine learning.,"Raben TG, Lello L, Widen E, Hsu SDH.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-07-19,Y,,,,"In this paper we characterize the performance of linear models trained via widely-used sparse machine learning algorithms. We build polygenic scores and examine performance as a function of training set size, genetic ancestral background, and training method. We show that predictor performance is most strongly dependent on size of training data, with smaller gains from algorithmic improvements. We find that LASSO generally performs as well as the best methods, judged by a variety of metrics. We also investigate performance characteristics of predictors trained on one genetic ancestry group when applied to another. Using LASSO, we develop a novel method for projecting AUC and correlation as a function of data size (i.e., for new biobanks) and characterize the asymptotic limit of performance. Additionally, for LASSO (compressed sensing) we show that performance metrics and predictor sparsity are in agreement with theoretical predictions from the Donoho-Tanner phase transition. Specifically, a future predictor trained in the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative for asthma can achieve an AUC of [Formula: see text] and for height a correlation of [Formula: see text] for a Taiwanese population. This is above the measured values of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively, for UK Biobank trained predictors applied to a European population.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37580-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356957; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356957?pdf=render 34864250,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2021.11.017,Epilepsy mortality in Wales during COVID-19.,"Daniels H, Lacey AS, Mikadze D, Akbari A, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Hollinghurst J, Lyons RA, Rees MI, Sawhney IM, Powell RH, Kerr MP, Pickrell WO.",,Seizure,2022,2021-11-27,Y,Pandemic; Data Linkage; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19,,,"

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased mortality worldwide and those with chronic conditions may have been disproportionally affected. However, it is unknown whether the pandemic has changed mortality rates for people with epilepsy. We aimed to compare mortality rates in people with epilepsy in Wales during the pandemic with pre-pandemic rates.

Methods

We performed a retrospective study using individual-level linked population-scale anonymised electronic health records. We identified deaths in people with epilepsy (DPWE), i.e. those with a diagnosis of epilepsy, and deaths associated with epilepsy (DAE), where epilepsy was recorded as a cause of death on death certificates. We compared death rates in 2020 with average rates in 2015-2019 using Poisson models to calculate death rate ratios.

Results

There were 188 DAE and 628 DPWE in Wales in 2020 (death rates: 7.7/100,000/year and 25.7/100,000/year). The average rates for DAE and DPWE from 2015 to 2019 were 5.8/100,000/year and 23.8/100,000/year, respectively. Death rate ratios (2020 compared to 2015-2019) for DAE were 1.34 (95%CI 1.14-1.57, p<0.001) and for DPWE were 1.08 (0.99-1.17, p = 0.09). The death rate ratios for non-COVID deaths (deaths without COVID mentioned on death certificates) for DAE were 1.17 (0.99-1.39, p = 0.06) and for DPWE were 0.96 (0.87-1.05, p = 0.37).

Conclusions

The significant increase in DAE in Wales during 2020 could be explained by the direct effect of COVID-19 infection. Non-COVID-19 deaths have not increased significantly but further work is needed to assess the longer-term impact.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2021.11.017; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2021.11.017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8626872 +36719907,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086,Outcome of COVID-19 in hospitalised immunocompromised patients: An analysis of the WHO ISARIC CCP-UK prospective cohort study.,"Turtle L, Thorpe M, Drake TM, Swets M, Palmieri C, Russell CD, Ho A, Aston S, Wootton DG, Richter A, de Silva TI, Hardwick HE, Leeming G, Law A, Openshaw PJM, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-31,Y,,,,"

Background

Immunocompromised patients may be at higher risk of mortality if hospitalised with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with immunocompetent patients. However, previous studies have been contradictory. We aimed to determine whether immunocompromised patients were at greater risk of in-hospital death and how this risk changed over the pandemic.

Methods and findings

We included patients > = 19 years with symptomatic community-acquired COVID-19 recruited to the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK prospective cohort study. We defined immunocompromise as immunosuppressant medication preadmission, cancer treatment, organ transplant, HIV, or congenital immunodeficiency. We used logistic regression to compare the risk of death in both groups, adjusting for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, vaccination, and comorbidities. We used Bayesian logistic regression to explore mortality over time. Between 17 January 2020 and 28 February 2022, we recruited 156,552 eligible patients, of whom 21,954 (14%) were immunocompromised. In total, 29% (n = 6,499) of immunocompromised and 21% (n = 28,608) of immunocompetent patients died in hospital. The odds of in-hospital mortality were elevated for immunocompromised patients (adjusted OR 1.44, 95% CI [1.39, 1.50], p < 0.001). Not all immunocompromising conditions had the same risk, for example, patients on active cancer treatment were less likely to have their care escalated to intensive care (adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI [0.7, 0.85], p < 0.001) or ventilation (adjusted OR 0.65, 95% CI [0.56, 0.76], p < 0.001). However, cancer patients were more likely to die (adjusted OR 2.0, 95% CI [1.87, 2.15], p < 0.001). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidities, and vaccination status. As the pandemic progressed, in-hospital mortality reduced more slowly for immunocompromised patients than for immunocompetent patients. This was particularly evident with increasing age: the probability of the reduction in hospital mortality being less for immunocompromised patients aged 50 to 69 years was 88% for men and 83% for women, and for those >80 years was 99% for men and 98% for women. The study is limited by a lack of detailed drug data prior to admission, including steroid doses, meaning that we may have incorrectly categorised some immunocompromised patients as immunocompetent.

Conclusions

Immunocompromised patients remain at elevated risk of death from COVID-19. Targeted measures such as additional vaccine doses, monoclonal antibodies, and nonpharmaceutical preventive interventions should be continually encouraged for this patient group.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 66726260.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075?pdf=render +32951042,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207,"The impact of COVID-19 on adjusted mortality risk in care homes for older adults in Wales, UK: a retrospective population-based cohort study for mortality in 2016-2020. ","Hollinghurst J, Lyons J, Fry R, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Watkins A, Verity F, Lyons RA.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-01-01,Y,,,,"mortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases, which may lead to increased mortality risk. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. to analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4 years. we used anonymised electronic health records and administrative data from the secure anonymised information linkage databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020. we calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted HRs for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions. survival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1.72 (1.55, 1.90) compared with 2016. Compared with the general population in 2016-2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2.15 (2.11, 2.20) in 2016-2019 to 2.94 (2.81, 3.08) in 2020. the survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/1/25/42362959/afaa207.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151?pdf=render 36769519,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12030872,Patterns of Healthcare Resource Utilisation of Critical Care Survivors between 2006 and 2017 in Wales: A Population-Based Study.,"Alsallakh M, Tan L, Pugh R, Akbari A, Bailey R, Griffiths R, Lyons RA, Szakmany T.",,Journal of clinical medicine,2023,2023-01-21,Y,Wales; Healthcare Resource Utilisation; Critical Care Survivorship,,,"In this retrospective cohort study, we used the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank to characterise and identify predictors of the one-year post-discharge healthcare resource utilisation (HRU) of adults who were admitted to critical care units in Wales between 1 April 2006 and 31 December 2017. We modelled one-year post-critical-care HRU using negative binomial models and used linear models for the difference from one-year pre-critical-care HRU. We estimated the association between critical illness and post-hospitalisation HRU using multilevel negative binomial models among people hospitalised in 2015. We studied 55,151 patients. Post-critical-care HRU was 11-87% greater than pre-critical-care levels, whereas emergency department (ED) attendances decreased by 30%. Age ≥50 years was generally associated with greater post-critical-care HRU; those over 80 had three times longer hospital readmissions than those younger than 50 (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 2.96, 95% CI: 2.84, 3.09). However, ED attendances were higher in those younger than 50. High comorbidity was associated with 22-62% greater post-critical-care HRU than no or low comorbidity. The most socioeconomically deprived quintile was associated with 24% more ED attendances (IRR: 1.24 [1.16, 1.32]) and 13% longer hospital stays (IRR: 1.13 [1.09, 1.17]) than the least deprived quintile. Critical care survivors had greater 1-year post-discharge HRU than non-critical inpatients, including 68% longer hospital stays (IRR: 1.68 [1.63, 1.74]). Critical care survivors, particularly those with older ages, high comorbidity, and socioeconomic deprivation, used significantly more primary and secondary care resources after discharge compared with their baseline and non-critical inpatients. Interventions are needed to ensure that key subgroups are identified and adequately supported.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/12/3/872/pdf?version=1674984751; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12030872; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9917699; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9917699?pdf=render 35798890,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01143-7,SARS-CoV-2 Omicron is an immune escape variant with an altered cell entry pathway.,"Willett BJ, Grove J, MacLean OA, Wilkie C, De Lorenzo G, Furnon W, Cantoni D, Scott S, Logan N, Ashraf S, Manali M, Szemiel A, Cowton V, Vink E, Harvey WT, Davis C, Asamaphan P, Smollett K, Tong L, Orton R, Hughes J, Holland P, Silva V, Pascall DJ, Puxty K, da Silva Filipe A, Yebra G, Shaaban S, Holden MTG, Pinto RM, Gunson R, Templeton K, Murcia PR, Patel AH, Klenerman P, Dunachie S, PITCH Consortium, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Haughney J, Robertson DL, Palmarini M, Ray S, Thomson EC.",,Nature microbiology,2022,2022-07-07,Y,,,,"Vaccines based on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 are a cornerstone of the public health response to COVID-19. The emergence of hypermutated, increasingly transmissible variants of concern (VOCs) threaten this strategy. Omicron (B.1.1.529), the fifth VOC to be described, harbours multiple amino acid mutations in spike, half of which lie within the receptor-binding domain. Here we demonstrate substantial evasion of neutralization by Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants in vitro using sera from individuals vaccinated with ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273. These data were mirrored by a substantial reduction in real-world vaccine effectiveness that was partially restored by booster vaccination. The Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2 did not induce cell syncytia in vitro and favoured a TMPRSS2-independent endosomal entry pathway, these phenotypes mapping to distinct regions of the spike protein. Impaired cell fusion was determined by the receptor-binding domain, while endosomal entry mapped to the S2 domain. Such marked changes in antigenicity and replicative biology may underlie the rapid global spread and altered pathogenicity of the Omicron variant.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01143-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01143-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9352574; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9352574?pdf=render -35135770,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027,Evaluation of NEWS2 response thresholds in a retrospective observational study from a UK acute hospital.,"Pankhurst T, Sapey E, Gyves H, Evison F, Gallier S, Gkoutos G, Ball S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-02-08,Y,Internal Medicine; Health Policy; Health Informatics,,,"

Objective

Use of National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) has been mandated in adults admitted to acute hospitals in England. Urgent clinical review is recommended at NEWS2 ≥5. This policy is recognised as requiring ongoing evaluation. We assessed NEWS2 acquisition, alerting at key thresholds and patient outcomes, to understand how response recommendations would affect clinical resource allocation.

Setting

Adult acute hospital in England.

Design

Retrospective observational cohort study.

Participants

100 362 consecutive admissions between November 2018 and July 2019.

Outcome

Death or admission to intensive care unit within 24 hours of a score.

Methods

NEWS2 were assembled as single scores from consecutive 24-hour time frames, (the first NEWS2 termed 'Index-NEWS2'), or as all scores from the admission (termed All-NEWS2). Scores were excluded when a patient was in intensive care, in the presence of a decision not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or on day 1 of elective admission.

Results

A mean of 4.5 NEWS2 were acquired per patient per day. The outcome rate following an Index-NEWS2 was 0.22/100 patient-days. The sensitivity of outcome prediction at Index-NEWS2 ≥5=0.46, and number needed to evaluate (NNE)=52. At this threshold, a mean of 37.6 alerts/100 patient-days would be generated, occurring in 12.3% of patients on any single day. Threshold changes to increase sensitivity by 0.1, would result in a twofold increase in alert rate and 1.5-fold increase in NNE. Overall, NEWS2 classification performance was significantly worse on Index-scores than All-scores (c-statistic=0.78 vs 0.85; p<0.001).

Conclusions

The combination of low event-rate, high alert-rate and low sensitivity, in patients for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, means that at current NEWS2 thresholds, resource demand would be sufficient to meaningfully compete with other pathways to clinical evaluation. In analyses that epitomise in-patient screening, NEWS2 performance suggests a need for re-evaluation of current response recommendations in this population.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e054027.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252?pdf=render 36195871,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02533-8,Post-mortem examination of high mortality in patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation.,"Țica O, Țica O, Bunting KV, deBono J, Gkoutos GV, Popescu MI, Kotecha D.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-10-05,Y,Mortality; Atrial fibrillation; Autopsy; Heart Failure; Post-mortem,,,"

Background

The prevalence of combined heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) is rising, and these patients suffer from high rates of mortality. This study aims to provide robust data on factors associated with death, uniquely supported by post-mortem examination.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study of hospitalized adults with a clinical diagnosis of HF and AF at a tertiary centre in Romania between 2014 and 2017. A standardized post-mortem examination was performed where death occurred within 24 h of admission, when the cause of death was not clear or by physician request. National records were used to collect mortality data, subsequently categorized and analysed as HF-related death, vascular death and non-cardiovascular death using Cox proportional hazards regression.

Results

A total of 1009 consecutive patients with a mean age of 73 ± 11 years, 47% women, NYHA class 3.0 ± 0.9, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 40.1 ± 11.0% and 100% anticoagulated were followed up for 1.5 ± 0.9 years. A total of 291 (29%) died, with post-mortems performed on 186 (64%). Baseline factors associated with mortality were dependent on the cause of death. HF-related death in 136 (47%) was associated with higher NYHA class (hazard ratio [HR] 2.45 per one class increase, 95% CI 1.73-3.46; p < 0.001) and lower LVEF (0.95 per 1% increase, 0.93-0.97; p < 0.001). Vascular death occurred in 75 (26%) and was associated with hypertension (HR 2.83, 1.36-5.90; p = 0.005) and higher LVEF (1.08 per 1% increase, 1.05-1.11; p < 0.001). Non-cardiovascular death in 80 (28%) was associated with clinical obesity (HR 2.20, 1.21-4.00; p = 0.010) and higher LVEF (1.10 per 1% increase, 1.06-1.13; p < 0.001). Across all causes, there was no relationship between mortality and AF type (p = 0.77), HF type (p = 0.85) or LVEF (p = 0.58).

Conclusions

Supported by post-mortem data, the cause of death in HF and AF patients is heterogeneous, and the relationships with typical markers of mortality are critically dependent on the mode of death. The poor prognosis in this group demands further attention to improve management beyond anticoagulation.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02533-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02533-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9533594; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9533594?pdf=render +35135770,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027,Evaluation of NEWS2 response thresholds in a retrospective observational study from a UK acute hospital.,"Pankhurst T, Sapey E, Gyves H, Evison F, Gallier S, Gkoutos G, Ball S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-02-08,Y,Internal Medicine; Health Policy; Health Informatics,,,"

Objective

Use of National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) has been mandated in adults admitted to acute hospitals in England. Urgent clinical review is recommended at NEWS2 ≥5. This policy is recognised as requiring ongoing evaluation. We assessed NEWS2 acquisition, alerting at key thresholds and patient outcomes, to understand how response recommendations would affect clinical resource allocation.

Setting

Adult acute hospital in England.

Design

Retrospective observational cohort study.

Participants

100 362 consecutive admissions between November 2018 and July 2019.

Outcome

Death or admission to intensive care unit within 24 hours of a score.

Methods

NEWS2 were assembled as single scores from consecutive 24-hour time frames, (the first NEWS2 termed 'Index-NEWS2'), or as all scores from the admission (termed All-NEWS2). Scores were excluded when a patient was in intensive care, in the presence of a decision not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or on day 1 of elective admission.

Results

A mean of 4.5 NEWS2 were acquired per patient per day. The outcome rate following an Index-NEWS2 was 0.22/100 patient-days. The sensitivity of outcome prediction at Index-NEWS2 ≥5=0.46, and number needed to evaluate (NNE)=52. At this threshold, a mean of 37.6 alerts/100 patient-days would be generated, occurring in 12.3% of patients on any single day. Threshold changes to increase sensitivity by 0.1, would result in a twofold increase in alert rate and 1.5-fold increase in NNE. Overall, NEWS2 classification performance was significantly worse on Index-scores than All-scores (c-statistic=0.78 vs 0.85; p<0.001).

Conclusions

The combination of low event-rate, high alert-rate and low sensitivity, in patients for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, means that at current NEWS2 thresholds, resource demand would be sufficient to meaningfully compete with other pathways to clinical evaluation. In analyses that epitomise in-patient screening, NEWS2 performance suggests a need for re-evaluation of current response recommendations in this population.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e054027.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252?pdf=render 36891499,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101370,How does the local area deprivation influence life chances for children in poverty in Wales: A record linkage cohort study.,"Bandyopadhyay A, Whiffen T, Fry R, Brophy S.",,SSM - population health,2023,2023-02-23,Y,Resilience; Cohort study; Education; Deprivation; Child Poverty; Record Linkage; Local Area,,,"

Objectives

Children growing up in poverty are less likely to achieve in school and more likely to experience mental health problems. This study examined factors in the local area that can help a child overcome the negative impact of poverty.

Design

A longitudinal record linkage retrospective cohort study.

Participants

This study included 159,131 children who lived in Wales and completed their age 16 exams (Key Stage 4 (KS4)) between 2009 and 2016. Free School Meal (FSM) provision was used as an indicator of household-level deprivation. Area-level deprivation was measured using the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) 2011. An encrypted unique Anonymous Linking Field was used to link the children with their health- and educational records.

Outcome measures

The outcome variable 'Profile to Leave Poverty' (PLP) was constructed based on successful completion of age 16 exams, no mental health condition, no substance and alcohol misuse records in routine data. Logistic regression with stepwise model selection was used to investigate the association between local area deprivation and the outcome variable.

Results

22% of children on FSM achieved PLP compared to 54.9% of non-FSM children. FSM Children from least deprived areas were significantly more likely to achieve PLP (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) - 2.20 (1.93, 2.51)) than FSM children from most deprived areas. FSM children, living in areas with higher community safety, higher relative income, higher access to services, were more likely to achieve PLP than their peers.

Conclusion

The findings indicate that community-level improvements such as increasing safety, connectivity and employment might help in child's education attainment, mental health and reduce risk taking behaviours.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101370; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101370; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9986621; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9986621?pdf=render 36807005,https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2038-0541,Long-term outcomes of pouch surveillance and risk of neoplasia in familial adenomatous polyposis.,"Patel RV, Curtius K, Man R, Fletcher J, Cuthill V, Clark SK, von Roon AC, Latchford A.",,Endoscopy,2023,2023-02-17,Y,,,,"

Background

 Long-term pouch surveillance outcomes for familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) are unknown. We aimed to quantify surveillance outcomes and to determine which of selected possible predictive factors are associated with pouch dysplasia.

Methods

 Retrospective analysis of collected data on 249 patients was performed, analyzing potential risk factors for the development of adenomas or advanced lesions ( ≥ 10 mm/high grade dysplasia (HGD)/cancer) in the pouch body and cuff using Cox proportional hazards models. Kaplan-Meier analyses included landmark time-point analyses at 10 years after surgery to predict the future risk of advanced lesions.

Results

 Of 249 patients, 76 % developed at least one pouch body adenoma, with 16 % developing an advanced pouch body lesion; 18 % developed an advanced cuff lesion. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a 10-year lag before most advanced lesions developed; cumulative incidence of 2.8 % and 6.4 % at 10 years in the pouch body and cuff, respectively. Landmark analysis suggested the presence of adenomas prior to the 10-year point was associated with subsequent development of advanced lesions in the pouch body (hazard ratio [HR] 4.8, 95 %CI 1.6-14.1; P = 0.004) and cuff (HR 6.8, 95 %CI 2.5-18.3; P < 0.001). There were two HGD and four cancer cases in the cuff and one pouch body cancer; all cases of cancer/HGD that had prior surveillance were preceded by ≥ 10-mm adenomas.

Conclusions

 Pouch adenoma progression is slow and most advanced lesions occur after 10 years. HGD and cancer were rare events. Pouch phenotype in the first decade is associated with the future risk of developing advanced lesions and may guide personalized surveillance beyond 10 years.",,pdf:http://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/a-2038-0541.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2038-0541; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465241?pdf=render -34713086,https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916,Markup: A Web-Based Annotation Tool Powered by Active Learning.,"Dobbie S, Strafford H, Pickrell WO, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Jones C, Akbari A, Thompson S, Lacey A.",,Frontiers in digital health,2021,2021-07-26,Y,Active Learning; Annotation; Natural Language Processing; Unstructured Text; Sequence-to-sequence Learning,,,"Across various domains, such as health and social care, law, news, and social media, there are increasing quantities of unstructured texts being produced. These potential data sources often contain rich information that could be used for domain-specific and research purposes. However, the unstructured nature of free-text data poses a significant challenge for its utilisation due to the necessity of substantial manual intervention from domain-experts to label embedded information. Annotation tools can assist with this process by providing functionality that enables the accurate capture and transformation of unstructured texts into structured annotations, which can be used individually, or as part of larger Natural Language Processing (NLP) pipelines. We present Markup (https://www.getmarkup.com/) an open-source, web-based annotation tool that is undergoing continued development for use across all domains. Markup incorporates NLP and Active Learning (AL) technologies to enable rapid and accurate annotation using custom user configurations, predictive annotation suggestions, and automated mapping suggestions to both domain-specific ontologies, such as the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), and custom, user-defined ontologies. We demonstrate a real-world use case of how Markup has been used in a healthcare setting to annotate structured information from unstructured clinic letters, where captured annotations were used to build and test NLP applications.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521860?pdf=render 35381005,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264828,Reproducible disease phenotyping at scale: Example of coronary artery disease in UK Biobank.,"Patel RS, Denaxas S, Howe LJ, Eggo RM, Shah AD, Allen NE, Danesh J, Hingorani A, Sudlow C, Hemingway H.",,PloS one,2022,2022-04-05,Y,,,,"

Importance

A lack of internationally agreed standards for combining available data sources at scale risks inconsistent disease phenotyping limiting research reproducibility.

Objective

To develop and then evaluate if a rules-based algorithm can identify coronary artery disease (CAD) sub-phenotypes using electronic health records (EHR) and questionnaire data from UK Biobank (UKB).

Design

Case-control and cohort study.

Setting

Prospective cohort study of 502K individuals aged 40-69 years recruited between 2006-2010 into the UK Biobank with linked hospitalization and mortality data and genotyping.

Participants

We included all individuals for phenotyping into 6 predefined CAD phenotypes using hospital admission and procedure codes, mortality records and baseline survey data. Of these, 408,470 unrelated individuals of European descent had a polygenic risk score (PRS) for CAD estimated.

Exposure

CAD Phenotypes.

Main outcomes and measures

Association with baseline risk factors, mortality (n = 14,419 over 7.8 years median f/u), and a PRS for CAD.

Results

The algorithm classified individuals with CAD into prevalent MI (n = 4,900); incident MI (n = 4,621), prevalent CAD without MI (n = 10,910), incident CAD without MI (n = 8,668), prevalent self-reported MI (n = 2,754); prevalent self-reported CAD without MI (n = 5,623), yielding 37,476 individuals with any type of CAD. Risk factors were similar across the six CAD phenotypes, except for fewer men in the self-reported CAD without MI group (46.7% v 70.1% for the overall group). In age- and sex- adjusted survival analyses, mortality was highest following incident MI (HR 6.66, 95% CI 6.07-7.31) and lowest for prevalent self-reported CAD without MI at baseline (HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.15-1.50) compared to disease-free controls. There were similar graded associations across the six phenotypes per SD increase in PRS, with the strongest association for prevalent MI (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.46-1.55) and the weakest for prevalent self-reported CAD without MI (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.05-1.12). The algorithm is available in the open phenotype HDR UK phenotype library (https://portal.caliberresearch.org/).

Conclusions

An algorithmic, EHR-based approach distinguished six phenotypes of CAD with distinct survival and PRS associations, supporting adoption of open approaches to help standardize CAD phenotyping and its wider potential value for reproducible research in other conditions.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264828&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8982857; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8982857?pdf=render -36035235,https://doi.org/10.1212/nxg.0000000000200015,"Frequency and Phenotype Associations of Rare Variants in 5 Monogenic Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Genes in 200,000 UK Biobank Participants.","Ferguson AC, Thrippleton S, Henshall D, Whittaker E, Conway B, MacLeod M, Malik R, Rawlik K, Tenesa A, Sudlow C, Rannikmae K.",,Neurology. Genetics,2022,2022-08-24,Y,,,,"

Background and objectives

Based on previous case reports and disease-based cohorts, a minority of patients with cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) have a monogenic cause, with many also manifesting extracerebral phenotypes. We investigated the frequency, penetrance, and phenotype associations of putative pathogenic variants in cSVD genes in the UK Biobank (UKB), a large population-based study.

Methods

We used a systematic review of previous literature and ClinVar to identify putative pathogenic rare variants in CTSA, TREX1, HTRA1, and COL4A1/2. We mapped phenotypes previously attributed to these variants (phenotypes-of-interest) to disease coding systems used in the UKB's linked health data from UK hospital admissions, death records, and primary care. Among 199,313 exome-sequenced UKB participants, we assessed the following: the proportion of participants carrying ≥1 variant(s); phenotype-of-interest penetrance; and the association between variant carrier status and phenotypes-of-interest using a binary (any phenotype present/absent) and phenotype burden (linear score of the number of phenotypes a participant possessed) approach.

Results

Among UKB participants, 0.5% had ≥1 variant(s) in studied genes. Using hospital admission and death records, 4%-20% of variant carriers per gene had an associated phenotype. This increased to 7%-55% when including primary care records. Only COL4A1 variant carrier status was significantly associated with having ≥1 phenotype-of-interest and a higher phenotype score (OR = 1.29, p = 0.006).

Discussion

While putative pathogenic rare variants in monogenic cSVD genes occur in 1:200 people in the UKB population, only approximately half of variant carriers have a relevant disease phenotype recorded in their linked health data. We could not replicate most previously reported gene-phenotype associations, suggesting lower penetrance rates, overestimated pathogenicity, and/or limited statistical power.",,pdf:https://ng.neurology.org/content/nng/8/5/e200015.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/NXG.0000000000200015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403885; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403885?pdf=render +34713086,https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916,Markup: A Web-Based Annotation Tool Powered by Active Learning.,"Dobbie S, Strafford H, Pickrell WO, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Jones C, Akbari A, Thompson S, Lacey A.",,Frontiers in digital health,2021,2021-07-26,Y,Active Learning; Annotation; Natural Language Processing; Unstructured Text; Sequence-to-sequence Learning,,,"Across various domains, such as health and social care, law, news, and social media, there are increasing quantities of unstructured texts being produced. These potential data sources often contain rich information that could be used for domain-specific and research purposes. However, the unstructured nature of free-text data poses a significant challenge for its utilisation due to the necessity of substantial manual intervention from domain-experts to label embedded information. Annotation tools can assist with this process by providing functionality that enables the accurate capture and transformation of unstructured texts into structured annotations, which can be used individually, or as part of larger Natural Language Processing (NLP) pipelines. We present Markup (https://www.getmarkup.com/) an open-source, web-based annotation tool that is undergoing continued development for use across all domains. Markup incorporates NLP and Active Learning (AL) technologies to enable rapid and accurate annotation using custom user configurations, predictive annotation suggestions, and automated mapping suggestions to both domain-specific ontologies, such as the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), and custom, user-defined ontologies. We demonstrate a real-world use case of how Markup has been used in a healthcare setting to annotate structured information from unstructured clinic letters, where captured annotations were used to build and test NLP applications.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521860?pdf=render 36244382,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01656-7,"Severe COVID-19 outcomes after full vaccination of primary schedule and initial boosters: pooled analysis of national prospective cohort studies of 30 million individuals in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.","Agrawal U, Bedston S, McCowan C, Oke J, Patterson L, Robertson C, Akbari A, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Bradley DT, Fagbamigbe AF, Grange Z, Hall ECR, Joy M, Katikireddi SV, Kerr S, Ritchie L, Murphy S, Owen RK, Rudan I, Shah SA, Simpson CR, Torabi F, Tsang RSM, de Lusignan S, Lyons RA, O'Reilly D, Sheikh A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Current UK vaccination policy is to offer future COVID-19 booster doses to individuals at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19, but it is still uncertain which groups of the population could benefit most. In response to an urgent request from the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, we aimed to identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes (ie, COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death) in individuals who had completed their primary COVID-19 vaccination schedule and had received the first booster vaccine.

Methods

We constructed prospective cohorts across all four UK nations through linkages of primary care, RT-PCR testing, vaccination, hospitalisation, and mortality data on 30 million people. We included individuals who received primary vaccine doses of BNT162b2 (tozinameran; Pfizer-BioNTech) or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccines in our initial analyses. We then restricted analyses to those given a BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 (elasomeran; Moderna) booster and had a severe COVID-19 outcome between Dec 20, 2021, and Feb 28, 2022 (when the omicron (B.1.1.529) variant was dominant). We fitted time-dependent Poisson regression models and calculated adjusted rate ratios (aRRs) and 95% CIs for the associations between risk factors and COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death. We adjusted for a range of potential covariates, including age, sex, comorbidities, and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Stratified analyses were conducted by vaccine type. We then did pooled analyses across UK nations using fixed-effect meta-analyses.

Findings

Between Dec 8, 2020, and Feb 28, 2022, 16 208 600 individuals completed their primary vaccine schedule and 13 836 390 individuals received a booster dose. Between Dec 20, 2021, and Feb 28, 2022, 59 510 (0·4%) of the primary vaccine group and 26 100 (0·2%) of those who received their booster had severe COVID-19 outcomes. The risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes reduced after receiving the booster (rate change: 8·8 events per 1000 person-years to 7·6 events per 1000 person-years). Older adults (≥80 years vs 18-49 years; aRR 3·60 [95% CI 3·45-3·75]), those with comorbidities (≥5 comorbidities vs none; 9·51 [9·07-9·97]), being male (male vs female; 1·23 [1·20-1·26]), and those with certain underlying health conditions-in particular, individuals receiving immunosuppressants (yes vs no; 5·80 [5·53-6·09])-and those with chronic kidney disease (stage 5 vs no; 3·71 [2·90-4·74]) remained at high risk despite the initial booster. Individuals with a history of COVID-19 infection were at reduced risk (infected ≥9 months before booster dose vs no previous infection; aRR 0·41 [95% CI 0·29-0·58]).

Interpretation

Older people, those with multimorbidity, and those with specific underlying health conditions remain at increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and death after the initial vaccine booster and should, therefore, be prioritised for additional boosters, including novel optimised versions, and the increasing array of COVID-19 therapeutics.

Funding

National Core Studies-Immunity, UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Health Data Research UK, the Scottish Government, and the University of Edinburgh.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01656-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01656-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9560746; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9560746?pdf=render +36035235,https://doi.org/10.1212/nxg.0000000000200015,"Frequency and Phenotype Associations of Rare Variants in 5 Monogenic Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Genes in 200,000 UK Biobank Participants.","Ferguson AC, Thrippleton S, Henshall D, Whittaker E, Conway B, MacLeod M, Malik R, Rawlik K, Tenesa A, Sudlow C, Rannikmae K.",,Neurology. Genetics,2022,2022-08-24,Y,,,,"

Background and objectives

Based on previous case reports and disease-based cohorts, a minority of patients with cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) have a monogenic cause, with many also manifesting extracerebral phenotypes. We investigated the frequency, penetrance, and phenotype associations of putative pathogenic variants in cSVD genes in the UK Biobank (UKB), a large population-based study.

Methods

We used a systematic review of previous literature and ClinVar to identify putative pathogenic rare variants in CTSA, TREX1, HTRA1, and COL4A1/2. We mapped phenotypes previously attributed to these variants (phenotypes-of-interest) to disease coding systems used in the UKB's linked health data from UK hospital admissions, death records, and primary care. Among 199,313 exome-sequenced UKB participants, we assessed the following: the proportion of participants carrying ≥1 variant(s); phenotype-of-interest penetrance; and the association between variant carrier status and phenotypes-of-interest using a binary (any phenotype present/absent) and phenotype burden (linear score of the number of phenotypes a participant possessed) approach.

Results

Among UKB participants, 0.5% had ≥1 variant(s) in studied genes. Using hospital admission and death records, 4%-20% of variant carriers per gene had an associated phenotype. This increased to 7%-55% when including primary care records. Only COL4A1 variant carrier status was significantly associated with having ≥1 phenotype-of-interest and a higher phenotype score (OR = 1.29, p = 0.006).

Discussion

While putative pathogenic rare variants in monogenic cSVD genes occur in 1:200 people in the UKB population, only approximately half of variant carriers have a relevant disease phenotype recorded in their linked health data. We could not replicate most previously reported gene-phenotype associations, suggesting lower penetrance rates, overestimated pathogenicity, and/or limited statistical power.",,pdf:https://ng.neurology.org/content/nng/8/5/e200015.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/NXG.0000000000200015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403885; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403885?pdf=render 36000189,https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2022-0052,The diagnostic potential and barriers of microbiome based therapeutics.,"Acharjee A, Singh U, Choudhury SP, Gkoutos GV.",,"Diagnosis (Berlin, Germany)",2022,2022-08-25,N,Microbiota; Biomarker; Diagnostics; Machine Learning,,,"High throughput technological innovations in the past decade have accelerated research into the trillions of commensal microbes in the gut. The 'omics' technologies used for microbiome analysis are constantly evolving, and large-scale datasets are being produced. Despite of the fact that much of the research is still in its early stages, specific microbial signatures have been associated with the promotion of cancer, as well as other diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, neurogenerative diareses etc. It has been also reported that the diversity of the gut microbiome influences the safety and efficacy of medicines. The availability and declining sequencing costs has rendered the employment of RNA-based diagnostics more common in the microbiome field necessitating improved data-analytical techniques so as to fully exploit all the resulting rich biological datasets, while accounting for their unique characteristics, such as their compositional nature as well their heterogeneity and sparsity. As a result, the gut microbiome is increasingly being demonstrating as an important component of personalised medicine since it not only plays a role in inter-individual variability in health and disease, but it also represents a potentially modifiable entity or feature that may be addressed by treatments in a personalised way. In this context, machine learning and artificial intelligence-based methods may be able to unveil new insights into biomedical analyses through the generation of models that may be used to predict category labels, and continuous values. Furthermore, diagnostic aspects will add value in the identification of the non invasive markers in the critical diseases like cancer.",,pdf:https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/dx-2022-0052/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2022-0052 36581868,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02045-8,"Effectiveness of clinical decision support in controlling inappropriate red blood cell and platelet transfusions, speciality specific responses and behavioural change.","Atia J, Evison F, Gallier S, Pettler S, Garrick M, Ball S, Lester W, Morton S, Coleman J, Pankhurst T.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2022,2022-12-29,Y,Red blood cells; Platelets; CdS; Transfusion; Clinical Decision Support; Haemoglobin; Electronic Health Records; Ehr; E-alerts; Segmented Linear Regression Of Interrupted Time Series,,,"

Background

Electronic clinical decision support (CDS) within Electronic Health Records has been used to improve patient safety, including reducing unnecessary blood product transfusions. We assessed the effectiveness of CDS in controlling inappropriate red blood cell (RBC) and platelet transfusion in a large acute hospital and how speciality specific behaviours changed in response.

Methods

We used segmented linear regression of interrupted time series models to analyse the instantaneous and long term effect of introducing blood product electronic warnings to prescribers. We studied the impact on transfusions for patients in critical care (CC), haematology/oncology (HO) and elsewhere.

Results

In non-CC or HO, there was significant and sustained decrease in the numbers of RBC transfusions after introduction of alerts. In CC the alerts reduced transfusions but this was not sustained, and in HO there was no impact on RBC transfusion. For platelet transfusions outside of CC and HO, the introduction of alerts stopped a rising trend of administration of platelets above recommended targets. In CC, alerts reduced platelet transfusions, but in HO alerts had little impact on clinician prescribing.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that CDS can result in immediate change in user behaviour which is more obvious outside specialist settings of CC and HO. It is important that this is then sustained. In CC and HO, blood transfusion practices differ. CDS thus needs to take specific circumstances into account. In this case there are acceptable reasons to transfuse outside of these crude targets and CDS should take these into account.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-02045-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02045-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9798655; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9798655?pdf=render 33980500,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100303,Development of a data utility framework to support effective health data curation. ,"Gordon B, Barrett J, Fennessy C, Cake C, Milward A, Irwin C, Jones M, Sebire N.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2021,2021-05-01,Y,,,,"The value of healthcare data is being increasingly recognised, including the need to improve health dataset utility. There is no established mechanism for evaluating healthcare dataset utility making it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of activities improving the data. To describe the method for generating and involving the user community in developing a proposed framework for evaluation and communication of healthcare dataset utility for given research areas. Aninitial version of a matrix to review datasets across a range of dimensions wasdeveloped based on previous published findings regarding healthcare data. Thiswas used to initiate a design process through interviews and surveys with datausers representing a broad range of user types and use cases, to help develop afocused framework for characterising datasets. Following 21 interviews, 31 survey responses and testing on 43 datasets, five major categories and 13 subcategories were identified as useful for a dataset, including Data Model, Completeness and Linkage. Each sub-category was graded to facilitate rapid and reproducible evaluation of dataset utility for specific use-cases. Testing of applicability to >40 existing datasets demonstrated potential usefulness for subsequent evaluation in real-world practice. Theresearch has developed an evidenced-based initial approach for a framework tounderstand the utility of a healthcare dataset. It likely to require further refinementfollowing wider application and additional categories may be required. The process has resulted in a user-centred designed framework for objectively evaluating the likely utility of specific healthcare datasets, and therefore, should be of value both for potential users of health data, and for data custodians to identify the areas to provide the optimal value for data curation investment.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100303.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100303; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8117992; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8117992?pdf=render 34799365,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054861,Retrospective cohort study to evaluate medication use in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Scotland: protocol for a national observational study.,"Mueller T, Kerr S, McTaggart S, Kurdi A, Vasileiou E, Docherty A, Fraser K, Shi T, Simpson CR, Bennie M, Sheikh A.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-11-19,Y,Therapeutics; clinical pharmacology; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 has caused millions of hospitalisations and deaths globally. A range of vaccines have been developed and are being deployed at scale in the UK to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, which have reduced risk of infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes. Those with COVID-19 are now being treated with several repurposed drugs based on evidence emerging from recent clinical trials. However, there is currently limited real-world data available related to the use of these drugs in routine clinical practice. The purpose of this study is to address the prevailing knowledge gaps regarding the use of dexamethasone, remdesivir and tocilizumab by conducting an exploratory drug utilisation study, aimed at providing in-depth descriptions of patients receiving these drugs as well as the treatment patterns observed in Scotland.

Methods and analysis

Retrospective cohort study, comprising adult patients admitted to hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 across five Scottish Health Boards using data from in-hospital ePrescribing linked to the Early Estimation of Vaccine and Anti-Viral Effectiveness (EAVE II) COVID-19 surveillance platform. The primary outcome will be exposure to the medicines of interest (dexamethasone, remdesivir, tocilizumab), either alone or in combination; exposure will be described in terms of drug(s) of choice; prescribed and administered dose; treatment duration; and any changes in treatment, for example, dose escalation and/or switching to an alternative drug. Analyses will primarily be descriptive in nature.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical and information governance approvals have been obtained by the National Research Ethics Service Committee, South East Scotland 02 and the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care, respectively. Findings from this study will be presented at academic and clinical conferences, and to the funders and other interested parties as appropriate; study findings will also be published in peer-reviewed journals. Publications will be available on the EAVE II website (https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/eave-ii/key-outputs/our-publications), alongside lay summaries and infographics aimed at the general public. Press releases will also be considered, if appropriate.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/11/e054861.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054861; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609490; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609490?pdf=render 34911741,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320047,Impact of cardiometabolic multimorbidity and ethnicity on cardiovascular/renal complications in patients with COVID-19.,"Norris T, Razieh C, Zaccardi F, Yates T, Islam N, Gillies CL, Chudasama YV, Rowlands AV, Davies MJ, McCann GP, Banerjee A, Lam CSP, Docherty AB, Openshaw PJ, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Lawson CA, Khunti K, ISARIC4C investigators.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2022,2022-07-13,Y,epidemiology; risk factors; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Using a large national database of people hospitalised with COVID-19, we investigated the contribution of cardio-metabolic conditions, multi-morbidity and ethnicity on the risk of in-hospital cardiovascular complications and death.

Methods

A multicentre, prospective cohort study in 302 UK healthcare facilities of adults hospitalised with COVID-19 between 6 February 2020 and 16 March 2021. Logistic models were used to explore associations between baseline patient ethnicity, cardiometabolic conditions and multimorbidity (0, 1, 2, >2 conditions), and in-hospital cardiovascular complications (heart failure, arrhythmia, cardiac ischaemia, cardiac arrest, coagulation complications, stroke), renal injury and death.

Results

Of 65 624 patients hospitalised with COVID-19, 44 598 (68.0%) reported at least one cardiometabolic condition on admission. Cardiovascular/renal complications or death occurred in 24 609 (38.0%) patients. Baseline cardiometabolic conditions were independently associated with increased odds of in-hospital complications and this risk increased in the presence of cardiometabolic multimorbidity. For example, compared with having no cardiometabolic conditions, 1, 2 or ≥3 conditions was associated with 1.46 (95% CI 1.39 to 1.54), 2.04 (95% CI 1.93 to 2.15) and 3.10 (95% CI 2.92 to 3.29) times higher odds of any cardiovascular/renal complication, respectively. A similar pattern was observed for all-cause death. Compared with the white group, the South Asian (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.29) and black (OR 1.53 to 95% CI 1.37 to 1.72) ethnic groups had higher risk of any cardiovascular/renal complication.

Conclusions

In hospitalised patients with COVID-19, cardiovascular complications or death impacts just under half of all patients, with the highest risk in those of South Asian or Black ethnicity and in patients with cardiometabolic multimorbidity.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/108/15/1200.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320047; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678560?pdf=render -34497074,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483,Modelling the impact of lockdown-easing measures on cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths in England.,"Ziauddeen H, Subramaniam N, Gurdasani D.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-09-08,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Health Policy,,,"

Objectives

To assess the potential impacts of successive lockdown-easing measures in England, at a point in the COVID-19 pandemic when community transmission levels were relatively high.

Design

We developed a Bayesian model to infer incident cases and reproduction number (R) in England, from incident death data. We then used this to forecast excess cases and deaths in multiple plausible scenarios in which R increases at one or more time points.

Setting

England.

Participants

Publicly available national incident death data for COVID-19 were examined.

Primary outcome

Excess cumulative cases and deaths forecast at 90 days, in simulated scenarios of plausible increases in R after successive easing of lockdown in England, compared with a baseline scenario where R remained constant.

Results

Our model inferred an R of 0.75 on 13 May when England first started easing lockdown. In the most conservative scenario modelled where R increased to 0.80 as lockdown was eased further on 1 June and then remained constant, the model predicted an excess 257 (95% CI 108 to 492) deaths and 26 447 (95% CI 11 105 to 50 549) cumulative cases over 90 days. In the scenario with maximal increases in R (but staying ≤1), the model predicts 3174 (95% CI 1334 to 6060) excess cumulative deaths and 421 310 (95% CI 177 012 to 804 811) cases. Observed data from the forecasting period aligned most closely to the scenario in which R increased to 0.85 on 1 June, and 0.9 on 4 July.

Conclusions

When levels of transmission are high, even small changes in R with easing of lockdown can have significant impacts on expected cases and deaths, even if R remains ≤1. This will have a major impact on population health, tracing systems and healthcare services in England. Following an elimination strategy rather than one of maintenance of R ≤1 would substantially mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic within England.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/9/e042483.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582?pdf=render 32741245,https://doi.org/10.1177/0954411920946526,Artificial intelligence approaches to predict coronary stenosis severity using non-invasive fractional flow reserve.,"Carson JM, Chakshu NK, Sazonov I, Nithiarasu P.",,"Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part H, Journal of engineering in medicine",2020,2020-08-03,Y,Artificial intelligence; Biomedical engineering; Coronary Heart Disease; Fractional Flow Reserve; Computational Mechanics; Haemodynamic Modelling,,,"Fractional flow reserve is the current reference standard in the assessment of the functional impact of a stenosis in coronary heart disease. In this study, three models of artificial intelligence of varying degrees of complexity were compared to fractional flow reserve measurements. The three models are the multivariate polynomial regression, which is a statistical method used primarily for correlation; the feed-forward neural network; and the long short-term memory, which is a type of recurrent neural network that is suited to modelling sequences. The models were initially trained using a virtual patient database that was generated from a validated one-dimensional physics-based model. The feed-forward neural network performed the best for all test cases considered, which were a single vessel case from a virtual patient database, a multi-vessel network from a virtual patient database, and 25 clinically invasive fractional flow reserve measurements from real patients. The feed-forward neural network model achieved around 99% diagnostic accuracy in both tests involving virtual patients, and a respectable 72% diagnostic accuracy when compared to the invasive fractional flow reserve measurements. The multivariate polynomial regression model performed well in the single vessel case, but struggled on network cases as the variation of input features was much larger. The long short-term memory performed well for the single vessel cases, but tended to have a bias towards a positive fractional flow reserve prediction for the virtual multi-vessel case, and for the patient cases. Overall, the feed-forward neural network shows promise in successfully predicting fractional flow reserve in real patients, and could be a viable option if trained using a large enough data set of real patients.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0954411920946526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0954411920946526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675765; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675765?pdf=render +34497074,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483,Modelling the impact of lockdown-easing measures on cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths in England.,"Ziauddeen H, Subramaniam N, Gurdasani D.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-09-08,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Health Policy,,,"

Objectives

To assess the potential impacts of successive lockdown-easing measures in England, at a point in the COVID-19 pandemic when community transmission levels were relatively high.

Design

We developed a Bayesian model to infer incident cases and reproduction number (R) in England, from incident death data. We then used this to forecast excess cases and deaths in multiple plausible scenarios in which R increases at one or more time points.

Setting

England.

Participants

Publicly available national incident death data for COVID-19 were examined.

Primary outcome

Excess cumulative cases and deaths forecast at 90 days, in simulated scenarios of plausible increases in R after successive easing of lockdown in England, compared with a baseline scenario where R remained constant.

Results

Our model inferred an R of 0.75 on 13 May when England first started easing lockdown. In the most conservative scenario modelled where R increased to 0.80 as lockdown was eased further on 1 June and then remained constant, the model predicted an excess 257 (95% CI 108 to 492) deaths and 26 447 (95% CI 11 105 to 50 549) cumulative cases over 90 days. In the scenario with maximal increases in R (but staying ≤1), the model predicts 3174 (95% CI 1334 to 6060) excess cumulative deaths and 421 310 (95% CI 177 012 to 804 811) cases. Observed data from the forecasting period aligned most closely to the scenario in which R increased to 0.85 on 1 June, and 0.9 on 4 July.

Conclusions

When levels of transmission are high, even small changes in R with easing of lockdown can have significant impacts on expected cases and deaths, even if R remains ≤1. This will have a major impact on population health, tracing systems and healthcare services in England. Following an elimination strategy rather than one of maintenance of R ≤1 would substantially mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic within England.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/9/e042483.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582?pdf=render 37124948,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100638,Severity of Omicron BA.5 variant and protective effect of vaccination: national cohort and matched analyses in Scotland.,"Robertson C, Kerr S, Sheikh A.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2023,2023-04-14,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100638; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100638; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10139952; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10139952?pdf=render 36849590,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01522-y,Changes in preterm birth and stillbirth during COVID-19 lockdowns in 26 countries.,"Calvert C, Brockway MM, Zoega H, Miller JE, Been JV, Amegah AK, Racine-Poon A, Oskoui SE, Abok II, Aghaeepour N, Akwaowo CD, Alshaikh BN, Ayede AI, Bacchini F, Barekatain B, Barnes R, Bebak K, Berard A, Bhutta ZA, Brook JR, Bryan LR, Cajachagua-Torres KN, Campbell-Yeo M, Chu DT, Connor KL, Cornette L, Cortés S, Daly M, Debauche C, Dedeke IOF, Einarsdóttir K, Engjom H, Estrada-Gutierrez G, Fantasia I, Fiorentino NM, Franklin M, Fraser A, Gachuno OW, Gallo LA, Gissler M, Håberg SE, Habibelahi A, Häggström J, Hookham L, Hui L, Huicho L, Hunter KJ, Huq S, Kc A, Kadambari S, Kelishadi R, Khalili N, Kippen J, Le Doare K, Llorca J, Magee LA, Magnus MC, Man KKC, Mburugu PM, Mediratta RP, Morris AD, Muhajarine N, Mulholland RH, Bonnard LN, Nakibuuka V, Nassar N, Nyadanu SD, Oakley L, Oladokun A, Olayemi OO, Olutekunbi OA, Oluwafemi RO, Ogunkunle TO, Orton C, Örtqvist AK, Ouma J, Oyapero O, Palmer KR, Pedersen LH, Pereira G, Pereyra I, Philip RK, Pruski D, Przybylski M, Quezada-Pinedo HG, Regan AK, Rhoda NR, Rihs TA, Riley T, Rocha TAH, Rolnik DL, Saner C, Schneuer FJ, Souter VL, Stephansson O, Sun S, Swift EM, Szabó M, Temmerman M, Tooke L, Urquia ML, von Dadelszen P, Wellenius GA, Whitehead C, Wong ICK, Wood R, Wróblewska-Seniuk K, Yeboah-Antwi K, Yilgwan CS, Zawiejska A, Sheikh A, Rodriguez N, Burgner D, Stock SJ, Azad MB.",,Nature human behaviour,2023,2023-02-27,Y,,,,"Preterm birth (PTB) is the leading cause of infant mortality worldwide. Changes in PTB rates, ranging from -90% to +30%, were reported in many countries following early COVID-19 pandemic response measures ('lockdowns'). It is unclear whether this variation reflects real differences in lockdown impacts, or perhaps differences in stillbirth rates and/or study designs. Here we present interrupted time series and meta-analyses using harmonized data from 52 million births in 26 countries, 18 of which had representative population-based data, with overall PTB rates ranging from 6% to 12% and stillbirth ranging from 2.5 to 10.5 per 1,000 births. We show small reductions in PTB in the first (odds ratio 0.96, 95% confidence interval 0.95-0.98, P value <0.0001), second (0.96, 0.92-0.99, 0.03) and third (0.97, 0.94-1.00, 0.09) months of lockdown, but not in the fourth month of lockdown (0.99, 0.96-1.01, 0.34), although there were some between-country differences after the first month. For high-income countries in this study, we did not observe an association between lockdown and stillbirths in the second (1.00, 0.88-1.14, 0.98), third (0.99, 0.88-1.12, 0.89) and fourth (1.01, 0.87-1.18, 0.86) months of lockdown, although we have imprecise estimates due to stillbirths being a relatively rare event. We did, however, find evidence of increased risk of stillbirth in the first month of lockdown in high-income countries (1.14, 1.02-1.29, 0.02) and, in Brazil, we found evidence for an association between lockdown and stillbirth in the second (1.09, 1.03-1.15, 0.002), third (1.10, 1.03-1.17, 0.003) and fourth (1.12, 1.05-1.19, <0.001) months of lockdown. With an estimated 14.8 million PTB annually worldwide, the modest reductions observed during early pandemic lockdowns translate into large numbers of PTB averted globally and warrant further research into causal pathways.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01522-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01522-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10129868; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10129868?pdf=render 36802769,https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465,Applying machine learning classifiers to automate quality assessment of paediatric dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC-) MRI data.,"Powell SJ, Withey SB, Sun Y, Grist JT, Novak J, MacPherson L, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Morgan PS, Jaspan T, Bailey S, Mitra D, Auer DP, Avula S, Arvanitis TN, Peet A.",,The British journal of radiology,2023,2023-02-20,Y,,,,"

Objective

Investigate the performance of qualitative review (QR) for assessing dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC-) MRI data quality in paediatric normal brain and develop an automated alternative to QR.

Methods

1027 signal-time courses were assessed by Reviewer 1 using QR. 243 were additionally assessed by Reviewer 2 and % disagreements and Cohen's κ (κ) were calculated. The signal drop-to-noise ratio (SDNR), root mean square error (RMSE), full width half maximum (FWHM) and percentage signal recovery (PSR) were calculated for the 1027 signal-time courses. Data quality thresholds for each measure were determined using QR results. The measures and QR results trained machine learning classifiers. Sensitivity, specificity, precision, classification error and area under the curve from a receiver operating characteristic curve were calculated for each threshold and classifier.

Results

Comparing reviewers gave 7% disagreements and κ = 0.83. Data quality thresholds of: 7.6 for SDNR; 0.019 for RMSE; 3 s and 19 s for FWHM; and 42.9 and 130.4% for PSR were produced. SDNR gave the best sensitivity, specificity, precision, classification error and area under the curve values of 0.86, 0.86, 0.93, 14.2% and 0.83. Random forest was the best machine learning classifier, giving sensitivity, specificity, precision, classification error and area under the curve of 0.94, 0.83, 0.93, 9.3% and 0.89.

Conclusion

The reviewers showed good agreement. Machine learning classifiers trained on signal-time course measures and QR can assess quality. Combining multiple measures reduces misclassification.

Advances in knowledge

A new automated quality control method was developed, which trained machine learning classifiers using QR results.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465; doi:https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10161906; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10161906?pdf=render -36497616,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544,Association between Internet Usage and Quality of Life of Elderly People in England: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).,"Vidiasratri AR, Bath PA, Bath PA.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2022,2022-11-23,Y,Internet; Quality of life; Older People,,,"The WHO has stated that the number of senior citizens above age 65 across the world will double by the year 2050: in the UK, the whole population is projected to grow by about 2.5% over a decade, from mid-2018. Although people are living longer, they are not healthier in old age, and there is an increasing number of illnesses and disabilities in the ageing population, which have an impact on their overall well-being and quality of life (QoL). Alongside these trends, Internet technologies have improved and provide a wide range of information, including on medical and health issues. This study aimed to examine the association between the utilisation of the internet among older people in England and their QoL. This study utilised the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), a longitudinal study of a representative sample of people aged 50 and over in England. The data from Wave 9 were analysed using bivariate analysis and logistic regression. The results show a strong association between QoL and utilisation of the Internet in older people, even when adjusting for demographic variables and health. Higher use of the internet was associated with older people being less likely to have higher QoL. The excessive use of the internet for communication and gathering information also contributed to lower QoL. From the findings, poorer QoL was also found in people in older age groups, in those who are married, and those who never suffer from chronic diseases. Our findings suggest that the quality of life in older people might not only be associated with the frequency of usage but also the purpose for which the internet is used; however, this relationship is complex and further research should explore this in greater depth. Further research should also investigate how older people's use of the Internet changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of this on the QoL in older age.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15544/pdf?version=1669349785; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189?pdf=render 35140406,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01701-w,Vaccine effectiveness of heterologous CoronaVac plus BNT162b2 in Brazil.,"Cerqueira-Silva T, Katikireddi SV, de Araujo Oliveira V, Flores-Ortiz R, Júnior JB, Paixão ES, Robertson C, Penna GO, Werneck GL, Barreto ML, Pearce N, Sheikh A, Barral-Netto M, Boaventura VS.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-02-09,Y,,,,"There is considerable interest in the waning of effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and vaccine effectiveness (VE) of booster doses. Using linked national Brazilian databases, we undertook a test-negative design study involving almost 14 million people (~16 million tests) to estimate VE of CoronaVac over time and VE of BNT162b2 booster vaccination against RT-PCR-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes (hospitalization or death). Compared with unvaccinated individuals, CoronaVac VE at 14-30 d after the second dose was 55.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 54.3-55.7) against confirmed infection and 82.1% (95% CI: 81.4-82.8) against severe outcomes. VE decreased to 34.7% (95% CI: 33.1-36.2) against infection and 72.5% (95% CI: 70.9-74.0) against severe outcomes over 180 d after the second dose. A BNT162b2 booster, 6 months after the second dose of CoronaVac, improved VE against infection to 92.7% (95% CI: 91.0-94.0) and VE against severe outcomes to 97.3% (95% CI: 96.1-98.1) 14-30 d after the booster. Compared with younger age groups, individuals 80 years of age or older had lower protection after the second dose but similar protection after the booster. Our findings support a BNT162b2 booster vaccine dose after two doses of CoronaVac, particularly for the elderly.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01701-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01701-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9018414; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9018414?pdf=render +36497616,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544,Association between Internet Usage and Quality of Life of Elderly People in England: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).,"Vidiasratri AR, Bath PA, Bath PA.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2022,2022-11-23,Y,Internet; Quality of life; Older People,,,"The WHO has stated that the number of senior citizens above age 65 across the world will double by the year 2050: in the UK, the whole population is projected to grow by about 2.5% over a decade, from mid-2018. Although people are living longer, they are not healthier in old age, and there is an increasing number of illnesses and disabilities in the ageing population, which have an impact on their overall well-being and quality of life (QoL). Alongside these trends, Internet technologies have improved and provide a wide range of information, including on medical and health issues. This study aimed to examine the association between the utilisation of the internet among older people in England and their QoL. This study utilised the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), a longitudinal study of a representative sample of people aged 50 and over in England. The data from Wave 9 were analysed using bivariate analysis and logistic regression. The results show a strong association between QoL and utilisation of the Internet in older people, even when adjusting for demographic variables and health. Higher use of the internet was associated with older people being less likely to have higher QoL. The excessive use of the internet for communication and gathering information also contributed to lower QoL. From the findings, poorer QoL was also found in people in older age groups, in those who are married, and those who never suffer from chronic diseases. Our findings suggest that the quality of life in older people might not only be associated with the frequency of usage but also the purpose for which the internet is used; however, this relationship is complex and further research should explore this in greater depth. Further research should also investigate how older people's use of the Internet changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of this on the QoL in older age.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15544/pdf?version=1669349785; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189?pdf=render 36630477,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004156,Effectiveness of mRNA boosters after homologous primary series with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 against symptomatic infection and severe COVID-19 in Brazil and Scotland: A test-negative design case-control study.,"Cerqueira-Silva T, Shah SA, Robertson C, Sanchez M, Katikireddi SV, de Araujo Oliveira V, Paixão ES, Rudan I, Junior JB, Penna GO, Pearce N, Werneck GL, Barreto ML, Boaventura VS, Sheikh A, Barral-Netto M.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-11,Y,,,,"

Background

Brazil and Scotland have used mRNA boosters in their respective populations since September 2021, with Omicron's emergence accelerating their booster program. Despite this, both countries have reported substantial recent increases in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. The duration of the protection conferred by the booster dose against symptomatic Omicron cases and severe outcomes is unclear.

Methods and findings

Using a test-negative design, we analyzed national databases to estimate the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of a primary series (with ChAdOx1 or BNT162b2) plus an mRNA vaccine booster (with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273) against symptomatic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes (hospitalization or death) during the period of Omicron dominance in Brazil and Scotland compared to unvaccinated individuals. Additional analyses included stratification by age group (18 to 49, 50 to 64, ≥65). All individuals aged 18 years or older who reported acute respiratory illness symptoms and tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection between January 1, 2022, and April 23, 2022, in Brazil and Scotland were eligible for the study. At 14 to 29 days after the mRNA booster, the VE against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection of ChAdOx1 plus BNT162b2 booster was 51.6%, (95% confidence interval (CI): [51.0, 52.2], p < 0.001) in Brazil and 67.1% (95% CI [65.5, 68.5], p < 0.001) in Scotland. At ≥4 months, protection against symptomatic infection waned to 4.2% (95% CI [0.7, 7.6], p = 0.02) in Brazil and 37.4% (95% CI [33.8, 40.9], p < 0.001) in Scotland. VE against severe outcomes in Brazil was 93.5% (95% CI [93.0, 94.0], p < 0.001) at 14 to 29 days post-booster, decreasing to 82.3% (95% CI [79.7, 84.7], p < 0.001) and 98.3% (95% CI [87.3, 99.8], p < 0.001) to 77.8% (95% CI [51.4, 89.9], p < 0.001) in Scotland for the same periods. Similar results were obtained with the primary series of BNT162b2 plus homologous booster. Potential limitations of this study were that we assumed that all cases included in the analysis were due to the Omicron variant based on the period of dominance and the limited follow-up time since the booster dose.

Conclusions

We observed that mRNA boosters after a primary vaccination course with either mRNA or viral-vector vaccines provided modest, short-lived protection against symptomatic infection with Omicron but substantial and more sustained protection against severe COVID-19 outcomes for at least 3 months.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004156&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004156; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879484; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879484?pdf=render 34376975,https://doi.org/10.1177/11779322211035921,Cloud Computing Enabled Big Multi-Omics Data Analytics.,"Koppad S, B A, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.",,Bioinformatics and biology insights,2021,2021-07-28,Y,Data integration; Cloud Computing; Big Data; Multi-omics Data; Data Analytics,,,"High-throughput experiments enable researchers to explore complex multifactorial diseases through large-scale analysis of omics data. Challenges for such high-dimensional data sets include storage, analyses, and sharing. Recent innovations in computational technologies and approaches, especially in cloud computing, offer a promising, low-cost, and highly flexible solution in the bioinformatics domain. Cloud computing is rapidly proving increasingly useful in molecular modeling, omics data analytics (eg, RNA sequencing, metabolomics, or proteomics data sets), and for the integration, analysis, and interpretation of phenotypic data. We review the adoption of advanced cloud-based and big data technologies for processing and analyzing omics data and provide insights into state-of-the-art cloud bioinformatics applications.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/11779322211035921; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/11779322211035921; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323418; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323418?pdf=render 37148584,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104588,Association of HLA diversity with the risk of 25 cancers in the UK Biobank.,"Wang QL, Wang TM, Deng CM, Zhang WL, He YQ, Xue WQ, Liao Y, Yang DW, Zheng MQ, Jia WH.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2023-05-04,Y,Cancer susceptibility; Uk Biobank; Hla Evolutionary Divergence; Hla Heterozygosity,,,"

Background

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is a highly polymorphic region, and HLA diversity may play a role in presenting tumour-associated peptides and inducing immune responses. However, the effect of HLA diversity on cancers has not been fully assessed. We aimed to explore the role of HLA diversity on cancer development.

Methods

A pan-cancer analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of HLA diversity, measured by HLA heterozygosity and HLA evolutionary divergence (HED), on the susceptibility of 25 cancers in the UK Biobank.

Findings

We observed that the diversity of HLA class II locus was associated with a lower risk of lung cancer (ORhetero = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.90-0.97, P = 1.29 × 10-4) and head and neck cancer (ORhetero = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.86-0.96, P = 1.56 × 10-3). Besides, a lower risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma was associated with an increased diversity of HLA class I (ORhetero = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.87-0.98, P = 8.38 × 10-3) and class II locus (ORhetero = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.86-0.92, P = 1.65 × 10-10). A lower risk of Hodgkin lymphoma was associated with the HLA class I diversity (ORhetero = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.75-0.96, P = 0.011). The protective effect of HLA diversity was mainly observed in pathological subtypes with higher tumour mutation burden, such as lung squamous cell carcinoma (P = 9.39 × 10-3) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (Pclass I = 4.12 × 10-4; Pclass Ⅱ = 4.71 × 10-5), as well as the smoking subgroups of lung cancer (P = 7.45 × 10-5) and head and neck cancer (P = 4.55 × 10-3).

Interpretation

We provided a systematic insight into the effect of HLA diversity on cancers, which might help to understand the etiological role of HLA on cancer development.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82273705, 82003520); the Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2021B1515420007); the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou, China (201804020094); Sino-Sweden Joint Research Programme (81861138006); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973131, 81903395, 81803319, 81802708).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104588; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104588; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10189092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10189092?pdf=render @@ -149,20 +149,20 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 33827854,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n826,Linked electronic health records for research on a nationwide cohort of more than 54 million people in England: data resource.,"Wood A, Denholm R, Hollings S, Cooper J, Ip S, Walker V, Denaxas S, Akbari A, Banerjee A, Whiteley W, Lai A, Sterne J, Sudlow C, CVD-COVID-UK consortium.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-04-07,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe a novel England-wide electronic health record (EHR) resource enabling whole population research on covid-19 and cardiovascular disease while ensuring data security and privacy and maintaining public trust.

Design

Data resource comprising linked person level records from national healthcare settings for the English population, accessible within NHS Digital's new trusted research environment.

Setting

EHRs from primary care, hospital episodes, death registry, covid-19 laboratory test results, and community dispensing data, with further enrichment planned from specialist intensive care, cardiovascular, and covid-19 vaccination data.

Participants

54.4 million people alive on 1 January 2020 and registered with an NHS general practitioner in England.

Main measures of interest

Confirmed and suspected covid-19 diagnoses, exemplar cardiovascular conditions (incident stroke or transient ischaemic attack and incident myocardial infarction) and all cause mortality between 1 January and 31 October 2020.

Results

The linked cohort includes more than 96% of the English population. By combining person level data across national healthcare settings, data on age, sex, and ethnicity are complete for around 95% of the population. Among 53.3 million people with no previous diagnosis of stroke or transient ischaemic attack, 98 721 had a first ever incident stroke or transient ischaemic attack between 1 January and 31 October 2020, of which 30% were recorded only in primary care and 4% only in death registry records. Among 53.2 million people with no previous diagnosis of myocardial infarction, 62 966 had an incident myocardial infarction during follow-up, of which 8% were recorded only in primary care and 12% only in death registry records. A total of 959 470 people had a confirmed or suspected covid-19 diagnosis (714 162 in primary care data, 126 349 in hospital admission records, 776 503 in covid-19 laboratory test data, and 50 504 in death registry records). Although 58% of these were recorded in both primary care and covid-19 laboratory test data, 15% and 18%, respectively, were recorded in only one.

Conclusions

This population-wide resource shows the importance of linking person level data across health settings to maximise completeness of key characteristics and to ascertain cardiovascular events and covid-19 diagnoses. Although this resource was initially established to support research on covid-19 and cardiovascular disease to benefit clinical care and public health and to inform healthcare policy, it can broaden further to enable a wide range of research.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/373/bmj.n826.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413899; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413899?pdf=render 36997856,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-023-03126-0,A clinical frailty scale obtained from MDT discussion performs poorly in assessing frailty in haemodialysis recipients.,"Anderson BM, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.",,BMC nephrology,2023,2023-03-30,Y,Mortality; Frailty; Haemodialysis; Hospitalisation; Clinical Frailty Scale,,,"

Background

The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a commonly utilised frailty screening tool that has been associated with hospitalisation and mortality in haemodialysis recipients, but is subject to heterogenous methodologies including subjective clinician opinion. The aims of this study were to (i) examine the accuracy of a subjective, multidisciplinary assessment of CFS at haemodialysis Quality Assurance (QA) meetings (CFS-MDT), compared with a standard CFS score via clinical interview, and (ii) ascertain the associations of these scores with hospitalisation and mortality.

Methods

We performed a prospective cohort study of prevalent haemodialysis recipients linked to national datasets for outcomes including mortality and hospitalisation. Frailty was assessed using the CFS after structured clinical interview. The CFS-MDT was derived from consensus at haemodialysis QA meetings, involving dialysis nurses, dietitians, and nephrologists.

Results

453 participants were followed-up for a median of 685 days (IQR 544-812), during which there were 96 (21.2%) deaths and 1136 hospitalisations shared between 327 (72.1%) participants. Frailty was identified in 246 (54.3%) participants via CFS, but only 120 (26.5%) via CFS-MDT. There was weak correlation (Spearman Rho 0.485, P < 0.001) on raw frailty scores and minimal agreement (Cohen's κ = 0.274, P < 0.001) on categorisation of frail, vulnerable and robust between the CFS and CFS-MDT. Increasing frailty was associated with higher rates of hospitalisation for the CFS (IRR 1.26, 95% C.I. 1.17-1.36, P = 0.016) and CFS-MDT (IRR 1.10, 1.02-1.19, P = 0.02), but only the CFS-MDT was associated with nights spent in hospital (IRR 1.22, 95% C.I. 1.08-1.38, P = 0.001). Both scores were associated with mortality (CFS HR 1.31, 95% C.I. 1.09-1.57, P = 0.004; CFS-MDT HR 1.36, 95% C.I. 1.16-1.59, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Assessment of CFS is deeply affected by the underlying methodology, with the potential to profoundly affect decision-making. The CFS-MDT appears to be a weak alternative to conventional CFS. Standardisation of CFS use is of paramount importance in clinical and research practice in haemodialysis.

Trial registration

Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT03071107 registered 06/03/2017.",,pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-023-03126-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-023-03126-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10062243; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10062243?pdf=render 35077449,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871,"Overall and cause-specific hospitalisation and death after COVID-19 hospitalisation in England: A cohort study using linked primary care, secondary care, and death registration data in the OpenSAFELY platform.","Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Hickman G, Hulme WJ, Schultze A, Curtis HJ, Wing K, Warren-Gash C, Tomlinson L, Bates CJ, Mathur R, MacKenna B, Mahalingasivam V, Wong A, Walker AJ, Morton CE, Grint D, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Inglesby P, Douglas IJ, McDonald HI, Cockburn J, Williamson EJ, Evans D, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Bacon S, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-01-25,Y,,,,"

Background

There is concern about medium to long-term adverse outcomes following acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), but little relevant evidence exists. We aimed to investigate whether risks of hospital admission and death, overall and by specific cause, are raised following discharge from a COVID-19 hospitalisation.

Methods and findings

With the approval of NHS-England, we conducted a cohort study, using linked primary care and hospital data in OpenSAFELY to compare risks of hospital admission and death, overall and by specific cause, between people discharged from COVID-19 hospitalisation (February to December 2020) and surviving at least 1 week, and (i) demographically matched controls from the 2019 general population; and (ii) people discharged from influenza hospitalisation in 2017 to 2019. We used Cox regression adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, obesity, smoking status, deprivation, and comorbidities considered potential risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes. We included 24,673 postdischarge COVID-19 patients, 123,362 general population controls, and 16,058 influenza controls, followed for ≤315 days. COVID-19 patients had median age of 66 years, 13,733 (56%) were male, and 19,061 (77%) were of white ethnicity. Overall risk of hospitalisation or death (30,968 events) was higher in the COVID-19 group than general population controls (fully adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 2.22, 2.14 to 2.30, p < 0.001) but slightly lower than the influenza group (aHR 0.95, 0.91 to 0.98, p = 0.004). All-cause mortality (7,439 events) was highest in the COVID-19 group (aHR 4.82, 4.48 to 5.19 versus general population controls [p < 0.001] and 1.74, 1.61 to 1.88 versus influenza controls [p < 0.001]). Risks for cause-specific outcomes were higher in COVID-19 survivors than in general population controls and largely similar or lower in COVID-19 compared with influenza patients. However, COVID-19 patients were more likely than influenza patients to be readmitted or die due to their initial infection or other lower respiratory tract infection (aHR 1.37, 1.22 to 1.54, p < 0.001) and to experience mental health or cognitive-related admission or death (aHR 1.37, 1.02 to 1.84, p = 0.039); in particular, COVID-19 survivors with preexisting dementia had higher risk of dementia hospitalisation or death (age- and sex-adjusted HR 2.47, 1.37 to 4.44, p = 0.002). Limitations of our study were that reasons for hospitalisation or death may have been misclassified in some cases due to inconsistent use of codes, and we did not have data to distinguish COVID-19 variants.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that people discharged from a COVID-19 hospital admission had markedly higher risks for rehospitalisation and death than the general population, suggesting a substantial extra burden on healthcare. Most risks were similar to those observed after influenza hospitalisations, but COVID-19 patients had higher risks of all-cause mortality, readmission or death due to the initial infection, and dementia death, highlighting the importance of postdischarge monitoring.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789178; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789178?pdf=render -35476839,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967,"Healthcare contacts with self-harm during COVID-19: An e-cohort whole-population-based study using individual-level linked routine electronic health records in Wales, UK, 2016-March 2021.","DelPozo-Banos M, Lee SC, Friedmann Y, Akbari A, Torabi F, Lloyd K, Lyons RA, John A.",,PloS one,2022,2022-04-27,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Reduced rates of help seeking by those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported.

Objectives

To understand changes in healthcare service contacts for self-harm during the COVID-19 pandemic across primary, emergency and secondary care.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study used routine electronic healthcare data for Wales, United Kingdom, from 2016 to March 14, 2021. Population-based data from primary care, emergency departments and hospital admissions were linked at individual-level. All Welsh residents aged ≥10 years over the study period were included in the study. Primary, emergency and secondary care contacts with self-harm at any time between 2016 and March 14, 2021 were identified. Outcomes were counts, incidence, prevalence and proportion of self-harm contacts relative to all contacts in each and all settings, as well as the proportion of people contacting one or more settings with self-harm. Weekly trends were modelled using generalised estimated equations, with differences between 2020 (to March 2021) and comparison years 2016-2018 (to March 2017-2019) quantified using difference in differences, from which mean rate of odds ratios (μROR) across years was reported.

Results

The study included 3,552,210 individuals over the study period. Self-harm contacts reduced across services in March and December 2020 compared to previous years. Primary care contacts with self-harm reduced disproportionately compared to non-self-harm contacts (μROR = 0.7, p<0.05), while their proportion increased in emergency departments during April 2020 (μROR = 1.3, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years) and hospital admissions during April-May 2020 (μROR = 1.2, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years). Despite this, those who self-harmed in April 2020 were more likely to be seen in primary care than other settings compared to previous years (μROR = 1.2, p<0.05). A lower proportion of those with self-harm contacts in emergency departments were subsequently admitted to hospital in December 2020 compared to previous years (μROR = 0.5, p<0.05).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been less likely to seek help, and those who did so faced more stringent criteria for admission. Communications encouraging those who self-harm to seek help during pandemics may be beneficial. However, this needs to be supported by maintained provision of mental health services.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266967&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644?pdf=render 35340900,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221074122,Magnetic resonance image-based brain tumour segmentation methods: A systematic review.,"Bhalodiya JM, Lim Choi Keung SN, Arvanitis TN.",,Digital health,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Brain; Artificial intelligence; Segmentation; Systematic review; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Brain Tumour,,,"

Background

Image segmentation is an essential step in the analysis and subsequent characterisation of brain tumours through magnetic resonance imaging. In the literature, segmentation methods are empowered by open-access magnetic resonance imaging datasets, such as the brain tumour segmentation dataset. Moreover, with the increased use of artificial intelligence methods in medical imaging, access to larger data repositories has become vital in method development.

Purpose

To determine what automated brain tumour segmentation techniques can medical imaging specialists and clinicians use to identify tumour components, compared to manual segmentation.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of 572 brain tumour segmentation studies during 2015-2020. We reviewed segmentation techniques using T1-weighted, T2-weighted, gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, diffusion-weighted and perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging sequences. Moreover, we assessed physics or mathematics-based methods, deep learning methods, and software-based or semi-automatic methods, as applied to magnetic resonance imaging techniques. Particularly, we synthesised each method as per the utilised magnetic resonance imaging sequences, study population, technical approach (such as deep learning) and performance score measures (such as Dice score).

Statistical tests

We compared median Dice score in segmenting the whole tumour, tumour core and enhanced tumour.

Results

We found that T1-weighted, gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted, T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery magnetic resonance imaging are used the most in various segmentation algorithms. However, there is limited use of perfusion-weighted and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover, we found that the U-Net deep learning technology is cited the most, and has high accuracy (Dice score 0.9) for magnetic resonance imaging-based brain tumour segmentation.

Conclusion

U-Net is a promising deep learning technology for magnetic resonance imaging-based brain tumour segmentation. The community should be encouraged to contribute open-access datasets so training, testing and validation of deep learning algorithms can be improved, particularly for diffusion- and perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, where there are limited datasets available.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076221074122; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221074122; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943308; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943308?pdf=render +35476839,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967,"Healthcare contacts with self-harm during COVID-19: An e-cohort whole-population-based study using individual-level linked routine electronic health records in Wales, UK, 2016-March 2021.","DelPozo-Banos M, Lee SC, Friedmann Y, Akbari A, Torabi F, Lloyd K, Lyons RA, John A.",,PloS one,2022,2022-04-27,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Reduced rates of help seeking by those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported.

Objectives

To understand changes in healthcare service contacts for self-harm during the COVID-19 pandemic across primary, emergency and secondary care.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study used routine electronic healthcare data for Wales, United Kingdom, from 2016 to March 14, 2021. Population-based data from primary care, emergency departments and hospital admissions were linked at individual-level. All Welsh residents aged ≥10 years over the study period were included in the study. Primary, emergency and secondary care contacts with self-harm at any time between 2016 and March 14, 2021 were identified. Outcomes were counts, incidence, prevalence and proportion of self-harm contacts relative to all contacts in each and all settings, as well as the proportion of people contacting one or more settings with self-harm. Weekly trends were modelled using generalised estimated equations, with differences between 2020 (to March 2021) and comparison years 2016-2018 (to March 2017-2019) quantified using difference in differences, from which mean rate of odds ratios (μROR) across years was reported.

Results

The study included 3,552,210 individuals over the study period. Self-harm contacts reduced across services in March and December 2020 compared to previous years. Primary care contacts with self-harm reduced disproportionately compared to non-self-harm contacts (μROR = 0.7, p<0.05), while their proportion increased in emergency departments during April 2020 (μROR = 1.3, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years) and hospital admissions during April-May 2020 (μROR = 1.2, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years). Despite this, those who self-harmed in April 2020 were more likely to be seen in primary care than other settings compared to previous years (μROR = 1.2, p<0.05). A lower proportion of those with self-harm contacts in emergency departments were subsequently admitted to hospital in December 2020 compared to previous years (μROR = 0.5, p<0.05).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been less likely to seek help, and those who did so faced more stringent criteria for admission. Communications encouraging those who self-harm to seek help during pandemics may be beneficial. However, this needs to be supported by maintained provision of mental health services.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266967&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644?pdf=render 36369151,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34244-2,"Variant-specific symptoms of COVID-19 in a study of 1,542,510 adults in England.","Whitaker M, Elliott J, Bodinier B, Barclay W, Ward H, Cooke G, Donnelly CA, Chadeau-Hyam M, Elliott P.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-11-11,Y,,,,"Infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus is associated with a wide range of symptoms. The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission -1 (REACT-1) study monitored the spread and clinical manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 among random samples of the population in England from 1 May 2020 to 31 March 2022. We show changing symptom profiles associated with the different variants over that period, with lower reporting of loss of sense of smell or taste for Omicron compared to previous variants, and higher reporting of cold-like and influenza-like symptoms, controlling for vaccination status. Contrary to the perception that recent variants have become successively milder, Omicron BA.2 was associated with reporting more symptoms, with greater disruption to daily activities, than BA.1. With restrictions lifted and routine testing limited in many countries, monitoring the changing symptom profiles associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and effects on daily activities will become increasingly important.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34244-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34244-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651890?pdf=render 36426419,https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.14109,"""I don't mean to be rude, but could you put a mask on while I'm here?"" A qualitative study of risks experienced by domiciliary care workers in Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic. ","Prout H, Lugg-Widger FV, Brookes-Howell L, Cannings-John R, Akbari A, John A, Thomas DR, Robling M.",,Health & social care in the community,2022,2022-11-24,Y,,,,"Domiciliary care workers (DCWs) continued to provide care to adults in their own homes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on health outcomes of DCWs is currently mixed. The OSCAR study will quantify the impact of COVID-19 upon health outcomes of DCWs in Wales, explore causes of variation and extrapolate to the rest of the UK DCW population. An embedded qualitative study aimed to explore DCW experiences during the pandemic, including factors that may have varied risk of exposure to COVID-19 and adverse health and wellbeing outcomes. Registered DCWs working throughout Wales were invited to participate in a semi-structured telephone interview. 24 DCWs were interviewed between February and July 2021. Themes were identified through inductive analysis using thematic coding. Several themes emerged relating to risk of exposure to COVID-19. First, general changes to the role of the DCW during the pandemic were identified. Second, practical challenges for DCWs in the workplace were reported, including staff shortages, clients and families not following safety procedures, initial shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), DCW criticism of standard use PPE, client difficulty with PPE and management of rapid antigen testing. Third, lack of government/employer preparation for a pandemic was described, including the reorganisation of staff clients and services, inadequate or confusing information for many DCWs, COVID-19 training and the need for improved practical instruction and limited official standard risk assessments for DCWs. Pressure to attend work and perceptions of COVID-19 risk and vaccination was also reported. In summary, this paper describes the risk factors associated with working during the pandemic. We have mapped recommendations for each problem using these qualitative findings including tailored training and better support for isolated team members and identified the required changes at several socio-ecological levels.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/hsc.14109; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.14109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100139; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100139?pdf=render -36810667,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103,Morbidity Associated With Primary Hyperparathyroidism-A Population-based Study With a Subanalysis on Vitamin D.,"Soto-Pedre E, Lin YY, Soto-Hernaez J, Newey PJ, Leese GP.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Calcium; Vitamin D; Mortality; Primary Hyperparathyroidism,,,"

Context

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is associated with increased risk of morbidity and death, and vitamin D levels are a potentially confounding variable.

Objective

The aim of this study was to assess morbidity and mortality associated with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Methods

In this population-based retrospective matched cohort study, data linkage of biochemistry, hospital admissions, prescribing, imaging, pathology, and deaths was used to identify patients across the region of Tayside, Scotland, who had PHPT from 1997 to 2019. Cox proportional hazards models and hazards ratios (HR) were used to explore the relationship between exposure to PHPT and several clinical outcomes. Comparisons were made with an age- and gender-matched cohort.

Results

In 11 616 people with PHPT (66.8% female), with a mean follow-up period of 8.8 years, there was an adjusted HR of death of 2.05 (95% CI, 1.97-2.13) for those exposed to PHPT. There was also an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (HR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.24-1.45), cerebrovascular disease (HR = 1.29; 95% CI, 1.15-1.45), diabetes (HR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.26-1.54), renal stones (HR = 3.02; 95% CI, 2.19-4.17) and osteoporosis (HR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.16-1.49). Following adjustment for serum vitamin D concentrations (n = 2748), increased risks for death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis persisted, but not for cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease.

Conclusion

In a large population-based study, PHPT was associated with death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis, independent of serum vitamin D concentration.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad103/49516503/dgad103.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10438903 36178783,https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.9.34,Phenotyping of ABCA4 Retinopathy by Machine Learning Analysis of Full-Field Electroretinography.,"Glinton SL, Calcagni A, Lilaonitkul W, Pontikos N, Vermeirsch S, Zhang G, Arno G, Wagner SK, Michaelides M, Keane PA, Webster AR, Mahroo OA, Robson AG.",,Translational vision science & technology,2022,2022-09-01,Y,,,,"

Purpose

Biallelic pathogenic variants in ABCA4 are the commonest cause of monogenic retinal disease. The full-field electroretinogram (ERG) quantifies severity of retinal dysfunction. We explored application of machine learning in ERG interpretation and in genotype-phenotype correlations.

Methods

International standard ERGs in 597 cases of ABCA4 retinopathy were classified into three functional phenotypes by human experts: macular dysfunction alone (group 1), or with additional generalized cone dysfunction (group 2), or both cone and rod dysfunction (group 3). Algorithms were developed for automatic selection and measurement of ERG components and for classification of ERG phenotype. Elastic-net regression was used to quantify severity of specific ABCA4 variants based on effect on retinal function.

Results

Of the cohort, 57.6%, 7.4%, and 35.0% fell into groups 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Compared with human experts, automated classification showed overall accuracy of 91.8% (SE, 0.169), and 96.7%, 39.3%, and 93.8% for groups 1, 2, and 3. When groups 2 and 3 were combined, the average holdout group accuracy was 93.6% (SE, 0.142). A regression model yielded phenotypic severity scores for the 47 commonest ABCA4 variants.

Conclusions

This study quantifies prevalence of phenotypic groups based on retinal function in a uniquely large single-center cohort of patients with electrophysiologically characterized ABCA4 retinopathy and shows applicability of machine learning. Novel regression-based analyses of ABCA4 variant severity could identify individuals predisposed to severe disease.

Translational relevance

Machine learning can yield meaningful classifications of ERG data, and data-driven scoring of genetic variants can identify patients likely to benefit most from future therapies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.9.34; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.9.34; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9527330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9527330?pdf=render +36810667,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103,Morbidity Associated With Primary Hyperparathyroidism-A Population-based Study With a Subanalysis on Vitamin D.,"Soto-Pedre E, Lin YY, Soto-Hernaez J, Newey PJ, Leese GP.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Calcium; Vitamin D; Mortality; Primary Hyperparathyroidism,,,"

Context

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is associated with increased risk of morbidity and death, and vitamin D levels are a potentially confounding variable.

Objective

The aim of this study was to assess morbidity and mortality associated with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Methods

In this population-based retrospective matched cohort study, data linkage of biochemistry, hospital admissions, prescribing, imaging, pathology, and deaths was used to identify patients across the region of Tayside, Scotland, who had PHPT from 1997 to 2019. Cox proportional hazards models and hazards ratios (HR) were used to explore the relationship between exposure to PHPT and several clinical outcomes. Comparisons were made with an age- and gender-matched cohort.

Results

In 11 616 people with PHPT (66.8% female), with a mean follow-up period of 8.8 years, there was an adjusted HR of death of 2.05 (95% CI, 1.97-2.13) for those exposed to PHPT. There was also an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (HR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.24-1.45), cerebrovascular disease (HR = 1.29; 95% CI, 1.15-1.45), diabetes (HR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.26-1.54), renal stones (HR = 3.02; 95% CI, 2.19-4.17) and osteoporosis (HR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.16-1.49). Following adjustment for serum vitamin D concentrations (n = 2748), increased risks for death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis persisted, but not for cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease.

Conclusion

In a large population-based study, PHPT was associated with death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis, independent of serum vitamin D concentration.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad103/49516503/dgad103.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10438903 36139476,https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11182901,Dysregulated Neutrophil Phenotype and Function in Hospitalised Non-ICU COVID-19 Pneumonia.,"Belchamber KBR, Thein OS, Hazeldine J, Grudzinska FS, Faniyi AA, Hughes MJ, Jasper AE, Yip KP, Crowley LE, Lugg ST, Sapey E, Parekh D, Thickett DR, Scott A.",,Cells,2022,2022-09-16,Y,Inflammation; neutrophil; innate immunity; Covid-19,,,"Rationale: Infection with the SARS-CoV2 virus is associated with elevated neutrophil counts. Evidence of neutrophil dysfunction in COVID-19 is based on transcriptomics or single functional assays. Cell functions are interwoven pathways, and understanding the effect across the spectrum of neutrophil function may identify therapeutic targets. Objectives: Examine neutrophil phenotype and function in 41 hospitalised, non-ICU COVID-19 patients versus 23 age-matched controls (AMC) and 26 community acquired pneumonia patients (CAP). Methods: Isolated neutrophils underwent ex vivo analyses for migration, bacterial phagocytosis, ROS generation, NETosis and receptor expression. Circulating DNAse 1 activity, levels of cfDNA, MPO, VEGF, IL-6 and sTNFRI were measured and correlated to clinical outcome. Serial sampling on day three to five post hospitalization were also measured. The effect of ex vivo PI3K inhibition was measured in a further cohort of 18 COVID-19 patients. Results: Compared to AMC and CAP, COVID-19 neutrophils demonstrated elevated transmigration (p = 0.0397) and NETosis (p = 0.0332), and impaired phagocytosis (p = 0.0036) associated with impaired ROS generation (p < 0.0001). The percentage of CD54+ neutrophils (p < 0.001) was significantly increased, while surface expression of CD11b (p = 0.0014) and PD-L1 (p = 0.006) were significantly decreased in COVID-19. COVID-19 and CAP patients showed increased systemic markers of NETosis including increased cfDNA (p = 0.0396) and impaired DNAse activity (p < 0.0001). The ex vivo inhibition of PI3K γ and δ reduced NET release by COVID-19 neutrophils (p = 0.0129). Conclusions: COVID-19 is associated with neutrophil dysfunction across all main effector functions, with altered phenotype, elevated migration and NETosis, and impaired antimicrobial responses. These changes highlight that targeting neutrophil function may help modulate COVID-19 severity.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/11/18/2901/pdf?version=1663743438; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11182901; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9496854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9496854?pdf=render 37429634,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpo.2023.0057,UK research data resources based on primary care electronic health records: review and summary for potential users.,"Edwards L, Pickett J, Ashcroft DM, Dambha-Miller H, Majeed A, Mallen C, Petersen I, Qureshi N, van Staa T, Abel G, Carvalho C, Denholm R, Kontopantelis E, Macaulay A, Macleod J.",,BJGP open,2023,2023-09-19,N,Population; Primary Health Care; Electronic Health Records; Primary Care Databases; Population Level Linked Data,,,"

Background

The range and scope of electronic health record (EHR) data assets in the UK has recently increased, which has been mainly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Summarising and comparing the large primary care resources will help researchers to choose the data resources most suited to their needs.

Aim

To describe the current landscape of UK EHR databases and considerations of access and use of these resources relevant to researchers.

Design & setting

Narrative review of EHR databases in the UK.

Method

Information was collected from the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway, publicly available websites and other published data, and from key informants. The eligibility criteria were population-based open-access databases sampling EHRs across the whole population of one or more countries in the UK. Published database characteristics were extracted and summarised, and these were corroborated with resource providers. Results were synthesised narratively.

Results

Nine large national primary care EHR data resources were identified and summarised. These resources are enhanced by linkage to other administrative data to a varying extent. Resources are mainly intended to support observational research, although some can support experimental studies. There is considerable overlap of populations covered. While all resources are accessible to bona fide researchers, access mechanisms, costs, timescales, and other considerations vary across databases.

Conclusion

Researchers are currently able to access primary care EHR data from several sources. Choice of data resource is likely to be driven by project needs and access considerations. The landscape of data resources based on primary care EHRs in the UK continues to evolve.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpo.2023.0057; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGPO.2023.0057 37247403,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad077,Attainment of NICE blood pressure targets among older people with newly diagnosed hypertension: nationwide linked electronic health records cohort study.,"Todd O, Johnson O, Wilkinson C, Hollinghurst J, Dondo TB, Yadegarfar ME, Sheppard JP, McManus RJ, Gale CP, Clegg A.",,Age and ageing,2023,2023-05-01,Y,Hypertension; Blood pressure; Frailty; Older People; Treatment Target,,,"

Background

it is not known if clinical practice reflects guideline recommendations for the management of hypertension in older people and whether guideline adherence varies according to overall health status.

Aims

to describe the proportion of older people attaining National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline blood pressure targets within 1 year of hypertension diagnosis and determine predictors of target attainment.

Methods

a nationwide cohort study of Welsh primary care data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank including patients aged ≥65 years newly diagnosed with hypertension between 1st June 2011 and 1st June 2016. The primary outcome was attainment of NICE guideline blood pressure targets as measured by the latest blood pressure recording up to 1 year after diagnosis. Predictors of target attainment were investigated using logistic regression.

Results

there were 26,392 patients (55% women, median age 71 [IQR 68-77] years) included, of which 13,939 (52.8%) attained a target blood pressure within a median follow-up of 9 months. Success in attaining target blood pressure was associated with a history of atrial fibrillation (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.11, 1.43), heart failure (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.06, 1.49) and myocardial infarction (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.10, 1.32), all compared to no history of each, respectively. Care home residence, the severity of frailty, and increasing co-morbidity were not associated with target attainment following adjustment for confounder variables.

Conclusions

blood pressure remains insufficiently controlled 1 year after diagnosis in nearly half of older people with newly diagnosed hypertension, but target attainment appears unrelated to baseline frailty, multi-morbidity or care home residence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad077; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad077; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226747; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226747?pdf=render 36441117,https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.13523,Predictors of hospital readmission for patients diagnosed with delirium: An electronic health record data analysis.,"Friedrich ME, Perera G, Leutgeb L, Haardt D, Frey R, Stewart R, Mueller C.",,Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica,2023,2022-12-28,Y,Dementia; risk factors; Delirium; Readmission,,,"

Introduction

Delirium is an acute and fluctuating change in attention and cognition that increases the risk of functional decline, institutionalisation and death in hospitalised patients. After delirium, patients have a significantly higher risk of readmission to hospital. Our aim was to investigate factors associated with hospital readmission in people with delirium.

Methods

We carried out an observational retrospective cohort study using linked mental health care and hospitalisation records from South London. Logistic regression models were used to predict the odds of 30-day readmission and Cox proportional hazard models to calculate readmission risks when not restricting follow-up time.

Results

Of 2814 patients (mean age 78.9 years SD ±11.8) discharged from hospital after an episode of delirium, 823 (29.3%) were readmitted within 30 days. Depressed mood (odds ratio (OR) 1.34 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08-1.66)), moderate-to-severe physical health problems (OR 1.67 (95% CI 1.18-2.2.36)) and a history of serious circulatory disease (OR 1.29 (95% CI 1.07-1.55)) were associated with higher odds of hospital readmission, whereas a diagnosis of delirium superimposed on dementia (OR 0.67 (95% CI 0.53-0.84)) and problematic alcohol/substance (OR 0.54 (95% CI 0.33-0.89)) use were associated with lower odds. Cox proportionate hazard models showed similar results.

Conclusion

Almost one-third of patients with delirium were readmitted within a short period of time, a more detailed understanding of the underlying risk factors could help prevent readmissions. Our findings indicate that the aetiology (as alcohol-related delirium), the recognition that delirium occurred in the context of dementia, as well as potentially modifiable factors, as depressed mood affect readmission risk, and should be assessed in clinical settings.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/acps.13523; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.13523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10463092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10463092?pdf=render -36580462,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381,Investigating the potential impact of PCSK9-inhibitors on mood disorders using eQTL-based Mendelian randomization.,"Aman A, Slob EAW, Ward J, Cullen B, Graham N, Lyall DM, Sattar N, Strawbridge RJ.",,PloS one,2022,2022-12-29,Y,,,,"Prescription of PCSK9-inhibitors has increased in recent years but not much is known about its off-target effects. PCSK9-expression is evident in non-hepatic tissues, notably the brain, and genetic variation in the PCSK9 locus has recently been shown to be associated with mood disorder-related traits. We investigated whether PCSK9 inhibition, proxied by a genetic reduction in expression of PCSK9 mRNA, might have a causal adverse effect on mood disorder-related traits. We used genetic variants in the PCSK9 locus associated with reduced PCSK9 expression (eQTLs) in the European population from GTEx v8 and examined the effect on PCSK9 protein levels and three mood disorder-related traits (major depressive disorder, mood instability, and neuroticism), using summary statistics from the largest European ancestry genome-wide association studies. We conducted summary-based Mendelian randomization analyses to estimate the causal effects, and attempted replication using data from eQTLGen, Brain-eMETA, and the CAGE consortium. We found that genetically reduced PCSK9 gene-expression levels were significantly associated with reduced PCSK9 protein levels but not with increased risk of mood disorder-related traits. Further investigation of nearby genes demonstrated that reduced USP24 gene-expression levels was significantly associated with increased risk of mood instability (p-value range = 5.2x10-5-0.03), and neuroticism score (p-value range = 2.9x10-5-0.02), but not with PCSK9 protein levels. Our results suggest that genetic variation in this region acts on mood disorders through a PCSK9-independent pathway, and therefore PCSK9-inhibitors are unlikely to have an adverse impact on mood disorder-related traits.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279381&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310?pdf=render 36215226,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230,Effect of a test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid-19: phase 3 randomised controlled trial (CORONAVIT).,"Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Greenig M, Talaei M, Perdek N, Pfeffer P, Vivaldi G, Maltby S, Symons J, Barlow NL, Normandale A, Garcha R, Richter AG, Faustini SE, Orton C, Ford D, Lyons RA, Davies GA, Kee F, Griffiths CJ, Norrie J, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Relton C, Martineau AR.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-09-07,Y,,,,"

Objective

To determine the effect of population level implementation of a test-and-treat approach to correction of suboptimal vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) <75 nmol/L) on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid 19.

Design

Phase 3 open label randomised controlled trial.

Setting

United Kingdom.

Participants

6200 people aged ≥16 years who were not taking vitamin D supplements at baseline.

Interventions

Offer of a postal finger prick test of blood 25(OH)D concentration with provision of a six month supply of lower dose vitamin D (800 IU/day, n=1550) or higher dose vitamin D (3200 IU/day, n=1550) to those with blood 25(OH)D concentration <75 nmol/L, compared with no offer of testing or supplementation (n=3100). Follow-up was for six months.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was the proportion of participants with at least one swab test or doctor confirmed acute respiratory tract infection of any cause. A secondary outcome was the proportion of participants with swab test confirmed covid-19. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios and associated 95% confidence intervals. The primary analysis was conducted by intention to treat.

Results

Of 3100 participants offered a vitamin D test, 2958 (95.4%) accepted and 2674 (86.3%) had 25(OH)D concentrations <75 nmol/L and received vitamin D supplements (n=1328 lower dose, n=1346 higher dose). Compared with 136/2949 (4.6%) participants in the no offer group, at least one acute respiratory tract infection of any cause occurred in 87/1515 (5.7%) in the lower dose group (odds ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval 0.96 to 1.66) and 76/1515 (5.0%) in the higher dose group (1.09, 0.82 to 1.46). Compared with 78/2949 (2.6%) participants in the no offer group, 55/1515 (3.6%) developed covid-19 in the lower dose group (1.39, 0.98 to 1.97) and 45/1515 (3.0%) in the higher dose group (1.13, 0.78 to 1.63).

Conclusions

Among people aged 16 years and older with a high baseline prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D status, implementation of a population level test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation was not associated with a reduction in risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection or covid-19.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04579640.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2022-071230.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358?pdf=render -37586846,https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2023-002378,Cardiovascular imaging research priorities.,"MacArthur JAL, Yong GL, Dweck MR, Fairbairn TA, Weir-McCall J, Puyol-Antón E, Meldrum J, Blakelock P, Khan S, Morrice L, Sudlow CLM, Williams MC.",,Open heart,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Health Services; Research Design; Diagnostic Imaging,,,"

Objectives

Two interlinked surveys were organised by the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre, which aimed to establish national priorities for cardiovascular imaging research.

Methods

First a single time point public survey explored their views of cardiovascular imaging research. Subsequently, a three-phase modified Delphi prioritisation exercise was performed by researchers and healthcare professionals. Research questions were submitted by a diverse range of stakeholders to the question 'What are the most important research questions that cardiovascular imaging should be used to address?'. Of these, 100 research questions were prioritised based on their positive impact for patients. The 32 highest rated questions were further prioritised based on three domains: positive impact for patients, potential to reduce inequalities in healthcare and ability to be implemented into UK healthcare practice in a timely manner.

Results

The public survey was completed by 354 individuals, with the highest rated areas relating to improving treatment, quality of life and diagnosis. In the second survey, 506 research questions were submitted by diverse stakeholders. Prioritisation was performed by 90 researchers or healthcare professionals in the first round and 64 in the second round. The highest rated questions were 'How do we ensure patients have equal access to cardiovascular imaging when it is needed?' and 'How can we use cardiovascular imaging to avoid invasive procedures'. There was general agreement between healthcare professionals and researchers regarding priorities for the positive impact for patients and least agreement for their ability to be implemented into UK healthcare practice in a timely manner. There was broad overlap between the prioritised research questions and the results of the public survey.

Conclusions

We have identified priorities for cardiovascular imaging research, incorporating the views of diverse stakeholders. These priorities will be useful for researchers, funders and other organisations planning future research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2023-002378; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10432634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10432634?pdf=render 37363696,https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5885059,Gender Disparity in Expression of Sarcopenia in Haemodialysis Recipients: Analysis from the FITNESS Cohort.,"Anderson BM, Wilson DV, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.",,International journal of nephrology,2023,2023-06-17,Y,,,,"

Background

There has been little exploration of the interplay between sarcopenia and frailty in haemodialysis, particularly regarding gender difference. We aimed to (1) assess whether ultrasound-derived low muscle mass (LMM) and sarcopenia are more common in male or female haemodialysis recipients; (2) assess whether age influences any observed gender difference, and (3) explore the interplay between sarcopenia, frailty, and gender in haemodialysis recipients.

Methods

This was an exploratory analysis of a subgroup of adult prevalent (≥3 months) haemodialysis with frailty phenotype (FP) scores. Bilateral anterior thigh thickness (BATT) was obtained according to an established ultrasound protocol. Associations with frailty were explored via both linear and logistic regressions for BATT, LMM, and sarcopenia with a priori covariables, stratified by gender.

Results

In total of 223 studies, participants had ultrasound measurements. Males showed greater prevalence of LMM. On adjusted analyses, LMM was associated with lower hand grip strength in males (β = -4.17; 95% C.I. -7.57 to -0.77; P=0.02), but not females (β = -1.88; 95% C.I. -5.41 to 1.64; P=0.29). LMM was also associated with slower walking speed in both males (β = -0.115; 95% C.I. -0.258 to -0.013; P=0.03) and females (β = -0.152; 95% C.I. -0.300 to -0.005; P=0.04). Sarcopenia was associated with greater odds of frailty on adjusted models in males (OR = 9.86; 95% C.I. 1.8 to 54.0; P=0.01), but not females (OR = 5.16; 95% C.I. 0.22 to 124; P=0.31).

Conclusions

The clinical expression and significance of sarcopenia differ substantially between males and females on haemodialysis. Further work is required to elucidate underlying mechanisms and guide tailored treatment.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5885059; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10290558; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10290558?pdf=render +36580462,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381,Investigating the potential impact of PCSK9-inhibitors on mood disorders using eQTL-based Mendelian randomization.,"Aman A, Slob EAW, Ward J, Cullen B, Graham N, Lyall DM, Sattar N, Strawbridge RJ.",,PloS one,2022,2022-12-29,Y,,,,"Prescription of PCSK9-inhibitors has increased in recent years but not much is known about its off-target effects. PCSK9-expression is evident in non-hepatic tissues, notably the brain, and genetic variation in the PCSK9 locus has recently been shown to be associated with mood disorder-related traits. We investigated whether PCSK9 inhibition, proxied by a genetic reduction in expression of PCSK9 mRNA, might have a causal adverse effect on mood disorder-related traits. We used genetic variants in the PCSK9 locus associated with reduced PCSK9 expression (eQTLs) in the European population from GTEx v8 and examined the effect on PCSK9 protein levels and three mood disorder-related traits (major depressive disorder, mood instability, and neuroticism), using summary statistics from the largest European ancestry genome-wide association studies. We conducted summary-based Mendelian randomization analyses to estimate the causal effects, and attempted replication using data from eQTLGen, Brain-eMETA, and the CAGE consortium. We found that genetically reduced PCSK9 gene-expression levels were significantly associated with reduced PCSK9 protein levels but not with increased risk of mood disorder-related traits. Further investigation of nearby genes demonstrated that reduced USP24 gene-expression levels was significantly associated with increased risk of mood instability (p-value range = 5.2x10-5-0.03), and neuroticism score (p-value range = 2.9x10-5-0.02), but not with PCSK9 protein levels. Our results suggest that genetic variation in this region acts on mood disorders through a PCSK9-independent pathway, and therefore PCSK9-inhibitors are unlikely to have an adverse impact on mood disorder-related traits.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279381&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310?pdf=render +37586846,https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2023-002378,Cardiovascular imaging research priorities.,"MacArthur JAL, Yong GL, Dweck MR, Fairbairn TA, Weir-McCall J, Puyol-Antón E, Meldrum J, Blakelock P, Khan S, Morrice L, Sudlow CLM, Williams MC.",,Open heart,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Health Services; Research Design; Diagnostic Imaging,,,"

Objectives

Two interlinked surveys were organised by the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre, which aimed to establish national priorities for cardiovascular imaging research.

Methods

First a single time point public survey explored their views of cardiovascular imaging research. Subsequently, a three-phase modified Delphi prioritisation exercise was performed by researchers and healthcare professionals. Research questions were submitted by a diverse range of stakeholders to the question 'What are the most important research questions that cardiovascular imaging should be used to address?'. Of these, 100 research questions were prioritised based on their positive impact for patients. The 32 highest rated questions were further prioritised based on three domains: positive impact for patients, potential to reduce inequalities in healthcare and ability to be implemented into UK healthcare practice in a timely manner.

Results

The public survey was completed by 354 individuals, with the highest rated areas relating to improving treatment, quality of life and diagnosis. In the second survey, 506 research questions were submitted by diverse stakeholders. Prioritisation was performed by 90 researchers or healthcare professionals in the first round and 64 in the second round. The highest rated questions were 'How do we ensure patients have equal access to cardiovascular imaging when it is needed?' and 'How can we use cardiovascular imaging to avoid invasive procedures'. There was general agreement between healthcare professionals and researchers regarding priorities for the positive impact for patients and least agreement for their ability to be implemented into UK healthcare practice in a timely manner. There was broad overlap between the prioritised research questions and the results of the public survey.

Conclusions

We have identified priorities for cardiovascular imaging research, incorporating the views of diverse stakeholders. These priorities will be useful for researchers, funders and other organisations planning future research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2023-002378; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10432634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10432634?pdf=render 35024157,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211059350,Digitally enabled flash glucose monitoring for inpatients with COVID-19: Feasibility and pilot implementation in a teaching NHS Hospital in the UK.,"Robbins T, Hopper A, Brophy J, Pearson E, Suthantirakumar R, Vankad M, Igharo N, Baitule S, Clark CC, Arvanitis TN, Sankar S, Kyrou I, Randeva H.",,Digital health,2022,2022-01-07,Y,Diabetes; Inpatient Care; Digital Health; Flash Glucose Monitoring; Covid-19,,,"

Background

COVID-19 placed significant challenges on healthcare systems. People with diabetes are at high risk of severe COVID-19 with poor outcomes. We describe the first reported use of inpatient digital flash glucose monitoring devices in a UK NHS hospital to support management of people with diabetes hospitalized for COVID-19.

Methods

Inpatients at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust with COVID-19 and diabetes were considered for digitally enabled flash glucose monitoring during their hospitalization. Glucose monitoring data were analysed, and potential associations were explored between relevant parameters, including time in hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia, and in range, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), average glucose, body mass index (BMI), and length of stay.

Results

During this pilot, digital flash glucose monitoring devices were offered to 25 inpatients, of whom 20 (type 2/type 1: 19/1; mean age: 70.6 years; mean HbA1c: 68.2 mmol/mol; mean BMI: 28.2 kg/m2) accepted and used these (80% uptake). In total, over 2788 h of flash glucose monitoring were recorded for these inpatients with COVID-19 and diabetes. Length of stay was not associated with any of the studied variables (all p-values >0.05). Percentage of time in hyperglycaemia exhibited significant associations with both percentage of time in hypoglycaemia and percentage of time in range, as well as with HbA1c (all p-values <0.05). The average glucose was significantly associated with percentage of time in hypoglycaemia, percentage of time in range, and HbA1c (all p-values <0.05).

Discussion

We report the first pilot inpatient use of digital flash glucose monitors in an NHS hospital to support care of inpatients with diabetes and COVID-19. Overall, there are strong arguments for the inpatient use of these devices in the COVID-19 setting, and the findings of this pilot demonstrate feasibility of this digitally enabled approach and support wider use for inpatients with diabetes and COVID-19.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211059350; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211059350; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8744149; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8744149?pdf=render 34082729,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-021-01533-7,A systematic review of natural language processing applied to radiology reports.,"Casey A, Davidson E, Poon M, Dong H, Duma D, Grivas A, Grover C, Suárez-Paniagua V, Tobin R, Whiteley W, Wu H, Alex B.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2021,2021-06-03,Y,Systematic review; Radiology; Natural Language Processing,,,"

Background

Natural language processing (NLP) has a significant role in advancing healthcare and has been found to be key in extracting structured information from radiology reports. Understanding recent developments in NLP application to radiology is of significance but recent reviews on this are limited. This study systematically assesses and quantifies recent literature in NLP applied to radiology reports.

Methods

We conduct an automated literature search yielding 4836 results using automated filtering, metadata enriching steps and citation search combined with manual review. Our analysis is based on 21 variables including radiology characteristics, NLP methodology, performance, study, and clinical application characteristics.

Results

We present a comprehensive analysis of the 164 publications retrieved with publications in 2019 almost triple those in 2015. Each publication is categorised into one of 6 clinical application categories. Deep learning use increases in the period but conventional machine learning approaches are still prevalent. Deep learning remains challenged when data is scarce and there is little evidence of adoption into clinical practice. Despite 17% of studies reporting greater than 0.85 F1 scores, it is hard to comparatively evaluate these approaches given that most of them use different datasets. Only 14 studies made their data and 15 their code available with 10 externally validating results.

Conclusions

Automated understanding of clinical narratives of the radiology reports has the potential to enhance the healthcare process and we show that research in this field continues to grow. Reproducibility and explainability of models are important if the domain is to move applications into clinical use. More could be done to share code enabling validation of methods on different institutional data and to reduce heterogeneity in reporting of study properties allowing inter-study comparisons. Our results have significance for researchers in the field providing a systematic synthesis of existing work to build on, identify gaps, opportunities for collaboration and avoid duplication.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-021-01533-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-021-01533-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176715; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176715?pdf=render 34430954,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00168-9,Profile of humoral and cellular immune responses to single doses of BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccines in residents and staff within residential care homes (VIVALDI): an observational study.,"Tut G, Lancaster T, Krutikov M, Sylla P, Bone D, Kaur N, Spalkova E, Bentley C, Amin U, Jadir AT, Hulme S, Butler MS, Ayodele M, Bruton R, Shrotri M, Azmi B, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L, Moss P.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2021,2021-08-19,Y,,,,"

Background

Residents of long-term care facilities (LTCFs) have been prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination because of the high COVID-19 mortality in this population. Several countries have implemented an extended interval of up to 12 weeks between the first and second vaccine doses to increase population coverage of single-dose vaccination. We aimed to assess the magnitude and quality of adaptive immune responses following a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine in LTCF residents and staff.

Methods

From the LTCFs participating in the ongoing VIVALDI study (ISRCTN14447421), staff and residents who had received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2 [tozinameran] or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), had pre-vaccination and post-vaccination blood samples (collected between Dec 11, 2020, and Feb 16, 2021), and could be linked to a pseudoidentifier in the COVID-19 Data Store were included in our cohort. Past infection with SARS-CoV-2 was defined on the basis of nucleocapsid-specific IgG antibodies being detected through a semiquantitative immunoassay, and participants who tested positive on this assay after but not before vaccination were excluded from the study. Processed blood samples were assessed for spike-specific immune responses, including spike-specific IgG antibody titres, T-cell responses to spike protein peptide mixes, and inhibition of ACE2 binding by spike protein from four variants of SARS-CoV-2 (the original strain as well as the B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1 variants). Responses before and after vaccination were compared on the basis of age, previous infection status, role (staff or resident), and time since vaccination.

Findings

Our cohort comprised 124 participants from 14 LTCFs: 89 (72%) staff (median age 48 years [IQR 35·5-56]) and 35 (28%) residents (87 years [77-90]). Blood samples were collected a median 40 days (IQR 25-47; range 6-52) after vaccination. 30 (24%) participants (18 [20%] staff and 12 [34%] residents) had serological evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. All participants with previous infection had high antibody titres following vaccination that were independent of age (r s=0·076, p=0·70). In participants without evidence of previous infection, titres were negatively correlated with age (r s=-0·434, p<0·0001) and were 8·2-times lower in residents than in staff. This effect appeared to result from a kinetic delay antibody generation in older infection-naive participants, with the negative age correlation disappearing only in samples taken more than 42 days post-vaccination (r s=-0·207, p=0·20; n=40), in contrast to samples taken after 0-21 days (r s=-0·774, p=0·0043; n=12) or 22-42 days (r s=-0·437, p=0·0034; n=43). Spike-specific cellular responses were similar between older and younger participants. In infection-naive participants, antibody inhibition of ACE2 binding by spike protein from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain was negatively correlated with age (r s=-0·439, p<0·0001), and was significantly lower against spike protein from the B.1.351 variant (median inhibition 31% [14-100], p=0·010) and the P.1 variant (23% [14-97], p<0·0001) than against the original strain (58% [27-100]). By contrast, a single dose of vaccine resulted in around 100% inhibition of the spike-ACE2 interaction against all variants in people with a history of infection.

Interpretation

History of SARS-CoV-2 infection impacts the magnitude and quality of antibody response after a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine in LTCF residents. Residents who are infection-naive have delayed antibody responses to the first dose of vaccine and should be considered for an early second dose where possible.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00168-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00168-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8376213 @@ -183,15 +183,15 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 36750952,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02109-3,A multi-granular stacked regression for forecasting long-term demand in Emergency Departments.,"James C, Wood R, Denholm R.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2023,2023-02-07,Y,Forecasting; Emergency Department; Machine Learning; Population Health; Service Demand,,,"

Background

In the United Kingdom, Emergency Departments (EDs) are under significant pressure due to an ever-increasing number of attendances. Understanding how the capacity of other urgent care services and the health of a population may influence ED attendances is imperative for commissioners and policy makers to develop long-term strategies for reducing this pressure and improving quality and safety.

Methods

We developed a novel multi-granular stacked regression (MGSR) model using publicly available data to predict future mean monthly ED attendances within Clinical Commissioning Group regions in England. The MGSR combines measures of population health and health service capacity in other related settings. We assessed model performance using the R-squared statistic, measuring variance explained, and the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), measuring forecasting accuracy. We used the MGSR to forecast ED demand over a 4-year period under hypothetical scenarios where service capacity is increased, or population health is improved.

Results

Measures of service capacity explain 41 ± 4% of the variance in monthly ED attendances and measures of population health explain 62 ± 22%. The MGSR leads to an overall improvement in performance, with an R-squared of 0.79 ± 0.02 and MAPE of 3% when forecasting mean monthly ED attendances per CCG. Using the MGSR to forecast long-term demand under different scenarios, we found improving population health would reduce peak ED attendances per CCG by approximately 1000 per month after 2 years.

Conclusion

Combining models of population health and wider urgent care service capacity for predicting monthly ED attendances leads to an improved performance compared to each model individually. Policies designed to improve population health will reduce ED attendances and enhance quality and safety in the long-term.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-023-02109-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02109-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9903450; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9903450?pdf=render 35027756,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01666-2,SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination rates in pregnant women in Scotland.,"Stock SJ, Carruthers J, Calvert C, Denny C, Donaghy J, Goulding A, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, McLaughlin T, Pan J, Shi T, Taylor B, Agrawal U, Auyeung B, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Murray J, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Vasileiou E, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-01-13,Y,,,,"Population-level data on COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnancy and SARS-CoV-2 infection outcomes are lacking. We describe COVID-19 vaccine uptake and SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women in Scotland, using whole-population data from a national, prospective cohort. Between the start of a COVID-19 vaccine program in Scotland, on 8 December 2020 and 31 October 2021, 25,917 COVID-19 vaccinations were given to 18,457 pregnant women. Vaccine coverage was substantially lower in pregnant women than in the general female population of 18-44 years; 32.3% of women giving birth in October 2021 had two doses of vaccine compared to 77.4% in all women. The extended perinatal mortality rate for women who gave birth within 28 d of a COVID-19 diagnosis was 22.6 per 1,000 births (95% CI 12.9-38.5; pandemic background rate 5.6 per 1,000 births; 452 out of 80,456; 95% CI 5.1-6.2). Overall, 77.4% (3,833 out of 4,950; 95% CI 76.2-78.6) of SARS-CoV-2 infections, 90.9% (748 out of 823; 95% CI 88.7-92.7) of SARS-CoV-2 associated with hospital admission and 98% (102 out of 104; 95% CI 92.5-99.7) of SARS-CoV-2 associated with critical care admission, as well as all baby deaths, occurred in pregnant women who were unvaccinated at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Addressing low vaccine uptake rates in pregnant women is imperative to protect the health of women and babies in the ongoing pandemic.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01666-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01666-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8938271; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8938271?pdf=render 36653750,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-03043-8,Ultrasound quadriceps muscle thickness is variably associated with frailty in haemodialysis recipients.,"Anderson BM, Wilson DV, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.",,BMC nephrology,2023,2023-01-18,Y,Frailty; ultrasound; epidemiology; Sarcopenia,,,"

Background

Ultrasonographic quantitation of quadriceps muscle mass is increasingly used for assessment of sarcopenia, but its relationship with frailty in haemodialysis recipients is not known. This study explores the relationship between ultrasound-derived bilateral anterior thigh thickness (BATT), sarcopenia, and frailty by common frailty tools (Frailty Phenotype [FP], Frailty Index [FI], Edmonton Frailty [EFS], and Clinical Frailty Scale [CFS]).

Methods

This was an exploratory analysis of a subgroup of adult prevalent (≥3 months) haemodialysis recipients deeply phenotyped for frailty. Ultrasound assessment of BATT was obtained with participants at an angle of ≤45°, with legs outstretched and knees resting at 10°-20°, according to an established protocol. Associations with frailty were explored via both linear and logistic regressions for BATT, Low Muscle Mass (LMM), and sarcopenia with stepwise adjustment for a priori covariables.

Results

In total 223 study participants had ultrasound measurements. Frailty ranged from 34% for FP to 58% for FI. BATT was associated with increasing frailty on simple linear regression by all frailty tools, but lost significance on addition of covariables. Upon dichotomising frailty tools into Frail/Not Frail, BATT was associated with frailty by all tools on univariable analyses, but only retained association for EFS on the fully adjusted model (OR 0.97, 95% C.I. 0.94-1.00, P = 0.05).

Conclusions

Ultrasound measures of quadriceps thickness is variably associated with frailty in prevalent haemodialysis recipients, dependent upon the frailty tool used, but not independent of other variables. Further work is required to establish the added value of sarcopenia measurement in frail haemodialysis patients.

Trial registration

Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT03071107 registered 06/03/2017.",,pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-022-03043-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-03043-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9847024; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9847024?pdf=render -37561812,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368,Call detail record aggregation methodology impacts infectious disease models informed by human mobility.,"Gibbs H, Musah A, Seidu O, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Gray J, Adewole WA, Cheshire J, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,PLoS computational biology,2023,2023-08-10,Y,,,,"This paper demonstrates how two different methods used to calculate population-level mobility from Call Detail Records (CDR) produce varying predictions of the spread of epidemics informed by these data. Our findings are based on one CDR dataset describing inter-district movement in Ghana in 2021, produced using two different aggregation methodologies. One methodology, ""all pairs,"" is designed to retain long distance network connections while the other, ""sequential"" methodology is designed to accurately reflect the volume of travel between locations. We show how the choice of methodology feeds through models of human mobility to the predictions of a metapopulation SEIR model of disease transmission. We also show that this impact varies depending on the location of pathogen introduction and the transmissibility of infections. For central locations or highly transmissible diseases, we do not observe significant differences between aggregation methodologies on the predicted spread of disease. For less transmissible diseases or those introduced into remote locations, we find that the choice of aggregation methodology influences the speed of spatial spread as well as the size of the peak number of infections in individual districts. Our findings can help researchers and users of epidemiological models to understand how methodological choices at the level of model inputs may influence the results of models of infectious disease transmission, as well as the circumstances in which these choices do not alter model predictions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843?pdf=render 32300742,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100296,Violence-related knife injuries in a UK city; epidemiology and impact on secondary care resources.,"Malik NS, Munoz B, de Courcey C, Imran R, Lee KC, Chernbumroong S, Bishop J, Lord JM, Gkoutos G, Bowley DM, Foster MA.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-03-03,Y,,,,"

Background

The incidence of knife-related injuries is rising across the UK. This study aimed to determine the spectrum of knife-related injuries in a major UK city, with regards to patient and injury characteristics. A secondary aim was to quantify their impact on secondary care resources.

Methods

Observational study of patients aged 16+ years admitted to a major trauma centre following knife-related injuries resulting from interpersonal violence (May 2015 to April 2018). Patients were identified using Emergency Department and discharge coding, blood bank and UK national Trauma Audit and Research prospective registries. Patient and injury characteristics, outcome and resource utilisation were collected from ambulance and hospital records.

Findings

532 patients were identified; 93% male, median age 26 years (IQR 20-35). Median injury severity score was 9 (IQR 3-13). 346 (65%) underwent surgery; 133 (25%) required intensive care; 95 (17·9%) received blood transfusion. Median length of stay was 3·3 days (IQR 1·7-6·0). In-hospital mortality was 10/532 (1·9%). 98 patients (18·5%) had previous attendance with violence-related injuries. 24/37 females (64·9%) were injured in a domestic setting. Intoxication with alcohol (19·2%) and illicit drugs (17·6%) was common. Causative weapon was household knife in 9%, knife (other/unspecified) in 38·0%, machete in 13·9%, small folding blade (2·8%) and, unrecorded in 36·3%.

Interpretation

Knife injuries constitute 12·9% of trauma team workload. Violence recidivism and intoxication are common, and females are predominantly injured in a domestic setting, presenting opportunities for targeted violence reduction interventions. 13·9% of injuries involved machetes, with implications for law enforcement strategies.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537020300407/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100296; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7152819; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7152819?pdf=render +37561812,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368,Call detail record aggregation methodology impacts infectious disease models informed by human mobility.,"Gibbs H, Musah A, Seidu O, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Gray J, Adewole WA, Cheshire J, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,PLoS computational biology,2023,2023-08-10,Y,,,,"This paper demonstrates how two different methods used to calculate population-level mobility from Call Detail Records (CDR) produce varying predictions of the spread of epidemics informed by these data. Our findings are based on one CDR dataset describing inter-district movement in Ghana in 2021, produced using two different aggregation methodologies. One methodology, ""all pairs,"" is designed to retain long distance network connections while the other, ""sequential"" methodology is designed to accurately reflect the volume of travel between locations. We show how the choice of methodology feeds through models of human mobility to the predictions of a metapopulation SEIR model of disease transmission. We also show that this impact varies depending on the location of pathogen introduction and the transmissibility of infections. For central locations or highly transmissible diseases, we do not observe significant differences between aggregation methodologies on the predicted spread of disease. For less transmissible diseases or those introduced into remote locations, we find that the choice of aggregation methodology influences the speed of spatial spread as well as the size of the peak number of infections in individual districts. Our findings can help researchers and users of epidemiological models to understand how methodological choices at the level of model inputs may influence the results of models of infectious disease transmission, as well as the circumstances in which these choices do not alter model predictions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843?pdf=render 35756853,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100428,"Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on asthma exacerbations: Retrospective cohort study of over 500,000 patients in a national English primary care database.","Shah SA, Quint JK, Sheikh A.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-06-15,Y,Asthma; Pandemic; Asthma Exacerbations; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Several countries reported a substantial reduction in asthma exacerbations associated with COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions. However, it is not known if these early reported declines were short-term and if these have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels following easing of lockdown restrictions.

Methods

We undertook a retrospective, cohort study of all asthma patients in a national primary care database of almost 10 million patients, Optimum Patient Care Database (OPCRD), identified from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2015, using a previously validated algorithm. We subsequently followed the identified cohort of asthma patients from January 1, 2016, to October 3, 2021, and identified every asthma exacerbation episode with a validated algorithm. To quantify any pandemic-related change in exacerbations, we created a control time-series (mean of 2016-2019) and then compared the change in exacerbation rate in 2020-2021 over quarterly periods when compared with the control period (the pre-pandemic period). We undertook overall and stratified analyses by age group, sex, and English region.

Findings

We identified 100,362 asthma patients (502,669 patient-years) from across England who experienced at least one exacerbation episode (298,390 exacerbation episodes during the entire follow-up). Except for the first quarter of 2020, the exacerbation rates were substantially lower (>25%) during all quarters in 2020-2021 when compared with the rates during 2016-2019 (39.7% (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 34.6, 44.9) in quarter-2, 2020; 46.5% (95%CI: 36.7, 56.4) in quarter-3, 2020; 56.3% (95%CI: 48.7, 63.9) in quarter-4, 2020; 63.2% (95%CI: 53.9, 72.5) in quarter-1, 2021; 57.7% (95%CI: 52.9, 62.4) in quarter-2, 2021; 53.3% (95%CI: 43.8, 62.8) in quarter-3, 2021).

Interpretation

There was a substantial and persistent reduction in asthma exacerbations across England over the first 18 months after the first lockdown. This is unlikely to be adequately explained by changes in health-seeking behaviour, pandemic-related healthcare service disruption, or any air-quality improvements.

Funding

Asthma UK, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), Medical Research Council (MRC), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100428; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100428; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9213032; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9213032?pdf=render 36583230,https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.5556,Circulating gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and risk of pancreatic cancer: A prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank.,"Liao W, Yang Y, Yang H, Qu Y, Song H, Li Q.",,Cancer medicine,2023,2022-12-29,Y,Prevention; Pancreatic cancer; Gamma-glutamyl Transpeptidase; European Ancestry,,,"

Background

To determine whether serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) level is associated with pancreatic cancer risk in a large prospective cohort.

Methods

The study analyzed serum GGT concentration at baseline of 421,032 participants recruited in the UK Biobank since 2006 through 2010. Information on incidence of pancreatic cancer was obtained from cancer and death registers, updated until 2015 in Scotland or 2016 in England and Wales. Adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to measure the association between serum GGT and pancreatic cancer risk.

Results

The study identified 586 cases of pancreatic cancer over a median follow-up period of 7.16 years. In the multivariable-adjusted Cox model, serum GGT level was associated with 14% higher pancreatic cancer risk (hazard ratio (HR) per one standard deviation increment of log2 GGT level = 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-1.28, p = 0.025). In the total population, the HR for the highest GGT group was 1.68 (95%CI: 1.22-2.30) versus the lowest GGT group. The HR for the highest GGT group in men (≥50.2 U/L) was 1.72 (95%CI: 1.14-2.61) and that in women (≥31.6 U/L) was 1.75 (95%CI: 1.06-2.88) versus the lowest GGT group.

Conclusion

Our findings suggested a positive association of serum GGT in pancreatic cancer etiology, implying the potential of monitoring GGT level for identifying at-risk individuals for pancreatic cancer.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.5556; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.5556; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10134379; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10134379?pdf=render 34217220,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-021-02137-9,Pre-existing cardiovascular disease rather than cardiovascular risk factors drives mortality in COVID-19.,"O'Gallagher K, Shek A, Bean DM, Bendayan R, Papachristidis A, Teo JTH, Dobson RJB, Shah AM, Zakeri R.",,BMC cardiovascular disorders,2021,2021-07-03,Y,Hypertension; Diabetes; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular risk factors; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The relative association between cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, such as diabetes and hypertension, established CV disease (CVD), and susceptibility to CV complications or mortality in COVID-19 remains unclear.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study of consecutive adults hospitalised for severe COVID-19 between 1st March and 30th June 2020. Pre-existing CVD, CV risk factors and associations with mortality and CV complications were ascertained.

Results

Among 1721 patients (median age 71 years, 57% male), 349 (20.3%) had pre-existing CVD (CVD), 888 (51.6%) had CV risk factors without CVD (RF-CVD), 484 (28.1%) had neither. Patients with CVD were older with a higher burden of non-CV comorbidities. During follow-up, 438 (25.5%) patients died: 37% with CVD, 25.7% with RF-CVD and 16.5% with neither. CVD was independently associated with in-hospital mortality among patients < 70 years of age (adjusted HR 2.43 [95% CI 1.16-5.07]), but not in those ≥ 70 years (aHR 1.14 [95% CI 0.77-1.69]). RF-CVD were not independently associated with mortality in either age group (< 70 y aHR 1.21 [95% CI 0.72-2.01], ≥ 70 y aHR 1.07 [95% CI 0.76-1.52]). Most CV complications occurred in patients with CVD (66%) versus RF-CVD (17%) or neither (11%; p < 0.001). 213 [12.4%] patients developed venous thromboembolism (VTE). CVD was not an independent predictor of VTE.

Conclusions

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, pre-existing established CVD appears to be a more important contributor to mortality than CV risk factors in the absence of CVD. CVD-related hazard may be mediated, in part, by new CV complications. Optimal care and vigilance for destabilised CVD are essential in this patient group. Trial registration n/a.",,pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12872-021-02137-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-021-02137-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8254437; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8254437?pdf=render 37463814,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069635,HbA1c recording in patients following a first diagnosis of serious mental illness: the South London and Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre case register.,"Bell N, Perera G, Chandran D, Stubbs B, Gaughran F, Stewart R.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-07-18,Y,Psychiatry; Mental health; epidemiology; Health Informatics; General Diabetes; Quality In Health Care,,,"

Objectives

To investigate factors associated with the recording of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) in people with first diagnoses of serious mental illness (SMI) in a large mental healthcare provider, and factors associated with HbA1c levels, when recorded. To our knowledge this is the first such investigation, although attention to dysglycaemia in SMI is an increasing priority in mental healthcare.

Design

The study was primarily descriptive in nature, seeking to ascertain the frequency of HbA1c recording in the mental healthcare sector for people following first SMI diagnosis.

Settings

A large mental healthcare provider, the South London and Maudsley National Health Service Trust.

Participants

Using electronic mental health records data, we ascertained patients with first SMI diagnoses (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder) from 2008 to 2018.

Outcome measures

Recording or not of HbA1c level was ascertained from routine local laboratory data and supplemented by a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm for extracting recorded values in text fields (precision 0.89%, recall 0.93%). Age, gender, ethnic group, year of diagnosis, and SMI diagnosis were investigated as covariates in relation to recording or not of HbA1c and first recorded levels.

Results

Of 21 462 patients in the sample (6546 bipolar disorder; 14 916 schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder; mean age 38.8 years, 49% female), 4106 (19.1%) had at least one HbA1c result recorded from laboratory data, increasing to 6901 (32.2%) following NLP. HbA1c recording was independently more likely in non-white ethnic groups (black compared with white: OR 2.45, 95% CI 2.29 to 2.62), and was negatively associated with age (OR per year increase 0.93, 0.92-0.95), female gender (0.83, 0.78-0.88) and bipolar disorder (0.49, 0.45-0.52).

Conclusions

Over a 10-year period, relatively low level of recording of HbA1c was observed, although this has increased over time and ascertainment was increased with text extraction. It remains important to improve the routine monitoring of dysglycaemia in these at-risk disorders.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/7/e069635.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069635; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10357777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10357777?pdf=render 37147628,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9,Ontology-driven and weakly supervised rare disease identification from clinical notes.,"Dong H, Suárez-Paniagua V, Zhang H, Wang M, Casey A, Davidson E, Chen J, Alex B, Whiteley W, Wu H.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2023,2023-05-05,Y,Phenotyping; Natural Language Processing; Rare Diseases; Ontology Matching; Clinical Notes; Weak Supervision,,,"

Background

Computational text phenotyping is the practice of identifying patients with certain disorders and traits from clinical notes. Rare diseases are challenging to be identified due to few cases available for machine learning and the need for data annotation from domain experts.

Methods

We propose a method using ontologies and weak supervision, with recent pre-trained contextual representations from Bi-directional Transformers (e.g. BERT). The ontology-driven framework includes two steps: (i) Text-to-UMLS, extracting phenotypes by contextually linking mentions to concepts in Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), with a Named Entity Recognition and Linking (NER+L) tool, SemEHR, and weak supervision with customised rules and contextual mention representation; (ii) UMLS-to-ORDO, matching UMLS concepts to rare diseases in Orphanet Rare Disease Ontology (ORDO). The weakly supervised approach is proposed to learn a phenotype confirmation model to improve Text-to-UMLS linking, without annotated data from domain experts. We evaluated the approach on three clinical datasets, MIMIC-III discharge summaries, MIMIC-III radiology reports, and NHS Tayside brain imaging reports from two institutions in the US and the UK, with annotations.

Results

The improvements in the precision were pronounced (by over 30% to 50% absolute score for Text-to-UMLS linking), with almost no loss of recall compared to the existing NER+L tool, SemEHR. Results on radiology reports from MIMIC-III and NHS Tayside were consistent with the discharge summaries. The overall pipeline processing clinical notes can extract rare disease cases, mostly uncaptured in structured data (manually assigned ICD codes).

Conclusion

The study provides empirical evidence for the task by applying a weakly supervised NLP pipeline on clinical notes. The proposed weak supervised deep learning approach requires no human annotation except for validation and testing, by leveraging ontologies, NER+L tools, and contextual representations. The study also demonstrates that Natural Language Processing (NLP) can complement traditional ICD-based approaches to better estimate rare diseases in clinical notes. We discuss the usefulness and limitations of the weak supervision approach and propose directions for future studies.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001?pdf=render -35715350,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010,Safety of COVID-19 vaccination and acute neurological events: A self-controlled case series in England using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Walker JL, Schultze A, Tazare J, Tamborska A, Singh B, Donegan K, Stowe J, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Curtis HJ, Williamson EJ, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Davy S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Hickman G, MacKenna B, Tomlinson L, Ca Green A, Fisher L, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Bates C, Evans SJ, Solomon T, Andrews NJ, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, McDonald HI.",,Vaccine,2022,2022-06-07,Y,Transverse Myelitis; Guillain-barré Syndrome; Vaccine Safety; Self-controlled Case Series; Bell’s Palsy; Covid-19 Vaccines,,,"

Introduction

We investigated the potential association of COVID-19 vaccination with three acute neurological events: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England we analysed primary care data from >17 million patients in England linked to emergency care, hospital admission and mortality records in the OpenSAFELY platform. Separately for each vaccine brand, we used a self-controlled case series design to estimate the incidence rate ratio for each outcome in the period following vaccination (4-42 days for GBS, 4-28 days for transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy) compared to a within-person baseline, using conditional Poisson regression.

Results

Among 7,783,441 ChAdOx1 vaccinees, there was an increased rate of GBS (N = 517; incidence rate ratio 2·85; 95% CI2·33-3·47) and Bell's palsy (N = 5,350; 1·39; 1·27-1·53) following a first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine, corresponding to 11.0 additional cases of GBS and 17.9 cases of Bell's palsy per 1 million vaccinees if causal. For GBS this applied to the first, but not the second, dose. There was no clear evidence of an association of ChAdOx1 vaccination with transverse myelitis (N = 199; 1·51; 0·96-2·37). Among 5,729,152 BNT162b2 vaccinees, there was no evidence of any association with GBS (N = 283; 1·09; 0·75-1·57), transverse myelitis (N = 109; 1·62; 0·86-3·03) or Bell's palsy (N = 3,609; 0·89; 0·76-1·03). Among 255,446 mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients there was no evidence of an association with Bell's palsy (N = 78; 0·88, 0·32-2·42).

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccines save lives, but it is important to understand rare adverse events. We observed a short-term increased rate of Guillain-Barré syndrome and Bell's palsy after first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine. The absolute risk, assuming a causal effect attributable to vaccination, was low.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533?pdf=render 36174228,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac189,Cohort Profile: Longitudinal population-based study of COVID-19 in UK adults (COVIDENCE UK).,"Holt H, Relton C, Talaei M, Symons J, Davies MR, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Tydeman F, Williamson AE, Pfeffer PE, Orton C, Ford DV, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Breen G, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,International journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-02-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/52/1/e46/49127271/dyac189.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac189; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9620716; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9620716?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac189 +35715350,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010,Safety of COVID-19 vaccination and acute neurological events: A self-controlled case series in England using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Walker JL, Schultze A, Tazare J, Tamborska A, Singh B, Donegan K, Stowe J, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Curtis HJ, Williamson EJ, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Davy S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Hickman G, MacKenna B, Tomlinson L, Ca Green A, Fisher L, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Bates C, Evans SJ, Solomon T, Andrews NJ, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, McDonald HI.",,Vaccine,2022,2022-06-07,Y,Transverse Myelitis; Guillain-barré Syndrome; Vaccine Safety; Self-controlled Case Series; Bell’s Palsy; Covid-19 Vaccines,,,"

Introduction

We investigated the potential association of COVID-19 vaccination with three acute neurological events: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England we analysed primary care data from >17 million patients in England linked to emergency care, hospital admission and mortality records in the OpenSAFELY platform. Separately for each vaccine brand, we used a self-controlled case series design to estimate the incidence rate ratio for each outcome in the period following vaccination (4-42 days for GBS, 4-28 days for transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy) compared to a within-person baseline, using conditional Poisson regression.

Results

Among 7,783,441 ChAdOx1 vaccinees, there was an increased rate of GBS (N = 517; incidence rate ratio 2·85; 95% CI2·33-3·47) and Bell's palsy (N = 5,350; 1·39; 1·27-1·53) following a first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine, corresponding to 11.0 additional cases of GBS and 17.9 cases of Bell's palsy per 1 million vaccinees if causal. For GBS this applied to the first, but not the second, dose. There was no clear evidence of an association of ChAdOx1 vaccination with transverse myelitis (N = 199; 1·51; 0·96-2·37). Among 5,729,152 BNT162b2 vaccinees, there was no evidence of any association with GBS (N = 283; 1·09; 0·75-1·57), transverse myelitis (N = 109; 1·62; 0·86-3·03) or Bell's palsy (N = 3,609; 0·89; 0·76-1·03). Among 255,446 mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients there was no evidence of an association with Bell's palsy (N = 78; 0·88, 0·32-2·42).

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccines save lives, but it is important to understand rare adverse events. We observed a short-term increased rate of Guillain-Barré syndrome and Bell's palsy after first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine. The absolute risk, assuming a causal effect attributable to vaccination, was low.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533?pdf=render 34670038,https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2113864,BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccine Effectiveness against Death from the Delta Variant.,"Sheikh A, Robertson C, Taylor B.",,The New England journal of medicine,2021,2021-10-20,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2113864; doi:https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2113864; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8552534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8552534?pdf=render 34056579,https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2021.652669,"The Promise of AI in Detection, Diagnosis, and Epidemiology for Combating COVID-19: Beyond the Hype.","Abdulkareem M, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in artificial intelligence,2021,2021-05-14,Y,Artificial intelligence; Detection; Diagnosis; Medical imaging; epidemiology; Contact tracing; Social Control; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 has created enormous suffering, affecting lives, and causing deaths. The ease with which this type of coronavirus can spread has exposed weaknesses of many healthcare systems around the world. Since its emergence, many governments, research communities, commercial enterprises, and other institutions and stakeholders around the world have been fighting in various ways to curb the spread of the disease. Science and technology have helped in the implementation of policies of many governments that are directed toward mitigating the impacts of the pandemic and in diagnosing and providing care for the disease. Recent technological tools, artificial intelligence (AI) tools in particular, have also been explored to track the spread of the coronavirus, identify patients with high mortality risk and diagnose patients for the disease. In this paper, areas where AI techniques are being used in the detection, diagnosis and epidemiological predictions, forecasting and social control for combating COVID-19 are discussed, highlighting areas of successful applications and underscoring issues that need to be addressed to achieve significant progress in battling COVID-19 and future pandemics. Several AI systems have been developed for diagnosing COVID-19 using medical imaging modalities such as chest CT and X-ray images. These AI systems mainly differ in their choices of the algorithms for image segmentation, classification and disease diagnosis. Other AI-based systems have focused on predicting mortality rate, long-term patient hospitalization and patient outcomes for COVID-19. AI has huge potential in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic but successful practical deployments of these AI-based tools have so far been limited due to challenges such as limited data accessibility, the need for external evaluation of AI models, the lack of awareness of AI experts of the regulatory landscape governing the deployment of AI tools in healthcare, the need for clinicians and other experts to work with AI experts in a multidisciplinary context and the need to address public concerns over data collection, privacy, and protection. Having a dedicated team with expertise in medical data collection, privacy, access and sharing, using federated learning whereby AI scientists hand over training algorithms to the healthcare institutions to train models locally, and taking full advantage of biomedical data stored in biobanks can alleviate some of problems posed by these challenges. Addressing these challenges will ultimately accelerate the translation of AI research into practical and useful solutions for combating pandemics.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2021.652669/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2021.652669; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160471; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160471?pdf=render 34861180,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00491-4,Risk of COVID-19 hospital admission among children aged 5-17 years with asthma in Scotland: a national incident cohort study.,"Shi T, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Kerr S, Agrawal U, Shah SA, Simpson CR, Ritchie LD, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Public Health Scotland and the EAVE II Collaborators.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2021-11-30,Y,,,,"

Background

There is an urgent need to inform policy deliberations about whether children with asthma should be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and, if so, which subset of children with asthma should be prioritised. We were asked by the UK's Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunisation to undertake an urgent analysis to identify which children with asthma were at increased risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

This national incident cohort study was done in all children in Scotland aged 5-17 years who were included in the linked dataset of Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II). We used data from EAVE II to investigate the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation among children with markers of uncontrolled asthma defined by either previous asthma hospital admission or oral corticosteroid prescription in the previous 2 years. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for the association between asthma and COVID-19 hospital admission, stratified by markers of asthma control (previous asthma hospital admission and number of previous prescriptions for oral corticosteroids within 2 years of the study start date). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity, and previous hospital admission.

Findings

Between March 1, 2020, and July 27, 2021, 752 867 children were included in the EAVE II dataset, 63 463 (8·4%) of whom had clinician-diagnosed-and-recorded asthma. Of these, 4339 (6·8%) had RT-PCR confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. In those with confirmed infection, 67 (1·5%) were admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Among the 689 404 children without asthma, 40 231 (5·8%) had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, of whom 382 (0·9%) were admitted to hospital with COVID-19. The rate of COVID-19 hospital admission was higher in children with poorly controlled asthma than in those with well controlled asthma or without asthma. When using previous hospital admission for asthma as the marker of uncontrolled asthma, the adjusted HR was 6·40 (95% CI 3·27-12·53) for those with poorly controlled asthma and 1·36 (1·02-1·80) for those with well controlled asthma, compared with those with no asthma. When using oral corticosteroid prescriptions as the marker of uncontrolled asthma, the adjusted HR was 3·38 (1·84-6·21) for those with three or more prescribed courses of corticosteroids, 3·53 (1·87-6·67) for those with two prescribed courses of corticosteroids, 1·52 (0·90-2·57) for those with one prescribed course of corticosteroids, and 1·34 (0·98-1·82) for those with no prescribed course, compared with those with no asthma.

Interpretation

School-aged children with asthma with previous recent hospital admission or two or more courses of oral corticosteroids are at markedly increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admission and should be considered a priority for vaccinations. This would translate into 9124 children across Scotland and an estimated 109 448 children across the UK.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK, and Scottish Government.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00491-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00491-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8631918 @@ -200,45 +200,45 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 35973468,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114607,Evaluation of the impact of pre-analytical conditions on sample stability for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.,"Mosscrop L, Watber P, Elliot P, Cooke G, Barclay W, Freemont PS, Rosadas C, Taylor GP.",,Journal of virological methods,2022,2022-08-13,Y,RNA; Diagnosis; Rt-qpcr; Sample Stability; Sars-cov-2,,,"Demand for accurate SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics is high. Most samples in the UK are collected in the community and rely on the postal service for delivery to the laboratories. The current recommendation remains that swabs should be collected in Viral Transport Media (VTM) and transported with a cold chain to the laboratory for RNA extraction and RT-qPCR. This is not always possible. We aimed to test the stability of SARS-CoV-2 RNA subjected to different pre-analytical conditions. Swabs were dipped into PBS containing cultured SARS-CoV-2 and placed in either a dry tube or a tube containing either normal saline or VTM. The tubes were then stored at different temperatures (20-50 °C) for variable periods (8 h to 5 days). Samples were tested by RT-qPCR targeting SARS-CoV-2 E gene. VTM outperformed swabs in saline and dry swabs in all conditions. Samples in VTM were stable, independent of a cold chain, for 5 days, with a maximum increase in cycle threshold (Ct) of 1.34 when held at 40 °C. Using normal saline as the transport media resulted in a loss of sensitivity (increased Ct) over time and with increasing temperature (up to 7.8 cycles compared to VTM). SARS-CoV-2 was not detected in 3/9 samples in normal saline when tested after 120 h incubation. Transportation of samples in VTM provides a high level of confidence in the results despite the potential for considerable, uncontrolled variation in temperature and longer transportation periods. False negative results may be seen after 96 h in saline and viral loads will appear lower.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114607; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114607; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9374597; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9374597?pdf=render 36629015,https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221143449,Lack of transparent reporting of trial monitoring approaches in randomised controlled trials: A systematic review of contemporary protocol papers.,"Hsieh SF, Yorke-Edwards V, Murray ML, Diaz-Montana C, Love SB, Sydes MR.",,"Clinical trials (London, England)",2023,2023-01-11,Y,Systematic review; Randomised Controlled Trial; On-site Monitoring; Risk-based Monitoring; Protocol Paper; Central Monitoring; Trial Monitoring; Reporting Monitoring,,,"

Background

Monitoring is essential to ensure patient safety and data integrity in clinical trials as per Good Clinical Practice. The Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials Statement and its checklist guides authors to include monitoring in their protocols. We investigated how well monitoring was reported in published 'protocol papers' for contemporary randomised controlled trials.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted in PubMed to identify eligible protocol papers published in selected journals between 1 January 2020 and 31 May 2020. Protocol papers were classified by whether they reported monitoring and, if so, by the details of monitoring. Data were summarised descriptively.

Results

Of 811 protocol papers for randomised controlled trials, 386 (48%; 95% CI: 44%-51%) explicitly reported some monitoring information. Of these, 20% (77/386) reported monitoring information consistent with an on-site monitoring approach, and 39% (152/386) with central monitoring, 26% (101/386) with a mixed approach, while 14% (54/386) did not provide sufficient information to specify an approach. Only 8% (30/386) of randomised controlled trials reported complete details about all of scope, frequency and organisation of monitoring; frequency of monitoring was the least reported. However, 6% (25/386) of papers used the term 'audit' to describe 'monitoring'.

Discussion

Monitoring information was reported in only approximately half of the protocol papers. Suboptimal reporting of monitoring hinders the clinical community from having the full information on which to judge the validity of a trial and jeopardises the value of protocol papers and the credibility of the trial itself. Greater efforts are needed to promote the transparent reporting of monitoring to journal editors and authors.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17407745221143449; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221143449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021127; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021127?pdf=render 34174193,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00289-9,Vaccine effectiveness of the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 against SARS-CoV-2 infection in residents of long-term care facilities in England (VIVALDI): a prospective cohort study.,"Shrotri M, Krutikov M, Palmer T, Giddings R, Azmi B, Subbarao S, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Davies D, Tut G, Lopez Bernal J, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The Lancet. Infectious diseases,2021,2021-06-23,Y,,,,"

Background

The effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in older adults living in long-term care facilities is uncertain. We investigated the protective effect of the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca non-replicating viral-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; AZD1222) and the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA-based vaccine (BNT162b2) in residents of long-term care facilities in terms of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection over time since vaccination.

Methods

The VIVALDI study is a prospective cohort study that commenced recruitment on June 11, 2020, to investigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, infection outcomes, and immunity in residents and staff in long-term care facilities in England that provide residential or nursing care for adults aged 65 years and older. In this cohort study, we included long-term care facility residents undergoing routine asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 testing between Dec 8, 2020 (the date the vaccine was first deployed in a long-term care facility), and March 15, 2021, using national testing data linked within the COVID-19 Datastore. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we estimated the relative hazard of PCR-positive infection at 0-6 days, 7-13 days, 14-20 days, 21-27 days, 28-34 days, 35-48 days, and 49 days and beyond after vaccination, comparing unvaccinated and vaccinated person-time from the same cohort of residents, adjusting for age, sex, previous infection, local SARS-CoV-2 incidence, long-term care facility bed capacity, and clustering by long-term care facility. We also compared mean PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values for positive swabs obtained before and after vaccination. The study is registered with ISRCTN, number 14447421.

Findings

10 412 care home residents aged 65 years and older from 310 LTCFs were included in this analysis. The median participant age was 86 years (IQR 80-91), 7247 (69·6%) of 10 412 residents were female, and 1155 residents (11·1%) had evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. 9160 (88·0%) residents received at least one vaccine dose, of whom 6138 (67·0%) received ChAdOx1 and 3022 (33·0%) received BNT162b2. Between Dec 8, 2020, and March 15, 2021, there were 36 352 PCR results in 670 628 person-days, and 1335 PCR-positive infections (713 in unvaccinated residents and 612 in vaccinated residents) were included. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for PCR-positive infection relative to unvaccinated residents declined from 28 days after the first vaccine dose to 0·44 (95% CI 0·24-0·81) at 28-34 days and 0·38 (0·19-0·77) at 35-48 days. Similar effect sizes were seen for ChAdOx1 (adjusted HR 0·32, 95% CI 0·15-0·66) and BNT162b2 (0·35, 0·17-0·71) vaccines at 35-48 days. Mean PCR Ct values were higher for infections that occurred at least 28 days after vaccination than for those occurring before vaccination (31·3 [SD 8·7] in 107 PCR-positive tests vs 26·6 [6·6] in 552 PCR-positive tests; p<0·0001).

Interpretation

Single-dose vaccination with BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 vaccines provides substantial protection against infection in older adults from 4-7 weeks after vaccination and might reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, the risk of infection is not eliminated, highlighting the ongoing need for non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent transmission in long-term care facilities.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00289-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8221738; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00289-9 -37358897,https://doi.org/10.2196/45849,Development of a Corpus Annotated With Mentions of Pain in Mental Health Records: Natural Language Processing Approach.,"Chaturvedi J, Chance N, Mirza L, Vernugopan V, Velupillai S, Stewart R, Roberts A.",,JMIR formative research,2023,2023-06-26,Y,Pain; Mental health; Annotation; Information Extraction; Natural Language Processing,,,"

Background

Pain is a widespread issue, with 20% of adults (1 in 5) experiencing it globally. A strong association has been demonstrated between pain and mental health conditions, and this association is known to exacerbate disability and impairment. Pain is also known to be strongly related to emotions, which can lead to damaging consequences. As pain is a common reason for people to access health care facilities, electronic health records (EHRs) are a potential source of information on this pain. Mental health EHRs could be particularly beneficial since they can show the overlap of pain with mental health. Most mental health EHRs contain the majority of their information within the free-text sections of the records. However, it is challenging to extract information from free text. Natural language processing (NLP) methods are therefore required to extract this information from the text.

Objective

This research describes the development of a corpus of manually labeled mentions of pain and pain-related entities from the documents of a mental health EHR database, for use in the development and evaluation of future NLP methods.

Methods

The EHR database used, Clinical Record Interactive Search, consists of anonymized patient records from The South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. The corpus was developed through a process of manual annotation where pain mentions were marked as relevant (ie, referring to physical pain afflicting the patient), negated (ie, indicating absence of pain), or not relevant (ie, referring to pain affecting someone other than the patient, or metaphorical and hypothetical mentions). Relevant mentions were also annotated with additional attributes such as anatomical location affected by pain, pain character, and pain management measures, if mentioned.

Results

A total of 5644 annotations were collected from 1985 documents (723 patients). Over 70% (n=4028) of the mentions found within the documents were annotated as relevant, and about half of these mentions also included the anatomical location affected by the pain. The most common pain character was chronic pain, and the most commonly mentioned anatomical location was the chest. Most annotations (n=1857, 33%) were from patients who had a primary diagnosis of mood disorders (International Classification of Diseases-10th edition, chapter F30-39).

Conclusions

This research has helped better understand how pain is mentioned within the context of mental health EHRs and provided insight into the kind of information that is typically mentioned around pain in such a data source. In future work, the extracted information will be used to develop and evaluate a machine learning-based NLP application to automatically extract relevant pain information from EHR databases.",,pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e45849/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45849; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440?pdf=render 35185750,https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.787107,Physician-Confirmed and Administrative Definitions of Stroke in UK Biobank Reflect the Same Underlying Genetic Trait.,"Rannikmäe K, Rawlik K, Ferguson AC, Avramidis N, Jiang M, Pirastu N, Shen X, Davidson E, Woodfield R, Malik R, Dichgans M, Tenesa A, Sudlow C.",,Frontiers in neurology,2021,2022-02-02,Y,Validation; Genetic correlation; Stroke; Accuracy; Routinely Collected Health Data,,,"

Background

Stroke in UK Biobank (UKB) is ascertained via linkages to coded administrative datasets and self-report. We studied the accuracy of these codes using genetic validation.

Methods

We compiled stroke-specific and broad cerebrovascular disease (CVD) code lists (Read V2/V3, ICD-9/-10) for medical settings (hospital, death record, primary care) and self-report. Among 408,210 UKB participants, we identified all with a relevant code, creating 12 stroke definitions based on the code type and source. We performed genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for each definition, comparing summary results against the largest published stroke GWAS (MEGASTROKE), assessing genetic correlations, and replicating 32 stroke-associated loci.

Results

The stroke case numbers identified varied widely from 3,976 (primary care stroke-specific codes) to 19,449 (all codes, all sources). All 12 UKB stroke definitions were significantly correlated with the MEGASTROKE summary GWAS results (rg.81-1) and each other (rg.4-1). However, Bonferroni-corrected confidence intervals were wide, suggesting limited precision of some results. Six previously reported stroke-associated loci were replicated using ≥1 UKB stroke definition.

Conclusions

Stroke case numbers in UKB depend on the code source and type used, with a 5-fold difference in the maximum case-sample size. All stroke definitions are significantly genetically correlated with the largest stroke GWAS to date.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.787107/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.787107; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8847736; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8847736?pdf=render +37358897,https://doi.org/10.2196/45849,Development of a Corpus Annotated With Mentions of Pain in Mental Health Records: Natural Language Processing Approach.,"Chaturvedi J, Chance N, Mirza L, Vernugopan V, Velupillai S, Stewart R, Roberts A.",,JMIR formative research,2023,2023-06-26,Y,Pain; Mental health; Annotation; Information Extraction; Natural Language Processing,,,"

Background

Pain is a widespread issue, with 20% of adults (1 in 5) experiencing it globally. A strong association has been demonstrated between pain and mental health conditions, and this association is known to exacerbate disability and impairment. Pain is also known to be strongly related to emotions, which can lead to damaging consequences. As pain is a common reason for people to access health care facilities, electronic health records (EHRs) are a potential source of information on this pain. Mental health EHRs could be particularly beneficial since they can show the overlap of pain with mental health. Most mental health EHRs contain the majority of their information within the free-text sections of the records. However, it is challenging to extract information from free text. Natural language processing (NLP) methods are therefore required to extract this information from the text.

Objective

This research describes the development of a corpus of manually labeled mentions of pain and pain-related entities from the documents of a mental health EHR database, for use in the development and evaluation of future NLP methods.

Methods

The EHR database used, Clinical Record Interactive Search, consists of anonymized patient records from The South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. The corpus was developed through a process of manual annotation where pain mentions were marked as relevant (ie, referring to physical pain afflicting the patient), negated (ie, indicating absence of pain), or not relevant (ie, referring to pain affecting someone other than the patient, or metaphorical and hypothetical mentions). Relevant mentions were also annotated with additional attributes such as anatomical location affected by pain, pain character, and pain management measures, if mentioned.

Results

A total of 5644 annotations were collected from 1985 documents (723 patients). Over 70% (n=4028) of the mentions found within the documents were annotated as relevant, and about half of these mentions also included the anatomical location affected by the pain. The most common pain character was chronic pain, and the most commonly mentioned anatomical location was the chest. Most annotations (n=1857, 33%) were from patients who had a primary diagnosis of mood disorders (International Classification of Diseases-10th edition, chapter F30-39).

Conclusions

This research has helped better understand how pain is mentioned within the context of mental health EHRs and provided insight into the kind of information that is typically mentioned around pain in such a data source. In future work, the extracted information will be used to develop and evaluate a machine learning-based NLP application to automatically extract relevant pain information from EHR databases.",,pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e45849/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45849; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440?pdf=render 36243955,https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac287,Self-reported health change in haemodialysis recipients modulates the effect of frailty upon mortality and hospital admissions: outcomes from a large prospective UK cohort. ,"Anderson BM, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.",,"Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association",2023,2023-05-01,N,,,,"Frailty among haemodialysis patients is associated with hospitalization and mortality, but high frailty prevalence suggests further discrimination of risk is required. We hypothesized that incorporation of self-reported health with frailty measurement may aid risk stratification. Prospective cohort study of 485 prevalent haemodialysis recipients linked to English national datasets. Frailty Phenotype (FP), Frailty Index (FI), Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS), Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and self-reported health change were assessed. Mortality was explored using Fine and Gray regression, and admissions by negative binomial regression. Over a median 678 (interquartile range 531-812) days, there were 111 deaths, and 1241 hospitalizations. Increasing frailty was associated with mortality on adjusted analyses for FP [subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.05-1.53, P = .01], FI (SHR 1.21, 95% CI 1.09-1.35, P = .001) and CFS (SHR 1.32, 95% CI 1.11-1.58, P = .002), but not EFS (HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.99-1.18, P = .1). Health change interacted with frailty tools to modify association with mortality; only those who rated their health as the same or worse experienced increased mortality hazard associated with frailty by FP (Pinteraction = .001 and 0.035, respectively), FI (Pinteraction = .002 and .007, respectively) and CFS (Pinteraction = .009 and 0.02, respectively). CFS was the only frailty tool associated with hospitalization (incidence rate ratio 1.12, 95% CI 1.02-1.23, P = .02). We confirm the high burden of hospitalization and mortality associated with haemodialysis patients regardless of frailty tool utilized and introduce the discriminatory ability of self-reported health to identify the most at-risk frail individuals.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac287 34942103,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)02754-9,"Two-dose ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine protection against COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths over time: a retrospective, population-based cohort study in Scotland and Brazil.","Katikireddi SV, Cerqueira-Silva T, Vasileiou E, Robertson C, Amele S, Pan J, Taylor B, Boaventura V, Werneck GL, Flores-Ortiz R, Agrawal U, Docherty AB, McCowan C, McMenamin J, Moore E, Ritchie LD, Rudan I, Shah SA, Shi T, Simpson CR, Barreto ML, Oliveira VA, Barral-Netto M, Sheikh A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2021-12-20,Y,,,,"

Background

Reports suggest that COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness is decreasing, but whether this reflects waning or new SARS-CoV-2 variants-especially delta (B.1.617.2)-is unclear. We investigated the association between time since two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine and risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes in Scotland (where delta was dominant), with comparative analyses in Brazil (where delta was uncommon).

Methods

In this retrospective, population-based cohort study in Brazil and Scotland, we linked national databases from the EAVE II study in Scotland; and the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, Acute Respiratory Infection Suspected Cases, and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection/Illness datasets in Brazil) for vaccination, laboratory testing, clinical, and mortality data. We defined cohorts of adults (aged ≥18 years) who received two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and compared rates of severe COVID-19 outcomes (ie, COVID-19 hospital admission or death) across fortnightly periods, relative to 2-3 weeks after the second dose. Entry to the Scotland cohort started from May 19, 2021, and entry to the Brazil cohort started from Jan 18, 2021. Follow-up in both cohorts was until Oct 25, 2021. Poisson regression was used to estimate rate ratios (RRs) and vaccine effectiveness, with 95% CIs.

Findings

1 972 454 adults received two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 in Scotland and 42 558 839 in Brazil, with longer follow-up in Scotland because two-dose vaccination began earlier in Scotland than in Brazil. In Scotland, RRs for severe COVID-19 increased to 2·01 (95% CI 1·54-2·62) at 10-11 weeks, 3·01 (2·26-3·99) at 14-15 weeks, and 5·43 (4·00-7·38) at 18-19 weeks after the second dose. The pattern of results was similar in Brazil, with RRs of 2·29 (2·01-2·61) at 10-11 weeks, 3·10 (2·63-3·64) at 14-15 weeks, and 4·71 (3·83-5·78) at 18-19 weeks after the second dose. In Scotland, vaccine effectiveness decreased from 83·7% (95% CI 79·7-87·0) at 2-3 weeks, to 75·9% (72·9-78·6) at 14-15 weeks, and 63·7% (59·6-67·4) at 18-19 weeks after the second dose. In Brazil, vaccine effectiveness decreased from 86·4% (85·4-87·3) at 2-3 weeks, to 59·7% (54·6-64·2) at 14-15 weeks, and 42·2% (32·4-50·6) at 18-19 weeks.

Interpretation

We found waning vaccine protection of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 against COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths in both Scotland and Brazil, this becoming evident within three months of the second vaccine dose. Consideration needs to be given to providing booster vaccine doses for people who have received ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Scottish Government, Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK, Fiocruz, Fazer o Bem Faz Bem Programme; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Translation

For the Portuguese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621027549/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02754-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8687670 -37346822,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2,First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY.,"Hopcroft LE, Curtis HJ, Brown AD, Hulme WJ, Andrews CD, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Eggo RM, Mahalingasivam V, Parker EPK, Tomlinson LA, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Goldacre B, Walker AJ, MacKenna B.",,Wellcome open research,2023,2023-06-09,Y,Vaccine; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programme in England was extended to include all adolescents and children by April 2022. The aim of this paper is to describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups amongst adolescents and children in England by August 2022. Methods: With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 3.21 million children and adolescents' records in general practice in England,  in situ and within the infrastructure of the electronic health record software vendor TPP using OpenSAFELY. Vaccine coverage across various demographic (sex, deprivation index and ethnicity) and clinical (risk status) populations is described. Results: Coverage is higher amongst adolescents than it is amongst children, with 53.5% adolescents and 10.8% children having received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Within those groups, coverage varies by ethnicity, deprivation index and risk status; there is no evidence of variation by sex. Conclusion: First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage is shown to vary amongst various demographic and clinical groups of children and adolescents.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033?pdf=render 34104901,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00093-3,Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection according to baseline antibody status in staff and residents of 100 long-term care facilities (VIVALDI): a prospective cohort study.,"Krutikov M, Palmer T, Tut G, Fuller C, Shrotri M, Williams H, Davies D, Irwin-Singer A, Robson J, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2021,2021-06-03,Y,,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 infection represents a major challenge for long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and many residents and staff are seropositive following persistent outbreaks. We aimed to investigate the association between the SARS-CoV-2 antibody status at baseline and subsequent infection in this population.

Methods

We did a prospective cohort study of SARS-CoV-2 infection in staff (aged <65 years) and residents (aged >65 years) at 100 LTCFs in England between Oct 1, 2020, and Feb 1, 2021. Blood samples were collected between June and November, 2020, at baseline, and 2 and 4 months thereafter and tested for IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike proteins. PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 was done weekly in staff and monthly in residents. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of a PCR-positive test by baseline antibody status, adjusted for age and sex, and stratified by LTCF.

Findings

682 residents from 86 LCTFs and 1429 staff members from 97 LTCFs met study inclusion criteria. At baseline, IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid were detected in 226 (33%) of 682 residents and 408 (29%) of 1429 staff members. 93 (20%) of 456 residents who were antibody-negative at baseline had a PCR-positive test (infection rate 0·054 per month at risk) compared with four (2%) of 226 residents who were antibody-positive at baseline (0·007 per month at risk). 111 (11%) of 1021 staff members who were antibody-negative at baseline had PCR-positive tests (0·042 per month at risk) compared with ten (2%) of 408 staff members who were antibody-positive staff at baseline (0·009 per month at risk). The risk of PCR-positive infection was higher for residents who were antibody-negative at baseline than residents who were antibody-positive at baseline (adjusted HR [aHR] 0·15, 95% CI 0·05-0·44, p=0·0006), and the risk of a PCR-positive infection was also higher for staff who were antibody-negative at baseline compared with staff who were antibody-positive at baseline (aHR 0·39, 0·19-0·82; p=0·012). 12 of 14 reinfected participants had available data on symptoms, and 11 of these participants were symptomatic. Antibody titres to spike and nucleocapsid proteins were comparable in PCR-positive and PCR-negative cases.

Interpretation

The presence of IgG antibodies to nucleocapsid protein was associated with substantially reduced risk of reinfection in staff and residents for up to 10 months after primary infection.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00093-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8175048; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8175048?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00093-3 +37346822,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2,First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY.,"Hopcroft LE, Curtis HJ, Brown AD, Hulme WJ, Andrews CD, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Eggo RM, Mahalingasivam V, Parker EPK, Tomlinson LA, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Goldacre B, Walker AJ, MacKenna B.",,Wellcome open research,2023,2023-06-09,Y,Vaccine; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programme in England was extended to include all adolescents and children by April 2022. The aim of this paper is to describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups amongst adolescents and children in England by August 2022. Methods: With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 3.21 million children and adolescents' records in general practice in England,  in situ and within the infrastructure of the electronic health record software vendor TPP using OpenSAFELY. Vaccine coverage across various demographic (sex, deprivation index and ethnicity) and clinical (risk status) populations is described. Results: Coverage is higher amongst adolescents than it is amongst children, with 53.5% adolescents and 10.8% children having received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Within those groups, coverage varies by ethnicity, deprivation index and risk status; there is no evidence of variation by sex. Conclusion: First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage is shown to vary amongst various demographic and clinical groups of children and adolescents.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033?pdf=render 36219788,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac185,Borrowing strength from clinical trials in analysing longitudinal data from a treated cohort: investigating the effectiveness of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in the management of dementia.,"Knight R, Stewart R, Khondoker M, Landau S.",,International journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Cognition; Dementia; Randomized controlled trial; acetylcholinesterase inhibitors; Electronic Medical Record; Bayesian Modelling,,,"

Background

Health care professionals seek information about effectiveness of treatments in patients who would be offered them in routine clinical practice. Electronic medical records (EMRs) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) can both provide data on treatment effects; however, each data source has limitations when considered in isolation.

Methods

A novel modelling methodology which incorporates RCT estimates in the analysis of EMR data via informative prior distributions is proposed. A Bayesian mixed modelling approach is used to model outcome trajectories among patients in the EMR dataset receiving the treatment of interest. This model incorporates an estimate of treatment effect based on a meta-analysis of RCTs as an informative prior distribution. This provides a combined estimate of treatment effect based on both data sources.

Results

The superior performance of the novel combined estimator is demonstrated via a simulation study. The new approach is applied to estimate the effectiveness at 12 months after treatment initiation of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in the management of the cognitive symptoms of dementia in terms of Mini-Mental State Examination scores. This demonstrated that estimates based on either trials data only (1.10, SE = 0.316) or cohort data only (1.56, SE = 0.240) overestimated this compared with the estimate using data from both sources (0.86, SE = 0.327).

Conclusions

It is possible to combine data from EMRs and RCTs in order to provide better estimates of treatment effectiveness.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac185/47708280/dyac185.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac185; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10244047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10244047?pdf=render -35511729,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084,"COVID-19 risk factors amongst 14,786 care home residents: an observational longitudinal analysis including daily community positive test rates of COVID-19, hospital stays and vaccination status in Wales (UK) between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. ","Hollinghurst J, Hollinghurst R, North L, Mizen A, Akbari A, Long S, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"COVID-19 vaccinations have been prioritised for high risk individuals. Determine individual-level risk factors for care home residents testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Longitudinal observational cohort study using individual-level linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six older care home residents (aged 65+) living in Wales between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. Our dataset consisted of 2,613,341 individual-level daily observations within 697 care homes. We estimated odds ratios (ORs [95% confidence interval]) using multilevel logistic regression models. Our outcome of interest was a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. We included time-dependent covariates for the estimated community positive test rate of COVID-19, hospital inpatient status, vaccination status and frailty. Additional covariates were included for age, sex and specialist care home services. The multivariable regression model indicated an increase in age (OR 1.01 [1.00,1.01] per year), community positive test rate (OR 1.13 [1.12,1.13] per percent increase), hospital inpatients (OR 7.40 [6.54,8.36]), and residents in care homes with non-specialist dementia care (OR 1.42 [1.01,1.99]) had an increased odds of a positive test. Having a positive test prior to the observation period (OR 0.58 [0.49,0.68]) and either one or two doses of a vaccine (0.21 [0.17,0.25] and 0.05 [0.02,0.09], respectively) were associated with a decreased odds. Care providers need to remain vigilant despite the vaccination rollout, and extra precautions should be taken when caring for the most vulnerable. Minimising potential COVID-19 infection for care home residents when admitted to hospital should be prioritised.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac084/43520659/afac084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807?pdf=render 35502909,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095239,Impact on emergency and elective hospital-based care in Scotland over the first 12 months of the pandemic: interrupted time-series analysis of national lockdowns.,"Shah SA, Mulholland RH, Wilkinson S, Katikireddi SV, Pan J, Shi T, Kerr S, Agrawal U, Rudan I, Simpson CR, Stock SJ, Macleod J, Murray JL, McCowan C, Ritchie L, Woolhouse M, Sheikh A.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-05-03,Y,Public Health; Statistics And Research Methods; Population Trends,,,"

Objectives

COVID-19 has resulted in the greatest disruption to National Health Service (NHS) care in its over 70-year history. Building on our previous work, we assessed the ongoing impact of pandemic-related disruption on provision of emergency and elective hospital-based care across Scotland over the first year of the pandemic.

Design

We undertook interrupted time-series analyses to evaluate the impact of ongoing pandemic-related disruption on hospital NHS care provision at national level and across demographics and clinical specialties spanning the period 29 March 2020-28 March 2021.

Setting

Scotland, UK.

Participants

Patients receiving hospital care from NHS Scotland.

Main outcome measures

We used the percentage change of accident and emergency attendances, and emergency and planned hospital admissions during the pandemic compared to the average admission rate for equivalent weeks in 2018-2019.

Results

As restrictions were gradually lifted in Scotland after the first lockdown, hospital-based admissions increased approaching pre-pandemic levels. Subsequent tightening of restrictions in September 2020 were associated with a change in slope of relative weekly admissions rate: -1.98% (-2.38, -1.58) in accident and emergency attendance, -1.36% (-1.68, -1.04) in emergency admissions and -2.31% (-2.95, -1.66) in planned admissions. A similar pattern was seen across sex, socioeconomic status and most age groups, except children (0-14 years) where accident and emergency attendance, and emergency admissions were persistently low over the study period.

Conclusions

We found substantial disruption to urgent and planned inpatient healthcare provision in hospitals across NHS Scotland. There is the need for urgent policy responses to address continuing unmet health needs and to ensure resilience in the context of future pandemics.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221095239; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095239; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723811; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723811?pdf=render 35858698,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071249,Waning effectiveness of BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 covid-19 vaccines over six months since second dose: OpenSAFELY cohort study using linked electronic health records.,"Horne EMF, Hulme WJ, Keogh RH, Palmer TM, Williamson EJ, Parker EPK, Green A, Walker V, Walker AJ, Curtis H, Fisher L, MacKenna B, Croker R, Hopcroft L, Park RY, Massey J, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Hickman G, Davy S, Ward T, Dillingham I, Goldacre B, Hernán MA, Sterne JAC.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-07-20,Y,,,,"

Objective

To estimate waning of covid-19 vaccine effectiveness over six months after second dose.

Design

Cohort study, approved by NHS England.

Setting

Linked primary care, hospital, and covid-19 records within the OpenSAFELY-TPP database.

Participants

Adults without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection were eligible, excluding care home residents and healthcare professionals.

Exposures

People who had received two doses of BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 (administered during the national vaccine rollout) were compared with unvaccinated people during six consecutive comparison periods, each of four weeks.

Main outcome measures

Adjusted hazard ratios for covid-19 related hospital admission, covid-19 related death, positive SARS-CoV-2 test, and non-covid-19 related death comparing vaccinated with unvaccinated people. Waning vaccine effectiveness was quantified as ratios of adjusted hazard ratios per four week period, separately for subgroups aged ≥65 years, 18-64 years and clinically vulnerable, 40-64 years, and 18-39 years.

Results

1 951 866 and 3 219 349 eligible adults received two doses of BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1, respectively, and 2 422 980 remained unvaccinated. Waning of vaccine effectiveness was estimated to be similar across outcomes and vaccine brands. In the ≥65 years subgroup, ratios of adjusted hazard ratios for covid-19 related hospital admission, covid-19 related death, and positive SARS-CoV-2 test ranged from 1.19 (95% confidence interval 1.14 to 1.24)to 1.34 (1.09 to 1.64) per four weeks. Despite waning vaccine effectiveness, rates of covid-19 related hospital admission and death were substantially lower among vaccinated than unvaccinated adults up to 26 weeks after the second dose, with estimated vaccine effectiveness ≥80% for BNT162b2, and ≥75% for ChAdOx1. By weeks 23-26, rates of positive SARS-CoV-2 test in vaccinated people were similar to or higher than in unvaccinated people (adjusted hazard ratios up to 1.72 (1.11 to 2.68) for BNT162b2 and 1.86 (1.79 to 1.93) for ChAdOx1).

Conclusions

The rate at which estimated vaccine effectiveness waned was consistent for covid-19 related hospital admission, covid-19 related death, and positive SARS-CoV-2 test and was similar across subgroups defined by age and clinical vulnerability. If sustained to outcomes of infection with the omicron variant and to booster vaccination, these findings will facilitate scheduling of booster vaccination.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2022-071249.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071249; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10441183 +35511729,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084,"COVID-19 risk factors amongst 14,786 care home residents: an observational longitudinal analysis including daily community positive test rates of COVID-19, hospital stays and vaccination status in Wales (UK) between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. ","Hollinghurst J, Hollinghurst R, North L, Mizen A, Akbari A, Long S, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"COVID-19 vaccinations have been prioritised for high risk individuals. Determine individual-level risk factors for care home residents testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Longitudinal observational cohort study using individual-level linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six older care home residents (aged 65+) living in Wales between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. Our dataset consisted of 2,613,341 individual-level daily observations within 697 care homes. We estimated odds ratios (ORs [95% confidence interval]) using multilevel logistic regression models. Our outcome of interest was a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. We included time-dependent covariates for the estimated community positive test rate of COVID-19, hospital inpatient status, vaccination status and frailty. Additional covariates were included for age, sex and specialist care home services. The multivariable regression model indicated an increase in age (OR 1.01 [1.00,1.01] per year), community positive test rate (OR 1.13 [1.12,1.13] per percent increase), hospital inpatients (OR 7.40 [6.54,8.36]), and residents in care homes with non-specialist dementia care (OR 1.42 [1.01,1.99]) had an increased odds of a positive test. Having a positive test prior to the observation period (OR 0.58 [0.49,0.68]) and either one or two doses of a vaccine (0.21 [0.17,0.25] and 0.05 [0.02,0.09], respectively) were associated with a decreased odds. Care providers need to remain vigilant despite the vaccination rollout, and extra precautions should be taken when caring for the most vulnerable. Minimising potential COVID-19 infection for care home residents when admitted to hospital should be prioritised.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac084/43520659/afac084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807?pdf=render +31566668,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110,External validation of the electronic Frailty Index using the population of Wales within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. ,"Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Akbari A, Clegg A, Lyons RA, Watkins A, Rodgers SE.",,Age and ageing,2019,2019-11-01,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"frailty has major implications for health and social care services internationally. The development, validation and national implementation of the electronic Frailty Index (eFI) using routine primary care data has enabled change in the care of older people living with frailty in England. to externally validate the eFI in Wales and assess new frailty-related outcomes. retrospective cohort study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, comprising 469,000 people aged 65-95, registered with a SAIL contributing general practice on 1 January 2010. four categories (fit; mild; moderate and severe) of frailty were constructed using recognised cut points from the eFI. We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) from Cox regression models for validation of existing outcomes: 1-, 3- and 5-year mortality, hospitalisation, and care home admission for validation. We also analysed, as novel outcomes, 1-year mortality following hospitalisation and frailty transition times. HR trends for the validation outcomes in SAIL followed the original results from ResearchOne and THIN databases. Relative to the fit category, adjusted HRs in SAIL (95% CI) for 1-year mortality following hospitalisation were 1.05 (95% CI 1.03-1.08) for mild frailty, 1.24 (95% CI 1.21-1.28) for moderate frailty and 1.51 (95% CI 1.45-1.57) for severe frailty. The median time (lower and upper quartile) between frailty categories was 2,165 days (lower and upper quartiles: 1,510 and 2,831) from fit to mild, 1,155 days (lower and upper quartiles: 756 and 1,610) from mild to moderate and 898 days (lower and upper quartiles: 584 and 1,275) from moderate to severe. further validation of the eFI showed robust predictive validity and utility for new outcomes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/48/6/922/30302589/afz110.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149?pdf=render 35918110,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057433,"Investigating the relationship between thought interference, somatic passivity and outcomes in patients with psychosis: a natural language processing approach using a clinical records search platform in south London.","Magrangeas TT, Kolliakou A, Sanyal J, Patel R, Stewart R.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-08-02,Y,Health Informatics; Adult Psychiatry; Schizophrenia & Psychotic Disorders,,,"

Objectives

We aimed to apply natural language processing algorithms in routine healthcare records to identify reported somatic passivity (external control of sensations, actions and impulses) and thought interference symptoms (thought broadcasting, insertion, withdrawal), first-rank symptoms traditionally central to diagnosing schizophrenia, and determine associations with prognosis by analysing routine outcomes.

Design

Four algorithms were developed on deidentified mental healthcare data and applied to ascertain recorded symptoms over the 3 months following first presentation to a mental healthcare provider in a cohort of patients with a primary schizophreniform disorder (ICD-10 F20-F29) diagnosis.

Setting and participants

From the electronic health records of a large secondary mental healthcare provider in south London, 9323 patients were ascertained from 2007 to the data extraction date (25 February 2020).

Outcomes

The primary binary dependent variable for logistic regression analyses was any negative outcome (Mental Health Act section, >2 antipsychotics prescribed, >22 days spent in crisis care) over the subsequent 2 years.

Results

Final adjusted models indicated significant associations of this composite outcome with baseline somatic passivity (prevalence 4.9%; adjusted OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.37 to 1.88), thought insertion (10.7%; 1.24, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.55) and thought withdrawal (4.9%; 1.36, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.69), but not independently with thought broadcast (10.3%; 1.05, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.22).

Conclusions

Symptoms traditionally central to the diagnosis of schizophrenia, but under-represented in current diagnostic frameworks, were thus identified as important predictors of short-term to medium-term prognosis in schizophreniform disorders.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/8/e057433.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057433; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9351333; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9351333?pdf=render 37180154,https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1083072,Real-time assessment of neutrophil metabolism and oxidative burst using extracellular flux analysis.,"Grudzinska FS, Jasper A, Sapey E, Thickett DR, Mauro C, Scott A, Barlow J.",,Frontiers in immunology,2023,2023-04-25,Y,Neutrophils; Oxidative burst; glycolysis; Immunometabolism; Extracellular Flux Analysis,,,"Neutrophil responses are critical during inflammatory and infective events, and neutrophil dysregulation has been associated with poor patient outcomes. Immunometabolism is a rapidly growing field that has provided insights into cellular functions in health and disease. Neutrophils are highly glycolytic when activated, with inhibition of glycolysis associated with functional deficits. There is currently very limited data available assessing metabolism in neutrophils. Extracellular flux (XF) analysis assesses real time oxygen consumption and the rate of proton efflux in cells. This technology allows for the automated addition of inhibitors and stimulants to visualise the effect on metabolism. We describe optimised protocols for an XFe96 XF Analyser to (i) probe glycolysis in neutrophils under basal and stimulated conditions, (ii) probe phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate induced oxidative burst, and (iii) highlight challenges of using XF technology to examine mitochondrial function in neutrophils. We provide an overview of how to analyze XF data and identify pitfalls of probing neutrophil metabolism with XF analysis. In summary we describe robust methods for assessing glycolysis and oxidative burst in human neutrophils and discuss the challenges around using this technique to assess mitochondrial respiration. XF technology is a powerful platform with a user-friendly interface and data analysis templates, however we suggest caution when assessing neutrophil mitochondrial respiration.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1083072/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1083072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10166867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10166867?pdf=render -31566668,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110,External validation of the electronic Frailty Index using the population of Wales within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. ,"Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Akbari A, Clegg A, Lyons RA, Watkins A, Rodgers SE.",,Age and ageing,2019,2019-11-01,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"frailty has major implications for health and social care services internationally. The development, validation and national implementation of the electronic Frailty Index (eFI) using routine primary care data has enabled change in the care of older people living with frailty in England. to externally validate the eFI in Wales and assess new frailty-related outcomes. retrospective cohort study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, comprising 469,000 people aged 65-95, registered with a SAIL contributing general practice on 1 January 2010. four categories (fit; mild; moderate and severe) of frailty were constructed using recognised cut points from the eFI. We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) from Cox regression models for validation of existing outcomes: 1-, 3- and 5-year mortality, hospitalisation, and care home admission for validation. We also analysed, as novel outcomes, 1-year mortality following hospitalisation and frailty transition times. HR trends for the validation outcomes in SAIL followed the original results from ResearchOne and THIN databases. Relative to the fit category, adjusted HRs in SAIL (95% CI) for 1-year mortality following hospitalisation were 1.05 (95% CI 1.03-1.08) for mild frailty, 1.24 (95% CI 1.21-1.28) for moderate frailty and 1.51 (95% CI 1.45-1.57) for severe frailty. The median time (lower and upper quartile) between frailty categories was 2,165 days (lower and upper quartiles: 1,510 and 2,831) from fit to mild, 1,155 days (lower and upper quartiles: 756 and 1,610) from mild to moderate and 898 days (lower and upper quartiles: 584 and 1,275) from moderate to severe. further validation of the eFI showed robust predictive validity and utility for new outcomes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/48/6/922/30302589/afz110.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149?pdf=render 36369736,https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2139979,"Integration of stool microbiota, proteome and amino acid profiles to discriminate patients with adenomas and colorectal cancer.","Bosch S, Acharjee A, Quraishi MN, Bijnsdorp IV, Rojas P, Bakkali A, Jansen EE, Stokkers P, Kuijvenhoven J, Pham TV, Beggs AD, Jimenez CR, Struys EA, Gkoutos GV, de Meij TG, de Boer NK.",,Gut microbes,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Screening; Biomarker; Adenoma; Colon cancer; Data integration; stool; Multi Omics,,,"

Background

Screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) reduces its mortality but has limited sensitivity and specificity. Aims We aimed to explore potential biomarker panels for CRC and adenoma detection and to gain insight into the interaction between gut microbiota and human metabolism in the presence of these lesions.

Methods

This multicenter case-control cohort was performed between February 2016 and November 2019. Consecutive patients ≥18 years with a scheduled colonoscopy were asked to participate and divided into three age, gender, body-mass index and smoking status-matched subgroups: CRC (n = 12), adenomas (n = 21) and controls (n = 20). Participants collected fecal samples prior to bowel preparation on which proteome (LC-MS/MS), microbiota (16S rRNA profiling) and amino acid (HPLC) composition were assessed. Best predictive markers were combined to create diagnostic biomarker panels. Pearson correlation-based analysis on selected markers was performed to create networks of all platforms.

Results

Combining omics platforms provided new panels which outperformed hemoglobin in this cohort, currently used for screening (AUC 0.98, 0.95 and 0.87 for CRC vs controls, adenoma vs controls and CRC vs adenoma, respectively). Integration of data sets revealed markers associated with increased blood excretion, stress- and inflammatory responses and pointed toward downregulation of epithelial integrity.

Conclusions

Integrating fecal microbiota, proteome and amino acids platforms provides for new biomarker panels that may improve noninvasive screening for adenomas and CRC, and may subsequently lead to lower incidence and mortality of colon cancer.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2139979; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2139979; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9662191; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9662191?pdf=render 37595069,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad141,Effectiveness of successive booster vaccine doses against SARS-CoV-2 related mortality in residents of long-term care facilities in the VIVALDI study.,"Stirrup O, Shrotri M, Adams NL, Krutikov M, Azmi B, Monakhov I, Tut G, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,Age and ageing,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Older People; Vaccine Effectiveness; Long-term Care Facilities; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Omicron,,,"

Background

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused severe disease in unvaccinated long-term care facility (LTCF) residents. Initial booster vaccination following primary vaccination is known to provide strong short-term protection, but data are limited on duration of protection and the protective effect of further booster vaccinations.

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of third, fourth and fifth dose booster vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 related mortality amongst older residents of LTCFs.

Design

Prospective cohort study.

Setting

LTCFs for older people in England participating in the VIVALDI study.

Methods

Residents aged >65 years at participating LTCFs were eligible for inclusion if they had at least one polymerase chain reaction or lateral flow device result within the analysis period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. We excluded individuals who had not received at least two vaccine doses before the analysis period. Cox regression was used to estimate relative hazards of SARS-CoV-2 related mortality following 1-3 booster vaccinations compared with primary vaccination, stratified by previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and adjusting for age, sex and LTCF size (total beds).

Results

A total of 13,407 residents were included. Our results indicate that third, fourth and fifth dose booster vaccination provide additional short-term protection against SARS-CoV-2 related mortality relative to primary vaccination, with consistent stabilisation beyond 112 days to 45-75% reduction in risk relative to primary vaccination.

Conclusions

Successive booster vaccination doses provide additional short-term protection against SARS-CoV-2 related mortality amongst older LTCF residents. However, we did not find evidence of a longer-term reduction in risk beyond that provided by initial booster vaccination.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/52/8/afad141/51124726/afad141.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad141; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10438206; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10438206?pdf=render 36051279,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.894503,Predicting post-contrast information from contrast agent free cardiac MRI using machine learning: Challenges and methods.,"Abdulkareem M, Kenawy AA, Rauseo E, Lee AM, Sojoudi A, Amir-Khalili A, Lekadir K, Young AA, Barnes MR, Barckow P, Khanji MY, Aung N, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2022,2022-07-27,Y,contrast; Decision tree; Machine Learning; Cmr; support vector machines; Deep Learning; Contrast-free,,,"

Objectives

Currently, administering contrast agents is necessary for accurately visualizing and quantifying presence, location, and extent of myocardial infarction (MI) with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). In this study, our objective is to investigate and analyze pre- and post-contrast CMR images with the goal of predicting post-contrast information using pre-contrast information only. We propose methods and identify challenges.

Methods

The study population consists of 272 retrospectively selected CMR studies with diagnoses of MI (n = 108) and healthy controls (n = 164). We describe a pipeline for pre-processing this dataset for analysis. After data feature engineering, 722 cine short-axis (SAX) images and segmentation mask pairs were used for experimentation. This constitutes 506, 108, and 108 pairs for the training, validation, and testing sets, respectively. We use deep learning (DL) segmentation (UNet) and classification (ResNet50) models to discover the extent and location of the scar and classify between the ischemic cases and healthy cases (i.e., cases with no regional myocardial scar) from the pre-contrast cine SAX image frames, respectively. We then capture complex data patterns that represent subtle signal and functional changes in the cine SAX images due to MI using optical flow, rate of change of myocardial area, and radiomics data. We apply this dataset to explore two supervised learning methods, namely, the support vector machines (SVM) and the decision tree (DT) methods, to develop predictive models for classifying pre-contrast cine SAX images as being a case of MI or healthy.

Results

Overall, for the UNet segmentation model, the performance based on the mean Dice score for the test set (n = 108) is 0.75 (±0.20) for the endocardium, 0.51 (±0.21) for the epicardium and 0.20 (±0.17) for the scar. For the classification task, the accuracy, F1 and precision scores of 0.68, 0.69, and 0.64, respectively, were achieved with the SVM model, and of 0.62, 0.63, and 0.72, respectively, with the DT model.

Conclusion

We have presented some promising approaches involving DL, SVM, and DT methods in an attempt to accurately predict contrast information from non-contrast images. While our initial results are modest for this challenging task, this area of research still poses several open problems.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.894503/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.894503; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9426684; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9426684?pdf=render 37607793,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076296,"Knowledge support for optimising antibiotic prescribing for common infections in general practices: evaluation of the effectiveness of periodic feedback, decision support during consultations and peer comparisons in a cluster randomised trial (BRIT2) - study protocol.","van Staa T, Sharma A, Palin V, Fahmi A, Cant H, Zhong X, Jury F, Gold N, Welfare W, Ashcroft D, Tsang JY, Elliott RA, Sutton C, Armitage C, Couch P, Moulton G, Tempest E, Buchan IE.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-08-22,Y,Infectious diseases; Randomized controlled trial; Primary Care; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Introduction

This project applies a Learning Healthcare System (LHS) approach to antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care. The approach involves iterations of data analysis, feedback to clinicians and implementation of quality improvement activities by the clinicians. The main research question is, can a knowledge support system (KSS) intervention within an LHS implementation improve antibiotic prescribing without increasing the risk of complications?

Methods and analysis

A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial will be conducted, with randomisation of at least 112 general practices in North-West England. General practices participating in the trial will be randomised to the following interventions: periodic practice-level and individual prescriber feedback using dashboards; or the same dashboards plus a KSS. Data from large databases of healthcare records are used to characterise heterogeneity in antibiotic uses, and to calculate risk scores for clinical outcomes and for the effectiveness of different treatment strategies. The results provide the baseline content for the dashboards and KSS. The KSS comprises a display within the electronic health record used during the consultation; the prescriber (general practitioner or allied health professional) will answer standard questions about the patient's presentation and will then be presented with information (eg, patient's risk of complications from the infection) to guide decision making. The KSS can generate information sheets for patients, conveyed by the clinicians during consultations. The primary outcome is the practice-level rate of antibiotic prescribing (per 1000 patients) with secondary safety outcomes. The data from practices participating in the trial and the dashboard infrastructure will be held within regional shared care record systems of the National Health Service in the UK.

Ethics and dissemination

Approved by National Health Service Ethics Committee IRAS 290050. The research results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and also disseminated to participating clinical staff and policy and guideline developers.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN16230629.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076296; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076296; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445367; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445367?pdf=render 33893241,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf0874,Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2: Detection by community viral surveillance.,"Riley S, Ainslie KEC, Eales O, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2021,2021-04-23,Y,,,,"Surveillance of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has mainly relied on case reporting, which is biased by health service performance, test availability, and test-seeking behaviors. We report a community-wide national representative surveillance program in England based on self-administered swab results from ~594,000 individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2, regardless of symptoms, between May and the beginning of September 2020. The epidemic declined between May and July 2020 but then increased gradually from mid-August, accelerating into early September 2020 at the start of the second wave. When compared with cases detected through routine surveillance, we report here a longer period of decline and a younger age distribution. Representative community sampling for SARS-CoV-2 can substantially improve situational awareness and feed into the public health response even at low prevalence.",,pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/00326f17-60ca-4c01-8814-727df6504005/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf0874; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8158959; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8158959?pdf=render -35290489,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7,Dynamic susceptibility-contrast magnetic resonance imaging with contrast agent leakage correction aids in predicting grade in pediatric brain tumours: a multicenter study.,"Withey SB, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Morgan PS, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.",,Pediatric radiology,2022,2022-03-15,Y,Brain; Tumor; Children; Perfusion; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Blood volume; Multicenter; Leakage Correction; Dynamic Susceptibility-contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging,,,"

Background

Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) measured using dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI can differentiate between low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors. Multicenter studies are required for translation into clinical practice.

Objective

We compared leakage-corrected dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI perfusion parameters acquired at multiple centers in low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors.

Materials and methods

Eighty-five pediatric patients underwent pre-treatment dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI scans at four centers. MRI protocols were variable. We analyzed data using the Boxerman leakage-correction method producing pixel-by-pixel estimates of leakage-uncorrected (rCBVuncorr) and corrected (rCBVcorr) relative cerebral blood volume, and the leakage parameter, K2. Histological diagnoses were obtained. Tumors were classified by high-grade tumor. We compared whole-tumor median perfusion parameters between low- and high-grade tumors and across tumor types.

Results

Forty tumors were classified as low grade, 45 as high grade. Mean whole-tumor median rCBVuncorr was higher in high-grade tumors than low-grade tumors (mean ± standard deviation [SD] = 2.37±2.61 vs. -0.14±5.55; P<0.01). Average median rCBV increased following leakage correction (2.54±1.63 vs. 1.68±1.36; P=0.010), remaining higher in high-grade tumors than low grade-tumors. Low-grade tumors, particularly pilocytic astrocytomas, showed T1-dominant leakage effects; high-grade tumors showed T2*-dominance (mean K2=0.017±0.049 vs. 0.002±0.017). Parameters varied with tumor type but not center. Median rCBVuncorr was higher (mean = 1.49 vs. 0.49; P=0.015) and K2 lower (mean = 0.005 vs. 0.016; P=0.013) in children who received a pre-bolus of contrast agent compared to those who did not. Leakage correction removed the difference.

Conclusion

Dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI acquired at multiple centers helped distinguish between children's brain tumors. Relative cerebral blood volume was significantly higher in high-grade compared to low-grade tumors and differed among common tumor types. Vessel leakage correction is required to provide accurate rCBV, particularly in low-grade enhancing tumors.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460?pdf=render 33993870,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w,Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the incidence and mortality of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: national interrupted time series analyses for Scotland and Wales.,"Alsallakh MA, Sivakumaran S, Kennedy S, Vasileiou E, Lyons RA, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Davies GA, EAVE II Collaborators.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-05-17,Y,Acute Exacerbation Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Covid-19 Lockdown,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing national lockdowns have dramatically changed the healthcare landscape. The pandemic's impact on people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains poorly understood. We hypothesised that the UK-wide lockdown restrictions were associated with reductions in severe COPD exacerbations. We provide the first national level analyses of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and first lockdown on severe COPD exacerbations resulting in emergency hospital admissions and/or leading to death as well as those recorded in primary care or emergency departments.

Methods

Using data from Public Health Scotland and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank in Wales, we accessed weekly counts of emergency hospital admissions and deaths due to COPD over the first 30 weeks of 2020 and compared these to the national averages over the preceding 5 years. For both Scotland and Wales, we undertook interrupted time-series analyses to model the impact of instigating lockdown on these outcomes. Using fixed-effect meta-analysis, we derived pooled estimates of the overall changes in trends across the two nations.

Results

Lockdown was associated with 48% pooled reduction in emergency admissions for COPD in both countries (incidence rate ratio, IRR 0.52, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.58), relative to the 5-year averages. There was no statistically significant change in deaths due to COPD (pooled IRR 1.08, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.33). In Wales, lockdown was associated with 39% reduction in primary care consultations for acute exacerbation of COPD (IRR 0.61, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.71) and 46% reduction in COPD-related emergency department attendances (IRR 0.54, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.81).

Conclusions

The UK-wide lockdown was associated with the most substantial reductions in COPD exacerbations ever seen across Scotland and Wales, with no corresponding increase in COPD deaths. This may have resulted from reduced transmission of respiratory infections, reduced exposure to outdoor air pollution and/or improved COPD self-management.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8126470; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8126470?pdf=render -35354646,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629,Relationship between asthma and severe COVID-19: a national cohort study.,"Dolby T, Nafilyan V, Morgan A, Kallis C, Sheikh A, Quint JK.",,Thorax,2023,2022-03-30,Y,Asthma; Covid-19,,,"

Background

We aimed to determine whether children and adults with poorly controlled or more severe asthma have greater risk of hospitalisation and/or death from COVID-19.

Methods

We used individual-level data from the Office for National Statistics Public Health Data Asset, based on the 2011 census in England, and the General Practice Extraction Service data for pandemic planning and research linked to death registration records and Hospital Episode Statistics admission data. Adults were followed from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2021 for hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. For children, only hospitalisation was included.

Results

Our cohort comprised 35 202 533 adults and 2 996 503 children aged 12-17 years. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, pre-existing health conditions and vaccine status, the risk of death involving COVID-19 for adults with asthma prescribed low dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was not significantly different from those without asthma. Adults with asthma prescribed medium and high dosage ICS had an elevated risk of COVID-19 death; HRs 1.18 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.23) and 1.36 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.44), respectively. A similar pattern was observed for COVID-19 hospitalisation; fully adjusted HRs 1.53 (95% CI 1.50 to 1.56) and 1.52 (95% CI 1.46 to 1.56) for adults with asthma prescribed medium and high-dosage ICS, respectively. Risk of hospitalisation was greater for children with asthma prescribed one (2.58 (95% CI 1.82 to 3.66)) or two or more (3.80 (95% CI 2.41 to 5.95)) courses of oral corticosteroids in the year prior to the pandemic.

Discussion

People with mild and/or well-controlled asthma are neither at significantly increased risk of hospitalisation with nor more likely to die from COVID-19 than adults without asthma.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/03/29/thoraxjnl-2021-218629.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409?pdf=render +35290489,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7,Dynamic susceptibility-contrast magnetic resonance imaging with contrast agent leakage correction aids in predicting grade in pediatric brain tumours: a multicenter study.,"Withey SB, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Morgan PS, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.",,Pediatric radiology,2022,2022-03-15,Y,Brain; Tumor; Children; Perfusion; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Blood volume; Multicenter; Leakage Correction; Dynamic Susceptibility-contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging,,,"

Background

Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) measured using dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI can differentiate between low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors. Multicenter studies are required for translation into clinical practice.

Objective

We compared leakage-corrected dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI perfusion parameters acquired at multiple centers in low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors.

Materials and methods

Eighty-five pediatric patients underwent pre-treatment dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI scans at four centers. MRI protocols were variable. We analyzed data using the Boxerman leakage-correction method producing pixel-by-pixel estimates of leakage-uncorrected (rCBVuncorr) and corrected (rCBVcorr) relative cerebral blood volume, and the leakage parameter, K2. Histological diagnoses were obtained. Tumors were classified by high-grade tumor. We compared whole-tumor median perfusion parameters between low- and high-grade tumors and across tumor types.

Results

Forty tumors were classified as low grade, 45 as high grade. Mean whole-tumor median rCBVuncorr was higher in high-grade tumors than low-grade tumors (mean ± standard deviation [SD] = 2.37±2.61 vs. -0.14±5.55; P<0.01). Average median rCBV increased following leakage correction (2.54±1.63 vs. 1.68±1.36; P=0.010), remaining higher in high-grade tumors than low grade-tumors. Low-grade tumors, particularly pilocytic astrocytomas, showed T1-dominant leakage effects; high-grade tumors showed T2*-dominance (mean K2=0.017±0.049 vs. 0.002±0.017). Parameters varied with tumor type but not center. Median rCBVuncorr was higher (mean = 1.49 vs. 0.49; P=0.015) and K2 lower (mean = 0.005 vs. 0.016; P=0.013) in children who received a pre-bolus of contrast agent compared to those who did not. Leakage correction removed the difference.

Conclusion

Dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI acquired at multiple centers helped distinguish between children's brain tumors. Relative cerebral blood volume was significantly higher in high-grade compared to low-grade tumors and differed among common tumor types. Vessel leakage correction is required to provide accurate rCBV, particularly in low-grade enhancing tumors.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460?pdf=render 34385524,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95802-0,Multimorbidity prediction using link prediction.,"Aziz F, Cardoso VR, Bravo-Merodio L, Russ D, Pendleton SC, Williams JA, Acharjee A, Gkoutos GV.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-08-12,Y,,,,"Multimorbidity, frequently associated with aging, can be operationally defined as the presence of two or more chronic conditions. Predicting the likelihood of a patient with multimorbidity to develop a further particular disease in the future is one of the key challenges in multimorbidity research. In this paper we are using a network-based approach to analyze multimorbidity data and develop methods for predicting diseases that a patient is likely to develop. The multimorbidity data is represented using a temporal bipartite network whose nodes represent patients and diseases and a link between these nodes indicates that the patient has been diagnosed with the disease. Disease prediction then is reduced to a problem of predicting those missing links in the network that are likely to appear in the future. We develop a novel link prediction method for static bipartite network and validate the performance of the method on benchmark datasets. By using a probabilistic framework, we then report on the development of a method for predicting future links in the network, where links are labelled with a time-stamp. We apply the proposed method to three different multimorbidity datasets and report its performance measured by different performance metrics including AUC, Precision, Recall, and F-Score.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-95802-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95802-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360941; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360941?pdf=render -37674175,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y,Using the COM-B framework to elucidate facilitators and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnant women: a qualitative study.,"Patterson L, Berry E, Parsons C, Clarke B, Little A, Beggs J, Chuter A, Jackson T, Hsia Y, McGrath H, Millman C, Murphy S, Bradley DT, Milligan S.",,BMC pregnancy and childbirth,2023,2023-09-06,Y,Pregnancy; Qualitative; Barriers; Facilitators; Com-b; Covid-19 Vaccination,,,"Since April 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been recommended for pregnant women. Despite this, COVID-19 vaccine uptake in this group is low compared to the non-pregnant population of childbearing age. Our aim was to understand barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant women in Northern Ireland using the COM-B framework, and so to make recommendations for public health interventions. The COM-B proposes that human behaviour is influenced by the extent to which a person has the capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact that behaviour. Understanding the factors underpinning behaviour through this lens helps discern what needs to change to change behaviour, therefore supporting the development of targeted interventions.This study consisted of eight semi-structured interviews with new/expectant mothers who did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant since April 2021, and a focus group with five participants who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant. Interview and focus group data were analysed using semi-deductive reflexive thematic analysis framed by a subtle realist approach. The COM-B was used to categorise codes and subthemes were developed within each COM-B construct.Within Psychological Capability, subthemes captured the need for consistent and reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and access to balanced and jargon-free, risk-benefit information that is tailored to the pregnant individual. The behaviour/opinions of family, friends, and local healthcare providers had a powerful influence on COVID-19 vaccine decisions (Social Opportunity). Integrating the COVID-19 vaccine as part of routine antenatal pathways was believed to support access and sense of familiarity (Physical Opportunity). Participants valued health autonomy, however experienced internal conflict driven by concerns about long-term side effects for their baby (Reflective Motivation). Feelings of fear, lack of empathy from healthcare providers, and anticipated guilt commonly underpinned indecision as to whether to get the vaccine (Automatic Motivation).Our study highlighted that the choice to accept a vaccine during pregnancy generates internal conflict and worry. Several participants cited their concern was primarily around the safety for their baby. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play a significant part when it comes to decision making about COVID-19 vaccines among pregnant women. HCPs and pregnant women should be involved in the development of interventions to improve the delivery and communication of information.",,pdf:https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472?pdf=render +35354646,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629,Relationship between asthma and severe COVID-19: a national cohort study.,"Dolby T, Nafilyan V, Morgan A, Kallis C, Sheikh A, Quint JK.",,Thorax,2023,2022-03-30,Y,Asthma; Covid-19,,,"

Background

We aimed to determine whether children and adults with poorly controlled or more severe asthma have greater risk of hospitalisation and/or death from COVID-19.

Methods

We used individual-level data from the Office for National Statistics Public Health Data Asset, based on the 2011 census in England, and the General Practice Extraction Service data for pandemic planning and research linked to death registration records and Hospital Episode Statistics admission data. Adults were followed from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2021 for hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. For children, only hospitalisation was included.

Results

Our cohort comprised 35 202 533 adults and 2 996 503 children aged 12-17 years. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, pre-existing health conditions and vaccine status, the risk of death involving COVID-19 for adults with asthma prescribed low dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was not significantly different from those without asthma. Adults with asthma prescribed medium and high dosage ICS had an elevated risk of COVID-19 death; HRs 1.18 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.23) and 1.36 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.44), respectively. A similar pattern was observed for COVID-19 hospitalisation; fully adjusted HRs 1.53 (95% CI 1.50 to 1.56) and 1.52 (95% CI 1.46 to 1.56) for adults with asthma prescribed medium and high-dosage ICS, respectively. Risk of hospitalisation was greater for children with asthma prescribed one (2.58 (95% CI 1.82 to 3.66)) or two or more (3.80 (95% CI 2.41 to 5.95)) courses of oral corticosteroids in the year prior to the pandemic.

Discussion

People with mild and/or well-controlled asthma are neither at significantly increased risk of hospitalisation with nor more likely to die from COVID-19 than adults without asthma.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/03/29/thoraxjnl-2021-218629.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409?pdf=render 37678881,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad157,Survival and critical care use among people with dementia in a large English cohort.,"Yorganci E, Sleeman KE, Sampson EL, Stewart R, EMBED-Care Programme .",,Age and ageing,2023,2023-09-01,Y,Survival; Dementia; Intensive Care; Older People; Critical Care; Routine Data,,,"

Background

Admitting people with dementia to critical care units may not always lead to a clear survival benefit. Critical care admissions of people with dementia vary across countries. Little is known about the use and trends of critical care admissions of people with dementia in England.

Objective

To investigate critical care use and survival among people with dementia in a large London catchment area.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study using data from dementia assessment services in south London, UK (2007-20) linked with national hospitalisation data to ascertain critical care admissions. Outcomes included age-sex-standardised critical care use and 1-year post-critical care admission survival by dementia severity (binary: mild versus moderate/severe). We used logistic regression and Kaplan-Meier survival plots for investigating 1-year survival following a critical care admission and linear regressions for time trends.

Results

Of 19,787 people diagnosed with dementia, 726 (3.7%) had ≥1 critical care admission at any time after receiving their dementia diagnosis. The overall 1-year survival of people with dementia, who had a CCA, was 47.5% (n = 345). Dementia severity was not associated with 1-year survival following a critical care admission (mild dementia versus moderate-severe dementia odds of 1-year mortality OR: 0.90, 95% CI [0.66-1.22]). Over the 12-year period from 2008 to 2019, overall critical care use decreased (β = -0.05; 95% CI = -0.01, -0.0003; P = 0.03), while critical care admissions occurring during the last year of life increased (β = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.20, P = 0.03).

Conclusions

In this cohort, while critical care use among people with dementia declined overall, its use increased among those in their last year of life. Survival remains comparable to that observed in general older populations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad157; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484725?pdf=render +37674175,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y,Using the COM-B framework to elucidate facilitators and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnant women: a qualitative study.,"Patterson L, Berry E, Parsons C, Clarke B, Little A, Beggs J, Chuter A, Jackson T, Hsia Y, McGrath H, Millman C, Murphy S, Bradley DT, Milligan S.",,BMC pregnancy and childbirth,2023,2023-09-06,Y,Pregnancy; Qualitative; Barriers; Facilitators; Com-b; Covid-19 Vaccination,,,"Since April 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been recommended for pregnant women. Despite this, COVID-19 vaccine uptake in this group is low compared to the non-pregnant population of childbearing age. Our aim was to understand barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant women in Northern Ireland using the COM-B framework, and so to make recommendations for public health interventions. The COM-B proposes that human behaviour is influenced by the extent to which a person has the capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact that behaviour. Understanding the factors underpinning behaviour through this lens helps discern what needs to change to change behaviour, therefore supporting the development of targeted interventions.This study consisted of eight semi-structured interviews with new/expectant mothers who did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant since April 2021, and a focus group with five participants who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant. Interview and focus group data were analysed using semi-deductive reflexive thematic analysis framed by a subtle realist approach. The COM-B was used to categorise codes and subthemes were developed within each COM-B construct.Within Psychological Capability, subthemes captured the need for consistent and reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and access to balanced and jargon-free, risk-benefit information that is tailored to the pregnant individual. The behaviour/opinions of family, friends, and local healthcare providers had a powerful influence on COVID-19 vaccine decisions (Social Opportunity). Integrating the COVID-19 vaccine as part of routine antenatal pathways was believed to support access and sense of familiarity (Physical Opportunity). Participants valued health autonomy, however experienced internal conflict driven by concerns about long-term side effects for their baby (Reflective Motivation). Feelings of fear, lack of empathy from healthcare providers, and anticipated guilt commonly underpinned indecision as to whether to get the vaccine (Automatic Motivation).Our study highlighted that the choice to accept a vaccine during pregnancy generates internal conflict and worry. Several participants cited their concern was primarily around the safety for their baby. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play a significant part when it comes to decision making about COVID-19 vaccines among pregnant women. HCPs and pregnant women should be involved in the development of interventions to improve the delivery and communication of information.",,pdf:https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472?pdf=render 37480048,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-023-03394-6,"Associations of circulating fatty acids with incident coronary heart disease: a prospective study of 89,242 individuals in UK Biobank.","Jin D, Trichia E, Islam N, Lewington S, Lacey B.",,BMC cardiovascular disorders,2023,2023-07-21,Y,Fatty acids; Lipids; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Coronary Heart Disease; Uk Biobank,,,"

Background

The role of fatty acids in coronary heart disease (CHD) remains uncertain. There is little evidence from large-scale epidemiological studies on the relevance of circulating fatty acids levels to CHD risk. This study aims to examine the independent associations of the major circulating types of fatty acids with CHD risk.

Methods

UK Biobank is a prospective study of adults aged 40-69 in 2006-2010; in 2012-2013, a subset of the participants were resurveyed. Analyses were restricted to 89,242 participants with baseline plasma fatty acids (measured using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and without prior CHD. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the associations with incidence CHD, defined as the first-ever myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, coronary-related death, or relevant procedure. And the major types of fatty acids were mutually adjusted to examine the independent associations. Hazard ratios were corrected for regression dilution using the correlation of baseline and resurvey fatty acids measures.

Results

During a median follow-up of 11.8 years, 3,815 incident cases of CHD occurred. Independently of other fatty acids, CHD risk was positively associated with saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), inversely associated with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), but there was no strong evidence of an association with omega-6 PUFA: HR per standard deviation higher were 1.14 (95% CI, 1.09-1.20), 1.15 (1.10-1.21), 0.91 (0.87-0.94), and 1.04 (0.99-1.09) respectively. Independently of triglycerides and cholesterol, the inverse association with omega-3 PUFA was not materially changed, but the positive associations with SFA and MUFA attenuated to null after adjusting for triglycerides levels.

Conclusions

This large-scale study has quantitated the independent associations of circulating fatty acids with CHD risk. Omega-3 PUFA was inversely related to CHD risk, independently of other fatty acids and major lipid fractions. By contrast, independently of other fatty acids, the positive associations of circulating SFA and MUFA with CHD risk were mostly attributed to their relationship with triglycerides.",,pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12872-023-03394-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-023-03394-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10362581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10362581?pdf=render -34697502,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7,Neurological complications after first dose of COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Patone M, Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, Razvi S, Hunt D, Mei XW, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Watkinson P, Coupland CAC, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Ravanan R, Sheikh A, Robertson C, Hippisley-Cox J.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-10-25,Y,,,,"Emerging reports of rare neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection and vaccinations are leading to regulatory, clinical and public health concerns. We undertook a self-controlled case series study to investigate hospital admissions from neurological complications in the 28 days after a first dose of ChAdOx1nCoV-19 (n = 20,417,752) or BNT162b2 (n = 12,134,782), and after a SARS-CoV-2-positive test (n = 2,005,280). There was an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.15-3.92 at 15-21 days after vaccination) and Bell's palsy (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.08-1.56 at 15-21 days) with ChAdOx1nCoV-19. There was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.71 at 15-21 days) with BNT162b2. An independent Scottish cohort provided further support for the association between ChAdOx1nCoV and Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 2.32; 95% CI: 1.08-5.02 at 1-28 days). There was a substantially higher risk of all neurological outcomes in the 28 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test including Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 5.25; 95% CI: 3.00-9.18). Overall, we estimated 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome per 10 million people receiving ChAdOx1nCoV-19 and 145 excess cases per 10 million people after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. In summary, although we find an increased risk of neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines, the risk of these complications is greater following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01556-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105?pdf=render 32016358,https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjaa021,"A Pilot Integrative Analysis of Colonic Gene Expression, Gut Microbiota, and Immune Infiltration in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis-Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Association of Disease With Bile Acid Pathways.","Quraishi MN, Acharjee A, Beggs AD, Horniblow R, Tselepis C, Gkoutos G, Ghosh S, Rossiter AE, Loman N, van Schaik W, Withers D, Walters JRF, Hirschfield GM, Iqbal TH.",,Journal of Crohn's & colitis,2020,2020-07-01,Y,Bioinformatics; Colitis; Dysbiosis; Autoimmune Liver Disease,,,"

Background

Although a majority of patients with PSC have colitis [PSC-IBD; primary sclerosing cholangitis-inflammatory bowel disease], this is phenotypically different from ulcerative colitis [UC]. We sought to define further the pathophysiological differences between PSC-IBD and UC, by applying a comparative and integrative approach to colonic gene expression, gut microbiota and immune infiltration data.

Methods

Colonic biopsies were collected from patients with PSC-IBD [n = 10], UC [n = 10], and healthy controls [HC; n = 10]. Shotgun RNA-sequencing for differentially expressed colonic mucosal genes [DEGs], 16S rRNA analysis for microbial profiling, and immunophenotyping were performed followed by multi-omic integration.

Results

The colonic transcriptome differed significantly between groups [p = 0.01]. Colonic transcriptomes from HC were different from both UC [1343 DEGs] and PSC-IBD [4312 DEGs]. Of these genes, only 939 had shared differential gene expression in both UC and PSC-IBD compared with HC. Imputed pathways were predominantly associated with upregulation of immune response and microbial defense in both disease cohorts compared with HC. There were 1692 DEGs between PSC-IBD and UC. Bile acid signalling pathways were upregulated in PSC-IBD compared with UC [p = 0.02]. Microbiota profiles were different between the three groups [p = 0.01]; with inferred function in PSC-IBD also being consistent with dysregulation of bile acid metabolism. Th17 cells and IL17-producing CD4 cells were increased in both PSC-IBD and UC when compared with HC [p < 0.05]. Multi-omic integration revealed networks involved in bile acid homeostasis and cancer regulation in PSC-IBD.

Conclusions

Colonic transcriptomic and microbiota analysis in PSC-IBD point toward dysregulation of colonic bile acid homeostasis compared with UC. This highlights important mechanisms and suggests the possibility of novel approaches in treating PSC-IBD.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ecco-jcc/article-pdf/14/7/935/33550802/jjaa021.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjaa021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7392170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7392170?pdf=render 34304048,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485,Shorter leukocyte telomere length is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes: A cohort study in UK Biobank.,"Wang Q, Codd V, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Musicha C, Bountziouka V, Kaptoge S, Allara E, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Wood AM, Thompson JR, Petersen SE, Harvey NC, Danesh JN, Samani NJ, Nelson CP.",,EBioMedicine,2021,2021-07-23,Y,,,,"Background Older age is the most powerful risk factor for adverse coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) outcomes. It is uncertain whether leucocyte telomere length (LTL), previously proposed as a marker of biological age, is also associated with COVID-19 outcomes. Methods We associated LTL values obtained from participants recruited into UK Biobank (UKB) during 2006-2010 with adverse COVID-19 outcomes recorded by 30 November 2020, defined as a composite of any of the following: hospital admission, need for critical care, respiratory support, or mortality. Using information on 130 LTL-associated genetic variants, we conducted exploratory Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses in UKB to evaluate whether observational associations might reflect cause-and-effect relationships. Findings Of 6775 participants in UKB who tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 in the community, there were 914 (13.5%) with adverse COVID-19 outcomes. The odds ratio (OR) for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was 1·17 (95% CI 1·05-1·30; P = 0·004) per 1-SD shorter usual LTL, after adjustment for age, sex and ethnicity. Similar ORs were observed in analyses that: adjusted for additional risk factors; disaggregated the composite outcome and reduced the scope for selection or collider bias. In MR analyses, the OR for adverse COVID-19 outcomes was directionally concordant but non-significant. Interpretation Shorter LTL is associated with higher risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes, independent of several major risk factors for COVID-19 including age. Further data are needed to determine whether this association reflects causality. Funding UK Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and British Heart Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8299112; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8299112?pdf=render +34697502,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7,Neurological complications after first dose of COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Patone M, Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, Razvi S, Hunt D, Mei XW, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Watkinson P, Coupland CAC, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Ravanan R, Sheikh A, Robertson C, Hippisley-Cox J.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-10-25,Y,,,,"Emerging reports of rare neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection and vaccinations are leading to regulatory, clinical and public health concerns. We undertook a self-controlled case series study to investigate hospital admissions from neurological complications in the 28 days after a first dose of ChAdOx1nCoV-19 (n = 20,417,752) or BNT162b2 (n = 12,134,782), and after a SARS-CoV-2-positive test (n = 2,005,280). There was an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.15-3.92 at 15-21 days after vaccination) and Bell's palsy (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.08-1.56 at 15-21 days) with ChAdOx1nCoV-19. There was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.71 at 15-21 days) with BNT162b2. An independent Scottish cohort provided further support for the association between ChAdOx1nCoV and Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 2.32; 95% CI: 1.08-5.02 at 1-28 days). There was a substantially higher risk of all neurological outcomes in the 28 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test including Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 5.25; 95% CI: 3.00-9.18). Overall, we estimated 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome per 10 million people receiving ChAdOx1nCoV-19 and 145 excess cases per 10 million people after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. In summary, although we find an increased risk of neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines, the risk of these complications is greater following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01556-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105?pdf=render 37181393,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacasi.2022.12.006,Ambient Temperature and Myocardial Infarction: Who Is at Risk?,"Lowry MTH, Mills NL, Kimenai DM.",,JACC. Asia,2023,2023-03-14,Y,Myocardial infarction; Ambient temperature; risk factors,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacasi.2022.12.006; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacasi.2022.12.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10167505; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10167505?pdf=render 37387161,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btad240,SynBa: improved estimation of drug combination synergies with uncertainty quantification.,"Zhang H, Ek CH, Rattray M, Milo M.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2023,2023-06-01,Y,,,,"

Motivation

There exists a range of different quantification frameworks to estimate the synergistic effect of drug combinations. The diversity and disagreement in estimates make it challenging to determine which combinations from a large drug screening should be proceeded with. Furthermore, the lack of accurate uncertainty quantification for those estimates precludes the choice of optimal drug combinations based on the most favourable synergistic effect.

Results

In this work, we propose SynBa, a flexible Bayesian approach to estimate the uncertainty of the synergistic efficacy and potency of drug combinations, so that actionable decisions can be derived from the model outputs. The actionability is enabled by incorporating the Hill equation into SynBa, so that the parameters representing the potency and the efficacy can be preserved. Existing knowledge may be conveniently inserted due to the flexibility of the prior, as shown by the empirical Beta prior defined for the normalized maximal inhibition. Through experiments on large combination screenings and comparison against benchmark methods, we show that SynBa provides improved accuracy of dose-response predictions and better-calibrated uncertainty estimation for the parameters and the predictions.

Availability and implementation

The code for SynBa is available at https://github.com/HaotingZhang1/SynBa. The datasets are publicly available (DOI of DREAM: 10.7303/syn4231880; DOI of the NCI-ALMANAC subset: 10.5281/zenodo.4135059).",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/39/Supplement_1/i121/50741599/btad240.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btad240; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10311304; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10311304?pdf=render +35197114,https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2,Comparison of methods for predicting COVID-19-related death in the general population using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Williamson EJ, Tazare J, Bhaskaran K, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Tomlinson L, Wing K, Bacon S, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Forbes HJ, Minassian C, Morton CE, Nightingale E, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Nicholson BD, Leon DA, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Davies NG, DeVito NJ, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Hulme WJ, Morley J, Douglas I, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Wong A, Schultze A, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Grieve R, Harrison DA, Steyerberg EW, Eggo RM, Diaz-Ordaz K, Keogh R, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Diagnostic and prognostic research,2022,2022-02-24,Y,Mortality; Infectious disease; Risk stratification; Statistical methodology; Risk Prediction; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Obtaining accurate estimates of the risk of COVID-19-related death in the general population is challenging in the context of changing levels of circulating infection.

Methods

We propose a modelling approach to predict 28-day COVID-19-related death which explicitly accounts for COVID-19 infection prevalence using a series of sub-studies from new landmark times incorporating time-updating proxy measures of COVID-19 infection prevalence. This was compared with an approach ignoring infection prevalence. The target population was adults registered at a general practice in England in March 2020. The outcome was 28-day COVID-19-related death. Predictors included demographic characteristics and comorbidities. Three proxies of local infection prevalence were used: model-based estimates, rate of COVID-19-related attendances in emergency care, and rate of suspected COVID-19 cases in primary care. We used data within the TPP SystmOne electronic health record system linked to Office for National Statistics mortality data, using the OpenSAFELY platform, working on behalf of NHS England. Prediction models were developed in case-cohort samples with a 100-day follow-up. Validation was undertaken in 28-day cohorts from the target population. We considered predictive performance (discrimination and calibration) in geographical and temporal subsets of data not used in developing the risk prediction models. Simple models were contrasted to models including a full range of predictors.

Results

Prediction models were developed on 11,972,947 individuals, of whom 7999 experienced COVID-19-related death. All models discriminated well between individuals who did and did not experience the outcome, including simple models adjusting only for basic demographics and number of comorbidities: C-statistics 0.92-0.94. However, absolute risk estimates were substantially miscalibrated when infection prevalence was not explicitly modelled.

Conclusions

Our proposed models allow absolute risk estimation in the context of changing infection prevalence but predictive performance is sensitive to the proxy for infection prevalence. Simple models can provide excellent discrimination and may simplify implementation of risk prediction tools.",,pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947?pdf=render 36526319,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064910,Performance of scoring systems in selecting short stay medical admissions suitable for assessment in same day emergency care: an analysis of diagnostic accuracy in a UK hospital setting.,"Atkin C, Gallier S, Wallin E, Reddy-Kolanu V, Sapey E.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-16,Y,Internal Medicine; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine); Organisation Of Health Services,,,"

Objectives

To assess the performance of the Amb score and Glasgow Admission Prediction Score (GAPS) in identifying acute medical admissions suitable for same day emergency care (SDEC) in a large urban secondary centre.

Design

Retrospective assessment of routinely collected data from electronic healthcare records.

Setting

Single large urban tertiary care centre.

Participants

All unplanned admissions to general medicine on Monday-Friday, episodes starting 08:00-16:59 hours and lasting up to 48 hours, between 1 April 2019 and 9 March 2020.

Main outcome measures

Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the Amb score and GAPS in identifying patients discharged within 12 hours of arrival.

Results

7365 episodes were assessed. 94.6% of episodes had an Amb score suggesting suitability for SDEC. The positive predictive value of the Amb score in identifying those discharged within 12 hours was 54.5% (95% CI 53.3% to 55.8%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for the Amb score was 0.612 (95% CI 0.599 to 0.625).42.4% of episodes had a GAPS suggesting suitability for SDEC. The positive predictive value of the GAPS in identifying those discharged within 12 hours was 50.5% (95% CI 48.4% to 52.7%). The AUROC for the GAPS was 0.606 (95% CI 0.590 to 0.622).41.4% of the population had both an Amb and GAPS score suggestive of suitability for SDEC and 5.7% of the population had both and Amb and GAPS score suggestive of a lack of suitability for SDEC.

Conclusions

The Amb score and GAPS had poor discriminatory ability to identify acute medical admissions suitable for discharge within 12 hours, limiting their utility in selecting patients for assessment within SDEC services within this diverse patient population.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e064910.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064910; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764605; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764605?pdf=render 34446426,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1931,Risk of thrombocytopenia and thromboembolism after covid-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 positive testing: self-controlled case series study.,"Hippisley-Cox J, Patone M, Mei XW, Saatci D, Dixon S, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Watkinson P, Shankar-Hari M, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Griffin SJ, Sheikh A, Coupland CAC.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-08-26,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the association between covid-19 vaccines and risk of thrombocytopenia and thromboembolic events in England among adults.

Design

Self-controlled case series study using national data on covid-19 vaccination and hospital admissions.

Setting

Patient level data were obtained for approximately 30 million people vaccinated in England between 1 December 2020 and 24 April 2021. Electronic health records were linked with death data from the Office for National Statistics, SARS-CoV-2 positive test data, and hospital admission data from the United Kingdom's health service (NHS).

Participants

29 121 633 people were vaccinated with first doses (19 608 008 with Oxford-AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) and 9 513 625 with Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2 mRNA)) and 1 758 095 people had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. People aged ≥16 years who had first doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 mRNA vaccines and any outcome of interest were included in the study.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcomes were hospital admission or death associated with thrombocytopenia, venous thromboembolism, and arterial thromboembolism within 28 days of three exposures: first dose of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine; first dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine; and a SARS-CoV-2 positive test. Secondary outcomes were subsets of the primary outcomes: cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), ischaemic stroke, myocardial infarction, and other rare arterial thrombotic events.

Results

The study found increased risk of thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (incidence rate ratio 1.33, 95% confidence interval 1.19 to 1.47 at 8-14 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test (5.27, 4.34 to 6.40 at 8-14 days); increased risk of venous thromboembolism after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (1.10, 1.02 to 1.18 at 8-14 days) and after SARS-CoV-2 infection (13.86, 12.76 to 15.05 at 8-14 days); and increased risk of arterial thromboembolism after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (1.06, 1.01 to 1.10 at 15-21 days) and after SARS-CoV-2 infection (2.02, 1.82 to 2.24 at 15-21 days). Secondary analyses found increased risk of CVST after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (4.01, 2.08 to 7.71 at 8-14 days), after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (3.58, 1.39 to 9.27 at 15-21 days), and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test; increased risk of ischaemic stroke after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination (1.12, 1.04 to 1.20 at 15-21 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test; and increased risk of other rare arterial thrombotic events after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (1.21, 1.02 to 1.43 at 8-14 days) and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.

Conclusion

Increased risks of haematological and vascular events that led to hospital admission or death were observed for short time intervals after first doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 mRNA vaccines. The risks of most of these events were substantially higher and more prolonged after SARS-CoV-2 infection than after vaccination in the same population.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/374/bmj.n1931.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1931; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189?pdf=render -35197114,https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2,Comparison of methods for predicting COVID-19-related death in the general population using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Williamson EJ, Tazare J, Bhaskaran K, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Tomlinson L, Wing K, Bacon S, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Forbes HJ, Minassian C, Morton CE, Nightingale E, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Nicholson BD, Leon DA, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Davies NG, DeVito NJ, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Hulme WJ, Morley J, Douglas I, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Wong A, Schultze A, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Grieve R, Harrison DA, Steyerberg EW, Eggo RM, Diaz-Ordaz K, Keogh R, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Diagnostic and prognostic research,2022,2022-02-24,Y,Mortality; Infectious disease; Risk stratification; Statistical methodology; Risk Prediction; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Obtaining accurate estimates of the risk of COVID-19-related death in the general population is challenging in the context of changing levels of circulating infection.

Methods

We propose a modelling approach to predict 28-day COVID-19-related death which explicitly accounts for COVID-19 infection prevalence using a series of sub-studies from new landmark times incorporating time-updating proxy measures of COVID-19 infection prevalence. This was compared with an approach ignoring infection prevalence. The target population was adults registered at a general practice in England in March 2020. The outcome was 28-day COVID-19-related death. Predictors included demographic characteristics and comorbidities. Three proxies of local infection prevalence were used: model-based estimates, rate of COVID-19-related attendances in emergency care, and rate of suspected COVID-19 cases in primary care. We used data within the TPP SystmOne electronic health record system linked to Office for National Statistics mortality data, using the OpenSAFELY platform, working on behalf of NHS England. Prediction models were developed in case-cohort samples with a 100-day follow-up. Validation was undertaken in 28-day cohorts from the target population. We considered predictive performance (discrimination and calibration) in geographical and temporal subsets of data not used in developing the risk prediction models. Simple models were contrasted to models including a full range of predictors.

Results

Prediction models were developed on 11,972,947 individuals, of whom 7999 experienced COVID-19-related death. All models discriminated well between individuals who did and did not experience the outcome, including simple models adjusting only for basic demographics and number of comorbidities: C-statistics 0.92-0.94. However, absolute risk estimates were substantially miscalibrated when infection prevalence was not explicitly modelled.

Conclusions

Our proposed models allow absolute risk estimation in the context of changing infection prevalence but predictive performance is sensitive to the proxy for infection prevalence. Simple models can provide excellent discrimination and may simplify implementation of risk prediction tools.",,pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947?pdf=render 35473737,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060413,"Therapies for Long COVID in non-hospitalised individuals: from symptoms, patient-reported outcomes and immunology to targeted therapies (The TLC Study).","Haroon S, Nirantharakumar K, Hughes SE, Subramanian A, Aiyegbusi OL, Davies EH, Myles P, Williams T, Turner G, Chandan JS, McMullan C, Lord J, Wraith DC, McGee K, Denniston AK, Taverner T, Jackson LJ, Sapey E, Gkoutos G, Gokhale K, Leggett E, Iles C, Frost C, McNamara G, Bamford A, Marshall T, Zemedikun DT, Price G, Marwaha S, Simms-Williams N, Brown K, Walker A, Jones K, Matthews K, Camaradou J, Saint-Cricq M, Kumar S, Alder Y, Stanton DE, Agyen L, Baber M, Blaize H, Calvert M.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-26,Y,Therapeutics; immunology; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

Individuals with COVID-19 frequently experience symptoms and impaired quality of life beyond 4-12 weeks, commonly referred to as Long COVID. Whether Long COVID is one or several distinct syndromes is unknown. Establishing the evidence base for appropriate therapies is needed. We aim to evaluate the symptom burden and underlying pathophysiology of Long COVID syndromes in non-hospitalised individuals and evaluate potential therapies.

Methods and analysis

A cohort of 4000 non-hospitalised individuals with a past COVID-19 diagnosis and 1000 matched controls will be selected from anonymised primary care records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, and invited by their general practitioners to participate on a digital platform (Atom5). Individuals will report symptoms, quality of life, work capability and patient-reported outcome measures. Data will be collected monthly for 1 year.Statistical clustering methods will be used to identify distinct Long COVID-19 symptom clusters. Individuals from the four most prevalent clusters and two control groups will be invited to participate in the BioWear substudy which will further phenotype Long COVID symptom clusters by measurement of immunological parameters and actigraphy.We will review existing evidence on interventions for postviral syndromes and Long COVID to map and prioritise interventions for each newly characterised Long COVID syndrome. Recommendations will be made using the cumulative evidence in an expert consensus workshop. A virtual supportive intervention will be coproduced with patients and health service providers for future evaluation.Individuals with lived experience of Long COVID will be involved throughout this programme through a patient and public involvement group.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval was obtained from the Solihull Research Ethics Committee, West Midlands (21/WM/0203). Research findings will be presented at international conferences, in peer-reviewed journals, to Long COVID patient support groups and to policymakers.

Trial registration number

1567490.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e060413.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060413; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9044550; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9044550?pdf=render 32043136,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa018,New Horizons in the use of routine data for ageing research.,"Todd OM, Burton JK, Dodds RM, Hollinghurst J, Lyons RA, Quinn TJ, Schneider A, Walesby KE, Wilkinson C, Conroy S, Gale CP, Hall M, Walters K, Clegg AP.",,Age and ageing,2020,2020-08-01,Y,Ageing; Data Linkage; Older People; Health Informatics; Electronic Health Records; Big Data,Improving Public Health,,"The past three decades have seen a steady increase in the availability of routinely collected health and social care data and the processing power to analyse it. These developments represent a major opportunity for ageing research, especially with the integration of different datasets across traditional boundaries of health and social care, for prognostic research and novel evaluations of interventions with representative populations of older people. However, there are considerable challenges in using routine data at the level of coding, data analysis and in the application of findings to everyday care. New Horizons in applying routine data to investigate novel questions in ageing research require a collaborative approach between clinicians, data scientists, biostatisticians, epidemiologists and trial methodologists. This requires building capacity for the next generation of research leaders in this important area. There is a need to develop consensus code lists and standardised, validated algorithms for common conditions and outcomes that are relevant for older people to maximise the potential of routine data research in this group. Lastly, we must help drive the application of routine data to improve the care of older people, through the development of novel methods for evaluation of interventions using routine data infrastructure. We believe that harnessing routine data can help address knowledge gaps for older people living with multiple conditions and frailty, and design interventions and pathways of care to address the complex health issues we face in caring for older people.","This article looks at new horizons in the use of routine data for ageing research. This includes prognostic research, clinical trials, and service evaluations. The authors highlight the need for multidisciplinary collaboration. They identify three key areas where the application of routine data has major benefits for research in ageing - prediction (developing prediction tools to identify levels of future risk of outcomes thereby helping in decision making), clinical trials (routine data can help extend participation in clinical trials), and service evaluation (understanding performace of clinical services by measuring outcomes in routine data).",pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/49/5/716/33676968/afaa018.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7444666; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7444666?pdf=render 36460578,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00187-x,Identifying and visualising multimorbidity and comorbidity patterns in patients in the English National Health Service: a population-based study.,"Kuan V, Denaxas S, Patalay P, Nitsch D, Mathur R, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Sofat R, Partridge L, Roberts A, Wong ICK, Hingorani M, Chaturvedi N, Hemingway H, Hingorani AD, Multimorbidity Mechanism and Therapeutic Research Collaborative (MMTRC).",,The Lancet. Digital health,2023,2022-11-29,N,,,,"

Background

Globally, there is a paucity of multimorbidity and comorbidity data, especially for minority ethnic groups and younger people. We estimated the frequency of common disease combinations and identified non-random disease associations for all ages in a multiethnic population.

Methods

In this population-based study, we examined multimorbidity and comorbidity patterns stratified by ethnicity or race, sex, and age for 308 health conditions using electronic health records from individuals included on the Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked with the Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care dataset in England. We included individuals who were older than 1 year and who had been registered for at least 1 year in a participating general practice during the study period (between April 1, 2010, and March 31, 2015). We identified the most common combinations of conditions and comorbidities for index conditions. We defined comorbidity as the accumulation of additional conditions to an index condition over an individual's lifetime. We used network analysis to identify conditions that co-occurred more often than expected by chance. We developed online interactive tools to explore multimorbidity and comorbidity patterns overall and by subgroup based on ethnicity, sex, and age.

Findings

We collected data for 3 872 451 eligible patients, of whom 1 955 700 (50·5%) were women and girls, 1 916 751 (49·5%) were men and boys, 2 666 234 (68·9%) were White, 155 435 (4·0%) were south Asian, and 98 815 (2·6%) were Black. We found that a higher proportion of boys aged 1-9 years (132 506 [47·8%] of 277 158) had two or more diagnosed conditions than did girls in the same age group (106 982 [40·3%] of 265 179), but more women and girls were diagnosed with multimorbidity than were boys aged 10 years and older and men (1 361 232 [80·5%] of 1 690 521 vs 1 161 308 [70·8%] of 1 639 593). White individuals (2 097 536 [78·7%] of 2 666 234) were more likely to be diagnosed with two or more conditions than were Black (59 339 [60·1%] of 98 815) or south Asian individuals (93 617 [60·2%] of 155 435). Depression commonly co-occurred with anxiety, migraine, obesity, atopic conditions, deafness, soft-tissue disorders, and gastrointestinal disorders across all subgroups. Heart failure often co-occurred with hypertension, atrial fibrillation, osteoarthritis, stable angina, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Spinal fractures were most strongly non-randomly associated with malignancy in Black individuals, but with osteoporosis in White individuals. Hypertension was most strongly associated with kidney disorders in those aged 20-29 years, but with dyslipidaemia, obesity, and type 2 diabetes in individuals aged 40 years and older. Breast cancer was associated with different comorbidities in individuals from different ethnic groups. Asthma was associated with different comorbidities between males and females. Bipolar disorder was associated with different comorbidities in younger age groups compared with older age groups.

Interpretation

Our findings and interactive online tools are a resource for: patients and their clinicians, to prevent and detect comorbid conditions; research funders and policy makers, to redesign service provision, training priorities, and guideline development; and biomedical researchers and manufacturers of medicines, to provide leads for research into common or sequential pathways of disease and inform the design of clinical trials.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Department of Health and Social Care, Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation, and The Alan Turing Institute.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00187-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00187-X -37363797,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653,Impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care in England: a time-series analyses using OpenSAFELY and effects of predictors including deprivation.,"Zhong X, Pate A, Yang YT, Fahmi A, Ashcroft DM, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Massey J, Fisher L, Inglesby P, OpenSAFELY collaborative, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2023,2023-05-16,Y,Antimicrobial resistance; Primary Care; Broad-spectrum Antibiotics; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the healthcare systems, adding extra pressure to reduce antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate changes in antibiotic prescription patterns after COVID-19 started.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform to access the TPP SystmOne electronic health record (EHR) system in primary care and selected patients prescribed antibiotics from 2019 to 2021. To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing, we evaluated prescribing rates and its predictors and used interrupted time series analysis by fitting binomial logistic regression models.

Findings

Over 32 million antibiotic prescriptions were extracted over the study period; 8.7% were broad-spectrum. The study showed increases in broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing (odds ratio [OR] 1.37; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36-1.38) as an immediate impact of the pandemic, followed by a gradual recovery with a 1.1-1.2% decrease in odds of broad-spectrum prescription per month. The same pattern was found within subgroups defined by age, sex, region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic deprivation quintiles. More deprived patients were more likely to receive broad-spectrum antibiotics, which differences remained stable over time. The most significant increase in broad-spectrum prescribing was observed for lower respiratory tract infection (OR 2.33; 95% CI 2.1-2.50) and otitis media (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.80-2.13).

Interpretation

An immediate reduction in antibiotic prescribing and an increase in the proportion of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing in primary care was observed. The trends recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic on AMR needs further investigation.

Funding

This work was supported by Health Data Research UK and by National Institute for Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397?pdf=render 36941845,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2023.100613,"Cognitive Impairment, Frailty, and Adverse Outcomes Among Prevalent Hemodialysis Recipients: Results From a Large Prospective Cohort Study in the United Kingdom.","Anderson BM, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.",,Kidney medicine,2023,2023-02-09,Y,Mortality; Frailty; Dementia; Cognitive impairment; epidemiology; hemodialysis; Hospitalization; End-stage Kidney Disease,,,"

Rationale & objective

Frailty and cognitive impairment are common in hemodialysis recipients and have been associated with high mortality. There is considerable heterogeneity in frailty reporting, with little comparison between commonly used frailty tools and little exploration of the interplay between cognition and frailty. The aims were to explore the relationship between frailty scores and cognition and their associations with hospitalization and mortality.

Study design

Prospective cohort study.

Setting & population

Prevalent hemodialysis recipients linked to national datasets for hospitalization and mortality.

Predictors

Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Frailty Phenotype, Frailty Index (FI), Edmonton Frailty Scale, and Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) were performed at baseline. Cognitive impairment was defined as MoCA scores of <26, or <21 in dexterity impairment, <18 in visual impairment.

Outcomes

Mortality, hospitalization.

Analytical approach

Cox proportional hazards model for mortality, censored for end of follow-up. Negative binomial regression for admission rates, censored for death/end of follow-up.

Results

In total, 448 participants were recruited with valid MoCAs and followed up for a median of 685 days. There were 103 (23%) deaths and 1,120 admissions of at least one night. Cognitive impairment was identified in 346 (77.2%) participants. Increasing frailty by all definitions was associated with poorer cognition. Cognition was not associated with mortality (HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.95-1.03; P = 0.41) or hospitalization (IRR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.99-1.04; P = 0.39) on multivariable analyses. There were interactions between MoCA scores and increasing frailty by FI (P = 0.002) and Clinical Frailty Scale (P = 0.005); admissions were highest when both MoCA and frailty scores were high, and when both scores were low.

Limitations

As frailty is a dynamic state, a single cross-sectional assessment may not accurately reflect its year-to-year variability. In addition, these findings are in maintenance dialysis and may not be transferable to incident hemodialysis. There were small variations in application of frailty tool criteria from other studies, which may have influenced the results.

Conclusions

Cognitive impairment is highly prevalent in this hemodialysis cohort. The interaction between cognition and frailty on rates of admission suggests the MoCA offers value in identifying higher risk hemodialysis populations with both high and low degrees of frailty.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2023.100613; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2023.100613; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10024232; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10024232?pdf=render +37363797,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653,Impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care in England: a time-series analyses using OpenSAFELY and effects of predictors including deprivation.,"Zhong X, Pate A, Yang YT, Fahmi A, Ashcroft DM, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Massey J, Fisher L, Inglesby P, OpenSAFELY collaborative, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2023,2023-05-16,Y,Antimicrobial resistance; Primary Care; Broad-spectrum Antibiotics; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the healthcare systems, adding extra pressure to reduce antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate changes in antibiotic prescription patterns after COVID-19 started.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform to access the TPP SystmOne electronic health record (EHR) system in primary care and selected patients prescribed antibiotics from 2019 to 2021. To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing, we evaluated prescribing rates and its predictors and used interrupted time series analysis by fitting binomial logistic regression models.

Findings

Over 32 million antibiotic prescriptions were extracted over the study period; 8.7% were broad-spectrum. The study showed increases in broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing (odds ratio [OR] 1.37; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36-1.38) as an immediate impact of the pandemic, followed by a gradual recovery with a 1.1-1.2% decrease in odds of broad-spectrum prescription per month. The same pattern was found within subgroups defined by age, sex, region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic deprivation quintiles. More deprived patients were more likely to receive broad-spectrum antibiotics, which differences remained stable over time. The most significant increase in broad-spectrum prescribing was observed for lower respiratory tract infection (OR 2.33; 95% CI 2.1-2.50) and otitis media (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.80-2.13).

Interpretation

An immediate reduction in antibiotic prescribing and an increase in the proportion of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing in primary care was observed. The trends recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic on AMR needs further investigation.

Funding

This work was supported by Health Data Research UK and by National Institute for Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397?pdf=render 33228632,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12920-020-00826-6,A random forest based biomarker discovery and power analysis framework for diagnostics research.,"Acharjee A, Larkman J, Xu Y, Cardoso VR, Gkoutos GV.",,BMC medical genomics,2020,2020-11-23,Y,Biomarker; Feature Selection; Random Forest; Power Study,,,"

Background

Biomarker identification is one of the major and important goal of functional genomics and translational medicine studies. Large scale -omics data are increasingly being accumulated and can provide vital means for the identification of biomarkers for the early diagnosis of complex disease and/or for advanced patient/diseases stratification. These tasks are clearly interlinked, and it is essential that an unbiased and stable methodology is applied in order to address them. Although, recently, many, primarily machine learning based, biomarker identification approaches have been developed, the exploration of potential associations between biomarker identification and the design of future experiments remains a challenge.

Methods

In this study, using both simulated and published experimentally derived datasets, we assessed the performance of several state-of-the-art Random Forest (RF) based decision approaches, namely the Boruta method, the permutation based feature selection without correction method, the permutation based feature selection with correction method, and the backward elimination based feature selection method. Moreover, we conducted a power analysis to estimate the number of samples required for potential future studies.

Results

We present a number of different RF based stable feature selection methods and compare their performances using simulated, as well as published, experimentally derived, datasets. Across all of the scenarios considered, we found the Boruta method to be the most stable methodology, whilst the Permutation (Raw) approach offered the largest number of relevant features, when allowed to stabilise over a number of iterations. Finally, we developed and made available a web interface ( https://joelarkman.shinyapps.io/PowerTools/ ) to streamline power calculations thereby aiding the design of potential future studies within a translational medicine context.

Conclusions

We developed a RF-based biomarker discovery framework and provide a web interface for our framework, termed PowerTools, that caters the design of appropriate and cost-effective subsequent future omics study.",,pdf:https://bmcmedgenomics.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12920-020-00826-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12920-020-00826-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7685541; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7685541?pdf=render 37363796,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100636,Comparative effectiveness of two- and three-dose COVID-19 vaccination schedules involving AZD1222 and BNT162b2 in people with kidney disease: a linked OpenSAFELY and UK Renal Registry cohort study.,"OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Parker EPK, Horne EMF, Hulme WJ, Tazare J, Zheng B, Carr EJ, Loud F, Lyon S, Mahalingasivam V, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Scanlon M, Santhakumaran S, Steenkamp R, Goldacre B, Sterne JAC, Nitsch D, Tomlinson LA, LH&W NCS (or CONVALESCENCE) Collaborative.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2023,2023-05-03,Y,Vaccination; Effectiveness; Chronic Kidney Disease; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Kidney disease is a key risk factor for COVID-19-related mortality and suboptimal vaccine response. Optimising vaccination strategies is essential to reduce the disease burden in this vulnerable population. We therefore compared the effectiveness of two- and three-dose schedules involving AZD1222 (AZ; ChAdOx1-S) and BNT162b2 (BNT) among people with kidney disease in England.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we performed a retrospective cohort study among people with moderate-to-severe kidney disease. Using linked primary care and UK Renal Registry records in the OpenSAFELY-TPP platform, we identified adults with stage 3-5 chronic kidney disease, dialysis recipients, and kidney transplant recipients. We used Cox proportional hazards models to compare COVID-19-related outcomes and non-COVID-19 death after two-dose (AZ-AZ vs BNT-BNT) and three-dose (AZ-AZ-BNT vs BNT-BNT-BNT) schedules.

Findings

After two doses, incidence during the Delta wave was higher in AZ-AZ (n = 257,580) than BNT-BNT recipients (n = 169,205; adjusted hazard ratios [95% CIs] 1.43 [1.37-1.50], 1.59 [1.43-1.77], 1.44 [1.12-1.85], and 1.09 [1.02-1.17] for SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19-related hospitalisation, COVID-19-related death, and non-COVID-19 death, respectively). Findings were consistent across disease subgroups, including dialysis and transplant recipients. After three doses, there was little evidence of differences between AZ-AZ-BNT (n = 220,330) and BNT-BNT-BNT recipients (n = 157,065) for any outcome during a period of Omicron dominance.

Interpretation

Among individuals with moderate-to-severe kidney disease, two doses of BNT conferred stronger protection than AZ against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease. A subsequent BNT dose levelled the playing field, emphasising the value of heterologous RNA doses in vulnerable populations.

Funding

National Core Studies, Wellcome Trust, MRC, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100636; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155829; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155829?pdf=render 35910710,https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkac056,Real-world use of an etanercept biosimilar including selective versus automatic substitution in inflammatory arthritis patients: a UK-based electronic health records study.,"Cooksey R, Brophy S, Kennedy J, Seaborne M, Choy E.",,Rheumatology advances in practice,2022,2022-07-27,Y,RA; As; PSA; Etanercept; Biosimilars,,,"

Objective

Biosimilars are approved as an alternative treatment to their originators. We compared the clinical outcomes of etanercept (ETN) biosimilar compared with ETN originator in real-world practice, from two local health boards in Wales with different policies on switching: automatic vs selective.

Methods

Data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank in Wales were used to create a retrospective cohort study using linked primary and secondary care data. Patients aged ≥18 years with diagnosis codes for RA, PsA or AS were included. Outcomes included treatment failure and DAS-28 score (for RA). The local health board with a policy of automatic switching (i.e. clinician/nurse involvement not mandated) is labelled as automatic switch area, and the other, which required clinician/nurse supervision, as selective switch.

Results

Of 8925 individuals with inflammatory arthritis, 13.3% (365) received ETN biosimilar and 31.5% (863) ETN originator. The treatment discontinuation rate was similar for ETN biosimilar and originator by Kaplan-Meier analysis. More biosimilar failure patients were treated in the automatic switch area (15 vs 4.8%). In the automatic switch area, 28.8% (75 of 260) of patients switched automatically from ETN originator to biosimilar compared with 10.5% (11 of 105) in the selective switch area. ETN biosimilar reduced DAS-28 by 1.6 ± 1.8 in the selective switch area vs 0.4 ± 0.6 in the automatic switch area.

Conclusion

The ETN biosimilar was well tolerated. Fewer people were switched using selective policy, but this was associated with lower failure rates. Automatic switch policy led to more patients being switched and did not lead to significant worsening of disease.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumap/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/rap/rkac056/45095148/rkac056.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkac056; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9336562; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9336562?pdf=render @@ -254,108 +254,108 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 37046692,https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15072031,"Breast, Prostate, Colorectal, and Lung Cancer Incidence and Risk Factors in Women Who Have Sex with Women and Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis Using UK Biobank.","Underwood S, Lyratzopoulos G, Saunders CL.",,Cancers,2023,2023-03-29,Y,Inequalities; Cancer Incidence; Cancer Risk; Cancer Epidemiology; Sexual Minority Health,,,"

Background

There is limited evidence about cancer incidence for lesbian, gay and bisexual women and men, although the prevalence of cancer risk factors may be higher.

Aim

To describe cancer incidence for four common cancers (breast, lung, colorectal and prostate).

Methods

This project used UK Biobank participant data. We explored risk factor prevalence (age, deprivation, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, obesity, parity, and sexual history), and calculated cancer risk, for six groups defined based on sexual history; women who have sex exclusively with men (WSEM), or women (WSEW), women who have sex with men and women (WSWM); men who have sex exclusively with women (MSEW), or men (MSEM), and men who have sex with women and men (MSWM).

Results

WSEW, WSWM, MSEM, and MSMW were younger, more likely to smoke, and to live in more deprived neighbourhoods. We found no evidence of an association between sexual history and breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer in age-adjusted models. Lung cancer incidence was higher for WSWM compared with WSEM, HR (95%CI) 1.78 (1.28-2.48), p = 0.0005, and MSWM compared with MSEW, 1.43 (1.03-1.99), p = 0.031; after adjustment for smoking, this difference was no longer significant.

Conclusions

Sexual minority groups have a higher risk for lung cancer, due to greater exposure to smoking.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/15/7/2031/pdf?version=1680080044; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15072031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10093616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10093616?pdf=render 35226680,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264023,"COVID-19 mitigation measures in primary schools and association with infection and school staff wellbeing: An observational survey linked with routine data in Wales, UK.","Marchant E, Griffiths L, Crick T, Fry R, Hollinghurst J, James M, Cowley L, Abbasizanjani H, Torabi F, Thompson DA, Kennedy J, Akbari A, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA, Brophy S.",,PloS one,2022,2022-02-28,Y,,,,"

Introduction

School-based COVID-19 mitigation strategies have greatly impacted the primary school day (children aged 3-11) including: wearing face coverings, two metre distancing, no mixing of children, and no breakfast clubs or extra-curricular activities. This study examines these mitigation measures and association with COVID-19 infection, respiratory infection, and school staff wellbeing between October to December 2020 in Wales, UK.

Methods

A school staff survey captured self-reported COVID-19 mitigation measures in the school, participant anxiety and depression, and open-text responses regarding experiences of teaching and implementing measures. These survey responses were linked to national-scale COVID-19 test results data to examine association of measures in the school and the likelihood of a positive (staff or pupil) COVID-19 case in the school (clustered by school, adjusted for school size and free school meals using logistic regression). Linkage was conducted through the SAIL (Secure Anonymised Information Linkage) Databank.

Results

Responses were obtained from 353 participants from 59 primary schools within 15 of 22 local authorities. Having more direct non-household contacts was associated with a higher likelihood of COVID-19 positive case in the school (1-5 contacts compared to none, OR 2.89 (1.01, 8.31)) and a trend to more self-reported cold symptoms. Staff face covering was not associated with a lower odds of school COVID-19 cases (mask vs. no covering OR 2.82 (1.11, 7.14)) and was associated with higher self-reported cold symptoms. School staff reported the impacts of wearing face coverings on teaching, including having to stand closer to pupils and raise their voices to be heard. 67.1% were not able to implement two metre social distancing from pupils. We did not find evidence that maintaining a two metre distance was associated with lower rates of COVID-19 in the school.

Conclusions

Implementing, adhering to and evaluating COVID-19 mitigation guidelines is challenging in primary school settings. Our findings suggest that reducing non-household direct contacts lowers infection rates. There was no evidence that face coverings, two metre social distancing or stopping children mixing was associated with lower odds of COVID-19 or cold infection rates in the school. Primary school staff found teaching challenging during COVID-19 restrictions, especially for younger learners and those with additional learning needs.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264023&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264023; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8884508; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8884508?pdf=render 37182748,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.05.010,The impact of COVID-19 on antibiotic prescribing in primary care in England: Evaluation and risk prediction of appropriateness of type and repeat prescribing.,"Zhong X, Pate A, Yang YT, Fahmi A, Ashcroft DM, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Massey J, Fisher L, Inglesby P, OpenSAFELY collaborative, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.",,The Journal of infection,2023,2023-05-12,Y,Infection; Antibiotics; Primary Care; Antibiotic Stewardship; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Background

This study aimed to predict risks of potentially inappropriate antibiotic type and repeat prescribing and assess changes during COVID-19.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we used OpenSAFELY platform to access the TPP SystmOne electronic health record (EHR) system and selected patients prescribed antibiotics from 2019 to 2021. Multinomial logistic regression models predicted patient's probability of receiving inappropriate antibiotic type or repeat antibiotic course for each common infection.

Results

The population included 9.1 million patients with 29.2 million antibiotic prescriptions. 29.1% of prescriptions were identified as repeat prescribing. Those with same day incident infection coded in the EHR had considerably lower rates of repeat prescribing (18.0%) and 8.6% had potentially inappropriate type. No major changes in the rates of repeat antibiotic prescribing during COVID-19 were found. In the 10 risk prediction models, good levels of calibration and moderate levels of discrimination were found.

Conclusions

Our study found no evidence of changes in level of inappropriate or repeat antibiotic prescribing after the start of COVID-19. Repeat antibiotic prescribing was frequent and varied according to regional and patient characteristics. There is a need for treatment guidelines to be developed around antibiotic failure and clinicians provided with individualised patient information.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.05.010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.05.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176893; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176893?pdf=render -31469943,https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3255,Computational instantaneous wave-free ratio (IFR) for patient-specific coronary artery stenoses using 1D network models.,"Carson JM, Roobottom C, Alcock R, Nithiarasu P.",,International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering,2019,2019-11-01,Y,Coronary Arteries; Ffr; Ifr; Haemodynamic Modelling,,cardiovascular,"In this work, we estimate the diagnostic threshold of the instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) through the use of a one-dimensional haemodynamic framework. To this end, we first compared the computed fractional flow reserve (cFFR) predicted from a 1D computational framework with invasive clinical measurements. The framework shows excellent promise and utilises minimal patient data from a cohort of 52 patients with a total of 66 stenoses. The diagnostic accuracy of the cFFR model was 75.76%, with a sensitivity of 71.43%, a specificity of 77.78%, a positive predictive value of 60%, and a negative predictive value of 85.37%. The validated model was then used to estimate the diagnostic threshold of iFR. The model determined a quadratic relationship between cFFR and the ciFR. The iFR diagnostic threshold was determined to be 0.8910 from a receiver operating characteristic curve that is in the range of 0.89 to 0.9 that is normally reported in clinical studies.",This study aimed to measure how well an algorithm using data from non-invasive tests was able to predict early signs of heart disease.,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3255; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3255; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003475?pdf=render 35572721,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419,Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in double and triple vaccinated adults and single dose vaccine effectiveness among children in Autumn 2021 in England: REACT-1 study.,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Eales O, Bodinier B, Wang H, Haw D, Whitaker M, Elliott J, Walters CE, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-05-06,Y,School-aged children; Vaccine Effectiveness; Booster Dose; Children Vaccination; Sars-cov-2 Prevalence,,,"

Background

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection with Delta variant was increasing in England in late summer 2021 among children aged 5 to 17 years, and adults who had received two vaccine doses. In September 2021, a third (booster) dose was offered to vaccinated adults aged 50 years and over, vulnerable adults and healthcare/care-home workers, and a single vaccine dose already offered to 16 and 17 year-olds was extended to children aged 12 to 15 years.

Methods

SARS-CoV-2 community prevalence in England was available from self-administered throat and nose swabs using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in round 13 (24 June to 12 July 2021, N = 98,233), round 14 (9 to 27 September 2021, N = 100,527) and round 15 (19 October to 5 November 2021, N = 100,112) from the REACT-1 study randomised community surveys. Linking to National Health Service (NHS) vaccination data for consenting participants, we estimated vaccine effectiveness in children aged 12 to 17 years and compared swab-positivity rates in adults who received a third dose with those who received two doses.

Findings

Weighted SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was 1.57% (1.48%, 1.66%) in round 15 compared with 0.83% (0.76%, 0.89%) in round 14, and the previously observed link between infections and hospitalisations and deaths had weakened. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in children aged 12 to 17 years was estimated (round 15) at 64.0% (50.9%, 70.6%) and 67.7% (53.8%, 77.5%) for symptomatic infections. Adults who received a third vaccine dose were less likely to test positive compared to those who received two doses, with adjusted OR of 0.36 (0.25, 0.53).

Interpretation

Vaccination of children aged 12 to 17 years and third (booster) doses in adults were effective at reducing infection risk. High rates of vaccination, including booster doses, are a key part of the strategy to reduce infection rates in the community.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001493/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030?pdf=render -37528841,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102064,Repeated antibiotic exposure and risk of hospitalisation and death following COVID-19 infection (OpenSAFELY): a matched case-control study.,"Yang YT, Wong D, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, MacKenna B, Fisher L, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, OpenSAFELY collaborative, Hand K, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Goldacre B, van Staa T, Palin V.",,EClinicalMedicine,2023,2023-07-05,Y,Antibiotics; Primary Care; Severe Outcome; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Identifying potential risk factors related to severe COVID-19 outcomes is important. Repeated intermittent antibiotic use is known be associated with adverse outcomes. This study aims to examine whether prior frequent antibiotic exposure is associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform, which integrated primary and secondary care, COVID-19 test, and death registration data. This matched case-control study included 0.67 million patients (aged 18-110 years) from an eligible 2.47 million patients with incident COVID-19 by matching with replacement. Inclusion criteria included registration within one general practice for at least 3 years and infection with incident COVID-19. Cases were identified according to different severity of COVID-19 outcomes. Cases and eligible controls were 1:6 matched on age, sex, region of GP practice, and index year and month of COVID-19 infection. Five quintile groups, based on the number of previous 3-year antibiotic prescriptions, were created to indicate the frequency of prior antibiotic exposure. Conditional logistic regression used to compare the differences between case and control groups, adjusting for ethnicity, body mass index, comorbidities, vaccination history, deprivation, and care home status. Sensitivity analyses were done to explore potential confounding and the effects of missing data.

Findings

Based on our inclusion criteria, between February 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, 98,420 patients were admitted to hospitals and 22,660 died. 55 unique antibiotics were prescribed. A dose-response relationship between number of antibiotic prescriptions and risk of severe COVID-19 outcome was observed. Patients in the highest quintile with history of prior antibiotic exposure had 1.80 times greater odds of hospitalisation compared to patients without antibiotic exposure (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.80, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.75-1.84). Similarly, the adjusted OR for hospitalised patients with death outcomes was 1.34 (95% CI 1.28-1.41). Larger number of prior antibiotic type was also associated with more severe COVID-19 related hospital admission. The adjusted OR of quintile 5 exposure (the most frequent) with more than 3 antibiotic types was around 2 times larger than quintile 1 (only 1 type; OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.75-1.84 vs. OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.05).

Interpretation

Our observational study has provided evidence that antibiotic exposure frequency and diversity may be associated with COVID-19 severity, potentially suggesting adverse effects of repeated intermittent antibiotic use. Future work could work to elucidate causal links and potential mechanisms. Antibiotic stewardship should put more emphasis on long-term antibiotic exposure and its adverse outcome to increase the awareness of appropriate antibiotics use.

Funding

Health Data Research UK and National Institute for Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102064; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10388579; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10388579?pdf=render +31469943,https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3255,Computational instantaneous wave-free ratio (IFR) for patient-specific coronary artery stenoses using 1D network models.,"Carson JM, Roobottom C, Alcock R, Nithiarasu P.",,International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering,2019,2019-11-01,Y,Coronary Arteries; Ffr; Ifr; Haemodynamic Modelling,,cardiovascular,"In this work, we estimate the diagnostic threshold of the instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) through the use of a one-dimensional haemodynamic framework. To this end, we first compared the computed fractional flow reserve (cFFR) predicted from a 1D computational framework with invasive clinical measurements. The framework shows excellent promise and utilises minimal patient data from a cohort of 52 patients with a total of 66 stenoses. The diagnostic accuracy of the cFFR model was 75.76%, with a sensitivity of 71.43%, a specificity of 77.78%, a positive predictive value of 60%, and a negative predictive value of 85.37%. The validated model was then used to estimate the diagnostic threshold of iFR. The model determined a quadratic relationship between cFFR and the ciFR. The iFR diagnostic threshold was determined to be 0.8910 from a receiver operating characteristic curve that is in the range of 0.89 to 0.9 that is normally reported in clinical studies.",This study aimed to measure how well an algorithm using data from non-invasive tests was able to predict early signs of heart disease.,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3255; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3255; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003475?pdf=render 32634370,https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200121,Core regulatory circuitries in defining cancer cell identity across the malignant spectrum.,"Jahangiri L, Tsaprouni L, Trigg RM, Williams JA, Gkoutos GV, Turner SD, Pereira J.",,Open biology,2020,2020-07-08,Y,Cell Identity; Super-enhancers; Core Regulatory Circuitry; Liquid And Solid Cancers,,,"Gene expression programmes driving cell identity are established by tightly regulated transcription factors that auto- and cross-regulate in a feed-forward manner, forming core regulatory circuitries (CRCs). CRC transcription factors create and engage super-enhancers by recruiting acetylation writers depositing permissive H3K27ac chromatin marks. These super-enhancers are largely associated with BET proteins, including BRD4, that influence higher-order chromatin structure. The orchestration of these events triggers accessibility of RNA polymerase machinery and the imposition of lineage-specific gene expression. In cancers, CRCs drive cell identity by superimposing developmental programmes on a background of genetic alterations. Further, the establishment and maintenance of oncogenic states are reliant on CRCs that drive factors involved in tumour development. Hence, the molecular dissection of CRC components driving cell identity and cancer state can contribute to elucidating mechanisms of diversion from pre-determined developmental programmes and highlight cancer dependencies. These insights can provide valuable opportunities for identifying and re-purposing drug targets. In this article, we review the current understanding of CRCs across solid and liquid malignancies and avenues of investigation for drug development efforts. We also review techniques used to understand CRCs and elaborate the indication of discussed CRC transcription factors in the wider context of cancer CRC models.",,pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsob.200121; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574545?pdf=render +37528841,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102064,Repeated antibiotic exposure and risk of hospitalisation and death following COVID-19 infection (OpenSAFELY): a matched case-control study.,"Yang YT, Wong D, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, MacKenna B, Fisher L, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, OpenSAFELY collaborative, Hand K, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Goldacre B, van Staa T, Palin V.",,EClinicalMedicine,2023,2023-07-05,Y,Antibiotics; Primary Care; Severe Outcome; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Identifying potential risk factors related to severe COVID-19 outcomes is important. Repeated intermittent antibiotic use is known be associated with adverse outcomes. This study aims to examine whether prior frequent antibiotic exposure is associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform, which integrated primary and secondary care, COVID-19 test, and death registration data. This matched case-control study included 0.67 million patients (aged 18-110 years) from an eligible 2.47 million patients with incident COVID-19 by matching with replacement. Inclusion criteria included registration within one general practice for at least 3 years and infection with incident COVID-19. Cases were identified according to different severity of COVID-19 outcomes. Cases and eligible controls were 1:6 matched on age, sex, region of GP practice, and index year and month of COVID-19 infection. Five quintile groups, based on the number of previous 3-year antibiotic prescriptions, were created to indicate the frequency of prior antibiotic exposure. Conditional logistic regression used to compare the differences between case and control groups, adjusting for ethnicity, body mass index, comorbidities, vaccination history, deprivation, and care home status. Sensitivity analyses were done to explore potential confounding and the effects of missing data.

Findings

Based on our inclusion criteria, between February 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, 98,420 patients were admitted to hospitals and 22,660 died. 55 unique antibiotics were prescribed. A dose-response relationship between number of antibiotic prescriptions and risk of severe COVID-19 outcome was observed. Patients in the highest quintile with history of prior antibiotic exposure had 1.80 times greater odds of hospitalisation compared to patients without antibiotic exposure (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.80, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.75-1.84). Similarly, the adjusted OR for hospitalised patients with death outcomes was 1.34 (95% CI 1.28-1.41). Larger number of prior antibiotic type was also associated with more severe COVID-19 related hospital admission. The adjusted OR of quintile 5 exposure (the most frequent) with more than 3 antibiotic types was around 2 times larger than quintile 1 (only 1 type; OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.75-1.84 vs. OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.05).

Interpretation

Our observational study has provided evidence that antibiotic exposure frequency and diversity may be associated with COVID-19 severity, potentially suggesting adverse effects of repeated intermittent antibiotic use. Future work could work to elucidate causal links and potential mechanisms. Antibiotic stewardship should put more emphasis on long-term antibiotic exposure and its adverse outcome to increase the awareness of appropriate antibiotics use.

Funding

Health Data Research UK and National Institute for Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102064; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10388579; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10388579?pdf=render 37558806,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40215-4,"Associations of the serotonin transporter gene polymorphism, 5-HTTLPR, and adverse life events with late life depression in the elderly Lithuanian population.","Simonyte S, Grabauskyte I, Macijauskiene J, Lesauskaite V, Lesauskaite V, Kvaal KS, Stewart R.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-08-09,Y,,,,"Late-life depression (LLD) is a multifactorial disorder, with susceptibility and vulnerability potentially influenced by gene-environment interaction. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism is associated with LLD. The sample of 353 participants aged 65 years and over was randomly selected from the list of Kaunas city inhabitants by Residents' Register Service of Lithuania. Depressive symptoms were ascertained using the EURO-D scale. The List of Threatening Events Questionnaire was used to identify stressful life events that happened over the last 6 months and during lifetime. A 5-HTTLPR and lifetime stressful events interaction was indicated by higher odds of depression in those with s/s genotype who experienced high stress compared to l/l carriers with low or medium stress, while 5-HTTLPR and current stressful events interaction analysis revealed that carriers of either one or two copies of the s allele had increased odds of depressive symptoms associated with stress compared to participants with the l/l genotype not exposed to stressful situations. Although no significant direct association was found between the 5-HTTLPR short allele and depression, our findings demonstrated that lifetime or current stressful life events and their modification by 5-HTTLPR genotype are risk factors for late-life depression.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40215-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10412533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10412533?pdf=render -37171130,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030,Strategies and techniques for quality control and semantic enrichment with multimodal data: a case study in colorectal cancer with eHDPrep.,"Toner TM, Pancholi R, Miller P, Forster T, Coleman HG, Overton IM.",,GigaScience,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Quality control; Bioinformatics; Data integration; Quality assessment; Colorectal Cancer; Medical Informatics; Ontology; Health Data; Semantic Enrichment,,,"

Background

Integration of data from multiple domains can greatly enhance the quality and applicability of knowledge generated in analysis workflows. However, working with health data is challenging, requiring careful preparation in order to support meaningful interpretation and robust results. Ontologies encapsulate relationships between variables that can enrich the semantic content of health datasets to enhance interpretability and inform downstream analyses.

Findings

We developed an R package for electronic health data preparation, ""eHDPrep,"" demonstrated upon a multimodal colorectal cancer dataset (661 patients, 155 variables; Colo-661); a further demonstrator is taken from The Cancer Genome Atlas (459 patients, 94 variables; TCGA-COAD). eHDPrep offers user-friendly methods for quality control, including internal consistency checking and redundancy removal with information-theoretic variable merging. Semantic enrichment functionality is provided, enabling generation of new informative ""meta-variables"" according to ontological common ancestry between variables, demonstrated with SNOMED CT and the Gene Ontology in the current study. eHDPrep also facilitates numerical encoding, variable extraction from free text, completeness analysis, and user review of modifications to the dataset.

Conclusions

eHDPrep provides effective tools to assess and enhance data quality, laying the foundation for robust performance and interpretability in downstream analyses. Application to multimodal colorectal cancer datasets resulted in improved data quality, structuring, and robust encoding, as well as enhanced semantic information. We make eHDPrep available as an R package from CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/package = eHDPrep) and GitHub (https://github.com/overton-group/eHDPrep).",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/gigascience/giad030/50383140/giad030.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503?pdf=render 36944118,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-1238,Cardiovascular Safety in Type 2 Diabetes With Sulfonylureas as Second-line Drugs: A Nationwide Population-Based Comparative Safety Study.,"Wang H, Cordiner RLM, Huang Y, Donnelly L, Hapca S, Collier A, McKnight J, Kennon B, Gibb F, McKeigue P, Wild SH, Colhoun H, Chalmers J, Petrie J, Sattar N, MacDonald T, McCrimmon RJ, Morales DR, Pearson ER, Scottish Diabetes Research Network Epidemiology Group.",,Diabetes care,2023,2023-05-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the real-world cardiovascular (CV) safety for sulfonylureas (SU), in comparison with dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (DPP4i) and thiazolidinediones (TZD), through development of robust methodology for causal inference in a whole nation study.

Research design and methods

A cohort study was performed including people with type 2 diabetes diagnosed in Scotland before 31 December 2017, who failed to reach HbA1c 48 mmol/mol despite metformin monotherapy and initiated second-line pharmacotherapy (SU/DPP4i/TZD) on or after 1 January 2010. The primary outcome was composite major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), including hospitalization for myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, heart failure, and CV death. Secondary outcomes were each individual end point and all-cause death. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression and an instrumental variable (IV) approach were used to control confounding in a similar way to the randomization process in a randomized control trial.

Results

Comparing SU to non-SU (DPP4i/TZD), the hazard ratio (HR) for MACE was 1.00 (95% CI: 0.91-1.09) from the multivariable Cox regression and 1.02 (0.91-1.13) and 1.03 (0.91-1.16) using two different IVs. For all-cause death, the HR from Cox regression and the two IV analyses was 1.03 (0.94-1.13), 1.04 (0.93-1.17), and 1.03 (0.90-1.17).

Conclusions

Our findings contribute to the understanding that second-line SU for glucose lowering are unlikely to increase CV risk or all-cause mortality. Given their potent efficacy, microvascular benefits, cost effectiveness, and widespread use, this study supports that SU should remain a part of the global diabetes treatment portfolio.",,pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-pdf/46/5/967/702262/dc221238.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-1238; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154665; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154665?pdf=render +37171130,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030,Strategies and techniques for quality control and semantic enrichment with multimodal data: a case study in colorectal cancer with eHDPrep.,"Toner TM, Pancholi R, Miller P, Forster T, Coleman HG, Overton IM.",,GigaScience,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Quality control; Bioinformatics; Data integration; Quality assessment; Colorectal Cancer; Medical Informatics; Ontology; Health Data; Semantic Enrichment,,,"

Background

Integration of data from multiple domains can greatly enhance the quality and applicability of knowledge generated in analysis workflows. However, working with health data is challenging, requiring careful preparation in order to support meaningful interpretation and robust results. Ontologies encapsulate relationships between variables that can enrich the semantic content of health datasets to enhance interpretability and inform downstream analyses.

Findings

We developed an R package for electronic health data preparation, ""eHDPrep,"" demonstrated upon a multimodal colorectal cancer dataset (661 patients, 155 variables; Colo-661); a further demonstrator is taken from The Cancer Genome Atlas (459 patients, 94 variables; TCGA-COAD). eHDPrep offers user-friendly methods for quality control, including internal consistency checking and redundancy removal with information-theoretic variable merging. Semantic enrichment functionality is provided, enabling generation of new informative ""meta-variables"" according to ontological common ancestry between variables, demonstrated with SNOMED CT and the Gene Ontology in the current study. eHDPrep also facilitates numerical encoding, variable extraction from free text, completeness analysis, and user review of modifications to the dataset.

Conclusions

eHDPrep provides effective tools to assess and enhance data quality, laying the foundation for robust performance and interpretability in downstream analyses. Application to multimodal colorectal cancer datasets resulted in improved data quality, structuring, and robust encoding, as well as enhanced semantic information. We make eHDPrep available as an R package from CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/package = eHDPrep) and GitHub (https://github.com/overton-group/eHDPrep).",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/gigascience/giad030/50383140/giad030.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503?pdf=render 37678576,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2023.08.025,E-cigarette vapour renders neutrophils dysfunctional due to filamentous actin accumulation.,"Jasper AE, Faniyi AA, Davis LC, Grudzinska FS, Halston R, Hazeldine J, Parekh D, Sapey E, Thickett DR, Scott A.",,The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,2023,2023-09-05,N,Neutrophils; Phagocytosis; Oxidative burst; Nicotine; Netosis; E-cigarettes,,,"

Background

Electronic (e-)cigarette use continues to rise despite concerns of long-term effects, especially the risk of developing lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Neutrophils are central to the pathogenesis of COPD, with changes in phenotype and function implicated in tissue damage.

Objective

This study aimed to measure the impact of direct exposure to nicotine containing and nicotine free e-cigarette vapour on human neutrophil function and phenotype.

Methods

Neutrophils were isolated from the whole blood of self-reported non-smoking, non-vaping healthy volunteers. Neutrophils were exposed to 40 puffs of e-cigarette vapour generated from e-cigarette devices using flavourless e-liquid with and without nicotine before functions, deformability and phenotype were assessed.

Results

Neutrophil surface marker expression was altered, with CD62L and CXCR2 expression significantly reduced in neutrophils treated with e-cigarette vapour containing nicotine. Neutrophil migration to interleukin 8, phagocytosis of Escherichia. coli and Staphylococcus. aureus pHrodo bioparticles, oxidative burst response and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate stimulated neutrophil extracellular trap formation were all significantly reduced by e-cigarette vapour treatments, independent of nicotine content. E-cigarette vapour induced increased levels of baseline polymerised filamentous (F-)actin levels in the cytoplasm, compared to untreated controls.

Conclusion

The significant reduction in effector neutrophil functions after exposure to high power e-cigarette devices, even in the absence of nicotine, is associated with excessive F-actin polymerisation. This highlights the potentially damaging impact of vaping on respiratory health and reinforces the urgency of research to uncover the long-term health implications of e-cigarettes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2023.08.025 34108714,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01408-4,"First-dose ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccines and thrombocytopenic, thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events in Scotland.","Simpson CR, Shi T, Vasileiou E, Katikireddi SV, Kerr S, Moore E, McCowan C, Agrawal U, Shah SA, Ritchie LD, Murray J, Pan J, Bradley DT, Stock SJ, Wood R, Chuter A, Beggs J, Stagg HR, Joy M, Tsang RSM, de Lusignan S, Hobbs R, Lyons RA, Torabi F, Bedston S, O'Leary M, Akbari A, McMenamin J, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-06-09,Y,,,,"Reports of ChAdOx1 vaccine-associated thrombocytopenia and vascular adverse events have led to some countries restricting its use. Using a national prospective cohort, we estimated associations between exposure to first-dose ChAdOx1 or BNT162b2 vaccination and hematological and vascular adverse events using a nested incident-matched case-control study and a confirmatory self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis. An association was found between ChAdOx1 vaccination and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) (0-27 d after vaccination; adjusted rate ratio (aRR) = 5.77, 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.41-13.83), with an estimated incidence of 1.13 (0.62-1.63) cases per 100,000 doses. An SCCS analysis confirmed that this was unlikely due to bias (RR = 1.98 (1.29-3.02)). There was also an increased risk for arterial thromboembolic events (aRR = 1.22, 1.12-1.34) 0-27 d after vaccination, with an SCCS RR of 0.97 (0.93-1.02). For hemorrhagic events 0-27 d after vaccination, the aRR was 1.48 (1.12-1.96), with an SCCS RR of 0.95 (0.82-1.11). A first dose of ChAdOx1 was found to be associated with small increased risks of ITP, with suggestive evidence of an increased risk of arterial thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events. The attenuation of effect found in the SCCS analysis means that there is the potential for overestimation of the reported results, which might indicate the presence of some residual confounding or confounding by indication. Public health authorities should inform their jurisdictions of these relatively small increased risks associated with ChAdOx1. No positive associations were seen between BNT162b2 and thrombocytopenic, thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01408-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01408-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8282499; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8282499?pdf=render 36530697,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1035415,Associations between air pollution and multimorbidity in the UK Biobank: A cross-sectional study.,"Ronaldson A, Arias de la Torre J, Ashworth M, Hansell AL, Hotopf M, Mudway I, Stewart R, Dregan A, Bakolis I.",,Frontiers in public health,2022,2022-12-02,Y,Air pollution; Nitrogen dioxide; particulate matter; Health Status; Exploratory Factor Analysis; Multimorbidity,,,"

Background

Long-term exposure to air pollution concentrations is known to be adversely associated with a broad range of single non-communicable diseases, but its role in multimorbidity has not been investigated in the UK. We aimed to assess associations between long-term air pollution exposure and multimorbidity status, severity, and patterns using the UK Biobank cohort.

Methods

Multimorbidity status was calculated based on 41 physical and mental conditions. We assessed cross-sectional associations between annual modeled particulate matter (PM)2.5, PMcoarse, PM10, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations (μg/m3-modeled to residential address) and multimorbidity status at the baseline assessment (2006-2010) in 364,144 people (mean age: 52.2 ± 8.1 years, 52.6% female). Air pollutants were categorized into quartiles to assess dose-response associations. Among those with multimorbidity (≥2 conditions; n = 156,395) we assessed associations between air pollutant exposure levels and multimorbidity severity and multimorbidity patterns, which were identified using exploratory factor analysis. Associations were explored using generalized linear models adjusted for sociodemographic, behavioral, and environmental indicators.

Results

Higher exposures to PM2.5, and NO2 were associated with multimorbidity status in a dose-dependent manner. These associations were strongest when we compared the highest air pollution quartile (quartile 4: Q4) with the lowest quartile (Q1) [PM2.5: adjusted odds ratio (adjOR) = 1.21 (95% CI = 1.18, 1.24); NO2: adjOR = 1.19 (95 % CI = 1.16, 1.23)]. We also observed dose-response associations between air pollutant exposures and multimorbidity severity scores. We identified 11 multimorbidity patterns. Air pollution was associated with several multimorbidity patterns with strongest associations (Q4 vs. Q1) observed for neurological (stroke, epilepsy, alcohol/substance dependency) [PM2.5: adjOR = 1.31 (95% CI = 1.14, 1.51); NO2: adjOR = 1.33 (95% CI = 1.11, 1.60)] and respiratory patterns (COPD, asthma) [PM2.5: adjOR = 1.24 (95% CI = 1.16, 1.33); NO2: adjOR = 1.26 (95% CI = 1.15, 1.38)].

Conclusions

This cross-sectional study provides evidence that exposure to air pollution might be associated with having multimorbid, multi-organ conditions. Longitudinal studies are needed to further explore these associations.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1035415/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1035415; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755180; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755180?pdf=render 36701357,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280943,Awareness and perceptions of Long COVID among people in the REACT programme: Early insights from a pilot interview study.,"Cooper E, Lound A, Atchison CJ, Whitaker M, Eccles C, Cooke GS, Elliott P, Ward H.",,PloS one,2023,2023-01-26,Y,,,,"

Background

Long COVID is a patient-made term describing new or persistent symptoms experienced following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission-Long COVID (REACT-LC) study aims to understand variation in experiences following infection, and to identify biological, social, and environmental factors associated with Long COVID. We undertook a pilot interview study to inform the design, recruitment approach, and topic guide for the REACT-LC qualitative study. We sought to gain initial insights into the experience and attribution of new or persistent symptoms and the awareness or perceived applicability of the term Long COVID.

Methods

People were invited to REACT-LC assessment centres if they had taken part in REACT, a random community-based prevalence study, and had a documented history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We invited people from REACT-LC assessment centres who had reported experiencing persistent symptoms for more than 12 weeks to take part in an interview. We conducted face to face and online semi-structured interviews which were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Analysis.

Results

We interviewed 13 participants (6 female, 7 male, median age 31). Participants reported a wide variation in both new and persistent symptoms which were often fluctuating or unpredictable in nature. Some participants were confident about the link between their persistent symptoms and COVID-19; however, others were unclear about the underlying cause of symptoms or felt that the impact of public health measures (such as lockdowns) played a role. We found differences in awareness and perceived applicability of the term Long COVID.

Conclusion

This pilot has informed the design, recruitment approach and topic guide for our qualitative study. It offers preliminary insights into the varied experiences of people living with persistent symptoms including differences in symptom attribution and perceived applicability of the term Long COVID. This variation shows the value of recruiting from a nationally representative sample of participants who are experiencing persistent symptoms.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280943&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280943; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879384; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879384?pdf=render 34440368,https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12081194,"Genetic Variation in the ASTN2 Locus in Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Psychiatric Traits: Evidence for Pleiotropy Rather Than Shared Biology.","Burt O, Johnston KJA, Graham N, Cullen B, Lyall DM, Lyall LM, Pell JP, Ward J, Smith DJ, Strawbridge RJ.",,Genes,2021,2021-07-31,Y,Blood pressure; BMI; Cardiovascular disease; Metabolic Disease; Psychiatric Illness; Mood Instability; Neuroticism; Central Obesity; Anhedonia; Astn2,,,"

Background

The link between cardiometabolic and psychiatric illness has long been attributed to human behaviour, however recent research highlights shared biological mechanisms. The ASTN2 locus has been previously implicated in psychiatric and cardiometabolic traits, therefore this study aimed to systematically investigate the genetic architecture of ASTN2 in relation to a wide range of relevant traits.

Methods

Baseline questionnaire, assessment and genetic data of 402111 unrelated white British ancestry individuals from the UK Biobank was analysed. Genetic association analyses were conducted using PLINK 1.07, assuming an additive genetic model and adjusting for age, sex, genotyping chip, and population structure. Conditional analyses and linkage disequilibrium assessment were used to determine whether cardiometabolic and psychiatric signals were independent.

Results

Associations between genetic variants in the ASTN2 locus and blood pressure, total and central obesity, neuroticism, anhedonia and mood instability were identified. All analyses support the independence of the cardiometabolic traits from the psychiatric traits. In silico analyses provide support for the central obesity signal acting through ASTN2, however most of the other signals are likely acting through other genes in the locus.

Conclusions

Our systematic analysis demonstrates that ASTN2 has pleiotropic effects on cardiometabolic and psychiatric traits, rather than contributing to shared pathology.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/8/1194/pdf?version=1627984735; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12081194; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8391428; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8391428?pdf=render 35448463,https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12040276,MetaboListem and TABoLiSTM: Two Deep Learning Algorithms for Metabolite Named Entity Recognition.,"Yeung CS, Beck T, Posma JM.",,Metabolites,2022,2022-03-22,Y,Natural Language Processing; Named Entity Recognition; Deep Learning,,,"Reviewing the metabolomics literature is becoming increasingly difficult because of the rapid expansion of relevant journal literature. Text-mining technologies are therefore needed to facilitate more efficient literature reviews. Here we contribute a standardised corpus of full-text publications from metabolomics studies and describe the development of two metabolite named entity recognition (NER) methods. These methods are based on Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) networks and each incorporate different transfer learning techniques (for tokenisation and word embedding). Our first model (MetaboListem) follows prior methodology using GloVe word embeddings. Our second model exploits BERT and BioBERT for embedding and is named TABoLiSTM (Transformer-Affixed BiLSTM). The methods are trained on a novel corpus annotated using rule-based methods, and evaluated on manually annotated metabolomics articles. MetaboListem (F1-score 0.890, precision 0.892, recall 0.888) and TABoLiSTM (BioBERT version: F1-score 0.909, precision 0.926, recall 0.893) have achieved state-of-the-art performance on metabolite NER. A training corpus with full-text sentences from >1000 full-text Open Access metabolomics publications with 105,335 annotated metabolites was created, as well as a manually annotated test corpus (19,138 annotations). This work demonstrates that deep learning algorithms are capable of identifying metabolite names accurately and efficiently in text. The proposed corpus and NER algorithms can be used for metabolomics text-mining tasks such as information retrieval, document classification and literature-based discovery and are available from the omicsNLP GitHub repository.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/4/276/pdf?version=1647939572; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12040276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9031427; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9031427?pdf=render -36217535,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6,"Multi-omic phenotyping reveals host-microbe responses to bariatric surgery, glycaemic control and obesity.","Penney NC, Yeung DKT, Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Kopytek A, Garratt B, Ashrafian H, Frost G, Marchesi JR, Purkayastha S, Hoyles L, Darzi A, Holmes E.",,Communications medicine,2022,2022-10-07,Y,Obesity; Type 2 diabetes; Dynamical Systems; Microbiome,,,"

Background

Resolution of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is common following bariatric surgery, particularly Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.

Methods

To address this we compare the integrated serum, urine and faecal metabolic profiles of participants with obesity ± T2D (n = 80, T2D = 42) with participants who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy (pre and 3-months post-surgery; n = 27), taking diet into account. We co-model these data with shotgun metagenomic profiles of the gut microbiota to provide a comprehensive atlas of host-gut microbe responses to bariatric surgery, weight-loss and glycaemic control at the systems level.

Results

Here we show that bariatric surgery reverses several disrupted pathways characteristic of T2D. The differential metabolite set representative of bariatric surgery overlaps with both diabetes (19.3% commonality) and body mass index (18.6% commonality). However, the percentage overlap between diabetes and body mass index is minimal (4.0% commonality), consistent with weight-independent mechanisms of T2D resolution. The gut microbiota is more strongly correlated to body mass index than T2D, although we identify some pathways such as amino acid metabolism that correlate with changes to the gut microbiota and which influence glycaemic control.

Conclusion

We identify multi-omic signatures associated with responses to surgery, body mass index, and glycaemic control. Improved understanding of gut microbiota - host co-metabolism may lead to novel therapies for weight-loss or diabetes. However, further experiments are required to provide mechanistic insight into the role of the gut microbiota in host metabolism and establish proof of causality.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00185-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886?pdf=render 35336739,https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11030365,Machine Learning-Based Identification of Colon Cancer Candidate Diagnostics Genes. ,"Koppad S, Basava A, Nash K, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.",,Biology,2022,2022-02-25,Y,,,,"Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death and the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. Due to a lack of diagnostic biomarkers and understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms, CRC's mortality rate continues to grow. CRC occurrence and progression are dynamic processes. The expression levels of specific molecules vary at various stages of CRC, rendering its early detection and diagnosis challenging and the need for identifying accurate and meaningful CRC biomarkers more pressing. The advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies have been used to explore novel gene expression, targeted treatments, and colon cancer pathogenesis. Such approaches are routinely being applied and result in large datasets whose analysis is increasingly becoming dependent on machine learning (ML) algorithms that have been demonstrated to be computationally efficient platforms for the identification of variables across such high-dimensional datasets. We developed a novel ML-based experimental design to study CRC gene associations. Six different machine learning methods were employed as classifiers to identify genes that can be used as diagnostics for CRC using gene expression and clinical datasets. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, and area under receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve were derived to explore the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for CRC diagnosis. Gene ontology enrichment analyses of these DEGs were performed and predicted gene signatures were linked with miRNAs. We evaluated six machine learning classification methods (Adaboost, ExtraTrees, logistic regression, naïve Bayes classifier, random forest, and XGBoost) across different combinations of training and test datasets over GEO datasets. The accuracy and the AUROC of each combination of training and test data with different algorithms were used as comparison metrics. Random forest (RF) models consistently performed better than other models. In total, 34 genes were identified and used for pathway and gene set enrichment analysis. Further mapping of the 34 genes with miRNA identified interesting miRNA hubs genes. We identified 34 genes with high accuracy that can be used as a diagnostics panel for CRC.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/3/365/pdf?version=1645777713; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11030365; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8944988; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8944988?pdf=render +36217535,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6,"Multi-omic phenotyping reveals host-microbe responses to bariatric surgery, glycaemic control and obesity.","Penney NC, Yeung DKT, Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Kopytek A, Garratt B, Ashrafian H, Frost G, Marchesi JR, Purkayastha S, Hoyles L, Darzi A, Holmes E.",,Communications medicine,2022,2022-10-07,Y,Obesity; Type 2 diabetes; Dynamical Systems; Microbiome,,,"

Background

Resolution of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is common following bariatric surgery, particularly Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.

Methods

To address this we compare the integrated serum, urine and faecal metabolic profiles of participants with obesity ± T2D (n = 80, T2D = 42) with participants who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy (pre and 3-months post-surgery; n = 27), taking diet into account. We co-model these data with shotgun metagenomic profiles of the gut microbiota to provide a comprehensive atlas of host-gut microbe responses to bariatric surgery, weight-loss and glycaemic control at the systems level.

Results

Here we show that bariatric surgery reverses several disrupted pathways characteristic of T2D. The differential metabolite set representative of bariatric surgery overlaps with both diabetes (19.3% commonality) and body mass index (18.6% commonality). However, the percentage overlap between diabetes and body mass index is minimal (4.0% commonality), consistent with weight-independent mechanisms of T2D resolution. The gut microbiota is more strongly correlated to body mass index than T2D, although we identify some pathways such as amino acid metabolism that correlate with changes to the gut microbiota and which influence glycaemic control.

Conclusion

We identify multi-omic signatures associated with responses to surgery, body mass index, and glycaemic control. Improved understanding of gut microbiota - host co-metabolism may lead to novel therapies for weight-loss or diabetes. However, further experiments are required to provide mechanistic insight into the role of the gut microbiota in host metabolism and establish proof of causality.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00185-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886?pdf=render 37415095,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16202-9,Multi-morbidity and its association with common cancer diagnoses: a UK Biobank prospective study.,"Conroy MC, Reeves GK, Allen NE.",,BMC public health,2023,2023-07-06,Y,Cancer Risk; Uk Biobank; Multi-morbidity,,,"

Background

Whilst multi-morbidity is known to be a concern in people with cancer, very little is known about the risk of cancer in multi-morbid patients. This study aims to investigate the risk of being diagnosed with lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer associated with multi-morbidity.

Methods

We investigated the association between multi-morbidity and subsequent risk of cancer diagnosis in UK Biobank. Cox models were used to estimate the relative risks of each cancer of interest in multi-morbid participants, using the Cambridge Multimorbidity Score. The extent to which reverse causation, residual confounding and ascertainment bias may have impacted on the findings was robustly investigated.

Results

Of the 436,990 participants included in the study who were cancer-free at baseline, 21.6% (99,965) were multi-morbid (≥ 2 diseases). Over a median follow-up time of 10.9 [IQR 10.0-11.7] years, 9,019 prostate, 7,994 breast, 5,241 colorectal, and 3,591 lung cancers were diagnosed. After exclusion of the first year of follow-up, there was no clear association between multi-morbidity and risk of colorectal, prostate or breast cancer diagnosis. Those with ≥ 4 diseases at recruitment had double the risk of a subsequent lung cancer diagnosis compared to those with no diseases (HR 2.00 [95% CI 1.70-2.35] p for trend < 0.001). These findings were robust to sensitivity analyses aimed at reducing the impact of reverse causation, residual confounding from known cancer risk factors and ascertainment bias.

Conclusions

Individuals with multi-morbidity are at an increased risk of lung cancer diagnosis. While this association did not appear to be due to common sources of bias in observational studies, further research is needed to understand what underlies this association.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-023-16202-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16202-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326925; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326925?pdf=render 32935051,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1128,A national initiative in data science for health: an evaluation of the UK Farr Institute.,"Hemingway H, Lyons R, Li Q, Buchan I, Ainsworth J, Pell J, Morris A.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-04-08,Y,,,,"

Objective

To evaluate the extent to which the inter-institutional, inter-disciplinary mobilisation of data and skills in the Farr Institute contributed to establishing the emerging field of data science for health in the UK.

Design and outcome measures

We evaluated evidence of six domains characterising a new field of science:defining central scientific challenges,demonstrating how the central challenges might be solved,creating novel interactions among groups of scientists,training new types of experts,re-organising universities,demonstrating impacts in society.We carried out citation, network and time trend analyses of publications, and a narrative review of infrastructure, methods and tools.

Setting

Four UK centres in London, North England, Scotland and Wales (23 university partners), 2013-2018.

Results

1. The Farr Institute helped define a central scientific challenge publishing a research corpus, demonstrating insights from electronic health record (EHR) and administrative data at each stage of the translational cycle in 593 papers with at least one Farr Institute author affiliation on PubMed. 2. The Farr Institute offered some demonstrations of how these scientific challenges might be solved: it established the first four ISO27001 certified trusted research environments in the UK, and approved more than 1000 research users, published on 102 unique EHR and administrative data sources, although there was no clear evidence of an increase in novel, sustained record linkages. The Farr Institute established open platforms for the EHR phenotyping algorithms and validations (>70 diseases, CALIBER). Sample sizes showed some evidence of increase but remained less than 10% of the UK population in primary care-hospital care linked studies. 3.The Farr Institute created novel interactions among researchers: the co-author publication network expanded from 944 unique co-authors (based on 67 publications in the first 30 months) to 3839 unique co-authors (545 papers in the final 30 months). 4. Training expanded substantially with 3 new masters courses, training >400 people at masters, short-course and leadership level and 48 PhD students. 5. Universities reorganised with 4/5 Centres established 27 new faculty (tenured) positions, 3 new university institutes. 6. Emerging evidence of impacts included: > 3200 citations for the 10 most cited papers and Farr research informed eight practice-changing clinical guidelines and policies relevant to the health of millions of UK citizens.

Conclusion

The Farr Institute played a major role in establishing and growing the field of data science for health in the UK, with some initial evidence of benefits for health and healthcare. The Farr Institute has now expanded into Health Data Research (HDR) UK but key challenges remain including, how to network such activities internationally.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1128/2865; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1128; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7480324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7480324?pdf=render 35492818,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2022.01.102,Does Cardiovascular Mortality Overtake Cancer Mortality During Cancer Survivorship?: An English Retrospective Cohort Study.,"Strongman H, Gadd S, Matthews AA, Mansfield KE, Stanway S, Lyon AR, Dos-Santos-Silva I, Smeeth L, Bhaskaran K.",,JACC. CardioOncology,2022,2022-03-15,Y,"Electronic Health Records; Cancer Survivors; Beyond Cancer; Cprd Gold, Clinical Practice Research Datalink Primary Care Data In England",,,"

Background

Cancer survivors have a higher risk for developing cardiovascular diseases than the general population.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to investigate whether cardiovascular mortality overtakes cancer-specific mortality during cancer survivorship and, if so, at what point cardiovascular disease becomes the dominant cause of death.

Methods

This cohort study used linked English electronic health records, including death registration data. The study population included 104,028 adults ≥40 years of age whose first cancer diagnosis was for 1 of 9 common cancers and who were alive and followed up at least 1 year after diagnosis. Age-stratified mortality rates were estimated from cardiovascular disease or cancer by predicting from Poisson models incorporating categorical age at diagnosis and time since diagnosis. Where cardiovascular disease mortality overtook cancer mortality, the crossover point was estimated using interpolation.

Results

Mortality from cardiovascular causes overtook mortality due to the primary cancer at 2 to 11 years after cancer diagnosis in survivors of all 9 cancer types ≥80 years of age at diagnosis and after 5 to 17 years in survivors of 7 cancer types 60 to 79 years of age at diagnosis. Cardiovascular mortality overtook all cancer mortality for 6 and 2 cancer sites in the ≥80-year and 60- to 79-year age groups, respectively, over a longer time period. Cardiovascular mortality did not overtake cancer mortality during the observation period in patients aged 40 to 59 years, except among survivors of uterine cancer.

Conclusions

In older survivors of 9 common cancers, cardiovascular mortality becomes dominant over mortality from the primary cancer, though not always over total cancer mortality, as time passes since cancer diagnosis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2022.01.102; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2022.01.102; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9040113; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9040113?pdf=render 34007894,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1373,Visualisation and optimisation of alcohol-related hospital admissions ICD-10 codes in Welsh e-cohort data.,"Trefan L, Akbari A, Morgan JS, Farewell DM, Fone D, Lyons RA, Jones Hywel M, Moore SC.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-03-24,Y,Alcohol; Hospital Admission; Optimisation; Icd-10 Codes; E-Cohort Data,,,"

Introduction

The excessive consumption of alcohol is detrimental to long term health and increases the likelihood of hospital admission. However, definitions of alcohol-related hospital admission vary, giving rise to uncertainty in the effect of alcohol on alcohol-related health care utilization.

Objectives

To compare diagnostic codes on hospital admission and discharge and to determine the ideal combination of codes necessary for an accurate determination of alcohol-related hospital admission.

Methods

Routine population-linked e-cohort data were extracted from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank containing all alcohol-related hospital admissions (n,= 92,553) from 2006 to 2011 in Wales, United Kingdom. The distributions of the diagnostic codes recorded at admission and discharge were compared. By calculating a misclassification rate (sensitivity-like measure) the appropriate number of coding fields to examine for alcohol-codes was established.

Results

There was agreement between admission and discharge codes. When more than ten coding fields were used the misclassification rate was less than 1%.

Conclusion

With the data at present and alcohol-related codes used, codes recorded at admission and discharge can be used equivalently to identify alcohol-related admissions. The appropriate number of coding fields to examine was established: fewer than ten is likely to lead to under-reporting of alcohol-related admissions. The methods developed here can be applied to other medical conditions that can be described using a certain set of diagnostic codes, each of which can be a known sole cause of the condition and recorded in multiple positions in e-cohort data.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1373/3264; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1373; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103565?pdf=render 36544046,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00730-6,A survey on clinical natural language processing in the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2022.,"Wu H, Wang M, Wu J, Francis F, Chang YH, Shavick A, Dong H, Poon MTC, Fitzpatrick N, Levine AP, Slater LT, Handy A, Karwath A, Gkoutos GV, Chelala C, Shah AD, Stewart R, Collier N, Alex B, Whiteley W, Sudlow C, Roberts A, Dobson RJB.",,NPJ digital medicine,2022,2022-12-21,Y,,,,"Much of the knowledge and information needed for enabling high-quality clinical research is stored in free-text format. Natural language processing (NLP) has been used to extract information from these sources at scale for several decades. This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of clinical NLP for the past 15 years in the UK to identify the community, depict its evolution, analyse methodologies and applications, and identify the main barriers. We collect a dataset of clinical NLP projects (n = 94; £ = 41.97 m) funded by UK funders or the European Union's funding programmes. Additionally, we extract details on 9 funders, 137 organisations, 139 persons and 431 research papers. Networks are created from timestamped data interlinking all entities, and network analysis is subsequently applied to generate insights. 431 publications are identified as part of a literature review, of which 107 are eligible for final analysis. Results show, not surprisingly, clinical NLP in the UK has increased substantially in the last 15 years: the total budget in the period of 2019-2022 was 80 times that of 2007-2010. However, the effort is required to deepen areas such as disease (sub-)phenotyping and broaden application domains. There is also a need to improve links between academia and industry and enable deployments in real-world settings for the realisation of clinical NLP's great potential in care delivery. The major barriers include research and development access to hospital data, lack of capable computational resources in the right places, the scarcity of labelled data and barriers to sharing of pretrained models.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-022-00730-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00730-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770568; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770568?pdf=render 31799783,https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3267,Personalising cardiovascular network models in pregnancy: A two-tiered parameter estimation approach.,"Carson J, Warrander L, Johnstone E, van Loon R.",,International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering,2021,2020-01-13,Y,Pregnancy; Parameter estimation; Pre-eclampsia; Personalised Haemodynamic Model; Uterine Artery Waveform,,,"Uterine artery Doppler waveforms are often studied to determine whether a patient is at risk of developing pathologies such as pre-eclampsia. Many uterine waveform indices have been developed, which attempt to relate characteristics of the waveform with the physiological adaptation of the maternal cardiovascular system, and are often suggested to be an indicator of increased placenta resistance and arterial stiffness. Doppler waveforms of four patients, two of whom developed pre-eclampsia, are compared with a comprehensive closed-loop model of pregnancy. The closed-loop model has been previously validated but has been extended to include an improved parameter estimation technique that utilises systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cardiac output, heart rate, and pulse wave velocity measurements to adapt model resistances, compliances, blood volume, and the mean vessel areas in the main systemic arteries. The shape of the model-predicted uterine artery velocity waveforms showed good agreement with the characteristics observed in the patient Doppler waveforms. The personalised models obtained now allow a prediction of the uterine pressure waveforms in addition to the uterine velocity. This allows for a more detailed mechanistic analysis of the waveforms, eg, wave intensity analysis, to study existing clinical indices. The findings indicate that to accurately estimate arterial stiffness, both pulse pressure and pulse wave velocities are required. In addition, the results predict that patients who developed pre-eclampsia later in pregnancy have larger vessel areas in the main systemic arteries compared with the two patients who had normal pregnancy outcomes.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3267; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9286682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9286682?pdf=render -35909058,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6,Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care (RECAP) risk prediction tool: derivation and real-world validation studies.,"Espinosa-Gonzalez A, Prociuk D, Fiorentino F, Ramtale C, Mi E, Mi E, Glampson B, Neves AL, Okusi C, Husain L, Macartney J, Brown M, Browne B, Warren C, Chowla R, Heaversedge J, Greenhalgh T, de Lusignan S, Mayer E, Delaney BC.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-07-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Accurate assessment of COVID-19 severity in the community is essential for patient care and requires COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores adequately validated in a community setting. Following a qualitative phase to identify signs, symptoms, and risk factors, we aimed to develop and validate two COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores. Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care-General Practice score (RECAP-GP; without peripheral oxygen saturation [SpO2]) and RECAP-oxygen saturation score (RECAP-O2; with SpO2).

Methods

RECAP was a prospective cohort study that used multivariable logistic regression. Data on signs and symptoms (predictors) of disease were collected from community-based patients with suspected COVID-19 via primary care electronic health records and linked with secondary data on hospital admission (outcome) within 28 days of symptom onset. Data sources for RECAP-GP were Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (RCGP-RSC) primary care practices (development set), northwest London primary care practices (validation set), and the NHS COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS; validation set). The data source for RECAP-O2 was the Doctaly Assist platform (development set and validation set in subsequent sample). The two probabilistic risk prediction models were built by backwards elimination using the development sets and validated by application to the validation datasets. Estimated sample size per model, including the development and validation sets was 2880 people.

Findings

Data were available from 8311 individuals. Observations, such as SpO2, were mostly missing in the northwest London, RCGP-RSC, and CCAS data; however, SpO2 was available for 1364 (70·0%) of 1948 patients who used Doctaly. In the final predictive models, RECAP-GP (n=1863) included sex (male and female), age (years), degree of breathlessness (three point scale), temperature symptoms (two point scale), and presence of hypertension (yes or no); the area under the curve was 0·80 (95% CI 0·76-0·85) and on validation the negative predictive value of a low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98·1-99·2; 1435 of 1453). RECAP-O2 included age (years), degree of breathlessness (two point scale), fatigue (two point scale), and SpO2 at rest (as a percentage); the area under the curve was 0·84 (0·78-0·90) and on validation the negative predictive value of low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98·9-99·7; 1176 of 1183).

Interpretation

Both RECAP models are valid tools to assess COVID-19 patients in the community. RECAP-GP can be used initially, without need for observations, to identify patients who require monitoring. If the patient is monitored and SpO2 is available, RECAP-O2 is useful to assess the need for treatment escalation.

Funding

Community Jameel and the Imperial College President's Excellence Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00123-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950?pdf=render 37536152,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.07.016,Association of comorbid-socioeconomic clusters with mortality in late onset epilepsy derived through unsupervised machine learning.,"Josephson CB, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Engbers JDT, Denaxas S, Delgado-Garcia G, Sajobi TT, Wang M, Keezer MR, Wiebe S.",,Seizure,2023,2023-07-29,N,Epilepsy; Elderly; Cohort study; Electronic Health Records; Unsupervised Machine Learning; Late-onset Epilepsy,,,"

Background and objectives

Late-onset epilepsy is a heterogenous entity associated with specific aetiologies and an elevated risk of premature mortality. Specific multimorbid-socioeconomic profiles and their unique prognostic trajectories have not been described. We sought to determine if specific clusters of late onset epilepsy exist, and whether they have unique hazards of premature mortality.

Methods

We performed a retrospective observational cohort study linking primary and hospital-based UK electronic health records with vital statistics data (covering years 1998-2019) to identify all cases of incident late onset epilepsy (from people aged ≥65) and 1:10 age, sex, and GP practice-matched controls. We applied hierarchical agglomerative clustering using common aetiologies identified at baseline to define multimorbid-socioeconomic profiles, compare hazards of early mortality, and tabulating causes of death stratified by cluster.

Results

From 1,032,129 people aged ≥65, we identified 1048 cases of late onset epilepsy who were matched to 10,259 controls. Median age at epilepsy diagnosis was 68 (interquartile range: 66-72) and 474 (45%) were female. The hazard of premature mortality related to late-onset epilepsy was higher than matched controls (hazard ratio [HR] 1.73; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 1.51-1.99). Ten unique phenotypic clusters were identified, defined by 'healthy' males and females, ischaemic stroke, intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), ICH and alcohol misuse, dementia and anxiety, anxiety, depression in males and females, and brain tumours. Cluster-specific hazards were often similar to that derived for late-onset epilepsy as a whole. Clusters that differed significantly from the base late-onset epilepsy hazard were 'dementia and anxiety' (HR 5.36; 95%CI 3.31-8.68), 'brain tumour' (HR 4.97; 95%CI 2.89-8.56), 'ICH and alcohol misuse' (HR 2.91; 95%CI 1.76-4.81), and 'ischaemic stroke' (HR 2.83; 95%CI 1.83-4.04). These cluster-specific risks were also elevated compared to those derived for tumours, dementia, ischaemic stroke, and ICH in the whole population. Seizure-related cause of death was uncommon and restricted to the ICH, ICH and alcohol misuse, and healthy female clusters.

Significance

Late-onset epilepsy is an amalgam of unique phenotypic clusters that can be quantitatively defined. Late-onset epilepsy and cluster-specific comorbid profiles have complex effects on premature mortality above and beyond the base rates attributed to epilepsy and cluster-defining comorbidities alone.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.07.016 +35909058,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6,Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care (RECAP) risk prediction tool: derivation and real-world validation studies.,"Espinosa-Gonzalez A, Prociuk D, Fiorentino F, Ramtale C, Mi E, Mi E, Glampson B, Neves AL, Okusi C, Husain L, Macartney J, Brown M, Browne B, Warren C, Chowla R, Heaversedge J, Greenhalgh T, de Lusignan S, Mayer E, Delaney BC.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-07-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Accurate assessment of COVID-19 severity in the community is essential for patient care and requires COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores adequately validated in a community setting. Following a qualitative phase to identify signs, symptoms, and risk factors, we aimed to develop and validate two COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores. Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care-General Practice score (RECAP-GP; without peripheral oxygen saturation [SpO2]) and RECAP-oxygen saturation score (RECAP-O2; with SpO2).

Methods

RECAP was a prospective cohort study that used multivariable logistic regression. Data on signs and symptoms (predictors) of disease were collected from community-based patients with suspected COVID-19 via primary care electronic health records and linked with secondary data on hospital admission (outcome) within 28 days of symptom onset. Data sources for RECAP-GP were Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (RCGP-RSC) primary care practices (development set), northwest London primary care practices (validation set), and the NHS COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS; validation set). The data source for RECAP-O2 was the Doctaly Assist platform (development set and validation set in subsequent sample). The two probabilistic risk prediction models were built by backwards elimination using the development sets and validated by application to the validation datasets. Estimated sample size per model, including the development and validation sets was 2880 people.

Findings

Data were available from 8311 individuals. Observations, such as SpO2, were mostly missing in the northwest London, RCGP-RSC, and CCAS data; however, SpO2 was available for 1364 (70·0%) of 1948 patients who used Doctaly. In the final predictive models, RECAP-GP (n=1863) included sex (male and female), age (years), degree of breathlessness (three point scale), temperature symptoms (two point scale), and presence of hypertension (yes or no); the area under the curve was 0·80 (95% CI 0·76-0·85) and on validation the negative predictive value of a low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98·1-99·2; 1435 of 1453). RECAP-O2 included age (years), degree of breathlessness (two point scale), fatigue (two point scale), and SpO2 at rest (as a percentage); the area under the curve was 0·84 (0·78-0·90) and on validation the negative predictive value of low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98·9-99·7; 1176 of 1183).

Interpretation

Both RECAP models are valid tools to assess COVID-19 patients in the community. RECAP-GP can be used initially, without need for observations, to identify patients who require monitoring. If the patient is monitored and SpO2 is available, RECAP-O2 is useful to assess the need for treatment escalation.

Funding

Community Jameel and the Imperial College President's Excellence Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00123-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950?pdf=render 32851419,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4,Vitamin D and COVID-19 infection and mortality in UK Biobank.,"Hastie CE, Pell JP, Sattar N.",,European journal of nutrition,2021,2020-08-26,Y,Vitamin D; Mortality; Covid-19,,,"

Purpose

Low blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration has been proposed as a potential causal factor in COVID-19 risk. We aimed to establish whether baseline serum 25(OH)D concentration was associated with COVID-19 mortality, and inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection, in UK Biobank participants.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including serum 25(OH)D concentration, were linked to COVID-19 mortality. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and COVID-19 death, and Poisson regression analyses for the association between 25(OH)D and severe COVID-19 infection.

Results

Complete data were available for 341,484 UK Biobank participants, of which 656 had inpatient confirmed COVID-19 infection and 203 died of COVID-19 infection. 25(OH)D concentration was associated with severe COVID-19 infection and mortality univariably (mortality per 10 nmol/L 25(OH)D HR  0.92; 95% CI 0.86-0.98; p = 0.016), but not after adjustment for confounders (mortality per 10 nmol/L 25(OH)D HR 0.98; 95% CI = 0.91-1.06; p = 0.696). Vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency was also not independently associated with either COVID-19 infection or linked mortality.

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between 25(OH)D concentrations and risk of severe COVID-19 infection and mortality. Randomised trials are needed to prove a beneficial role for vitamin D in the prevention of severe COVID-19 reactions or death.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7449523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7449523?pdf=render 37263602,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad075,"Community factors and excess mortality in the COVID-19 pandemic in England, Italy and Sweden.","Parkes B, Stafoggia M, Fecht D, Davies B, Bonander C, De' Donato F, Michelozzi P, Piel FB, Strömberg U, Blangiardo M.",,European journal of public health,2023,2023-08-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Analyses of coronavirus disease 19 suggest specific risk factors make communities more or less vulnerable to pandemic-related deaths within countries. What is unclear is whether the characteristics affecting vulnerability of small communities within countries produce similar patterns of excess mortality across countries with different demographics and public health responses to the pandemic. Our aim is to quantify community-level variations in excess mortality within England, Italy and Sweden and identify how such spatial variability was driven by community-level characteristics.

Methods

We applied a two-stage Bayesian model to quantify inequalities in excess mortality in people aged 40 years and older at the community level in England, Italy and Sweden during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-February 2021). We used community characteristics measuring deprivation, air pollution, living conditions, population density and movement of people as covariates to quantify their associations with excess mortality.

Results

We found just under half of communities in England (48.1%) and Italy (45.8%) had an excess mortality of over 300 per 100 000 males over the age of 40, while for Sweden that covered 23.1% of communities. We showed that deprivation is a strong predictor of excess mortality across the three countries, and communities with high levels of overcrowding were associated with higher excess mortality in England and Sweden.

Conclusion

These results highlight some international similarities in factors affecting mortality that will help policy makers target public health measures to increase resilience to the mortality impacts of this and future pandemics.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckad075/50504334/ckad075.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad075; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393497; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393497?pdf=render 36992188,https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030604,"Household Composition and Inequalities in COVID-19 Vaccination in Wales, UK.","Lench A, Perry M, Johnson RD, Fry R, Richardson G, Lyons RA, Akbari A, Edwards A, Collins B, Joseph-Williams N, Cooper A, Cottrell S.",,Vaccines,2023,2023-03-07,Y,Vaccines; Vaccination; Households; Inequalities; Immunisation; Household Composition; Inequities; Covid-19,,,"The uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in Wales is high at a population level but many inequalities exist. Household composition may be an important factor in COVID-19 vaccination uptake due to the practical, social, and psychological implications associated with different living arrangements. In this study, the role of household composition in the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in Wales was examined with the aim of identifying areas for intervention to address inequalities. Records within the Wales Immunisation System (WIS) COVID-19 vaccination register were linked to the Welsh Demographic Service Dataset (WDSD; a population register for Wales) held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Eight household types were defined based on household size, the presence or absence of children, and the presence of single or multiple generations. Uptake of the second dose of any COVID-19 vaccine was analysed using logistic regression. Gender, age group, health board, rural/urban residential classification, ethnic group, and deprivation quintile were included as covariates for multivariable regression. Compared to two-adult households, all other household types were associated with lower uptake. The most significantly reduced uptake was observed for large, multigenerational, adult group households (aOR 0.45, 95%CI 0.43-0.46). Comparing multivariable regression with and without incorporation of household composition as a variable produced significant differences in odds of vaccination for health board, age group, and ethnic group categories. These results indicate that household composition is an important factor for the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination and consideration of differences in household composition is necessary to mitigate vaccination inequalities.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/3/604/pdf?version=1678670919; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030604; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10055803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10055803?pdf=render 31088492,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-019-1912-5,-Omics biomarker identification pipeline for translational medicine.,"Bravo-Merodio L, Williams JA, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.",,Journal of translational medicine,2019,2019-05-14,Y,Biomarker; Feature Selection; Regularization; -omics; Translational Medicine,,,"

Background

Translational medicine (TM) is an emerging domain that aims to facilitate medical or biological advances efficiently from the scientist to the clinician. Central to the TM vision is to narrow the gap between basic science and applied science in terms of time, cost and early diagnosis of the disease state. Biomarker identification is one of the main challenges within TM. The identification of disease biomarkers from -omics data will not only help the stratification of diverse patient cohorts but will also provide early diagnostic information which could improve patient management and potentially prevent adverse outcomes. However, biomarker identification needs to be robust and reproducible. Hence a robust unbiased computational framework that can help clinicians identify those biomarkers is necessary.

Methods

We developed a pipeline (workflow) that includes two different supervised classification techniques based on regularization methods to identify biomarkers from -omics or other high dimension clinical datasets. The pipeline includes several important steps such as quality control and stability of selected biomarkers. The process takes input files (outcome and independent variables or -omics data) and pre-processes (normalization, missing values) them. After a random division of samples into training and test sets, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator and Elastic Net feature selection methods are applied to identify the most important features representing potential biomarker candidates. The penalization parameters are optimised using 10-fold cross validation and the process undergoes 100 iterations and a combinatorial analysis to select the best performing multivariate model. An empirical unbiased assessment of their quality as biomarkers for clinical use is performed through a Receiver Operating Characteristic curve and its Area Under the Curve analysis on both permuted and real data for 1000 different randomized training and test sets. We validated this pipeline against previously published biomarkers.

Results

We applied this pipeline to three different datasets with previously published biomarkers: lipidomics data by Acharjee et al. (Metabolomics 13:25, 2017) and transcriptomics data by Rajamani and Bhasin (Genome Med 8:38, 2016) and Mills et al. (Blood 114:1063-1072, 2009). Our results demonstrate that our method was able to identify both previously published biomarkers as well as new variables that add value to the published results.

Conclusions

We developed a robust pipeline to identify clinically relevant biomarkers that can be applied to different -omics datasets. Such identification reveals potentially novel drug targets and can be used as a part of a machine-learning based patient stratification framework in the translational medicine settings.",,pdf:https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12967-019-1912-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-019-1912-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6518609; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6518609?pdf=render -37340474,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9,Antidepressant drug prescription and incidence of COVID-19 in mental health outpatients: a retrospective cohort study.,"Glebov OO, Mueller C, Stewart R, Aarsland D, Perera G.",,BMC medicine,2023,2023-06-21,Y,Antidepressants; Ssri; respiratory infection; Drug Repurposing; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Currently, the main pharmaceutical intervention for COVID-19 is vaccination. While antidepressant (AD) drugs have shown some efficacy in treatment of symptomatic COVID-19, their preventative potential remains largely unexplored. Analysis of association between prescription of ADs and COVID-19 incidence in the population would be beneficial for assessing the utility of ADs in COVID-19 prevention.

Methods

Retrospective study of association between AD prescription and COVID-19 diagnosis was performed in a cohort of community-dwelling adult mental health outpatients during the 1st wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Clinical record interactive search (CRIS) was performed for mentions of ADs within 3 months preceding admission to inpatient care of the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. Incidence of positive COVID-19 tests upon admission and during inpatient treatment was the primary outcome measure.

Results

AD mention was associated with approximately 40% lower incidence of positive COVID-19 test results when adjusted for socioeconomic parameters and physical health. This association was also observed for prescription of ADs of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class.

Conclusions

This preliminary study suggests that ADs, and SSRIs in particular, may be of benefit for preventing COVID-19 infection spread in the community. The key limitations of the study are its retrospective nature and the focus on a mental health patient cohort. A more definitive assessment of AD and SSRI preventative potential warrants prospective studies in the wider demographic.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271?pdf=render -35793922,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059385,Deriving and validating a risk prediction model for long COVID-19: protocol for an observational cohort study using linked Scottish data.,"Daines L, Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Hammersley V, Weatherill D, Katikireddi SV, Kerr S, Moore E, Pesenti E, Quint JK, Shah SA, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-07-06,Y,Public Health; Protocols & Guidelines; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 is commonly experienced as an acute illness, yet some people continue to have symptoms that persist for weeks, or months (commonly referred to as 'long-COVID'). It remains unclear which patients are at highest risk of developing long-COVID. In this protocol, we describe plans to develop a prediction model to identify individuals at risk of developing long-COVID.

Methods and analysis

We will use the national Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, a population-level linked dataset of routine electronic healthcare data from 5.4 million individuals in Scotland. We will identify potential indicators for long-COVID by identifying patterns in primary care data linked to information from out-of-hours general practitioner encounters, accident and emergency visits, hospital admissions, outpatient visits, medication prescribing/dispensing and mortality. We will investigate the potential indicators of long-COVID by performing a matched analysis between those with a positive reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 infection and two control groups: (1) individuals with at least one negative RT-PCR test and never tested positive; (2) the general population (everyone who did not test positive) of Scotland. Cluster analysis will then be used to determine the final definition of the outcome measure for long-COVID. We will then derive, internally and externally validate a prediction model to identify the epidemiological risk factors associated with long-COVID.

Ethics and dissemination

The EAVE II study has obtained approvals from the Research Ethics Committee (reference: 12/SS/0201), and the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (reference: 1920-0279). Study findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences. Understanding the predictors for long-COVID and identifying the patient groups at greatest risk of persisting symptoms will inform future treatments and preventative strategies for long-COVID.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/7/e059385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199?pdf=render 35050151,https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12010029,Integration of Metabolomic and Clinical Data Improves the Prediction of Intensive Care Unit Length of Stay Following Major Traumatic Injury. ,"Acharjee A, Hazeldine J, Bazarova A, Deenadayalu L, Zhang J, Bentley C, Russ D, Lord JM, Gkoutos GV, Young SP, Foster MA.",,Metabolites,2021,2021-12-31,Y,,,,"Recent advances in emergency medicine and the co-ordinated delivery of trauma care mean more critically-injured patients now reach the hospital alive and survive life-saving operations. Indeed, between 2008 and 2017, the odds of surviving a major traumatic injury in the UK increased by nineteen percent. However, the improved survival rates of severely-injured patients have placed an increased burden on the healthcare system, with major trauma a common cause of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions that last ≥10 days. Improved understanding of the factors influencing patient outcomes is now urgently needed. We investigated the serum metabolomic profile of fifty-five major trauma patients across three post-injury phases: acute (days 0-4), intermediate (days 5-14) and late (days 15-112). Using ICU length of stay (LOS) as a clinical outcome, we aimed to determine whether the serum metabolome measured at days 0-4 post-injury for patients with an extended (≥10 days) ICU LOS differed from that of patients with a short (<10 days) ICU LOS. In addition, we investigated whether combining metabolomic profiles with clinical scoring systems would generate a variable that would identify patients with an extended ICU LOS with a greater degree of accuracy than models built on either variable alone. The number of metabolites unique to and shared across each time segment varied across acute, intermediate and late segments. A one-way ANOVA revealed the most variation in metabolite levels across the different time-points was for the metabolites lactate, glucose, anserine and 3-hydroxybutyrate. A total of eleven features were selected to differentiate between <10 days ICU LOS vs. >10 days ICU LOS. New Injury Severity Score (NISS), testosterone, and the metabolites cadaverine, urea, isoleucine, acetoacetate, dimethyl sulfone, syringate, creatinine, xylitol, and acetone form the integrated biomarker set. Using metabolic enrichment analysis, we found valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism, and glycine, serine and threonine metabolism were the top three pathways differentiating ICU LOS with a p < 0.05. A combined model of NISS and testosterone and all nine selected metabolites achieved an AUROC of 0.824. Differences exist in the serum metabolome of major trauma patients who subsequently experience a short or prolonged ICU LOS in the acute post-injury setting. Combining metabolomic data with anatomical scoring systems allowed us to discriminate between these two groups with a greater degree of accuracy than that of either variable alone.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/1/29/pdf?version=1642410547; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12010029; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8780653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8780653?pdf=render +35793922,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059385,Deriving and validating a risk prediction model for long COVID-19: protocol for an observational cohort study using linked Scottish data.,"Daines L, Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Hammersley V, Weatherill D, Katikireddi SV, Kerr S, Moore E, Pesenti E, Quint JK, Shah SA, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-07-06,Y,Public Health; Protocols & Guidelines; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 is commonly experienced as an acute illness, yet some people continue to have symptoms that persist for weeks, or months (commonly referred to as 'long-COVID'). It remains unclear which patients are at highest risk of developing long-COVID. In this protocol, we describe plans to develop a prediction model to identify individuals at risk of developing long-COVID.

Methods and analysis

We will use the national Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, a population-level linked dataset of routine electronic healthcare data from 5.4 million individuals in Scotland. We will identify potential indicators for long-COVID by identifying patterns in primary care data linked to information from out-of-hours general practitioner encounters, accident and emergency visits, hospital admissions, outpatient visits, medication prescribing/dispensing and mortality. We will investigate the potential indicators of long-COVID by performing a matched analysis between those with a positive reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 infection and two control groups: (1) individuals with at least one negative RT-PCR test and never tested positive; (2) the general population (everyone who did not test positive) of Scotland. Cluster analysis will then be used to determine the final definition of the outcome measure for long-COVID. We will then derive, internally and externally validate a prediction model to identify the epidemiological risk factors associated with long-COVID.

Ethics and dissemination

The EAVE II study has obtained approvals from the Research Ethics Committee (reference: 12/SS/0201), and the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (reference: 1920-0279). Study findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences. Understanding the predictors for long-COVID and identifying the patient groups at greatest risk of persisting symptoms will inform future treatments and preventative strategies for long-COVID.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/7/e059385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199?pdf=render +37340474,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9,Antidepressant drug prescription and incidence of COVID-19 in mental health outpatients: a retrospective cohort study.,"Glebov OO, Mueller C, Stewart R, Aarsland D, Perera G.",,BMC medicine,2023,2023-06-21,Y,Antidepressants; Ssri; respiratory infection; Drug Repurposing; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Currently, the main pharmaceutical intervention for COVID-19 is vaccination. While antidepressant (AD) drugs have shown some efficacy in treatment of symptomatic COVID-19, their preventative potential remains largely unexplored. Analysis of association between prescription of ADs and COVID-19 incidence in the population would be beneficial for assessing the utility of ADs in COVID-19 prevention.

Methods

Retrospective study of association between AD prescription and COVID-19 diagnosis was performed in a cohort of community-dwelling adult mental health outpatients during the 1st wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Clinical record interactive search (CRIS) was performed for mentions of ADs within 3 months preceding admission to inpatient care of the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. Incidence of positive COVID-19 tests upon admission and during inpatient treatment was the primary outcome measure.

Results

AD mention was associated with approximately 40% lower incidence of positive COVID-19 test results when adjusted for socioeconomic parameters and physical health. This association was also observed for prescription of ADs of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class.

Conclusions

This preliminary study suggests that ADs, and SSRIs in particular, may be of benefit for preventing COVID-19 infection spread in the community. The key limitations of the study are its retrospective nature and the focus on a mental health patient cohort. A more definitive assessment of AD and SSRI preventative potential warrants prospective studies in the wider demographic.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271?pdf=render 35595824,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12517-6,Transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in a strictly-Orthodox Jewish community in the UK.,"Waites W, Pearson CAB, Gaskell KM, House T, Pellis L, Johnson M, Gould V, Hunt A, Stone NRH, Kasstan B, Chantler T, Lal S, Roberts CH, Goldblatt D, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-05-20,Y,,,,"Some social settings such as households and workplaces, have been identified as high risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Identifying and quantifying the importance of these settings is critical for designing interventions. A tightly-knit religious community in the UK experienced a very large COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, reaching 64.3% seroprevalence within 10 months, and we surveyed this community both for serological status and individual-level attendance at particular settings. Using these data, and a network model of people and places represented as a stochastic graph rewriting system, we estimated the relative contribution of transmission in households, schools and religious institutions to the epidemic, and the relative risk of infection in each of these settings. All congregate settings were important for transmission, with some such as primary schools and places of worship having a higher share of transmission than others. We found that the model needed a higher general-community transmission rate for women (3.3-fold), and lower susceptibility to infection in children to recreate the observed serological data. The precise share of transmission in each place was related to assumptions about the internal structure of those places. Identification of key settings of transmission can allow public health interventions to be targeted at these locations.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12517-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12517-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121858; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121858?pdf=render -33745917,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011,"The dynamics of procalcitonin in COVID-19 patients admitted to Intensive care unit - a multi-centre cohort study in the South West of England, UK.","Williams P, McWilliams C, Soomro K, Harding I, Gurney S, Thomas M, Albur M, Martin Williams O.",,The Journal of infection,2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7970419; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419?pdf=render 36857859,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104489,"Identifying subtypes of chronic kidney disease with machine learning: development, internal validation and prognostic validation using linked electronic health records in 350,067 individuals.","Dashtban A, Mizani MA, Pasea L, Denaxas S, Corbett R, Mamza JB, Gao H, Morris T, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2023-02-27,Y,Cluster analysis; Survival analysis; Machine Learning; Unsupervised Clustering; Ckd Subtype,,,"

Background

Although chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with high multimorbidity, polypharmacy, morbidity and mortality, existing classification systems (mild to severe, usually based on estimated glomerular filtration rate, proteinuria or urine albumin-creatinine ratio) and risk prediction models largely ignore the complexity of CKD, its risk factors and its outcomes. Improved subtype definition could improve prediction of outcomes and inform effective interventions.

Methods

We analysed individuals ≥18 years with incident and prevalent CKD (n = 350,067 and 195,422 respectively) from a population-based electronic health record resource (2006-2020; Clinical Practice Research Datalink, CPRD). We included factors (n = 264 with 2670 derived variables), e.g. demography, history, examination, blood laboratory values and medications. Using a published framework, we identified subtypes through seven unsupervised machine learning (ML) methods (K-means, Diana, HC, Fanny, PAM, Clara, Model-based) with 66 (of 2670) variables in each dataset. We evaluated subtypes for: (i) internal validity (within dataset, across methods); (ii) prognostic validity (predictive accuracy for 5-year all-cause mortality and admissions); and (iii) medications (new and existing by British National Formulary chapter).

Findings

After identifying five clusters across seven approaches, we labelled CKD subtypes: 1. Early-onset, 2. Late-onset, 3. Cancer, 4. Metabolic, and 5. Cardiometabolic. Internal validity: We trained a high performing model (using XGBoost) that could predict disease subtypes with 95% accuracy for incident and prevalent CKD (Sensitivity: 0.81-0.98, F1 score:0.84-0.97). Prognostic validity: 5-year all-cause mortality, hospital admissions, and incidence of new chronic diseases differed across CKD subtypes. The 5-year risk of mortality and admissions in the overall incident CKD population were highest in cardiometabolic subtype: 43.3% (42.3-42.8%) and 29.5% (29.1-30.0%), respectively, and lowest in the early-onset subtype: 5.7% (5.5-5.9%) and 18.7% (18.4-19.1%).

Medications

Across CKD subtypes, the distribution of prescription medication classes at baseline varied, with highest medication burden in cardiometabolic and metabolic subtypes, and higher burden in prevalent than incident CKD.

Interpretation

In the largest CKD study using ML, to-date, we identified five distinct subtypes in individuals with incident and prevalent CKD. These subtypes have relevance to study of aetiology, therapeutics and risk prediction.

Funding

AstraZeneca UK Ltd, Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104489; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104489; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9989643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9989643?pdf=render +33745917,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011,"The dynamics of procalcitonin in COVID-19 patients admitted to Intensive care unit - a multi-centre cohort study in the South West of England, UK.","Williams P, McWilliams C, Soomro K, Harding I, Gurney S, Thomas M, Albur M, Martin Williams O.",,The Journal of infection,2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7970419; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419?pdf=render 37200350,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285979,"An external validation of the QCOVID3 risk prediction algorithm for risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19: An observational, prospective cohort study of 1.66m vaccinated adults in Wales, UK.","Lyons J, Nafilyan V, Akbari A, Bedston S, Harrison E, Hayward A, Hippisley-Cox J, Kee F, Khunti K, Rahman S, Sheikh A, Torabi F, Lyons RA.",,PloS one,2023,2023-05-18,Y,,,,"

Introduction

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there was an urgent need to identify individuals at highest risk of severe outcomes, such as hospitalisation and death following infection. The QCOVID risk prediction algorithms emerged as key tools in facilitating this which were further developed during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to identify groups of people at highest risk of severe COVID-19 related outcomes following one or two doses of vaccine.

Objectives

To externally validate the QCOVID3 algorithm based on primary and secondary care records for Wales, UK.

Methods

We conducted an observational, prospective cohort based on electronic health care records for 1.66m vaccinated adults living in Wales on 8th December 2020, with follow-up until 15th June 2021. Follow-up started from day 14 post vaccination to allow the full effect of the vaccine.

Results

The scores produced by the QCOVID3 risk algorithm showed high levels of discrimination for both COVID-19 related deaths and hospital admissions and good calibration (Harrell C statistic: ≥ 0.828).

Conclusion

This validation of the updated QCOVID3 risk algorithms in the adult vaccinated Welsh population has shown that the algorithms are valid for use in the Welsh population, and applicable on a population independent of the original study, which has not been previously reported. This study provides further evidence that the QCOVID algorithms can help inform public health risk management on the ongoing surveillance and intervention to manage COVID-19 related risks.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0285979&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285979; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10194890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10194890?pdf=render 36529825,https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-022-00777-2,The False Economy of Seeking to Eliminate Delayed Transfers of Care: Some Lessons from Queueing Theory.,"Wood RM, Harper AL, Onen-Dumlu Z, Forte PG, Pitt M, Vasilakis C.",,Applied health economics and health policy,2023,2022-12-18,Y,,,,"

Background

It is a stated ambition of many healthcare systems to eliminate delayed transfers of care (DTOCs) between acute and step-down community services.

Objective

This study aims to demonstrate how, counter to intuition, pursual of such a policy is likely to be uneconomical, as it would require large amounts of community capacity to accommodate even the rarest of demand peaks, leaving much capacity unused for much of the time.

Methods

Some standard results from queueing theory-a mathematical discipline for considering the dynamics of queues and queueing systems-are used to provide a model of patient flow from the acute to community setting. While queueing models have a track record of application in healthcare, they have not before been used to address this question.

Results

Results show that 'eliminating' DTOCs is a false economy: the additional community costs required are greater than the possible acute cost saving. While a substantial proportion of DTOCs can be attributed to inefficient use of resources, the remainder can be considered economically essential to ensuring cost-efficient service operation. For England's National Health Service (NHS), our modelling estimates annual cost savings of £117m if DTOCs are reduced to the 12% of current levels that can be regarded as economically essential.

Conclusion

This study discourages the use of 'zero DTOC' targets and instead supports an assessment based on the specific characteristics of the healthcare system considered.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-022-00777-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760184?pdf=render; pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40258-022-00777-2.pdf 37408471,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad424,The CODE-EHR global framework: lifting the veil on health record data.,"Asselbergs FW, Kotecha D.",,European heart journal,2023,2023-09-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad424/50827856/ehad424.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad424 33799834,https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13061239,The Role of Autophagy and lncRNAs in the Maintenance of Cancer Stem Cells. ,"Jahangiri L, Ishola T, Pucci P, Trigg RM, Pereira J, Williams JA, Cavanagh ML, Gkoutos GV, Tsaprouni L, Turner SD.",,Cancers,2021,2021-03-11,Y,,,,"Cancer stem cells (CSCs) possess properties such as self-renewal, resistance to apoptotic cues, quiescence, and DNA-damage repair capacity. Moreover, CSCs strongly influence the tumour microenvironment (TME) and may account for cancer progression, recurrence, and relapse. CSCs represent a distinct subpopulation in tumours and the detection, characterisation, and understanding of the regulatory landscape and cellular processes that govern their maintenance may pave the way to improving prognosis, selective targeted therapy, and therapy outcomes. In this review, we have discussed the characteristics of CSCs identified in various cancer types and the role of autophagy and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in maintaining the homeostasis of CSCs. Further, we have discussed methods to detect CSCs and strategies for treatment and relapse, taking into account the requirement to inhibit CSC growth and survival within the complex backdrop of cellular processes, microenvironmental interactions, and regulatory networks associated with cancer. Finally, we critique the computationally reinforced triangle of factors inclusive of CSC properties, the process of autophagy, and lncRNA and their associated networks with respect to hypoxia, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and signalling pathways.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/13/6/1239/pdf?version=1615817230; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13061239; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7998932; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7998932?pdf=render 36882868,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02784-z,"Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 vaccination programme's timing and speed on health benefits, cost-effectiveness, and relative affordability in 27 African countries.","Liu Y, Procter SR, Pearson CAB, Montero AM, Torres-Rueda S, Asfaw E, Uzochukwu B, Drake T, Bergren E, Eggo RM, Ruiz F, Ndembi N, Nonvignon J, Jit M, Vassall A.",,BMC medicine,2023,2023-03-08,Y,Mathematical models; Vaccination; Economic evaluation; decision-making; Affordability; Programme Evaluation; Public Health Interventions; Covid-19 | Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 vaccine supply shortage in 2021 constrained roll-out efforts in Africa while populations experienced waves of epidemics. As supply improves, a key question is whether vaccination remains an impactful and cost-effective strategy given changes in the timing of implementation.

Methods

We assessed the impact of vaccination programme timing using an epidemiological and economic model. We fitted an age-specific dynamic transmission model to reported COVID-19 deaths in 27 African countries to approximate existing immunity resulting from infection before substantial vaccine roll-out. We then projected health outcomes (from symptomatic cases to overall disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted) for different programme start dates (01 January to 01 December 2021, n = 12) and roll-out rates (slow, medium, fast; 275, 826, and 2066 doses/million population-day, respectively) for viral vector and mRNA vaccines by the end of 2022. Roll-out rates used were derived from observed uptake trajectories in this region. Vaccination programmes were assumed to prioritise those above 60 years before other adults. We collected data on vaccine delivery costs, calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) compared to no vaccine use, and compared these ICERs to GDP per capita. We additionally calculated a relative affordability measure of vaccination programmes to assess potential nonmarginal budget impacts.

Results

Vaccination programmes with early start dates yielded the most health benefits and lowest ICERs compared to those with late starts. While producing the most health benefits, fast vaccine roll-out did not always result in the lowest ICERs. The highest marginal effectiveness within vaccination programmes was found among older adults. High country income groups, high proportions of populations over 60 years or non-susceptible at the start of vaccination programmes are associated with low ICERs relative to GDP per capita. Most vaccination programmes with small ICERs relative to GDP per capita were also relatively affordable.

Conclusion

Although ICERs increased significantly as vaccination programmes were delayed, programmes starting late in 2021 may still generate low ICERs and manageable affordability measures. Looking forward, lower vaccine purchasing costs and vaccines with improved efficacies can help increase the economic value of COVID-19 vaccination programmes.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-023-02784-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02784-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991879; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991879?pdf=render -35567479,https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283,Shielding reduced incidence of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory arthritis but vulnerability is associated with increased mortality.,"Cooksey R, Underwood J, Brophy S, Atkinson M, Kennedy J, Choy E.",,"Rheumatology (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-06-01,Y,RA; As; PSA; Electronic Health Records; Inflammatory Arthritis; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Investigate whether individuals with inflammatory arthritis (IA), their treatments and shielding status affect the risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19 for the entire population of Wales, UK.

Methods

Retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked, anonymized electronic health data from SAIL Databank, including primary/secondary care, rheumatology, Office for National Statistics Mortality and COVID-19 laboratory data. Individuals aged 18 years and over testing positive for COVID-19 between March 2020 and May 2021 with READ Codes present for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis formed the study cases.

Results

A total of 1966 people with IA and 166 602 without tested positive for COVID-19. The incidence rate was 3.5% (1966/56 914) in IA, vs 6% in the general population (166 602/2 760 442), (difference: 2.5%, 95% CI: 2.4%, 2.7%, P ≤0.001). In an adjusted Cox proportional hazard model, IA was not associated with higher mortality (HR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.64, P=0.286). Significant risk factors included shielding (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.40, 1.64, P ≤0.001), hospitalization for previous infections (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.28, P ≤0.001), hospitalizations one year pre-pandemic (HR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.44, P ≤0.001) and glucocorticoid use (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.25, P ≤0.001).

Conclusions

Individuals with IA had a lower incidence of COVID-19, probably due to shielding. IA was not associated with increased mortality following COVID-19 infection; being vulnerable (shielded), comorbidities and other factors were associated with increased risk. These key risk factors can identify individuals with IA at greater risk from COVID-19 and advised to shield during high community prevalence.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62372/Download/62372__26337__5539f4f995224d80a2156218d11a03cb.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059?pdf=render 35413949,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29521-z,"Persistent COVID-19 symptoms in a community study of 606,434 people in England.","Whitaker M, Elliott J, Chadeau-Hyam M, Riley S, Darzi A, Cooke G, Ward H, Elliott P.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-04-12,Y,,,,"Long COVID remains a broadly defined syndrome, with estimates of prevalence and duration varying widely. We use data from rounds 3-5 of the REACT-2 study (n = 508,707; September 2020 - February 2021), a representative community survey of adults in England, and replication data from round 6 (n = 97,717; May 2021) to estimate the prevalence and identify predictors of persistent symptoms lasting 12 weeks or more; and unsupervised learning to cluster individuals by reported symptoms. At 12 weeks in rounds 3-5, 37.7% experienced at least one symptom, falling to 21.6% in round 6. Female sex, increasing age, obesity, smoking, vaping, hospitalisation with COVID-19, deprivation, and being a healthcare worker are associated with higher probability of persistent symptoms in rounds 3-5, and Asian ethnicity with lower probability. Clustering analysis identifies a subset of participants with predominantly respiratory symptoms. Managing the long-term sequelae of COVID-19 will remain a major challenge for affected individuals and their families and for health services.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29521-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29521-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9005552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9005552?pdf=render -35189888,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4,Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Talaei M, Faustini S, Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Perdek N, Maltby S, Bigogno CM, Symons J, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,Obesity; Diet; Serology; Alcohol; Exercise; Micronutrients; Lifestyle; Ethnicity; Occupation; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.

Methods

We did a prospective population-based study in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-naive UK adults recruited between May 1 and November 2, 2020, without a positive swab test result for SARS-CoV-2 prior to enrolment. Information on 88 potential sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological risk factors was obtained through online questionnaires, and combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein were determined in dried blood spots obtained between November 6, 2020, and April 18, 2021. We used logistic and linear regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and adjusted geometric mean ratios (aGMRs) for potential determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity (all participants) and antibody titres (seropositive participants only), respectively.

Results

Of 11,130 participants, 1696 (15.2%) were seropositive. Factors independently associated with  higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity included frontline health/care occupation (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.48-2.33), international travel (1.20, 1.07-1.35), number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.29, 1.06-1.57, P-trend = 0.01), body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (1.24, 1.11-1.39), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.65, 1.10-2.49) and alcohol consumption ≥15 vs. 0 units/week (1.23, 1.04-1.46). Light physical exercise associated with  lower risk (0.80, 0.70-0.93, for ≥ 10 vs. 0-4 h/week). Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies associated with factors including BMI ≥ 30 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (aGMR 1.10, 1.02-1.19), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.22, 1.04-1.44), frontline health/care occupation (1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.39), international travel (1.11, 1.05-1.16) and number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.12, 1.02-1.23, P-trend = 0.01); these associations were not substantially attenuated by adjustment for COVID-19 disease severity.

Conclusions

Higher alcohol consumption and lower light physical exercise represent new modifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recognised associations between South Asian ethnic origin and obesity and higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity were independent of other sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical, and pharmacological factors investigated. Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies in people of South Asian ancestry and in obese people were not explained by greater COVID-19 disease severity in these groups.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623?pdf=render +35567479,https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283,Shielding reduced incidence of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory arthritis but vulnerability is associated with increased mortality.,"Cooksey R, Underwood J, Brophy S, Atkinson M, Kennedy J, Choy E.",,"Rheumatology (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-06-01,Y,RA; As; PSA; Electronic Health Records; Inflammatory Arthritis; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Investigate whether individuals with inflammatory arthritis (IA), their treatments and shielding status affect the risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19 for the entire population of Wales, UK.

Methods

Retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked, anonymized electronic health data from SAIL Databank, including primary/secondary care, rheumatology, Office for National Statistics Mortality and COVID-19 laboratory data. Individuals aged 18 years and over testing positive for COVID-19 between March 2020 and May 2021 with READ Codes present for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis formed the study cases.

Results

A total of 1966 people with IA and 166 602 without tested positive for COVID-19. The incidence rate was 3.5% (1966/56 914) in IA, vs 6% in the general population (166 602/2 760 442), (difference: 2.5%, 95% CI: 2.4%, 2.7%, P ≤0.001). In an adjusted Cox proportional hazard model, IA was not associated with higher mortality (HR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.64, P=0.286). Significant risk factors included shielding (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.40, 1.64, P ≤0.001), hospitalization for previous infections (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.28, P ≤0.001), hospitalizations one year pre-pandemic (HR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.44, P ≤0.001) and glucocorticoid use (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.25, P ≤0.001).

Conclusions

Individuals with IA had a lower incidence of COVID-19, probably due to shielding. IA was not associated with increased mortality following COVID-19 infection; being vulnerable (shielded), comorbidities and other factors were associated with increased risk. These key risk factors can identify individuals with IA at greater risk from COVID-19 and advised to shield during high community prevalence.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62372/Download/62372__26337__5539f4f995224d80a2156218d11a03cb.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059?pdf=render 33517931,https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.6,"The association between C-reactive protein, mood disorder, and cognitive function in UK Biobank.","Milton DC, Ward J, Ward E, Lyall DM, Strawbridge RJ, Smith DJ, Cullen B.",,European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists,2021,2021-02-01,Y,Inflammation; Cognitive function; C-reactive Protein; Mood Disorder,,,"

Background

Systemic inflammation has been linked with mood disorder and cognitive impairment. The extent of this relationship remains uncertain, with the effects of serum inflammatory biomarkers compared to genetic predisposition toward inflammation yet to be clearly established.

Methods

We investigated the magnitude of associations between C-reactive protein (CRP) measures, lifetime history of bipolar disorder or major depression, and cognitive function (reaction time and visuospatial memory) in 84,268 UK Biobank participants. CRP was measured in serum and a polygenic risk score for CRP was calculated, based on a published genome-wide association study. Multiple regression models adjusted for sociodemographic and clinical confounders.

Results

Increased serum CRP was significantly associated with mood disorder history (Kruskal-Wallis H = 196.06, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.002) but increased polygenic risk for CRP was not (F = 0.668, p = 0.648, η2 < 0.001). Compared to the lowest quintile, the highest serum CRP quintile was significantly associated with both negative and positive differences in cognitive performance (fully adjusted models: reaction time B = -0.030, 95% CI = -0.052, -0.008; visuospatial memory B = 0.066, 95% CI = 0.042, 0.089). More severe mood disorder categories were significantly associated with worse cognitive performance and this was not moderated by serum or genetic CRP level.

Conclusions

In this large cohort study, we found that measured inflammation was associated with mood disorder history, but genetic predisposition to inflammation was not. The association between mood disorder and worse cognitive performance was very small and did not vary by CRP level. The inconsistent relationship between CRP measures and cognitive performance warrants further study.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DAB4F3EAD33B9437269C92D7A0A5DDC4/S0924933821000067a.pdf/div-class-title-the-association-between-c-reactive-protein-mood-disorder-and-cognitive-function-in-uk-biobank-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057439; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057439?pdf=render +35189888,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4,Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Talaei M, Faustini S, Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Perdek N, Maltby S, Bigogno CM, Symons J, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,Obesity; Diet; Serology; Alcohol; Exercise; Micronutrients; Lifestyle; Ethnicity; Occupation; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.

Methods

We did a prospective population-based study in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-naive UK adults recruited between May 1 and November 2, 2020, without a positive swab test result for SARS-CoV-2 prior to enrolment. Information on 88 potential sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological risk factors was obtained through online questionnaires, and combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein were determined in dried blood spots obtained between November 6, 2020, and April 18, 2021. We used logistic and linear regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and adjusted geometric mean ratios (aGMRs) for potential determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity (all participants) and antibody titres (seropositive participants only), respectively.

Results

Of 11,130 participants, 1696 (15.2%) were seropositive. Factors independently associated with  higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity included frontline health/care occupation (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.48-2.33), international travel (1.20, 1.07-1.35), number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.29, 1.06-1.57, P-trend = 0.01), body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (1.24, 1.11-1.39), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.65, 1.10-2.49) and alcohol consumption ≥15 vs. 0 units/week (1.23, 1.04-1.46). Light physical exercise associated with  lower risk (0.80, 0.70-0.93, for ≥ 10 vs. 0-4 h/week). Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies associated with factors including BMI ≥ 30 vs. < 25 kg/m2 (aGMR 1.10, 1.02-1.19), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.22, 1.04-1.44), frontline health/care occupation (1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.39), international travel (1.11, 1.05-1.16) and number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (≥ 5 vs. 0/week: 1.12, 1.02-1.23, P-trend = 0.01); these associations were not substantially attenuated by adjustment for COVID-19 disease severity.

Conclusions

Higher alcohol consumption and lower light physical exercise represent new modifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recognised associations between South Asian ethnic origin and obesity and higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity were independent of other sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical, and pharmacological factors investigated. Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies in people of South Asian ancestry and in obese people were not explained by greater COVID-19 disease severity in these groups.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623?pdf=render 37006328,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065,"Infections among individuals with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.","Hu Y, Hu K, Song H, Pawitan Y, Piehl F, Fang F.",,Brain communications,2023,2023-03-16,Y,Multiple sclerosis; Alzheimer’s disease; Infections; Parkinson’s Disease,,,"A link between neurodegenerative diseases and infections has been previously reported. However, it is not clear to what extent such link is caused by confounding factors or to what extent it is intimately connected with the underlying conditions. Further, studies on the impact of infections on mortality risk following neurodegenerative diseases are rare. We analysed two data sets with different characteristics: (i) a community-based cohort from the UK Biobank with 2023 patients with multiple sclerosis, 2200 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 3050 patients with Parkinson's disease diagnosed before 1 March 2020 and 5 controls per case who were randomly selected and individually matched to the case; (ii) a Swedish Twin Registry cohort with 230 patients with multiple sclerosis, 885 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 626 patients with Parkinson's disease diagnosed before 31 December 2016 and their disease-free co-twins. The relative risk of infections after a diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease was estimated using stratified Cox models, with adjustment for differences in baseline characteristics. Causal mediation analyses of survival outcomes based on Cox models were performed to assess the impact of infections on mortality. Compared with matched controls or unaffected co-twins, we observed an elevated infection risk after diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, with a fully adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of 2.45 (2.24-2.69) for multiple sclerosis, 5.06 (4.58-5.59) for Alzheimer's disease and 3.72 (3.44-4.01) for Parkinson's disease in the UK Biobank cohort, and 1.78 (1.21-2.62) for multiple sclerosis, 1.50 (1.19-1.88) for Alzheimer's disease and 2.30 (1.79-2.95) for Parkinson's disease in the twin cohort. Similar risk increases were observed when we analysed infections during the 5 years before diagnosis of the respective disease. Occurrence of infections after diagnosis had, however, relatively little impact on mortality, as mediation of infections on mortality (95% confidence interval) was estimated as 31.89% (26.83-37.11%) for multiple sclerosis, 13.38% (11.49-15.29%) for Alzheimer's disease and 18.85% (16.95-20.97%) for Parkinson's disease in the UK Biobank cohort, whereas it was 6.56% (-3.59 to 16.88%) for multiple sclerosis, -2.21% (-0.21 to 4.65%) for Parkinson's disease and -3.89% (-7.27 to -0.51%) for Alzheimer's disease in the twin cohort. Individuals with studied neurodegenerative diseases display an increased risk of infections independently of genetic and familial environment factors. A similar magnitude of risk increase is present prior to confirmed diagnosis, which may indicate a modulating effect of the studied neurological conditions on immune defences.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065/49588224/fcad065.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053639?pdf=render -36333839,https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834,The impact of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown on presentations with psychosis to mental health services for older adults: An electronic health records study in South London.,"Simkin L, Yung P, Greig F, Perera G, Tsamakis K, Rizos E, Stewart R, Velayudhan L, Mueller C.",,International journal of geriatric psychiatry,2022,2022-10-24,Y,Dementia; Hallucinations; Delusions; Psychosis; Older Adults; Lockdown; Covid-19; Non-white Ethnicity,,,"

Objectives

Social distancing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic may have had adverse effects on older adults' mental health. Whereby the impact on mood is well-described, less is known about psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare characteristics associated with psychotic symptoms during the first UK lockdown and a pre-pandemic comparison period.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study we analysed anonymised records from patients referred to mental health services for older adults in South London in the 16-week period of the UK lockdown starting in March 2020, and in the comparable pre-pandemic period in 2019. We used logistic regression models to compare the associations of different patient characteristics with increased odds of presenting with any psychotic symptom (defined as hallucinations and/or delusion), hallucinations, or delusions, during lockdown and the corresponding pre-pandemic period.

Results

1991 referrals were identified. There were fewer referrals during lockdown but a higher proportion of presentations with any psychotic symptom (48.7% vs. 42.8%, p = 0.018), particularly hallucinations (41.0% vs. 27.8%, p < 0.001). Patients of non-White ethnicity (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-2.99) and patients with dementia (adjusted OR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.91-4.99) were more likely to be referred with psychotic symptoms during lockdown. While a weaker association between dementia and psychotic symptoms was found in the pre-COVID period (adjusted OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.19-2.03), interaction terms indicated higher odds of patients of non-White ethnicity or dementia to present with psychosis during the lockdown period.

Conclusions

During lockdown, referrals to mental health services for adults decreased, but contained a higher proportion with psychotic symptoms. The stronger association with psychotic symptoms in non-White ethnic groups and patients with dementia during lockdown suggests that barriers in accessing care might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419?pdf=render -32405103,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30854-0,Estimating excess 1-year mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic according to underlying conditions and age: a population-based cohort study.,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Harris S, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Torralbo A, Shallcross L, Noursadeghi M, Pillay D, Sebire N, Holmes C, Pagel C, Wong WK, Langenberg C, Williams B, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-05-12,Y,,,,"

Background

The medical, societal, and economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has unknown effects on overall population mortality. Previous models of population mortality are based on death over days among infected people, nearly all of whom thus far have underlying conditions. Models have not incorporated information on high-risk conditions or their longer-term baseline (pre-COVID-19) mortality. We estimated the excess number of deaths over 1 year under different COVID-19 incidence scenarios based on varying levels of transmission suppression and differing mortality impacts based on different relative risks for the disease.

Methods

In this population-based cohort study, we used linked primary and secondary care electronic health records from England (Health Data Research UK-CALIBER). We report prevalence of underlying conditions defined by Public Health England guidelines (from March 16, 2020) in individuals aged 30 years or older registered with a practice between 1997 and 2017, using validated, openly available phenotypes for each condition. We estimated 1-year mortality in each condition, developing simple models (and a tool for calculation) of excess COVID-19-related deaths, assuming relative impact (as relative risks [RRs]) of the COVID-19 pandemic (compared with background mortality) of 1·5, 2·0, and 3·0 at differing infection rate scenarios, including full suppression (0·001%), partial suppression (1%), mitigation (10%), and do nothing (80%). We also developed an online, public, prototype risk calculator for excess death estimation.

Findings

We included 3 862 012 individuals (1 957 935 [50·7%] women and 1 904 077 [49·3%] men). We estimated that more than 20% of the study population are in the high-risk category, of whom 13·7% were older than 70 years and 6·3% were aged 70 years or younger with at least one underlying condition. 1-year mortality in the high-risk population was estimated to be 4·46% (95% CI 4·41-4·51). Age and underlying conditions combined to influence background risk, varying markedly across conditions. In a full suppression scenario in the UK population, we estimated that there would be two excess deaths (vs baseline deaths) with an RR of 1·5, four with an RR of 2·0, and seven with an RR of 3·0. In a mitigation scenario, we estimated 18 374 excess deaths with an RR of 1·5, 36 749 with an RR of 2·0, and 73 498 with an RR of 3·0. In a do nothing scenario, we estimated 146 996 excess deaths with an RR of 1·5, 293 991 with an RR of 2·0, and 587 982 with an RR of 3·0.

Interpretation

We provide policy makers, researchers, and the public a simple model and an online tool for understanding excess mortality over 1 year from the COVID-19 pandemic, based on age, sex, and underlying condition-specific estimates. These results signal the need for sustained stringent suppression measures as well as sustained efforts to target those at highest risk because of underlying conditions with a range of preventive interventions. Countries should assess the overall (direct and indirect) effects of the pandemic on excess mortality.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, Health Data Research UK.","This paper aims to estimate the excess number of deaths over 1 year associated with covid-19, based on age and underlying conditions. They found that age, sex and underlying conditions do influence background risk, and support the need for sustained stringent suppression measures. They have also developed an online risk calculator prototype which is openly available for anyone to use.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30854-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30854-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7217641 32565483,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039097,Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.,"Simpson CR, Robertson C, Vasileiou E, McMenamin J, Gunson R, Ritchie LD, Woolhouse M, Morrice L, Kelly D, Stagg HR, Marques D, Murray J, Sheikh A.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-06-21,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine),,,"

Introduction

Following the emergence of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic, population-level surveillance and rapid assessment of the effectiveness of existing or new therapeutic or preventive interventions are required to ensure that interventions are targeted to those at highest risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19. We aim to repurpose and expand an existing pandemic reporting platform to determine the attack rate of SARS-CoV-2, the uptake and effectiveness of any new pandemic vaccine (once available) and any protective effect conferred by existing or new antimicrobial drugs and other therapies.

Methods and analysis

A prospective observational cohort will be used to monitor daily/weekly the progress of the COVID-19 epidemic and to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions in approximately 5.4 million individuals registered in general practices across Scotland. A national linked dataset of patient-level primary care data, out-of-hours, hospitalisation, mortality and laboratory data will be assembled. The primary outcomes will measure association between: (A) laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, morbidity and mortality, and demographic, socioeconomic and clinical population characteristics; and (B) healthcare burden of COVID-19 and demographic, socioeconomic and clinical population characteristics. The secondary outcomes will estimate: (A) the uptake (for vaccines only); (B) effectiveness; and (C) safety of new or existing therapies, vaccines and antimicrobials against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The association between population characteristics and primary outcomes will be assessed via multivariate logistic regression models. The effectiveness of therapies, vaccines and antimicrobials will be assessed from time-dependent Cox models or Poisson regression models. Self-controlled study designs will be explored to estimate the risk of therapeutic and prophylactic-related adverse events.

Ethics and dissemination

We obtained approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee, Southeast Scotland 02. The study findings will be presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/6/e039097.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039097; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7311023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7311023?pdf=render +32405103,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30854-0,Estimating excess 1-year mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic according to underlying conditions and age: a population-based cohort study.,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Harris S, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Torralbo A, Shallcross L, Noursadeghi M, Pillay D, Sebire N, Holmes C, Pagel C, Wong WK, Langenberg C, Williams B, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-05-12,Y,,,,"

Background

The medical, societal, and economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has unknown effects on overall population mortality. Previous models of population mortality are based on death over days among infected people, nearly all of whom thus far have underlying conditions. Models have not incorporated information on high-risk conditions or their longer-term baseline (pre-COVID-19) mortality. We estimated the excess number of deaths over 1 year under different COVID-19 incidence scenarios based on varying levels of transmission suppression and differing mortality impacts based on different relative risks for the disease.

Methods

In this population-based cohort study, we used linked primary and secondary care electronic health records from England (Health Data Research UK-CALIBER). We report prevalence of underlying conditions defined by Public Health England guidelines (from March 16, 2020) in individuals aged 30 years or older registered with a practice between 1997 and 2017, using validated, openly available phenotypes for each condition. We estimated 1-year mortality in each condition, developing simple models (and a tool for calculation) of excess COVID-19-related deaths, assuming relative impact (as relative risks [RRs]) of the COVID-19 pandemic (compared with background mortality) of 1·5, 2·0, and 3·0 at differing infection rate scenarios, including full suppression (0·001%), partial suppression (1%), mitigation (10%), and do nothing (80%). We also developed an online, public, prototype risk calculator for excess death estimation.

Findings

We included 3 862 012 individuals (1 957 935 [50·7%] women and 1 904 077 [49·3%] men). We estimated that more than 20% of the study population are in the high-risk category, of whom 13·7% were older than 70 years and 6·3% were aged 70 years or younger with at least one underlying condition. 1-year mortality in the high-risk population was estimated to be 4·46% (95% CI 4·41-4·51). Age and underlying conditions combined to influence background risk, varying markedly across conditions. In a full suppression scenario in the UK population, we estimated that there would be two excess deaths (vs baseline deaths) with an RR of 1·5, four with an RR of 2·0, and seven with an RR of 3·0. In a mitigation scenario, we estimated 18 374 excess deaths with an RR of 1·5, 36 749 with an RR of 2·0, and 73 498 with an RR of 3·0. In a do nothing scenario, we estimated 146 996 excess deaths with an RR of 1·5, 293 991 with an RR of 2·0, and 587 982 with an RR of 3·0.

Interpretation

We provide policy makers, researchers, and the public a simple model and an online tool for understanding excess mortality over 1 year from the COVID-19 pandemic, based on age, sex, and underlying condition-specific estimates. These results signal the need for sustained stringent suppression measures as well as sustained efforts to target those at highest risk because of underlying conditions with a range of preventive interventions. Countries should assess the overall (direct and indirect) effects of the pandemic on excess mortality.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, Health Data Research UK.","This paper aims to estimate the excess number of deaths over 1 year associated with covid-19, based on age and underlying conditions. They found that age, sex and underlying conditions do influence background risk, and support the need for sustained stringent suppression measures. They have also developed an online risk calculator prototype which is openly available for anyone to use.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30854-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30854-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7217641 +36333839,https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834,The impact of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown on presentations with psychosis to mental health services for older adults: An electronic health records study in South London.,"Simkin L, Yung P, Greig F, Perera G, Tsamakis K, Rizos E, Stewart R, Velayudhan L, Mueller C.",,International journal of geriatric psychiatry,2022,2022-10-24,Y,Dementia; Hallucinations; Delusions; Psychosis; Older Adults; Lockdown; Covid-19; Non-white Ethnicity,,,"

Objectives

Social distancing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic may have had adverse effects on older adults' mental health. Whereby the impact on mood is well-described, less is known about psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare characteristics associated with psychotic symptoms during the first UK lockdown and a pre-pandemic comparison period.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study we analysed anonymised records from patients referred to mental health services for older adults in South London in the 16-week period of the UK lockdown starting in March 2020, and in the comparable pre-pandemic period in 2019. We used logistic regression models to compare the associations of different patient characteristics with increased odds of presenting with any psychotic symptom (defined as hallucinations and/or delusion), hallucinations, or delusions, during lockdown and the corresponding pre-pandemic period.

Results

1991 referrals were identified. There were fewer referrals during lockdown but a higher proportion of presentations with any psychotic symptom (48.7% vs. 42.8%, p = 0.018), particularly hallucinations (41.0% vs. 27.8%, p < 0.001). Patients of non-White ethnicity (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-2.99) and patients with dementia (adjusted OR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.91-4.99) were more likely to be referred with psychotic symptoms during lockdown. While a weaker association between dementia and psychotic symptoms was found in the pre-COVID period (adjusted OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.19-2.03), interaction terms indicated higher odds of patients of non-White ethnicity or dementia to present with psychosis during the lockdown period.

Conclusions

During lockdown, referrals to mental health services for adults decreased, but contained a higher proportion with psychotic symptoms. The stronger association with psychotic symptoms in non-White ethnic groups and patients with dementia during lockdown suggests that barriers in accessing care might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419?pdf=render +32990744,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095,An extensible big data software architecture managing a research resource of real-world clinical radiology data linked to other health data from the whole Scottish population.,"Nind T, Sutherland J, McAllister G, Hardy D, Hume A, MacLeod R, Caldwell J, Krueger S, Tramma L, Teviotdale R, Abdelatif M, Gillen K, Ward J, Scobbie D, Baillie I, Brooks A, Prodan B, Kerr W, Sloan-Murphy D, Herrera JFR, McManus D, Morris C, Sinclair C, Baxter R, Parsons M, Morris A, Jefferson E.",,GigaScience,2020,2020-09-01,Y,ML; AI; Radiology; Big Data,,,"

Aim

To enable a world-leading research dataset of routinely collected clinical images linked to other routinely collected data from the whole Scottish national population. This includes more than 30 million different radiological examinations from a population of 5.4 million and >2 PB of data collected since 2010.

Methods

Scotland has a central archive of radiological data used to directly provide clinical care to patients. We have developed an architecture and platform to securely extract a copy of those data, link it to other clinical or social datasets, remove personal data to protect privacy, and make the resulting data available to researchers in a controlled Safe Haven environment.

Results

An extensive software platform has been developed to host, extract, and link data from cohorts to answer research questions. The platform has been tested on 5 different test cases and is currently being further enhanced to support 3 exemplar research projects.

Conclusions

The data available are from a range of radiological modalities and scanner types and were collected under different environmental conditions. These real-world, heterogenous data are valuable for training algorithms to support clinical decision making, especially for deep learning where large data volumes are required. The resource is now available for international research access. The platform and data can support new health research using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, as well as enabling discovery science.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/9/10/giaa095/33802377/giaa095.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405?pdf=render 34750106,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0376,Trends and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 vaccine recipients: a federated analysis of 57.9 million patients’ primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY.,"Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, Morton CE, MacKenna B, Green A, Hulme W, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Croker R, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson EJ, Rowan A, Fisher L, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2021-12-31,Y,Ethnic Groups; Vaccination; General Practice; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

On 8 December 2020 NHS England administered the first COVID-19 vaccination.

Aim

To describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups in the first 100 days of the vaccine rollout.

Design and setting

With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 57.9 million patient records in general practice in England, in situ and within the infrastructure of the electronic health record software vendors EMIS and TPP using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Vaccine coverage across various subgroups of Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority cohorts is described.

Results

A total of 20 852 692 patients (36.0%) received a vaccine between 8 December 2020 and 17 March 2021. Of patients aged ≥80 years not in a care home (JCVI group 2) 94.7% received a vaccine, but with substantial variation by ethnicity (White 96.2%, Black 68.3%) and deprivation (least deprived 96.6%, most deprived 90.7%). Patients with pre-existing medical conditions were more likely to be vaccinated with two exceptions: severe mental illness (89.5%) and learning disability (91.4%). There were 275 205 vaccine recipients who were identified as care home residents (JCVI group 1; 91.2% coverage). By 17 March, 1 257 914 (6.0%) recipients had a second dose.

Conclusion

The NHS rapidly delivered mass vaccination. In this study a data-monitoring framework was deployed using publicly auditable methods and a secure in situ processing model, using linked but pseudonymised patient-level NHS data for 57.9 million patients. Targeted activity may be needed to address lower vaccination coverage observed among certain key groups.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/72/714/e51.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0376; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589463; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589463?pdf=render 37337233,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02921-8,Trajectories of cardiac troponin in the decades before cardiovascular death: a longitudinal cohort study.,"Kimenai DM, Anand A, de Bakker M, Shipley M, Fujisawa T, Lyngbakken MN, Hveem K, Omland T, Valencia-Hernández CA, Lindbohm JV, Kivimaki M, Singh-Manoux A, Strachan FE, Shah ASV, Kardys I, Boersma E, Brunner EJ, Mills NL.",,BMC medicine,2023,2023-06-19,Y,cardiac troponin; risk factors; Outcome; General Population,,,"

Background

High-sensitivity cardiac troponin testing is a promising tool for cardiovascular risk prediction, but whether serial testing can dynamically predict risk is uncertain. We evaluated the trajectory of cardiac troponin I in the years prior to a cardiovascular event in the general population, and determine whether serial measurements could track risk within individuals.

Methods

In the Whitehall II cohort, high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentrations were measured on three occasions over a 15-year period. Time trajectories of troponin were constructed in those who died from cardiovascular disease compared to those who survived or died from other causes during follow up and these were externally validated in the HUNT Study. A joint model that adjusts for cardiovascular risk factors was used to estimate risk of cardiovascular death using serial troponin measurements.

Results

In 7,293 individuals (mean 58 ± 7 years, 29.4% women) cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular death occurred in 281 (3.9%) and 914 (12.5%) individuals (median follow-up 21.4 years), respectively. Troponin concentrations increased in those dying from cardiovascular disease with a steeper trajectory compared to those surviving or dying from other causes in Whitehall and HUNT (Pinteraction < 0.05 for both). The joint model demonstrated an independent association between temporal evolution of troponin and risk of cardiovascular death (HR per doubling, 1.45, 95% CI,1.33-1.75).

Conclusions

Cardiac troponin I concentrations increased in those dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those surviving or dying from other causes over the preceding decades. Serial cardiac troponin testing in the general population has potential to track future cardiovascular risk.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02921-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02921-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280894; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280894?pdf=render -32990744,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095,An extensible big data software architecture managing a research resource of real-world clinical radiology data linked to other health data from the whole Scottish population.,"Nind T, Sutherland J, McAllister G, Hardy D, Hume A, MacLeod R, Caldwell J, Krueger S, Tramma L, Teviotdale R, Abdelatif M, Gillen K, Ward J, Scobbie D, Baillie I, Brooks A, Prodan B, Kerr W, Sloan-Murphy D, Herrera JFR, McManus D, Morris C, Sinclair C, Baxter R, Parsons M, Morris A, Jefferson E.",,GigaScience,2020,2020-09-01,Y,ML; AI; Radiology; Big Data,,,"

Aim

To enable a world-leading research dataset of routinely collected clinical images linked to other routinely collected data from the whole Scottish national population. This includes more than 30 million different radiological examinations from a population of 5.4 million and >2 PB of data collected since 2010.

Methods

Scotland has a central archive of radiological data used to directly provide clinical care to patients. We have developed an architecture and platform to securely extract a copy of those data, link it to other clinical or social datasets, remove personal data to protect privacy, and make the resulting data available to researchers in a controlled Safe Haven environment.

Results

An extensive software platform has been developed to host, extract, and link data from cohorts to answer research questions. The platform has been tested on 5 different test cases and is currently being further enhanced to support 3 exemplar research projects.

Conclusions

The data available are from a range of radiological modalities and scanner types and were collected under different environmental conditions. These real-world, heterogenous data are valuable for training algorithms to support clinical decision making, especially for deep learning where large data volumes are required. The resource is now available for international research access. The platform and data can support new health research using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, as well as enabling discovery science.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/9/10/giaa095/33802377/giaa095.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405?pdf=render -33780469,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248195,Deriving household composition using population-scale electronic health record data-A reproducible methodology. ,"Johnson RD, Griffiths LJ, Hollinghurst JP, Akbari A, Lee A, Thompson DA, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,PloS one,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"Physical housing and household composition have an important role in the lives of individuals and drive health and social outcomes, and inequalities. Most methods to understand housing composition are based on survey or census data, and there is currently no reproducible methodology for creating population-level household composition measures using linked administrative data. Using existing, and more recent enhancements to the address-data linkage methods in the SAIL Databank using Residential Anonymised Linking Fields we linked individuals to properties using the anonymised Welsh Demographic Service data in the SAIL Databank. We defined households, household size, and household composition measures based on adult to child relationships, and age differences between residents to create relative age measures. Two relative age-based algorithms were developed and returned similar results when applied to population and household-level data, describing household composition for 3.1 million individuals within 1.2 million households in Wales. Developed methods describe binary, and count level generational household composition measures. Improved residential anonymised linkage field methods in SAIL have led to improved property-level data linkage, allowing the design and application of household composition measures that assign individuals to shared residences and allow the description of household composition across Wales. The reproducible methods create longitudinal, household-level composition measures at a population-level using linked administrative data. Such measures are important to help understand more detail about an individual's home and area environment and how that may affect the health and wellbeing of the individual, other residents, and potentially into the wider community.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0248195&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248195; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007012?pdf=render 36987388,https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885,Characterizing the Differences in Descriptions of Violence on Reddit During the COVID-19 Pandemic.,"Li L, Neubauer L, Stewart R, Roberts A.",,Journal of interpersonal violence,2023,2023-03-28,Y,Increase rate; Data Classification; Reddit; Violence Types,,,"Concerns have been raised over the experiences of violence such as domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media such as Reddit represent an alternative outlet for reporting experiences of violence where healthcare access has been limited. This study analyzed seven violence-related subreddits to investigate the trends of different violence patterns from January 2018 to February 2022 to enhance the health-service providers' existing service or provide some new perspective for existing violence research. Specifically, we collected violence-related texts from Reddit using keyword searching and identified six major types with supervised machine learning classifiers: DV, IPV, physical violence, sexual violence, emotional violence, and nonspecific violence or others. The increase rate (IR) of each violence type was calculated and temporally compared in five phases of the pandemic. The phases include one pre-pandemic phase (Phase 0, the date before February 26, 2020) and four pandemic phases (Phases 1-4) with separation dates of June 17, 2020, September 7, 2020, and June 4, 2021. We found that the number of IPV-related posts increased most in the earliest phase; however, that for COVID-citing IPV was highest in the mid-pandemic phase. IRs for DV, IPV, and emotional violence also showed increases across all pandemic phases, with IRs of 26.9%, 58.8%, and 28.8%, respectively, from the pre-pandemic to the first pandemic phase. In the other three pandemic phases, all the IRs for these three types of violence were positive, though lower than the IRs in the first pandemic phase. The findings highlight the importance of identifying and providing help to those who suffer from such violent experiences and support the role of social media site monitoring as a means of informative surveillance for help-providing authorities and violence research groups.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064198; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064198?pdf=render +33780469,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248195,Deriving household composition using population-scale electronic health record data-A reproducible methodology. ,"Johnson RD, Griffiths LJ, Hollinghurst JP, Akbari A, Lee A, Thompson DA, Lyons RA, Fry R.",,PloS one,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"Physical housing and household composition have an important role in the lives of individuals and drive health and social outcomes, and inequalities. Most methods to understand housing composition are based on survey or census data, and there is currently no reproducible methodology for creating population-level household composition measures using linked administrative data. Using existing, and more recent enhancements to the address-data linkage methods in the SAIL Databank using Residential Anonymised Linking Fields we linked individuals to properties using the anonymised Welsh Demographic Service data in the SAIL Databank. We defined households, household size, and household composition measures based on adult to child relationships, and age differences between residents to create relative age measures. Two relative age-based algorithms were developed and returned similar results when applied to population and household-level data, describing household composition for 3.1 million individuals within 1.2 million households in Wales. Developed methods describe binary, and count level generational household composition measures. Improved residential anonymised linkage field methods in SAIL have led to improved property-level data linkage, allowing the design and application of household composition measures that assign individuals to shared residences and allow the description of household composition across Wales. The reproducible methods create longitudinal, household-level composition measures at a population-level using linked administrative data. Such measures are important to help understand more detail about an individual's home and area environment and how that may affect the health and wellbeing of the individual, other residents, and potentially into the wider community.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0248195&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248195; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007012?pdf=render 37596262,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40679-y,A genome-wide association study of blood cell morphology identifies cellular proteins implicated in disease aetiology.,"Akbari P, Vuckovic D, Stefanucci L, Jiang T, Kundu K, Kreuzhuber R, Bao EL, Collins JH, Downes K, Grassi L, Guerrero JA, Kaptoge S, Knight JC, Meacham S, Sambrook J, Seyres D, Stegle O, Verboon JM, Walter K, Watkins NA, Danesh J, Roberts DJ, Di Angelantonio E, Sankaran VG, Frontini M, Burgess S, Kuijpers T, Peters JE, Butterworth AS, Ouwehand WH, Soranzo N, Astle WJ.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-08-18,Y,,,,"Blood cells contain functionally important intracellular structures, such as granules, critical to immunity and thrombosis. Quantitative variation in these structures has not been subjected previously to large-scale genetic analysis. We perform genome-wide association studies of 63 flow-cytometry derived cellular phenotypes-including cell-type specific measures of granularity, nucleic acid content and reactivity-in 41,515 participants in the INTERVAL study. We identify 2172 distinct variant-trait associations, including associations near genes coding for proteins in organelles implicated in inflammatory and thrombotic diseases. By integrating with epigenetic data we show that many intracellular structures are likely to be determined in immature precursor cells. By integrating with proteomic data we identify the transcription factor FOG2 as an early regulator of platelet formation and α-granularity. Finally, we show that colocalisation of our associations with disease risk signals can suggest aetiological cell-types-variants in IL2RA and ITGA4 respectively mirror the known effects of daclizumab in multiple sclerosis and vedolizumab in inflammatory bowel disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40679-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10439125; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10439125?pdf=render 37434746,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102077,"Ethnic differences in the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical monitoring and hospitalisations for non-COVID conditions in England: a population-based, observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.","Costello RE, Tazare J, Piehlmaier D, Herrett E, Parker EPK, Zheng B, Mansfield KE, Henderson AD, Carreira H, Bidulka P, Wong AYS, Warren-Gash C, Hayes JF, Quint JK, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Katikireddi SV, Tomlinson L, Langan SM, Mathur R, LH&W NCS (or CONVALESCENCE) Collaborative, OpenSAFELY collaborative.",,EClinicalMedicine,2023,2023-06-29,Y,Pandemic; Healthcare Utilisation; Ethnic Differences,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare and may have impacted ethnic inequalities in healthcare. We aimed to describe the impact of pandemic-related disruption on ethnic differences in clinical monitoring and hospital admissions for non-COVID conditions in England.

Methods

In this population-based, observational cohort study we used primary care electronic health record data with linkage to hospital episode statistics data and mortality data within OpenSAFELY, a data analytics platform created, with approval of NHS England, to address urgent COVID-19 research questions. We included adults aged 18 years and over registered with a TPP practice between March 1, 2018, and April 30, 2022. We excluded those with missing age, sex, geographic region, or Index of Multiple Deprivation. We grouped ethnicity (exposure), into five categories: White, Asian, Black, Other, and Mixed. We used interrupted time-series regression to estimate ethnic differences in clinical monitoring frequency (blood pressure and Hba1c measurements, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma annual reviews) before and after March 23, 2020. We used multivariable Cox regression to quantify ethnic differences in hospitalisations related to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and mental health before and after March 23, 2020.

Findings

Of 33,510,937 registered with a GP as of 1st January 2020, 19,064,019 were adults, alive and registered for at least 3 months, 3,010,751 met the exclusion criteria and 1,122,912 were missing ethnicity. This resulted in 14,930,356 adults with known ethnicity (92% of sample): 86.6% were White, 7.3% Asian, 2.6% Black, 1.4% Mixed ethnicity, and 2.2% Other ethnicities. Clinical monitoring did not return to pre-pandemic levels for any ethnic group. Ethnic differences were apparent pre-pandemic, except for diabetes monitoring, and remained unchanged, except for blood pressure monitoring in those with mental health conditions where differences narrowed during the pandemic. For those of Black ethnicity, there were seven additional admissions for diabetic ketoacidosis per month during the pandemic, and relative ethnic differences narrowed during the pandemic compared to the White ethnic group (Pre-pandemic hazard ratio (HR): 0.50, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.41, 0.60, Pandemic HR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.65, 0.87). There was increased admissions for heart failure during the pandemic for all ethnic groups, though highest in those of White ethnicity (heart failure risk difference: 5.4). Relatively, ethnic differences narrowed for heart failure admission in those of Asian (Pre-pandemic HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.49, 1.64, Pandemic HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.19, 1.29) and Black ethnicity (Pre-pandemic HR 1.41, 95% CI: 1.30, 1.53, Pandemic HR: 1.16, 95% CI 1.09, 1.25) compared with White ethnicity. For other outcomes the pandemic had minimal impact on ethnic differences.

Interpretation

Our study suggests that ethnic differences in clinical monitoring and hospitalisations remained largely unchanged during the pandemic for most conditions. Key exceptions were hospitalisations for diabetic ketoacidosis and heart failure, which warrant further investigation to understand the causes.

Funding

LSHTM COVID-19 Response Grant (DONAT15912).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102077; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10331810; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10331810?pdf=render 35192611,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003916,Uptake of infant and preschool immunisations in Scotland and England during the COVID-19 pandemic: An observational study of routinely collected data.,"McQuaid F, Mulholland R, Sangpang Rai Y, Agrawal U, Bedford H, Cameron JC, Gibbons C, Roy P, Sheikh A, Shi T, Simpson CR, Tait J, Tessier E, Turner S, Villacampa Ortega J, White J, Wood R.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-02-22,Y,,,,"

Background

In 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdown control measures threatened to disrupt routine childhood immunisation programmes with early reports suggesting uptake would fall. In response, public health bodies in Scotland and England collected national data for childhood immunisations on a weekly or monthly basis to allow for rapid analysis of trends. The aim of this study was to use these data to assess the impact of different phases of the pandemic on infant and preschool immunisation uptake rates.

Methods and findings

We conducted an observational study using routinely collected data for the year prior to the pandemic (2019) and immediately before (22 January to March 2020), during (23 March to 26 July), and after (27 July to 4 October) the first UK ""lockdown"". Data were obtained for Scotland from the Public Health Scotland ""COVID19 wider impacts on the health care system"" dashboard and for England from ImmForm. Five vaccinations delivered at different ages were evaluated; 3 doses of ""6-in-1"" diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and hepatitis B vaccine (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB) and 2 doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This represented 439,754 invitations to be vaccinated in Scotland and 4.1 million for England. Uptake during the 2020 periods was compared to the previous year (2019) using binary logistic regression analysis. For Scotland, uptake within 4 weeks of a child becoming eligible by age was analysed along with geographical region and indices of deprivation. For Scotland and England, we assessed whether immunisations were up-to-date at approximately 6 months (all doses 6-in-1) and 16 to 18 months (first MMR) of age. We found that uptake within 4 weeks of eligibility in Scotland for all the 5 vaccines was higher during lockdown than in 2019. Differences ranged from 1.3% for first dose 6-in-1 vaccine (95.3 versus 94%, odds ratio [OR] compared to 2019 1.28, 95% confidence intervals [CIs] 1.18 to 1.39) to 14.3% for second MMR dose (66.1 versus 51.8%, OR compared to 2019 1.8, 95% CI 1.74 to 1.87). Significant increases in uptake were seen across all deprivation levels. In England, fewer children due to receive their immunisations during the lockdown period were up to date at 6 months (6-in-1) or 18 months (first dose MMR). The fall in percentage uptake ranged from 0.5% for first 6-in-1 (95.8 versus 96.3%, OR compared to 2019 0.89, 95% CI 0.86- to 0.91) to 2.1% for third 6-in-1 (86.6 versus 88.7%, OR compared to 2019 0.82, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.83). The use of routinely collected data used in this study was a limiting factor as detailed information on potential confounding factors were not available and we were unable to eliminate the possibility of seasonal trends in immunisation uptake.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that the national lockdown in Scotland was associated with an increase in timely childhood immunisation uptake; however, in England, uptake fell slightly. Reasons for the improved uptake in Scotland may include active measures taken to promote immunisation at local and national levels during this period and should be explored further. Promoting immunisation uptake and addressing potential vaccine hesitancy is particularly important given the ongoing pandemic and COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003916&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003916; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863286; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8863286?pdf=render 34340970,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0301,Clinical coding of long COVID in English primary care: a federated analysis of 58 million patient records in situ using OpenSAFELY.,"Walker AJ, MacKenna B, Inglesby P, Tomlinson L, Rentsch CT, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Croker R, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Williamson EJ, Hulme WJ, McDonald HI, Mathur R, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Tazare J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Douglas IJ, Evans SJ, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2021,2021-10-28,Y,Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19; Long Covid,,,"

Background

Long COVID describes new or persistent symptoms at least 4 weeks after onset of acute COVID-19. Clinical codes to describe this phenomenon were recently created.

Aim

To describe the use of long-COVID codes, and variation of use by general practice, demographic variables, and over time.

Design and setting

Population-based cohort study in English primary care.

Method

Working on behalf of NHS England, OpenSAFELY data were used encompassing 96% of the English population between 1 February 2020 and 25 May 2021. The proportion of people with a recorded code for long COVID was measured overall and by demographic factors, electronic health record software system (EMIS or TPP), and week.

Results

Long COVID was recorded for 23 273 people. Coding was unevenly distributed among practices, with 26.7% of practices having never used the codes. Regional variation ranged between 20.3 per 100 000 people for East of England (95% confidence interval [CI] = 19.3 to 21.4) and 55.6 per 100 000 people in London (95% CI = 54.1 to 57.1). Coding was higher among females (52.1, 95% CI = 51.3 to 52.9) than males (28.1, 95% CI = 27.5 to 28.7), and higher among practices using EMIS (53.7, 95% CI = 52.9 to 54.4) than those using TPP (20.9, 95% CI = 20.3 to 21.4).

Conclusion

Current recording of long COVID in primary care is very low, and variable between practices. This may reflect patients not presenting; clinicians and patients holding different diagnostic thresholds; or challenges with the design and communication of diagnostic codes. Increased awareness of diagnostic codes is recommended to facilitate research and planning of services, and also surveys with qualitative work to better evaluate clinicians' understanding of the diagnosis.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/71/712/e806.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8340730; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8340730?pdf=render 33087383,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043010,Understanding and responding to COVID-19 in Wales: protocol for a privacy-protecting data platform for enhanced epidemiology and evaluation of interventions. ,"Lyons J, Akbari A, Torabi F, Davies GI, North L, Griffiths R, Bailey R, Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Turner SL, Thompson D, Rafferty J, Mizen A, Orton C, Thompson S, Au-Yeung L, Cross L, Gravenor MB, Brophy S, Lucini B, John A, Szakmany T, Davies J, Davies C, Thomas DR, Williams C, Emmerson C, Cottrell S, Connor TR, Taylor C, Pugh RJ, Diggle P, John G, Scourfield S, Hunt J, Cunningham AM, Helliwell K, Lyons R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-10-21,Y,,,,"The emergence of the novel respiratory SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic have required rapid assimilation of population-level data to understand and control the spread of infection in the general and vulnerable populations. Rapid analyses are needed to inform policy development and target interventions to at-risk groups to prevent serious health outcomes. We aim to provide an accessible research platform to determine demographic, socioeconomic and clinical risk factors for infection, morbidity and mortality of COVID-19, to measure the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare utilisation and long-term health, and to enable the evaluation of natural experiments of policy interventions. Two privacy-protecting population-level cohorts have been created and derived from multisourced demographic and healthcare data. The C20 cohort consists of 3.2 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2020 with follow-up until 31 May 2020. The complete cohort dataset will be updated monthly with some individual datasets available daily. The C16 cohort consists of 3 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2016 with follow-up to 31 December 2019. C16 is designed as a counterfactual cohort to provide contextual comparative population data on disease, health service utilisation and mortality. Study outcomes will: (a) characterise the epidemiology of COVID-19, (b) assess socioeconomic and demographic influences on infection and outcomes, (c) measure the impact of COVID-19 on short -term and longer-term population outcomes and (d) undertake studies on the transmission and spatial spread of infection. The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage-independent Information Governance Review Panel has approved this study. The study findings will be presented to policy groups, public meetings, national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/10/e043010.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7580065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7580065?pdf=render -36332942,https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-002142,Development of algorithms for determining heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction using nationwide electronic healthcare records in the UK.,"Sundaram V, Zakeri R, Witte KK, Quint JK.",,Open heart,2022,2022-11-01,Y,epidemiology; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Background

Determining heart failure (HF) phenotypes in routine electronic health records (EHR) is challenging. We aimed to develop and validate EHR algorithms for identification of specific HF phenotypes, using Read codes in combination with selected patient characteristics.

Methods

We used The Healthcare Improvement Network (THIN). The study population included a random sample of individuals with HF diagnostic codes (HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and non-specific HF) selected from all participants registered in the THIN database between 1 January 2015 and 30 September 2017. Confirmed diagnoses were determined in a randomly selected subgroup of 500 patients via GP questionnaires including a review of all available cardiovascular investigations. Confirmed diagnoses of HFrEF and HFpEF were based on four criteria. Based on these data, we calculated a positive predictive value (PPV) of predefined algorithms which consisted of a combination of Read codes and additional information such as echocardiogram results and HF medication records.

Results

The final cohort from which we drew the 500 patient random sample consisted of 10 275 patients. Response rate to the questionnaire was 77.2%. A small proportion (18%) of the overall HF patient population were coded with specific HF phenotype Read codes. For HFrEF, algorithms achieving over 80% PPV included definite, possible or non-specific HF HFrEF codes when combined with at least two of the drugs used to treat HFrEF. Only in non-specific HF coding did the use of three drugs (rather than two) contribute to an improvement of the PPV for HFrEF. HFpEF was only accurately defined with specific codes. In the absence of specific coding for HFpEF, the PPV was consistently below 50%.

Conclusions

Prescription for HF medication can reliably be used to find HFrEF patients in the UK, even in the absence of a specific Read code for HFrEF. Algorithms using non-specific coding could not reliably find HFpEF patients.",,pdf:https://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/9/2/e002142.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-002142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639145; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639145?pdf=render 36755846,https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfac241,"Depression is associated with frailty and lower quality of life in haemodialysis recipients, but not with mortality or hospitalization.","Anderson BM, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.",,Clinical kidney journal,2023,2022-10-31,Y,Mortality; Depression; Frailty; Haemodialysis; Hospitalization; Health-related Quality Of Life,,,"

Background

Frailty and depression are highly prevalent in haemodialysis recipients, exhibit a reciprocal relationship, and are associated with increased mortality and hospitalization, and lower quality of life. Despite this, there has been little exploration of the relationship between depression and frailty upon patient outcomes. We aimed to explore the relationship between depression and frailty, and their associations with mortality, hospitalization and quality of life.

Methods

We performed a prospective cohort study of prevalent haemodialysis recipients linked to national datasets for outcomes including mortality and hospitalization. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), frailty using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and quality of life using the EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) Summary Index.

Results

A total of 485 prevalent haemodialysis recipients were recruited, with 111 deaths and 1241 hospitalizations during follow-up. CFS was independently associated with mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1.31; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08, 1.59; P = .006], hospitalization [incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.13; 95% CI 1.03, 1.25; P = .010] and lower quality of life (Coef. -0.401; 95% CI -0.511, -0.292; P < .001). PHQ-9 score was independently associated with lower quality of life (Coef. -0.042; 95% CI -0.063, -0.021; P < .001), but not mortality (HR 1.00; 95% CI 0.96, 1.04; P = .901) or hospitalization (IRR 0.99; 95% CI 0.97, 1.01; P = .351). In an adjusted model including CFS, moderate depression was associated with reduced hospitalization (IRR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56, 0.93; P = .013).

Conclusions

With the addition of frailty, depression was associated with lower hospital admissions, but poorer quality of life. The relationship between frailty and depression, and their influence on outcomes is complex, requiring further study.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/16/2/342/49100412/sfac241.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfac241; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9900564; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9900564?pdf=render -32635913,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z,Application of standardised effect sizes to hospital discharge outcomes for people with diabetes.,"Robbins T, Lim Choi Keung SN, Sankar S, Randeva H, Arvanitis TN.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2020,2020-07-07,Y,Mortality; Diabetes; Readmission; Effect Size,,,"

Background

Patients with diabetes are at an increased risk of readmission and mortality when discharged from hospital. Existing research identifies statistically significant risk factors that are thought to underpin these outcomes. Increasingly, these risk factors are being used to create risk prediction models, and target risk modifying interventions. These risk factors are typically reported in the literature accompanied by unstandardized effect sizes, which makes comparisons difficult. We demonstrate an assessment of variation between standardised effect sizes for such risk factors across care outcomes and patient cohorts. Such an approach will support development of more rigorous risk stratification tools and better targeting of intervention measures.

Methods

Data was extracted from the electronic health record of a major tertiary referral centre, over a 3-year period, for all patients discharged from hospital with a concurrent diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. Risk factors selected for extraction were pre-specified according to a systematic review of the research literature. Standardised effect sizes were calculated for all statistically significant risk factors, and compared across patient cohorts and both readmission & mortality outcome measures.

Results

Data was extracted for 46,357 distinct admissions patients, creating a large dataset of approximately 10,281,400 data points. The calculation of standardized effect size measures allowed direct comparison. Effect sizes were noted to be larger for mortality compared to readmission, as well as for being larger for surgical and type 1 diabetes cohorts of patients.

Conclusions

The calculation of standardised effect sizes is an important step in evaluating risk factors for healthcare events. This will improve our understanding of risk and support the development of more effective risk stratification tools to support patients to make better informed decisions at discharge from hospital.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7339522; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7339522?pdf=render +36332942,https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-002142,Development of algorithms for determining heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction using nationwide electronic healthcare records in the UK.,"Sundaram V, Zakeri R, Witte KK, Quint JK.",,Open heart,2022,2022-11-01,Y,epidemiology; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Background

Determining heart failure (HF) phenotypes in routine electronic health records (EHR) is challenging. We aimed to develop and validate EHR algorithms for identification of specific HF phenotypes, using Read codes in combination with selected patient characteristics.

Methods

We used The Healthcare Improvement Network (THIN). The study population included a random sample of individuals with HF diagnostic codes (HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and non-specific HF) selected from all participants registered in the THIN database between 1 January 2015 and 30 September 2017. Confirmed diagnoses were determined in a randomly selected subgroup of 500 patients via GP questionnaires including a review of all available cardiovascular investigations. Confirmed diagnoses of HFrEF and HFpEF were based on four criteria. Based on these data, we calculated a positive predictive value (PPV) of predefined algorithms which consisted of a combination of Read codes and additional information such as echocardiogram results and HF medication records.

Results

The final cohort from which we drew the 500 patient random sample consisted of 10 275 patients. Response rate to the questionnaire was 77.2%. A small proportion (18%) of the overall HF patient population were coded with specific HF phenotype Read codes. For HFrEF, algorithms achieving over 80% PPV included definite, possible or non-specific HF HFrEF codes when combined with at least two of the drugs used to treat HFrEF. Only in non-specific HF coding did the use of three drugs (rather than two) contribute to an improvement of the PPV for HFrEF. HFpEF was only accurately defined with specific codes. In the absence of specific coding for HFpEF, the PPV was consistently below 50%.

Conclusions

Prescription for HF medication can reliably be used to find HFrEF patients in the UK, even in the absence of a specific Read code for HFrEF. Algorithms using non-specific coding could not reliably find HFpEF patients.",,pdf:https://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/9/2/e002142.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-002142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639145; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639145?pdf=render 37311808,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y,"Natural history of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study.","Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Mills NL, Winter AJ, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-06-13,Y,,,,"Previous studies on the natural history of long-COVID have been few and selective. Without comparison groups, disease progression cannot be differentiated from symptoms originating from other causes. The Long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS) is a Scotland-wide, general population cohort of adults who had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection matched to PCR-negative adults. Serial, self-completed, online questionnaires collected information on pre-existing health conditions and current health six, 12 and 18 months after index test. Of those with previous symptomatic infection, 35% reported persistent incomplete/no recovery, 12% improvement and 12% deterioration. At six and 12 months, one or more symptom was reported by 71.5% and 70.7% respectively of those previously infected, compared with 53.5% and 56.5% of those never infected. Altered taste, smell and confusion improved over time compared to the never infected group and adjusted for confounders. Conversely, late onset dry and productive cough, and hearing problems were more likely following SARS-CoV-2 infection.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39193-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377?pdf=render -35289755,https://doi.org/10.2196/31021,Concept Libraries for Repeatable and Reusable Research: Qualitative Study Exploring the Needs of Users.,"Almowil Z, Zhou SM, Brophy S, Croxall J.",,JMIR human factors,2022,2022-03-15,Y,Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Reproducible Research; Clinical Codes; Concept Libraries,,,"

Background

Big data research in the field of health sciences is hindered by a lack of agreement on how to identify and define different conditions and their medications. This means that researchers and health professionals often have different phenotype definitions for the same condition. This lack of agreement makes it difficult to compare different study findings and hinders the ability to conduct repeatable and reusable research.

Objective

This study aims to examine the requirements of various users, such as researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and managers, in the development of a data portal for phenotypes (a concept library).

Methods

This was a qualitative study using interviews and focus group discussion. One-to-one interviews were conducted with researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and senior research managers in health data science (N=6) to explore their specific needs in the development of a concept library. In addition, a focus group discussion with researchers (N=14) working with the Secured Anonymized Information Linkage databank, a national eHealth data linkage infrastructure, was held to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for the phenotyping system and the proposed concept library. The interviews and focus group discussion were transcribed verbatim, and 2 thematic analyses were performed.

Results

Most of the participants thought that the prototype concept library would be a very helpful resource for conducting repeatable research, but they specified that many requirements are needed before its development. Although all the participants stated that they were aware of some existing concept libraries, most of them expressed negative perceptions about them. The participants mentioned several facilitators that would stimulate them to share their work and reuse the work of others, and they pointed out several barriers that could inhibit them from sharing their work and reusing the work of others. The participants suggested some developments that they would like to see to improve reproducible research output using routine data.

Conclusions

The study indicated that most interviewees valued a concept library for phenotypes. However, only half of the participants felt that they would contribute by providing definitions for the concept library, and they reported many barriers regarding sharing their work on a publicly accessible platform. Analysis of interviews and the focus group discussion revealed that different stakeholders have different requirements, facilitators, barriers, and concerns about a prototype concept library.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8965669 -34862222,https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386,'What is the risk to me from COVID-19?': Public involvement in providing mortality risk information for people with 'high-risk' conditions for COVID-19 (OurRisk.CoV).,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Manohar S, Lai AG, Hemingway E, Sofer I, Katsoulis M, Sood H, Morris A, Cake C, Fitzpatrick NK, Williams B, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, and members of the Health Data Research UK COVID-19 Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Panel.",,"Clinical medicine (London, England)",2021,2021-11-01,N,Mortality; Coronavirus; Patient And Public Involvement; Risk Information,,,"Patients and public have sought mortality risk information throughout the pandemic, but their needs may not be served by current risk prediction tools. Our mixed methods study involved: (1) systematic review of published risk tools for prognosis, (2) provision and patient testing of new mortality risk estimates for people with high-risk conditions and (3) iterative patient and public involvement and engagement with qualitative analysis. Only one of 53 (2%) previously published risk tools involved patients or the public, while 11/53 (21%) had publicly accessible portals, but all for use by clinicians and researchers.Among people with a wide range of underlying conditions, there has been sustained interest and engagement in accessible and tailored, pre- and postpandemic mortality information. Informed by patient feedback, we provide such information in 'five clicks' (https://covid19-phenomics.org/OurRiskCoV.html), as context for decision making and discussions with health professionals and family members. Further development requires curation and regular updating of NHS data and wider patient and public engagement.",,pdf:https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/21/6/e620.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386 +32635913,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z,Application of standardised effect sizes to hospital discharge outcomes for people with diabetes.,"Robbins T, Lim Choi Keung SN, Sankar S, Randeva H, Arvanitis TN.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2020,2020-07-07,Y,Mortality; Diabetes; Readmission; Effect Size,,,"

Background

Patients with diabetes are at an increased risk of readmission and mortality when discharged from hospital. Existing research identifies statistically significant risk factors that are thought to underpin these outcomes. Increasingly, these risk factors are being used to create risk prediction models, and target risk modifying interventions. These risk factors are typically reported in the literature accompanied by unstandardized effect sizes, which makes comparisons difficult. We demonstrate an assessment of variation between standardised effect sizes for such risk factors across care outcomes and patient cohorts. Such an approach will support development of more rigorous risk stratification tools and better targeting of intervention measures.

Methods

Data was extracted from the electronic health record of a major tertiary referral centre, over a 3-year period, for all patients discharged from hospital with a concurrent diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. Risk factors selected for extraction were pre-specified according to a systematic review of the research literature. Standardised effect sizes were calculated for all statistically significant risk factors, and compared across patient cohorts and both readmission & mortality outcome measures.

Results

Data was extracted for 46,357 distinct admissions patients, creating a large dataset of approximately 10,281,400 data points. The calculation of standardized effect size measures allowed direct comparison. Effect sizes were noted to be larger for mortality compared to readmission, as well as for being larger for surgical and type 1 diabetes cohorts of patients.

Conclusions

The calculation of standardised effect sizes is an important step in evaluating risk factors for healthcare events. This will improve our understanding of risk and support the development of more effective risk stratification tools to support patients to make better informed decisions at discharge from hospital.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7339522; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7339522?pdf=render 34598993,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410,"Changes in neonatal admissions, care processes and outcomes in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic: a whole population cohort study.","Greenbury SF, Longford N, Ougham K, Angelini ED, Battersby C, Uthaya S, Modi N.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-10-01,Y,Public Health; Neonatology; Neonatal Intensive & Critical Care,,,"

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic instigated multiple societal and healthcare interventions with potential to affect perinatal practice. We evaluated population-level changes in preterm and full-term admissions to neonatal units, care processes and outcomes.

Design

Observational cohort study using the UK National Neonatal Research Database.

Setting

England and Wales.

Participants

Admissions to National Health Service neonatal units from 2012 to 2020.

Main outcome measures

Admissions by gestational age, ethnicity and Index of Multiple Deprivation, and key care processes and outcomes.

Methods

We calculated differences in numbers and rates between April and June 2020 (spring), the first 3 months of national lockdown (COVID-19 period), and December 2019-February 2020 (winter), prior to introduction of mitigation measures, and compared them with the corresponding differences in the previous 7 years. We considered the COVID-19 period highly unusual if the spring-winter difference was smaller or larger than all previous corresponding differences, and calculated the level of confidence in this conclusion.

Results

Marked fluctuations occurred in all measures over the 8 years with several highly unusual changes during the COVID-19 period. Total admissions fell, having risen over all previous years (COVID-19 difference: -1492; previous 7-year difference range: +100, +1617; p<0.001); full-term black admissions rose (+66; -64, +35; p<0.001) whereas Asian (-137; -14, +101; p<0.001) and white (-319; -235, +643: p<0.001) admissions fell. Transfers to higher and lower designation neonatal units increased (+129; -4, +88; p<0.001) and decreased (-47; -25, +12; p<0.001), respectively. Total preterm admissions decreased (-350; -26, +479; p<0.001). The fall in extremely preterm admissions was most marked in the two lowest socioeconomic quintiles.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate substantial changes occurred in care pathways and clinical thresholds, with disproportionate effects on black ethnic groups, during the immediate COVID-19 period, and raise the intriguing possibility that non-healthcare interventions may reduce extremely preterm births.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e054410.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283?pdf=render +34862222,https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386,'What is the risk to me from COVID-19?': Public involvement in providing mortality risk information for people with 'high-risk' conditions for COVID-19 (OurRisk.CoV).,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Manohar S, Lai AG, Hemingway E, Sofer I, Katsoulis M, Sood H, Morris A, Cake C, Fitzpatrick NK, Williams B, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, and members of the Health Data Research UK COVID-19 Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Panel.",,"Clinical medicine (London, England)",2021,2021-11-01,N,Mortality; Coronavirus; Patient And Public Involvement; Risk Information,,,"Patients and public have sought mortality risk information throughout the pandemic, but their needs may not be served by current risk prediction tools. Our mixed methods study involved: (1) systematic review of published risk tools for prognosis, (2) provision and patient testing of new mortality risk estimates for people with high-risk conditions and (3) iterative patient and public involvement and engagement with qualitative analysis. Only one of 53 (2%) previously published risk tools involved patients or the public, while 11/53 (21%) had publicly accessible portals, but all for use by clinicians and researchers.Among people with a wide range of underlying conditions, there has been sustained interest and engagement in accessible and tailored, pre- and postpandemic mortality information. Informed by patient feedback, we provide such information in 'five clicks' (https://covid19-phenomics.org/OurRiskCoV.html), as context for decision making and discussions with health professionals and family members. Further development requires curation and regular updating of NHS data and wider patient and public engagement.",,pdf:https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/21/6/e620.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386 +35289755,https://doi.org/10.2196/31021,Concept Libraries for Repeatable and Reusable Research: Qualitative Study Exploring the Needs of Users.,"Almowil Z, Zhou SM, Brophy S, Croxall J.",,JMIR human factors,2022,2022-03-15,Y,Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Reproducible Research; Clinical Codes; Concept Libraries,,,"

Background

Big data research in the field of health sciences is hindered by a lack of agreement on how to identify and define different conditions and their medications. This means that researchers and health professionals often have different phenotype definitions for the same condition. This lack of agreement makes it difficult to compare different study findings and hinders the ability to conduct repeatable and reusable research.

Objective

This study aims to examine the requirements of various users, such as researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and managers, in the development of a data portal for phenotypes (a concept library).

Methods

This was a qualitative study using interviews and focus group discussion. One-to-one interviews were conducted with researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and senior research managers in health data science (N=6) to explore their specific needs in the development of a concept library. In addition, a focus group discussion with researchers (N=14) working with the Secured Anonymized Information Linkage databank, a national eHealth data linkage infrastructure, was held to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for the phenotyping system and the proposed concept library. The interviews and focus group discussion were transcribed verbatim, and 2 thematic analyses were performed.

Results

Most of the participants thought that the prototype concept library would be a very helpful resource for conducting repeatable research, but they specified that many requirements are needed before its development. Although all the participants stated that they were aware of some existing concept libraries, most of them expressed negative perceptions about them. The participants mentioned several facilitators that would stimulate them to share their work and reuse the work of others, and they pointed out several barriers that could inhibit them from sharing their work and reusing the work of others. The participants suggested some developments that they would like to see to improve reproducible research output using routine data.

Conclusions

The study indicated that most interviewees valued a concept library for phenotypes. However, only half of the participants felt that they would contribute by providing definitions for the concept library, and they reported many barriers regarding sharing their work on a publicly accessible platform. Analysis of interviews and the focus group discussion revealed that different stakeholders have different requirements, facilitators, barriers, and concerns about a prototype concept library.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8965669 35607618,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2022.100471,"Relevance, redundancy, and complementarity trade-off (RRCT): A principled, generic, robust feature-selection tool.",Tsanas A.,,"Patterns (New York, N.Y.)",2022,2022-03-31,Y,Information theory; Variable selection; Feature Selection; Statistical Learning; Dimensionality Reduction; Curse Of Dimensionality; Principle Of Parsimony,,,"We present a new heuristic feature-selection (FS) algorithm that integrates in a principled algorithmic framework the three key FS components: relevance, redundancy, and complementarity. Thus, we call it relevance, redundancy, and complementarity trade-off (RRCT). The association strength between each feature and the response and between feature pairs is quantified via an information theoretic transformation of rank correlation coefficients, and the feature complementarity is quantified using partial correlation coefficients. We empirically benchmark the performance of RRCT against 19 FS algorithms across four synthetic and eight real-world datasets in indicative challenging settings evaluating the following: (1) matching the true feature set and (2) out-of-sample performance in binary and multi-class classification problems when presenting selected features into a random forest. RRCT is very competitive in both tasks, and we tentatively make suggestions on the generalizability and application of the best-performing FS algorithms across settings where they may operate effectively.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S2666389922000514/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2022.100471; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9122960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9122960?pdf=render -37068964,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0301,OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 2: changes in primary care clinical activity in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Wiedemann M, Fisher L, Croker R, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Hickman G, Evans D, Ward T, Davy S, Hulme WJ, Macdonald O, Conibere R, Lewis T, Myers M, Wanninayake S, Collison K, Drury C, Samuel M, Sood H, Cipriani A, Fazel S, Sharma M, Baqir W, Bates C, Parry J, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2023,2023-04-27,Y,Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity across a broad range of clinical services. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.

Aim

To describe changes in the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice across six clinical areas: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, female and reproductive health, screening and related procedures, and processes related to medication.

Design and setting

With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 23.8 million patient records in general practice, in situ using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Common primary care activities were analysed using Clinical Terms Version 3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 to December 2020, presenting median and deciles of code usage across practices per month.

Results

Substantial and widespread changes in clinical activity in primary care were identified since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with generally good recovery by December 2020. A few exceptions showed poor recovery and warrant further investigation, such as mental health (for example, for 'Depression interim review' the median occurrences across practices in December 2020 was down by 41.6% compared with December 2019).

Conclusion

Granular NHS general practice data at population-scale can be used to monitor disruptions to healthcare services and guide the development of mitigation strategies. The authors are now developing real-time monitoring dashboards for the key measures identified in this study, as well as further studies using primary care data to monitor and mitigate the indirect health impacts of COVID-19 on the NHS.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/01/31/BJGP.2022.0301.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234?pdf=render 36649943,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001704,Benefits of electronic charts in intensive care and during a world health pandemic: advantages of the technology age.,"Pankhurst T, Lucas L, Ryan S, Ragdale C, Gyves H, Denner L, Young I, Rathbone L, Shah A, McKee D, Coleman JJ, Evison F, Atia J, Rosser D, Garrick M, Baker R, Gallier S, Ball S.",,BMJ open quality,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Evaluation Methodology; Critical Care; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Aims and objectives

This study sets out to describe benefits from the implementation of electronic observation charting in intensive care units (ICU). This was an extension to the existing hospital wide digital health system. We evaluated error reduction, time-savings and the costs associated with conversion from paper to digital records. The world health emergency of COVID-19 placed extraordinary strain on ICU and staff opinion was evaluated to test how well the electronic system performed.

Methods

A clinically led project group working directly with programmers developed an electronic patient record for intensive care. Data error rates, time to add data and to make calculations were studied before and after the introduction of electronic charts. User feedback was sought pre and post go-live (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and financial implications were calculated by the hospital finance teams.

Results

Error rates equating to 219 000/year were avoided by conversion to electronic charts. Time saved was the equivalent of a nursing shift each day. Recurrent cost savings per year were estimated to be £257k. Staff were overwhelmingly positive about electronic charts in ICU, even during a health pandemic and despite redeployment into intensive care where they were using the electronic charts for the first time.

Discussion

Electronic ICU charts have been successfully introduced into our institution with benefits in terms of patient safety through error reduction and improved care through release of nursing time. Costs have been reduced. Staff feel supported by the digital system and report it to be helpful even during redeployment and in the unfamiliar environment of intensive care.",,pdf:https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/bmjqir/12/1/e001704.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9853220; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9853220?pdf=render -33079204,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079,Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac procedure activity in England and associated 30-day mortality.,"Mohamed MO, Banerjee A, Clarke S, de Belder M, Patwala A, Goodwin AT, Kwok CS, Rashid M, Gale CP, Curzen N, Mamas MA.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Mortality; Cardiac; England; Procedures; Covid-19,,,"

Aims

Limited data exist on the impact of COVID-19 on national changes in cardiac procedure activity, including patient characteristics and clinical outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods and results

All major cardiac procedures (n = 374 899) performed between 1 January and 31 May for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 were analysed, stratified by procedure type and time-period (pre-COVID: January-May 2018 and 2019 and January-February 2020 and COVID: March-May 2020). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality for procedures performed in the COVID period. Overall, there was a deficit of 45 501 procedures during the COVID period compared to the monthly averages (March-May) in 2018-2019. Cardiac catheterization and device implantations were the most affected in terms of numbers (n = 19 637 and n = 10 453), whereas surgical procedures such as mitral valve replacement, other valve replacement/repair, atrioseptal defect/ventriculoseptal defect repair, and coronary artery bypass grafting were the most affected as a relative percentage difference (Δ) to previous years' averages. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement was the least affected (Δ -10.6%). No difference in 30-day mortality was observed between pre-COVID and COVID time-periods for all cardiac procedures except cardiac catheterization [OR 1.25 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.47, P = 0.006] and cardiac device implantation (OR 1.35 95% CI 1.15-1.58, P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Cardiac procedural activity has significantly declined across England during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a deficit in excess of 45 000 procedures, without an increase in risk of mortality for most cardiac procedures performed during the pandemic. Major restructuring of cardiac services is necessary to deal with this deficit, which would inevitably impact long-term morbidity and mortality.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/article-pdf/7/3/247/37776880/qcaa079.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465?pdf=render +37068964,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0301,OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 2: changes in primary care clinical activity in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Wiedemann M, Fisher L, Croker R, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Hickman G, Evans D, Ward T, Davy S, Hulme WJ, Macdonald O, Conibere R, Lewis T, Myers M, Wanninayake S, Collison K, Drury C, Samuel M, Sood H, Cipriani A, Fazel S, Sharma M, Baqir W, Bates C, Parry J, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2023,2023-04-27,Y,Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity across a broad range of clinical services. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.

Aim

To describe changes in the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice across six clinical areas: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, female and reproductive health, screening and related procedures, and processes related to medication.

Design and setting

With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 23.8 million patient records in general practice, in situ using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Common primary care activities were analysed using Clinical Terms Version 3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 to December 2020, presenting median and deciles of code usage across practices per month.

Results

Substantial and widespread changes in clinical activity in primary care were identified since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with generally good recovery by December 2020. A few exceptions showed poor recovery and warrant further investigation, such as mental health (for example, for 'Depression interim review' the median occurrences across practices in December 2020 was down by 41.6% compared with December 2019).

Conclusion

Granular NHS general practice data at population-scale can be used to monitor disruptions to healthcare services and guide the development of mitigation strategies. The authors are now developing real-time monitoring dashboards for the key measures identified in this study, as well as further studies using primary care data to monitor and mitigate the indirect health impacts of COVID-19 on the NHS.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/01/31/BJGP.2022.0301.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234?pdf=render 34238721,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00105-9,Temporal trends and forecasting of COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in Scotland using a national real-time patient-level data platform: a statistical modelling study.,"Simpson CR, Robertson C, Vasileiou E, Moore E, McCowan C, Agrawal U, Stagg HR, Docherty A, Mulholland R, Murray JLK, Ritchie LD, McMenamin J, Sheikh A.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2021,2021-07-05,Y,,,,"

Background

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, national-level surveillance platforms with real-time individual person-level data are required to monitor and predict the epidemiological and clinical profile of COVID-19 and inform public health policy. We aimed to create a national dataset of patient-level data in Scotland to identify temporal trends and COVID-19 risk factors, and to develop a novel statistical prediction model to forecast COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalisations during the second wave.

Methods

We established a surveillance platform to monitor COVID-19 temporal trends using person-level primary care data (including age, sex, socioeconomic status, urban or rural residence, care home residence, and clinical risk factors) linked to data on SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests, hospitalisations, and deaths for all individuals resident in Scotland who were registered with a general practice on Feb 23, 2020. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the association between clinical risk groups and time to hospitalisation and death. A survival prediction model derived from data from March 1 to June 23, 2020, was created to forecast hospital admissions and deaths from October to December, 2020. We fitted a generalised additive spline model to daily SARS-CoV-2 cases over the previous 10 weeks and used this to create a 28-day forecast of the number of daily cases. The age and risk group pattern of cases in the previous 3 weeks was then used to select a stratified sample of individuals from our cohort who had not previously tested positive, with future cases in each group sampled from a multinomial distribution. We then used their patient characteristics (including age, sex, comorbidities, and socioeconomic status) to predict their probability of hospitalisation or death.

Findings

Our cohort included 5 384 819 people, representing 98·6% of the entire estimated population residing in Scotland during 2020. Hospitalisation and death among those testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 between March 1 and June 23, 2020, were associated with several patient characteristics, including male sex (hospitalisation hazard ratio [HR] 1·47, 95% CI 1·38-1·57; death HR 1·62, 1·49-1·76) and various comorbidities, with the highest hospitalisation HR found for transplantation (4·53, 1·87-10·98) and the highest death HR for myoneural disease (2·33, 1·46-3·71). For those testing positive, there were decreasing temporal trends in hospitalisation and death rates. The proportion of positive tests among older age groups (>40 years) and those with at-risk comorbidities increased during October, 2020. On Nov 10, 2020, the projected number of hospitalisations for Dec 8, 2020 (28 days later) was 90 per day (95% prediction interval 55-125) and the projected number of deaths was 21 per day (12-29).

Interpretation

The estimated incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection based on positive tests recorded in this unique data resource has provided forecasts of hospitalisation and death rates for the whole of Scotland. These findings were used by the Scottish Government to inform their response to reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality.

Funding

Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme, UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK, Scottish Government Director General Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00105-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00105-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257056 +33079204,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079,Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac procedure activity in England and associated 30-day mortality.,"Mohamed MO, Banerjee A, Clarke S, de Belder M, Patwala A, Goodwin AT, Kwok CS, Rashid M, Gale CP, Curzen N, Mamas MA.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Mortality; Cardiac; England; Procedures; Covid-19,,,"

Aims

Limited data exist on the impact of COVID-19 on national changes in cardiac procedure activity, including patient characteristics and clinical outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods and results

All major cardiac procedures (n = 374 899) performed between 1 January and 31 May for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 were analysed, stratified by procedure type and time-period (pre-COVID: January-May 2018 and 2019 and January-February 2020 and COVID: March-May 2020). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality for procedures performed in the COVID period. Overall, there was a deficit of 45 501 procedures during the COVID period compared to the monthly averages (March-May) in 2018-2019. Cardiac catheterization and device implantations were the most affected in terms of numbers (n = 19 637 and n = 10 453), whereas surgical procedures such as mitral valve replacement, other valve replacement/repair, atrioseptal defect/ventriculoseptal defect repair, and coronary artery bypass grafting were the most affected as a relative percentage difference (Δ) to previous years' averages. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement was the least affected (Δ -10.6%). No difference in 30-day mortality was observed between pre-COVID and COVID time-periods for all cardiac procedures except cardiac catheterization [OR 1.25 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.47, P = 0.006] and cardiac device implantation (OR 1.35 95% CI 1.15-1.58, P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Cardiac procedural activity has significantly declined across England during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a deficit in excess of 45 000 procedures, without an increase in risk of mortality for most cardiac procedures performed during the pandemic. Major restructuring of cardiac services is necessary to deal with this deficit, which would inevitably impact long-term morbidity and mortality.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/article-pdf/7/3/247/37776880/qcaa079.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465?pdf=render 31878916,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7919-2,Sustained adherence to a Mediterranean diet and physical activity on all-cause mortality in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study: application of the g-formula.,"Williamson EJ, Polak J, Simpson JA, Giles GG, English DR, Hodge A, Gurrin L, Forbes AB.",,BMC public health,2019,2019-12-26,Y,G-computation; Time-varying Confounding; Parametric G-formula; G-methods,"Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease",,"BACKGROUND:Adherence to a traditional Mediterranean diet has been associated with lower mortality and cardiovascular disease risk. The relative importance of diet compared to other lifestyle factors and effects of dietary patterns over time remains unknown. METHODS:We used the parametric G-formula to account for time-dependent confounding, in order to assess the relative importance of diet compared to other lifestyle factors and effects of dietary patterns over time. We included healthy Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study participants attending a visit during 1995-1999. Questionnaires assessed diet and physical activity at each of three study waves. Deaths were identified by linkage to national registries. We estimated mortality risk over approximately 14 years (1995-2011). RESULTS:Of 22,213 participants, 2163 (9.7%) died during 13.6 years median follow-up. Sustained high physical activity and adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet resulted in an estimated reduction in all-cause mortality of 1.82 per 100 people (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.03, 3.6). The population attributable fraction was 13% (95% CI: 4, 23%) for sustained high physical activity, 7% (95% CI: - 3, 17%) for sustained adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet and 18% (95% CI: 0, 36%) for their combination. CONCLUSIONS:A small reduction in mortality may be achieved by sustained elevated physical activity levels in healthy middle-aged adults, but there may be comparatively little gain from increasing adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet.",This study aimed to calculate the proportion of deaths that could be prevented over a 14 year period through making long-term changes in lifestyle (diet and physical activity). Over 22K people were included in the study and filled out questionnaires about their lifestyle at three different time points. The authors used statistical methods that take into account how lifestyle measurements change over time and estimated the relative impact that different lifestyle factors have on death. The study suggests that being more physically active in middle age is more likely to reduce mortality than maintaining a Mediterranean-style diet.,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-019-7919-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7919-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6933918; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6933918?pdf=render 36193673,https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.2324,Cardiac surgery receipt and outcomes for people using secondary mental healthcare services: Retrospective cohort study using a large mental healthcare database in South London.,"Brooks G, Weerakkody R, Harris M, Harris M, Stewart R, Perera G.",,European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists,2022,2022-10-04,Y,Cardiac surgery; Length Of Stay; Emergency Admissions; Mental Healthcare Services,,,"

Background

Patients diagnosed with mental health problems are more predisposed to cardiovascular disease, including cardiac surgery. Nevertheless, health outcomes after cardiac surgery for patients with mental health problems as a discrete group are unknown. This study examined the association between secondary care mental health service use and postoperative health outcomes following cardiac surgery.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective observational research, utilizing data from a large South London mental healthcare supplier linked to national hospitalization data. OPCS-4 codes were applied to classify cardiac surgery. Health results were compared between those individuals with a mental health disorder diagnosis from secondary care and other local residents, including the length of hospital stay (LOS), inpatient mortality, and 30-day emergency hospital readmission.

Results

Twelve thousand three hundred and eighty-four patients received cardiac surgery, including 1,481 with a mental disorder diagnosis. Patients with mental health diagnosis were at greater risk of emergency admissions for cardiac surgery (odds ratio [OR] 1.60; 1.43, 1.79), longer index LOS (incidence rate ratio 1.28; 1.26, 1.30), and at higher risk of 30-day emergency readmission (OR 1.53; 1.31, 1.78). Those who underwent pacemaker insertion and major open surgery had worse postoperative outcomes during index surgery hospital admission while those who had major endovascular surgery had worse health outcomes subsequent 30-day emergency hospital readmission.

Conclusion

People with a mental health disorder diagnosis undertaking cardiac surgery have significantly worse health outcomes. Personalized guidelines and policies to manage preoperative risk factors require consideration and evaluation.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/63FA124CF816896E02CAEE14215D590E/S0924933822023240a.pdf/div-class-title-cardiac-surgery-receipt-and-outcomes-for-people-using-secondary-mental-health-care-services-retrospective-cohort-study-using-a-large-mental-healthcare-database-in-south-london-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.2324; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9677442; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9677442?pdf=render 32989456,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa144,Emulating a target trial in case-control designs: an application to statins and colorectal cancer.,"Dickerman BA, García-Albéniz X, Logan RW, Denaxas S, Hernán MA.",,International journal of epidemiology,2020,2020-10-01,N,Causal Inference; Electronic Health Records; Case-control; Comparative Effectiveness; Target Trial,,,"

Background

Previous case-control studies have reported a strong association between statin use and lower cancer risk. It is unclear whether this association reflects a benefit of statins or is the result of design decisions that cannot be mapped to a (hypothetical) target trial (that would answer the question of interest).

Methods

We outlined the protocol of a target trial to estimate the effect of statins on colorectal cancer incidence among adults with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol below 5 mmol/L. We then emulated the target trial using linked electronic health records of 752 469 eligible UK adults (CALIBER 1999-2016) under both a cohort design and a case-control sampling of the cohort. We used pooled logistic regression to estimate intention-to-treat and per-protocol effects of statins on colorectal cancer, with adjustment for baseline and time-varying risk factors via inverse-probability weighting. Finally, we compared our case-control effect estimates with those obtained using previous case-control procedures.

Results

Over the 6-year follow-up, 3596 individuals developed colorectal cancer. Estimated intention-to-treat and per-protocol hazard ratios were 1.00 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 1.16) and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.71, 1.12), respectively. As expected, adequate case-control sampling yielded the same estimates. By contrast, previous case-control analytical approaches yielded estimates that appeared strongly protective (odds ratio 0.57, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.91, for ≥5 vs. <5 years of statin use).

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates how to explicitly emulate a target trial using case-control data to reduce discrepancies between observational and randomized trial evidence. This approach may inform future case-control analyses for comparative effectiveness research.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/49/5/1637/34947124/dyaa144.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa144; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746409?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa144 -33948220,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661,Association between glycosylated haemoglobin and outcomes for patients discharged from hospital with diabetes: A health informatics approach.,"Robbins T, Sankaranarayanan S, Randeva H, Keung SNLC, Arvanitis TN.",,Digital health,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Biochemistry; Diabetes; Hospital Discharge; Readmission; Health Informatics,,,"

Aims/objectives

Extensive research considers associations between inpatient glycaemic control and outcomes during hospital admission; this cautions against overly tight glycaemic targets. Little research considers glycaemic control following hospital discharge. This is despite a clear understanding that people with diabetes are at increased risk of negative outcomes, following discharge. We evaluate absolute and relative Hba1c values, and frequency of Hba1c monitoring, on readmission and mortality rates for people discharged from hospital with diabetes.

Methods

All discharges (n = 46,357) with diabetes from a major tertiary referral centre over 3 years were extracted, including biochemistry data. We conducted an evaluation of association between Hba1c, mortality and readmission, statistical significance and standardised Cohen's D effect size calculations.

Results

399 patients had a Hba1c performed during their admission. 3,138 patients had a Hba1c within 1 year of discharge. Mean average Hba1c for readmissions was 57.82 vs 60.39 for not readmitted (p = 0.009, Cohen's D 0.28). Mean average number of days to Hba1c testing in readmitted was 97 vs 113 for those not readmitted (p = 0.00006, Cohen's D 0.39). Further evaluation of mortality outcomes, cohorts of T1DM and T2DM and association of relative change in Hba1c was performed.

Conclusions

Lower Hba1c values following discharge from hospital are significantly associated with increased risk of readmission, as is a shorter duration until testing. Similar patterns observed for mortality. Findings particularly prominent for T1DM. Further research needed to consider underlying causation and design of appropriate risk stratification models.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076211007661; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217?pdf=render 35079067,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05414-5,Asthma in paediatric intensive care in England residents: observational study.,"Mukherjee M, Cunningham S, Bhuia MR, Lo TM, Been JV, Sheikh A.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-01-25,Y,,,,"Despite high prevalence of asthma in children in the UK, there were no prior report on asthma admissions in paediatric intensive care units (PICU). We investigated the epidemiology and healthcare resource utilisation in children with asthma presenting to PICUs in England. PICANet, a UK national PICU database, was queried for asthma as the primary reason for admission, of children resident in England from April 2006 until March 2013. There were 2195 admissions to PICU for a median stay of 1.4 days. 59% were males and 51% aged 0-4 years. The fourth and fifth most deprived quintiles represented 61% (1329) admissions and 73% (11) of the 15 deaths. Deaths were most frequent in 10-14 years age (n = 11, 73%), with no deaths in less than 5 years age. 38% of admissions (828/2193) received invasive ventilation, which was more frequent with increasing deprivation (13% (108/828) in least deprived to 31% (260/828) in most deprived) and with decreasing age (0-4-year-olds: 49%, 409/828). This first multi-centre PICU study in England found that children from more deprived neighbourhoods represented the majority of asthma admissions, invasive ventilation and deaths in PICU. Children experiencing socioeconomic deprivation could benefit from enhanced asthma support in the community.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-05414-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05414-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789863?pdf=render +33948220,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661,Association between glycosylated haemoglobin and outcomes for patients discharged from hospital with diabetes: A health informatics approach.,"Robbins T, Sankaranarayanan S, Randeva H, Keung SNLC, Arvanitis TN.",,Digital health,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Biochemistry; Diabetes; Hospital Discharge; Readmission; Health Informatics,,,"

Aims/objectives

Extensive research considers associations between inpatient glycaemic control and outcomes during hospital admission; this cautions against overly tight glycaemic targets. Little research considers glycaemic control following hospital discharge. This is despite a clear understanding that people with diabetes are at increased risk of negative outcomes, following discharge. We evaluate absolute and relative Hba1c values, and frequency of Hba1c monitoring, on readmission and mortality rates for people discharged from hospital with diabetes.

Methods

All discharges (n = 46,357) with diabetes from a major tertiary referral centre over 3 years were extracted, including biochemistry data. We conducted an evaluation of association between Hba1c, mortality and readmission, statistical significance and standardised Cohen's D effect size calculations.

Results

399 patients had a Hba1c performed during their admission. 3,138 patients had a Hba1c within 1 year of discharge. Mean average Hba1c for readmissions was 57.82 vs 60.39 for not readmitted (p = 0.009, Cohen's D 0.28). Mean average number of days to Hba1c testing in readmitted was 97 vs 113 for those not readmitted (p = 0.00006, Cohen's D 0.39). Further evaluation of mortality outcomes, cohorts of T1DM and T2DM and association of relative change in Hba1c was performed.

Conclusions

Lower Hba1c values following discharge from hospital are significantly associated with increased risk of readmission, as is a shorter duration until testing. Similar patterns observed for mortality. Findings particularly prominent for T1DM. Further research needed to consider underlying causation and design of appropriate risk stratification models.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076211007661; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217?pdf=render 34432797,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255748,Regional performance variation in external validation of four prediction models for severity of COVID-19 at hospital admission: An observational multi-centre cohort study.,"Wickstrøm KE, Vitelli V, Carr E, Holten AR, Bendayan R, Reiner AH, Bean D, Searle T, Shek A, Kraljevic Z, Teo J, Dobson R, Tonby K, Köhn-Luque A, Amundsen EK.",,PloS one,2021,2021-08-25,Y,,,,"

Background

Prediction models should be externally validated to assess their performance before implementation. Several prediction models for coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) have been published. This observational cohort study aimed to validate published models of severity for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 using clinical and laboratory predictors.

Methods

Prediction models fitting relevant inclusion criteria were chosen for validation. The outcome was either mortality or a composite outcome of mortality and ICU admission (severe disease). 1295 patients admitted with symptoms of COVID-19 at Kings Cross Hospital (KCH) in London, United Kingdom, and 307 patients at Oslo University Hospital (OUH) in Oslo, Norway were included. The performance of the models was assessed in terms of discrimination and calibration.

Results

We identified two models for prediction of mortality (referred to as Xie and Zhang1) and two models for prediction of severe disease (Allenbach and Zhang2). The performance of the models was variable. For prediction of mortality Xie had good discrimination at OUH with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) 0.87 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79-0.95] and acceptable discrimination at KCH, AUROC 0.79 [0.76-0.82]. In prediction of severe disease, Allenbach had acceptable discrimination (OUH AUROC 0.81 [0.74-0.88] and KCH AUROC 0.72 [0.68-0.75]). The Zhang models had moderate to poor discrimination. Initial calibration was poor for all models but improved with recalibration.

Conclusions

The performance of the four prediction models was variable. The Xie model had the best discrimination for mortality, while the Allenbach model had acceptable results for prediction of severe disease.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0255748&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255748; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8386866; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8386866?pdf=render 34746717,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101100,Paediatric major incident triage: UK military tool offers best performance in predicting the need for time-critical major surgical and resuscitative intervention.,"Malik NS, Chernbumroong S, Xu Y, Vassallo J, Lee J, Moran CG, Newton T, Arul GS, Lord JM, Belli A, Keene D, Foster M, Hodgetts T, Bowley DM, Gkoutos GV.",,EClinicalMedicine,2021,2021-08-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Children are frequently injured during major incidents (MI), including terrorist attacks, conflict and natural disasters. Triage facilitates healthcare resource allocation in order to maximise overall survival. A critical function of MI triage tools is to identify patients needing time-critical major resuscitative and surgical intervention (Priority 1 (P1) status). This study compares the performance of 11 MI triage tools in predicting P1 status in children from the UK Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) registry.

Methods

Patients aged <16 years within TARN (January 2008-December 2017) were included. 11 triage tools were applied to patients' first recorded pre-hospital physiology. Patients were retrospectively assigned triage categories (P1, P2, P3, Expectant or Dead) using predefined intervention-based criteria. Tools' performance in <16s were evaluated within four-yearly age subgroups, comparing tool-predicted and intervention-based priority status.

Findings

Amongst 4962 patients, mortality was 1.1% (n = 53); median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 9 (IQR 9-16). Blunt injuries predominated (94.4%). 1343 (27.1%) met intervention-based criteria for P1, exhibiting greater intensive care requirement (60.2% vs. 8.5%, p < 0.01) and ISS (median 17 vs 9, p < 0.01) compared with P2 patients. The Battlefield Casualty Drills (BCD) Triage Sieve had greatest sensitivity (75.7%) in predicting P1 status in children <16 years, demonstrating a 38.4-49.8% improvement across all subgroups of children <12 years compared with the UK's current Paediatric Triage Tape (PTT). JumpSTART demonstrated low sensitivity in predicting P1 status in 4 to 8 year olds (35.5%) and 0 to 4 year olds (28.5%), and was outperformed by its adult counterpart START (60.6% and 59.6%).

Interpretation

The BCD Triage Sieve had greatest sensitivity in predicting P1 status in this paediatric trauma registry population: we recommend it replaces the PTT in UK practice. Users of JumpSTART may consider alternative tools. We recommend Lerner's triage category definitions when conducting MI evaluations.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537021003801/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101100; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8548919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8548919?pdf=render +32341912,https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042x19893470,Urban-rural and socioeconomic status: Impact on multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized patients.,"Robertson L, Ayansina D, Johnston M, Marks A, Black C.",,Journal of comorbidity,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Prevalence; Socioeconomic status; Hospitalization; Electronic Health Records; Multimorbidity; Urban–rural,,,"

Objective

The aim of this study was to describe multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized adults, by urban-rural area of residence and socioeconomic status (SES).

Methods

Linked hospital episode data were used. Adults (≥18 years) admitted to hospital as an inpatient during 2014 in Grampian, Scotland, were included. Conditions were identified from admissions during the 5 years prior to the first admission in 2014. Multimorbidity was defined as ≥2 conditions and measured using Tonelli et al. based on International Classification of Diseases-10 coding (preselected list of 30 conditions). We used proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to summarize the prevalence of multimorbidity by age group, sex, urban-rural category and deprivation. The association between multimorbidity and patient characteristics was assessed using the χ 2 test.

Results

Forty one thousand five hundred and forty-five patients were included (median age 62, 52.6% female). Overall, 27.4% (95% CI 27.0, 27.8) of patients were multimorbid. Multimorbidity prevalence was 28.8% (95% CI 28.1, 29.5) in large urban versus 22.0% (95% CI 20.9, 23.3) in remote rural areas and 28.7% (95% CI 27.2, 30.3) in the most deprived versus 26.0% (95% CI 25.2, 26.9) in the least deprived areas. This effect was consistent in all age groups, but not statistically significant in the age group 18-29 years. Multimorbidity increased with age but was similar for males and females.

Conclusion

Given the scarcity of research into the effect of urban-rural area and SES on multimorbidity prevalence among hospitalized patients, these findings should inform future research into new models of care, including the consideration of urban-rural area and SES.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2235042X19893470; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042X19893470; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988?pdf=render 36536453,https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00137-7,Protocol for development and validation of postpartum cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction model incorporating reproductive and pregnancy-related candidate predictors.,"Wambua S, Crowe F, Thangaratinam S, O'Reilly D, McCowan C, Brophy S, Yau C, Nirantharakumar K, Riley R, MuM-PreDiCT Group.",,Diagnostic and prognostic research,2022,2022-12-19,Y,Prognosis; Cardiovascular disease; Pregnant women; Pregnancy complications; Prediction Modeling,,,"

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death among women. CVD is associated with reduced quality of life, significant treatment and management costs, and lost productivity. Estimating the risk of CVD would help patients at a higher risk of CVD to initiate preventive measures to reduce risk of disease. The Framingham risk score and the QRISK® score are two risk prediction models used to evaluate future CVD risk in the UK. Although the algorithms perform well in the general population, they do not take into account pregnancy complications, which are well known risk factors for CVD in women and have been highlighted in a recent umbrella review. We plan to develop a robust CVD risk prediction model to assess the additional value of pregnancy risk factors in risk prediction of CVD in women postpartum.

Methods

Using candidate predictors from QRISK®-3, the umbrella review identified from literature and from discussions with clinical experts and patient research partners, we will use time-to-event Cox proportional hazards models to develop and validate a 10-year risk prediction model for CVD postpartum using Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) primary care database for development and internal validation of the algorithm and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank for external validation. We will then assess the value of additional candidate predictors to the QRISK®-3 in our internal and external validations.

Discussion

The developed risk prediction model will incorporate pregnancy-related factors which have been shown to be associated with future risk of CVD but have not been taken into account in current risk prediction models. Our study will therefore highlight the importance of incorporating pregnancy-related risk factors into risk prediction modeling for CVD postpartum.",,pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00137-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00137-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761974; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761974?pdf=render 34474011,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01638-x,Redefining β-blocker response in heart failure patients with sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation: a machine learning cluster analysis.,"Karwath A, Bunting KV, Gill SK, Tica O, Pendleton S, Aziz F, Barsky AD, Chernbumroong S, Duan J, Mobley AR, Cardoso VR, Slater L, Williams JA, Bruce EJ, Wang X, Flather MD, Coats AJS, Gkoutos GV, Kotecha D, card AIc group and the Beta-blockers in Heart Failure Collaborative Group.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-08-30,Y,,,,"

Background

Mortality remains unacceptably high in patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) despite advances in therapeutics. We hypothesised that a novel artificial intelligence approach could better assess multiple and higher-dimension interactions of comorbidities, and define clusters of β-blocker efficacy in patients with sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation.

Methods

Neural network-based variational autoencoders and hierarchical clustering were applied to pooled individual patient data from nine double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trials of β blockers. All-cause mortality during median 1·3 years of follow-up was assessed by intention to treat, stratified by electrocardiographic heart rhythm. The number of clusters and dimensions was determined objectively, with results validated using a leave-one-trial-out approach. This study was prospectively registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00832442) and the PROSPERO database of systematic reviews (CRD42014010012).

Findings

15 659 patients with heart failure and LVEF of less than 50% were included, with median age 65 years (IQR 56-72) and LVEF 27% (IQR 21-33). 3708 (24%) patients were women. In sinus rhythm (n=12 822), most clusters demonstrated a consistent overall mortality benefit from β blockers, with odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 0·54 to 0·74. One cluster in sinus rhythm of older patients with less severe symptoms showed no significant efficacy (OR 0·86, 95% CI 0·67-1·10; p=0·22). In atrial fibrillation (n=2837), four of five clusters were consistent with the overall neutral effect of β blockers versus placebo (OR 0·92, 0·77-1·10; p=0·37). One cluster of younger atrial fibrillation patients at lower mortality risk but similar LVEF to average had a statistically significant reduction in mortality with β blockers (OR 0·57, 0·35-0·93; p=0·023). The robustness and consistency of clustering was confirmed for all models (p<0·0001 vs random), and cluster membership was externally validated across the nine independent trials.

Interpretation

An artificial intelligence-based clustering approach was able to distinguish prognostic response from β blockers in patients with heart failure and reduced LVEF. This included patients in sinus rhythm with suboptimal efficacy, as well as a cluster of patients with atrial fibrillation where β blockers did reduce mortality.

Funding

Medical Research Council, UK, and EU/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative BigData@Heart.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01638-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01638-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8542730 -32341912,https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042x19893470,Urban-rural and socioeconomic status: Impact on multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized patients.,"Robertson L, Ayansina D, Johnston M, Marks A, Black C.",,Journal of comorbidity,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Prevalence; Socioeconomic status; Hospitalization; Electronic Health Records; Multimorbidity; Urban–rural,,,"

Objective

The aim of this study was to describe multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized adults, by urban-rural area of residence and socioeconomic status (SES).

Methods

Linked hospital episode data were used. Adults (≥18 years) admitted to hospital as an inpatient during 2014 in Grampian, Scotland, were included. Conditions were identified from admissions during the 5 years prior to the first admission in 2014. Multimorbidity was defined as ≥2 conditions and measured using Tonelli et al. based on International Classification of Diseases-10 coding (preselected list of 30 conditions). We used proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to summarize the prevalence of multimorbidity by age group, sex, urban-rural category and deprivation. The association between multimorbidity and patient characteristics was assessed using the χ 2 test.

Results

Forty one thousand five hundred and forty-five patients were included (median age 62, 52.6% female). Overall, 27.4% (95% CI 27.0, 27.8) of patients were multimorbid. Multimorbidity prevalence was 28.8% (95% CI 28.1, 29.5) in large urban versus 22.0% (95% CI 20.9, 23.3) in remote rural areas and 28.7% (95% CI 27.2, 30.3) in the most deprived versus 26.0% (95% CI 25.2, 26.9) in the least deprived areas. This effect was consistent in all age groups, but not statistically significant in the age group 18-29 years. Multimorbidity increased with age but was similar for males and females.

Conclusion

Given the scarcity of research into the effect of urban-rural area and SES on multimorbidity prevalence among hospitalized patients, these findings should inform future research into new models of care, including the consideration of urban-rural area and SES.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2235042X19893470; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042X19893470; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988?pdf=render 36145196,https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14183821,Vitamin D Supplementation Does Not Influence SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Efficacy or Immunogenicity: Sub-Studies Nested within the CORONAVIT Randomised Controlled Trial.,"Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Chambers ES, Cai W, Li W, Faustini SE, Gibbons JM, Pade C, Coussens AK, Richter AG, McKnight Á, Martineau AR.",,Nutrients,2022,2022-09-16,Y,Interferon gamma; Vitamin D; Antibody; Randomised Controlled Trial; Breakthrough Sars-cov-2 Infection; Chadox1 Ncov-19 Oxford–astrazeneca; Bnt162b2 Pfizer,,,"Vitamin D deficiency has been reported to associate with the impaired development of antigen-specific responses following vaccination. We aimed to determine whether vitamin D supplements might boost the immunogenicity and efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination by conducting three sub-studies nested within the CORONAVIT randomised controlled trial, which investigated the effects of offering vitamin D supplements at a dose of 800 IU/day or 3200 IU/day vs. no offer on risk of acute respiratory infections in UK adults with circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations <75 nmol/L. Sub-study 1 (n = 2808) investigated the effects of vitamin D supplementation on the risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection following two doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Sub-study 2 (n = 1853) investigated the effects of vitamin D supplementation on titres of combined IgG, IgA and IgM (IgGAM) anti-Spike antibodies in eluates of dried blood spots collected after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Sub-study 3 (n = 100) investigated the effects of vitamin D supplementation on neutralising antibody and cellular responses in venous blood samples collected after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. In total, 1945/2808 (69.3%) sub-study 1 participants received two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford−AstraZeneca); the remainder received two doses of BNT162b2 (Pfizer). Mean follow-up 25(OH)D concentrations were significantly elevated in the 800 IU/day vs. no-offer group (82.5 vs. 53.6 nmol/L; mean difference 28.8 nmol/L, 95% CI 22.8−34.8) and in the 3200 IU/day vs. no offer group (105.4 vs. 53.6 nmol/L; mean difference 51.7 nmol/L, 45.1−58.4). Vitamin D supplementation did not influence the risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection in vaccinated participants (800 IU/day vs. no offer: adjusted hazard ratio 1.28, 95% CI 0.89 to 1.84; 3200 IU/day vs. no offer: 1.17, 0.81 to 1.70). Neither did it influence IgGAM anti-Spike titres, neutralising antibody titres or IFN-γ concentrations in the supernatants of S peptide-stimulated whole blood. In conclusion, vitamin D replacement at a dose of 800 or 3200 IU/day effectively elevated 25(OH)D concentrations, but it did not influence the protective efficacy or immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination when given to adults who had a sub-optimal vitamin D status at baseline.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/18/3821/pdf?version=1663570353; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14183821; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9506404; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9506404?pdf=render 34582457,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003777,Predictive symptoms for COVID-19 in the community: REACT-1 study of over 1 million people.,"Elliott J, Whitaker M, Bodinier B, Eales O, Riley S, Ward H, Cooke G, Darzi A, Chadeau-Hyam M, Elliott P.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-09-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Rapid detection, isolation, and contact tracing of community COVID-19 cases are essential measures to limit the community spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We aimed to identify a parsimonious set of symptoms that jointly predict COVID-19 and investigated whether predictive symptoms differ between the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) lineage (predominating as of April 2021 in the US, UK, and elsewhere) and wild type.

Methods and findings

We obtained throat and nose swabs with valid SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results from 1,147,370 volunteers aged 5 years and above (6,450 positive cases) in the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. This study involved repeated community-based random surveys of prevalence in England (study rounds 2 to 8, June 2020 to January 2021, response rates 22%-27%). Participants were asked about symptoms occurring in the week prior to testing. Viral genome sequencing was carried out for PCR-positive samples with N-gene cycle threshold value < 34 (N = 1,079) in round 8 (January 2021). In univariate analysis, all 26 surveyed symptoms were associated with PCR positivity compared with non-symptomatic people. Stability selection (1,000 penalized logistic regression models with 50% subsampling) among people reporting at least 1 symptom identified 7 symptoms as jointly and positively predictive of PCR positivity in rounds 2-7 (June to December 2020): loss or change of sense of smell, loss or change of sense of taste, fever, new persistent cough, chills, appetite loss, and muscle aches. The resulting model (rounds 2-7) predicted PCR positivity in round 8 with area under the curve (AUC) of 0.77. The same 7 symptoms were selected as jointly predictive of B.1.1.7 infection in round 8, although when comparing B.1.1.7 with wild type, new persistent cough and sore throat were more predictive of B.1.1.7 infection while loss or change of sense of smell was more predictive of the wild type. The main limitations of our study are (i) potential participation bias despite random sampling of named individuals from the National Health Service register and weighting designed to achieve a representative sample of the population of England and (ii) the necessary reliance on self-reported symptoms, which may be prone to recall bias and may therefore lead to biased estimates of symptom prevalence in England.

Conclusions

Where testing capacity is limited, it is important to use tests in the most efficient way possible. We identified a set of 7 symptoms that, when considered together, maximize detection of COVID-19 in the community, including infection with the B.1.1.7 lineage.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003777&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003777; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8478234; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8478234?pdf=render 37143610,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oead037,"SAIL study of stroke, systemic embolism and bleeding outcomes with warfarin anticoagulation in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (S4-BOW-AF).","Harris DE, Torabi F, Mallory D, Akbari A, Thayer D, Wang T, Grundy S, Gravenor M, Alikhan R, Lister S, Halcox J.",,European heart journal open,2023,2023-04-13,Y,Bleeding; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Warfarin; Pharmacotherapy; Inr Control,,,"

Aims

In patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) prescribed warfarin, the association between guideline defined international normalised ratio (INR) control and adverse outcomes in unknown. We aimed to (i) determine stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) and bleeding events in NVAF patients prescribed warfarin; and (ii) estimate the increased risk of these adverse events associated with poor INR control in this population.

Methods and results

Individual-level population-scale linked patient data were used to investigate the association between INR control and both SSE and bleeding events using (i) the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) criteria of poor INR control [time in therapeutic range (TTR) <65%, two INRs <1.5 or two INRs >5 in a 6-month period or any INR >8]. A total of 35 891 patients were included for SSE and 35 035 for bleeding outcome analyses. Mean CHA2DS2-VASc score was 3.5 (SD = 1.7), and the mean follow up was 4.3 years for both analyses. Mean TTR was 71.9%, with 34% of time spent in poor INR control according to NICE criteria.SSE and bleeding event rates (per 100 patient years) were 1.01 (95%CI 0.95-1.08) and 3.4 (95%CI 3.3-3.5), respectively, during adequate INR control, rising to 1.82 (95%CI 1.70-1.94) and 4.8 (95% CI 4.6-5.0) during poor INR control.Poor INR control was independently associated with increased risk of both SSE [HR = 1.69 (95%CI = 1.54-1.86), P < 0.001] and bleeding [HR = 1.40 (95%CI 1.33-1.48), P < 0.001] in Cox-multivariable models.

Conclusion

Guideline-defined poor INR control is associated with significantly higher SSE and bleeding event rates, independent of recognised risk factors for stroke or bleeding.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjopen/oead037/49878718/oead037.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oead037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10153743; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10153743?pdf=render 37248229,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3,Evidence-driven spatiotemporal COVID-19 hospitalization prediction with Ising dynamics.,"Gao J, Heintz J, Mack C, Glass L, Cross A, Sun J.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-05-29,Y,,,,"In this work, we aim to accurately predict the number of hospitalizations during the COVID-19 pandemic by developing a spatiotemporal prediction model. We propose HOIST, an Ising dynamics-based deep learning model for spatiotemporal COVID-19 hospitalization prediction. By drawing the analogy between locations and lattice sites in statistical mechanics, we use the Ising dynamics to guide the model to extract and utilize spatial relationships across locations and model the complex influence of granular information from real-world clinical evidence. By leveraging rich linked databases, including insurance claims, census information, and hospital resource usage data across the U.S., we evaluate the HOIST model on the large-scale spatiotemporal COVID-19 hospitalization prediction task for 2299 counties in the U.S. In the 4-week hospitalization prediction task, HOIST achieves 368.7 mean absolute error, 0.6 [Formula: see text] and 0.89 concordance correlation coefficient score on average. Our detailed number needed to treat (NNT) and cost analysis suggest that future COVID-19 vaccination efforts may be most impactful in rural areas. This model may serve as a resource for future county and state-level vaccination efforts.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226446; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226446?pdf=render -34089614,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028,Cohort Profile: Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) Database.,"Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Ritchie LD, Agrawal U, Woolhouse M, Murray JL, Stagg HR, Docherty AB, McCowan C, Wood R, Stock SJ, Sheikh A.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-08-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/4/1064/40146583/dyab028.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245?pdf=render 34232969,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1151,How effective are population health surveys for estimating prevalence of chronic conditions compared to anonymised clinical data?,"Whiffen T, Akbari A, Paget T, Lowe S, Lyons R.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-06-12,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Population health surveys are used to record person-reported outcome measures for chronic health conditions and provide a useful source of data when evaluating potential disease burdens. The reliability of survey-based prevalence estimates for chronic diseases is unclear nonetheless. This study applied methodological triangulation via a data linkage method to validate prevalence of selected chronic conditions (angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and asthma).

Methods

Linked healthcare records were used for a combined cohort of 11,323 adults from the 2013 and 2014 sweeps of the Welsh Health Survey (WHS). The approach utilised consented survey data linked to primary and secondary care electronic health record (EHR) data back to 2002 within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Results

This descriptive study demonstrates validation of survey and clinical data using data linkage for selected chronic cardiovascular conditions and asthma with varied success. The results indicate that identifying cases for separate cardiovascular conditions was limited without specific medication codes for each condition, but more straightforward for asthma, where there was an extensive list of medications available. For asthma there was better agreement between prevalence estimates based on survey and clinical data as a result.

Conclusion

Whilst the results provide external validity for the WHS as an instrument for estimating the burden of chronic disease, they also indicate that a data linkage appproach can be used to produce comparable prevalence estimates using clinical data if a defined condition-specific set of clinical codes are available.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1151/2553; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1151; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473295; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473295?pdf=render -35671273,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837,Optimising the balance of acute and intermediate care capacity for the complex discharge pathway: Computer modelling study during COVID-19 recovery in England.,"Onen-Dumlu Z, Harper AL, Forte PG, Powell AL, Pitt M, Vasilakis C, Wood RM.",,PloS one,2022,2022-06-07,Y,,,,"

Objectives

While there has been significant research on the pressures facing acute hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been less interest in downstream community services which have also been challenged in meeting demand. This study aimed to estimate the theoretical cost-optimal capacity requirement for 'step down' intermediate care services within a major healthcare system in England, at a time when considerable uncertainty remained regarding vaccination uptake and the easing of societal restrictions.

Methods

Demand for intermediate care was projected using an epidemiological model (for COVID-19 demand) and regressing upon public mobility (for non-COVID-19 demand). These were inputted to a computer simulation model of patient flow from acute discharge readiness to bedded and home-based Discharge to Assess (D2A) intermediate care services. Cost-optimal capacity was defined as that which yielded the lowest total cost of intermediate care provision and corresponding acute discharge delays.

Results

Increased intermediate care capacity is likely to bring about lower system-level costs, with the additional D2A investment more than offset by substantial reductions in costly acute discharge delays (leading also to improved patient outcome and experience). Results suggest that completely eliminating acute 'bed blocking' is unlikely economical (requiring large amounts of downstream capacity), and that health systems should instead target an appropriate tolerance based upon the specific characteristics of the pathway.

Conclusions

Computer modelling can be a valuable asset for determining optimal capacity allocation along the complex care pathway. With results supporting a Business Case for increased downstream capacity, this study demonstrates how modelling can be applied in practice and provides a blueprint for use alongside the freely-available model code.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268837&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611?pdf=render 35922409,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6,Dynamics of a national Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic during January 2022 in England.,"Elliott P, Eales O, Bodinier B, Tang D, Wang H, Jonnerby J, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-08-03,Y,,,,"Rapid transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has led to record-breaking case incidence rates around the world. Since May 2020, the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study tracked the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England through RT-PCR of self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly-selected participants aged 5 years and over. In January 2022, we found an overall weighted prevalence of 4.41% (n = 102,174), three-fold higher than in November to December 2021; we sequenced 2,374 (99.2%) Omicron infections (19 BA.2), and only 19 (0.79%) Delta, with a growth rate advantage for BA.2 compared to BA.1 or BA.1.1. Prevalence was decreasing overall (reproduction number R = 0.95, 95% credible interval [CrI], 0.93, 0.97), but increasing in children aged 5 to 17 years (R = 1.13, 95% CrI, 1.09, 1.18). In England during January 2022, we observed unprecedented levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially among children, driven by almost complete replacement of Delta by Omicron.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32121-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208?pdf=render +35671273,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837,Optimising the balance of acute and intermediate care capacity for the complex discharge pathway: Computer modelling study during COVID-19 recovery in England.,"Onen-Dumlu Z, Harper AL, Forte PG, Powell AL, Pitt M, Vasilakis C, Wood RM.",,PloS one,2022,2022-06-07,Y,,,,"

Objectives

While there has been significant research on the pressures facing acute hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been less interest in downstream community services which have also been challenged in meeting demand. This study aimed to estimate the theoretical cost-optimal capacity requirement for 'step down' intermediate care services within a major healthcare system in England, at a time when considerable uncertainty remained regarding vaccination uptake and the easing of societal restrictions.

Methods

Demand for intermediate care was projected using an epidemiological model (for COVID-19 demand) and regressing upon public mobility (for non-COVID-19 demand). These were inputted to a computer simulation model of patient flow from acute discharge readiness to bedded and home-based Discharge to Assess (D2A) intermediate care services. Cost-optimal capacity was defined as that which yielded the lowest total cost of intermediate care provision and corresponding acute discharge delays.

Results

Increased intermediate care capacity is likely to bring about lower system-level costs, with the additional D2A investment more than offset by substantial reductions in costly acute discharge delays (leading also to improved patient outcome and experience). Results suggest that completely eliminating acute 'bed blocking' is unlikely economical (requiring large amounts of downstream capacity), and that health systems should instead target an appropriate tolerance based upon the specific characteristics of the pathway.

Conclusions

Computer modelling can be a valuable asset for determining optimal capacity allocation along the complex care pathway. With results supporting a Business Case for increased downstream capacity, this study demonstrates how modelling can be applied in practice and provides a blueprint for use alongside the freely-available model code.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268837&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611?pdf=render +34089614,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028,Cohort Profile: Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) Database.,"Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Ritchie LD, Agrawal U, Woolhouse M, Murray JL, Stagg HR, Docherty AB, McCowan C, Wood R, Stock SJ, Sheikh A.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-08-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/4/1064/40146583/dyab028.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245?pdf=render 36573802,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac233,An empirical investigation into the impact of winner's curse on estimates from Mendelian randomization.,"Jiang T, Gill D, Butterworth AS, Burgess S.",,International journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Bias; Genome-wide Association Studies; Instrumental Variables; Mendelian Randomization; Winner’s Curse; Sample Overlap,,,"

Introduction

Genetic associations for variants identified through genome-wide association studies (GWASs) tend to be overestimated in the original discovery data set as, if the association was underestimated, the variant may not have been detected. This bias, known as winner's curse, can affect Mendelian randomization estimates, but its severity and potential impact are unclear.

Methods

We performed an empirical investigation to assess the potential bias from winner's curse in practice. We considered Mendelian randomization estimates for the effect of body mass index (BMI) on coronary artery disease risk. We randomly divided a UK Biobank data set 100 times into three equally sized subsets. The first subset was treated as the 'discovery GWAS'. We compared genetic associations estimated in the discovery GWAS to those estimated in the other subsets for each of the 100 iterations.

Results

For variants associated with BMI at P < 5 × 10-8 in at least one iteration, genetic associations with BMI were up to 5-fold greater in iterations in which the variant was associated with BMI at P < 5 × 10-8 compared with its mean association across all iterations. If the minimum P-value for association with BMI was P = 10-13 or lower, then this inflation was <25%. Mendelian randomization estimates were affected by winner's curse bias. However, bias did not materially affect results; all analyses indicated a deleterious effect of BMI on coronary artery disease risk.

Conclusions

Winner's curse can bias Mendelian randomization estimates, although its practical impact may not be substantial. If avoiding sample overlap is infeasible, analysts should consider performing a sensitivity analysis based on variants strongly associated with the exposure.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac233/48422792/dyac233.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac233; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10396423; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10396423?pdf=render -36691170,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344,"Pre-COVID-19 pandemic health-related behaviours in children (2018-2020) and association with being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (2020-2021): a retrospective cohort study using survey data linked with routine health data in Wales, UK.","Marchant E, Lowthian E, Crick T, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Dadaczynski K, Okan O, James M, Cowley L, Torabi F, Kennedy J, Akbari A, Lyons R, Brophy S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-09-07,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Community Child Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Examine if pre-COVID-19 pandemic (prior March 2020) health-related behaviours during primary school are associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive between 1 March 2020 and 31 August 2021.

Design

Retrospective cohort study using an online cohort survey (January 2018 to February 2020) linked with routine PCR SARS-CoV-2 test results.

Setting

Children attending primary schools in Wales (2018-2020), UK, who were part of the Health and Attainment of Pupils in a Primary Education Network (HAPPEN)_school network.

Participants

Complete linked records of eligible participants were obtained for n=7062 individuals. 39.1% (n=2764) were tested (age 10.6±0.9; 48.9% girls) and 8.1% (n=569) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (age 10.6±1.0; 54.5% girls).

Main outcome measures

Logistic regression of health-related behaviours and demographics were used to determine the ORs of factors associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Results

Consuming sugary snacks (1-2 days/week OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.49; 5-6 days/week OR=1.31, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.61; reference 0 days), can swim 25 m (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.39) and age (OR=1.25, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.35) were associated with an increased likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2. Eating breakfast (OR=1.52, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.27), weekly physical activity ≥60 min (1-2 days OR=1.69, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.74; 3-4 days OR=1.76, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.82; reference 0 days), out-of-school club participation (OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.10), can ride a bike (OR=1.39, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.93), age (OR=1.16, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.28) and girls (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.46) were associated with an increased likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Living in least deprived areas (quintile 4 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.90; quintile 5 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.89) compared with the most deprived (quintile 1) was associated with a decreased likelihood.

Conclusions

Associations may be related to parental health literacy and monitoring behaviours. Physically active behaviours may include coparticipation with others and exposure to SARS-CoV-2. A risk-versus-benefit approach must be considered in relation to promoting these health behaviours, given the importance of health-related behaviours such as childhood physical activity for development.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e061344.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425?pdf=render 36863848,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325152,Characteristics and predictors of persistent symptoms post-COVID-19 in children and young people: a large community cross-sectional study in England.,"Atchison CJ, Whitaker M, Donnelly CA, Chadeau-Hyam M, Riley S, Darzi A, Ashby D, Barclay W, Cooke GS, Elliott P, Ward H.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2023,2023-03-02,Y,epidemiology; Paediatrics; Adolescent Health; Infectious Disease Medicine; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To estimate the prevalence of, and associated risk factors for, persistent symptoms post-COVID-19 among children aged 5-17 years in England.

Design

Serial cross-sectional study.

Setting

Rounds 10-19 (March 2021 to March 2022) of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 study (monthly cross-sectional surveys of random samples of the population in England).

Study population

Children aged 5-17 years in the community.

Predictors

Age, sex, ethnicity, presence of a pre-existing health condition, index of multiple deprivation, COVID-19 vaccination status and dominant UK circulating SARS-CoV-2 variant at time of symptom onset.

Main outcome measures

Prevalence of persistent symptoms, reported as those lasting ≥3 months post-COVID-19.

Results

Overall, 4.4% (95% CI 3.7 to 5.1) of 3173 5-11 year-olds and 13.3% (95% CI 12.5 to 14.1) of 6886 12-17 year-olds with prior symptomatic infection reported at least one symptom lasting ≥3 months post-COVID-19, of whom 13.5% (95% CI 8.4 to 20.9) and 10.9% (95% CI 9.0 to 13.2), respectively, reported their ability to carry out day-to-day activities was reduced 'a lot' due to their symptoms. The most common symptoms among participants with persistent symptoms were persistent coughing (27.4%) and headaches (25.4%) in children aged 5-11 years and loss or change of sense of smell (52.2%) and taste (40.7%) in participants aged 12-17 years. Higher age and having a pre-existing health condition were associated with higher odds of reporting persistent symptoms.

Conclusions

One in 23 5-11 year-olds and one in eight 12-17 year-olds post-COVID-19 report persistent symptoms lasting ≥3 months, of which one in nine report a large impact on performing day-to-day activities.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2023/03/01/archdischild-2022-325152.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325152; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313975; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313975?pdf=render -37587484,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9,Implementation of the trial emulation approach in medical research: a scoping review.,"Scola G, Chis Ster A, Bean D, Pareek N, Emsley R, Landau S.",,BMC medical research methodology,2023,2023-08-16,Y,Causal Inference; Observational Data; Target Trial; Trial Emulation,,,"

Background

When conducting randomised controlled trials is impractical, an alternative is to carry out an observational study. However, making valid causal inferences from observational data is challenging because of the risk of several statistical biases. In 2016 Hernán and Robins put forward the 'target trial framework' as a guide to best design and analyse observational studies whilst preventing the most common biases. This framework consists of (1) clearly defining a causal question about an intervention, (2) specifying the protocol of the hypothetical trial, and (3) explaining how the observational data will be used to emulate it.

Methods

The aim of this scoping review was to identify and review all explicit attempts of trial emulation studies across all medical fields. Embase, Medline and Web of Science were searched for trial emulation studies published in English from database inception to February 25, 2021. The following information was extracted from studies that were deemed eligible for review: the subject area, the type of observational data that they leveraged, and the statistical methods they used to address the following biases: (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias.

Results

The search resulted in 617 studies, 38 of which we deemed eligible for review. Of those 38 studies, most focused on cardiology, infectious diseases or oncology and the majority used electronic health records/electronic medical records data and cohort studies data. Different statistical methods were used to address confounding at baseline and selection bias, predominantly conditioning on the confounders (N = 18/49, 37%) and inverse probability of censoring weighting (N = 7/20, 35%) respectively. Different approaches were used to address immortal time bias, assigning individuals to treatment strategies at start of follow-up based on their data available at that specific time (N = 21, 55%), using the sequential trial emulations approach (N = 11, 29%) or the cloning approach (N = 6, 16%).

Conclusion

Different methods can be leveraged to address (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias. When working with observational data, and if possible, the 'target trial' framework should be used as it provides a structured conceptual approach to observational research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565?pdf=render +36691170,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344,"Pre-COVID-19 pandemic health-related behaviours in children (2018-2020) and association with being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (2020-2021): a retrospective cohort study using survey data linked with routine health data in Wales, UK.","Marchant E, Lowthian E, Crick T, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Dadaczynski K, Okan O, James M, Cowley L, Torabi F, Kennedy J, Akbari A, Lyons R, Brophy S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-09-07,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Community Child Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Examine if pre-COVID-19 pandemic (prior March 2020) health-related behaviours during primary school are associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive between 1 March 2020 and 31 August 2021.

Design

Retrospective cohort study using an online cohort survey (January 2018 to February 2020) linked with routine PCR SARS-CoV-2 test results.

Setting

Children attending primary schools in Wales (2018-2020), UK, who were part of the Health and Attainment of Pupils in a Primary Education Network (HAPPEN)_school network.

Participants

Complete linked records of eligible participants were obtained for n=7062 individuals. 39.1% (n=2764) were tested (age 10.6±0.9; 48.9% girls) and 8.1% (n=569) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (age 10.6±1.0; 54.5% girls).

Main outcome measures

Logistic regression of health-related behaviours and demographics were used to determine the ORs of factors associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Results

Consuming sugary snacks (1-2 days/week OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.49; 5-6 days/week OR=1.31, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.61; reference 0 days), can swim 25 m (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.39) and age (OR=1.25, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.35) were associated with an increased likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2. Eating breakfast (OR=1.52, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.27), weekly physical activity ≥60 min (1-2 days OR=1.69, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.74; 3-4 days OR=1.76, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.82; reference 0 days), out-of-school club participation (OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.10), can ride a bike (OR=1.39, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.93), age (OR=1.16, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.28) and girls (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.46) were associated with an increased likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Living in least deprived areas (quintile 4 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.90; quintile 5 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.89) compared with the most deprived (quintile 1) was associated with a decreased likelihood.

Conclusions

Associations may be related to parental health literacy and monitoring behaviours. Physically active behaviours may include coparticipation with others and exposure to SARS-CoV-2. A risk-versus-benefit approach must be considered in relation to promoting these health behaviours, given the importance of health-related behaviours such as childhood physical activity for development.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e061344.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425?pdf=render 34599903,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00380-5,COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths after BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccinations in 2·57 million people in Scotland (EAVE II): a prospective cohort study.,"Agrawal U, Katikireddi SV, McCowan C, Mulholland RH, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Amele S, Fagbamigbe AF, Vasileiou E, Grange Z, Shi T, Kerr S, Moore E, Murray JLK, Shah SA, Ritchie L, O'Reilly D, Stock SJ, Beggs J, Chuter A, Torabi F, Akbari A, Bedston S, McMenamin J, Wood R, Tang RSM, de Lusignan S, Hobbs FDR, Woolhouse M, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2021,2021-09-29,Y,,,,"

Background

The UK COVID-19 vaccination programme has prioritised vaccination of those at the highest risk of COVID-19 mortality and hospitalisation. The programme was rolled out in Scotland during winter 2020-21, when SARS-CoV-2 infection rates were at their highest since the pandemic started, despite social distancing measures being in place. We aimed to estimate the frequency of COVID-19 hospitalisation or death in people who received at least one vaccine dose and characterise these individuals.

Methods

We conducted a prospective cohort study using the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) national surveillance platform, which contained linked vaccination, primary care, RT-PCR testing, hospitalisation, and mortality records for 5·4 million people (around 99% of the population) in Scotland. Individuals were followed up from receiving their first dose of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) COVID-19 vaccines until admission to hospital for COVID-19, death, or the end of the study period on April 18, 2021. We used a time-dependent Poisson regression model to estimate rate ratios (RRs) for demographic and clinical factors associated with COVID-19 hospitalisation or death 14 days or more after the first vaccine dose, stratified by vaccine type.

Findings

Between Dec 8, 2020, and April 18, 2021, 2 572 008 individuals received their first dose of vaccine-841 090 (32·7%) received BNT162b2 and 1 730 918 (67·3%) received ChAdOx1. 1196 (<0·1%) individuals were admitted to hospital or died due to COVID-19 illness (883 hospitalised, of whom 228 died, and 313 who died due to COVID-19 without hospitalisation) 14 days or more after their first vaccine dose. These severe COVID-19 outcomes were associated with older age (≥80 years vs 18-64 years adjusted RR 4·75, 95% CI 3·85-5·87), comorbidities (five or more risk groups vs less than five risk groups 4·24, 3·34-5·39), hospitalisation in the previous 4 weeks (3·00, 2·47-3·65), high-risk occupations (ten or more previous COVID-19 tests vs less than ten previous COVID-19 tests 2·14, 1·62-2·81), care home residence (1·63, 1·32-2·02), socioeconomic deprivation (most deprived quintile vs least deprived quintile 1·57, 1·30-1·90), being male (1·27, 1·13-1·43), and being an ex-smoker (ex-smoker vs non-smoker 1·18, 1·01-1·38). A history of COVID-19 before vaccination was protective (0·40, 0·29-0·54).

Interpretation

COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths were uncommon 14 days or more after the first vaccine dose in this national analysis in the context of a high background incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and with extensive social distancing measures in place. Sociodemographic and clinical features known to increase the risk of severe disease in unvaccinated populations were also associated with severe outcomes in people receiving their first dose of vaccine and could help inform case management and future vaccine policy formulation.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Scottish Government, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00380-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00380-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8480963 +37587484,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9,Implementation of the trial emulation approach in medical research: a scoping review.,"Scola G, Chis Ster A, Bean D, Pareek N, Emsley R, Landau S.",,BMC medical research methodology,2023,2023-08-16,Y,Causal Inference; Observational Data; Target Trial; Trial Emulation,,,"

Background

When conducting randomised controlled trials is impractical, an alternative is to carry out an observational study. However, making valid causal inferences from observational data is challenging because of the risk of several statistical biases. In 2016 Hernán and Robins put forward the 'target trial framework' as a guide to best design and analyse observational studies whilst preventing the most common biases. This framework consists of (1) clearly defining a causal question about an intervention, (2) specifying the protocol of the hypothetical trial, and (3) explaining how the observational data will be used to emulate it.

Methods

The aim of this scoping review was to identify and review all explicit attempts of trial emulation studies across all medical fields. Embase, Medline and Web of Science were searched for trial emulation studies published in English from database inception to February 25, 2021. The following information was extracted from studies that were deemed eligible for review: the subject area, the type of observational data that they leveraged, and the statistical methods they used to address the following biases: (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias.

Results

The search resulted in 617 studies, 38 of which we deemed eligible for review. Of those 38 studies, most focused on cardiology, infectious diseases or oncology and the majority used electronic health records/electronic medical records data and cohort studies data. Different statistical methods were used to address confounding at baseline and selection bias, predominantly conditioning on the confounders (N = 18/49, 37%) and inverse probability of censoring weighting (N = 7/20, 35%) respectively. Different approaches were used to address immortal time bias, assigning individuals to treatment strategies at start of follow-up based on their data available at that specific time (N = 21, 55%), using the sequential trial emulations approach (N = 11, 29%) or the cloning approach (N = 6, 16%).

Conclusion

Different methods can be leveraged to address (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias. When working with observational data, and if possible, the 'target trial' framework should be used as it provides a structured conceptual approach to observational research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565?pdf=render 35909578,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1717,"Health and household environment factors linked with early alcohol use in adolescence: a record-linked, data-driven, longitudinal cohort study.","Bandyopadhyay A, Brophy S, Akbari A, Demmler J, Kennedy J, Paranjothy S, Lyons RA, Moore S.",,International journal of population data science,2022,2022-07-07,Y,Alcohol; Adolescent; Cohort study; Data Linkage; Electronic Health Records (Ehrs),,,"

Introduction

Early alcohol use has significant association with poor health outcomes. Individual risk factors around early alcohol use have been identified, but a holistic, data-driven investigation into health and household environmental factors on early alcohol use is yet to be undertaken.

Objectives

This study aims to investigate the relationship between preceding health events, household exposures and early alcohol use during adolescence using a two-stage data-driven approach.

Methods

In stage one, a study population (N = 1,072) were derived from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) Wales (born between 2000-2002). MCS data were first linked with electronic-health records. Factors associated with early (<=eleven years old) alcohol use were identified using feature selection and stepwise logistic regression. In stage two, analogous risk factors from MCS were recreated for whole population (N = 59,231) of children (born between 1998-2002 in the Welsh Demographic Service Dataset) using routine data to predict the alcohol-related health events in hospital or GP records.

Results

Significant risk factors from stage two included poor maternal mental (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.31) and physical health (aOR = 1.25), living with someone with alcohol-related problem (aOR = 2.16), single-adult household (aOR = 1.45), ever in deprivation (aOR = 1.66), child's high hyperactivity (aOR = 3.57), and conduct disorder (aOR = 3.26). Children with health events, whose health needs are supported (e.g., are taken to the doctor), are at lower risk of early alcohol use.

Conclusion

Health events of the family members and the child can act as modifiable exposures and may therefore inform the development of prevention initiatives. Families with known alcohol problems, living in deprivation, experiencing child behavioural problems and those who are not taken to the doctor are at higher risk of early drinking behaviour and should be prioritised for early years support and interventions to target problem drinking in young people.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1717/3510; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1717; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9284510; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9284510?pdf=render 37399490,https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010562,Polygenic risk of major depressive disorder as a risk factor for venous thromboembolism.,"Ward J, Le NQ, Suryakant S, Brody JA, Amouyel P, Boland A, Bown R, Cullen B, Debette S, Deleuze JF, Emmerich J, Graham N, Germain M, Anderson JJ, Pell JP, Lyall DM, Lyall LM, Smith DJ, Wiggins KL, Soria JM, Souto JC, Morange PE, Smith NL, Trégouët DA, Sabater-Lleal M, Strawbridge RJ.",,Blood advances,2023,2023-09-01,Y,,,,"Major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SCZ) are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, including venous thromboembolism (VTE). The reasons for this are complex and include obesity, smoking, and use of hormones and psychotropic medications. Genetic studies have increasingly provided evidence of the shared genetic risk of psychiatric and cardiometabolic illnesses. This study aimed to determine whether a genetic predisposition to MDD, BD, or SCZ is associated with an increased risk of VTE. Genetic correlations using the largest genome-wide genetic meta-analyses summary statistics for MDD, BD, and SCZ (Psychiatric Genetics Consortium) and a recent genome-wide genetic meta-analysis of VTE (INVENT Consortium) demonstrated a positive association between VTE and MDD but not BD or SCZ. The same summary statistics were used to construct polygenic risk scores for MDD, BD, and SCZ in UK Biobank participants of self-reported White British ancestry. These were assessed for impact on self-reported VTE risk (10 786 cases, 285 124 controls), using logistic regression, in sex-specific and sex-combined analyses. We identified significant positive associations between polygenic risk for MDD and the risk of VTE in men, women, and sex-combined analyses, independent of the known risk factors. Secondary analyses demonstrated that this association was not driven by those with lifetime experience of mental illness. Meta-analyses of individual data from 6 additional independent cohorts replicated the sex-combined association. This report provides evidence for shared biological mechanisms leading to MDD and VTE and suggests that, in the absence of genetic data, a family history of MDD might be considered when assessing the risk of VTE.",,pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/doi/10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010562/2061976/bloodadvances.2023010562.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010562; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506044; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506044?pdf=render -37340508,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0,CNETML: maximum likelihood inference of phylogeny from copy number profiles of multiple samples.,"Lu B, Curtius K, Graham TA, Yang Z, Barnes CP.",,Genome biology,2023,2023-06-20,Y,Maximum likelihood; Copy Number Alteration; Phylogeny Inference; Low-coverage Sequencing; Model Of Evolution,,,"Phylogenetic trees based on copy number profiles from multiple samples of a patient are helpful to understand cancer evolution. Here, we develop a new maximum likelihood method, CNETML, to infer phylogenies from such data. CNETML is the first program to jointly infer the tree topology, node ages, and mutation rates from total copy numbers of longitudinal samples. Our extensive simulations suggest CNETML performs well on copy numbers relative to ploidy and under slight violation of model assumptions. The application of CNETML to real data generates results consistent with previous discoveries and provides novel early copy number events for further investigation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241?pdf=render 36481043,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(22)00389-2,Neutralising antibody potency against SARS-CoV-2 wild-type and omicron BA.1 and BA.4/5 variants in patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated with infliximab and vedolizumab after three doses of COVID-19 vaccine (CLARITY IBD): an analysis of a prospective multicentre cohort study.,"Liu Z, Le K, Zhou X, Alexander JL, Lin S, Bewshea C, Chanchlani N, Nice R, McDonald TJ, Lamb CA, Sebastian S, Kok K, Lees CW, Hart AL, Pollok RC, Boyton RJ, Altmann DM, Pollock KM, Goodhand JR, Kennedy NA, Ahmad T, Powell N, CLARITY study investigators.",,The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology,2023,2022-12-05,Y,,,,"

Background

Anti-TNF drugs, such as infliximab, are associated with attenuated antibody responses after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We aimed to determine how the anti-TNF drug infliximab and the anti-integrin drug vedolizumab affect vaccine-induced neutralising antibodies against highly transmissible omicron (B.1.1.529) BA.1, and BA.4 and BA.5 (hereafter BA.4/5) SARS-CoV-2 variants, which possess the ability to evade host immunity and, together with emerging sublineages, are now the dominating variants causing current waves of infection.

Methods

CLARITY IBD is a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study investigating the effect of infliximab and vedolizumab on SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Patients aged 5 years and older with a diagnosis of IBD and being treated with infliximab or vedolizumab for 6 weeks or longer were recruited from infusion units at 92 hospitals in the UK. In this analysis, we included participants who had received uninterrupted biological therapy since recruitment and without a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. The primary outcome was neutralising antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 wild-type and omicron subvariants BA.1 and BA.4/5 after three doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. We constructed Cox proportional hazards models to investigate the risk of breakthrough infection in relation to neutralising antibody titres. The study is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN45176516, and is closed to accrual.

Findings

Between Sept 22 and Dec 23, 2020, 7224 patients with IBD were recruited to the CLARITY IBD study, of whom 1288 had no previous SARS-CoV-2 infection after three doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and were established on either infliximab (n=871) or vedolizumab (n=417) and included in this study (median age was 46·1 years [IQR 33·6-58·2], 610 [47·4%] were female, 671 [52·1%] were male, 1209 [93·9%] were White, and 46 [3·6%] were Asian). After three doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, 50% neutralising titres (NT50s) were significantly lower in patients treated with infliximab than in those treated with vedolizumab, against wild-type (geometric mean 2062 [95% CI 1720-2473] vs 3440 [2939-4026]; p<0·0001), BA.1 (107·3 [86·40-133·2] vs 648·9 [523·5-804·5]; p<0·0001), and BA.4/5 (40·63 [31·99-51·60] vs 223·0 [183·1-271·4]; p<0·0001) variants. Breakthrough infection was significantly more frequent in patients treated with infliximab (119 [13·7%; 95% CI 11·5-16·2] of 871) than in those treated with vedolizumab (29 [7·0% [4·8-10·0] of 417; p=0·00040). Cox proportional hazards models of time to breakthrough infection after the third dose of vaccine showed infliximab treatment to be associated with a higher hazard risk than treatment with vedolizumab (hazard ratio [HR] 1·71 [95% CI 1·08-2·71]; p=0·022). Among participants who had a breakthrough infection, we found that higher neutralising antibody titres against BA.4/5 were associated with a lower hazard risk and, hence, a longer time to breakthrough infection (HR 0·87 [0·79-0·95]; p=0·0028).

Interpretation

Our findings underline the importance of continued SARS-CoV-2 vaccination programmes, including second-generation bivalent vaccines, especially in patient subgroups where vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy might be reduced, such as those on anti-TNF therapies.

Funding

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Hull University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust; NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre; Crohn's and Colitis UK; Guts UK; National Core Studies Immunity Programme, UK Research and Innovation; and unrestricted educational grants from F Hoffmann-La Roche, Biogen, Celltrion Healthcare, Takeda, and Galapagos.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(22)00389-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(22)00389-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757903?pdf=render +37340508,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0,CNETML: maximum likelihood inference of phylogeny from copy number profiles of multiple samples.,"Lu B, Curtius K, Graham TA, Yang Z, Barnes CP.",,Genome biology,2023,2023-06-20,Y,Maximum likelihood; Copy Number Alteration; Phylogeny Inference; Low-coverage Sequencing; Model Of Evolution,,,"Phylogenetic trees based on copy number profiles from multiple samples of a patient are helpful to understand cancer evolution. Here, we develop a new maximum likelihood method, CNETML, to infer phylogenies from such data. CNETML is the first program to jointly infer the tree topology, node ages, and mutation rates from total copy numbers of longitudinal samples. Our extensive simulations suggest CNETML performs well on copy numbers relative to ploidy and under slight violation of model assumptions. The application of CNETML to real data generates results consistent with previous discoveries and provides novel early copy number events for further investigation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241?pdf=render 36716318,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004174,Therapeutic potential of IL6R blockade for the treatment of sepsis and sepsis-related death: A Mendelian randomisation study.,"Hamilton FW, Thomas M, Arnold D, Palmer T, Moran E, Mentzer AJ, Maskell N, Baillie K, Summers C, Hingorani A, MacGowan A, Khandaker GM, Mitchell R, Davey Smith G, Ghazal P, Timpson NJ.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-30,Y,,,,"

Background

Sepsis is characterised by dysregulated, life-threatening immune responses, which are thought to be driven by cytokines such as interleukin 6 (IL-6). Genetic variants in IL6R known to down-regulate IL-6 signalling are associated with improved Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes, a finding later confirmed in randomised trials of IL-6 receptor antagonists (IL6RAs). We hypothesised that blockade of IL6R could also improve outcomes in sepsis.

Methods and findings

We performed a Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in and near IL6R to evaluate the likely causal effects of IL6R blockade on sepsis (primary outcome), sepsis severity, other infections, and COVID-19 (secondary outcomes). We weighted SNPs by their effect on CRP and combined results across them in inverse variance weighted meta-analysis, proxying the effect of IL6RA. Our outcomes were measured in UK Biobank, FinnGen, the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (HGI), and the GenOSept and GainS consortium. We performed several sensitivity analyses to test assumptions of our methods, including utilising variants around CRP and gp130 in a similar analysis. In the UK Biobank cohort (N = 486,484, including 11,643 with sepsis), IL6R blockade was associated with a decreased risk of our primary outcome, sepsis (odds ratio (OR) = 0.80; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.66 to 0.96, per unit of natural log-transformed CRP decrease). The size of this effect increased with severity, with larger effects on 28-day sepsis mortality (OR = 0.74; 95% CI 0.47 to 1.15); critical care admission with sepsis (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.78) and critical care death with sepsis (OR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.98). Similar associations were seen with severe respiratory infection: OR for pneumonia in critical care 0.69 (95% CI 0.49 to 0.97) and for sepsis survival in critical care (OR = 0.22; 95% CI 0.04 to 1.31) in the GainS and GenOSept consortium, although this result had a large degree of imprecision. We also confirm the previously reported protective effect of IL6R blockade on severe COVID-19 (OR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.84) in the COVID-19 HGI, which was of similar magnitude to that seen in sepsis. Sensitivity analyses did not alter our primary results. These results are subject to the limitations and assumptions of MR, which in this case reflects interpretation of these SNP effects as causally acting through blockade of IL6R, and reflect lifetime exposure to IL6R blockade, rather than the effect of therapeutic IL6R blockade.

Conclusions

IL6R blockade is causally associated with reduced incidence of sepsis. Similar but imprecisely estimated results supported a causal effect also on sepsis related mortality and critical care admission with sepsis. These effects are comparable in size to the effect seen in severe COVID-19, where IL-6 receptor antagonists were shown to improve survival. These data suggest that a randomised trial of IL-6 receptor antagonists in sepsis should be considered.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004174&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004174; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9925069; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9925069?pdf=render 35361119,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04641-x,classifieR a flexible interactive cloud-application for functional annotation of cancer transcriptomes.,"Quinn GP, Sessler T, Ahmaderaghi B, Lambe S, VanSteenhouse H, Lawler M, Wappett M, Seligmann B, Longley DB, McDade SS.",,BMC bioinformatics,2022,2022-03-31,Y,Gene Expression; Functional Annotation; Cancer Subtype; Shiny Application; Colorectal Shiny Cms Cris Immune,,,"

Background

Transcriptionally informed predictions are increasingly important for sub-typing cancer patients, understanding underlying biology and to inform novel treatment strategies. For instance, colorectal cancers (CRCs) can be classified into four CRC consensus molecular subgroups (CMS) or five intrinsic (CRIS) sub-types that have prognostic and predictive value. Breast cancer (BRCA) has five PAM50 molecular subgroups with similar value, and the OncotypeDX test provides transcriptomic based clinically actionable treatment-risk stratification. However, assigning samples to these subtypes and other transcriptionally inferred predictions is time consuming and requires significant bioinformatics experience. There is no ""universal"" method of using data from diverse assay/sequencing platforms to provide subgroup classification using the established classifier sets of genes (CMS, CRIS, PAM50, OncotypeDX), nor one which in provides additional useful functional annotations such as cellular composition, single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, or prediction of transcription factor activity.

Results

To address this bottleneck, we developed classifieR, an easy-to-use R-Shiny based web application that supports flexible rapid single sample annotation of transcriptional profiles derived from cancer patient samples form diverse platforms. We demonstrate the utility of the "" classifieR"" framework to applications focused on the analysis of transcriptional profiles from colorectal (classifieRc) and breast (classifieRb). Samples are annotated with disease relevant transcriptional subgroups (CMS/CRIS sub-types in classifieRc and PAM50/inferred OncotypeDX in classifieRb), estimation of cellular composition using MCP-counter and xCell, single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA) and transcription factor activity predictions with Discriminant Regulon Expression Analysis (DoRothEA).

Conclusions

classifieR provides a framework which enables labs without access to a dedicated bioinformation can get information on the molecular makeup of their samples, providing an insight into patient prognosis, druggability and also as a tool for analysis and discovery. Applications are hosted online at https://generatr.qub.ac.uk/app/classifieRc and https://generatr.qub.ac.uk/app/classifieRb after signing up for an account on https://generatr.qub.ac.uk .",,pdf:https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12859-022-04641-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04641-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974006; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974006?pdf=render -32946449,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237676,"Proton pump inhibitors and dementia risk: Evidence from a cohort study using linked routinely collected national health data in Wales, UK.","Cooksey R, Kennedy J, Dennis MS, Escott-Price V, Lyons RA, Seaborne M, Brophy S.",,PloS one,2020,2020-09-18,Y,,,,"

Objectives

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are commonly prescribed for prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal conditions or for gastroprotection from other drugs. Research suggests they are linked to increased dementia risk. We use linked national health data to examine the association between PPI use and the development of incident dementia.

Methods and findings

A population-based study using electronic health-data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, Wales (UK) from 1999 to 2015. Of data available on 3,765,744 individuals, a cohort who had ever been prescribed a PPI was developed (n = 183,968) for people aged 55 years and over and compared to non-PPI exposed individuals (131,110). Those with prior dementia, mild-cognitive-impairment or delirium codes were excluded. Confounding factors included comorbidities and/or drugs associated with them. Comorbidities might include head injury and some examples of medications include antidepressants, antiplatelets and anticoagulants. These commonly prescribed drugs were investigated as it was not feasible to explore all drugs in this study. The main outcome was a diagnosis of incident dementia. Cox proportional hazard regression modelling was used to calculate the Hazard ratio (HR) of developing dementia in PPI-exposed compared to unexposed individuals while controlling for potential confounders. The mean age of the PPI exposed individuals was 69.9 years and 39.8% male while the mean age of the unexposed individuals was 72.1 years and 41.1% male. The rate of PPI usage was 58.4% (183,968) and incident dementia rate was 11.8% (37,148/315,078). PPI use was associated with decreased dementia risk (HR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.65 to 0.67, p<0.01).

Conclusions

This study, using large-scale, multi-centre health-data was unable to confirm an association between PPI use and increased dementia risk. Previously reported links may be associated with confounders of people using PPI's, such as increased risk of cardiovascular disease and/or depression and their associated medications which may be responsible for any increased risk of developing dementia.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237676&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237676; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7500586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7500586?pdf=render 35173150,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28527-x,"Population antibody responses following COVID-19 vaccination in 212,102 individuals.","Ward H, Whitaker M, Flower B, Tang SN, Atchison C, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Cann A, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Riley S, Barclay WS, Elliott P, Cooke GS.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-02-16,Y,,,,"Population antibody surveillance helps track immune responses to COVID-19 vaccinations at scale, and identify host factors that may affect antibody production. We analyse data from 212,102 vaccinated individuals within the REACT-2 programme in England, which uses self-administered lateral flow antibody tests in sequential cross-sectional community samples; 71,923 (33.9%) received at least one dose of BNT162b2 vaccine and 139,067 (65.6%) received ChAdOx1. For both vaccines, antibody positivity peaks 4-5 weeks after first dose and then declines. At least 21 days after second dose of BNT162b2, close to 100% of respondents test positive, while for ChAdOx1, this is significantly reduced, particularly in the oldest age groups (72.7% [70.9-74.4] at ages 75 years and above). For both vaccines, antibody positivity decreases with age, and is higher in females and those with previous infection. Antibody positivity is lower in transplant recipients, obese individuals, smokers and those with specific comorbidities. These groups will benefit from additional vaccine doses.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28527-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28527-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850615; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850615?pdf=render +32946449,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237676,"Proton pump inhibitors and dementia risk: Evidence from a cohort study using linked routinely collected national health data in Wales, UK.","Cooksey R, Kennedy J, Dennis MS, Escott-Price V, Lyons RA, Seaborne M, Brophy S.",,PloS one,2020,2020-09-18,Y,,,,"

Objectives

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are commonly prescribed for prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal conditions or for gastroprotection from other drugs. Research suggests they are linked to increased dementia risk. We use linked national health data to examine the association between PPI use and the development of incident dementia.

Methods and findings

A population-based study using electronic health-data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, Wales (UK) from 1999 to 2015. Of data available on 3,765,744 individuals, a cohort who had ever been prescribed a PPI was developed (n = 183,968) for people aged 55 years and over and compared to non-PPI exposed individuals (131,110). Those with prior dementia, mild-cognitive-impairment or delirium codes were excluded. Confounding factors included comorbidities and/or drugs associated with them. Comorbidities might include head injury and some examples of medications include antidepressants, antiplatelets and anticoagulants. These commonly prescribed drugs were investigated as it was not feasible to explore all drugs in this study. The main outcome was a diagnosis of incident dementia. Cox proportional hazard regression modelling was used to calculate the Hazard ratio (HR) of developing dementia in PPI-exposed compared to unexposed individuals while controlling for potential confounders. The mean age of the PPI exposed individuals was 69.9 years and 39.8% male while the mean age of the unexposed individuals was 72.1 years and 41.1% male. The rate of PPI usage was 58.4% (183,968) and incident dementia rate was 11.8% (37,148/315,078). PPI use was associated with decreased dementia risk (HR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.65 to 0.67, p<0.01).

Conclusions

This study, using large-scale, multi-centre health-data was unable to confirm an association between PPI use and increased dementia risk. Previously reported links may be associated with confounders of people using PPI's, such as increased risk of cardiovascular disease and/or depression and their associated medications which may be responsible for any increased risk of developing dementia.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237676&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237676; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7500586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7500586?pdf=render +37634386,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014,Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in incidence of severe mental illness - A population-based linkage study using primary and secondary care routinely collected data between 2000 and 2017.,"Lee SC, DelPozo-Banos M, Lloyd K, Jones I, Walters JTR, John A.",,Schizophrenia research,2023,2023-08-25,N,Deprivation; Severe Mental Illness; Inequality; Recession; Urbanicity; Austerity,,,"

Objective

In 2008, the UK entered a period of economic recession followed by sustained austerity measures. We investigate changes in inequalities by area deprivation and urbanicity in incidence of severe mental illness (SMI, including schizophrenia-related disorders and bipolar disorder) between 2000 and 2017.

Methods

We analysed 4.4 million individuals from primary and secondary care routinely collected datasets (2000-2017) in Wales and estimated the incidence of SMI by deprivation and urbanicity measured by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and urban/rural indicator respectively. Using linear modelling and joinpoint regression approaches, we examined time trends of the incidence and incidence rate ratios (IRR) of SMI by the WIMD and urban/rural indicator adjusted for available confounders.

Results

We observed a turning point of time trends of incidence of SMI at 2008/2009 where slope changes of time trends were significantly increasing. IRRs by deprivation/urbanicity remained stable or significantly decreased over the study period except for those with bipolar disorder sourced from secondary care settings, with increasing trend of IRRs (increase in IRR by deprivation after 2010: 1.6 % per year, 95 % CI: 1.0 %-2.2 %; increase in IRR by urbanicity 1.0 % per year, 95 % CI: 0.6 %-1.3 %).

Conclusions

There was an association between recession/austerity and an increase in the incidence of SMI over time. There were variations in the effects of deprivation/urbanicity on incidence of SMI associated with short- and long-term socioeconomic change. These findings may support targeted interventions and social protection systems to reduce incidence of SMI.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014 37159441,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000218,Hospital-wide natural language processing summarising the health data of 1 million patients.,"Bean DM, Kraljevic Z, Shek A, Teo J, Dobson RJB.",,PLOS digital health,2023,2023-05-09,Y,,,,"Electronic health records (EHRs) represent a major repository of real world clinical trajectories, interventions and outcomes. While modern enterprise EHR's try to capture data in structured standardised formats, a significant bulk of the available information captured in the EHR is still recorded only in unstructured text format and can only be transformed into structured codes by manual processes. Recently, Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms have reached a level of performance suitable for large scale and accurate information extraction from clinical text. Here we describe the application of open-source named-entity-recognition and linkage (NER+L) methods (CogStack, MedCAT) to the entire text content of a large UK hospital trust (King's College Hospital, London). The resulting dataset contains 157M SNOMED concepts generated from 9.5M documents for 1.07M patients over a period of 9 years. We present a summary of prevalence and disease onset as well as a patient embedding that captures major comorbidity patterns at scale. NLP has the potential to transform the health data lifecycle, through large-scale automation of a traditionally manual task.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000218; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000218; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10168555; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10168555?pdf=render 34210356,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02395-y,CLIMB-COVID: continuous integration supporting decentralised sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance.,"Nicholls SM, Poplawski R, Bull MJ, Underwood A, Chapman M, Abu-Dahab K, Taylor B, Colquhoun RM, Rowe WPM, Jackson B, Hill V, O'Toole Á, Rey S, Southgate J, Amato R, Livett R, Gonçalves S, Harrison EM, Peacock SJ, Aanensen DM, Rambaut A, Connor TR, Loman NJ, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium.",,Genome biology,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"In response to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the UK, the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium was formed to rapidly sequence SARS-CoV-2 genomes as part of a national-scale genomic surveillance strategy. The network consists of universities, academic institutes, regional sequencing centres and the four UK Public Health Agencies. We describe the development and deployment of CLIMB-COVID, an encompassing digital infrastructure to address the challenge of collecting and integrating both genomic sequencing data and sample-associated metadata produced across the COG-UK network.",,pdf:https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13059-021-02395-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02395-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247108; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247108?pdf=render -37634386,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014,Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in incidence of severe mental illness - A population-based linkage study using primary and secondary care routinely collected data between 2000 and 2017.,"Lee SC, DelPozo-Banos M, Lloyd K, Jones I, Walters JTR, John A.",,Schizophrenia research,2023,2023-08-25,N,Deprivation; Severe Mental Illness; Inequality; Recession; Urbanicity; Austerity,,,"

Objective

In 2008, the UK entered a period of economic recession followed by sustained austerity measures. We investigate changes in inequalities by area deprivation and urbanicity in incidence of severe mental illness (SMI, including schizophrenia-related disorders and bipolar disorder) between 2000 and 2017.

Methods

We analysed 4.4 million individuals from primary and secondary care routinely collected datasets (2000-2017) in Wales and estimated the incidence of SMI by deprivation and urbanicity measured by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and urban/rural indicator respectively. Using linear modelling and joinpoint regression approaches, we examined time trends of the incidence and incidence rate ratios (IRR) of SMI by the WIMD and urban/rural indicator adjusted for available confounders.

Results

We observed a turning point of time trends of incidence of SMI at 2008/2009 where slope changes of time trends were significantly increasing. IRRs by deprivation/urbanicity remained stable or significantly decreased over the study period except for those with bipolar disorder sourced from secondary care settings, with increasing trend of IRRs (increase in IRR by deprivation after 2010: 1.6 % per year, 95 % CI: 1.0 %-2.2 %; increase in IRR by urbanicity 1.0 % per year, 95 % CI: 0.6 %-1.3 %).

Conclusions

There was an association between recession/austerity and an increase in the incidence of SMI over time. There were variations in the effects of deprivation/urbanicity on incidence of SMI associated with short- and long-term socioeconomic change. These findings may support targeted interventions and social protection systems to reduce incidence of SMI.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014 37185201,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067337,Prevalence of HIV in mental health service users: a retrospective cohort study.,"Heslin M, Jewell A, Croxford S, Chau C, Smith S, Pittrof R, Covshoff E, Sullivan A, Delpech V, Brown A, King HP, Kakaiya M, Campbell L, Hughes E, Stewart R.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-04-25,Y,Mental health; Hiv & Aids; Sexual Medicine,,,"

Objective

To examine the prevalence of HIV in a cohort of people who have used secondary mental health services in the UK.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Routinely collected clinical data from secondary mental health services in South London, UK available for research through the Clinical Record Interactive Search tool at the National Institute for Health and Care Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre were matched with pseudonymised national HIV surveillance data held by the UK Health Security Agency using a deterministic matching algorithm.

Participants

All adults aged 16+ who presented for the first time to mental health services in the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service Trust between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2018 were included.

Primary outcome

Point prevalence of HIV.

Results

There were 181 177 people who had contact with mental health services for the first time between 2007 and 2018 in SLaM. Overall, 2.47% (n=4481) of those had a recorded HIV diagnosis in national HIV surveillance data at any time (before, during or after contact with mental health services), 24.73 people per 1000. HIV point prevalence was highest in people with a diagnosed substance use disorder at 3.77% (n=784). A substantial percentage of the sample did not have a formal mental health diagnosis (27%), but even with those excluded, the point prevalence remained high at 2.31%. Around two-thirds of people had their diagnosis of HIV before contact with mental health services (67%; n=1495).

Conclusions

The prevalence of HIV in people who have had contact with mental health services was approximately 2.5 times higher than the general population in the same geographical area. Future work should investigate risk factors and disparities in HIV outcomes between those with and without mental health service contact.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/4/e067337.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067337; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186409?pdf=render 34461893,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02096-0,The association between mechanical ventilator compatible bed occupancy and mortality risk in intensive care patients with COVID-19: a national retrospective cohort study.,"Wilde H, Mellan T, Hawryluk I, Dennis JM, Denaxas S, Pagel C, Duncan A, Bhatt S, Flaxman S, Mateen BA, Vollmer SJ.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-08-30,Y,Critical Care; Hospital Mortality; Quality Of Healthcare; Public Health Surveillance; Coronavirus Infection,,,"

Background

The literature paints a complex picture of the association between mortality risk and ICU strain. In this study, we sought to determine if there is an association between mortality risk in intensive care units (ICU) and occupancy of beds compatible with mechanical ventilation, as a proxy for strain.

Methods

A national retrospective observational cohort study of 89 English hospital trusts (i.e. groups of hospitals functioning as single operational units). Seven thousand one hundred thirty-three adults admitted to an ICU in England between 2 April and 1 December, 2020 (inclusive), with presumed or confirmed COVID-19, for whom data was submitted to the national surveillance programme and met study inclusion criteria. A Bayesian hierarchical approach was used to model the association between hospital trust level (mechanical ventilation compatible), bed occupancy, and in-hospital all-cause mortality. Results were adjusted for unit characteristics (pre-pandemic size), individual patient-level demographic characteristics (age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation index, time-to-ICU admission), and recorded chronic comorbidities (obesity, diabetes, respiratory disease, liver disease, heart disease, hypertension, immunosuppression, neurological disease, renal disease).

Results

One hundred thirty-five thousand six hundred patient days were observed, with a mortality rate of 19.4 per 1000 patient days. Adjusting for patient-level factors, mortality was higher for admissions during periods of high occupancy (> 85% occupancy versus the baseline of 45 to 85%) [OR 1.23 (95% posterior credible interval (PCI): 1.08 to 1.39)]. In contrast, mortality was decreased for admissions during periods of low occupancy (< 45% relative to the baseline) [OR 0.83 (95% PCI 0.75 to 0.94)].

Conclusion

Increasing occupancy of beds compatible with mechanical ventilation, a proxy for operational strain, is associated with a higher mortality risk for individuals admitted to ICU. Further research is required to establish if this is a causal relationship or whether it reflects strain on other operational factors such as staff. If causal, the result highlights the importance of strategies to keep ICU occupancy low to mitigate the impact of this type of resource saturation.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02096-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02096-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8404408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8404408?pdf=render 34672950,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00435-5,"Colchicine in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2021,2021-10-18,Y,,,,"

Background

Colchicine has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 based on its anti-inflammatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of colchicine in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this streamlined, randomised, controlled, open-label trial, underway at 177 hospitals in the UK, two hospitals in Indonesia, and two hospitals in Nepal, several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Patients were eligible for inclusion in the study if they were admitted to hospital with clinically suspected or laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and had no medical history that might, in the opinion of the attending clinician, put the patient at significant risk if they were to participate in the trial. Eligible and consenting adults were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual standard of care plus colchicine (colchicine group) using web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment. Participants received colchicine 1 mg after randomisation followed by 500 μg 12 h later and then 500 μg twice a day by mouth or nasogastric tube for 10 days in total or until discharge. Dose frequency was halved for patients receiving a moderate CYP3A4 inhibitor (eg, diltiazem), patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate of less than 30 mL/min per 1·73m2, and those with an estimated bodyweight of less than 70 kg. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, secondary endpoints included time to discharge, the proportion of patients discharged from hospital within 28 days, and, in patients not on invasive mechanical ventilation at randomisation, a composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death. All analyses were by intention-to-treat. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.

Findings

Between Nov 27, 2020, and March 4, 2021, 11 340 (58%) of 19 423 patients enrolled into the RECOVERY trial were eligible to receive colchicine; 5610 (49%) patients were randomly assigned to the colchicine group and 5730 (51%) to the usual care group. Overall, 1173 (21%) patients in the colchicine group and 1190 (21%) patients in the usual care group died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·01 [95% CI 0·93 to 1·10]; p=0·77). Consistent results were seen in all prespecified subgroups of patients. Median time to discharge alive (10 days [IQR 5 to >28]) was the same in both groups, and there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (3901 [70%] patients in the colchicine group and 4032 [70%] usual care group; rate ratio 0·98 [95% CI 0·94 to 1·03]; p=0·44). In those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, there was no significant difference in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (1344 [25%] in the colchicine group vs 1343 [25%] patients in the usual care group; risk ratio 1·02 [95% CI 0·96 to 1·09]; p=0·47).

Interpretation

In adults hospitalised with COVID-19, colchicine was not associated with reductions in 28-day mortality, duration of hospital stay, or risk of progressing to invasive mechanical ventilation or death.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), National Institute of Health Research, and Wellcome Trust.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00435-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00435-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8523117 @@ -366,10 +366,10 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 36841835,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-023-00614-0,Incidence determinants and serological correlates of reactive symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.,"Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Talaei M, Faustini S, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Richter AG, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Davies GA, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,NPJ vaccines,2023,2023-02-25,Y,,,,"Prospective population-based studies investigating associations between reactive symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and serologic responses to vaccination are lacking. We therefore conducted a study in 9003 adults from the UK general population receiving SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as part of the national vaccination programme. Titres of combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein were determined in eluates of dried blood spots collected from all participants before and after vaccination. 4262 (47.3%) participants experienced systemic reactive symptoms after a first vaccine dose. Factors associating with lower risk of such symptoms included older age (aOR per additional 10 years of age 0.85, 95% CI: 0.81-0.90), male vs. female sex (0.59, 0.53-0.65) and receipt of an mRNA vaccine vs. ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (0.29, 0.26-0.32 for BNT162b2; 0.06, 0.01-0.26 for mRNA-1273). Higher risk of such symptoms was associated with SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity and COVID-19 symptoms prior to vaccination (2.23, 1.78-2.81), but not with SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in the absence of COVID-19 symptoms (0.94, 0.81-1.09). Presence vs. absence of self-reported anxiety or depression at enrolment associated with higher risk of such symptoms (1.24, 1.12-1.39). Post-vaccination anti-S titres were higher among participants who experienced reactive symptoms after vaccination vs. those who did not (P < 0.001). We conclude that factors influencing risk of systemic symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination include demographic characteristics, pre-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 serostatus and vaccine type. Participants experiencing reactive symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination had higher post-vaccination titres of IgG/A/M anti-S antibodies. Improved public understanding of the frequency of reactogenic symptoms and their positive association with vaccine immunogenicity could potentially increase vaccine uptake.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-023-00614-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-023-00614-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9959934; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9959934?pdf=render 37080124,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.04.006,COVID-19 vaccination uptake in people with epilepsy in wales.,"Strafford H, Lacey AS, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Watkins A, Paterson J, Jennings D, Lyons RA, Powell HR, Kerr MP, Chin RW, Pickrell WO.",,Seizure,2023,2023-04-06,Y,"Epilepsy; Vaccination; Data Linkage; Electronic Health Records; Pandemic, Covid-19",,,"

Purpose

People with epilepsy (PWE) are at increased risk of severe COVID-19. Assessing COVID-19 vaccine uptake is therefore important. We compared COVID-19 vaccination uptake for PWE in Wales with a matched control cohort.

Methods

We performed a retrospective, population, cohort study using linked, anonymised, Welsh electronic health records within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank (Welsh population=3.1 million).We identified PWE in Wales between 1st March 2020 and 31st December 2021 and created a control cohort using exact 5:1 matching (sex, age and socioeconomic status). We recorded 1st, 2nd and booster COVID-19 vaccinations.

Results

There were 25,404 adults with epilepsy (127,020 controls). 23,454 (92.3%) had a first vaccination, 22,826 (89.9%) a second, and 17,797 (70.1%) a booster. Comparative figures for controls were: 112,334 (87.8%), 109,057 (85.2%) and 79,980 (62.4%).PWE had higher vaccination rates in all age, sex and socioeconomic subgroups apart from booster uptake in older subgroups. Vaccination rates were higher in older subgroups, women and less deprived areas for both cohorts. People with intellectual disability and epilepsy had higher vaccination rates when compared with controls with intellectual disability.

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccination uptake for PWE in Wales was higher than that for a matched control group.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.04.006; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.04.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10076248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10076248?pdf=render 31757986,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53454-1,Ontology-based prediction of cancer driver genes.,"Althubaiti S, Karwath A, Dallol A, Noor A, Alkhayyat SS, Alwassia R, Mineta K, Gojobori T, Beggs AD, Schofield PN, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-11-22,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"Identifying and distinguishing cancer driver genes among thousands of candidate mutations remains a major challenge. Accurate identification of driver genes and driver mutations is critical for advancing cancer research and personalizing treatment based on accurate stratification of patients. Due to inter-tumor genetic heterogeneity many driver mutations within a gene occur at low frequencies, which make it challenging to distinguish them from non-driver mutations. We have developed a novel method for identifying cancer driver genes. Our approach utilizes multiple complementary types of information, specifically cellular phenotypes, cellular locations, functions, and whole body physiological phenotypes as features. We demonstrate that our method can accurately identify known cancer driver genes and distinguish between their role in different types of cancer. In addition to confirming known driver genes, we identify several novel candidate driver genes. We demonstrate the utility of our method by validating its predictions in nasopharyngeal cancer and colorectal cancer using whole exome and whole genome sequencing.",This study investigated which genes encourage cancer tumors to grow. The study identifies genes and distinguishes their role in different types of cancers. Their method is validated using whole exome and whole genome sequencing,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53454-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53454-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6874647; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6874647?pdf=render -35726508,https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117,Improving quantification of anticholinergic burden using the Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition Scale - a healthcare improvement study in a geriatric ward setting.,"Balasundaram B, Ang WST, Stewart R, Bishara D, Ooi CH, Li F, Akram F, Eu Kwek AB.",,Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists,2022,2022-06-21,Y,Dementia; Delirium; Anticholinergic drugs; Anticholinergic Burden Scales; Anticholinergic Effect On Cognition Scale,,,"

Objective

Anticholinergic burden refers to the cumulative effects of taking multiple medications with anticholinergic effects. This study was carried out in a public hospital in Singapore, aimed to improve and achieve a 100% comprehensive identification and review of measured, anticholinergic burden in a geriatric psychiatry liaison service to geriatric wards. We evaluated changes in pre-to post-assessment anticholinergic burden scores and trainee feedback.

Method

Plan Do Study Act methodology was employed, and Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition scale (AEC) was implemented as the study intervention. A survey instrument evaluated trainee feedback.

Results

There was no measured anticholinergic burden in a baseline of 170 assessments. 75 liaison psychiatry assessments were conducted between June and November 2021 in two cycles. 94.7% of pre-assessments (at the time of assessment) and 71.1% of post-assessments (following assessment) had a record of AEC scores in clinical documentation in cycle one, improving in the second cycle to 100%, 94.6%, respectively. A high post-assessment AEC score of 3 and over reduced from 15.8% in cycle one to 5.4% in cycle two. The trainee feedback suggested an enriching educational experience.

Conclusions

Using the AEC scale, the findings support the feasibility of comprehensive identification and review of measured anticholinergic burden in older people with neurocognitive disorders.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386?pdf=render -35197134,https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24,Birth without intervention in women with severe mental illness: cohort study.,"Taylor C, Stewart R, Gibson R, Pasupathy D, Shetty H, Howard L.",,BJPsych open,2022,2022-02-24,Y,Schizophrenia; epidemiology; Perinatal Psychiatry; Bipolar Affective Disorders; Birth Without Intervention,,,"

Summary

The rate of normal birth outcomes (i.e. full-term births without intervention) for women with severe mental illness (SMI - psychotic and bipolar disorders) is not known. We examined rates of birth without intervention (spontaneous labour onset, spontaneous vaginal delivery without instruments, no episiotomy and no indication of pre- or post-delivery anaesthesia) in women with SMI (584 pregnancies) compared with a control population (70 942 pregnancies). Outcome ratios were calculated standardising for age. Women with SMI were less likely to have a birth without intervention (29.5%) relative to the control population (36.8%) (standardised outcome ratio 0.74, 95% CI 0.63-0.87).",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4FEB5E5A08973A5347ABA87F440CF09B/S2056472422000242a.pdf/div-class-title-birth-without-intervention-in-women-with-severe-mental-illness-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938?pdf=render 36735963,https://doi.org/10.1080/09553002.2023.2173823,Machine intelligence for radiation science: summary of the Radiation Research Society 67th annual meeting symposium.,"Wilson LJ, Kiffer FC, Berrios DC, Bryce-Atkinson A, Costes SV, Gevaert O, Matarèse BFE, Miller J, Mukherjee P, Peach K, Schofield PN, Slater LT, Langen B.",,International journal of radiation biology,2023,2023-02-06,N,Artificial intelligence; Lung cancer; Radiotherapy; Radiobiology; Ontology; Machine Learning; Voxel-based Analysis,,,"The era of high-throughput techniques created big data in the medical field and research disciplines. Machine intelligence (MI) approaches can overcome critical limitations on how those large-scale data sets are processed, analyzed, and interpreted. The 67th Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society featured a symposium on MI approaches to highlight recent advancements in the radiation sciences and their clinical applications. This article summarizes three of those presentations regarding recent developments for metadata processing and ontological formalization, data mining for radiation outcomes in pediatric oncology, and imaging in lung cancer.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09553002.2023.2173823; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09553002.2023.2173823 +35726508,https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117,Improving quantification of anticholinergic burden using the Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition Scale - a healthcare improvement study in a geriatric ward setting.,"Balasundaram B, Ang WST, Stewart R, Bishara D, Ooi CH, Li F, Akram F, Eu Kwek AB.",,Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists,2022,2022-06-21,Y,Dementia; Delirium; Anticholinergic drugs; Anticholinergic Burden Scales; Anticholinergic Effect On Cognition Scale,,,"

Objective

Anticholinergic burden refers to the cumulative effects of taking multiple medications with anticholinergic effects. This study was carried out in a public hospital in Singapore, aimed to improve and achieve a 100% comprehensive identification and review of measured, anticholinergic burden in a geriatric psychiatry liaison service to geriatric wards. We evaluated changes in pre-to post-assessment anticholinergic burden scores and trainee feedback.

Method

Plan Do Study Act methodology was employed, and Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition scale (AEC) was implemented as the study intervention. A survey instrument evaluated trainee feedback.

Results

There was no measured anticholinergic burden in a baseline of 170 assessments. 75 liaison psychiatry assessments were conducted between June and November 2021 in two cycles. 94.7% of pre-assessments (at the time of assessment) and 71.1% of post-assessments (following assessment) had a record of AEC scores in clinical documentation in cycle one, improving in the second cycle to 100%, 94.6%, respectively. A high post-assessment AEC score of 3 and over reduced from 15.8% in cycle one to 5.4% in cycle two. The trainee feedback suggested an enriching educational experience.

Conclusions

Using the AEC scale, the findings support the feasibility of comprehensive identification and review of measured anticholinergic burden in older people with neurocognitive disorders.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386?pdf=render 35927670,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-02902-8,Pre-operative Waterlow score and outcomes after kidney transplantation.,"Brotherton A, Evison F, Gallier S, Sharif A.",,BMC nephrology,2022,2022-08-04,Y,Mortality; Kidney transplantation; Length Of Stay; Readmission; Surrogate; Waterlow,,,"

Background

Waterlow scoring was introduced in the 1980s as a nursing tool to risk stratify for development of decubitus ulcers (pressure sores) and is commonly used in UK hospitals. Recent interest has focussed on its value as a pre-op surrogate marker for adverse surgical outcomes, but utility after kidney transplantation has never been explored.

Methods

In this single-centre observational study, data was extracted from hospital informatics systems for all kidney allograft recipients transplanted between 1st January 2007 and 30th June 2020. Waterlow scores were categorised as per national standards; 0-9 (low risk), 10-14 (at risk), 15-19 (high risk) and ≥ 20 (very high risk). Multiple imputation was used to replace missing data with substituted values. Primary outcomes of interest were post-operative length of stay, emergency re-admission within 90-days and mortality analysed by linear, logistic or Cox regression models respectively.

Results

Data was available for 2,041 kidney transplant patients, with baseline demographics significantly different across Waterlow categories. As a continuous variable, the median Waterlow score across the study cohort was 10 (interquartile range 8-13). As a categorical variable, Waterlow scores pre-operatively were classified as low risk (n = 557), at risk (n = 543), high risk (n = 120), very high risk (n = 27) and a large proportion of missing data (n = 794). Median length of stay in days varied significantly with pre-op Waterlow category scores, progressively getting longer with increasing severity of Waterlow category. However, no difference was observed in risk for emergency readmission within 90-days of surgery with severity of Waterlow category. Patients with 'very high risk' Waterlow scores had increased risk for mortality at 41.9% versus high risk (23.7%), at risk (17.4%) and low risk (13.4%). In adjusted analyses, 'very high risk' Waterlow group (as a categorical variable) or Waterlow score (as a continuous variable) had an independent association with increase length of stay after transplant surgery only. No association was observed between any Waterlow risk group/score with emergency 90-day readmission rates or post-transplant mortality after adjustment.

Conclusions

Pre-operative Waterlow scoring is a poor surrogate marker to identify kidney transplant patients at risk of emergency readmission or death and should not be utilised outside its intended use.",,pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-022-02902-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-02902-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9351155; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9351155?pdf=render +35197134,https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24,Birth without intervention in women with severe mental illness: cohort study.,"Taylor C, Stewart R, Gibson R, Pasupathy D, Shetty H, Howard L.",,BJPsych open,2022,2022-02-24,Y,Schizophrenia; epidemiology; Perinatal Psychiatry; Bipolar Affective Disorders; Birth Without Intervention,,,"

Summary

The rate of normal birth outcomes (i.e. full-term births without intervention) for women with severe mental illness (SMI - psychotic and bipolar disorders) is not known. We examined rates of birth without intervention (spontaneous labour onset, spontaneous vaginal delivery without instruments, no episiotomy and no indication of pre- or post-delivery anaesthesia) in women with SMI (584 pregnancies) compared with a control population (70 942 pregnancies). Outcome ratios were calculated standardising for age. Women with SMI were less likely to have a birth without intervention (29.5%) relative to the control population (36.8%) (standardised outcome ratio 0.74, 95% CI 0.63-0.87).",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4FEB5E5A08973A5347ABA87F440CF09B/S2056472422000242a.pdf/div-class-title-birth-without-intervention-in-women-with-severe-mental-illness-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938?pdf=render 33240522,https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207620965046,Electronic-prescribing tools improve N-acetylcysteine prescription accuracy and timeliness for patients who present following a paracetamol overdose: A digital innovation quality-improvement project.,"McCulloch A, Sarwar A, Bate T, Thompson D, McDowell P, Sharif Q, Sapey E, Seccombe A.",,Digital health,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Antidote; Digital; paracetamol; Prescription Errors; Electronic Health Systems,,,"

Objectives

Prescription error rates and delays in treatment provision are high for N-acetylcysteine (NAC) when prescribed for paracetamol overdose (POD). We hypothesised that an electronic tool which proposed the complete NAC regimen would reduce prescription errors and improve the timeliness of NAC provision. Error rates and delays in the provision of NAC were assessed following POD, before and after the implementation of an electronic prescribing tool.

Methods

The NAC electronic prescribing tool proposed the three NAC infusions (dosed for weight) following entry of the patient's weight. All NAC prescriptions were reviewed during a three-month period prior to and after the tool's implementation. Error rates were divided into dose, infusion volume or infusion rate. Delays in NAC provision were identified using national Emergency Medicine guidelines.

Results

108 NAC prescriptions were analysed for all adult patients admitted to the emergency department of a secondary care hospital in the UK between July-September 2017 and August-October 2018, respectively. There were no differences in the demographics of patients or the seniority of the prescribing clinician before or after the introduction of the electronic tool. The electronic prescribing tool was associated with a decrease in prescribing errors (25% to 0%, p < 0.0071) and an increase in the provision of NAC within recommended times (11.1% to 47.4%, p = 0.029).

Conclusions

An electronic prescribing tool improved prescription errors and the timeliness of NAC provision following POD. Further studies will determine the effect of this on length of stay and the benefit of wider implementation in other secondary care hospitals.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2055207620965046; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207620965046; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675911; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675911?pdf=render 35418418,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049441,"Health checks for adults with intellectual disability and association with survival rates: a linked electronic records matched cohort study in Wales, UK.","Kennedy N, Kennedy J, Kerr M, Dredge S, Brophy S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-13,Y,epidemiology; Quality In Health Care; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine),,,"

Objective

To examine if mortality rates are lower in people with intellectual disability who have had a health check compared with those who have not had health checks.

Setting

General practice records of 26 954 people with an intellectual disability in Wales between 2005-2017, of which 7650 (28.4%) with a health check were matched 1:2 with those without a health check.

Primary outcome measure

Office of National Statistics mortality data; a Cox regression was utilised to examine time to death adjusted for comorbidities and gender.

Results

Patients who had a health check were stratified by those who (1) had a confirmed health check, that is, Read Code for a health check (n=7650 (28.4 %)) and (2) had no evidence of receiving a health check in their medical record. Patients with a health check were matched for age at time of health check with two people who did not have a health check. The health check was associated with improved survival for those with autism or Down's Syndrome (HR 0.58 (95% CI 0.37 to 0.91) and HR 0.76 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.91), respectively). There was no evidence of improved survival for those diagnosed with diabetes or cancer. The people who had a health check were more likely to be older, have epilepsy and less likely to have autism or Down's syndrome.

Conclusions

Health checks are likely to influence survival if started before a person is diagnosed with a chronic condition, especially for people with autism or Down's syndrome.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e049441.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049441; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9013997; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9013997?pdf=render 33846368,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86324-w,Intake of food rich in saturated fat in relation to subclinical atherosclerosis and potential modulating effects from single genetic variants.,"Laguzzi F, Maitusong B, Strawbridge RJ, Baldassarre D, Veglia F, Humphries SE, Rauramaa R, Kurl S, Smit AJ, Giral P, Silveira A, Tremoli E, Hamsten A, de Faire U, Gigante B, Leander K, IMPROVE Study group.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-04-12,Y,,,,"The relationship between intake of saturated fats and subclinical atherosclerosis, as well as the possible influence of genetic variants, is poorly understood and investigated. We aimed to investigate this relationship, with a hypothesis that it would be positive, and to explore whether genetics may modulate it, using data from a European cohort including 3,407 participants aged 54-79 at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Subclinical atherosclerosis was assessed by carotid intima-media thickness (C-IMT), measured at baseline and after 30 months. Logistic regression (OR; 95% CI) was employed to assess the association between high intake of food rich in saturated fat (vs. low) and: (1) the mean and the maximum values of C-IMT in the whole carotid artery (C-IMTmean, C-IMTmax), in the bifurcation (Bif-), the common (CC-) and internal (ICA-) carotid arteries at baseline (binary, cut-point ≥ 75th), and (2) C-IMT progression (binary, cut-point > zero). For the genetic-diet interaction analyses, we considered 100,350 genetic variants. We defined interaction as departure from additivity of effects. After age- and sex-adjustment, high intake of saturated fat was associated with increased C-IMTmean (OR:1.27;1.06-1.47), CC-IMTmean (OR:1.22;1.04-1.44) and ICA-IMTmean (OR:1.26;1.07-1.48). However, in multivariate analysis results were no longer significant. No clear associations were observed between high intake of saturated fat and risk of atherosclerotic progression. There was no evidence of interactions between high intake of saturated fat and any of the genetic variants considered, after multiple testing corrections. High intake of saturated fats was not independently associated with subclinical atherosclerosis. Moreover, we did not identify any significant genetic-dietary fat interactions in relation to risk of subclinical atherosclerosis.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86324-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86324-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8042105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8042105?pdf=render @@ -377,18 +377,18 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 37144149,https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2023.1148975,The psychosocial impact of microtia and ear reconstruction: A national data-linkage study.,"Jovic TH, Gibson JAG, Jovic M, Dobbs TD, Griffiths R, Akbari A, Whitaker IS.",,Frontiers in pediatrics,2023,2023-04-18,Y,Depression; Anxiety; Education; Microtia; Data Science,,,"

Introduction

Children with visible facial differences are believed to be at increased risk of negative psychosocial behaviours which may manifest as affective disorders. The aim of this study was to determine whether a diagnosis of microtia, and the associated surgical intervention, is associated with psychosocial implications including impaired educational attainment and a diagnosis of an affective disorder.

Methods

A retrospective case-control study was conducted using data linkage to identify patients in Wales with a diagnosis of microtia. Matched controls were sought on the basis of age, gender and socioeconomic deprivation status to yield a total sample size of 709. incidence was calculated using annual and geographic birth rates. Surgical operation codes were used to classify patients into those that had no surgery, autologous reconstruction or prosthetic reconstruction. Educational attainment at 11 years of age, plus a diagnosis of depression or anxiety were used as markers of adverse psychosocial outcomes and the relative risk was attained using logistic regression analyses.

Results

There were no significant associations between a diagnosis of microtia and an increased risk of adverse educational attainment or a risk of an affective disorder diagnosis. Male gender and higher deprivation scores were significantly associated with poorer educational attainment, irrespective of a diagnosis of microtia. Surgical intervention of any nature was also not associated with any increased risk of adverse educational or psychosocial outcomes in microtia patients.

Discussion

Microtia patients in Wales do not appear to be at greater risk of developing affective disorders or impaired academic performance as a result of their diagnosis or associated surgical intervention. Whilst reassuring, the need for appropriate support mechanisms to maintain positive psychosocial wellbeing and academic achievement in this patient cohort is reinforced.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2023.1148975/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2023.1148975; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152550; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152550?pdf=render 36158997,https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.874237,Evaluating physical urban features in several mental illnesses using electronic health record data.,"Mahabadi Z, Mahabadi M, Velupillai S, Roberts A, McGuire P, Ibrahim Z, Patel R.",,Frontiers in digital health,2022,2022-09-07,Y,Schizophrenia; Bipolar disorder; Psychosis; Machine Learning; Ehr (Electric Heath Record); Geospatial Informatics,,,"

Objectives

Understanding the potential impact of physical characteristics of the urban environment on clinical outcomes on several mental illnesses.

Materials and methods

Physical features of the urban environment were examined as predictors for affective and non-affective several mental illnesses (SMI), the number and length of psychiatric hospital admissions, and the number of short and long-acting injectable antipsychotic prescriptions. In addition, the urban features with the greatest weight in the predicted model were determined. The data included 28 urban features and 6 clinical variables obtained from 30,210 people with SMI receiving care from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) using the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) tool. Five machine learning regression models were evaluated for the highest prediction accuracy followed by the Self-Organising Map (SOM) to represent the results visually.

Results

The prevalence of SMI, number and duration of psychiatric hospital admission, and antipsychotic prescribing were greater in urban areas. However, machine learning analysis was unable to accurately predict clinical outcomes using urban environmental data.

Discussion

The urban environment is associated with an increased prevalence of SMI. However, urban features alone cannot explain the variation observed in psychotic disorder prevalence or clinical outcomes measured through psychiatric hospitalisation or exposure to antipsychotic treatments.

Conclusion

Urban areas are associated with a greater prevalence of SMI but clinical outcomes are likely to depend on a combination of urban and individual patient-level factors. Future mental healthcare service planning should focus on providing appropriate resources to people with SMI in urban environments.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2022.874237/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.874237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9490173; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9490173?pdf=render 32935048,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1121,The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank Dementia e-cohort (SAIL-DeC).,"Schnier C, Wilkinson T, Akbari A, Orton C, Sleegers K, Gallacher J, Lyons RA, Sudlow C.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-02-25,Y,,,,"

Introduction

The rising burden of dementia is a global concern, and there is a need to study its causes, natural history and outcomes. The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank contains anonymised, routinely-collected healthcare data for the population of Wales, UK. It has potential to be a valuable resource for dementia research owing to its size, long follow-up time and prospective collection of data during clinical care.

Objectives

We aimed to apply reproducible methods to create the SAIL dementia e-cohort (SAIL-DeC). We created SAIL-DeC with a view to maximising its utility for a broad range of research questions whilst minimising duplication of effort for researchers.

Methods

SAIL contains individual-level, linked primary care, hospital admission, mortality and demographic data. Data are currently available until 2018 and future updates will extend participant follow-up time. We included participants who were born between 1st January 1900 and 1st January 1958 and for whom primary care data were available. We applied algorithms consisting of International Classification of Diseases (versions 9 and 10) and Read (version 2) codes to identify participants with and without all-cause dementia and dementia subtypes. We also created derived variables for comorbidities and risk factors.

Results

From 4.4 million unique participants in SAIL, 1.2 million met the cohort inclusion criteria, resulting in 18.8 million person-years of follow-up. Of these, 129,650 (10%) developed all-cause dementia, with 77,978 (60%) having dementia subtype codes. Alzheimer's disease was the most common subtype diagnosis (62%). Among the dementia cases, the median duration of observation time was 14 years.

Conclusion

We have created a generalisable, national dementia e-cohort, aimed at facilitating epidemiological dementia research.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1121/2984; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473277; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473277?pdf=render -32723851,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122,HDR UK supporting mobilising computable biomedical knowledge in the UK. ,"Sebire NJ, Cake C, Morris AD.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2020,2020-07-01,Y,,,,"Computable biomedical knowledge (CBK) represents an evolving area of health informatics, with potential for rapid translational patient benefit. Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national Institute for Health Data Science, whose aim is to unite the UK's health data to enable discoveries that improve people's lives. The three main components include the UK HDR Alliance of data custodians, committed to making health data available for research and innovation purposes for public benefit while ensuring safe use of data and building public trust, the HDR Hubs, as centres of expertise for curating data and providing expert domain-specific services, and the HDR Innovation Gateway ('Gateway'), providing discovery, accessibility, security and interoperability services. To support CBK developments, HDR UK is encouraging use of open data standards for research purposes, with guidance around areas in which standards are emerging, aims to work closely with the international CBK community to support initiatives and aid with evaluation and collaboration, and has established a phenomics workstream to create a national platform for dissemination of machine readable and computable phenotypical algorithms to reduce duplication of effort and improve reproducibility in clinical studies.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/27/2/e100122.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881?pdf=render 34376451,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048852,Ethnic and social inequalities in COVID-19 outcomes in Scotland: protocol for early pandemic evaluation and enhanced surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II).,"Henery P, Vasileiou E, Hainey KJ, Buchanan D, Harrison E, Leyland AH, Alexis T, Robertson C, Agrawal U, Ritchie L, Stock SJ, McCowan C, Docherty A, Kerr S, Marple J, Wood R, Moore E, Simpson CR, Sheikh A, Katikireddi SV.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-08-10,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Protocols & Guidelines; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

Evidence from previous pandemics, and the current COVID-19 pandemic, has found that risk of infection/severity of disease is disproportionately higher for ethnic minority groups, and those in lower socioeconomic positions. It is imperative that interventions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are targeted towards high-risk populations. We will investigate the associations between social characteristics (such as ethnicity, occupation and socioeconomic position) and COVID-19 outcomes and the extent to which characteristics/risk factors might explain observed relationships in Scotland.The primary objective of this study is to describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 by social factors. Secondary objectives are to (1) examine receipt of treatment and prevention of COVID-19 by social factors; (2) quantify ethnic/social differences in adverse COVID-19 outcomes; (3) explore potential mediators of relationships between social factors and SARS-CoV-2 infection/COVID-19 prognosis; (4) examine whether occupational COVID-19 differences differ by other social factors and (5) assess quality of ethnicity coding within National Health Service datasets.

Methods and analysis

We will use a national cohort comprising the adult population of Scotland who completed the 2011 Census and were living in Scotland on 31 March 2020 (~4.3 million people). Census data will be linked to the Early Assessment of Vaccine and Anti-Viral Effectiveness II cohort consisting of primary/secondary care, laboratory data and death records. Sensitivity/specificity and positive/negative predictive values will be used to assess coding quality of ethnicity. Descriptive statistics will be used to examine differences in treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Poisson/Cox regression analyses and mediation techniques will examine ethnic and social differences, and drivers of inequalities in COVID-19. Effect modification (on additive and multiplicative scales) between key variables (such as ethnicity and occupation) will be assessed.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval was obtained from the National Research Ethics Committee, South East Scotland 02. We will present findings of this study at international conferences, in peer-reviewed journals and to policy-makers.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/8/e048852.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048852; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359861; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359861?pdf=render -36224173,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5,Outcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study.,"Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Winter AJ, Mills NL, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-10-12,Y,,,,"With increasing numbers infected by SARS-CoV-2, understanding long-COVID is essential to inform health and social care support. A Scottish population cohort of 33,281 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and 62,957 never-infected individuals were followed-up via 6, 12 and 18-month questionnaires and linkage to hospitalization and death records. Of the 31,486 symptomatic infections,1,856 (6%) had not recovered and 13,350 (42%) only partially. No recovery was associated with hospitalized infection, age, female sex, deprivation, respiratory disease, depression and multimorbidity. Previous symptomatic infection was associated with poorer quality of life, impairment across all daily activities and 24 persistent symptoms including breathlessness (OR 3.43, 95% CI 3.29-3.58), palpitations (OR 2.51, OR 2.36-2.66), chest pain (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.96-2.23), and confusion (OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.78-3.07). Asymptomatic infection was not associated with adverse outcomes. Vaccination was associated with reduced risk of seven symptoms. Here we describe the nature of long-COVID and the factors associated with it.",,pdf:https://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/files/64233779/s41467_022_33415_5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711?pdf=render +32723851,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122,HDR UK supporting mobilising computable biomedical knowledge in the UK. ,"Sebire NJ, Cake C, Morris AD.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2020,2020-07-01,Y,,,,"Computable biomedical knowledge (CBK) represents an evolving area of health informatics, with potential for rapid translational patient benefit. Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national Institute for Health Data Science, whose aim is to unite the UK's health data to enable discoveries that improve people's lives. The three main components include the UK HDR Alliance of data custodians, committed to making health data available for research and innovation purposes for public benefit while ensuring safe use of data and building public trust, the HDR Hubs, as centres of expertise for curating data and providing expert domain-specific services, and the HDR Innovation Gateway ('Gateway'), providing discovery, accessibility, security and interoperability services. To support CBK developments, HDR UK is encouraging use of open data standards for research purposes, with guidance around areas in which standards are emerging, aims to work closely with the international CBK community to support initiatives and aid with evaluation and collaboration, and has established a phenomics workstream to create a national platform for dissemination of machine readable and computable phenotypical algorithms to reduce duplication of effort and improve reproducibility in clinical studies.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/27/2/e100122.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881?pdf=render +36745545,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887,The use of representative community samples to assess SARS-CoV-2 lineage competition: Alpha outcompetes Beta and wild-type in England from January to March 2021.,"Eales O, Page AJ, Tang SN, Walters CE, Wang H, Haw D, Trotter AJ, Le Viet T, Foster-Nyarko E, Prosolek S, Atchison C, Ashby D, Cooke G, Barclay W, Donnelly CA, O'Grady J, Volz E, The Covid-Genomics Uk Cog-Uk Consortium, Darzi A, Ward H, Elliott P, Riley S.",,Microbial genomics,2023,2023-02-01,Y,,,,"Genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 lineages informs our understanding of possible future changes in transmissibility and vaccine efficacy and will be a high priority for public health for the foreseeable future. However, small changes in the frequency of one lineage over another are often difficult to interpret because surveillance samples are obtained using a variety of methods all of which are known to contain biases. As a case study, using an approach which is largely free of biases, we here describe lineage dynamics and phylogenetic relationships of the Alpha and Beta variant in England during the first 3 months of 2021 using sequences obtained from a random community sample who provided a throat and nose swab for rt-PCR as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. Overall, diversity decreased during the first quarter of 2021, with the Alpha variant (first identified in Kent) becoming predominant, driven by a reproduction number 0.3 higher than for the prior wild-type. During January, positive samples were more likely to be Alpha in those aged 18 to 54 years old. Although individuals infected with the Alpha variant were no more likely to report one or more classic COVID-19 symptoms compared to those infected with wild-type, they were more likely to be antibody-positive 6 weeks after infection. Further, viral load was higher in those infected with the Alpha variant as measured by cycle threshold (Ct) values. The presence of infections with non-imported Beta variant (first identified in South Africa) during January, but not during February or March, suggests initial establishment in the community followed by fade-out. However, this occurred during a period of stringent social distancing. These results highlight how sequence data from representative community surveys such as REACT-1 can augment routine genomic surveillance during periods of lineage diversity.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751?pdf=render 36447940,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2665-9913(22)00305-8,Incidence and management of inflammatory arthritis in England before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-level cohort study using OpenSAFELY.,"Russell MD, Galloway JB, Andrews CD, MacKenna B, Goldacre B, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, Butler-Cole B, O'Dwyer T, Qureshi S, Ledingham JM, Mahto A, Rutherford AI, Adas MA, Alveyn E, Norton S, Cope AP, Bechman K, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,The Lancet. Rheumatology,2022,2022-11-03,Y,,,,"

Background

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence and management of inflammatory arthritis is not understood. Routinely captured data in secure platforms, such as OpenSAFELY, offer unique opportunities to understand how care for patients with inflammatory arthritis was impacted upon by the pandemic. Our objective was to use OpenSAFELY to assess the effects of the pandemic on diagnostic incidence and care delivery for inflammatory arthritis in England and to replicate key metrics from the National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit.

Methods

In this population-level cohort study, we used primary care and hospital data for 17·7 million adults registered with general practices using TPP health record software, to explore the following outcomes between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2022: (1) incidence of inflammatory arthritis diagnoses (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, and undifferentiated inflammatory arthritis) recorded in primary care; (2) time to first rheumatology assessment; (3) time to first prescription of a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) in primary care; and (4) choice of first DMARD.

Findings

Among 17 683 500 adults, there were 31 280 incident inflammatory arthritis diagnoses recorded between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2022. The mean age of diagnosed patients was 55·4 years (SD 16·6), 18 615 (59·5%) were female, 12 665 (40·5%) were male, and 22 925 (88·3%) of 25 960 with available ethnicity data were White. New inflammatory arthritis diagnoses decreased by 20·3% in the year commencing April, 2020, relative to the preceding year (5·1 vs 6·4 diagnoses per 10 000 adults). The median time to first rheumatology assessment was shorter during the pandemic (18 days; IQR 8-35) than before (21 days; 9-41). The proportion of patients prescribed DMARDs in primary care was similar before and during the pandemic; however, during the pandemic, fewer people were prescribed methotrexate or leflunomide, and more were prescribed sulfasalazine or hydroxychloroquine.

Interpretation

Inflammatory arthritis diagnoses decreased markedly during the early phase of the pandemic. The impact on rheumatology assessment times and DMARD prescribing in primary care was less marked than might have been anticipated. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using routinely captured, near real-time data in the secure OpenSAFELY platform to benchmark care quality on a national scale, without the need for manual data collection.

Funding

None.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4669009/1/Russell_etal_2022_Incidence-and-management-of-inflammatory.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(22)00305-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691150?pdf=render 34599527,https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.14707,Comparing survival outcomes for kidney transplant recipients with pre-existing diabetes versus those who develop post-transplantation diabetes.,"Hussain A, Culliford A, Phagura N, Evison F, Gallier S, Sharif A.",,Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association,2022,2021-10-08,N,Survival; Management; Diabetes; Kidney Transplant; Post-transplant Diabetes,,,"

Introduction

The aim of this study was to compare the management strategy and clinical outcomes for kidney transplant recipients with pre-transplant versus post-transplantation diabetes (PTDM) in a contemporary cohort.

Methods

This is a single-centre, retrospective. observational study of kidney transplant recipients between 2007 and 2018 with follow-up to 31 December 2020. Data were extracted from hospital electronic patient records, with clinical outcomes linked to national data sets. PTDM was diagnosed by international consensus guidelines. Unadjusted and adjusted survival outcomes were assessed with Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models, respectively, with PTDM handled as a time-varying covariate.

Results

Data were analysed for 1,757 kidney transplant recipients, of whom 11.8% (n = 207) had pre-transplant diabetes, and 13.8% (n = 243) developed PTDM with median time to onset 108 days (IQR 46-549 days). Median follow-up was 1,839 days (IQR 928-2985 days). Disparate management strategies were observed, although insulin was the commonest glucose-lowering therapy for all patients with diabetes. In adjusted models, PTDM was associated with lower mortality (HR 0.663, 95% CI 0.543-0.810) and pre-diabetes with higher mortality (HR 1.675, 95% CI 1.396-2.011). However, if analyses are restricted to those with at least 5-year follow-up, then PTDM has no association with mortality (HR 0.771, 95% CI 0.419-1.096), but pre-transplant diabetes remains associated with higher mortality (HR 2.029, 95% CI 1.367-3.012).

Conclusions

Pre-transplant diabetes remains associated with increased mortality risk after kidney transplantation, but PTDM effects are time dependent. Development of PTDM should be encouraged as a mandated registry return to study the long-term impact on survival outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.14707 -33934335,https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466,Long-term trends in critical care admissions in Wales*. ,"Pugh RJ, Bailey R, Szakmany T, Al Sallakh M, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Battle C, Thorpe C, Subbe CP, Lyons RA.",,Anaesthesia,2021,2021-05-02,Y,,,,"As national populations age, demands on critical care services are expected to increase. In many healthcare settings, longitudinal trends indicate rising numbers and proportions of patients admitted to ICU who are older; elsewhere, including some parts of the UK, a decrease has raised concerns with regard to rationing according to age. Our aim was to investigate admission trends in Wales, where critical care capacity has not risen in the last decade. We used the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank to identify and characterise critical care admissions in patients aged ≥ 18 years from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2017. We categorised 85,629 ICU admissions as youngest (18-64 years), older (65-79 years) and oldest (≥ 80 years). The oldest group accounted for 15% of admissions, the older age group 39% and the youngest group 46%. Relative to the national population, the incidence of admission rates per 10,000 population in the oldest group decreased significantly over the study period from 91.5/10,000 in 2008 to 77.5/10,000 (a relative decrease of 15%), and among the older group from 89.2/10,000 in 2008 to 75.3/10,000 in 2017 (a relative decrease of 16%). We observed significant decreases in admissions with high comorbidity (modified Charlson comorbidity index); increases in the proportion of older patients admitted who were considered 'fit' rather than frail (electronic frailty index); and decreases in admissions with a medical diagnosis. In contrast to other healthcare settings, capacity constraints and surgical imperatives appear to have contributed to a relative exclusion of older patients presenting with acute medical illness.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56830/Download/56830__24941__ed34d96421c74ecca52d5a3aaf9afc85.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728?pdf=render -36745545,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887,The use of representative community samples to assess SARS-CoV-2 lineage competition: Alpha outcompetes Beta and wild-type in England from January to March 2021.,"Eales O, Page AJ, Tang SN, Walters CE, Wang H, Haw D, Trotter AJ, Le Viet T, Foster-Nyarko E, Prosolek S, Atchison C, Ashby D, Cooke G, Barclay W, Donnelly CA, O'Grady J, Volz E, The Covid-Genomics Uk Cog-Uk Consortium, Darzi A, Ward H, Elliott P, Riley S.",,Microbial genomics,2023,2023-02-01,Y,,,,"Genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 lineages informs our understanding of possible future changes in transmissibility and vaccine efficacy and will be a high priority for public health for the foreseeable future. However, small changes in the frequency of one lineage over another are often difficult to interpret because surveillance samples are obtained using a variety of methods all of which are known to contain biases. As a case study, using an approach which is largely free of biases, we here describe lineage dynamics and phylogenetic relationships of the Alpha and Beta variant in England during the first 3 months of 2021 using sequences obtained from a random community sample who provided a throat and nose swab for rt-PCR as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. Overall, diversity decreased during the first quarter of 2021, with the Alpha variant (first identified in Kent) becoming predominant, driven by a reproduction number 0.3 higher than for the prior wild-type. During January, positive samples were more likely to be Alpha in those aged 18 to 54 years old. Although individuals infected with the Alpha variant were no more likely to report one or more classic COVID-19 symptoms compared to those infected with wild-type, they were more likely to be antibody-positive 6 weeks after infection. Further, viral load was higher in those infected with the Alpha variant as measured by cycle threshold (Ct) values. The presence of infections with non-imported Beta variant (first identified in South Africa) during January, but not during February or March, suggests initial establishment in the community followed by fade-out. However, this occurred during a period of stringent social distancing. These results highlight how sequence data from representative community surveys such as REACT-1 can augment routine genomic surveillance during periods of lineage diversity.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751?pdf=render +36224173,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5,Outcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study.,"Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Winter AJ, Mills NL, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-10-12,Y,,,,"With increasing numbers infected by SARS-CoV-2, understanding long-COVID is essential to inform health and social care support. A Scottish population cohort of 33,281 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and 62,957 never-infected individuals were followed-up via 6, 12 and 18-month questionnaires and linkage to hospitalization and death records. Of the 31,486 symptomatic infections,1,856 (6%) had not recovered and 13,350 (42%) only partially. No recovery was associated with hospitalized infection, age, female sex, deprivation, respiratory disease, depression and multimorbidity. Previous symptomatic infection was associated with poorer quality of life, impairment across all daily activities and 24 persistent symptoms including breathlessness (OR 3.43, 95% CI 3.29-3.58), palpitations (OR 2.51, OR 2.36-2.66), chest pain (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.96-2.23), and confusion (OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.78-3.07). Asymptomatic infection was not associated with adverse outcomes. Vaccination was associated with reduced risk of seven symptoms. Here we describe the nature of long-COVID and the factors associated with it.",,pdf:https://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/files/64233779/s41467_022_33415_5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711?pdf=render 33611594,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaa155,Excess deaths in people with cardiovascular diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Banerjee A, Chen S, Pasea L, Lai AG, Katsoulis M, Denaxas S, Nafilyan V, Williams B, Wong WK, Bakhai A, Khunti K, Pillay D, Noursadeghi M, Wu H, Pareek N, Bromage D, McDonagh TA, Byrne J, Teo JTH, Shah AM, Humberstone B, Tang LV, Shah ASV, Rubboli A, Guo Y, Hu Y, Sudlow CLM, Lip GYH, Hemingway H.",,European journal of preventive cardiology,2021,2021-12-01,Y,Cardiovascular disease; Public Health; Health Policy; Global Health; Coronavirus-2019,,,"

Aims

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) increase mortality risk from coronavirus infection (COVID-19). There are also concerns that the pandemic has affected supply and demand of acute cardiovascular care. We estimated excess mortality in specific CVDs, both 'direct', through infection, and 'indirect', through changes in healthcare.

Methods and results

We used (i) national mortality data for England and Wales to investigate trends in non-COVID-19 and CVD excess deaths; (ii) routine data from hospitals in England (n = 2), Italy (n = 1), and China (n = 5) to assess indirect pandemic effects on referral, diagnosis, and treatment services for CVD; and (iii) population-based electronic health records from 3 862 012 individuals in England to investigate pre- and post-COVID-19 mortality for people with incident and prevalent CVD. We incorporated pre-COVID-19 risk (by age, sex, and comorbidities), estimated population COVID-19 prevalence, and estimated relative risk (RR) of mortality in those with CVD and COVID-19 compared with CVD and non-infected (RR: 1.2, 1.5, 2.0, and 3.0).Mortality data suggest indirect effects on CVD will be delayed rather than contemporaneous (peak RR 1.14). CVD service activity decreased by 60-100% compared with pre-pandemic levels in eight hospitals across China, Italy, and England. In China, activity remained below pre-COVID-19 levels for 2-3 months even after easing lockdown and is still reduced in Italy and England. For total CVD (incident and prevalent), at 10% COVID-19 prevalence, we estimated direct impact of 31 205 and 62 410 excess deaths in England (RR 1.5 and 2.0, respectively), and indirect effect of 49 932 to 99 865 deaths.

Conclusion

Supply and demand for CVD services have dramatically reduced across countries with potential for substantial, but avoidable, excess mortality during and after the pandemic.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/article-pdf/28/14/1599/41827245/zwaa155.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaa155; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928969; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928969?pdf=render +33934335,https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466,Long-term trends in critical care admissions in Wales*. ,"Pugh RJ, Bailey R, Szakmany T, Al Sallakh M, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Battle C, Thorpe C, Subbe CP, Lyons RA.",,Anaesthesia,2021,2021-05-02,Y,,,,"As national populations age, demands on critical care services are expected to increase. In many healthcare settings, longitudinal trends indicate rising numbers and proportions of patients admitted to ICU who are older; elsewhere, including some parts of the UK, a decrease has raised concerns with regard to rationing according to age. Our aim was to investigate admission trends in Wales, where critical care capacity has not risen in the last decade. We used the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank to identify and characterise critical care admissions in patients aged ≥ 18 years from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2017. We categorised 85,629 ICU admissions as youngest (18-64 years), older (65-79 years) and oldest (≥ 80 years). The oldest group accounted for 15% of admissions, the older age group 39% and the youngest group 46%. Relative to the national population, the incidence of admission rates per 10,000 population in the oldest group decreased significantly over the study period from 91.5/10,000 in 2008 to 77.5/10,000 (a relative decrease of 15%), and among the older group from 89.2/10,000 in 2008 to 75.3/10,000 in 2017 (a relative decrease of 16%). We observed significant decreases in admissions with high comorbidity (modified Charlson comorbidity index); increases in the proportion of older patients admitted who were considered 'fit' rather than frail (electronic frailty index); and decreases in admissions with a medical diagnosis. In contrast to other healthcare settings, capacity constraints and surgical imperatives appear to have contributed to a relative exclusion of older patients presenting with acute medical illness.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56830/Download/56830__24941__ed34d96421c74ecca52d5a3aaf9afc85.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728?pdf=render 33004880,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73228-4,"Predicting pattern formation in embryonic stem cells using a minimalist, agent-based probabilistic model.","Wang M, Tsanas A, Blin G, Robertson D.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-10-01,Y,,,,"The mechanisms of pattern formation during embryonic development remain poorly understood. Embryonic stem cells in culture self-organise to form spatial patterns of gene expression upon geometrical confinement indicating that patterning is an emergent phenomenon that results from the many interactions between the cells. Here, we applied an agent-based modelling approach in order to identify plausible biological rules acting at the meso-scale within stem cell collectives that may explain spontaneous patterning. We tested different models involving differential motile behaviours with or without biases due to neighbour interactions. We introduced a new metric, termed stem cell aggregate pattern distance (SCAPD) to probabilistically assess the fitness of our models with empirical data. The best of our models improves fitness by 70% and 77% over the random models for a discoidal or an ellipsoidal stem cell confinement respectively. Collectively, our findings show that a parsimonious mechanism that involves differential motility is sufficient to explain the spontaneous patterning of the cells upon confinement. Our work also defines a region of the parameter space that is compatible with patterning. We hope that our approach will be applicable to many biological systems and will contribute towards facilitating progress by reducing the need for extensive and costly experiments.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73228-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73228-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7529768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7529768?pdf=render +33243817,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813,COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland (COPS): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.,"Stock SJ, McAllister D, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Stagg HR, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Hopkins L, Donaghy J, Ritchie L, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-11-26,Y,Obstetrics; epidemiology; Neonatology; Perinatology; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The effects of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy are not fully delineated. We will describe the incidence of COVID-19 in pregnancy at population level in Scotland, in a prospective cohort study using linked data. We will determine associations between COVID-19 and adverse pregnancy, neonatal and maternal outcomes and the proportion of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates associated with maternal COVID-19.

Methods and analysis

Prospective cohort study using national linked data sets. We will include all women in Scotland, UK, who were pregnant on or became pregnant after, 1 March 2020 (the date of the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Scotland) and all births in Scotland from 1 March 2020 onwards. Individual-level data will be extracted from data sets containing details of all livebirths, stillbirth, terminations of pregnancy and miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies treated in hospital or attending general practice. Records will be linked within the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, which includes primary care records, virology and serology results and details of COVID-19 Community Hubs and Assessment Centre contacts and deaths. We will perform analyses using definitions for confirmed, probable and possible COVID-19 and report serology results (where available). Outcomes will include congenital anomaly, miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy, preterm birth, neonatal infection, severe maternal disease and maternal deaths. We will perform descriptive analyses and appropriate modelling, adjusting for demographic and pregnancy characteristics and the presence of comorbidities. The cohort will provide a platform for future studies of the effectiveness and safety of therapeutic interventions and immunisations for COVID-19 and their effects on childhood and developmental outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland is a substudy of EAVE II(, which has approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee. Findings will be reported to Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e042813.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999?pdf=render 32499256,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033424,Point-of-care tests for urinary tract infections: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy.,"Fraile Navarro D, Sullivan F, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Hernandez Santiago V.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-06-03,Y,Urinary tract infections; epidemiology; Molecular Diagnostics; Diagnostic Microbiology,,,"

Introduction

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the second most common type of infection worldwide, accounting for a large number of primary care consultations and antibiotic prescribing. Current diagnosis is based on an empirical approach, relying on symptoms and occasional use of urine dipsticks. The diagnostic reference standard is still urine culture, although it is not routinely recommended for uncomplicated UTIs in the community, due to time to diagnosis (48 hours). Faster point-of-care tests have been developed, but their diagnostic accuracy has not been compared. Our objective is to systematically review and meta-analyse the diagnostic accuracy of currently available point-of-care tests for UTIs.

Methods and analysis

Studies evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care tests for UTIs will be included. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched from inception to 1 June 2019. Data extraction and risk-of-bias assessment will be assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. Meta-analysis will be performed depending on data availability and heterogeneity.

Ethics and dissemination

This is a systematic review protocol and therefore formal ethical approval is not required, as no primary, identifiable, personal data will be collected. Patients or the public were not involved in the design of our research. However, the findings from this review will be shared with key stakeholders, including patient groups, clinicians and guideline developers, and will also be presented and national and international conferences.

Prospero registration number

CRD42018112019.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/6/e033424.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7282288; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7282288?pdf=render 35379238,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-022-01482-z,Metformin and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I and T trajectories in type 2 diabetes patients: a post-hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial.,"Stultiens JMG, Top WMC, Kimenai DM, Lehert P, Bekers O, Stehouwer CDA, Kooy A, Meex SJR.",,Cardiovascular diabetology,2022,2022-04-04,Y,Troponin; Mechanism; Cardiac; Biomarker; Metformin; Longitudinal; Cardioprotective,,,"

Background

Metformin has favorable effects on cardiovascular outcomes in both newly onset and advanced type 2 diabetes, as previously reported findings from the UK Prospective Diabetes Study and the HOME trial have demonstrated. Patients with type 2 diabetes present with chronically elevated circulating cardiac troponin levels, an established predictor of cardiovascular endpoints and prognostic marker of subclinical myocardial injury. It is unknown whether metformin affects cardiac troponin levels. The study aimed to evaluate cardiac troponin I and T trajectories in patients with diabetes treated either with metformin or placebo.

Methods

This study is a post-hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial (HOME trial) that included 390 patients with advanced type 2 diabetes randomized to 850 mg metformin or placebo up to three times daily concomitant to continued insulin treatment. Cardiac troponin I and T concentrations were measured at baseline and after 4, 17, 30, 43 and 52 months. We evaluated cardiac troponin trajectories by linear mixed-effects modeling, correcting for age, sex, smoking status and history of cardiovascular disease.

Results

This study enrolled 390 subjects, of which 196 received metformin and 194 received placebo. In the treatment and placebo groups, mean age was 64 and 59 years; with 50% and 58% of subjects of the female sex, respectively. Despite the previously reported reduction of macrovascular disease risk in this cohort by metformin, linear mixed-effects regression modelling did not reveal evidence for an effect on cardiac troponin I and cardiac troponin T levels [- 8.4% (- 18.6, 3.2), p = 0.150, and - 4.6% (- 12, 3.2), p = 0.242, respectively]. A statistically significant time-treatment interaction was found for troponin T [- 1.6% (- 2.9, - 0.2), p = 0.021] but not troponin I concentrations [- 1.5% (- 4.2, 1.2), p = 0.263].

Conclusions

In this post-hoc analysis of a 4.3-year randomized controlled trial, metformin did not exert a clinically relevant effect on cardiac troponin I and cardiac troponin T levels when compared to placebo. Cardioprotective effects of the drug observed in clinical studies are not reflected by a reduction in these biomarkers of subclinical myocardial injury. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00375388.",,pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-022-01482-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-022-01482-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8981770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8981770?pdf=render -33243817,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813,COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland (COPS): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.,"Stock SJ, McAllister D, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Stagg HR, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Hopkins L, Donaghy J, Ritchie L, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-11-26,Y,Obstetrics; epidemiology; Neonatology; Perinatology; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The effects of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy are not fully delineated. We will describe the incidence of COVID-19 in pregnancy at population level in Scotland, in a prospective cohort study using linked data. We will determine associations between COVID-19 and adverse pregnancy, neonatal and maternal outcomes and the proportion of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates associated with maternal COVID-19.

Methods and analysis

Prospective cohort study using national linked data sets. We will include all women in Scotland, UK, who were pregnant on or became pregnant after, 1 March 2020 (the date of the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Scotland) and all births in Scotland from 1 March 2020 onwards. Individual-level data will be extracted from data sets containing details of all livebirths, stillbirth, terminations of pregnancy and miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies treated in hospital or attending general practice. Records will be linked within the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, which includes primary care records, virology and serology results and details of COVID-19 Community Hubs and Assessment Centre contacts and deaths. We will perform analyses using definitions for confirmed, probable and possible COVID-19 and report serology results (where available). Outcomes will include congenital anomaly, miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy, preterm birth, neonatal infection, severe maternal disease and maternal deaths. We will perform descriptive analyses and appropriate modelling, adjusting for demographic and pregnancy characteristics and the presence of comorbidities. The cohort will provide a platform for future studies of the effectiveness and safety of therapeutic interventions and immunisations for COVID-19 and their effects on childhood and developmental outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland is a substudy of EAVE II(, which has approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee. Findings will be reported to Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e042813.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999?pdf=render 37236697,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(23)00065-1,"Identifying subtypes of heart failure from three electronic health record sources with machine learning: an external, prognostic, and genetic validation study.","Banerjee A, Dashtban A, Chen S, Pasea L, Thygesen JH, Fatemifar G, Tyl B, Dyszynski T, Asselbergs FW, Lund LH, Lumbers T, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2023,2023-06-01,N,,,,"

Background

Machine learning has been used to analyse heart failure subtypes, but not across large, distinct, population-based datasets, across the whole spectrum of causes and presentations, or with clinical and non-clinical validation by different machine learning methods. Using our published framework, we aimed to discover heart failure subtypes and validate them upon population representative data.

Methods

In this external, prognostic, and genetic validation study we analysed individuals aged 30 years or older with incident heart failure from two population-based databases in the UK (Clinical Practice Research Datalink [CPRD] and The Health Improvement Network [THIN]) from 1998 to 2018. Pre-heart failure and post-heart failure factors (n=645) included demographic information, history, examination, blood laboratory values, and medications. We identified subtypes using four unsupervised machine learning methods (K-means, hierarchical, K-Medoids, and mixture model clustering) with 87 of 645 factors in each dataset. We evaluated subtypes for (1) external validity (across datasets); (2) prognostic validity (predictive accuracy for 1-year mortality); and (3) genetic validity (UK Biobank), association with polygenic risk score (PRS) for heart failure-related traits (n=11), and single nucleotide polymorphisms (n=12).

Findings

We included 188 800, 124 262, and 9573 individuals with incident heart failure from CPRD, THIN, and UK Biobank, respectively, between Jan 1, 1998, and Jan 1, 2018. After identifying five clusters, we labelled heart failure subtypes as (1) early onset, (2) late onset, (3) atrial fibrillation related, (4) metabolic, and (5) cardiometabolic. In the external validity analysis, subtypes were similar across datasets (c-statistics: THIN model in CPRD ranged from 0·79 [subtype 3] to 0·94 [subtype 1], and CPRD model in THIN ranged from 0·79 [subtype 1] to 0·92 [subtypes 2 and 5]). In the prognostic validity analysis, 1-year all-cause mortality after heart failure diagnosis (subtype 1 0·20 [95% CI 0·14-0·25], subtype 2 0·46 [0·43-0·49], subtype 3 0·61 [0·57-0·64], subtype 4 0·11 [0·07-0·16], and subtype 5 0·37 [0·32-0·41]) differed across subtypes in CPRD and THIN data, as did risk of non-fatal cardiovascular diseases and all-cause hospitalisation. In the genetic validity analysis the atrial fibrillation-related subtype showed associations with the related PRS. Late onset and cardiometabolic subtypes were the most similar and strongly associated with PRS for hypertension, myocardial infarction, and obesity (p<0·0009). We developed a prototype app for routine clinical use, which could enable evaluation of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Interpretation

Across four methods and three datasets, including genetic data, in the largest study of incident heart failure to date, we identified five machine learning-informed subtypes, which might inform aetiological research, clinical risk prediction, and the design of heart failure trials.

Funding

European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative-2.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750023000651/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00065-1 34158305,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048333,Association between community-based self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and social deprivation explored using symptom tracker apps: a repeated cross-sectional study in Northern Ireland.,"McKinley JM, Cutting D, Anderson N, Graham C, Johnston B, Mueller U, Atkinson PM, Van Woerden H, Bradley DT, Kee F.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-22,Y,Public Health; Statistics & Research Methods; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships between the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms in the community-level and area-level social deprivation.

Design

Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design.

Setting

In the community in Northern Ireland, UK. The analysis period included the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions or 'lockdown' in 2020.

Participants

Users of two smartphone symptom tracker apps recording self-reported health information who recorded their location as Northern Ireland, UK.

Primary outcome measures

Population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and correlation between population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and area-level characteristics from measures of multiple deprivation including employment levels and population housing density, derived as the mean number of residents per household for each census super output area.

Results

Higher self-reported prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms was associated with the most deprived areas (p<0.001) and with those areas with the lowest employment levels (p<0.001). Higher rates of self-reported COVID-19 symptoms within the age groups, 18-24 and 25-34 years were found within the most deprived areas during the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions ('lockdown').

Conclusions

Through spatial regression of self-reporting COVID-19 smartphone data in the community, this research shows how a lens of social deprivation can deepen our understanding of COVID-19 transmission and prevention. Our findings indicate that social inequality, as measured by area-level deprivation, is associated with disparities in potential COVID-19 infection, with higher prevalence of self-reported COVID-19 symptoms in urban areas associated with area-level social deprivation, housing density and age.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e048333.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048333; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8228811; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8228811?pdf=render 35133177,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8347,Rapid increase in Omicron infections in England during December 2021: REACT-1 study.,"Elliott P, Bodinier B, Eales O, Wang H, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Jonnerby J, Tang D, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2022,2022-02-08,Y,,,,"The unprecedented rise in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections during December 2021 was concurrent with rapid spread of the Omicron variant in England and globally. We analyzed the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and its dynamics in England from the end of November to mid-December 2021 among almost 100,000 participants in the REACT-1 study. Prevalence was high with rapid growth nationally and particularly in London during December 2021, with an increasing proportion of infections due to Omicron. We observed large decreases in swab positivity among mostly vaccinated older children (12 to 17 years) relative to unvaccinated younger children (5 to 11 years), and in adults who received a third (booster) vaccine dose versus two doses. Our results reinforce the importance of vaccination and booster campaigns, although additional measures have been needed to control the rapid growth of the Omicron variant.",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/94586/2/science.abn8347.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8347; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8939772; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8939772?pdf=render @@ -396,57 +396,57 @@ id,doi,title,authorString,authorAffiliations,journalTitle,pubYear,date,isOpenAcc 34966903,https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.778305,Development of a Lexicon for Pain.,"Chaturvedi J, Mascio A, Velupillai SU, Roberts A.",,Frontiers in digital health,2021,2021-12-13,Y,Pain; Mental health; Lexicon; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing,,,"Pain has been an area of growing interest in the past decade and is known to be associated with mental health issues. Due to the ambiguous nature of how pain is described in text, it presents a unique natural language processing (NLP) challenge. Understanding how pain is described in text and utilizing this knowledge to improve NLP tasks would be of substantial clinical importance. Not much work has previously been done in this space. For this reason, and in order to develop an English lexicon for use in NLP applications, an exploration of pain concepts within free text was conducted. The exploratory text sources included two hospital databases, a social media platform (Twitter), and an online community (Reddit). This exploration helped select appropriate sources and inform the construction of a pain lexicon. The terms within the final lexicon were derived from three sources-literature, ontologies, and word embedding models. This lexicon was validated by two clinicians as well as compared to an existing 26-term pain sub-ontology and MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms. The final validated lexicon consists of 382 terms and will be used in downstream NLP tasks by helping select appropriate pain-related documents from electronic health record (EHR) databases, as well as pre-annotating these words to help in development of an NLP application for classification of mentions of pain within the documents. The lexicon and the code used to generate the embedding models have been made publicly available.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8710455; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.778305; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8710455; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8710455?pdf=render 35944928,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100488,Software development skills for health data researchers.,"Morton C, Devito N, Morley J, Dillingham I, Schultze A, Bacon S, Inglesby P, Maude S, Goldacre B.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Documentation; data management; Medical Informatics Computing; Data Science; Programming Languages,,,,,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/29/1/e100488.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100488; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367192; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367192?pdf=render 33114263,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21217886,Biomarker Prioritisation and Power Estimation Using Ensemble Gene Regulatory Network Inference. ,"Aziz F, Acharjee A, Williams JA, Russ D, Bravo-Merodio L, Gkoutos GV.",,International journal of molecular sciences,2020,2020-10-23,Y,,,,"Inferring the topology of a gene regulatory network (GRN) from gene expression data is a challenging but important undertaking for gaining a better understanding of gene regulation. Key challenges include working with noisy data and dealing with a higher number of genes than samples. Although a number of different methods have been proposed to infer the structure of a GRN, there are large discrepancies among the different inference algorithms they adopt, rendering their meaningful comparison challenging. In this study, we used two methods, namely the MIDER (Mutual Information Distance and Entropy Reduction) and the PLSNET (Partial least square based feature selection) methods, to infer the structure of a GRN directly from data and computationally validated our results. Both methods were applied to different gene expression datasets resulting from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) studies. For each case, gene regulators were successfully identified. For example, for the case of the IBD dataset, the UGT1A family genes were identified as key regulators while upon analysing the PDAC dataset, the SULF1 and THBS2 genes were depicted. We further demonstrate that an ensemble-based approach, that combines the output of the MIDER and PLSNET algorithms, can infer the structure of a GRN from data with higher accuracy. We have also estimated the number of the samples required for potential future validation studies. Here, we presented our proposed analysis framework that caters not only to candidate regulator genes prediction for potential validation experiments but also an estimation of the number of samples required for these experiments.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/21/7886/pdf?version=1604329387; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21217886; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660606?pdf=render -32704561,https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140,"Prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes' or 'at risk' ranges in hospital emergencies with no prior diagnosis of diabetes by gender, age and ethnicity.","Ghosh S, Manley SE, Nightingale PG, Williams JA, Susarla R, Alonso-Perez I, Stratton IM, Gkoutos GV, Webber J, Luzio SD, Hanif W, Roberts GA.",,"Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism",2020,2020-05-15,Y,Hyperglycaemia; Undiagnosed Diabetes; Emergency Admissions,,,"

Aims

To establish the prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes' and 'at risk' ranges in emergency hospital admissions with no prior diagnosis of diabetes; characteristics of people with hyperglycaemia; and factors influencing glucose measurement.

Methods

Electronic patient records for 113 097 hospital admissions over 1 year from 2014 to 2015 included 43 201 emergencies with glucose available for 31 927 (74%) admissions, comprising 22 045 people. Data are presented for 18 965 people with no prior diagnosis of diabetes and glucose available on first attendance.

Results

Three quarters (14 214) were White Europeans aged 62 (43-78) years, median (IQ range); 12% (2241) South Asians 46 (32-64) years; 9% (1726) Unknown/Other ethnicities 43 (29-61) years; and 4% (784) Afro-Caribbeans 49 (33-63) years, P < .001. Overall, 5% (1003) had glucose in the 'diabetes' range (≥11.1 mmol/L) higher at 8% (175) for South Asians; 16% (3042) were 'at risk' (7.8-11.0 mmol/L), that is 17% (2379) White Europeans, 15% (338) South Asians, 14% (236) Unknown/Others and 11% (89) Afro-Caribbeans, P < .001. The prevalence for South Asians aged <30 years was 2.1% and 5.2%, respectively, 2.6% and 8.6% for Afro-Caribbeans <30 years, and 2.0% and 8.4% for White Europeans <40 years. Glucose increased with age and was more often in the 'diabetes' range for South Asians than White Europeans with South Asian men particularly affected. One third of all emergency admissions were for <24 hours with 58% of these having glucose measured compared to 82% with duration >24 hours.

Conclusions

Hyperglycaemia was evident in 21% of adults admitted as an emergency; various aspects related to follow-up and initial testing, age and ethnicity need to be considered by professional bodies addressing undiagnosed diabetes in hospital admissions.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/edm2.140; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073?pdf=render 35474585,https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15366,Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and risk of age-related macular degeneration in individuals with hypertension.,"Subramanian A, Han D, Braithwaite T, Thayakaran R, Zemedikun DT, Gokhale KM, Lee WH, Coker J, Keane PA, Denniston AK, Nirantharakumar K, Azoulay L, Adderley NJ.",,British journal of clinical pharmacology,2022,2022-05-11,Y,Hypertension; Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors; Age-related macular degeneration,,,"

Aims

Several observational studies have examined the potential protective effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) use on the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and have reported contradictory results owing to confounding and time-related biases. We aimed to assess the risk of AMD in a base cohort of patients aged 40 years and above with hypertension among new users of ACE-I compared to an active comparator cohort of new users of calcium channel blockers (CCB) using data obtained from IQVIA Medical Research Data, a primary care database in the UK.

Methods

In this study, 53 832 and 43 106 new users of ACE-I and CCB were included between 1995 and 2019, respectively. In an on-treatment analysis, patients were followed up from the time of index drug initiation to the date of AMD diagnosis, loss to follow-up, discontinuation or switch to the comparator drug. A comprehensive range of covariates were used to estimate propensity scores to weight and match new users of ACE-I and CCB. Standardized mortality ratio weighted Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate hazard ratios of developing AMD.

Results

During a median follow-up of 2 years (interquartile range 1-5 years), the incidence rate of AMD was 2.4 (95% confidence interval 2.2-2.6) and 2.2 (2.0-2.4) per 1000 person-years among the weighted new users of ACE-I and CCB, respectively. There was no association of ACE-I use on the risk of AMD compared to CCB use in either the propensity score weighted or matched, on-treatment analysis (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.07 [95% confidence interval 0.90-1.27] and 0.87 [0.71-1.07], respectively).

Conclusion

We found no evidence that the use of ACE-I is associated with risk of AMD in patients with hypertension.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15366; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15366; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9541840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9541840?pdf=render -32877922,https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216,Frailty Is Associated With Neutrophil Dysfunction Which Is Correctable With Phosphoinositol-3-Kinase Inhibitors.,"Wilson D, Drew W, Jasper A, Crisford H, Nightingale P, Newby P, Jackson T, Lord JM, Sapey E.",,"The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences",2020,2020-11-01,Y,Inflammation; Proteinases; innate immunity; Comorbidity,,,"Neutrophil dysfunction has been described with age, appears exaggerated in infection, with altered phosphoinositol signaling a potential mechanism. However, functional aging is heterogeneous. Frailty is a negative health status and is more common in older adults. We hypothesized that neutrophil migration may be compromised in frailty, associated with the degree of frailty experienced by the older person. We compared measures of frailty, neutrophil function, and systemic inflammation in 40 young and 77 older community-dwelling adults in the United Kingdom. Systemic neutrophils exhibited an age-associated reduction in the accuracy of migration (chemotaxis) which was further blunted with frailty. The degree of migratory inaccuracy correlated with physical (adjusted hand grip strength) and cognitive (Stroop test) markers of frailty. Regression analysis demonstrated that age, Charlson comorbidity index, and frailty index were able to predict neutrophil chemotaxis. Reduced chemotaxis of neutrophils from frail adults could be reversed using selective PI3K inhibitors. Exposure of neutrophils from young adults to plasma from chronically inflamed frail older adults could not recapitulate the migratory deficit in vitro, and there were no relationships with systemic inflammation and neutrophil dysfunction. Frailty exaggerated the neutrophil deficits seen with advanced age but aspects of the frailty-associated deficit in neutrophil function are rescuable and thus potentially form a therapeutic target to improve outcomes from infection in older adults.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article-pdf/75/12/2320/34289886/glaa216.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170?pdf=render +32704561,https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140,"Prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes' or 'at risk' ranges in hospital emergencies with no prior diagnosis of diabetes by gender, age and ethnicity.","Ghosh S, Manley SE, Nightingale PG, Williams JA, Susarla R, Alonso-Perez I, Stratton IM, Gkoutos GV, Webber J, Luzio SD, Hanif W, Roberts GA.",,"Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism",2020,2020-05-15,Y,Hyperglycaemia; Undiagnosed Diabetes; Emergency Admissions,,,"

Aims

To establish the prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes' and 'at risk' ranges in emergency hospital admissions with no prior diagnosis of diabetes; characteristics of people with hyperglycaemia; and factors influencing glucose measurement.

Methods

Electronic patient records for 113 097 hospital admissions over 1 year from 2014 to 2015 included 43 201 emergencies with glucose available for 31 927 (74%) admissions, comprising 22 045 people. Data are presented for 18 965 people with no prior diagnosis of diabetes and glucose available on first attendance.

Results

Three quarters (14 214) were White Europeans aged 62 (43-78) years, median (IQ range); 12% (2241) South Asians 46 (32-64) years; 9% (1726) Unknown/Other ethnicities 43 (29-61) years; and 4% (784) Afro-Caribbeans 49 (33-63) years, P < .001. Overall, 5% (1003) had glucose in the 'diabetes' range (≥11.1 mmol/L) higher at 8% (175) for South Asians; 16% (3042) were 'at risk' (7.8-11.0 mmol/L), that is 17% (2379) White Europeans, 15% (338) South Asians, 14% (236) Unknown/Others and 11% (89) Afro-Caribbeans, P < .001. The prevalence for South Asians aged <30 years was 2.1% and 5.2%, respectively, 2.6% and 8.6% for Afro-Caribbeans <30 years, and 2.0% and 8.4% for White Europeans <40 years. Glucose increased with age and was more often in the 'diabetes' range for South Asians than White Europeans with South Asian men particularly affected. One third of all emergency admissions were for <24 hours with 58% of these having glucose measured compared to 82% with duration >24 hours.

Conclusions

Hyperglycaemia was evident in 21% of adults admitted as an emergency; various aspects related to follow-up and initial testing, age and ethnicity need to be considered by professional bodies addressing undiagnosed diabetes in hospital admissions.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/edm2.140; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073?pdf=render 35608440,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq4411,Twin peaks: The Omicron SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 and BA.2 epidemics in England.,"Elliott P, Eales O, Steyn N, Tang D, Bodinier B, Wang H, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Donnelly CA, Chadeau-Hyam M.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2022,2022-06-24,Y,,,,"Rapid transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant has led to record-breaking incidence rates around the world. The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study has tracked SARS-CoV-2 infection in England using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results from self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly selected participants aged 5 years and older approximately monthly from May 2020 to March 2022. Weighted prevalence in March 2022 was the highest recorded in REACT-1 at 6.37% (N = 109,181), with the Omicron BA.2 variant largely replacing the BA.1 variant. Prevalence was increasing overall, with the greatest increase in those aged 65 to 74 years and 75 years and older. This was associated with increased hospitalizations and deaths, but at much lower levels than in previous waves against a backdrop of high levels of vaccination.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9161371; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq4411; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161371; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161371?pdf=render +32877922,https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216,Frailty Is Associated With Neutrophil Dysfunction Which Is Correctable With Phosphoinositol-3-Kinase Inhibitors.,"Wilson D, Drew W, Jasper A, Crisford H, Nightingale P, Newby P, Jackson T, Lord JM, Sapey E.",,"The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences",2020,2020-11-01,Y,Inflammation; Proteinases; innate immunity; Comorbidity,,,"Neutrophil dysfunction has been described with age, appears exaggerated in infection, with altered phosphoinositol signaling a potential mechanism. However, functional aging is heterogeneous. Frailty is a negative health status and is more common in older adults. We hypothesized that neutrophil migration may be compromised in frailty, associated with the degree of frailty experienced by the older person. We compared measures of frailty, neutrophil function, and systemic inflammation in 40 young and 77 older community-dwelling adults in the United Kingdom. Systemic neutrophils exhibited an age-associated reduction in the accuracy of migration (chemotaxis) which was further blunted with frailty. The degree of migratory inaccuracy correlated with physical (adjusted hand grip strength) and cognitive (Stroop test) markers of frailty. Regression analysis demonstrated that age, Charlson comorbidity index, and frailty index were able to predict neutrophil chemotaxis. Reduced chemotaxis of neutrophils from frail adults could be reversed using selective PI3K inhibitors. Exposure of neutrophils from young adults to plasma from chronically inflamed frail older adults could not recapitulate the migratory deficit in vitro, and there were no relationships with systemic inflammation and neutrophil dysfunction. Frailty exaggerated the neutrophil deficits seen with advanced age but aspects of the frailty-associated deficit in neutrophil function are rescuable and thus potentially form a therapeutic target to improve outcomes from infection in older adults.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article-pdf/75/12/2320/34289886/glaa216.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170?pdf=render 34722933,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16507.1,The international Perinatal Outcomes in the Pandemic (iPOP) study: protocol.,"Stock SJ, Zoega H, Brockway M, Mulholland RH, Miller JE, Been JV, Wood R, Abok II, Alshaikh B, Ayede AI, Bacchini F, Bhutta ZA, Brew BK, Brook J, Calvert C, Campbell-Yeo M, Chan D, Chirombo J, Connor KL, Daly M, Einarsdóttir K, Fantasia I, Franklin M, Fraser A, Håberg SE, Hui L, Huicho L, Magnus MC, Morris AD, Nagy-Bonnard L, Nassar N, Nyadanu SD, Iyabode Olabisi D, Palmer KR, Pedersen LH, Pereira G, Racine-Poon A, Ranger M, Rihs T, Saner C, Sheikh A, Swift EM, Tooke L, Urquia ML, Whitehead C, Yilgwan C, Rodriguez N, Burgner D, Azad MB, iPOP Study Team.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-02-02,Y,Stillbirth; Low Birth Weight; Preterm Birth; Global Trends; Perinatal Outcomes; Covid-19; Pandemic Lockdowns,,,"Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant death worldwide, but the causes of preterm birth are largely unknown. During the early COVID-19 lockdowns, dramatic reductions in preterm birth were reported; however, these trends may be offset by increases in stillbirth rates. It is important to study these trends globally as the pandemic continues, and to understand the underlying cause(s). Lockdowns have dramatically impacted maternal workload, access to healthcare, hygiene practices, and air pollution - all of which could impact perinatal outcomes and might affect pregnant women differently in different regions of the world. In the international Perinatal Outcomes in the Pandemic (iPOP) Study, we will seize the unique opportunity offered by the COVID-19 pandemic to answer urgent questions about perinatal health. In the first two study phases, we will use population-based aggregate data and standardized outcome definitions to: 1) Determine rates of preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth and describe changes during lockdowns; and assess if these changes are consistent globally, or differ by region and income setting, 2) Determine if the magnitude of changes in adverse perinatal outcomes during lockdown are modified by regional differences in COVID-19 infection rates, lockdown stringency, adherence to lockdown measures, air quality, or other social and economic markers, obtained from publicly available datasets. We will undertake an interrupted time series analysis covering births from January 2015 through July 2020. The iPOP Study will involve at least 121 researchers in 37 countries, including obstetricians, neonatologists, epidemiologists, public health researchers, environmental scientists, and policymakers. We will leverage the most disruptive and widespread ""natural experiment"" of our lifetime to make rapid discoveries about preterm birth. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening or unexpectedly improving perinatal outcomes, our research will provide critical new information to shape prenatal care strategies throughout (and well beyond) the pandemic.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16507.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524299; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524299?pdf=render 37203546,https://doi.org/10.3233/shti230319,On the Difficulty of Predicting Engagement with Digital Health for Substance Use.,"Günther F, Yau C, Elison-Davies S, Wong D.",,Studies in health technology and informatics,2023,2023-05-01,N,Prediction; Engagement; Substance Use; Digital Health,,,"Digital interventions can be an important instrument in treating substance use disorder. However, most digital mental health interventions suffer from early, frequent user dropout. Early prediction of engagement would allow identification of individuals whose engagement with digital interventions may be too limited to support behaviour change, and subsequently offering them support. To investigate this, we used machine learning models to predict different metrics of real-world engagement with a digital cognitive behavioural therapy intervention widely available in UK addiction services. Our predictor set consisted of baseline data from routinely-collected standardised psychometric measures. Areas under the ROC curve, and correlations between predicted and observed values indicated that baseline data do not contain sufficient information about individual patterns of engagement.",,pdf:https://ebooks.iospress.nl/pdf/doi/10.3233/SHTI230319; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI230319 +34957254,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287,Radiomics Analysis Derived From LGE-MRI Predict Sudden Cardiac Death in Participants With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.,"Wang J, Bravo L, Zhang J, Liu W, Wan K, Sun J, Zhu Y, Han Y, Gkoutos GV, Chen Y.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-12-10,Y,hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Sudden Cardiac Death; Machine Learning; Late Gadolinium Enhancement; Radiomics,,,"Objectives: To identify significant radiomics features derived from late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) images in participants with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and assess their prognostic value in predicting sudden cardiac death (SCD) endpoint. Method: The 157 radiomic features of 379 sequential participants with HCM who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were extracted. CoxNet (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Elastic Net) and Random Forest models were applied to optimize feature selection for the SCD risk prediction and cross-validation was performed. Results: During a median follow-up of 29 months (interquartile range, 20-42 months), 27 participants with HCM experienced SCD events. Cox analysis revealed that two selected features, local binary patterns (LBP) (19) (hazard ratio (HR), 1.028, 95% CI: 1.032-1.134; P = 0.001) and Moment (1) (HR, 1.212, 95%CI: 1.032-1.423; P = 0.02) provided significant prognostic value to predict the SCD endpoints after adjustment for the clinical risk predictors and late gadolinium enhancement. Furthermore, the univariately significant risk predictor was improved by the addition of the selected radiomics features, LBP (19) and Moment (1), to predict SCD events (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The radiomics features of LBP (19) and Moment (1) extracted from LGE images, reflecting scar heterogeneity, have independent prognostic value in identifying high SCD risk patients with HCM.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805?pdf=render 33565992,https://doi.org/10.2196/22164,Identifying Myocardial Infarction Using Hierarchical Template Matching-Based Myocardial Strain: Algorithm Development and Usability Study.,"Bhalodiya JM, Palit A, Giblin G, Tiwari MK, Prasad SK, Bhudia SK, Arvanitis TN, Williams MA.",,JMIR medical informatics,2021,2021-02-10,Y,Myocardium; Strain; Myocardial infarction; Left ventricle,,,"

Background

Myocardial infarction (MI; location and extent of infarction) can be determined by late enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, which requires the injection of a potentially harmful gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA). Alternatively, emerging research in the area of myocardial strain has shown potential to identify MI using strain values.

Objective

This study aims to identify the location of MI by developing an applied algorithmic method of circumferential strain (CS) values, which are derived through a novel hierarchical template matching (HTM) method.

Methods

HTM-based CS H-spread from end-diastole to end-systole was used to develop an applied method. Grid-tagging magnetic resonance imaging was used to calculate strain values in the left ventricular (LV) myocardium, followed by the 16-segment American Heart Association model. The data set was used with k-fold cross-validation to estimate the percentage reduction of H-spread among infarcted and noninfarcted LV segments. A total of 43 participants (38 MI and 5 healthy) who underwent CMR imaging were retrospectively selected. Infarcted segments detected by using this method were validated by comparison with late enhancement CMR, and the diagnostic performance of the applied algorithmic method was evaluated with a receiver operating characteristic curve test.

Results

The H-spread of the CS was reduced in infarcted segments compared with noninfarcted segments of the LV. The reductions were 30% in basal segments, 30% in midventricular segments, and 20% in apical LV segments. The diagnostic accuracy of detection, using the reported method, was represented by area under the curve values, which were 0.85, 0.82, and 0.87 for basal, midventricular, and apical slices, respectively, demonstrating good agreement with the late-gadolinium enhancement-based detections.

Conclusions

The proposed applied algorithmic method has the potential to accurately identify the location of infarcted LV segments without the administration of late-gadolinium enhancement. Such an approach adds the potential to safely identify MI, potentially reduce patient scanning time, and extend the utility of CMR in patients who are contraindicated for the use of GBCA.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2021/2/e22164/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/22164; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7904396 35213664,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264529,Achievement of European Society of Cardiology/European Atherosclerosis Society lipid targets in very high-risk patients: Influence of depression and sex.,"Ellins EA, Harris DE, Lacey A, Akbari A, Torabi F, Smith D, Jenkins G, Obaid D, Chase A, John A, Gravenor MB, Halcox JP.",,PloS one,2022,2022-02-25,Y,,,,"

Aims

To explore differences in the use of lipid lowering therapy and/or achievement of lipid guideline targets in patients with and without prior depression and influence of sex in very high-risk coronary patients.

Methods & findings

A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted using individual-level linked electronic health record data in patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (2012-2017) in Wales. The cohort comprised of 13,781 patients (27.4% female), with 26.1% having prior depression. Lipid levels were recorded in 10,050 patients of whom 25% had depression. History of depression was independently associated with not having lipids checked (OR 0.79 95%CI 0.72-0.87 p<0.001). Patients with prior depression were less likely to achieve targets for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C <1.8mmol/l), non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C <2.6mmol/l) and triglycerides (<2.3mmol/l) than patients without depression (OR 0.86 95%CI 0.78-0.96 p = 0.007, OR 0.80 95%CI 0.69-0.92 p = 0.003 & OR 0.69 95CI% 0.61-0.79 p<0.001 respectively). Females were less likely to achieve targets for LDL-C and non-HDL-C than males (OR 0.55 95%CI 0.50-0.61 p<0.001 & OR 0.63 95%CI 0.55-0.73 p<0.001). There was an additive effect of depression and sex; females with depression were not only least likely to be tested (OR 0.74 95%CI 0.65-0.84 p<0.001) but also (where levels were known) less likely to achieve LDL-C (OR 0.47 95%CI 0.41-0.55 p<0.001) and non-HDL-C targets (OR 0.50 95%CI 0.41-0.60 p<0.001). It was not possible to look at the influence of medication adherence on achievement of lipid targets due to limitations of the use of anonymised routinely-held clinical care data.

Conclusion

Patients with prior depression were less likely to have their lipids monitored and achieve guideline targets within 1-year. Females with depression are the least likely to be tested and achieve lipid targets, suggesting not only a greater risk of future events, but also an opportunity to improve care.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264529&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264529; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880762?pdf=render -34957254,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287,Radiomics Analysis Derived From LGE-MRI Predict Sudden Cardiac Death in Participants With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.,"Wang J, Bravo L, Zhang J, Liu W, Wan K, Sun J, Zhu Y, Han Y, Gkoutos GV, Chen Y.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-12-10,Y,hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Sudden Cardiac Death; Machine Learning; Late Gadolinium Enhancement; Radiomics,,,"Objectives: To identify significant radiomics features derived from late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) images in participants with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and assess their prognostic value in predicting sudden cardiac death (SCD) endpoint. Method: The 157 radiomic features of 379 sequential participants with HCM who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were extracted. CoxNet (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Elastic Net) and Random Forest models were applied to optimize feature selection for the SCD risk prediction and cross-validation was performed. Results: During a median follow-up of 29 months (interquartile range, 20-42 months), 27 participants with HCM experienced SCD events. Cox analysis revealed that two selected features, local binary patterns (LBP) (19) (hazard ratio (HR), 1.028, 95% CI: 1.032-1.134; P = 0.001) and Moment (1) (HR, 1.212, 95%CI: 1.032-1.423; P = 0.02) provided significant prognostic value to predict the SCD endpoints after adjustment for the clinical risk predictors and late gadolinium enhancement. Furthermore, the univariately significant risk predictor was improved by the addition of the selected radiomics features, LBP (19) and Moment (1), to predict SCD events (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The radiomics features of LBP (19) and Moment (1) extracted from LGE images, reflecting scar heterogeneity, have independent prognostic value in identifying high SCD risk patients with HCM.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805?pdf=render 32576605,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214051,Efficacy of contact tracing for the containment of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19).,"Keeling MJ, Hollingsworth TD, Read JM.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2020,2020-06-23,Y,epidemiology; Communicable Diseases; Public Health Policy; Disease Modeling,,,"

Objective

Contact tracing is a central public health response to infectious disease outbreaks, especially in the early stages of an outbreak when specific treatments are limited. Importation of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) from China and elsewhere into the UK highlights the need to understand the impact of contact tracing as a control measure.

Design

Detailed survey information on social encounters from over 5800 respondents is coupled to predictive models of contact tracing and control. This is used to investigate the likely efficacy of contact tracing and the distribution of secondary cases that may go untraced.

Results

Taking recent estimates for COVID-19 transmission we predict that under effective contact tracing less than 1 in 6 cases will generate any subsequent untraced infections, although this comes at a high logistical burden with an average of 36 individuals traced per case. Changes to the definition of a close contact can reduce this burden, but with increased risk of untraced cases; we find that tracing using a contact definition requiring more than 4 hours of contact is unlikely to control spread.

Conclusions

The current contact tracing strategy within the UK is likely to identify a sufficient proportion of infected individuals such that subsequent spread could be prevented, although the ultimate success will depend on the rapid detection of cases and isolation of contacts. Given the burden of tracing a large number of contacts to find new cases, there is the potential the system could be overwhelmed if imports of infection occur at a rapid rate.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/74/10/861.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307459; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307459?pdf=render -34514500,https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459,The Impact of Cocirculating Pathogens on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/Coronavirus Disease 2019 Surveillance: How Concurrent Epidemics May Introduce Bias and Decrease the Observed SARS-CoV-2 Percentage Positivity.,"Kovacevic A, Eggo RM, Baguelin M, Domenech de Cellès M, Opatowski L.",,The Journal of infectious diseases,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Mathematical Modeling; Multiplex Testing; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Surveillance; Cocirculating Respiratory Viruses,,,"

Background

Circulation of seasonal non-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) respiratory viruses with syndromic overlap during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may alter the quality of COVID-19 surveillance, with possible consequences for real-time analysis and delay in implementation of control measures.

Methods

Using a multipathogen susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) transmission model formalizing cocirculation of SARS-CoV-2 and another respiratory virus, we assessed how an outbreak of secondary virus may affect 2 COVID-19 surveillance indicators: testing demand and positivity. Using simulation, we assessed to what extent the use of multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests on a subsample of symptomatic individuals can help correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity and improve surveillance quality.

Results

We find that a non-SARS-CoV-2 epidemic strongly increases SARS-CoV-2 daily testing demand and artificially reduces the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity for the duration of the outbreak. We estimate that performing 1 multiplex test for every 1000 COVID-19 tests on symptomatic individuals could be sufficient to maintain surveillance of other respiratory viruses in the population and correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity.

Conclusions

This study showed that cocirculating respiratory viruses can distort SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Correction of the positivity rate can be achieved by using multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests, and a low number of samples is sufficient to avoid bias in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-pdf/225/2/199/42224165/jiab459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960?pdf=render 34983063,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btab879,CACONET: a novel classification framework for microbial correlation networks.,"Xu Y, Nash K, Acharjee A, Gkoutos GV.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,"

Motivation

Existing microbiome-based disease prediction relies on the ability of machine learning methods to differentiate disease from healthy subjects based on the observed taxa abundance across samples. Despite numerous microbes have been implicated as potential biomarkers, challenges remain due to not only the statistical nature of microbiome data but also the lack of understanding of microbial interactions which can be indicative of the disease.

Results

We propose CACONET (classification of Compositional-Aware COrrelation NETworks), a computational framework that learns to classify microbial correlation networks and extracts potential signature interactions, taking as input taxa relative abundance across samples and their health status. By using Bayesian compositional-aware correlation inference, a collection of posterior correlation networks can be drawn and used for graph-level classification, thus incorporating uncertainty in the estimates. CACONET then employs a deep learning approach for graph classification, achieving excellent performance metrics by exploiting the correlation structure. We test the framework on both simulated data and a large real-world dataset pertaining to microbiome samples of colorectal cancer (CRC) and healthy subjects, and identify potential network substructure characteristic of CRC microbiota. CACONET is customizable and can be adapted to further improve its utility.

Availability and implementation

CACONET is available at https://github.com/yuanwxu/corr-net-classify.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/38/6/1639/42744567/btab879.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btab879; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8896646; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8896646?pdf=render +34514500,https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459,The Impact of Cocirculating Pathogens on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/Coronavirus Disease 2019 Surveillance: How Concurrent Epidemics May Introduce Bias and Decrease the Observed SARS-CoV-2 Percentage Positivity.,"Kovacevic A, Eggo RM, Baguelin M, Domenech de Cellès M, Opatowski L.",,The Journal of infectious diseases,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Mathematical Modeling; Multiplex Testing; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Surveillance; Cocirculating Respiratory Viruses,,,"

Background

Circulation of seasonal non-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) respiratory viruses with syndromic overlap during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may alter the quality of COVID-19 surveillance, with possible consequences for real-time analysis and delay in implementation of control measures.

Methods

Using a multipathogen susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) transmission model formalizing cocirculation of SARS-CoV-2 and another respiratory virus, we assessed how an outbreak of secondary virus may affect 2 COVID-19 surveillance indicators: testing demand and positivity. Using simulation, we assessed to what extent the use of multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests on a subsample of symptomatic individuals can help correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity and improve surveillance quality.

Results

We find that a non-SARS-CoV-2 epidemic strongly increases SARS-CoV-2 daily testing demand and artificially reduces the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity for the duration of the outbreak. We estimate that performing 1 multiplex test for every 1000 COVID-19 tests on symptomatic individuals could be sufficient to maintain surveillance of other respiratory viruses in the population and correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity.

Conclusions

This study showed that cocirculating respiratory viruses can distort SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Correction of the positivity rate can be achieved by using multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests, and a low number of samples is sufficient to avoid bias in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-pdf/225/2/199/42224165/jiab459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960?pdf=render 35505353,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02349-6,Predictive performance of a competing risk cardiovascular prediction tool CRISK compared to QRISK3 in older people and those with comorbidity: population cohort study.,"Livingstone SJ, Guthrie B, Donnan PT, Thompson A, Morales DR.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-05-04,Y,Primary Prevention; Cardiovascular Risk; Risk Prediction; Competing Risk; Qrisk3,,,"

Background

Recommended cardiovascular disease (CVD) prediction tools do not account for competing mortality risk and over-predict incident CVD in older and multimorbid people. The aim of this study was to derive and validate a competing risk model (CRISK) to predict incident CVD and compare its performance to that of QRISK3 in UK primary care.

Methods

We used UK linked primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD to identify people aged 25-84 years with no previous CVD or statin treatment split into derivation and validation cohorts. In the derivation cohort, we derived models using the same covariates as QRISK3 with Fine-Gray competing risk modelling alone (CRISK) and with Charlson Comorbidity score (CRISK-CCI) as an additional predictor of non-CVD death. In a separate validation cohort, we examined discrimination and calibration compared to QRISK3. Reclassification analysis examined the number of patients recommended for treatment and the estimated number needed to treat (NNT) to prevent a new CVD event.

Results

The derivation and validation cohorts included 989,732 and 494,865 women and 946,784 and 473,392 men respectively. Overall discrimination of CRISK and CRISK-CCI were excellent and similar to QRISK3 (for women, C-statistic = 0.863/0.864/0.863 respectively; for men 0.833/0.819/0.832 respectively). CRISK and CRISK-CCI calibration overall and in younger people was excellent. CRISK over-predicted in older and multimorbid people although performed better than QRISK3, whilst CRISK-CCI performed the best. The proportion of people reclassified by CRISK-CCI varied by QRISK3 risk score category, with 0.7-9.7% of women and 2.8-25.2% of men reclassified as higher risk and 21.0-69.1% of women and 27.1-57.4% of men reclassified as lower risk. Overall, CRISK-CCI recommended fewer people for treatment and had a lower estimated NNT at 10% risk threshold. Patients reclassified as higher risk were younger, had lower SBP and higher BMI, and were more likely to smoke.

Conclusions

CRISK and CRISK-CCI performed better than QRISK3. CRISK-CCI recommends fewer people for treatment and has a lower NNT to prevent a new CVD event compared to QRISK3. Competing risk models should be recommended for CVD primary prevention treatment recommendations.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02349-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02349-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9066924; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9066924?pdf=render 34782484,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217580,External validation of the QCovid risk prediction algorithm for risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality in adults: national validation cohort study in Scotland.,"Simpson CR, Robertson C, Kerr S, Shi T, Vasileiou E, Moore E, McCowan C, Agrawal U, Docherty A, Mulholland R, Murray J, Ritchie LD, McMenamin J, Hippisley-Cox J, Sheikh A.",,Thorax,2022,2021-11-15,Y,Clinical Epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The QCovid algorithm is a risk prediction tool that can be used to stratify individuals by risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality. Version 1 of the algorithm was trained using data covering 10.5 million patients in England in the period 24 January 2020 to 30 April 2020. We carried out an external validation of version 1 of the QCovid algorithm in Scotland.

Methods

We established a national COVID-19 data platform using individual level data for the population of Scotland (5.4 million residents). Primary care data were linked to reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) virology testing, hospitalisation and mortality data. We assessed the performance of the QCovid algorithm in predicting COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in our dataset for two time periods matching the original study: 1 March 2020 to 30 April 2020, and 1 May 2020 to 30 June 2020.

Results

Our dataset comprised 5 384 819 individuals, representing 99% of the estimated population (5 463 300) resident in Scotland in 2020. The algorithm showed good calibration in the first period, but systematic overestimation of risk in the second period, prior to temporal recalibration. Harrell's C for deaths in females and males in the first period was 0.95 (95% CI 0.94 to 0.95) and 0.93 (95% CI 0.92 to 0.93), respectively. Harrell's C for hospitalisations in females and males in the first period was 0.81 (95% CI 0.80 to 0.82) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.82), respectively.

Conclusions

Version 1 of the QCovid algorithm showed high levels of discrimination in predicting the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in adults resident in Scotland for the original two time periods studied, but is likely to need ongoing recalibration prospectively.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/77/5/497.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217580; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595052; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595052?pdf=render 34356905,https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9070841,Relationship between Circulating PCSK9 and Markers of Subclinical Atherosclerosis-The IMPROVE Study. ,"Coggi D, Frigerio B, Bonomi A, Ruscica M, Ferri N, Sansaro D, Ravani A, Ferrante P, Damigella M, Veglia F, Capra N, Lupo MG, Macchi C, Savonen K, Silveira A, Kurl S, Giral P, Pirro M, Strawbridge RJ, Gigante B, Smit AJ, Tremoli E, Amato M, Baldassarre D, On Behalf Of The Improve Study Group.",,Biomedicines,2021,2021-07-19,Y,,,,"(1) Background and purpose: circulating proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is one of the key regulators of cholesterol metabolism. Despite this, its role as a player in atherosclerosis development is still matter of debate. Here, we investigated the relationships between this protein and several markers of subclinical atherosclerosis. (2) Methods: the IMPROVE study enrolled 3703 European subjects (54-79 years; 48% men; with ≥3 vascular risk factors), asymptomatic for cardiovascular diseases. PCSK9 levels were measured by ELISA. B-mode ultrasound was used to measure markers of carotid subclinical atherosclerosis. (3) Results: in the crude analysis, PCSK9 levels were associated with several baseline measures of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) (all p < 0.0001); with cIMT change over time (Fastest-IMTmax-progr) (p = 0.01); with inter-adventitia common carotid artery diameter (ICCAD) (p < 0.0001); and with the echolucency (Grey Scale Median; GSM) of both carotid plaque and plaque-free common carotid IMT (both p < 0.0001). However, after adjustment for age, sex, latitude, and pharmacological treatment, all the afore-mentioned correlations were no longer statistically significant. The lack of correlation was also observed after stratification for sex, latitude, and pharmacological treatments. (4) Conclusions: in subjects who are asymptomatic for cardiovascular diseases, PCSK9 plasma levels do not correlate with vascular damage and/or subclinical atherosclerosis of extracranial carotid arteries.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/9/7/841/pdf?version=1626837519; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9070841; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8301759; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8301759?pdf=render 35291009,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac072,Intensity of COVID-19 in care homes following hospital discharge in the early stages of the UK epidemic.,"Hollinghurst J, North L, Emmerson C, Akbari A, Torabi F, Williams C, Lyons RA, Hawkes AG, Bennett E, Gravenor MB, Fry R.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-05-01,Y,Older People; Care Homes; Hospital Discharge; Linked Data; Hawkes Process; Multi-level Model; Covid-19,,,"

Background

defining features of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries were the tragic extent to which care home residents were affected and the difficulty in preventing the introduction and subsequent spread of infection. Management of risk in care homes requires good evidence on the most important transmission pathways. One hypothesised route at the start of the pandemic, prior to widespread testing, was the transfer of patients from hospitals that were experiencing high levels of nosocomial events.

Methods

we tested the hypothesis that hospital discharge events increased the intensity of care home cases using a national individually linked health record cohort in Wales, UK. We monitored 186,772 hospital discharge events over the period from March to July 2020, tracking individuals to 923 care homes and recording the daily case rate in the homes populated by 15,772 residents. We estimated the risk of an increase in case rates following exposure to a hospital discharge using multi-level hierarchical logistic regression and a novel stochastic Hawkes process outbreak model.

Findings

in regression analysis, after adjusting for care home size, we found no significant association between hospital discharge and subsequent increases in care home case numbers (odds ratio: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.82, 1.90). Risk factors for increased cases included care home size, care home resident density and provision of nursing care. Using our outbreak model, we found a significant effect of hospital discharge on the subsequent intensity of cases. However, the effect was small and considerably less than the effect of care home size, suggesting the highest risk of introduction came from interaction with the community. We estimated that approximately 1.8% of hospital discharged patients may have been infected.

Interpretation

there is growing evidence in the UK that the risk of transfer of COVID-19 from the high-risk hospital setting to the high-risk care home setting during the early stages of the pandemic was relatively small. Although access to testing was limited to initial symptomatic cases in each care home at this time, our results suggest that reduced numbers of discharges, selection of patients and action taken within care homes following transfer all may have contributed to the mitigation. The precise key transmission routes from the community remain to be quantified.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac072/43616755/afac072.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8992303; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8992303?pdf=render 34282121,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01522-4,Phenotypic and genetic associations between anhedonia and brain structure in UK Biobank.,"Zhu X, Ward J, Cullen B, Lyall DM, Strawbridge RJ, Lyall LM, Smith DJ.",,Translational psychiatry,2021,2021-07-16,Y,,,,"Anhedonia is a core symptom of multiple psychiatric disorders and has been associated with alterations in brain structure. Genome-wide association studies suggest that anhedonia is heritable, with a polygenic architecture, but few studies have explored the association between genetic loading for anhedonia-indexed by polygenic risk scores for anhedonia (PRS-anhedonia)-and structural brain imaging phenotypes. Here, we investigated how anhedonia and PRS-anhedonia were associated with brain structure within the UK Biobank cohort. Brain measures (including total grey/white matter volumes, subcortical volumes, cortical thickness (CT) and white matter integrity) were analysed using linear mixed models in relation to anhedonia and PRS-anhedonia in 19,592 participants (9225 males; mean age = 62.6 years, SD = 7.44). We found that state anhedonia was significantly associated with reduced total grey matter volume (GMV); increased total white matter volume (WMV); smaller volumes in thalamus and nucleus accumbens; reduced CT within the paracentral cortex, the opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus, precentral cortex, insula and rostral anterior cingulate cortex; and poorer integrity of many white matter tracts. PRS-anhedonia was associated with reduced total GMV; increased total WMV; reduced white matter integrity; and reduced CT within the parahippocampal cortex, superior temporal gyrus and insula. Overall, both state anhedonia and PRS-anhedonia were associated with individual differences in multiple brain structures, including within reward-related circuits. These associations may represent vulnerability markers for psychopathology relevant to a range of psychiatric disorders.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-021-01522-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01522-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8289859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8289859?pdf=render -34693751,https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332,The diagnosis of asthma. Can physiological tests of small airways function help?,"Almeshari MA, Stockley J, Sapey E.",,Chronic respiratory disease,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Diagnosis; Asthma; Spirometry; Oscillometry; Small Airways Function,,,"Asthma is a common, chronic, and heterogeneous disease with a global impact and substantial economic costs. It is also associated with significant mortality and morbidity and the burden of undiagnosed asthma is significant. Asthma can be difficult to diagnose as there is no gold standard test and, while spirometry is central in diagnosing asthma, it may not be sufficient to confirm or exclude the diagnosis. The most commonly reported spirometric measures (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity assess function in the larger airways. However, small airway dysfunction is highly prevalent in asthma and some studies suggest small airway involvement is one of the earliest disease manifestations. Moreover, there are new inhaled therapies with ultrafine particles that are specifically designed to target the small airways. Potentially, tests of small airways may more accurately diagnose early or mild asthma and assess the response to treatment than spirometry. Furthermore, some assessment techniques do not rely on forced ventilatory manoeuvres and may, therefore, be easier for certain groups to perform. This review discusses the current evidence of small airways tests in asthma and future research that may be needed to further assess their utility.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14799731211053332; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738?pdf=render 35581158,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac098,Patterns of unplanned hospital admissions among people with dementia: from diagnosis to the end of life.,"Yorganci E, Stewart R, Sampson EL, Sleeman KE.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-05-01,Y,Retrospective studies; Dementia; incidence; Older People; Hospitalisation,,,"

Background

hospitalisations are sentinel events for people with dementia. How patterns of unplanned hospital admissions change among people with dementia after diagnosis is relatively unknown.

Objective

to describe patterns of unplanned hospital admissions of people with dementia from diagnosis until death/study end.

Methods

retrospective cohort study using mental healthcare provider data of people diagnosed with dementia in London, UK (1995-2017), linked to mortality and hospital data. The primary outcome was the rate of unplanned hospital admissions after diagnosis until death/study end. We calculated the cumulative incidence of unplanned hospital admissions. The rates of unplanned hospital admissions and the percentage of time spent as an inpatient were stratified by time from first dementia diagnosis.

Results

for 19,221 people with dementia (61.4% female, mean age at diagnosis 81.0 years (standard deviation, SD 8.5)), the cumulative incidence of unplanned hospital admissions (n = 14,759) was 76.8% (95% CI 76.3%-77.3%). Individuals remained in the study for mean 3.0 (SD 2.6) years, and 12,667 (65.9%) died. Rates and lengths of unplanned hospital admissions remained relatively low and short in the months after the dementia diagnosis, increasing only as people approached the end of life. Percentage of time spent as an inpatient was <3% for people who were alive at the study end but was on average 19.6 and 13.3% for the decedents in the last 6 and 12 months of life, respectively.

Conclusions

the steep rise in hospitalisations before death highlights the need for improved community care and services for people with dementia who are approaching the end of life.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10149895/1/afac098.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac098; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9113942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9113942?pdf=render +34693751,https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332,The diagnosis of asthma. Can physiological tests of small airways function help?,"Almeshari MA, Stockley J, Sapey E.",,Chronic respiratory disease,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Diagnosis; Asthma; Spirometry; Oscillometry; Small Airways Function,,,"Asthma is a common, chronic, and heterogeneous disease with a global impact and substantial economic costs. It is also associated with significant mortality and morbidity and the burden of undiagnosed asthma is significant. Asthma can be difficult to diagnose as there is no gold standard test and, while spirometry is central in diagnosing asthma, it may not be sufficient to confirm or exclude the diagnosis. The most commonly reported spirometric measures (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity assess function in the larger airways. However, small airway dysfunction is highly prevalent in asthma and some studies suggest small airway involvement is one of the earliest disease manifestations. Moreover, there are new inhaled therapies with ultrafine particles that are specifically designed to target the small airways. Potentially, tests of small airways may more accurately diagnose early or mild asthma and assess the response to treatment than spirometry. Furthermore, some assessment techniques do not rely on forced ventilatory manoeuvres and may, therefore, be easier for certain groups to perform. This review discusses the current evidence of small airways tests in asthma and future research that may be needed to further assess their utility.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14799731211053332; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738?pdf=render 33879450,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319118,Sex differences in investigations and outcomes among patients with type 2 myocardial infarction.,"Kimenai DM, Lindahl B, Chapman AR, Baron T, Gard A, Wereski R, Meex SJR, Jernberg T, Mills NL, Eggers KM.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2021,2021-04-20,Y,Myocardial infarction; acute coronary syndrome; risk factors,,,"

Objectives

Type 2 myocardial infarction (MI) is a heterogenous condition and whether there are differences between women and men is unknown. We evaluated sex differences in clinical characteristics, investigations and outcomes in patients with type 2 MI.

Methods

In the Swedish Web based system for Enhancement and Development of Evidence based care in Heart disease Evaluated According to Recommended Therapies (SWEDEHEART) registry, we compared patients admitted to coronary care units with a diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 MI. Sex-stratified Cox regression models evaluated the association with all-cause death in men and women separately.

Results

We included 57 264 (median age 73 years, 65% men) and 6485 (median age 78 years, 50% men) patients with type 1 and type 2 MI, respectively. No differences were observed in the proportion of men and women with type 2 MI who underwent echocardiography and coronary angiography, but women were less likely than men to have left ventricular (LV) impairment and obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Compared with type 1 MI, patients with type 2 MI had higher risk of death regardless of sex (men: adjusted HR 1.55 (95% CI 1.44 to 1.67); women: adjusted HR 1.34 (95% CI 1.24 to 1.45)). In those with type 2 MI, the risk of death was lower for women than men (adjusted HR 0.85 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.92) (men, reference)).

Conclusions

Type 2 MI occurred in men and women equally and we found no evidence of sex bias in the selection of patients for cardiac investigations. Patients with type 2 MI had worse outcomes, but women were less likely to have obstructive CAD or severe LV impairment and were more likely to survive than men.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/18/1480.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8408584; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8408584?pdf=render -33838587,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460,Competition between RSV and influenza: Limits of modelling inference from surveillance data.,"Waterlow NR, Flasche S, Minter A, Eggo RM.",,Epidemics,2021,2021-03-26,Y,Interaction; Competition; Influenza; Respiratory syncytial virus; Inference,,,"Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Influenza cause a large burden of disease. Evidence of their interaction via temporary cross-protection implies that prevention of one could inadvertently lead to an increase in the burden of the other. However, evidence for the public health impact of such interaction is sparse and largely derives from ecological analyses of peak shifts in surveillance data. To test the robustness of estimates of interaction parameters between RSV and Influenza from surveillance data we conducted a simulation and back-inference study. We developed a two-pathogen interaction model, parameterised to simulate RSV and Influenza epidemiology in the UK. Using the infection model in combination with a surveillance-like stochastic observation process we generated a range of possible RSV and Influenza trajectories and then used Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to back-infer parameters including those describing competition. We find that in most scenarios both the strength and duration of RSV and Influenza interaction could be estimated from the simulated surveillance data reasonably well. However, the robustness of inference declined towards the extremes of the plausible parameter ranges, with misleading results. It was for instance not possible to tell the difference between low/moderate interaction and no interaction. In conclusion, our results illustrate that in a plausible parameter range, the strength of RSV and Influenza interaction can be estimated from a single season of high-quality surveillance data but also highlights the importance to test parameter identifiability a priori in such situations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193815 35310465,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1697,"Validating the QCOVID risk prediction algorithm for risk of mortality from COVID-19 in the adult population in Wales, UK.","Lyons J, Nafilyan V, Akbari A, Davies G, Griffiths R, Harrison EM, Hippisley-Cox J, Hollinghurst J, Khunti K, North L, Sheikh A, Torabi F, Lyons RA.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Risk Prediction Models; Sail Databank; Covid-19 Outcomes; Population Data-Linkage; Qcovid Algorithm,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 risk prediction algorithms can be used to identify at-risk individuals from short-term serious adverse COVID-19 outcomes such as hospitalisation and death. It is important to validate these algorithms in different and diverse populations to help guide risk management decisions and target vaccination and treatment programs to the most vulnerable individuals in society.

Objectives

To validate externally the QCOVID risk prediction algorithm that predicts mortality outcomes from COVID-19 in the adult population of Wales, UK.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using routinely collected individual-level data held in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. The cohort included individuals aged between 19 and 100 years, living in Wales on 24th January 2020, registered with a SAIL-providing general practice, and followed-up to death or study end (28th July 2020). Demographic, primary and secondary healthcare, and dispensing data were used to derive all the predictor variables used to develop the published QCOVID algorithm. Mortality data were used to define time to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 death. Performance metrics, including R2 values (explained variation), Brier scores, and measures of discrimination and calibration were calculated for two periods (24th January-30th April 2020 and 1st May-28th July 2020) to assess algorithm performance.

Results

1,956,760 individuals were included. 1,192 (0.06%) and 610 (0.03%) COVID-19 deaths occurred in the first and second time periods, respectively. The algorithms fitted the Welsh data and population well, explaining 68.8% (95% CI: 66.9-70.4) of the variation in time to death, Harrell's C statistic: 0.929 (95% CI: 0.921-0.937) and D statistic: 3.036 (95% CI: 2.913-3.159) for males in the first period. Similar results were found for females and in the second time period for both sexes.

Conclusions

The QCOVID algorithm developed in England can be used for public health risk management for the adult Welsh population.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1697/3337; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1697; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8900650; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8900650?pdf=render 34786063,https://doi.org/,Immune infiltration and prognostic and diagnostic use of LGALS4 in colon adenocarcinoma and bladder urothelial carcinoma.,"Acharjee A, Agarwal P, Nash K, Bano S, Rahman T, Gkoutos GV.",,American journal of translational research,2021,2021-10-15,N,Biomarker; Translational Research; Immune Infiltration; Omics Integration; Blca; Lgals4,,,"Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is a common tumor of the gastrointestinal tract with a high mortality rate. Current research has identified many genes associated with immune infiltration that play a vital role in the development of COAD. In this study, we analysed the prognostic and diagnostic features of such immune-related genes in the context of colonic adenocarcinoma (COAD). We analysed 17 overlapping gene expression profiles of COAD and healthy samples obtained from TCGA-COAD and public single-cell sequencing resources, to identify potential therapeutic COAD targets. We evaluated the abundance of immune infiltration with those genes using the TIMER (Tumor Immune Estimation Resource) deconvolution method. Subsequently, we developed predictive and survival models to assess the prognostic value of these genes. The LGALS4 (Galectin-4) gene was found to be significantly (P<0.05) downregulated in COAD and bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) compared to healthy samples. We identified LGALS4 as a prognostic and diagnostic marker for multiple cancer types, including COAD and BLCA. Our analysis reveals a series of novel candidate drug targets, as well as candidate molecular markers, that may explain the pathogenesis of COAD and BLCA. LGALS4 gene is associated with multiple cancer types and is a possible prognostic, as well as diagnostic, marker of COAD and BLCA.",,html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8581917; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8581917?pdf=render +33838587,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460,Competition between RSV and influenza: Limits of modelling inference from surveillance data.,"Waterlow NR, Flasche S, Minter A, Eggo RM.",,Epidemics,2021,2021-03-26,Y,Interaction; Competition; Influenza; Respiratory syncytial virus; Inference,,,"Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Influenza cause a large burden of disease. Evidence of their interaction via temporary cross-protection implies that prevention of one could inadvertently lead to an increase in the burden of the other. However, evidence for the public health impact of such interaction is sparse and largely derives from ecological analyses of peak shifts in surveillance data. To test the robustness of estimates of interaction parameters between RSV and Influenza from surveillance data we conducted a simulation and back-inference study. We developed a two-pathogen interaction model, parameterised to simulate RSV and Influenza epidemiology in the UK. Using the infection model in combination with a surveillance-like stochastic observation process we generated a range of possible RSV and Influenza trajectories and then used Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to back-infer parameters including those describing competition. We find that in most scenarios both the strength and duration of RSV and Influenza interaction could be estimated from the simulated surveillance data reasonably well. However, the robustness of inference declined towards the extremes of the plausible parameter ranges, with misleading results. It was for instance not possible to tell the difference between low/moderate interaction and no interaction. In conclusion, our results illustrate that in a plausible parameter range, the strength of RSV and Influenza interaction can be estimated from a single season of high-quality surveillance data but also highlights the importance to test parameter identifiability a priori in such situations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193815 34261639,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1592,Risks of covid-19 hospital admission and death for people with learning disability: population based cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Williamson EJ, McDonald HI, Bhaskaran K, Walker AJ, Bacon S, Davy S, Schultze A, Tomlinson L, Bates C, Ramsay M, Curtis HJ, Forbes H, Wing K, Minassian C, Tazare J, Morton CE, Nightingale E, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Cockburn J, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Wong AYS, Eggo RM, Hulme W, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, Kuper H.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-07-14,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the association between learning disability and risk of hospital admission and death from covid-19 in England among adults and children.

Design

Population based cohort study on behalf of NHS England using the OpenSAFELY platform.

Setting

Patient level data were obtained for more than 17 million people registered with a general practice in England that uses TPP software. Electronic health records were linked with death data from the Office for National Statistics and hospital admission data from NHS Secondary Uses Service.

Participants

Adults (aged 16-105 years) and children (<16 years) from two cohorts: wave 1 (registered with a TPP practice as of 1 March 2020 and followed until 31 August 2020); and wave 2 (registered 1 September 2020 and followed until 8 February 2021). The main exposure group consisted of people on a general practice learning disability register; a subgroup was defined as those having profound or severe learning disability. People with Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy were identified (whether or not they were on the learning disability register).

Main outcome measure

Covid-19 related hospital admission and covid-19 related death. Non-covid-19 deaths were also explored.

Results

For wave 1, 14 312 023 adults aged ≥16 years were included, and 90 307 (0.63%) were on the learning disability register. Among adults on the register, 538 (0.6%) had a covid-19 related hospital admission; there were 222 (0.25%) covid-19 related deaths and 602 (0.7%) non-covid deaths. Among adults not on the register, 29 781 (0.2%) had a covid-19 related hospital admission; there were 13 737 (0.1%) covid-19 related deaths and 69 837 (0.5%) non-covid deaths. Wave 1 hazard ratios for adults on the learning disability register (adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, and geographical location) were 5.3 (95% confidence interval 4.9 to 5.8) for covid-19 related hospital admission and 8.2 (7.2 to 9.4) for covid-19 related death. Wave 2 produced similar estimates. Associations were stronger among those classified as having severe to profound learning disability, and among those in residential care. For both waves, Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy were associated with increased hazards for both events; Down's syndrome to a greater extent. Hazard ratios for non-covid deaths followed similar patterns with weaker associations. Similar patterns of increased relative risk were seen for children, but covid-19 related deaths and hospital admissions were rare, reflecting low event rates among children.

Conclusions

People with learning disability have markedly increased risks of hospital admission and death from covid-19, over and above the risks observed for non-covid causes of death. Prompt access to covid-19 testing and healthcare is warranted for this vulnerable group, and prioritisation for covid-19 vaccination and other targeted preventive measures should be considered.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/374/bmj.n1592.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1592; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8278652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8278652?pdf=render 37158960,https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-023-01518-w,Pathobionts in the tumour microbiota predict survival following resection for colorectal cancer.,"Alexander JL, Posma JM, Scott A, Poynter L, Mason SE, Doria ML, Herendi L, Roberts L, McDonald JAK, Cameron S, Hughes DJ, Liska V, Susova S, Soucek P, der Sluis VH, Gomez-Romero M, Lewis MR, Hoyles L, Woolston A, Cunningham D, Darzi A, Gerlinger M, Goldin R, Takats Z, Marchesi JR, Teare J, Kinross J.",,Microbiome,2023,2023-05-08,Y,metabolome; Colorectal Cancer; Gut Microbiota; Metataxonomics,,,"

Background and aims

The gut microbiota is implicated in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC). We aimed to map the CRC mucosal microbiota and metabolome and define the influence of the tumoral microbiota on oncological outcomes.

Methods

A multicentre, prospective observational study was conducted of CRC patients undergoing primary surgical resection in the UK (n = 74) and Czech Republic (n = 61). Analysis was performed using metataxonomics, ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS), targeted bacterial qPCR and tumour exome sequencing. Hierarchical clustering accounting for clinical and oncological covariates was performed to identify clusters of bacteria and metabolites linked to CRC. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to ascertain clusters associated with disease-free survival over median follow-up of 50 months.

Results

Thirteen mucosal microbiota clusters were identified, of which five were significantly different between tumour and paired normal mucosa. Cluster 7, containing the pathobionts Fusobacterium nucleatum and Granulicatella adiacens, was strongly associated with CRC (PFDR = 0.0002). Additionally, tumoral dominance of cluster 7 independently predicted favourable disease-free survival (adjusted p = 0.031). Cluster 1, containing Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Ruminococcus gnavus, was negatively associated with cancer (PFDR = 0.0009), and abundance was independently predictive of worse disease-free survival (adjusted p = 0.0009). UPLC-MS analysis revealed two major metabolic (Met) clusters. Met 1, composed of medium chain (MCFA), long-chain (LCFA) and very long-chain (VLCFA) fatty acid species, ceramides and lysophospholipids, was negatively associated with CRC (PFDR = 2.61 × 10-11); Met 2, composed of phosphatidylcholine species, nucleosides and amino acids, was strongly associated with CRC (PFDR = 1.30 × 10-12), but metabolite clusters were not associated with disease-free survival (p = 0.358). An association was identified between Met 1 and DNA mismatch-repair deficiency (p = 0.005). FBXW7 mutations were only found in cancers predominant in microbiota cluster 7.

Conclusions

Networks of pathobionts in the tumour mucosal niche are associated with tumour mutation and metabolic subtypes and predict favourable outcome following CRC resection. Video Abstract.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-023-01518-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10165813; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10165813?pdf=render 31658860,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012812,Early Discontinuation of P2Y12 Antagonists and Adverse Clinical Events Post-Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Hospital and Primary Care Linked Cohort.,"Harris DE, Lacey A, Akbari A, Obaid DR, Smith DA, Jenkins GH, Barry JP, Gravenor MB, Halcox JP.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2019,2019-10-29,Y,Adherence; Percutaneous coronary intervention; Clopidogrel; Discontinuation; Discharge Therapy,"Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease",,"Background Early discontinuation of P2Y12 antagonists post-percutaneous coronary intervention may increase risk of stent thrombosis or nonstent recurrent myocardial infarction. Our aims were to (1) analyze the early discontinuation rate of P2Y12 antagonists post-percutaneous coronary intervention, (2) explore factors associated with early discontinuation, and (3) analyze the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (death, acute coronary syndrome, revascularization, or stroke) associated with discontinuation from a prespecified prescribing instruction of 1 year. Method and Results We studied 2090 patients (2011-2015) who were recommended for clopidogrel for 12 months (+aspirin) post-percutaneous coronary intervention within a retrospective observational population cohort. Relationships between clopidogrel discontinuation and major adverse cardiac events were evaluated over 18-month follow-up. Discontinuation of clopidogrel in the first 4 quarters was low at 1.1%, 2.6%, 3.7%, and 6.1%, respectively. Previous revascularization, previous ischemic stroke, and age >80 years were independent predictors of early discontinuation. In a time-dependent multiple regression model, clopidogrel discontinuation and bleeding (hazard ratio=1.82 [1.01-3.30] and hazard ratio=5.30 [3.14-8.94], respectively) were independent predictors of major adverse cardiac events as were age <49 and ≥70 years (versus those aged 50-59 years), hypertension, chronic kidney disease stage 4+, previous revascularization, ischemic stroke, and thromboembolism. Furthermore, in those with both bleeding and clopidogrel discontinuation, hazard ratio for major adverse cardiac events was 9.34 (3.39-25.70). Conclusions Discontinuation of clopidogrel is low in the first year post-percutaneous coronary intervention, where a clear discharge instruction to treat for 1 year is provided. Whereas this is reassuring from the population level, at an individual level discontinuation earlier than the intended duration is associated with an increased rate of adverse events, most notably in those with both bleeding and discontinuation.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.119.012812; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.012812; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6898825; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6898825?pdf=render -36543718,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402,SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination.,"Liew F, Talwar S, Cross A, Willett BJ, Scott S, Logan N, Siggins MK, Swieboda D, Sidhu JK, Efstathiou C, Moore SC, Davis C, Mohamed N, Nunag J, King C, Thompson AAR, Rowland-Jones SL, Docherty AB, Chalmers JD, Ho LP, Horsley A, Raman B, Poinasamy K, Marks M, Kon OM, Howard L, Wootton DG, Dunachie S, Quint JK, Evans RA, Wain LV, Fontanella S, de Silva TI, Ho A, Harrison E, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Brightling C, Thwaites RS, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, ISARIC4C Investigators, PHOSP-COVID collaborative group.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2022-12-19,Y,Vaccination; Mucosal immunity; Convalescent; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Immunity; Sars-cov-2 Variants; Nasal Antibody,,,"

Background

Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced.

Methods

In this follow up study, plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data.

Findings

Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months (p < 0.0001). Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months (p < 0.0001) with plasma neutralising titres that were raised against all variants compared to controls (p < 0.0001). Of 323 with complete data, 307 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal (1.46-fold change after 10 months, p = 0.011) and the median remained below the positive threshold determined by pre-pandemic controls. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG anti-S responses (R = 0.05, p = 0.18), indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination.

Interpretation

The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity.

Funding

This study has been supported by ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. ISARIC4C is supported by grants from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre provided infrastructure support for this research. The PHOSP-COVD study is jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation and National Institute of Health and Care Research. The funders were not involved in the study design, interpretation of data or the writing of this manuscript.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734?pdf=render 34183342,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046392,"United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH): a retrospective cohort study using linked routinely collected data, study protocol.","Teece L, Gray LJ, Melbourne C, Orton C, Ford DV, Martin CA, McAllister D, Khunti K, Tobin M, John C, Abrams KR, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-28,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Adult Intensive & Critical Care; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

COVID-19 has spread rapidly worldwide, causing significant morbidity and mortality. People from ethnic minorities, particularly those working in healthcare settings, have been disproportionately affected. Current evidence of the association between ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes in people working in healthcare settings is insufficient to inform plans to address health inequalities.

Methods and analysis

This study combines anonymised human resource databases with professional registration and National Health Service data sets to assess associations between ethnicity and COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation and death in healthcare workers in the UK. Adverse COVID-19 outcomes will be assessed between 1 February 2020 (date following first confirmed COVID-19 case in UK) and study end date (31 January 2021), allowing 1-year of follow-up. Planned analyses include multivariable Poisson, logistic and flexible parametric time-to-event regression within each country, adjusting for core predictors, followed by meta-analysis of country-specific results to produce combined effect estimates for the UK. Mediation analysis methods will be explored to examine the direct, indirect and mediated interactive effects between ethnicity, occupational group and COVID-19 outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval for the UK-REACH programme has been obtained via the expedited HRA COVID-19 processes (REC ref: 20/HRA/4718, IRAS ID: 288316). Research information will be anonymised via the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank before release to researchers. Study results will be submitted for publication in an open access peer-reviewed journal and made available on our dedicated website (https://uk-reach.org/).

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e046392.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8245289; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8245289?pdf=render +36543718,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402,SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination.,"Liew F, Talwar S, Cross A, Willett BJ, Scott S, Logan N, Siggins MK, Swieboda D, Sidhu JK, Efstathiou C, Moore SC, Davis C, Mohamed N, Nunag J, King C, Thompson AAR, Rowland-Jones SL, Docherty AB, Chalmers JD, Ho LP, Horsley A, Raman B, Poinasamy K, Marks M, Kon OM, Howard L, Wootton DG, Dunachie S, Quint JK, Evans RA, Wain LV, Fontanella S, de Silva TI, Ho A, Harrison E, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Brightling C, Thwaites RS, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, ISARIC4C Investigators, PHOSP-COVID collaborative group.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2022-12-19,Y,Vaccination; Mucosal immunity; Convalescent; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Immunity; Sars-cov-2 Variants; Nasal Antibody,,,"

Background

Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced.

Methods

In this follow up study, plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data.

Findings

Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months (p < 0.0001). Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months (p < 0.0001) with plasma neutralising titres that were raised against all variants compared to controls (p < 0.0001). Of 323 with complete data, 307 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal (1.46-fold change after 10 months, p = 0.011) and the median remained below the positive threshold determined by pre-pandemic controls. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG anti-S responses (R = 0.05, p = 0.18), indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination.

Interpretation

The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity.

Funding

This study has been supported by ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. ISARIC4C is supported by grants from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre provided infrastructure support for this research. The PHOSP-COVD study is jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation and National Institute of Health and Care Research. The funders were not involved in the study design, interpretation of data or the writing of this manuscript.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734?pdf=render 34644365,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258484,Cohort profile: The UK COVID-19 Public Experiences (COPE) prospective longitudinal mixed-methods study of health and well-being during the SARSCoV2 coronavirus pandemic.,"Phillips R, Taiyari K, Torrens-Burton A, Cannings-John R, Williams D, Peddle S, Campbell S, Hughes K, Gillespie D, Sellars P, Pell B, Ashfield-Watt P, Akbari A, Seage CH, Perham N, Joseph-Williams N, Harrop E, Blaxland J, Wood F, Poortinga W, Wahl-Jorgensen K, James DH, Crone D, Thomas-Jones E, Hallingberg B.",,PloS one,2021,2021-10-13,Y,,,,"Public perceptions of pandemic viral threats and government policies can influence adherence to containment, delay, and mitigation policies such as physical distancing, hygienic practices, use of physical barriers, uptake of testing, contact tracing, and vaccination programs. The UK COVID-19 Public Experiences (COPE) study aims to identify determinants of health behaviour using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation (COM-B) model using a longitudinal mixed-methods approach. Here, we provide a detailed description of the demographic and self-reported health characteristics of the COPE cohort at baseline assessment, an overview of data collected, and plans for follow-up of the cohort. The COPE baseline survey was completed by 11,113 UK adult residents (18+ years of age). Baseline data collection started on the 13th of March 2020 (10-days before the introduction of the first national COVID-19 lockdown in the UK) and finished on the 13th of April 2020. Participants were recruited via the HealthWise Wales (HWW) research registry and through social media snowballing and advertising (Facebook®, Twitter®, Instagram®). Participants were predominantly female (69%), over 50 years of age (68%), identified as white (98%), and were living with their partner (68%). A large proportion (67%) had a college/university level education, and half reported a pre-existing health condition (50%). Initial follow-up plans for the cohort included in-depth surveys at 3-months and 12-months after the first UK national lockdown to assess short and medium-term effects of the pandemic on health behaviour and subjective health and well-being. Additional consent will be sought from participants at follow-up for data linkage and surveys at 18 and 24-months after the initial UK national lockdown. A large non-random sample was recruited to the COPE cohort during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, which will enable longitudinal analysis of the determinants of health behaviour and changes in subjective health and well-being over the course of the pandemic.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258484&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258484; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513913?pdf=render 35677101,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1715,"Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on community medication dispensing: a national cohort analysis in Wales, UK.","Torabi F, Akbari A, Bedston S, Davies G, Abbasizanjani H, Gravenor M, Griffiths R, Harris D, Jenkins N, Lyons J, Morris A, North L, Halcox J, Lyons RA.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Public Health; Covid-19; Dispensed Medication; Community Dispensing; Interactive Dispensing Dashboard,,,"

Background

Population-level information on dispensed medication provides insight on the distribution of treated morbidities, particularly if linked to other population-scale data at an individual-level.

Objective

To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on dispensing patterns of medications.

Methods

Retrospective observational study using population-scale, individual-level dispensing records in Wales, UK. Total dispensed drug items for the population between 1 st January 2016 and 31 st December 2019 (3-years, pre-COVID-19) were compared to 2020 with follow up until 27 th July 2021 (COVID-19 period). We compared trends across all years and British National Formulary (BNF) chapters and highlighted the trends in three major chapters for 2019-21: 1-Cardiovascular system (CVD); 2-Central Nervous System (CNS); 3-Immunological & Vaccine. We developed an interactive dashboard to enable monitoring of changes as the pandemic evolves.

Result

Amongst all BNF chapters, 73,410,543 items were dispensed in 2020 compared to 74,121,180 items in 2019 demonstrating -0.96% relative decrease in 2020. Comparison of monthly patterns showed average difference (D) of -59,220 and average Relative Change (RC) of -0.74% between the number of dispensed items in 2020 and 2019. Maximum RC was observed in March 2020 (D = +1,224,909 and RC = +20.62), followed by second peak in June 2020 (D = +257,920, RC = +4.50%). A third peak was observed in September 2020 (D = +264,138, RC = +4.35%). Large increases in March 2020 were observed for CVD and CNS medications across all age groups. The Immunological and Vaccine products dropped to very low levels across all age groups and all months (including the March dispensing peak).

Conclusions

Reconfiguration of routine clinical services during COVID-19 led to substantial changes in community pharmacy drug dispensing. This change may contribute to a long-term burden of COVID-19, raising the importance of a comprehensive and timely monitoring of changes for evaluation of the potential impact on clinical care and outcomes.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1715/3382; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1715; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9135049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9135049?pdf=render -37185641,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022,EXAcerbations of COPD and their OutcomeS on CardioVascular diseases (EXACOS-CV) Programme: protocol of multicountry observational cohort studies.,"Nordon C, Rhodes K, Quint JK, Vogelmeier CF, Simons SO, Hawkins NM, Marshall J, Ouwens M, Garbe E, Müllerová H.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-04-26,Y,epidemiology; Cardiology; Vascular Medicine; Chronic Airways Disease,,,"

Introduction

In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the risk of certain cardiovascular (CV) events is increased by threefold to fivefold in the year following acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD), compared with a non-exacerbation period. While the effect of severe AECOPD is well established, the relationship of moderate exacerbation or prior exacerbation to elevated risk of CV events is less clear. We will conduct cohort studies in multiple countries to further characterise the association between AECOPD and CV events.

Methods and analysis

Retrospective longitudinal cohort studies will be conducted within routinely collected electronic healthcare records or claims databases. The study cohorts will include patients meeting inclusion criteria for COPD between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018. Moderate exacerbation is defined as an outpatient visit and/or medication dispensation/prescription for exacerbation; severe exacerbation is defined as hospitalisation for COPD. The primary outcomes of interest are the time to (1) first hospitalisation for a CV event (including acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, arrhythmias or cerebral ischaemia) since cohort entry or (2) death. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazards models will compare the hazard of a CV event between exposed periods following exacerbation (split into these periods: 1-7, 8-14, 15-30, 31-180 and 181-365 days) and the unexposed reference time period, adjusted on time-fixed and time-varying confounders.

Ethics and dissemination

Studies have been approved in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, where an institutional review board is mandated. For each study, the results will be published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/4/e070022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875?pdf=render 34632260,https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkab042,"Biologic use in psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis patients: a descriptive epidemiological study using linked, routine data in Wales, UK.","Cooksey R, Rahman MA, Kennedy J, Brophy S, Choy E.",,Rheumatology advances in practice,2021,2021-06-27,Y,Ankylosing spondylitis; Psoriatic Arthritis; Outcomes; Biologics; Electronic Health Records; Treatment Pathways,,,"

Objectives

PsA and AS are chronic diseases associated with significant morbidities. National and international management guidelines include treatment with biologic therapies to improve outcomes and quality of life. There are limited real-world data on the patients' journey from symptom onset to diagnosis and treatment in the UK. We use real-life, linked health data to explore patient pathways and the impact of biologics on patient outcomes.

Methods

Data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank in Wales were used to assess diagnosis and treatment of patients ≥18 years of age with at least one International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision code present for PsA/AS in rheumatology clinic data and at least one Read code present in primary care records. We investigated the use of biologics while exploring demographics, comorbidities and surgical procedures of 641 AS patients and 1312 PsA patients.

Results

AS patients were significantly younger at diagnosis and were predominantly male. The average time from presenting symptoms to diagnosis of AS and PsA was 7.9 (s.d. 5.5) and 9.3 (s.d. 5.5) years, respectively. The proportion of patients receiving biologic treatment was significantly higher in AS (46%) compared with PsA patients (28.8%); of these, 23.1% of AS and 22.2% of PsA patients stopped/switched a biologic. There was a significant reduction in primary care involvement, sick notes and disability living allowance for both AS and PsA patients following biologic initiation.

Conclusion

This real-world descriptive study confirms that patients treated with biologics have reduced disability and time off work despite being initiated ∼13 years after the first symptoms and 6 years after diagnosis.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumap/article-pdf/5/2/rkab042/39307450/rkab042.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkab042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8496109; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8496109?pdf=render 37663407,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooad072,Identifying factors associated with user retention and outcomes of a digital intervention for substance use disorder: a retrospective analysis of real-world data.,"Günther F, Wong D, Elison-Davies S, Yau C.",,JAMIA open,2023,2023-09-02,Y,Substance Use Disorder; Secondary Use; Digital Health Intervention; Real-World Data Exploration; Real-World Uptake,,,"

Objectives

Successful delivery of digital health interventions is affected by multiple real-world factors. These factors may be identified in routinely collected, ecologically valid data from these interventions. We propose ideas for exploring these data, focusing on interventions targeting complex, comorbid conditions.

Materials and methods

This study retrospectively explores pre-post data collected between 2016 and 2019 from users of digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-containing psychoeducation and practical exercises-for substance use disorder (SUD) at UK addiction services. To identify factors associated with heterogenous user responses to the technology, we employed multivariable and multivariate regressions and random forest models of user-reported questionnaire data.

Results

The dataset contained information from 14 078 individuals of which 12 529 reported complete data at baseline and 2925 did so again after engagement with the CBT. Ninety-three percent screened positive for dependence on 1 of 43 substances at baseline, and 73% screened positive for anxiety or depression. Despite pre-post improvements independent of user sociodemographics, women reported more frequent and persistent symptoms of SUD, anxiety, and depression. Retention-minimum 2 use events recorded-was associated more with deployment environment than user characteristics. Prediction accuracy of post-engagement outcomes was acceptable (Area Under Curve [AUC]: 0.74-0.79), depending non-trivially on user characteristics.

Discussion

Traditionally, performance of digital health interventions is determined in controlled trials. Our analysis showcases multivariate models with which real-world data from these interventions can be explored and sources of user heterogeneity in retention and symptom reduction uncovered.

Conclusion

Real-world data from digital health interventions contain information on natural user-technology interactions which could enrich results from controlled trials.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooad072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10474970; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10474970?pdf=render -35255492,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6,Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19.,"Kousathanas A, Pairo-Castineira E, Rawlik K, Stuckey A, Odhams CA, Walker S, Russell CD, Malinauskas T, Wu Y, Millar J, Shen X, Elliott KS, Griffiths F, Oosthuyzen W, Morrice K, Keating S, Wang B, Rhodes D, Klaric L, Zechner M, Parkinson N, Siddiq A, Goddard P, Donovan S, Maslove D, Nichol A, Semple MG, Zainy T, Maleady-Crowe F, Todd L, Salehi S, Knight J, Elgar G, Chan G, Arumugam P, Patch C, Rendon A, Bentley D, Kingsley C, Kosmicki JA, Horowitz JE, Baras A, Abecasis GR, Ferreira MAR, Justice A, Mirshahi T, Oetjens M, Rader DJ, Ritchie MD, Verma A, Fowler TA, Shankar-Hari M, Summers C, Hinds C, Horby P, Ling L, McAuley D, Montgomery H, Openshaw PJM, Elliott P, Walsh T, Tenesa A, GenOMICC investigators, 23andMe investigators, COVID-19 Human Genetics Initiative, Fawkes A, Murphy L, Rowan K, Ponting CP, Vitart V, Wilson JF, Yang J, Bretherick AD, Scott RH, Hendry SC, Moutsianas L, Law A, Caulfield MJ, Baillie JK.",,Nature,2022,2022-03-07,Y,,,,"Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2-4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes-including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)-in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04576-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496?pdf=render +37185641,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022,EXAcerbations of COPD and their OutcomeS on CardioVascular diseases (EXACOS-CV) Programme: protocol of multicountry observational cohort studies.,"Nordon C, Rhodes K, Quint JK, Vogelmeier CF, Simons SO, Hawkins NM, Marshall J, Ouwens M, Garbe E, Müllerová H.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-04-26,Y,epidemiology; Cardiology; Vascular Medicine; Chronic Airways Disease,,,"

Introduction

In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the risk of certain cardiovascular (CV) events is increased by threefold to fivefold in the year following acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD), compared with a non-exacerbation period. While the effect of severe AECOPD is well established, the relationship of moderate exacerbation or prior exacerbation to elevated risk of CV events is less clear. We will conduct cohort studies in multiple countries to further characterise the association between AECOPD and CV events.

Methods and analysis

Retrospective longitudinal cohort studies will be conducted within routinely collected electronic healthcare records or claims databases. The study cohorts will include patients meeting inclusion criteria for COPD between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018. Moderate exacerbation is defined as an outpatient visit and/or medication dispensation/prescription for exacerbation; severe exacerbation is defined as hospitalisation for COPD. The primary outcomes of interest are the time to (1) first hospitalisation for a CV event (including acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, arrhythmias or cerebral ischaemia) since cohort entry or (2) death. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazards models will compare the hazard of a CV event between exposed periods following exacerbation (split into these periods: 1-7, 8-14, 15-30, 31-180 and 181-365 days) and the unexposed reference time period, adjusted on time-fixed and time-varying confounders.

Ethics and dissemination

Studies have been approved in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, where an institutional review board is mandated. For each study, the results will be published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/4/e070022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875?pdf=render 33842409,https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.630036,Microtia: A Data Linkage Study of Epidemiology and Implications for Service Delivery.,"Jovic TH, Gibson JAG, Griffiths R, Dobbs TD, Akbari A, Wilson-Jones N, Costello R, Evans P, Cooper M, Key S, Lyons R, Whitaker IS.",,Frontiers in pediatrics,2021,2021-03-26,Y,epidemiology; congenital; Otology; Reconstructive Surgery; Microtia,,,"Introduction: Previous studies of microtia epidemiology globally have demonstrated significant geographical and ethnic variation, cited broadly as affecting 3-5 in 10,000 live births. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of microtia in a largely homogeneous ethnic population in the United Kingdom (Wales) and to identify factors, such as distance and socioeconomic status, which may influence the access to surgical intervention. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data linkage to identify patients born between 2000 and 2018 with a diagnosis of microtia. Microtia incidence was calculated using annual and geographic birth rates. Surgical operation codes were used to classify patients into those that had no surgery, autologous reconstruction or prosthetic reconstruction. Sociodemographic attributes were compared using descriptive statistics to determine differences in access to each type of surgical intervention. Results: A total of 101 patients were identified, 64.4% were male and the median age was 12 (8-16). The mean annual incidence was 2.13 microtia cases per 10,000 births over the 19-year study period. Both temporal and geographic variation was noted. The majority of patients undergoing surgery opted for autologous reconstruction (72.9%) at a median age of 9 (7-10) compared to 7 (5-8) for prosthetic reconstruction. Autologous reconstruction had a higher median number of surgeries (2, 1-3) than prosthetic (1.5, 1-2) and a higher median socioeconomic status of 3 (2-4) compared to 2 (1-4) for the prosthetic cohort. There were no statistically significant differences in the distance traveled for surgery. Discussion: This study highlights a role for data linkage in epidemiological analyses and provides a revised incidence of microtia in Wales. Although the majority of patients opted for autologous reconstruction, demographic disparities in socioeconomic status warrant further investigation, emphasizing the importance of striving for equity in accessibility to surgical intervention.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2021.630036/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.630036; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8033003; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8033003?pdf=render 36992264,https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030680,"Determinants of Equity in Coverage of Measles-Containing Vaccines in Wales, UK, during the Elimination Era.","Perry M, Cottrell S, Gravenor MB, Griffiths L.",,Vaccines,2023,2023-03-17,Y,"Vaccination; Measles; Socioeconomic Factors; Immunisation; Mmr; Measles, Mumps And Rubella Vaccine",,,"In the context of the WHO's measles and rubella elimination targets and European Immunization Agenda 2030, this large cross-sectional study aimed to identify inequalities in measles vaccination coverage in Wales, UK. The vaccination status of individuals aged 2 to 25 years of age, alive and resident in Wales as of 31 August 2021, was ascertained through linkage of the National Community Child Health Database and primary care data. A series of predictor variables were derived from five national datasets and all analysis was carried out in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank at Swansea University. In these 648,895 individuals, coverage of the first dose of measles-containing vaccine (due at 12-13 months of age) was 97.1%, and coverage of the second dose (due at 3 years and 4 months) in 4 to 25-year-olds was 93.8%. In multivariable analysis, excluding 0.7% with known refusal, the strongest association with being unvaccinated was birth order (families with six or more children) and being born outside of the UK. Living in a deprived area, being eligible for free school meals, a lower level of maternal education, and having a recorded language other than English or Welsh were also associated with lower coverage. Some of these factors may also be associated with refusal. This knowledge can be used to target future interventions and prioritise areas for catch up in a time of limited resource.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/3/680/pdf?version=1679031223; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030680; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10057771; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10057771?pdf=render -36036238,https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180,Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led allergy clinic model in primary care: Feasibility trial.,"Hammersley V, Kelman M, Morrice L, Kendall M, Mukerjhee M, Harley S, Schwarze J, Sheikh A.",,Clinical and translational allergy,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Allergy; Quality of life; Primary Care,,,"

Introduction

It is now widely acknowledged that there are serious shortcomings in allergy care provision for patients seen in primary care. We sought to assess the feasibility of delivering and evaluating a new nurse-led allergy service in primary care, measured by recruitment, retention and estimates of the potential impact of the intervention on disease-specific quality of life.

Methods

Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led primary care-based allergy clinic in Edinburgh, UK undertaken during the period 2017-2021 with a focus on suspected food allergy and atopic eczema in young children, allergic rhinitis in children and young people, and suspected anaphylaxis in adults. Prior to March 2020, patients were seen face-to-face (Phase 1). Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, recruitment was halted between March-August 2020, and a remote clinic was restarted in September 2020 (Phase 2). Disease-specific quality of life was measured at baseline and 6-12 weeks post intervention using validated instruments. Quantitative data were descriptively analysed. We undertook interviews with 16 carers/patients and nine healthcare professionals, which were thematically analysed.

Results

During Phase 1, 426/506 (84%) referred patients met the eligibility criteria; 40/46 (87%) of Phase 2 referrals were eligible. Males and females were recruited in approximately equal numbers. The majority (83%) of referrals were for possible food allergy or anaphylaxis. Complete data were available for 338/426 (79%) patients seen in Phase 1 and 30/40 (75%) in Phase 2. Compared with baseline assessments, there were improvements in disease-specific quality of life for most categories of patients. Patients/carers and healthcare professionals reported high levels of satisfaction, this being reinforced by the qualitative interviews in which convenience and speed of access to expert opinion, the quality of the consultation, and patient/care empowerment were particularly emphasised.

Conclusion

This large feasibility trial has demonstrated that it is possible to recruit, deliver and retain individuals into a nurse-led allergy clinic with both face-to-face and remote consultations. Our data indicate that the intervention was considered acceptable to patients/carers and healthcare professionals. The before-after data of disease-specific quality of life suggest that the intervention may prove effective, but this now needs to be confirmed through a formal randomised controlled trial.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov reference NCT03826953.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9362986; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986?pdf=render +35255492,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6,Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19.,"Kousathanas A, Pairo-Castineira E, Rawlik K, Stuckey A, Odhams CA, Walker S, Russell CD, Malinauskas T, Wu Y, Millar J, Shen X, Elliott KS, Griffiths F, Oosthuyzen W, Morrice K, Keating S, Wang B, Rhodes D, Klaric L, Zechner M, Parkinson N, Siddiq A, Goddard P, Donovan S, Maslove D, Nichol A, Semple MG, Zainy T, Maleady-Crowe F, Todd L, Salehi S, Knight J, Elgar G, Chan G, Arumugam P, Patch C, Rendon A, Bentley D, Kingsley C, Kosmicki JA, Horowitz JE, Baras A, Abecasis GR, Ferreira MAR, Justice A, Mirshahi T, Oetjens M, Rader DJ, Ritchie MD, Verma A, Fowler TA, Shankar-Hari M, Summers C, Hinds C, Horby P, Ling L, McAuley D, Montgomery H, Openshaw PJM, Elliott P, Walsh T, Tenesa A, GenOMICC investigators, 23andMe investigators, COVID-19 Human Genetics Initiative, Fawkes A, Murphy L, Rowan K, Ponting CP, Vitart V, Wilson JF, Yang J, Bretherick AD, Scott RH, Hendry SC, Moutsianas L, Law A, Caulfield MJ, Baillie JK.",,Nature,2022,2022-03-07,Y,,,,"Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2-4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes-including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)-in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04576-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496?pdf=render 35003715,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.05026,"Uptake, effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in children and young people in Scotland: Protocol for early pandemic evaluation and enhanced surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II).","Adeloye D, Katikireddi SV, Woolford L, Simpson CR, Shah SA, Agrawal U, Richie LD, Swann OV, Stock SJ, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Rudan I.",,Journal of global health,2021,2021-12-25,Y,,,,"

Background

The dynamics of acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission and severity of disease among children and young people (CYP) across different settings are of considerable clinical, public health and societal interest. Severe COVID-19 cases, requiring hospitalisations, and deaths have been reported in some CYP suggesting a need to extend vaccinations to these age groups. As part of the ongoing Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) study, we aim to investigate the uptake, effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in children and young people (CYP) aged 0 to 17 years in Scotland. Specifically, we will estimate: (i) uptake of vaccines against COVID-19, (ii) vaccine effectiveness (VE) against the outcomes of symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalisation, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and death; (iii) VE for first/second dose timing among different age groups and risk groups; and (iv) the safety of vaccines.

Methods and analysis

We will conduct an open prospective cohort study classifying exposure as time-varying. We will compare outcomes amongst first dose vaccinated and second dose vaccinated CYP to those not yet vaccinated. A Test Negative Design (TND) case control study will be nested within this national cohort to investigate VE against symptomatic infection. The primary outcomes will be (i) uptake of vaccines against COVID-19, (ii) time to COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation, ICU admissions or death, and (iii) adverse events related to vaccines. Vaccination status (unvaccinated, one dose and two doses) will be defined as a time-varying exposure. Data from multiple sources will be linked using a unique identifier. We will conduct descriptive analyses to explore trends in vaccine uptake, and association between different exposure variables and vaccine uptake will be determined using multivariable logistic regression models. VE will be assessed from time-dependent Cox models or Poisson regression models, adjusted for relevant confounders, including age, sex, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities. We will employ self-controlled study designs to determine the risk of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethics approval was obtained from the National Research Ethics Committee, South East Scotland 02. We will present findings of this study at international conferences, in peer-reviewed journals and to policy-makers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.05026; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.05026; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8709900; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8709900?pdf=render +36036238,https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180,Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led allergy clinic model in primary care: Feasibility trial.,"Hammersley V, Kelman M, Morrice L, Kendall M, Mukerjhee M, Harley S, Schwarze J, Sheikh A.",,Clinical and translational allergy,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Allergy; Quality of life; Primary Care,,,"

Introduction

It is now widely acknowledged that there are serious shortcomings in allergy care provision for patients seen in primary care. We sought to assess the feasibility of delivering and evaluating a new nurse-led allergy service in primary care, measured by recruitment, retention and estimates of the potential impact of the intervention on disease-specific quality of life.

Methods

Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led primary care-based allergy clinic in Edinburgh, UK undertaken during the period 2017-2021 with a focus on suspected food allergy and atopic eczema in young children, allergic rhinitis in children and young people, and suspected anaphylaxis in adults. Prior to March 2020, patients were seen face-to-face (Phase 1). Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, recruitment was halted between March-August 2020, and a remote clinic was restarted in September 2020 (Phase 2). Disease-specific quality of life was measured at baseline and 6-12 weeks post intervention using validated instruments. Quantitative data were descriptively analysed. We undertook interviews with 16 carers/patients and nine healthcare professionals, which were thematically analysed.

Results

During Phase 1, 426/506 (84%) referred patients met the eligibility criteria; 40/46 (87%) of Phase 2 referrals were eligible. Males and females were recruited in approximately equal numbers. The majority (83%) of referrals were for possible food allergy or anaphylaxis. Complete data were available for 338/426 (79%) patients seen in Phase 1 and 30/40 (75%) in Phase 2. Compared with baseline assessments, there were improvements in disease-specific quality of life for most categories of patients. Patients/carers and healthcare professionals reported high levels of satisfaction, this being reinforced by the qualitative interviews in which convenience and speed of access to expert opinion, the quality of the consultation, and patient/care empowerment were particularly emphasised.

Conclusion

This large feasibility trial has demonstrated that it is possible to recruit, deliver and retain individuals into a nurse-led allergy clinic with both face-to-face and remote consultations. Our data indicate that the intervention was considered acceptable to patients/carers and healthcare professionals. The before-after data of disease-specific quality of life suggest that the intervention may prove effective, but this now needs to be confirmed through a formal randomised controlled trial.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov reference NCT03826953.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9362986; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986?pdf=render 35997000,https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15530,Longitudinal analysis of the relationship between motor and psychiatric symptoms in idiopathic dystonia.,"Bailey GA, Rawlings A, Torabi F, Pickrell WO, Peall KJ.",,European journal of neurology,2022,2022-09-11,Y,Psychiatric disorders; Movement Disorders; Dystonia; Neurological Disorders,,,"

Background and purpose

Although psychiatric diagnoses are recognized in idiopathic dystonia, no previous studies have examined the temporal relationship between idiopathic dystonia and psychiatric diagnoses at scale. Here, we determine rates of psychiatric diagnoses and psychiatric medication prescription in those diagnosed with idiopathic dystsuponia compared to matched controls.

Methods

A longitudinal population-based cohort study using anonymized electronic health care data in Wales (UK) was conducted to identify individuals with idiopathic dystonia and comorbid psychiatric diagnoses/prescriptions between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 2017. Psychiatric diagnoses/prescriptions were identified from primary and secondary health care records.

Results

Individuals with idiopathic dystonia (n = 52,589) had higher rates of psychiatric diagnosis and psychiatric medication prescription when compared to controls (n = 216,754, 43% vs. 31%, p < 0.001; 45% vs. 37.9%, p < 0.001, respectively), with depression and anxiety being most common (cases: 31% and 28%). Psychiatric diagnoses predominantly predated dystonia diagnosis, particularly in the 12 months prior to diagnosis (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.98, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.9-2.1), with an IRR of 12.4 (95% CI = 11.8-13.1) for anxiety disorders. There was, however, an elevated rate of most psychiatric diagnoses throughout the study period, including the 12 months after dystonia diagnosis (IRR = 1.96, 95% CI = 1.85-2.07).

Conclusions

This study suggests a bidirectional relationship between psychiatric disorders and dystonia, particularly with mood disorders. Psychiatric and motor symptoms in dystonia may have common aetiological mechanisms, with psychiatric disorders potentially forming prodromal symptoms of idiopathic dystonia.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62203/Download/62203__26254__0c88bfc9ff7e4fe2acaea5e2a2d74058.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15530; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826317?pdf=render -PMC9644982,https://doi.org/,Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on Care Homes in Wales.,"Fry R, Hollinghurst J, North L, Emmerson C, Long S, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Lyons R.",,International journal of population data science,,2022-11-21,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982?pdf=render 35813279,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00147-7,"Duration of vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalisation, and death in residents and staff of long-term care facilities in England (VIVALDI): a prospective cohort study.","Shrotri M, Krutikov M, Nacer-Laidi H, Azmi B, Palmer T, Giddings R, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Baynton V, Tut G, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2022,2022-07-04,Y,,,,"

Background

Residents and staff in long-term care facilities have been prioritised for vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, but data on potential waning of vaccine effectiveness and the effect of booster doses in this vulnerable population are scarce. We aimed to evaluate effectiveness of one, two, and three vaccine doses against infection and severe clinical outcomes in staff and residents of long-term care facilities in England over the first year following vaccine roll-out.

Methods

The VIVALDI study is a prospective cohort study done in 331 long-term care facilities in England. Residents aged 65 years or older and staff aged 18 years or older were eligible for participation. Participants had routine PCR testing throughout the study period between Dec 8, 2020, and Dec 11, 2021. We retrieved all PCR results and cycle threshold values for PCR-positive samples from routine testing in long-term care facilities, and positive PCR results from clinical testing in hospitals through the UK's COVID-19 Datastore. PCR results were linked to participants using pseudo-identifiers based on individuals' unique UK National Health Service (NHS) numbers, which were also used to retrieve vaccination records from the National Immunisation Management Service, hospitalisation records from NHS England, and deaths data from the Office for National Statistics through the COVID-19 Datastore. In a Cox proportional hazards regression, we estimated vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19-related hospitalisation, and COVID-19-related death after one, two, and three vaccine doses, separately by previous SARS-CoV-2 exposure. This study is registered with the ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN 14447421.

Findings

80 186 residents and staff of long-term care facilities had records available for the study period, of whom 15 518 eligible residents and 19 515 eligible staff were included in the analysis. For residents without evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 exposure, vaccine effectiveness decreased from 61·7% (95% CI 35·1 to 77·4) to 22·0% (-14·9 to 47·0) against infection; from 89·0% (70·6 to 95·9) to 56·3% (30·1 to 72·6) against hospitalisation; and from 96·4% (84·3 to 99·2) to 64·4% (36·1 to 80·1) against death, when comparing 14-83 days after dose two and 84 days or more after dose two. For staff without evidence of previous exposure, vaccine effectiveness against infection decreased slightly from 57·9% (43·1 to 68·9) at 14-83 days after dose two to 42·1% (29·9 to 52·2) at 84 days or more after dose two. There were no hospitalisations or deaths among unexposed staff at 14-83 days, but seven hospitalisations (vaccine effectiveness 91·0% [95% CI 74·3 to 96·8]) and one death were observed at 84 days or more after dose two. High vaccine effectiveness was restored following a third vaccine dose, with vaccine effectiveness in unexposed residents of 72·7% (55·8 to 83·1) against infection, 90·1% (80·6 to 95·0) against hospitalisation, and 97·5% (88·1 to 99·5) against death; and vaccine effectiveness in unexposed staff of 78·2% (70·0 to 84·1) against infection and 95·8% (49·9 to 99·6) against hospitalisation. There were no COVID-19-related deaths among unexposed staff after the third vaccine dose.

Interpretation

Our findings showed substantial waning of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness against all outcomes in residents of long-term care facilities from 12 weeks after a primary course of ChAdOx1-S or mRNA vaccines. Boosters restored protection, and maximised immunity across all outcomes. These findings show the importance of boosting and the need for ongoing surveillance in this vulnerable cohort.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00147-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00147-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9252508; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9252508?pdf=render +PMC9644982,https://doi.org/,Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on Care Homes in Wales.,"Fry R, Hollinghurst J, North L, Emmerson C, Long S, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Lyons R.",,International journal of population data science,,2022-11-21,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982?pdf=render 33901420,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00677-2,Interim findings from first-dose mass COVID-19 vaccination roll-out and COVID-19 hospital admissions in Scotland: a national prospective cohort study.,"Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Shi T, Kerr S, Agrawal U, Akbari A, Bedston S, Beggs J, Bradley D, Chuter A, de Lusignan S, Docherty AB, Ford D, Hobbs FR, Joy M, Katikireddi SV, Marple J, McCowan C, McGagh D, McMenamin J, Moore E, Murray JL, Pan J, Ritchie L, Shah SA, Stock S, Torabi F, Tsang RS, Wood R, Woolhouse M, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-04-23,Y,,,,"

Background

The BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) COVID-19 vaccines have shown high efficacy against disease in phase 3 clinical trials and are now being used in national vaccination programmes in the UK and several other countries. Studying the real-world effects of these vaccines is an urgent requirement. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between the mass roll-out of the first doses of these COVID-19 vaccines and hospital admissions for COVID-19.

Methods

We did a prospective cohort study using the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19-EAVE II-database comprising linked vaccination, primary care, real-time reverse transcription-PCR testing, and hospital admission patient records for 5·4 million people in Scotland (about 99% of the population) registered at 940 general practices. Individuals who had previously tested positive were excluded from the analysis. A time-dependent Cox model and Poisson regression models with inverse propensity weights were fitted to estimate effectiveness against COVID-19 hospital admission (defined as 1-adjusted rate ratio) following the first dose of vaccine.

Findings

Between Dec 8, 2020, and Feb 22, 2021, a total of 1 331 993 people were vaccinated over the study period. The mean age of those vaccinated was 65·0 years (SD 16·2). The first dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine was associated with a vaccine effect of 91% (95% CI 85-94) for reduced COVID-19 hospital admission at 28-34 days post-vaccination. Vaccine effect at the same time interval for the ChAdOx1 vaccine was 88% (95% CI 75-94). Results of combined vaccine effects against hospital admission due to COVID-19 were similar when restricting the analysis to those aged 80 years and older (83%, 95% CI 72-89 at 28-34 days post-vaccination).

Interpretation

Mass roll-out of the first doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA and ChAdOx1 vaccines was associated with substantial reductions in the risk of hospital admission due to COVID-19 in Scotland. There remains the possibility that some of the observed effects might have been due to residual confounding.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00677-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00677-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8064669 34145260,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23935-x,Community factors and excess mortality in first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.,"Davies B, Parkes BL, Bennett J, Fecht D, Blangiardo M, Ezzati M, Elliott P.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-06-18,Y,,,,"Risk factors for increased risk of death from COVID-19 have been identified, but less is known on characteristics that make communities resilient or vulnerable to the mortality impacts of the pandemic. We applied a two-stage Bayesian spatial model to quantify inequalities in excess mortality in people aged 40 years and older at the community level during the first wave of the pandemic in England, March-May 2020 compared with 2015-2019. Here we show that communities with an increased risk of excess mortality had a high density of care homes, and/or high proportion of residents on income support, living in overcrowded homes and/or with a non-white ethnicity. We found no association between population density or air pollution and excess mortality. Effective and timely public health and healthcare measures that target the communities at greatest risk are urgently needed to avoid further widening of inequalities in mortality patterns as the pandemic progresses.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23935-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8213785; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8213785?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23935-x.pdf 30474191,https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13870,Utility of HbA1c assessment in people with diabetes awaiting liver transplantation.,"Bhattacharjee D, Vracar S, Round RA, Nightingale PG, Williams JA, Gkoutos GV, Stratton IM, Parker R, Luzio SD, Webber J, Manley SE, Roberts GA, Ghosh S.",,Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association,2019,2019-04-30,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"

Aims

To investigate the relationship between HbA1c and glucose in people with co-existing liver disease and diabetes awaiting transplant, and in those with diabetes but no liver disease.

Methods

HbA1c and random plasma glucose data were collected for 125 people with diabetes without liver disease and for 29 people awaiting liver transplant with diabetes and cirrhosis. Cirrhosis was caused by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatitis C, alcoholic liver disease, hereditary haemochromatosis, polycystic liver/kidneys, cryptogenic/non-cirrhotic portal hypertension and α-1-antitrypsin-related disease.

Results

The median (interquartile range) age of the diabetes with cirrhosis group was 55 (49-63) years compared to 60 (50-71) years (P=0.13) in the group without cirrhosis. In the diabetes with cirrhosis group there were 21 men (72%) compared with 86 men (69%) in the group with diabetes and no cirrhosis (P=0.82). Of the group with diabetes and cirrhosis, 27 people (93%) were of white European ethnicity, two (7%) were South Asian and none was of Afro-Caribbean/other ethnicity compared with 94 (75%), 16 (13%), 10 (8%)/5 (4%), respectively, in the group with diabetes and no cirrhosis (P=0.20). Median (interquartile range) HbA1c was 41 (32-56) mmol/mol [5.9 (5.1-7.3)%] vs 61 (52-70) mmol/mol [7.7 (6.9-8.6)%] (P<0.001), respectively, in the diabetes with cirrhosis group vs the diabetes without cirrhosis group. The glucose concentrations were 8.4 (7.0-11.2) mmol/l vs 7.3 (5.2-11.5) mmol/l (P=0.17). HbA1c was depressed by 20 mmol/mol (1.8%; P<0.001) in 28 participants with cirrhosis but elevated by 28 mmol/mol (2.6%) in the participant with α-1-antitrypsin disorder. Those with cirrhosis and depressed HbA1c had fewer larger erythrocytes, and higher red cell distribution width and reticulocyte count. This was reflected in the positive association of glucose with mean cell volume (r=0.39) and haemoglobin level (r=0.49) and the negative association for HbA1c (r=-0.28 and r=-0.26, respectively) in the diabetes group with cirrhosis.

Conclusion

HbA1c is not an appropriate test for blood glucose in people with cirrhosis and diabetes awaiting transplant as it reflects altered erythrocyte presentation.","The aim of this article was to investigate the relationship between HbA1c and glucose in patients with diabetes awaiting transplant due to a co-existing liver disease, and in those with diabetes but no liver disease. Statistical analyses results indicated that HbA1c is not an appropriate test for blood glucose in people with cirrhosis and diabetes awaiting transplant, and it might cause misdiagnosis of diabetes and inappropirate clinical care in people with cirrhotic liver disease.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/dme.13870; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13870; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6850030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6850030?pdf=render 36921681,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2023.117271,"Letter to the editor regarding: ""A haemochromatosis-causing HFE mutation is associated with SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility in the Czech population"" clinica chimica acta 538 (2023) 211-215.","Atkins JL, Lucas MR, Pilling LC, Melzer D.",,Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry,2023,2023-03-13,Y,Iron; Haemochromatosis; Hfe; Covd-19,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10009995; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2023.117271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10009995; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10009995?pdf=render PMC9644860,https://doi.org/,Maternal mental health and children’s development: a bi-directional relationship?,"Lowthian E, Bedston S, Akbari A, Katz A, Huxley K, Johnson R, Kristensen S, Owen R, Taylor C, Griffiths L.",,International journal of population data science,,2022-11-21,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644860/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644860/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644860?pdf=render 34543508,https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15114,"Adult-onset idiopathic dystonia: A national data-linkage study to determine epidemiological, social deprivation, and mortality characteristics.","Bailey GA, Rawlings A, Torabi F, Pickrell O, Peall KJ.",,European journal of neurology,2022,2021-10-15,Y,Mortality; Prevalence; Socioeconomic Factors; incidence; Dystonia,,,"

Background and purpose

Accurate epidemiological information is essential for the improved understanding of dystonia syndromes, as well as better provisioning of clinical services and providing context for diagnostic decision-making. Here, we determine epidemiological, social deprivation, and mortality characteristics of adult-onset idiopathic dystonia in the Welsh population.

Methods

A retrospective population-based cohort study using anonymized electronic health care data in Wales was conducted to identify individuals with dystonia between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 2017. We developed a case-ascertainment algorithm to determine dystonia incidence and prevalence, as well as characterization of the dystonia cohort, based on social deprivation and mortality.

Results

The case-ascertainment algorithm (79% sensitivity) identified 54,966 cases; of these cases, 41,660 had adult-onset idiopathic dystonia (≥20 years). Amongst the adult-onset form, the median age at diagnosis was 41 years, with males significantly older at time of diagnosis compared to females. Prevalence rates ranged from 0.02% in 1994 to 1.2% in 2017. The average annual incidence was 87.7/100,000/year, increasing from 49.9/100,000/year (1994) to 96.21/100,000/year (2017). In 2017, people with dystonia had a similar life expectancy to the Welsh population.

Conclusions

We have developed a case-ascertainment algorithm, supported by the introduction of a neurologist-reviewed validation cohort, providing a platform for future population-based dystonia studies. We have established robust population-level prevalence and incidence values for adult-onset idiopathic forms of dystonia, with this reflecting increasing clinical recognition and identification of causal genes. Underlying causes of death mirrored those of the general population, including circulatory disorders, respiratory disorders, cancers, and dementia.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ene.15114; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15114; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9377012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9377012?pdf=render +33965593,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055,Intolerance to Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Asthma and the General Population: A UK Population-Based Cohort Study.,"Morales DR, Lipworth BJ, Donnan PT, Wang H.",,The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice,2021,2021-05-06,Y,Hypertension; Angiotensin converting enzyme; Asthma; epidemiology; Cough,,,"

Background

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) intolerance commonly occurs, requiring switching to an angiotensin-II receptor blocker (ARB). Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor intolerance may be mediated by bradykinin, potentially affecting airway hyperresponsiveness.

Objective

To assess the risk for switching to ARBs in asthma.

Methods

We conducted a new-user cohort study of ACEI initiators identified from electronic health records from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The risk for switching to ARBs in people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the general population was compared. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression, stratified by British Thoracic Society (BTS) treatment step and ACEI type.

Results

Of 642,336 new users of ACEI, 6.4% had active asthma. The hazard of switching to ARB was greater in people with asthma (HR = 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14-1.18; P ≤ .001) and highest in those at BTS step 3 or greater (HR = 1.35, 95% CI, 1.32-1.39; and HR = 1.18, 95% CI, 1.15-1.22, P ≤ .001 for patients aged ≥60 and <60 years, respectively). Hazard was highest with enalapril (HR = 1.25, 95% CI, 1.18-1.34, P ≤ .001; HR = 1.44, 95% CI, 1.32-1.58, P ≤ .001 for BTS step 3 or greater asthma). No increased hazard was observed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or those younger than age 60 years at BTS step 1/2. The number needed to treat varied by age, sex, and body mass index (BMI), ranging between 21 and 4, and was lowest in older women with a BMI of 25 or greater.

Conclusions

People with active asthma are more likely to switch to ARBs after commencing ACEI therapy. The number needed to treat varies by age, sex, BMI, and BTS step. Angiotensin-II receptor blocker could potentially be considered first-line in people with asthma and in those with high-risk characteristics.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc8443840?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840?pdf=render 37294923,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad192,Incidence of 12 common cardiovascular diseases and subsequent mortality risk in the general population.,"Prugger C, Perier MC, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Hemingway H, Denaxas S, Empana JP.",,European journal of preventive cardiology,2023,2023-06-09,N,Prevention; Survival analysis; Stroke; epidemiology; Coronary Heart Disease; incidence,,,"

Background

Incident events of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are heterogenous and may results in different mortality risks. Such evidence may help inform patient and physician decisions in CVD prevention and risk factor management.

Aim

To determine the extent to which incident events of common CVD show heterogeneous associations with subsequent mortality risk in the general population.

Methods

Based on England-wide linked electronic health records, we established a cohort of 1,310,518 people ≥30 years of age initially free of CVD and followed up for non-fatal events of 12 common CVD and cause-specific mortality. The 12 CVD were considered as time-varying exposures in Cox's proportional hazards models to estimate hazard rate ratios (HRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results

Over the median follow-up of 4.2 years (2010-2016), 81,516 non-fatal CVD, 10,906 cardiovascular deaths, and 40,843 non-cardiovascular deaths occurred. All 12 CVD were associated with increased risk of cardiovascular mortality, with HRR (95% CI) ranging from 1.67 (1.47-1.89) for stable angina to 7.85 (6.62-9.31) for haemorrhagic stroke. All 12 CVD were also associated with increased non-cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk but to a lesser extent: HRR (95% CI) ranged from 1.10 (1.00-1.22) to 4.55 (4.03-5.13) and from 1.24 (1.13-1.35) to 4.92 (4.44-5.46) for transient ischaemic attack and sudden cardiac arrest, respectively.

Conclusions

Incident events of 12 common CVD show significant adverse and markedly differential associations with subsequent cardiovascular, non-cardiovascular, and all-cause mortality risk in the general population.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad192 32180562,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2020.01.009,Genome-wide association study of adipocyte lipolysis in the GENetics of adipocyte lipolysis (GENiAL) cohort.,"Kulyté A, Lundbäck V, Lindgren CM, Luan J, Lotta LA, Langenberg C, Arner P, Strawbridge RJ, Dahlman I.",,Molecular metabolism,2020,2020-01-25,Y,Adipocytes; Gene Expression; Subcutaneous; Genetic Variants; Lipolysis,The Human Phenome,,"

Objectives

Lipolysis, hydrolysis of triglycerides to fatty acids in adipocytes, is tightly regulated, poorly understood, and, if perturbed, can lead to metabolic diseases including obesity and type 2 diabetes. The goal of this study was to identify the genetic regulators of lipolysis and elucidate their molecular mechanisms.

Methods

Adipocytes from abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies were isolated and were incubated without (spontaneous lipolysis) or with a catecholamine (stimulated lipolysis) to analyze lipolysis. DNA was extracted and genome-wide genotyping and imputation conducted. After quality control, 939 samples with genetic and lipolysis data were available. Genome-wide association studies of spontaneous and stimulated lipolysis were conducted. Subsequent in vitro gene expression analyses were used to identify candidate genes and explore their regulation of adipose tissue biology.

Results

One locus on chromosome 19 demonstrated genome-wide significance with spontaneous lipolysis. 60 loci showed suggestive associations with spontaneous or stimulated lipolysis, of which many influenced both traits. In the chromosome 19 locus, only HIF3A was expressed in the adipocytes and displayed genotype-dependent gene expression. HIF3A knockdown in vitro increased lipolysis and the expression of key lipolysis-regulating genes.

Conclusions

In conclusion, we identified a genetic regulator of spontaneous lipolysis and provided evidence of HIF3A as a novel key regulator of lipolysis in subcutaneous adipocytes as the mechanism through which the locus influences adipose tissue biology.","How the body breaks down fat is poorly understood, and, if this mechanism does not happen effiently in the body it can lead to metabolic diseases including obesity and type 2 diabetes. The goal of this study was to identify the genetic regulators of how the body break down fat and explain their molecular mechanisms.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2020.01.009; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2020.01.009; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7021539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7021539?pdf=render 33182605,https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11111326,"Exploring the Role of Contactins across Psychological, Psychiatric and Cardiometabolic Traits within UK Biobank. ","Morris J, Leung SSY, Bailey MES, Cullen B, Ferguson A, Graham N, Johnston KJA, Lyall DM, Lyall LM, Ward J, Smith DJ, Strawbridge RJ.",,Genes,2020,2020-11-10,Y,,,,"Individuals with severe mental illness have an increased risk of cardiometabolic diseases compared to the general population. Shared risk factors and medication effects explain part of this excess risk; however, there is growing evidence to suggest that shared biology (including genetic variation) is likely to contribute to comorbidity between mental and physical illness. Contactins are a family of genes involved in development of the nervous system and implicated, though genome-wide association studies, in a wide range of psychological, psychiatric and cardiometabolic conditions. Contactins are plausible candidates for shared pathology between mental and physical health. We used data from UK Biobank to systematically assess how genetic variation in contactin genes was associated with a wide range of psychological, psychiatric and cardiometabolic conditions. We also investigated whether associations for cardiometabolic and psychological traits represented the same or distinct signals and how the genetic variation might influence the measured traits. We identified: A novel genetic association between variation in CNTN1 and current smoking; two independent signals in CNTN4 for BMI; and demonstrated that associations between CNTN5 and neuroticism were distinct from those between CNTN5 and blood pressure/HbA1c. There was no evidence that the contactin genes contributed to shared aetiology between physical and mental illness.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/11/11/1326/pdf?version=1605520057; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11111326; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7697406; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7697406?pdf=render -33965593,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055,Intolerance to Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Asthma and the General Population: A UK Population-Based Cohort Study.,"Morales DR, Lipworth BJ, Donnan PT, Wang H.",,The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice,2021,2021-05-06,Y,Hypertension; Angiotensin converting enzyme; Asthma; epidemiology; Cough,,,"

Background

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) intolerance commonly occurs, requiring switching to an angiotensin-II receptor blocker (ARB). Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor intolerance may be mediated by bradykinin, potentially affecting airway hyperresponsiveness.

Objective

To assess the risk for switching to ARBs in asthma.

Methods

We conducted a new-user cohort study of ACEI initiators identified from electronic health records from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The risk for switching to ARBs in people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the general population was compared. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression, stratified by British Thoracic Society (BTS) treatment step and ACEI type.

Results

Of 642,336 new users of ACEI, 6.4% had active asthma. The hazard of switching to ARB was greater in people with asthma (HR = 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14-1.18; P ≤ .001) and highest in those at BTS step 3 or greater (HR = 1.35, 95% CI, 1.32-1.39; and HR = 1.18, 95% CI, 1.15-1.22, P ≤ .001 for patients aged ≥60 and <60 years, respectively). Hazard was highest with enalapril (HR = 1.25, 95% CI, 1.18-1.34, P ≤ .001; HR = 1.44, 95% CI, 1.32-1.58, P ≤ .001 for BTS step 3 or greater asthma). No increased hazard was observed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or those younger than age 60 years at BTS step 1/2. The number needed to treat varied by age, sex, and body mass index (BMI), ranging between 21 and 4, and was lowest in older women with a BMI of 25 or greater.

Conclusions

People with active asthma are more likely to switch to ARBs after commencing ACEI therapy. The number needed to treat varies by age, sex, BMI, and BTS step. Angiotensin-II receptor blocker could potentially be considered first-line in people with asthma and in those with high-risk characteristics.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc8443840?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840?pdf=render 36936262,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000371,Association between coeliac disease and cardiovascular disease: prospective analysis of UK Biobank data.,"Conroy M, Allen N, Lacey B, Soilleux E, Littlejohns T.",,BMJ medicine,2023,2023-01-04,Y,epidemiology; Cardiology; Celiac Disease,,,"

Objectives

To investigate whether people with coeliac disease are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischaemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke.

Design

Prospective analysis of a large cohort study.

Setting

UK Biobank database.

Participants

469 095 adults, of which 2083 had coeliac disease, aged 40-69 years from England, Scotland, and Wales between 2006 and 2010 without cardiovascular disease at baseline.

Main outcome measure

A composite primary outcome was relative risk of cardiovascular disease, ischaemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke in people with coeliac disease compared with people who do not have coeliac disease, assessed using Cox proportional hazard models.

Results

40 687 incident cardiovascular disease events occurred over a median follow-up of 12.4 years (interquartile range 11.5-13.1), with 218 events among people with coeliac disease. Participants with coeliac disease were more likely to have a lower body mass index and systolic blood pressure, less likely to smoke, and more likely to have an ideal cardiovascular risk score than people who do not have coeliac disease. Despite this, participants with coeliac disease had an incidence rate of 9.0 cardiovascular disease cases per 1000 person years (95% confidence interval 7.9 to 10.3) compared with 7.4 per 1000 person years (7.3 to 7.4) in people with no coeliac disease. Coeliac disease was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio 1.27 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.45)), which was not influenced by adjusting for lifestyle factors (1.27 (1.11 to 1.45)), but was strengthened by further adjusting for other cardiovascular risk factors (1.44 (1.26 to 1.65)). Similar associations were identified for ischaemic heart disease and myocardial infarction but fewer stroke events were reported and no evidence of an association between coeliac disease and risk of stroke.

Conclusions

Individuals with coeliac disease had a lower prevalence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors but had a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease than did people with no coeliac disease. Cardiovascular risk scores used in clinical practice might therefore not adequately capture the excess risk of cardiovascular disease in people with coeliac disease, and clinicians should be aware of the need to optimise cardiovascular health in this population.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000371.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000371; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951384; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951384?pdf=render 33667930,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104400,Real-time spatial health surveillance: Mapping the UK COVID-19 epidemic.,"Fry R, Hollinghurst J, Stagg HR, Thompson DA, Fronterre C, Orton C, Lyons RA, Ford DV, Sheikh A, Diggle PJ.",,International journal of medical informatics,2021,2021-01-28,Y,,,,"Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for robust data linkage systems and methods for identifying outbreaks of disease in near real-time. Objectives The primary objective of this study was to develop a real-time geospatial surveillance system to monitor the spread of COVID-19 across the UK. Methods Using self-reported app data and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, we demonstrate the use of sophisticated spatial modelling for near-real-time prediction of COVID-19 prevalence at small-area resolution to inform strategic government policy areas. Results We demonstrate that using a combination of crowd-sourced app data and sophisticated geo-statistical techniques it is possible to predict hot spots of COVID-19 at fine geographic scales, nationally. We are also able to produce estimates of their precision, which is an important pre-requisite to an effective control strategy to guard against over-reaction to potentially spurious features of 'best guess' predictions. Conclusion In the UK, important emerging risk-factors such as social deprivation or ethnicity vary over small distances, hence risk needs to be modelled at fine spatial resolution to avoid aggregation bias. We demonstrate that existing geospatial statistical methods originally developed for global health applications are well-suited to this task and can be used in an anonymised databank environment, thus preserving the privacy of the individuals who contribute their data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104400; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104400; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7843148 36227072,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocac203,Transforming and evaluating the UK Biobank to the OMOP Common Data Model for COVID-19 research and beyond.,"Papez V, Moinat M, Voss EA, Bazakou S, Van Winzum A, Peviani A, Payralbe S, Kallfelz M, Asselbergs FW, Prieto-Alhambra D, Dobson RJB, Denaxas S.",,Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Phenotyping; Electronic Health Records; Omop; Common Data Model; Medical Ontologies,,,"

Objective

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated the value of real-world data for public health research. International federated analyses are crucial for informing policy makers. Common data models (CDMs) are critical for enabling these studies to be performed efficiently. Our objective was to convert the UK Biobank, a study of 500 000 participants with rich genetic and phenotypic data to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) CDM.

Materials and methods

We converted UK Biobank data to OMOP CDM v. 5.3. We transformedparticipant research data on diseases collected at recruitment and electronic health records (EHRs) from primary care, hospitalizations, cancer registrations, and mortality from providers in England, Scotland, and Wales. We performed syntactic and semantic validations and compared comorbidities and risk factors between source and transformed data.

Results

We identified 502 505 participants (3086 with COVID-19) and transformed 690 fields (1 373 239 555 rows) to the OMOP CDM using 8 different controlled clinical terminologies and bespoke mappings. Specifically, we transformed self-reported noncancer illnesses 946 053 (83.91% of all source entries), cancers 37 802 (70.81%), medications 1 218 935 (88.25%), and prescriptions 864 788 (86.96%). In EHR, we transformed 13 028 182 (99.95%) hospital diagnoses, 6 465 399 (89.2%) procedures, 337 896 333 primary care diagnoses (CTV3, SNOMED-CT), 139 966 587 (98.74%) prescriptions (dm+d) and 77 127 (99.95%) deaths (ICD-10). We observed good concordance across demographic, risk factor, and comorbidity factors between source and transformed data.

Discussion and conclusion

Our study demonstrated that the OMOP CDM can be successfully leveraged to harmonize complex large-scale biobanked studies combining rich multimodal phenotypic data. Our study uncovered several challenges when transforming data from questionnaires to the OMOP CDM which require further research. The transformed UK Biobank resource is a valuable tool that can enable federated research, like COVID-19 studies.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article-pdf/30/1/103/47829607/ocac203.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocac203; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9619789; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9619789?pdf=render @@ -463,16 +463,16 @@ PMC9644860,https://doi.org/,Maternal mental health and children’s development: 32613083,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15922.2,"Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in England are at increased risk of death from COVID-19: indirect standardisation of NHS mortality data.","Aldridge RW, Lewer D, Katikireddi SV, Mathur R, Pathak N, Burns R, Fragaszy EB, Johnson AM, Devakumar D, Abubakar I, Hayward A.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-06-24,Y,Mortality; Minority Ethnic Groups; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: International and UK data suggest that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are at increased risk of infection and death from COVID-19. We aimed to explore the risk of death in minority ethnic groups in England using data reported by NHS England. Methods: We used NHS data on patients with a positive COVID-19 test who died in hospitals in England published on 28th April, with deaths by ethnicity available from 1st March 2020 up to 5pm on 21 April 2020. We undertook indirect standardisation of these data (using the whole population of England as the reference) to produce ethnic specific standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) adjusted for age and geographical region. Results: The largest total number of deaths in minority ethnic groups were Indian (492 deaths) and Black Caribbean (460 deaths) groups. Adjusting for region we found a lower risk of death for White Irish (SMR 0.52; 95%CIs 0.45-0.60) and White British ethnic groups (0.88; 95%CIs 0.86-0.0.89), but increased risk of death for Black African (3.24; 95%CIs 2.90-3.62), Black Caribbean (2.21; 95%CIs 2.02-2.41), Pakistani (3.29; 95%CIs 2.96-3.64), Bangladeshi (2.41; 95%CIs 1.98-2.91) and Indian (1.70; 95%CIs 1.56-1.85) minority ethnic groups. Conclusion: Our analysis adds to the evidence that BAME people are at increased risk of death from COVID-19 even after adjusting for geographical region, but was limited by the lack of data on deaths outside of NHS settings and ethnicity denominator data being based on the 2011 census. Despite these limitations, we believe there is an urgent need to take action to reduce the risk of death for BAME groups and better understand why some ethnic groups experience greater risk. Actions that are likely to reduce these inequities include ensuring adequate income protection, reducing occupational risks, reducing barriers in accessing healthcare and providing culturally and linguistically appropriate public health communications.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15922.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7317462; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7317462?pdf=render 36434299,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02393-w,Adverse outcomes associated with recorded victimization in mental health electronic records during the first UK COVID-19 lockdown.,"Kadra-Scalzo G, Kornblum D, Stewart R, Howard LM.",,Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology,2023,2022-11-24,Y,Mental health; Domestic Violence; Victimisation; Adverse Outcomes; Covid-19,,,"

Purpose

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic policies on vulnerable groups such as people with mental health problems who experience violence remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of victimization recorded in mental healthcare records during the first UK lockdown, and associations with subsequent adverse outcomes.

Methods

Using a large mental healthcare database, we identified all adult patients receiving services between 16.12.2019 and 15.06.2020 and extracted records of victimisation between 16.03.2020 and 15.06.2020 (first UK COVID-19 lockdown). We investigated adverse outcomes including acute care, emergency department referrals and all-cause mortality in the year following the lockdown (16.06.2020- 01.11.2021). Multivariable Cox regressions models were constructed, adjusting for socio-demographic, socioeconomic, clinical, and service use factors.

Results

Of 21,037 adults receiving mental healthcare over the observation period, 3,610 (17.2%) had victimisation mentioned between 16.03.2020 and 15.06.2020 (first UK COVID-19 lockdown). Service users with mentions of victimisation in their records had an elevated risk for all outcomes: acute care (adjusted HR: 2.1; 95%CI 1.9-2.3, p < 0.001), emergency department referrals (aHR: 2.0; 95%CI 1.8-2.2; p < 0.001), and all-cause mortality (aHR: 1.5; 95%CI 1.1-1.9; p = 0.003), when compared to service users with no recorded victimisation. We did not observe a statistically significant interaction with gender; however, after adjusting for possible confounders, men had slightly higher hazard ratios for all-cause mortality and emergency department referrals than women.

Conclusion

Patients with documented victimisation during the first UK lockdown were at increased risk for acute care, emergency department referrals and all-cause mortality. Further research is needed into mediating mechanisms.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-022-02393-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02393-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9702612; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9702612?pdf=render 31591592,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0597-x,Avoidable flaws in observational analyses: an application to statins and cancer.,"Dickerman BA, García-Albéniz X, Logan RW, Denaxas S, Hernán MA.",,Nature medicine,2019,2019-10-07,N,,,,"The increasing availability of large healthcare databases is fueling an intense debate on whether real-world data should play a role in the assessment of the benefit-risk of medical treatments. In many observational studies, for example, statin users were found to have a substantially lower risk of cancer than in meta-analyses of randomized trials. Although such discrepancies are often attributed to a lack of randomization in the observational studies, they might be explained by flaws that can be avoided by explicitly emulating a target trial (the randomized trial that would answer the question of interest). Using the electronic health records of 733,804 UK adults, we emulated a target trial of statins and cancer and compared our estimates with those obtained using previously applied analytic approaches. Over the 10-yr follow-up, 28,408 individuals developed cancer. Under the target trial approach, estimated observational analogs of intention-to-treat and per-protocol 10-yr cancer-free survival differences were -0.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) -1.0%, 0.0%) and -0.3% (95% CI -1.5%, 0.5%), respectively. By contrast, previous analytic approaches yielded estimates that appeared to be strongly protective. Our findings highlight the importance of explicitly emulating a target trial to reduce bias in the effect estimates derived from observational analyses.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7076561; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0597-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7076561; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7076561?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0597-x -32463370,https://doi.org/10.2196/16452,Challenges of Clustering Multimodal Clinical Data: Review of Applications in Asthma Subtyping.,"Horne E, Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.",,JMIR medical informatics,2020,2020-05-28,Y,Cluster analysis; Asthma; data mining; Machine Learning; Unsupervised Machine Learning,,,"

Background

In the current era of personalized medicine, there is increasing interest in understanding the heterogeneity in disease populations. Cluster analysis is a method commonly used to identify subtypes in heterogeneous disease populations. The clinical data used in such applications are typically multimodal, which can make the application of traditional cluster analysis methods challenging.

Objective

This study aimed to review the research literature on the application of clustering multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. We assessed common problems and shortcomings in the application of cluster analysis methods in determining asthma subtypes, such that they can be brought to the attention of the research community and avoided in future studies.

Methods

We searched PubMed and Scopus bibliographic databases with terms related to cluster analysis and asthma to identify studies that applied dissimilarity-based cluster analysis methods. We recorded the analytic methods used in each study at each step of the cluster analysis process.

Results

Our literature search identified 63 studies that applied cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. The features fed into the cluster algorithms were of a mixed type in 47 (75%) studies and continuous in 12 (19%), and the feature type was unclear in the remaining 4 (6%) studies. A total of 23 (37%) studies used hierarchical clustering with Ward linkage, and 22 (35%) studies used k-means clustering. Of these 45 studies, 39 had mixed-type features, but only 5 specified dissimilarity measures that could handle mixed-type features. A further 9 (14%) studies used a preclustering step to create small clusters to feed on a hierarchical method. The original sample sizes in these 9 studies ranged from 84 to 349. The remaining studies used hierarchical clustering with other linkages (n=3), medoid-based methods (n=3), spectral clustering (n=1), and multiple kernel k-means clustering (n=1), and in 1 study, the methods were unclear. Of 63 studies, 54 (86%) explained the methods used to determine the number of clusters, 24 (38%) studies tested the quality of their cluster solution, and 11 (17%) studies tested the stability of their solution. Reporting of the cluster analysis was generally poor in terms of the methods employed and their justification.

Conclusions

This review highlights common issues in the application of cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. Some of these issues were related to the multimodal nature of the data, but many were more general issues in the application of cluster analysis. Although cluster analysis may be a useful tool for investigating disease subtypes, we recommend that future studies carefully consider the implications of clustering multimodal data, the cluster analysis process itself, and the reporting of methods to facilitate replication and interpretation of findings.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2020/5/e16452/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16452; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7290450 36949447,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z,Inequalities in colorectal cancer screening uptake in Wales: an examination of the impact of the temporary suspension of the screening programme during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Bright D, Hillier S, Song J, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.",,BMC public health,2023,2023-03-22,Y,Colorectal Cancer; Inequalities; Bowel; Ethnicity; Cancer Screening; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Response to the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of cancer screening in the UK, and strong public messaging to stay safe and to protect NHS capacity. Following reintroduction in services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who may benefit from tailored interventions.

Methods

Records within the BSW were linked to electronic health records (EHR) and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Ethnic group was obtained from a linked data method available within SAIL. We examined uptake for the first 3 months of invitations (August to October) following the reintroduction of BSW programme in 2020, compared to the same period in the preceding 3 years. Uptake was measured across a 6 month follow-up period. Logistic models were conducted to analyse variations in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban/rural location, ethnic group, and clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) status in each period; and to compare uptake within sociodemographic groups between different periods.

Results

Uptake during August to October 2020 (period 2020/21; 60.4%) declined compared to the same period in 2019/20 (62.7%) but remained above the 60% Welsh standard. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019/20, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most income deprived group. Uptake continues to be lower in males, younger individuals, people living in the most income deprived areas and those of Asian and unknown ethnic backgrounds.

Conclusion

Our findings are encouraging with overall uptake achieving the 60% Welsh standard during the first three months after the programme restarted in 2020 despite the disruption. Inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities but variations in CRC screening in Wales associated with sex, age, deprivation and ethnic group remain. This needs to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in CRC screening to avoid exacerbating disparities in CRC outcomes as screening services recover from the pandemic.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10031708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10031708?pdf=render +32463370,https://doi.org/10.2196/16452,Challenges of Clustering Multimodal Clinical Data: Review of Applications in Asthma Subtyping.,"Horne E, Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.",,JMIR medical informatics,2020,2020-05-28,Y,Cluster analysis; Asthma; data mining; Machine Learning; Unsupervised Machine Learning,,,"

Background

In the current era of personalized medicine, there is increasing interest in understanding the heterogeneity in disease populations. Cluster analysis is a method commonly used to identify subtypes in heterogeneous disease populations. The clinical data used in such applications are typically multimodal, which can make the application of traditional cluster analysis methods challenging.

Objective

This study aimed to review the research literature on the application of clustering multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. We assessed common problems and shortcomings in the application of cluster analysis methods in determining asthma subtypes, such that they can be brought to the attention of the research community and avoided in future studies.

Methods

We searched PubMed and Scopus bibliographic databases with terms related to cluster analysis and asthma to identify studies that applied dissimilarity-based cluster analysis methods. We recorded the analytic methods used in each study at each step of the cluster analysis process.

Results

Our literature search identified 63 studies that applied cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. The features fed into the cluster algorithms were of a mixed type in 47 (75%) studies and continuous in 12 (19%), and the feature type was unclear in the remaining 4 (6%) studies. A total of 23 (37%) studies used hierarchical clustering with Ward linkage, and 22 (35%) studies used k-means clustering. Of these 45 studies, 39 had mixed-type features, but only 5 specified dissimilarity measures that could handle mixed-type features. A further 9 (14%) studies used a preclustering step to create small clusters to feed on a hierarchical method. The original sample sizes in these 9 studies ranged from 84 to 349. The remaining studies used hierarchical clustering with other linkages (n=3), medoid-based methods (n=3), spectral clustering (n=1), and multiple kernel k-means clustering (n=1), and in 1 study, the methods were unclear. Of 63 studies, 54 (86%) explained the methods used to determine the number of clusters, 24 (38%) studies tested the quality of their cluster solution, and 11 (17%) studies tested the stability of their solution. Reporting of the cluster analysis was generally poor in terms of the methods employed and their justification.

Conclusions

This review highlights common issues in the application of cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. Some of these issues were related to the multimodal nature of the data, but many were more general issues in the application of cluster analysis. Although cluster analysis may be a useful tool for investigating disease subtypes, we recommend that future studies carefully consider the implications of clustering multimodal data, the cluster analysis process itself, and the reporting of methods to facilitate replication and interpretation of findings.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2020/5/e16452/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16452; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7290450 37004203,https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcad050,Classifying the unclassifiable-a Delphi study to reach consensus on the fibrotic nature of diseases.,"Massen GM, Allen RJ, Leavy OC, Selby NM, Aithal GP, Oliver N, Parfrey H, Wain LV, Jenkins G, Stewart I, Quint JK.",,QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians,2023,2023-06-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Traditionally, clinical research has focused on individual fibrotic diseases or fibrosis in a particular organ. However, it is possible for people to have multiple fibrotic diseases. While multi-organ fibrosis may suggest shared pathogenic mechanisms, yet there is no consensus on what constitutes a fibrotic disease and therefore fibrotic multimorbidity.

Aim

A Delphi study was performed to reach consensus on which diseases may be described as fibrotic.

Methods

Participants were asked to rate a list of diseases, sub-grouped according to eight body regions, as 'fibrotic manifestation always present', 'can develop fibrotic manifestations', 'associated with fibrotic manifestations' or 'not fibrotic nor associated'. Classifications of 'fibrotic manifestation always present' and 'can develop fibrotic manifestations' were merged and termed 'fibrotic'. Clinical consensus was defined according to the interquartile range, having met a minimum number of responses. Clinical agreement was used for classification where diseases did not meet the minimum number of responses (required for consensus measure), were only classified if there was 100% consensus on disease classification.

Results

After consulting experts, searching the literature and coding dictionaries, a total of 323 non-overlapping diseases which might be considered fibrotic were identified; 92 clinical specialists responded to the first round of the survey. Over three survey rounds, 240 diseases were categorized as fibrotic via clinical consensus and 25 additional diseases through clinical agreement.

Conclusion

Using a robust methodology, an extensive list of diseases was classified. The findings lay the foundations for studies estimating the burden of fibrotic multimorbidity, as well as investigating shared mechanisms and therapies.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/qjmed/hcad050/50051055/hcad050.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcad050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250078?pdf=render -33801002,https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190,A Novel Coupled Reaction-Diffusion System for Explainable Gene Expression Profiling. ,"Farouq MW, Boulila W, Hussain Z, Rashid A, Shah M, Hussain S, Ng N, Ng D, Hanif H, Shaikh MG, Sheikh A, Hussain A.",,"Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)",2021,2021-03-21,Y,,,,"Machine learning (ML)-based algorithms are playing an important role in cancer diagnosis and are increasingly being used to aid clinical decision-making. However, these commonly operate as 'black boxes' and it is unclear how decisions are derived. Recently, techniques have been applied to help us understand how specific ML models work and explain the rational for outputs. This study aims to determine why a given type of cancer has a certain phenotypic characteristic. Cancer results in cellular dysregulation and a thorough consideration of cancer regulators is required. This would increase our understanding of the nature of the disease and help discover more effective diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment methods for a variety of cancer types and stages. Our study proposes a novel explainable analysis of potential biomarkers denoting tumorigenesis in non-small cell lung cancer. A number of these biomarkers are known to appear following various treatment pathways. An enhanced analysis is enabled through a novel mathematical formulation for the regulators of mRNA, the regulators of ncRNA, and the coupled mRNA-ncRNA regulators. Temporal gene expression profiles are approximated in a two-dimensional spatial domain for the transition states before converging to the stationary state, using a system comprised of coupled-reaction partial differential equations. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed mathematical gene-expression profile represents a best fit for the population abundance of these oncogenes. In future, our proposed solution can lead to the development of alternative interpretable approaches, through the application of ML models to discover unknown dynamics in gene regulatory systems.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/6/2190/pdf?version=1616388230; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942?pdf=render 36518792,https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001398,Range and Consistency of Cardiovascular Outcomes Reported by Clinical Trials in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Systematic Review.,"Wilson GJ, Van K, O'Lone E, Tong A, Craig JC, Sautenet B, Budde K, Forfang D, Gill J, Herrington WG, Jafar TH, Johnson DW, Krane V, Levin A, Malyszko J, Rossignol P, Sawinski D, Scholes-Robertons N, Strippoli G, Wang A, Winkelmayer WC, Hawley CM, Viecelli AK.",,Transplantation direct,2023,2022-12-07,Y,,,,"Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in kidney transplant recipients. Trial evidence to improve cardiovascular outcomes is limited by inconsistent reporting of outcomes, which may also lack patient-relevance. This study aimed to assess the range and consistency of cardiovascular outcomes reported by contemporary trials in kidney transplant recipients.

Methods

A systematic review of all randomized controlled trials involving adult kidney transplant recipients that reported at least 1 cardiovascular outcome from January 2012 to December 2019 was performed, including Embase, MEDLINE, Cochrane, and ClinicalTrials.gov electronic databases. Trial characteristics were extracted and all levels of specification of the cardiovascular outcome measures reported were analyzed (the measure definition, metric' and method of aggregation). Measures assessing a similar aspect of cardiovascular disease were categorized into outcomes.

Results

From 93 eligible trials involving 27 609 participants, 490 outcome measures were identified. The outcome measures were grouped into 38 outcomes. A cardiovascular composite was the most common outcome reported (40 trials, 43%) followed by cardiovascular mortality (42%) and acute coronary syndrome (31%). Cardiovascular composite was also the most heterogeneous outcome with 77 measures reported followed by cardiovascular mortality (n = 58) and inflammatory biomarkers (n = 51). The most common cardiovascular composite outcome components reported were major cardiovascular events (18 trials), stroke unspecified (11 trials), and myocardial infarction unspecified (10 trials).

Conclusions

There is substantial heterogeneity in cardiovascular outcome reporting in kidney transplant trials.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001398; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000001398; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9742089; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9742089?pdf=render +33801002,https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190,A Novel Coupled Reaction-Diffusion System for Explainable Gene Expression Profiling. ,"Farouq MW, Boulila W, Hussain Z, Rashid A, Shah M, Hussain S, Ng N, Ng D, Hanif H, Shaikh MG, Sheikh A, Hussain A.",,"Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)",2021,2021-03-21,Y,,,,"Machine learning (ML)-based algorithms are playing an important role in cancer diagnosis and are increasingly being used to aid clinical decision-making. However, these commonly operate as 'black boxes' and it is unclear how decisions are derived. Recently, techniques have been applied to help us understand how specific ML models work and explain the rational for outputs. This study aims to determine why a given type of cancer has a certain phenotypic characteristic. Cancer results in cellular dysregulation and a thorough consideration of cancer regulators is required. This would increase our understanding of the nature of the disease and help discover more effective diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment methods for a variety of cancer types and stages. Our study proposes a novel explainable analysis of potential biomarkers denoting tumorigenesis in non-small cell lung cancer. A number of these biomarkers are known to appear following various treatment pathways. An enhanced analysis is enabled through a novel mathematical formulation for the regulators of mRNA, the regulators of ncRNA, and the coupled mRNA-ncRNA regulators. Temporal gene expression profiles are approximated in a two-dimensional spatial domain for the transition states before converging to the stationary state, using a system comprised of coupled-reaction partial differential equations. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed mathematical gene-expression profile represents a best fit for the population abundance of these oncogenes. In future, our proposed solution can lead to the development of alternative interpretable approaches, through the application of ML models to discover unknown dynamics in gene regulatory systems.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/6/2190/pdf?version=1616388230; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942?pdf=render 36812617,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000162,Informing antimicrobial stewardship with explainable AI.,"Cavallaro M, Moran E, Collyer B, McCarthy ND, Green C, Keeling MJ.",,PLOS digital health,2023,2023-01-05,Y,,,,"The accuracy and flexibility of artificial intelligence (AI) systems often comes at the cost of a decreased ability to offer an intuitive explanation of their predictions. This hinders trust and discourage adoption of AI in healthcare, exacerbated by concerns over liabilities and risks to patients' health in case of misdiagnosis. Providing an explanation for a model's prediction is possible due to recent advances in the field of interpretable machine learning. We considered a data set of hospital admissions linked to records of antibiotic prescriptions and susceptibilities of bacterial isolates. An appropriately trained gradient boosted decision tree algorithm, supplemented by a Shapley explanation model, predicts the likely antimicrobial drug resistance, with the odds of resistance informed by characteristics of the patient, admission data, and historical drug treatments and culture test results. Applying this AI-based system, we found that it substantially reduces the risk of mismatched treatment compared with the observed prescriptions. The Shapley values provide an intuitive association between observations/data and outcomes; the associations identified are broadly consistent with expectations based on prior knowledge from health specialists. The results, and the ability to attribute confidence and explanations, support the wider adoption of AI in healthcare.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000162&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000162; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931350; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931350?pdf=render 33939953,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00634-6,"Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, and death in 17 million adults in England: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.","Mathur R, Rentsch CT, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Schultze A, MacKenna B, Eggo RM, Bhaskaran K, Wong AYS, Williamson EJ, Forbes H, Wing K, McDonald HI, Bates C, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Evans D, Inglesby P, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Tomlinson L, Evans SJW, Grieve R, Harrison D, Rowan K, Khunti K, Chaturvedi N, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected minority ethnic populations in the UK. Our aim was to quantify ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 outcomes during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

Methods

We conducted an observational cohort study of adults (aged ≥18 years) registered with primary care practices in England for whom electronic health records were available through the OpenSAFELY platform, and who had at least 1 year of continuous registration at the start of each study period (Feb 1 to Aug 3, 2020 [wave 1], and Sept 1 to Dec 31, 2020 [wave 2]). Individual-level primary care data were linked to data from other sources on the outcomes of interest: SARS-CoV-2 testing and positive test results and COVID-19-related hospital admissions, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and death. The exposure was self-reported ethnicity as captured on the primary care record, grouped into five high-level census categories (White, South Asian, Black, other, and mixed) and 16 subcategories across these five categories, as well as an unknown ethnicity category. We used multivariable Cox regression to examine ethnic differences in the outcomes of interest. Models were adjusted for age, sex, deprivation, clinical factors and comorbidities, and household size, with stratification by geographical region.

Findings

Of 17 288 532 adults included in the study (excluding care home residents), 10 877 978 (62·9%) were White, 1 025 319 (5·9%) were South Asian, 340 912 (2·0%) were Black, 170 484 (1·0%) were of mixed ethnicity, 320 788 (1·9%) were of other ethnicity, and 4 553 051 (26·3%) were of unknown ethnicity. In wave 1, the likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection was slightly higher in the South Asian group (adjusted hazard ratio 1·08 [95% CI 1·07-1·09]), Black group (1·08 [1·06-1·09]), and mixed ethnicity group (1·04 [1·02-1·05]) and was decreased in the other ethnicity group (0·77 [0·76-0·78]) relative to the White group. The risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection was higher in the South Asian group (1·99 [1·94-2·04]), Black group (1·69 [1·62-1·77]), mixed ethnicity group (1·49 [1·39-1·59]), and other ethnicity group (1·20 [1·14-1·28]). Compared with the White group, the four remaining high-level ethnic groups had an increased risk of COVID-19-related hospitalisation (South Asian group 1·48 [1·41-1·55], Black group 1·78 [1·67-1·90], mixed ethnicity group 1·63 [1·45-1·83], other ethnicity group 1·54 [1·41-1·69]), COVID-19-related ICU admission (2·18 [1·92-2·48], 3·12 [2·65-3·67], 2·96 [2·26-3·87], 3·18 [2·58-3·93]), and death (1·26 [1·15-1·37], 1·51 [1·31-1·71], 1·41 [1·11-1·81], 1·22 [1·00-1·48]). In wave 2, the risks of hospitalisation, ICU admission, and death relative to the White group were increased in the South Asian group but attenuated for the Black group compared with these risks in wave 1. Disaggregation into 16 ethnicity groups showed important heterogeneity within the five broader categories.

Interpretation

Some minority ethnic populations in England have excess risks of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and of adverse COVID-19 outcomes compared with the White population, even after accounting for differences in sociodemographic, clinical, and household characteristics. Causes are likely to be multifactorial, and delineating the exact mechanisms is crucial. Tackling ethnic inequalities will require action across many fronts, including reducing structural inequalities, addressing barriers to equitable care, and improving uptake of testing and vaccination.

Funding

Medical Research Council.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00634-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00634-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087292?pdf=render 33495722,https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3050524,Remote Assessment of Parkinson's Disease Symptom Severity Using the Simulated Cellular Mobile Telephone Network.,"Tsanas A, Little MA, Ramig LO.",,"IEEE access : practical innovations, open solutions",2021,2021-01-11,Y,Telemedicine; Parkinson’s Disease; Decision Support Tool; Nonlinear Speech Signal Processing,,,"Telemonitoring of Parkinson's Disease (PD) has attracted considerable research interest because of its potential to make a lasting, positive impact on the life of patients and their carers. Purpose-built devices have been developed that record various signals which can be associated with average PD symptom severity, as quantified on standard clinical metrics such as the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Speech signals are particularly promising in this regard, because they can be easily recorded without the use of expensive, dedicated hardware. Previous studies have demonstrated replication of UPDRS to within less than 2 points of a clinical raters' assessment of symptom severity, using high-quality speech signals collected using dedicated telemonitoring hardware. Here, we investigate the potential of using the standard voice-over-GSM (2G) or UMTS (3G) cellular mobile telephone networks for PD telemonitoring, networks that, together, have greater than 5 billion subscribers worldwide. We test the robustness of this approach using a simulated noisy mobile communication network over which speech signals are transmitted, and approximately 6000 recordings from 42 PD subjects. We show that UPDRS can be estimated to within less than 3.5 points difference from the clinical raters' assessment, which is clinically useful given that the inter-rater variability for UPDRS can be as high as 4-5 UPDRS points. This provides compelling evidence that the existing voice telephone network has potential towards facilitating inexpensive, mass-scale PD symptom telemonitoring applications.",,pdf:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6287639/9312710/09319241.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3050524; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7821632; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7821632?pdf=render -31462651,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2,Hierarchical Template Matching for 3D Myocardial Tracking and Cardiac Strain Estimation.,"Bhalodiya JM, Palit A, Ferrante E, Tiwari MK, Bhudia SK, Arvanitis TN, Williams MA.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-08-28,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"Myocardial tracking and strain estimation can non-invasively assess cardiac functioning using subject-specific MRI. As the left-ventricle does not have a uniform shape and functioning from base to apex, the development of 3D MRI has provided opportunities for simultaneous 3D tracking, and 3D strain estimation. We have extended a Local Weighted Mean (LWM) transformation function for 3D, and incorporated in a Hierarchical Template Matching model to solve 3D myocardial tracking and strain estimation problem. The LWM does not need to solve a large system of equations, provides smooth displacement of myocardial points, and adapt local geometric differences in images. Hence, 3D myocardial tracking can be performed with 1.49 mm median error, and without large error outliers. The maximum error of tracking is up to 24% reduced compared to benchmark methods. Moreover, the estimated strain can be insightful to improve 3D imaging protocols, and the computer code of LWM could also be useful for geo-spatial and manufacturing image analysis researchers.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48927-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749?pdf=render 37398988,https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-023-00821-9,Correction to: The False Economy of Seeking to Eliminate Delayed Transfers of Care: Some Lessons from Queueing Theory.,"Wood RM, Harper AL, Onen-Dumlu Z, Forte PG, Pitt M, Vasilakis C.",,Applied health economics and health policy,2023,2023-09-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40258-023-00821-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-023-00821-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403424?pdf=render +31462651,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2,Hierarchical Template Matching for 3D Myocardial Tracking and Cardiac Strain Estimation.,"Bhalodiya JM, Palit A, Ferrante E, Tiwari MK, Bhudia SK, Arvanitis TN, Williams MA.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-08-28,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"Myocardial tracking and strain estimation can non-invasively assess cardiac functioning using subject-specific MRI. As the left-ventricle does not have a uniform shape and functioning from base to apex, the development of 3D MRI has provided opportunities for simultaneous 3D tracking, and 3D strain estimation. We have extended a Local Weighted Mean (LWM) transformation function for 3D, and incorporated in a Hierarchical Template Matching model to solve 3D myocardial tracking and strain estimation problem. The LWM does not need to solve a large system of equations, provides smooth displacement of myocardial points, and adapt local geometric differences in images. Hence, 3D myocardial tracking can be performed with 1.49 mm median error, and without large error outliers. The maximum error of tracking is up to 24% reduced compared to benchmark methods. Moreover, the estimated strain can be insightful to improve 3D imaging protocols, and the computer code of LWM could also be useful for geo-spatial and manufacturing image analysis researchers.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48927-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749?pdf=render 36713473,https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac694,Clinical Effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 Booster Vaccine Against Omicron Infection in Residents and Staff of Long-term Care Facilities: A Prospective Cohort Study (VIVALDI).,"Stirrup O, Shrotri M, Adams NL, Krutikov M, Nacer-Laidi H, Azmi B, Palmer T, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Baynton V, Tut G, Moss P, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,Open forum infectious diseases,2023,2022-12-29,Y,Vaccine Effectiveness; Long-term Care Facilities; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Omicron,,,"

Background

Successive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants have caused severe disease in long-term care facility (LTCF) residents. Primary vaccination provides strong short-term protection, but data are limited on duration of protection following booster vaccines, particularly against the Omicron variant. We investigated the effectiveness of booster vaccination against infections, hospitalizations, and deaths among LTCF residents and staff in England.

Methods

We included residents and staff of LTCFs within the VIVALDI study (ISRCTN 14447421) who underwent routine, asymptomatic testing (December 12, 2021-March 31, 2022). Cox regression was used to estimate relative hazards of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and associated hospitalization and death at 0-13, 14-48, 49-83, 84-111, 112-139, and 140+ days after dose 3 of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination compared with 2 doses (after 84+ days), stratified by previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and adjusting for age, sex, LTCF capacity, and local SARS-CoV-2 incidence.

Results

A total of 14 175 residents and 19 793 staff were included. In residents without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, infection risk was reduced 0-111 days after the first booster, but no protection was apparent after 112 days. Additional protection following booster vaccination waned but was still present at 140+ days for COVID-associated hospitalization (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.20; 95% CI, 0.06-0.63) and death (aHR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.20-1.27). Most residents (64.4%) had received primary course vaccine of AstraZeneca, but this did not impact pre- or postbooster risk. Staff showed a similar pattern of waning booster effectiveness against infection, with few hospitalizations and no deaths.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that booster vaccination provided sustained protection against severe outcomes following infection with the Omicron variant, but no protection against infection from 4 months onwards. Ongoing surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in LTCFs is crucial.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article-pdf/10/1/ofac694/48846221/ofac694.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac694; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9874026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9874026?pdf=render 37478175,https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh8839,Citizen science reveals landscape-scale exposures to multiazole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus bioaerosols.,"Shelton JMG, Rhodes J, Uzzell CB, Hemmings S, Brackin AP, Sewell TR, Alghamdi A, Dyer PS, Fraser M, Borman AM, Johnson EM, Piel FB, Singer AC, Fisher MC.",,Science advances,2023,2023-07-21,Y,,,,"Using a citizen science approach, we identify a country-wide exposure to aerosolized spores of a human fungal pathogen, Aspergillus fumigatus, that has acquired resistance to the agricultural fungicide tebuconazole and first-line azole clinical antifungal drugs. Genomic analysis shows no distinction between resistant genotypes found in the environment and in patients, indicating that at least 40% of azole-resistant A. fumigatus infections are acquired from environmental exposures. Hotspots and coldspots of aerosolized azole-resistant spores were not stable between seasonal sampling periods. This suggests a high degree of atmospheric mixing resulting in an estimated per capita cumulative annual exposure of 21 days (±2.6). Because of the ubiquity of this measured exposure, it is imperative that we determine sources of azole-resistant A. fumigatus to reduce treatment failure in patients with aspergillosis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh8839; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10361594; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10361594?pdf=render 34847950,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02190-3,Models of COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation: a systematic literature search and narrative review.,"Saadi N, Chi YL, Ghosh S, Eggo RM, McCarthy CV, Quaife M, Dawa J, Jit M, Vassall A.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-12-01,Y,"Covid-19, Vaccination, Mathematical Modelling",,,"

Background

How best to prioritise COVID-19 vaccination within and between countries has been a public health and an ethical challenge for decision-makers globally. We reviewed epidemiological and economic modelling evidence on population priority groups to minimise COVID-19 mortality, transmission, and morbidity outcomes.

Methods

We searched the National Institute of Health iSearch COVID-19 Portfolio (a database of peer-reviewed and pre-print articles), Econlit, the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the National Bureau of Economic Research for mathematical modelling studies evaluating the impact of prioritising COVID-19 vaccination to population target groups. The first search was conducted on March 3, 2021, and an updated search on the LMIC literature was conducted from March 3, 2021, to September 24, 2021. We narratively synthesised the main study conclusions on prioritisation and the conditions under which the conclusions changed.

Results

The initial search identified 1820 studies and 36 studies met the inclusion criteria. The updated search on LMIC literature identified 7 more studies. 43 studies in total were narratively synthesised. 74% of studies described outcomes in high-income countries (single and multi-country). We found that for countries seeking to minimise deaths, prioritising vaccination of senior adults was the optimal strategy and for countries seeking to minimise cases the young were prioritised. There were several exceptions to the main conclusion, notably that reductions in deaths could be increased if groups at high risk of both transmission and death could be further identified. Findings were also sensitive to the level of vaccine coverage.

Conclusion

The evidence supports WHO SAGE recommendations on COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation. There is, however, an evidence gap on optimal prioritisation for low- and middle-income countries, studies that included an economic evaluation, and studies that explore prioritisation strategies if the aim is to reduce overall health burden including morbidity.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02190-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02190-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8632563; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8632563?pdf=render @@ -487,22 +487,22 @@ PMC9644860,https://doi.org/,Maternal mental health and children’s development: 35958702,https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00433-2,The Secondary Harms of Parental Substance Use on Children's Educational Outcomes: A Review.,Lowthian E.,,Journal of child & adolescent trauma,2022,2022-01-14,Y,Drugs; Review; Alcohol; Education; Parental Substance Use,,,"Parental substance use, that is alcohol and illicit drugs, can have a deleterious impact on child health and wellbeing. An area that can be affected by parental substance use is the educational outcomes of children. Current reviews of the literature in the field of parental substance use and children's educational outcomes have only identified a small number of studies, and most focus on children's educational attainment. To grasp the available literature, the method from Arksey and O'Malley (2005) was used to identify literature. Studies were included if they were empirical, after 1950, and focused on children's school or educational outcomes. From this, 51 empirical studies were identified which examined the relationship between parental alcohol and illicit drug use on children's educational outcomes. Five main themes emerged which included attainment, behavior and adjustment, attendance, school enjoyment and satisfaction, academic self-concept, along with other miscellaneous outcomes. This paper highlights the main findings of the studies, the gaps in the current literature, and the challenges presented. Recommendations are made for further research and interventions in the areas of parental substance use and child educational outcomes specifically, but also for broader areas of adversity and child wellbeing.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40653-021-00433-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00433-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9360289; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9360289?pdf=render 37649988,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooad078,"Determining prescriptions in electronic healthcare record data: methods for development of standardized, reproducible drug codelists.","Graul EL, Stone PW, Massen GM, Hatam S, Adamson A, Denaxas S, Peters NS, Quint JK.",,JAMIA open,2023,2023-08-29,Y,epidemiology; Electronic Medical Records; Misclassification Bias; Value Sets; Health Data Science; Code Sets,,,"

Objective

To develop a standardizable, reproducible method for creating drug codelists that incorporates clinical expertise and is adaptable to other studies and databases.

Materials and methods

We developed methods to generate drug codelists and tested this using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum database, accounting for missing data in the database. We generated codelists for: (1) cardiovascular disease and (2) inhaled Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) therapies, applying them to a sample cohort of 335 931 COPD patients. We compared searching all drug dictionary variables (A) against searching only (B) chemical or (C) ontological variables.

Results

In Search A, we identified 165 150 patients prescribed cardiovascular drugs (49.2% of cohort), and 317 963 prescribed COPD inhalers (94.7% of cohort). Evaluating output per search strategy, Search C missed numerous prescriptions, including vasodilator anti-hypertensives (A and B:19 696 prescriptions; C:1145) and SAMA inhalers (A and B:35 310; C:564).

Discussion

We recommend the full search (A) for comprehensiveness. There are special considerations when generating adaptable and generalizable drug codelists, including fluctuating status, cohort-specific drug indications, underlying hierarchical ontology, and statistical analyses.

Conclusions

Methods must have end-to-end clinical input, and be standardizable, reproducible, and understandable to all researchers across data contexts.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooad078; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10463548; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10463548?pdf=render 33419870,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100254,Network graph representation of COVID-19 scientific publications to aid knowledge discovery. ,"Cernile G, Heritage T, Sebire NJ, Gordon B, Schwering T, Kazemlou S, Borecki Y.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2021,2021-01-01,Y,,,,"Numerous scientific journal articles related to COVID-19 have been rapidly published, making navigation and understanding of relationships difficult. A graph network was constructed from the publicly available COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) of COVID-19-related publications using an engine leveraging medical knowledge bases to identify discrete medical concepts and an open-source tool (Gephi) to visualise the network. The network shows connections between diseases, medications and procedures identified from the title and abstract of 195 958 COVID-19-related publications (CORD-19 Dataset). Connections between terms with few publications, those unconnected to the main network and those irrelevant were not displayed. Nodes were coloured by knowledge base and the size of the node related to the number of publications containing the term. The data set and visualisations were made publicly accessible via a webtool. Knowledge management approaches (text mining and graph networks) can effectively allow rapid navigation and exploration of entity inter-relationships to improve understanding of diseases such as COVID-19.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100254; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7798427; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7798427?pdf=render +34071236,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763,"Integration of the Microbiome, Metabolome and Transcriptomics Data Identified Novel Metabolic Pathway Regulation in Colorectal Cancer. ","Bisht V, Nash K, Xu Y, Agarwal P, Bosch S, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.",,International journal of molecular sciences,2021,2021-05-28,Y,,,,"Integrative multiomics data analysis provides a unique opportunity for the mechanistic understanding of colorectal cancer (CRC) in addition to the identification of potential novel therapeutic targets. In this study, we used public omics data sets to investigate potential associations between microbiome, metabolome, bulk transcriptomics and single cell RNA sequencing datasets. We identified multiple potential interactions, for example 5-aminovalerate interacting with Adlercreutzia; cholesteryl ester interacting with bacterial genera Staphylococcus, Blautia and Roseburia. Using public single cell and bulk RNA sequencing, we identified 17 overlapping genes involved in epithelial cell pathways, with particular significance of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway and the ACAT1 gene that indirectly regulates the esterification of cholesterol. These findings demonstrate that the integration of multiomics data sets from diverse populations can help us in untangling the colorectal cancer pathogenesis as well as postulate the disease pathology mechanisms and therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/11/5763/pdf?version=1622194941; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673?pdf=render 35962974,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac158,Association between household composition and severe COVID-19 outcomes in older people by ethnicity: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Wing K, Grint DJ, Mathur R, Gibbs HP, Hickman G, Nightingale E, Schultze A, Forbes H, Nafilyan V, Bhaskaran K, Williamson E, House T, Pellis L, Herrett E, Gautam N, Curtis HJ, Rentsch CT, Wong AYS, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Tomlinson L, Goldacre B, Eggo RM.",,International journal of epidemiology,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Household; Older People; Ethnicity; Deprivation; Comorbidities; Multigenerational; Population-level; Covid-19; Opensafely,,,"

Background

Ethnic differences in the risk of severe COVID-19 may be linked to household composition. We quantified the association between household composition and risk of severe COVID-19 by ethnicity for older individuals.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we analysed ethnic differences in the association between household composition and severe COVID-19 in people aged 67 or over in England. We defined households by number of age-based generations living together, and used multivariable Cox regression stratified by location and wave of the pandemic and accounted for age, sex, comorbidities, smoking, obesity, housing density and deprivation. We included 2 692 223 people over 67 years in Wave 1 (1 February 2020-31 August 2020) and 2 731 427 in Wave 2 (1 September 2020-31 January 2021).

Results

Multigenerational living was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 for White and South Asian older people in both waves [e.g. Wave 2, 67+ living with three other generations vs 67+-year-olds only: White hazard ratio (HR) 1.61 95% CI 1.38-1.87, South Asian HR 1.76 95% CI 1.48-2.10], with a trend for increased risks of severe COVID-19 with increasing generations in Wave 2. There was also an increased risk of severe COVID-19 in Wave 1 associated with living alone for White (HR 1.35 95% CI 1.30-1.41), South Asian (HR 1.47 95% CI 1.18-1.84) and Other (HR 1.72 95% CI 0.99-2.97) ethnicities, an effect that persisted for White older people in Wave 2.

Conclusions

Both multigenerational living and living alone were associated with severe COVID-19 in older adults. Older South Asian people are over-represented within multigenerational households in England, especially in the most deprived settings, whereas a substantial proportion of White older people live alone. The number of generations in a household, number of occupants, ethnicity and deprivation status are important considerations in the continued roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination and targeting of interventions for future pandemics.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/51/6/1745/47882630/dyac158.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac158; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384728?pdf=render 35954935,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159578,Comparing Peak Burn Injury Times and Characteristics in Australia and New Zealand.,"Hong R, Perkins M, Gabbe BJ, Tracy LM.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2022,2022-08-04,Y,Burns; Cooking; Registry; scald; Flame,,,"Burns are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Understanding when and how burns occur, as well as the differences between countries, would aid prevention efforts. A review of burn injuries occurring between July 2009 and June 2021 was undertaken using data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand. Peak injury times were identified on a country-by-country basis. Variations in demographic and injury event profiles between countries were compared using descriptive statistics. There were 26,925 admissions recorded across the two countries (23,323 for Australia; 3602 for New Zealand). The greatest number of injuries occurred between 6 PM to 7 PM in Australia (1871, 8.0%) and between 5 PM to 6 PM in New Zealand (280, 7.8%). In both countries, scalds accounted for the greatest proportion of injuries during peak times (988, 45.8%), but a greater proportion of young children (under three years) sustained burns during New Zealand's peak times. The number of burn injuries associated with the preparation and/or consumption of food offers an opportunity for a targeted prevention program that may yield benefits across the two countries. Age- and mechanism-related differences in the profile of burn-injured patients need to be considered when developing and implementing such a program.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9578/pdf?version=1659598966; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159578; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9368485; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9368485?pdf=render -34071236,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763,"Integration of the Microbiome, Metabolome and Transcriptomics Data Identified Novel Metabolic Pathway Regulation in Colorectal Cancer. ","Bisht V, Nash K, Xu Y, Agarwal P, Bosch S, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.",,International journal of molecular sciences,2021,2021-05-28,Y,,,,"Integrative multiomics data analysis provides a unique opportunity for the mechanistic understanding of colorectal cancer (CRC) in addition to the identification of potential novel therapeutic targets. In this study, we used public omics data sets to investigate potential associations between microbiome, metabolome, bulk transcriptomics and single cell RNA sequencing datasets. We identified multiple potential interactions, for example 5-aminovalerate interacting with Adlercreutzia; cholesteryl ester interacting with bacterial genera Staphylococcus, Blautia and Roseburia. Using public single cell and bulk RNA sequencing, we identified 17 overlapping genes involved in epithelial cell pathways, with particular significance of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway and the ACAT1 gene that indirectly regulates the esterification of cholesterol. These findings demonstrate that the integration of multiomics data sets from diverse populations can help us in untangling the colorectal cancer pathogenesis as well as postulate the disease pathology mechanisms and therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/11/5763/pdf?version=1622194941; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673?pdf=render 36997954,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07251-x,A DELPHI study priority setting the remaining challenges for the use of routinely collected data in trials: COMORANT-UK.,"Williams ADN, Davies G, Farrin AJ, Mafham M, Robling M, Sydes MR, Lugg-Widger FV.",,Trials,2023,2023-03-30,Y,Priority Setting; Consensus; Routinely Collected Data; Trials Methodology,,,"

Background

Researchers are increasingly seeking to use routinely collected data to support clinical trials. This approach has the potential to transform the way clinical trials are conducted in the future. The availability of routinely collected data for research, whether healthcare or administrative, has increased, and infrastructure funding has enabled much of this. However, challenges remain at all stages of a trial life cycle. This study, COMORANT-UK, aimed to systematically identify, with key stakeholders across the UK, the ongoing challenges related to trials that seek to use routinely collected data.

Methods

This three-step Delphi method consisted of two rounds of anonymous web-based surveys and a virtual consensus meeting. Stakeholders included trialists, data infrastructures, funders of trials, regulators, data providers and the public. Stakeholders identified research questions or challenges that they considered were of particular importance and then selected their top 10 in the second survey. The ranked questions were taken forward to the consensus meeting for discussion with representatives invited from the stakeholder groups.

Results

In the first survey, 66 respondents yielded over 260 questions or challenges. These were thematically grouped and merged into a list of 40 unique questions. Eighty-eight stakeholders then ranked their top ten from the 40 questions in the second survey. The most common 14 questions were brought to the virtual consensus meeting in which stakeholders agreed a top list of seven questions. We report these seven questions which are within the following domains: trial design, Patient and Public Involvement, trial set-up, trial open and trial data. These questions address both evidence gaps (requiring further methodological research) and implementation gaps (requiring training and/or service re-organisation).

Conclusion

This prioritised list of seven questions should inform the direction of future research in this area and should direct efforts to ensure that the benefits in major infrastructure for routinely collected data are achieved and translated. Without this and future work to address these questions, the potential societal benefits of using routinely collected data to help answer important clinical questions will not be realised.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-023-07251-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07251-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064573; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064573?pdf=render -35304633,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w,An exploration of wellbeing in men diagnosed with prostate cancer undergoing active surveillance: a qualitative study.,"Eymech O, Brunckhorst O, Fox L, Jawaid A, Van Hemelrijck M, Stewart R, Dasgupta P, Ahmed K.",,Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer,2022,2022-03-19,Y,Quality of life; Mental health; prostate cancer; Active Surveillance; Mental Wellbeing; Psa Anxiety,,,"

Purpose

There is a growing emphasis on improving quality of life of people with prostate cancer. However, those undergoing active surveillance remain underrepresented in the literature with less known about their unique challenges. Therefore, we aimed to explore their lived experiences post diagnosis and its effect on their mental, social, and physical wellbeing.

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 men undergoing active surveillance for low-risk disease. Thematic analysis was used to inductively co-construct themes through the lens of the biopsychosocial model.

Results

Mental wellbeing was strongly affected in our participants due to the overwhelming emotional impact of their diagnosis resulting in an 'Emotional Diagnostic Disequilibrium'. Informational awareness and education about prostate cancer helped patients with 'Recognition of the Impact'. Patients experienced an 'Unsettling Monitoring Cycle' due to the increased fear and anxiety around PSA monitoring appointments, with some men ignoring their mental wellbeing needs as their disease is 'A Future Problem'. 'Concealment of Diagnosis' left many feeling isolated and highlighted an important coping mechanisms in the 'Importance of a Social Support Network' theme. Finally, physical health mostly changed through alterations in health behaviour, leading to 'A Healthier Lifestyle' with increasing attribution of physical symptoms to age through 'Symptomatic Overshadowing'.

Conclusion

The greatest disease impact on men's wellbeing was at the time of diagnosis, with a subsequent cyclical anxiety and fear of disease progression prominent around monitoring appointments. Future research should explore ways to better support patients with these issues and at these times, improving their quality of life.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126?pdf=render 33082154,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3731,Living risk prediction algorithm (QCOVID) for risk of hospital admission and mortality from coronavirus 19 in adults: national derivation and validation cohort study.,"Clift AK, Coupland CAC, Keogh RH, Diaz-Ordaz K, Williamson E, Harrison EM, Hayward A, Hemingway H, Horby P, Mehta N, Benger J, Khunti K, Spiegelhalter D, Sheikh A, Valabhji J, Lyons RA, Robson J, Semple MG, Kee F, Johnson P, Jebb S, Williams T, Hippisley-Cox J.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-10-20,Y,,,,"

Objective

To derive and validate a risk prediction algorithm to estimate hospital admission and mortality outcomes from coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) in adults.

Design

Population based cohort study.

Setting and participants

QResearch database, comprising 1205 general practices in England with linkage to covid-19 test results, Hospital Episode Statistics, and death registry data. 6.08 million adults aged 19-100 years were included in the derivation dataset and 2.17 million in the validation dataset. The derivation and first validation cohort period was 24 January 2020 to 30 April 2020. The second temporal validation cohort covered the period 1 May 2020 to 30 June 2020.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was time to death from covid-19, defined as death due to confirmed or suspected covid-19 as per the death certification or death occurring in a person with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the period 24 January to 30 April 2020. The secondary outcome was time to hospital admission with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Models were fitted in the derivation cohort to derive risk equations using a range of predictor variables. Performance, including measures of discrimination and calibration, was evaluated in each validation time period.

Results

4384 deaths from covid-19 occurred in the derivation cohort during follow-up and 1722 in the first validation cohort period and 621 in the second validation cohort period. The final risk algorithms included age, ethnicity, deprivation, body mass index, and a range of comorbidities. The algorithm had good calibration in the first validation cohort. For deaths from covid-19 in men, it explained 73.1% (95% confidence interval 71.9% to 74.3%) of the variation in time to death (R2); the D statistic was 3.37 (95% confidence interval 3.27 to 3.47), and Harrell's C was 0.928 (0.919 to 0.938). Similar results were obtained for women, for both outcomes, and in both time periods. In the top 5% of patients with the highest predicted risks of death, the sensitivity for identifying deaths within 97 days was 75.7%. People in the top 20% of predicted risk of death accounted for 94% of all deaths from covid-19.

Conclusion

The QCOVID population based risk algorithm performed well, showing very high levels of discrimination for deaths and hospital admissions due to covid-19. The absolute risks presented, however, will change over time in line with the prevailing SARS-C0V-2 infection rate and the extent of social distancing measures in place, so they should be interpreted with caution. The model can be recalibrated for different time periods, however, and has the potential to be dynamically updated as the pandemic evolves.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/371/bmj.m3731.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3731; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574532?pdf=render +35304633,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w,An exploration of wellbeing in men diagnosed with prostate cancer undergoing active surveillance: a qualitative study.,"Eymech O, Brunckhorst O, Fox L, Jawaid A, Van Hemelrijck M, Stewart R, Dasgupta P, Ahmed K.",,Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer,2022,2022-03-19,Y,Quality of life; Mental health; prostate cancer; Active Surveillance; Mental Wellbeing; Psa Anxiety,,,"

Purpose

There is a growing emphasis on improving quality of life of people with prostate cancer. However, those undergoing active surveillance remain underrepresented in the literature with less known about their unique challenges. Therefore, we aimed to explore their lived experiences post diagnosis and its effect on their mental, social, and physical wellbeing.

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 men undergoing active surveillance for low-risk disease. Thematic analysis was used to inductively co-construct themes through the lens of the biopsychosocial model.

Results

Mental wellbeing was strongly affected in our participants due to the overwhelming emotional impact of their diagnosis resulting in an 'Emotional Diagnostic Disequilibrium'. Informational awareness and education about prostate cancer helped patients with 'Recognition of the Impact'. Patients experienced an 'Unsettling Monitoring Cycle' due to the increased fear and anxiety around PSA monitoring appointments, with some men ignoring their mental wellbeing needs as their disease is 'A Future Problem'. 'Concealment of Diagnosis' left many feeling isolated and highlighted an important coping mechanisms in the 'Importance of a Social Support Network' theme. Finally, physical health mostly changed through alterations in health behaviour, leading to 'A Healthier Lifestyle' with increasing attribution of physical symptoms to age through 'Symptomatic Overshadowing'.

Conclusion

The greatest disease impact on men's wellbeing was at the time of diagnosis, with a subsequent cyclical anxiety and fear of disease progression prominent around monitoring appointments. Future research should explore ways to better support patients with these issues and at these times, improving their quality of life.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126?pdf=render 29992526,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-018-0877-8,An Overview of Metabolic Phenotyping in Blood Pressure Research.,"Tzoulaki I, Iliou A, Mikros E, Elliott P.",,Current hypertension reports,2018,2018-07-10,Y,Hypertension; Blood pressure; Metabolomics; Microbiome; Epidemiological Studies; Metabolic Phenotyping,,,"

Purpose of the review

This review presents the analytical techniques, processing and analytical steps used in metabolomics phenotyping studies, as well as the main results from epidemiological studies on the associations between metabolites and high blood pressure.

Recent findings

A variety of metabolomic approaches have been applied to a range of epidemiological studies to uncover the pathophysiology of high blood pressure. Several pathways have been suggested in relation to blood pressure including the possible role of the gut microflora, inflammatory, oxidative stress, and lipid pathways. Metabolic changes have also been identified associated with blood pressure lowering effects of diets high in fruits and vegetables and low in meat intake. However, the current body of literature on metabolic profiling and blood pressure is still in its infancy, not fully consistent and requires careful interpretation. Metabolic phenotyping is a promising approach to uncover metabolic pathways associated with high blood pressure and throw light into the complex pathophysiology of hypertension.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11906-018-0877-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-018-0877-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6061189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6061189?pdf=render 35501711,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-022-08562-0,Single-cell transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility analyses of dairy cattle peripheral blood mononuclear cells and their responses to lipopolysaccharide.,"Gao Y, Li J, Cai G, Wang Y, Yang W, Li Y, Zhao X, Li R, Gao Y, Tuo W, Baldwin RL, Li CJ, Fang L, Liu GE.",,BMC genomics,2022,2022-04-30,Y,Cattle; Lipopolysaccharide; Peripheral blood mononuclear cell; Single-cell Rna-seq; Single-cell Atac-seq,,,"

Background

Gram-negative bacteria are important pathogens in cattle, causing severe infectious diseases, including mastitis. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are components of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria and crucial mediators of chronic inflammation in cattle. LPS modulations of bovine immune responses have been studied before. However, the single-cell transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility analyses of bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and their responses to LPS stimulation were never reported.

Results

We performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and single-cell sequencing assay for transposase-accessible chromatin (scATAC-seq) in bovine PBMCs before and after LPS treatment and demonstrated that seven major cell types, which included CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells, and B cells, monocytes, natural killer cells, innate lymphoid cells, and dendritic cells. Bioinformatic analyses indicated that LPS could increase PBMC cell cycle progression, cellular differentiation, and chromatin accessibility. Gene analyses further showed significant changes in differential expression, transcription factor binding site, gene ontology, and regulatory interactions during the PBMC responses to LPS. Consistent with the findings of previous studies, LPS induced activation of monocytes and dendritic cells, likely through their upregulated TLR4 receptor. NF-κB was observed to be activated by LPS and an increased transcription of an array of pro-inflammatory cytokines, in agreement that NF-κB is an LPS-responsive regulator of innate immune responses. In addition, by integrating LPS-induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with large-scale GWAS of 45 complex traits in Holstein, we detected trait-relevant cell types. We found that selected DEGs were significantly associated with immune-relevant health, milk production, and body conformation traits.

Conclusion

This study provided the first scRNAseq and scATAC-seq data for cattle PBMCs and their responses to the LPS stimulation to the best of our knowledge. These results should also serve as valuable resources for the future study of the bovine immune system and open the door for discoveries about immune cell roles in complex traits like mastitis at single-cell resolution.",,pdf:https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12864-022-08562-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-022-08562-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9063233; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9063233?pdf=render 33739254,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.11.2100256,"Case fatality risk of the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 in England, 16 November to 5 February.","Grint DJ, Wing K, Williamson E, McDonald HI, Bhaskaran K, Evans D, Evans SJ, Walker AJ, Hickman G, Nightingale E, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Bates C, Cockburn J, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, Bacon S, Davy S, Wong AY, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Douglas IJ, Mathur R, Blomquist P, MacKenna B, Ingelsby P, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, DeVito NJ, Hulme W, Tazare J, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, Eggo RM.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2021,2021-03-01,Y,Mortality; Coronavirus; Cfr; Case Fatality Risk; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Variant Of Concern,,,The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant of concern (VOC) is increasing in prevalence across Europe. Accurate estimation of disease severity associated with this VOC is critical for pandemic planning. We found increased risk of death for VOC compared with non-VOC cases in England (hazard ratio: 1.67; 95% confidence interval: 1.34-2.09; p < 0.0001). Absolute risk of death by 28 days increased with age and comorbidities. This VOC has potential to spread faster with higher mortality than the pandemic to date.,,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/11/eurosurv-26-11-2.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.11.2100256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.11.2100256; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7976383; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7976383?pdf=render 34308125,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000225,Effect of ultraprocessed food intake on cardiometabolic risk is mediated by diet quality: a cross-sectional study.,"Griffin J, Albaloul A, Kopytek A, Elliott P, Frost G.",,"BMJ nutrition, prevention & health",2021,2021-04-07,Y,metabolic syndrome; Dietary Patterns,,,"

Objective

To examine the effect of the consumption of ultraprocessed food on diet quality, and cardiometabolic risk (CMR) in an occupational cohort.

Design

Cross-sectional.

Setting

Occupational cohort.

Participants

53 163 British police force employees enrolled (2004-2012) into the Airwave Health Monitoring Study. A total of 28 forces across the UK agreed to participate. 9009 participants with available 7-day diet record data and complete co-variate data are reported in this study.

Main outcome measures

A CMR and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension score were treated as continuous variables and used to generate measures of cardiometabolic health and diet quality. Secondary outcome measures include percentage of energy from fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, protein and non-milk extrinsic sugars (NMES) and fibre grams per 1000 kcal of energy intake.

Results

In this cohort, 58.3%±11.6 of total energy intake was derived from ultraprocessed (NOVA 4) foods. Ultraprocessed food intake was negatively correlated with diet quality (r=-0.32, p<0.001), fibre (r=-0.20, p<0.001) and protein (r = -0.40, p<0.001) and positively correlated with fat (r=0.18, p<0.001), saturated fat (r=0.14, p<0.001) and nmes (r=0.10, p<0.001) intake. Multivariable analysis suggests a positive association between ultraprocessed food (NOVA 4) consumption and CMR. However, this main effect was no longer observed after adjustment for diet quality (p=0.209). Findings from mediation analysis indicate that the effect of ultraprocessed food (NOVA 4) intake on CMR is mediated by diet quality (p<0.001).

Conclusions

Ultraprocessed food consumption is associated with a deterioration in diet quality and positively associated with CMR, although this association is mediated by and dependent on the quality of the diet. The negative impact of ultraprocessed food consumption on diet quality needs to be addressed and controlled studies are needed to fully comprehend whether the relationship between ultraprocessed food consumption and health is independent to its relationship with poor diet quality.",,pdf:https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/bmjnph/4/1/174.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000225; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8258022; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8258022?pdf=render 34828364,https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12111758,The Influence of CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 Genetic Variation on Diabetes Mellitus Risk in People Taking Antidepressants and Antipsychotics.,"Austin-Zimmerman I, Wronska M, Wang B, Irizar H, Thygesen JH, Bhat A, Denaxas S, Fatemifar G, Finan C, Harju-Seppänen J, Giannakopoulou O, Kuchenbaecker K, Zartaloudi E, McQuillin A, Bramon E.",,Genes,2021,2021-11-03,Y,Diabetes; CYP2C19; CYP2D6; Pharmacogenetics; Hba1c; Personalized Medicine; Uk Biobank,,,"CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 enzymes are essential in the metabolism of antidepressants and antipsychotics. Genetic variation in these genes may increase risk of adverse drug reactions. Antidepressants and antipsychotics have previously been associated with risk of diabetes. We examined whether individual genetic differences in CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 contribute to these effects. We identified 31,579 individuals taking antidepressants and 2699 taking antipsychotics within UK Biobank. Participants were classified as poor, intermediate, or normal metabolizers of CYP2D6, and as poor, intermediate, normal, rapid, or ultra-rapid metabolizers of CYP2C19. Risk of diabetes mellitus represented by HbA1c level was examined in relation to the metabolic phenotypes. CYP2D6 poor metabolizers taking paroxetine had higher Hb1Ac than normal metabolizers (mean difference: 2.29 mmol/mol; p < 0.001). Among participants with diabetes who were taking venlafaxine, CYP2D6 poor metabolizers had higher HbA1c levels compared to normal metabolizers (mean differences: 10.15 mmol/mol; p < 0.001. Among participants with diabetes who were taking fluoxetine, CYP2D6 intermediate metabolizers and decreased HbA1c, compared to normal metabolizers (mean difference -7.74 mmol/mol; p = 0.017). We did not observe any relationship between CYP2D6 or CYP2C19 metabolic status and HbA1c levels in participants taking antipsychotic medication. Our results indicate that the impact of genetic variation in CYP2D6 differs depending on diabetes status. Although our findings support existing clinical guidelines, further research is essential to inform pharmacogenetic testing for people taking antidepressants and antipsychotics.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/11/1758/pdf?version=1637118460; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12111758; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8620997; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8620997?pdf=render 35131989,https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000863,A clinical review of long-COVID with a focus on the respiratory system.,"Daines L, Zheng B, Pfeffer P, Hurst JR, Sheikh A.",,Current opinion in pulmonary medicine,2022,2022-02-07,N,,,,"

Purpose of review

Persistence of symptoms after acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), often described as long- COVID, is common and debilitating. In this article, we review the epidemiology, clinical features, and research priorities for long-COVID focusing on the respiratory system.

Recent findings

Breathlessness, cough and chest pain were the most commonly reported respiratory symptoms associated with long-COVID. In hospitalised patients, abnormalities on lung function testing or chest imaging were observed less commonly at 12 months compared to six months since discharge. Clinical assessment of patients with persisting symptoms after acute COVID-19 requires a comprehensive evaluation to exclude other possible causes for symptoms. With no robust current evidence for interventions to treat long-COVID respiratory symptoms, symptomatic treatment, supported self-management and pulmonary rehabilitation should be considered to help individuals with respiratory symptoms associated with long-COVID.

Summary

Long-COVID is a debilitating syndrome that often includes persisting respiratory symptoms and to a lesser degree, abnormalities in lung physiology or imaging. Respiratory features of long-COVID may reduce over time, yet resolution is not seen in all cases. Future research is needed to understand the natural history of long-COVID, identify factors associated with spontaneous improvement/persistence, investigate mechanisms for persisting symptoms, and test interventions to prevent and treat long-COVID.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612723; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/MCP.0000000000000863; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612723?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000863 -36680646,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6,Characterising patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms: evidence from nine UK longitudinal studies.,"Bowyer RCE, Huggins C, Toms R, Shaw RJ, Hou B, Thompson EJ, Kwong ASF, Williams DM, Kibble M, Ploubidis GB, Timpson NJ, Sterne JAC, Chaturvedi N, Steves CJ, Tilling K, Silverwood RJ, CONVALESCENCE Study.",,European journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-01-21,Y,Clustering; Longitudinal Studies; Symptom Patterns; Covid-19; Long Covid,,,"Multiple studies across global populations have established the primary symptoms characterising Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and long COVID. However, as symptoms may also occur in the absence of COVID-19, a lack of appropriate controls has often meant that specificity of symptoms to acute COVID-19 or long COVID, and the extent and length of time for which they are elevated after COVID-19, could not be examined. We analysed individual symptom prevalences and characterised patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms across nine UK longitudinal studies, totalling over 42,000 participants. Conducting latent class analyses separately in three groups ('no COVID-19', 'COVID-19 in last 12 weeks', 'COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago'), the data did not support the presence of more than two distinct symptom patterns, representing high and low symptom burden, in each group. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 in last 12 weeks' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of acute COVID-19, including loss of taste and smell, fatigue, cough, shortness of breath and muscle pains or aches. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of long COVID, including fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain or aches, difficulty concentrating and chest tightness. The identified symptom patterns among individuals with COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago were strongly associated with self-reported length of time unable to function as normal due to COVID-19 symptoms, suggesting that the symptom pattern identified corresponds to long COVID. Building the evidence base regarding typical long COVID symptoms will improve diagnosis of this condition and the ability to elicit underlying biological mechanisms, leading to better patient access to treatment and services.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244?pdf=render 35836669,https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001188,HLA Alleles Cw12 and DQ4 in Kidney Transplant Recipients Are Independent Risk Factors for the Development of Posttransplantation Diabetes.,"Phagura N, Hussain A, Culliford A, Hodson J, Evison F, Gallier S, Borrows R, Lane HA, Briggs D, Sharif A.",,Transplantation direct,2021,2021-07-23,Y,,,,"The association between specific HLA alleles and risk for posttransplantation diabetes (PTDM) in a contemporary and multiethnic kidney transplant recipient cohort is not clear.

Methods

In this single-center analysis, data were retrospectively analyzed for 1560 nondiabetic kidney transplant recipients at a single center between 2007 and 2018, with median follow-up of 33 mo (interquartile range 8-73). HLA typing methodology was by DNA analysis and reported at the resolution required for the national allocation scheme. Diagnosis of PTDM was aligned with International Consensus recommendations.

Results

PTDM developed in 231 kidney transplant recipients. Exploring 99 HLA alleles, the presence of Cw12, B52, B38, B58, DQ4, A80, and DR13 and the absence of DQ3 and DR04 were associated with significant increases in PTDM risk. In a multivariable Cox regression model, adjusting for other clinical risk factors for PTDM, the presence of Cw12 (hazard ratio [HR], 1.57; 95% CI, 1.08-2.27; P = 0.017) and DQ4 (HR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.07-2.96; P = 0.026) were found to be independent risk factors for PTDM. There was also evidence that the presence of B58 increases PTDM risk within the subgroup of recipients of White ethnicity (HR, 5.01; 95% CI, 2.20-11.42; P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Our data suggest that specific HLA alleles can be associated with PTDM risk, which can be used pretransplantation for PTDM risk stratification. However, association is not causality, and this work requires replication and further investigation to understand underlying biological mechanisms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001188; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000001188; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9276282; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9276282?pdf=render -37644002,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9,Neonatal and maternal outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination: a population-based matched cohort study.,"Lindsay L, Calvert C, Shi T, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Bhaskaran K, Katikireddi SV, McCabe R, McCowan C, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R, Stock SJ.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-08-29,Y,,,,"Understanding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy on neonatal and maternal outcomes informs clinical decision-making. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study to investigate associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and, separately, COVID-19 vaccination just before or during pregnancy and the risk of adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes among women in Scotland with a singleton pregnancy ending at ≥20 weeks gestation. Neonatal outcomes are stillbirth, neonatal death, extended perinatal mortality, preterm birth (overall, spontaneous, and provider-initiated), small-for-gestational age, and low Apgar score. Maternal outcomes are admission to critical care or death, venous thromboembolism, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and pregnancy-related bleeding. We use conditional logistic regression to derive odds ratios adjusted for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics (aORs). We find that infection is associated with an increased risk of preterm (aOR=1.36, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.16-1.59) and very preterm birth (aOR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.20-3.02), maternal admission to critical care or death (aOR=1.72, 95% CI = 1.39-2.12), and venous thromboembolism (aOR = 2.53, 95% CI = 1.47-4.35). We find no evidence of increased risk for any of our outcomes following vaccination. These data suggest SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes, and COVID-19 vaccination remains a safe way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies against infection.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539?pdf=render +36680646,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6,Characterising patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms: evidence from nine UK longitudinal studies.,"Bowyer RCE, Huggins C, Toms R, Shaw RJ, Hou B, Thompson EJ, Kwong ASF, Williams DM, Kibble M, Ploubidis GB, Timpson NJ, Sterne JAC, Chaturvedi N, Steves CJ, Tilling K, Silverwood RJ, CONVALESCENCE Study.",,European journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-01-21,Y,Clustering; Longitudinal Studies; Symptom Patterns; Covid-19; Long Covid,,,"Multiple studies across global populations have established the primary symptoms characterising Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and long COVID. However, as symptoms may also occur in the absence of COVID-19, a lack of appropriate controls has often meant that specificity of symptoms to acute COVID-19 or long COVID, and the extent and length of time for which they are elevated after COVID-19, could not be examined. We analysed individual symptom prevalences and characterised patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms across nine UK longitudinal studies, totalling over 42,000 participants. Conducting latent class analyses separately in three groups ('no COVID-19', 'COVID-19 in last 12 weeks', 'COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago'), the data did not support the presence of more than two distinct symptom patterns, representing high and low symptom burden, in each group. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 in last 12 weeks' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of acute COVID-19, including loss of taste and smell, fatigue, cough, shortness of breath and muscle pains or aches. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of long COVID, including fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain or aches, difficulty concentrating and chest tightness. The identified symptom patterns among individuals with COVID-19 > 12 weeks ago were strongly associated with self-reported length of time unable to function as normal due to COVID-19 symptoms, suggesting that the symptom pattern identified corresponds to long COVID. Building the evidence base regarding typical long COVID symptoms will improve diagnosis of this condition and the ability to elicit underlying biological mechanisms, leading to better patient access to treatment and services.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244?pdf=render 30928998,https://doi.org/10.4193/rhin18.237,Risk of mortality and cardiovascular events following macrolide prescription in chronic rhinosinusitis patients: a cohort study using linked primary care electronic health records.,"Williamson E, Denaxas S, Morris S, Clarke CS, Thomas M, Evans H, Direk K, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Little P, Lund V, Blackshaw H, Schilder A, Philpott C, Hopkins C, Carpenter J, Programme Team OBOTM.",,Rhinology,2019,2019-08-01,N,,,,"

Background

Macrolide antibiotics have demonstrated important anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients. However, reports of increased risks of cardiovascular events have led to safety concerns. We investigated the risk of all-cause and cardiac death, and cardiovascular outcomes, associated with macrolide use.

Methodology

Observational cohort (1997-2016) using linked data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Hospital Episodes Statistics, and the Office for National Statistics. Patients aged 16-80 years with CRS prescribed a macrolide antibiotic or penicillin were included, comparing prescriptions for macrolide antibiotics to penicillin. Outcomes were all-cause mortality, cardiac death, myocardial infarction, stroke, diagnosis of peripheral vascular disease, and cardiac arrhythmia.

Results

Analysis included 320,798 prescriptions received by 66,331 patients. There were 3,251 deaths, 815 due to cardiovascular causes, 925 incident myocardial infarctions, 859 strokes, 637 diagnoses of peripheral vascular disease, and 1,436 cardiac arrhythmias. A non-statistically significant trend towards increased risk of myocardial infarction during the first 30 days following macrolide prescription was observed. No statistically significant short- or long-term risks were observed for macrolide prescription. No significant risks were identified for clarithromycin in particular.

Conclusions

Although not statistically significant, our best estimates suggest an increased short-term risk of myocardial infarction in patients with CRS following macrolide prescription, supporting previous observational evidence. However, confounding by indication remains a possible explanation for this apparent increased risk. We found no evidence of longer term increased risks.",,pdf:https://www.rhinologyjournal.com/download.php?id=1882; doi:https://doi.org/10.4193/Rhin18.237 +37644002,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9,Neonatal and maternal outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination: a population-based matched cohort study.,"Lindsay L, Calvert C, Shi T, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Bhaskaran K, Katikireddi SV, McCabe R, McCowan C, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R, Stock SJ.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-08-29,Y,,,,"Understanding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy on neonatal and maternal outcomes informs clinical decision-making. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study to investigate associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and, separately, COVID-19 vaccination just before or during pregnancy and the risk of adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes among women in Scotland with a singleton pregnancy ending at ≥20 weeks gestation. Neonatal outcomes are stillbirth, neonatal death, extended perinatal mortality, preterm birth (overall, spontaneous, and provider-initiated), small-for-gestational age, and low Apgar score. Maternal outcomes are admission to critical care or death, venous thromboembolism, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and pregnancy-related bleeding. We use conditional logistic regression to derive odds ratios adjusted for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics (aORs). We find that infection is associated with an increased risk of preterm (aOR=1.36, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.16-1.59) and very preterm birth (aOR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.20-3.02), maternal admission to critical care or death (aOR=1.72, 95% CI = 1.39-2.12), and venous thromboembolism (aOR = 2.53, 95% CI = 1.47-4.35). We find no evidence of increased risk for any of our outcomes following vaccination. These data suggest SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes, and COVID-19 vaccination remains a safe way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies against infection.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539?pdf=render 37080566,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01720-2022,Collaboration between explainable artificial intelligence and pulmonologists improves the accuracy of pulmonary function test interpretation.,"Das N, Happaerts S, Gyselinck I, Staes M, Derom E, Brusselle G, Burgos F, Contoli M, Dinh-Xuan AT, Franssen FME, Gonem S, Greening N, Haenebalcke C, Man WD, Moisés J, Peché R, Poberezhets V, Quint JK, Steiner MC, Vanderhelst E, Abdo M, Topalovic M, Janssens W.",,The European respiratory journal,2023,2023-05-18,Y,,,,"

Background

Few studies have investigated the collaborative potential between artificial intelligence (AI) and pulmonologists for diagnosing pulmonary disease. We hypothesised that the collaboration between a pulmonologist and AI with explanations (explainable AI (XAI)) is superior in diagnostic interpretation of pulmonary function tests (PFTs) than the pulmonologist without support.

Methods

The study was conducted in two phases, a monocentre study (phase 1) and a multicentre intervention study (phase 2). Each phase utilised two different sets of 24 PFT reports of patients with a clinically validated gold standard diagnosis. Each PFT was interpreted without (control) and with XAI's suggestions (intervention). Pulmonologists provided a differential diagnosis consisting of a preferential diagnosis and optionally up to three additional diagnoses. The primary end-point compared accuracy of preferential and additional diagnoses between control and intervention. Secondary end-points were the number of diagnoses in differential diagnosis, diagnostic confidence and inter-rater agreement. We also analysed how XAI influenced pulmonologists' decisions.

Results

In phase 1 (n=16 pulmonologists), mean preferential and differential diagnostic accuracy significantly increased by 10.4% and 9.4%, respectively, between control and intervention (p<0.001). Improvements were somewhat lower but highly significant (p<0.0001) in phase 2 (5.4% and 8.7%, respectively; n=62 pulmonologists). In both phases, the number of diagnoses in the differential diagnosis did not reduce, but diagnostic confidence and inter-rater agreement significantly increased during intervention. Pulmonologists updated their decisions with XAI's feedback and consistently improved their baseline performance if AI provided correct predictions.

Conclusion

A collaboration between a pulmonologist and XAI is better at interpreting PFTs than individual pulmonologists reading without XAI support or XAI alone.",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/early/2023/03/15/13993003.01720-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01720-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10196345; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10196345?pdf=render 35845286,https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.182,"An open-source, expert-designed decision tree application to support accurate diagnosis of myeloid malignancies.","Coats T, Bean D, Vatopoulou T, Vijayavalli D, El-Bashir R, Panopoulou A, Wood H, Wimalachandra M, Coppell J, Medd P, Furtado M, Tucker D, Kulasakeraraj A, Pawade J, Dobson R, Ireland R.",,EJHaem,2021,2021-03-26,Y,Myeloid Leukaemia; Classifications; Diagnostic Haematology; Clinical Haematology,,,"Accurate, reproducible diagnoses can be difficult to make in haemato-oncology due to multi-parameter clinical data, complex diagnostic criteria and time-pressured environments. We have designed a decision tree application (DTA) that reflects WHO diagnostic criteria to support accurate diagnoses of myeloid malignancies. The DTA returned the correct diagnoses in 94% of clinical cases tested. The DTA maintained a high level of accuracy in a second validation using artificially generated clinical cases. Optimisations have been made to the DTA based on the validations, and the revised version is now publicly available for use at http://bit.do/ADAtool.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145154/1/Bean_An%20open%20source%2C%20expert%20designed%20decision%20tree%20application%20to%20support%20accurate%20diagnosis%20of%20myeloid%20malignancies_VoR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.182; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9175663; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9175663?pdf=render 33472926,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000011463,"Incidence, Prevalence and Healthcare Outcomes in Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: A Population Study. ","Miah L, Strafford H, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Hollinghurst J, Sawhney IM, Hadjikoutis S, Rees MI, Powell R, Lacey A, Pickrell WO.",,Neurology,2021,2021-01-20,Y,,,,"To characterise trends in incidence, prevalence, and healthcare outcomes in the idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) population in Wales using routinely collected healthcare data. We used and validated primary and secondary care IIH diagnosis codes within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank, to ascertain IIH cases and controls, in a retrospective cohort study between 2003 and 2017. We recorded body mass index (BMI), deprivation quintile, CSF diversion surgery and unscheduled hospital admissions in case and control cohorts. We analysed 35 million patient years of data. There were 1765 cases of IIH in 2017 (85% female). The prevalence and incidence of IIH in 2017 was 76/100,000 and 7.8/100,000/year, a significant increase from 2003 (corresponding figures=12/100,000 and 2.3/100,000/year) (p<0.001). IIH prevalence is associated with increasing BMI and increasing deprivation. The odds ratio for developing IIH in the least deprived quintile compared to the most deprived quintile, adjusted for gender and BMI, was 0.65 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.76). 9% of IIH cases had CSF shunts with less than 0.2% having bariatric surgery. Unscheduled hospital admissions were higher in the IIH cohort compared to controls (rate ratio=5.28, p<0.001) and in individuals with IIH and CSF shunts compared to those without shunts (rate ratio=2.02, p<0.01). IIH incidence and prevalence is increasing considerably, corresponding to population increases in BMI, and is associated with increased deprivation. This has important implications for healthcare professionals and policy makers given the comorbidities, complications and increased healthcare utilization associated with IIH.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/96/8/e1251.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000011463; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8055349; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8055349?pdf=render @@ -520,17 +520,17 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 31818272,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-8015-3,"Drinking beer, wine or spirits - does it matter for inequalities in alcohol-related hospital admission? A record-linked longitudinal study in Wales.","Gartner A, Trefan L, Moore S, Akbari A, Paranjothy S, Farewell D.",,BMC public health,2019,2019-12-09,Y,Alcohol; Inequalities; Deprivation; Hospital Admission; Beverage Type; Record Linked,Improving Public Health,,"BACKGROUND:Alcohol-related harm has been found to be higher in disadvantaged groups, despite similar alcohol consumption to advantaged groups. This is known as the alcohol harm paradox. Beverage type is reportedly socioeconomically patterned but has not been included in longitudinal studies investigating record-linked alcohol consumption and harm. We aimed to investigate whether and to what extent consumption by beverage type, BMI, smoking and other factors explain inequalities in alcohol-related harm. METHODS:11,038 respondents to the Welsh Health Survey answered questions on their health and lifestyle. Responses were record-linked to wholly attributable alcohol-related hospital admissions (ARHA) eight years before the survey month and until the end of 2016 within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We used survival analysis, specifically multi-level and multi-failure Cox mixed effects models, to calculate the hazard ratios of ARHA. In adjusted models we included the number of units consumed by beverage type and other factors, censoring for death or moving out of Wales. RESULTS:People living in more deprived areas had a higher risk of admission (HR 1.75; 95% CI 1.23-2.48) compared to less deprived. Adjustment for the number of units by type of alcohol consumed only reduced the risk of ARHA for more deprived areas by 4% (HR 1.72; 95% CI 1.21-2.44), whilst adding smoking and BMI reduced these inequalities by 35.7% (HR 1.48; 95% CI 1.01-2.17). These social patterns were similar for individual-level social class, employment, housing tenure and highest qualification. Inequalities were further reduced by including either health status (16.6%) or mental health condition (5%). Unit increases of spirits drunk were positively associated with increasing risk of ARHA (HR 1.06; 95% CI 1.01-1.12), higher than for other drink types. CONCLUSIONS:Although consumption by beverage type was socioeconomically patterned, it did not help explain inequalities in alcohol-related harm. Smoking and BMI explained around a third of inequalities, but lower socioeconomic groups had a persistently higher risk of (multiple) ARHA. Comorbidities also explained a further proportion of inequalities and need further investigation, including the contribution of specific conditions. The increased harms from consumption of stronger alcoholic beverages may inform public health policy.","This longitudinal study investigated whether and to what extent consumption by beverage type, BMI, smoking and other factors explained inequalities in alcohol-related hospital admission (ARHA). Using statistical analysis methods, it was found that people living in more deprived areas had a higher risk of ARHA compared to less deprived. Smokers and people currently being treated for mental illness had higher risk of ARHA, while BMI appeared to be slightly protective. ",pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-019-8015-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-8015-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6902530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6902530?pdf=render 33152012,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241800,Effect of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in infant formula on long-term cognitive function in childhood: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.,"Verfuerden ML, Dib S, Jerrim J, Fewtrell M, Gilbert RE.",,PloS one,2020,2020-11-05,Y,,,,

Study registration

PROSPERO registration numbers CRD42018105196 and CRD42018088868.,,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241800&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241800; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7644261; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7644261?pdf=render 36609412,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324713,"Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Scottish neonates 2020-2022: a national, population-based cohort study.","Goulding A, McQuaid F, Lindsay L, Agrawal U, Auyeung B, Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hillman S, Hopcroft L, Hopkins L, McCowan C, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Ritchie L, Simpson CR, Taylor B, Fenton L, Pollock L, Gale C, Kurinczuk JJ, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock S, Wood R.",,Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition,2023,2023-01-06,Y,epidemiology; Neonatology; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To examine neonates in Scotland aged 0-27 days with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by viral testing; the risk of confirmed neonatal infection by maternal and infant characteristics; and hospital admissions associated with confirmed neonatal infections.

Design

Population-based cohort study.

Setting and population

All live births in Scotland, 1 March 2020-31 January 2022.

Results

There were 141 neonates with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection over the study period, giving an overall infection rate of 153 per 100 000 live births (141/92 009, 0.15%). Among infants born to women with confirmed infection around the time of birth, the confirmed neonatal infection rate was 1812 per 100 000 live births (15/828, 1.8%). Two-thirds (92/141, 65.2%) of neonates with confirmed infection had an associated admission to neonatal or (more commonly) paediatric care. Six of these babies (6/92, 6.5%) were admitted to neonatal and/or paediatric intensive care; however, none of these six had COVID-19 recorded as their main diagnosis. There were no neonatal deaths among babies with confirmed infection.

Implications and relevance

Confirmed neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection was uncommon over the first 23 months of the pandemic in Scotland. Secular trends in the neonatal confirmed infection rate broadly followed those seen in the general population, although at a lower level. Maternal confirmed infection at birth was associated with an increased risk of neonatal confirmed infection. Two-thirds of neonates with confirmed infection had an associated admission to hospital, with resulting implications for the baby, family and services, although their outcomes were generally good. Ascertainment of confirmed infection depends on the extent of testing, and this is likely to have varied over time and between groups: the extent of unconfirmed infection is inevitably unknown.",,pdf:https://fn.bmj.com/content/fetalneonatal/early/2023/01/05/archdischild-2022-324713.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324713; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313998; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313998?pdf=render -31612961,https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz895,GWAS Central: a comprehensive resource for the discovery and comparison of genotype and phenotype data from genome-wide association studies.,"Beck T, Shorter T, Brookes AJ.",,Nucleic acids research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,,,,"The GWAS Central resource provides a toolkit for integrative access and visualization of a uniquely extensive collection of genome-wide association study data, while ensuring safe open access to prevent research participant identification. GWAS Central is the world's most comprehensive openly accessible repository of summary-level GWAS association information, providing over 70 million P-values for over 3800 studies investigating over 1400 unique phenotypes. The database content comprises direct submissions received from GWAS authors and consortia, in addition to actively gathered data sets from various public sources. GWAS data are discoverable from the perspective of genetic markers, genes, genome regions or phenotypes, via graphical visualizations and detailed downloadable data reports. Tested genetic markers and relevant genomic features can be visually interrogated across up to sixteen multiple association data sets in a single view using the integrated genome browser. The semantic standardization of phenotype descriptions with Medical Subject Headings and the Human Phenotype Ontology allows the precise identification of genetic variants associated with diseases, phenotypes and traits of interest. Harmonization of the phenotype descriptions used across several GWAS-related resources has extended the phenotype search capabilities to enable cross-database study discovery using a range of ontologies. GWAS Central is updated regularly and available at https://www.gwascentral.org.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/48/D1/D933/31697824/gkz895.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz895; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7145571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7145571?pdf=render 37272361,https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.5268,Relationship between Eczema and Self-reported Difficulties Keeping up with School Education: A Cross-sectional Study.,"Beckman L, Hagquist C, Svensson Å, Langan SM, Von Kobyletzki L.",,Acta dermato-venereologica,2023,2023-06-05,Y,,,,"Eczema is a common chronic disease that affects both children and adults, and may have an adverse impact on school performance, as it is characteristically pruritic, and hence may lead to poor concentration and inadequate sleep. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship between eczema and self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education. The study was based on cross-sectional questionnaire data collected in schools among all 9th graders (15-16 years old) within a Swedish county. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association between having eczema and self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education. A total of 2,620 pupils participated (50.1% female). An increased odds ratio (OR) of self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education was found in adolescents with eczema compared with those without eczema after adjustment for sex and  family residence (OR 2.13, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.32-3.44), and with additional adjustment for sleeping problems, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, allergy, rhinitis, asthma, and alcohol consumption (adjusted OR 1.78, CI 1.05-3.00). Eczema may be a relevant risk factor for difficulty keeping up with school education in adolescents. However, studies that can assess temporality, based in different settings with objective reports of both eczema and self-reported difficulties at school, are needed to confirm these findings.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.5268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259463; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259463?pdf=render +31612961,https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz895,GWAS Central: a comprehensive resource for the discovery and comparison of genotype and phenotype data from genome-wide association studies.,"Beck T, Shorter T, Brookes AJ.",,Nucleic acids research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,,,,"The GWAS Central resource provides a toolkit for integrative access and visualization of a uniquely extensive collection of genome-wide association study data, while ensuring safe open access to prevent research participant identification. GWAS Central is the world's most comprehensive openly accessible repository of summary-level GWAS association information, providing over 70 million P-values for over 3800 studies investigating over 1400 unique phenotypes. The database content comprises direct submissions received from GWAS authors and consortia, in addition to actively gathered data sets from various public sources. GWAS data are discoverable from the perspective of genetic markers, genes, genome regions or phenotypes, via graphical visualizations and detailed downloadable data reports. Tested genetic markers and relevant genomic features can be visually interrogated across up to sixteen multiple association data sets in a single view using the integrated genome browser. The semantic standardization of phenotype descriptions with Medical Subject Headings and the Human Phenotype Ontology allows the precise identification of genetic variants associated with diseases, phenotypes and traits of interest. Harmonization of the phenotype descriptions used across several GWAS-related resources has extended the phenotype search capabilities to enable cross-database study discovery using a range of ontologies. GWAS Central is updated regularly and available at https://www.gwascentral.org.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/48/D1/D933/31697824/gkz895.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz895; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7145571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7145571?pdf=render +35835543,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196,Eligibility for early rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation in the UK Biobank.,"Kany S, Cardoso VR, Bravo L, Williams JA, Schnabel R, Fabritz L, Gkoutos GV, Kirchhof P.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2022,2022-11-10,Y,Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Catheter ablation,,,"

Objective

The Early Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation for Stroke Prevention (EAST-AFNET4) trial showed a clinical benefit of early rhythm-control therapy in patients with recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF). The generalisability of the results in the general population is not known.

Methods

Participants in the population-based UK Biobank were assessed for eligibility based on the EAST-AFNET4 inclusion/exclusion criteria. Treatment of all eligible participants was classified as early rhythm-control (antiarrhythmic drug therapy or AF ablation) or usual care. To assess treatment effects, primary care data and Hospital Episode Statistics were merged with UK Biobank data.Efficacy and safety outcomes were compared between groups in the entire cohort and in a propensity-matched data set.

Results

AF was present in 35 526/502 493 (7.1%) participants, including 8340 (988 with AF <1 year) with AF at enrolment and 27 186 with incident AF during follow-up. Most participants (22 003/27 186; 80.9%) with incident AF were eligible for early rhythm-control.Eligible participants were older (70 years vs 63 years) and more likely to be female (42% vs 21%) compared with ineligible patients. Of 9004 participants with full primary care data, 874 (9.02%) received early rhythm-control. Safety outcomes were not different between patients receiving early rhythm-control and controls. The primary outcome of EAST-AFNET 4, a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke/transient ischaemic attack and hospitalisation for heart failure or acute coronary syndrome occurred less often in participants receiving early rhythm-control compared with controls in the entire cohort (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.94, p=0.005). In the propensity-score matched analysis, early rhythm-control did not significantly decrease of the primary outcome compared with usual care (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.04, p=0.124).

Conclusion

Around 80% of participants diagnosed with AF in the UK population are eligible for early rhythm-control. Early rhythm-control therapy was safe in routine care.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2022/07/13/heartjnl-2022-321196.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114?pdf=render 33479422,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81547-3,Explaining the emergence of complex networks through log-normal fitness in a Euclidean node similarity space.,Smith KM.,,Scientific reports,2021,2021-01-21,Y,,,,"Networks of disparate phenomena-be it the global ecology, human social institutions, within the human brain, or in micro-scale protein interactions-exhibit broadly consistent architectural features. To explain this, we propose a new theory where link probability is modelled by a log-normal node fitness (surface) factor and a latent Euclidean space-embedded node similarity (depth) factor. Building on recurring trends in the literature, the theory asserts that links arise due to individualistic as well as dyadic information and that important dyadic information making up the so-called depth factor is obscured by this essentially non-dyadic information making up the surface factor. Modelling based on this theory considerably outperforms popular power-law fitness and hyperbolic geometry explanations across 110 networks. Importantly, the degree distributions of the model resemble power-laws at small densities and log-normal distributions at larger densities, posing a reconciliatory solution to the long-standing debate on the nature and existence of scale-free networks. Validating this theory, a surface factor inversion approach on an economic world city network and an fMRI connectome results in considerably more geometrically aligned nearest neighbour networks, as is hypothesised to be the case for the depth factor. This establishes new foundations from which to understand, analyse, deconstruct and interpret network phenomena.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-81547-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81547-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7820353; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7820353?pdf=render 33845909,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-021-00241-5,Improved characterisation of clinical text through ontology-based vocabulary expansion.,"Slater LT, Bradlow W, Ball S, Hoehndorf R, Gkoutos GV.",,Journal of biomedical semantics,2021,2021-04-12,Y,Ontology; Text Mining; Semantic Similarity; Vocabulary Expansion,,,"

Background

Biomedical ontologies contain a wealth of metadata that constitutes a fundamental infrastructural resource for text mining. For several reasons, redundancies exist in the ontology ecosystem, which lead to the same entities being described by several concepts in the same or similar contexts across several ontologies. While these concepts describe the same entities, they contain different sets of complementary metadata. Linking these definitions to make use of their combined metadata could lead to improved performance in ontology-based information retrieval, extraction, and analysis tasks.

Results

We develop and present an algorithm that expands the set of labels associated with an ontology class using a combination of strict lexical matching and cross-ontology reasoner-enabled equivalency queries. Across all disease terms in the Disease Ontology, the approach found 51,362 additional labels, more than tripling the number defined by the ontology itself. Manual validation by a clinical expert on a random sampling of expanded synonyms over the Human Phenotype Ontology yielded a precision of 0.912. Furthermore, we found that annotating patient visits in MIMIC-III with an extended set of Disease Ontology labels led to semantic similarity score derived from those labels being a significantly better predictor of matching first diagnosis, with a mean average precision of 0.88 for the unexpanded set of annotations, and 0.913 for the expanded set.

Conclusions

Inter-ontology synonym expansion can lead to a vast increase in the scale of vocabulary available for text mining applications. While the accuracy of the extended vocabulary is not perfect, it nevertheless led to a significantly improved ontology-based characterisation of patients from text in one setting. Furthermore, where run-on error is not acceptable, the technique can be used to provide candidate synonyms which can be checked by a domain expert.",,pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-021-00241-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-021-00241-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8042947; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8042947?pdf=render -35835543,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196,Eligibility for early rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation in the UK Biobank.,"Kany S, Cardoso VR, Bravo L, Williams JA, Schnabel R, Fabritz L, Gkoutos GV, Kirchhof P.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2022,2022-11-10,Y,Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Catheter ablation,,,"

Objective

The Early Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation for Stroke Prevention (EAST-AFNET4) trial showed a clinical benefit of early rhythm-control therapy in patients with recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF). The generalisability of the results in the general population is not known.

Methods

Participants in the population-based UK Biobank were assessed for eligibility based on the EAST-AFNET4 inclusion/exclusion criteria. Treatment of all eligible participants was classified as early rhythm-control (antiarrhythmic drug therapy or AF ablation) or usual care. To assess treatment effects, primary care data and Hospital Episode Statistics were merged with UK Biobank data.Efficacy and safety outcomes were compared between groups in the entire cohort and in a propensity-matched data set.

Results

AF was present in 35 526/502 493 (7.1%) participants, including 8340 (988 with AF <1 year) with AF at enrolment and 27 186 with incident AF during follow-up. Most participants (22 003/27 186; 80.9%) with incident AF were eligible for early rhythm-control.Eligible participants were older (70 years vs 63 years) and more likely to be female (42% vs 21%) compared with ineligible patients. Of 9004 participants with full primary care data, 874 (9.02%) received early rhythm-control. Safety outcomes were not different between patients receiving early rhythm-control and controls. The primary outcome of EAST-AFNET 4, a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke/transient ischaemic attack and hospitalisation for heart failure or acute coronary syndrome occurred less often in participants receiving early rhythm-control compared with controls in the entire cohort (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.94, p=0.005). In the propensity-score matched analysis, early rhythm-control did not significantly decrease of the primary outcome compared with usual care (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.04, p=0.124).

Conclusion

Around 80% of participants diagnosed with AF in the UK population are eligible for early rhythm-control. Early rhythm-control therapy was safe in routine care.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2022/07/13/heartjnl-2022-321196.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114?pdf=render 33200120,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630,Ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Sze S, Pan D, Nevill CR, Gray LJ, Martin CA, Nazareth J, Minhas JS, Divall P, Khunti K, Abrams KR, Nellums LB, Pareek M.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-11-12,Y,Infection; Transmission; RACE; Death; Ethnicity; Outcome; Asian; Hispanic; Ethnic; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Black; Disporportionate; Itu Admission,,,"

Background

Patients from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the relationship between ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19.

Methods

Databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PROSPERO, Cochrane library and MedRxiv) were searched up to 31st August 2020, for studies reporting COVID-19 data disaggregated by ethnicity. Outcomes were: risk of infection; intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission and death. PROSPERO ID: 180654.

Findings

18,728,893 patients from 50 studies were included; 26 were peer-reviewed; 42 were from the United States of America and 8 from the United Kingdom. Individuals from Black and Asian ethnicities had a higher risk of COVID-19 infection compared to White individuals. This was consistent in both the main analysis (pooled adjusted RR for Black: 2.02, 95% CI 1.67-2.44; pooled adjusted RR for Asian: 1.50, 95% CI 1.24-1.83) and sensitivity analyses examining peer-reviewed studies only (pooled adjusted RR for Black: 1.85, 95%CI: 1.46-2.35; pooled adjusted RR for Asian: 1.51, 95% CI 1.22-1.88). Individuals of Asian ethnicity may also be at higher risk of ITU admission (pooled adjusted RR 1.97 95% CI 1.34-2.89) (but no studies had yet been peer-reviewed) and death (pooled adjusted RR/HR 1.22 [0.99-1.50]).

Interpretation

Individuals of Black and Asian ethnicity are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection compared to White individuals; Asians may be at higher risk of ITU admission and death. These findings are of critical public health importance in informing interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality amongst ethnic minority groups.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7658622; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7658622?pdf=render 32614817,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008031,Estimation of country-level basic reproductive ratios for novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19) using synthetic contact matrices.,"Hilton J, Keeling MJ.",,PLoS computational biology,2020,2020-07-02,Y,,,,"The 2019-2020 pandemic of atypical pneumonia (COVID-19) caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 has spread globally and has the potential to infect large numbers of people in every country. Estimating the country-specific basic reproductive ratio is a vital first step in public-health planning. The basic reproductive ratio (R0) is determined by both the nature of pathogen and the network of human contacts through which the disease can spread, which is itself dependent on population age structure and household composition. Here we introduce a transmission model combining age-stratified contact frequencies with age-dependent susceptibility, probability of clinical symptoms, and transmission from asymptomatic (or mild) cases, which we use to estimate the country-specific basic reproductive ratio of COVID-19 for 152 countries. Using early outbreak data from China and a synthetic contact matrix, we estimate an age-stratified transmission structure which can then be extrapolated to 151 other countries for which synthetic contact matrices also exist. This defines a set of country-specific transmission structures from which we can calculate the basic reproductive ratio for each country. Our predicted R0 is critically sensitive to the intensity of transmission from asymptomatic cases; with low asymptomatic transmission the highest values are predicted across Eastern Europe and Japan and the lowest across Africa, Central America and South-Western Asia. This pattern is largely driven by the ratio of children to older adults in each country and the observed propensity of clinical cases in the elderly. If asymptomatic cases have comparable transmission to detected cases, the pattern is reversed. Our results demonstrate the importance of age-specific heterogeneities going beyond contact structure to the spread of COVID-19. These heterogeneities give COVID-19 the capacity to spread particularly quickly in countries with older populations, and that intensive control measures are likely to be necessary to impede its progress in these countries.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008031&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7363110; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7363110?pdf=render -35443953,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523,Can we accurately forecast non-elective bed occupancy and admissions in the NHS? A time-series MSARIMA analysis of longitudinal data from an NHS Trust.,"Eyles E, Redaniel MT, Jones T, Prat M, Keen T.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-20,Y,epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; Health Services Administration & Management; Accident & Emergency Medicine,,,"

Objectives

The main objective of the study was to develop more accurate and precise short-term forecasting models for admissions and bed occupancy for an NHS Trust located in Bristol, England. Subforecasts for the medical and surgical specialties, and for different lengths of stay were realised DESIGN: Autoregressive integrated moving average models were specified on a training dataset of daily count data, then tested on a 6-week forecast horizon. Explanatory variables were included in the models: day of the week, holiday days, lagged temperature and precipitation.

Setting

A secondary care hospital in an NHS Trust in South West England.

Participants

Hospital admissions between September 2016 and March 2020, comprising 1291 days.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The accuracy of the forecasts was assessed through standard measures, as well as compared with the actual data using accuracy thresholds of 10% and 20% of the mean number of admissions or occupied beds.

Results

The overall Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) admissions forecast was compared with the Trust's forecast, and found to be more accurate, namely, being closer to the actual value 95.6% of the time. Furthermore, it was more precise than the Trust's. The subforecasts, as well as those for bed occupancy, tended to be less accurate compared with the overall forecasts. All of the explanatory variables improved the forecasts.

Conclusions

ARIMA models can forecast non-elective admissions in an NHS Trust accurately on a 6-week horizon, which is an improvement on the current predictive modelling in the Trust. These models can be readily applied to other contexts, improving patient flow.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e056523.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768?pdf=render 36446790,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35017-7,Genetically personalised organ-specific metabolic models in health and disease.,"Foguet C, Xu Y, Ritchie SC, Lambert SA, Persyn E, Nath AP, Davenport EE, Roberts DJ, Paul DS, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Yau C, Inouye M.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-11-29,Y,,,,"Understanding how genetic variants influence disease risk and complex traits (variant-to-function) is one of the major challenges in human genetics. Here we present a model-driven framework to leverage human genome-scale metabolic networks to define how genetic variants affect biochemical reaction fluxes across major human tissues, including skeletal muscle, adipose, liver, brain and heart. As proof of concept, we build personalised organ-specific metabolic flux models for 524,615 individuals of the INTERVAL and UK Biobank cohorts and perform a fluxome-wide association study (FWAS) to identify 4312 associations between personalised flux values and the concentration of metabolites in blood. Furthermore, we apply FWAS to identify 92 metabolic fluxes associated with the risk of developing coronary artery disease, many of which are linked to processes previously described to play in role in the disease. Our work demonstrates that genetically personalised metabolic models can elucidate the downstream effects of genetic variants on biochemical reactions involved in common human diseases.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35017-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35017-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708841; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708841?pdf=render 36921925,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-072808,Comparative effectiveness of BNT162b2 versus mRNA-1273 covid-19 vaccine boosting in England: matched cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP.,"Hulme WJ, Horne EMF, Parker EPK, Keogh RH, Williamson EJ, Walker V, Palmer TM, Curtis HJ, Walker AJ, Andrews CD, Mehrkar A, Morley J, MacKenna B, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B, Hernán MA, Sterne JAC.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2023,2023-03-15,Y,,,,"

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) covid-19 vaccines during the booster programme in England.

Design

Matched cohort study, emulating a comparative effectiveness trial.

Setting

Linked primary care, hospital, and covid-19 surveillance records available within the OpenSAFELY-TPP research platform, covering a period when the SARS-CoV-2 delta and omicron variants were dominant.

Participants

3 237 918 adults who received a booster dose of either vaccine between 29 October 2021 and 25 February 2022 as part of the national booster programme in England and who received a primary course of BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1.

Intervention

Vaccination with either BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 as a booster vaccine dose.

Main outcome measures

Recorded SARS-CoV-2 positive test, covid-19 related hospital admission, covid-19 related death, and non-covid-19 related death at 20 weeks after receipt of the booster dose.

Results

1 618 959 people were matched in each vaccine group, contributing a total 64 546 391 person weeks of follow-up. The 20 week risks per 1000 for a positive SARS-CoV-2 test were 164.2 (95% confidence interval 163.3 to 165.1) for BNT162b2 and 159.9 (159.0 to 160.8) for mRNA-1273; the hazard ratio comparing mRNA-1273 with BNT162b2 was 0.95 (95% confidence interval 0.95 to 0.96). The 20 week risks per 1000 for hospital admission with covid-19 were 0.75 (0.71 to 0.79) for BNT162b2 and 0.65 (0.61 to 0.69) for mRNA-1273; the hazard ratio was 0.89 (0.82 to 0.95). Covid-19 related deaths were rare: the 20 week risks per 1000 were 0.028 (0.021 to 0.037) for BNT162b2 and 0.024 (0.018 to 0.033) for mRNA-1273; hazard ratio 0.83 (0.58 to 1.19). Comparative effectiveness was generally similar within subgroups defined by the primary course vaccine brand, age, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, and clinical vulnerability. Relative benefit was similar when vaccines were compared separately in the delta and omicron variant eras.

Conclusions

This matched observational study of adults estimated a modest benefit of booster vaccination with mRNA-1273 compared with BNT162b2 in preventing positive SARS-CoV-2 tests and hospital admission with covid-19 20 weeks after vaccination, during a period of delta followed by omicron variant dominance.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/380/bmj-2022-072808.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-072808; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10014664; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10014664?pdf=render 36374585,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221131897,Using national electronic health records for pandemic preparedness: validation of a parsimonious model for predicting excess deaths among those with COVID-19-a data-driven retrospective cohort study.,"Mizani MA, Dashtban A, Pasea L, Lai AG, Thygesen J, Tomlinson C, Handy A, Mamza JB, Morris T, Khalid S, Zaccardi F, Macleod MJ, Torabi F, Canoy D, Akbari A, Berry C, Bolton T, Nolan J, Khunti K, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Sudlow C, Banerjee A, CVD-COVID-UK Consortium.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2023,2022-11-14,N,Infectious diseases; Clinical; epidemiology; Public Health; Health Informatics,,,"

Objectives

To use national, pre- and post-pandemic electronic health records (EHR) to develop and validate a scenario-based model incorporating baseline mortality risk, infection rate (IR) and relative risk (RR) of death for prediction of excess deaths.

Design

An EHR-based, retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Linked EHR in Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD); and linked EHR and COVID-19 data in England provided in NHS Digital Trusted Research Environment (TRE).

Participants

In the development (CPRD) and validation (TRE) cohorts, we included 3.8 million and 35.1 million individuals aged ≥30 years, respectively.

Main outcome measures

One-year all-cause excess deaths related to COVID-19 from March 2020 to March 2021.

Results

From 1 March 2020 to 1 March 2021, there were 127,020 observed excess deaths. Observed RR was 4.34% (95% CI, 4.31-4.38) and IR was 6.27% (95% CI, 6.26-6.28). In the validation cohort, predicted one-year excess deaths were 100,338 compared with the observed 127,020 deaths with a ratio of predicted to observed excess deaths of 0.79.

Conclusions

We show that a simple, parsimonious model incorporating baseline mortality risk, one-year IR and RR of the pandemic can be used for scenario-based prediction of excess deaths in the early stages of a pandemic. Our analyses show that EHR could inform pandemic planning and surveillance, despite limited use in emergency preparedness to date. Although infection dynamics are important in the prediction of mortality, future models should take greater account of underlying conditions.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221131897; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221131897; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9909113; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9909113?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221131897 +35443953,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523,Can we accurately forecast non-elective bed occupancy and admissions in the NHS? A time-series MSARIMA analysis of longitudinal data from an NHS Trust.,"Eyles E, Redaniel MT, Jones T, Prat M, Keen T.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-20,Y,epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; Health Services Administration & Management; Accident & Emergency Medicine,,,"

Objectives

The main objective of the study was to develop more accurate and precise short-term forecasting models for admissions and bed occupancy for an NHS Trust located in Bristol, England. Subforecasts for the medical and surgical specialties, and for different lengths of stay were realised DESIGN: Autoregressive integrated moving average models were specified on a training dataset of daily count data, then tested on a 6-week forecast horizon. Explanatory variables were included in the models: day of the week, holiday days, lagged temperature and precipitation.

Setting

A secondary care hospital in an NHS Trust in South West England.

Participants

Hospital admissions between September 2016 and March 2020, comprising 1291 days.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The accuracy of the forecasts was assessed through standard measures, as well as compared with the actual data using accuracy thresholds of 10% and 20% of the mean number of admissions or occupied beds.

Results

The overall Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) admissions forecast was compared with the Trust's forecast, and found to be more accurate, namely, being closer to the actual value 95.6% of the time. Furthermore, it was more precise than the Trust's. The subforecasts, as well as those for bed occupancy, tended to be less accurate compared with the overall forecasts. All of the explanatory variables improved the forecasts.

Conclusions

ARIMA models can forecast non-elective admissions in an NHS Trust accurately on a 6-week horizon, which is an improvement on the current predictive modelling in the Trust. These models can be readily applied to other contexts, improving patient flow.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e056523.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768?pdf=render 35383067,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055447,Potentially avoidable causes of hospitalisation in people with dementia: contemporaneous associations by stage of dementia in a South London clinical cohort.,"Gungabissoon U, Perera G, Galwey NW, Stewart R.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-05,Y,Dementia; epidemiology; Old Age Psychiatry,,,"

Objectives

To estimate the frequency of all-cause and ambulatory care sensitive condition (ACSCs)-related hospitalisations among individuals with dementia. In addition, to investigate differences by stage of dementia based on recorded cognitive function.

Setting

Data from a large London dementia care clinical case register, linked to a national hospitalisation database.

Participants

Individuals aged ≥65 years with a confirmed dementia diagnosis with recorded cognitive function.

Outcome measures

Acute general hospital admissions were evaluated within 6 months of a randomly selected cognitive function score in patients with a clinical diagnosis of dementia. To evaluate associations between ACSC-related hospital admissions (overall and individual ACSCs) and stage of dementia, an ordinal regression was performed, modelling stage of dementia as the dependant variable (to facilitate efficient model selection, with no implication concerning the direction of causality).

Results

Of the 5294 people with dementia, 2993 (56.5%) had at least one hospitalisation during a 12-month period of evaluation, and 1192 (22.5%) had an ACSC-related admission. Proportions with an all-cause or ACSC-related hospitalisation were greater in the groups with more advanced dementia (all-cause 53.9%, 57.1% and 60.9%, p 0.002; ACSC-related 19.5%, 24.0% and 25.3%, p<0.0001 in the mild, moderate and severe groups, respectively). An ACSC-related admission was associated with 1.3-fold (95% CI 1.1 to 1.5) increased odds of more severe dementia after adjusting for demographic factors. Concerning admissions for individual ACSCs, the most common ACSC was urinary tract infection /pyelonephritis (9.8% of hospitalised patients) followed by pneumonia (7.1%); in an adjusted model, these were each associated with 1.4-fold increased odds of more severe dementia (95% CI 1.2 to 1.7 and 1.1 to 1.7, respectively).

Conclusions

Potentially avoidable hospitalisations were common in people with dementia, particularly in those with greater cognitive impairment. Our results call for greater attention to the extent of cognitive status impairment, and not just dementia diagnosis, when evaluating measures to reduce the risk of potentially avoidable hospitalisations.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e055447.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055447; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8984034; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8984034?pdf=render 31789939,https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001113,Could Greater Physical Activity Reduce Population Prevalence and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Children's Mental Health Problems? A Policy Simulation.,"Chigogora S, Pearce A, Law C, Viner R, Chittleborough C, Griffiths LJ, Hope S.",,"Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)",2020,2020-01-01,Y,,,,"

Background

One in four children 5-16 years (y) of age shows signs of mental health problems in the United Kingdom; risk is higher in economically disadvantaged groups. Greater physical activity is associated with lower risk of internalizing problems such as depression and anxiety. We simulated the potential impact of population-wide physical activity interventions on overall prevalence of internalizing problems, and by family income. Interventions were based on the World Health Organization (WHO) children's target of 60 minutes (min) of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day and trial evidence.

Methods

Data were from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, a population-representative cohort of children born in 2000-2002. Household income (5 y) was the exposure; internalizing problems (outcome) were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (11 y). Of 18,296 singletons, 6,497 had accelerometer physical activity data (mediator, manipulated to simulate interventions) at 7 y. We predicted probabilities of outcome according to exposure in marginal structural models, weighted for attrition and confounding, and adjusted for observed mediator. We then re-estimated probabilities in different physical activity intervention scenarios, assessing income inequalities in internalizing problems with risk ratios (RRs) and differences (RDs) according to income quintile.

Results

Simulating universal achievement of the WHO target led to little change in prevalence (10% [95% CI = 8%, 12%]) and socioeconomic inequalities in internalizing problems; RR: 2.2 (1.1, 3.4); RD: 8% [5%,13%]). More modest increases in physical activity achieved weaker results.

Conclusions

Our simulations suggest that large increases in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in the United Kingdom would have little effect on prevalence and inequalities in child mental health problems.","This UK based prospective cohort study looked at the potential impact of physical activity on 'internalizing problems' such as depression in children. They measured physical activity level at 7 years, and looked whether mental health problems existed at 11 years, adjusting approrpiately for confounders (ethnicity, maternal age at birth, neighbourhood safety, childhood illness, etc). They conclude that a small reduction in mental health problems could be observed but not enough to justify the national policy of encouraging 60 min of mod-vigorous exercise a day for all children",html:https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2020/01000/Could_Greater_Physical_Activity_Reduce_Population.13.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001113; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6889907; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6889907?pdf=render 33728401,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0178-4,Modelling COVID-19.,"Vespignani A, Tian H, Dye C, Lloyd-Smith JO, Eggo RM, Shrestha M, Scarpino SV, Gutierrez B, Kraemer MUG, Wu J, Leung K, Leung GM.",,Nature reviews. Physics,2020,2020-05-06,Y,Applied Mathematics; Complex Networks,,,"As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, mathematical epidemiologists share their views on what models reveal about how the disease has spread, the current state of play and what work still needs to be done.",Vespignani et al. used mathematical models to model the epidemic of covid-19 and to predict future scenarios for possible interventions and inform policy and practice.,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-020-0178-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0178-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7201389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7201389?pdf=render @@ -538,12 +538,12 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 35814295,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00146-z,Machine learning to support visual auditing of home-based lateral flow immunoassay self-test results for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.,"Wong NCK, Meshkinfamfard S, Turbé V, Whitaker M, Moshe M, Bardanzellu A, Dai T, Pignatelli E, Barclay W, Darzi A, Elliott P, Ward H, Tanaka RJ, Cooke GS, McKendry RA, Atchison CJ, Bharath AA.",,Communications medicine,2022,2022-07-06,Y,Databases; Public Health,,,"

Background

Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) are being used worldwide for COVID-19 mass testing and antibody prevalence studies. Relatively simple to use and low cost, these tests can be self-administered at home, but rely on subjective interpretation of a test line by eye, risking false positives and false negatives. Here, we report on the development of ALFA (Automated Lateral Flow Analysis) to improve reported sensitivity and specificity.

Methods

Our computational pipeline uses machine learning, computer vision techniques and signal processing algorithms to analyse images of the Fortress LFIA SARS-CoV-2 antibody self-test, and subsequently classify results as invalid, IgG negative and IgG positive. A large image library of 595,339 participant-submitted test photographs was created as part of the REACT-2 community SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence study in England, UK. Alongside ALFA, we developed an analysis toolkit which could also detect device blood leakage issues.

Results

Automated analysis showed substantial agreement with human experts (Cohen's kappa 0.90-0.97) and performed consistently better than study participants, particularly for weak positive IgG results. Specificity (98.7-99.4%) and sensitivity (90.1-97.1%) were high compared with visual interpretation by human experts (ranges due to the varying prevalence of weak positive IgG tests in datasets).

Conclusions

Given the potential for LFIAs to be used at scale in the COVID-19 response (for both antibody and antigen testing), even a small improvement in the accuracy of the algorithms could impact the lives of millions of people by reducing the risk of false-positive and false-negative result read-outs by members of the public. Our findings support the use of machine learning-enabled automated reading of at-home antibody lateral flow tests as a tool for improved accuracy for population-level community surveillance.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00146-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00146-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259560?pdf=render 37577380,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad211,Primary care blood tests show lipid profile changes in pre-symptomatic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.,"Thompson AG, Marsden R, Talbot K, Turner MR.",,Brain communications,2023,2023-07-28,Y,Cholesterol; Biomarker; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Motor Neurone Disease; Pre-symptomatic,,,"Multiple sources of evidence suggest that changes in metabolism may precede the onset of motor symptoms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This study aimed to seek evidence for alterations in the levels of blood indices collected routinely in the primary care setting prior to the onset of motor symptoms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Premorbid data, measured as part of routine health screening, for total cholesterol, high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride, glycated haemoglobin A1c and creatinine were collected retrospectively from (i) a cohort of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients attending a specialist clinic (n = 143) and (ii) from primary care-linked data within UK Biobank. Data were fitted using linear mixed effects models with linear b-splines to identify inflection points, controlling for age and sex. In specialist amyotrophic lateral sclerosis clinic cases, models indicated decreasing levels of total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol prior to an inflection point in the years before symptom onset (total cholesterol 3.25 years, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol 1.25 years), after which they stabilized or rose. A similar pattern was observed in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis cases within UK Biobank, occurring several years prior to diagnosis (total cholesterol 7 years, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol 7.25 years), differing significantly from matched controls. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol followed a similar pattern but was less robust to sensitivity analyses. Levels of triglyceride remained stable throughout. Glycated haemoglobin temporal profiles were not consistent between the clinic and biobank cohorts. Creatinine level trajectories prior to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis did not differ significantly from controls but decreased significantly in the symptomatic period after an inflection point of 0.25 years after symptom onset (clinic cohort) or 0.5 years before diagnosis (UK Biobank). These data provide further evidence for a pre-symptomatic period of dynamic metabolic change in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, consistently associated with alterations in blood cholesterols. Such changes may ultimately contribute to biomarkers applicable to population screening and for pathways guiding the targeting of preventative therapy.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad211; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10412752; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10412752?pdf=render 33371011,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000770,Physiological tests of small airways function in diagnosing asthma: a systematic review. ,"Almeshari MA, Alobaidi NY, Edgar RG, Stockley J, Sapey E.",,BMJ open respiratory research,2020,2020-12-01,Y,,,,"Asthma is a common, heterogeneous disease that is characterised by chronic airway inflammation and variable expiratory airflow limitation. Current guidelines use spirometric measures for asthma assessment. This systematic review aimed to assess whether the most commonly reported tests of small airways function could contribute to the diagnosis of asthma. Standard systematic review methodology was used, and a range of electronic databases was searched (Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Web of Science, DARE). Studies that included physiological tests of small airways function to diagnose asthma in adults were included, with no restrictions on language or date. The risk of bias and quality assessment tools used were Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality tool for cross-sectional studies and Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 for diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) studies. 7072 studies were identified and 10 studies met review criteria. 7 included oscillation techniques and 5 included maximal mid-expiratory flow (MMEF). Studies were small and of variable quality. In oscillometry, total resistance (R5) and reactance at 5 Hz (X5) was altered in asthma compared with healthy controls. The percentage predicted of MMEF was lower in patients with asthma compared with controls in all studies and lower than the % predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s. In DTA of oscillometry, R5 showed a sensitivity between 69% and 72% and specificity between 61% and 86%. There were differences in the results of physiological tests of small airway function in patients with asthma compared with controls. However, studies are small and heterogeneous. Further studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of these tests on a larger scale, including studies to determine which test methodology is the most useful in asthma.",,pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/7/1/e000770.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000770; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7754643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7754643?pdf=render -33632765,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215986,"Neutrophils in asthma: the good, the bad and the bacteria.","Crisford H, Sapey E, Rogers GB, Taylor S, Nagakumar P, Lokwani R, Simpson JL.",,Thorax,2021,2021-02-25,Y,Asthma; Bacterial Infection; Paediatric Asthma; Asthma Mechanisms; Neutrophil Biology,,,"Airway inflammation plays a key role in asthma pathogenesis but is heterogeneous in nature. There has been significant scientific discovery with regard to type 2-driven, eosinophil-dominated asthma, with effective therapies ranging from inhaled corticosteroids to novel biologics. However, studies suggest that approximately 1 in 5 adults with asthma have an increased proportion of neutrophils in their airways. These patients tend to be older, have potentially pathogenic airway bacteria and do not respond well to classical therapies. Currently, there are no specific therapeutic options for these patients, such as neutrophil-targeting biologics.Neutrophils comprise 70% of the total circulatory white cells and play a critical defence role during inflammatory and infective challenges. This makes them a problematic target for therapeutics. Furthermore, neutrophil functions change with age, with reduced microbial killing, increased reactive oxygen species release and reduced production of extracellular traps with advancing age. Therefore, different therapeutic strategies may be required for different age groups of patients.The pathogenesis of neutrophil-dominated airway inflammation in adults with asthma may reflect a counterproductive response to the defective neutrophil microbial killing seen with age, resulting in bystander damage to host airway cells and subsequent mucus hypersecretion and airway remodelling. However, in children with asthma, neutrophils are less associated with adverse features of disease, and it is possible that in children, neutrophils are less pathogenic.In this review, we explore the mechanisms of neutrophil recruitment, changes in cellular function across the life course and the implications this may have for asthma management now and in the future. We also describe the prevalence of neutrophilic asthma globally, with a focus on First Nations people of Australia, New Zealand and North America.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/8/835.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8311087; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8311087?pdf=render -33545096,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5,"Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-02-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once per day by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatment groups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment and were twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants and local study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.

Findings

Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) were eligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was 65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall, 561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median 10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98-1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, no significant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87-1·03; p=0·24).

Interpretation

In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00149-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931?pdf=render 36350656,https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac1010,The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog: knowledgebase and deposition resource.,"Sollis E, Mosaku A, Abid A, Buniello A, Cerezo M, Gil L, Groza T, Güneş O, Hall P, Hayhurst J, Ibrahim A, Ji Y, John S, Lewis E, MacArthur JAL, McMahon A, Osumi-Sutherland D, Panoutsopoulou K, Pendlington Z, Ramachandran S, Stefancsik R, Stewart J, Whetzel P, Wilson R, Hindorff L, Cunningham F, Lambert SA, Inouye M, Parkinson H, Harris LW.",,Nucleic acids research,2023,2023-01-01,Y,,,,"The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog (www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas) is a FAIR knowledgebase providing detailed, structured, standardised and interoperable genome-wide association study (GWAS) data to >200 000 users per year from academic research, healthcare and industry. The Catalog contains variant-trait associations and supporting metadata for >45 000 published GWAS across >5000 human traits, and >40 000 full P-value summary statistics datasets. Content is curated from publications or acquired via author submission of prepublication summary statistics through a new submission portal and validation tool. GWAS data volume has vastly increased in recent years. We have updated our software to meet this scaling challenge and to enable rapid release of submitted summary statistics. The scope of the repository has expanded to include additional data types of high interest to the community, including sequencing-based GWAS, gene-based analyses and copy number variation analyses. Community outreach has increased the number of shared datasets from under-represented traits, e.g. cancer, and we continue to contribute to awareness of the lack of population diversity in GWAS. Interoperability of the Catalog has been enhanced through links to other resources including the Polygenic Score Catalog and the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, refinements to GWAS trait annotation, and the development of a standard format for GWAS data.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/51/D1/D977/48440802/gkac1010.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac1010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9825413; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9825413?pdf=render +33632765,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215986,"Neutrophils in asthma: the good, the bad and the bacteria.","Crisford H, Sapey E, Rogers GB, Taylor S, Nagakumar P, Lokwani R, Simpson JL.",,Thorax,2021,2021-02-25,Y,Asthma; Bacterial Infection; Paediatric Asthma; Asthma Mechanisms; Neutrophil Biology,,,"Airway inflammation plays a key role in asthma pathogenesis but is heterogeneous in nature. There has been significant scientific discovery with regard to type 2-driven, eosinophil-dominated asthma, with effective therapies ranging from inhaled corticosteroids to novel biologics. However, studies suggest that approximately 1 in 5 adults with asthma have an increased proportion of neutrophils in their airways. These patients tend to be older, have potentially pathogenic airway bacteria and do not respond well to classical therapies. Currently, there are no specific therapeutic options for these patients, such as neutrophil-targeting biologics.Neutrophils comprise 70% of the total circulatory white cells and play a critical defence role during inflammatory and infective challenges. This makes them a problematic target for therapeutics. Furthermore, neutrophil functions change with age, with reduced microbial killing, increased reactive oxygen species release and reduced production of extracellular traps with advancing age. Therefore, different therapeutic strategies may be required for different age groups of patients.The pathogenesis of neutrophil-dominated airway inflammation in adults with asthma may reflect a counterproductive response to the defective neutrophil microbial killing seen with age, resulting in bystander damage to host airway cells and subsequent mucus hypersecretion and airway remodelling. However, in children with asthma, neutrophils are less associated with adverse features of disease, and it is possible that in children, neutrophils are less pathogenic.In this review, we explore the mechanisms of neutrophil recruitment, changes in cellular function across the life course and the implications this may have for asthma management now and in the future. We also describe the prevalence of neutrophilic asthma globally, with a focus on First Nations people of Australia, New Zealand and North America.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/8/835.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8311087; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8311087?pdf=render 31774502,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071,An observational study of international normalized ratio control according to NICE criteria in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: the SAIL Warfarin Out of Range Descriptors Study (SWORDS).,"Harris DE, Thayer D, Wang T, Brooks C, Murley G, Gravenor M, Hill NR, Lister S, Halcox J.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Atrial fibrillation; Warfarin; Pharmacoepidemiology,Improving Public Health,,"

Aims

In patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation prescribed warfarin, the UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) defines poor anticoagulation as a time in therapeutic range (TTR) of <65%, any two international normalized ratios (INRs) within a 6-month period of ≤1.5 ('low'), two INRs ≥5 within 6 months, or any INR ≥8 ('high'). Our objectives were to (i) quantify the number of patients with poor INR control and (ii) describe the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with poor INR control.

Method and results

Linked anonymized health record data for Wales, UK (2006-2017) was used to evaluate patients prescribed warfarin who had at least 6 months of INR data. 32 380 patients were included. In total, 13 913 (43.0%) patients had at least one of the NICE markers of poor INR control. Importantly, in the 24 123 (74.6%) of the cohort with an acceptable TTR (≥65%), 5676 (23.5%) had either low or high INR readings at some point in their history. In a multivariable regression female gender, age (≥75 years), excess alcohol, diabetes heart failure, ischaemic heart disease, and respiratory disease were independently associated with all markers of poor INR control.

Conclusion

Acceptable INR control according to NICE standards is poor. Of those with an acceptable TTR (>65%), one-quarter still had unacceptably low or high INR levels according to NICE criteria. Thus, only using TTR to assess effectiveness with warfarin has the potential to miss a large number of patients with non-therapeutic INRs who are likely to be at increased risk.","This retrospective observational cohort study aimed to quanitfy the number of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) prescribed warfarin who exhibit NICE-defined poor international normalised ratio (INR) control. Another objective was to describe the relationship between demographic and clinical characteristics of these patients and poor INR control. The results from statistical analyses in this study suggest a considerable opportunity to improve both embloc and bleeding risk, eben though the relationship between poor INR control and these clinical outcomes remains to be determined.",pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcvp/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071/31700014/pvz071.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7811400; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7811400?pdf=render -37561116,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.85332,Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: A cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP.,"Lemanska A, Andrews C, Fisher L, Bacon S, Frampton AE, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Davy S, Roberts K, Patalay P, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Walker AJ.",,eLife,2023,2023-08-10,Y,Human; Pancreatic cancer; epidemiology; Global Health; Healthcare; Healthcare Crisis; Covid-19; Healthcare Disruption,,,"

Background

Healthcare across all sectors, in the UK and globally, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed healthcare services delivered to people with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023 to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, and drawing from a nationally representative OpenSAFELY-TPP dataset of 24 million patients (over 40% of the English population), we undertook a cohort study of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We queried electronic healthcare records for information on the provision of healthcare services across the pancreatic cancer pathway. To estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted the rates of healthcare services if the pandemic had not happened. We used generalised linear models and the pre-pandemic data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict rates in March 2020 to March 2023. The 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values were used to estimate the significance of the difference between the predicted and observed rates.

Results

The rate of pancreatic cancer and diabetes diagnoses in the cohort was not affected by the pandemic. There were 26,840 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023. The mean age at diagnosis was 72 (±11 SD), 48% of people were female, 95% were of White ethnicity, and 40% were diagnosed with diabetes. We found a reduction in surgical resections by 25-28% during the pandemic. In addition, 20%, 10%, and 4% fewer people received body mass index, glycated haemoglobin, and liver function tests, respectively, before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was no impact of the pandemic on the number of people making contact with primary care, but the number of contacts increased on average by 1-2 per person amongst those who made contact. Reporting of jaundice decreased by 28%, but recovered within 12 months into the pandemic. Emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and deaths were not affected.

Conclusions

The pandemic affected healthcare in England across the pancreatic cancer pathway. Positive lessons could be learnt from the services that were resilient and those that recovered quickly. The reductions in healthcare experienced by people with cancer have the potential to lead to worse outcomes. Current efforts should focus on addressing the unmet needs of people with cancer.

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157). This work was funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) grant reference MR/W021390/1 as part of the postdoctoral fellowship awarded to AL and undertaken at the Bennett Institute, University of Oxford. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS England, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), or the Department of Health and Social Care. Funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967?pdf=render 35879616,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w,Symptoms and risk factors for long COVID in non-hospitalized adults.,"Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, Hughes S, Myles P, Williams T, Gokhale KM, Taverner T, Chandan JS, Brown K, Simms-Williams N, Shah AD, Singh M, Kidy F, Okoth K, Hotham R, Bashir N, Cockburn N, Lee SI, Turner GM, Gkoutos GV, Aiyegbusi OL, McMullan C, Denniston AK, Sapey E, Lord JM, Wraith DC, Leggett E, Iles C, Marshall T, Price MJ, Marwaha S, Davies EH, Jackson LJ, Matthews KL, Camaradou J, Calvert M, Haroon S.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-07-25,Y,,,,"Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is associated with a range of persistent symptoms impacting everyday functioning, known as post-COVID-19 condition or long COVID. We undertook a retrospective matched cohort study using a UK-based primary care database, Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum, to determine symptoms that are associated with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond 12 weeks in non-hospitalized adults and the risk factors associated with developing persistent symptoms. We selected 486,149 adults with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 1,944,580 propensity score-matched adults with no recorded evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Outcomes included 115 individual symptoms, as well as long COVID, defined as a composite outcome of 33 symptoms by the World Health Organization clinical case definition. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for the outcomes. A total of 62 symptoms were significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection after 12 weeks. The largest aHRs were for anosmia (aHR 6.49, 95% CI 5.02-8.39), hair loss (3.99, 3.63-4.39), sneezing (2.77, 1.40-5.50), ejaculation difficulty (2.63, 1.61-4.28) and reduced libido (2.36, 1.61-3.47). Among the cohort of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, risk factors for long COVID included female sex, belonging to an ethnic minority, socioeconomic deprivation, smoking, obesity and a wide range of comorbidities. The risk of developing long COVID was also found to be increased along a gradient of decreasing age. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a plethora of symptoms that are associated with a range of sociodemographic and clinical risk factors.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01909-w.pdf +33545096,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5,"Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-02-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once per day by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatment groups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment and were twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants and local study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.

Findings

Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) were eligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was 65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall, 561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median 10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98-1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, no significant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87-1·03; p=0·24).

Interpretation

In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00149-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931?pdf=render +37561116,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.85332,Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: A cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP.,"Lemanska A, Andrews C, Fisher L, Bacon S, Frampton AE, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Davy S, Roberts K, Patalay P, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Walker AJ.",,eLife,2023,2023-08-10,Y,Human; Pancreatic cancer; epidemiology; Global Health; Healthcare; Healthcare Crisis; Covid-19; Healthcare Disruption,,,"

Background

Healthcare across all sectors, in the UK and globally, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed healthcare services delivered to people with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023 to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, and drawing from a nationally representative OpenSAFELY-TPP dataset of 24 million patients (over 40% of the English population), we undertook a cohort study of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We queried electronic healthcare records for information on the provision of healthcare services across the pancreatic cancer pathway. To estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted the rates of healthcare services if the pandemic had not happened. We used generalised linear models and the pre-pandemic data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict rates in March 2020 to March 2023. The 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values were used to estimate the significance of the difference between the predicted and observed rates.

Results

The rate of pancreatic cancer and diabetes diagnoses in the cohort was not affected by the pandemic. There were 26,840 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023. The mean age at diagnosis was 72 (±11 SD), 48% of people were female, 95% were of White ethnicity, and 40% were diagnosed with diabetes. We found a reduction in surgical resections by 25-28% during the pandemic. In addition, 20%, 10%, and 4% fewer people received body mass index, glycated haemoglobin, and liver function tests, respectively, before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was no impact of the pandemic on the number of people making contact with primary care, but the number of contacts increased on average by 1-2 per person amongst those who made contact. Reporting of jaundice decreased by 28%, but recovered within 12 months into the pandemic. Emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and deaths were not affected.

Conclusions

The pandemic affected healthcare in England across the pancreatic cancer pathway. Positive lessons could be learnt from the services that were resilient and those that recovered quickly. The reductions in healthcare experienced by people with cancer have the potential to lead to worse outcomes. Current efforts should focus on addressing the unmet needs of people with cancer.

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust (222097/Z/20/Z); MRC (MR/V015757/1, MC_PC-20059, MR/W016729/1); NIHR (NIHR135559, COV-LT2-0073), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK2021.000, 2021.0157). This work was funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) grant reference MR/W021390/1 as part of the postdoctoral fellowship awarded to AL and undertaken at the Bennett Institute, University of Oxford. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS England, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), or the Department of Health and Social Care. Funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967?pdf=render 35497059,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101392,Health conditions in adults with HIV compared with the general population: A population-based cross-sectional analysis.,"Morales DR, Moreno-Martos D, Matin N, McGettigan P.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-04-21,Y,HIV; Comorbidity; Multimorbidity,,,"

Background

Life expectancy in adults with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has increased and managing other health conditions is increasingly important for patients and healthcare planning. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and association between different health conditions and HIV status.

Methods

We performed a cross-sectional analysis of adult UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink primary care electronic medical records linked to hospital admissions as of Nov 30, 2015. We examined 47 health condition groups and 304 physical and mental health conditions by HIV status, after adjustment for age, sex, social deprivation status using logistic regression.

Findings

There were 964 patients with HIV (61.7% male; 92.8% aged <65 years) and 941,113 non-HIV patients (49.4% male; 75.2% aged <65 years). Condition groups with the greatest prevalence in HIV that were also highly prevalent in adults without HIV included: lipid disorder (41.4% vs 40.2%), and hypertension (19.1% vs 24.6%). Following adjustment, 18 (37.5%) condition groups were more likely in adults with HIV and ten (20.8%) were less likely. Individual conditions that were less likely in adults with HIV included: atrial fibrillation (odds ratio [OR] 0.37 [95% CI 0.20-0.64]) and hypertension (OR_0.78 [0.65-0.94]); rheumatoid arthritis (OR 0.27 [0.05-0.84]); asthma (OR_0.65 (0.53-0.80]); and certain eye diseases such as macular degeneration (OR_0.30 [0.09-0.70]). Meanwhile individual conditions that were more likely included: liver fibrosis, sclerosis, and cirrhosis (OR_3.23 [1.85-5.20]); pulmonary embolism (OR_2.06 [1.15-3.36]); male infertility (OR_2.23 [1.50-3.16]) and female infertility (OR_2.01 [1.34-2.88]); bipolar disorder (OR_2.93 [1.52-5.05]) and depression (OR_1.49 [1.28-1.71]); cervical malignancy (OR_4.64 [1.15-12.15]); and infections.

Interpretation

Comorbidity is common in adults with HIV, with physical and mental health conditions spanning a wide spectrum. HIV management should consider multidisciplinary care models to provide optimal patient care.

Funding

The project was funded by the Bart's Charity; DRM was funded by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship; DRM and DMM received funding from the HDR-UK Precision therapeutics programme.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001225/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046106; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046106?pdf=render 31249320,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45562-9,"Antenatal exposure to solar radiation and learning disabilities: Population cohort study of 422,512 children.","Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Cherrie MPC, King A, Dibben C, Pell JP.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-06-27,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"Learning disability varies by month of conception. The underlying mechanism is unknown but vitamin D, necessary for normal brain development, is commonly deficient over winter in high latitude countries due to insufficient ultraviolet radiation. We linked the 2007-2016 Scottish School Pupil Censuses to Scottish maternity records and to sunshine hours and antenatal ultraviolet A/B radiation exposure derived from weather stations and satellites respectively. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the associations between solar radiation, then ultraviolet B, and learning disabilities, adjusting for the potential confounding effects of month of conception and sex. Of the 422,512 eligible, singleton schoolchildren born at term in Scotland, 79,616 (18.8%) had a learning disability. Total antenatal sunshine hours (highest quintile; adjusted OR 0.89; 95% CI: 0.86, 0.93; p < 0.001) and ultraviolet B exposure (highest quintile; adjusted OR 0.55; 95% CI: 0.51, 0.60; p < 0.001) were inversely associated with learning disabilities with evidence of a dose-relationship. The latter association was independent of ultraviolet A exposure. Significant associations were demonstrated for exposure in all three trimesters. Low maternal exposure to ultraviolet B radiation may play a role in the seasonal patterning of learning disabilities. Further studies are required to corroborate findings and determine the effectiveness of supplements.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-45562-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45562-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6597711; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6597711?pdf=render 34240125,https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/hvab109,Sex Differences in Cardiac Troponin I and T and the Prediction of Cardiovascular Events in the General Population.,"Kimenai DM, Shah ASV, McAllister DA, Lee KK, Tsanas A, Meex SJR, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Campbell A, Sattar N, Mills NL, Welsh P.",,Clinical chemistry,2021,2021-10-01,Y,Sex; cardiac troponin; Cardiovascular events; risk factors,,,"

Background

Cardiac troponin concentrations differ in women and men, but how this influences risk prediction and whether a sex-specific approach is required is unclear. We evaluated whether sex influences the predictive ability of cardiac troponin I and T for cardiovascular events in the general population.

Methods

High-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) I and T were measured in the Generation Scotland Scottish Family Health Study of randomly selected volunteers drawn from the general population between 2006 and 2011. Cox-regression models evaluated associations between hs-cTnI and hs-cTnT and the primary outcome of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke.

Results

In 19 501 (58% women, mean age 47 years) participants, the primary outcome occurred in 2.7% (306/11 375) of women and 5.1% (411/8126) of men during the median follow-up period of 7.9 (IQR, 7.1-9.2) years. Cardiac troponin I and T concentrations were lower in women than men (P < 0.001 for both), and both were more strongly associated with cardiovascular events in women than men. For example, at a hs-cTnI concentration of 10 ng/L, the hazard ratio relative to the limit of blank was 9.7 (95% CI 7.6-12.4) and 5.6 (95% CI 4.7-6.6) for women and men, respectively. The hazard ratio for hs-cTnT at a concentration of 10 ng/L relative to the limit of blank was 3.7 (95% CI 3.1-4.3) and 2.2 (95% CI 2.0-2.5) for women and men, respectively.

Conclusions

Cardiac troponin concentrations differ in women and men and are stronger predictors of cardiovascular events in women. Sex-specific approaches are required to provide equivalent risk prediction.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/clinchem/article-pdf/67/10/1351/40494927/hvab109.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/hvab109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8486023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8486023?pdf=render @@ -552,30 +552,30 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 34842128,https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.2255,Investigating the association between physical health comorbidities and disability in individuals with severe mental illness.,"Mirza L, Das-Munshi J, Chaturvedi J, Wu H, Kraljevic Z, Searle T, Shaari S, Mascio A, Skiada N, Roberts A, Bean D, Stewart R, Dobson R, Bendayan R.",,European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists,2021,2021-11-29,Y,Schizophrenia; Bipolar disorder; Electronic Health Records; Multimorbidity; Health Of Nations Outcome Scale,,,"

Background

Research suggests that an increased risk of physical comorbidities might have a key role in the association between severe mental illness (SMI) and disability. We examined the association between physical multimorbidity and disability in individuals with SMI.

Methods

Data were extracted from the clinical record interactive search system at South London and Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. Our sample (n = 13,933) consisted of individuals who had received a primary or secondary SMI diagnosis between 2007 and 2018 and had available data for Health of Nations Outcome Scale (HoNOS) as disability measure. Physical comorbidities were defined using Chapters II-XIV of the International Classification of Diagnoses (ICD-10).

Results

More than 60 % of the sample had complex multimorbidity. The most common organ system affected were neurological (34.7%), dermatological (15.4%), and circulatory (14.8%). All specific comorbidities (ICD-10 Chapters) were associated with higher levels of disability, HoNOS total scores. Individuals with musculoskeletal, skin/dermatological, respiratory, endocrine, neurological, hematological, or circulatory disorders were found to be associated with significant difficulties associated with more than five HoNOS domains while others had a lower number of domains affected.

Conclusions

Individuals with SMI and musculoskeletal, skin/dermatological, respiratory, endocrine, neurological, hematological, or circulatory disorders are at higher risk of disability compared to those who do not have those comorbidities. Individuals with SMI and physical comorbidities are at greater risk of reporting difficulties associated with activities of daily living, hallucinations, and cognitive functioning. Therefore, these should be targeted for prevention and intervention programs.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F22DF5FD826B1626B9873013DBAFF82B/S0924933821022550a.pdf/div-class-title-investigating-the-association-between-physical-health-comorbidities-and-disability-in-individuals-with-severe-mental-illness-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.2255; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727716; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727716?pdf=render 35176022,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003915,"Changes in household food and drink purchases following restrictions on the advertisement of high fat, salt, and sugar products across the Transport for London network: A controlled interrupted time series analysis.","Yau A, Berger N, Law C, Cornelsen L, Greener R, Adams J, Boyland EJ, Burgoine T, de Vocht F, Egan M, Er V, Lake AA, Lock K, Mytton O, Petticrew M, Thompson C, White M, Cummins S.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-02-17,Y,,,,"

Background

Restricting the advertisement of products with high fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) content has been recommended as a policy tool to improve diet and tackle obesity, but the impact on HFSS purchasing is unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of HFSS advertising restrictions, implemented across the London (UK) transport network in February 2019, on HFSS purchases.

Methods and findings

Over 5 million take-home food and drink purchases were recorded by 1,970 households (London [intervention], n = 977; North of England [control], n = 993) randomly selected from the Kantar Fast Moving Consumer Goods panel. The intervention and control samples were similar in household characteristics but had small differences in main food shopper sex, socioeconomic position, and body mass index. Using a controlled interrupted time series design, we estimated average weekly household purchases of energy and nutrients from HFSS products in the post-intervention period (44 weeks) compared to a counterfactual constructed from the control and pre-intervention (36 weeks) series. Energy purchased from HFSS products was 6.7% (1,001.0 kcal, 95% CI 456.0 to 1,546.0) lower among intervention households compared to the counterfactual. Relative reductions in purchases of fat (57.9 g, 95% CI 22.1 to 93.7), saturated fat (26.4 g, 95% CI 12.4 to 40.4), and sugar (80.7 g, 95% CI 41.4 to 120.1) from HFSS products were also observed. Energy from chocolate and confectionery purchases was 19.4% (317.9 kcal, 95% CI 200.0 to 435.8) lower among intervention households than for the counterfactual, with corresponding relative reductions in fat (13.1 g, 95% CI 7.5 to 18.8), saturated fat (8.7 g, 95% CI 5.7 to 11.7), sugar (41.4 g, 95% CI 27.4 to 55.4), and salt (0.2 g, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.2) purchased from chocolate and confectionery. Relative reductions are in the context of secular increases in HFSS purchases in both the intervention and control areas, so the policy was associated with attenuated growth of HFSS purchases rather than absolute reduction in HFSS purchases. Study limitations include the lack of out-of-home purchases in our analyses and not being able to assess the sustainability of observed changes beyond 44 weeks.

Conclusions

This study finds an association between the implementation of restrictions on outdoor HFSS advertising and relative reductions in energy, sugar, and fat purchased from HFSS products. These findings provide support for policies that restrict HFSS advertising as a tool to reduce purchases of HFSS products.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003915&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003915; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8853584; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8853584?pdf=render 36895179,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad055,Determining cardiovascular risk in patients with unattributed chest pain in UK primary care: an electronic health record study.,"Jordan KP, Rathod-Mistry T, van der Windt DA, Bailey J, Chen Y, Clarson L, Denaxas S, Hayward RA, Hemingway H, Kyriacou T, Mamas MA.",,European journal of preventive cardiology,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Cardiovascular disease; Chest pain; epidemiology; Primary Health Care; risk; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Aims

Most adults presenting in primary care with chest pain symptoms will not receive a diagnosis ('unattributed' chest pain) but are at increased risk of cardiovascular events. To assess within patients with unattributed chest pain, risk factors for cardiovascular events and whether those at greatest risk of cardiovascular disease can be ascertained by an existing general population risk prediction model or by development of a new model.

Methods and results

The study used UK primary care electronic health records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked to admitted hospitalizations. Study population was patients aged 18 plus with recorded unattributed chest pain 2002-2018. Cardiovascular risk prediction models were developed with external validation and comparison of performance to QRISK3, a general population risk prediction model. There were 374 917 patients with unattributed chest pain in the development data set. The strongest risk factors for cardiovascular disease included diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and hypertension. Risk was increased in males, patients of Asian ethnicity, those in more deprived areas, obese patients, and smokers. The final developed model had good predictive performance (external validation c-statistic 0.81, calibration slope 1.02). A model using a subset of key risk factors for cardiovascular disease gave nearly identical performance. QRISK3 underestimated cardiovascular risk.

Conclusion

Patients presenting with unattributed chest pain are at increased risk of cardiovascular events. It is feasible to accurately estimate individual risk using routinely recorded information in the primary care record, focusing on a small number of risk factors. Patients at highest risk could be targeted for preventative measures.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad055/49604587/zwad055.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10442054; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10442054?pdf=render -37118449,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00224-w,Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific and heterologous immune responses in vaccine-naïve residents of long-term care facilities who survive natural infection.,"Tut G, Lancaster T, Butler MS, Sylla P, Spalkova E, Bone D, Kaur N, Bentley C, Amin U, Jadir AT, Hulme S, Ayodel M, Dowell AC, Pearce H, Zuo J, Margielewska-Davies S, Verma K, Nicol S, Begum J, Jinks E, Tut E, Bruton R, Krutikov M, Shrotri M, Giddings R, Azmi B, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L, Moss P.",,Nature aging,2022,2022-05-30,Y,,,,"We studied humoral and cellular immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 152 long-term care facility staff and 124 residents over a prospective 4-month period shortly after the first wave of infection in England. We show that residents of long-term care facilities developed high and stable levels of antibodies against spike protein and receptor-binding domain. Nucleocapsid-specific responses were also elevated but waned over time. Antibodies showed stable and equivalent levels of functional inhibition against spike-angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 binding in all age groups with comparable activity against viral variants of concern. SARS-CoV-2 seropositive donors showed high levels of antibodies to other beta-coronaviruses but serostatus did not impact humoral immunity to influenza or other respiratory syncytial viruses. SARS-CoV-2-specific cellular responses were similar across all ages but virus-specific populations showed elevated levels of activation in older donors. Thus, survivors of SARS-CoV-2 infection show a robust and stable immunity against the virus that does not negatively impact responses to other seasonal viruses.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00224-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00224-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154219; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154219?pdf=render 36933612,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162,Healthcare systems data in the context of clinical trials - A comparison of cardiovascular data from a clinical trial dataset with routinely collected data.,"Macnair A, Nankivell M, Murray ML, Rosen SD, Appleyard S, Sydes MR, Forcat S, Welland A, Clarke NW, Mangar S, Kynaston H, Kockelbergh R, Al-Hasso A, Deighan J, Marshall J, Parmar M, Langley RE, Gilbert DC.",,Contemporary clinical trials,2023,2023-03-16,N,Cardiovascular disease; prostate cancer; Clinical Trials; Healthcare Systems Data,,,"

Background

Routinely-collected healthcare systems data (HSD) are proposed to improve the efficiency of clinical trials. A comparison was undertaken between cardiovascular (CVS) data from a clinical trial database with two HSD resources.

Methods

Protocol-defined and clinically reviewed CVS events (heart failure (HF), acute coronary syndrome (ACS), thromboembolic stroke, venous and arterial thromboembolism) were identified within the trial data. Data (using pre-specified codes) was obtained from NHS Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) HF and myocardial ischaemia audits for trial participants recruited in England between 2010 and 2018 who had provided consent. The primary comparison was trial data versus HES inpatient (APC) main diagnosis (Box-1). Correlations are presented with descriptive statistics and Venn diagrams. Reasons for non-correlation were explored.

Results

From 1200 eligible participants, 71 protocol-defined clinically reviewed CVS events were recorded in the trial database. 45 resulted in a hospital admission and therefore could have been recorded by either HES APC/ NICOR. Of these, 27/45 (60%) were recorded by HES inpatient (Box-1) with an additional 30 potential events also identified. HF and ACS were potentially recorded in all 3 datasets; trial data recorded 18, HES APC 29 and NICOR 24 events respectively. 12/18 (67%) of the HF/ACS events in the trial dataset were recorded by NICOR.

Conclusion

Concordance between datasets was lower than anticipated and the HSD used could not straightforwardly replace current trial practices, nor directly identify protocol-defined CVS events. Further work is required to improve the quality of HSD and consider event definitions when designing clinical trials incorporating HSD.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162 +37118449,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00224-w,Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific and heterologous immune responses in vaccine-naïve residents of long-term care facilities who survive natural infection.,"Tut G, Lancaster T, Butler MS, Sylla P, Spalkova E, Bone D, Kaur N, Bentley C, Amin U, Jadir AT, Hulme S, Ayodel M, Dowell AC, Pearce H, Zuo J, Margielewska-Davies S, Verma K, Nicol S, Begum J, Jinks E, Tut E, Bruton R, Krutikov M, Shrotri M, Giddings R, Azmi B, Fuller C, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L, Moss P.",,Nature aging,2022,2022-05-30,Y,,,,"We studied humoral and cellular immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 152 long-term care facility staff and 124 residents over a prospective 4-month period shortly after the first wave of infection in England. We show that residents of long-term care facilities developed high and stable levels of antibodies against spike protein and receptor-binding domain. Nucleocapsid-specific responses were also elevated but waned over time. Antibodies showed stable and equivalent levels of functional inhibition against spike-angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 binding in all age groups with comparable activity against viral variants of concern. SARS-CoV-2 seropositive donors showed high levels of antibodies to other beta-coronaviruses but serostatus did not impact humoral immunity to influenza or other respiratory syncytial viruses. SARS-CoV-2-specific cellular responses were similar across all ages but virus-specific populations showed elevated levels of activation in older donors. Thus, survivors of SARS-CoV-2 infection show a robust and stable immunity against the virus that does not negatively impact responses to other seasonal viruses.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00224-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00224-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154219; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154219?pdf=render +32525266,https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209,Radiomic Analysis of Native T1 Mapping Images Discriminates Between MYH7 and MYBPC3-Related Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.,"Wang J, Yang F, Liu W, Sun J, Han Y, Li D, Gkoutos GV, Zhu Y, Chen Y.",,Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI,2020,2020-06-11,N,"Human genetics; Cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic; Support vector machine; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Machine Learning",,,"

Background

The phenotype via conventional cardiac MRI analysis of MYH7 (β-myosin heavy chain)- and MYBPC3 (β-myosin-binding protein C)-associated hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) groups is similar. Few studies exist on the genotypic-phenotypic association as assessed by machine learning in HCM patients.

Purpose

To explore the phenotypic differences based on radiomics analysis of T1 mapping images between MYH7 and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups.

Study type

Prospective observational study.

Subjects

In all, 102 HCM patients with pathogenic, or likely pathogenic mutation, in MYH7 (n = 68) or MYBPC3 (n = 34) genes.

Field strength/sequence

Cardiac MRI was performed at 3.0T with balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP), phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), and modified Look-Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) T1 mapping sequences.

Assessment

All patients underwent next-generation sequencing and Sanger genetic sequencing. Left ventricular native T1 and LGE were analyzed. One hundred and fifty-seven radiomic features were extracted and modeled using a support vector machine (SVM) combined with principal component analysis (PCA). Each subgroup was randomly split 4:1 (feature selection / test validation).

Statistical tests

Mann-Whitney U-tests and Student's t-tests were performed to assess differences between subgroups. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the model's ability to stratify patients based on radiomic features.

Results

There were no significant differences between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups based on traditional native T1 values (global, basal, and middle short-axis slice native T1 ; P = 0.760, 0.914, and 0.178, respectively). However, the SVM model combined with PCA achieved an accuracy and area under the curve (AUC) of 92.0% and 0.968 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.968-0.971), respectively. For the test validation dataset, the accuracy and AUC were 85.5% and 0.886 (95% CI: 0.881-0.901), respectively.

Data conclusion

Radiomic analysis of native T1 mapping images may be able to discriminate between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM patients, exceeding the performance of conventional native T1 values.

Level of evidence

3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2020;52:1714-1721.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/96738891/Manuscript_Clear_No_Blind.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209 34894331,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03551-y,Influence of Material Deprivation on Clinical Outcomes Among People Living with HIV in High-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.,"Papageorgiou V, Davies B, Cooper E, Singer A, Ward H.",,AIDS and behavior,2022,2021-12-11,Y,HIV; Meta-analysis; Systematic review; Antiretroviral therapy; Socioeconomic Factors; Viral Suppression; Social Determinants Of Health,,,"Despite developments in HIV treatment and care, disparities persist with some not fully benefiting from improvements in the HIV care continuum. We conducted a systematic review to explore associations between social determinants and HIV treatment outcomes (viral suppression and treatment adherence) in high-income countries. A random effects meta-analysis was performed where there were consistent measurements of exposures. We identified 83 observational studies eligible for inclusion. Social determinants linked to material deprivation were identified as education, employment, food security, housing, income, poverty/deprivation, socioeconomic status/position, and social class; however, their measurement and definition varied across studies. Our review suggests a social gradient of health persists in the HIV care continuum; people living with HIV who reported material deprivation were less likely to be virologically suppressed or adherent to antiretrovirals. Future research should use an ecosocial approach to explore these interactions across the lifecourse to help propose a causal pathway.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10461-021-03551-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03551-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046343; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046343?pdf=render 34082702,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-021-01301-1,Incorporating single-arm studies in meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials: a simulation study.,"Singh J, Abrams KR, Bujkiewicz S.",,BMC medical research methodology,2021,2021-06-03,Y,Meta-analysis; Evidence Synthesis; Real World Data; Arm-Based Methods; Bayesian Hierarchical Methods; Single-Arm Studies,,,"

Background

Use of real world data (RWD) from non-randomised studies (e.g. single-arm studies) is increasingly being explored to overcome issues associated with data from randomised controlled trials (RCTs). We aimed to compare methods for pairwise meta-analysis of RCTs and single-arm studies using aggregate data, via a simulation study and application to an illustrative example.

Methods

We considered contrast-based methods proposed by Begg & Pilote (1991) and arm-based methods by Zhang et al (2019). We performed a simulation study with scenarios varying (i) the proportion of RCTs and single-arm studies in the synthesis (ii) the magnitude of bias, and (iii) between-study heterogeneity. We also applied methods to data from a published health technology assessment (HTA), including three RCTs and 11 single-arm studies.

Results

Our simulation study showed that the hierarchical power and commensurate prior methods by Zhang et al provided a consistent reduction in uncertainty, whilst maintaining over-coverage and small error in scenarios where there was limited RCT data, bias and differences in between-study heterogeneity between the two sets of data. The contrast-based methods provided a reduction in uncertainty, but performed worse in terms of coverage and error, unless there was no marked difference in heterogeneity between the two sets of data.

Conclusions

The hierarchical power and commensurate prior methods provide the most robust approach to synthesising aggregate data from RCTs and single-arm studies, balancing the need to account for bias and differences in between-study heterogeneity, whilst reducing uncertainty in estimates. This work was restricted to considering a pairwise meta-analysis using aggregate data.",,pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12874-021-01301-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-021-01301-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176581?pdf=render -32525266,https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209,Radiomic Analysis of Native T1 Mapping Images Discriminates Between MYH7 and MYBPC3-Related Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.,"Wang J, Yang F, Liu W, Sun J, Han Y, Li D, Gkoutos GV, Zhu Y, Chen Y.",,Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI,2020,2020-06-11,N,"Human genetics; Cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic; Support vector machine; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Machine Learning",,,"

Background

The phenotype via conventional cardiac MRI analysis of MYH7 (β-myosin heavy chain)- and MYBPC3 (β-myosin-binding protein C)-associated hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) groups is similar. Few studies exist on the genotypic-phenotypic association as assessed by machine learning in HCM patients.

Purpose

To explore the phenotypic differences based on radiomics analysis of T1 mapping images between MYH7 and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups.

Study type

Prospective observational study.

Subjects

In all, 102 HCM patients with pathogenic, or likely pathogenic mutation, in MYH7 (n = 68) or MYBPC3 (n = 34) genes.

Field strength/sequence

Cardiac MRI was performed at 3.0T with balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP), phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), and modified Look-Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) T1 mapping sequences.

Assessment

All patients underwent next-generation sequencing and Sanger genetic sequencing. Left ventricular native T1 and LGE were analyzed. One hundred and fifty-seven radiomic features were extracted and modeled using a support vector machine (SVM) combined with principal component analysis (PCA). Each subgroup was randomly split 4:1 (feature selection / test validation).

Statistical tests

Mann-Whitney U-tests and Student's t-tests were performed to assess differences between subgroups. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the model's ability to stratify patients based on radiomic features.

Results

There were no significant differences between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups based on traditional native T1 values (global, basal, and middle short-axis slice native T1 ; P = 0.760, 0.914, and 0.178, respectively). However, the SVM model combined with PCA achieved an accuracy and area under the curve (AUC) of 92.0% and 0.968 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.968-0.971), respectively. For the test validation dataset, the accuracy and AUC were 85.5% and 0.886 (95% CI: 0.881-0.901), respectively.

Data conclusion

Radiomic analysis of native T1 mapping images may be able to discriminate between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM patients, exceeding the performance of conventional native T1 values.

Level of evidence

3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2020;52:1714-1721.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/96738891/Manuscript_Clear_No_Blind.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209 -34556677,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96189-8,Combining multi-site magnetic resonance imaging with machine learning predicts survival in pediatric brain tumors.,"Grist JT, Withey S, Bennett C, Rose HEL, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Bailey S, Clifford SC, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Grundy R, Peet AC.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-09-23,Y,,,,"Brain tumors represent the highest cause of mortality in the pediatric oncological population. Diagnosis is commonly performed with magnetic resonance imaging. Survival biomarkers are challenging to identify due to the relatively low numbers of individual tumor types. 69 children with biopsy-confirmed brain tumors were recruited into this study. All participants had perfusion and diffusion weighted imaging performed at diagnosis. Imaging data were processed using conventional methods, and a Bayesian survival analysis performed. Unsupervised and supervised machine learning were performed with the survival features, to determine novel sub-groups related to survival. Sub-group analysis was undertaken to understand differences in imaging features. Survival analysis showed that a combination of diffusion and perfusion imaging were able to determine two novel sub-groups of brain tumors with different survival characteristics (p < 0.01), which were subsequently classified with high accuracy (98%) by a neural network. Analysis of high-grade tumors showed a marked difference in survival (p = 0.029) between the two clusters with high risk and low risk imaging features. This study has developed a novel model of survival for pediatric brain tumors. Tumor perfusion plays a key role in determining survival and should be considered as a high priority for future imaging protocols.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-96189-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96189-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460620; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460620?pdf=render -36874571,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1,Settings for non-household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the second lockdown in England and Wales - analysis of the Virus Watch household community cohort study.,"Hoskins S, Beale S, Nguyen V, Fragaszy E, Navaratnam AMD, Smith C, French C, Kovar J, Byrne T, Fong WLE, Geismar C, Patel P, Yavlinksy A, Johnson AM, Aldridge RW, Hayward A, Virus Watch Collaborative.",,Wellcome open research,2022,2022-08-03,Y,Transmission; Activities; Pandemic; Work; Public Transport; Shopping; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: ""Lockdowns"" to control serious respiratory virus pandemics were widely used during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.  However, there is limited information to understand the settings in which most transmission occurs during lockdowns, to support refinement of similar policies for future pandemics.  Methods: Among Virus Watch household cohort participants we identified those infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outside the household.  Using survey activity data, we undertook multivariable logistic regressions assessing the contribution of activities on non-household infection risk.  We calculated adjusted population attributable fractions (APAF) to estimate which activity accounted for the greatest proportion of non-household infections during the pandemic's second wave. Results: Among 10,858 adults, 18% of cases were likely due to household transmission.  Among 10,475 participants (household-acquired cases excluded), including 874 non-household-acquired infections, infection was associated with: leaving home for work or education (AOR 1.20 (1.02 - 1.42), APAF 6.9%); public transport (more than once per week AOR 1.82 (1.49 - 2.23), public transport APAF 12.42%); and shopping (more than once per week AOR 1.69 (1.29 - 2.21), shopping APAF 34.56%).  Other non-household activities were rare and not significantly associated with infection. Conclusions: During lockdown, going to work and using public or shared transport independently increased infection risk, however only a minority did these activities.  Most participants visited shops, accounting for one-third of non-household transmission.  Transmission in restricted hospitality and leisure settings was minimal suggesting these restrictions were effective.   If future respiratory infection pandemics emerge these findings highlight the value of working from home, using forms of transport that minimise exposure to others, minimising exposure to shops and restricting non-essential activities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411?pdf=render 34308306,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100888,The BCD Triage Sieve outperforms all existing major incident triage tools: Comparative analysis using the UK national trauma registry population.,"Malik NS, Chernbumroong S, Xu Y, Vassallo J, Lee J, Bowley DM, Hodgetts T, Moran CG, Lord JM, Belli A, Keene D, Foster M, Gkoutos GV.",,EClinicalMedicine,2021,2021-05-15,Y,ramp; Disaster; Start; Military Medicine; Major Incident; Triage; Injury Severity Score; Mass Casualty; Major Trauma; Prehospital Medicine; Life-saving Intervention; Careflight; Jumpstart; Bcd Triage Sieve; Mimms; Mptt-24; Mstart,,,"

Background

Natural disasters, conflict, and terrorism are major global causes of death and disability. Central to the healthcare response is triage, vital to ensure the right care is provided to the right patient at the right time. The ideal triage tool has high sensitivity for the highest priority (P1) patients with acceptably low over-triage. This study compared the performance of major incident triage tools in predicting P1 casualty status in adults in the prospective UK Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) registry.

Methods

TARN patients aged 16+ years (January 2008-December 2017) were included. Ten existing triage tools were applied using patients' first recorded pre-hospital physiology. Patients were subsequently assigned triage categories (P1, P2, P3, Expectant or Dead) based on pre-defined, intervention-based criteria. Tool performance was assessed by comparing tool-predicted and intervention-based priority status.

Findings

195,709 patients were included; mortality was 7·0% (n=13,601); median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 9 (IQR 9-17); 97·1% sustained blunt injuries. 22,144 (11·3%) patients fulfilled intervention-based criteria for P1 status, exhibiting higher mortality (12·8% vs. 5·0%, p<0.001), increased intensive care requirement (52·4% vs 5·0%, p<0.001), and more severe injuries (median ISS 21 vs 9, p<0.001) compared with P2 patients.In 16-64 year olds, the highest performing tool was the Battlefield Casualty Drills (BCD) Triage Sieve (Prediction of P1 status: 70·4% sensitivity, over-triage 70·9%, area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) 0·068 [95%CI 0·676-0·684]). The UK National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) Triage Sieve had sensitivity of 44·9%; over-triage 56·4%; AUC 0·666 (95%CI 0·662-0·670). All tools performed poorly amongst the elderly (65+ years).

Interpretation

The BCD Triage Sieve performed best in this nationally representative population; we recommend it supersede the NARU Triage Sieve as the UK primary major incident triage tool. Validated triage category definitions are recommended for appraising future major incidents.

Funding

This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre. GVG also acknowledges support from the MRC Heath Data Research UK (HDRUK/CFC/01). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the Department of Health and Social Care, or the Ministry of Defence.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537021001681/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100888; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257989?pdf=render +34556677,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96189-8,Combining multi-site magnetic resonance imaging with machine learning predicts survival in pediatric brain tumors.,"Grist JT, Withey S, Bennett C, Rose HEL, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Bailey S, Clifford SC, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Grundy R, Peet AC.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-09-23,Y,,,,"Brain tumors represent the highest cause of mortality in the pediatric oncological population. Diagnosis is commonly performed with magnetic resonance imaging. Survival biomarkers are challenging to identify due to the relatively low numbers of individual tumor types. 69 children with biopsy-confirmed brain tumors were recruited into this study. All participants had perfusion and diffusion weighted imaging performed at diagnosis. Imaging data were processed using conventional methods, and a Bayesian survival analysis performed. Unsupervised and supervised machine learning were performed with the survival features, to determine novel sub-groups related to survival. Sub-group analysis was undertaken to understand differences in imaging features. Survival analysis showed that a combination of diffusion and perfusion imaging were able to determine two novel sub-groups of brain tumors with different survival characteristics (p < 0.01), which were subsequently classified with high accuracy (98%) by a neural network. Analysis of high-grade tumors showed a marked difference in survival (p = 0.029) between the two clusters with high risk and low risk imaging features. This study has developed a novel model of survival for pediatric brain tumors. Tumor perfusion plays a key role in determining survival and should be considered as a high priority for future imaging protocols.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-96189-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96189-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460620; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460620?pdf=render 37699069,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead218,Phenotyping left ventricular systolic dysfunction in asymptomatic individuals for improved risk stratification.,"Rauseo E, Abdulkareem M, Khan A, Cooper J, Lee AM, Aung N, Slabaugh GG, Petersen SE.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2023,2023-09-12,N,Prognosis; Cardiovascular events; Risk stratification; Heart Failure; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction,,,"

Aims

Left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LSVD) is a heterogeneous condition with several factors influencing prognosis. Better phenotyping of asymptomatic individuals can inform preventative strategies. This study aims to explore the clinical phenotypes of LVSD in initially asymptomatic subjects and their association with clinical outcomes and cardiovascular abnormalities through multi-dimensional data clustering.

Methods and results

Clustering analysis was performed on 60 clinically available variables from 1563 UK Biobank participants without pre-existing heart failure (HF) and with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 50% on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) assessment. Risks of developing HF, other cardiovascular events, death, and a composite of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) associated with clusters were investigated. Cardiovascular imaging characteristics, not included in the clustering analysis, were also evaluated. Three distinct clusters were identified, differing considerably in lifestyle habits, cardiovascular risk factors, electrocardiographic parameters, and cardiometabolic profiles. A stepwise increase in risk profile was observed from Cluster 1 to Cluster 3, independent of traditional risk factors and LVEF. Compared with Cluster 1, the lowest risk subset, the risk of MACE ranged from 1.42 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-1.96; P < 0.05] for Cluster 2 to 1.72 (95% CI: 1.36-2.35; P < 0.001) for Cluster 3. Cluster 3, the highest risk profile, had features of adverse cardiovascular imaging with the greatest LV re-modelling, myocardial dysfunction, and decrease in arterial compliance.

Conclusions

Clustering of clinical variables identified three distinct risk profiles and clinical trajectories of LVSD amongst initially asymptomatic subjects. Improved characterization may facilitate tailored interventions based on the LVSD sub-type and improve clinical outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead218 -37022975,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201,Stable Incidence and Increasing Prevalence of Primary Hyperparathyroidism in a Population-based Study in Scotland.,"Soto-Pedre E, Newey PJ, Leese GP.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2023,2023-09-01,Y,Parathyroid gland; Prevalence; epidemiology; incidence; Primary Hyperparathyroidism,,,"

Context

Previous studies, including our own, have demonstrated a highly variable incidence of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) from year to year.

Objective

We planned to provide a current estimate of the incidence and prevalence of PHPT in a community-based study.

Methods

A population-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted in Tayside (Scotland) from 2007 to 2018. Record-linkage technology (demography, biochemistry, prescribing, hospital admissions, radiology, and mortality data) was used to identify all patients. Cases of PHPT were defined as those with at least 2 raised serum corrected calcium concentration CCA (> 2.55 mmol/L) and/or hospital admissions with PHPT diagnoses and/or surgery records with parathyroidectomy during the follow-up period. The number of prevalent and incident cases of PHPT per calendar year by age and sex were estimated.

Results

A total of 2118 people (72.3% female, mean age 65 years) were identified with an incident case of PHPT. The overall prevalence of PHPT over the 12 years of the study was 0.84% (95% CI, 0.68%-1.02%), steadily increasing from 0.71% in 2007 to 1.02% in 2018. From 2008, the incidence of PHPT was relatively stable from 4 to 6 cases per 10 000 person-years, declining from 11.5 per 10 000 person-years in 2007. The incidence varied from 0.59 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 0.40%-0.77%) for those aged 20 to 29 years, to 12.4 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 11.2%-13.3%) in those aged 70 to 79 years. Incidence of PHPT was 2.5 times higher in women than in men.

Conclusion

This study is the first showing a relatively steady annual incidence of PHPT at 4 to 6 per 10 000 person-years. This population-based study reports a PHPT prevalence of 0.84%.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad201/50034331/dgad201.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10505547 +36874571,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1,Settings for non-household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the second lockdown in England and Wales - analysis of the Virus Watch household community cohort study.,"Hoskins S, Beale S, Nguyen V, Fragaszy E, Navaratnam AMD, Smith C, French C, Kovar J, Byrne T, Fong WLE, Geismar C, Patel P, Yavlinksy A, Johnson AM, Aldridge RW, Hayward A, Virus Watch Collaborative.",,Wellcome open research,2022,2022-08-03,Y,Transmission; Activities; Pandemic; Work; Public Transport; Shopping; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: ""Lockdowns"" to control serious respiratory virus pandemics were widely used during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.  However, there is limited information to understand the settings in which most transmission occurs during lockdowns, to support refinement of similar policies for future pandemics.  Methods: Among Virus Watch household cohort participants we identified those infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outside the household.  Using survey activity data, we undertook multivariable logistic regressions assessing the contribution of activities on non-household infection risk.  We calculated adjusted population attributable fractions (APAF) to estimate which activity accounted for the greatest proportion of non-household infections during the pandemic's second wave. Results: Among 10,858 adults, 18% of cases were likely due to household transmission.  Among 10,475 participants (household-acquired cases excluded), including 874 non-household-acquired infections, infection was associated with: leaving home for work or education (AOR 1.20 (1.02 - 1.42), APAF 6.9%); public transport (more than once per week AOR 1.82 (1.49 - 2.23), public transport APAF 12.42%); and shopping (more than once per week AOR 1.69 (1.29 - 2.21), shopping APAF 34.56%).  Other non-household activities were rare and not significantly associated with infection. Conclusions: During lockdown, going to work and using public or shared transport independently increased infection risk, however only a minority did these activities.  Most participants visited shops, accounting for one-third of non-household transmission.  Transmission in restricted hospitality and leisure settings was minimal suggesting these restrictions were effective.   If future respiratory infection pandemics emerge these findings highlight the value of working from home, using forms of transport that minimise exposure to others, minimising exposure to shops and restricting non-essential activities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411?pdf=render 35308936,https://doi.org/,Mapping the Read2/CTV3 controlled clinical terminologies to Phecodes in UK Biobank primary care electronic health records: implementation and evaluation.,"Denaxas S, Liu G, Feng Q, Fatemifar G, Bastarache L, Kerchberger EV, Hingorani AD, Lumbers T, Peterson JF, Wei WQ, Hemingway H.",,AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium,2021,2021-01-01,N,,,,"Objective: To establish and validate mappings between primary care clinical terminologies (Read Version 2, Clinical Terms Version 3) and Phecodes. Methods: We processed 123,662,421 primary care events from 230,096 UK Biobank (UKB) participants. We assessed the validity of the primary care-derived Phecodes by conducting PheWAS analyses for seven pre-selected SNPs in the UKB and compared with estimates from BioVU. Results: We mapped 92% of Read2 (n=10,834) and 91% of CTV3 (n=21,988) to 1,449 and 1,490 Phecodes. UKB PheWAS using Phecodes from primary care EHR and hospitalizations replicated all (n=22) previously-reported genotype-phenotype associations. When limiting Phecodes to primary care EHR, replication was 81% (n=18). Conclusion: We introduced a first version of mappings from Read2/CTV3 to Phecodes. The reference list of diseases provided by Phecodes can be extended, enabling researchers to leverage primary care EHR for high-throughput discovery research.",,html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861677?pdf=render 37139857,https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.15102,Impact of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization on mortality in people with type 1 diabetes: A national retrospective observational cohort study.,"Moser O, Rafferty J, Eckstein ML, Aziz F, Bain SC, Bergenstal R, Sourij H, Thomas RL.",,"Diabetes, obesity & metabolism",2023,2023-05-04,N,Mortality; type 1 diabetes; Risk Prediction; Severe Hypoglycaemia,,,"

Aims

To assess if the risk of all-cause mortality increases in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) with increasing number of severe hypoglycaemia episodes requiring hospitalization.

Materials and methods

We conducted a national retrospective observational cohort study in people with T1D (diagnosed between 2000 and 2018). Clinical, comorbidity and demographic variables were assessed for impact on mortality for people with no, one, two and three or more episodes of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization. The time to death (all-cause mortality) from the timepoint of the last episode of severe hypoglycaemia was modelled using a parametric survival model.

Results

A total of 8224 people had a T1D diagnosis in Wales during the study period. The mortality rate (95% confidence interval [CI]) was 6.9 (6.1-7.8) deaths/ 1000 person-years (crude) and 15.31 (13.3-17.63) deaths/ 1000 person-years (age-adjusted) for those with no occurrence of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization. For those with one episode of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization the mortality rate (95% CI) was 24.9 (21.0-29.6; crude) and 53.8 (44.6-64.7) deaths/ 1000 person-years (age-adjusted), for those with two episodes of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization it was 28.0 (23.1-34.0; crude) and 72.8 (59.2-89.5) deaths/ 1000 person-years (age-adjusted), and for those with three or more episodes of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization it was 33.5 (30.0-37.3; crude) and 86.3 (71.7-103.9) deaths/ 1000 person years (age-adjusted; P < 0.001). A parametric survival model showed that having two episodes of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization was the strongest predictor for time to death (accelerated failure time coefficient 0.073 [95% CI 0.009-0.565]), followed by having one episode of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization (0.126 [0.036-0.438]) and age at most recent episode of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization (0.917 [0.885-0.951]).

Conclusions

The strongest predictor for time to death was having two or more episodes of severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospitalization.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.15102 +37022975,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201,Stable Incidence and Increasing Prevalence of Primary Hyperparathyroidism in a Population-based Study in Scotland.,"Soto-Pedre E, Newey PJ, Leese GP.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2023,2023-09-01,Y,Parathyroid gland; Prevalence; epidemiology; incidence; Primary Hyperparathyroidism,,,"

Context

Previous studies, including our own, have demonstrated a highly variable incidence of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) from year to year.

Objective

We planned to provide a current estimate of the incidence and prevalence of PHPT in a community-based study.

Methods

A population-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted in Tayside (Scotland) from 2007 to 2018. Record-linkage technology (demography, biochemistry, prescribing, hospital admissions, radiology, and mortality data) was used to identify all patients. Cases of PHPT were defined as those with at least 2 raised serum corrected calcium concentration CCA (> 2.55 mmol/L) and/or hospital admissions with PHPT diagnoses and/or surgery records with parathyroidectomy during the follow-up period. The number of prevalent and incident cases of PHPT per calendar year by age and sex were estimated.

Results

A total of 2118 people (72.3% female, mean age 65 years) were identified with an incident case of PHPT. The overall prevalence of PHPT over the 12 years of the study was 0.84% (95% CI, 0.68%-1.02%), steadily increasing from 0.71% in 2007 to 1.02% in 2018. From 2008, the incidence of PHPT was relatively stable from 4 to 6 cases per 10 000 person-years, declining from 11.5 per 10 000 person-years in 2007. The incidence varied from 0.59 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 0.40%-0.77%) for those aged 20 to 29 years, to 12.4 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 11.2%-13.3%) in those aged 70 to 79 years. Incidence of PHPT was 2.5 times higher in women than in men.

Conclusion

This study is the first showing a relatively steady annual incidence of PHPT at 4 to 6 per 10 000 person-years. This population-based study reports a PHPT prevalence of 0.84%.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad201/50034331/dgad201.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10505547 35256633,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07291-4,Shared genetic loci for body fat storage and adipocyte lipolysis in humans.,"Kulyté A, Lundbäck V, Arner P, Strawbridge RJ, Dahlman I.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-03-07,Y,,,,"Total body fat and central fat distribution are heritable traits and well-established predictors of adverse metabolic outcomes. Lipolysis is the process responsible for the hydrolysis of triacylglycerols stored in adipocytes. To increase our understanding of the genetic regulation of body fat distribution and total body fat, we set out to determine if genetic variants associated with body mass index (BMI) or waist-hip-ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI) in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) mediate their effect by influencing adipocyte lipolysis. We utilized data from the recent GWAS of spontaneous and isoprenaline-stimulated lipolysis in the unique GENetics of Adipocyte Lipolysis (GENiAL) cohort. GENiAL consists of 939 participants who have undergone abdominal subcutaneous adipose biopsy for the determination of spontaneous and isoprenaline-stimulated lipolysis in adipocytes. We report 11 BMI and 15 WHRadjBMI loci with SNPs displaying nominal association with lipolysis and allele-dependent gene expression in adipose tissue according to in silico analysis. Functional evaluation of candidate genes in these loci by small interfering RNAs (siRNA)-mediated knock-down in adipose-derived stem cells identified ZNF436 and NUP85 as intrinsic regulators of lipolysis consistent with the associations observed in the clinical cohorts. Furthermore, candidate genes in another BMI-locus (STX17) and two more WHRadjBMI loci (NID2, GGA3, GRB2) control lipolysis alone, or in conjunction with lipid storage, and may hereby be involved in genetic control of body fat. The findings expand our understanding of how genetic variants mediate their impact on the complex traits of fat storage and distribution.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-07291-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07291-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8901764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8901764?pdf=render 33199838,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76860-2,Path-based extensions of local link prediction methods for complex networks.,"Aziz F, Gul H, Uddin I, Gkoutos GV.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-11-16,Y,,,,"Link prediction in a complex network is a problem of fundamental interest in network science and has attracted increasing attention in recent years. It aims to predict missing (or future) links between two entities in a complex system that are not already connected. Among existing methods, local similarity indices are most popular that take into account the information of common neighbours to estimate the likelihood of existence of a connection between two nodes. In this paper, we propose global and quasi-local extensions of some commonly used local similarity indices. We have performed extensive numerical simulations on publicly available datasets from diverse domains demonstrating that the proposed extensions not only give superior performance, when compared to their respective local indices, but also outperform some of the current, state-of-the-art, local and global link-prediction methods.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76860-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76860-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7670409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7670409?pdf=render -33952557,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964,Study protocol of the Edinburgh and Lothian Virus Intervention Study in Kids: a randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline nose drops in children with upper respiratory tract infections (ELVIS Kids).,"Ramalingam S, Graham C, Oatey K, Rayson P, Stoddart A, Sheikh A, Cunningham S, ELVIS Kids Trial Investigators.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-05-05,Y,Virology; Community Child Health; Neonatology; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

Edinburgh and Lothians' Viral Intervention Study Kids is a parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline (HS) nose drops (~2.6% sodium chloride) vs standard care in children <7 years of age with symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI).

Methods and analysis

Children are recruited prior to URTI or within 48 hours of developing URTI symptoms by advertising in areas such as local schools/nurseries, health centres/hospitals, recreational facilities, public events, workplaces, local/social media. Willing parents/guardians, of children <7 years of age will be asked to contact the research team at their local site. Children will be randomised to either a control arm (standard symptomatic care), or intervention arm (three drops/nostril of HS, at least four times a day, until 24 hours after asymptomatic or a maximum of 28 days). All participants are requested to provide a nasal swab at the start of the study (intervention arm: before HS drops) and then daily for four more days. Parent/guardian complete a validated daily diary, an end of illness diary, a satisfaction questionnaire and a wheeze questionnaire (day 28). The parent/guardian of a child in the intervention arm is taught to prepare HS nose drops. Parent/guardian of children asymptomatic at recruitment are requested to inform the research team within 48 hours of their child developing an URTI and follow the instructions already provided. The day 28 questionnaire determines if the child experienced a wheeze following illness. Participation in the study ends on day 28.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has been approved by the West of Scotland Research Ethics Service (18/WS/0080). It is cosponsored by Academic and Clinical Central Office for Research and Development-a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and National Health Service Lothian Health Board. The findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and via the study website.

Trial registration number

NCT03463694.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049964.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393?pdf=render 35440469,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0083,"Colchicine for COVID-19 in the community (PRINCIPLE): a randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial.","Dorward J, Yu LM, Hayward G, Saville BR, Gbinigie O, Van Hecke O, Ogburn E, Evans PH, Thomas NP, Patel MG, Richards D, Berry N, Detry MA, Saunders C, Fitzgerald M, Harris V, Shanyinde M, de Lusignan S, Andersson MI, Butler CC, Hobbs FR, PRINCIPLE Trial Collaborative Group.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2022-06-30,Y,Colchicine; Community; Primary Health Care; Randomised Controlled Trial; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Colchicine has been proposed as a COVID-19 treatment.

Aim

To determine whether colchicine reduces time to recovery and COVID-19-related admissions to hospital and/or deaths among people in the community.

Design and setting

Prospective, multicentre, open-label, multi-arm, randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial (PRINCIPLE).

Method

Adults aged ≥65 years or ≥18 years with comorbidities or shortness of breath, and unwell for ≤14 days with suspected COVID-19 in the community, were randomised to usual care, usual care plus colchicine (500 µg daily for 14 days), or usual care plus other interventions. The co-primary endpoints were time to first self-reported recovery and admission to hospital/death related to COVID-19, within 28 days, analysed using Bayesian models.

Results

The trial opened on 2 April 2020. Randomisation to colchicine started on 4 March 2021 and stopped on 26 May 2021 because the prespecified time to recovery futility criterion was met. The primary analysis model included 2755 participants who were SARS-CoV-2 positive, randomised to colchicine (n = 156), usual care (n = 1145), and other treatments (n = 1454). Time to first self-reported recovery was similar in the colchicine group compared with usual care with an estimated hazard ratio of 0.92 (95% credible interval (CrI) = 0.72 to 1.16) and an estimated increase of 1.4 days in median time to self-reported recovery for colchicine versus usual care. The probability of meaningful benefit in time to recovery was very low at 1.8%. COVID-19-related admissions to hospital/deaths were similar in the colchicine group versus usual care, with an estimated odds ratio of 0.76 (95% CrI = 0.28 to 1.89) and an estimated difference of -0.4% (95% CrI = -2.7 to 2.4).

Conclusion

Colchicine did not improve time to recovery in people at higher risk of complications with COVID-19 in the community.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/72/720/e446.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037186?pdf=render 31398891,https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081839,Intakes and Food Sources of Dietary Fibre and Their Associations with Measures of Body Composition and Inflammation in UK Adults: Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Airwave Health Monitoring Study. ,"Gibson R, Eriksen R, Chambers E, Gao H, Aresu M, Heard A, Chan Q, Elliott P, Frost G.",,Nutrients,2019,2019-08-08,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between intakes of fibre from the main food sources of fibre in the UK diet with body mass index (BMI), percentage body fat (%BF), waist circumference (WC) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Participants enrolled in the Airwave Health Monitoring Study (2007-2012) with 7-day food records (n = 6898; 61% men) were included for cross-sectional analyses. General linear models evaluated associations across fifths of fibre intakes (total, vegetable, fruit, potato, whole grain and non-whole grain cereal) with BMI, %BF, WC and CRP. Fully adjusted analyses showed inverse linear trends across fifths of total fibre and fibre from fruit with all outcome measures (ptrend < 0.0001). Vegetable fibre intake showed an inverse association with WC (ptrend 0.0156) and CRP (ptrend 0.0005). Fibre from whole grain sources showed an inverse association with BMI (ptrend 0.0002), %BF (ptrend 0.0007) and WC (ptrend 0.0004). Non-whole grain cereal fibre showed an inverse association with BMI (Ptrend 0.0095). Direct associations observed between potato fibre intake and measures of body composition and inflammation were attenuated in fully adjusted analyses controlling for fried potato intake. Higher fibre intake has a beneficial association on body composition, however, there are differential associations based on the food source.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/8/1839/pdf?version=1565745447; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081839; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6722677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6722677?pdf=render +33952557,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964,Study protocol of the Edinburgh and Lothian Virus Intervention Study in Kids: a randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline nose drops in children with upper respiratory tract infections (ELVIS Kids).,"Ramalingam S, Graham C, Oatey K, Rayson P, Stoddart A, Sheikh A, Cunningham S, ELVIS Kids Trial Investigators.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-05-05,Y,Virology; Community Child Health; Neonatology; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

Edinburgh and Lothians' Viral Intervention Study Kids is a parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline (HS) nose drops (~2.6% sodium chloride) vs standard care in children <7 years of age with symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI).

Methods and analysis

Children are recruited prior to URTI or within 48 hours of developing URTI symptoms by advertising in areas such as local schools/nurseries, health centres/hospitals, recreational facilities, public events, workplaces, local/social media. Willing parents/guardians, of children <7 years of age will be asked to contact the research team at their local site. Children will be randomised to either a control arm (standard symptomatic care), or intervention arm (three drops/nostril of HS, at least four times a day, until 24 hours after asymptomatic or a maximum of 28 days). All participants are requested to provide a nasal swab at the start of the study (intervention arm: before HS drops) and then daily for four more days. Parent/guardian complete a validated daily diary, an end of illness diary, a satisfaction questionnaire and a wheeze questionnaire (day 28). The parent/guardian of a child in the intervention arm is taught to prepare HS nose drops. Parent/guardian of children asymptomatic at recruitment are requested to inform the research team within 48 hours of their child developing an URTI and follow the instructions already provided. The day 28 questionnaire determines if the child experienced a wheeze following illness. Participation in the study ends on day 28.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has been approved by the West of Scotland Research Ethics Service (18/WS/0080). It is cosponsored by Academic and Clinical Central Office for Research and Development-a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and National Health Service Lothian Health Board. The findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and via the study website.

Trial registration number

NCT03463694.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049964.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393?pdf=render 36994768,https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c210037,Autonomic Cardiovascular Control in Health and Disease.,"Karim S, Chahal A, Khanji MY, Petersen SE, Somers VK.",,Comprehensive Physiology,2023,2023-03-30,N,,,,"Autonomic neural control of the cardiovascular system is formed of complex and dynamic processes able to adjust rapidly to mitigate perturbations in hemodynamics and maintain homeostasis. Alterations in autonomic control feature in the development or progression of a multitude of diseases with wide-ranging physiological implications given the neural system's responsibility for controlling inotropy, chronotropy, lusitropy, and dromotropy. Imbalances in sympathetic and parasympathetic neural control are also implicated in the development of arrhythmia in several cardiovascular conditions sparking interest in autonomic modulation as a form of treatment. A number of measures of autonomic function have shown prognostic significance in health and in pathological states and have undergone varying degrees of refinement, yet adoption into clinical practice remains extremely limited. The focus of this contemporary narrative review is to summarize the anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology of the cardiovascular autonomic nervous system and describe the merits and shortfalls of testing modalities available. © 2023 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 13:4493-4511, 2023.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c210037 36658423,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02158-7,The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular disease prevention and management.,"Dale CE, Takhar R, Carragher R, Katsoulis M, Torabi F, Duffield S, Kent S, Mueller T, Kurdi A, Le Anh TN, McTaggart S, Abbasizanjani H, Hollings S, Scourfield A, Lyons RA, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Davies G, Harris D, Handy A, Mizani MA, Tomlinson C, Thygesen JH, Ashworth M, Denaxas S, Banerjee A, Sterne JAC, Brown P, Bullard I, Priedon R, Mamas MA, Slee A, Lorgelly P, Pirmohamed M, Khunti K, Morris AD, Sudlow C, Akbari A, Bennie M, Sattar N, Sofat R, CVD-COVID-UK Consortium.",,Nature medicine,2023,2023-01-19,N,,,,"How the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected prevention and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is not fully understood. In this study, we used medication data as a proxy for CVD management using routinely collected, de-identified, individual-level data comprising 1.32 billion records of community-dispensed CVD medications from England, Scotland and Wales between April 2018 and July 2021. Here we describe monthly counts of prevalent and incident medications dispensed, as well as percentage changes compared to the previous year, for several CVD-related indications, focusing on hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes. We observed a decline in the dispensing of antihypertensive medications between March 2020 and July 2021, with 491,306 fewer individuals initiating treatment than expected. This decline was predicted to result in 13,662 additional CVD events, including 2,281 cases of myocardial infarction and 3,474 cases of stroke, should individuals remain untreated over their lifecourse. Incident use of lipid-lowering medications decreased by 16,744 patients per month during the first half of 2021 as compared to 2019. By contrast, incident use of medications to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, other than insulin, increased by approximately 623 patients per month for the same time period. In light of these results, methods to identify and treat individuals who have missed treatment for CVD risk factors and remain undiagnosed are urgently required to avoid large numbers of excess future CVD events, an indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02158-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02158-7 -34141852,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828,Media representations of opposition to the 'junk food advertising ban' on the Transport for London (TfL) network: A thematic content analysis of UK news and trade press.,"Thompson C, Clary C, Er V, Adams J, Boyland E, Burgoine T, Cornelsen L, de Vocht F, Egan M, Lake AA, Lock K, Mytton O, Petticrew M, White M, Yau A, Cummins S.",,SSM - population health,2021,2021-05-27,Y,Regulation; Media; Advertising; Childhood Obesity,,,"

Background

Advertising of less healthy foods and drinks is hypothesised to be associated with obesity in adults and children. In February 2019, Transport for London implemented restrictions on advertisements for foods and beverages high in fat, salt or sugar across its network as part of a city-wide strategy to tackle childhood obesity. The policy was extensively debated in the press. This paper identifies arguments for and against the restrictions. Focusing on arguments against the restrictions, it then goes on to deconstruct the discursive strategies underpinning them.

Methods

A qualitative thematic content analysis of media coverage of the restrictions (the 'ban') in UK newspapers and trade press was followed by a document analysis of arguments against the ban. A search period of March 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 covered: (i) the launch of the public consultation on the ban in May 2018; (ii) the announcement of the ban in November 2018; and (iii) its implementation in February 2019. A systematic search of printed and online publications in English distributed in the UK or published on UK-specific websites identified 152 articles.

Results

Arguments in favour of the ban focused on inequalities and childhood obesity. Arguments against the ban centred on two claims: that childhood obesity was not the 'right' priority; and that an advertising ban was not an effective way to address childhood obesity. These claims were justified via three discursive approaches: (i) claiming more 'important' priorities for action; (ii) disputing the science behind the ban; (iii) emphasising potential financial costs of the ban.

Conclusion

The discursive tactics used in media sources to argue against the ban draw on frames widely used by unhealthy commodities industries in response to structural public health interventions. Our analyses highlight the need for interventions to be framed in ways that can pre-emptively counter common criticisms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652?pdf=render 35780515,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2022.100604,Appropriately smoothing prevalence data to inform estimates of growth rate and reproduction number.,"Eales O, Ainslie KEC, Walters CE, Wang H, Atchison C, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Cooke G, Barclay W, Ward H, Darzi A, Elliott P, Riley S.",,Epidemics,2022,2022-06-22,Y,Cross-sectional study; Reproduction Number; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Bayesian P-Spline,,,"The time-varying reproduction number (Rt) can change rapidly over the course of a pandemic due to changing restrictions, behaviours, and levels of population immunity. Many methods exist that allow the estimation of Rt from case data. However, these are not easily adapted to point prevalence data nor can they infer Rt across periods of missing data. We developed a Bayesian P-spline model suitable for fitting to a wide range of epidemic time-series, including point-prevalence data. We demonstrate the utility of the model by fitting to periodic daily SARS-CoV-2 swab-positivity data in England from the first 7 rounds (May 2020-December 2020) of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. Estimates of Rt over the period of two subsequent rounds (6-8 weeks) and single rounds (2-3 weeks) inferred using the Bayesian P-spline model were broadly consistent with estimates from a simple exponential model, with overlapping credible intervals. However, there were sometimes substantial differences in point estimates. The Bayesian P-spline model was further able to infer changes in Rt over shorter periods tracking a temporary increase above one during late-May 2020, a gradual increase in Rt over the summer of 2020 as restrictions were eased, and a reduction in Rt during England's second national lockdown followed by an increase as the Alpha variant surged. The model is robust against both under-fitting and over-fitting and is able to interpolate between periods of available data; it is a particularly versatile model when growth rate can change over small timescales, as in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This work highlights the importance of pairing robust methods with representative samples to track pandemics.",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/99415/2/Appropriately%20smoothing%20prevalence%20data%20to%20inform%20estimates%20of%20growth%20rate%20and%20reproduction%20number.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2022.100604; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9220254; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9220254?pdf=render +34141852,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828,Media representations of opposition to the 'junk food advertising ban' on the Transport for London (TfL) network: A thematic content analysis of UK news and trade press.,"Thompson C, Clary C, Er V, Adams J, Boyland E, Burgoine T, Cornelsen L, de Vocht F, Egan M, Lake AA, Lock K, Mytton O, Petticrew M, White M, Yau A, Cummins S.",,SSM - population health,2021,2021-05-27,Y,Regulation; Media; Advertising; Childhood Obesity,,,"

Background

Advertising of less healthy foods and drinks is hypothesised to be associated with obesity in adults and children. In February 2019, Transport for London implemented restrictions on advertisements for foods and beverages high in fat, salt or sugar across its network as part of a city-wide strategy to tackle childhood obesity. The policy was extensively debated in the press. This paper identifies arguments for and against the restrictions. Focusing on arguments against the restrictions, it then goes on to deconstruct the discursive strategies underpinning them.

Methods

A qualitative thematic content analysis of media coverage of the restrictions (the 'ban') in UK newspapers and trade press was followed by a document analysis of arguments against the ban. A search period of March 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 covered: (i) the launch of the public consultation on the ban in May 2018; (ii) the announcement of the ban in November 2018; and (iii) its implementation in February 2019. A systematic search of printed and online publications in English distributed in the UK or published on UK-specific websites identified 152 articles.

Results

Arguments in favour of the ban focused on inequalities and childhood obesity. Arguments against the ban centred on two claims: that childhood obesity was not the 'right' priority; and that an advertising ban was not an effective way to address childhood obesity. These claims were justified via three discursive approaches: (i) claiming more 'important' priorities for action; (ii) disputing the science behind the ban; (iii) emphasising potential financial costs of the ban.

Conclusion

The discursive tactics used in media sources to argue against the ban draw on frames widely used by unhealthy commodities industries in response to structural public health interventions. Our analyses highlight the need for interventions to be framed in ways that can pre-emptively counter common criticisms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652?pdf=render 33577558,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003497,"Association of socioeconomic deprivation with asthma care, outcomes, and deaths in Wales: A 5-year national linked primary and secondary care cohort study.","Alsallakh MA, Rodgers SE, Lyons RA, Sheikh A, Davies GA.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-02-12,Y,,,,"

Background

Socioeconomic deprivation is known to be associated with worse outcomes in asthma, but there is a lack of population-based evidence of its impact across all stages of patient care. We investigated the association of socioeconomic deprivation with asthma-related care and outcomes across primary and secondary care and with asthma-related death in Wales.

Methods and findings

We constructed a national cohort, identified from 76% (2.4 million) of the Welsh population, of continuously treated asthma patients between 2013 and 2017 using anonymised, person-level, linked, routinely collected primary and secondary care data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We investigated the association between asthma-related health service utilisation, prescribing, and deaths with the 2011 Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and its domains. We studied 106,926 patients (534,630 person-years), 56.3% were female, with mean age of 47.5 years (SD = 20.3). Compared to the least deprived patients, the most deprived patients had slightly fewer total asthma-related primary care consultations per patient (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99, p-value < 0.001), slightly fewer routine asthma reviews (IRR = 0.98, 0.97-0.99, p-value < 0.001), lower controller-to-total asthma medication ratios (AMRs; 0.50 versus 0.56, p-value < 0.001), more asthma-related accident and emergency (A&E) attendances (IRR = 1.27, 1.10-1.46, p-value = 0.001), more asthma emergency admissions (IRR = 1.56, 1.39-1.76, p-value < 0.001), longer asthma-related hospital stay (IRR = 1.64, 1.39-1.94, p-value < 0.001), and were at higher risk of asthma-related death (risk ratio of deaths with any mention of asthma 1.56, 1.18-2.07, p-value = 0.002). Study limitations include the deprivation index being area based and the potential for residual confounders and mediators.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that the most deprived asthma patients in Wales had different prescribing patterns, more A&E attendances, more emergency hospital admissions, and substantially higher risk of death. Interventions specifically designed to improve treatment and outcomes for these disadvantaged groups are urgently needed.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003497&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003497; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880491; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880491?pdf=render -37000839,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076,Predicting a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis using primary care health records-A machine learning approach.,"Kennedy J, Kennedy N, Cooksey R, Choy E, Siebert S, Rahman M, Brophy S.",,PloS one,2023,2023-03-31,Y,,,,"Ankylosing spondylitis is the second most common cause of inflammatory arthritis. However, a successful diagnosis can take a decade to confirm from symptom onset (via x-rays). The aim of this study was to use machine learning methods to develop a profile of the characteristics of people who are likely to be given a diagnosis of AS in future. The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank was used. Patients with ankylosing spondylitis were identified using their routine data and matched with controls who had no record of a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis or axial spondyloarthritis. Data was analysed separately for men and women. The model was developed using feature/variable selection and principal component analysis to develop decision trees. The decision tree with the highest average F value was selected and validated with a test dataset. The model for men indicated that lower back pain, uveitis, and NSAID use under age 20 is associated with AS development. The model for women showed an older age of symptom presentation compared to men with back pain and multiple pain relief medications. The models showed good prediction (positive predictive value 70%-80%) in test data but in the general population where prevalence is very low (0.09% of the population in this dataset) the positive predictive value would be very low (0.33%-0.25%). Machine learning can be used to help profile and understand the characteristics of people who will develop AS, and in test datasets with artificially high prevalence, will perform well. However, when applied to a general population with low prevalence rates, such as that in primary care, the positive predictive value for even the best model would be 1.4%. Multiple models may be needed to narrow down the population over time to improve the predictive value and therefore reduce the time to diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279076&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228?pdf=render 34527726,https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00167-2021,Identifying COPD in routinely collected electronic health records: a systematic scoping review. ,"Sivakumaran S, Alsallakh MA, Lyons RA, Quint JK, Davies GA.",,ERJ open research,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"Although routinely collected electronic health records (EHRs) are widely used to examine outcomes related to COPD, consensus regarding the identification of cases from electronic healthcare databases is lacking. We systematically examine and summarise approaches from the recent literature. MEDLINE via EBSCOhost was searched for COPD-related studies using EHRs published from January 1, 2018 to November 30, 2019. Data were extracted relating to the case definition of COPD and determination of COPD severity and phenotypes. From 185 eligible studies, we found widespread variation in the definitions used to identify people with COPD in terms of code sets used (with 20 different code sets in use based on the ICD-10 classification alone) and requirement of additional criteria (relating to age (n=139), medication (n=31), multiplicity of events (n=21), spirometry (n=19) and smoking status (n=9)). Only seven studies used a case definition which had been validated against a reference standard in the same dataset. Various proxies of disease severity were used since spirometry results and patient-reported outcomes were not often available. To enable the research community to draw reliable insights from EHRs and aid comparability between studies, clear reporting and greater consistency of the definitions used to identify COPD and related outcome measures is key.",,pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/7/3/00167-2021.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00167-2021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8435805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8435805?pdf=render +37000839,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076,Predicting a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis using primary care health records-A machine learning approach.,"Kennedy J, Kennedy N, Cooksey R, Choy E, Siebert S, Rahman M, Brophy S.",,PloS one,2023,2023-03-31,Y,,,,"Ankylosing spondylitis is the second most common cause of inflammatory arthritis. However, a successful diagnosis can take a decade to confirm from symptom onset (via x-rays). The aim of this study was to use machine learning methods to develop a profile of the characteristics of people who are likely to be given a diagnosis of AS in future. The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank was used. Patients with ankylosing spondylitis were identified using their routine data and matched with controls who had no record of a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis or axial spondyloarthritis. Data was analysed separately for men and women. The model was developed using feature/variable selection and principal component analysis to develop decision trees. The decision tree with the highest average F value was selected and validated with a test dataset. The model for men indicated that lower back pain, uveitis, and NSAID use under age 20 is associated with AS development. The model for women showed an older age of symptom presentation compared to men with back pain and multiple pain relief medications. The models showed good prediction (positive predictive value 70%-80%) in test data but in the general population where prevalence is very low (0.09% of the population in this dataset) the positive predictive value would be very low (0.33%-0.25%). Machine learning can be used to help profile and understand the characteristics of people who will develop AS, and in test datasets with artificially high prevalence, will perform well. However, when applied to a general population with low prevalence rates, such as that in primary care, the positive predictive value for even the best model would be 1.4%. Multiple models may be needed to narrow down the population over time to improve the predictive value and therefore reduce the time to diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279076&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228?pdf=render 33971933,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05295-5,Accessing routinely collected health data to improve clinical trials: recent experience of access.,"Macnair A, Love SB, Murray ML, Gilbert DC, Parmar MKB, Denwood T, Carpenter J, Sydes MR, Langley RE, Cafferty FH.",,Trials,2021,2021-05-10,Y,Clinical Trials; Electronic Health Records; Data Accessibility; Routinely Collected Data,,,"

Background

Routinely collected electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to enhance randomised controlled trials (RCTs) by facilitating recruitment and follow-up. Despite this, current EHR use is minimal in UK RCTs, in part due to ongoing concerns about the utility (reliability, completeness, accuracy) and accessibility of the data. The aim of this manuscript is to document the process, timelines and challenges of the application process to help improve the service both for the applicants and data holders.

Methods

This is a qualitative paper providing a descriptive narrative from one UK clinical trials unit (MRC CTU at UCL) on the experience of two trial teams' application process to access data from three large English national datasets: National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) and NHS Digital to establish themes for discussion. The underpinning reason for applying for the data was to compare EHRs with data collected through case report forms in two RCTs, Add-Aspirin (ISRCTN 74358648) and PATCH (ISRCTN 70406718).

Results

The Add-Aspirin trial, which had a pre-planned embedded sub-study to assess EHR, received data from NCRAS 13 months after the first application. In the PATCH trial, the decision to request data was made whilst the trial was recruiting. The study received data after 8 months from NICOR and 15 months for NHS Digital following final application submission. This concluded in May 2020. Prior to application submission, significant time and effort was needed particularly in relation to the PATCH trial where negotiations over consent and data linkage took many years.

Conclusions

Our experience demonstrates that data access can be a prolonged and complex process. This is compounded if multiple data sources are required for the same project. This needs to be factored in when planning to use EHR within RCTs and is best considered prior to conception of the trial. Data holders and researchers are endeavouring to simplify and streamline the application process so that the potential of EHR can be realised for clinical trials.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-021-05295-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05295-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8108438; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8108438?pdf=render 35611160,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101462,Impact of first UK COVID-19 lockdown on hospital admissions: Interrupted time series study of 32 million people.,"Shah SA, Brophy S, Kennedy J, Fisher L, Walker A, Mackenna B, Curtis H, Inglesby P, Davy S, Bacon S, Goldacre B, Agrawal U, Moore E, Simpson CR, Macleod J, Cooksey R, Sheikh A, Katikireddi SV.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-05-20,Y,Pandemic; Healthcare Inequalities; Interrupted Time Series Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Healthcare Disruption,,,"

Background

Uncontrolled infection and lockdown measures introduced in response have resulted in an unprecedented challenge for health systems internationally. Whether such unprecedented impact was due to lockdown itself and recedes when such measures are lifted is unclear. We assessed the short- and medium-term impacts of the first lockdown measures on hospital care for tracer non-COVID-19 conditions in England, Scotland and Wales across diseases, sexes, and socioeconomic and ethnic groups.

Methods

We used OpenSAFELY (for England), EAVEII (Scotland), and SAIL Databank (Wales) to extract weekly hospital admission rates for cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory conditions (excluding COVID-19) from the pre-pandemic period until 25/10/2020 and conducted a controlled interrupted time series analysis. We undertook stratified analyses and assessed admission rates over seven months during which lockdown restrictions were gradually lifted.

Findings

Our combined dataset included 32 million people who contributed over 74 million person-years. Admission rates for all three conditions fell by 34.2% (Confidence Interval (CI): -43.0, -25.3) in England, 20.9% (CI: -27.8, -14.1) in Scotland, and 24.7% (CI: -36.7, -12.7) in Wales, with falls across every stratum considered. In all three nations, cancer-related admissions fell the most while respiratory-related admissions fell the least (e.g., rates fell by 40.5% (CI: -47.4, -33.6), 21.9% (CI: -35.4, -8.4), and 19.0% (CI: -30.6, -7.4) in England for cancer, cardiovascular-related, and respiratory-related admissions respectively). Unscheduled admissions rates fell more in the most than the least deprived quintile across all three nations. Some ethnic minority groups experienced greater falls in admissions (e.g., in England, unscheduled admissions fell by 9.5% (CI: -20.2, 1.2) for Whites, but 44.3% (CI: -71.0, -17.6), 34.6% (CI: -63.8, -5.3), and 25.6% (CI: -45.0, -6.3) for Mixed, Other and Black ethnic groups respectively). Despite easing of restrictions, the overall admission rates remained lower in England, Scotland, and Wales by 20.8%, 21.6%, and 22.0%, respectively when compared to the same period (August-September) during the pre-pandemic years. This corresponds to a reduction of 26.2, 23.8 and 30.2 admissions per 100,000 people in England, Scotland, and Wales respectively.

Interpretation

Hospital care for non-COVID diseases fell substantially across England, Scotland, and Wales during the first lockdown, with reductions persisting for at least six months. The most deprived and minority ethnic groups were impacted more severely.

Funding

This work was funded by the Medical Research Council as part of the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing study as part of National Core Studies (MC_PC_20030). SVK acknowledges funding from the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/2), and the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU17). EAVE II is funded by the Medical Research Council (MR/R008345/1) with the support of BREATHE - The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health (MC_PC_19004), which is funded through the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and delivered through Health Data Research UK. BG has received research funding from the NHS National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Wellcome Trust, Health Data Research UK, Asthma UK, the British Lung Foundation, and the Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing strand of the National Core Studies programme.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001924/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101462; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121886?pdf=render 33875444,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045077,COVID-19 in patients with hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases: a single-centre cross-sectional study in East London.,"Dayem Ullah AZM, Sivapalan L, Kocher HM, Chelala C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-04-19,Y,Pancreatic Disease; Hepatobiliary Disease; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To explore risk factors associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and survival in patients with pre-existing hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) conditions.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

East London Pancreatic Cancer Epidemiology (EL-PaC-Epidem) Study at Barts Health National Health Service Trust, UK. Linked electronic health records were interrogated on a cohort of participants (age ≥18 years), reported with HPB conditions between 1 April 2008 and 6 March 2020.

Participants

EL-PaC-Epidem Study participants, alive on 12 February 2020, and living in East London within the previous 6 months (n=15 440). The cohort represents a multi-ethnic population with 51.7% belonging to the non-White background.

Main outcome measure

COVID-19 incidence and mortality.

Results

Some 226 (1.5%) participants had confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis between 12 February and 12 June 2020, with increased odds for men (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.2 to 2.04) and Black ethnicity (2.04; 1.39 to 2.95) as well as patients with moderate to severe liver disease (2.2; 1.35 to 3.59). Each additional comorbidity increased the odds of infection by 62%. Substance misusers were at more risk of infection, so were patients on vitamin D treatment. The higher ORs in patients with chronic pancreatic or mild liver conditions, age >70, and a history of smoking or obesity were due to coexisting comorbidities. Increased odds of death were observed for men (3.54; 1.68 to 7.85) and Black ethnicity (3.77; 1.38 to 10.7). Patients having respiratory complications from COVID-19 without a history of chronic respiratory disease also had higher odds of death (5.77; 1.75 to 19).

Conclusions

In this large population-based study of patients with HPB conditions, men, Black ethnicity, pre-existing moderate to severe liver conditions, six common medical multimorbidities, substance misuse and a history of vitamin D treatment independently posed higher odds of acquiring COVID-19 compared with their respective counterparts. The odds of death were significantly high for men and Black people.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/4/e045077.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045077; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057071; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057071?pdf=render @@ -602,8 +602,8 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 36447757,https://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2022-100819,Body mass index and mortality in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a cohort study in a South London catchment area.,"Chen J, Perera G, Shetty H, Broadbent M, Xu Y, Stewart R.",,General psychiatry,2022,2022-11-04,Y,Schizophrenia; Life style; Mental Health Services,,,"

Background

People with schizophrenia have a high premature mortality risk. Obesity is a key potential underlying risk factor that is relatively unevaluated to date.

Aims

In this study, we investigated the associations of routinely recorded body size with all-cause mortality and deaths from common causes in a large cohort of people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Methods

We assembled a retrospective observational cohort using data from a large mental health service in South London. We followed all patients over the age of 18 years with a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders from the date of their first recorded body mass index (BMI) between 1 January 2007 and 31 March 2018.

Results

Of 11 900 patients with a BMI recording, 1566 died. The Cox proportional hazards regression models, after adjusting for sociodemographic, socioeconomic variables and comorbidities, indicated that all-cause mortality was only associated with underweight status compared with healthy weight status (hazard ratio (HR): 1.33, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01 to 1.76). Obesity (HR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.52) and morbid obesity (HR: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.03 to 2.42) were associated with all-cause mortality in the 18-45 years age range, and obesity was associated with lower risk (HR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.50 to 0.87) in those aged 65+ years. Cancer mortality was raised in underweight individuals (HR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.03 to 4.10) and respiratory disease mortality raised in those with morbid obesity (HR: 2.17, 95% CI: 1.02 to 5.22).

Conclusions

Overall, being underweight was associated with higher mortality in this disorder group; however, this was potentially accounted for by frailty in older age groups, and obesity was a risk factor for premature mortality in younger ages. The impact of obesity on life expectancy for people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders is clear from our findings. A deeper biological understanding of the relationship between these diseases and schizophrenia will help improve clinical practice.",,pdf:https://gpsych.bmj.com/content/gpsych/35/5/e100819.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2022-100819; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639123?pdf=render 33634312,https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbab006,Benchmarking network-based gene prioritization methods for cerebral small vessel disease.,"Zhang H, Ferguson A, Robertson G, Jiang M, Zhang T, Sudlow C, Smith K, Rannikmae K, Wu H.",,Briefings in bioinformatics,2021,2021-09-01,Y,Cerebral Small Vessel Disease; Protein–protein Interaction; Benchmarking; Disease Gene Association; Network-based Gene Prioritization,,,"Network-based gene prioritization algorithms are designed to prioritize disease-associated genes based on known ones using biological networks of protein interactions, gene-disease associations (GDAs) and other relationships between biological entities. Various algorithms have been developed based on different mechanisms, but it is not obvious which algorithm is optimal for a specific disease. To address this issue, we benchmarked multiple algorithms for their application in cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD). We curated protein-gene interactions (PGIs) and GDAs from databases and assembled PGI networks and disease-gene heterogeneous networks. A screening of algorithms resulted in seven representative algorithms to be benchmarked. Performance of algorithms was assessed using both leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) and external validation with MEGASTROKE genome-wide association study (GWAS). We found that random walk with restart on the heterogeneous network (RWRH) showed best LOOCV performance, with median LOOCV rediscovery rank of 185.5 (out of 19 463 genes). The GenePanda algorithm had most GWAS-confirmable genes in top 200 predictions, while RWRH had best ranks for small vessel stroke-associated genes confirmed in GWAS. In conclusion, RWRH has overall better performance for application in cSVD despite its susceptibility to bias caused by degree centrality. Choice of algorithms should be determined before applying to specific disease. Current pure network-based gene prioritization algorithms are unlikely to find novel disease-associated genes that are not associated with known ones. The tools for implementing and benchmarking algorithms have been made available and can be generalized for other diseases.",,pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/198917679/bbab006.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbab006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8425308; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8425308?pdf=render 33716109,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.002,Short durations of corticosteroids for hospitalised COVID-19 patients are associated with a high readmission rate.,"Chaudhry Z, Shawe-Taylor M, Rampling T, Cutfield T, Bidwell G, Chan XHS, Last A, Williams B, Logan S, Marks M, Esmail H.",,The Journal of infection,2021,2021-03-11,Y,Dexamethasone; Corticosteroids; Hospital; Readmissions; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Our objective was to describe the characteristics of patients admitted, discharged and readmitted, due to COVID-19, to a central London acute-care hospital during the second peak, in particular in relation to corticosteroids use.

Methods

We reviewed patients admitted from the community to University College Hospital (UCH) with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis between 1st-31st December 2020. Re-attendance and readmission data were collected for patients who re-presented within 10 days following discharge. Data were retrospectively collected.

Results

196 patients were admitted from the community with a diagnosis of COVID-19 and discharged alive in December 2020. Corticosteroids were prescribed in hospital for a median of 5 days (IQR 3-8). 20 patients (10.2%) were readmitted within 10 days. 11/20 received corticosteroids in the first admission of which 10 had received 1-3 days of corticosteroids. Readmission rate in those receiving 1-3 days of corticosteroids was 25%.

Conclusions

Most international guidelines have recommended providing up to 10 days of corticosteroids for severe COVID-19 but stopping on discharge. Our findings show shorter courses of corticosteroids during admission are associated with an increased risk of being readmitted and support continuing the course of corticosteroids after hospital discharge monitored in the virtual ward setting.",,pdf:http://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163445321001158/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948670; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948670?pdf=render -31594227,https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-190571,Partner Bereavement and Detection of Dementia: A UK-Based Cohort Study Using Routine Health Data.,"Forbes HJ, Wong AYS, Morton C, Bhaskaran K, Smeeth L, Richards M, Schmidt SAJ, Langan SM, Warren-Gash C.",,Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD,2019,2019-01-01,Y,Diagnosis; Dementia; epidemiology; Bereavement; Clinical Practice Research Datalink,"Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease",,"

Background

In the UK, an estimated one third of people with dementia have not received a diagnosis. Good evidence suggests that dementia risk is increased among widowed individuals; however, it is not clear if they are being diagnosed in routine primary care.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate if bereavement influenced the probability of having received a dementia diagnosis.

Methods

A population-based cohort study using UK electronic health records, between 1997 and 2017, among 247,586 opposite-sex partners. Those experiencing partner bereavement were matched (age, sex, and date of bereavement) to a non-bereaved person living in a partnership. Multivariate cox regression was performed.

Results

Partner bereavement was associated with an increased risk of receiving a diagnosis of dementia in the first three months (hazard ratio (HR) 1.43, 95% CI 1.20-1.71) and first six months (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.09-1.41), while there was a small reduced risk of getting a dementia diagnosis over all follow-up (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89-0.98).

Conclusions

Partner bereavement appears to lead to a short-term increased risk of the surviving partner receiving a diagnosis of dementia, suggesting that bereavement unmasks existing undiagnosed dementia. Over the longer term, however, bereaved individuals are less likely to have a diagnosis of dementia in their health records than non-bereaved individuals.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6918907?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-190571; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907?pdf=render 33212507,https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa279,Genomic Analysis Revealed a Convergent Evolution of LINE-1 in Coat Color: A Case Study in Water Buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis).,"Liang D, Zhao P, Si J, Fang L, Pairo-Castineira E, Hu X, Xu Q, Hou Y, Gong Y, Liang Z, Tian B, Mao H, Yindee M, Faruque MO, Kongvongxay S, Khamphoumee S, Liu GE, Wu DD, Barker JSF, Han J, Zhang Y.",,Molecular biology and evolution,2021,2021-03-01,Y,Transposon; Water buffalo; Convergent Evolution; Line-1; Asip Gene; White Coat Color,,,"Visible pigmentation phenotypes can be used to explore the regulation of gene expression and the evolution of coat color patterns in animals. Here, we performed whole-genome and RNA sequencing and applied genome-wide association study, comparative population genomics and biological experiments to show that the 2,809-bp-long LINE-1 insertion in the ASIP (agouti signaling protein) gene is the causative mutation for the white coat phenotype in swamp buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). This LINE-1 insertion (3' truncated and containing only 5' UTR) functions as a strong proximal promoter that leads to a 10-fold increase in the transcription of ASIP in white buffalo skin. The 165 bp of 5' UTR transcribed from the LINE-1 is spliced into the first coding exon of ASIP, resulting in a chimeric transcript. The increased expression of ASIP prevents melanocyte maturation, leading to the absence of pigment in white buffalo skin and hairs. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the white buffalo-specific ASIP allele originated from a recent genetic transposition event in swamp buffalo. Interestingly, as a similar LINE-1 insertion has been identified in the cattle ASIP gene, we discuss the convergent mechanism of coat color evolution in the Bovini tribe.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article-pdf/38/3/1122/36533820/msaa279.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa279; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7947781; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7947781?pdf=render +31594227,https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-190571,Partner Bereavement and Detection of Dementia: A UK-Based Cohort Study Using Routine Health Data.,"Forbes HJ, Wong AYS, Morton C, Bhaskaran K, Smeeth L, Richards M, Schmidt SAJ, Langan SM, Warren-Gash C.",,Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD,2019,2019-01-01,Y,Diagnosis; Dementia; epidemiology; Bereavement; Clinical Practice Research Datalink,"Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease",,"

Background

In the UK, an estimated one third of people with dementia have not received a diagnosis. Good evidence suggests that dementia risk is increased among widowed individuals; however, it is not clear if they are being diagnosed in routine primary care.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate if bereavement influenced the probability of having received a dementia diagnosis.

Methods

A population-based cohort study using UK electronic health records, between 1997 and 2017, among 247,586 opposite-sex partners. Those experiencing partner bereavement were matched (age, sex, and date of bereavement) to a non-bereaved person living in a partnership. Multivariate cox regression was performed.

Results

Partner bereavement was associated with an increased risk of receiving a diagnosis of dementia in the first three months (hazard ratio (HR) 1.43, 95% CI 1.20-1.71) and first six months (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.09-1.41), while there was a small reduced risk of getting a dementia diagnosis over all follow-up (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89-0.98).

Conclusions

Partner bereavement appears to lead to a short-term increased risk of the surviving partner receiving a diagnosis of dementia, suggesting that bereavement unmasks existing undiagnosed dementia. Over the longer term, however, bereaved individuals are less likely to have a diagnosis of dementia in their health records than non-bereaved individuals.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6918907?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-190571; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907?pdf=render 32424068,https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.250704.119,Comprehensive analyses of 723 transcriptomes enhance genetic and biological interpretations for complex traits in cattle.,"Fang L, Cai W, Liu S, Canela-Xandri O, Gao Y, Jiang J, Rawlik K, Li B, Schroeder SG, Rosen BD, Li CJ, Sonstegard TS, Alexander LJ, Van Tassell CP, VanRaden PM, Cole JB, Yu Y, Zhang S, Tenesa A, Ma L, Liu GE.",,Genome research,2020,2020-05-18,Y,,,,"By uniformly analyzing 723 RNA-seq data from 91 tissues and cell types, we built a comprehensive gene atlas and studied tissue specificity of genes in cattle. We demonstrated that tissue-specific genes significantly reflected the tissue-relevant biology, showing distinct promoter methylation and evolution patterns (e.g., brain-specific genes evolve slowest, whereas testis-specific genes evolve fastest). Through integrative analyses of those tissue-specific genes with large-scale genome-wide association studies, we detected relevant tissues/cell types and candidate genes for 45 economically important traits in cattle, including blood/immune system (e.g., CCDC88C) for male fertility, brain (e.g., TRIM46 and RAB6A) for milk production, and multiple growth-related tissues (e.g., FGF6 and CCND2) for body conformation. We validated these findings by using epigenomic data across major somatic tissues and sperm. Collectively, our findings provided novel insights into the genetic and biological mechanisms underlying complex traits in cattle, and our transcriptome atlas can serve as a primary source for biological interpretation, functional validation, studies of adaptive evolution, and genomic improvement in livestock.",,pdf:https://genome.cshlp.org/content/30/5/790.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.250704.119; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7263193; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7263193?pdf=render 36805366,https://doi.org/10.2196/43419,Prediction of Suicidal Behaviors in the Middle-aged Population: Machine Learning Analyses of UK Biobank.,"Wang J, Qiu J, Zhu T, Zeng Y, Yang H, Shang Y, Yin J, Sun Y, Qu Y, Valdimarsdóttir UA, Song H.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2023,2023-02-20,Y,Sex; Model; Behavior; Genetic susceptibility; Data; Suicide; risk; Machine Learning; Risk Prediction; Cost-effective; Machine Learning Approach; Suicidal Behaviors,,,"

Background

Suicidal behaviors, including suicide deaths and attempts, are major public health concerns. However, previous suicide models required a huge amount of input features, resulting in limited applicability in clinical practice.

Objective

We aimed to construct applicable models (ie, with limited features) for short- and long-term suicidal behavior prediction. We further validated these models among individuals with different genetic risks of suicide.

Methods

Based on the prospective cohort of UK Biobank, we included 223 (0.06%) eligible cases of suicide attempts or deaths, according to hospital inpatient or death register data within 1 year from baseline and randomly selected 4460 (1.18%) controls (1:20) without such records. We similarly identified 833 (0.22%) cases of suicidal behaviors 1 to 6 years from baseline and 16,660 (4.42%) corresponding controls. Based on 143 input features, mainly including sociodemographic, environmental, and psychosocial factors; medical history; and polygenic risk scores (PRS) for suicidality, we applied a bagged balanced light gradient-boosting machine (LightGBM) with stratified 10-fold cross-validation and grid-search to construct the full prediction models for suicide attempts or deaths within 1 year or between 1 and 6 years. The Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) approach was used to quantify the importance of input features, and the top 20 features with the highest SHAP values were selected to train the applicable models. The external validity of the established models was assessed among 50,310 individuals who participated in UK Biobank repeated assessments both overall and by the level of PRS for suicidality.

Results

Individuals with suicidal behaviors were on average 56 years old, with equal sex distribution. The application of these full models in the external validation data set demonstrated good model performance, with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves of 0.919 and 0.892 within 1 year and between 1 and 6 years, respectively. Importantly, the applicable models with the top 20 most important features showed comparable external-validated performance (AUROC curves of 0.901 and 0.885) as the full models, based on which we found that individuals in the top quintile of predicted risk accounted for 91.7% (n=11) and 80.7% (n=25) of all suicidality cases within 1 year and during 1 to 6 years, respectively. We further obtained comparable prediction accuracy when applying these models to subpopulations with different genetic susceptibilities to suicidality. For example, for the 1-year risk prediction, the AUROC curves were 0.907 and 0.885 for the high (>2nd tertile of PRS) and low (<1st) genetic susceptibilities groups, respectively.

Conclusions

We established applicable machine learning-based models for predicting both the short- and long-term risk of suicidality with high accuracy across populations of varying genetic risk for suicide, highlighting a cost-effective method of identifying individuals with a high risk of suicidality.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2023/1/e43419/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/43419; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9989910 36001371,https://doi.org/10.2196/38122,Deployment of a Free-Text Analytics Platform at a UK National Health Service Research Hospital: CogStack at University College London Hospitals.,"Noor K, Roguski L, Bai X, Handy A, Klapaukh R, Folarin A, Romao L, Matteson J, Lea N, Zhu L, Asselbergs FW, Wong WK, Shah A, Dobson RJ.",,JMIR medical informatics,2022,2022-08-24,Y,Information Retrieval; Natural Language Processing; Text Mining; Electronic Health Record System; Clinical Support,,,"

Background

As more health care organizations transition to using electronic health record (EHR) systems, it is important for these organizations to maximize the secondary use of their data to support service improvement and clinical research. These organizations will find it challenging to have systems capable of harnessing the unstructured data fields in the record (clinical notes, letters, etc) and more practically have such systems interact with all of the hospital data systems (legacy and current).

Objective

We describe the deployment of the EHR interfacing information extraction and retrieval platform CogStack at University College London Hospitals (UCLH).

Methods

At UCLH, we have deployed the CogStack platform, an information retrieval platform with natural language processing capabilities. The platform addresses the problem of data ingestion and harmonization from multiple data sources using the Apache NiFi module for managing complex data flows. The platform also facilitates the extraction of structured data from free-text records through use of the MedCAT natural language processing library. Finally, data science tools are made available to support data scientists and the development of downstream applications dependent upon data ingested and analyzed by CogStack.

Results

The platform has been deployed at the hospital, and in particular, it has facilitated a number of research and service evaluation projects. To date, we have processed over 30 million records, and the insights produced from CogStack have informed a number of clinical research use cases at the hospital.

Conclusions

The CogStack platform can be configured to handle the data ingestion and harmonization challenges faced by a hospital. More importantly, the platform enables the hospital to unlock important clinical information from the unstructured portion of the record using natural language processing technology.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2022/8/e38122/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/38122; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453582 @@ -615,22 +615,22 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 36773891,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.02.012,"Real-world effectiveness of molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab on preventing hospital admission among higher-risk patients with COVID-19 in Wales: A retrospective cohort study.","Evans A, Qi C, Adebayo JO, Underwood J, Coulson J, Bailey R, Lyons R, Edwards A, Cooper A, John G, Akbari A.",,The Journal of infection,2023,2023-02-10,Y,Health protection; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab with no treatment in preventing hospital admission or death in higher-risk patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the community.

Design

Retrospective cohort study of non-hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Setting

A real-world cohort study was conducted within the SAIL Databank (a secure trusted research environment containing anonymised, individual, population-scale electronic health record (EHR) data) for the population of Wales, UK.

Participants

Adult patients with COVID-19 in the community, at higher risk of hospitalization and death, testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 between 16th December 2021 and 22nd April 2022.

Interventions

Molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, and sotrovimab given in the community by local health boards and the National Antiviral Service in Wales.

Main outcome measures

All-cause admission to hospital or death within 28 days of a positive test for SARS-CoV-2.

Statistical analysis

Cox proportional hazard model with treatment status (treated/untreated) as a time-dependent covariate and adjusted for age, sex, number of comorbidities, Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, and vaccination status. Secondary subgroup analyses were by treatment type, number of comorbidities, and before and on or after 20th February 2022, when omicron BA.1 and omicron BA.2 were the dominant subvariants in Wales.

Results

Between 16th December 2021 and 22nd April 2022, 7013 higher-risk patients were eligible for inclusion in the study. Of these, 2040 received treatment with molnupiravir (359, 17.6%), nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (602, 29.5%), or sotrovimab (1079, 52.9%). Patients in the treatment group were younger (mean age 53 vs 57 years), had fewer comorbidities, and a higher proportion had received four or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (36.3% vs 17.6%). Within 28 days of a positive test, 628 (9.0%) patients were admitted to hospital or died (84 treated and 544 untreated). The primary analysis indicated a lower risk of hospitalization or death at any point within 28 days in treated participants compared to those not receiving treatment. The adjusted hazard rate was 35% (95% CI: 18-49%) lower in treated than untreated participants. There was no indication of the superiority of one treatment over another and no evidence of a reduction in risk of hospitalization or death within 28 days for patients with no or only one comorbidity. In patients treated with sotrovimab, the event rates before and on or after 20th February 2022 were similar (5.0% vs 4.9%) with no significant difference in the hazard ratios for sotrovimab between the time periods.

Conclusions

In higher-risk adult patients in the community with COVID-19, those who received treatment with molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, or sotrovimab were at lower risk of hospitalization or death than those not receiving treatment.",,pdf:http://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163445323000828/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.02.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9911979; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9911979?pdf=render 35580876,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069704,Long term impact of prophylactic antibiotic use before incision versus after cord clamping on children born by caesarean section: longitudinal study of UK electronic health records.,"Šumilo D, Nirantharakumar K, Willis BH, Rudge GM, Martin J, Gokhale K, Thayakaran R, Adderley NJ, Chandan JS, Okoth K, Harris IM, Hewston R, Skrybant M, Deeks JJ, Brocklehurst P.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-05-17,Y,,,,"

Objective

To investigate the impact on child health up to age 5 years of a policy to use antibiotic prophylaxis for caesarean section before incision compared with after cord clamping.

Design

Observational controlled interrupted time series study.

Setting

UK primary and secondary care.

Participants

515 945 children born in 2006-18 with linked maternal records and registered with general practices contributing to two UK primary care databases (The Health Improvement Network and Clinical Practice Research Datalink), and 7 147 884 children with linked maternal records in the Hospital Episode Statistics database covering England, of which 3 945 351 were linked to hospitals that reported the year of policy change to administer prophylactic antibiotics for caesarean section before incision rather than after cord clamping.

Intervention

Fetal exposure to antibiotics shortly before birth (using pre-incision antibiotic policy as proxy) compared with no exposure.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcomes were incidence rate ratios of asthma and eczema in children born by caesarean section when pre-incision prophylactic antibiotics were recommended compared with those born when antibiotics were administered post-cord clamping, adjusted for temporal changes in the incidence rates in children born vaginally.

Results

Prophylactic antibiotics administered before incision for caesarean section compared with after cord clamping were not associated with a significantly higher risk of asthma (incidence rate ratio 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.78 to 1.05) or eczema (0.98, 0.94 to 1.03), including asthma and eczema resulting in hospital admission (1.05, 0.99 to 1.11 and 0.96, 0.71 to 1.29, respectively), up to age 5 years.

Conclusions

This study found no evidence of an association between pre-incision prophylactic antibiotic use and risk of asthma and eczema in early childhood in children born by caesarean section.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/377/bmj-2021-069704.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9112858 37635632,https://doi.org/10.1111/aor.14628,Circadian rhythms in pump parameters of patients on contemporary left ventricular assist device support.,"Numan L, Wösten M, Moazeni M, Aarts E, Van der Kaaij NP, Fresiello L, Asselbergs FW, Van Laake LW.",,Artificial organs,2023,2023-08-28,N,Circadian rhythm; Mechanical Circulatory Support; Left Ventricular Assist Device; Lvad Parameters,,,"

Background

Algorithms to monitor pump parameters are needed to further improve outcomes after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation. Previous research showed a restored circadian rhythm in pump parameters in patients on HeartWare (HVAD) support. Circadian patterns in HeartMate3 (HM3) were not studied before, but this is important for the development of LVAD monitoring algorithms. Hence, we aimed to describe circadian patterns in HM3 parameters and their relation to patterns in heart rate (HR).

Methods

18 HM3 patients were included in this study. HM3 data were retrieved at a high frequency (one sample per 1 or 2 h) for 1-2 weeks. HR was measured using a wearable biosensor. To study overall patterns in HM3 parameters and HR, a heatmap was created. A 24-h cosine was fitted on power and HR separately. The relationship between the amplitude of the fitted cosines of power and HR was calculated using Spearman correlation.

Results

A lower between patient variability was found in power compared with flow and PI. 83% of the patients showed a significant circadian rhythmicity in power (p < 0.001-0.04), with a clear morning increase. All patients showed significant circadian rhythmicity in HR (p < 0.001-0.02). The amplitudes of the circadian rhythm in power and HR were not correlated (Spearman correlation of 0.32, p = 0.19).

Conclusions

A circadian rhythm of pump parameters is present in the majority of HM3 patients. Higher frequency pump parameter data should be collected, to enable early detection of complications in the future development of predictive algorithms.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/aor.14628; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/aor.14628 -35685390,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00072-1,"Modifiable traits, healthy behaviours, and leukocyte telomere length: a population-based study in UK Biobank.","Bountziouka V, Musicha C, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Wang Q, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Thompson JR, Danesh JN, Wood AM, Nelson CP, Codd V, Samani NJ.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Telomere length is associated with risk of several age-related diseases and cancers. We aimed to investigate the extent to which telomere length might be modifiable through lifestyle and behaviour, and whether such modification has any clinical consequences.

Methods

In this population-based study, we included participants from UK Biobank who had leukocyte telomere length (LTL) measurement, ethnicity, and white blood cell count data. We investigated associations of LTL with 117 potentially modifiable traits, as well as two indices of healthy behaviours incorporating between them smoking, physical activity, diet, maintenance of a healthy bodyweight, and alcohol intake, using both available and imputed data. To help interpretation, associations were summarised as the number of equivalent years of age-related change in LTL by dividing the trait β coefficients with the age β coefficient. We used mendelian randomisation to test causality of selected associations. We investigated whether the associations of LTL with 22 diseases were modified by the number of healthy behaviours and the extent to which the associations of more healthy behaviours with greater life expectancy and lower risk of coronary artery disease might be mediated through LTL.

Findings

422 797 participants were available for the analysis (227 620 [53·8%] were women and 400 036 [94·6%] were White). 71 traits showed significant (p<4·27 × 10-4) associations with LTL but most were modest, equivalent to less than 1 year of age-related change in LTL. In multivariable analyses of 17 traits with stronger associations (equivalent to ≥2 years of age-related change in LTL), oily fish intake, educational attainment, and general health status retained a significant association of this magnitude, with walking pace and current smoking being additionally significant at this level of association in the imputed models. Mendelian randomisation analysis suggested that educational attainment and smoking behaviour causally affect LTL. Both indices of healthy behaviour were positively and linearly associated with LTL, with those with the most healthy behaviours having longer LTL equivalent to about 3·5 years of age-related change in LTL than those with the least heathy behaviours (p<0·001). However, healthy behaviours explained less than 0·2% of the total variation in LTL and did not significantly modify the association of LTL with risk of any of the diseases studied. Neither the association of more healthy behaviours on greater life expectancy or lower risk of coronary artery disease were substantially mediated through LTL.

Interpretation

Although several potentially modifiable traits and healthy behaviours have a quantifiable association with LTL, at least some of which are likely to be causal, these effects are not of a sufficient magnitude to substantially alter the association between LTL and various diseases or life expectancy. Attempts to change telomere length through lifestyle or behavioural changes might not confer substantial clinical benefit.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and British Heart Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756822000721/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00072-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9068584 36102151,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac527,Identification of 4 New Loci Associated With Primary Hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) and a Polygenic Risk Score for PHPT.,"Soto-Pedre E, Newey PJ, Srinivasan S, Siddiqui MK, Palmer CNA, Leese GP.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2022,2022-11-01,Y,Genetics; Genome-wide Association Study; Primary Hyperparathyroidism; Polygenic Risk Score,,,"

Context

A hypothesis-free genetic association analysis has not been reported for patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Objective

We aimed to investigate genetic associations with PHPT using both genome-wide association study (GWAS) and candidate gene approaches.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients of European White ethnicity recruited in Tayside (Scotland, UK). Electronic medical records were used to identify PHPT cases and controls, and linked to genetic biobank data. Genetic associations were performed by logistic regression models and odds ratios (ORs). The combined effect of the genotypes was researched by genetic risk score (GRS) analysis.

Results

We identified 15 622 individuals for the GWAS that yielded 34 top single-nucleotide variations (formerly single-nucleotide polymorphisms), and LPAR3-rs147672681 reached genome-wide statistical significance (P = 1.2e-08). Using a more restricted PHPT definition, 8722 individuals with data on the GWAS-identified loci were found. Age- and sex-adjusted ORs for the effect alleles of SOX9-rs11656269, SLITRK5-rs185436526, and BCDIN3D-AS1-rs2045094 showed statistically significant increased risks (P < 1.5e-03). GRS analysis of 5482 individuals showed an OR of 2.51 (P = 1.6e-04), 3.78 (P = 4.0e-08), and 7.71 (P = 5.3e-17) for the second, third, and fourth quartiles, respectively, compared to the first, and there was a statistically significant linear trend across quartiles (P < 1.0e-04). Results were similar when stratifying by sex.

Conclusion

Using genetic loci discovered in a GWAS of PHPT carried out in a Scottish population, this study suggests new evidence for the involvement of genetic variants at SOX9, SLITRK5, LPAR3, and BCDIN3D-AS1. It also suggests that male and female carriers of greater numbers of PHPT-risk alleles both have a statistically significant increased risk of PHPT.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/107/12/3302/47260242/dgac527.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac527; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9693767 +35685390,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00072-1,"Modifiable traits, healthy behaviours, and leukocyte telomere length: a population-based study in UK Biobank.","Bountziouka V, Musicha C, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Wang Q, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Thompson JR, Danesh JN, Wood AM, Nelson CP, Codd V, Samani NJ.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Telomere length is associated with risk of several age-related diseases and cancers. We aimed to investigate the extent to which telomere length might be modifiable through lifestyle and behaviour, and whether such modification has any clinical consequences.

Methods

In this population-based study, we included participants from UK Biobank who had leukocyte telomere length (LTL) measurement, ethnicity, and white blood cell count data. We investigated associations of LTL with 117 potentially modifiable traits, as well as two indices of healthy behaviours incorporating between them smoking, physical activity, diet, maintenance of a healthy bodyweight, and alcohol intake, using both available and imputed data. To help interpretation, associations were summarised as the number of equivalent years of age-related change in LTL by dividing the trait β coefficients with the age β coefficient. We used mendelian randomisation to test causality of selected associations. We investigated whether the associations of LTL with 22 diseases were modified by the number of healthy behaviours and the extent to which the associations of more healthy behaviours with greater life expectancy and lower risk of coronary artery disease might be mediated through LTL.

Findings

422 797 participants were available for the analysis (227 620 [53·8%] were women and 400 036 [94·6%] were White). 71 traits showed significant (p<4·27 × 10-4) associations with LTL but most were modest, equivalent to less than 1 year of age-related change in LTL. In multivariable analyses of 17 traits with stronger associations (equivalent to ≥2 years of age-related change in LTL), oily fish intake, educational attainment, and general health status retained a significant association of this magnitude, with walking pace and current smoking being additionally significant at this level of association in the imputed models. Mendelian randomisation analysis suggested that educational attainment and smoking behaviour causally affect LTL. Both indices of healthy behaviour were positively and linearly associated with LTL, with those with the most healthy behaviours having longer LTL equivalent to about 3·5 years of age-related change in LTL than those with the least heathy behaviours (p<0·001). However, healthy behaviours explained less than 0·2% of the total variation in LTL and did not significantly modify the association of LTL with risk of any of the diseases studied. Neither the association of more healthy behaviours on greater life expectancy or lower risk of coronary artery disease were substantially mediated through LTL.

Interpretation

Although several potentially modifiable traits and healthy behaviours have a quantifiable association with LTL, at least some of which are likely to be causal, these effects are not of a sufficient magnitude to substantially alter the association between LTL and various diseases or life expectancy. Attempts to change telomere length through lifestyle or behavioural changes might not confer substantial clinical benefit.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and British Heart Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756822000721/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00072-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9068584 36150783,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00147-9,Data capture and sharing in the COVID-19 pandemic: a cause for concern.,"Dron L, Kalatharan V, Gupta A, Haggstrom J, Zariffa N, Morris AD, Arora P, Park J.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"Routine health care and research have been profoundly influenced by digital-health technologies. These technologies range from primary data collection in electronic health records (EHRs) and administrative claims to web-based artificial-intelligence-driven analyses. There has been increased use of such health technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic, driven in part by the availability of these data. In some cases, this has resulted in profound and potentially long-lasting positive effects on medical research and routine health-care delivery. In other cases, high profile shortcomings have been evident, potentially attenuating the effect of-or representing a decreased appetite for-digital-health transformation. In this Series paper, we provide an overview of how facets of health technologies in routinely collected medical data (including EHRs and digital data sharing) have been used for COVID-19 research and tracking, and how these technologies might influence future pandemics and health-care research. We explore the strengths and weaknesses of digital-health research during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss how learnings from COVID-19 might translate into new approaches in a post-pandemic era.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00147-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00147-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489064; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489064?pdf=render 34249083,https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.652878,Polymorphism in INSR Locus Modifies Risk of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients on Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy.,"Soto-Pedre E, Siddiqui MK, Maroteau C, Dawed AY, Doney AS, Palmer CNA, Pearson ER, Leese GP.",,Frontiers in genetics,2021,2021-06-23,Y,Genetics; Insulin receptor; Hypothyroidism; Atrial fibrillation; Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy,,,"

Aims

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a risk for patients receiving thyroid hormone replacement therapy. No published work has focused on pharmacogenetics relevant to thyroid dysfunction and AF risk. We aimed to assess the effect of L-thyroxine on AF risk stratified by a variation in a candidate gene.

Methods and results

A retrospective follow-up study was done among European Caucasian patients from the Genetics of Diabetes Audit and Research in Tayside Scotland cohort (Scotland, United Kingdom). Linked data on biochemistry, prescribing, hospital admissions, demographics, and genetic biobank were used to ascertain patients on L-thyroxine and diagnosis of AF. A GWAS-identified insulin receptor-INSR locus (rs4804416) was the candidate gene. Cox survival models and sensitivity analyses by taking competing risk of death into account were used. Replication was performed in additional sample (The Genetics of Scottish Health Research register, GoSHARE), and meta-analyses across the results of the study and replication cohorts were done. We analyzed 962 exposed to L-thyroxine and 5,840 unexposed patients who were rs4804416 genotyped. The rarer G/G genotype was present in 18% of the study population. The total follow-up was up to 20 years, and there was a significant increased AF risk for patients homozygous carriers of the G allele exposed to L-thyroxine (RHR = 2.35, P = 1.6e-02). The adjusted increased risk was highest within the first 3 years of exposure (RHR = 9.10, P = 8.5e-04). Sensitivity analysis yielded similar results. Effects were replicated in GoSHARE (n = 3,190).

Conclusion

Homozygous G/G genotype at the INSR locus (rs4804416) is associated with an increased risk of AF in patients on L-thyroxine, independent of serum of free thyroxine and thyroid-stimulating hormone serum concentrations.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.652878/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.652878; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8260687; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8260687?pdf=render 35216844,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.02.056,Localising vaccination services: Qualitative insights on public health and minority group collaborations to co-deliver coronavirus vaccines.,"Kasstan B, Mounier-Jack S, Letley L, Gaskell KM, Roberts CH, Stone NRH, Lal S, Eggo RM, Marks M, Chantler T.",,Vaccine,2022,2022-02-17,Y,Qualitative Research; Ethnic Minorities; Coronavirus Vaccine; Localising Services; Public Health Collaboration,,,"Ethnic and religious minorities have been disproportionately affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and are less likely to accept coronavirus vaccinations. Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish neighbourhoods in England experienced high incidences of SARS-CoV-2 in 2020-21 and measles outbreaks (2018-19) due to suboptimal childhood vaccination coverage. The objective of our study was to explore how the coronavirus vaccination programme (CVP) was co-delivered between public health services and an Orthodox Jewish health organisation. Methods included 28 semi-structured interviews conducted virtually with public health professionals, community welfare and religious representatives, and household members. We examined CVP delivery from the perspectives of those involved in organising services and vaccine beneficiaries. Interview data was contextualised within debates of the CVP in Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish print and social media. Thematic analysis generated five considerations: i) Prior immunisation-related collaboration with public health services carved a role for Jewish health organisations to host and promote coronavirus vaccination sessions, distribute appointments, and administer vaccines ii) Public health services maintained responsibility for training, logistics, and maintaining vaccination records; iii) The localised approach to service delivery promoted vaccination in a minority with historically suboptimal levels of coverage; iv) Co-delivery promoted trust in the CVP, though a minority of participants maintained concerns around safety; v) Provision of CVP information and stakeholders' response to situated (context-specific) challenges and concerns. Drawing on this example of CVP co-delivery, we propose that a localised approach to delivering immunisation programmes could address service provision gaps in ways that involve trusted community organisations. Localisation of vaccination services can include communication or implementation strategies, but both approaches involve consideration of investment, engagement and coordination, which are not cost-neutral. Localising vaccination services in collaboration with welfare groups raises opportunities for the on-going CVP and other immunisation programmes, and constitutes an opportunity for ethnic and religious minorities to collaborate in safeguarding community health.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.02.056; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.02.056; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8849863 35079022,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28157-3,Regional excess mortality during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in five European countries.,"Konstantinoudis G, Cameletti M, Gómez-Rubio V, Gómez IL, Pirani M, Baio G, Larrauri A, Riou J, Egger M, Vineis P, Blangiardo M.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-01-25,Y,,,,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on excess mortality from all causes in 2020 varied across and within European countries. Using data for 2015-2019, we applied Bayesian spatio-temporal models to quantify the expected weekly deaths at the regional level had the pandemic not occurred in England, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. With around 30%, Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, Castile-Leon (Spain) and Lombardia (Italy) were the regions with the highest excess mortality. In England, Greece and Switzerland, the regions most affected were Outer London and the West Midlands (England), Eastern, Western and Central Macedonia (Greece), and Ticino (Switzerland), with 15-20% excess mortality in 2020. Our study highlights the importance of the large transportation hubs for establishing community transmission in the first stages of the pandemic. Here, we show that acting promptly to limit transmission around these hubs is essential to prevent spread to other regions and countries.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28157-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28157-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789777?pdf=render -36935397,https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055,Validating a novel natural language processing pathway for automated quality assurance in surgical oncology: incomplete excision rates of 34 955 basal cell carcinomas.,"Ali SR, Dobbs TD, Jovic M, Strafford H, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Lacey AS, Williams N, Pickrell WO, Hutchings HA, Whitaker IS.",,The British journal of surgery,2023,2023-08-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/bjs/znad055/49561408/znad055.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688?pdf=render 36806317,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00749-3,Long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in an app and wearable-based multinational remote digital depression study.,"Zhang Y, Pratap A, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Matcham F, Vairavan S, Dineley J, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, White KM, Oetzmann C, Ivan A, Lamers F, Siddi S, Rambla CH, Simblett S, Nica R, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Haro JM, Penninx BWJH, Annas P, Narayan VA, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB, RADAR-CNS consortium.",,NPJ digital medicine,2023,2023-02-17,Y,,,,"Recent growth in digital technologies has enabled the recruitment and monitoring of large and diverse populations in remote health studies. However, the generalizability of inference drawn from remotely collected health data could be severely impacted by uneven participant engagement and attrition over the course of the study. We report findings on long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in a large multinational observational digital study for depression containing active (surveys) and passive sensor data collected via Android smartphones, and Fitbit devices from 614 participants for up to 2 years. Majority of participants (67.6%) continued to remain engaged in the study after 43 weeks. Unsupervised clustering of participants' study apps and Fitbit usage data showed 3 distinct engagement subgroups for each data stream. We found: (i) the least engaged group had the highest depression severity (4 PHQ8 points higher) across all data streams; (ii) the least engaged group (completed 4 bi-weekly surveys) took significantly longer to respond to survey notifications (3.8 h more) and were 5 years younger compared to the most engaged group (completed 20 bi-weekly surveys); and (iii) a considerable proportion (44.6%) of the participants who stopped completing surveys after 8 weeks continued to share passive Fitbit data for significantly longer (average 42 weeks). Additionally, multivariate survival models showed participants' age, ownership and brand of smartphones, and recruitment sites to be associated with retention in the study. Together these findings could inform the design of future digital health studies to enable equitable and balanced data collection from diverse populations.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-023-00749-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00749-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9938183; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9938183?pdf=render +36935397,https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055,Validating a novel natural language processing pathway for automated quality assurance in surgical oncology: incomplete excision rates of 34 955 basal cell carcinomas.,"Ali SR, Dobbs TD, Jovic M, Strafford H, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Lacey AS, Williams N, Pickrell WO, Hutchings HA, Whitaker IS.",,The British journal of surgery,2023,2023-08-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/bjs/znad055/49561408/znad055.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688?pdf=render 35074819,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054414,Mapping multimorbidity in individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders: evidence from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (SLAM BRC) case register.,"Bendayan R, Kraljevic Z, Shaari S, Das-Munshi J, Leipold L, Chaturvedi J, Mirza L, Aldelemi S, Searle T, Chance N, Mascio A, Skiada N, Wang T, Roberts A, Stewart R, Bean D, Dobson R.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-01-24,Y,Psychiatry; Mental health; epidemiology; Public Health; Health Informatics,,,"

Objectives

The first aim of this study was to design and develop a valid and replicable strategy to extract physical health conditions from clinical notes which are common in mental health services. Then, we examined the prevalence of these conditions in individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) and compared their individual and combined prevalence in individuals with bipolar (BD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD).

Design

Observational study.

Setting

Secondary mental healthcare services from South London PARTICIPANTS: Our maximal sample comprised 17 500 individuals aged 15 years or older who had received a primary or secondary SMI diagnosis (International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition, F20-31) between 2007 and 2018.

Measures

We designed and implemented a data extraction strategy for 21 common physical comorbidities using a natural language processing pipeline, MedCAT. Associations were investigated with sex, age at SMI diagnosis, ethnicity and social deprivation for the whole cohort and the BD and SSD subgroups. Linear regression models were used to examine associations with disability measured by the Health of Nations Outcome Scale.

Results

Physical health data were extracted, achieving precision rates (F1) above 0.90 for all conditions. The 10 most prevalent conditions were diabetes, hypertension, asthma, arthritis, epilepsy, cerebrovascular accident, eczema, migraine, ischaemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The most prevalent combination in this population included diabetes, hypertension and asthma, regardless of their SMI diagnoses.

Conclusions

Our data extraction strategy was found to be adequate to extract physical health data from clinical notes, which is essential for future multimorbidity research using text records. We found that around 40% of our cohort had multimorbidity from which 20% had complex multimorbidity (two or more physical conditions besides SMI). Sex, age, ethnicity and social deprivation were found to be key to understand their heterogeneity and their differential contribution to disability levels in this population. These outputs have direct implications for researchers and clinicians.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/1/e054414.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054414; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8788233; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8788233?pdf=render 36918541,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36997-w,Genetic architecture of spatial electrical biomarkers for cardiac arrhythmia and relationship with cardiovascular disease.,"Young WJ, Haessler J, Benjamins JW, Repetto L, Yao J, Isaacs A, Harper AR, Ramirez J, Garnier S, van Duijvenboden S, Baldassari AR, Concas MP, Duong T, Foco L, Isaksen JL, Mei H, Noordam R, Nursyifa C, Richmond A, Santolalla ML, Sitlani CM, Soroush N, Thériault S, Trompet S, Aeschbacher S, Ahmadizar F, Alonso A, Brody JA, Campbell A, Correa A, Darbar D, De Luca A, Deleuze JF, Ellervik C, Fuchsberger C, Goel A, Grace C, Guo X, Hansen T, Heckbert SR, Jackson RD, Kors JA, Lima-Costa MF, Linneberg A, Macfarlane PW, Morrison AC, Navarro P, Porteous DJ, Pramstaller PP, Reiner AP, Risch L, Schotten U, Shen X, Sinagra G, Soliman EZ, Stoll M, Tarazona-Santos E, Tinker A, Trajanoska K, Villard E, Warren HR, Whitsel EA, Wiggins KL, Arking DE, Avery CL, Conen D, Girotto G, Grarup N, Hayward C, Jukema JW, Mook-Kanamori DO, Olesen MS, Padmanabhan S, Psaty BM, Pattaro C, Ribeiro ALP, Rotter JI, Stricker BH, van der Harst P, van Duijn CM, Verweij N, Wilson JG, Orini M, Charron P, Watkins H, Kooperberg C, Lin HJ, Wilson JF, Kanters JK, Sotoodehnia N, Mifsud B, Lambiase PD, Tereshchenko LG, Munroe PB.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-03-14,Y,,,,"The 3-dimensional spatial and 2-dimensional frontal QRS-T angles are measures derived from the vectorcardiogram. They are independent risk predictors for arrhythmia, but the underlying biology is unknown. Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association studies we identify 61 (58 previously unreported) loci for the spatial QRS-T angle (N = 118,780) and 11 for the frontal QRS-T angle (N = 159,715). Seven out of the 61 spatial QRS-T angle loci have not been reported for other electrocardiographic measures. Enrichments are observed in pathways related to cardiac and vascular development, muscle contraction, and hypertrophy. Pairwise genome-wide association studies with classical ECG traits identify shared genetic influences with PR interval and QRS duration. Phenome-wide scanning indicate associations with atrial fibrillation, atrioventricular block and arterial embolism and genetically determined QRS-T angle measures are associated with fascicular and bundle branch block (and also atrioventricular block for the frontal QRS-T angle). We identify potential biology involved in the QRS-T angle and their genetic relationships with cardiovascular traits and diseases, may inform future research and risk prediction.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36997-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36997-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10015012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10015012?pdf=render -31315158,https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235,Non-invasive coronary CT angiography-derived fractional flow reserve: A benchmark study comparing the diagnostic performance of four different computational methodologies.,"Carson JM, Pant S, Roobottom C, Alcock R, Javier Blanco P, Alberto Bulant C, Vassilevski Y, Simakov S, Gamilov T, Pryamonosov R, Liang F, Ge X, Liu Y, Nithiarasu P.",,International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering,2019,2019-08-16,Y,Fractional Flow Reserve; Benchmark; Haemodynamic Models,,,"Non-invasive coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (cFFR) is an emergent approach to determine the functional relevance of obstructive coronary lesions. Its feasibility and diagnostic performance has been reported in several studies. It is unclear if differences in sensitivity and specificity between these studies are due to study design, population, or ""computational methodology."" We evaluate the diagnostic performance of four different computational workflows for the prediction of cFFR using a limited data set of 10 patients, three based on reduced-order modelling and one based on a 3D rigid-wall model. The results for three of these methodologies yield similar accuracy of 6.5% to 10.5% mean absolute difference between computed and measured FFR. The main aspects of modelling which affected cFFR estimation were choice of inlet and outlet boundary conditions and estimation of flow distribution in the coronary network. One of the reduced-order models showed the lowest overall deviation from the clinical FFR measurements, indicating that reduced-order models are capable of a similar level of accuracy to a 3D model. In addition, this reduced-order model did not include a lumped pressure-drop model for a stenosis, which implies that the additional effort of isolating a stenosis and inserting a pressure-drop element in the spatial mesh may not be required for FFR estimation. The present benchmark study is the first of this kind, in which we attempt to homogenize the data required to compute FFR using mathematical models. The clinical data utilised in the cFFR workflows are made publicly available online.","Retrospective case series of 10 patients having coronary angiogram and invasive fractional flow reserve measurement. The authors used 4 different techniques to estimate coronary vessel flow rate and compared their measurement agreement with clinical FFA measurements and with each other. They found that all 4 methods gave different results, but one approach was more similar with the clinical gold standard. They propose this method with most worthy of further investigaiton.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3235; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543?pdf=render 33203640,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043828,"Estimated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer services and excess 1-year mortality in people with cancer and multimorbidity: near real-time data on cancer care, cancer deaths and a population-based cohort study.","Lai AG, Pasea L, Banerjee A, Hall G, Denaxas S, Chang WH, Katsoulis M, Williams B, Pillay D, Noursadeghi M, Linch D, Hughes D, Forster MD, Turnbull C, Fitzpatrick NK, Boyd K, Foster GR, Enver T, Nafilyan V, Humberstone B, Neal RD, Cooper M, Jones M, Pritchard-Jones K, Sullivan R, Davie C, Lawler M, Hemingway H.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-11-17,Y,Oncology; Health Informatics; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care services and overall (direct and indirect) excess deaths in people with cancer.

Methods

We employed near real-time weekly data on cancer care to determine the adverse effect of the pandemic on cancer services. We also used these data, together with national death registrations until June 2020 to model deaths, in excess of background (pre-COVID-19) mortality, in people with cancer. Background mortality risks for 24 cancers with and without COVID-19-relevant comorbidities were obtained from population-based primary care cohort (Clinical Practice Research Datalink) on 3 862 012 adults in England.

Results

Declines in urgent referrals (median=-70.4%) and chemotherapy attendances (median=-41.5%) to a nadir (lowest point) in the pandemic were observed. By 31 May, these declines have only partially recovered; urgent referrals (median=-44.5%) and chemotherapy attendances (median=-31.2%). There were short-term excess death registrations for cancer (without COVID-19), with peak relative risk (RR) of 1.17 at week ending on 3 April. The peak RR for all-cause deaths was 2.1 from week ending on 17 April. Based on these findings and recent literature, we modelled 40% and 80% of cancer patients being affected by the pandemic in the long-term. At 40% affected, we estimated 1-year total (direct and indirect) excess deaths in people with cancer as between 7165 and 17 910, using RRs of 1.2 and 1.5, respectively, where 78% of excess deaths occured in patients with ≥1 comorbidity.

Conclusions

Dramatic reductions were detected in the demand for, and supply of, cancer services which have not fully recovered with lockdown easing. These may contribute, over a 1-year time horizon, to substantial excess mortality among people with cancer and multimorbidity. It is urgent to understand how the recovery of general practitioner, oncology and other hospital services might best mitigate these long-term excess mortality risks.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e043828.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674020; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674020?pdf=render 37105743,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0353,Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on incidence of long-term conditions in Wales: a population data linkage study using primary and secondary care health records.,"Qi C, Osborne T, Bailey R, Cooper A, Hollinghurst JP, Akbari A, Crowder R, Peters H, Law RJ, Lewis R, Smith D, Edwards A, Lyons RA.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2023,2023-04-27,Y,Diagnosis; Chronic disease; Anxiety; Primary Health Care; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has directly and indirectly had an impact on health service provision owing to surges and sustained pressures on the system. The effects of these pressures on the management of long-term or chronic conditions are not fully understood.

Aim

To explore the effects of COVID-19 on the recorded incidence of 17 long-term conditions.

Design and setting

This was an observational retrospective population data linkage study on the population of Wales using primary and secondary care data within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Method

Monthly rates of new diagnosis between 2000 and 2021 are presented for each long-term condition. Incidence rates post-2020 were compared with expected rates predicted using time series modelling of pre-2020 trends. The proportion of annual incidence is presented by sociodemographic factors: age, sex, social deprivation, ethnicity, frailty, and learning disability.

Results

A total of 5 476 012 diagnoses from 2 257 992 individuals are included. Incidence rates from 2020 to 2021 were lower than mean expected rates across all conditions. The largest relative deficit in incidence was in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease corresponding to 343 (95% confidence interval = 230 to 456) undiagnosed patients per 100 000 population, followed by depression, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, anxiety disorders, and asthma. A GP practice of 10 000 patients might have over 400 undiagnosed long-term conditions. No notable differences between sociodemographic profiles of post- and pre-2020 incidences were observed.

Conclusion

There is a potential backlog of undiagnosed patients with multiple long-term conditions. Resources are required to tackle anticipated workload as part of COVID-19 recovery, particularly in primary care.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/03/06/BJGP.2022.0353.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0353; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656?pdf=render +31315158,https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235,Non-invasive coronary CT angiography-derived fractional flow reserve: A benchmark study comparing the diagnostic performance of four different computational methodologies.,"Carson JM, Pant S, Roobottom C, Alcock R, Javier Blanco P, Alberto Bulant C, Vassilevski Y, Simakov S, Gamilov T, Pryamonosov R, Liang F, Ge X, Liu Y, Nithiarasu P.",,International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering,2019,2019-08-16,Y,Fractional Flow Reserve; Benchmark; Haemodynamic Models,,,"Non-invasive coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (cFFR) is an emergent approach to determine the functional relevance of obstructive coronary lesions. Its feasibility and diagnostic performance has been reported in several studies. It is unclear if differences in sensitivity and specificity between these studies are due to study design, population, or ""computational methodology."" We evaluate the diagnostic performance of four different computational workflows for the prediction of cFFR using a limited data set of 10 patients, three based on reduced-order modelling and one based on a 3D rigid-wall model. The results for three of these methodologies yield similar accuracy of 6.5% to 10.5% mean absolute difference between computed and measured FFR. The main aspects of modelling which affected cFFR estimation were choice of inlet and outlet boundary conditions and estimation of flow distribution in the coronary network. One of the reduced-order models showed the lowest overall deviation from the clinical FFR measurements, indicating that reduced-order models are capable of a similar level of accuracy to a 3D model. In addition, this reduced-order model did not include a lumped pressure-drop model for a stenosis, which implies that the additional effort of isolating a stenosis and inserting a pressure-drop element in the spatial mesh may not be required for FFR estimation. The present benchmark study is the first of this kind, in which we attempt to homogenize the data required to compute FFR using mathematical models. The clinical data utilised in the cFFR workflows are made publicly available online.","Retrospective case series of 10 patients having coronary angiogram and invasive fractional flow reserve measurement. The authors used 4 different techniques to estimate coronary vessel flow rate and compared their measurement agreement with clinical FFA measurements and with each other. They found that all 4 methods gave different results, but one approach was more similar with the clinical gold standard. They propose this method with most worthy of further investigaiton.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3235; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543?pdf=render 37042240,https://doi.org/10.1161/circimaging.122.014519,Explainable Artificial Intelligence and Cardiac Imaging: Toward More Interpretable Models.,"Salih A, Boscolo Galazzo I, Gkontra P, Lee AM, Lekadir K, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Petersen SE.",,Circulation. Cardiovascular imaging,2023,2023-04-12,N,Artificial intelligence; Diagnostic Imaging; Machine Learning; Cardiac Imaging Techniques,,,"Artificial intelligence applications have shown success in different medical and health care domains, and cardiac imaging is no exception. However, some machine learning models, especially deep learning, are considered black box as they do not provide an explanation or rationale for model outcomes. Complexity and vagueness in these models necessitate a transition to explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) methods to ensure that model results are both transparent and understandable to end users. In cardiac imaging studies, there are a limited number of papers that use XAI methodologies. This article provides a comprehensive literature review of state-of-the-art works using XAI methods for cardiac imaging. Moreover, it provides simple and comprehensive guidelines on XAI. Finally, open issues and directions for XAI in cardiac imaging are discussed.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.122.014519 -34353320,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x,Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: an electronic birth cohort study.,"Lowthian E, Anthony R, Evans A, Daniel R, Long S, Bandyopadhyay A, John A, Bellis MA, Paranjothy S.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-08-06,Y,Survival analysis; Cohort; Mental health; Wales; Administrative Data; Adverse Childhood Experiences,,,"

Background

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are negatively associated with a range of child health outcomes. In this study, we explored associations between five individual ACEs and child mental health diagnoses or symptoms. ACEs included living with someone who had an alcohol-related problem, common mental health disorder or serious mental illness, or experienced victimisation or death of a household member.

Methods

We analysed data from a population-level electronic cohort of children in Wales, UK, (N = 191,035) between the years of 1998 and 2012. We used Cox regression with discrete time-varying exposure variables to model time to child mental health diagnosis during the first 15 years of life. Child mental health diagnoses include five categories: (i) externalising symptoms (anti-social behaviour), (ii) internalising symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression), (iii) developmental delay (e.g. learning disability), (iv) other (e.g. eating disorder, personality disorders), and (v) any mental health diagnosis, which was created by combining externalising symptoms, internalising symptoms and other. Our analyses were adjusted for social deprivation and perinatal risk factors.

Results

There were strong univariable associations between the five individual ACEs, sociodemographic and perinatal factors (e.g. gestational weight at birth) and an increased risk of child mental health diagnoses. After adjusting for sociodemographic and perinatal aspects, there was a remaining conditional increased risk of any child mental health diagnosis, associated with victimisation (conditional hazard ratio (cHR) 1.90, CI 95% 1.34-2.69), and living with an adult with a common mental health diagnosis (cHR 1.63, CI 95% 1.52-1.75). Coefficients of product terms between ACEs and deprivation were not statistically significant.

Conclusion

The increased risk of child mental health diagnosis associated with victimisation, or exposure to common mental health diagnoses, and alcohol problems in the household supports the need for policy measures and intervention strategies for children and their families.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166?pdf=render 35301875,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.121.023146,Long-Term Cardiovascular Risk and Management of Patients Recorded in Primary Care With Unattributed Chest Pain: An Electronic Health Record Study.,"Jordan KP, Rathod-Mistry T, Bailey J, Chen Y, Clarson L, Denaxas S, Hayward RA, Hemingway H, van der Windt DA, Mamas MA.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2022,2022-03-18,Y,Cardiovascular disease; Chest pain; Primary Care; Electronic Health Records,,,"Background Most adults presenting with chest pain will not receive a diagnosis and be recorded with unattributed chest pain. The objective was to assess if they have increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared with those with noncoronary chest pain and determine whether investigations and interventions are targeted at those at highest risk. Methods and Results We used records from general practices in England linked to hospitalization and mortality information. The study population included patients aged 18 years or over with a new record of chest pain with a noncoronary cause or unattributed between 2002 and 2018, and no cardiovascular disease recorded up to 6 months (diagnostic window) afterward. We compared risk of a future cardiovascular event by type of chest pain, adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors and alternative explanations for chest pain. We determined prevalence of cardiac diagnostic investigations and preventative medication during the diagnostic window in patients with estimated cardiovascular risk ≥10%. There were 375 240 patients with unattributed chest pain (245 329 noncoronary chest pain). There was an increased risk of cardiovascular events for patients with unattributed chest pain, highest in the first year (hazard ratio, 1.25 [95% CI, 1.21-1.29]), persistent up to 10 years. Patients with unattributed chest pain had consistently increased risk of myocardial infarction over time but no increased risk of stroke. Thirty percent of patients at higher risk were prescribed lipid-lowering medication. Conclusions Patients presenting to primary care with unattributed chest pain are at increased risk of cardiovascular events. Primary prevention to reduce cardiovascular events appears suboptimal in those at higher risk.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.121.023146; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.023146; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075433; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075433?pdf=render +34353320,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x,Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: an electronic birth cohort study.,"Lowthian E, Anthony R, Evans A, Daniel R, Long S, Bandyopadhyay A, John A, Bellis MA, Paranjothy S.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-08-06,Y,Survival analysis; Cohort; Mental health; Wales; Administrative Data; Adverse Childhood Experiences,,,"

Background

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are negatively associated with a range of child health outcomes. In this study, we explored associations between five individual ACEs and child mental health diagnoses or symptoms. ACEs included living with someone who had an alcohol-related problem, common mental health disorder or serious mental illness, or experienced victimisation or death of a household member.

Methods

We analysed data from a population-level electronic cohort of children in Wales, UK, (N = 191,035) between the years of 1998 and 2012. We used Cox regression with discrete time-varying exposure variables to model time to child mental health diagnosis during the first 15 years of life. Child mental health diagnoses include five categories: (i) externalising symptoms (anti-social behaviour), (ii) internalising symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression), (iii) developmental delay (e.g. learning disability), (iv) other (e.g. eating disorder, personality disorders), and (v) any mental health diagnosis, which was created by combining externalising symptoms, internalising symptoms and other. Our analyses were adjusted for social deprivation and perinatal risk factors.

Results

There were strong univariable associations between the five individual ACEs, sociodemographic and perinatal factors (e.g. gestational weight at birth) and an increased risk of child mental health diagnoses. After adjusting for sociodemographic and perinatal aspects, there was a remaining conditional increased risk of any child mental health diagnosis, associated with victimisation (conditional hazard ratio (cHR) 1.90, CI 95% 1.34-2.69), and living with an adult with a common mental health diagnosis (cHR 1.63, CI 95% 1.52-1.75). Coefficients of product terms between ACEs and deprivation were not statistically significant.

Conclusion

The increased risk of child mental health diagnosis associated with victimisation, or exposure to common mental health diagnoses, and alcohol problems in the household supports the need for policy measures and intervention strategies for children and their families.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166?pdf=render 32516805,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa375,Performance of the GRACE 2.0 score in patients with type 1 and type 2 myocardial infarction.,"Hung J, Roos A, Kadesjö E, McAllister DA, Kimenai DM, Shah ASV, Anand A, Strachan FE, Fox KAA, Mills NL, Chapman AR, Holzmann MJ.",,European heart journal,2021,2021-07-01,Y,Troponin; Grace; Type 2 Myocardial Infarction; High-sensitivity; Universal Definition; Type 1 Myocardial Infarction,,,"

Aims

The Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score was developed to evaluate risk in patients with myocardial infarction. However, its performance in type 2 myocardial infarction is uncertain.

Methods and results

In two cohorts of consecutive patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome from 10 hospitals in Scotland (n = 48 282) and a tertiary care hospital in Sweden (n = 22 589), we calculated the GRACE 2.0 score to estimate death at 1 year. Discrimination was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC), and compared for those with an adjudicated diagnosis of type 1 and type 2 myocardial infarction using DeLong's test. Type 1 myocardial infarction was diagnosed in 4981 (10%) and 1080 (5%) patients in Scotland and Sweden, respectively. At 1 year, 720 (15%) and 112 (10%) patients died with an AUC for the GRACE 2.0 score of 0.83 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82-0.85] and 0.85 (95% CI 0.81-0.89). Type 2 myocardial infarction occurred in 1121 (2%) and 247 (1%) patients in Scotland and Sweden, respectively, with 258 (23%) and 57 (23%) deaths at 1 year. The AUC was 0.73 (95% CI 0.70-0.77) and 0.73 (95% CI 0.66-0.81) in type 2 myocardial infarction, which was lower than for type 1 myocardial infarction in both cohorts (P < 0.001 and P = 0.008, respectively).

Conclusion

The GRACE 2.0 score provided good discrimination for all-cause death at 1 year in patients with type 1 myocardial infarction, and moderate discrimination for those with type 2 myocardial infarction.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01852123.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa375; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa375; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8266602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8266602?pdf=render 30950797,https://doi.org/10.2196/12286,Applications of Machine Learning in Real-Life Digital Health Interventions: Review of the Literature.,"Triantafyllidis AK, Tsanas A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2019,2019-04-05,Y,Artificial intelligence; Review; data mining; Telemedicine; Machine Learning; Digital Health,Applied Analytics,,"

Background

Machine learning has attracted considerable research interest toward developing smart digital health interventions. These interventions have the potential to revolutionize health care and lead to substantial outcomes for patients and medical professionals.

Objective

Our objective was to review the literature on applications of machine learning in real-life digital health interventions, aiming to improve the understanding of researchers, clinicians, engineers, and policy makers in developing robust and impactful data-driven interventions in the health care domain.

Methods

We searched the PubMed and Scopus bibliographic databases with terms related to machine learning, to identify real-life studies of digital health interventions incorporating machine learning algorithms. We grouped those interventions according to their target (ie, target condition), study design, number of enrolled participants, follow-up duration, primary outcome and whether this had been statistically significant, machine learning algorithms used in the intervention, and outcome of the algorithms (eg, prediction).

Results

Our literature search identified 8 interventions incorporating machine learning in a real-life research setting, of which 3 (37%) were evaluated in a randomized controlled trial and 5 (63%) in a pilot or experimental single-group study. The interventions targeted depression prediction and management, speech recognition for people with speech disabilities, self-efficacy for weight loss, detection of changes in biopsychosocial condition of patients with multiple morbidity, stress management, treatment of phantom limb pain, smoking cessation, and personalized nutrition based on glycemic response. The average number of enrolled participants in the studies was 71 (range 8-214), and the average follow-up study duration was 69 days (range 3-180). Of the 8 interventions, 6 (75%) showed statistical significance (at the P=.05 level) in health outcomes.

Conclusions

This review found that digital health interventions incorporating machine learning algorithms in real-life studies can be useful and effective. Given the low number of studies identified in this review and that they did not follow a rigorous machine learning evaluation methodology, we urge the research community to conduct further studies in intervention settings following evaluation principles and demonstrating the potential of machine learning in clinical practice.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2019/4/e12286/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/12286; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473205 36748660,https://doi.org/10.1111/head.14465,Depression and anxiety in women with idiopathic intracranial hypertension compared to migraine: A matched controlled cohort study.,"Mollan SP, Subramanian A, Perrins M, Nirantharakumar K, Adderley NJ, Sinclair AJ.",,Headache,2023,2023-02-07,N,Depression; Migraine; Anxiety; epidemiology; Primary Care; Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension,,,"

Objective

To evaluate mental health burden in women with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) compared to matched women with migraine and population controls.

Background

Depression and anxiety are recognized comorbid conditions in those with IIH and lead to worse predicted medical outcomes. The mental health burden in IIH has not been previously evaluated in a large, matched cohort study.

Methods

We performed a population-based matched, retrospective cohort study to explore mental health outcomes (depression and anxiety). We used data from IQVIA Medical Research Data, an anonymized, nationally representative primary care electronic medical records database in the United Kingdom, from January 1, 1995, to September 25, 2019. Women aged ≥16 years were eligible for inclusion. Women with IIH (exposure) were matched by age and body mass index with up to 10 control women without IIH but with migraine (migraine controls), and without IIH or migraine (population controls).

Results

A total of 3411 women with IIH, 30,879 migraine controls and 33,495 population controls were included. Of these, 237, 2372 and 1695 women with IIH, migraine controls and population controls, respectively, developed depression during follow-up, and 179, 1826 and 1197, respectively, developed anxiety. There was a greater hazard of depression and anxiety in IIH compared to population controls (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20-1.58; and aHR 1.40, 95% CI 1.19-1.64, respectively), while hazards were similar to migraine controls (aHR 0.98, 95% CI 0.86-1.13; and aHR 0.98, 95% CI 0.83-1.14, respectively).

Conclusion

Depression and anxiety burden in women with IIH is higher than in the general population, and comparable to that in matched women with migraine. This may indicate that presence of headache is a potential driver for comorbid depression and anxiety in IIH.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/head.14465; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/head.14465 @@ -638,17 +638,17 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 36764720,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063836,"Weighting of risk factors for low birth weight: a linked routine data cohort study in Wales, UK.","Bandyopadhyay A, Jones H, Parker M, Marchant E, Evans J, Todd C, Rahman MA, Healy J, Win TL, Rowe B, Moore S, Jones A, Brophy S.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-02-10,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Statistics & Research Methods,,,"

Objective

Globally, 20 million children are born with a birth weight below 2500 g every year, which is considered as a low birthweight (LBW) baby. This study investigates the contribution of modifiable risk factors in a nationally representative Welsh e-cohort of children and their mothers to inform opportunities to reduce LBW prevalence.

Design

A longitudinal cohort study based on anonymously linked, routinely collected multiple administrative data sets.

Participants

The cohort, (N=693 377) comprising of children born between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2018 in Wales, was selected from the National Community Child Health Database.

Outcome measures

The risk factors associated with a binary LBW (outcome) variable were investigated with multivariable logistic regression (MLR) and decision tree (DT) models.

Results

The MLR model showed that non-singleton children had the highest risk of LBW (adjusted OR 21.74 (95% CI 21.09 to 22.40)), followed by pregnancy interval less than 1 year (2.92 (95% CI 2.70 to 3.15)), maternal physical and mental health conditions including diabetes (2.03 (1.81 to 2.28)), anaemia (1.26 (95% CI 1.16 to 1.36)), depression (1.58 (95% CI 1.43 to 1.75)), serious mental illness (1.46 (95% CI 1.04 to 2.05)), anxiety (1.22 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.38)) and use of antidepressant medication during pregnancy (1.92 (95% CI 1.20 to 3.07)). Additional maternal risk factors include smoking (1.80 (95% CI 1.76 to 1.84)), alcohol-related hospital admission (1.60 (95% CI 1.30 to 1.97)), substance misuse (1.35 (95% CI 1.29 to 1.41)) and evidence of domestic abuse (1.98 (95% CI 1.39 to 2.81)). Living in less deprived area has lower risk of LBW (0.70 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.72)). The most important risk factors from the DT models include maternal factors such as smoking, maternal weight, substance misuse record, maternal age along with deprivation-Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation score, pregnancy interval and birth order of the child.

Conclusion

Resources to reduce the prevalence of LBW should focus on improving maternal health, reducing preterm births, increasing awareness of what is a sufficient pregnancy interval, and to provide adequate support for mothers' mental health and well-being.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e063836.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063836; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923297; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923297?pdf=render 32620158,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-020-00792-6,Epigenomics and genotype-phenotype association analyses reveal conserved genetic architecture of complex traits in cattle and human.,"Liu S, Yu Y, Zhang S, Cole JB, Tenesa A, Wang T, McDaneld TG, Ma L, Liu GE, Fang L.",,BMC biology,2020,2020-07-03,Y,Comparative Epigenomics; Gwas Enrichment; Human-cattle Comparison; Trait-relevant Tissues,,,"

Background

Lack of comprehensive functional annotations across a wide range of tissues and cell types severely hinders the biological interpretations of phenotypic variation, adaptive evolution, and domestication in livestock. Here we used a combination of comparative epigenomics, genome-wide association study (GWAS), and selection signature analysis, to shed light on potential adaptive evolution in cattle.

Results

We cross-mapped 8 histone marks of 1300 samples from human to cattle, covering 178 unique tissues/cell types. By uniformly analyzing 723 RNA-seq and 40 whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) datasets in cattle, we validated that cross-mapped histone marks captured tissue-specific expression and methylation, reflecting tissue-relevant biology. Through integrating cross-mapped tissue-specific histone marks with large-scale GWAS and selection signature results, we for the first time detected relevant tissues and cell types for 45 economically important traits and artificial selection in cattle. For instance, immune tissues are significantly associated with health and reproduction traits, multiple tissues for milk production and body conformation traits (reflecting their highly polygenic architecture), and thyroid for the different selection between beef and dairy cattle. Similarly, we detected relevant tissues for 58 complex traits and diseases in humans and observed that immune and fertility traits in humans significantly correlated with those in cattle in terms of relevant tissues, which facilitated the identification of causal genes for such traits. For instance, PIK3CG, a gene highly specifically expressed in mononuclear cells, was significantly associated with both age-at-menopause in human and daughter-still-birth in cattle. ICAM, a T cell-specific gene, was significantly associated with both allergic diseases in human and metritis in cattle.

Conclusion

Collectively, our results highlighted that comparative epigenomics in conjunction with GWAS and selection signature analyses could provide biological insights into the phenotypic variation and adaptive evolution. Cattle may serve as a model for human complex traits, by providing additional information beyond laboratory model organisms, particularly when more novel phenotypes become available in the near future.",,pdf:https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12915-020-00792-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-020-00792-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7334855; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7334855?pdf=render 35365351,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.03.039,Injury severity and increased socioeconomic differences: A population-based cohort study.,"Madsen C, Gabbe BJ, Holvik K, Alver K, Grøholt EK, Lund J, Lyons J, Lyons RA, Ohm E.",,Injury,2022,2022-03-24,N,Injury; Socioeconomic status; Hospitalization; Iciss; Injury-vibes; Risk-adjusted Severity,,,"

Background

Several studies have documented an inverse gradient between socioeconomic status (SES) and injury mortality, but the evidence is less consistent for injury morbidity. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between SES and injury severity for acute hospitalizations in a nationwide population-based cohort.

Methods

We conducted a registry-based cohort study of all individuals aged 25-64 years residing in Norway by 1st of January 2008. This cohort was followed from 2008 through 2014 using inpatient registrations for acute hospitalizations due to all-cause injuries. We derived two measures of severity: threat-to-life using the International Classification of Disease-based Injury Severity Score (ICISS), and threat of disability using long-term disability weights from the Injury-VIBES project. Robust Poisson regression models, with adjustment for age, sex, marital status, immigrant status, municipality population size and healthcare region of residence, were used to calculate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) by SES measured as an index of education, income, and occupation.

Results

We identified 177,663 individuals (7% of the population) hospitalized with at least one acute injury in the observation period. Two percent (n = 4,186) had injuries categorized with high threat-to-life, while one quarter (n = 43,530) had injuries with high threat of disability. The overall adjusted IRR of hospitalization among people with low compared to high SES was 1.57 (95% CI 1.55, 1.60). Comparing low to high SES, injuries with low threat-to-life were associated with an IRR of 1.56 (95% CI 1.54, 1.59), while injuries with high threat-to-life had an IRR of 2.25 (95% CI 2.03, 2.51). Comparing low to high SES, injuries with low, medium, and high threat of disability were associated with IRRs of respectively, 1.15 (95% CI 1.11, 1.19), 1.70 (95% CI 1.66, 1.73) and 1.99 (95% CI 1.92, 2.07).

Discussion

We observed an inverse gradient between SES and injury morbidity, with the steepest gradient for the most severe injuries. This suggests a need for targeted preventive measures to reduce the magnitude and burden of severe injuries for patients with low socioeconomic status.",,pdf:http://www.injuryjournal.com/article/S0020138322002327/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.03.039 -36112916,https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853,Inferring risks of coronavirus transmission from community household data.,"House T, Riley H, Pellis L, Pouwels KB, Bacon S, Eidukas A, Jahanshahi K, Eggo RM, Sarah Walker A.",,Statistical methods in medical research,2022,2022-09-01,Y,Infection; Model; epidemic; risk factors; Covid-19,,,"The response of many governments to the COVID-19 pandemic has involved measures to control within- and between-household transmission, providing motivation to improve understanding of the absolute and relative risks in these contexts. Here, we perform exploratory, residual-based, and transmission-dynamic household analysis of the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey data from 26 April 2020 to 15 July 2021 in England. This provides evidence for: (i) temporally varying rates of introduction of infection into households broadly following the trajectory of the overall epidemic and vaccination programme; (ii) susceptible-Infectious transmission probabilities of within-household transmission in the 15-35% range; (iii) the emergence of the Alpha and Delta variants, with the former being around 50% more infectious than wildtype and 35% less infectious than Delta within households; (iv) significantly (in the range of 25-300%) more risk of bringing infection into the household for workers in patient-facing roles pre-vaccine; (v) increased risk for secondary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools are open; (vi) increased risk for primary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools were open since the emergence of new variants.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559?pdf=render 35945198,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32095-5,Transferability of genetic loci and polygenic scores for cardiometabolic traits in British Pakistani and Bangladeshi individuals.,"Huang QQ, Sallah N, Dunca D, Trivedi B, Hunt KA, Hodgson S, Lambert SA, Arciero E, Wright J, Griffiths C, Trembath RC, Hemingway H, Inouye M, Finer S, van Heel DA, Lumbers RT, Martin HC, Kuchenbaecker K.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-08-09,Y,,,,"Individuals with South Asian ancestry have a higher risk of heart disease than other groups but have been largely excluded from genetic research. Using data from 22,000 British Pakistani and Bangladeshi individuals with linked electronic health records from the Genes & Health cohort, we conducted genome-wide association studies of coronary artery disease and its key risk factors. Using power-adjusted transferability ratios, we found evidence for transferability for the majority of cardiometabolic loci powered to replicate. The performance of polygenic scores was high for lipids and blood pressure, but lower for BMI and coronary artery disease. Adding a polygenic score for coronary artery disease to clinical risk factors showed significant improvement in reclassification. In Mendelian randomisation using transferable loci as instruments, our findings were consistent with results in European-ancestry individuals. Taken together, trait-specific transferability of trait loci between populations is an important consideration with implications for risk prediction and causal inference.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32095-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32095-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9363492; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9363492?pdf=render +36112916,https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853,Inferring risks of coronavirus transmission from community household data.,"House T, Riley H, Pellis L, Pouwels KB, Bacon S, Eidukas A, Jahanshahi K, Eggo RM, Sarah Walker A.",,Statistical methods in medical research,2022,2022-09-01,Y,Infection; Model; epidemic; risk factors; Covid-19,,,"The response of many governments to the COVID-19 pandemic has involved measures to control within- and between-household transmission, providing motivation to improve understanding of the absolute and relative risks in these contexts. Here, we perform exploratory, residual-based, and transmission-dynamic household analysis of the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey data from 26 April 2020 to 15 July 2021 in England. This provides evidence for: (i) temporally varying rates of introduction of infection into households broadly following the trajectory of the overall epidemic and vaccination programme; (ii) susceptible-Infectious transmission probabilities of within-household transmission in the 15-35% range; (iii) the emergence of the Alpha and Delta variants, with the former being around 50% more infectious than wildtype and 35% less infectious than Delta within households; (iv) significantly (in the range of 25-300%) more risk of bringing infection into the household for workers in patient-facing roles pre-vaccine; (v) increased risk for secondary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools are open; (vi) increased risk for primary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools were open since the emergence of new variants.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559?pdf=render 34649997,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-0437,"Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Combined Oral Contraceptives, and the Risk of Dysglycemia: A Population-Based Cohort Study With a Nested Pharmacoepidemiological Case-Control Study.","Kumarendran B, O'Reilly MW, Subramanian A, Šumilo D, Toulis K, Gokhale KM, Wijeratne CN, Coomarasamy A, Tahrani AA, Azoulay L, Arlt W, Nirantharakumar K.",,Diabetes care,2021,2021-10-14,Y,,,,"

Objective

Irregular menstrual cycles are associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by androgen excess and irregular menses; androgens are drivers of increased metabolic risk in women with PCOS. Combined oral contraceptive pills (COCPs) are used in PCOS both for cycle regulation and to reduce the biologically active androgen fraction. We examined COCP use and risk of dysglycemia (prediabetes and type 2 diabetes) in women with PCOS.

Research design and methods

Using a large U.K. primary care database (The Health Improvement Network [THIN]; 3.7 million patients from 787 practices), we carried out a retrospective population-based cohort study to determine dysglycemia risk (64,051 women with PCOS and 123,545 matched control subjects), as well as a nested pharmacoepidemiological case-control study to investigate COCP use in relation to dysglycemia risk (2,407 women with PCOS with [case subjects] and without [control subjects] a diagnosis of dysglycemia during follow-up). Cox models were used to estimate the unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratio, and conditional logistic regression was used to obtain adjusted odds ratios (aORs).

Results

The adjusted hazard ratio for dysglycemia in women with PCOS was 1.87 (95% CI 1.78-1.97, P < 0.001; adjustment for age, social deprivation, BMI, ethnicity, and smoking), with increased rates of dysglycemia in all BMI subgroups. Women with PCOS and COCP use had a reduced dysglycemia risk (aOR 0.72, 95% CI 0.59-0.87).

Conclusions

In this study, limited by its retrospective nature and the use of routinely collected electronic general practice record data, which does not allow for exclusion of the impact of prescription-by-indication bias, women with PCOS exposed to COCPs had a reduced risk of dysglycemia across all BMI subgroups. Future prospective studies should be considered for further understanding of these observations and potential causality.",,pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-pdf/44/12/2758/631597/dc210437.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-0437; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8669537; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8669537?pdf=render 33469151,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01613-w,LRIG proteins regulate lipid metabolism via BMP signaling and affect the risk of type 2 diabetes.,"Herdenberg C, Mutie PM, Billing O, Abdullah A, Strawbridge RJ, Dahlman I, Tuck S, Holmlund C, Arner P, Henriksson R, Franks PW, Hedman H.",,Communications biology,2021,2021-01-19,Y,,,,"Leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains (LRIG) proteins have been implicated as regulators of growth factor signaling; however, the possible redundancy among mammalian LRIG1, LRIG2, and LRIG3 has hindered detailed elucidation of their physiological functions. Here, we show that Lrig-null mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) are deficient in adipogenesis and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling. In contrast, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) and receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling appeared unaltered in Lrig-null cells. The BMP signaling defect was rescued by ectopic expression of LRIG1 or LRIG3 but not by expression of LRIG2. Caenorhabditis elegans with mutant LRIG/sma-10 variants also exhibited a lipid storage defect. Human LRIG1 variants were strongly associated with increased body mass index (BMI) yet protected against type 2 diabetes; these effects were likely mediated by altered adipocyte morphology. These results demonstrate that LRIG proteins function as evolutionarily conserved regulators of lipid metabolism and BMP signaling and have implications for human disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01613-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01613-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7815736; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7815736?pdf=render +31857590,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6,Machine learning for the detection of early immunological markers as predictors of multi-organ dysfunction.,"Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Hazeldine J, Bentley C, Foster M, Gkoutos GV, Lord JM.",,Scientific data,2019,2019-12-19,Y,,,,"The immune response to major trauma has been analysed mainly within post-hospital admission settings where the inflammatory response is already underway and the early drivers of clinical outcome cannot be readily determined. Thus, there is a need to better understand the immediate immune response to injury and how this might influence important patient outcomes such as multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). In this study, we have assessed the immune response to trauma in 61 patients at three different post-injury time points (ultra-early (<=1 h), 4-12 h, 48-72 h) and analysed relationships with the development of MODS. We developed a pipeline using Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator and Elastic Net feature selection methods that were able to identify 3 physiological features (decrease in neutrophil CD62L and CD63 expression and monocyte CD63 expression and frequency) as possible biomarkers for MODS development. After univariate and multivariate analysis for each feature alongside a stability analysis, the addition of these 3 markers to standard clinical trauma injury severity scores yields a Generalized Liner Model (GLM) with an average Area Under the Curve value of 0.92 ± 0.06. This performance provides an 8% improvement over the Probability of Survival (PS14) outcome measure and a 13% improvement over the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) for identifying patients at risk of MODS.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0337-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383?pdf=render 36543561,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0156,Anticoagulation in older people with atrial fibrillation moving to care homes: a data linkage study.,"Ritchie LA, Harrison SL, Penson PE, Akbari A, Torabi F, Hollinghurst J, Harris D, Oke OB, Akpan A, Halcox JP, Rodgers SE, Lip GY, Lane DA.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2023,2022-12-21,Y,"Anticoagulants; Atrial fibrillation; Primary Health Care; Nursing Homes; Long-term Care; Practice Patterns, Physicians’",,,"

Background

Treatment decisions about oral anticoagulants (OACs) for atrial fibrillation (AF) are complex in older care home residents.

Aim

To explore factors associated with OAC prescription.

Design and setting

Retrospective cohort study set in care homes in Wales, UK, listed in the Care Inspectorate Wales Registry 2017/18.

Method

Analysis of anonymised individual-level electronic health and administrative data was carried out on people aged ≥65 years entering a care home between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2018, provisioned from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank.

Results

Between 2003 and 2018, 14 493 people with AF aged ≥65 years became new residents in care homes in Wales and 7057 (48.7%) were prescribed OACs (32.7% in 2003 compared with 72.7% in 2018) within 6 months before care home entry. Increasing age and prescription of antiplatelet therapy were associated with lower odds of OAC prescription (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.96 per 1-year age increase, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95 to 0.96 and aOR 0.91, 95% CI = 0.84 to 0.98, respectively). Conversely, prior venous thromboembolism (aOR 4.06, 95% CI = 3.17 to 5.20), advancing frailty (mild: aOR 4.61, 95% CI = 3.95 to 5.38; moderate: aOR 6.69, 95% CI = 5.74 to 7.80; and severe: aOR 8.42, 95% CI = 7.16 to 9.90), and year of care home entry from 2011 onwards (aOR 1.91, 95% CI = 1.76 to 2.06) were associated with higher odds of an OAC prescription.

Conclusion

There has been an increase in OAC prescribing in older people newly admitted to care homes with AF. This study provides an insight into the factors influencing OAC prescribing in this population.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/73/726/e43.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0156; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799341; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799341?pdf=render 35290719,https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12635,"Incidence, morbidity, mortality and disparities in dementia: A population linked electronic health records study of 4.3 million individuals.","Chung SC, Providencia R, Sofat R, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Torralbo A, Fatemifar G, Fitzpatrick NK, Taylor J, Li K, Dale C, Rossor M, Acosta-Mena D, Whittaker J, Denaxas S.",,Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association,2023,2022-03-15,Y,Mortality; Alzheimer's disease; Vascular dementia; Cause of death; Dementia; epidemiology; incidence; United Kingdom; Health Inequality; Comorbidity; Electronic Health Records; Hospitalizations; Health-care Use,,,"

Introduction

We report dementia incidence, comorbidities, reasons for health-care visits, mortality, causes of death, and examined dementia patterns by relative deprivation in the UK.

Method

A longitudinal cohort analysis of linked electronic health records from 4.3 million people in the UK was conducted to investigate dementia incidence and mortality. Reasons for hospitalization and causes of death were compared in individuals with and without dementia.

Results

From 1998 to 2016 we observed 145,319 (3.1%) individuals with incident dementia. Repeated hospitalizations among senior adults for infection, unknown morbidity, and multiple primary care visits for chronic pain were observed prior to dementia diagnosis. Multiple long-term conditions are present in half of the individuals at the time of diagnosis. Individuals living in high deprivation areas had higher dementia incidence and high fatality.

Discussion

There is a considerable disparity of dementia that informs priorities of prevention and provision of patient care.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145566/1/ChungIncidence%2C%20morbidity%2C%20mortality%20and%20disparities%20in%20dementia_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12635; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10078672; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10078672?pdf=render -31857590,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6,Machine learning for the detection of early immunological markers as predictors of multi-organ dysfunction.,"Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Hazeldine J, Bentley C, Foster M, Gkoutos GV, Lord JM.",,Scientific data,2019,2019-12-19,Y,,,,"The immune response to major trauma has been analysed mainly within post-hospital admission settings where the inflammatory response is already underway and the early drivers of clinical outcome cannot be readily determined. Thus, there is a need to better understand the immediate immune response to injury and how this might influence important patient outcomes such as multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). In this study, we have assessed the immune response to trauma in 61 patients at three different post-injury time points (ultra-early (<=1 h), 4-12 h, 48-72 h) and analysed relationships with the development of MODS. We developed a pipeline using Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator and Elastic Net feature selection methods that were able to identify 3 physiological features (decrease in neutrophil CD62L and CD63 expression and monocyte CD63 expression and frequency) as possible biomarkers for MODS development. After univariate and multivariate analysis for each feature alongside a stability analysis, the addition of these 3 markers to standard clinical trauma injury severity scores yields a Generalized Liner Model (GLM) with an average Area Under the Curve value of 0.92 ± 0.06. This performance provides an 8% improvement over the Probability of Survival (PS14) outcome measure and a 13% improvement over the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) for identifying patients at risk of MODS.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0337-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383?pdf=render -37679419,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01462-3,"GWAS of random glucose in 476,326 individuals provide insights into diabetes pathophysiology, complications and treatment stratification.","Lagou V, Jiang L, Ulrich A, Zudina L, González KSG, Balkhiyarova Z, Faggian A, Maina JG, Chen S, Todorov PV, Sharapov S, David A, Marullo L, Mägi R, Rujan RM, Ahlqvist E, Thorleifsson G, Gao Η, Εvangelou Ε, Benyamin B, Scott RA, Isaacs A, Zhao JH, Willems SM, Johnson T, Gieger C, Grallert H, Meisinger C, Müller-Nurasyid M, Strawbridge RJ, Goel A, Rybin D, Albrecht E, Jackson AU, Stringham HM, Corrêa IR, Farber-Eger E, Steinthorsdottir V, Uitterlinden AG, Munroe PB, Brown MJ, Schmidberger J, Holmen O, Thorand B, Hveem K, Wilsgaard T, Mohlke KL, Wang Z, GWA-PA Consortium, Shmeliov A, den Hoed M, Loos RJF, Kratzer W, Haenle M, Koenig W, Boehm BO, Tan TM, Tomas A, Salem V, Barroso I, Tuomilehto J, Boehnke M, Florez JC, Hamsten A, Watkins H, Njølstad I, Wichmann HE, Caulfield MJ, Khaw KT, van Duijn CM, Hofman A, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C, Whitfield JB, Martin NG, Montgomery G, Scapoli C, Tzoulaki I, Elliott P, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stefansson K, Brittain EL, McCarthy MI, Froguel P, Sexton PM, Wootten D, Groop L, Dupuis J, Meigs JB, Deganutti G, Demirkan A, Pers TH, Reynolds CA, Aulchenko YS, Kaakinen MA, Jones B, Prokopenko I, Meta-Analysis of Glucose and Insulin-Related Traits Consortium (MAGIC).",,Nature genetics,2023,2023-09-07,Y,,,,"Conventional measurements of fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels investigated in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) cannot capture the effects of DNA variability on 'around the clock' glucoregulatory processes. Here we show that GWAS meta-analysis of glucose measurements under nonstandardized conditions (random glucose (RG)) in 476,326 individuals of diverse ancestries and without diabetes enables locus discovery and innovative pathophysiological observations. We discovered 120 RG loci represented by 150 distinct signals, including 13 with sex-dimorphic effects, two cross-ancestry and seven rare frequency signals. Of these, 44 loci are new for glycemic traits. Regulatory, glycosylation and metagenomic annotations highlight ileum and colon tissues, indicating an underappreciated role of the gastrointestinal tract in controlling blood glucose. Functional follow-up and molecular dynamics simulations of lower frequency coding variants in glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R), a type 2 diabetes treatment target, reveal that optimal selection of GLP-1R agonist therapy will benefit from tailored genetic stratification. We also provide evidence from Mendelian randomization that lung function is modulated by blood glucose and that pulmonary dysfunction is a diabetes complication. Our investigation yields new insights into the biology of glucose regulation, diabetes complications and pathways for treatment stratification.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01462-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484788; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484788?pdf=render 35976089,https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135,"Reference ranges for GDF-15, and risk factors associated with GDF-15, in a large general population cohort.","Welsh P, Kimenai DM, Marioni RE, Hayward C, Campbell A, Porteous D, Mills NL, O'Rahilly S, Sattar N.",,Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine,2022,2022-08-18,N,Biochemical markers; Guidelines; Reference Ranges,,,"

Objectives

Growth differentiation factor (GDF)-15 is attracting interest as a biomarker in several areas of medicine. We aimed to evaluate the reference range for GDF-15 in a general population, and to explore demographics, classical cardiovascular disease risk factors, and other cardiac biomarkers associated with GDF-15.

Methods

GDF-15 was measured in serum from 19,462 individuals in the Generation Scotland Scottish Family Health Study. Associations of cardiometabolic risk factors with GDF-15 were tested using adjusted linear regression. Among 18,507 participants with no heart disease, heart failure, or stroke, and not pregnant, reference ranges (median and 97.5th centiles) were derived by decade age bands and sex.

Results

Among males in the reference range population, median (97.5th centile) GDF-15 concentration at age <30 years was 537 (1,135) pg/mL, rising to 931 (2,492) pg/mL at 50-59 years, and 2,152 (5,972) pg/mL at ≥80 years. In females, median GDF-15 at age <30 years was 628 (2,195) pg/mL, 881 (2,323) pg/mL at 50-59 years, and 1847 (6,830) pg/mL at ≥80 years. Among those known to be pregnant, median GDF-15 was 19,311 pg/mL. After adjustment, GDF-15 was higher in participants with adverse cardiovascular risk factors, including current smoking (+26.1%), those with previous heart disease (+12.7%), stroke (+17.1%), heart failure (+25.3%), and particularly diabetes (+60.2%). GDF-15 had positive associations with cardiac biomarkers cardiac troponin I, cardiac troponin T, and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP).

Conclusions

These data define reference ranges for GDF-15 for comparison in future studies, and identify potentially confounding risk factors and mediators to be considered in interpreting GDF-15 concentrations.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9524804; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9524804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9524804?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135 -33446033,https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458220977579,Identifying strategies to overcome roadblocks to utilising near real-time healthcare and administrative data to create a Scotland-wide learning health system.,"Mukherjee M, Cresswell K, Sheikh A.",,Health informatics journal,2021,2021-01-01,N,Qualitative Research; Governance; Electronic Health Records; Health Data; Learning Health System,,,"Creating a learning health system could help reduce variations in quality of care. Success is dependent on timely access to health data. To explore the barriers and facilitators to timely access to patients' data, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 37 purposively sampled participants from government, the NHS and academia across Scotland. Interviews were analysed using the framework approach. Participants were of the view that Scotland could play a leading role in the exploitation of routine data to drive forward service improvements, but highlighted major impediments: (i) persistence of paper-based records and a variety of information systems; (ii) the need for a proportionate approach to managing information governance; and (iii) the need for support structures to facilitate accrual, processing, linking, analysis and timely use and reuse of data for patient benefit. There is a pressing need to digitise and integrate existing health information infrastructures, guided by a nationwide proportionate information governance approach and the need to enhance technological and human capabilities to support these efforts.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1460458220977579; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458220977579 34765951,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163,Net effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibition in different patient groups: a meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled randomized trials.,"Staplin N, Roddick AJ, Emberson J, Reith C, Riding A, Wonnacott A, Kuverji A, Bhandari S, Baigent C, Haynes R, Herrington WG.",,EClinicalMedicine,2021,2021-10-26,Y,Safety; Heart Failure; Randomized Trials; Ckd; Sodium-glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitors,,,"

Background

The net absolute effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors across different patient groups have not been quantified.

Methods

We performed a meta-analysis of published large (>500 participants/arm) placebo-controlled SGLT-2 inhibitor trials after systematically searching MEDLINE and Embase databases from inception to 28th August 2021 (PROSPERO 2021 CRD42021240468).

Findings

Four heart failure trials (n=15,684 participants), four trials in type 2 diabetes mellitus at high atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk (n=42,568), and three trials in chronic kidney disease (n=19,289) were included. Relative risks (RRs) for all cardiovascular, renal and safety outcomes were broadly similar across these three patient groups, and between people with or without diabetes. Overall, compared to placebo, allocation to SGLT-2 inhibition reduced risk of hospitalization for heart failure or cardiovascular death by 23% (RR=0.77, 95%CI 0.73-0.80; n=6658), cardiovascular death by 14% (0.86, 0.81-0.92; n=3962), major adverse cardiovascular events by 11% (0.89, 0.84-0.94; n=5703), kidney disease progression by 36% (0.64, 0.59-0.70; n=2275), acute kidney injury by 30% (0.70, 0.62-0.79; n=1013 events) and severe hypoglycaemia by 13% (0.87, 0.79-0.97; n=1484). There was no effect of SGLT-2 inhibition on risk of non-cardiovascular death (0.93, 0.86-1.01; n=2226), but a net 12% reduction in all-cause mortality remained evident (0.88, 0.84-0.93; n=6188). However, the risk of ketoacidosis was 2-times higher among those allocated SGLT-2 inhibitors compared to placebo (2.03, 1.41-2.93; n=159; absolute excess in people with diabetes ∼0.3/1000 patient years). A small increased risk of urinary tract infection was evident (1.07, 1.02-1.13; n=5384) alongside a known increased risk of mycotic genital infections. Overall, risk of lower limb amputations was increased by 16% (1.16, 1.02-1.31; n=1074), but this risk was largely driven by a single outlying trial (CANVAS).

Interpretations

The relative effects of SGLT-2 inhibition on key safety and efficacy outcomes are consistent across the different studied groups of patient. Consequently, absolute benefits and harms are determined by the absolute baseline risk of particular outcomes, with absolute benefits on mortality and on non-fatal serious cardiac/renal outcomes substantially exceeding the risks of amputation and ketoacidosis in the main patient groups studied to date.

Funding

MRC-UK & KRUK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171?pdf=render +37679419,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01462-3,"GWAS of random glucose in 476,326 individuals provide insights into diabetes pathophysiology, complications and treatment stratification.","Lagou V, Jiang L, Ulrich A, Zudina L, González KSG, Balkhiyarova Z, Faggian A, Maina JG, Chen S, Todorov PV, Sharapov S, David A, Marullo L, Mägi R, Rujan RM, Ahlqvist E, Thorleifsson G, Gao Η, Εvangelou Ε, Benyamin B, Scott RA, Isaacs A, Zhao JH, Willems SM, Johnson T, Gieger C, Grallert H, Meisinger C, Müller-Nurasyid M, Strawbridge RJ, Goel A, Rybin D, Albrecht E, Jackson AU, Stringham HM, Corrêa IR, Farber-Eger E, Steinthorsdottir V, Uitterlinden AG, Munroe PB, Brown MJ, Schmidberger J, Holmen O, Thorand B, Hveem K, Wilsgaard T, Mohlke KL, Wang Z, GWA-PA Consortium, Shmeliov A, den Hoed M, Loos RJF, Kratzer W, Haenle M, Koenig W, Boehm BO, Tan TM, Tomas A, Salem V, Barroso I, Tuomilehto J, Boehnke M, Florez JC, Hamsten A, Watkins H, Njølstad I, Wichmann HE, Caulfield MJ, Khaw KT, van Duijn CM, Hofman A, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C, Whitfield JB, Martin NG, Montgomery G, Scapoli C, Tzoulaki I, Elliott P, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stefansson K, Brittain EL, McCarthy MI, Froguel P, Sexton PM, Wootten D, Groop L, Dupuis J, Meigs JB, Deganutti G, Demirkan A, Pers TH, Reynolds CA, Aulchenko YS, Kaakinen MA, Jones B, Prokopenko I, Meta-Analysis of Glucose and Insulin-Related Traits Consortium (MAGIC).",,Nature genetics,2023,2023-09-07,Y,,,,"Conventional measurements of fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels investigated in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) cannot capture the effects of DNA variability on 'around the clock' glucoregulatory processes. Here we show that GWAS meta-analysis of glucose measurements under nonstandardized conditions (random glucose (RG)) in 476,326 individuals of diverse ancestries and without diabetes enables locus discovery and innovative pathophysiological observations. We discovered 120 RG loci represented by 150 distinct signals, including 13 with sex-dimorphic effects, two cross-ancestry and seven rare frequency signals. Of these, 44 loci are new for glycemic traits. Regulatory, glycosylation and metagenomic annotations highlight ileum and colon tissues, indicating an underappreciated role of the gastrointestinal tract in controlling blood glucose. Functional follow-up and molecular dynamics simulations of lower frequency coding variants in glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R), a type 2 diabetes treatment target, reveal that optimal selection of GLP-1R agonist therapy will benefit from tailored genetic stratification. We also provide evidence from Mendelian randomization that lung function is modulated by blood glucose and that pulmonary dysfunction is a diabetes complication. Our investigation yields new insights into the biology of glucose regulation, diabetes complications and pathways for treatment stratification.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01462-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484788; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484788?pdf=render +33446033,https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458220977579,Identifying strategies to overcome roadblocks to utilising near real-time healthcare and administrative data to create a Scotland-wide learning health system.,"Mukherjee M, Cresswell K, Sheikh A.",,Health informatics journal,2021,2021-01-01,N,Qualitative Research; Governance; Electronic Health Records; Health Data; Learning Health System,,,"Creating a learning health system could help reduce variations in quality of care. Success is dependent on timely access to health data. To explore the barriers and facilitators to timely access to patients' data, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 37 purposively sampled participants from government, the NHS and academia across Scotland. Interviews were analysed using the framework approach. Participants were of the view that Scotland could play a leading role in the exploitation of routine data to drive forward service improvements, but highlighted major impediments: (i) persistence of paper-based records and a variety of information systems; (ii) the need for a proportionate approach to managing information governance; and (iii) the need for support structures to facilitate accrual, processing, linking, analysis and timely use and reuse of data for patient benefit. There is a pressing need to digitise and integrate existing health information infrastructures, guided by a nationwide proportionate information governance approach and the need to enhance technological and human capabilities to support these efforts.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1460458220977579; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458220977579 33711543,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103728,Explainable automated coding of clinical notes using hierarchical label-wise attention networks and label embedding initialisation.,"Dong H, Suárez-Paniagua V, Whiteley W, Wu H.",,Journal of biomedical informatics,2021,2021-03-09,N,Natural Language Processing; Multi-label Classification; Deep Learning; Attention Mechanisms; Automated Medical Coding; Label Correlation; Explainability,,,"

Background

Diagnostic or procedural coding of clinical notes aims to derive a coded summary of disease-related information about patients. Such coding is usually done manually in hospitals but could potentially be automated to improve the efficiency and accuracy of medical coding. Recent studies on deep learning for automated medical coding achieved promising performances. However, the explainability of these models is usually poor, preventing them to be used confidently in supporting clinical practice. Another limitation is that these models mostly assume independence among labels, ignoring the complex correlations among medical codes which can potentially be exploited to improve the performance.

Methods

To address the issues of model explainability and label correlations, we propose a Hierarchical Label-wise Attention Network (HLAN), which aimed to interpret the model by quantifying importance (as attention weights) of words and sentences related to each of the labels. Secondly, we propose to enhance the major deep learning models with a label embedding (LE) initialisation approach, which learns a dense, continuous vector representation and then injects the representation into the final layers and the label-wise attention layers in the models. We evaluated the methods using three settings on the MIMIC-III discharge summaries: full codes, top-50 codes, and the UK NHS (National Health Service) COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) shielding codes. Experiments were conducted to compare the HLAN model and label embedding initialisation to the state-of-the-art neural network based methods, including variants of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs).

Results

HLAN achieved the best Micro-level AUC and F1 on the top-50 code prediction, 91.9% and 64.1%, respectively; and comparable results on the NHS COVID-19 shielding code prediction to other models: around 97% Micro-level AUC. More importantly, in the analysis of model explanations, by highlighting the most salient words and sentences for each label, HLAN showed more meaningful and comprehensive model interpretation compared to the CNN-based models and its downgraded baselines, HAN and HA-GRU. Label embedding (LE) initialisation significantly boosted the previous state-of-the-art model, CNN with attention mechanisms, on the full code prediction to 52.5% Micro-level F1. The analysis of the layers initialised with label embeddings further explains the effect of this initialisation approach. The source code of the implementation and the results are openly available at https://github.com/acadTags/Explainable-Automated-Medical-Coding.

Conclusion

We draw the conclusion from the evaluation results and analyses. First, with hierarchical label-wise attention mechanisms, HLAN can provide better or comparable results for automated coding to the state-of-the-art, CNN-based models. Second, HLAN can provide more comprehensive explanations for each label by highlighting key words and sentences in the discharge summaries, compared to the n-grams in the CNN-based models and the downgraded baselines, HAN and HA-GRU. Third, the performance of deep learning based multi-label classification for automated coding can be consistently boosted by initialising label embeddings that captures the correlations among labels. We further discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the overall method regarding its potential to be deployed to a hospital and suggest areas for future studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103728; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103728 36620207,https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.1089343,Incorporating structural abnormalities in equivalent dipole layer based ECG simulations.,"Boonstra MJ, Oostendorp TF, Roudijk RW, Kloosterman M, Asselbergs FW, Loh P, Van Dam PM.",,Frontiers in physiology,2022,2022-12-22,Y,Simulation; Myocardial Disease; Electrocardiogram (Ecg); Cardiac Activation; Ecgsim; Equivalent Dipole Layer,,,"Introduction: Electrical activity of the myocardium is recorded with the 12-lead ECG. ECG simulations can improve our understanding of the relation between abnormal ventricular activation in diseased myocardium and body surface potentials (BSP). However, in equivalent dipole layer (EDL)-based ECG simulations, the presence of diseased myocardium breaks the equivalence of the dipole layer. To simulate diseased myocardium, patches with altered electrophysiological characteristics were incorporated within the model. The relation between diseased myocardium and corresponding BSP was investigated in a simulation study. Methods: Activation sequences in normal and diseased myocardium were simulated and corresponding 64-lead BSP were computed in four models with distinct patch locations. QRS-complexes were compared using correlation coefficient (CC). The effect of different types of patch activation was assessed. Of one patient, simulated electrograms were compared to electrograms recorded during invasive electro-anatomical mapping. Results: Hundred-fifty-three abnormal activation sequences were simulated. Median QRS-CC of delayed versus dyssynchronous were significantly different (1.00 vs. 0.97, p < 0.001). Depending on the location of the patch, BSP leads were affected differently. Within diseased regions, fragmentation, low bipolar voltages and late potentials were observed in both recorded and simulated electrograms. Discussion: A novel method to simulate cardiomyopathy in EDL-based ECG simulations was established and evaluated. The new patch-based approach created a realistic relation between ECG waveforms and underlying activation sequences. Findings in the simulated cases were in agreement with clinical observations. With this method, our understanding of disease progression in cardiomyopathies may be further improved and used in advanced inverse ECG procedures.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2022.1089343/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.1089343; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9814485; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9814485?pdf=render 37657941,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000207777,Exploring the Role of Plasma Lipids and Statins Interventions on Multiple Sclerosis Risk and Severity: A Mendelian Randomization Study.,"Almramhi MM, Finan C, Storm CS, Schmidt AF, Kia DA, Coneys RR, Chopade S, Hingorani AD, Wood NW.",,Neurology,2023,2023-09-01,N,,,,"

Background

There has been considerable interest in statins due to their pleiotropic effects beyond their lipid-lowering properties. Many of these pleiotropic effects are predominantly ascribed to Rho small guanosine triphosphatases (Rho GTPases) proteins. We aimed to genetically investigate the role of lipids and statin interventions on multiple sclerosis (MS) risk and severity.

Method

We employed two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate: (1) the causal role of genetically mimic both cholesterol-dependent (via low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and cholesterol biosynthesis pathway) and cholesterol-independent (via Rho GTPases) effects of statins on MS risk and MS severity, (2) the causal link between lipids (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides (TG)) levels and MS risk and severity; and (3) the reverse causation between lipid fractions and MS risk. We used summary statistics from the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium (GLGC), eQTLGen Consortium and the International MS Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) for lipids, expression quantitative trait loci and MS, respectively (GLGC: n = 188,577; eQTLGen: n = 31,684; IMSGC (MS risk): n = 41,505; IMSGC (MS severity): n =7,069).

Results

The results of MR using the inverse variance weighted method show that genetically predicted RAC2, a member of cholesterol-independent pathway, (OR 0.86 (95% CI 0.78 to 0.95), p-value 3.80E-03) is implicated causally in reducing MS risk. We found no evidence for the causal role of LDL-C and the member of cholesterol biosynthesis pathway on MS risk. MR results also show that lifelong higher HDL-C (OR 1.14 (95% CI 1.04 to1.26), p-value 7.94E-03) increase MS risk but TG was not. Furthermore, we found no evidence for the causal role of lipids and genetically mimicked statins on MS severity. There is no evidence of reverse causation between MS risk and lipids.

Conclusion

Evidence from this study suggests that RAC2 is a genetic modifier of MS risk. Since RAC2 has been reported to mediate some of the pleiotropic effects of statins, we suggest that statins may reduce MS risk via a cholesterol-independent pathway (i.e., RAC2-related mechanism(s)). MR analyses also support a causal effect of HDL-C on MS risk.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/early/2023/09/01/WNL.0000000000207777.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000207777 @@ -666,17 +666,17 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 36715329,https://doi.org/10.1093/bjd/ljac090,"The epidemiology, healthcare and societal burden of basal cell carcinoma in Wales 2000-2018: a retrospective nationwide analysis.","Ibrahim N, Jovic M, Ali S, Williams N, Gibson JAG, Griffiths R, Dobbs TD, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Hutchings HA, Whitaker IS.",,The British journal of dermatology,2023,2023-02-01,N,,,,"

Background

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) represents the most commonly occurring cancer worldwide within the white population. Reports predict 298 308 cases of BCC in the UK by 2025, at a cost of £265-366 million to the National Health Service (NHS). Despite the morbidity, societal and healthcare pressures brought about by BCC, routinely collected healthcare data and global registration remain limited.

Objectives

To calculate the incidence of BCC in Wales between 2000 and 2018 and to establish the related healthcare utilization and estimated cost of care.

Methods

The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank is one of the largest and most robust health and social care data repositories in the UK. Cancer registry data were linked to routinely collected healthcare databases between 2000 and 2018. Pathological data from Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB) were used for internal validation.

Results

A total of 61 404 histologically proven BCCs were identified within the SAIL Databank during the study period. The European age-standardized incidence for BCC in 2018 was 224.6 per 100 000 person-years. Based on validated regional data, a 45% greater incidence was noted within SBUHB pathology vs. matched regions within SAIL between 2016 and 2018. A negative association between deprivation and incidence was noted with a higher incidence in the least socially deprived and rural dwellers. Approximately 2% travelled 25-50 miles for dermatological services compared with 37% for plastic surgery. Estimated NHS costs of surgically managed lesions for 2002-2019 equated to £119.2-164.4 million.

Conclusions

Robust epidemiological data that are internationally comparable and representative are scarce for nonmelanoma skin cancer. The rising global incidence coupled with struggling healthcare systems in the post-COVID-19 recovery period serve to intensify the societal and healthcare impact. This study is the first to demonstrate the incidence of BCC in Wales and is one of a small number in the UK using internally validated large cohort datasets. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate one of the highest published incidences within the UK and Europe.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62055/Download/62055__26915__ae11794993454389b6ceddbb7f50caaa.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjd/ljac090 33436761,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79964-x,The overlap of genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia and cardiometabolic disease can be used to identify metabolically different groups of individuals.,"Strawbridge RJ, Johnston KJA, Bailey MES, Baldassarre D, Cullen B, Eriksson P, deFaire U, Ferguson A, Gigante B, Giral P, Graham N, Hamsten A, Humphries SE, Kurl S, Lyall DM, Lyall LM, Pell JP, Pirro M, Savonen K, Smit AJ, Tremoli E, Tomainen TP, Veglia F, Ward J, Sennblad B, Smith DJ.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-01-12,Y,,,,"Understanding why individuals with severe mental illness (Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder) have increased risk of cardiometabolic disease (including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease), and identifying those at highest risk of cardiometabolic disease are important priority areas for researchers. For individuals with European ancestry we explored whether genetic variation could identify sub-groups with different metabolic profiles. Loci associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder from previous genome-wide association studies and loci that were also implicated in cardiometabolic processes and diseases were selected. In the IMPROVE study (a high cardiovascular risk sample) and UK Biobank (general population sample) multidimensional scaling was applied to genetic variants implicated in both psychiatric and cardiometabolic disorders. Visual inspection of the resulting plots used to identify distinct clusters. Differences between these clusters were assessed using chi-squared and Kruskall-Wallis tests. In IMPROVE, genetic loci associated with both schizophrenia and cardiometabolic disease (but not bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder) identified three groups of individuals with distinct metabolic profiles. This grouping was replicated within UK Biobank, with somewhat less distinction between metabolic profiles. This work focused on individuals of European ancestry and is unlikely to apply to more genetically diverse populations. Overall, this study provides proof of concept that common biology underlying mental and physical illness may help to stratify subsets of individuals with different cardiometabolic profiles.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79964-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79964-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804422; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804422?pdf=render 36881701,https://doi.org/10.1097/jtn.0000000000000708,Perceptions of an Interactive Trauma Recovery Information Booklet.,"Reeder SC, Ekegren CL, Mather AM, Kimmel LA, Webb MJ, Pellegrini M, Cameron PA, Gabbe BJ.",,Journal of trauma nursing : the official journal of the Society of Trauma Nurses,2023,2023-03-01,N,,,,"

Background

Previous research has shown that people with traumatic injuries have unmet information needs with respect to their injuries, management, and recovery. An interactive trauma recovery information booklet was developed and implemented to address these information needs at a major trauma center in Victoria, Australia.

Objective

The aim of this quality improvement project was to explore patient and clinician perceptions of a recovery information booklet introduced into a trauma ward.

Methods

Semistructured interviews with trauma patients, family members, and health professionals were undertaken and thematically analyzed using a framework approach. In total, 34 patients, 10 family members, and 26 health professionals were interviewed.

Results

Overall, the booklet was well accepted by most participants and was perceived to contain useful information. The design, content, pictures, and readability were all positively appraised. Many participants used the booklet to record personalized information and to ask health professionals questions about their injuries and management.

Conclusion

Our findings highlight the usefulness and acceptability of a low-cost interactive booklet intervention to facilitate the provision of quality of information and patient-health professional interactions on a trauma ward.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/JTN.0000000000000708 -33123364,https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192,Temporal changes in complement activation in haemodialysis patients with COVID-19 as a predictor of disease progression.,"Prendecki M, Clarke C, Medjeral-Thomas N, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Peters JE, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Pickering MC.",,Clinical kidney journal,2020,2020-10-02,Y,Complement; Haemodialysis; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Complement activation may play a pathogenic role in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by contributing to tissue inflammation and microvascular thrombosis.

Methods

Serial samples were collected from patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis (HD). Thirty-nine patients had confirmed COVID-19 and 10 patients had no evidence of COVID-19. Plasma C5a and C3a levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

We identified elevated levels of plasma C3a and C5a in HD patients with severe COVID-19 compared with controls. Serial sampling identified that C5a levels were elevated prior to clinical deterioration in patients who developed severe disease. C3a more closely mirrored both clinical and biochemical disease severity.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that activation of complement plays a role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19, leading to endothelial injury and lung damage. C5a may be an earlier biomarker of disease severity than conventional parameters such as C-reactive protein and this warrants further investigation in dedicated biomarker studies. Our data support the testing of complement inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for patients with severe COVID-19.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/13/5/889/33980535/sfaa192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776?pdf=render 37367415,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd10060250,Risk Factors of Secondary Cardiovascular Events in a Multi-Ethnic Asian Population with Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Retrospective Cohort Study from Malaysia.,"Ismail SR, Mohammad MSF, Butterworth AS, Chowdhury R, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Griffin SJ, Pennells L, Wood AM, Md Noh MF, Shah SA.",,Journal of cardiovascular development and disease,2023,2023-06-09,Y,Myocardial infarction; risk factors; Asian; Cardiovascular Mortality; Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events,,,"This retrospective cohort study investigated the incidence and risk factors of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) after 1 year of first-documented myocardial infarctions (MIs) in a multi-ethnic Asian population. Secondary MACE were observed in 231 (14.3%) individuals, including 92 (5.7%) cardiovascular-related deaths. Both histories of hypertension and diabetes were associated with secondary MACE after adjustment for age, sex, and ethnicity (HR 1.60 [95%CI 1.22-2.12] and 1.46 [95%CI 1.09-1.97], respectively). With further adjustments for traditional risk factors, individuals with conduction disturbances demonstrated higher risks of MACE: new left-bundle branch block (HR 2.86 [95%CI 1.15-6.55]), right-bundle branch block (HR 2.09 [95%CI 1.02-4.29]), and second-degree heart block (HR 2.45 [95%CI 0.59-10.16]). These associations were broadly similar across different age, sex, and ethnicity groups, although somewhat greater for history of hypertension and BMI among women versus men, for HbA1c control in individuals aged >50 years, and for LVEF ≤ 40% in those with Indian versus Chinese or Bumiputera ethnicities. Several traditional and cardiac risk factors are associated with a higher risk of secondary major adverse cardiovascular events. In addition to hypertension and diabetes, the identification of conduction disturbances in individuals with first-onset MI may be useful for the risk stratification of high-risk individuals.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2308-3425/10/6/250/pdf?version=1686288586; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd10060250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10299045; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10299045?pdf=render 35429382,https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac146,Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Anti-Spike Antibody Levels Following Second Dose of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 or BNT162b2 Vaccine in Residents of Long-term Care Facilities in England (VIVALDI).,"Stirrup O, Krutikov M, Tut G, Palmer T, Bone D, Bruton R, Fuller C, Azmi B, Lancaster T, Sylla P, Kaur N, Spalkova E, Bentley C, Amin U, Jadir A, Hulme S, Giddings R, Nacer-Laidi H, Baynton V, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The Journal of infectious diseases,2022,2022-11-01,Y,Antibodies; Vaccination; Waning; Long-term Care Facilities; Covid-19,,,"General population studies have shown strong humoral response following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination with subsequent waning of anti-spike antibody levels. Vaccine-induced immune responses are often attenuated in frail and older populations, but published data are scarce. We measured SARS-CoV-2 anti-spike antibody levels in long-term care facility residents and staff following a second vaccination dose with Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech. Vaccination elicited robust antibody responses in older residents, suggesting comparable levels of vaccine-induced immunity to that in the general population. Antibody levels are higher after Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination but fall more rapidly compared to Oxford-AstraZeneca recipients and are enhanced by prior infection in both groups.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9047242; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac146; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9047242; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9047242?pdf=render +33123364,https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192,Temporal changes in complement activation in haemodialysis patients with COVID-19 as a predictor of disease progression.,"Prendecki M, Clarke C, Medjeral-Thomas N, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Peters JE, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Pickering MC.",,Clinical kidney journal,2020,2020-10-02,Y,Complement; Haemodialysis; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Complement activation may play a pathogenic role in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by contributing to tissue inflammation and microvascular thrombosis.

Methods

Serial samples were collected from patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis (HD). Thirty-nine patients had confirmed COVID-19 and 10 patients had no evidence of COVID-19. Plasma C5a and C3a levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

We identified elevated levels of plasma C3a and C5a in HD patients with severe COVID-19 compared with controls. Serial sampling identified that C5a levels were elevated prior to clinical deterioration in patients who developed severe disease. C3a more closely mirrored both clinical and biochemical disease severity.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that activation of complement plays a role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19, leading to endothelial injury and lung damage. C5a may be an earlier biomarker of disease severity than conventional parameters such as C-reactive protein and this warrants further investigation in dedicated biomarker studies. Our data support the testing of complement inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for patients with severe COVID-19.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/13/5/889/33980535/sfaa192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776?pdf=render 36606535,https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.18841,The association between atopic eczema and lymphopenia: Results from a UK cohort study with replication in US survey data.,"Hollestein LM, Ye MYF, Ang KL, Forbes H, Mansfield KE, Abuabara K, Smeeth L, Langan SM.",,Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV,2023,2023-01-25,N,,,,"

Background

Lymphocyte skin homing in atopic eczema (AE) may induce lymphopenia.

Objective

To determine if AE is associated with lymphopenia.

Methods

We used UK primary care electronic health records (Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD) for a matched cohort study in adults (18 years+) (1997-2015) with at least one recorded lymphocyte count. We matched people with AE to up to five people without. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate the association between AE and lymphopenia (two low lymphocyte counts within 3 months) and linear mixed effects regression to estimate the association with absolute lymphocyte counts using all available counts. Cox proportional hazard models were used to investigate the effect of lymphopenia on common infections. We replicated the study using US survey data (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES]).

Results

Among 71,731 adults with AE and 126,349 adults without AE, we found an adjusted odds ratio (OR) for lymphopenia of 1.16 (95% CI: 1.09-1.23); the strength of association increased with increasing eczema severity. When comparing all recorded lymphocyte counts from adults with AE (n = 1,497,306) to those of people without AE (n = 4,035,870) we saw a lower mean lymphocyte (adjusted mean difference -0.047 × 109 /L [95% CI: -0.051 to -0.043]) in those with AE. The difference was larger for men, with increasing age, and with increasing AE severity and was present among people with AE not treated with immunosuppressive drugs. In NHANES (n = 22,624), the adjusted OR for lymphopenia in adults with AE was 1.30 (95% CI: 0.80-2.11), and the adjusted mean lymphocyte count difference was -0.03 × 109 /L (95% CI: -0.07 to 0.02). Despite having a lower lymphocyte count, adjusting for time with lymphopenia, did not alter risk estimates of infections.

Conclusion

Atopic eczema, including increasing AE severity, is associated with a decreased lymphocyte count, regardless of immunosuppressive drug use. Whether the lower lymphocyte count has wider health implications for people with severe eczema warrants further investigation.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4668507/1/Hollestein_etal_2023_The-association-between-atopic-eczema.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.18841 -31971603,https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384,Psoriasis and Genetics.,"Dand N, Mahil SK, Capon F, Smith CH, Simpson MA, Barker JN.",,Acta dermato-venereologica,2020,2020-01-30,Y,Genetics; Psoriasis; Treatment outcome; Disease Progression; Precision Medicine,,,"Psoriasis is a common inflammatory skin disease caused by the interplay between multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. This review summarises recent progress in elucidating the genetic basis of psoriasis, particularly through large genome-wide association studies. We illustrate the power of genetic analyses for disease stratification. Psoriasis can be stratified by phenotype (common plaque versus rare pustular variants), or by outcome (prognosis, comorbidities, response to treatment); recent progress has been made in delineating the genetic contribution in each of these areas. We also highlight how genetic data can directly inform the development of effective psoriasis treatments.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384; doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9128944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9128944?pdf=render 36382153,https://doi.org/10.5334/gh.1166,Risk Factors and Prevalence of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review.,"Fundikira LS, Chillo P, Mutagaywa R, Kamuhabwa A, Kwesigabo G, Asselbergs FW, van Laake LW.",,Global heart,2022,2022-10-21,Y,Dilated cardiomyopathy; Sub-Saharan Africa; Cardiovascular risk factors,,,Highlights  Prevalence of DCM varies widely in SSA.Cardiovascular risk factors are important in patients with DCM.The role of genetics in idiopathic DCM is not studied in major part of SSA.,,pdf:http://globalheartjournal.com/articles/10.5334/gh.1166/galley/1329/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/gh.1166; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9585983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9585983?pdf=render -31532828,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgz006,Increased Infection Risk in Addison's Disease and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. ,"Tresoldi AS, Sumilo D, Perrins M, Toulis KA, Prete A, Reddy N, Wass JAH, Arlt W, Nirantharakumar K.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2020,2020-02-01,Y,,,,"Mortality and infection-related hospital admissions are increased in patients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI). However, the risk of primary care-managed infections in patients with PAI is unknown. To estimate infection risk in PAI due to Addison's disease (AD) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) in a primary care setting. Retrospective cohort study using UK data collected from 1995 to 2018. Incidence of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), gastrointestinal infections (GIIs), and prescription counts of antimicrobials in adult PAI patients compared to unexposed controls. A diagnosis of PAI was established in 1580 AD patients (mean age 51.7 years) and 602 CAH patients (mean age 35.4 years). All AD patients and 42% of CAH patients were prescribed glucocorticoids, most frequently hydrocortisone in AD (82%) and prednisolone in CAH (50%). AD and CAH patients exposed to glucocorticoids, but not CAH patients without glucocorticoid treatment, had a significantly increased risk of LRTIs (adjusted incidence rate ratio AD 2.11 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.64-2.69], CAH 3.23 [95% CI 1.21-8.61]), UTIs (AD 1.51 [95% CI 1.29-1.77], CAH 2.20 [95% CI 1.43-3.34]), and GIIs (AD 3.80 [95% CI 2.99-4.84], CAH 1.93 [95% CI 1.06-3.52]). This was mirrored by increased prescription of antibiotics (AD 1.73 [95% CI 1.69-1.77], CAH 1.77 [95% CI 1.66-1.89]) and antifungals (AD 1.89 [95% CI 1.74-2.05], CAH 1.91 [95% CI 1.50-2.43]). There is an increased risk of infections and antimicrobial use in PAI in the primary care setting at least partially linked to glucocorticoid treatment. Future studies will need to address whether more physiological glucocorticoid replacement modes could reduce this risk.",People who suffer with primary adrenal insufficiency are more likely to be admitted to hospital. But the risk to patients catching infections whilst being treated in hospital is unknown. This study found that people with PAI being treated in hospital have a higher risk of catching an infection. Some of this risk is linked with how PAI is treated.,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/105/2/418/33574680/dgz006.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgz006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7046014 +31971603,https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384,Psoriasis and Genetics.,"Dand N, Mahil SK, Capon F, Smith CH, Simpson MA, Barker JN.",,Acta dermato-venereologica,2020,2020-01-30,Y,Genetics; Psoriasis; Treatment outcome; Disease Progression; Precision Medicine,,,"Psoriasis is a common inflammatory skin disease caused by the interplay between multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. This review summarises recent progress in elucidating the genetic basis of psoriasis, particularly through large genome-wide association studies. We illustrate the power of genetic analyses for disease stratification. Psoriasis can be stratified by phenotype (common plaque versus rare pustular variants), or by outcome (prognosis, comorbidities, response to treatment); recent progress has been made in delineating the genetic contribution in each of these areas. We also highlight how genetic data can directly inform the development of effective psoriasis treatments.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384; doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9128944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9128944?pdf=render 35776101,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac140,Incremental value of risk factor variability for cardiovascular risk prediction in individuals with type 2 diabetes: results from UK primary care electronic health records.,"Xu Z, Arnold M, Sun L, Stevens D, Chung R, Ip S, Barrett J, Kaptoge S, Pennells L, Di Angelantonio E, Wood AM.",,International journal of epidemiology,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Variability; Cardiovascular disease; Type 2 diabetes; Risk Prediction; Repeated Measurements; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction models for individuals with type 2 diabetes are important tools to guide intensification of interventions for CVD prevention. We aimed to assess the added value of incorporating risk factors variability in CVD risk prediction for people with type 2 diabetes.

Methods

We used electronic health records (EHRs) data from 83 910 adults with type 2 diabetes but without pre-existing CVD from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink for 2004-2017. Using a landmark-modelling approach, we developed and validated sex-specific Cox models, incorporating conventional predictors and trajectories plus variability of systolic blood pressure (SBP), total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Such models were compared against simpler models using single last observed values or means.

Results

The standard deviations (SDs) of SBP, HDL cholesterol and HbA1c were associated with higher CVD risk (P < 0.05). Models incorporating trajectories and variability of continuous predictors demonstrated improvement in risk discrimination (C-index = 0.659, 95% CI: 0.654-0.663) as compared with using last observed values (C-index = 0.651, 95% CI: 0.646-0.656) or means (C-index = 0.650, 95% CI: 0.645-0.655). Inclusion of SDs of SBP yielded the greatest improvement in discrimination (C-index increase = 0.005, 95% CI: 0.004-0.007) in comparison to incorporating SDs of total cholesterol (C-index increase = 0.002, 95% CI: 0.000-0.003), HbA1c (C-index increase = 0.002, 95% CI: 0.000-0.003) or HDL cholesterol (C-index increase= 0.003, 95% CI: 0.002-0.005).

Conclusion

Incorporating variability of predictors from EHRs provides a modest improvement in CVD risk discrimination for individuals with type 2 diabetes. Given that repeat measures are readily available in EHRs especially for regularly monitored patients with diabetes, this improvement could easily be achieved.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac140/45030523/dyac140.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac140; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9749723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9749723?pdf=render +31532828,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgz006,Increased Infection Risk in Addison's Disease and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. ,"Tresoldi AS, Sumilo D, Perrins M, Toulis KA, Prete A, Reddy N, Wass JAH, Arlt W, Nirantharakumar K.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2020,2020-02-01,Y,,,,"Mortality and infection-related hospital admissions are increased in patients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI). However, the risk of primary care-managed infections in patients with PAI is unknown. To estimate infection risk in PAI due to Addison's disease (AD) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) in a primary care setting. Retrospective cohort study using UK data collected from 1995 to 2018. Incidence of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), gastrointestinal infections (GIIs), and prescription counts of antimicrobials in adult PAI patients compared to unexposed controls. A diagnosis of PAI was established in 1580 AD patients (mean age 51.7 years) and 602 CAH patients (mean age 35.4 years). All AD patients and 42% of CAH patients were prescribed glucocorticoids, most frequently hydrocortisone in AD (82%) and prednisolone in CAH (50%). AD and CAH patients exposed to glucocorticoids, but not CAH patients without glucocorticoid treatment, had a significantly increased risk of LRTIs (adjusted incidence rate ratio AD 2.11 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.64-2.69], CAH 3.23 [95% CI 1.21-8.61]), UTIs (AD 1.51 [95% CI 1.29-1.77], CAH 2.20 [95% CI 1.43-3.34]), and GIIs (AD 3.80 [95% CI 2.99-4.84], CAH 1.93 [95% CI 1.06-3.52]). This was mirrored by increased prescription of antibiotics (AD 1.73 [95% CI 1.69-1.77], CAH 1.77 [95% CI 1.66-1.89]) and antifungals (AD 1.89 [95% CI 1.74-2.05], CAH 1.91 [95% CI 1.50-2.43]). There is an increased risk of infections and antimicrobial use in PAI in the primary care setting at least partially linked to glucocorticoid treatment. Future studies will need to address whether more physiological glucocorticoid replacement modes could reduce this risk.",People who suffer with primary adrenal insufficiency are more likely to be admitted to hospital. But the risk to patients catching infections whilst being treated in hospital is unknown. This study found that people with PAI being treated in hospital have a higher risk of catching an infection. Some of this risk is linked with how PAI is treated.,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/105/2/418/33574680/dgz006.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgz006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7046014 37562944,https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2023-213186,"Biases in the collection of blood alcohol data for adult major trauma patients in Victoria, Australia.","Lau G, Gabbe B, Mitra B, Dietze P, Reeder S, Cameron P, Read DJ, Symons E, Beck B.",,Emergency medicine journal : EMJ,2023,2023-08-10,N,epidemiology; wounds and injuries; toxicology; Alcohol Abuse,,,"

Background

In-hospital alcohol testing provides an opportunity to implement prevention strategies for patients with high risk of experiencing repeated alcohol-related injuries. However, barriers to alcohol testing in emergency settings can prevent patients from being tested. In this study, we aimed to understand potential biases in current data on the completion of blood alcohol tests for major trauma patients at hospitals in Victoria, Australia.

Methods

Victorian State Trauma Registry data on all adult major trauma patients from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021 were used. Characteristics associated with having a blood alcohol test recorded in the registry were assessed using logistic regression models.

Results

This study included 14 221 major trauma patients, of which 4563 (32.1%) had a blood alcohol test recorded. Having a blood alcohol test completed was significantly associated with age, socioeconomic disadvantage level, preferred language, having pre-existing mental health or substance use conditions, smoking status, presenting during times associated with heavy community alcohol consumption, injury cause and intent, and Glasgow Coma Scale scores (p<0.05). Restricting analyses to patients from a trauma centre where blood alcohol testing was part of routine clinical care mitigated most biases. However, relative to patients injured while driving a motor vehicle/motorcycle, lower odds of testing were still observed for patients with injuries from flames/scalds/contact burns (adjusted OR (aOR)=0.33, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.61) and low falls (aOR=0.17, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.25). Higher odds of testing were associated with pre-existing mental health (aOR=1.39, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.89) or substance use conditions (aOR=2.33, 95% CI to 1.47-3.70), and living in a more disadvantaged area (most disadvantaged quintile relative to least disadvantaged quintile: aOR=2.30, 95% CI 1.52 to 3.48).

Conclusion

Biases in the collection of blood alcohol data likely impact the surveillance of alcohol-related injuries. Routine alcohol testing after major trauma is needed to accurately inform epidemiology and the subsequent implementation of strategies for reducing alcohol-related injuries.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2023-213186 -37667806,https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211,Planning to conceive within a year is associated with better pregnancy-specific disease-related patient knowledge and better medication adherence in women of childbearing age with inflammatory bowel disease.,"Selinger CP, Laube R, Steed H, Brookes M, BioResource N, Leong RWL.",,Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology,2023,2023-08-30,Y,Pregnancy; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Patient Knowledge; Medication Adherence,,,"

Background

Adherence to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) medication is crucial to maintain remission, especially during pregnancy.

Objective

To examine the influence of family planning and pregnancy-related patient knowledge regarding IBD and pregnancy on adherence.

Design

Cross-sectional survey study.

Methods

We surveyed female patients with IBD aged 18-35 years, who at recruitment to the UK IBD BioResource had not had children. We elicited disease and treatment history, demographics and family planning status via an online questionnaire. Patient knowledge as assessed by the validated Crohn's and Colitis Pregnancy Knowledge Score (CCPKnow) and adherence by visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results

In 326 responders (13.8% response rate), good adherence (VAS ⩾ 80) was found in only 38.35%. Disease- and treatment-related factors were not significantly associated with good adherence, except for methotrexate (70.0% adherent of 10 exposed patients versus 37.2% non-exposed; p = 0.036). Patients planning pregnancy for the next year were more often adherent (59.0% versus 35.5%; p = 0.019) and knowledgeable (median CCPKnow 8 versus 7; p = 0.035) compared to those in other family planning categories. Pregnancy-related patient knowledge was significantly associated with adherence (Pearson correlation 0.141; p = 0.015). Adherent patients had significantly higher CCPKnow scores than non-adherent patients (median 8 versus 6; p = 0.009). On binary regression analysis, only planning to conceive within 12 months was independently associated with better adherence (p = 0.016), but not methotrexate exposure (p = 0.076) and CCPKnow (p = 0.056).

Conclusions

In a cohort of women of childbearing age with IBD overall medication, adherence was low. Planning to conceive within the next year was associated with better adherence and greater patient knowledge.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232?pdf=render 34785588,https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2021-001784,OpenSAFELY: impact of national guidance on switching anticoagulant therapy during COVID-19 pandemic.,"OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Walker AJ, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Morton C, Bacon S, Hickman G, Inglesby P, Bates C, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Hulme W, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas I, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Open heart,2021,2021-11-01,Y,Stroke; Medication Adherence; Healthcare Economics And Organisations; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Health Service (NHS) recommended that appropriate patients anticoagulated with warfarin should be switched to direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs), requiring less frequent blood testing. Subsequently, a national safety alert was issued regarding patients being inappropriately coprescribed two anticoagulants following a medication change and associated monitoring.

Objective

To describe which people were switched from warfarin to DOACs; identify potentially unsafe coprescribing of anticoagulants; and assess whether abnormal clotting results have become more frequent during the pandemic.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we conducted a cohort study using routine clinical data from 24 million NHS patients in England.

Results

20 000 of 164 000 warfarin patients (12.2%) switched to DOACs between March and May 2020, most commonly to edoxaban and apixaban. Factors associated with switching included: older age, recent renal function test, higher number of recent INR tests recorded, atrial fibrillation diagnosis and care home residency. There was a sharp rise in coprescribing of warfarin and DOACs from typically 50-100 per month to 246 in April 2020, 0.06% of all people receiving a DOAC or warfarin. International normalised ratio (INR) testing fell by 14% to 506.8 patients tested per 1000 warfarin patients each month. We observed a very small increase in elevated INRs (n=470) during April compared with January (n=420).

Conclusions

Increased switching of anticoagulants from warfarin to DOACs was observed at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in England following national guidance. There was a small but substantial number of people coprescribed warfarin and DOACs during this period. Despite a national safety alert on the issue, a widespread rise in elevated INR test results was not found. Primary care has responded rapidly to changes in patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/8/2/e001784.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2021-001784; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595296?pdf=render +37667806,https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211,Planning to conceive within a year is associated with better pregnancy-specific disease-related patient knowledge and better medication adherence in women of childbearing age with inflammatory bowel disease.,"Selinger CP, Laube R, Steed H, Brookes M, BioResource N, Leong RWL.",,Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology,2023,2023-08-30,Y,Pregnancy; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Patient Knowledge; Medication Adherence,,,"

Background

Adherence to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) medication is crucial to maintain remission, especially during pregnancy.

Objective

To examine the influence of family planning and pregnancy-related patient knowledge regarding IBD and pregnancy on adherence.

Design

Cross-sectional survey study.

Methods

We surveyed female patients with IBD aged 18-35 years, who at recruitment to the UK IBD BioResource had not had children. We elicited disease and treatment history, demographics and family planning status via an online questionnaire. Patient knowledge as assessed by the validated Crohn's and Colitis Pregnancy Knowledge Score (CCPKnow) and adherence by visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results

In 326 responders (13.8% response rate), good adherence (VAS ⩾ 80) was found in only 38.35%. Disease- and treatment-related factors were not significantly associated with good adherence, except for methotrexate (70.0% adherent of 10 exposed patients versus 37.2% non-exposed; p = 0.036). Patients planning pregnancy for the next year were more often adherent (59.0% versus 35.5%; p = 0.019) and knowledgeable (median CCPKnow 8 versus 7; p = 0.035) compared to those in other family planning categories. Pregnancy-related patient knowledge was significantly associated with adherence (Pearson correlation 0.141; p = 0.015). Adherent patients had significantly higher CCPKnow scores than non-adherent patients (median 8 versus 6; p = 0.009). On binary regression analysis, only planning to conceive within 12 months was independently associated with better adherence (p = 0.016), but not methotrexate exposure (p = 0.076) and CCPKnow (p = 0.056).

Conclusions

In a cohort of women of childbearing age with IBD overall medication, adherence was low. Planning to conceive within the next year was associated with better adherence and greater patient knowledge.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232?pdf=render 36098502,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.78427,"Effectiveness of rapid SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing in supporting infection control for hospital-onset COVID-19 infection: Multicentre, prospective study.","Stirrup O, Blackstone J, Mapp F, MacNeil A, Panca M, Holmes A, Machin N, Shin GY, Mahungu T, Saeed K, Saluja T, Taha Y, Mahida N, Pope C, Chawla A, Cutino-Moguel MT, Tamuri A, Williams R, Darby A, Robertson DL, Flaviani F, Nastouli E, Robson S, Smith D, Loose M, Laing K, Monahan I, Kele B, Haldenby S, George R, Bashton M, Witney AA, Byott M, Coll F, Chapman M, Peacock SJ, COG-UK HOCI Investigators, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, Hughes J, Nebbia G, Partridge DG, Parker M, Price JR, Peters C, Roy S, Snell LB, de Silva TI, Thomson E, Flowers P, Copas A, Breuer J.",,eLife,2022,2022-09-13,Y,Human; Microbiology; Infectious disease; Molecular epidemiology; Infection control; epidemiology; Global Health; Hospital-acquired Infection; Infection Prevention; Viral Genomics; Healthcare-associated Infection; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Viral sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 has been used for outbreak investigation, but there is limited evidence supporting routine use for infection prevention and control (IPC) within hospital settings.

Methods

We conducted a prospective non-randomised trial of sequencing at 14 acute UK hospital trusts. Sites each had a 4-week baseline data collection period, followed by intervention periods comprising 8 weeks of 'rapid' (<48 hr) and 4 weeks of 'longer-turnaround' (5-10 days) sequencing using a sequence reporting tool (SRT). Data were collected on all hospital-onset COVID-19 infections (HOCIs; detected ≥48 hr from admission). The impact of the sequencing intervention on IPC knowledge and actions, and on the incidence of probable/definite hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), was evaluated.

Results

A total of 2170 HOCI cases were recorded from October 2020 to April 2021, corresponding to a period of extreme strain on the health service, with sequence reports returned for 650/1320 (49.2%) during intervention phases. We did not detect a statistically significant change in weekly incidence of HAIs in longer-turnaround (incidence rate ratio 1.60, 95% CI 0.85-3.01; p=0.14) or rapid (0.85, 0.48-1.50; p=0.54) intervention phases compared to baseline phase. However, IPC practice was changed in 7.8 and 7.4% of all HOCI cases in rapid and longer-turnaround phases, respectively, and 17.2 and 11.6% of cases where the report was returned. In a 'per-protocol' sensitivity analysis, there was an impact on IPC actions in 20.7% of HOCI cases when the SRT report was returned within 5 days. Capacity to respond effectively to insights from sequencing was breached in most sites by the volume of cases and limited resources.

Conclusions

While we did not demonstrate a direct impact of sequencing on the incidence of nosocomial transmission, our results suggest that sequencing can inform IPC response to HOCIs, particularly when returned within 5 days.

Funding

COG-UK is supported by funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) (grant code: MC_PC_19027), and Genome Research Limited, operating as the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Clinical trial number

NCT04405934.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.78427; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.78427; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9596156; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9596156?pdf=render 36038914,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02473-3,Polycystic ovary syndrome and risk of adverse obstetric outcomes: a retrospective population-based matched cohort study in England.,"Subramanian A, Lee SI, Phillips K, Toulis KA, Kempegowda P, O'Reilly MW, Adderley NJ, Thangaratinam S, Arlt W, Nirantharakumar K.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-08-30,Y,Delivery; Preterm; PCOS; Polycystic ovary syndrome; Stillbirth; Birthweight,,,"

Background

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects up to one in five women of childbearing age. Observational studies assessing the association between maternal PCOS and adverse obstetric outcomes have reported varying results, depending on patient population, diagnostic criteria for PCOS and covariates accounted for in their analyses. We aimed to assess the risk of obstetric outcomes among a population-based representative cohort of women with PCOS compared to an age-matched cohort of women without PCOS.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was conducted of pregnancies of women in England aged 15-49 years identified from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD pregnancy register and linked Hospital Episodes Statistic (HES) data between March 1997 and March 2020. Pregnancies from the register that had a linked HES delivery record were included. Linked CPRD primary care data was used to ascertain maternal PCOS exposure prior to pregnancy. To improve detection of PCOS, in addition to PCOS diagnostic codes, codes for (1) polycystic ovaries or (2) hyperandrogenism and anovulation together were also considered. Sensitivity analysis was limited to only pregnant women with a diagnostic code for PCOS. Primary outcomes ascertained from linked HES data were (1) preterm delivery (gestation < 37 weeks), (2) mode of delivery, (3) high (> 4000 g) or low birthweight (< 2500 g) and (4) stillbirth. Secondary outcomes were (1) very preterm delivery (< 32 weeks), (2) extremely preterm delivery (< 28 weeks), (3) small and (4) large for gestational age. Conditional logistic regression models were performed adjusting for age, ethnicity, deprivation, dysglycaemia, hypertension, thyroid disorders, number of babies born at index pregnancy, and pre-gravid BMI. Multiple imputation was performed for missing outcome data.

Results

27,586 deliveries with maternal PCOS were matched for age (± 1 year) to 110,344 deliveries without PCOS. In the fully adjusted models, maternal PCOS was associated with an increased risk of (1) preterm birth [aOR: 1.11 (95% CI 1.06-1.17)], and (2) emergency caesarean, elective caesarean and instrumental vaginal compared to spontaneous delivery [aOR: 1.10 (1.05-1.15), 1.07 (1.03-1.12) and 1.04 (1.00-1.09), respectively]. There was absence of association with low birthweight, high birthweight and stillbirth. In the sensitivity analysis, the association with preterm birth [aOR: 1.31 (95% CI 1.13-1.52)], emergency caesarean [aOR: 1.15 (95% CI 1.02-1.30)], and elective caesarean [aOR: 1.03 (95% CI 1.02-1.03)] remained. While there was no significant association with any of the secondary outcomes in the primary analysis, in the sensitivity analysis maternal PCOS was associated with increased risk of extremely preterm delivery [aOR: 1.86 (95% CI 1.31-2.65)], and lower risk of small for gestational age babies [aOR: 0.74 (95% CI 0.59-0.94)].

Conclusions

Maternal PCOS was associated with increased risk of preterm and caesarean delivery. Association with low birthweight may be largely mediated by lower gestational age at birth.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02473-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02473-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9425992; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9425992?pdf=render 30727941,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-019-2633-8,DeepPVP: phenotype-based prioritization of causative variants using deep learning.,"Boudellioua I, Kulmanov M, Schofield PN, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R.",,BMC bioinformatics,2019,2019-02-06,Y,Phenotype; Ontology; Machine Learning; Variant Prioritization,Applied Analytics,,"

Background

Prioritization of variants in personal genomic data is a major challenge. Recently, computational methods that rely on comparing phenotype similarity have shown to be useful to identify causative variants. In these methods, pathogenicity prediction is combined with a semantic similarity measure to prioritize not only variants that are likely to be dysfunctional but those that are likely involved in the pathogenesis of a patient's phenotype.

Results

We have developed DeepPVP, a variant prioritization method that combined automated inference with deep neural networks to identify the likely causative variants in whole exome or whole genome sequence data. We demonstrate that DeepPVP performs significantly better than existing methods, including phenotype-based methods that use similar features. DeepPVP is freely available at https://github.com/bio-ontology-research-group/phenomenet-vp .

Conclusions

DeepPVP further improves on existing variant prioritization methods both in terms of speed as well as accuracy.",,pdf:https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12859-019-2633-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-019-2633-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6364462; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6364462?pdf=render @@ -689,18 +689,18 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 36448824,https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.2807,Clinical Relevance of Drug-Drug Interactions With Antibiotics as Listed in a National Medication Formulary: Results From Two Large Population-Based Case-Control Studies in Patients Aged 65-100 Years Using Linked English Primary Care and Hospital Data.,"van Staa TP, Pirmohamed M, Sharma A, Buchan I, Ashcroft DM.",,Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics,2023,2022-12-16,Y,,,,"This study evaluated drug-drug interactions (DDIs) between antibiotic and nonantibiotic drugs listed with warnings of severe outcomes in the British National Formulary based on adverse drug reaction (ADR) detectable with routine International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision coding. Data sources were Clinical Practice Research Databank GOLD and Aurum anonymized electronic health records from English general practices linked to hospital admission records. In propensity-matched case-control study, outcomes were ADR or emergency admissions. Analyzed were 121,546 ADR-related admission cases matched to 638,238 controls. For most antibiotics, adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for ADR-related hospital admission were large (aOR for trimethoprim 4.13; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.97-4.30). Of the 51 DDIs evaluated for ADR-related admissions, 38 DDIs (74.5%) had statistically increased aORs of concomitant exposure compared with nonexposure (mean aOR 3.96; range 1.59-11.42); for the 89 DDIs for emergency hospital admission, the results were 75 (84.3%) and mean aOR 2.40; range 1.43-4.17. Changing reference group to single antibiotic exposure reduced aORs for concomitant exposure by 76.5% and 83.0%, respectively. Medicines listed to cause nephrotoxicity substantially increased risks that were related to number of medicines (aOR was 2.55 (95% CI, 2.46-2.64) for current use of 1 and 10.44 (95% CI, 7.36-14.81) for 3 or more medicines). In conclusion, no evidence of substantial risk was found for multiple DDIs with antibiotics despite warnings of severe outcomes in a national formulary and flagging in electronic health record software. It is proposed that the evidence base for inclusion of DDIs in national formularies be strengthened and made publicly accessible and indiscriminate flagging, which compounds alert fatigue, be reduced.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.2807; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.2807; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10107602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10107602?pdf=render 35032176,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-021-05640-y,Cardiovascular risk prediction in type 2 diabetes: a comparison of 22 risk scores in primary care settings.,"Dziopa K, Asselbergs FW, Gratton J, Chaturvedi N, Schmidt AF.",,Diabetologia,2022,2022-01-15,Y,Prediction; Diabetes; Cardiovascular disease; Risk Score,,,"

Aims/hypothesis

We aimed to compare the performance of risk prediction scores for CVD (i.e., coronary heart disease and stroke), and a broader definition of CVD including atrial fibrillation and heart failure (CVD+), in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Methods

Scores were identified through a literature review and were included irrespective of the type of predicted cardiovascular outcome or the inclusion of individuals with type 2 diabetes. Performance was assessed in a contemporary, representative sample of 168,871 UK-based individuals with type 2 diabetes (age ≥18 years without pre-existing CVD+). Missing observations were addressed using multiple imputation.

Results

We evaluated 22 scores: 13 derived in the general population and nine in individuals with type 2 diabetes. The Systemic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) CVD rule derived in the general population performed best for both CVD (C statistic 0.67 [95% CI 0.67, 0.67]) and CVD+ (C statistic 0.69 [95% CI 0.69, 0.70]). The C statistic of the remaining scores ranged from 0.62 to 0.67 for CVD, and from 0.64 to 0.69 for CVD+. Calibration slopes (1 indicates perfect calibration) ranged from 0.38 (95% CI 0.37, 0.39) to 0.74 (95% CI 0.72, 0.76) for CVD, and from 0.41 (95% CI 0.40, 0.42) to 0.88 (95% CI 0.86, 0.90) for CVD+. A simple recalibration process considerably improved the performance of the scores, with calibration slopes now ranging between 0.96 and 1.04 for CVD. Scores with more predictors did not outperform scores with fewer predictors: for CVD+, QRISK3 (19 variables) had a C statistic of 0.68 (95% CI 0.68, 0.69), compared with SCORE CVD (six variables) which had a C statistic of 0.69 (95% CI 0.69, 0.70). Scores specific to individuals with diabetes did not discriminate better than scores derived in the general population: the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) scores performed significantly worse than SCORE CVD (p value <0.001).

Conclusions/interpretation

CVD risk prediction scores could not accurately identify individuals with type 2 diabetes who experienced a CVD event in the 10 years of follow-up. All 22 evaluated models had a comparable and modest discriminative ability.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00125-021-05640-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-021-05640-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8894164; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8894164?pdf=render 33845766,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1,"Informing the public health response to COVID-19: a systematic review of risk factors for disease, severity, and mortality.","Flook M, Jackson C, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Muckian MD, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Jia Y, Murray JLK, Ritchie LD, Robertson C, Stock SJ, Wang X, Woolhouse MEJ, Sheikh A, Stagg HR.",,BMC infectious diseases,2021,2021-04-12,Y,Mortality; Review; Morbidity; Coronavirus; Systematic review; risk factors; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has challenged public health agencies globally. In order to effectively target government responses, it is critical to identify the individuals most at risk of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), developing severe clinical signs, and mortality. We undertook a systematic review of the literature to present the current status of scientific knowledge in these areas and describe the need for unified global approaches, moving forwards, as well as lessons learnt for future pandemics.

Methods

Medline, Embase and Global Health were searched to the end of April 2020, as well as the Web of Science. Search terms were specific to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19. Comparative studies of risk factors from any setting, population group and in any language were included. Titles, abstracts and full texts were screened by two reviewers and extracted in duplicate into a standardised form. Data were extracted on risk factors for COVID-19 disease, severe disease, or death and were narratively and descriptively synthesised.

Results

One thousand two hundred and thirty-eight papers were identified post-deduplication. Thirty-three met our inclusion criteria, of which 26 were from China. Six assessed the risk of contracting the disease, 20 the risk of having severe disease and ten the risk of dying. Age, gender and co-morbidities were commonly assessed as risk factors. The weight of evidence showed increasing age to be associated with severe disease and mortality, and general comorbidities with mortality. Only seven studies presented multivariable analyses and power was generally limited. A wide range of definitions were used for disease severity.

Conclusions

The volume of literature generated in the short time since the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 has been considerable. Many studies have sought to document the risk factors for COVID-19 disease, disease severity and mortality; age was the only risk factor based on robust studies and with a consistent body of evidence. Mechanistic studies are required to understand why age is such an important risk factor. At the start of pandemics, large, standardised, studies that use multivariable analyses are urgently needed so that the populations most at risk can be rapidly protected.

Registration

This review was registered on PROSPERO as CRD42020177714 .",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8040367; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8040367?pdf=render -34189274,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362,Concept libraries for automatic electronic health record based phenotyping: A review.,"Almowil ZA, Zhou SM, Brophy S.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-06-16,Y,Review; Phenotype Algorithms; Linked Electronic Health Records; Concept Libraries,,,"

Introduction

Electronic health records (EHR) are linked together to examine disease history and to undertake research into the causes and outcomes of disease. However, the process of constructing algorithms for phenotyping (e.g., identifying disease characteristics) or health characteristics (e.g., smoker) is very time consuming and resource costly. In addition, results can vary greatly between researchers. Reusing or building on algorithms that others have created is a compelling solution to these problems. However, sharing algorithms is not a common practice and many published studies do not detail the clinical code lists used by the researchers in the disease/characteristic definition. To address these challenges, a number of centres across the world have developed health data portals which contain concept libraries (e.g., algorithms for defining concepts such as disease and characteristics) in order to facilitate disease phenotyping and health studies.

Objectives

This study aims to review the literature of existing concept libraries, examine their utilities, identify the current gaps, and suggest future developments.

Methods

The five-stage framework of Arksey and O'Malley was used for the literature search. This approach included defining the research questions, identifying relevant studies through literature review, selecting eligible studies, charting and extracting data, and summarising and reporting the findings.

Results

This review identified seven publicly accessible Electronic Health data concept libraries which were developed in different countries including UK, USA, and Canada. The concept libraries (n = 7) investigated were either general libraries that hold phenotypes of multiple specialties (n = 4) or specialized libraries that manage only certain specialities such as rare diseases (n = 3). There were some clear differences between the general libraries such as archiving data from different electronic sources, and using a range of different types of coding systems. However, they share some clear similarities such as enabling users to upload their own code lists, and allowing users to use/download the publicly accessible code. In addition, there were some differences between the specialized libraries such as difference in ability to search, and if it was possible to use different searching queries such as simple or complex searches. Conversely, there were some similarities between the specialized libraries such as enabling users to upload their own concepts into the libraries and to show where they were published, which facilitates assessing the validity of the concepts. All the specialized libraries aimed to encourage the reuse of research methods such as lists of clinical code and/or metadata.

Conclusion

The seven libraries identified have been developed independently and appear to replicate similar concepts but in different ways. Collaboration between similar libraries would greatly facilitate the use of these libraries for the user. The process of building code lists takes time and effort. Access to existing code lists increases consistency and accuracy of definitions across studies. Concept library developers should collaborate with each other to raise awareness of their existence and of their various functions, which could increase users' contributions to those libraries and promote their wide-ranging adoption.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840?pdf=render 37609702,https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5681,Adverse drug reactions and hospital admissions: Large case-control study of patients aged 65-100 years using linked English primary care and hospital data.,"van Staa TP, Pirmohamed M, Sharma A, Ashcroft DM, Buchan I.",,Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety,2023,2023-08-23,N,Adverse drug reactions; Primary Care; Medicines; Pharmacovigilance; Polypharmacy,,,"

Background

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are common and a leading cause of injury. However, information on ADR risks of individual medicines is often limited. The aim of this hypothesis-generating study was to assess the relative importance of ADR-related and emergency hospital admission for large group of medication classes.

Methods

This study was a propensity-matched case-control study in English primary care. Data sources were Clinical Practice Research Databank and Aurum with longitudinal, anonymized, patient level electronic health records (EHRs) from English general practices linked to hospital records. Cases aged 65-100 with ADR-related or emergency hospital admission were matched to up to six controls by age, sex, morbidity and propensity scores for hospital admission risk. Medication groups with systemic administration as listed in the British National Formulary (used by prescribers for medication advice). Prescribing in the 84 days before the index date was assessed. Only medication groups with 50+ cases exposed were analysed. The outcomes of interest were ADR-related and emergency hospital admissions. Conditional logistic regression estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results

The overall population included 121 546 cases with an ADR-related and 849 769 cases with emergency hospital admission. The percentage of hospitalizations with an ADR-related code for admission diagnosis was 1.83% and 6.58% with an ADR-related code at any time during hospitalization. A total of 137 medication groups was included in the main ADR analyses. Of these, 13 (9.5%) had statistically non-significant adjusted ORs, 58 (42.3%) statistically significant ORs between 1.0 and 1.5, 37 (27.0%) between 1.5-2.0, 18 (13.1%) between 2.0-3.0 and 11 (8.0%) 3.0 or higher. Several classes of antibiotics (including penicillins) were among medicines with largest ORs. Evaluating the 14 medications most often associated with ADRs, a strong association was found between the number of these medicines and the risk of ADR-related hospital admission (adjusted OR of 7.53 (95% CI 7.15-7.93) for those exposed to 6+ of these medicines).

Conclusions and relevance

There is a need for a regular systematic assessment of the harm-benefit ratio of medicines, harvesting the information in large healthcare databases and combining it with causality assessment of individual case histories.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pds.5681; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5681 +34189274,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362,Concept libraries for automatic electronic health record based phenotyping: A review.,"Almowil ZA, Zhou SM, Brophy S.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-06-16,Y,Review; Phenotype Algorithms; Linked Electronic Health Records; Concept Libraries,,,"

Introduction

Electronic health records (EHR) are linked together to examine disease history and to undertake research into the causes and outcomes of disease. However, the process of constructing algorithms for phenotyping (e.g., identifying disease characteristics) or health characteristics (e.g., smoker) is very time consuming and resource costly. In addition, results can vary greatly between researchers. Reusing or building on algorithms that others have created is a compelling solution to these problems. However, sharing algorithms is not a common practice and many published studies do not detail the clinical code lists used by the researchers in the disease/characteristic definition. To address these challenges, a number of centres across the world have developed health data portals which contain concept libraries (e.g., algorithms for defining concepts such as disease and characteristics) in order to facilitate disease phenotyping and health studies.

Objectives

This study aims to review the literature of existing concept libraries, examine their utilities, identify the current gaps, and suggest future developments.

Methods

The five-stage framework of Arksey and O'Malley was used for the literature search. This approach included defining the research questions, identifying relevant studies through literature review, selecting eligible studies, charting and extracting data, and summarising and reporting the findings.

Results

This review identified seven publicly accessible Electronic Health data concept libraries which were developed in different countries including UK, USA, and Canada. The concept libraries (n = 7) investigated were either general libraries that hold phenotypes of multiple specialties (n = 4) or specialized libraries that manage only certain specialities such as rare diseases (n = 3). There were some clear differences between the general libraries such as archiving data from different electronic sources, and using a range of different types of coding systems. However, they share some clear similarities such as enabling users to upload their own code lists, and allowing users to use/download the publicly accessible code. In addition, there were some differences between the specialized libraries such as difference in ability to search, and if it was possible to use different searching queries such as simple or complex searches. Conversely, there were some similarities between the specialized libraries such as enabling users to upload their own concepts into the libraries and to show where they were published, which facilitates assessing the validity of the concepts. All the specialized libraries aimed to encourage the reuse of research methods such as lists of clinical code and/or metadata.

Conclusion

The seven libraries identified have been developed independently and appear to replicate similar concepts but in different ways. Collaboration between similar libraries would greatly facilitate the use of these libraries for the user. The process of building code lists takes time and effort. Access to existing code lists increases consistency and accuracy of definitions across studies. Concept library developers should collaborate with each other to raise awareness of their existence and of their various functions, which could increase users' contributions to those libraries and promote their wide-ranging adoption.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840?pdf=render 36813664,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2023.02.029,Friction burns in cyclists: An under-recognised problem.,"Tracy LM, Gabbe BJ, Beck B.",,Injury,2023,2023-02-15,N,Cycling; Australia; Burn; New Zealand; Registry; Friction,,,"

Introduction

Cycling-related friction burns, also known as abrasions or ""road rash"", can occur when cyclists are involved in a fall or a collision. However, less is known about this type of injury as they are often overshadowed by concurrent traumatic and/or orthopaedic injuries. The aims of this project were to describe the nature and severity of friction burns in cyclists admitted to hospitals with specialist burn services in Australia and New Zealand.

Methods

A review of cycling-related friction burns recorded by the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand was undertaken. Summary statistics described demographic, injury event and severity, and in-hospital management data for this cohort of patients.

Results

Between July 2009 and June 2021, 143 cycling-related friction burn admissions were identified (accounting for 0.4% of all burns admissions during the study period). Seventy-six percent of patients with a cycling-related friction burn were male, and the median (interquartile range) of patients was 14 (5-41) years. The greatest proportion of cycling-related friction burns were attributed to non-collision events, namely falls (44% of all cases) and body parts being caught or coming into contact with the bicycle (27% of all cases). Although 89% of patients had a burn affecting less than five percent of their body, 71% of patients underwent a burn wound management procedure in theatre such as debridement and/or skin grafting.

Conclusions

In summary, friction burns in cyclists admitted to participating services were rare. Despite this, there remains opportunities to better understand these events to inform the development of interventions to reduce burn injury in cyclists.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2023.02.029 -36609574,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8,A population-based matched cohort study of major congenital anomalies following COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Loane M, Dolk H, Morris J, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons CL, Katikireddi SV, O'Leary M, McAllister D, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock SJ, Wood R.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-01-06,Y,,,,"Evidence on associations between COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of congenital anomalies is limited. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study using linked electronic health records from Scotland (May 2020-April 2022) to estimate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and, separately, SARS-CoV-2 infection between six weeks pre-conception and 19 weeks and six days gestation and the risk of [1] any major congenital anomaly and [2] any non-genetic major congenital anomaly. Mothers vaccinated in this pregnancy exposure period mostly received an mRNA vaccine (73.7% Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and 7.9% Moderna mRNA-1273). Of the 6731 babies whose mothers were vaccinated in the pregnancy exposure period, 153 had any anomaly and 120 had a non-genetic anomaly. Primary analyses find no association between any vaccination and any anomaly (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] = 1.01, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 0.83-1.24) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.81-1.22). Primary analyses also find no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and any anomaly (aOR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.66-1.60) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.57-1.54). Findings are robust to sensitivity analyses. These data provide reassurance on the safety of vaccination, in particular mRNA vaccines, just before or in early pregnancy.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35771-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346?pdf=render 36302124,https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2127572,Comparative risk of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) following COVID-19 vaccination or infection: A national cohort study using linked electronic health records.,"Ohaeri C, Thomas DR, Salmon J, Cottrell S, Lyons J, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Torabi F, Davies GG, Williams C.",,Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics,2022,2022-10-27,Y,Vaccines; Coronavirus; Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis; Cerebral Venous Thrombosis; Covid19,,,"To inform the public and policy makers, we investigated and compared the risk of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) after SARS-Cov-2 vaccination or infection using a national cohort of 2,643,699 individuals aged 17 y and above, alive, and resident in Wales on 1 January 2020 followed up through multiple linked data sources until 28 March 2021. Exposures were first dose of Oxford-ChAdOx1 or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed SARS-Cov-2 infection. The outcome was an incident record of CVST. Hazard ratios (HR) were calculated using multivariable Cox regression, adjusted for confounders. HR from SARS-Cov-2 infection was compared with that for SARS-Cov-2 vaccination. We identified 910,556 (34.4%) records of first SARS-Cov-2 vaccination and 165,862 (6.3%) of SARS-Cov-2 infection. A total of 1,372 CVST events were recorded during the study period, of which 52 (3.8%) and 48 (3.5%) occurred within 28 d after vaccination and infection, respectively. We observed slight non-significant risk of CVST within 28 d of vaccination [aHR: 1.34, 95% CI: 0.95-1.90], which remained after stratifying by vaccine [BNT162b2, aHR: 1.18 (95% CI: 0.63-2.21); ChAdOx1, aHR: 1.40 (95% CI: 0.95-2.05)]. Three times the number of CVST events is observed within 28 d of a positive SARS-Cov-2 test [aHR: 3.02 (95% CI: 2.17-4.21)]. The risk of CVST following SARS-Cov-2 infection is 2.3 times that following SARS-Cov-2 vaccine. This is important information both for those designing COVID-19 vaccination programs and for individuals making their own informed decisions on the risk-benefit of vaccination. This record-linkage approach will be useful in monitoring the safety of future vaccine programs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2127572; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2127572; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9746546; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9746546?pdf=render +36609574,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8,A population-based matched cohort study of major congenital anomalies following COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Loane M, Dolk H, Morris J, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons CL, Katikireddi SV, O'Leary M, McAllister D, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock SJ, Wood R.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-01-06,Y,,,,"Evidence on associations between COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of congenital anomalies is limited. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study using linked electronic health records from Scotland (May 2020-April 2022) to estimate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and, separately, SARS-CoV-2 infection between six weeks pre-conception and 19 weeks and six days gestation and the risk of [1] any major congenital anomaly and [2] any non-genetic major congenital anomaly. Mothers vaccinated in this pregnancy exposure period mostly received an mRNA vaccine (73.7% Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and 7.9% Moderna mRNA-1273). Of the 6731 babies whose mothers were vaccinated in the pregnancy exposure period, 153 had any anomaly and 120 had a non-genetic anomaly. Primary analyses find no association between any vaccination and any anomaly (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] = 1.01, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 0.83-1.24) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.81-1.22). Primary analyses also find no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and any anomaly (aOR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.66-1.60) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.57-1.54). Findings are robust to sensitivity analyses. These data provide reassurance on the safety of vaccination, in particular mRNA vaccines, just before or in early pregnancy.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35771-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346?pdf=render 34514354,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab001,Transforming and evaluating electronic health record disease phenotyping algorithms using the OMOP common data model: a case study in heart failure.,"Papez V, Moinat M, Payralbe S, Asselbergs FW, Lumbers RT, Hemingway H, Dobson R, Denaxas S.",,JAMIA open,2021,2021-02-04,Y,Phenotyping; Heart Failure; Algorithms; Ehr; Omop,,,"

Objective

The aim of the study was to transform a resource of linked electronic health records (EHR) to the OMOP common data model (CDM) and evaluate the process in terms of syntactic and semantic consistency and quality when implementing disease and risk factor phenotyping algorithms.

Materials and methods

Using heart failure (HF) as an exemplar, we represented three national EHR sources (Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care, Office for National Statistics) into the OMOP CDM 5.2. We compared the original and CDM HF patient population by calculating and presenting descriptive statistics of demographics, related comorbidities, and relevant clinical biomarkers.

Results

We identified a cohort of 502 536 patients with the incident and prevalent HF and converted 1 099 195 384 rows of data from 216 581 914 encounters across three EHR sources to the OMOP CDM. The largest percentage (65%) of unmapped events was related to medication prescriptions in primary care. The average coverage of source vocabularies was >98% with the exception of laboratory tests recorded in primary care. The raw and transformed data were similar in terms of demographics and comorbidities with the largest difference observed being 3.78% in the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Conclusion

Our study demonstrated that the OMOP CDM can successfully be applied to convert EHR linked across multiple healthcare settings and represent phenotyping algorithms spanning multiple sources. Similar to previous research, challenges mapping primary care prescriptions and laboratory measurements still persist and require further work. The use of OMOP CDM in national UK EHR is a valuable research tool that can enable large-scale reproducible observational research.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jamiaopen/article-pdf/4/3/ooab001/40325375/ooab001.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8423424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8423424?pdf=render -34716166,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268,Electronic reminders and rewards to improve adherence to inhaled asthma treatment in adolescents: a non-randomised feasibility study in tertiary care.,"De Simoni A, Fleming L, Holliday L, Horne R, Priebe S, Bush A, Sheikh A, Griffiths C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-10-29,Y,Asthma; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine); Paediatric Thoracic Medicine,,,"

Objective

To test the feasibility and acceptability of a short-term reminder and incentives intervention in adolescents with low adherence to asthma medications.

Methods

Mixed-methods feasibility study in a tertiary care clinic. Adolescents recruited to a 24-week programme with three 8-weekly visits, receiving electronic reminders to prompt inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) inhalation through a mobile app coupled with electronic monitoring devices (EMD). From the second visit, monetary incentives based on adherence of ICS inhalation: £1 per dose, maximum £2 /day, up to £112/study, collected as gift cards at the third visit. End of study interviews and questionnaires assessing perceptions of asthma and ICS, analysed using the Perceptions and Practicalities Framework.

Participants

Adolescents (11-18 years) with documented low ICS adherence (<80% by EMD), and poor asthma control at the first clinic visit.

Results

10 out of 12 adolescents approached were recruited (7 males, 3 females, 12-16 years). Eight participants provided adherence measures up to the fourth visits and received rewards. Mean study duration was 281 days, with 7/10 participants unable to attend their fourth visit due to COVID-19 lockdown. Only 3/10 participants managed to pair the app/EMD up to the fourth visit, which was associated with improved ICS adherence (from 0.51, SD 0.07 to 0.86, SD 0.05). Adherence did not change in adolescents unable to pair the app/EMD. The intervention was acceptable to participants and parents/guardians. Exit interviews showed that participants welcomed reminders and incentives, though expressed frustration with app/EMD technological difficulties. Participants stated the intervention helped through reminding ICS doses, promoting self-monitoring and increasing motivation to take inhalers.

Conclusions

An intervention using electronic reminders and incentives through an app coupled with an EMD was feasible and acceptable to adolescents with asthma. A pilot randomised controlled trial is warranted to better estimate the effect size on adherence, with improved technical support for the EMD.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e053268.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117?pdf=render -36207647,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0,"Single-centre review of the management of intra-thoracic oesophageal perforation in a tertiary oesophageal unit: paradigm shift, short- and long-term outcomes over 15 years.","Charalampakis V, Cardoso VR, Sharples A, Khalid M, Dickerson L, Wiggins T, Gkoutos GV, Tucker O, Super P, Richardson M, Nijjar R, Singhal R.",,Surgical endoscopy,2023,2022-10-07,Y,Oesophageal Perforation; Boerhaave’s; Iatrogenic Perforation,,,"

Background

Oesophageal perforation is an uncommon surgical emergency associated with high morbidity and mortality. The timing and type of intervention is crucial and there has been a major paradigm shift towards minimal invasive management over the last 15 years. Herein, we review our management of spontaneous and iatrogenic oesophageal perforations and assess the short- and long-term outcomes.

Methods

We performed a retrospective review of consecutive patients presenting with intra-thoracic oesophageal perforation between January 2004 and Dec 2020 in a single tertiary hospital.

Results

Seventy-four patients were identified with oesophageal perforations: 58.1% were male; mean age of 68.28 ± 13.67 years. Aetiology was spontaneous in 42 (56.76%), iatrogenic in 29 (39.2%) and foreign body ingestion/related to trauma in 3 (4.1%). The diagnosis was delayed in 29 (39.2%) cases for longer than 24 h. There was change in the primary diagnostic modality over the period of this study with CT being used for diagnosis for 19 of 20 patients (95%). Initial management of the oesophageal perforation included a surgical intervention in 34 [45.9%; primary closure in 28 (37.8%), resection in 6 (8.1%)], endoscopic stenting in 18 (24.3%) and conservative management in 22 (29.7%) patients. On multivariate analysis, there was an effect of pathology (malignant vs. benign; p = 0.003) and surgical treatment as first line (p = 0.048) on 90-day mortality. However, at 1-year and overall follow-up, time to presentation (≤ 24 h vs. > 24 h) remained the only significant variable (p = 0.017 & p = 0.02, respectively).

Conclusion

Oesophageal perforation remains a condition with high mortality. The paradigm shift in our tertiary unit suggests the more liberal use of CT to establish an earlier diagnosis and a higher rate of oesophageal stenting as a primary management option for iatrogenic perforations. Time to diagnosis and management continues to be the most critical variable in the overall outcome.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017567; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017567?pdf=render 33472631,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3,Evaluation and improvement of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) for COVID-19: a multi-hospital study.,"Carr E, Bendayan R, Bean D, Stammers M, Wang W, Zhang H, Searle T, Kraljevic Z, Shek A, Phan HTT, Muruet W, Gupta RK, Shinton AJ, Wyatt M, Shi T, Zhang X, Pickles A, Stahl D, Zakeri R, Noursadeghi M, O'Gallagher K, Rogers M, Folarin A, Karwath A, Wickstrøm KE, Köhn-Luque A, Slater L, Cardoso VR, Bourdeaux C, Holten AR, Ball S, McWilliams C, Roguski L, Borca F, Batchelor J, Amundsen EK, Wu X, Gkoutos GV, Sun J, Pinto A, Guthrie B, Breen C, Douiri A, Wu H, Curcin V, Teo JT, Shah AM, Dobson RJB.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-01-21,Y,Prediction model; Blood parameters; Covid-19; News2 Score,,,"

Background

The National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) is currently recommended in the UK for the risk stratification of COVID-19 patients, but little is known about its ability to detect severe cases. We aimed to evaluate NEWS2 for the prediction of severe COVID-19 outcome and identify and validate a set of blood and physiological parameters routinely collected at hospital admission to improve upon the use of NEWS2 alone for medium-term risk stratification.

Methods

Training cohorts comprised 1276 patients admitted to King's College Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust with COVID-19 disease from 1 March to 30 April 2020. External validation cohorts included 6237 patients from five UK NHS Trusts (Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, University Hospitals Southampton, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, University College London Hospitals, University Hospitals Birmingham), one hospital in Norway (Oslo University Hospital), and two hospitals in Wuhan, China (Wuhan Sixth Hospital and Taikang Tongji Hospital). The outcome was severe COVID-19 disease (transfer to intensive care unit (ICU) or death) at 14 days after hospital admission. Age, physiological measures, blood biomarkers, sex, ethnicity, and comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases) measured at hospital admission were considered in the models.

Results

A baseline model of 'NEWS2 + age' had poor-to-moderate discrimination for severe COVID-19 infection at 14 days (area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) in training cohort = 0.700, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.680, 0.722; Brier score = 0.192, 95% CI 0.186, 0.197). A supplemented model adding eight routinely collected blood and physiological parameters (supplemental oxygen flow rate, urea, age, oxygen saturation, C-reactive protein, estimated glomerular filtration rate, neutrophil count, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio) improved discrimination (AUC = 0.735; 95% CI 0.715, 0.757), and these improvements were replicated across seven UK and non-UK sites. However, there was evidence of miscalibration with the model tending to underestimate risks in most sites.

Conclusions

NEWS2 score had poor-to-moderate discrimination for medium-term COVID-19 outcome which raises questions about its use as a screening tool at hospital admission. Risk stratification was improved by including readily available blood and physiological parameters measured at hospital admission, but there was evidence of miscalibration in external sites. This highlights the need for a better understanding of the use of early warning scores for COVID.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348?pdf=render +33521768,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8,Tackling immunosenescence to improve COVID-19 outcomes and vaccine response in older adults.,"Cox LS, Bellantuono I, Lord JM, Sapey E, Mannick JB, Partridge L, Gordon AL, Steves CJ, Witham MD.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2020,2020-11-09,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30011-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195?pdf=render +36207647,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0,"Single-centre review of the management of intra-thoracic oesophageal perforation in a tertiary oesophageal unit: paradigm shift, short- and long-term outcomes over 15 years.","Charalampakis V, Cardoso VR, Sharples A, Khalid M, Dickerson L, Wiggins T, Gkoutos GV, Tucker O, Super P, Richardson M, Nijjar R, Singhal R.",,Surgical endoscopy,2023,2022-10-07,Y,Oesophageal Perforation; Boerhaave’s; Iatrogenic Perforation,,,"

Background

Oesophageal perforation is an uncommon surgical emergency associated with high morbidity and mortality. The timing and type of intervention is crucial and there has been a major paradigm shift towards minimal invasive management over the last 15 years. Herein, we review our management of spontaneous and iatrogenic oesophageal perforations and assess the short- and long-term outcomes.

Methods

We performed a retrospective review of consecutive patients presenting with intra-thoracic oesophageal perforation between January 2004 and Dec 2020 in a single tertiary hospital.

Results

Seventy-four patients were identified with oesophageal perforations: 58.1% were male; mean age of 68.28 ± 13.67 years. Aetiology was spontaneous in 42 (56.76%), iatrogenic in 29 (39.2%) and foreign body ingestion/related to trauma in 3 (4.1%). The diagnosis was delayed in 29 (39.2%) cases for longer than 24 h. There was change in the primary diagnostic modality over the period of this study with CT being used for diagnosis for 19 of 20 patients (95%). Initial management of the oesophageal perforation included a surgical intervention in 34 [45.9%; primary closure in 28 (37.8%), resection in 6 (8.1%)], endoscopic stenting in 18 (24.3%) and conservative management in 22 (29.7%) patients. On multivariate analysis, there was an effect of pathology (malignant vs. benign; p = 0.003) and surgical treatment as first line (p = 0.048) on 90-day mortality. However, at 1-year and overall follow-up, time to presentation (≤ 24 h vs. > 24 h) remained the only significant variable (p = 0.017 & p = 0.02, respectively).

Conclusion

Oesophageal perforation remains a condition with high mortality. The paradigm shift in our tertiary unit suggests the more liberal use of CT to establish an earlier diagnosis and a higher rate of oesophageal stenting as a primary management option for iatrogenic perforations. Time to diagnosis and management continues to be the most critical variable in the overall outcome.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017567; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017567?pdf=render +34716166,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268,Electronic reminders and rewards to improve adherence to inhaled asthma treatment in adolescents: a non-randomised feasibility study in tertiary care.,"De Simoni A, Fleming L, Holliday L, Horne R, Priebe S, Bush A, Sheikh A, Griffiths C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-10-29,Y,Asthma; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine); Paediatric Thoracic Medicine,,,"

Objective

To test the feasibility and acceptability of a short-term reminder and incentives intervention in adolescents with low adherence to asthma medications.

Methods

Mixed-methods feasibility study in a tertiary care clinic. Adolescents recruited to a 24-week programme with three 8-weekly visits, receiving electronic reminders to prompt inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) inhalation through a mobile app coupled with electronic monitoring devices (EMD). From the second visit, monetary incentives based on adherence of ICS inhalation: £1 per dose, maximum £2 /day, up to £112/study, collected as gift cards at the third visit. End of study interviews and questionnaires assessing perceptions of asthma and ICS, analysed using the Perceptions and Practicalities Framework.

Participants

Adolescents (11-18 years) with documented low ICS adherence (<80% by EMD), and poor asthma control at the first clinic visit.

Results

10 out of 12 adolescents approached were recruited (7 males, 3 females, 12-16 years). Eight participants provided adherence measures up to the fourth visits and received rewards. Mean study duration was 281 days, with 7/10 participants unable to attend their fourth visit due to COVID-19 lockdown. Only 3/10 participants managed to pair the app/EMD up to the fourth visit, which was associated with improved ICS adherence (from 0.51, SD 0.07 to 0.86, SD 0.05). Adherence did not change in adolescents unable to pair the app/EMD. The intervention was acceptable to participants and parents/guardians. Exit interviews showed that participants welcomed reminders and incentives, though expressed frustration with app/EMD technological difficulties. Participants stated the intervention helped through reminding ICS doses, promoting self-monitoring and increasing motivation to take inhalers.

Conclusions

An intervention using electronic reminders and incentives through an app coupled with an EMD was feasible and acceptable to adolescents with asthma. A pilot randomised controlled trial is warranted to better estimate the effect size on adherence, with improved technical support for the EMD.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e053268.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117?pdf=render 34641870,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-021-01638-z,An informatics consult approach for generating clinical evidence for treatment decisions.,"Lai AG, Chang WH, Parisinos CA, Katsoulis M, Blackburn RM, Shah AD, Nguyen V, Denaxas S, Davey Smith G, Gaunt TR, Nirantharakumar K, Cox MP, Forde D, Asselbergs FW, Harris S, Richardson S, Sofat R, Dobson RJB, Hingorani A, Patel R, Sterne J, Banerjee A, Denniston AK, Ball S, Sebire NJ, Shah NH, Foster GR, Williams B, Hemingway H.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2021,2021-10-12,Y,,,,"

Background

An Informatics Consult has been proposed in which clinicians request novel evidence from large scale health data resources, tailored to the treatment of a specific patient. However, the availability of such consultations is lacking. We seek to provide an Informatics Consult for a situation where a treatment indication and contraindication coexist in the same patient, i.e., anti-coagulation use for stroke prevention in a patient with both atrial fibrillation (AF) and liver cirrhosis.

Methods

We examined four sources of evidence for the effect of warfarin on stroke risk or all-cause mortality from: (1) randomised controlled trials (RCTs), (2) meta-analysis of prior observational studies, (3) trial emulation (using population electronic health records (N = 3,854,710) and (4) genetic evidence (Mendelian randomisation). We developed prototype forms to request an Informatics Consult and return of results in electronic health record systems.

Results

We found 0 RCT reports and 0 trials recruiting for patients with AF and cirrhosis. We found broad concordance across the three new sources of evidence we generated. Meta-analysis of prior observational studies showed that warfarin use was associated with lower stroke risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.71, CI 0.39-1.29). In a target trial emulation, warfarin was associated with lower all-cause mortality (HR = 0.61, CI 0.49-0.76) and ischaemic stroke (HR = 0.27, CI 0.08-0.91). Mendelian randomisation served as a drug target validation where we found that lower levels of vitamin K1 (warfarin is a vitamin K1 antagonist) are associated with lower stroke risk. A pilot survey with an independent sample of 34 clinicians revealed that 85% of clinicians found information on prognosis useful and that 79% thought that they should have access to the Informatics Consult as a service within their healthcare systems. We identified candidate steps for automation to scale evidence generation and to accelerate the return of results.

Conclusion

We performed a proof-of-concept Informatics Consult for evidence generation, which may inform treatment decisions in situations where there is dearth of randomised trials. Patients are surprised to know that their clinicians are currently not able to learn in clinic from data on 'patients like me'. We identify the key challenges in offering such an Informatics Consult as a service.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-021-01638-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-021-01638-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8506488; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8506488?pdf=render 37327673,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104655,HFrEF subphenotypes based on 4210 repeatedly measured circulating proteins are driven by different biological mechanisms.,"Petersen TB, de Bakker M, Asselbergs FW, Harakalova M, Akkerhuis KM, Brugts JJ, van Ramshorst J, Lumbers RT, Ostroff RM, Katsikis PD, van der Spek PJ, Umans VA, Boersma E, Rizopoulos D, Kardys I.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2023-06-14,Y,Proteomics; Phenotypes; Biomarkers; Heart Failure; Unsupervised Machine Learning,,,"

Background

HFrEF is a heterogenous condition with high mortality. We used serial assessments of 4210 circulating proteins to identify distinct novel protein-based HFrEF subphenotypes and to investigate underlying dynamic biological mechanisms. Herewith we aimed to gain pathophysiological insights and fuel opportunities for personalised treatment.

Methods

In 382 patients, we performed trimonthly blood sampling during a median follow-up of 2.1 [IQR:1.1-2.6] years. We selected all baseline samples and two samples closest to the primary endpoint (PEP; composite of cardiovascular mortality, HF hospitalization, LVAD implantation, and heart transplantation) or censoring, and applied an aptamer-based multiplex proteomic approach. Using unsupervised machine learning methods, we derived clusters from 4210 repeatedly measured proteomic biomarkers. Sets of proteins that drove cluster allocation were analysed via an enrichment analysis. Differences in clinical characteristics and PEP occurrence were evaluated.

Findings

We identified four subphenotypes with different protein profiles, prognosis and clinical characteristics, including age (median [IQR] for subphenotypes 1-4, respectively:70 [64, 76], 68 [60, 79], 57 [47, 65], 59 [56, 66]years), EF (30 [26, 36], 26 [20, 38], 26 [22, 32], 33 [28, 37]%), and chronic renal failure (45%, 65%, 36%, 37%). Subphenotype allocation was driven by subsets of proteins associated with various biological functions, such as oxidative stress, inflammation and extracellular matrix organisation. Clinical characteristics of the subphenotypes were aligned with these associations. Subphenotypes 2 and 3 had the worst prognosis compared to subphenotype 1 (adjHR (95%CI):3.43 (1.76-6.69), and 2.88 (1.37-6.03), respectively).

Interpretation

Four circulating-protein based subphenotypes are present in HFrEF, which are driven by varying combinations of protein subsets, and have different clinical characteristics and prognosis.

Clinical trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01851538https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01851538.

Funding

EU/EFPIA IMI2JU BigData@Heart grant n°116074, Jaap Schouten Foundation and Noordwest Academie.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396423002207/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104655; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10279550; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10279550?pdf=render -33521768,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8,Tackling immunosenescence to improve COVID-19 outcomes and vaccine response in older adults.,"Cox LS, Bellantuono I, Lord JM, Sapey E, Mannick JB, Partridge L, Gordon AL, Steves CJ, Witham MD.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2020,2020-11-09,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30011-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195?pdf=render 35039282,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049506,Development and external validation of prognostic models for COVID-19 to support risk stratification in secondary care.,"Adderley NJ, Taverner T, Price MJ, Sainsbury C, Greenwood D, Chandan JS, Takwoingi Y, Haniffa R, Hosier I, Welch C, Parekh D, Gallier S, Gokhale K, Denniston AK, Sapey E, Nirantharakumar K.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-01-17,Y,Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Existing UK prognostic models for patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 are limited by reliance on comorbidities, which are under-recorded in secondary care, and lack of imaging data among the candidate predictors. Our aims were to develop and externally validate novel prognostic models for adverse outcomes (death and intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission) in UK secondary care and externally validate the existing 4C score.

Design

Candidate predictors included demographic variables, symptoms, physiological measures, imaging and laboratory tests. Final models used logistic regression with stepwise selection.

Setting

Model development was performed in data from University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB). External validation was performed in the CovidCollab dataset.

Participants

Patients with COVID-19 admitted to UHB January-August 2020 were included.

Main outcome measures

Death and ITU admission within 28 days of admission.

Results

1040 patients with COVID-19 were included in the derivation cohort; 288 (28%) died and 183 (18%) were admitted to ITU within 28 days of admission. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for mortality was 0.791 (95% CI 0.761 to 0.822) in UHB and 0.767 (95% CI 0.754 to 0.780) in CovidCollab; AUROC for ITU admission was 0.906 (95% CI 0.883 to 0.929) in UHB and 0.811 (95% CI 0.795 to 0.828) in CovidCollab. Models showed good calibration. Addition of comorbidities to candidate predictors did not improve model performance. AUROC for the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium 4C score in the UHB dataset was 0.753 (95% CI 0.720 to 0.785).

Conclusions

The novel prognostic models showed good discrimination and calibration in derivation and external validation datasets, and performed at least as well as the existing 4C score using only routinely collected patient information. The models can be integrated into electronic medical records systems to calculate each individual patient's probability of death or ITU admission at the time of hospital admission. Implementation of the models and clinical utility should be evaluated.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/1/e049506.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049506; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8764710; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8764710?pdf=render 34135032,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043906,Realising the full potential of data-enabled trials in the UK: a call for action.,"Sydes MR, Barbachano Y, Bowman L, Denwood T, Farmer A, Garfield-Birkbeck S, Gibson M, Gulliford MC, Harrison DA, Hewitt C, Logue J, Navaie W, Norrie J, O'Kane M, Quint JK, Rycroft-Malone J, Sheffield J, Smeeth L, Sullivan F, Tizzard J, Walker P, Wilding J, Williamson PR, Landray M, Morris A, Walker RR, Williams HC, Valentine J, Data Enabled Trials Group Workshop Group members.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-16,Y,Clinical Trials; Health Informatics; Statistics & Research Methods,,,"

Rationale

Clinical trials are the gold standard for testing interventions. COVID-19 has further raised their public profile and emphasised the need to deliver better, faster, more efficient trials for patient benefit. Considerable overlap exists between data required for trials and data already collected routinely in electronic healthcare records (EHRs). Opportunities exist to use these in innovative ways to decrease duplication of effort and speed trial recruitment, conduct and follow-up.

Approach

The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), Health Data Research UK and Clinical Practice Research Datalink co-organised a national workshop to accelerate the agenda for 'data-enabled clinical trials'. Showcasing successful examples and imagining future possibilities, the plenary talks, panel discussions, group discussions and case studies covered: design/feasibility; recruitment; conduct/follow-up; collecting benefits/harms; and analysis/interpretation.

Reflection

Some notable studies have successfully accessed and used EHR to identify potential recruits, support randomised trials, deliver interventions and supplement/replace trial-specific follow-up. Some outcome measures are already reliably collected; others, like safety, need detailed work to meet regulatory reporting requirements. There is a clear need for system interoperability and a 'route map' to identify and access the necessary datasets. Researchers running regulatory-facing trials must carefully consider how data quality and integrity would be assessed. An experience-sharing forum could stimulate wider adoption of EHR-based methods in trial design and execution.

Discussion

EHR offer opportunities to better plan clinical trials, assess patients and capture data more efficiently, reducing research waste and increasing focus on each trial's specific challenges. The short-term emphasis should be on facilitating patient recruitment and for postmarketing authorisation trials where research-relevant outcome measures are readily collectable. Sharing of case studies is encouraged. The workshop directly informed NIHR's funding call for ambitious data-enabled trials at scale. There is the opportunity for the UK to build upon existing data science capabilities to identify, recruit and monitor patients in trials at scale.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e043906.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043906; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8211043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8211043?pdf=render 36654802,https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10315,"A framework for understanding, designing, developing and evaluating learning health systems.","Foley T, Vale L.",,Learning health systems,2023,2022-05-20,Y,Quality improvement; Informatics; Implementation Science; Learning Health Systems; Learning Healthcare Systems,,,"

Introduction

A Learning Health System is not a technical project. It is the evolution of an existing health system into one capable of learning from every patient. This paper outlines a recently published framework intended to aid the understanding, design, development and evaluation of Learning Health Systems.

Methods

This work extended an existing repository of Learning Health System evidence, adding five more workshops. The total was subjected to thematic analysis, yielding a framework of elements important to understanding, designing, developing and evaluating Learning Health Systems. Purposeful literature reviews were conducted on each element. The findings were revised following a review by a group of international experts.

Results

The resulting framework was arranged around four questions:What is our rationale for developing a Learning Health System?There can be many reasons for developing a Learning Health System. Understanding these will guide its development.What sources of complexity exist at the system and the intervention level?An understanding of complexity is central to making Learning Health Systems work. The non-adoption, abandonment, scale-up, spread and sustainability framework was utilised to help understand and manage it.What strategic approaches to change do we need to consider?A range of strategic issues must be addressed to enable successful change in a Learning Health System. These include, strategy, organisational structure, culture, workforce, implementation science, behaviour change, co-design and evaluation.What technical building blocks will we need?A Learning Health System must capture data from practice, turn it into knowledge and apply it back into practice. There are many methods to achieve this and a range of platforms to help.

Discussion

The results form a framework for understanding, designing, developing and evaluating Learning Health Systems at any scale.

Conclusion

It is hoped that this framework will evolve with use and feedback.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9835047; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10315; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9835047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9835047?pdf=render @@ -710,33 +710,33 @@ PMC9645061,https://doi.org/,Using population-scale medication data to evaluate t 31797917,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-019-0635-y,"Novel genome-wide associations for anhedonia, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, and polygenic association with brain structure.","Ward J, Lyall LM, Bethlehem RAI, Ferguson A, Strawbridge RJ, Lyall DM, Cullen B, Graham N, Johnston KJA, Bailey MES, Murray GK, Smith DJ.",,Translational psychiatry,2019,2019-12-04,Y,,,,"Anhedonia is a core symptom of several psychiatric disorders but its biological underpinnings are poorly understood. We performed a genome-wide association study of state anhedonia in 375,275 UK Biobank participants and assessed for genetic correlation between anhedonia and neuropsychiatric conditions (major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and Parkinson's Disease). We then used a polygenic risk score approach to test for association between genetic loading for anhedonia and both brain structure and brain function. This included: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessments of total grey matter volume, white matter volume, cerebrospinal fluid volume, and 15 cortical/subcortical regions of interest; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of white matter tract integrity; and functional MRI activity during an emotion processing task. We identified 11 novel loci associated at genome-wide significance with anhedonia, with a SNP heritability estimate (h2SNP) of 5.6%. Strong positive genetic correlations were found between anhedonia and major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; but not with obsessive compulsive disorder or Parkinson's Disease. Polygenic risk for anhedonia was associated with poorer brain white matter integrity, smaller total grey matter volume, and smaller volumes of brain regions linked to reward and pleasure processing, including orbito-frontal cortex. In summary, the identification of novel anhedonia-associated loci substantially expands our current understanding of the biological basis of state anhedonia and genetic correlations with several psychiatric disorders confirm the utility of this phenotype as a transdiagnostic marker of vulnerability to mental illness. We also provide the first evidence that genetic risk for state anhedonia influences brain structure, including in regions associated with reward and pleasure processing.",This study assessed for genetic correlation between anhedonia and neuropsychiatric conditions. A polygenic risk score approach was applied to test for association between anhedonia and brain structure and brain function. Findings confirm that using anhedonia as a marker of vulnerability to mental illness. Findings also suggest that genetic risk for state anhedonia influences brain structure,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0635-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-019-0635-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6892870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6892870?pdf=render 37190903,https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34548,Cancer incidence and mortality in 23 000 patients with type 1 diabetes in the UK: Long-term follow-up.,"Swerdlow AJ, Jones ME, Slater SD, Burden ACF, Botha JL, Waugh NR, Morris AD, Gatling W, Gillespie KM, Patterson CC, Schoemaker MJ.",,International journal of cancer,2023,2023-05-15,N,Cancer; type 1 diabetes; Cohort,,,"Type 2 diabetes is associated with raised risk of several cancers, but for type 1 diabetes risk data are fewer and inconsistent We assembled a cohort of 23 473 UK patients with insulin-treated diabetes diagnosed at ages <30, almost all of whom will have had type 1 diabetes, and for comparison 5058 diagnosed at ages 30 to 49, of whom we estimate two-thirds will have had type 2, and followed them for an average of 30 years for cancer incidence and mortality compared with general population rates. Patients aged <30 at diabetes diagnosis had significantly raised risks only for ovarian (standardised incidence ratio = 1.58; 95% confidence interval 1.16-2.11; P < .01) and vulval (3.55; 1.94-5.96; P < .001) cancers, with greatest risk when diabetes was diagnosed at ages 10-14. Risks of cancer overall (0.89; 0.84-0.95; P < .001) and sites including lung and larynx were significantly diminished. Patients diagnosed with diabetes at ages 30 to 49 had significantly raised risks of liver (1.76;1.08-2.72) and kidney (1.46;1.03-2.00) cancers, and reduced risk of cancer overall (0.89; 0.84-0.95). The raised ovarian and vulval cancer risks in patients with type 1 diabetes, especially with diabetes diagnosed around pubertal ages, suggest possible susceptibility of these organs at puberty to metabolic disruption at diabetes onset. Reduced risk of cancer overall, particularly smoking and alcohol-related sites, might reflect adoption of a healthy lifestyle.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ijc.34548; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34548 33619467,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaa047,A semi-supervised approach for rapidly creating clinical biomarker phenotypes in the UK Biobank using different primary care EHR and clinical terminology systems.,"Denaxas S, Shah AD, Mateen BA, Kuan V, Quint JK, Fitzpatrick N, Torralbo A, Fatemifar G, Hemingway H.",,JAMIA open,2020,2020-12-05,Y,Phenotyping; Medical Informatics; Electronic Health Records; Uk Biobank,,,"

Objectives

The UK Biobank (UKB) is making primary care electronic health records (EHRs) for 500 000 participants available for COVID-19-related research. Data are extracted from four sources, recorded using five clinical terminologies and stored in different schemas. The aims of our research were to: (a) develop a semi-supervised approach for bootstrapping EHR phenotyping algorithms in UKB EHR, and (b) to evaluate our approach by implementing and evaluating phenotypes for 31 common biomarkers.

Materials and methods

We describe an algorithmic approach to phenotyping biomarkers in primary care EHR involving (a) bootstrapping definitions using existing phenotypes, (b) excluding generic, rare, or semantically distant terms, (c) forward-mapping terminology terms, (d) expert review, and (e) data extraction. We evaluated the phenotypes by assessing the ability to reproduce known epidemiological associations with all-cause mortality using Cox proportional hazards models.

Results

We created and evaluated phenotyping algorithms for 31 biomarkers many of which are directly related to COVID-19 complications, for example diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease. Our algorithm identified 1651 Read v2 and Clinical Terms Version 3 terms and automatically excluded 1228 terms. Clinical review excluded 103 terms and included 44 terms, resulting in 364 terms for data extraction (sensitivity 0.89, specificity 0.92). We extracted 38 190 682 events and identified 220 978 participants with at least one biomarker measured.

Discussion and conclusion

Bootstrapping phenotyping algorithms from similar EHR can potentially address pre-existing methodological concerns that undermine the outputs of biomarker discovery pipelines and provide research-quality phenotyping algorithms.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jamiaopen/article-pdf/3/4/545/36625793/ooaa047.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaa047; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7717266; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7717266?pdf=render -33780550,https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457,Impact of a physician - critical care practitioner pre-hospital service in Wales on trauma survival: a retrospective analysis of linked registry data.,"Lyons J, Gabbe BJ, Rawlinson D, Lockey D, Fry RJ, Akbari A, Lyons RA.",,Anaesthesia,2021,2021-03-29,N,Trauma; Survival; Critical Care; Pre-hospital Care,,,"The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service for Wales launched in 2015. This service delivers senior pre-hospital doctors and advanced critical care practitioners to the scene of time-critical life- and limb-threatening incidents to provide advanced decision-making and pre-hospital clinical care. The impact of the service on 30-day mortality was evaluated retrospectively using a data linkage system. The study included patients who sustained moderate-to-severe blunt traumatic injuries (injury severity score ≥ 9) between 27 April 2015 and 30 November 2018. The association between pre-hospital management by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service and 30-day mortality was assessed using multivariable logistic regression. In total, data from 4035 patients were analysed, of which 412 (10%) were treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service. A greater proportion of patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service had an injury severity score ≥ 16 and Glasgow coma scale ≤ 12 (288 (70%) vs. 1435 (40%) and 126 (31%) vs. 325 (9%), respectively). The unadjusted 30-day mortality rate was 11.7% for patients managed by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service compared with 9.6% for patients managed by standard pre-hospital care services. However, after adjustment for differences in case-mix, the 30-day mortality rate for patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service was 37% lower (adjusted odds ratio 0.63 (95%CI 0.41-0.97); p = 0.037). The introduction of an emergency medical retrieval service was associated with a reduction in 30-day mortality for patients with blunt traumatic injury.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56616/Download/56616__19761__8c6edaf906b846a69c8b19bdb94d015d.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457 36299367,https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00211-2022,Mortality associated with metabolic syndrome in people with COPD managed in primary care.,"Karsanji U, Evans RA, Quint JK, Khunti K, Lawson CA, Petherick E, Greening NJ, Singh SJ, Richardson M, Steiner MC.",,ERJ open research,2022,2022-10-24,Y,,,,"

Objective

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been reported to be higher in selected populations of people with COPD. The impact of MetS on mortality in COPD is unknown. We used routinely collected healthcare data to estimate the prevalence of MetS in people with COPD managed in primary care and determine its impact on 5-year mortality.

Methods

Records from 103 955 patients with COPD from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD-GOLD) between 2009 to 2017 were scrutinised. MetS was defined as the presence of three or more of: obesity, hypertension, lowered high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, elevated triglycerides or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Univariate and multivariable Cox regression models were constructed to determine the prognostic impact of MetS on 5-year mortality. Similar univariate models were constructed for individual components of the definition of MetS.

Results

The prevalence of MetS in the COPD cohort was 10.1%. Univariate analyses showed the presence of MetS increased mortality (hazard ratio (HR) 1.19, 95% CI: 1.12-1.27, p<0.001), but this risk was substantially attenuated in the multivariable analysis (HR 1.06, 95% CI: 0.99-1.13, p=0.085). The presence of hypertension (HR 1.70, 95% CI: 1.63-1.77, p<0.001) and T2DM (HR 1.41, 95% CI: 1.34-1.48, p<0.001) increased and obesity (HR 0.74, 95% CI: 0.71-0.78, p<0.001) reduced mortality risk.

Conclusion

MetS in patients with COPD is associated with higher 5-year mortality, but this impact was minimal when adjusted for indices of COPD disease severity and other comorbidities. Individual components of the MetS definition exerted differential impacts on mortality suggesting limitation to the use of MetS as a multicomponent condition in predicting outcome in COPD.",,pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/8/4/00211-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00211-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9589337; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9589337?pdf=render PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics analytics for the better understanding of metabolic diseases","Acharjee A, Agarwal P, Gkoutos G.",,Frontiers in endocrinology,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Biomarker; Therapeutic; Diagnostic; Metabolic Disease; Omics,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516571/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516571/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10516571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10516571?pdf=render +33780550,https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457,Impact of a physician - critical care practitioner pre-hospital service in Wales on trauma survival: a retrospective analysis of linked registry data.,"Lyons J, Gabbe BJ, Rawlinson D, Lockey D, Fry RJ, Akbari A, Lyons RA.",,Anaesthesia,2021,2021-03-29,N,Trauma; Survival; Critical Care; Pre-hospital Care,,,"The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service for Wales launched in 2015. This service delivers senior pre-hospital doctors and advanced critical care practitioners to the scene of time-critical life- and limb-threatening incidents to provide advanced decision-making and pre-hospital clinical care. The impact of the service on 30-day mortality was evaluated retrospectively using a data linkage system. The study included patients who sustained moderate-to-severe blunt traumatic injuries (injury severity score ≥ 9) between 27 April 2015 and 30 November 2018. The association between pre-hospital management by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service and 30-day mortality was assessed using multivariable logistic regression. In total, data from 4035 patients were analysed, of which 412 (10%) were treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service. A greater proportion of patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service had an injury severity score ≥ 16 and Glasgow coma scale ≤ 12 (288 (70%) vs. 1435 (40%) and 126 (31%) vs. 325 (9%), respectively). The unadjusted 30-day mortality rate was 11.7% for patients managed by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service compared with 9.6% for patients managed by standard pre-hospital care services. However, after adjustment for differences in case-mix, the 30-day mortality rate for patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service was 37% lower (adjusted odds ratio 0.63 (95%CI 0.41-0.97); p = 0.037). The introduction of an emergency medical retrieval service was associated with a reduction in 30-day mortality for patients with blunt traumatic injury.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56616/Download/56616__19761__8c6edaf906b846a69c8b19bdb94d015d.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457 +35896970,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4,SARS-CoV-2 lineage dynamics in England from September to November 2021: high diversity of Delta sub-lineages and increased transmissibility of AY.4.2.,"Eales O, Page AJ, de Oliveira Martins L, Wang H, Bodinier B, Haw D, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,BMC infectious diseases,2022,2022-07-27,Y,Mutation; Genetic diversity; Transmission Advantage; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant,,,"

Background

Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, evolutionary pressure has driven large increases in the transmissibility of the virus. However, with increasing levels of immunity through vaccination and natural infection the evolutionary pressure will switch towards immune escape. Genomic surveillance in regions of high immunity is crucial in detecting emerging variants that can more successfully navigate the immune landscape.

Methods

We present phylogenetic relationships and lineage dynamics within England (a country with high levels of immunity), as inferred from a random community sample of individuals who provided a self-administered throat and nose swab for rt-PCR testing as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. During round 14 (9 September-27 September 2021) and 15 (19 October-5 November 2021) lineages were determined for 1322 positive individuals, with 27.1% of those which reported their symptom status reporting no symptoms in the previous month.

Results

We identified 44 unique lineages, all of which were Delta or Delta sub-lineages, and found a reduction in their mutation rate over the study period. The proportion of the Delta sub-lineage AY.4.2 was increasing, with a reproduction number 15% (95% CI 8-23%) greater than the most prevalent lineage, AY.4. Further, AY.4.2 was less associated with the most predictive COVID-19 symptoms (p = 0.029) and had a reduced mutation rate (p = 0.050). Both AY.4.2 and AY.4 were found to be geographically clustered in September but this was no longer the case by late October/early November, with only the lineage AY.6 exhibiting clustering towards the South of England.

Conclusions

As SARS-CoV-2 moves towards endemicity and new variants emerge, genomic data obtained from random community samples can augment routine surveillance data without the potential biases introduced due to higher sampling rates of symptomatic individuals.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417?pdf=render 32855306,https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-321650,Prioritisation by FIT to mitigate the impact of delays in the 2-week wait colorectal cancer referral pathway during the COVID-19 pandemic: a UK modelling study.,"Loveday C, Sud A, Jones ME, Broggio J, Scott S, Gronthound F, Torr B, Garrett A, Nicol DL, Jhanji S, Boyce SA, Williams M, Barry C, Riboli E, Kipps E, McFerran E, Muller DC, Lyratzopoulos G, Lawler M, Abulafi M, Houlston RS, Turnbull C.",,Gut,2021,2020-08-27,Y,Colonoscopy; Colorectal Cancer; Colorectal Cancer Screening,,,"

Objective

To evaluate the impact of faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) prioritisation to mitigate the impact of delays in the colorectal cancer (CRC) urgent diagnostic (2-week-wait (2WW)) pathway consequent from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

We modelled the reduction in CRC survival and life years lost resultant from per-patient delays of 2-6 months in the 2WW pathway. We stratified by age group, individual-level benefit in CRC survival versus age-specific nosocomial COVID-19-related fatality per referred patient undergoing colonoscopy. We modelled mitigation strategies using thresholds of FIT triage of 2, 10 and 150 µg Hb/g to prioritise 2WW referrals for colonoscopy. To construct the underlying models, we employed 10-year net CRC survival for England 2008-2017, 2WW pathway CRC case and referral volumes and per-day-delay HRs generated from observational studies of diagnosis-to-treatment interval.

Results

Delay of 2/4/6 months across all 11 266 patients with CRC diagnosed per typical year via the 2WW pathway were estimated to result in 653/1419/2250 attributable deaths and loss of 9214/20 315/32 799 life years. Risk-benefit from urgent investigatory referral is particularly sensitive to nosocomial COVID-19 rates for patients aged >60. Prioritisation out of delay for the 18% of symptomatic referrals with FIT >10 µg Hb/g would avoid 89% of these deaths attributable to presentational/diagnostic delay while reducing immediate requirement for colonoscopy by >80%.

Conclusions

Delays in the pathway to CRC diagnosis and treatment have potential to cause significant mortality and loss of life years. FIT triage of symptomatic patients in primary care could streamline access to colonoscopy, reduce delays for true-positive CRC cases and reduce nosocomial COVID-19 mortality in older true-negative 2WW referrals. However, this strategy offers benefit only in short-term rationalisation of limited endoscopy services: the appreciable false-negative rate of FIT in symptomatic patients means most colonoscopies will still be required.",,pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/70/6/1053.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-321650; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7447105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7447105?pdf=render -33262478,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8,Risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy at first screening in persons with type 1 diabetes diagnosed under 18 years of age.,"Rafferty J, Owens DR, Luzio SD, Watts P, Akbari A, Thomas RL.",,"Eye (London, England)",2021,2020-12-01,N,,,,"

Objective

To determine the risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy (DR) in children and young people (CYP) with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) at first screening.

Methods

Records from the Diabetes Eye Screening Wales (DESW) service for people in Wales, UK, with T1DM diagnosed under age 18 years were combined with other electronic health record (EHR) data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Data close to the screening date were collected, and risk factors derived from multivariate, multinomial logistic regression modelling.

Results

Data from 4172 persons, with median (lower quartile, upper quartile) age 16.3 (13.0, 22.3) years and duration of diabetes 6.6 (2.3, 12.3) years were analysed. 62.6% (n = 2613) had no DR, 26.7% (n = 1112) background DR, and 10.7% (n = 447) had referable DR (RDR). No RDR was observed under 19 years of age. Factors associated with an increased risk of DR were diabetes duration, elevated HbA1c, and diastolic blood pressure. People diagnosed with T1DM at 12 years or older had an additional risk for each year they had diabetes compared to those diagnosed before age 12 controlling for the diabetes duration (odds ratios 1.23 and 1.34, respectively).

Conclusions

This study found that 37.4% of the study cohort had DR at first screening, the risk being greater the longer the duration of diabetes or higher the HbA1c and diastolic blood pressure. In addition, people diagnosed at 12 years of age or over were more likely to have DR with each additional year with diabetes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-020-01326-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8 36564466,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26141-x,Assessing and removing the effect of unwanted technical variations in microbiome data.,"Fachrul M, Méric G, Inouye M, Pamp SJ, Salim A.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-12-23,Y,,,,"Varying technologies and experimental approaches used in microbiome studies often lead to irreproducible results due to unwanted technical variations. Such variations, often unaccounted for and of unknown source, may interfere with true biological signals, resulting in misleading biological conclusions. In this work, we aim to characterize the major sources of technical variations in microbiome data and demonstrate how in-silico approaches can minimize their impact. We analyzed 184 pig faecal metagenomes encompassing 21 specific combinations of deliberately introduced factors of technical and biological variations. Using the novel Removing Unwanted Variations-III-Negative Binomial (RUV-III-NB), we identified several known experimental factors, specifically storage conditions and freeze-thaw cycles, as likely major sources of unwanted variation in metagenomes. We also observed that these unwanted technical variations do not affect taxa uniformly, with freezing samples affecting taxa of class Bacteroidia the most, for example. Additionally, we benchmarked the performances of different correction methods, including ComBat, ComBat-seq, RUVg, RUVs, and RUV-III-NB. While RUV-III-NB performed consistently robust across our sensitivity and specificity metrics, most other methods did not remove unwanted variations optimally. Our analyses suggest that a careful consideration of possible technical confounders is critical during experimental design of microbiome studies, and that the inclusion of technical replicates is necessary to efficiently remove unwanted variations computationally.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26141-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26141-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9789116; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9789116?pdf=render -32737300,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2,Distinct genetic architectures and environmental factors associate with host response to the γ2-herpesvirus infections.,"Sallah N, Miley W, Labo N, Carstensen T, Fatumo S, Gurdasani D, Pollard MO, Dilthey AT, Mentzer AJ, Marshall V, Cornejo Castro EM, Pomilla C, Young EH, Asiki G, Hibberd ML, Sandhu M, Kellam P, Newton R, Whitby D, Barroso I.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-07-31,Y,,,,"Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) establish life-long infections and are associated with malignancies. Striking geographic variation in incidence and the fact that virus alone is insufficient to cause disease, suggests other co-factors are involved. Here we present epidemiological analysis and genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 4365 individuals from an African population cohort, to assess the influence of host genetic and non-genetic factors on virus antibody responses. EBV/KSHV co-infection (OR = 5.71(1.58-7.12)), HIV positivity (OR = 2.22(1.32-3.73)) and living in a more rural area (OR = 1.38(1.01-1.89)) are strongly associated with immunogenicity. GWAS reveals associations with KSHV antibody response in the HLA-B/C region (p = 6.64 × 10-09). For EBV, associations are identified for VCA (rs71542439, p = 1.15 × 10-12). Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and trans-ancestry fine-mapping substantiate that distinct variants in HLA-DQA1 (p = 5.24 × 10-44) are driving associations for EBNA-1 in Africa. This study highlights complex interactions between KSHV and EBV, in addition to distinct genetic architectures resulting in important differences in pathogenesis and transmission.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17696-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761?pdf=render -35896970,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4,SARS-CoV-2 lineage dynamics in England from September to November 2021: high diversity of Delta sub-lineages and increased transmissibility of AY.4.2.,"Eales O, Page AJ, de Oliveira Martins L, Wang H, Bodinier B, Haw D, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.",,BMC infectious diseases,2022,2022-07-27,Y,Mutation; Genetic diversity; Transmission Advantage; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant,,,"

Background

Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, evolutionary pressure has driven large increases in the transmissibility of the virus. However, with increasing levels of immunity through vaccination and natural infection the evolutionary pressure will switch towards immune escape. Genomic surveillance in regions of high immunity is crucial in detecting emerging variants that can more successfully navigate the immune landscape.

Methods

We present phylogenetic relationships and lineage dynamics within England (a country with high levels of immunity), as inferred from a random community sample of individuals who provided a self-administered throat and nose swab for rt-PCR testing as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. During round 14 (9 September-27 September 2021) and 15 (19 October-5 November 2021) lineages were determined for 1322 positive individuals, with 27.1% of those which reported their symptom status reporting no symptoms in the previous month.

Results

We identified 44 unique lineages, all of which were Delta or Delta sub-lineages, and found a reduction in their mutation rate over the study period. The proportion of the Delta sub-lineage AY.4.2 was increasing, with a reproduction number 15% (95% CI 8-23%) greater than the most prevalent lineage, AY.4. Further, AY.4.2 was less associated with the most predictive COVID-19 symptoms (p = 0.029) and had a reduced mutation rate (p = 0.050). Both AY.4.2 and AY.4 were found to be geographically clustered in September but this was no longer the case by late October/early November, with only the lineage AY.6 exhibiting clustering towards the South of England.

Conclusions

As SARS-CoV-2 moves towards endemicity and new variants emerge, genomic data obtained from random community samples can augment routine surveillance data without the potential biases introduced due to higher sampling rates of symptomatic individuals.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417?pdf=render +33262478,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8,Risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy at first screening in persons with type 1 diabetes diagnosed under 18 years of age.,"Rafferty J, Owens DR, Luzio SD, Watts P, Akbari A, Thomas RL.",,"Eye (London, England)",2021,2020-12-01,N,,,,"

Objective

To determine the risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy (DR) in children and young people (CYP) with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) at first screening.

Methods

Records from the Diabetes Eye Screening Wales (DESW) service for people in Wales, UK, with T1DM diagnosed under age 18 years were combined with other electronic health record (EHR) data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Data close to the screening date were collected, and risk factors derived from multivariate, multinomial logistic regression modelling.

Results

Data from 4172 persons, with median (lower quartile, upper quartile) age 16.3 (13.0, 22.3) years and duration of diabetes 6.6 (2.3, 12.3) years were analysed. 62.6% (n = 2613) had no DR, 26.7% (n = 1112) background DR, and 10.7% (n = 447) had referable DR (RDR). No RDR was observed under 19 years of age. Factors associated with an increased risk of DR were diabetes duration, elevated HbA1c, and diastolic blood pressure. People diagnosed with T1DM at 12 years or older had an additional risk for each year they had diabetes compared to those diagnosed before age 12 controlling for the diabetes duration (odds ratios 1.23 and 1.34, respectively).

Conclusions

This study found that 37.4% of the study cohort had DR at first screening, the risk being greater the longer the duration of diabetes or higher the HbA1c and diastolic blood pressure. In addition, people diagnosed at 12 years of age or over were more likely to have DR with each additional year with diabetes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-020-01326-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8 37156754,https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.17531,Risk factors for a serious adverse outcome in neonates: a retrospective cohort study of vaginal births.,"Jindal S, Steer PJ, Savvidou M, Draycott T, Dixon-Woods M, Wood A, Kim LG.",,BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology,2023,2023-05-08,N,risk factors; Meconium; Pyrexia; Intrapartum Fetal Monitoring; Labour Outcome; Fetal Deterioration,,,"

Objective

To investigate the hypothesis that risk factors in addition to an abnormal fetal heart rate pattern (aFHRp) are independently associated with adverse neonatal outcomes of labour.

Design

Observational prospective cohort study.

Setting

17 UK maternity units.

Sample

585 291 pregnancies between 1988 and 2000 inclusive.

Methods

Adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated from multivariable logistic regression.

Main outcome measures

Adverse neonatal outcome at term (5-minute Apgar score <7, and a composite measure comprising 5-minute Apgar score <7, resuscitation by intubation and/or perinatal death).

Results

Analysis was based on 302 137 vaginal births at 37-42 weeks inclusive. We found a higher odds of Apgar score at 5 minutes <7 with suspected fetal growth restriction (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.16-1.53), induction of labour (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.25-1.58), nulliparity (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.34-1.63), booking body mass index ≥30 (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.02-1.37), maternal age <25 (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.10-1.39), black ethnicity (OR 1.21, 95% CI 1.03-1.43), early-term birth at 37-38 weeks (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.02-1.25), late-term birth at 41-42 weeks (OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.01-1.28), use of oxytocin (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.14-1.41), maternal pyrexia (OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.46-2.40), aFHRp and presence of meconium (aFHRp without meconium: OR 2.40, 95% CI 2.15-2.69; meconium without aFHRp: OR 2.20, 195% CI.94-2.49; both aFHRp and meconium: OR 4.26, 95% CI 3.74-4.87). The results were similar when the composite adverse outcome was considered.

Conclusions

A range of risk factors, including suspicion of fetal growth restriction, maternal pyrexia and presence of meconium, are implicated in poor birth outcomes in addition to aFHRp. Interpretation of the fetal heart rate pattern alone is insufficient as a basis for decisions about escalation and intervention.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.17531 37306981,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.1580,Independent Associations of Incident Epilepsy and Enzyme-Inducing and Non-Enzyme-Inducing Antiseizure Medications With the Development of Osteoporosis.,"Josephson CB, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Denaxas S, Sajobi TT, Klein KM, Wiebe S.",,JAMA neurology,2023,2023-08-01,N,,,,"

Importance

Both epilepsy and enzyme-inducing antiseizure medications (eiASMs) having varying reports of an association with increased risks for osteoporosis.

Objective

To quantify and model the independent hazards for osteoporosis associated with incident epilepsy and eiASMS and non-eiASMs.

Design, setting, and participants

This open cohort study covered the years 1998 to 2019, with a median (IQR) follow-up of 5 (1.7-11.1) years. Data were collected for 6275 patients enrolled in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and from hospital electronic health records. No patients who met inclusion criteria (Clinical Practice Research Datalink-acceptable data, aged 18 years or older, follow-up after the Hospital Episode Statistics patient care linkage date of 1998, and free of osteoporosis at baseline) were excluded or declined.

Exposure

Incident adult-onset epilepsy using a 5-year washout and receipt of 4 consecutive ASMs.

Main outcomes and measures

The outcome was incident osteoporosis as determined through Cox proportional hazards or accelerated failure time models where appropriate. Incident epilepsy was treated as a time-varying covariate. Analyses controlled for age, sex, socioeconomic status, cancer, 1 or more years of corticosteroid use, body mass index, bariatric surgery, eating disorders, hyperthyroidism, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, smoking status, falls, fragility fractures, and osteoporosis screening tests. Subsequent analyses (1) excluded body mass index, which was missing in 30% of patients; (2) applied propensity score matching for receipt of an eiASM; (3) restricted analyses to only those with incident onset epilepsy; and (4) restricted analyses to patients who developed epilepsy at age 65 years or older. Analyses were performed between July 1 and October 31, 2022, and in February 2023 for revisions.

Results

Of 8 095 441 adults identified, 6275 had incident adult-onset epilepsy (3220 female [51%] and 3055 male [49%]; incidence rate, 62 per 100 000 person-years) with a median (IQR) age of 56 (38-73) years. When controlling for osteoporosis risk factors, incident epilepsy was independently associated with a 41% faster time to incident osteoporosis (time ratio [TR], 0.59; 95% CI, 0.52-0.67; P < .001). Both eiASMs (TR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.87-0.95; P < .001) and non-eiASMs (TR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.76-0.78; P < .001) were also associated with significant increased risks independent of epilepsy, accounting for 9% and 23% faster times to development of osteoporosis, respectively. The independent associations among epilepsy, eiASMs, and non-eiASMs remained consistent in propensity score-matched analyses, cohorts restricted to adult-onset epilepsy, and cohorts restricted to late-onset epilepsy.

Conclusions and relevance

These findings suggest that epilepsy is independently associated with a clinically meaningful increase in the risk for osteoporosis, as are both eiASMs and non-eiASMs. Routine screening and prophylaxis should be considered in all people with epilepsy.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.1580 +32737300,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2,Distinct genetic architectures and environmental factors associate with host response to the γ2-herpesvirus infections.,"Sallah N, Miley W, Labo N, Carstensen T, Fatumo S, Gurdasani D, Pollard MO, Dilthey AT, Mentzer AJ, Marshall V, Cornejo Castro EM, Pomilla C, Young EH, Asiki G, Hibberd ML, Sandhu M, Kellam P, Newton R, Whitby D, Barroso I.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-07-31,Y,,,,"Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) establish life-long infections and are associated with malignancies. Striking geographic variation in incidence and the fact that virus alone is insufficient to cause disease, suggests other co-factors are involved. Here we present epidemiological analysis and genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 4365 individuals from an African population cohort, to assess the influence of host genetic and non-genetic factors on virus antibody responses. EBV/KSHV co-infection (OR = 5.71(1.58-7.12)), HIV positivity (OR = 2.22(1.32-3.73)) and living in a more rural area (OR = 1.38(1.01-1.89)) are strongly associated with immunogenicity. GWAS reveals associations with KSHV antibody response in the HLA-B/C region (p = 6.64 × 10-09). For EBV, associations are identified for VCA (rs71542439, p = 1.15 × 10-12). Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and trans-ancestry fine-mapping substantiate that distinct variants in HLA-DQA1 (p = 5.24 × 10-44) are driving associations for EBNA-1 in Africa. This study highlights complex interactions between KSHV and EBV, in addition to distinct genetic architectures resulting in important differences in pathogenesis and transmission.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17696-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761?pdf=render 36525457,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279250,Undergoing radical treatment for prostate cancer and its impact on wellbeing: A qualitative study exploring men's experiences.,"Vyas N, Brunckhorst O, Fox L, Van Hemelrijck M, Muir G, Stewart R, Dasgupta P, Ahmed K.",,PloS one,2022,2022-12-16,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Quality of life in prostate cancer survivorship is becoming increasingly important, with mental and social wellbeing recognised as key components. However, limited global evaluation of psychosocial challenges experienced after treatment exists. Therefore, we aimed to explore the lived experiences of men who underwent radical treatment, and its psychosocial impact.

Material and methods

This qualitative study was conducted using 19 men who had undergone radical treatment (prostatectomy or radiotherapy) for their cancer. Semi-structured interviews were conducted exploring lived experiences of men after treatment. A Structured thematic analysis of collected data was undertaken, with an inductive co-construction of themes through the lens of the biopsychosocial model. Themes generated were considered within a psychological, social, and physical wellbeing framework.

Results

An initial knowledge gap meant mental wellbeing was strongly impacted initially leading to a 'Diagnostic Blow and the Search for Clarity'. Doubt over individuals' future resulted in 'An Uncertain Future' in many men. Once treatment was completed a 'Reflective journey' began, with men considering their outcomes and decisions made. Social wellbeing was also impacted with many identifying the 'Emotional Repercussions' on their relationships and the impact their diagnosis had on their partner and family. Many subsequently sought to increase their support through 'The Social Network and Advocacy', while physical changes led to an increased need for 'Social Planning'. Finally, physical wellbeing was highlighted by a continual acknowledgement of the 'Natural process of ageing' leading to a reluctancy to seek help, whilst simultaneously attempting to improve existing health via 'The Health Kick'.

Conclusions

Radical treatments have a considerable impact on mental and social wellbeing of individuals. Anxiety after diagnosis and significant uncertainty over individual futures exist, with physical complications of treatment leading to social repercussions. Future research should aim to identify forms of support to improve quality of life of these men.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279250&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757548; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757548?pdf=render -37717030,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6,The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of common infections in primary care and the change to antibiotic prescribing in England.,"Yang YT, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, Fisher L, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.",,Antimicrobial resistance and infection control,2023,2023-09-16,Y,Infection; Antibiotics; Primary Care; Antibiotic Stewardship; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Background

There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic altered the management of common infections in primary care. This study aimed to evaluate infection-coded consultation rates and antibiotic use during the pandemic and how any change may have affected clinical outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform analysed routinely collected electronic health data from GP practices in England between January 2019 and December 2021. Infection coded consultations and antibiotic prescriptions were used estimate multiple measures over calendar months, including age-sex adjusted prescribing rates, prescribing by infection and antibiotic type, infection consultation rates, coding quality and rate of same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infections. Interrupted time series (ITS) estimated the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on infection-coded consultation rates. The impact of the pandemic on non- COVID-19 infection-related hospitalisations was also estimated.

Results

Records from 24 million patients were included. The rate of infection-related consultations fell for all infections (mean reduction of 39% in 2020 compared to 2019 mean rate), except for UTI which remained stable. Modelling infection-related consultation rates highlighted this with an incidence rate ratio of 0.44 (95% CI 0.36-0.53) for incident consultations and 0.43 (95% CI 0.33-0.54) for prevalent consultations. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) saw the largest reduction of 0.11 (95% CI 0.07-0.17). Antibiotic prescribing rates fell with a mean reduction of 118.4 items per 1000 patients in 2020, returning to pre-pandemic rates by summer 2021. Prescribing for LRTI decreased 20% and URTI increased 15.9%. Over 60% of antibiotics were issued without an associated same-day infection code, which increased during the pandemic. Infection-related hospitalisations reduced (by 62%), with the largest reduction observed for pneumonia infections (72.9%). Same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infection increased from 1 to 10.5% between the second and third national lockdowns and rose again during 2022.

Conclusions

Changes to consultations and hospital admissions may be driven by reduced transmission of non-COVID-19 infections due to reduced social mixing and lockdowns. Inconsistencies in coding practice emphasises the need for improvement to inform new antibiotic stewardship policies and prevent resistance to novel infections.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725?pdf=render 37667866,https://doi.org/10.1111/cen.14966,Genetically predicted plasma cortisol and common chronic diseases: A Mendelian randomization study.,"Lee WH, Larsson SC, Wood A, Di Angelantonio E, Butterworth AS, Burgess S, Allara E.",,Clinical endocrinology,2023,2023-09-05,N,Hypertension; Cortisol; Osteoporosis; Type 2 diabetes; chronic diseases; Mendelian Randomization; Major Mental Illness,,,"

Objective

Cushing's syndrome is characterized by hypercortisolaemia and is frequently accompanied by comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, depression and schizophrenia. It is unclear whether moderate but lifelong hypercortisolaemia is causally associated with these diseases in the general population. We aimed to address this research gap using a Mendelian randomization approach.

Methods

We used three cortisol-associated genetic variants in the SERPINA6/SERPINA1 region as genetic instruments in a two-sample, inverse-variance-weighted Mendelian randomization analysis. We obtained summary-level statistics for cortisol and disease outcomes from publicly available genetic consortia, and meta-analysed them as appropriate. We conducted a multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis to assess potential mediating effects.

Results

A 1 standard deviation higher genetically predicted plasma cortisol was associated with greater odds of hypertension (odds ratio: 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05-1.18) as well as higher systolic blood pressure (mean difference [MD]: 0.03 SD change; 95% CI: 0.01-0.05) and diastolic blood pressure (MD: 0.03 SD change; 95% CI: 0.01-0.04). There was no evidence of association with type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, depression and schizophrenia. The association with hypertension was attenuated upon adjustment for waist circumference, suggesting potential mediation through central obesity.

Conclusion

There is strong evidence for a causal association between plasma cortisol and greater risk for hypertension, potentially mediated by obesity.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cen.14966; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cen.14966 +37717030,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6,The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of common infections in primary care and the change to antibiotic prescribing in England.,"Yang YT, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, Fisher L, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.",,Antimicrobial resistance and infection control,2023,2023-09-16,Y,Infection; Antibiotics; Primary Care; Antibiotic Stewardship; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Background

There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic altered the management of common infections in primary care. This study aimed to evaluate infection-coded consultation rates and antibiotic use during the pandemic and how any change may have affected clinical outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform analysed routinely collected electronic health data from GP practices in England between January 2019 and December 2021. Infection coded consultations and antibiotic prescriptions were used estimate multiple measures over calendar months, including age-sex adjusted prescribing rates, prescribing by infection and antibiotic type, infection consultation rates, coding quality and rate of same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infections. Interrupted time series (ITS) estimated the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on infection-coded consultation rates. The impact of the pandemic on non- COVID-19 infection-related hospitalisations was also estimated.

Results

Records from 24 million patients were included. The rate of infection-related consultations fell for all infections (mean reduction of 39% in 2020 compared to 2019 mean rate), except for UTI which remained stable. Modelling infection-related consultation rates highlighted this with an incidence rate ratio of 0.44 (95% CI 0.36-0.53) for incident consultations and 0.43 (95% CI 0.33-0.54) for prevalent consultations. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) saw the largest reduction of 0.11 (95% CI 0.07-0.17). Antibiotic prescribing rates fell with a mean reduction of 118.4 items per 1000 patients in 2020, returning to pre-pandemic rates by summer 2021. Prescribing for LRTI decreased 20% and URTI increased 15.9%. Over 60% of antibiotics were issued without an associated same-day infection code, which increased during the pandemic. Infection-related hospitalisations reduced (by 62%), with the largest reduction observed for pneumonia infections (72.9%). Same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infection increased from 1 to 10.5% between the second and third national lockdowns and rose again during 2022.

Conclusions

Changes to consultations and hospital admissions may be driven by reduced transmission of non-COVID-19 infections due to reduced social mixing and lockdowns. Inconsistencies in coding practice emphasises the need for improvement to inform new antibiotic stewardship policies and prevent resistance to novel infections.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725?pdf=render 36571960,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2022.11.049,Artificial intelligence in the management and treatment of burns: A systematic review and meta-analyses.,"Taib BG, Karwath A, Wensley K, Minku L, Gkoutos GV, Moiemen N.",,"Journal of plastic, reconstructive & aesthetic surgery : JPRAS",2023,2022-11-23,N,Burns; Systematic review; Machine Learning (Ml); Artificial Intelligence (Ai); Diagnostic Test Meta Analyses,,,"

Introduction and aim

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already being successfully employed to aid the interpretation of multiple facets of burns care. In the light of the growing influence of AI, this systematic review and diagnostic test accuracy meta-analyses aim to appraise and summarise the current direction of research in this field.

Method

A systematic literature review was conducted of relevant studies published between 1990 and 2021, yielding 35 studies. Twelve studies were suitable for a Diagnostic Test Meta-Analyses.

Results

The studies generally focussed on burn depth (Accuracy 68.9%-95.4%, Sensitivity 90.8% and Specificity 84.4%), burn segmentation (Accuracy 76.0%-99.4%, Sensitivity 97.9% and specificity 97.6%) and burn related mortality (Accuracy >90%-97.5% Sensitivity 92.9% and specificity 93.4%). Neural networks were the most common machine learning (ML) algorithm utilised in 69% of the studies. The QUADAS-2 tool identified significant heterogeneity between studies.

Discussion

The potential application of AI in the management of burns patients is promising, especially given its propitious results across a spectrum of dimensions, including burn depth, size, mortality, related sepsis and acute kidney injuries. The accuracy of the results analysed within this study is comparable to current practices in burns care.

Conclusion

The application of AI in the treatment and management of burns patients, as a series of point of care diagnostic adjuncts, is promising. Whilst AI is a potentially valuable tool, a full evaluation of its current utility and potential is limited by significant variations in research methodology and reporting.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2022.11.049 +34044910,https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002,Translational biomarkers in the era of precision medicine.,"Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Russ D, Bisht V, Williams JA, Tsaprouni LG, Gkoutos GV.",,Advances in clinical chemistry,2021,2020-10-03,N,Artificial intelligence; Clinical Trials; Omics; Big Data; Translational Biomarkers,,,"In this chapter we discuss the past, present and future of clinical biomarker development. We explore the advent of new technologies, paving the way in which health, medicine and disease is understood. This review includes the identification of physicochemical assays, current regulations, the development and reproducibility of clinical trials, as well as, the revolution of omics technologies and state-of-the-art integration and analysis approaches.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002 35444210,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-022-00269-5,Pan-cancer prognostic genetic mutations and clinicopathological factors associated with survival outcomes: a systematic review.,"Kaubryte J, Lai AG.",,NPJ precision oncology,2022,2022-04-20,Y,,,,"Cancer is a leading cause of death, accounting for almost 10 million deaths annually worldwide. Personalised therapies harnessing genetic and clinical information may improve survival outcomes and reduce the side effects of treatments. The aim of this study is to appraise published evidence on clinicopathological factors and genetic mutations (single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]) associated with prognosis across 11 cancer types: lung, colorectal, breast, prostate, melanoma, renal, glioma, bladder, leukaemia, endometrial, ovarian. A systematic literature search of PubMed/MEDLINE and Europe PMC was conducted from database inception to July 1, 2021. 2497 publications from PubMed/MEDLINE and 288 preprints from Europe PMC were included. Subsequent reference and citation search was conducted and a further 39 articles added. 2824 articles were reviewed by title/abstract and 247 articles were selected for systematic review. Majority of the articles were retrospective cohort studies focusing on one cancer type, 8 articles were on pan-cancer level and 6 articles were reviews. Studies analysing clinicopathological factors included 908,567 patients and identified 238 factors, including age, gender, stage, grade, size, site, subtype, invasion, lymph nodes. Genetic studies included 210,802 patients and identified 440 gene mutations associated with cancer survival, including genes TP53, BRCA1, BRCA2, BRAF, KRAS, BIRC5. We generated a comprehensive knowledge base of biomarkers that can be used to tailor treatment according to patients' unique genetic and clinical characteristics. Our pan-cancer investigation uncovers the biomarker landscape and their combined influence that may help guide health practitioners and researchers across the continuum of cancer care from drug development to long-term survivorship.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-022-00269-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-022-00269-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021198; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021198?pdf=render 35940584,https://doi.org/10.1123/pes.2021-0174,Clusters of Activity-Related Social and Physical Home Environmental Factors and Their Association With Children's Home-Based Physical Activity and Sitting.,"Sheldrick MP, Maitland C, Mackintosh KA, Rosenberg M, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Stratton G.",,Pediatric exercise science,2023,2022-08-08,N,Families; Physical environment; Social Environment; Sedentary Behavior; Correlates; Screen Time,,,"

Purpose

Understanding which physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior correlates cluster in children is important, particularly in the home, where children spend significant time. Therefore, this study aimed to assess clustering of physical and social activity-related factors at home, and whether these clusters are related to home-based sitting and PA in children. A secondary aim was to explore whether the clusters were associated with child, parent, and family characteristics.

Methods

Altogether, 235 children (55% girls, mean age = 10.2 [0.7] y) and their parents took part. Physical (eg, PA and electronic media equipment, house and garden size, layout) and social (eg, activity preferences, priorities, parental rules) home environmental factors were obtained via the HomeSPACE-II audit and self-report, respectively. Principal component analysis was used to identify clusters of physical and social environmental factors. Backward regression analysis and partial correlations were used to examine relationships between clusters, children's device-measured home-based activity behaviors, and background characteristics.

Results

The findings show that physical and social environment activity-related factors at home cluster. The clusters were associated with several background characteristics, with socioeconomic factors appearing to be particularly influential. The clusters were also associated with home-based activity behaviors in the hypothesized directions.

Conclusion

Interventions which target clusters of social and physical factors at home, especially among low-socioeconomic status families, are warranted.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60257/Download/60257__24327__e83f9d0502424e5e9075c668a2672db1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/pes.2021-0174 -34044910,https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002,Translational biomarkers in the era of precision medicine.,"Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Russ D, Bisht V, Williams JA, Tsaprouni LG, Gkoutos GV.",,Advances in clinical chemistry,2021,2020-10-03,N,Artificial intelligence; Clinical Trials; Omics; Big Data; Translational Biomarkers,,,"In this chapter we discuss the past, present and future of clinical biomarker development. We explore the advent of new technologies, paving the way in which health, medicine and disease is understood. This review includes the identification of physicochemical assays, current regulations, the development and reproducibility of clinical trials, as well as, the revolution of omics technologies and state-of-the-art integration and analysis approaches.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002 34626176,https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab253,Whole-exome sequencing reveals a role of HTRA1 and EGFL8 in brain white matter hyperintensities.,"Malik R, Beaufort N, Frerich S, Gesierich B, Georgakis MK, Rannikmäe K, Ferguson AC, Haffner C, Traylor M, Ehrmann M, Sudlow CLM, Dichgans M.",,Brain : a journal of neurology,2021,2021-10-01,N,Whole-exome Sequencing; White Matter Hyperintensities; Uk Biobank; Htra1; Burden Test,,,"White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are among the most common radiological abnormalities in the ageing population and an established risk factor for stroke and dementia. While common variant association studies have revealed multiple genetic loci with an influence on their volume, the contribution of rare variants to the WMH burden in the general population remains largely unexplored. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of this burden in the UK Biobank using publicly available whole-exome sequencing data (n up to 17 830) and found a splice-site variant in GBE1, encoding 1,4-alpha-glucan branching enzyme 1, to be associated with lower white matter burden on an exome-wide level [c.691+2T>C, β = -0.74, standard error (SE) = 0.13, P = 9.7 × 10-9]. Applying whole-exome gene-based burden tests, we found damaging missense and loss-of-function variants in HTRA1 (frequency of 1 in 275 in the UK Biobank population) to associate with an increased WMH volume (P = 5.5 × 10-6, false discovery rate = 0.04). HTRA1 encodes a secreted serine protease implicated in familial forms of small vessel disease. Domain-specific burden tests revealed that the association with WMH volume was restricted to rare variants in the protease domain (amino acids 204-364; β = 0.79, SE = 0.14, P = 9.4 × 10-8). The frequency of such variants in the UK Biobank population was 1 in 450. The WMH volume was brought forward by ∼11 years in carriers of a rare protease domain variant. A comparison with the effect size of established risk factors for WMH burden revealed that the presence of a rare variant in the HTRA1 protease domain corresponded to a larger effect than meeting the criteria for hypertension (β = 0.26, SE = 0.02, P = 2.9 × 10-59) or being in the upper 99.8% percentile of the distribution of a polygenic risk score based on common genetic variants (β = 0.44, SE = 0.14, P = 0.002). In biochemical experiments, most (6/9) of the identified protease domain variants resulted in markedly reduced protease activity. We further found EGFL8, which showed suggestive evidence for association with WMH volume (P = 1.5 × 10-4, false discovery rate = 0.22) in gene burden tests, to be a direct substrate of HTRA1 and to be preferentially expressed in cerebral arterioles and arteries. In a phenome-wide association study mapping ICD-10 diagnoses to 741 standardized Phecodes, rare variants in the HTRA1 protease domain were associated with multiple neurological and non-neurological conditions including migraine with aura (odds ratio = 12.24, 95%CI: 2.54-35.25; P = 8.3 × 10-5]. Collectively, these findings highlight an important role of rare genetic variation and the HTRA1 protease in determining WMH burden in the general population.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-pdf/144/9/2670/40880367/awab253.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab253; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8557338; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8557338?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab253 33320878,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243843,Developing a national birth cohort for child health research using a hospital admissions database in England: The impact of changes to data collection practices.,"Zylbersztejn A, Gilbert R, Hardelid P.",,PloS one,2020,2020-12-15,Y,,,,"

Background

National birth cohorts derived from administrative health databases constitute unique resources for child health research due to whole country coverage, ongoing follow-up and linkage to other data sources. In England, a national birth cohort can be developed using Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), an administrative database covering details of all publicly funded hospital activity, including 97% of births, with longitudinal follow-up via linkage to hospital and mortality records. We present methods for developing a national birth cohort using HES and assess the impact of changes to data collection over time on coverage and completeness of linked follow-up records for children.

Methods

We developed a national cohort of singleton live births in 1998-2015, with information on key risk factors at birth (birth weight, gestational age, maternal age, ethnicity, area-level deprivation). We identified three changes to data collection, which could affect linkage of births to follow-up records: (1) the introduction of the ""NHS Numbers for Babies (NN4B)"", an on-line system which enabled maternity staff to request a unique healthcare patient identifier (NHS number) immediately at birth rather than at civil registration, in Q4 2002; (2) the introduction of additional data quality checks at civil registration in Q3 2009; and (3) correcting a postcode extraction error for births by the data provider in Q2 2013. We evaluated the impact of these changes on trends in two outcomes in infancy: hospital readmissions after birth (using interrupted time series analyses) and mortality rates (compared to published national statistics).

Results

The cohort covered 10,653,998 babies, accounting for 96% of singleton live births in England in 1998-2015. Overall, 2,077,929 infants (19.5%) had at least one hospital readmission after birth. Readmission rates declined by 0.2% percentage points per annual quarter in Q1 1998 to Q3 2002, shifted up by 6.1% percentage points (compared to the expected value based on the trend before Q4 2002) to 17.7% in Q4 2002 when NN4B was introduced, and increased by 0.1% percentage points per annual quarter thereafter. Infant mortality rates were under-reported by 16% for births in 1998-2002 and similar to published national mortality statistics for births in 2003-2015. The trends in infant readmission were not affected by changes to data collection practices in Q3 2009 and Q2 2013, but the proportion of unlinked mortality records in HES and in ONS further declined after 2009.

Discussion

HES can be used to develop a national birth cohort for child health research with follow-up via linkage to hospital and mortality records for children born from 2003 onwards. Re-linking births before 2003 to their follow-up records would maximise potential benefits of this rich resource, enabling studies of outcomes in adolescents with over 20 years of follow-up.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243843&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7737962; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7737962?pdf=render 34161326,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009121,Contrasting factors associated with COVID-19-related ICU admission and death outcomes in hospitalised patients by means of Shapley values.,"Cavallaro M, Moiz H, Keeling MJ, McCarthy ND.",,PLoS computational biology,2021,2021-06-23,Y,,,,"Identification of those at greatest risk of death due to the substantial threat of COVID-19 can benefit from novel approaches to epidemiology that leverage large datasets and complex machine-learning models, provide data-driven intelligence, and guide decisions such as intensive-care unit admission (ICUA). The objective of this study is two-fold, one substantive and one methodological: substantively to evaluate the association of demographic and health records with two related, yet different, outcomes of severe COVID-19 (viz., death and ICUA); methodologically to compare interpretations based on logistic regression and on gradient-boosted decision tree (GBDT) predictions interpreted by means of the Shapley impacts of covariates. Very different association of some factors, e.g., obesity and chronic respiratory diseases, with death and ICUA may guide review of practice. Shapley explanation of GBDTs identified varying effects of some factors among patients, thus emphasising the importance of individual patient assessment. The results of this study are also relevant for the evaluation of complex automated clinical decision systems, which should optimise prediction scores whilst remaining interpretable to clinicians and mitigating potential biases.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009121&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8259985; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8259985?pdf=render -29716529,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8,Severe localised granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's granulomatosis) manifesting with extensive cranial nerve palsies and cranial diabetes insipidus: a case report and literature review.,"Peters JE, Gupta V, Saeed IT, Offiah C, Jawad ASM.",,BMC neurology,2018,2018-05-01,Y,Diabetes insipidus; Cyclophosphamide; pituitary; Vasculitis; Rituximab; Anca; Cavernous Sinus Syndrome; Collet-sicard Syndrome; Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis; Wegener’s Granulomatosis,,,"

Background

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA, formerly Wegener's granulomatosis) is a multisystem vasculitis of small- to medium-sized blood vessels. Cranial involvement can result in cranial nerve palsies and, rarely, pituitary infiltration.

Case presentation

We describe the case of a 32 year-old woman with limited but severe GPA manifesting as progressive cranial nerve palsies and pituitary dysfunction. Our patient initially presented with localised ENT involvement, but despite treatment with methotrexate, she deteriorated. Granulomatous inflammatory tissue around the skull base resulted in cavernous sinus syndrome, facial nerve palsy, palsies of cranial nerves IX-XII (Collet-Sicard syndrome), and the rare complication of cranial diabetes insipidus due to pituitary infiltration. The glossopharyngeal, vagus and accessory nerve palsies resulted in severe dysphagia and she required nasogastric tube feeding. Her neurological deficits substantially improved with treatment including high dose corticosteroid, cyclophosphamide and rituximab.

Conclusions

This case emphasises that serious morbidity can arise from localised cranial Wegener's granulomatosis in the absence of systemic disease. In such cases intensive induction immunosuppression is required. Analysis of previously reported cases of pituitary involvement in GPA reveals that this rare complication predominantly affects female patients.",,pdf:https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853?pdf=render 36617894,https://doi.org/10.1080/1354750x.2022.2162966,Longitudinal profile of circulating endothelial cells in post-acute coronary syndrome patients.,"de Bakker M, Kraan J, Akkerhuis KM, Oemrawsingh R, Asselbergs FW, Hoefer I, Kardys I, Boersma E.",,"Biomarkers : biochemical indicators of exposure, response, and susceptibility to chemicals",2023,2023-01-08,N,Atherosclerosis; Cardiovascular disease; Circulating endothelial cells; acute coronary syndrome; Vascular Injury; Repeated Measurements,,,"IntroductionPatients who have experienced an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are at risk of a recurrent event, but their level of risk varies. Because of their close temporal relationship with vascular injury, longitudinal measurements of circulating endothelial cells (CECs) carry potential to improve individual risk assessment.MethodsWe conducted an explorative nested case-control study within our multicenter, prospective, observational biomarker study (BIOMArCS) of 844 ACS patients. Following an index ACS, high-frequency blood sampling was performed during 1-year follow-up. CECs were identified using flow cytometric analyses in 15 cases with recurrent event, and 30 matched controls.ResultsCases and controls had a median (25th-75thpercentile) age of 64.1 (58.1-75.1) years and 80% were men. During the months preceding the endpoint, the mean (95%CI) CEC concentration in cases was persistently higher than in controls (12.8 [8.2-20.0] versus 10.0 [7.0-14.4] cells/ml), although this difference was non-significant (P = 0.339). In controls, the mean cell concentration was significantly (P = 0.030) lower in post 30-day samples compared to samples collected within one day after index ACS: 10.1 (7.5-13.6) versus 17.0 (10.8-26.6) cells/ml. Similar results were observed for CEC subsets co-expressing CD133 and CD309 (VEGFR-2) or CD106 (VCAM-1).ConclusionDespite their close relation to vascular damage, no increase in cell concentrations were found prior to the occurrence of a secondary adverse cardiac event.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1354750x.2022.2162966; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1354750X.2022.2162966 +29716529,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8,Severe localised granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's granulomatosis) manifesting with extensive cranial nerve palsies and cranial diabetes insipidus: a case report and literature review.,"Peters JE, Gupta V, Saeed IT, Offiah C, Jawad ASM.",,BMC neurology,2018,2018-05-01,Y,Diabetes insipidus; Cyclophosphamide; pituitary; Vasculitis; Rituximab; Anca; Cavernous Sinus Syndrome; Collet-sicard Syndrome; Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis; Wegener’s Granulomatosis,,,"

Background

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA, formerly Wegener's granulomatosis) is a multisystem vasculitis of small- to medium-sized blood vessels. Cranial involvement can result in cranial nerve palsies and, rarely, pituitary infiltration.

Case presentation

We describe the case of a 32 year-old woman with limited but severe GPA manifesting as progressive cranial nerve palsies and pituitary dysfunction. Our patient initially presented with localised ENT involvement, but despite treatment with methotrexate, she deteriorated. Granulomatous inflammatory tissue around the skull base resulted in cavernous sinus syndrome, facial nerve palsy, palsies of cranial nerves IX-XII (Collet-Sicard syndrome), and the rare complication of cranial diabetes insipidus due to pituitary infiltration. The glossopharyngeal, vagus and accessory nerve palsies resulted in severe dysphagia and she required nasogastric tube feeding. Her neurological deficits substantially improved with treatment including high dose corticosteroid, cyclophosphamide and rituximab.

Conclusions

This case emphasises that serious morbidity can arise from localised cranial Wegener's granulomatosis in the absence of systemic disease. In such cases intensive induction immunosuppression is required. Analysis of previously reported cases of pituitary involvement in GPA reveals that this rare complication predominantly affects female patients.",,pdf:https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853?pdf=render 35012379,https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745211069985,Protecting blinded trials in electronic hospital systems.,"Sydes MR, Wong WK, Bakhai A, Joffe N, Love SB.",,"Clinical trials (London, England)",2022,2022-01-11,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745211069985; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745211069985; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9036147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9036147?pdf=render 36962513,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502,"Association between mobility, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and COVID-19 transmission in Ghana: A modelling study using mobile phone data.","Gibbs H, Liu Y, Abbott S, Baffoe-Nyarko I, Laryea DO, Akyereko E, Kuma-Aboagye P, Asante IA, Mitjà O, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Marks M, Eggo RM.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-09-13,Y,,,,"Governments around the world have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions to limit the transmission of COVID-19. Here we assess if increasing NPI stringency was associated with a reduction in COVID-19 cases in Ghana. While lockdowns and physical distancing have proven effective for reducing COVID-19 transmission, there is still limited understanding of how NPI measures are reflected in indicators of human mobility. Further, there is a lack of understanding about how findings from high-income settings correspond to low and middle-income contexts. In this study, we assess the relationship between indicators of human mobility, NPIs, and estimates of Rt, a real-time measure of the intensity of COVID-19 transmission. We construct a multilevel generalised linear mixed model, combining local disease surveillance data from subnational districts of Ghana with the timing of NPIs and indicators of human mobility from Google and Vodafone Ghana. We observe a relationship between reductions in human mobility and decreases in Rt during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ghana. We find that the strength of this relationship varies through time, decreasing after the most stringent period of interventions in the early epidemic. Our findings demonstrate how the association of NPI and mobility indicators with COVID-19 transmission may vary through time. Further, we demonstrate the utility of combining local disease surveillance data with large scale human mobility data to augment existing surveillance capacity to monitor the impact of NPI policies.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021296?pdf=render 32310142,https://doi.org/10.2196/14306,"Objective Characterization of Activity, Sleep, and Circadian Rhythm Patterns Using a Wrist-Worn Actigraphy Sensor: Insights Into Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.","Tsanas A, Woodward E, Ehlers A.",,JMIR mHealth and uHealth,2020,2020-04-20,Y,Sleep; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; actigraphy; Wearable Technology; Geneactiv,,,"

Background

Wearables have been gaining increasing momentum and have enormous potential to provide insights into daily life behaviors and longitudinal health monitoring. However, to date, there is still a lack of principled algorithmic framework to facilitate the analysis of actigraphy and objectively characterize day-by-day data patterns, particularly in cohorts with sleep problems.

Objective

This study aimed to propose a principled algorithmic framework for the assessment of activity, sleep, and circadian rhythm patterns in people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental disorder with long-lasting distressing symptoms such as intrusive memories, avoidance behaviors, and sleep disturbance. In clinical practice, these symptoms are typically assessed using retrospective self-reports that are prone to recall bias. The aim of this study was to develop objective measures from patients' everyday lives, which could potentially considerably enhance the understanding of symptoms, behaviors, and treatment effects.

Methods

Using a wrist-worn sensor, we recorded actigraphy, light, and temperature data over 7 consecutive days from three groups: 42 people diagnosed with PTSD, 43 traumatized controls, and 30 nontraumatized controls. The participants also completed a daily sleep diary over 7 days and the standardized Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire. We developed a novel approach to automatically determine sleep onset and offset, which can also capture awakenings that are crucial for assessing sleep quality. Moreover, we introduced a new intuitive methodology facilitating actigraphy exploration and characterize day-by-day data across 49 activity, sleep, and circadian rhythm patterns.

Results

We demonstrate that the new sleep detection algorithm closely matches the sleep onset and offset against the participants' sleep diaries consistently outperforming an existing open-access widely used approach. Participants with PTSD exhibited considerably more fragmented sleep patterns (as indicated by greater nocturnal activity, including awakenings) and greater intraday variability compared with traumatized and nontraumatized control groups, showing statistically significant (P<.05) and strong associations (|R|>0.3).

Conclusions

This study lays the foundation for objective assessment of activity, sleep, and circadian rhythm patterns using passively collected data from a wrist-worn sensor, facilitating large community studies to monitor longitudinally healthy and pathological cohorts under free-living conditions. These findings may be useful in clinical PTSD assessment and could inform therapy and monitoring of treatment effects.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/14306; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/14306; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7199134 -29938349,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5,Shared Genetic Contribution of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: Implications for Prognosis and Treatment.,"Strawbridge RJ, van Zuydam NR.",,Current diabetes reports,2018,2018-06-25,Y,Type 2 diabetes; Ischemic stroke; coronary artery disease; risk factors; Peripheral Artery Disease; Genetics; Mendelian Randomisation,,,"

Purpose of review

The increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is well established. This review collates the available evidence and assesses the shared genetic background between T2D and CVD: the causal contribution of common risk factors to T2D and CVD and how genetics can be used to improve drug development and clinical outcomes.

Recent findings

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of T2D and CVD support a shared genetic background but minimal individual locus overlap. Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses show that T2D is causal for CVD, but GWAS of CVD, T2D and their common risk factors provided limited evidence for individual locus overlap. Distinct but functionally related pathways were enriched for CVD and T2D genetic associations reflecting the lack of locus overlap and providing some explanation for the variable associations of common risk factors with CVD and T2D from MR analyses.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804?pdf=render 36812613,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000190,Optimizing cardiovascular risk assessment and registration in a developing cardiovascular learning health care system: Women benefit most.,"Groenhof TKJ, Haitjema S, Lely AT, Grobbee DE, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, UCC-CVRM and UPOD Study groups.",,PLOS digital health,2023,2023-02-08,Y,,,,"Since 2015 we organized a uniform, structured collection of a fixed set of cardiovascular risk factors according the (inter)national guidelines on cardiovascular risk management. We evaluated the current state of a developing cardiovascular towards learning healthcare system-the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort Cardiovascular Risk Management (UCC-CVRM)-and its potential effect on guideline adherence in cardiovascular risk management. We conducted a before-after study comparing data from patients included in UCC-CVRM (2015-2018) and patients treated in our center before UCC-CVRM (2013-2015) who would have been eligible for UCC-CVRM using the Utrecht Patient Oriented Database (UPOD). Proportions of cardiovascular risk factor measurement before and after UCC-CVRM initiation were compared, as were proportions of patients that required (change of) blood pressure, lipid, or blood glucose lowering treatment. We estimated the likelihood to miss patients with hypertension, dyslipidemia, and elevated HbA1c before UCC-CVRM for the whole cohort and stratified for sex. In the present study, patients included up to October 2018 (n = 1904) were matched with 7195 UPOD patients with similar age, sex, department of referral and diagnose description. Completeness of risk factor measurement increased, ranging from 0% -77% before to 82%-94% after UCC-CVRM initiation. Before UCC-CVRM, we found more unmeasured risk factors in women compared to men. This sex-gap resolved in UCC-CVRM. The likelihood to miss hypertension, dyslipidemia, and elevated HbA1c was reduced by 67%, 75% and 90%, respectively, after UCC-CVRM initiation. A finding more pronounced in women compared to men. In conclusion, a systematic registration of the cardiovascular risk profile substantially improves guideline adherent assessment and decreases the risk of missing patients with elevated levels with an indication for treatment. The sex-gap disappeared after UCC-CVRM initiation. Thus, an LHS approach contributes to a more inclusive insight into quality of care and prevention of cardiovascular disease (progression).",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000190&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000190; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931327; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931327?pdf=render +29938349,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5,Shared Genetic Contribution of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: Implications for Prognosis and Treatment.,"Strawbridge RJ, van Zuydam NR.",,Current diabetes reports,2018,2018-06-25,Y,Type 2 diabetes; Ischemic stroke; coronary artery disease; risk factors; Peripheral Artery Disease; Genetics; Mendelian Randomisation,,,"

Purpose of review

The increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is well established. This review collates the available evidence and assesses the shared genetic background between T2D and CVD: the causal contribution of common risk factors to T2D and CVD and how genetics can be used to improve drug development and clinical outcomes.

Recent findings

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of T2D and CVD support a shared genetic background but minimal individual locus overlap. Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses show that T2D is causal for CVD, but GWAS of CVD, T2D and their common risk factors provided limited evidence for individual locus overlap. Distinct but functionally related pathways were enriched for CVD and T2D genetic associations reflecting the lack of locus overlap and providing some explanation for the variable associations of common risk factors with CVD and T2D from MR analyses.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804?pdf=render 36529816,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26357-x,Novel multimorbidity clusters in people with eczema and asthma: a population-based cluster analysis.,"Mulick AR, Henderson AD, Prieto-Merino D, Mansfield KE, Matthewman J, Quint JK, Lyons RA, Sheikh A, McAllister DA, Nitsch D, Langan SM.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-12-18,Y,,,,"Eczema and asthma are allergic diseases and two of the commonest chronic conditions in high-income countries. Their co-existence with other allergic conditions is common, but little research exists on wider multimorbidity with these conditions. We set out to identify and compare clusters of multimorbidity in people with eczema or asthma and people without. Using routinely-collected primary care data from the U.K. Clinical Research Practice Datalink GOLD, we identified adults ever having eczema (or asthma), and comparison groups never having eczema (or asthma). We derived clusters of multimorbidity from hierarchical cluster analysis of Jaccard distances between pairs of diagnostic categories estimated from mixed-effects logistic regressions. We analysed 434,422 individuals with eczema (58% female, median age 47 years) and 1,333,281 individuals without (55% female, 47 years), and 517,712 individuals with asthma (53% female, 44 years) and 1,601,210 individuals without (53% female, 45 years). Age at first morbidity, sex and having eczema/asthma affected the scope of multimorbidity, with women, older age and eczema/asthma being associated with larger morbidity clusters. Injuries, digestive, nervous system and mental health disorders were more commonly seen in eczema and asthma than control clusters. People with eczema and asthma of all ages and both sexes may experience greater multimorbidity than people without eczema and asthma, including conditions not previously recognised as contributing to their disease burden. This work highlights areas where there is a critical need for research addressing the burden and drivers of multimorbidity in order to inform strategies to reduce poor health outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26357-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26357-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760185; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9760185?pdf=render 35964473,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115237,"""We've all got the virus inside us now"": Disaggregating public health relations and responsibilities for health protection in pandemic London.","Kasstan B, Mounier-Jack S, Gaskell KM, Eggo RM, Marks M, Chantler T.",,Social science & medicine (1982),2022,2022-08-07,Y,Pandemic; Public Health; Judaism; Responsibility; London; Covid-19,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted ethnic minorities in the global north, evidenced by higher rates of transmission, morbidity, and mortality relative to population sizes. Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods in London had extremely high SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence rates, reflecting patterns in Israel and the US. The aim of this paper is to examine how responsibilities over health protection are conveyed, and to what extent responsibility is sought by, and shared between, state services, and 'community' stakeholders or representative groups, and families in public health emergencies. The study investigates how public health and statutory services stakeholders, Orthodox Jewish communal custodians and households sought to enact health protection in London during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-March 2021). Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted across these cohorts. Findings demonstrate that institutional relations - both their formation and at times fragmentation - were directly shaped by issues surrounding COVID-19 control measures. Exchanges around protective interventions (whether control measures, contact tracing technologies, or vaccines) reveal diverse and diverging attributions of responsibility and authority. The paper develops a framework of public health relations to understand negotiations between statutory services and minority groups over responsiveness and accountability in health protection. Disaggregating public health relations can help social scientists to critique who and what characterises institutional relationships with minority groups, and what ideas of responsibility and responsiveness are projected by differently-positioned stakeholders in health protection.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115237; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9357441; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9357441?pdf=render 37191413,https://doi.org/10.14336/ad.2022.1107,Conceptual Overview of Biological Age Estimation.,"Salih A, Nichols T, Szabo L, Petersen SE, Raisi-Estabragh Z.",,Aging and disease,2023,2023-06-01,Y,,,,"Chronological age is an imperfect measure of the aging process, which is affected by a wide range of genetic and environmental exposures. Biological age estimates may be derived using mathematical modelling with biomarkers set as predictors and chronological age as the output. The difference between biological and chronological age is denoted the ""age gap"" and considered a complementary indicator of aging. The utility of the ""age gap"" metric is assessed through examination of its associations with exposures of interest and the demonstration of additional information provided by this metric over chronological age alone. This paper reviews the key concepts of biological age estimation, the age gap metric, and approaches to assessment of model performance in this context. We further discuss specific challenges for the field, in particular the limited generalisability of effect sizes across studies owing to dependency of the age gap metric on pre-processing and model building methods. The discussion will be centred on brain age estimation, but the concepts are transferable to all biological age estimation.",,pdf:http://www.aginganddisease.org/EN/PDF/10.14336/AD.2022.1107; doi:https://doi.org/10.14336/AD.2022.1107; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10187689; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10187689?pdf=render @@ -745,40 +745,40 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 33710281,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab060,COVID-19 infection and attributable mortality in UK care homes: cohort study using active surveillance and electronic records (March-June 2020).,"Dutey-Magni PF, Williams H, Jhass A, Rait G, Lorencatto F, Hemingway H, Hayward A, Shallcross L.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-06-01,Y,Mortality; Morbidity; Older People; Long-term Care; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

epidemiological data on COVID-19 infection in care homes are scarce. We analysed data from a large provider of long-term care for older people to investigate infection and mortality during the first wave of the pandemic.

Methods

cohort study of 179 UK care homes with 9,339 residents and 11,604 staff. We used manager-reported daily tallies to estimate the incidence of suspected and confirmed infection and mortality in staff and residents. Individual-level electronic health records from 8,713 residents were used to model risk factors for confirmed infection, mortality and estimate attributable mortality.

Results

2,075/9,339 residents developed COVID-19 symptoms (22.2% [95% confidence interval: 21.4%; 23.1%]), while 951 residents (10.2% [9.6%; 10.8%]) and 585 staff (5.0% [4.7%; 5.5%]) had laboratory-confirmed infections. The incidence of confirmed infection was 152.6 [143.1; 162.6] and 62.3 [57.3; 67.5] per 100,000 person-days in residents and staff, respectively. Sixty-eight percent (121/179) of care homes had at least one COVID-19 infection or COVID-19-related death. Lower staffing ratios and higher occupancy rates were independent risk factors for infection.Out of 607 residents with confirmed infection, 217 died (case fatality rate: 35.7% [31.9%; 39.7%]). Mortality in residents with no direct evidence of infection was twofold higher in care homes with outbreaks versus those without (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.2 [1.8; 2.6]).

Conclusions

findings suggest many deaths occurred in people who were infected with COVID-19, but not tested. Higher occupancy and lower staffing levels were independently associated with risks of infection. Protecting staff and residents from infection requires regular testing for COVID-19 and fundamental changes to staffing and care home occupancy.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/4/1019/40971734/afab060.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab060; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989651; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989651?pdf=render 33413610,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-020-00822-6,An integrated in silico immuno-genetic analytical platform provides insights into COVID-19 serological and vaccine targets.,"Ward D, Higgins M, Phelan JE, Hibberd ML, Campino S, Clark TG.",,Genome medicine,2021,2021-01-07,Y,Mutation; Epitopes; Surveillance; cross-reactivity; Immuno-informatics; Sars-cov-2; Covid; Human-coronavirus,,,"During COVID-19, diagnostic serological tools and vaccines have been developed. To inform control activities in a post-vaccine surveillance setting, we have developed an online ""immuno-analytics"" resource that combines epitope, sequence, protein and SARS-CoV-2 mutation analysis. SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins are both vaccine and serological diagnostic targets. Using the tool, the nucleocapsid protein appears to be a sub-optimal target for use in serological platforms. Spike D614G (and nsp12 L314P) mutations were most frequent (> 86%), whilst spike A222V/L18F have recently increased. Also, Orf3a proteins may be a suitable target for serology. The tool can accessed from: http://genomics.lshtm.ac.uk/immuno (online); https://github.com/dan-ward-bio/COVID-immunoanalytics (source code).",,pdf:https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13073-020-00822-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-020-00822-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7790334; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7790334?pdf=render 34266851,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100356,Development of a core competency framework for clinical informatics. ,"Davies A, Mueller J, Hassey A, Moulton G.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"Until this point there was no national core competency framework for clinical informatics in the UK. We report on the final two iterations of work carried out in the formation of a national core competency framework. This follows an initial systematic literature review of existing skills and competencies and a job listing analysis.MethodsAn iterative approach was applied to framework development. Using a mixed-methods design we carried out semi-structured interviews with participants involved in informatics (n=15). The framework was updated based on the interview findings and was subsequently distributed as part of a bespoke online digital survey for wider participation (n=87). The final version of the framework is based on the findings of the survey. Over 102 people reviewed the framework as part of the interview or survey process. This led to a final core competency framework containing 6 primary domains with 36 subdomains containing 111 individual competencies. An iterative mixed-methods approach for competency development involving the target community was appropriate for development of the competency framework. There is some contention around the depth of technical competencies required. Care is also needed to avoid professional burnout, as clinicians and healthcare practitioners already have clinical competencies to maintain. Therefore, how the framework is applied in practice and how practitioners meet the competencies requires careful consideration.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100356.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100356; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8286765; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8286765?pdf=render +35085490,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00542-7,SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine effectiveness in England (REACT-1): a series of cross-sectional random community surveys.,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Bodinier B, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Donnelly CA, Elliott P, COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-01-24,Y,,,,"

Background

England has experienced a third wave of the COVID-19 epidemic since the end of May, 2021, coinciding with the rapid spread of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant, despite high levels of vaccination among adults. Vaccination rates (single dose) in England are lower among children aged 16-17 years and 12-15 years, whose vaccination in England commenced in August and September, 2021, respectively. We aimed to analyse the underlying dynamics driving patterns in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence during September, 2021, in England.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study, which commenced data collection in May, 2020, involves a series of random cross-sectional surveys in the general population of England aged 5 years and older. Using RT-PCR swab positivity data from 100 527 participants with valid throat and nose swabs in round 14 of REACT-1 (Sept 9-27, 2021), we estimated community-based prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and vaccine effectiveness against infection by combining round 14 data with data from round 13 (June 24 to July 12, 2021; n=172 862).

Findings

During September, 2021, we estimated a mean RT-PCR positivity rate of 0·83% (95% CrI 0·76-0·89), with a reproduction number (R) overall of 1·03 (95% CrI 0·94-1·14). Among the 475 (62·2%) of 764 sequenced positive swabs, all were of the delta variant; 22 (4·63%; 95% CI 3·07-6·91) included the Tyr145His mutation in the spike protein associated with the AY.4 sublineage, and there was one Glu484Lys mutation. Age, region, key worker status, and household size jointly contributed to the risk of swab positivity. The highest weighted prevalence was observed among children aged 5-12 years, at 2·32% (95% CrI 1·96-2·73) and those aged 13-17 years, at 2·55% (2·11-3·08). The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic grew in those aged 5-11 years, with an R of 1·42 (95% CrI 1·18-1·68), but declined in those aged 18-54 years, with an R of 0·81 (0·68-0·97). At ages 18-64 years, the adjusted vaccine effectiveness against infection was 62·8% (95% CI 49·3-72·7) after two doses compared to unvaccinated people, for all vaccines combined, 44·8% (22·5-60·7) for the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccine, and 71·3% (56·6-81·0) for the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine. In individuals aged 18 years and older, the weighted prevalence of swab positivity was 0·35% (95% CrI 0·31-0·40) if the second dose was administered up to 3 months before their swab but 0·55% (0·50-0·61) for those who received their second dose 3-6 months before their swab, compared to 1·76% (1·60-1·95) among unvaccinated individuals.

Interpretation

In September, 2021, at the start of the autumn school term in England, infections were increasing exponentially in children aged 5-17 years, at a time when vaccination rates were low in this age group. In adults, compared to those who received their second dose less than 3 months ago, the higher prevalence of swab positivity at 3-6 months following two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine suggests an increased risk of breakthrough infections during this period. The vaccination programme needs to reach children as well as unvaccinated and partially vaccinated adults to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and associated disruptions to work and education.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005427/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00542-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8786320 33112263,https://doi.org/10.1530/eje-20-0296,Pubertal timing in boys and girls born to mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review.,"Subramanian A, Idkowiak J, Toulis KA, Thangaratinam S, Arlt W, Nirantharakumar K.",,European journal of endocrinology,2021,2021-01-01,Y,,,,"

Context

The incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been on the rise, driven by maternal obesity. In parallel, pubertal tempo has increased in the general population, driven by childhood obesity.

Objective

To evaluate the available evidence on pubertal timing of boys and girls born to mothers with GDM.

Data sources

We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL Plus, Cochrane library and grey literature for observational studies up to October 2019.

Study selection and extraction

Two reviewers independently selected studies, collected data and appraised the studies for risk of bias. Results were tabulated and narratively described as reported in the primary studies.

Results

Seven articles (six for girls and four for boys) were included. Study quality score was mostly moderate (ranging from 4 to 10 out of 11). In girls born to mothers with GDM, estimates suggest earlier timing of pubarche, thelarche and menarche although for each of these outcomes only one study each showed a statistically significant association. In boys, there was some association between maternal GDM and earlier pubarche, but inconsistency in the direction of shift of age at onset of genital and testicular development and first ejaculation. Only a single study analysed growth patterns in children of mothers with GDM, describing a 3-month advancement in the age of attainment of peak height velocity and a slight increase in pubertal tempo.

Conclusions

Pubertal timing may be influenced by the presence of maternal GDM, though current evidence is sparse and of limited quality. Prospective cohort studies should be conducted, ideally coupled with objective biochemical tests.",,pdf:https://eje.bioscientifica.com/downloadpdf/journals/eje/184/1/EJE-20-0296.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1530/EJE-20-0296; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7707806; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7707806?pdf=render -35277405,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070,Predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in 36 101 people with affective disorders: a large representative cohort study.,"Ma R, Perera G, Romano E, Vancampfort D, Koyanagi A, Stewart R, Mueller C, Stubbs B.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-11,Y,Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Adult Psychiatry; Depression & Mood Disorders,,,"

Objectives

To investigate predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in people with affective disorders.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

The South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust (SLaM) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register.

Participants

A large cohort of people with affective disorders (International Classification of Diseases- 10th version [ICD-10] codes F30-F34) diagnosed between January 2008 and March 2016 was assembled using data from the SLaM BRC Case Register.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation were ascertained from linked national hospitalisation data. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses were administrated to identify predictors of first falls and fractures.

Results

Of 36 101 people with affective disorders (mean age 44.4 years, 60.2% female), 816 (incidence rate 9.91 per 1000 person-years) and 1117 (incidence rate 11.92 per 1000 person-years) experienced either a fall or fracture, respectively. In multivariable analyses, older age, analgesic use, increased physical illness burden, previous hospital admission due to certain comorbid physical illnesses and increase in attendances to accident and emergency services following diagnosis were significant risk factors for both falls and fractures. Having a history of falls was a strong risk factor for recurrent falls, and a previous fracture was also associated with future fractures.

Conclusions

Over a mean 5 years' follow-up, approximately 8% of people with affective disorders were hospitalised with a fall or fracture. Several similar factors were found to predict risk of falls and fracture, for example, older age, comorbid physical disorders and analgesic use. Routine screening for bone mineral density and fall prevention programmes should be considered for this clinical group.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e055070.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445?pdf=render 29925668,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2017-210370,Emergency hospital admissions associated with a non-randomised housing intervention meeting national housing quality standards: a longitudinal data linkage study.,"Rodgers SE, Bailey R, Johnson R, Berridge D, Poortinga W, Lannon S, Smith R, Lyons RA.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2018,2018-06-20,Y,Morbidity; Health Services; Public Health; Housing; Longitudinal Studies,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

We investigated tenant healthcare utilisation associated with upgrading 8558 council houses to a national quality standard. Homes received multiple internal and external improvements and were analysed using repeated measures of healthcare utilisation.

Methods

The primary outcome was emergency hospital admissions for cardiorespiratory conditions and injuries for residents aged 60 years and over. Secondary outcomes included each of the separate conditions, for tenants aged 60 and over, and for all ages. Council home address and intervention records for eight housing cointerventions were anonymously linked to demographic data, hospital admissions and deaths for individuals in a dynamic cohort. Counts of health events were analysed using multilevel regression models to investigate associations between receipt of each housing improvement, adjusting for potential confounding factors and regional trends.

Results

Residents aged 60 years and over living in homes when improvements were made were associated with up to 39% fewer admissions compared with those living in homes that were not upgraded (incidence rate ratio=0.61, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.72). Reduced admissions were associated with electrical systems, windows and doors, wall insulation, and garden paths. There were small non-significant reductions for the primary outcome associated with upgrading heating, adequate loft insulation, new kitchens and new bathrooms.

Conclusion

Results suggest that hospital admissions can be avoided through improving whole home quality standards. This is the first large-scale longitudinal evaluation of a whole home intervention that has evaluated multiple improvement elements using individual-level objective routine health data.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/72/10/896.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2017-210370; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6161658; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6161658?pdf=render -35085490,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00542-7,SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine effectiveness in England (REACT-1): a series of cross-sectional random community surveys.,"Chadeau-Hyam M, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Bodinier B, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Donnelly CA, Elliott P, COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-01-24,Y,,,,"

Background

England has experienced a third wave of the COVID-19 epidemic since the end of May, 2021, coinciding with the rapid spread of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant, despite high levels of vaccination among adults. Vaccination rates (single dose) in England are lower among children aged 16-17 years and 12-15 years, whose vaccination in England commenced in August and September, 2021, respectively. We aimed to analyse the underlying dynamics driving patterns in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence during September, 2021, in England.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study, which commenced data collection in May, 2020, involves a series of random cross-sectional surveys in the general population of England aged 5 years and older. Using RT-PCR swab positivity data from 100 527 participants with valid throat and nose swabs in round 14 of REACT-1 (Sept 9-27, 2021), we estimated community-based prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and vaccine effectiveness against infection by combining round 14 data with data from round 13 (June 24 to July 12, 2021; n=172 862).

Findings

During September, 2021, we estimated a mean RT-PCR positivity rate of 0·83% (95% CrI 0·76-0·89), with a reproduction number (R) overall of 1·03 (95% CrI 0·94-1·14). Among the 475 (62·2%) of 764 sequenced positive swabs, all were of the delta variant; 22 (4·63%; 95% CI 3·07-6·91) included the Tyr145His mutation in the spike protein associated with the AY.4 sublineage, and there was one Glu484Lys mutation. Age, region, key worker status, and household size jointly contributed to the risk of swab positivity. The highest weighted prevalence was observed among children aged 5-12 years, at 2·32% (95% CrI 1·96-2·73) and those aged 13-17 years, at 2·55% (2·11-3·08). The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic grew in those aged 5-11 years, with an R of 1·42 (95% CrI 1·18-1·68), but declined in those aged 18-54 years, with an R of 0·81 (0·68-0·97). At ages 18-64 years, the adjusted vaccine effectiveness against infection was 62·8% (95% CI 49·3-72·7) after two doses compared to unvaccinated people, for all vaccines combined, 44·8% (22·5-60·7) for the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccine, and 71·3% (56·6-81·0) for the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine. In individuals aged 18 years and older, the weighted prevalence of swab positivity was 0·35% (95% CrI 0·31-0·40) if the second dose was administered up to 3 months before their swab but 0·55% (0·50-0·61) for those who received their second dose 3-6 months before their swab, compared to 1·76% (1·60-1·95) among unvaccinated individuals.

Interpretation

In September, 2021, at the start of the autumn school term in England, infections were increasing exponentially in children aged 5-17 years, at a time when vaccination rates were low in this age group. In adults, compared to those who received their second dose less than 3 months ago, the higher prevalence of swab positivity at 3-6 months following two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine suggests an increased risk of breakthrough infections during this period. The vaccination programme needs to reach children as well as unvaccinated and partially vaccinated adults to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and associated disruptions to work and education.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005427/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00542-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8786320 33402395,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-215204,Hospital readmission among people experiencing homelessness in England: a cohort study of 2772 matched homeless and housed inpatients.,"Lewer D, Menezes D, Cornes M, Blackburn RM, Byng R, Clark M, Denaxas S, Evans H, Fuller J, Hewett N, Kilmister A, Luchenski SA, Manthorpe J, McKee M, Neale J, Story A, Tinelli M, Whiteford M, Wurie F, Yavlinsky A, Hayward A, Aldridge R.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2021,2021-01-05,Y,Homelessness; Health Inequalities; Record Linkage; Access To Hlth Care,,,"

Background

Inpatients experiencing homelessness are often discharged to unstable accommodation or the street, which may increase the risk of readmission.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study of 2772 homeless patients discharged after an emergency admission at 78 hospitals across England between November 2013 and November 2016. For each individual, we selected a housed patient who lived in a socioeconomically deprived area, matched on age, sex, hospital, and year of discharge. Counts of emergency readmissions, planned readmissions, and Accident and Emergency (A&E) visits post-discharge were derived from national hospital databases, with a median of 2.8 years of follow-up. We estimated the cumulative incidence of readmission over 12 months, and used negative binomial regression to estimate rate ratios.

Results

After adjusting for health measured at the index admission, homeless patients had 2.49 (95% CI 2.29 to 2.70) times the rate of emergency readmission, 0.60 (95% CI 0.53 to 0.68) times the rate of planned readmission and 2.57 (95% CI 2.41 to 2.73) times the rate of A&E visits compared with housed patients. The 12-month risk of emergency readmission was higher for homeless patients (61%, 95% CI 59% to 64%) than housed patients (33%, 95% CI 30% to 36%); and the risk of planned readmission was lower for homeless patients (17%, 95% CI 14% to 19%) than for housed patients (30%, 95% CI 28% to 32%). While the risk of emergency readmission varied with the reason for admission for housed patients, for example being higher for admissions due to cancers than for those due to accidents, the risk was high across all causes for homeless patients.

Conclusions

Hospital patients experiencing homelessness have high rates of emergency readmission that are not explained by health. This highlights the need for discharge arrangements that address their health, housing and social care needs.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/75/7/681.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-215204; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8223662; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8223662?pdf=render +35277405,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070,Predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in 36 101 people with affective disorders: a large representative cohort study.,"Ma R, Perera G, Romano E, Vancampfort D, Koyanagi A, Stewart R, Mueller C, Stubbs B.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-11,Y,Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Adult Psychiatry; Depression & Mood Disorders,,,"

Objectives

To investigate predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in people with affective disorders.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

The South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust (SLaM) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register.

Participants

A large cohort of people with affective disorders (International Classification of Diseases- 10th version [ICD-10] codes F30-F34) diagnosed between January 2008 and March 2016 was assembled using data from the SLaM BRC Case Register.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation were ascertained from linked national hospitalisation data. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses were administrated to identify predictors of first falls and fractures.

Results

Of 36 101 people with affective disorders (mean age 44.4 years, 60.2% female), 816 (incidence rate 9.91 per 1000 person-years) and 1117 (incidence rate 11.92 per 1000 person-years) experienced either a fall or fracture, respectively. In multivariable analyses, older age, analgesic use, increased physical illness burden, previous hospital admission due to certain comorbid physical illnesses and increase in attendances to accident and emergency services following diagnosis were significant risk factors for both falls and fractures. Having a history of falls was a strong risk factor for recurrent falls, and a previous fracture was also associated with future fractures.

Conclusions

Over a mean 5 years' follow-up, approximately 8% of people with affective disorders were hospitalised with a fall or fracture. Several similar factors were found to predict risk of falls and fracture, for example, older age, comorbid physical disorders and analgesic use. Routine screening for bone mineral density and fall prevention programmes should be considered for this clinical group.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e055070.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445?pdf=render 37549998,https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106460,Device-based measurement of physical activity in cardiovascular healthcare: possibilities and challenges.,"Chico TJ, Stamatakis E, Ciravegna F, Dunn J, Redwood S, Al-Lamee R, Sofat R, Gill J.",,British journal of sports medicine,2023,2023-08-07,N,Cardiovascular diseases; Health; Physical Activity,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106460 34158612,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00846-x,Effects of increased body mass index on employment status: a Mendelian randomisation study.,"Campbell DD, Green M, Davies N, Demou E, Ward J, Howe LD, Harrison S, Johnston KJA, Strawbridge RJ, Popham F, Smith DJ, Munafò MR, Katikireddi SV.",,International journal of obesity (2005),2021,2021-06-22,Y,,,,"

Background

The obesity epidemic may have substantial implications for the global workforce, including causal effects on employment, but clear evidence is lacking. Obesity may prevent people from being in paid work through poor health or through social discrimination. We studied genetic variants robustly associated with body mass index (BMI) to investigate its causal effects on employment.

Dataset/methods

White UK ethnicity participants of working age (men 40-64 years, women 40-59 years), with suitable genetic data were selected in the UK Biobank study (N = 230,791). Employment status was categorised in two ways: first, contrasting being in paid employment with any other status; and second, contrasting being in paid employment with sickness/disability, unemployment, early retirement and caring for home/family. Socioeconomic indicators also investigated were hours worked, household income, educational attainment and Townsend deprivation index (TDI). We conducted observational and two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses to investigate the effect of increased BMI on employment-related outcomes.

Results

Regressions showed BMI associated with all the employment-related outcomes investigated. MR analyses provided evidence for higher BMI causing increased risk of sickness/disability (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.04, 1.11, per 1 Kg/m2 BMI increase) and decreased caring for home/family (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93, 0.99), higher TDI (Beta 0.038, 95% CI 0.018, 0.059), and lower household income (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96, 0.99). In contrast, MR provided evidence for no causal effect of BMI on unemployment, early retirement, non-employment, hours worked or educational attainment. There was little evidence for causal effects differing by sex or age. Robustness tests yielded consistent results.

Discussion

BMI appears to exert a causal effect on employment status, largely by affecting an individual's health rather than through increased unemployment arising from social discrimination. The obesity epidemic may be contributing to increased worklessness and therefore could impose a substantial societal burden.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-00846-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00846-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8310793; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8310793?pdf=render -34870259,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005,Sequencing-based genome-wide association studies reporting standards.,"McMahon A, Lewis E, Buniello A, Cerezo M, Hall P, Sollis E, Parkinson H, Hindorff LA, Harris LW, MacArthur JAL.",,Cell genomics,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"Genome sequencing has recently become a viable genotyping technology for use in genome-wide association studies (GWASs), offering the potential to analyze a broader range of genome-wide variation, including rare variants. To survey current standards, we assessed the content and quality of reporting of statistical methods, analyses, results, and datasets in 167 exome- or genome-wide-sequencing-based GWAS publications published from 2014 to 2020; 81% of publications included tests of aggregate association across multiple variants, with multiple test models frequently used. We observed a lack of standardized terms and incomplete reporting of datasets, particularly for variants analyzed in aggregate tests. We also find a lower frequency of sharing of summary statistics compared with array-based GWASs. Reporting standards and increased data sharing are required to ensure sequencing-based association study data are findable, interoperable, accessible, and reusable (FAIR). To support that, we recommend adopting the standard terminology of sequencing-based GWAS (seqGWAS). Further, we recommend that single-variant analyses be reported following the same standards and conventions as standard array-based GWASs and be shared in the GWAS Catalog. We also provide initial recommended standards for aggregate analyses metadata and summary statistics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874?pdf=render 33052324,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100574,A case-control and cohort study to determine the relationship between ethnic background and severe COVID-19.,"Zakeri R, Bendayan R, Ashworth M, Bean DM, Dodhia H, Durbaba S, O'Gallagher K, Palmer C, Curcin V, Aitken E, Bernal W, Barker RD, Norton S, Gulliford M, Teo JTH, Galloway J, Dobson RJB, Shah AM.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-10-09,Y,Case-control study; Ethnicity; Deprivation; Comorbidities; Covid-19,,,"

Background

People of minority ethnic backgrounds may be disproportionately affected by severe COVID-19. Whether this relates to increased infection risk, more severe disease progression, or worse in-hospital survival is unknown. The contribution of comorbidities or socioeconomic deprivation to ethnic patterning of outcomes is also unclear.

Methods

We conducted a case-control and a cohort study in an inner city primary and secondary care setting to examine whether ethnic background affects the risk of hospital admission with severe COVID-19 and/or in-hospital mortality. Inner city adult residents admitted to hospital with confirmed COVID-19 (n = 872 cases) were compared with 3,488 matched controls randomly sampled from a primary healthcare database comprising 344,083 people residing in the same region. For the cohort study, we studied 1827 adults consecutively admitted with COVID-19. The primary exposure variable was self-defined ethnicity. Analyses were adjusted for socio-demographic and clinical variables.

Findings

The 872 cases comprised 48.1% Black, 33.7% White, 12.6% Mixed/Other and 5.6% Asian patients. In conditional logistic regression analyses, Black and Mixed/Other ethnicity were associated with higher admission risk than white (OR 3.12 [95% CI 2.63-3.71] and 2.97 [2.30-3.85] respectively). Adjustment for comorbidities and deprivation modestly attenuated the association (OR 2.24 [1.83-2.74] for Black, 2.70 [2.03-3.59] for Mixed/Other). Asian ethnicity was not associated with higher admission risk (adjusted OR 1.01 [0.70-1.46]). In the cohort study of 1827 patients, 455 (28.9%) died over a median (IQR) of 8 (4-16) days. Age and male sex, but not Black (adjusted HR 1.06 [0.82-1.37]) or Mixed/Other ethnicity (adjusted HR 0.72 [0.47-1.10]), were associated with in-hospital mortality. Asian ethnicity was associated with higher in-hospital mortality but with a large confidence interval (adjusted HR 1.71 [1.15-2.56]).

Interpretation

Black and Mixed ethnicity are independently associated with greater admission risk with COVID-19 and may be risk factors for development of severe disease, but do not affect in-hospital mortality risk. Comorbidities and socioeconomic factors only partly account for this and additional ethnicity-related factors may play a large role. The impact of COVID-19 may be different in Asians.

Funding

British Heart Foundation; the National Institute for Health Research; Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100574; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100574; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545271; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545271?pdf=render 34481555,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-8587(21)00207-2,"Identifying adults at high-risk for change in weight and BMI in England: a longitudinal, large-scale, population-based cohort study using electronic health records.","Katsoulis M, Lai AG, Diaz-Ordaz K, Gomes M, Pasea L, Banerjee A, Denaxas S, Tsilidis K, Lagiou P, Misirli G, Bhaskaran K, Wannamethee G, Dobson R, Batterham RL, Kipourou DK, Lumbers RT, Wen L, Wareham N, Langenberg C, Hemingway H.",,The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology,2021,2021-09-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Targeted obesity prevention policies would benefit from the identification of population groups with the highest risk of weight gain. The relative importance of adult age, sex, ethnicity, geographical region, and degree of social deprivation on weight gain is not known. We aimed to identify high-risk groups for changes in weight and BMI using electronic health records (EHR).

Methods

In this longitudinal, population-based cohort study we used linked EHR data from 400 primary care practices (via the Clinical Practice Research Datalink) in England, accessed via the CALIBER programme. Eligible participants were aged 18-74 years, were registered at a general practice clinic, and had BMI and weight measurements recorded between Jan 1, 1998, and June 30, 2016, during the period when they had eligible linked data with at least 1 year of follow-up time. We calculated longitudinal changes in BMI over 1, 5, and 10 years, and investigated the absolute risk and odds ratios (ORs) of transitioning between BMI categories (underweight, normal weight, overweight, obesity class 1 and 2, and severe obesity [class 3]), as defined by WHO. The associations of demographic factors with BMI transitions were estimated by use of logistic regression analysis, adjusting for baseline BMI, family history of cardiovascular disease, use of diuretics, and prevalent chronic conditions.

Findings

We included 2 092 260 eligible individuals with more than 9 million BMI measurements in our study. Young adult age was the strongest risk factor for weight gain at 1, 5, and 10 years of follow-up. Compared with the oldest age group (65-74 years), adults in the youngest age group (18-24 years) had the highest OR (4·22 [95% CI 3·86-4·62]) and greatest absolute risk (37% vs 24%) of transitioning from normal weight to overweight or obesity at 10 years. Likewise, adults in the youngest age group with overweight or obesity at baseline were also at highest risk to transition to a higher BMI category; OR 4·60 (4·06-5·22) and absolute risk (42% vs 18%) of transitioning from overweight to class 1 and 2 obesity, and OR 5·87 (5·23-6·59) and absolute risk (22% vs 5%) of transitioning from class 1 and 2 obesity to class 3 obesity. Other demographic factors were consistently less strongly associated with these transitions; for example, the OR of transitioning from normal weight to overweight or obesity in people living in the most socially deprived versus least deprived areas was 1·23 (1·18-1·27), for men versus women was 1·12 (1·08-1·16), and for Black individuals versus White individuals was 1·13 (1·04-1·24). We provide an open access online risk calculator, and present high-resolution obesity risk charts over a 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year follow-up period.

Interpretation

A radical shift in policy is required to focus on individuals at the highest risk of weight gain (ie, young adults aged 18-24 years) for individual-level and population-level prevention of obesity and its long-term consequences for health and health care.

Funding

The British Hearth Foundation, Health Data Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council, and the National Institute for Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213858721002072/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(21)00207-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8440227; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8440227?pdf=render +34870259,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005,Sequencing-based genome-wide association studies reporting standards.,"McMahon A, Lewis E, Buniello A, Cerezo M, Hall P, Sollis E, Parkinson H, Hindorff LA, Harris LW, MacArthur JAL.",,Cell genomics,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"Genome sequencing has recently become a viable genotyping technology for use in genome-wide association studies (GWASs), offering the potential to analyze a broader range of genome-wide variation, including rare variants. To survey current standards, we assessed the content and quality of reporting of statistical methods, analyses, results, and datasets in 167 exome- or genome-wide-sequencing-based GWAS publications published from 2014 to 2020; 81% of publications included tests of aggregate association across multiple variants, with multiple test models frequently used. We observed a lack of standardized terms and incomplete reporting of datasets, particularly for variants analyzed in aggregate tests. We also find a lower frequency of sharing of summary statistics compared with array-based GWASs. Reporting standards and increased data sharing are required to ensure sequencing-based association study data are findable, interoperable, accessible, and reusable (FAIR). To support that, we recommend adopting the standard terminology of sequencing-based GWAS (seqGWAS). Further, we recommend that single-variant analyses be reported following the same standards and conventions as standard array-based GWASs and be shared in the GWAS Catalog. We also provide initial recommended standards for aggregate analyses metadata and summary statistics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874?pdf=render 30423068,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty605,Ontology-based validation and identification of regulatory phenotypes.,"Kulmanov M, Schofield PN, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2018,2018-09-01,Y,,"Applied Analytics, The Human Phenome",,"

Motivation

Function annotations of gene products, and phenotype annotations of genotypes, provide valuable information about molecular mechanisms that can be utilized by computational methods to identify functional and phenotypic relatedness, improve our understanding of disease and pathobiology, and lead to discovery of drug targets. Identifying functions and phenotypes commonly requires experiments which are time-consuming and expensive to carry out; creating the annotations additionally requires a curator to make an assertion based on reported evidence. Support to validate the mutual consistency of functional and phenotype annotations as well as a computational method to predict phenotypes from function annotations, would greatly improve the utility of function annotations.

Results

We developed a novel ontology-based method to validate the mutual consistency of function and phenotype annotations. We apply our method to mouse and human annotations, and identify several inconsistencies that can be resolved to improve overall annotation quality. We also apply our method to the rule-based prediction of regulatory phenotypes from functions and demonstrate that we can predict these phenotypes with Fmax of up to 0.647.

Availability and implementation

https://github.com/bio-ontology-research-group/phenogocon.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/34/17/i857/25702307/bty605.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6129279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6129279?pdf=render -33356394,https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.16547,"Urate, Blood Pressure, and Cardiovascular Disease: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials.","Gill D, Cameron AC, Burgess S, Li X, Doherty DJ, Karhunen V, Abdul-Rahim AH, Taylor-Rowan M, Zuber V, Tsao PS, Klarin D, VA Million Veteran Program, Evangelou E, Elliott P, Damrauer SM, Quinn TJ, Dehghan A, Theodoratou E, Dawson J, Tzoulaki I.",,"Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)",2021,2020-12-28,Y,Cardiovascular diseases; Blood pressure; Uric acid; Systematic review; Odds Ratio,,,"Serum urate has been implicated in hypertension and cardiovascular disease, but it is not known whether it is exerting a causal effect. To investigate this, we performed Mendelian randomization analysis using data from UK Biobank, Million Veterans Program and genome-wide association study consortia, and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The main Mendelian randomization analyses showed that every 1-SD increase in genetically predicted serum urate was associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (odds ratio, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.10-1.30]; P=4×10-5), peripheral artery disease (1.12 [95% CI, 1.03-1.21]; P=9×10-3), and stroke (1.11 [95% CI, 1.05-1.18]; P=2×10-4). In Mendelian randomization mediation analyses, elevated blood pressure was estimated to mediate approximately one-third of the effect of urate on cardiovascular disease risk. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials showed a favorable effect of urate-lowering treatment on systolic blood pressure (mean difference, -2.55 mm Hg [95% CI, -4.06 to -1.05]; P=1×10-3) and major adverse cardiovascular events in those with previous cardiovascular disease (odds ratio, 0.40 [95% CI, 0.22-0.73]; P=3×10-3) but no significant effect on major adverse cardiovascular events in all individuals (odds ratio, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.44-1.03]; P=0.07). In summary, these Mendelian randomization and clinical trial data support an effect of higher serum urate on increasing blood pressure, which may mediate a consequent effect on cardiovascular disease risk. High-quality trials are necessary to provide definitive evidence on the specific clinical contexts where urate lowering may be of cardiovascular benefit.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439?pdf=render +35296643,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z,"Antibody decay, T cell immunity and breakthrough infections following two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with infliximab and vedolizumab.","Lin S, Kennedy NA, Saifuddin A, Sandoval DM, Reynolds CJ, Seoane RC, Kottoor SH, Pieper FP, Lin KM, Butler DK, Chanchlani N, Nice R, Chee D, Bewshea C, Janjua M, McDonald TJ, Sebastian S, Alexander JL, Constable L, Lee JC, Murray CD, Hart AL, Irving PM, Jones GR, Kok KB, Lamb CA, Lees CW, Altmann DM, Boyton RJ, Goodhand JR, Powell N, Ahmad T, CLARITY IBD study.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-03-16,Y,,,,"Anti tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs increase the risk of serious respiratory infection and impair protective immunity following pneumococcal and influenza vaccination. Here we report SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immune responses and breakthrough infections in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, who are treated either with the anti-TNF antibody, infliximab, or with vedolizumab targeting a gut-specific anti-integrin that does not impair systemic immunity. Geometric mean [SD] anti-S RBD antibody concentrations are lower and half-lives shorter in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, following two doses of BNT162b2 (566.7 U/mL [6.2] vs 4555.3 U/mL [5.4], p <0.0001; 26.8 days [95% CI 26.2 - 27.5] vs 47.6 days [45.5 - 49.8], p <0.0001); similar results are also observed with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (184.7 U/mL [5.0] vs 784.0 U/mL [3.5], p <0.0001; 35.9 days [34.9 - 36.8] vs 58.0 days [55.0 - 61.3], p value < 0.0001). One fifth of patients fail to mount a T cell response in both treatment groups. Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections are more frequent (5.8% (201/3441) vs 3.9% (66/1682), p = 0.0039) in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, and the risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection is predicted by peak anti-S RBD antibody concentration after two vaccine doses. Irrespective of the treatments, higher, more sustained antibody levels are observed in patients with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to vaccination. Our results thus suggest that adapted vaccination schedules may be required to induce immunity in at-risk, anti-TNF-treated patients.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28517-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425?pdf=render 35781133,https://doi.org/10.3310/zyzc8514,Long-term impact of pre-incision antibiotics on children born by caesarean section: a longitudinal study based on UK electronic health records.,"Šumilo D, Nirantharakumar K, Willis BH, Rudge GM, Martin J, Gokhale K, Thayakaran R, Adderley NJ, Chandan JS, Okoth K, Harris IM, Hewston R, Skrybant M, Deeks JJ, Brocklehurst P.",,"Health technology assessment (Winchester, England)",2022,2022-06-01,N,Asthma; Caesarean section; Eczema; Child Health; Anti-bacterial Agents; Microbiome; Electronic Health Records; Interrupted Time Series Analysis,,,"

Background

Since changes in the national guidance in 2011, prophylactic antibiotics for women undergoing caesarean section are recommended prior to skin incision, rather than after the baby's umbilical cord has been clamped. Evidence from randomised controlled trials conducted outside the UK has shown that this reduces maternal infectious morbidity; however, the prophylactic antibiotics also cross the placenta, meaning that babies are exposed to them around the time of birth. Antibiotics are known to affect the gut microbiota of the babies, but the long-term effects of exposure to high-dose broad-spectrum antibiotics around the time of birth on allergy and immune-related diseases are unknown.

Objectives

We aimed to examine whether or not in-utero exposure to antibiotics immediately prior to birth compared with no pre-incisional antibiotic exposure increases the risk of (1) asthma and (2) eczema in children born by caesarean section.

Design

This was a controlled interrupted time series study.

Setting

The study took place in primary and secondary care.

Participants

Children born in the UK during 2006-18 delivered by caesarean section were compared with a control cohort delivered vaginally.

Interventions

In-utero exposure to antibiotics immediately prior to birth.

Main outcome measures

Asthma and eczema in children in the first 5 years of life. Additional secondary outcomes, including other allergy-related conditions, autoimmune diseases, infections, other immune system-related diseases and neurodevelopmental conditions, were also assessed.

Data sources

The Health Improvement Network (THIN) and the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) primary care databases and the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database. Previously published linkage strategies were adapted to link anonymised data on mothers and babies in these databases. Duplicate practices contributing to both THIN and the CPRD databases were removed to create a THIN-CPRD data set.

Results

In the THIN-CPRD and HES data sets, records of 515,945 and 3,945,351 mother-baby pairs were analysed, respectively. The risk of asthma was not significantly higher in children born by caesarean section exposed to pre-incision antibiotics than in children whose mothers received post-cord clamping antibiotics, with an incidence rate ratio of 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.78 to 1.05) for diagnosis of asthma in primary care and an incidence rate ratio of 1.05 (95% confidence interval 0.99 to 1.11) for asthma resulting in a hospital admission. We also did not find an increased risk of eczema, with an incidence rate ratio of 0.98 (95% confidence interval 0.94 to1.03) and an incidence rate ratio of 0.96 (95% confidence interval 0.71 to 1.29) for diagnosis in primary care and hospital admissions, respectively.

Limitations

It was not possible to ascertain the exposure to pre-incision antibiotics at an individual level. The maximum follow-up of children was 5 years.

Conclusions

There was no evidence that the policy change from post-cord clamping to pre-incision prophylactic antibiotics for caesarean sections during 2006-18 had an impact on the incidence of asthma and eczema in early childhood in the UK.

Future work

There is a need for further research to investigate if pre-incision antibiotics have any impact on developing asthma and other allergy and immune-related conditions in older children.

Study registration

This study is registered as researchregistry3736.

Funding

This project was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 26, No. 30. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.",,pdf:https://njl-admin.nihr.ac.uk/document/download/2039937; doi:https://doi.org/10.3310/ZYZC8514 31616478,https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00922,Machine Learning Predicts Accurately Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug Resistance From Whole Genome Sequencing Data.,"Deelder W, Christakoudi S, Phelan J, Benavente ED, Campino S, McNerney R, Palla L, Clark TG.",,Frontiers in genetics,2019,2019-09-26,Y,Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Drug resistance; Mdr-tb; Xdr-tb; Machine Learning,Applied Analytics,,"Background: Tuberculosis disease, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a major public health problem. The emergence of M. tuberculosis strains resistant to existing treatments threatens to derail control efforts. Resistance is mainly conferred by mutations in genes coding for drug targets or converting enzymes, but our knowledge of these mutations is incomplete. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is an increasingly common approach to rapidly characterize isolates and identify mutations predicting antimicrobial resistance and thereby providing a diagnostic tool to assist clinical decision making. Methods: We applied machine learning approaches to 16,688 M. tuberculosis isolates that have undergone WGS and laboratory drug-susceptibility testing (DST) across 14 antituberculosis drugs, with 22.5% of samples being multidrug resistant and 2.1% being extensively drug resistant. We used non-parametric classification-tree and gradient-boosted-tree models to predict drug resistance and uncover any associated novel putative mutations. We fitted separate models for each drug, with and without ""co-occurrent resistance"" markers known to be causing resistance to drugs other than the one of interest. Predictive performance was measured using sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, assuming DST results as the gold standard. Results: The predictive performance was highest for resistance to first-line drugs, amikacin, kanamycin, ciprofloxacin, moxifloxacin, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve above 96%), and lowest for third-line drugs such as D-cycloserine and Para-aminosalisylic acid (area under the curve below 85%). The inclusion of co-occurrent resistance markers led to improved performance for some drugs and superior results when compared to similar models in other large-scale studies, which had smaller sample sizes. Overall, the gradient-boosted-tree models performed better than the classification-tree models. The mutation-rank analysis detected no new single nucleotide polymorphisms linked to drug resistance. Discordance between DST and genotypically inferred resistance may be explained by DST errors, novel rare mutations, hetero-resistance, and nongenomic drivers such as efflux-pump upregulation. Conclusion: Our work demonstrates the utility of machine learning as a flexible approach to drug resistance prediction that is able to accommodate a much larger number of predictors and to summarize their predictive ability, thus assisting clinical decision making and single nucleotide polymorphism detection in an era of increasing WGS data generation.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2019.00922/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00922; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6775242; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6775242?pdf=render -35296643,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z,"Antibody decay, T cell immunity and breakthrough infections following two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with infliximab and vedolizumab.","Lin S, Kennedy NA, Saifuddin A, Sandoval DM, Reynolds CJ, Seoane RC, Kottoor SH, Pieper FP, Lin KM, Butler DK, Chanchlani N, Nice R, Chee D, Bewshea C, Janjua M, McDonald TJ, Sebastian S, Alexander JL, Constable L, Lee JC, Murray CD, Hart AL, Irving PM, Jones GR, Kok KB, Lamb CA, Lees CW, Altmann DM, Boyton RJ, Goodhand JR, Powell N, Ahmad T, CLARITY IBD study.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-03-16,Y,,,,"Anti tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs increase the risk of serious respiratory infection and impair protective immunity following pneumococcal and influenza vaccination. Here we report SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immune responses and breakthrough infections in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, who are treated either with the anti-TNF antibody, infliximab, or with vedolizumab targeting a gut-specific anti-integrin that does not impair systemic immunity. Geometric mean [SD] anti-S RBD antibody concentrations are lower and half-lives shorter in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, following two doses of BNT162b2 (566.7 U/mL [6.2] vs 4555.3 U/mL [5.4], p <0.0001; 26.8 days [95% CI 26.2 - 27.5] vs 47.6 days [45.5 - 49.8], p <0.0001); similar results are also observed with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (184.7 U/mL [5.0] vs 784.0 U/mL [3.5], p <0.0001; 35.9 days [34.9 - 36.8] vs 58.0 days [55.0 - 61.3], p value < 0.0001). One fifth of patients fail to mount a T cell response in both treatment groups. Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections are more frequent (5.8% (201/3441) vs 3.9% (66/1682), p = 0.0039) in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, and the risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection is predicted by peak anti-S RBD antibody concentration after two vaccine doses. Irrespective of the treatments, higher, more sustained antibody levels are observed in patients with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to vaccination. Our results thus suggest that adapted vaccination schedules may be required to induce immunity in at-risk, anti-TNF-treated patients.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28517-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425?pdf=render +33356394,https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.16547,"Urate, Blood Pressure, and Cardiovascular Disease: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials.","Gill D, Cameron AC, Burgess S, Li X, Doherty DJ, Karhunen V, Abdul-Rahim AH, Taylor-Rowan M, Zuber V, Tsao PS, Klarin D, VA Million Veteran Program, Evangelou E, Elliott P, Damrauer SM, Quinn TJ, Dehghan A, Theodoratou E, Dawson J, Tzoulaki I.",,"Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)",2021,2020-12-28,Y,Cardiovascular diseases; Blood pressure; Uric acid; Systematic review; Odds Ratio,,,"Serum urate has been implicated in hypertension and cardiovascular disease, but it is not known whether it is exerting a causal effect. To investigate this, we performed Mendelian randomization analysis using data from UK Biobank, Million Veterans Program and genome-wide association study consortia, and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The main Mendelian randomization analyses showed that every 1-SD increase in genetically predicted serum urate was associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (odds ratio, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.10-1.30]; P=4×10-5), peripheral artery disease (1.12 [95% CI, 1.03-1.21]; P=9×10-3), and stroke (1.11 [95% CI, 1.05-1.18]; P=2×10-4). In Mendelian randomization mediation analyses, elevated blood pressure was estimated to mediate approximately one-third of the effect of urate on cardiovascular disease risk. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials showed a favorable effect of urate-lowering treatment on systolic blood pressure (mean difference, -2.55 mm Hg [95% CI, -4.06 to -1.05]; P=1×10-3) and major adverse cardiovascular events in those with previous cardiovascular disease (odds ratio, 0.40 [95% CI, 0.22-0.73]; P=3×10-3) but no significant effect on major adverse cardiovascular events in all individuals (odds ratio, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.44-1.03]; P=0.07). In summary, these Mendelian randomization and clinical trial data support an effect of higher serum urate on increasing blood pressure, which may mediate a consequent effect on cardiovascular disease risk. High-quality trials are necessary to provide definitive evidence on the specific clinical contexts where urate lowering may be of cardiovascular benefit.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439?pdf=render 33307988,https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203320979045,Brain network reorganisation and spatial lesion distribution in systemic lupus erythematosus.,"Valdés Hernández MDC, Smith K, Bastin ME, Nicole Amft E, Ralston SH, Wardlaw JM, Wiseman SJ.",,Lupus,2021,2020-12-13,Y,SLE; Connectome; Network Analysis,,,"

Objective

This work investigates network organisation of brain structural connectivity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) relative to healthy controls and its putative association with lesion distribution and disease indicators.

Methods

White matter hyperintensity (WMH) segmentation and connectomics were performed in 47 patients with SLE and 47 healthy age-matched controls from structural and diffusion MRI data. Network nodes were divided into hierarchical tiers based on numbers of connections. Results were compared between patients and controls to assess for differences in brain network organisation. Voxel-based analyses of the spatial distribution of WMH in relation to network measures and SLE disease indicators were conducted.

Results

Despite inter-individual differences in brain network organization observed across the study sample, the connectome networks of SLE patients had larger proportion of connections in the peripheral nodes. SLE patients had statistically larger numbers of links in their networks with generally larger fractional anisotropy weights (i.e. a measure of white matter integrity) and less tendency to aggregate than those of healthy controls. The voxels exhibiting connectomic differences were coincident with WMH clusters, particularly the left hemisphere's intersection between the anterior limb of the internal and external capsules. Moreover, these voxels also associated more strongly with disease indicators.

Conclusion

Our results indicate network differences reflective of compensatory reorganization of the neural circuits, reflecting adaptive or extended neuroplasticity in SLE.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0961203320979045; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203320979045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854491; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854491?pdf=render -36682888,https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097,Adversity profiles of children receiving care and support from social services: A latent-class analysis of school-aged children in Wales.,"Anthony R, Scourfield J, Moore G, Paranjothy S, Evans A, Brophy S, Daniel R, Long S.",,"Child: care, health and development",2023,2023-01-31,N,Care; Child Welfare; Social Services; Latent Class Analysis; Adverse Childhood Experiences,,,"

Background

Children receive care and support from social services due to the risk of harm or impeded development or because of disability. This study aimed to identify typologies of adversity experienced by children receiving care and support from social services and to explore how typologies differ by sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study of 'Children Receiving Care and Support' (N = 12 792) during 2017/2018 in Wales, UK. We sought to (1) examine the prevalence of household adversities experienced by children in receipt of care and support from social services; (2) identify typologies of household adversities; and (3) explore how typologies of household adversities differ by family characteristics (demographics, measures of social disadvantage, perinatal and care factors).

Results

We found evidence for multiple risk factor constellations. The four-class solution suggested four distinct classes of adversities: child disability (50.0%), low adversities (20.3%), family poor health (6.7%) and multiple risks (23.0%). Children in the 'multiple risk' class were significantly more likely to be younger, more deprived and 'looked after' by the local authority compared with those in the 'low adversities' class.

Conclusions

Given the presence of different constellations of household adversities, policies and interventions that address multiple risk factors simultaneously may be more effective and have longer-lasting benefits.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cch.13097; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097 36576182,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058058,Assessing machine learning for fair prediction of ADHD in school pupils using a retrospective cohort study of linked education and healthcare data.,"Ter-Minassian L, Viani N, Wickersham A, Cross L, Stewart R, Velupillai S, Downs J.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-05,Y,Mental health; epidemiology; Child & Adolescent Psychiatry,,,"

Objectives

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent childhood disorder, but often goes unrecognised and untreated. To improve access to services, accurate predictions of populations at high risk of ADHD are needed for effective resource allocation. Using a unique linked health and education data resource, we examined how machine learning (ML) approaches can predict risk of ADHD.

Design

Retrospective population cohort study.

Setting

South London (2007-2013).

Participants

n=56 258 pupils with linked education and health data.

Primary outcome measures

Using area under the curve (AUC), we compared the predictive accuracy of four ML models and one neural network for ADHD diagnosis. Ethnic group and language biases were weighted using a fair pre-processing algorithm.

Results

Random forest and logistic regression prediction models provided the highest predictive accuracy for ADHD in population samples (AUC 0.86 and 0.86, respectively) and clinical samples (AUC 0.72 and 0.70). Precision-recall curve analyses were less favourable. Sociodemographic biases were effectively reduced by a fair pre-processing algorithm without loss of accuracy.

Conclusions

ML approaches using linked routinely collected education and health data offer accurate, low-cost and scalable prediction models of ADHD. These approaches could help identify areas of need and inform resource allocation. Introducing 'fairness weighting' attenuates some sociodemographic biases which would otherwise underestimate ADHD risk within minority groups.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e058058.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058058; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723859?pdf=render +36682888,https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097,Adversity profiles of children receiving care and support from social services: A latent-class analysis of school-aged children in Wales.,"Anthony R, Scourfield J, Moore G, Paranjothy S, Evans A, Brophy S, Daniel R, Long S.",,"Child: care, health and development",2023,2023-01-31,N,Care; Child Welfare; Social Services; Latent Class Analysis; Adverse Childhood Experiences,,,"

Background

Children receive care and support from social services due to the risk of harm or impeded development or because of disability. This study aimed to identify typologies of adversity experienced by children receiving care and support from social services and to explore how typologies differ by sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study of 'Children Receiving Care and Support' (N = 12 792) during 2017/2018 in Wales, UK. We sought to (1) examine the prevalence of household adversities experienced by children in receipt of care and support from social services; (2) identify typologies of household adversities; and (3) explore how typologies of household adversities differ by family characteristics (demographics, measures of social disadvantage, perinatal and care factors).

Results

We found evidence for multiple risk factor constellations. The four-class solution suggested four distinct classes of adversities: child disability (50.0%), low adversities (20.3%), family poor health (6.7%) and multiple risks (23.0%). Children in the 'multiple risk' class were significantly more likely to be younger, more deprived and 'looked after' by the local authority compared with those in the 'low adversities' class.

Conclusions

Given the presence of different constellations of household adversities, policies and interventions that address multiple risk factors simultaneously may be more effective and have longer-lasting benefits.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cch.13097; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097 37140153,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead093,Determinants of post-operative left ventricular dysfunction in degenerative mitral regurgitation.,"Althunayyan AM, Alborikan S, Badiani S, Wong K, Uppal R, Patel N, Petersen SE, Lloyd G, Bhattacharyya S.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2023,2023-08-01,N,Surgery; Mitral regurgitation; Mitral Valve Prolapse; Global Longitudinal Strain; Lv Volumes,,,"

Aims

Chronic degenerative mitral regurgitation leads to volume overload causing left ventricular (LV) enlargement and eventually LV impairment. Current guidelines determining thresholds for intervention are based on LV diameters and ejection fraction (LVEF). There are sparse data examining the value of LV volumes and newer markers of LV performance on outcomes of surgery in mitral valve prolapse. The aim of this study is to identify the best marker of LV impairment after mitral valve surgery.

Methods and results

Prospective, observational study of patients with mitral valve prolapse undergoing mitral valve surgery. Pre-operative LV diameters, volumes, LVEF, global longitudinal strain (GLS), and myocardial work measured. Post-operative LV impairment defined as LVEF < 50% at 1 year post-surgery. Eighty-seven patients included. Thirteen percent developed post-operative LV impairment. Patients with post-operative LV dysfunction showed significantly larger indexed LV end-systolic diameters, indexed LV end-systolic volumes (LVESVi), lower LVEF, and more abnormal GLS than patients without post-operative LV dysfunction. In multivariate analysis, LVESVi [odds ratio 1.11 (95% CI 1.01-1.23), P = 0.039] and GLS [odds ratio 1.46 (95% CI 1.00-2.14), P = 0.054] were the only independent predictors of post-operative LV dysfunction. The optimal cut-off of 36.3 mL/m2 for LVESVi had a sensitivity of 82% and specificity of 78% for detection of post-operative LV impairment.

Conclusion

Post-operative LV impairment is common. Indexed LV volumes (36.3 mL/m2) provided the best marker of post-operative LV impairment.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jead093/50200028/jead093.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead093 37662524,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102172,Tafamidis treatment in patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Wang J, Chen H, Tang Z, Zhang J, Xu Y, Wan K, Hussain K, Gkoutos GV, Han Y, Chen Y.",,EClinicalMedicine,2023,2023-08-24,Y,Prognosis; Tafamidis; Attr; Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy,,,"

Background

Previous studies have reported that tafamidis treatment was associated with better outcomes in patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) compared with those without tafamidis treatment. Therefore, we aimed to systematically assess the association of tafamidis treatment with outcomes in patients with ATTR-CM.

Methods

The protocol for this systematic review and meta-analysis was registered in the PROSPERO (CRD42022381985). Pubmed, Ovid Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were interrogated to identify studies that evaluated the impact of tafamidis on prognosis in ATTR-CM, from January 1, 2000 to June 1, 2023. A random-effects model was used to determine the pooled risk ratio (RR) for the adverse endpoints. In addition, the main outcomes included all-cause death or heart transplantation, the composite endpoints included all-cause death, heart transplantation, cardiac-assist device implantation, heart failure exacerbations, and hospitalization.

Findings

Fifteen studies comprising 2765 patients (mean age 75.9 ± 9.3 years; 83.7% male) with a mean follow-up duration of 18.7 ± 17.1 months were included in the meta-analysis. There was a decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (standard mean differences (SMD: -0.17; 95% confidence interval (CI), -0.31 to -0.03; P = 0.02) but were no significant differences in intraventricular septum (IVS) thickness or global longitudinal strain (GLS) after tafamidis treatment. However, subgroup analysis showed no significant deterioration in LVEF in the patients with wild-type ATTR after tafamidis treatment (SMD: -0.11; 95% CI, -0.34 to 0.12, P = 0.34). In addition, the group with tafamidis treatment had a decreased risk for all-cause death or heart transplantation compared to patients without treatment (the pooled RR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.31-0.65; P < 0.01). Subgroup analysis showed that there was no significant difference of tafamidis on the outcomes in patients with wild-type or hereditary ATTR (RR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.27-0.73 versus 0.21, 95% CI, 0.11-0.40, P = 0.08). Furthermore, tafamidis treatment was associated with a lower risk of the composite endpoint (RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.42-0.77; P < 0.01).

Interpretation

Our findings suggested that there was no significant deterioration in LVEF in the patients with wild-type ATTR after tafamidis treatment. In addition, tafamidis treatment was associated with a low risk of all-cause death and adverse cardiovascular events.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province [Grant Number: 23NSFSC4589] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Number: 82202248].",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102172; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10474377; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10474377?pdf=render 31960476,https://doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12627,Phenotyping congenital anomalies in administrative hospital records.,"Zylbersztejn A, Verfürden M, Hardelid P, Gilbert R, Wijlaars L.",,Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Phenotyping; Congenital Anomalies; International Comparison; Administrative Data,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Congenital anomalies are a major cause of co-morbidity in children. Diagnostic code lists are increasingly used to identify congenital anomalies in administrative health records. Evidence is lacking on comparability of these code lists.

Objectives

To compare prevalence of congenital anomalies and prognostic outcomes for children with congenital anomalies identified in administrative health records using three different code lists.

Methods

We developed national cohorts of singleton livebirths in England (n = 7 354 363, 2003-2014) and Scotland (n = 493 556, 2003-2011). Children with congenital anomalies were identified if congenital anomaly diagnosis was recorded at birth, during subsequent hospital admission or as cause of death before 2 years old. We used three code lists: the EUROCAT list for congenital anomaly surveillance in Europe; the Hardelid list developed to identify children with chronic conditions (including congenital anomalies) admitted to hospital in England; and the Feudtner list developed to indicate children with complex chronic conditions (including congenital anomalies) admitted to hospitals in the United States. We compared prevalence, and risks of postnatal hospital readmission and death according to each code list in England and Scotland.

Results

Prevalence of congenital anomalies was highest using the EUROCAT list (4.1% of livebirths in England, 3.7% in Scotland), followed by Hardelid (3.1% and 3.0% of livebirths, respectively) and Feudtner (1.8% and 1.5% of livebirths, respectively). 67.2%-73.3% of children with congenital anomalies in England and 65.2%-77.0% in Scotland had at least one postnatal hospital admission across the three code lists; mortality ranged between 42.6-75.4 and 41.5-88.7 deaths per 1000 births in England Scotland, respectively. The risk of these adverse outcomes was highest using Feudtner and lowest using EUROCAT code lists.

Conclusions

The prevalence of congenital anomalies varied by congenital anomaly code list, over time and between countries, reflecting in part differences in hospital coding practices and admission thresholds. As a minimum, researchers using administrative health data to study congenital anomalies should report sensitivity analyses using different code lists.","This study identifies children born with congenital anomalies from administrative health data. The the prevalence of congenital anomalies and prognostic outcomes for children with congenital anomalies are compared using three different code lists. The study found that the prevalence of congenital anomalies varied by code list, over time and between countries. This reflects differences in hospital coding practices and admission thresholds.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ppe.12627; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003968; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003968?pdf=render 35055401,https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12010086,Predicting Hospital Readmission for Campylobacteriosis from Electronic Health Records: A Machine Learning and Text Mining Perspective. ,"Zhou SM, Lyons RA, Rahman MA, Holborow A, Brophy S.",,Journal of personalized medicine,2022,2022-01-10,Y,,,,"(1) Background: This study investigates influential risk factors for predicting 30-day readmission to hospital for Campylobacter infections (CI). (2) Methods: We linked general practitioner and hospital admission records of 13,006 patients with CI in Wales (1990-2015). An approach called TF-zR (term frequency-zRelevance) technique was presented to evaluates how relevant a clinical term is to a patient in a cohort characterized by coded health records. The zR is a supervised term-weighting metric to assign weight to a term based on relative frequencies of the term across different classes. Cost-sensitive classifier with swarm optimization and weighted subset learning was integrated to identify influential clinical signals as predictors and optimal model for readmission prediction. (3) Results: From a pool of up to 17,506 variables, 33 most predictive factors were identified, including age, gender, Townsend deprivation quintiles, comorbidities, medications, and procedures. The predictive model predicted readmission with 73% sensitivity and 54% specificity. Variables associated with readmission included male gender, recurrent tonsillitis, non-healing open wounds, operation for in-gown toenails. Cystitis, paracetamol/codeine use, age (21-25), and heliclear triple pack use, were associated with a lower risk of readmission. (4) Conclusions: This study gives a profile of clustered variables that are predictive of readmission associated with campylobacteriosis.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/12/1/86/pdf?version=1641832520; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12010086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8779953; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8779953?pdf=render 36712153,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztac046,Systematic approach to outcome assessment from coded electronic healthcare records in the DaRe2THINK NHS-embedded randomized trial.,"Wang X, Mobley AR, Tica O, Okoth K, Ghosh RE, Myles P, Williams T, Haynes S, Nirantharakumar K, Shukla D, Kotecha D, DaRe2THINK Trial Committees .",,European heart journal. Digital health,2022,2022-09-16,Y,Coding; Anticoagulation; Atrial fibrillation; Randomized controlled trial; Primary Care; Secondary Care; Electronic Healthcare Record,,,"

Aims

Improving the efficiency of clinical trials is key to their continued importance in directing evidence-based patient care. Digital innovations, in particular the use of electronic healthcare records (EHRs), allow for large-scale screening and follow up of participants. However, it is critical these developments are accompanied by robust and transparent methods that can support high-quality and high clinical value research.

Methods and results

The DaRe2THINK trial includes a series of novel processes, including nationwide pseudonymized pre screening of the primary-care EHR across England, digital enrolment, remote e-consent, and 'no-visit' follow up by linking all primary- and secondary-care health data with patient-reported outcomes. DaRe2THINK is a pragmatic, healthcare-embedded randomized trial testing whether earlier use of direct oral anticoagulants in patients with prior or current atrial fibrillation can prevent thromboembolic events and cognitive decline (www.birmingham.ac.uk/dare2think). This study outlines the systematic approach and methodology employed to define patient information and outcome events. This includes transparency on all medical code lists and phenotypes used in the trial across a variety of national data sources, including Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum (primary care), Hospital Episode Statistics (secondary care), and the Office for National Statistics (mortality).

Conclusion

Co-designed by a patient and public involvement team, DaRe2THINK presents an opportunity to transform the approach to randomized trials in the setting of routine healthcare, providing high-quality evidence generation in populations representative of the community at risk.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjdh/article-pdf/3/3/426/47117043/ztac046.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztac046; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708037; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708037?pdf=render -36082449,https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279,"Global colorectal cancer research, 2007-2021: Outputs and funding. ","Begum M, Lewison G, Wang X, Dunne PD, Maughan T, Sullivan R, Lawler M.",,International journal of cancer,2023,2022-09-28,Y,,,,"The purpose of this study was to provide an evidence base for colorectal cancer research activity that might influence policy, mainly at the national level. Improvements in healthcare delivery have lengthened life expectancy, but within a situation of increased cancer incidence. The disease burden of CRC has risen significantly, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Research is key to its control and reduction, but few studies have delineated the volume and funding of global research on CRC. We identified research papers in the Web of Science (WoS) from 2007 to 2021, and determined the contributions of the leading countries, the research domains studied, and their sources of funding. We identified 62 716 papers, representing 5.7% of all cancer papers. This percentage was somewhat disproportionate to the disease burden (7.7% in 2015), especially in Eastern Europe. International collaboration increased over the time period in almost all countries except in China. Genetics, surgery and prognosis were the leading research domains. However, research on palliative care and quality-of-life in CRC was lacking. In Western Europe, the main funding source was the charity sector, particularly in the UK, but in most other countries government played the leading role, especially in China and the USA. There was little support from industry. Several Asian countries provided minimal contestable funding, which may have reduced the impact of their CRC research. Certain countries must perform more CRC research overall, especially in domains such as screening, palliative care and quality-of-life. The private-non-profit sector should be an alternative source of support.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800?pdf=render 37739596,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.07.008,"""C1-inhibitor levels and venous thromboembolism: results from a Mendelian randomization study"": reply.","Cupido AJ, Petersen RS, Schmidt AF, Levi M, Cohn DM, Fijen LM.",,Journal of thrombosis and haemostasis : JTH,2023,2023-10-01,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.07.008 -35898465,https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924,Diabetic Foot Risk Classification at the Time of Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis and Subsequent Risk of Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study.,"Wang Z, Hazlehurst J, Subramanian A, Tahrani AA, Hanif W, Thomas N, Singh P, Wang J, Sainsbury C, Nirantharakumar K, Crowe FL.",,Frontiers in endocrinology,2022,2022-07-11,Y,Mortality; Type 2 diabetes; Diabetic Foot Disease; Diabetic Foot Risk; Foot Risk Examination,,,"

Aim

We aimed to compare the mortality of individuals at low, moderate, and high risk of diabetic foot disease (DFD) in the context of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, before developing active diabetic foot problem.

Methods

This was a population-based cohort study of adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes utilizing IQVIA Medical Research Data. The outcome was all-cause mortality among individuals with low, moderate, and high risk of DFD, and also in those with no record of foot assessment and those who declined foot examination.

Results

Of 225,787 individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, 34,061 (15.1%) died during the study period from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2019. Moderate risk and high risk of DFD were associated with increased mortality risk compared to low risk of DFD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.50, 95% CI 1.42, 1.58; aHR 2.01, 95% CI 1.84, 2.20, respectively). Individuals who declined foot examination or who had no record also had increased mortality risk of 75% and 25% vs. those at low risk of DFD, respectively (aHR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51, 2.04; aHR 1.25, 95% CI 1.20, 1.30).

Conclusion

Individuals with new-onset type 2 diabetes who had moderate to high risk of DFD were more likely to die compared to those at low risk of DFD. The associations between declined foot examination and absence of foot examinations, and increased risk of mortality further highlight the importance of assessing foot risk as it identifies not only patients at risk of diabetic foot ulceration but also mortality.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507?pdf=render 36834176,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043477,"Non-Pharmacological Therapies for Post-Viral Syndromes, Including Long COVID: A Systematic Review.","Chandan JS, Brown KR, Simms-Williams N, Bashir NZ, Camaradou J, Heining D, Turner GM, Rivera SC, Hotham R, Minhas S, Nirantharakumar K, Sivan M, Khunti K, Raindi D, Marwaha S, Hughes SE, McMullan C, Marshall T, Calvert MJ, Haroon S, Aiyegbusi OL, TLC Study.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2023,2023-02-16,Y,Rehabilitation; Systematic review; Pvs; Non-pharmacological Intervention; Covid-19; Long Covid; Post-covid-19 Condition; Post-Viral Syndromes; Post-acute Sequelae Of Sars-cov-2 Infection (Pasc),,,"

Background

Post-viral syndromes (PVS), including Long COVID, are symptoms sustained from weeks to years following an acute viral infection. Non-pharmacological treatments for these symptoms are poorly understood. This review summarises the evidence for the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for PVS.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for PVS, as compared to either standard care, alternative non-pharmacological therapy, or placebo. The outcomes of interest were changes in symptoms, exercise capacity, quality of life (including mental health and wellbeing), and work capability. We searched five databases (Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, MedRxiv) for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 1 January 2001 to 29 October 2021. The relevant outcome data were extracted, the study quality was appraised using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and the findings were synthesised narratively.

Findings

Overall, five studies of five different interventions (Pilates, music therapy, telerehabilitation, resistance exercise, neuromodulation) met the inclusion criteria. Aside from music-based intervention, all other selected interventions demonstrated some support in the management of PVS in some patients.

Interpretation

In this study, we observed a lack of robust evidence evaluating the non-pharmacological treatments for PVS, including Long COVID. Considering the prevalence of prolonged symptoms following acute viral infections, there is an urgent need for clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for patients with PVS.

Registration

The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO [CRD42021282074] in October 2021 and published in BMJ Open in 2022.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3477/pdf?version=1677135187; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043477; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9967466; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9967466?pdf=render 35297226,https://doi.org/10.1002/jcsm.12971,Association of shorter leucocyte telomere length with risk of frailty.,"Bountziouka V, Nelson CP, Codd V, Wang Q, Musicha C, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Di Angelantonio E, Butterworth AS, Thompson JR, Curtis EM, Wood AM, Danesh JN, Harvey NC, Cooper C, Samani NJ.",,"Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle",2022,2022-03-17,Y,Frailty; Biological Age; Uk Biobank; Leucocyte Telomere Length,,,"

Background

Frailty is a multidimensional syndrome of decline that affects multiple systems and predisposes to adverse health outcomes. Although chronological age is the major risk factor, inter-individual variation in risk is not fully understood. Leucocyte telomere length (LTL), a proposed marker of biological age, has been associated with risk of many diseases. We sought to determine whether LTL is associated with risk of frailty.

Methods

We utilized cross-sectional data from 441 781 UK Biobank participants (aged 40-69 years), with complete data on frailty indicators and LTL. Frailty was defined as the presence of at least three of five indicators: weaker grip strength, slower walking pace, weight loss in the past year, lower physical activity, and exhaustion in the past 2 weeks. LTL was measured using a validated qPCR method and reported as a ratio of the telomere repeat number (T) to a single-copy gene (S) (T/S ratio). Association of LTL with frailty was evaluated using adjusted (chronological age, sex, deprivation, smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index, and multimorbidity) multinomial and ordinal regression models, and results are presented as relative risk (RRR) or odds ratios (OR), respectively, alongside the 95% confidence interval (CI). Mendelian randomization (MR), using 131 genetic variants associated with LTL, was used to assess if the association of LTL with frailty was causal.

Results

Frail participants (4.6%) were older (median age difference (95% CI): 3 (2.5; 3.5) years, P = 2.73 × 10-33 ), more likely to be female (61%, P = 1.97 × 10-129 ), and had shorter LTL (-0.13SD vs. 0.03SD, P = 5.43 × 10-111 ) than non-frail. In adjusted analyses, both age and LTL were associated with frailty (RRR = 1.03 (95% CI: 1.02; 1.04) per year of older chronological age, P = 3.99 × 10-12 ; 1.10 (1.08; 1.11) per SD shorter LTL, P = 1.46 × 10-30 ). Within each age group (40-49, 50-59, 60-69 years), the prevalence of frailty was about 33% higher in participants with shorter (-2SD) versus longer telomeres (+2SD). MR analysis showed an association of LTL with frailty that was directionally consistent with the observational association, but not statistically significant (MR-Median: OR (95% CI): 1.08 (0.98; 1.19) per SD shorter LTL, P = 0.13).

Conclusions

Inter-individual variation in LTL is associated with the risk of frailty independently of chronological age and other risk factors. Our findings provide evidence for an additional biological determinant of frailty.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jcsm.12971; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jcsm.12971; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9178164; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9178164?pdf=render +35898465,https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924,Diabetic Foot Risk Classification at the Time of Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis and Subsequent Risk of Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study.,"Wang Z, Hazlehurst J, Subramanian A, Tahrani AA, Hanif W, Thomas N, Singh P, Wang J, Sainsbury C, Nirantharakumar K, Crowe FL.",,Frontiers in endocrinology,2022,2022-07-11,Y,Mortality; Type 2 diabetes; Diabetic Foot Disease; Diabetic Foot Risk; Foot Risk Examination,,,"

Aim

We aimed to compare the mortality of individuals at low, moderate, and high risk of diabetic foot disease (DFD) in the context of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, before developing active diabetic foot problem.

Methods

This was a population-based cohort study of adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes utilizing IQVIA Medical Research Data. The outcome was all-cause mortality among individuals with low, moderate, and high risk of DFD, and also in those with no record of foot assessment and those who declined foot examination.

Results

Of 225,787 individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, 34,061 (15.1%) died during the study period from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2019. Moderate risk and high risk of DFD were associated with increased mortality risk compared to low risk of DFD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.50, 95% CI 1.42, 1.58; aHR 2.01, 95% CI 1.84, 2.20, respectively). Individuals who declined foot examination or who had no record also had increased mortality risk of 75% and 25% vs. those at low risk of DFD, respectively (aHR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51, 2.04; aHR 1.25, 95% CI 1.20, 1.30).

Conclusion

Individuals with new-onset type 2 diabetes who had moderate to high risk of DFD were more likely to die compared to those at low risk of DFD. The associations between declined foot examination and absence of foot examinations, and increased risk of mortality further highlight the importance of assessing foot risk as it identifies not only patients at risk of diabetic foot ulceration but also mortality.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507?pdf=render +36082449,https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279,"Global colorectal cancer research, 2007-2021: Outputs and funding. ","Begum M, Lewison G, Wang X, Dunne PD, Maughan T, Sullivan R, Lawler M.",,International journal of cancer,2023,2022-09-28,Y,,,,"The purpose of this study was to provide an evidence base for colorectal cancer research activity that might influence policy, mainly at the national level. Improvements in healthcare delivery have lengthened life expectancy, but within a situation of increased cancer incidence. The disease burden of CRC has risen significantly, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Research is key to its control and reduction, but few studies have delineated the volume and funding of global research on CRC. We identified research papers in the Web of Science (WoS) from 2007 to 2021, and determined the contributions of the leading countries, the research domains studied, and their sources of funding. We identified 62 716 papers, representing 5.7% of all cancer papers. This percentage was somewhat disproportionate to the disease burden (7.7% in 2015), especially in Eastern Europe. International collaboration increased over the time period in almost all countries except in China. Genetics, surgery and prognosis were the leading research domains. However, research on palliative care and quality-of-life in CRC was lacking. In Western Europe, the main funding source was the charity sector, particularly in the UK, but in most other countries government played the leading role, especially in China and the USA. There was little support from industry. Several Asian countries provided minimal contestable funding, which may have reduced the impact of their CRC research. Certain countries must perform more CRC research overall, especially in domains such as screening, palliative care and quality-of-life. The private-non-profit sector should be an alternative source of support.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800?pdf=render 33722197,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05951-w,Renin-angiotensin system inhibitors and susceptibility to COVID-19 in patients with hypertension: a propensity score-matched cohort study in primary care.,"Haroon S, Subramanian A, Cooper J, Anand A, Gokhale K, Byne N, Dhalla S, Acosta-Mena D, Taverner T, Okoth K, Wang J, Chandan JS, Sainsbury C, Zemedikun DT, Thomas GN, Parekh D, Marshall T, Sapey E, Adderley NJ, Nirantharakumar K.",,BMC infectious diseases,2021,2021-03-15,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors have been postulated to influence susceptibility to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study investigated whether there is an association between their prescription and the incidence of COVID-19 and all-cause mortality.

Methods

We conducted a propensity-score matched cohort study comparing the incidence of COVID-19 among patients with hypertension prescribed angiotensin-converting enzyme I (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II type-1 receptor blockers (ARBs) to those treated with calcium channel blockers (CCBs) in a large UK-based primary care database (The Health Improvement Network). We estimated crude incidence rates for confirmed/suspected COVID-19 in each drug exposure group. We used Cox proportional hazards models to produce adjusted hazard ratios for COVID-19. We assessed all-cause mortality as a secondary outcome.

Results

The incidence rate of COVID-19 among users of ACE inhibitors and CCBs was 9.3 per 1000 person-years (83 of 18,895 users [0.44%]) and 9.5 per 1000 person-years (85 of 18,895 [0.45%]), respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio was 0.92 (95% CI 0.68 to 1.26). The incidence rate among users of ARBs was 15.8 per 1000 person-years (79 out of 10,623 users [0.74%]). The adjusted hazard ratio was 1.38 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.95). There were no significant associations between use of RAS inhibitors and all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

Use of ACE inhibitors was not associated with the risk of COVID-19 whereas use of ARBs was associated with a statistically non-significant increase compared to the use of CCBs. However, no significant associations were observed between prescription of either ACE inhibitors or ARBs and all-cause mortality.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-021-05951-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05951-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957446; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957446?pdf=render 35793336,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266521,"Spatiotemporal mapping of major trauma in Victoria, Australia.","Beck B, Zammit-Mangion A, Fry R, Smith K, Gabbe B.",,PloS one,2022,2022-07-06,Y,,,,"

Background

Spatiotemporal modelling techniques allow one to predict injury across time and space. However, such methods have been underutilised in injury studies. This study demonstrates the use of statistical spatiotemporal modelling in identifying areas of significantly high injury risk, and areas witnessing significantly increasing risk over time.

Methods

We performed a retrospective review of hospitalised major trauma patients from the Victorian State Trauma Registry, Australia, between 2007 and 2019. Geographical locations of injury events were mapped to the 79 local government areas (LGAs) in the state. We employed Bayesian spatiotemporal models to quantify spatial and temporal patterns, and analysed the results across a range of geographical remoteness and socioeconomic levels.

Results

There were 31,317 major trauma patients included. For major trauma overall, we observed substantial spatial variation in injury incidence and a significant 2.1% increase in injury incidence per year. Area-specific risk of injury by motor vehicle collision was higher in regional areas relative to metropolitan areas, while risk of injury by low fall was higher in metropolitan areas. Significant temporal increases were observed in injury by low fall, and the greatest increases were observed in the most disadvantaged LGAs.

Conclusions

These findings can be used to inform injury prevention initiatives, which could be designed to target areas with relatively high injury risk and with significantly increasing injury risk over time. Our finding that the greatest year-on-year increases in injury incidence were observed in the most disadvantaged areas highlights the need for a greater emphasis on reducing inequities in injury.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266521&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266521; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9258853; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9258853?pdf=render 37008054,https://doi.org/10.14336/ad.2022.0829,Identifying Dynamic Patterns of Polypharmacy for Patients with Dementia from Primary Care Electronic Health Records: A Machine Learning Driven Longitudinal Study.,"Longo E, Burnett B, Bauermeister S, Zhou SM.",,Aging and disease,2023,2023-04-01,Y,Diagnosis; Dementia; Patient Safety; Machine Learning; Polypharmacy; Electronic Health Records; Exploratory Factor Analysis,,,"It is unclear how medication use evolved before diagnosis of dementia (DoD). This study aims to identify varied patterns of polypharmacy before DoD, their prevalence and possible complications. We collected primary care e-health records for 33,451 dementia patients in Wales from 1990 to 2015. The medication uses in every 5-year period along with 20-years prior to dementia diagnosis were considered. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify clusters of medicines for every 5-year period. The prevalence of patients taking three or more medications was 82.16%, 69.7%, 41.1% and 5.5% in the Period 1 (0-5 years before DoD) ~ Period 4 (16-20 years before DoD) respectively. The Period 1 showed 3 clusters of polypharmacy - medicines for respiratory/urinary infections, arthropathies and rheumatism, and cardio-vascular disease (CVD) (66.55%); medicines for infections, arthropathies and rheumatism (AR), cardio-metabolic disease (CMD) and depression (22.02%); and medicines for arthropathies, rheumatism and osteoarthritis (2.6%). The Period 2 showed 4 clusters of polypharmacy - medicines for infections, arthropathies, and CVD (69.7%); medicines for CVD and depression (3%); medicines for CMD and arthropathies (0.3%); and medicines for AR, and CVD (2,5%). The Period 3 showed 6 clusters of polypharmacy - medicines for infections, arthropathies, and CVD (41.1%); medicines for CVD, acute-respiratory-infection (ARI), and arthropathies (1.25%); medicines for AR (1.16%); medicines for depression, anxiety (0.06%); medicines for CMD (1.4%); and medicines for dermatologic disorders (0.9%). The Period 4 showed 3 main clusters of polypharmacy - medicines for infections, arthropathy, and CVD (5.5%); medicines for anxiety, ARI (2.4%); and medicines for ARI and CVD (2.1%). As the development towards dementia progressed, the associative diseases tended to cluster with a larger prevalence in each cluster. Farther away before DoD, the clusters of polypharmacy tended to be clearly distinct between each other, resulting in an increasing number of patterns, but in a smaller prevalence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.14336/ad.2022.0829; doi:https://doi.org/10.14336/AD.2022.0829; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017143; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017143?pdf=render -37705832,https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003,SGLT2 inhibitors in CKD and HFpEF: two new large trials and two new meta-analyses.,"Mayne KJ, Preiss D, Herrington WG.",,The British journal of cardiology,2023,2023-02-21,N,Cardiovascular disease; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 (Sglt2) Inhibitor,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003 -33813844,https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.16534,Relationship Between Blood Pressure and Incident Cardiovascular Disease: Linear and Nonlinear Mendelian Randomization Analyses.,"Malik R, Georgakis MK, Vujkovic M, Damrauer SM, Elliott P, Karhunen V, Giontella A, Fava C, Hellwege JN, Shuey MM, Edwards TL, Rogne T, Åsvold BO, Brumpton BM, Burgess S, Dichgans M, Gill D.",,"Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)",2021,2021-04-05,Y,Hypertension; Blood pressure; Stroke; coronary artery disease; Primary Prevention,,,[Figure: see text].,,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16534; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16534; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8115430; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8115430?pdf=render 34190735,https://doi.org/,The changing characteristics of COVID-19 presentations. A regional comparison of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalised patients during the first and second wave.,"Atkin C, Kamwa V, Reddy-Kolanu V, Parekh D, Evison F, Nightingale P, Gallier S, Ball S, Sapey E.",,Acute medicine,2021,2021-01-01,N,,,,"

Background

This study assesses COVID-19 hospitalised patient demography and outcomes during wave 1 and wave 2, prior to new variants of the virus.

Methods

All patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab between 10th March 2020 and 5th July 2020 (wave 1) and 1st September 2020 and 16th November 2020 (wave 2) admitted to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust were included (n=4856), followed for 28 days.

Results

Wave 2 patients were younger, more ethnically diverse, had less co-morbidities and disease presentation was milder on presentation. After matching for these factors, mortality was reduced, but without differences in intensive care admissions.

Conclusion

Prior to new SARS-CoV-2 variants, outcomes for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 were improving but with similar intensive care needs.",, +33813844,https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.16534,Relationship Between Blood Pressure and Incident Cardiovascular Disease: Linear and Nonlinear Mendelian Randomization Analyses.,"Malik R, Georgakis MK, Vujkovic M, Damrauer SM, Elliott P, Karhunen V, Giontella A, Fava C, Hellwege JN, Shuey MM, Edwards TL, Rogne T, Åsvold BO, Brumpton BM, Burgess S, Dichgans M, Gill D.",,"Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)",2021,2021-04-05,Y,Hypertension; Blood pressure; Stroke; coronary artery disease; Primary Prevention,,,[Figure: see text].,,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16534; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16534; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8115430; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8115430?pdf=render +37705832,https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003,SGLT2 inhibitors in CKD and HFpEF: two new large trials and two new meta-analyses.,"Mayne KJ, Preiss D, Herrington WG.",,The British journal of cardiology,2023,2023-02-21,N,Cardiovascular disease; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 (Sglt2) Inhibitor,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003 37736873,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14527,Genetically predicted androgenic profiles and adverse cardiac markers: a sex-specific Mendelian randomization study.,"Chen JY, Ardissino M, Reddy RK, Mason AM, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Di Angelantonio E, Burgess S, Ng FS.",,ESC heart failure,2023,2023-09-22,N,Sex hormones; Testosterone; Heart Failure; Cmr; Mendelian Randomization; Shbg,,,"

Aims

Observational evidence suggests associations between sex hormone levels and heart failure (HF). We used sex-specific genetic variants associated with androgenic sex hormone profiles to investigate the causal relevance of androgenic sex hormone profiles on cardiac structure and function and HF using Mendelian randomization (MR).

Methods and results

Sex-specific uncorrelated genome-wide significant (P < 5 × 10-8 ) variants predicting sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), total testosterone, and bioavailable testosterone were extracted from summary statistics of genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 425 097 participants in the UK Biobank. Sex-specific gene-outcome association estimates were computed for left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes (LVEDV and LVESV, respectively), left ventricular stroke volume (LVSV), cardiac index, and cardiac output in 11 528 female and 14 356 male UK Biobank Imaging Study participants and for incident or prevalent HF in an external cohort of 47 309 cases and 930 014 controls. Inverse-variance weighted MR was the primary analysis method. In females, higher genetically predicted bioavailable testosterone was associated with lower LVEDV [β per nmol/L = -0.11 (-0.19 to -0.03), P = 0.006], lower LVESV [β = -0.09 (-0.17 to -0.01), P = 0.022], lower LVSV [β = -0.11 (-0.18 to -0.03), P = 0.005], lower cardiac output [β = -0.08 (-0.16 to 0.00), P = 0.046], and lower cardiac index [β = -0.08 (-0.16 to -0.01), P = 0.034] and a higher risk of HF [odds ratio 1.10 (1.01-1.19), P = 0.026] on external validation analysis in larger scale, sex-adjusted GWAS data. Higher genetically predicted SHBG was associated with higher LVEDV [β per nmol/L = 0.17 (0.08-0.25), P = 2 × 10-4 ], higher LVESV [β = 0.13 (0.05-0.22), P = 0.003], and higher LVSV [β = 0.18 (0.08-0.28), P = 2 × 10-4 ]. In males, higher genetically predicted total and bioavailable testosterone was associated with lower LVESV [β = -0.07 (-0.12 to -0.02), P = 0.007] and LVEF [β = -0.11 (-0.18 to -0.04), P = 0.003], respectively.

Conclusions

This study supports a causal effect of pro-androgenic sex hormone profiles in females on adverse markers of left ventricular structure and function typically associated with HF with preserved ejection fraction and with HF. There was weaker evidence of association in males.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14527 35459950,https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzac031,Modelling the effect of COVID-19 mass vaccination on acute hospital admissions.,"Booton RD, Powell AL, Turner KME, Wood RM.",,International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care,2022,2022-05-01,N,Vaccination; Coronavirus; Mathematical Modelling; Bed Management; Hospital Capacity; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Managing high levels of acute COVID-19 bed occupancy can affect the quality of care provided to both affected patients and those requiring other hospital services. Mass vaccination has offered a route to reduce societal restrictions while protecting hospitals from being overwhelmed. Yet, early in the mass vaccination effort, the possible impact on future bed pressures remained subject to considerable uncertainty.

Objective

The aim of this study was to model the effect of vaccination on projections of acute and intensive care bed demand within a 1 million resident healthcare system located in South West England.

Methods

An age-structured epidemiological model of the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered type was fitted to local data up to the time of the study, in early March 2021. Model parameters and vaccination scenarios were calibrated through a system-wide multidisciplinary working group, comprising public health intelligence specialists, healthcare planners, epidemiologists and academics. Scenarios assumed incremental relaxations to societal restrictions according to the envisaged UK Government timeline, with all restrictions to be removed by 21 June 2021.

Results

Achieving 95% vaccine uptake in adults by 31 July 2021 would not avert the third wave in autumn 2021 but would produce a median peak bed requirement ∼6% (IQR: 1-24%) of that experienced during the second wave (January 2021). A 2-month delay in vaccine rollout would lead to significantly higher peak bed occupancy, at 66% (11-146%) of that of the second wave. If only 75% uptake was achieved (the amount typically associated with vaccination campaigns), then the second wave peak for acute and intensive care beds would be exceeded by 4% and 19%, respectively, an amount which would seriously pressure hospital capacity.

Conclusion

Modelling influenced decision-making among senior managers in setting COVID-19 bed capacity levels, as well as highlighting the importance of public health in promoting high vaccine uptake among the population. Forecast accuracy has since been supported by actual data collected following the analysis, with observed peak bed occupancy falling comfortably within the inter-quartile range of modelled projections.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article-pdf/34/2/mzac031/43704475/mzac031.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzac031 37032516,https://doi.org/10.1111/aor.14537,Incidence and risk factors of late right heart failure in chronic mechanical circulatory support.,"Felix SEA, Numan L, Oerlemans MIF, Aarts E, Ramjankhan FZ, Gianoli M, Asselbergs FW, De Jonge N, Van Laake LW.",,Artificial organs,2023,2023-04-21,N,Risk factor; Mechanical Circulatory Support; Left Ventricular Assist Device; Late Right Heart Failure,,,"

Background

Late right heart failure (LRHF) is a common complication during long-term left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support. We aimed to identify risk factors for LRHF after LVAD implantation.

Methods

Patients undergoing primary LVAD implantation between 2006 and 2019 and surviving the perioperative period were included for this study (n = 261). Univariate Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to assess the association of clinical covariates and LRHF, stratified for device type. Variables with p < 0.10 entered the multivariable model. In a subset of patients with complete echocardiography or right catheterization data, this multivariable model was extended. Postoperative cardiopulmonary exercise test data were compared in patients with and without LRHF.

Results

Nineteen percentage of patients suffered from LRHF after a median of 12 months, of which 67% required hospitalization. A history of atrial fibrillation (AF) (HR: 2.06 [1.08-3.93], p = 0.029), a higher preoperative body mass index (BMI) (HR: 1.07 [1.01-1.13], p = 0.023), and intensive care unit (ICU) duration (HR: 1.03 [1.00-1.06], p = 0.025) were independent predictors of LHRF in the multivariable model. A significant relation between the severity of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) and LRHF (HR: 1.91 [1.13-3.21], p = 0.016) was found in patients with echocardiographic data. Patients with LRHF demonstrated a lower maximal workload and peak VO2 at 6 months postoperatively.

Conclusion

A history of AF, BMI, and longer ICU stay may help identify patients at high risk for LRHF. Severity of TR was significantly related to LRHF in a subset of patients.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/aor.14537; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/aor.14537 @@ -791,54 +791,54 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 35640889,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeac101,Pericardial adiposity is independently linked to adverse cardiovascular phenotypes: a CMR study of 42 598 UK Biobank participants.,"Ardissino M, McCracken C, Bard A, Antoniades C, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Petersen SE, Raisi-Estabragh Z.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2022,2022-10-01,Y,Arterial stiffness; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Left ventricle; Pericardial Fat; Left Atrium; Cardiometabolic Disease,,,"

Aims

We evaluated independent associations of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR)-measured pericardial adipose tissue (PAT) with cardiovascular structure and function and considered underlying mechanism in 42 598 UK Biobank participants.

Methods and results

We extracted PAT and selected CMR metrics using automated pipelines. We estimated associations of PAT with each CMR metric using linear regression adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, smoking, exercise, processed food intake, body mass index, diabetes, hypertension, height cholesterol, waist-to-hip ratio, impedance fat measures, and magnetic resonance imaging abdominal visceral adiposity measures. Higher PAT was independently associated with unhealthy left ventricular (LV) structure (greater wall thickness, higher LV mass, more concentric pattern of LV hypertrophy), poorer LV function (lower LV global function index, lower LV stroke volume), lower left atrial ejection fraction, and lower aortic distensibility. We used multiple mediation analysis to examine the potential mediating effect of cardiometabolic diseases and blood biomarkers (lipid profile, glycaemic control, inflammation) in the PAT-CMR relationships. Higher PAT was associated with cardiometabolic disease (hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol), adverse serum lipids, poorer glycaemic control, and greater systemic inflammation. We identified potential mediation pathways via hypertension, adverse lipids, and inflammation markers, which overall only partially explained the PAT-CMR relationships.

Conclusion

We demonstrate association of PAT with unhealthy cardiovascular structure and function, independent of baseline comorbidities, vascular risk factors, inflammatory markers, and multiple non-invasive and imaging measures of obesity. Our findings support an independent role of PAT in adversely impacting cardiovascular health and highlight CMR-measured PAT as a potential novel imaging biomarker of cardiovascular risk.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/article-pdf/23/11/1471/46583486/jeac101.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeac101; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584621; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584621?pdf=render 34227657,https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znab183,Machine learning risk prediction of mortality for patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2: the COVIDSurg mortality score.,"COVIDSurg Collaborative .",,The British journal of surgery,2021,2021-11-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-pdf/108/11/1274/47371055/znab183.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znab183; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344569; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344569?pdf=render -35765786,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052,"Global, regional, and national prevalence of asthma in 2019: a systematic analysis and modelling study.","Song P, Adeloye D, Salim H, Dos Santos JP, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-06-29,Y,,,,"

Background

Asthma has a significant impact on people of all ages, particularly children. A lack of universally accepted case definition and confirmatory tests and a poor understanding of major risks interfere with a global response. We aimed to provide global estimates of asthma prevalence and cases in 2019 across four main epidemiological case definitions - current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma. We further investigated major associated factors to determine regional and national distributions of prevalence and cases for current wheezing and ever asthma.

Methods

We identified relevant population-based studies published between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2019. Using a multilevel multivariable mixed-effects meta-regression model, we assessed the age- and sex-adjusted associations of asthma with study-level variables, including year, setting, region and socio-demographic index (SDI). Using a random-effects meta-analysis, we then identified risk factors for current wheezing and asthma. From a ""risk factor-based model"", which included current smoking, and biomass exposure for current wheezing, and rural setting, current smoking, biomass exposure, and SDI for ever asthma, we estimated case numbers and prevalence across regions and 201 countries and territories in 2019.

Results

220 population-based studies conducted in 88 countries were retained. In 2019, the global prevalence estimates of asthma in people aged 5-69 years by various definitions, namely current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma were 11.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 9.1-14.3), 17.9% (95% CI = 14.2-22.3), 5.4% (95% CI = 3.2-9.0) and 9.8% (95% CI = 7.8-12.2), respectively. These translated to 754.6 million (95% CI = 599. 7-943.4), 1181.3 million (95% CI = 938.0-1,471.0), 357.4 million (95% CI = 213.0-590.8), 645.2 million (95% CI = 513.1-806.2) cases, respectively. The overall prevalence of current wheezing among people aged 5-69 years was the highest in the African Region at 13.2% (95% CI = 10.5-16.5), and the lowest in the Americas Region at 10.0% (95% CI = 8.0-12.5). For ever asthma, the estimated prevalence in those aged 5-69 years was also the highest in the African Region at 11.3% (95% CI = 9.0-14.1), but the lowest in South-East Asia Region (8.8, 95% CI = 7.0-11.0).

Conclusions

Although varying approaches to case identification in different settings make epidemiological estimates of asthma very difficult, this analysis reaffirms asthma as a common global respiratory condition before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, with higher prevalence than previously reported in many world settings.",,pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/jogh-12-04052.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324?pdf=render 32997638,https://doi.org/10.1109/jbhi.2020.3027987,A Novel Intelligent Computational Approach to Model Epidemiological Trends and Assess the Impact of Non-Pharmacological Interventions for COVID-19.,"Ren J, Yan Y, Zhao H, Ma P, Zabalza J, Hussain Z, Luo S, Dai Q, Zhao S, Sheikh A, Hussain A, Li H.",,IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics,2020,2020-12-04,Y,,,,"The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a worldwide crisis in public health. It is crucial we understand the epidemiological trends and impact of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), such as lockdowns for effective management of the disease and control of its spread. We develop and validate a novel intelligent computational model to predict epidemiological trends of COVID-19, with the model parameters enabling an evaluation of the impact of NPIs. By representing the number of daily confirmed cases (NDCC) as a time-series, we assume that, with or without NPIs, the pattern of the pandemic satisfies a series of Gaussian distributions according to the central limit theorem. The underlying pandemic trend is first extracted using a singular spectral analysis (SSA) technique, which decomposes the NDCC time series into the sum of a small number of independent and interpretable components such as a slow varying trend, oscillatory components and structureless noise. We then use a mixture of Gaussian fitting (GF) to derive a novel predictive model for the SSA extracted NDCC incidence trend, with the overall model termed SSA-GF. Our proposed model is shown to accurately predict the NDCC trend, peak daily cases, the length of the pandemic period, the total confirmed cases and the associated dates of the turning points on the cumulated NDCC curve. Further, the three key model parameters, specifically, the amplitude (alpha), mean (mu), and standard deviation (sigma) are linked to the underlying pandemic patterns, and enable a directly interpretable evaluation of the impact of NPIs, such as strict lockdowns and travel restrictions. The predictive model is validated using available data from China and South Korea, and new predictions are made, partially requiring future validation, for the cases of Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. Comparative results demonstrate that the introduction of consistent control measures across countries can lead to development of similar parametric models, reflected in particular by relative variations in their underlying sigma, alpha and mu values. The paper concludes with a number of open questions and outlines future research directions.",,pdf:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6221020/9281055/09210178.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/JBHI.2020.3027987; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8545177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8545177?pdf=render +35765786,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052,"Global, regional, and national prevalence of asthma in 2019: a systematic analysis and modelling study.","Song P, Adeloye D, Salim H, Dos Santos JP, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-06-29,Y,,,,"

Background

Asthma has a significant impact on people of all ages, particularly children. A lack of universally accepted case definition and confirmatory tests and a poor understanding of major risks interfere with a global response. We aimed to provide global estimates of asthma prevalence and cases in 2019 across four main epidemiological case definitions - current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma. We further investigated major associated factors to determine regional and national distributions of prevalence and cases for current wheezing and ever asthma.

Methods

We identified relevant population-based studies published between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2019. Using a multilevel multivariable mixed-effects meta-regression model, we assessed the age- and sex-adjusted associations of asthma with study-level variables, including year, setting, region and socio-demographic index (SDI). Using a random-effects meta-analysis, we then identified risk factors for current wheezing and asthma. From a ""risk factor-based model"", which included current smoking, and biomass exposure for current wheezing, and rural setting, current smoking, biomass exposure, and SDI for ever asthma, we estimated case numbers and prevalence across regions and 201 countries and territories in 2019.

Results

220 population-based studies conducted in 88 countries were retained. In 2019, the global prevalence estimates of asthma in people aged 5-69 years by various definitions, namely current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma were 11.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 9.1-14.3), 17.9% (95% CI = 14.2-22.3), 5.4% (95% CI = 3.2-9.0) and 9.8% (95% CI = 7.8-12.2), respectively. These translated to 754.6 million (95% CI = 599. 7-943.4), 1181.3 million (95% CI = 938.0-1,471.0), 357.4 million (95% CI = 213.0-590.8), 645.2 million (95% CI = 513.1-806.2) cases, respectively. The overall prevalence of current wheezing among people aged 5-69 years was the highest in the African Region at 13.2% (95% CI = 10.5-16.5), and the lowest in the Americas Region at 10.0% (95% CI = 8.0-12.5). For ever asthma, the estimated prevalence in those aged 5-69 years was also the highest in the African Region at 11.3% (95% CI = 9.0-14.1), but the lowest in South-East Asia Region (8.8, 95% CI = 7.0-11.0).

Conclusions

Although varying approaches to case identification in different settings make epidemiological estimates of asthma very difficult, this analysis reaffirms asthma as a common global respiratory condition before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, with higher prevalence than previously reported in many world settings.",,pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/jogh-12-04052.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324?pdf=render 30984881,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15151.1,Causes of death among homeless people: a population-based cross-sectional study of linked hospitalisation and mortality data in England.,"Aldridge RW, Menezes D, Lewer D, Cornes M, Evans H, Blackburn RM, Byng R, Clark M, Denaxas S, Fuller J, Hewett N, Kilmister A, Luchenski S, Manthorpe J, McKee M, Neale J, Story A, Tinelli M, Whiteford M, Wurie F, Hayward A.",,Wellcome open research,2019,2019-03-11,Y,Mortality; Data Linkage; Hospital Discharge; Amenable Mortality; Homeless Health; Homeless Healthcare,,,"Background: Homelessness has increased by 165% since 2010 in England, with evidence from many settings that those affected experience high levels of mortality. In this paper we examine the contribution of different causes of death to overall mortality in homeless people recently admitted to hospitals in England with specialist integrated homeless health and care (SIHHC) schemes.  Methods: We undertook an analysis of linked hospital admission records and mortality data for people attending any one of 17 SIHHC schemes between 1st November 2013 and 30th November 2016. Our primary outcome was death, which we analysed in subgroups of 10th version international classification of disease (ICD-10) specific deaths; and deaths from amenable causes. We compared our results to a sample of people living in areas of high social deprivation (IMD5 group). Results: We collected data on 3,882 individual homeless hospital admissions that were linked to 600 deaths. The median age of death was 51.6 years (interquartile range 42.7-60.2) for SIHHC and 71.5 for the IMD5 (60.67-79.0).  The top three underlying causes of death by ICD-10 chapter in the SIHHC group were external causes of death (21.7%; 130/600), cancer (19.0%; 114/600) and digestive disease (19.0%; 114/600).  The percentage of deaths due to an amenable cause after age and sex weighting was 30.2% in the homeless SIHHC group (181/600) compared to 23.0% in the IMD5 group (578/2,512). Conclusion: Nearly one in three homeless deaths were due to causes amenable to timely and effective health care. The high burden of amenable deaths highlights the extreme health harms of homelessness and the need for greater emphasis on prevention of homelessness and early healthcare interventions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15151.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6449792; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6449792?pdf=render 34605164,https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.202100316,Odd Chain Fatty Acids Are Not Robust Biomarkers for Dietary Intake of Fiber.,"Wu Y, Posma JM, Holmes E, Frost G, Chambers ES, Garcia-Perez I.",,Molecular nutrition & food research,2021,2021-10-22,N,dietary fiber; Short Chain Fatty Acids; Biomarker Validation; Dietary Biomarker; Odd Chain Fatty Acids,,,"

Scope

Prior investigation has suggested a positive association between increased colonic propionate production and circulating odd-chain fatty acids (OCFAs; pentadecanoic acid [C15:0], heptadecanoic acid [C17:0]). As the major source of propionate in humans is the microbial fermentation of dietary fiber, OCFAs have been proposed as candidate biomarkers of dietary fiber. The objective of this study is to critically assess the plausibility, robustness, reliability, dose-response, time-response aspects of OCFAs as potential biomarkers of fermentable fibers in two independent studies using a validated analytical method.

Methods and results

OCFAs are first assessed in a fiber supplementation study, where 21 participants received 10 g dietary fiber supplementation for 7 days. OCFAs are then assessed in a highly controlled inpatient setting, which 19 participants consumed a high fiber (45.1 g per day) and a low fiber diet (13.6 g per day) for 4 days. Collectively in both studies, dietary intakes of fiber as fiber supplementations or having consumed a high fiber diet do not increase circulating levels of OCFAs. The dose and temporal relations are not observed.

Conclusion

Current study has generated new insight on the utility of OCFAs as fiber biomarkers and highlighted the importance of critical assessment of candidate biomarkers before application.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/mnfr.202100316; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.202100316 34819519,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27164-0,Synergistic insights into human health from aptamer- and antibody-based proteomic profiling.,"Pietzner M, Wheeler E, Carrasco-Zanini J, Kerrison ND, Oerton E, Koprulu M, Luan J, Hingorani AD, Williams SA, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-11-24,Y,,,,"Affinity-based proteomics has enabled scalable quantification of thousands of protein targets in blood enhancing biomarker discovery, understanding of disease mechanisms, and genetic evaluation of drug targets in humans through protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs). Here, we integrate two partly complementary techniques-the aptamer-based SomaScan® v4 assay and the antibody-based Olink assays-to systematically assess phenotypic consequences of hundreds of pQTLs discovered for 871 protein targets across both platforms. We create a genetically anchored cross-platform proteome-phenome network comprising 547 protein-phenotype connections, 36.3% of which were only seen with one of the two platforms suggesting that both techniques capture distinct aspects of protein biology. We further highlight discordance of genetically predicted effect directions between assays, such as for PILRA and Alzheimer's disease. Our results showcase the synergistic nature of these technologies to better understand and identify disease mechanisms and provide a benchmark for future cross-platform discoveries.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27164-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27164-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8613205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8613205?pdf=render 34571200,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.09.026,Atopic Eczema-Associated Fracture Risk and Oral Corticosteroids: A Population-Based Cohort Study.,"Matthewman J, Mansfield KE, Prieto-Alhambra D, Mulick AR, Smeeth L, Lowe KE, Silverwood RJ, Langan SM.",,The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice,2022,2021-09-24,Y,Fracture; Atopic Eczema; Atopic Dermatitis; osteoporotic fracture; Oral Corticosteroids,,,"

Background

Evidence suggests adults with atopic eczema have increased fracture risk. However, it is unclear whether oral corticosteroids explain the association.

Objective

To assess to what extent oral corticosteroids mediate the relationship between atopic eczema and fractures.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study using English primary care (Clinical Practice Research Datalink) and hospital admissions (Hospital Episode Statistics) records (1998-2016) including adults (18 years old and older) with atopic eczema matched (age, sex, and general practice) with up to 5 adults without atopic eczema. We used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for specific major osteoporotic fractures (hip, spine, pelvis, or wrist) and for any-site fracture comparing individuals with atopic eczema with those without, adjusting for 6 different definitions of time-updated oral corticosteroid use (ever any prescription, ever high-dose, and recent, cumulative, current, or peak dose).

Results

We identified 526,808 individuals with atopic eczema and 2,569,030 without. We saw evidence of an association between atopic eczema and major osteoporotic fractures (eg, spine HR 1.15, 99% CI 1.08-1.22; hip HR 1.11, 99% CI 1.08-1.15) that remained after additionally adjusting for oral corticosteroids (eg, cumulative corticosteroid dose: spine HR 1.09, 99% CI 1.03-1.16; hip HR 1.09, 99% CI 1.06-1.12). Fracture rates were higher in people with severe atopic eczema than in people without even after adjusting for oral corticosteroids (eg, spine HR [99% CI]: confounder-adjusted 2.31 [1.91-2.81]; additionally adjusted for cumulative dose 1.71 [1.40-2.09]).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that little of the association between atopic eczema and major osteoporotic fractures is explained by oral corticosteroid use.",,pdf:http://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213219821010187/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.09.026; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612204; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612204?pdf=render 34543272,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009324,Ten simple rules to make your computing more environmentally sustainable.,"Lannelongue L, Grealey J, Bateman A, Inouye M.",,PLoS computational biology,2021,2021-09-20,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009324&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009324; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452068; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452068?pdf=render -31000744,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w,"Measuring social, environmental and health inequalities using deep learning and street imagery.","Suel E, Polak JW, Bennett JE, Ezzati M.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-04-18,Y,,"Applied Analytics, Improving Public Health",,"Cities are home to an increasing majority of the world's population. Currently, it is difficult to track social, economic, environmental and health outcomes in cities with high spatial and temporal resolution, needed to evaluate policies regarding urban inequalities. We applied a deep learning approach to street images for measuring spatial distributions of income, education, unemployment, housing, living environment, health and crime. Our model predicts different outcomes directly from raw images without extracting intermediate user-defined features. To evaluate the performance of the approach, we first trained neural networks on a subset of images from London using ground truth data at high spatial resolution from official statistics. We then compared how trained networks separated the best-off from worst-off deciles for different outcomes in images not used in training. The best performance was achieved for quality of the living environment and mean income. Allocation was least successful for crime and self-reported health (but not objectively measured health). We also evaluated how networks trained in London predict outcomes three other major cities in the UK: Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. The transferability analysis showed that networks trained in London, fine-tuned with only 1% of images in other cities, achieved performances similar to ones from trained on data from target cities themselves. Our findings demonstrate that street imagery has the potential complement traditional survey-based and administrative data sources for high-resolution urban surveillance to measure inequalities and monitor the impacts of policies that aim to address them.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42036-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002?pdf=render 33262239,https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00677-20,Investigating the Role of Diet and Exercise in Gut Microbe-Host Cometabolism. ,"Penney N, Barton W, Posma JM, Darzi A, Frost G, Cotter PD, Holmes E, Shanahan F, O'Sullivan O, Garcia-Perez I.",,mSystems,2020,2020-12-01,Y,,,,"We investigated the individual and combined effects of diet and physical exercise on metabolism and the gut microbiome to establish how these lifestyle factors influence host-microbiome cometabolism. Urinary and fecal samples were collected from athletes and less active controls. Individuals were further classified according to an objective dietary assessment score of adherence to healthy dietary habits according to WHO guidelines, calculated from their proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) urinary profiles. Subsequent models were generated comparing extremes of dietary habits, exercise, and the combined effect of both. Differences in metabolic phenotypes and gut microbiome profiles between the two groups were assessed. Each of the models pertaining to diet healthiness, physical exercise, or a combination of both displayed a metabolic and functional microbial signature, with a significant proportion of the metabolites identified as discriminating between the various pairwise comparisons resulting from gut microbe-host cometabolism. Microbial diversity was associated with a combination of high adherence to healthy dietary habits and exercise and was correlated with a distinct array of microbially derived metabolites, including markers of proteolytic activity. Improved control of dietary confounders, through the use of an objective dietary assessment score, has uncovered further insights into the complex, multifactorial relationship between diet, exercise, the gut microbiome, and metabolism. Furthermore, the observation of higher proteolytic activity associated with higher microbial diversity indicates that increased microbial diversity may confer deleterious as well as beneficial effects on the host.IMPORTANCE Improved control of dietary confounders, through the use of an objective dietary assessment score, has uncovered further insights into the complex, multifactorial relationship between diet, exercise, the gut microbiome, and metabolism. Each of the models pertaining to diet healthiness, physical exercise, or a combination of both, displayed a distinct metabolic and functional microbial signature. A significant proportion of the metabolites identified as discriminating between the various pairwise comparisons result from gut microbe-host cometabolism, and the identified interactions have expanded current knowledge in this area. Furthermore, although increased microbial diversity has previously been linked with health, our observation of higher microbial diversity being associated with increased proteolytic activity indicates that it may confer deleterious as well as beneficial effects on the host.",,pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/85021/8/mSystems-2020-Penney-e00677-20.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00677-20; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7716389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7716389?pdf=render +31000744,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w,"Measuring social, environmental and health inequalities using deep learning and street imagery.","Suel E, Polak JW, Bennett JE, Ezzati M.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-04-18,Y,,"Applied Analytics, Improving Public Health",,"Cities are home to an increasing majority of the world's population. Currently, it is difficult to track social, economic, environmental and health outcomes in cities with high spatial and temporal resolution, needed to evaluate policies regarding urban inequalities. We applied a deep learning approach to street images for measuring spatial distributions of income, education, unemployment, housing, living environment, health and crime. Our model predicts different outcomes directly from raw images without extracting intermediate user-defined features. To evaluate the performance of the approach, we first trained neural networks on a subset of images from London using ground truth data at high spatial resolution from official statistics. We then compared how trained networks separated the best-off from worst-off deciles for different outcomes in images not used in training. The best performance was achieved for quality of the living environment and mean income. Allocation was least successful for crime and self-reported health (but not objectively measured health). We also evaluated how networks trained in London predict outcomes three other major cities in the UK: Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. The transferability analysis showed that networks trained in London, fine-tuned with only 1% of images in other cities, achieved performances similar to ones from trained on data from target cities themselves. Our findings demonstrate that street imagery has the potential complement traditional survey-based and administrative data sources for high-resolution urban surveillance to measure inequalities and monitor the impacts of policies that aim to address them.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42036-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002?pdf=render 35997594,https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001223,Diagnostic MALDI-TOF MS can differentiate between high and low toxic Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia isolates as a predictor of patient outcome.,"Brignoli T, Recker M, Lee WWY, Dong T, Bhamber R, Albur M, Williams P, Dowsey AW, Massey RC.",,"Microbiology (Reading, England)",2022,2022-08-01,Y,Toxicity; Staphylococcus aureus; Bacteraemia; agr; Maldi-tof Ms Diagnosis,,,"Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) is a major cause of blood-stream infection (BSI) in both healthcare and community settings. While the underlying comorbidities of a patient significantly contributes to their susceptibility to and outcome following SAB, recent studies show the importance of the level of cytolytic toxin production by the infecting bacterium. In this study we demonstrate that this cytotoxicity can be determined directly from the diagnostic MALDI-TOF mass spectrum generated in a routine diagnostic laboratory. With further development this information could be used to guide the management and improve the outcomes for SAB patients.",,pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/338315985/mic001223.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10323763; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10323763?pdf=render 37563310,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01588-w,Genetics of circulating inflammatory proteins identifies drivers of immune-mediated disease risk and therapeutic targets.,"Zhao JH, Stacey D, Eriksson N, Macdonald-Dunlop E, Hedman ÅK, Kalnapenkis A, Enroth S, Cozzetto D, Digby-Bell J, Marten J, Folkersen L, Herder C, Jonsson L, Bergen SE, Gieger C, Needham EJ, Surendran P, Estonian Biobank Research Team, Paul DS, Polasek O, Thorand B, Grallert H, Roden M, Võsa U, Esko T, Hayward C, Johansson Å, Gyllensten U, Powell N, Hansson O, Mattsson-Carlgren N, Joshi PK, Danesh J, Padyukov L, Klareskog L, Landén M, Wilson JF, Siegbahn A, Wallentin L, Mälarstig A, Butterworth AS, Peters JE.",,Nature immunology,2023,2023-08-10,Y,,,,"Circulating proteins have important functions in inflammation and a broad range of diseases. To identify genetic influences on inflammation-related proteins, we conducted a genome-wide protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) study of 91 plasma proteins measured using the Olink Target platform in 14,824 participants. We identified 180 pQTLs (59 cis, 121 trans). Integration of pQTL data with eQTL and disease genome-wide association studies provided insight into pathogenesis, implicating lymphotoxin-α in multiple sclerosis. Using Mendelian randomization (MR) to assess causality in disease etiology, we identified both shared and distinct effects of specific proteins across immune-mediated diseases, including directionally discordant effects of CD40 on risk of rheumatoid arthritis versus multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. MR implicated CXCL5 in the etiology of ulcerative colitis (UC) and we show elevated gut CXCL5 transcript expression in patients with UC. These results identify targets of existing drugs and provide a powerful resource to facilitate future drug target prioritization.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01588-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10457199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10457199?pdf=render 37729117,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000309,Training and testing of a gradient boosted machine learning model to predict adverse outcome in patients presenting to emergency departments with suspected covid-19 infection in a middle-income setting.,"Fuller GW, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Omer Y, Wallis L, Marincowitz C.",,PLOS digital health,2023,2023-09-20,Y,,,,"COVID-19 infection rates remain high in South Africa. Clinical prediction models may be helpful for rapid triage, and supporting clinical decision making, for patients with suspected COVID-19 infection. The Western Cape, South Africa, has integrated electronic health care data facilitating large-scale linked routine datasets. The aim of this study was to develop a machine learning model to predict adverse outcome in patients presenting with suspected COVID-19 suitable for use in a middle-income setting. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using linked, routine data, from patients presenting with suspected COVID-19 infection to public-sector emergency departments (EDs) in the Western Cape, South Africa between 27th August 2020 and 31st October 2021. The primary outcome was death or critical care admission at 30 days. An XGBoost machine learning model was trained and internally tested using split-sample validation. External validation was performed in 3 test cohorts: Western Cape patients presenting during the Omicron COVID-19 wave, a UK cohort during the ancestral COVID-19 wave, and a Sudanese cohort during ancestral and Eta waves. A total of 282,051 cases were included in a complete case training dataset. The prevalence of 30-day adverse outcome was 4.0%. The most important features for predicting adverse outcome were the requirement for supplemental oxygen, peripheral oxygen saturations, level of consciousness and age. Internal validation using split-sample test data revealed excellent discrimination (C-statistic 0.91, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.91) and calibration (CITL of 1.05). The model achieved C-statistics of 0.84 (95% CI 0.84 to 0.85), 0.72 (95% CI 0.71 to 0.73), and 0.62, (95% CI 0.59 to 0.65) in the Omicron, UK, and Sudanese test cohorts. Results were materially unchanged in sensitivity analyses examining missing data. An XGBoost machine learning model achieved good discrimination and calibration in prediction of adverse outcome in patients presenting with suspected COVID19 to Western Cape EDs. Performance was reduced in temporal and geographical external validation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000309; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511129?pdf=render 37703231,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000334,A population-based study exploring phenotypic clusters and clinical outcomes in stroke using unsupervised machine learning approach.,"Akyea RK, Ntaios G, Kontopantelis E, Georgiopoulos G, Soria D, Asselbergs FW, Kai J, Weng SF, Qureshi N.",,PLOS digital health,2023,2023-09-13,Y,,,,"Individuals developing stroke have varying clinical characteristics, demographic, and biochemical profiles. This heterogeneity in phenotypic characteristics can impact on cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality outcomes. This study uses a novel clustering approach to stratify individuals with incident stroke into phenotypic clusters and evaluates the differential burden of recurrent stroke and other cardiovascular outcomes. We used linked clinical data from primary care, hospitalisations, and death records in the UK. A data-driven clustering analysis (kamila algorithm) was used in 48,114 patients aged ≥ 18 years with incident stroke, from 1-Jan-1998 to 31-Dec-2017 and no prior history of serious vascular events. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for subsequent adverse outcomes, for each of the generated clusters. Adverse outcomes included coronary heart disease (CHD), recurrent stroke, peripheral vascular disease (PVD), heart failure, CVD-related and all-cause mortality. Four distinct phenotypes with varying underlying clinical characteristics were identified in patients with incident stroke. Compared with cluster 1 (n = 5,201, 10.8%), the risk of composite recurrent stroke and CVD-related mortality was higher in the other 3 clusters (cluster 2 [n = 18,655, 38.8%]: hazard ratio [HR], 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.12; cluster 3 [n = 10,244, 21.3%]: HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.14-1.26; and cluster 4 [n = 14,014, 29.1%]: HR, 1.44; 95% CI: 1.37-1.50). Similar trends in risk were observed for composite recurrent stroke and all-cause mortality outcome, and subsequent recurrent stroke outcome. However, results were not consistent for subsequent risk in CHD, PVD, heart failure, CVD-related mortality, and all-cause mortality. In this proof of principle study, we demonstrated how a heterogenous population of patients with incident stroke can be stratified into four relatively homogenous phenotypes with differential risk of recurrent and major cardiovascular outcomes. This offers an opportunity to revisit the stratification of care for patients with incident stroke to improve patient outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000334; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499205?pdf=render 35463778,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.859310,Fairness in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Assessing Sex and Racial Bias in Deep Learning-Based Segmentation.,"Puyol-Antón E, Ruijsink B, Mariscal Harana J, Piechnik SK, Neubauer S, Petersen SE, Razavi R, Chowienczyk P, King AP.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2022,2022-04-07,Y,Segmentation; Cardiac Magnetic Resonance; Deep Learning; Fair Ai; Inequality Fairness In Deep Learning-Based Cmr Segmentation,,,"

Background

Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been proposed for automation of cine CMR segmentation for functional quantification. However, in other applications AI models have been shown to have potential for sex and/or racial bias. The objective of this paper is to perform the first analysis of sex/racial bias in AI-based cine CMR segmentation using a large-scale database.

Methods

A state-of-the-art deep learning (DL) model was used for automatic segmentation of both ventricles and the myocardium from cine short-axis CMR. The dataset consisted of end-diastole and end-systole short-axis cine CMR images of 5,903 subjects from the UK Biobank database (61.5 ± 7.1 years, 52% male, 81% white). To assess sex and racial bias, we compared Dice scores and errors in measurements of biventricular volumes and function between patients grouped by race and sex. To investigate whether segmentation bias could be explained by potential confounders, a multivariate linear regression and ANCOVA were performed.

Results

Results on the overall population showed an excellent agreement between the manual and automatic segmentations. We found statistically significant differences in Dice scores between races (white ∼94% vs. minority ethnic groups 86-89%) as well as in absolute/relative errors in volumetric and functional measures, showing that the AI model was biased against minority racial groups, even after correction for possible confounders. The results of a multivariate linear regression analysis showed that no covariate could explain the Dice score bias between racial groups. However, for the Mixed and Black race groups, sex showed a weak positive association with the Dice score. The results of an ANCOVA analysis showed that race was the main factor that can explain the overall difference in Dice scores between racial groups.

Conclusion

We have shown that racial bias can exist in DL-based cine CMR segmentation models when training with a database that is sex-balanced but not race-balanced such as the UK Biobank.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.859310/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.859310; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021445; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021445?pdf=render -31607513,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051,"Genome-wide Association Studies in Ancestrally Diverse Populations: Opportunities, Methods, Pitfalls, and Recommendations.","Peterson RE, Kuchenbaecker K, Walters RK, Chen CY, Popejoy AB, Periyasamy S, Lam M, Iyegbe C, Strawbridge RJ, Brick L, Carey CE, Martin AR, Meyers JL, Su J, Chen J, Edwards AC, Kalungi A, Koen N, Majara L, Schwarz E, Smoller JW, Stahl EA, Sullivan PF, Vassos E, Mowry B, Prieto ML, Cuellar-Barboza A, Bigdeli TB, Edenberg HJ, Huang H, Duncan LE.",,Cell,2019,2019-10-10,N,Population genetics; Diversity; Psychiatry; complex disease; Gwas; Ancestry; Admixed Populations; Trans-ethnic; Trans-ancestry; Cross-ancestry,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have focused primarily on populations of European descent, but it is essential that diverse populations become better represented. Increasing diversity among study participants will advance our understanding of genetic architecture in all populations and ensure that genetic research is broadly applicable. To facilitate and promote research in multi-ancestry and admixed cohorts, we outline key methodological considerations and highlight opportunities, challenges, solutions, and areas in need of development. Despite the perception that analyzing genetic data from diverse populations is difficult, it is scientifically and ethically imperative, and there is an expanding analytical toolbox to do it well.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867419310025/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051 -36134546,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05044,Risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations among school-aged children in Scotland: A national incident cohort study.,"Shi T, Pan J, Moore E, Katikireddi SV, Docherty AB, Fenton L, McCowan C, Agrawal U, Kerr S, Shah SA, Stock SJ, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Public Health Scotland and the EAVE II Collaborators.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-09-23,Y,,,,"

Background

There is considerable policy, clinical and public interest about whether children should be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and, if so, which children should be prioritised (particularly if vaccine resources are limited). To inform such deliberations, we sought to identify children and young people at highest risk of hospitalization from COVID-19.

Methods

We used the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform to undertake a national incident cohort analysis to investigate the risk of hospitalization among 5-17 years old living in Scotland in risk groups defined by the living risk prediction algorithm (QCOVID). A Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between risk groups and COVID-19 hospital admission. Adjustments were made for age, sex, socioeconomic status, co-morbidity, and prior hospitalization.

Results

Between March 1, 2020 and November 22, 2021, there were 146 183 (19.4% of all 752 867 children in Scotland) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections among 5-17 years old. Of those with confirmed infection, 973 (0.7%) were admitted to hospital with COVID-19. The rate of COVID-19 hospitalization was higher in those within each QCOVID risk group compared to those without the condition. Similar results were found in age stratified analyses (5-11 and 12-17 years old). Risk groups associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admission, included (adjusted HR, 95% CIs): sickle cell disease 14.35 (8.48-24.28), chronic kidney disease 11.34 (4.61-27.87), blood cancer 6.32 (3.24-12.35), rare pulmonary diseases 5.04 (2.58-9.86), type 2 diabetes 3.04 (1.34-6.92), epilepsy 2.54 (1.69-3.81), type 1 diabetes 2.48 (1.47-4.16), Down syndrome 2.45 (0.96-6.25), cerebral palsy 2.37 (1.26-4.47), severe mental illness 1.43 (0.63-3.24), fracture 1.41 (1.02-1.95), congenital heart disease 1.35 (0.82-2.23), asthma 1.28 (1.06-1.55), and learning disability (excluding Down syndrome) 1.08 (0.82-1.42), when compared to those without these conditions. Although our Cox models were adjusted for a number of potential confounders, residual confounding remains a possibility.

Conclusions

In this national study, we observed an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admissions among school-aged children with specific underlying long-term health conditions compared with children without these conditions.",,pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/jogh-12-05044.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05044; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494196; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494196?pdf=render 35317796,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1,"Correction to: Lifetime risk of cardiovascular-renal disease in type 2 diabetes: a population-based study in 473,399 individuals.","Zhang R, Mamza JB, Morris T, Godfrey G, Asselbergs FW, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-03-23,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8941726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8941726?pdf=render +36134546,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05044,Risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations among school-aged children in Scotland: A national incident cohort study.,"Shi T, Pan J, Moore E, Katikireddi SV, Docherty AB, Fenton L, McCowan C, Agrawal U, Kerr S, Shah SA, Stock SJ, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Public Health Scotland and the EAVE II Collaborators.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-09-23,Y,,,,"

Background

There is considerable policy, clinical and public interest about whether children should be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and, if so, which children should be prioritised (particularly if vaccine resources are limited). To inform such deliberations, we sought to identify children and young people at highest risk of hospitalization from COVID-19.

Methods

We used the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform to undertake a national incident cohort analysis to investigate the risk of hospitalization among 5-17 years old living in Scotland in risk groups defined by the living risk prediction algorithm (QCOVID). A Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between risk groups and COVID-19 hospital admission. Adjustments were made for age, sex, socioeconomic status, co-morbidity, and prior hospitalization.

Results

Between March 1, 2020 and November 22, 2021, there were 146 183 (19.4% of all 752 867 children in Scotland) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections among 5-17 years old. Of those with confirmed infection, 973 (0.7%) were admitted to hospital with COVID-19. The rate of COVID-19 hospitalization was higher in those within each QCOVID risk group compared to those without the condition. Similar results were found in age stratified analyses (5-11 and 12-17 years old). Risk groups associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admission, included (adjusted HR, 95% CIs): sickle cell disease 14.35 (8.48-24.28), chronic kidney disease 11.34 (4.61-27.87), blood cancer 6.32 (3.24-12.35), rare pulmonary diseases 5.04 (2.58-9.86), type 2 diabetes 3.04 (1.34-6.92), epilepsy 2.54 (1.69-3.81), type 1 diabetes 2.48 (1.47-4.16), Down syndrome 2.45 (0.96-6.25), cerebral palsy 2.37 (1.26-4.47), severe mental illness 1.43 (0.63-3.24), fracture 1.41 (1.02-1.95), congenital heart disease 1.35 (0.82-2.23), asthma 1.28 (1.06-1.55), and learning disability (excluding Down syndrome) 1.08 (0.82-1.42), when compared to those without these conditions. Although our Cox models were adjusted for a number of potential confounders, residual confounding remains a possibility.

Conclusions

In this national study, we observed an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admissions among school-aged children with specific underlying long-term health conditions compared with children without these conditions.",,pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/jogh-12-05044.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05044; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494196; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494196?pdf=render +31607513,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051,"Genome-wide Association Studies in Ancestrally Diverse Populations: Opportunities, Methods, Pitfalls, and Recommendations.","Peterson RE, Kuchenbaecker K, Walters RK, Chen CY, Popejoy AB, Periyasamy S, Lam M, Iyegbe C, Strawbridge RJ, Brick L, Carey CE, Martin AR, Meyers JL, Su J, Chen J, Edwards AC, Kalungi A, Koen N, Majara L, Schwarz E, Smoller JW, Stahl EA, Sullivan PF, Vassos E, Mowry B, Prieto ML, Cuellar-Barboza A, Bigdeli TB, Edenberg HJ, Huang H, Duncan LE.",,Cell,2019,2019-10-10,N,Population genetics; Diversity; Psychiatry; complex disease; Gwas; Ancestry; Admixed Populations; Trans-ethnic; Trans-ancestry; Cross-ancestry,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have focused primarily on populations of European descent, but it is essential that diverse populations become better represented. Increasing diversity among study participants will advance our understanding of genetic architecture in all populations and ensure that genetic research is broadly applicable. To facilitate and promote research in multi-ancestry and admixed cohorts, we outline key methodological considerations and highlight opportunities, challenges, solutions, and areas in need of development. Despite the perception that analyzing genetic data from diverse populations is difficult, it is scientifically and ethically imperative, and there is an expanding analytical toolbox to do it well.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867419310025/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051 35985824,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000201064,"Headache, Opiate Use, and Prescribing Trends in Women With Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: A Population-Based Matched Cohort Study.","Adderley NJ, Subramanian A, Perrins M, Nirantharakumar K, Mollan SP, Sinclair AJ.",,Neurology,2022,2022-08-19,Y,,,,"

Background and objectives

Physician prescribing habits for opiates and headache therapies have not been previously evaluated in a large, matched cohort study in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). Our objective was to evaluate opiate and headache medication prescribing habits in women with IIH compared to matched women with migraine and population controls. We also investigated the occurrence of new onset headache in IIH compared to population controls.

Methods

We performed a population-based matched, retrospective cohort study to explore headache outcomes. Cross-sectional analyses were used to describe medication prescribing patterns. We used data from IQVIA Medical Research Data, an anonymized, nationally representative primary care electronic medical records database in the United Kingdom, from 1st January 1995 to 25th September 2019. Women aged ≥16 years were eligible for inclusion. Women with IIH (exposure) were matched by age and body mass index with up to 10 control women without IIH but with migraine (migraine controls), and without IIH or migraine (population controls).

Results

3411 women with IIH, 13,966 migraine controls and 33,495 population controls were included. The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for new onset headache in IIH compared to population controls was 3.09 (95%CI 2.78-3.43). In the first year after diagnosis, 58% of women with IIH were prescribed acetazolamide and 20% topiramate. 20% of women with IIH were prescribed opiates within the first year of their diagnosis, reducing to 17% after six years, compared to 8% and 11% among those with migraine, respectively. Twice as many women with IIH were prescribed opiates compared to migraine controls and three times as many women with IIH were prescribed opiates compared to population controls. Women with IIH were also prescribed more headache preventative medications compared to migraine controls.

Discussion

Women with IIH were more likely to be prescribed opiate and simple analgesics compared to both migraine and population controls. Women with IIH trialled more preventative medications over their disease course suggesting that headaches in IIH may be more refractory to treatment.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/99/18/e1968.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000201064; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651462; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651462?pdf=render -37293269,https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6,Do poverty and wealth look the same the world over? A comparative study of 12 cities from five high-income countries using street images.,"Suel E, Muller E, Bennett JE, Blakely T, Doyle Y, Lynch J, Mackenbach JD, Middel A, Mizdrak A, Nathvani R, Brauer M, Ezzati M.",,EPJ data science,2023,2023-06-07,Y,Computer vision; Visual Similarity; Urban Inequalities; Street Images,,,"Urbanization and inequalities are two of the major policy themes of our time, intersecting in large cities where social and economic inequalities are particularly pronounced. Large scale street-level images are a source of city-wide visual information and allow for comparative analyses of multiple cities. Computer vision methods based on deep learning applied to street images have been shown to successfully measure inequalities in socioeconomic and environmental features, yet existing work has been within specific geographies and have not looked at how visual environments compare across different cities and countries. In this study, we aim to apply existing methods to understand whether, and to what extent, poor and wealthy groups live in visually similar neighborhoods across cities and countries. We present novel insights on similarity of neighborhoods using street-level images and deep learning methods. We analyzed 7.2 million images from 12 cities in five high-income countries, home to more than 85 million people: Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), Toronto and Vancouver (Canada), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. (United States of America), and London (United Kingdom). Visual features associated with neighborhood disadvantage are more distinct and unique to each city than those associated with affluence. For example, from what is visible from street images, high density poor neighborhoods located near the city center (e.g., in London) are visually distinct from poor suburban neighborhoods characterized by lower density and lower accessibility (e.g., in Atlanta). This suggests that differences between two cities is also driven by historical factors, policies, and local geography. Our results also have implications for image-based measures of inequality in cities especially when trained on data from cities that are visually distinct from target cities. We showed that these are more prone to errors for disadvantaged areas especially when transferring across cities, suggesting more attention needs to be paid to improving methods for capturing heterogeneity in poor environment across cities around the world.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348?pdf=render 35870544,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101330,Artificial Intelligence and Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Myocardial Infarction Patients.,"Chong JH, Abdulkareem M, Petersen SE, Khanji MY.",,Current problems in cardiology,2022,2022-07-21,N,,,,"Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is an important cardiac imaging tool for assessing the prognostic extent of myocardial injury after myocardial infarction (MI). Within the context of clinical trials, CMR is also useful for assessing the efficacy of potential cardioprotective therapies in reducing MI size and preventing adverse left ventricular (LV) remodelling in reperfused MI. However, manual contouring and analysis can be time-consuming with interobserver and intra-observer variability, which can in turn lead to reduction in accuracy and precision of analysis. There is thus a need to automate CMR scan analysis in MI patients to save time, increase accuracy, increase reproducibility and increase precision. In this regard, automated imaging analysis techniques based on artificial intelligence (AI) that are developed with machine learning (ML), and more specifically deep learning (DL) strategies, can enable efficient, robust, accurate and clinician-friendly tools to be built so as to try and improve both clinician productivity and quality of patient care. In this review, we discuss basic concepts of ML in CMR, important prognostic CMR imaging biomarkers in MI and the utility of current ML applications in their analysis as assessed in research studies. We highlight potential barriers to the mainstream implementation of these automated strategies and discuss related governance and quality control issues. Lastly, we discuss the future role of ML applications in clinical trials and the need for global collaboration in growing this field.",,pdf:https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/123456789/79542/2/Petersen%20Artificial%20intelligence%20and%20cardiovascular%202022%20Accepted.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101330 +37293269,https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6,Do poverty and wealth look the same the world over? A comparative study of 12 cities from five high-income countries using street images.,"Suel E, Muller E, Bennett JE, Blakely T, Doyle Y, Lynch J, Mackenbach JD, Middel A, Mizdrak A, Nathvani R, Brauer M, Ezzati M.",,EPJ data science,2023,2023-06-07,Y,Computer vision; Visual Similarity; Urban Inequalities; Street Images,,,"Urbanization and inequalities are two of the major policy themes of our time, intersecting in large cities where social and economic inequalities are particularly pronounced. Large scale street-level images are a source of city-wide visual information and allow for comparative analyses of multiple cities. Computer vision methods based on deep learning applied to street images have been shown to successfully measure inequalities in socioeconomic and environmental features, yet existing work has been within specific geographies and have not looked at how visual environments compare across different cities and countries. In this study, we aim to apply existing methods to understand whether, and to what extent, poor and wealthy groups live in visually similar neighborhoods across cities and countries. We present novel insights on similarity of neighborhoods using street-level images and deep learning methods. We analyzed 7.2 million images from 12 cities in five high-income countries, home to more than 85 million people: Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), Toronto and Vancouver (Canada), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. (United States of America), and London (United Kingdom). Visual features associated with neighborhood disadvantage are more distinct and unique to each city than those associated with affluence. For example, from what is visible from street images, high density poor neighborhoods located near the city center (e.g., in London) are visually distinct from poor suburban neighborhoods characterized by lower density and lower accessibility (e.g., in Atlanta). This suggests that differences between two cities is also driven by historical factors, policies, and local geography. Our results also have implications for image-based measures of inequality in cities especially when trained on data from cities that are visually distinct from target cities. We showed that these are more prone to errors for disadvantaged areas especially when transferring across cities, suggesting more attention needs to be paid to improving methods for capturing heterogeneity in poor environment across cities around the world.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348?pdf=render 32657853,https://doi.org/10.1097/sap.0000000000002434,"Making the Most of Big Data in Plastic Surgery: Improving Outcomes, Protecting Patients, Informing Service Providers.","Gibson JAG, Dobbs TD, Kouzaris L, Lacey A, Thompson S, Akbari A, Hutchings HA, Lineaweaver WC, Lyons RA, Whitaker IS.",,Annals of plastic surgery,2021,2021-03-01,N,,,,"

Abstract

In medicine, ""big data"" refers to the interdisciplinary analysis of high-volume, diverse clinical and lifestyle information on large patient populations. Recent advancements in data storage and electronic record keeping have enabled the expansion of research in this field. In the United Kingdom, Big data has been highlighted as one of the government's ""8 Great Technologies,"" and the Medical Research Council has invested more than £100 million since 2012 in developing the Health Data Research UK infrastructure. The recent Royal College of Surgeons Commission of the Future of Surgery concluded that analysis of big data is one of the 4 most likely avenues to bring some of the most innovative changes to surgical practice in the 21st century.In this article, we provide an overview of the nascent field of big data analytics in plastic and highlight how it has the potential to improve outcomes, increase safety, and aid service planning.We outline the current resources available, the emerging role of big data within the subspecialties of burns, microsurgery, skin and breast cancer, and how these data can be used. We critically review the limitations and considerations raised with big data, offer suggestions regarding database optimization, and suggest future directions for research in this exciting field.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53972/Download/53972__17281__0cb520258c2b49cdb0e751a62be92c5d.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/SAP.0000000000002434 32460529,https://doi.org/10.1161/circimaging.119.010389,Novel Approach to Imaging Active Takayasu Arteritis Using Somatostatin Receptor Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance Imaging.,"Tarkin JM, Wall C, Gopalan D, Aloj L, Manavaki R, Fryer TD, Aboagye EO, Bennett MR, Peters JE, Rudd JHF, Mason JC.",,Circulation. Cardiovascular imaging,2020,2020-05-28,N,Positron emission tomography; Vasculitis; Aortic Diseases; Molecular Imaging; Takayasu Arteritis,,,,,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.119.010389; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.119.010389; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610536; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610536?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circimaging.119.010389 36439548,https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2022.870494,Development and validation of an automated basal cell carcinoma histopathology information extraction system using natural language processing.,"Ali SR, Strafford H, Dobbs TD, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Lacey AS, Pickrell WO, Hutchings HA, Whitaker IS.",,Frontiers in surgery,2022,2022-08-24,Y,Electronic Health Records (Ehrs); Natural Language Processing (Nlp); Basal Cell Carcinoma (Bcc); Non-melanoma Skin Cancer (Nmsc); Information Extraction (Ie),,,"

Introduction

Routinely collected healthcare data are a powerful research resource, but often lack detailed disease-specific information that is collected in clinical free text such as histopathology reports. We aim to use natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to extract detailed clinical and pathological information from histopathology reports to enrich routinely collected data.

Methods

We used the general architecture for text engineering (GATE) framework to build an NLP information extraction system using rule-based techniques. During validation, we deployed our rule-based NLP pipeline on 200 previously unseen, de-identified and pseudonymised basal cell carcinoma (BCC) histopathological reports from Swansea Bay University Health Board, Wales, UK. The results of our algorithm were compared with gold standard human annotation by two independent and blinded expert clinicians involved in skin cancer care.

Results

We identified 11,224 items of information with a mean precision, recall, and F1 score of 86.0% (95% CI: 75.1-96.9), 84.2% (95% CI: 72.8-96.1), and 84.5% (95% CI: 73.0-95.1), respectively. The difference between clinician annotator F1 scores was 7.9% in comparison with 15.5% between the NLP pipeline and the gold standard corpus. Cohen's Kappa score on annotated tokens was 0.85.

Conclusion

Using an NLP rule-based approach for named entity recognition in BCC, we have been able to develop and validate a pipeline with a potential application in improving the quality of cancer registry data, supporting service planning, and enhancing the quality of routinely collected data for research.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2022.870494/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2022.870494; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9683031; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9683031?pdf=render 33306026,https://doi.org/10.2196/23369,Engagement With a Behavior Change App for Alcohol Reduction: Data Visualization for Longitudinal Observational Study.,"Bell L, Garnett C, Qian T, Perski O, Williamson E, Potts HW.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-12-11,Y,Engagement; Behavior Change; Apps; Mobile Health; Digital Health; Just-in-time Adaptive Interventions; Push Notifications; Micro-randomized Trial; Data Visualizations,,,"

Background

Behavior change apps can develop iteratively, where the app evolves into a complex, dynamic, or personalized intervention through cycles of research, development, and implementation. Understanding how existing users engage with an app (eg, frequency, amount, depth, and duration of use) can help guide further incremental improvements. We aim to explore how simple visualizations can provide a good understanding of temporal patterns of engagement, as usage data are often longitudinal and rich.

Objective

This study aims to visualize behavioral engagement with Drink Less, a behavior change app to help reduce hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption in the general adult population of the United Kingdom.

Methods

We explored behavioral engagement among 19,233 existing users of Drink Less. Users were included in the sample if they were from the United Kingdom; were 18 years or older; were interested in reducing their alcohol consumption; had a baseline Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score of 8 or above, indicative of excessive drinking; and had downloaded the app between May 17, 2017, and January 22, 2019 (615 days). Measures of when sessions begin, length of sessions, time to disengagement, and patterns of use were visualized with heat maps, timeline plots, k-modes clustering analyses, and Kaplan-Meier plots.

Results

The daily 11 AM notification is strongly associated with a change in engagement in the following hour; reduction in behavioral engagement over time, with 50.00% (9617/19,233) of users disengaging (defined as no use for 7 or more consecutive days) 22 days after download; identification of 3 distinct trajectories of use, namely engagers (4651/19,233, 24.18% of users), slow disengagers (3679/19,233, 19.13% of users), and fast disengagers (10,903/19,233, 56.68% of users); and limited depth of engagement with 85.076% (7,095,348/8,340,005) of screen views occurring within the Self-monitoring and Feedback module. In addition, a peak of both frequency and amount of time spent per session was observed in the evenings.

Conclusions

Visualizations play an important role in understanding engagement with behavior change apps. Here, we discuss how simple visualizations helped identify important patterns of engagement with Drink Less. Our visualizations of behavioral engagement suggest that the daily notification substantially impacts engagement. Furthermore, the visualizations suggest that a fixed notification policy can be effective for maintaining engagement for some users but ineffective for others. We conclude that optimizing the notification policy to target both effectiveness and engagement is a worthwhile investment. Our future goal is to both understand the causal effect of the notification on engagement and further optimize the notification policy within Drink Less by tailoring to contextual circumstances of individuals over time. Such tailoring will be informed from the findings of our micro-randomized trial (MRT), and these visualizations were useful in both gaining a better understanding of engagement and designing the MRT.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/12/e23369/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/23369; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7762688 32398093,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04329-8,Access to routinely collected health data for clinical trials - review of successful data requests to UK registries.,"Lensen S, Macnair A, Love SB, Yorke-Edwards V, Noor NM, Martyn M, Blenkinsop A, Diaz-Montana C, Powell G, Williamson E, Carpenter J, Sydes MR.",,Trials,2020,2020-05-12,Y,Systematic review; Rct; Registry; Routinely Collected Health Data,,,"

Background

Clinical trials generally each collect their own data despite routinely collected health data (RCHD) increasing in quality and breadth. Our aim is to quantify UK-based randomised controlled trials (RCTs) accessing RCHD for participant data, characterise how these data are used and thereby recommend how more trials could use RCHD.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of RCTs accessing RCHD from at least one registry in the UK between 2013 and 2018 for the purposes of informing or supplementing participant data. A list of all registries holding RCHD in the UK was compiled. In cases where registries published release registers, these were searched for RCTs accessing RCHD. Where no release register was available, registries were contacted to request a list of RCTs. For each identified RCT, information was collected from all publicly available sources (release registers, websites, protocol etc.). The search and data extraction were undertaken between January and May 2019.

Results

We identified 160 RCTs accessing RCHD between 2013 and 2018 from a total of 22 registries; this corresponds to only a very small proportion of all UK RCTs (about 3%). RCTs accessing RCHD were generally large (median sample size 1590), commonly evaluating treatments for cancer or cardiovascular disease. Most of the included RCTs accessed RCHD from NHS Digital (68%), and the most frequently accessed datasets were mortality (76%) and hospital visits (55%). RCHD was used to inform the primary trial (82%) and long-term follow-up (57%). There was substantial variation in how RCTs used RCHD to inform participant outcome measures. A limitation was the lack of information and transparency from registries and RCTs with respect to which datasets have been accessed and for what purposes.

Conclusions

In the last five years, only a small minority of UK-based RCTs have accessed RCHD to inform participant data. We ask for improved accessibility, confirmed data quality and joined-up thinking between the registries and the regulatory authorities.

Trial registration

PROSPERO CRD42019123088.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13063-020-04329-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04329-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7218527; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7218527?pdf=render 36864090,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30369-6,Effect of tissue-grouped regulatory variants associated to type 2 diabetes in related secondary outcomes. ,"Hemerich D, Smit RAJ, Preuss M, Stalbow L, van der Laan SW, Asselbergs FW, van Setten J, Tragante V.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-03-02,Y,,,,"Genome-wide association studies have identified over five hundred loci that contribute to variation in type 2 diabetes (T2D), an established risk factor for many diseases. However, the mechanisms and extent through which these loci contribute to subsequent outcomes remain elusive. We hypothesized that combinations of T2D-associated variants acting on tissue-specific regulatory elements might account for greater risk for tissue-specific outcomes, leading to diversity in T2D disease progression. We searched for T2D-associated variants acting on regulatory elements and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in nine tissues. We used T2D tissue-grouped variant sets as genetic instruments to conduct 2-Sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) in ten related outcomes whose risk is increased by T2D using the FinnGen cohort. We performed PheWAS analysis to investigate whether the T2D tissue-grouped variant sets had specific predicted disease signatures. We identified an average of 176 variants acting in nine tissues implicated in T2D, and an average of 30 variants acting on regulatory elements that are unique to the nine tissues of interest. In 2-Sample MR analyses, all subsets of regulatory variants acting in different tissues were associated with increased risk of the ten secondary outcomes studied on similar levels. No tissue-grouped variant set was associated with an outcome significantly more than other tissue-grouped variant sets. We did not identify different disease progression profiles based on tissue-specific regulatory and transcriptome information. Bigger sample sizes and other layers of regulatory information in critical tissues may help identify subsets of T2D variants that are implicated in certain secondary outcomes, uncovering system-specific disease progression.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30369-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30369-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9981672; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9981672?pdf=render -32926504,https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121,Implementing high-dimensional propensity score principles to improve confounder adjustment in UK electronic health records.,"Tazare J, Smeeth L, Evans SJW, Williamson E, Douglas IJ.",,Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety,2020,2020-09-14,N,Pharmacoepidemiology; Electronic Health Records; Electronic Medical Records; High-dimensional Propensity Score; Database Research; Confounder Adjustment,,,"

Purpose

Recent evidence from US claims data suggests use of high-dimensional propensity score (hd-PS) methods improve adjustment for confounding in non-randomised studies of interventions. However, it is unclear how best to apply hd-PS principles outside their original setting, given important differences between claims data and electronic health records (EHRs). We aimed to implement the hd-PS in the setting of United Kingdom (UK) EHRs.

Methods

We studied the interaction between clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Whilst previous observational studies suggested an interaction (with reduced effect of clopidogrel), case-only, genetic and randomised trial approaches showed no interaction, strongly suggesting the original observational findings were subject to confounding. We derived a cohort of clopidogrel users from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked with the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project. Analyses estimated the hazard ratio (HR) for myocardial infarction (MI) comparing PPI users with non-users using a Cox model adjusting for confounders. To reflect unique characteristics of UK EHRs, we varied the application of hd-PS principles including the level of grouping within coding systems and adapting the assessment of code recurrence. Results were compared with traditional analyses.

Results

Twenty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-one patients took clopidogrel, of whom 9111 were prescribed a PPI. Traditional PS approaches obtained a HR for the association between PPI use and MI of 1.17 (95% CI: 1.00-1.35). Applying hd-PS modifications resulted in estimates closer to the expected null (HR 1.00; 95% CI: 0.78-1.28).

Conclusions

hd-PS provided improved adjustment for confounding compared with other approaches, suggesting hd-PS can be usefully applied in UK EHRs.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pds.5121; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121 33147524,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.08.027,Adverse childhood experiences during childhood and academic attainment at age 7 and 11 years: an electronic birth cohort study.,"Evans A, Hardcastle K, Bandyopadhyay A, Farewell D, John A, Lyons RA, Long S, Bellis MA, Paranjothy S.",,Public health,2020,2020-11-02,N,Social Inequalities; Adverse Childhood Experiences; Education Outcomes,,,"

Objectives

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a negative impact on childhood health, but their impact on education outcomes is less well known. We investigated whether or not ACEs were associated with reduced educational attainment at age 7 and 11 years.

Study design

The study design used in the study is a population-based electronic cohort study.

Methods

We analysed data from a total population electronic child cohort in Wales, UK. ACEs (exposures) were living with an adult household member with any of (i) serious mental illness, (ii) common mental disorder (CMD), (iii) an alcohol problem; (iv) child victimisation, (v) death of a household member and (vi) low family income. We used multilevel logistic regression to model exposure to these ACEs and not attaining the expected level at statutory education assessments, Key Stage (KS) 1 and KS2 separately, adjusted for known confounders including perinatal, socio-economic and school factors.

Results

There were 107,479 and 43,648 children included in the analysis, with follow-up to 6-7 years (KS1) and 10-11 years (KS2), respectively. An increased risk of not attaining the expected level at KS1 was associated with living with adult household members with CMD (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.13 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.09-1.17]) or an alcohol problem (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.16 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10-1.22]), childhood victimisation (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.58 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.37-1.82]), death of a household member (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.14 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-1.25]) and low family income (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.92 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.84-2.01]). Similar results were observed for KS2. Children with multiple adversities had substantially increased odds of not attaining the expected level at each educational assessment.

Conclusion

The educational potential of many children may not be achieved due to exposure to adversity in childhood. Affected children who come in to contact with services should have relevant information shared between health and care services, and schools to initiate and facilitate a coordinated approach towards providing additional support and help for them to fulfil their educational potential, and subsequent economic and social participation.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55250/Download/55250__18631__3d6d08f3b7ee4cb8ad15423815dac637.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.08.027 -37740900,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176,Interventions for reducing anticholinergic medication burden in older adults-a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Braithwaite E, Todd OM, Atkin A, Hulatt R, Tadrous R, Alldred DP, Pirmohamed M, Walker L, Lawton R, Clegg A.",,Age and ageing,2023,2023-09-01,Y,Cognition; Meta-analysis; Systematic review; Falls; Older People; Older Adult; Anticholinergic Medication,,,"

Introduction

Anticholinergic medications block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Many medications have anticholinergic properties, and the cumulative effect of these medications is termed anticholinergic burden. Increased anticholinergic burden can have short-term side effects such as dry mouth, blurred vision and urinary retention as well as long-term effects including dementia, worsening physical function and falls.

Methods

We carried out a systematic review (SR) with meta-analysis (MA) looking at randomised controlled trials addressing interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden in older adults.

Results

We identified seven papers suitable for inclusion in our SR and MA. Interventions included multi-disciplinary involvement in medication reviews and deprescribing of AC medications. Pooled data revealed no significant difference in outcomes between control and intervention group for falls (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.52-1.11, n = 647), cognition (mean difference = 1.54, 95% CI: -0.04 to 3.13, n = 405), anticholinergic burden (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.11 to 0.18, n = 710) or quality of life (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.04 to 0.12, n = 461).

Discussion

Overall, there was no significant difference with interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden. As we did not see a significant change in anticholinergic burden scores following interventions, it is likely other outcomes would not change. Short follow-up time and lack of training and support surrounding successful deprescribing may have contributed.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713?pdf=render +32926504,https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121,Implementing high-dimensional propensity score principles to improve confounder adjustment in UK electronic health records.,"Tazare J, Smeeth L, Evans SJW, Williamson E, Douglas IJ.",,Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety,2020,2020-09-14,N,Pharmacoepidemiology; Electronic Health Records; Electronic Medical Records; High-dimensional Propensity Score; Database Research; Confounder Adjustment,,,"

Purpose

Recent evidence from US claims data suggests use of high-dimensional propensity score (hd-PS) methods improve adjustment for confounding in non-randomised studies of interventions. However, it is unclear how best to apply hd-PS principles outside their original setting, given important differences between claims data and electronic health records (EHRs). We aimed to implement the hd-PS in the setting of United Kingdom (UK) EHRs.

Methods

We studied the interaction between clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Whilst previous observational studies suggested an interaction (with reduced effect of clopidogrel), case-only, genetic and randomised trial approaches showed no interaction, strongly suggesting the original observational findings were subject to confounding. We derived a cohort of clopidogrel users from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked with the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project. Analyses estimated the hazard ratio (HR) for myocardial infarction (MI) comparing PPI users with non-users using a Cox model adjusting for confounders. To reflect unique characteristics of UK EHRs, we varied the application of hd-PS principles including the level of grouping within coding systems and adapting the assessment of code recurrence. Results were compared with traditional analyses.

Results

Twenty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-one patients took clopidogrel, of whom 9111 were prescribed a PPI. Traditional PS approaches obtained a HR for the association between PPI use and MI of 1.17 (95% CI: 1.00-1.35). Applying hd-PS modifications resulted in estimates closer to the expected null (HR 1.00; 95% CI: 0.78-1.28).

Conclusions

hd-PS provided improved adjustment for confounding compared with other approaches, suggesting hd-PS can be usefully applied in UK EHRs.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pds.5121; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121 32788201,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-319027,Predictive value of indicators for identifying child maltreatment and intimate partner violence in coded electronic health records: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Syed S, Ashwick R, Schlosser M, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Li L, Gilbert R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2021,2020-08-11,Y,Data collection; epidemiology; Child Abuse; Health Services Research; Drug Withdrawal,,,"

Objective

Electronic health records (EHRs) are routinely used to identify family violence, yet reliable evidence of their validity remains limited. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the positive predictive values (PPVs) of coded indicators in EHRs for identifying intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment (CM), including prenatal neglect.

Methods

We searched 18 electronic databases between January 1980 and May 2020 for studies comparing any coded indicator of IPV or CM including prenatal neglect defined as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) or fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), against an independent reference standard. We pooled PPVs for each indicator using random effects meta-analyses.

Results

We included 88 studies (3 875 183 individuals) involving 15 indicators for identifying CM in the prenatal period and childhood (0-18 years) and five indicators for IPV among women of reproductive age (12-50 years). Based on the International Classification of Disease system, the pooled PPV was over 80% for NAS (16 studies) but lower for FAS (<40%; seven studies). For young children, primary diagnoses of CM, specific injury presentations (eg, rib fractures and retinal haemorrhages) and assaults showed a high PPV for CM (pooled PPVs: 55.9%-87.8%). Indicators of IPV in women had a high PPV, with primary diagnoses correctly identifying IPV in >85% of cases.

Conclusions

Coded indicators in EHRs have a high likelihood of correctly classifying types of CM and IPV across the life course, providing a useful tool for assessment, support and monitoring of high-risk groups in health services and research.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/106/1/44.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-319027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788194; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788194?pdf=render +37740900,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176,Interventions for reducing anticholinergic medication burden in older adults-a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Braithwaite E, Todd OM, Atkin A, Hulatt R, Tadrous R, Alldred DP, Pirmohamed M, Walker L, Lawton R, Clegg A.",,Age and ageing,2023,2023-09-01,Y,Cognition; Meta-analysis; Systematic review; Falls; Older People; Older Adult; Anticholinergic Medication,,,"

Introduction

Anticholinergic medications block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Many medications have anticholinergic properties, and the cumulative effect of these medications is termed anticholinergic burden. Increased anticholinergic burden can have short-term side effects such as dry mouth, blurred vision and urinary retention as well as long-term effects including dementia, worsening physical function and falls.

Methods

We carried out a systematic review (SR) with meta-analysis (MA) looking at randomised controlled trials addressing interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden in older adults.

Results

We identified seven papers suitable for inclusion in our SR and MA. Interventions included multi-disciplinary involvement in medication reviews and deprescribing of AC medications. Pooled data revealed no significant difference in outcomes between control and intervention group for falls (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.52-1.11, n = 647), cognition (mean difference = 1.54, 95% CI: -0.04 to 3.13, n = 405), anticholinergic burden (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.11 to 0.18, n = 710) or quality of life (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.04 to 0.12, n = 461).

Discussion

Overall, there was no significant difference with interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden. As we did not see a significant change in anticholinergic burden scores following interventions, it is likely other outcomes would not change. Short follow-up time and lack of training and support surrounding successful deprescribing may have contributed.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713?pdf=render 36538350,https://doi.org/10.2196/41200,Identifying Patterns of Clinical Interest in Clinicians' Treatment Preferences: Hypothesis-free Data Science Approach to Prioritizing Prescribing Outliers for Clinical Review.,"MacKenna B, Curtis HJ, Hopcroft LEM, Walker AJ, Croker R, Macdonald O, Evans SJW, Inglesby P, Evans D, Morley J, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B.",,JMIR medical informatics,2022,2022-12-20,Y,Prescribing; Clinical Audit; Antipsychotics; Pericyazine; Data Science; Nhs England; Promazine Hydrochloride,,,"

Background

Data analysis is used to identify signals suggestive of variation in treatment choice or clinical outcome. Analyses to date have generally focused on a hypothesis-driven approach.

Objective

This study aimed to develop a hypothesis-free approach to identify unusual prescribing behavior in primary care data. We aimed to apply this methodology to a national data set in a cross-sectional study to identify chemicals with significant variation in use across Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) for further clinical review, thereby demonstrating proof of concept for prioritization approaches.

Methods

Here we report a new data-driven approach to identify unusual prescribing behaviour in primary care data. This approach first applies a set of filtering steps to identify chemicals with prescribing rate distributions likely to contain outliers, then applies two ranking approaches to identify the most extreme outliers amongst those candidates. This methodology has been applied to three months of national prescribing data (June-August 2017).

Results

Our methodology provides rankings for all chemicals by administrative region. We provide illustrative results for 2 antipsychotic drugs of particular clinical interest: promazine hydrochloride and pericyazine, which rank highly by outlier metrics. Specifically, our method identifies that, while promazine hydrochloride and pericyazine are barely used by most clinicians (with national prescribing rates of 11.1 and 6.2 per 1000 antipsychotic prescriptions, respectively), they make up a substantial proportion of antipsychotic prescribing in 2 small geographic regions in England during the study period (with maximum regional prescribing rates of 298.7 and 241.1 per 1000 antipsychotic prescriptions, respectively).

Conclusions

Our hypothesis-free approach is able to identify candidates for audit and review in clinical practice. To illustrate this, we provide 2 examples of 2 very unusual antipsychotics used disproportionately in 2 small geographic areas of England.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2022/12/e41200/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/41200; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9812268 36197964,https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abq4810,"Comment on ""A proteomic surrogate for cardiovascular outcomes that is sensitive to multiple mechanisms of change in risk"".","Kivimäki M, Hingorani AD, Lindbohm JV.",,Science translational medicine,2022,2022-10-05,N,,,,"A 27-protein signature has been proposed to predict cardiovascular disease, but its applicability in clinical decision-making remains unclear.",,pdf:https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/scitranslmed.abq4810?download=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abq4810 37456658,https://doi.org/10.12688/hrbopenres.13667.1,Qualitative data sharing practices in clinical trials in the UK and Ireland: towards the production of good practice guidance.,"McCarthy M, Gillies K, Rousseau N, Wade J, Gamble C, Toomey E, Matvienko-Sikar K, Sydes M, Dowling M, Bryant V, Biesty L, Houghton C.",,HRB open research,2023,2023-02-06,Y,data sharing; Qualitative; trials; Focus Groups,,,"Background: Data sharing enables researchers to conduct novel research with previously collected datasets, thus maximising scientific findings and cost effectiveness, and reducing research waste. The value of sharing, even de-identified, quantitative data from clinical trials is well recognised with a moderated access approach recommended. While substantial challenges to sharing quantitative data remain, there are additional challenges for sharing qualitative data in trials. Incorporating the necessary information about how qualitative data will be shared into already complex trial recruitment and consent processes proves challenging. The aim of this study was to explore whether and how trial teams share qualitative data collected as part of the design, conduct, analysis, or delivery of clinical trials. Methods: Phase 1 involved semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews and focus groups with key trial stakeholder groups including trial managers and clinical trialists (n=3), qualitative researchers in trials (n=9), members of research funding bodies (n=2) and trial participants (n=1). Data were analysed using thematic analysis. In Phase 2, we conducted a content analysis of 16 participant information leaflets (PIL) and consent forms (CF) for trials that collected qualitative data. Results: Three key themes were identified from our Phase 1 findings: ' Understanding and experiences of the potential benefits of sharing qualitative data from trials', 'Concerns about qualitative data sharing', and ' Future guidance and funding'. In phase 2, the PILs and CFs received revealed that the benefits of data sharing for participants were only explained in two of the study documents. Conclusions: The value of sharing qualitative data was acknowledged, but there are many uncertainties as to how, when, and where to share this data. In addition, there were ethical concerns in relation to the consent process required for qualitative data sharing in trials. This study provides insight into the existing practice of qualitative data sharing in trials.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/hrbopenres.13667.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10345597; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10345597?pdf=render 35322592,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.13910,Cardiovascular outcomes associated with treatment of type 2 diabetes in patients with ischaemic heart failure.,"Godec TR, Bromage DI, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Cannatà A, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Shah AM, Yellon DM, McDonagh TA.",,ESC heart failure,2022,2022-03-23,Y,Type 2 diabetes; Metformin; Heart Failure; Outcomes; Ischaemic Cardiomyopathy; Antidiabetic Agents,,,"

Aim

The optimal strategy for diabetes control in patients with heart failure (HF) following myocardial infarction (MI) remains unknown. Metformin, a guideline-recommended therapy for patients with chronic HF and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), is associated with reduced mortality and HF hospitalizations. However, worse outcomes have been reported when used at the time of MI. We compared outcomes of patients with T2DM and HF of ischaemic aetiology according to antidiabetic treatment.

Methods and results

This study used linked data from primary care, hospital admissions, and death registries for 4.7 million inhabitants in England, as part of the CALIBER resource. The primary endpoint was a composite of cardiovascular mortality and HF hospitalization. The secondary endpoints were the individual components of the primary endpoint and all-cause mortality. To evaluate the effect of temporal changes in diabetes treatment, antidiabetic medication was included as time-dependent covariates in survival analyses. The study included 1172 patients with T2DM and prior MI and incident HF between 3 January 1998 and 26 February 2010. Five hundred and ninety-six patients had the primary outcome over median follow-up of 2.53 (IQR: 0.98-4.92) years. Adjusted analyses showed a reduced hazard of the composite endpoint for exposure to all antidiabetic medication with hazard ratios (HRs) of 0.50 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.42-0.59], 0.66 (95% CI: 0.55-0.80), and 0.53 (95% CI: 0.43-0.65), respectively. A similar effect was seen for all-cause mortality [HRs of 0.43 (95% CI: 0.35-0.52), 0.57 (95% CI: 0.46-0.70), and 0.34 (95% CI: 0.27-0.43), respectively].

Conclusions

When considering changes in antidiabetic treatment over time, all drug classes were associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular mortality and HF hospitalization.",,pdf:https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/files/173598342/ESC_Heart_Failure_2022_Godec_Cardiovascular_outcomes_associated_with_treatment_of_type_2_diabetes_in_patients_with.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.13910; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9065866; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9065866?pdf=render -32616677,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000009924,Accuracy of identifying incident stroke cases from linked health care data in UK Biobank.,"Rannikmäe K, Ngoh K, Bush K, Al-Shahi Salman R, Doubal F, Flaig R, Henshall DE, Hutchison A, Nolan J, Osborne S, Samarasekera N, Schnier C, Whiteley W, Wilkinson T, Wilson K, Woodfield R, Zhang Q, Allen N, Sudlow CLM.",,Neurology,2020,2020-07-02,Y,,,,"

Objective

In UK Biobank (UKB), a large population-based prospective study, cases of many diseases are ascertained through linkage to routinely collected, coded national health datasets. We assessed the accuracy of these for identifying incident strokes.

Methods

In a regional UKB subpopulation (n = 17,249), we identified all participants with ≥1 code signifying a first stroke after recruitment (incident stroke-coded cases) in linked hospital admission, primary care, or death record data. Stroke physicians reviewed their full electronic patient records (EPRs) and generated reference standard diagnoses. We evaluated the number and proportion of cases that were true-positives (i.e., positive predictive value [PPV]) for all codes combined and by code source and type.

Results

Of 232 incident stroke-coded cases, 97% had EPR information available. Data sources were 30% hospital admission only, 39% primary care only, 28% hospital and primary care, and 3% death records only. While 42% of cases were coded as unspecified stroke type, review of EPRs enabled a pathologic type to be assigned in >99%. PPVs (95% confidence intervals) were 79% (73%-84%) for any stroke (89% for hospital admission codes, 80% for primary care codes) and 83% (74%-90%) for ischemic stroke. PPVs for small numbers of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes were low but imprecise.

Conclusions

Stroke and ischemic stroke cases in UKB can be ascertained through linked health datasets with sufficient accuracy for many research studies. Further work is needed to understand the accuracy of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes and to develop scalable approaches for better identifying stroke types.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/95/6/e697.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000009924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356?pdf=render -34649961,https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a039230,Human Genomics and Drug Development.,"Schmidt AF, Hingorani AD, Finan C.",,Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine,2022,2022-02-01,N,,,,"Insights into the genetic basis of human disease are helping to address some of the key challenges in new drug development including the very high rates of failure. Here we review the recent history of an emerging, genomics-assisted approach to pharmaceutical research and development, and its relationship to Mendelian randomization (MR), a well-established analytical approach to causal inference. We demonstrate how human genomic data linked to pharmaceutically relevant phenotypes can be used for (1) drug target identification (mapping relevant drug targets to diseases), (2) drug target validation (inferring the likely effects of drug target perturbation), (3) evaluation of the effectiveness and specificity of compound-target engagement (inferring the extent to which the effects of a compound are exclusive to the target and distinguishing between on-target and off-target compound effects), and (4) the selection of end points in clinical trials (the diseases or conditions to be evaluated as trial outcomes). We show how genomics can help identify indication expansion opportunities for licensed drugs and repurposing of compounds developed to clinical phase that proved safe but ineffective for the original intended indication. We outline statistical and biological considerations in using MR for drug target validation (drug target MR) and discuss the obstacles and challenges for scaled applications of these genomics-based approaches.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10138810/1/ForUCLDiscovery.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a039230 37658971,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w,Multimorbidity in Heart Failure: Leveraging Cluster Analysis to Guide Tailored Treatment Strategies.,"van de Veerdonk MC, Savarese G, Handoko ML, Beulens JWJ, Asselbergs F, Uijl A.",,Current heart failure reports,2023,2023-09-02,N,Clustering; Phenotyping; Heart Failure; Machine Learning; Treatment Response; Precision Medicine,,,"

Review purpose

This review summarises key findings on treatment effects within phenotypical clusters of patients with heart failure (HF), making a distinction between patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Findings

Treatment response differed among clusters; ACE inhibitors were beneficial in all HFrEF phenotypes, while only some studies show similar beneficial prognostic effects in HFpEF patients. Beta-blockers had favourable effects in all HFrEF patients but not in HFpEF phenotypes and tended to worsen prognosis in older, cardiorenal patients. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists had more favourable prognostic effects in young, obese males and metabolic HFpEF patients. While a phenotype-guided approach is a promising solution for individualised treatment strategies, there are several aspects that still require improvements before such an approach could be implemented in clinical practice. Stronger evidence from clinical trials and real-world data may assist in establishing a phenotype-guided treatment approach for patient with HF in the future.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w +34649961,https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a039230,Human Genomics and Drug Development.,"Schmidt AF, Hingorani AD, Finan C.",,Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine,2022,2022-02-01,N,,,,"Insights into the genetic basis of human disease are helping to address some of the key challenges in new drug development including the very high rates of failure. Here we review the recent history of an emerging, genomics-assisted approach to pharmaceutical research and development, and its relationship to Mendelian randomization (MR), a well-established analytical approach to causal inference. We demonstrate how human genomic data linked to pharmaceutically relevant phenotypes can be used for (1) drug target identification (mapping relevant drug targets to diseases), (2) drug target validation (inferring the likely effects of drug target perturbation), (3) evaluation of the effectiveness and specificity of compound-target engagement (inferring the extent to which the effects of a compound are exclusive to the target and distinguishing between on-target and off-target compound effects), and (4) the selection of end points in clinical trials (the diseases or conditions to be evaluated as trial outcomes). We show how genomics can help identify indication expansion opportunities for licensed drugs and repurposing of compounds developed to clinical phase that proved safe but ineffective for the original intended indication. We outline statistical and biological considerations in using MR for drug target validation (drug target MR) and discuss the obstacles and challenges for scaled applications of these genomics-based approaches.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10138810/1/ForUCLDiscovery.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a039230 35667411,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2022.05.003,Stroke in Older Adults Living in Care Homes: Results From a National Data Linkage Study in Wales.,"Harrison SL, Lip GYH, Akbari A, Torabi F, Ritchie LA, Akpan A, Halcox J, Rodgers S, Hollinghurst J, Harris D, Lane DA.",,Journal of the American Medical Directors Association,2022,2022-06-03,N,Anticoagulants; Cerebrovascular disease; Nursing Homes; Antiplatelets,,,"

Objectives

To determine the proportion of older people moving to care homes with a recent stroke, incidence of stroke after moving to a care home, mortality following stroke, and secondary stroke prevention management in older care home residents.

Design

Retrospective cohort study using population-scale individual-level linked data sources between 2003 and 2018 in the Secure Anonymized Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

Setting and participants

People aged ≥65 years residing in long-term care homes in Wales.

Methods

Competing risk models and logistic regression models were used to examine the association between prior stroke, incident stroke, and mortality following stroke.

Results

Of 86,602 individuals, 7.0% (n = 6055) experienced a stroke in the 12 months prior to care home entry. The incidence of stroke within 12 months after entry to a care home was 26.2 per 1000 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI) 25.0, 27.5]. Previous stroke was associated with higher risk of incident stroke after moving to a care home (subdistribution hazard ratio 1.83, 95% CI 1.57, 2.13) and 30-day mortality following stroke (odds ratio 2.18, 95% CI 1.59, 2.98). Severe frailty was not significantly associated with risk of stroke or 30-day mortality following stroke. Secondary stroke prevention included statins (51.0%), antiplatelets (61.2%), anticoagulants (52.4% of those with atrial fibrillation), and antihypertensives (92.1% of those with hypertension).

Conclusions and implications

At the time of care home entry, individuals with history of stroke in the previous 12 months are at a higher risk of incident stroke and mortality following an incident stroke. These individuals are frequently not prescribed medications for secondary stroke prevention. Further evidence is needed to determine the optimal care pathways for older people living in long-term care homes with history of stroke.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60151/Download/60151__25104__e0e71818d5bd49acba048a3d98682425.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2022.05.003 36719715,https://doi.org/10.2196/41248,Patterns in the Use of Heart Failure Telemonitoring: Post Hoc Analysis of the e-Vita Heart Failure Trial.,"Brons M, Ten Klooster I, van Gemert-Pijnen L, Jaarsma T, Asselbergs FW, Oerlemans MIFJ, Koudstaal S, Rutten FH.",,JMIR cardio,2023,2023-01-31,Y,Adherence; Heart Failure; Patient Monitoring; Remote Monitoring; Telemonitoring; Ehealth; Electronic Personal Health Record,,,"

Background

Research on the use of home telemonitoring data and adherence to it can provide new insights into telemonitoring for the daily management of patients with heart failure (HF).

Objective

We described the use of a telemonitoring platform-including remote patient monitoring of blood pressure, pulse, and weight-and the use of the electronic personal health record. Patient characteristics were assessed in both adherent and nonadherent patients to weight transmissions.

Methods

We used the data of the e-Vita HF study, a 3-arm parallel randomized trial performed in stable patients with HF managed in outpatient clinics in the Netherlands. In this study, data were analyzed from the participants in the intervention arm (ie, e-Vita HF platform). Adherence to weight transmissions was defined as transmitting weight ≥3 times per week for at least 42 weeks during a year.

Results

Data from 150 patients (mean age 67, SD 11 years; n=37, 25% female; n=123, 82% self-assessed New York Heart Association class I-II) were analyzed. One-year adherence to weight transmissions was 74% (n=111). Patients adherent to weight transmissions were less often hospitalized for HF in the 6 months before enrollment in the study compared to those who were nonadherent (n=9, 8% vs n=9, 23%; P=.02). The percentage of patients visiting the personal health record dropped steadily over time (n=140, 93% vs n=59, 39% at one year). With univariable analyses, there was no significant correlation between patient characteristics and adherence to weight transmissions.

Conclusions

Adherence to remote patient monitoring was high among stable patients with HF and best for weighing; however, adherence decreased over time. Clinical and demographic variables seem not related to adherence to transmitting weight.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01755988; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01755988.",,pdf:https://cardio.jmir.org/2023/1/e41248/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/41248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9929726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9929726?pdf=render -30240446,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896,Polygenic risk scores for major depressive disorder and neuroticism as predictors of antidepressant response: Meta-analysis of three treatment cohorts.,"Ward J, Graham N, Strawbridge RJ, Ferguson A, Jenkins G, Chen W, Hodgson K, Frye M, Weinshilboum R, Uher R, Lewis CM, Biernacka J, Smith DJ.",,PloS one,2018,2018-09-21,Y,,Better Care,,"There are currently no reliable approaches for correctly identifying which patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) will respond well to antidepressant therapy. However, recent genetic advances suggest that Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) could allow MDD patients to be stratified for antidepressant response. We used PRS for MDD and PRS for neuroticism as putative predictors of antidepressant response within three treatment cohorts: The Genome-based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression (GENDEP) cohort, and 2 sub-cohorts from the Pharmacogenomics Research Network Antidepressant Medication Pharmacogenomics Study PRGN-AMPS (total patient number = 760). Results across cohorts were combined via meta-analysis within a random effects model. Overall, PRS for MDD and neuroticism did not significantly predict antidepressant response but there was a consistent direction of effect, whereby greater genetic loading for both MDD (best MDD result, p < 5*10-5 MDD-PRS at 4 weeks, β = -0.019, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.01) and neuroticism (best neuroticism result, p < 0.1 neuroticism-PRS at 8 weeks, β = -0.017, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.03) were associated with less favourable response. We conclude that the PRS approach may offer some promise for treatment stratification in MDD and should now be assessed within larger clinical cohorts.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203896&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505?pdf=render -36936265,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276,"Trends, variation, and clinical characteristics of recipients of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies for covid-19 in community settings: retrospective, descriptive cohort study of 23.4 million people in OpenSAFELY.","Green ACA, Curtis HJ, Higgins R, Nab L, Mahalingasivam V, Smith RM, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Drysdale H, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Tazare J, Zheng B, Andrews CD, Bacon SCJ, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Fisher L, Hickman G, Hopcroft LEM, Hulme WJ, Massey J, MacDonald O, Morley J, Morton CE, Park RY, Walker AJ, Ward T, Wiedemann M, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Goldacre B, Tomlinson LA, MacKenna B.",,BMJ medicine,2023,2023-01-13,Y,Therapeutics; Community health services; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To ascertain patient eligibility status and describe coverage of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMAB) as treatment for covid-19 in community settings in England.

Design

Retrospective, descriptive cohort study, approved by NHS England.

Setting

Routine clinical data from 23.4 million people linked to data on covid-19 infection and treatment, within the OpenSAFELY-TPP database.

Participants

Outpatients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes.

Interventions

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (paxlovid), sotrovimab, molnupiravir, casirivimab/imdevimab, or remdesivir, used in the community by covid-19 medicine delivery units.

Results

93 870 outpatients with covid-19 were identified between 11 December 2021 and 28 April 2022 to be at high risk of severe outcomes and therefore potentially eligible for antiviral or nMAB treatment (or both). Of these patients, 19 040 (20%) received treatment (sotrovimab, 9660 (51%); molnupiravir, 4620 (24%); paxlovid, 4680 (25%); casirivimab/imdevimab, 50 (<1%); and remdesivir, 30 (<1%)). The proportion of patients treated increased from 9% (190/2220) in the first week of treatment availability to 29% (460/1600) in the latest week. The proportion treated varied by high risk group, being lowest in those with liver disease (16%; 95% confidence interval 15% to 17%); by treatment type, with sotrovimab favoured over molnupiravir and paxlovid in all but three high risk groups (Down's syndrome (35%; 30% to 39%), rare neurological conditions (45%; 43% to 47%), and immune deficiencies (48%; 47% to 50%)); by age, ranging from ≥80 years (13%; 12% to 14%) to 50-59 years (23%; 22% to 23%); by ethnic group, ranging from black (11%; 10% to 12%) to white (21%; 21% to 21%); by NHS region, ranging from 13% (12% to 14%) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 25% (24% to 25%) in the East of England); and by deprivation level, ranging from 15% (14% to 15%) in the most deprived areas to 23% (23% to 24%) in the least deprived areas. Groups that also had lower coverage included unvaccinated patients (7%; 6% to 9%), those with dementia (6%; 5% to 7%), and care home residents (6%; 6% to 7%).

Conclusions

Using the OpenSAFELY platform, we were able to identify patients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes who were potentially eligible to receive treatment and assess the coverage of these new treatments among these patients. In the context of a rapid deployment of a new service, the NHS analytical code used to determine eligibility could have been over-inclusive and some of the eligibility criteria not fully captured in healthcare data. However targeted activity might be needed to resolve apparent lower treatment coverage observed among certain groups, in particular (at present): different NHS regions, ethnic groups, people aged ≥80 years, those living in socioeconomically deprived areas, and care home residents.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000276.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378?pdf=render 32103533,https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8503,Propensity scores using missingness pattern information: a practical guide.,"Blake HA, Leyrat C, Mansfield KE, Seaman S, Tomlinson LA, Carpenter J, Williamson EJ.",,Statistics in medicine,2020,2020-02-27,N,Electronic Health Records; Propensity Score Analysis; Missingness Pattern; Missing Indicator; Missing Confounder Data,,,"Electronic health records are a valuable data source for investigating health-related questions, and propensity score analysis has become an increasingly popular approach to address confounding bias in such investigations. However, because electronic health records are typically routinely recorded as part of standard clinical care, there are often missing values, particularly for potential confounders. In our motivating study-using electronic health records to investigate the effect of renin-angiotensin system blockers on the risk of acute kidney injury-two key confounders, ethnicity and chronic kidney disease stage, have 59% and 53% missing data, respectively. The missingness pattern approach (MPA), a variant of the missing indicator approach, has been proposed as a method for handling partially observed confounders in propensity score analysis. In the MPA, propensity scores are estimated separately for each missingness pattern present in the data. Although the assumptions underlying the validity of the MPA are stated in the literature, it can be difficult in practice to assess their plausibility. In this article, we explore the MPA's underlying assumptions by using causal diagrams to assess their plausibility in a range of simple scenarios, drawing general conclusions about situations in which they are likely to be violated. We present a framework providing practical guidance for assessing whether the MPA's assumptions are plausible in a particular setting and thus deciding when the MPA is appropriate. We apply our framework to our motivating study, showing that the MPA's underlying assumptions appear reasonable, and we demonstrate the application of MPA to this study.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4656008/1/manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8503; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612316; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612316?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8503 +32616677,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000009924,Accuracy of identifying incident stroke cases from linked health care data in UK Biobank.,"Rannikmäe K, Ngoh K, Bush K, Al-Shahi Salman R, Doubal F, Flaig R, Henshall DE, Hutchison A, Nolan J, Osborne S, Samarasekera N, Schnier C, Whiteley W, Wilkinson T, Wilson K, Woodfield R, Zhang Q, Allen N, Sudlow CLM.",,Neurology,2020,2020-07-02,Y,,,,"

Objective

In UK Biobank (UKB), a large population-based prospective study, cases of many diseases are ascertained through linkage to routinely collected, coded national health datasets. We assessed the accuracy of these for identifying incident strokes.

Methods

In a regional UKB subpopulation (n = 17,249), we identified all participants with ≥1 code signifying a first stroke after recruitment (incident stroke-coded cases) in linked hospital admission, primary care, or death record data. Stroke physicians reviewed their full electronic patient records (EPRs) and generated reference standard diagnoses. We evaluated the number and proportion of cases that were true-positives (i.e., positive predictive value [PPV]) for all codes combined and by code source and type.

Results

Of 232 incident stroke-coded cases, 97% had EPR information available. Data sources were 30% hospital admission only, 39% primary care only, 28% hospital and primary care, and 3% death records only. While 42% of cases were coded as unspecified stroke type, review of EPRs enabled a pathologic type to be assigned in >99%. PPVs (95% confidence intervals) were 79% (73%-84%) for any stroke (89% for hospital admission codes, 80% for primary care codes) and 83% (74%-90%) for ischemic stroke. PPVs for small numbers of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes were low but imprecise.

Conclusions

Stroke and ischemic stroke cases in UKB can be ascertained through linked health datasets with sufficient accuracy for many research studies. Further work is needed to understand the accuracy of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes and to develop scalable approaches for better identifying stroke types.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/95/6/e697.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000009924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356?pdf=render +30240446,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896,Polygenic risk scores for major depressive disorder and neuroticism as predictors of antidepressant response: Meta-analysis of three treatment cohorts.,"Ward J, Graham N, Strawbridge RJ, Ferguson A, Jenkins G, Chen W, Hodgson K, Frye M, Weinshilboum R, Uher R, Lewis CM, Biernacka J, Smith DJ.",,PloS one,2018,2018-09-21,Y,,Better Care,,"There are currently no reliable approaches for correctly identifying which patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) will respond well to antidepressant therapy. However, recent genetic advances suggest that Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) could allow MDD patients to be stratified for antidepressant response. We used PRS for MDD and PRS for neuroticism as putative predictors of antidepressant response within three treatment cohorts: The Genome-based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression (GENDEP) cohort, and 2 sub-cohorts from the Pharmacogenomics Research Network Antidepressant Medication Pharmacogenomics Study PRGN-AMPS (total patient number = 760). Results across cohorts were combined via meta-analysis within a random effects model. Overall, PRS for MDD and neuroticism did not significantly predict antidepressant response but there was a consistent direction of effect, whereby greater genetic loading for both MDD (best MDD result, p < 5*10-5 MDD-PRS at 4 weeks, β = -0.019, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.01) and neuroticism (best neuroticism result, p < 0.1 neuroticism-PRS at 8 weeks, β = -0.017, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.03) were associated with less favourable response. We conclude that the PRS approach may offer some promise for treatment stratification in MDD and should now be assessed within larger clinical cohorts.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203896&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505?pdf=render 36276403,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.875198,The mental health experiences of ethnic minorities in the UK during the Coronavirus pandemic: A qualitative exploration.,"Van Bortel T, Lombardo C, Guo L, Solomon S, Martin S, Hughes K, Weeks L, Crepaz-Keay D, McDaid S, Chantler O, Thorpe L, Morton A, Davidson G, John A, Kousoulis AA.",,Frontiers in public health,2022,2022-10-06,Y,Mental health; United Kingdom; Inequalities; Ethnic Minorities; Covid-19; Coronavirus Pandemic; Bame Ethnicity,,,"

Background

Worldwide, the Coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on people's health, lives, and livelihoods. However, this impact has not been felt equally across various population groups. People from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK have been more adversely affected by the pandemic, especially in terms of their physical health. Their mental health, on the other hand, has received less attention. This study aimed to explore the mental health experiences of UK adults from ethnic minorities during the Coronavirus pandemic. This work forms part of our wider long-term UK population study ""Mental Health in the Pandemic.""

Methods

We conducted an exploratory qualitative study with people from ethnic minority communities across the UK. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 women, 14 men and 1 non-binary person from ethnic minority backgrounds, aged between 18 and 65 years old (mean age = 40). We utilized purposefully selected maximum variation sampling in order to capture as wide a variety of views, perceptions and experiences as possible. Inclusion criteria: adults (18+) from ethnic minorities across the UK; able to provide full consent to participate; able to participate in a video- or phone-call interview. All interviews took place via MS Teams or Zoom. The gathered data were transcribed verbatim and underwent thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke carried out using NVivo 12 software.

Results

The qualitative data analysis yielded seven overarching themes: (1) pandemic-specific mental health and wellbeing experiences; (2) issues relating to the media; (3) coping mechanisms; (4) worries around and attitudes toward vaccination; (5) suggestions for support in moving forward; (6) best and worst experiences during pandemic and lockdowns; (7) biggest areas of change in personal life. Generally, participants' mental health experiences varied with some not being affected by the pandemic in a way related to their ethnicity, some sharing positive experiences and coping strategies (exercising more, spending more time with family, community cohesion), and some expressing negative experiences (eating or drinking more, feeling more isolated, or even racism and abuse, especially toward Asian communities). Concerns were raised around trust issues in relation to the media, the inadequate representation of ethnic minorities, and the spread of fake news especially on social media. Attitudes toward vaccinations varied too, with some people more willing to have the vaccine than others.

Conclusion

This study's findings highlight the diversity in the pandemic mental health experiences of ethnic minorities in the UK and has implications for policy, practice and further research. To enable moving forward beyond the pandemic, our study surfaced the need for culturally appropriate mental health support, financial support (as a key mental health determinant), accurate media representation, and clear communication messaging from the Governments of the UK.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.875198/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.875198; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9582845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9582845?pdf=render +36936265,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276,"Trends, variation, and clinical characteristics of recipients of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies for covid-19 in community settings: retrospective, descriptive cohort study of 23.4 million people in OpenSAFELY.","Green ACA, Curtis HJ, Higgins R, Nab L, Mahalingasivam V, Smith RM, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Drysdale H, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Tazare J, Zheng B, Andrews CD, Bacon SCJ, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Fisher L, Hickman G, Hopcroft LEM, Hulme WJ, Massey J, MacDonald O, Morley J, Morton CE, Park RY, Walker AJ, Ward T, Wiedemann M, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Goldacre B, Tomlinson LA, MacKenna B.",,BMJ medicine,2023,2023-01-13,Y,Therapeutics; Community health services; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To ascertain patient eligibility status and describe coverage of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMAB) as treatment for covid-19 in community settings in England.

Design

Retrospective, descriptive cohort study, approved by NHS England.

Setting

Routine clinical data from 23.4 million people linked to data on covid-19 infection and treatment, within the OpenSAFELY-TPP database.

Participants

Outpatients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes.

Interventions

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (paxlovid), sotrovimab, molnupiravir, casirivimab/imdevimab, or remdesivir, used in the community by covid-19 medicine delivery units.

Results

93 870 outpatients with covid-19 were identified between 11 December 2021 and 28 April 2022 to be at high risk of severe outcomes and therefore potentially eligible for antiviral or nMAB treatment (or both). Of these patients, 19 040 (20%) received treatment (sotrovimab, 9660 (51%); molnupiravir, 4620 (24%); paxlovid, 4680 (25%); casirivimab/imdevimab, 50 (<1%); and remdesivir, 30 (<1%)). The proportion of patients treated increased from 9% (190/2220) in the first week of treatment availability to 29% (460/1600) in the latest week. The proportion treated varied by high risk group, being lowest in those with liver disease (16%; 95% confidence interval 15% to 17%); by treatment type, with sotrovimab favoured over molnupiravir and paxlovid in all but three high risk groups (Down's syndrome (35%; 30% to 39%), rare neurological conditions (45%; 43% to 47%), and immune deficiencies (48%; 47% to 50%)); by age, ranging from ≥80 years (13%; 12% to 14%) to 50-59 years (23%; 22% to 23%); by ethnic group, ranging from black (11%; 10% to 12%) to white (21%; 21% to 21%); by NHS region, ranging from 13% (12% to 14%) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 25% (24% to 25%) in the East of England); and by deprivation level, ranging from 15% (14% to 15%) in the most deprived areas to 23% (23% to 24%) in the least deprived areas. Groups that also had lower coverage included unvaccinated patients (7%; 6% to 9%), those with dementia (6%; 5% to 7%), and care home residents (6%; 6% to 7%).

Conclusions

Using the OpenSAFELY platform, we were able to identify patients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes who were potentially eligible to receive treatment and assess the coverage of these new treatments among these patients. In the context of a rapid deployment of a new service, the NHS analytical code used to determine eligibility could have been over-inclusive and some of the eligibility criteria not fully captured in healthcare data. However targeted activity might be needed to resolve apparent lower treatment coverage observed among certain groups, in particular (at present): different NHS regions, ethnic groups, people aged ≥80 years, those living in socioeconomically deprived areas, and care home residents.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000276.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378?pdf=render 37606853,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07944-8,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community prescription of opioid and antineuropathic analgesics for cancer patients in Wales, UK.","Han J, Rolles M, Torabi F, Griffiths R, Bedston S, Akbari A, Burnett B, Lyons J, Greene G, Thomas R, Long T, Arnold C, Huws DW, Lawler M, Lyons RA.",,Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer,2023,2023-08-22,Y,Analgesia; Cancer; Pain; Primary Care; Prescription; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Purpose

Public health measures instituted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK in 2020 had profound effects on the cancer patient pathway. We hypothesise that this may have affected analgesic prescriptions for cancer patients in primary care.

Methods

A whole-nation retrospective, observational study of opioid and antineuropathic analgesics prescribed in primary care for two cohorts of cancer patients in Wales, using linked anonymised data to evaluate the impact of the pandemic and variation between different demographic backgrounds.

Results

We found a significant increase in strong opioid prescriptions during the pandemic for patients within their first 12 months of diagnosis with a common cancer (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.15, 95% CI: 1.12-1.18, p < 0.001 for strong opioids) and significant increases in strong opioid and antineuropathic prescriptions for patients in the last 3 months prior to a cancer-related death (IRR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.04-1.07, p < 0.001 for strong opioids; IRR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.08-1.14, p < 0.001 for antineuropathics). A spike in opioid prescriptions for patients diagnosed in Q2 2020 and those who died in Q2 2020 was observed and interpreted as stockpiling. More analgesics were prescribed in more deprived quintiles. This differential was less pronounced in patients towards the end of life, which we attribute to closer professional supervision.

Conclusions

We demonstrate significant changes to community analgesic prescriptions for cancer patients related to the UK pandemic and illustrate prescription patterns linked to patients' demographic background.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-023-07944-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07944-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10444652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10444652?pdf=render 35308999,https://doi.org/,Axes of Prognosis: Identifying Subtypes of COVID-19 Outcomes.,"Whitfield E, Coffey C, Zhang H, Shi T, Wu X, Li Q, Wu H.",,AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium,2021,2021-01-01,N,,,,"COVID-19 is a disease with vast impact, yet much remains unclear about patient outcomes. Most approaches to risk prediction of COVID-19 focus on binary or tertiary severity outcomes, despite the heterogeneity of the disease. In this work, we identify heterogeneous subtypes of COVID-19 outcomes by considering 'axes' of prognosis. We propose two innovative clustering approaches - 'Layered Axes' and 'Prognosis Space' - to apply on patients' outcome data. We then show how these clusters can help predict a patient's deterioration pathway on their hospital admission, using random forest classification. We illustrate this methodology on a cohort from Wuhan in early 2020. We discover interesting subgroups of poor prognosis, particularly within respiratory patients, and predict respiratory subgroup membership with high accuracy. This work could assist clinicians in identifying appropriate treatments at patients' hospital admission. Moreover, our method could be used to explore subtypes of 'long COVID' and other diseases with heterogeneous outcomes.",,html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861682?pdf=render -37143831,https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022,Ethnic variation in asthma healthcare utilisation and exacerbation: systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Akin-Imran A, Bajpai A, McCartan D, Heaney LG, Kee F, Redmond C, Busby J.",,ERJ open research,2023,2023-05-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Patients from ethnic minority groups (EMGs) frequently report poorer asthma outcomes; however, a broad synthesis summarising ethnic disparities is yet to be undertaken. What is the magnitude of ethnic disparities in asthma healthcare utilisation, exacerbations and mortality?

Methods

MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched for studies reporting ethnic variation in asthma healthcare outcomes (primary care attendance, exacerbation, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalisation, hospital readmission, ventilation/intubation and mortality) between White patients and those from EMGs. Estimates were displayed using forest plots and random-effects models were used to calculate pooled estimates. We conducted subgroup analyses to explore heterogeneity, including by specific ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, Asian and other).

Results

65 studies, comprising 699 882 patients, were included. Most studies (92.3%) were conducted in the United States of America (USA). Patients from EMGs had evidence suggestive of lower levels of primary care attendance (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.48-1.09), but substantially higher ED visits (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.53-1.98), hospitalisations (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.48-1.79) and ventilation/intubation (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.65-4.31) when compared to White patients. In addition, we found evidence suggestive of increased hospital readmissions (OR 1.19, 95% CI 0.90-1.57) and exacerbation rates (OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.94-1.28) among EMGs. No eligible studies explored disparities in mortality. ED visits were much higher among Black and Hispanic patients, while Asian and other ethnicities had similar rates to White patients.

Conclusions

EMGs had higher secondary care utilisation and exacerbations. Despite the global importance of this issue, the majority of studies were performed in the USA. Further research into the causes of these disparities, including whether these vary by specific ethnicity, is required to aid the design of effective interventions.",,pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/early/2023/02/16/23120541.00591-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257?pdf=render 35130878,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02234-2,"Lifetime risk of cardiovascular-renal disease in type 2 diabetes: a population-based study in 473,399 individuals.","Zhang R, Mamza JB, Morris T, Godfrey G, Asselbergs FW, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-07,Y,Kidney; Type 2 diabetes; lifetime; Attributable Risk; Population Health; cardiovascular,,,"

Background

Cardiovascular and renal diseases (CVRD) are major causes of mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Studies of lifetime risk have neither considered all CVRD together nor the relative contribution of major risk factors to combined disease burden.

Methods

In a population-based cohort study using national electronic health records, we studied 473,399 individuals with T2D in England 2007-2018. Lifetime risk of individual and combined major adverse renal cardiovascular events, MARCE (including CV death and CVRD: heart failure; chronic kidney disease; myocardial infarction; stroke or peripheral artery disease), were estimated, accounting for baseline CVRD status and competing risk of death. We calculated population attributable risk for individual CVRD components. Ideal cardiovascular health was defined by blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, smoking, physical activity, diet, and body mass index (i.e. modifiable risk factors).

Results

In individuals with T2D, lifetime risk of MARCE was 80% in those free from CVRD and was 97%, 93%, 98%, 89% and 91% in individuals with heart failure, chronic kidney disease, myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral arterial disease, respectively at baseline. Among CVRD-free individuals, lifetime risk of chronic kidney disease was highest (54%), followed by CV death (41%), heart failure (29%), stroke (20%), myocardial infarction (19%) and peripheral arterial disease (9%). In those with HF only, 75% of MARCE after index T2D can be attributed to HF after adjusting for age, gender, and comorbidities. Compared with those with > 1, < 3 and ≥3 modifiable health risk behaviours, achieving ideal cardiovascular health could reduce MARCE by approximately 41.5%, 23.6% and 17.2%, respectively, in the T2D population.

Conclusions

Four out of five individuals with T2D free from CVRD, and nearly all those with history of CVRD, will develop MARCE over their lifetime. Early preventive measures in T2D patients are clinical, public health and policy priorities.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02234-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02234-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8822817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8822817?pdf=render 34969173,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2417,"A population-based study of 92 clinically recognized risk factors for heart failure: co-occurrence, prognosis and preventive potential.","Banerjee A, Pasea L, Chung SC, Direk K, Asselbergs FW, Grobbee DE, Kotecha D, Anker SD, Dyszynski T, Tyl B, Denaxas S, Lumbers RT, Hemingway H.",,European journal of heart failure,2022,2022-01-26,Y,Risk factor; epidemiology; Heart Failure; Primary Prevention,,,"

Aims

Primary prevention strategies for heart failure (HF) have had limited success, possibly due to a wide range of underlying risk factors (RFs). Systematic evaluations of the prognostic burden and preventive potential across this wide range of risk factors are lacking. We aimed at estimating evidence, prevalence and co-occurrence for primary prevention and impact on prognosis of RFs for incident HF.

Methods and results

We systematically reviewed trials and observational evidence of primary HF prevention across 92 putative aetiologic RFs for HF identified from US and European clinical practice guidelines. We identified 170 885 individuals aged ≥30 years with incident HF from 1997 to 2017, using linked primary and secondary care UK electronic health records (EHR) and rule-based phenotypes (ICD-10, Read Version 2, OPCS-4 procedure and medication codes) for each of 92 RFs. Only 10/92 factors had high quality observational evidence for association with incident HF; 7 had effective randomized controlled trial (RCT)-based interventions for HF prevention (RCT-HF), and 6 for cardiovascular disease prevention, but not HF (RCT-CVD), and the remainder had no RCT-based preventive interventions (RCT-0). We were able to map 91/92 risk factors to EHR using 5961 terms, and 88/91 factors were represented by at least one patient. In the 5 years prior to HF diagnosis, 44.3% had ≥4 RFs. By RCT evidence, the most common RCT-HF RFs were hypertension (48.5%), stable angina (34.9%), unstable angina (16.8%), myocardial infarction (15.8%), and diabetes (15.1%); RCT-CVD RFs were smoking (46.4%) and obesity (29.9%); and RCT-0 RFs were atrial arrhythmias (17.2%), cancer (16.5%), heavy alcohol intake (14.9%). Mortality at 1 year varied across all 91 factors (lowest: pregnancy-related hormonal disorder 4.2%; highest: phaeochromocytoma 73.7%). Among new HF cases, 28.5% had no RCT-HF RFs and 38.6% had no RCT-CVD RFs. 15.6% had either no RF or only RCT-0 RFs.

Conclusion

One in six individuals with HF have no recorded RFs or RFs without trials. We provide a systematic map of primary preventive opportunities across a wide range of RFs for HF, demonstrating a high burden of co-occurrence and the need for trials tackling multiple RFs.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.2417; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9305958; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9305958?pdf=render +37143831,https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022,Ethnic variation in asthma healthcare utilisation and exacerbation: systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Akin-Imran A, Bajpai A, McCartan D, Heaney LG, Kee F, Redmond C, Busby J.",,ERJ open research,2023,2023-05-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Patients from ethnic minority groups (EMGs) frequently report poorer asthma outcomes; however, a broad synthesis summarising ethnic disparities is yet to be undertaken. What is the magnitude of ethnic disparities in asthma healthcare utilisation, exacerbations and mortality?

Methods

MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched for studies reporting ethnic variation in asthma healthcare outcomes (primary care attendance, exacerbation, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalisation, hospital readmission, ventilation/intubation and mortality) between White patients and those from EMGs. Estimates were displayed using forest plots and random-effects models were used to calculate pooled estimates. We conducted subgroup analyses to explore heterogeneity, including by specific ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, Asian and other).

Results

65 studies, comprising 699 882 patients, were included. Most studies (92.3%) were conducted in the United States of America (USA). Patients from EMGs had evidence suggestive of lower levels of primary care attendance (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.48-1.09), but substantially higher ED visits (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.53-1.98), hospitalisations (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.48-1.79) and ventilation/intubation (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.65-4.31) when compared to White patients. In addition, we found evidence suggestive of increased hospital readmissions (OR 1.19, 95% CI 0.90-1.57) and exacerbation rates (OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.94-1.28) among EMGs. No eligible studies explored disparities in mortality. ED visits were much higher among Black and Hispanic patients, while Asian and other ethnicities had similar rates to White patients.

Conclusions

EMGs had higher secondary care utilisation and exacerbations. Despite the global importance of this issue, the majority of studies were performed in the USA. Further research into the causes of these disparities, including whether these vary by specific ethnicity, is required to aid the design of effective interventions.",,pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/early/2023/02/16/23120541.00591-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257?pdf=render 31912053,https://doi.org/,Described Practices for Assessing Fluid Resuscitation in Acute Hospital Care: A Qualitative Study.,"Lloyd E, Ignatowicz A, Sapey E, Lasserson D, Seccombe A.",,Acute medicine,2019,2019-01-01,N,,,,"Fluid resuscitation is a widely-used treatment in acute and emergency medicine, however, the process used to perform a fluid assessment has never been studied. This qualitative study explored how acute physicians describe their approach to assessing for fluid resuscitation. 18 clinicians of varying grades consented to a semi-structured interview. Transcripts were coded and analysed using thematic analysis. Participants described three subtypes of assessment; screening assessment, emergency assessment and formal assessment. Whether a patient was 'sick' was key to determining which assessment they would receive. Marked heterogeneity was noted in the assessment processes, particularly regarding the use of history-taking. Further research is required to determine how the information gathered in these assessments is used to decide when fluid resuscitation is indicated.",, 33851963,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2021.0009,Association Between Atopic Dermatitis and Educational Attainment in Denmark. ,"Schmidt SAJ, Mailhac A, Darvalics B, Mulick A, Deleuran MS, Sørensen HT, Riis JL, Langan SM.",,JAMA dermatology,2021,2021-04-14,Y,,,,"Atopic dermatitis (AD) may affect academic performance through multiple pathways, including poor concentration associated with itching, sleep deprivation, or adverse effects of medications. Because educational attainment is associated with health and well-being, any association with a prevalent condition such as AD is of major importance. To examine whether a childhood diagnosis of AD is associated with lower educational attainment. This population-based cohort study used linked routine health care data from January 1, 1977, to June 30, 2017 (end of registry follow-up), in Denmark. The study population included all children born in Denmark on June 30, 1987, or earlier with an inpatient or outpatient hospital clinic diagnosis of AD recorded before their 13th birthday (baseline) and a comparison cohort of children from the general population matched by birth year and sex. A secondary analysis included exposure-discordant full siblings as a comparison cohort to account for familial factors. Data were analyzed from September 11, 2019, to January 21, 2021. Hospital-diagnosed AD. Estimated probability or risk of not attaining specific educational levels (lower secondary, upper secondary, and higher) by 30 years of age among children with AD compared with children in the matched general population cohort. Corresponding risk ratios (RRs) were computed using Poisson regression that was conditioned on matched sets and adjusted for age. The sibling analysis was conditioned on family and adjusted for sex and age. The study included a total of 61 153 children, 5927 in the AD cohort (3341 male [56.4%]) and 55 226 from the general population (31 182 male [56.5%]). Compared with matched children from the general population, children with AD were at increased risk of not attaining lower secondary education (150 of 5927 [2.5%] vs 924 of 55 226 [1.7%]; adjusted RR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.26-1.78) and upper secondary education (1141 of 5777 [19.8%] vs 8690 of 52 899 [16.4%]; RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.09-1.24), but not higher education (2406 of 4636 [51.9%] vs 18 785 of 35 408 [53.1%]; RR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.91-1.00). The absolute differences in probability were less than 3.5%. The comparison of 3259 children with AD and 4046 of their full siblings yielded estimates that were less pronounced than those in the main analysis (adjusted RR for lower secondary education, 1.29 [95% CI, 0.92-1.82]; adjusted RR for upper secondary education, 1.05 [95% CI, 0.93-1.18]; adjusted RR for higher education, 0.94 [95% CI, 0.87-1.02]). This population-based cohort study found that hospital-diagnosed AD was associated with reduced educational attainment, but the clinical importance was uncertain owing to small absolute differences and possible confounding by familial factors in this study. Future studies should examine for replicability in other populations and variation by AD phenotype.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/articlepdf/2778389/jamadermatology_schmidt_2021_oi_210002_1623774349.64965.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2021.0009; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8047754 36050271,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00151-0,CODE-EHR best-practice framework for the use of structured electronic health-care records in clinical research.,"Kotecha D, Asselbergs FW, Achenbach S, Anker SD, Atar D, Baigent C, Banerjee A, Beger B, Brobert G, Casadei B, Ceccarelli C, Cowie MR, Crea F, Cronin M, Denaxas S, Derix A, Fitzsimons D, Fredriksson M, Gale CP, Gkoutos GV, Goettsch W, Hemingway H, Ingvar M, Jonas A, Kazmierski R, Løgstrup S, Lumbers RT, Lüscher TF, McGreavy P, Piña IL, Roessig L, Steinbeisser C, Sundgren M, Tyl B, Thiel GV, Bochove KV, Vardas PE, Villanueva T, Vrana M, Weber W, Weidinger F, Windecker S, Wood A, Grobbee DE, Innovative Medicines Initiative BigData@Heart Consortium, European Society of Cardiology, and CODE-EHR International Consensus Group.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-08-29,N,,,,"Big data is important to new developments in global clinical science that aim to improve the lives of patients. Technological advances have led to the regular use of structured electronic health-care records with the potential to address key deficits in clinical evidence that could improve patient care. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown this potential in big data and related analytics but has also revealed important limitations. Data verification, data validation, data privacy, and a mandate from the public to conduct research are important challenges to effective use of routine health-care data. The European Society of Cardiology and the BigData@Heart consortium have brought together a range of international stakeholders, including representation from patients, clinicians, scientists, regulators, journal editors, and industry members. In this Review, we propose the CODE-EHR minimum standards framework to be used by researchers and clinicians to improve the design of studies and enhance transparency of study methods. The CODE-EHR framework aims to develop robust and effective utilisation of health-care data for research purposes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00151-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00151-0 @@ -850,84 +850,84 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 37395705,https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.12.7.3,Reliability of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Retinal Blood Flow Analyses.,"Courtie EF, Gilani A, Capewell N, Kale AU, Hui BTK, Liu X, Montesano G, Teussink M, Denniston AK, Veenith T, Blanch RJ.",,Translational vision science & technology,2023,2023-07-01,Y,,,,"

Purpose

Investigate the association between the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) metrics derived from different analysis programs to understand the comparability of studies using these different approaches.

Methods

Secondary analysis of a prospective observational study (March 2018-September 2021). Forty-four right eyes and 42 left eyes from 44 patients were included. Patients were either undergoing upper gastrointestinal surgery with a critical care stay planned or were already in the critical care unit with sepsis. OCTA scans were obtained in an ophthalmology department or critical care setting. Fourteen OCTA metrics were compared within and between the programs, and agreement was measured by Pearson's R coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient.

Results

Correlation was highest between all Heidelberg metrics and Fractalyse (all >0.84), and lowest between Matlab skeletonized or foveal avascular zone metrics and all other measures (e.g., skeletal fractal dimension and vessel density at -0.02). Agreement between eyes was moderate to excellent in all metrics (0.60-0.90).

Conclusions

The significant variability between metrics and programs used for OCTA analysis demonstrates that they are not interchangeable and supports a recommendation for perfusion density metrics to be reported as standard.

Translational relevance

Agreement between different OCTA analyses is variable and not interchangeable. The high agreement between non-skeletonized vessel density metrics suggests that these should be routinely reported.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.12.7.3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.12.7.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10324418; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10324418?pdf=render 37440761,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead166,Neuroticism personality traits are linked to adverse cardiovascular phenotypes in the UK Biobank.,"Mahmood A, Simon J, Cooper J, Murphy T, McCracken C, Quiroz J, Laranjo L, Aung N, Lee AM, Khanji MY, Neubauer S, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Maurovich-Horvat P, Petersen SE.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2023,2023-07-13,N,,,,"

Aims

To evaluate the relationship between neuroticism personality traits and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) measures of cardiac morphology and function, considering potential differential associations in men and women.

Methods and results

The analysis includes 36,309 UK Biobank participants (average age= 63.9±7.7 years; 47.8% men) with CMR available and neuroticism score assessed by the 12-item Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Form. CMR scans were performed on 1.5 Tesla scanners (MAGNETOM Aera, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) according to pre-defined protocols and analysed using automated pipelines. We considered measures of left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) structure and function, and indicators of arterial compliance. Multivariable linear regression was used to estimate association of neuroticism score with individual CMR metrics, with adjustment for age, sex, obesity, deprivation, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, alcohol use, exercise, and education. Higher neuroticism scores were associated with smaller LV and RV end-diastolic volumes, lower LV mass, greater concentricity (higher LV mass to volume ratio), and higher native T1. Greater neuroticism was also linked to poorer LV and RV function (lower stroke volumes) and greater arterial stiffness. In sex-stratified analyses, the relationships between neuroticism and LV stroke volume, concentricity, and arterial stiffness were attenuated in women. In men, association (with exception of native T1) remained robust.

Conclusion

Greater tendency towards neuroticism personality traits is linked to smaller, poorer functioning ventricles with lower LV mass, higher myocardial fibrosis, and higher arterial stiffness. These relationships are independent of traditional vascular risk factors and are more robust in men than women.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jead166/50880139/jead166.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead166 33497994,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.12.003,Obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic: both cause of high risk and potential effect of lockdown? A population-based electronic health record study.,"Katsoulis M, Pasea L, Lai AG, Dobson RJB, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,Public health,2021,2020-12-14,Y,Obesity; Diabetes; Coronavirus; Physical Activity; cardiovascular,,,"

Objectives

Obesity is a modifiable risk factor for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related mortality. We estimated excess mortality in obesity, both 'direct', through infection, and 'indirect', through changes in health care, and also due to potential increasing obesity during lockdown.

Study design

The study design of this study is a retrospective cohort study and causal inference methods.

Methods

In population-based electronic health records for 1,958,638 individuals in England, we estimated 1-year mortality risk ('direct' and 'indirect' effects) for obese individuals, incorporating (i) pre-COVID-19 risk by age, sex and comorbidities, (ii) population infection rate and (iii) relative impact on mortality (relative risk [RR]: 1.2, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0). Using causal inference models, we estimated impact of change in body mass index (BMI) and physical activity during 3-month lockdown on 1-year incidence for high-risk conditions (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic kidney disease), accounting for confounders.

Results

For severely obese individuals (3.5% at baseline), at 10% population infection rate, we estimated direct impact of 240 and 479 excess deaths in England at RR 1.5 and 2.0, respectively, and indirect effect of 383-767 excess deaths, assuming 40% and 80% will be affected at RR = 1.2. Owing to BMI change during the lockdown, we estimated that 97,755 (5.4%: normal weight to overweight, 5.0%: overweight to obese and 1.3%: obese to severely obese) to 434,104 individuals (15%: normal weight to overweight, 15%: overweight to obese and 6%: obese to severely obese) would be at higher risk for COVID-19 over one year.

Conclusions

Prevention of obesity and promotion of physical activity are at least as important as physical isolation of severely obese individuals during the pandemic.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.12.003; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.12.003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7832229; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7832229?pdf=render -35634533,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1,A comprehensive high cost drugs dataset from the NHS in England - An OpenSAFELY-TPP Short Data Report.,"Rowan A, Bates C, Hulme W, Evans D, Davy S, A Kennedy N, Galloway J, E Mansfield K, Bechman K, Matthewman J, Yates M, Brown J, Schultze A, Norton S, J Walker A, E Morton C, Bhaskaran K, T Rentsch C, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hickman G, Ward T, Green A, Fisher L, J Curtis H, Tazare J, M Eggo R, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, I McDonald H, Mathur R, Ys Wong A, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, J Douglas I, Smeeth L, A Tomlinson L, W Lees C, Evans S, Smith C, M Langan S, Mehkar A, MacKenna B, Goldacre B.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-12-22,Y,Medications; Biosimilars; Healthcare Administration; Opensafely,,,"Background: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no routine comprehensive hospital medicines data from the UK available to researchers. These records can be important for many analyses including the effect of certain medicines on the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. With the approval of NHS England, we set out to obtain data on one specific group of medicines, ""high-cost drugs"" (HCD) which are typically specialist medicines for the management of long-term conditions, prescribed by hospitals to patients. Additionally, we aimed to make these data available to all approved researchers in OpenSAFELY-TPP. This report is intended to support all studies carried out in OpenSAFELY-TPP, and those elsewhere, working with this dataset or similar data. Methods: Working with the North East Commissioning Support Unit and NHS Digital, we arranged for collation of a single national HCD dataset to help inform responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The dataset was developed from payment submissions from hospitals to commissioners. Results: In the financial year (FY) 2018/19 there were 2.8 million submissions for 1.1 million unique patient IDs recorded in the HCD. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 2.6. In FY 2019/20 there were 4.0 million submissions for 1.3 million unique patient IDs. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 3.1. Of the 21 variables in the dataset, three are now available for analysis in OpenSafely-TPP: Financial year and month of drug being dispensed; drug name; and a description of the drug dispensed. Conclusions: We have described the process for sourcing a national HCD dataset, making these data available for COVID-19-related analysis through OpenSAFELY-TPP and provided information on the variables included in the dataset, data coverage and an initial descriptive analysis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928?pdf=render 32790708,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237298,Clinical academic research in the time of Corona: A simulation study in England and a call for action.,"Banerjee A, Katsoulis M, Lai AG, Pasea L, Treibel TA, Manisty C, Denaxas S, Quarta G, Hemingway H, Cavalcante JL, Noursadeghi M, Moon JC.",,PloS one,2020,2020-08-13,Y,,,,"

Objectives

We aimed to model the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the clinical academic response in England, and to provide recommendations for COVID-related research.

Design

A stochastic model to determine clinical academic capacity in England, incorporating the following key factors which affect the ability to conduct research in the COVID-19 climate: (i) infection growth rate and population infection rate (from UK COVID-19 statistics and WHO); (ii) strain on the healthcare system (from published model); and (iii) availability of clinical academic staff with appropriate skillsets affected by frontline clinical activity and sickness (from UK statistics).

Setting

Clinical academics in primary and secondary care in England.

Participants

Equivalent of 3200 full-time clinical academics in England.

Interventions

Four policy approaches to COVID-19 with differing population infection rates: ""Italy model"" (6%), ""mitigation"" (10%), ""relaxed mitigation"" (40%) and ""do-nothing"" (80%) scenarios. Low and high strain on the health system (no clinical academics able to do research at 10% and 5% infection rate, respectively.

Main outcome measures

Number of full-time clinical academics available to conduct clinical research during the pandemic in England.

Results

In the ""Italy model"", ""mitigation"", ""relaxed mitigation"" and ""do-nothing"" scenarios, from 5 March 2020 the duration (days) and peak infection rates (%) are 95(2.4%), 115(2.5%), 240(5.3%) and 240(16.7%) respectively. Near complete attrition of academia (87% reduction, <400 clinical academics) occurs 35 days after pandemic start for 11, 34, 62, 76 days respectively-with no clinical academics at all for 37 days in the ""do-nothing"" scenario. Restoration of normal academic workforce (80% of normal capacity) takes 11, 12, 30 and 26 weeks respectively.

Conclusions

Pandemic COVID-19 crushes the science needed at system level. National policies mitigate, but the academic community needs to adapt. We highlight six key strategies: radical prioritisation (eg 3-4 research ideas per institution), deep resourcing, non-standard leadership (repurposing of key non-frontline teams), rationalisation (profoundly simple approaches), careful site selection (eg protected sites with large academic backup) and complete suspension of academic competition with collaborative approaches.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237298&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237298; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425844; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425844?pdf=render +35634533,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1,A comprehensive high cost drugs dataset from the NHS in England - An OpenSAFELY-TPP Short Data Report.,"Rowan A, Bates C, Hulme W, Evans D, Davy S, A Kennedy N, Galloway J, E Mansfield K, Bechman K, Matthewman J, Yates M, Brown J, Schultze A, Norton S, J Walker A, E Morton C, Bhaskaran K, T Rentsch C, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hickman G, Ward T, Green A, Fisher L, J Curtis H, Tazare J, M Eggo R, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, I McDonald H, Mathur R, Ys Wong A, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, J Douglas I, Smeeth L, A Tomlinson L, W Lees C, Evans S, Smith C, M Langan S, Mehkar A, MacKenna B, Goldacre B.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-12-22,Y,Medications; Biosimilars; Healthcare Administration; Opensafely,,,"Background: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no routine comprehensive hospital medicines data from the UK available to researchers. These records can be important for many analyses including the effect of certain medicines on the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. With the approval of NHS England, we set out to obtain data on one specific group of medicines, ""high-cost drugs"" (HCD) which are typically specialist medicines for the management of long-term conditions, prescribed by hospitals to patients. Additionally, we aimed to make these data available to all approved researchers in OpenSAFELY-TPP. This report is intended to support all studies carried out in OpenSAFELY-TPP, and those elsewhere, working with this dataset or similar data. Methods: Working with the North East Commissioning Support Unit and NHS Digital, we arranged for collation of a single national HCD dataset to help inform responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The dataset was developed from payment submissions from hospitals to commissioners. Results: In the financial year (FY) 2018/19 there were 2.8 million submissions for 1.1 million unique patient IDs recorded in the HCD. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 2.6. In FY 2019/20 there were 4.0 million submissions for 1.3 million unique patient IDs. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 3.1. Of the 21 variables in the dataset, three are now available for analysis in OpenSafely-TPP: Financial year and month of drug being dispensed; drug name; and a description of the drug dispensed. Conclusions: We have described the process for sourcing a national HCD dataset, making these data available for COVID-19-related analysis through OpenSAFELY-TPP and provided information on the variables included in the dataset, data coverage and an initial descriptive analysis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928?pdf=render 31685485,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031365,"Diagnosed prevalence of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and hypermobility spectrum disorder in Wales, UK: a national electronic cohort study and case-control comparison.","Demmler JC, Atkinson MD, Reinhold EJ, Choy E, Lyons RA, Brophy ST.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-11-04,Y,Prevalence; Joint Hypermobility Syndrome; Ehlers-danlos Syndromes; Heritable Disorders Of Connective Tissue; Health Data Linkage; Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder,Improving Public Health,,"

Objectives

To describe the epidemiology of diagnosed hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD) and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) using linked electronic medical records. To examine whether these conditions remain rare and primarily affect the musculoskeletal system.

Design

Nationwide linked electronic cohort and nested case-control study.

Setting

Routinely collected data from primary care and hospital admissions in Wales, UK.

Participants

People within the primary care or hospital data systems with a coded diagnosis of EDS or joint hypermobility syndrome (JHS) between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 2017.

Main outcome measures

Combined prevalence of JHS and EDS in Wales. Additional diagnosis and prescription data in those diagnosed with EDS or JHS compared with matched controls.

Results

We found 6021 individuals (men: 30%, women: 70%) with a diagnostic code of either EDS or JHS. This gives a diagnosed point prevalence of 194.2 per 100 000 in 2016/2017 or roughly 10 cases in a practice of 5000 patients. There was a pronounced gender difference of 8.5 years (95% CI: 7.70 to 9.22) in the mean age at diagnosis. EDS or JHS was not only associated with high odds for other musculoskeletal diagnoses and drug prescriptions but also with significantly higher odds of a diagnosis in other disease categories (eg, mental health, nervous and digestive systems) and higher odds of a prescription in most disease categories (eg, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular drugs) within the 12 months before and after the first recorded diagnosis.

Conclusions

EDS and JHS (since March 2017 classified as EDS or HSD) have historically been considered rare diseases only affecting the musculoskeletal system and soft tissues. These data demonstrate that both these assertions should be reconsidered.","epidemiological study looking at the prevalence of ehlos danlos syndrome and joint hypermobility syndrome, using SAIL database for welsh population. They found a steady increase in the rates of diagnosis for these two diseases, higher odds of being on other medication, and association with other diseases categories.",pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/11/e031365.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031365; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858200; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858200?pdf=render 35698725,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2665-9913(22)00098-4,Risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and immune-modifying therapies: a nationwide cohort study in the OpenSAFELY platform.,"MacKenna B, Kennedy NA, Mehrkar A, Rowan A, Galloway J, Matthewman J, Mansfield KE, Bechman K, Yates M, Brown J, Schultze A, Norton S, Walker AJ, Morton CE, Harrison D, Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hickman G, Ward T, Davy S, Green A, Fisher L, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Tazare J, Eggo RM, Evans D, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Tomlinson LA, Mathur R, Wong AYS, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Lees CW, Evans SJW, Goldacre B, Smith CH, Langan SM.",,The Lancet. Rheumatology,2022,2022-06-09,Y,,,,"

Background

The risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and on immune-modifying drugs might not be fully mediated by comorbidities and might vary by factors such as ethnicity. We aimed to assess the risk of severe COVID-19 in adults with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and in those on immune-modifying therapies.

Methods

We did a cohort study, using OpenSAFELY (an analytics platform for electronic health records) and TPP (a software provider for general practitioners), analysing routinely collected primary care data linked to hospital admission, death, and previously unavailable hospital prescription data. We included people aged 18 years or older on March 1, 2020, who were registered with TPP practices with at least 12 months of primary care records before March, 2020. We used Cox regression (adjusting for confounders and mediators) to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) comparing the risk of COVID-19-related death, critical care admission or death, and hospital admission (from March 1 to Sept 30, 2020) in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases compared with the general population, and in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases on targeted immune-modifying drugs (eg, biologics) compared with those on standard systemic treatment (eg, methotrexate).

Findings

We identified 17 672 065 adults; 1 163 438 adults (640 164 [55·0%] women and 523 274 [45·0%] men, and 827 457 [71·1%] of White ethnicity) had immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, and 16 508 627 people (8 215 020 [49·8%] women and 8 293 607 [50·2%] men, and 10 614 096 [64·3%] of White ethnicity) were included as the general population. Of 1 163 438 adults with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, 19 119 (1·6%) received targeted immune-modifying therapy and 181 694 (15·6%) received standard systemic therapy. Compared with the general population, adults with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases had an increased risk of COVID-19-related death after adjusting for confounders (age, sex, deprivation, and smoking status; HR 1·23, 95% CI 1·20-1·27) and further adjusting for mediators (body-mass index [BMI], cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and current glucocorticoid use; 1·15, 1·11-1·18). Adults with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases also had an increased risk of COVID-19-related critical care admission or death (confounder-adjusted HR 1·24, 95% CI 1·21-1·28; mediator-adjusted 1·16, 1·12-1·19) and hospital admission (confounder-adjusted 1·32, 1·29-1·35; mediator-adjusted 1·20, 1·17-1·23). In post-hoc analyses, the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases was higher in non-White ethnic groups than in White ethnic groups (as it was in the general population). We saw no evidence of increased COVID-19-related death in adults on targeted, compared with those on standard systemic, therapy after adjusting for confounders (age, sex, deprivation, BMI, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases [bowel, joint, and skin], cardiovascular disease, cancer [excluding non-melanoma skin cancer], stroke, and diabetes (HR 1·03, 95% CI 0·80-1·33), and after additionally adjusting for current glucocorticoid use (1·01, 0·78-1·30). There was no evidence of increased COVID-19-related death in adults prescribed tumour necrosis factor inhibitors, interleukin (IL)-12/IL‑23 inhibitors, IL-17 inhibitors, IL-6 inhibitors, or Janus kinase inhibitors compared with those on standard systemic therapy. Rituximab was associated with increased COVID-19-related death (HR 1·68, 95% CI 1·11-2·56), with some attenuation after excluding people with haematological malignancies or organ transplants (1·54, 0·95-2·49).

Interpretation

COVID-19 deaths and hospital admissions were higher in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. We saw no increased risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes in those on most targeted immune-modifying drugs for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases compared with those on standard systemic therapy.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, and Wellcome Trust.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2665991322000984/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(22)00098-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9179144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9179144?pdf=render -37337639,https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291,Trans-ethnic polygenic risk scores for body mass index: An international hundred K+ cohorts consortium study.,"Qu HQ, Connolly JJ, Kraft P, Long J, Pereira A, Flatley C, Turman C, Prins B, Mentch F, Lotufo PA, Magnus P, Stampfer MJ, Tamimi R, Eliassen AH, Zheng W, Knudsen GPS, Helgeland O, Butterworth AS, Hakonarson H, Sleiman PM, IHCC consortium.",,Clinical and translational medicine,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Obesity; Population admixture; body mass index; Polygenic Risk Score; Trans-ethnic,,,"

Background

While polygenic risk scores hold significant promise in estimating an individual's risk of developing a complex trait such as obesity, their application in the clinic has, to date, been limited by a lack of data from non-European populations. As a collaboration model of the International Hundred K+ Cohorts Consortium (IHCC), we endeavored to develop a globally applicable trans-ethnic PRS for body mass index (BMI) through this relatively new international effort.

Methods

The polygenic risk score (PRS) model was developed, trained and tested at the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) based on a BMI meta-analysis from the GIANT consortium. The validated PRS models were subsequently disseminated to the participating sites. Scores were generated by each site locally on their cohorts and summary statistics returned to CAG for final analysis.

Results

We show that in the absence of a well powered trans-ethnic GWAS from which to derive marker SNPs and effect estimates for PRS, trans-ethnic scores can be generated from European ancestry GWAS using Bayesian approaches such as LDpred, by adjusting the summary statistics using trans-ethnic linkage disequilibrium reference panels. The ported trans-ethnic scores outperform population specific-PRS across all non-European ancestry populations investigated including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilian cohort.

Conclusions

Here we show that for a truly polygenic trait such as BMI adjusting the summary statistics of a well powered European ancestry study using trans-ethnic LD reference results in a score that is predictive across a range of ancestries including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilians.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047?pdf=render -31104603,https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276,Outbreak analytics: a developing data science for informing the response to emerging pathogens.,"Polonsky JA, Baidjoe A, Kamvar ZN, Cori A, Durski K, Edmunds WJ, Eggo RM, Funk S, Kaiser L, Keating P, de Waroux OLP, Marks M, Moraga P, Morgan O, Nouvellet P, Ratnayake R, Roberts CH, Whitworth J, Jombart T.",,"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences",2019,2019-07-01,Y,Methods; Software; epidemics; Infectious; pipeline; Tools,Applied Analytics,,"Despite continued efforts to improve health systems worldwide, emerging pathogen epidemics remain a major public health concern. Effective response to such outbreaks relies on timely intervention, ideally informed by all available sources of data. The collection, visualization and analysis of outbreak data are becoming increasingly complex, owing to the diversity in types of data, questions and available methods to address them. Recent advances have led to the rise of outbreak analytics, an emerging data science focused on the technological and methodological aspects of the outbreak data pipeline, from collection to analysis, modelling and reporting to inform outbreak response. In this article, we assess the current state of the field. After laying out the context of outbreak response, we critically review the most common analytics components, their inter-dependencies, data requirements and the type of information they can provide to inform operations in real time. We discuss some challenges and opportunities and conclude on the potential role of outbreak analytics for improving our understanding of, and response to outbreaks of emerging pathogens. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: epidemic forecasting and control'. This theme issue is linked with the earlier issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: approaches and important themes'.",,pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557?pdf=render 37532769,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05171-9,Direct inference and control of genetic population structure from RNA sequencing data.,"Fachrul M, Karkey A, Shakya M, Judd LM, Harshegyi T, Sim KS, Tonks S, Dongol S, Shrestha R, Salim A, STRATAA study group, Baker S, Pollard AJ, Khor CC, Dolecek C, Basnyat B, Dunstan SJ, Holt KE, Inouye M.",,Communications biology,2023,2023-08-02,Y,,,,"RNAseq data can be used to infer genetic variants, yet its use for estimating genetic population structure remains underexplored. Here, we construct a freely available computational tool (RGStraP) to estimate RNAseq-based genetic principal components (RG-PCs) and assess whether RG-PCs can be used to control for population structure in gene expression analyses. Using whole blood samples from understudied Nepalese populations and the Geuvadis study, we show that RG-PCs had comparable results to paired array-based genotypes, with high genotype concordance and high correlations of genetic principal components, capturing subpopulations within the dataset. In differential gene expression analysis, we found that inclusion of RG-PCs as covariates reduced test statistic inflation. Our paper demonstrates that genetic population structure can be directly inferred and controlled for using RNAseq data, thus facilitating improved retrospective and future analyses of transcriptomic data.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05171-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05171-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10397182; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10397182?pdf=render +37337639,https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291,Trans-ethnic polygenic risk scores for body mass index: An international hundred K+ cohorts consortium study.,"Qu HQ, Connolly JJ, Kraft P, Long J, Pereira A, Flatley C, Turman C, Prins B, Mentch F, Lotufo PA, Magnus P, Stampfer MJ, Tamimi R, Eliassen AH, Zheng W, Knudsen GPS, Helgeland O, Butterworth AS, Hakonarson H, Sleiman PM, IHCC consortium.",,Clinical and translational medicine,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Obesity; Population admixture; body mass index; Polygenic Risk Score; Trans-ethnic,,,"

Background

While polygenic risk scores hold significant promise in estimating an individual's risk of developing a complex trait such as obesity, their application in the clinic has, to date, been limited by a lack of data from non-European populations. As a collaboration model of the International Hundred K+ Cohorts Consortium (IHCC), we endeavored to develop a globally applicable trans-ethnic PRS for body mass index (BMI) through this relatively new international effort.

Methods

The polygenic risk score (PRS) model was developed, trained and tested at the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) based on a BMI meta-analysis from the GIANT consortium. The validated PRS models were subsequently disseminated to the participating sites. Scores were generated by each site locally on their cohorts and summary statistics returned to CAG for final analysis.

Results

We show that in the absence of a well powered trans-ethnic GWAS from which to derive marker SNPs and effect estimates for PRS, trans-ethnic scores can be generated from European ancestry GWAS using Bayesian approaches such as LDpred, by adjusting the summary statistics using trans-ethnic linkage disequilibrium reference panels. The ported trans-ethnic scores outperform population specific-PRS across all non-European ancestry populations investigated including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilian cohort.

Conclusions

Here we show that for a truly polygenic trait such as BMI adjusting the summary statistics of a well powered European ancestry study using trans-ethnic LD reference results in a score that is predictive across a range of ancestries including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilians.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047?pdf=render 34399584,https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.032619,Risk Prediction Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prevention of Stroke and Other Cardiovascular Diseases.,"Abraham G, Rutten-Jacobs L, Inouye M.",,Stroke,2021,2021-08-17,N,Genetics; Myocardial infarction; Cardiovascular disease; Stroke; risk assessment,,,"Early prediction of risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), including stroke, is a cornerstone of disease prevention. Clinical risk scores have been widely used for predicting CVD risk from known risk factors. Most CVDs have a substantial genetic component, which also has been confirmed for stroke in recent gene discovery efforts. However, the role of genetics in prediction of risk of CVD, including stroke, has been limited to testing for highly penetrant monogenic disorders. In contrast, the importance of polygenic variation, the aggregated effect of many common genetic variants across the genome with individually small effects, has become more apparent in the last 5 to 10 years, and powerful polygenic risk scores for CVD have been developed. Here we review the current state of the field of polygenic risk scores for CVD including stroke, and their potential to improve CVD risk prediction. We present findings and lessons from diseases such as coronary artery disease as these will likely be useful to inform future research in stroke polygenic risk prediction.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.032619; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.032619; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611731; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611731?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.032619 +31104603,https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276,Outbreak analytics: a developing data science for informing the response to emerging pathogens.,"Polonsky JA, Baidjoe A, Kamvar ZN, Cori A, Durski K, Edmunds WJ, Eggo RM, Funk S, Kaiser L, Keating P, de Waroux OLP, Marks M, Moraga P, Morgan O, Nouvellet P, Ratnayake R, Roberts CH, Whitworth J, Jombart T.",,"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences",2019,2019-07-01,Y,Methods; Software; epidemics; Infectious; pipeline; Tools,Applied Analytics,,"Despite continued efforts to improve health systems worldwide, emerging pathogen epidemics remain a major public health concern. Effective response to such outbreaks relies on timely intervention, ideally informed by all available sources of data. The collection, visualization and analysis of outbreak data are becoming increasingly complex, owing to the diversity in types of data, questions and available methods to address them. Recent advances have led to the rise of outbreak analytics, an emerging data science focused on the technological and methodological aspects of the outbreak data pipeline, from collection to analysis, modelling and reporting to inform outbreak response. In this article, we assess the current state of the field. After laying out the context of outbreak response, we critically review the most common analytics components, their inter-dependencies, data requirements and the type of information they can provide to inform operations in real time. We discuss some challenges and opportunities and conclude on the potential role of outbreak analytics for improving our understanding of, and response to outbreaks of emerging pathogens. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: epidemic forecasting and control'. This theme issue is linked with the earlier issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: approaches and important themes'.",,pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557?pdf=render 34286192,https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0083,Making trials part of good clinical care: lessons from the RECOVERY trial.,"Pessoa-Amorim G, Campbell M, Fletcher L, Horby P, Landray M, Mafham M, Haynes R.",,Future healthcare journal,2021,2021-07-01,N,Recovery; RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIALS; evidence-based medicine; Quality-by-design; Covid-19,,,"When COVID-19 hit the UK in early 2020, there were no known treatments for a condition that results in the death of around one in four patients hospitalised with this disease. Around the world, possible treatments were administered to huge numbers of patients, without any reliable assessments of safety and efficacy. The rapid generation of high-quality evidence was vital. RECOVERY is a streamlined, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial, which was set up in response to this challenge. As of April 2021, over 39,000 patients have been enrolled from 178 hospital sites in the UK. Within 100 days of its initiation, RECOVERY demonstrated that dexamethasone improves survival for patients with severe disease; a result that was rapidly implemented in the UK and internationally saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Importantly, it also showed that other widely used treatments (such as hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin) have no meaningful benefit for hospitalised patients. This was only possible through randomisation of large numbers of patients and the adoption of streamlined and pragmatic procedures focused on quality, together with widespread collaboration focused on a single goal. RECOVERY illustrates how clinical trials and healthcare can be integrated, even in a pandemic. This approach provides new opportunities to generate the evidence needed for high-quality healthcare not only for a pandemic but for the many other conditions that place a burden on patients and the healthcare system.",,pdf:https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/futurehosp/8/2/e243.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8285150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8285150?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0083 35921096,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2022.2333,Joint Genetic Inhibition of PCSK9 and CETP and the Association With Coronary Artery Disease: A Factorial Mendelian Randomization Study.,"Cupido AJ, Reeskamp LF, Hingorani AD, Finan C, Asselbergs FW, Hovingh GK, Schmidt AF.",,JAMA cardiology,2022,2022-09-01,N,,,,"

Importance

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibition (CETP) has been shown to increase levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and reduce levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Current LDL-C target attainment is low, and novel phase 3 trials are underway to investigate whether CETP inhibitors result in reduction of cardiovascular disease risk in high-risk patients who may be treated with PCSK9-inhibiting agents.

Objective

To explore the associations of combined reduction of CETP and PCSK9 concentrations with risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and other clinical and safety outcomes.

Design, setting, and participants

Two-sample 2 × 2 factorial Mendelian randomization study in a general population sample that includes data for UK Biobank participants of European ancestry.

Exposures

Separate genetic scores were constructed for CETP and PCSK9 plasma protein concentrations, which were combined to determine the associations of combined genetically reduced CETP and PCSK9 concentrations with disease.

Main outcomes and measures

Blood lipid and lipoprotein concentrations, blood pressure, CAD, age-related macular degeneration, type 2 diabetes, any stroke and ischemic stroke, Alzheimer disease, vascular dementia, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, asthma, and multiple sclerosis.

Results

Data for 425 354 UKB participants were included; the median (IQR) age was 59 years (51-64), and 229 399 (53.9%) were female. The associations of lower CETP and lower PCSK9 concentrations with CAD are similar when scaled per 10-mg/dL reduction in LDL-C concentrations (CETP: odds ratio [OR], 0.74; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.81; PCSK9: OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.71 to 0.79). Combined exposure to lower CETP and PCSK9 concentrations was associated with an additive magnitude with lipids and all outcomes, and we did not observe any nonadditive interactions, most notably for LDL-C (CETP: effect size, -1.11 mg/dL; 95% CI, -1.40 to -0.82; PCSK9: effect size, -2.13 mg/dL; 95% CI, -2.43 to -1.84; combined: effect size, -3.47 mg/dL; 95% CI, -3.76 to -3.18; P = .34 for interaction) and CAD (CETP: OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.94 to 1.00; PCSK9: OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.91 to 0.97; combined: OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.87 to 0.93; P = .83 for interaction). In addition, when corrected for multiple testing, lower CETP concentrations were associated with increased age-related macular degeneration (OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.19).

Conclusions and relevance

Our results suggest that joint inhibition of CETP and PCSK9 has additive effects on lipid traits and disease risk, including a lower risk of CAD. Further research may explore whether a combination of CETP- and PCSK9-related therapeutics can benefit high-risk patients who are unable to reach treatment targets with existing options.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2022.2333; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9350849; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2022.2333 36581539,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.12.015,"Corrigendum ""Anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation in people with serious mental illness in the general hospital setting"" [J. Psychiatr. Res. 153 (2022) 167-173].","Farran D, Bean D, Wang T, Msosa Y, Casetta C, Dobson R, Teo JT, Scott P, Gaughran F.",,Journal of psychiatric research,2023,2022-12-28,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.12.015; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.12.015 -33890864,https://doi.org/10.2196/24728,The Value of Routinely Collected Data in Evaluating Home Assessment and Modification Interventions to Prevent Falls in Older People: Systematic Literature Review. ,"Daniels H, Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Clegg A, Hillcoat-Nallétamby S, Nikolova S, Rodgers SE, Williams N, Akbari A.",,JMIR aging,2021,2021-04-23,Y,,,,"Falls in older people commonly occur at home. Home assessment and modification (HAM) interventions can be effective in reducing falls; however, there are some concerns over the validity of evaluation findings. Routinely collected data could improve the quality of HAM evaluations and strengthen their evidence base. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the evidence of the use of routinely collected data in the evaluations of HAM interventions. We searched the following databases from inception until January 31, 2020: PubMed, Ovid, CINAHL, OpenGrey, CENTRAL, LILACS, and Web of Knowledge. Eligible studies were those evaluating HAMs designed to reduce falls involving participants aged 60 years or more. We included study protocols and full reports. Bias was assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. A total of 7 eligible studies were identified in 8 papers. Government organizations provided the majority of data across studies, with health care providers and third-sector organizations also providing data. Studies used a range of demographic, clinical and health, and administrative data. The purpose of using routinely collected data spanned recruiting and creating a sample, stratification, generating independent variables or covariates, and measuring key study-related outcomes. Nonhome-based modification interventions (eg, in nursing homes) using routinely collected data were not included in this study. We included two protocols, which meant that the results of those studies were not available. MeSH headings were excluded from the PubMed search because of a reduction in specificity. This means that some studies that met the inclusion criteria may not have been identified. Routine data can be used successfully in many aspects of HAM evaluations and can reduce biases and improve other important design considerations. However, the use of these data in these studies is currently not widespread. There are a number of governance barriers to be overcome to allow these types of linkage and to ensure that the use of routinely collected data in evaluations of HAM interventions is exploited to its full potential.",,pdf:https://aging.jmir.org/2021/2/e24728/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/24728; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762?pdf=render 37067859,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000245,Sex differences in cardiovascular complications and mortality in hospital patients with covid-19: registry based observational study.,"Hockham C, Linschoten M, Asselbergs FW, Ghossein C, Woodward M, Peters SAE, CAPACITY-COVID Collaborative Consortium .",,BMJ medicine,2023,2023-02-14,Y,epidemiology; Heart Failure; Cardiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To assess whether the risk of cardiovascular complications of covid-19 differ between the sexes and to determine whether any sex differences in risk are reduced in individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular disease.

Design

Registry based observational study.

Setting

74 hospitals across 13 countries (eight European) participating in CAPACITY-COVID (Cardiac complicAtions in Patients With SARS Corona vIrus 2 regisTrY), from March 2020 to May 2021.

Participants

All adults (aged ≥18 years), predominantly European, admitted to hospital with highly suspected covid-19 disease or covid-19 disease confirmed by positive laboratory test results (n=11 167 patients).

Main outcome measures

Any cardiovascular complication during admission to hospital. Secondary outcomes were in-hospital mortality and individual cardiovascular complications with ≥20 events for each sex. Logistic regression was used to examine sex differences in the risk of cardiovascular outcomes, overall and grouped by pre-existing cardiovascular disease.

Results

Of 11 167 adults (median age 68 years, 40% female participants) included, 3423 (36% of whom were female participants) had pre-existing cardiovascular disease. In both sexes, the most common cardiovascular complications were supraventricular tachycardias (4% of female participants, 6% of male participants), pulmonary embolism (3% and 5%), and heart failure (decompensated or de novo) (2% in both sexes). After adjusting for age, ethnic group, pre-existing cardiovascular disease, and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, female individuals were less likely than male individuals to have a cardiovascular complication (odds ratio 0.72, 95% confidence interval 0.64 to 0.80) or die (0.65, 0.59 to 0.72). Differences between the sexes were not modified by pre-existing cardiovascular disease; for the primary outcome, the female-to-male ratio of the odds ratio in those without, compared with those with, pre-existing cardiovascular disease was 0.84 (0.67 to 1.07).

Conclusions

In patients admitted to hospital for covid-19, female participants were less likely than male participants to have a cardiovascular complication. The differences between the sexes could not be attributed to the lower prevalence of pre-existing cardiovascular disease in female individuals. The reasons for this advantage in female individuals requires further research.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000245.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083523?pdf=render 36013179,https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12081230,Grip Strength Trajectories and Cognition in English and Chilean Older Adults: A Cross-Cohort Study.,"Angel B, Ajnakina O, Albala C, Lera L, Márquez C, Leipold L, Bilovich A, Dobson R, Bendayan R.",,Journal of personalized medicine,2022,2022-07-27,Y,Cognition; Longitudinal study; Older Adults; Grip Strength,,,"Growing evidence about the link between cognitive and physical decline suggests the early changes in physical functioning as a potential biomarker for cognitive impairment. Thus, we compared grip-strength trajectories over 12-16 years in three groups classified according to their cognitive status (two stable patterns, normal and impaired cognitive performance, and a declining pattern) in two representative UK and Chilean older adult samples. The samples consisted of 7069 UK (ELSA) and 1363 Chilean participants (ALEXANDROS). Linear Mixed models were performed. Adjustments included socio-demographics and health variables. The Declined and Impaired group had significantly lower grip-strength at baseline when compared to the Non-Impaired. In ELSA, the Declined and Impaired showed a faster decline in their grip strength compared to the Non-Impaired group but differences disappeared in the fully adjusted models. In ALEXANDROS, the differences were only found between the Declined and Non-Impaired and they were partially attenuated by covariates. Our study provides robust evidence of the association between grip strength and cognitive performance and how socio-economic factors might be key to understanding this association and their variability across countries. This has implications for future epidemiological research, as hand-grip strength measurements have the potential to be used as an indicator of cognitive performance.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/12/8/1230/pdf?version=1659687887; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12081230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410389?pdf=render -36644660,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677,Evaluation of prototype risk prediction tools for clinicians and people living with type 2 diabetes in North West London using the think aloud method.,"Gardner C, Wake D, Brodie D, Silverstein A, Young S, Cunningham S, Sainsbury C, Ilia M, Lucas A, Willis T, Halligan J.",,Digital health,2023,2023-01-08,Y,Artificial intelligence; Internet; Diabetes; Qualitative; risk factors; Machine Learning; Health Informatics; Behaviour Change; Personalised Medicine; Digital Health,,,"The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in North West London (NWL) is relatively high compared to other parts of the United Kingdom with outcomes suboptimal. This presents a need for more effective strategies to identify people living with type 2 diabetes who need additional support. An emerging subset of web-based interventions for diabetes self-management and population management has used artificial intelligence and machine learning models to stratify the risk of complications from diabetes and identify patients in need of immediate support. In this study, two prototype risk prediction tools on the MyWay Diabetes and MyWay Clinical platforms were evaluated with six clinicians and six people living with type 2 diabetes in NWL using the think aloud method. The results of the sessions with people living with type 2 diabetes showed that the concept of the tool was intuitive, however, more instruction on how to correctly use the risk prediction tool would be valuable. The feedback from the sessions with clinicians was that the data presented in the tool aligned with the key diabetes targets in NWL, and that this would be useful for identifying and inviting patients to the practice who are overdue for tests and at risk of complications. The findings of the evaluation have been used to support the development of the prototype risk predictions tools. This study demonstrates the value of conducting usability testing on web-based interventions designed to support the targeted management of type 2 diabetes in local communities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412?pdf=render +33890864,https://doi.org/10.2196/24728,The Value of Routinely Collected Data in Evaluating Home Assessment and Modification Interventions to Prevent Falls in Older People: Systematic Literature Review. ,"Daniels H, Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Clegg A, Hillcoat-Nallétamby S, Nikolova S, Rodgers SE, Williams N, Akbari A.",,JMIR aging,2021,2021-04-23,Y,,,,"Falls in older people commonly occur at home. Home assessment and modification (HAM) interventions can be effective in reducing falls; however, there are some concerns over the validity of evaluation findings. Routinely collected data could improve the quality of HAM evaluations and strengthen their evidence base. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the evidence of the use of routinely collected data in the evaluations of HAM interventions. We searched the following databases from inception until January 31, 2020: PubMed, Ovid, CINAHL, OpenGrey, CENTRAL, LILACS, and Web of Knowledge. Eligible studies were those evaluating HAMs designed to reduce falls involving participants aged 60 years or more. We included study protocols and full reports. Bias was assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. A total of 7 eligible studies were identified in 8 papers. Government organizations provided the majority of data across studies, with health care providers and third-sector organizations also providing data. Studies used a range of demographic, clinical and health, and administrative data. The purpose of using routinely collected data spanned recruiting and creating a sample, stratification, generating independent variables or covariates, and measuring key study-related outcomes. Nonhome-based modification interventions (eg, in nursing homes) using routinely collected data were not included in this study. We included two protocols, which meant that the results of those studies were not available. MeSH headings were excluded from the PubMed search because of a reduction in specificity. This means that some studies that met the inclusion criteria may not have been identified. Routine data can be used successfully in many aspects of HAM evaluations and can reduce biases and improve other important design considerations. However, the use of these data in these studies is currently not widespread. There are a number of governance barriers to be overcome to allow these types of linkage and to ensure that the use of routinely collected data in evaluations of HAM interventions is exploited to its full potential.",,pdf:https://aging.jmir.org/2021/2/e24728/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/24728; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762?pdf=render 34169636,https://doi.org/10.1002/pst.2148,Assessing safety at the end of clinical trials using system organ classes: A case and comparative study.,"Carragher R, Robertson C.",,Pharmaceutical statistics,2021,2021-06-24,N,Safety; False Discovery Rate; Adverse Events; System Organ Class; Bayesian Hierarchy,,,"Recent approaches to the statistical analysis of adverse event (AE) data in clinical trials have proposed the use of groupings of related AEs, such as by system organ class (SOC). These methods have opened up the possibility of scanning large numbers of AEs while controlling for multiple comparisons, making the comparative performance of the different methods in terms of AE detection and error rates of interest to investigators. We apply two Bayesian models and two procedures for controlling the false discovery rate (FDR), which use groupings of AEs, to real clinical trial safety data. We find that while the Bayesian models are appropriate for the full data set, the error controlling methods only give similar results to the Bayesian methods when low incidence AEs are removed. A simulation study is used to compare the relative performances of the methods. We investigate the differences between the methods over full trial data sets, and over data sets with low incidence AEs and SOCs removed. We find that while the removal of low incidence AEs increases the power of the error controlling procedures, the estimated power of the Bayesian methods remains relatively constant over all data sizes. Automatic removal of low-incidence AEs however does have an effect on the error rates of all the methods, and a clinically guided approach to their removal is needed. Overall we found that the Bayesian approaches are particularly useful for scanning the large amounts of AE data gathered.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pst.2148; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pst.2148 34890511,https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1992517,"""It's been a long hard road"": challenges faced in the first three years following traumatic brain injury.","Downing MG, Hicks AJ, Braaf S, Myles DB, Gabbe BJ, Ponsford J.",,Disability and rehabilitation,2022,2021-12-10,N,Recovery; Challenges; Traumatic brain injury; Outcome; Qualitative Study,,,"

Purpose

There is limited qualitative research exploring challenges experienced following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). We investigated challenges to recovery identified by individuals who sustained severe TBI three years earlier or their close others (COs), as well as suggestions for managing these challenges.

Materials and methods

Nine participants with TBI and 16 COs completed semi-structured interviews. Using reflexive thematic analysis, challenges were identified across several timeframes (i.e., at the injury, acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, outpatient rehabilitation, and at home/other location).

Results

Challenges experienced across all timeframes included: lack of information and poor communication, pre-existing conditions, missed injuries, and issues with medical staff, and continuity of care. From acute care onwards, there were TBI-related consequences, issues with coping and emotional adjustment, negative outlook, insufficient treatment, lack of support for COs, and issues with compensation and funding for rehabilitation needs. Some challenges were unique to a specific timeframe (e.g., over-stimulating ward setting during acute care, and limited or unsupportive families once injured individuals went home). Suggestions for managing some of the challenges were provided (e.g., information provision, having peer supports).

Conclusion

Suggestions should be considered to promote successful outcomes following severe TBI.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONRecovery following a severe traumatic brain injury can be hindered by challenges, such as poor communication, limited information provision, injury-related consequences, limited services and emotional support for the injured individual and their Close Others, and a need for education of the broader community about traumatic brain injury.Suggestions for managing these challenges (e.g., peer supports; services closer to home) could be used to inform clinical guidelines that could be used in a rehabilitation context.These suggestions ultimately aim to improve the post-injury experience and outcomes of individuals with traumatic brain injury and their Close Others.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1992517 31611193,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317248,"Self-harm presentation across healthcare settings by sex in young people: an e-cohort study using routinely collected linked healthcare data in Wales, UK. ","Marchant A, Turner S, Balbuena L, Peters E, Williams D, Lloyd K, Lyons R, John A.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2020,2019-10-14,Y,,,,"This study used individual-level linked data across general practice, emergency departments (EDs), outpatients and hospital admissions to examine contacts across settings and time by sex for self-harm in individuals aged 10-24 years old in Wales, UK. A whole population-based e-cohort study of routinely collected healthcare data was conducted. Rates of self-harm across settings over time by sex were examined. Individuals were categorised based on the service(s) to which they presented. A total of 937 697 individuals aged 10-24 years contributed 5 369 794 person years of data from 1 January 2003 to 30 September 2015. Self-harm incidence was highest in primary care but remained stable over time (incident rate ratio (IRR)=1.0; 95% CI 0.9 to 1.1). Incidence of ED attendance increased over time (IRR=1.3; 95% CI 1.2 to 1.5) as did hospital admissions (IRR=1.4; 95% CI 1.1 to 1.6). Incidence in the 15-19 years age group was the highest across all settings. The largest increases were seen in the youngest age group. There were increases in ED attendances for both sexes; however, females are more likely than males to be admitted following this. This was most evident in individuals 10-15 years old, where 76% of females were admitted compared with just 49% of males. The majority of associated outpatient appointments were under a mental health specialty. This is the first study to compare self-harm in people aged 10-24 years across primary care, EDs and hospital settings in the UK. The high rates of self-harm in primary care and for young men in EDs highlight these as important settings for intervention.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/4/347.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7146921; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7146921?pdf=render +36644660,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677,Evaluation of prototype risk prediction tools for clinicians and people living with type 2 diabetes in North West London using the think aloud method.,"Gardner C, Wake D, Brodie D, Silverstein A, Young S, Cunningham S, Sainsbury C, Ilia M, Lucas A, Willis T, Halligan J.",,Digital health,2023,2023-01-08,Y,Artificial intelligence; Internet; Diabetes; Qualitative; risk factors; Machine Learning; Health Informatics; Behaviour Change; Personalised Medicine; Digital Health,,,"The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in North West London (NWL) is relatively high compared to other parts of the United Kingdom with outcomes suboptimal. This presents a need for more effective strategies to identify people living with type 2 diabetes who need additional support. An emerging subset of web-based interventions for diabetes self-management and population management has used artificial intelligence and machine learning models to stratify the risk of complications from diabetes and identify patients in need of immediate support. In this study, two prototype risk prediction tools on the MyWay Diabetes and MyWay Clinical platforms were evaluated with six clinicians and six people living with type 2 diabetes in NWL using the think aloud method. The results of the sessions with people living with type 2 diabetes showed that the concept of the tool was intuitive, however, more instruction on how to correctly use the risk prediction tool would be valuable. The feedback from the sessions with clinicians was that the data presented in the tool aligned with the key diabetes targets in NWL, and that this would be useful for identifying and inviting patients to the practice who are overdue for tests and at risk of complications. The findings of the evaluation have been used to support the development of the prototype risk predictions tools. This study demonstrates the value of conducting usability testing on web-based interventions designed to support the targeted management of type 2 diabetes in local communities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412?pdf=render 31951005,https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz211,On classifying sepsis heterogeneity in the ICU: insight using machine learning.,"Ibrahim ZM, Wu H, Hamoud A, Stappen L, Dobson RJB, Agarossi A.",,Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA,2020,2020-03-01,Y,Sepsis; Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence In Medicine; Sepsis Prediction; Sepsis Subtypes,Applied Analytics,,"

Objectives

Current machine learning models aiming to predict sepsis from electronic health records (EHR) do not account 20 for the heterogeneity of the condition despite its emerging importance in prognosis and treatment. This work demonstrates the added value of stratifying the types of organ dysfunction observed in patients who develop sepsis in the intensive care unit (ICU) in improving the ability to recognize patients at risk of sepsis from their EHR data.

Materials and methods

Using an ICU dataset of 13 728 records, we identify clinically significant sepsis subpopulations with distinct organ dysfunction patterns. We perform classification experiments with random forest, gradient boost trees, and support vector machines, using the identified subpopulations to distinguish patients who develop sepsis in the ICU from those who do not.

Results

The classification results show that features selected using sepsis subpopulations as background knowledge yield a superior performance in distinguishing septic from non-septic patients regardless of the classification model used. The improved performance is especially pronounced in specificity, which is a current bottleneck in sepsis prediction machine learning models.

Conclusion

Our findings can steer machine learning efforts toward more personalized models for complex conditions including sepsis.",Ibrahim et al. categorized patients in groups based on the type of organ failure. This categorization helped machine based algorithms to correctly identify those at high risk of sepsis.,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article-pdf/27/3/437/34153319/ocz211.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz211; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7025363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7025363?pdf=render 32864476,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1157,"Prevalence of Down's Syndrome in England, 1998-2013: Comparison of linked surveillance data and electronic health records.","Doidge JC, Morris JK, Harron KL, Stevens S, Gilbert R.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Prevalence; Data Linkage; Disease Surveillance; Down’s Syndrome; Electronic Health Records; Linkage Error,,,"

Introduction

Disease registers and electronic health records are valuable resources for disease surveillance and research but can be limited by variation in data quality over time. Quality may be limited in terms of the accuracy of clinical information, of the internal linkage that supports person-based analysis of most administrative datasets, or by errors in linkage between multiple datasets.

Objectives

By linking the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register (NDSCR) to Hospital Episode Statistics for England (HES), we aimed to assess the quality of each and establish a consistent approach for analysis of trends in prevalence of Down's syndrome among live births in England.

Methods

Probabilistic record linkage of NDSCR to HES for the period 1998-2013 was supported by linkage of babies to mothers within HES. Comparison of prevalence estimates in England were made using NDSCR only, HES data only, and linked data. Capture-recapture analysis and quantitative bias analysis were used to account for potential errors, including false positive diagnostic codes, unrecorded diagnoses, and linkage error.

Results

Analyses of single-source data indicated increasing live birth prevalence of Down's Syndrome, particularly in the analysis of HES. Linked data indicated a contrastingly stable prevalence of 12.3 (plausible range: 11.6-12.7) cases per 10 000 live births.

Conclusion

Case ascertainment in NDSCR improved slightly over time, creating a picture of slowly increasing prevalence. The emerging epidemic suggested by HES primarily reflects improving linkage within HES (assignment of unique patient identifiers to hospital episodes). Administrative data are valuable but trends should be interpreted with caution, and with assessment of data quality over time. Data linkage with quantitative bias analysis can provide more robust estimation and, in this case, stronger evidence that prevalence is not increasing. Routine linkage of administrative and register data can enhance the value of each.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1157/2531; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1157; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7115985; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7115985?pdf=render 31765395,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225625,Semantic computational analysis of anticoagulation use in atrial fibrillation from real world data.,"Bean DM, Teo J, Wu H, Oliveira R, Patel R, Bendayan R, Shah AM, Dobson RJB, Scott PA.",,PloS one,2019,2019-11-25,Y,,,,"Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia and significantly increases stroke risk. This risk is effectively managed by oral anticoagulation. Recent studies using national registry data indicate increased use of anticoagulation resulting from changes in guidelines and the availability of newer drugs. The aim of this study is to develop and validate an open source risk scoring pipeline for free-text electronic health record data using natural language processing. AF patients discharged from 1st January 2011 to 1st October 2017 were identified from discharge summaries (N = 10,030, 64.6% male, average age 75.3 ± 12.3 years). A natural language processing pipeline was developed to identify risk factors in clinical text and calculate risk for ischaemic stroke (CHA2DS2-VASc) and bleeding (HAS-BLED). Scores were validated vs two independent experts for 40 patients. Automatic risk scores were in strong agreement with the two independent experts for CHA2DS2-VASc (average kappa 0.78 vs experts, compared to 0.85 between experts). Agreement was lower for HAS-BLED (average kappa 0.54 vs experts, compared to 0.74 between experts). In high-risk patients (CHA2DS2-VASc ≥2) OAC use has increased significantly over the last 7 years, driven by the availability of DOACs and the transitioning of patients from AP medication alone to OAC. Factors independently associated with OAC use included components of the CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores as well as discharging specialty and frailty. OAC use was highest in patients discharged under cardiology (69%). Electronic health record text can be used for automatic calculation of clinical risk scores at scale. Open source tools are available today for this task but require further validation. Analysis of routinely collected EHR data can replicate findings from large-scale curated registries.","Bean et al. looked at using clinical notes to calculate risk scores: CHADSVASC and HASBLED for 10,030 AF patients from 2011 to October 2017), they’ve validated their natural language processing algorithm with getting clinicians to calculate the risk in conventional manner for 40 of cases, the two scores were in higher agreement for stroke risk compared to HAS-BLED They’ve concluded on usefulness of NLP method in risk calculation at the large scale.",pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225625&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225625; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6876873; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6876873?pdf=render -31153319,https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272,Developing a large scale population screening tool for the assessment of Parkinson's disease using telephone-quality voice.,"Arora S, Baghai-Ravary L, Tsanas A.",,The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,2019,2019-05-01,N,,Applied Analytics,neurological,"Recent studies have demonstrated that analysis of laboratory-quality voice recordings can be used to accurately differentiate people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) from healthy controls (HCs). These findings could help facilitate the development of remote screening and monitoring tools for PD. In this study, 2759 telephone-quality voice recordings from 1483 PD and 15 321 recordings from 8300 HC participants were analyzed. To account for variations in phonetic backgrounds, data were acquired from seven countries. A statistical framework for analyzing voice was developed, whereby 307 dysphonia measures that quantify different properties of voice impairment, such as breathiness, roughness, monopitch, hoarse voice quality, and exaggerated vocal tremor, were computed. Feature selection algorithms were used to identify robust parsimonious feature subsets, which were used in combination with a random forests (RFs) classifier to accurately distinguish PD from HC. The best tenfold cross-validation performance was obtained using Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization and RF, leading to mean sensitivity of 64.90% (standard deviation, SD, 2.90%) and mean specificity of 67.96% (SD 2.90%). This large scale study is a step forward toward assessing the development of a reliable, cost-effective, and practical clinical decision support tool for screening the population at large for PD using telephone-quality voice.",,pdf:https://asa.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1121/1.5100272; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272 37516479,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(23)00126-3,"Insights from linking police domestic abuse data and health data in South Wales, UK: a linked routine data analysis using decision tree classification.","Kennedy N, Win TL, Bandyopadhyay A, Kennedy J, Rowe B, McNerney C, Evans J, Hughes K, Bellis MA, Jones A, Harrington K, Moore S, Brophy S.",,The Lancet. Public health,2023,2023-08-01,N,,,,"

Background

Exposure to domestic abuse can lead to long-term negative impacts on the victim's physical and psychological wellbeing. The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act requires agencies to collaborate on crime reduction strategies, including data sharing. Although data sharing is feasible for individuals, rarely are whole-agency data linked. This study aimed to examine the knowledge obtained by integrating information from police and health-care datasets through data linkage and analyse associated risk factor clusters.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study analyses data from residents of South Wales who were victims of domestic abuse resulting in a Public Protection Notification (PPN) submission between Aug 12, 2015 and March 31, 2020. The study links these data with the victims' health records, collated within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank, to examine factors associated with the outcome of an Emergency Department attendance, emergency hospital admission, or death within 12 months of the PPN submission. To assess the time to outcome for domestic abuse victims after the index PPN submission, we used Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. We used multivariable Cox regression models to identify which factors contributed the highest risk of experiencing an outcome after the index PPN submission. Finally, we created decision trees to describe specific groups of individuals who are at risk of experiencing a domestic abuse incident and subsequent outcome.

Findings

After excluding individuals with multiple PPN records, duplicates, and records with a poor matching score or missing fields, the resulting clean dataset consisted of 8709 domestic abuse victims, of whom 6257 (71·8%) were female. Within a year of a domestic abuse incident, 3650 (41·9%) individuals had an outcome. Factors associated with experiencing an outcome within 12 months of the PPN included younger victim age (hazard ratio 1·183 [95% CI 1·053-1·329], p=0·0048), further PPN submissions after the initial referral (1·383 [1·295-1·476]; p<0·0001), injury at the scene (1·484 [1·368-1·609]; p<0·0001), assessed high risk (1·600 [1·444-1·773]; p<0·0001), referral to other agencies (1·518 [1·358-1·697]; p<0·0001), history of violence (1·229 [1·134-1·333]; p<0·0001), attempted strangulation (1·311 [1·148-1·497]; p<0·0001), and pregnancy (1·372 [1·142-1·648]; p=0·0007). Health-care data before the index PPN established that previous Emergency Department and hospital admissions, smoking, smoking cessation advice, obstetric codes, and prescription of antidepressants and antibiotics were associated with having a future outcome following a domestic abuse incident.

Interpretation

The results indicate that vulnerable individuals are detectable in multiple datasets before and after involvement of the police. Operationalising these findings could reduce police callouts and future Emergency Department or hospital admissions, and improve outcomes for those who are vulnerable. Strategies include querying previous Emergency Department and hospital admissions, giving a high-risk assessment for a pregnant victim, and facilitating data linkage to identify vulnerable individuals.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00126-3 +31153319,https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272,Developing a large scale population screening tool for the assessment of Parkinson's disease using telephone-quality voice.,"Arora S, Baghai-Ravary L, Tsanas A.",,The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,2019,2019-05-01,N,,Applied Analytics,neurological,"Recent studies have demonstrated that analysis of laboratory-quality voice recordings can be used to accurately differentiate people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) from healthy controls (HCs). These findings could help facilitate the development of remote screening and monitoring tools for PD. In this study, 2759 telephone-quality voice recordings from 1483 PD and 15 321 recordings from 8300 HC participants were analyzed. To account for variations in phonetic backgrounds, data were acquired from seven countries. A statistical framework for analyzing voice was developed, whereby 307 dysphonia measures that quantify different properties of voice impairment, such as breathiness, roughness, monopitch, hoarse voice quality, and exaggerated vocal tremor, were computed. Feature selection algorithms were used to identify robust parsimonious feature subsets, which were used in combination with a random forests (RFs) classifier to accurately distinguish PD from HC. The best tenfold cross-validation performance was obtained using Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization and RF, leading to mean sensitivity of 64.90% (standard deviation, SD, 2.90%) and mean specificity of 67.96% (SD 2.90%). This large scale study is a step forward toward assessing the development of a reliable, cost-effective, and practical clinical decision support tool for screening the population at large for PD using telephone-quality voice.",,pdf:https://asa.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1121/1.5100272; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272 32444447,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317902,Emergency paediatric critical care in England: describing trends using routine hospital data.,"Lewis KM, Parekh SM, Ramnarayan P, Gilbert R, Hardelid P, Wijlaars L.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2020,2020-05-22,Y,epidemiology; Intensive Care,,,"

Objective

To determine trends in emergency admission rates requiring different levels of critical care in hospitals with and without a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Design

Birth cohort study created from Hospital Episode Statistics.

Setting

National Health Service funded hospitals in England.

Patients

8 577 680 singleton children born between 1 May 2003 and 31 April 2017.

Outcome measures

Using procedure and diagnostic codes, we assigned indicators of high dependency care (eg, non-invasive ventilation) or intensive care (eg, invasive ventilation) to emergency admissions.

Interventions

Children were followed up until their fifth birthday to estimate high dependency and intensive care admission rates in hospitals with and without a PICU. We tested the yearly trend of high dependency and intensive care admissions to hospitals without a PICU using logistic regression models.

Results

Emergency admissions requiring high dependency care in hospitals without a PICU increased from 3.30 (95% CI 3.09 to 3.51) per 10 000 child-years in 2008/2009 to 7.58 (95% CI 7.28 to 7.89) in 2016/2017 and overtook hospitals with a PICU in 2015/2016. The odds of an admission requiring high dependency care to a hospital without a PICU compared with a hospital with a PICU increased by 9% per study year (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.10). The same trend was not present for admissions requiring intensive care (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.03).

Conclusions

Between 2008/2009 and 2016/2017, an increasing proportion of admissions with indicators of high dependency care took place in hospitals without a PICU.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/11/1061.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317902; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7588403; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7588403?pdf=render -31628383,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6,Whole genome sequencing of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from a high burden tuberculosis region of North West Pakistan.,"Jabbar A, Phelan JE, de Sessions PF, Khan TA, Rahman H, Khan SN, Cantillon DM, Wildner LM, Ali S, Campino S, Waddell SJ, Clark TG.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-10-18,Y,,,,"Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, is a leading infectious cause of mortality worldwide, including in Pakistan. Drug resistant M. tuberculosis is an emerging threat for TB control, making it important to detect the underlying genetic mutations, and thereby inform treatment decision making and prevent transmission. Whole genome sequencing has emerged as the new diagnostic to reliably predict drug resistance within a clinically relevant time frame, and its deployment will have the greatest impact on TB control in highly endemic regions. To evaluate the mutations leading to drug resistance and to assess for evidence of the transmission of resistant strains, 81 M. tuberculosis samples from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (North West Pakistan) were subjected to whole genome sequencing and standard drug susceptibility testing for eleven anti-TB drugs. We found the majority of M. tuberculosis isolates were the CAS/Delhi strain-type (lineage 3; n = 57; 70.4%) and multi-drug resistant (MDR; n = 62; 76.5%). The most frequent resistance mutations were observed in the katG and rpoB genes, conferring resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin respectively. Mutations were also observed in genes conferring resistance to other first and second-line drugs, including in pncA (pyrazinamide), embB (ethambutol), gyrA (fluoroquinolones), rrs (aminoglycosides), rpsL, rrs and giB (streptomycin) loci. Whilst the majority of mutations have been reported in global datasets, we describe unreported putative resistance markers in katG, ethA (ethionamide), gyrA and gyrB (fluoroquinolones), and pncA. Analysis of the mutations revealed that acquisition of rifampicin resistance often preceded isoniazid in our isolates. We also observed a high proportion (17.6%) of pre-MDR isolates with fluoroquinolone resistance markers, potentially due to unregulated anti-TB drug use. Our isolates were compared to previously sequenced strains from Pakistan in a combined phylogenetic tree analysis. The presence of lineage 2 was only observed in our isolates. Using a cut-off of less than ten genome-wide mutation differences between isolates, a transmission analysis revealed 18 M. tuberculosis isolates clustering within eight networks, thereby providing evidence of drug-resistant TB transmission in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Overall, we have demonstrated that drug-resistant TB isolates are circulating and transmitted in North West Pakistan. Further, we have shown the usefulness of whole genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool for characterizing M. tuberculosis isolates, which will assist future epidemiological studies and disease control activities in Pakistan.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51562-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378?pdf=render 33612430,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00017-0,Indirect acute effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical and mental health in the UK: a population-based study.,"Mansfield KE, Mathur R, Tazare J, Henderson AD, Mulick AR, Carreira H, Matthews AA, Bidulka P, Gayle A, Forbes H, Cook S, Wong AYS, Strongman H, Wing K, Warren-Gash C, Cadogan SL, Smeeth L, Hayes JF, Quint JK, McKee M, Langan SM.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2021,2021-02-18,Y,,,,"

Background

There are concerns that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK might have worsened physical and mental health, and reduced use of health services. However, the scale of the problem is unquantified, impeding development of effective mitigations. We aimed to ascertain what has happened to general practice contacts for acute physical and mental health outcomes during the pandemic.

Methods

Using de-identified electronic health records from the Clinical Research Practice Datalink (CPRD) Aurum (covering 13% of the UK population), between 2017 and 2020, we calculated weekly primary care contacts for selected acute physical and mental health conditions: anxiety, depression, self-harm (fatal and non-fatal), severe mental illness, eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute alcohol-related events, asthma exacerbation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation, acute cardiovascular events (cerebrovascular accident, heart failure, myocardial infarction, transient ischaemic attacks, unstable angina, and venous thromboembolism), and diabetic emergency. Primary care contacts included remote and face-to-face consultations, diagnoses from hospital discharge letters, and secondary care referrals, and conditions were identified through primary care records for diagnoses, symptoms, and prescribing. Our overall study population included individuals aged 11 years or older who had at least 1 year of registration with practices contributing to CPRD Aurum in the specified period, but denominator populations varied depending on the condition being analysed. We used an interrupted time-series analysis to formally quantify changes in conditions after the introduction of population-wide restrictions (defined as March 29, 2020) compared with the period before their introduction (defined as Jan 1, 2017 to March 7, 2020), with data excluded for an adjustment-to-restrictions period (March 8-28).

Findings

The overall population included 9 863 903 individuals on Jan 1, 2017, and increased to 10 226 939 by Jan 1, 2020. Primary care contacts for almost all conditions dropped considerably after the introduction of population-wide restrictions. The largest reductions were observed for contacts for diabetic emergencies (odds ratio 0·35 [95% CI 0·25-0·50]), depression (0·53 [0·52-0·53]), and self-harm (0·56 [0·54-0·58]). In the interrupted time-series analysis, with the exception of acute alcohol-related events (0·98 [0·89-1·10]), there was evidence of a reduction in contacts for all conditions (anxiety 0·67 [0·66-0·67], eating disorders 0·62 [0·59-0·66], obsessive-compulsive disorder [0·69 [0·64-0·74]], self-harm 0·56 [0·54-0·58], severe mental illness 0·80 [0·78-0·83], stroke 0·59 [0·56-0·62], transient ischaemic attack 0·63 [0·58-0·67], heart failure 0·62 [0·60-0·64], myocardial infarction 0·72 [0·68-0·77], unstable angina 0·72 [0·60-0·87], venous thromboembolism 0·94 [0·90-0·99], and asthma exacerbation 0·88 [0·86-0·90]). By July, 2020, except for unstable angina and acute alcohol-related events, contacts for all conditions had not recovered to pre-lockdown levels.

Interpretation

There were substantial reductions in primary care contacts for acute physical and mental conditions following the introduction of restrictions, with limited recovery by July, 2020. Further research is needed to ascertain whether these reductions reflect changes in disease frequency or missed opportunities for care. Maintaining health-care access should be a key priority in future public health planning, including further restrictions. The conditions we studied are sufficiently severe that any unmet need will have substantial ramifications for the people with the conditions as well as health-care provision.

Funding

Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship, Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00017-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00017-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985613; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985613?pdf=render 32462176,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeaa088,A head-to-head comparison of speckle tracking echocardiography and feature tracking cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in right ventricular deformation.,"Taha K, Bourfiss M, Te Riele ASJM, Cramer MM, van der Heijden JF, Asselbergs FW, Velthuis BK, Teske AJ.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2021,2021-07-01,Y,Right Ventricle; Strain Imaging; Speckle Tracking; Arvc; Feature Tracking; Deformation Imaging,,,"

Aims

Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) and feature tracking cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (FT-CMR) are advanced imaging techniques which are both used for quantification of global and regional myocardial strain. Direct comparisons of STE and FT-CMR regarding right ventricular (RV) strain analysis are limited. We aimed to study clinical performance, correlation and agreement of RV strain by these techniques, using arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) as a model for RV disease.

Methods and results

We enrolled 110 subjects, including 34 patients with definite ARVC, 30 preclinical relatives of ARVC patients, and 46 healthy control subjects. Global and regional RV longitudinal peak strain (PS) were measured by STE and FT-CMR. Both modalities showed reduced strain values in ARVC patients compared to ARVC relatives (STE global PS: P < 0.001; FT-CMR global PS: P < 0.001) and reduced strain values in ARVC relatives compared to healthy control subjects (STE global PS: P = 0.042; FT-CMR global PS: P = 0.084). There was a moderate, albeit significant correlation between RV strain values obtained by STE and FT-CMR [global PS r = 0.578 (95% confidence interval 0.427-0.697), P < 0.001]. Agreement between the techniques was weak (limits of agreement for global PS: ±11.8%). Correlation and agreement both deteriorated when regional strain was studied.

Conclusion

RV STE and FT-CMR show a similar trend within the spectrum of ARVC and have significant correlation, but inter-modality agreement is weak. STE and FT-CMR may therefore both individually have added value for assessment of RV function, but RV PS values obtained by these techniques currently cannot be used interchangeably in clinical practice.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/article-pdf/22/8/950/39199744/jeaa088.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeaa088; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8291671; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8291671?pdf=render +31628383,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6,Whole genome sequencing of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from a high burden tuberculosis region of North West Pakistan.,"Jabbar A, Phelan JE, de Sessions PF, Khan TA, Rahman H, Khan SN, Cantillon DM, Wildner LM, Ali S, Campino S, Waddell SJ, Clark TG.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-10-18,Y,,,,"Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, is a leading infectious cause of mortality worldwide, including in Pakistan. Drug resistant M. tuberculosis is an emerging threat for TB control, making it important to detect the underlying genetic mutations, and thereby inform treatment decision making and prevent transmission. Whole genome sequencing has emerged as the new diagnostic to reliably predict drug resistance within a clinically relevant time frame, and its deployment will have the greatest impact on TB control in highly endemic regions. To evaluate the mutations leading to drug resistance and to assess for evidence of the transmission of resistant strains, 81 M. tuberculosis samples from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (North West Pakistan) were subjected to whole genome sequencing and standard drug susceptibility testing for eleven anti-TB drugs. We found the majority of M. tuberculosis isolates were the CAS/Delhi strain-type (lineage 3; n = 57; 70.4%) and multi-drug resistant (MDR; n = 62; 76.5%). The most frequent resistance mutations were observed in the katG and rpoB genes, conferring resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin respectively. Mutations were also observed in genes conferring resistance to other first and second-line drugs, including in pncA (pyrazinamide), embB (ethambutol), gyrA (fluoroquinolones), rrs (aminoglycosides), rpsL, rrs and giB (streptomycin) loci. Whilst the majority of mutations have been reported in global datasets, we describe unreported putative resistance markers in katG, ethA (ethionamide), gyrA and gyrB (fluoroquinolones), and pncA. Analysis of the mutations revealed that acquisition of rifampicin resistance often preceded isoniazid in our isolates. We also observed a high proportion (17.6%) of pre-MDR isolates with fluoroquinolone resistance markers, potentially due to unregulated anti-TB drug use. Our isolates were compared to previously sequenced strains from Pakistan in a combined phylogenetic tree analysis. The presence of lineage 2 was only observed in our isolates. Using a cut-off of less than ten genome-wide mutation differences between isolates, a transmission analysis revealed 18 M. tuberculosis isolates clustering within eight networks, thereby providing evidence of drug-resistant TB transmission in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Overall, we have demonstrated that drug-resistant TB isolates are circulating and transmitted in North West Pakistan. Further, we have shown the usefulness of whole genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool for characterizing M. tuberculosis isolates, which will assist future epidemiological studies and disease control activities in Pakistan.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51562-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378?pdf=render 34435642,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab350,Evidence to support magnetic resonance conditional labelling of all pacemaker and defibrillator leads in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices.,"Bhuva AN, Moralee R, Brunker T, Lascelles K, Cash L, Patel KP, Lowe M, Sekhri N, Alpendurada F, Pennell DJ, Schilling R, Lambiase PD, Chow A, Moon JC, Litt H, Baksi AJ, Manisty CH.",,European heart journal,2022,2022-07-01,Y,Pacemaker; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Defibrillator,,,"

Aims

Many cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators are not approved by regulators for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Even following generator exchange to an approved magnetic resonance (MR)-conditional model, many systems remain classified 'non-MR conditional' due to the leads. This classification makes patient access to MRI challenging, but there is no evidence of increased clinical risk. We compared the effect of MRI on non-MR conditional and MR-conditional pacemaker and defibrillator leads.

Methods and results

Patients undergoing clinical 1.5T MRI with pacemakers and defibrillators in three centres over 5 years were included. Magnetic resonance imaging protocols were similar for MR-conditional and non-MR conditional systems. Devices were interrogated pre- and immediately post-scan, and at follow-up, and adverse clinical events recorded. Lead parameter changes peri-scan were stratified by MR-conditional labelling. A total of 1148 MRI examinations were performed in 970 patients (54% non-MR conditional systems, 39% defibrillators, 15% pacing-dependent) with 2268 leads. There were no lead-related adverse clinical events, and no clinically significant immediate or late lead parameter changes following MRI in either MR-conditional or non-MR conditional leads. Small reductions in atrial and right ventricular sensed amplitudes and impedances were similar between groups, with no difference in the proportion of leads with parameter changes greater than pre-defined thresholds (7.1%, 95% confidence interval: 6.1-8.3).

Conclusions

There was no increased risk of MRI in patients with non-MR conditional pacemaker or defibrillator leads when following recommended protocols. Standardizing MR conditions for all leads would significantly improve access to MRI by enabling patients to be scanned in non-specialist centres, with no discernible incremental risk.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab350/39932149/ehab350.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab350; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259370; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259370?pdf=render 36369983,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac650,Fit for the future: empowering clinical trials with digital technology.,"Kotecha D, DeVore AD, Asselbergs FW.",,European heart journal,2023,2023-01-01,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac650 33704068,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.64827,Longitudinal proteomic profiling of dialysis patients with COVID-19 reveals markers of severity and predictors of death.,"Gisby J, Clarke CL, Medjeral-Thomas N, Malik TH, Papadaki A, Mortimer PM, Buang NB, Lewis S, Pereira M, Toulza F, Fagnano E, Mawhin MA, Dutton EE, Tapeng L, Richard AC, Kirk PD, Behmoaras J, Sandhu E, McAdoo SP, Prendecki MF, Pickering MC, Botto M, Willicombe M, Thomas DC, Peters JE.",,eLife,2021,2021-03-11,Y,Human; Cytokines; Proteomics; Inflammation; Medicine; Biomarkers; immunology; Longitudinal; End-stage Kidney Disease; Covid-19,,,"End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients are at high risk of severe COVID-19. We measured 436 circulating proteins in serial blood samples from hospitalised and non-hospitalised ESKD patients with COVID-19 (n = 256 samples from 55 patients). Comparison to 51 non-infected patients revealed 221 differentially expressed proteins, with consistent results in a separate subcohort of 46 COVID-19 patients. Two hundred and three proteins were associated with clinical severity, including IL6, markers of monocyte recruitment (e.g. CCL2, CCL7), neutrophil activation (e.g. proteinase-3), and epithelial injury (e.g. KRT19). Machine-learning identified predictors of severity including IL18BP, CTSD, GDF15, and KRT19. Survival analysis with joint models revealed 69 predictors of death. Longitudinal modelling with linear mixed models uncovered 32 proteins displaying different temporal profiles in severe versus non-severe disease, including integrins and adhesion molecules. These data implicate epithelial damage, innate immune activation, and leucocyte-endothelial interactions in the pathology of severe COVID-19 and provide a resource for identifying drug targets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.64827; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8064756; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8064756?pdf=render 33414147,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041536,Estimating the COVID-19 epidemic trajectory and hospital capacity requirements in South West England: a mathematical modelling framework.,"Booton RD, MacGregor L, Vass L, Looker KJ, Hyams C, Bright PD, Harding I, Lazarus R, Hamilton F, Lawson D, Danon L, Pratt A, Wood R, Brooks-Pollock E, Turner KME.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-01-07,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health,,,"

Objectives

To develop a regional model of COVID-19 dynamics for use in estimating the number of infections, deaths and required acute and intensive care (IC) beds using the South West England (SW) as an example case.

Design

Open-source age-structured variant of a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered compartmental mathematical model. Latin hypercube sampling and maximum likelihood estimation were used to calibrate to cumulative cases and cumulative deaths.

Setting

SW at a time considered early in the pandemic, where National Health Service authorities required evidence to guide localised planning and support decision-making.

Participants

Publicly available data on patients with COVID-19.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The expected numbers of infected cases, deaths due to COVID-19 infection, patient occupancy of acute and IC beds and the reproduction ('R') number over time.

Results

SW model projections indicate that, as of 11 May 2020 (when 'lockdown' measures were eased), 5793 (95% credible interval (CrI) 2003 to 12 051) individuals were still infectious (0.10% of the total SW population, 95% CrI 0.04% to 0.22%), and a total of 189 048 (95% CrI 141 580 to 277 955) had been infected with the virus (either asymptomatically or symptomatically), but recovered, which is 3.4% (95% CrI 2.5% to 5.0%) of the SW population. The total number of patients in acute and IC beds in the SW on 11 May 2020 was predicted to be 701 (95% CrI 169 to 1543) and 110 (95% CrI 8 to 464), respectively. The R value in SW was predicted to be 2.6 (95% CrI 2.0 to 3.2) prior to any interventions, with social distancing reducing this to 2.3 (95% CrI 1.8 to 2.9) and lockdown/school closures further reducing the R value to 0.6 (95% CrI 0.5 to 0.7).

Conclusions

The developed model has proved a valuable asset for regional healthcare services. The model will be used further in the SW as the pandemic evolves, and-as open-source software-is portable to healthcare systems in other geographies.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/1/e041536.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041536; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7797241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7797241?pdf=render 35896705,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16639-9,Estimation of biological heart age using cardiovascular magnetic resonance radiomics.,"Raisi-Estabragh Z, Salih A, Gkontra P, Atehortúa A, Radeva P, Boscolo Galazzo I, Menegaz G, Harvey NC, Lekadir K, Petersen SE.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-07-27,Y,,,,"We developed a novel interpretable biological heart age estimation model using cardiovascular magnetic resonance radiomics measures of ventricular shape and myocardial character. We included 29,996 UK Biobank participants without cardiovascular disease. Images were segmented using an automated analysis pipeline. We extracted 254 radiomics features from the left ventricle, right ventricle, and myocardium of each study. We then used Bayesian ridge regression with tenfold cross-validation to develop a heart age estimation model using the radiomics features as the model input and chronological age as the model output. We examined associations of radiomics features with heart age in men and women, observing sex-differential patterns. We subtracted actual age from model estimated heart age to calculate a ""heart age delta"", which we considered as a measure of heart aging. We performed a phenome-wide association study of 701 exposures with heart age delta. The strongest correlates of heart aging were measures of obesity, adverse serum lipid markers, hypertension, diabetes, heart rate, income, multimorbidity, musculoskeletal health, and respiratory health. This technique provides a new method for phenotypic assessment relating to cardiovascular aging; further studies are required to assess whether it provides incremental risk information over current approaches.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16639-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16639-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9329281; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9329281?pdf=render 35135774,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055603,"Observational retrospective study calculating health service costs of patients receiving surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis in England, using linked patient-level primary and secondary care electronic data.","Clarke CS, Williamson E, Denaxas S, Carpenter JR, Thomas M, Blackshaw H, Schilder AGM, Philpott CM, Hopkins C, Morris S, MACRO programme team.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-02-08,Y,Otolaryngology; Clinical Trials; Health Economics,,,"

Objectives

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) symptoms are experienced by an estimated 11% of UK adults, and symptoms have major impacts on quality of life. Data from UK and elsewhere suggest high economic burden of CRS, but detailed cost information and economic analyses regarding surgical pathway are lacking. This paper estimates healthcare costs for patients receiving surgery for CRS in England.

Design

Observational retrospective study examining cost of healthcare of patients receiving CRS surgery.

Setting

Linked electronic health records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Hospital Episode Statistics and Office for National Statistics databases in England.

Participants

A phenotyping algorithm using medical ontology terms identified 'definite' CRS cases who received CRS surgery. Patients were registered with a general practice in England. Data covered the period 1997-2016. A cohort of 13 462 patients had received surgery for CRS, with 9056 (67%) having confirmed nasal polyps.

Outcome measures

Information was extracted on numbers and types of primary care prescriptions and consultations, and inpatient and outpatient hospital investigations and procedures. Resource use was costed using published sources.

Results

Total National Health Service costs in CRS surgery patients were £2173 over 1 year including surgery. Total costs per person-quarter were £1983 in the quarter containing surgery, mostly comprising surgical inpatient care costs (£1902), and around £60 per person-quarter in the 2 years before and after surgery, of which half were outpatient costs. Outpatient and primary care costs were low compared with the peak in inpatient costs at surgery. The highest outpatient expenditure was on CT scans, peaking in the quarter preceding surgery.

Conclusions

We present the first study of costs to the English healthcare system for patients receiving surgery for CRS. The total aggregate costs provide a further impetus for trials to evaluate the relative benefit of surgical intervention.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e055603.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055603; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830221?pdf=render +35792838,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453,Flashfm-ivis: interactive visualization for fine-mapping of multiple quantitative traits.,"Zhou F, Butterworth AS, Asimit JL.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-09-01,Y,,,,"

Summary

flashfm-ivis provides a suite of interactive visualization plots to view potential causal genetic variants that underlie associations that are shared or distinct between multiple quantitative traits and compares results between single- and multi-trait fine-mapping. Unique features include network diagrams that show joint effects between variants for each trait and regional association plots that integrate fine-mapping results, all with user-controlled zoom features for an interactive exploration of potential causal variants across traits.

Availability and implementation

flashfm-ivis is an open-source software under the MIT license. It is available as an interactive web-based tool (http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/flashfm-ivis/) and as an R package. Code and documentation are available at https://github.com/fz-cambridge/flashfm-ivis and https://zenodo.org/record/6376244#.YjnarC-l2X0. Additional features can be downloaded as standalone R libraries to encourage reuse.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information are available at Bioinformatics online.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951?pdf=render 36580444,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004141,Associations of genetically predicted fatty acid levels across the phenome: A mendelian randomisation study.,"Zagkos L, Dib MJ, Pinto R, Gill D, Koskeridis F, Drenos F, Markozannes G, Elliott P, Zuber V, Tsilidis K, Dehghan A, Tzoulaki I.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-12-29,Y,,,,"

Background

Fatty acids are important dietary factors that have been extensively studied for their implication in health and disease. Evidence from epidemiological studies and randomised controlled trials on their role in cardiovascular, inflammatory, and other diseases remains inconsistent. The objective of this study was to assess whether genetically predicted fatty acid concentrations affect the risk of disease across a wide variety of clinical health outcomes.

Methods and findings

The UK Biobank (UKB) is a large study involving over 500,000 participants aged 40 to 69 years at recruitment from 2006 to 2010. We used summary-level data for 117,143 UKB samples (base dataset), to extract genetic associations of fatty acids, and individual-level data for 322,232 UKB participants (target dataset) to conduct our discovery analysis. We studied potentially causal relationships of circulating fatty acids with 845 clinical diagnoses, using mendelian randomisation (MR) approach, within a phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) framework. Regression models in PheWAS were adjusted for sex, age, and the first 10 genetic principal components. External summary statistics were used for replication. When several fatty acids were associated with a health outcome, multivariable MR and MR-Bayesian method averaging (MR-BMA) was applied to disentangle their causal role. Genetic predisposition to higher docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was associated with cholelithiasis and cholecystitis (odds ratio per mmol/L: 0.76, 95% confidence interval: 0.66 to 0.87). This was supported in replication analysis (FinnGen study) and by the genetically predicted omega-3 fatty acids analyses. Genetically predicted linoleic acid (LA), omega-6, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and total fatty acids (total FAs) showed positive associations with cardiovascular outcomes with support from replication analysis. Finally, higher genetically predicted levels of DHA (0.83, 0.73 to 0.95) and omega-3 (0.83, 0.75 to 0.92) were found to have a protective effect on obesity, which was supported using body mass index (BMI) in the GIANT consortium as replication analysis. Multivariable MR analysis suggested a direct detrimental effect of LA (1.64, 1.07 to 2.50) and omega-6 fatty acids (1.81, 1.06 to 3.09) on coronary heart disease (CHD). MR-BMA prioritised LA and omega-6 fatty acids as the top risk factors for CHD. Although we present a range of sensitivity analyses to the address MR assumptions, horizontal pleiotropy may still bias the reported associations and further evaluation in clinical trials is needed.

Conclusions

Our study suggests potentially protective effects of circulating DHA and omega-3 concentrations on cholelithiasis and cholecystitis and on obesity, highlighting the need to further assess them as prevention treatments in clinical trials. Moreover, our findings do not support the supplementation of unsaturated fatty acids for cardiovascular disease prevention.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004141&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004141; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799317?pdf=render 35132056,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28252-5,Genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies 29 new acne susceptibility loci.,"Mitchell BL, Saklatvala JR, Dand N, Hagenbeek FA, Li X, Min JL, Thomas L, Bartels M, Jan Hottenga J, Lupton MK, Boomsma DI, Dong X, Hveem K, Løset M, Martin NG, Barker JN, Han J, Smith CH, Rentería ME, Simpson MA.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-02-07,Y,,,,"Acne vulgaris is a highly heritable skin disorder that primarily impacts facial skin. Severely inflamed lesions may leave permanent scars that have been associated with long-term psychosocial consequences. Here, we perform a GWAS meta-analysis comprising 20,165 individuals with acne from nine independent European ancestry cohorts. We identify 29 novel genome-wide significant loci and replicate 14 of the 17 previously identified risk loci, bringing the total number of reported acne risk loci to 46. Using fine-mapping and eQTL colocalisation approaches, we identify putative causal genes at several acne susceptibility loci that have previously been implicated in Mendelian hair and skin disorders, including pustular psoriasis. We identify shared genetic aetiology between acne, hormone levels, hormone-sensitive cancers and psychiatric traits. Finally, we show that a polygenic risk score calculated from our results explains up to 5.6% of the variance in acne liability in an independent cohort.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28252-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28252-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8821634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8821634?pdf=render -35792838,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453,Flashfm-ivis: interactive visualization for fine-mapping of multiple quantitative traits.,"Zhou F, Butterworth AS, Asimit JL.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-09-01,Y,,,,"

Summary

flashfm-ivis provides a suite of interactive visualization plots to view potential causal genetic variants that underlie associations that are shared or distinct between multiple quantitative traits and compares results between single- and multi-trait fine-mapping. Unique features include network diagrams that show joint effects between variants for each trait and regional association plots that integrate fine-mapping results, all with user-controlled zoom features for an interactive exploration of potential causal variants across traits.

Availability and implementation

flashfm-ivis is an open-source software under the MIT license. It is available as an interactive web-based tool (http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/flashfm-ivis/) and as an R package. Code and documentation are available at https://github.com/fz-cambridge/flashfm-ivis and https://zenodo.org/record/6376244#.YjnarC-l2X0. Additional features can be downloaded as standalone R libraries to encourage reuse.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information are available at Bioinformatics online.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951?pdf=render -33249608,https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12765,Authors' Reply.,"Wright DM, O'Reilly D, Azuara-Blanco A, Curran R, McMullan M, Hogg RE.",,Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists),2021,2020-11-29,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12765 34516619,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178,Optimal echocardiographic assessment of myocardial dysfunction for arrhythmic risk stratification in phospholamban mutation carriers.,"Taha K, Verstraelen TE, de Brouwer R, de Bruin-Bon RHACM, Cramer MJ, Te Rijdt WP, Bouma BJ, de Boer RA, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Wilde AAM, van den Berg MP, Teske AJ.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2022,2022-10-01,Y,Risk stratification; ventricular arrhythmia; Phospholamban; Mechanical Dispersion; Deformation Imaging; Genetic Cardiomyopathy,,,"

Aims

Phospholamban (PLN) p.Arg14del mutation carriers are at risk of developing malignant ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) and/or heart failure. Currently, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) plays an important role in risk assessment for VA in these individuals. We aimed to study the incremental prognostic value of left ventricular mechanical dispersion (LVMD) by echocardiographic deformation imaging for prediction of sustained VA in PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers.

Methods and results

We included 243 PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers, which were classified into three groups according to the '45/45' rule: (i) normal left ventricular (LV) function, defined as preserved LVEF ≥45% with normal LVMD ≤45 ms (n = 139), (ii) mechanical LV dysfunction, defined as preserved LVEF ≥45% with abnormal LVMD >45 ms (n = 63), and (iii) overt LV dysfunction, defined as reduced LVEF <45% (n = 41). During a median follow-up of 3.3 (interquartile range 1.8-6.0) years, sustained VA occurred in 35 individuals. The negative predictive value of having normal LV function at baseline was 99% [95% confidence interval (CI): 92-100%] for developing sustained VA. The positive predictive value of mechanical LV dysfunction was 20% (95% CI: 15-27%). Mechanical LV dysfunction was an independent predictor of sustained VA in multivariable analysis [hazard ratio adjusted for VA history: 20.48 (95% CI: 2.57-162.84)].

Conclusion

LVMD has incremental prognostic value on top of LVEF in PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers, particularly in those with preserved LVEF. The '45/45' rule is a practical approach to echocardiographic risk stratification in this challenging group of patients. This approach may also have added value in other diseases where LVEF deterioration is a relative late marker of myocardial dysfunction.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178/40357499/jeab178.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584619?pdf=render -33653161,https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617,Making a distinction between data cleaning and central monitoring in clinical trials.,"Love SB, Yorke-Edwards V, Diaz-Montana C, Murray ML, Masters L, Gabriel M, Joffe N, Sydes MR.",,"Clinical trials (London, England)",2021,2021-03-02,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1740774520976617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009?pdf=render +33249608,https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12765,Authors' Reply.,"Wright DM, O'Reilly D, Azuara-Blanco A, Curran R, McMullan M, Hogg RE.",,Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists),2021,2020-11-29,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12765 +33692093,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557,Improving the diagnosis of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation.,"Bunting KV, Gill SK, Sitch A, Mehta S, O'Connor K, Lip GY, Kirchhof P, Strauss VY, Rahimi K, Camm AJ, Stanbury M, Griffith M, Townend JN, Gkoutos GV, Karwath A, Steeds RP, Kotecha D, RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation (RATE-AF) trial group.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2021,2021-03-10,Y,Atrial fibrillation; Echocardiography; Heart Failure; Systolic; Diastolic,,,"

Objective

To improve the echocardiographic assessment of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) by comparing conventional averaging of consecutive beats with an index-beat approach, whereby measurements are taken after two cycles with similar R-R interval.

Methods

Transthoracic echocardiography was performed using a standardised and blinded protocol in patients enrolled in the RATE-AF (RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation) randomised trial. We compared reproducibility of the index-beat and conventional consecutive-beat methods to calculate left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain (GLS) and E/e' (mitral E wave max/average diastolic tissue Doppler velocity), and assessed intraoperator/interoperator variability, time efficiency and validity against natriuretic peptides.

Results

160 patients were included, 46% of whom were women, with a median age of 75 years (IQR 69-82) and a median heart rate of 100 beats per minute (IQR 86-112). The index-beat had the lowest within-beat coefficient of variation for LVEF (32%, vs 51% for 5 consecutive beats and 53% for 10 consecutive beats), GLS (26%, vs 43% and 42%) and E/e' (25%, vs 41% and 41%). Intraoperator (n=50) and interoperator (n=18) reproducibility were both superior for index-beats and this method was quicker to perform (p<0.001): 35.4 s to measure E/e' (95% CI 33.1 to 37.8) compared with 44.7 s for 5-beat (95% CI 41.8 to 47.5) and 98.1 s for 10-beat (95% CI 91.7 to 104.4) analyses. Using a single index-beat did not compromise the association of LVEF, GLS or E/e' with natriuretic peptide levels.

Conclusions

Compared with averaging of multiple beats in patients with AF, the index-beat approach improves reproducibility and saves time without a negative impact on validity, potentially improving the diagnosis and classification of heart failure in patients with AF.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/11/902.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420?pdf=render 32954362,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0093-y,Nutriome-metabolome relationships provide insights into dietary intake and metabolism.,"Posma JM, Garcia-Perez I, Frost G, Aljuraiban GS, Chan Q, Van Horn L, Daviglus M, Stamler J, Holmes E, Elliott P, Nicholson JK.",,Nature food,2020,2020-06-22,N,,,,"Dietary assessment traditionally relies on self-reported data which are often inaccurate and may result in erroneous diet-disease risk associations. We illustrate how urinary metabolic phenotyping can be used as alternative approach for obtaining information on dietary patterns. We used two multi-pass 24-hr dietary recalls, obtained on two occasions on average three weeks apart, paired with two 24-hr urine collections from 1,848 U.S. individuals; 67 nutrients influenced the urinary metabotype measured with 1H-NMR spectroscopy characterized by 46 structurally identified metabolites. We investigated the stability of each metabolite over time and showed that the urinary metabolic profile is more stable within individuals than reported dietary patterns. The 46 metabolites accurately predicted healthy and unhealthy dietary patterns in a free-living U.S. cohort and replicated in an independent U.K. cohort. We mapped these metabolites into a host-microbial metabolic network to identify key pathways and functions. These data can be used in future studies to evaluate how this set of diet-derived, stable, measurable bioanalytical markers are associated with disease risk. This knowledge may give new insights into biological pathways that characterize the shift from a healthy to unhealthy metabolic phenotype and hence give entry points for prevention and intervention strategies.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7497842; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0093-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7497842; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7497842?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0093-y +33653161,https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617,Making a distinction between data cleaning and central monitoring in clinical trials.,"Love SB, Yorke-Edwards V, Diaz-Montana C, Murray ML, Masters L, Gabriel M, Joffe N, Sydes MR.",,"Clinical trials (London, England)",2021,2021-03-02,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1740774520976617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009?pdf=render 34985035,https://doi.org/10.1097/htr.0000000000000741,Epidemiology and 6- and 12-Month Outcomes of Intimate Partner Violence and Other Violence-Related Traumatic Brain Injury in Major Trauma: A Population-Based Trauma Registry Study.,"Gabbe BJ, Braaf S, Cameron PA, Berecki-Gisolf J.",,The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation,2022,2022-01-01,N,,,,"

Objective

To compare the epidemiology, in-hospital outcomes, and 6-month and 12-month patient-reported, outcomes of major trauma patients with intimate partner violence (IPV)-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) with other interpersonal violence (OV)-related TBI.

Setting

Victoria, Australia.

Participants

Adult (≥18 years) major trauma cases with TBI (concussion, skull fracture, or intracranial injury), injured through IPV or OV, between July 2010 and June 2020, and included on the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. There were 133 adult major trauma cases due to IPV and 1796 due to OV. The prevalence of TBI was 39% (n = 52) in the IPV group and 56% (n = 1010) in the OV group.

Design

Registry-based cohort study.

Main measures

Trauma care indicators and 6- and 12-month patient-reported outcomes (self-reported disability, Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, EQ-5D-3L, and return to work).

Results

The annual incidence (95% CI) of major trauma involving TBI was 0.11 (0.08-0.14) per 100 000 population for IPV and 2.11 (1.98-2.24) per 100 000 for OV. A higher proportion of IPV-related cases were women (73% vs 5%), had sustained a severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale score 3-8; 27% vs 15%), were admitted to intensive care (56% vs 37%), and died in hospital (14% vs 5%). The median (interquartile range) time to definitive care (4.7 hours vs 3.3 hours) and head computed tomographic scan (5.0 hours vs 3.1 hours) was longer in the IPV group. Follow-up rates at 6 and 12 months were 71% and 69%, respectively. The 6- and 12-month outcomes were generally poorer in the IPV-related group.

Conclusion

The incidence of IPV-related major trauma with TBI was low. However, the prevalence of severe TBI, the time to key aspects of clinical care, in-hospital mortality, and longer-term work-related disability were higher. However, power to detect differences was low due to the small number of IPV-related cases compared with the OV group.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/HTR.0000000000000741 -33692093,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557,Improving the diagnosis of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation.,"Bunting KV, Gill SK, Sitch A, Mehta S, O'Connor K, Lip GY, Kirchhof P, Strauss VY, Rahimi K, Camm AJ, Stanbury M, Griffith M, Townend JN, Gkoutos GV, Karwath A, Steeds RP, Kotecha D, RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation (RATE-AF) trial group.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2021,2021-03-10,Y,Atrial fibrillation; Echocardiography; Heart Failure; Systolic; Diastolic,,,"

Objective

To improve the echocardiographic assessment of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) by comparing conventional averaging of consecutive beats with an index-beat approach, whereby measurements are taken after two cycles with similar R-R interval.

Methods

Transthoracic echocardiography was performed using a standardised and blinded protocol in patients enrolled in the RATE-AF (RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation) randomised trial. We compared reproducibility of the index-beat and conventional consecutive-beat methods to calculate left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain (GLS) and E/e' (mitral E wave max/average diastolic tissue Doppler velocity), and assessed intraoperator/interoperator variability, time efficiency and validity against natriuretic peptides.

Results

160 patients were included, 46% of whom were women, with a median age of 75 years (IQR 69-82) and a median heart rate of 100 beats per minute (IQR 86-112). The index-beat had the lowest within-beat coefficient of variation for LVEF (32%, vs 51% for 5 consecutive beats and 53% for 10 consecutive beats), GLS (26%, vs 43% and 42%) and E/e' (25%, vs 41% and 41%). Intraoperator (n=50) and interoperator (n=18) reproducibility were both superior for index-beats and this method was quicker to perform (p<0.001): 35.4 s to measure E/e' (95% CI 33.1 to 37.8) compared with 44.7 s for 5-beat (95% CI 41.8 to 47.5) and 98.1 s for 10-beat (95% CI 91.7 to 104.4) analyses. Using a single index-beat did not compromise the association of LVEF, GLS or E/e' with natriuretic peptide levels.

Conclusions

Compared with averaging of multiple beats in patients with AF, the index-beat approach improves reproducibility and saves time without a negative impact on validity, potentially improving the diagnosis and classification of heart failure in patients with AF.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/11/902.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420?pdf=render -34847088,https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001429,The Authors Respond.,"Katsoulis M, De Stavola B, Lai AG, Gomes M, Diaz-Ordaz K.",,"Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)",2022,2022-01-01,N,,,,,,html:https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2022/01000/The_Authors_Respond.22.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001429 31416346,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041980,Machine Learning to Predict the Likelihood of Acute Myocardial Infarction.,"Than MP, Pickering JW, Sandoval Y, Shah ASV, Tsanas A, Apple FS, Blankenberg S, Cullen L, Mueller C, Neumann JT, Twerenbold R, Westermann D, Beshiri A, Mills NL, MI3 Collaborative.",,Circulation,2019,2019-08-16,Y,Troponin; Myocardial infarction; acute coronary syndrome; Machine Learning,Applied Analytics,,"

Background

Variations in cardiac troponin concentrations by age, sex, and time between samples in patients with suspected myocardial infarction are not currently accounted for in diagnostic approaches. We aimed to combine these variables through machine learning to improve the assessment of risk for individual patients.

Methods

A machine learning algorithm (myocardial-ischemic-injury-index [MI3]) incorporating age, sex, and paired high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentrations, was trained on 3013 patients and tested on 7998 patients with suspected myocardial infarction. MI3 uses gradient boosting to compute a value (0-100) reflecting an individual's likelihood of a diagnosis of type 1 myocardial infarction and estimates the sensitivity, negative predictive value, specificity and positive predictive value for that individual. Assessment was by calibration and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Secondary analysis evaluated example MI3 thresholds from the training set that identified patients as low risk (99% sensitivity) and high risk (75% positive predictive value), and performance at these thresholds was compared in the test set to the 99th percentile and European Society of Cardiology rule-out pathways.

Results

Myocardial infarction occurred in 404 (13.4%) patients in the training set and 849 (10.6%) patients in the test set. MI3 was well calibrated with a very high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.963 [0.956-0.971] in the test set and similar performance in early and late presenters. Example MI3 thresholds identifying low- and high-risk patients in the training set were 1.6 and 49.7, respectively. In the test set, MI3 values were <1.6 in 69.5% with a negative predictive value of 99.7% (99.5-99.8%) and sensitivity of 97.8% (96.7-98.7%), and were ≥49.7 in 10.6% with a positive predictive value of 71.8% (68.9-75.0%) and specificity of 96.7% (96.3-97.1%). Using these thresholds, MI3 performed better than the European Society of Cardiology 0/3-hour pathway (sensitivity, 82.5% [74.5-88.8%]; specificity, 92.2% [90.7-93.5%]) and the 99th percentile at any time point (sensitivity, 89.6% [87.4-91.6%]); specificity, 89.3% [88.6-90.0%]).

Conclusions

Using machine learning, MI3 provides an individualized and objective assessment of the likelihood of myocardial infarction, which can be used to identify low- and high-risk patients who may benefit from earlier clinical decisions.

Clinical trial registration

URL: https://www.anzctr.org.au. Unique identifier: ACTRN12616001441404.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041980; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041980; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749969; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749969?pdf=render +34847088,https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001429,The Authors Respond.,"Katsoulis M, De Stavola B, Lai AG, Gomes M, Diaz-Ordaz K.",,"Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)",2022,2022-01-01,N,,,,,,html:https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2022/01000/The_Authors_Respond.22.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001429 37645022,https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.0058-2023,The impact of poor housing and indoor air quality on respiratory health in children.,"Holden KA, Lee AR, Hawcutt DB, Sinha IP.",,"Breathe (Sheffield, England)",2023,2023-06-01,Y,,,,"It is becoming increasingly apparent that poor housing quality affects indoor air quality, significantly impacting on respiratory health in children and young people. Exposure to damp and/or mould in the home, cold homes and the presence of pests and pollutants all have a significant detrimental impact on child respiratory health. There is a complex relationship between features of poor-quality housing, such as being in a state of disrepair, poor ventilation, overcrowding and being cold, that favour an environment resulting in poor indoor air quality. Children living in rented (private or public) housing are more likely to come from lower-income backgrounds and are most at risk of living in substandard housing posing a serious threat to respiratory health. Children have the right to safe and adequate housing, and research has shown that either rehousing or making modifications to poor-quality housing to improve indoor air quality results in improved respiratory health. Urgent action is needed to address this threat to health. All stakeholders should understand the relationship between poor-quality housing and respiratory health in children and act, working with families, to redress this modifiable risk factor.

Educational aims

The reader should understand how housing quality and indoor air quality affect respiratory health in children.The reader should understand which children are at most risk of living in poor-quality housing.The reader should understand what policy recommendations have been made and what actions need to be undertaken to improve housing quality and respiratory health in children and young people.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.0058-2023; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10461733; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10461733?pdf=render 34671274,https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.730736,Comparing Non-invasive Inverse Electrocardiography With Invasive Endocardial and Epicardial Electroanatomical Mapping During Sinus Rhythm.,"Roudijk RW, Boonstra MJ, Brummel R, Kassenberg W, Blom LJ, Oostendorp TF, Te Riele ASJM, van der Heijden JF, Asselbergs FW, van Dam PM, Loh P.",,Frontiers in physiology,2021,2021-10-04,Y,Cardiac Arrhythmia; Sudden Cardiac Death; Electroanatomical Mapping; Electrocardiographic Imaging (Ecgi); Non-invasive Mapping; Equivalent Dipole Layer; Inverse Problem Of Electrocardiography,,,"This study presents a novel non-invasive equivalent dipole layer (EDL) based inverse electrocardiography (iECG) technique which estimates both endocardial and epicardial ventricular activation sequences. We aimed to quantitatively compare our iECG approach with invasive electro-anatomical mapping (EAM) during sinus rhythm with the objective of enabling functional substrate imaging and sudden cardiac death risk stratification in patients with cardiomyopathy. Thirteen patients (77% males, 48 ± 20 years old) referred for endocardial and epicardial EAM underwent 67-electrode body surface potential mapping and CT imaging. The EDL-based iECG approach was improved by mimicking the effects of the His-Purkinje system on ventricular activation. EAM local activation timing (LAT) maps were compared with iECG-LAT maps using absolute differences and Pearson's correlation coefficient, reported as mean ± standard deviation [95% confidence interval]. The correlation coefficient between iECG-LAT maps and EAM was 0.54 ± 0.19 [0.49-0.59] for epicardial activation, 0.50 ± 0.27 [0.41-0.58] for right ventricular endocardial activation and 0.44 ± 0.29 [0.32-0.56] for left ventricular endocardial activation. The absolute difference in timing between iECG maps and EAM was 17.4 ± 7.2 ms for epicardial maps, 19.5 ± 7.7 ms for right ventricular endocardial maps, 27.9 ± 8.7 ms for left ventricular endocardial maps. The absolute distance between right ventricular endocardial breakthrough sites was 30 ± 16 mm and 31 ± 17 mm for the left ventricle. The absolute distance for latest epicardial activation was median 12.8 [IQR: 2.9-29.3] mm. This first in-human quantitative comparison of iECG and invasive LAT-maps on both the endocardial and epicardial surface during sinus rhythm showed improved agreement, although with considerable absolute difference and moderate correlation coefficient. Non-invasive iECG requires further refinements to facilitate clinical implementation and risk stratification.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.730736/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.730736; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521153; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521153?pdf=render 36825398,https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000948,Effectiveness and safety of coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines.,"Shi T, Robertson C, Sheikh A.",,Current opinion in pulmonary medicine,2023,2023-02-24,Y,,,,"

Purpose of review

To review and summarise recent evidence on the effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and COVID-19 hospitalisation and death in adults as well as in specific population groups, namely pregnant women, and children and adolescents. We also sought to summarise evidence on vaccine safety in relation to cardiovascular and neurological complications. In order to do so, we drew primarily on evidence from two our own data platforms and supplement these with insights from related large population-based studies and systematic reviews.

Recent findings

All studies showed high vaccine effectiveness against confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and in particular against COVID-19 hospitalisation and death. However, vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 infection waned over time. These studies also found that booster vaccines would be needed to maintain high vaccine effectiveness against severe COVID-19 outcomes. Rare cardiovascular and neurological complications have been reported in association with COVID-19 vaccines.

Summary

The findings from this paper support current recommendations that vaccination remains the safest way for adults, pregnant women, children and adolescents to be protected against COVID-19. There is a need to continue to monitor the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines as these continue to be deployed in the evolving pandemic.",,html:https://journals.lww.com/co-pulmonarymedicine/Fulltext/9900/Effectiveness_and_safety_of_coronavirus_disease.53.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/MCP.0000000000000948; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10090353; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10090353?pdf=render -36707908,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w,A comparison of international modelling methods to evaluate health economics of colorectal cancer screening: a systematic review protocol.,"Adair O, McFerran E, Owen T, McKee C, Lamrock F, Lawler M.",,Systematic reviews,2023,2023-01-27,Y,Screening; Economic evaluation; Colorectal Cancer; Health Economics; Cost-effectiveness Analysis; Quality-adjusted Life Years; Cost-utility; Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratio; Cost–benefit; Life Years Gained,,,"

Background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is becoming an increasing health problem worldwide. However, with the help of screening, early diagnosis can reduce incidence and mortality rates. To elevate the economic burden that CRC can cause, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) can assist healthcare systems to make screening programmes more cost-effective and prolong survival for early-stage CRC patients. This review aims to identify different CEA modelling methods used internationally to evaluate health economics of CRC screening.

Methods

This review will systematically search electronic databases which include MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and Scopus. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance recommendations will design the review, and the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement will be used to extract relevant data from studies retrieved. Two reviewers will screen through the evidence using the PICOS (Participant, Intervention, Comparators, Outcomes, Study Design) framework, with a third reviewer to settle any disagreements. Once data extraction and quality assessment are complete, the results will be presented qualitatively and tabulated using the CHEERS checklist.

Discussion

The results obtained from the systematic review will highlight how different CRC screening programmes around the world utilise and incorporate health economic modelling methods to be more cost-effective. This information can help modellers develop CEA models which can be adapted to suit the specific screening programmes that they are evaluating.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42022296113.",,pdf:https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863?pdf=render 32908801,https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.9.38,Merging Information From Infrared and Autofluorescence Fundus Images for Monitoring of Chorioretinal Atrophic Lesions.,"Ometto G, Montesano G, Sadeghi Afgeh S, Lazaridis G, Liu X, Keane PA, Crabb DP, Denniston AK.",,Translational vision science & technology,2020,2020-08-25,Y,Autofluorescence; Segmentation; infrared; Uveitis; Multimodal,,,"

Purpose

To develop a method for automated detection and progression analysis of chorioretinal atrophic lesions using the combined information of standard infrared (IR) and autofluorescence (AF) fundus images.

Methods

Eighteen eyes (from 16 subjects) with punctate inner choroidopathy were analyzed. Macular IR and blue AF images were acquired in all eyes with a Spectralis HRA+OCT device (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany). Two clinical experts manually segmented chorioretinal lesions on the AF image. AF images were aligned to the corresponding IR. Two random forest models were trained to classify pixels of lesions, one based on the AF image only, the other based on the aligned IR-AF. The models were validated using a leave-one-out cross-validation and were tested against the manual segmentation to compare their performance. A time series from one eye was identified and used to evaluate the method based on the IR-AF in a case study.

Results

The method based on the AF images correctly classified 95% of the pixels (i.e., in vs. out of the lesion) with a Dice's coefficient of 0.80. The method based on the combined IR-AF correctly classified 96% of the pixels with a Dice's coefficient of 0.84.

Conclusions

The automated segmentation of chorioretinal lesions using IR and AF shows closer alignment to manual segmentation than the same method based on AF only. Merging information from multimodal images improves the automatic and objective segmentation of chorioretinal lesions even when based on a small dataset.

Translational relevance

Merged information from multimodal images improves segmentation performance of chorioretinal lesions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.9.38; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.9.38; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453042; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453042?pdf=render +36707908,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w,A comparison of international modelling methods to evaluate health economics of colorectal cancer screening: a systematic review protocol.,"Adair O, McFerran E, Owen T, McKee C, Lamrock F, Lawler M.",,Systematic reviews,2023,2023-01-27,Y,Screening; Economic evaluation; Colorectal Cancer; Health Economics; Cost-effectiveness Analysis; Quality-adjusted Life Years; Cost-utility; Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratio; Cost–benefit; Life Years Gained,,,"

Background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is becoming an increasing health problem worldwide. However, with the help of screening, early diagnosis can reduce incidence and mortality rates. To elevate the economic burden that CRC can cause, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) can assist healthcare systems to make screening programmes more cost-effective and prolong survival for early-stage CRC patients. This review aims to identify different CEA modelling methods used internationally to evaluate health economics of CRC screening.

Methods

This review will systematically search electronic databases which include MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and Scopus. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance recommendations will design the review, and the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement will be used to extract relevant data from studies retrieved. Two reviewers will screen through the evidence using the PICOS (Participant, Intervention, Comparators, Outcomes, Study Design) framework, with a third reviewer to settle any disagreements. Once data extraction and quality assessment are complete, the results will be presented qualitatively and tabulated using the CHEERS checklist.

Discussion

The results obtained from the systematic review will highlight how different CRC screening programmes around the world utilise and incorporate health economic modelling methods to be more cost-effective. This information can help modellers develop CEA models which can be adapted to suit the specific screening programmes that they are evaluating.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42022296113.",,pdf:https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863?pdf=render 34026049,https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.25484.2,PUblications Metadata Augmentation (PUMA) pipeline.,"Butters OW, Wilson RC, Garner H, Burton TWY.",,F1000Research,2020,2020-09-04,Y,bibliometrics; Bibliography; Alspac; Longitudinal Birth Cohort,,,"Cohort studies collect, generate and distribute data over long periods of time - often over the lifecourse of their participants. It is common for these studies to host a list of publications (which can number many thousands) on their website to demonstrate the impact of the study and facilitate the search of existing research to which the study data has contributed. The ability to search and explore these publication lists varies greatly between studies. We believe a lack of rich search and exploration functionality of study publications is a barrier to entry for new or prospective users of a study's data, since it may be difficult to find and evaluate previous work in a given area. These lists of publications are also typically manually curated, resulting in a lack of rich metadata to analyse, making bibliometric analysis difficult. We present here a software pipeline that aggregates metadata from a variety of third-party providers to power a web based search and exploration tool for lists of publications. Alongside core publication metadata (i.e. author lists, keywords etc.), we include geocoding of first authors and citation counts in our pipeline. This allows a characterisation of a study as a whole based on common locations of authors, frequency of keywords, citation profile etc. This enriched publications metadata can be useful for generating study impact metrics and web-based graphics for public dissemination. In addition, the pipeline produces a research data set for bibliometric analysis or social studies of science. We use a previously published list of publications from a cohort study as an exemplar input data set to show the output and utility of the pipeline here.",,pdf:https://f1000research.com/articles/9-1095/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.25484.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8108552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8108552?pdf=render -32665523,https://doi.org/10.1097/hjh.0000000000002579,Association of SBP and BMI with cognitive and structural brain phenotypes in UK Biobank.,"Ferguson AC, Tank R, Lyall LM, Ward J, Welsh P, Celis-Morales C, McQueenie R, Strawbridge RJ, Mackay DF, Pell JP, Smith DJ, Sattar N, Cavanagh J, Lyall DM.",,Journal of hypertension,2020,2020-12-01,N,,,,"

Objective

To test for associations between SBP and BMI, with domain-specific cognitive abilities and examine which brain structural phenotypes mediate those associations.

Methods

Using cross-sectional UK Biobank data (final N = 28 412), we examined SBP/BMI vs. cognitive test scores of pairs-matching, matrix completion, trail making test A/B, digit symbol substitution, verbal-numerical reasoning, tower rearranging and simple reaction time. We adjusted for potential confounders of age, sex, deprivation, medication, apolipoprotein e4 genotype, smoking, population stratification and genotypic array. We tested for mediation via multiple structural brain imaging phenotypes and corrected for multiple testing with false discovery rate.

Results

We found positive associations for higher BMI with worse reaction time, reasoning, tower rearranging and matrix completion tasks by 0.024-0.067 SDs per BMI SD (all P < 0.001). Higher SBP was associated with worse reasoning (0.034 SDs) and matrix completion scores (-0.024 SDs; both P < 0.001). Both BMI and SBP were associated with multiple brain structural metrics including total grey/white matter volumes, frontal lobe volumes, white matter tract integrity and white matter hyperintensity volumes: specific metrics mediated around one-third of the associations with cognition.

Conclusion

Our findings add to the body of evidence that addressing cardiovascular risk factors may also preserve cognitive function, via specific aspects of brain structure.",,html:https://journals.lww.com/jhypertension/Fulltext/2020/12000/Association_of_SBP_and_BMI_with_cognitive_and.22.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000002579 36942567,https://doi.org/10.1161/circep.122.011585,Outcomes of Early Rhythm Control Therapy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation and a High Comorbidity Burden in Large Real-World Cohorts.,"Dickow J, Kany S, Roth Cardoso V, Ellinor PT, Gkoutos GV, Van Houten HK, Kirchhof P, Metzner A, Noseworthy PA, Yao X, Rillig A.",,Circulation. Arrhythmia and electrophysiology,2023,2023-03-21,N,Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Catheter ablation; Heart Failure; Comorbidity,,,"

Background

A recent subanalysis of the EAST-AFNET 4 (Early Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation for Stroke Prevention Trial) suggests a stronger benefit of early rhythm control (ERC) in patients with atrial fibrillation and a high comorbidity burden when compared to patients with a lower comorbidity burden.

Methods

We identified 109 739 patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in a large United States deidentified administrative claims database (OptumLabs) and 11 625 patients in the population-based UKB (UK Biobank). ERC was defined as atrial fibrillation ablation or antiarrhythmic drug therapy within the first year after atrial fibrillation diagnosis. Patients were classified as (1) ERC and high comorbidity burden (CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥4); (2) ERC and lower comorbidity burden (CHA2DS2-VASc score 2-3); (3) no ERC and high comorbidity burden; and (4) no ERC and lower comorbidity burden. Patients without an elevated comorbidity burden (CHA2DS2-VASc score 0-1) were excluded. Propensity score overlap weighting and cox proportional hazards regression were used to balance patients and compare groups for the primary composite outcome of all-cause mortality, stroke, or hospitalization with the diagnoses heart failure or myocardial infarction as well as for a primary composite safety outcome of death, stroke, and serious adverse events related to ERC.

Results

In both cohorts, ERC was associated with a reduced risk for the primary composite outcome in patients with a high comorbidity burden (OptumLabs: hazard ratio, 0.83 [95% CI 0.72-0.95]; P=0.006; UKB: hazard ratio, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.63-0.94]; P=0.009). In patients with a lower comorbidity burden, the difference in outcomes was not significant (OptumLabs: hazard ratio, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.54-1.57]; P=0.767; UKB: hazard ratio, 0.94 [95% CI, 0.83-1.06]; P=0.310). The comorbidity burden interacted with ERC in the UKB (interaction- P=0.027) but not in OptumLabs (interaction-P=0.720). ERC was not associated with an increased risk for the primary safety outcome.

Conclusions

ERC is safe and may be more favorable in a population-based sample of patients with high a comorbidity burden (CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥4).",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCEP.122.011585; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCEP.122.011585 37389932,https://doi.org/10.2196/44126,Barriers to and Facilitators of Using Remote Measurement Technology in the Long-Term Monitoring of Individuals With ADHD: Interview Study.,"Denyer H, Deng Q, Adanijo A, Asherson P, Bilbow A, Folarin A, Groom MJ, Hollis C, Wykes T, Dobson RJ, Kuntsi J, Simblett S.",,JMIR formative research,2023,2023-06-30,Y,Mobile phone; ADHD; Qualitative analysis; Engagement; Attention-deficit/hyperactivity Disorder; Barriers And Facilitators; Remote Measurement Technology,,,"

Background

Remote measurement technology (RMT) has the potential to address current research and clinical challenges of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and its co-occurring mental health problems. Despite research using RMT already being successfully applied to other populations, adherence and attrition are potential obstacles when applying RMT to a disorder such as ADHD. Hypothetical views and attitudes toward using RMT in a population with ADHD have previously been explored; however, to our knowledge, there is no previous research that has used qualitative methods to understand the barriers to and facilitators of using RMT in individuals with ADHD following participation in a remote monitoring period.

Objective

We aimed to evaluate the barriers to and facilitators of using RMT in individuals with ADHD compared with a group of people who did not have a diagnosis of ADHD. We also aimed to explore participants' views on using RMT for 1 or 2 years in future studies.

Methods

In total, 20 individuals with ADHD and 20 individuals without ADHD were followed up for 10 weeks using RMT that involved active (questionnaires and cognitive tasks) and passive (smartphone sensors and wearable devices) monitoring; 10 adolescents and adults with ADHD and 12 individuals in a comparison group completed semistructured qualitative interviews at the end of the study period. The interviews focused on potential barriers to and facilitators of using RMT in adults with ADHD. A framework methodology was used to explore the data qualitatively.

Results

Barriers to and facilitators of using RMT were categorized as health-related, user-related, and technology-related factors across both participant groups. When comparing themes that emerged across the participant groups, both individuals with and without ADHD experienced similar barriers and facilitators in using RMT. The participants agreed that RMT can provide useful objective data. However, slight differences between the participant groups were identified as barriers to RMT across all major themes. Individuals with ADHD described the impact that their ADHD symptoms had on participating (health-related theme), commented on the perceived cost of completing the cognitive tasks (user-related theme), and described more technical challenges (technology-related theme) than individuals without ADHD. Hypothetical views on future studies using RMT in individuals with ADHD for 1 or 2 years were positive.

Conclusions

Individuals with ADHD agreed that RMT, which uses repeated measurements with ongoing active and passive monitoring, can provide useful objective data. Although themes overlapped with previous research on barriers to and facilitators of engagement with RMT (eg, depression and epilepsy) and with a comparison group, there are unique considerations for people with ADHD, for example, understanding the impact that ADHD symptoms may have on engaging with RMT. Researchers need to continue working with people with ADHD to develop future RMT studies for longer periods.",,pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e44126/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/44126; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10365629; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10365629?pdf=render +32665523,https://doi.org/10.1097/hjh.0000000000002579,Association of SBP and BMI with cognitive and structural brain phenotypes in UK Biobank.,"Ferguson AC, Tank R, Lyall LM, Ward J, Welsh P, Celis-Morales C, McQueenie R, Strawbridge RJ, Mackay DF, Pell JP, Smith DJ, Sattar N, Cavanagh J, Lyall DM.",,Journal of hypertension,2020,2020-12-01,N,,,,"

Objective

To test for associations between SBP and BMI, with domain-specific cognitive abilities and examine which brain structural phenotypes mediate those associations.

Methods

Using cross-sectional UK Biobank data (final N = 28 412), we examined SBP/BMI vs. cognitive test scores of pairs-matching, matrix completion, trail making test A/B, digit symbol substitution, verbal-numerical reasoning, tower rearranging and simple reaction time. We adjusted for potential confounders of age, sex, deprivation, medication, apolipoprotein e4 genotype, smoking, population stratification and genotypic array. We tested for mediation via multiple structural brain imaging phenotypes and corrected for multiple testing with false discovery rate.

Results

We found positive associations for higher BMI with worse reaction time, reasoning, tower rearranging and matrix completion tasks by 0.024-0.067 SDs per BMI SD (all P < 0.001). Higher SBP was associated with worse reasoning (0.034 SDs) and matrix completion scores (-0.024 SDs; both P < 0.001). Both BMI and SBP were associated with multiple brain structural metrics including total grey/white matter volumes, frontal lobe volumes, white matter tract integrity and white matter hyperintensity volumes: specific metrics mediated around one-third of the associations with cognition.

Conclusion

Our findings add to the body of evidence that addressing cardiovascular risk factors may also preserve cognitive function, via specific aspects of brain structure.",,html:https://journals.lww.com/jhypertension/Fulltext/2020/12000/Association_of_SBP_and_BMI_with_cognitive_and.22.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000002579 35987738,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.06.017,Benefits of Machine Learning to Predict Survival Using Stress Perfusion CMR and Basic Clinical Information.,"Petersen SE, Aung N.",,JACC. Cardiovascular imaging,2022,2022-08-17,N,Machine Learning; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Vasodilator Stress Perfusion,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.06.017 34798287,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.11.023,Missing data is poorly handled and reported in prediction model studies using machine learning: a literature review.,"Nijman S, Leeuwenberg AM, Beekers I, Verkouter I, Jacobs J, Bots ML, Asselbergs FW, Moons K, Debray T.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2022,2021-11-16,N,Prediction; Literature review; Reporting; Missing Data; Machine Learning,,,"

Objectives

Missing data is a common problem during the development, evaluation, and implementation of prediction models. Although machine learning (ML) methods are often said to be capable of circumventing missing data, it is unclear how these methods are used in medical research. We aim to find out if and how well prediction model studies using machine learning report on their handling of missing data.

Study design and setting

We systematically searched the literature on published papers between 2018 and 2019 about primary studies developing and/or validating clinical prediction models using any supervised ML methodology across medical fields. From the retrieved studies information about the amount and nature (e.g. missing completely at random, potential reasons for missingness) of missing data and the way they were handled were extracted.

Results

We identified 152 machine learning-based clinical prediction model studies. A substantial amount of these 152 papers did not report anything on missing data (n = 56/152). A majority (n = 96/152) reported details on the handling of missing data (e.g., methods used), though many of these (n = 46/96) did not report the amount of the missingness in the data. In these 96 papers the authors only sometimes reported possible reasons for missingness (n = 7/96) and information about missing data mechanisms (n = 8/96). The most common approach for handling missing data was deletion (n = 65/96), mostly via complete-case analysis (CCA) (n = 43/96). Very few studies used multiple imputation (n = 8/96) or built-in mechanisms such as surrogate splits (n = 7/96) that directly address missing data during the development, validation, or implementation of the prediction model.

Conclusion

Though missing values are highly common in any type of medical research and certainly in the research based on routine healthcare data, a majority of the prediction model studies using machine learning does not report sufficient information on the presence and handling of missing data. Strategies in which patient data are simply omitted are unfortunately the most often used methods, even though it is generally advised against and well known that it likely causes bias and loss of analytical power in prediction model development and in the predictive accuracy estimates. Prediction model researchers should be much more aware of alternative methodologies to address missing data.",,pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621003759/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.11.023 32060159,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034396,Data-driven discovery of changes in clinical code usage over time: a case-study on changes in cardiovascular disease recording in two English electronic health records databases (2001-2015).,"Rockenschaub P, Nguyen V, Aldridge RW, Acosta D, García-Gómez JM, Sáez C.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-02-13,Y,Cardiovascular disease; Data Quality; Electronic Health Records; Clinical Coding; Statistics & Research Methods,The Human Phenome,,"

Objectives

To demonstrate how data-driven variability methods can be used to identify changes in disease recording in two English electronic health records databases between 2001 and 2015.

Design

Repeated cross-sectional analysis that applied data-driven temporal variability methods to assess month-by-month changes in routinely collected medical data. A measure of difference between months was calculated based on joint distributions of age, gender, socioeconomic status and recorded cardiovascular diseases. Distances between months were used to identify temporal trends in data recording.

Setting

400 English primary care practices from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD) and 451 hospital providers from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Main outcomes

The proportion of patients (CPRD GOLD) and hospital admissions (HES) with a recorded cardiovascular disease (CPRD GOLD: coronary heart disease, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, stroke; HES: International Classification of Disease codes I20-I69/G45).

Results

Both databases showed gradual changes in cardiovascular disease recording between 2001 and 2008. The recorded prevalence of included cardiovascular diseases in CPRD GOLD increased by 47%-62%, which partially reversed after 2008. For hospital records in HES, there was a relative decrease in angina pectoris (-34.4%) and unspecified stroke (-42.3%) over the same time period, with a concomitant increase in chronic coronary heart disease (+14.3%). Multiple abrupt changes in the use of myocardial infarction codes in hospital were found in March/April 2010, 2012 and 2014, possibly linked to updates of clinical coding guidelines.

Conclusions

Identified temporal variability could be related to potentially non-medical causes such as updated coding guidelines. These artificial changes may introduce temporal correlation among diagnoses inferred from routine data, violating the assumptions of frequently used statistical methods. Temporal variability measures provide an objective and robust technique to identify, and subsequently account for, those changes in electronic health records studies without any prior knowledge of the data collection process.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/2/e034396.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034396; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7045100; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7045100?pdf=render 34328624,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9,30-Day Morbidity and Mortality of Bariatric Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Multinational Cohort Study of 7704 Patients from 42 Countries.,"Singhal R, Ludwig C, Rudge G, Gkoutos GV, Tahrani A, Mahawar K, GENEVA Collaborators, Pędziwiatr M, Major P, Zarzycki P, Pantelis A, Lapatsanis DP, Stravodimos G, Matthys C, Focquet M, Vleeschouwers W, Spaventa AG, Zerrweck C, Vitiello A, Berardi G, Musella M, Sanchez-Meza A, Cantu FJ, Mora F, Cantu MA, Katakwar A, Reddy DN, Elmaleh H, Hassan M, Elghandour A, Elbanna M, Osman A, Khan A, Layani L, Kiran N, Velikorechin A, Solovyeva M, Melali H, Shahabi S, Agrawal A, Shrivastava A, Sharma A, Narwaria B, Narwaria M, Raziel A, Sakran N, Susmallian S, Karagöz L, Akbaba M, Pişkin SZ, Balta AZ, Senol Z, Manno E, Iovino MG, Osman A, Qassem M, Arana-Garza S, Povoas HP, Vilas-Boas ML, Naumann D, Super J, Li A, Ammori BJ, Balamoun H, Salman M, Nasta AM, Goel R, Sánchez-Aguilar H, Herrera MF, Abou-Mrad A, Cloix L, Mazzini GS, Kristem L, Lazaro A, Campos J, Bernardo J, González J, Trindade C, Viveiros O, Ribeiro R, Goitein D, Hazzan D, Segev L, Beck T, Reyes H, Monterrubio J, García P, Benois M, Kassir R, Contine A, Elshafei M, Aktas S, Weiner S, Heidsieck T, Level L, Pinango S, Ortega PM, Moncada R, Valenti V, Vlahović I, Boras Z, Liagre A, Martini F, Juglard G, Motwani M, Saggu SS, Al Moman H, López LAA, Cortez MAC, Zavala RA, D'Haese C, Kempeneers I, Himpens J, Lazzati A, Paolino L, Bathaei S, Bedirli A, Yavuz A, Büyükkasap Ç, Özaydın S, Kwiatkowski A, Bartosiak K, Walędziak M, Santonicola A, Angrisani L, Iovino P, Palma R, Iossa A, Boru CE, De Angelis F, Silecchia G, Hussain A, Balchandra S, Coltell IB, Pérez JL, Bohra A, Awan AK, Madhok B, Leeder PC, Awad S, Al-Khyatt W, Shoma A, Elghadban H, Ghareeb S, Mathews B, Kurian M, Larentzakis A, Vrakopoulou GZ, Albanopoulos K, Bozdag A, Lale A, Kirkil C, Dincer M, Bashir A, Haddad A, Hijleh LA, Zilberstein B, de Marchi DD, Souza WP, Brodén CM, Gislason H, Shah K, Ambrosi A, Pavone G, Tartaglia N, Kona SLK, Kalyan K, Perez CEG, Botero MAF, Covic A, Timofte D, Maxim M, Faraj D, Tseng L, Liem R, Ören G, Dilektasli E, Yalcin I, AlMukhtar H, Al Hadad M, Mohan R, Arora N, Bedi D, Rives-Lange C, Chevallier JM, Poghosyan T, Sebbag H, Zinaï L, Khaldi S, Mauchien C, Mazza D, Dinescu G, Rea B, Pérez-Galaz F, Zavala L, Besa A, Curell A, Balibrea JM, Vaz C, Galindo L, Silva N, Caballero JLE, Sebastian SO, Marchesini JCD, da Fonseca Pereira RA, Sobottka WH, Fiolo FE, Turchi M, Coelho ACJ, Zacaron AL, Barbosa A, Quinino R, Menaldi G, Paleari N, Martinez-Duartez P, de Aragon Ramírez de Esparza GM, Esteban VS, Torres A, Garcia-Galocha JL, Josa M, Pacheco-Garcia JM, Mayo-Ossorio MA, Chowbey P, Soni V, de Vasconcelos Cunha HA, Castilho MV, Ferreira RMA, Barreiro TA, Charalabopoulos A, Sdralis E, Davakis S, Bomans B, Dapri G, Van Belle K, Takieddine M, Vaneukem P, Karaca ESA, Karaca FC, Sumer A, Peksen C, Savas OA, Chousleb E, Elmokayed F, Fakhereldin I, Aboshanab HM, Swelium T, Gudal A, Gamloo L, Ugale A, Ugale S, Boeker C, Reetz C, Hakami IA, Mall J, Alexandrou A, Baili E, Bodnar Z, Maleckas A, Gudaityte R, Guldogan CE, Gundogdu E, Ozmen MM, Thakkar D, Dukkipati N, Shah PS, Shah SS, Shah SS, Adil MT, Jambulingam P, Mamidanna R, Whitelaw D, Adil MT, Jain V, Veetil DK, Wadhawan R, Torres A, Torres M, Tinoco T, Leclercq W, Romeijn M, van de Pas K, Alkhazraji AK, Taha SA, Ustun M, Yigit T, Inam A, Burhanulhaq M, Pazouki A, Eghbali F, Kermansaravi M, Jazi AHD, Mahmoudieh M, Mogharehabed N, Tsiotos G, Stamou K, Barrera Rodriguez FJ, Rojas Navarro MA, Torres OM, Martinez SL, Tamez ERM, Millan Cornejo GA, Flores JEG, Mohammed DA, Elfawal MH, Shabbir A, Guowei K, So JB, Kaplan ET, Kaplan M, Kaplan T, Pham D, Rana G, Kappus M, Gadani R, Kahitan M, Pokharel K, Osborne A, Pournaras D, Hewes J, Napolitano E, Chiappetta S, Bottino V, Dorado E, Schoettler A, Gaertner D, Fedtke K, Aguilar-Espinosa F, Aceves-Lozano S, Balani A, Nagliati C, Pennisi D, Rizzi A, Frattini F, Foschi D, Benuzzi L, Parikh C, Shah H, Pinotti E, Montuori M, Borrelli V, Dargent J, Copaescu CA, Hutopila I, Smeu B, Witteman B, Hazebroek E, Deden L, Heusschen L, Okkema S, Aufenacker T, den Hengst W, Vening W, van der Burgh Y, Ghazal A, Ibrahim H, Niazi M, Alkhaffaf B, Altarawni M, Cesana GC, Anselmino M, Uccelli M, Olmi S, Stier C, Akmanlar T, Sonnenberg T, Schieferbein U, Marcolini A, Awruch D, Vicentin M, de Souza Bastos EL, Gregorio SA, Ahuja A, Mittal T, Bolckmans R, Wiggins T, Baratte C, Wisnewsky JA, Genser L, Chong L, Taylor L, Ward S, Chong L, Taylor L, Hi MW, Heneghan H, Fearon N, Plamper A, Rheinwalt K, Heneghan H, Geoghegan J, Ng KC, Fearon N, Kaseja K, Kotowski M, Samarkandy TA, Leyva-Alvizo A, Corzo-Culebro L, Wang C, Yang W, Dong Z, Riera M, Jain R, Hamed H, Said M, Zarzar K, Garcia M, Türkçapar AG, Şen O, Baldini E, Conti L, Wietzycoski C, Lopes E, Pintar T, Salobir J, Aydin C, Atici SD, Ergin A, Ciyiltepe H, Bozkurt MA, Kizilkaya MC, Onalan NBD, Zuber MNBA, Wong WJ, Garcia A, Vidal L, Beisani M, Pasquier J, Vilallonga R, Sharma S, Parmar C, Lee L, Sufi P, Sinan H, Saydam M.",,Obesity surgery,2021,2021-07-30,Y,Pandemic; Obesity Surgery; Bariatric Surgery; Revisional Surgery; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

There are data on the safety of cancer surgery and the efficacy of preventive strategies on the prevention of postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 in these patients. But there is little such data for any elective surgery. The main objectives of this study were to examine the safety of bariatric surgery (BS) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to determine the efficacy of perioperative COVID-19 protective strategies on postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 rates.

Methods

We conducted an international cohort study to determine all-cause and COVID-19-specific 30-day morbidity and mortality of BS performed between 01/05/2020 and 31/10/2020.

Results

Four hundred ninety-nine surgeons from 185 centres in 42 countries provided data on 7704 patients. Elective primary BS (n = 7084) was associated with a 30-day morbidity of 6.76% (n = 479) and a 30-day mortality of 0.14% (n = 10). Emergency BS, revisional BS, insulin-treated type 2 diabetes, and untreated obstructive sleep apnoea were associated with increased complications on multivariable analysis. Forty-three patients developed symptomatic COVID-19 postoperatively, with a higher risk in non-whites. Preoperative self-isolation, preoperative testing for SARS-CoV-2, and surgery in institutions not concurrently treating COVID-19 patients did not reduce the incidence of postoperative COVID-19. Postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 was more likely if the surgery was performed during a COVID-19 peak in that country.

Conclusions

BS can be performed safely during the COVID-19 pandemic with appropriate perioperative protocols. There was no relationship between preoperative testing for COVID-19 and self-isolation with symptomatic postoperative COVID-19. The risk of postoperative COVID-19 risk was greater in non-whites or if BS was performed during a local peak.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323543?pdf=render -37074763,https://doi.org/10.2196/44237,Data-Driven Identification of Unusual Prescribing Behavior: Analysis and Use of an Interactive Data Tool Using 6 Months of Primary Care Data From 6500 Practices in England.,"Hopcroft LE, Massey J, Curtis HJ, Mackenna B, Croker R, Brown AD, O'Dwyer T, Macdonald O, Evans D, Inglesby P, Bacon SC, Goldacre B, Walker AJ.",,JMIR medical informatics,2023,2023-04-19,Y,General Practice; Prescribing; Primary Care; Electronic Health Records; Ehr; Outliers; Dashboard; Data Science,,,"

Background

Approaches to addressing unwarranted variation in health care service delivery have traditionally relied on the prospective identification of activities and outcomes, based on a hypothesis, with subsequent reporting against defined measures. Practice-level prescribing data in England are made publicly available by the National Health Service (NHS) Business Services Authority for all general practices. There is an opportunity to adopt a more data-driven approach to capture variability and identify outliers by applying hypothesis-free, data-driven algorithms to national data sets.

Objective

This study aimed to develop and apply a hypothesis-free algorithm to identify unusual prescribing behavior in primary care data at multiple administrative levels in the NHS in England and to visualize these results using organization-specific interactive dashboards, thereby demonstrating proof of concept for prioritization approaches.

Methods

Here we report a new data-driven approach to quantify how ""unusual"" the prescribing rates of a particular chemical within an organization are as compared to peer organizations, over a period of 6 months (June-December 2021). This is followed by a ranking to identify which chemicals are the most notable outliers in each organization. These outlying chemicals are calculated for all practices, primary care networks, clinical commissioning groups, and sustainability and transformation partnerships in England. Our results are presented via organization-specific interactive dashboards, the iterative development of which has been informed by user feedback.

Results

We developed interactive dashboards for every practice (n=6476) in England, highlighting the unusual prescribing of 2369 chemicals (dashboards are also provided for 42 sustainability and transformation partnerships, 106 clinical commissioning groups, and 1257 primary care networks). User feedback and internal review of case studies demonstrate that our methodology identifies prescribing behavior that sometimes warrants further investigation or is a known issue.

Conclusions

Data-driven approaches have the potential to overcome existing biases with regard to the planning and execution of audits, interventions, and policy making within NHS organizations, potentially revealing new targets for improved health care service delivery. We present our dashboards as a proof of concept for generating candidate lists to aid expert users in their interpretation of prescribing data and prioritize further investigations and qualitative research in terms of potential targets for improved performance.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2023/1/e44237/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/44237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162592 34088700,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-2518,"Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolic Traits, and Risk of Heart Failure: A Mendelian Randomization Study.","Mordi IR, Lumbers RT, Palmer CNA, Pearson ER, Sattar N, Holmes MV, Lang CC, HERMES Consortium.",,Diabetes care,2021,2021-06-04,Y,,,,"

Objective

The aim of this study was to use Mendelian randomization (MR) techniques to estimate the causal relationships between genetic liability to type 2 diabetes (T2D), glycemic traits, and risk of heart failure (HF).

Research design and methods

Summary-level data were obtained from genome-wide association studies of T2D, insulin resistance (IR), glycated hemoglobin, fasting insulin and glucose, and HF. MR was conducted using the inverse-variance weighted method. Sensitivity analyses included the MR-Egger method, weighted median and mode methods, and multivariable MR conditioning on potential mediators.

Results

Genetic liability to T2D was causally related to higher risk of HF (odds ratio [OR] 1.13 per 1-log unit higher risk of T2D; 95% CI 1.11-1.14; P < 0.001); however, sensitivity analysis revealed evidence of directional pleiotropy. The relationship between T2D and HF was attenuated when adjusted for coronary disease, BMI, LDL cholesterol, and blood pressure in multivariable MR. Genetically instrumented higher IR was associated with higher risk of HF (OR 1.19 per 1-log unit higher risk of IR; 95% CI 1.00-1.41; P = 0.041). There were no notable associations identified between fasting insulin, glucose, or glycated hemoglobin and risk of HF. Genetic liability to HF was causally linked to higher risk of T2D (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.01-2.19; P = 0.042), although again with evidence of pleiotropy.

Conclusions

These findings suggest a possible causal role of T2D and IR in HF etiology, although the presence of both bidirectional effects and directional pleiotropy highlights potential sources of bias that must be considered.",,pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-pdf/44/7/1699/632992/dc202518.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-2518; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323186?pdf=render -37303488,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392,"Changes in medication safety indicators in England throughout the covid-19 pandemic using OpenSAFELY: population based, retrospective cohort study of 57 million patients using federated analytics.","Fisher L, Hopcroft LE, Rodgers S, Barrett J, Oliver K, Avery AJ, Evans D, Curtis H, Croker R, Macdonald O, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Hickman G, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Smith B, Ward T, Hulme W, Green A, Massey J, Walker AJ, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.",,BMJ medicine,2023,2023-05-11,Y,Primary Health Care; Medical Informatics; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To implement complex, PINCER (pharmacist led information technology intervention) prescribing indicators, on a national scale with general practice data to describe the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on safe prescribing.

Design

Population based, retrospective cohort study using federated analytics.

Setting

Electronic general practice health record data from 56.8 million NHS patients by use of the OpenSAFELY platform, with the approval of the National Health Service (NHS) England.

Participants

NHS patients (aged 18-120 years) who were alive and registered at a general practice that used TPP or EMIS computer systems and were recorded as at risk of at least one potentially hazardous PINCER indicator.

Main outcome measure

Between 1 September 2019 and 1 September 2021, monthly trends and between practice variation for compliance with 13 PINCER indicators, as calculated on the first of every month, were reported. Prescriptions that do not adhere to these indicators are potentially hazardous and can cause gastrointestinal bleeds; are cautioned against in specific conditions (specifically heart failure, asthma, and chronic renal failure); or require blood test monitoring. The percentage for each indicator is formed of a numerator of patients deemed to be at risk of a potentially hazardous prescribing event and the denominator is of patients for which assessment of the indicator is clinically meaningful. Higher indicator percentages represent potentially poorer performance on medication safety.

Results

The PINCER indicators were successfully implemented across general practice data for 56.8 million patient records from 6367 practices in OpenSAFELY. Hazardous prescribing remained largely unchanged during the covid-19 pandemic, with no evidence of increases in indicators of harm as captured by the PINCER indicators. The percentage of patients at risk of potentially hazardous prescribing, as defined by each PINCER indicator, at mean quarter 1 (Q1) 2020 (representing before the pandemic) ranged from 1.11% (age ≥65 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 36.20% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test), while Q1 2021 (representing after the pandemic) percentages ranged from 0.75% (age ≥65 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 39.23% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test). Transient delays occurred in blood test monitoring for some medications, particularly angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (where blood monitoring worsened from a mean of 5.16% in Q1 2020 to 12.14% in Q1 2021, and began to recover in June 2021). All indicators substantially recovered by September 2021. We identified 1 813 058 patients (3.1%) at risk of at least one potentially hazardous prescribing event.

Conclusion

NHS data from general practices can be analysed at national scale to generate insights into service delivery. Potentially hazardous prescribing was largely unaffected by the covid-19 pandemic in primary care health records in England.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000392.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692?pdf=render +37074763,https://doi.org/10.2196/44237,Data-Driven Identification of Unusual Prescribing Behavior: Analysis and Use of an Interactive Data Tool Using 6 Months of Primary Care Data From 6500 Practices in England.,"Hopcroft LE, Massey J, Curtis HJ, Mackenna B, Croker R, Brown AD, O'Dwyer T, Macdonald O, Evans D, Inglesby P, Bacon SC, Goldacre B, Walker AJ.",,JMIR medical informatics,2023,2023-04-19,Y,General Practice; Prescribing; Primary Care; Electronic Health Records; Ehr; Outliers; Dashboard; Data Science,,,"

Background

Approaches to addressing unwarranted variation in health care service delivery have traditionally relied on the prospective identification of activities and outcomes, based on a hypothesis, with subsequent reporting against defined measures. Practice-level prescribing data in England are made publicly available by the National Health Service (NHS) Business Services Authority for all general practices. There is an opportunity to adopt a more data-driven approach to capture variability and identify outliers by applying hypothesis-free, data-driven algorithms to national data sets.

Objective

This study aimed to develop and apply a hypothesis-free algorithm to identify unusual prescribing behavior in primary care data at multiple administrative levels in the NHS in England and to visualize these results using organization-specific interactive dashboards, thereby demonstrating proof of concept for prioritization approaches.

Methods

Here we report a new data-driven approach to quantify how ""unusual"" the prescribing rates of a particular chemical within an organization are as compared to peer organizations, over a period of 6 months (June-December 2021). This is followed by a ranking to identify which chemicals are the most notable outliers in each organization. These outlying chemicals are calculated for all practices, primary care networks, clinical commissioning groups, and sustainability and transformation partnerships in England. Our results are presented via organization-specific interactive dashboards, the iterative development of which has been informed by user feedback.

Results

We developed interactive dashboards for every practice (n=6476) in England, highlighting the unusual prescribing of 2369 chemicals (dashboards are also provided for 42 sustainability and transformation partnerships, 106 clinical commissioning groups, and 1257 primary care networks). User feedback and internal review of case studies demonstrate that our methodology identifies prescribing behavior that sometimes warrants further investigation or is a known issue.

Conclusions

Data-driven approaches have the potential to overcome existing biases with regard to the planning and execution of audits, interventions, and policy making within NHS organizations, potentially revealing new targets for improved health care service delivery. We present our dashboards as a proof of concept for generating candidate lists to aid expert users in their interpretation of prescribing data and prioritize further investigations and qualitative research in terms of potential targets for improved performance.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2023/1/e44237/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/44237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162592 32946551,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa158,Do home modifications reduce care home admissions for older people? A matched control evaluation of the Care & Repair Cymru service in Wales.,"Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Akbari A, Watkins A, Williams N, Hillcoat-Nallétamby S, Lyons RA, Clegg A, Rodgers SE.",,Age and ageing,2020,2020-10-01,Y,Frailty; Interventions; Older People; Care Homes; Administrative Data,,,"

Background

home advice and modification interventions aim to promote independent living for those living in the community, but quantitative evidence of their effectiveness is limited.

Aim

assess the risk of care home admissions for people with different frailty levels receiving home advice and modification interventions against a control group who do not.

Study design and setting

matched control evaluation using linked longitudinal data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, comprising people aged 60-95, registered with a SAIL contributing general practice. The intervention group received the Care & Repair Cymru (C & RC) service, a home advice and modification service available to residents in Wales.

Methods

frailty, age and gender were used in propensity score matching to assess the Hazard Ratio (HR) of care home admissions within a 1-, 3- and 5-year period for the intervention group (N = 93,863) compared to a matched control group (N = 93,863). Kaplan-Meier curves were used to investigate time to a care home admission.

Results

the intervention group had an increased risk of a care home admission at 1-, 3- and 5-years [HR (95%CI)] for those classified as fit [1-year: 2.02 (1.73, 2.36), 3-years: 1.87 (1.72, 2.04), 5-years: 1.99 (1.86, 2.13)] and mildly frail [1-year: 1.25 (1.09, 1.42), 3-years: 1.25 (1.17, 1.34), 5-years: 1.30 (1.23, 1.38)], but a reduced risk of care home admission for moderately [1-year: 0.66 (0.58, 0.75), 3-years: 0.75 (0.70, 0.80), 5-years: 0.83 (0.78, 0.88)] and severely frail individuals [1-year: 0.44 (0.37, 0.54), 3-years: 0.54 (0.49, 0.60), 5-years: 0.60(0.55, 0.66)].

Conclusions

HRs indicated that the C & RC service helped to prevent care home admissions for moderately and severely frail individuals. The HRs generally increased with follow-up duration.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/49/6/1056/33993322/afaa158.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa158; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7583515; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7583515?pdf=render +37303488,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392,"Changes in medication safety indicators in England throughout the covid-19 pandemic using OpenSAFELY: population based, retrospective cohort study of 57 million patients using federated analytics.","Fisher L, Hopcroft LE, Rodgers S, Barrett J, Oliver K, Avery AJ, Evans D, Curtis H, Croker R, Macdonald O, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Hickman G, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Smith B, Ward T, Hulme W, Green A, Massey J, Walker AJ, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.",,BMJ medicine,2023,2023-05-11,Y,Primary Health Care; Medical Informatics; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To implement complex, PINCER (pharmacist led information technology intervention) prescribing indicators, on a national scale with general practice data to describe the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on safe prescribing.

Design

Population based, retrospective cohort study using federated analytics.

Setting

Electronic general practice health record data from 56.8 million NHS patients by use of the OpenSAFELY platform, with the approval of the National Health Service (NHS) England.

Participants

NHS patients (aged 18-120 years) who were alive and registered at a general practice that used TPP or EMIS computer systems and were recorded as at risk of at least one potentially hazardous PINCER indicator.

Main outcome measure

Between 1 September 2019 and 1 September 2021, monthly trends and between practice variation for compliance with 13 PINCER indicators, as calculated on the first of every month, were reported. Prescriptions that do not adhere to these indicators are potentially hazardous and can cause gastrointestinal bleeds; are cautioned against in specific conditions (specifically heart failure, asthma, and chronic renal failure); or require blood test monitoring. The percentage for each indicator is formed of a numerator of patients deemed to be at risk of a potentially hazardous prescribing event and the denominator is of patients for which assessment of the indicator is clinically meaningful. Higher indicator percentages represent potentially poorer performance on medication safety.

Results

The PINCER indicators were successfully implemented across general practice data for 56.8 million patient records from 6367 practices in OpenSAFELY. Hazardous prescribing remained largely unchanged during the covid-19 pandemic, with no evidence of increases in indicators of harm as captured by the PINCER indicators. The percentage of patients at risk of potentially hazardous prescribing, as defined by each PINCER indicator, at mean quarter 1 (Q1) 2020 (representing before the pandemic) ranged from 1.11% (age ≥65 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 36.20% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test), while Q1 2021 (representing after the pandemic) percentages ranged from 0.75% (age ≥65 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 39.23% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test). Transient delays occurred in blood test monitoring for some medications, particularly angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (where blood monitoring worsened from a mean of 5.16% in Q1 2020 to 12.14% in Q1 2021, and began to recover in June 2021). All indicators substantially recovered by September 2021. We identified 1 813 058 patients (3.1%) at risk of at least one potentially hazardous prescribing event.

Conclusion

NHS data from general practices can be analysed at national scale to generate insights into service delivery. Potentially hazardous prescribing was largely unaffected by the covid-19 pandemic in primary care health records in England.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000392.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692?pdf=render 32763878,https://doi.org/10.2196/18690,Notifications to Improve Engagement With an Alcohol Reduction App: Protocol for a Micro-Randomized Trial.,"Bell L, Garnett C, Qian T, Perski O, Potts HWW, Williamson E.",,JMIR research protocols,2020,2020-08-07,Y,Alcohol; Engagement; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Excessive Alcohol Consumption; Smartphone App; Push Notifications; Digital Behavior Change; Micro-randomized Trial,,,"

Background

Drink Less is a behavior change app that aims to help users in the general adult population reduce hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption. The app includes a daily push notification, delivered at 11 am, asking users to ""Please complete your mood and drinking diaries."" Previous analysis of Drink Less engagement data suggests the current notification strongly influences how users engage with the app in the subsequent hour. To exploit a potential increase of vulnerability of excess drinking and opportunity to engage with the app in the evenings, we changed the delivery time from 11 am to 8 pm. We now aim to further optimise the content and sequence of notifications, testing 30 new evidence-informed notifications targeting the user's perceived usefulness of the app.

Objective

The primary objective is to assess whether sending a notification at 8 pm increases behavioral engagement (opening the app) in the subsequent hour. Secondary objectives include comparing the effect of the new bank of messages with the standard message and effect moderation over time. We also aim to more generally understand the role notifications have on the overall duration, depth, and frequency of engagement with Drink Less over the first 30 days after download.

Methods

This is a protocol for a micro-randomized trial with two additional parallel arms. Inclusion criteria are Drink Less users who (1) consent to participate in the trial; (2) self-report a baseline Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score of 8 or above; (3) reside in the United Kingdom; (4) age ≥18 years and; (5) report interest in drinking less alcohol. In the micro-randomized trial, participants will be randomized daily at 8 pm to receive no notification, a notification with text from the new message bank, or the standard message. The primary outcome is the time-varying, binary outcome of ""Did the user open the app in the hour from 8 pm to 9 pm?"". The primary analysis will estimate the marginal relative risk for the notifications using an estimator developed for micro-randomized trials with binary outcomes. Participants randomized to the parallel arms will receive no notifications (Secondary Arm A), or the standard notification delivered daily at 11 am (Secondary Arm B) over 30 days, allowing the comparison of overall engagement between different notification delivery strategies.

Results

Approval was granted by the University College of London's Departmental Research Ethics Committee (CEHP/2016/556) on October 11, 2019, and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Interventions Research Ethics Committee (17929) on November 27, 2019. Recruitment began on January 2, 2020, and is ongoing.

Conclusions

Understanding how push notifications may impact engagement with a behavior change app can lead to further improvements in engagement, and ultimately help users reduce their alcohol consumption. This understanding may also be generalizable to other apps that target a variety of behavior changes.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

DERR1-10.2196/18690.",,pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2020/8/e18690/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/18690; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7442945 35842339,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.080,Linking cohort data and Welsh routine health records to investigate children at risk of delayed primary vaccination.,"Walton S, Cortina-Borja M, Dezateux C, Griffiths LJ, Tingay K, Akbari A, Bandyopadhyay A, Lyons RA, Roberts R, Bedford H.",,Vaccine,2022,2022-07-13,Y,Child; Vaccination; Dtp Vaccine; Timeliness; Child Health Systems; Millennium Cohort Study (Mcs),,,"

Background

Delayed primary vaccination is one of the strongest predictors of subsequent incomplete immunisation. Identifying children at risk of such delay may enable targeting of interventions, thus decreasing vaccine-preventable illness.

Objectives

To explore socio-demographic factors associated with delayed receipt of the Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis (DTP) vaccine.

Methods

We included 1,782 children, born between 2000 and 2001, participating in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and resident in Wales, whose parents gave consent for linkage to National Community Child Health Database records at the age seven years contact. We examined child, maternal, family and area characteristics associated with delayed receipt of the first dose of the DTP vaccine.

Results

98.6% received the first dose of DTP. The majority, 79.6% (n = 1,429) received it on time (between 8 and 12 weeks of age), 14.2% (n = 251) received it early (prior to 8 weeks of age) and 4.8% (n = 79) were delayed (after 12 weeks of age); 1.4% (n = 23) never received it. Delayed primary vaccination was more likely among children with older natural siblings (risk ratio 3.82, 95% confidence interval (1.97, 7.38)), children admitted to special/intensive care (3.15, (1.65, 5.99)), those whose birth weight was > 4Kg (2.02, (1.09, 3.73)) and boys (1.53, (1.01, 2.31)). There was a reduced risk of delayed vaccination with increasing maternal age (0.73, (0.53, 1.00) per 5 year increase) and for babies born to graduate mothers (0.27, (0.08, 0.90)).

Conclusions

Although the majority of infants were vaccinated in a timely manner, identification of infants at increased risk of early or delayed vaccination will enable targeting of interventions to facilitate timely immunisation. This is to our knowledge the first study exploring individual level socio-demographic factors associated with delayed primary vaccination in the UK and demonstrates the benefits of linking cohort data to routinely-collected child health data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.080; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.080; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499753; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499753?pdf=render -36543768,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2,Multi-organ imaging demonstrates the heart-brain-liver axis in UK Biobank participants.,"McCracken C, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Veldsman M, Raman B, Dennis A, Husain M, Nichols TE, Petersen SE, Neubauer S.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-12-21,Y,,,,"Medical imaging provides numerous insights into the subclinical changes that precede serious diseases such as heart disease and dementia. However, most imaging research either describes a single organ system or draws on clinical cohorts with small sample sizes. In this study, we use state-of-the-art multi-organ magnetic resonance imaging phenotypes to investigate cross-sectional relationships across the heart-brain-liver axis in 30,444 UK Biobank participants. Despite controlling for an extensive range of demographic and clinical covariates, we find significant associations between imaging-derived phenotypes of the heart (left ventricular structure, function and aortic distensibility), brain (brain volumes, white matter hyperintensities and white matter microstructure), and liver (liver fat, liver iron and fibroinflammation). Simultaneous three-organ modelling identifies differentially important pathways across the heart-brain-liver axis with evidence of both direct and indirect associations. This study describes a potentially cumulative burden of multiple-organ dysfunction and provides essential insight into multi-organ disease prevention.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35321-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225?pdf=render 37669576,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.024,Unraveling ethnic disparities in antipsychotic prescribing among patients with psychosis: A retrospective cohort study based on electronic clinical records.,"Wang T, Codling D, Bhugra D, Msosa Y, Broadbent M, Patel R, Roberts A, McGuire P, Stewart R, Dobson R, Harland R.",,Schizophrenia research,2023,2023-09-03,N,Psychopharmacology; Psychosis; Ethnicity; Electronic Health Records; Healthcare Inequality; Antipsychotic Prescription,,,"

Background

Previous studies have shown mixed evidence on ethnic disparities in antipsychotic prescribing among patients with psychosis in the UK, partly due to small sample sizes. This study aimed to examine the current state of antipsychotic prescription with respect to patient ethnicity among the entire population known to a large UK mental health trust with non-affective psychosis, adjusting for multiple potential risk factors.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study included all patients (N = 19,291) who were aged 18 years or over at their first diagnoses of non-affective psychosis (identified with the ICD-10 codes of F20-F29) recorded in electronic health records (EHRs) at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust until March 2021. The most recently recorded antipsychotic treatments and patient attributes were extracted from EHRs, including both structured fields and free-text fields processed using natural language processing applications. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to calculate the odds ratios (OR) for antipsychotic prescription according to patient ethnicity, adjusted for multiple potential contributing factors, including demographic (age and gender), clinical (diagnoses, duration of illness, service use and history of cannabis use), socioeconomic factors (level of deprivation and own-group ethnic density in the area of residence) and temporal changes in clinical guidelines (date of prescription).

Results

The cohort consisted of 43.10 % White, 8.31 % Asian, 40.80 % Black, 2.64 % Mixed, and 5.14 % of patients from Other ethnicity. Among them, 92.62 % had recorded antipsychotic receipt, where 24.05 % for depot antipsychotics and 81.72 % for second-generation antipsychotic (SGA) medications. Most ethnic minority groups were not significantly different from White patients in receiving any antipsychotic. Among those receiving antipsychotic prescribing, Black patients were more likely to be prescribed depot (adjusted OR 1.29, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.14-1.47), but less likely to receive SGA (adjusted OR 0.85, 95 % CI 0.74-0.97), olanzapine (OR 0.82, 95 % CI 0.73-0.92) and clozapine (adjusted OR 0.71, 95 % CI 0.6-0.85) than White patients. All the ethnic minority groups were less likely to be prescribed olanzapine than the White group.

Conclusions

Black patients with psychosis had a distinct pattern in antipsychotic prescription, with less use of SGA, including olanzapine and clozapine, but more use of depot antipsychotics, even when adjusting for the effects of multiple demographic, clinical and socioeconomic factors. Further research is required to understand the sources of these ethnic disparities and eliminate care inequalities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.024 +36543768,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2,Multi-organ imaging demonstrates the heart-brain-liver axis in UK Biobank participants.,"McCracken C, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Veldsman M, Raman B, Dennis A, Husain M, Nichols TE, Petersen SE, Neubauer S.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-12-21,Y,,,,"Medical imaging provides numerous insights into the subclinical changes that precede serious diseases such as heart disease and dementia. However, most imaging research either describes a single organ system or draws on clinical cohorts with small sample sizes. In this study, we use state-of-the-art multi-organ magnetic resonance imaging phenotypes to investigate cross-sectional relationships across the heart-brain-liver axis in 30,444 UK Biobank participants. Despite controlling for an extensive range of demographic and clinical covariates, we find significant associations between imaging-derived phenotypes of the heart (left ventricular structure, function and aortic distensibility), brain (brain volumes, white matter hyperintensities and white matter microstructure), and liver (liver fat, liver iron and fibroinflammation). Simultaneous three-organ modelling identifies differentially important pathways across the heart-brain-liver axis with evidence of both direct and indirect associations. This study describes a potentially cumulative burden of multiple-organ dysfunction and provides essential insight into multi-organ disease prevention.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35321-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225?pdf=render 37394283,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14444,Survival after HeartMate 3 left ventricular assist device implantation: real-world data from Europe.,"Numan L, Schramm R, Oerlemans MIFJ, van der Kaaij NP, Aarts E, Ramjankhan FZ, Oppelaar AM, Morshuis M, Guenther SPW, Zimpfer D, Riebandt J, Wiedemann D, Asselbergs FW, Van Laake LW.",,ESC heart failure,2023,2023-07-02,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.14444; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14444; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375103?pdf=render 33503030,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245636,Classification of road traffic injury collision characteristics using text mining analysis: Implications for road injury prevention.,"Giummarra MJ, Beck B, Gabbe BJ.",,PloS one,2021,2021-01-27,Y,,,,"Road traffic injuries are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Understanding circumstances leading to road traffic injury is crucial to improve road safety, and implement countermeasures to reduce the incidence and severity of road trauma. We aimed to characterise crash characteristics of road traffic collisions in Victoria, Australia, and to examine the relationship between crash characteristics and fault attribution. Data were extracted from the Victorian State Trauma Registry for motor vehicle drivers, motorcyclists, pedal cyclists and pedestrians with a no-fault compensation claim, aged > = 16 years and injured 2010-2016. People with intentional injury, serious head injury, no compensation claim/missing injury event description or who died < = 12-months post-injury were excluded, resulting in a sample of 2,486. Text mining of the injury event using QDA Miner and Wordstat was used to classify crash circumstances for each road user group. Crashes in which no other was at fault included circumstances involving lost control or avoiding a hazard, mechanical failure or medical conditions. Collisions in which another was predominantly at fault occurred at intersections with another vehicle entering from an adjacent direction, and head-on collisions. Crashes with higher prevalence of unknown fault included multi-vehicle collisions, pedal cyclists injured in rear-end collisions, and pedestrians hit while crossing the road or navigating slow traffic areas. We discuss several methods to promote road safety and to reduce the incidence and severity of road traffic injuries. Our recommendations take into consideration the incidence and impact of road trauma for different types of road users, and include engineering and infrastructure controls through to interventions targeting or accommodating human behaviour.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0245636&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245636; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840051; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840051?pdf=render -36501061,https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031,Associations of Genetically Predicted Vitamin B12 Status across the Phenome.,"Dib MJ, Ahmadi KR, Zagkos L, Gill D, Morris B, Elliott P, Dehghan A, Tzoulaki I.",,Nutrients,2022,2022-11-26,Y,Vitamin B12; Deficiency; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomisation; Pernicious Anaemia,,,"Variation in vitamin B12 levels has been associated with a range of diseases across the life-course, the causal nature of which remains elusive. We aimed to interrogate genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in relation to a plethora of clinical outcomes available in the UK Biobank. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data obtained from a Danish and Icelandic cohort of 45,576 individuals were used to identify 8 genetic variants associated with vitamin B12 levels, serving as genetic instruments for vitamin B12 status in subsequent analyses. We conducted a Mendelian randomisation (MR)-phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) of vitamin B12 status with 945 distinct phenotypes in 439,738 individuals from the UK Biobank using these 8 genetic instruments to proxy alterations in vitamin B12 status. We used external GWAS summary statistics for replication of significant findings. Correction for multiple testing was taken into consideration using a 5% false discovery rate (FDR) threshold. MR analysis identified an association between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and lower risk of vitamin B deficiency (including all B vitamin deficiencies), serving as a positive control outcome. We further identified associations between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and a reduced risk of megaloblastic anaemia (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.20-0.50) and pernicious anaemia (0.29, 0.19-0.45), which was supported in replication analyses. Our study highlights that higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status is potentially protective of risk of vitamin B12 deficiency associated with pernicious anaemia diagnosis, and reduces risk of megaloblastic anaemia. The potential use of genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in disease diagnosis, progression and management remains to be investigated.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/23/5031/pdf?version=1669449806; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080?pdf=render 34427560,https://doi.org/10.1684/ejd.2021.4108,"The association between immunosuppression and skin cancer in solid organ transplant recipients: a control-matched cohort study of 2,852 patients.","Gibson JAG, Cordaro A, Dobbs TD, Griffiths R, Akbari A, Whitaker S, Hutchings HA, Lyons RA, Whitaker IS.",,European journal of dermatology : EJD,2021,2021-12-01,N,Transplant; Oncology; immunosuppression; Skin Cancer,,,"Skin cancer is more common in transplant recipients, although the quoted incidence is variable. This study investigated the incidence of skin cancer in solid organ transplant recipients (OTRs) in a national cohort and the effect of pharmacotherapeutic agents Transplant patients were identified from Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) using Office of Population Census and Surveys Classifications of Interventions and Procedures-4 (OPCS-4) codes. Controls were matched to cases according to age, sex and socioeconomic status. Skin cancer data were obtained from linkage with other national data sources. Incidence was calculated per 100,000 person-years at risk (PYAR). Negative binomial regression was used to calculate adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for each organ type. During 2000-2018, 2,852 Welsh patients underwent solid organ transplantation. A total of 13,527 controls were matched from the general population. The incidence of skin cancer within the OTR cohort was 1203.2 per 100,000 PYAR vs 133.9 in the matched control group. Age, male gender and azathioprine use were all associated with an increased risk of skin cancer. Contemporary immunomodulators such as tacrolimus and mycophenolate were associated with a reduction in skin cancer risk when compared to their predecessors, cyclosporin and azathioprine. The highest adjusted IRR was observed in heart transplant recipients (IRR: 10.82; 95% CI: 3.64-32.19) and the lowest in liver transplant recipients (IRR: 2.86; 95% CI: 1.15-7.13). This study highlights the need for long-term routine skin cancer surveillance for all OTRs and the importance of using contemporary immunomodulators, when possible, for risk reduction.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1684/ejd.2021.4108 +36501061,https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031,Associations of Genetically Predicted Vitamin B12 Status across the Phenome.,"Dib MJ, Ahmadi KR, Zagkos L, Gill D, Morris B, Elliott P, Dehghan A, Tzoulaki I.",,Nutrients,2022,2022-11-26,Y,Vitamin B12; Deficiency; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomisation; Pernicious Anaemia,,,"Variation in vitamin B12 levels has been associated with a range of diseases across the life-course, the causal nature of which remains elusive. We aimed to interrogate genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in relation to a plethora of clinical outcomes available in the UK Biobank. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data obtained from a Danish and Icelandic cohort of 45,576 individuals were used to identify 8 genetic variants associated with vitamin B12 levels, serving as genetic instruments for vitamin B12 status in subsequent analyses. We conducted a Mendelian randomisation (MR)-phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) of vitamin B12 status with 945 distinct phenotypes in 439,738 individuals from the UK Biobank using these 8 genetic instruments to proxy alterations in vitamin B12 status. We used external GWAS summary statistics for replication of significant findings. Correction for multiple testing was taken into consideration using a 5% false discovery rate (FDR) threshold. MR analysis identified an association between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and lower risk of vitamin B deficiency (including all B vitamin deficiencies), serving as a positive control outcome. We further identified associations between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and a reduced risk of megaloblastic anaemia (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.20-0.50) and pernicious anaemia (0.29, 0.19-0.45), which was supported in replication analyses. Our study highlights that higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status is potentially protective of risk of vitamin B12 deficiency associated with pernicious anaemia diagnosis, and reduces risk of megaloblastic anaemia. The potential use of genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in disease diagnosis, progression and management remains to be investigated.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/23/5031/pdf?version=1669449806; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080?pdf=render 35673545,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17231.2,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody lateral flow assay for antibody prevalence studies following vaccination: a diagnostic accuracy study.,"Cann A, Clarke C, Brown J, Thomson T, Prendecki M, Moshe M, Badhan A, Simmons B, Klaber B, Elliott P, Darzi A, Riley S, Ashby D, Martin P, Gleeson S, Willicombe M, Kelleher P, Ward H, Barclay WS, Cooke GS.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Antibodies; Seroprevalence; Lateral Flow; Neutralisation; Lfia; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) are able to achieve affordable, large scale antibody testing and provide rapid results without the support of central laboratories. As part of the development of the REACT programme extensive evaluation of LFIA performance was undertaken with individuals following natural infection. Here we assess the performance of the selected LFIA to detect antibody responses in individuals who have received at least one dose of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine. Methods: This was a prospective diagnostic accuracy study. Sampling was carried out at renal outpatient clinic and healthcare worker testing sites at Imperial College London NHS Trust. Two cohorts of patients were recruited; the first was a cohort of 108 renal transplant patients attending clinic following two doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, the second cohort comprised 40 healthcare workers attending for first SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and subsequent follow up. During the participants visit, finger-prick blood samples were analysed on LFIA device, while paired venous sampling was sent for serological assessment of antibodies to the spike protein (anti-S) antibodies. Anti-S IgG was detected using the Abbott Architect SARS-CoV-2 IgG Quant II CMIA. A total of 186 paired samples were collected. The accuracy of Fortress LFIA in detecting IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 compared to anti-spike protein detection on Abbott Assay Results: The LFIA had an estimated sensitivity of 92.0% (114/124; 95% confidence interval [CI] 85.7% to 96.1%) and specificity of 93.6% (58/62; 95% CI 84.3% to 98.2%) using the Abbott assay as reference standard (using the threshold for positivity of 7.10 BAU/ml) Conclusions: Fortress LFIA performs well in the detection of antibody responses for intended purpose of population level surveillance but does not meet criteria for individual testing.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17231.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9152464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9152464?pdf=render -34629034,https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409,Are individual and social factors specific to the home associated with children's behaviour and physical environment at home.,"Sheldrick MPR, Maitland C, Mackintosh KA, Rosenberg M, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Stratton G.",,Journal of sports sciences,2021,2021-10-09,N,Youth; Family; House; Sedentary Time; Moderate-vigorous Physical Activity,,,"This study used linear regression analyses to investigate the influence of parent-reported home-specific social and individual factors on: (i) 235 children's home-based objectively measured overall sitting time, breaks in sitting, and PA, and; (ii) the home physical environment via an audit. Parental importance assigned to active play for children was positively associated with PA equipment (accessibility and availability), as well as light physical activity (LPA) and sitting breaks on both weekdays and weekend days. Parental preference for being active at home and limits on screen-time were associated with less household media equipment and portable media equipment, respectively. Greater parental importance placed on playing electronic games/using computers for fun was associated with less LPA and more sitting on weekdays. Further, children who preferred being sedentary sat more and engaged in less moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on weekdays. Parental and child preferences and priorities, as well as parental rules for activity at home, were associated with children's home-based sitting and PA, especially on weekdays. Such factors were also associated with the physical environment in the expected directions. The findings suggest interventions need to target social and individual factors, alongside adapting the physical environment to create homes more promotive of physical activity.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56833/Download/56833__19829__9b0bb77f67e84342b525fbccaba98e67.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409 35151869,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104010,Patient-centric characterization of multimorbidity trajectories in patients with severe mental illnesses: A temporal bipartite network modeling approach.,"Wang T, Bendayan R, Msosa Y, Pritchard M, Roberts A, Stewart R, Dobson R.",,Journal of biomedical informatics,2022,2022-02-11,Y,Network Evolution; Multimorbidity; Severe Mental Illnesses; Disease Trajectories; Ehr Data Linkage; Temporal Bipartite Network,,,"Multimorbidity is a major factor contributing to increased mortality among people with severe mental illnesses (SMI). Previous studies either focus on estimating prevalence of a disease in a population without considering relationships between diseases or ignore heterogeneity of individual patients in examining disease progression by looking merely at aggregates across a whole cohort. Here, we present a temporal bipartite network model to jointly represent detailed information on both individual patients and diseases, which allows us to systematically characterize disease trajectories from both patient and disease centric perspectives. We apply this approach to a large set of longitudinal diagnostic records for patients with SMI collected through a data linkage between electronic health records from a large UK mental health hospital and English national hospital administrative database. We find that the resulting diagnosis networks show disassortative mixing by degree, suggesting that patients affected by a small number of diseases tend to suffer from prevalent diseases. Factors that determine the network structures include an individual's age, gender and ethnicity. Our analysis on network evolution further shows that patients and diseases become more interconnected over the illness duration of SMI, which is largely driven by the process that patients with similar attributes tend to suffer from the same conditions. Our analytic approach provides a guide for future patient-centric research on multimorbidity trajectories and contributes to achieving precision medicine.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8894882 37223892,https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.15153,Inequalities in the management of diabetic kidney disease in UK primary care: A cross-sectional analysis of a large primary care database.,"Phillips K, Hazlehurst JM, Sheppard C, Bellary S, Hanif W, Karamat MA, Crowe FL, Stone A, Thomas GN, Peracha J, Fenton A, Sainsbury C, Nirantharakumar K, Dasgupta I.",,Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association,2023,2023-05-24,N,Diabetes; Ethnicity; Inequality; Dkd,,,"

Aims

To determine differences in the management of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) relevant to patient sex, ethnicity and socio-economic group in UK primary care.

Methods

A cross-sectional analysis as of January 1, 2019 was undertaken using the IQVIA Medical Research Data dataset, to determine the proportion of people with DKD managed in accordance with national guidelines, stratified by demographics. Robust Poisson regression models were used to calculate adjusted risk ratios (aRR) adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and social deprivation.

Results

Of the 2.3 million participants, 161,278 had type 1 or 2 diabetes, of which 32,905 had DKD. Of people with DKD, 60% had albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) measured, 64% achieved blood pressure (BP, <140/90 mmHg) target, 58% achieved glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c, <58 mmol/mol) target, 68% prescribed renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitor in the previous year. Compared to men, women were less likely to have creatinine: aRR 0.99 (95% CI 0.98-0.99), ACR: aRR 0.94 (0.92-0.96), BP: aRR 0.98 (0.97-0.99), HbA1c : aRR 0.99 (0.98-0.99) and serum cholesterol: aRR 0.97 (0.96-0.98) measured; achieve BP: aRR 0.95 (0.94-0.98) or total cholesterol (<5 mmol/L) targets: aRR 0.86 (0.84-0.87); or be prescribed RAAS inhibitors: aRR 0.92 (0.90-0.94) or statins: aRR 0.94 (0.92-0.95). Compared to the least deprived areas, people from the most deprived areas were less likely to have BP measurements: aRR 0.98 (0.96-0.99); achieve BP: aRR 0.91 (0.8-0.95) or HbA1c : aRR 0.88 (0.85-0.92) targets, or be prescribed RAAS inhibitors: aRR 0.91 (0.87-0.95). Compared to people of white ethnicity; those of black ethnicity were less likely to be prescribed statins aRR 0.91 (0.85-0.97).

Conclusions

There are unmet needs and inequalities in the management of DKD in the UK. Addressing these could reduce the increasing human and societal cost of managing DKD.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.15153; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.15153 36426221,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.1016032,Clinician's guide to trustworthy and responsible artificial intelligence in cardiovascular imaging.,"Szabo L, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Salih A, McCracken C, Ruiz Pujadas E, Gkontra P, Kiss M, Maurovich-Horvath P, Vago H, Merkely B, Lee AM, Lekadir K, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2022,2022-11-08,Y,Artificial intelligence; Trustworthiness; Cardiovascular Imaging; Machine Learning (Ml); Ai Risk,,,"A growing number of artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems are being proposed and developed in cardiology, driven by the increasing need to deal with the vast amount of clinical and imaging data with the ultimate aim of advancing patient care, diagnosis and prognostication. However, there is a critical gap between the development and clinical deployment of AI tools. A key consideration for implementing AI tools into real-life clinical practice is their ""trustworthiness"" by end-users. Namely, we must ensure that AI systems can be trusted and adopted by all parties involved, including clinicians and patients. Here we provide a summary of the concepts involved in developing a ""trustworthy AI system."" We describe the main risks of AI applications and potential mitigation techniques for the wider application of these promising techniques in the context of cardiovascular imaging. Finally, we show why trustworthy AI concepts are important governing forces of AI development.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.1016032/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.1016032; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9681217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9681217?pdf=render +34629034,https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409,Are individual and social factors specific to the home associated with children's behaviour and physical environment at home.,"Sheldrick MPR, Maitland C, Mackintosh KA, Rosenberg M, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Stratton G.",,Journal of sports sciences,2021,2021-10-09,N,Youth; Family; House; Sedentary Time; Moderate-vigorous Physical Activity,,,"This study used linear regression analyses to investigate the influence of parent-reported home-specific social and individual factors on: (i) 235 children's home-based objectively measured overall sitting time, breaks in sitting, and PA, and; (ii) the home physical environment via an audit. Parental importance assigned to active play for children was positively associated with PA equipment (accessibility and availability), as well as light physical activity (LPA) and sitting breaks on both weekdays and weekend days. Parental preference for being active at home and limits on screen-time were associated with less household media equipment and portable media equipment, respectively. Greater parental importance placed on playing electronic games/using computers for fun was associated with less LPA and more sitting on weekdays. Further, children who preferred being sedentary sat more and engaged in less moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on weekdays. Parental and child preferences and priorities, as well as parental rules for activity at home, were associated with children's home-based sitting and PA, especially on weekdays. Such factors were also associated with the physical environment in the expected directions. The findings suggest interventions need to target social and individual factors, alongside adapting the physical environment to create homes more promotive of physical activity.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56833/Download/56833__19829__9b0bb77f67e84342b525fbccaba98e67.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409 37649471,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i3.1705,Data linkage can reduce the burden and increase the opportunities in the implementation of Value-Based Health Care policy: a study in patients with ulcerative colitis (PROUD-UC Study).,"Walshe J, Akbari A, Hawthorne AB, Laing H.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-01-01,Y,"Colitis, ulcerative; Health Policy; Patient Reported Outcome Measure; Routinely Collected Health Data; Data Science; Value-based Health Care",,,"

Introduction

Healthcare systems face rising demand and unsustainable cost pressures. In response, health policymakers are adopting Value-Based Health Care (VBHC), targeting available resources to achieve the best possible patient outcomes at the lowest possible cost and actively disinvesting in care of low-value. This requires the evaluation of longitudinal clinical and patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) at an individual-level and population-scale, which can create significant data challenges. Achieving this through routinely collected electronic health record (EHR) data-linkage could facilitate the implementation of VBHC without an unacceptable data burden on patients or health systems and release time for higher-value activities.

Objectives

Our study tested the ability to report an international, patient-centred outcome dataset (ICHOM-IBD) using only anonymised individual-level population-scale linked electronic health record (EHR) data sources, including clinical and patient-reported outcomes, in a cohort of patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC), receiving biopharmaceutical therapies (""biologics"") in a single, publicly funded, healthcare system.

Results

We identified a cohort of 17,632 patients with UC in Wales and a cohort from two Health Boards of 447 patients with UC receiving biologics. 112 of these patients had completed 866 condition-specific PROMs during their biologics treatment. 44 out of 59 (74.6%) items in the ICHOM-IBD could be derived from routinely collected data of which a primary care source was essential for eight items and desirable for 21.

Conclusions

We demonstrated that it is possible to report most but not all the ICHOM-IBD outcomes using routinely collected data from multiple sources without additional system burden, potentially supporting Value-Based Health Care implementation with population data science. As digital collection of PROMs and use of condition-specific registries grow, greater utility of this approach can be anticipated. We have identified that the availability of longitudinal primary and secondary care data linked with PROMs is essential for this to be possible.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i3.1705; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464864; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464864?pdf=render -37119604,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367,"Whole-population trends in pathology-confirmed cancer incidence in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A retrospective observational study.","Greene GJ, Thomson CS, Donnelly D, Chung D, Bhatti L, Gavin AT, Lawler M, Huws DW, Rolles MJ, Bennée F, Morrison DS.",,Cancer epidemiology,2023,2023-04-21,Y,Pandemic; Population-based Incidence; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Pathology-Confirmed Cancer,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic interrupted normal cancer diagnosis procedures. Population-based cancer registries report incidence at least 18 months after it happens. Our goal was to make more timely estimates by using pathologically confirmed cancers (PDC) as a proxy for incidence. We compared the 2020 and 2021 PDC with the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (NI).

Methods

Numbers of female breast (ICD-10 C50), lung (C33-34), colorectal (C18-20), gynaecological (C51-58), prostate (C61), head and neck (C00-C14, C30-32), upper gastro-intestinal (C15-16), urological (C64-68), malignant melanoma (C43), and non-melanoma skin (NMSC) (C44) cancers were counted. Multiple pairwise comparisons generated incidence rate ratios (IRR).

Results

Data were accessible within 5 months of the pathological diagnosis date. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of pathologically confirmed malignancies (excluding NMSC) decreased by 7315 (14.1 %). Scotland experienced early monthly declines of up to 64 % (colorectal cancers, April 2020 versus April 2019). Wales experienced the greatest overall change in 2020, but Northern Ireland experienced the quickest recovery. The pandemic's effects varied by cancer type, with no significant change in lung cancer diagnoses in Wales in 2020 (IRR 0.97 (95 % CI 0.90-1.05)), followed by an increase in 2021 (IRR 1.11 (1.03-1.20).

Conclusion

PDC are useful in reporting cancer incidence quicker than cancer registrations. Temporal and geographical differences between participating countries mirrored differences in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating face validity and the potential for quick cancer diagnosis assessment. To verify their sensitivity and specificity against the gold standard of cancer registrations, however, additional research is required.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133?pdf=render 34610958,https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2019-209368,Association between anticoagulants and mortality and functional outcomes in older patients with major trauma. ,"Sato N, Cameron P, Mclellan S, Beck B, Gabbe B.",,Emergency medicine journal : EMJ,2021,2021-10-05,N,,,,"The number of trauma patients taking anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents is increasing as society ages. However, there have been limited and inconsistent reports of the association between anticoagulants and mortality and functional outcomes. This study aimed to quantify the association between anticoagulant/antiplatelet medication at the time of injury and both short-term and longer-term outcomes in older major trauma patients. This was a population-based registry study using data from the Victorian State Trauma Registry from July 2017 to June 2018. We included patients with major trauma aged 65 years and older. The outcomes of interest were in-hospital mortality, hospital length of stay, intensive care unit length of stay and the Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS-E) at 6 months after injury. We examined the association between the outcomes and anticoagulants/antiplatelet agents at the time of injury and used multivariable logistic regression models to account for known confounders. There were 1323 older adults eligible for inclusion in the study, of which 249 (18.8%) were taking anticoagulants (n=8 were taking both anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents), 380 (28.7%) were taking antiplatelet agents and 694 (52.5%) were not using either. Any anticoagulant use was associated with higher odds of in-hospital mortality (adjusted OR (AOR), 2.38; 95% CI 1.58 to 3.59) compared with not using anticoagulants. No differences were observed in the GOS-E at 6 months after injury between any anticoagulants use, antiplatelet use and no anticoagulant use (anticoagulant AOR, 0.71; 95% CI 0.48 to 1.05, antiplatelet AOR, 1.02; 95% CI 0.73 to 1.42). Anticoagulant use at the time of injury was associated with higher odds of in-hospital mortality but did not adversely impact functional outcomes at 6 months after injury. These findings demonstrate the importance of seeking an accurate history of anticoagulant use and its indication, as well as the immediate initiation of reversal therapies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2019-209368 34939031,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab241,Degeneration of basal and limbic networks is a core feature of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia.,"Vuksanović V, Staff RT, Morson S, Ahearn T, Bracoud L, Murray AD, Bentham P, Kipps CM, Harrington CR, Wischik CM.",,Brain communications,2021,2021-10-21,Y,Neurodegeneration; Brain Networks; Behavioural Variant Frontotemporal Dementia; Rich Club; Anatomical Subtypes,,,"The behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia is a clinical syndrome characterized by changes in behaviour, cognition and functional ability. Although atrophy in frontal and temporal regions would appear to be a defining feature, neuroimaging studies have identified volumetric differences distributed across large parts of the cortex, giving rise to a classification into distinct neuroanatomical subtypes. Here, we extended these neuroimaging studies to examine how distributed patterns of cortical atrophy map onto brain network hubs. We used baseline structural magnetic resonance imaging data collected from 213 behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia patients meeting consensus diagnostic criteria and having definite evidence of frontal and/or temporal lobe atrophy from a global clinical trial conducted in 70 sites in Canada, United States of America, Australia, Asia and Europe. These were compared with data from 244 healthy elderly subjects from a well-characterized cohort study. We have used statistical methods of hierarchical agglomerative clustering of 68 regional cortical and subcortical volumes (34 in each hemisphere) to determine the reproducibility of previously described neuroanatomical subtypes in a global study. We have also attempted to link the structural findings to clinical features defined systematically using well-validated clinical scales (Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Revised, the Mini-Mental Status Examination, the Frontotemporal Dementia Rating Scale and the Functional Assessment Questionnaire) and subscales derived from them. Whilst we can confirm that the subtypes are robust, they have limited value in explaining the clinical heterogeneity of the syndrome. We have found that a common pattern of degeneration affecting a small number of subcortical, limbic and frontal nodes within highly connected networks (most previously identified as rich club members or functional binding nodes) is shared by all the anatomical subtypes. Degeneration in these core regions is correlated with cognitive and functional impairment, but less so with behavioural impairment. These findings suggest that degeneration in highly connected basal, limbic and frontal networks is a core feature of the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia phenotype irrespective of neuroanatomical and clinical heterogeneity, and may underly the impairment of integration in cognition, function and behaviour responsible for the loss of insight that characterizes the syndrome.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/3/4/fcab241/41829863/fcab241.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab241; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688778; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688778?pdf=render +37119604,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367,"Whole-population trends in pathology-confirmed cancer incidence in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A retrospective observational study.","Greene GJ, Thomson CS, Donnelly D, Chung D, Bhatti L, Gavin AT, Lawler M, Huws DW, Rolles MJ, Bennée F, Morrison DS.",,Cancer epidemiology,2023,2023-04-21,Y,Pandemic; Population-based Incidence; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Pathology-Confirmed Cancer,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic interrupted normal cancer diagnosis procedures. Population-based cancer registries report incidence at least 18 months after it happens. Our goal was to make more timely estimates by using pathologically confirmed cancers (PDC) as a proxy for incidence. We compared the 2020 and 2021 PDC with the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (NI).

Methods

Numbers of female breast (ICD-10 C50), lung (C33-34), colorectal (C18-20), gynaecological (C51-58), prostate (C61), head and neck (C00-C14, C30-32), upper gastro-intestinal (C15-16), urological (C64-68), malignant melanoma (C43), and non-melanoma skin (NMSC) (C44) cancers were counted. Multiple pairwise comparisons generated incidence rate ratios (IRR).

Results

Data were accessible within 5 months of the pathological diagnosis date. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of pathologically confirmed malignancies (excluding NMSC) decreased by 7315 (14.1 %). Scotland experienced early monthly declines of up to 64 % (colorectal cancers, April 2020 versus April 2019). Wales experienced the greatest overall change in 2020, but Northern Ireland experienced the quickest recovery. The pandemic's effects varied by cancer type, with no significant change in lung cancer diagnoses in Wales in 2020 (IRR 0.97 (95 % CI 0.90-1.05)), followed by an increase in 2021 (IRR 1.11 (1.03-1.20).

Conclusion

PDC are useful in reporting cancer incidence quicker than cancer registrations. Temporal and geographical differences between participating countries mirrored differences in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating face validity and the potential for quick cancer diagnosis assessment. To verify their sensitivity and specificity against the gold standard of cancer registrations, however, additional research is required.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133?pdf=render 33468531,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047101,Protocol for the development of the Wales Multimorbidity e-Cohort (WMC): data sources and methods to construct a population-based research platform to investigate multimorbidity.,"Lyons J, Akbari A, Agrawal U, Harper G, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Bailey R, Rafferty J, Watkins A, Fry R, McCowan C, Dezateux C, Robson JP, Peek N, Holmes C, Denaxas S, Owen R, Abrams KR, John A, O'Reilly D, Richardson S, Hall M, Gale CP, Davies J, Davies C, Cross L, Gallacher J, Chess J, Brookes AJ, Lyons RA.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-01-19,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Primary Care; Geriatric Medicine; Health Policy,,,"

Introduction

Multimorbidity is widely recognised as the presence of two or more concurrent long-term conditions, yet remains a poorly understood global issue despite increasing in prevalence.We have created the Wales Multimorbidity e-Cohort (WMC) to provide an accessible research ready data asset to further the understanding of multimorbidity. Our objectives are to create a platform to support research which would help to understand prevalence, trajectories and determinants in multimorbidity, characterise clusters that lead to highest burden on individuals and healthcare services, and evaluate and provide new multimorbidity phenotypes and algorithms to the National Health Service and research communities to support prevention, healthcare planning and the management of individuals with multimorbidity.

Methods and analysis

The WMC has been created and derived from multisourced demographic, administrative and electronic health record data relating to the Welsh population in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. The WMC consists of 2.9 million people alive and living in Wales on the 1 January 2000 with follow-up until 31 December 2019, Welsh residency break or death. Published comorbidity indices and phenotype code lists will be used to measure and conceptualise multimorbidity.Study outcomes will include: (1) a description of multimorbidity using published data phenotype algorithms/ontologies, (2) investigation of the associations between baseline demographic factors and multimorbidity, (3) identification of temporal trajectories of clusters of conditions and multimorbidity and (4) investigation of multimorbidity clusters with poor outcomes such as mortality and high healthcare service utilisation.

Ethics and dissemination

The SAIL Databank independent Information Governance Review Panel has approved this study (SAIL Project: 0911). Study findings will be presented to policy groups, public meetings, national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/1/e047101.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047101; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817800?pdf=render 32896935,https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.2166,Are Liaison and Diversion interventions in policing delivering the planned impact: A longitudinal evaluation in two constabularies?,"Kane E, Evans E, Mitsch J, Jilani T.",,Criminal behaviour and mental health : CBMH,2020,2020-09-08,N,Mental health; Outcomes; Offending; Policing; Liaison & Diversion,,,"Liaison and Diversion (L&D) has twin objectives: improving mental health outcomes and reducing re-offending. Early diversion from police custody seems promising, but evidence of benefit is required to sustain such programmes. To test the hypothesis that contact with L&D services while in police custody would lead to improved mental health outcomes and a reduction in type and level of offending, we used a pre-post service use design. National Health Service (NHS) records in two counties were searched for evidence that patients had been involved with L&D services while in police custody during the period July 2009-December 2017. We defined January 2009-July 2014 as the pre-intervention period and any time after contact as the post-intervention period. Data from the Police National Computer were gathered for each period for these individuals, to assess their pre-post L&D contact offending histories. NHS Trust data were similarly gathered to assess their pre-post use of mental health legislation. 4,462 individuals were identified who had used L&D services in police custody. There were statistically significant reductions in the amount of offending following contact with the L&D service (whether one or two contacts), regardless of offence type. Statistically significant reductions were also observed in use of the four most commonly used legislative powers for detaining patients in hospital on mental disorder grounds, regardless of offending status (prolific/non-prolific). Our results indicate positive associations between the L&D interventions and change in offending and use of compulsory hospital detention. Whilst our research does not allow a direct causal relationship to be established in either area, the findings go beyond other impact assessments of L&D which have either been with small samples or relied only on qualitative data or expert opinion.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cbm.2166; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.2166 32728709,https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa115,Are children who are home from school at an increased risk of child maltreatment?,"Syed S, Gilbert R.",,"Journal of public health (Oxford, England)",2021,2021-04-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10110375/1/Syed%20and%20Gilbert%20%282020%29.%20Are%20children%20who%20are%20home%20from%20school%20at%20an%20increased%20risk%20of%20child%20maltreatment.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa115 @@ -936,10 +936,10 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 35440465,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0689,Association between oral anticoagulants and COVID-19-related outcomes: a population-based cohort study.,"Wong AY, Tomlinson L, Brown JP, Elson W, Walker AJ, Schultze A, Morton CE, Evans D, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, Powell E, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Eggo RM, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, Douglas IJ, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2022-06-30,Y,Warfarin; Factor Xa Inhibitors; Dabigatran; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Early evidence has shown that anticoagulant reduces the risk of thrombotic events in those infected with COVID-19. However, evidence of the role of routinely prescribed oral anticoagulants (OACs) in COVID-19 outcomes is limited.

Aim

To investigate the association between OACs and COVID-19 outcomes in those with atrial fibrillation and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2.

Design and setting

On behalf of NHS England, a population-based cohort study was conducted.

Method

The study used primary care data and pseudonymously-linked SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing data, hospital admissions, and death records from England. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for COVID-19 outcomes comparing people with current OAC use versus non-use, accounting for age, sex, comorbidities, other medications, deprivation, and general practice.

Results

Of 71 103 people with atrial fibrillation and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2, there were 52 832 current OAC users and 18 271 non-users. No difference in risk of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 was associated with current use (adjusted HR [aHR] 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95 to 1.04) versus non-use. A lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (aHR 0.77, 95% CI = 0.63 to 0.95) and a marginally lower risk of COVID-19-related death (aHR, 0.74, 95% CI = 0.53 to 1.04) were associated with current use versus non-use.

Conclusion

Among those at low baseline stroke risk, people receiving OACs had a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and severe COVID-19 outcomes than non-users; this might be explained by a causal effect of OACs in preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes or unmeasured confounding, including more cautious behaviours leading to reduced infection risk.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2022/04/19/BJGP.2021.0689.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037187; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9037187?pdf=render 36932161,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02478-z,Evaluating patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for future clinical trials in adult patients with optic neuritis.,"Panthagani J, O'Donovan C, Aiyegbusi OL, Liu X, Bayliss S, Calvert M, Pesudovs K, Denniston AK, Moore DJ, Braithwaite T.",,"Eye (London, England)",2023,2023-03-17,Y,,,,"

Objective

To search for and critically appraise the psychometric quality of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) developed or validated in optic neuritis, in order to support high-quality research and care.

Methods

We systematically searched MEDLINE(Ovid), Embase(Ovid), PsycINFO(Ovid) and CINAHLPlus(EBSCO), and additional grey literature to November 2021, to identify PROM development or validation studies applicable to optic neuritis associated with any systemic or neurologic disease in adults. We included instruments developed using classic test theory or Rasch analysis approaches. We used established quality criteria to assess content development, validity, reliability, and responsiveness, grading multiple domains from A (high quality) to C (low quality).

Results

From 3142 screened abstracts we identified five PROM instruments potentially applicable to optic neuritis: three differing versions of the National Eye Institute (NEI)-Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ): the 51-item VFQ; the 25-item VFQ and a 10-item neuro-ophthalmology supplement; and the Impact of Visual Impairment Scale (IVIS), a constituent of the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life Inventory (MSQLI) handbook, derived from the Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis (FAMS). Psychometric appraisal revealed the NEI-VFQ-51 and 10-item neuro module had some relevant content development but weak psychometric development, and the FAMS had stronger psychometric development using Rasch Analysis, but was only somewhat relevant to optic neuritis. We identified no content or psychometric development for IVIS.

Conclusion

There is unmet need for a PROM with strong content and psychometric development applicable to optic neuritis for use in virtual care pathways and clinical trials to support drug marketing authorisation.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-023-02478-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02478-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10022552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10022552?pdf=render 35188950,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.5420,Risk Factors and Prognosis of Early Posttraumatic Seizures in Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.,"Laing J, Gabbe B, Chen Z, Perucca P, Kwan P, O'Brien TJ.",,JAMA neurology,2022,2022-04-01,N,,,,"

Importance

Early posttraumatic seizures (EPS) that may occur following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are associated with poorer outcomes and development of posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE).

Objective

To evaluate risk factors for EPS, associated morbidity and mortality, and contribution to PTE.

Design, setting, and participants

Data were collected from an Australian registry-based cohort study of adults (age ≥18 years) with moderate to severe TBI from January 2005 to December 2019, with 2-year follow-up. The statewide trauma registry, conducted on an opt-out basis in Victoria (population 6.5 million), had 15 152 patients with moderate to severe TBI identified via Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) head severity score, with an opt-out rate less than 0.5% (opt-out n = 136).

Main outcomes and measures

EPS were identified via International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes recorded after the acute admission. Outcome measures also included in-hospital metrics, 2-year outcomes including PTE, and post-discharge mortality. Adaptive least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was used to build a prediction model for risk factors of EPS.

Results

Among the 15 152 participants (10 457 [69%] male; median [IQR] age, 60 [35-79] y), 416 (2.7%) were identified with EPS, including 27 (0.2%) with status epilepticus. Significant risk factors on multivariable analysis for developing EPS were younger age, higher Charlson Comorbidity Index, TBI sustained from a low fall, subdural hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, higher Injury Severity Score, and greater head injury severity, measured using the AIS and Glasgow Coma Score. After adjustment for confounders, EPS were associated with increased ICU admission and ICU length of stay, ventilation and duration, hospital length of stay, and discharge to inpatient rehabilitation rather than home, but not in-hospital mortality. Outcomes in TBI admission survivors at 24 months, including mortality (relative risk [RR] = 2.14; 95% CI, 1.32-3.46; P = .002), development of PTE (RR = 2.91; 95% CI, 2.22-3.81; P < .001), and use of antiseizure medications (RR = 2.44; 95% CI, 1.98-3.02; P < .001), were poorer for cases with EPS after adjustment for confounders. The prediction model for EPS had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.72 (95% CI, 0.66-0.79), sensitivity of 66%, and specificity of 73% in the validation set.

Discussion

We identified important risk factors for EPS following moderate to severe TBI. Early posttraumatic seizures were associated with longer ICU and hospital admissions, ICU ventilation, and poorer 24-month outcomes including mortality and development of PTE.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8861899; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.5420; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861899; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.5420 -37225263,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139,Delphi consensus survey: the opinions of patients living with refractory ulcerative proctitis and the health care professionals who care for them.,"Kyriacou M, Radford S, Moran GW, Focus group collaborators group.",,BMJ open gastroenterology,2023,2023-05-01,Y,Ulcerative colitis; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Adjuvant Treatment,,,"

Background

Refractory ulcerative proctitis presents a huge clinical challenge not only for the patients living with this chronic, progressive condition but also for the professionals who care for them. Currently, there is limited research and evidence-based guidance, resulting in many patients living with the symptomatic burden of disease and reduced quality of life. The aim of this study was to establish a consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis disease burden and best practice for management.

Methods

A three-round Delphi consensus survey was conducted among patients living with refractory proctitis and the healthcare experts with knowledge on this disease from the UK. A brainstorming stage involving a focus group where the participants came up with an initial list of statements was completed. Following this, there were three rounds of Delphi surveys in which the participants were asked to rank the importance of the statements and provide any additional comments or clarifications. Calculation of mean scores, analysis of comments and revisions were performed to produce a final list of statements.

Results

In total, 14 statements were suggested by the focus group at the initial brainstorming stage. Following completion of three Delphi survey rounds, all 14 statements reached consensus following appropriate revision.

Conclusions

We established consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis from both the experts who manage this disease and the patients living with it. This represents the first step towards developing clinical research data and ultimately the evidence needed for best practice management guidance of this condition.",,pdf:https://bmjopengastro.bmj.com/content/bmjgast/10/1/e001139.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891?pdf=render 37309807,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead123,Characterizing the hypertensive cardiovascular phenotype in the UK Biobank.,"Elghazaly H, McCracken C, Szabo L, Malcolmson J, Manisty CH, Davies AH, Piechnik SK, Harvey NC, Neubauer S, Mohiddin SA, Petersen SE, Raisi-Estabragh Z.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2023,2023-06-13,N,Ethnicity; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Population Health; Women’s Health; Antihypertensive Therapies,,,"

Aims

To describe hypertension-related cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) phenotypes in the UK Biobank considering variations across patient populations.

Methods and results

We studied 39 095 (51.5% women, mean age: 63.9 ± 7.7 years, 38.6% hypertensive) participants with CMR data available. Hypertension status was ascertained through health record linkage. Associations between hypertension and CMR metrics were estimated using multivariable linear regression adjusting for major vascular risk factors. Stratified analyses were performed by sex, ethnicity, time since hypertension diagnosis, and blood pressure (BP) control. Results are standardized beta coefficients, 95% confidence intervals, and P-values corrected for multiple testing. Hypertension was associated with concentric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (increased LV mass, wall thickness, concentricity index), poorer LV function (lower global function index, worse global longitudinal strain), larger left atrial (LA) volumes, lower LA ejection fraction, and lower aortic distensibility. Hypertension was linked to significantly lower myocardial native T1 and increased LV ejection fraction. Women had greater hypertension-related reduction in aortic compliance than men. The degree of hypertension-related LV hypertrophy was greatest in Black ethnicities. Increasing time since diagnosis of hypertension was linked to adverse remodelling. Hypertension-related remodelling was substantially attenuated in hypertensives with good BP control.

Conclusion

Hypertension was associated with concentric LV hypertrophy, reduced LV function, dilated poorer functioning LA, and reduced aortic compliance. Whilst the overall pattern of remodelling was consistent across populations, women had greater hypertension-related reduction in aortic compliance and Black ethnicities showed the greatest LV mass increase. Importantly, adverse cardiovascular remodelling was markedly attenuated in hypertensives with good BP control.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jead123/50578622/jead123.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead123 34506014,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-020-04612-8,"The Impact of a Centralised Pancreatic Cancer Service: a Case Study of Wales, UK.","Mowbray NG, Griffiths R, Akbari A, Hutchings H, Jenkins G, Al-Sarireh B.",,Journal of gastrointestinal surgery : official journal of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract,2022,2021-09-10,N,Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic Surgery; Centralisation,,,"

Introduction

The centralisation of pancreatic cancer (PC) services still varies worldwide. This study aimed to assess the impact that a centralisation has had on patients in South Wales, UK.

Methods

A retrospective cohort analysis of patients in South Wales, UK, with PC prior to (2004-2009), and after (2010-2014) the formation of a specialist centre. Patients were identified using record linkage of electronic health records.

Results

The overall survival (OS) of all 3413 patients with PC increased from a median (IQR) 10 weeks (3-31) to 11 weeks (4-35), p = 0.038, after centralisation. The OS of patients undergoing surgical resection or chemotherapy alone did not improve (93 weeks (39-203) vs. 90 weeks (50-95), p = 0.764 and 33 weeks (20-57) vs. 33 weeks (19-58), p = 0.793). Surgical resection and chemotherapy rates increased (6.1% vs. 9.2%, p < 0.001 and 19.7% vs. 27.0%, p < 0.001). The 30-day mortality rate trended downwards (7.2% vs. 3.6%, p = 0.186). The percentage of patients who received no treatment reduced (75.2% vs. 69.6%, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The centralisation of PC services in South Wales is associated with a small increase in OS and a larger increase in PC treatment utilisation. It is concerning that many patients still fail to receive any treatments.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-020-04612-8 35642867,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12606,"Perceived threat of COVID-19, attitudes towards vaccination, and vaccine hesitancy: A prospective longitudinal study in the UK.","Phillips R, Gillespie D, Hallingberg B, Evans J, Taiyari K, Torrens-Burton A, Cannings-John R, Williams D, Sheils E, Ashfield-Watt P, Akbari A, Hughes K, Thomas-Jones E, James D, Wood F.",,British journal of health psychology,2022,2022-06-01,Y,Risk Perception; Behaviour Change; Vaccine Hesitancy; Covid-19; Sars Cov2,,,"

Objectives

Using the Health Belief Model as a conceptual framework, we investigated the association between attitudes towards COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccinations, and vaccine hesitancy and change in these variables over a 9-month period in a UK cohort.

Methods

The COPE study cohort (n = 11,113) was recruited via an online survey at enrolment in March/April 2020. The study was advertised via the HealthWise Wales research registry and social media. Follow-up data were available for 6942 people at 3 months (June/July 2020) and 5037 at 12 months (March/April 2021) post-enrolment. Measures included demographics, perceived threat of COVID-19, perceived control, intention to accept or decline a COVID-19 vaccination, and attitudes towards vaccination. Logistic regression models were fitted cross-sectionally at 3 and 12 months to assess the association between motivational factors and vaccine hesitancy. Longitudinal changes in motivational variables for vaccine-hesitant and non-hesitant groups were examined using mixed-effect analysis of variance models.

Results

Fear of COVID-19, perceived susceptibility to COVID-19, and perceived personal control over COVID-19 infection transmission decreased between the 3- and 12-month surveys. Vaccine hesitancy at 12 months was independently associated with low fear of the disease and more negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. Specific barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake included concerns about safety and efficacy in light of its rapid development, mistrust of government and pharmaceutical companies, dislike of coercive policies, and perceived lack of relaxation in COVID-19-related restrictions as the vaccination programme progressed.

Conclusions

Decreasing fear of COVID-19, perceived susceptibility to the disease, and perceptions of personal control over reducing infection-transmission may impact future COVID-19 vaccination uptake.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60128/Download/60128__24479__4d74009536e649b0b17180e2bfd80435.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12606; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9347957; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9347957?pdf=render +37225263,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139,Delphi consensus survey: the opinions of patients living with refractory ulcerative proctitis and the health care professionals who care for them.,"Kyriacou M, Radford S, Moran GW, Focus group collaborators group.",,BMJ open gastroenterology,2023,2023-05-01,Y,Ulcerative colitis; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Adjuvant Treatment,,,"

Background

Refractory ulcerative proctitis presents a huge clinical challenge not only for the patients living with this chronic, progressive condition but also for the professionals who care for them. Currently, there is limited research and evidence-based guidance, resulting in many patients living with the symptomatic burden of disease and reduced quality of life. The aim of this study was to establish a consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis disease burden and best practice for management.

Methods

A three-round Delphi consensus survey was conducted among patients living with refractory proctitis and the healthcare experts with knowledge on this disease from the UK. A brainstorming stage involving a focus group where the participants came up with an initial list of statements was completed. Following this, there were three rounds of Delphi surveys in which the participants were asked to rank the importance of the statements and provide any additional comments or clarifications. Calculation of mean scores, analysis of comments and revisions were performed to produce a final list of statements.

Results

In total, 14 statements were suggested by the focus group at the initial brainstorming stage. Following completion of three Delphi survey rounds, all 14 statements reached consensus following appropriate revision.

Conclusions

We established consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis from both the experts who manage this disease and the patients living with it. This represents the first step towards developing clinical research data and ultimately the evidence needed for best practice management guidance of this condition.",,pdf:https://bmjopengastro.bmj.com/content/bmjgast/10/1/e001139.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891?pdf=render 34631820,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.716577,New Imaging Signatures of Cardiac Alterations in Ischaemic Heart Disease and Cerebrovascular Disease Using CMR Radiomics.,"Rauseo E, Izquierdo Morcillo C, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Gkontra P, Aung N, Lekadir K, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-09-23,Y,Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Cerebrovascular disease; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Radiomics; Brain-heart Axis,,,"Background: Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebrovascular disease are two closely inter-related clinical entities. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) radiomics may capture subtle cardiac changes associated with these two diseases providing new insights into the brain-heart interactions. Objective: To define the CMR radiomics signatures for IHD and cerebrovascular disease and study their incremental value for disease discrimination over conventional CMR indices. Methods: We analysed CMR images of UK Biobank's subjects with pre-existing IHD, ischaemic cerebrovascular disease, myocardial infarction (MI), and ischaemic stroke (IS) (n = 779, 267, 525, and 107, respectively). Each disease group was compared with an equal number of healthy controls. We extracted 446 shape, first-order, and texture radiomics features from three regions of interest (right ventricle, left ventricle, and left ventricular myocardium) in end-diastole and end-systole defined from segmentation of short-axis cine images. Systematic feature selection combined with machine learning (ML) algorithms (support vector machine and random forest) and 10-fold cross-validation tests were used to build the radiomics signature for each condition. We compared the discriminatory power achieved by the radiomics signature with conventional indices for each disease group, using the area under the curve (AUC), receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, and paired t-test for statistical significance. A third model combining both radiomics and conventional indices was also evaluated. Results: In all the study groups, radiomics signatures provided a significantly better disease discrimination than conventional indices, as suggested by AUC (IHD:0.82 vs. 0.75; cerebrovascular disease: 0.79 vs. 0.77; MI: 0.87 vs. 0.79, and IS: 0.81 vs. 0.72). Similar results were observed with the combined models. In IHD and MI, LV shape radiomics were dominant. However, in IS and cerebrovascular disease, the combination of shape and intensity-based features improved the disease discrimination. A notable overlap of the radiomics signatures of IHD and cerebrovascular disease was also found. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the potential value of CMR radiomics over conventional indices in detecting subtle cardiac changes associated with chronic ischaemic processes involving the brain and heart, even in the presence of more heterogeneous clinical pictures. Radiomics analysis might also improve our understanding of the complex mechanisms behind the brain-heart interactions during ischaemia.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.716577/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.716577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494975; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494975?pdf=render 33820530,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01940-7,"Machine learning for subtype definition and risk prediction in heart failure, acute coronary syndromes and atrial fibrillation: systematic review of validity and clinical utility.","Banerjee A, Chen S, Fatemifar G, Zeina M, Lumbers RT, Mielke J, Gill S, Kotecha D, Freitag DF, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-04-06,Y,Subtype; Cardiovascular disease; Systematic review; Machine Learning; Informatics; Risk Prediction,,,"

Background

Machine learning (ML) is increasingly used in research for subtype definition and risk prediction, particularly in cardiovascular diseases. No existing ML models are routinely used for cardiovascular disease management, and their phase of clinical utility is unknown, partly due to a lack of clear criteria. We evaluated ML for subtype definition and risk prediction in heart failure (HF), acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and atrial fibrillation (AF).

Methods

For ML studies of subtype definition and risk prediction, we conducted a systematic review in HF, ACS and AF, using PubMed, MEDLINE and Web of Science from January 2000 until December 2019. By adapting published criteria for diagnostic and prognostic studies, we developed a seven-domain, ML-specific checklist.

Results

Of 5918 studies identified, 97 were included. Across studies for subtype definition (n = 40) and risk prediction (n = 57), there was variation in data source, population size (median 606 and median 6769), clinical setting (outpatient, inpatient, different departments), number of covariates (median 19 and median 48) and ML methods. All studies were single disease, most were North American (n = 61/97) and only 14 studies combined definition and risk prediction. Subtype definition and risk prediction studies respectively had limitations in development (e.g. 15.0% and 78.9% of studies related to patient benefit; 15.0% and 15.8% had low patient selection bias), validation (12.5% and 5.3% externally validated) and impact (32.5% and 91.2% improved outcome prediction; no effectiveness or cost-effectiveness evaluations).

Conclusions

Studies of ML in HF, ACS and AF are limited by number and type of included covariates, ML methods, population size, country, clinical setting and focus on single diseases, not overlap or multimorbidity. Clinical utility and implementation rely on improvements in development, validation and impact, facilitated by simple checklists. We provide clear steps prior to safe implementation of machine learning in clinical practice for cardiovascular diseases and other disease areas.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-01940-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01940-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022365; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022365?pdf=render 34871122,https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.2008526,Pain and mental health symptom patterns and treatment trajectories following road trauma: a registry-based cohort study.,"Huang S, Dipnall JF, Gabbe BJ, Giummarra MJ.",,Disability and rehabilitation,2022,2021-12-06,N,Injury; Recovery; Pain; Mental health; Healthcare Use,,,"

Purpose

This study aimed to characterise recovery from pain and mental health symptoms, and identify whether treatment use facilitates recovery.

Methods

Victorian State Trauma Registry and Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry participants without neurotrauma who had transport injury claims with the Transport Accident Commission from 2007 to 2014 were included (n = 5908). Latent transition analysis of pain Numeric Rating Scale, SF-12, and EQ-5D-3L pain and mental health items from 6 to 12 months, and 12 to 24 months post-injury were used to identify symptom transitions.

Results

Four transition groups were identified: transition to low problems by 12-months; transition to low problems at 24-months; stable low problems; and no transition from problems. Group-based trajectory modelling of pain and mental health treatments found three treatment trajectories: low/no treatment, a moderate treatment that declined to low treatment 3-12 months post-injury, and increasing treatment over time. Predictors of pain and mental health recovery transitions, identified using multinomial logistic regression, were primarily found to be non-modifiable socioeconomic and health-related characteristics (e.g., higher education, working pre-injury, and not having comorbidities), and low treatment trajectories.

Conclusions

Targeted and collaborative rehabilitation should be considered for people at risk of persistent pain or mental health symptoms to optimise their recovery, particularly patients with socioeconomic disadvantage.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONTwo-thirds of people experience pain and/or mental health within the first 24-months after hospitalization for road trauma, of whom only 6-7% recover by 12-months, and a further 6% recover by 24-months post-injury.There were three main trajectories of administrative records of treatments received in the first two years after injury: 76 and 83% had low treatment, 18 and 12% had moderate then declining treatment levels, and 6 and 5% had stable high treatment for pain or mental health, respectively.People who recovered from pain or mental health symptoms generally had lower treatment and higher socioeconomic position, highlighting that coordinated rehabilitation care should be prioritized for people living with socioeconomic disadvantage.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.2008526 @@ -950,18 +950,18 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 33707775,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01266-0,Plasma metabolites to profile pathways in noncommunicable disease multimorbidity.,"Pietzner M, Stewart ID, Raffler J, Khaw KT, Michelotti GA, Kastenmüller G, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-03-11,N,,,,"Multimorbidity, the simultaneous presence of multiple chronic conditions, is an increasing global health problem and research into its determinants is of high priority. We used baseline untargeted plasma metabolomics profiling covering >1,000 metabolites as a comprehensive readout of human physiology to characterize pathways associated with and across 27 incident noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) assessed using electronic health record hospitalization and cancer registry data from over 11,000 participants (219,415 person years). We identified 420 metabolites shared between at least 2 NCDs, representing 65.5% of all 640 significant metabolite-disease associations. We integrated baseline data on over 50 diverse clinical risk factors and characteristics to identify actionable shared pathways represented by those metabolites. Our study highlights liver and kidney function, lipid and glucose metabolism, low-grade inflammation, surrogates of gut microbial diversity and specific health-related behaviors as antecedents of common NCD multimorbidity with potential for early prevention. We integrated results into an open-access webserver ( https://omicscience.org/apps/mwasdisease/ ) to facilitate future research and meta-analyses.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8127079; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01266-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8127079; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8127079?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01266-0 36194451,https://doi.org/10.2196/40667,Associations Between Depression Symptom Severity and Daily-Life Gait Characteristics Derived From Long-Term Acceleration Signals in Real-World Settings: Retrospective Analysis.,"Zhang Y, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Vairavan S, Qian L, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, Laiou P, Sankesara H, Matcham F, White KM, Oetzmann C, Ivan A, Lamers F, Siddi S, Simblett S, Rintala A, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Haro JM, Penninx BWJH, Narayan VA, Annas P, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB, RADAR-CNS Consortium.",,JMIR mHealth and uHealth,2022,2022-10-04,Y,Monitoring; Depression; Gait; Mental health; Mobile Phones; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Wearable Devices; Acceleration Signals,,,"

Background

Gait is an essential manifestation of depression. However, the gait characteristics of daily walking and their relationships with depression have yet to be fully explored.

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore associations between depression symptom severity and daily-life gait characteristics derived from acceleration signals in real-world settings.

Methods

We used two ambulatory data sets (N=71 and N=215) with acceleration signals collected by wearable devices and mobile phones, respectively. We extracted 12 daily-life gait features to describe the distribution and variance of gait cadence and force over a long-term period. Spearman coefficients and linear mixed-effects models were used to explore the associations between daily-life gait features and depression symptom severity measured by the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) self-reported questionnaires. The likelihood-ratio (LR) test was used to test whether daily-life gait features could provide additional information relative to the laboratory gait features.

Results

Higher depression symptom severity was significantly associated with lower gait cadence of high-performance walking (segments with faster walking speed) over a long-term period in both data sets. The linear regression model with long-term daily-life gait features (R2=0.30) fitted depression scores significantly better (LR test P=.001) than the model with only laboratory gait features (R2=0.06).

Conclusions

This study indicated that the significant links between daily-life walking characteristics and depression symptom severity could be captured by both wearable devices and mobile phones. The daily-life gait patterns could provide additional information for predicting depression symptom severity relative to laboratory walking. These findings may contribute to developing clinical tools to remotely monitor mental health in real-world settings.",,pdf:https://mhealth.jmir.org/2022/10/e40667/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/40667; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9579931 35589356,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057343,"Linkage of National Congenital Heart Disease Audit data to hospital, critical care and mortality national data sets to enable research focused on quality improvement.","Espuny Pujol F, Pagel C, Brown KL, Doidge JC, Feltbower RG, Franklin RC, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Gould DW, Norman LJ, Stickley J, Taylor JA, Crowe S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-05-19,Y,Congenital heart disease; Audit; Health Informatics; Statistics & Research Methods; Quality In Health Care,,,"

Objectives

To link five national data sets (three registries, two administrative) and create longitudinal healthcare trajectories for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD), describing the quality and the summary statistics of the linked data set.

Design

Bespoke linkage of record-level patient identifiers across five national data sets. Generation of spells of care defined as periods of time-overlapping events across the data sets.

Setting

National Congenital Heart Disease Audit (NCHDA) procedures in public (National Health Service; NHS) hospitals in England and Wales, paediatric and adult intensive care data sets (Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network; PICANet and the Case Mix Programme from the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre; ICNARC-CMP), administrative hospital episodes (hospital episode statistics; HES inpatient, outpatient, accident and emergency; A&E) and mortality registry data.

Participants

Patients with any CHD procedure recorded in NCHDA between April 2000 and March 2017 from public hospitals.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Primary: number of linked records, number of unique patients and number of generated spells of care. Secondary: quality and completeness of linkage.

Results

There were 143 862 records in NCHDA relating to 96 041 unique patients. We identified 65 797 linked PICANet patient admissions, 4664 linked ICNARC-CMP admissions and over 6 million linked HES episodes of care (1.1M inpatient, 4.7M outpatient). The linked data set had 4 908 153 spells of care after quality checks, with a median (IQR) of 3.4 (1.8-6.3) spells per patient-year. Where linkage was feasible (in terms of year and centre), 95.6% surgical procedure records were linked to a corresponding HES record, 93.9% paediatric (cardiac) surgery procedure records to a corresponding PICANet admission and 76.8% adult surgery procedure records to a corresponding ICNARC-CMP record.

Conclusions

We successfully linked four national data sets to the core data set of all CHD procedures performed between 2000 and 2017. This will enable a much richer analysis of longitudinal patient journeys and outcomes. We hope that our detailed description of the linkage process will be useful to others looking to link national data sets to address important research priorities.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/5/e057343.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057343; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121475?pdf=render -37001969,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219,Identifying opportunities for upstream evaluations relevant to child and maternal health: a UK policy-mapping review.,"Stewart E, Pearce A, Given J, Gilbert R, Brophy S, Cookson R, Hardelid P, Harron KL, Leyland A, Wood R, Dundas R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2023,2023-03-31,Y,Child Development; Child Health,,,"

Objective

Interventions to tackle the social determinants of health can improve outcomes during pregnancy and early childhood, leading to better health across the life course. Variation in content, timing and implementation of policies across the 4 UK nations allows for evaluation. We conducted a policy-mapping review (1981-2021) to identify relevant UK early years policies across the social determinants of health framework, and determine suitable candidates for evaluation using administrative data.

Methods

We used open keyword and category searches of UK and devolved Government websites, and hand searched policy reviews. Policies were rated and included using five criteria: (1) Potential for policy to affect maternal and child health outcomes; (2) Implementation variation across the UK; (3) Population reach and expected effect size; (4) Ability to identify exposed/eligible group in administrative data; (5) Potential to affect health inequalities. An expert consensus workshop determined a final shortlist.

Results

336 policies and 306 strategy documents were identified. Policies were mainly excluded due to criteria 2-4, leaving 88. The consensus workshop identified three policy areas as suitable candidates for natural experiment evaluation using administrative data: pregnancy grants, early years education and childcare, and Universal Credit.

Conclusion

Our comprehensive policy review identifies valuable opportunities to evaluate sociostructural impacts on mother and child outcomes. However, many potentially impactful policies were excluded. This may lead to the inverse evidence law, where there is least evidence for policies believed to be most effective. This could be ameliorated by better access to administrative data, staged implementation of future policies or alternative evaluation methods.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2023/03/30/archdischild-2022-325219.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013?pdf=render 34859617,https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.309,The clinical profile and associated mortality in people with and without diabetes with Coronavirus disease 2019 on admission to acute hospital services.,"Gokhale K, Mostafa SA, Wang J, Tahrani AA, Sainsbury CA, Toulis KA, Thomas GN, Hassan-Smith Z, Sapey E, Gallier S, Adderley NJ, Narendran P, Bellary S, Taverner T, Ghosh S, Nirantharakumar K, Hanif W.",,"Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism",2022,2021-12-03,Y,Diabetes; Complications; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

To assess if in adults with COVID-19, whether those with diabetes and complications (DM+C) present with a more severe clinical profile and if that relates to increased mortality, compared to those with diabetes with no complications (DM-NC) and those without diabetes.

Methods

Service-level data was used from 996 adults with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 who presented to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK, from March to June 2020. All individuals were categorized into DM+C, DM-NC, and non-diabetes groups. Physiological and laboratory measurements in the first 5 days after admission were collated and compared among groups. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate associations between diabetes status and the risk of mortality.

Results

Among the 996 individuals, 104 (10.4%) were DM+C, 295 (29.6%) DM-NC and 597 (59.9%) non-diabetes. There were 309 (31.0%) in-hospital deaths documented, 40 (4.0% of total cohort) were DM+C, 99 (9.9%) DM-NC and 170 (17.0%) non-diabetes. Individuals with DM+C were more likely to present with high anion gap/metabolic acidosis, features of renal impairment, and low albumin/lymphocyte count than those with DM-NC or those without diabetes. There was no significant difference in mortality rates among the groups: compared to individuals without diabetes, the adjusted HRs were 1.39 (95% CI 0.95-2.03, p = 0.093) and 1.18 (95% CI 0.90-1.54, p = 0.226) in DM+C and DM-C, respectively.

Conclusions

Those with COVID-19 and DM+C presented with a more severe clinical and biochemical profile, but this did not associate with increased mortality in this study.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/edm2.309; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.309; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8754243; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8754243?pdf=render 33678589,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30317-4,Health data poverty: an assailable barrier to equitable digital health care.,"Ibrahim H, Liu X, Zariffa N, Morris AD, Denniston AK.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2021,2021-03-04,N,,,,"Data-driven digital health technologies have the power to transform health care. If these tools could be sustainably delivered at scale, they might have the potential to provide everyone, everywhere, with equitable access to expert-level care, narrowing the global health and wellbeing gap. Conversely, it is highly possible that these transformative technologies could exacerbate existing health-care inequalities instead. In this Viewpoint, we describe the problem of health data poverty: the inability for individuals, groups, or populations to benefit from a discovery or innovation due to a scarcity of data that are adequately representative. We assert that health data poverty is a threat to global health that could prevent the benefits of data-driven digital health technologies from being more widely realised and might even lead to them causing harm. We argue that the time to act is now to avoid creating a digital health divide that exacerbates existing health-care inequalities and to ensure that no one is left behind in the digital era.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750020303174/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30317-4 37230417,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.05.012,C1-inhibitor levels and venous thromboembolism: results from a Mendelian randomization study.,"Cupido AJ, Petersen RS, Schmidt AF, Levi M, Cohn DM, Fijen LM.",,Journal of thrombosis and haemostasis : JTH,2023,2023-05-23,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.05.012 37218687,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcad029,Sex-based differences in risk factors for incident myocardial infarction and stroke in the UK Biobank.,"Remfry E, Ardissino M, McCracken C, Szabo L, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Mamas MA, Robson J, Petersen SE, Raisi-Estabragh Z.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2023,2023-05-22,N,Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Sex differences; risk factors,,,"

Aim

This study examined sex-based differences in associations of vascular risk factors with incident cardiovascular events in the UK Biobank.

Methods

Baseline participant demographic, clinical, laboratory, anthropometric, and imaging characteristics were collected. Multivariable Cox regression was used to estimate independent associations of vascular risk factors with incident myocardial infarction (MI) and ischaemic stroke for men and women. Women-to-men ratios of hazard ratios (RHRs), and related 95% confidence intervals, represent the relative effect-size magnitude by sex.

Results

Among the 363 313 participants (53.5% women), 8 470 experienced MI (29.9% women) and 7 705 experienced stroke (40.1% women) over 12.66 [11.93, 13.38] years of prospective follow-up. Men had greater risk factor burden and higher arterial stiffness index at baseline. Women had greater age-related decline in aortic distensibility. Older age [RHR: 1.02 (1.01-1.03)], greater deprivation [RHR: 1.02 (1.00-1.03)], hypertension [RHR: 1.14 (1.02-1.27)], and current smoking [RHR: 1.45 (1.27-1.66)] were associated with a greater excess risk of MI in women than men. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was associated with excess MI risk in men [RHR: 0.90 (0.84-0.95)] and apolipoprotein A (ApoA) was less protective for MI in women [RHR: 1.65 (1.01-2.71)]. Older age was associated with excess risk of stroke [RHR: 1.01 (1.00-1.02)] and ApoA was less protective for stroke in women [RHR: 2.55 (1.58-4.14)].

Conclusion

Older age, hypertension and smoking appeared stronger drivers of cardiovascular disease in women, whereas lipid metrics appeared stronger risk determinants for men. These findings highlight the importance of sex-specific preventive strategies and suggest priority targets for intervention in men and women.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcad029/50422842/qcad029.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcad029 34053271,https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266,Real-time monitoring of COVID-19 dynamics using automated trend fitting and anomaly detection.,"Jombart T, Ghozzi S, Schumacher D, Taylor TJ, Leclerc QJ, Jit M, Flasche S, Greaves F, Ward T, Eggo RM, Nightingale E, Meakin S, Brady OJ, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Medley GF, Höhle M, Edmunds WJ.",,"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences",2021,2021-05-31,Y,Algorithm; Surveillance; outbreak; Machine Learning; Asmodee; Trendbreaker,,,"As several countries gradually release social distancing measures, rapid detection of new localized COVID-19 hotspots and subsequent intervention will be key to avoiding large-scale resurgence of transmission. We introduce ASMODEE (automatic selection of models and outlier detection for epidemics), a new tool for detecting sudden changes in COVID-19 incidence. Our approach relies on automatically selecting the best (fitting or predicting) model from a range of user-defined time series models, excluding the most recent data points, to characterize the main trend in an incidence. We then derive prediction intervals and classify data points outside this interval as outliers, which provides an objective criterion for identifying departures from previous trends. We also provide a method for selecting the optimal breakpoints, used to define how many recent data points are to be excluded from the trend fitting procedure. The analysis of simulated COVID-19 outbreaks suggests ASMODEE compares favourably with a state-of-art outbreak-detection algorithm while being simpler and more flexible. As such, our method could be of wider use for infectious disease surveillance. We illustrate ASMODEE using publicly available data of National Health Service (NHS) Pathways reporting potential COVID-19 cases in England at a fine spatial scale, showing that the method would have enabled the early detection of the flare-ups in Leicester and Blackburn with Darwen, two to three weeks before their respective lockdown. ASMODEE is implemented in the free R package trendbreaker. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK'.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165581?pdf=render +37001969,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219,Identifying opportunities for upstream evaluations relevant to child and maternal health: a UK policy-mapping review.,"Stewart E, Pearce A, Given J, Gilbert R, Brophy S, Cookson R, Hardelid P, Harron KL, Leyland A, Wood R, Dundas R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2023,2023-03-31,Y,Child Development; Child Health,,,"

Objective

Interventions to tackle the social determinants of health can improve outcomes during pregnancy and early childhood, leading to better health across the life course. Variation in content, timing and implementation of policies across the 4 UK nations allows for evaluation. We conducted a policy-mapping review (1981-2021) to identify relevant UK early years policies across the social determinants of health framework, and determine suitable candidates for evaluation using administrative data.

Methods

We used open keyword and category searches of UK and devolved Government websites, and hand searched policy reviews. Policies were rated and included using five criteria: (1) Potential for policy to affect maternal and child health outcomes; (2) Implementation variation across the UK; (3) Population reach and expected effect size; (4) Ability to identify exposed/eligible group in administrative data; (5) Potential to affect health inequalities. An expert consensus workshop determined a final shortlist.

Results

336 policies and 306 strategy documents were identified. Policies were mainly excluded due to criteria 2-4, leaving 88. The consensus workshop identified three policy areas as suitable candidates for natural experiment evaluation using administrative data: pregnancy grants, early years education and childcare, and Universal Credit.

Conclusion

Our comprehensive policy review identifies valuable opportunities to evaluate sociostructural impacts on mother and child outcomes. However, many potentially impactful policies were excluded. This may lead to the inverse evidence law, where there is least evidence for policies believed to be most effective. This could be ameliorated by better access to administrative data, staged implementation of future policies or alternative evaluation methods.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2023/03/30/archdischild-2022-325219.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013?pdf=render 32908283,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1034-x,Reporting guidelines for clinical trial reports for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the CONSORT-AI extension.,"Liu X, Cruz Rivera S, Moher D, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.",,Nature medicine,2020,2020-09-09,Y,,,,"The CONSORT 2010 statement provides minimum guidelines for reporting randomized trials. Its widespread use has been instrumental in ensuring transparency in the evaluation of new interventions. More recently, there has been a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence (AI) need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate impact on health outcomes. The CONSORT-AI (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-Artificial Intelligence) extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trials evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for clinical trial protocols: SPIRIT-AI (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-Artificial Intelligence). Both guidelines were developed through a staged consensus process involving literature review and expert consultation to generate 29 candidate items, which were assessed by an international multi-stakeholder group in a two-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed upon in a two-day consensus meeting (31 stakeholders) and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants). The CONSORT-AI extension includes 14 new items that were considered sufficiently important for AI interventions that they should be routinely reported in addition to the core CONSORT 2010 items. CONSORT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention is integrated, the handling of inputs and outputs of the AI intervention, the human-AI interaction and provision of an analysis of error cases. CONSORT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness in reporting clinical trials for AI interventions. It will assist editors and peer reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret and critically appraise the quality of clinical trial design and risk of bias in the reported outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1034-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1034-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598943; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598943?pdf=render -37311637,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973,Number and timing of primary cleft lip and palate repair surgeries in England: whole nation study of electronic health records before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Etoori D, Park MH, Blackburn RM, Fitzsimons KJ, Butterworth S, Medina J, Mc Grath-Lone L, Russell C, van der Meulen J.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-06-13,Y,epidemiology; Paediatric Surgery; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To quantify differences in number and timing of first primary cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair procedures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021; 2020/2021) compared with the preceding year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020; 2019/2021).

Design

National observational study of administrative hospital data.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

Children <5 years undergoing primary repair for an orofacial cleft Population Consensus and Surveys Classification of Interventions and Procedures-fourth revisions (OPCS-4) codes F031, F291).

Main exposure

Procedure date (2020/2021 vs 2019/2020).

Main outcomes

Numbers and timing (age in months) of first primary CLP procedures.

Results

1716 CLP primary repair procedures were included in the analysis. In 2020/2021, 774 CLP procedures were carried out compared with 942 in 2019/2020, a reduction of 17.8% (95% CI 9.5% to 25.4%). The reduction varied over time in 2020/2021, with no surgeries at all during the first 2 months (April and May 2020). Compared with 2019/2020, first primary lip repair procedures performed in 2020/2021 were delayed by 1.6 months on average (95% CI 0.9 to 2.2 months). Delays in primary palate repairs were smaller on average but varied across the nine geographical regions.

Conclusion

There were significant reductions in the number and delays in timing of first primary CLP repair procedures in England during the first year of the pandemic, which may affect long-term outcomes.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/6/e071973.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964?pdf=render 37118525,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00328-3,Strong peak immunogenicity but rapid antibody waning following third vaccine dose in older residents of care homes.,"Tut G, Lancaster T, Krutikov M, Sylla P, Bone D, Spalkova E, Bentley C, Amin U, Jadir A, Hulme S, Kaur N, Tut E, Bruton R, Wu MY, Harvey R, Carr EJ, Crick COVID Immunity Pipeline, Beale R, Stirrup O, Shrotri M, Azmi B, Fuller C, Baynton V, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Copas A, Shallcross L, Moss P.",,Nature aging,2023,2023-01-20,Y,,,,"Third-dose coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines are being deployed widely but their efficacy has not been assessed adequately in vulnerable older people who exhibit suboptimal responses after primary vaccination series. This observational study, which was carried out by the VIVALDI study based in England, looked at spike-specific immune responses in 341 staff and residents in long-term care facilities who received an mRNA vaccine following dual primary series vaccination with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1. Third-dose vaccination strongly increased antibody responses with preferential relative enhancement in older people and was required to elicit neutralization of Omicron. Cellular immune responses were also enhanced with strong cross-reactive recognition of Omicron. However, antibody titers fell 21-78% within 100 d after vaccine and 27% of participants developed a breakthrough Omicron infection. These findings reveal strong immunogenicity of a third vaccine in one of the most vulnerable population groups and endorse an approach for widespread delivery across this population. Ongoing assessment will be required to determine the stability of immune protection.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00328-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00328-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154221?pdf=render 32908284,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1037-7,Guidelines for clinical trial protocols for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the SPIRIT-AI extension.,"Cruz Rivera S, Liu X, Chan AW, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Steering Group, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Consensus Group.",,Nature medicine,2020,2020-09-09,Y,,,,"The SPIRIT 2013 statement aims to improve the completeness of clinical trial protocol reporting by providing evidence-based recommendations for the minimum set of items to be addressed. This guidance has been instrumental in promoting transparent evaluation of new interventions. More recently, there has been a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence (AI) need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate their impact on health outcomes. The SPIRIT-AI (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-Artificial Intelligence) extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trial protocols evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for trial reports: CONSORT-AI (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-Artificial Intelligence). Both guidelines were developed through a staged consensus process involving literature review and expert consultation to generate 26 candidate items, which were consulted upon by an international multi-stakeholder group in a two-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed upon in a consensus meeting (31 stakeholders) and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants). The SPIRIT-AI extension includes 15 new items that were considered sufficiently important for clinical trial protocols of AI interventions. These new items should be routinely reported in addition to the core SPIRIT 2013 items. SPIRIT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention will be integrated, considerations for the handling of input and output data, the human-AI interaction and analysis of error cases. SPIRIT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness for clinical trial protocols for AI interventions. Its use will assist editors and peer reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret and critically appraise the design and risk of bias for a planned clinical trial.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1037-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1037-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598944?pdf=render -33344049,https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5,Automated Segmentation of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Images: Benchmark Data and Clinically Relevant Metrics.,"Giarratano Y, Bianchi E, Gray C, Morris A, MacGillivray T, Dhillon B, Bernabeu MO.",,Translational vision science & technology,2020,2020-12-03,Y,Automated Segmentation; Retinal Vasculature; Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography,,,"

Purpose

To generate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images with associated ground truth manual segmentations, and to establish a standard for OCTA image segmentation by surveying a broad range of state-of-the-art vessel enhancement and binarization procedures.

Methods

Handcrafted filters and neural network architectures were used to perform vessel enhancement. Thresholding methods and machine learning approaches were applied to obtain the final binarization. Evaluation was performed by using pixelwise metrics and newly proposed topological metrics. Finally, we compare the error in the computation of clinically relevant vascular network metrics (e.g., foveal avascular zone area and vessel density) across segmentation methods.

Results

Our results show that, for the set of images considered, deep learning architectures (U-Net and CS-Net) achieve the best performance (Dice = 0.89). For applications where manually segmented data are not available to retrain these approaches, our findings suggest that optimally oriented flux (OOF) is the best handcrafted filter (Dice = 0.86). Moreover, our results show up to 25% differences in vessel density accuracy depending on the segmentation method used.

Conclusions

In this study, we derive and validate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal OCTA images with associated ground truth manual segmentations. Our findings should be taken into account when comparing the results of clinical studies and performing meta-analyses. Finally, we release our data and source code to support standardization efforts in OCTA image segmentation.

Translational relevance

This work establishes a standard for OCTA retinal image segmentation and introduces the importance of evaluating segmentation performance in terms of clinically relevant metrics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823?pdf=render +37311637,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973,Number and timing of primary cleft lip and palate repair surgeries in England: whole nation study of electronic health records before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Etoori D, Park MH, Blackburn RM, Fitzsimons KJ, Butterworth S, Medina J, Mc Grath-Lone L, Russell C, van der Meulen J.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-06-13,Y,epidemiology; Paediatric Surgery; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To quantify differences in number and timing of first primary cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair procedures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021; 2020/2021) compared with the preceding year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020; 2019/2021).

Design

National observational study of administrative hospital data.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

Children <5 years undergoing primary repair for an orofacial cleft Population Consensus and Surveys Classification of Interventions and Procedures-fourth revisions (OPCS-4) codes F031, F291).

Main exposure

Procedure date (2020/2021 vs 2019/2020).

Main outcomes

Numbers and timing (age in months) of first primary CLP procedures.

Results

1716 CLP primary repair procedures were included in the analysis. In 2020/2021, 774 CLP procedures were carried out compared with 942 in 2019/2020, a reduction of 17.8% (95% CI 9.5% to 25.4%). The reduction varied over time in 2020/2021, with no surgeries at all during the first 2 months (April and May 2020). Compared with 2019/2020, first primary lip repair procedures performed in 2020/2021 were delayed by 1.6 months on average (95% CI 0.9 to 2.2 months). Delays in primary palate repairs were smaller on average but varied across the nine geographical regions.

Conclusion

There were significant reductions in the number and delays in timing of first primary CLP repair procedures in England during the first year of the pandemic, which may affect long-term outcomes.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/6/e071973.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964?pdf=render 37477803,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00615-z,Discovering Distinct Phenotypical Clusters in Heart Failure Across the Ejection Fraction Spectrum: a Systematic Review.,"Meijs C, Handoko ML, Savarese G, Vernooij RWM, Vaartjes I, Banerjee A, Koudstaal S, Brugts JJ, Asselbergs FW, Uijl A.",,Current heart failure reports,2023,2023-07-21,N,Clustering; Phenotyping; Heart Failure; Machine Learning; Precision Medicine,,,"

Review purpose

This systematic review aims to summarise clustering studies in heart failure (HF) and guide future clinical trial design and implementation in routine clinical practice.

Findings

34 studies were identified (n = 19 in HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)). There was significant heterogeneity invariables and techniques used. However, 149/165 described clusters could be assigned to one of nine phenotypes: 1) young, low comorbidity burden; 2) metabolic; 3) cardio-renal; 4) atrial fibrillation (AF); 5) elderly female AF; 6) hypertensive-comorbidity; 7) ischaemic-male; 8) valvular disease; and 9) devices. There was room for improvement on important methodological topics for all clustering studies such as external validation and transparency of the modelling process. The large overlap between the phenotypes of the clustering studies shows that clustering is a robust approach for discovering clinically distinct phenotypes. However, future studies should invest in a phenotype model that can be implemented in routine clinical practice and future clinical trial design. HF = heart failure, EF = ejection fraction, HFpEF = heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, HFrEF = heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, CKD = chronic kidney disease, AF = atrial fibrillation, IHD = ischaemic heart disease, CAD = coronary artery disease, ICD = implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, CRT = cardiac resynchronization therapy, NT-proBNP = N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide, BMI = Body Mass Index, COPD = Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11897-023-00615-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00615-z +33344049,https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5,Automated Segmentation of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Images: Benchmark Data and Clinically Relevant Metrics.,"Giarratano Y, Bianchi E, Gray C, Morris A, MacGillivray T, Dhillon B, Bernabeu MO.",,Translational vision science & technology,2020,2020-12-03,Y,Automated Segmentation; Retinal Vasculature; Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography,,,"

Purpose

To generate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images with associated ground truth manual segmentations, and to establish a standard for OCTA image segmentation by surveying a broad range of state-of-the-art vessel enhancement and binarization procedures.

Methods

Handcrafted filters and neural network architectures were used to perform vessel enhancement. Thresholding methods and machine learning approaches were applied to obtain the final binarization. Evaluation was performed by using pixelwise metrics and newly proposed topological metrics. Finally, we compare the error in the computation of clinically relevant vascular network metrics (e.g., foveal avascular zone area and vessel density) across segmentation methods.

Results

Our results show that, for the set of images considered, deep learning architectures (U-Net and CS-Net) achieve the best performance (Dice = 0.89). For applications where manually segmented data are not available to retrain these approaches, our findings suggest that optimally oriented flux (OOF) is the best handcrafted filter (Dice = 0.86). Moreover, our results show up to 25% differences in vessel density accuracy depending on the segmentation method used.

Conclusions

In this study, we derive and validate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal OCTA images with associated ground truth manual segmentations. Our findings should be taken into account when comparing the results of clinical studies and performing meta-analyses. Finally, we release our data and source code to support standardization efforts in OCTA image segmentation.

Translational relevance

This work establishes a standard for OCTA retinal image segmentation and introduces the importance of evaluating segmentation performance in terms of clinically relevant metrics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823?pdf=render 31477110,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4286-8,Weekend admissions and mortality for major acute disorders across England and Wales: record linkage cohort studies.,"Roberts SE, John A, Lewis KE, Brown J, Lyons RA, Williams JG.",,BMC health services research,2019,2019-09-02,Y,Mortality; Weekend Admissions; Acute Disorders,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

To establish which major disorders are susceptible to increased mortality following acute admissions on weekends, compared with week days, and how this may be explained.

Methods

Cohorts based on national administrative inpatient and mortality data for 14,168,443 hospitalised patients in England and 913,068 in Wales who were admitted for 66 disorders that were associated with at least 200 deaths within 30 days of acute admission. The main outcome measure was the weekend mortality effect (defined as the conventional mortality odds ratio for admissions on weekends compared with week days).

Results

There were large, statistically significant weekend mortality effects (> 20%) in England for 22 of the 66 conditions and in both countries for 14. These 14 were 4 of 13 cancers (oesophageal, colorectal, lung and lymphomas); 4 of 13 circulatory disorders (angina, abdominal aortic aneurysm, peripheral vascular disease and arterial embolism & thrombosis); one of 8 respiratory disorders (pleural effusion); 2 of 12 gastrointestinal disorders (alcoholic and other liver disease); 2 of 3 ageing-related disorders (Alzheimer's disease and dementia); none of 7 trauma conditions; and one of 10 other disorders (acute renal failure). Across the disorders, 64% of the variation in weekend mortality effects in England and Wales was explained by reductions in admission rates at weekends and the medical disease category.

Conclusions

The effect of weekend admission on 30 day mortality is seen mainly for cancers, some circulatory disorders, liver disease and a few other conditions which are mainly ageing- or cancer-related. Most of the increased mortality is associated with reduced admission rates at weekends and the medical disease category.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-019-4286-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4286-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720086; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720086?pdf=render 37706486,https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2023.2254235,Stepped collaborative care for pain and posttraumatic stress disorder after major trauma: a randomized controlled feasibility trial.,"Giummarra MJ, Reeder S, Williams S, Devlin A, Knol R, Ponsford J, Arnold CA, Konstantatos A, Gabbe BJ, Clarke H, Katz J, Mitchell F, Robinson E, Zatzick D.",,Disability and rehabilitation,2023,2023-09-14,N,Trauma; Injury; Recovery; Pain; Hospitalization; Ptsd; Brief Intervention,,,"

Purpose

To examine feasibility and acceptability of providing stepped collaborative care case management targeting posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain symptoms after major traumatic injury.

Materials and methods

Participants were major trauma survivors in Victoria, Australia, at risk of persistent pain or PTSD with high baseline symptoms. Participants were block-randomized, stratified by compensation-status, to the usual care (n = 15) or intervention (n = 17) group (46% of eligible patients). The intervention was adapted from existing stepped collaborative care interventions with input from interdisciplinary experts and people with lived experience in trauma and disability. The proactive case management intervention targeted PTSD and pain management for 6-months using motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy strategies, and collaborative care. Qualitative interviews explored intervention acceptability.

Results

Intervention participants received a median of 7 h case manager contact and reported that they valued the supportive and non-judgmental listening, and timely access to effective strategies, resources, and treatments post-injury from the case manager. Participants reported few disadvantages from participation, and positive impacts on symptoms and recovery outcomes consistent with the reduction in PTSD and pain symptoms measured at 1-, 3- and 6-months.

Conclusions

Stepped collaborative care was low-cost, feasible, and acceptable to people at risk of PTSD or pain after major trauma.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONAfter hospitalization for injury, people can experience difficulty accessing timely support to manage posttraumatic stress, pain and other concerns.Stepped case management-based interventions that provide individualized support and collaborative care have reduced posttraumatic stress symptom severity for patients admitted to American trauma centers.We showed that this model of care could be adapted to target pain and mental health in the trauma system in Victoria, Australia.The intervention was low cost, acceptable and highly valued by most participants who perceived that it helped them use strategies to better manage post-traumatic symptoms, and to access clinicians and treatments relevant to their needs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2023.2254235 33085509,https://doi.org/10.7326/m20-4986,COVID-19 Mortality Risk in Down Syndrome: Results From a Cohort Study of 8 Million Adults.,"Clift AK, Coupland CAC, Keogh RH, Hemingway H, Hippisley-Cox J.",,Annals of internal medicine,2021,2020-10-21,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7592804?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-4986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7592804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7592804?pdf=render @@ -976,57 +976,57 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 34726481,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl9551,"Exponential growth, high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, and vaccine effectiveness associated with the Delta variant.","Elliott P, Haw D, Wang H, Eales O, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Prosolek SJ, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium11‡, Ashby D, Donnelly CA, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2021,2021-12-17,N,,,,"Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections were rising during early summer 2021 in many countries as a result of the Delta variant. We assessed reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction swab positivity in the Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission–1 (REACT-1) study in England. During June and July 2021, we observed sustained exponential growth with an average doubling time of 25 days, driven by complete replacement of the Alpha variant by Delta and by high prevalence at younger, less-vaccinated ages. Prevalence among unvaccinated people [1.21% (95% credible interval 1.03%, 1.41%)] was three times that among double-vaccinated people [0.40% (95% credible interval 0.34%, 0.48%)]. However, after adjusting for age and other variables, vaccine effectiveness for double-vaccinated people was estimated at between ~50% and ~60% during this period in England. Increased social mixing in the presence of Delta had the potential to generate sustained growth in infections, even at high levels of vaccination.",,pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/7d0b03b2-b465-410e-a40d-7300157d8b54/science.abl9551.v1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl9551 36357675,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02046-0,Rare and common genetic determinants of metabolic individuality and their effects on human health.,"Surendran P, Stewart ID, Au Yeung VPW, Pietzner M, Raffler J, Wörheide MA, Li C, Smith RF, Wittemans LBL, Bomba L, Menni C, Zierer J, Rossi N, Sheridan PA, Watkins NA, Mangino M, Hysi PG, Di Angelantonio E, Falchi M, Spector TD, Soranzo N, Michelotti GA, Arlt W, Lotta LA, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Gamazon ER, Howson JMM, Wood AM, Danesh J, Wareham NJ, Kastenmüller G, Fauman EB, Suhre K, Butterworth AS, Langenberg C.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-11-10,Y,,,,"Garrod's concept of 'chemical individuality' has contributed to comprehension of the molecular origins of human diseases. Untargeted high-throughput metabolomic technologies provide an in-depth snapshot of human metabolism at scale. We studied the genetic architecture of the human plasma metabolome using 913 metabolites assayed in 19,994 individuals and identified 2,599 variant-metabolite associations (P < 1.25 × 10-11) within 330 genomic regions, with rare variants (minor allele frequency ≤ 1%) explaining 9.4% of associations. Jointly modeling metabolites in each region, we identified 423 regional, co-regulated, variant-metabolite clusters called genetically influenced metabotypes. We assigned causal genes for 62.4% of these genetically influenced metabotypes, providing new insights into fundamental metabolite physiology and clinical relevance, including metabolite-guided discovery of potential adverse drug effects (DPYD and SRD5A2). We show strong enrichment of inborn errors of metabolism-causing genes, with examples of metabolite associations and clinical phenotypes of non-pathogenic variant carriers matching characteristics of the inborn errors of metabolism. Systematic, phenotypic follow-up of metabolite-specific genetic scores revealed multiple potential etiological relationships.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02046-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02046-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9671801; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9671801?pdf=render 33328049,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30219-3,Guidelines for clinical trial protocols for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the SPIRIT-AI extension.,"Cruz Rivera S, Liu X, Chan AW, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2020,2020-09-09,Y,,,,"The SPIRIT 2013 statement aims to improve the completeness of clinical trial protocol reporting by providing evidence-based recommendations for the minimum set of items to be addressed. This guidance has been instrumental in promoting transparent evaluation of new interventions. More recently, there has been a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence (AI) need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate their impact on health outcomes. The SPIRIT-AI (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-Artificial Intelligence) extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trial protocols evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for trial reports: CONSORT-AI (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-Artificial Intelligence). Both guidelines were developed through a staged consensus process involving literature review and expert consultation to generate 26 candidate items, which were consulted upon by an international multi-stakeholder group in a two-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed upon in a consensus meeting (31 stakeholders) and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants). The SPIRIT-AI extension includes 15 new items that were considered sufficiently important for clinical trial protocols of AI interventions. These new items should be routinely reported in addition to the core SPIRIT 2013 items. SPIRIT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention will be integrated, considerations for the handling of input and output data, the human-AI interaction and analysis of error cases. SPIRIT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness for clinical trial protocols for AI interventions. Its use will assist editors and peer reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret, and critically appraise the design and risk of bias for a planned clinical trial.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750020302193/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30219-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8212701; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8212701?pdf=render +32182948,https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665,"Dysregulated Antibody, Natural Killer Cell and Immune Mediator Profiles in Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases. ","Martin TC, Ilieva KM, Visconti A, Beaumont M, Kiddle SJ, Dobson RJB, Mangino M, Lim EM, Pezer M, Steves CJ, Bell JT, Wilson SG, Lauc G, Roederer M, Walsh JP, Spector TD, Karagiannis SN.",,Cells,2020,2020-03-09,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,inflammatory and immune system,"The pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) is poorly understood and the association between different immune features and the germline variants involved in AITD are yet unclear. We previously observed systemic depletion of IgG core fucosylation and antennary α1,2 fucosylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in AITD, correlated with anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) levels. Fucose depletion is known to potentiate strong antibody-mediated NK cell activation and enhanced target antigen-expressing cell killing. In autoimmunity, this may translate to autoantibody-mediated immune cell recruitment and attack of self-antigen expressing normal tissues. Hence, we investigated the crosstalk between immune cell traits, secreted proteins, genetic variants and the glycosylation patterns of serum IgG, in a multi-omic and cross-sectional study of 622 individuals from the TwinsUK cohort, 172 of whom were diagnosed with AITD. We observed associations between two genetic variants (rs505922 and rs687621), AITD status, the secretion of Desmoglein-2 protein, and the profile of two IgG N-glycan traits in AITD, but further studies need to be performed to better understand their crosstalk in AITD. On the other side, enhanced afucosylated IgG was positively associated with activatory CD335- CD314+ CD158b+ NK cell subsets. Increased levels of the apoptosis and inflammation markers Caspase-2 and Interleukin-1α positively associated with AITD. Two genetic variants associated with AITD, rs1521 and rs3094228, were also associated with altered expression of the thyrocyte-expressed ligands known to recognize the NK cell immunoreceptors CD314 and CD158b. Our analyses reveal a combination of heightened Fc-active IgG antibodies, effector cells, cytokines and apoptotic signals in AITD, and AITD genetic variants associated with altered expression of thyrocyte-expressed ligands to NK cell immunoreceptors. Together, TPOAb responses, dysregulated immune features, germline variants associated with immunoactivity profiles, are consistent with a positive autoreactive antibody-dependent NK cell-mediated immune response likely drawn to the thyroid gland in AITD.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/9/3/665/pdf?version=1584361130; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647?pdf=render 37124165,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.127934,"Effects of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on park crime in London, England: An interrupted time series analysis.","Hajna S, Cummins S.",,Urban forestry & urban greening,2023,2023-04-11,Y,Parks; Crimes; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

Park crimes may have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of lockdowns that limited the number of capable guardians in public spaces. Despite this, the impacts of the lockdowns on park crimes remain unknown. To help us understand the societal impacts of policies implemented during this period, we assessed how the onset of the COVID-19 restrictions impacted urban park crime levels in London, England.

Methods

We identified crimes that occurred in publicly accessible parks and gardens in the Greater London Authority (England, UK) between March 1, 2019 and February 28, 2021 by overlaying open-access crime data with greenspace data supplied by the Greater Information for Greater London service. Using interrupted time series analyses, we estimated seasonality-adjusted associations between the onset of COVID-19 restrictions and park crimes.

Results

Overall (1565.7, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1021.9 to 2109.5) and antisocial behaviour crimes (1772.7, 95% CI 823.6-2721.7) increased in London parks during the first full month of COVID-19 restrictions (April 2020). There were no notable trends in park crimes in London prior to the onset of restrictions, but overall and antisocial behaviour crimes decreased after the onset of restrictions at a rate of 156.4 (95% CI -220.25 to -92.51) and 164.7 (95% CI -280.68 to -48.74) crimes/months, respectively.

Conclusions

Overall park crimes increased during the first full month of the COVID-19 restrictions, largely driven by an increase in antisocial behaviours. Additional research is needed to identify the specific misdemeanours that accounted for this rise in antisocial behaviours and to investigate their downstream impacts (e.g. increases in policing costs or decreases in perceived park safety).",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10088280; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.127934; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10088280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10088280?pdf=render 37133927,https://doi.org/10.2196/45534,"Understanding Views Around the Creation of a Consented, Donated Databank of Clinical Free Text to Develop and Train Natural Language Processing Models for Research: Focus Group Interviews With Stakeholders.","Fitzpatrick NK, Dobson R, Roberts A, Jones K, Shah AD, Nenadic G, Ford E.",,JMIR medical informatics,2023,2023-05-03,Y,Consent; Governance; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing; Free Text; Databank; Public Involvement; Unstructured Text,,,"

Background

Information stored within electronic health records is often recorded as unstructured text. Special computerized natural language processing (NLP) tools are needed to process this text; however, complex governance arrangements make such data in the National Health Service hard to access, and therefore, it is difficult to use for research in improving NLP methods. The creation of a donated databank of clinical free text could provide an important opportunity for researchers to develop NLP methods and tools and may circumvent delays in accessing the data needed to train the models. However, to date, there has been little or no engagement with stakeholders on the acceptability and design considerations of establishing a free-text databank for this purpose.

Objective

This study aimed to ascertain stakeholder views around the creation of a consented, donated databank of clinical free text to help create, train, and evaluate NLP for clinical research and to inform the potential next steps for adopting a partner-led approach to establish a national, funded databank of free text for use by the research community.

Methods

Web-based in-depth focus group interviews were conducted with 4 stakeholder groups (patients and members of the public, clinicians, information governance leads and research ethics members, and NLP researchers).

Results

All stakeholder groups were strongly in favor of the databank and saw great value in creating an environment where NLP tools can be tested and trained to improve their accuracy. Participants highlighted a range of complex issues for consideration as the databank is developed, including communicating the intended purpose, the approach to access and safeguarding the data, who should have access, and how to fund the databank. Participants recommended that a small-scale, gradual approach be adopted to start to gather donations and encouraged further engagement with stakeholders to develop a road map and set of standards for the databank.

Conclusions

These findings provide a clear mandate to begin developing the databank and a framework for stakeholder expectations, which we would aim to meet with the databank delivery.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45534; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45534; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193205 -32182948,https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665,"Dysregulated Antibody, Natural Killer Cell and Immune Mediator Profiles in Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases. ","Martin TC, Ilieva KM, Visconti A, Beaumont M, Kiddle SJ, Dobson RJB, Mangino M, Lim EM, Pezer M, Steves CJ, Bell JT, Wilson SG, Lauc G, Roederer M, Walsh JP, Spector TD, Karagiannis SN.",,Cells,2020,2020-03-09,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,inflammatory and immune system,"The pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) is poorly understood and the association between different immune features and the germline variants involved in AITD are yet unclear. We previously observed systemic depletion of IgG core fucosylation and antennary α1,2 fucosylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in AITD, correlated with anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) levels. Fucose depletion is known to potentiate strong antibody-mediated NK cell activation and enhanced target antigen-expressing cell killing. In autoimmunity, this may translate to autoantibody-mediated immune cell recruitment and attack of self-antigen expressing normal tissues. Hence, we investigated the crosstalk between immune cell traits, secreted proteins, genetic variants and the glycosylation patterns of serum IgG, in a multi-omic and cross-sectional study of 622 individuals from the TwinsUK cohort, 172 of whom were diagnosed with AITD. We observed associations between two genetic variants (rs505922 and rs687621), AITD status, the secretion of Desmoglein-2 protein, and the profile of two IgG N-glycan traits in AITD, but further studies need to be performed to better understand their crosstalk in AITD. On the other side, enhanced afucosylated IgG was positively associated with activatory CD335- CD314+ CD158b+ NK cell subsets. Increased levels of the apoptosis and inflammation markers Caspase-2 and Interleukin-1α positively associated with AITD. Two genetic variants associated with AITD, rs1521 and rs3094228, were also associated with altered expression of the thyrocyte-expressed ligands known to recognize the NK cell immunoreceptors CD314 and CD158b. Our analyses reveal a combination of heightened Fc-active IgG antibodies, effector cells, cytokines and apoptotic signals in AITD, and AITD genetic variants associated with altered expression of thyrocyte-expressed ligands to NK cell immunoreceptors. Together, TPOAb responses, dysregulated immune features, germline variants associated with immunoactivity profiles, are consistent with a positive autoreactive antibody-dependent NK cell-mediated immune response likely drawn to the thyroid gland in AITD.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/9/3/665/pdf?version=1584361130; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647?pdf=render 37679551,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01635-6,Author Correction: Genetics of circulating inflammatory proteins identifies drivers of immune-mediated disease risk and therapeutic targets.,"Zhao JH, Stacey D, Eriksson N, Macdonald-Dunlop E, Hedman ÅK, Kalnapenkis A, Enroth S, Cozzetto D, Digby-Bell J, Marten J, Folkersen L, Herder C, Jonsson L, Bergen SE, Gieger C, Needham EJ, Surendran P, Estonian Biobank Research Team, Paul DS, Polasek O, Thorand B, Grallert H, Roden M, Võsa U, Esko T, Hayward C, Johansson Å, Gyllensten U, Powell N, Hansson O, Mattsson-Carlgren N, Joshi PK, Danesh J, Padyukov L, Klareskog L, Landén M, Wilson JF, Siegbahn A, Wallentin L, Mälarstig A, Butterworth AS, Peters JE.",,Nature immunology,2023,2023-09-07,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01635-6 -35650647,https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y,A scoping methodological review of simulation studies comparing statistical and machine learning approaches to risk prediction for time-to-event data.,"Smith H, Sweeting M, Morris T, Crowther MJ.",,Diagnostic and prognostic research,2022,2022-06-02,Y,Survival analysis; Machine Learning; Simulation Studies; Clinical Risk Prediction; Prognostic Modelling,,,"

Background

There is substantial interest in the adaptation and application of so-called machine learning approaches to prognostic modelling of censored time-to-event data. These methods must be compared and evaluated against existing methods in a variety of scenarios to determine their predictive performance. A scoping review of how machine learning methods have been compared to traditional survival models is important to identify the comparisons that have been made and issues where they are lacking, biased towards one approach or misleading.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of research articles published between 1 January 2000 and 2 December 2020 using PubMed. Eligible articles were those that used simulation studies to compare statistical and machine learning methods for risk prediction with a time-to-event outcome in a medical/healthcare setting. We focus on data-generating mechanisms (DGMs), the methods that have been compared, the estimands of the simulation studies, and the performance measures used to evaluate them.

Results

A total of ten articles were identified as eligible for the review. Six of the articles evaluated a method that was developed by the authors, four of which were machine learning methods, and the results almost always stated that this developed method's performance was equivalent to or better than the other methods compared. Comparisons were often biased towards the novel approach, with the majority only comparing against a basic Cox proportional hazards model, and in scenarios where it is clear it would not perform well. In many of the articles reviewed, key information was unclear, such as the number of simulation repetitions and how performance measures were calculated.

Conclusion

It is vital that method comparisons are unbiased and comprehensive, and this should be the goal even if realising it is difficult. Fully assessing how newly developed methods perform and how they compare to a variety of traditional statistical methods for prognostic modelling is imperative as these methods are already being applied in clinical contexts. Evaluations of the performance and usefulness of recently developed methods for risk prediction should be continued and reporting standards improved as these methods become increasingly popular.",,pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606?pdf=render 36545688,https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2022.83,EDIFY (Eating Disorders: Delineating Illness and Recovery Trajectories to Inform Personalised Prevention and Early Intervention in Young People): project outline.,"Hemmings A, Sharpe H, Allen K, Bartel H, Campbell IC, Desrivières S, Dobson RJB, Folarin AA, French T, Kelly J, Micali N, Raman S, Treasure J, Abbas R, Heslop B, Street T, Schmidt U.",,BJPsych bulletin,2022,2022-12-22,N,Eating Disorders; Risk And Resilience; Prevention And Early Intervention; Youth Engagement; Interdisciplinary Working,,,"EDIFY (Eating Disorders: Delineating Illness and Recovery Trajectories to Inform Personalised Prevention and Early Intervention in Young People) is an ambitious research project aiming to revolutionise how eating disorders are perceived, prevented and treated. Six integrated workstreams will address key questions, including: What are young people's experiences of eating disorders and recovery? What are the unique and shared risk factors in different groups? What helps or hinders recovery? How do the brain and behaviour change from early- to later-stage illness? How can we intervene earlier, quicker and in a more personalised way? This 4-year project, involving over 1000 participants, integrates arts, design and humanities with advanced neurobiological, psychosocial and bioinformatics approaches. Young people with lived experience of eating disorders are at the heart of EDIFY, serving as advisors and co-producers throughout. Ultimately, this work will expand public and professional perceptions of eating disorders, uplift under-represented voices and stimulate much-needed advances in policy and practice.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C1E5FCC67F1D627908A5495EED02577B/S2056469422000833a.pdf/div-class-title-edify-eating-disorders-delineating-illness-and-recovery-trajectories-to-inform-personalised-prevention-and-early-intervention-in-young-people-project-outline-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2022.83 -33655079,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2,Impact of baseline cases of cough and fever on UK COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates: estimates from the Bug Watch community cohort study.,"Eyre MT, Burns R, Kirkby V, Smith C, Denaxas S, Nguyen V, Hayward A, Shallcross L, Fragaszy E, Aldridge RW.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Fever; Cough; United Kingdom; Diagnostic Testing Capacity; Covid-19; Swab Test,,,"Background: Diagnostic testing forms a major part of the UK's response to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with tests offered to anyone with a continuous cough, high temperature or anosmia. Testing capacity must be sufficient during the winter respiratory season when levels of cough and fever are high due to non-COVID-19 causes. This study aims to make predictions about the contribution of baseline cough or fever to future testing demand in the UK. Methods: In this analysis of the Bug Watch community cohort study, we estimated the incidence of cough or fever in England in 2018-2019. We then estimated the COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates required in the UK for baseline cough or fever cases for the period July 2020-June 2021. This was explored for different rates of the population requesting tests, four COVID-19 second wave scenarios and high and low baseline cough or fever incidence scenarios. Results: Under the high baseline cough or fever scenario, incidence in the UK is expected to rise rapidly from 250,708 (95%CI 181,095 - 347,080) cases per day in September to a peak of 444,660 (95%CI 353,084 - 559,988) in December. If 80% of these cases request tests, testing demand would exceed 1.4 million tests per week for five consecutive months. Demand was significantly lower in the low cough or fever incidence scenario, with 129,115 (95%CI 111,596 - 151,679) tests per day in January 2021, compared to 340,921 (95%CI 276,039 - 424,491) tests per day in the higher incidence scenario. Conclusions: Our results show that national COVID-19 testing demand is highly dependent on background cough or fever incidence. This study highlights that the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic must ensure that a high proportion of people with symptoms request tests, and that testing capacity is sufficient to meet the high predicted demand.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379?pdf=render -35260393,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099,Overcoming disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. ,"Doubova SV, Robledo-Aburto ZA, Duque-Molina C, Borrayo-Sánchez G, González-León M, Avilés-Hernández R, Contreras-Sánchez SE, Leslie HH, Kruk M, Pérez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.",,BMJ global health,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/7/3/e008099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410?pdf=render +33655079,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2,Impact of baseline cases of cough and fever on UK COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates: estimates from the Bug Watch community cohort study.,"Eyre MT, Burns R, Kirkby V, Smith C, Denaxas S, Nguyen V, Hayward A, Shallcross L, Fragaszy E, Aldridge RW.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Fever; Cough; United Kingdom; Diagnostic Testing Capacity; Swab Test; Covid-19,,,"Background: Diagnostic testing forms a major part of the UK's response to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with tests offered to anyone with a continuous cough, high temperature or anosmia. Testing capacity must be sufficient during the winter respiratory season when levels of cough and fever are high due to non-COVID-19 causes. This study aims to make predictions about the contribution of baseline cough or fever to future testing demand in the UK. Methods: In this analysis of the Bug Watch community cohort study, we estimated the incidence of cough or fever in England in 2018-2019. We then estimated the COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates required in the UK for baseline cough or fever cases for the period July 2020-June 2021. This was explored for different rates of the population requesting tests, four COVID-19 second wave scenarios and high and low baseline cough or fever incidence scenarios. Results: Under the high baseline cough or fever scenario, incidence in the UK is expected to rise rapidly from 250,708 (95%CI 181,095 - 347,080) cases per day in September to a peak of 444,660 (95%CI 353,084 - 559,988) in December. If 80% of these cases request tests, testing demand would exceed 1.4 million tests per week for five consecutive months. Demand was significantly lower in the low cough or fever incidence scenario, with 129,115 (95%CI 111,596 - 151,679) tests per day in January 2021, compared to 340,921 (95%CI 276,039 - 424,491) tests per day in the higher incidence scenario. Conclusions: Our results show that national COVID-19 testing demand is highly dependent on background cough or fever incidence. This study highlights that the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic must ensure that a high proportion of people with symptoms request tests, and that testing capacity is sufficient to meet the high predicted demand.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379?pdf=render 36648036,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.06.011,Incident Clinical and Mortality Associations of Myocardial Native T1 in the UK Biobank.,"Raisi-Estabragh Z, McCracken C, Hann E, Condurache DG, Harvey NC, Munroe PB, Ferreira VM, Neubauer S, Piechnik SK, Petersen SE.",,JACC. Cardiovascular imaging,2023,2022-09-14,Y,Mortality; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiac Magnetic Resonance; Native T1 Mapping; Incident Events,,,"

Background

Cardiac magnetic resonance native T1-mapping provides noninvasive, quantitative, and contrast-free myocardial characterization. However, its predictive value in population cohorts has not been studied.

Objectives

The associations of native T1 with incident events were evaluated in 42,308 UK Biobank participants over 3.17 ± 1.53 years of prospective follow-up.

Methods

Native T1-mapping was performed in 1 midventricular short-axis slice using the Shortened Modified Look-Locker Inversion recovery technique (WIP780B) in 1.5-T scanners (Siemens Healthcare). Global myocardial T1 was calculated using an automated tool. Associations of T1 with: 1) prevalent risk factors (eg, diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol); 2) prevalent and incident diseases (eg, any cardiovascular disease [CVD], any brain disease, valvular heart disease, heart failure, nonischemic cardiomyopathies, cardiac arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation [AF], myocardial infarction, ischemic heart disease [IHD], and stroke); and 3) mortality (eg, all-cause, CVD, and IHD) were examined. Results are reported as odds ratios (ORs) or HRs per SD increment of T1 value with 95% CIs and corrected P values, from logistic and Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results

Higher myocardial T1 was associated with greater odds of a range of prevalent conditions (eg, any CVD, brain disease, heart failure, nonischemic cardiomyopathies, AF, stroke, and diabetes). The strongest relationships were with heart failure (OR: 1.41 [95% CI: 1.26-1.57]; P = 1.60 × 10-9) and nonischemic cardiomyopathies (OR: 1.40 [95% CI: 1.16-1.66]; P = 2.42 × 10-4). Native T1 was positively associated with incident AF (HR: 1.25 [95% CI: 1.10-1.43]; P = 9.19 × 10-4), incident heart failure (HR: 1.47 [95% CI: 1.31-1.65]; P = 4.79 × 10-11), all-cause mortality (HR: 1.24 [95% CI: 1.12-1.36]; P = 1.51 × 10-5), CVD mortality (HR: 1.40 [95% CI: 1.14-1.73]; P = 0.0014), and IHD mortality (HR: 1.36 [95% CI: 1.03-1.80]; P = 0.0310).

Conclusions

This large population study demonstrates the utility of myocardial native T1-mapping for disease discrimination and outcome prediction.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.06.011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.06.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10102720; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10102720?pdf=render 37285143,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2023.1290,Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Stress Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients With Known or Suspected Coronary Artery Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.,"Ricci F, Khanji MY, Bisaccia G, Cipriani A, Di Cesare A, Ceriello L, Mantini C, Zimarino M, Fedorowski A, Gallina S, Petersen SE, Bucciarelli-Ducci C.",,JAMA cardiology,2023,2023-07-01,N,,,,"

Importance

The clinical utility of stress cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in stable chest pain is still debated, and the low-risk period for adverse cardiovascular (CV) events after a negative test result is unknown.

Objective

To provide contemporary quantitative data synthesis of the diagnostic accuracy and prognostic value of stress CMR in stable chest pain.

Data sources

PubMed and Embase databases, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PROSPERO, and the ClinicalTrials.gov registry were searched for potentially relevant articles from January 1, 2000, through December 31, 2021.

Study selection

Selected studies evaluated CMR and reported estimates of diagnostic accuracy and/or raw data of adverse CV events for participants with either positive or negative stress CMR results. Prespecified combinations of keywords related to the diagnostic accuracy and prognostic value of stress CMR were used. A total of 3144 records were evaluated for title and abstract; of those, 235 articles were included in the full-text assessment of eligibility. After exclusions, 64 studies (74 470 total patients) published from October 29, 2002, through October 19, 2021, were included.

Data extraction and synthesis

This systematic review and meta-analysis adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Main outcomes and measures

Diagnostic odds ratios (DORs), sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), odds ratio (OR), and annualized event rate (AER) for all-cause death, CV death, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) defined as the composite of myocardial infarction and CV death.

Results

A total of 33 diagnostic studies pooling 7814 individuals and 31 prognostic studies pooling 67 080 individuals (mean [SD] follow-up, 3.5 [2.1] years; range, 0.9-8.8 years; 381 357 person-years) were identified. Stress CMR yielded a DOR of 26.4 (95% CI, 10.6-65.9), a sensitivity of 81% (95% CI, 68%-89%), a specificity of 86% (95% CI, 75%-93%), and an AUROC of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.77-0.89) for the detection of functionally obstructive coronary artery disease. In the subgroup analysis, stress CMR yielded higher diagnostic accuracy in the setting of suspected coronary artery disease (DOR, 53.4; 95% CI, 27.7-103.0) or when using 3-T imaging (DOR, 33.2; 95% CI, 19.9-55.4). The presence of stress-inducible ischemia was associated with higher all-cause mortality (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.69-2.31), CV mortality (OR, 6.40; 95% CI, 4.48-9.14), and MACEs (OR, 5.33; 95% CI, 4.04-7.04). The presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was associated with higher all-cause mortality (OR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.99-2.47), CV mortality (OR, 6.03; 95% CI, 2.76-13.13), and increased risk of MACEs (OR, 5.42; 95% CI, 3.42-8.60). After a negative test result, pooled AERs for CV death were less than 1.0%.

Conclusion and relevance

In this study, stress CMR yielded high diagnostic accuracy and delivered robust prognostication, particularly when 3-T scanners were used. While inducible myocardial ischemia and LGE were associated with higher mortality and risk of MACEs, normal stress CMR results were associated with a lower risk of MACEs for at least 3.5 years.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2023.1290 -37284234,https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9,"The shock, the coping, the resilience: smartphone application use reveals Covid-19 lockdown effects on human behaviors.","Liu XF, Wang ZZ, Xu XK, Wu Y, Zhao Z, Deng H, Wang P, Chao N, Huang YC.",,EPJ data science,2023,2023-06-05,Y,Human behaviors; Natural Experiment; Lockdown; Smartphone Apps; Covid-19,,,"Human mobility restriction policies have been widely used to contain the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). However, a critical question is how these policies affect individuals' behavioral and psychological well-being during and after confinement periods. Here, we analyze China's five most stringent city-level lockdowns in 2021, treating them as natural experiments that allow for examining behavioral changes in millions of people through smartphone application use. We made three fundamental observations. First, the use of physical and economic activity-related apps experienced a steep decline, yet apps that provide daily necessities maintained normal usage. Second, apps that fulfilled lower-level human needs, such as working, socializing, information seeking, and entertainment, saw an immediate and substantial increase in screen time. Those that satisfied higher-level needs, such as education, only attracted delayed attention. Third, human behaviors demonstrated resilience as most routines resumed after the lockdowns were lifted. Nonetheless, long-term lifestyle changes were observed, as significant numbers of people chose to continue working and learning online, becoming ""digital residents."" This study also demonstrates the capability of smartphone screen time analytics in the study of human behaviors.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109?pdf=render +35650647,https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y,A scoping methodological review of simulation studies comparing statistical and machine learning approaches to risk prediction for time-to-event data.,"Smith H, Sweeting M, Morris T, Crowther MJ.",,Diagnostic and prognostic research,2022,2022-06-02,Y,Survival analysis; Machine Learning; Simulation Studies; Clinical Risk Prediction; Prognostic Modelling,,,"

Background

There is substantial interest in the adaptation and application of so-called machine learning approaches to prognostic modelling of censored time-to-event data. These methods must be compared and evaluated against existing methods in a variety of scenarios to determine their predictive performance. A scoping review of how machine learning methods have been compared to traditional survival models is important to identify the comparisons that have been made and issues where they are lacking, biased towards one approach or misleading.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of research articles published between 1 January 2000 and 2 December 2020 using PubMed. Eligible articles were those that used simulation studies to compare statistical and machine learning methods for risk prediction with a time-to-event outcome in a medical/healthcare setting. We focus on data-generating mechanisms (DGMs), the methods that have been compared, the estimands of the simulation studies, and the performance measures used to evaluate them.

Results

A total of ten articles were identified as eligible for the review. Six of the articles evaluated a method that was developed by the authors, four of which were machine learning methods, and the results almost always stated that this developed method's performance was equivalent to or better than the other methods compared. Comparisons were often biased towards the novel approach, with the majority only comparing against a basic Cox proportional hazards model, and in scenarios where it is clear it would not perform well. In many of the articles reviewed, key information was unclear, such as the number of simulation repetitions and how performance measures were calculated.

Conclusion

It is vital that method comparisons are unbiased and comprehensive, and this should be the goal even if realising it is difficult. Fully assessing how newly developed methods perform and how they compare to a variety of traditional statistical methods for prognostic modelling is imperative as these methods are already being applied in clinical contexts. Evaluations of the performance and usefulness of recently developed methods for risk prediction should be continued and reporting standards improved as these methods become increasingly popular.",,pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606?pdf=render +35260393,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099,Overcoming disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. ,"Doubova SV, Robledo-Aburto ZA, Duque-Molina C, Borrayo-Sánchez G, González-León M, Avilés-Hernández R, Contreras-Sánchez SE, Leslie HH, Kruk M, Pérez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.",,BMJ global health,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/7/3/e008099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410?pdf=render 34230034,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2021-000967,Increase in recruitment upon integration of trial into a clinical care pathway: an observational study. ,"Yip KP, Gompertz S, Snelson C, Willson J, Madathil S, Huq SS, Rauf F, Salmon N, Tengende J, Tracey J, Cooper B, Filby K, Ball S, Parekh D, Dosanjh DPS.",,BMJ open respiratory research,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"Many respiratory clinical trials fail to reach their recruitment target and this problem exacerbates existing funding issues. Integration of the clinical trial recruitment process into a clinical care pathway (CCP) may represent an effective way to significantly increase recruitment numbers. A respiratory support unit and a CCP for escalation of patients with severe COVID-19 were established on 11 January 2021. The recruitment process for the Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy-Respiratory Support trial was integrated into the CCP on the same date. Recruitment data for the trial were collected before and after integration into the CCP. On integration of the recruitment process into a CCP, there was a significant increase in recruitment numbers. Fifty patients were recruited over 266 days before this process occurred whereas 108 patients were recruited over 49 days after this process. There was a statistically significant increase in both the proportion of recruited patients relative to the number of COVID-19 hospital admissions (change from 2.8% to 9.1%, p<0.0001) and intensive therapy unit admissions (change from 17.8% to 50.2%, p<0.001) over the same period, showing that this increase in recruitment was independent of COVID-19 prevalence. Integrating the trial recruitment process into a CCP can significantly boost recruitment numbers. This represents an innovative model that can be used to maximise recruitment without impacting on the financial and labour costs associated with the running of a respiratory clinical trial.",,pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/8/1/e000967.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2021-000967; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261886?pdf=render +37284234,https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9,"The shock, the coping, the resilience: smartphone application use reveals Covid-19 lockdown effects on human behaviors.","Liu XF, Wang ZZ, Xu XK, Wu Y, Zhao Z, Deng H, Wang P, Chao N, Huang YC.",,EPJ data science,2023,2023-06-05,Y,Human behaviors; Natural Experiment; Lockdown; Smartphone Apps; Covid-19,,,"Human mobility restriction policies have been widely used to contain the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). However, a critical question is how these policies affect individuals' behavioral and psychological well-being during and after confinement periods. Here, we analyze China's five most stringent city-level lockdowns in 2021, treating them as natural experiments that allow for examining behavioral changes in millions of people through smartphone application use. We made three fundamental observations. First, the use of physical and economic activity-related apps experienced a steep decline, yet apps that provide daily necessities maintained normal usage. Second, apps that fulfilled lower-level human needs, such as working, socializing, information seeking, and entertainment, saw an immediate and substantial increase in screen time. Those that satisfied higher-level needs, such as education, only attracted delayed attention. Third, human behaviors demonstrated resilience as most routines resumed after the lockdowns were lifted. Nonetheless, long-term lifestyle changes were observed, as significant numbers of people chose to continue working and learning online, becoming ""digital residents."" This study also demonstrates the capability of smartphone screen time analytics in the study of human behaviors.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109?pdf=render 37198478,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06034-3,GWAS and meta-analysis identifies 49 genetic variants underlying critical COVID-19.,"Pairo-Castineira E, Rawlik K, Bretherick AD, Qi T, Wu Y, Nassiri I, McConkey GA, Zechner M, Klaric L, Griffiths F, Oosthuyzen W, Kousathanas A, Richmond A, Millar J, Russell CD, Malinauskas T, Thwaites R, Morrice K, Keating S, Maslove D, Nichol A, Semple MG, Knight J, Shankar-Hari M, Summers C, Hinds C, Horby P, Ling L, McAuley D, Montgomery H, Openshaw PJM, Begg C, Walsh T, Tenesa A, Flores C, Riancho JA, Rojas-Martinez A, Lapunzina P, GenOMICC Investigators, SCOURGE Consortium, ISARICC Investigators, 23andMe COVID-19 Team, Yang J, Ponting CP, Wilson JF, Vitart V, Abedalthagafi M, Luchessi AD, Parra EJ, Cruz R, Carracedo A, Fawkes A, Murphy L, Rowan K, Pereira AC, Law A, Fairfax B, Hendry SC, Baillie JK.",,Nature,2023,2023-05-17,Y,,,,"Critical illness in COVID-19 is an extreme and clinically homogeneous disease phenotype that we have previously shown1 to be highly efficient for discovery of genetic associations2. Despite the advanced stage of illness at presentation, we have shown that host genetics in patients who are critically ill with COVID-19 can identify immunomodulatory therapies with strong beneficial effects in this group3. Here we analyse 24,202 cases of COVID-19 with critical illness comprising a combination of microarray genotype and whole-genome sequencing data from cases of critical illness in the international GenOMICC (11,440 cases) study, combined with other studies recruiting hospitalized patients with a strong focus on severe and critical disease: ISARIC4C (676 cases) and the SCOURGE consortium (5,934 cases). To put these results in the context of existing work, we conduct a meta-analysis of the new GenOMICC genome-wide association study (GWAS) results with previously published data. We find 49 genome-wide significant associations, of which 16 have not been reported previously. To investigate the therapeutic implications of these findings, we infer the structural consequences of protein-coding variants, and combine our GWAS results with gene expression data using a monocyte transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) model, as well as gene and protein expression using Mendelian randomization. We identify potentially druggable targets in multiple systems, including inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte-macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06034-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06034-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10208981; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10208981?pdf=render 37634573,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2023.08.008,Does Heterogeneity Exist in Treatment Associations With Renin-Angiotensin-System Inhibitors or Beta-blockers According to Phenotype Clusters in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction?,"Uijl A, Koudstaal S, Stolfo D, Dahlström U, Vaartjes I, Grobbee RE, Asselbergs FW, Lund LH, Savarese G.",,Journal of cardiac failure,2023,2023-08-25,N,Personalized Medicine; Beta-blockers; Hfpef; Renin–angiotensin System Inhibitors; Phenotype Clusters,,,"

Background

We explored the association between use of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors and beta-blockers, with mortality/morbidity in 5 previously identified clusters of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).

Methods and results

We analyzed 20,980 patients with HFpEF from the Swedish HF registry, phenotyped into young-low comorbidity burden (12%), atrial fibrillation-hypertensive (32%), older-atrial fibrillation (24%), obese-diabetic (15%), and a cardiorenal cluster (17%). In Cox proportional hazard models with inverse probability weighting, there was no heterogeneity in the association between renin-angiotensin system inhibitor use and cluster membership for any of the outcomes: cardiovascular (CV) mortality, all-cause mortality, HF hospitalisation, CV hospitalisation, or non-CV hospitalisation. In contrast, we found a statistical interaction between beta-blocker use and cluster membership for all-cause mortality (P = .03) and non-CV hospitalisation (P = .001). In the young-low comorbidity burden and atrial fibrillation-hypertensive cluster, beta-blocker use was associated with statistically significant lower all-cause mortality and non-CV hospitalisation and in the obese-diabetic cluster beta-blocker use was only associated with a statistically significant lower non-CV hospitalisation. The interaction between beta-blocker use and cluster membership for all-cause mortality could potentially be driven by patients with improved EF. However, patient numbers were diminished when excluding those with improved EF and the direction of the associations remained similar.

Conclusions

In patients with HFpEF, the association with all-cause mortality and non-CV hospitalisation was heterogeneous across clusters for beta-blockers. It remains to be elucidated how heterogeneity in HFpEF could influence personalized medicine and future clinical trial design.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2023.08.008 31442537,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2019.08.039,Atopic dermatitis and risk of atrial fibrillation or flutter: A 35-year follow-up study.,"Schmidt SAJ, Olsen M, Schmidt M, Vestergaard C, Langan SM, Deleuran MS, Riis JL.",,Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,2020,2019-08-20,Y,Validation; Atrial fibrillation; Atrial flutter; Cohort study; risk factors; Atopic Dermatitis,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Atopic dermatitis is characterized by chronic inflammation, which is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation.

Objective

To examine the association between hospital-diagnosed atopic dermatitis and atrial fibrillation.

Methods

Using linked population-based Danish registries, we identified persons with an inpatient or outpatient hospital diagnosis of atopic dermatitis during 1977-2013 and a comparison cohort individually matched to the atopic dermatitis cohort. We followed cohorts until death, emigration, atrial fibrillation diagnosis, or end of study (January 1, 2013). We compared 35-year risk of atrial fibrillation and estimated hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals using Cox regression, adjusting for birth year and sex. We validated 100 atopic dermatitis diagnoses from a dermatologic department through medical record review.

Results

We included 13,126 persons with atopic dermatitis and 124,211 comparators and followed them for a median of 19.3 years. The 35-year risk of atrial fibrillation was 0.81% and 0.67%, respectively. The positive predictive value of atopic dermatitis diagnoses was 99%. The hazard ratio was 1.2 (95% confidence interval 1.0-1.6) and remained increased after adjusting for various atrial fibrillation risk factors.

Limitations

Analyses were limited to persons with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, and we had no lifestyle data.

Conclusion

Patients with hospital-diagnosed atopic dermatitis have a 20% increased long-term risk of atrial fibrillation, but the absolute risk remains low.",,pdf:http://www.jaad.org/article/S0190962219326143/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2019.08.039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7704103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7704103?pdf=render -35487738,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017,Variation in the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity: systematic review and meta-analysis of 193 international studies.,"Ho IS, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Akbari A, Davies J, Hodgins P, Khunti K, Kadam U, Lyons R, McCowan C, Mercer SW, Nirantharakumar K, Guthrie B.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-29,Y,epidemiology; Geriatric Medicine; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine),,,"

Objective

(1) To estimate the pooled prevalence of multimorbidity in all age groups, globally. (2) To examine how measurement of multimorbidity impacted the estimated prevalence.

Methods

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we conducted searches in nine bibliographic databases (PsycINFO, Embase, Global Health, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global) for prevalence studies published between database inception and 21 January 2020. Studies reporting the prevalence of multimorbidity (in all age groups and in community, primary care, care home and hospital settings) were included. Studies with an index condition or those that did not include people with no long-term conditions in the denominator were excluded. Retrieved studies were independently reviewed by two reviewers, and relevant data were extracted using predesigned pro forma. We used meta-analysis to pool the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity across studies, and used random-effects meta-regression and subgroup analysis to examine the association of heterogeneous prevalence estimates with study and measure characteristics.

Results

13 807 titles were screened, of which 193 met inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was 42.4% (95% CI 38.9% to 46.0%) with high heterogeneity (I2 >99%). In adjusted meta-regression models, participant mean age and the number of conditions included in a measure accounted for 47.8% of heterogeneity in effect sizes. The estimated prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in studies with older adults and those that included larger numbers of conditions. There was no significant difference in estimated prevalence between low-income or middle-income countries (36.8%) and high-income countries (44.3%), or between self-report (40.0%) and administrative/clinical databases (52.7%).

Conclusions

The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in older populations and when studies included a larger number of baseline conditions. The findings suggest that, to improve study comparability and quality of reporting, future studies should use a common core conditions set for multimorbidity measurement and report multimorbidity prevalence stratified by sociodemographics.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020172409.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057017.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768?pdf=render 33990383,https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323546,Multicentre derivation and validation of a colitis-associated colorectal cancer risk prediction web tool.,"Curtius K, Kabir M, Al Bakir I, Choi CHR, Hartono JL, Johnson M, East JE, Oxford IBD Cohort Study Investigators, Lindsay JO, Vega R, Thomas-Gibson S, Warusavitarne J, Wilson A, Graham TA, Hart A.",,Gut,2022,2021-05-14,Y,Dysplasia; Ulcerative colitis; Colorectal Cancer; Clinical Decision Making,,,"

Objective

Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) diagnosed with low-grade dysplasia (LGD) have increased risk of developing advanced neoplasia (AN: high-grade dysplasia or colorectal cancer). We aimed to develop and validate a predictor of AN risk in patients with UC with LGD and create a visual web tool to effectively communicate the risk.

Design

In our retrospective multicentre validated cohort study, adult patients with UC with an index diagnosis of LGD, identified from four UK centres between 2001 and 2019, were followed until progression to AN. In the discovery cohort (n=246), a multivariate risk prediction model was derived from clinicopathological features using Cox regression. Validation used data from three external centres (n=198). The validated model was embedded in a web tool to calculate patient-specific risk.

Results

Four clinicopathological variables were significantly associated with AN progression in the discovery cohort: endoscopically visible LGD >1 cm (HR 2.7; 95% CI 1.2 to 5.9), unresectable or incomplete endoscopic resection (HR 3.4; 95% CI 1.6 to 7.4), moderate/severe histological inflammation within 5 years of LGD diagnosis (HR 3.1; 95% CI 1.5 to 6.7) and multifocality (HR 2.9; 95% CI 1.3 to 6.2). In the validation cohort, this four-variable model accurately predicted future AN cases with overall calibration Observed/Expected=1.01 (95% CI 0.64 to 1.52), and achieved 100% specificity for the lowest risk group over 13 years of available follow-up.

Conclusion

Multicohort validation confirms that patients with large, unresected, multifocal LGD and recent moderate/severe inflammation are at highest risk of developing AN. Personalised risk prediction provided via the Ulcerative Colitis-Cancer Risk Estimator ( www.UC-CaRE.uk ) can support treatment decision-making.",,pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/71/4/705.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323546; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8921573; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8921573?pdf=render +35487738,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017,Variation in the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity: systematic review and meta-analysis of 193 international studies.,"Ho IS, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Akbari A, Davies J, Hodgins P, Khunti K, Kadam U, Lyons R, McCowan C, Mercer SW, Nirantharakumar K, Guthrie B.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-29,Y,epidemiology; Geriatric Medicine; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine),,,"

Objective

(1) To estimate the pooled prevalence of multimorbidity in all age groups, globally. (2) To examine how measurement of multimorbidity impacted the estimated prevalence.

Methods

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we conducted searches in nine bibliographic databases (PsycINFO, Embase, Global Health, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global) for prevalence studies published between database inception and 21 January 2020. Studies reporting the prevalence of multimorbidity (in all age groups and in community, primary care, care home and hospital settings) were included. Studies with an index condition or those that did not include people with no long-term conditions in the denominator were excluded. Retrieved studies were independently reviewed by two reviewers, and relevant data were extracted using predesigned pro forma. We used meta-analysis to pool the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity across studies, and used random-effects meta-regression and subgroup analysis to examine the association of heterogeneous prevalence estimates with study and measure characteristics.

Results

13 807 titles were screened, of which 193 met inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was 42.4% (95% CI 38.9% to 46.0%) with high heterogeneity (I2 >99%). In adjusted meta-regression models, participant mean age and the number of conditions included in a measure accounted for 47.8% of heterogeneity in effect sizes. The estimated prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in studies with older adults and those that included larger numbers of conditions. There was no significant difference in estimated prevalence between low-income or middle-income countries (36.8%) and high-income countries (44.3%), or between self-report (40.0%) and administrative/clinical databases (52.7%).

Conclusions

The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in older populations and when studies included a larger number of baseline conditions. The findings suggest that, to improve study comparability and quality of reporting, future studies should use a common core conditions set for multimorbidity measurement and report multimorbidity prevalence stratified by sociodemographics.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020172409.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057017.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768?pdf=render 30279426,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32876-3,OligoPVP: Phenotype-driven analysis of individual genomic information to prioritize oligogenic disease variants.,"Boudellioua I, Kulmanov M, Schofield PN, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R.",,Scientific reports,2018,2018-10-02,Y,,"Applied Analytics, The Human Phenome",,"An increasing number of disorders have been identified for which two or more distinct alleles in two or more genes are required to either cause the disease or to significantly modify its onset, severity or phenotype. It is difficult to discover such interactions using existing approaches. The purpose of our work is to develop and evaluate a system that can identify combinations of alleles underlying digenic and oligogenic diseases in individual whole exome or whole genome sequences. Information that links patient phenotypes to databases of gene-phenotype associations observed in clinical or non-human model organism research can provide useful information and improve variant prioritization for genetic diseases. Additional background knowledge about interactions between genes can be utilized to identify sets of variants in different genes in the same individual which may then contribute to the overall disease phenotype. We have developed OligoPVP, an algorithm that can be used to prioritize causative combinations of variants in digenic and oligogenic diseases, using whole exome or whole genome sequences together with patient phenotypes as input. We demonstrate that OligoPVP has significantly improved performance when compared to state of the art pathogenicity detection methods in the case of digenic diseases. Our results show that OligoPVP can efficiently prioritize sets of variants in digenic diseases using a phenotype-driven approach and identify etiologically important variants in whole genomes. OligoPVP naturally extends to oligogenic disease involving interactions between variants in two or more genes. It can be applied to the identification of multiple interacting candidate variants contributing to phenotype, where the action of modifier genes is suspected from pedigree analysis or failure of traditional causative variant identification.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32876-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32876-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6168481; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6168481?pdf=render -35471746,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x,The resilient intensive care unit.,"Salluh JIF, Kurtz P, Bastos LSL, Quintairos A, Zampieri FG, Bozza FA.",,Annals of intensive care,2022,2022-04-26,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) to respond to a crisis and demonstrated their fragility. Unsurprisingly, higher than usual mortality rates, lengths of stay (LOS), and ICU-acquired complications occurred during the pandemic. However, worse outcomes were not universal nor constant across ICUs and significant variation in outcomes was reported, demonstrating that some ICUs could adequately manage the surge of COVID-19.

Methods

In the present editorial, we discuss the concept of a resilient Intensive Care Unit, including which metrics can be used to address the capacity to respond, sustain results and incorporate new practices that lead to improvement.

Results

We believe that a resiliency analysis adds a component of preparedness to the usual ICU performance evaluation and outcomes metrics to be used during the crisis and in regular times.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a resilient health system. Although this concept has been discussed for health systems, it was not tested in intensive care. Future studies should evaluate this concept to improve ICU organization for standard and pandemic times.",,pdf:https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989?pdf=render 34873584,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101212,Disentangling post-vaccination symptoms from early COVID-19.,"Canas LS, Österdahl MF, Deng J, Hu C, Selvachandran S, Polidori L, May A, Molteni E, Murray B, Chen L, Kerfoot E, Klaser K, Antonelli M, Hammers A, Spector T, Ourselin S, Steves C, Sudre CH, Modat M, Duncan EL.",,EClinicalMedicine,2021,2021-12-01,Y,"Vaccination; Side-effects; Early Detection; Mobile Technology; Self-reported Symptoms; Auc, Area Under The Curve; Bmi, Body Mass Index; Ci, Confidence Interval; Roc, Receiver Operating Curve; Lr, Logistic Regression; Iqr, Inter Quartile Range; Covid-19 Detection; Css, Covid Symptoms Study; Di, Data Invalid; Kcl, King's College London; Lfat, Lateral Flow Antigen Test; Nhs Uk, National Health Service Of The United Kingdom; O-az, Oxford-astrazeneca Adenovirus-vectored Vaccine; Pb, Pfizer-bointech Mrna Vaccine; Sars-cov-2, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus-2; Uk, United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Nothern Ireland; Bmem, Bayesian Mixed-effect Model; Rf, Random Forest; Covid-19, Coronavirus Disease 2019; Rtpcr, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome‐Related Coronavirus 2 (Sars-Cov-2)",,,"

Background

Identifying and testing individuals likely to have SARS-CoV-2 is critical for infection control, including post-vaccination. Vaccination is a major public health strategy to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection globally. Some individuals experience systemic symptoms post-vaccination, which overlap with COVID-19 symptoms. This study compared early post-vaccination symptoms in individuals who subsequently tested positive or negative for SARS-CoV-2, using data from the COVID Symptom Study (CSS) app.

Methods

We conducted a prospective observational study in 1,072,313 UK CSS participants who were asymptomatic when vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2) or Oxford-AstraZeneca adenovirus-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) between 8 December 2020 and 17 May 2021, who subsequently reported symptoms within seven days (N=362,770) (other than local symptoms at injection site) and were tested for SARS-CoV-2 (N=14,842), aiming to differentiate vaccination side-effects per se from superimposed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The post-vaccination symptoms and SARS-CoV-2 test results were contemporaneously logged by participants. Demographic and clinical information (including comorbidities) were recorded. Symptom profiles in individuals testing positive were compared with a 1:1 matched population testing negative, including using machine learning and multiple models considering UK testing criteria.

Findings

Differentiating post-vaccination side-effects alone from early COVID-19 was challenging, with a sensitivity in identification of individuals testing positive of 0.6 at best. Most of these individuals did not have fever, persistent cough, or anosmia/dysosmia, requisite symptoms for accessing UK testing; and many only had systemic symptoms commonly seen post-vaccination in individuals negative for SARS-CoV-2 (headache, myalgia, and fatigue).

Interpretation

Post-vaccination symptoms per se cannot be differentiated from COVID-19 with clinical robustness, either using symptom profiles or machine-derived models. Individuals presenting with systemic symptoms post-vaccination should be tested for SARS-CoV-2 or quarantining, to prevent community spread.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care, Wellcome Trust, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK National Institute for Health Research, UK Medical Research Council and British Heart Foundation, Chronic Disease Research Foundation, Zoe Limited.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101212; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101212; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8635464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8635464?pdf=render 32065794,https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-191163,Working Towards a Blood-Derived Gene Expression Biomarker Specific for Alzheimer's Disease.,"Patel H, Iniesta R, Stahl D, Dobson RJB, Newhouse SJ.",,Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Human; Biomarkers; Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Gene Expression; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Machine Learning; Microarray Analysis; Age-related Memory Disorders,,,"

Background

The typical approach to identify blood-derived gene expression signatures as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have relied on training classification models using AD and healthy controls only. This may inadvertently result in the identification of markers for general illness rather than being disease-specific.

Objective

Investigate whether incorporating additional related disorders in the classification model development process can lead to the discovery of an AD-specific gene expression signature.

Methods

Two types of XGBoost classification models were developed. The first used 160 AD and 127 healthy controls and the second used the same 160 AD with 6,318 upsampled mixed controls consisting of Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, coronary artery disease, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cognitively healthy subjects. Both classification models were evaluated in an independent cohort consisting of 127 AD and 687 mixed controls.

Results

The AD versus healthy control models resulted in an average 48.7% sensitivity (95% CI = 34.7-64.6), 41.9% specificity (95% CI = 26.8-54.3), 13.6% PPV (95% CI = 9.9-18.5), and 81.1% NPV (95% CI = 73.3-87.7). In contrast, the mixed control models resulted in an average of 40.8% sensitivity (95% CI = 27.5-52.0), 95.3% specificity (95% CI = 93.3-97.1), 61.4% PPV (95% CI = 53.8-69.6), and 89.7% NPV (95% CI = 87.8-91.4).

Conclusions

This early work demonstrates the value of incorporating additional related disorders into the classification model developmental process, which can result in models with improved ability to distinguish AD from a heterogeneous aging population. However, further improvement to the sensitivity of the test is still required.",,pdf:https://content.iospress.com:443/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad191163?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad191163; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-191163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175937; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175937?pdf=render +35471746,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x,The resilient intensive care unit.,"Salluh JIF, Kurtz P, Bastos LSL, Quintairos A, Zampieri FG, Bozza FA.",,Annals of intensive care,2022,2022-04-26,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) to respond to a crisis and demonstrated their fragility. Unsurprisingly, higher than usual mortality rates, lengths of stay (LOS), and ICU-acquired complications occurred during the pandemic. However, worse outcomes were not universal nor constant across ICUs and significant variation in outcomes was reported, demonstrating that some ICUs could adequately manage the surge of COVID-19.

Methods

In the present editorial, we discuss the concept of a resilient Intensive Care Unit, including which metrics can be used to address the capacity to respond, sustain results and incorporate new practices that lead to improvement.

Results

We believe that a resiliency analysis adds a component of preparedness to the usual ICU performance evaluation and outcomes metrics to be used during the crisis and in regular times.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a resilient health system. Although this concept has been discussed for health systems, it was not tested in intensive care. Future studies should evaluate this concept to improve ICU organization for standard and pandemic times.",,pdf:https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989?pdf=render 34639581,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910265,Identifying Prenatal and Postnatal Determinants of Infant Growth: A Structural Equation Modelling Based Cohort Analysis. ,"Morgan K, Zhou SM, Hill R, Lyons RA, Paranjothy S, Brophy ST.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2021,2021-09-29,Y,,,,"The growth and maturation of infants reflect their overall health and nutritional status. The purpose of this study is to examine the associations of prenatal and early postnatal factors with infant growth (IG). A data-driven model was constructed by structural equation modelling to examine the relationships between pre- and early postnatal environmental factors and IG at age 12 months. The IG was a latent variable created from infant weight and waist circumference. Data were obtained on 274 mother-child pairs during pregnancy and the postnatal periods. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI emerged as an important predictor of IG with both direct and indirect (mediated through infant birth weight) effects. Infants who gained more weight from birth to 6 months and consumed starchy foods daily at age 12 months, were more likely to be larger by age 12 months. Infant physical activity (PA) levels also emerged as a determinant. The constructed model provided a reasonable fit (χ2 (11) = 21.5, p < 0.05; RMSEA = 0.07; CFI = 0.94; SRMR = 0.05) to the data with significant pathways for all examined variables. Promoting healthy weight amongst women of child bearing age is important in preventing childhood obesity, and increasing daily infant PA is as important as a healthy infant diet.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10265/pdf?version=1633013750; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910265; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8507693; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8507693?pdf=render 34781301,https://doi.org/10.1159/000520674,"Identification and Mapping Real-World Data Sources for Heart Failure, Acute Coronary Syndrome, and Atrial Fibrillation.","Studer R, Sartini C, Suzart-Woischnik K, Agrawal R, Natani H, Gill SK, Wirta SB, Asselbergs FW, Dobson R, Denaxas S, Kotecha D.",,Cardiology,2022,2021-11-15,N,Data Sources; cardiovascular; Real-world Data; Real-world Evidence,,,"

Background

Transparent and robust real-world evidence sources are increasingly important for global health, including cardiovascular (CV) diseases. We aimed to identify global real-world data (RWD) sources for heart failure (HF), acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and atrial fibrillation (AF).

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of publications with RWD pertaining to HF, ACS, and AF (2010-2018), generating a list of unique data sources. Metadata were extracted based on the source type (e.g., electronic health records, genomics, and clinical data), study design, population size, clinical characteristics, follow-up duration, outcomes, and assessment of data availability for future studies and linkage.

Results

Overall, 11,889 publications were retrieved for HF, 10,729 for ACS, and 6,262 for AF. From these, 322 (HF), 287 (ACS), and 220 (AF) data sources were selected for detailed review. The majority of data sources had near complete data on demographic variables (HF: 94%, ACS: 99%, and AF: 100%) and considerable data on comorbidities (HF: 77%, ACS: 93%, and AF: 97%). The least reported data categories were drug codes (HF, ACS, and AF: 10%) and caregiver involvement (HF: 6%, ACS: 1%, and AF: 1%). Only a minority of data sources provided information on access to data for other researchers (11%) or whether data could be linked to other data sources to maximize clinical impact (20%). The list and metadata for the RWD sources are publicly available at www.escardio.org/bigdata.

Conclusions

This review has created a comprehensive resource of CV data sources, providing new avenues to improve future real-world research and to achieve better patient outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/520674; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000520674; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8985014; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000520674 -36137640,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586,Myocardial infarction and stroke subsequent to urinary tract infection (MISSOURI): protocol for a self-controlled case series using linked electronic health records.,"Reeve NF, Best V, Gillespie D, Hughes K, Lugg-Widger FV, Cannings-John R, Torabi F, Wootton M, Akbari A, Ahmed H.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-09-22,Y,Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Urinary tract infections,,,"

Introduction

There is increasing interest in the relationship between acute infections and acute cardiovascular events. Most previous research has focused on understanding whether the risk of acute cardiovascular events increases following a respiratory tract infection. The relationship between urinary tract infections (UTIs) and acute cardiovascular events is less well studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine whether there is a causal relationship between UTI and acute myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke.

Methods and analysis

We will undertake a self-controlled case series study using linked anonymised general practice, hospital admission and microbiology data held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Self-controlled case series is a relatively novel study design where individuals act as their own controls, thereby inherently controlling for time-invariant confounders. Only individuals who experience an exposure and outcome of interest are included.We will identify individuals in the SAIL Databank who have a hospital admission record for acute MI or stroke during the study period of 2010-2020. Individuals will need to be aged 30-100 during the study period and be Welsh residents for inclusion. UTI will be identified using general practice, microbiology and hospital admissions data. We will calculate the incidence of MI and stroke in predefined risk periods following an UTI and in 'baseline' periods (without UTI exposure) and use conditional Poisson regression models to derive incidence rate ratios.

Ethics and dissemination

Data access, research permissions and approvals have been obtained from the SAIL independent Information Governance Review Panel, project number 0972. Findings will be disseminated through conferences, blogs, social media threads and peer-reviewed journals. Results will be of interest internationally to primary and secondary care clinicians who manage UTIs and may inform future clinical trials of preventative therapy.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e064586.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592?pdf=render 35403174,https://doi.org/10.14218/jctp.2022.00003,Changing Trends in the Proportional Incidence and Five-year Net Survival of Screened and Non-screened Breast Cancers among Women During 1995-2011 in England.,"Wu H, Wong K, Lu SE, Broggio J, Zhang L.",,Journal of clinical and translational pathology,2022,2022-03-18,Y,Screening; Breast cancer; incidence; trends; Net Survival,,,"

Background and objectives

Uptake of breast cancer screening has been decreasing in England since 2007. However, the associated factors are unclear. On the other hand, survival among breast cancer patients have recently increased. We conducted a quasi-experimental analysis to test whether the trend-change in proportional incidence of non-screened cancers coincided with that in five-year net-survival.

Methods

We extracted population-based proportional incidence and age-standardized five-year net-survival data from Public Health England that included English women with invasive breast cancer diagnosed during 1995-2011 (linked to death certificates, followed through 2016). Piece-wise log-linear models with change-point/joinpoint were used to estimate temporal trends.

Results

Among 254,063 women in England with invasive breast cancer diagnosed during 1995-2011, there was downward-to-upward trend-change in proportional incidence of non-screened breast cancers (annual percent change [APC]=5.6 after 2007 versus APC=-3.5 before 2007, p<0.001) in diagnosis-year 2007, when a steeper upward-trend in age-standardized five-year net survival started (APC=5.7 after 2007/2008 versus APC=0.3 before 2007/2008, p<0.001). Net-survival difference of screened versus non-screened cancers also significantly narrowed (18% in 2007/2008 versus 5% in 2011). Similar associations were found in all strata of race, cancer stage, grade, and histology, except in Black patients or patients with stage I, stage III, or grade I cancer.

Conclusions

There was a downward-to-upward trend-change in proportional incidence of non-screened breast cancers in 2007 that coincided with a steeper upward-trend in age-standardized five-year net survival among English women in 2007. Survival benefits of breast cancer screening decreased during 2007-2011. The data support reduction of breast cancer screening in some patients, but future validation studies are warranted.",,pdf:https://publinestorage.blob.core.windows.net/journals/JCTP.2022.2(1).23.00003.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.14218/jctp.2022.00003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8994161; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8994161?pdf=render -36224187,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33826-4,Key considerations to reduce or address respondent burden in patient-reported outcome (PRO) data collection.,"Aiyegbusi OL, Roydhouse J, Rivera SC, Kamudoni P, Schache P, Wilson R, Stephens R, Calvert M.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-10-12,Y,,,,"Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are used in clinical trials to provide evidence of the benefits and risks of interventions from a patient perspective and to inform regulatory decisions and health policy. The collection of PROs in routine practice can facilitate monitoring of patient symptoms; identification of unmet needs; prioritisation and/or tailoring of treatment to the needs of individual patients and inform value-based healthcare initiatives. However, respondent burden needs to be carefully considered and addressed to avoid high rates of missing data and poor reporting of PRO results, which may lead to poor quality data for regulatory decision making and/or clinical care.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33826-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33826-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556436; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556436?pdf=render 35277454,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320417,Smartphone detection of atrial fibrillation using photoplethysmography: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Gill S, Bunting KV, Sartini C, Cardoso VR, Ghoreishi N, Uh HW, Williams JA, Suzart-Woischnik K, Banerjee A, Asselbergs FW, Eijkemans M, Gkoutos GV, Kotecha D.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2022,2022-09-26,Y,Atrial fibrillation; Photoplethysmography; Smartphone,,,"

Objectives

Timely diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (AF) is essential to reduce complications from this increasingly common condition. We sought to assess the diagnostic accuracy of smartphone camera photoplethysmography (PPG) compared with conventional electrocardiogram (ECG) for AF detection.

Methods

This is a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane (1980-December 2020), including any study or abstract, where smartphone PPG was compared with a reference ECG (1, 3 or 12-lead). Random effects meta-analysis was performed to pool sensitivity/specificity and identify publication bias, with study quality assessed using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2) risk of bias tool.

Results

28 studies were included (10 full-text publications and 18 abstracts), providing 31 comparisons of smartphone PPG versus ECG for AF detection. 11 404 participants were included (2950 in AF), with most studies being small and based in secondary care. Sensitivity and specificity for AF detection were high, ranging from 81% to 100%, and from 85% to 100%, respectively. 20 comparisons from 17 studies were meta-analysed, including 6891 participants (2299 with AF); the pooled sensitivity was 94% (95% CI 92% to 95%) and specificity 97% (96%-98%), with substantial heterogeneity (p<0.01). Studies were of poor quality overall and none met all the QUADAS-2 criteria, with particular issues regarding selection bias and the potential for publication bias.

Conclusion

PPG provides a non-invasive, patient-led screening tool for AF. However, current evidence is limited to small, biased, low-quality studies with unrealistically high sensitivity and specificity. Further studies are needed, preferably independent from manufacturers, in order to advise clinicians on the true value of PPG technology for AF detection.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2022/03/10/heartjnl-2021-320417.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9554073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9554073?pdf=render +36224187,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33826-4,Key considerations to reduce or address respondent burden in patient-reported outcome (PRO) data collection.,"Aiyegbusi OL, Roydhouse J, Rivera SC, Kamudoni P, Schache P, Wilson R, Stephens R, Calvert M.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-10-12,Y,,,,"Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are used in clinical trials to provide evidence of the benefits and risks of interventions from a patient perspective and to inform regulatory decisions and health policy. The collection of PROs in routine practice can facilitate monitoring of patient symptoms; identification of unmet needs; prioritisation and/or tailoring of treatment to the needs of individual patients and inform value-based healthcare initiatives. However, respondent burden needs to be carefully considered and addressed to avoid high rates of missing data and poor reporting of PRO results, which may lead to poor quality data for regulatory decision making and/or clinical care.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33826-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33826-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556436; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556436?pdf=render +36137640,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586,Myocardial infarction and stroke subsequent to urinary tract infection (MISSOURI): protocol for a self-controlled case series using linked electronic health records.,"Reeve NF, Best V, Gillespie D, Hughes K, Lugg-Widger FV, Cannings-John R, Torabi F, Wootton M, Akbari A, Ahmed H.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-09-22,Y,Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Urinary tract infections,,,"

Introduction

There is increasing interest in the relationship between acute infections and acute cardiovascular events. Most previous research has focused on understanding whether the risk of acute cardiovascular events increases following a respiratory tract infection. The relationship between urinary tract infections (UTIs) and acute cardiovascular events is less well studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine whether there is a causal relationship between UTI and acute myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke.

Methods and analysis

We will undertake a self-controlled case series study using linked anonymised general practice, hospital admission and microbiology data held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Self-controlled case series is a relatively novel study design where individuals act as their own controls, thereby inherently controlling for time-invariant confounders. Only individuals who experience an exposure and outcome of interest are included.We will identify individuals in the SAIL Databank who have a hospital admission record for acute MI or stroke during the study period of 2010-2020. Individuals will need to be aged 30-100 during the study period and be Welsh residents for inclusion. UTI will be identified using general practice, microbiology and hospital admissions data. We will calculate the incidence of MI and stroke in predefined risk periods following an UTI and in 'baseline' periods (without UTI exposure) and use conditional Poisson regression models to derive incidence rate ratios.

Ethics and dissemination

Data access, research permissions and approvals have been obtained from the SAIL independent Information Governance Review Panel, project number 0972. Findings will be disseminated through conferences, blogs, social media threads and peer-reviewed journals. Results will be of interest internationally to primary and secondary care clinicians who manage UTIs and may inform future clinical trials of preventative therapy.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e064586.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592?pdf=render 33653753,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043290,Temporal trends in heart failure medication prescription in a population-based cohort study.,"Uijl A, Vaartjes I, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Shah A, Cleland J, Grobbee D, Hoes A, Asselbergs FW, Koudstaal S.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-03-02,Y,Heart Failure; Public Health; Cardiac Epidemiology,,,"

Objective

We examined temporal heart failure (HF) prescription patterns in a large representative sample of real-world patients in the UK, using electronic health records (EHR).

Methods

From primary and secondary care EHR, we identified 85 732 patients with a HF diagnosis between 2002 and 2015. Almost 50% of patients with HF were women and the median age was 79.1 (IQR 70.2-85.7) years, with age at diagnosis increasing over time.

Results

We found several trends in pharmacological HF management, including increased beta blocker prescriptions over time (29% in 2002-2005 and 54% in 2013-2015), which was not observed for mineralocorticoid receptor-antagonists (MR-antagonists) (18% in 2002-2005 and 18% in 2013-2015); higher prescription rates of loop diuretics in women and elderly patients together with lower prescription rates of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and/or angiotensin II receptor blockers, beta blockers or MR-antagonists in these patients; little change in medication prescription rates occurred after 6 months of HF diagnosis and, finally, patients hospitalised for HF who had no recorded follow-up in primary care had considerably lower prescription rates compared with patients with a HF diagnosis in primary care with or without HF hospitalisation.

Conclusion

In the general population, the use of MR-antagonists for HF remained low and did not change throughout 13 years of follow-up. For most patients, few changes were seen in pharmacological management of HF in the 6 months following diagnosis.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/3/e043290.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043290; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7929882; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7929882?pdf=render 32046816,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.5.2000080,Effectiveness of airport screening at detecting travellers infected with novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).,"Quilty BJ, Clifford S, CMMID nCoV working group2, Flasche S, Eggo RM.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2020,2020-02-01,Y,Surveillance; Effectiveness; Interventions; Emerging Infections; 2019-Ncov; Airport Screening; Thermal Scanning,,,"We evaluated effectiveness of thermal passenger screening for 2019-nCoV infection at airport exit and entry to inform public health decision-making. In our baseline scenario, we estimated that 46% (95% confidence interval: 36 to 58) of infected travellers would not be detected, depending on incubation period, sensitivity of exit and entry screening, and proportion of asymptomatic cases. Airport screening is unlikely to detect a sufficient proportion of 2019-nCoV infected travellers to avoid entry of infected travellers.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/5/eurosurv-25-5-2.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.2000080&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.2000080; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014668; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014668?pdf=render 32301135,https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12685,Delayed attendance at routine eye examinations is associated with increased probability of general practitioner referral: a record linkage study in Northern Ireland.,"Wright DM, O'Reilly D, Azuara-Blanco A, Curran R, McMullan M, Hogg RE.",,Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists),2020,2020-04-16,N,epidemiology; Public Health; Optometry Services,,,"

Purpose

To investigate relationships between health and socio-economic status with delayed attendance at routine eye examinations and risk of subsequent general practitioner (GP) referral in Northern Ireland.

Methods

We constructed a cohort of 132 046 community dwelling individuals aged ≥60 years, drawing contextual information from the 2011 Northern Ireland Census. Using linked administrative records of routine eye examinations between 2009 and 2014, we calculated 311 999 examination intervals. Multinomial models were used to estimate associations between contextual factors and examination interval (classified into three groups: early recall, on-time, delayed attendance). Associations between examination interval and referral risk were estimated using logistic regression.

Results

Delayed attendance was recorded for 129 857 (41.6%) examination intervals, 53 759 (17.2%) delayed by ≥6 months. Female sex, poor general or mental health were each associated with delay, as were longer distances to optometry services among those aged ≥70 years (longest vs shortest: Relative Risk Ratio = 1.21 [1.14, 1.28]). Low income and residence in social housing were associated with reduced delay risk. There were 3347 (3.5%) and 11 401 (5.3%) GP referrals in the 60-69 and ≥70 years age groups respectively. Delayed attendance was associated with increased referral risk in both groups (Odds Ratios: 60-69 years = 1.30 [1.04, 1.61]; ≥70 years = 1.07 [1.01, 1.13]).

Conclusions

Poor health and longer distances to optometry services were associated with delayed attendance at routine eye examinations but low income was not. Delayed attendance was associated with increased GP referral risk, indicative of missed opportunities to detect potentially serious eye conditions.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/opo.12685; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12685 30532623,https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.6.e29232,"Modifier Ontologies for frequency, certainty, degree, and coverage phenotype modifier.","Endara L, Thessen AE, Cole HA, Walls R, Gkoutos G, Cao Y, Chong SS, Cui H.",,Biodiversity data journal,2018,2018-11-28,Y,Phenotype Modifiers; Modifier Ontology; Certainty Modifiers; Coverage Modifiers; Degree Modifiers; Frequency Modifiers; Literary Warrant; User Consensus; User Warrant,The Human Phenome,,"Background: When phenotypic characters are described in the literature, they may be constrained or clarified with additional information such as the location or degree of expression, these terms are called ""modifiers"". With effort underway to convert narrative character descriptions to computable data, ontologies for such modifiers are needed. Such ontologies can also be used to guide term usage in future publications. Spatial and method modifiers are the subjects of ontologies that already have been developed or are under development. In this work, frequency (e.g., rarely, usually), certainty (e.g., probably, definitely), degree (e.g., slightly, extremely), and coverage modifiers (e.g., sparsely, entirely) are collected, reviewed, and used to create two modifier ontologies with different design considerations. The basic goal is to express the sequential relationships within a type of modifiers, for example, usually is more frequent than rarely, in order to allow data annotated with ontology terms to be classified accordingly. Method: Two designs are proposed for the ontology, both using the list pattern: a closed ordered list (i.e., five-bin design) and an open ordered list design. The five-bin design puts the modifier terms into a set of 5 fixed bins with interval object properties, for example, one_level_more/less_frequently_than, where new terms can only be added as synonyms to existing classes. The open list approach starts with 5 bins, but supports the extensibility of the list via ordinal properties, for example, more/less_frequently_than, allowing new terms to be inserted as a new class anywhere in the list. The consequences of the different design decisions are discussed in the paper. CharaParser was used to extract modifiers from plant, ant, and other taxonomic descriptions. After a manual screening, 130 modifier words were selected as the candidate terms for the modifier ontologies. Four curators/experts (three biologists and one information scientist specialized in biosemantics) reviewed and categorized the terms into 20 bins using the Ontology Term Organizer (OTO) (http://biosemantics.arizona.edu/OTO). Inter-curator variations were reviewed and expressed in the final ontologies. Results: Frequency, certainty, degree, and coverage terms with complete agreement among all curators were used as class labels or exact synonyms. Terms with different interpretations were either excluded or included using ""broader synonym"" or ""not recommended"" annotation properties. These annotations explicitly allow for the user to be aware of the semantic ambiguity associated with the terms and whether they should be used with caution or avoided. Expert categorization results showed that 16 out of 20 bins contained terms with full agreements, suggesting differentiating the modifiers into 5 levels/bins balances the need to differentiate modifiers and the need for the ontology to reflect user consensus. Two ontologies, developed using the Protege ontology editor, are made available as OWL files and can be downloaded from https://github.com/biosemantics/ontologies. Contribution: We built the first two modifier ontologies following a consensus-based approach with terms commonly used in taxonomic literature. The five-bin ontology has been used in the Explorer of Taxon Concepts web toolkit to compute the similarity between characters extracted from literature to facilitate taxon concepts alignments. The two ontologies will also be used in an ontology-informed authoring tool for taxonomists to facilitate consistency in modifier term usage.",,pdf:https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/29232/download/pdf/; doi:https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e29232; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6281706; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6281706?pdf=render 37286615,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36214-0,Combining machine learning with Cox models to identify predictors for incident post-menopausal breast cancer in the UK Biobank.,"Liu X, Morelli D, Littlejohns TJ, Clifton DA, Clifton L.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-06-07,Y,,,,"We aimed to identify potential novel predictors for breast cancer among post-menopausal women, with pre-specified interest in the role of polygenic risk scores (PRS) for risk prediction. We utilised an analysis pipeline where machine learning was used for feature selection, prior to risk prediction by classical statistical models. An ""extreme gradient boosting"" (XGBoost) machine with Shapley feature-importance measures were used for feature selection among [Formula: see text] 1.7 k features in 104,313 post-menopausal women from the UK Biobank. We constructed and compared the ""augmented"" Cox model (incorporating the two PRS, known and novel predictors) with a ""baseline"" Cox model (incorporating the two PRS and known predictors) for risk prediction. Both of the two PRS were significant in the augmented Cox model ([Formula: see text]). XGBoost identified 10 novel features, among which five showed significant associations with post-menopausal breast cancer: plasma urea (HR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.98, [Formula: see text]), plasma phosphate (HR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.53-0.88, [Formula: see text]), basal metabolic rate (HR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.11-1.24, [Formula: see text]), red blood cell count (HR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.08-1.35, [Formula: see text]), and creatinine in urine (HR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.01-1.09, [Formula: see text]). Risk discrimination was maintained in the augmented Cox model, yielding C-index 0.673 vs 0.667 (baseline Cox model) with the training data and 0.665 vs 0.664 with the test data. We identified blood/urine biomarkers as potential novel predictors for post-menopausal breast cancer. Our findings provide new insights to breast cancer risk. Future research should validate novel predictors, investigate using multiple PRS and more precise anthropometry measures for better breast cancer risk prediction.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36214-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36214-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247810; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247810?pdf=render -37438684,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3,Estimating medication adherence from Electronic Health Records: comparing methods for mining and processing asthma treatment prescriptions.,"Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.",,BMC medical research methodology,2023,2023-07-12,Y,Adherence; Asthma; Compliance; corticosteroid; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Background

Medication adherence is usually defined as the extent of the agreement between the medication regimen agreed to by patients with their healthcare provider and the real-world implementation. Proactive identification of those with poor adherence may be useful to identify those with poor disease control and offers the opportunity for ameliorative action. Adherence can be estimated from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by comparing medication dispensing records to the prescribed regimen. Several methods have been developed in the literature to infer adherence from EHRs, however there is no clear consensus on what should be considered the gold standard in each use case. Our objectives were to critically evaluate different measures of medication adherence in a large longitudinal Scottish EHR dataset. We used asthma, a chronic condition with high prevalence and high rates of non-adherence, as a case study.

Methods

Over 1.6 million asthma controllers were prescribed for our cohort of 91,334 individuals, between January 2009 and March 2017. Eight adherence measures were calculated, and different approaches to estimating the amount of medication supply available at any time were compared.

Results

Estimates from different measures of adherence varied substantially. Three of the main drivers of the differences between adherence measures were the expected duration (if taken as in accordance with the dose directions), whether there was overlapping supply between prescriptions, and whether treatment had been discontinued. However, there are also wider, study-related, factors which are crucial to consider when comparing the adherence measures.

Conclusions

We evaluated the limitations of various medication adherence measures, and highlight key considerations about the underlying data, condition, and population to guide researchers choose appropriate adherence measures. This guidance will enable researchers to make more informed decisions about the methodology they employ, ensuring that adherence is captured in the most meaningful way for their particular application needs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3 36350810,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276781,"Primary hypertension, anti-hypertensive medications and the risk of severe COVID-19 in UK Biobank.","Pavey H, Kulkarni S, Wood A, Ben-Shlomo Y, Sever P, McEniery C, Wilkinson I.",,PloS one,2022,2022-11-09,Y,,,,"Hypertension appears to be one of the commonest comorbidities in COVID-19 patients, although whether hypertensive individuals have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 compared with non-hypertensives is unclear. It is also unclear whether the absolute level of systolic blood pressure, or the type of anti-hypertensive medication is related to this risk. Analyses were conducted using data from the UK Biobank and linked health records. Logistic regression models were fitted to assess the impact of hypertension, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and medications on the risk of severe COVID-19. 16,134 individuals tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus, 22% (n = 3,584) developed severe COVID-19 and 40% (n = 6,517) were hypertensive. Hypertension was associated with 22% higher odds of severe COVID-19 (Odds ratio (OR) 1.22; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12, 1.33), compared with normotension after adjusting for confounding variables. In those taking anti-hypertensive medications, elevated SBP showed a dose-response relationship with severe COVID-19 (150-159mmHg versus 120-129mmHg (OR 1.91; 95% CI 1.44, 2.53), >180+mmHg versus 120-129mmHg (OR 1.93; 95% CI 1.06, 3.51)). SBP <120mmHg was associated with greater odds of severe COVID-19 (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.11, 1.78). Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-II receptor blockers were not associated with altered risk of severe COVID-19. Hypertension is an important risk factor for COVID-19. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms is warranted in case of more severe strains or other viruses in the future.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276781&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276781; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9645600; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9645600?pdf=render 34194954,https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202100707,Green Algorithms: Quantifying the Carbon Footprint of Computation.,"Lannelongue L, Grealey J, Inouye M.",,"Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)",2021,2021-05-02,Y,Climate change; Green Computing; Computational Research,,,"Climate change is profoundly affecting nearly all aspects of life on earth, including human societies, economies, and health. Various human activities are responsible for significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including data centers and other sources of large-scale computation. Although many important scientific milestones are achieved thanks to the development of high-performance computing, the resultant environmental impact is underappreciated. In this work, a methodological framework to estimate the carbon footprint of any computational task in a standardized and reliable way is presented and metrics to contextualize GHG emissions are defined. A freely available online tool, Green Algorithms (www.green-algorithms.org) is developed, which enables a user to estimate and report the carbon footprint of their computation. The tool easily integrates with computational processes as it requires minimal information and does not interfere with existing code, while also accounting for a broad range of hardware configurations. Finally, the GHG emissions of algorithms used for particle physics simulations, weather forecasts, and natural language processing are quantified. Taken together, this study develops a simple generalizable framework and freely available tool to quantify the carbon footprint of nearly any computation. Combined with recommendations to minimize unnecessary CO2 emissions, the authors hope to raise awareness and facilitate greener computation.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/advs.202100707; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202100707; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8224424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8224424?pdf=render 36587850,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2022.12.810,The gut microbiome is a significant risk factor for future chronic lung disease.,"Liu Y, Teo SM, Méric G, Tang HHF, Zhu Q, Sanders JG, Vázquez-Baeza Y, Verspoor K, Vartiainen VA, Jousilahti P, Lahti L, Niiranen T, Havulinna AS, Knight R, Salomaa V, Inouye M.",,The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,2023,2022-12-29,Y,Gut; Asthma; COPD; Metagenomics; Microbiome,,,"

Background

The gut-lung axis is generally recognized, but there are few large studies of the gut microbiome and incident respiratory disease in adults.

Objective

We sought to investigate the association and predictive capacity of the gut microbiome for incident asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Methods

Shallow metagenomic sequencing was performed for stool samples from a prospective, population-based cohort (FINRISK02; N = 7115 adults) with linked national administrative health register-derived classifications for incident asthma and COPD up to 15 years after baseline. Generalized linear models and Cox regressions were used to assess associations of microbial taxa and diversity with disease occurrence. Predictive models were constructed using machine learning with extreme gradient boosting. Models considered taxa abundances individually and in combination with other risk factors, including sex, age, body mass index, and smoking status.

Results

A total of 695 and 392 statistically significant associations were found between baseline taxonomic groups and incident asthma and COPD, respectively. Gradient boosting decision trees of baseline gut microbiome abundance predicted incident asthma and COPD in the validation data sets with mean area under the curves of 0.608 and 0.780, respectively. Cox analysis showed that the baseline gut microbiome achieved higher predictive performance than individual conventional risk factors, with C-indices of 0.623 for asthma and 0.817 for COPD. The integration of the gut microbiome and conventional risk factors further improved prediction capacities.

Conclusions

The gut microbiome is a significant risk factor for incident asthma and incident COPD and is largely independent of conventional risk factors.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2022.12.810; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2022.12.810; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10109092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10109092?pdf=render 33475522,https://doi.org/10.2196/18229,Risk Factors and Prevalence of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Protocol for a Systematic Review.,"Fundikira LS, Chillo P, van Laake LW, Mutagaywa RK, Schmidt AF, Kamuhabwa A, Kwesigabo G, Asselbergs FW.",,JMIR research protocols,2021,2021-01-21,Y,Dilated cardiomyopathy; Sub-Saharan Africa; Cardiomyopathy; Cardiovascular risk factors; Heart Failure,,,"

Background

Cardiomyopathies, defined as diseases involving mainly the heart muscles, are linked to an estimated 5.9 of 100,000 deaths globally. In sub-Saharan Africa, cardiomyopathies constitute 21.4% of heart failure cases, with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) being the most common form. The etiology of DCM is heterogeneous and is broadly categorized as genetic or nongenetic, as well as a mixed disease in which genetics interact with intrinsic and environmental factors. Factors such as age, gender, family history, and ethnicity are nonmodifiable, whereas modifiable risk factors include poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol consumption, among others. However, the relative contribution of the different risk factors to the etiology of DCM is not known in sub-Saharan Africa, and the prevalence of DCM among heart failure patients has not been systematically studied in the region.

Objective

The aim of this review is to synthesize available literature from sub-Saharan Africa on the prevalence of DCM among patients with heart failure, as well as the literature on factors associated with DCM. This paper outlines the protocol that will be followed to conduct the systematic review.

Methods

A limited search of the PubMed database will be performed to identify relevant keywords contained in the title, abstract, and subject descriptors using initial search terms ""heart failure,"" ""cardiomyopathy,"" and ""sub-Saharan Africa."" These search terms and their synonyms will then be used in an extensive search in PubMed, and will address the first research question on prevalence. To address the second research question on risk factors, the terms ""heart failure,"" ""cardiomyopathy,"" and ""cardiovascular risk factors"" in ""Sub-Saharan Africa"" will be used, listing them one by one. Articles published from 2000 and in the English language will be included. Indexed articles in PubMed and Embase will be included, as well as the first 300 articles retrieved from a Google Scholar search. Collected data will be organized in Endnote and then uploaded to the Rayyan web app for systematic reviews. Two reviewers will independently select articles against the inclusion criteria. Discrepancies in reviewer selections will be resolved by an arbitrator. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines for reporting systematic reviews will be applied. A map of sub-Saharan Africa with colors to show disease prevalence in each country will be included. For quantitative data, where possible, odds ratios (for categorical outcome data) or standardized mean differences (for continuous data) and their 95% CIs will be calculated.

Results

The primary outcomes will be the prevalence of DCM among patients with heart failure and cardiovascular risk factors associated with DCM in sub-Saharan Africa. The literature search will begin on January 1, 2021, and data analysis is expected to be completed by April 30, 2021.

Conclusions

This review will provide information on the current status of the prevalence and associated factors of DCM, and possibly identify gaps, including paucity of data or conflicting results that need to be addressed to improve our understanding of DCM in sub-Saharan Africa.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

PRR1-10.2196/18229.",,pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i1e18229_app1.pdf&filename=7e28e6f3581cda60eb7faa74a1bb7968.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/18229; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862000 +37438684,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3,Estimating medication adherence from Electronic Health Records: comparing methods for mining and processing asthma treatment prescriptions.,"Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.",,BMC medical research methodology,2023,2023-07-12,Y,Adherence; Asthma; Compliance; corticosteroid; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Background

Medication adherence is usually defined as the extent of the agreement between the medication regimen agreed to by patients with their healthcare provider and the real-world implementation. Proactive identification of those with poor adherence may be useful to identify those with poor disease control and offers the opportunity for ameliorative action. Adherence can be estimated from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by comparing medication dispensing records to the prescribed regimen. Several methods have been developed in the literature to infer adherence from EHRs, however there is no clear consensus on what should be considered the gold standard in each use case. Our objectives were to critically evaluate different measures of medication adherence in a large longitudinal Scottish EHR dataset. We used asthma, a chronic condition with high prevalence and high rates of non-adherence, as a case study.

Methods

Over 1.6 million asthma controllers were prescribed for our cohort of 91,334 individuals, between January 2009 and March 2017. Eight adherence measures were calculated, and different approaches to estimating the amount of medication supply available at any time were compared.

Results

Estimates from different measures of adherence varied substantially. Three of the main drivers of the differences between adherence measures were the expected duration (if taken as in accordance with the dose directions), whether there was overlapping supply between prescriptions, and whether treatment had been discontinued. However, there are also wider, study-related, factors which are crucial to consider when comparing the adherence measures.

Conclusions

We evaluated the limitations of various medication adherence measures, and highlight key considerations about the underlying data, condition, and population to guide researchers choose appropriate adherence measures. This guidance will enable researchers to make more informed decisions about the methodology they employ, ensuring that adherence is captured in the most meaningful way for their particular application needs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3 34639458,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910156,Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) Outcomes Following Injury in Childhood and Adolescence Using EuroQol (EQ-5D) Responses with Pooled Longitudinal Data. ,"Dipnall JF, Rivara FP, Lyons RA, Ameratunga S, Brussoni M, Lecky FE, Bradley C, Beck B, Lyons J, Schneeberg A, Harrison JE, Gabbe BJ.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2021,2021-09-27,Y,,,,"Injury is a leading contributor to the global disease burden in children, affecting their health-related quality of life (HRQoL)-yet valid estimates of burden are absent. This study pooled longitudinal data from five cohort studies of pediatric injury survivors (5-17 years) at baseline, 1-, 4-, 6-, 12-, and 24- months (n = 2334). HRQoL post-injury was measured using the 3-level EQ-5D utility score (EQ-5D) and five health states (mobility, self-care, activity, pain, anxiety and depression (anxiety)). Mean EQ-5D post-injury did not return to baseline level (0.95) by 24 months (0.88) and was lower for females over time (-0.04, 95%CI -0.05, -0.02). A decreased adjusted risk ratio over time (ARR) was observed for intentional injuries (pain: 0.85, 95%CI 0.73,0.98; anxiety: 0.62, 95%CI 0.49,0.78); spinal cord injuries (mobility: 0.61, 95%CI 0.45,0.83), self-care: 0.76, 95%CI 0.63,0.91, activity: 0.64, 95%CI 0.47,0.88); moderate/severe traumatic brain injury (activity: 0.83, 95%CI 0.71,0.96). ARRs were also low for certain fractures, with various health states affected. HRQoL outcomes over time for children and adolescents post-injury differed across key demographic and injury related attributes. HRQoL did not reach levels consistent with full health by 24 months with recovery plateauing from 6 to 24 months. Tailored interventions are required to respond to the varying post-injury recovery trajectories in this population.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910156; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8507627; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8507627?pdf=render 33168126,https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2020.42,Impact of schizophrenia genetic liability on the association between schizophrenia and physical illness: data-linkage study.,"Kendall KM, John A, Lee SC, Rees E, Pardiñas AF, Banos MDP, Owen MJ, O'Donovan MC, Kirov G, Lloyd K, Jones I, Legge SE, Walters JTR.",,BJPsych open,2020,2020-11-10,Y,Genetics; Schizophrenia; Physical Health; Psychotic Disorders,,,"

Background

Individuals with schizophrenia are at higher risk of physical illnesses, which are a major contributor to their 20-year reduced life expectancy. It is currently unknown what causes the increased risk of physical illness in schizophrenia.

Aims

To link genetic data from a clinically ascertained sample of individuals with schizophrenia to anonymised National Health Service (NHS) records. To assess (a) rates of physical illness in those with schizophrenia, and (b) whether physical illness in schizophrenia is associated with genetic liability.

Method

We linked genetic data from a clinically ascertained sample of individuals with schizophrenia (Cardiff Cognition in Schizophrenia participants, n = 896) to anonymised NHS records held in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Physical illnesses were defined from the General Practice Database and Patient Episode Database for Wales. Genetic liability for schizophrenia was indexed by (a) rare copy number variants (CNVs), and (b) polygenic risk scores.

Results

Individuals with schizophrenia in SAIL had increased rates of epilepsy (standardised rate ratio (SRR) = 5.34), intellectual disability (SRR = 3.11), type 2 diabetes (SRR = 2.45), congenital disorders (SRR = 1.77), ischaemic heart disease (SRR = 1.57) and smoking (SRR = 1.44) in comparison with the general SAIL population. In those with schizophrenia, carrier status for schizophrenia-associated CNVs and neurodevelopmental disorder-associated CNVs was associated with height (P = 0.015-0.017), with carriers being 7.5-7.7 cm shorter than non-carriers. We did not find evidence that the increased rates of poor physical health outcomes in schizophrenia were associated with genetic liability for the disorder.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates the value of and potential for linking genetic data from clinically ascertained research studies to anonymised health records. The increased risk for physical illness in schizophrenia is not caused by genetic liability for the disorder.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A00360A347FCC91E2E9D0B39FBDCE887/S2056472420000423a.pdf/div-class-title-impact-of-schizophrenia-genetic-liability-on-the-association-between-schizophrenia-and-physical-illness-data-linkage-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2020.42; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7745237; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7745237?pdf=render 31666244,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317271,Behavioural difficulties in early childhood and risk of adolescent injury.,"Bandyopadhyay A, Tingay K, Akbari A, Griffiths L, Bedford H, Cortina-Borja M, Walton S, Dezateux C, Lyons RA, Brophy S.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2020,2019-10-30,Y,Hospital Admission; Routine Data; Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire; A&e Attendance; Longitudinal Data Linkage,,,"

Objective

To evaluate long-term associations between early childhood hyperactivity and conduct problems (CP), measured using Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and risk of injury in early adolescence.

Design

Data linkage between a longitudinal birth cohort and routinely collected electronic health records.

Setting

Consenting Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) participants residing in Wales and Scotland.

Patients

3119 children who participated in the age 5 MCS interview.

Main outcome measures

Children with parent-reported SDQ scores were linked with hospital admission and Accident & Emergency (A&E) department records for injuries between ages 9 and 14 years. Negative binomial regression models adjusting for number of people in the household, lone parent, residential area, household poverty, maternal age and academic qualification, child sex, physical activity level and country of interview were fitted in the models.

Results

46% of children attended A&E or were admitted to hospital for injury, and 11% had high/abnormal scores for hyperactivity and CP. High/abnormal or borderline hyperactivity were not significantly associated with risk of injury, incidence rate ratio (IRR) with 95% CI of the high/abnormal and borderline were 0.92 (95% CI 0.74 to 1.14) and 1.16 (95% CI 0.88 to 1.52), respectively. Children with borderline CP had higher injury rates compared with those without CP (IRR 1.31, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.57).

Conclusions

Children with high/abnormal hyperactivity or CP scores were not at increased risk of injury; however, those with borderline CP had higher injury rates. Further research is needed to understand if those with difficulties receive treatment and support, which may reduce the likelihood of injuries.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/3/282.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7041499; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7041499?pdf=render -36332947,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843,Numbers and types of neurological emergencies in England and the influence of socioeconomic deprivation: a retrospective analysis of hospital episode statistics data.,"Jackson M, Szczepaniak M, Wall J, Maskery M, Mummery C, Morrish P, Williams A, Knight J, Emsley HCA.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-04,Y,Epilepsy; Neurology; Public Health,,,"

Objectives

In this first large-scale analysis of neurological emergency admissions in England, we determine the number and types of emergency admissions with neurological emergency diagnostic codes, how many are under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon and how such admissions vary by levels of deprivation.

Design

Retrospective empirical research employing a derived list of neurological emergency diagnostic codes SETTING: This study used the Hospital Episode Statistics data set for the financial year 2019/2020 based on 17 million in-year inpatient admissions in England including 6.5 million (100%) emergency admissions with any diagnosis codes.

Results

There were 1.4 million (21.2%) emergency inpatient admissions with a mention of any neurological code, approx. 248 455 (3.8%) with mention of a specific neurological emergency code from the derived list, and 72 485 (1.1%) included such a code as the primary reason for admission. The highest number of in-year admissions for adults was for epilepsy (145 995), with epilepsy as the primary diagnostic code in 15 945 (10.9%). Acute nerve root/spinal cord syndrome (41 215), head injury (29 235) and subarachnoid haemorrhage (18 505) accounted for the next three highest number of admissions. 3230 (1.4%) in-year emergency hospital admissions with mention of a neurological emergency code were under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon, with only 1315 (0.9%) admissions with mention of an epilepsy code under a neurologist. There was significant variation for epilepsy and functional neurological disorders (FNDs) in particular by Index of Multiple Deprivation decile. The association between deprivation and epilepsy and FND was significant with p-values of 2.5e-6 and 1.5e-8, respectively.

Conclusions

This study has identified important findings in relation to the burden of neurological emergency admissions but further work is needed, with greater clinical engagement in diagnostic coding, to better understand the implications for workforce and changes to service delivery needing to be implemented.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e061843.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083?pdf=render -35537476,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095245,Indirect effects of the pandemic: highlighting the need for data-driven policy and preparedness.,"Banerjee A, Sudlow C, Lawler M.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-05-10,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221095245; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890?pdf=render 32249120,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044,"Area deprivation, urbanicity, severe mental illness and social drift - A population-based linkage study using routinely collected primary and secondary care data.","Lee SC, DelPozo-Banos M, Lloyd K, Jones I, Walters JTR, Owen MJ, O'Donovan M, John A.",,Schizophrenia research,2020,2020-04-02,N,Schizophrenia; Bipolar disorder; Deprivation; Severe Mental Illness; Urbanicity; Social Drift,Improving Public Health,mental health,"We investigated whether associations between area deprivation, urbanicity and elevated risk of severe mental illnesses (SMIs, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) is accounted for by social drift or social causation. We extracted primary and secondary care electronic health records from 2004 to 2015 from a population of 3.9 million. We identified prevalent and incident individuals with SMIs and their level of deprivation and urbanicity using the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and urban/rural indicator. The presence of social drift was determined by whether odds ratios (ORs) from logistic regression is greater than the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) from Poisson regression. Additionally, we performed longitudinal analysis to measure the proportion of change in deprivation level and rural/urban residence 10 years after an incident diagnosis of SMI and compared it to the general population using standardised rate ratios (SRRs). Prevalence and incidence of SMIs were significantly associated with deprivation and urbanicity (all ORs and IRRs significantly >1). ORs and IRRs were similar across all conditions and cohorts (ranging from 1.1 to 1.4). Results from the longitudinal analysis showed individuals with SMIs are more likely to move compared to the general population. However, they did not preferentially move to more deprived or urban areas. There was little evidence of downward social drift over a 10-year period. These findings have implications for the allocation of resources, service configuration and access to services in deprived communities, as well as, for broader public health interventions addressing poverty, and social and environmental contexts.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044 +35537476,https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095245,Indirect effects of the pandemic: highlighting the need for data-driven policy and preparedness.,"Banerjee A, Sudlow C, Lawler M.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2022,2022-05-10,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221095245; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890?pdf=render 34974610,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab874,The year in cardiovascular medicine 2021: digital health and innovation.,"Vardas PE, Asselbergs FW, van Smeden M, Friedman P.",,European heart journal,2022,2022-01-01,N,Cardiovascular Medicine; Machine Learning; Big Data; Digital Health; Ai-ecg; Ai-wearables,,,"This article presents some of the most important developments in the field of digital medicine that have appeared over the last 12 months and are related to cardiovascular medicine. The article consists of three main sections, as follows: (i) artificial intelligence-enabled cardiovascular diagnostic tools, techniques, and methodologies, (ii) big data and prognostic models for cardiovascular risk protection, and (iii) wearable devices in cardiovascular risk assessment, cardiovascular disease prevention, diagnosis, and management. To conclude the article, the authors present a brief further prospective on this new domain, highlighting existing gaps that are specifically related to artificial intelligence technologies, such as explainability, cost-effectiveness, and, of course, the importance of proper regulatory oversight for each clinical implementation.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/4/271/46630082/ehab874.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab874 +36332947,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843,Numbers and types of neurological emergencies in England and the influence of socioeconomic deprivation: a retrospective analysis of hospital episode statistics data.,"Jackson M, Szczepaniak M, Wall J, Maskery M, Mummery C, Morrish P, Williams A, Knight J, Emsley HCA.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-04,Y,Epilepsy; Neurology; Public Health,,,"

Objectives

In this first large-scale analysis of neurological emergency admissions in England, we determine the number and types of emergency admissions with neurological emergency diagnostic codes, how many are under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon and how such admissions vary by levels of deprivation.

Design

Retrospective empirical research employing a derived list of neurological emergency diagnostic codes SETTING: This study used the Hospital Episode Statistics data set for the financial year 2019/2020 based on 17 million in-year inpatient admissions in England including 6.5 million (100%) emergency admissions with any diagnosis codes.

Results

There were 1.4 million (21.2%) emergency inpatient admissions with a mention of any neurological code, approx. 248 455 (3.8%) with mention of a specific neurological emergency code from the derived list, and 72 485 (1.1%) included such a code as the primary reason for admission. The highest number of in-year admissions for adults was for epilepsy (145 995), with epilepsy as the primary diagnostic code in 15 945 (10.9%). Acute nerve root/spinal cord syndrome (41 215), head injury (29 235) and subarachnoid haemorrhage (18 505) accounted for the next three highest number of admissions. 3230 (1.4%) in-year emergency hospital admissions with mention of a neurological emergency code were under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon, with only 1315 (0.9%) admissions with mention of an epilepsy code under a neurologist. There was significant variation for epilepsy and functional neurological disorders (FNDs) in particular by Index of Multiple Deprivation decile. The association between deprivation and epilepsy and FND was significant with p-values of 2.5e-6 and 1.5e-8, respectively.

Conclusions

This study has identified important findings in relation to the burden of neurological emergency admissions but further work is needed, with greater clinical engagement in diagnostic coding, to better understand the implications for workforce and changes to service delivery needing to be implemented.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e061843.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083?pdf=render 32128788,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18889,The association between partner bereavement and melanoma: cohort studies in the U.K. and Denmark.,"Wong AYS, Frøslev T, Dearing L, Forbes HJ, Mulick A, Mansfield KE, Silverwood RJ, Kjaersgaard A, Sørensen HT, Smeeth L, Lewin A, Schmidt SAJ, Langan SM.",,The British journal of dermatology,2020,2020-03-03,Y,,,,"

Background

Psychological stress is commonly cited as a risk factor for melanoma, but clinical evidence is limited.

Objectives

This study aimed to evaluate the association between partner bereavement and (i) first-time melanoma diagnosis and (ii) mortality in patients with melanoma.

Methods

We conducted two cohort studies using data from the U.K. Clinical Practice Research Datalink (1997-2017) and Danish nationwide registries (1997-2016). In study 1, we compared the risk of first melanoma diagnosis in bereaved vs. matched nonbereaved people using stratified Cox regression. In study 2 we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for death from melanoma in bereaved compared with nonbereaved individuals with melanoma using Cox regression. We estimated HRs separately for the U.K. and for Denmark, and then pooled the data to perform a random-effects meta-analysis.

Results

In study 1, the pooled adjusted HR for the association between partner bereavement and melanoma diagnosis was 0·88 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0·84-0·92] across the entire follow-up period. In study 2, we observed increased melanoma-specific mortality in people experiencing partner bereavement across the entire follow-up period (HR 1·17, 95% CI 1·06-1·30), with the peak occurring during the first year of follow-up (HR 1·31, 95% CI 1·07-1·60).

Conclusions

We found decreased risk of melanoma diagnosis, but increased mortality associated with partner bereavement. These findings may be partly explained by delayed detection resulting from the loss of a partner who could notice skin changes. Stress may play a role in melanoma progression. Our findings indicate the need for a low threshold for skin examination in individuals whose partners have died. What is already known about this topic? Psychological stress has been proposed as a risk factor for the development and progression of cancer, including melanoma, but evidence is conflicting. Clinical evidence is limited by small sample sizes, potential recall bias associated with self-report, and heterogeneous stress definitions. What does this study add? We found a decreased risk of melanoma diagnosis, but increased mortality associated with partner bereavement. While stress might play a role in the progression of melanoma, an alternative explanation is that bereaved people no longer have a close person to help notice skin changes, leading to delayed melanoma detection. Linked Comment: Talaganis et al. Br J Dermatol 2020; 183:607-608.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18889; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18889; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7587014; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7587014?pdf=render -31529485,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526,"The association of smoking and socioeconomic status on cutaneous melanoma: a population-based, data-linkage, case-control study.","Gibson JAG, Dobbs TD, Griffiths R, Song J, Akbari A, Whitaker S, Watkins A, Langan SM, Hutchings HA, Lyons RA, Whitaker IS.",,The British journal of dermatology,2020,2019-12-01,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Previous studies have identified an inverse association between melanoma and smoking; however, data from population-based studies are scarce.

Objectives

To determine the association between smoking and socioeconomic (SES) on the risk of development of melanoma. Furthermore, we sought to determine the implications of smoking and SES on survival.

Methods

We conducted a population-based case-control study. Cases were identified from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU) during 2000-2015 and controls from the general population. Smoking and SES were obtained from data linkage with other national databases. The association of smoking status and SES on the incidence of melanoma were assessed using binary logistic regression. Multivariate survival analysis was performed on a melanoma cohort using a Cox proportional hazard model using survival as the outcome.

Results

During 2000-2015, 9636 patients developed melanoma. Smoking data were obtained for 7124 (73·9%) of these patients. There were 26 408 controls identified from the general population. Smoking was inversely associated with melanoma incidence [odds ratio (OR) 0·70, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·65-0·76]. Smoking was associated with an increased overall mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1·30, 95% CI 1·09-1·55], but not associated with melanoma-specific mortality. Patients with higher SES had an increased association with melanoma incidence (OR 1·58, 95% CI 1·44-1·73). Higher SES was associated with an increased chance of both overall (HR 0·67, 95% CI 0·56-0·81) and disease-specific survival (HR 0·69, 95% CI 0·53-0·90).

Conclusions

Our study has demonstrated that smoking appeared to be associated with reduced incidence of melanoma. Although smoking increases overall mortality, no association was observed with melanoma-specific mortality. Further work is required to determine if there is a biological mechanism underlying this relationship or an alternative explanation, such as survival bias. What's already known about this topic? Previous studies have been contradictory with both negative and positive associations between smoking and the incidence of melanoma reported. Previous studies have either been limited by publication bias because of selective reporting or underpowered. What does this study add? Our large study identified an inverse association between smoking status and melanoma incidence. Although smoking status was negatively associated with overall disease survival, no significant association was noted in melanoma-specific survival. Socioeconomic status remains closely associated with melanoma. Although higher socioeconomic populations are more likely to develop the disease, patients with lower socioeconomic status continue to have a worse prognosis.","This study investiages whether there is a smoking and socioeconomic status is linked to the risk of developing melanoma (a skin cancer). They used a Welsh database to find data on individuals who had melanoma and linked this data with smoking status and socioeconomic status on other national databases. They found that melanoma was less likely in those who smoked, but was associated with less chance of survival (due to health problems other than melanoma). Those in higher socioeconomic status had overall higher likelihood of survival.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980?pdf=render -30659777,https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12505,Are children with clinical obesity at increased risk of inpatient hospital admissions? An analysis using linked electronic health records in the UK millennium cohort study.,"Griffiths LJ, Cortina-Borja M, Bandyopadhyay A, Tingay K, De Stavola BL, Bedford H, Akbari A, Firman N, Lyons RA, Dezateux C.",,Pediatric obesity,2019,2019-01-18,Y,Obesity; Cohort study; Record Linkage; Health Service Utilization,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Few studies have examined health service utilization of children with overweight or obesity by using linked electronic health records (EHRs).

Objective/methods

We analysed EHRs from 3269 children (1678 boys; 51.3% [weighted]) participating in the Millennium Cohort Study, living in Wales or Scotland at age seven whose parents consented to record linkage. We used height and weight measurements at age five to categorize children as obese (>98th centile) or overweight (>91st centile) (UK1990 clinical reference standards) and linked to hospital admissions, up to age 14 years, in the Patient Episode Database for Wales and Scottish Morbidity Records. Negative binomial regression models compared rates of inpatient admissions by weight status at age five.

Results

At age five, 11.5% and 6.7% of children were overweight or obese, respectively; 1221 (38%) children were subsequently admitted to hospital at least once. Admissions were not increased among children with overweight or obesity (adjusted rate ratio [RR], 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 0.68-1.10 and 1.16, 0.87-1.54, respectively).

Conclusions

In this nationally representative cohort of children in Wales and Scotland, those with overweight or obesity at entry to primary school did not have increased rates of hospital admissions in later childhood and early adolescence.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ijpo.12505; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12505; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563186?pdf=render 37269003,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x,Non-adherence and non-persistence to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Shahzad H, Mahmood S, McGee S, Hubbard J, Haque S, Paudyal V, Denniston AK, Hill LJ, Jalal Z.",,Systematic reviews,2023,2023-06-02,Y,Meta-analysis; Intravitreal; Anti-vegf; Non-adherence; Macular; Non-persistence; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections play a key role in treating a range of macular diseases. The effectiveness of these therapies is dependent on patients' adherence (the extent to which a patient takes their medicines as per agreed recommendations from the healthcare provider) and persistence (continuation of the treatment for the prescribed duration) to their prescribed treatment regimens. The aim of this systematic review was to demonstrate the need for further investigation into the prevalence of, and factors contributing to, patient-led non-adherence and non-persistence, thus facilitating improved clinical outcomes.

Methods

Systematic searches were conducted in Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library. Studies in English conducted before February 2023 that reported the level of, and/or barriers to, non-adherence or non-persistence to intravitreal anti-VEGF ocular disease therapy were included. Duplicate papers, literature reviews, expert opinion articles, case studies, and case series were excluded following screening by two independent authors.

Results

Data from a total of 409,215 patients across 52 studies were analysed. Treatment regimens included pro re nata, monthly and treat-and-extend protocols; study durations ranged from 4 months to 8 years. Of the 52 studies, 22 included a breakdown of reasons for patient non-adherence/non-persistence. Patient-led non-adherence varied between 17.5 and 35.0% depending on the definition used. Overall pooled prevalence of patient-led treatment non-persistence was 30.0% (P = 0.000). Reasons for non-adherence/non-persistence included dissatisfaction with treatment results (29.9%), financial burden (19%), older age/comorbidities (15.5%), difficulty booking appointments (8.5%), travel distance/social isolation (7.9%), lack of time (5.8%), satisfaction with the perceived improvement in their condition (4.4%), fear of injection (4.0%), loss of motivation (4.0%), apathy towards eyesight (2.5%), dissatisfaction with facilities 2.3%, and discomfort/pain (0.3%). Three studies found non-adherence rates between 51.6 and 68.8% during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to fear of exposure to COVID-19 and difficulties travelling during lockdown.

Discussion

Results suggest high levels of patient-led non-adherence/non-persistence to anti-VEGF therapy, mostly due to dissatisfaction with treatment results, a combination of comorbidities, loss of motivation and the burden of travel. This study provides key information on prevalence and factors contributing to non-adherence/non-persistence in anti-VEGF treatment for macular diseases, aiding identification of at-risk individuals to improve real-world visual outcomes. Improvements in the literature can be achieved by establishing uniform definitions and standard timescales for what constitutes non-adherence/non-persistence.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42020216205.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080?pdf=render -31504435,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569,Obesity causes cardiovascular diseases: adding to the weight of evidence.,"Hingorani AD, Finan C, Schmidt AF.",,European heart journal,2020,2020-01-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/41/2/227/31731687/ehz569.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569 +30659777,https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12505,Are children with clinical obesity at increased risk of inpatient hospital admissions? An analysis using linked electronic health records in the UK millennium cohort study.,"Griffiths LJ, Cortina-Borja M, Bandyopadhyay A, Tingay K, De Stavola BL, Bedford H, Akbari A, Firman N, Lyons RA, Dezateux C.",,Pediatric obesity,2019,2019-01-18,Y,Obesity; Cohort study; Record Linkage; Health Service Utilization,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Few studies have examined health service utilization of children with overweight or obesity by using linked electronic health records (EHRs).

Objective/methods

We analysed EHRs from 3269 children (1678 boys; 51.3% [weighted]) participating in the Millennium Cohort Study, living in Wales or Scotland at age seven whose parents consented to record linkage. We used height and weight measurements at age five to categorize children as obese (>98th centile) or overweight (>91st centile) (UK1990 clinical reference standards) and linked to hospital admissions, up to age 14 years, in the Patient Episode Database for Wales and Scottish Morbidity Records. Negative binomial regression models compared rates of inpatient admissions by weight status at age five.

Results

At age five, 11.5% and 6.7% of children were overweight or obese, respectively; 1221 (38%) children were subsequently admitted to hospital at least once. Admissions were not increased among children with overweight or obesity (adjusted rate ratio [RR], 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 0.68-1.10 and 1.16, 0.87-1.54, respectively).

Conclusions

In this nationally representative cohort of children in Wales and Scotland, those with overweight or obesity at entry to primary school did not have increased rates of hospital admissions in later childhood and early adolescence.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ijpo.12505; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12505; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563186?pdf=render +31529485,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526,"The association of smoking and socioeconomic status on cutaneous melanoma: a population-based, data-linkage, case-control study.","Gibson JAG, Dobbs TD, Griffiths R, Song J, Akbari A, Whitaker S, Watkins A, Langan SM, Hutchings HA, Lyons RA, Whitaker IS.",,The British journal of dermatology,2020,2019-12-01,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Previous studies have identified an inverse association between melanoma and smoking; however, data from population-based studies are scarce.

Objectives

To determine the association between smoking and socioeconomic (SES) on the risk of development of melanoma. Furthermore, we sought to determine the implications of smoking and SES on survival.

Methods

We conducted a population-based case-control study. Cases were identified from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU) during 2000-2015 and controls from the general population. Smoking and SES were obtained from data linkage with other national databases. The association of smoking status and SES on the incidence of melanoma were assessed using binary logistic regression. Multivariate survival analysis was performed on a melanoma cohort using a Cox proportional hazard model using survival as the outcome.

Results

During 2000-2015, 9636 patients developed melanoma. Smoking data were obtained for 7124 (73·9%) of these patients. There were 26 408 controls identified from the general population. Smoking was inversely associated with melanoma incidence [odds ratio (OR) 0·70, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·65-0·76]. Smoking was associated with an increased overall mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1·30, 95% CI 1·09-1·55], but not associated with melanoma-specific mortality. Patients with higher SES had an increased association with melanoma incidence (OR 1·58, 95% CI 1·44-1·73). Higher SES was associated with an increased chance of both overall (HR 0·67, 95% CI 0·56-0·81) and disease-specific survival (HR 0·69, 95% CI 0·53-0·90).

Conclusions

Our study has demonstrated that smoking appeared to be associated with reduced incidence of melanoma. Although smoking increases overall mortality, no association was observed with melanoma-specific mortality. Further work is required to determine if there is a biological mechanism underlying this relationship or an alternative explanation, such as survival bias. What's already known about this topic? Previous studies have been contradictory with both negative and positive associations between smoking and the incidence of melanoma reported. Previous studies have either been limited by publication bias because of selective reporting or underpowered. What does this study add? Our large study identified an inverse association between smoking status and melanoma incidence. Although smoking status was negatively associated with overall disease survival, no significant association was noted in melanoma-specific survival. Socioeconomic status remains closely associated with melanoma. Although higher socioeconomic populations are more likely to develop the disease, patients with lower socioeconomic status continue to have a worse prognosis.","This study investiages whether there is a smoking and socioeconomic status is linked to the risk of developing melanoma (a skin cancer). They used a Welsh database to find data on individuals who had melanoma and linked this data with smoking status and socioeconomic status on other national databases. They found that melanoma was less likely in those who smoked, but was associated with less chance of survival (due to health problems other than melanoma). Those in higher socioeconomic status had overall higher likelihood of survival.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980?pdf=render 36134690,https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200654,Coupled myovascular expansion directs cardiac growth and regeneration.,"DeBenedittis P, Karpurapu A, Henry A, Thomas MC, McCord TJ, Brezitski K, Prasad A, Baker CE, Kobayashi Y, Shah SH, Kontos CD, Tata PR, Lumbers RT, Karra R.",,"Development (Cambridge, England)",2022,2022-09-22,N,Mouse; Cardiomyocyte proliferation; Heart regeneration; Myovascular,,,"Heart regeneration requires multiple cell types to enable cardiomyocyte (CM) proliferation. How these cells interact to create growth niches is unclear. Here, we profile proliferation kinetics of cardiac endothelial cells (CECs) and CMs in the neonatal mouse heart and find that they are spatiotemporally coupled. We show that coupled myovascular expansion during cardiac growth or regeneration is dependent upon VEGF-VEGFR2 signaling, as genetic deletion of Vegfr2 from CECs or inhibition of VEGFA abrogates both CEC and CM proliferation. Repair of cryoinjury displays poor spatial coupling of CEC and CM proliferation. Boosting CEC density after cryoinjury with virus encoding Vegfa enhances regeneration. Using Mendelian randomization, we demonstrate that circulating VEGFA levels are positively linked with human myocardial mass, suggesting that Vegfa can stimulate human cardiac growth. Our work demonstrates the importance of coupled CEC and CM expansion and reveals a myovascular niche that may be therapeutically targeted for heart regeneration.",,pdf:https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article-pdf/149/18/dev200654/2167548/dev200654.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200654 37538142,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztad037,Predicting left ventricular hypertrophy from the 12-lead electrocardiogram in the UK Biobank imaging study using machine learning.,"Naderi H, Ramírez J, van Duijvenboden S, Pujadas ER, Aung N, Wang L, Anwar Ahmed Chahal C, Lekadir K, Petersen SE, Munroe PB.",,European heart journal. Digital health,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Electrocardiogram; Left ventricular hypertrophy; Cardiovascular Screening; Machine Learning; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging,,,"

Aims

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an established, independent predictor of cardiovascular disease. Indices derived from the electrocardiogram (ECG) have been used to infer the presence of LVH with limited sensitivity. This study aimed to classify LVH defined by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging using the 12-lead ECG for cost-effective patient stratification.

Methods and results

We extracted ECG biomarkers with a known physiological association with LVH from the 12-lead ECG of 37 534 participants in the UK Biobank imaging study. Classification models integrating ECG biomarkers and clinical variables were built using logistic regression, support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). The dataset was split into 80% training and 20% test sets for performance evaluation. Ten-fold cross validation was applied with further validation testing performed by separating data based on UK Biobank imaging centres. QRS amplitude and blood pressure (P < 0.001) were the features most strongly associated with LVH. Classification with logistic regression had an accuracy of 81% [sensitivity 70%, specificity 81%, Area under the receiver operator curve (AUC) 0.86], SVM 81% accuracy (sensitivity 72%, specificity 81%, AUC 0.85) and RF 72% accuracy (sensitivity 74%, specificity 72%, AUC 0.83). ECG biomarkers enhanced model performance of all classifiers, compared to using clinical variables alone. Validation testing by UK Biobank imaging centres demonstrated robustness of our models.

Conclusion

A combination of ECG biomarkers and clinical variables were able to predict LVH defined by CMR. Our findings provide support for the ECG as an inexpensive screening tool to risk stratify patients with LVH as a prelude to advanced imaging.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztad037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393938; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393938?pdf=render +31504435,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569,Obesity causes cardiovascular diseases: adding to the weight of evidence.,"Hingorani AD, Finan C, Schmidt AF.",,European heart journal,2020,2020-01-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/41/2/227/31731687/ehz569.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569 36763324,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-023-00635-1,What makes a good life: using theatrical performance to enhance communication about polygenic risk scores research in patient and public involvement.,"Mason AM, Obi I, Ayodele O, Lambert SA, Fahle S.",,Journal of community genetics,2023,2023-02-10,N,,,,"The aim of this patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) work was to explore improvised theatre as a tool for facilitating bi-directional dialogue between researchers and patients/members of the public on the topic of polygenic risk scores (PRS) use within primary or secondary care. PRS are a tool to quantify genetic risk for a heritable disease or trait and may be used to predict future health outcomes. In the United Kingdom (UK), they are often cited as a next-in-line public health tool to be implemented, and their use in consumer genetic testing as well as patient-facing settings is increasing. Despite their potential clinical utility, broader themes about how they might influence an individual's perception of disease risk and decision-making are an active area of research; however, this has mostly been in the setting of return of results to patients. We worked with a youth theatre group and patients involved in a PPIE group to develop two short plays about public perceptions of genetic risk information that could be captured by PRS. These plays were shared in a workshop with patients/members of the public to facilitate discussions about PRS and their perceived benefits, concerns and emotional reactions. Discussions with both performers and patients/public raised three key questions: (1) can the data be trusted?; (2) does knowing genetic risk actually help the patient?; and (3) what makes a life worthwhile? Creating and watching fictional narratives helped all participants explore the potential use of PRS in a clinical setting, informing future research considerations and improving communication between the researchers and lay members of the PPIE group.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12687-023-00635-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-023-00635-1 37730605,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16523-9,Inequalities and mental health during the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK: a mixed-methods exploration.,"Lombardo C, Guo L, Solomon S, Crepaz-Keay D, McDaid S, Thorpe L, Martin S, John A, Morton A, Davidson G, Kousoulis AA, Van Bortel T.",,BMC public health,2023,2023-09-20,Y,Coronavirus; Mental health; Pandemic; United Kingdom; Inequalities; Social Determinants; Inequity; Adult Population; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The World Health Organisation declared the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Since then, the world has been firmly in its grip. At the time of writing, there were more than 767,972,961 million confirmed cases and over 6,950,655 million deaths. While the main policy focus has been on controlling the virus and ensuring vaccine roll-out and uptake, the population mental health impacts of the pandemic are expected to be long-term, with certain population groups affected more than others.

Methods

The overall objectives of our 'Coronavirus: Mental Health and the Pandemic' study were to explore UK adults' experiences of the Coronavirus pandemic and to gain insights into the mental health impacts, population-level changes over time, current and future mental health needs, and how these can best be addressed. The wider mixed-methods study consisted of repeated cross-sectional surveys and embedded qualitative sub-studies including in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with the wider UK adult population. For this particular inequalities and mental health sub-study, we used mixed methods data from our cross-sectional surveys and we carried out three Focus Group Discussions with a maximum variation sample from across the UK adult population. The discussions covered the broader topic of 'Inequalities and mental health during the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK' and took place online between April and August 2020. Focus Groups transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis in NVIVO. Cross-sectional survey data were analysed using STATA for descriptive statistics.

Results

Three broad main themes emerged, each supporting a number of sub-themes: (1) Impacts of the pandemic; (2) Moving forward: needs and recommendations; (3) Coping mechanisms and resilience. Findings showed that participants described their experiences of the pandemic in relation to its impact on themselves and on different groups of people. Their experiences illustrated how the pandemic and subsequent measures had exacerbated existing inequalities and created new ones, and triggered various emotional responses. Participants also described their coping strategies and what worked and did not work for them, as well as support needs and recommendations for moving forward through, and out of, the pandemic; all of which are valuable learnings to be considered in policy making for improving mental health and for ensuring future preparedness.

Conclusions

The pandemic is taking a long-term toll on the nations' mental health which will continue to have impacts for years to come. It is therefore crucial to learn the vital lessons learned from this pandemic. Specific as well as whole-government policies need to respond to this, address inequalities and the different needs across the life-course and across society, and take a holistic approach to mental health improvement across the UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16523-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10510114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10510114?pdf=render 37563721,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07473-z,Evaluation of interventions to prevent vasovagal reactions among whole blood donors: rationale and design of a large cluster randomised trial.,"McMahon A, Kaptoge S, Walker M, Mehenny S, Gilchrist PT, Sambrook J, Akhtar N, Sweeting M, Wood AM, Stirrups K, Chung R, Fahle S, Johnson E, Cullen D, Godfrey R, Duthie S, Allen L, Harvey P, Berkson M, Allen E, Watkins NA, Bradley JR, Kingston N, Miflin G, Armitage J, Roberts DJ, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E.",,Trials,2023,2023-08-10,Y,Cross-over; Blood donors; Blood Donation; Factorial Design; Vasovagal Reactions; Cluster Randomised Trial; Stepped-wedge,,,"

Background

Vasovagal reactions (VVRs) are the most common acute complications of blood donation. Responsible for substantial morbidity, they also reduce the likelihood of repeated donations and are disruptive and costly for blood services. Although blood establishments worldwide have adopted different strategies to prevent VVRs (including water loading and applied muscle tension [AMT]), robust evidence is limited. The Strategies to Improve Donor Experiences (STRIDES) trial aims to reliably assess the impact of four different interventions to prevent VVRs among blood donors.

Methods

STRIDES is a cluster-randomised cross-over/stepped-wedge factorial trial of four interventions to reduce VVRs involving about 1.4 million whole blood donors enrolled from all 73 blood donation sites (mobile teams and donor centres) of National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in England. Each site (""cluster"") has been randomly allocated to receive one or more interventions during a 36-month period, using principles of cross-over, stepped-wedge and factorial trial design to assign the sequence of interventions. Each of the four interventions is compared to NHSBT's current practices: (i) 500-ml isotonic drink before donation (vs current 500-ml plain water); (ii) 3-min rest on donation chair after donation (vs current 2 min); (iii) new modified AMT (vs current practice of AMT); and (iv) psychosocial intervention using preparatory materials (vs current practice of nothing). The primary outcome is the number of in-session VVRs with loss of consciousness (i.e. episodes involving loss of consciousness of any duration, with or without additional complications). Secondary outcomes include all in-session VVRs (i.e. with and without loss of consciousness), all delayed VVRs (i.e. those occurring after leaving the venue) and any in-session non-VVR adverse events or reactions.

Discussion

The STRIDES trial should yield novel information about interventions, singly and in combination, for the prevention of VVRs, with the aim of generating policy-shaping evidence to help inform blood services to improve donor health, donor experience, and service efficiency.

Trial registration

ISRCTN: 10412338. Registration date: October 24, 2019.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07473-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10413586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10413586?pdf=render @@ -1034,27 +1034,27 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 35816976,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.06.044,Anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation in people with serious mental illness in the general hospital setting.,"Farran D, Bean D, Wang T, Msosa Y, Casetta C, Dobson R, Teo JT, Scott P, Gaughran F.",,Journal of psychiatric research,2022,2022-06-28,N,Atrial fibrillation; Warfarin; Serious Mental Illness; Oral Anticoagulation; Doacs,,,"

Objective

People with serious mental illnesses (SMI) have an increased risk of stroke compared to the general population. This study aims to evaluate oral anticoagulation prescription trends in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with and without a comorbid SMI.

Methods

An open-source retrieval system for clinical data (CogStack) was used to identify a cohort of AF patients with SMI who ever had an inpatient admission to King's College Hospital from 2011 to 2020. A Natural Language Processing pipeline was used to calculate CHA2DS2-VASc and HASBLED risk scores from Electronic Health Records free text. Antithrombotic prescriptions of warfarin and Direct acting oral anti-coagulants (DOACs) (apixaban, rivaroxaban, dabigatran, edoxaban) were extracted from discharge summaries.

Results

Among patients included in the study (n = 16 916), 2.7% had a recorded co-morbid SMI diagnosis. Compared to non-SMI patients, those with SMI had significantly higher CHA2DS2-VASc (mean (SD): 5.3 (1.96) vs 4.7 (2.08), p < 0.001) and HASBLED scores (mean (SD): 3.2 (1.27) vs 2.5 (1.29), p < 0.001). Among AF patients having a CHA2DS2-VASc ≥2, those with co-morbid SMI were less likely than non-SMI patients to be prescribed an OAC (44% vs 54%, p < 0.001). However, there was no evidence of a significant difference between the two groups since 2019.

Conclusion

Over recent years, DOAC prescription rates have increased among AF patients with SMI in acute hospitals. More research is needed to confirm whether the introduction of DOACs has reduced OAC treatment gaps in people with serious mental illness and to assess whether the use of DOACs has improved health outcomes in this population.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.06.044; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.06.044 36403308,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102678,DragNet: Learning-based deformable registration for realistic cardiac MR sequence generation from a single frame.,"Zakeri A, Hokmabadi A, Bi N, Wijesinghe I, Nix MG, Petersen SE, Frangi AF, Taylor ZA, Gooya A.",,Medical image analysis,2023,2022-11-02,N,Uncertainty Estimation; Uk Biobank; Deep Learning; Deformable Temporal Image Registration; Sequential Image Data Generation; Variational Recurrent Neural Networks,,,"Deformable image registration (DIR) can be used to track cardiac motion. Conventional DIR algorithms aim to establish a dense and non-linear correspondence between independent pairs of images. They are, nevertheless, computationally intensive and do not consider temporal dependencies to regulate the estimated motion in a cardiac cycle. In this paper, leveraging deep learning methods, we formulate a novel hierarchical probabilistic model, termed DragNet, for fast and reliable spatio-temporal registration in cine cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images and for generating synthetic heart motion sequences. DragNet is a variational inference framework, which takes an image from the sequence in combination with the hidden states of a recurrent neural network (RNN) as inputs to an inference network per time step. As part of this framework, we condition the prior probability of the latent variables on the hidden states of the RNN utilised to capture temporal dependencies. We further condition the posterior of the motion field on a latent variable from hierarchy and features from the moving image. Subsequently, the RNN updates the hidden state variables based on the feature maps of the fixed image and the latent variables. Different from traditional methods, DragNet performs registration on unseen sequences in a forward pass, which significantly expedites the registration process. Besides, DragNet enables generating a large number of realistic synthetic image sequences given only one frame, where the corresponding deformations are also retrieved. The probabilistic framework allows for computing spatio-temporal uncertainties in the estimated motion fields. Our results show that DragNet performance is comparable with state-of-the-art methods in terms of registration accuracy, with the advantage of offering analytical pixel-wise motion uncertainty estimation across a cardiac cycle and being a motion generator. We will make our code publicly available.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102678; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102678 34459398,https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-210462,Assessing Genetic Overlap and Causality Between Blood Plasma Proteins and Alzheimer's Disease.,"Handy A, Lord J, Green R, Xu J, Aarsland D, Velayudhan L, Hye A, Dobson R, Proitsi P, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging initiative, AddNeuroMed, and the GERAD1 Consortium.",,Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Apolipoprotein E; Blood proteins; Alzheimer’s disease; C-reactive Protein; Apolipoprotein B-100; Insulin-like Growth Factor Binding Protein 2; Vitamin D-binding Protein; Mendelian Randomization Analysis; Polygenic Trait,,,"

Background

Blood plasma proteins have been associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but understanding which proteins are on the causal pathway remains challenging.

Objective

Investigate the genetic overlap between candidate proteins and AD using polygenic risk scores (PRS) and interrogate their causal relationship using bi-directional Mendelian randomization (MR).

Methods

Following a literature review, 31 proteins were selected for PRS analysis. PRS were constructed for prioritized proteins with and without the apolipoprotein E region (APOE+/-PRS) and tested for association with AD status across three cohorts (n = 6,244). An AD PRS was also tested for association with protein levels in one cohort (n = 410). Proteins showing association with AD were taken forward for MR.

Results

For APOE ɛ3, apolipoprotein B-100, and C-reactive protein (CRP), protein APOE+ PRS were associated with AD below Bonferroni significance (pBonf, p < 0.00017). No protein APOE- PRS or AD PRS (APOE+/-) passed pBonf. However, vitamin D-binding protein (protein PRS APOE-, p = 0.009) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 2 (AD APOE- PRS p = 0.025, protein APOE- PRS p = 0.045) displayed suggestive signals and were selected for MR. In bi-directional MR, none of the five proteins demonstrated a causal association (p < 0.05) in either direction.

Conclusion

Apolipoproteins and CRP PRS are associated with AD and provide a genetic signal linked to a specific, accessible risk factor. While evidence of causality was limited, this study was conducted in a moderate sample size and provides a framework for larger samples with greater statistical power.",,pdf:https://content.iospress.com:443/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad210462?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad210462; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-210462; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609677?pdf=render -31744503,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y,"Bleeding in cardiac patients prescribed antithrombotic drugs: electronic health record phenotyping algorithms, incidence, trends and prognosis.","Pasea L, Chung SC, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Shah AD, Alvarez-Madrazo S, Allan V, Teo JT, Bean D, Sofat R, Dobson R, Banerjee A, Patel RS, Timmis A, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,BMC medicine,2019,2019-11-20,Y,Phenotype; Bleeding; Prognosis; Antithrombotic Therapy; Electronic Health Records,The Human Phenome,,"

Background

Clinical guidelines and public health authorities lack recommendations on scalable approaches to defining and monitoring the occurrence and severity of bleeding in populations prescribed antithrombotic therapy.

Methods

We examined linked primary care, hospital admission and death registry electronic health records (CALIBER 1998-2010, England) of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina or stable angina with the aim to develop algorithms for bleeding events. Using the developed bleeding phenotypes, Kaplan-Meier plots were used to estimate the incidence of bleeding events and we used Cox regression models to assess the prognosis for all-cause mortality, atherothrombotic events and further bleeding.

Results

We present electronic health record phenotyping algorithms for bleeding based on bleeding diagnosis in primary or hospital care, symptoms, transfusion, surgical procedures and haemoglobin values. In validation of the phenotype, we estimated a positive predictive value of 0.88 (95% CI 0.64, 0.99) for hospitalised bleeding. Amongst 128,815 patients, 27,259 (21.2%) had at least 1 bleeding event, with 5-year risks of bleeding of 29.1%, 21.9%, 25.3% and 23.4% following diagnoses of atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina and stable angina, respectively. Rates of hospitalised bleeding per 1000 patients more than doubled from 1.02 (95% CI 0.83, 1.22) in January 1998 to 2.68 (95% CI 2.49, 2.88) in December 2009 coinciding with the increased rates of antiplatelet and vitamin K antagonist prescribing. Patients with hospitalised bleeding and primary care bleeding, with or without markers of severity, were at increased risk of all-cause mortality and atherothrombotic events compared to those with no bleeding. For example, the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 1.98 (95% CI 1.86, 2.11) for primary care bleeding with markers of severity and 1.99 (95% CI 1.92, 2.05) for hospitalised bleeding without markers of severity, compared to patients with no bleeding.

Conclusions

Electronic health record bleeding phenotyping algorithms offer a scalable approach to monitoring bleeding in the population. Incidence of bleeding has doubled in incidence since 1998, affects one in four cardiovascular disease patients, and is associated with poor prognosis. Efforts are required to tackle this iatrogenic epidemic.",A phenotyping algorithm is presented to monitor bleeding in primary and hospital care. Model is well presented in the document and has potential to be scalable and applied to other conditions.,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929?pdf=render 37101398,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2868,Sex differences in the generalizability of randomized clinical trials in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.,"Schroeder M, Lim YMF, Savarese G, Suzart-Woischnik K, Baudier C, Dyszynski T, Vaartjes I, Eijkemans MJC, Uijl A, Herrera R, Vradi E, Brugts JJ, Brunner-La Rocca HP, Blanc-Guillemaud V, Waechter S, Couvelard F, Tyl B, Fatoba S, Hoes AW, Lund LH, Gerlinger C, Asselbergs FW, Grobbee DE, Cronin M, Koudstaal S.",,European journal of heart failure,2023,2023-05-18,N,Heart Failure; Randomized Clinical Trial; Females; Enrichment Strategies; Standardized Mortality Ratios; Real-world Evidence,,,"

Aims

In order to understand how sex differences impact the generalizability of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in patients with heart failure (HF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), we sought to compare clinical characteristics and clinical outcomes between RCTs and HF observational registries stratified by sex.

Methods and results

Data from two HF registries and five HFrEF RCTs were used to create three subpopulations: one RCT population (n = 16 917; 21.7% females), registry patients eligible for RCT inclusion (n = 26 104; 31.8% females), and registry patients ineligible for RCT inclusion (n = 20 810; 30.2% females). Clinical endpoints included all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and first HF hospitalization at 1 year. Males and females were equally eligible for trial enrolment (56.9% of females and 55.1% of males in the registries). One-year mortality rates were 5.6%, 14.0%, and 28.6% for females and 6.9%, 10.7%, and 24.6% for males in the RCT, RCT-eligible, and RCT-ineligible groups, respectively. After adjusting for 11 HF prognostic variables, RCT females showed higher survival compared to RCT-eligible females (standardized mortality ratio [SMR] 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62-0.83), while RCT males showed higher adjusted mortality rates compared to RCT-eligible males (SMR 1.16; 95% CI 1.09-1.24). Similar results were also found for cardiovascular mortality (SMR 0.89; 95% CI 0.76-1.03 for females, SMR 1.43; 95% CI 1.33-1.53 for males).

Conclusion

Generalizability of HFrEF RCTs differed substantially between the sexes, with females having lower trial participation and female trial participants having lower mortality rates compared to similar females in the registries, while males had higher than expected cardiovascular mortality rates in RCTs compared to similar males in registries.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2868; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2868 +31744503,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y,"Bleeding in cardiac patients prescribed antithrombotic drugs: electronic health record phenotyping algorithms, incidence, trends and prognosis.","Pasea L, Chung SC, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Shah AD, Alvarez-Madrazo S, Allan V, Teo JT, Bean D, Sofat R, Dobson R, Banerjee A, Patel RS, Timmis A, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,BMC medicine,2019,2019-11-20,Y,Phenotype; Bleeding; Prognosis; Antithrombotic Therapy; Electronic Health Records,The Human Phenome,,"

Background

Clinical guidelines and public health authorities lack recommendations on scalable approaches to defining and monitoring the occurrence and severity of bleeding in populations prescribed antithrombotic therapy.

Methods

We examined linked primary care, hospital admission and death registry electronic health records (CALIBER 1998-2010, England) of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina or stable angina with the aim to develop algorithms for bleeding events. Using the developed bleeding phenotypes, Kaplan-Meier plots were used to estimate the incidence of bleeding events and we used Cox regression models to assess the prognosis for all-cause mortality, atherothrombotic events and further bleeding.

Results

We present electronic health record phenotyping algorithms for bleeding based on bleeding diagnosis in primary or hospital care, symptoms, transfusion, surgical procedures and haemoglobin values. In validation of the phenotype, we estimated a positive predictive value of 0.88 (95% CI 0.64, 0.99) for hospitalised bleeding. Amongst 128,815 patients, 27,259 (21.2%) had at least 1 bleeding event, with 5-year risks of bleeding of 29.1%, 21.9%, 25.3% and 23.4% following diagnoses of atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina and stable angina, respectively. Rates of hospitalised bleeding per 1000 patients more than doubled from 1.02 (95% CI 0.83, 1.22) in January 1998 to 2.68 (95% CI 2.49, 2.88) in December 2009 coinciding with the increased rates of antiplatelet and vitamin K antagonist prescribing. Patients with hospitalised bleeding and primary care bleeding, with or without markers of severity, were at increased risk of all-cause mortality and atherothrombotic events compared to those with no bleeding. For example, the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 1.98 (95% CI 1.86, 2.11) for primary care bleeding with markers of severity and 1.99 (95% CI 1.92, 2.05) for hospitalised bleeding without markers of severity, compared to patients with no bleeding.

Conclusions

Electronic health record bleeding phenotyping algorithms offer a scalable approach to monitoring bleeding in the population. Incidence of bleeding has doubled in incidence since 1998, affects one in four cardiovascular disease patients, and is associated with poor prognosis. Efforts are required to tackle this iatrogenic epidemic.",A phenotyping algorithm is presented to monitor bleeding in primary and hospital care. Model is well presented in the document and has potential to be scalable and applied to other conditions.,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929?pdf=render 35508365,https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2021-044513,Prevalence of alcohol and other drug use in patients presenting to hospital for fall-related injuries: a systematic review.,"Lau G, Ang JY, Kim N, Gabbe BJ, Mitra B, Dietze PM, Reeder S, Beck B.",,Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention,2022,2022-05-04,N,Drugs; Alcohol; Fall; Systematic review; Metanalysis,,,"

Background

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is a key preventable risk factor for serious injuries. Prevention strategies to date have largely focused on transport injuries, despite AOD use being a significant risk factor for other injury causes, including falls. This systematic review aimed to report the prevalence of AOD use in patients presenting to hospital for fall-related injuries.

Methods

This systematic review includes studies published in English after the year 2010 that objectively measured the prevalence of AOD use in patients presenting to hospital for a fall-related injury. Screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessments were completed by two independent reviewers. Data were presented using narrative synthesis and, where appropriate, meta-analyses.

Results

A total of 12 707 records were screened. Full texts were retrieved for 2042 records, of which 29 were included. Four studies reported the combined prevalence of any alcohol and/or drug use, generating a pooled prevalence estimate of 37% (95% CI 25% to 49%). Twenty-two records reported on the prevalence of acute alcohol use alone and nine reported specifically on the prevalence of drugs other than alcohol, with prevalence ranging from 2% to 57% and 7% to 46%, respectively. The variation in prevalence estimates likely resulted from differences in toxicology testing methods across studies.

Conclusions

AOD exposure was common in hospitalised fall-related injuries. However, research addressing prevalence across different types of falls and the use of drugs other than alcohol was limited. Future research should address these areas to improve our understanding of which populations should be targeted in AOD and injury prevention strategies .

Prospero registration number

CRD42020188746.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2021-044513 36810251,https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.156643,Development of antidrug antibodies against adalimumab maps to variation within the HLA-DR peptide-binding groove.,"Tsakok T, Saklatvala J, Rispens T, Loeff FC, de Vries A, Allen MH, Barbosa IA, Baudry D, Dasandi T, Duckworth M, Meynell F, Russell A, Chapman A, McBride S, McKenna K, Perera G, Ramsay H, Ramesh R, Sands K, Shipman A, Biomarkers of Systemic Treatment Outcomes in Psoriasis (BSTOP) Study Group, Burden AD, Griffiths CE, Reynolds NJ, Warren RB, Mahil S, Barker J, Dand N, Smith C, Simpson MA.",,JCI insight,2023,2023-02-22,Y,Genetics; Drug therapy; Molecular genetics; Therapeutics; adaptive immunity,,,"Targeted biologic therapies can elicit an undesirable host immune response characterized by the development of antidrug antibodies (ADA), an important cause of treatment failure. The most widely used biologic across immune-mediated diseases is adalimumab, a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor. This study aimed to identify genetic variants that contribute to the development of ADA against adalimumab, thereby influencing treatment failure. In patients with psoriasis on their first course of adalimumab, in whom serum ADA had been evaluated 6-36 months after starting treatment, we observed a genome-wide association with ADA against adalimumab within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The association signal mapped to the presence of tryptophan at position 9 and lysine at position 71 of the HLA-DR peptide-binding groove, with both residues conferring protection against ADA. Underscoring their clinical relevance, these residues were also protective against treatment failure. Our findings highlight antigenic peptide presentation via MHC class II as a critical mechanism in the development of ADA against biologic therapies and downstream treatment response.",,pdf:http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/156643/files/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.156643; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9977494; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9977494?pdf=render -35038301,https://doi.org/10.2196/30523,Requirements for a Bespoke Intensive Care Unit Dashboard in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Semistructured Interview Study.,"Davidson B, Ferrer Portillo KM, Wac M, McWilliams C, Bourdeaux C, Craddock I.",,JMIR human factors,2022,2022-04-13,Y,Development; Monitoring; Design; Disease monitoring; ICU; Interview; Intensive Care; Critical Care; Ehealth; Dashboard; Human-centered Design; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Intensive care units (ICUs) around the world are in high demand due to patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. As researchers at the University of Bristol, we were approached to develop a bespoke data visualization dashboard to assist two local ICUs during the pandemic that will centralize disparate data sources in the ICU to help reduce the cognitive load on busy ICU staff in the ever-evolving pandemic.

Objective

The aim of this study was to conduct interviews with ICU staff in University Hospitals Bristol and Weston National Health Service Foundation Trust to elicit requirements for a bespoke dashboard to monitor the high volume of patients, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted six semistructured interviews with clinical staff to obtain an overview of their requirements for the dashboard and to ensure its ultimate suitability for end users. Interview questions aimed to understand the job roles undertaken in the ICU, potential uses of the dashboard, specific issues associated with managing COVID-19 patients, key data of interest, and any concerns about the introduction of a dashboard into the ICU.

Results

From our interviews, we found the following design requirements: (1) a flexible dashboard, where the functionality can be updated quickly and effectively to respond to emerging information about the management of this new disease; (2) a mobile dashboard, which allows staff to move around on wards with a dashboard, thus potentially replacing paper forms to enable detailed and consistent data entry; (3) a customizable and intuitive dashboard, where individual users would be able to customize the appearance of the dashboard to suit their role; (4) real-time data and trend analysis via informative data visualizations that help busy ICU staff to understand a patient's clinical trajectory; and (5) the ability to manage tasks and staff, tracking both staff and patient movements, handovers, and task monitoring to ensure the highest quality of care.

Conclusions

The findings of this study confirm that digital solutions for ICU use would potentially reduce the cognitive load of ICU staff and reduce clinical errors at a time of notably high demand of intensive health care.",,pdf:https://humanfactors.jmir.org/2022/2/e30523/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/30523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009380 35776955,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac039,One step closer to quantifying 'clinical likelihood' in pre-test probability.,"Weir-McCall JR, Williams MC, Wood A.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2022,2022-09-01,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9442847; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9442847?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac039 +35038301,https://doi.org/10.2196/30523,Requirements for a Bespoke Intensive Care Unit Dashboard in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Semistructured Interview Study.,"Davidson B, Ferrer Portillo KM, Wac M, McWilliams C, Bourdeaux C, Craddock I.",,JMIR human factors,2022,2022-04-13,Y,Development; Monitoring; Design; Disease monitoring; ICU; Interview; Intensive Care; Critical Care; Ehealth; Dashboard; Human-centered Design; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Intensive care units (ICUs) around the world are in high demand due to patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. As researchers at the University of Bristol, we were approached to develop a bespoke data visualization dashboard to assist two local ICUs during the pandemic that will centralize disparate data sources in the ICU to help reduce the cognitive load on busy ICU staff in the ever-evolving pandemic.

Objective

The aim of this study was to conduct interviews with ICU staff in University Hospitals Bristol and Weston National Health Service Foundation Trust to elicit requirements for a bespoke dashboard to monitor the high volume of patients, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted six semistructured interviews with clinical staff to obtain an overview of their requirements for the dashboard and to ensure its ultimate suitability for end users. Interview questions aimed to understand the job roles undertaken in the ICU, potential uses of the dashboard, specific issues associated with managing COVID-19 patients, key data of interest, and any concerns about the introduction of a dashboard into the ICU.

Results

From our interviews, we found the following design requirements: (1) a flexible dashboard, where the functionality can be updated quickly and effectively to respond to emerging information about the management of this new disease; (2) a mobile dashboard, which allows staff to move around on wards with a dashboard, thus potentially replacing paper forms to enable detailed and consistent data entry; (3) a customizable and intuitive dashboard, where individual users would be able to customize the appearance of the dashboard to suit their role; (4) real-time data and trend analysis via informative data visualizations that help busy ICU staff to understand a patient's clinical trajectory; and (5) the ability to manage tasks and staff, tracking both staff and patient movements, handovers, and task monitoring to ensure the highest quality of care.

Conclusions

The findings of this study confirm that digital solutions for ICU use would potentially reduce the cognitive load of ICU staff and reduce clinical errors at a time of notably high demand of intensive health care.",,pdf:https://humanfactors.jmir.org/2022/2/e30523/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/30523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009380 32518842,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15786.1,Inferring the number of COVID-19 cases from recently reported deaths.,"Jombart T, van Zandvoort K, Russell TW, Jarvis CI, Gimma A, Abbott S, Clifford S, Funk S, Gibbs H, Liu Y, Pearson CAB, Bosse NI, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Eggo RM, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-04-27,Y,Estimation; Statistics; epidemics; outbreak; Modelling; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"We estimate the number of COVID-19 cases from newly reported deaths in a population without previous reports. Our results suggest that by the time a single death occurs, hundreds to thousands of cases are likely to be present in that population. This suggests containment via contact tracing will be challenging at this point, and other response strategies should be considered. Our approach is implemented in a publicly available, user-friendly, online tool.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15786.1; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15786.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7255910; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7255910?pdf=render 36835444,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24044031,Untargeted Metabolomics Identifies Potential Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Biomarkers in Carriers of MYBPC3 Founder Variants.,"Jansen M, Schuldt M, van Driel BO, Schmidt AF, Christiaans I, van der Crabben SN, Hoedemaekers YM, Dooijes D, Jongbloed JDH, Boven LG, Deprez RHL, Wilde AAM, Jans JJM, van der Velden J, de Boer RA, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.",,International journal of molecular sciences,2023,2023-02-17,Y,Biomarkers; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Metabolomics; Mybpc3,,,"Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most prevalent monogenic heart disease, commonly caused by pathogenic MYBPC3 variants, and a significant cause of sudden cardiac death. Severity is highly variable, with incomplete penetrance among genotype-positive family members. Previous studies demonstrated metabolic changes in HCM. We aimed to identify metabolite profiles associated with disease severity in carriers of MYBPC3 founder variants using direct-infusion high-resolution mass spectrometry in plasma of 30 carriers with a severe phenotype (maximum wall thickness ≥20 mm, septal reduction therapy, congestive heart failure, left ventricular ejection fraction <50%, or malignant ventricular arrhythmia) and 30 age- and sex-matched carriers with no or a mild phenotype. Of the top 25 mass spectrometry peaks selected by sparse partial least squares discriminant analysis, XGBoost gradient boosted trees, and Lasso logistic regression (42 total), 36 associated with severe HCM at a p < 0.05, 20 at p < 0.01, and 3 at p < 0.001. These peaks could be clustered to several metabolic pathways, including acylcarnitine, histidine, lysine, purine and steroid hormone metabolism, and proteolysis. In conclusion, this exploratory case-control study identified metabolites associated with severe phenotypes in MYBPC3 founder variant carriers. Future studies should assess whether these biomarkers contribute to HCM pathogenesis and evaluate their contribution to risk stratification.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/4/4031/pdf?version=1676950066; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24044031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9961357; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9961357?pdf=render -36264615,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.122.003704,Prevalence and Disease Expression of Pathogenic and Likely Pathogenic Variants Associated With Inherited Cardiomyopathies in the General Population.,"Bourfiss M, van Vugt M, Alasiri AI, Ruijsink B, van Setten J, Schmidt AF, Dooijes D, Puyol-Antón E, Velthuis BK, van Tintelen JP, Te Riele ASJM, Baas AF, Asselbergs FW.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2022,2022-10-20,Y,Genetics; Dilated cardiomyopathy; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Whole Exome Sequencing,,,"

Background

Pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are recommended to be reported as secondary findings in genome sequencing studies. This provides opportunities for early diagnosis, but also fuels uncertainty in variant carriers (G+), since disease penetrance is incomplete. We assessed the prevalence and disease expression of G+ in the general population.

Methods

We identified pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and/or HCM in 200 643 UK Biobank individuals, who underwent whole exome sequencing. We calculated the prevalence of G+ and analyzed the frequency of cardiomyopathy/heart failure diagnosis. In undiagnosed individuals, we analyzed early signs of disease expression using available electrocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging data.

Results

We found a prevalence of 1:578, 1:251, and 1:149 for pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and HCM respectively. Compared with controls, cardiovascular mortality was higher in DCM G+ (odds ratio 1.67 [95% CI 1.04; 2.59], P=0.030), but similar in ARVC and HCM G+ (P≥0.100). Cardiomyopathy or heart failure diagnosis were more frequent in DCM G+ (odds ratio 3.66 [95% CI 2.24; 5.81], P=4.9×10-7) and HCM G+ (odds ratio 3.03 [95% CI 1.98; 4.56], P=5.8×10-7), but comparable in ARVC G+ (P=0.172). In contrast, ARVC G+ had more ventricular arrhythmias (P=3.3×10-4). In undiagnosed individuals, left ventricular ejection fraction was reduced in DCM G+ (P=0.009).

Conclusions

In the general population, pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM, or HCM are not uncommon. Although G+ have increased mortality and morbidity, disease penetrance in these carriers from the general population remains low (1.2-3.1%). Follow-up decisions in case of incidental findings should not be based solely on a variant, but on multiple factors, including family history and disease expression.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10160737/3/Asselbergs_hcg-15-e003704.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.122.003704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140?pdf=render 36809311,https://doi.org/10.1093/ejendo/lvad024,The ultra-acute steroid response to traumatic injury: a cohort study.,"Bentley C, Hazeldine J, Bravo L, Taylor AE, Gilligan LC, Shaheen F, Acharjee A, Gkoutos G, Foster MA, Arlt W, Lord JM.",,European journal of endocrinology,2023,2023-03-01,N,Steroids; Mass spectrometry; Glucocorticoids; Major Trauma; 11-Oxygenated Androgens,,,"

Objective

Trauma-induced steroid changes have been studied post-hospital admission, resulting in a lack of understanding of the speed and extent of the immediate endocrine response to injury. The Golden Hour study was designed to capture the ultra-acute response to traumatic injury.

Design

We conducted an observational cohort study including adult male trauma patients <60 years, with blood samples drawn ≤1 h of major trauma by pre-hospital emergency responders.

Methods

We recruited 31 adult male trauma patients (mean age 28 [range 19-59] years) with a mean injury severity score (ISS) of 16 (IQR 10-21). The median time to first sample was 35 (range 14-56) min, with follow-up samples collected 4-12 and 48-72 h post-injury. Serum steroids in patients and age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) (n = 34) were analysed by tandem mass spectrometry.

Results

Within 1 h of injury, we observed an increase in glucocorticoid and adrenal androgen biosynthesis. Cortisol and 11-hydroxyandrostendione increased rapidly, whilst cortisone and 11-ketoandrostenedione decreased, reflective of increased cortisol and 11-oxygenated androgen precursor biosynthesis by 11β-hydroxylase and increased cortisol activation by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1. Active classic gonadal androgens testosterone and 5α-dihydrotestosterone decreased, whilst the active 11-oxygenated androgen 11-ketotestosterone maintained pre-injury levels.

Conclusions

Changes in steroid biosynthesis and metabolism occur within minutes of traumatic injury. Studies that address whether ultra-early changes in steroid metabolism are associated with patient outcomes are now required.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ejendo/article-pdf/188/3/290/49630912/lvad024.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ejendo/lvad024 +36264615,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.122.003704,Prevalence and Disease Expression of Pathogenic and Likely Pathogenic Variants Associated With Inherited Cardiomyopathies in the General Population.,"Bourfiss M, van Vugt M, Alasiri AI, Ruijsink B, van Setten J, Schmidt AF, Dooijes D, Puyol-Antón E, Velthuis BK, van Tintelen JP, Te Riele ASJM, Baas AF, Asselbergs FW.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2022,2022-10-20,Y,Genetics; Dilated cardiomyopathy; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Whole Exome Sequencing,,,"

Background

Pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are recommended to be reported as secondary findings in genome sequencing studies. This provides opportunities for early diagnosis, but also fuels uncertainty in variant carriers (G+), since disease penetrance is incomplete. We assessed the prevalence and disease expression of G+ in the general population.

Methods

We identified pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and/or HCM in 200 643 UK Biobank individuals, who underwent whole exome sequencing. We calculated the prevalence of G+ and analyzed the frequency of cardiomyopathy/heart failure diagnosis. In undiagnosed individuals, we analyzed early signs of disease expression using available electrocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging data.

Results

We found a prevalence of 1:578, 1:251, and 1:149 for pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and HCM respectively. Compared with controls, cardiovascular mortality was higher in DCM G+ (odds ratio 1.67 [95% CI 1.04; 2.59], P=0.030), but similar in ARVC and HCM G+ (P≥0.100). Cardiomyopathy or heart failure diagnosis were more frequent in DCM G+ (odds ratio 3.66 [95% CI 2.24; 5.81], P=4.9×10-7) and HCM G+ (odds ratio 3.03 [95% CI 1.98; 4.56], P=5.8×10-7), but comparable in ARVC G+ (P=0.172). In contrast, ARVC G+ had more ventricular arrhythmias (P=3.3×10-4). In undiagnosed individuals, left ventricular ejection fraction was reduced in DCM G+ (P=0.009).

Conclusions

In the general population, pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM, or HCM are not uncommon. Although G+ have increased mortality and morbidity, disease penetrance in these carriers from the general population remains low (1.2-3.1%). Follow-up decisions in case of incidental findings should not be based solely on a variant, but on multiple factors, including family history and disease expression.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10160737/3/Asselbergs_hcg-15-e003704.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.122.003704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140?pdf=render 36529028,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104942,Defining clinical subtypes of adult asthma using electronic health records: Analysis of a large UK primary care database with external validation.,"Horne EMF, McLean S, Alsallakh MA, Davies GA, Price DB, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.",,International journal of medical informatics,2023,2022-12-07,N,Cluster analysis; Asthma; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Introduction

Asthma is one of the commonest chronic conditions in the world. Subtypes of asthma have been defined, typically from clinical datasets on small, well-characterised subpopulations of asthma patients. We sought to define asthma subtypes from large longitudinal primary care electronic health records (EHRs) using cluster analysis.

Methods

In this retrospective cohort study, we extracted asthma subpopulations from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database (OPCRD) to robustly train and test algorithms, and externally validated findings in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. In both databases, we identified adults with an asthma diagnosis code recorded in the three years prior to an index date. Train and test datasets were selected from OPCRD using an index date of Jan 1, 2016. Two internal validation datasets were selected from OPCRD using index dates of Jan 1, 2017 and 2018. Three external validation datasets were selected from SAIL using index dates of Jan 1, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Each dataset comprised 50,000 randomly selected non-overlapping patients. Subtypes were defined by applying multiple correspondence analysis and k-means cluster analysis to the train dataset, and were validated in the internal and external validation datasets.

Results

We defined six asthma subtypes with clear clinical interpretability: low inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use and low healthcare utilisation (30% of patients); low-to-medium ICS use (36%); low-to-medium ICS use and comorbidities (12%); varied ICS use and comorbid chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (4%); high (10%) and very high ICS use (7%). The subtypes were replicated with high accuracy in internal (91-92%) and external (84-86%) datasets.

Conclusion

Asthma subtypes derived and validated in large independent EHR databases were primarily defined by level of ICS use, level of healthcare use, and presence of comorbidities. This has important clinical implications towards defining asthma subtypes, facilitating patient stratification, and developing more personalised monitoring and treatment strategies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104942; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104942 36691123,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063199,Feasibility of a new electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) system for an advanced therapy clinical trial in immune-mediated inflammatory disease (PROmics): protocol for a qualitative feasibility study.,"Hughes SE, McMullan C, Rowe A, Retzer A, Malpass R, Bathurst C, Davies EH, Frost C, McNamara G, Harding R, Price G, Wilson R, Walker A, Newsome PN, Calvert M.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-09-06,Y,information technology; immunology; Hepatology; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Rheumatology,,,"

Introduction

The use of electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) systems to capture PRO data in clinical trials is increasing; however, their feasibility, acceptability and utility in clinical trials of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are not yet well understood. This protocol describes a qualitative study that aims to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of ePRO data capture using a trial-specific ePRO system (the PROmics system) within an advanced therapy trial involving patients with immune-mediated inflammatory disease (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and Crohn's disease).

Methods and analysis

This protocol for a remote, qualitative, interview-based feasibility study is embedded within the POLARISE trial, a single-arm, phase II, multisite ATMP basket trial in the UK. 10-15 patients enrolled in the POLARISE trial and 10-15 research team members at the trial sites will be recruited. Participants will take part in semistructured interviews which will be transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically according to the framework method. Data collection and analysis will occur concurrently and iteratively. Researcher triangulation will be used to achieve a consensus-based analysis, enhancing rigour and trustworthiness.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was approved by the London-West London and GTAC Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 21/LO/0475). Informed consent will be obtained from all participants prior to data collection. The study findings will be published in peer-review journals and disseminated via conference presentations and other media. Our patient and public involvement and engagement group and ATMP stakeholder networks will be consulted to maximise dissemination and impact.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN80103507.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e063199.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063199; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453996; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453996?pdf=render 34137744,https://doi.org/10.1097/ta.0000000000003317,Association between type 2 diabetes and long-term outcomes in middle-aged and older trauma patients.,"Daly SL, Gabbe BJ, Climie RE, Ekegren CL.",,The journal of trauma and acute care surgery,2022,2022-01-01,N,,,,"

Background

Diabetes is associated with increased hospital complications and mortality following trauma. However, there is limited research on the longer-term recovery of trauma patients with diabetes. The aim of this study was to explore the association between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and in-hospital and 24-month outcomes in major trauma patients.

Methods

In this cohort study using the Victorian State Trauma Registry, middle-aged and older adults (≥45 years) with major trauma were followed up at 24 months postinjury. Logistic regression (univariable and multivariable) analyses were used to determine the association between diabetes status and 24-month patient-reported outcomes. In-hospital outcomes were compared between groups using χ2 tests.

Results

Of the 11,490 participants who survived to hospital discharge, 8,493 survived to 24 months postinjury and were followed up at that time point: 953 people (11%) with and 7540 (89%) without T2D. People with T2D had a higher in-hospital death rate (19%) compared with people without T2D (16%; p < 0.001). After adjusting for confounders, people with T2D had poorer outcomes 24 months postinjury than people without T2D, with respect to functional recovery (Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended) (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48-0.69) and return to work/study (AOR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.37-0.71]). People with T2D experienced higher odds of problems with mobility (AOR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.60-2.30), self-care (AOR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.64, 2.29), usual activities (AOR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.26-1.79), pain and discomfort (AOR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.49-2.07), anxiety and depression (AOR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.24, 1.70), and self-reported disability (AOR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.28-1.79) than people without T2D.

Conclusion

Major trauma patients with T2D have a poorer prognosis than patients without T2D, both during their hospital admission and 24 months postinjury. Patients with T2D may need additional health care and support following trauma to reach their recovery potential.

Level of evidence

Prognostic, level III.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/TA.0000000000003317 35025917,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261142,Inpatient COVID-19 mortality has reduced over time: Results from an observational cohort.,"Bechman K, Yates M, Mann K, Nagra D, Smith LJ, Rutherford AI, Patel A, Periselneris J, Walder D, Dobson RJB, Kraljevic Z, Teo JHT, Bernal W, Barker R, Galloway JB, Norton S.",,PloS one,2022,2022-01-13,Y,,,,"

Background

The Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has seen two waves; the first starting in March 2020 and the second in late October 2020. It is not known whether outcomes for those admitted with severe Covid were different in the first and second waves.

Methods

The study population comprised all patients admitted to a 1,500-bed London Hospital Trust between March 2020 and March 2021, who tested positive for Covid-19 by PCR within 3-days of admissions. Primary outcome was death within 28-days of admission. Socio-demographics (age, sex, ethnicity), hypertension, diabetes, obesity, baseline physiological observations, CRP, neutrophil, chest x-ray abnormality, remdesivir and dexamethasone were incorporated as co-variates. Proportional subhazards models compared mortality risk between wave 1 and wave 2. Cox-proportional hazard model with propensity score adjustment were used to compare mortality in patients prescribed remdesivir and dexamethasone.

Results

There were 3,949 COVID-19 admissions, 3,195 hospital discharges and 733 deaths. There were notable differences in age, ethnicity, comorbidities, and admission disease severity between wave 1 and wave 2. Twenty-eight-day mortality was higher during wave 1 (26.1% versus 13.1%). Mortality risk adjusted for co-variates was significantly lower in wave 2 compared to wave 1 [adjSHR 0.49 (0.37, 0.65) p<0.001]. Analysis of treatment impact did not show statistically different effects of remdesivir [HR 0.84 (95%CI 0.65, 1.08), p = 0.17] or dexamethasone [HR 0.97 (95%CI 0.70, 1.35) p = 0.87].

Conclusion

There has been substantial improvements in COVID-19 mortality in the second wave, even accounting for demographics, comorbidity, and disease severity. Neither dexamethasone nor remdesivir appeared to be key explanatory factors, although there may be unmeasured confounding present.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261142&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757902?pdf=render -35210898,https://doi.org/10.2147/por.s353400,Deriving a Standardised Recommended Respiratory Disease Codelist Repository for Future Research.,"MacRae C, Whittaker H, Mukherjee M, Daines L, Morgan A, Iwundu C, Alsallakh M, Vasileiou E, O'Rourke E, Williams AT, Stone PW, Sheikh A, Quint JK.",,Pragmatic and observational research,2022,2022-02-16,Y,Asthma; COPD; Respiratory Tract Infections; Electronic Healthcare Records,,,"

Background

Electronic health record (EHR) databases provide rich, longitudinal data on interactions with healthcare providers and can be used to advance research into respiratory conditions. However, since these data are primarily collected to support health care delivery, clinical coding can be inconsistent, resulting in inherent challenges in using these data for research purposes.

Methods

We systematically searched existing international literature and UK code repositories to find respiratory disease codelists for asthma from January 2018, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and respiratory tract infections from January 2020, based on prior searches. Medline searches using key terms provided in article lists. Full-text articles, supplementary files, and reference lists were examined for codelists, and codelists repositories were searched. A reproducible methodology for codelists creation was developed with recommended lists for each disease created based on multidisciplinary expert opinion and previously published literature.

Results

Medline searches returned 1126 asthma articles, 70 COPD articles, and 90 respiratory infection articles, with 3%, 22% and 5% including codelists, respectively. Repository searching returned 12 asthma, 23 COPD, and 64 respiratory infection codelists. We have systematically compiled respiratory disease codelists and from these derived recommended lists for use by researchers to find the most up-to-date and relevant respiratory disease codelists that can be tailored to individual research questions.

Conclusion

Few published papers include codelists, and where published diverse codelists were used, even when answering similar research questions. Whilst some advances have been made, greater consistency and transparency across studies using routine data to study respiratory diseases are needed.",,pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=78337; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/POR.S353400; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726?pdf=render 34125897,https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab449,DGLinker: flexible knowledge-graph prediction of disease-gene associations.,"Hu J, Lepore R, Dobson RJB, Al-Chalabi A, M Bean D, Iacoangeli A.",,Nucleic acids research,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"As a result of the advent of high-throughput technologies, there has been rapid progress in our understanding of the genetics underlying biological processes. However, despite such advances, the genetic landscape of human diseases has only marginally been disclosed. Exploiting the present availability of large amounts of biological and phenotypic data, we can use our current understanding of disease genetics to train machine learning models to predict novel genetic factors associated with the disease. To this end, we developed DGLinker, a webserver for the prediction of novel candidate genes for human diseases given a set of known disease genes. DGLinker has a user-friendly interface that allows non-expert users to exploit biomedical information from a wide range of biological and phenotypic databases, and/or to upload their own data, to generate a knowledge-graph and use machine learning to predict new disease-associated genes. The webserver includes tools to explore and interpret the results and generates publication-ready figures. DGLinker is available at https://dglinker.rosalind.kcl.ac.uk. The webserver is free and open to all users without the need for registration.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab449; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8262728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8262728?pdf=render 33342219,https://doi.org/10.1161/circoutcomes.120.007085,Estimating the Effect of Reduced Attendance at Emergency Departments for Suspected Cardiac Conditions on Cardiac Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic.,"Katsoulis M, Gomes M, Lai AG, Henry A, Denaxas S, Lagiou P, Nafilyan V, Humberstone B, Banerjee A, Hemingway H, Lumbers RT.",,Circulation. Cardiovascular quality and outcomes,2021,2020-12-20,Y,"Cardiovascular diseases; Coronavirus; Pandemic; Heart Disease; Death, Sudden, Cardiac",,,,,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007085; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007085; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819531?pdf=render +35210898,https://doi.org/10.2147/por.s353400,Deriving a Standardised Recommended Respiratory Disease Codelist Repository for Future Research.,"MacRae C, Whittaker H, Mukherjee M, Daines L, Morgan A, Iwundu C, Alsallakh M, Vasileiou E, O'Rourke E, Williams AT, Stone PW, Sheikh A, Quint JK.",,Pragmatic and observational research,2022,2022-02-16,Y,Asthma; COPD; Respiratory Tract Infections; Electronic Healthcare Records,,,"

Background

Electronic health record (EHR) databases provide rich, longitudinal data on interactions with healthcare providers and can be used to advance research into respiratory conditions. However, since these data are primarily collected to support health care delivery, clinical coding can be inconsistent, resulting in inherent challenges in using these data for research purposes.

Methods

We systematically searched existing international literature and UK code repositories to find respiratory disease codelists for asthma from January 2018, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and respiratory tract infections from January 2020, based on prior searches. Medline searches using key terms provided in article lists. Full-text articles, supplementary files, and reference lists were examined for codelists, and codelists repositories were searched. A reproducible methodology for codelists creation was developed with recommended lists for each disease created based on multidisciplinary expert opinion and previously published literature.

Results

Medline searches returned 1126 asthma articles, 70 COPD articles, and 90 respiratory infection articles, with 3%, 22% and 5% including codelists, respectively. Repository searching returned 12 asthma, 23 COPD, and 64 respiratory infection codelists. We have systematically compiled respiratory disease codelists and from these derived recommended lists for use by researchers to find the most up-to-date and relevant respiratory disease codelists that can be tailored to individual research questions.

Conclusion

Few published papers include codelists, and where published diverse codelists were used, even when answering similar research questions. Whilst some advances have been made, greater consistency and transparency across studies using routine data to study respiratory diseases are needed.",,pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=78337; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/POR.S353400; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726?pdf=render 36721180,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6,Tracking health system performance in times of crisis using routine health data: lessons learned from a multicountry consortium.,"Turcotte-Tremblay AM, Leerapan B, Akweongo P, Amponsah F, Aryal A, Asai D, Awoonor-Williams JK, Ayele W, Bauhoff S, Doubova SV, Gadeka DD, Dulal M, Gage A, Gordon-Strachan G, Haile-Mariam D, Joseph JP, Kaewkamjornchai P, Kapoor NR, Gelaw SK, Kim MK, Kruk ME, Kubota S, Margozzini P, Mehata S, Mthethwa L, Nega A, Oh J, Park SK, Passi-Solar A, Perez Cuevas RE, Reddy T, Rittiphairoj T, Sapag JC, Thermidor R, Tlou B, Arsenault C.",,Health research policy and systems,2023,2023-01-31,Y,Quality Of Care; Health Systems; Routine Health Information Systems; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 has prompted the use of readily available administrative data to track health system performance in times of crisis and to monitor disruptions in essential healthcare services. In this commentary we describe our experience working with these data and lessons learned across countries. Since April 2020, the Quality Evidence for Health System Transformation (QuEST) network has used administrative data and routine health information systems (RHIS) to assess health system performance during COVID-19 in Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Republic of Korea and Thailand. We compiled a large set of indicators related to common health conditions for the purpose of multicountry comparisons. The study compiled 73 indicators. A total of 43% of the indicators compiled pertained to reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH). Only 12% of the indicators were related to hypertension, diabetes or cancer care. We also found few indicators related to mental health services and outcomes within these data systems. Moreover, 72% of the indicators compiled were related to volume of services delivered, 18% to health outcomes and only 10% to the quality of processes of care. While several datasets were complete or near-complete censuses of all health facilities in the country, others excluded some facility types or population groups. In some countries, RHIS did not capture services delivered through non-visit or nonconventional care during COVID-19, such as telemedicine. We propose the following recommendations to improve the analysis of administrative and RHIS data to track health system performance in times of crisis: ensure the scope of health conditions covered is aligned with the burden of disease, increase the number of indicators related to quality of care and health outcomes; incorporate data on nonconventional care such as telehealth; continue improving data quality and expand reporting from private sector facilities; move towards collecting patient-level data through electronic health records to facilitate quality-of-care assessment and equity analyses; implement more resilient and standardized health information technologies; reduce delays and loosen restrictions for researchers to access the data; complement routine data with patient-reported data; and employ mixed methods to better understand the underlying causes of service disruptions.",,pdf:https://health-policy-systems.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9888332; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9888332?pdf=render -37319288,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264,Evaluation of data processing pipelines on real-world electronic health records data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity.,"Pikoula M, Kallis C, Madjiheurem S, Quint JK, Bafadhel M, Denaxas S.",,PloS one,2023,2023-06-15,Y,,,,"

Background

The ever-growing size, breadth, and availability of patient data allows for a wide variety of clinical features to serve as inputs for phenotype discovery using cluster analysis. Data of mixed types in particular are not straightforward to combine into a single feature vector, and techniques used to address this can be biased towards certain data types in ways that are not immediately obvious or intended. In this context, the process of constructing clinically meaningful patient representations from complex datasets has not been systematically evaluated.

Aims

Our aim was to a) outline and b) implement an analytical framework to evaluate distinct methods of constructing patient representations from routine electronic health record data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity. We applied the analysis on a patient cohort diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Methods

Using data from the CALIBER data resource, we extracted clinically relevant features for a cohort of patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We used four different data processing pipelines to construct lower dimensional patient representations from which we calculated patient similarity scores. We described the resulting representations, ranked the influence of each individual feature on patient similarity and evaluated the effect of different pipelines on clustering outcomes. Experts evaluated the resulting representations by rating the clinical relevance of similar patient suggestions with regard to a reference patient.

Results

Each of the four pipelines resulted in similarity scores primarily driven by a unique set of features. It was demonstrated that data transformations according to each pipeline prior to clustering can result in a variation of clustering results of over 40%. The most appropriate pipeline was selected on the basis of feature ranking and clinical expertise. There was moderate agreement between clinicians as measured by Cohen's kappa coefficient.

Conclusions

Data transformation has downstream and unforeseen consequences in cluster analysis. Rather than viewing this process as a black box, we have shown ways to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate and select the appropriate preprocessing pipeline.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287264&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623?pdf=render 30729733,https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12512,Predictors of objectively measured physical activity in 12-month-old infants: A study of linked birth cohort data with electronic health records.,"Raza H, Zhou SM, Todd C, Christian D, Marchant E, Morgan K, Khanom A, Hill R, Lyons RA, Brophy S.",,Pediatric obesity,2019,2019-02-06,Y,Gestation; Infants; postnatal development; Physical Activity,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Physical activity (PA) levels are associated with long-term health, and levels of PA when young are predictive of adult activity levels.

Objectives

This study examines factors associated with PA levels in 12-month infants.

Method

One hundred forty-one mother-infant pairs were recruited via a longitudinal birth cohort study (April 2010 to March 2013). The PA level was collected using accelerometers and linked to postnatal notes and electronic medical records via the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank. Univariable and multivariable linear regressions were used to examine the factors associated with PA levels.

Results

Using univariable analysis, higher PA was associated with the following (P value less than 0.05): being male, larger infant size, healthy maternal blood pressure levels, full-term gestation period, higher consumption of vegetables (infant), lower consumption of juice (infant), low consumption of adult crisps (infant), longer breastfeeding duration, and more movement during sleep (infant) but fewer night wakings. Combined into a multivariable regression model (R2  = 0.654), all factors remained significant, showing lower PA levels were associated with female gender, smaller infant, preterm birth, higher maternal blood pressure, low vegetable consumption, high crisp consumption, and less night movement.

Conclusion

The PA levels of infants were strongly associated with both gestational and postnatal environmental factors. Healthy behaviours appear to cluster, and a healthy diet was associated with a more active infant. Boys were substantially more active than girls, even at age 12 months. These findings can help inform interventions to promote healthier lives for infants and to understand the determinants of their PA levels.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ijpo.12512; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12512; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563068; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563068?pdf=render 32894757,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa138,Short physical performance battery as a practical tool to assess mortality risk in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.,"Fermont JM, Mohan D, Fisk M, Bolton CE, Macnee W, Cockcroft JR, McEniery C, Fuld J, Cheriyan J, Tal-Singer R, Müllerova H, Wood AM, Wilkinson IB, Polkey MI, ERICA consortium.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Mortality; Skeletal muscle; Biomarkers; Older People; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,,,"

Rationale

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of mortality and common in older adults. The BODE Index is the most recognised mortality risk score in COPD but includes a 6-minute walk test (6MWT) that is seldom available in practise; the BODE Index may be better adopted if the 6MWT was replaced.

Objectives

we investigated whether a modified BODE Index in which 6MWT was replaced by an alternative measure of physical capacity, specifically the short physical performance battery (SPPB) or components, retained its predictive ability for mortality in individuals with COPD.

Methods

we analysed 630 COPD patients from the ERICA cohort study for whom UK Office for National Statistics verified mortality data were available. Variables tested at baseline included spirometry, 6MWT, SPPB and its components (4-m gait speed test [4MGS], chair stand and balance). Predictive models were developed using stratified multivariable Cox regression, and assessed by C-indices and calibration plots with 10-fold cross-validation and replication.

Results

during median 2 years of follow-up, 60 (10%) individuals died. There was no significant difference between the discriminative ability of BODE6MWT (C-index 0.709, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.680-0.737), BODESPPB (C-index 0.683, 95% CI, 0.647-0.712), BODE4MGS (C-index 0.676, 95% CI, 0.643-0.700) and BODEBALANCE (C-index 0.686, 95% CI, 0.651-0.713) for predicting mortality.

Conclusions

the SPPB, and its 4MGS and balance components, can potentially be used as an alternative to the 6MWT in the BODE Index without significant loss of predictive ability in all-cause mortality.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/3/795/37807880/afaa138.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa138; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8098797; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8098797?pdf=render +37319288,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264,Evaluation of data processing pipelines on real-world electronic health records data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity.,"Pikoula M, Kallis C, Madjiheurem S, Quint JK, Bafadhel M, Denaxas S.",,PloS one,2023,2023-06-15,Y,,,,"

Background

The ever-growing size, breadth, and availability of patient data allows for a wide variety of clinical features to serve as inputs for phenotype discovery using cluster analysis. Data of mixed types in particular are not straightforward to combine into a single feature vector, and techniques used to address this can be biased towards certain data types in ways that are not immediately obvious or intended. In this context, the process of constructing clinically meaningful patient representations from complex datasets has not been systematically evaluated.

Aims

Our aim was to a) outline and b) implement an analytical framework to evaluate distinct methods of constructing patient representations from routine electronic health record data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity. We applied the analysis on a patient cohort diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Methods

Using data from the CALIBER data resource, we extracted clinically relevant features for a cohort of patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We used four different data processing pipelines to construct lower dimensional patient representations from which we calculated patient similarity scores. We described the resulting representations, ranked the influence of each individual feature on patient similarity and evaluated the effect of different pipelines on clustering outcomes. Experts evaluated the resulting representations by rating the clinical relevance of similar patient suggestions with regard to a reference patient.

Results

Each of the four pipelines resulted in similarity scores primarily driven by a unique set of features. It was demonstrated that data transformations according to each pipeline prior to clustering can result in a variation of clustering results of over 40%. The most appropriate pipeline was selected on the basis of feature ranking and clinical expertise. There was moderate agreement between clinicians as measured by Cohen's kappa coefficient.

Conclusions

Data transformation has downstream and unforeseen consequences in cluster analysis. Rather than viewing this process as a black box, we have shown ways to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate and select the appropriate preprocessing pipeline.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287264&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623?pdf=render 32979970,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31966-8,Models for mortality require tailoring in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic - Authors' reply.,"Banerjee A, Pasea L, Denaxas S, Williams B, Hemingway H.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-09-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673620319668/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31966-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7515579; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7515579?pdf=render 35699189,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.121.024248,Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Attributable Cardiovascular Disease Risk Is Sex Specific.,"Cupido AJ, Asselbergs FW, Schmidt AF, Hovingh GK.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2022,2022-06-14,Y,Genetics; Cardiovascular disease; Risk factor; Sex‐differences,,,"Background Epidemiological studies show that women are generally at lower risk for cardiovascular disease than men. Here, we investigated the sex-specific differential effect of genetically increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other lipid-associated diseases. Methods and Results This is a 2-sample Mendelian randomization study that uses individual participant data from 425 043 participants from the UK Biobank, including 229 279 female participants. An 80-variant LDL-C weighted genetic score was generated. Linear and logistic regression models with interactions were used to identify differences between sex-specific LDL-C effects on lipids, carotid-intima media thickness, and multiple cardiovascular outcomes such as CVD, ischemic heart disease, peripheral artery disease, heart failure, aortic valve disease, type 2 diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and aortic aneurysm and dissection. After correction for multiple testing, we observed that the genetically increased LDL-C effect on CVD events was sex specific: per SD genetically increased LDL-C, female participants had a higher LDL-C increase but an attenuated CVD risk increase compared with male participants (LDL-C: female participants 0.71 mmol/L, 95% CI, 0.70-0.72 and male participants 0.57 mmol/L, 95% CI, 0.56-0.59. P for interaction: 5.03×10-60; CVD: female participants: odds ratio [OR], 1.32; 95% CI 1.24-1.40 and male participants: OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.46-1.58. P for interaction: 9.88×10-5). We also observed attenuated risks for ischemic heart disease and (nominally for) heart failure in female participants, and genetically increased LDL-C results in higher risk for aortic valve disease in female participants compared with male participants. Genetically increased LDL-C was also associated with an attenuated carotid-intima media thickness increase in female participants. We did not observe other significant attenuations. Sensitivity analyses with an unweighted genetic score and sex-specific weighted genetic scores showed similar results. Conclusions We found that genetically increased LDL-C has a sex-specific differential effect on the risk for cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and aortic valve stenosis. Our observations provide evidence that LDL-C might be a less important determinant of CVD in women compared with men, suggesting that male patients might benefit more from LDL-C targeted therapies for CVD management than female patients and warranting investigations into the sex-specific relative contribution of risk factors for CVD.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.121.024248; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.024248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9238661; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9238661?pdf=render 33655501,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19885,Four childhood atopic dermatitis subtypes identified from trajectory and severity of disease and internally validated in a large UK birth cohort.,"Mulick AR, Mansfield KE, Silverwood RJ, Budu-Aggrey A, Roberts A, Custovic A, Pearce N, Irvine AD, Smeeth L, Abuabara K, Langan SM.",,The British journal of dermatology,2021,2021-05-09,N,,,,"

Background

Atopic dermatitis (AD) disease activity and severity is highly variable during childhood. Early attempts to identify subtypes based on disease trajectory have assessed AD presence over time without incorporating severity.

Objectives

To identify childhood AD subtypes from symptom severity and trajectories, and determine associations with genetic risk factors, comorbidities and demographic and environmental variables.

Methods

We split data from children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children birth cohort into development and validation sets. To identify subtypes, we ran latent class analyses in the development set on AD symptom reports up to age 14 years. We regressed identified subtypes on nongenetic variables in mutually adjusted, multiply imputed (genetic: unadjusted, complete case) multinomial regression analyses. We repeated analyses in the validation set and report confirmed results.

Results

There were 11 866 children who contributed to analyses. We identified one Unaffected/Rare class (66% of children) and four AD subtypes: Severe-Frequent (4%), Moderate-Frequent (7%), Moderate-Declining (11%) and Mild-Intermittent (12%). Symptom patterns within the first two subtypes appeared more homogeneous than the last two. Filaggrin (FLG) null mutations, an AD polygenic risk score (PRS), being female, parental AD and comorbid asthma were associated with higher risk for some or all subtypes; FLG, AD-PRS and asthma associations were stronger along a subtype gradient arranged by increasing severity and frequency; FLG and AD-PRS further differentiated some phenotypes from each other.

Conclusions

Considering severity and AD trajectories leads to four well-defined and recognizable subtypes. The differential associations of risk factors among and between subtypes is novel and requires further research.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4660846/7/Mulick_etal_2021_Four-childhood-atopic-dermatitis-subtypes.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8410876; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8410876?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19885 @@ -1062,22 +1062,22 @@ PMC10516571,https://doi.org/,"Editorial: Integrative multi-modal, multi-omics an 30969971,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213435,Are active children and young people at increased risk of injuries resulting in hospital admission or accident and emergency department attendance? Analysis of linked cohort and electronic hospital records in Wales and Scotland.,"Griffiths LJ, Cortina-Borja M, Tingay K, Bandyopadhyay A, Akbari A, DeStavola BL, Bedford H, Lyons RA, Dezateux C.",,PloS one,2019,2019-04-10,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"

Introduction

Children and young people (CYP) are encouraged to increase time spent being physically active, especially in moderate and vigorous intensity pursuits. However, there is limited evidence on the prospective association of activity levels with injuries resulting in use of hospital services. We examined the relationship between objectively-measured physical activity (PA) and subsequent injuries resulting in hospital admissions or accident and emergency department (A&E) attendances, using linked electronic hospital records (EHR) from a nationally representative prospective cohort of CYP in Wales and Scotland.

Methods

We analysed accelerometer-based estimates of moderate to vigorous (MVPA) and vigorous PA (VPA) from 1,585 (777 [46%] boys) seven-year-old Millennium Cohort Study members, living in Wales or Scotland, whose parents consented to linkage of cohort records to EHRs up until their 14th birthday. Negative binomial regression models adjusted by potential individual, household and area-level confounders, were fitted to estimate associations between average daily minutes of MVPA, and VPA (in 10-minute increments), and number of injury-related hospital admissions and/or A&E attendances from age nine to 14 years.

Results

CYP spent a median of 59.5 and 18.1 minutes in MVPA and VPA/day respectively, with boys significantly more active than girls; 47.3% of children experienced at least one injury-related admission or A&E attendance during the study period. Rates of injury-related hospital admission and/or A&E attendance were positively associated with MVPA and VPA in boys but not in girls: respective adjusted incidence rate ratios (95% CI) for boys: 1.09 (1.01, 1.17) and 1.16 (1.00, 1.34), and for girls: 0.94 (0.86, 1.03) and 0.85 (0.69, 1.04).

Conclusion

Boys but not girls who engage in more intense PA at age seven years are at higher risk of injury-related hospital admission or A&E attendance when aged nine to 14 years than their less active peers. This may reflect gender differences in the type and associated risks of activities undertaken. EHRs can make a useful contribution to injury surveillance and prevention if routinely augmented with information on context and setting of the injuries sustained. Injury prevention initiatives should not discourage engagement in PA and outdoor play given their over-riding health and social benefits.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213435&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213435; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6457613; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6457613?pdf=render 37408046,https://doi.org/10.1186/s40545-023-00590-9,Delivering the precision oncology paradigm: reduced R&D costs and greater return on investment through a companion diagnostic informed precision oncology medicines approach.,"Henderson RH, French D, Stewart E, Smart D, Idica A, Redmond S, Eckstein M, Clark J, Sullivan R, Keeling P, Lawler M.",,Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice,2023,2023-07-05,Y,,,,"

Background

Precision oncology medicines represent a paradigm shift compared to non-precision oncology medicines in cancer therapy, in some situations delivering more clinical benefit, and potentially lowering healthcare costs. We determined whether employing a companion diagnostic (CDx) approach during oncology medicines development delivers effective therapies that are within the cost constraints of current health systems. R&D costs of developing a medicine are subject to debate, with average estimates ranging from $765 million (m) to $4.6 billion (b). Our aim was to determine whether precision oncology medicines are cheaper to bring from R&D to market; a secondary goal was to determine whether precision oncology medicines have a greater return on investment (ROI).

Method

Data on oncology medicines approved between 1997 and 2020 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were analysed from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. Data were compiled from 10-K, 10-Q, and 20-F financial performance filings on medicines' development costs through their R&D lifetime. Clinical trial data were split into clinical trial phases 1-3 and probability of success (POS) of trials was calculated, along with preclinical costs. Cost-of-capital (CoC) approach was applied and, if appropriate, a tax rebate was subtracted from the total.

Results

Data on 42 precision and 29 non-precision oncology medicines from 56 companies listed by the National Cancer Institute which had complete data available were analysed. Estimated mean cost to deliver a new oncology medicine was $4.4b (95% CI, $3.6-5.2b). Costs to bring a precision oncology medicine to market were $1.1b less ($3.5b; 95% CI, $2.7-4.5b) compared to non-precision oncology medicines ($4.6b; 95% CI, $3.5-6.1b). The key driver of costs was POS of clinical trials, accounting for a difference of $591.3 m. Additional data analysis illustrated that there was a 27% increase in return on investment (ROI) of precision oncology medicines over non-precision oncology medicines.

Conclusion

Our results provide an accurate estimate of the R&D spend required to bring an oncology medicine to market. Deployment of a CDx at the earliest stage substantially lowers the cost associated with oncology medicines development, potentially making them available to more patients, while staying within the cost constraints of cancer health systems.",,pdf:https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s40545-023-00590-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40545-023-00590-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10320864; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10320864?pdf=render 35684987,https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12571,Assessing the feasibility of a web-based outcome measurement system in child and adolescent mental health services - myHealthE a randomised controlled feasibility pilot study.,"Morris AC, Ibrahim Z, Heslin M, Moghraby OS, Stringaris A, Grant IM, Zalewski L, Pritchard M, Stewart R, Hotopf M, Pickles A, Dobson RJB, Simonoff E, Downs J.",,Child and adolescent mental health,2023,2022-06-09,Y,Child And Adolescent Mental Health; Remote Monitoring; Acceptability; Patient-reported Outcome Measures,,,"

Background

Interest in internet-based patient reported outcome measure (PROM) collection is increasing. The NHS myHealthE (MHE) web-based monitoring system was developed to address the limitations of paper-based PROM completion. MHE provides a simple and secure way for families accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to report clinical information and track their child's progress. This study aimed to assess whether MHE improves the completion of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) compared with paper collection. Secondary objectives were to explore caregiver satisfaction and application acceptability.

Methods

A 12-week single-blinded randomised controlled feasibility pilot trial of MHE was conducted with 196 families accessing neurodevelopmental services in south London to examine whether electronic questionnaires are completed more readily than paper-based questionnaires over a 3-month period. Follow up process evaluation phone calls with a subset (n = 8) of caregivers explored system satisfaction and usability.

Results

MHE group assignment was significantly associated with an increased probability of completing an SDQ-P in the study period (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 12.1, 95% CI 4.7-31.0; p = <.001). Of those caregivers' who received the MHE invitation (n = 68) 69.1% completed an SDQ using the platform compared to 8.8% in the control group (n = 68). The system was well received by caregivers, who cited numerous benefits of using MHE, for example, real-time feedback and ease of completion.

Conclusions

MHE holds promise for improving PROM completion rates. Research is needed to refine MHE, evaluate large-scale MHE implementation, cost effectiveness and explore factors associated with differences in electronic questionnaire uptake.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/camh.12571; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12571; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083915?pdf=render -33096553,https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266,"Association between diet and periodontitis: a cross-sectional study of 10,000 NHANES participants.","Wright DM, McKenna G, Nugent A, Winning L, Linden GJ, Woodside JV.",,The American journal of clinical nutrition,2020,2020-12-01,N,Diet; Periodontitis; Nhanes; Robust Regression; Treelet Transformation,,,"

Background

Periodontitis is a major cause of tooth loss globally. Risk factors include age, smoking, and diabetes. Intake of specific nutrients has been associated with periodontitis risk but there has been little research into the influence of overall diet, potentially more relevant when formulating dietary recommendations.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate potential associations between diet and periodontitis using novel statistical techniques for dietary pattern analysis.

Methods

Two 24-h dietary recalls and periodontal examination data from the cross-sectional US NHANES, 2009-2014 (n = 10,010), were used. Dietary patterns were extracted using treelet transformation, a data-driven hierarchical clustering and dimension reduction technique. Associations between each pattern [treelet component (TC)] and extent of periodontitis [proportion of sites with clinical attachment loss (CAL) ≥ 3 mm] were estimated using robust logistic quantile regression, adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, education level, smoking, BMI, and diabetes.

Results

Eight TCs explained 21% of the variation in diet, 1 of which (TC1) was associated with CAL extent. High TC1 scores represented a diet rich in salad, fruit, vegetables, poultry and seafood, and plain water or tea to drink. There was a substantial negative gradient in CAL extent from the lowest to the highest decile of TC1 (median proportion of sites with CAL ≥ 3 mm: decile 1 = 19.1%, decile 10 = 8.1%; OR, decile 10 compared with decile 1: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.46, 0.99).

Conclusions

Most dietary patterns identified were not associated with periodontitis extent. One pattern, however, rich in salad, fruit, and vegetables and with plain water or tea to drink, was associated with lower CAL extent. Treelet transformation may be a useful approach for calculating dietary patterns in nutrition research.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-pdf/112/6/1485/34844146/nqaa266.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266 37072241,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321888,Incident cardiovascular events and imaging phenotypes in UK Biobank participants with past cancer.,"Raisi-Estabragh Z, Cooper J, McCracken C, Crosbie EJ, Walter FM, Manisty CH, Robson J, Mamas MA, Harvey NC, Neubauer S, Petersen SE.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2023,2023-06-14,Y,epidemiology; Magnetic Resonance Imaging,,,"

Objectives

To evaluate incident cardiovascular outcomes and imaging phenotypes in UK Biobank participants with previous cancer.

Methods

Cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) diagnoses were ascertained using health record linkage. Participants with cancer history (breast, lung, prostate, colorectal, uterus, haematological) were propensity matched on vascular risk factors to non-cancer controls. Competing risk regression was used to calculate subdistribution HRs (SHRs) for associations of cancer history with incident CVD (ischaemic heart disease (IHD), non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy (NICM), heart failure (HF), atrial fibrillation/flutter, stroke, pericarditis, venous thromboembolism (VTE)) and mortality outcomes (any CVD, IHD, HF/NICM, stroke, hypertensive disease) over 11.8±1.7 years of prospective follow-up. Linear regression was used to assess associations of cancer history with left ventricular (LV) and left atrial metrics.

Results

We studied 18 714 participants (67% women, age: 62 (IQR: 57-66) years, 97% white ethnicities) with cancer history, including 1354 individuals with cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Participants with cancer had high burden of vascular risk factors and prevalent CVDs. Haematological cancer was associated with increased risk of all incident CVDs considered (SHRs: 1.92-3.56), larger chamber volumes, lower ejection fractions, and poorer LV strain. Breast cancer was associated with increased risk of selected CVDs (NICM, HF, pericarditis and VTE; SHRs: 1.34-2.03), HF/NICM death, hypertensive disease death, lower LV ejection fraction, and lower LV global function index. Lung cancer was associated with increased risk of pericarditis, HF, and CVD death. Prostate cancer was linked to increased VTE risk.

Conclusions

Cancer history is linked to increased risk of incident CVDs and adverse cardiac remodelling independent of shared vascular risk factors.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2023/03/21/heartjnl-2022-321888.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321888; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314020; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314020?pdf=render +33096553,https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266,"Association between diet and periodontitis: a cross-sectional study of 10,000 NHANES participants.","Wright DM, McKenna G, Nugent A, Winning L, Linden GJ, Woodside JV.",,The American journal of clinical nutrition,2020,2020-12-01,N,Diet; Periodontitis; Nhanes; Robust Regression; Treelet Transformation,,,"

Background

Periodontitis is a major cause of tooth loss globally. Risk factors include age, smoking, and diabetes. Intake of specific nutrients has been associated with periodontitis risk but there has been little research into the influence of overall diet, potentially more relevant when formulating dietary recommendations.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate potential associations between diet and periodontitis using novel statistical techniques for dietary pattern analysis.

Methods

Two 24-h dietary recalls and periodontal examination data from the cross-sectional US NHANES, 2009-2014 (n = 10,010), were used. Dietary patterns were extracted using treelet transformation, a data-driven hierarchical clustering and dimension reduction technique. Associations between each pattern [treelet component (TC)] and extent of periodontitis [proportion of sites with clinical attachment loss (CAL) ≥ 3 mm] were estimated using robust logistic quantile regression, adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, education level, smoking, BMI, and diabetes.

Results

Eight TCs explained 21% of the variation in diet, 1 of which (TC1) was associated with CAL extent. High TC1 scores represented a diet rich in salad, fruit, vegetables, poultry and seafood, and plain water or tea to drink. There was a substantial negative gradient in CAL extent from the lowest to the highest decile of TC1 (median proportion of sites with CAL ≥ 3 mm: decile 1 = 19.1%, decile 10 = 8.1%; OR, decile 10 compared with decile 1: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.46, 0.99).

Conclusions

Most dietary patterns identified were not associated with periodontitis extent. One pattern, however, rich in salad, fruit, and vegetables and with plain water or tea to drink, was associated with lower CAL extent. Treelet transformation may be a useful approach for calculating dietary patterns in nutrition research.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-pdf/112/6/1485/34844146/nqaa266.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266 36929232,https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.28675,Image-Based Biological Heart Age Estimation Reveals Differential Aging Patterns Across Cardiac Chambers.,"Salih AM, Pujadas ER, Campello VM, McCracken C, Harvey NC, Neubauer S, Lekadir K, Nichols TE, Petersen SE, Raisi-Estabragh Z.",,Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI,2023,2023-03-16,N,Aging; Cardiac Imaging; Cardiac Health; Radiomics,,,"

Background

Biological heart age estimation can provide insights into cardiac aging. However, existing studies do not consider differential aging across cardiac regions.

Purpose

To estimate biological age of the left ventricle (LV), right ventricle (RV), myocardium, left atrium, and right atrium using magnetic resonance imaging radiomics phenotypes and to investigate determinants of aging by cardiac region.

Study type

Cross-sectional.

Population

A total of 18,117 healthy UK Biobank participants including 8338 men (mean age = 64.2 ± 7.5) and 9779 women (mean age = 63.0 ± 7.4).

Field strength/sequence

A 1.5 T/balanced steady-state free precession.

Assessment

An automated algorithm was used to segment the five cardiac regions, from which radiomic features were extracted. Bayesian ridge regression was used to estimate biological age of each cardiac region with radiomics features as predictors and chronological age as the output. The ""age gap"" was the difference between biological and chronological age. Linear regression was used to calculate associations of age gap from each cardiac region with socioeconomic, lifestyle, body composition, blood pressure and arterial stiffness, blood biomarkers, mental well-being, multiorgan health, and sex hormone exposures (n = 49).

Statistical test

Multiple testing correction with false discovery method (threshold = 5%).

Results

The largest model error was with RV and the smallest with LV age (mean absolute error in men: 5.26 vs. 4.96 years). There were 172 statistically significant age gap associations. Greater visceral adiposity was the strongest correlate of larger age gaps, for example, myocardial age gap in women (Beta = 0.85, P = 1.69 × 10-26 ). Poor mental health associated with large age gaps, for example, ""disinterested"" episodes and myocardial age gap in men (Beta = 0.25, P = 0.001), as did a history of dental problems (eg LV in men Beta = 0.19, P = 0.02). Higher bone mineral density was the strongest associate of smaller age gaps, for example, myocardial age gap in men (Beta = -1.52, P = 7.44 × 10-6 ).

Data conclusion

This work demonstrates image-based heart age estimation as a novel method for understanding cardiac aging.

Evidence level

1.

Technical efficacy

Stage 1.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jmri.28675; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.28675 30999919,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0805-0,Identifying clinically important COPD sub-types using data-driven approaches in primary care population based electronic health records.,"Pikoula M, Quint JK, Nissen F, Hemingway H, Smeeth L, Denaxas S.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2019,2019-04-18,Y,Cluster analysis; Electronic Health Records; Copd Exacerbations; Copd Epidemiology,The Human Phenome,,"

Background

COPD is a highly heterogeneous disease composed of different phenotypes with different aetiological and prognostic profiles and current classification systems do not fully capture this heterogeneity. In this study we sought to discover, describe and validate COPD subtypes using cluster analysis on data derived from electronic health records.

Methods

We applied two unsupervised learning algorithms (k-means and hierarchical clustering) in 30,961 current and former smokers diagnosed with COPD, using linked national structured electronic health records in England available through the CALIBER resource. We used 15 clinical features, including risk factors and comorbidities and performed dimensionality reduction using multiple correspondence analysis. We compared the association between cluster membership and COPD exacerbations and respiratory and cardiovascular death with 10,736 deaths recorded over 146,466 person-years of follow-up. We also implemented and tested a process to assign unseen patients into clusters using a decision tree classifier.

Results

We identified and characterized five COPD patient clusters with distinct patient characteristics with respect to demographics, comorbidities, risk of death and exacerbations. The four subgroups were associated with 1) anxiety/depression; 2) severe airflow obstruction and frailty; 3) cardiovascular disease and diabetes and 4) obesity/atopy. A fifth cluster was associated with low prevalence of most comorbid conditions.

Conclusions

COPD patients can be sub-classified into groups with differing risk factors, comorbidities, and prognosis, based on data included in their primary care records. The identified clusters confirm findings of previous clustering studies and draw attention to anxiety and depression as important drivers of the disease in young, female patients.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-019-0805-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0805-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6472089; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6472089?pdf=render 33634927,https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16649,Risk factors for surgical site infections following spinal column trauma in an Australian trauma hospital.,"Baroun-Agob L, Liew S, Gabbe B.",,ANZ journal of surgery,2021,2021-02-26,N,Spine; Trauma; Risk factor; Surgical Wound Infection; Orthopaedic Surgery,,,"

Background

There is limited, and often conflicting, data in the literature about the prevalence and risk factors for surgical site infections (SSI) in spine surgery patients, with the majority consisting of elective spine surgery cohorts. Furthermore, there is no reported Australian data regarding rates of SSI in a spinal trauma cohort. The aim of this study is to identify factors associated with SSI following spinal column trauma.

Methods

Adult (16+ years) patients that underwent surgery following emergency admission for spinal trauma between January 2010 and December 2016 at a major trauma centre in Melbourne, Australia, were identified through the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry. The presence of an SSI was confirmed from the electronic medical record. Patient and clinical factors were analysed by SSI status. Generalized Estimating Equations were used to model predictors of SSI, with a P-value <0.05 deemed significant.

Results

Data for 458 patients and 520 surgical wounds were collected. Twenty-six (5.7%) patients developed an SSI. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common microorganism with methicillin-sensitive S. aureus found in 46% of SSI cases. A posterior surgical approach and same site reoperation were predictors of SSI with adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 4.26 (1.22-14.80, P = 0.02) and 4.99 (1.10-22.58, P = 0.04), respectively.

Conclusions

A posterior surgical approach and same site reoperation increased the risk of SSI after spinal trauma. Further research into modifiable associations within these and other factors will help mitigate the risk of SSI and hence decrease the personal and financial costs of this potentially devastating complication.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16649 36289925,https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10102662,"Temporal Evolution of Multiday, Epileptic Functional Networks Prior to Seizure Occurrence.","Laiou P, Biondi A, Bruno E, Viana PF, Winston JS, Rashid Z, Ranjan Y, Conde P, Stewart C, Sun S, Zhang Y, Folarin A, Dobson RJB, Schulze-Bonhage A, Dümpelmann M, Richardson MP, Radar-Cns Consortium.",,Biomedicines,2022,2022-10-21,Y,Epilepsy; EEG; Graph theory; ECG; Functional Network; Seizure Lateralization; Evolving Network,,,"Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, characterized by the occurrence of repeated seizures. Given that epilepsy is considered a network disorder, tools derived from network neuroscience may confer the valuable ability to quantify the properties of epileptic brain networks. In this study, we use well-established brain network metrics (i.e., mean strength, variance of strength, eigenvector centrality, betweenness centrality) to characterize the temporal evolution of epileptic functional networks over several days prior to seizure occurrence. We infer the networks using long-term electroencephalographic recordings from 12 people with epilepsy. We found that brain network metrics are variable across days and show a circadian periodicity. In addition, we found that in 9 out of 12 patients the distribution of the variance of strength in the day (or even two last days) prior to seizure occurrence is significantly different compared to the corresponding distributions on all previous days. Our results suggest that brain network metrics computed fromelectroencephalographic recordings could potentially be used to characterize brain network changes that occur prior to seizures, and ultimately contribute to seizure warning systems.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/10/10/2662/pdf?version=1666684470; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10102662; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9599905; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9599905?pdf=render 36729586,https://doi.org/10.2196/42965,Assessing the Feasibility of a Text-Based Conversational Agent for Asthma Support: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Observational Study.,"Calvo RA, Peters D, Moradbakhti L, Cook D, Rizos G, Schuller B, Kallis C, Wong E, Quint J.",,JMIR research protocols,2023,2023-02-02,Y,Artificial intelligence; Health; Asthma; Health education; Well-being; Behavior Change; Conversational Agent; Chatbot,,,"

Background

Despite efforts, the UK death rate from asthma is the highest in Europe, and 65% of people with asthma in the United Kingdom do not receive the professional care they are entitled to. Experts have recommended the use of digital innovations to help address the issues of poor outcomes and lack of care access. An automated SMS text messaging-based conversational agent (ie, chatbot) created to provide access to asthma support in a familiar format via a mobile phone has the potential to help people with asthma across demographics and at scale. Such a chatbot could help improve the accuracy of self-assessed risk, improve asthma self-management, increase access to professional care, and ultimately reduce asthma attacks and emergencies.

Objective

The aims of this study are to determine the feasibility and usability of a text-based conversational agent that processes a patient's text responses and short sample voice recordings to calculate an estimate of their risk for an asthma exacerbation and then offers follow-up information for lowering risk and improving asthma control; assess the levels of engagement for different groups of users, particularly those who do not access professional services and those with poor asthma control; and assess the extent to which users of the chatbot perceive it as helpful for improving their understanding and self-management of their condition.

Methods

We will recruit 300 adults through four channels for broad reach: Facebook, YouGov, Asthma + Lung UK social media, and the website Healthily (a health self-management app). Participants will be screened, and those who meet inclusion criteria (adults diagnosed with asthma and who use WhatsApp) will be provided with a link to access the conversational agent through WhatsApp on their mobile phones. Participants will be sent scheduled and randomly timed messages to invite them to engage in dialogue about their asthma risk during the period of study. After a data collection period (28 days), participants will respond to questionnaire items related to the quality of the interaction. A pre- and postquestionnaire will measure asthma control before and after the intervention.

Results

This study was funded in March 2021 and started in January 2022. We developed a prototype conversational agent, which was iteratively improved with feedback from people with asthma, asthma nurses, and specialist doctors. Fortnightly reviews of iterations by the clinical team began in September 2022 and are ongoing. This feasibility study will start recruitment in January 2023. The anticipated completion of the study is July 2023. A future randomized controlled trial will depend on the outcomes of this study and funding.

Conclusions

This feasibility study will inform a follow-up pilot and larger randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a conversational agent on asthma outcomes, self-management, behavior change, and access to care.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

PRR1-10.2196/42965.",,pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2023/1/e42965/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42965; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9936366 35264566,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28729-3,Elucidating mechanisms of genetic cross-disease associations at the PROCR vascular disease locus.,"Stacey D, Chen L, Stanczyk PJ, Howson JMM, Mason AM, Burgess S, MacDonald S, Langdown J, McKinney H, Downes K, Farahi N, Peters JE, Basu S, Pankow JS, Tang W, Pankratz N, Sabater-Lleal M, de Vries PS, Smith NL, CHARGE Hemostasis Working Group, Gelinas AD, Schneider DJ, Janjic N, Samani NJ, Ye S, Summers C, Chilvers ER, Danesh J, Paul DS.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-03-09,Y,,,,"Many individual genetic risk loci have been associated with multiple common human diseases. However, the molecular basis of this pleiotropy often remains unclear. We present an integrative approach to reveal the molecular mechanism underlying the PROCR locus, associated with lower coronary artery disease (CAD) risk but higher venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk. We identify PROCR-p.Ser219Gly as the likely causal variant at the locus and protein C as a causal factor. Using genetic analyses, human recall-by-genotype and in vitro experimentation, we demonstrate that PROCR-219Gly increases plasma levels of (activated) protein C through endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) ectodomain shedding in endothelial cells, attenuating leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion and vascular inflammation. We also associate PROCR-219Gly with an increased pro-thrombotic state via coagulation factor VII, a ligand of EPCR. Our study, which links PROCR-219Gly to CAD through anti-inflammatory mechanisms and to VTE through pro-thrombotic mechanisms, provides a framework to reveal the mechanisms underlying similar cross-phenotype associations.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28729-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28729-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907312; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907312?pdf=render -32975552,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573,Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Children and Adolescents Compared With Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.,"Viner RM, Mytton OT, Bonell C, Melendez-Torres GJ, Ward J, Hudson L, Waddington C, Thomas J, Russell S, van der Klis F, Koirala A, Ladhani S, Panovska-Griffiths J, Davies NG, Booy R, Eggo RM.",,JAMA pediatrics,2021,2021-02-01,N,,,,"

Importance

The degree to which children and adolescents are infected by and transmit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is unclear. The role of children and adolescents in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on susceptibility, symptoms, viral load, social contact patterns, and behavior.

Objective

To systematically review the susceptibility to and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children and adolescents compared with adults.

Data sources

PubMed and medRxiv were searched from database inception to July 28, 2020, and a total of 13 926 studies were identified, with additional studies identified through hand searching of cited references and professional contacts.

Study selection

Studies that provided data on the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents (younger than 20 years) compared with adults (20 years and older) derived from contact tracing or population screening were included. Single-household studies were excluded.

Data extraction and synthesis

PRISMA guidelines for abstracting data were followed, which was performed independently by 2 reviewers. Quality was assessed using a critical appraisal checklist for prevalence studies. Random-effects meta-analysis was undertaken.

Main outcomes and measures

Secondary infection rate (contact-tracing studies) or prevalence or seroprevalence (population screening studies) among children and adolescents compared with adults.

Results

A total of 32 studies comprising 41 640 children and adolescents and 268 945 adults met inclusion criteria, including 18 contact-tracing studies and 14 population screening studies. The pooled odds ratio of being an infected contact in children compared with adults was 0.56 (95% CI, 0.37-0.85), with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 94.6%). Three school-based contact-tracing studies found minimal transmission from child or teacher index cases. Findings from population screening studies were heterogenous and were not suitable for meta-analysis. Most studies were consistent with lower seroprevalence in children compared with adults, although seroprevalence in adolescents appeared similar to adults.

Conclusions and relevance

In this meta-analysis, there is preliminary evidence that children and adolescents have lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, with an odds ratio of 0.56 for being an infected contact compared with adults. There is weak evidence that children and adolescents play a lesser role than adults in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at a population level. This study provides no information on the infectivity of children.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/2771181/jamapediatrics_viner_2020_oi_200071_1611604170.25358.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7519436; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573 35487318,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.04.067,Implications of elevated troponin on time-to-surgery in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative: TROP-CABG study).,"Benedetto U, Sinha S, Mulla A, Glampson B, Davies J, Panoulas V, Gautama S, Papadimitriou D, Woods K, Elliott P, Hemingway H, Williams B, Asselbergs FW, Melikian N, Krasopoulos G, Sayeed R, Wendler O, Baig K, Chukwuemeka A, Angelini GD, Sterne JAC, Johnson T, Shah AM, Perera D, Patel RS, Kharbanda R, Channon KM, Mayet J, Kaura A.",,International journal of cardiology,2022,2022-04-27,N,Troponin; Myocardial infarction; Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting; Timing-to-surgery,,,"Implications of elevated troponin on time-to-surgery in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction(NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative:TROP-CABG study). Benedetto et al. BACKGROUND: The optimal timing of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and the utility of pre-operative troponin levels in decision-making remains unclear. We investigated (a) the association between peak pre-operative troponin and survival post-CABG in a large cohort of NSTEMI patients and (b) the interaction between troponin and time-to-surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of 1746 patients (1684 NSTEMI; 62 unstable angina) (mean age 69 ± 11 years,21% female) with recorded troponins that had CABG at five United Kingdom centers between 2010 and 2017. Time-segmented Cox regression was used to investigate the interaction of peak troponin and time-to-surgery on early (within 30 days) and late (beyond 30 days) survival. Average interval from peak troponin to surgery was 9 ± 15 days, with 1466 (84.0%) patients having CABG during the same admission. Sixty patients died within 30-days and another 211 died after a mean follow-up of 4 ± 2 years (30-day survival 0.97 ± 0.004 and 5-year survival 0.83 ± 0.01). Peak troponin was a strong predictor of early survival (adjusted P = 0.002) with a significant interaction with time-to-surgery (P interaction = 0.007). For peak troponin levels <100 times the upper limit of normal, there was no improvement in early survival with longer time-to-surgery. However, in patients with higher troponins, early survival increased progressively with a longer time-to-surgery, till day 10. Peak troponin did not influence survival beyond 30 days (adjusted P = 0.64). CONCLUSIONS: Peak troponin in NSTEMI patients undergoing CABG was a significant predictor of early mortality, strongly influenced the time-to-surgery and may prove to be a clinically useful biomarker in the management of these patients.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.04.067 -37190768,https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796023000276,The mental health of all children in contact with social services: a population-wide record-linkage study in Northern Ireland.,"McKenna S, O'Reilly D, Maguire A.",,Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences,2023,2023-05-16,Y,Mental health; Data Linkage; Children’s Social Care,,,"

Aims

Children in contact with social services are at high risk for mental ill health, but it is not known what proportion of the child population has contact with social services or how risk varies within this group compared to unexposed peers. We aim to quantify the extent and nature of contact with social services within the child population in Northern Ireland (NI) and the association with mental ill health. We also examine which social care experiences identify those most at risk.

Methods

This is a population-based record-linkage study of 497,269 children (aged under 18 years) alive and resident in NI in 2015 using routinely collected health and social care data. Exposure was categorized as (1) no contact, (2) referred but assessed as not in need (NIN), (3) child in need (CIN) and (4) child in care (CIC). Multilevel logistic regression analyses estimated odds ratios (ORs) for mental ill health indicated by receipt of psychotropic medication (antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotics and hypnotics), psychiatric hospital admission and hospital-presenting self-harm or ideation.

Results

Over one in six children (17.2%, n = 85,792) were currently or previously in contact with social services, and almost one child in every 20 (4.8%, n = 23,975) had contact in 2015. Likelihood of any mental ill health outcome increased incrementally with the level of contact with social services relative to unexposed peers: NIN (OR 5.90 [95% confidence interval (CI) 5.10-6.83]), CIN (OR 5.99 [95% CI 5.50-6.53]) and CIC (OR 12.60 [95% CI 10.63-14.95]). All tiers of contact, number of referrals, number of care episodes and placement type were strongly associated with the likelihood of mental ill health.

Conclusion

Children who have contact with social services account for a large and disproportionate amount of mental ill health in the child population. Likelihood of poor mental health across indicators is highest in care experienced children but also extends to the much larger population of children in contact with social services but never in care. Findings suggest a need for targeted mental health screening and enhanced support for all children in contact with social services.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A60E6D761449A937DCE08F3A075B236D/S2045796023000276a.pdf/div-class-title-the-mental-health-of-all-children-in-contact-with-social-services-a-population-wide-record-linkage-study-in-northern-ireland-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796023000276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10227534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10227534?pdf=render +32975552,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573,Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Children and Adolescents Compared With Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.,"Viner RM, Mytton OT, Bonell C, Melendez-Torres GJ, Ward J, Hudson L, Waddington C, Thomas J, Russell S, van der Klis F, Koirala A, Ladhani S, Panovska-Griffiths J, Davies NG, Booy R, Eggo RM.",,JAMA pediatrics,2021,2021-02-01,N,,,,"

Importance

The degree to which children and adolescents are infected by and transmit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is unclear. The role of children and adolescents in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on susceptibility, symptoms, viral load, social contact patterns, and behavior.

Objective

To systematically review the susceptibility to and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children and adolescents compared with adults.

Data sources

PubMed and medRxiv were searched from database inception to July 28, 2020, and a total of 13 926 studies were identified, with additional studies identified through hand searching of cited references and professional contacts.

Study selection

Studies that provided data on the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents (younger than 20 years) compared with adults (20 years and older) derived from contact tracing or population screening were included. Single-household studies were excluded.

Data extraction and synthesis

PRISMA guidelines for abstracting data were followed, which was performed independently by 2 reviewers. Quality was assessed using a critical appraisal checklist for prevalence studies. Random-effects meta-analysis was undertaken.

Main outcomes and measures

Secondary infection rate (contact-tracing studies) or prevalence or seroprevalence (population screening studies) among children and adolescents compared with adults.

Results

A total of 32 studies comprising 41 640 children and adolescents and 268 945 adults met inclusion criteria, including 18 contact-tracing studies and 14 population screening studies. The pooled odds ratio of being an infected contact in children compared with adults was 0.56 (95% CI, 0.37-0.85), with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 94.6%). Three school-based contact-tracing studies found minimal transmission from child or teacher index cases. Findings from population screening studies were heterogenous and were not suitable for meta-analysis. Most studies were consistent with lower seroprevalence in children compared with adults, although seroprevalence in adolescents appeared similar to adults.

Conclusions and relevance

In this meta-analysis, there is preliminary evidence that children and adolescents have lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, with an odds ratio of 0.56 for being an infected contact compared with adults. There is weak evidence that children and adolescents play a lesser role than adults in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at a population level. This study provides no information on the infectivity of children.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/2771181/jamapediatrics_viner_2020_oi_200071_1611604170.25358.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7519436; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573 35104366,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21042,Vaccine hesitancy and access to psoriasis care during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from a global patient-reported cross-sectional survey.,"Bechman K, Cook ES, Dand N, Yiu ZZN, Tsakok T, Meynell F, Coker B, Vincent A, Bachelez H, Barbosa I, Brown MA, Capon F, Contreras CR, De La Cruz C, Meglio PD, Gisondi P, Jullien D, Kelly J, Lambert J, Lancelot C, Langan SM, Mason KJ, McAteer H, Moorhead L, Naldi L, Norton S, Puig L, Spuls PI, Torres T, Urmston D, Vesty A, Warren RB, Waweru H, Weinman J, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Galloway JB, Mahil SK, PsoProtect study group.",,The British journal of dermatology,2022,2022-05-03,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8757812/file/8757816.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9545500; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9545500?pdf=render +37190768,https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796023000276,The mental health of all children in contact with social services: a population-wide record-linkage study in Northern Ireland.,"McKenna S, O'Reilly D, Maguire A.",,Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences,2023,2023-05-16,Y,Mental health; Data Linkage; Children’s Social Care,,,"

Aims

Children in contact with social services are at high risk for mental ill health, but it is not known what proportion of the child population has contact with social services or how risk varies within this group compared to unexposed peers. We aim to quantify the extent and nature of contact with social services within the child population in Northern Ireland (NI) and the association with mental ill health. We also examine which social care experiences identify those most at risk.

Methods

This is a population-based record-linkage study of 497,269 children (aged under 18 years) alive and resident in NI in 2015 using routinely collected health and social care data. Exposure was categorized as (1) no contact, (2) referred but assessed as not in need (NIN), (3) child in need (CIN) and (4) child in care (CIC). Multilevel logistic regression analyses estimated odds ratios (ORs) for mental ill health indicated by receipt of psychotropic medication (antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotics and hypnotics), psychiatric hospital admission and hospital-presenting self-harm or ideation.

Results

Over one in six children (17.2%, n = 85,792) were currently or previously in contact with social services, and almost one child in every 20 (4.8%, n = 23,975) had contact in 2015. Likelihood of any mental ill health outcome increased incrementally with the level of contact with social services relative to unexposed peers: NIN (OR 5.90 [95% confidence interval (CI) 5.10-6.83]), CIN (OR 5.99 [95% CI 5.50-6.53]) and CIC (OR 12.60 [95% CI 10.63-14.95]). All tiers of contact, number of referrals, number of care episodes and placement type were strongly associated with the likelihood of mental ill health.

Conclusion

Children who have contact with social services account for a large and disproportionate amount of mental ill health in the child population. Likelihood of poor mental health across indicators is highest in care experienced children but also extends to the much larger population of children in contact with social services but never in care. Findings suggest a need for targeted mental health screening and enhanced support for all children in contact with social services.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A60E6D761449A937DCE08F3A075B236D/S2045796023000276a.pdf/div-class-title-the-mental-health-of-all-children-in-contact-with-social-services-a-population-wide-record-linkage-study-in-northern-ireland-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796023000276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10227534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10227534?pdf=render PMC8855010,https://doi.org/,POS-894 PREDICTING PANDEMIC-RELATED EXCESS-DEATH USING PRE-PANDEMIC RISK OF MORTALITY IN INDIVIDUALS WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE,"Dashtban M, Mizani M, Gonazalez-Izquierdo A, Corbett R, Denaxas S, Quint J, Mamza J, Morris T, Hemingway H, Sudlow C, Banerjee A.",,Kidney international reports,2022,2022-02-01,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8855010/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8855010/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855010; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855010?pdf=render 29457906,https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.7b00879,Optimized Phenotypic Biomarker Discovery and Confounder Elimination via Covariate-Adjusted Projection to Latent Structures from Metabolic Spectroscopy Data.,"Posma JM, Garcia-Perez I, Ebbels TMD, Lindon JC, Stamler J, Elliott P, Holmes E, Nicholson JK.",,Journal of proteome research,2018,2018-02-27,Y,Chemometrics; multivariate data analysis; Biomarker Discovery; Sampling Bias; Covariate Adjustment; Metabolic Phenotyping; Random Matrix Theory; Reanalysis; Monte Carlo Cross-validation; Confounder Elimination,Applied Analytics,,"Metabolism is altered by genetics, diet, disease status, environment, and many other factors. Modeling either one of these is often done without considering the effects of the other covariates. Attributing differences in metabolic profile to one of these factors needs to be done while controlling for the metabolic influence of the rest. We describe here a data analysis framework and novel confounder-adjustment algorithm for multivariate analysis of metabolic profiling data. Using simulated data, we show that similar numbers of true associations and significantly less false positives are found compared to other commonly used methods. Covariate-adjusted projections to latent structures (CA-PLS) are exemplified here using a large-scale metabolic phenotyping study of two Chinese populations at different risks for cardiovascular disease. Using CA-PLS, we find that some previously reported differences are actually associated with external factors and discover a number of previously unreported biomarkers linked to different metabolic pathways. CA-PLS can be applied to any multivariate data where confounding may be an issue and the confounder-adjustment procedure is translatable to other multivariate regression techniques.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.7b00879; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5891819; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5891819?pdf=render; pdf:https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jproteome.7b00879 -37217302,https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827,External validation of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study.,"Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Omer Y, Wallis LA.",,Emergency medicine journal : EMJ,2023,2023-05-22,Y,risk management; Triage; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Tools proposed to triage ED acuity in suspected COVID-19 were derived and validated in higher income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from 27 August 2020 to 11 March 2022, was conducted to assess the performance of the PRIEST (Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage) tool, NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score, version 2), TEWS (Triage Early Warning Score), the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS (Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score) in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was intubation or non-invasive ventilation, death or intensive care unit admission at 30 days.

Results

Of the 446 084 patients, 15 397 (3.45%, 95% CI 34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST scores achieved good estimated discrimination (C-statistic 0.79 to 0.82) and identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.41 to 0.64. Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions, with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

No risk score outperformed existing clinical decision-making in determining the need for inpatient admission based on prediction of the primary outcome in this setting. Use of the PRIEST score at a threshold of one point higher than the previously recommended best approximated existing clinical accuracy.",,pdf:https://emj.bmj.com/content/emermed/early/2023/05/22/emermed-2022-212827.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554?pdf=render 33543581,https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16578,Outcomes of surgical site infections following spinal column trauma.,"Baroun-Agob L, Liew S, Gabbe B.",,ANZ journal of surgery,2021,2021-02-05,N,Spine; Trauma; Surgical Wound Infection; Orthopaedic Surgery; Patient-reported Outcome Measures,,,"

Background

Surgical site infections (SSI) are an undesirable outcome of spinal surgery for both the patient and healthcare system. To date, few studies have investigated the impact of SSI on patient-reported and clinical outcomes. Sepsis and readmission are potential sequelae of SSI, with sepsis potentially being life threatening. This study aimed to assess the association between SSI and patient outcomes in a spinal trauma cohort.

Methods

Adult (16+ years) patients who underwent emergency spinal surgery due to trauma between January 2010 and December 2016 at a major trauma centre in Melbourne, Australia, were identified through the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry. The presence of an SSI was abstracted from the electronic medical record and outcomes were compared between patients with and without an SSI. Clinical outcomes were obtained from the medical record, and patient-reported outcomes at 6 and 12 months were obtained from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry. Chi-squared tests were used to compare patient outcomes between groups.

Results

Of the 458 included patients, 26 (5.7%) developed an SSI. Patient-reported outcomes at 6 and 12 months were not different between the groups. An SSI was associated with sepsis (χ2 1 = 24.20, P < 0.01), readmission (χ2 1 = 215.34, P < 0.01), revision surgery (χ2 1 = 171.21, P < 0.01) and removal of implants (χ2 1 = 4.31, P = 0.04) within 12 months of discharge.

Conclusion

These findings indicate that spine trauma SSIs are not associated with patient-reported outcomes and may not have lasting effects on patients. Larger studies are required to assess further follow-up and support our findings and possibly distinguish outcomes between superficial and deep SSI.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16578 +37217302,https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827,External validation of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study.,"Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Omer Y, Wallis LA.",,Emergency medicine journal : EMJ,2023,2023-05-22,Y,risk management; Triage; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Tools proposed to triage ED acuity in suspected COVID-19 were derived and validated in higher income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from 27 August 2020 to 11 March 2022, was conducted to assess the performance of the PRIEST (Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage) tool, NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score, version 2), TEWS (Triage Early Warning Score), the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS (Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score) in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was intubation or non-invasive ventilation, death or intensive care unit admission at 30 days.

Results

Of the 446 084 patients, 15 397 (3.45%, 95% CI 34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST scores achieved good estimated discrimination (C-statistic 0.79 to 0.82) and identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.41 to 0.64. Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions, with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

No risk score outperformed existing clinical decision-making in determining the need for inpatient admission based on prediction of the primary outcome in this setting. Use of the PRIEST score at a threshold of one point higher than the previously recommended best approximated existing clinical accuracy.",,pdf:https://emj.bmj.com/content/emermed/early/2023/05/22/emermed-2022-212827.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554?pdf=render 33517835,https://doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2021.1876736,Identify the key characteristics of pedestrian collisions through in-depth interviews: a pilot study.,"Perkins M, Casalaz S, Mitra B, Gabbe B, Brown J, Oxley J, Cameron P, Beck B.",,International journal of injury control and safety promotion,2021,2021-01-31,N,Behaviour; Public Health; Pedestrian,,,"This study aimed to assess the feasibility of recruiting injured pedestrians from the emergency department of a major trauma centre, using an in-depth interview shortly post collision. Convenience sampling was used to prospectively recruit injured pedestrians from the Alfred Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre. Of the 102 injured pedestrians, 39 met eligibility criteria and of these, 30 (77%) consented and completed the questionnaire. Over half of the collisions occurred at an intersection (57%), and of these the most common pre-impact vehicle manoeuvre was a vehicle turning into the street the pedestrian was crossing. In-depth interview during the early post-crash period was a feasible and effective method of collecting detailed data in an accessible sample. However, only 38% of patients met eligibility criteria. To enhance representativeness, supplementing interview data with police-reported crash data, recruiting from hospital wards and crash location assessment is recommended.",,pdf:https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Identify_the_key_characteristics_of_pedestrian_collisions_through_in-depth_interviews_a_pilot_study/13671482/1/files/26241158.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2021.1876736 36285341,https://doi.org/10.1080/17434440.2022.2132147,Data-driven monitoring in patients on left ventricular assist device support.,"Numan L, Moazeni M, Oerlemans MIFJ, Aarts E, Van Der Kaaij NP, Asselbergs FW, Van Laake LW.",,Expert review of medical devices,2022,2022-09-01,N,Prediction; Circadian rhythm; Algorithms; Remote Monitoring; Left Ventricular Assist Device; Lvad,,,"

Introduction

Despite an increasing population of patients supported with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), it remains a complex therapy, and patients are frequently admitted. Therefore, a strict follow-up including frequent hospital visits, patient self-management and telemonitoring is needed.

Areas covered

The current review describes the principles of LVADs, the possibilities of (tele)monitoring using noninvasive and invasive devices. Furthermore, possibilities, challenges, and future perspectives in this emerging field are discussed.

Expert opinion

Several studies described initial experiences on telemonitoring in LVAD patients, using mobile phone applications to collect clinical data and pump data. This may replace frequent hospital visits in near future. In addition, algorithms were developed aiming to early detect pump thrombosis or driveline infections. Since not all complications are reflected by pump parameters, data from different sources should be combined to detect a broader spectrum of complications in an early stage. We need to focus on the development of sophisticated but understandable algorithms and infrastructure combining different data sources, while addressing essential aspects such as data safety, privacy, and cost-effectiveness.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/17434440.2022.2132147; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/17434440.2022.2132147 37612010,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.05.065,Monitoring of Myocardial Involvement in Early Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy Across the Age Spectrum.,"Kirkels FP, van Osta N, Rootwelt-Norberg C, Chivulescu M, van Loon T, Aabel EW, Castrini AI, Lie ØH, Asselbergs FW, Delhaas T, Cramer MJ, Teske AJ, Haugaa KH, Lumens J.",,Journal of the American College of Cardiology,2023,2023-08-01,N,Early Detection; Arvc; Family Screening; Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy; Deformation Imaging; Digital Twin,,,"

Background

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is characterized by fibrofatty replacement of primarily the right ventricular myocardium, a substrate for life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias (VAs). Repeated cardiac imaging of at-risk relatives is important for early disease detection. However, it is not known whether screening should be age-tailored.

Objectives

The goal of this study was to assess the need for age-tailoring of follow-up protocols in early ARVC by evaluating myocardial disease progression in different age groups.

Methods

We divided patients with early-stage ARVC and genotype-positive relatives without overt structural disease and VA at first evaluation into 3 groups: age <30 years, 30 to 50 years, and ≥50 years. Longitudinal biventricular deformation characteristics were used to monitor disease progression. To link deformation abnormalities to underlying myocardial disease substrates, Digital Twins were created using an imaging-based computational modeling framework.

Results

We included 313 echocardiographic assessments from 82 subjects (57% female, age 39 ± 17 years, 10% probands) during 6.7 ± 3.3 years of follow-up. Left ventricular global longitudinal strain slightly deteriorated similarly in all age groups (0.1%-point per year [95% CI: 0.05-0.15]). Disease progression in all age groups was more pronounced in the right ventricular lateral wall, expressed by worsening in longitudinal strain (0.6%-point per year [95% CI: 0.46-0.70]) and local differences in myocardial contractility, compliance, and activation delay in the Digital Twin. Six patients experienced VA during follow-up.

Conclusions

Disease progression was similar in all age groups, and sustained VA also occurred in patients aged >50 years without overt ARVC phenotype at first evaluation. Unlike recommended by current guidelines, our study suggests that follow-up of ARVC patients and relatives should not stop at older age.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.05.065 @@ -1087,87 +1087,87 @@ PMC8855010,https://doi.org/,POS-894 PREDICTING PANDEMIC-RELATED EXCESS-DEATH USI 35396183,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00003-6,The medical algorithmic audit.,"Liu X, Glocker B, McCradden MM, Ghassemi M, Denniston AK, Oakden-Rayner L.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-04-05,N,,,,"Artificial intelligence systems for health care, like any other medical device, have the potential to fail. However, specific qualities of artificial intelligence systems, such as the tendency to learn spurious correlates in training data, poor generalisability to new deployment settings, and a paucity of reliable explainability mechanisms, mean they can yield unpredictable errors that might be entirely missed without proactive investigation. We propose a medical algorithmic audit framework that guides the auditor through a process of considering potential algorithmic errors in the context of a clinical task, mapping the components that might contribute to the occurrence of errors, and anticipating their potential consequences. We suggest several approaches for testing algorithmic errors, including exploratory error analysis, subgroup testing, and adversarial testing, and provide examples from our own work and previous studies. The medical algorithmic audit is a tool that can be used to better understand the weaknesses of an artificial intelligence system and put in place mechanisms to mitigate their impact. We propose that safety monitoring and medical algorithmic auditing should be a joint responsibility between users and developers, and encourage the use of feedback mechanisms between these groups to promote learning and maintain safe deployment of artificial intelligence systems.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750022000036/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00003-6 34868617,https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211048654,Towards nationally curated data archives for clinical radiology image analysis at scale: Learnings from national data collection in response to a pandemic.,"Cushnan D, Berka R, Bertolli O, Williams P, Schofield D, Joshi I, Favaro A, Halling-Brown M, Imreh G, Jefferson E, Sebire NJ, Reilly G, Rodrigues JCL, Robinson G, Copley S, Malik R, Bloomfield C, Gleeson F, Crotty M, Denton E, Dickson J, Leeming G, Hardwick HE, Baillie K, Openshaw PJ, Semple MG, Rubin C, Howlett A, Rockall AG, Bhayat A, Fascia D, Sudlow C, NCCID Collaborative, Jacob J.",,Digital health,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Artificial intelligence; Medicine; Imaging; general; Radiology; Respiratory; Machine Learning; Coronavirus Sars-Cov-2 Disease,,,"The prevalence of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 disease has resulted in the unprecedented collection of health data to support research. Historically, coordinating the collation of such datasets on a national scale has been challenging to execute for several reasons, including issues with data privacy, the lack of data reporting standards, interoperable technologies, and distribution methods. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 disease pandemic has highlighted the importance of collaboration between government bodies, healthcare institutions, academic researchers and commercial companies in overcoming these issues during times of urgency. The National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database, led by NHSX, British Society of Thoracic Imaging, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and Faculty, is an example of such a national initiative. Here, we summarise the experiences and challenges of setting up the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database, and the implications for future ambitions of national data curation in medical imaging to advance the safe adoption of artificial intelligence in healthcare.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076211048654; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211048654; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637703; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637703?pdf=render 32946613,https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.13741,Ethnicity-based differences in the incident risk of allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders: A UK-based retrospective cohort study of 4.4 million participants.,"Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Gkoutos GV, Gokhale KM, Nirantharakumar K, Krishna MT.",,Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology,2021,2020-09-29,N,Asthma; Rheumatoid; SLE; Autoimmunity; Rhinitis; Vitiligo; epidemiology; Ethnicity; Atopic Dermatitis,,,,,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cea.13741; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.13741 -37477360,https://doi.org/10.1097/ypg.0000000000000349,Schizophrenia polygenic risk score and type 2 diabetes onset in older adults with no schizophrenia diagnosis.,"Shamsutdinova D, Ajnakina O, Roberts A, Stahl D.",,Psychiatric genetics,2023,2023-07-04,Y,,,,"

Objectives

An association between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and schizophrenia has long been observed, and recent research revealed presence of shared genetic factors. However, epidemiological evidence was inconsistent, some reported insignificant contribution of genetic factors to T2DM-schizophrenia comorbidity. Prior works studied people with schizophrenia, particularly, antipsychotic-naive patients, or those during the first psychotic experience to limit schizophrenia-related environmental factors. In contrast, we controlled such factors by utilizing a general population sample of individuals undiagnosed with schizophrenia. We hypothesized that if schizophrenia genetics impact T2DM development and such impact is not fully mediated by schizophrenia-related environment, people with high polygenic schizophrenia risk would exhibit elevated T2DM incidence.

Methods

Using a population-representative sample of adults aged ≥50 from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing ( n  = 5968, 493 T2DM cases, average follow-up 8.7 years), we investigated if schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PGS-SZ) is associated with T2DM onset. A proportional hazards model with interval censoring was adjusted for age and sex (Model 1), and age, sex, BMI, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, exercise, smoking, depressive symptoms and T2DM polygenic risk score (Model 2). According to the power calculations, hazard rates > 1.14 per standard deviation in PGS-SZ could be detected.

Results

We did not observe a significant association between PGS-SZ and T2DM incidence (hazard ratio 1.04; 95% CI 0.93-1.15; and 1.01, 95% CI 0.94-1.09).

Conclusion

Our results suggest low contribution of the intrinsic biological mechanisms driven by the polygenic risk of schizophrenia on future T2DM onset. Further research is needed.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/YPG.0000000000000349; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355?pdf=render 36243582,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.09.052,Older trauma patients with isolated chest injuries have low rates of complications.,"Ferrah N, Beck B, Ibrahim J, Gabbe B, McLellan MS, Cameron P.",,Injury,2022,2022-10-07,N,Geriatric; Complication; Pneumonia; Chest Trauma; Older; Trauma Centre,,,"

Introduction

The number of older adults hospitalised for injury is growing rapidly. The population-adjusted incidence of isolated thoracic injuries in older adults is also growing. While some older adults are at high risk of post-traumatic complications, not all older adults will need treatment in a major trauma service (MTS). The aim of this study was to characterise older patients with isolated chest injuries, determine the rates of post-traumatic complications, including respiratory failure and pneumonia, and the factors associated with the risk of developing these complications.

Patients and methods

This was a retrospective review of patients aged 65 years and over with isolated chest trauma, from January 2007 to June 2017, using data from the Victorian State Trauma Registry. Patient characteristics and rates of complications were compared between patients with 1. isolated rib fractures, and 2. complex chest injury. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of respiratory failure, and pneumonia.

Results

The study population comprised 5401 patients aged 65 years or more, with isolated chest injuries. Two-thirds (65%) of all patients had isolated rib fractures, and 58% of patients (n = 3156) were directly admitted to a non-major trauma centre. Complications were uncommon, with 5.45% of all patients (n = 295) having pneumonia and 3.2% (n = 175) having respiratory failure. Factors associated with increased risk of pneumonia and respiratory failure included advancing age, smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, and more severe and complex chest injury. The adjusted odds of complications were lowest amongst patients not classified as major trauma and receiving definitive treatment in non-MTS.

Discussion

Our findings suggest that rates of complications in older patients with isolated chest trauma in this study were low, and that there is a large group of patients with isolated, uncomplicated rib fractures, who may not need to be treated in a major trauma centre. Further work should be undertaken to appropriately risk stratify and manage older adults with isolated chest trauma.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.09.052 -33789468,https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620x.103b4.bjj-2020-1647.r1,Outcomes of severe lower limb injury with Mangled Extremity Severity Score ≥ 7.,"Hoogervorst LA, Hart MJ, Simpson PM, Kimmel LA, Oppy A, Edwards ER, Gabbe BJ.",,The bone & joint journal,2021,2021-04-01,N,Injury; Lower limb; Return To Work; Salvage; Functional Outcomes; Mess; Gos-e; Eq-5d-3l; Surgical Amputation; 2-Year,,,"

Aims

Complex fractures of the femur and tibia with associated severe soft tissue injury are often devastating for the individual. The aim of this study was to describe the two-year patient-reported outcomes of patients in a civilian population who sustained a complex fracture of the femur or tibia with a Mangled Extremity Severity Score (MESS) of ≥ 7, whereby the score ranges from 2 (lowest severity) to 11 (highest severity).

Methods

Patients aged ≥ 16 years with a fractured femur or tibia and a MESS of ≥ 7 were extracted from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (January 2007 to December 2018). Cases were grouped into surgical amputation or limb salvage. Descriptive analysis were used to examine return to work rates, three-level EuroQol five-dimension questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L), and Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOS-E) outcomes at 12 and 24 months post-injury.

Results

In all, 111 patients were included: 90 (81%) patients who underwent salvage and 21 (19%) patients with surgical amputation. The mean age of patients was 45.8 years (SD 15.8), 93 (84%) were male, 37 (33%) were involved in motor vehicle collisions, and the mean MESS score was 8.2 (SD 1.4). Two-year outcomes in the cohort were poor: six (7%) patients achieved a GOS-E good recovery, the mean EQ-5D-3L summary score was 0.52 (SD 0.27), and 17 (20%) patients had returned to work.

Conclusion

A small proportion of patients with severe lower limb injury (MESS ≥ 7) achieved a good level of function 24 months post-injury. Further follow-up is needed to better understand the long-term trajectory of these patients, including delayed amputation, hospital readmissions, and healthcare utilization. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2021;103-B(4):769-774.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.103B4.BJJ-2020-1647.R1 37653496,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9,Empagliflozin is associated with lower cardiovascular risk compared with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors in adults with and without cardiovascular disease: EMPagliflozin compaRative effectIveness and SafEty (EMPRISE) study results from Europe and Asia.,"Vistisen D, Carstensen B, Elisabetta P, Lanzinger S, Tan EC, Yabe D, Kim DJ, Sheu WH, Melzer-Cohen C, Holl RW, Núñez J, Ha KH, Halvorsen S, Langslet G, Karasik A, Nyström T, Niskanen L, Guleria S, Klement R, Carrasco M, Foersch J, Shay C, Koeneman L, Hoti F, Farsani SF, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, EMPRISE EU, East Asia Study Group.",,Cardiovascular diabetology,2023,2023-08-31,Y,Cardiovascular disease; Type 2 diabetes; Heart Failure; Comparative Effectiveness; Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors; Empagliflozin,,,"

Background

Studies that have reported lower risk for cardiovascular outcomes in users of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors (SGLT-2i) are limited by residual cofounding and lack of information on prior cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study compared risk of cardiovascular events in patients within routine care settings in Europe and Asia with type 2 diabetes (T2D) initiating empagliflozin compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) stratified by pre-existing CVD and history of heart failure (HF).

Methods and results

Adults initiating empagliflozin and DPP-4i in 2014-2018/19 from 11 countries in Europe and Asia were compared using propensity score matching and Cox proportional hazards regression to assess differences in rates of primary outcomes: hospitalisation for heart failure (HHF), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke; and secondary outcomes: cardiovascular mortality (CVM), coronary revascularisation procedure, composite outcome including HHF or CVM, and 3-point major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE: MI, stroke and CVM). Country-specific results were meta-analysed and pooled hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) from random-effects models are presented. In total, 85,244 empagliflozin/DPP4i PS-matched patient pairs were included with overall mean follow-up of 0.7 years. Among those with pre-existing CVD, lower risk was observed for HHF (HR 0.74; 95% CI 0.64-0.86), CVM (HR 0.55; 95% CI 0.38-0.80), HHF or CVM (HR 0.57; 95% CI 0.48-0.67) and stroke (HR 0.79; 95% CI 0.67-0.94) in patients initiating empagliflozin vs DPP-4i. Similar patterns were observed among patients without pre-existing CVD and those with and without pre-existing HF.

Conclusion

These results from diverse patient populations in routine care settings across Europe and Asia demonstrate that initiation of empagliflozin compared to DPP-4i results in favourable cardioprotective effects regardless of pre-existing CVD or HF status.",,pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10472675; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10472675?pdf=render +33789468,https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620x.103b4.bjj-2020-1647.r1,Outcomes of severe lower limb injury with Mangled Extremity Severity Score ≥ 7.,"Hoogervorst LA, Hart MJ, Simpson PM, Kimmel LA, Oppy A, Edwards ER, Gabbe BJ.",,The bone & joint journal,2021,2021-04-01,N,Injury; Lower limb; Return To Work; Salvage; Functional Outcomes; Mess; Gos-e; Eq-5d-3l; Surgical Amputation; 2-Year,,,"

Aims

Complex fractures of the femur and tibia with associated severe soft tissue injury are often devastating for the individual. The aim of this study was to describe the two-year patient-reported outcomes of patients in a civilian population who sustained a complex fracture of the femur or tibia with a Mangled Extremity Severity Score (MESS) of ≥ 7, whereby the score ranges from 2 (lowest severity) to 11 (highest severity).

Methods

Patients aged ≥ 16 years with a fractured femur or tibia and a MESS of ≥ 7 were extracted from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (January 2007 to December 2018). Cases were grouped into surgical amputation or limb salvage. Descriptive analysis were used to examine return to work rates, three-level EuroQol five-dimension questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L), and Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOS-E) outcomes at 12 and 24 months post-injury.

Results

In all, 111 patients were included: 90 (81%) patients who underwent salvage and 21 (19%) patients with surgical amputation. The mean age of patients was 45.8 years (SD 15.8), 93 (84%) were male, 37 (33%) were involved in motor vehicle collisions, and the mean MESS score was 8.2 (SD 1.4). Two-year outcomes in the cohort were poor: six (7%) patients achieved a GOS-E good recovery, the mean EQ-5D-3L summary score was 0.52 (SD 0.27), and 17 (20%) patients had returned to work.

Conclusion

A small proportion of patients with severe lower limb injury (MESS ≥ 7) achieved a good level of function 24 months post-injury. Further follow-up is needed to better understand the long-term trajectory of these patients, including delayed amputation, hospital readmissions, and healthcare utilization. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2021;103-B(4):769-774.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.103B4.BJJ-2020-1647.R1 +37477360,https://doi.org/10.1097/ypg.0000000000000349,Schizophrenia polygenic risk score and type 2 diabetes onset in older adults with no schizophrenia diagnosis.,"Shamsutdinova D, Ajnakina O, Roberts A, Stahl D.",,Psychiatric genetics,2023,2023-07-04,Y,,,,"

Objectives

An association between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and schizophrenia has long been observed, and recent research revealed presence of shared genetic factors. However, epidemiological evidence was inconsistent, some reported insignificant contribution of genetic factors to T2DM-schizophrenia comorbidity. Prior works studied people with schizophrenia, particularly, antipsychotic-naive patients, or those during the first psychotic experience to limit schizophrenia-related environmental factors. In contrast, we controlled such factors by utilizing a general population sample of individuals undiagnosed with schizophrenia. We hypothesized that if schizophrenia genetics impact T2DM development and such impact is not fully mediated by schizophrenia-related environment, people with high polygenic schizophrenia risk would exhibit elevated T2DM incidence.

Methods

Using a population-representative sample of adults aged ≥50 from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing ( n  = 5968, 493 T2DM cases, average follow-up 8.7 years), we investigated if schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PGS-SZ) is associated with T2DM onset. A proportional hazards model with interval censoring was adjusted for age and sex (Model 1), and age, sex, BMI, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, exercise, smoking, depressive symptoms and T2DM polygenic risk score (Model 2). According to the power calculations, hazard rates > 1.14 per standard deviation in PGS-SZ could be detected.

Results

We did not observe a significant association between PGS-SZ and T2DM incidence (hazard ratio 1.04; 95% CI 0.93-1.15; and 1.01, 95% CI 0.94-1.09).

Conclusion

Our results suggest low contribution of the intrinsic biological mechanisms driven by the polygenic risk of schizophrenia on future T2DM onset. Further research is needed.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/YPG.0000000000000349; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355?pdf=render +35440446,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514,Protocol for the COG-UK hospital-onset COVID-19 infection (HOCI) multicentre interventional clinical study: evaluating the efficacy of rapid genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in UK NHS hospitals.,"Blackstone J, Stirrup O, Mapp F, Panca M, Copas A, Flowers P, Hockey L, Price J, Partridge D, Peters C, de Silva T, Nebbia G, Snell LB, McComish R, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Breuer J.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-19,Y,Molecular biology; Infection control; epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been a significant cause of mortality in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COG-UK Consortium Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections (COG-UK HOCI) study aims to evaluate whether the use of rapid whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, supported by a novel probabilistic reporting methodology, can inform infection prevention and control (IPC) practice within NHS hospital settings.

Design

Multicentre, prospective, interventional, superiority study.

Setting

14 participating NHS hospitals over winter-spring 2020/2021 in the UK.

Participants

Eligible patients must be admitted to hospital with first-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive test result >48 hour from time of admission, where COVID-19 diagnosis not suspected on admission. The projected sample size is 2380 patients.

Intervention

The intervention is the return of a sequence report, within 48 hours in one phase (rapid local lab processing) and within 5-10 days in a second phase (mimicking central lab), comparing the viral genome from an eligible study participant with others within and outside the hospital site.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary outcomes are incidence of Public Health England (PHE)/IPC-defined SARS-CoV-2 hospital-acquired infection during the baseline and two interventional phases, and proportion of hospital-onset cases with genomic evidence of transmission linkage following implementation of the intervention where such linkage was not suspected by initial IPC investigation. Secondary outcomes include incidence of hospital outbreaks, with and without sequencing data; actual and desirable changes to IPC actions; periods of healthcare worker (HCW) absence. Health economic analysis will be conducted to determine cost benefit of the intervention. A process evaluation using qualitative interviews with HCWs will be conducted alongside the study.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN50212645. Pre-results stage. This manuscript is based on protocol V.6.0. 2 September 2021.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e052514.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828?pdf=render +33130851,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216,High-throughput multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis prioritizes apolipoprotein B as key lipid risk factor for coronary artery disease.,"Zuber V, Gill D, Ala-Korpela M, Langenberg C, Butterworth A, Bottolo L, Burgess S.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-07-01,Y,Lipoproteins; Apolipoprotein B; Metabolomics; blood lipids; coronary artery disease; Mendelian Randomization; Risk Factor Selection,,,"

Background

Genetic variants can be used to prioritize risk factors as potential therapeutic targets via Mendelian randomization (MR). An agnostic statistical framework using Bayesian model averaging (MR-BMA) can disentangle the causal role of correlated risk factors with shared genetic predictors. Here, our objective is to identify lipoprotein measures as mediators between lipid-associated genetic variants and coronary artery disease (CAD) for the purpose of detecting therapeutic targets for CAD.

Methods

As risk factors we consider 30 lipoprotein measures and metabolites derived from a high-throughput metabolomics study including 24 925 participants. We fit multivariable MR models of genetic associations with CAD estimated in 453 595 participants (including 113 937 cases) regressed on genetic associations with the risk factors. MR-BMA assigns to each combination of risk factors a model score quantifying how well the genetic associations with CAD are explained. Risk factors are ranked by their marginal score and selected using false-discovery rate (FDR) criteria. We perform supplementary and sensitivity analyses varying the dataset for genetic associations with CAD.

Results

In the main analysis, the top combination of risk factors ranked by the model score contains apolipoprotein B (ApoB) only. ApoB is also the highest ranked risk factor with respect to the marginal score (FDR <0.005). Additionally, ApoB is selected in all sensitivity analyses. No other measure of cholesterol or triglyceride is consistently selected otherwise.

Conclusions

Our agnostic genetic investigation prioritizes ApoB across all datasets considered, suggesting that ApoB, representing the total number of hepatic-derived lipoprotein particles, is the primary lipid determinant of CAD.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202?pdf=render 37735103,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2023-001895,"Preterm birth, birth weight, infant weight gain and their associations with childhood asthma and spirometry: a cross-sectional observational study in Nairobi, Kenya.","Meme H, Amukoye E, Bowyer C, Chakaya J, Dobson R, Fuld J, Gray CM, Kiplimo R, Lesosky M, Mortimer K, Ndombi A, Obasi A, Orina F, Quint JK, Semple S, West SE, Zurba L, Devereux G.",,BMJ open respiratory research,2023,2023-09-01,Y,Asthma; Paediatric Lung Disaese; Asthma Epidemiology,,,"

Background

In sub-Saharan Africa, the origins of asthma and high prevalence of abnormal lung function remain unclear. In high-income countries (HICs), associations between birth measurements and childhood asthma and lung function highlight the importance of antenatal and early life factors in the aetiology of asthma and abnormal lung function in children. We present here the first study in sub-Saharan Africa to relate birth characteristics to both childhood respiratory symptoms and lung function.

Methods

Children attending schools in two socioeconomically contrasting but geographically close areas of Nairobi, Kenya, were recruited to a cross-sectional study of childhood asthma and lung function. Questionnaires quantified respiratory symptoms and preterm birth; lung function was measured by spirometry; and parents were invited to bring the child's immunisation booklet containing records of birth weight and serial weights in the first year.

Results

2373 children participated, 52% girls, median age (IQR), 10 years (8-13). Spirometry data were available for 1622. Child immunisation booklets were available for 500 and birth weight and infant weight gain data were available for 323 and 494 children, respectively. In multivariable analyses, preterm birth was associated with the childhood symptoms 'wheeze in the last 12 months'; OR 1.64, (95% CI 1.03 to 2.62), p=0.038; and 'trouble breathing' 3.18 (95% CI 2.27 to 4.45), p<0.001. Birth weight (kg) was associated with forced expiratory volume in 1 s z-score, regression coefficient (β) 0.30 (0.08, 0.52), p=0.008, FVC z-score 0.29 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.51); p=0.008 and restricted spirometry, OR 0.11 (95% CI 0.02 to 0.78), p=0.027.

Conclusion

These associations are in keeping with those in HICs and highlight antenatal factors in the aetiology of asthma and lung function abnormalities in sub-Saharan Africa.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2023-001895; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10514609; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10514609?pdf=render 36355406,https://doi.org/10.2196/40707,Effectiveness of a Web-Based Intervention to Prevent Anxiety in the Children of Parents With Anxiety: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.,"Dunn A, Alvarez J, Arbon A, Bremner S, Elsby-Pearson C, Emsley R, Jones C, Lawrence P, Lester KJ, Majdandžić M, Morson N, Perry N, Simner J, Thomson A, Cartwright-Hatton S.",,JMIR research protocols,2022,2022-11-10,Y,Child; Parent; Youth; Anxiety; Pediatric; Mental health; Randomized controlled trial; Parenting; Rct; Online; Mental Well-being; Online Intervention; Digital Intervention,,,"

Background

Anxiety is the most common childhood mental health condition and is associated with impaired child outcomes, including increased risk of mental health difficulties in adulthood. Anxiety runs in families: when a parent has anxiety, their child has a 50% higher chance of developing it themselves. Environmental factors are predominant in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and, of these, parenting processes play a major role. Interventions that target parents to support them to limit the impact of any anxiogenic parenting behaviors are associated with reduced anxiety in their children. A brief UK-based group intervention delivered to parents within the UK National Health Service led to a 16% reduction in children meeting the criteria for an anxiety disorder. However, this intervention is not widely accessible. To widen access, a 9-module web-based version of this intervention has been developed. This course comprises psychoeducation and home practice delivered through text, video, animations, and practice tasks.

Objective

This study seeks to evaluate the feasibility of delivering this web-based intervention and assess its effectiveness in reducing child anxiety symptoms.

Methods

 This is the protocol for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a community sample of 1754 parents with self-identified high levels of anxiety with a child aged 2-11 years. Parents in the intervention arm will receive access to the web-based course, which they undertake at a self-determined rate. The control arm receives no intervention. Follow-up data collection is at months 6 and months 9-21. Intention-to-treat analysis will be conducted on outcomes including child anxiety, child mental health symptoms, and well-being; parental anxiety and well-being; and parenting behaviors.

Results

Funding was received in April 2020, and recruitment started in February 2021 and is projected to end in October 2022. A total of 1350 participants have been recruited as of May 2022.

Conclusions

The results of this RCT will provide evidence on the utility of a web-based course in preventing intergenerational transmission of anxiety and increase the understanding of familial anxiety.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04755933; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04755933.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

DERR1-10.2196/40707.",,pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v11i11e40707_app2.pdf&filename=4e6914231a45b12439d1932b760a7c34.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/40707; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9693706 -35440446,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514,Protocol for the COG-UK hospital-onset COVID-19 infection (HOCI) multicentre interventional clinical study: evaluating the efficacy of rapid genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in UK NHS hospitals.,"Blackstone J, Stirrup O, Mapp F, Panca M, Copas A, Flowers P, Hockey L, Price J, Partridge D, Peters C, de Silva T, Nebbia G, Snell LB, McComish R, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Breuer J.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-19,Y,Molecular biology; Infection control; epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been a significant cause of mortality in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COG-UK Consortium Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections (COG-UK HOCI) study aims to evaluate whether the use of rapid whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, supported by a novel probabilistic reporting methodology, can inform infection prevention and control (IPC) practice within NHS hospital settings.

Design

Multicentre, prospective, interventional, superiority study.

Setting

14 participating NHS hospitals over winter-spring 2020/2021 in the UK.

Participants

Eligible patients must be admitted to hospital with first-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive test result >48 hour from time of admission, where COVID-19 diagnosis not suspected on admission. The projected sample size is 2380 patients.

Intervention

The intervention is the return of a sequence report, within 48 hours in one phase (rapid local lab processing) and within 5-10 days in a second phase (mimicking central lab), comparing the viral genome from an eligible study participant with others within and outside the hospital site.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary outcomes are incidence of Public Health England (PHE)/IPC-defined SARS-CoV-2 hospital-acquired infection during the baseline and two interventional phases, and proportion of hospital-onset cases with genomic evidence of transmission linkage following implementation of the intervention where such linkage was not suspected by initial IPC investigation. Secondary outcomes include incidence of hospital outbreaks, with and without sequencing data; actual and desirable changes to IPC actions; periods of healthcare worker (HCW) absence. Health economic analysis will be conducted to determine cost benefit of the intervention. A process evaluation using qualitative interviews with HCWs will be conducted alongside the study.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN50212645. Pre-results stage. This manuscript is based on protocol V.6.0. 2 September 2021.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e052514.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828?pdf=render 35869974,https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac224,Care processes and outcomes of deprivation across the clinical course of kidney disease: findings from a high-income country with universal healthcare.,"Sawhney S, Blakeman T, Blana D, Boyers D, Fluck N, Nath M, Methven S, Rzewuska M, Black C.",,"Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association",2023,2023-05-01,Y,Prognosis; epidemiology; Health Inequalities; Ckd; Aki; Care Processes,,,"

Background

No single study contrasts the extent and consequences of inequity of kidney care across the clinical course of kidney disease.

Methods

This population study of Grampian (UK) followed incident presentations of acute kidney injury (AKI) and incident estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) thresholds of <60, <45 and <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 in separate cohorts (2011-2021). The key exposure was area-level deprivation (lowest quintile of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation). Outcomes were care processes (monitoring, prescribing, appointments, unscheduled care), long-term mortality and kidney failure. Modelling involved multivariable logistic regression, negative binomial regression and cause-specific Cox models with and without adjustment of comorbidities.

Results

There were 41 313, 51 190, 32 171 and 17 781 new presentations of AKI and eGFR thresholds <60, <45 and <30  mL/min/1.73 m2. A total of 6.1-7.8% of the population was from deprived areas and (versus all others) presented on average 5 years younger, with more diabetes and pulmonary and liver disease. Those from deprived areas were more likely to present initially in hospital, less likely to receive community monitoring, less likely to attend appointments and more likely to have an unplanned emergency department or hospital admission episode. Deprivation had the greatest association with long-term kidney failure at the eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 threshold {adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.48 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17-1.87]} and this association decreased with advancing disease severity [HR 1.09 (95% CI 0.93-1.28) at eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m2), with a similar pattern for mortality. Across all analyses the most detrimental associations of deprivation were an eGFR threshold <60 mL/min/1.73 m2, AKI, males and those <65 years of age.

Conclusions

Even in a high-income country with universal healthcare, serious and consistent inequities in kidney care exist. The poorer care and outcomes with area-level deprivation were greater earlier in the disease course.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ndt/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ndt/gfac224/45505736/gfac224.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac224; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10157789; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10157789?pdf=render -33130851,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216,High-throughput multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis prioritizes apolipoprotein B as key lipid risk factor for coronary artery disease.,"Zuber V, Gill D, Ala-Korpela M, Langenberg C, Butterworth A, Bottolo L, Burgess S.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-07-01,Y,Lipoproteins; Apolipoprotein B; Metabolomics; blood lipids; coronary artery disease; Mendelian Randomization; Risk Factor Selection,,,"

Background

Genetic variants can be used to prioritize risk factors as potential therapeutic targets via Mendelian randomization (MR). An agnostic statistical framework using Bayesian model averaging (MR-BMA) can disentangle the causal role of correlated risk factors with shared genetic predictors. Here, our objective is to identify lipoprotein measures as mediators between lipid-associated genetic variants and coronary artery disease (CAD) for the purpose of detecting therapeutic targets for CAD.

Methods

As risk factors we consider 30 lipoprotein measures and metabolites derived from a high-throughput metabolomics study including 24 925 participants. We fit multivariable MR models of genetic associations with CAD estimated in 453 595 participants (including 113 937 cases) regressed on genetic associations with the risk factors. MR-BMA assigns to each combination of risk factors a model score quantifying how well the genetic associations with CAD are explained. Risk factors are ranked by their marginal score and selected using false-discovery rate (FDR) criteria. We perform supplementary and sensitivity analyses varying the dataset for genetic associations with CAD.

Results

In the main analysis, the top combination of risk factors ranked by the model score contains apolipoprotein B (ApoB) only. ApoB is also the highest ranked risk factor with respect to the marginal score (FDR <0.005). Additionally, ApoB is selected in all sensitivity analyses. No other measure of cholesterol or triglyceride is consistently selected otherwise.

Conclusions

Our agnostic genetic investigation prioritizes ApoB across all datasets considered, suggesting that ApoB, representing the total number of hepatic-derived lipoprotein particles, is the primary lipid determinant of CAD.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202?pdf=render 37538742,https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221469,Bayesian inference of polymerase dynamics over the exclusion process.,"Cavallaro M, Wang Y, Hebenstreit D, Dutta R.",,Royal Society open science,2023,2023-08-02,Y,Gene Expression; Bayesian Statistics; Particle Transport; Non-equilbrium Physics,,,"Transcription is a complex phenomenon that permits the conversion of genetic information into phenotype by means of an enzyme called RNA polymerase, which erratically moves along and scans the DNA template. We perform Bayesian inference over a paradigmatic mechanistic model of non-equilibrium statistical physics, i.e. the asymmetric exclusion processes in the hydrodynamic limit, assuming a Gaussian process prior for the polymerase progression rate as a latent variable. Our framework allows us to infer the speed of polymerases during transcription given their spatial distribution, while avoiding the explicit inversion of the system's dynamics. The results, which show processing rates strongly varying with genomic position and minor role of traffic-like congestion, may have strong implications for the understanding of gene expression.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221469; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394410?pdf=render -35022215,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519,Indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic on childhood infection in England: population based observational study.,"Kadambari S, Goldacre R, Morris E, Goldacre MJ, Pollard AJ.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-01-12,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes for childhood respiratory infections, severe invasive infections, and vaccine preventable disease in England.

Design

Population based observational study of 19 common childhood respiratory, severe invasive, and vaccine preventable infections, comparing hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes before and after the onset of the pandemic in England.

Setting

Hospital admission data from every NHS hospital in England from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021 with record linkage to national mortality data.

Population

Children aged 0-14 years admitted to an NHS hospital with a selected childhood infection from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021.

Main outcome measures

For each infection, numbers of hospital admissions every month from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021, percentage changes in the number of hospital admissions before and after 1 March 2020, and adjusted odds ratios to compare 60 day case fatality outcomes before and after 1 March 2020.

Results

After 1 March 2020, substantial and sustained reductions in hospital admissions were found for all but one of the 19 infective conditions studied. Among the respiratory infections, the greatest percentage reductions were for influenza (mean annual number admitted between 1 March 2017 and 29 February 2020 was 5379 and number of children admitted from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 was 304, 94% reduction, 95% confidence interval 89% to 97%), and bronchiolitis (from 51 655 to 9423, 82% reduction, 95% confidence interval 79% to 84%). Among the severe invasive infections, the greatest reduction was for meningitis (50% reduction, 47% to 52%). For the vaccine preventable infections, reductions ranged from 53% (32% to 68%) for mumps to 90% (80% to 95%) for measles. Reductions were seen across all demographic subgroups and in children with underlying comorbidities. Corresponding decreases were also found for the absolute numbers of 60 day case fatalities, although the proportion of children admitted for pneumonia who died within 60 days increased (age-sex adjusted odds ratio 1.71, 95% confidence interval 1.43 to 2.05). More recent data indicate that some respiratory infections increased to higher levels than usual after May 2021.

Conclusions

During the covid-19 pandemic, a range of behavioural changes (adoption of non-pharmacological interventions) and societal strategies (school closures, lockdowns, and restricted travel) were used to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which also reduced admissions for common and severe childhood infections. Continued monitoring of these infections is required as social restrictions evolve.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/376/bmj-2021-067519.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487?pdf=render -31194737,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164,Genome-wide association study of multisite chronic pain in UK Biobank.,"Johnston KJA, Adams MJ, Nicholl BI, Ward J, Strawbridge RJ, Ferguson A, McIntosh AM, Bailey MES, Smith DJ.",,PLoS genetics,2019,2019-06-13,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Chronic pain is highly prevalent worldwide and represents a significant socioeconomic and public health burden. Several aspects of chronic pain, for example back pain and a severity-related phenotype 'chronic pain grade', have been shown previously to be complex heritable traits with a polygenic component. Additional pain-related phenotypes capturing aspects of an individual's overall sensitivity to experiencing and reporting chronic pain have also been suggested as a focus for investigation. We made use of a measure of the number of sites of chronic pain in individuals within the UK general population. This measure, termed Multisite Chronic Pain (MCP), is a complex trait and its genetic architecture has not previously been investigated. To address this, we carried out a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) of MCP in ~380,000 UK Biobank participants. Our findings were consistent with MCP having a significant polygenic component, with a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) heritability of 10.2%. In total 76 independent lead SNPs at 39 risk loci were associated with MCP. Additional gene-level association analyses identified neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, nervous system development, cell-cycle progression and apoptosis genes as enriched for genetic association with MCP. Genetic correlations were observed between MCP and a range of psychiatric, autoimmune and anthropometric traits, including major depressive disorder (MDD), asthma and Body Mass Index (BMI). Furthermore, in Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses a causal effect of MCP on MDD was observed. Additionally, a polygenic risk score (PRS) for MCP was found to significantly predict chronic widespread pain (pain all over the body), indicating the existence of genetic variants contributing to both of these pain phenotypes. Overall, our findings support the proposition that chronic pain involves a strong nervous system component with implications for our understanding of the physiology of chronic pain. These discoveries may also inform the future development of novel treatment approaches.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6592570; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6592570?pdf=render 36828608,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00249-7,The role of patient-reported outcome measures in trials of artificial intelligence health technologies: a systematic evaluation of ClinicalTrials.gov records (1997-2022).,"Pearce FJ, Cruz Rivera S, Liu X, Manna E, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2023,2023-03-01,N,,,,"The extent to which patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used in clinical trials for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is unknown. In this systematic evaluation, we aim to establish how PROMs are being used to assess AI health technologies. We searched ClinicalTrials.gov for interventional trials registered from inception to Sept 20, 2022, and included trials that tested an AI health technology. We excluded observational studies, patient registries, and expanded access reports. We extracted data regarding the form, function, and intended use population of the AI health technology, in addition to the PROMs used and whether PROMs were incorporated as an input or output in the AI model. The search identified 2958 trials, of which 627 were included in the analysis. 152 (24%) of the included trials used one or more PROM, visual analogue scale, patient-reported experience measure, or usability measure as a trial endpoint. The type of AI health technologies used by these trials included AI-enabled smart devices, clinical decision support systems, and chatbots. The number of clinical trials of AI health technologies registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and the proportion of trials that used PROMs increased from registry inception to 2022. The most common clinical areas AI health technologies were designed for were digestive system health for non-PROM trials and musculoskeletal health (followed by mental and behavioural health) for PROM trials, with PROMs commonly used in clinical areas for which assessment of health-related quality of life and symptom burden is particularly important. Additionally, AI-enabled smart devices were the most common applications tested in trials that used at least one PROM. 24 trials tested AI models that captured PROM data as an input for the AI model. PROM use in clinical trials of AI health technologies falls behind PROM use in all clinical trials. Trial records having inadequate detail regarding the PROMs used or the type of AI health technology tested was a limitation of this systematic evaluation and might have contributed to inaccuracies in the data synthesised. Overall, the use of PROMs in the function and assessment of AI health technologies is not only possible, but is a powerful way of showing that, even in the most technologically advanced health-care systems, patients' perspectives remain central.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00249-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00249-7 -34261736,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229,Heart failure medication dosage and survival in women and men seen at outpatient clinics.,"Bots SH, Onland-Moret NC, Tulevski II, van der Harst P, Cramer MJM, Asselbergs FW, Somsen GA, den Ruijter HM.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2021,2021-07-14,Y,epidemiology; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Objective

Women with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) may reach optimal treatment effect at half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. This study investigates prescription practice and its relation with survival of patients with HF in daily care.

Methods

Electronic health record data from 13 Dutch outpatient cardiology clinics were extracted for HF receiving at least one guideline-recommended HF medication. Dose changes over consecutive prescriptions were modelled using natural cubic splines. Inverse probability-weighted Cox regression was used to assess the relationship between dose (reference≥50% target dose) and all-cause mortality.

Results

The study population comprised 561 women (29% HFrEF (ejection fraction (EF)<40%), 49% heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (EF≥50%); HFpEF and 615 men (47% and 25%, respectively). During a median follow-up of 3.7 years, 252 patients died (48% women; 167 HFrEF, 84 HFpEF). Nine hundred thirty-four patients (46% women) received ACE inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), 795 (48% women) beta blockers and 178 (42% women) mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs). In both sexes, the mean target dose across prescriptions was 50% for ACEI/ARBs and beta blockers, and 100% for MRAs. ACEI/ARB dose of <50% was associated with lower mortality in women but not in men with HFrEF. This was not seen in patients with HFpEF. Beta-blocker dose was not associated with all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

Patients with HF seen in outpatient cardiology clinics receive half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. Lower ACEI/ARB dose was associated with improved survival in women with HFrEF. These results underscore the importance of (re)defining optimal medical therapy for women with HFrEF.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/21/1748.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453?pdf=render +31194737,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164,Genome-wide association study of multisite chronic pain in UK Biobank.,"Johnston KJA, Adams MJ, Nicholl BI, Ward J, Strawbridge RJ, Ferguson A, McIntosh AM, Bailey MES, Smith DJ.",,PLoS genetics,2019,2019-06-13,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Chronic pain is highly prevalent worldwide and represents a significant socioeconomic and public health burden. Several aspects of chronic pain, for example back pain and a severity-related phenotype 'chronic pain grade', have been shown previously to be complex heritable traits with a polygenic component. Additional pain-related phenotypes capturing aspects of an individual's overall sensitivity to experiencing and reporting chronic pain have also been suggested as a focus for investigation. We made use of a measure of the number of sites of chronic pain in individuals within the UK general population. This measure, termed Multisite Chronic Pain (MCP), is a complex trait and its genetic architecture has not previously been investigated. To address this, we carried out a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) of MCP in ~380,000 UK Biobank participants. Our findings were consistent with MCP having a significant polygenic component, with a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) heritability of 10.2%. In total 76 independent lead SNPs at 39 risk loci were associated with MCP. Additional gene-level association analyses identified neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, nervous system development, cell-cycle progression and apoptosis genes as enriched for genetic association with MCP. Genetic correlations were observed between MCP and a range of psychiatric, autoimmune and anthropometric traits, including major depressive disorder (MDD), asthma and Body Mass Index (BMI). Furthermore, in Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses a causal effect of MCP on MDD was observed. Additionally, a polygenic risk score (PRS) for MCP was found to significantly predict chronic widespread pain (pain all over the body), indicating the existence of genetic variants contributing to both of these pain phenotypes. Overall, our findings support the proposition that chronic pain involves a strong nervous system component with implications for our understanding of the physiology of chronic pain. These discoveries may also inform the future development of novel treatment approaches.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6592570; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6592570?pdf=render +35022215,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519,Indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic on childhood infection in England: population based observational study.,"Kadambari S, Goldacre R, Morris E, Goldacre MJ, Pollard AJ.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-01-12,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes for childhood respiratory infections, severe invasive infections, and vaccine preventable disease in England.

Design

Population based observational study of 19 common childhood respiratory, severe invasive, and vaccine preventable infections, comparing hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes before and after the onset of the pandemic in England.

Setting

Hospital admission data from every NHS hospital in England from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021 with record linkage to national mortality data.

Population

Children aged 0-14 years admitted to an NHS hospital with a selected childhood infection from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021.

Main outcome measures

For each infection, numbers of hospital admissions every month from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021, percentage changes in the number of hospital admissions before and after 1 March 2020, and adjusted odds ratios to compare 60 day case fatality outcomes before and after 1 March 2020.

Results

After 1 March 2020, substantial and sustained reductions in hospital admissions were found for all but one of the 19 infective conditions studied. Among the respiratory infections, the greatest percentage reductions were for influenza (mean annual number admitted between 1 March 2017 and 29 February 2020 was 5379 and number of children admitted from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 was 304, 94% reduction, 95% confidence interval 89% to 97%), and bronchiolitis (from 51 655 to 9423, 82% reduction, 95% confidence interval 79% to 84%). Among the severe invasive infections, the greatest reduction was for meningitis (50% reduction, 47% to 52%). For the vaccine preventable infections, reductions ranged from 53% (32% to 68%) for mumps to 90% (80% to 95%) for measles. Reductions were seen across all demographic subgroups and in children with underlying comorbidities. Corresponding decreases were also found for the absolute numbers of 60 day case fatalities, although the proportion of children admitted for pneumonia who died within 60 days increased (age-sex adjusted odds ratio 1.71, 95% confidence interval 1.43 to 2.05). More recent data indicate that some respiratory infections increased to higher levels than usual after May 2021.

Conclusions

During the covid-19 pandemic, a range of behavioural changes (adoption of non-pharmacological interventions) and societal strategies (school closures, lockdowns, and restricted travel) were used to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which also reduced admissions for common and severe childhood infections. Continued monitoring of these infections is required as social restrictions evolve.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/376/bmj-2021-067519.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487?pdf=render 32616598,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01809-2020,Using imaging to combat a pandemic: rationale for developing the UK National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database. ,"Jacob J, Alexander D, Baillie JK, Berka R, Bertolli O, Blackwood J, Buchan I, Bloomfield C, Cushnan D, Docherty A, Edey A, Favaro A, Gleeson F, Halling-Brown M, Hare S, Jefferson E, Johnstone A, Kirby M, McStay R, Nair A, Openshaw PJM, Parker G, Reilly G, Robinson G, Roditi G, Rodrigues JCL, Sebire N, Semple MG, Sudlow C, Woznitza N, Joshi I.",,The European respiratory journal,2020,2020-08-13,Y,,,,"The National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) is a repository of chest radiographs, CT and MRI images and clinical data from COVID-19 patients across the UK, to support research and development of AI technology and give insight into COVID-19 disease https://bit.ly/3eQeuha",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/56/2/2001809.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01809-2020; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7331656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7331656?pdf=render +34261736,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229,Heart failure medication dosage and survival in women and men seen at outpatient clinics.,"Bots SH, Onland-Moret NC, Tulevski II, van der Harst P, Cramer MJM, Asselbergs FW, Somsen GA, den Ruijter HM.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2021,2021-07-14,Y,epidemiology; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Objective

Women with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) may reach optimal treatment effect at half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. This study investigates prescription practice and its relation with survival of patients with HF in daily care.

Methods

Electronic health record data from 13 Dutch outpatient cardiology clinics were extracted for HF receiving at least one guideline-recommended HF medication. Dose changes over consecutive prescriptions were modelled using natural cubic splines. Inverse probability-weighted Cox regression was used to assess the relationship between dose (reference≥50% target dose) and all-cause mortality.

Results

The study population comprised 561 women (29% HFrEF (ejection fraction (EF)<40%), 49% heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (EF≥50%); HFpEF and 615 men (47% and 25%, respectively). During a median follow-up of 3.7 years, 252 patients died (48% women; 167 HFrEF, 84 HFpEF). Nine hundred thirty-four patients (46% women) received ACE inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), 795 (48% women) beta blockers and 178 (42% women) mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs). In both sexes, the mean target dose across prescriptions was 50% for ACEI/ARBs and beta blockers, and 100% for MRAs. ACEI/ARB dose of <50% was associated with lower mortality in women but not in men with HFrEF. This was not seen in patients with HFpEF. Beta-blocker dose was not associated with all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

Patients with HF seen in outpatient cardiology clinics receive half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. Lower ACEI/ARB dose was associated with improved survival in women with HFrEF. These results underscore the importance of (re)defining optimal medical therapy for women with HFrEF.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/21/1748.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453?pdf=render 36854461,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073149,Realistic expectations are key to realising the benefits of polygenic scores.,"Sud A, Horton RH, Hingorani AD, Tzoulaki I, Turnbull C, Houlston RS, Lucassen A.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2023,2023-02-28,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/380/bmj-2022-073149.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073149; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9973128 -34244270,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008,Protocol for development of a reporting guideline (TRIPOD-AI) and risk of bias tool (PROBAST-AI) for diagnostic and prognostic prediction model studies based on artificial intelligence.,"Collins GS, Dhiman P, Andaur Navarro CL, Ma J, Hooft L, Reitsma JB, Logullo P, Beam AL, Peng L, Van Calster B, van Smeden M, Riley RD, Moons KG.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-07-09,Y,epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine),,,"

Introduction

The Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model of Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis (TRIPOD) statement and the Prediction model Risk Of Bias ASsessment Tool (PROBAST) were both published to improve the reporting and critical appraisal of prediction model studies for diagnosis and prognosis. This paper describes the processes and methods that will be used to develop an extension to the TRIPOD statement (TRIPOD-artificial intelligence, AI) and the PROBAST (PROBAST-AI) tool for prediction model studies that applied machine learning techniques.

Methods and analysis

TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI will be developed following published guidance from the EQUATOR Network, and will comprise five stages. Stage 1 will comprise two systematic reviews (across all medical fields and specifically in oncology) to examine the quality of reporting in published machine-learning-based prediction model studies. In stage 2, we will consult a diverse group of key stakeholders using a Delphi process to identify items to be considered for inclusion in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 3 will be virtual consensus meetings to consolidate and prioritise key items to be included in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 4 will involve developing the TRIPOD-AI checklist and the PROBAST-AI tool, and writing the accompanying explanation and elaboration papers. In the final stage, stage 5, we will disseminate TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI via journals, conferences, blogs, websites (including TRIPOD, PROBAST and EQUATOR Network) and social media. TRIPOD-AI will provide researchers working on prediction model studies based on machine learning with a reporting guideline that can help them report key details that readers need to evaluate the study quality and interpret its findings, potentially reducing research waste. We anticipate PROBAST-AI will help researchers, clinicians, systematic reviewers and policymakers critically appraise the design, conduct and analysis of machine learning based prediction model studies, with a robust standardised tool for bias evaluation.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been granted by the Central University Research Ethics Committee, University of Oxford on 10-December-2020 (R73034/RE001). Findings from this study will be disseminated through peer-review publications.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019140361 and CRD42019161764.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e048008.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461?pdf=render 34751629,https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1998671,Long-term health and mobility of older adults following traumatic injury: a qualitative longitudinal study.,"Reeder S, Ameratunga S, Ponsford J, Fitzgerald M, Lyons R, Nunn A, Ekegren C, Cameron P, Gabbe B.",,Disability and rehabilitation,2022,2021-11-09,N,Ageing; Recovery; Qualitative; Disability; Older Adult; Traumatic Injury,,,"

Purpose

The aim of this study was to explore older adults' experiences of and approaches to managing their long-term health and mobility after traumatic injury.

Methods

A longitudinal qualitative study was undertaken with older adults following traumatic injury in Victoria, Australia. Fifteen participants (≥65 years) were interviewed at three years post-injury (n = 15), and re-interviewed at four (n = 14) and five years (n = 12) post-injury. Using a framework approach, a longitudinal thematic analysis was performed.

Results

Older age at the time of injury was identified by participants as a key factor influencing their recovery. Many participants reported actively attempting to regain their strength and fitness in the first five years following injury. However, their age, injury impacts, other health conditions, and weight gain made it difficult to achieve recovery goals. Many older adults reported a decline in their physical function over time. While these experiences and persistent disability constrained or changed the quality of social relationships, community participation, and independence, several participants described adapting to their functional limitations, and managing their secondary conditions over time.

Conclusion

In our cohort, the intertwined combination of ageing, injury, and comorbid conditions negatively affected health and mobility, reinforcing the need for preventative strategies.Implications for rehabilitationOlder adults recovering from traumatic injury may benefit from specialised care pathways that offer long-term and tailored therapies, with programs and services specific to their needs and goals.An integrated service approach by injury insurers, health care, primary care, disability, and aged care could more clearly identify and effectively address the individual needs and goals of older adults with complex conditions.Health and social services that work with people with injuries to develop personalised coping strategies can reduce anxiety related to uncertainty about the future, promote well-being, and support participation in valued activities.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1998671 32895316,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215566,We need a robust evidence base to unravel the relationship between sex hormones and asthma.,"Sheikh A, Mukherjee M.",,Thorax,2020,2020-09-07,N,Asthma,,,,,html:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11820/885f92d9-96bd-467c-893a-d5eb23d109e9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215566 34907415,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab266,Left atrial structure and function are associated with cardiovascular outcomes independent of left ventricular measures: a UK Biobank CMR study.,"Raisi-Estabragh Z, McCracken C, Condurache D, Aung N, Vargas JD, Naderi H, Munroe PB, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Petersen SE.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Mortality; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Left ventricle; Vascular Risk Factors; Cardiovascular Outcomes; Lef; T Atrium,,,"

Aims

We evaluated the associations of left atrial (LA) structure and function with prevalent and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD), independent of left ventricular (LV) metrics, in 25 896 UK Biobank participants.

Methods and results

We estimated the association of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) metrics [LA maximum volume (LAV), LA ejection fraction (LAEF), LV mass : LV end-diastolic volume ratio (LVM : LVEDV), global longitudinal strain, and LV global function index (LVGFI)] with vascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and smoking), prevalent and incident CVDs [atrial fibrillation (AF), stroke, ischaemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial infarction], all-cause mortality, and CVD mortality. We created uncorrelated CMR variables using orthogonal principal component analysis rotation. All five CMR metrics were simultaneously entered into multivariable regression models adjusted for sex, age, ethnicity, deprivation, education, body size, and physical activity. Lower LAEF was associated with diabetes, smoking, and all the prevalent and incident CVDs. Diabetes, smoking, and high cholesterol were associated with smaller LAV. Hypertension, IHD, AF (incident and prevalent), incident stroke, and CVD mortality were associated with larger LAV. LV and LA metrics were both independently informative in associations with prevalent disease, however LAEF showed the most consistent associations with incident CVDs. Lower LVGFI was associated with greater all-cause and CVD mortality. In secondary analyses, compared with LVGFI, LV ejection fraction showed similar but less consistent disease associations.

Conclusion

LA structure and function measures (LAEF and LAV) demonstrate significant associations with key prevalent and incident cardiovascular outcomes, independent of LV metrics. These measures have potential clinical utility for disease discrimination and outcome prediction.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jeab266/41764801/jeab266.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab266; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9365306; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9365306?pdf=render +34244270,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008,Protocol for development of a reporting guideline (TRIPOD-AI) and risk of bias tool (PROBAST-AI) for diagnostic and prognostic prediction model studies based on artificial intelligence.,"Collins GS, Dhiman P, Andaur Navarro CL, Ma J, Hooft L, Reitsma JB, Logullo P, Beam AL, Peng L, Van Calster B, van Smeden M, Riley RD, Moons KG.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-07-09,Y,epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine),,,"

Introduction

The Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model of Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis (TRIPOD) statement and the Prediction model Risk Of Bias ASsessment Tool (PROBAST) were both published to improve the reporting and critical appraisal of prediction model studies for diagnosis and prognosis. This paper describes the processes and methods that will be used to develop an extension to the TRIPOD statement (TRIPOD-artificial intelligence, AI) and the PROBAST (PROBAST-AI) tool for prediction model studies that applied machine learning techniques.

Methods and analysis

TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI will be developed following published guidance from the EQUATOR Network, and will comprise five stages. Stage 1 will comprise two systematic reviews (across all medical fields and specifically in oncology) to examine the quality of reporting in published machine-learning-based prediction model studies. In stage 2, we will consult a diverse group of key stakeholders using a Delphi process to identify items to be considered for inclusion in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 3 will be virtual consensus meetings to consolidate and prioritise key items to be included in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 4 will involve developing the TRIPOD-AI checklist and the PROBAST-AI tool, and writing the accompanying explanation and elaboration papers. In the final stage, stage 5, we will disseminate TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI via journals, conferences, blogs, websites (including TRIPOD, PROBAST and EQUATOR Network) and social media. TRIPOD-AI will provide researchers working on prediction model studies based on machine learning with a reporting guideline that can help them report key details that readers need to evaluate the study quality and interpret its findings, potentially reducing research waste. We anticipate PROBAST-AI will help researchers, clinicians, systematic reviewers and policymakers critically appraise the design, conduct and analysis of machine learning based prediction model studies, with a robust standardised tool for bias evaluation.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been granted by the Central University Research Ethics Committee, University of Oxford on 10-December-2020 (R73034/RE001). Findings from this study will be disseminated through peer-review publications.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019140361 and CRD42019161764.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e048008.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461?pdf=render 32321827,https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912957117,Testing for dependence on tree structures.,"Behr M, Ansari MA, Munk A, Holmes C.",,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,2020,2020-04-22,Y,Hypothesis Testing; Change-point Detection; Subgroup Detection; Tree Structures,,,"Tree structures, showing hierarchical relationships and the latent structures between samples, are ubiquitous in genomic and biomedical sciences. A common question in many studies is whether there is an association between a response variable measured on each sample and the latent group structure represented by some given tree. Currently, this is addressed on an ad hoc basis, usually requiring the user to decide on an appropriate number of clusters to prune out of the tree to be tested against the response variable. Here, we present a statistical method with statistical guarantees that tests for association between the response variable and a fixed tree structure across all levels of the tree hierarchy with high power while accounting for the overall false positive error rate. This enhances the robustness and reproducibility of such findings.",,pdf:https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/117/18/9787.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912957117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7211961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7211961?pdf=render 35452565,https://doi.org/10.1002/cpz1.373,The COPILOT Raw Illumina Genotyping QC Protocol.,"Patel H, Lee SH, Breen G, Menzel S, Ojewunmi O, Dobson RJB.",,Current protocols,2022,2022-04-01,N,Genotyping; Gwas; Illumina; Docker; Qc Pipeline,,,"The Illumina genotyping microarrays generate data in image format, which is processed by the platform-specific software GenomeStudio, followed by an array of complex bioinformatics analyses that rely on various software, different programming languages, and numerous dependencies to be installed and configured correctly. The entire process can be time-consuming, can lead to reproducibility errors, and can be a daunting task for bioinformaticians. To address this, we introduce the COPILOT protocol, which has been successfully used to transform raw Illumina genotype intensity data into high-quality analysis-ready data on tens of thousands of human patient samples that have been genotyped on a variety of Illumina genotyping arrays. This includes processing both mainstream and custom content genotyping chips with over 4 million markers per sample. The COPILOT QC protocol consists of two distinct tandem procedures to process raw Illumina genotyping data. The first protocol is an up-to-date process to systematically QC raw Illumina microarray genotyping data using the Illumina-specific GenomeStudio software. The second protocol takes the output from the first protocol and further processes the data through the COPILOT (Containerised wOrkflow for Processing ILlumina genOtyping daTa) containerized QC pipeline, to automate an array of complex bioinformatics analyses to improve data quality through a secondary clustering algorithm and to automatically identify typical Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) data issues, including gender discrepancies, heterozygosity outliers, related individuals, and population outliers, through ancestry estimation. The data is returned to the user in analysis-ready PLINK binary format and is accompanied by a comprehensive and interactive HTML summary report file which quickly helps the user understand the data and guides the user for further data analyses. The COPILOT protocol and containerized pipeline are also available at https://khp-informatics.github.io/COPILOT/index.html. © 2022 The Authors. Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Processing raw Illumina genotyping data using GenomeStudio Basic Protocol 2: COPILOT: A containerised workflow for processing Illumina genotyping data.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10149151/1/Dobson_The%20COPILOT%20Raw%20Illumina%20Genotyping%20QC%20Protocol_VoR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cpz1.373 32831176,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58699,The contribution of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections to transmission on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. ,"Emery JC, Russell TW, Liu Y, Hellewell J, Pearson CA, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Knight GM, Eggo RM, Kucharski AJ, Kucharski AJ, Funk S, Flasche S, Houben RM.",,eLife,2020,2020-08-24,Y,,,,"A key unknown for SARS-CoV-2 is how asymptomatic infections contribute to transmission. We used a transmission model with asymptomatic and presymptomatic states, calibrated to data on disease onset and test frequency from the Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak, to quantify the contribution of asymptomatic infections to transmission. The model estimated that 74% (70-78%, 95% posterior interval) of infections proceeded asymptomatically. Despite intense testing, 53% (51-56%) of infections remained undetected, most of them asymptomatic. Asymptomatic individuals were the source for 69% (20-85%) of all infections. The data did not allow identification of the infectiousness of asymptomatic infections, however low ranges (0-25%) required a net reproduction number for individuals progressing through presymptomatic and symptomatic stages of at least 15. Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections may contribute substantially to transmission. Control measures, and models projecting their potential impact, need to look beyond the symptomatic cases if they are to understand and address ongoing transmission.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58699; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58699; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7527238; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7527238?pdf=render -32071531,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001,Predictors of clavicle fixation in multiply injured patients.,"Tinney A, Moaveni AK, Kimmel LA, Gabbe BJ.",,Journal of orthopaedics,2020,2020-02-04,N,Trauma; Operative treatment; Trauma Registry; Clavicle Fracture; Surgical Fixation; Multiply Injured Patient,,,"

Introduction

Clavicle fractures account for approximately 10% of all fractures in multiply injured patients. Our study aims to determine factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle fracture in multiply injured patients.

Methods

Major adult trauma patients from 2005 to 2014 with a clavicle fracture were included. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to determine the variables associated with fixation.

Results

1779 patients (median age of 47 and a median Injury Severity Score of 17) were included. 273 (15%) patients underwent clavicle fixation. Factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle included: year, younger age, ICU admission, or an associated humerus or scapula fracture.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7016330; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001 34000735,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab025,Commentary: Obstetric oxytocin exposure and risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in offspring-case closed.,"Morales DR, Nordeng HM.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-05-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/2/457/37947593/dyab025.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab025 +32071531,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001,Predictors of clavicle fixation in multiply injured patients.,"Tinney A, Moaveni AK, Kimmel LA, Gabbe BJ.",,Journal of orthopaedics,2020,2020-02-04,N,Trauma; Operative treatment; Trauma Registry; Clavicle Fracture; Surgical Fixation; Multiply Injured Patient,,,"

Introduction

Clavicle fractures account for approximately 10% of all fractures in multiply injured patients. Our study aims to determine factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle fracture in multiply injured patients.

Methods

Major adult trauma patients from 2005 to 2014 with a clavicle fracture were included. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to determine the variables associated with fixation.

Results

1779 patients (median age of 47 and a median Injury Severity Score of 17) were included. 273 (15%) patients underwent clavicle fixation. Factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle included: year, younger age, ICU admission, or an associated humerus or scapula fracture.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7016330; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001 34598995,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055219,"wEight chanGes, caRdio-mEtabolic risks and morTality in patients with hyperthyroidism (EGRET): a protocol for a CPRD-HES linked cohort study.","Torlinska B, Hazlehurst JM, Nirantharakumar K, Thomas GN, Priestley JR, Finnikin SJ, Saunders P, Abrams KR, Boelaert K.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-10-01,Y,Thyroid disease; epidemiology; Cardiac Epidemiology,,,"

Introduction

Hyperthyroidism is a common condition affecting up to 3% of the UK population. Treatment improves symptoms and reduces the risk of atrial fibrillation and stroke that contribute to increased mortality. The most common symptom is weight loss, which is reversed during treatment. However, the weight regain may be excessive, contributing to increased risk of obesity. Current treatment options include antithyroid drugs, radioiodine and thyroidectomy. Whether there are differences in either weight change or the long-term cardiometabolic risk between the three treatments is unclear.

Methods and analysis

The study will establish the natural history of weight change in hyperthyroidism, investigate the risk of obesity and risks of cardiometabolic conditions and death relative to the treatment. The data on patients diagnosed with hyperthyroidism between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2015 will come from Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked to Hospital Episode Statistics and Office of National Statistics Death Registry. The weight changes will be modelled using a flexible joint modelling, accounting for mortality. Obesity prevalence in the general population will be sourced from Health Survey for England and compared with the post-treatment prevalence of obesity in patients with hyperthyroidism. The incidence and time-to-event of major adverse cardiovascular events, other cardiometabolic outcomes and mortality will be compared between the treatments using the inverse propensity weighting model. Incidence rate ratios of outcomes will be modelled with Poisson regression. Time to event will be analysed using Cox proportional hazards model. A competing risks approach will be adopted to estimate comparative incidences to allow for the impact of mortality.

Ethics and dissemination

The study will bring new knowledge on the risk of developing obesity, cardiometabolic morbidity and mortality following treatment for hyperthyroidism to inform clinical practice and public health policies. The results will be disseminated via open-access peer-reviewed publications and directly to the patients and public groups (Independent Scientific Advisory Committee protocol approval #20_000185).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e055219.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055219; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488707; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488707?pdf=render 34356044,https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12071029,A Causal Web between Chronotype and Metabolic Health Traits. ,"Williams JA, Russ D, Bravo-Merodio L, Cardoso VR, Pendleton SC, Aziz F, Acharjee A, Gkoutos GV.",,Genes,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"Observational and experimental evidence has linked chronotype to both psychological and cardiometabolic traits. Recent Mendelian randomization (MR) studies have investigated direct links between chronotype and several of these traits, often in isolation of outside potential mediating or moderating traits. We mined the EpiGraphDB MR database for calculated chronotype-trait associations (p-value < 5 × 10-8). We then re-analyzed those relevant to metabolic or mental health and investigated for statistical evidence of horizontal pleiotropy. Analyses passing multiple testing correction were then investigated for confounders, colliders, intermediates, and reverse intermediates using the EpiGraphDB database, creating multiple chronotype-trait interactions among each of the the traits studied. We revealed 10 significant chronotype-exposure associations (false discovery rate < 0.05) exposed to 111 potential previously known confounders, 52 intermediates, 18 reverse intermediates, and 31 colliders. Chronotype-lipid causal associations collided with treatment and diabetes effects; chronotype-bipolar associations were mediated by breast cancer; and chronotype-alcohol intake associations were impacted by confounders and intermediate variables including known zeitgebers and molecular traits. We have reported the influence of chronotype on several cardiometabolic and behavioural traits, and identified potential confounding variables not reported on in studies while discovering new associations to drugs and disease.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/7/1029/pdf?version=1625724795; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12071029; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8303793; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8303793?pdf=render 30181555,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0236-1,"Genetics of self-reported risk-taking behaviour, trans-ethnic consistency and relevance to brain gene expression.","Strawbridge RJ, Ward J, Lyall LM, Tunbridge EM, Cullen B, Graham N, Ferguson A, Johnston KJA, Lyall DM, Mackay D, Cavanagh J, Howard DM, Adams MJ, Deary I, Escott-Price V, O'Donovan M, McIntosh AM, Bailey MES, Pell JP, Harrison PJ, Smith DJ.",,Translational psychiatry,2018,2018-09-04,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Risk-taking behaviour is an important component of several psychiatric disorders, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Previously, two genetic loci have been associated with self-reported risk taking and significant genetic overlap with psychiatric disorders was identified within a subsample of UK Biobank. Using the white British participants of the full UK Biobank cohort (n = 83,677 risk takers versus 244,662 controls) for our primary analysis, we conducted a genome-wide association study of self-reported risk-taking behaviour. In secondary analyses, we assessed sex-specific effects, trans-ethnic heterogeneity and genetic overlap with psychiatric traits. We also investigated the impact of risk-taking-associated SNPs on both gene expression and structural brain imaging. We identified 10 independent loci for risk-taking behaviour, of which eight were novel and two replicated previous findings. In addition, we found two further sex-specific risk-taking loci. There were strong positive genetic correlations between risk-taking and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Index genetic variants demonstrated effects generally consistent with the discovery analysis in individuals of non-British White, South Asian, African-Caribbean or mixed ethnicity. Polygenic risk scores comprising alleles associated with increased risk taking were associated with lower white matter integrity. Genotype-specific expression pattern analyses highlighted DPYSL5, CGREF1 and C15orf59 as plausible candidate genes. Overall, our findings substantially advance our understanding of the biology of risk-taking behaviour, including the possibility of sex-specific contributions, and reveal consistency across ethnicities. We further highlight several putative novel candidate genes, which may mediate these genetic effects.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-018-0236-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0236-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6123450; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6123450?pdf=render -36669843,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364,Implementation of a quality improvement programme using the Active Patient Link call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of childhood vaccinations: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation.,"Marszalek M, Hawking MKD, Gutierrez A, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Firman N, Robson J, Bedford H, Billington A, Moss N, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-01-20,Y,immunology; Public Health; Preventive Medicine; Community Child Health; Quality In Health Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

Call and recall systems provide actionable intelligence to improve equity and timeliness of childhood vaccinations, which have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will evaluate the effectiveness, fidelity and sustainability of a data-enabled quality improvement programme delivered in primary care using an Active Patient Link Immunisation (APL-Imms) call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of uptake in a multiethnic disadvantaged urban population. We will use qualitative methods to evaluate programme delivery, focusing on uptake and use, implementation barriers and service improvements for clinical and non-clinical primary care staff, its fidelity and sustainability.

Methods and analysis

This is a mixed-methods observational study in 284 general practices in north east London (NEL). The target population will be preschool-aged children eligible to receive diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and registered with an NEL general practice. The intervention comprises an in-practice call and recall tool, facilitation and training, and financial incentives. The quantitative evaluation will include interrupted time Series analyses and Slope Index of Inequality. The primary outcomes will be the proportion of children receiving at least one dose of a DTaP-containing or MMR vaccination defined, respectively, as administered between age 6 weeks and 6 months or between 12 and 18 months of age. The qualitative evaluation will involve a 'Think Aloud' method and semistructured interviews of stakeholders to assess impact, fidelity and sustainability of the APL-Imms tool, and fidelity of the implementation by facilitators.

Ethics and dissemination

The research team has been granted permission from data controllers in participating practices to use deidentified data for audit purposes. As findings will be specific to the local context, research ethics approval is not required. Results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and to stakeholders, including parents, health providers and commissioners.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/1/e064364.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487?pdf=render 36855161,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01161-y,Refining epigenetic prediction of chronological and biological age.,"Bernabeu E, McCartney DL, Gadd DA, Hillary RF, Lu AT, Murphy L, Wrobel N, Campbell A, Harris SE, Liewald D, Hayward C, Sudlow C, Cox SR, Evans KL, Horvath S, McIntosh AM, Robinson MR, Vallejos CA, Marioni RE.",,Genome medicine,2023,2023-02-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Epigenetic clocks can track both chronological age (cAge) and biological age (bAge). The latter is typically defined by physiological biomarkers and risk of adverse health outcomes, including all-cause mortality. As cohort sample sizes increase, estimates of cAge and bAge become more precise. Here, we aim to develop accurate epigenetic predictors of cAge and bAge, whilst improving our understanding of their epigenomic architecture.

Methods

First, we perform large-scale (N = 18,413) epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of chronological age and all-cause mortality. Next, to create a cAge predictor, we use methylation data from 24,674 participants from the Generation Scotland study, the Lothian Birth Cohorts (LBC) of 1921 and 1936, and 8 other cohorts with publicly available data. In addition, we train a predictor of time to all-cause mortality as a proxy for bAge using the Generation Scotland cohort (1214 observed deaths). For this purpose, we use epigenetic surrogates (EpiScores) for 109 plasma proteins and the 8 component parts of GrimAge, one of the current best epigenetic predictors of survival. We test this bAge predictor in four external cohorts (LBC1921, LBC1936, the Framingham Heart Study and the Women's Health Initiative study).

Results

Through the inclusion of linear and non-linear age-CpG associations from the EWAS, feature pre-selection in advance of elastic net regression, and a leave-one-cohort-out (LOCO) cross-validation framework, we obtain cAge prediction with a median absolute error equal to 2.3 years. Our bAge predictor was found to slightly outperform GrimAge in terms of the strength of its association to survival (HRGrimAge = 1.47 [1.40, 1.54] with p = 1.08 × 10-52, and HRbAge = 1.52 [1.44, 1.59] with p = 2.20 × 10-60). Finally, we introduce MethylBrowsR, an online tool to visualise epigenome-wide CpG-age associations.

Conclusions

The integration of multiple large datasets, EpiScores, non-linear DNAm effects, and new approaches to feature selection has facilitated improvements to the blood-based epigenetic prediction of biological and chronological age.",,pdf:https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13073-023-01161-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01161-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9976489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9976489?pdf=render -36198485,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986,Characteristics of enrolment in an intensive home-visiting programme among eligible first-time adolescent mothers in England: a linked administrative data cohort study.,"Cavallaro FL, Gilbert R, Wijlaars LP, Kennedy E, Howarth E, Kendall S, van der Meulen J, Calin MA, Reed L, Harron K.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2022,2022-10-05,Y,Adolescent; Public Health; Child Health,,,"

Background

Intensive home visiting for adolescent mothers may help reduce health disparities. Given limited resources, such interventions need to be effectively targeted. We evaluated which mothers were enrolled in the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), an intensive home-visiting service for first-time young mothers commissioned in >130 local authorities in England since 2007.

Methods

We created a population-based cohort of first-time mothers aged 13-19 years giving birth in English National Health Service hospitals between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2017, using administrative hospital data linked with FNP programme, educational and social care data. Mothers living in a local authority with an active FNP site were eligible. We described variation in enrolment rates across sites, and identified maternal and FNP site characteristics associated with enrolment.

Results

Of 110 520 eligible mothers, 25 680 (23.2% (95% CI: 23.0% to 23.5%)) were enrolled. Enrolment rates varied substantially across 122 sites (range: 11%-68%), and areas with greater numbers of first-time adolescent mothers achieved lower enrolment rates. Mothers aged 13-15 years were most likely to be enrolled (52%). However, only 26% of adolescent mothers with markers of vulnerability (including living in the most deprived areas and ever having been looked after as a child) were enrolled.

Conclusion

A substantial proportion of first-time adolescent mothers with vulnerability markers were not enrolled in FNP. Variation in enrolment across sites indicates insufficient commissioning of places that is not proportional to level of need, with mothers in areas with large numbers of other adolescent mothers least likely to receive support.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/12/991.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100?pdf=render +36669843,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364,Implementation of a quality improvement programme using the Active Patient Link call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of childhood vaccinations: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation.,"Marszalek M, Hawking MKD, Gutierrez A, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Firman N, Robson J, Bedford H, Billington A, Moss N, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-01-20,Y,immunology; Public Health; Preventive Medicine; Community Child Health; Quality In Health Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation,,,"

Introduction

Call and recall systems provide actionable intelligence to improve equity and timeliness of childhood vaccinations, which have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will evaluate the effectiveness, fidelity and sustainability of a data-enabled quality improvement programme delivered in primary care using an Active Patient Link Immunisation (APL-Imms) call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of uptake in a multiethnic disadvantaged urban population. We will use qualitative methods to evaluate programme delivery, focusing on uptake and use, implementation barriers and service improvements for clinical and non-clinical primary care staff, its fidelity and sustainability.

Methods and analysis

This is a mixed-methods observational study in 284 general practices in north east London (NEL). The target population will be preschool-aged children eligible to receive diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and registered with an NEL general practice. The intervention comprises an in-practice call and recall tool, facilitation and training, and financial incentives. The quantitative evaluation will include interrupted time Series analyses and Slope Index of Inequality. The primary outcomes will be the proportion of children receiving at least one dose of a DTaP-containing or MMR vaccination defined, respectively, as administered between age 6 weeks and 6 months or between 12 and 18 months of age. The qualitative evaluation will involve a 'Think Aloud' method and semistructured interviews of stakeholders to assess impact, fidelity and sustainability of the APL-Imms tool, and fidelity of the implementation by facilitators.

Ethics and dissemination

The research team has been granted permission from data controllers in participating practices to use deidentified data for audit purposes. As findings will be specific to the local context, research ethics approval is not required. Results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and to stakeholders, including parents, health providers and commissioners.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/1/e064364.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487?pdf=render 32717063,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvaa233,Gene expression profiling of hypertrophic cardiomyocytes identifies new players in pathological remodelling.,"Vigil-Garcia M, Demkes CJ, Eding JEC, Versteeg D, de Ruiter H, Perini I, Kooijman L, Gladka MM, Asselbergs FW, Vink A, Harakalova M, Bossu A, van Veen TAB, Boogerd CJ, van Rooij E.",,Cardiovascular research,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Cardiomyocyte; hypertrophy; Heart Failure; Rna Sequencing; Pfkp; Pathological Remodelling,,,"

Aims

Pathological cardiac remodelling is characterized by cardiomyocyte (CM) hypertrophy and fibroblast activation, which can ultimately lead to maladaptive hypertrophy and heart failure (HF). Genome-wide expression analysis on heart tissue has been instrumental for the identification of molecular mechanisms at play. However, these data were based on signals derived from all cardiac cell types. Here, we aimed for a more detailed view on molecular changes driving maladaptive CM hypertrophy to aid in the development of therapies to reverse pathological remodelling.

Methods and results

Utilizing CM-specific reporter mice exposed to pressure overload by transverse aortic banding and CM isolation by flow cytometry, we obtained gene expression profiles of hypertrophic CMs in the more immediate phase after stress, and CMs showing pathological hypertrophy. We identified subsets of genes differentially regulated and specific for either stage. Among the genes specifically up-regulated in the CMs during the maladaptive phase we found known stress markers, such as Nppb and Myh7, but additionally identified a set of genes with unknown roles in pathological hypertrophy, including the platelet isoform of phosphofructokinase (PFKP). Norepinephrine-angiotensin II treatment of cultured human CMs induced the secretion of N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) and recapitulated the up-regulation of these genes, indicating conservation of the up-regulation in failing CMs. Moreover, several genes induced during pathological hypertrophy were also found to be increased in human HF, with their expression positively correlating to the known stress markers NPPB and MYH7. Mechanistically, suppression of Pfkp in primary CMs attenuated stress-induced gene expression and hypertrophy, indicating that Pfkp is an important novel player in pathological remodelling of CMs.

Conclusion

Using CM-specific transcriptomic analysis, we identified novel genes induced during pathological hypertrophy that are relevant for human HF, and we show that PFKP is a conserved failure-induced gene that can modulate the CM stress response.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvaa233; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvaa233; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8152696; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8152696?pdf=render 34139439,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104542,Development and application of the ocular immune-mediated inflammatory diseases ontology enhanced with synonyms from online patient support forum conversation.,"Pendleton SC, Slater LT, Karwath A, Gilbert RM, Davis N, Pesudovs K, Liu X, Denniston AK, Gkoutos GV, Braithwaite T.",,Computers in biology and medicine,2021,2021-06-08,Y,Inflammation; Uveitis; Ontology; Patient Voice; Sentiment,,,"

Background

Unstructured text created by patients represents a rich, but relatively inaccessible resource for advancing patient-centred care. This study aimed to develop an ontology for ocular immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (OcIMIDo), as a tool to facilitate data extraction and analysis, illustrating its application to online patient support forum data.

Methods

We developed OcIMIDo using clinical guidelines, domain expertise, and cross-references to classes from other biomedical ontologies. We developed an approach to add patient-preferred synonyms text-mined from oliviasvision.org online forum, using statistical ranking. We validated the approach with split-sampling and comparison to manual extraction. Using OcIMIDo, we then explored the frequency of OcIMIDo classes and synonyms, and their potential association with natural language sentiment expressed in each online forum post.

Findings

OcIMIDo (version 1.2) includes 661 classes, describing anatomy, clinical phenotype, disease activity status, complications, investigations, interventions and functional impacts. It contains 1661 relationships and axioms, 2851 annotations, including 1131 database cross-references, and 187 patient-preferred synonyms. To illustrate OcIMIDo's potential applications, we explored 9031 forum posts, revealing frequent mention of different clinical phenotypes, treatments, and complications. Language sentiment analysis of each post was generally positive (median 0.12, IQR 0.01-0.24). In multivariable logistic regression, the odds of a post expressing negative sentiment were significantly associated with first posts as compared to replies (OR 3.3, 95% CI 2.8 to 3.9, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

We report the development and validation of a new ontology for inflammatory eye diseases, which includes patient-preferred synonyms, and can be used to explore unstructured patient or physician-reported text data, with many potential applications.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104542; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104542; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8404035 +36198485,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986,Characteristics of enrolment in an intensive home-visiting programme among eligible first-time adolescent mothers in England: a linked administrative data cohort study.,"Cavallaro FL, Gilbert R, Wijlaars LP, Kennedy E, Howarth E, Kendall S, van der Meulen J, Calin MA, Reed L, Harron K.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2022,2022-10-05,Y,Adolescent; Public Health; Child Health,,,"

Background

Intensive home visiting for adolescent mothers may help reduce health disparities. Given limited resources, such interventions need to be effectively targeted. We evaluated which mothers were enrolled in the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), an intensive home-visiting service for first-time young mothers commissioned in >130 local authorities in England since 2007.

Methods

We created a population-based cohort of first-time mothers aged 13-19 years giving birth in English National Health Service hospitals between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2017, using administrative hospital data linked with FNP programme, educational and social care data. Mothers living in a local authority with an active FNP site were eligible. We described variation in enrolment rates across sites, and identified maternal and FNP site characteristics associated with enrolment.

Results

Of 110 520 eligible mothers, 25 680 (23.2% (95% CI: 23.0% to 23.5%)) were enrolled. Enrolment rates varied substantially across 122 sites (range: 11%-68%), and areas with greater numbers of first-time adolescent mothers achieved lower enrolment rates. Mothers aged 13-15 years were most likely to be enrolled (52%). However, only 26% of adolescent mothers with markers of vulnerability (including living in the most deprived areas and ever having been looked after as a child) were enrolled.

Conclusion

A substantial proportion of first-time adolescent mothers with vulnerability markers were not enrolled in FNP. Variation in enrolment across sites indicates insufficient commissioning of places that is not proportional to level of need, with mothers in areas with large numbers of other adolescent mothers least likely to receive support.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/12/991.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100?pdf=render 32485082,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1924,Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers are not associated with severe COVID-19 infection in a multi-site UK acute hospital trust.,"Bean DM, Kraljevic Z, Searle T, Bendayan R, Kevin O, Pickles A, Folarin A, Roguski L, Noor K, Shek A, Zakeri R, Shah AM, Teo JTH, Dobson RJB.",,European journal of heart failure,2020,2020-06-01,Y,Hypertension; Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors; Disease Outcome; Covid-19,,,"

Aims

The SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for cell entry. It has been suggested that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB), which are commonly used in patients with hypertension or diabetes and may raise tissue ACE2 levels, could increase the risk of severe COVID-19 infection.

Methods and results

We evaluated this hypothesis in a consecutive cohort of 1200 acute inpatients with COVID-19 at two hospitals with a multi-ethnic catchment population in London (UK). The mean age was 68 ± 17 years (57% male) and 74% of patients had at least one comorbidity. Overall, 415 patients (34.6%) reached the primary endpoint of death or transfer to a critical care unit for organ support within 21 days of symptom onset. A total of 399 patients (33.3%) were taking ACEi or ARB. Patients on ACEi/ARB were significantly older and had more comorbidities. The odds ratio for the primary endpoint in patients on ACEi and ARB, after adjustment for age, sex and co-morbidities, was 0.63 (95% confidence interval 0.47-0.84, P < 0.01).

Conclusions

There was no evidence for increased severity of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients on chronic treatment with ACEi or ARB. A trend towards a beneficial effect of ACEi/ARB requires further evaluation in larger meta-analyses and randomised clinical trials.","This study aimed to determine whether or not two specific types of medication (ACE inhibitors and angiotensin-2 blockers - ACEi/ARB) used for hypertension or diabetes are associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection in a sample of 1,200 inpatients (one third of whom were taking the medications under investigation) in two London hospitals. The researchers used data from electonic medical notes and electronic health records. The patients who were taking the medication were, on average, older and had more underlying health conditions than patients who were not. After accounting for these differences in patient health the researchers found that the risk of severe COVID infection was not higher for patients taking ACEi/ARB. This finding is important for patients because it suggests that they should continue to take ACEi/ARB that have been presecribed to them.",pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.1924; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7301045; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7301045?pdf=render 31353050,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(19)31359-5,Eligibility and subsequent burden of cardiovascular disease of four strategies for blood pressure-lowering treatment: a retrospective cohort study.,"Herrett E, Gadd S, Jackson R, Bhaskaran K, Williamson E, van Staa T, Sofat R, Timmis A, Smeeth L.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2019,2019-07-25,Y,,Better Care,,"

Background

Worldwide treatment recommendations for lowering blood pressure continue to be guided predominantly by blood pressure thresholds, despite strong evidence that the benefits of blood pressure reduction are observed in patients across the blood pressure spectrum. In this study, we aimed to investigate the implications of alternative strategies for offering blood pressure treatment, using the UK as an illustrative example.

Methods

We did a retrospective cohort study in primary care patients aged 30-79 years without cardiovascular disease, using data from the UK's Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked to Hospital Episode Statistics and Office for National Statistics mortality. We assessed and compared four different strategies to determine eligibility for treatment: using 2011 UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline, or proposed 2019 NICE guideline, or blood pressure alone (threshold ≥140/90 mm Hg), or predicted 10-year cardiovascular risk alone (QRISK2 score ≥10%). Patients were followed up until the earliest occurrence of a cardiovascular disease diagnosis, death, or end of follow-up period (March 31, 2016). For each strategy, we estimated the proportion of patients eligible for treatment and number of cardiovascular events that could be prevented with treatment. We then estimated eligibility and number of events that would occur during 10 years in the UK general population.

Findings

Between Jan 1, 2011, and March 31, 2016, 1 222 670 patients in the cohort were followed up for a median of 4·3 years (IQR 2·5-5·2). 271 963 (22·2%) patients were eligible for treatment under the 2011 NICE guideline, 327 429 (26·8%) under the proposed 2019 NICE guideline, 481 859 (39·4%) on the basis of a blood pressure threshold of 140/90 mm Hg or higher, and 357 840 (29·3%) on the basis of a QRISK2 threshold of 10% or higher. During follow-up, 32 183 patients were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (overall rate 7·1 per 1000 person-years, 95% CI 7·0-7·2). Cardiovascular event rates in patients eligible for each strategy were 15·2 per 1000 person-years (95% CI 15·0-15·5) under the 2011 NICE guideline, 14·9 (14·7-15·1) under the proposed 2019 NICE guideline, 11·4 (11·3-11·6) with blood pressure threshold alone, and 16·9 (16·7-17·1) with QRISK2 threshold alone. Scaled to the UK population, we estimated that 233 152 events would be avoided under the 2011 NICE guideline (28 patients needed to treat for 10 years to avoid one event), 270 233 under the 2019 NICE guideline (29 patients), 301 523 using a blood pressure threshold (38 patients), and 322 921 using QRISK2 threshold (27 patients).

Interpretation

A cardiovascular risk-based strategy (QRISK2 ≥10%) could prevent over a third more cardiovascular disease events than the 2011 NICE guideline and a fifth more than the 2019 NICE guideline, with similar efficiency regarding number treated per event avoided.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673619313595/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31359-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6717081 -36929968,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02235-8,Impact of the temporary suspension of the Bowel Screening Wales programme on inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective register-based study.,"Bright D, Song J, Hillier S, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-11-24,Y,,,,"

Background

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of routine services in the UK National Health Service, including cancer screening. Following the reintroduction of services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who might benefit from tailored intervention.

Methods

BSW records were linked to electronic health record and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank Trusted Research Environment. We examined uptake in the first 3 months (from August to October, 2020) of invitations following the reintroduction of the BSW programme compared with the same period in the preceding 3 years. We analysed inequalities in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban and rural location, ethnic group, and uptake between different periods using logistic regression models.

Findings

Overall uptake remained above the 60% Welsh standard during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21 but declined compared with the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20 (60·4% vs 62·7%; p<0·001). During the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most deprived quintile. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Among low-uptake groups, including males, younger individuals (60-64 years), those living in most deprived areas, and ethnic minorities, uptake remains below the 60% Welsh standard.

Interpretation

Despite the disruption, uptake remained above the Welsh standard and inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities. However, variations associated with sex, age, deprivation, and ethnicity remain. These findings need to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in colorectal cancer screening such as co-producing information products with low-uptake groups and upscaling the use of GP-endorsed invitations and reminder letters for bowel screening.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, UK Medical Research Council, Administrative Data Research UK, and Health and Care Research Wales.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9691043; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02235-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043?pdf=render 35103964,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2140-0_6,Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing (ChIP-seq) Protocol for Small Amounts of Frozen Biobanked Cardiac Tissue.,"Pei J, van den Dungen NAM, Asselbergs FW, Mokry M, Harakalova M.",,"Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)",2022,2022-01-01,N,Sequencing; Antibody; Promoters; Cardiac Tissues; Chromatin Immunoprecipitation; Enhancers; Small Biopsy,,,"Chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ChIP-seq) is a well-established method to study the epigenetic profile at the genome-wide scale, including histone modifications and DNA-protein interactions. It provides valuable insights to better understand disease mechanisms. Here we present an optimized ChIP-seq protocol suitable for human cardiac tissues, especially the frozen biobanked small biopsy samples.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2140-0_6 33644414,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.1371,Public involvement & engagement in the work of a data safe haven: a case study of the SAIL Databank.,"Jones KH, Heys S, Thompson R, Cross L, Ford D.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-08-24,Y,Public Engagement; Data Safe Haven,,,"

Background

The SAIL Databank is a data safe haven established in 2007 at Swansea University (Wales). It was set up to create new opportunities for research using routinely-collected health and other public service datasets in linkable anonymised form. SAIL forms the bedrock of other Population Data Science initiatives made possible by the data and safe haven environment.

Aim

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of public involvement & engagement in connection with the SAIL Databank and related Population Data Science initiatives.

Approach

We have a public involvement & engagement policy for SAIL in the context of Population Data Science. We established a Consumer Panel to provide advice on the work of SAIL and associated initiatives, including on proposed uses of SAIL data. We reviewed the topics discussed and provide examples of advice to researchers. We carried out a survey with members on their experiences of being on the Panel and their perceptions of the work of SAIL. We have a programme of wider public engagement and provide illustrations of this work.

Discussion

We summarise what this paper adds and some lessons learned. In the rapidly developing area of Population Data Science it is important that people feel welcome, that they are encouraged to ask questions and are provided with digestible information and adequate consideration time. Citizens have provided us with valuable anticipated and unanticipated opinions and novel viewpoints. We seek to take a pragmatic approach, prioritising the communication modes that allow maximum public input commensurate with the purpose of the activity.

Conclusion

This paper has set out our policy, rationale, scope and practical approaches to public involvement & engagement for SAIL and our related Population Data Science initiatives. Although there will be jurisdictional, cultural and organizational differences, we believe that the material covered in this paper will be of interest to other data focused enterprises across the world.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1371/2815; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.1371; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7893854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7893854?pdf=render -33382071,https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176,Corrigendum to: Using Natural Language Processing on Electronic Health Records to Enhance Detection and Prediction of Psychosis Risk.,,,Schizophrenia bulletin,2021,2021-03-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/47/2/575/36620724/sbaa176.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176 +36929968,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02235-8,Impact of the temporary suspension of the Bowel Screening Wales programme on inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective register-based study.,"Bright D, Song J, Hillier S, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-11-24,Y,,,,"

Background

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of routine services in the UK National Health Service, including cancer screening. Following the reintroduction of services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who might benefit from tailored intervention.

Methods

BSW records were linked to electronic health record and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank Trusted Research Environment. We examined uptake in the first 3 months (from August to October, 2020) of invitations following the reintroduction of the BSW programme compared with the same period in the preceding 3 years. We analysed inequalities in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban and rural location, ethnic group, and uptake between different periods using logistic regression models.

Findings

Overall uptake remained above the 60% Welsh standard during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21 but declined compared with the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20 (60·4% vs 62·7%; p<0·001). During the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most deprived quintile. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Among low-uptake groups, including males, younger individuals (60-64 years), those living in most deprived areas, and ethnic minorities, uptake remains below the 60% Welsh standard.

Interpretation

Despite the disruption, uptake remained above the Welsh standard and inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities. However, variations associated with sex, age, deprivation, and ethnicity remain. These findings need to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in colorectal cancer screening such as co-producing information products with low-uptake groups and upscaling the use of GP-endorsed invitations and reminder letters for bowel screening.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, UK Medical Research Council, Administrative Data Research UK, and Health and Care Research Wales.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9691043; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02235-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043?pdf=render 33652931,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10050921,Diagnosis and Risk Prediction of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in the Era of Big Data and Genomics. ,"Sammani A, Baas AF, Asselbergs FW, Te Riele ASJM.",,Journal of clinical medicine,2021,2021-02-26,Y,,,,"Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a leading cause of heart failure and life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias (LTVA). Work-up and risk stratification of DCM is clinically challenging, as there is great heterogeneity in phenotype and genotype. Throughout the last decade, improved genetic testing of patients has identified genotype-phenotype associations and enhanced evaluation of at-risk relatives leading to better patient prognosis. The field is now ripe to explore opportunities to improve personalised risk assessments. Multivariable risk models presented as ""risk calculators"" can incorporate a multitude of clinical variables and predict outcome (such as heart failure hospitalisations or LTVA). In addition, genetic risk scores derived from genome/exome-wide association studies can estimate an individual's lifetime genetic risk of developing DCM. The use of clinically granular investigations, such as late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, is warranted in order to increase predictive performance. To this end, constructing big data infrastructures improves accessibility of data by using electronic health records, existing research databases, and disease registries. By applying methods such as machine and deep learning, we can model complex interactions, identify new phenotype clusters, and perform prognostic modelling. This review aims to provide an overview of the evolution of DCM definitions as well as its clinical work-up and considerations in the era of genomics. In addition, we present exciting examples in the field of big data infrastructures, personalised prognostic assessment, and artificial intelligence.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/5/921/pdf?version=1615467325; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10050921; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7956169; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7956169?pdf=render 35242820,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.816985,A Systematic Quality Scoring Analysis to Assess Automated Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Segmentation Algorithms.,"Rauseo E, Omer M, Amir-Khalili A, Sojoudi A, Le TT, Cook SA, Hausenloy DJ, Ang B, Toh DF, Bryant J, Chin CWL, Paiva JM, Fung K, Cooper J, Khanji MY, Aung N, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2022-02-15,Y,Quality control; Assessment; Machine Learning; Cardiac Segmentation; Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (Cmr); Automated Contouring,,,"

Background

The quantitative measures used to assess the performance of automated methods often do not reflect the clinical acceptability of contouring. A quality-based assessment of automated cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) segmentation more relevant to clinical practice is therefore needed.

Objective

We propose a new method for assessing the quality of machine learning (ML) outputs. We evaluate the clinical utility of the proposed method as it is employed to systematically analyse the quality of an automated contouring algorithm.

Methods

A dataset of short-axis (SAX) cine CMR images from a clinically heterogeneous population (n = 217) were manually contoured by a team of experienced investigators. On the same images we derived automated contours using a ML algorithm. A contour quality scoring application randomly presented manual and automated contours to four blinded clinicians, who were asked to assign a quality score from a predefined rubric. Firstly, we analyzed the distribution of quality scores between the two contouring methods across all clinicians. Secondly, we analyzed the interobserver reliability between the raters. Finally, we examined whether there was a variation in scores based on the type of contour, SAX slice level, and underlying disease.

Results

The overall distribution of scores between the two methods was significantly different, with automated contours scoring better than the manual (OR (95% CI) = 1.17 (1.07-1.28), p = 0.001; n = 9401). There was substantial scoring agreement between raters for each contouring method independently, albeit it was significantly better for automated segmentation (automated: AC2 = 0.940, 95% CI, 0.937-0.943 vs manual: AC2 = 0.934, 95% CI, 0.931-0.937; p = 0.006). Next, the analysis of quality scores based on different factors was performed. Our approach helped identify trends patterns of lower segmentation quality as observed for left ventricle epicardial and basal contours with both methods. Similarly, significant differences in quality between the two methods were also found in dilated cardiomyopathy and hypertension.

Conclusions

Our results confirm the ability of our systematic scoring analysis to determine the clinical acceptability of automated contours. This approach focused on the contours' clinical utility could ultimately improve clinicians' confidence in artificial intelligence and its acceptability in the clinical workflow.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.816985/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.816985; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8886212; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8886212?pdf=render 35435219,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac016,Temporal trends in disease-specific causes of cardiovascular mortality amongst patients with cancer in the USA between 1999 and 2019.,"Raisi-Estabragh Z, Kobo O, Freeman P, Petersen SE, Kolman L, Miller RJH, Roguin A, Van Spall HGC, Vuong J, Yang EH, Mamas MA.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Cancer; Cardiovascular disease; epidemiology; Cardiovascular Mortality; Mortality Trends; Cardio-oncology,,,"

Aims

We report disease-specific cardiovascular causes of mortality among cancer patients in the USA between 1999 and 2019, considering temporal trends by age, sex, and cancer site.

Methods and results

We used the Multiple Cause of Death database, accessed through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research resource. We included 629 308 decedents with cardiovascular disease (CVD) recorded as the primary cause of death and active malignancy listed as a contributing cause of death. We created disease-specific CVD categories and grouped cancers by site. We calculated the proportion of CVD deaths attributed to each disease category stratified by sex, age, and cancer site. We also examined disease-specific temporal trends by cancer site. Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) was the most common cardiovascular cause of death across all cancer types (55.6%), being more common in men (59.8%), older ages, and in those with lung (67.8%) and prostate (58.3%) cancers. Cerebrovascular disease (12.9%) and hypertensive diseases (7.6%) were other common causes of death. The proportion of deaths due to heart failure was greatest in haematological (7.7%) and breast (6.3%) cancers. There was a decreasing temporal trend in the proportion of cardiovascular deaths attributed to IHD across all cancer types. The proportion of deaths due to hypertensive diseases showed the greatest percentage increase, with the largest change in breast cancer patients (+191.1%).

Conclusion

We demonstrate differential cardiovascular mortality risk by cancer site and demographics, providing insight into the evolving healthcare needs of this growing high-cardiovascular risk population.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac016/43887262/qcac016.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac016; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9745666; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9745666?pdf=render +33382071,https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176,Corrigendum to: Using Natural Language Processing on Electronic Health Records to Enhance Detection and Prediction of Psychosis Risk.,,,Schizophrenia bulletin,2021,2021-03-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/47/2/575/36620724/sbaa176.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176 36798028,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14308,Identifying patients at risk: multi-centre comparison of HeartMate 3 and HeartWare left ventricular assist devices.,"Numan L, Zimpfer D, Zadok OIB, Aarts E, Morshuis M, Guenther SPW, Riebandt J, Wiedemann D, Ramjankhan FZ, Oppelaar AM, Ben-Gal T, Ben-Avraham B, Asselbergs FW, Schramm R, Van Laake LW.",,ESC heart failure,2023,2023-02-16,Y,Mechanical Circulatory Support; Left Ventricular Assist Device; End-stage Heart Failure; Lvad; Centrifugal Continuous Flow Pump,,,"

Aims

Since the withdrawal of HeartWare (HVAD) from the global market, there is an ongoing discussion if and which patients require prophylactically exchange for a HeartMate 3 (HM3). Therefore, it is important to study outcome differences between HVAD and HM3 patients. Because centres differ in patient selection and standard of care, we performed a propensity score (PS)-based study including centres that implanted both devices and aimed to identify which HVAD patients are at highest risk.

Methods and results

We performed an international multi-centre study (n = 1021) including centres that implanted HVAD and HM3. PS-matching was performed using clinical variables and the implanting centre. Survival and complications were compared. As a sensitivity analysis, PS-adjusted Cox regression was performed. Landmark analysis with conditional survival >2 years was conducted to evaluate long-term survival differences. To identify which HVAD patients may benefit from a HM3 upgrade, Cox regression using pre-operative variables and their interaction with device type was performed. Survival was significantly better for HM3 patients (P < 0.01) in 458 matched patients, with a median follow-up of 23 months. Within the matched cohort, HM3 patients had a median age of 58 years, and 83% were male, 80% of the HVAD patients were male, with a median age of 59 years. PS-adjusted Cox regression confirmed a significantly better survival for HM3 patients when compared with HVAD, with a HR of 1.46 (95% confidence interval 1.14-1.85, P < 0.01). Pump thrombosis (P < 0.01) and ischaemic stroke (P < 0.01) occurred less in HM3 patients. No difference was found for haemorrhagic stroke, right heart failure, driveline infection, and major bleeding. Landmark-analysis confirmed a significant difference in conditional survival >2 years after implantation (P = 0.03). None of the pre-operative variable interactions in the Cox regression were significant.

Conclusions

HM3 patients have a significantly better survival and a lower incidence of ischaemic strokes and pump thrombosis than HVAD patients. This survival difference persisted after 2 years of implantation. Additional research using post-operative variables is warranted to identify which HVAD patients need an upgrade to HM3 or expedited transplantation.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.14308; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14308; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10192248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10192248?pdf=render -37419925,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7,Optimal strategies for learning multi-ancestry polygenic scores vary across traits.,"Lehmann B, Mackintosh M, McVean G, Holmes C.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-07-07,Y,,,,"Polygenic scores (PGSs) are individual-level measures that aggregate the genome-wide genetic predisposition to a given trait. As PGS have predominantly been developed using European-ancestry samples, trait prediction using such European ancestry-derived PGS is less accurate in non-European ancestry individuals. Although there has been recent progress in combining multiple PGS trained on distinct populations, the problem of how to maximize performance given a multiple-ancestry cohort is largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the effect of sample size and ancestry composition on PGS performance for fifteen traits in UK Biobank. For some traits, PGS estimated using a relatively small African-ancestry training set outperformed, on an African-ancestry test set, PGS estimated using a much larger European-ancestry only training set. We observe similar, but not identical, results when considering other minority-ancestry groups within UK Biobank. Our results emphasise the importance of targeted data collection from underrepresented groups in order to address existing disparities in PGS performance.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38930-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935?pdf=render 34386668,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2021.05.031,Impact of Using Risk-Based Stratification on Referral of Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease From Primary Care to Specialist Care in the United Kingdom.,"Bhachu HK, Cockwell P, Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Gokhale K, Fenton A, Kyte D, Nirantharakumar K, Calvert M.",,Kidney international reports,2021,2021-06-01,Y,Cross-sectional study; Chronic Kidney Disease; Guidelines; Disease Progression; Patient Referral; Kidney Failure Risk Equation,,,"

Introduction

The externally validated Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) for predicting risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has been developed, but its potential impact in a population on referrals for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) from primary to specialty nephrology care is not known.

Methods

A cross-sectional population-based study of individuals in United Kingdom primary care registered in The Health Improvement Network database was conducted. National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) 2014 CKD guidelines versus the 4-variable KFRE set at a >3% risk of ESRD at 5 years were applied to patients identified with CKD stage 3-5 between January 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017.

Results

In all, 39,476 (36.6%) of 107,962 adults with CKD stage 3-5 had a urine albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR) available and entered into the primary analysis. Of that, 7566 (19.2%) patients fulfilled NICE criteria for referral, 2386 (31.5%) of whom had a ≤3% 5-year risk of ESRD. Also 8663 (21.9%) patients had a >3% 5-year risk of ESRD, 3483 (40.2%) of whom did not fulfill NICE criteria; this represents 8.8% of the primary population. By using the KFRE threshold rather than NICE criteria for referral, 5869 patients (14.9% of the primary analysis population) would have been reallocated between primary and specialist care. Imputational analysis was used for missing ACR measurements and showed similar results.

Conclusions

A risk-based referral approach would lead to a substantial reallocation of patients between primary care and specialist nephrology care with only a small increase in numbers eligible, ensuring those at higher risk of progression are identified.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/145543032/1_s2.0_S2468024921012146_main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2021.05.031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8343777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8343777?pdf=render 37563195,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38880-6,Locational memory of macrovessel vascular cells is transcriptionally imprinted.,"Spanjersberg TCF, Oosterhoff LA, Kruitwagen HS, van den Dungen NAM, Vernooij JCM, Asselbergs FW, Mokry M, Spee B, Harakalova M, van Steenbeek FG.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-08-10,Y,,,,"Vascular pathologies show locational predisposition throughout the body; further insights into the transcriptomics basis of this vascular heterogeneity are needed. We analyzed transcriptomes from cultured endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells from nine adult canine macrovessels: the aorta, coronary artery, vena cava, portal vein, femoral artery, femoral vein, saphenous vein, pulmonary vein, and pulmonary artery. We observed that organ-specific expression patterns persist in vitro, indicating that these genes are not regulated by blood flow or surrounding cell types but are likely fixed in the epigenetic memory. We further demonstrated the preserved location-specific expression of GATA4 protein in cultured cells and in the primary adult vessel. On a functional level, arterial and venous endothelial cells differed in vascular network morphology as the arterial networks maintained a higher complexity. Our findings prompt the rethinking of the extrapolation of results from single-origin endothelial cell systems.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38880-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10415317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10415317?pdf=render 35202588,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-8587(22)00015-8,Dose-response relationships for vitamin D and all-cause mortality - Authors' reply.,"Burgess S, Butterworth AS.",,The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology,2022,2022-03-01,N,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213858722000158/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(22)00015-8 37348153,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2023.05.039,Clinical and Prognostic Implications of Cardiopulmonary Exercise Stress Echocardiography in Asymptomatic Degenerative Mitral Regurgitation.,"Althunayyan A, Alborikan S, Badiani S, Wong K, Uppal R, Patel N, Petersen SE, Lloyd G, Bhattacharyya S.",,The American journal of cardiology,2023,2023-06-20,N,,,,"The current guidelines recommend intervention in severe degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR) in symptomatic patients or asymptomatic patients with left ventricular dilatation or dysfunction. The insidious onset of symptoms may mean that patients do not report their symptoms. The role of systematic exercise testing for symptoms in MR is not clearly defined. A total of 97 patients with moderate to severe asymptomatic MR underwent exercise echocardiography combined with cardiopulmonary exercise testing. The predictors of exercise-induced dyspnea, symptom-free survival, and mitral valve intervention were identified. A total of 18 patients (19%) developed limiting dyspnea on exercise. Spontaneous symptom-free survival at 24 months was significantly higher in those without exercise-induced symptoms than those with exercise-induced symptoms, p <0.0001. The only independent predictors of spontaneous symptoms at 2 years were effective regurgitant orifice area (odds ratio 27.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43 to 528.40, p = 0.03) and exercise-induced symptoms (odds ratio 11.56, 95% CI 1.71 to 78.09, p = 0.01). The only independent predictor of surgery was indexed left ventricular systolic volumes (odds ratio 1.17, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.30, p = 0.006). Where only the patients who underwent surgery due to symptoms were included, the only independent predictor was exercise-induced symptoms (odds ratio 13.94, 95% CI 1.39 to 140.27, p = 0.025). In conclusion, in patients with primary asymptomatic degenerative MR, 1/5 develop revealed symptoms during exercise. This predicts a subsequent development of spontaneous symptoms and mitral valve intervention due to symptoms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2023.05.039 +37419925,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7,Optimal strategies for learning multi-ancestry polygenic scores vary across traits.,"Lehmann B, Mackintosh M, McVean G, Holmes C.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-07-07,Y,,,,"Polygenic scores (PGSs) are individual-level measures that aggregate the genome-wide genetic predisposition to a given trait. As PGS have predominantly been developed using European-ancestry samples, trait prediction using such European ancestry-derived PGS is less accurate in non-European ancestry individuals. Although there has been recent progress in combining multiple PGS trained on distinct populations, the problem of how to maximize performance given a multiple-ancestry cohort is largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the effect of sample size and ancestry composition on PGS performance for fifteen traits in UK Biobank. For some traits, PGS estimated using a relatively small African-ancestry training set outperformed, on an African-ancestry test set, PGS estimated using a much larger European-ancestry only training set. We observe similar, but not identical, results when considering other minority-ancestry groups within UK Biobank. Our results emphasise the importance of targeted data collection from underrepresented groups in order to address existing disparities in PGS performance.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38930-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935?pdf=render 35048949,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac008,Light to moderate coffee consumption is associated with lower risk of death: a UK Biobank study.,"Simon J, Fung K, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Aung N, Khanji MY, Kolossváry M, Merkely B, Munroe PB, Harvey NC, Piechnik SK, Neubauer S, Petersen SE, Maurovich-Horvat P.",,European journal of preventive cardiology,2022,2022-05-01,N,Cardiac Magnetic Resonance; Cardiovascular Health; Coffee Consumption,,,"

Aims

To study the association of daily coffee consumption with all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality and major CV outcomes. In a subgroup of participants who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, we evaluated the association between regular coffee intake and cardiac structure and function.

Methods and results

UK Biobank participants without clinically manifested heart disease at the time of recruitment were included. Regular coffee intake was categorized into three groups: zero, light-to-moderate (0.5-3 cups/day), and high (>3 cups/day). In the multivariate analysis, we adjusted for the main CV risk factors. We included 468 629 individuals (56.2 ± 8.1 years, 44.2% male), of whom 22.1% did not consume coffee regularly, 58.4% had 0.5-3 cups per day, and 19.5% had >3 cups per day. Compared to non-coffee drinkers, light-to-moderate (0.5-3 cups per day) coffee drinking was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality [multivariate hazard ratio (HR) = 0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.83-0.92; P < 0.001] and CV mortality (multivariate HR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.74-0.94; P = 0.006), and incident stroke (multivariate HR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.63-0.99 P = 0.037) after a median follow-up of 11 years. CMR data were available in 30 650 participants. Both light-to-moderate and high coffee consuming categories were associated with dose-dependent increased left and right ventricular end-diastolic, end-systolic and stroke volumes, and greater left ventricular mass.

Conclusion

Coffee consumption of up to three cups per day was associated with favourable CV outcomes. Regular coffee consumption was also associated with a likely healthy pattern of CMR metrics in keeping with the reverse of age-related cardiac alterations.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/article-pdf/29/6/982/43589594/zwac008.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac008 35765237,https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.12746,An investigation of early enteral nutrition provision in major burn patients in Australia and New Zealand.,"Kurmis R, Nicholls C, Singer Y, Edgar DW, Wood FM, Gabbe BJ, Tracy LM.",,Nutrition & dietetics: the journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia,2022,2022-06-28,Y,Burns; Parenteral nutrition; enteral nutrition,,,"

Aims

Early enteral nutrition (provided within 24 h of admission) is the optimal form of nutritional support for major burn injuries. The aim of this study was to (i) audit early enteral nutrition practices, (ii) identify characteristics of patients who received early enteral nutrition, and (iii) investigate whether early enteral nutrition was associated with in-hospital outcomes.

Methods

An analysis of prospectively collected data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand was conducted. Specifically, this study focused on major burns patients (defined as burns affecting more than 20% and 15% total body surface area for adult paediatric patients, respectively) admitted to a specialist burn service between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2019.

Results

Data from 474 major burns patients (88 paediatric patients) revealed 69% received early enteral nutrition. Paediatric patients who received early enteral nutrition were younger than their counterparts who did not receive the same support (p = 0.04). Adult patients who received early enteral nutrition sustained larger burns (p < 0.001). Early enteral nutrition was not associated with in-hospital mortality following major burn injury in adult patients in either unadjusted (p = 0.77) or confounder-adjusted (p = 0.69) analyses.

Conclusions

Approximately two-thirds of patients with major burn injuries received early enteral nutrition. Early enteral nutrition was not associated with in-hospital mortality following major burn injury. Further research should focus on modifiable reasons why major burns patients do not receive enteral nutrition within 24 h of admission.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796319; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.12746; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796319; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796319?pdf=render -37393610,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392,Protocol for the automatic extraction of epidemiological information via a pre-trained language model.,"Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wang Z, Cao Y, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.",,STAR protocols,2023,2023-07-01,Y,Health Sciences; Clinical Protocol; Computer Sciences,,,"The lack of systems to automatically extract epidemiological fields from open-access COVID-19 cases restricts the timeliness of formulating prevention measures. Here we present a protocol for using CCIE, a COVID-19 Cases Information Extraction system based on the pre-trained language model.1 We describe steps for preparing supervised training data and executing python scripts for named entity recognition and text category classification. We then detail the use of machine evaluation and manual validation to illustrate the effectiveness of CCIE. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wang et al.2.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978?pdf=render 36692937,https://doi.org/10.2196/42866,The Feasibility of Implementing Remote Measurement Technologies in Psychological Treatment for Depression: Mixed Methods Study on Engagement.,"de Angel V, Adeleye F, Zhang Y, Cummins N, Munir S, Lewis S, Laporta Puyal E, Matcham F, Sun S, Folarin AA, Ranjan Y, Conde P, Rashid Z, Dobson R, Hotopf M.",,JMIR mental health,2023,2023-01-24,Y,Depression; Mobile phone; Anxiety; Smartphone; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Wearable Devices; Digital Health; Digital Phenotyping; Passive Sensing,,,"

Background

Remote measurement technologies (RMTs) such as smartphones and wearables can help improve treatment for depression by providing objective, continuous, and ecologically valid insights into mood and behavior. Engagement with RMTs is varied and highly context dependent; however, few studies have investigated their feasibility in the context of treatment.

Objective

A mixed methods design was used to evaluate engagement with active and passive data collection via RMT in people with depression undergoing psychotherapy. We evaluated the effects of treatment on 2 different types of engagement: study attrition (engagement with study protocol) and patterns of missing data (engagement with digital devices), which we termed data availability. Qualitative interviews were conducted to help interpret the differences in engagement.

Methods

A total of 66 people undergoing psychological therapy for depression were followed up for 7 months. Active data were gathered from weekly questionnaires and speech and cognitive tasks, and passive data were gathered from smartphone sensors and a Fitbit (Fitbit Inc) wearable device.

Results

The overall retention rate was 60%. Higher-intensity treatment (χ21=4.6; P=.03) and higher baseline anxiety (t56.28=-2.80, 2-tailed; P=.007) were associated with attrition, but depression severity was not (t50.4=-0.18; P=.86). A trend toward significance was found for the association between longer treatments and increased attrition (U=339.5; P=.05). Data availability was higher for active data than for passive data initially but declined at a sharper rate (90%-30% drop in 7 months). As for passive data, wearable data availability fell from a maximum of 80% to 45% at 7 months but showed higher overall data availability than smartphone-based data, which remained stable at the range of 20%-40% throughout. Missing data were more prevalent among GPS location data, followed by among Bluetooth data, then among accelerometry data. As for active data, speech and cognitive tasks had lower completion rates than clinical questionnaires. The participants in treatment provided less Fitbit data but more active data than those on the waiting list.

Conclusions

Different data streams showed varied patterns of missing data, despite being gathered from the same device. Longer and more complex treatments and clinical characteristics such as higher baseline anxiety may reduce long-term engagement with RMTs, and different devices may show opposite patterns of missingness during treatment. This has implications for the scalability and uptake of RMTs in health care settings, the generalizability and accuracy of the data collected by these methods, feature construction, and the appropriateness of RMT use in the long term.",,pdf:https://mental.jmir.org/2023/1/e42866/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42866; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9906314 +37393610,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392,Protocol for the automatic extraction of epidemiological information via a pre-trained language model.,"Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wang Z, Cao Y, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.",,STAR protocols,2023,2023-07-01,Y,Health Sciences; Clinical Protocol; Computer Sciences,,,"The lack of systems to automatically extract epidemiological fields from open-access COVID-19 cases restricts the timeliness of formulating prevention measures. Here we present a protocol for using CCIE, a COVID-19 Cases Information Extraction system based on the pre-trained language model.1 We describe steps for preparing supervised training data and executing python scripts for named entity recognition and text category classification. We then detail the use of machine evaluation and manual validation to illustrate the effectiveness of CCIE. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wang et al.2.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978?pdf=render 31529100,https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnz209,"Pain, Anxiety, and Depression in the First Two Years Following Transport-Related Major Trauma: A Population-Based, Prospective Registry Cohort Study.","Giummarra MJ, Simpson P, Gabbe BJ.",,"Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.)",2020,2020-02-01,N,Trauma; Injury; Prognostic; Recovery; Motor Vehicle,,,"

Objectives

This study aimed to characterize the population prevalence of pain and mental health problems postinjury and to identify risk factors that could improve service delivery to optimize recovery of at-risk patients.

Methods

This population-based registry cohort study included 5,350 adult survivors of transport-related major trauma injuries from the Victorian State Trauma Registry. Outcome profiles were generated separately for pain and mental health outcomes using the ""pain or discomfort"" and ""anxiety or depression"" items of the EuroQol Five Dimensions Three-Level questionnaire at six, 12, and 24 months postinjury. Profiles were ""resilient"" (no problems at every follow-up), ""recovered"" (problems at six- and/or 12-month follow-up that later resolved), ""worsening"" (problems at 12 and/or 24 months after no problems at six and/or 12 months), and ""persistent"" (problems at every follow-up).

Results

Most participants had persistent (pain/discomfort, N = 2,171, 39.7%; anxiety/depression, N = 1,428, 26.2%) and resilient profiles (pain/discomfort, N = 1,220, 22.3%; anxiety/depression, N = 2,055, 37.7%), followed by recovered (pain/discomfort, N = 1,116, 20.4%; anxiety/depression, N = 1,025, 18.8%) and worsening profiles (pain/discomfort, N = 956, 17.5%; anxiety/depression, N = 948, 17.4%). Adjusted multinomial logistic regressions showed increased risk of problems (persistent, worsening, or resolved) vs no problems (resilient) in relation to female sex, middle age, neighborhood disadvantage, pre-injury unemployment, pre-injury disability, and spinal cord injury. People living in rural areas, motorcyclists, pedal cyclists, and people with head, chest, and abdominal injuries had lower risk of problems.

Discussion

Targeted interventions delivered to people with the risk factors identified may help to attenuate the severity and impact of pain and mental health problems after transport injury.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article-pdf/21/2/291/32739506/pnz209.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnz209 35477524,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070230,Development and validation of the symptom burden questionnaire for long covid (SBQ-LC): Rasch analysis.,"Hughes SE, Haroon S, Subramanian A, McMullan C, Aiyegbusi OL, Turner GM, Jackson L, Davies EH, Frost C, McNamara G, Price G, Matthews K, Camaradou J, Ormerod J, Walker A, Calvert MJ.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-04-27,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe the development and validation of a novel patient reported outcome measure for symptom burden from long covid, the symptom burden questionnaire for long covid (SBQ-LC).

Design

Multiphase, prospective mixed methods study.

Setting

Remote data collection and social media channels in the United Kingdom, 14 April to 1 August 2021.

Participants

13 adults (aged ≥18 years) with self-reported long covid and 10 clinicians evaluated content validity. 274 adults with long covid field tested the draft questionnaire.

Main outcome measures

Published systematic reviews informed development of SBQ-LC's conceptual framework and initial item pool. Thematic analysis of transcripts from cognitive debriefing interviews and online clinician surveys established content validity. Consensus discussions with the patient and public involvement group of the Therapies for Long COVID in non-hospitalised individuals: From symptoms, patient reported outcomes and immunology to targeted therapies (TLC Study) confirmed face validity. Rasch analysis of field test data guided item and scale refinement and provided initial evidence of the SBQ-LC's measurement properties.

Results

SBQ-LC (version 1.0) is a modular instrument measuring patient reported outcomes and is composed of 17 independent scales with promising psychometric properties. Respondents rate their symptom burden during the past seven days using a dichotomous response or 4 point rating scale. Each scale provides coverage of a different symptom domain and returns a summed raw score that can be transformed to a linear (0-100) score. Higher scores represent higher symptom burden. After rating scale refinement and item reduction, all scales satisfied the Rasch model requirements for unidimensionality (principal component analysis of residuals: first residual contrast values <2.00 eigenvalue units) and item fit (outfit mean square values within 0.5 -1.5 logits). Rating scale categories were ordered with acceptable category fit statistics (outfit mean square values <2.0 logits). 14 item pairs had evidence of local dependency (residual correlation values >0.4). Across the 17 scales, person reliability ranged from 0.34 to 0.87, person separation ranged from 0.71 to 2.56, item separation ranged from 1.34 to 13.86, and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) ranged from 0.56 to 0.91.

Conclusions

SBQ-LC (version 1.0) is a comprehensive patient reported outcome instrument developed using modern psychometric methods. It measures symptoms of long covid important to people with lived experience of the condition and may be used to evaluate the impact of interventions and inform best practice in clinical management.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/377/bmj-2022-070230.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043395; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043395?pdf=render 33180769,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240902,"Probable PTSD, depression and anxiety in 40,299 UK police officers and staff: Prevalence, risk factors and associations with blood pressure.","Stevelink SAM, Opie E, Pernet D, Gao H, Elliott P, Wessely S, Fear NT, Hotopf M, Greenberg N.",,PloS one,2020,2020-11-12,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Police employees undertake challenging duties which may adversely impact their health. This study explored the prevalence of and risk factors for probable mental disorders amongst a representative sample of UK police employees. The association between mental illness and alterations in blood pressure was also explored.

Methods

Data were used from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study which was established to monitor the possible physical health impacts of a new communication system on police employees. Data included sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and blood pressure. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the prevalence of probable mental disorders and associated factors. Stepwise linear regression was conducted, controlling for confounding variables, to examine associations between mental disorders and blood pressure.

Results

The sample included 40,299 police staff, police constable/sergeants and inspectors or above. Probable depression was most frequently reported (9.8%), followed by anxiety (8.5%) and PTSD (3.9%). Groups at risk for probable mental disorders included police staff, and police employees who reported drinking heavily. Police employees exposed to traumatic incidents in the past six months had a doubling in rates of anxiety or depression and a six-fold increase in PTSD compared to those with no recent trauma exposure. Adjusted logistic regression models did not reveal any significant association between probable mental disorders and systolic blood pressure but significantly elevated diastolic blood pressure (≈1mmHg) was found across mental disorders.

Conclusions

These results show lower rates of probable mental disorders, especially PTSD, than reported in other studies focusing on police employees. Although mental ill health was associated with increased diastolic blood pressure, this was unlikely to be clinically significant. These findings highlight the importance of continued health monitoring of members of the UK police forces, focusing on employees recently exposed to traumatic incidents, heavy drinkers and police staff.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240902&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240902; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660485; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660485?pdf=render 36576811,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2022.4466,Predictive Utility of a Coronary Artery Disease Polygenic Risk Score in Primary Prevention.,"Marston NA, Pirruccello JP, Melloni GEM, Koyama S, Kamanu FK, Weng LC, Roselli C, Kamatani Y, Komuro I, Aragam KG, Butterworth AS, Ito K, Lubitz SA, Ellinor PT, Sabatine MS, Ruff CT.",,JAMA cardiology,2023,2023-02-01,N,,,,"

Importance

The clinical utility of polygenic risk scores (PRS) for coronary artery disease (CAD) has not yet been established.

Objective

To investigate the ability of a CAD PRS to potentially guide statin initiation in primary prevention after accounting for age and clinical risk.

Design, setting, and participants

This was a longitudinal cohort study with enrollment starting on January 1, 2006, and ending on December 31, 2010, with data updated to mid-2021, using data from the UK Biobank, a long-term population study of UK citizens. A replication analysis was performed in Biobank Japan. The analysis included all patients without a history of CAD and who were not taking lipid-lowering therapy. Data were analyzed from January 1 to June 30, 2022.

Exposures

Polygenic risk for CAD was defined as low (bottom 20%), intermediate, and high (top 20%) using a CAD PRS including 241 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide variations (SNVs). The pooled cohort equations were used to estimate 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk and classify individuals as low (<5%), borderline (5-<7.5%), intermediate (7.5-<20%), or high risk (≥20%).

Main outcomes and measures

Myocardial infarction (MI) and ASCVD events (defined as incident clinical CAD [including MI], stroke, or CV death).

Results

A total of 330 201 patients (median [IQR] age, 57 [40-74] years; 189 107 female individuals [57%]) were included from the UK Biobank. Over the 10-year follow-up, 4454 individuals had an MI. The CAD PRS was significantly associated with the risk of MI in all age groups but had significantly stronger risk prediction at younger ages (age <50 years: hazard ratio [HR] per 1 SD of PRS, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.56-1.89; age 50-60 years: HR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.38-1.53; age >60 years: HR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.37-1.48; P for interaction <.001). In patients younger than 50 years, those with high PRS had a 3- to 4-fold increased associated risk of MI compared with those in the low PRS category. A significant interaction between CAD PRS and age was replicated in Biobank Japan. When CAD PRS testing was added to the clinical ASCVD risk score in individuals younger than 50 years, 591 of 4373 patients (20%) with borderline risk were risk stratified into intermediate risk, warranting initiation of statin therapy and 3198 of 7477 patients (20%) with both borderline or intermediate risk were stratified as low risk, thus not warranting therapy.

Conclusions and relevance

Results of this cohort study suggest that the predictive ability of a CAD PRS was greater in younger individuals and can be used to better identify patients with borderline and intermediate clinical risk who should initiate statin therapy.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2022.4466 30909231,https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-181085,A Meta-Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease Brain Transcriptomic Data.,"Patel H, Dobson RJB, Newhouse SJ.",,Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD,2019,2019-01-01,Y,Human; Meta-analysis; Neuropathology; Mental disorders; Alzheimer’s disease; Gene Expression; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Microarray Analysis,,,"

Background

Microarray technologies have identified imbalances in the expression of specific genes and biological pathways in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains. However, there is a lack of reproducibility across individual AD studies, and many related neurodegenerative and mental health disorders exhibit similar perturbations.

Objective

Meta-analyze publicly available transcriptomic data from multiple brain-related disorders to identify robust transcriptomic changes specific to AD brains.

Methods

Twenty-two AD, eight schizophrenia, five bipolar disorder, four Huntington's disease, two major depressive disorder, and one Parkinson's disease dataset totaling 2,667 samples and mapping to four different brain regions (temporal lobe, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and cerebellum) were analyzed. Differential expression analysis was performed independently in each dataset, followed by meta-analysis using a combining p-value method known as Adaptively Weighted with One-sided Correction.

Results

Meta-analysis identified 323, 435, 1,023, and 828 differentially expressed genes specific to the AD temporal lobe, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and cerebellum brain regions, respectively. Seven of these genes were consistently perturbed across all AD brain regions with SPCS1 gene expression pattern replicating in RNA-Seq data. A further nineteen genes were perturbed specifically in AD brain regions affected by both plaques and tangles, suggesting possible involvement in AD neuropathology. In addition, biological pathways involved in the ""metabolism of proteins"" and viral components were significantly enriched across AD brains.

Conclusion

This study identified transcriptomic changes specific to AD brains, which could make a significant contribution toward the understanding of AD disease mechanisms and may also provide new therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://content.iospress.com:443/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad181085?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad181085; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-181085; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6484273; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6484273?pdf=render -36346654,https://doi.org/10.2196/38168,Developing an Automated Assessment of In-session Patient Activation for Psychological Therapy: Codevelopment Approach.,"Malins S, Figueredo G, Jilani T, Long Y, Andrews J, Rawsthorne M, Manolescu C, Clos J, Higton F, Waldram D, Hunt D, Perez Vallejos E, Moghaddam N.",,JMIR medical informatics,2022,2022-11-08,Y,Mental health; Machine Learning; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Natural Language Processing; Multimorbidity; Responsible Artificial Intelligence,,,"

Background

Patient activation is defined as a patient's confidence and perceived ability to manage their own health. Patient activation has been a consistent predictor of long-term health and care costs, particularly for people with multiple long-term health conditions. However, there is currently no means of measuring patient activation from what is said in health care consultations. This may be particularly important for psychological therapy because most current methods for evaluating therapy content cannot be used routinely due to time and cost restraints. Natural language processing (NLP) has been used increasingly to classify and evaluate the contents of psychological therapy. This aims to make the routine, systematic evaluation of psychological therapy contents more accessible in terms of time and cost restraints. However, comparatively little attention has been paid to algorithmic trust and interpretability, with few studies in the field involving end users or stakeholders in algorithm development.

Objective

This study applied a responsible design to use NLP in the development of an artificial intelligence model to automate the ratings assigned by a psychological therapy process measure: the consultation interactions coding scheme (CICS). The CICS assesses the level of patient activation observable from turn-by-turn psychological therapy interactions.

Methods

With consent, 128 sessions of remotely delivered cognitive behavioral therapy from 53 participants experiencing multiple physical and mental health problems were anonymously transcribed and rated by trained human CICS coders. Using participatory methodology, a multidisciplinary team proposed candidate language features that they thought would discriminate between high and low patient activation. The team included service-user researchers, psychological therapists, applied linguists, digital research experts, artificial intelligence ethics researchers, and NLP researchers. Identified language features were extracted from the transcripts alongside demographic features, and machine learning was applied using k-nearest neighbors and bagged trees algorithms to assess whether in-session patient activation and interaction types could be accurately classified.

Results

The k-nearest neighbors classifier obtained 73% accuracy (82% precision and 80% recall) in a test data set. The bagged trees classifier obtained 81% accuracy for test data (87% precision and 75% recall) in differentiating between interactions rated high in patient activation and those rated low or neutral.

Conclusions

Coproduced language features identified through a multidisciplinary collaboration can be used to discriminate among psychological therapy session contents based on patient activation among patients experiencing multiple long-term physical and mental health conditions.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2022/11/e38168/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/38168; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9682451 -35748342,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac130,Linkage of multiple electronic health record datasets using a 'spine linkage' approach compared with all 'pairwise linkages'.,"Blake HA, Sharples LD, Harron K, van der Meulen JH, Walker K.",,International journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-02-01,Y,Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Pairwise Linkage; Spine Linkage Approach,,,"

Background

Methods for linking records between two datasets are well established. However, guidance is needed for linking more than two datasets. Using all 'pairwise linkages'-linking each dataset to every other dataset-is the most inclusive, but resource-intensive, approach. The 'spine' approach links each dataset to a designated 'spine dataset', reducing the number of linkages, but potentially reducing linkage quality.

Methods

We compared the pairwise and spine linkage approaches using real-world data on patients undergoing emergency bowel cancer surgery between 31 October 2013 and 30 April 2018. We linked an administrative hospital dataset (Hospital Episode Statistics; HES) capturing patients admitted to hospitals in England, and two clinical datasets comprising patients diagnosed with bowel cancer and patients undergoing emergency bowel surgery.

Results

The spine linkage approach, with HES as the spine dataset, created an analysis cohort of 15 826 patients, equating to 98.3% of the 16 100 patients identified using the pairwise linkage approach. There were no systematic differences in patient characteristics between these analysis cohorts. Associations of patient and tumour characteristics with mortality, complications and length of stay were not sensitive to the linkage approach. When eligibility criteria were applied before linkage, spine linkage included 14 509 patients (90.0% compared with pairwise linkage).

Conclusion

Spine linkage can be used as an efficient alternative to pairwise linkage if case ascertainment in the spine dataset and data quality of linkage variables are high. These aspects should be systematically evaluated in the nominated spine dataset before spine linkage is used to create the analysis cohort.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac130/44245961/dyac130.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac130; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908066; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908066?pdf=render 36344532,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21663-w,Atrial fibrillation prediction by combining ECG markers and CMR radiomics.,"Pujadas ER, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Szabo L, Morcillo CI, Campello VM, Martin-Isla C, Vago H, Merkely B, Harvey NC, Petersen SE, Lekadir K.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-11-07,Y,,,,"Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. It is associated with a higher risk of important adverse health outcomes such as stroke and death. AF is linked to distinct electro-anatomic alterations. The main tool for AF diagnosis is the Electrocardiogram (ECG). However, an ECG recorded at a single time point may not detect individuals with paroxysmal AF. In this study, we developed machine learning models for discrimination of prevalent AF using a combination of image-derived radiomics phenotypes and ECG features. Thus, we characterize the phenotypes of prevalent AF in terms of ECG and imaging alterations. Moreover, we explore sex-differential remodelling by building sex-specific models. Our integrative model including radiomics and ECG together resulted in a better performance than ECG alone, particularly in women. ECG had a lower performance in women than men (AUC: 0.77 vs 0.88, p < 0.05) but adding radiomics features, the accuracy of the model was able to improve significantly. The sensitivity also increased considerably in women by adding the radiomics (0.68 vs 0.79, p < 0.05) having a higher detection of AF events. Our findings provide novel insights into AF-related electro-anatomic remodelling and its variations by sex. The integrative radiomics-ECG model also presents a potential novel approach for earlier detection of AF.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-21663-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21663-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640662; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640662?pdf=render +35748342,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac130,Linkage of multiple electronic health record datasets using a 'spine linkage' approach compared with all 'pairwise linkages'.,"Blake HA, Sharples LD, Harron K, van der Meulen JH, Walker K.",,International journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-02-01,Y,Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Pairwise Linkage; Spine Linkage Approach,,,"

Background

Methods for linking records between two datasets are well established. However, guidance is needed for linking more than two datasets. Using all 'pairwise linkages'-linking each dataset to every other dataset-is the most inclusive, but resource-intensive, approach. The 'spine' approach links each dataset to a designated 'spine dataset', reducing the number of linkages, but potentially reducing linkage quality.

Methods

We compared the pairwise and spine linkage approaches using real-world data on patients undergoing emergency bowel cancer surgery between 31 October 2013 and 30 April 2018. We linked an administrative hospital dataset (Hospital Episode Statistics; HES) capturing patients admitted to hospitals in England, and two clinical datasets comprising patients diagnosed with bowel cancer and patients undergoing emergency bowel surgery.

Results

The spine linkage approach, with HES as the spine dataset, created an analysis cohort of 15 826 patients, equating to 98.3% of the 16 100 patients identified using the pairwise linkage approach. There were no systematic differences in patient characteristics between these analysis cohorts. Associations of patient and tumour characteristics with mortality, complications and length of stay were not sensitive to the linkage approach. When eligibility criteria were applied before linkage, spine linkage included 14 509 patients (90.0% compared with pairwise linkage).

Conclusion

Spine linkage can be used as an efficient alternative to pairwise linkage if case ascertainment in the spine dataset and data quality of linkage variables are high. These aspects should be systematically evaluated in the nominated spine dataset before spine linkage is used to create the analysis cohort.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac130/44245961/dyac130.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac130; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908066; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908066?pdf=render +36346654,https://doi.org/10.2196/38168,Developing an Automated Assessment of In-session Patient Activation for Psychological Therapy: Codevelopment Approach.,"Malins S, Figueredo G, Jilani T, Long Y, Andrews J, Rawsthorne M, Manolescu C, Clos J, Higton F, Waldram D, Hunt D, Perez Vallejos E, Moghaddam N.",,JMIR medical informatics,2022,2022-11-08,Y,Mental health; Machine Learning; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Natural Language Processing; Multimorbidity; Responsible Artificial Intelligence,,,"

Background

Patient activation is defined as a patient's confidence and perceived ability to manage their own health. Patient activation has been a consistent predictor of long-term health and care costs, particularly for people with multiple long-term health conditions. However, there is currently no means of measuring patient activation from what is said in health care consultations. This may be particularly important for psychological therapy because most current methods for evaluating therapy content cannot be used routinely due to time and cost restraints. Natural language processing (NLP) has been used increasingly to classify and evaluate the contents of psychological therapy. This aims to make the routine, systematic evaluation of psychological therapy contents more accessible in terms of time and cost restraints. However, comparatively little attention has been paid to algorithmic trust and interpretability, with few studies in the field involving end users or stakeholders in algorithm development.

Objective

This study applied a responsible design to use NLP in the development of an artificial intelligence model to automate the ratings assigned by a psychological therapy process measure: the consultation interactions coding scheme (CICS). The CICS assesses the level of patient activation observable from turn-by-turn psychological therapy interactions.

Methods

With consent, 128 sessions of remotely delivered cognitive behavioral therapy from 53 participants experiencing multiple physical and mental health problems were anonymously transcribed and rated by trained human CICS coders. Using participatory methodology, a multidisciplinary team proposed candidate language features that they thought would discriminate between high and low patient activation. The team included service-user researchers, psychological therapists, applied linguists, digital research experts, artificial intelligence ethics researchers, and NLP researchers. Identified language features were extracted from the transcripts alongside demographic features, and machine learning was applied using k-nearest neighbors and bagged trees algorithms to assess whether in-session patient activation and interaction types could be accurately classified.

Results

The k-nearest neighbors classifier obtained 73% accuracy (82% precision and 80% recall) in a test data set. The bagged trees classifier obtained 81% accuracy for test data (87% precision and 75% recall) in differentiating between interactions rated high in patient activation and those rated low or neutral.

Conclusions

Coproduced language features identified through a multidisciplinary collaboration can be used to discriminate among psychological therapy session contents based on patient activation among patients experiencing multiple long-term physical and mental health conditions.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2022/11/e38168/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/38168; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9682451 32282926,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19122,"Partner bereavement and risk of chronic urticaria, alopecia areata and vitiligo: cohort studies in the UK and Denmark.","Wong AYS, Kjaersgaard A, Frøslev T, Forbes HJ, Mansfield KE, Silverwood RJ, Sørensen HT, Smeeth L, Schmidt SAJ, Langan SM.",,The British journal of dermatology,2020,2020-06-10,N,,,,,,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.19122; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19122 31827124,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54849-w,Improving the odds of drug development success through human genomics: modelling study.,"Hingorani AD, Kuan V, Finan C, Kruger FA, Gaulton A, Chopade S, Sofat R, MacAllister RJ, Overington JP, Hemingway H, Denaxas S, Prieto D, Casas JP.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-12-11,Y,,,,"Lack of efficacy in the intended disease indication is the major cause of clinical phase drug development failure. Explanations could include the poor external validity of pre-clinical (cell, tissue, and animal) models of human disease and the high false discovery rate (FDR) in preclinical science. FDR is related to the proportion of true relationships available for discovery (γ), and the type 1 (false-positive) and type 2 (false negative) error rates of the experiments designed to uncover them. We estimated the FDR in preclinical science, its effect on drug development success rates, and improvements expected from use of human genomics rather than preclinical studies as the primary source of evidence for drug target identification. Calculations were based on a sample space defined by all human diseases - the 'disease-ome' - represented as columns; and all protein coding genes - 'the protein-coding genome'- represented as rows, producing a matrix of unique gene- (or protein-) disease pairings. We parameterised the space based on 10,000 diseases, 20,000 protein-coding genes, 100 causal genes per disease and 4000 genes encoding druggable targets, examining the effect of varying the parameters and a range of underlying assumptions, on the inferences drawn. We estimated γ, defined mathematical relationships between preclinical FDR and drug development success rates, and estimated improvements in success rates based on human genomics (rather than orthodox preclinical studies). Around one in every 200 protein-disease pairings was estimated to be causal (γ = 0.005) giving an FDR in preclinical research of 92.6%, which likely makes a major contribution to the reported drug development failure rate of 96%. Observed success rate was only slightly greater than expected for a random pick from the sample space. Values for γ back-calculated from reported preclinical and clinical drug development success rates were also close to the a priori estimates. Substituting genome wide (or druggable genome wide) association studies for preclinical studies as the major information source for drug target identification was estimated to reverse the probability of late stage failure because of the more stringent type 1 error rate employed and the ability to interrogate every potential druggable target in the same experiment. Genetic studies conducted at much larger scale, with greater resolution of disease end-points, e.g. by connecting genomics and electronic health record data within healthcare systems has the potential to produce radical improvement in drug development success rate.","This study investigates the unreliability of target identification leading to low development sucess rates, inefficiency and escalating costs to healthcare users. The more targeted use of genomics couldimprove improved efficency.",pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-54849-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54849-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6906499; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6906499?pdf=render 35796550,https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddac153,The impact of fatty acids biosynthesis on the risk of cardiovascular diseases in Europeans and East Asians: a Mendelian randomization study.,"Borges MC, Haycock P, Zheng J, Hemani G, Howe LJ, Schmidt AF, Staley JR, Lumbers RT, Henry A, Lemaitre RN, Gaunt TR, Holmes MV, Davey Smith G, Hingorani AD, Lawlor DA.",,Human molecular genetics,2022,2022-11-01,N,,,,"Despite early interest, the evidence linking fatty acids to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remains controversial. We used Mendelian randomization to explore the involvement of polyunsaturated (PUFA) and monounsaturated (MUFA) fatty acids biosynthesis in the etiology of several CVD endpoints in up to 1 153 768 European (maximum 123 668 cases) and 212 453 East Asian (maximum 29 319 cases) ancestry individuals. As instruments, we selected single nucleotide polymorphisms mapping to genes with well-known roles in PUFA (i.e. FADS1/2 and ELOVL2) and MUFA (i.e. SCD) biosynthesis. Our findings suggest that higher PUFA biosynthesis rate (proxied by rs174576 near FADS1/2) is related to higher odds of multiple CVDs, particularly ischemic stroke, peripheral artery disease and venous thromboembolism, whereas higher MUFA biosynthesis rate (proxied by rs603424 near SCD) is related to lower odds of coronary artery disease among Europeans. Results were unclear for East Asians as most effect estimates were imprecise. By triangulating multiple approaches (i.e. uni-/multi-variable Mendelian randomization, a phenome-wide scan, genetic colocalization and within-sibling analyses), our results are compatible with higher low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (and possibly glucose) being a downstream effect of higher PUFA biosynthesis rate. Our findings indicate that PUFA and MUFA biosynthesis are involved in the etiology of CVDs and suggest LDL cholesterol as a potential mediating trait between PUFA biosynthesis and CVDs risk.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/hmg/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/hmg/ddac153/45277324/ddac153.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddac153 -36701266,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036,"Gestational age at birth and body size from infancy through adolescence: An individual participant data meta-analysis on 253,810 singletons in 16 birth cohort studies.","Vinther JL, Cadman T, Avraam D, Ekstrøm CT, Sørensen TIA, Elhakeem A, Santos AC, Pinot de Moira A, Heude B, Iñiguez C, Pizzi C, Simons E, Voerman E, Corpeleijn E, Zariouh F, Santorelli G, Inskip HM, Barros H, Carson J, Harris JR, Nader JL, Ronkainen J, Strandberg-Larsen K, Santa-Marina L, Calas L, Cederkvist L, Popovic M, Charles MA, Welten M, Vrijheid M, Azad M, Subbarao P, Burton P, Mandhane PJ, Huang RC, Wilson RC, Haakma S, Fernández-Barrés S, Turvey S, Santos S, Tough SC, Sebert S, Moraes TJ, Salika T, Jaddoe VWV, Lawlor DA, Nybo Andersen AM.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-26,Y,,,,"

Background

Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is associated with adverse developmental and long-term health outcomes, including several cardiometabolic risk factors and outcomes. However, evidence about the association of preterm birth with later body size derives mainly from studies using birth weight as a proxy of prematurity rather than an actual length of gestation. We investigated the association of gestational age (GA) at birth with body size from infancy through adolescence.

Methods and findings

We conducted a two-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 253,810 mother-child dyads from 16 general population-based cohort studies in Europe (Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom), North America (Canada), and Australasia (Australia) to estimate the association of GA with body mass index (BMI) and overweight (including obesity) adjusted for the following maternal characteristics as potential confounders: education, height, prepregnancy BMI, ethnic background, parity, smoking during pregnancy, age at child's birth, gestational diabetes and hypertension, and preeclampsia. Pregnancy and birth cohort studies from the LifeCycle and the EUCAN-Connect projects were invited and were eligible for inclusion if they had information on GA and minimum one measurement of BMI between infancy and adolescence. Using a federated analytical tool (DataSHIELD), we fitted linear and logistic regression models in each cohort separately with a complete-case approach and combined the regression estimates and standard errors through random-effects study-level meta-analysis providing an overall effect estimate at early infancy (>0.0 to 0.5 years), late infancy (>0.5 to 2.0 years), early childhood (>2.0 to 5.0 years), mid-childhood (>5.0 to 9.0 years), late childhood (>9.0 to 14.0 years), and adolescence (>14.0 to 19.0 years). GA was positively associated with BMI in the first decade of life, with the greatest increase in mean BMI z-score during early infancy (0.02, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.00; 0.05, p < 0.05) per week of increase in GA, while in adolescence, preterm individuals reached similar levels of BMI (0.00, 95% CI: -0.01; 0.01, p 0.9) as term counterparts. The association between GA and overweight revealed a similar pattern of association with an increase in odds ratio (OR) of overweight from late infancy through mid-childhood (OR 1.01 to 1.02) per week increase in GA. By adolescence, however, GA was slightly negatively associated with the risk of overweight (OR 0.98 [95% CI: 0.97; 1.00], p 0.1) per week of increase in GA. Although based on only four cohorts (n = 32,089) that reached the age of adolescence, data suggest that individuals born very preterm may be at increased odds of overweight (OR 1.46 [95% CI: 1.03; 2.08], p < 0.05) compared with term counterparts. Findings were consistent across cohorts and sensitivity analyses despite considerable heterogeneity in cohort characteristics. However, residual confounding may be a limitation in this study, while findings may be less generalisable to settings in low- and middle-income countries.

Conclusions

This study based on data from infancy through adolescence from 16 cohort studies found that GA may be important for body size in infancy, but the strength of association attenuates consistently with age. By adolescence, preterm individuals have on average a similar mean BMI to peers born at term.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424?pdf=render 34145643,https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.17450,Describing the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in people with psoriasis: findings from a global cross-sectional study.,"Mahil SK, Yates M, Yiu ZZN, Langan SM, Tsakok T, Dand N, Mason KJ, McAteer H, Meynell F, Coker B, Vincent A, Urmston D, Vesty A, Kelly J, Lancelot C, Moorhead L, Bachelez H, Capon F, Contreras CR, De La Cruz C, Di Meglio P, Gisondi P, Jullien D, Lambert J, Naldi L, Norton S, Puig L, Spuls P, Torres T, Warren RB, Waweru H, Weinman J, Brown MA, Galloway JB, Griffiths CM, Barker JN, Smith CH, PsoProtect study group.",,Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV,2021,2021-08-19,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jdv.17450; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.17450; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8447018; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8447018?pdf=render 32861307,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30930-2,Invasive versus non-invasive management of older patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (SENIOR-NSTEMI): a cohort study based on routine clinical data.,"Kaura A, Sterne JAC, Trickey A, Abbott S, Mulla A, Glampson B, Panoulas V, Davies J, Woods K, Omigie J, Shah AD, Channon KM, Weber JN, Thursz MR, Elliott P, Hemingway H, Williams B, Asselbergs FW, O'Sullivan M, Lord GM, Melikian N, Johnson T, Francis DP, Shah AM, Perera D, Kharbanda R, Patel RS, Mayet J.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-08-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Previous trials suggest lower long-term risk of mortality after invasive rather than non-invasive management of patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), but the trials excluded very elderly patients. We aimed to estimate the effect of invasive versus non-invasive management within 3 days of peak troponin concentration on the survival of patients aged 80 years or older with NSTEMI.

Methods

Routine clinical data for this study were obtained from five collaborating hospitals hosting NIHR Biomedical Research Centres in the UK (all tertiary centres with emergency departments). Eligible patients were 80 years old or older when they underwent troponin measurements and were diagnosed with NSTEMI between 2010 (2008 for University College Hospital) and 2017. Propensity scores (patients' estimated probability of receiving invasive management) based on pretreatment variables were derived using logistic regression; patients with high probabilities of non-invasive or invasive management were excluded. Patients who died within 3 days of peak troponin concentration without receiving invasive management were assigned to the invasive or non-invasive management groups based on their propensity scores, to mitigate immortal time bias. We estimated mortality hazard ratios comparing invasive with non-invasive management, and compared the rate of hospital admissions for heart failure.

Findings

Of the 1976 patients with NSTEMI, 101 died within 3 days of their peak troponin concentration and 375 were excluded because of extreme propensity scores. The remaining 1500 patients had a median age of 86 (IQR 82-89) years of whom (845 [56%] received non-invasive management. During median follow-up of 3·0 (IQR 1·2-4·8) years, 613 (41%) patients died. The adjusted cumulative 5-year mortality was 36% in the invasive management group and 55% in the non-invasive management group (adjusted hazard ratio 0·68, 95% CI 0·55-0·84). Invasive management was associated with lower incidence of hospital admissions for heart failure (adjusted rate ratio compared with non-invasive management 0·67, 95% CI 0·48-0·93).

Interpretation

The survival advantage of invasive compared with non-invasive management appears to extend to patients with NSTEMI who are aged 80 years or older.

Funding

NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, as part of the NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673620309302/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30930-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7456783; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7456783?pdf=render 35028631,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00281-6,The importance of blood pressure thresholds versus predicted cardiovascular risk on subsequent rates of cardiovascular disease: a cohort study in English primary care.,"Herrett E, Strongman H, Gadd S, Tomlinson L, Nitsch D, Bhaskaran K, Williamson E, van Staa T, Sofat R, Timmis A, Wells S, Smeeth L, Jackson R.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2022,2022-01-01,Y,,,,"

Background

For five decades, blood pressure lowering treatment has been recommended for patients with hypertension (currently defined as blood pressure of ≥140/90 mm Hg). In the past 20 years, guidelines for treatment began incorporating predicted absolute cardiovascular disease risk (predicted risk) and reducing blood pressure thresholds. The blood pressure threshold at which to start treatment has become a secondary consideration in some countries. We aimed to provide descriptive data to assess the relative importance of blood pressure thresholds versus predicted risk on the subsequent rate of cardiovascular disease to inform treatment decisions.

Methods

In this English population-based cohort study, we used linked data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD, Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care, and the Office for National Statistics mortality data, and area-based deprivation indices (Townsend scores). Eligible patients were aged 30-79 years on Jan 1, 2011 (cohort entry date) and could be linked to hospital, mortality, and deprivation data. Patients were followed up until death, end of CPRD follow-up, or Nov 31, 2018. We examined three outcomes: cardiovascular disease, markers of potential target organ damage, and incident dementia without a known cause. The rate of each outcome was estimated and stratified by systolic blood pressure and predicted 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease (QRISK2 algorithm).

Findings

Between Jan 1, 2011, and Nov 31, 2018, 1 098 991 patients were included in the cohort and followed up for a median of 4·3 years (IQR 2·6-6·0; total follow-up of 4·6 million person-years). Median age at entry was 52 years (IQR 42-62) and 629 711 (57·3%) patients were female. There were 51 996 cardiovascular disease events and the overall rate of cardiovascular disease was 11·2 per 1000 person-years (95% CI 11·1-11·3). Median QRISK2 10-year predicted risk was 4·6% (IQR 1·4-12·0) and mean systolic blood pressure before cohort entry was 129·1 mm Hg (SD 15·7). Within strata of predicted risk, the effect of increasing systolic blood pressure on outcomes was small. For example, in the group with 10·0-19·9% predicted risk, rates of all cardiovascular disease rose from 20·1 to 23·6 per 1000 person-years between systolic blood pressures less than 110 mm Hg and 180 and higher mm Hg. But among patients with systolic blood pressure 140·0-149·9 mm Hg, rates rose from 6·9 to 52·3 per 1000 person-years between those with less than 10·0% risk and those with 30·0% or higher predicted risk.

Interpretation

For a wide range of blood pressures, the rate of cardiovascular disease and effectiveness of blood pressure drug treatment was mainly determined by predicted risk, with blood pressure thresholds 140/90 mm Hg or 160/100 mm Hg-ubiquitous in most countries-adding little useful information. When medium-term predicted risk is low, there is no urgency to initiate drug treatment, allowing time to attempt non-pharmacological blood pressure reduction.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756821002816/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00281-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8732286 -37670953,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113,Lessons learned from using linked administrative data to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership in England and Scotland.,"Cavallaro FL, Cannings-John R, Lugg-Widger F, Gilbert R, Kennedy E, Kendall S, Robling M, Harron KL.",,International journal of population data science,2023,2023-05-11,Y,Evaluation; Early Years; Administrative Data; Adolescent Motherhood; Cross-Sectoral Linkage,,,"

Introduction

""Big data"" - including linked administrative data - can be exploited to evaluate interventions for maternal and child health, providing time- and cost-effective alternatives to randomised controlled trials. However, using these data to evaluate population-level interventions can be challenging.

Objectives

We aimed to inform future evaluations of complex interventions by describing sources of bias, lessons learned, and suggestions for improvements, based on two observational studies using linked administrative data from health, education and social care sectors to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) in England and Scotland.

Methods

We first considered how different sources of potential bias within the administrative data could affect results of the evaluations. We explored how each study design addressed these sources of bias using maternal confounders captured in the data. We then determined what additional information could be captured at each step of the complex intervention to enable analysts to minimise bias and maximise comparability between intervention and usual care groups, so that any observed differences can be attributed to the intervention.

Results

Lessons learned include the need for i) detailed data on intervention activity (dates/geography) and usual care; ii) improved information on data linkage quality to accurately characterise control groups; iii) more efficient provision of linked data to ensure timeliness of results; iv) better measurement of confounding characteristics affecting who is eligible, approached and enrolled.

Conclusions

Linked administrative data are a valuable resource for evaluations of the FNP national programme and other complex population-level interventions. However, information on local programme delivery and usual care are required to account for biases that characterise those who receive the intervention, and to inform understanding of mechanisms of effect. National, ongoing, robust evaluations of complex public health evaluations would be more achievable if programme implementation was integrated with improved national and local data collection, and robust quasi-experimental designs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150?pdf=render +36701266,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036,"Gestational age at birth and body size from infancy through adolescence: An individual participant data meta-analysis on 253,810 singletons in 16 birth cohort studies.","Vinther JL, Cadman T, Avraam D, Ekstrøm CT, Sørensen TIA, Elhakeem A, Santos AC, Pinot de Moira A, Heude B, Iñiguez C, Pizzi C, Simons E, Voerman E, Corpeleijn E, Zariouh F, Santorelli G, Inskip HM, Barros H, Carson J, Harris JR, Nader JL, Ronkainen J, Strandberg-Larsen K, Santa-Marina L, Calas L, Cederkvist L, Popovic M, Charles MA, Welten M, Vrijheid M, Azad M, Subbarao P, Burton P, Mandhane PJ, Huang RC, Wilson RC, Haakma S, Fernández-Barrés S, Turvey S, Santos S, Tough SC, Sebert S, Moraes TJ, Salika T, Jaddoe VWV, Lawlor DA, Nybo Andersen AM.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-01-26,Y,,,,"

Background

Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is associated with adverse developmental and long-term health outcomes, including several cardiometabolic risk factors and outcomes. However, evidence about the association of preterm birth with later body size derives mainly from studies using birth weight as a proxy of prematurity rather than an actual length of gestation. We investigated the association of gestational age (GA) at birth with body size from infancy through adolescence.

Methods and findings

We conducted a two-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 253,810 mother-child dyads from 16 general population-based cohort studies in Europe (Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom), North America (Canada), and Australasia (Australia) to estimate the association of GA with body mass index (BMI) and overweight (including obesity) adjusted for the following maternal characteristics as potential confounders: education, height, prepregnancy BMI, ethnic background, parity, smoking during pregnancy, age at child's birth, gestational diabetes and hypertension, and preeclampsia. Pregnancy and birth cohort studies from the LifeCycle and the EUCAN-Connect projects were invited and were eligible for inclusion if they had information on GA and minimum one measurement of BMI between infancy and adolescence. Using a federated analytical tool (DataSHIELD), we fitted linear and logistic regression models in each cohort separately with a complete-case approach and combined the regression estimates and standard errors through random-effects study-level meta-analysis providing an overall effect estimate at early infancy (>0.0 to 0.5 years), late infancy (>0.5 to 2.0 years), early childhood (>2.0 to 5.0 years), mid-childhood (>5.0 to 9.0 years), late childhood (>9.0 to 14.0 years), and adolescence (>14.0 to 19.0 years). GA was positively associated with BMI in the first decade of life, with the greatest increase in mean BMI z-score during early infancy (0.02, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.00; 0.05, p < 0.05) per week of increase in GA, while in adolescence, preterm individuals reached similar levels of BMI (0.00, 95% CI: -0.01; 0.01, p 0.9) as term counterparts. The association between GA and overweight revealed a similar pattern of association with an increase in odds ratio (OR) of overweight from late infancy through mid-childhood (OR 1.01 to 1.02) per week increase in GA. By adolescence, however, GA was slightly negatively associated with the risk of overweight (OR 0.98 [95% CI: 0.97; 1.00], p 0.1) per week of increase in GA. Although based on only four cohorts (n = 32,089) that reached the age of adolescence, data suggest that individuals born very preterm may be at increased odds of overweight (OR 1.46 [95% CI: 1.03; 2.08], p < 0.05) compared with term counterparts. Findings were consistent across cohorts and sensitivity analyses despite considerable heterogeneity in cohort characteristics. However, residual confounding may be a limitation in this study, while findings may be less generalisable to settings in low- and middle-income countries.

Conclusions

This study based on data from infancy through adolescence from 16 cohort studies found that GA may be important for body size in infancy, but the strength of association attenuates consistently with age. By adolescence, preterm individuals have on average a similar mean BMI to peers born at term.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424?pdf=render 29944675,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199026,"The diagnosis, burden and prognosis of dementia: A record-linkage cohort study in England.","Pujades-Rodriguez M, Assi V, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Wilkinson T, Schnier C, Sudlow C, Hemingway H, Whiteley WN.",,PloS one,2018,2018-06-26,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"

Objectives

Electronic health records (EHR) might be a useful resource to study the risk factors and clinical care of people with dementia. We sought to determine the diagnostic validity of dementia captured in linked EHR.

Methods and findings

A cohort of adults in linked primary care, hospital, disease registry and mortality records in England, [CALIBER (CArdiovascular disease research using LInked Bespoke studies and Electronic health Records)]. The proportion of individuals with dementia, Alzheimer's disease, vascular and rare dementia in each data source was determined. A comparison was made of symptoms and care between people with dementia and age-, sex- and general practice-matched controls, using conditional logistic regression. The lifetime risk and prevalence of dementia and mortality rates in people with and without dementia were estimated with random-effects Poisson models. There were 47,386 people with dementia: 12,633 with Alzheimer's disease, 9540 with vascular and 1539 with rare dementia. Seventy-four percent of cases had corroborating evidence of dementia. People with dementia were more likely to live in a deprived area (conditional OR 1.26;95%CI:1.20-1.31 most vs least deprived), have documented memory impairment (cOR = 11.97;95%CI:11.24-12.75), falls (cOR = 2.36;95%CI:2.31-2.41), depression (cOR = 2.03; 95%CI:1.98-2.09) or anxiety (cOR = 1.27; 95%CI:1.23-1.32). The lifetime risk of dementia at age 65 was 9.2% (95%CI:9.0%-9.4%), in men and 14.9% (95%CI:14.7%-15.1%) in women. The population prevalence of recorded dementia increased from 0.3% in 2000 to 0.7% in 2010. A higher mortality rate was observed in people with than without dementia (IRR = 1.56;95%CI:1.54-1.58).

Conclusions

Most people with a record of dementia in linked UK EHR had some corroborating evidence for diagnosis. The estimated 10-year risk of dementia was higher than published population-based estimations. EHR are therefore a promising source of data for dementia research.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199026&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199026; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6019102; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6019102?pdf=render 34304930,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.06.007,Trends in Victorian burn injuries 2008-2017.,"Cleland H, Fernando DT, Gabbe BJ.",,Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries,2022,2021-07-07,N,Burns Mortality; Burns Epidemiology; Burns Australia,,,"

Objectives

To describe incidence and characteristics of hospital presentations and deaths due to burn injury in the Australian state of Victoria from 2008 to 2017 and identify trends in incidence and patterns.

Methods

Three population-based datasets were used to ascertain burn-related hospital admissions, emergency department presentations, and deaths. These were the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED), Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD), and the Cause of Death-Unit Record File (COD-URF), respectively. Descriptive statistics on demographics (age and gender), burn injury characteristics (intent, cause, burn size and body region) and hospital burden (length of stay (LOS) and costs) were used to present the profile of patients. Incidence rates by age, gender and intent were calculated. Trend analysis on incidence was carried out using forced Poisson Regression models with the natural logarithm of the annual populations as an offset. Incident rate ratios were used to interpret the models. Risk ratios were used to compare the risk differences between population sub-groups. A negative binomial model was used to test the association between LOS and age and the total body surface area (TBSA) of the burn.

Results

Overall males had higher rates of death, admission and ED presentation. For adults, the elderly had the highest rates of deaths and admissions while for children, the very young had highest rates for admissions and presentations. Exposure to smoke, fire and flames was the most common cause of deaths, and contact with heat and hot substances was most common among ED presentations. The elderly and those with Total Body Surface Area (TBSA) burn ≥20% had a higher risk of longer hospital stay. Rates of severe burns and deaths from burns remained stable during the study period in the setting of an annual 2% increase in population. Paediatric hospital admission rates decreased over time.

Conclusion

The risk of sustaining burn injury, the types of burn and outcomes, varied by age and gender. We found evidence of a limited decrease in burn injury rates in some sub-groups: appropriate and effective targeted prevention strategies for burns are needed to avoid the significant short and long-term suffering experienced.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.06.007 +37670953,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113,Lessons learned from using linked administrative data to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership in England and Scotland.,"Cavallaro FL, Cannings-John R, Lugg-Widger F, Gilbert R, Kennedy E, Kendall S, Robling M, Harron KL.",,International journal of population data science,2023,2023-05-11,Y,Evaluation; Early Years; Administrative Data; Adolescent Motherhood; Cross-Sectoral Linkage,,,"

Introduction

""Big data"" - including linked administrative data - can be exploited to evaluate interventions for maternal and child health, providing time- and cost-effective alternatives to randomised controlled trials. However, using these data to evaluate population-level interventions can be challenging.

Objectives

We aimed to inform future evaluations of complex interventions by describing sources of bias, lessons learned, and suggestions for improvements, based on two observational studies using linked administrative data from health, education and social care sectors to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) in England and Scotland.

Methods

We first considered how different sources of potential bias within the administrative data could affect results of the evaluations. We explored how each study design addressed these sources of bias using maternal confounders captured in the data. We then determined what additional information could be captured at each step of the complex intervention to enable analysts to minimise bias and maximise comparability between intervention and usual care groups, so that any observed differences can be attributed to the intervention.

Results

Lessons learned include the need for i) detailed data on intervention activity (dates/geography) and usual care; ii) improved information on data linkage quality to accurately characterise control groups; iii) more efficient provision of linked data to ensure timeliness of results; iv) better measurement of confounding characteristics affecting who is eligible, approached and enrolled.

Conclusions

Linked administrative data are a valuable resource for evaluations of the FNP national programme and other complex population-level interventions. However, information on local programme delivery and usual care are required to account for biases that characterise those who receive the intervention, and to inform understanding of mechanisms of effect. National, ongoing, robust evaluations of complex public health evaluations would be more achievable if programme implementation was integrated with improved national and local data collection, and robust quasi-experimental designs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150?pdf=render 35579056,https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.13814,Lifestyle changes and kidney function: A 10-year follow-up study in patients with manifest cardiovascular disease.,"Østergaard HB, Demirhan I, Westerink J, Verhaar MC, Asselbergs FW, de Borst GJ, Kappelle LJ, Visseren FLJ, van der Leeuw J, UCC-SMART studygroup.",,European journal of clinical investigation,2022,2022-05-27,Y,Cardiovascular disease; Lifestyle Factors; Kidney Function Decline,,,"

Background

Patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) are at higher risk of kidney function decline. The current study aimed to examine the association of lifestyle changes with kidney function decline in patients with manifest CVD.

Methods

A total of 2260 patients from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort-Second Manifestations of ARTerial disease cohort with manifest CVD who returned for a follow-up visit after a median of 9.9 years were included. The relation between change in lifestyle factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and obesity) and change in kidney function (eGFR and uACR) was assessed using linear regression models.

Results

An increase in body mass index (β -2.81; 95% CI -3.98; -1.63 per 5 kg/m2 ) and for men also an increase in waist circumference (β -0.87; 95% CI -1.28; -0.47 per 5 cm) were significantly associated with a steeper decline in eGFR over 10 years. Continuing smoking (β -2.44, 95% CI -4.43; -0.45) and recent smoking cessation during follow-up (β -3.27; 95% CI -5.20; -1.34) were both associated with a steeper eGFR decline compared to patients who remained as non- or previous smokers from baseline. No significant association was observed between physical exercise or alcohol consumption and kidney function decline. No significant relation between any lifestyle factor and change in uACR was observed.

Conclusions

In patients with CVD, continuing smoking, recent smoking cessation and an increase in obesity markers were related to a steeper kidney function decline. Although no definite conclusions from this study can be drawn, the results support the importance of encouraging weight loss and smoking cessation in high-risk patients as a means of slowing down kidney function decline.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10151289/1/Asselbergs_Lifestyle%20changes%20and%20kidney%20function_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.13814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9540114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9540114?pdf=render +36082669,https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.122.19354,"Determining the Relationship Between Blood Pressure, Kidney Function, and Chronic Kidney Disease: Insights From Genetic Epidemiology.","Staplin N, Herrington WG, Murgia F, Ibrahim M, Bull KR, Judge PK, Ng SYA, Turner M, Zhu D, Emberson J, Landray MJ, Baigent C, Haynes R, Hopewell JC.",,"Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)",2022,2022-09-09,Y,Blood pressure; Chronic; creatinine; epidemiology; Renal Insufficiency,,,"

Background

It is well established that decreased kidney function can increase blood pressure (BP), but it is unproven whether moderately elevated BP causes chronic kidney disease (CKD) or glomerular hyperfiltration.

Methods

311 119 White British UK Biobank participants were included in logistic regression analyses to estimate the odds of CKD (defined as long-term kidney replacement therapy, estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]< 60mL/min/1.73m2, or urinary albumin:creatinine ratio ≥3 mg/mmol) associated with higher genetically predicted BP using genetic risk scores comprising 219 systolic and 223 diastolic BP loci. Analyses estimating associations with clinical categories of eGFR and urinary albumin:creatinine ratio were also conducted, with an eGFR ≥120 mL (min·1.73m2) considered evidence of glomerular hyperfiltration.

Results

21 623 participants had CKD: 7781 with reduced eGFR and 15 500 with albuminuria. 1828 participants had an eGFR ≥120 mL/min/1.73m2. Each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP and 5 mmHg higher diastolic BP were associated with a 37% (95% CI, 1.29-1.45) and 19% (1.14-1.25) higher odds of CKD, respectively. Associations were evident for both the reduced eGFR and albuminuria components of the CKD outcome. The odds of hyperfiltration (versus an eGFR ≥60 and <90 mL/min/1.73m2 were 49% higher (95% CI, 1.21-1.84) for each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP. Associations with CKD and hyperfiltration were similar irrespective of preexisting diabetes, vascular disease, or different levels of adiposity.

Conclusions

In this general population, genetic epidemiological evidence supports a causal role of life-long differences in BP for decreased kidney function, glomerular hyperfiltration, and albuminuria. Physiological autoregulation may not afford complete renal protection against the moderate BP elevations.",,pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aefe90da-8a81-4cfa-981a-bb36eca6faa3/files/r6w924c60k; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.19354; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248?pdf=render 37321240,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(23)00113-x,Mental health in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.,"Ahmed N, Barnett P, Greenburgh A, Pemovska T, Stefanidou T, Lyons N, Ikhtabi S, Talwar S, Francis ER, Harris SM, Shah P, Machin K, Jeffreys S, Mitchell L, Lynch C, Foye U, Schlief M, Appleton R, Saunders KRK, Baldwin H, Allan SM, Sheridan-Rains L, Kharboutly O, Kular A, Goldblatt P, Stewart R, Kirkbride JB, Lloyd-Evans B, Johnson S.",,The lancet. Psychiatry,2023,2023-06-12,Y,,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic caused immediate and far-reaching disruption to society, the economy, and health-care services. We synthesised evidence on the effect of the pandemic on mental health and mental health care in high-income European countries. We included 177 longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional studies comparing prevalence or incidence of mental health problems, mental health symptom severity in people with pre-existing mental health conditions, or mental health service use before versus during the pandemic, or between different timepoints of the pandemic. We found that epidemiological studies reported higher prevalence of some mental health problems during the pandemic compared with before it, but that in most cases this increase reduced over time. Conversely, studies of health records showed reduced incidence of new diagnoses at the start of the pandemic, which further declined during 2020. Mental health service use also declined at the onset of the pandemic but increased later in 2020 and through 2021, although rates of use did not return to pre-pandemic levels for some services. We found mixed patterns of effects of the pandemic on mental health and social outcome for adults already living with mental health conditions.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S221503662300113X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(23)00113-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259832; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259832?pdf=render +36991119,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9,An atlas of genetic scores to predict multi-omic traits.,"Xu Y, Ritchie SC, Liang Y, Timmers PRHJ, Pietzner M, Lannelongue L, Lambert SA, Tahir UA, May-Wilson S, Foguet C, Johansson Å, Surendran P, Nath AP, Persyn E, Peters JE, Oliver-Williams C, Deng S, Prins B, Luan J, Bomba L, Soranzo N, Di Angelantonio E, Pirastu N, Tai ES, van Dam RM, Parkinson H, Davenport EE, Paul DS, Yau C, Gerszten RE, Mälarstig A, Danesh J, Sim X, Langenberg C, Wilson JF, Butterworth AS, Inouye M.",,Nature,2023,2023-03-29,N,,,,"The use of omic modalities to dissect the molecular underpinnings of common diseases and traits is becoming increasingly common. But multi-omic traits can be genetically predicted, which enables highly cost-effective and powerful analyses for studies that do not have multi-omics1. Here we examine a large cohort (the INTERVAL study2; n = 50,000 participants) with extensive multi-omic data for plasma proteomics (SomaScan, n = 3,175; Olink, n = 4,822), plasma metabolomics (Metabolon HD4, n = 8,153), serum metabolomics (Nightingale, n = 37,359) and whole-blood Illumina RNA sequencing (n = 4,136), and use machine learning to train genetic scores for 17,227 molecular traits, including 10,521 that reach Bonferroni-adjusted significance. We evaluate the performance of genetic scores through external validation across cohorts of individuals of European, Asian and African American ancestries. In addition, we show the utility of these multi-omic genetic scores by quantifying the genetic control of biological pathways and by generating a synthetic multi-omic dataset of the UK Biobank3 to identify disease associations using a phenome-wide scan. We highlight a series of biological insights with regard to genetic mechanisms in metabolism and canonical pathway associations with disease; for example, JAK-STAT signalling and coronary atherosclerosis. Finally, we develop a portal ( https://www.omicspred.org/ ) to facilitate public access to all genetic scores and validation results, as well as to serve as a platform for future extensions and enhancements of multi-omic genetic scores.",,pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/337957796/An_atlas_of_genetic_scores_to_predict_multi_omic_traits_s41586_023_05844_9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9 35144240,https://doi.org/10.2196/32543,Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Social Media Analysis for Pharmacovigilance of COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United Kingdom: Observational Study.,"Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Tahir A, Dashtipour K, Gogate M, Sheikh A, Hussain A.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-05-27,Y,Artificial intelligence; Vaccination; Public Health; Health Informatics; Natural Language Processing; Facebook; Social Media; Twitter; Sentiment Analysis; Infodemiology; Deep Learning; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The rollout of vaccines for COVID-19 in the United Kingdom started in December 2020. Uptake has been high, and there has been a subsequent reduction in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths among vaccinated individuals. However, vaccine hesitancy remains a concern, in particular relating to adverse effects following immunization (AEFIs). Social media analysis has the potential to inform policy makers about AEFIs being discussed by the public as well as public attitudes toward the national immunization campaign.

Objective

We sought to assess the frequency and nature of AEFI-related mentions on social media in the United Kingdom and to provide insights on public sentiments toward COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

We extracted and analyzed over 121,406 relevant Twitter and Facebook posts, from December 8, 2020, to April 30, 2021. These were thematically filtered using a 2-step approach, initially using COVID-19-related keywords and then using vaccine- and manufacturer-related keywords. We identified AEFI-related keywords and modeled their word frequency to monitor their trends over 2-week periods. We also adapted and utilized our recently developed hybrid ensemble model, which combines state-of-the-art lexicon rule-based and deep learning-based approaches, to analyze sentiment trends relating to the main vaccines available in the United Kingdom.

Results

Our COVID-19 AEFI search strategy identified 46,762 unique Facebook posts by 14,346 users and 74,644 tweets (excluding retweets) by 36,446 users over the 4-month period. We identified an increasing trend in the number of mentions for each AEFI on social media over the study period. The most frequent AEFI mentions were found to be symptoms related to appetite (n=79,132, 14%), allergy (n=53,924, 9%), injection site (n=56,152, 10%), and clots (n=43,907, 8%). We also found some rarely reported AEFIs such as Bell palsy (n=11,909, 2%) and Guillain-Barre syndrome (n=9576, 2%) being discussed as frequently as more well-known side effects like headache (n=10,641, 2%), fever (n=12,707, 2%), and diarrhea (n=16,559, 3%). Overall, we found public sentiment toward vaccines and their manufacturers to be largely positive (58%), with a near equal split between negative (22%) and neutral (19%) sentiments. The sentiment trend was relatively steady over time and had minor variations, likely based on political and regulatory announcements and debates.

Conclusions

The most frequently discussed COVID-19 AEFIs on social media were found to be broadly consistent with those reported in the literature and by government pharmacovigilance. We also detected potential safety signals from our analysis that have been detected elsewhere and are currently being investigated. As such, we believe our findings support the use of social media analysis to provide a complementary data source to conventional knowledge sources being used for pharmacovigilance purposes.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/5/e32543/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/32543; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9150729 -36082669,https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.122.19354,"Determining the Relationship Between Blood Pressure, Kidney Function, and Chronic Kidney Disease: Insights From Genetic Epidemiology.","Staplin N, Herrington WG, Murgia F, Ibrahim M, Bull KR, Judge PK, Ng SYA, Turner M, Zhu D, Emberson J, Landray MJ, Baigent C, Haynes R, Hopewell JC.",,"Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)",2022,2022-09-09,Y,Blood pressure; Chronic; creatinine; epidemiology; Renal Insufficiency,,,"

Background

It is well established that decreased kidney function can increase blood pressure (BP), but it is unproven whether moderately elevated BP causes chronic kidney disease (CKD) or glomerular hyperfiltration.

Methods

311 119 White British UK Biobank participants were included in logistic regression analyses to estimate the odds of CKD (defined as long-term kidney replacement therapy, estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]< 60mL/min/1.73m2, or urinary albumin:creatinine ratio ≥3 mg/mmol) associated with higher genetically predicted BP using genetic risk scores comprising 219 systolic and 223 diastolic BP loci. Analyses estimating associations with clinical categories of eGFR and urinary albumin:creatinine ratio were also conducted, with an eGFR ≥120 mL (min·1.73m2) considered evidence of glomerular hyperfiltration.

Results

21 623 participants had CKD: 7781 with reduced eGFR and 15 500 with albuminuria. 1828 participants had an eGFR ≥120 mL/min/1.73m2. Each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP and 5 mmHg higher diastolic BP were associated with a 37% (95% CI, 1.29-1.45) and 19% (1.14-1.25) higher odds of CKD, respectively. Associations were evident for both the reduced eGFR and albuminuria components of the CKD outcome. The odds of hyperfiltration (versus an eGFR ≥60 and <90 mL/min/1.73m2 were 49% higher (95% CI, 1.21-1.84) for each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP. Associations with CKD and hyperfiltration were similar irrespective of preexisting diabetes, vascular disease, or different levels of adiposity.

Conclusions

In this general population, genetic epidemiological evidence supports a causal role of life-long differences in BP for decreased kidney function, glomerular hyperfiltration, and albuminuria. Physiological autoregulation may not afford complete renal protection against the moderate BP elevations.",,pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aefe90da-8a81-4cfa-981a-bb36eca6faa3/files/r6w924c60k; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.19354; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248?pdf=render 31349307,https://doi.org/10.3233/shti190058,Phenotyping UK Electronic Health Records from 15 Million Individuals for Precision Medicine: The CALIBER Resource.,"Denaxas S, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Fitzpatrick N, Direk K, Hemingway H.",,Studies in health technology and informatics,2019,2019-07-01,N,Prognosis; Phenotyping; Data Linkage; Electronic Health Records; Biomedical Informatics,,,"Electronic health records (EHR) are increasingly being used for observational research at scale. In the UK, we have established the CALIBER research resource which utilizes national primary and hospital EHR data sources and enables researchers to create and validate longitudinal disease phenotypes at scale. In this work, we will describe the core components of the resource and provide results from three exemplar research studies on high-resolution epidemiology, disease risk prediction and subtype discovery which demonstrate both the opportunities and challenges of using EHR for research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI190058 -34642218,https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424,Neurological injury from virtual reality mishap. ,"Warner N, Teo JT.",,BMJ case reports,2021,2021-10-12,Y,,,,"Consumer virtual reality systems are becoming increasingly popular with the increasing availability of devices and gamified technologies. Self-sustained injury risks exist with the use of this technology in the uncontrolled home environment, however, the public awareness of these risks may not be recognised. We present a case of a low- impact virtual reality fall resulting in spinal cord injury, hypoglossal nerve injury, vertebral artery dissection and traumatic brain injury.",,pdf:https://casereports.bmj.com/content/bmjcr/14/10/e243424.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217?pdf=render 31446406,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027577,Global health competencies in UK postgraduate medical training: a scoping review and curricular content analysis.,"Al-Shakarchi N, Obolensky L, Walpole S, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-08-24,Y,Global Health; Competencies; Postgraduate Medical Training,,,"

Objective

To assess global health (GH) training in all postgraduate medical education in the UK.

Design

Mixed methodology: scoping review and curricular content analysis using two GH competency frameworks.

Setting and participants

A scoping review (until December 2017) was used to develop a framework of GH competencies for doctors. National postgraduate medical training curricula were analysed against this and a prior framework for GH competencies. The number of core competencies addressed and/or appearing in each programme was recorded.

Outcomes

The scoping review identified eight relevant publications. A 16-competency framework was developed and, with a prior 5-competency framework, used to analyse each of 71 postgraduate medical curricula. Curricula were examined by a team of researchers and relevant learning outcomes were coded as one of the 5 or 16 core competencies. The number of core competencies in each programme was recorded.

Results

Using the 5-competency and 16-competency frameworks, 23 and 20, respectively, out of 71 programmes contained no global health competencies, most notably the Foundation Programme (equivalent to internship), a compulsory programme for UK medical graduates. Of a possible 16 competencies, the mean number across all 71 programmes was 1.73 (95% CI 1.42 to 2.04) and the highest number were in paediatrics and infectious diseases, each with five competencies. Of the 16 core competencies, global burden of disease and socioeconomic determinants of health were the two most cited with 47 and 35 citations, respectively. 8/16 competencies were not cited in any curriculum.

Conclusions

Equity of care and the challenges of practising in an increasingly globalised world necessitate GH competencies for all doctors. Across the whole of postgraduate training, the majority of UK doctors are receiving minimal or no training in GH. Our GH competency framework can be used to map and plan integration across postgraduate programmes.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/8/e027577.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720244?pdf=render -36991119,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9,An atlas of genetic scores to predict multi-omic traits.,"Xu Y, Ritchie SC, Liang Y, Timmers PRHJ, Pietzner M, Lannelongue L, Lambert SA, Tahir UA, May-Wilson S, Foguet C, Johansson Å, Surendran P, Nath AP, Persyn E, Peters JE, Oliver-Williams C, Deng S, Prins B, Luan J, Bomba L, Soranzo N, Di Angelantonio E, Pirastu N, Tai ES, van Dam RM, Parkinson H, Davenport EE, Paul DS, Yau C, Gerszten RE, Mälarstig A, Danesh J, Sim X, Langenberg C, Wilson JF, Butterworth AS, Inouye M.",,Nature,2023,2023-03-29,N,,,,"The use of omic modalities to dissect the molecular underpinnings of common diseases and traits is becoming increasingly common. But multi-omic traits can be genetically predicted, which enables highly cost-effective and powerful analyses for studies that do not have multi-omics1. Here we examine a large cohort (the INTERVAL study2; n = 50,000 participants) with extensive multi-omic data for plasma proteomics (SomaScan, n = 3,175; Olink, n = 4,822), plasma metabolomics (Metabolon HD4, n = 8,153), serum metabolomics (Nightingale, n = 37,359) and whole-blood Illumina RNA sequencing (n = 4,136), and use machine learning to train genetic scores for 17,227 molecular traits, including 10,521 that reach Bonferroni-adjusted significance. We evaluate the performance of genetic scores through external validation across cohorts of individuals of European, Asian and African American ancestries. In addition, we show the utility of these multi-omic genetic scores by quantifying the genetic control of biological pathways and by generating a synthetic multi-omic dataset of the UK Biobank3 to identify disease associations using a phenome-wide scan. We highlight a series of biological insights with regard to genetic mechanisms in metabolism and canonical pathway associations with disease; for example, JAK-STAT signalling and coronary atherosclerosis. Finally, we develop a portal ( https://www.omicspred.org/ ) to facilitate public access to all genetic scores and validation results, as well as to serve as a platform for future extensions and enhancements of multi-omic genetic scores.",,pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/337957796/An_atlas_of_genetic_scores_to_predict_multi_omic_traits_s41586_023_05844_9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9 35804579,https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12131679,Genetic Basis of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Dogs and Its Potential as a Bidirectional Model.,"Gaar-Humphreys KR, Spanjersberg TCF, Santarelli G, Grinwis GCM, Szatmári V, Roelen BAJ, Vink A, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Fieten H, Harakalova M, van Steenbeek FG.",,Animals : an open access journal from MDPI,2022,2022-06-29,Y,cardiovascular; Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Fibrofatty Infiltration; Attenuated Wavy Fibers; Canine Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells,,,"Cardiac disease is a leading cause of death for both humans and dogs. Genetic cardiomyopathies, including dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), account for a proportion of these cases in both species. Patients may suffer from ventricular enlargement and systolic dysfunction resulting in congestive heart failure and ventricular arrhythmias with high risk for sudden cardiac death. Although canine DCM has similar disease progression and subtypes as in humans, only a few candidate genes have been found to be associated with DCM while the genetic background of human DCM has been more thoroughly studied. Additionally, experimental disease models using induced pluripotent stem cells have been widely adopted in the study of human genetic cardiomyopathy but have not yet been fully adapted for the in-depth study of canine genetic cardiomyopathies. The clinical presentation of DCM is extremely heterogeneous for both species with differences occurring based on sex predisposition, age of onset, and the rate of disease progression. Both genetic predisposition and environmental factors play a role in disease development which are identical in dogs and humans in contrast to other experimental animals. Interestingly, different dog breeds have been shown to develop distinct DCM phenotypes, and this presents a unique opportunity for modeling as there are multiple breed-specific models for DCM with less genetic variance than human DCM. A better understanding of DCM in dogs has the potential for improved selection for breeding and could lead to better overall care and treatment for human and canine DCM patients. At the same time, progress in research made for human DCM can have a positive impact on the care given to dogs affected by DCM. Therefore, this review will analyze the feasibility of canines as a naturally occurring bidirectional disease model for DCM in both species. The histopathology of the myocardium in canine DCM will be evaluated in three different breeds compared to control tissue, and the known genetics that contributes to both canine and human DCM will be summarized. Lastly, the prospect of canine iPSCs as a novel method to uncover the contributions of genetic variants to the pathogenesis of canine DCM will be introduced along with the applications for disease modeling and treatment.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/13/1679/pdf?version=1656561768; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12131679; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9265105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9265105?pdf=render 32991065,https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.14203,Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors and susceptibility to COVID-19: A population-based retrospective cohort study.,"Sainsbury C, Wang J, Gokhale K, Acosta-Mena D, Dhalla S, Byne N, Chandan JS, Anand A, Cooper J, Okoth K, Subramanian A, Bangash MN, Taverner T, Hanif W, Ghosh S, Narendran P, Cheng KK, Marshall T, Gkoutos G, Toulis K, Thomas N, Tahrani A, Adderley NJ, Haroon S, Nirantharakumar K.",,"Diabetes, obesity & metabolism",2021,2020-10-19,Y,Type 2 diabetes; Dpp-4 Inhibitor; Pharmaco-epidemiology; Sglt2 Inhibitor; Antidiabetic Drug,,,"Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are widely prescribed in people with type 2 diabetes. We aimed to investigate whether SGLT2 inhibitor prescription is associated with COVID-19, when compared with an active comparator. We performed a propensity-score-matched cohort study with active comparators and a negative control outcome in a large UK-based primary care dataset. Participants prescribed SGLT2 inhibitors (n = 9948) and a comparator group prescribed dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors (n = 14 917) were followed up from January 30 to July 27, 2020. The primary outcome was confirmed or clinically suspected COVID-19. The incidence rate of COVID-19 was 19.7/1000 person-years among users of SGLT2 inhibitors and 24.7/1000 person-years among propensity-score-matched users of DPP-4 inhibitors. The adjusted hazard ratio was 0.92 (95% confidence interval 0.66 to 1.29), and there was no evidence of residual confounding in the negative control analysis. We did not observe an increased risk of COVID-19 in primary care amongst those prescribed SGLT2 inhibitors compared to DPP-4 inhibitors, suggesting that clinicians may safely use these agents in the everyday care of people with type 2 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/dom.14203; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.14203; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7537530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7537530?pdf=render 36469091,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac252,Prevalence and outcomes of atrial fibrillation in older people living in care homes in Wales: a routine data linkage study 2003-2018.,"Ritchie LA, Harrison SL, Penson PE, Akbari A, Torabi F, Hollinghurst J, Harris D, Oke OB, Akpan A, Halcox JP, Rodgers SE, Lip GYH, Lane DA.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-12-01,N,Prevalence; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Older People; Care Homes; Health Outcomes,,,"

Objective

To determine atrial fibrillation (AF) prevalence and temporal trends, and examine associations between AF and risk of adverse health outcomes in older care home residents.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study using anonymised linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank on CARE home residents in Wales with AF (SAIL CARE-AF) between 2003 and 2018. Fine-Gray competing risk models were used to estimate the risk of health outcomes with mortality as a competing risk. Cox regression analyses were used to estimate the risk of mortality.

Results

There were 86,602 older care home residents (median age 86.0 years [interquartile range 80.8-90.6]) who entered a care home between 2003 and 2018. When the pre-care home entry data extraction was standardised, the overall prevalence of AF was 17.4% (95% confidence interval 17.1-17.8) between 2010 and 2018. There was no significant change in the age- and sex-standardised prevalence of AF from 16.8% (15.9-17.9) in 2010 to 17.0% (16.1-18.0) in 2018. Residents with AF had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.27 [1.17-1.37], P < 0.001), all-cause mortality (adjusted HR 1.14 [1.11-1.17], P < 0.001), ischaemic stroke (adjusted sub-distribution HR 1.55 [1.36-1.76], P < 0.001) and cardiovascular hospitalisation (adjusted sub-distribution HR 1.28 [1.22-1.34], P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Older care home residents with AF have an increased risk of adverse health outcomes, even when higher mortality rates and other confounders are accounted for. This re-iterates the need for appropriate oral anticoagulant prescription and optimal management of cardiovascular co-morbidities, irrespective of frailty status and predicted life expectancy.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/12/afac252/47589319/afac252.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac252 +34642218,https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424,Neurological injury from virtual reality mishap. ,"Warner N, Teo JT.",,BMJ case reports,2021,2021-10-12,Y,,,,"Consumer virtual reality systems are becoming increasingly popular with the increasing availability of devices and gamified technologies. Self-sustained injury risks exist with the use of this technology in the uncontrolled home environment, however, the public awareness of these risks may not be recognised. We present a case of a low- impact virtual reality fall resulting in spinal cord injury, hypoglossal nerve injury, vertebral artery dissection and traumatic brain injury.",,pdf:https://casereports.bmj.com/content/bmjcr/14/10/e243424.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217?pdf=render 33328048,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30218-1,Reporting guidelines for clinical trial reports for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the CONSORT-AI extension.,"Liu X, Cruz Rivera S, Moher D, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2020,2020-09-09,N,,,,"The CONSORT 2010 statement provides minimum guidelines for reporting randomised trials. Its widespread use has been instrumental in ensuring transparency in the evaluation of new interventions. More recently, there has been a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence (AI) need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate impact on health outcomes. The CONSORT-AI (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-Artificial Intelligence) extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trials evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for clinical trial protocols: SPIRIT-AI (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-Artificial Intelligence). Both guidelines were developed through a staged consensus process involving literature review and expert consultation to generate 29 candidate items, which were assessed by an international multi-stakeholder group in a two-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed upon in a two-day consensus meeting (31 stakeholders), and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants). The CONSORT-AI extension includes 14 new items that were considered sufficiently important for AI interventions that they should be routinely reported in addition to the core CONSORT 2010 items. CONSORT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention is integrated, the handling of inputs and outputs of the AI intervention, the human-AI interaction and provision of an analysis of error cases. CONSORT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness in reporting clinical trials for AI interventions. It will assist editors and peer reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret, and critically appraise the quality of clinical trial design and risk of bias in the reported outcomes.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750020302181/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30218-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8183333; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8183333?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30218-1 35623313,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrad.2022.110366,Comparison of state-of-the-art machine and deep learning algorithms to classify proximal humeral fractures using radiology text.,"Dipnall JF, Lu J, Gabbe BJ, Cosic F, Edwards E, Page R, Du L.",,European journal of radiology,2022,2022-05-20,N,Classification; Radiology; Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing; Proximal Humeral Fracture; Deep Learning; Neer; Bert,,,"

Introduction

Proximal humeral fractures account for a significant proportion of all fractures. Detailed accurate classification of the type and severity of the fracture is a key component of clinical decision making, treatment and plays an important role in orthopaedic trauma research. This research aimed to assess the performance of Machine Learning (ML) multiclass classification algorithms to classify proximal humeral fractures using radiology text data.

Materials and methods

Data from adult (16 + years) patients admitted to a major trauma centre for management of their proximal humerus fracture from January 2010 to January 2019 were used (1,324). Six input text datasets were used for classification: X-ray and/or CT scan reports (primary) and concatenation of patient age and/or patient sex. One of seven Neer class labels were classified. Models were evaluated using accuracy, recall, precision, F1, and One-versus-rest scores.

Results

A number of statistical ML algorithms performed acceptably and one of the BERT models, exhibiting good accuracy of 61% and an excellent one-versus-rest score above 0.8. The highest precision, recall and F1 scores were 50%, 39% and 39% respectively, being considered reasonable scores with the sparse text data used and in the context of machine learning.

Conclusion

ML and BERT algorithms based on routine unstructured X-ray and CT text reports, combined with the demographics of the patient, show promise in Neer classification of proximal humeral fractures to aid research. Use of these algorithms shows potential to speed up the classification task and assist radiologist, surgeons and researchers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrad.2022.110366 34849869,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab076,An overview of the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database: data quality and cohort analysis.,"Cushnan D, Bennett O, Berka R, Bertolli O, Chopra A, Dorgham S, Favaro A, Ganepola T, Halling-Brown M, Imreh G, Jacob J, Jefferson E, Lemarchand F, Schofield D, Wyatt JC, NCCID Collaborative.",,GigaScience,2021,2021-11-01,Y,Medical imaging; Machine Learning; Thoracic Imaging; Covid-19; Sars-cov2,,,"

Background

The National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) is a centralized database containing mainly chest X-rays and computed tomography scans from patients across the UK. The objective of the initiative is to support a better understanding of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 disease (COVID-19) and the development of machine learning technologies that will improve care for patients hospitalized with a severe COVID-19 infection. This article introduces the training dataset, including a snapshot analysis covering the completeness of clinical data, and availability of image data for the various use-cases (diagnosis, prognosis, longitudinal risk). An additional cohort analysis measures how well the NCCID represents the wider COVID-19-affected UK population in terms of geographic, demographic, and temporal coverage.

Findings

The NCCID offers high-quality DICOM images acquired across a variety of imaging machinery; multiple time points including historical images are available for a subset of patients. This volume and variety make the database well suited to development of diagnostic/prognostic models for COVID-associated respiratory conditions. Historical images and clinical data may aid long-term risk stratification, particularly as availability of comorbidity data increases through linkage to other resources. The cohort analysis revealed good alignment to general UK COVID-19 statistics for some categories, e.g., sex, whilst identifying areas for improvements to data collection methods, particularly geographic coverage.

Conclusion

The NCCID is a growing resource that provides researchers with a large, high-quality database that can be leveraged both to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as a test bed for building clinically viable medical imaging models.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/10/11/giab076/41395024/giab076.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab076; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633457; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633457?pdf=render @@ -1175,85 +1175,85 @@ PMC8855010,https://doi.org/,POS-894 PREDICTING PANDEMIC-RELATED EXCESS-DEATH USI 32929109,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72060-0,A data-driven typology of asthma medication adherence using cluster analysis.,"Tibble H, Chan A, Mitchell EA, Horne E, Doudesis D, Horne R, Mizani MA, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-09-14,Y,,,,"Asthma preventer medication non-adherence is strongly associated with poor asthma control. One-dimensional measures of adherence may ignore clinically important patterns of medication-taking behavior. We sought to construct a data-driven multi-dimensional typology of medication non-adherence in children with asthma. We analyzed data from an intervention study of electronic inhaler monitoring devices, comprising 211 patients yielding 35,161 person-days of data. Five adherence measures were extracted: the percentage of doses taken, the percentage of days on which zero doses were taken, the percentage of days on which both doses were taken, the number of treatment intermissions per 100 study days, and the duration of treatment intermissions per 100 study days. We applied principal component analysis on the measures and subsequently applied k-means to determine cluster membership. Decision trees identified the measure that could predict cluster assignment with the highest accuracy, increasing interpretability and increasing clinical utility. We demonstrate the use of adherence measures towards a three-group categorization of medication non-adherence, which succinctly describes the diversity of patient medication taking patterns in asthma. The percentage of prescribed doses taken during the study contributed to the prediction of cluster assignment most accurately (84% in out-of-sample data).",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72060-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72060-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7490405; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7490405?pdf=render 34948912,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413304,Development and Validation of a Primary Care Electronic Health Record Phenotype to Study Migration and Health in the UK.,"Pathak N, Zhang CX, Boukari Y, Burns R, Mathur R, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Denaxas S, Sonnenberg P, Hayward A, Aldridge RW.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2021,2021-12-17,Y,Migration; Phenotype; Validation; Algorithm; Primary Care; Clinical Practice Research Datalink,,,"International migrants comprised 14% of the UK's population in 2020; however, their health is rarely studied at a population level using primary care electronic health records due to difficulties in their identification. We developed a migration phenotype using country of birth, visa status, non-English main/first language and non-UK-origin codes and applied it to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD database of 16,071,111 primary care patients between 1997 and 2018. We compared the completeness and representativeness of the identified migrant population to Office for National Statistics (ONS) country-of-birth and 2011 census data by year, age, sex, geographic region of birth and ethnicity. Between 1997 to 2018, 403,768 migrants (2.51% of the CPRD GOLD population) were identified: 178,749 (1.11%) had foreign-country-of-birth or visa -status codes, 216,731 (1.35%) non-English-main/first-language codes, and 8288 (0.05%) non-UK-origin codes. The cohort was similarly distributed versus ONS data by sex and region of birth. Migration recording improved over time and younger migrants were better represented than those aged ≥50. The validated phenotype identified a large migrant cohort for use in migration health research in CPRD GOLD to inform healthcare policy and practice. The under-recording of migration status in earlier years and older ages necessitates cautious interpretation of future studies in these groups.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13304/pdf?version=1639728813; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413304; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8707886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8707886?pdf=render 35016872,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2021.12.014,Chronic Physical Health Conditions After Injury: A Comparison of Prevalence and Risk in People With Orthopedic Major Trauma and Other Types of Injury.,"Gelaw AY, Gabbe BJ, Ekegren CL.",,Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation,2022,2022-01-10,N,Cardiovascular diseases; Rehabilitation; Chronic disease; wounds and injuries; Multiple Trauma,,,"

Objectives

To determine (1) the prevalence of chronic physical health conditions reported preinjury, at the time of injury, up to 1 year postinjury, and 1 to 5 years postinjury; and (2) the risk of chronic physical health conditions reported 1 to 5 years postinjury in people with orthopedic and other types of major trauma.

Design

Cohort study using linked trauma registry and health administrative datasets.

Setting

This study used linked data from the Victorian State Trauma Registry (VSTR), the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM), the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED), and the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD).

Participants

Major trauma patients (N=28,522) aged 18 years and older who were registered by the VSTR, with dates of injury from 2007 to 2016, and who survived to at least 1 year after injury, were included in this study. Major trauma cases were classified into 4 groups: (1) orthopedic injury, (2) severe traumatic brain injury (s-TBI), (3) spinal cord injury, and (4) other major trauma.

Intervention

Not applicable.

Main outcome measure

Prevalence of chronic physical health conditions.

Results

The cumulative prevalence of any chronic physical health condition for all participants was 69.3%. The s-TBI group had the highest cumulative prevalence of conditions. The most common conditions were arthritis and arthropathies, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. Preinjury chronic conditions were most common in people with s-TBI (19.3%) and were least common in people with other types of major trauma (6.6%). The highest prevalence of new-onset conditions after injury was found in people with s-TBI (21.7%) and orthopedic major trauma (21.4%), whereas the lowest prevalence was found in people with other types of major trauma (9.2%). For the orthopedic injury group, there were no significant differences in the adjusted risk of conditions reported 1 to 5 years postinjury compared with other major trauma groups.

Conclusions

Chronic physical health conditions were common among all injury groups. There was no significant difference in the risk of chronic conditions among injury groups. Rehabilitation practitioners should be aware of the risk of chronic conditions in people with orthopedic and other types of major trauma. Long-term follow-up care after injury should include prevention and treatment of chronic conditions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2021.12.014 -31558464,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013,Long-term impact of giving antibiotics before skin incision versus after cord clamping on children born by caesarean section: protocol for a longitudinal study based on UK electronic health records.,"Šumilo D, Nirantharakumar K, Willis BH, Rudge G, Martin J, Gokhale K, Thayakaran R, Adderley NJ, Chandan JS, Okoth K, Hewston R, Skrybant M, Deeks JJ, Brocklehurst P.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-09-26,Y,Child; Asthma; Caesarean section; Eczema; Antibiotic Prophylaxis; Immune System Diseases,,,"

Introduction

In the UK, about a quarter of women give birth by caesarean section (CS) and are offered prophylactic broad-spectrum antibiotics to reduce the risk of maternal postpartum infection. In 2011, national guidance was changed from recommending antibiotics after the umbilical cord was cut to giving antibiotics prior to skin incision based on evidence that earlier administration reduces maternal infectious morbidity. Although antibiotics cross the placenta, there are no known short-term harms to the baby. This study aims to address the research gap on longer term impact of these antibiotics on child health.

Methods and analysis

A controlled interrupted time series study will use anonymised mother-baby linked routine electronic health records for children born during 2006-2018 recorded in UK primary care (The Health Improvement Network, THIN and Clinical Practice Research Datalink, CPRD) and secondary care (Hospital Episode Statistics, HES) databases. The primary outcomes of interest are asthma and eczema, two common allergy-related diseases in childhood. In-utero exposure to antibiotics immediately prior to CS will be compared with no exposure when given after cord clamping. The risk of outcomes in children delivered by CS will also be compared with a control cohort delivered vaginally to account for time effects. We will use all available data from THIN, CPRD and HES with estimated power of 80% and 90% to detect relative increase in risk of asthma of 16% and 18%, respectively at the 5% significance level.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the University of Birmingham Ethical Review Committee with scientific approvals obtained from the independent scientific advisory committees from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for CPRD and the data provider, IQVIA for THIN. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at national and international conferences and disseminated to stakeholders.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/9/e033013.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283?pdf=render 37198662,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-023-00516-9,Sex-based differences in cardiovascular proteomic profiles and their associations with adverse outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure.,"de Bakker M, Petersen TB, Akkerhuis KM, Harakalova M, Umans VA, Germans T, Caliskan K, Katsikis PD, van der Spek PJ, Suthahar N, de Boer RA, Rizopoulos D, Asselbergs FW, Boersma E, Kardys I.",,Biology of sex differences,2023,2023-05-17,Y,Proteomics; Sex differences; Heart Failure; Hfref,,,"

Background

Studies focusing on sex differences in circulating proteins in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) are scarce. Insight into sex-specific cardiovascular protein profiles and their associations with the risk of adverse outcomes may contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiological processes involved in HFrEF. Moreover, it could provide a basis for the use of circulating protein measurements for prognostication in women and men, wherein the most relevant protein measurements are applied in each of the sexes.

Methods

In 382 patients with HFrEF, we performed tri-monthly blood sampling (median follow-up: 25 [13-31] months). We selected all baseline samples and two samples closest to the primary endpoint (PEP: composite of cardiovascular death, heart transplantation, left ventricular assist device implantation, and HF hospitalization) or censoring. We then applied an aptamer-based multiplex proteomic assay identifying 1105 proteins previously associated with cardiovascular disease. We used linear regression models and gene-enrichment analysis to study sex-based differences in baseline levels. We used time-dependent Cox models to study differences in the prognostic value of serially measured proteins. All models were adjusted for the MAGGIC HF mortality risk score and p-values for multiple testing.

Results

In 104 women and 278 men (mean age 62 and 64 years, respectively) cumulative PEP incidence at 30 months was 25% and 35%, respectively. At baseline, 55 (5%) out of the 1105 proteins were significantly different between women and men. The female protein profile was most strongly associated with extracellular matrix organization, while the male profile was dominated by regulation of cell death. The association of endothelin-1 (Pinteraction < 0.001) and somatostatin (Pinteraction = 0.040) with the PEP was modified by sex, independent of clinical characteristics. Endothelin-1 was more strongly associated with the PEP in men (HR 2.62 [95%CI, 1.98, 3.46], p < 0.001) compared to women (1.14 [1.01, 1.29], p = 0.036). Somatostatin was positively associated with the PEP in men (1.23 [1.10, 1.38], p < 0.001), but inversely associated in women (0.33 [0.12, 0.93], p = 0.036).

Conclusion

Baseline cardiovascular protein levels differ between women and men. However, the predictive value of repeatedly measured circulating proteins does not seem to differ except for endothelin-1 and somatostatin.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-023-00516-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-023-00516-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193800?pdf=render -35536740,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884,Gaps in antihypertensive and statin treatments and benefits of optimisation: a modelling study in a 1 million ethnically diverse urban population in UK.,"Wu R, Rison SCG, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Dostal I, Carvalho C, Robson J, Mihaylova B.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-12-30,Y,Hypertension; Preventive Medicine; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Primary Care; Health Policy; Quality In Health Care,,,"

Objectives

To characterise gaps in antihypertensive treatment in people with hypertension and statin treatment in people with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large urban population and quantify the health and economic impacts of their optimisation.

Design

A cross-sectional population study and a long-term CVD decision model.

Setting

Primary care, UK.

Participants

All adults with diagnosed hypertension or CVD in a population of about 1 million people, served by 123 primary care practices in London, UK in 2019.

Interventions

Following UK clinical guidelines, all adults with diagnosed hypertension were categorised into optimal, suboptimal and untreated groups with respect to their antihypertensive treatment, and all adults with diagnosed CVD were categorised in the same manner with respect to their statin treatment.

Outcomes

Proportion of patients suboptimally treated or untreated. Projected cardiovascular events avoided, years and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and healthcare costs saved with optimised treatments.

Results

21 954 of the 91 828 adults with hypertension (24%; mean age 59 years; 49% women) and 9062 of the 23 723 adults with CVD (38%; mean age 69 years; 43% women) were not optimally treated with antihypertensive or statin treatment, respectively. Per 1000 additional patients optimised over 5 years, hypertension treatment is projected to prevent 25 (95% CI 16 to 32) major vascular events (MVEs) and 7 (3 to 10) vascular deaths, statin treatment, 28 (22 to 33) MVEs and 6 (4 to 7) vascular deaths. Over their lifespan, a patient with uncontrolled hypertension aged 60-69 years is projected to gain 0.64 (95% CI 0.36 to 0.87) QALYs with optimised hypertension treatment, and a similarly aged patient with previous CVD not optimally treated with statin is projected to gain 0.3 (0.24 to 0.37) QALYs with optimised statin treatment. In both cases, the hospital cost savings minus extra medication costs were about £1100 per person over remaining lifespan.

Conclusions

Optimising cardiovascular treatments can cost-effectively reduce cardiovascular risk and improve life expectancy.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/12/e052884.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215?pdf=render +31558464,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013,Long-term impact of giving antibiotics before skin incision versus after cord clamping on children born by caesarean section: protocol for a longitudinal study based on UK electronic health records.,"Šumilo D, Nirantharakumar K, Willis BH, Rudge G, Martin J, Gokhale K, Thayakaran R, Adderley NJ, Chandan JS, Okoth K, Hewston R, Skrybant M, Deeks JJ, Brocklehurst P.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-09-26,Y,Child; Asthma; Caesarean section; Eczema; Antibiotic Prophylaxis; Immune System Diseases,,,"

Introduction

In the UK, about a quarter of women give birth by caesarean section (CS) and are offered prophylactic broad-spectrum antibiotics to reduce the risk of maternal postpartum infection. In 2011, national guidance was changed from recommending antibiotics after the umbilical cord was cut to giving antibiotics prior to skin incision based on evidence that earlier administration reduces maternal infectious morbidity. Although antibiotics cross the placenta, there are no known short-term harms to the baby. This study aims to address the research gap on longer term impact of these antibiotics on child health.

Methods and analysis

A controlled interrupted time series study will use anonymised mother-baby linked routine electronic health records for children born during 2006-2018 recorded in UK primary care (The Health Improvement Network, THIN and Clinical Practice Research Datalink, CPRD) and secondary care (Hospital Episode Statistics, HES) databases. The primary outcomes of interest are asthma and eczema, two common allergy-related diseases in childhood. In-utero exposure to antibiotics immediately prior to CS will be compared with no exposure when given after cord clamping. The risk of outcomes in children delivered by CS will also be compared with a control cohort delivered vaginally to account for time effects. We will use all available data from THIN, CPRD and HES with estimated power of 80% and 90% to detect relative increase in risk of asthma of 16% and 18%, respectively at the 5% significance level.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the University of Birmingham Ethical Review Committee with scientific approvals obtained from the independent scientific advisory committees from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for CPRD and the data provider, IQVIA for THIN. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at national and international conferences and disseminated to stakeholders.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/9/e033013.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283?pdf=render 37422075,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2023.06.019,Perspectives on Patient-Reported Outcome Data After Treatment Discontinuation in Cancer Clinical Trials.,"King-Kallimanis BL, Calvert M, Cella D, Cocks K, Coens C, Fairclough D, Howie L, Jonsson P, Mahendraratnam N, Maues J, Sarac S, Shaw J, Stigger N, Trask P, Wieseler B.",,Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research,2023,2023-07-06,N,Oncology; Clinical Trials; Patient-reported Outcomes; Multistakeholder Perspective,,,"

Objectives

Patient-reported outcome (PRO) data are critical in understanding treatments from the patient perspective in cancer clinical trials. The potential benefits and methodological approaches to the collection of PRO data after treatment discontinuation (eg, because of progressive disease or unacceptable drug toxicity) are less clear. The purpose of this article is to describe the Food and Drug Administration's Oncology Center of Excellence and the Critical Path Institute cosponsored 2-hour virtual roundtable, held in 2020, to discuss this specific issue.

Methods

We summarize key points from this discussion with 16 stakeholders representing academia, clinical practice, patients, international regulatory agencies, health technology assessment bodies/payers, industry, and PRO instrument development.

Results

Stakeholders recognized that any PRO data collection after treatment discontinuation should have clearly defined objectives to ensure that data can be analyzed and reported.

Conclusions

Data collection after discontinuation without a justification for its use wastes patients' time and effort and is unethical.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2023.06.019 34409990,https://doi.org/10.1093/dote/doab058,Demographic and lifestyle risk factors for gastroesophageal reflux disease and Barrett's esophagus in Australia. ,"Wang SE, Kendall BJ, Hodge AM, Dixon-Suen SC, Dashti SG, Makalic E, Williamson EM, Thomas RJS, Giles GG, English DR.",,Diseases of the esophagus : official journal of the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus,2022,2022-01-01,N,,,,"We examined demographic and lifestyle risk factors for incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and Barrett's esophagus (BE) in an Australian cohort of 20,975 participants aged 40-63 at recruitment (1990-1994). Information on GERD and BE was collected between 2007 and 2010. GERD symptoms were defined as self-reported heartburn or acid regurgitation. BE was defined as endoscopically confirmed columnar-lined esophagus. Risk factors for developing GERD symptoms, BE diagnosis, age at symptom onset, and age at BE diagnosis were quantified using regression. During a mean follow-up of 15.8 years, risk of GERD symptoms was 7.5% (n = 1,318) for daily, 7.5% (n = 1,333) for 2-6 days/week, and 4.3% (n = 751) for 1 day/week. There were 210 (1.0%) endoscopically diagnosed BE cases, of whom 141 had histologically confirmed esophageal intestinal metaplasia. Female sex, younger age, lower socioeconomic position (SEP) and educational attainment, and former smoking were associated with higher GERD risk. Male sex and smoking were associated with earlier GERD symptom onset. Men, older participants, those with higher SEP, and former smokers were at higher BE risk. There was some evidence higher SEP was associated with earlier BE diagnosis. GERD and BE had different demographic risk factors but shared similar lifestyle factors. Earlier GERD symptom onset for men and smokers might have contributed to higher BE risk. The SEP patterns observed for GERD and BE suggest potential inequity in access to care. These findings would be important in the development of clinical risk prediction models for early detection of BE.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/dote/article-pdf/35/1/doab058/42098674/doab058.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/dote/doab058 +35536740,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884,Gaps in antihypertensive and statin treatments and benefits of optimisation: a modelling study in a 1 million ethnically diverse urban population in UK.,"Wu R, Rison SCG, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Dostal I, Carvalho C, Robson J, Mihaylova B.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-12-30,Y,Hypertension; Preventive Medicine; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Primary Care; Health Policy; Quality In Health Care,,,"

Objectives

To characterise gaps in antihypertensive treatment in people with hypertension and statin treatment in people with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large urban population and quantify the health and economic impacts of their optimisation.

Design

A cross-sectional population study and a long-term CVD decision model.

Setting

Primary care, UK.

Participants

All adults with diagnosed hypertension or CVD in a population of about 1 million people, served by 123 primary care practices in London, UK in 2019.

Interventions

Following UK clinical guidelines, all adults with diagnosed hypertension were categorised into optimal, suboptimal and untreated groups with respect to their antihypertensive treatment, and all adults with diagnosed CVD were categorised in the same manner with respect to their statin treatment.

Outcomes

Proportion of patients suboptimally treated or untreated. Projected cardiovascular events avoided, years and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and healthcare costs saved with optimised treatments.

Results

21 954 of the 91 828 adults with hypertension (24%; mean age 59 years; 49% women) and 9062 of the 23 723 adults with CVD (38%; mean age 69 years; 43% women) were not optimally treated with antihypertensive or statin treatment, respectively. Per 1000 additional patients optimised over 5 years, hypertension treatment is projected to prevent 25 (95% CI 16 to 32) major vascular events (MVEs) and 7 (3 to 10) vascular deaths, statin treatment, 28 (22 to 33) MVEs and 6 (4 to 7) vascular deaths. Over their lifespan, a patient with uncontrolled hypertension aged 60-69 years is projected to gain 0.64 (95% CI 0.36 to 0.87) QALYs with optimised hypertension treatment, and a similarly aged patient with previous CVD not optimally treated with statin is projected to gain 0.3 (0.24 to 0.37) QALYs with optimised statin treatment. In both cases, the hospital cost savings minus extra medication costs were about £1100 per person over remaining lifespan.

Conclusions

Optimising cardiovascular treatments can cost-effectively reduce cardiovascular risk and improve life expectancy.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/12/e052884.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215?pdf=render 36828609,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00252-7,Embedding patient-reported outcomes at the heart of artificial intelligence health-care technologies.,"Cruz Rivera S, Liu X, Hughes SE, Dunster H, Manna E, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2023,2023-03-01,N,,,,"Integration of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in artificial intelligence (AI) studies is a critical part of the humanisation of AI for health. It allows AI technologies to incorporate patients' own views of their symptoms and predict outcomes, reflecting a more holistic picture of health and wellbeing and ultimately helping patients and clinicians to make the best health-care decisions together. By positioning patient-reported outcomes (PROs) as a model input or output we propose a framework to embed PROMs within the function and evaluation of AI health care. However, the integration of PROs in AI systems presents several challenges. These challenges include (1) fragmentation of PRO data collection; (2) validation of AI systems trained and validated against clinician performance, rather than outcome data; (3) scarcity of large-scale PRO datasets; (4) inadequate selection of PROMs for the target population and inadequate infrastructure for collecting PROs; and (5) clinicians might not recognise the value of PROs and therefore not prioritise their adoption; and (6) studies involving PRO or AI frequently present suboptimal design. Notwithstanding these challenges, we propose considerations for the inclusion of PROs in AI health-care technologies to avoid promoting survival at the expense of wellbeing.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00252-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00252-7 -34143303,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3,National record-linkage study of hospital admissions for schizophrenia in childhood and adolescence in England.,"Seminog O, Hoang U, Goldacre M, James A.",,European child & adolescent psychiatry,2022,2021-06-18,Y,Schizophrenia; Children; epidemiology; Electronic Records; Childhood Onset,,,"

Background

There is a lack of information on changes in hospital admission rates for childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), or on patient characteristics, to inform clinical research and health service provision.

Aims

To report age- and sex-specific incidence rates of hospital admissions and day patient care for schizophrenia (ICD-10 F20) and non-affective psychosis (ICD-10 F20-29), by year of occurrence and age, in childhood and adolescence.

Methods

Population-based study using person-linked data for England (available 2001-2016); time-periods in single years and 4-year groups.

Results

Hospitalised incidence for schizophrenia increased with increasing age, from 0.03 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02-0.05) and 0.01 (0-0.01) per 100,000 in, respectively, males and females aged 5-12 years, to 3.67 (3.44-3.91) in males and 1.58 (1.43-1.75) in females aged 13-17 years. There was no gender difference in hospitalised incidence rates in children aged 5-12, but in 13-17 years old, there was a male excess. Rates for schizophrenia were stable over time in 5-12 years old. In ages 13-17, rates for schizophrenia decreased between 2001-2004 and 2013-2016 in males, from 6.65 (6.04-7.31) down to 1.40 (1.13-1.73), and in females from 2.42 (2.05-2.83) to 1.18 (0.92-1.48). The hospitalisation rates for schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis, combined, in 13-17 years old decreased in males from 14.20 (13.30-15.14) in 2001-2004 to 10.77 (9.97-11.60) in 2013-2016, but increased in females from 7.49 (6.83-8.20) to 10.16 (9.38-11.00).

Conclusions

The study confirms that childhood-onset schizophrenia is extremely rare, with only 32 cases identified over a 15-year period in the whole of England. The incidence of schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis increased substantially in adolescence; however, the marked reduction in the proportion of those diagnosed with schizophrenia in this age group suggests a possible change in diagnostic practice.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394?pdf=render 34378227,https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.14010,"Health-related quality of life, uncertainty and coping strategies in solid organ transplant recipients during shielding for the COVID-19 pandemic.","McKay SC, Lembach H, Hann A, Okoth K, Anderton J, Nirantharakumar K, Magill L, Torlinska B, Armstrong M, Mascaro J, Inston N, Pinkney T, Ranasinghe A, Borrows R, Ferguson J, Isaac J, Calvert M, Perera MTPR, Hartog H.",,Transplant international : official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation,2021,2021-09-16,Y,Isolation; Transplant; Mental health; Health-related Quality Of Life; Shielding; Covid-19,,,"Strict isolation of vulnerable individuals has been a strategy implemented by authorities to protect people from COVID-19. Our objective was to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQoL), uncertainty and coping behaviours in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional survey of adult SOT recipients undergoing follow-up at our institution was performed. Perceived health status, uncertainty and coping strategies were assessed using the EQ-5D-5L, Short-form Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (SF-MUIS) and Brief Cope, respectively. Interactions with COVID-19 risk perception, access to health care, demographic and clinical variables were assessed. The survey was completed by 826 of 3839 (21.5%) invited participants. Overall, low levels of uncertainty in illness were reported, and acceptance was the major coping strategy (92%). Coping by acceptance, feeling protected, self-perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 were associated with lower levels of uncertainty. Health status index scores were significantly lower for those with mental health illness, compromised access to health care, a perceived high risk of severe COVID-19 infection and higher levels of uncertainty. A history of mental health illness, risk perceptions, restricted healthcare access, uncertainty and coping strategies was associated with poorer HRQoL in SOT recipients during strict isolation. These findings may allow identification of strategies to improve HRQoL in SOT recipients during the pandemic.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8420473; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.14010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8420473; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8420473?pdf=render 34734970,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2021.4601,"Association of Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, and Glycemic Risk Factors With Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Mendelian Randomization Study.","Kuan V, Warwick A, Hingorani A, Tufail A, Cipriani V, Burgess S, Sofat R, International AMD Genomics Consortium (IAMDGC).",,JAMA ophthalmology,2021,2021-12-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in Western countries. Causal, modifiable risk factors need to be identified to develop preventive measures for advanced AMD.

Objective

To assess whether smoking, alcohol consumption, blood pressure, body mass index, and glycemic traits are associated with increased risk of advanced AMD.

Design, setting, participants

This study used 2-sample mendelian randomization. Genetic instruments composed of variants associated with risk factors at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10-8) were obtained from published genome-wide association studies. Summary-level statistics for these instruments were obtained for advanced AMD from the International AMD Genomics Consortium 2016 data set, which consisted of 16 144 individuals with AMD and 17 832 control individuals. Data were analyzed from July 2020 to September 2021.

Exposures

Smoking initiation, smoking cessation, lifetime smoking, age at smoking initiation, alcoholic drinks per week, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, glycated hemoglobin, fasting glucose, and fasting insulin.

Main outcomes and measures

Advanced AMD and its subtypes, geographic atrophy (GA), and neovascular AMD.

Results

A 1-SD increase in logodds of genetically predicted smoking initiation was associated with higher risk of advanced AMD (odds ratio [OR], 1.26; 95% CI, 1.13-1.40; P < .001), while a 1-SD increase in logodds of genetically predicted smoking cessation (former vs current smoking) was associated with lower risk of advanced AMD (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.50-0.87; P = .003). Genetically predicted increased lifetime smoking was associated with increased risk of advanced AMD (OR per 1-SD increase in lifetime smoking behavior, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.09-1.59; P = .004). Genetically predicted alcohol consumption was associated with higher risk of GA (OR per 1-SD increase of log-transformed alcoholic drinks per week, 2.70; 95% CI, 1.48-4.94; P = .001). There was insufficient evidence to suggest that genetically predicted blood pressure, body mass index, and glycemic traits were associated with advanced AMD.

Conclusions and relevance

This study provides genetic evidence that increased alcohol intake may be a causal risk factor for GA. As there are currently no known treatments for GA, this finding has important public health implications. These results also support previous observational studies associating smoking behavior with risk of advanced AMD, thus reinforcing existing public health messages regarding the risk of blindness associated with smoking.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/articlepdf/2785704/jamaophthalmology_kuan_2021_oi_210068_1639510445.31311.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2021.4601; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8569599 +34143303,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3,National record-linkage study of hospital admissions for schizophrenia in childhood and adolescence in England.,"Seminog O, Hoang U, Goldacre M, James A.",,European child & adolescent psychiatry,2022,2021-06-18,Y,Schizophrenia; Children; epidemiology; Electronic Records; Childhood Onset,,,"

Background

There is a lack of information on changes in hospital admission rates for childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), or on patient characteristics, to inform clinical research and health service provision.

Aims

To report age- and sex-specific incidence rates of hospital admissions and day patient care for schizophrenia (ICD-10 F20) and non-affective psychosis (ICD-10 F20-29), by year of occurrence and age, in childhood and adolescence.

Methods

Population-based study using person-linked data for England (available 2001-2016); time-periods in single years and 4-year groups.

Results

Hospitalised incidence for schizophrenia increased with increasing age, from 0.03 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02-0.05) and 0.01 (0-0.01) per 100,000 in, respectively, males and females aged 5-12 years, to 3.67 (3.44-3.91) in males and 1.58 (1.43-1.75) in females aged 13-17 years. There was no gender difference in hospitalised incidence rates in children aged 5-12, but in 13-17 years old, there was a male excess. Rates for schizophrenia were stable over time in 5-12 years old. In ages 13-17, rates for schizophrenia decreased between 2001-2004 and 2013-2016 in males, from 6.65 (6.04-7.31) down to 1.40 (1.13-1.73), and in females from 2.42 (2.05-2.83) to 1.18 (0.92-1.48). The hospitalisation rates for schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis, combined, in 13-17 years old decreased in males from 14.20 (13.30-15.14) in 2001-2004 to 10.77 (9.97-11.60) in 2013-2016, but increased in females from 7.49 (6.83-8.20) to 10.16 (9.38-11.00).

Conclusions

The study confirms that childhood-onset schizophrenia is extremely rare, with only 32 cases identified over a 15-year period in the whole of England. The incidence of schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis increased substantially in adolescence; however, the marked reduction in the proportion of those diagnosed with schizophrenia in this age group suggests a possible change in diagnostic practice.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394?pdf=render 30183734,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202359,Time spent at blood pressure target and the risk of death and cardiovascular diseases.,"Chung SC, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Duyx B, Denaxas SC, Pasea L, Hingorani A, Timmis A, Williams B, Hemingway H.",,PloS one,2018,2018-09-05,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"

Background

The time a patient spends with blood pressure at target level is an intuitive measure of successful BP management, but population studies on its effectiveness are as yet unavailable.

Method

We identified a population-based cohort of 169,082 individuals with newly identified high blood pressure who were free of cardiovascular disease from January 1997 to March 2010. We used 1.64 million clinical blood pressure readings to calculate the TIme at TaRgEt (TITRE) based on current target blood pressure levels.

Result

The median (Inter-quartile range) TITRE among all patients was 2.8 (0.3, 5.6) months per year, only 1077 (0.6%) patients had a TITRE ≥11 months. Compared to people with a 0% TITRE, patients with a TITRE of 3-5.9 months, and 6-8.9 months had 75% and 78% lower odds of the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction and stroke (adjusted odds ratios, 0.25 (95% confidence interval: 0.21, 0.31) and 0.22 (0.17, 0.27), respectively). These associations were consistent for heart failure and any cardiovascular disease and death (comparing a 3-5.9 month to 0% TITRE, 63% and 60% lower in odds, respectively), among people who did or did not have blood pressure 'controlled' on a single occasion during the first year of follow-up, and across groups defined by number of follow-up BP measure categories.

Conclusion

Based on the current frequency of measurement of blood pressure this study suggests that few newly hypertensive patients sustained a complete, year-round on target blood pressure over time. The inverse associations between a higher TITRE and lower risk of incident cardiovascular diseases were independent of widely-used blood pressure 'control' indicators. Randomized trials are required to evaluate interventions to increase a person's time spent at blood pressure target.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202359&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202359; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6124703; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6124703?pdf=render 32856398,https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13604,To intubate or not to intubate? Predictors of inhalation injury in burn-injured patients before arrival at the burn centre.,"Dyson K, Baker P, Garcia N, Braun A, Aung M, Pilcher D, Smith K, Cleland H, Gabbe B.",,Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA,2021,2020-08-27,N,Burn; Pre-hospital; Inhalation Injury; Endotracheal Intubation,,,"

Objective

Inhalation injury occurs in approximately 10-20% of burn patients and is associated with increased mortality. There is no clear method of identifying patients at risk of inhalation injury or requiring intubation in the pre-hospital setting. Our objective was to identify pre-burn centre factors associated with inhalation injury confirmed on bronchoscopy, and to develop a prognostic model for inhalation injury.

Methods

We analysed acute admissions from the Victorian Adult Burns Service and Ambulance Victoria electronic patient care records for 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2016. We defined inhalation injury as an Abbreviated Injury Scale of >1 on bronchoscopy. A multivariable logistic regression prediction model was developed based on pre-burn centre factors.

Results

Emergency medical services transported 1148 patients who were admitted to the burn centre. The median age of patients was 39 years and most patients had <10% total body surface area (%TBSA) burned. The prevalence of confirmed inhalation injury was 11%. Increasing %TBSA burned, flame, enclosed space, face burns, hoarse voice, soot in mouth and shortness of breath were predictive of inhalation injury. The model provided excellent discrimination (area under curve 0.87, 95% confidence interval 0.84-0.91). A lower proportion of patients intubated at a non-burn centre had an inhalation injury (33%) compared to patients intubated by emergency medical services (54%) and in the burn centre (58%).

Conclusions

A model to predict inhalation injury in burn-injured patients was developed with excellent discrimination. This model requires prospective testing but could form an integral part of clinician decision-making.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13604 37180793,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1136764,Diabetes and heart failure associations in women and men: Results from the MORGAM consortium.,"Chadalavada S, Reinikainen J, Andersson J, Di Castelnuovo A, Iacoviello L, Jousilahti P, Kårhus LL, Linneberg A, Söderberg S, Tunstall-Pedoe H, Lekadir K, Aung N, Jensen MT, Kuulasmaa K, Niiranen TJ, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2023,2023-04-25,Y,Diabetes; Sex differences; epidemiology; Heart Failure; Morgam,,,"

Background

Diabetes and its cardiovascular complications are a growing concern worldwide. Recently, some studies have demonstrated that relative risk of heart failure (HF) is higher in women with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) than in men. This study aims to validate these findings in cohorts representing five countries across Europe.

Methods

This study includes 88,559 (51.8% women) participants, 3,281 (46.3% women) of whom had diabetes at baseline. Survival analysis was performed with the outcomes of interest being death and HF with a follow-up time of 12 years. Sub-group analysis according to sex and type of diabetes was also performed for the HF outcome.

Results

6,460 deaths were recorded, of which 567 were amongst those with diabetes. Additionally, HF was diagnosed in 2,772 individuals (446 with diabetes). A multivariable Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that there was an increased risk of death and HF (hazard ratio (HR) of 1.73 [1.58-1.89] and 2.12 [1.91-2.36], respectively) when comparing those with diabetes and those without. The HR for HF was 6.72 [2.75-16.41] for women with T1DM vs. 5.80 [2.72-12.37] for men with T1DM, but the interaction term for sex differences was insignificant (p for interaction 0.45). There was no significant difference in the relative risk of HF between men and women when both types of diabetes were combined (HR 2.22 [1.93-2.54] vs. 1.99 [1.67-2.38] respectively, p for interaction 0.80).

Conclusion

Diabetes is associated with increased risks of death and heart failure, and there was no difference in relative risk according to sex.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1136764/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1136764; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10167048; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10167048?pdf=render 33728815,https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41709,Epidemiology of Scleritis in the United Kingdom From 1997 to 2018: Population-Based Analysis of 11 Million Patients and Association Between Scleritis and Infectious and Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease.,"Braithwaite T, Adderley NJ, Subramanian A, Galloway J, Kempen JH, Gokhale K, Cope AP, Dick AD, Nirantharakumar K, Denniston AK.",,"Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)",2021,2021-06-06,N,,,,"

Objective

To estimate 22-year trends in the prevalence and incidence of scleritis, and the associations of scleritis with infectious and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (I-IMIDs) in the UK.

Methods

The retrospective cross-sectional and population cohort study (1997-2018) included 10,939,823 patients (2,946 incident scleritis cases) in The Health Improvement Network, a nationally representative primary care records database. The case-control and matched cohort study (1995-2019) included 3,005 incident scleritis cases and 12,020 control patients matched by age, sex, region, and Townsend deprivation index. Data were analyzed using multivariable Poisson regression, multivariable logistic regression, and Cox proportional hazards multivariable models adjusted for age, sex, Townsend deprivation index, race/ethnicity, smoking status, nation within the UK, and body mass index. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated.

Results

Scleritis incidence rates per 100,000 person-years declined from 4.23 (95% CI 2.16-6.31) to 2.79 (95% CI 2.19-3.39) between 1997 and 2018. The prevalence of scleritis per 100,000 person-years was 93.62 (95% CI 90.17-97.07) in 2018 (61,650 UK patients). Among 2,946 patients with incident scleritis, 1,831 (62.2%) were female, the mean ± SD age was 44.9 ± 17.6 years (range 1-93), and 1,257 (88.8%) were White. Higher risk of incident scleritis was associated with female sex (adjusted IRR 1.53 [95% CI 1.43-1.66], P < 0.001), Black race/ethnicity (adjusted IRR 1.52 [95% CI 1.14-2.01], P = 0.004 compared to White race/ethnicity), or South Asian race/ethnicity (adjusted IRR 1.50 [95% CI 1.19-1.90], P < 0.001 compared to White race/ethnicity), and older age (peak adjusted IRR 4.95 [95% CI 3.99-6.14], P < 0.001 for patients ages 51-60 years versus those ages ≤10 years). Compared to controls, scleritis patients had a 2-fold increased risk of a prior I-IMID diagnosis (17 I-IMIDs, P < 0.001) and significantly increased risk of subsequent diagnosis (13 I-IMIDs). The I-IMIDs most strongly associated with scleritis included granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Behçet's disease, and Sjögren's syndrome.

Conclusion

From 1997 through 2018, the UK incidence of scleritis declined from 4.23 to 2.79/100,000 person-years. Incident scleritis was associated with 19 I-IMIDs, providing data for rational investigation and cross-specialty engagement.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41709; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41709 -PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated with multi-mode transportation networks in China,"Xu X, Liu X, Wang L, Wu Y, Lu X, Wang X, Pei S.",,Fundamental Research,2022,2022-04-22,Y,Complex Network; Spatial Spread; Human Mobility; Transportation Networks; Covid-19,,,"The spatial spread of COVID-19 during early 2020 in China was primarily driven by outbound travelers leaving the epicenter, Wuhan, Hubei province. Existing studies focus on the influence of aggregated out-bound population flows originating from Wuhan; however, the impacts of different modes of transportation and the network structure of transportation systems on the early spread of COVID-19 in China are not well understood. Here, we assess the roles of the road, railway, and air transportation networks in driving the spatial spread of COVID-19 in China. We find that the short-range spread within Hubei province was dominated by ground traffic, notably, the railway transportation. In contrast, long-range spread to cities in other provinces was mediated by multiple factors, including a higher risk of case importation associated with air transportation and a larger outbreak size in hub cities located at the center of transportation networks. We further show that, although the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 across countries and continents is determined by the worldwide air transportation network, the early geographic dispersal of COVID-19 within China is better predicted by the railway traffic. Given the recent emergence of multiple more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2, our findings can support a better assessment of the spread risk of those variants and improve future pandemic preparedness and responses. Graphical abstract Image, graphical abstract.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380?pdf=render 33560181,https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989x21994035,The Value of Triage during Periods of Intense COVID-19 Demand: Simulation Modeling Study.,"Wood RM, Pratt AC, Kenward C, McWilliams CJ, Booton RD, Thomas MJ, Bourdeaux CP, Vasilakis C.",,Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making,2021,2021-02-09,N,Computer simulation; Coronavirus; Intensive Care; Critical Care; Triage; Covid-19,,,"

Background

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many intensive care units have been overwhelmed by unprecedented levels of demand. Notwithstanding ethical considerations, the prioritization of patients with better prognoses may support a more effective use of available capacity in maximizing aggregate outcomes. This has prompted various proposed triage criteria, although in none of these has an objective assessment been made in terms of impact on number of lives and life-years saved.

Design

An open-source computer simulation model was constructed for approximating the intensive care admission and discharge dynamics under triage. The model was calibrated from observational data for 9505 patient admissions to UK intensive care units. To explore triage efficacy under various conditions, scenario analysis was performed using a range of demand trajectories corresponding to differing nonpharmaceutical interventions.

Results

Triaging patients at the point of expressed demand had negligible effect on deaths but reduces life-years lost by up to 8.4% (95% confidence interval: 2.6% to 18.7%). Greater value may be possible through ""reverse triage"", that is, promptly discharging any patient not meeting the criteria if admission cannot otherwise be guaranteed for one who does. Under such policy, life-years lost can be reduced by 11.7% (2.8% to 25.8%), which represents 23.0% (5.4% to 50.1%) of what is operationally feasible with no limit on capacity and in the absence of improved clinical treatments.

Conclusions

The effect of simple triage is limited by a tradeoff between reduced deaths within intensive care (due to improved outcomes) and increased deaths resulting from declined admission (due to lower throughput given the longer lengths of stay of survivors). Improvements can be found through reverse triage, at the expense of potentially complex ethical considerations.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0272989X21994035; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X21994035 33830993,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009428,Sex-stratified genome-wide association study of multisite chronic pain in UK Biobank.,"Johnston KJA, Ward J, Ray PR, Adams MJ, McIntosh AM, Smith BH, Strawbridge RJ, Price TJ, Smith DJ, Nicholl BI, Bailey MES.",,PLoS genetics,2021,2021-04-08,Y,,,,"Chronic pain is highly prevalent worldwide and imparts a significant socioeconomic and public health burden. Factors influencing susceptibility to, and mechanisms of, chronic pain development, are not fully understood, but sex is thought to play a significant role, and chronic pain is more prevalent in women than in men. To investigate sex differences in chronic pain, we carried out a sex-stratified genome-wide association study of Multisite Chronic Pain (MCP), a derived chronic pain phenotype, in UK Biobank on 178,556 men and 209,093 women, as well as investigating sex-specific genetic correlations with a range of psychiatric, autoimmune and anthropometric phenotypes and the relationship between sex-specific polygenic risk scores for MCP and chronic widespread pain. We also assessed whether MCP-associated genes showed expression pattern enrichment across tissues. A total of 123 SNPs at five independent loci were significantly associated with MCP in men. In women, a total of 286 genome-wide significant SNPs at ten independent loci were discovered. Meta-analysis of sex-stratified GWAS outputs revealed a further 87 independent associated SNPs. Gene-level analyses revealed sex-specific MCP associations, with 31 genes significantly associated in females, 37 genes associated in males, and a single gene, DCC, associated in both sexes. We found evidence for sex-specific pleiotropy and risk for MCP was found to be associated with chronic widespread pain in a sex-differential manner. Male and female MCP were highly genetically correlated, but at an rg of significantly less than 1 (0.92). All 37 male MCP-associated genes and all but one of 31 female MCP-associated genes were found to be expressed in the dorsal root ganglion, and there was a degree of enrichment for expression in sex-specific tissues. Overall, the findings indicate that sex differences in chronic pain exist at the SNP, gene and transcript abundance level, and highlight possible sex-specific pleiotropy for MCP. Results support the proposition of a strong central nervous-system component to chronic pain in both sexes, additionally highlighting a potential role for the DRG and nociception.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009428&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009428; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8031124; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8031124?pdf=render +PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated with multi-mode transportation networks in China,"Xu X, Liu X, Wang L, Wu Y, Lu X, Wang X, Pei S.",,Fundamental Research,2022,2022-04-22,Y,Complex Network; Spatial Spread; Human Mobility; Transportation Networks; Covid-19,,,"The spatial spread of COVID-19 during early 2020 in China was primarily driven by outbound travelers leaving the epicenter, Wuhan, Hubei province. Existing studies focus on the influence of aggregated out-bound population flows originating from Wuhan; however, the impacts of different modes of transportation and the network structure of transportation systems on the early spread of COVID-19 in China are not well understood. Here, we assess the roles of the road, railway, and air transportation networks in driving the spatial spread of COVID-19 in China. We find that the short-range spread within Hubei province was dominated by ground traffic, notably, the railway transportation. In contrast, long-range spread to cities in other provinces was mediated by multiple factors, including a higher risk of case importation associated with air transportation and a larger outbreak size in hub cities located at the center of transportation networks. We further show that, although the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 across countries and continents is determined by the worldwide air transportation network, the early geographic dispersal of COVID-19 within China is better predicted by the railway traffic. Given the recent emergence of multiple more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2, our findings can support a better assessment of the spread risk of those variants and improve future pandemic preparedness and responses. Graphical abstract Image, graphical abstract.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380?pdf=render 32352158,https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.11580,Author response to: Comment on: Impact of bariatric surgery on cardiovascular outcomes and mortality: a population-based cohort study.,"Adderley N, Singh P, Tahrani AA, Nirantharakumar K.",,The British journal of surgery,2020,2020-04-30,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-pdf/107/7/e220/35705126/bjs11580.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.11580 -37046260,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1,Associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and health service disruptions in 10 countries.,"Reddy T, Kapoor NR, Kubota S, Doubova SV, Asai D, Mariam DH, Ayele W, Mebratie AD, Thermidor R, Sapag JC, Bedregal P, Passi-Solar Á, Gordon-Strachan G, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Mehata S, Margozzini P, Leerapan B, Rittiphairoj T, Kaewkamjornchai P, Nega A, Awoonor-Williams JK, Kruk ME, Arsenault C.",,BMC health services research,2023,2023-04-12,Y,Health Services; Health Systems; Pandemic Response; Health System Resilience; Covid-19 Restrictions; Health Care Disruptions,,,"

Background

Disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in several countries. Yet, patterns in health service disruption according to country responses remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and disruptions in 31 health services in 10 low- middle- and high-income countries in 2020.

Methods

Using routine health information systems and administrative data from 10 countries (Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand) we estimated health service disruptions for the period of April to December 2020 by dividing monthly service provision at national levels by the average service provision in the 15 months pre-COVID (January 2019-March 2020). We used the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) index and multi-level linear regression analyses to assess associations between the stringency of restrictions and health service disruptions over nine months. We extended the analysis by examining associations between 11 individual containment or closure policies and health service disruptions. Models were adjusted for COVID caseload, health service category and country GDP and included robust standard errors.

Findings

Chronic disease care was among the most affected services. Regression analyses revealed that a 10% increase in the mean stringency index was associated with a 3.3 percentage-point (95% CI -3.9, -2.7) reduction in relative service volumes. Among individual policies, curfews, and the presence of a state of emergency, had the largest coefficients and were associated with 14.1 (95% CI -19.6, 8.7) and 10.7 (95% CI -12.7, -8.7) percentage-point lower relative service volumes, respectively. In contrast, number of COVID-19 cases in 2020 was not associated with health service disruptions in any model.

Conclusions

Although containment policies were crucial in reducing COVID-19 mortality in many contexts, it is important to consider the indirect effects of these restrictions. Strategies to improve the resilience of health systems should be designed to ensure that populations can continue accessing essential health care despite the presence of containment policies during future infectious disease outbreaks.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103?pdf=render 33240510,https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2020.26,Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Threats in Electrophysiology.,"van de Leur RR, Boonstra MJ, Bagheri A, Roudijk RW, Sammani A, Taha K, Doevendans PA, van der Harst P, van Dam PM, Hassink RJ, van Es R, Asselbergs FW.",,Arrhythmia & electrophysiology review,2020,2020-11-01,Y,Artificial intelligence; Electrophysiology; Neural networks; ECG; Cardiology; Big Data; Deep Learning,,,"The combination of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) is having an increasing impact on the field of electrophysiology. Algorithms are created to improve the automated diagnosis of clinical ECGs or ambulatory rhythm devices. Furthermore, the use of AI during invasive electrophysiological studies or combining several diagnostic modalities into AI algorithms to aid diagnostics are being investigated. However, the clinical performance and applicability of created algorithms are yet unknown. In this narrative review, opportunities and threats of AI in the field of electrophysiology are described, mainly focusing on ECGs. Current opportunities are discussed with their potential clinical benefits as well as the challenges. Challenges in data acquisition, model performance, (external) validity, clinical implementation, algorithm interpretation as well as the ethical aspects of AI research are discussed. This article aims to guide clinicians in the evaluation of new AI applications for electrophysiology before their clinical implementation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2020.26; doi:https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2020.26; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675143; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675143?pdf=render +37046260,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1,Associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and health service disruptions in 10 countries.,"Reddy T, Kapoor NR, Kubota S, Doubova SV, Asai D, Mariam DH, Ayele W, Mebratie AD, Thermidor R, Sapag JC, Bedregal P, Passi-Solar Á, Gordon-Strachan G, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Mehata S, Margozzini P, Leerapan B, Rittiphairoj T, Kaewkamjornchai P, Nega A, Awoonor-Williams JK, Kruk ME, Arsenault C.",,BMC health services research,2023,2023-04-12,Y,Health Services; Health Systems; Pandemic Response; Health System Resilience; Covid-19 Restrictions; Health Care Disruptions,,,"

Background

Disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in several countries. Yet, patterns in health service disruption according to country responses remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and disruptions in 31 health services in 10 low- middle- and high-income countries in 2020.

Methods

Using routine health information systems and administrative data from 10 countries (Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand) we estimated health service disruptions for the period of April to December 2020 by dividing monthly service provision at national levels by the average service provision in the 15 months pre-COVID (January 2019-March 2020). We used the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) index and multi-level linear regression analyses to assess associations between the stringency of restrictions and health service disruptions over nine months. We extended the analysis by examining associations between 11 individual containment or closure policies and health service disruptions. Models were adjusted for COVID caseload, health service category and country GDP and included robust standard errors.

Findings

Chronic disease care was among the most affected services. Regression analyses revealed that a 10% increase in the mean stringency index was associated with a 3.3 percentage-point (95% CI -3.9, -2.7) reduction in relative service volumes. Among individual policies, curfews, and the presence of a state of emergency, had the largest coefficients and were associated with 14.1 (95% CI -19.6, 8.7) and 10.7 (95% CI -12.7, -8.7) percentage-point lower relative service volumes, respectively. In contrast, number of COVID-19 cases in 2020 was not associated with health service disruptions in any model.

Conclusions

Although containment policies were crucial in reducing COVID-19 mortality in many contexts, it is important to consider the indirect effects of these restrictions. Strategies to improve the resilience of health systems should be designed to ensure that populations can continue accessing essential health care despite the presence of containment policies during future infectious disease outbreaks.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103?pdf=render 34038519,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab084,Developing a UK sarcopenia registry: recruitment and baseline characteristics of the SarcNet pilot.,"Witham MD, Heslop P, Dodds RM, Clegg AP, Hope SV, McDonald C, Smithard D, Storey B, Tan AL, Thornhill A, Sayer AA.",,Age and ageing,2021,2021-09-01,Y,Recruitment; Older People; Registry; Sarcopenia,,,"

Background

sarcopenia registries are a potential method to meet the challenge of recruitment to sarcopenia trials. We tested the feasibility of setting up a UK sarcopenia registry, the feasibility of recruitment methods and sought to characterise the pilot registry population.

Methods

six diverse UK sites took part, with potential participants aged 65 and over approached via mailshots from local primary care practices. Telephone pre-screening using the SARC-F score was followed by in-person screening and baseline visit. Co-morbidities, medications, grip strength, Short Physical Performance Battery, bioimpedance analysis, Geriatric Depression Score, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Sarcopenia Quality of Life score were performed and permission sought for future recontact. Descriptive statistics for recruitment rates and baseline measures were generated; an embedded randomised trial examined the effect of a University logo on the primary care mailshot on recruitment rates.

Results

sixteen practices contributed a total of 3,508 letters. In total, 428 replies were received (12% response rate); 380 underwent telephone pre-screening of whom 215 (57%) were eligible to attend a screening visit; 150 participants were recruited (40% of those pre-screened) with 147 contributing baseline data. No significant difference was seen in response rates between mailshots with and without the logo (between-group difference 1.1% [95% confidence interval -1.0% to 3.4%], P = 0.31). The mean age of enrollees was 78 years; 72 (49%) were women. In total, 138/147 (94%) had probable sarcopenia on European Working Group on Sarcopenia 2019 criteria and 145/147 (98%) agreed to be recontacted about future studies.

Conclusion

recruitment to a multisite UK sarcopenia registry is feasible, with high levels of consent for recontact.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/5/1762/40349116/afab084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8437066; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8437066?pdf=render 35587337,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac105,"Gestational age at birth, chronic conditions and school outcomes: a population-based data linkage study of children born in England. ","Libuy N, Gilbert R, Mc Grath-Lone L, Blackburn R, Etoori D, Harron K.",,International journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-02-01,Y,,,,"We aimed to generate evidence about child development measured through school attainment and provision of special educational needs (SEN) across the spectrum of gestational age, including for children born early term and >41 weeks of gestation, with and without chronic health conditions. We used a national linked dataset of hospital and education records of children born in England between 1 September 2004 and 31 August 2005. We evaluated school attainment at Key Stage 1 (KS1; age 7) and Key Stage 2 (KS2; age 11) and any SEN by age 11. We stratified analyses by chronic health conditions up to age 2, and size-for-gestation, and calculated population attributable fractions (PAF). Of 306 717 children, 5.8% were born <37 weeks gestation and 7.0% had a chronic condition. The percentage of children not achieving the expected level at KS1 increased from 7.6% at 41 weeks, to 50.0% at 24 weeks of gestation. A similar pattern was seen at KS2. SEN ranged from 29.0% at 41 weeks to 82.6% at 24 weeks. Children born early term (37-38 weeks of gestation) had poorer outcomes than those born at 40 weeks; 3.2% of children with SEN were attributable to having a chronic condition compared with 2.0% attributable to preterm birth. Children born with early identified chronic conditions contribute more to the burden of poor school outcomes than preterm birth. Evaluation is needed of how early health characteristics can be used to improve preparation for education, before and at entry to school.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/52/1/132/49127281/dyac105.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac105; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908051; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908051?pdf=render 34761838,https://doi.org/10.1002/biof.1801,Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio is not related to carotid atherosclerosis progression and cardiovascular events in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: Results from the IMPROVE study.,"Mannarino MR, Bianconi V, Gigante B, Strawbridge RJ, Savonen K, Kurl S, Giral P, Smit A, Eriksson P, Tremoli E, Veglia F, Baldassarre D, Pirro M, IMPROVE study group.",,"BioFactors (Oxford, England)",2022,2021-11-11,Y,Lymphocyte; neutrophil; cardiovascular; Carotid; Prospective; Imt; Nlr,,,"Inflammation is a component of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a possible inflammation metric for the detection of ASCVD risk, although results of prospective studies are highly inconsistent on this topic. We investigated the cross-sectional relationship between NLR and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in subjects at moderate-to-high ASCVD risk. The prospective association between NLR, cIMT progression, and incident vascular events (VEs) was also explored. In 3341 subjects from the IMT-Progression as Predictors of VEs (IMPROVE) study, we analyzed the association between NLR, cIMT, and its 15-month progression. The association between NLR and incident VEs was also investigated. NLR was positively associated with cross-sectional measures of cIMT, but not with cIMT progression. The association between NLR and cross-sectional cIMT measures was abolished when adjusted for confounders. No association was found between NRL and incident VEs. Similarly, there were no significant differences in the hazard ratios (HRs) of VEs across NLR quartiles. NLR was neither associated with the presence and progression of carotid atherosclerosis, nor with the risk of VEs. Our findings do not support the role of NLR as a predictor of the risk of atherosclerosis progression and ASCVD events in subjects at moderate-to-high ASCVD risk, in primary prevention. However, the usefulness of NLR for patients at a different level of ASCVD risk cannot be inferred from this study.",,pdf:https://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/890337/2/0127%20IMPROVE%20mannarino%20Neutrophil%20to%20lymphocyte%20e%20suppl%20.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/biof.1801; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9299016; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9299016?pdf=render -31302040,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009,Risk for Heart Failure: The Opportunity for Prevention With the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7.,"Uijl A, Koudstaal S, Vaartjes I, Boer JMA, Verschuren WMM, van der Schouw YT, Asselbergs FW, Hoes AW, Sluijs I.",,JACC. Heart failure,2019,2019-07-10,N,Heart Failure; Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors; Healthy Lifestyle; Life’s Simple 7,,,"

Objectives

The aim of this study is to determine whether combinations of specific Life's Simple 7 (LS7) components are associated with reduced risk for heart failure (HF).

Background

The American Heart Association recommends the concept of LS7: healthy behaviors that have been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease.

Methods

A total of 37,803 participants from the EPIC-NL (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Netherlands) cohort were included (mean age: 49.4 ± 11.9 years, 74.7% women). The LS7 score ranged from 0 to 14 and was calculated by assigning 0, 1, or 2 points for smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose. An overall ideal score (11 to 14 points) was present in 23.2% of participants, an intermediate score (9 or 10 points) in 35.3%, and an inadequate score (0 to 8 points) in 41.5%.

Results

Over a median follow-up period of 15.2 years (interquartile range: 14.1 to 16.5 years), 690 participants (1.8%) developed HF. In Cox proportional hazards models, ideal and intermediate LS7 scores were associated with reduced risk for HF compared with the inadequate category (hazard ratio: 0.45 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.34 to 0.60] and hazard ratio: 0.53 [95% CI: 0.44 to 0.64], respectively). Our analyses show that combinations with specific LS7 components, notably glucose, body mass index, smoking, and blood pressure, are associated with a lower incidence of HF.

Conclusions

A healthy lifestyle, as reflected in an ideal LS7 score, was associated with a 55% lower risk for HF compared with an inadequate LS7 score. Preventive strategies that target combinations of specific LS7 components could have a significant impact on decreasing incident HF in the population at large.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009 34772649,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00252-1,Characteristics of publicly available skin cancer image datasets: a systematic review.,"Wen D, Khan SM, Ji Xu A, Ibrahim H, Smith L, Caballero J, Zepeda L, de Blas Perez C, Denniston AK, Liu X, Matin RN.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2021-11-09,N,,,,"Publicly available skin image datasets are increasingly used to develop machine learning algorithms for skin cancer diagnosis. However, the total number of datasets and their respective content is currently unclear. This systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate all publicly available skin image datasets used for skin cancer diagnosis by exploring their characteristics, data access requirements, and associated image metadata. A combined MEDLINE, Google, and Google Dataset search identified 21 open access datasets containing 106 950 skin lesion images, 17 open access atlases, eight regulated access datasets, and three regulated access atlases. Images and accompanying data from open access datasets were evaluated by two independent reviewers. Among the 14 datasets that reported country of origin, most (11 [79%]) originated from Europe, North America, and Oceania exclusively. Most datasets (19 [91%]) contained dermoscopic images or macroscopic photographs only. Clinical information was available regarding age for 81 662 images (76·4%), sex for 82 848 (77·5%), and body site for 79 561 (74·4%). Subject ethnicity data were available for 1415 images (1·3%), and Fitzpatrick skin type data for 2236 (2·1%). There was limited and variable reporting of characteristics and metadata among datasets, with substantial under-representation of darker skin types. This is the first systematic review to characterise publicly available skin image datasets, highlighting limited applicability to real-life clinical settings and restricted population representation, precluding generalisability. Quality standards for characteristics and metadata reporting for skin image datasets are needed.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750021002521/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00252-1 35089148,https://doi.org/10.2196/28095,The Association Between Home Stay and Symptom Severity in Major Depressive Disorder: Preliminary Findings From a Multicenter Observational Study Using Geolocation Data From Smartphones.,"Laiou P, Kaliukhovich DA, Folarin AA, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, Sun S, Zhang Y, Matcham F, Ivan A, Lavelle G, Siddi S, Lamers F, Penninx BW, Haro JM, Annas P, Cummins N, Vairavan S, Manyakov NV, Narayan VA, Dobson RJ, Hotopf M, RADAR-CNS.",,JMIR mHealth and uHealth,2022,2022-01-28,Y,GPS; Mobile phone; Major Depressive Disorder; Smartphone; Phq-8; Home Stay,,,"

Background

Most smartphones and wearables are currently equipped with location sensing (using GPS and mobile network information), which enables continuous location tracking of their users. Several studies have reported that various mobility metrics, as well as home stay, that is, the amount of time an individual spends at home in a day, are associated with symptom severity in people with major depressive disorder (MDD). Owing to the use of small and homogeneous cohorts of participants, it is uncertain whether the findings reported in those studies generalize to a broader population of individuals with MDD symptoms.

Objective

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the overall severity of depressive symptoms, as assessed by the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire, and median daily home stay over the 2 weeks preceding the completion of a questionnaire in individuals with MDD.

Methods

We used questionnaire and geolocation data of 164 participants with MDD collected in the observational Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Major Depressive Disorder study. The participants were recruited from three study sites: King's College London in the United Kingdom (109/164, 66.5%); Vrije Universiteit Medisch Centrum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (17/164, 10.4%); and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red in Barcelona, Spain (38/164, 23.2%). We used a linear regression model and a resampling technique (n=100 draws) to investigate the relationship between home stay and the overall severity of MDD symptoms. Participant age at enrollment, gender, occupational status, and geolocation data quality metrics were included in the model as additional explanatory variables. The 95% 2-sided CIs were used to evaluate the significance of model variables.

Results

Participant age and severity of MDD symptoms were found to be significantly related to home stay, with older (95% CI 0.161-0.325) and more severely affected individuals (95% CI 0.015-0.184) spending more time at home. The association between home stay and symptoms severity appeared to be stronger on weekdays (95% CI 0.023-0.178, median 0.098; home stay: 25th-75th percentiles 17.8-22.8, median 20.9 hours a day) than on weekends (95% CI -0.079 to 0.149, median 0.052; home stay: 25th-75th percentiles 19.7-23.5, median 22.3 hours a day). Furthermore, we found a significant modulation of home stay by occupational status, with employment reducing home stay (employed participants: 25th-75th percentiles 16.1-22.1, median 19.7 hours a day; unemployed participants: 25th-75th percentiles 20.4-23.5, median 22.6 hours a day).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that home stay is associated with symptom severity in MDD and demonstrate the importance of accounting for confounding factors in future studies. In addition, they illustrate that passive sensing of individuals with depression is feasible and could provide clinically relevant information to monitor the course of illness in patients with MDD.",,pdf:https://mhealth.jmir.org/2022/1/e28095/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/28095; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8838593 +31302040,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009,Risk for Heart Failure: The Opportunity for Prevention With the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7.,"Uijl A, Koudstaal S, Vaartjes I, Boer JMA, Verschuren WMM, van der Schouw YT, Asselbergs FW, Hoes AW, Sluijs I.",,JACC. Heart failure,2019,2019-07-10,N,Heart Failure; Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors; Healthy Lifestyle; Life’s Simple 7,,,"

Objectives

The aim of this study is to determine whether combinations of specific Life's Simple 7 (LS7) components are associated with reduced risk for heart failure (HF).

Background

The American Heart Association recommends the concept of LS7: healthy behaviors that have been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease.

Methods

A total of 37,803 participants from the EPIC-NL (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Netherlands) cohort were included (mean age: 49.4 ± 11.9 years, 74.7% women). The LS7 score ranged from 0 to 14 and was calculated by assigning 0, 1, or 2 points for smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose. An overall ideal score (11 to 14 points) was present in 23.2% of participants, an intermediate score (9 or 10 points) in 35.3%, and an inadequate score (0 to 8 points) in 41.5%.

Results

Over a median follow-up period of 15.2 years (interquartile range: 14.1 to 16.5 years), 690 participants (1.8%) developed HF. In Cox proportional hazards models, ideal and intermediate LS7 scores were associated with reduced risk for HF compared with the inadequate category (hazard ratio: 0.45 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.34 to 0.60] and hazard ratio: 0.53 [95% CI: 0.44 to 0.64], respectively). Our analyses show that combinations with specific LS7 components, notably glucose, body mass index, smoking, and blood pressure, are associated with a lower incidence of HF.

Conclusions

A healthy lifestyle, as reflected in an ideal LS7 score, was associated with a 55% lower risk for HF compared with an inadequate LS7 score. Preventive strategies that target combinations of specific LS7 components could have a significant impact on decreasing incident HF in the population at large.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009 33531486,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21370-6,Author Correction: Genetic architecture of host proteins involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Pietzner M, Wheeler E, Carrasco-Zanini J, Raffler J, Kerrison ND, Oerton E, Auyeung VPW, Luan J, Finan C, Casas JP, Ostroff R, Williams SA, Kastenmüller G, Ralser M, Gamazon ER, Wareham NJ, Hingorani AD, Langenberg C.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-02-02,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21370-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21370-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854714; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854714?pdf=render -33289226,https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426,Association between gender and outcomes of acute burns patients. ,"Perkins M, Abesamis GM, Cleland H, Gabbe BJ, Tracy LM.",,ANZ journal of surgery,2020,2020-12-01,N,,,,"Burn injuries are a complex and serious public health concern. Where the total body surface area of the burn exceeds 50%, mortality rates as high as 48% have been reported. While the association between gender and burn injury outcomes has been explored, findings are inconsistent. Adult patients (>15 years) admitted between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2018 to intensive care units of burn centres that provide specialist burn care in Australia and New Zealand were included. Raw mortality rates were examined and a multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to investigate the association between gender and time to in-hospital death. There were 2227 eligible burn injury admissions. Men comprised the majority (77.6%). The proportion of women who died in hospital was greater than men and the adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality were 34% lower in men (odds ratio 0.66; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.98). The unadjusted rate of in-hospital mortality for men was 44% lower than women (hazard ratio 0.56; 95% CI 0.41-0.76). After adjusting for confounders, there was no association between gender and survival time (hazard ratio 0.76; 95% CI 0.54-1.06). After adjustment for key differences in case-mix between men and women, there was an association between gender and in-hospital mortality and no association between gender and time to death. Our findings indicate that the worse outcomes observed for women are associated with different age and patterns of injury, and provide further information to direct and inform targeted prevention measures for vulnerable populations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426 34850874,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083,Erratum to: An overview of the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database: data quality and cohort analysis. ,"Cushnan D, Bennett O, Berka R, Bertolli O, Chopra A, Dorgham S, Favaro A, Ganepola T, Halling-Brown M, Imreh G, Jacob J, Jefferson E, Lemarchand F, Schofield D, Wyatt JC, Collaborative NCCID.",,GigaScience,2021,2021-12-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/10/12/giab083/41395049/giab083.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578?pdf=render +33289226,https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426,Association between gender and outcomes of acute burns patients. ,"Perkins M, Abesamis GM, Cleland H, Gabbe BJ, Tracy LM.",,ANZ journal of surgery,2020,2020-12-01,N,,,,"Burn injuries are a complex and serious public health concern. Where the total body surface area of the burn exceeds 50%, mortality rates as high as 48% have been reported. While the association between gender and burn injury outcomes has been explored, findings are inconsistent. Adult patients (>15 years) admitted between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2018 to intensive care units of burn centres that provide specialist burn care in Australia and New Zealand were included. Raw mortality rates were examined and a multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to investigate the association between gender and time to in-hospital death. There were 2227 eligible burn injury admissions. Men comprised the majority (77.6%). The proportion of women who died in hospital was greater than men and the adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality were 34% lower in men (odds ratio 0.66; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.98). The unadjusted rate of in-hospital mortality for men was 44% lower than women (hazard ratio 0.56; 95% CI 0.41-0.76). After adjusting for confounders, there was no association between gender and survival time (hazard ratio 0.76; 95% CI 0.54-1.06). After adjustment for key differences in case-mix between men and women, there was an association between gender and in-hospital mortality and no association between gender and time to death. Our findings indicate that the worse outcomes observed for women are associated with different age and patterns of injury, and provide further information to direct and inform targeted prevention measures for vulnerable populations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426 34127232,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2021.102083,Multi-domain clinical natural language processing with MedCAT: The Medical Concept Annotation Toolkit.,"Kraljevic Z, Searle T, Shek A, Roguski L, Noor K, Bean D, Mascio A, Zhu L, Folarin AA, Roberts A, Bendayan R, Richardson MP, Stewart R, Shah AD, Wong WK, Ibrahim Z, Teo JT, Dobson RJB.",,Artificial intelligence in medicine,2021,2021-05-01,N,Clinical Natural Language Processing; Clinical Concept Embeddings; Clinical Ontology Embeddings; Electronic Health Record Information Extraction,,,"Electronic health records (EHR) contain large volumes of unstructured text, requiring the application of information extraction (IE) technologies to enable clinical analysis. We present the open source Medical Concept Annotation Toolkit (MedCAT) that provides: (a) a novel self-supervised machine learning algorithm for extracting concepts using any concept vocabulary including UMLS/SNOMED-CT; (b) a feature-rich annotation interface for customizing and training IE models; and (c) integrations to the broader CogStack ecosystem for vendor-agnostic health system deployment. We show improved performance in extracting UMLS concepts from open datasets (F1:0.448-0.738 vs 0.429-0.650). Further real-world validation demonstrates SNOMED-CT extraction at 3 large London hospitals with self-supervised training over ∼8.8B words from ∼17M clinical records and further fine-tuning with ∼6K clinician annotated examples. We show strong transferability (F1 > 0.94) between hospitals, datasets and concept types indicating cross-domain EHR-agnostic utility for accelerated clinical and research use cases.",,pdf:http://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.01165; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2021.102083 36273236,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00705-7,"Automated clinical coding: what, why, and where we are?","Dong H, Falis M, Whiteley W, Alex B, Matterson J, Ji S, Chen J, Wu H.",,NPJ digital medicine,2022,2022-10-22,Y,,,,"Clinical coding is the task of transforming medical information in a patient's health records into structured codes so that they can be used for statistical analysis. This is a cognitive and time-consuming task that follows a standard process in order to achieve a high level of consistency. Clinical coding could potentially be supported by an automated system to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the process. We introduce the idea of automated clinical coding and summarise its challenges from the perspective of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), based on the literature, our project experience over the past two and half years (late 2019-early 2022), and discussions with clinical coding experts in Scotland and the UK. Our research reveals the gaps between the current deep learning-based approach applied to clinical coding and the need for explainability and consistency in real-world practice. Knowledge-based methods that represent and reason the standard, explainable process of a task may need to be incorporated into deep learning-based methods for clinical coding. Automated clinical coding is a promising task for AI, despite the technical and organisational challenges. Coders are needed to be involved in the development process. There is much to achieve to develop and deploy an AI-based automated system to support coding in the next five years and beyond.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-022-00705-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00705-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9588058; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9588058?pdf=render 36722341,https://doi.org/10.1093/cei/uxad008,Practical challenges for functional validation of STAT1 gain of function genetic variants.,"Albuquerque AS, Maimaris J, McKenna AJ, Lambourne J, Moreira F, Workman S, Megy K, Simeoni I, Lango Allen H, NIHR BioResource-Rare Disease Consortium, Morris EC, Burns SO.",,Clinical and experimental immunology,2023,2023-04-01,Y,Flow cytometry; STAT1; Primary Immunodeficiency; Gain Of Function; Chronic Mucocutaneous Candidiasis; Variants Of Unknown Significance,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cei/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/cei/uxad008/49549101/uxad008.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cei/uxad008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10128160; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10128160?pdf=render +32379357,https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563,A Bayesian hierarchical approach for multiple outcomes in routinely collected healthcare data.,"Carragher R, Mueller T, Bennie M, Robertson C.",,Statistics in medicine,2020,2020-05-07,N,Observational Study; Multiple Outcomes; Direct Oral Anticoagulants; Safety Outcomes; Bayesian Hierarchy,,,"Clinical trials are the standard approach for evaluating new treatments, but may lack the power to assess rare outcomes. Trial results are also necessarily restricted to the population considered in the study. The availability of routinely collected healthcare data provides a source of information on the performance of treatments beyond that offered by clinical trials, but the analysis of this type of data presents a number of challenges. Hierarchical methods, which take advantage of known relationships between clinical outcomes, while accounting for bias, may be a suitable statistical approach for the analysis of this data. A study of direct oral anticoagulants in Scotland is discussed and used to motivate a modeling approach. A Bayesian hierarchical model, which allows a stratification of the population into clusters with similar characteristics, is proposed and applied to the direct oral anticoagulant study data. A simulation study is used to assess its performance in terms of outcome detection and error rates.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8563; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563 32426117,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010348,Novel approaches to estimate compliance with lockdown measures in the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Sheikh A, Sheikh Z, Sheikh A.",,Journal of global health,2020,2020-06-01,Y,,,,,This is a summary of new methods for estimating phyiscal distancing and compliance with lockdown. I haven't scored the content because it isn't primary research.,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010348; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010348; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7211415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7211415?pdf=render 35743743,https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12060958,Immune Cell Networks Uncover Candidate Biomarkers of Melanoma Immunotherapy Response.,"Vo DHT, McGleave G, Overton IM.",,Journal of personalized medicine,2022,2022-06-11,Y,Melanoma; Immunotherapy; Ovarian carcinoma; Biomarker; Network Biology; Systems Immunology; Nivolumab; Systems Medicine; Immune Checkpoint; Precision Oncology,,,"The therapeutic activation of antitumour immunity by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is a significant advance in cancer medicine, not least due to the prospect of long-term remission. However, many patients are unresponsive to ICI therapy and may experience serious side effects; companion biomarkers are urgently needed to help inform ICI prescribing decisions. We present the IMMUNETS networks of gene coregulation in five key immune cell types and their application to interrogate control of nivolumab response in advanced melanoma cohorts. The results evidence a role for each of the IMMUNETS cell types in ICI response and in driving tumour clearance with independent cohorts from TCGA. As expected, 'immune hot' status, including T cell proliferation, correlates with response to first-line ICI therapy. Genes regulated in NK, dendritic, and B cells are the most prominent discriminators of nivolumab response in patients that had previously progressed on another ICI. Multivariate analysis controlling for tumour stage and age highlights CIITA and IKZF3 as candidate prognostic biomarkers. IMMUNETS provide a resource for network biology, enabling context-specific analysis of immune components in orthogonal datasets. Overall, our results illuminate the relationship between the tumour microenvironment and clinical trajectories, with potential implications for precision medicine.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/12/6/958/pdf?version=1655284846; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12060958; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9225330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9225330?pdf=render -32379357,https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563,A Bayesian hierarchical approach for multiple outcomes in routinely collected healthcare data.,"Carragher R, Mueller T, Bennie M, Robertson C.",,Statistics in medicine,2020,2020-05-07,N,Observational Study; Multiple Outcomes; Direct Oral Anticoagulants; Safety Outcomes; Bayesian Hierarchy,,,"Clinical trials are the standard approach for evaluating new treatments, but may lack the power to assess rare outcomes. Trial results are also necessarily restricted to the population considered in the study. The availability of routinely collected healthcare data provides a source of information on the performance of treatments beyond that offered by clinical trials, but the analysis of this type of data presents a number of challenges. Hierarchical methods, which take advantage of known relationships between clinical outcomes, while accounting for bias, may be a suitable statistical approach for the analysis of this data. A study of direct oral anticoagulants in Scotland is discussed and used to motivate a modeling approach. A Bayesian hierarchical model, which allows a stratification of the population into clusters with similar characteristics, is proposed and applied to the direct oral anticoagulant study data. A simulation study is used to assess its performance in terms of outcome detection and error rates.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8563; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563 34390586,https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15423,Spectral clustering based on structural magnetic resonance imaging and its relationship with major depressive disorder and cognitive ability.,"Yeung HW, Shen X, Stolicyn A, de Nooij L, Harris MA, Romaniuk L, Buchanan CR, Waiter GD, Sandu AL, McNeil CJ, Murray A, Steele JD, Campbell A, Porteous D, Lawrie SM, McIntosh AM, Cox SR, Smith KM, Whalley HC.",,The European journal of neuroscience,2021,2021-09-02,N,Cognition; Clustering; Machine Learning; Major Depressive Disorder; Structural Neuroimaging; Markov Stability,,,"There is increasing interest in using data-driven unsupervised methods to identify structural underpinnings of common mental illnesses, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and associated traits such as cognition. However, studies are often limited to severe clinical cases with small sample sizes and most do not include replication. Here, we examine two relatively large samples with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), measures of lifetime MDD and cognitive variables: Generation Scotland (GS subsample, N = 980) and UK Biobank (UKB, N = 8,900), for discovery and replication, using an exploratory approach. Regional measures of FreeSurfer derived cortical thickness (CT), cortical surface area (CSA), cortical volume (CV) and subcortical volume (subCV) were input into a clustering process, controlling for common covariates. The main analysis steps involved constructing participant K-nearest neighbour graphs and graph partitioning with Markov stability to determine optimal clustering of participants. Resultant clusters were (1) checked whether they were replicated in an independent cohort and (2) tested for associations with depression status and cognitive measures. Participants separated into two clusters based on structural brain measurements in GS subsample, with large Cohen's d effect sizes between clusters in higher order cortical regions, commonly associated with executive function and decision making. Clustering was replicated in the UKB sample, with high correlations of cluster effect sizes for CT, CSA, CV and subCV between cohorts across regions. The identified clusters were not significantly different with respect to MDD case-control status in either cohort (GS subsample: pFDR  = .2239-.6585; UKB: pFDR  = .2003-.7690). Significant differences in general cognitive ability were, however, found between the clusters for both datasets, for CSA, CV and subCV (GS subsample: d = 0.2529-.3490, pFDR  < .005; UKB: d = 0.0868-0.1070, pFDR  < .005). Our results suggest that there are replicable natural groupings of participants based on cortical and subcortical brain measures, which may be related to differences in cognitive performance, but not to the MDD case-control status.",,pdf:https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/19062/1/Yeung_etal_EJN_Spectral_Clustering_Based_AAM.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15423 33500288,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042945,Hospital bed capacity and usage across secondary healthcare providers in England during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive analysis.,"Mateen BA, Wilde H, Dennis JM, Duncan A, Thomas N, McGovern A, Denaxas S, Keeling M, Vollmer S.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-01-26,Y,Public Health; Health Policy; Intensive & Critical Care; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

In this study, we describe the pattern of bed occupancy across England during the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Descriptive survey.

Setting

All non-specialist secondary care providers in England from 27 March27to 5 June 2020.

Participants

Acute (non-specialist) trusts with a type 1 (ie, 24 hours/day, consultant-led) accident and emergency department (n=125), Nightingale (field) hospitals (n=7) and independent sector secondary care providers (n=195).

Main outcome measures

Two thresholds for 'safe occupancy' were used: 85% as per the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and 92% as per NHS Improvement.

Results

At peak availability, there were 2711 additional beds compatible with mechanical ventilation across England, reflecting a 53% increase in capacity, and occupancy never exceeded 62%. A consequence of the repurposing of beds meant that at the trough there were 8.7% (8508) fewer general and acute beds across England, but occupancy never exceeded 72%. The closest to full occupancy of general and acute bed (surge) capacity that any trust in England reached was 99.8% . For beds compatible with mechanical ventilation there were 326 trust-days (3.7%) spent above 85% of surge capacity and 154 trust-days (1.8%) spent above 92%. 23 trusts spent a cumulative 81 days at 100% saturation of their surge ventilator bed capacity (median number of days per trust=1, range: 1-17). However, only three sustainability and transformation partnerships (aggregates of geographically co-located trusts) reached 100% saturation of their mechanical ventilation beds.

Conclusions

Throughout the first wave of the pandemic, an adequate supply of all bed types existed at a national level. However, due to an unequal distribution of bed utilisation, many trusts spent a significant period operating above 'safe-occupancy' thresholds despite substantial capacity in geographically co-located trusts, a key operational issue to address in preparing for future waves.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/1/e042945.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042945; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7843315; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7843315?pdf=render 35842920,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14073,Blood-based biomarkers for the prediction of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy prognosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. ,"Jansen M, Algül S, Bosman LP, Michels M, van der Velden J, de Boer RA, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.",,ESC heart failure,2022,2022-07-17,Y,,,,"Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most prevalent monogenic heart disease. HCM is an important cause of sudden cardiac death and may also lead to outflow tract obstruction and heart failure. Disease severity is highly variable and risk stratification remains limited. Therefore, we aimed to review current knowledge of prognostic blood-based biomarkers in HCM. A systematic literature search was performed on PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library to identify studies assessing plasma or serum biomarkers for outcomes involving malignant ventricular arrhythmia, outflow tract obstruction, and heart failure. Risk of bias was assessed using the QUIPS tool. Meta-analyses were performed using the random effects method. A total of 26 unique cohort studies assessing 42 biomarkers were identified. Overall risk of bias was moderate. Thirty-two biomarkers were significantly associated to an HCM outcome in at least one study (nine biomarkers in at least two studies). In pooled analyses, cardiovascular mortality was predicted by N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (hazard ratio [HR] 5.38 per log[pg/mL], 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.07-14.03, P < 0.001, I2  = 0%) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HR 1.30 per μg/mL, 95% CI 1.00-1.68, P = 0.05, I2  = 78%), all-cause mortality by low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HR 0.63 per μmol/mL, 95% CI 0.49-0.80, P < 0.001, I2  = 0%), and a combined congestive heart failure, malignant ventricular arrhythmia, and stroke outcome by high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (pooled HR 4.19 for ≥0.014 ng/mL, 95% CI 2.22-7.88, P < 0.001, I2  = 0%). Quality of evidence was low-moderate. Several blood-based biomarkers were identified as predictors of HCM outcomes. Additional studies are required to validate their prognostic utility within current risk stratification models.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.14073; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14073; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9715795; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9715795?pdf=render -34253559,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689,"Long-term trends in population-based hospitalisation rates for myocardial infarction in England: a national database study of 3.5 million admissions, 1968-2016.","Wright FL, Townsend N, Greenland M, Goldacre MJ, Smolina K, Lacey B, Nedkoff L.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2022,2021-07-12,Y,epidemiology; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Record Linkage,,,"

Aim

To analyse the timing and scale of temporal changes in rates of hospitalised myocardial infarction (MI) in England by age and sex from 1968 to 2016.

Methods

MI admissions for adults aged 15-84 years were identified from electronic hospital data. We calculated age-standardised and age-specific rates, and examined trends using joinpoint.

Results

From 1968 to 2016, there were 3.5 million admissions for MI in England (68% men). Rates increased in the early years of the study in both men and women, peaked in the mid-1980s (355 per 100 000 population in men; 127 in women) and declined by 38.8% in men and 37.4% in women from 1990 to 2011. From 2012, however, modest increases were observed in both sexes. Long-term trends in rates over the study period varied by age and sex, with those aged 70 years and older having the greatest and most sustained increases in the early years (1968-1985). During subsequent years, rates decreased in most age groups until 2010-2011. The exception was younger women (35-49 years) and men (15-34 years) who experienced significant increases from the mid-1990s to 2007 (range +2.1%/year to 4.7%/year). From 2012 onwards, rates increased in all age groups except the oldest, with the most marked increases in men aged 15-34 years (7.2%/year) and women aged 40-49 (6.9%-7.3%/year) .

Conclusion

Despite substantial declines in hospital admission rates for MI in England since 1990, the burden of annual admissions remains high. Continued surveillance of trends and coronary disease preventive strategies are warranted.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/1/45.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807?pdf=render -36689332,https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021,GBMdeconvoluteR accurately infers proportions of neoplastic and immune cell populations from bulk glioblastoma transcriptomics data.,"Ajaib S, Lodha D, Pollock S, Hemmings G, Finetti MA, Gusnanto A, Chakrabarty A, Ismail A, Wilson E, Varn FS, Hunter B, Filby A, Brockman AA, McDonald D, Verhaak RGW, Ihrie RA, Stead LF.",,Neuro-oncology,2023,2023-07-01,Y,Immune; Deconvolution; Glioblastoma; Neoplastic; Transcriptomics,,,"

Background

Characterizing and quantifying cell types within glioblastoma (GBM) tumors at scale will facilitate a better understanding of the association between the cellular landscape and tumor phenotypes or clinical correlates. We aimed to develop a tool that deconvolutes immune and neoplastic cells within the GBM tumor microenvironment from bulk RNA sequencing data.

Methods

We developed an IDH wild-type (IDHwt) GBM-specific single immune cell reference consisting of B cells, T-cells, NK-cells, microglia, tumor associated macrophages, monocytes, mast and DC cells. We used this alongside an existing neoplastic single cell-type reference for astrocyte-like, oligodendrocyte- and neuronal progenitor-like and mesenchymal GBM cancer cells to create both marker and gene signature matrix-based deconvolution tools. We applied single-cell resolution imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to ten IDHwt GBM samples, five paired primary and recurrent tumors, to determine which deconvolution approach performed best.

Results

Marker-based deconvolution using GBM-tissue specific markers was most accurate for both immune cells and cancer cells, so we packaged this approach as GBMdeconvoluteR. We applied GBMdeconvoluteR to bulk GBM RNAseq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and recapitulated recent findings from multi-omics single cell studies with regards associations between mesenchymal GBM cancer cells and both lymphoid and myeloid cells. Furthermore, we expanded upon this to show that these associations are stronger in patients with worse prognosis.

Conclusions

GBMdeconvoluteR accurately quantifies immune and neoplastic cell proportions in IDHwt GBM bulk RNA sequencing data and is accessible here: https://gbmdeconvoluter.leeds.ac.uk.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/neuro-oncology/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/neuonc/noad021/49522012/noad021.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489?pdf=render 33632741,https://doi.org/10.2337/db20-0895,"Relationship Between Glycemia and Cognitive Function, Structural Brain Outcomes, and Dementia: A Mendelian Randomization Study in the UK Biobank.","Garfield V, Farmaki AE, Fatemifar G, Eastwood SV, Mathur R, Rentsch CT, Denaxas S, Bhaskaran K, Smeeth L, Chaturvedi N.",,Diabetes,2021,2021-02-25,N,,,,"We investigated the relationship between glycemia and cognitive function, brain structure and incident dementia using bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR). Data were from the UK Biobank (n = ∼500,000). Our exposures were genetic instruments for type 2 diabetes (157 variants) and HbA1c (51 variants) and our outcomes were reaction time (RT), visual memory, hippocampal volume (HV), white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV), and Alzheimer dementia (AD). We also investigated associations between genetic variants for RT (43 variants) and diabetes and HbA1c We used conventional inverse-variance-weighted (IVW) MR alongside MR sensitivity analyses. Using IVW, genetic liability to type 2 diabetes was not associated with RT (exponentiated β [expβ] = 1.00 [95% CI 1.00; 1.00]), visual memory (expβ = 1.00 [95% CI 0.99; 1.00]), WMHV (expβ = 0.99 [95% CI 0.97; 1.01]), HV (β-coefficient mm3 = -2.30 [95% CI -12.39; 7.78]) or AD (odds ratio [OR] 1.15 [95% CI 0.87; 1.52]). HbA1c was not associated with RT (expβ = 1.00 [95% CI 0.99; 1.02]), visual memory (expβ = 0.99 [95% CI 0.96; 1.02]), WMHV (expβ = 1.03 [95% CI 0.88; 1.22]), HV (β = -21.31 [95% CI -82.96; 40.34]), or risk of AD (OR 1.09 [95% CI 0.42; 2.83]). IVW showed that reaction time was not associated with diabetes risk (OR 0.94 [95% CI 0.54; 1.65]), or with HbA1c (β-coefficient mmol/mol = -0.88 [95% CI = -1.88; 0.13]) after exclusion of a pleiotropic variant. Overall, we observed little evidence of causal association between genetic instruments for type 2 diabetes or peripheral glycemia and some measures of cognition and brain structure in midlife.",,pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article-pdf/70/10/2313/628539/db200895.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/db20-0895 33536532,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82459-y,Data-driven identification of ageing-related diseases from electronic health records.,"Kuan V, Fraser HC, Hingorani M, Denaxas S, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Direk K, Nitsch D, Mathur R, Parisinos CA, Lumbers RT, Sofat R, Wong ICK, Casas JP, Thornton JM, Hemingway H, Partridge L, Hingorani AD.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-02-03,Y,,,,"Reducing the burden of late-life morbidity requires an understanding of the mechanisms of ageing-related diseases (ARDs), defined as diseases that accumulate with increasing age. This has been hampered by the lack of formal criteria to identify ARDs. Here, we present a framework to identify ARDs using two complementary methods consisting of unsupervised machine learning and actuarial techniques, which we applied to electronic health records (EHRs) from 3,009,048 individuals in England using primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) linked to the Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care dataset between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2015 (mean age 49.7 years (s.d. 18.6), 51% female, 70% white ethnicity). We grouped 278 high-burden diseases into nine main clusters according to their patterns of disease onset, using a hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm. Four of these clusters, encompassing 207 diseases spanning diverse organ systems and clinical specialties, had rates of disease onset that clearly increased with chronological age. However, the ages of onset for these four clusters were strikingly different, with median age of onset 82 years (IQR 82-83) for Cluster 1, 77 years (IQR 75-77) for Cluster 2, 69 years (IQR 66-71) for Cluster 3 and 57 years (IQR 54-59) for Cluster 4. Fitting to ageing-related actuarial models confirmed that the vast majority of these 207 diseases had a high probability of being ageing-related. Cardiovascular diseases and cancers were highly represented, while benign neoplastic, skin and psychiatric conditions were largely absent from the four ageing-related clusters. Our framework identifies and clusters ARDs and can form the basis for fundamental and translational research into ageing pathways.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82459-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82459-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7859412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7859412?pdf=render -33749694,https://doi.org/,The evidence for assessing frailty and sarcopenia in an acute medical unit: a systematic review.,"Kamwa V, Seccombe A, Sapey E.",,Acute medicine,2021,2021-01-01,N,,,,"

Background/objectives

A systematic review was conducted to assess if frailty and sarcopenia were associated with poorer outcomes in older adults admitted to an acute medical unit (AMU).

Methods

Eligible studies included older adults with an unplanned admission to an AMU and included a measure of frailty or sarcopenia, completed within 72 hours of admission. Risk of bias was assessed.

Results

Of 1659 identified articles, 16 were included (4 on sarcopenia and 12 on frailty). There was significant study heterogeneity. Overall, frailty and sarcopenia were associated with worse outcomes. Targeted interventions appeared to improve outcomes.

Conclusion

Current evidence suggests some benefit in screening older adults admitted to an AMU for frailty and sarcopenia. However, further studies are required before clinical adoption.",, +34253559,https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689,"Long-term trends in population-based hospitalisation rates for myocardial infarction in England: a national database study of 3.5 million admissions, 1968-2016.","Wright FL, Townsend N, Greenland M, Goldacre MJ, Smolina K, Lacey B, Nedkoff L.",,Journal of epidemiology and community health,2022,2021-07-12,Y,epidemiology; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Record Linkage,,,"

Aim

To analyse the timing and scale of temporal changes in rates of hospitalised myocardial infarction (MI) in England by age and sex from 1968 to 2016.

Methods

MI admissions for adults aged 15-84 years were identified from electronic hospital data. We calculated age-standardised and age-specific rates, and examined trends using joinpoint.

Results

From 1968 to 2016, there were 3.5 million admissions for MI in England (68% men). Rates increased in the early years of the study in both men and women, peaked in the mid-1980s (355 per 100 000 population in men; 127 in women) and declined by 38.8% in men and 37.4% in women from 1990 to 2011. From 2012, however, modest increases were observed in both sexes. Long-term trends in rates over the study period varied by age and sex, with those aged 70 years and older having the greatest and most sustained increases in the early years (1968-1985). During subsequent years, rates decreased in most age groups until 2010-2011. The exception was younger women (35-49 years) and men (15-34 years) who experienced significant increases from the mid-1990s to 2007 (range +2.1%/year to 4.7%/year). From 2012 onwards, rates increased in all age groups except the oldest, with the most marked increases in men aged 15-34 years (7.2%/year) and women aged 40-49 (6.9%-7.3%/year) .

Conclusion

Despite substantial declines in hospital admission rates for MI in England since 1990, the burden of annual admissions remains high. Continued surveillance of trends and coronary disease preventive strategies are warranted.",,pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/1/45.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807?pdf=render 37278928,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2,Circulating Acylcarnitines Associated with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Severity: an Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study in MYBPC3 Founder Variant Carriers.,"Jansen M, Schmidt AF, Jans JJM, Christiaans I, van der Crabben SN, Hoedemaekers YM, Dooijes D, Jongbloed JDH, Boven LG, Lekanne Deprez RH, Wilde AAM, van der Velden J, de Boer RA, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.",,Journal of cardiovascular translational research,2023,2023-06-06,N,Metabolism; Biomarker; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Acylcarnitine; Mybpc3,,,"Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a relatively common genetic heart disease characterised by myocardial hypertrophy. HCM can cause outflow tract obstruction, sudden cardiac death and heart failure, but severity is highly variable. In this exploratory cross-sectional study, circulating acylcarnitines were assessed as potential biomarkers in 124 MYBPC3 founder variant carriers (59 with severe HCM, 26 with mild HCM and 39 phenotype-negative [G + P-]). Elastic net logistic regression identified eight acylcarnitines associated with HCM severity. C3, C4, C6-DC, C8:1, C16, C18 and C18:2 were significantly increased in severe HCM compared to G + P-, and C3, C6-DC, C8:1 and C18 in mild HCM compared to G + P-. In multivariable linear regression, C6-DC and C8:1 correlated to log-transformed maximum wall thickness (coefficient 5.01, p = 0.005 and coefficient 0.803, p = 0.007, respectively), and C6-DC to log-transformed ejection fraction (coefficient -2.50, p = 0.004). Acylcarnitines seem promising biomarkers for HCM severity, however prospective studies are required to determine their prognostic value.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2 +33749694,https://doi.org/,The evidence for assessing frailty and sarcopenia in an acute medical unit: a systematic review.,"Kamwa V, Seccombe A, Sapey E.",,Acute medicine,2021,2021-01-01,N,,,,"

Background/objectives

A systematic review was conducted to assess if frailty and sarcopenia were associated with poorer outcomes in older adults admitted to an acute medical unit (AMU).

Methods

Eligible studies included older adults with an unplanned admission to an AMU and included a measure of frailty or sarcopenia, completed within 72 hours of admission. Risk of bias was assessed.

Results

Of 1659 identified articles, 16 were included (4 on sarcopenia and 12 on frailty). There was significant study heterogeneity. Overall, frailty and sarcopenia were associated with worse outcomes. Targeted interventions appeared to improve outcomes.

Conclusion

Current evidence suggests some benefit in screening older adults admitted to an AMU for frailty and sarcopenia. However, further studies are required before clinical adoption.",, +36689332,https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021,GBMdeconvoluteR accurately infers proportions of neoplastic and immune cell populations from bulk glioblastoma transcriptomics data.,"Ajaib S, Lodha D, Pollock S, Hemmings G, Finetti MA, Gusnanto A, Chakrabarty A, Ismail A, Wilson E, Varn FS, Hunter B, Filby A, Brockman AA, McDonald D, Verhaak RGW, Ihrie RA, Stead LF.",,Neuro-oncology,2023,2023-07-01,Y,Immune; Deconvolution; Glioblastoma; Neoplastic; Transcriptomics,,,"

Background

Characterizing and quantifying cell types within glioblastoma (GBM) tumors at scale will facilitate a better understanding of the association between the cellular landscape and tumor phenotypes or clinical correlates. We aimed to develop a tool that deconvolutes immune and neoplastic cells within the GBM tumor microenvironment from bulk RNA sequencing data.

Methods

We developed an IDH wild-type (IDHwt) GBM-specific single immune cell reference consisting of B cells, T-cells, NK-cells, microglia, tumor associated macrophages, monocytes, mast and DC cells. We used this alongside an existing neoplastic single cell-type reference for astrocyte-like, oligodendrocyte- and neuronal progenitor-like and mesenchymal GBM cancer cells to create both marker and gene signature matrix-based deconvolution tools. We applied single-cell resolution imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to ten IDHwt GBM samples, five paired primary and recurrent tumors, to determine which deconvolution approach performed best.

Results

Marker-based deconvolution using GBM-tissue specific markers was most accurate for both immune cells and cancer cells, so we packaged this approach as GBMdeconvoluteR. We applied GBMdeconvoluteR to bulk GBM RNAseq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and recapitulated recent findings from multi-omics single cell studies with regards associations between mesenchymal GBM cancer cells and both lymphoid and myeloid cells. Furthermore, we expanded upon this to show that these associations are stronger in patients with worse prognosis.

Conclusions

GBMdeconvoluteR accurately quantifies immune and neoplastic cell proportions in IDHwt GBM bulk RNA sequencing data and is accessible here: https://gbmdeconvoluter.leeds.ac.uk.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/neuro-oncology/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/neuonc/noad021/49522012/noad021.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489?pdf=render 32355555,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104,COVID-19 must catalyse key global natural experiments.,"Been JV, Sheikh A.",,Journal of global health,2020,2020-06-01,Y,,,,,"""Been and Sheikh’s editorial about COVID-19, outlines the importance of two natural experiments: a- how different countries responded to the pandemic and its effects and b- impact of improvements in air quality on human and planetary health.""",doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7179980; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7179980?pdf=render -35297548,https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369,"Beacon v2 and Beacon networks: A ""lingua franca"" for federated data discovery in biomedical genomics, and beyond.","Rambla J, Baudis M, Ariosa R, Beck T, Fromont LA, Navarro A, Paloots R, Rueda M, Saunders G, Singh B, Spalding JD, Törnroos J, Vasallo C, Veal CD, Brookes AJ.",,Human mutation,2022,2022-04-08,Y,data sharing; Clinical Genomics; Beacon; Data Discovery; Rest Api; Ga4gh,,,"Beacon is a basic data discovery protocol issued by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). The main goal addressed by version 1 of the Beacon protocol was to test the feasibility of broadly sharing human genomic data, through providing simple ""yes"" or ""no"" responses to queries about the presence of a given variant in datasets hosted by Beacon providers. The popularity of this concept has fostered the design of a version 2, that better serves real-world requirements and addresses the needs of clinical genomics research and healthcare, as assessed by several contributing projects and organizations. Particularly, rare disease genetics and cancer research will benefit from new case level and genomic variant level requests and the enabling of richer phenotype and clinical queries as well as support for fuzzy searches. Beacon is designed as a ""lingua franca"" to bridge data collections hosted in software solutions with different and rich interfaces. Beacon version 2 works alongside popular standards like Phenopackets, OMOP, or FHIR, allowing implementing consortia to return matches in beacon responses and provide a handover to their preferred data exchange format. The protocol is being explored by other research domains and is being tested in several international projects.",,pdf:http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/53310/1/Rambla_2022.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265?pdf=render 35004880,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.763361,"Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Radiomics Reveal Differential Impact of Sex, Age, and Vascular Risk Factors on Cardiac Structure and Myocardial Tissue.","Raisi-Estabragh Z, Jaggi A, Gkontra P, McCracken C, Aung N, Munroe PB, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Lekadir K, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-12-22,Y,Hypertension; Diabetes; Smoking; Sex differences; High cholesterol; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Healthy Individuals; Radiomics,,,"Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) radiomics analysis provides multiple quantifiers of ventricular shape and myocardial texture, which may be used for detailed cardiovascular phenotyping. Objectives: We studied variation in CMR radiomics phenotypes by age and sex in healthy UK Biobank participants. Then, we examined independent associations of classical vascular risk factors (VRFs: smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol) with CMR radiomics features, considering potential sex and age differential relationships. Design: Image acquisition was with 1.5 Tesla scanners (MAGNETOM Aera, Siemens). Three regions of interest were segmented from short axis stack images using an automated pipeline: right ventricle, left ventricle, myocardium. We extracted 237 radiomics features from each study using Pyradiomics. In a healthy subset of participants (n = 14,902) without cardiovascular disease or VRFs, we estimated independent associations of age and sex with each radiomics feature using linear regression models adjusted for body size. We then created a sample comprising individuals with at least one VRF matched to an equal number of healthy participants (n = 27,400). We linearly modelled each radiomics feature against age, sex, body size, and all the VRFs. Bonferroni adjustment for multiple testing was applied to all p-values. To aid interpretation, we organised the results into six feature clusters. Results: Amongst the healthy subset, men had larger ventricles with dimmer and less texturally complex myocardium than women. Increasing age was associated with smaller ventricles and greater variation in myocardial intensities. Broadly, all the VRFs were associated with dimmer, less varied signal intensities, greater uniformity of local intensity levels, and greater relative presence of low signal intensity areas within the myocardium. Diabetes and high cholesterol were also associated with smaller ventricular size, this association was of greater magnitude in men than women. The pattern of alteration of radiomics features with the VRFs was broadly consistent in men and women. However, the associations between intensity based radiomics features with both diabetes and hypertension were more prominent in women than men. Conclusions: We demonstrate novel independent associations of sex, age, and major VRFs with CMR radiomics phenotypes. Further studies into the nature and clinical significance of these phenotypes are needed.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.763361/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.763361; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727756; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727756?pdf=render 34275648,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.06.037,Patterns and predictors of personal responsibility attributions after major trauma.,"Lau G, Gabbe BJ, Giummarra MJ.",,Injury,2021,2021-07-06,N,"wounds and injuries; Insurance, Accident; Violence; Guilt; Accidental Injuries; Liability, Legal",,,"

Background

External responsibility attributions after injury are associated with worse recovery. However, there remains limited understanding of who accepts personal responsibilityfor their injury and whether or how responsibility attributions change over time.

Methods

This prospective cohort study included patients who received care from recovery co-ordinators following serious injury and admission to a major trauma centre in Victoria, Australia (n=850). Self-reported personal responsibility attributions (totally, partially, not responsible, or did not know) were collected at three timepoints (admission, discharge, and six months post-injury) and linked to demographic, injury and clinical characteristics from the Victorian State Trauma Registry.

Results

Mixed effects multinomial analyses revealed that female sex (adjusted relative risk ratio, aRRR=3.11-4.66) and compensable injury (aRRR=7.83-15.27) were associated with reporting lower personal responsibility relative to total responsibility. Falls and motorcyclists had decreased risk of reporting lower personal responsibility than non-drivers (motor vehicle/motorcycle passengers, cyclists and pedestrians) (aRRR=0.11-0.19). More than one-third of participants changed their personal responsibility attribution within six months post-injury. Kappa analyses revealed fair to moderate agreement between the three timepoints (kappa=0.38-0.59), and Stuart-Maxwell tests showed unidirectional bias towards reporting lower levels of personal responsibility between admission and discharge (p<0.001). No demographic, health or injury characteristics predicted a change in responsibility attributions in logistic regression analyses.

Conclusions

Personal responsibility attributions often change over time. Therefore, responsibility attributions should not be considered static, and attributions made at different times post-injury should not be used interchangeably in research or clinical settings. Given that external responsibility attributions are associated with worse post-injury outcomes, potential interventions to optimise recovery should be prioritised for patients who predominantly report lower levels of personal responsibility, especially women and people with compensable injuries. Meanwhile, factors associated with high levels of personal responsibility highlight opportunities to implement targeted injury prevention strategies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.06.037 +35297548,https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369,"Beacon v2 and Beacon networks: A ""lingua franca"" for federated data discovery in biomedical genomics, and beyond.","Rambla J, Baudis M, Ariosa R, Beck T, Fromont LA, Navarro A, Paloots R, Rueda M, Saunders G, Singh B, Spalding JD, Törnroos J, Vasallo C, Veal CD, Brookes AJ.",,Human mutation,2022,2022-04-08,Y,data sharing; Clinical Genomics; Beacon; Data Discovery; Rest Api; Ga4gh,,,"Beacon is a basic data discovery protocol issued by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). The main goal addressed by version 1 of the Beacon protocol was to test the feasibility of broadly sharing human genomic data, through providing simple ""yes"" or ""no"" responses to queries about the presence of a given variant in datasets hosted by Beacon providers. The popularity of this concept has fostered the design of a version 2, that better serves real-world requirements and addresses the needs of clinical genomics research and healthcare, as assessed by several contributing projects and organizations. Particularly, rare disease genetics and cancer research will benefit from new case level and genomic variant level requests and the enabling of richer phenotype and clinical queries as well as support for fuzzy searches. Beacon is designed as a ""lingua franca"" to bridge data collections hosted in software solutions with different and rich interfaces. Beacon version 2 works alongside popular standards like Phenopackets, OMOP, or FHIR, allowing implementing consortia to return matches in beacon responses and provide a handover to their preferred data exchange format. The protocol is being explored by other research domains and is being tested in several international projects.",,pdf:http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/53310/1/Rambla_2022.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265?pdf=render 34095541,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i2.1134,A Profile of the SAIL Databank on the UK Secure Research Platform.,"Jones KH, Ford DV, Thompson S, Lyons RA.",,International journal of population data science,2019,2019-11-20,Y,,,,"

Background

The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank is a national data safe haven of de identified datasets principally about the population of Wales, made available in anonymised form to researchers across the world. It was established to enable the vast arrays of data collected about individuals in the course of health and other public service delivery to be made available to answer important questions that could not otherwise be addressed without prohibitive effort. The SAIL Databank is the bedrock of other funded centres relying on the data for research.

Approach

SAIL is a data repository surrounded by a suite of physical, technical and procedural control measures embodying a proportionate privacy-by-design governance model, informed by public engagement, to safeguard the data and facilitate data utility. SAIL operates on the UK Secure Research Platform (SeRP), which is a customisable technology and analysis platform. Researchers access anonymised data via this secure research environment, from which results can be released following scrutiny for disclosure risk. SAIL data are being used in multiple research areas to evaluate the impact of health and social exposures and policy interventions.

Discussion

Lessons learned and their applications include: managing evolving legislative and regulatory requirements; employing multiple, tiered security mechanisms; working hard to increase analytical capacity efficiency; and developing a multi-faceted programme of public engagement. Further work includes: incorporating new data types; enabling alternative means of data access; and developing further efficiencies across our operations.

Conclusion

SAIL represents an ongoing programme of work to develop and maintain an extensive, whole population data resource for research. Its privacy-by-design model and UK SeRP technology have received international acclaim, and we continually endeavour to demonstrate trustworthiness to support data provider assurance and public acceptability in data use. We strive for further improvement and continue a mutual learning process with our contemporaries in this rapidly developing field.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1134/2643; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i2.1134; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142954; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142954?pdf=render -36298714,https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102159,Production and Characterisation of Stabilised PV-3 Virus-like Particles Using Pichia pastoris.,"Sherry L, Grehan K, Swanson JJ, Bahar MW, Porta C, Fry EE, Stuart DI, Rowlands DJ, Stonehouse NJ.",,Viruses,2022,2022-09-30,Y,Poliovirus; Vaccine; virus-like particle; Pichia pastoris,,,"Following the success of global vaccination programmes using the live-attenuated oral and inactivated poliovirus vaccines (OPV and IPV), wild poliovirus (PV) is now only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the continued use of these vaccines poses potential risks to the eradication of PV. The production of recombinant PV virus-like particles (VLPs), which lack the viral genome offer great potential as next-generation vaccines for the post-polio world. We have previously reported production of PV VLPs using Pichia pastoris, however, these VLPs were in the non-native conformation (C Ag), which would not produce effective protection against PV. Here, we build on this work and show that it is possible to produce wt PV-3 and thermally stabilised PV-3 (referred to as PV-3 SC8) VLPs in the native conformation (D Ag) using Pichia pastoris. We show that the PV-3 SC8 VLPs provide a much-improved D:C antigen ratio as compared to wt PV-3, whilst exhibiting greater thermostability than the current IPV vaccine. Finally, we determine the cryo-EM structure of the yeast-derived PV-3 SC8 VLPs and compare this to previously published PV-3 D Ag structures, highlighting the similarities between these recombinantly expressed VLPs and the infectious virus, further emphasising their potential as a next-generation vaccine candidate for PV.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/10/2159/pdf?version=1665465973; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9611624; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9611624?pdf=render 34873059,https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118,How immunity from and interaction with seasonal coronaviruses can shape SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology.,"Waterlow NR, van Leeuwen E, Davies NG, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Eggo RM.",,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,2021,2021-12-01,Y,Immunity; Coronaviruses; Cross-protection; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"We hypothesized that cross-protection from seasonal epidemics of human coronaviruses (HCoVs) could have affected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission, including generating reduced susceptibility in children. To determine what the prepandemic distribution of immunity to HCoVs was, we fitted a mathematical model to 6 y of seasonal coronavirus surveillance data from England and Wales. We estimated a duration of immunity to seasonal HCoVs of 7.8 y (95% CI 6.3 to 8.1) and show that, while cross-protection between HCoV and SARS-CoV-2 may contribute to the age distribution, it is insufficient to explain the age pattern of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the first wave of the pandemic in England and Wales. Projections from our model illustrate how different strengths of cross-protection between circulating coronaviruses could determine the frequency and magnitude of SARS-CoV-2 epidemics over the coming decade, as well as the potential impact of cross-protection on future seasonal coronavirus transmission.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8670441; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8670441?pdf=render +36298714,https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102159,Production and Characterisation of Stabilised PV-3 Virus-like Particles Using Pichia pastoris.,"Sherry L, Grehan K, Swanson JJ, Bahar MW, Porta C, Fry EE, Stuart DI, Rowlands DJ, Stonehouse NJ.",,Viruses,2022,2022-09-30,Y,Poliovirus; Vaccine; virus-like particle; Pichia pastoris,,,"Following the success of global vaccination programmes using the live-attenuated oral and inactivated poliovirus vaccines (OPV and IPV), wild poliovirus (PV) is now only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the continued use of these vaccines poses potential risks to the eradication of PV. The production of recombinant PV virus-like particles (VLPs), which lack the viral genome offer great potential as next-generation vaccines for the post-polio world. We have previously reported production of PV VLPs using Pichia pastoris, however, these VLPs were in the non-native conformation (C Ag), which would not produce effective protection against PV. Here, we build on this work and show that it is possible to produce wt PV-3 and thermally stabilised PV-3 (referred to as PV-3 SC8) VLPs in the native conformation (D Ag) using Pichia pastoris. We show that the PV-3 SC8 VLPs provide a much-improved D:C antigen ratio as compared to wt PV-3, whilst exhibiting greater thermostability than the current IPV vaccine. Finally, we determine the cryo-EM structure of the yeast-derived PV-3 SC8 VLPs and compare this to previously published PV-3 D Ag structures, highlighting the similarities between these recombinantly expressed VLPs and the infectious virus, further emphasising their potential as a next-generation vaccine candidate for PV.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/10/2159/pdf?version=1665465973; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9611624; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9611624?pdf=render +35259281,https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524,Biological mechanisms of aging predict age-related disease co-occurrence in patients.,"Fraser HC, Kuan V, Johnen R, Zwierzyna M, Hingorani AD, Beyer A, Partridge L.",,Aging cell,2022,2022-03-08,Y,Aging; Genetics; Age-related Disease; Multimorbidity; Aging Hallmarks,,,"Genetic, environmental, and pharmacological interventions into the aging process can confer resistance to multiple age-related diseases in laboratory animals, including rhesus monkeys. These findings imply that individual mechanisms of aging might contribute to the co-occurrence of age-related diseases in humans and could be targeted to prevent these conditions simultaneously. To address this question, we text mined 917,645 literature abstracts followed by manual curation and found strong, non-random associations between age-related diseases and aging mechanisms in humans, confirmed by gene set enrichment analysis of GWAS data. Integration of these associations with clinical data from 3.01 million patients showed that age-related diseases associated with each of five aging mechanisms were more likely than chance to be present together in patients. Genetic evidence revealed that innate and adaptive immunity, the intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway and activity of the ERK1/2 pathway were associated with multiple aging mechanisms and diverse age-related diseases. Mechanisms of aging hence contribute both together and individually to age-related disease co-occurrence in humans and could potentially be targeted accordingly to prevent multimorbidity.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145565/1/Hignorani_Biological%20mechanisms%20of%20aging%20predict%20age-related%20disease%20co-occurrence%20in%20patients_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120?pdf=render 33903145,https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-318570,Testing the performance of risk prediction models to determine progression to referable diabetic retinopathy in an Irish type 2 diabetes cohort.,"Smith JJ, Wright DM, Stratton IM, Scanlon PH, Lois N.",,The British journal of ophthalmology,2022,2021-04-26,Y,Retina; Vision; Imaging; Macula; Eye (Globe),,,"

Background /aims

To evaluate the performance of existing prediction models to determine risk of progression to referable diabetic retinopathy (RDR) using data from a prospective Irish cohort of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods

A cohort of 939 people with T2D followed prospectively was used to test the performance of risk prediction models developed in Gloucester, UK, and Iceland. Observed risk of progression to RDR in the Irish cohort was compared with that derived from each of the prediction models evaluated. Receiver operating characteristic curves assessed models' performance.

Results

The cohort was followed for a total of 2929 person years during which 2906 screening episodes occurred. Among 939 individuals followed, there were 40 referrals (4%) for diabetic maculopathy, pre-proliferative DR and proliferative DR. The original Gloucester model, which includes results of two consecutive retinal screenings; a model incorporating, in addition, systemic biomarkers (HbA1c and serum cholesterol); and a model including results of one retinopathy screening, HbA1c, total cholesterol and duration of diabetes, had acceptable discriminatory power (area under the curve (AUC) of 0.69, 0.76 and 0.77, respectively). The Icelandic model, which combined retinopathy grading, duration and type of diabetes, HbA1c and systolic blood pressure, performed very similarly (AUC of 0.74).

Conclusion

In an Irish cohort of people with T2D, the prediction models tested had an acceptable performance identifying those at risk of progression to RDR. These risk models would be useful in establishing more personalised screening intervals for people with T2D.",,pdf:https://bjo.bmj.com/content/bjophthalmol/early/2021/04/25/bjophthalmol-2020-318570.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-318570; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9340042; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9340042?pdf=render 36331190,https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2204233,Empagliflozin in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease.,"The EMPA-KIDNEY Collaborative Group, Herrington WG, Staplin N, Wanner C, Green JB, Hauske SJ, Emberson JR, Preiss D, Judge P, Mayne KJ, Ng SYA, Sammons E, Zhu D, Hill M, Stevens W, Wallendszus K, Brenner S, Cheung AK, Liu ZH, Li J, Hooi LS, Liu W, Kadowaki T, Nangaku M, Levin A, Cherney D, Maggioni AP, Pontremoli R, Deo R, Goto S, Rossello X, Tuttle KR, Steubl D, Petrini M, Massey D, Eilbracht J, Brueckmann M, Landray MJ, Baigent C, Haynes R.",,The New England journal of medicine,2023,2022-11-04,Y,,,,"

Background

The effects of empagliflozin in patients with chronic kidney disease who are at risk for disease progression are not well understood. The EMPA-KIDNEY trial was designed to assess the effects of treatment with empagliflozin in a broad range of such patients.

Methods

We enrolled patients with chronic kidney disease who had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of at least 20 but less than 45 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area, or who had an eGFR of at least 45 but less than 90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 with a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (with albumin measured in milligrams and creatinine measured in grams) of at least 200. Patients were randomly assigned to receive empagliflozin (10 mg once daily) or matching placebo. The primary outcome was a composite of progression of kidney disease (defined as end-stage kidney disease, a sustained decrease in eGFR to <10 ml per minute per 1.73 m2, a sustained decrease in eGFR of ≥40% from baseline, or death from renal causes) or death from cardiovascular causes.

Results

A total of 6609 patients underwent randomization. During a median of 2.0 years of follow-up, progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes occurred in 432 of 3304 patients (13.1%) in the empagliflozin group and in 558 of 3305 patients (16.9%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64 to 0.82; P<0.001). Results were consistent among patients with or without diabetes and across subgroups defined according to eGFR ranges. The rate of hospitalization from any cause was lower in the empagliflozin group than in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.95; P = 0.003), but there were no significant between-group differences with respect to the composite outcome of hospitalization for heart failure or death from cardiovascular causes (which occurred in 4.0% in the empagliflozin group and 4.6% in the placebo group) or death from any cause (in 4.5% and 5.1%, respectively). The rates of serious adverse events were similar in the two groups.

Conclusions

Among a wide range of patients with chronic kidney disease who were at risk for disease progression, empagliflozin therapy led to a lower risk of progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes than placebo. (Funded by Boehringer Ingelheim and others; EMPA-KIDNEY ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03594110; EudraCT number, 2017-002971-24.).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2204233; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614055?pdf=render; pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f91f9722-f207-4d97-aa64-58636b323acc/files/r6969z144v -35259281,https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524,Biological mechanisms of aging predict age-related disease co-occurrence in patients.,"Fraser HC, Kuan V, Johnen R, Zwierzyna M, Hingorani AD, Beyer A, Partridge L.",,Aging cell,2022,2022-03-08,Y,Aging; Genetics; Age-related Disease; Multimorbidity; Aging Hallmarks,,,"Genetic, environmental, and pharmacological interventions into the aging process can confer resistance to multiple age-related diseases in laboratory animals, including rhesus monkeys. These findings imply that individual mechanisms of aging might contribute to the co-occurrence of age-related diseases in humans and could be targeted to prevent these conditions simultaneously. To address this question, we text mined 917,645 literature abstracts followed by manual curation and found strong, non-random associations between age-related diseases and aging mechanisms in humans, confirmed by gene set enrichment analysis of GWAS data. Integration of these associations with clinical data from 3.01 million patients showed that age-related diseases associated with each of five aging mechanisms were more likely than chance to be present together in patients. Genetic evidence revealed that innate and adaptive immunity, the intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway and activity of the ERK1/2 pathway were associated with multiple aging mechanisms and diverse age-related diseases. Mechanisms of aging hence contribute both together and individually to age-related disease co-occurrence in humans and could potentially be targeted accordingly to prevent multimorbidity.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145565/1/Hignorani_Biological%20mechanisms%20of%20aging%20predict%20age-related%20disease%20co-occurrence%20in%20patients_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120?pdf=render 33127858,https://doi.org/10.1681/asn.2020050679,Conventional and Genetic Evidence on the Association between Adiposity and CKD.,"Zhu P, Herrington WG, Haynes R, Emberson J, Landray MJ, Sudlow CLM, Woodward M, Baigent C, Lewington S, Staplin N.",,Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN,2021,2020-10-30,N,Obesity; body mass index; Chronic Kidney Disease; Mendelian Randomization; Central Adiposity; Epidemiology And Outcomes,,,"

Background

The size of any causal contribution of central and general adiposity to CKD risk and the underlying mechanism of mediation are unknown.

Methods

Data from 281,228 UK Biobank participants were used to estimate the relevance of waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index (BMI) to CKD prevalence. Conventional approaches used logistic regression. Genetic analyses used Mendelian randomization (MR) and data from 394 waist-to-hip ratio and 773 BMI-associated loci. Models assessed the role of known mediators (diabetes mellitus and BP) by adjusting for measured values (conventional analyses) or genetic associations of the selected loci (multivariable MR).

Results

Evidence of CKD was found in 18,034 (6.4%) participants. Each 0.06 higher measured waist-to-hip ratio and each 5-kg/m2 increase in BMI were associated with 69% (odds ratio, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.64 to 1.74) and 58% (1.58; 1.55 to 1.62) higher odds of CKD, respectively. In analogous MR analyses, each 0.06-genetically-predicted higher waist-to-hip ratio was associated with a 29% (1.29; 1.20 to 1.38) increased odds of CKD, and each 5-kg/m2 genetically-predicted higher BMI was associated with a 49% (1.49; 1.39 to 1.59) increased odds. After adjusting for diabetes and measured BP, chi-squared values for associations for waist-to-hip ratio and BMI fell by 56%. In contrast, mediator adjustment using multivariable MR found 83% and 69% reductions in chi-squared values for genetically-predicted waist-to-hip ratio and BMI models, respectively.

Conclusions

Genetic analyses suggest that conventional associations between central and general adiposity with CKD are largely causal. However, conventional approaches underestimate mediating roles of diabetes, BP, and their correlates. Genetic approaches suggest these mediators explain most of adiposity-CKD-associated risk.",,pdf:https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/jnephrol/32/1/127.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1681/ASN.2020050679; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7894659; doi:https://doi.org/10.1681/asn.2020050679 +35504525,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025,How traditional informed consent impairs inclusivity in a learning healthcare system: lessons learned from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort.,"Groenhof TKJ, Mostert M, Lea NC, Haitjema S, de Vries MC, van Dijk WB, Grobbee DE, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, van der Graaf R.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2022,2022-04-30,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025 36819459,https://doi.org/10.1210/jendso/bvad020,"Polygenic Risk of Prediabetes, Undiagnosed Diabetes, and Incident Type 2 Diabetes Stratified by Diabetes Risk Factors.","Liu X, Collister JA, Clifton L, Hunter DJ, Littlejohns TJ.",,Journal of the Endocrine Society,2023,2023-01-30,Y,BMI; Family History; Polygenic Risk And Diabetes,,,"

Context

Early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is crucial to reduce severe comorbidities and complications. Current screening recommendations for type 2 diabetes include traditional risk factors, primarily body mass index (BMI) and family history, however genetics also plays a key role in type 2 diabetes risk. It is important to understand whether genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes modifies the effect of these traditional factors on type 2 diabetes risk.

Objective

This work aimed to investigate whether genetic risk of type 2 diabetes modifies associations between BMI and first-degree family history of diabetes with 1) prevalent prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes; and 2) incident confirmed type 2 diabetes.

Methods

We included 431 658 individuals aged 40 to 69 years at baseline of multiethnic ancestry from the UK Biobank. We used a multiethnic polygenic risk score for type 2 diabetes (PRST2D) developed by Genomics PLC. Prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes was defined as baseline glycated hemoglobin greater than or equal to 42 mmol/mol (6.0%), and incident type 2 diabetes was derived from medical records.

Results

At baseline, 43 472 participants had prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes, and 17 259 developed type 2 diabetes over 15 years follow-up. Dose-response associations were observed for PRST2D with each outcome in each category of BMI or first-degree family history of diabetes. Those in the highest quintile of PRST2D with a normal BMI were at a similar risk as those in the middle quintile who were overweight. Participants who were in the highest quintile of PRST2D and did not have a first-degree family history of diabetes were at a similar risk as those with a family history who were in the middle category of PRST2D.

Conclusion

Genetic risk of type 2 diabetes remains strongly associated with risk of prediabetes, undiagnosed diabetes, and future type 2 diabetes within categories of nongenetic risk factors. This could have important implications for identifying individuals at risk of type 2 diabetes for prevention and early diagnosis programs.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jes/article-pdf/7/4/bvad020/49229172/bvad020.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/jendso/bvad020; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9933896; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9933896?pdf=render 36240828,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(22)00358-8,Prediction of upcoming global infection burden of influenza seasons after relaxation of public health and social measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a modelling study.,"Ali ST, Lau YC, Shan S, Ryu S, Du Z, Wang L, Xu XK, Chen D, Xiong J, Tae J, Tsang TK, Wu P, Lau EHY, Cowling BJ.",,The Lancet. Global health,2022,2022-11-01,Y,,,,"

Background

The transmission dynamics of influenza were affected by public health and social measures (PHSMs) implemented globally since early 2020 to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to assess the effect of COVID-19 PHSMs on the transmissibility of influenza viruses and to predict upcoming influenza epidemics.

Methods

For this modelling study, we used surveillance data on influenza virus activity for 11 different locations and countries in 2017-22. We implemented a data-driven mechanistic predictive modelling framework to predict future influenza seasons on the basis of pre-COVID-19 dynamics and the effect of PHSMs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We simulated the potential excess burden of upcoming influenza epidemics in terms of fold rise in peak magnitude and epidemic size compared with pre-COVID-19 levels. We also examined how a proactive influenza vaccination programme could mitigate this effect.

Findings

We estimated that COVID-19 PHSMs reduced influenza transmissibility by a maximum of 17·3% (95% CI 13·3-21·4) to 40·6% (35·2-45·9) and attack rate by 5·1% (1·5-7·2) to 24·8% (20·8-27·5) in the 2019-20 influenza season. We estimated a 10-60% increase in the population susceptibility for influenza, which might lead to a maximum of 1-5-fold rise in peak magnitude and 1-4-fold rise in epidemic size for the upcoming 2022-23 influenza season across locations, with a significantly higher fold rise in Singapore and Taiwan. The infection burden could be mitigated by additional proactive one-off influenza vaccination programmes.

Interpretation

Our results suggest the potential for substantial increases in infection burden in upcoming influenza seasons across the globe. Strengthening influenza vaccination programmes is the best preventive measure to reduce the effect of influenza virus infections in the community.

Funding

Health and Medical Research Fund, Hong Kong.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(22)00358-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00358-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9573849 -35504525,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025,How traditional informed consent impairs inclusivity in a learning healthcare system: lessons learned from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort.,"Groenhof TKJ, Mostert M, Lea NC, Haitjema S, de Vries MC, van Dijk WB, Grobbee DE, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, van der Graaf R.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2022,2022-04-30,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025 37270201,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2023-322616,Reliability of major bleeding events in UK routine data versus clinical trial adjudicated follow-up data.,"Harper C, Mafham M, Herrington W, Staplin N, Stevens W, Wallendszus K, Haynes R, Landray MJ, Parish S, Bowman L, Armitage J.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2023,2023-09-13,Y,"Atherosclerosis; Research Design; Electronic Health Records; Outcome Assessment, Health Care",,,"

Objective

To assess how reliable UK routine data are for ascertaining major bleeding events compared with adjudicated follow-up.

Methods

The ASCEND (A Study of Cardiovascular Events iN Diabetes) primary prevention trial randomised 15 480 UK people with diabetes to aspirin versus matching placebo. The primary safety outcome was major bleeding (including intracranial haemorrhage, sight-threatening eye bleeding, serious gastrointestinal bleeding and other major bleeding (epistaxis, haemoptysis, haematuria, vaginal and other bleeding)) ascertained by direct-participant mail-based follow-up, with >90% of outcomes undergoing adjudication. Nearly all participants were linked to routinely collected hospitalisation and death data (ie, routine data). An algorithm categorised bleeding events from routine data as major/minor. Kappa statistics were used to assess agreement between data sources, and randomised comparisons were re-run using routine data.

Results

When adjudicated follow-up and routine data were compared, there was agreement for 318 major bleeding events, with routine data identifying 281 additional-potential events, and not identifying 241 participant-reported events (kappa 0.53, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.57). Repeating ASCEND's randomised comparisons using routine data only found estimated relative and absolute effects of allocation to aspirin versus placebo on major bleeding similar to adjudicated follow-up (adjudicated follow-up: aspirin 314 (4.1%) vs placebo 245 (3.2%); rate ratio (RR) 1.29, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.52; absolute excess +6.3/5000 person-years (mean SE±2.1); vs routine data: 327 (4.2%) vs 272 (3.5%); RR 1.21, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.41; absolute excess +5.0/5000 (±2.2)).

Conclusions

Analyses of the ASCEND randomised trial found that major bleeding events ascertained via UK routine data sources provided relative and absolute treatment effects similar to adjudicated follow-up.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN60635500; NCT00135226.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2023/06/02/heartjnl-2023-322616.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2023-322616; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511984; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511984?pdf=render -35953815,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6,Dynamic early warning scores for predicting clinical deterioration in patients with respiratory disease.,"Gonem S, Taylor A, Figueredo G, Forster S, Quinlan P, Garibaldi JM, McKeever TM, Shaw D.",,Respiratory research,2022,2022-08-11,Y,Risk Prediction; Clinical Deterioration; Early Warning Score,,,"

Background

The National Early Warning Score-2 (NEWS-2) is used to detect patient deterioration in UK hospitals but fails to take account of the detailed granularity or temporal trends in clinical observations. We used data-driven methods to develop dynamic early warning scores (DEWS) to address these deficiencies, and tested their accuracy in patients with respiratory disease for predicting (1) death or intensive care unit admission, occurring within 24 h (D/ICU), and (2) clinically significant deterioration requiring urgent intervention, occurring within 4 h (CSD).

Methods

Clinical observations data were extracted from electronic records for 31,590 respiratory in-patient episodes from April 2015 to December 2020 at a large acute NHS Trust. The timing of D/ICU was extracted for all episodes. 1100 in-patient episodes were annotated manually to record the timing of CSD, defined as a specific event requiring a change in treatment. Time series features were entered into logistic regression models to derive DEWS for each of the clinical outcomes. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was the primary measure of model accuracy.

Results

AUROC (95% confidence interval) for predicting D/ICU was 0.857 (0.852-0.862) for NEWS-2 and 0.906 (0.899-0.914) for DEWS in the validation data. AUROC for predicting CSD was 0.829 (0.817-0.842) for NEWS-2 and 0.877 (0.862-0.892) for DEWS. NEWS-2 ≥ 5 had sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 54.2% for predicting CSD, while DEWS ≥ 0.021 had higher sensitivity of 93.6% and approximately the same specificity of 54.3% for the same outcome. Using these cut-offs, 315 out of 347 (90.8%) CSD events were detected by both NEWS-2 and DEWS, at the time of the event or within the previous 4 h; 12 (3.5%) were detected by DEWS but not by NEWS-2, while 4 (1.2%) were detected by NEWS-2 but not by DEWS; 16 (4.6%) were not detected by either scoring system.

Conclusion

We have developed DEWS that display greater accuracy than NEWS-2 for predicting clinical deterioration events in patients with respiratory disease. Prospective validation studies are required to assess whether DEWS can be used to reduce missed deteriorations and false alarms in real-life clinical settings.",,pdf:https://respiratory-research.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123?pdf=render -32119825,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30074-7,Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts.,"Hellewell J, Abbott S, Gimma A, Bosse NI, Jarvis CI, Russell TW, Munday JD, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Eggo RM.",,The Lancet. Global health,2020,2020-02-28,Y,,Improving Public Health,COVID-19,"

Background

Isolation of cases and contact tracing is used to control outbreaks of infectious diseases, and has been used for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Whether this strategy will achieve control depends on characteristics of both the pathogen and the response. Here we use a mathematical model to assess if isolation and contact tracing are able to control onwards transmission from imported cases of COVID-19.

Methods

We developed a stochastic transmission model, parameterised to the COVID-19 outbreak. We used the model to quantify the potential effectiveness of contact tracing and isolation of cases at controlling a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-like pathogen. We considered scenarios that varied in the number of initial cases, the basic reproduction number (R0), the delay from symptom onset to isolation, the probability that contacts were traced, the proportion of transmission that occurred before symptom onset, and the proportion of subclinical infections. We assumed isolation prevented all further transmission in the model. Outbreaks were deemed controlled if transmission ended within 12 weeks or before 5000 cases in total. We measured the success of controlling outbreaks using isolation and contact tracing, and quantified the weekly maximum number of cases traced to measure feasibility of public health effort.

Findings

Simulated outbreaks starting with five initial cases, an R0 of 1·5, and 0% transmission before symptom onset could be controlled even with low contact tracing probability; however, the probability of controlling an outbreak decreased with the number of initial cases, when R0 was 2·5 or 3·5 and with more transmission before symptom onset. Across different initial numbers of cases, the majority of scenarios with an R0 of 1·5 were controllable with less than 50% of contacts successfully traced. To control the majority of outbreaks, for R0 of 2·5 more than 70% of contacts had to be traced, and for an R0 of 3·5 more than 90% of contacts had to be traced. The delay between symptom onset and isolation had the largest role in determining whether an outbreak was controllable when R0 was 1·5. For R0 values of 2·5 or 3·5, if there were 40 initial cases, contact tracing and isolation were only potentially feasible when less than 1% of transmission occurred before symptom onset.

Interpretation

In most scenarios, highly effective contact tracing and case isolation is enough to control a new outbreak of COVID-19 within 3 months. The probability of control decreases with long delays from symptom onset to isolation, fewer cases ascertained by contact tracing, and increasing transmission before symptoms. This model can be modified to reflect updated transmission characteristics and more specific definitions of outbreak control to assess the potential success of local response efforts.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Global Challenges Research Fund, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30074-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30074-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7097845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7097845?pdf=render 33144367,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20x101109,Evaluating a cardiovascular disease risk management care continuum within a learning healthcare system: a prospective cohort study. ,"Groenhof TKJ, Lely AT, Haitjema S, Nathoe HM, Kortekaas MF, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, Hollander M, UCC CVRM study group.",,BJGP open,2020,2020-12-15,Y,,,,"Many patients now present with multimorbidity and chronicity of disease. This means that multidisciplinary management in a care continuum, integrating primary care and hospital care services, is needed to ensure high quality care. To evaluate cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) via linkage of health data sources, as an example of a multidisciplinary continuum within a learning healthcare system (LHS). In this prospective cohort study, data were linked from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort (UCC) to the Julius General Practitioners' Network (JGPN) database. UCC offers structured CVRM at referral to the University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht. JGPN consists of electronic health record (EHR) data from referring GPs. The cardiovascular risk factors were extracted for each patient 13 months before referral (JGPN), at UCC inclusion, and during 12 months follow-up (JGPN). The following areas were assessed: registration of risk factors; detection of risk factor(s) requiring treatment at UCC; communication of risk factors and actionable suggestions from the specialist to the GP; and change of management during follow-up. In 52% of patients, ≥1 risk factors were registered (that is, extractable from structured fields within routine care health records) before UCC. In 12%-72% of patients, risk factor(s) existed that required (change or start of) treatment at UCC inclusion. Specialist communication included the complete risk profile in 67% of letters, but lacked actionable suggestions in 86%. In 29% of patients, at least one risk factor was registered after UCC. Change in management in GP records was seen in 21%-58% of them. Evaluation of a multidisciplinary LHS is possible via linkage of health data sources. Efforts have to be made to improve registration in primary care, as well as communication on findings and actionable suggestions for follow-up to bridge the gap in the CVRM continuum.",,pdf:https://bjgpopen.org/content/bjgpoa/4/5/bjgpopen20X101109.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20X101109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880177?pdf=render +32119825,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30074-7,Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts.,"Hellewell J, Abbott S, Gimma A, Bosse NI, Jarvis CI, Russell TW, Munday JD, Kucharski AJ, Edmunds WJ, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Eggo RM.",,The Lancet. Global health,2020,2020-02-28,Y,,Improving Public Health,COVID-19,"

Background

Isolation of cases and contact tracing is used to control outbreaks of infectious diseases, and has been used for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Whether this strategy will achieve control depends on characteristics of both the pathogen and the response. Here we use a mathematical model to assess if isolation and contact tracing are able to control onwards transmission from imported cases of COVID-19.

Methods

We developed a stochastic transmission model, parameterised to the COVID-19 outbreak. We used the model to quantify the potential effectiveness of contact tracing and isolation of cases at controlling a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-like pathogen. We considered scenarios that varied in the number of initial cases, the basic reproduction number (R0), the delay from symptom onset to isolation, the probability that contacts were traced, the proportion of transmission that occurred before symptom onset, and the proportion of subclinical infections. We assumed isolation prevented all further transmission in the model. Outbreaks were deemed controlled if transmission ended within 12 weeks or before 5000 cases in total. We measured the success of controlling outbreaks using isolation and contact tracing, and quantified the weekly maximum number of cases traced to measure feasibility of public health effort.

Findings

Simulated outbreaks starting with five initial cases, an R0 of 1·5, and 0% transmission before symptom onset could be controlled even with low contact tracing probability; however, the probability of controlling an outbreak decreased with the number of initial cases, when R0 was 2·5 or 3·5 and with more transmission before symptom onset. Across different initial numbers of cases, the majority of scenarios with an R0 of 1·5 were controllable with less than 50% of contacts successfully traced. To control the majority of outbreaks, for R0 of 2·5 more than 70% of contacts had to be traced, and for an R0 of 3·5 more than 90% of contacts had to be traced. The delay between symptom onset and isolation had the largest role in determining whether an outbreak was controllable when R0 was 1·5. For R0 values of 2·5 or 3·5, if there were 40 initial cases, contact tracing and isolation were only potentially feasible when less than 1% of transmission occurred before symptom onset.

Interpretation

In most scenarios, highly effective contact tracing and case isolation is enough to control a new outbreak of COVID-19 within 3 months. The probability of control decreases with long delays from symptom onset to isolation, fewer cases ascertained by contact tracing, and increasing transmission before symptoms. This model can be modified to reflect updated transmission characteristics and more specific definitions of outbreak control to assess the potential success of local response efforts.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Global Challenges Research Fund, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30074-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30074-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7097845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7097845?pdf=render +35953815,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6,Dynamic early warning scores for predicting clinical deterioration in patients with respiratory disease.,"Gonem S, Taylor A, Figueredo G, Forster S, Quinlan P, Garibaldi JM, McKeever TM, Shaw D.",,Respiratory research,2022,2022-08-11,Y,Risk Prediction; Clinical Deterioration; Early Warning Score,,,"

Background

The National Early Warning Score-2 (NEWS-2) is used to detect patient deterioration in UK hospitals but fails to take account of the detailed granularity or temporal trends in clinical observations. We used data-driven methods to develop dynamic early warning scores (DEWS) to address these deficiencies, and tested their accuracy in patients with respiratory disease for predicting (1) death or intensive care unit admission, occurring within 24 h (D/ICU), and (2) clinically significant deterioration requiring urgent intervention, occurring within 4 h (CSD).

Methods

Clinical observations data were extracted from electronic records for 31,590 respiratory in-patient episodes from April 2015 to December 2020 at a large acute NHS Trust. The timing of D/ICU was extracted for all episodes. 1100 in-patient episodes were annotated manually to record the timing of CSD, defined as a specific event requiring a change in treatment. Time series features were entered into logistic regression models to derive DEWS for each of the clinical outcomes. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was the primary measure of model accuracy.

Results

AUROC (95% confidence interval) for predicting D/ICU was 0.857 (0.852-0.862) for NEWS-2 and 0.906 (0.899-0.914) for DEWS in the validation data. AUROC for predicting CSD was 0.829 (0.817-0.842) for NEWS-2 and 0.877 (0.862-0.892) for DEWS. NEWS-2 ≥ 5 had sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 54.2% for predicting CSD, while DEWS ≥ 0.021 had higher sensitivity of 93.6% and approximately the same specificity of 54.3% for the same outcome. Using these cut-offs, 315 out of 347 (90.8%) CSD events were detected by both NEWS-2 and DEWS, at the time of the event or within the previous 4 h; 12 (3.5%) were detected by DEWS but not by NEWS-2, while 4 (1.2%) were detected by NEWS-2 but not by DEWS; 16 (4.6%) were not detected by either scoring system.

Conclusion

We have developed DEWS that display greater accuracy than NEWS-2 for predicting clinical deterioration events in patients with respiratory disease. Prospective validation studies are required to assess whether DEWS can be used to reduce missed deteriorations and false alarms in real-life clinical settings.",,pdf:https://respiratory-research.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123?pdf=render 33866023,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oret.2021.04.001,Evolving Treatment Patterns and Outcomes of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration Over a Decade.,"Schwartz R, Warwick A, Olvera-Barrios A, Pikoula M, Lee AY, Denaxas S, Taylor P, Egan C, Chakravarthy U, Lip PL, Tufail A, of the UK EMR Users Group.",,Ophthalmology. Retina,2021,2021-04-16,N,AMD; Ranibizumab; Anti-vegf; Aflibercept; Electronic Health Records; Etdrs; Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study,,,"

Purpose

Management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) has evolved over the last decade with several treatment regimens and medications. This study describes the treatment patterns and visual outcomes over 10 years in a large cohort of patients.

Design

Retrospective analysis of electronic health records from 27 National Health Service secondary care healthcare providers in the UK.

Participants

Treatment-naïve patients receiving at least 3 intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections for nAMD in their first 6 months of follow-up were included. Patients with missing data for age or gender and those aged less than 55 years were excluded.

Methods

Eyes with at least 3 years of follow-up were grouped by years of treatment initiation, and 3-year outcomes were compared between the groups. Data were generated during routine clinical care between September 2008 and December 2018.

Main outcome measures

Visual acuity (VA), number of injections, and number of visits.

Results

A total of 15 810 eyes of 13 705 patients receiving 195 104 injections were included. Visual acuity improved from baseline during the first year, but decreased thereafter, resulting in loss of visual gains. This trend remained consistent throughout the past decade. Although an increasing proportion of eyes remained in the driving standard, this was driven by better presenting VA over the decade. The number of injections decreased substantially between the first and subsequent years, from a mean of 6.25 in year 1 to 3 in year 2 and 2.5 in year 3, without improvement over the decade. In a multivariable regression analysis, final VA improved by 0.24 letters for each year since 2008, and younger age and baseline VA were significantly associated with VA at 3 years.

Conclusions

Our findings show that despite improvement in functional VA over the years, primarily driven by improving baseline VA, patients continue to lose vision after the first year of treatment, with only marginal change over the past decade. The data suggest these results may be related to suboptimal treatment patterns, which have not improved over the years. Rethinking treatment strategies may be warranted, possibly on a national level or through the introduction of longer-acting therapies.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9165682; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oret.2021.04.001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9165682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9165682?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oret.2021.04.001 32571619,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.05.007,Real-world implementation of precision psychiatry: Transdiagnostic risk calculator for the automatic detection of individuals at-risk of psychosis.,"Oliver D, Spada G, Colling C, Broadbent M, Baldwin H, Patel R, Stewart R, Stahl D, Dobson R, McGuire P, Fusar-Poli P.",,Schizophrenia research,2021,2020-06-19,Y,Feasibility; Implementation; Risk Calculator; Precision Psychiatry; Psychosis;transdiagnostic,,,"

Background

Risk estimation models integrated into Electronic Health Records (EHRs) can deliver innovative approaches in psychiatry, but clinicians' endorsement and their real-world usability are unknown. This study aimed to investigate the real-world feasibility of implementing an individualised, transdiagnostic risk calculator to automatically screen EHRs and detect individuals at-risk for psychosis.

Methods

Feasibility implementation study encompassing an in-vitro phase (March 2018 to May 2018) and in-vivo phase (May 2018 to April 2019). The in-vitro phase addressed implementation barriers and embedded the risk calculator (predictors: age, gender, ethnicity, index cluster diagnosis, age*gender) into the local EHR. The in-vivo phase investigated the real-world feasibility of screening individuals accessing secondary mental healthcare at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. The primary outcome was adherence of clinicians to automatic EHR screening, defined by the proportion of clinicians who responded to alerts from the risk calculator, over those contacted.

Results

In-vitro phase: implementation barriers were identified/overcome with clinician and service user engagement, and the calculator was successfully integrated into the local EHR through the CogStack platform. In-vivo phase: 3722 individuals were automatically screened and 115 were detected. Clinician adherence was 74% without outreach and 85% with outreach. One-third of clinicians responded to the first email (37.1%) or phone calls (33.7%). Among those detected, cumulative risk of developing psychosis was 12% at six-month follow-up.

Conclusion

This is the first implementation study suggesting that combining precision psychiatry and EHR methods to improve detection of individuals with emerging psychosis is feasible. Future psychiatric implementation research is urgently needed.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.05.007; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.05.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7875179 35692035,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02399-w,"Role of circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids on cardiovascular diseases risk: analysis using Mendelian randomization and fatty acid genetic association data from over 114,000 UK Biobank participants.","Borges MC, Haycock PC, Zheng J, Hemani G, Holmes MV, Davey Smith G, Hingorani AD, Lawlor DA.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-06-13,Y,Fatty acids; Cardiovascular diseases; Mendelian Randomization,,,"

Background

Despite early interest in the health effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), there is still substantial controversy and uncertainty on the evidence linking PUFA to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We investigated the effect of plasma concentration of omega-3 PUFA (i.e. docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and total omega-3 PUFA) and omega-6 PUFA (i.e. linoleic acid and total omega-6 PUFA) on the risk of CVDs using Mendelian randomization.

Methods

We conducted the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating PUFA to date including a sample of 114,999 individuals and incorporated these data in a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework to investigate the involvement of circulating PUFA on a wide range of CVDs in up to 1,153,768 individuals of European ancestry (i.e. coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysm, venous thromboembolism and aortic valve stenosis).

Results

GWAS identified between 46 and 64 SNPs for the four PUFA traits, explaining 4.8-7.9% of circulating PUFA variance and with mean F statistics >100. Higher genetically predicted DHA (and total omega-3 fatty acids) concentration was related to higher risk of some cardiovascular endpoints; however, these findings did not pass our criteria for multiple testing correction and were attenuated when accounting for LDL-cholesterol through multivariable Mendelian randomization or excluding SNPs in the vicinity of the FADS locus. Estimates for the relation between higher genetically predicted linoleic acid (and total omega-6) concentration were inconsistent across different cardiovascular endpoints and Mendelian randomization methods. There was weak evidence of higher genetically predicted linoleic acid being related to lower risk of ischemic stroke and peripheral artery disease when accounting by LDL-cholesterol.

Conclusions

We have conducted the largest GWAS of circulating PUFA to date and the most comprehensive Mendelian randomization analyses. Overall, our Mendelian randomization findings do not support a protective role of circulating PUFA concentration on the risk of CVDs. However, horizontal pleiotropy via lipoprotein-related traits could be a key source of bias in our analyses.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02399-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02399-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9190170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9190170?pdf=render 36752447,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.11.012,Prognostic Value of RV Abnormalities on CMR in Patients With Known or Suspected Cardiac Sarcoidosis.,"Wang J, Zhang J, Hosadurg N, Iwanaga Y, Chen Y, Liu W, Wan K, Patel AR, Wicks EC, Gkoutos GV, Han Y, Chen Y.",,JACC. Cardiovascular imaging,2023,2023-01-11,N,Right Ventricle; Sudden Cardiac Death; Cardiac Sarcoidosis; Cardiac Magnetic Resonance; Late Gadolinium Enhancement,,,"

Background

Left ventricular abnormalities in cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) are associated with adverse cardiovascular events, whereas the prognostic value of right ventricular (RV) involvement found on cardiac magnetic resonance is unclear.

Objectives

This study aimed to systematically assess the prognostic value of right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) and RV late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) in known or suspected CS.

Methods

This study was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022302579). PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched to identify studies that evaluated the association between RVEF or RV LGE on clinical outcomes in CS. A composite endpoint of all-cause death, cardiovascular events, or sudden cardiac death (SCD) was used. A meta-analysis was performed to determine the pooled risk ratio (RR) for these adverse events. The calculated sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve with 95% CIs were weighted and summarized.

Results

Eight studies including a total of 899 patients with a mean follow-up duration of 3.2 ± 0.7 years were included. The pooled RR of RV systolic dysfunction was 3.1 (95% CI: 1.7-5.5; P < 0.01) for composite events and 3.0 (95% CI: 1.3-7.0; P < 0.01) for SCD events. In addition, CS patients with RV LGE had a significant risk for composite events (RR: 4.8 [95% CI: 2.4-9.6]; P < 0.01) and a higher risk for SCD (RR: 9.5 [95% CI: 4.4-20.5]; P < 0.01) than patients without RV LGE. Furthermore, the pooled area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity of RV LGE for identifying patients with CS who were at highest SCD risk were 0.8 (95% CI: 0.8-0.9), 69% (95% CI: 50%-84%), and 90% (95% CI: 70%-97%), respectively.

Conclusions

In patients with known or suspected CS, RVEF and RV LGE were both associated with adverse events. Furthermore, RV LGE shows good discrimination in identifying CS patients at high risk of SCD.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.11.012 35351727,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057909,Impact of chronic kidney disease on case ascertainment for hospitalised acute myocardial infarction: an English cohort study.,"Bidulka P, Scott J, Taylor DM, Udayaraj U, Caskey F, Teece L, Sweeting M, Deanfield J, de Belder M, Denaxas S, Weston C, Adlam D, Nitsch D.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-28,Y,Myocardial infarction; Cardiology; Nephrology; Audit; Statistics & Research Methods,,,"

Objectives

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) case ascertainment improves for the UK general population using linked health data sets. Because care pathways for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) change based on disease severity, AMI case ascertainment for these people may differ compared with the general population. We aimed to determine the association between CKD severity and AMI case ascertainment in two secondary care data sets, and the agreement in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) between the same data sets.

Methods

We used a cohort study design. Primary care records for people with CKD or risk factors for CKD, identified using the National CKD Audit (2015-2017), were linked to the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP, 2007-2017) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES, 2007-2017) secondary care registries. People with an AMI recorded in either MINAP, HES or both were included in the study cohort. CKD status was defined using eGFR, derived from the most recent serum creatinine value recorded in primary care. Moderate-severe CKD was defined as eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m2, and mild CKD or at risk of CKD was defined as eGFR ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or eGFR missing. CKD stages were grouped as (1) At risk of CKD and Stages 1-2 (eGFR missing or ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2), (2) Stage 3a (eGFR 45-59 mL/min/1.73 m2), (3) Stage 3b (eGFR 30-44 mL/min/1.73 m2) and (4) Stages 4-5 (eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m2).

Results

We identified 6748 AMIs: 23% were recorded in both MINAP and HES, 66% in HES only and 11% in MINAP only. Compared with people at risk of CKD or with mild CKD, AMIs in people with moderate-severe CKD were more likely to be recorded in both MINAP and HES (42% vs 11%, respectively), or MINAP only (22% vs 5%), and less likely to be recorded in HES only (36% vs 84%). People with AMIs recorded in HES only or MINAP only had increased odds of death during hospitalisation compared with those recorded in both (adjusted OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.32 to 1.96 and OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.04, respectively). Agreement between eGFR at AMI admission (MINAP) and in primary care was poor (kappa (K) 0.42, SE 0.012).

Conclusions

AMI case ascertainment is incomplete in both MINAP and HES, and is associated with CKD severity.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e057909.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057909; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8961119; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8961119?pdf=render -32838035,https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236,Rapid translation of clinical guidelines into executable knowledge: A case study of COVID-19 and online demonstration.,"Fox J, Khan O, Curtis H, Wright A, Pal C, Cockburn N, Cooper J, Chandan JS, Nirantharakumar K.",,Learning health systems,2021,2020-07-14,Y,Artificial intelligence; Covid‐19; Rapid Learning Systems,,,"

Introduction

We report a pathfinder study of AI/knowledge engineering methods to rapidly formalise COVID-19 guidelines into an executable model of decision making and care pathways. The knowledge source for the study was material published by BMJ Best Practice in March 2020.

Methods

The PROforma guideline modelling language and OpenClinical.net authoring and publishing platform were used to create a data model for care of COVID-19 patients together with executable models of rules, decisions and plans that interpret patient data and give personalised care advice.

Results

PROforma and OpenClinical.net proved to be an effective combination for rapidly creating the COVID-19 model; the Pathfinder 1 demonstrator is available for assessment at https://www.openclinical.net/index.php?id=746.

Conclusions

This is believed to be the first use of AI/knowledge engineering methods for disseminating best-practice in COVID-19 care. It demonstrates a novel and promising approach to the rapid translation of clinical guidelines into point of care services, and a foundation for rapid learning systems in many areas of healthcare.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lrh2.10236; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421?pdf=render 35916366,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.76272,Integrated analyses of growth differentiation factor-15 concentration and cardiometabolic diseases in humans.,"Lemmelä S, Wigmore EM, Benner C, Havulinna AS, Ong RMY, Kempf T, Wollert KC, Blankenberg S, Zeller T, Peters JE, Salomaa V, Fritsch M, March R, Palotie A, Daly M, Butterworth AS, Kinnunen M, Paul DS, Matakidou A.",,eLife,2022,2022-08-02,Y,Human; Genetics; Obesity; Genomics; BMI; epidemiology; Causality; Global Health; Gdf15; Mendelian Randomisation,,,"Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) is a stress response cytokine that is elevated in several cardiometabolic diseases and has attracted interest as a potential therapeutic target. To further explore the association of GDF15 with human disease, we conducted a broad study into the phenotypic and genetic correlates of GDF15 concentration in up to 14,099 individuals. Assessment of 772 traits across 6610 participants in FINRISK identified associations of GDF15 concentration with a range of phenotypes including all-cause mortality, cardiometabolic disease, respiratory diseases and psychiatric disorders, as well as inflammatory markers. A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of GDF15 concentration across three different assay platforms (n=14,099) confirmed significant heterogeneity due to a common missense variant (rs1058587; p.H202D) in GDF15, potentially due to epitope-binding artefacts. After conditioning on rs1058587, statistical fine mapping identified four independent putative causal signals at the locus. Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis found evidence of a causal relationship between GDF15 concentration and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) but not body mass index (BMI). Using reverse MR, we identified a potential causal association of BMI on GDF15 (IVW pFDR = 0.0040). Taken together, our data derived from human population cohorts do not support a role for moderately elevated GDF15 concentrations as a causal factor in human cardiometabolic disease but support its role as a biomarker of metabolic stress.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.76272; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76272; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9391041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9391041?pdf=render +32838035,https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236,Rapid translation of clinical guidelines into executable knowledge: A case study of COVID-19 and online demonstration.,"Fox J, Khan O, Curtis H, Wright A, Pal C, Cockburn N, Cooper J, Chandan JS, Nirantharakumar K.",,Learning health systems,2021,2020-07-14,Y,Artificial intelligence; Covid‐19; Rapid Learning Systems,,,"

Introduction

We report a pathfinder study of AI/knowledge engineering methods to rapidly formalise COVID-19 guidelines into an executable model of decision making and care pathways. The knowledge source for the study was material published by BMJ Best Practice in March 2020.

Methods

The PROforma guideline modelling language and OpenClinical.net authoring and publishing platform were used to create a data model for care of COVID-19 patients together with executable models of rules, decisions and plans that interpret patient data and give personalised care advice.

Results

PROforma and OpenClinical.net proved to be an effective combination for rapidly creating the COVID-19 model; the Pathfinder 1 demonstrator is available for assessment at https://www.openclinical.net/index.php?id=746.

Conclusions

This is believed to be the first use of AI/knowledge engineering methods for disseminating best-practice in COVID-19 care. It demonstrates a novel and promising approach to the rapid translation of clinical guidelines into point of care services, and a foundation for rapid learning systems in many areas of healthcare.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lrh2.10236; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421?pdf=render 31757515,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2019.09.015,Atopic eczema and fracture risk in adults: A population-based cohort study.,"Lowe KE, Mansfield KE, Delmestri A, Smeeth L, Roberts A, Abuabara K, Prieto-Alhambra D, Langan SM.",,The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,2020,2019-11-19,Y,Osteoporosis; Fracture; Atopic Eczema; Severity; Population Based,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Limited evidence suggests increased fracture risk in people with atopic eczema. Any link could have substantial effect; atopic eczema is common, and fractures have associated morbidity and mortality.

Objective

We sought to examine whether atopic eczema is associated with fracture and whether fracture risk varies with eczema severity.

Methods

We performed a matched cohort study set in primary care (Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD 1998-2016) and linked hospital admissions data (Hospital Episode Statistics), including adults (≥18 years old) with atopic eczema matched (by age, sex, general practice, and cohort entry date) with up to 5 individuals without eczema. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) from stratified Cox regression comparing risk of major osteoporotic (hip, pelvis, spine, wrist, and proximal humerus) fractures individually and any fracture in those with and without atopic eczema.

Results

We identified 526,808 people with atopic eczema and 2,569,030 people without atopic eczema. Those with eczema had increased risk of hip (HR, 1.10; 99% CI, 1.06-1.14), pelvic (HR, 1.10; 99% CI, 1.02-1.19), spinal (HR, 1.18; 99% CI, 1.10-1.27), and wrist (HR, 1.07; 99% CI, 1.03,-1.11) fractures. We found no evidence of increased proximal humeral (HR, 1.06; 99% CI, 0.97-1.15) fracture risk. Fracture risk increased with increasing eczema severity, with the strongest associations in people with severe eczema (compared with those without) for spinal (HR, 2.09; 99% CI, 1.66-2.65), pelvic (HR, 1.66; 99% CI, 1.26-2.20), and hip (HR, 1.50; 99% CI, 1.30-1.74) fractures. Associations persisted after oral glucocorticoid adjustment.

Conclusions

People with atopic eczema have increased fracture risk, particularly major osteoporotic fractures.",This population-wide study used datalinkage methods to create a matched cohort study between 1998-2016. The study estimated hazard ratios and compared the risk of major fractures and any fracture in people with and without atopic eczema. Findings suggest that people with atopic eczema have an increased fracture risk.,pdf:http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091674919312515/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2019.09.015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014587; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014587?pdf=render -31361079,https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361,"Animal-vehicle collisions in Victoria, Australia: An under-recognised cause of road traffic crashes.","Ang JY, Gabbe B, Cameron P, Beck B.",,Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA,2019,2019-07-30,N,Injury; Prevention; Traffic; Motor Vehicle,,,"

Objective

Non-fatal injuries sustained from animal-vehicle collisions are a globally under-recognised road safety issue, with limited data on these crash types. The present study aimed to quantify the number and causes of major trauma events resulting from animal-vehicle collisions.

Methods

The study was a retrospective analysis of major trauma cases occurring in Victoria, Australia, between 2007 and 2016, using data from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. To identify animal-vehicle collisions, Victorian State Trauma Registry injury codes were combined with text-mining of the text description of the injury event.

Results

Over the 10 year period, there were 152 major trauma patients who were admitted to Victorian trauma-receiving hospitals due to vehicle collisions with animals. The crude population-based incidence rate for animal-vehicle collisions increased by 6.7% per year (incidence rate ratio 1.07; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.13; P = 0.02).

Conclusion

Development of systematic recording methods of animal-vehicle collisions will improve reporting of these crash types to assist future studies in implementing effective countermeasures.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1742-6723.13361; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361 35802687,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270668,"Association between tocilizumab, sarilumab and all-cause mortality at 28 days in hospitalised patients with COVID-19: A network meta-analysis.","Godolphin PJ, Fisher DJ, Berry LR, Derde LPG, Diaz JV, Gordon AC, Lorenzi E, Marshall JC, Murthy S, Shankar-Hari M, Sterne JAC, Tierney JF, Vale CL.",,PloS one,2022,2022-07-08,Y,,,,"

Background

A recent prospective meta-analysis demonstrated that interleukin-6 antagonists are associated with lower all-cause mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19, compared with usual care or placebo. However, emerging evidence suggests that clinicians are favouring the use of tocilizumab over sarilumab. A new randomised comparison of these agents from the REMAP-CAP trial shows similar effects on in-hospital mortality. Therefore, we initiated a network meta-analysis, to estimate pairwise associations between tocilizumab, sarilumab and usual care or placebo with 28-day mortality, in COVID-19 patients receiving concomitant corticosteroids and ventilation, based on all available direct and indirect evidence.

Methods

Eligible trials randomised hospitalised patients with COVID-19 that compared tocilizumab or sarilumab with usual care or placebo in the prospective meta-analysis or that directly compared tocilizumab with sarilumab. Data were restricted to patients receiving corticosteroids and either non-invasive or invasive ventilation at randomisation. Pairwise associations between tocilizumab, sarilumab and usual care or placebo for all-cause mortality 28 days after randomisation were estimated using a frequentist contrast-based network meta-analysis of odds ratios (ORs), implementing multivariate fixed-effects models that assume consistency between the direct and indirect evidence.

Findings

One trial (REMAP-CAP) was identified that directly compared tocilizumab with sarilumab and supplied results on all-cause mortality at 28-days. This network meta-analysis was based on 898 eligible patients (278 deaths) from REMAP-CAP and 3710 eligible patients from 18 trials (1278 deaths) from the prospective meta-analysis. Summary ORs were similar for tocilizumab [0·82 [0·71-0·95, p = 0·008]] and sarilumab [0·80 [0·61-1·04, p = 0·09]] compared with usual care or placebo. The summary OR for 28-day mortality comparing tocilizumab with sarilumab was 1·03 [95%CI 0·81-1·32, p = 0·80]. The p-value for the global test of inconsistency was 0·28.

Conclusions

Administration of either tocilizumab or sarilumab was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality compared with usual care or placebo. The association is not dependent on the choice of interleukin-6 receptor antagonist.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270668&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270668; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9269978; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9269978?pdf=render -34426417,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385,Review of study reporting guidelines for clinical studies using artificial intelligence in healthcare. ,"Shelmerdine SC, Arthurs OJ, Denniston A, Sebire NJ.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2021,2021-08-01,Y,,,,"High-quality research is essential in guiding evidence-based care, and should be reported in a way that is reproducible, transparent and where appropriate, provide sufficient detail for inclusion in future meta-analyses. Reporting guidelines for various study designs have been widely used for clinical (and preclinical) studies, consisting of checklists with a minimum set of points for inclusion. With the recent rise in volume of research using artificial intelligence (AI), additional factors need to be evaluated, which do not neatly conform to traditional reporting guidelines (eg, details relating to technical algorithm development). In this review, reporting guidelines are highlighted to promote awareness of essential content required for studies evaluating AI interventions in healthcare. These include published and in progress extensions to well-known reporting guidelines such as Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-AI (study protocols), Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-AI (randomised controlled trials), Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-AI (diagnostic accuracy studies) and Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model for Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis-AI (prediction model studies). Additionally there are a number of guidelines that consider AI for health interventions more generally (eg, Checklist for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging (CLAIM), minimum information (MI)-CLAIM, MI for Medical AI Reporting) or address a specific element such as the 'learning curve' (Developmental and Exploratory Clinical Investigation of Decision-AI) . Economic evaluation of AI health interventions is not currently addressed, and may benefit from extension to an existing guideline. In the face of a rapid influx of studies of AI health interventions, reporting guidelines help ensure that investigators and those appraising studies consider both the well-recognised elements of good study design and reporting, while also adequately addressing new challenges posed by AI-specific elements.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863?pdf=render -31345952,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855,Do beta-blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system improve outcomes in patients with heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction >40%?,"Lumbers RT, Martin N, Manoharan K, Thomas J, Davies LC.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2019,2019-07-25,N,Pharmacology; Meta-analysis; epidemiology; Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction; Systemic Review,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855 +31361079,https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361,"Animal-vehicle collisions in Victoria, Australia: An under-recognised cause of road traffic crashes.","Ang JY, Gabbe B, Cameron P, Beck B.",,Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA,2019,2019-07-30,N,Injury; Prevention; Traffic; Motor Vehicle,,,"

Objective

Non-fatal injuries sustained from animal-vehicle collisions are a globally under-recognised road safety issue, with limited data on these crash types. The present study aimed to quantify the number and causes of major trauma events resulting from animal-vehicle collisions.

Methods

The study was a retrospective analysis of major trauma cases occurring in Victoria, Australia, between 2007 and 2016, using data from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. To identify animal-vehicle collisions, Victorian State Trauma Registry injury codes were combined with text-mining of the text description of the injury event.

Results

Over the 10 year period, there were 152 major trauma patients who were admitted to Victorian trauma-receiving hospitals due to vehicle collisions with animals. The crude population-based incidence rate for animal-vehicle collisions increased by 6.7% per year (incidence rate ratio 1.07; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.13; P = 0.02).

Conclusion

Development of systematic recording methods of animal-vehicle collisions will improve reporting of these crash types to assist future studies in implementing effective countermeasures.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1742-6723.13361; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361 35177264,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.02.027,Chronic physical health conditions up to five years after serious orthopaedic injury.,"Gelaw AY, Gabbe BJ, Ekegren CL.",,Injury,2022,2022-02-09,N,Chronic Conditions; Cvd; Major Trauma; Orthopaedic Trauma; Physical Health Conditions; Orthopaedic Injury,,,"

Background

Information about the prevalence of chronic physical health conditions following serious orthopaedic injury is currently lacking in the general population and is essential for quantifying the burden of injury and improving outcomes.

Objectives

To determine the prevalence of chronic physical health conditions recorded within hospitalisations and emergency department presentations and associated factors five years following serious orthopaedic injury.

Methods

We conducted a registry-based cohort study using data from the Victorian State Trauma Registry (2007-2016) linked with hospital admissions and ED presentations for 16,249 adults with serious orthopaedic injuries. We considered that people who were admitted to hospital or presented to an emergency department with a chronic physical health condition one to five years post-injury had ""new-onset"" conditions. We applied Kaplan-Meier failure curves and Cox proportional hazard regression models to determine factors associated with new-onset conditions.

Results

There were 1420 people (11.0%) with at least one new-onset condition. Cancer (6.1%), cardiovascular disease (5.1%) and hypertension (6.2%) were the three most common ""new-onset"" chronic physical health conditions. Older adults, women, smokers, and people with mental health and alcohol and drug-related conditions had a higher risk of hospitalisation or emergency department presentation with new-onset conditions post-injury.

Conclusion

People with serious orthopaedic injuries experienced a significant additional burden of chronic physical health conditions up to five years after serious orthopaedic injury, posing a new challenge to post-trauma care. Early preventive interventions may be required in people with serious orthopaedic injuries to minimise modifiable risk factors such as smoking, excessive consumption of alcohol or drug use.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.02.027 31822919,https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdz172,"Unmet needs of women with GDM: a health needs assessment in Sandwell, West Midlands.","Plant N, Šumilo D, Chapman R, Webber J, Saravanan P, Nirantharakumar K.",,"Journal of public health (Oxford, England)",2020,2020-11-01,N,United Kingdom; Needs Assessment; Gestational Diabetes,,,"

Background

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects over 4% of pregnancies in England. We investigated GDM epidemiology within ethnically diverse population and the current offer of services to women with previous GDM to reduce their type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk.

Methods

(i) Analysis of routinely collected maternity data examining GDM incidence and risk factors; (ii) local authority self-assessment questionnaire on public health interventions targeting women with previous GDM and (iii) service development discussions regarding the current pathway and areas for improvement.

Results

Of 9390 births between 2014 and 2018, 6.8% had a record of GDM. High body mass index (BMI), maternal age, and ethnicity (South Asian and some mixed ethnic backgrounds) were independent predictors of GDM. There were no public health commissioned services specifically targeting women with previous GDM. Weaknesses in transition from secondary to primary care and areas for improvement when screening for GDM were identified.

Conclusions

GDM burden in this population was high. Awareness should be raised on the importance of regular glucose testing and lifestyle modification to delay or prevent progression to T2DM, particularly within high risk groups. The potential for health visitors to contribute to this should be explored. Commissioners should review evidence to develop a flexible lifestyle services model to meet the specific needs of these women.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-pdf/42/4/e516/34469316/fdz172.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdz172 -37206266,https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698,Biallelic deleterious germline SH2B3 variants cause a novel syndrome of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity.,"Blombery P, Pazhakh V, Albuquerque AS, Maimaris J, Tu L, Briones Miranda B, Evans F, Thompson ER, Carpenter B, Proctor I, Curtin JA, Lambert J, Burns SO, Lieschke GJ.",,EJHaem,2023,2023-04-30,Y,Genetics; Molecular diagnosis; Myeloid Function And Development,,,"SH2B3 is a negative regulator of multiple cytokine receptor signalling pathways in haematopoietic tissue. To date, a single kindred has been described with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants characterized by early onset developmental delay, hepatosplenomegaly and autoimmune thyroiditis/hepatitis. Herein, we described two further unrelated kindreds with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants that show striking phenotypic similarity to each other as well as to the previous kindred of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity. One proband also suffered severe thrombotic complications. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of zebrafish sh2b3 created assorted deleterious variants in F0 crispants, which manifest significantly increased number of macrophages and thrombocytes, partially replicating the human phenotype. Treatment of the sh2b3 crispant fish with ruxolitinib intercepted this myeloproliferative phenotype. Skin-derived fibroblasts from one patient demonstrated increased phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT5 after stimulation with IL-3, GH, GM-CSF and EPO compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, these additional probands and functional data in combination with the previous kindred provide sufficient evidence for biallelic homozygous deleterious variants in SH2B3 to be considered a valid gene-disease association for a clinical syndrome of bone marrow myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmune manifestations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477?pdf=render -30972781,https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232,Early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease across England and Wales.,"Roberts SE, John A, Brown J, Napier DJ, Lyons RA, Williams JG.",,Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics,2019,2019-04-11,Y,,,,"

Background

There is a known shortfall in hepatology service resources across England and Wales.

Aim

To investigate early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease, overall and by cause of death, and to determine how mortality is related to admissions to transplant centres, transplant surgery, hospital size, consultant specialty, patient socio-demographics, seasonal and geographical factors.

Methods

Cohorts of people with a first unscheduled admission for severe liver disease across England and Wales from 2004, based on record linkage of national inpatient and mortality data.

Findings

Mortality for alcoholic liver disease and hepatic failure was 23.4% and 35.4% respectively at 60 days and 61.8% and 57.1% at 5 years. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were extremely high at 60 days (184 and 117 respectively) and remained highly increased at 5 years (16.7 and 6.3). Mortality at 5 years was most elevated from liver disease, viral hepatitis and varices. The 60-day mortality was significantly lower for patients seen by consultant hepatologists and gastroenterologists. Both early and late mortality were significantly reduced for patients admitted to transplant centres or larger hospitals, who received a liver transplant, or were resident in London. Early mortality was significantly higher for patients admitted in winter and autumn, while elevated mortality among the most vs least deprived quintile increased with longer follow-up.

Conclusions

The study shows a very poor prognosis for people with unscheduled hospitalisation for severe liver disease. The findings suggest that access to specialist expertise and services improves survival, both in the short and long term.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/apt.15232; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290?pdf=render +31345952,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855,Do beta-blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system improve outcomes in patients with heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction >40%?,"Lumbers RT, Martin N, Manoharan K, Thomas J, Davies LC.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2019,2019-07-25,N,Pharmacology; Meta-analysis; epidemiology; Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction; Systemic Review,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855 +34426417,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385,Review of study reporting guidelines for clinical studies using artificial intelligence in healthcare. ,"Shelmerdine SC, Arthurs OJ, Denniston A, Sebire NJ.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2021,2021-08-01,Y,,,,"High-quality research is essential in guiding evidence-based care, and should be reported in a way that is reproducible, transparent and where appropriate, provide sufficient detail for inclusion in future meta-analyses. Reporting guidelines for various study designs have been widely used for clinical (and preclinical) studies, consisting of checklists with a minimum set of points for inclusion. With the recent rise in volume of research using artificial intelligence (AI), additional factors need to be evaluated, which do not neatly conform to traditional reporting guidelines (eg, details relating to technical algorithm development). In this review, reporting guidelines are highlighted to promote awareness of essential content required for studies evaluating AI interventions in healthcare. These include published and in progress extensions to well-known reporting guidelines such as Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-AI (study protocols), Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-AI (randomised controlled trials), Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-AI (diagnostic accuracy studies) and Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model for Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis-AI (prediction model studies). Additionally there are a number of guidelines that consider AI for health interventions more generally (eg, Checklist for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging (CLAIM), minimum information (MI)-CLAIM, MI for Medical AI Reporting) or address a specific element such as the 'learning curve' (Developmental and Exploratory Clinical Investigation of Decision-AI) . Economic evaluation of AI health interventions is not currently addressed, and may benefit from extension to an existing guideline. In the face of a rapid influx of studies of AI health interventions, reporting guidelines help ensure that investigators and those appraising studies consider both the well-recognised elements of good study design and reporting, while also adequately addressing new challenges posed by AI-specific elements.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863?pdf=render 36828655,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068718,Maternal and child outcomes for pregnant women with pre-existing multiple long-term conditions: protocol for an observational study in the UK.,"Lee SI, Hope H, O'Reilly D, Kent L, Santorelli G, Subramanian A, Moss N, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Fagbamigbe AF, Nelson-Piercy C, Yau C, McCowan C, Kennedy JI, Phillips K, Singh M, Mhereeg M, Cockburn N, Brocklehurst P, Plachcinski R, Riley RD, Thangaratinam S, Brophy S, Hemali Sudasinghe SPB, Agrawal U, Vowles Z, Abel KM, Nirantharakumar K, Black M, Eastwood KA, MuM-PreDiCT.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-02-24,Y,Obstetrics; epidemiology; Maternal Medicine,,,"

Introduction

One in five pregnant women has multiple pre-existing long-term conditions in the UK. Studies have shown that maternal multiple long-term conditions are associated with adverse outcomes. This observational study aims to compare maternal and child outcomes for pregnant women with multiple long-term conditions to those without multiple long-term conditions (0 or 1 long-term conditions).

Methods and analysis

Pregnant women aged 15-49 years old with a conception date between 2000 and 2019 in the UK will be included with follow-up till 2019. The data source will be routine health records from all four UK nations (Clinical Practice Research Datalink (England), Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (Wales), Scotland routine health records and Northern Ireland Maternity System) and the Born in Bradford birth cohort. The exposure of two or more pre-existing, long-term physical or mental health conditions will be defined from a list of health conditions predetermined by women and clinicians. The association of maternal multiple long-term conditions with (a) antenatal, (b) peripartum, (c) postnatal and long-term and (d) mental health outcomes, for both women and their children will be examined. Outcomes of interest will be guided by a core outcome set. Comparisons will be made between pregnant women with and without multiple long-term conditions using modified Poisson and Cox regression. Generalised estimating equation will account for the clustering effect of women who had more than one pregnancy episode. Where appropriate, multiple imputation with chained equation will be used for missing data. Federated analysis will be conducted for each dataset and results will be pooled using random-effects meta-analyses.

Ethics and dissemination

Approval has been obtained from the respective data sources in each UK nation. Study findings will be submitted for publications in peer-reviewed journals and presented at key conferences.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e068718.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068718; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9972454; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9972454?pdf=render 36224602,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02544-5,Early onset of immune-mediated diseases in minority ethnic groups in the UK. ,"Sharma-Oates A, Zemedikun DT, Kumar K, Reynolds JA, Jain A, Raza K, Williams JA, Bravo L, Cardoso VR, Gkoutos G, Nirantharakumar K, Lord JM.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-10-13,Y,,,,"The prevalence of some immune-mediated diseases (IMDs) shows distinct differences between populations of different ethnicities. The aim of this study was to determine if the age at diagnosis of common IMDs also differed between different ethnic groups in the UK, suggestive of distinct influences of ethnicity on disease pathogenesis. This was a population-based retrospective primary care study. Linear regression provided unadjusted and adjusted estimates of age at diagnosis for common IMDs within the following ethnic groups: White, South Asian, African-Caribbean and Mixed-race/Other. Potential disease risk confounders in the association between ethnicity and diagnosis age including sex, smoking, body mass index and social deprivation (Townsend quintiles) were adjusted for. The analysis was replicated using data from UK Biobank (UKB). After adjusting for risk confounders, we observed that individuals from South Asian, African-Caribbean and Mixed-race/Other ethnicities were diagnosed with IMDs at a significantly younger age than their White counterparts for almost all IMDs. The difference in the diagnosis age (ranging from 2 to 30 years earlier) varied for each disease and by ethnicity. For example, rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed at age 49, 48 and 47 years in individuals of African-Caribbean, South Asian and Mixed-race/Other ethnicities respectively, compared to 56 years in White ethnicities. The earlier diagnosis of most IMDs observed was validated in UKB although with a smaller effect size. Individuals from non-White ethnic groups in the UK had an earlier age at diagnosis for several IMDs than White adults.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02544-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02544-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9558944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9558944?pdf=render +30972781,https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232,Early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease across England and Wales.,"Roberts SE, John A, Brown J, Napier DJ, Lyons RA, Williams JG.",,Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics,2019,2019-04-11,Y,,,,"

Background

There is a known shortfall in hepatology service resources across England and Wales.

Aim

To investigate early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease, overall and by cause of death, and to determine how mortality is related to admissions to transplant centres, transplant surgery, hospital size, consultant specialty, patient socio-demographics, seasonal and geographical factors.

Methods

Cohorts of people with a first unscheduled admission for severe liver disease across England and Wales from 2004, based on record linkage of national inpatient and mortality data.

Findings

Mortality for alcoholic liver disease and hepatic failure was 23.4% and 35.4% respectively at 60 days and 61.8% and 57.1% at 5 years. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were extremely high at 60 days (184 and 117 respectively) and remained highly increased at 5 years (16.7 and 6.3). Mortality at 5 years was most elevated from liver disease, viral hepatitis and varices. The 60-day mortality was significantly lower for patients seen by consultant hepatologists and gastroenterologists. Both early and late mortality were significantly reduced for patients admitted to transplant centres or larger hospitals, who received a liver transplant, or were resident in London. Early mortality was significantly higher for patients admitted in winter and autumn, while elevated mortality among the most vs least deprived quintile increased with longer follow-up.

Conclusions

The study shows a very poor prognosis for people with unscheduled hospitalisation for severe liver disease. The findings suggest that access to specialist expertise and services improves survival, both in the short and long term.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/apt.15232; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290?pdf=render +37206266,https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698,Biallelic deleterious germline SH2B3 variants cause a novel syndrome of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity.,"Blombery P, Pazhakh V, Albuquerque AS, Maimaris J, Tu L, Briones Miranda B, Evans F, Thompson ER, Carpenter B, Proctor I, Curtin JA, Lambert J, Burns SO, Lieschke GJ.",,EJHaem,2023,2023-04-30,Y,Genetics; Molecular diagnosis; Myeloid Function And Development,,,"SH2B3 is a negative regulator of multiple cytokine receptor signalling pathways in haematopoietic tissue. To date, a single kindred has been described with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants characterized by early onset developmental delay, hepatosplenomegaly and autoimmune thyroiditis/hepatitis. Herein, we described two further unrelated kindreds with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants that show striking phenotypic similarity to each other as well as to the previous kindred of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity. One proband also suffered severe thrombotic complications. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of zebrafish sh2b3 created assorted deleterious variants in F0 crispants, which manifest significantly increased number of macrophages and thrombocytes, partially replicating the human phenotype. Treatment of the sh2b3 crispant fish with ruxolitinib intercepted this myeloproliferative phenotype. Skin-derived fibroblasts from one patient demonstrated increased phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT5 after stimulation with IL-3, GH, GM-CSF and EPO compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, these additional probands and functional data in combination with the previous kindred provide sufficient evidence for biallelic homozygous deleterious variants in SH2B3 to be considered a valid gene-disease association for a clinical syndrome of bone marrow myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmune manifestations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477?pdf=render 35355205,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-022-00544-3,LVEF by Multigated Acquisition Scan Compared to Other Imaging Modalities in Cardio-Oncology: a Systematic Review.,"Printezi MI, Yousif LIE, Kamphuis JAM, van Laake LW, Cramer MJ, Hobbelink MGG, Asselbergs FW, Teske AJ.",,Current heart failure reports,2022,2022-03-30,Y,Cardiotoxicity; Echocardiography; Left ventricular ejection fraction; Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Cardio-oncology; Multigated Acquisition Scan,,,"

Purpose of review

The prevalence of cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD) is increasing due to improved cancer survival. Serial monitoring of cardiac function is essential to detect CTRCD, guiding timely intervention strategies. Multigated radionuclide angiography (MUGA) has been the main screening tool using left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to monitor cardiac dysfunction. However, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) may be more suitable for serial assessment. We aimed to assess the concordance between different non-radiating imaging modalities with MUGA to determine whether they can be used interchangeably.

Recent findings

In order to identify relevant studies, a PubMed search was performed. We included cross-sectional studies comparing MUGA LVEF to that of 2D TTE, 3D TTE, and CMR. From 470 articles, 22 were selected, comprising 1017 patients in total. Among others, this included three 3D TTE, seven 2D harmonic TTE + contrast (2DHC), and seven CMR comparisons. The correlations and Bland-Altman limits of agreement varied for CMR but were stronger for 3D TTE and 2DHC. Our findings suggest that MUGA and CMR should not be used interchangeably whereas 3D TTE and 2DHC are appropriate alternatives following an initial MUGA scan. We propose a multimodality diagnostic imaging strategy for LVEF monitoring in patients undergoing cancer treatment.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11897-022-00544-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-022-00544-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9177497; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9177497?pdf=render 35089054,https://doi.org/10.1161/circep.121.010221,Integrating Exercise Into Personalized Ventricular Arrhythmia Risk Prediction in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy.,"Bosman LP, Wang W, Lie ØH, van Lint FHM, Rootwelt-Norberg C, Murray B, Tichnell C, Cadrin-Tourigny J, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Calkins H, Te Riele ASJM, Haugaa KH, James CA.",,Circulation. Arrhythmia and electrophysiology,2022,2022-01-28,N,Prognosis; Exercise; Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia,,,"

Background

Exercise is associated with sustained ventricular arrhythmias (VA) in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) but is not included in the ARVC risk calculator (arvcrisk.com). The objective of this study is to quantify the influence of exercise at diagnosis on incident VA risk and evaluate whether the risk calculator needs adjustment for exercise.

Methods

We interviewed ARVC patients without sustained VA at diagnosis about their exercise history. The relationship between exercise dose 3 years preceding diagnosis (average METh/wk) and incident VA during follow-up was analyzed with time-to-event analysis. The incremental prognostic value of exercise to the risk calculator was evaluated by Cox models.

Results

We included 176 patients (male, 43.2%; age, 37.6±16.1 years) from 3 ARVC centers, of whom 53 (30.1%) developed sustained VA during 5.4 (2.7-9.7) years of follow-up. Exercise at diagnosis showed a dose-dependent nonlinear relationship with VA, with no significant risk increase <15 to 30 METh/wk. Athlete status, using 3 definitions from literature (>18, >24, and >36 METh/wk), was significantly associated with VA (hazard ratios, 2.53-2.91) but was also correlated with risk factors currently in the risk calculator model. Thus, adding athlete status to the model did not change the C index of 0.77 (0.71-0.84) and showed no significant improvement (Akaike information criterion change, <2).

Conclusions

Exercise at diagnosis was dose dependently associated with risk of sustained VA in ARVC patients but only above 15 to 30 METh/wk. Exercise does not appear to have incremental prognostic value over the risk calculator. The ARVC risk calculator can be used accurately in athletic patients without modification.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCEP.121.010221; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCEP.121.010221 34769922,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111380,"Driver, Collision and Meteorological Characteristics of Motor Vehicle Collisions among Road Trauma Survivors. ","Giummarra MJ, Xu R, Guo Y, Dipnall JF, Ponsford J, Cameron PA, Ameratunga S, Gabbe BJ.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2021,2021-10-29,Y,,,,"Road trauma remains a significant public health problem. We aimed to identify sub-groups of motor vehicle collisions in Victoria, Australia, and the association between collision characteristics and outcomes up to 24 months post-injury. Data were extracted from the Victorian State Trauma Registry for injured drivers aged ≥16 years, from 2010 to 2016, with a compensation claim who survived ≥12 months post-injury. People with intentional or severe head injury were excluded, resulting in 2735 cases. Latent class analysis was used to identify collision classes for driver fault and blood alcohol concentration (BAC), day and time of collision, weather conditions, single vs. multi-vehicle and regional vs. metropolitan injury location. Five classes were identified: (1) daytime multi-vehicle collisions, no other at fault; (2) daytime single-vehicle predominantly weekday collisions; (3) evening single-vehicle collisions, no other at fault, 36% with BAC ≥ 0.05; (4) sunrise or sunset weekday collisions; and (5) dusk and evening multi-vehicle in metropolitan areas with BAC < 0.05. Mixed linear and logistic regression analyses examined associations between collision class and return to work, health (EQ-5D-3L summary score) and independent function Glasgow Outcome Scale - Extended at 6, 12 and 24 months. After adjusting for demographic, health and injury characteristics, collision class was not associated with outcomes. Rather, risk of poor outcomes was associated with age, sex and socioeconomic disadvantage, education, pre-injury health and injury severity. People at risk of poor recovery may be identified from factors available during the hospital admission and may benefit from clinical assessment and targeted referrals and treatments.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11380/pdf?version=1635513758; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111380; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8583338; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8583338?pdf=render @@ -1263,497 +1263,497 @@ PMC9023380,https://doi.org/,Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated wit 34018481,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.20.2100428,The potential for vaccination-induced herd immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant.,"Hodgson D, Flasche S, Jit M, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease (CMMID) COVID-19 Working Group.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Vaccination; Herd immunity; Seroprevalence; Sars-cov-2,,,"We assess the feasibility of reaching the herd immunity threshold against SARS-CoV-2 through vaccination, considering vaccine effectiveness (VE), transmissibility of the virus and the level of pre-existing immunity in populations, as well as their age structure. If highly transmissible variants of concern become dominant in areas with low levels of naturally-acquired immunity and/or in populations with large proportions of < 15 year-olds, control of infection without non-pharmaceutical interventions may only be possible with a VE ≥ 80%, and coverage extended to children.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/20/eurosurv-26-20-1.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.20.2100428&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.20.2100428; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8138959; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8138959?pdf=render 31500613,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0908-7,A validated natural language processing algorithm for brain imaging phenotypes from radiology reports in UK electronic health records.,"Wheater E, Mair G, Sudlow C, Alex B, Grover C, Whiteley W.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2019,2019-09-09,Y,Stroke; Phenotyping; Brain imaging; Radiology; Natural Language Processing; Radiology Reports,"Applied Analytics, Better Care",,"

Background

Manual coding of phenotypes in brain radiology reports is time consuming. We developed a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm to enable automatic identification of brain imaging in radiology reports performed in routine clinical practice in the UK National Health Service (NHS).

Methods

We used anonymized text brain imaging reports from a cohort study of stroke/TIA patients and from a regional hospital to develop and test an NLP algorithm. Two experts marked up text in 1692 reports for 24 cerebrovascular and other neurological phenotypes. We developed and tested a rule-based NLP algorithm first within the cohort study, and further evaluated it in the reports from the regional hospital.

Results

The agreement between expert readers was excellent (Cohen's κ =0.93) in both datasets. In the final test dataset (n = 700) in unseen regional hospital reports, the algorithm had very good performance for a report of any ischaemic stroke [sensitivity 89% (95% CI:81-94); positive predictive value (PPV) 85% (76-90); specificity 100% (95% CI:0.99-1.00)]; any haemorrhagic stroke [sensitivity 96% (95% CI: 80-99), PPV 72% (95% CI:55-84); specificity 100% (95% CI:0.99-1.00)]; brain tumours [sensitivity 96% (CI:87-99); PPV 84% (73-91); specificity: 100% (95% CI:0.99-1.00)] and cerebral small vessel disease and cerebral atrophy (sensitivity, PPV and specificity all > 97%). We obtained few reports of subarachnoid haemorrhage, microbleeds or subdural haematomas. In 110,695 reports from NHS Tayside, atrophy (n = 28,757, 26%), small vessel disease (15,015, 14%) and old, deep ischaemic strokes (10,636, 10%) were the commonest findings.

Conclusions

An NLP algorithm can be developed in UK NHS radiology records to allow identification of cohorts of patients with important brain imaging phenotypes at a scale that would otherwise not be possible.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-019-0908-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0908-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6734359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6734359?pdf=render 36054463,https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.17985,Examining the patient profile and variance of management and in-hospital outcomes for Australian adult burns patients.,"Tracy LM, Darton A, Gabbe BJ, Heath K, Kurmis R, Lisec C, Lo C, Singer Y, Wood FM, Cleland HJ.",,ANZ journal of surgery,2022,2022-08-22,Y,Adult; Variation; Australia; Burn; Registry,,,"

Background

Burn injuries are a common subtype of trauma. Variation in models of care impacts clinical measures of interest, but a nation-wide examination of these measures has not been undertaken. Using data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ), we explored variation between Australian adult burn services with respect to treatment and clinical measures of interest.

Methods

Data for admissions July 2016 to June 2020 were extracted. Clinical measures of interest included intensive care admission, skin grafting, in-hospital death, unplanned readmissions, and length of stay (LOS). Estimated probabilities, means, and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for each service.

Results

The BRANZ recorded 8365 admissions during the study period. Variation between specialist burn services in admissions, demographics, management, and clinical measures of interest were observed. This variation remained after accounting for covariates. Specifically, the adjusted proportion (95% CI) of in-hospital mortality ranged from 0.15% (0.10-0.21%) to 1.22% (0.9-1.5%). The adjusted mean LOS ranged from 3.8 (3.3-4.3) to 8.2 (6.7-9.7) days.

Conclusions

A decade after its launch, BRANZ data displays variation between Australian specialist burn services. We suspect differences in models of care between services contributes to this variation. Ongoing research has begun to explore reasons underlying how this variation influences clinical measures of interest. Further engagement with services about models of care will enhance understanding of this variation and develop evidence-based guidelines for burn care in Australia.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.17985; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.17985; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9804322; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9804322?pdf=render -36228971,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011,"In simulated data and health records, latent class analysis was the optimum multimorbidity clustering algorithm.","Nichols L, Taverner T, Crowe F, Richardson S, Yau C, Kiddle S, Kirk P, Barrett J, Nirantharakumar K, Griffin S, Edwards D, Marshall T.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2022,2022-10-11,Y,Hierarchical cluster analysis; Clustering Methods; Latent Class Analysis; Electronic Medical Records; Multimorbidity; K-means; Multiple Correspondence Analysis,,,"

Background and objectives

To investigate the reproducibility and validity of latent class analysis (LCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), multiple correspondence analysis followed by k-means (MCA-kmeans) and k-means (kmeans) for multimorbidity clustering.

Methods

We first investigated clustering algorithms in simulated datasets with 26 diseases of varying prevalence in predetermined clusters, comparing the derived clusters to known clusters using the adjusted Rand Index (aRI). We then them investigated the medical records of male patients, aged 65 to 84 years from 50 UK general practices, with 49 long-term health conditions. We compared within cluster morbidity profiles using the Pearson correlation coefficient and assessed cluster stability using in 400 bootstrap samples.

Results

In the simulated datasets, the closest agreement (largest aRI) to known clusters was with LCA and then MCA-kmeans algorithms. In the medical records dataset, all four algorithms identified one cluster of 20-25% of the dataset with about 82% of the same patients across all four algorithms. LCA and MCA-kmeans both found a second cluster of 7% of the dataset. Other clusters were found by only one algorithm. LCA and MCA-kmeans clustering gave the most similar partitioning (aRI 0.54).

Conclusion

LCA achieved higher aRI than other clustering algorithms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854?pdf=render 32142356,https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201902-0286oc,"Prenatal, Early-Life, and Childhood Exposure to Air Pollution and Lung Function: The ALSPAC Cohort.","Cai Y, Hansell AL, Granell R, Blangiardo M, Zottoli M, Fecht D, Gulliver J, Henderson AJ, Elliott P.",,American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine,2020,2020-07-01,N,Air pollution; Children; Traffic; Alspac; Respiratory Health,,,"Rationale: Exposure to air pollution during intrauterine development and through childhood may have lasting effects on respiratory health.Objectives: To investigate lung function at ages 8 and 15 years in relation to air pollution exposures during pregnancy, infancy, and childhood in a UK population-based birth cohort.Methods: Individual exposures to source-specific particulate matter ≤10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) during each trimester, 0-6 months, 7-12 months (1990-1993), and up to age 15 years (1991-2008) were examined in relation to FEV1% predicted and FVC% predicted at ages 8 (n = 5,276) and 15 (n = 3,446) years using linear regression models adjusted for potential confounders. A profile regression model was used to identify sensitive time periods.Measurements and Main Results: We did not find clear evidence of a sensitive exposure period for PM10 from road traffic. At age 8 years, 1 μg/m3 higher exposure during the first trimester was associated with lower FEV1% predicted (-0.826; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1.357 to -0.296) and FVC% predicted (-0.817; 95% CI, -1.357 to -0.276), but similar associations were seen for exposures for other trimesters, 0-6 months, 7-12 months, and 0-7 years. Associations were stronger among boys, as well as children whose mother had a lower education level or smoked during pregnancy. For PM10 from all sources, the third trimester was associated with lower FVC% predicted (-1.312; 95% CI, -2.100 to -0.525). At age 15 years, no adverse associations with lung function were seen.Conclusions: Exposure to road-traffic PM10 during pregnancy may result in small but significant reductions in lung function at age 8 years.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7328307; doi:https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201902-0286OC; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7328307; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7328307?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201902-0286oc 33719753,https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2021.1893270,Cognition in informal caregivers: evidence from an English population study.,"García-Castro FJ, Bendayan R, Dobson RJB, Blanca MJ.",,Aging & mental health,2022,2021-03-14,N,Older Adults; Executive Function; Verbal Memory; Caregiving Duration,,,"

Background and objectives

The relationship between caregiving and cognition remains unclear. We investigate this association comparing four cognitive tasks and exploring the role of potential explanatory pathways such as healthy behaviours (healthy caregiver hypothesis) and depression (stress process model).

Research design and methods

Respondents were from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) (N = 8910). Cognitive tasks included immediate and delayed word recall, verbal fluency and serial 7 subtraction. Series of hierarchical linear regressions were performed. Adjustments included socio-demographics, health related variables, health behaviours and depression.

Results

Being a caregiver was positively associated with immediate and delayed recall, verbal fluency but not with serial 7. For immediate and delayed recall, these associations were partially attenuated when adjusting for health behaviours, and depression. For verbal fluency, associations were partially attenuated when adjusting for depression but fully attenuated when adjusting for health behaviours. No associations were found for serial 7.

Discussion and implications

Our findings show that caregivers have higher level of memory and executive function compared to non-caregivers. For memory, we found that although health behaviours and depression can have a role in this association, they do not fully explain it. However, health behaviours seem to have a clear role in the association with executive function. Public health and policy do not need to target specifically cognitive function but other areas as the promotion of healthy behaviours and psychological adjustment such as preventing depression and promoting physical activity in caregivers.",,pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13607863.2021.1893270?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2021.1893270 -32524641,https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556,Selective recruitment designs for improving observational studies using electronic health records.,"Barrett JE, Cakiroglu A, Bunce C, Shah A, Denaxas S.",,Statistics in medicine,2020,2020-06-10,Y,Electronic Health Records; Observational Study; Optimal Experimental Design; Selective Recruitment,,,"Large-scale electronic health records (EHRs) present an opportunity to quickly identify suitable individuals in order to directly invite them to participate in an observational study. EHRs can contain data from millions of individuals, raising the question of how to optimally select a cohort of size n from a larger pool of size N. In this article, we propose a simple selective recruitment protocol that selects a cohort in which covariates of interest tend to have a uniform distribution. We show that selectively recruited cohorts potentially offer greater statistical power and more accurate parameter estimates than randomly selected cohorts. Our protocol can be applied to studies with multiple categorical and continuous covariates. We apply our protocol to a numerically simulated prospective observational study using an EHR database of stable acute coronary disease patients from 82 089 individuals in the U.K. Selective recruitment designs require a smaller sample size, leading to more efficient and cost-effective studies.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8556; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147?pdf=render +36228971,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011,"In simulated data and health records, latent class analysis was the optimum multimorbidity clustering algorithm.","Nichols L, Taverner T, Crowe F, Richardson S, Yau C, Kiddle S, Kirk P, Barrett J, Nirantharakumar K, Griffin S, Edwards D, Marshall T.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2022,2022-10-11,Y,Hierarchical cluster analysis; Clustering Methods; Latent Class Analysis; Electronic Medical Records; Multimorbidity; K-means; Multiple Correspondence Analysis,,,"

Background and objectives

To investigate the reproducibility and validity of latent class analysis (LCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), multiple correspondence analysis followed by k-means (MCA-kmeans) and k-means (kmeans) for multimorbidity clustering.

Methods

We first investigated clustering algorithms in simulated datasets with 26 diseases of varying prevalence in predetermined clusters, comparing the derived clusters to known clusters using the adjusted Rand Index (aRI). We then them investigated the medical records of male patients, aged 65 to 84 years from 50 UK general practices, with 49 long-term health conditions. We compared within cluster morbidity profiles using the Pearson correlation coefficient and assessed cluster stability using in 400 bootstrap samples.

Results

In the simulated datasets, the closest agreement (largest aRI) to known clusters was with LCA and then MCA-kmeans algorithms. In the medical records dataset, all four algorithms identified one cluster of 20-25% of the dataset with about 82% of the same patients across all four algorithms. LCA and MCA-kmeans both found a second cluster of 7% of the dataset. Other clusters were found by only one algorithm. LCA and MCA-kmeans clustering gave the most similar partitioning (aRI 0.54).

Conclusion

LCA achieved higher aRI than other clustering algorithms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854?pdf=render 34364665,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.05.012,Empagliflozin in Heart Failure With Predicted Preserved Versus Reduced Ejection Fraction: Data From the EMPA-REG OUTCOME Trial.,"Savarese G, Uijl A, Lund LH, Anker SD, Asselbergs F, Fitchett D, Inzucchi SE, Koudstaal S, Ofstad AP, Schrage B, Vedin O, Wanner C, Zannad F, Zwiener I, Butler J.",,Journal of cardiac failure,2021,2021-08-01,N,Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction; Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction; Empagliflozin; Empa-reg Outcome; Heart Failure With Mid-range Ejection Fraction; Heart Failure With Mildly Reduced Ejection Fraction,,,"

Background

In the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, ejection fraction (EF) data were not collected. In the subpopulation with heart failure (HF), we applied a new predictive model for EF to determine the effects of empagliflozin in HF with predicted reduced (HFrEF) vs preserved (HFpEF) EF vs no HF.

Methods and results

We applied a validated EF predictive model based on patient baseline characteristics and treatments to categorize patients with HF as being likely to have HF with mid-range EF (HFmrEF)/HFrEF (EF <50%) or HFpEF (EF ≥50%). Cox regression was used to assess the effect of empagliflozin vs placebo on cardiovascular death/HF hospitalization (HHF), cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, and HHF in patients with predicted HFpEF, HFmrEF/HFrEF and no HF. Of 7001 EMPA-REG OUTCOME patients with data available for this analysis, 6314 (90%) had no history of HF. Of the 687 with history of HF, 479 (69.7%) were predicted to have HFmrEF/HFrEF and 208 (30.3%) to have HFpEF. Empagliflozin's treatment effect was consistent in predicted HFpEF, HFmrEF/HFrEF and no-HF for each outcome (HR [95% CI] for the primary outcome 0.60 [0.31-1.17], 0.79 [0.51-1.23], and 0.63 [0.50-0.78], respectively; P interaction = 0.62).

Conclusions

In EMPA-REG OUTCOME, one-third of the patients with HF had predicted HFpEF. The benefits of empagliflozin on HF and mortality outcomes were consistent in nonHF, predicted HFpEF and HFmrEF/HFrEF.",,pdf:https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-03320880/file/1-s2.0-S1071916421002025-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.05.012 +32524641,https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556,Selective recruitment designs for improving observational studies using electronic health records.,"Barrett JE, Cakiroglu A, Bunce C, Shah A, Denaxas S.",,Statistics in medicine,2020,2020-06-10,Y,Electronic Health Records; Observational Study; Optimal Experimental Design; Selective Recruitment,,,"Large-scale electronic health records (EHRs) present an opportunity to quickly identify suitable individuals in order to directly invite them to participate in an observational study. EHRs can contain data from millions of individuals, raising the question of how to optimally select a cohort of size n from a larger pool of size N. In this article, we propose a simple selective recruitment protocol that selects a cohort in which covariates of interest tend to have a uniform distribution. We show that selectively recruited cohorts potentially offer greater statistical power and more accurate parameter estimates than randomly selected cohorts. Our protocol can be applied to studies with multiple categorical and continuous covariates. We apply our protocol to a numerically simulated prospective observational study using an EHR database of stable acute coronary disease patients from 82 089 individuals in the U.K. Selective recruitment designs require a smaller sample size, leading to more efficient and cost-effective studies.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8556; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147?pdf=render 37407123,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2023.01.016,Ischemic Heart Disease and Vascular Risk Factors Are Associated With Accelerated Brain Aging.,"Rauseo E, Salih A, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Aung N, Khanderia N, Slabaugh GG, Marshall CR, Neubauer S, Radeva P, Galazzo IB, Menegaz G, Petersen SE.",,JACC. Cardiovascular imaging,2023,2023-04-12,Y,brain aging; ischemic heart disease; Cognitive Decline; Vascular Risk Factors; Brain Health,,,"

Background

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) has been linked with poor brain outcomes. The brain magnetic resonance imaging-derived difference between predicted brain age and actual chronological age (brain-age delta in years, positive for accelerated brain aging) may serve as an effective means of communicating brain health to patients to promote healthier lifestyles.

Objectives

The authors investigated the impact of prevalent IHD on brain aging, potential underlying mechanisms, and its relationship with dementia risk, vascular risk factors, cardiovascular structure, and function.

Methods

Brain age was estimated in subjects with prevalent IHD (n = 1,341) using a Bayesian ridge regression model with 25 structural (volumetric) brain magnetic resonance imaging features and built using UK Biobank participants with no prevalent IHD (n = 35,237).

Results

Prevalent IHD was linked to significantly accelerated brain aging (P < 0.001) that was not fully mediated by microvascular injury. Brain aging (positive brain-age delta) was associated with increased risk of dementia (OR: 1.13 [95% CI: 1.04-1.22]; P = 0.002), vascular risk factors (such as diabetes), and high adiposity. In the absence of IHD, brain aging was also associated with cardiovascular structural and functional changes typically observed in aging hearts. However, such alterations were not linked with risk of dementia.

Conclusions

Prevalent IHD and coexisting vascular risk factors are associated with accelerated brain aging and risk of dementia. Positive brain-age delta representing accelerated brain aging may serve as an effective communication tool to show the impact of modifiable risk factors and disease supporting preventative strategies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2023.01.016; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10317841; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10317841?pdf=render 37494011,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2023.2167,"Association of Longer Leukocyte Telomere Length With Cardiac Size, Function, and Heart Failure.","Aung N, Wang Q, van Duijvenboden S, Burns R, Stoma S, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Ahmet S, Allara E, Wood A, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J, Munroe PB, Young A, Harvey NC, Codd V, Nelson CP, Petersen SE, Samani NJ.",,JAMA cardiology,2023,2023-09-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Longer leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with a lower risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. The extent to which variation in LTL is associated with intermediary cardiovascular phenotypes is unclear.

Objective

To evaluate the associations between LTL and a diverse set of cardiovascular imaging phenotypes.

Design, setting, and participants

This is a population-based cross-sectional study of UK Biobank participants recruited from 2006 to 2010. LTL was measured using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction method. Cardiovascular measurements were derived from cardiovascular magnetic resonance using machine learning. The median (IQR) duration of follow-up was 12.0 (11.3-12.7) years. The associations of LTL with imaging measurements and incident heart failure (HF) were evaluated by multivariable regression models. Genetic associations between LTL and significantly associated traits were investigated by mendelian randomization. Data were analyzed from January to May 2023.

Exposure

LTL.

Main outcomes and measures

Cardiovascular imaging traits and HF.

Results

Of 40 459 included participants, 19 529 (48.3%) were men, and the mean (SD) age was 55.1 (7.6) years. Longer LTL was independently associated with a pattern of positive cardiac remodeling (higher left ventricular mass, larger global ventricular size and volume, and higher ventricular and atrial stroke volumes) and a lower risk of incident HF (LTL fourth quartile vs first quartile: hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.81-0.91; P = 1.8 × 10-6). Mendelian randomization analysis suggested a potential causal association between LTL and left ventricular mass, global ventricular volume, and left ventricular stroke volume.

Conclusions and relevance

In this cross-sectional study, longer LTL was associated with a larger heart with better cardiac function in middle age, which could potentially explain the observed lower risk of incident HF.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/articlepdf/2807386/jamacardiology_aung_2023_oi_230032_1689092909.06174.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2023.2167; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10372756 -35477354,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5,Performance of the SarQoL quality of life tool in a UK population of older people with probable sarcopenia and implications for use in clinical trials: findings from the SarcNet registry.,"Witham MD, Heslop P, Dodds RM, Clegg AP, Hope SV, McDonald C, Smithard D, Storey B, Tan AL, Thornhill A, Sayer AA.",,BMC geriatrics,2022,2022-04-27,Y,Quality of life; Validity; Sarcopenia; Responsiveness; Minimum Clinical Important Difference,,,"

Background

The Sarcopenia Quality of Life (SarQoL) questionnaire is a disease-specific sarcopenia quality of life tool. We aimed to independently assess SarQoL with a particular focus on its suitability as a clinical trial outcome measure.

Methods

We analysed data from the UK Sarcopenia Network and Registry. Measures of physical performance and lean mass were collected at baseline. SarQoL and the Strength, Assistance, Rise, Climb - Falls (SARC-F) questionnaire (to assess functional ability) were collected at both baseline and six-month follow-up. Global changes in fitness and quality of life at 6 months were elicited on seven-point Likert scales. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Responsiveness (Cohen's d and Guyatt coefficients) and minimum clinically important differences were calculated for participants reporting slight improvement or worsening in their global scores. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlating baseline SarQoL scores with measures of physical performance and functional ability.

Results

We analysed data from 147 participants, 125 of whom underwent follow up assessment; mean age 78 years; 72 (49%) were women. Internal consistency was good; Cronbach's alpha was 0.944 at baseline and 0.732 at telephone follow-up. Correlation between baseline and follow-up SarQoL was weak (r = 0.27; p = 0.03). The minimum clinically important improvement ranged from 5 to 21 points giving trial sample size estimates of 25-100 participants. SarQoL scores were moderately correlated with handgrip (r = 0.37; p < 0.001), SARC-F (r = - 0.45; p < 0.001), short physical performance battery (r = 0.48; p < 0.001) and 4-m walk speed (r = 0.48; p < 0.001).

Conclusions

SarQoL has acceptable performance in older UK participants with probable sarcopenia and is sufficiently responsive for use in clinical trials for sarcopenia.",,pdf:https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890?pdf=render 33328453,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19996-z,Genetic architecture of host proteins involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Pietzner M, Wheeler E, Carrasco-Zanini J, Raffler J, Kerrison ND, Oerton E, Auyeung VPW, Luan J, Finan C, Casas JP, Ostroff R, Williams SA, Kastenmüller G, Ralser M, Gamazon ER, Wareham NJ, Hingorani AD, Langenberg C.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-12-16,Y,,,,"Understanding the genetic architecture of host proteins interacting with SARS-CoV-2 or mediating the maladaptive host response to COVID-19 can help to identify new or repurpose existing drugs targeting those proteins. We present a genetic discovery study of 179 such host proteins among 10,708 individuals using an aptamer-based technique. We identify 220 host DNA sequence variants acting in cis (MAF 0.01-49.9%) and explaining 0.3-70.9% of the variance of 97 of these proteins, including 45 with no previously known protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) and 38 encoding current drug targets. Systematic characterization of pQTLs across the phenome identified protein-drug-disease links and evidence that putative viral interaction partners such as MARK3 affect immune response. Our results accelerate the evaluation and prioritization of new drug development programmes and repurposing of trials to prevent, treat or reduce adverse outcomes. Rapid sharing and detailed interrogation of results is facilitated through an interactive webserver ( https://omicscience.org/apps/covidpgwas/ ).",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19996-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19996-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7744536; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7744536?pdf=render 34429368,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319566,Sex disparity in subsequent outcomes in survivors of coronary heart disease.,"Akyea RK, Kontopantelis E, Kai J, Weng SF, Patel RS, Asselbergs FW, Qureshi N.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2022,2021-08-24,N,Sex difference; Coronary Heart Disease; Secondary Prevention; Competing Risks; Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events,,,"

Objective

Evidence on sex differences in outcomes after developing coronary heart disease (CHD) has focused on recurrent CHD, all-cause mortality or revascularisation. We assessed sex disparities in subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in adults surviving their first-time CHD.

Methods

Using a population-based cohort obtained from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD) linked to hospitalisation and death records in the UK, we identified 143 702 adults (aged ≥18 years) between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2017 with no prior history of MACE. MACE outcome was a composite of recurrent CHD, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, heart failure and cardiovascular-related mortality. Multivariable models (Cox and competing risks regressions) were used to assess differences between sexes.

Results

There were 143 702 adults with any incident CHD (either angina, myocardial infarction or coronary revascularisation). Women (n=63 078, 43.9%) were older than men (median age, 73 vs 66 years). First subsequent MACE outcome was observed in 91 706 (63.8%). Women had a significantly lower risk of MACE (hazard ratio (HR), 0.68 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.69); sub-hazard ratio (HRsd), 0.71 (0.70 to 0.72), respectively) and recurrent CHD (n=66 543, 46.3%) (HR, 0.60 (0.59 to 0.61); HRsd, 0.62 (0.61 to 0.63)) when compared with men after incident CHD. However, women had a significantly higher risk of stroke (n=5740, 4.0%) (HR, 1.26 (1.19 to 1.33); HRsd, 1.32 (1.25 to 1.39)), heart failure (n=7905, 5.5%) (HR, 1.09 (1.04 to 1.15); HRsd, 1.13 (1.07 to 1.18)) and all-cause mortality (n=29 503, 20.5%) (HR, 1.05 (1.02 to 1.07); HRsd, 1.11 (1.08 to 1.13)).

Conclusions

After incident CHD, women have lower risk of composite MACE and recurrent CHD outcomes but higher risk of stroke, heart failure, and all-cause mortality compared with men.",,pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/108/1/37.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319566 33735069,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30240-5,"A global review of publicly available datasets for ophthalmological imaging: barriers to access, usability, and generalisability.","Khan SM, Liu X, Nath S, Korot E, Faes L, Wagner SK, Keane PA, Sebire NJ, Burton MJ, Denniston AK.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2021,2020-10-01,N,,,,"Health data that are publicly available are valuable resources for digital health research. Several public datasets containing ophthalmological imaging have been frequently used in machine learning research; however, the total number of datasets containing ophthalmological health information and their respective content is unclear. This Review aimed to identify all publicly available ophthalmological imaging datasets, detail their accessibility, describe which diseases and populations are represented, and report on the completeness of the associated metadata. With the use of MEDLINE, Google's search engine, and Google Dataset Search, we identified 94 open access datasets containing 507 724 images and 125 videos from 122 364 patients. Most datasets originated from Asia, North America, and Europe. Disease populations were unevenly represented, with glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration disproportionately overrepresented in comparison with other eye diseases. The reporting of basic demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnicity was poor, even at the aggregate level. This Review provides greater visibility for ophthalmological datasets that are publicly available as powerful resources for research. Our paper also exposes an increasing divide in the representation of different population and disease groups in health data repositories. The improved reporting of metadata would enable researchers to access the most appropriate datasets for their needs and maximise the potential of such resources.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750020302405/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30240-5 -35585575,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4,The impact of COVID-19 vaccination in prisons in England and Wales: a metapopulation model.,"McCarthy CV, O'Mara O, van Leeuwen E, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Sandmann F.",,BMC public health,2022,2022-05-18,Y,Vaccination; mathematical model; Public Health; Prisons; Covid-19,,,"

Background

High incidence of cases and deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported in prisons worldwide. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of different COVID-19 vaccination strategies in epidemiologically semi-enclosed settings such as prisons, where staff interact regularly with those incarcerated and the wider community.

Methods

We used a metapopulation transmission-dynamic model of a local prison in England and Wales. Two-dose vaccination strategies included no vaccination, vaccination of all individuals who are incarcerated and/or staff, and an age-based approach. Outcomes were quantified in terms of COVID-19-related symptomatic cases, losses in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and deaths.

Results

Compared to no vaccination, vaccinating all people living and working in prison reduced cases, QALY loss and deaths over a one-year period by 41%, 32% and 36% respectively. However, if vaccine introduction was delayed until the start of an outbreak, the impact was negligible. Vaccinating individuals who are incarcerated and staff over 50 years old averted one death for every 104 vaccination courses administered. All-staff-only strategies reduced cases by up to 5%. Increasing coverage from 30 to 90% among those who are incarcerated reduced cases by around 30 percentage points.

Conclusions

The impact of vaccination in prison settings was highly dependent on early and rapid vaccine delivery. If administered to both those living and working in prison prior to an outbreak occurring, vaccines could substantially reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality in prison settings.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545?pdf=render 34095527,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.581,Electronic Longitudinal Alcohol Study in Communities (ELAStiC) Wales - protocol for platform development.,"Trefan L, Akbari A, Paranjothy S, Farewell DM, Gartner A, Fone D, Greene J, Evans A, Smith A, Adekanmbi V, Kennedy J, Lyons RA, Moore SC.",,International journal of population data science,2019,2019-05-20,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Excessive alcohol consumption has adverse effects on health and there is a recognised need for the longitudinal analysis of population data to improve our understanding of the patterns of alcohol use, harms to consumers and those in their immediate environment. The UK has a number of linkable, longitudinal databases that if assembled properly could support valuable research on this topic.

Aims and objectives

This paper describes the development of a broad set of cross-linked cohorts, e-cohorts, surveys and linked electronic healthcare records (EHRs) to construct an alcohol-specific analytical platform in the United Kingdom using datasets on the population of Wales.The objective of this paper is to provide a description of existing key datasets integrated with existing, routinely collected electronic health data on a secure platform, and relevant derived variables to enable population-based research on alcohol-related harm in Wales. We illustrate our use of these data with some exemplar research questions that are currently under investigation.

Methods

Record-linkage of routine and observational datasets. Routine data includes hospital admissions, general practice, and cohorts specific to children. Two observational studies were included. Routine socioeconomic descriptors and mortality data were also linked.

Conclusion

We described a record-linked, population-based research protocol for alcohol related harm on a secure platform. As the datasets used here are available in many countries, ELAStiC provides a template for setting up similar initiatives in other countries. We have also defined a number of alcohol specific variables using routinely-collected available data that can be used in other epidemiological studies into alcohol related outcomes. With over 10 years of longitudinal data, it will help to understand alcohol-related disease and health trajectories across the lifespan.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/581/2923; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.581; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142962; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142962?pdf=render +35477354,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5,Performance of the SarQoL quality of life tool in a UK population of older people with probable sarcopenia and implications for use in clinical trials: findings from the SarcNet registry.,"Witham MD, Heslop P, Dodds RM, Clegg AP, Hope SV, McDonald C, Smithard D, Storey B, Tan AL, Thornhill A, Sayer AA.",,BMC geriatrics,2022,2022-04-27,Y,Quality of life; Validity; Sarcopenia; Responsiveness; Minimum Clinical Important Difference,,,"

Background

The Sarcopenia Quality of Life (SarQoL) questionnaire is a disease-specific sarcopenia quality of life tool. We aimed to independently assess SarQoL with a particular focus on its suitability as a clinical trial outcome measure.

Methods

We analysed data from the UK Sarcopenia Network and Registry. Measures of physical performance and lean mass were collected at baseline. SarQoL and the Strength, Assistance, Rise, Climb - Falls (SARC-F) questionnaire (to assess functional ability) were collected at both baseline and six-month follow-up. Global changes in fitness and quality of life at 6 months were elicited on seven-point Likert scales. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Responsiveness (Cohen's d and Guyatt coefficients) and minimum clinically important differences were calculated for participants reporting slight improvement or worsening in their global scores. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlating baseline SarQoL scores with measures of physical performance and functional ability.

Results

We analysed data from 147 participants, 125 of whom underwent follow up assessment; mean age 78 years; 72 (49%) were women. Internal consistency was good; Cronbach's alpha was 0.944 at baseline and 0.732 at telephone follow-up. Correlation between baseline and follow-up SarQoL was weak (r = 0.27; p = 0.03). The minimum clinically important improvement ranged from 5 to 21 points giving trial sample size estimates of 25-100 participants. SarQoL scores were moderately correlated with handgrip (r = 0.37; p < 0.001), SARC-F (r = - 0.45; p < 0.001), short physical performance battery (r = 0.48; p < 0.001) and 4-m walk speed (r = 0.48; p < 0.001).

Conclusions

SarQoL has acceptable performance in older UK participants with probable sarcopenia and is sufficiently responsive for use in clinical trials for sarcopenia.",,pdf:https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890?pdf=render 32651323,https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-200338,"Alzheimer's Disease Susceptibility Gene Apolipoprotein E (APOE) and Blood Biomarkers in UK Biobank (N = 395,769).","Ferguson AC, Tank R, Lyall LM, Ward J, Celis-Morales C, Strawbridge R, Ho F, Whelan CD, Gill J, Welsh P, Anderson JJ, Mark PB, Mackay DF, Smith DJ, Pell JP, Cavanagh J, Sattar N, Lyall DM.",,Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD,2020,2020-01-01,N,Cholesterol; apoE; Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Uk Biobank,,,"

Background

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition where the underlying etiology is still unclear. Investigating the potential influence of apolipoprotein E (APOE), a major genetic risk factor, on common blood biomarkers could provide a greater understanding of the mechanisms of AD and dementia risk.

Objective

Our objective was to conduct the largest (to date) single-protocol investigation of blood biomarkers in the context of APOE genotype, in UK Biobank.

Methods

After quality control and exclusions, data on 395,769 participants of White European ancestry were available for analysis. Linear regressions were used to test potential associations between APOE genotypes and biomarkers.

Results

Several biomarkers significantly associated with APOEɛ4 'risk' and ɛ2 'protective' genotypes (versus neutral ɛ3/ɛ3). Most associations supported previous data: for example, ɛ4 genotype was associated with elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) (standardized beta [b] = 0.150 standard deviations [SDs] per allele, p < 0.001) and ɛ2 with lower LDL (b = -0.456 SDs, p < 0.001). There were however instances of associations found in unexpected directions: e.g., ɛ4 and increased insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) (b = 0.017, p < 0.001) where lower levels have been previously suggested as an AD risk factor.

Conclusion

These findings highlight biomarker differences in non-demented people at genetic risk for dementia. The evidence herein supports previous hypotheses of involvement from cardiometabolic and neuroinflammatory pathways.",,pdf:https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/217500/1/217500.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-200338 -36960327,https://doi.org/10.2147/clep.s384605,Severe Mental Illness Among Adults with Atopic Eczema or Psoriasis: Population-Based Matched Cohort Studies within UK Primary Care.,"Adesanya EI, Henderson AD, Matthewman J, Bhate K, Hayes JF, Mulick A, Mathur R, Smith C, Carreira H, Rathod SD, Langan SM, Mansfield KE.",,Clinical epidemiology,2023,2023-03-17,Y,Psychology; epidemiology; Dermatology,,,"

Background

Existing research exploring associations between atopic eczema (AE) or psoriasis, and severe mental illness (SMI - ie, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, other psychoses) is limited, with longitudinal evidence particularly scarce. Therefore, temporal directions of associations are unclear. We aimed to investigate associations between AE or psoriasis and incident SMI among adults.

Methods

We conducted matched cohort studies using primary care electronic health records (January 1997 to January 2020) from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD. We identified two cohorts: 1) adults (≥18 years) with and without AE and 2) adults with and without psoriasis. We matched (on age, sex, general practice) adults with AE or psoriasis with up to five adults without. We used Cox regression, stratified by matched set, to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) comparing incident SMI among adults with and without AE or psoriasis.

Results

We identified 1,023,232 adults with AE and 4,908,059 without, and 363,210 with psoriasis and 1,801,875 without. After adjusting for matching variables (age, sex, general practice) and potential confounders (deprivation, calendar period) both AE and psoriasis were associated with at least a 17% increased hazard of SMI (AE: HR=1.17,95% CI=1.12-1.22; psoriasis: HR=1.26,95% CI=1.18-1.35). After additionally adjusting for potential mediators (comorbidity burden, harmful alcohol use, smoking status, body mass index, and, in AE only, sleep problems and high-dose glucocorticoids), associations with SMI did not persist for AE (HR=0.98,95% CI=0.93-1.04), and were attenuated for psoriasis (HR=1.14,95% CI=1.05-1.23).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest adults with AE or psoriasis are at increased risk of SMI compared to matched comparators. After adjusting for potential mediators, associations with SMI did not persist for AE, and were attenuated for psoriasis, suggesting that the increased risk may be explained by mediating factors (eg, sleep problems). Our research highlights the importance of monitoring mental health in adults with AE or psoriasis.",,pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=88236; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S384605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004?pdf=render +35585575,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4,The impact of COVID-19 vaccination in prisons in England and Wales: a metapopulation model.,"McCarthy CV, O'Mara O, van Leeuwen E, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Sandmann F.",,BMC public health,2022,2022-05-18,Y,Vaccination; mathematical model; Public Health; Prisons; Covid-19,,,"

Background

High incidence of cases and deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported in prisons worldwide. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of different COVID-19 vaccination strategies in epidemiologically semi-enclosed settings such as prisons, where staff interact regularly with those incarcerated and the wider community.

Methods

We used a metapopulation transmission-dynamic model of a local prison in England and Wales. Two-dose vaccination strategies included no vaccination, vaccination of all individuals who are incarcerated and/or staff, and an age-based approach. Outcomes were quantified in terms of COVID-19-related symptomatic cases, losses in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and deaths.

Results

Compared to no vaccination, vaccinating all people living and working in prison reduced cases, QALY loss and deaths over a one-year period by 41%, 32% and 36% respectively. However, if vaccine introduction was delayed until the start of an outbreak, the impact was negligible. Vaccinating individuals who are incarcerated and staff over 50 years old averted one death for every 104 vaccination courses administered. All-staff-only strategies reduced cases by up to 5%. Increasing coverage from 30 to 90% among those who are incarcerated reduced cases by around 30 percentage points.

Conclusions

The impact of vaccination in prison settings was highly dependent on early and rapid vaccine delivery. If administered to both those living and working in prison prior to an outbreak occurring, vaccines could substantially reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality in prison settings.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545?pdf=render 36958365,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3018(23)00028-0,Life expectancy after 2015 of adults with HIV on long-term antiretroviral therapy in Europe and North America: a collaborative analysis of cohort studies.,"Trickey A, Sabin CA, Burkholder G, Crane H, d'Arminio Monforte A, Egger M, Gill MJ, Grabar S, Guest JL, Jarrin I, Lampe FC, Obel N, Reyes JM, Stephan C, Sterling TR, Teira R, Touloumi G, Wasmuth JC, Wit F, Wittkop L, Zangerle R, Silverberg MJ, Justice A, Sterne JAC.",,The lancet. HIV,2023,2023-03-20,N,,,,"

Background

The life expectancy of people with HIV taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) has increased substantially over the past 25 years. Most previous studies of life expectancy were based on data from the first few years after starting ART, when mortality is highest. However, many people with HIV have been successfully treated with ART for many years, and up-to-date prognosis data are needed. We aimed to estimate life expectancy in adults with HIV on ART for at least 1 year in Europe and North America from 2015 onwards.

Methods

We used data for people with HIV taking ART from the Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration and the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort Study. Included participants started ART between 1996 and 2014 and had been on ART for at least 1 year by 2015, or started ART between 2015 and 2019 and survived for at least 1 year; all participants were aged at least 16 years at ART initiation. We used Poisson models to estimate the associations between mortality and demographic and clinical characteristics, including CD4 cell count at the start of follow-up. We also estimated the remaining years of life left for people with HIV aged 40 years who were taking ART, and stratified these estimates by variables associated with mortality. These estimates were compared with estimates for years of life remaining in a corresponding multi-country general population.

Findings

Among 206 891 people with HIV included, 5780 deaths were recorded since 2015. We estimated that women with HIV at age 40 years had 35·8 years (95% CI 35·2-36·4) of life left if they started ART before 2015, and 39·0 years (38·5-39·5) left if they started ART after 2015. For men with HIV, the corresponding estimates were 34·5 years (33·8-35·2) and 37·0 (36·5-37·6). Women with CD4 counts of fewer than 49 cells per μL at the start of follow-up had an estimated 19·4 years (18·2-20·5) of life left at age 40 years if they started ART before 2015 and 24·9 years (23·9-25·9) left if they started ART after 2015. The corresponding estimates for men were 18·2 years (17·1-19·4) and 23·7 years (22·7-24·8). Women with CD4 counts of at least 500 cells per μL at the start of follow-up had an estimated 40·2 years (39·7-40·6) of life left at age 40 years if they started ART before 2015 and 42·0 years (41·7-42·3) left if they started ART after 2015. The corresponding estimates for men were 38·0 years (37·5-38·5) and 39·2 years (38·7-39·7).

Interpretation

For people with HIV on ART and with high CD4 cell counts who survived to 2015 or started ART after 2015, life expectancy was only a few years lower than that in the general population, irrespective of when ART was started. However, for people with low CD4 counts at the start of follow-up, life-expectancy estimates were substantially lower, emphasising the continuing importance of early diagnosis and sustained treatment of HIV.

Funding

US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and UK Medical Research Council.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3018(23)00028-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3018(23)00028-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10288029; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10288029?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3018(23)00028-0 34870256,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267,Optimising health and economic impacts of COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation strategies in the WHO European Region: a mathematical modelling study.,"Liu Y, Sandmann FG, Barnard RC, Pearson CAB, Pastore R, Pebody R, Flasche S, Jit M.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2021-11-30,Y,Europe; Health Economics; Mathematical Modelling; Policy Evaluation; Vaccine Policy; Multicountry Analysis; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region differ in terms of the COVID-19 vaccine supply conditions. We evaluated the health and economic impact of different age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies across this demographically and socio-economically diverse region.

Methods

We fitted age-specific compartmental models to the reported daily COVID-19 mortality in 2020 to inform the immunity level before vaccine roll-out. Models capture country-specific differences in population structures, contact patterns, epidemic history, life expectancy, and GDP per capita.We examined four strategies that prioritise: all adults (V+), younger (20-59 year-olds) followed by older adults (60+) (V20), older followed by younger adults (V60), and the oldest adults (75+) (V75) followed by incrementally younger age groups. We explored four roll-out scenarios (R1-4) - the slowest scenario (R1) reached 30% coverage by December 2022 and the fastest (R4) 80% by December 2021. Five decision-making metrics were summarised over 2021-22: mortality, morbidity, and losses in comorbidity-adjusted life expectancy, comorbidity- and quality-adjusted life years, and human capital. Six vaccine profiles were tested - the highest performing vaccine has 95% efficacy against both infection and disease, and the lowest 50% against diseases and 0% against infection.

Findings

Of the 20 decision-making metrics and roll-out scenario combinations, the same optimal strategy applied to all countries in only one combination; V60 was more or similarly desirable than V75 in 19 combinations. Of the 38 countries with fitted models, 11-37 countries had variable optimal strategies by decision-making metrics or roll-out scenarios. There are greater benefits in prioritising older adults when roll-out is slow and when vaccine profiles are less favourable.

Interpretation

The optimal age-based vaccine prioritisation strategies were sensitive to country characteristics, decision-making metrics, and roll-out speeds. A prioritisation strategy involving more age-based stages (V75) does not necessarily lead to better health and economic outcomes than targeting broad age groups (V60). Countries expecting a slow vaccine roll-out may particularly benefit from prioritising older adults.

Funding

World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Institute of Health Research (United Kingdom), the European Commission, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (United Kingdom), Wellcome Trust.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724?pdf=render +36960327,https://doi.org/10.2147/clep.s384605,Severe Mental Illness Among Adults with Atopic Eczema or Psoriasis: Population-Based Matched Cohort Studies within UK Primary Care.,"Adesanya EI, Henderson AD, Matthewman J, Bhate K, Hayes JF, Mulick A, Mathur R, Smith C, Carreira H, Rathod SD, Langan SM, Mansfield KE.",,Clinical epidemiology,2023,2023-03-17,Y,Psychology; epidemiology; Dermatology,,,"

Background

Existing research exploring associations between atopic eczema (AE) or psoriasis, and severe mental illness (SMI - ie, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, other psychoses) is limited, with longitudinal evidence particularly scarce. Therefore, temporal directions of associations are unclear. We aimed to investigate associations between AE or psoriasis and incident SMI among adults.

Methods

We conducted matched cohort studies using primary care electronic health records (January 1997 to January 2020) from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD. We identified two cohorts: 1) adults (≥18 years) with and without AE and 2) adults with and without psoriasis. We matched (on age, sex, general practice) adults with AE or psoriasis with up to five adults without. We used Cox regression, stratified by matched set, to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) comparing incident SMI among adults with and without AE or psoriasis.

Results

We identified 1,023,232 adults with AE and 4,908,059 without, and 363,210 with psoriasis and 1,801,875 without. After adjusting for matching variables (age, sex, general practice) and potential confounders (deprivation, calendar period) both AE and psoriasis were associated with at least a 17% increased hazard of SMI (AE: HR=1.17,95% CI=1.12-1.22; psoriasis: HR=1.26,95% CI=1.18-1.35). After additionally adjusting for potential mediators (comorbidity burden, harmful alcohol use, smoking status, body mass index, and, in AE only, sleep problems and high-dose glucocorticoids), associations with SMI did not persist for AE (HR=0.98,95% CI=0.93-1.04), and were attenuated for psoriasis (HR=1.14,95% CI=1.05-1.23).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest adults with AE or psoriasis are at increased risk of SMI compared to matched comparators. After adjusting for potential mediators, associations with SMI did not persist for AE, and were attenuated for psoriasis, suggesting that the increased risk may be explained by mediating factors (eg, sleep problems). Our research highlights the importance of monitoring mental health in adults with AE or psoriasis.",,pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=88236; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S384605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004?pdf=render 35410933,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057885,"Non-pharmacological therapies for postviral syndromes, including Long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.","Chandan JS, Brown K, Simms-Williams N, Camaradou J, Bashir N, Heining D, Aiyegbusi OL, Turner G, Cruz Rivera S, Hotham R, Nirantharakumar K, Sivan M, Khunti K, Raindi D, Marwaha S, Hughes SE, McMullan C, Calvert M, Haroon S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-11,Y,Infectious diseases; Rehabilitation Medicine; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

Postviral syndromes (PVS) describe the sustained presence of symptoms following an acute viral infection, for months or even years. Exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and subsequent development of COVID-19 has shown to have similar effects with individuals continuing to exhibit symptoms for greater than 12 weeks. The sustained presence of symptoms is variably referred to as 'post COVID-19 syndrome', 'post-COVID condition' or more commonly 'Long COVID'. Knowledge of the long-term health impacts and treatments for Long COVID are evolving. To minimise overlap with existing work in the field exploring treatments of Long COVID, we have only chosen to focus on non-pharmacological treatments.

Aims

This review aims to summarise the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for PVS, including Long COVID. A secondary aim is to summarise the symptoms and health impacts associated with PVS in individuals recruited to treatment studies.

Methods and analysis

Primary electronic searches will be performed in bibliographic databases including: Embase, MEDLINE, PyscINFO, CINAHL and MedRxiv from 1 January 2001 to 29 October 2021. At least two independent reviewers will screen each study for inclusion and data will be extracted from all eligible studies onto a data extraction form. The quality of all included studies will be assessed using Cochrane risk of bias tools and the Newcastle-Ottawa grading system. Non-pharmacological treatments for PVS and Long COVID will be narratively summarised and effect estimates will be pooled using random effects meta-analysis where there is sufficient methodological homogeneity. The symptoms and health impacts reported in the included studies on non-pharmacological interventions will be extracted and narratively reported.

Ethics and dissemination

This systematic review does not require ethical approval. The findings from this study will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication, shared at conference presentations and disseminated to both clinical and patient groups.

Prospero registration number

The review will adhere to this protocol which has also been registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021282074).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057885.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9002258; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9002258?pdf=render -30648344,https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180,A semi-active human digital twin model for detecting severity of carotid stenoses from head vibration-A coupled computational mechanics and computer vision method.,"Chakshu NK, Carson J, Sazonov I, Nithiarasu P.",,International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering,2019,2019-02-20,Y,Computer vision; Blood flow; Systemic Circulation; Carotid Stenoses; Digital Twin; Biomechanical Vibrations; Face Video,Applied Analytics,,"In this work, we propose a methodology to detect the severity of carotid stenosis from a video of a human face with the help of a coupled blood flow and head vibration model. This semi-active digital twin model is an attempt to link noninvasive video of a patient face to the percentage of carotid occlusion. The pulsatile nature of blood flow through the carotid arteries induces a subtle head vibration. This vibration is a potential indicator of carotid stenosis severity, and it is exploited in the present study. A head vibration model has been proposed in the present work that is linked to the forces generated by blood flow with or without occlusion. The model is used to generate a large number of virtual head vibration data for different degrees of occlusion. In order to determine the in vivo head vibration, a computer vision algorithm is adopted to use human face videos. The in vivo vibrations are compared against the virtual vibration data generated from the coupled computational blood flow/vibration model. A comparison of the in vivo vibration is made against the virtual data to find the best fit between in vivo and virtual data. The preliminary results on healthy subjects and a patient clearly indicate that the model is accurate and it possesses the potential for detecting approximate severity of carotid artery stenoses.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817?pdf=render -33824583,https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s298585,There is No Fast Track to Identify Fast Decliners in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency by Spirometry: A Longitudinal Study of Repeated Measurements.,"Stockley JA, Stockley RA, Sapey E.",,International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,2021,2021-03-29,Y,Lung function; decline; Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency; Obstructive Airways Disease,,,"

Background

It is known that lung function decline in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD) varies. Those with a rapid decline are at highest risk of poorer outcomes but may benefit most from targeted treatments including augmentation therapy. Current evidence suggests rapid decliners can be identified after 3 years of serial follow-up. It would be advantageous to identify these patients over a shorter time period, especially in mild disease.

Methods

Post-bronchodilator spirometry was performed every 6 months for a total of 18 months (4 measurements) by PiZZ AATD patients (ex- or never-smokers) either without spirometric COPD or with mild COPD. Where possible, retrospective spirometry data were included. Decline was assessed using 2 (baseline and 6 month) or four measurements (including baseline, 6, 12 and 18 months) and compared to retrospective decline rates using annual measurements over 3 years.

Results

Seventy-two PiZZ AATD patients were included, with 27 having at least three years of retrospective, annual spirometry. 18-month progression obtained by linear regression showed variable degrees of change with 29 showing no decline, 8 showing slow decline and 35 showing rapid decline. Bland-Altman plots showed that there was no overall agreement between predicted rate of decline using data obtained over 6 months and that obtained over 18 months. Furthermore, there was no agreement between rate of decline from either 6 or 18 months' data when compared to data collected over 3 years. The positive predictive value for rapid decline with 18 months of data compared to 3 years was only 50.0%.

Conclusion

This study suggests serial lung function over 18 months cannot identify AATD patients who have rapidly declining lung function. There is an urgent need for different biomarkers to help identify these patients at the earliest opportunity.",,pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=68078; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S298585; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552?pdf=render -32579178,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.1948,Association Between Atopic Eczema and Cancer in England and Denmark.,"Mansfield KE, Schmidt SAJ, Darvalics B, Mulick A, Abuabara K, Wong AYS, Sørensen HT, Smeeth L, Bhaskaran K, Dos Santos Silva I, Silverwood RJ, Langan SM.",,JAMA dermatology,2020,2020-10-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Associations between atopic eczema and cancer are unclear, with competing theories that increased immune surveillance decreases cancer risk and that immune stimulation increases cancer risk. Establishing baseline cancer risk in people with atopic eczema is important before exploring the association between new biologic drugs for atopic eczema and cancer risk.

Objective

To investigate whether atopic eczema is associated with cancer.

Design, setting, and participants

Matched cohort studies were conducted from January 2, 1998, to March 31, 2016, in England and from January 1, 1982, to June 30, 2016, in Denmark. We conducted our analyses between July 2018 and July 2019. The setting was English primary care and nationwide Danish data. Participants with atopic eczema (adults only in England and any age in Denmark) were matched on age, sex, and calendar period (as well as primary care practice in England only) to those without atopic eczema.

Exposure

Atopic eczema.

Main outcomes and measures

Overall cancer risk and risk of specific cancers were compared in people with and without atopic eczema.

Results

In England, matched cohorts included 471 970 individuals with atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 41.1 [24.9-60.7] years; 276 510 [58.6%] female) and 2 239 775 individuals without atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 39.8 [25.9-58.4] years; 1 301 074 [58.1%] female). In Denmark, matched cohorts included 44 945 individuals with atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 13.7 [1.7-21.1] years; 22 826 [50.8%] female) and 445 673 individuals without atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 13.5 [1.7-20.8] years; 226 323 [50.8%] female). Little evidence was found of associations between atopic eczema and overall cancer (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.04; 99% CI, 1.02-1.06 in England and 1.05; 99% CI, 0.95-1.16 in Denmark) or for most specific cancers. However, noncutaneous lymphoma risk was increased in people with atopic eczema in England (adjusted HR, 1.19; 99% CI, 1.07-1.34 for non-Hodgkin lymphoma [NHL] and 1.48; 99% CI, 1.07-2.04 for Hodgkin lymphoma). Lymphoma risk was increased in people with greater eczema severity vs those without atopic eczema (NHL adjusted HR, 1.06; 99% CI, 0.90-1.25 for mild eczema; 1.24; 99% CI, 1.04-1.48 for moderate eczema; and 2.08; 99% CI, 1.42-3.04 for severe eczema). Danish point estimates also showed increased lymphoma risk in people with moderate to severe eczema compared with those without atopic eczema (minimally adjusted HR, 1.31; 99% CI, 0.76-2.26 for NHL and 1.35; 99% CI, 0.65-2.82 for Hodgkin lymphoma), but the 99% CIs were wide.

Conclusions and relevance

The findings from 2 large population-based studies performed in different settings do not support associations between atopic eczema and most cancers. However, an association was observed between atopic eczema and lymphoma, particularly NHL, that increased with eczema severity. This finding warrants further study as new immunomodulatory systemic therapeutics are brought to market that may alter cancer risk.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/articlepdf/2767601/jamadermatology_mansfield_2020_oi_200037_1602515656.45058.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.1948; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7315391 36253349,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33675-1,Systematic Mendelian randomization using the human plasma proteome to discover potential therapeutic targets for stroke.,"Chen L, Peters JE, Prins B, Persyn E, Traylor M, Surendran P, Karthikeyan S, Yonova-Doing E, Di Angelantonio E, Roberts DJ, Watkins NA, Ouwehand WH, Danesh J, Lewis CM, Bronson PG, Markus HS, Burgess S, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-10-17,Y,,,,"Stroke is the second leading cause of death with substantial unmet therapeutic needs. To identify potential stroke therapeutic targets, we estimate the causal effects of 308 plasma proteins on stroke outcomes in a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework and assess mediation effects by stroke risk factors. We find associations between genetically predicted plasma levels of six proteins and stroke (P ≤ 1.62 × 10-4). The genetic associations with stroke colocalize (Posterior Probability >0.7) with the genetic associations of four proteins (TFPI, TMPRSS5, CD6, CD40). Mendelian randomization supports atrial fibrillation, body mass index, smoking, blood pressure, white matter hyperintensities and type 2 diabetes as stroke risk factors (P ≤ 0.0071). Body mass index, white matter hyperintensity and atrial fibrillation appear to mediate the TFPI, IL6RA, TMPRSS5 associations with stroke. Furthermore, thirty-six proteins are associated with one or more of these risk factors using Mendelian randomization. Our results highlight causal pathways and potential therapeutic targets for stroke.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33675-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33675-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9576777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9576777?pdf=render +32579178,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.1948,Association Between Atopic Eczema and Cancer in England and Denmark.,"Mansfield KE, Schmidt SAJ, Darvalics B, Mulick A, Abuabara K, Wong AYS, Sørensen HT, Smeeth L, Bhaskaran K, Dos Santos Silva I, Silverwood RJ, Langan SM.",,JAMA dermatology,2020,2020-10-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Associations between atopic eczema and cancer are unclear, with competing theories that increased immune surveillance decreases cancer risk and that immune stimulation increases cancer risk. Establishing baseline cancer risk in people with atopic eczema is important before exploring the association between new biologic drugs for atopic eczema and cancer risk.

Objective

To investigate whether atopic eczema is associated with cancer.

Design, setting, and participants

Matched cohort studies were conducted from January 2, 1998, to March 31, 2016, in England and from January 1, 1982, to June 30, 2016, in Denmark. We conducted our analyses between July 2018 and July 2019. The setting was English primary care and nationwide Danish data. Participants with atopic eczema (adults only in England and any age in Denmark) were matched on age, sex, and calendar period (as well as primary care practice in England only) to those without atopic eczema.

Exposure

Atopic eczema.

Main outcomes and measures

Overall cancer risk and risk of specific cancers were compared in people with and without atopic eczema.

Results

In England, matched cohorts included 471 970 individuals with atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 41.1 [24.9-60.7] years; 276 510 [58.6%] female) and 2 239 775 individuals without atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 39.8 [25.9-58.4] years; 1 301 074 [58.1%] female). In Denmark, matched cohorts included 44 945 individuals with atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 13.7 [1.7-21.1] years; 22 826 [50.8%] female) and 445 673 individuals without atopic eczema (median [IQR] age, 13.5 [1.7-20.8] years; 226 323 [50.8%] female). Little evidence was found of associations between atopic eczema and overall cancer (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.04; 99% CI, 1.02-1.06 in England and 1.05; 99% CI, 0.95-1.16 in Denmark) or for most specific cancers. However, noncutaneous lymphoma risk was increased in people with atopic eczema in England (adjusted HR, 1.19; 99% CI, 1.07-1.34 for non-Hodgkin lymphoma [NHL] and 1.48; 99% CI, 1.07-2.04 for Hodgkin lymphoma). Lymphoma risk was increased in people with greater eczema severity vs those without atopic eczema (NHL adjusted HR, 1.06; 99% CI, 0.90-1.25 for mild eczema; 1.24; 99% CI, 1.04-1.48 for moderate eczema; and 2.08; 99% CI, 1.42-3.04 for severe eczema). Danish point estimates also showed increased lymphoma risk in people with moderate to severe eczema compared with those without atopic eczema (minimally adjusted HR, 1.31; 99% CI, 0.76-2.26 for NHL and 1.35; 99% CI, 0.65-2.82 for Hodgkin lymphoma), but the 99% CIs were wide.

Conclusions and relevance

The findings from 2 large population-based studies performed in different settings do not support associations between atopic eczema and most cancers. However, an association was observed between atopic eczema and lymphoma, particularly NHL, that increased with eczema severity. This finding warrants further study as new immunomodulatory systemic therapeutics are brought to market that may alter cancer risk.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/articlepdf/2767601/jamadermatology_mansfield_2020_oi_200037_1602515656.45058.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.1948; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7315391 34019073,https://doi.org/10.1093/ibd/izab059,Ultra-high Magnification Endocytoscopy and Molecular Markers for Defining Endoscopic and Histologic Remission in Ulcerative Colitis-An Exploratory Study to Define Deep Remission.,"Iacucci M, Jeffery L, Acharjee A, Nardone OM, Zardo D, Smith SCL, Bazarova A, Cannatelli R, Shivaji UN, Williams J, Gkoutos G, Ghosh S.",,Inflammatory bowel diseases,2021,2021-10-01,Y,Rna-sequencing; Mucosal Healing; Histological Healing; Noninvasive Markers; Endocytoscope,,,"

Background

Endoscopic and histological remission are both important treatment goals in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). We aimed to define cellular architecture, expression of molecular markers, and their correlation with endoscopic scores assessed by ultra-high magnification endocytoscopy (ECS) and histological scores.

Methods

Patients with UC (n = 29) were prospectively recruited. The correlation among ECS score (ECSS), Mayo endoscopic score (MES), and histological scores were determined. Area under curve were plotted to determine the best thresholds for ECSS that predicted histological remission by Robarts (RHI) and Nancy Histological Index (NHI).Soluble analytes relevant to inflammation were measured in serum and mucosal culture supernatants using ProcartaPlex Luminex assays and studied by partial least square discriminant analysis and logistic model. Mucosal RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis were performed to define differentially expressed genes/pathways.

Results

Endocytoscope scoring system correlated strongly with RHI (r = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.51-0.98) and NHI (r = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.42-0.98) but correlated poorly with MES (r = 0.28; 95% CI, 0.27-0.70). We identified soluble brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), macrophage inflammatory proteins (MIP-1 α) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1) predicted histological remission. Mucosal biopsy cultures also identified sVCAM-1 associated with healed mucosa. RNA-seq analysis identified gene expressions shared between ECSS, RHI, or NHI defined healing. A number of gene expressions and pathways were identified including inflammation and metabolic and tumor suppressors that discriminated healed from nonhealed mucosa.

Conclusions

Endocytoscopy represents an interesting tool that may sit between endoscopy and histology-but closer to the latter-identifying gene expression markers and pathways that are also identified by histology.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ibdjournal/article-pdf/27/11/1719/40784408/izab059.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ibd/izab059; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8528147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8528147?pdf=render -34688720,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029,Methodological issues in meta-analyses of real-world clinical data to infer causality.,"Uijl A, Lund LH, Asselbergs FW, Savarese G.",,International journal of cardiology,2021,2021-10-22,N,Meta-analysis; Causality; Observational; Sacubitril/valsartan,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029 +30648344,https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180,A semi-active human digital twin model for detecting severity of carotid stenoses from head vibration-A coupled computational mechanics and computer vision method.,"Chakshu NK, Carson J, Sazonov I, Nithiarasu P.",,International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering,2019,2019-02-20,Y,Computer vision; Blood flow; Systemic Circulation; Carotid Stenoses; Digital Twin; Biomechanical Vibrations; Face Video,Applied Analytics,,"In this work, we propose a methodology to detect the severity of carotid stenosis from a video of a human face with the help of a coupled blood flow and head vibration model. This semi-active digital twin model is an attempt to link noninvasive video of a patient face to the percentage of carotid occlusion. The pulsatile nature of blood flow through the carotid arteries induces a subtle head vibration. This vibration is a potential indicator of carotid stenosis severity, and it is exploited in the present study. A head vibration model has been proposed in the present work that is linked to the forces generated by blood flow with or without occlusion. The model is used to generate a large number of virtual head vibration data for different degrees of occlusion. In order to determine the in vivo head vibration, a computer vision algorithm is adopted to use human face videos. The in vivo vibrations are compared against the virtual vibration data generated from the coupled computational blood flow/vibration model. A comparison of the in vivo vibration is made against the virtual data to find the best fit between in vivo and virtual data. The preliminary results on healthy subjects and a patient clearly indicate that the model is accurate and it possesses the potential for detecting approximate severity of carotid artery stenoses.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817?pdf=render +33824583,https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s298585,There is No Fast Track to Identify Fast Decliners in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency by Spirometry: A Longitudinal Study of Repeated Measurements.,"Stockley JA, Stockley RA, Sapey E.",,International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,2021,2021-03-29,Y,Lung function; decline; Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency; Obstructive Airways Disease,,,"

Background

It is known that lung function decline in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD) varies. Those with a rapid decline are at highest risk of poorer outcomes but may benefit most from targeted treatments including augmentation therapy. Current evidence suggests rapid decliners can be identified after 3 years of serial follow-up. It would be advantageous to identify these patients over a shorter time period, especially in mild disease.

Methods

Post-bronchodilator spirometry was performed every 6 months for a total of 18 months (4 measurements) by PiZZ AATD patients (ex- or never-smokers) either without spirometric COPD or with mild COPD. Where possible, retrospective spirometry data were included. Decline was assessed using 2 (baseline and 6 month) or four measurements (including baseline, 6, 12 and 18 months) and compared to retrospective decline rates using annual measurements over 3 years.

Results

Seventy-two PiZZ AATD patients were included, with 27 having at least three years of retrospective, annual spirometry. 18-month progression obtained by linear regression showed variable degrees of change with 29 showing no decline, 8 showing slow decline and 35 showing rapid decline. Bland-Altman plots showed that there was no overall agreement between predicted rate of decline using data obtained over 6 months and that obtained over 18 months. Furthermore, there was no agreement between rate of decline from either 6 or 18 months' data when compared to data collected over 3 years. The positive predictive value for rapid decline with 18 months of data compared to 3 years was only 50.0%.

Conclusion

This study suggests serial lung function over 18 months cannot identify AATD patients who have rapidly declining lung function. There is an urgent need for different biomarkers to help identify these patients at the earliest opportunity.",,pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=68078; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S298585; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552?pdf=render 35381001,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010093,Analyzing human knockouts to validate GPR151 as a therapeutic target for reduction of body mass index.,"Gurtan A, Dominy J, Khalid S, Vong L, Caplan S, Currie T, Richards S, Lamarche L, Denning D, Shpektor D, Gurinovich A, Rasheed A, Hameed S, Saeed S, Saleem I, Jalal A, Abbas S, Sultana R, Rasheed SZ, Memon FU, Shah N, Ishaq M, Khera AV, Danesh J, Frossard P, Saleheen D.",,PLoS genetics,2022,2022-04-05,Y,,,,"Novel drug targets for sustained reduction in body mass index (BMI) are needed to curb the epidemic of obesity, which affects 650 million individuals worldwide and is a causal driver of cardiovascular and metabolic disease and mortality. Previous studies reported that the Arg95Ter nonsense variant of GPR151, an orphan G protein-coupled receptor, is associated with reduced BMI and reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). Here, we further investigate GPR151 with the Pakistan Genome Resource (PGR), which is one of the largest exome biobanks of human homozygous loss-of-function carriers (knockouts) in the world. Among PGR participants, we identify eleven GPR151 putative loss-of-function (plof) variants, three of which are present at homozygosity (Arg95Ter, Tyr99Ter, and Phe175LeufsTer7), with a cumulative allele frequency of 2.2%. We confirm these alleles in vitro as loss-of-function. We test if GPR151 plof is associated with BMI, T2D, or other metabolic traits and find that GPR151 deficiency in complete human knockouts is not associated with clinically significant differences in these traits. Relative to Gpr151+/+ mice, Gpr151-/- animals exhibit no difference in body weight on normal chow and higher body weight on a high-fat diet. Together, our findings indicate that GPR151 antagonism is not a compelling therapeutic approach to treatment of obesity.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1010093&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010093; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9022822; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9022822?pdf=render +34688720,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029,Methodological issues in meta-analyses of real-world clinical data to infer causality.,"Uijl A, Lund LH, Asselbergs FW, Savarese G.",,International journal of cardiology,2021,2021-10-22,N,Meta-analysis; Causality; Observational; Sacubitril/valsartan,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029 32611631,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000009814,"Genetically determined blood pressure, antihypertensive drug classes, and risk of stroke subtypes.","Georgakis MK, Gill D, Webb AJS, Evangelou E, Elliott P, Sudlow CLM, Dehghan A, Malik R, Tzoulaki I, Dichgans M.",,Neurology,2020,2020-07-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

We employed Mendelian randomization to explore whether the effects of blood pressure (BP) and BP-lowering through different antihypertensive drug classes on stroke risk vary by stroke etiology.

Methods

We selected genetic variants associated with systolic and diastolic BP and BP-lowering variants in genes encoding antihypertensive drug targets from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on 757,601 individuals. Applying 2-sample Mendelian randomization, we examined associations with any stroke (67,162 cases; 454,450 controls), ischemic stroke and its subtypes (large artery, cardioembolic, small vessel stroke), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH, deep and lobar), and the related small vessel disease phenotype of white matter hyperintensities (WMH).

Results

Genetic predisposition to higher systolic and diastolic BP was associated with higher risk of any stroke, ischemic stroke, and ICH. We found associations between genetically determined BP and all ischemic stroke subtypes with a higher risk of large artery and small vessel stroke compared to cardioembolic stroke, as well as associations with deep, but not lobar ICH. Genetic proxies for calcium channel blockers, but not β-blockers, were associated with lower risk of any stroke and ischemic stroke. Proxies for calcium channel blockers showed particularly strong associations with small vessel stroke and the related radiologic phenotype of WMH.

Conclusions

This study supports a causal role of hypertension in all major stroke subtypes except lobar ICH. We find differences in the effects of BP and BP-lowering through antihypertensive drug classes between stroke subtypes and identify calcium channel blockade as a promising strategy for preventing manifestations of cerebral small vessel disease.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/95/4/e353.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000009814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455321; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455321?pdf=render 35152298,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeac030,Prognostic value of strain by feature-tracking cardiac magnetic resonance in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.,"Bourfiss M, Prakken NHJ, James CA, Planken RN, Boekholdt SM, Ahmetagic D, van den Berg MP, Tichnell C, Van der Heijden JF, Loh P, Murray B, Tandri H, Kamel I, Calkins H, Asselbergs FW, Zimmerman SL, Velthuis BK, Te Riele ASJM.",,European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Strain; Arrhythmias; Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Feature Tracking,,,"

Aims

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is characterized by ventricular dysfunction and ventricular arrhythmias (VA). Adequate arrhythmic risk assessment is important to prevent sudden cardiac death. We aimed to study the incremental value of strain by feature-tracking cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (FT-CMR) in predicting sustained VA in ARVC patients.

Methods and results

CMR images of 132 ARVC patients (43% male, 40.6 ± 16.0 years) without prior VA were analysed for global and regional right and left ventricular (RV, LV) strain. Primary outcome was sustained VA during follow-up. We performed multivariable regression assessing strain, in combination with (i) RV ejection fraction (EF); (ii) LVEF; and (iii) the ARVC risk calculator. False discovery rate adjusted P-values were given to correct for multiple comparisons and c-statistics were calculated for each model. During 4.3 (2.0-7.9) years of follow-up, 19% of patients experienced sustained VA. Compared to patients without VA, those with VA had significantly reduced RV longitudinal (P ≤ 0.03) and LV circumferential (P ≤ 0.04) strain. In addition, patients with VA had significantly reduced biventricular EF (P ≤ 0.02). After correcting for RVEF, LVEF, and the ARVC risk calculator separately in multivariable analysis, both RV and LV strain lost their significance [hazard ratio 1.03-1.18, P > 0.05]. Likewise, while strain improved the c-statistic in combination with RVEF, LVEF, and the ARVC risk calculator separately, this did not reach statistical significance (P ≥ 0.18).

Conclusion

Both RV longitudinal and LV circumferential strain are reduced in ARVC patients with sustained VA during follow-up. However, strain does not have incremental value over RVEF, LVEF, and the ARVC VA risk calculator.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jeac030/42506545/jeac030.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeac030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762936; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762936?pdf=render 31714636,https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.25642,Lipid lowering and Alzheimer disease risk: A mendelian randomization study.,"Williams DM, Finan C, Schmidt AF, Burgess S, Hingorani AD.",,Annals of neurology,2020,2020-01-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

To examine whether genetic variation affecting the expression or function of lipid-lowering drug targets is associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) risk, to evaluate the potential impact of long-term exposure to corresponding therapeutics.

Methods

We conducted Mendelian randomization analyses using variants in genes that encode the protein targets of several approved lipid-lowering drug classes: HMGCR (encoding the target for statins), PCSK9 (encoding the target for PCSK9 inhibitors, eg, evolocumab and alirocumab), NPC1L1 (encoding the target for ezetimibe), and APOB (encoding the target of mipomersen). Variants were weighted by associations with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) using data from lipid genetics consortia (n up to 295,826). We meta-analyzed Mendelian randomization estimates for regional variants weighted by LDL-C on AD risk from 2 large samples (total n = 24,718 cases, 56,685 controls).

Results

Models for HMGCR, APOB, and NPC1L1 did not suggest that the use of related lipid-lowering drug classes would affect AD risk. In contrast, genetically instrumented exposure to PCSK9 inhibitors was predicted to increase AD risk in both of the AD samples (combined odds ratio per standard deviation lower LDL-C inducible by the drug target = 1.45, 95% confidence interval = 1.23-1.69). This risk increase was opposite to, although more modest than, the degree of protection from coronary artery disease predicted by these same methods for PCSK9 inhibition.

Interpretation

We did not identify genetic support for the repurposing of statins, ezetimibe, or mipomersen for AD prevention. Notwithstanding caveats to this genetic evidence, pharmacovigilance for AD risk among users of PCSK9 inhibitors may be warranted. ANN NEUROL 2020;87:30-39.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ana.25642; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.25642; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6944510; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6944510?pdf=render -30745170,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005,"Identification of novel genome-wide associations for suicidality in UK Biobank, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders and polygenic association with completed suicide.","Strawbridge RJ, Ward J, Ferguson A, Graham N, Shaw RJ, Cullen B, Pearsall R, Lyall LM, Johnston KJA, Niedzwiedz CL, Pell JP, Mackay D, Martin JL, Lyall DM, Bailey MES, Smith DJ.",,EBioMedicine,2019,2019-02-08,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Suicide is a major issue for global public health. Suicidality describes a broad spectrum of thoughts and behaviours, some of which are common in the general population. Although suicide results from a complex interaction of multiple social and psychological factors, predisposition to suicidality is at least partly genetic.

Methods

Ordinal genome-wide association study of suicidality in the UK Biobank cohort comparing: 'no suicidality' controls (N = 83,557); 'thoughts that life was not worth living' (N = 21,063); 'ever contemplated self-harm' (N = 13,038); 'act of deliberate self-harm in the past' (N = 2498); and 'previous suicide attempt' (N = 2666).

Outcomes

We identified three novel genome-wide significant loci for suicidality (on chromosomes nine, 11 and 13) and moderate-to-strong genetic correlations between suicidality and a range of psychiatric disorders, most notably depression (rg 0·81).

Interpretation

These findings provide new information about genetic variants relating to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Future work should assess the extent to which polygenic risk scores for suicidality, in combination with non-genetic risk factors, may be useful for stratified approaches to suicide prevention at a population level. FUND: UKRI Innovation-HDR-UK Fellowship (MR/S003061/1). MRC Mental Health Data Pathfinder Award (MC_PC_17217). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the University of Glasgow (MR/K501335/1). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. UKRI Innovation Fellowship (MR/R024774/1).",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396419300775/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001?pdf=render 36732776,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13040-023-00321-5,LoFTK: a framework for fully automated calculation of predicted Loss-of-Function variants and genes.,"Alasiri A, Karczewski KJ, Cole B, Loza BL, Moore JH, van der Laan SW, Asselbergs FW, Keating BJ, van Setten J.",,BioData mining,2023,2023-02-02,Y,Human Genetic; Loss-of-function Variants; Compound Heterozygotes; Knockout Genes,,,"

Background

Loss-of-Function (LoF) variants in human genes are important due to their impact on clinical phenotypes and frequent occurrence in the genomes of healthy individuals. The association of LoF variants with complex diseases and traits may lead to the discovery and validation of novel therapeutic targets. Current approaches predict high-confidence LoF variants without identifying the specific genes or the number of copies they affect. Moreover, there is a lack of methods for detecting knockout genes caused by compound heterozygous (CH) LoF variants.

Results

We have developed the Loss-of-Function ToolKit (LoFTK), which allows efficient and automated prediction of LoF variants from genotyped, imputed and sequenced genomes. LoFTK enables the identification of genes that are inactive in one or two copies and provides summary statistics for downstream analyses. LoFTK can identify CH LoF variants, which result in LoF genes with two copies lost. Using data from parents and offspring we show that 96% of CH LoF genes predicted by LoFTK in the offspring have the respective alleles donated by each parent.

Conclusions

LoFTK is a command-line based tool that provides a reliable computational workflow for predicting LoF variants from genotyped and sequenced genomes, identifying genes that are inactive in 1 or 2 copies. LoFTK is an open software and is freely available to non-commercial users at https://github.com/CirculatoryHealth/LoFTK .",,pdf:https://biodatamining.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13040-023-00321-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13040-023-00321-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9893534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9893534?pdf=render -35087703,https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465,Household Air Pollution and Respiratory Symptoms a Month Before and During the Stringent COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 in South Africa.,"Wright CY, Kapwata T, Abdelatif N, Batini C, Wernecke B, Kunene Z, Millar DA, Mathee A, Street R, Panchal R, Hansell A, Cordell R, Hey JV.",,Annals of global health,2022,2022-01-10,Y,,,,"

Background

Household air pollution (HAP) is associated with adverse human health impacts. During COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 (the most stringent levels), South Africans remained at home, potentially increasing their exposure to HAP.

Objectives

To investigate changes in fuel use behaviours/patterns of use affecting HAP exposure and associated HAP-related respiratory health outcomes during COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional online and telephonic survey of participants from an existing database. Logistic regression and McNemar's test were used to analyse household-level data.

Results

Among 2 505 participants, while electricity was the main energy source for cooking and heating the month before and during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4, some households used less electricity during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 or switched to ""dirty fuels."" One third of participants reported presence of environmental tobacco smoke in the home, a source of HAP associated with respiratory illnesses. Prevalence of HAP-related respiratory health outcomes were <10% (except dry cough). Majority of households reported cooking more, cleaning more and spending more time indoors during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 - potentially exposed to HAP.

Conclusion

Should South Africa return to Lockdown Levels 5 or 4, awareness raising about the risks associated with HAP as well as messaging information for prevention of exposure to HAP, including environmental tobacco smoke, and associated adverse health impacts will be necessary.",,pdf:http://www.annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.3465/galley/3414/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382?pdf=render -35866236,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05033,The road to recovery: an interrupted time series analysis of policy intervention to restore essential health services in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Doubova SV, Arsenault C, Contreras-Sánchez SE, Borrayo-Sánchez G, Leslie HH.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-07-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Recovery of health services disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic represents a significant challenge in low- and middle-income countries. In April 2021, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which provides health care to 68.5 million people, launched the National Strategy for Health Services Recovery (Recovery policy). The study objective was to evaluate whether the Recovery policy addressed COVID-related declines in maternal, child health, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) services.

Methods

We analysed the data of 35 IMSS delegations from January 2019 to November 2021 on contraceptive visits, antenatal care consultations, deliveries, caesarean sections, sick children's consultations, child vaccination, breast and cervical cancer screening, diabetes and hypertension consultations, and control. We focused on the period before (April 2020 - March 2021) and during (April 2021 - November 2021) the Recovery policy and used an interrupted time series design and Poisson Generalized Estimating Equation models to estimate the association of this policy with service use and outcomes and change in their trends.

Results

Despite the third wave of the pandemic in 2021, service utilization increased in the Recovery period, reaching (at minimum) 49% of pre-pandemic levels for sick children's consultations and (at maximum) 106% of pre-pandemic levels for breast cancer screenings. Evidence for the Recovery policy role was mixed: the policy was associated with increased facility deliveries (IRR = 1.15, 95%CI = 1.11-1.19) with a growing trend over time (IRR = 1.04, 95%CI = 1.03-1.05); antenatal care and child health services saw strong level effects but decrease over time. Additionally, the Recovery policy was associated with diabetes and hypertension control. Services recovery varied across delegations.

Conclusions

Health service utilization and NCDs control demonstrated important gains in 2021, but evidence suggests the policy had inconsistent effects across services and decreasing impact over time. Further efforts to strengthen essential health services and ensure consistent recovery across delegations are warranted.",,pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/jogh-12-05033.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05033; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921?pdf=render 36814324,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y,"Investigating associations between blood metabolites, later life brain imaging measures, and genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease.","Green RE, Lord J, Scelsi MA, Xu J, Wong A, Naomi-James S, Handy A, Gilchrist L, Williams DM, Parker TD, Lane CA, Malone IB, Cash DM, Sudre CH, Coath W, Thomas DL, Keuss S, Dobson R, Legido-Quigley C, Fox NC, Schott JM, Richards M, Proitsi P, Insight 46 study team.",,Alzheimer's research & therapy,2023,2023-02-22,Y,Metabolites; Ageing; Brain imaging; Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Birth Cohort; Polygenic Scores; Weighted-gene Coexpression Network Analysis,,,"

Background

Identifying blood-based signatures of brain health and preclinical pathology may offer insights into early disease mechanisms and highlight avenues for intervention. Here, we systematically profiled associations between blood metabolites and whole-brain volume, hippocampal volume, and amyloid-β status among participants of Insight 46-the neuroscience sub-study of the National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD). We additionally explored whether key metabolites were associated with polygenic risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods

Following quality control, levels of 1019 metabolites-detected with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-were available for 1740 participants at age 60-64. Metabolite data were subsequently clustered into modules of co-expressed metabolites using weighted coexpression network analysis. Accompanying MRI and amyloid-PET imaging data were present for 437 participants (age 69-71). Regression analyses tested relationships between metabolite measures-modules and hub metabolites-and imaging outcomes. Hub metabolites were defined as metabolites that were highly connected within significant (pFDR < 0.05) modules or were identified as a hub in a previous analysis on cognitive function in the same cohort. Regression models included adjustments for age, sex, APOE genotype, lipid medication use, childhood cognitive ability, and social factors. Finally, associations were tested between AD polygenic risk scores (PRS), including and excluding the APOE region, and metabolites and modules that significantly associated (pFDR < 0.05) with an imaging outcome (N = 1638).

Results

In the fully adjusted model, three lipid modules were associated with a brain volume measure (pFDR < 0.05): one enriched in sphingolipids (hippocampal volume: ß = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.055,0.23]), one in several fatty acid pathways (whole-brain volume: ß =  - 0.072, 95%CI = [- 0.12, - 0.026]), and another in diacylglycerols and phosphatidylethanolamines (whole-brain volume: ß =  - 0.066, 95% CI = [- 0.11, - 0.020]). Twenty-two hub metabolites were associated (pFDR < 0.05) with an imaging outcome (whole-brain volume: 22; hippocampal volume: 4). Some nominal associations were reported for amyloid-β, and with an AD PRS in our genetic analysis, but none survived multiple testing correction.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight key metabolites, with functions in membrane integrity and cell signalling, that associated with structural brain measures in later life. Future research should focus on replicating this work and interrogating causality.",,pdf:https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9945600; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9945600?pdf=render -33053479,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760,Characterizing newborn and older infant entries into care in England between 2006 and 2014.,"Pearson RJ, Jay MA, O'Donnell M, Wijlaars L, Gilbert R.",,Child abuse & neglect,2020,2020-10-11,Y,Longitudinal data; Infancy; Latent Class Analysis; Entry Into Care; Out-of-court Arrangements,,,"

Background

The risk of entry to state care during infancy is increasing, both here in England and abroad, with most entering within a week of birth ('newborns'). However, little is known about these infants or of their pathways through care over early childhood.

Objective

To characterize infant entries to care in England.

Participants and setting

All children in England who first entered care during infancy, between April 2006 and March 2014 (n = 42,000).

Methods

We compared sociodemographic and care characteristics for infants entering care over the study period by age at first entry (newborn: <1wks, older infant 1-51wks). Among those who entered before April 2010, we further characterized care over follow-up (i.e. 4 years from first entry) and employed latent class analysis to uncover any common pathways through care.

Results

Almost 40 % of infants first entered care as a newborn. Most infants first entered care under s 20 arrangements (i.e. out-of-court, 60 % of newborns vs 47 % of older infants). Among infants entering before April 2010, most were adopted over follow-up (60 % vs 37 %), though many were restored to parental care (20 % vs 32 %) or exited care to live with extended family (13 % vs 19 %). One in six infants (17.7 %) had particularly unstable care trajectories over early childhood, typified by three or more placements or failed reunification.

Conclusions

Evidence-based strengthening of pre-birth social work support is needed to improve preventive interventions before birth, to more effectively target infant placement into care. Linkages between child protection records and information on parents are needed to inform preventive strategies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718112 +30745170,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005,"Identification of novel genome-wide associations for suicidality in UK Biobank, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders and polygenic association with completed suicide.","Strawbridge RJ, Ward J, Ferguson A, Graham N, Shaw RJ, Cullen B, Pearsall R, Lyall LM, Johnston KJA, Niedzwiedz CL, Pell JP, Mackay D, Martin JL, Lyall DM, Bailey MES, Smith DJ.",,EBioMedicine,2019,2019-02-08,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Suicide is a major issue for global public health. Suicidality describes a broad spectrum of thoughts and behaviours, some of which are common in the general population. Although suicide results from a complex interaction of multiple social and psychological factors, predisposition to suicidality is at least partly genetic.

Methods

Ordinal genome-wide association study of suicidality in the UK Biobank cohort comparing: 'no suicidality' controls (N = 83,557); 'thoughts that life was not worth living' (N = 21,063); 'ever contemplated self-harm' (N = 13,038); 'act of deliberate self-harm in the past' (N = 2498); and 'previous suicide attempt' (N = 2666).

Outcomes

We identified three novel genome-wide significant loci for suicidality (on chromosomes nine, 11 and 13) and moderate-to-strong genetic correlations between suicidality and a range of psychiatric disorders, most notably depression (rg 0·81).

Interpretation

These findings provide new information about genetic variants relating to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Future work should assess the extent to which polygenic risk scores for suicidality, in combination with non-genetic risk factors, may be useful for stratified approaches to suicide prevention at a population level. FUND: UKRI Innovation-HDR-UK Fellowship (MR/S003061/1). MRC Mental Health Data Pathfinder Award (MC_PC_17217). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the University of Glasgow (MR/K501335/1). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. UKRI Innovation Fellowship (MR/R024774/1).",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396419300775/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001?pdf=render 36066609,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x,Towards automatic classification of cardiovascular magnetic resonance Task Force Criteria for diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.,"Bourfiss M, Sander J, de Vos BD, Te Riele ASJM, Asselbergs FW, Išgum I, Velthuis BK.",,Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society,2023,2022-09-06,Y,Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Automatic Segmentation; Deep Learning,,,"

Background

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is diagnosed according to the Task Force Criteria (TFC) in which cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging plays an important role. Our study aims to apply an automatic deep learning-based segmentation for right and left ventricular CMR assessment and evaluate this approach for classification of the CMR TFC.

Methods

We included 227 subjects suspected of ARVC who underwent CMR. Subjects were classified into (1) ARVC patients fulfilling TFC; (2) at-risk family members; and (3) controls. To perform automatic segmentation, a Bayesian Dilated Residual Neural Network was trained and tested. Performance of automatic versus manual segmentation was assessed using Dice-coefficient and Hausdorff distance. Since automatic segmentation is most challenging in basal slices, manual correction of the automatic segmentation in the most basal slice was simulated (automatic-basal). CMR TFC calculated using manual and automatic-basal segmentation were compared using Cohen's Kappa (κ).

Results

Automatic segmentation was trained on CMRs of 70 subjects (39.6 ± 18.1 years, 47% female) and tested on 157 subjects (36.9 ± 17.6 years, 59% female). Dice-coefficient and Hausdorff distance showed good agreement between manual and automatic segmentations (≥ 0.89 and ≤ 10.6 mm, respectively) which further improved after simulated correction of the most basal slice (≥ 0.92 and ≤ 9.2 mm, p < 0.001). Pearson correlation of volumetric and functional CMR measurements was good to excellent (automatic (r = 0.78-0.99, p < 0.001) and automatic-basal (r = 0.88-0.99, p < 0.001) measurements). CMR TFC classification using automatic-basal segmentations was comparable to manual segmentations (κ 0.98 ± 0.02) with comparable diagnostic performance.

Conclusions

Combining automatic segmentation of CMRs with correction of the most basal slice results in accurate CMR TFC classification of subjects suspected of ARVC.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998324?pdf=render -30940752,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023232,Using natural language processing to extract structured epilepsy data from unstructured clinic letters: development and validation of the ExECT (extraction of epilepsy clinical text) system.,"Fonferko-Shadrach B, Lacey AS, Roberts A, Akbari A, Thompson S, Ford DV, Lyons RA, Rees MI, Pickrell WO.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-04-01,Y,Epilepsy; Validation; Information Extraction; Natural Language Processing,Applied Analytics,,"

Objective

Routinely collected healthcare data are a powerful research resource but often lack detailed disease-specific information that is collected in clinical free text, for example, clinic letters. We aim to use natural language processing techniques to extract detailed clinical information from epilepsy clinic letters to enrich routinely collected data.

Design

We used the general architecture for text engineering (GATE) framework to build an information extraction system, ExECT (extraction of epilepsy clinical text), combining rule-based and statistical techniques. We extracted nine categories of epilepsy information in addition to clinic date and date of birth across 200 clinic letters. We compared the results of our algorithm with a manual review of the letters by an epilepsy clinician.

Setting

De-identified and pseudonymised epilepsy clinic letters from a Health Board serving half a million residents in Wales, UK.

Results

We identified 1925 items of information with overall precision, recall and F1 score of 91.4%, 81.4% and 86.1%, respectively. Precision and recall for epilepsy-specific categories were: epilepsy diagnosis (88.1%, 89.0%), epilepsy type (89.8%, 79.8%), focal seizures (96.2%, 69.7%), generalised seizures (88.8%, 52.3%), seizure frequency (86.3%-53.6%), medication (96.1%, 94.0%), CT (55.6%, 58.8%), MRI (82.4%, 68.8%) and electroencephalogram (81.5%, 75.3%).

Conclusions

We have built an automated clinical text extraction system that can accurately extract epilepsy information from free text in clinic letters. This can enhance routinely collected data for research in the UK. The information extracted with ExECT such as epilepsy type, seizure frequency and neurological investigations are often missing from routinely collected data. We propose that our algorithm can bridge this data gap enabling further epilepsy research opportunities. While many of the rules in our pipeline were tailored to extract epilepsy specific information, our methods can be applied to other diseases and also can be used in clinical practice to record patient information in a structured manner.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/4/e023232.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023232; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6500195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6500195?pdf=render +35866236,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05033,The road to recovery: an interrupted time series analysis of policy intervention to restore essential health services in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Doubova SV, Arsenault C, Contreras-Sánchez SE, Borrayo-Sánchez G, Leslie HH.",,Journal of global health,2022,2022-07-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Recovery of health services disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic represents a significant challenge in low- and middle-income countries. In April 2021, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which provides health care to 68.5 million people, launched the National Strategy for Health Services Recovery (Recovery policy). The study objective was to evaluate whether the Recovery policy addressed COVID-related declines in maternal, child health, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) services.

Methods

We analysed the data of 35 IMSS delegations from January 2019 to November 2021 on contraceptive visits, antenatal care consultations, deliveries, caesarean sections, sick children's consultations, child vaccination, breast and cervical cancer screening, diabetes and hypertension consultations, and control. We focused on the period before (April 2020 - March 2021) and during (April 2021 - November 2021) the Recovery policy and used an interrupted time series design and Poisson Generalized Estimating Equation models to estimate the association of this policy with service use and outcomes and change in their trends.

Results

Despite the third wave of the pandemic in 2021, service utilization increased in the Recovery period, reaching (at minimum) 49% of pre-pandemic levels for sick children's consultations and (at maximum) 106% of pre-pandemic levels for breast cancer screenings. Evidence for the Recovery policy role was mixed: the policy was associated with increased facility deliveries (IRR = 1.15, 95%CI = 1.11-1.19) with a growing trend over time (IRR = 1.04, 95%CI = 1.03-1.05); antenatal care and child health services saw strong level effects but decrease over time. Additionally, the Recovery policy was associated with diabetes and hypertension control. Services recovery varied across delegations.

Conclusions

Health service utilization and NCDs control demonstrated important gains in 2021, but evidence suggests the policy had inconsistent effects across services and decreasing impact over time. Further efforts to strengthen essential health services and ensure consistent recovery across delegations are warranted.",,pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/jogh-12-05033.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05033; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921?pdf=render +35087703,https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465,Household Air Pollution and Respiratory Symptoms a Month Before and During the Stringent COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 in South Africa.,"Wright CY, Kapwata T, Abdelatif N, Batini C, Wernecke B, Kunene Z, Millar DA, Mathee A, Street R, Panchal R, Hansell A, Cordell R, Hey JV.",,Annals of global health,2022,2022-01-10,Y,,,,"

Background

Household air pollution (HAP) is associated with adverse human health impacts. During COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 (the most stringent levels), South Africans remained at home, potentially increasing their exposure to HAP.

Objectives

To investigate changes in fuel use behaviours/patterns of use affecting HAP exposure and associated HAP-related respiratory health outcomes during COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional online and telephonic survey of participants from an existing database. Logistic regression and McNemar's test were used to analyse household-level data.

Results

Among 2 505 participants, while electricity was the main energy source for cooking and heating the month before and during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4, some households used less electricity during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 or switched to ""dirty fuels."" One third of participants reported presence of environmental tobacco smoke in the home, a source of HAP associated with respiratory illnesses. Prevalence of HAP-related respiratory health outcomes were <10% (except dry cough). Majority of households reported cooking more, cleaning more and spending more time indoors during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 - potentially exposed to HAP.

Conclusion

Should South Africa return to Lockdown Levels 5 or 4, awareness raising about the risks associated with HAP as well as messaging information for prevention of exposure to HAP, including environmental tobacco smoke, and associated adverse health impacts will be necessary.",,pdf:http://www.annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.3465/galley/3414/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382?pdf=render +33053479,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760,Characterizing newborn and older infant entries into care in England between 2006 and 2014.,"Pearson RJ, Jay MA, O'Donnell M, Wijlaars L, Gilbert R.",,Child abuse & neglect,2020,2020-10-11,Y,Longitudinal data; Infancy; Latent Class Analysis; Entry Into Care; Out-of-court Arrangements,,,"

Background

The risk of entry to state care during infancy is increasing, both here in England and abroad, with most entering within a week of birth ('newborns'). However, little is known about these infants or of their pathways through care over early childhood.

Objective

To characterize infant entries to care in England.

Participants and setting

All children in England who first entered care during infancy, between April 2006 and March 2014 (n = 42,000).

Methods

We compared sociodemographic and care characteristics for infants entering care over the study period by age at first entry (newborn: <1wks, older infant 1-51wks). Among those who entered before April 2010, we further characterized care over follow-up (i.e. 4 years from first entry) and employed latent class analysis to uncover any common pathways through care.

Results

Almost 40 % of infants first entered care as a newborn. Most infants first entered care under s 20 arrangements (i.e. out-of-court, 60 % of newborns vs 47 % of older infants). Among infants entering before April 2010, most were adopted over follow-up (60 % vs 37 %), though many were restored to parental care (20 % vs 32 %) or exited care to live with extended family (13 % vs 19 %). One in six infants (17.7 %) had particularly unstable care trajectories over early childhood, typified by three or more placements or failed reunification.

Conclusions

Evidence-based strengthening of pre-birth social work support is needed to improve preventive interventions before birth, to more effectively target infant placement into care. Linkages between child protection records and information on parents are needed to inform preventive strategies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718112 +30940752,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023232,Using natural language processing to extract structured epilepsy data from unstructured clinic letters: development and validation of the ExECT (extraction of epilepsy clinical text) system.,"Fonferko-Shadrach B, Lacey AS, Roberts A, Akbari A, Thompson S, Ford DV, Lyons RA, Rees MI, Pickrell WO.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-04-01,Y,Epilepsy; Validation; Information Extraction; Natural Language Processing,Applied Analytics,,"

Objective

Routinely collected healthcare data are a powerful research resource but often lack detailed disease-specific information that is collected in clinical free text, for example, clinic letters. We aim to use natural language processing techniques to extract detailed clinical information from epilepsy clinic letters to enrich routinely collected data.

Design

We used the general architecture for text engineering (GATE) framework to build an information extraction system, ExECT (extraction of epilepsy clinical text), combining rule-based and statistical techniques. We extracted nine categories of epilepsy information in addition to clinic date and date of birth across 200 clinic letters. We compared the results of our algorithm with a manual review of the letters by an epilepsy clinician.

Setting

De-identified and pseudonymised epilepsy clinic letters from a Health Board serving half a million residents in Wales, UK.

Results

We identified 1925 items of information with overall precision, recall and F1 score of 91.4%, 81.4% and 86.1%, respectively. Precision and recall for epilepsy-specific categories were: epilepsy diagnosis (88.1%, 89.0%), epilepsy type (89.8%, 79.8%), focal seizures (96.2%, 69.7%), generalised seizures (88.8%, 52.3%), seizure frequency (86.3%-53.6%), medication (96.1%, 94.0%), CT (55.6%, 58.8%), MRI (82.4%, 68.8%) and electroencephalogram (81.5%, 75.3%).

Conclusions

We have built an automated clinical text extraction system that can accurately extract epilepsy information from free text in clinic letters. This can enhance routinely collected data for research in the UK. The information extracted with ExECT such as epilepsy type, seizure frequency and neurological investigations are often missing from routinely collected data. We propose that our algorithm can bridge this data gap enabling further epilepsy research opportunities. While many of the rules in our pipeline were tailored to extract epilepsy specific information, our methods can be applied to other diseases and also can be used in clinical practice to record patient information in a structured manner.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/4/e023232.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023232; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6500195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6500195?pdf=render 34606520,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003815,"COVID-19 vaccination in Sindh Province, Pakistan: A modelling study of health impact and cost-effectiveness.","Pearson CAB, Bozzani F, Procter SR, Davies NG, Huda M, Jensen HT, Keogh-Brown M, Khalid M, Sweeney S, Torres-Rueda S, CHiL COVID-19 Working Group, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Eggo RM, Vassall A, Jit M.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-10-04,Y,,,,"

Background

Multiple Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines appear to be safe and efficacious, but only high-income countries have the resources to procure sufficient vaccine doses for most of their eligible populations. The World Health Organization has published guidelines for vaccine prioritisation, but most vaccine impact projections have focused on high-income countries, and few incorporate economic considerations. To address this evidence gap, we projected the health and economic impact of different vaccination scenarios in Sindh Province, Pakistan (population: 48 million).

Methods and findings

We fitted a compartmental transmission model to COVID-19 cases and deaths in Sindh from 30 April to 15 September 2020. We then projected cases, deaths, and hospitalisation outcomes over 10 years under different vaccine scenarios. Finally, we combined these projections with a detailed economic model to estimate incremental costs (from healthcare and partial societal perspectives), disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for each scenario. We project that 1 year of vaccine distribution, at delivery rates consistent with COVAX projections, using an infection-blocking vaccine at $3/dose with 70% efficacy and 2.5-year duration of protection is likely to avert around 0.9 (95% credible interval (CrI): 0.9, 1.0) million cases, 10.1 (95% CrI: 10.1, 10.3) thousand deaths, and 70.1 (95% CrI: 69.9, 70.6) thousand DALYs, with an ICER of $27.9 per DALY averted from the health system perspective. Under a broad range of alternative scenarios, we find that initially prioritising the older (65+) population generally prevents more deaths. However, unprioritised distribution has almost the same cost-effectiveness when considering all outcomes, and both prioritised and unprioritised programmes can be cost-effective for low per-dose costs. High vaccine prices ($10/dose), however, may not be cost-effective, depending on the specifics of vaccine performance, distribution programme, and future pandemic trends. The principal drivers of the health outcomes are the fitted values for the overall transmission scaling parameter and disease natural history parameters from other studies, particularly age-specific probabilities of infection and symptomatic disease, as well as social contact rates. Other parameters are investigated in sensitivity analyses. This study is limited by model approximations, available data, and future uncertainty. Because the model is a single-population compartmental model, detailed impacts of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as household isolation cannot be practically represented or evaluated in combination with vaccine programmes. Similarly, the model cannot consider prioritising groups like healthcare or other essential workers. The model is only fitted to the reported case and death data, which are incomplete and not disaggregated by, e.g., age. Finally, because the future impact and implementation cost of NPIs are uncertain, how these would interact with vaccination remains an open question.

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccination can have a considerable health impact and is likely to be cost-effective if more optimistic vaccine scenarios apply. Preventing severe disease is an important contributor to this impact. However, the advantage of prioritising older, high-risk populations is smaller in generally younger populations. This reduction is especially true in populations with more past transmission, and if the vaccine is likely to further impede transmission rather than just disease. Those conditions are typical of many low- and middle-income countries.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003815&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003815; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8523052; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8523052?pdf=render -36944376,https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373,"The lipid linked oligosaccharide polymerase Wzy and its regulating co-polymerase, Wzz, from enterobacterial common antigen biosynthesis form a complex.","Weckener M, Woodward LS, Clarke BR, Liu H, Ward PN, Le Bas A, Bhella D, Whitfield C, Naismith JH.",,Open biology,2023,2023-03-22,Y,Oligosaccharides; Lipid; Regulating; Polymerase; Wzy,,,"The enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) is a carbohydrate polymer that is associated with the cell envelope in the Enterobacteriaceae. ECA contains a repeating trisaccharide which is polymerized by WzyE, a member of the Wzy membrane protein polymerase superfamily. WzyE activity is regulated by a membrane protein polysaccharide co-polymerase, WzzE. Förster resonance energy transfer experiments demonstrate that WzyE and WzzE from Pectobacterium atrosepticum form a complex in vivo, and immunoblotting and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) analysis confirm a defined stoichiometry of approximately eight WzzE to one WzyE. Low-resolution cryo-EM reconstructions of the complex, aided by an antibody recognizing the C-terminus of WzyE, reveals WzyE sits in the central membrane lumen formed by the octameric arrangement of the transmembrane helices of WzzE. The pairing of Wzy and Wzz is found in polymerization systems for other bacterial polymers, including lipopolysaccharide O-antigens and capsular polysaccharides. The data provide new structural insight into a conserved mechanism for regulating polysaccharide chain length in bacteria.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265?pdf=render -31413164,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019,Allergic diseases and long-term risk of autoimmune disorders: longitudinal cohort study and cluster analysis. ,"Krishna MT, Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Zemedikun DT, Gkoutos GV, Nirantharakumar K.",,The European respiratory journal,2019,2019-11-14,N,,,,"The association between allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders is not well established. Our objective was to determine incidence rates of autoimmune disorders in allergic rhinitis/conjunctivitis (ARC), atopic eczema and asthma, and to investigate for co-occurring patterns. This was a retrospective cohort study (1990-2018) employing data extracted from The Health Improvement Network (UK primary care database). The exposure group comprised ARC, atopic eczema and asthma (all ages). For each exposed patient, up to two randomly selected age- and sex-matched controls with no documented allergic disease were used. Adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRRs) were calculated using Poisson regression. A cross-sectional study was also conducted employing Association Rule Mining (ARM) to investigate disease clusters. 782 320, 1 393 570 and 1 049 868 patients with ARC, atopic eczema and asthma, respectively, were included. aIRRs of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren's syndrome, vitiligo, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, pernicious anaemia, inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis were uniformly higher in the three allergic diseases compared with controls. Specifically, aIRRs of SLE (1.45) and Sjögren's syndrome (1.88) were higher in ARC; aIRRs of SLE (1.44), Sjögren's syndrome (1.61) and myasthenia (1.56) were higher in asthma; and aIRRs of SLE (1.86), Sjögren's syndrome (1.48), vitiligo (1.54) and psoriasis (2.41) were higher in atopic eczema. There was no significant effect of the three allergic diseases on multiple sclerosis or of ARC and atopic eczema on myasthenia. Using ARM, allergic diseases clustered with multiple autoimmune disorders. Three age- and sex-related clusters were identified, with a relatively complex pattern in females ≥55 years old. The long-term risks of autoimmune disorders are significantly higher in patients with allergic diseases. Allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders show age- and sex-related clustering patterns.",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/5/1900476.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019 36711167,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztaa016,Real-time imputation of missing predictor values in clinical practice.,"Nijman SWJ, Hoogland J, Groenhof TKJ, Brandjes M, Jacobs JJL, Bots ML, Asselbergs FW, Moons KGM, Debray TPA.",,European heart journal. Digital health,2021,2020-12-19,Y,Prediction; Missing Data; Electronic Health Records; Computerized Decision Support System; Real-time Imputation; Joint Modelling Imputation,,,"

Aims

Use of prediction models is widely recommended by clinical guidelines, but usually requires complete information on all predictors, which is not always available in daily practice. We aim to describe two methods for real-time handling of missing predictor values when using prediction models in practice.

Methods and results

We compare the widely used method of mean imputation (M-imp) to a method that personalizes the imputations by taking advantage of the observed patient characteristics. These characteristics may include both prediction model variables and other characteristics (auxiliary variables). The method was implemented using imputation from a joint multivariate normal model of the patient characteristics (joint modelling imputation; JMI). Data from two different cardiovascular cohorts with cardiovascular predictors and outcome were used to evaluate the real-time imputation methods. We quantified the prediction model's overall performance [mean squared error (MSE) of linear predictor], discrimination (c-index), calibration (intercept and slope), and net benefit (decision curve analysis). When compared with mean imputation, JMI substantially improved the MSE (0.10 vs. 0.13), c-index (0.70 vs. 0.68), and calibration (calibration-in-the-large: 0.04 vs. 0.06; calibration slope: 1.01 vs. 0.92), especially when incorporating auxiliary variables. When the imputation method was based on an external cohort, calibration deteriorated, but discrimination remained similar.

Conclusions

We recommend JMI with auxiliary variables for real-time imputation of missing values, and to update imputation models when implementing them in new settings or (sub)populations.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjdh/article-pdf/2/1/154/37807088/ztaa016.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztaa016; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9707891; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9707891?pdf=render 31711543,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-019-0214-4,Natural language processing for disease phenotyping in UK primary care records for research: a pilot study in myocardial infarction and death.,"Shah AD, Bailey E, Williams T, Denaxas S, Dobson R, Hemingway H.",,Journal of biomedical semantics,2019,2019-11-12,Y,Myocardial infarction; Chest pain; Primary Care; Natural Language Processing; Free Text,Applied Analytics,,"

Background

Free text in electronic health records (EHR) may contain additional phenotypic information beyond structured (coded) information. For major health events - heart attack and death - there is a lack of studies evaluating the extent to which free text in the primary care record might add information. Our objectives were to describe the contribution of free text in primary care to the recording of information about myocardial infarction (MI), including subtype, left ventricular function, laboratory results and symptoms; and recording of cause of death. We used the CALIBER EHR research platform which contains primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) linked to hospital admission data, the MINAP registry of acute coronary syndromes and the death registry. In CALIBER we randomly selected 2000 patients with MI and 1800 deaths. We implemented a rule-based natural language engine, the Freetext Matching Algorithm, on site at CPRD to analyse free text in the primary care record without raw data being released to researchers. We analysed text recorded within 90 days before or 90 days after the MI, and on or after the date of death.

Results

We extracted 10,927 diagnoses, 3658 test results, 3313 statements of negation, and 850 suspected diagnoses from the myocardial infarction patients. Inclusion of free text increased the recorded proportion of patients with chest pain in the week prior to MI from 19 to 27%, and differentiated between MI subtypes in a quarter more patients than structured data alone. Cause of death was incompletely recorded in primary care; in 36% the cause was in coded data and in 21% it was in free text. Only 47% of patients had exactly the same cause of death in primary care and the death registry, but this did not differ between coded and free text causes of death.

Conclusions

Among patients who suffer MI or die, unstructured free text in primary care records contains much information that is potentially useful for research such as symptoms, investigation results and specific diagnoses. Access to large scale unstructured data in electronic health records (millions of patients) might yield important insights.", NLP methods were used to analyse free text from hospital records for people with MI. They analysed text recorded within 90 days bfore or 90 days after the MI and found that free text in hospital records contains unformation useful for diagnoses,pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-019-0214-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-019-0214-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6849160; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6849160?pdf=render -36609282,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6,A comparison of covariate adjustment approaches under model misspecification in individually randomized trials.,"Tackney MS, Morris T, White I, Leyrat C, Diaz-Ordaz K, Williamson E.",,Trials,2023,2023-01-06,Y,Randomized controlled trials; Iptw; G-computation; Tmle; Covariate Adjustment; Ancova; Misspecification; Aiptw,,,"Adjustment for baseline covariates in randomized trials has been shown to lead to gains in power and can protect against chance imbalances in covariates. For continuous covariates, there is a risk that the the form of the relationship between the covariate and outcome is misspecified when taking an adjusted approach. Using a simulation study focusing on individually randomized trials with small sample sizes, we explore whether a range of adjustment methods are robust to misspecification, either in the covariate-outcome relationship or through an omitted covariate-treatment interaction. Specifically, we aim to identify potential settings where G-computation, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), augmented inverse probability of treatment weighting (AIPTW) and targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) offer improvement over the commonly used analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Our simulations show that all adjustment methods are generally robust to model misspecification if adjusting for a few covariates, sample size is 100 or larger, and there are no covariate-treatment interactions. When there is a non-linear interaction of treatment with a skewed covariate and sample size is small, all adjustment methods can suffer from bias; however, methods that allow for interactions (such as G-computation with interaction and IPTW) show improved results compared to ANCOVA. When there are a high number of covariates to adjust for, ANCOVA retains good properties while other methods suffer from under- or over-coverage. An outstanding issue for G-computation, IPTW and AIPTW in small samples is that standard errors are underestimated; they should be used with caution without the availability of small-sample corrections, development of which is needed. These findings are relevant for covariate adjustment in interim analyses of larger trials.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411?pdf=render +31413164,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019,Allergic diseases and long-term risk of autoimmune disorders: longitudinal cohort study and cluster analysis. ,"Krishna MT, Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Zemedikun DT, Gkoutos GV, Nirantharakumar K.",,The European respiratory journal,2019,2019-11-14,N,,,,"The association between allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders is not well established. Our objective was to determine incidence rates of autoimmune disorders in allergic rhinitis/conjunctivitis (ARC), atopic eczema and asthma, and to investigate for co-occurring patterns. This was a retrospective cohort study (1990-2018) employing data extracted from The Health Improvement Network (UK primary care database). The exposure group comprised ARC, atopic eczema and asthma (all ages). For each exposed patient, up to two randomly selected age- and sex-matched controls with no documented allergic disease were used. Adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRRs) were calculated using Poisson regression. A cross-sectional study was also conducted employing Association Rule Mining (ARM) to investigate disease clusters. 782 320, 1 393 570 and 1 049 868 patients with ARC, atopic eczema and asthma, respectively, were included. aIRRs of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren's syndrome, vitiligo, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, pernicious anaemia, inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis were uniformly higher in the three allergic diseases compared with controls. Specifically, aIRRs of SLE (1.45) and Sjögren's syndrome (1.88) were higher in ARC; aIRRs of SLE (1.44), Sjögren's syndrome (1.61) and myasthenia (1.56) were higher in asthma; and aIRRs of SLE (1.86), Sjögren's syndrome (1.48), vitiligo (1.54) and psoriasis (2.41) were higher in atopic eczema. There was no significant effect of the three allergic diseases on multiple sclerosis or of ARC and atopic eczema on myasthenia. Using ARM, allergic diseases clustered with multiple autoimmune disorders. Three age- and sex-related clusters were identified, with a relatively complex pattern in females ≥55 years old. The long-term risks of autoimmune disorders are significantly higher in patients with allergic diseases. Allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders show age- and sex-related clustering patterns.",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/5/1900476.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019 +36944376,https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373,"The lipid linked oligosaccharide polymerase Wzy and its regulating co-polymerase, Wzz, from enterobacterial common antigen biosynthesis form a complex.","Weckener M, Woodward LS, Clarke BR, Liu H, Ward PN, Le Bas A, Bhella D, Whitfield C, Naismith JH.",,Open biology,2023,2023-03-22,Y,Oligosaccharides; Lipid; Regulating; Polymerase; Wzy,,,"The enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) is a carbohydrate polymer that is associated with the cell envelope in the Enterobacteriaceae. ECA contains a repeating trisaccharide which is polymerized by WzyE, a member of the Wzy membrane protein polymerase superfamily. WzyE activity is regulated by a membrane protein polysaccharide co-polymerase, WzzE. Förster resonance energy transfer experiments demonstrate that WzyE and WzzE from Pectobacterium atrosepticum form a complex in vivo, and immunoblotting and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) analysis confirm a defined stoichiometry of approximately eight WzzE to one WzyE. Low-resolution cryo-EM reconstructions of the complex, aided by an antibody recognizing the C-terminus of WzyE, reveals WzyE sits in the central membrane lumen formed by the octameric arrangement of the transmembrane helices of WzzE. The pairing of Wzy and Wzz is found in polymerization systems for other bacterial polymers, including lipopolysaccharide O-antigens and capsular polysaccharides. The data provide new structural insight into a conserved mechanism for regulating polysaccharide chain length in bacteria.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265?pdf=render 33372069,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038360,Cardiovascular risk prediction using physical performance measures in COPD: results from a multicentre observational study.,"Fermont JM, Fisk M, Bolton CE, MacNee W, Cockcroft JR, Fuld J, Cheriyan J, Mohan D, Mäki-Petäjä KM, Al-Hadithi AB, Tal-Singer R, Müllerova H, Polkey MI, Wood AM, McEniery CM, Wilkinson IB, ERICA consortium.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-12-28,Y,epidemiology; Primary Care; Cardiac Epidemiology; Chronic Airways Disease; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine),,,"

Objectives

Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a common comorbidity associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it is unknown how to improve prediction of cardiovascular (CV) risk in individuals with COPD. Traditional CV risk scores have been tested in different populations but not uniquely in COPD. The potential of alternative markers to improve CV risk prediction in individuals with COPD is unknown. We aimed to determine the predictive value of conventional CVD risk factors in COPD and to determine if additional markers improve prediction beyond conventional factors.

Design

Data from the Evaluation of the Role of Inflammation in Chronic Airways disease cohort, which enrolled 729 individuals with Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage II-IV COPD were used. Linked hospital episode statistics and survival data were prospectively collected for a median 4.6 years of follow-up.

Setting

Five UK centres interested in COPD.

Participants

Population-based sample including 714 individuals with spirometry-defined COPD, smoked at least 10 pack years and who were clinically stable for >4 weeks.

Interventions

Baseline measurements included aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV), carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), C reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, spirometry and Body mass index, airflow Obstruction, Dyspnoea and Exercise capacity (BODE) Index, 6 min walk test (6MWT) and 4 m gait speed (4MGS) test.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

New occurrence (first event) of fatal or non-fatal hospitalised CVD, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Results

Out of 714 participants, 192 (27%) had CV hospitalisation and 6 died due to CVD. The overall CV risk model C-statistic was 0.689 (95% CI 0.688 to 0.691). aPWV and CIMT neither had an association with study outcome nor improved model prediction. CRP, fibrinogen, GOLD stage, BODE Index, 4MGS and 6MWT were associated with the outcome, independently of conventional risk factors (p<0.05 for all). However, only 6MWT improved model discrimination (C=0.727, 95% CI 0.726 to 0.728).

Conclusion

Poor physical performance defined by the 6MWT improves prediction of CV hospitalisation in individuals with COPD.

Trial registration number

ID 11101.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/12/e038360.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038360; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7772292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7772292?pdf=render 36029662,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2022.114623,Triazole-derivatized near-infrared cyanine dyes enable local functional fluorescent imaging of ocular inflammation.,"Thomas CN, Alfahad N, Capewell N, Cowley J, Hickman E, Fernandez A, Harrison N, Qureshi OS, Bennett N, Barnes NM, Dick AD, Chu CJ, Liu X, Denniston AK, Vendrell M, Hill LJ.",,Biosensors & bioelectronics,2022,2022-08-13,N,Leukocytes; Uveitis; Cyanine; Near-infrared; optical coherence tomography; Fluorophores,,,"Near-infrared (NIR) chemical fluorophores are promising tools for in-vivo imaging in real time but often succumb to rapid photodegradation. Indocyanine green (ICG) is the only NIR dye with regulatory approval for ocular imaging in humans; however, ICG, when employed for applications such as labelling immune cells, has limited sensitivity and does not allow precise detection of specific inflammatory events, for example leukocyte recruitment during uveitic flare-ups. We investigated the potential use of photostable novel triazole NIR cyanine (TNC) dyes for detecting and characterising activated T-cell activity within the eye. Three TNC dyes were evaluated for ocular cytotoxicity in-vitro using a MTT assay and optimised concentrations for intraocular detection within ex-vivo porcine eyes after topical application or intracameral injections of the dyes. TNC labelled T-cell tracking experiments and mechanistic studies were also performed in-vitro. TNC-1 and TNC-2 dyes exhibited greater fluorescence intensity than ICG at 10 μM, whereas TNC-3 was only detectable at 100 μM within the porcine eye. TNC dyes did not demonstrate any ocular cell toxicity at working concentrations of 10 μM. CD4+T-cells labelled with TNC-1 or TNC-2 were detected within the porcine eye, with TNC-1 being brighter than TNC-2. Detection of TNC-1 and TNC-2 into CD4+T-cells was prevented by prior incubation with dynole 34-2 (50 μM), suggesting active uptake of these dyes via dynamin-dependent processes. The present study provides evidence that TNC dyes are suitable to detect activated CD4+T-cells within the eye with potential as a diagnostic marker for ocular inflammatory diseases.",,pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/338519213/1_s2.0_S0956566322006637_main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2022.114623 37201609,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2023.05.024,Identifying distinct clinical clusters in heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction.,"Meijs C, Brugts JJ, Lund LH, Linssen GCM, Rocca HB, Dahlström U, Vaartjes I, Koudstaal S, Asselbergs FW, Savarese G, Uijl A.",,International journal of cardiology,2023,2023-05-16,N,Heterogeneity; Clustering; Latent Class Analysis; Heart Failure With Mildly Reduced Ejection Fraction,,,"

Introduction

Heart failure (HF) is a heterogeneous syndrome, and the specific sub-category HF with mildly reduced ejection fraction (EF) range (HFmrEF; 41-49% EF) is only recently recognised as a distinct entity. Cluster analysis can characterise heterogeneous patient populations and could serve as a stratification tool in clinical trials and for prognostication. The aim of this study was to identify clusters in HFmrEF and compare cluster prognosis.

Methods and results

Latent class analysis to cluster HFmrEF patients based on their characteristics was performed in the Swedish HF registry (n = 7316). Identified clusters were validated in a Dutch cross-sectional HF registry-based dataset CHECK-HF (n = 1536). In Sweden, mortality and hospitalisation across the clusters were compared using a Cox proportional hazard model, with a Fine-Gray sub-distribution for competing risks and adjustment for age and sex. Six clusters were discovered with the following prevalence and hazard ratio with 95% confidence intervals (HR [95%CI]) vs. cluster 1: 1) low-comorbidity (17%, reference), 2) ischaemic-male (13%, HR 0.9 [95% CI 0.7-1.1]), 3) atrial fibrillation (20%, HR 1.5 [95% CI 1.2-1.9]), 4) device/wide QRS (9%, HR 2.7 [95% CI 2.2-3.4]), 5) metabolic (19%, HR 3.1 [95% CI 2.5-3.7]) and 6) cardio-renal phenotype (22%, HR 2.8 [95% CI 2.2-3.6]). The cluster model was robust between both datasets.

Conclusion

We found robust clusters with potential clinical meaning and differences in mortality and hospitalisation. Our clustering model could be valuable as a clinical differentiation support and prognostic tool in clinical trial design.",,pdf:https://pure.eur.nl/files/93233169/Identifying_distinct_clinical_clusters_in_heart_failure_with_mildly_reduced_ejection_fraction.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2023.05.024 -36774358,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7,Genomic and microenvironmental heterogeneity shaping epithelial-to-mesenchymal trajectories in cancer. ,"Malagoli Tagliazucchi G, Wiecek AJ, Withnell E, Secrier M.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-02-11,Y,,,,"The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key cellular process underlying cancer progression, with multiple intermediate states whose molecular hallmarks remain poorly characterised. To fill this gap, we present a method to robustly evaluate EMT transformation in individual tumours based on transcriptomic signals. We apply this approach to explore EMT trajectories in 7180 tumours of epithelial origin and identify three macro-states with prognostic and therapeutic value, attributable to epithelial, hybrid E/M and mesenchymal phenotypes. We show that the hybrid state is relatively stable and linked with increased aneuploidy. We further employ spatial transcriptomics and single cell datasets to explore the spatial heterogeneity of EMT transformation and distinct interaction patterns with cytotoxic, NK cells and fibroblasts in the tumour microenvironment. Additionally, we provide a catalogue of genomic events underlying distinct evolutionary constraints on EMT transformation. This study sheds light on the aetiology of distinct stages along the EMT trajectory, and highlights broader genomic and environmental hallmarks shaping the mesenchymal transformation of primary tumours.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36439-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305?pdf=render -33939952,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00949-1,COVID-19 and disparities affecting ethnic minorities.,"Morales DR, Ali SN.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9755653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00949-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653?pdf=render -36456017,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288,"Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on timeliness and equity of measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations in North East London: a longitudinal study using electronic health records.","Firman N, Marszalek M, Gutierrez A, Homer K, Williams C, Harper G, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Robson J, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Public Health; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To quantify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the timeliness of, and geographical and sociodemographic inequalities in, receipt of first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Design

Longitudinal study using primary care electronic health records.

Setting

285 general practices in North East London.

Participants

Children born between 23 August 2017 and 22 September 2018 (pre-pandemic cohort) or between 23 March 2019 and 1 May 2020 (pandemic cohort).

Main outcome measure

Receipt of timely MMR vaccination between 12 and 18 months of age.

Methods

We used logistic regression to estimate the ORs (95% CIs) of receipt of a timely vaccination adjusting for sex, deprivation, ethnic background and Clinical Commissioning Group. We plotted choropleth maps of the proportion receiving timely vaccinations.

Results

Timely MMR receipt fell by 4.0% (95% CI: 3.4% to 4.6%) from 79.2% (78.8% to 79.6%) to 75.2% (74.7% to 75.7%) in the pre-pandemic (n=33 226; 51.3% boys) and pandemic (n=32 446; 51.4%) cohorts, respectively. After adjustment, timely vaccination was less likely in the pandemic cohort (0.79; 0.76 to 0.82), children from black (0.70; 0.65 to 0.76), mixed/other (0.77; 0.72 to 0.82) or with missing (0.77; 0.74 to 0.81) ethnic background, and more likely in girls (1.07; 1.03 to 1.11) and those from South Asian backgrounds (1.39; 1.30 to 1.48). Children living in the least deprived areas were more likely to receive a timely MMR (2.09; 1.78 to 2.46) but there was no interaction between cohorts and deprivation (Wald statistic: 3.44; p=0.49). The proportion of neighbourhoods where less than 60% of children received timely vaccination increased from 7.5% to 12.7% during the pandemic.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant fall in timely MMR receipt and increased geographical clustering of measles susceptibility in an area of historically low and inequitable MMR coverage. Immediate action is needed to avert measles outbreaks and support primary care to deliver timely and equitable vaccinations.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e066288.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415?pdf=render +36609282,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6,A comparison of covariate adjustment approaches under model misspecification in individually randomized trials.,"Tackney MS, Morris T, White I, Leyrat C, Diaz-Ordaz K, Williamson E.",,Trials,2023,2023-01-06,Y,Randomized controlled trials; Iptw; G-computation; Tmle; Covariate Adjustment; Ancova; Misspecification; Aiptw,,,"Adjustment for baseline covariates in randomized trials has been shown to lead to gains in power and can protect against chance imbalances in covariates. For continuous covariates, there is a risk that the the form of the relationship between the covariate and outcome is misspecified when taking an adjusted approach. Using a simulation study focusing on individually randomized trials with small sample sizes, we explore whether a range of adjustment methods are robust to misspecification, either in the covariate-outcome relationship or through an omitted covariate-treatment interaction. Specifically, we aim to identify potential settings where G-computation, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), augmented inverse probability of treatment weighting (AIPTW) and targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) offer improvement over the commonly used analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Our simulations show that all adjustment methods are generally robust to model misspecification if adjusting for a few covariates, sample size is 100 or larger, and there are no covariate-treatment interactions. When there is a non-linear interaction of treatment with a skewed covariate and sample size is small, all adjustment methods can suffer from bias; however, methods that allow for interactions (such as G-computation with interaction and IPTW) show improved results compared to ANCOVA. When there are a high number of covariates to adjust for, ANCOVA retains good properties while other methods suffer from under- or over-coverage. An outstanding issue for G-computation, IPTW and AIPTW in small samples is that standard errors are underestimated; they should be used with caution without the availability of small-sample corrections, development of which is needed. These findings are relevant for covariate adjustment in interim analyses of larger trials.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411?pdf=render 32738956,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31286-1,Atopic dermatitis.,"Langan SM, Irvine AD, Weidinger S.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-08-01,N,,,,"Atopic dermatitis is a common inflammatory skin disorder characterised by recurrent eczematous lesions and intense itch. The disorder affects people of all ages and ethnicities, has a substantial psychosocial impact on patients and relatives, and is the leading cause of the global burden from skin disease. Atopic dermatitis is associated with increased risk of multiple comorbidities, including food allergy, asthma, allergic rhinitis, and mental health disorders. The pathophysiology is complex and involves a strong genetic predisposition, epidermal dysfunction, and T-cell driven inflammation. Although type-2 mechanisms are dominant, there is increasing evidence that the disorder involves multiple immune pathways. Currently, there is no cure, but increasing numbers of innovative and targeted therapies hold promise for achieving disease control, including in patients with recalcitrant disease. We summarise and discuss advances in our understanding of the disease and their implications for prevention, management, and future research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31286-1 -30928915,https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085,Comparison of revised Functional Capacity Index scores with Abbreviated Injury Scale 2008 scores in predicting 12-month severe trauma outcomes.,"Palmer CS, Cameron PA, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention,2020,2019-03-30,N,Trauma Registry; Trauma Scoring; Functional Outcomes; Prediction Models; Abbreviated Injury Scale; Major Trauma; Functional Capacity Index; 12-Month Outcomes,,,"

Introduction

Anatomical injury as measured by the AIS often accounts for only a small proportion of variability in outcomes after injury. The predictive Functional Capacity Index (FCI) appended to the 2008 AIS claims to provide a widely available method of predicting 12-month function following injury.

Objectives

To determine the extent to which AIS-based and FCI-based scoring is able to add to a simple predictive model of 12-month function following severe injury.

Methods

Adult trauma patients were drawn from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. Major trauma and severely injured orthopaedic trauma patients were followed up via telephone interview including Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, the EQ-5D-3L and return to work status. A battery of AIS-based and FCI-based scores, and a simple count of AIS-coded injuries were added in turn to a base model using age and gender.

Results

A total of 20 813 patients survived to 12 months and had at least one functional outcome recorded, representing 85% follow-up. Predictions using the base model varied substantially across outcome measures. Irrespective of the method used to classify the severity of injury, adding injury severity to the model significantly, but only slightly improved model fit. Across the outcomes evaluated, no method of injury severity assessment consistently outperformed any other.

Conclusions

Anatomical injury is a predictor of trauma outcome. However, injury severity as described by the FCI does not consistently improve discrimination, or even provide the best discrimination compared with AIS-based severity scores or a simple injury count.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50163/Download/0050163-25062019060819.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085 -35983770,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2022.27.33.2100885,"Recording of 'COVID-19 vaccine declined': a cohort study on 57.9 million National Health Service patients' records in situ using OpenSAFELY, England, 8 December 2020 to 25 May 2021.","Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Croker R, Hulme WJ, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Mathur R, Morton CE, Bacon SC, Smith RM, Evans D, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Walker AJ, Bates C, Hickman G, Ward T, Morley J, Cockburn J, Davy S, Williamson EJ, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Vaccination; Vaccine Hesitancy; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"BackgroundPriority patients in England were offered COVID-19 vaccination by mid-April 2021. Codes in clinical record systems can denote the vaccine being declined.AimWe describe records of COVID-19 vaccines being declined, according to clinical and demographic factors.MethodsWith the approval of NHS England, we conducted a retrospective cohort study between 8 December 2020 and 25 May 2021 with primary care records for 57.9 million patients using OpenSAFELY, a secure health analytics platform. COVID-19 vaccination priority patients were those aged ≥ 50 years or ≥ 16 years clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) or 'at risk'. We describe the proportion recorded as declining vaccination for each group and stratified by clinical and demographic subgroups, subsequent vaccination and distribution of clinical code usage across general practices.ResultsOf 24.5 million priority patients, 663,033 (2.7%) had a decline recorded, while 2,155,076 (8.8%) had neither a vaccine nor decline recorded. Those recorded as declining, who were subsequently vaccinated (n = 125,587; 18.9%) were overrepresented in the South Asian population (32.3% vs 22.8% for other ethnicities aged ≥ 65 years). The proportion of declining unvaccinated patients was highest in CEV (3.3%), varied strongly with ethnicity (black 15.3%, South Asian 5.6%, white 1.5% for ≥ 80 years) and correlated positively with increasing deprivation.ConclusionsClinical codes indicative of COVID-19 vaccinations being declined are commonly used in England, but substantially more common among black and South Asian people, and in more deprived areas. Qualitative research is needed to determine typical reasons for recorded declines, including to what extent they reflect patients actively declining.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/33/eurosurv-27-33-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9389857 35115689,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00991-z,Combined effects of host genetics and diet on human gut microbiota and incident disease in a single population cohort.,"Qin Y, Havulinna AS, Liu Y, Jousilahti P, Ritchie SC, Tokolyi A, Sanders JG, Valsta L, Brożyńska M, Zhu Q, Tripathi A, Vázquez-Baeza Y, Loomba R, Cheng S, Jain M, Niiranen T, Lahti L, Knight R, Salomaa V, Inouye M, Méric G.",,Nature genetics,2022,2022-02-03,N,,,,"Human genetic variation affects the gut microbiota through a complex combination of environmental and host factors. Here we characterize genetic variations associated with microbial abundances in a single large-scale population-based cohort of 5,959 genotyped individuals with matched gut microbial metagenomes, and dietary and health records (prevalent and follow-up). We identified 567 independent SNP-taxon associations. Variants at the LCT locus associated with Bifidobacterium and other taxa, but they differed according to dairy intake. Furthermore, levels of Faecalicatena lactaris associated with ABO, and suggested preferential utilization of secreted blood antigens as energy source in the gut. Enterococcus faecalis levels associated with variants in the MED13L locus, which has been linked to colorectal cancer. Mendelian randomization analysis indicated a potential causal effect of Morganella on major depressive disorder, consistent with observational incident disease analysis. Overall, we identify and characterize the intricate nature of host-microbiota interactions and their association with disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00991-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00991-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883041?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00991-z +36774358,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7,Genomic and microenvironmental heterogeneity shaping epithelial-to-mesenchymal trajectories in cancer. ,"Malagoli Tagliazucchi G, Wiecek AJ, Withnell E, Secrier M.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-02-11,Y,,,,"The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key cellular process underlying cancer progression, with multiple intermediate states whose molecular hallmarks remain poorly characterised. To fill this gap, we present a method to robustly evaluate EMT transformation in individual tumours based on transcriptomic signals. We apply this approach to explore EMT trajectories in 7180 tumours of epithelial origin and identify three macro-states with prognostic and therapeutic value, attributable to epithelial, hybrid E/M and mesenchymal phenotypes. We show that the hybrid state is relatively stable and linked with increased aneuploidy. We further employ spatial transcriptomics and single cell datasets to explore the spatial heterogeneity of EMT transformation and distinct interaction patterns with cytotoxic, NK cells and fibroblasts in the tumour microenvironment. Additionally, we provide a catalogue of genomic events underlying distinct evolutionary constraints on EMT transformation. This study sheds light on the aetiology of distinct stages along the EMT trajectory, and highlights broader genomic and environmental hallmarks shaping the mesenchymal transformation of primary tumours.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36439-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305?pdf=render 34753797,https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0320,An Expanded Genome-Wide Association Study of Fructosamine Levels Identifies RCN3 as a Replicating Locus and Implicates FCGRT as the Effector Transcript.,"Riveros-Mckay F, Roberts D, Di Angelantonio E, Yu B, Soranzo N, Danesh J, Selvin E, Butterworth AS, Barroso I.",,Diabetes,2022,2022-02-01,N,,,,"Fructosamine is a measure of short-term glycemic control, which has been suggested as a useful complement to glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) for the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes. To date, a single genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 8,951 U.S. White and 2,712 U.S. Black individuals without a diabetes diagnosis has been published. Results in Whites and Blacks yielded different association loci, near RCN3 and CNTN5, respectively. In this study, we performed a GWAS on 20,731 European-ancestry blood donors and meta-analyzed our results with previous data from U.S. White participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study (Nmeta = 29,685). We identified a novel association near GCK (rs3757840, βmeta = 0.0062; minor allele frequency [MAF] = 0.49; Pmeta = 3.66 × 10-8) and confirmed the association near RCN3 (rs113886122, βmeta = 0.0134; MAF = 0.17; Pmeta = 5.71 × 10-18). Colocalization analysis with whole-blood expression quantitative trait loci data suggested FCGRT as the effector transcript at the RCN3 locus. We further showed that fructosamine has low heritability (h2 = 7.7%), has no significant genetic correlation with HbA1c and other glycemic traits in individuals without a diabetes diagnosis (P > 0.05), but has evidence of shared genetic etiology with some anthropometric traits (Bonferroni-corrected P < 0.0012). Our results broaden knowledge of the genetic architecture of fructosamine and prioritize FCGRT for downstream functional studies at the established RCN3 locus.",,pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article-pdf/71/2/359/640867/db210320.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0320; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8914280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8914280?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0320 +30928915,https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085,Comparison of revised Functional Capacity Index scores with Abbreviated Injury Scale 2008 scores in predicting 12-month severe trauma outcomes.,"Palmer CS, Cameron PA, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention,2020,2019-03-30,N,Trauma Registry; Trauma Scoring; Functional Outcomes; Prediction Models; Abbreviated Injury Scale; Major Trauma; Functional Capacity Index; 12-Month Outcomes,,,"

Introduction

Anatomical injury as measured by the AIS often accounts for only a small proportion of variability in outcomes after injury. The predictive Functional Capacity Index (FCI) appended to the 2008 AIS claims to provide a widely available method of predicting 12-month function following injury.

Objectives

To determine the extent to which AIS-based and FCI-based scoring is able to add to a simple predictive model of 12-month function following severe injury.

Methods

Adult trauma patients were drawn from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. Major trauma and severely injured orthopaedic trauma patients were followed up via telephone interview including Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, the EQ-5D-3L and return to work status. A battery of AIS-based and FCI-based scores, and a simple count of AIS-coded injuries were added in turn to a base model using age and gender.

Results

A total of 20 813 patients survived to 12 months and had at least one functional outcome recorded, representing 85% follow-up. Predictions using the base model varied substantially across outcome measures. Irrespective of the method used to classify the severity of injury, adding injury severity to the model significantly, but only slightly improved model fit. Across the outcomes evaluated, no method of injury severity assessment consistently outperformed any other.

Conclusions

Anatomical injury is a predictor of trauma outcome. However, injury severity as described by the FCI does not consistently improve discrimination, or even provide the best discrimination compared with AIS-based severity scores or a simple injury count.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50163/Download/0050163-25062019060819.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085 32817390,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000010463,"Sleep, major depressive disorder, and Alzheimer disease: A Mendelian randomization study.","Huang J, Zuber V, Matthews PM, Elliott P, Tzoulaki J, Dehghan A.",,Neurology,2020,2020-08-19,Y,,,,"

Objective

To explore the causal relationships between sleep, major depressive disorder (MDD), and Alzheimer disease (AD).

Methods

We conducted bidirectional 2-sample Mendelian randomization analyses. Genetic associations were obtained from the largest genome-wide association studies currently available in UK Biobank (n = 446,118), Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (n = 18,759), and International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (n = 63,926). We used the inverse variance-weighted Mendelian randomization method to estimate causal effects and weighted median and Mendelian randomization-Egger for sensitivity analyses to test for pleiotropic effects.

Results

We found that higher risk of AD was significantly associated with being a ""morning person"" (odds ratio [OR] 1.01, p = 0.001), shorter sleep duration (self-reported: β = -0.006, p = 1.9 × 10-4; accelerometer based: β = -0.015, p = 6.9 × 10-5), less likely to report long sleep (β = -0.003, p = 7.3 × 10-7), earlier timing of the least active 5 hours (β = -0.024, p = 1.7 × 10-13), and a smaller number of sleep episodes (β = -0.025, p = 5.7 × 10-14) after adjustment for multiple comparisons. We also found that higher risk of AD was associated with lower risk of insomnia (OR 0.99, p = 7 × 10-13). However, we did not find evidence that these abnormal sleep patterns were causally related to AD or for a significant causal relationship between MDD and risk of AD.

Conclusion

We found that AD may causally influence sleep patterns. However, we did not find evidence supporting a causal role of disturbed sleep patterns for AD or evidence for a causal relationship between MDD and AD.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/95/14/e1963.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000010463; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7682841; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7682841?pdf=render +36456017,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288,"Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on timeliness and equity of measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations in North East London: a longitudinal study using electronic health records.","Firman N, Marszalek M, Gutierrez A, Homer K, Williams C, Harper G, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Robson J, Dezateux C.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Public Health; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To quantify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the timeliness of, and geographical and sociodemographic inequalities in, receipt of first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Design

Longitudinal study using primary care electronic health records.

Setting

285 general practices in North East London.

Participants

Children born between 23 August 2017 and 22 September 2018 (pre-pandemic cohort) or between 23 March 2019 and 1 May 2020 (pandemic cohort).

Main outcome measure

Receipt of timely MMR vaccination between 12 and 18 months of age.

Methods

We used logistic regression to estimate the ORs (95% CIs) of receipt of a timely vaccination adjusting for sex, deprivation, ethnic background and Clinical Commissioning Group. We plotted choropleth maps of the proportion receiving timely vaccinations.

Results

Timely MMR receipt fell by 4.0% (95% CI: 3.4% to 4.6%) from 79.2% (78.8% to 79.6%) to 75.2% (74.7% to 75.7%) in the pre-pandemic (n=33 226; 51.3% boys) and pandemic (n=32 446; 51.4%) cohorts, respectively. After adjustment, timely vaccination was less likely in the pandemic cohort (0.79; 0.76 to 0.82), children from black (0.70; 0.65 to 0.76), mixed/other (0.77; 0.72 to 0.82) or with missing (0.77; 0.74 to 0.81) ethnic background, and more likely in girls (1.07; 1.03 to 1.11) and those from South Asian backgrounds (1.39; 1.30 to 1.48). Children living in the least deprived areas were more likely to receive a timely MMR (2.09; 1.78 to 2.46) but there was no interaction between cohorts and deprivation (Wald statistic: 3.44; p=0.49). The proportion of neighbourhoods where less than 60% of children received timely vaccination increased from 7.5% to 12.7% during the pandemic.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant fall in timely MMR receipt and increased geographical clustering of measles susceptibility in an area of historically low and inequitable MMR coverage. Immediate action is needed to avert measles outbreaks and support primary care to deliver timely and equitable vaccinations.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e066288.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415?pdf=render +33939952,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00949-1,COVID-19 and disparities affecting ethnic minorities.,"Morales DR, Ali SN.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-04-30,Y,,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9755653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00949-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653?pdf=render +35983770,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2022.27.33.2100885,"Recording of 'COVID-19 vaccine declined': a cohort study on 57.9 million National Health Service patients' records in situ using OpenSAFELY, England, 8 December 2020 to 25 May 2021.","Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Croker R, Hulme WJ, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Mathur R, Morton CE, Bacon SC, Smith RM, Evans D, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Walker AJ, Bates C, Hickman G, Ward T, Morley J, Cockburn J, Davy S, Williamson EJ, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Vaccination; Vaccine Hesitancy; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"BackgroundPriority patients in England were offered COVID-19 vaccination by mid-April 2021. Codes in clinical record systems can denote the vaccine being declined.AimWe describe records of COVID-19 vaccines being declined, according to clinical and demographic factors.MethodsWith the approval of NHS England, we conducted a retrospective cohort study between 8 December 2020 and 25 May 2021 with primary care records for 57.9 million patients using OpenSAFELY, a secure health analytics platform. COVID-19 vaccination priority patients were those aged ≥ 50 years or ≥ 16 years clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) or 'at risk'. We describe the proportion recorded as declining vaccination for each group and stratified by clinical and demographic subgroups, subsequent vaccination and distribution of clinical code usage across general practices.ResultsOf 24.5 million priority patients, 663,033 (2.7%) had a decline recorded, while 2,155,076 (8.8%) had neither a vaccine nor decline recorded. Those recorded as declining, who were subsequently vaccinated (n = 125,587; 18.9%) were overrepresented in the South Asian population (32.3% vs 22.8% for other ethnicities aged ≥ 65 years). The proportion of declining unvaccinated patients was highest in CEV (3.3%), varied strongly with ethnicity (black 15.3%, South Asian 5.6%, white 1.5% for ≥ 80 years) and correlated positively with increasing deprivation.ConclusionsClinical codes indicative of COVID-19 vaccinations being declined are commonly used in England, but substantially more common among black and South Asian people, and in more deprived areas. Qualitative research is needed to determine typical reasons for recorded declines, including to what extent they reflect patients actively declining.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/33/eurosurv-27-33-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9389857 37699620,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-074626,Development of the TrAnsparent ReportinG of observational studies Emulating a Target trial (TARGET) guideline.,"Hansford HJ, Cashin AG, Jones MD, Swanson SA, Islam N, Dahabreh IJ, Dickerman BA, Egger M, Garcia-Albeniz X, Golub RM, Lodi S, Moreno-Betancur M, Pearson SA, Schneeweiss S, Sterne J, Sharp MK, Stuart EA, Hernan MA, Lee H, McAuley JH.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-09-12,Y,Retrospective studies; epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods,,,"

Background

Observational studies are increasingly used to inform health decision-making when randomised trials are not feasible, ethical or timely. The target trial approach provides a framework to help minimise common biases in observational studies that aim to estimate the causal effect of interventions. Incomplete reporting of studies using the target trial framework limits the ability for clinicians, researchers, patients and other decision-makers to appraise, synthesise and interpret findings to inform clinical and public health practice and policy. This paper describes the methods that we will use to develop the TrAnsparent ReportinG of observational studies Emulating a Target trial (TARGET) reporting guideline.

Methods/design

The TARGET reporting guideline will be developed in five stages following recommended guidance. The first stage will identify target trial reporting practices by systematically reviewing published studies that explicitly emulated a target trial. The second stage will identify and refine items to be considered for inclusion in the TARGET guideline by consulting content experts using sequential online surveys. The third stage will prioritise and consolidate key items to be included in the TARGET guideline at an in-person consensus meeting of TARGET investigators. The fourth stage will produce and pilot-test both the TARGET guideline and explanation and elaboration document with relevant stakeholders. The fifth stage will disseminate the TARGET guideline and resources via journals, conferences and courses.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval for the survey has been attained (HC220536). The TARGET guideline will be disseminated widely in partnership with stakeholders to maximise adoption and improve reporting of these studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-074626; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10503363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10503363?pdf=render 33033797,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100560,Investigating the effects of comprehensive smoke-free legislation on neonatal and infant mortality in Thailand using the synthetic control method.,"Radó MK, van Lenthe FJ, Sheikh A, Been JV.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-10-02,Y,Thailand; Infant Mortality; Child Health; Smoke-free Legislation; Synthetic Control Method,,,"

Background

Almost all of the evidence on the benefits of smoke-free legislation on child health comes from evaluations in high-income countries. We investigated the effects of Thailand's 2010 comprehensive smoke-free legislation on neonatal and infant mortality.

Methods

To overcome some of the methodological issues inherent to traditional quasi-experimental methods, we applied the novel synthetic control approach. Using 2001-2017 country-level panel data from the World Bank and Penn World datasets, we estimated the effects of smoke-free legislation as the difference between the outcome trends in Thailand versus those in a synthetic control country. The synthetic control country was composed of 'control' middle-income countries without comprehensive smoke-free legislation to recreate trends in Thailand in the 2001-2009 pre-legislation outcomes and covariates. We compared the legislation effects to 'placebo effects' obtained for each control country by fictitiously assuming that comprehensive smoke-free legislation was introduced there in 2010, similar to Thailand.

Findings

Neonatal and infant mortality decreased by 2.9% and 2.8%/year respectively following smoke-free legislation, with an estimated 7463 infant deaths (including 4623 neonatal deaths) having been averted over eight years. The results were robust to different specifications of the control countries. Comparison with placebo effects indicated that the findings were unlikely to be attributable to factors other than the smoke-free legislation.

Interpretation

Expanding comprehensive smoke-free policies to middle-income countries can support national efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for reducing preventable early-life deaths.

Funding

Netherlands Lung Foundation, HDRUK, Asthma UK center for Applied Research and NIHR Global Respiratory Health Unit (RESPIRE).",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537020303047/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100560; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7533363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7533363?pdf=render PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeat cross-sectional UK population survey","John A, Lee S, Solomon S, Crepaz-Keay D, McDaid S, Morton A, Davidson G, Van Bortel T, Kousoulis A.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Mental health; Public Health; Suicide & Self-harm; Covid-19,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8718341/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8718341/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8718341; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8718341?pdf=render 33905476,https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab192,Model-Based Geostatistical Methods Enable Efficient Design and Analysis of Prevalence Surveys for Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infection and Other Neglected Tropical Diseases.,"Johnson O, Fronterre C, Amoah B, Montresor A, Giorgi E, Midzi N, Mutsaka-Makuvaza MJ, Kargbo-Labor I, Hodges MH, Zhang Y, Okoyo C, Mwandawiro C, Minnery M, Diggle PJ.",,Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America,2021,2021-06-01,Y,Geospatial Analysis; Prevalence Survey; Soil-transmitted Helminth Infection; Model-based Geostatistics; Control Of Neglected Tropical Diseases; Impact Survey,,,"Maps of the geographical variation in prevalence play an important role in large-scale programs for the control of neglected tropical diseases. Precontrol mapping is needed to establish the appropriate control intervention in each area of the country in question. Mapping is also needed postintervention to measure the success of control efforts. In the absence of comprehensive disease registries, mapping efforts can be informed by 2 kinds of data: empirical estimates of local prevalence obtained by testing individuals from a sample of communities within the geographical region of interest, and digital images of environmental factors that are predictive of local prevalence. In this article, we focus on the design and analysis of impact surveys, that is, prevalence surveys that are conducted postintervention with the aim of informing decisions on what further intervention, if any, is needed to achieve elimination of the disease as a public health problem. We show that geospatial statistical methods enable prevalence surveys to be designed and analyzed as efficiently as possible so as to make best use of hard-won field data. We use 3 case studies based on data from soil-transmitted helminth impact surveys in Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe to compare the predictive performance of model-based geostatistics with methods described in current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. In all 3 cases, we find that model-based geostatistics substantially outperforms the current WHO guidelines, delivering improved precision for reduced field-sampling effort. We argue from experience that similar improvements will hold for prevalence mapping of other neglected tropical diseases.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cid/article-pdf/72/Supplement_3/S172/38618862/ciab192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201574; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201574?pdf=render 36457326,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337,Seroepidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 on a partially vaccinated island in Brazil: Determinants of infection and vaccine response.,"Cerbino-Neto J, Peres IT, Varela MC, Brandão LGP, de Matos JA, Pinto LF, da Costa MD, Garcia MHO, Soranz D, Maia MLS, Krieger MA, da Cunha RV, Camacho LAB, Ranzani O, Hamacher S, Bozza FA, Penna GO.",,Frontiers in public health,2022,2022-11-14,Y,Vaccine; Antibody response; risk factors; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Seropositivity; Covid-19,,,"

Background

A vaccination campaign targeted adults in response to the pandemic in the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Objective

We aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and identify factors associated with seropositivity on vaccinated and unvaccinated residents.

Methods

We performed a seroepidemiologic survey in all residents of Paquetá Island, a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro city, during the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Serological tests were performed from June 16 to June 19, 2021, and adjusted seropositivity rates were estimated by age and epidemiological variables. Logistic regression models were used to estimate adjusted ORs for risk factors to SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in non-vaccinated individuals, and potential determinants of the magnitude of antibody responses in the seropositive population.

Results

We included in the study 3,016 residents of Paquetá (83.5% of the island population). The crude seroprevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in our sample was 53.6% (95% CI = 51.0, 56.3). The risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in non-vaccinated individuals were history of confirmed previous COVID-19 infection (OR = 4.74; 95% CI = 3.3, 7.0), being a household contact of a case (OR = 1.93; 95% CI = 1.5, 2.6) and in-person learning (OR = 2.01; 95% CI = 1.4, 3.0). Potential determinants of the magnitude of antibody responses among the seropositive were hybrid immunity, the type of vaccine received, and time since the last vaccine dose. Being vaccinated with Pfizer or AstraZeneca (Beta = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.8, 2.6) determined higher antibody titers than those observed with CoronaVac (Beta = 1.2; 95% CI = 0.9, 1.5).

Conclusions

Our study highlights the impact of vaccination on COVID-19 collective immunity even in a highly affected population, showing the difference in antibody titers achieved with different vaccines and how they wane with time, reinforcing how these factors should be considered when estimating effectiveness of a vaccination program at any given time. We also found that hybrid immunity was superior to both infection-induced and vaccine-induced immunity alone, and online learning protected students from COVID-19 exposure.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017337; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9706255; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9706255?pdf=render 34535484,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050647,The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH): protocol for a prospective longitudinal cohort study of healthcare and ancillary workers in UK healthcare settings.,"Woolf K, Melbourne C, Bryant L, Guyatt AL, McManus IC, Gupta A, Free RC, Nellums L, Carr S, John C, Martin CA, Wain LV, Gray LJ, Garwood C, Modhwadia V, Abrams KR, Tobin MD, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group+.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-09-17,Y,Mental health; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality and devastated economies globally. Among groups at increased risk are healthcare workers (HCWs) and ethnic minority groups. Emerging evidence suggests that HCWs from ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of adverse COVID-19-related outcomes. To date, there has been no large-scale analysis of these risks in UK HCWs or ancillary workers in healthcare settings, stratified by ethnicity or occupation, and adjusted for confounders. This paper reports the protocol for a prospective longitudinal questionnaire study of UK HCWs, as part of the UK-REACH programme (The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers).

Methods and analysis

A baseline questionnaire will be administered to a national cohort of UK HCWs and ancillary workers in healthcare settings, and those registered with UK healthcare regulators, with follow-up questionnaires administered at 4 and 8 months. With consent, questionnaire data will be linked to health records with 25-year follow-up. Univariate associations between ethnicity and clinical COVID-19 outcomes, physical and mental health, and key confounders/explanatory variables will be tested. Multivariable analyses will test for associations between ethnicity and key outcomes adjusted for the confounder/explanatory variables. We will model changes over time by ethnic group, facilitating understanding of absolute and relative risks in different ethnic groups, and generalisability of findings.

Ethics and dissemination

The study is approved by Health Research Authority (reference 20/HRA/4718), and carries minimal risk. We aim to manage the small risk of participant distress about questions on sensitive topics by clearly participant information that the questionnaire covers sensitive topics and there is no obligation to answer these or any other questions, and by providing support organisation links. Results will be disseminated with reports to Government and papers submitted to pre-print servers and peer reviewed journals.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602; Pre-results.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/9/e050647.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050647; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8450967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8450967?pdf=render +33206055,https://doi.org/10.2196/19650,Mobile Clinical Decision Support System for the Management of Diabetic Patients With Kidney Complications in UK Primary Care Settings: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.,"Alhodaib HI, Antza C, Chandan JS, Hanif W, Sankaranarayanan S, Paul S, Sutcliffe P, Nirantharakumar K.",,JMIR diabetes,2020,2020-11-18,Y,Diabetes mellitus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Feasibility Study; Ehealth; Clinical Decision Support Application,,,"

Background

Attempts to utilize eHealth in diabetes mellitus (DM) management have shown promising outcomes, mostly targeted at patients; however, few solutions have been designed for health care providers.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to conduct a feasibility project developing and evaluating a mobile clinical decision support system (CDSS) tool exclusively for health care providers to manage chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with DM.

Methods

The design process was based on the 3 key stages of the user-centered design framework. First, an exploratory qualitative study collected the experiences and views of DM specialist nurses regarding the use of mobile apps in clinical practice. Second, a CDSS tool was developed for the management of patients with DM and CKD. Finally, a randomized controlled trial examined the acceptability and impact of the tool.

Results

We interviewed 15 DM specialist nurses. DM specialist nurses were not currently using eHealth solutions in their clinical practice, while most nurses were not even aware of existing medical apps. However, they appreciated the potential benefits that apps may bring to their clinical practice. Taking into consideration the needs and preferences of end users, a new mobile CDSS app, ""Diabetes & CKD,"" was developed based on guidelines. We recruited 39 junior foundation year 1 doctors (44% male) to evaluate the app. Of them, 44% (17/39) were allocated to the intervention group, and 56% (22/39) were allocated to the control group. There was no significant difference in scores (maximum score=13) assessing the management decisions between the app and paper-based version of the app's algorithm (intervention group: mean 7.24 points, SD 2.46 points; control group: mean 7.39, SD 2.56; t37=-0.19, P=.85). However, 82% (14/17) of the participants were satisfied with using the app.

Conclusions

The findings will guide the design of future CDSS apps for the management of DM, aiming to help health care providers with a personalized approach depending on patients' comorbidities, specifically CKD, in accordance with guidelines.",,pdf:https://diabetes.jmir.org/2020/4/e19650/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/19650; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444?pdf=render 36060542,https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.939292,Clinical deployment environments: Five pillars of translational machine learning for health.,"Harris S, Bonnici T, Keen T, Lilaonitkul W, White MJ, Swanepoel N.",,Frontiers in digital health,2022,2022-08-19,Y,Safety; Artificial intelligence; Machine Learning; Health Informatics; Translational Medicine; Ml-ops,,,"Machine Learning for Health (ML4H) has demonstrated efficacy in computer imaging and other self-contained digital workflows, but has failed to substantially impact routine clinical care. This is no longer because of poor adoption of Electronic Health Records Systems (EHRS), but because ML4H needs an infrastructure for development, deployment and evaluation within the healthcare institution. In this paper, we propose a design pattern called a Clinical Deployment Environment (CDE). We sketch the five pillars of the CDE: (1) real world development supported by live data where ML4H teams can iteratively build and test at the bedside (2) an ML-Ops platform that brings the rigour and standards of continuous deployment to ML4H (3) design and supervision by those with expertise in AI safety (4) the methods of implementation science that enable the algorithmic insights to influence the behaviour of clinicians and patients and (5) continuous evaluation that uses randomisation to avoid bias but in an agile manner. The CDE is intended to answer the same requirements that bio-medicine articulated in establishing the translational medicine domain. It envisions a transition from ""real-world"" data to ""real-world"" development.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2022.939292/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.939292; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9437594; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9437594?pdf=render 34950917,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100248,"Late effects of cancer in children, teenagers and young adults: Population-based study on the burden of 183 conditions, in-patient and critical care admissions and years of life lost.","Chang WH, Katsoulis M, Tan YY, Mueller SH, Green K, Lai AG.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2021-11-14,Y,"Primary Care; Hospitalisation; Cancer Treatment; Years Of Life Lost; Cancer Late Effects; Children, Teenagers And Young Adults",,,"

Background

Children, teenagers and young adults who survived cancer are prone to developing late effects. The burden of late effects across a large number of conditions, in-patient hospitalisation and critical care admissions have not been described using a population-based dataset. We aim to systematically quantify the cumulative burden of late effects across all cancer subtypes, treatment modalities and chemotherapy drug classes.

Methods

We employed primary care records linked to hospitals, the death registry and cancer registry from 1998-2020. CTYA survivors were 25 years or younger at the time of cancer diagnosis had survived ≥5 years post-diagnosis. Year-of-birth and sex-matched community controls were used for comparison. We considered nine treatment types, nine chemotherapy classes and 183 physical and mental health late effects. Cumulative burden was estimated using mean cumulative count, which considers recurring events. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the association between treatment exposures and late effects. Excess years of life lost (YLL) attributable to late effects were estimated.

Findings

Among 4,063 patients diagnosed with cancer, 3,466 survived ≥ 5 years (85%); 13,517 matched controls were identified. The cumulative burden of late effects at age 35 was the highest in survivors of leukaemia (23.52 per individual [95% CI:19.85-29.33]) and lowest in survivors of germ cell tumours (CI:6.04 [5.32-6.91]). In controls, the cumulative burden was 3.99 (CI:3.93-4.08) at age 35 years. When survivors reach age 45, the cumulative burden for immunological conditions and infections was the highest (3.27 [CI:3.01-3.58]), followed by cardiovascular conditions (3.08 [CI:1.98-3.29]). Survivors who received chemotherapy and radiotherapy had the highest disease burden compared to those who received surgery only. These patients also had the highest burden of hospitalisation (by age 45: 10.43 [CI:8.27-11.95]). Survivors who received antimetabolite chemotherapy had the highest disease and hospitalisation burden, while the lowest burden is observed in those receiving antitumour antibiotics. Regression analyses revealed that survivors who received only surgery had lower odds of developing cardiovascular (adjusted odds ratio 0.73 [CI:0.56-0.94]), haematological (aOR 0.51 [CI:0.37-0.70]), immunology and infection (aOR 0.84 [CI:0.71-0.99]) and renal (aOR 0.51 [CI:0.39-0.66]) late effects. By contrast, the opposite trend was observed in survivors who received chemo-radiotherapy. High antimetabolite chemotherapy cumulative dose was associated with increased risks of subsequent cancer (aOR 2.32 [CI:1.06-4.84]), metastatic cancer (aOR 4.44 [CI:1.29-11.66]) and renal (aOR 3.48 [CI:1.36-7.86]) conditions. Patients who received radiation dose of ≥50 Gy experienced higher risks of developing metastatic cancer (aOR 5.51 [CI:2.21-11.86]), cancer (aOR 3.77 [CI:2.22-6.34]), haematological (aOR 3.43 [CI:1.54-6.83]) and neurological (aOR 3.24 [CI:1.78-5.66]) conditions. Similar trends were observed in survivors who received more than three teletherapy fields. Cumulative burden analyses on 183 conditions separately revealed varying dominance of different late effects across cancer types, socioeconomic deprivation and treatment modalities. Late effects are associated with excess YLL (i.e., the difference in YLL between survivors with or without late effects), which was the most pronounced among survivors with haematological comorbidities.

Interpretation

To our knowledge, this is the first study to dissect and quantify the importance of late morbidities on subsequent survival using linked electronic health records from multiple settings. The burden of late effects is heterogeneous, as is the risk of premature mortality associated with late effects. We provide an extensive knowledgebase to help inform treatment decisions at the point of diagnosis, future interventional trials and late-effects screening centred on the holistic needs of this vulnerable population.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100248; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8672041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8672041?pdf=render -33206055,https://doi.org/10.2196/19650,Mobile Clinical Decision Support System for the Management of Diabetic Patients With Kidney Complications in UK Primary Care Settings: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.,"Alhodaib HI, Antza C, Chandan JS, Hanif W, Sankaranarayanan S, Paul S, Sutcliffe P, Nirantharakumar K.",,JMIR diabetes,2020,2020-11-18,Y,Diabetes mellitus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Feasibility Study; Ehealth; Clinical Decision Support Application,,,"

Background

Attempts to utilize eHealth in diabetes mellitus (DM) management have shown promising outcomes, mostly targeted at patients; however, few solutions have been designed for health care providers.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to conduct a feasibility project developing and evaluating a mobile clinical decision support system (CDSS) tool exclusively for health care providers to manage chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with DM.

Methods

The design process was based on the 3 key stages of the user-centered design framework. First, an exploratory qualitative study collected the experiences and views of DM specialist nurses regarding the use of mobile apps in clinical practice. Second, a CDSS tool was developed for the management of patients with DM and CKD. Finally, a randomized controlled trial examined the acceptability and impact of the tool.

Results

We interviewed 15 DM specialist nurses. DM specialist nurses were not currently using eHealth solutions in their clinical practice, while most nurses were not even aware of existing medical apps. However, they appreciated the potential benefits that apps may bring to their clinical practice. Taking into consideration the needs and preferences of end users, a new mobile CDSS app, ""Diabetes & CKD,"" was developed based on guidelines. We recruited 39 junior foundation year 1 doctors (44% male) to evaluate the app. Of them, 44% (17/39) were allocated to the intervention group, and 56% (22/39) were allocated to the control group. There was no significant difference in scores (maximum score=13) assessing the management decisions between the app and paper-based version of the app's algorithm (intervention group: mean 7.24 points, SD 2.46 points; control group: mean 7.39, SD 2.56; t37=-0.19, P=.85). However, 82% (14/17) of the participants were satisfied with using the app.

Conclusions

The findings will guide the design of future CDSS apps for the management of DM, aiming to help health care providers with a personalized approach depending on patients' comorbidities, specifically CKD, in accordance with guidelines.",,pdf:https://diabetes.jmir.org/2020/4/e19650/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/19650; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444?pdf=render 37348789,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2023.05.046,Liver disease is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular outcomes - A UK Biobank study.,"Roca-Fernandez A, Banerjee R, Thomaides-Brears H, Telford A, Sanyal A, Neubauer S, Nichols TE, Raman B, McCracken C, Petersen SE, Ntusi NA, Cuthbertson DJ, Lai M, Dennis A, Banerjee A.",,Journal of hepatology,2023,2023-06-20,N,Cardiac; MRI; Imaging; Hepatic; Heart Failure; liver disease; Cvd; Nafld; Atrial Fibrilliation,,,"

Background & aims

Chronic liver disease (CLD) is associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. We investigated whether early signs of liver disease (measured by iron-corrected T1-mapping [cT1]) were associated with an increased risk of major CVD events.

Methods

Liver disease activity (cT1) and fat (proton density fat fraction [PDFF]) were measured using LiverMultiScan® between January 2016 and February 2020 in the UK Biobank imaging sub-study. Using multivariable Cox regression, we explored associations between liver cT1 (MRI) and primary CVD (coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation [AF], embolism/vascular events, heart failure [HF] and stroke), and CVD hospitalisation and all-cause mortality. Liver blood biomarkers, general metabolism biomarkers, and demographics were also included. Subgroup analysis was conducted in those without metabolic syndrome (defined as at least three of: a large waist, high triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, increased systolic blood pressure, or elevated haemoglobin A1c).

Results

A total of 33,616 participants (mean age 65 years, mean BMI 26 kg/m2, mean haemoglobin A1c 35 mmol/mol) had complete MRI liver data with linked clinical outcomes (median time to major CVD event onset: 1.4 years [range: 0.002-5.1]; follow-up: 2.5 years [range:1.1-5.2]). Liver disease activity (cT1), but not liver fat (PDFF), was associated with higher risk of any major CVD event (hazard ratio 1.14; 95% CI 1.03-1.26; p = 0.008), AF (1.30; 1.12-1.51; p <0.001); HF (1.30; 1.09-1.56; p= 0.004); CVD hospitalisation (1.27; 1.18-1.37; p <0.001) and all-cause mortality (1.19; 1.02-1.38; p = 0.026). FIB-4 index was associated with HF (1.06; 1.01-1.10; p = 0.007). Risk of CVD hospitalisation was independently associated with cT1 in individuals without metabolic syndrome (1.26; 1.13-1.4; p <0.001).

Conclusion

Liver disease activity, by cT1, was independently associated with a higher risk of incident CVD and all-cause mortality, independent of pre-existing metabolic syndrome, liver fibrosis or fat.

Impact and implications

Chronic liver disease (CLD) is associated with a twofold greater incidence of cardiovascular disease. Our work shows that early liver disease on iron-corrected T1 mapping was associated with a higher risk of major cardiovascular disease (14%), cardiovascular disease hospitalisation (27%) and all-cause mortality (19%). These findings highlight the prognostic relevance of a comprehensive evaluation of liver health in populations at risk of CVD and/or CLD, even in the absence of clinical manifestations or metabolic syndrome, when there is an opportunity to modify/address risk factors and prevent disease progression. As such, they are relevant to patients, carers, clinicians, and policymakers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2023.05.046 32345651,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc19-2116,"Obstructive Sleep Apnea, a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular and Microvascular Disease in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: Findings From a Population-Based Cohort Study.","Adderley NJ, Subramanian A, Toulis K, Gokhale K, Taverner T, Hanif W, Haroon S, Thomas GN, Sainsbury C, Tahrani AA, Nirantharakumar K.",,Diabetes care,2020,2020-04-28,N,,,,"

Objective

To determine the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), microvascular complications, and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes who subsequently develop obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) compared with patients with type 2 diabetes without a diagnosis of OSA.

Research design and methods

This age-, sex-, BMI-, and diabetes duration-matched cohort study used data from a U.K. primary care database from 1 January 2005 to 17 January 2018. Participants aged ≥16 years with type 2 diabetes were included. Exposed participants were those who developed OSA after their diabetes diagnosis; unexposed participants were those without diagnosed OSA. Outcomes were composite CVD (ischemic heart disease [IHD], stroke/transient ischemic attack [TIA], heart failure [HF]), peripheral vascular disease (PVD), atrial fibrillation (AF), peripheral neuropathy (PN), diabetes-related foot disease (DFD), referable retinopathy, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and all-cause mortality. The same outcomes were explored in patients with preexisting OSA before a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes versus diabetes without diagnosed OSA.

Results

A total of 3,667 exposed participants and 10,450 matched control participants were included. Adjusted hazard ratios for the outcomes were as follows: composite CVD 1.54 (95% CI 1.32, 1.79), IHD 1.55 (1.26, 1.90), HF 1.67 (1.35, 2.06), stroke/TIA 1.57 (1.27, 1.94), PVD 1.10 (0.91, 1.32), AF 1.53 (1.28, 1.83), PN 1.32 (1.14, 1.51), DFD 1.42 (1.16, 1.74), referable retinopathy 0.99 (0.82, 1.21), CKD (stage 3-5) 1.18 (1.02, 1.36), albuminuria 1.11 (1.01, 1.22), and all-cause mortality 1.24 (1.10, 1.40). In the prevalent OSA cohort, the results were similar, but some associations were not observed.

Conclusions

Patients with type 2 diabetes who develop OSA are at increased risk of CVD, AF, PN, DFD, CKD, and all-cause mortality compared with patients without diagnosed OSA. Patients with type 2 diabetes who develop OSA are a high-risk population, and strategies to detect OSA and prevent cardiovascular and microvascular complications should be implemented.",,pdf:https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/43/8/1868.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc19-2116 33148619,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3919,Consistency of variety of machine learning and statistical models in predicting clinical risks of individual patients: longitudinal cohort study using cardiovascular disease as exemplar.,"Li Y, Sperrin M, Ashcroft DM, van Staa TP.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-11-04,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the consistency of machine learning and statistical techniques in predicting individual level and population level risks of cardiovascular disease and the effects of censoring on risk predictions.

Design

Longitudinal cohort study from 1 January 1998 to 31 December 2018.

Setting and participants

3.6 million patients from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink registered at 391 general practices in England with linked hospital admission and mortality records.

Main outcome measures

Model performance including discrimination, calibration, and consistency of individual risk prediction for the same patients among models with comparable model performance. 19 different prediction techniques were applied, including 12 families of machine learning models (grid searched for best models), three Cox proportional hazards models (local fitted, QRISK3, and Framingham), three parametric survival models, and one logistic model.

Results

The various models had similar population level performance (C statistics of about 0.87 and similar calibration). However, the predictions for individual risks of cardiovascular disease varied widely between and within different types of machine learning and statistical models, especially in patients with higher risks. A patient with a risk of 9.5-10.5% predicted by QRISK3 had a risk of 2.9-9.2% in a random forest and 2.4-7.2% in a neural network. The differences in predicted risks between QRISK3 and a neural network ranged between -23.2% and 0.1% (95% range). Models that ignored censoring (that is, assumed censored patients to be event free) substantially underestimated risk of cardiovascular disease. Of the 223 815 patients with a cardiovascular disease risk above 7.5% with QRISK3, 57.8% would be reclassified below 7.5% when using another model.

Conclusions

A variety of models predicted risks for the same patients very differently despite similar model performances. The logistic models and commonly used machine learning models should not be directly applied to the prediction of long term risks without considering censoring. Survival models that consider censoring and that are explainable, such as QRISK3, are preferable. The level of consistency within and between models should be routinely assessed before they are used for clinical decision making.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/371/bmj.m3919.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3919; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610202 -35072137,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086,Machine learning optimized polygenic scores for blood cell traits identify sex-specific trajectories and genetic correlations with disease.,"Xu Y, Vuckovic D, Ritchie SC, Akbari P, Jiang T, Grealey J, Butterworth AS, Ouwehand WH, Roberts DJ, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J, Soranzo N, Inouye M.",,Cell genomics,2022,2022-01-12,Y,Method; Machine Learning; Population Stratification; Polygenic Score; Blood Cell Trait; Disease Assocations,,,"Genetic association studies for blood cell traits, which are key indicators of health and immune function, have identified several hundred associations and defined a complex polygenic architecture. Polygenic scores (PGSs) for blood cell traits have potential clinical utility in disease risk prediction and prevention, but designing PGS remains challenging and the optimal methods are unclear. To address this, we evaluated the relative performance of 6 methods to develop PGS for 26 blood cell traits, including a standard method of pruning and thresholding (P + T) and 5 learning methods: LDpred2, elastic net (EN), Bayesian ridge (BR), multilayer perceptron (MLP) and convolutional neural network (CNN). We evaluated these optimized PGSs on blood cell trait data from UK Biobank and INTERVAL. We find that PGSs designed using common machine learning methods EN and BR show improved prediction of blood cell traits and consistently outperform other methods. Our analyses suggest EN/BR as the top choices for PGS construction, showing improved performance for 25 blood cell traits in the external validation, with correlations with the directly measured traits increasing by 10%-23%. Ten PGSs showed significant statistical interaction with sex, and sex-specific PGS stratification showed that all of them had substantial variation in the trajectories of blood cell traits with age. Genetic correlations between the PGSs for blood cell traits and common human diseases identified well-known as well as new associations. We develop machine learning-optimized PGS for blood cell traits, demonstrate their relationships with sex, age, and disease, and make these publicly available as a resource.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502?pdf=render 36823471,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00753-7,Proteogenomic links to human metabolic diseases.,"Koprulu M, Carrasco-Zanini J, Wheeler E, Lockhart S, Kerrison ND, Wareham NJ, Pietzner M, Langenberg C.",,Nature metabolism,2023,2023-02-23,Y,,,,"Studying the plasma proteome as the intermediate layer between the genome and the phenome has the potential to identify new disease processes. Here, we conducted a cis-focused proteogenomic analysis of 2,923 plasma proteins measured in 1,180 individuals using antibody-based assays. We (1) identify 256 unreported protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL); (2) demonstrate shared genetic regulation of 224 cis-pQTLs with 575 specific health outcomes, revealing examples for notable metabolic diseases (such as gastrin-releasing peptide as a potential therapeutic target for type 2 diabetes); (3) improve causal gene assignment at 40% (n = 192) of overlapping risk loci; and (4) observe convergence of phenotypic consequences of cis-pQTLs and rare loss-of-function gene burden for 12 proteins, such as TIMD4 for lipoprotein metabolism. Our findings demonstrate the value of integrating complementary proteomic technologies with genomics even at moderate scale to identify new mediators of metabolic diseases with the potential for therapeutic interventions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00753-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614946; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614946?pdf=render +35072137,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086,Machine learning optimized polygenic scores for blood cell traits identify sex-specific trajectories and genetic correlations with disease.,"Xu Y, Vuckovic D, Ritchie SC, Akbari P, Jiang T, Grealey J, Butterworth AS, Ouwehand WH, Roberts DJ, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J, Soranzo N, Inouye M.",,Cell genomics,2022,2022-01-12,Y,Method; Machine Learning; Population Stratification; Polygenic Score; Blood Cell Trait; Disease Assocations,,,"Genetic association studies for blood cell traits, which are key indicators of health and immune function, have identified several hundred associations and defined a complex polygenic architecture. Polygenic scores (PGSs) for blood cell traits have potential clinical utility in disease risk prediction and prevention, but designing PGS remains challenging and the optimal methods are unclear. To address this, we evaluated the relative performance of 6 methods to develop PGS for 26 blood cell traits, including a standard method of pruning and thresholding (P + T) and 5 learning methods: LDpred2, elastic net (EN), Bayesian ridge (BR), multilayer perceptron (MLP) and convolutional neural network (CNN). We evaluated these optimized PGSs on blood cell trait data from UK Biobank and INTERVAL. We find that PGSs designed using common machine learning methods EN and BR show improved prediction of blood cell traits and consistently outperform other methods. Our analyses suggest EN/BR as the top choices for PGS construction, showing improved performance for 25 blood cell traits in the external validation, with correlations with the directly measured traits increasing by 10%-23%. Ten PGSs showed significant statistical interaction with sex, and sex-specific PGS stratification showed that all of them had substantial variation in the trajectories of blood cell traits with age. Genetic correlations between the PGSs for blood cell traits and common human diseases identified well-known as well as new associations. We develop machine learning-optimized PGS for blood cell traits, demonstrate their relationships with sex, age, and disease, and make these publicly available as a resource.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502?pdf=render 33588321,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276,Biological responses to COVID-19: Insights from physiological and blood biomarker profiles.,"Zakeri R, Pickles A, Carr E, Bean DM, O'Gallagher K, Kraljewic Z, Searle T, Shek A, Galloway JB, Teo JTH, Shah AM, Dobson RJB, Bendayan R.",,Current research in translational medicine,2021,2021-02-03,Y,Inflammation; Biomarkers; Classes; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Understanding the spectrum and course of biological responses to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have important therapeutic implications. We sought to characterise biological responses among patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19 based on serial, routinely collected, physiological and blood biomarker values.

Methods and findings

We performed a retrospective cohort study of 1335 patients hospitalised with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 (median age 70 years, 56 % male), between 1st March and 30th April 2020. Latent profile analysis was performed on serial physiological and blood biomarkers. Patient characteristics, comorbidities and rates of death and admission to intensive care, were compared between the latent classes. A five class solution provided the best fit. Class 1 ""Typical response"" exhibited a moderately elevated and rising C-reactive protein (CRP), stable lymphopaenia, and the lowest rates of 14-day adverse outcomes. Class 2 ""Rapid hyperinflammatory response"" comprised older patients, with higher admission white cell and neutrophil counts, which declined over time, accompanied by a very high and rising CRP and platelet count, and exibited the highest mortality risk. Class 3 ""Progressive inflammatory response"" was similar to the typical response except for a higher and rising CRP, though similar mortality rate. Class 4 ""Inflammatory response with kidney injury"" had prominent lymphopaenia, moderately elevated (and rising) CRP, and severe renal failure. Class 5 ""Hyperinflammatory response with kidney injury"" comprised older patients, with a very high and rising CRP, and severe renal failure that attenuated over time. Physiological measures did not substantially vary between classes at baseline or early admission.

Conclusions and relevance

Our identification of five distinct classes of biomarker profiles provides empirical evidence for heterogeneous biological responses to COVID-19. Early hyperinflammatory responses and kidney injury may signify unique pathophysiology that requires targeted therapy.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7857048; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7857048?pdf=render -37339333,https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104,"COVID-19 among adults living with HIV: correlates of mortality among public sector healthcare users in Western Cape, South Africa.","Kassanjee R, Davies MA, Ngwenya O, Osei-Yeboah R, Jacobs T, Morden E, Timmerman V, Britz S, Mendelson M, Taljaard J, Riou J, Boulle A, Tiffin N, Zinyakatira N.",,Journal of the International AIDS Society,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Mortality; HIV; South Africa; Cd4 Count; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Introduction

While a large proportion of people with HIV (PWH) have experienced SARS-CoV-2 infections, there is uncertainty about the role of HIV disease severity on COVID-19 outcomes, especially in lower-income settings. We studied the association of mortality with characteristics of HIV severity and management, and vaccination, among adult PWH.

Methods

We analysed observational cohort data on all PWH aged ≥15 years experiencing a diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infection (until March 2022), who accessed public sector healthcare in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Logistic regression was used to study the association of mortality with evidence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) collection, time since first HIV evidence, CD4 cell count, viral load (among those with evidence of ART collection) and COVID-19 vaccination, adjusting for demographic characteristics, comorbidities, admission pressure, location and time period.

Results

Mortality occurred in 5.7% (95% CI: 5.3,6.0) of 17,831 first-diagnosed infections. Higher mortality was associated with lower recent CD4, no evidence of ART collection, high or unknown recent viral load and recent first HIV evidence, differentially by age. Vaccination was protective. The burden of comorbidities was high, and tuberculosis (especially more recent episodes of tuberculosis), chronic kidney disease, diabetes and hypertension were associated with higher mortality, more strongly in younger adults.

Conclusions

Mortality was strongly associated with suboptimal HIV control, and the prevalence of these risk factors increased in later COVID-19 waves. It remains a public health priority to ensure PWH are on suppressive ART and vaccinated, and manage any disruptions in care that occurred during the pandemic. The diagnosis and management of comorbidities, including for tuberculosis, should be optimized.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.26104; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639?pdf=render 34348396,https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001393,Weight Change and the Onset of Cardiovascular Diseases: Emulating Trials Using Electronic Health Records.,"Katsoulis M, Stavola BD, Diaz-Ordaz K, Gomes M, Lai A, Lagiou P, Wannamethee G, Tsilidis K, Lumbers RT, Denaxas S, Banerjee A, Parisinos CA, Batterham R, Patel R, Langenberg C, Hemingway H.",,"Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)",2021,2021-09-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Cross-sectional measures of body mass index (BMI) are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence, but less is known about whether weight change affects the risk of CVD.

Methods

We estimated the effect of 2-y weight change interventions on 7-y risk of CVD (CVD death, myocardial infarction, stroke, hospitalization from coronary heart disease, and heart failure) by emulating hypothetical interventions using electronic health records. We identified 138,567 individuals with 45-69 years of age without chronic disease in England from 1998 to 2016. We performed pooled logistic regression, using inverse-probability weighting to adjust for baseline and time-varying confounders. We categorized each individual into a weight loss, maintenance, or gain group.

Results

Among those of normal weight, both weight loss [risk difference (RD) vs. weight maintenance = 1.5% (0.3% to 3.0%)] and gain [RD = 1.3% (0.5% to 2.2%)] were associated with increased risk for CVD compared with weight maintenance. Among overweight individuals, we observed moderately higher risk of CVD in both the weight loss [RD = 0.7% (-0.2% to 1.7%)] and the weight gain group [RD = 0.7% (-0.1% to 1.7%)], compared with maintenance. In the obese, those losing weight showed lower risk of coronary heart disease [RD = -1.4% (-2.4% to -0.6%)] but not of stroke. When we assumed that chronic disease occurred 1-3 years before the recorded date, estimates for weight loss and gain were attenuated among overweight individuals; estimates for loss were lower among obese individuals.

Conclusion

Among individuals with obesity, the weight-loss group had a lower risk of coronary heart disease but not of stroke. Weight gain was associated with increased risk of CVD across BMI groups. See video abstract at, http://links.lww.com/EDE/B838.",,html:https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2021/09000/Weight_Change_and_the_Onset_of_Cardiovascular.19.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001393; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318567; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318567?pdf=render -32814581,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7,Seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya: an economic evaluation using dynamic transmission modelling.,"Dawa J, Emukule GO, Barasa E, Widdowson MA, Anzala O, van Leeuwen E, Baguelin M, Chaves SS, Eggo RM.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-08-20,Y,Economic evaluation; Influenza vaccine; Cost-effectiveness; Low- And Middle-income Countries; Dynamic Transmission Model; Vaccine Timing; Vaccine Target Group,,,"

Background

There is substantial burden of seasonal influenza in Kenya, which led the government to consider introducing a national influenza vaccination programme. Given the cost implications of a nationwide programme, local economic evaluation data are needed to inform policy on the design and benefits of influenza vaccination. We set out to estimate the cost-effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya.

Methods

We fitted an age-stratified dynamic transmission model to active surveillance data from patients with influenza from 2010 to 2018. Using a societal perspective, we developed a decision tree cost-effectiveness model and estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted for three vaccine target groups: children 6-23 months (strategy I), 2-5 years (strategy II) and 6-14 years (strategy III) with either the Southern Hemisphere influenza vaccine (Strategy A) or Northern Hemisphere vaccine (Strategy B) or both (Strategy C: twice yearly vaccination campaigns, or Strategy D: year-round vaccination campaigns). We assessed cost-effectiveness by calculating incremental net monetary benefits (INMB) using a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of 1-51% of the annual gross domestic product per capita ($17-$872).

Results

The mean number of infections across all ages was 2-15 million per year. When vaccination was well timed to influenza activity, the annual mean ICER per DALY averted for vaccinating children 6-23 months ranged between $749 and $1385 for strategy IA, $442 and $1877 for strategy IB, $678 and $4106 for strategy IC and $1147 and $7933 for strategy ID. For children 2-5 years, it ranged between $945 and $1573 for strategy IIA, $563 and $1869 for strategy IIB, $662 and $4085 for strategy IIC, and $1169 and $7897 for strategy IID. For children 6-14 years, it ranged between $923 and $3116 for strategy IIIA, $1005 and $2223 for strategy IIIB, $883 and $4727 for strategy IIIC and $1467 and $6813 for strategy IIID. Overall, no vaccination strategy was cost-effective at the minimum ($17) and median ($445) WTP thresholds. Vaccinating children 6-23 months once a year had the highest mean INMB value at $872 (WTP threshold upper limit); however, this strategy had very low probability of the highest net benefit.

Conclusion

Vaccinating children 6-23 months once a year was the most favourable vaccination option; however, the strategy is unlikely to be cost-effective given the current WTP thresholds.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179?pdf=render +37339333,https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104,"COVID-19 among adults living with HIV: correlates of mortality among public sector healthcare users in Western Cape, South Africa.","Kassanjee R, Davies MA, Ngwenya O, Osei-Yeboah R, Jacobs T, Morden E, Timmerman V, Britz S, Mendelson M, Taljaard J, Riou J, Boulle A, Tiffin N, Zinyakatira N.",,Journal of the International AIDS Society,2023,2023-06-01,Y,Mortality; HIV; South Africa; Cd4 Count; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Introduction

While a large proportion of people with HIV (PWH) have experienced SARS-CoV-2 infections, there is uncertainty about the role of HIV disease severity on COVID-19 outcomes, especially in lower-income settings. We studied the association of mortality with characteristics of HIV severity and management, and vaccination, among adult PWH.

Methods

We analysed observational cohort data on all PWH aged ≥15 years experiencing a diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infection (until March 2022), who accessed public sector healthcare in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Logistic regression was used to study the association of mortality with evidence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) collection, time since first HIV evidence, CD4 cell count, viral load (among those with evidence of ART collection) and COVID-19 vaccination, adjusting for demographic characteristics, comorbidities, admission pressure, location and time period.

Results

Mortality occurred in 5.7% (95% CI: 5.3,6.0) of 17,831 first-diagnosed infections. Higher mortality was associated with lower recent CD4, no evidence of ART collection, high or unknown recent viral load and recent first HIV evidence, differentially by age. Vaccination was protective. The burden of comorbidities was high, and tuberculosis (especially more recent episodes of tuberculosis), chronic kidney disease, diabetes and hypertension were associated with higher mortality, more strongly in younger adults.

Conclusions

Mortality was strongly associated with suboptimal HIV control, and the prevalence of these risk factors increased in later COVID-19 waves. It remains a public health priority to ensure PWH are on suppressive ART and vaccinated, and manage any disruptions in care that occurred during the pandemic. The diagnosis and management of comorbidities, including for tuberculosis, should be optimized.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.26104; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639?pdf=render 32017129,https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50485,Discharge destination and patient-reported outcomes after inpatient treatment for isolated lower limb fractures.,"Kimmel LA, Simpson PM, Holland AE, Edwards ER, Cameron PA, de Steiger RS, Page RS, Hau R, Bucknill A, Kasza J, Gabbe BJ.",,The Medical journal of Australia,2020,2020-02-04,N,"Rehabilitation; Treatment outcome; Orthopedic Procedures; Fractures, Bone; Trauma Surgery",,,"

Objectives

To examine the association between discharge destination (home or inpatient rehabilitation) for adult patients treated in hospital for isolated lower limb fractures and patient-reported outcomes.

Design

Review of prospectively collected Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (VOTOR) data.

Setting, participants

Adults (18-64 years old) treated for isolated lower limb fractures at four Melbourne trauma hospitals that contribute data to the VOTOR, 1 March 2007 - 31 March 2016.

Main outcome measures

Return to work and functional recovery (assessed with the extended Glasgow Outcomes Scale, GOS-E); propensity score analysis of association between discharge destination and outcome.

Results

Of 7961 eligible patients, 1432 (18%) were discharged to inpatient rehabilitation, and 6775 (85%) were followed up 12 months after their injuries. After propensity score adjustment, the odds of better functional recovery were 56% lower for patients discharged to inpatient rehabilitation than for those discharged directly home (odds ratio, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.37-0.51); for the 5057 people working before their accident, the odds of return to work were reduced by 66% (odds ratio, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.26-0.46). Propensity score analysis improved matching of the discharge destination groups, but imbalances in funding source remained for both outcome analyses, and for also for site and cause of injury in the GOS-E analysis (standardised differences, 10-16%).

Conclusions

Discharge to inpatient rehabilitation after treatment for isolated lower limb fractures was associated with poorer outcomes than discharge home. Factors that remained unbalanced after propensity score analysis could be assessed in controlled trials.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.5694/mja2.50485; doi:https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50485 33779119,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2169,Identification of distinct phenotypic clusters in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.,"Uijl A, Savarese G, Vaartjes I, Dahlström U, Brugts JJ, Linssen GCM, van Empel V, Brunner-La Rocca HP, Asselbergs FW, Lund LH, Hoes AW, Koudstaal S.",,European journal of heart failure,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Treatment; Phenotyping; Clusters; Latent Class Analysis; Comorbidities; Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction; External Validation,,,"

Aims

We aimed to derive and validate clinically useful clusters of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF; left ventricular ejection fraction ≥50%).

Methods and results

We derived a cluster model from 6909 HFpEF patients from the Swedish Heart Failure Registry (SwedeHF) and externally validated this in 2153 patients from the Chronic Heart Failure ESC-guideline based Cardiology practice Quality project (CHECK-HF) registry. In SwedeHF, the median age was 80 [interquartile range 72-86] years, 52% of patients were female and most frequent comorbidities were hypertension (82%), atrial fibrillation (68%), and ischaemic heart disease (48%). Latent class analysis identified five distinct clusters: cluster 1 (10% of patients) were young patients with a low comorbidity burden and the highest proportion of implantable devices; cluster 2 (30%) patients had atrial fibrillation, hypertension without diabetes; cluster 3 (25%) patients were the oldest with many cardiovascular comorbidities and hypertension; cluster 4 (15%) patients had obesity, diabetes and hypertension; and cluster 5 (20%) patients were older with ischaemic heart disease, hypertension and renal failure and were most frequently prescribed diuretics. The clusters were reproduced in the CHECK-HF cohort. Patients in cluster 1 had the best prognosis, while patients in clusters 3 and 5 had the worst age- and sex-adjusted prognosis.

Conclusions

Five distinct clusters of HFpEF patients were identified that differed in clinical characteristics, heart failure drug therapy and prognosis. These results confirm the heterogeneity of HFpEF and form a basis for tailoring trial design to individualized drug therapy in HFpEF patients.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.2169; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2169; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359985; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359985?pdf=render +32814581,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7,Seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya: an economic evaluation using dynamic transmission modelling.,"Dawa J, Emukule GO, Barasa E, Widdowson MA, Anzala O, van Leeuwen E, Baguelin M, Chaves SS, Eggo RM.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-08-20,Y,Economic evaluation; Influenza vaccine; Cost-effectiveness; Low- And Middle-income Countries; Dynamic Transmission Model; Vaccine Timing; Vaccine Target Group,,,"

Background

There is substantial burden of seasonal influenza in Kenya, which led the government to consider introducing a national influenza vaccination programme. Given the cost implications of a nationwide programme, local economic evaluation data are needed to inform policy on the design and benefits of influenza vaccination. We set out to estimate the cost-effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya.

Methods

We fitted an age-stratified dynamic transmission model to active surveillance data from patients with influenza from 2010 to 2018. Using a societal perspective, we developed a decision tree cost-effectiveness model and estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted for three vaccine target groups: children 6-23 months (strategy I), 2-5 years (strategy II) and 6-14 years (strategy III) with either the Southern Hemisphere influenza vaccine (Strategy A) or Northern Hemisphere vaccine (Strategy B) or both (Strategy C: twice yearly vaccination campaigns, or Strategy D: year-round vaccination campaigns). We assessed cost-effectiveness by calculating incremental net monetary benefits (INMB) using a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of 1-51% of the annual gross domestic product per capita ($17-$872).

Results

The mean number of infections across all ages was 2-15 million per year. When vaccination was well timed to influenza activity, the annual mean ICER per DALY averted for vaccinating children 6-23 months ranged between $749 and $1385 for strategy IA, $442 and $1877 for strategy IB, $678 and $4106 for strategy IC and $1147 and $7933 for strategy ID. For children 2-5 years, it ranged between $945 and $1573 for strategy IIA, $563 and $1869 for strategy IIB, $662 and $4085 for strategy IIC, and $1169 and $7897 for strategy IID. For children 6-14 years, it ranged between $923 and $3116 for strategy IIIA, $1005 and $2223 for strategy IIIB, $883 and $4727 for strategy IIIC and $1467 and $6813 for strategy IIID. Overall, no vaccination strategy was cost-effective at the minimum ($17) and median ($445) WTP thresholds. Vaccinating children 6-23 months once a year had the highest mean INMB value at $872 (WTP threshold upper limit); however, this strategy had very low probability of the highest net benefit.

Conclusion

Vaccinating children 6-23 months once a year was the most favourable vaccination option; however, the strategy is unlikely to be cost-effective given the current WTP thresholds.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179?pdf=render 31984563,https://doi.org/10.1111/jce.14368,Early recurrences of atrial tachyarrhythmias post pulmonary vein isolation.,"von Olshausen G, Uijl A, Jensen-Urstad M, Schwieler J, Drca N, Bastani H, Tapanainen J, Saluveer O, Bourke T, Kennebäck G, Insulander P, Deisenhofer I, Braunschweig F.",,Journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology,2020,2020-01-31,N,Atrial fibrillation; Catheter ablation; Late Recurrence; Early Recurrence; Blanking Period,,,"

Aims

To investigate the significance of early recurrence (ER) of atrial tachyarrhythmias after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) on the development of late recurrence (LR) and to redefine the blanking period during which an ER is considered nonspecific.

Methods

Data of 713 patients undergoing their first PVI for paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation between January 2012 and December 2017 were included. All patients were followed-up for 12 months according to clinical and outpatient routine and were screened for any atrial tachyarrhythmia lasting >30 seconds occurring during the first 3 months postablation (ER) and after the 3 months blanking period (LR).

Results

Patients with ER compared to those without ER had significantly more LR (74.5% vs 16.5% vs, P < .001). The occurrence of ER during the first, second and third months showed increasing LR rates of 35.2%, 67.9%, and 94.8%, respectively (P < .001). Receiver operator characteristic analysis revealed a blanking period of 46 days with the highest sensitivity (68.1%) and specificity (96.5%). Later timing and longer time span of ER were independent predictors for LR in multivariable analysis.

Conclusion

ER is a strong predictor for LR. Our study advocates a shortening of the post-PVI blanking period followed by a ""gray zone"" up to 3 months where individualized therapeutic decisions based on additional risk factors should be considered. We suggest that the ER time span might serve as such a predictor identifying patients at the highest risk for LR.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jce.14368 34957541,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.18013,A novel algorithmic approach to generate consensus treatment guidelines in adult acute myeloid leukaemia.,"Coats T, Bean D, Basset A, Sirkis T, Brammeld J, Johnson S, Thomas I, Gilkes A, Raj K, Dennis M, Knapper S, Mehta P, Khwaja A, Hunter H, Tauro S, Bowen D, Jones G, Dobson R, Russell N, Dillon R.",,British journal of haematology,2022,2021-12-26,N,Myeloid Leukaemia; Classifications; Diagnostic Haematology; Clinical Haematology,,,"Induction therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) has changed with the approval of a number of new agents. Clinical guidelines can struggle to keep pace with an evolving treatment and evidence landscape and therefore identifying the most appropriate front-line treatment is challenging for clinicians. Here, we combined drug eligibility criteria and genetic risk stratification into a digital format, allowing the full range of possible treatment eligibility scenarios to be defined. Using exemplar cases representing each of the 22 identified scenarios, we sought to generate consensus on treatment choice from a panel of nine aUK AML experts. We then analysed >2500 real-world cases using the same algorithm, confirming the existence of 21/22 of these scenarios and demonstrating that our novel approach could generate a consensus AML induction treatment in 98% of cases. Our approach, driven by the use of decision trees, is an efficient way to develop consensus guidance rapidly and could be applied to other disease areas. It has the potential to be updated frequently to capture changes in eligibility criteria, novel therapies and emerging trial data. An interactive digital version of the consensus guideline is available.",,pdf:https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/files/71382229/Br_J_Haematol_2022_Coats_A_novel_algorithmic_approach_to_generate_consensus_treatment_guidelines_in_adult_acute.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.18013 34032955,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-021-02876-4,"Health status after penetrating major trauma in Victoria, Australia: a registry-based cohort study.","Giummarra MJ, Dipnall JF, Gibson G, Beck B, Gabbe BJ.",,"Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation",2021,2021-05-25,N,Recovery; Health Status; Health-related Quality Of Life; Gunshot Wounds; Penetrating Trauma; Stab Wounds,,,"

Purpose

As few studies have examined long-term health after penetrating injury, this population-based registry study sought to assess health outcomes up to 24 months post-injury.

Methods

Major trauma patients with penetrating trauma (2009-2017) were included from the Victorian State Trauma Registry (N = 1,067; 102 died, 208 were lost to follow-up). The EQ-5D-3L was used to measure health status at 6, 12 and 24-months. Mixed linear and logistic regressions were used to examine predictors of summary scores, and problems versus no problems on each health dimension.

Results

Average health status summary scores were 0.70 (sd = 0.26) at 6 and 12 months, and 0.72 (sd = 0.26) at 24 months post-injury. Prevalence of problems was consistent over time: mobility (24-26%), self-care (17-20%), usual activities (47-50%), pain/discomfort (44-49%), and anxiety/depression (54-56%). Lower health status and reporting problems was associated with middle-older age, female sex, unemployment; pre-injury disability, comorbid conditions; and assault and firearm injury versus cutting/piercing.

Conclusion

Problems with usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety or depression are common after penetrating major trauma. Risk factor screening in hospital could be used to identify people at risk of poor health outcomes, and to link people at risk with services in hospital or early post-discharge to improve their longer-term health outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-021-02876-4 33956386,https://doi.org/10.1111/ceo.13943,Reporting guidelines for artificial intelligence in healthcare research.,"Ibrahim H, Liu X, Denniston AK.",,Clinical & experimental ophthalmology,2021,2021-05-25,N,Artificial intelligence; Checklist; Research Report; Guidelines; Research Design; Machine Learning,,,"Reporting guidelines are structured tools developed using explicit methodology that specify the minimum information required by researchers when reporting a study. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) reporting guidelines that address potential sources of bias specific to studies involving AI interventions has the potential to improve the quality of AI studies, through improvements in their design and delivery, and the completeness and transparency of their reporting. With a number of guidance documents relating to AI studies emerging from different specialist societies, this Review article provides researchers with some key principles for selecting the most appropriate reporting guidelines for a study involving an AI intervention. As the main determinants of a high-quality study are contained within the methodology of the study design rather than the intervention, researchers are recommended to use reporting guidelines that are specific to the study design, and then supplement them with AI-specific guidance contained within available AI reporting guidelines.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/143736502/ceo.13943.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ceo.13943 32709646,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036099,"Predicting the risk of asthma attacks in children, adolescents and adults: protocol for a machine learning algorithm derived from a primary care-based retrospective cohort.","Hussain Z, Shah SA, Mukherjee M, Sheikh A.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-07-23,Y,Asthma; epidemiology; Public Health; Health Informatics,,,"

Introduction

Most asthma attacks and subsequent deaths are potentially preventable. We aim to develop a prognostic tool for identifying patients at high risk of asthma attacks in primary care by leveraging advances in machine learning.

Methods and analysis

Current prognostic tools use logistic regression to develop a risk scoring model for asthma attacks. We propose to build on this by systematically applying various well-known machine learning techniques to a large longitudinal deidentified primary care database, the Optimum Patient Care Research Database, and comparatively evaluate their performance with the existing logistic regression model and against each other. Machine learning algorithms vary in their predictive abilities based on the dataset and the approach to analysis employed. We will undertake feature selection, classification (both one-class and two-class classifiers) and performance evaluation. Patients who have had actively treated clinician-diagnosed asthma, aged 8-80 years and with 3 years of continuous data, from 2016 to 2018, will be selected. Risk factors will be obtained from the first year, while the next 2 years will form the outcome period, in which the primary endpoint will be the occurrence of an asthma attack.

Ethics and dissemination

We have obtained approval from OPCRD's Anonymous Data Ethics Protocols and Transparency (ADEPT) Committee. We will seek ethics approval from The University of Edinburgh's Research Ethics Group (UREG). We aim to present our findings at scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/7/e036099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380838; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380838?pdf=render -32234121,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.12.2000256,"Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, February 2020.","Russell TW, Hellewell J, Jarvis CI, van Zandvoort K, Abbott S, Ratnayake R, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2020,2020-03-01,Y,Coronavirus; outbreak; Severity; Asymptomatic; Case Fatality Ratio; Cruise Ship; Covid-19; Infection Fatality Ratio,"COVID-19, Improving Public Health","COVID-19, infection","Adjusting for delay from confirmation to death, we estimated case and infection fatality ratios (CFR, IFR) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Diamond Princess ship as 2.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89-6.7) and 1.3% (95% CI: 0.38-3.6), respectively. Comparing deaths on board with expected deaths based on naive CFR estimates from China, we estimated CFR and IFR in China to be 1.2% (95% CI: 0.3-2.7) and 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-1.3), respectively.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/12/eurosurv-25-12-3.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348?pdf=render 33959646,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.658915,"Common Variants Associated With OSMR Expression Contribute to Carotid Plaque Vulnerability, but Not to Cardiovascular Disease in Humans.","van Keulen D, van Koeverden ID, Boltjes A, Princen HMG, van Gool AJ, de Borst GJ, Asselbergs FW, Tempel D, Pasterkamp G, van der Laan SW.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-04-20,Y,Genetics; Atherosclerosis; Cardiovascular disease; Plaque; Osm; Osmr; Lifr,,,"Background and Aims: Oncostatin M (OSM) signaling is implicated in atherosclerosis, however the mechanism remains unclear. We investigated the impact of common genetic variants in OSM and its receptors, OSMR and LIFR, on overall plaque vulnerability, plaque phenotype, intraplaque OSMR and LIFR expression, coronary artery calcification burden and cardiovascular disease susceptibility. Methods and Results: We queried Genotype-Tissue Expression data and found that rs13168867 (C allele) was associated with decreased OSMR expression and that rs10491509 (A allele) was associated with increased LIFR expression in arterial tissues. No variant was significantly associated with OSM expression. We associated these two variants with plaque characteristics from 1,443 genotyped carotid endarterectomy patients in the Athero-Express Biobank Study. After correction for multiple testing, rs13168867 was significantly associated with an increased overall plaque vulnerability (β = 0.118 ± s.e. = 0.040, p = 3.00 × 10-3, C allele). Looking at individual plaque characteristics, rs13168867 showed strongest associations with intraplaque fat (β = 0.248 ± s.e. = 0.088, p = 4.66 × 10-3, C allele) and collagen content (β = -0.259 ± s.e. = 0.095, p = 6.22 × 10-3, C allele), but these associations were not significant after correction for multiple testing. rs13168867 was not associated with intraplaque OSMR expression. Neither was intraplaque OSMR expression associated with plaque vulnerability and no known OSMR eQTLs were associated with coronary artery calcification burden, or cardiovascular disease susceptibility. No associations were found for rs10491509 in the LIFR locus. Conclusions: Our study suggests that rs1316887 in the OSMR locus is associated with increased plaque vulnerability, but not with coronary calcification or cardiovascular disease risk. It remains unclear through which precise biological mechanisms OSM signaling exerts its effects on plaque morphology. However, the OSM-OSMR/LIFR pathway is unlikely to be causally involved in lifetime cardiovascular disease susceptibility.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.658915/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.658915; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8093786; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8093786?pdf=render +32234121,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.12.2000256,"Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, February 2020.","Russell TW, Hellewell J, Jarvis CI, van Zandvoort K, Abbott S, Ratnayake R, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2020,2020-03-01,Y,Coronavirus; outbreak; Severity; Asymptomatic; Case Fatality Ratio; Cruise Ship; Covid-19; Infection Fatality Ratio,"COVID-19, Improving Public Health","COVID-19, infection","Adjusting for delay from confirmation to death, we estimated case and infection fatality ratios (CFR, IFR) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Diamond Princess ship as 2.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89-6.7) and 1.3% (95% CI: 0.38-3.6), respectively. Comparing deaths on board with expected deaths based on naive CFR estimates from China, we estimated CFR and IFR in China to be 1.2% (95% CI: 0.3-2.7) and 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-1.3), respectively.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/12/eurosurv-25-12-3.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348?pdf=render 32478737,https://doi.org/10.3791/60794,Implementation of a Real-Time Psychosis Risk Detection and Alerting System Based on Electronic Health Records using CogStack.,"Wang T, Oliver D, Msosa Y, Colling C, Spada G, Roguski Ł, Folarin A, Stewart R, Roberts A, Dobson RJB, Fusar-Poli P.",,Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE,2020,2020-05-15,N,,,,"Recent studies have shown that an automated, lifespan-inclusive, transdiagnostic, and clinically based, individualized risk calculator provides a powerful system for supporting the early detection of individuals at-risk of psychosis at a large scale, by leveraging electronic health records (EHRs). This risk calculator has been externally validated twice and is undergoing feasibility testing for clinical implementation. Integration of this risk calculator in clinical routine should be facilitated by prospective feasibility studies, which are required to address pragmatic challenges, such as missing data, and the usability of this risk calculator in a real-world and routine clinical setting. Here, we present an approach for a prospective implementation of a real-time psychosis risk detection and alerting service in a real-world EHR system. This method leverages the CogStack platform, which is an open-source, lightweight, and distributed information retrieval and text extraction system. The CogStack platform incorporates a set of services that allow for full-text search of clinical data, lifespan-inclusive, real-time calculation of psychosis risk, early risk-alerting to clinicians, and the visual monitoring of patients over time. Our method includes: 1) ingestion and synchronization of data from multiple sources into the CogStack platform, 2) implementation of a risk calculator, whose algorithm was previously developed and validated, for timely computation of a patient's risk of psychosis, 3) creation of interactive visualizations and dashboards to monitor patients' health status over time, and 4) building automated alerting systems to ensure that clinicians are notified of patients at-risk, so that appropriate actions can be pursued. This is the first ever study that has developed and implemented a similar detection and alerting system in clinical routine for early detection of psychosis.",,pdf:https://www.jove.com/pdf/60794/implementation-real-time-psychosis-risk-detection-alerting-system; doi:https://doi.org/10.3791/60794; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272223; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272223?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3791/60794 -36764723,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254,Associations of remote mental healthcare with clinical outcomes: a natural language processing enriched electronic health record data study protocol.,"Ahmed MS, Kornblum D, Oliver D, Fusar-Poli P, Patel R.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-02-10,Y,Psychiatry; epidemiology; Telemedicine; Health Informatics,,,"

Introduction

People often experience significant difficulties in receiving mental healthcare due to insufficient resources, stigma and lack of access to care. Remote care technology has the potential to overcome these barriers by reducing travel time and increasing frequency of contact with patients. However, the safe delivery of remote mental healthcare requires evidence on which aspects of care are suitable for remote delivery and which are better served by in-person care. We aim to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare in a large electronic health record (EHR) dataset and the degree to which remote care is associated with differences in clinical outcomes using natural language processing (NLP) derived EHR data.

Methods and analysis

Deidentified EHR data, derived from the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register, will be extracted using the Clinical Record Interactive Search tool for all patients receiving mental healthcare between 1 January 2019 and 31 March 2022. First, data on a retrospective, longitudinal cohort of around 80 000 patients will be analysed using descriptive statistics to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare and multivariable Cox regression to compare clinical outcomes of remote versus in-person assessments. Second, NLP models that have been previously developed to extract mental health symptom data will be applied to around 5 million documents to analyse the variation in content of remote versus in-person assessments.

Ethics and dissemination

The SLaM BRC Case Register and Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) tool have received ethical approval as a deidentified dataset (including NLP-derived data from unstructured free text documents) for secondary mental health research from Oxfordshire REC C (Ref: 18/SC/0372). The study has received approval from the SLaM CRIS Oversight Committee. Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed, open access journal articles and service user and carer advisory groups.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e067254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317?pdf=render 30863860,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz089,Big data analytics in adult congenital heart disease: why coding matters.,"Asselbergs FW, Meijboom FJ.",,European heart journal,2019,2019-04-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10076628/1/Asselbergs_AAM_Big%20data%20analytics%20in%20adult%20congenital%20heart%20disease.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz089 36512045,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-022-09323-z,Prediction of incident cardiovascular events using machine learning and CMR radiomics.,"Pujadas ER, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Szabo L, McCracken C, Morcillo CI, Campello VM, Martín-Isla C, Atehortua AM, Vago H, Merkely B, Maurovich-Horvat P, Harvey NC, Neubauer S, Petersen SE, Lekadir K.",,European radiology,2023,2022-12-13,Y,Atrial fibrillation; Heart Failure; Preventive Medicine; Machine Learning; Radiomics,,,"

Objectives

Evaluation of the feasibility of using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) radiomics in the prediction of incident atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke using machine learning techniques.

Methods

We identified participants from the UK Biobank who experienced incident AF, HF, MI, or stroke during the continuous longitudinal follow-up. The CMR indices and the vascular risk factors (VRFs) as well as the CMR images were obtained for each participant. Three-segmented regions of interest (ROIs) were computed: right ventricle cavity, left ventricle (LV) cavity, and LV myocardium in end-systole and end-diastole phases. Radiomics features were extracted from the 3D volumes of the ROIs. Seven integrative models were built for each incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) as an outcome. Each model was built with VRF, CMR indices, and radiomics features and a combination of them. Support vector machine was used for classification. To assess the model performance, the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were reported.

Results

AF prediction model using the VRF+CMR+Rad model (accuracy: 0.71, AUC 0.76) obtained the best result. However, the AUC was similar to the VRF+Rad model. HF showed the most significant improvement with the inclusion of CMR metrics (VRF+CMR+Rad: 0.79, AUC 0.84). Moreover, adding only the radiomics features to the VRF reached an almost similarly good performance (VRF+Rad: accuracy 0.77, AUC 0.83). Prediction models looking into incident MI and stroke reached slightly smaller improvement.

Conclusions

Radiomics features may provide incremental predictive value over VRF and CMR indices in the prediction of incident CVDs.

Key points

• Prediction of incident atrial fibrillation, heart failure, stroke, and myocardial infarction using machine learning techniques. • CMR radiomics, vascular risk factors, and standard CMR indices will be considered in the machine learning models. • The experiments show that radiomics features can provide incremental predictive value over VRF and CMR indices in the prediction of incident cardiovascular diseases.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00330-022-09323-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-022-09323-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121487?pdf=render +36764723,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254,Associations of remote mental healthcare with clinical outcomes: a natural language processing enriched electronic health record data study protocol.,"Ahmed MS, Kornblum D, Oliver D, Fusar-Poli P, Patel R.",,BMJ open,2023,2023-02-10,Y,Psychiatry; epidemiology; Telemedicine; Health Informatics,,,"

Introduction

People often experience significant difficulties in receiving mental healthcare due to insufficient resources, stigma and lack of access to care. Remote care technology has the potential to overcome these barriers by reducing travel time and increasing frequency of contact with patients. However, the safe delivery of remote mental healthcare requires evidence on which aspects of care are suitable for remote delivery and which are better served by in-person care. We aim to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare in a large electronic health record (EHR) dataset and the degree to which remote care is associated with differences in clinical outcomes using natural language processing (NLP) derived EHR data.

Methods and analysis

Deidentified EHR data, derived from the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register, will be extracted using the Clinical Record Interactive Search tool for all patients receiving mental healthcare between 1 January 2019 and 31 March 2022. First, data on a retrospective, longitudinal cohort of around 80 000 patients will be analysed using descriptive statistics to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare and multivariable Cox regression to compare clinical outcomes of remote versus in-person assessments. Second, NLP models that have been previously developed to extract mental health symptom data will be applied to around 5 million documents to analyse the variation in content of remote versus in-person assessments.

Ethics and dissemination

The SLaM BRC Case Register and Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) tool have received ethical approval as a deidentified dataset (including NLP-derived data from unstructured free text documents) for secondary mental health research from Oxfordshire REC C (Ref: 18/SC/0372). The study has received approval from the SLaM CRIS Oversight Committee. Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed, open access journal articles and service user and carer advisory groups.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e067254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317?pdf=render 31109684,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.05.004,Agreement between medical record and administrative coding of common comorbidities in orthopaedic trauma patients.,"Daly S, Nguyen TQ, Gabbe BJ, Braaf S, Simpson P, Ekegren CL.",,Injury,2019,2019-05-08,N,Trauma; Comorbidity; Agreement; Orthopaedic; Icd-10-am,,,"OBJECTIVE:To i) quantify the agreement between comorbidities documented within medical records and an orthopaedic trauma dataset; and ii) compare agreement between these sources before and after the introduction of new comorbidity coding rules in Australian hospitals. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING:A random sample of adult (≥ 16 years) orthopaedic trauma patients (n = 400) were extracted from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (VOTOR). Diagnoses of obesity, arthritis, diabetes and cardiac conditions documented within patients' medical records were compared to ICD-10-AM comorbidity codes (provided by hospitals) for the same admission. Agreement was calculated (Cohen's kappa) before and after the introduction of new coding rules. RESULTS:All comorbidities had the same or higher prevalence in medical record data compared to coded data. Kappa values ranged from <0.001 (poor agreement) for coronary artery disease to 0.94 (excellent agreement) for type 2 diabetes. There was improvement in agreement between sources for most conditions following the introduction of new coding rules. CONCLUSION:There has been improvement in the coding of certain comorbidities since the introduction of new coding rules, suggesting that, since 2015, administrative data has improved capacity to capture patients' comorbidity profiles. Consideration must be taken when using the ICD-10-AM data due to its limitations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.05.004 -36449515,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726,Cluster detection with random neighbourhood covering: Application to invasive Group A Streptococcal disease.,"Cavallaro M, Coelho J, Ready D, Decraene V, Lamagni T, McCarthy ND, Todkill D, Keeling MJ.",,PLoS computational biology,2022,2022-11-30,Y,,,,"The rapid detection of outbreaks is a key step in the effective control and containment of infectious diseases. In particular, the identification of cases which might be epidemiologically linked is crucial in directing outbreak-containment efforts and shaping the intervention of public health authorities. Often this requires the detection of clusters of cases whose numbers exceed those expected by a background of sporadic cases. Quantifying exceedances rapidly is particularly challenging when only few cases are typically reported in a precise location and time. To address such important public health concerns, we present a general method which can detect spatio-temporal deviations from a Poisson point process and estimate the odds of an isolate being part of a cluster. This method can be applied to diseases where detailed geographical information is available. In addition, we propose an approach to explicitly take account of delays in microbial typing. As a case study, we considered invasive group A Streptococcus infection events as recorded and typed by Public Health England from 2015 to 2020.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322?pdf=render 35115301,https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-319641,Metformin and risk of age-related macular degeneration in individuals with type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study.,"Gokhale KM, Adderley NJ, Subramanian A, Lee WH, Han D, Coker J, Braithwaite T, Denniston AK, Keane PA, Nirantharakumar K.",,The British journal of ophthalmology,2023,2022-02-03,N,Degeneration; epidemiology; Macula,,,"

Background

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in its late stages is a leading cause of sight loss in developed countries. Some previous studies have suggested that metformin may be associated with a reduced risk of developing AMD, but the evidence is inconclusive.

Aims

To explore the relationship between metformin use and development of AMD among patients with type 2 diabetes in the UK.

Methods

A large, population-based retrospective open cohort study with a time-dependent exposure design was carried out using IQVIA Medical Research Data, 1995-2019. Patients aged ≥40 with diagnosed type 2 diabetes were included.The exposed group was those prescribed metformin (with or without any other antidiabetic medications); the comparator (unexposed) group was those prescribed other antidiabetic medications only. The exposure status was treated as time varying, collected at 3-monthly time intervals.Extended Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate the adjusted HRs for development of the outcome, newly diagnosed AMD.

Results

A total of 173 689 patients, 57% men, mean (SD) age 62.8 (11.6) years, with incident type 2 diabetes and a record of one or more antidiabetic medications were included in the study. Median follow-up was 4.8 (IQR 2.3-8.3, range 0.5-23.8) years. 3111 (1.8%) patients developed AMD. The adjusted HR for diagnosis of AMD was 1.02 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.12) in patients prescribed metformin (with or without other antidiabetic medications) compared with those prescribed any other antidiabetic medication only.

Conclusion

We found no evidence that metformin was associated with risk of AMD in primary care patients requiring treatment for type 2 diabetes.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10143945/1/Keane_T2DM%20metformin%20and%20risk%20of%20AMD%20BJO%2020220111%20clean.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-319641 -31747863,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551,"UVA and Seasonal Patterning of 56 370 Myocardial Infarctions Across Scotland, 2000-2011.","Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Hastie CE, Cherrie MPC, Dibben C, Pell JP.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2019,2019-11-21,Y,Environmental factors; UV radiation; Myocardial infarction; epidemiology,"Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease",,"Background Myocardial infarction exhibits seasonal patterning, with higher amplitude at increased latitude. Epidemiological evidence suggests that sunlight is protective against cardiovascular disease, independent of ambient temperature, but ultraviolet B-mediated vitamin D production has been discounted as causal. We aimed to determine whether ultraviolet A is associated with the seasonal patterning of myocardial infarction. Methods and Results Routine hospitalization data were used to determine monthly incidence of myocardial infarction in Scotland between 2000 and 2011. Small-area-level aggregated data were obtained on ambient temperature from the Meteorological Office and ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B irradiance from NASA satellites. Autoregressive distributed lag models were run for ultraviolet A and myocardial infarction, including adjustment for ambient temperature and ultraviolet B. Monthly incidence of myocardial infarction displayed winter peaks and summer troughs superimposed on the underlying trend, with a mean amplitude of 0.31 (95% CI: 0.21, 0.41) myocardial infarctions per 100 000 population per month. Ultraviolet A exposure was inversely associated with myocardial infarction independent of ambient temperature (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.01; P=0.015) and ultraviolet B UVB (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.02; P=0.004). Conclusions Further research is required to explore whether an ultraviolet-mediated mechanism different to vitamin D, such as nitric oxide-mediated vasodilatation, may play a causal role in the seasonal and geographical patterning of myocardial infarction.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.012551; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961?pdf=render 33372068,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038324,Risk factors for mental illness in adults with atopic eczema or psoriasis: protocol for a systematic review.,"Adesanya EI, Schonmann Y, Hayes JF, Mathur R, Mulick AR, Rayner L, Smeeth L, Smith CH, Langan SM, Mansfield KE.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-12-28,Y,Psoriasis; Mental health; Eczema; Anxiety Disorders; Schizophrenia & Psychotic Disorders; Depression & Mood Disorders,,,"

Introduction

Evidence indicates that people with the common inflammatory skin diseases atopic eczema or psoriasis are at increased risk of mental illness. However, the reasons for the relationship between skin disease and common mental disorders (ie, depression and anxiety) or severe mental illnesses (ie, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychoses) are unclear. Therefore, we aim to synthesise the available evidence regarding the risk factors for mental illness in adults with atopic eczema or psoriasis.

Methods and analysis

We will conduct a systematic review of randomised controlled trials, cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies. We will search the following databases from inception to March 2020: Medline, Embase, Global Health, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Base, PsycInfo, the Global Resource of Eczema Trials, and the grey literature databases Open Grey, PsycExtra and the New York Academy of Medicine Grey Literature Report. We will also search the bibliographies of eligible studies and relevant systematic reviews to identify additional relevant studies. Citation searching of large summary papers will be used to further identify relevant publications. Two reviewers will initially review study titles and abstracts for eligibility, followed by full text screening. We will extract data using a standardised data extraction form. We will assess the risk of bias of included studies using the Quality in Prognosis Studies tool. We will synthesise data narratively, and if studies are sufficiently homogenous, we will consider a meta-analysis. We will assess the quality of the evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval is not required for a systematic review. Results of the review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and disseminated through conferences.

Prospero registration number

CRD42020163941.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/12/e038324.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038324; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7772326; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7772326?pdf=render +36449515,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726,Cluster detection with random neighbourhood covering: Application to invasive Group A Streptococcal disease.,"Cavallaro M, Coelho J, Ready D, Decraene V, Lamagni T, McCarthy ND, Todkill D, Keeling MJ.",,PLoS computational biology,2022,2022-11-30,Y,,,,"The rapid detection of outbreaks is a key step in the effective control and containment of infectious diseases. In particular, the identification of cases which might be epidemiologically linked is crucial in directing outbreak-containment efforts and shaping the intervention of public health authorities. Often this requires the detection of clusters of cases whose numbers exceed those expected by a background of sporadic cases. Quantifying exceedances rapidly is particularly challenging when only few cases are typically reported in a precise location and time. To address such important public health concerns, we present a general method which can detect spatio-temporal deviations from a Poisson point process and estimate the odds of an isolate being part of a cluster. This method can be applied to diseases where detailed geographical information is available. In addition, we propose an approach to explicitly take account of delays in microbial typing. As a case study, we considered invasive group A Streptococcus infection events as recorded and typed by Public Health England from 2015 to 2020.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322?pdf=render +31747863,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551,"UVA and Seasonal Patterning of 56 370 Myocardial Infarctions Across Scotland, 2000-2011.","Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Hastie CE, Cherrie MPC, Dibben C, Pell JP.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2019,2019-11-21,Y,Environmental factors; UV radiation; Myocardial infarction; epidemiology,"Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease",,"Background Myocardial infarction exhibits seasonal patterning, with higher amplitude at increased latitude. Epidemiological evidence suggests that sunlight is protective against cardiovascular disease, independent of ambient temperature, but ultraviolet B-mediated vitamin D production has been discounted as causal. We aimed to determine whether ultraviolet A is associated with the seasonal patterning of myocardial infarction. Methods and Results Routine hospitalization data were used to determine monthly incidence of myocardial infarction in Scotland between 2000 and 2011. Small-area-level aggregated data were obtained on ambient temperature from the Meteorological Office and ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B irradiance from NASA satellites. Autoregressive distributed lag models were run for ultraviolet A and myocardial infarction, including adjustment for ambient temperature and ultraviolet B. Monthly incidence of myocardial infarction displayed winter peaks and summer troughs superimposed on the underlying trend, with a mean amplitude of 0.31 (95% CI: 0.21, 0.41) myocardial infarctions per 100 000 population per month. Ultraviolet A exposure was inversely associated with myocardial infarction independent of ambient temperature (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.01; P=0.015) and ultraviolet B UVB (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.02; P=0.004). Conclusions Further research is required to explore whether an ultraviolet-mediated mechanism different to vitamin D, such as nitric oxide-mediated vasodilatation, may play a causal role in the seasonal and geographical patterning of myocardial infarction.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.012551; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961?pdf=render 34931349,https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15191,Dissecting the IL-6 pathway in cardiometabolic disease: A Mendelian randomization study on both IL6 and IL6R.,"Cupido AJ, Asselbergs FW, Natarajan P, CHARGE Inflammation Working Group, Ridker PM, Hovingh GK, Schmidt AF.",,British journal of clinical pharmacology,2022,2022-01-28,Y,IL-6; Cardiovascular disease; Trans-signalling; Classical Signalling,,,"

Aims

Chronic inflammation is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). IL-6 signalling perturbation through IL-6 or IL-6R blockade may have potential benefit on cardiovascular risk. It is unknown whether targeting either IL-6 or IL-6 receptor may result in similar effects on CVD and adverse events. We compared the anticipated effects of targeting IL-6 and IL-6 receptor on cardiometabolic risk and potential side effects.

Methods

We constructed four instruments: two main instruments with genetic variants in the IL6 and IL6R loci weighted for their association with CRP, and two after firstly filtering variants for their association with IL-6 or IL-6R expression. Analyses were performed for coronary artery disease (CAD), ischemic stroke, atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure, type 2 diabetes (T2D), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), infection endpoints, and quantitative haematological, metabolic and anthropometric parameters.

Results

A 1 mg/L lower CRP by the IL6 instrument was associated with lower CAD (odds ratio [OR] 0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77;0.96), AF and T2D risk. A 1 mg/L lower CRP by the IL6R instrument was associated with lower CAD (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.86;0.95), any stroke and ischemic stroke, AF, RA risk and higher pneumonia risk. The eQTL-filtered results were in concordance with the main results, but with wider confidence intervals.

Conclusions

IL-6 signalling perturbation by either IL6 or IL6R genetic instruments is associated with a similar risk reduction for multiple cardiometabolic diseases, suggesting that both IL-6 and IL-6R are potential therapeutic targets to lower CVD. Moreover, IL-6 rather than IL-6R inhibition might have a more favourable pneumonia risk.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15191; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15191; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9303316; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9303316?pdf=render -36869930,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6,Cost consequences of unscheduled emergency admissions in cancer patients in the last year of life.,"McFerran E, Cairnduff V, Elder R, Gavin A, Lawler M.",,Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer,2023,2023-03-04,Y,Neoplasms; Death; Palliative care; Emergency Care; Cost Consequences,,,"

Objectives

Cancer is a leading cause of death. This paper examines the utilisation of unscheduled emergency end-of-life healthcare and estimates expenditure in this domain. We explore care patterns and quantify the likely benefits from service reconfigurations which may influence rates of hospital admission and deaths.

Methods

Using prevalence-based retrospective data from the Northern Ireland General Registrar's Office linked by cancer diagnosis to Patient Administration episode data for unscheduled emergency care (1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015), we estimate unscheduled-emergency-care costs in the last year of life. We model potential resources released by reductions in length-of-stay for cancer patients. Linear regression examined patient characteristics affecting length of stay.

Results

A total of 3134 cancer patients used 60,746 days of unscheduled emergency care (average 19.5 days). Of these, 48.9% had ≥1 admission during their last 28 days of life. Total estimated cost was £28,684,261, averaging £9200 per person. Lung cancer patients had the highest proportion of admissions (23.2%, mean length of stay = 17.9 days, mean cost=£7224). The highest service use and total cost was in those diagnosed at stage IV (38.4%), who required 22,099 days of care, costing £9,629,014. Palliative care support, identified in 25.5% of patients, contributed £1,322,328. A 3-day reduction in the mean length of stay with a 10% reduction in admissions, could reduce costs by £7.37 million. Regression analyses explained 41% of length-of-stay variability.

Conclusions

The cost burden from unscheduled care use in the last year of life of cancer patients is significant. Opportunities to prioritise service reconfiguration for high-costing users emphasized lung and colorectal cancers as offering the greatest potential to influence outcomes.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568?pdf=render 31671849,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214178,Associations between the Home Physical Environment and Children's Home-Based Physical Activity and Sitting. ,"Sheldrick MP, Maitland C, Mackintosh KA, Rosenberg M, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Stratton G.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2019,2019-10-29,Y,,,,"It is important to understand the correlates of children's physical activity (PA) and sitting at home, where children spend significant time. The home social environment has an important influence; however, much less is known about the home physical environment. Therefore, the study aimed to assess relationships between the physical environment and children's sitting and PA at home. In total, 235 child-parent dyads were included in the analyses. Children spent 67% of their time at home sitting. Linear regression analyses examined associations between physical home environmental factors obtained via an audit and children's (55% girl, 10.2 ± 0.7) objective PA and sitting at home. Following adjustment for socio-demographics and social environmental factors, an open plan living area (OPLA), musical instrument accessibility and availability, and perceived house size were negatively and positively associated, whereas media equipment accessibility and availability was positively and negatively associated with sitting and standing, respectively. Additionally, an OPLA was positively associated with total and moderate-to-vigorous PA. Furthermore, sitting breaks were positively associated with objective garden size and negatively associated with digital TV. The physical home environment may have an important influence on children's sitting, standing and PA at home; therefore, interventions that target this environment are needed.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4178/pdf?version=1573119054; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214178; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6862192; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6862192?pdf=render -36415305,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066,"Identifying unmet antithrombotic therapeutic need, and implications for stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation patients: a population-scale longitudinal study.","Torabi F, Harris DE, Bodger O, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Gravenor M, Halcox JP.",,European heart journal open,2022,2022-11-21,Y,Anticoagulation; Atrial fibrillation; Electronic Health Records; Stroke And Systemic Embolism,,,"

Aims

Guidelines recommend anticoagulation (AC) in atrial fibrillation (AF) to reduce stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) risk; however, implementation has been slow across many populations. This study aimed to quantify the potential impact of changing prevalence of AF, associated risk, and AC prescribing on SSE hospitalizations and death.

Methods and results

We evaluated temporal trends of AF, CHA2DS2-VASc, antithrombotic prescriptions, SSE hospitalizations, death, and their associations between 2012 and 2018 in a longitudinal cohort of AF patients in Wales UK. Multi-state Markov models were used to estimate expected SSE rates given the AC coverage, adjusting for CHA2DS2-VASc scores. SSE rates were modelled for various past and future AC scenarios. A total of 107 137 AF patients were evaluated (mean age = 74 years, 45% female). AF prevalence increased from 1.75 to 2.22% (P-value <0.001). SSE hospitalizations decreased by 18% (2.34-1.92%, P-value <0.001). Increased AC coverage from 50 to 70% was associated with a 37% lower SSE rate, after adjustment for individual time-dependent CHA2DS2VASc scores. The observed AC increase accounted for approximately 80 fewer SSE hospitalizations per 100 000/year. If 90% AC coverage had been achieved since 2012, an estimated 279 SSE per 100 000/year may have been prevented. Our model also predicts that improving AC coverage to 90% over the next 9 years could reduce annual SSE rates by 9%.

Conclusion

We quantified the relationship between observed AC coverage, estimating the potential impact of variation in the timing of large-scale implementation. These data emphasize the importance of timely implementation and the considerable opportunity to improve clinical outcomes in the Wales-AF population.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/2/6/oeac066/48439565/oeac066.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205?pdf=render 34982094,https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.1.3,OCT Assisted Quantification of Vitreous Inflammation in Uveitis.,"Liu X, Kale AU, Ometto G, Montesano G, Sitch AJ, Capewell N, Radovanovic C, Bucknall N, Beare NAV, Moore DJ, Keane PA, Crabb DP, Denniston AK.",,Translational vision science & technology,2022,2022-01-01,Y,,,,"

Purpose

Vitreous haze (VH) is a key marker of inflammation in uveitis but limited by its subjectivity. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has potential as an objective, noninvasive method for quantifying VH. We test the hypotheses that OCT can reliably quantify VH and the measurement is associated with slit-lamp based grading of VH.

Methods

In this prospective study, participants underwent three repeated OCT macular scans to evaluate the within-eye reliability of the OCT vitreous intensity (VI). Association between OCT VI and clinical findings (including VH grade, phakic status, visual acuity [VA], anterior chamber cells, and macular thickness) were assessed.

Results

One hundred nineteen participants were included (41 healthy participants, 32 patients with uveitis without VH, and 46 patients with uveitis with VH). Within-eye test reliability of OCT VI was high in healthy eyes and in all grades of VH (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] > 0.79). Average OCT VI was significantly different between healthy eyes and uveitic eyes without and uveitic eyes with VH, and was associated with increasing clinical VH grade (P < 0.05). OCT VI was significantly associated with VA, whereas clinical VH grading was not. Cataract was also associated with higher OCT VI (P = 0.03).

Conclusions

OCT VI is a fast, noninvasive, objective, and automated method for measuring vitreous inflammation. It is associated with clinician grading of vitreous inflammation and VA, however, it can be affected by media opacities.

Translational relevance

OCT imaging for quantifying vitreous inflammation shows high within-eye repeatability and is associated with clinical grading of vitreous haze. OCT measurements are also associated with visual acuity but may be affected by structures anterior to the acquisition window, such as lens opacity and other anterior segment changes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.1.3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.1.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8742534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8742534?pdf=render -33591280,https://doi.org/10.2196/16348,A Social Media Campaign (#datasaveslives) to Promote the Benefits of Using Health Data for Research Purposes: Mixed Methods Analysis.,"Hassan L, Nenadic G, Tully MP.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2021,2021-02-16,Y,Medical research; Public Engagement; Social Network Analysis; Social Media,,,"

Background

Social media provides the potential to engage a wide audience about scientific research, including the public. However, little empirical research exists to guide health scientists regarding what works and how to optimize impact. We examined the social media campaign #datasaveslives established in 2014 to highlight positive examples of the use and reuse of health data in research.

Objective

This study aims to examine how the #datasaveslives hashtag was used on social media, how often, and by whom; thus, we aim to provide insights into the impact of a major social media campaign in the UK health informatics research community and further afield.

Methods

We analyzed all publicly available posts (tweets) that included the hashtag #datasaveslives (N=13,895) on the microblogging platform Twitter between September 1, 2016, and August 31, 2017. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, we determined the frequency and purpose of tweets. Social network analysis was used to analyze and visualize tweet sharing (retweet) networks among hashtag users.

Results

Overall, we found 4175 original posts and 9720 retweets featuring #datasaveslives by 3649 unique Twitter users. In total, 66.01% (2756/4175) of the original posts were retweeted at least once. Higher frequencies of tweets were observed during the weeks of prominent policy publications, popular conferences, and public engagement events. Cluster analysis based on retweet relationships revealed an interconnected series of groups of #datasaveslives users in academia, health services and policy, and charities and patient networks. Thematic analysis of tweets showed that #datasaveslives was used for a broader range of purposes than indexing information, including event reporting, encouraging participation and action, and showing personal support for data sharing.

Conclusions

This study shows that a hashtag-based social media campaign was effective in encouraging a wide audience of stakeholders to disseminate positive examples of health research. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the campaign supported community building and bridging practices within and between the interdisciplinary sectors related to the field of health data science and encouraged individuals to demonstrate personal support for sharing health data.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/2/e16348/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16348; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925154 -32685698,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3,Estimating the overdispersion in COVID-19 transmission using outbreak sizes outside China.,"Endo A, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Abbott S, Kucharski AJ, Funk S.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-07-10,Y,Branching Process; Overdispersion; Novel Coronavirus; Superspreading; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has now spread to a number of countries worldwide. While sustained transmission chains of human-to-human transmission suggest high basic reproduction number R 0, variation in the number of secondary transmissions (often characterised by so-called superspreading events) may be large as some countries have observed fewer local transmissions than others. Methods: We quantified individual-level variation in COVID-19 transmission by applying a mathematical model to observed outbreak sizes in affected countries. We extracted the number of imported and local cases in the affected countries from the World Health Organization situation report and applied a branching process model where the number of secondary transmissions was assumed to follow a negative-binomial distribution. Results: Our model suggested a high degree of individual-level variation in the transmission of COVID-19. Within the current consensus range of R 0 (2-3), the overdispersion parameter k of a negative-binomial distribution was estimated to be around 0.1 (median estimate 0.1; 95% CrI: 0.05-0.2 for R0 = 2.5), suggesting that 80% of secondary transmissions may have been caused by a small fraction of infectious individuals (~10%). A joint estimation yielded likely ranges for R 0 and k (95% CrIs: R 0 1.4-12; k 0.04-0.2); however, the upper bound of R 0 was not well informed by the model and data, which did not notably differ from that of the prior distribution. Conclusions: Our finding of a highly-overdispersed offspring distribution highlights a potential benefit to focusing intervention efforts on superspreading. As most infected individuals do not contribute to the expansion of an epidemic, the effective reproduction number could be drastically reduced by preventing relatively rare superspreading events.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915?pdf=render +36869930,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6,Cost consequences of unscheduled emergency admissions in cancer patients in the last year of life.,"McFerran E, Cairnduff V, Elder R, Gavin A, Lawler M.",,Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer,2023,2023-03-04,Y,Neoplasms; Death; Palliative care; Emergency Care; Cost Consequences,,,"

Objectives

Cancer is a leading cause of death. This paper examines the utilisation of unscheduled emergency end-of-life healthcare and estimates expenditure in this domain. We explore care patterns and quantify the likely benefits from service reconfigurations which may influence rates of hospital admission and deaths.

Methods

Using prevalence-based retrospective data from the Northern Ireland General Registrar's Office linked by cancer diagnosis to Patient Administration episode data for unscheduled emergency care (1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015), we estimate unscheduled-emergency-care costs in the last year of life. We model potential resources released by reductions in length-of-stay for cancer patients. Linear regression examined patient characteristics affecting length of stay.

Results

A total of 3134 cancer patients used 60,746 days of unscheduled emergency care (average 19.5 days). Of these, 48.9% had ≥1 admission during their last 28 days of life. Total estimated cost was £28,684,261, averaging £9200 per person. Lung cancer patients had the highest proportion of admissions (23.2%, mean length of stay = 17.9 days, mean cost=£7224). The highest service use and total cost was in those diagnosed at stage IV (38.4%), who required 22,099 days of care, costing £9,629,014. Palliative care support, identified in 25.5% of patients, contributed £1,322,328. A 3-day reduction in the mean length of stay with a 10% reduction in admissions, could reduce costs by £7.37 million. Regression analyses explained 41% of length-of-stay variability.

Conclusions

The cost burden from unscheduled care use in the last year of life of cancer patients is significant. Opportunities to prioritise service reconfiguration for high-costing users emphasized lung and colorectal cancers as offering the greatest potential to influence outcomes.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568?pdf=render +36415305,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066,"Identifying unmet antithrombotic therapeutic need, and implications for stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation patients: a population-scale longitudinal study.","Torabi F, Harris DE, Bodger O, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Gravenor M, Halcox JP.",,European heart journal open,2022,2022-11-21,Y,Anticoagulation; Atrial fibrillation; Electronic Health Records; Stroke And Systemic Embolism,,,"

Aims

Guidelines recommend anticoagulation (AC) in atrial fibrillation (AF) to reduce stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) risk; however, implementation has been slow across many populations. This study aimed to quantify the potential impact of changing prevalence of AF, associated risk, and AC prescribing on SSE hospitalizations and death.

Methods and results

We evaluated temporal trends of AF, CHA2DS2-VASc, antithrombotic prescriptions, SSE hospitalizations, death, and their associations between 2012 and 2018 in a longitudinal cohort of AF patients in Wales UK. Multi-state Markov models were used to estimate expected SSE rates given the AC coverage, adjusting for CHA2DS2-VASc scores. SSE rates were modelled for various past and future AC scenarios. A total of 107 137 AF patients were evaluated (mean age = 74 years, 45% female). AF prevalence increased from 1.75 to 2.22% (P-value <0.001). SSE hospitalizations decreased by 18% (2.34-1.92%, P-value <0.001). Increased AC coverage from 50 to 70% was associated with a 37% lower SSE rate, after adjustment for individual time-dependent CHA2DS2VASc scores. The observed AC increase accounted for approximately 80 fewer SSE hospitalizations per 100 000/year. If 90% AC coverage had been achieved since 2012, an estimated 279 SSE per 100 000/year may have been prevented. Our model also predicts that improving AC coverage to 90% over the next 9 years could reduce annual SSE rates by 9%.

Conclusion

We quantified the relationship between observed AC coverage, estimating the potential impact of variation in the timing of large-scale implementation. These data emphasize the importance of timely implementation and the considerable opportunity to improve clinical outcomes in the Wales-AF population.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/2/6/oeac066/48439565/oeac066.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205?pdf=render 33836256,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.03.025,Internal-external cross-validation helped to evaluate the generalizability of prediction models in large clustered datasets.,"Takada T, Nijman S, Denaxas S, Snell KIE, Uijl A, Nguyen TL, Asselbergs FW, Debray TPA.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2021,2021-04-06,N,Heterogeneity; Discrimination; Validation; Prediction model; calibration; Model Comparison,,,"

Objective

To illustrate how to evaluate the need of complex strategies for developing generalizable prediction models in large clustered datasets.

Study design and setting

We developed eight Cox regression models to estimate the risk of heart failure using a large population-level dataset. These models differed in the number of predictors, the functional form of the predictor effects (non-linear effects and interaction) and the estimation method (maximum likelihood and penalization). Internal-external cross-validation was used to evaluate the models' generalizability across the included general practices.

Results

Among 871,687 individuals from 225 general practices, 43,987 (5.5%) developed heart failure during a median follow-up time of 5.8 years. For discrimination, the simplest prediction model yielded a good concordance statistic, which was not much improved by adopting complex strategies. Between-practice heterogeneity in discrimination was similar in all models. For calibration, the simplest model performed satisfactorily. Although accounting for non-linear effects and interaction slightly improved the calibration slope, it also led to more heterogeneity in the observed/expected ratio. Similar results were found in a second case study involving patients with stroke.

Conclusion

In large clustered datasets, prediction model studies may adopt internal-external cross-validation to evaluate the generalizability of competing models, and to identify promising modelling strategies.",,pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621001074/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.03.025 +32685698,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3,Estimating the overdispersion in COVID-19 transmission using outbreak sizes outside China.,"Endo A, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Abbott S, Kucharski AJ, Funk S.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-07-10,Y,Branching Process; Overdispersion; Novel Coronavirus; Superspreading; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has now spread to a number of countries worldwide. While sustained transmission chains of human-to-human transmission suggest high basic reproduction number R 0, variation in the number of secondary transmissions (often characterised by so-called superspreading events) may be large as some countries have observed fewer local transmissions than others. Methods: We quantified individual-level variation in COVID-19 transmission by applying a mathematical model to observed outbreak sizes in affected countries. We extracted the number of imported and local cases in the affected countries from the World Health Organization situation report and applied a branching process model where the number of secondary transmissions was assumed to follow a negative-binomial distribution. Results: Our model suggested a high degree of individual-level variation in the transmission of COVID-19. Within the current consensus range of R 0 (2-3), the overdispersion parameter k of a negative-binomial distribution was estimated to be around 0.1 (median estimate 0.1; 95% CrI: 0.05-0.2 for R0 = 2.5), suggesting that 80% of secondary transmissions may have been caused by a small fraction of infectious individuals (~10%). A joint estimation yielded likely ranges for R 0 and k (95% CrIs: R 0 1.4-12; k 0.04-0.2); however, the upper bound of R 0 was not well informed by the model and data, which did not notably differ from that of the prior distribution. Conclusions: Our finding of a highly-overdispersed offspring distribution highlights a potential benefit to focusing intervention efforts on superspreading. As most infected individuals do not contribute to the expansion of an epidemic, the effective reproduction number could be drastically reduced by preventing relatively rare superspreading events.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915?pdf=render 33692568,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00783-5,The Polygenic Score Catalog as an open database for reproducibility and systematic evaluation.,"Lambert SA, Gil L, Jupp S, Ritchie SC, Xu Y, Buniello A, McMahon A, Abraham G, Chapman M, Parkinson H, Danesh J, MacArthur JAL, Inouye M.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-04-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/05/23/2020.05.20.20108217.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00783-5 -36947103,https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070,An Assessment of Quaternary Structure Functionality in Homomer Protein Complexes.,"Abrusán G, Foguet C.",,Molecular biology and evolution,2023,2023-04-01,Y,Protein complexes; Coevolution; Neutral evolution; Ligand binding; Homomers,,,"It has been recently suggested that a significant fraction of homomer protein-protein interfaces evolve neutrally, without contributing to function, due to a hydrophobic bias in missense mutations. However, the fraction of such gratuitous complexes is currently unknown. Here, we quantified the fraction of homodimers where multimerization is unlikely to contribute to their biochemical function. We show that: 1) ligand binding-site structure predicts whether a homomer is functional or not; the vast majority of homodimers with multichain binding-sites (MBS) are likely to be functional, while in homodimers with single-chain binding-sites (SBS) and small to medium interfaces, quaternary structure is unlikely to be functional in a significant fraction-35%, even up to 42%-of complexes; 2) the hydrophobicity of interfaces changes little with the strength of selection, and the amino acid composition of interfaces is shaped by the ""hydrophobic ratchet"" in both types, but they are not in a strict equilibrium with mutations; particularly cysteines are much more abundant in mutations than in interfaces or surfaces; 3) in MBS homomers, the interfaces are conserved, while in a high fraction of SBS homomers, the interface is not more conserved than the solvent-accessible surface; and 4) MBS homomer interfaces coevolve more strongly with ligand binding sites than the interfaces of SBS homomers, and MBS complexes have higher capacity to transfer information from ligands across the interfaces than SBS homomers, explaining the enrichment of allostery in the former.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/molbev/msad070/49594873/msad070.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308?pdf=render +33591280,https://doi.org/10.2196/16348,A Social Media Campaign (#datasaveslives) to Promote the Benefits of Using Health Data for Research Purposes: Mixed Methods Analysis.,"Hassan L, Nenadic G, Tully MP.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2021,2021-02-16,Y,Medical research; Public Engagement; Social Network Analysis; Social Media,,,"

Background

Social media provides the potential to engage a wide audience about scientific research, including the public. However, little empirical research exists to guide health scientists regarding what works and how to optimize impact. We examined the social media campaign #datasaveslives established in 2014 to highlight positive examples of the use and reuse of health data in research.

Objective

This study aims to examine how the #datasaveslives hashtag was used on social media, how often, and by whom; thus, we aim to provide insights into the impact of a major social media campaign in the UK health informatics research community and further afield.

Methods

We analyzed all publicly available posts (tweets) that included the hashtag #datasaveslives (N=13,895) on the microblogging platform Twitter between September 1, 2016, and August 31, 2017. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, we determined the frequency and purpose of tweets. Social network analysis was used to analyze and visualize tweet sharing (retweet) networks among hashtag users.

Results

Overall, we found 4175 original posts and 9720 retweets featuring #datasaveslives by 3649 unique Twitter users. In total, 66.01% (2756/4175) of the original posts were retweeted at least once. Higher frequencies of tweets were observed during the weeks of prominent policy publications, popular conferences, and public engagement events. Cluster analysis based on retweet relationships revealed an interconnected series of groups of #datasaveslives users in academia, health services and policy, and charities and patient networks. Thematic analysis of tweets showed that #datasaveslives was used for a broader range of purposes than indexing information, including event reporting, encouraging participation and action, and showing personal support for data sharing.

Conclusions

This study shows that a hashtag-based social media campaign was effective in encouraging a wide audience of stakeholders to disseminate positive examples of health research. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the campaign supported community building and bridging practices within and between the interdisciplinary sectors related to the field of health data science and encouraged individuals to demonstrate personal support for sharing health data.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/2/e16348/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16348; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925154 32846977,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176139,Agreement between the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and Accelerometry in Adults with Orthopaedic Injury. ,"Veitch WG, Climie RE, Gabbe BJ, Dunstan DW, Owen N, Ekegren CL.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2020,2020-08-24,Y,,,,"Orthopaedic injury can lead to decreased physical activity. Valid measures for assessing physical activity are therefore needed in this population. The aim of this study was to determine the agreement and concordance between the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ) and device-measured physical activity and sitting time in orthopaedic injury patients. Adults with isolated upper or lower limb fracture (n = 46; mean age of 40.5 years) wore two activity monitors (ActiGraph wGT3X-BT and activPAL) for 10 days, from 2 weeks post-discharge. The IPAQ was also completed for a concurrent 7-day period. Lin's concordance correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots were calculated to compare walking/stepping time, total METmins, and sitting time. The IPAQ overestimated device-derived walking time (mean difference = 2.34 ± 7.33 h/week) and total METmins (mean difference = 767 ± 1659 METmins/week) and underestimated sitting time (mean difference = -2.26 ± 3.87 h/day). There was fair concordance between IPAQ-reported and device-measured walking (ρ = 0.34) and sitting time (ρ = 0.38) and moderate concordance between IPAQ-reported and device-measured METmins (ρ = 0.43). In patients with orthopaedic injury, the IPAQ overestimates physical activity and underestimates sitting time. Higher agreement was observed in the forms of activity (walking, total PA and sitting) commonly performed by this patient group.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6139/pdf?version=1598511551; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176139; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7504024; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7504024?pdf=render -33788869,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258,Using graphic modelling to identify modifiable mediators of the association between area-based deprivation at birth and offspring unemployment.,"Bogie J, Fleming M, Cullen B, Mackay D, Pell JP.",,PloS one,2021,2021-03-31,Y,,,,"

Background

Deprivation can perpetuate across generations; however, the causative pathways are not well understood. Directed acyclic graphs (DAG) with mediation analysis can help elucidate and quantify complex pathways in order to identify modifiable factors at which to target interventions.

Methods and findings

We linked ten Scotland-wide databases (six health and four education) to produce a cohort of 217,226 pupils who attended Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. The DAG comprised 23 potential mediators of the association between area deprivation at birth and subsequent offspring 'not in education, employment or training' status, covering maternal, antenatal, perinatal and child health, school engagement, and educational factors. Analyses were performed using modified g-computation. Deprivation at birth was associated with a 7.3% increase in offspring 'not in education, employment or training'. The principal mediators of this association were smoking during pregnancy (natural indirect effect of 0·016, 95% CI 0·013, 0·019) and school absences (natural indirect effect of 0·021, 95% CI 0·018, 0·024), explaining 22% and 30% of the total effect respectively. The proportion of the association potentially eliminated by addressing these factors was 19% (controlled direct effect when set to non-smoker 0·058; 95% CI 0·053, 0·063) for smoking during pregnancy and 38% (controlled direct effect when set to no absences 0·043; 95% CI 0·037, 0·049) for school absences.

Conclusions

Combining a DAG with mediation analysis helped disentangle a complex public health problem and quantified the modifiable factors of maternal smoking and school absence that could be targeted for intervention. This study also demonstrates the general utility of DAGs in understanding complex public health problems.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249258&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734?pdf=render +36947103,https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070,An Assessment of Quaternary Structure Functionality in Homomer Protein Complexes.,"Abrusán G, Foguet C.",,Molecular biology and evolution,2023,2023-04-01,Y,Protein complexes; Coevolution; Neutral evolution; Ligand binding; Homomers,,,"It has been recently suggested that a significant fraction of homomer protein-protein interfaces evolve neutrally, without contributing to function, due to a hydrophobic bias in missense mutations. However, the fraction of such gratuitous complexes is currently unknown. Here, we quantified the fraction of homodimers where multimerization is unlikely to contribute to their biochemical function. We show that: 1) ligand binding-site structure predicts whether a homomer is functional or not; the vast majority of homodimers with multichain binding-sites (MBS) are likely to be functional, while in homodimers with single-chain binding-sites (SBS) and small to medium interfaces, quaternary structure is unlikely to be functional in a significant fraction-35%, even up to 42%-of complexes; 2) the hydrophobicity of interfaces changes little with the strength of selection, and the amino acid composition of interfaces is shaped by the ""hydrophobic ratchet"" in both types, but they are not in a strict equilibrium with mutations; particularly cysteines are much more abundant in mutations than in interfaces or surfaces; 3) in MBS homomers, the interfaces are conserved, while in a high fraction of SBS homomers, the interface is not more conserved than the solvent-accessible surface; and 4) MBS homomer interfaces coevolve more strongly with ligand binding sites than the interfaces of SBS homomers, and MBS complexes have higher capacity to transfer information from ligands across the interfaces than SBS homomers, explaining the enrichment of allostery in the former.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/molbev/msad070/49594873/msad070.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308?pdf=render 31409800,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11451-y,GWAS for urinary sodium and potassium excretion highlights pathways shared with cardiovascular traits.,"Pazoki R, Evangelou E, Mosen-Ansorena D, Pinto RC, Karaman I, Blakeley P, Gill D, Zuber V, Elliott P, Tzoulaki I, Dehghan A.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-08-13,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Urinary sodium and potassium excretion are associated with blood pressure (BP) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The exact biological link between these traits is yet to be elucidated. Here, we identify 50 loci for sodium and 13 for potassium excretion in a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) on urinary sodium and potassium excretion using data from 446,237 individuals of European descent from the UK Biobank study. We extensively interrogate the results using multiple analyses such as Mendelian randomization, functional assessment, co localization, genetic risk score, and pathway analyses. We identify a shared genetic component between urinary sodium and potassium expression and cardiovascular traits. Ingenuity pathway analysis shows that urinary sodium and potassium excretion loci are over-represented in behavioural response to stimuli. Our study highlights pathways that are shared between urinary sodium and potassium excretion and cardiovascular traits.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11451-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11451-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6692500; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6692500?pdf=render -33782427,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3,Analysis of temporal trends in potential COVID-19 cases reported through NHS Pathways England.,"Leclerc QJ, Nightingale ES, Abbott S, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jombart T.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"The National Health Service (NHS) Pathways triage system collates data on enquiries to 111 and 999 services in England. Since the 18th of March 2020, these data have been made publically available for potential COVID-19 symptoms self-reported by members of the public. Trends in such reports over time are likely to reflect behaviour of the ongoing epidemic within the wider community, potentially capturing valuable information across a broader severity profile of cases than hospital admission data. We present a fully reproducible analysis of temporal trends in NHS Pathways reports until 14th May 2020, nationally and regionally, and demonstrate that rates of growth/decline and effective reproduction number estimated from these data may be useful in monitoring transmission. This is a particularly pressing issue as lockdown restrictions begin to be lifted and evidence of disease resurgence must be constantly reassessed. We further assess the correlation between NHS Pathways reports and a publicly available NHS dataset of COVID-19-associated deaths in England, finding that enquiries to 111/999 were strongly associated with daily deaths reported 16 days later. Our results highlight the potential of NHS Pathways as the basis of an early warning system. However, this dataset relies on self-reported symptoms, which are at risk of being severely biased. Further detailed work is therefore necessary to investigate potential behavioural issues which might otherwise explain our conclusions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86266-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605?pdf=render 31446403,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026677,Diagnosis and treatment for hyperuricemia and gout: a systematic review of clinical practice guidelines and consensus statements.,"Li Q, Li X, Wang J, Liu H, Kwong JS, Chen H, Li L, Chung SC, Shah A, Chen Y, An Z, Sun X, Hemingway H, Tian H, Li S.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-08-24,Y,Gout; Hyperuricemia; Systematic review; Clinical Practice Guideline,,,"

Objectives

Despite the publication of hundreds of trials on gout and hyperuricemia, management of these conditions remains suboptimal. We aimed to assess the quality and consistency of guidance documents for gout and hyperuricemia.

Design

Systematic review and quality assessment using the appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation (AGREE) II methodology.

Data sources

PubMed and EMBASE (27 October 2016), two Chinese academic databases, eight guideline databases, and Google and Google scholar (July 2017).

Eligibility criteria

We included the latest version of international and national/regional clinical practice guidelines and consensus statements for diagnosis and/or treatment of hyperuricemia and gout, published in English or Chinese.

Data extraction and synthesis

Two reviewers independently screened searched items and extracted data. Four reviewers independently scored documents using AGREE II. Recommendations from all documents were tabulated and visualised in a coloured grid.

Results

Twenty-four guidance documents (16 clinical practice guidelines and 8 consensus statements) published between 2003 and 2017 were included. Included documents performed well in the domains of scope and purpose (median 85.4%, range 66.7%-100.0%) and clarity of presentation (median 79.2%, range 48.6%-98.6%), but unsatisfactory in applicability (median 10.9%, range 0.0%-66.7%) and editorial independence (median 28.1%, range 0.0%-83.3%). The 2017 British Society of Rheumatology guideline received the highest scores. Recommendations were concordant on the target serum uric acid level for long-term control, on some indications for urate-lowering therapy (ULT), and on the first-line drugs for ULT and for acute attack. Substantially inconsistent recommendations were provided for many items, especially for the timing of initiation of ULT and for treatment for asymptomatic hyperuricemia.

Conclusions

Methodological quality needs improvement in guidance documents on gout and hyperuricemia. Evidence for certain clinical questions is lacking, despite numerous trials in this field. Promoting standard guidance development methods and synthesising high-quality clinical evidence are potential approaches to reduce recommendation inconsistencies.

Prospero registration number

CRD42016046104.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/8/e026677.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720466; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720466?pdf=render 31994239,https://doi.org/10.1002/bimj.201900041,Estimating treatment effects with partially observed covariates using outcome regression with missing indicators.,"Blake HA, Leyrat C, Mansfield KE, Tomlinson LA, Carpenter J, Williamson EJ.",,Biometrical journal. Biometrische Zeitschrift,2020,2020-01-29,N,Average Treatment Effect; Outcome Regression; Missing Covariate Data; Missing Indicator; Missing Confounder Data,,,"Missing data is a common issue in research using observational studies to investigate the effect of treatments on health outcomes. When missingness occurs only in the covariates, a simple approach is to use missing indicators to handle the partially observed covariates. The missing indicator approach has been criticized for giving biased results in outcome regression. However, recent papers have suggested that the missing indicator approach can provide unbiased results in propensity score analysis under certain assumptions. We consider assumptions under which the missing indicator approach can provide valid inferences, namely, (1) no unmeasured confounding within missingness patterns; either (2a) covariate values of patients with missing data were conditionally independent of treatment or (2b) these values were conditionally independent of outcome; and (3) the outcome model is correctly specified: specifically, the true outcome model does not include interactions between missing indicators and fully observed covariates. We prove that, under the assumptions above, the missing indicator approach with outcome regression can provide unbiased estimates of the average treatment effect. We use a simulation study to investigate the extent of bias in estimates of the treatment effect when the assumptions are violated and we illustrate our findings using data from electronic health records. In conclusion, the missing indicator approach can provide valid inferences for outcome regression, but the plausibility of its assumptions must first be considered carefully.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4655332/1/Estimating-treatment-effects-with-partially-observed-covariates-using-outcome-regression-with-missing-indicators.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/bimj.201900041 -35861678,https://doi.org/10.2196/36989,Developing a Long COVID Phenotype for Postacute COVID-19 in a National Primary Care Sentinel Cohort: Observational Retrospective Database Analysis.,"Mayor N, Meza-Torres B, Okusi C, Delanerolle G, Chapman M, Wang W, Anand S, Feher M, Macartney J, Byford R, Joy M, Gatenby P, Curcin V, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-08-11,Y,Phenotype; Surveillance; epidemiology; Public Health; Hospitalization; Social Class; Disease Management; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Electronic Health Record; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Bioportal; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Digital Tool; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Postacute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts,,,"

Background

Following COVID-19, up to 40% of people have ongoing health problems, referred to as postacute COVID-19 or long COVID (LC). LC varies from a single persisting symptom to a complex multisystem disease. Research has flagged that this condition is underrecorded in primary care records, and seeks to better define its clinical characteristics and management. Phenotypes provide a standard method for case definition and identification from routine data and are usually machine-processable. An LC phenotype can underpin research into this condition.

Objective

This study aims to develop a phenotype for LC to inform the epidemiology and future research into this condition. We compared clinical symptoms in people with LC before and after their index infection, recorded from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We also compared people recorded as having acute infection with those with LC who were hospitalized and those who were not.

Methods

We used data from the Primary Care Sentinel Cohort (PCSC) of the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) database. This network was recruited to be nationally representative of the English population. We developed an LC phenotype using our established 3-step ontological method: (1) ontological step (defining the reasoning process underpinning the phenotype, (2) coding step (exploring what clinical terms are available, and (3) logical extract model (testing performance). We created a version of this phenotype using Protégé in the ontology web language for BioPortal and using PhenoFlow. Next, we used the phenotype to compare people with LC (1) with regard to their symptoms in the year prior to acquiring COVID-19 and (2) with people with acute COVID-19. We also compared hospitalized people with LC with those not hospitalized. We compared sociodemographic details, comorbidities, and Office of National Statistics-defined LC symptoms between groups. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Results

The long-COVID phenotype differentiated people hospitalized with LC from people who were not and where no index infection was identified. The PCSC (N=7.4 million) includes 428,479 patients with acute COVID-19 diagnosis confirmed by a laboratory test and 10,772 patients with clinically diagnosed COVID-19. A total of 7471 (1.74%, 95% CI 1.70-1.78) people were coded as having LC, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.7-14.3) had a hospital admission related to acute COVID-19, and 6462 (86.5%, 95% CI 85.7-87.3) were not hospitalized, of whom 2728 (42.2%) had no COVID-19 index date recorded. In addition, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.73-14.28) people with LC were hospitalized compared to 17,993 (4.5%, 95% CI 4.48-4.61; P<.001) with uncomplicated COVID-19.

Conclusions

Our LC phenotype enables the identification of individuals with the condition in routine data sets, facilitating their comparison with unaffected people through retrospective research. This phenotype and study protocol to explore its face validity contributes to a better understanding of LC.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e36989/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/36989; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9374163 +33782427,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3,Analysis of temporal trends in potential COVID-19 cases reported through NHS Pathways England.,"Leclerc QJ, Nightingale ES, Abbott S, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jombart T.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"The National Health Service (NHS) Pathways triage system collates data on enquiries to 111 and 999 services in England. Since the 18th of March 2020, these data have been made publically available for potential COVID-19 symptoms self-reported by members of the public. Trends in such reports over time are likely to reflect behaviour of the ongoing epidemic within the wider community, potentially capturing valuable information across a broader severity profile of cases than hospital admission data. We present a fully reproducible analysis of temporal trends in NHS Pathways reports until 14th May 2020, nationally and regionally, and demonstrate that rates of growth/decline and effective reproduction number estimated from these data may be useful in monitoring transmission. This is a particularly pressing issue as lockdown restrictions begin to be lifted and evidence of disease resurgence must be constantly reassessed. We further assess the correlation between NHS Pathways reports and a publicly available NHS dataset of COVID-19-associated deaths in England, finding that enquiries to 111/999 were strongly associated with daily deaths reported 16 days later. Our results highlight the potential of NHS Pathways as the basis of an early warning system. However, this dataset relies on self-reported symptoms, which are at risk of being severely biased. Further detailed work is therefore necessary to investigate potential behavioural issues which might otherwise explain our conclusions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86266-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605?pdf=render +33788869,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258,Using graphic modelling to identify modifiable mediators of the association between area-based deprivation at birth and offspring unemployment.,"Bogie J, Fleming M, Cullen B, Mackay D, Pell JP.",,PloS one,2021,2021-03-31,Y,,,,"

Background

Deprivation can perpetuate across generations; however, the causative pathways are not well understood. Directed acyclic graphs (DAG) with mediation analysis can help elucidate and quantify complex pathways in order to identify modifiable factors at which to target interventions.

Methods and findings

We linked ten Scotland-wide databases (six health and four education) to produce a cohort of 217,226 pupils who attended Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. The DAG comprised 23 potential mediators of the association between area deprivation at birth and subsequent offspring 'not in education, employment or training' status, covering maternal, antenatal, perinatal and child health, school engagement, and educational factors. Analyses were performed using modified g-computation. Deprivation at birth was associated with a 7.3% increase in offspring 'not in education, employment or training'. The principal mediators of this association were smoking during pregnancy (natural indirect effect of 0·016, 95% CI 0·013, 0·019) and school absences (natural indirect effect of 0·021, 95% CI 0·018, 0·024), explaining 22% and 30% of the total effect respectively. The proportion of the association potentially eliminated by addressing these factors was 19% (controlled direct effect when set to non-smoker 0·058; 95% CI 0·053, 0·063) for smoking during pregnancy and 38% (controlled direct effect when set to no absences 0·043; 95% CI 0·037, 0·049) for school absences.

Conclusions

Combining a DAG with mediation analysis helped disentangle a complex public health problem and quantified the modifiable factors of maternal smoking and school absence that could be targeted for intervention. This study also demonstrates the general utility of DAGs in understanding complex public health problems.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249258&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734?pdf=render 36063293,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12348-022-00304-3,Evaluating patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for clinical trials and clinical practice in adult patients with uveitis or scleritis: a systematic review.,"O'Donovan C, Panthagani J, Aiyegbusi OL, Liu X, Bayliss S, Calvert M, Pesudovs K, Denniston A, Moore D, Braithwaite T.",,Journal of ophthalmic inflammation and infection,2022,2022-09-05,Y,,,,"Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) capture impact of disease and treatment on quality of life, and have an emerging role in clinical trial outcome measurement. This study included a systematic review and quality appraisal of PROMs developed or validated for use in adults with uveitis or scleritis. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and grey literature sources, to 5 November 2021. We used established quality criteria to grade each PROM instrument in multiple domains from A (high quality) to C (low quality), and assessed content development, validity, reliability and responsiveness. For instruments developed using classic test theory-based psychometric approaches, we assessed acceptability, item targeting and internal consistency. For instruments developed using Item Response Theory (IRT) (e.g. Rasch analysis), we assessed response categories, dimensionality, measurement precision, item fit statistics, differential item functioning and targeting. We identified and appraised four instruments applicable to certain uveitis types, but none for scleritis. Specifically, the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ), a 3-part PROM for Birdshot retinochoroiditis (Birdshot Disease & Medication Symptoms Questionnaire [BD&MSQ], the quality of life (QoL) impact of Birdshot Chorioretinopathy [QoL BCR], and the QoL impact of BCR medication [QoL Meds], the Kings Sarcoidosis Questionnaire (KSQ), and a PROM for cytomegalovirus retinitis. These instruments had limited coverage for these heterogeneous conditions, with a focus on very rare subtypes. Psychometric appraisal revealed considerable variability between instruments, limited content development, and only one developed using Item Response Theory. In conclusion, there are few validated PROMs for patients with uveitis and none for scleritis, and existing instruments have suboptimal psychometric performance. We articulate why we do not recommend their inclusion as clinical trial outcome measures for drug licensing purposes, and highlight an unmet need for PROMs applicable to uveitis and scleritis.",,pdf:https://joii-journal.springeropen.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12348-022-00304-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12348-022-00304-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443634?pdf=render -33521535,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107,Genetic risk of obesity as a modifier of associations between neighbourhood environment and body mass index: an observational study of 335 046 UK Biobank participants.,"Mason KE, Palla L, Pearce N, Phelan J, Cummins S.",,"BMJ nutrition, prevention & health",2020,2020-10-05,Y,Malnutrition; Dietary Patterns,,,"

Background

There is growing recognition that recent global increases in obesity are the product of a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. However, in gene-environment studies of obesity, 'environment' usually refers to individual behavioural factors that influence energy balance, whereas more upstream environmental factors are overlooked. We examined gene-environment interactions between genetic risk of obesity and two neighbourhood characteristics likely to be associated with obesity (proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and availability of physical activity facilities).

Methods

We used data from 335 046 adults aged 40-70 in the UK Biobank cohort to conduct a population-based cross-sectional study of interactions between neighbourhood characteristics and genetic risk of obesity, in relation to body mass index (BMI). Proximity to a fast-food outlet was defined as distance from home address to nearest takeaway/fast-food outlet, and availability of physical activity facilities as the number of formal physical activity facilities within 1 km of home address. Genetic risk of obesity was operationalised by weighted Genetic Risk Scores of 91 or 69 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), and by six individual SNPs considered separately. Multivariable, mixed-effects models with product terms for the gene-environment interactions were estimated.

Results

After accounting for likely confounding, the association between proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and BMI was stronger among those at increased genetic risk of obesity, with evidence of an interaction with polygenic risk scores (p=0.018 and p=0.028 for 69-SNP and 91-SNP scores, respectively) and in particular with a SNP linked to MC4R (p=0.009), a gene known to regulate food intake. We found very little evidence of gene-environment interaction for the availability of physical activity facilities.

Conclusions

Individuals at an increased genetic risk of obesity may be more sensitive to exposure to the local fast-food environment. Ensuring that neighbourhood residential environments are designed to promote a healthy weight may be particularly important for those with greater genetic susceptibility to obesity.",,pdf:https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/bmjnph/3/2/247.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812?pdf=render +35861678,https://doi.org/10.2196/36989,Developing a Long COVID Phenotype for Postacute COVID-19 in a National Primary Care Sentinel Cohort: Observational Retrospective Database Analysis.,"Mayor N, Meza-Torres B, Okusi C, Delanerolle G, Chapman M, Wang W, Anand S, Feher M, Macartney J, Byford R, Joy M, Gatenby P, Curcin V, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-08-11,Y,Phenotype; Surveillance; epidemiology; Public Health; Hospitalization; Social Class; Disease Management; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Electronic Health Record; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Bioportal; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Digital Tool; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Postacute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts,,,"

Background

Following COVID-19, up to 40% of people have ongoing health problems, referred to as postacute COVID-19 or long COVID (LC). LC varies from a single persisting symptom to a complex multisystem disease. Research has flagged that this condition is underrecorded in primary care records, and seeks to better define its clinical characteristics and management. Phenotypes provide a standard method for case definition and identification from routine data and are usually machine-processable. An LC phenotype can underpin research into this condition.

Objective

This study aims to develop a phenotype for LC to inform the epidemiology and future research into this condition. We compared clinical symptoms in people with LC before and after their index infection, recorded from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We also compared people recorded as having acute infection with those with LC who were hospitalized and those who were not.

Methods

We used data from the Primary Care Sentinel Cohort (PCSC) of the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) database. This network was recruited to be nationally representative of the English population. We developed an LC phenotype using our established 3-step ontological method: (1) ontological step (defining the reasoning process underpinning the phenotype, (2) coding step (exploring what clinical terms are available, and (3) logical extract model (testing performance). We created a version of this phenotype using Protégé in the ontology web language for BioPortal and using PhenoFlow. Next, we used the phenotype to compare people with LC (1) with regard to their symptoms in the year prior to acquiring COVID-19 and (2) with people with acute COVID-19. We also compared hospitalized people with LC with those not hospitalized. We compared sociodemographic details, comorbidities, and Office of National Statistics-defined LC symptoms between groups. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Results

The long-COVID phenotype differentiated people hospitalized with LC from people who were not and where no index infection was identified. The PCSC (N=7.4 million) includes 428,479 patients with acute COVID-19 diagnosis confirmed by a laboratory test and 10,772 patients with clinically diagnosed COVID-19. A total of 7471 (1.74%, 95% CI 1.70-1.78) people were coded as having LC, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.7-14.3) had a hospital admission related to acute COVID-19, and 6462 (86.5%, 95% CI 85.7-87.3) were not hospitalized, of whom 2728 (42.2%) had no COVID-19 index date recorded. In addition, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.73-14.28) people with LC were hospitalized compared to 17,993 (4.5%, 95% CI 4.48-4.61; P<.001) with uncomplicated COVID-19.

Conclusions

Our LC phenotype enables the identification of individuals with the condition in routine data sets, facilitating their comparison with unaffected people through retrospective research. This phenotype and study protocol to explore its face validity contributes to a better understanding of LC.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e36989/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/36989; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9374163 35410184,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13069-0,The local burden of disease during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in England: estimation using different data sources from changing surveillance practices.,"Nightingale ES, Abbott S, Russell TW, CMMID Covid-19 Working Group, Lowe R, Medley GF, Brady OJ.",,BMC public health,2022,2022-04-11,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 epidemic has differentially impacted communities across England, with regional variation in rates of confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths. Measurement of this burden changed substantially over the first months, as surveillance was expanded to accommodate the escalating epidemic. Laboratory confirmation was initially restricted to clinical need (""pillar 1"") before expanding to community-wide symptomatics (""pillar 2""). This study aimed to ascertain whether inconsistent measurement of case data resulting from varying testing coverage could be reconciled by drawing inference from COVID-19-related deaths.

Methods

We fit a Bayesian spatio-temporal model to weekly COVID-19-related deaths per local authority (LTLA) throughout the first wave (1 January 2020-30 June 2020), adjusting for the local epidemic timing and the age, deprivation and ethnic composition of its population. We combined predictions from this model with case data under community-wide, symptomatic testing and infection prevalence estimates from the ONS infection survey, to infer the likely trajectory of infections implied by the deaths in each LTLA.

Results

A model including temporally- and spatially-correlated random effects was found to best accommodate the observed variation in COVID-19-related deaths, after accounting for local population characteristics. Predicted case counts under community-wide symptomatic testing suggest a total of 275,000-420,000 cases over the first wave - a median of over 100,000 additional to the total confirmed in practice under varying testing coverage. This translates to a peak incidence of around 200,000 total infections per week across England. The extent to which estimated total infections are reflected in confirmed case counts was found to vary substantially across LTLAs, ranging from 7% in Leicester to 96% in Gloucester with a median of 23%.

Conclusions

Limitations in testing capacity biased the observed trajectory of COVID-19 infections throughout the first wave. Basing inference on COVID-19-related mortality and higher-coverage testing later in the time period, we could explore the extent of this bias more explicitly. Evidence points towards substantial under-representation of initial growth and peak magnitude of infections nationally, to which different parts of the country contribute unequally.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13069-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13069-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996221?pdf=render -36482104,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x,Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality.,"Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Gill JMR, Thøgersen-Ntoumani C, Gibala MJ, Doherty A, Hamer M.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-12-08,Y,,,,"Wearable devices can capture unexplored movement patterns such as brief bursts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) that is embedded into everyday life, rather than being done as leisure time exercise. Here, we examined the association of VILPA with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality in 25,241 nonexercisers (mean age 61.8 years, 14,178 women/11,063 men) in the UK Biobank. Over an average follow-up of 6.9 years, during which 852 deaths occurred, VILPA was inversely associated with all three of these outcomes in a near-linear fashion. Compared with participants who engaged in no VILPA, participants who engaged in VILPA at the sample median VILPA frequency of 3 length-standardized bouts per day (lasting 1 or 2 min each) showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 48%-49% reduction in CVD mortality risk. Moreover, the sample median VILPA duration of 4.4 min per day was associated with a 26%-30% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 32%-34% reduction in CVD mortality risk. We obtained similar results when repeating the above analyses for vigorous physical activity (VPA) in 62,344 UK Biobank participants who exercised (1,552 deaths, 35,290 women/27,054 men). These results indicate that small amounts of vigorous nonexercise physical activity are associated with substantially lower mortality. VILPA in nonexercisers appears to elicit similar effects to VPA in exercisers, suggesting that VILPA may be a suitable physical activity target, especially in people not able or willing to exercise.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02100-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274?pdf=render 34750571,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00478-5,Integrative analysis of the plasma proteome and polygenic risk of cardiometabolic diseases.,"Ritchie SC, Lambert SA, Arnold M, Teo SM, Lim S, Scepanovic P, Marten J, Zahid S, Chaffin M, Liu Y, Abraham G, Ouwehand WH, Roberts DJ, Watkins NA, Drew BG, Calkin AC, Di Angelantonio E, Soranzo N, Burgess S, Chapman M, Kathiresan S, Khera AV, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Inouye M.",,Nature metabolism,2021,2021-11-08,Y,,,,"Cardiometabolic diseases are frequently polygenic in architecture, comprising a large number of risk alleles with small effects spread across the genome1-3. Polygenic scores (PGS) aggregate these into a metric representing an individual's genetic predisposition to disease. PGS have shown promise for early risk prediction4-7 and there is an open question as to whether PGS can also be used to understand disease biology8. Here, we demonstrate that cardiometabolic disease PGS can be used to elucidate the proteins underlying disease pathogenesis. In 3,087 healthy individuals, we found that PGS for coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and ischaemic stroke are associated with the levels of 49 plasma proteins. Associations were polygenic in architecture, largely independent of cis and trans protein quantitative trait loci and present for proteins without quantitative trait loci. Over a follow-up of 7.7 years, 28 of these proteins associated with future myocardial infarction or type 2 diabetes events, 16 of which were mediators between polygenic risk and incident disease. Twelve of these were druggable targets with therapeutic potential. Our results demonstrate the potential for PGS to uncover causal disease biology and targets with therapeutic potential, including those that may be missed by approaches utilizing information at a single locus.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-021-00478-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00478-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8574944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8574944?pdf=render +33521535,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107,Genetic risk of obesity as a modifier of associations between neighbourhood environment and body mass index: an observational study of 335 046 UK Biobank participants.,"Mason KE, Palla L, Pearce N, Phelan J, Cummins S.",,"BMJ nutrition, prevention & health",2020,2020-10-05,Y,Malnutrition; Dietary Patterns,,,"

Background

There is growing recognition that recent global increases in obesity are the product of a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. However, in gene-environment studies of obesity, 'environment' usually refers to individual behavioural factors that influence energy balance, whereas more upstream environmental factors are overlooked. We examined gene-environment interactions between genetic risk of obesity and two neighbourhood characteristics likely to be associated with obesity (proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and availability of physical activity facilities).

Methods

We used data from 335 046 adults aged 40-70 in the UK Biobank cohort to conduct a population-based cross-sectional study of interactions between neighbourhood characteristics and genetic risk of obesity, in relation to body mass index (BMI). Proximity to a fast-food outlet was defined as distance from home address to nearest takeaway/fast-food outlet, and availability of physical activity facilities as the number of formal physical activity facilities within 1 km of home address. Genetic risk of obesity was operationalised by weighted Genetic Risk Scores of 91 or 69 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), and by six individual SNPs considered separately. Multivariable, mixed-effects models with product terms for the gene-environment interactions were estimated.

Results

After accounting for likely confounding, the association between proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and BMI was stronger among those at increased genetic risk of obesity, with evidence of an interaction with polygenic risk scores (p=0.018 and p=0.028 for 69-SNP and 91-SNP scores, respectively) and in particular with a SNP linked to MC4R (p=0.009), a gene known to regulate food intake. We found very little evidence of gene-environment interaction for the availability of physical activity facilities.

Conclusions

Individuals at an increased genetic risk of obesity may be more sensitive to exposure to the local fast-food environment. Ensuring that neighbourhood residential environments are designed to promote a healthy weight may be particularly important for those with greater genetic susceptibility to obesity.",,pdf:https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/bmjnph/3/2/247.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812?pdf=render +36482104,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x,Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality.,"Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Gill JMR, Thøgersen-Ntoumani C, Gibala MJ, Doherty A, Hamer M.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-12-08,Y,,,,"Wearable devices can capture unexplored movement patterns such as brief bursts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) that is embedded into everyday life, rather than being done as leisure time exercise. Here, we examined the association of VILPA with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality in 25,241 nonexercisers (mean age 61.8 years, 14,178 women/11,063 men) in the UK Biobank. Over an average follow-up of 6.9 years, during which 852 deaths occurred, VILPA was inversely associated with all three of these outcomes in a near-linear fashion. Compared with participants who engaged in no VILPA, participants who engaged in VILPA at the sample median VILPA frequency of 3 length-standardized bouts per day (lasting 1 or 2 min each) showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 48%-49% reduction in CVD mortality risk. Moreover, the sample median VILPA duration of 4.4 min per day was associated with a 26%-30% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 32%-34% reduction in CVD mortality risk. We obtained similar results when repeating the above analyses for vigorous physical activity (VPA) in 62,344 UK Biobank participants who exercised (1,552 deaths, 35,290 women/27,054 men). These results indicate that small amounts of vigorous nonexercise physical activity are associated with substantially lower mortality. VILPA in nonexercisers appears to elicit similar effects to VPA in exercisers, suggesting that VILPA may be a suitable physical activity target, especially in people not able or willing to exercise.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02100-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274?pdf=render 37730620,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02333-y,What is known about what works in community-involved decision-making relating to urban green and blue spaces? A realist review protocol.,"Rahtz E, Bell SL, Nurse A, Wheeler BW, Guell C, Elliott LR, Thompson CW, McDougall CW, Lovell R.",,Systematic reviews,2023,2023-09-20,Y,,,,"

Background

There is now a relatively well-established evidence base suggesting that greener living environments and time spent in urban green and blue spaces (UGBS) can be beneficial for human health and wellbeing. However, benefits are not universal and there remain widespread social inequalities in access to such resources and experiences, particularly along axes of class, race, ethnicity, age and disability, and in relation to efforts to increase the availability and accessibility of such spaces. These injustices often relate to distributive, procedural and recognition-based processes. There is growing interest in how to ensure that efforts to increase access to or use of UGBS (whether through infrastructural or social programmes) result in equitable outcomes whilst minimising potential for exacerbating existing inequalities and injustices. Community engagement is considered an important step towards more inclusive UGBS decision-making, from planning and design to management and maintenance processes. It is thought to contribute to better and more widely trusted decisions, enhanced democracy, community satisfaction, civic interest and feelings of green space ownership, and greater longevity of UGBS projects. However, uneven representation and barriers to participation can create imbalances and undermine these benefits.

Methods

An iterative, multi-stage realist-inspired review will be conducted to ask what works, in what context and in what ways relating to the meaningful involvement of communities in UGBS decision-making, focusing on the skills, capacities and capabilities of different stakeholders and the role of contexts and processes. 'Effectiveness' (or what works) will be understood as a multifaceted outcome, encompassing both the processes and results of community engagement efforts. Following a scoping stage to identify initial programme theory, inclusion/exclusion criteria and derive search terms, relevant databases and grey literature will be searched to identify interdisciplinary literature in two phases. The first phase will be used to further develop programme theories, which will be articulated as 'if then' statements. The second phase searches will be used to identify sources to further explore and evidence the programme and formal theory. We will assess all includable evidence for conceptual richness, prioritising more conceptually rich sources if needed.

Discussion

The realist synthesis will explore the key context, mechanism and outcome configurations that appear to explain if and how different approaches to community-involved UGBS decision-making are or are not effective. We will consider factors such as different conceptualisations of community, and if and how they have been involved in UGBS decision-making; the types of tools and approaches used; and the socio-cultural and political or governance structures within which decision-making takes place.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02333-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10512649; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10512649?pdf=render 34939832,https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206,"Projections for primary hip and knee replacement surgery up to the year 2060: an analysis based on data from The National Joint Registry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.","Matharu GS, Culliford DJ, Blom AW, Judge A.",,Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,2022,2021-12-23,N,Total hip replacement; Total Knee Replacement; Demand; Future Numbers,,,"

Introduction

We estimated the number of primary total hip and knee replacements (THR and TKR) that will need to be performed up to the year 2060.

Methods

We used data from The National Joint Registry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man on the volume of primary THRs (n=94,936) and TKRs (n=100,547) performed in 2018. We projected future numbers of THR and TKR using a static estimated rate from 2018 applied to population growth forecast data from the UK Office for National Statistics up to 2060.

Results

By 2060, THR and TKR volume would increase from 2018 levels by an estimated 37.7% (n=130,766) and 36.6% (n=137,341), respectively. For both males and females demand for surgery was also higher for patients aged 70 and over, with older patients having the biggest relative increase in volume over time: 70-79 years (44.6% males, 41.2% females); 80-89 years (112.4% males, 85.6% females); 90 years and older (348.0% males, 198.2% females).

Conclusion

By 2060 demand for hip and knee joint replacement is estimated to increase by almost 40%. Demand will be greatest in older patients (70+ years), which will have significant implications for the health service requiring forward planning given that morbidity and resource use is higher in this population. These issues, coupled with two waves of COVID-19, will impact the ability of health services to deliver timely joint replacement to many patients for a number of years, requiring urgent planning.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206 -34155917,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.120.020246,Antenatal Exposure to UV-B Radiation and Preeclampsia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.,"Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Cherrie MPC, Megaw LJ, Smith GCS, Stock SJ, Dibben C, Pell JP.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2021,2021-06-22,Y,UV light; Preeclampsia; Seasonal variations; Environmental Exposures,,,"Background Risk of preeclampsia varies by month of delivery. We tested whether this seasonal patterning may be mediated through maternal vitamin D concentration using antenatal exposure to UV-B radiation as an instrumental variable. Methods and Results Scottish maternity records were linked to antenatal UV-B exposure derived from satellites between 2000 and 2010. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between UV-B and preeclampsia, adjusting for the potential confounding effects of month of conception, child's sex, gestation, parity, and mean monthly temperature. Of the 522 896 eligible singleton deliveries, 8689 (1.66%) mothers developed preeclampsia. Total antenatal UV-B exposure ranged from 43.18 to 101.11 kJ/m2 and was associated with reduced risk of preeclampsia with evidence of a dose-response relationship (highest quintile of exposure: adjusted odds ratio, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.44-0.72; P<0.001). Associations were demonstrated for UV-B exposure in all 3 trimesters. Conclusions The seasonal patterning of preeclampsia may be mediated through low maternal vitamin D concentration in winter resulting from low UV-B radiation. Interventional studies are required to determine whether vitamin D supplements or UV-B-emitting light boxes can reduce the seasonal patterning of preeclampsia.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301?pdf=render 34425897,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-021-00249-x,Linking common human diseases to their phenotypes; development of a resource for human phenomics.,"Kafkas Ş, Althubaiti S, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R, Schofield PN.",,Journal of biomedical semantics,2021,2021-08-23,Y,Ontologies; Text Mining; Uk Biobank; Disease–phenotype Associations,,,"

Background

In recent years a large volume of clinical genomics data has become available due to rapid advances in sequencing technologies. Efficient exploitation of this genomics data requires linkage to patient phenotype profiles. Current resources providing disease-phenotype associations are not comprehensive, and they often do not have broad coverage of the disease terminologies, particularly ICD-10, which is still the primary terminology used in clinical settings.

Methods

We developed two approaches to gather disease-phenotype associations. First, we used a text mining method that utilizes semantic relations in phenotype ontologies, and applies statistical methods to extract associations between diseases in ICD-10 and phenotype ontology classes from the literature. Second, we developed a semi-automatic way to collect ICD-10-phenotype associations from existing resources containing known relationships.

Results

We generated four datasets. Two of them are independent datasets linking diseases to their phenotypes based on text mining and semi-automatic strategies. The remaining two datasets are generated from these datasets and cover a subset of ICD-10 classes of common diseases contained in UK Biobank. We extensively validated our text mined and semi-automatically curated datasets by: comparing them against an expert-curated validation dataset containing disease-phenotype associations, measuring their similarity to disease-phenotype associations found in public databases, and assessing how well they could be used to recover gene-disease associations using phenotype similarity.

Conclusion

We find that our text mining method can produce phenotype annotations of diseases that are correct but often too general to have significant information content, or too specific to accurately reflect the typical manifestations of the sporadic disease. On the other hand, the datasets generated from integrating multiple knowledgebases are more complete (i.e., cover more of the required phenotype annotations for a given disease). We make all data freely available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4726713 .",,pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-021-00249-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-021-00249-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383460?pdf=render 31479767,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2019.08.030,Atopic Eczema in Adulthood and Risk of Depression and Anxiety: A Population-Based Cohort Study.,"Schonmann Y, Mansfield KE, Hayes JF, Abuabara K, Roberts A, Smeeth L, Langan SM.",,The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice,2020,2019-08-31,Y,Depression; Anxiety; Atopic Eczema; Atopic Dermatitis; Severity; Population-based,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Atopic eczema is a common and debilitating condition associated with depression and anxiety, but the nature of this association remains unclear.

Objective

To explore the temporal relationship between atopic eczema and new depression/anxiety.

Methods

This matched cohort study used routinely collected data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, linked to hospital admissions data. We identified adults with atopic eczema (1998-2016) using a validated algorithm, and up to 5 individuals without atopic eczema matched on date of diagnosis, age, sex, and general practice. We estimated the hazard ratio (HR) for new depression/anxiety using stratified Cox regression to account for age, sex, calendar period, Index of Multiple Deprivation, glucocorticoid treatment, obesity, smoking, and harmful alcohol use.

Results

We identified 526,808 adults with atopic eczema who were matched to 2,569,030 without. Atopic eczema was associated with increased incidence of new depression (HR, 1.14; 99% CI, 1.12-1.16) and anxiety (HR, 1.17; 99% CI, 1.14-1.19). We observed a stronger effect of atopic eczema on depression with increasing atopic eczema severity (HR [99% CI] compared with no atopic eczema: mild, 1.10 [1.08-1.13]; moderate, 1.19 [1.15-1.23]; and severe, 1.26 [1.17-1.37]). A dose-response association, however, was less apparent for new anxiety diagnosis (HR [99% CI] compared with no atopic eczema: mild, 1.14 [1.11-1.18]; moderate, 1.21 [1.17-1.26]; and severe, 1.15; [1.05-1.25]).

Conclusions

Adults with atopic eczema are more likely to develop new depression and anxiety. For depression, we observed a dose-response relationship with atopic eczema severity.",,pdf:http://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213219819307536/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2019.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6947493; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6947493?pdf=render +34155917,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.120.020246,Antenatal Exposure to UV-B Radiation and Preeclampsia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.,"Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Cherrie MPC, Megaw LJ, Smith GCS, Stock SJ, Dibben C, Pell JP.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2021,2021-06-22,Y,UV light; Preeclampsia; Seasonal variations; Environmental Exposures,,,"Background Risk of preeclampsia varies by month of delivery. We tested whether this seasonal patterning may be mediated through maternal vitamin D concentration using antenatal exposure to UV-B radiation as an instrumental variable. Methods and Results Scottish maternity records were linked to antenatal UV-B exposure derived from satellites between 2000 and 2010. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between UV-B and preeclampsia, adjusting for the potential confounding effects of month of conception, child's sex, gestation, parity, and mean monthly temperature. Of the 522 896 eligible singleton deliveries, 8689 (1.66%) mothers developed preeclampsia. Total antenatal UV-B exposure ranged from 43.18 to 101.11 kJ/m2 and was associated with reduced risk of preeclampsia with evidence of a dose-response relationship (highest quintile of exposure: adjusted odds ratio, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.44-0.72; P<0.001). Associations were demonstrated for UV-B exposure in all 3 trimesters. Conclusions The seasonal patterning of preeclampsia may be mediated through low maternal vitamin D concentration in winter resulting from low UV-B radiation. Interventional studies are required to determine whether vitamin D supplements or UV-B-emitting light boxes can reduce the seasonal patterning of preeclampsia.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301?pdf=render +36082306,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004,Workshop proceedings: GWAS summary statistics standards and sharing.,"MacArthur JAL, Buniello A, Harris LW, Hayhurst J, McMahon A, Sollis E, Cerezo M, Hall P, Lewis E, Whetzel PL, Bahcall OG, Barroso I, Carroll RJ, Inouye M, Manolio TA, Rich SS, Hindorff LA, Wiley K, Parkinson H.",,Cell genomics,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have enabled robust mapping of complex traits in humans. The open sharing of GWAS summary statistics (SumStats) is essential in facilitating the larger meta-analyses needed for increased power in resolving the genetic basis of disease. However, most GWAS SumStats are not readily accessible because of limited sharing and a lack of defined standards. With the aim of increasing the availability, quality, and utility of GWAS SumStats, the National Human Genome Research Institute-European Bioinformatics Institute (NHGRI-EBI) GWAS Catalog organized a community workshop to address the standards, infrastructure, and incentives required to promote and enable sharing. We evaluated the barriers to SumStats sharing, both technological and sociological, and developed an action plan to address those challenges and ensure that SumStats and study metadata are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). We encourage early deposition of datasets in the GWAS Catalog as the recognized central repository. We recommend standard requirements for reporting elements and formats for SumStats and accompanying metadata as guidelines for community standards and a basis for submission to the GWAS Catalog. Finally, we provide recommendations to enable, promote, and incentivize broader data sharing, standards and FAIRness in order to advance genomic medicine.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133?pdf=render 31408247,https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.287,An assessment of program evaluation methods and quality in Australian prevention agencies.,"Schwarzman J, Nau T, Bauman A, Gabbe BJ, Rissel C, Shilton T, Smith BJ.",,Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals,2020,2019-08-13,N,Program Evaluation; Government; Primary Prevention; Health Promotion; Evidence-based Practice; Health Equity; Non-government Organisations,,,"

Issue addressed

This study aimed to examine evaluation methods and quality in Australian health promotion agencies and the factors associated with this. The evidence base for prevention strategies is limited, with the evidence generated through program evaluation by health promotion and disease prevention agencies lacking rigour. Despite the need to improve the quality of evaluation, there is limited evidence of what influences evaluation quality in the prevention field.

Methods

Data were collected using the Evaluation Practice Analysis Survey and an audit and appraisal of evaluation reports. Descriptive analysis was used to examine evaluation characteristics and multivariable regression was used to explore the association between evaluation and organisational attributes and evaluation quality.

Results

In total, 392 evaluation reports were reviewed from 78 government and non-government agencies. Process evaluation was conducted most frequently, followed by impact evaluation. Overall evaluation quality was low (median 24.5%). In multivariable regression analysis, only two factors were associated with evaluation quality: health promotion budget (ratio of geometric means 1.53 [95% CI 1.02-2.29]); and, conducting statewide or national prevention programs (1.38 [95% CI 1.05-1.82]).

Conclusions

The findings show that the potential to improve evaluation quality is greatest in smaller organisations that deliver health promotion at a local or regional scale. SO WHAT?: By improving the rigour of existing evaluation, there is opportunity to build the evidence base for prevention strategies, which highlights the importance of embedding the enablers of program learning and evidence generation within health promotion and prevention organisations.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.287 33559289,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1750,The association between exposure to domestic abuse in women and the development of syndromes indicating central nervous system sensitization: A retrospective cohort study using UK primary care records.,"Chandan JS, Keerthy D, Gokhale KM, Bradbury-Jones C, Raza K, Bandyopadhyay S, Taylor J, Nirantharakumar K.",,"European journal of pain (London, England)",2021,2021-03-15,N,,,,"

Background

Domestic abuse is a global public health issue. The association between the development of central sensitivity syndromes (CSS) and previous exposure to domestic abuse has been poorly understood particularly within European populations.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study using the 'The Health Improvement Network,' (UK primary care medical records) between 1st January 1995-31st December 2018. 22,604 adult women exposed to domestic abuse were age matched to 44,671 unexposed women. The average age at cohort entry was 36 years and the median follow-up was 2.5 years. The outcomes of interest were the development of a variety of syndromes which demonstrate central nervous system sensitization. Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and temporomandibular joint disorder outcomes have been reported previously. Outcomes were adjusted for the presence of mental ill health.

Results

During the study period, women exposed to domestic abuse experienced an increased risk of developing chronic lower back pain (adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR] 2.28; 95% CI 1.85-2.80), chronic headaches (aIRR 3.15; 95% CI 1.07-9.23), irritable bowel syndrome (aIRR 1.41; 95% CI 1.25-1.60) and restless legs syndrome (aIRR 1.89; 95% CI 1.44-2.48). However, no positive association was seen with the development of interstitial cystitis (aIRR 0.52; 95% CI 0.14-1.93), vulvodynia (aIRR 0.42; 95% CI 0.14-1.25) and myofascial pain syndrome (aIRR 1.01; 95% CI 0.28-3.61).

Conclusion

This study demonstrates the need to consider a past history of domestic abuse in patients presenting with CSS; and also consider preventative approaches in mitigating the risk of developing CSS following exposure to domestic abuse.

Significance

Domestic abuse is a global public health issue, with a poorly understood relationship with the development of complex pain syndromes. Using a large UK primary care database, we were able to conduct the first global cohort study to explore this further. We found a strong pain morbidity burden associated with domestic abuse, suggesting the need for urgent public health intervention to not only prevent domestic abuse but also the associated negative pain consequences.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejp.1750; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1750 -36082306,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004,Workshop proceedings: GWAS summary statistics standards and sharing.,"MacArthur JAL, Buniello A, Harris LW, Hayhurst J, McMahon A, Sollis E, Cerezo M, Hall P, Lewis E, Whetzel PL, Bahcall OG, Barroso I, Carroll RJ, Inouye M, Manolio TA, Rich SS, Hindorff LA, Wiley K, Parkinson H.",,Cell genomics,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have enabled robust mapping of complex traits in humans. The open sharing of GWAS summary statistics (SumStats) is essential in facilitating the larger meta-analyses needed for increased power in resolving the genetic basis of disease. However, most GWAS SumStats are not readily accessible because of limited sharing and a lack of defined standards. With the aim of increasing the availability, quality, and utility of GWAS SumStats, the National Human Genome Research Institute-European Bioinformatics Institute (NHGRI-EBI) GWAS Catalog organized a community workshop to address the standards, infrastructure, and incentives required to promote and enable sharing. We evaluated the barriers to SumStats sharing, both technological and sociological, and developed an action plan to address those challenges and ensure that SumStats and study metadata are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). We encourage early deposition of datasets in the GWAS Catalog as the recognized central repository. We recommend standard requirements for reporting elements and formats for SumStats and accompanying metadata as guidelines for community standards and a basis for submission to the GWAS Catalog. Finally, we provide recommendations to enable, promote, and incentivize broader data sharing, standards and FAIRness in order to advance genomic medicine.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133?pdf=render -36330526,https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331,Levels of soluble complement regulators predict severity of COVID-19 symptoms.,"Tierney AL, Alali WM, Scott T, Rees-Unwin KS, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Clark SJ, Unwin RD.",,Frontiers in immunology,2022,2022-10-18,Y,Complement; Mass spectrometry; Biomarkers; Factor H; Factor H-related Proteins; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide from COVID-19. One of the major challenges of patient management is the broad range of symptoms observed. While the majority of individuals experience relatively mild disease, a significant minority of patients require hospitalisation, with COVID-19 still proving fatal for some. As such, there remains a desperate need to better understand what drives this severe disease, both in terms of the underlying biology, but also to potentially predict at diagnosis which patients are likely to require further interventions, thus enabling better outcomes for both patients and healthcare systems. Several lines of evidence have pointed to dysregulation of the complement cascade as a major factor in severe COVID-19 outcomes. How this is underpinned mechanistically is not known. Here, we have focussed on the role of the soluble complement regulators Complement Factor H (FH), its splice variant Factor H-like 1 (FHL-1) and five Factor H-Related proteins (FHR1-5). Using a targeted mass spectrometry approach, we quantified these proteins in a cohort of 188 plasma samples from controls and SARS-CoV-2 patients taken at diagnosis. This analysis revealed significant elevations in all FHR proteins, but not FH, in patients with more severe disease, particularly FHR2 and FHR5 (FHR2: 1.97-fold, p<0.0001; FHR5: 2.4-fold, p<0.0001). Furthermore, for a subset of 77 SARS-CoV-2 +ve patients we also analysed time course samples taken approximately 28 days post-diagnosis. Here, we see complement regulator levels drop in all individuals with asymptomatic or mild disease, but regulators remain high in those with more severe outcomes, with elevations in FHR2 over baseline levels in this group. These data support the hypothesis that elevation of circulating levels of the FHR family of proteins could predict disease severity in COVID-19 patients, and that the duration of elevation (or lack of immune activation resolution) may be partly responsible for driving poor outcomes in COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227?pdf=render 34954079,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108929,Iron-mediated epigenetic activation of NRF2 targets.,"Horniblow RD, Pathak P, Balacco DL, Acharjee A, Lles E, Gkoutos G, Beggs AD, Tselepis C.",,The Journal of nutritional biochemistry,2022,2021-12-23,N,Iron; Diet; Oxidative stress; NRF2; Epigenome; Nutrigenetics; Hypomethylation,,,"The toxic effects of excess dietary iron within the colonic lumen are well documented, particularly in the context of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Colorectal Cancer (CRC). Proposed mechanisms that underpin iron-associated intestinal disease include: (1) the pro-inflammatory and ROS-promoting nature of iron, (2) gene-expression alterations, and (3) intestinal microbial dysbiosis. However, to date no studies have examined the effect of iron on the colonic epigenome. Here we demonstrate that chronic iron exposure of colonocytes leads to significant hypomethylation of the epigenome. Bioinformatic analysis highlights a significant epigenetic effect on NRF2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) pathway targets (including NAD(P)H Quinone Dehydrogenase 1 [NQO1] and Glutathione peroxidase 2 [GPX2]); this demethylating effect was validated and subsequent gene and protein expression quantified. These epigenetic modifications were not observed upon the diminishment of cellular lipid peroxidation with endogenous glutathione and the subsequent removal of iron. Additionally, the induction of TET1 expression was found post-iron treatment, highlighting the possibility of an oxidative-stress induction of TET1 and subsequent hypomethylation of NRF2 targets. In addition, a strong time dependence on the establishment of iron-orchestrated hypomethylation was found which was concurrent with the increase in the intracellular labile iron pool (LIP) and lipid peroxidation levels. These epigenetic changes were further validated in murine intestinal mucosa in models administered a chronic iron diet, providing evidence for the likelihood of dietary-iron mediated epigenetic alterations in vivo. Furthermore, significant correlations were found between NQO1 and GPX2 demethylation and human intestinal tissue iron-status, thus suggesting that these iron-mediated epigenetic modifications are likely in iron-replete enterocytes. Together, these data describe a novel mechanism by which excess dietary iron is able to alter the intestinal phenotype, which could have implications in iron-mediated intestinal disease and the regulation of ferroptosis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108929; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108929 -37538810,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008,Impact of outcome adjudication in kidney disease trials: observations from the Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP).,"Herrington WG, Harper C, Staplin N, Haynes R, Emberson J, Reith C, Hooi LS, Levin A, Wanner C, Baigent C, Landray M, SHARP Collaborative Group.",,Kidney international reports,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Transplantation; Dialysis; Chronic Kidney Disease; Clinical Trials; Adjudication,,,"

Introduction

We aimed to assess opportunities for trial streamlining and the scientific impact of adjudication on kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in CKD.

Methods

We analysed the effects of adjudication of ~2100 maintenance kidney replacement therapy (KRT) and ~1300 major atherosclerotic events (MAEs) recorded in SHARP. We first compared outcome classification before versus after adjudication, and then re-ran randomised comparisons using pre-adjudicated follow-up data.

Results

For maintenance KRT, adjudication had little impact with only 1% of events being refuted (28/2115). Consequently, randomised comparisons using pre-adjudication reports found almost identical results (pre-adjudication: simvastatin/ezetimibe 1038 vs placebo 1077; risk ratio [RR] 0.95, 95%CI 0.88-1.04; post-adjudicated: 1057 vs 1084; RR=0.97, 95%CI 0.89-1.05). For MAEs, about one-quarter of patient reports were refuted (324/1275 [25%]), and reviewing 3538 other potential vascular events and death reports identified only 194 additional MAEs. Nevertheless, randomised analyses using SHARP's pre-adjudicated data alone found similar results to analyses based on adjudicated outcomes (pre-adjudication: 573 vs 702; RR=0.80, 95%CI 0.72-0.89; adjudicated: 526 vs 619; RR=0.83, 95%CI 0.74- 0.94), and also suggested refuted MAEs were likely to represent atherosclerotic disease (RR for refuted MAEs=0.80, 95%CI 0.65-1.00).

Conclusions

These analyses provide three key insights. First, they provide a rationale for nephrology trials not to adjudicate maintenance KRT. Secondly, when an event that mimics an atherosclerotic outcome is not expected to be influenced by the treatment under study (e.g. heart failure), the aim of adjudicating atherosclerotic outcomes should be to remove such events. Lastly, restrictive definitions for the remaining suspected atherosclerotic outcomes may reduce statistical power.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871?pdf=render 34756707,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.102019,"How practitioner, organisational and system-level factors act to influence health promotion evaluation capacity: Validation of a conceptual framework.","Schwarzman J, Bauman A, Gabbe BJ, Rissel C, Shilton T, Smith BJ.",,Evaluation and program planning,2022,2021-10-20,N,Path analysis; Primary Prevention; Health Promotion; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Evaluation Capacity,,,"The need to improve the practice and quality of evaluation in the health promotion and disease prevention field is widely recognised. In order to plan, implement and evaluate health promotion evaluation capacity building efforts, there is a need to better understand the practitioner, organisational and system-level determinants of evaluation capacity and practice. This study aimed to assess the validity Evaluation Practice Analysis Survey (EPAS) constructs using confirmatory factor analysis and validate a conceptual framework of health promotion evaluation capacity using path analysis. Experienced Australian health promotion practitioners completed the survey (n = 219). Twenty-one of the original 23 EPAS scales were assessed as reliable and valid. The final model was found to have good fit (χ214 = 18.72, p = 0.18, root mean square error of approximation = 0.04, 90% CI 0.00-0.82, Comparative Fit Index = 1.00, standardised root mean square residual = 0.04). This model supports the role of the organisation in facilitating evaluation practice through leadership, culture, systems, support and resources. It builds on existing frameworks from other fields to incorporate political, funding and administrative factors. This study provides an evidence-based model of evaluation capacity that organisations, funders and policy makers can use to plan and implement more effective evaluation capacity building strategies within organisations and the wider prevention field.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.102019 +36330526,https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331,Levels of soluble complement regulators predict severity of COVID-19 symptoms.,"Tierney AL, Alali WM, Scott T, Rees-Unwin KS, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Clark SJ, Unwin RD.",,Frontiers in immunology,2022,2022-10-18,Y,Complement; Mass spectrometry; Biomarkers; Factor H; Factor H-related Proteins; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide from COVID-19. One of the major challenges of patient management is the broad range of symptoms observed. While the majority of individuals experience relatively mild disease, a significant minority of patients require hospitalisation, with COVID-19 still proving fatal for some. As such, there remains a desperate need to better understand what drives this severe disease, both in terms of the underlying biology, but also to potentially predict at diagnosis which patients are likely to require further interventions, thus enabling better outcomes for both patients and healthcare systems. Several lines of evidence have pointed to dysregulation of the complement cascade as a major factor in severe COVID-19 outcomes. How this is underpinned mechanistically is not known. Here, we have focussed on the role of the soluble complement regulators Complement Factor H (FH), its splice variant Factor H-like 1 (FHL-1) and five Factor H-Related proteins (FHR1-5). Using a targeted mass spectrometry approach, we quantified these proteins in a cohort of 188 plasma samples from controls and SARS-CoV-2 patients taken at diagnosis. This analysis revealed significant elevations in all FHR proteins, but not FH, in patients with more severe disease, particularly FHR2 and FHR5 (FHR2: 1.97-fold, p<0.0001; FHR5: 2.4-fold, p<0.0001). Furthermore, for a subset of 77 SARS-CoV-2 +ve patients we also analysed time course samples taken approximately 28 days post-diagnosis. Here, we see complement regulator levels drop in all individuals with asymptomatic or mild disease, but regulators remain high in those with more severe outcomes, with elevations in FHR2 over baseline levels in this group. These data support the hypothesis that elevation of circulating levels of the FHR family of proteins could predict disease severity in COVID-19 patients, and that the duration of elevation (or lack of immune activation resolution) may be partly responsible for driving poor outcomes in COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227?pdf=render 31282950,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.1812,Association Between Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension and Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases in Women in the United Kingdom.,"Adderley NJ, Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, Yiangou A, Gokhale KM, Mollan SP, Sinclair AJ.",,JAMA neurology,2019,2019-09-01,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Importance

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk has not been previously evaluated in a large matched cohort study in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

Objectives

To estimate the risk of composite cardiovascular events, heart failure, ischemic heart disease, stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA), type 2 diabetes, and hypertension in women with idiopathic intracranial hypertension and compare it with the risk in women, matched on body mass index (BMI) and age, without the condition; and to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of IIH.

Design, setting, and participants

This population-based matched controlled cohort study used 28 years of data, from January 1, 1990, to January 17, 2018, from The Health Improvement Network (THIN), an anonymized, nationally representative electronic medical records database in the United Kingdom. All female patients aged 16 years or older were eligible for inclusion. Female patients with IIH (n = 2760) were included and randomly matched with up to 10 control patients (n = 27 125) by BMI and age.

Main outcomes and measures

Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) of cardiovascular outcomes were calculated using Cox regression models. The primary outcome was a composite of any CVD (heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and stroke/TIA), and the secondary outcomes were each CVD outcome, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension.

Results

In total, 2760 women with IIH and 27 125 women without IIH were included. Age and BMI were similar between the 2 groups, with a median (interquartile range) age of 32.1 (25.6-42.0) years in the exposed group and 32.1 (25.7-42.1) years in the control group; in the exposed group 1728 women (62.6%) were obese, and in the control group 16514 women (60.9%) were obese. Higher absolute risks for all cardiovascular outcomes were observed in women with IIH compared with control patients. The aHRs were as follows: composite cardiovascular events, 2.10 (95% CI, 1.61-2.74; P < .001); heart failure, 1.97 (95% CI, 1.16-3.37; P = .01); ischemic heart disease, 1.94 (95% CI, 1.27-2.94; P = .002); stroke/TIA, 2.27 (95% CI, 1.61-3.21; P < .001); type 2 diabetes, 1.30 (95% CI, 1.07-1.57; P = .009); and hypertension, 1.55 (95% CI, 1.30-1.84; P < .001). The incidence of IIH in female patients more than tripled between 2005 and 2017, from 2.5 to 9.3 per 100 000 person-years. Similarly, IIH prevalence increased in the same period, from 26 to 79 per 100 000 women. Incidence increased markedly with BMI higher than 30.

Conclusions and relevance

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension in women appeared to be associated with a 2-fold increase in CVD risk; change in patient care to modify risk factors for CVD may reduce long-term morbidity for women with IIH and warrants further evaluation.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/articlepdf/2737044/jamaneurology_adderley_2019_oi_190046.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.1812; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6618853 32743489,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100469,Gender differences in the presentation of fibromyalgia amongst children who have been maltreated.,"Chandan JS, Bandyopadhyay S, Taylor J, Nirantharakumar K.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-07-23,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537020302133/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100469; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7385442; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7385442?pdf=render 33615277,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100334,Massive expansion and cryopreservation of functional human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.,"Maas RGC, Lee S, Harakalova M, Snijders Blok CJB, Goodyer WR, Hjortnaes J, Doevendans PAFM, Van Laake LW, van der Velden J, Asselbergs FW, Wu JC, Sluijter JPG, Wu SM, Buikema JW.",,STAR protocols,2021,2021-02-09,Y,Cell differentiation; Cell culture; Stem Cells,,,"Since the discovery of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), numerous strategies have been established to efficiently derive cardiomyocytes from hiPSCs (hiPSC-CMs). Here, we describe a cost-effective strategy for the subsequent massive expansion (>250-fold) of high-purity hiPSC-CMs relying on two aspects: removal of cell-cell contacts and small-molecule inhibition with CHIR99021. The protocol maintains CM functionality, allows cryopreservation, and the cells can be used in downstream assays such as disease modeling, drug and toxicity screening, and cell therapy. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Buikema (2020).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100334; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100334; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7881265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7881265?pdf=render +37538810,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008,Impact of outcome adjudication in kidney disease trials: observations from the Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP).,"Herrington WG, Harper C, Staplin N, Haynes R, Emberson J, Reith C, Hooi LS, Levin A, Wanner C, Baigent C, Landray M, SHARP Collaborative Group.",,Kidney international reports,2023,2023-08-01,Y,Transplantation; Dialysis; Chronic Kidney Disease; Clinical Trials; Adjudication,,,"

Introduction

We aimed to assess opportunities for trial streamlining and the scientific impact of adjudication on kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in CKD.

Methods

We analysed the effects of adjudication of ~2100 maintenance kidney replacement therapy (KRT) and ~1300 major atherosclerotic events (MAEs) recorded in SHARP. We first compared outcome classification before versus after adjudication, and then re-ran randomised comparisons using pre-adjudicated follow-up data.

Results

For maintenance KRT, adjudication had little impact with only 1% of events being refuted (28/2115). Consequently, randomised comparisons using pre-adjudication reports found almost identical results (pre-adjudication: simvastatin/ezetimibe 1038 vs placebo 1077; risk ratio [RR] 0.95, 95%CI 0.88-1.04; post-adjudicated: 1057 vs 1084; RR=0.97, 95%CI 0.89-1.05). For MAEs, about one-quarter of patient reports were refuted (324/1275 [25%]), and reviewing 3538 other potential vascular events and death reports identified only 194 additional MAEs. Nevertheless, randomised analyses using SHARP's pre-adjudicated data alone found similar results to analyses based on adjudicated outcomes (pre-adjudication: 573 vs 702; RR=0.80, 95%CI 0.72-0.89; adjudicated: 526 vs 619; RR=0.83, 95%CI 0.74- 0.94), and also suggested refuted MAEs were likely to represent atherosclerotic disease (RR for refuted MAEs=0.80, 95%CI 0.65-1.00).

Conclusions

These analyses provide three key insights. First, they provide a rationale for nephrology trials not to adjudicate maintenance KRT. Secondly, when an event that mimics an atherosclerotic outcome is not expected to be influenced by the treatment under study (e.g. heart failure), the aim of adjudicating atherosclerotic outcomes should be to remove such events. Lastly, restrictive definitions for the remaining suspected atherosclerotic outcomes may reduce statistical power.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871?pdf=render 33653287,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-021-01384-1,"A cross-sectional study reporting concussion exposure, assessment and management in Western Australian general practice.","Thomas E, Chih H, Gabbe B, Fitzgerald M, Cowen G.",,BMC family practice,2021,2021-03-02,Y,,,,"

Background

General Practitioners (GPs) may be called upon to assess patients who have sustained a concussion despite limited information being available at this assessment. Information relating to how concussion is actually being assessed and managed in General Practice is scarce. This study aimed to identify characteristics of current Western Australian (WA) GP exposure to patients with concussion, factors associated with GPs' knowledge of concussion, confidence of GPs in diagnosing and managing patients with concussion, typical referral practices and familiarity of GPs with guidelines.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, GPs in WA were recruited via the RACGP WA newsletter and shareGP and the consented GPs completed an electronic survey. Associations were performed using Chi-squared tests or Fisher's Exact test.

Results

Sixty-six GPs in WA responded to the survey (response rate = 1.7%). Demographics, usual practice, knowledge, confidence, identification of prolonged recovery as well as guideline and resource awareness of GPs who practised in regional and metropolitan areas were comparable (p > 0.05). Characteristics of GPs were similar between those who identified all symptoms of concussion and distractors correctly and those who did not (p > 0.05). However, 84% of the respondents who had never heard of concussion guidelines were less likely to answer all symptoms and distractors correctly (p = 0.039). Whilst 78% of the GPs who were confident in their diagnoses had heard of guidelines (p = 0.029), confidence in managing concussion was not significantly associated with GPs exposure to guidelines. It should be noted that none of the respondents correctly identified signs of concussion and excluded the distractors.

Conclusions

Knowledge surrounding concussion guidelines, diagnosis and management varied across GPs in WA. Promotion of available concussion guidelines may assist GPs who lack confidence in making a diagnosis. The lack of association between GPs exposure to guidelines and confidence managing concussion highlights that concussion management may be an area where GPs could benefit from additional education and support.",,pdf:https://bmcfampract.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12875-021-01384-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-021-01384-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7927406; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7927406?pdf=render 32400358,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.18.2000632,"Estimating number of cases and spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) using critical care admissions, United Kingdom, February to March 2020.","Jit M, Jombart T, Nightingale ES, Endo A, Abbott S, LSHTM Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Edmunds WJ.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2020,2020-05-01,Y,Surveillance; intensive care unit; mathematical model; Reproduction Number; Sars-cov-2; Coronavirus Disease 2019,,,"An exponential growth model was fitted to critical care admissions from two surveillance databases to determine likely coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case numbers, critical care admissions and epidemic growth in the United Kingdom before the national lockdown. We estimate, on 23 March, a median of 114,000 (95% credible interval (CrI): 78,000-173,000) new cases and 258 (95% CrI: 220-319) new critical care reports, with 527,000 (95% CrI: 362,000-797,000) cumulative cases since 16 February.","The authors of this paper estimate the number of cases and spread of COVID-19 using data on critical care admissions within the UK, from a period of February to March 2020. Their results suggest that the UK had hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 cases by the time the national lockdown was implemented. They highlight the usefulness of surveilling critical care data to better understand the dynamics of the epidemic and better inform the response measures.",pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/18/eurosurv-25-18-2.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.18.2000632&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.18.2000632; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7219029; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7219029?pdf=render 37474660,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02445-x,Considerations for patient and public involvement and engagement in health research.,"Aiyegbusi OL, McMullan C, Hughes SE, Turner GM, Subramanian A, Hotham R, Davies EH, Frost C, Alder Y, Agyen L, Buckland L, Camaradou J, Chong A, Jeyes F, Kumar S, Matthews KL, Moore P, Ormerod J, Price G, Saint-Cricq M, Stanton D, Walker A, Haroon S, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ, TLC Study Group.",,Nature medicine,2023,2023-07-20,N,,,,"Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) can provide valuable insights into the experiences of those living with and affected by a disease or health condition. Inclusive collaboration between patients, the public and researchers can lead to productive relationships, ensuring that health research addresses patient needs. Guidelines are available to support effective PPIE; however, evaluation of the impact of PPIE strategies in health research is limited. In this Review, we evaluate the impact of PPIE in the 'Therapies for Long COVID in non-hospitalised individuals' (TLC) Study, using a combination of group discussions and interviews with patient partners and researchers. We identify areas of good practice and reflect on areas for improvement. Using these insights and the results of a survey, we synthesize two checklists of considerations for PPIE, and we propose that research teams use these checklists to optimize the impact of PPIE for both patients and researchers in future studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02445-x 37719788,https://doi.org/10.1093/noajnl/vdad096,Development of a core outcome set for use in adult primary glioma phase III interventional trials: A mixed methods study.,"Retzer A, Baddeley E, Sivell S, Scott H, Nelson A, Bulbeck H, Seddon K, Grant R, Adams R, Watts C, Aiyegbusi OL, Kearns P, Rivera SC, Dirven L, Calvert M, Byrne A.",,Neuro-oncology advances,2023,2023-01-01,Y,trials; Outcomes; Neuro-oncology; Delphi; Primary Glioma,,,"

Background

Glioma interventional studies should collect data aligned with patient priorities, enabling treatment benefit assessment and informed decision-making. This requires effective data synthesis and meta-analyses, underpinned by consistent trial outcome measurement, analysis, and reporting. Development of a core outcome set (COS) may contribute to a solution.

Methods

A 5-stage process was used to develop a COS for glioma trials from the UK perspective. Outcome lists were generated in stages 1: a trial registry review and systematic review of qualitative studies and 2: interviews with glioma patients and caregivers. In stage 3, the outcome lists were de-duplicated with accessible terminology, in stage 4 outcomes were rated via a 2-round Delphi process, and stage 5 comprised a consensus meeting to finalize the COS. Patient-reportable COS outcomes were identified.

Results

In Delphi round 1, 96 participants rated 35 outcomes identified in stages 1 and 2, to which a further 10 were added. Participants (77/96) rated the resulting 45 outcomes in round 2. Of these, 22 outcomes met a priori threshold for inclusion in the COS. After further review, a COS consisting of 19 outcomes grouped into 7 outcome domains (survival, adverse events, activities of daily living, health-related quality of life, seizure activity, cognitive function, and physical function) was finalized by 13 participants at the consensus meeting.

Conclusions

A COS for glioma trials was developed, comprising 7 outcome domains. Additional research will identify appropriate measurement tools and further validate this COS.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/noajnl/vdad096; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10503650; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10503650?pdf=render 33591566,https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-021-00263-2,Advancing UK Regulatory Science Strategy in the Context of Global Regulation: a Stakeholder Survey.,"Cruz Rivera S, Torlinska B, Marston E, Denniston AK, Oliver K, Hoare S, Calvert MJ.",,Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science,2021,2021-02-16,Y,Regulatory Science; Health Products; Medicines And Devices,,,"

Background

The UK's transition from the European Union creates both an urgent need and key opportunity for the UK and its global collaborators to consider new approaches to the regulation of emerging technologies, underpinned by regulatory science. This survey aimed to identify the most accurate definition of regulatory science, to define strategic areas of the regulation of healthcare innovation which can be informed through regulatory science and to explore the training and infrastructure needed to advance UK and international regulatory science.

Methods

A survey was distributed to UK healthcare professionals, academics, patients, health technology assessment agencies, ethicists and trade associations, as well as international regulators, pharmaceutical companies and small or medium enterprises which have expertise in regulatory science and in developing or applying regulation in healthcare. Subsequently, a descriptive quantitative analyses of survey results and directed thematic analysis of free-text comments were applied.

Results

Priority areas for UK regulatory science identified by 145 participants included the following: flexibility: the capability of regulations to adapt to novel products and target patient outcomes; co-development: collaboration across sectors, e.g. patients, manufacturers, regulators, and educators working together to develop appropriate training for novel product deployment; responsiveness: the preparation of frameworks which enable timely innovation required by emerging events; speed: the rate at which new products can reach the market; reimbursement: developing effective tools to track and evaluate outcomes for ""pay for performance"" products; and education and professional development.

Conclusions

The UK has a time-critical opportunity to establish its national and international strategy for regulatory science leadership by harnessing broader academic input, developing strategic cross-sector collaborations, incorporating patients' experiences and perspectives, and investing in a skilled workforce.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43441-021-00263-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-021-00263-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885762?pdf=render -37025302,https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039,Inclusion of minor alleles improves catalogue-based prediction of fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.,"Brankin AE, Fowler PW.",,JAC-antimicrobial resistance,2023,2023-04-04,Y,,,,"

Objectives

Fluoroquinolone resistance poses a threat to the successful treatment of tuberculosis. WGS, and the subsequent detection of catalogued resistance-associated mutations, offers an attractive solution to fluoroquinolone susceptibility testing but sensitivities are often less than 90%. We hypothesize that this is partly because the bioinformatic pipelines used usually mask the recognition of minor alleles that have been implicated in fluoroquinolone resistance.

Methods

We analysed the Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: an International Consortium (CRyPTIC) dataset of globally diverse WGS Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, with matched MICs for two fluoroquinolone drugs and allowed putative minor alleles to contribute to resistance prediction.

Results

Detecting minor alleles increased the sensitivity of WGS for moxifloxacin resistance prediction from 85.4% to 94.0%, without significantly reducing specificity. We also found no correlation between the proportion of an M. tuberculosis population containing a resistance-conferring allele and the magnitude of resistance.

Conclusions

Together our results highlight the importance of detecting minor resistance-conferring alleles when using WGS, or indeed any sequencing-based approach, to diagnose fluoroquinolone resistance.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jacamr/article-pdf/5/2/dlad039/49747584/dlad039.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237?pdf=render 33837377,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01310-z,Actionable druggable genome-wide Mendelian randomization identifies repurposing opportunities for COVID-19.,"Gaziano L, Giambartolomei C, Pereira AC, Gaulton A, Posner DC, Swanson SA, Ho YL, Iyengar SK, Kosik NM, Vujkovic M, Gagnon DR, Bento AP, Barrio-Hernandez I, Rönnblom L, Hagberg N, Lundtoft C, Langenberg C, Pietzner M, Valentine D, Gustincich S, Tartaglia GG, Allara E, Surendran P, Burgess S, Zhao JH, Peters JE, Prins BP, Angelantonio ED, Devineni P, Shi Y, Lynch KE, DuVall SL, Garcon H, Thomann LO, Zhou JJ, Gorman BR, Huffman JE, O'Donnell CJ, Tsao PS, Beckham JC, Pyarajan S, Muralidhar S, Huang GD, Ramoni R, Beltrao P, Danesh J, Hung AM, Chang KM, Sun YV, Joseph J, Leach AR, Edwards TL, Cho K, Gaziano JM, Butterworth AS, Casas JP, VA Million Veteran Program COVID-19 Science Initiative.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-04-09,Y,,,,"Drug repurposing provides a rapid approach to meet the urgent need for therapeutics to address COVID-19. To identify therapeutic targets relevant to COVID-19, we conducted Mendelian randomization analyses, deriving genetic instruments based on transcriptomic and proteomic data for 1,263 actionable proteins that are targeted by approved drugs or in clinical phase of drug development. Using summary statistics from the Host Genetics Initiative and the Million Veteran Program, we studied 7,554 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and >1 million controls. We found significant Mendelian randomization results for three proteins (ACE2, P = 1.6 × 10-6; IFNAR2, P = 9.8 × 10-11 and IL-10RB, P = 2.3 × 10-14) using cis-expression quantitative trait loci genetic instruments that also had strong evidence for colocalization with COVID-19 hospitalization. To disentangle the shared expression quantitative trait loci signal for IL10RB and IFNAR2, we conducted phenome-wide association scans and pathway enrichment analysis, which suggested that IFNAR2 is more likely to play a role in COVID-19 hospitalization. Our findings prioritize trials of drugs targeting IFNAR2 and ACE2 for early management of COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01310-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01310-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612986?pdf=render +37025302,https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039,Inclusion of minor alleles improves catalogue-based prediction of fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.,"Brankin AE, Fowler PW.",,JAC-antimicrobial resistance,2023,2023-04-04,Y,,,,"

Objectives

Fluoroquinolone resistance poses a threat to the successful treatment of tuberculosis. WGS, and the subsequent detection of catalogued resistance-associated mutations, offers an attractive solution to fluoroquinolone susceptibility testing but sensitivities are often less than 90%. We hypothesize that this is partly because the bioinformatic pipelines used usually mask the recognition of minor alleles that have been implicated in fluoroquinolone resistance.

Methods

We analysed the Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: an International Consortium (CRyPTIC) dataset of globally diverse WGS Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, with matched MICs for two fluoroquinolone drugs and allowed putative minor alleles to contribute to resistance prediction.

Results

Detecting minor alleles increased the sensitivity of WGS for moxifloxacin resistance prediction from 85.4% to 94.0%, without significantly reducing specificity. We also found no correlation between the proportion of an M. tuberculosis population containing a resistance-conferring allele and the magnitude of resistance.

Conclusions

Together our results highlight the importance of detecting minor resistance-conferring alleles when using WGS, or indeed any sequencing-based approach, to diagnose fluoroquinolone resistance.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jacamr/article-pdf/5/2/dlad039/49747584/dlad039.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237?pdf=render 32735830,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3026(20)30228-3,Cardiovascular adverse events following treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma - Authors' reply.,"Linschoten M, Kamphuis JA, Asselbergs FW.",,The Lancet. Haematology,2020,2020-08-01,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3026(20)30228-3 -36343994,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159,"Demographic, behavioural and occupational risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers: a retrospective observational study.","Cooper DJ, Lear S, Sithole N, Shaw A, Stark H, Ferris M, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 collaboration consortium, Bradley J, Maxwell P, Goodfellow I, Weekes MP, Seaman S, Baker S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-07,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than the general population. This group is pivotal to healthcare system resilience during the COVID-19, and future, pandemics. We investigated demographic, social, behavioural and occupational risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs.

Design/setting/participants

HCWs enrolled in a large-scale sero-epidemiological study at a UK university teaching hospital were sent questionnaires spanning a 5-month period from March to July 2020. In a retrospective observational cohort study, univariate logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator regression model was used to identify variables to include in a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Among 2258 HCWs, highest ORs associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity on multivariate analysis were having a household member previously testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (OR 6.94 (95% CI 4.15 to 11.6); p<0.0001) and being of black ethnicity (6.21 (95% CI 2.69 to 14.3); p<0.0001). Occupational factors associated with a higher risk of seropositivity included working as a physiotherapist (OR 2.78 (95% CI 1.21 to 6.36); p=0.015) and working predominantly in acute medicine (OR 2.72 (95% CI 1.57 to 4.69); p<0.0001) or medical subspecialties (not including infectious diseases) (OR 2.33 (95% CI 1.4 to 3.88); p=0.001). Reporting that adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was 'rarely' available had an OR of 2.83 (95% CI 1.29 to 6.25; p=0.01). Reporting attending a handover where social distancing was not possible had an OR of 1.39 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.9; p=0.038).

Conclusions

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and potential vaccine escape continue to threaten stability of healthcare systems worldwide, and sustained vigilance against HCW infection remains a priority. Enhanced risk assessments should be considered for HCWs of black ethnicity, physiotherapists and those working in acute medicine or medical subspecialties. Workplace risk reduction measures include ongoing access to high-quality PPE and effective social distancing measures.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063159.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078?pdf=render -32570434,https://doi.org/10.3233/shti200210,Using Unsupervised Learning to Identify Clinical Subtypes of Alzheimer's Disease in Electronic Health Records.,"Alexander N, Alexander DC, Barkhof F, Denaxas S.",,Studies in health technology and informatics,2020,2020-06-01,N,Phenotyping; Alzheimer’s disease; Machine Learning; Electronic Health Records,,,"Identifying subtypes of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) can lead towards the creation of personalized interventions and potentially improve outcomes. In this study, we use UK primary care electronic health records (EHR) from the CALIBER resource to identify and characterize clinically-meaningful clusters patients using unsupervised learning approaches of MCA and K-means. We discovered and characterized five clusters with different profiles (mental health, non-typical AD, typical AD, CVD and men with cancer). The mental health cluster had faster rate of progression than all the other clusters making it a target for future research and intervention. Our results demonstrate that unsupervised learning approaches can be utilized on EHR to identify subtypes of heterogeneous conditions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200210 35639667,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac238,Critical appraisal of artificial intelligence-based prediction models for cardiovascular disease.,"van Smeden M, Heinze G, Van Calster B, Asselbergs FW, Vardas PE, Bruining N, de Jaegere P, Moore JH, Denaxas S, Boulesteix AL, Moons KGM.",,European heart journal,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Prediction; Artificial intelligence; Diagnosis; Prognosis; Machine Learning; Digital Health,,,"The medical field has seen a rapid increase in the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction models. With the introduction of such AI-based prediction model tools and software in cardiovascular patient care, the cardiovascular researcher and healthcare professional are challenged to understand the opportunities as well as the limitations of the AI-based predictions. In this article, we present 12 critical questions for cardiovascular health professionals to ask when confronted with an AI-based prediction model. We aim to support medical professionals to distinguish the AI-based prediction models that can add value to patient care from the AI that does not.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/31/2921/45333809/ehac238.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac238; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443991; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443991?pdf=render -36351458,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02074-8,Impact of diabetes on the effects of sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors on kidney outcomes: collaborative meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled trials.,"Nuffield Department of Population Health Renal Studies Group, SGLT2 inhibitor Meta-Analysis Cardio-Renal Trialists' Consortium.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-11-06,Y,,,,"

Background

Large trials have shown that sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors reduce the risk of adverse kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with heart failure or chronic kidney disease, or with type 2 diabetes and high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. None of the trials recruiting patients with and without diabetes were designed to assess outcomes separately in patients without diabetes.

Methods

We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of SGLT2 inhibitor trials. We searched the MEDLINE and Embase databases for trials published from database inception to Sept 5, 2022. SGLT2 inhibitor trials that were double-blind, placebo-controlled, performed in adults (age ≥18 years), large (≥500 participants per group), and at least 6 months in duration were included. Summary-level data used for analysis were extracted from published reports or provided by trial investigators, and inverse-variance-weighted meta-analyses were conducted to estimate treatment effects. The main efficacy outcomes were kidney disease progression (standardised to a definition of a sustained ≥50% decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] from randomisation, a sustained low eGFR, end-stage kidney disease, or death from kidney failure), acute kidney injury, and a composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure. Other outcomes were death from cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular disease considered separately, and the main safety outcomes were ketoacidosis and lower limb amputation. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022351618.

Findings

We identified 13 trials involving 90 413 participants. After exclusion of four participants with uncertain diabetes status, we analysed 90 409 participants (74 804 [82·7%] participants with diabetes [>99% with type 2 diabetes] and 15 605 [17·3%] without diabetes; trial-level mean baseline eGFR range 37-85 mL/min per 1·73 m2). Compared with placebo, allocation to an SGLT2 inhibitor reduced the risk of kidney disease progression by 37% (relative risk [RR] 0·63, 95% CI 0·58-0·69) with similar RRs in patients with and without diabetes. In the four chronic kidney disease trials, RRs were similar irrespective of primary kidney diagnosis. SGLT2 inhibitors reduced the risk of acute kidney injury by 23% (0·77, 0·70-0·84) and the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure by 23% (0·77, 0·74-0·81), again with similar effects in those with and without diabetes. SGLT2 inhibitors also reduced the risk of cardiovascular death (0·86, 0·81-0·92) but did not significantly reduce the risk of non-cardiovascular death (0·94, 0·88-1·02). For these mortality outcomes, RRs were similar in patients with and without diabetes. For all outcomes, results were broadly similar irrespective of trial mean baseline eGFR. Based on estimates of absolute effects, the absolute benefits of SGLT2 inhibition outweighed any serious hazards of ketoacidosis or amputation.

Interpretation

In addition to the established cardiovascular benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors, the randomised data support their use for modifying risk of kidney disease progression and acute kidney injury, not only in patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk, but also in patients with chronic kidney disease or heart failure irrespective of diabetes status, primary kidney disease, or kidney function.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council and Kidney Research UK.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7613836; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02074-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613836 -35967893,https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577,Factors influencing the mental health of an ethnically diverse healthcare workforce during COVID-19: a qualitative study in the United Kingdom.,"Qureshi I, Gogoi M, Al-Oraibi A, Wobi F, Chaloner J, Gray L, Guyatt AL, Hassan O, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.",,European journal of psychotraumatology,2022,2022-08-09,Y,Stress; Trauma; Anxiety; Mental health; Workforce; Healthcare; Ethnic Minority; Covid-19,,,"Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been reported to be experiencing a deterioration in their mental health due to COVID-19. In addition, ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is imperative that HCWs are appropriately supported and protected from mental harm during the pandemic. Our research aims to add to the evidence base by providing greater insight into the lived experience of HCWs from diverse ethnic backgrounds during the pandemic that had an impact on their mental health. Methods: We undertook a qualitative work package as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes among Healthcare workers (UK-REACH). As part of the qualitative research, we carried out 16 focus groups with a total of 61 HCWs between December 2020 and July 2021. The aim of the study was to explore topics such as their experiences, fears and concerns, while working during the pandemic. The purposive sample included ancillary healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds to ensure inclusion of underrepresented and disproportionately impacted individuals. We conducted discussions using Microsoft Teams. Recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: Several factors were identified which impacted on the mental health of HCWs during this period including anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy); fear (of infection); trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death); guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones); and stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload). Conclusion: COVID-19 has affected the mental health of HCWs. We identified a number of factors which may be contributing to a deterioration in mental health for participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Healthcare organisations should consider developing strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors, including recommendations made by HCWs themselves.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9364733; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733?pdf=render +32570434,https://doi.org/10.3233/shti200210,Using Unsupervised Learning to Identify Clinical Subtypes of Alzheimer's Disease in Electronic Health Records.,"Alexander N, Alexander DC, Barkhof F, Denaxas S.",,Studies in health technology and informatics,2020,2020-06-01,N,Phenotyping; Alzheimer’s disease; Machine Learning; Electronic Health Records,,,"Identifying subtypes of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) can lead towards the creation of personalized interventions and potentially improve outcomes. In this study, we use UK primary care electronic health records (EHR) from the CALIBER resource to identify and characterize clinically-meaningful clusters patients using unsupervised learning approaches of MCA and K-means. We discovered and characterized five clusters with different profiles (mental health, non-typical AD, typical AD, CVD and men with cancer). The mental health cluster had faster rate of progression than all the other clusters making it a target for future research and intervention. Our results demonstrate that unsupervised learning approaches can be utilized on EHR to identify subtypes of heterogeneous conditions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200210 +36343994,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159,"Demographic, behavioural and occupational risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers: a retrospective observational study.","Cooper DJ, Lear S, Sithole N, Shaw A, Stark H, Ferris M, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 collaboration consortium, Bradley J, Maxwell P, Goodfellow I, Weekes MP, Seaman S, Baker S.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-07,Y,Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than the general population. This group is pivotal to healthcare system resilience during the COVID-19, and future, pandemics. We investigated demographic, social, behavioural and occupational risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs.

Design/setting/participants

HCWs enrolled in a large-scale sero-epidemiological study at a UK university teaching hospital were sent questionnaires spanning a 5-month period from March to July 2020. In a retrospective observational cohort study, univariate logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator regression model was used to identify variables to include in a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Among 2258 HCWs, highest ORs associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity on multivariate analysis were having a household member previously testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (OR 6.94 (95% CI 4.15 to 11.6); p<0.0001) and being of black ethnicity (6.21 (95% CI 2.69 to 14.3); p<0.0001). Occupational factors associated with a higher risk of seropositivity included working as a physiotherapist (OR 2.78 (95% CI 1.21 to 6.36); p=0.015) and working predominantly in acute medicine (OR 2.72 (95% CI 1.57 to 4.69); p<0.0001) or medical subspecialties (not including infectious diseases) (OR 2.33 (95% CI 1.4 to 3.88); p=0.001). Reporting that adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was 'rarely' available had an OR of 2.83 (95% CI 1.29 to 6.25; p=0.01). Reporting attending a handover where social distancing was not possible had an OR of 1.39 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.9; p=0.038).

Conclusions

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and potential vaccine escape continue to threaten stability of healthcare systems worldwide, and sustained vigilance against HCW infection remains a priority. Enhanced risk assessments should be considered for HCWs of black ethnicity, physiotherapists and those working in acute medicine or medical subspecialties. Workplace risk reduction measures include ongoing access to high-quality PPE and effective social distancing measures.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063159.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078?pdf=render 34002035,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00807-4,Risk factors mediating the effect of body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio on cardiovascular outcomes: Mendelian randomization analysis.,"Gill D, Zuber V, Dawson J, Pearson-Stuttard J, Carter AR, Sanderson E, Karhunen V, Levin MG, Wootton RE, Klarin D, Tsao PS, Tsilidis KK, Damrauer SM, Burgess S, Elliott P.",,International journal of obesity (2005),2021,2021-05-17,Y,,,,"

Background

Higher body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the extent to which this is mediated by blood pressure, diabetes, lipid traits, and smoking is not fully understood.

Methods

Using consortia and UK Biobank genetic association summary data from 140,595 to 898,130 participants predominantly of European ancestry, Mendelian randomization mediation analysis was performed to investigate the degree to which systolic blood pressure (SBP), diabetes, lipid traits, and smoking mediated an effect of BMI and WHR on the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), peripheral artery disease (PAD) and stroke.

Results

The odds ratio of CAD per 1-standard deviation increase in genetically predicted BMI was 1.49 (95% CI 1.39 to 1.60). This attenuated to 1.34 (95% CI 1.24 to 1.45) after adjusting for genetically predicted SBP (proportion mediated 27%, 95% CI 3% to 50%), to 1.27 (95% CI 1.17 to 1.37) after adjusting for genetically predicted diabetes (41% mediated, 95% CI 18% to 63%), to 1.47 (95% CI 1.36 to 1.59) after adjusting for genetically predicted lipids (3% mediated, 95% -23% to 29%), and to 1.46 (95% CI 1.34 to 1.58) after adjusting for genetically predicted smoking (6% mediated, 95% CI -20% to 32%). Adjusting for all the mediators together, the estimate attenuated to 1.14 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.26; 66% mediated, 95% CI 42% to 91%). A similar pattern was observed when considering genetically predicted WHR as the exposure, and PAD or stroke as the outcome.

Conclusions

Measures to reduce obesity will lower the risk of cardiovascular disease primarily by impacting downstream metabolic risk factors, particularly diabetes and hypertension. Reduction of obesity prevalence alongside control and management of its mediators is likely to be most effective for minimizing the burden of obesity.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-00807-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00807-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8236409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8236409?pdf=render 33174528,https://doi.org/10.3310/hta24570,Antimicrobial-impregnated central venous catheters for preventing neonatal bloodstream infection: the PREVAIL RCT.,"Gilbert R, Brown M, Faria R, Fraser C, Donohue C, Rainford N, Grosso A, Sinha AK, Dorling J, Gray J, Muller-Pebody B, Harron K, Moitt T, McGuire W, Bojke L, Gamble C, Oddie SJ.",,"Health technology assessment (Winchester, England)",2020,2020-11-01,Y,Infant; Newborn; Economic analysis; Central Venous Catheter; Bloodstream Infection; Randomised Controlled Trial; Generalisability; Antimicrobial-impregnated Catheter,,,"

Background

Clinical trials show that antimicrobial-impregnated central venous catheters reduce catheter-related bloodstream infection in adults and children receiving intensive care, but there is insufficient evidence for use in newborn babies.

Objectives

The objectives were (1) to determine clinical effectiveness by conducting a randomised controlled trial comparing antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheters with standard peripherally inserted central venous catheters for reducing bloodstream or cerebrospinal fluid infections (referred to as bloodstream infections); (2) to conduct an economic evaluation of the costs, cost-effectiveness and value of conducting additional research; and (3) to conduct a generalisability analysis of trial findings to neonatal care in the NHS.

Design

Three separate studies were undertaken, each addressing one of the three objectives. (1) This was a multicentre, open-label, pragmatic randomised controlled trial; (2) an analysis was undertaken of hospital care costs, lifetime cost-effectiveness and value of information from an NHS perspective; and (3) this was a retrospective cohort study of bloodstream infection rates in neonatal units in England.

Setting

The randomised controlled trial was conducted in 18 neonatal intensive care units in England.

Participants

Participants were babies who required a peripherally inserted central venous catheter (of 1 French gauge in size).

Interventions

The interventions were an antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheter (coated with rifampicin-miconazole) or a standard peripherally inserted central venous catheter, allocated randomly (1 : 1) using web randomisation.

Main outcome measure

Study 1 - time to first bloodstream infection, sampled between 24 hours after randomisation and 48 hours after peripherally inserted central venous catheter removal. Study 2 - cost-effectiveness of the antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheter compared with the standard peripherally inserted central venous catheters. Study 3 - risk-adjusted bloodstream rates in the trial compared with those in neonatal units in England. For study 3, the data used were as follows: (1) case report forms and linked death registrations; (2) case report forms and linked death registrations linked to administrative health records with 6-month follow-up; and (3) neonatal health records linked to infection surveillance data.

Results

Study 1, clinical effectiveness - 861 babies were randomised (antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheter, n = 430; standard peripherally inserted central venous catheter, n = 431). Bloodstream infections occurred in 46 babies (10.7%) randomised to antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheters and in 44 (10.2%) babies randomised to standard peripherally inserted central venous catheters. No difference in time to bloodstream infection was detected (hazard ratio 1.11, 95% confidence interval 0.73 to 1.67; p = 0.63). Secondary outcomes of rifampicin resistance in positive blood/cerebrospinal fluid cultures, mortality, clinical outcomes at neonatal unit discharge and time to peripherally inserted central venous catheter removal were similar in both groups. Rifampicin resistance in positive peripherally inserted central venous catheter tip cultures was higher in the antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheter group (relative risk 3.51, 95% confidence interval 1.16 to 10.57; p = 0.02) than in the standard peripherally inserted central venous catheter group. Adverse events were similar in both groups. Study 2, economic evaluation - the mean cost of babies' hospital care was £83,473. Antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheters were not cost-effective. Given the increased price, compared with standard peripherally inserted central venous catheters, the minimum reduction in risk of bloodstream infection for antimicrobial-impregnated peripherally inserted central venous catheters to be cost-effective was 3% and 15% for babies born at 23-27 and 28-32 weeks' gestation, respectively. Study 3, generalisability analysis - risk-adjusted bloodstream infection rates per 1000 peripherally inserted central venous catheter days were similar among babies in the trial and in all neonatal units. Of all bloodstream infections in babies receiving intensive or high-dependency care in neonatal units, 46% occurred during peripherally inserted central venous catheter days.

Limitations

The trial was open label as antimicrobial-impregnated and standard peripherally inserted central venous catheters are different colours. There was insufficient power to determine differences in rifampicin resistance.

Conclusions

No evidence of benefit or harm was found of peripherally inserted central venous catheters impregnated with rifampicin-miconazole during neonatal care. Interventions with small effects on bloodstream infections could be cost-effective over a child's life course. Findings were generalisable to neonatal units in England. Future research should focus on other types of antimicrobial impregnation of peripherally inserted central venous catheters and alternative approaches for preventing bloodstream infections in neonatal care.

Trial registration

Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN81931394.

Funding

This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 24, No. 57. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.",,pdf:https://njl-admin.nihr.ac.uk/document/download/2034745; html:http://europepmc.org/books/NBK563908; doi:https://doi.org/10.3310/hta24570 -35244709,https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022,Impact of oral anticoagulation on the association between frailty and clinical outcomes in people with atrial fibrillation: nationwide primary care records on treatment analysis.,"Wilkinson C, Wu J, Clegg A, Nadarajah R, Rockwood K, Todd O, Gale CP.",,"Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology",2022,2022-07-01,Y,Bleeding; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Frailty; Outcome; Oral Anticoagulation; Oral Anticoagulation Prescription,,,"

Aims

People with atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently live with frailty, which increases the risk of mortality and stroke. This study reports the association between oral anticoagulation (OAC) and outcomes for people with frailty, and whether there is overall net benefit from treatment in people with AF.

Methods and results

Retrospective open cohort electronic records study. Frailty was identified using the electronic frailty index. Primary care electronic health records of 89 996 adults with AF and CHA2DS2-Vasc score of ≥2 were linked with secondary care and mortality data in the Clinical Practice Research Database (CPRD) from 1 January 1998 to 30 November 2018. The primary outcome was a composite of death, stroke, systemic embolism, or major bleeding. Secondary outcomes were stroke, major bleeding, all-cause mortality, transient ischaemic attack, and falls. Of 89 996 participants, 71 256 (79.2%) were living with frailty. The prescription of OAC increased with degree of frailty. For patients not prescribed OAC, rates of the primary outcome increased alongside frailty category. Prescription of OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary outcome for each frailty category [adjusted hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval, no OAC as reference; fit: vitamin K antagonist (VKA) 0.69, 0.64-0.75, direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) 0.42, 0.33-0.53; mild frailty: VKA 0.52, 0.50-0.54, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; moderate: VKA 0.54, 0.52-0.56, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; severe: VKA 0.48, 0.45-0.51, DOAC 0.58, 0.52-0.65], with cumulative incidence function effects greater for DOAC than VKA.

Conclusion

Frailty among people with AF is common. The OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary endpoint across all degrees of frailty.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851?pdf=render -34596018,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.39.2001440,"Strategies to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 importation from international travellers: modelling estimations for the United Kingdom, July 2020. ","Clifford S, Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Liu Y, Chan YD, Pearson CAB, Eggo RM, Endo A, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Edmunds WJ, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) COVID-19 Working Group.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2021,2021-09-01,Y,,,,"BackgroundTo mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks from international air travellers, many countries implemented a combination of up to 14 days of self-quarantine upon arrival plus PCR testing in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.AimTo assess the effectiveness of quarantine and testing of international travellers to reduce risk of onward SARS-CoV-2 transmission into a destination country in the pre-COVID-19 vaccination era.MethodsWe used a simulation model of air travellers arriving in the United Kingdom from the European Union or the United States, incorporating timing of infection stages while varying quarantine duration and timing and number of PCR tests.ResultsQuarantine upon arrival with a PCR test on day 7 plus a 1-day delay for results can reduce the number of infectious arriving travellers released into the community by a median 94% (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 89-98) compared with a no quarantine/no test scenario. This reduction is similar to that achieved by a 14-day quarantine period (median > 99%; 95% UI: 98-100). Even shorter quarantine periods can prevent a substantial amount of transmission; all strategies in which travellers spend at least 5 days (mean incubation period) in quarantine and have at least one negative test before release are highly effective (median reduction 89%; 95% UI: 83-95)).ConclusionThe effect of different screening strategies impacts asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals differently. The choice of an optimal quarantine and testing strategy for unvaccinated air travellers may vary based on the number of possible imported infections relative to domestic incidence.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/39/eurosurv-26-39-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583?pdf=render +36351458,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02074-8,Impact of diabetes on the effects of sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors on kidney outcomes: collaborative meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled trials.,"Nuffield Department of Population Health Renal Studies Group, SGLT2 inhibitor Meta-Analysis Cardio-Renal Trialists' Consortium.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-11-06,Y,,,,"

Background

Large trials have shown that sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors reduce the risk of adverse kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with heart failure or chronic kidney disease, or with type 2 diabetes and high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. None of the trials recruiting patients with and without diabetes were designed to assess outcomes separately in patients without diabetes.

Methods

We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of SGLT2 inhibitor trials. We searched the MEDLINE and Embase databases for trials published from database inception to Sept 5, 2022. SGLT2 inhibitor trials that were double-blind, placebo-controlled, performed in adults (age ≥18 years), large (≥500 participants per group), and at least 6 months in duration were included. Summary-level data used for analysis were extracted from published reports or provided by trial investigators, and inverse-variance-weighted meta-analyses were conducted to estimate treatment effects. The main efficacy outcomes were kidney disease progression (standardised to a definition of a sustained ≥50% decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] from randomisation, a sustained low eGFR, end-stage kidney disease, or death from kidney failure), acute kidney injury, and a composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure. Other outcomes were death from cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular disease considered separately, and the main safety outcomes were ketoacidosis and lower limb amputation. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022351618.

Findings

We identified 13 trials involving 90 413 participants. After exclusion of four participants with uncertain diabetes status, we analysed 90 409 participants (74 804 [82·7%] participants with diabetes [>99% with type 2 diabetes] and 15 605 [17·3%] without diabetes; trial-level mean baseline eGFR range 37-85 mL/min per 1·73 m2). Compared with placebo, allocation to an SGLT2 inhibitor reduced the risk of kidney disease progression by 37% (relative risk [RR] 0·63, 95% CI 0·58-0·69) with similar RRs in patients with and without diabetes. In the four chronic kidney disease trials, RRs were similar irrespective of primary kidney diagnosis. SGLT2 inhibitors reduced the risk of acute kidney injury by 23% (0·77, 0·70-0·84) and the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure by 23% (0·77, 0·74-0·81), again with similar effects in those with and without diabetes. SGLT2 inhibitors also reduced the risk of cardiovascular death (0·86, 0·81-0·92) but did not significantly reduce the risk of non-cardiovascular death (0·94, 0·88-1·02). For these mortality outcomes, RRs were similar in patients with and without diabetes. For all outcomes, results were broadly similar irrespective of trial mean baseline eGFR. Based on estimates of absolute effects, the absolute benefits of SGLT2 inhibition outweighed any serious hazards of ketoacidosis or amputation.

Interpretation

In addition to the established cardiovascular benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors, the randomised data support their use for modifying risk of kidney disease progression and acute kidney injury, not only in patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk, but also in patients with chronic kidney disease or heart failure irrespective of diabetes status, primary kidney disease, or kidney function.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council and Kidney Research UK.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7613836; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02074-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613836 +35967893,https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577,Factors influencing the mental health of an ethnically diverse healthcare workforce during COVID-19: a qualitative study in the United Kingdom.,"Qureshi I, Gogoi M, Al-Oraibi A, Wobi F, Chaloner J, Gray L, Guyatt AL, Hassan O, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.",,European journal of psychotraumatology,2022,2022-08-09,Y,Stress; Trauma; Anxiety; Mental health; Workforce; Healthcare; Ethnic Minority; Covid-19,,,"Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been reported to be experiencing a deterioration in their mental health due to COVID-19. In addition, ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is imperative that HCWs are appropriately supported and protected from mental harm during the pandemic. Our research aims to add to the evidence base by providing greater insight into the lived experience of HCWs from diverse ethnic backgrounds during the pandemic that had an impact on their mental health. Methods: We undertook a qualitative work package as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes among Healthcare workers (UK-REACH). As part of the qualitative research, we carried out 16 focus groups with a total of 61 HCWs between December 2020 and July 2021. The aim of the study was to explore topics such as their experiences, fears and concerns, while working during the pandemic. The purposive sample included ancillary healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds to ensure inclusion of underrepresented and disproportionately impacted individuals. We conducted discussions using Microsoft Teams. Recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: Several factors were identified which impacted on the mental health of HCWs during this period including anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy); fear (of infection); trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death); guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones); and stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload). Conclusion: COVID-19 has affected the mental health of HCWs. We identified a number of factors which may be contributing to a deterioration in mental health for participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Healthcare organisations should consider developing strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors, including recommendations made by HCWs themselves.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9364733; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733?pdf=render 33654696,https://doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkaa044,Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis practice and its association with outcomes in Australia and New Zealand burns patients.,"Tracy LM, Cameron PA, Singer Y, Earnest A, Wood F, Cleland H, Gabbe BJ.",,Burns & trauma,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Australia; New Zealand; Burn injury; Prophylaxis; Venous Thromboembolism,,,"

Background

Patients with burn injuries are considered to have an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). While untreated VTEs can be fatal, no studies have examined chemoprophylaxis effectiveness. This study aimed to quantify the variation in prevalence of VTE prophylaxis use in patients in Australian and New Zealand burns units and whether prophylaxis use is associated with in-hospital outcomes following burn injury.

Methods

Admission data for adult burns patients (aged ≥16 years) admitted between 1 July 2016 and 31 December 2018 were extracted from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand. Mixed effects logistic regression modelling investigated whether VTE prophylaxis use was associated with the primary outcome of in-hospital mortality.

Results

There were 5066 admissions over the study period. Of these patients, 81% (n = 3799) with a valid response to the VTE prophylaxis data field received some form of VTE prophylaxis. Use of VTE prophylaxis ranged from 48.6% to 94.8% of patients between units. In-hospital death was recorded in <1% of patients (n = 33). After adjusting for confounders, receiving VTE prophylaxis was associated with a decrease in the adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio = 0.21; 95% CI, 0.07-0.63; p = 0.006).

Conclusions

Variation in the use of VTE prophylaxis was observed between the units, and prophylaxis use was associated with a decrease in the odds of mortality. These findings provide an opportunity to engage with units to further explore differences in prophylaxis use and develop future best practice guidelines.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/burnstrauma/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/burnst/tkaa044/37307900/tkaa044.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkaa044; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901708?pdf=render +34596018,https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.39.2001440,"Strategies to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 importation from international travellers: modelling estimations for the United Kingdom, July 2020. ","Clifford S, Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Liu Y, Chan YD, Pearson CAB, Eggo RM, Endo A, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Edmunds WJ, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) COVID-19 Working Group.",,Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin,2021,2021-09-01,Y,,,,"BackgroundTo mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks from international air travellers, many countries implemented a combination of up to 14 days of self-quarantine upon arrival plus PCR testing in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.AimTo assess the effectiveness of quarantine and testing of international travellers to reduce risk of onward SARS-CoV-2 transmission into a destination country in the pre-COVID-19 vaccination era.MethodsWe used a simulation model of air travellers arriving in the United Kingdom from the European Union or the United States, incorporating timing of infection stages while varying quarantine duration and timing and number of PCR tests.ResultsQuarantine upon arrival with a PCR test on day 7 plus a 1-day delay for results can reduce the number of infectious arriving travellers released into the community by a median 94% (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 89-98) compared with a no quarantine/no test scenario. This reduction is similar to that achieved by a 14-day quarantine period (median > 99%; 95% UI: 98-100). Even shorter quarantine periods can prevent a substantial amount of transmission; all strategies in which travellers spend at least 5 days (mean incubation period) in quarantine and have at least one negative test before release are highly effective (median reduction 89%; 95% UI: 83-95)).ConclusionThe effect of different screening strategies impacts asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals differently. The choice of an optimal quarantine and testing strategy for unvaccinated air travellers may vary based on the number of possible imported infections relative to domestic incidence.",,pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/39/eurosurv-26-39-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583?pdf=render 34535985,https://doi.org/10.1002/hep4.1805,Genome-Wide Association Study of NAFLD Using Electronic Health Records.,"Fairfield CJ, Drake TM, Pius R, Bretherick AD, Campbell A, Clark DW, Fallowfield JA, Hayward C, Henderson NC, Joshi PK, Mills NL, Porteous DJ, Ramachandran P, Semple RK, Shaw CA, Sudlow CLM, Timmers PRHJ, Wilson JF, Wigmore SJ, Harrison EM, Spiliopoulou A.",,Hepatology communications,2022,2021-09-17,Y,,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several risk loci for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Previous studies have largely relied on small sample sizes and have assessed quantitative traits. We performed a case-control GWAS in the UK Biobank using recorded diagnosis of NAFLD based on diagnostic codes recommended in recent consensus guidelines. We performed a GWAS of 4,761 cases of NAFLD and 373,227 healthy controls without evidence of NAFLD. Sensitivity analyses were performed excluding other co-existing hepatic pathology, adjusting for body mass index (BMI) and adjusting for alcohol intake. A total of 9,723,654 variants were assessed by logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, genetic principal components, and genotyping batch. We performed a GWAS meta-analysis using available summary association statistics. Six risk loci were identified (P < 5*10-8 ) (apolipoprotein E [APOE], patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3 [PNPLA3, transmembrane 6 superfamily member 2 [TM6SF2], glucokinase regulator [GCKR], mitochondrial amidoxime reducing component 1 [MARC1], and tribbles pseudokinase 1 [TRIB1]). All loci retained significance in sensitivity analyses without co-existent hepatic pathology and after adjustment for BMI. PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 remained significant after adjustment for alcohol (alcohol intake was known in only 158,388 individuals), with others demonstrating consistent direction and magnitude of effect. All six loci were significant on meta-analysis. Rs429358 (P = 2.17*10-11 ) is a missense variant within the APOE gene determining ϵ4 versus ϵ2/ϵ3 alleles. The ϵ4 allele of APOE offered protection against NAFLD (odds ratio for heterozygotes 0.84 [95% confidence interval 0.78-0.90] and homozygotes 0.64 [0.50-0.79]). Conclusion: This GWAS replicates six known NAFLD-susceptibility loci and confirms that the ϵ4 allele of APOE is associated with protection against NAFLD. The results are consistent with published GWAS using histological and radiological measures of NAFLD, confirming that NAFLD identified through diagnostic codes from consensus guidelines is a valid alternative to more invasive and costly approaches.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/hep4.1805; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hep4.1805; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8793997; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8793997?pdf=render +35244709,https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022,Impact of oral anticoagulation on the association between frailty and clinical outcomes in people with atrial fibrillation: nationwide primary care records on treatment analysis.,"Wilkinson C, Wu J, Clegg A, Nadarajah R, Rockwood K, Todd O, Gale CP.",,"Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology",2022,2022-07-01,Y,Bleeding; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Frailty; Outcome; Oral Anticoagulation; Oral Anticoagulation Prescription,,,"

Aims

People with atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently live with frailty, which increases the risk of mortality and stroke. This study reports the association between oral anticoagulation (OAC) and outcomes for people with frailty, and whether there is overall net benefit from treatment in people with AF.

Methods and results

Retrospective open cohort electronic records study. Frailty was identified using the electronic frailty index. Primary care electronic health records of 89 996 adults with AF and CHA2DS2-Vasc score of ≥2 were linked with secondary care and mortality data in the Clinical Practice Research Database (CPRD) from 1 January 1998 to 30 November 2018. The primary outcome was a composite of death, stroke, systemic embolism, or major bleeding. Secondary outcomes were stroke, major bleeding, all-cause mortality, transient ischaemic attack, and falls. Of 89 996 participants, 71 256 (79.2%) were living with frailty. The prescription of OAC increased with degree of frailty. For patients not prescribed OAC, rates of the primary outcome increased alongside frailty category. Prescription of OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary outcome for each frailty category [adjusted hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval, no OAC as reference; fit: vitamin K antagonist (VKA) 0.69, 0.64-0.75, direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) 0.42, 0.33-0.53; mild frailty: VKA 0.52, 0.50-0.54, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; moderate: VKA 0.54, 0.52-0.56, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; severe: VKA 0.48, 0.45-0.51, DOAC 0.58, 0.52-0.65], with cumulative incidence function effects greater for DOAC than VKA.

Conclusion

Frailty among people with AF is common. The OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary endpoint across all degrees of frailty.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851?pdf=render 35385889,https://doi.org/10.1515/dmpt-2021-0104,Prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup.,"Al-Rubaish AM, Al-Muhanna FA, Alshehri AM, Alsulaiman AA, Alabdulali MM, Alkhamis F, Alamri AS, Alali RA, Akhtar MS, Cyrus C, Claassens DMF, Asselbergs FW, Al-Ali AK.",,Drug metabolism and personalized therapy,2021,2021-07-08,N,Genotyping; Stroke; aspirin; Clopidogrel; Cyp2c19*2,,,"

Objectives

To mitigate the incidence of recurrent stroke in patients, dual antiplatelet therapy comprising aspirin and clopidogrel is usually administered. Clopidogrel is a prodrug and its bioactivation is catalyzed by cytochrome P450 (CYP)2C19. The main objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and assess the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup.

Methods

This prospective (2018-2019) study was conducted on 256 patients (age 61 ± 12.5) clinically diagnosed with ischemic stroke who were genotyped using Spartan RX CYP2C19 assay.

Results

From the total patient group (256), upon admission, 210 patients were prescribed either aspirin, clopidogrel or dual antiplatelet therapy. Of the 27 patients with the CYP2C19*2 allele who were prescribed clopidogrel (18) or dual antiplatelet therapy (9), only 21 patients could be followed up for a period of six months post stroke event, in addition to 21 age- and sex-matched patients with the normal allele. The CYP2C19*2 allele carriers had a statistically significant increased risk of recurrent stroke compared to patients carrying the normal allele.

Conclusions

This study shows the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in ischemic stroke patients in a clinical setting.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10135735/1/Asselbergs_10.1515_dmdi-2021-0104.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/dmpt-2021-0104 -36545235,https://doi.org/10.1177/26335565221145493,The DynAIRx Project Protocol: Artificial Intelligence for dynamic prescribing optimisation and care integration in multimorbidity.,"Walker LE, Abuzour AS, Bollegala D, Clegg A, Gabbay M, Griffiths A, Kullu C, Leeming G, Mair FS, Maskell S, Relton S, Ruddle RA, Shantsila E, Sperrin M, Van Staa T, Woodall A, Buchan I.",,Journal of multimorbidity and comorbidity,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Artificial intelligence; Frailty; Mental health; Polypharmacy; Multimorbidity; Medicines Optimisation,,,"

Background

Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs) are intended to help deliver the NHS Long Term Plan for medicines optimisation in people living with multiple long-term conditions and polypharmacy. It is challenging to gather the information needed for these reviews due to poor integration of health records across providers and there is little guidance on how to identify those patients most urgently requiring review.

Objective

To extract information from scattered clinical records on how health and medications change over time, apply interpretable artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to predict risks of poor outcomes and overlay this information on care records to inform SMRs. We will pilot this approach in primary care prescribing audit and feedback systems, and co-design future medicines optimisation decision support systems.

Design

DynAIRx will target potentially problematic polypharmacy in three key multimorbidity groups, namely, people with (a) mental and physical health problems, (b) four or more long-term conditions taking ten or more drugs and (c) older age and frailty. Structured clinical data will be drawn from integrated care records (general practice, hospital, and social care) covering an ∼11m population supplemented with Natural Language Processing (NLP) of unstructured clinical text. AI systems will be trained to identify patterns of conditions, medications, tests, and clinical contacts preceding adverse events in order to identify individuals who might benefit most from an SMR.

Discussion

By implementing and evaluating an AI-augmented visualisation of care records in an existing prescribing audit and feedback system we will create a learning system for medicines optimisation, co-designed throughout with end-users and patients.",,pdf:https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/197084/1/26335565221145493.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/26335565221145493; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761229; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761229?pdf=render 34237806,https://doi.org/10.1515/dmdi-2021-0104,Prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup. ,"Al-Rubaish AM, Al-Muhanna FA, Alshehri AM, Alsulaiman AA, Alabdulali MM, Alkhamis F, Alamri AS, Alali RA, Akhtar MS, Cyrus C, Claassens DMF, Asselbergs FW, Al-Ali AK.",,Drug metabolism and personalized therapy,2021,2021-07-08,N,,,,"To mitigate the incidence of recurrent stroke in patients, dual antiplatelet therapy comprising aspirin and clopidogrel is usually administered. Clopidogrel is a prodrug and its bioactivation is catalyzed by cytochrome P450 (CYP)2C19. The main objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and assess the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup. This prospective (2018-2019) study was conducted on 256 patients (age 61 ± 12.5) clinically diagnosed with ischemic stroke who were genotyped using Spartan RX CYP2C19 assay. From the total patient group (256), upon admission, 210 patients were prescribed either aspirin, clopidogrel or dual antiplatelet therapy. Of the 27 patients with the CYP2C19*2 allele who were prescribed clopidogrel (18) or dual antiplatelet therapy (9), only 21 patients could be followed up for a period of six months post stroke event, in addition to 21 age- and sex-matched patients with the normal allele. The CYP2C19*2 allele carriers had a statistically significant increased risk of recurrent stroke compared to patients carrying the normal allele. This study shows the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in ischemic stroke patients in a clinical setting.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10135735/1/Asselbergs_10.1515_dmdi-2021-0104.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/dmdi-2021-0104 +36545235,https://doi.org/10.1177/26335565221145493,The DynAIRx Project Protocol: Artificial Intelligence for dynamic prescribing optimisation and care integration in multimorbidity.,"Walker LE, Abuzour AS, Bollegala D, Clegg A, Gabbay M, Griffiths A, Kullu C, Leeming G, Mair FS, Maskell S, Relton S, Ruddle RA, Shantsila E, Sperrin M, Van Staa T, Woodall A, Buchan I.",,Journal of multimorbidity and comorbidity,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Artificial intelligence; Frailty; Mental health; Polypharmacy; Multimorbidity; Medicines Optimisation,,,"

Background

Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs) are intended to help deliver the NHS Long Term Plan for medicines optimisation in people living with multiple long-term conditions and polypharmacy. It is challenging to gather the information needed for these reviews due to poor integration of health records across providers and there is little guidance on how to identify those patients most urgently requiring review.

Objective

To extract information from scattered clinical records on how health and medications change over time, apply interpretable artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to predict risks of poor outcomes and overlay this information on care records to inform SMRs. We will pilot this approach in primary care prescribing audit and feedback systems, and co-design future medicines optimisation decision support systems.

Design

DynAIRx will target potentially problematic polypharmacy in three key multimorbidity groups, namely, people with (a) mental and physical health problems, (b) four or more long-term conditions taking ten or more drugs and (c) older age and frailty. Structured clinical data will be drawn from integrated care records (general practice, hospital, and social care) covering an ∼11m population supplemented with Natural Language Processing (NLP) of unstructured clinical text. AI systems will be trained to identify patterns of conditions, medications, tests, and clinical contacts preceding adverse events in order to identify individuals who might benefit most from an SMR.

Discussion

By implementing and evaluating an AI-augmented visualisation of care records in an existing prescribing audit and feedback system we will create a learning system for medicines optimisation, co-designed throughout with end-users and patients.",,pdf:https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/197084/1/26335565221145493.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/26335565221145493; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761229; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761229?pdf=render +35869125,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0,Minimising multi-centre radiomics variability through image normalisation: a pilot study.,"Campello VM, Martín-Isla C, Izquierdo C, Guala A, Palomares JFR, Viladés D, Descalzo ML, Karakas M, Çavuş E, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Petersen SE, Escalera S, Seguí S, Lekadir K.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-07-22,Y,,,,"Radiomics is an emerging technique for the quantification of imaging data that has recently shown great promise for deeper phenotyping of cardiovascular disease. Thus far, the technique has been mostly applied in single-centre studies. However, one of the main difficulties in multi-centre imaging studies is the inherent variability of image characteristics due to centre differences. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis of radiomics variability under several image- and feature-based normalisation techniques was conducted using a multi-centre cardiovascular magnetic resonance dataset. 218 subjects divided into healthy (n = 112) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n = 106, HCM) groups from five different centres were considered. First and second order texture radiomic features were extracted from three regions of interest, namely the left and right ventricular cavities and the left ventricular myocardium. Two methods were used to assess features' variability. First, feature distributions were compared across centres to obtain a distribution similarity index. Second, two classification tasks were proposed to assess: (1) the amount of centre-related information encoded in normalised features (centre identification) and (2) the generalisation ability for a classification model when trained on these features (healthy versus HCM classification). The results showed that the feature-based harmonisation technique ComBat is able to remove the variability introduced by centre information from radiomic features, at the expense of slightly degrading classification performance. Piecewise linear histogram matching normalisation gave features with greater generalisation ability for classification ( balanced accuracy in between 0.78 ± 0.08 and 0.79 ± 0.09). Models trained with features from images without normalisation showed the worst performance overall ( balanced accuracy in between 0.45 ± 0.28 and 0.60 ± 0.22). In conclusion, centre-related information removal did not imply good generalisation ability for classification.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16375-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565?pdf=render +32023934,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892,Identifying Homogeneous Patterns of Injury in Paediatric Trauma Patients to Improve Risk-Adjusted Models of Mortality and Functional Outcomes. ,"Dipnall JF, Gabbe BJ, Teague WJ, Beck B.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2020,2020-01-31,Y,,Improving Public Health,injuries and accidents,"Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric population and exhibits complex injury patterns. This study aimed to identify homogeneous groups of paediatric major trauma patients based on their profile of injury for use in mortality and functional outcomes risk-adjusted models. Data were extracted from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry for patients aged 0-15 years, injured 2006-2016. Four Latent Class Analysis (LCA) models with/without covariates of age/sex tested up to six possible latent classes. Five risk-adjusted models of in-hospital mortality and 6-month functional outcomes incorporated a combination of Injury Severity Score (ISS), New ISS (NISS), and LCA classes. LCA models replicated the best log-likelihood and entropy > 0.8 for all models (N = 1281). Four latent injury classes were identified: isolated head; isolated abdominal organ; multi-trauma injuries, and other injuries. The best models, in terms of goodness of fit statistics and model diagnostics, included the LCA classes and NISS. The identification of isolated head, isolated abdominal, multi-trauma and other injuries as key latent paediatric injury classes highlights areas for emphasis in planning prevention initiatives and paediatric trauma system development. Future risk-adjusted paediatric injury models that include these injury classes with the NISS when evaluating mortality and functional outcomes is recommended.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/892/pdf?version=1580475934; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699?pdf=render 33354439,https://doi.org/10.1109/jtehm.2020.3040236,Modeling Large Sparse Data for Feature Selection: Hospital Admission Predictions of the Dementia Patients Using Primary Care Electronic Health Records.,"Tsang G, Zhou SM, Xie X.",,IEEE journal of translational engineering in health and medicine,2021,2020-11-24,Y,Dementia; risk factors; Hospitalization; Feature Selection; Machine Learning; Electronic Health Records; Deep Learning; Weight Regularization,,,"A growing elderly population suffering from incurable, chronic conditions such as dementia present a continual strain on medical services due to mental impairment paired with high comorbidity resulting in increased hospitalization risk. The identification of at risk individuals allows for preventative measures to alleviate said strain. Electronic health records provide opportunity for big data analysis to address such applications. Such data however, provides a challenging problem space for traditional statistics and machine learning due to high dimensionality and sparse data elements. This article proposes a novel machine learning methodology: entropy regularization with ensemble deep neural networks (ECNN), which simultaneously provides high predictive performance of hospitalization of patients with dementia whilst enabling an interpretable heuristic analysis of the model architecture, able to identify individual features of importance within a large feature domain space. Experimental results on health records containing 54,647 features were able to identify 10 event indicators within a patient timeline: a collection of diagnostic events, medication prescriptions and procedural events, the highest ranked being essential hypertension. The resulting subset was still able to provide a highly competitive hospitalization prediction (Accuracy: 0.759) as compared to the full feature domain (Accuracy: 0.755) or traditional feature selection techniques (Accuracy: 0.737), a significant reduction in feature size. The discovery and heuristic evidence of correlation provide evidence for further clinical study of said medical events as potential novel indicators. There also remains great potential for adaption of ECNN within other medical big data domains as a data mining tool for novel risk factor identification.",,pdf:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6221039/9246949/09268962.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/JTEHM.2020.3040236; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7737850; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7737850?pdf=render 34970633,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1674,Evaluation of the ASSIGN open-source deterministic address-matching algorithm for allocating unique property reference numbers to general practitioner-recorded patient addresses.,"Harper G, Stables D, Simon P, Ahmed Z, Smith K, Robson J, Dezateux C.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-12-08,Y,Quality assurance; Data Linkage; Population Health; Electronic Health Record; Addresses; Address-matching; Place-based Health,,,"

Introduction

Linking places to people is a core element of the UK government's geospatial strategy. Matching patient addresses in electronic health records to their Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) enables spatial linkage for research, innovation and public benefit. Available algorithms are not transparent or evaluated for use with addresses recorded by health care providers.

Objectives

To describe and quality assure the open-source deterministic ASSIGN address-matching algorithm applied to general practitioner-recorded patient addresses.

Methods

Best practice standards were used to report the ASSIGN algorithm match rate, sensitivity and positive predictive value using gold-standard datasets from London and Wales. We applied the ASSIGN algorithm to the recorded addresses of a sample of 1,757,018 patients registered with all general practices in north east London. We examined bias in match results for the study population using multivariable analyses to estimate the likelihood of an address-matched UPRN by demographic, registration, and organisational variables.

Results

We found a 99.5% and 99.6% match rate with high sensitivity (0.999,0.998) and positive predictive value (0.996,0.998) for the Welsh and London gold standard datasets respectively, and a 98.6% match rate for the study population.The 1.4% of the study population without a UPRN match were more likely to have changed registered address in the last 12 months (match rate: 95.4%), be from a Chinese ethnic background (95.5%), or registered with a general practice using the SystmOne clinical record system (94.4%). Conversely, people registered for more than 6.5 years with their general practitioner were more likely to have a match (99.4%) than those with shorter registration durations.

Conclusions

ASSIGN is a highly accurate open-source address-matching algorithm with a high match rate and minimal biases when evaluated against a large sample of general practice-recorded patient addresses. ASSIGN has potential to be used in other address-based datasets including those with information relevant to the wider determinants of health.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1674/3300; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1674; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678979; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678979?pdf=render -32023934,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892,Identifying Homogeneous Patterns of Injury in Paediatric Trauma Patients to Improve Risk-Adjusted Models of Mortality and Functional Outcomes. ,"Dipnall JF, Gabbe BJ, Teague WJ, Beck B.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2020,2020-01-31,Y,,Improving Public Health,injuries and accidents,"Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric population and exhibits complex injury patterns. This study aimed to identify homogeneous groups of paediatric major trauma patients based on their profile of injury for use in mortality and functional outcomes risk-adjusted models. Data were extracted from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry for patients aged 0-15 years, injured 2006-2016. Four Latent Class Analysis (LCA) models with/without covariates of age/sex tested up to six possible latent classes. Five risk-adjusted models of in-hospital mortality and 6-month functional outcomes incorporated a combination of Injury Severity Score (ISS), New ISS (NISS), and LCA classes. LCA models replicated the best log-likelihood and entropy > 0.8 for all models (N = 1281). Four latent injury classes were identified: isolated head; isolated abdominal organ; multi-trauma injuries, and other injuries. The best models, in terms of goodness of fit statistics and model diagnostics, included the LCA classes and NISS. The identification of isolated head, isolated abdominal, multi-trauma and other injuries as key latent paediatric injury classes highlights areas for emphasis in planning prevention initiatives and paediatric trauma system development. Future risk-adjusted paediatric injury models that include these injury classes with the NISS when evaluating mortality and functional outcomes is recommended.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/892/pdf?version=1580475934; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699?pdf=render -35869125,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0,Minimising multi-centre radiomics variability through image normalisation: a pilot study.,"Campello VM, Martín-Isla C, Izquierdo C, Guala A, Palomares JFR, Viladés D, Descalzo ML, Karakas M, Çavuş E, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Petersen SE, Escalera S, Seguí S, Lekadir K.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-07-22,Y,,,,"Radiomics is an emerging technique for the quantification of imaging data that has recently shown great promise for deeper phenotyping of cardiovascular disease. Thus far, the technique has been mostly applied in single-centre studies. However, one of the main difficulties in multi-centre imaging studies is the inherent variability of image characteristics due to centre differences. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis of radiomics variability under several image- and feature-based normalisation techniques was conducted using a multi-centre cardiovascular magnetic resonance dataset. 218 subjects divided into healthy (n = 112) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n = 106, HCM) groups from five different centres were considered. First and second order texture radiomic features were extracted from three regions of interest, namely the left and right ventricular cavities and the left ventricular myocardium. Two methods were used to assess features' variability. First, feature distributions were compared across centres to obtain a distribution similarity index. Second, two classification tasks were proposed to assess: (1) the amount of centre-related information encoded in normalised features (centre identification) and (2) the generalisation ability for a classification model when trained on these features (healthy versus HCM classification). The results showed that the feature-based harmonisation technique ComBat is able to remove the variability introduced by centre information from radiomic features, at the expense of slightly degrading classification performance. Piecewise linear histogram matching normalisation gave features with greater generalisation ability for classification ( balanced accuracy in between 0.78 ± 0.08 and 0.79 ± 0.09). Models trained with features from images without normalisation showed the worst performance overall ( balanced accuracy in between 0.45 ± 0.28 and 0.60 ± 0.22). In conclusion, centre-related information removal did not imply good generalisation ability for classification.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16375-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565?pdf=render 37391266,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(23)00087-0,Wearable technology and the cardiovascular system: the future of patient assessment.,"Williams GJ, Al-Baraikan A, Rademakers FE, Ciravegna F, van de Vosse FN, Lawrie A, Rothman A, Ashley EA, Wilkins MR, Lawford PV, Omholt SW, Wisløff U, Hose DR, Chico TJA, Gunn JP, Morris PD.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2023,2023-07-01,N,,,,"The past decade has seen a dramatic rise in consumer technologies able to monitor a variety of cardiovascular parameters. Such devices initially recorded markers of exercise, but now include physiological and health-care focused measurements. The public are keen to adopt these devices in the belief that they are useful to identify and monitor cardiovascular disease. Clinicians are therefore often presented with health app data accompanied by a diverse range of concerns and queries. Herein, we assess whether these devices are accurate, their outputs validated, and whether they are suitable for professionals to make management decisions. We review underpinning methods and technologies and explore the evidence supporting the use of these devices as diagnostic and monitoring tools in hypertension, arrhythmia, heart failure, coronary artery disease, pulmonary hypertension, and valvular heart disease. Used correctly, they might improve health care and support research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00087-0 37096818,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjacc/zuad042,"Serially measured high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T, N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and growth differentiation factor 15 for risk assessment after acute coronary syndrome: the BIOMArCS cohort.","Gürgöze MT, Akkerhuis KM, Oemrawsingh RM, Umans VAWM, Kietselaer B, Schotborgh CE, Ronner E, Lenderink T, Aksoy I, van der Harst P, Asselbergs FW, Maas AC, Oude Ophuis AJ, Krenning B, de Winter RJ, The SHK, Wardeh AJ, Hermans WRM, Cramer GE, van Gorp I, de Rijke YB, van Schaik RHN, Boersma E.",,European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care,2023,2023-07-01,Y,Prognosis; Biomarkers; acute coronary syndrome; risk assessment; Repeated Measurements,,,"

Aims

Evidence regarding the role of serial measurements of biomarkers for risk assessment in post-acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients is limited. The aim was to explore the prognostic value of four, serially measured biomarkers in a large, real-world cohort of post-ACS patients.

Methods and results

BIOMArCS is a prospective, multi-centre, observational study in 844 post-ACS patients in whom 12 218 blood samples (median 17 per patient) were obtained during 1-year follow-up. The longitudinal patterns of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT), N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) were analysed in relation to the primary endpoint (PE) of cardiovascular mortality and recurrent ACS using multivariable joint models. Median age was 63 years, 78% were men and the PE was reached by 45 patients. The average biomarker levels were systematically higher in PE compared with PE-free patients. After adjustment for 6-month post-discharge Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events score, 1 standard deviation increase in log[hs-cTnT] was associated with a 61% increased risk of the PE [hazard ratio (HR) 1.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-2.44, P = 0.045], while for log[GDF-15] this was 81% (HR 1.81, 95% CI 1.28-2.70, P = 0.001). These associations remained significant after multivariable adjustment, while NT-proBNP and hs-CRP were not. Furthermore, GDF-15 level showed an increasing trend prior to the PE (Structured Graphical Abstract).

Conclusion

Longitudinally measured hs-cTnT and GDF-15 concentrations provide prognostic value in the risk assessment of clinically stabilized patients post-ACS.

Clinical trial registration

The Netherlands Trial Register. Currently available at URL https://trialsearch.who.int/; Unique Identifiers: NTR1698 and NTR1106.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjacc/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjacc/zuad042/50087609/zuad042.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjacc/zuad042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328437; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328437?pdf=render 30742608,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006785,"Assessing the performance of real-time epidemic forecasts: A case study of Ebola in the Western Area region of Sierra Leone, 2014-15.","Funk S, Camacho A, Kucharski AJ, Lowe R, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ.",,PLoS computational biology,2019,2019-02-11,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"Real-time forecasts based on mathematical models can inform critical decision-making during infectious disease outbreaks. Yet, epidemic forecasts are rarely evaluated during or after the event, and there is little guidance on the best metrics for assessment. Here, we propose an evaluation approach that disentangles different components of forecasting ability using metrics that separately assess the calibration, sharpness and bias of forecasts. This makes it possible to assess not just how close a forecast was to reality but also how well uncertainty has been quantified. We used this approach to analyse the performance of weekly forecasts we generated in real time for Western Area, Sierra Leone, during the 2013-16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. We investigated a range of forecast model variants based on the model fits generated at the time with a semi-mechanistic model, and found that good probabilistic calibration was achievable at short time horizons of one or two weeks ahead but model predictions were increasingly unreliable at longer forecasting horizons. This suggests that forecasts may have been of good enough quality to inform decision making based on predictions a few weeks ahead of time but not longer, reflecting the high level of uncertainty in the processes driving the trajectory of the epidemic. Comparing forecasts based on the semi-mechanistic model to simpler null models showed that the best semi-mechanistic model variant performed better than the null models with respect to probabilistic calibration, and that this would have been identified from the earliest stages of the outbreak. As forecasts become a routine part of the toolkit in public health, standards for evaluation of performance will be important for assessing quality and improving credibility of mathematical models, and for elucidating difficulties and trade-offs when aiming to make the most useful and reliable forecasts.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006785&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006785; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6386417; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6386417?pdf=render -33072403,https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3,Early- and late anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction: echocardiographic characterization and response to heart failure therapy.,"Kamphuis JAM, Linschoten M, Cramer MJ, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Teske AJ.",,"Cardio-oncology (London, England)",2020,2020-10-13,Y,Heart Failure; Anthracyclines; Cardiac Dysfunction; Cardiac Effects Of Cancer Treatment,,,"

Background

Anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction (ACD) is a notorious side effect of anticancer treatment. It has been described as a phenomenon of a continuous progressive decline of cardiac function, eventually leading to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). This progressive nature suggests that patients with a delayed ACD diagnosis have greater compromise of cardiac function and more adverse remodeling, with a poor response to heart failure (HF) treatment. This study aimed to delineate the impact of a delayed ACD diagnosis on echocardiographic characteristics and response to HF treatment.

Methods and results

From the population of our cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, 92 ACD patients were included in this study (age 51.6 ± 16.2 years, median cumulative anthracycline dose 329 [200-329] mg/m2), and a median follow-up of 25.0 [9.6-37.2] months after ACD diagnosis. Median time to ACD diagnosis for patients diagnosed early (< 1 year) and late (> 1 year) was 4.0 vs. 47.7 months respectively. There were no echocardiographic differences between patients diagnosed early vs. late (LVEF 43.6 ± 4.9% vs. 43.0 ± 6.2% and iEDV 63.6 vs. 62.9 mL/m2). Eighty-three percent of patients presented with mild LV dysfunction and in 79% the LV was not dilated. Patients diagnosed early were more likely to have (partial) recovery of cardiac function upon HF treatment initiation (p = 0.015).

Conclusions

In the setting of a cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, patients with ACD presented with a hypokinetic non-dilated cardiomyopathy, rather than typical DCM. Timing of ACD diagnosis did not impact HF disease severity. However, in patients receiving an early diagnosis, cardiac function was more likely to recover upon HF treatment.",,pdf:https://cardiooncologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080?pdf=render 37210036,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.05.005,Individualized Family Screening for Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy.,"Muller SA, Gasperetti A, Bosman LP, Schmidt AF, Baas AF, Amin AS, Houweling AC, Wilde AAM, Compagnucci P, Targetti M, Casella M, Calò L, Tondo C, van der Harst P, Asselbergs FW, van Tintelen JP, Oerlemans MIFJ, Te Riele ASJM.",,Journal of the American College of Cardiology,2023,2023-05-18,N,ventricular arrhythmia; Predictors; Screening Interval; Arvc; Family Screening,,,"

Background

Clinical guidelines recommend regular screening for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) to monitor at-risk relatives, resulting in a significant burden on clinical resources. Prioritizing relatives on their probability of developing definite ARVC may provide more efficient patient care.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to determine the predictors and probability of ARVC development over time among at-risk relatives.

Methods

A total of 136 relatives (46% men, median age 25.5 years [IQR: 15.8-44.4 years]) from the Netherlands Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy Registry without definite ARVC by 2010 task force criteria were included. Phenotype was ascertained using electrocardiography, Holter monitoring, and cardiac imaging. Subjects were divided into groups with ""possible ARVC"" (only genetic or familial predisposition) and ""borderline ARVC"" (1 minor task force criterion plus genetic or familial predisposition). Cox regression was performed to determine predictors and multistate modeling to assess the probability of ARVC development. Results were replicated in an unrelated Italian cohort (57% men, median age 37.0 years [IQR: 25.4-50.4 years]).

Results

At baseline, 93 subjects (68%) had possible ARVC, and 43 (32%) had borderline ARVC. Follow-up was available for 123 relatives (90%). After 8.1 years (IQR: 4.2-11.4 years), 41 (33%) had developed definite ARVC. Independent of baseline phenotype, symptomatic subjects (P = 0.014) and those 20 to 30 years of age (P = 0.002) had a higher hazard of developing definite ARVC. Furthermore, patients with borderline ARVC had a higher probability of developing definite ARVC compared with those with possible ARVC (1-year probability 13% vs 0.6%, 3-year probability 35% vs 5%; P < 0.01). External replication showed comparable results (P > 0.05).

Conclusions

Symptomatic relatives, those 20 to 30 years of age, and those with borderline ARVC have a higher probability of developing definite ARVC. These patients may benefit from more frequent follow-up, while others may be monitored less often.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.05.005 -34980174,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9,"Increased burden of cardiovascular disease in people with liver disease: unequal geographical variations, risk factors and excess years of life lost.","Chang WH, Mueller SH, Chung SC, Foster GR, Lai AG.",,Journal of translational medicine,2022,2022-01-03,Y,liver disease; Geographical variations; incidence; Cardiovascular Risk; Electronic Health Records; Years Of Life Lost,,,"

Background

People with liver disease are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, there has yet been an investigation of incidence burden, risk, and premature mortality across a wide range of liver conditions and cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods

We employed population-wide electronic health records (EHRs; from 1998 to 2020) consisting of almost 4 million adults to assess regional variations in disease burden of five liver conditions, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), autoimmune liver disease, chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV), chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV) and NAFLD, in England. We analysed regional differences in incidence rates for 17 manifestations of CVD in people with or without liver disease. The associations between biomarkers and comorbidities and risk of CVD in patients with liver disease were estimated using Cox models. For each liver condition, we estimated excess years of life lost (YLL) attributable to CVD (i.e., difference in YLL between people with or without CVD).

Results

The age-standardised incidence rate for any liver disease was 114.5 per 100,000 person years. The highest incidence was observed in NAFLD (85.5), followed by ALD (24.7), HCV (6.0), HBV (4.1) and autoimmune liver disease (3.7). Regionally, the North West and North East regions consistently exhibited high incidence burden. Age-specific incidence rate analyses revealed that the peak incidence for liver disease of non-viral aetiology is reached in individuals aged 50-59 years. Patients with liver disease had a two-fold higher incidence burden of CVD (2634.6 per 100,000 persons) compared to individuals without liver disease (1339.7 per 100,000 persons). When comparing across liver diseases, atrial fibrillation was the most common initial CVD presentation while hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was the least common. We noted strong positive associations between body mass index and current smoking and risk of CVD. Patients who also had diabetes, hypertension, proteinuric kidney disease, chronic kidney disease, diverticular disease and gastro-oesophageal reflex disorders had a higher risk of CVD, as do patients with low albumin, raised C-reactive protein and raised International Normalized Ratio levels. All types of CVD were associated with shorter life expectancies. When evaluating excess YLLs by age of CVD onset and by liver disease type, differences in YLLs, when comparing across CVD types, were more pronounced at younger ages.

Conclusions

We developed a public online app ( https://lailab.shinyapps.io/cvd_in_liver_disease/ ) to showcase results interactively. We provide a blueprint that revealed previously underappreciated clinical factors related to the risk of CVD, which differed in the magnitude of effects across liver diseases. We found significant geographical variations in the burden of liver disease and CVD, highlighting the need to devise local solutions. Targeted policies and regional initiatives addressing underserved communities might help improve equity of access to CVD screening and treatment.",,pdf:https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174?pdf=render +33072403,https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3,Early- and late anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction: echocardiographic characterization and response to heart failure therapy.,"Kamphuis JAM, Linschoten M, Cramer MJ, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Teske AJ.",,"Cardio-oncology (London, England)",2020,2020-10-13,Y,Heart Failure; Anthracyclines; Cardiac Dysfunction; Cardiac Effects Of Cancer Treatment,,,"

Background

Anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction (ACD) is a notorious side effect of anticancer treatment. It has been described as a phenomenon of a continuous progressive decline of cardiac function, eventually leading to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). This progressive nature suggests that patients with a delayed ACD diagnosis have greater compromise of cardiac function and more adverse remodeling, with a poor response to heart failure (HF) treatment. This study aimed to delineate the impact of a delayed ACD diagnosis on echocardiographic characteristics and response to HF treatment.

Methods and results

From the population of our cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, 92 ACD patients were included in this study (age 51.6 ± 16.2 years, median cumulative anthracycline dose 329 [200-329] mg/m2), and a median follow-up of 25.0 [9.6-37.2] months after ACD diagnosis. Median time to ACD diagnosis for patients diagnosed early (< 1 year) and late (> 1 year) was 4.0 vs. 47.7 months respectively. There were no echocardiographic differences between patients diagnosed early vs. late (LVEF 43.6 ± 4.9% vs. 43.0 ± 6.2% and iEDV 63.6 vs. 62.9 mL/m2). Eighty-three percent of patients presented with mild LV dysfunction and in 79% the LV was not dilated. Patients diagnosed early were more likely to have (partial) recovery of cardiac function upon HF treatment initiation (p = 0.015).

Conclusions

In the setting of a cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, patients with ACD presented with a hypokinetic non-dilated cardiomyopathy, rather than typical DCM. Timing of ACD diagnosis did not impact HF disease severity. However, in patients receiving an early diagnosis, cardiac function was more likely to recover upon HF treatment.",,pdf:https://cardiooncologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080?pdf=render 31756303,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.119.002711,Genetic Determinants of Lipids and Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes: A Wide-Angled Mendelian Randomization Investigation.,"Allara E, Morani G, Carter P, Gkatzionis A, Zuber V, Foley CN, Rees JMB, Mason AM, Bell S, Gill D, Lindström S, Butterworth AS, Di Angelantonio E, Peters J, Burgess S, INVENT consortium.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2019,2019-11-22,Y,Lipids; Aortic valve stenosis; epidemiology; Venous Thromboembolism; Mendelian Randomization,,,"

Background

Evidence from randomized trials has shown that therapies that lower LDL (low-density lipoprotein)-cholesterol and triglycerides reduce coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. However, there is still uncertainty about their effects on other cardiovascular outcomes. We therefore performed a systematic investigation of causal relationships between circulating lipids and cardiovascular outcomes using a Mendelian randomization approach.

Methods

In the primary analysis, we performed 2-sample multivariable Mendelian randomization using data from participants of European ancestry. We also conducted univariable analyses using inverse-variance weighted and robust methods, and gene-specific analyses using variants that can be considered as proxies for specific lipid-lowering medications. We obtained associations with lipid fractions from the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium, a meta-analysis of 188 577 participants, and genetic associations with cardiovascular outcomes from 367 703 participants in UK Biobank.

Results

For LDL-cholesterol, in addition to the expected positive associations with CAD risk (odds ratio [OR] per 1 SD increase, 1.45 [95% CI, 1.35-1.57]) and other atheromatous outcomes (ischemic cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease), we found independent associations of genetically predicted LDL-cholesterol with abdominal aortic aneurysm (OR, 1.75 [95% CI, 1.40-2.17]) and aortic valve stenosis (OR, 1.46 [95% CI, 1.25-1.70]). Genetically predicted triglyceride levels were positively associated with CAD (OR, 1.25 [95% CI, 1.12-1.40]), aortic valve stenosis (OR, 1.29 [95% CI, 1.04-1.61]), and hypertension (OR, 1.17 [95% CI, 1.07-1.27]), but inversely associated with venous thromboembolism (OR, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.67-0.93]) and hemorrhagic stroke (OR, 0.78 [95% CI, 0.62-0.98]). We also found positive associations of genetically predicted LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides with heart failure that appeared to be mediated by CAD.

Conclusions

Lowering LDL-cholesterol is likely to prevent abdominal aortic aneurysm and aortic stenosis, in addition to CAD and other atheromatous cardiovascular outcomes. Lowering triglycerides is likely to prevent CAD and aortic valve stenosis but may increase thromboembolic risk.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.119.002711; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922071; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922071?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.119.002711 -35641524,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0,Development and validation of a multivariable mortality risk prediction model for COPD in primary care.,"Shah SA, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A, Simpson CR, Kotz D.",,NPJ primary care respiratory medicine,2022,2022-05-31,Y,,,,"Risk stratification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is important to enable targeted management. Existing disease severity classification systems, such as GOLD staging, do not take co-morbidities into account despite their high prevalence in COPD patients. We sought to develop and validate a prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality in patients with diagnosed COPD. We constructed a longitudinal cohort of 37,485 COPD patients (149,196 person-years) from a UK-wide primary care database. The risk factors included in the model pertained to demographic and behavioural characteristics, co-morbidities, and COPD severity. The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. We fitted an extended Cox-regression model to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), used machine learning-based data modelling approaches including k-fold cross-validation to validate the prognostic model, and assessed model fitting and discrimination. The inter-quartile ranges of the three metrics on the validation set suggested good performance: 0.90-1.06 for model fit, 0.80-0.83 for Harrel's c-index, and 0.40-0.46 for Royston and Saurebrei's [Formula: see text] with a strong overlap of these metrics on the training dataset. According to the validated prognostic model, the two most important risk factors of mortality were heart failure (HR 1.92; 95% CI 1.87-1.96) and current smoking (HR 1.68; 95% CI 1.66-1.71). We have developed and validated a national, population-based prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality of patients diagnosed with COPD. This model could be used to detect high-risk patients and modify risk factors such as optimising heart failure management and offering effective smoking cessation interventions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-022-00280-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666?pdf=render 32810544,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.08.030,The relation between VLDL-cholesterol and risk of cardiovascular events in patients with manifest cardiovascular disease.,"Heidemann BE, Koopal C, Bots ML, Asselbergs FW, Westerink J, Visseren FLJ.",,International journal of cardiology,2021,2020-08-15,N,Inflammation; Vascular disease; Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events; Non-hdl-c; Vldl-c; Triglyceride Rich Lipoproteins,,,"

Introduction

Apolipoprotein B containing lipoproteins are atherogenic. There is evidence that with low plasma low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels residual vascular risk might be caused by triglyceride rich lipoproteins such as very-low density lipoproteins (VLDL), chylomicrons and their remnants. We investigated the relationship between VLDL-cholesterol (VLDL-C) and recurrent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), major adverse limb events (MALE) and all-cause mortality in a cohort of patients with cardiovascular disease.

Methods

Prospective cohort study in 8057 patients with cardiovascular disease from the UCC-SMART study. The relation between calculated VLDL-C levels and the occurrence of MACE, MALE and all-cause mortality was analyzed with Cox regression models.

Results

Patients mean age was 60 ± 10 years, 74% were male, 4894 (61%) had coronary artery disease, 2445 (30%) stroke, 1425 (18%) peripheral arterial disease and 684 (8%) patients had an abdominal aorta aneurysm at baseline. A total of 1535 MACE, 571 MALE and 1792 deaths were observed during a median follow up of 8.2 years (interquartile range 4.512.2). VLDL-C was not associated with risk of MACE or all-cause mortality. In the highest quartile of VLDL-C the risk was higher for major adverse limb events (MALE) (HR 1.49; 95%CI 1.16-1.93) compared to the lowest quartile, after adjustment for confounders including LDL-C and lipid lowering medication.

Conclusion

In patients with clinically manifest cardiovascular disease plasma VLDL-C confers an increased risk for MALE, but not for MACE and all-cause mortality, independent of established risk factors including LDL-C and lipid-lowering medication.",,pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S0167527320335579/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.08.030 -36093379,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079,Epidemiologic information discovery from open-access COVID-19 case reports via pretrained language model.,"Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.",,iScience,2022,2022-09-05,Y,Artificial intelligence; Virology; Machine Learning; Health Sciences,,,"Although open-access data are increasingly common and useful to epidemiological research, the curation of such datasets is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Despite the existence of a major source of COVID-19 data, the regularly disclosed case reports were often written in natural language with an unstructured format. Here, we propose a computational framework that can automatically extract epidemiological information from open-access COVID-19 case reports. We develop this framework by coupling a language model developed using deep neural networks with training samples compiled using an optimized data annotation strategy. When applied to the COVID-19 case reports collected from mainland China, our framework outperforms all other state-of-the-art deep learning models. The information extracted from our approach is highly consistent with that obtained from the gold-standard manual coding, with a matching rate of 80%. To disseminate our algorithm, we provide an open-access online platform that is able to estimate key epidemiological statistics in real time, with much less effort for data curation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477?pdf=render +34980174,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9,"Increased burden of cardiovascular disease in people with liver disease: unequal geographical variations, risk factors and excess years of life lost.","Chang WH, Mueller SH, Chung SC, Foster GR, Lai AG.",,Journal of translational medicine,2022,2022-01-03,Y,liver disease; Geographical variations; incidence; Cardiovascular Risk; Electronic Health Records; Years Of Life Lost,,,"

Background

People with liver disease are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, there has yet been an investigation of incidence burden, risk, and premature mortality across a wide range of liver conditions and cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods

We employed population-wide electronic health records (EHRs; from 1998 to 2020) consisting of almost 4 million adults to assess regional variations in disease burden of five liver conditions, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), autoimmune liver disease, chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV), chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV) and NAFLD, in England. We analysed regional differences in incidence rates for 17 manifestations of CVD in people with or without liver disease. The associations between biomarkers and comorbidities and risk of CVD in patients with liver disease were estimated using Cox models. For each liver condition, we estimated excess years of life lost (YLL) attributable to CVD (i.e., difference in YLL between people with or without CVD).

Results

The age-standardised incidence rate for any liver disease was 114.5 per 100,000 person years. The highest incidence was observed in NAFLD (85.5), followed by ALD (24.7), HCV (6.0), HBV (4.1) and autoimmune liver disease (3.7). Regionally, the North West and North East regions consistently exhibited high incidence burden. Age-specific incidence rate analyses revealed that the peak incidence for liver disease of non-viral aetiology is reached in individuals aged 50-59 years. Patients with liver disease had a two-fold higher incidence burden of CVD (2634.6 per 100,000 persons) compared to individuals without liver disease (1339.7 per 100,000 persons). When comparing across liver diseases, atrial fibrillation was the most common initial CVD presentation while hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was the least common. We noted strong positive associations between body mass index and current smoking and risk of CVD. Patients who also had diabetes, hypertension, proteinuric kidney disease, chronic kidney disease, diverticular disease and gastro-oesophageal reflex disorders had a higher risk of CVD, as do patients with low albumin, raised C-reactive protein and raised International Normalized Ratio levels. All types of CVD were associated with shorter life expectancies. When evaluating excess YLLs by age of CVD onset and by liver disease type, differences in YLLs, when comparing across CVD types, were more pronounced at younger ages.

Conclusions

We developed a public online app ( https://lailab.shinyapps.io/cvd_in_liver_disease/ ) to showcase results interactively. We provide a blueprint that revealed previously underappreciated clinical factors related to the risk of CVD, which differed in the magnitude of effects across liver diseases. We found significant geographical variations in the burden of liver disease and CVD, highlighting the need to devise local solutions. Targeted policies and regional initiatives addressing underserved communities might help improve equity of access to CVD screening and treatment.",,pdf:https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174?pdf=render +35641524,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0,Development and validation of a multivariable mortality risk prediction model for COPD in primary care.,"Shah SA, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A, Simpson CR, Kotz D.",,NPJ primary care respiratory medicine,2022,2022-05-31,Y,,,,"Risk stratification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is important to enable targeted management. Existing disease severity classification systems, such as GOLD staging, do not take co-morbidities into account despite their high prevalence in COPD patients. We sought to develop and validate a prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality in patients with diagnosed COPD. We constructed a longitudinal cohort of 37,485 COPD patients (149,196 person-years) from a UK-wide primary care database. The risk factors included in the model pertained to demographic and behavioural characteristics, co-morbidities, and COPD severity. The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. We fitted an extended Cox-regression model to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), used machine learning-based data modelling approaches including k-fold cross-validation to validate the prognostic model, and assessed model fitting and discrimination. The inter-quartile ranges of the three metrics on the validation set suggested good performance: 0.90-1.06 for model fit, 0.80-0.83 for Harrel's c-index, and 0.40-0.46 for Royston and Saurebrei's [Formula: see text] with a strong overlap of these metrics on the training dataset. According to the validated prognostic model, the two most important risk factors of mortality were heart failure (HR 1.92; 95% CI 1.87-1.96) and current smoking (HR 1.68; 95% CI 1.66-1.71). We have developed and validated a national, population-based prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality of patients diagnosed with COPD. This model could be used to detect high-risk patients and modify risk factors such as optimising heart failure management and offering effective smoking cessation interventions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-022-00280-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666?pdf=render 36256701,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvac098,Bed rest duration and complications after transfemoral cardiac catheterization: a network meta-analysis.,"Busca E, Airoldi C, Bertoncini F, Buratti G, Casarotto R, Gaboardi S, Faggiano F, Barisone M, White IR, Allara E, Dal Molin A.",,European journal of cardiovascular nursing,2023,2023-07-01,Y,Cardiac catheterization; Percutaneous coronary intervention; Systematic review; Network Meta-analysis; Femoral Access,,,"

Aims

To assess the effects of bed rest duration on short-term complications following transfemoral catheterization.

Methods and results

A systematic search was carried out in MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Scopus, SciELO and in five registries of grey literature. Randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies comparing different durations of bed rest after transfemoral catheterization were included. Primary outcomes were haematoma and bleeding near the access site. Secondary outcomes were arteriovenous fistula, pseudoaneurysm, back pain, general patient discomfort and urinary discomfort. Study findings were summarized using a network meta-analysis (NMA). Twenty-eight studies and 9217 participants were included (mean age 60.4 years). In NMA, bed rest duration was not consistently associated with either primary outcome, and this was confirmed in sensitivity analyses. There was no evidence of associations with secondary outcomes, except for two effects related to back pain. A bed rest duration of 2-2.9 h was associated with lower risk of back pain [risk ratio (RR) 0.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.17-0.62] and a duration over 12 h with greater risk of back pain (RR 1.94, 95% CI 1.16-3.24), when compared with the 4-5.9 h interval. Post hoc analysis revealed an increased risk of back pain per hour of bed rest (RR 1.08, 95% CI 1.04-1.11).

Conclusion

A short bed rest was not associated with complications in patients undergoing transfemoral catheterization; the greater the duration of bed rest, the more likely the patients were to experience back pain. Ambulation as early as 2 h after transfemoral catheterization can be safely implemented.

Registration

PROSPERO: CRD42014014222.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjcn/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurjcn/zvac098/47022353/zvac098.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvac098; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353909; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353909?pdf=render -36423925,https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591,Rebound in asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions: a longitudinal population-based study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Tydeman F, Pfeffer PE, Vivaldi G, Holt H, Talaei M, Jolliffe D, Davies G, Lyons RA, Griffiths C, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,Thorax,2023,2022-11-23,Y,Asthma; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The imposition of restrictions on social mixing early in the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by a reduction in asthma exacerbations in multiple settings internationally. Temporal trends in social mixing, incident acute respiratory infections (ARI) and asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions have not yet been described.

Methods

We conducted a population-based longitudinal study in 2312 UK adults with asthma between November 2020 and April 2022. Details of face covering use, social mixing, incident ARI and severe asthma exacerbations were collected via monthly online questionnaires. Temporal changes in these parameters were visualised using Poisson generalised additive models. Multilevel logistic regression was used to test for associations between incident ARI and risk of asthma exacerbations, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions from April 2021 coincided with reduced face covering use (p<0.001), increased frequency of indoor visits to public places and other households (p<0.001) and rising incidence of COVID-19 (p<0.001), non-COVID-19 ARI (p<0.001) and severe asthma exacerbations (p=0.007). Incident non-COVID-19 ARI associated independently with increased risk of asthma exacerbation (adjusted OR 5.75, 95% CI 4.75 to 6.97) as did incident COVID-19, both prior to emergence of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (5.89, 3.45 to 10.04) and subsequently (5.69, 3.89 to 8.31).

Conclusions

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions coincided with decreased face covering use, increased social mixing and a rebound in ARI and asthma exacerbations. Associations between incident ARI and risk of severe asthma exacerbation were similar for non-COVID-19 ARI and COVID-19, both before and after emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant.

Study registration number

NCT04330599.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/12/29/thorax-2022-219591.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556?pdf=render +36093379,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079,Epidemiologic information discovery from open-access COVID-19 case reports via pretrained language model.,"Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.",,iScience,2022,2022-09-05,Y,Artificial intelligence; Virology; Machine Learning; Health Sciences,,,"Although open-access data are increasingly common and useful to epidemiological research, the curation of such datasets is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Despite the existence of a major source of COVID-19 data, the regularly disclosed case reports were often written in natural language with an unstructured format. Here, we propose a computational framework that can automatically extract epidemiological information from open-access COVID-19 case reports. We develop this framework by coupling a language model developed using deep neural networks with training samples compiled using an optimized data annotation strategy. When applied to the COVID-19 case reports collected from mainland China, our framework outperforms all other state-of-the-art deep learning models. The information extracted from our approach is highly consistent with that obtained from the gold-standard manual coding, with a matching rate of 80%. To disseminate our algorithm, we provide an open-access online platform that is able to estimate key epidemiological statistics in real time, with much less effort for data curation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477?pdf=render 32763829,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102932,Dietary metabolite profiling brings new insight into the relationship between nutrition and metabolic risk: An IMI DIRECT study.,"Eriksen R, Perez IG, Posma JM, Haid M, Sharma S, Prehn C, Thomas LE, Koivula RW, Bizzotto R, Prehn C, Mari A, Giordano GN, Pavo I, Schwenk JM, De Masi F, Tsirigos KD, Brunak S, Viñuela A, Mahajan A, McDonald TJ, Kokkola T, Rutter F, Teare H, Hansen TH, Fernandez J, Jones A, Jennison C, Walker M, McCarthy MI, Pedersen O, Ruetten H, Forgie I, Bell JD, Pearson ER, Franks PW, Adamski J, Holmes E, Frost G.",,EBioMedicine,2020,2020-08-04,Y,Type 2 diabetes; metabolic profiling; Dietary Patterns; Cardiometabolic Health,,,"

Background

Dietary advice remains the cornerstone of prevention and management of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, understanding the efficacy of dietary interventions is confounded by the challenges inherent in assessing free living diet. Here we profiled dietary metabolites to investigate glycaemic deterioration and cardiometabolic risk in people at risk of or living with T2D.

Methods

We analysed data from plasma collected at baseline and 18-month follow-up in individuals from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Diabetes Research on Patient Stratification (DIRECT) cohort 1 n = 403 individuals with normal or impaired glucose regulation (prediabetic) and cohort 2 n = 458 individuals with new onset of T2D. A dietary metabolite profile model (Tpred) was constructed using multivariable regression of 113 plasma metabolites obtained from targeted metabolomics assays. The continuous Tpred score was used to explore the relationships between diet, glycaemic deterioration and cardio-metabolic risk via multiple linear regression models.

Findings

A higher Tpred score was associated with healthier diets high in wholegrain (β=3.36 g, 95% CI 0.31, 6.40 and β=2.82 g, 95% CI 0.06, 5.57) and lower energy intake (β=-75.53 kcal, 95% CI -144.71, -2.35 and β=-122.51 kcal, 95% CI -186.56, -38.46), and saturated fat (β=-0.92 g, 95% CI -1.56, -0.28 and β=-0.98 g, 95% CI -1.53, -0.42 g), respectively for cohort 1 and 2. In both cohorts a higher Tpred score was also associated with lower total body adiposity and favourable lipid profiles HDL-cholesterol (β=0.07 mmol/L, 95% CI 0.03, 0.1), (β=0.08 mmol/L, 95% CI 0.04, 0.1), and triglycerides (β=-0.1 mmol/L, 95% CI -0.2, -0.03), (β=-0.2 mmol/L, 95% CI -0.3, -0.09), respectively for cohort 1 and 2. In cohort 2, the Tpred score was negatively associated with liver fat (β=-0.74%, 95% CI -0.67, -0.81), and lower fasting concentrations of HbA1c (β=-0.9 mmol/mol, 95% CI -1.5, -0.1), glucose (β=-0.2 mmol/L, 95% CI -0.4, -0.05) and insulin (β=-11.0 pmol/mol, 95% CI -19.5, -2.6). Longitudinal analysis showed at 18-month follow up a higher Tpred score was also associated lower total body adiposity in both cohorts and lower fasting glucose (β=-0.2 mmol/L, 95% CI -0.3, -0.01) and insulin (β=-9.2 pmol/mol, 95% CI -17.9, -0.4) concentrations in cohort 2.

Interpretation

Plasma dietary metabolite profiling provides objective measures of diet intake, showing a relationship to glycaemic deterioration and cardiometabolic health.

Funding

This work was supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 115,317 (DIRECT), resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and EFPIA companies.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S235239642030308X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102932; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7406914; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7406914?pdf=render 34930919,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26280-1,Finding genetically-supported drug targets for Parkinson's disease using Mendelian randomization of the druggable genome.,"Storm CS, Kia DA, Almramhi MM, Bandres-Ciga S, Finan C, International Parkinson’s Disease Genomics Consortium (IPDGC), Hingorani AD, Wood NW.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-12-20,Y,,,,"Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative movement disorder that currently has no disease-modifying treatment, partly owing to inefficiencies in drug target identification and validation. We use Mendelian randomization to investigate over 3,000 genes that encode druggable proteins and predict their efficacy as drug targets for Parkinson's disease. We use expression and protein quantitative trait loci to mimic exposure to medications, and we examine the causal effect on Parkinson's disease risk (in two large cohorts), age at onset and progression. We propose 23 drug-targeting mechanisms for Parkinson's disease, including four possible drug repurposing opportunities and two drugs which may increase Parkinson's disease risk. Of these, we put forward six drug targets with the strongest Mendelian randomization evidence. There is remarkably little overlap between our drug targets to reduce Parkinson's disease risk versus progression, suggesting different molecular mechanisms. Drugs with genetic support are considerably more likely to succeed in clinical trials, and we provide compelling genetic evidence and an analysis pipeline to prioritise Parkinson's disease drug development.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26280-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26280-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688480; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688480?pdf=render +36423925,https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591,Rebound in asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions: a longitudinal population-based study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Tydeman F, Pfeffer PE, Vivaldi G, Holt H, Talaei M, Jolliffe D, Davies G, Lyons RA, Griffiths C, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,Thorax,2023,2022-11-23,Y,Asthma; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The imposition of restrictions on social mixing early in the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by a reduction in asthma exacerbations in multiple settings internationally. Temporal trends in social mixing, incident acute respiratory infections (ARI) and asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions have not yet been described.

Methods

We conducted a population-based longitudinal study in 2312 UK adults with asthma between November 2020 and April 2022. Details of face covering use, social mixing, incident ARI and severe asthma exacerbations were collected via monthly online questionnaires. Temporal changes in these parameters were visualised using Poisson generalised additive models. Multilevel logistic regression was used to test for associations between incident ARI and risk of asthma exacerbations, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions from April 2021 coincided with reduced face covering use (p<0.001), increased frequency of indoor visits to public places and other households (p<0.001) and rising incidence of COVID-19 (p<0.001), non-COVID-19 ARI (p<0.001) and severe asthma exacerbations (p=0.007). Incident non-COVID-19 ARI associated independently with increased risk of asthma exacerbation (adjusted OR 5.75, 95% CI 4.75 to 6.97) as did incident COVID-19, both prior to emergence of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (5.89, 3.45 to 10.04) and subsequently (5.69, 3.89 to 8.31).

Conclusions

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions coincided with decreased face covering use, increased social mixing and a rebound in ARI and asthma exacerbations. Associations between incident ARI and risk of severe asthma exacerbation were similar for non-COVID-19 ARI and COVID-19, both before and after emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant.

Study registration number

NCT04330599.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/12/29/thorax-2022-219591.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556?pdf=render 32639589,https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.14458,Measuring and reporting treatment adherence: What can we learn by comparing two respiratory conditions?,"Tibble H, Flook M, Sheikh A, Tsanas A, Horne R, Vrijens B, De Geest S, Stagg HR.",,British journal of clinical pharmacology,2021,2020-07-27,N,Tuberculosis; Adherence; Persistence; Asthma; Compliance,,,"Medication non-adherence, defined as any deviation from the regimen recommended by their healthcare provider, can increase morbidity, mortality and side effects, while reducing effectiveness. Through studying two respiratory conditions, asthma and tuberculosis (TB), we thoroughly review the current understanding of the measurement and reporting of medication adherence. In this paper, we identify major methodological issues in the standard ways that adherence has been conceptualised, defined and studied in asthma and TB. Between and within the two diseases there are substantial variations in adherence reporting, linked to differences in dosing intervals and treatment duration. Critically, the communicable nature of TB has resulted in dose-by-dose monitoring becoming a recommended treatment standard. Through the lens of these similarities and contrasts, we highlight contemporary shortcomings in the generalised conceptualisation of medication adherence. Furthermore, we outline elements in which knowledge could be directly transferred from one condition to the other, such as the application of large-scale cost-effective monitoring methods in TB to resource-poor settings in asthma. To develop a more robust evidence-based approach, we recommend the use of standard taxonomies detailed in the ABC taxonomy when measuring and discussing adherence. Regimen and intervention development and use should be based on sufficient evidence of the commonality and type of adherence behaviours displayed by patients with the relevant condition. A systematic approach to the measurement and reporting of adherence could improve the value and generalisability of research across all health conditions.",,pdf:https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bcp.14458; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.14458 -37671353,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133,Public Involvement & Engagement in health inequalities research on COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of CIDACS/FIOCRUZ BAHIA.,"Dos Anjos Fonseca A, Pimenta DM, de Almeida MRS, Lima RT, Barreto ML, Ichihara MYT.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Brazil; Pandemic; Policymakers; Social Inequalities; Public Engagement; Community Groups; Public Involvement,,,"

Introduction

Health inequalities in Brazil have deepened on Covid-19 pandemic, and the most vulnerable people were the more affected. A multidisciplinary team from Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia developed a Social Disparities Index for Covid-19 (IDS-COVID-19) to support the evaluation of effects of health inequalities on the pandemic in Brazil. Public Involvement and Engagement were the pillars of this research because they allowed us to access first hand experiences about the social context in our country.

Objectives

This paper aims to describe our Public Involvement and Engagement experience by analysing our challenges, strategies, activities, results, and lessons learned during the construction of IDS-COVID-19.

Methods

The basis of the IDS-Covid-19 public engagement model was the participation of different social groups through methods and techniques that allow dialogue. Several activities and communication products supported the continuous interactions. Another guideline was the inclusion and the welcoming of participants from the beginning of the project to ensure that the participant's contributions could drive decision-making about the research.

Results

Participants made several contributions to the research as a new layer of information to the Index, and improvements were made to the interactive panel. They also compromised to support the dissemination and use of the product. Eight representatives of community groups and 29 policymakers participated in our engagement activities during the project. More than 500 people were in our open webinars. In addition, more than 140 news items about IDS-Covid-19 were published in national and international media.

Conclusions

We highlight as lessons learned the adaptation of some dissemination formats to the public, and the necessity of being flexible and accessible to participants. We strengthened the relationship with relevant stakeholders by exploring individual conversations by phone, WhatsApp, email, and interviews to produce a documentary that registered this whole experience. Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia has also embedded public engagement and involvement in the study agenda.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697?pdf=render 34906385,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.07.025,Re: Re: Driving improved burns care and patient outcomes through clinical registry data: A review of quality indicators in the burns registry of Australia and New Zealand.,"Cleland H, Tracy LM, Singer Y, Wood F, Gong J, Cameron P, Gabbe BJ.",,Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries,2022,2021-08-12,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.07.025 -32247548,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003,Electronic Health Records to Predict Gestational Diabetes Risk.,"Mateen BA, David AL, Denaxas S.",,Trends in pharmacological sciences,2020,2020-04-01,N,Artificial intelligence; Gestational Diabetes Mellitus; Machine Learning; Risk Prediction; Electronic Health Records,,,"Gestational diabetes mellitus is a common pregnancy complication associated with significant adverse health outcomes for both women and infants. Effective screening and early prediction tools as part of routine clinical care are needed to reduce the impact of the disease on the baby and mother. Using large-scale electronic health records, Artzi and colleagues developed and evaluated a machine learning driven tool to identify women at high and low risk of GDM. Their findings showcase how artificial intelligence approaches can potentially be embedded in clinical care to enable accurate and rapid risk stratification.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10097090/3/Denaxas_Electronic%20Health%20Records%20to%20Predict%20Gestational%20Diabetes%20Risk_AAM.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003 32907797,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3210,Guidelines for clinical trial protocols for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the SPIRIT-AI Extension.,"Rivera SC, Liu X, Chan AW, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-09-09,Y,,,,"The SPIRIT 2013 (The Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials) statement aims to improve the completeness of clinical trial protocol reporting, by providing evidence-based recommendations for the minimum set of items to be addressed. This guidance has been instrumental in promoting transparent evaluation of new interventions. More recently, there is a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate their impact on health outcomes.The SPIRIT-AI extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trials protocols evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for trial reports: CONSORT-AI. Both guidelines were developed using a staged consensus process, involving a literature review and expert consultation to generate 26 candidate items, which were consulted on by an international multi-stakeholder group in a 2-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed on in a consensus meeting (31 stakeholders) and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants).The SPIRIT-AI extension includes 15 new items, which were considered sufficiently important for clinical trial protocols of AI interventions. These new items should be routinely reported in addition to the core SPIRIT 2013 items. SPIRIT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention will be integrated, considerations around the handling of input and output data, the human-AI interaction and analysis of error cases.SPIRIT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness for clinical trial protocols for AI interventions. Its use will assist editors and peer-reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret and critically appraise the design and risk of bias for a planned clinical trial.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m3210.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3210; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7490785 34396190,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2019.09.007,Cancer Therapy-Related Cardiac Dysfunction of Nonanthracycline Chemotherapeutics: What Is the Evidence?,"Kamphuis JAM, Linschoten M, Cramer MJ, Gort EH, van Rhenen A, Asselbergs FW, Doevendans PA, Teske AJ.",,JACC. CardioOncology,2019,2019-12-17,Y,"Cardiomyopathy; Heart Failure; Risk Prediction; Fda, Food And Drug Administration; Hf, Heart Failure; Mmc, Mitomycin C; Alkylating Therapy; Ctrcd, Cancer Therapy–Related Cardiac Dysfunction",,,"Cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD) is one of the most concerning cardiovascular side effects of cancer treatment. Important reviews within the field of cardio-oncology have described various agents to be associated with a high risk of CTRCD, including mitomycin C, ifosfamide, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and clofarabine. The aim of this study was to provide insight into the data on which these incidence rates are based. We observed that the reported cardiotoxicity of mitomycin C and ifosfamide is based on studies in which most patients received anthracyclines, complicating the interpretation of their association with CTRCD. The high incidence of vincristine-induced cardiotoxicity is based on an incorrect interpretation of a single study. Incidence rates of clofarabine remain uncertain due to a lack of cardiac screening in clinical trials. The administration of high-dose cyclophosphamide (>1.5 g/m2/day) is associated with a high incidence of CTRCD. Based on our findings, a critical re-evaluation of the cardiotoxicity of these agents is warranted.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2019.09.007; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2019.09.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8352330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8352330?pdf=render +32247548,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003,Electronic Health Records to Predict Gestational Diabetes Risk.,"Mateen BA, David AL, Denaxas S.",,Trends in pharmacological sciences,2020,2020-04-01,N,Artificial intelligence; Gestational Diabetes Mellitus; Machine Learning; Risk Prediction; Electronic Health Records,,,"Gestational diabetes mellitus is a common pregnancy complication associated with significant adverse health outcomes for both women and infants. Effective screening and early prediction tools as part of routine clinical care are needed to reduce the impact of the disease on the baby and mother. Using large-scale electronic health records, Artzi and colleagues developed and evaluated a machine learning driven tool to identify women at high and low risk of GDM. Their findings showcase how artificial intelligence approaches can potentially be embedded in clinical care to enable accurate and rapid risk stratification.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10097090/3/Denaxas_Electronic%20Health%20Records%20to%20Predict%20Gestational%20Diabetes%20Risk_AAM.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003 +37671353,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133,Public Involvement & Engagement in health inequalities research on COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of CIDACS/FIOCRUZ BAHIA.,"Dos Anjos Fonseca A, Pimenta DM, de Almeida MRS, Lima RT, Barreto ML, Ichihara MYT.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Brazil; Pandemic; Policymakers; Social Inequalities; Public Engagement; Community Groups; Public Involvement,,,"

Introduction

Health inequalities in Brazil have deepened on Covid-19 pandemic, and the most vulnerable people were the more affected. A multidisciplinary team from Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia developed a Social Disparities Index for Covid-19 (IDS-COVID-19) to support the evaluation of effects of health inequalities on the pandemic in Brazil. Public Involvement and Engagement were the pillars of this research because they allowed us to access first hand experiences about the social context in our country.

Objectives

This paper aims to describe our Public Involvement and Engagement experience by analysing our challenges, strategies, activities, results, and lessons learned during the construction of IDS-COVID-19.

Methods

The basis of the IDS-Covid-19 public engagement model was the participation of different social groups through methods and techniques that allow dialogue. Several activities and communication products supported the continuous interactions. Another guideline was the inclusion and the welcoming of participants from the beginning of the project to ensure that the participant's contributions could drive decision-making about the research.

Results

Participants made several contributions to the research as a new layer of information to the Index, and improvements were made to the interactive panel. They also compromised to support the dissemination and use of the product. Eight representatives of community groups and 29 policymakers participated in our engagement activities during the project. More than 500 people were in our open webinars. In addition, more than 140 news items about IDS-Covid-19 were published in national and international media.

Conclusions

We highlight as lessons learned the adaptation of some dissemination formats to the public, and the necessity of being flexible and accessible to participants. We strengthened the relationship with relevant stakeholders by exploring individual conversations by phone, WhatsApp, email, and interviews to produce a documentary that registered this whole experience. Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia has also embedded public engagement and involvement in the study agenda.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697?pdf=render 32900377,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01754-z,Going on up to the SPIRIT in AI: will new reporting guidelines for clinical trials of AI interventions improve their rigour?,"Wicks P, Liu X, Denniston AK.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-09-09,Y,Artificial intelligence; Checklist; Clinical Trial; Machine Learning; Reporting Guidelines,,,,,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01754-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01754-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7487816; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7487816?pdf=render 33824163,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x714161,Post-bariatric surgery nutritional follow-up in primary care: a population-based cohort study.,"Parretti HM, Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Abbott S, Tahrani AA, Nirantharakumar K.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2021,2021-05-27,Y,Nutrition; Followup; Cohort studies; General Practice; Bariatric Surgery; The Health Improvement Network,,,"

Background

Bariatric surgery is the most effective treatment for severe obesity. However, without recommended follow-up it has long-term risks.

Aim

To investigate whether nutritional and weight monitoring in primary care meets current clinical guidance, after patients are discharged from specialist bariatric care.

Design and setting

Retrospective cohort study in primary care practices contributing to IQVIA Medical Research Data in the UK (1 January 2000 to 17 January 2018).

Method

Participants were adults who had had bariatric surgery with a minimum of 3 years' follow-up post-surgery, as this study focused on patients discharged from specialist care (at 2 years post-surgery). Outcomes were the annual proportion of patients from 2 years post-surgery with a record of recommended nutritional screening blood tests, weight measurement, and prescription of nutritional supplements, and the proportions with nutritional deficiencies based on blood tests.

Results

A total of 3137 participants were included in the study, and median follow-up post-surgery was 5.7 (4.2-7.6) years. Between 45% and 59% of these patients had an annual weight measurement. The greatest proportions of patients with a record of annual nutritional blood tests were for tests routinely conducted in primary care, for example, recorded haemoglobin measurement varied between 44.9% (n = 629/1400) and 61.2% (n = 653/1067). Annual proportions of blood tests specific to bariatric surgery were low, for example, recorded copper measurement varied between 1.2% (n = 10/818) and 1.5% (n = 16/1067) where recommended. Results indicated that the most common deficiency was anaemia. Annual proportions of patients with prescriptions for recommended nutritional supplements were low.

Conclusion

This study suggests that patients who have bariatric surgery are not receiving the recommended nutritional monitoring after discharge from specialist care. GPs and patients should be supported to engage with follow-up care. Future research should aim to understand the reasons underpinning these findings.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/71/707/e441.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X714161; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8041293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8041293?pdf=render -36560629,https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625,Switching of Receptor Binding Poses between Closely Related Enteroviruses.,"Zhou D, Qin L, Duyvesteyn HME, Zhao Y, Lin TY, Fry EE, Ren J, Huang KA, Stuart DI.",,Viruses,2022,2022-11-24,Y,Evolution; Complex; Virus receptor; Glycan; Daf; Binding Pose; Echovirus E11; Enterovirus Structure,,,"Echoviruses, for which there are currently no approved vaccines or drugs, are responsible for a range of human diseases, for example echovirus 11 (E11) is a major cause of serious neonatal morbidity and mortality. Decay-accelerating factor (DAF, also known as CD55) is an attachment receptor for E11. Here, we report the structure of the complex of E11 and the full-length ectodomain of DAF (short consensus repeats, SCRs, 1-4) at 3.1 Å determined by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). SCRs 3 and 4 of DAF interact with E11 at the southern rim of the canyon via the VP2 EF and VP3 BC loops. We also observe an unexpected interaction between the N-linked glycan (residue 95 of DAF) and the VP2 BC loop of E11. DAF is a receptor for at least 20 enteroviruses and we classify its binding patterns from reported DAF/virus complexes into two distinct positions and orientations, named as E6 and E11 poses. Whilst 60 DAF molecules can attach to the virion in the E6 pose, no more than 30 can attach to E11 due to steric restrictions. Analysis of the distinct modes of interaction and structure and sequence-based phylogenies suggests that the two modes evolved independently, with the E6 mode likely found earlier.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/12/2625/pdf?version=1669703629; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616?pdf=render 33933530,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.04.027,Early observations on the impact of a healthcare worker COVID-19 vaccination programme at a major UK tertiary centre.,"Garvey MI, Wilkinson MAC, Holden E, Shields A, Robertson A, Richter A, Ball S.",,The Journal of infection,2021,2021-04-29,Y,Vaccination; Healthcare Workers; Lateral Flow; Covid-19,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8081749; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.04.027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8081749; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8081749?pdf=render 32393804,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2,Real-time tracking of self-reported symptoms to predict potential COVID-19.,"Menni C, Valdes AM, Freidin MB, Sudre CH, Nguyen LH, Drew DA, Ganesh S, Varsavsky T, Cardoso MJ, El-Sayed Moustafa JS, Visconti A, Hysi P, Bowyer RCE, Mangino M, Falchi M, Wolf J, Ourselin S, Chan AT, Steves CJ, Spector TD.",,Nature medicine,2020,2020-05-11,N,,,,"A total of 2,618,862 participants reported their potential symptoms of COVID-19 on a smartphone-based app. Among the 18,401 who had undergone a SARS-CoV-2 test, the proportion of participants who reported loss of smell and taste was higher in those with a positive test result (4,668 of 7,178 individuals; 65.03%) than in those with a negative test result (2,436 of 11,223 participants; 21.71%) (odds ratio = 6.74; 95% confidence interval = 6.31-7.21). A model combining symptoms to predict probable infection was applied to the data from all app users who reported symptoms (805,753) and predicted that 140,312 (17.42%) participants are likely to have COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0916-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7751267; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7751267?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2 31965568,https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.11433,Impact of bariatric surgery on cardiovascular outcomes and mortality: a population-based cohort study.,"Singh P, Subramanian A, Adderley N, Gokhale K, Singhal R, Bellary S, Nirantharakumar K, Tahrani AA.",,The British journal of surgery,2020,2020-01-21,N,,,,"

Background

Cohort studies have shown that bariatric surgery may reduce the incidence of and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD), but studies using real-world data are limited. This study examined the impact of bariatric surgery on incident CVD, hypertension and atrial fibrillation, and all-cause mortality.

Methods

A retrospective, matched, controlled cohort study of The Health Improvement Network primary care database (from 1 January 1990 to 31 January 2018) was performed (approximately 6 per cent of the UK population). Adults with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or above who did not have gastric cancer were included as the exposed group. Each exposed patient, who had undergone bariatric surgery, was matched for age, sex, BMI and presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with two controls who had not had bariatric surgery.

Results

A total of 5170 exposed and 9995 control participants were included; their mean(s.d.) age was 45·3(10·5) years and 21·5 per cent (3265 of 15 165 participants) had T2DM. Median follow-up was 3·9 (i.q.r. 1·8- 6·4) years. Mean(s.d.) percentage weight loss was 20·0(13·2) and 0·8(9·5) per cent in exposed and control groups respectively. Overall, bariatric surgery was not associated with a significantly lower CVD risk (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0·80; 95 per cent c.i. 0·62 to 1·02; P = 0·074). Only in the gastric bypass group was a significant impact on CVD observed (HR 0·53, 0·34 to 0·81; P = 0·003). Bariatric surgery was associated with significant reduction in all-cause mortality (adjusted HR 0·70, 0·55 to 0·89; P = 0·004), hypertension (adjusted HR 0·41, 0·34 to 0·50; P < 0·001) and heart failure (adjusted HR 0·57, 0·34 to 0·96; P = 0·033). Outcomes were similar in patients with and those without T2DM (exposed versus controls), except for incident atrial fibrillation, which was reduced in the T2DM group.

Conclusion

Bariatric surgery is associated with a reduced risk of hypertension, heart failure and mortality, compared with routine care. Gastric bypass was associated with reduced risk of CVD compared to routine care.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-pdf/107/4/432/36117941/bjs11433.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.11433 31816119,https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8443,Dynamic predictive probabilities to monitor rapid cystic fibrosis disease progression.,"Szczesniak RD, Su W, Brokamp C, Keogh RH, Pestian JP, Seid M, Diggle PJ, Clancy JP.",,Statistics in medicine,2020,2019-12-09,Y,Longitudinal Data Analysis; Medical Monitoring; Nonstationary Process; Nowcasting; Predictive Probability Distributions,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a progressive, genetic disease characterized by frequent, prolonged drops in lung function. Accurately predicting rapid underlying lung-function decline is essential for clinical decision support and timely intervention. Determining whether an individual is experiencing a period of rapid decline is complicated due to its heterogeneous timing and extent, and error component of the measured lung function. We construct individualized predictive probabilities for ""nowcasting"" rapid decline. We assume each patient's true longitudinal lung function, S(t), follows a nonlinear, nonstationary stochastic process, and accommodate between-patient heterogeneity through random effects. Corresponding lung-function decline at time t is defined as the rate of change, S'(t). We predict S'(t) conditional on observed covariate and measurement history by modeling a measured lung function as a noisy version of S(t). The method is applied to data on 30 879 US CF Registry patients. Results are contrasted with a currently employed decision rule using single-center data on 212 individuals. Rapid decline is identified earlier using predictive probabilities than the center's currently employed decision rule (mean difference: 0.65 years; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.41, 0.89). We constructed a bootstrapping algorithm to obtain CIs for predictive probabilities. We illustrate real-time implementation with R Shiny. Predictive accuracy is investigated using empirical simulations, which suggest this approach more accurately detects peak decline, compared with a uniform threshold of rapid decline. Median area under the ROC curve estimates (Q1-Q3) were 0.817 (0.814-0.822) and 0.745 (0.741-0.747), respectively, implying reasonable accuracy for both. This article demonstrates how individualized rate of change estimates can be coupled with probabilistic predictive inference and implementation for a useful medical-monitoring approach.",The objective of this paper was to construct individualised dynamic predictive probabilities to monitor rapid Cystic Fibrosis (CF) disease progression. The results demonstrated how individualised rate of change estimates can be coupled with probabilitic predictive inference and implementation for a useful medical-monitoring approach.,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8443; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8443; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7028099; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7028099?pdf=render +36560629,https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625,Switching of Receptor Binding Poses between Closely Related Enteroviruses.,"Zhou D, Qin L, Duyvesteyn HME, Zhao Y, Lin TY, Fry EE, Ren J, Huang KA, Stuart DI.",,Viruses,2022,2022-11-24,Y,Evolution; Complex; Virus receptor; Glycan; Daf; Binding Pose; Echovirus E11; Enterovirus Structure,,,"Echoviruses, for which there are currently no approved vaccines or drugs, are responsible for a range of human diseases, for example echovirus 11 (E11) is a major cause of serious neonatal morbidity and mortality. Decay-accelerating factor (DAF, also known as CD55) is an attachment receptor for E11. Here, we report the structure of the complex of E11 and the full-length ectodomain of DAF (short consensus repeats, SCRs, 1-4) at 3.1 Å determined by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). SCRs 3 and 4 of DAF interact with E11 at the southern rim of the canyon via the VP2 EF and VP3 BC loops. We also observe an unexpected interaction between the N-linked glycan (residue 95 of DAF) and the VP2 BC loop of E11. DAF is a receptor for at least 20 enteroviruses and we classify its binding patterns from reported DAF/virus complexes into two distinct positions and orientations, named as E6 and E11 poses. Whilst 60 DAF molecules can attach to the virion in the E6 pose, no more than 30 can attach to E11 due to steric restrictions. Analysis of the distinct modes of interaction and structure and sequence-based phylogenies suggests that the two modes evolved independently, with the E6 mode likely found earlier.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/12/2625/pdf?version=1669703629; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616?pdf=render 32200692,https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2020.1744453,Factors facilitating recovery following severe traumatic brain injury: A qualitative study.,"Downing M, Hicks A, Braaf S, Myles D, Gabbe B, Cameron P, Ameratunga S, Ponsford J.",,Neuropsychological rehabilitation,2021,2020-03-23,N,Recovery; Traumatic brain injury; Qualitative; Outcome; Positive Factors,,,"Given the significant impact of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), understanding factors influencing recovery is critical to inform prognostication and treatment planning. Previous research has focussed primarily on factors negatively associated with outcome, with less focus on factors facilitating the recovery process. The current qualitative study examined positive factors identified for recovery by individuals who had sustained severe TBI three years earlier. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants with TBI and 16 close-others. Participants were asked to identify factors about themselves (or the injured individual), those around them, and the care they received that they felt were positive for recovery. Using reflexive thematic analysis, three themes were identified as positive for recovery after a TBI. Having a support network included social supports such as family and friends, and receiving other funded/non-funded assistance towards improving independence and participation. Being positive and engaged included being able to participate, being positive, using compensatory strategies, and becoming fit, healthy and happy. Getting good care included patients perceiving they had a comprehensive and good quality hospital experience, and access to multidisciplinary outpatient services. A focus on enhancing these positive environmental, personal and service factors in service provision may enhance outcomes following severe TBI.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2020.1744453 35513530,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01781-8,Patient reported outcome assessment must be inclusive and equitable.,"Calvert MJ, Cruz Rivera S, Retzer A, Hughes SE, Campbell L, Molony-Oates B, Aiyegbusi OL, Stover AM, Wilson R, McMullan C, Anderson NE, Turner GM, Davies EH, Verdi R, Velikova G, Kamudoni P, Muslim S, Gheorghe A, O'Connor D, Liu X, Wu AW, Denniston AK.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-06-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01781-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01781-8 34785789,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01546-9,Patient-reported outcomes in the regulatory approval of medical devices.,"Cruz Rivera S, Dickens AP, Aiyegbusi OL, Flint R, Fleetcroft C, McPherson D, Collis P, Calvert MJ.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-12-01,N,,,,,,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/149366889/The_role_of_PROs_MedicalDevices_NatMed_FINAL_Sep_REVISED_CLEANCOPY2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01546-9 32238333,https://doi.org/10.2196/16400,Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Target Attainment in Patients With Established Cardiovascular Disease: Analysis of Routine Care Data.,"Groenhof TKJ, Kofink D, Bots ML, Nathoe HM, Hoefer IE, Van Solinge WW, Lely AT, Asselbergs FW, Haitjema S.",,JMIR medical informatics,2020,2020-04-02,Y,LDL-C; Cardiovascular Risk Management; Learning Health Care System; Routine Clinical Data,Better Care,cardiovascular,"

Background

Direct feedback on quality of care is one of the key features of a learning health care system (LHS), enabling health care professionals to improve upon the routine clinical care of their patients during practice.

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of routine care data extracted from electronic health records (EHRs) in order to obtain reliable information on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) management in cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients referred to a tertiary care center.

Methods

We extracted all LDL-c measurements from the EHRs of patients with a history of CVD referred to the University Medical Center Utrecht. We assessed LDL-c target attainment at the time of referral and per year. In patients with multiple measurements, we analyzed LDL-c trajectories, truncated at 6 follow-up measurements. Lastly, we performed a logistic regression analysis to investigate factors associated with improvement of LDL-c at the next measurement.

Results

Between February 2003 and December 2017, 250,749 LDL-c measurements were taken from 95,795 patients, of whom 23,932 had a history of CVD. At the time of referral, 51% of patients had not reached their LDL-c target. A large proportion of patients (55%) had no follow-up LDL-c measurements. Most of the patients with repeated measurements showed no change in LDL-c levels over time: the transition probability to remain in the same category was up to 0.84. Sequence clustering analysis showed more women (odds ratio 1.18, 95% CI 1.07-1.10) in the cluster with both most measurements off target and the most LDL-c measurements furthest from the target. Timing of drug prescription was difficult to determine from our data, limiting the interpretation of results regarding medication management.

Conclusions

Routine care data can be used to provide feedback on quality of care, such as LDL-c target attainment. These routine care data show high off-target prevalence and little change in LDL-c over time. Registrations of diagnosis; follow-up trajectory, including primary and secondary care; and medication use need to be improved in order to enhance usability of the EHR system for adequate feedback.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2020/4/e16400/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16400; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7163416 36100927,https://doi.org/10.28920/dhm52.3.164-174,Hyperbaric Oxygen for Lower Limb Trauma (HOLLT): an international multi-centre randomised clinical trial.,"Millar IL, Lind FG, Jansson KÅ, Hájek M, Smart DR, Fernandes TD, McGinnes RA, Williamson OD, Miller RK, Martin CA, Gabbe BJ, Myles PS, Cameron PA, HOLLT investigator group.",,Diving and hyperbaric medicine,2022,2022-09-01,N,Injuries; Wounds; Fractures; Orthopaedics; Outcome; Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment; Musculo-skeletal,,,"

Introduction

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) is sometimes used in the management of open fractures and severe soft tissue crush injury, aiming to reduce complications and improve outcomes.

Methods

Patients with open tibial fractures were randomly assigned within 48 hours of injury to receive standard trauma care or standard care plus 12 sessions of HBOT. The primary outcome was the incidence of necrosis or infection or both occurring within 14 days of injury.

Results

One-hundred and twenty patients were enrolled. Intention to treat primary outcome occurred in 25/58 HBOT assigned patients and 34/59 controls (43% vs 58%, odds ratio (OR) 0.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.25 to 1.18, P = 0.12). Tissue necrosis occurred in 29% of HBOT patients and 53% of controls (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.78, P = 0.01). There were fewer late complications in patients receiving HBOT (6/53 vs 18/52, OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.64, P = 0.007) including delayed fracture union (5/53 vs 13/52, OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.95, P = 0.04). Quality of life measures at one and two years were superior in HBOT patients. The mean score difference in short form 36 was 2.90, 95% CI 1.03 to 4.77, P = 0.002, in the short musculoskeletal function assessment (SMFA) was 2.54, 95% CI 0.62 to 4.46, P = 0.01; and in SMFA daily activities was 19.51, 95% CI 0.06 to 21.08, P = 0.05.

Conclusions

In severe lower limb trauma, early HBOT reduces tissue necrosis and the likelihood of long-term complications, and improves functional outcomes. Future research should focus on optimal dosage and whether HBOT has benefits for other injury types.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9536848; doi:https://doi.org/10.28920/dhm52.3.164-174; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9536848; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9536848?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.28920/dhm52.3.164-174 -34040552,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996,Optimising a Simple Fully Convolutional Network for Accurate Brain Age Prediction in the PAC 2019 Challenge.,"Gong W, Beckmann CF, Vedaldi A, Smith SM, Peng H.",,Frontiers in psychiatry,2021,2021-05-10,Y,Brain imaging; Predictive Analysis; Big Data; Deep Learning; Convolution Neural Network; Brain Age Prediction,,,"Brain age prediction from brain MRI scans not only helps improve brain ageing modelling generally, but also provides benchmarks for predictive analysis methods. Brain-age delta, which is the difference between a subject's predicted age and true age, has become a meaningful biomarker for the health of the brain. Here, we report the details of our brain age prediction models and results in the Predictive Analysis Challenge 2019. The aim of the challenge was to use T1-weighted brain MRIs to predict a subject's age in multicentre datasets. We apply a lightweight deep convolutional neural network architecture, Simple Fully Convolutional Neural Network (SFCN), and combined several techniques including data augmentation, transfer learning, model ensemble, and bias correction for brain age prediction. The model achieved first place in both of the two objectives in the PAC 2019 brain age prediction challenge: Mean absolute error (MAE) = 2.90 years without bias removal (Second Place = 3.09 yrs; Third Place = 3.33 yrs), and MAE = 2.95 years with bias removal, leading by a large margin (Second Place = 3.80 yrs; Third Place = 3.92 yrs).",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616?pdf=render -30554166,https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043019,"Work absence due to compensable RTCs in Victoria, Australia.","Gray SE, Gabbe BJ, Collie A.",,Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention,2020,2018-12-15,N,Functional Outcome; Burden Of Disease; Descriptive Epidemiology; Occupational Injury; Motor Vehicle Occupant,,,"

Introduction

RTC burden is commonly measured using fatality or hospitalisation statistics. However, non-fatal and less severe injuries contribute substantial economic and human costs, including work absence. In Victoria, Australia, two major compensation systems provide income support to employed people injured in RTCs; workers' compensation (if RTC occurred during work) and an RTC-specific compensation system. This study aimed to describe the number and rate of episodes of work absence due to compensable RTC and determine factors associated with work-related RTC resulting in work absence.

Methods

Administrative data for working-age people (15-65 years) with accepted compensation claims between 1 July 2003 and 30 June 2013 were extracted from Victoria's Compensation Research Database and analysed. Injured people receiving at least one day of income support were retained. Rate calculations used Victoria's labour force as the denominator and negative binomial regression determined any time-based trend changes. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine odds of the RTC being work-related.

Results

There were 40 677 claims made by workers with an RTC injury that consequently missed work, averaging 4068 claims per year at a rate of 12.9 per 100 000 working population. Work-related cases contributed 17.4% (N=7061). Males, older adults and RTCs involving heavy vehicles, buses, trains and trams had higher odds of a work-related RTC resulting in work absence. More severe injuries tended not to be work-related.

Conclusions

Work absence due to RTC injury constitutes a substantial burden, and this measure could provide a valuable addition to conventional RTC statistics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043019 33605084,https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.16388,P62-positive aggregates are homogenously distributed in the myocardium and associated with the type of mutation in genetic cardiomyopathy.,"van der Klooster ZJ, Sepehrkhouy S, Dooijes D, Te Rijdt WP, Schuiringa FSAM, Lingeman J, van Tintelen JP, Harakalova M, Goldschmeding R, Suurmeijer AJH, Asselbergs FW, Vink A.",,Journal of cellular and molecular medicine,2021,2021-02-18,Y,Histology; Pathology; Senescence; Genetic; Cardiomyopathy; Autophagy; P62; Phospholamban; Desminopathy; Sequestosome-1,,,"Genetic cardiomyopathy is caused by mutations in various genes. The accumulation of potentially proteotoxic mutant protein aggregates due to insufficient autophagy is a possible mechanism of disease development. The objective of this study was to investigate the distribution in the myocardium of such aggregates in relation to specific pathogenic genetic mutations in cardiomyopathy hearts. Hearts from 32 genetic cardiomyopathy patients, 4 non-genetic cardiomyopathy patients and 5 controls were studied. Microscopic slices from an entire midventricular heart slice were stained for p62 (sequestosome-1, marker for aggregated proteins destined for autophagy). The percentage of cardiomyocytes with p62 accumulation was higher in cardiomyopathy hearts (median 3.3%) than in healthy controls (0.3%; P < .0001). p62 accumulation was highest in the desmin (15.6%) and phospholamban (7.2%) groups. P62 accumulation was homogeneously distributed in the myocardium. Fibrosis was not associated with p62 accumulation in subgroup analysis of phospholamban hearts. In conclusion, accumulation of p62-positive protein aggregates is homogeneously distributed in the myocardium independently of fibrosis distribution and associated with desmin and phospholamban cardiomyopathy. Proteotoxic protein accumulation is a diffuse process in the myocardium while a more localized second hit, such as local strain during exercise, might determine whether this leads to regional myocyte decay.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jcmm.16388; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.16388; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957157; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957157?pdf=render +30554166,https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043019,"Work absence due to compensable RTCs in Victoria, Australia.","Gray SE, Gabbe BJ, Collie A.",,Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention,2020,2018-12-15,N,Functional Outcome; Burden Of Disease; Descriptive Epidemiology; Occupational Injury; Motor Vehicle Occupant,,,"

Introduction

RTC burden is commonly measured using fatality or hospitalisation statistics. However, non-fatal and less severe injuries contribute substantial economic and human costs, including work absence. In Victoria, Australia, two major compensation systems provide income support to employed people injured in RTCs; workers' compensation (if RTC occurred during work) and an RTC-specific compensation system. This study aimed to describe the number and rate of episodes of work absence due to compensable RTC and determine factors associated with work-related RTC resulting in work absence.

Methods

Administrative data for working-age people (15-65 years) with accepted compensation claims between 1 July 2003 and 30 June 2013 were extracted from Victoria's Compensation Research Database and analysed. Injured people receiving at least one day of income support were retained. Rate calculations used Victoria's labour force as the denominator and negative binomial regression determined any time-based trend changes. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine odds of the RTC being work-related.

Results

There were 40 677 claims made by workers with an RTC injury that consequently missed work, averaging 4068 claims per year at a rate of 12.9 per 100 000 working population. Work-related cases contributed 17.4% (N=7061). Males, older adults and RTCs involving heavy vehicles, buses, trains and trams had higher odds of a work-related RTC resulting in work absence. More severe injuries tended not to be work-related.

Conclusions

Work absence due to RTC injury constitutes a substantial burden, and this measure could provide a valuable addition to conventional RTC statistics.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043019 35681241,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-022-01525-5,Elevated plasma triglyceride concentration and risk of adverse clinical outcomes in 1.5 million people: a CALIBER linked electronic health record study.,"Patel RS, Pasea L, Soran H, Downie P, Jones R, Hingorani AD, Neely D, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,Cardiovascular diabetology,2022,2022-06-09,Y,Lipids; Triglycerides; Myocardial infarction; Diabetes; Pancreatitis,,,"

Background

Assessing the spectrum of disease risk associated with hypertriglyceridemia is needed to inform potential benefits from emerging triglyceride lowering treatments. We sought to examine the associations between a full range of plasma triglyceride concentration with five clinical outcomes.

Methods

We used linked data from primary and secondary care for 15 M people, to explore the association between triglyceride concentration and risk of acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis, new onset diabetes, myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality, over a median of 6-7 years follow up.

Results

Triglyceride concentration was available for 1,530,411 individuals (mean age 56·6 ± 15·6 years, 51·4% female), with a median of 1·3 mmol/L (IQR: 0.9.to 1.9). Severe hypertriglyceridemia, defined as > 10 mmol/L, was identified in 3289 (0·21%) individuals including 620 with > 20 mmol/L. In multivariable analyses, a triglyceride concentration > 20 mmol/L was associated with very high risk for acute pancreatitis (Hazard ratio (HR) 13·55 (95% CI 9·15-20·06)); chronic pancreatitis (HR 25·19 (14·91-42·55)); and high risk for diabetes (HR 5·28 (4·51-6·18)) and all-cause mortality (HR 3·62 (2·82-4·65)) when compared to the reference category of ≤ 1·7 mmol/L. An association with myocardial infarction, however, was only observed for more moderate hypertriglyceridaemia between 1.7 and 10 mmol/L. We found a risk interaction with age, with higher risks for all outcomes including mortality among those ≤ 40 years compared to > 40 years.

Conclusions

We highlight an exponential association between severe hypertriglyceridaemia and risk of incident acute and chronic pancreatitis, new diabetes, and mortality, especially at younger ages, but not for myocardial infarction for which only moderate hypertriglyceridemia conferred risk.",,pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12933-022-01525-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-022-01525-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9185961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9185961?pdf=render +34040552,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996,Optimising a Simple Fully Convolutional Network for Accurate Brain Age Prediction in the PAC 2019 Challenge.,"Gong W, Beckmann CF, Vedaldi A, Smith SM, Peng H.",,Frontiers in psychiatry,2021,2021-05-10,Y,Brain imaging; Predictive Analysis; Big Data; Deep Learning; Convolution Neural Network; Brain Age Prediction,,,"Brain age prediction from brain MRI scans not only helps improve brain ageing modelling generally, but also provides benchmarks for predictive analysis methods. Brain-age delta, which is the difference between a subject's predicted age and true age, has become a meaningful biomarker for the health of the brain. Here, we report the details of our brain age prediction models and results in the Predictive Analysis Challenge 2019. The aim of the challenge was to use T1-weighted brain MRIs to predict a subject's age in multicentre datasets. We apply a lightweight deep convolutional neural network architecture, Simple Fully Convolutional Neural Network (SFCN), and combined several techniques including data augmentation, transfer learning, model ensemble, and bias correction for brain age prediction. The model achieved first place in both of the two objectives in the PAC 2019 brain age prediction challenge: Mean absolute error (MAE) = 2.90 years without bias removal (Second Place = 3.09 yrs; Third Place = 3.33 yrs), and MAE = 2.95 years with bias removal, leading by a large margin (Second Place = 3.80 yrs; Third Place = 3.92 yrs).",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616?pdf=render 35047183,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.01011,The COVID-19 pandemic in children and young people during 2020-2021: A complex discussion on vaccination.,"Rudan I, Adeloye D, Katikireddi V, Murray J, Simpson C, Shah SA, Robertson C, Sheikh A, EAVE II collaboration.",,Journal of global health,2021,2021-12-25,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.01011; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.01011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763337; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763337?pdf=render 35047182,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.01010,"The COVID-19 pandemic in children and young people during 2020-2021: Learning about clinical presentation, patterns of spread, viral load, diagnosis and treatment.","Rudan I, Adeloye D, Katikireddi SV, Murray J, Simpson C, Shah SA, Robertson C, Sheikh A, EAVE II collaboration.",,Journal of global health,2021,2021-12-25,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.01010; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.01010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763336; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763336?pdf=render 35210596,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01736-z,Modeling comparative cost-effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine dose fractionation in India.,"Du Z, Wang L, Pandey A, Lim WW, Chinazzi M, Piontti APY, Lau EHY, Wu P, Malani A, Cobey S, Cowling BJ.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-02-24,Y,,,,"Given global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine shortages and inequity of vaccine distributions, fractionation of vaccine doses might be an effective strategy for reducing public health and economic burden, notwithstanding the emergence of new variants of concern. In this study, we developed a multi-scale model incorporating population-level transmission and individual-level vaccination to estimate the costs of hospitalization and vaccination and the economic benefits of reducing COVID-19 deaths due to dose-fractionation strategies in India. We used large-scale survey data of the willingness to pay together with data of vaccine and hospital admission costs to build the model. We found that fractional doses of vaccines could be an economically viable vaccination strategy compared to alternatives of either full-dose vaccination or no vaccination. Dose-sparing strategies could save a large number of lives, even with the emergence of new variants with higher transmissibility.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01736-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01736-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9117137; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9117137?pdf=render 36335192,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22218-9,"Genetic insights into smoking behaviours in 10,558 men of African ancestry from continental Africa and the UK.","Piga NN, Boua PR, Soremekun C, Shrine N, Coley K, Brandenburg JT, Tobin MD, Ramsay M, Fatumo S, Choudhury A, Batini C.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-11-05,Y,,,,"Smoking is a leading risk factor for many of the top ten causes of death worldwide. Of the 1.3 billion smokers globally, 80% live in low- and middle-income countries, where the number of deaths due to tobacco use is expected to double in the next decade according to the World Health Organization. Genetic studies have helped to identify biological pathways for smoking behaviours, but have mostly focussed on individuals of European ancestry or living in either North America or Europe. We performed a genome-wide association study of two smoking behaviour traits in 10,558 men of African ancestry living in five African countries and the UK. Eight independent variants were associated with either smoking initiation or cessation at P-value < 5 × 10-6, four being monomorphic or rare in European populations. Gene prioritisation strategy highlighted five genes, including SEMA6D, previously described as associated with several smoking behaviour traits. These results confirm the importance of analysing underrepresented populations in genetic epidemiology, and the urgent need for larger genomic studies to boost discovery power to better understand smoking behaviours, as well as many other traits.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22218-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22218-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9637114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9637114?pdf=render 37104291,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004221,A nutritional biomarker score of the Mediterranean diet and incident type 2 diabetes: Integrated analysis of data from the MedLey randomised controlled trial and the EPIC-InterAct case-cohort study.,"Sobiecki JG, Imamura F, Davis CR, Sharp SJ, Koulman A, Hodgson JM, Guevara M, Schulze MB, Zheng JS, Agnoli C, Bonet C, Colorado-Yohar SM, Fagherazzi G, Franks PW, Gundersen TE, Jannasch F, Kaaks R, Katzke V, Molina-Montes E, Nilsson PM, Palli D, Panico S, Papier K, Rolandsson O, Sacerdote C, Tjønneland A, Tong TYN, van der Schouw YT, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Riboli E, Murphy KJ, Wareham NJ, Forouhi NG.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-04-27,Y,,,,"

Background

Self-reported adherence to the Mediterranean diet has been modestly inversely associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in cohort studies. There is uncertainty about the validity and magnitude of this association due to subjective reporting of diet. The association has not been evaluated using an objectively measured biomarker of the Mediterranean diet.

Methods and findings

We derived a biomarker score based on 5 circulating carotenoids and 24 fatty acids that discriminated between the Mediterranean or habitual diet arms of a parallel design, 6-month partial-feeding randomised controlled trial (RCT) conducted between 2013 and 2014, the MedLey trial (128 participants out of 166 randomised). We applied this biomarker score in an observational study, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct case-cohort study, to assess the association of the score with T2D incidence over an average of 9.7 years of follow-up since the baseline (1991 to 1998). We included 22,202 participants, of whom 9,453 were T2D cases, with relevant biomarkers from an original case-cohort of 27,779 participants sampled from a cohort of 340,234 people. As a secondary measure of the Mediterranean diet, we used a score estimated from dietary-self report. Within the trial, the biomarker score discriminated well between the 2 arms; the cross-validated C-statistic was 0.88 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82 to 0.94). The score was inversely associated with incident T2D in EPIC-InterAct: the hazard ratio (HR) per standard deviation of the score was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.65 to 0.77) following adjustment for sociodemographic, lifestyle and medical factors, and adiposity. In comparison, the HR per standard deviation of the self-reported Mediterranean diet was 0.90 (95% CI: 0.86 to 0.95). Assuming the score was causally associated with T2D, higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet in Western European adults by 10 percentiles of the score was estimated to reduce the incidence of T2D by 11% (95% CI: 7% to 14%). The study limitations included potential measurement error in nutritional biomarkers, unclear specificity of the biomarker score to the Mediterranean diet, and possible residual confounding.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that objectively assessed adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with lower risk of T2D and that even modestly higher adherence may have the potential to reduce the population burden of T2D meaningfully.

Trial registration

Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12613000602729 https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=363860.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004221; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004221; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138823; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138823?pdf=render -31168069,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8,"The genomic basis of mood instability: identification of 46 loci in 363,705 UK Biobank participants, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, and association with gene expression and function.","Ward J, Tunbridge EM, Sandor C, Lyall LM, Ferguson A, Strawbridge RJ, Lyall DM, Cullen B, Graham N, Johnston KJA, Webber C, Escott-Price V, O'Donovan M, Pell JP, Bailey MES, Harrison PJ, Smith DJ.",,Molecular psychiatry,2020,2019-06-05,Y,,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of psychiatric phenotypes have tended to focus on categorical diagnoses, but to understand the biology of mental illness it may be more useful to study traits which cut across traditional boundaries. Here, we report the results of a GWAS of mood instability as a trait in a large population cohort (UK Biobank, n = 363,705). We also assess the clinical and biological relevance of the findings, including whether genetic associations show enrichment for nervous system pathways. Forty six unique loci associated with mood instability were identified with a SNP heritability estimate of 9%. Linkage Disequilibrium Score Regression (LDSR) analyses identified genetic correlations with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Bipolar Disorder (BD), Schizophrenia, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Gene-level and gene set analyses identified 244 significant genes and 6 enriched gene sets. Tissue expression analysis of the SNP-level data found enrichment in multiple brain regions, and eQTL analyses highlighted an inversion on chromosome 17 plus two brain-specific eQTLs. In addition, we used a Phenotype Linkage Network (PLN) analysis and community analysis to assess for enrichment of nervous system gene sets using mouse orthologue databases. The PLN analysis found enrichment in nervous system PLNs for a community containing serotonin and melatonin receptors. In summary, this work has identified novel loci, tissues and gene sets contributing to mood instability. These findings may be relevant for the identification of novel trans-diagnostic drug targets and could help to inform future stratified medicine innovations in mental health.",,pdf:https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/185493/1/185493.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257?pdf=render 36580301,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.121.003542,Sex-Specific Survival Bias and Interaction Modeling in Coronary Artery Disease Risk Prediction.,"Surakka I, Wolford BN, Ritchie SC, Hornsby WE, Sutton NR, Elvenstad Gabrielsen M, Skogholt AH, Thomas L, Inouye M, Hveem K, Willer CJ.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2023,2022-12-29,N,Atherosclerosis; Sex; Cardiovascular disease; coronary artery disease; risk,,,"

Background

The 10-year Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease risk score is the standard approach to predict risk of incident cardiovascular events, and recently, addition of coronary artery disease (CAD) polygenic scores has been evaluated. Although age and sex strongly predict the risk of CAD, their interaction with genetic risk prediction has not been systematically examined. This study performed an extensive evaluation of age and sex effects in genetic CAD risk prediction.

Methods

The population-based Norwegian HUNT2 (Trøndelag Health Study 2) cohort of 51 036 individuals was used as the primary dataset. Findings were replicated in the UK Biobank (372 410 individuals). Models for 10-year CAD risk were fitted using Cox proportional hazards, and Harrell concordance index, sensitivity, and specificity were compared.

Results

Inclusion of age and sex interactions of CAD polygenic score to the prediction models increased the C-index and sensitivity by accounting for nonadditive effects of CAD polygenic score and likely countering the observed survival bias in the baseline. The sensitivity for females was lower than males in all models including genetic information. We identified a total of 82.6% of incident CAD cases by using a 2-step approach: (1) Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease risk score (74.1%) and (2) the CAD polygenic score interaction model for those in low clinical risk (additional 8.5%).

Conclusions

These findings highlight the importance and complexity of genetic risk in predicting CAD. There is a need for modeling age- and sex-interaction terms with polygenic scores to optimize detection of individuals at high risk, those who warrant preventive interventions. Sex-specific studies are needed to understand and estimate CAD risk with genetic information.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003542; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003542 33036417,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197320,"Prognostic Role of Demographic, Injury and Claim Factors in Disabling Pain and Mental Health Conditions 12 Months after Compensable Injury. ","Nguyen TL, Baker KS, Ioannou L, Hassani-Mahmooei B, Gibson SJ, Collie A, Ponsford J, Cameron PA, Gabbe BJ, Giummarra MJ.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2020,2020-10-07,Y,,,,"Identifying who might develop disabling pain or poor mental health after injury is a high priority so that healthcare providers can provide targeted preventive interventions. This retrospective cohort study aimed to identify predictors of disabling pain or probable mental health conditions at 12 months post-injury. Participants were recruited 12-months after admission to a major trauma service for a compensable transport or workplace injury (n = 157). Injury, compensation claim, health services and medication information were obtained from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcome Registry, Victorian State Trauma Registry and Compensation Research Database. Participants completed questionnaires about pain, and mental health (anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder) at 12 months post-injury. One third had disabling pain, one third had at least one probable mental health condition and more than one in five had both disabling pain and a mental health condition at 12 months post-injury. Multivariable logistic regression found mental health treatment 3-6 months post-injury, persistent work disability and opioid use at 6-12 months predicted disabling pain at 12 months post-injury. The presence of opioid use at 3-6 months, work disability and psychotropic medications at 6-12 months predicted a mental health condition at 12 months post-injury. These factors could be used to identify at risk of developing disabling pain who could benefit from timely interventions to better manage both pain and mental health post-injury. Implications for healthcare and compensation system are discussed.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7320/pdf?version=1602228180; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197320; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7579145; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7579145?pdf=render +31168069,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8,"The genomic basis of mood instability: identification of 46 loci in 363,705 UK Biobank participants, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, and association with gene expression and function.","Ward J, Tunbridge EM, Sandor C, Lyall LM, Ferguson A, Strawbridge RJ, Lyall DM, Cullen B, Graham N, Johnston KJA, Webber C, Escott-Price V, O'Donovan M, Pell JP, Bailey MES, Harrison PJ, Smith DJ.",,Molecular psychiatry,2020,2019-06-05,Y,,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of psychiatric phenotypes have tended to focus on categorical diagnoses, but to understand the biology of mental illness it may be more useful to study traits which cut across traditional boundaries. Here, we report the results of a GWAS of mood instability as a trait in a large population cohort (UK Biobank, n = 363,705). We also assess the clinical and biological relevance of the findings, including whether genetic associations show enrichment for nervous system pathways. Forty six unique loci associated with mood instability were identified with a SNP heritability estimate of 9%. Linkage Disequilibrium Score Regression (LDSR) analyses identified genetic correlations with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Bipolar Disorder (BD), Schizophrenia, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Gene-level and gene set analyses identified 244 significant genes and 6 enriched gene sets. Tissue expression analysis of the SNP-level data found enrichment in multiple brain regions, and eQTL analyses highlighted an inversion on chromosome 17 plus two brain-specific eQTLs. In addition, we used a Phenotype Linkage Network (PLN) analysis and community analysis to assess for enrichment of nervous system gene sets using mouse orthologue databases. The PLN analysis found enrichment in nervous system PLNs for a community containing serotonin and melatonin receptors. In summary, this work has identified novel loci, tissues and gene sets contributing to mood instability. These findings may be relevant for the identification of novel trans-diagnostic drug targets and could help to inform future stratified medicine innovations in mental health.",,pdf:https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/185493/1/185493.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257?pdf=render 32735547,https://doi.org/10.2196/20169,Can Robots Improve Testing Capacity for SARS-CoV-2?,"Cresswell K, Ramalingam S, Sheikh A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-08-12,Y,Virus; Infectious disease; Testing; Robotics; Pandemic; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"There is currently increasing interest internationally in deploying robotic applications for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing, as these can help to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to health care staff and patients. We provide an overview of key recent developments in this area. We argue that, although there is some potential for deploying robots to help with SARS-CoV-2 testing, the potential of patient-facing applications is likely to be limited. This is due to the high costs associated with patient-facing functionality, and risks of potentially adverse impacts on health care staff work practices and patient interactions. In contrast, back-end laboratory-based robots dealing with sample extraction and amplification, that effectively integrate with established processes, software, and interfaces to process samples, are much more likely to result in safety and efficiency gains. Consideration should therefore be given to deploying these at scale.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/8/e20169/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/20169; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7450371 -36058413,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030,A prospective study of risk factors associated with seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare workers at a large UK teaching hospital.,"Cooper DJ, Lear S, Watson L, Shaw A, Ferris M, Doffinger R, Bousfield R, Sharrocks K, Weekes MP, Warne B, Sparkes D, Jones NK, Rivett L, Routledge M, Chaudhry A, Dempsey K, Matson M, Lakha A, Gathercole G, O'Connor O, Wilson E, Shahzad O, Toms K, Thompson R, Halsall I, Halsall D, Houghton S, Papadia S, Kingston N, Stirrups KE, Graves B, Townsend P, Walker N, Stark H, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, De Angelis D, Seaman S, Dougan G, Bradley JR, Török ME, Goodfellow I, Baker S.",,The Journal of infection,2022,2022-09-02,Y,Healthcare Workers; Sero-epidemiology; Risk Factor Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objectives

To describe the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods

We conducted a prospective sero-epidemiological study of HCWs at a major UK teaching hospital using a SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay. Risk factors for seropositivity were analysed using multivariate logistic regression.

Results

410/5,698 (7·2%) staff tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence was higher in those working in designated COVID-19 areas compared with other areas (9·47% versus 6·16%) Healthcare assistants (aOR 2·06 [95%CI 1·14-3·71]; p=0·016) and domestic and portering staff (aOR 3·45 [95% CI 1·07-11·42]; p=0·039) had significantly higher seroprevalence than other staff groups after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and COVID-19 working location. Staff working in acute medicine and medical sub-specialities were also at higher risk (aOR 2·07 [95% CI 1·31-3·25]; p<0·002). Staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds had an aOR of 1·65 (95% CI 1·32 - 2·07; p<0·001) compared to white staff; this increased risk was independent of COVID-19 area working. The only symptoms significantly associated with seropositivity in a multivariable model were loss of sense of taste or smell, fever, and myalgia; 31% of staff testing positive reported no prior symptoms.

Conclusions

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs is highly heterogeneous and influenced by COVID-19 working location, role, age and ethnicity. Increased risk amongst BAME staff cannot be accounted for solely by occupational factors.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/341240/2/1-s2.0-S016344532200514X-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870?pdf=render 32079223,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9020545,Quantitative Approach to Fragmented QRS in Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy: From Disease towards Asymptomatic Carriers of Pathogenic Variants. ,"Roudijk RW, Bosman LP, van der Heijden JF, de Bakker JMT, Hauer RNW, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Te Riele ASJM, Loh P.",,Journal of clinical medicine,2020,2020-02-17,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,cardiovascular,"Fragmented QRS complexes (fQRS) are common in patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM). A new method of fQRS quantification may aid early disease detection in pathogenic variant carriers and assessment of prognosis in patients with early stage ACM. Patients with definite ACM (n = 221, 66%), carriers of a pathogenic ACM-associated variant without a definite ACM diagnosis (n = 57, 17%) and control subjects (n = 58, 17%) were included. Quantitative fQRS (Q-fQRS) was defined as the total amount of deflections in the QRS complex in all 12 electrocardiography (ECG) leads. Q-fQRS was scored by a single observer and reproducibility was determined by three independent observers. Q-fQRS count was feasible with acceptable intra- and inter-observer agreement. Q-fQRS count is significantly higher in patients with definite ACM (54 ± 15) and pathogenic variant carriers (55 ± 10) compared to controls (35 ± 5) (p < 0.001). In patients with ACM, Q-fQRS was not associated with sustained ventricular arrhythmia (p = 0.701) at baseline or during follow-up (p = 0.335). Both definite ACM patients and pathogenic variant carriers not fulfilling ACM diagnosis have a higher Q-fQRS than controls. This may indicate that increased Q-fQRS is an early sign of disease penetrance. In concealed and early stages of ACM the role of Q-fQRS for risk stratification is limited.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/2/545/pdf?version=1581938622; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9020545; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7073517; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7073517?pdf=render 35165324,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06315-3,Improving robustness of automatic cardiac function quantification from cine magnetic resonance imaging using synthetic image data.,"Gheorghiță BA, Itu LM, Sharma P, Suciu C, Wetzl J, Geppert C, Ali MAA, Lee AM, Piechnik SK, Neubauer S, Petersen SE, Schulz-Menger J, Chițiboi T.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-02-14,Y,,,,"Although having been the subject of intense research over the years, cardiac function quantification from MRI is still not a fully automatic process in the clinical practice. This is partly due to the shortage of training data covering all relevant cardiovascular disease phenotypes. We propose to synthetically generate short axis CINE MRI using a generative adversarial model to expand the available data sets that consist of predominantly healthy subjects to include more cases with reduced ejection fraction. We introduce a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict the end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, and implicitly the ejection fraction from cardiac MRI without explicit segmentation. The left ventricle volume predictions were compared to the ground truth values, showing superior accuracy compared to state-of-the-art segmentation methods. We show that using synthetic data generated for pre-training a CNN significantly improves the prediction compared to only using the limited amount of available data, when the training set is imbalanced.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06315-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06315-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8844403; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8844403?pdf=render +36058413,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030,A prospective study of risk factors associated with seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare workers at a large UK teaching hospital.,"Cooper DJ, Lear S, Watson L, Shaw A, Ferris M, Doffinger R, Bousfield R, Sharrocks K, Weekes MP, Warne B, Sparkes D, Jones NK, Rivett L, Routledge M, Chaudhry A, Dempsey K, Matson M, Lakha A, Gathercole G, O'Connor O, Wilson E, Shahzad O, Toms K, Thompson R, Halsall I, Halsall D, Houghton S, Papadia S, Kingston N, Stirrups KE, Graves B, Townsend P, Walker N, Stark H, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, De Angelis D, Seaman S, Dougan G, Bradley JR, Török ME, Goodfellow I, Baker S.",,The Journal of infection,2022,2022-09-02,Y,Healthcare Workers; Sero-epidemiology; Risk Factor Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objectives

To describe the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods

We conducted a prospective sero-epidemiological study of HCWs at a major UK teaching hospital using a SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay. Risk factors for seropositivity were analysed using multivariate logistic regression.

Results

410/5,698 (7·2%) staff tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence was higher in those working in designated COVID-19 areas compared with other areas (9·47% versus 6·16%) Healthcare assistants (aOR 2·06 [95%CI 1·14-3·71]; p=0·016) and domestic and portering staff (aOR 3·45 [95% CI 1·07-11·42]; p=0·039) had significantly higher seroprevalence than other staff groups after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and COVID-19 working location. Staff working in acute medicine and medical sub-specialities were also at higher risk (aOR 2·07 [95% CI 1·31-3·25]; p<0·002). Staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds had an aOR of 1·65 (95% CI 1·32 - 2·07; p<0·001) compared to white staff; this increased risk was independent of COVID-19 area working. The only symptoms significantly associated with seropositivity in a multivariable model were loss of sense of taste or smell, fever, and myalgia; 31% of staff testing positive reported no prior symptoms.

Conclusions

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs is highly heterogeneous and influenced by COVID-19 working location, role, age and ethnicity. Increased risk amongst BAME staff cannot be accounted for solely by occupational factors.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/341240/2/1-s2.0-S016344532200514X-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870?pdf=render 31089183,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43861-9,Genetic variation in CADM2 as a link between psychological traits and obesity.,"Morris J, Bailey MES, Baldassarre D, Cullen B, de Faire U, Ferguson A, Gigante B, Giral P, Goel A, Graham N, Hamsten A, Humphries SE, Johnston KJA, Lyall DM, Lyall LM, Sennblad B, Silveira A, Smit AJ, Tremoli E, Veglia F, Ward J, Watkins H, Smith DJ, Strawbridge RJ.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-05-14,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"CADM2 has been associated with a range of behavioural and metabolic traits, including physical activity, risk-taking, educational attainment, alcohol and cannabis use and obesity. Here, we set out to determine whether CADM2 contributes to mechanisms shared between mental and physical health disorders. We assessed genetic variants in the CADM2 locus for association with phenotypes in the UK Biobank, IMPROVE, PROCARDIS and SCARFSHEEP studies, before performing meta-analyses. A wide range of metabolic phenotypes were meta-analysed. Psychological phenotypes analysed in UK Biobank only were major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, neuroticism, mood instability and risk-taking behaviour. In UK Biobank, four, 88 and 172 genetic variants were significantly (p < 1 × 10-5) associated with neuroticism, mood instability and risk-taking respectively. In meta-analyses of 4 cohorts, we identified 362, 63 and 11 genetic variants significantly (p < 1 × 10-5) associated with BMI, SBP and CRP respectively. Genetic effects on BMI, CRP and risk-taking were all positively correlated, and were consistently inversely correlated with genetic effects on SBP, mood instability and neuroticism. Conditional analyses suggested an overlap in the signals for physical and psychological traits. Many significant variants had genotype-specific effects on CADM2 expression levels in adult brain and adipose tissues. CADM2 variants influence a wide range of both psychological and metabolic traits, suggesting common biological mechanisms across phenotypes via regulation of CADM2 expression levels in adipose tissue. Functional studies of CADM2 are required to fully understand mechanisms connecting mental and physical health conditions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43861-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43861-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517397; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517397?pdf=render -34611362,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6,Polygenic basis and biomedical consequences of telomere length variation.,"Codd V, Wang Q, Allara E, Musicha C, Kaptoge S, Stoma S, Jiang T, Hamby SE, Braund PS, Bountziouka V, Budgeon CA, Denniff M, Swinfield C, Papakonstantinou M, Sheth S, Nanus DE, Warner SC, Wang M, Khera AV, Eales J, Ouwehand WH, Thompson JR, Di Angelantonio E, Wood AM, Butterworth AS, Danesh JN, Nelson CP, Samani NJ.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-10-05,Y,,,,"Telomeres, the end fragments of chromosomes, play key roles in cellular proliferation and senescence. Here we characterize the genetic architecture of naturally occurring variation in leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and identify causal links between LTL and biomedical phenotypes in 472,174 well-characterized UK Biobank participants. We identified 197 independent sentinel variants associated with LTL at 138 genomic loci (108 new). Genetically determined differences in LTL were associated with multiple biological traits, ranging from height to bone marrow function, as well as several diseases spanning neoplastic, vascular and inflammatory pathologies. Finally, we estimated that, at the age of 40 years, people with an LTL >1 s.d. shorter than the population mean had a 2.5-year-lower life expectancy compared with the group with ≥1 s.d. longer LDL. Overall, we furnish new insights into the genetic regulation of LTL, reveal wide-ranging influences of LTL on physiological traits, diseases and longevity, and provide a powerful resource available to the global research community.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00944-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471?pdf=render 33310109,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.006,"Response to ""Early hydroxychloroquine but not chloroquine use reduces ICU admission in COVID-19 patients"".","Linschoten M, Nab L, van der Horst ICC, Tieleman R, Asselbergs FW.",,International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases,2021,2020-12-09,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.006; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725132; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725132?pdf=render -30848519,https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945,Impact of glycaemic control on fracture risk in 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes: a time-dependent analysis.,"Thayakaran R, Perrins M, Gokhale KM, Kumaran S, Narendran P, Price MJ, Nirantharakumar K, Toulis KA.",,Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association,2019,2019-04-05,N,,,,"

Aims

To assess whether glycaemic control is associated with a lifelong increased risk of fracture in people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes.

Methods

People with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes between 1 January 1995 and 10 May 2016 were identified in The Health Improvement Network database. Longitudinal HbA1c measurements from diagnosis to fracture or study end or loss to follow-up were collected. A Cox proportional hazards model with HbA1c included as a time-dependent variable was fitted to these data.

Results

Some 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes were included. The estimated adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for HbA1c was statistically significant [aHR 1.007; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.002-1.011 (mmol/mol) and aHR 1.07; 95% CI 1.03-1.12 (%)]. An incremental higher risk of fracture was observed with increasing levels of HbA1c .

Conclusions

In people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, higher HbA1c is associated with an increased risk for fractures.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945 +34611362,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6,Polygenic basis and biomedical consequences of telomere length variation.,"Codd V, Wang Q, Allara E, Musicha C, Kaptoge S, Stoma S, Jiang T, Hamby SE, Braund PS, Bountziouka V, Budgeon CA, Denniff M, Swinfield C, Papakonstantinou M, Sheth S, Nanus DE, Warner SC, Wang M, Khera AV, Eales J, Ouwehand WH, Thompson JR, Di Angelantonio E, Wood AM, Butterworth AS, Danesh JN, Nelson CP, Samani NJ.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-10-05,Y,,,,"Telomeres, the end fragments of chromosomes, play key roles in cellular proliferation and senescence. Here we characterize the genetic architecture of naturally occurring variation in leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and identify causal links between LTL and biomedical phenotypes in 472,174 well-characterized UK Biobank participants. We identified 197 independent sentinel variants associated with LTL at 138 genomic loci (108 new). Genetically determined differences in LTL were associated with multiple biological traits, ranging from height to bone marrow function, as well as several diseases spanning neoplastic, vascular and inflammatory pathologies. Finally, we estimated that, at the age of 40 years, people with an LTL >1 s.d. shorter than the population mean had a 2.5-year-lower life expectancy compared with the group with ≥1 s.d. longer LDL. Overall, we furnish new insights into the genetic regulation of LTL, reveal wide-ranging influences of LTL on physiological traits, diseases and longevity, and provide a powerful resource available to the global research community.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00944-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471?pdf=render 34112101,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-021-02020-7,Routine clinical care data from thirteen cardiac outpatient clinics: design of the Cardiology Centers of the Netherlands (CCN) database.,"Bots SH, Siegersma KR, Onland-Moret NC, Asselbergs FW, Somsen GA, Tulevski II, den Ruijter HM, Hofstra L.",,BMC cardiovascular disorders,2021,2021-06-10,Y,Prevention; Big Data; Cardiovascular Care; Clinical Care Data,,,"

Background

Despite the increasing availability of clinical data due to the digitalisation of healthcare systems, data often remain inaccessible due to the diversity of data collection systems. In the Netherlands, Cardiology Centers of the Netherlands (CCN) introduced ""one-stop shop"" diagnostic clinics for patients suspected of cardiac disease by their general practitioner. All CCN clinics use the same data collection system and standardised protocol, creating a large regular care database. This database can be used to describe referral practices, evaluate risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in important patient subgroups, and develop prediction models for use in daily care.

Construction and content

The current database contains data on all patients who underwent a cardiac workup in one of the 13 CCN clinics between 2007 and February 2018 (n = 109,151, 51.9% women). Data were pseudonymised and contain information on anthropometrics, cardiac symptoms, risk factors, comorbidities, cardiovascular and family history, standard blood laboratory measurements, transthoracic echocardiography, electrocardiography in rest and during exercise, and medication use. Clinical follow-up is based on medical need and consisted of either a repeat visit at CCN (43.8%) or referral for an external procedure in a hospital (16.5%). Passive follow-up via linkage to national mortality registers is available for 95% of the database.

Utility and discussion

The CCN database provides a strong base for research into historically underrepresented patient groups due to the large number of patients and the lack of in- and exclusion criteria. It also enables the development of artificial intelligence-based decision support tools. Its contemporary nature allows for comparison of daily care with the current guidelines and protocols. Missing data is an inherent limitation, as the cardiologist could deviate from standardised protocols when clinically indicated.

Conclusion

The CCN database offers the opportunity to conduct research in a unique population referred from the general practitioner to the cardiologist for diagnostic workup. This, in combination with its large size, the representation of historically underrepresented patient groups and contemporary nature makes it a valuable tool for expanding our knowledge of cardiovascular diseases.

Trial registration

Not applicable.",,pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12872-021-02020-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-021-02020-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8191101; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8191101?pdf=render -36357634,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7,Shared genetic risk across different presentations of gene test-negative idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.,"Downie ML, Gupta S, Chan MMY, Sadeghi-Alavijeh O, Cao J, Parekh RS, Diz CB, Bierzynska A, Levine AP, Pepper RJ, Stanescu H, Saleem MA, Kleta R, Bockenhauer D, Koziell AB, Gale DP.",,"Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany)",2023,2022-11-10,Y,Paediatrics; Minimal Change Disease; Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis; Monogenic; Genetic Risk Score; Steroid-resistant Nephrotic Syndrome; Steroid-sensitive Nephrotic Syndrome,,,"

Background

Idiop athic nephrotic syndrome (INS) is classified in children according to response to initial corticosteroid therapy into steroid-sensitive (SSNS) and steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS), and in adults according to histology into minimal change disease (MCD) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). However, there is well-recognised phenotypic overlap between these entities. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown a strong association between SSNS and variation at HLA, suggesting an underlying immunological basis. We sought to determine whether a risk score generated from genetic variants associated with SSNS could be used to gain insight into the pathophysiology of INS presenting in other ways.

Methods

We developed an SSNS genetic risk score (SSNS-GRS) from the five variants independently associated with childhood SSNS in a previous European GWAS. We quantified SSNS-GRS in independent cohorts of European individuals with childhood SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS, and contrasted them with SSNS-GRS quantified in individuals with monogenic SRNS, membranous nephropathy (a different immune-mediated disease-causing nephrotic syndrome), and healthy controls.

Results

The SSNS-GRS was significantly elevated in cohorts with SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS compared to healthy participants and those with membranous nephropathy. The SSNS-GRS in all cohorts with non-monogenic INS were also significantly elevated compared to those with monogenic SRNS.

Conclusions

The shared genetic risk factors among patients with different presentations of INS strongly suggests a shared autoimmune pathogenesis when monogenic causes are excluded. Use of the SSNS-GRS, in addition to testing for monogenic causes, may help to classify patients presenting with INS. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254?pdf=render -34173614,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x,Evolution and effects of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: a population analysis in 189 care homes in one geographical region of the UK.,"Burton JK, Bayne G, Evans C, Garbe F, Gorman D, Honhold N, McCormick D, Othieno R, Stevenson JE, Swietlik S, Templeton KE, Tranter M, Willocks L, Guthrie B.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2020,2020-10-20,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has affected care home residents internationally, but detailed information on outbreaks is scarce. We aimed to describe the evolution of outbreaks of COVID-19 in all care homes in one large health region in Scotland.

Methods

We did a population analysis of testing, cases, and deaths in care homes in the National Health Service (NHS) Lothian health region of the UK. We obtained data for COVID-19 testing (PCR testing of nasopharyngeal swabs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) and deaths (COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), and we analysed data by several variables including type of care home, number of beds, and locality. Outcome measures were timing of outbreaks, number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in care home residents, care home characteristics associated with the presence of an outbreak, and deaths of residents in both care homes and hospitals. We calculated excess deaths (both COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), which we defined as the sum of deaths over and above the historical average in the same period over the past 5 years.

Findings

Between March 10 and Aug 2, 2020, residents at 189 care homes (5843 beds) were tested for COVID-19 when symptomatic. A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed at 69 (37%) care homes, of which 66 (96%) were care homes for older people. The size of care homes for older people was strongly associated with a COVID-19 outbreak (odds ratio per 20-bed increase 3·35, 95% CI 1·99-5·63). 907 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recorded during the study period, and 432 COVID-19-related deaths. 229 (25%) COVID-19-related cases and 99 (24%) COVID-related deaths occurred in five (3%) of 189 care homes, and 441 (49%) cases and 207 (50%) deaths were in 13 (7%) care homes. 411 (95%) COVID-19-related deaths occurred in the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 19 (4%) deaths were in hospital, and two (<1%) were in one of the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. At the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 74 excess non-COVID-19-related deaths were reported, whereas ten non-COVID-19-related excess deaths were observed in the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. 32 fewer non-COVID-19-related deaths than expected were reported among care home residents in hospital.

Interpretation

The effect of COVID-19 on care homes has been substantial but concentrated in care homes with known outbreaks. A key implication from our findings is that, if community incidence of COVID-19 increases again, many care home residents will be susceptible. Shielding care home residents from potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and ensuring rapid action to minimise outbreak size if infection is introduced, will be important for any second wave.

Funding

None.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30012-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931?pdf=render +30848519,https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945,Impact of glycaemic control on fracture risk in 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes: a time-dependent analysis.,"Thayakaran R, Perrins M, Gokhale KM, Kumaran S, Narendran P, Price MJ, Nirantharakumar K, Toulis KA.",,Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association,2019,2019-04-05,N,,,,"

Aims

To assess whether glycaemic control is associated with a lifelong increased risk of fracture in people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes.

Methods

People with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes between 1 January 1995 and 10 May 2016 were identified in The Health Improvement Network database. Longitudinal HbA1c measurements from diagnosis to fracture or study end or loss to follow-up were collected. A Cox proportional hazards model with HbA1c included as a time-dependent variable was fitted to these data.

Results

Some 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes were included. The estimated adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for HbA1c was statistically significant [aHR 1.007; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.002-1.011 (mmol/mol) and aHR 1.07; 95% CI 1.03-1.12 (%)]. An incremental higher risk of fracture was observed with increasing levels of HbA1c .

Conclusions

In people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, higher HbA1c is associated with an increased risk for fractures.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945 37178708,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(23)00156-0,Utility of polygenic risk scores in UK cancer screening: a modelling analysis.,"Huntley C, Torr B, Sud A, Rowlands CF, Way R, Snape K, Hanson H, Swanton C, Broggio J, Lucassen A, McCartney M, Houlston RS, Hingorani AD, Jones ME, Turnbull C.",,The Lancet. Oncology,2023,2023-05-10,N,,,,"

Background

It is proposed that, through restriction to individuals delineated as high risk, polygenic risk scores (PRSs) might enable more efficient targeting of existing cancer screening programmes and enable extension into new age ranges and disease types. To address this proposition, we present an overview of the performance of PRS tools (ie, models and sets of single nucleotide polymorphisms) alongside harms and benefits of PRS-stratified cancer screening for eight example cancers (breast, prostate, colorectal, pancreas, ovary, kidney, lung, and testicular cancer).

Methods

For this modelling analysis, we used age-stratified cancer incidences for the UK population from the National Cancer Registration Dataset (2016-18) and published estimates of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for current, future, and optimised PRS for each of the eight cancer types. For each of five PRS-defined high-risk quantiles (ie, the top 50%, 20%, 10%, 5%, and 1%) and according to each of the three PRS tools (ie, current, future, and optimised) for the eight cancers, we calculated the relative proportion of cancers arising, the odds ratios of a cancer arising compared with the UK population average, and the lifetime cancer risk. We examined maximal attainable rates of cancer detection by age stratum from combining PRS-based stratification with cancer screening tools and modelled the maximal impact on cancer-specific survival of hypothetical new UK programmes of PRS-stratified screening.

Findings

The PRS-defined high-risk quintile (20%) of the population was estimated to capture 37% of breast cancer cases, 46% of prostate cancer cases, 34% of colorectal cancer cases, 29% of pancreatic cancer cases, 26% of ovarian cancer cases, 22% of renal cancer cases, 26% of lung cancer cases, and 47% of testicular cancer cases. Extending UK screening programmes to a PRS-defined high-risk quintile including people aged 40-49 years for breast cancer, 50-59 years for colorectal cancer, and 60-69 years for prostate cancer has the potential to avert, respectively, a maximum of 102, 188, and 158 deaths annually. Unstratified screening of the full population aged 48-49 years for breast cancer, 58-59 years for colorectal cancer, and 68-69 years for prostate cancer would use equivalent resources and avert, respectively, an estimated maximum of 80, 155, and 95 deaths annually. These maximal modelled numbers will be substantially attenuated by incomplete population uptake of PRS profiling and cancer screening, interval cancers, non-European ancestry, and other factors.

Interpretation

Under favourable assumptions, our modelling suggests modest potential efficiency gain in cancer case detection and deaths averted for hypothetical new PRS-stratified screening programmes for breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. Restriction of screening to high-risk quantiles means many or most incident cancers will arise in those assigned as being low-risk. To quantify real-world clinical impact, costs, and harms, UK-specific cluster-randomised trials are required.

Funding

The Wellcome Trust.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470204523001560/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(23)00156-0 +36357634,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7,Shared genetic risk across different presentations of gene test-negative idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.,"Downie ML, Gupta S, Chan MMY, Sadeghi-Alavijeh O, Cao J, Parekh RS, Diz CB, Bierzynska A, Levine AP, Pepper RJ, Stanescu H, Saleem MA, Kleta R, Bockenhauer D, Koziell AB, Gale DP.",,"Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany)",2023,2022-11-10,Y,Paediatrics; Minimal Change Disease; Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis; Monogenic; Genetic Risk Score; Steroid-resistant Nephrotic Syndrome; Steroid-sensitive Nephrotic Syndrome,,,"

Background

Idiop athic nephrotic syndrome (INS) is classified in children according to response to initial corticosteroid therapy into steroid-sensitive (SSNS) and steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS), and in adults according to histology into minimal change disease (MCD) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). However, there is well-recognised phenotypic overlap between these entities. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown a strong association between SSNS and variation at HLA, suggesting an underlying immunological basis. We sought to determine whether a risk score generated from genetic variants associated with SSNS could be used to gain insight into the pathophysiology of INS presenting in other ways.

Methods

We developed an SSNS genetic risk score (SSNS-GRS) from the five variants independently associated with childhood SSNS in a previous European GWAS. We quantified SSNS-GRS in independent cohorts of European individuals with childhood SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS, and contrasted them with SSNS-GRS quantified in individuals with monogenic SRNS, membranous nephropathy (a different immune-mediated disease-causing nephrotic syndrome), and healthy controls.

Results

The SSNS-GRS was significantly elevated in cohorts with SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS compared to healthy participants and those with membranous nephropathy. The SSNS-GRS in all cohorts with non-monogenic INS were also significantly elevated compared to those with monogenic SRNS.

Conclusions

The shared genetic risk factors among patients with different presentations of INS strongly suggests a shared autoimmune pathogenesis when monogenic causes are excluded. Use of the SSNS-GRS, in addition to testing for monogenic causes, may help to classify patients presenting with INS. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254?pdf=render 31312209,https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00567,Use of Pharmacogenetic Drugs by the Dutch Population.,"Alshabeeb MA, Deneer VHM, Khan A, Asselbergs FW.",,Frontiers in genetics,2019,2019-07-02,Y,CYP2C19; CYP2D6; Pharmacogenetics; Adrs; Slco1b1; Preemptive Genetic Testing,Better Care,,"

Introduction

The Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group (DPWG) indicated a list of actionable genotypes that affect patients' response to more 50 drugs; these drugs which show variable effects based on patients' genetic traits were named as pharmacogenetics (PGX) drugs. Preemptive genetic testing before using these drugs may protect certain patients from serious adverse reactions and could help in avoiding treatment failures. The objectives of this study include identifying the rate of PGX drug usage among Dutch population, estimating the level of users who carry the actionable genotypes and determining the main genes involved in drug's effect variability.

Methods

Usage of PGX drugs over 2011-2017 by the insured population (an average of 11.4 million) in outpatient clinics in Netherlands was obtained from the publically available GIP databank. The data of 45 drugs were analyzed and their interactions with selected pharmacogenes were estimated. Frequency of actionable genotypes of 249 Dutch parents was obtained from the public database: Genome of Netherlands (GoNL), to identify the pattern of genetic characteristics of Dutch population.

Results

Over a 7 year period, 51.3 million exposures of patients to PGX drugs were reported with an average of 5.3 exposures per each drug user. One quarterof the exposures (12.4 million) are predicted to be experienced by individuals with actionable genotypes (risky exposures). Up to 60% of the risky exposures (around 7.5 million) were related to drugs metabolized by CYP2D6. SLCO1B1, and CYP2C19 were also identified among the top genes affecting response of drugs users (involved in about 22 and 12.4% of the risky exposures, respectively). Cardiovascular medications were the top prescribed PGX drug class (43%), followed by gastroenterology (29%) and psychiatry/neurology medications (15%). Women use more PGX drugs than men (55.8 vs. 44.2%, respectively) with the majority (84%) of users in both sexes are above 45 years.

Conclusion

PGX drugs are commonly used in Netherlands. Preemptive panel testing for CYP2D6, SLCO1B1, and CYP2C19 only could be useful to predict 95% of vulnerable patients' exposures to PGX drugs. Future studies to assess the economic impact of preemptive panel testing on patients of older age are suggested.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2019.00567/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00567; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6614185; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6614185?pdf=render 31964672,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033318,"Educational differentials in key domains of physical activity by ethnicity, age and sex: a cross-sectional study of over 40 000 participants in the UK household longitudinal study (2013-2015).","Fluharty ME, Pinto Pereira SM, Benzeval M, Hamer M, Jefferis B, Griffiths LJ, Cooper R, Bann D.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-01-20,Y,epidemiology; Physical Activity; Health Disparities,Improving Public Health,,"

Objectives

To assess whether educational differentials in three key physical activity (PA) domains vary by age, sex and ethnicity.

Design

National cross-sectional survey.

Setting

UK.

Participants

Altogether 40 270 participants, aged 20 years and over, from the UK Household Longitudinal Study with information on education, PA and demographics collected in 2013-2015.

Outcome measures

Participation in active travel (AT), occupational activity (OA) and leisure time physical activity (LTPA) at the time of assessment.

Results

Lower educational attainment was associated with higher AT and OA, but lower weekly LTPA activity; these associations were modified by sex, ethnicity and age. Education-related differences in AT were larger for women-the difference in predicted probability of activity between the highest and the lowest education groups was -10% in women (95% CI: -11.9% to 7.9%) and -3% in men (-4.8% to -0.4%). Education-related differences in OA were larger among men -35% (-36.9% to -32.4%) than women -17% (-19.4% to -15.0%). Finally, education-related differences in moderate-to-vigorous LTPA varied by ethnicity; for example, differences were 17% (16.2% to 18.7%) for white individuals compared with 6% (0.6% to 11.6%) for black individuals.

Conclusions

Educational differences in PA vary by domain and are modified by age, sex and ethnicity. A better understanding of physically inactive subgroups may aid development of interventions to both increase activity levels and reduce health inequalities.","This study which includes over 40 thousant adults in the UK, aims to assess whether there are links between different levels of physical activity and educational achievements. It found that lower educational achievement was associated with higher travel and work related physical activity, but not leisure time activity. They found this difference to be larger in men than in women, and also in white compared to black individuals.",pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/1/e033318.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033318; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7045199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7045199?pdf=render -36210800,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2,Feasibility and ethics of using data from the Scottish newborn blood spot archive for research.,"Cunningham-Burley S, McCartney DL, Campbell A, Flaig R, Orange CEL, Porteous C, Aitken M, Mulholland C, Davidson S, McCafferty SM, Murphy L, Wrobel N, McCafferty S, Wallace K, StClair D, Kerr S, Hayward C, McIntosh AM, Sudlow C, Marioni RE, Pell J, Miedzybrodzka Z, Porteous DJ.",,Communications medicine,2022,2022-10-06,Y,epigenomics; epidemiology,,,"

Background

Newborn heel prick blood spots are routinely used to screen for inborn errors of metabolism and life-limiting inherited disorders. The potential value of secondary data from newborn blood spot archives merits ethical consideration and assessment of feasibility for public benefit. Early life exposures and behaviours set health trajectories in childhood and later life. The newborn blood spot is potentially well placed to create an unbiased and cost-effective population-level retrospective birth cohort study. Scotland has retained newborn blood spots for all children born since 1965, around 3 million in total. However, a moratorium on research access is currently in place, pending public consultation.

Methods

We conducted a Citizens' Jury as a first step to explore whether research use of newborn blood spots was in the public interest. We also assessed the feasibility and value of extracting research data from dried blood spots for predictive medicine.

Results

Jurors delivered an agreed verdict that conditional research access to the newborn blood spots was in the public interest. The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland authorised restricted lifting of the current research moratorium to allow a feasibility study. Newborn blood spots from consented Generation Scotland volunteers were retrieved and their potential for both epidemiological and biological research demonstrated.

Conclusions

Through the Citizens' Jury, we have begun to identify under what conditions, if any, should researchers in Scotland be granted access to the archive. Through the feasibility study, we have demonstrated the potential value of research access for health data science and predictive medicine.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00189-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278?pdf=render +34173614,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x,Evolution and effects of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: a population analysis in 189 care homes in one geographical region of the UK.,"Burton JK, Bayne G, Evans C, Garbe F, Gorman D, Honhold N, McCormick D, Othieno R, Stevenson JE, Swietlik S, Templeton KE, Tranter M, Willocks L, Guthrie B.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2020,2020-10-20,Y,,,,"

Background

COVID-19 has affected care home residents internationally, but detailed information on outbreaks is scarce. We aimed to describe the evolution of outbreaks of COVID-19 in all care homes in one large health region in Scotland.

Methods

We did a population analysis of testing, cases, and deaths in care homes in the National Health Service (NHS) Lothian health region of the UK. We obtained data for COVID-19 testing (PCR testing of nasopharyngeal swabs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) and deaths (COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), and we analysed data by several variables including type of care home, number of beds, and locality. Outcome measures were timing of outbreaks, number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in care home residents, care home characteristics associated with the presence of an outbreak, and deaths of residents in both care homes and hospitals. We calculated excess deaths (both COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), which we defined as the sum of deaths over and above the historical average in the same period over the past 5 years.

Findings

Between March 10 and Aug 2, 2020, residents at 189 care homes (5843 beds) were tested for COVID-19 when symptomatic. A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed at 69 (37%) care homes, of which 66 (96%) were care homes for older people. The size of care homes for older people was strongly associated with a COVID-19 outbreak (odds ratio per 20-bed increase 3·35, 95% CI 1·99-5·63). 907 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recorded during the study period, and 432 COVID-19-related deaths. 229 (25%) COVID-19-related cases and 99 (24%) COVID-related deaths occurred in five (3%) of 189 care homes, and 441 (49%) cases and 207 (50%) deaths were in 13 (7%) care homes. 411 (95%) COVID-19-related deaths occurred in the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 19 (4%) deaths were in hospital, and two (<1%) were in one of the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. At the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 74 excess non-COVID-19-related deaths were reported, whereas ten non-COVID-19-related excess deaths were observed in the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. 32 fewer non-COVID-19-related deaths than expected were reported among care home residents in hospital.

Interpretation

The effect of COVID-19 on care homes has been substantial but concentrated in care homes with known outbreaks. A key implication from our findings is that, if community incidence of COVID-19 increases again, many care home residents will be susceptible. Shielding care home residents from potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and ensuring rapid action to minimise outbreak size if infection is introduced, will be important for any second wave.

Funding

None.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30012-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931?pdf=render 35434685,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100381,Dosing interval strategies for two-dose COVID-19 vaccination in 13 middle-income countries of Europe: Health impact modelling and benefit-risk analysis.,"Liu Y, Pearson CAB, Sandmann FG, Barnard RC, Kim JH, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Jit M, Abbas K.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-04-11,Y,"Quantitative Methods; Mathematical Modelling; Public Health Intervention; Vaccine Policy; Ve, Vaccine Efficacy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Voc, Variant Of Concern; Aefi, Adverse Events Following Immunisation; Mic, Middle Income Country",,,"

Background

In settings where the COVID-19 vaccine supply is constrained, extending the intervals between the first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine may allow more people receive their first doses earlier. Our aim is to estimate the health impact of COVID-19 vaccination alongside benefit-risk assessment of different dosing intervals in 13 middle-income countries (MICs) of Europe.

Methods

We fitted a dynamic transmission model to country-level daily reported COVID-19 mortality in 13 MICs in Europe (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Serbia, North Macedonia, Turkey, and Ukraine). A vaccine product with characteristics similar to those of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 (AZD1222) vaccine was used in the base case scenario and was complemented by sensitivity analyses around efficacies similar to other COVID-19 vaccines. Both fixed dosing intervals at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks and dose-specific intervals that prioritise specific doses for certain age groups were tested. Optimal intervals minimise COVID-19 mortality between March 2021 and December 2022. We incorporated the emergence of variants of concern (VOCs) into the model and conducted a benefit-risk assessment to quantify the tradeoff between health benefits versus adverse events following immunisation.

Findings

In all countries modelled, optimal strategies are those that prioritise the first doses among older adults (60+ years) or adults (20+ years), which lead to dosing intervals longer than six months. In comparison, a four-week fixed dosing interval may incur 10.1% [range: 4.3% - 19.0%; n = 13 (countries)] more deaths. The rapid waning of the immunity induced by the first dose (i.e. with means ranging 60-120 days as opposed to 360 days in the base case) resulted in shorter optimal dosing intervals of 8-20 weeks. Benefit-risk ratios were the highest for fixed dosing intervals of 8-12 weeks.

Interpretation

We infer that longer dosing intervals of over six months could reduce COVID-19 mortality in MICs of Europe. Certain parameters, such as rapid waning of first-dose induced immunity and increased immune escape through the emergence of VOCs, could significantly shorten the optimal dosing intervals.

Funding

World Health Organization.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100381; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100381; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996067; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996067?pdf=render 31481394,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4892,"Thyroid replacement therapy, thyroid stimulating hormone concentrations, and long term health outcomes in patients with hypothyroidism: longitudinal study.","Thayakaran R, Adderley NJ, Sainsbury C, Torlinska B, Boelaert K, Šumilo D, Price M, Thomas GN, Toulis KA, Nirantharakumar K.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2019,2019-09-03,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Objective

To explore whether thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) concentration in patients with a diagnosis of hypothyroidism is associated with increased all cause mortality and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and fractures.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

The Health Improvement Network (THIN), a database of electronic patient records from UK primary care.

Participants

Adult patients with incident hypothyroidism from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2017.

Exposure

TSH concentration in patients with hypothyroidism.

Main outcome measures

Ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke/transient ischaemic attack, atrial fibrillation, any fractures, fragility fractures, and mortality. Longitudinal TSH measurements from diagnosis to outcomes, study end, or loss to follow-up were collected. An extended Cox proportional hazards model with TSH considered as a time varying covariate was fitted for each outcome.

Results

162 369 patients with hypothyroidism and 863 072 TSH measurements were included in the analysis. Compared with the reference TSH category (2-2.5 mIU/L), risk of ischaemic heart disease and heart failure increased at high TSH concentrations (>10 mIU/L) (hazard ratio 1.18 (95% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.38; P=0.03) and 1.42 (1.21 to 1.67; P<0.001), respectively). A protective effect for heart failure was seen at low TSH concentrations (hazard ratio 0.79 (0.64 to 0.99; P=0.04) for TSH <0.1 mIU/L and 0.76 (0.62 to 0.92; P=0.006) for 0.1-0.4 mIU/L). Increased mortality was observed in both the lowest and highest TSH categories (hazard ratio 1.18 (1.08 to 1.28; P<0.001), 1.29 (1.22 to 1.36; P<0.001), and 2.21 (2.07 to 2.36; P<0.001) for TSH <0.1 mIU/L, 4-10 mIU/L, and >10 mIU/L. An increase in the risk of fragility fractures was observed in patients in the highest TSH category (>10 mIU/L) (hazard ratio 1.15 (1.01 to 1.31; P=0.03)).

Conclusions

In patients with a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, no evidence was found to suggest a clinically meaningful difference in the pattern of long term health outcomes (all cause mortality, atrial fibrillation, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke/transient ischaemic attack, fractures) when TSH concentrations were within recommended normal limits. Evidence was found for adverse health outcomes when TSH concentration is outside this range, particularly above the upper reference value.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/366/bmj.l4892.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4892; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6719286 +36210800,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2,Feasibility and ethics of using data from the Scottish newborn blood spot archive for research.,"Cunningham-Burley S, McCartney DL, Campbell A, Flaig R, Orange CEL, Porteous C, Aitken M, Mulholland C, Davidson S, McCafferty SM, Murphy L, Wrobel N, McCafferty S, Wallace K, StClair D, Kerr S, Hayward C, McIntosh AM, Sudlow C, Marioni RE, Pell J, Miedzybrodzka Z, Porteous DJ.",,Communications medicine,2022,2022-10-06,Y,epigenomics; epidemiology,,,"

Background

Newborn heel prick blood spots are routinely used to screen for inborn errors of metabolism and life-limiting inherited disorders. The potential value of secondary data from newborn blood spot archives merits ethical consideration and assessment of feasibility for public benefit. Early life exposures and behaviours set health trajectories in childhood and later life. The newborn blood spot is potentially well placed to create an unbiased and cost-effective population-level retrospective birth cohort study. Scotland has retained newborn blood spots for all children born since 1965, around 3 million in total. However, a moratorium on research access is currently in place, pending public consultation.

Methods

We conducted a Citizens' Jury as a first step to explore whether research use of newborn blood spots was in the public interest. We also assessed the feasibility and value of extracting research data from dried blood spots for predictive medicine.

Results

Jurors delivered an agreed verdict that conditional research access to the newborn blood spots was in the public interest. The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland authorised restricted lifting of the current research moratorium to allow a feasibility study. Newborn blood spots from consented Generation Scotland volunteers were retrieved and their potential for both epidemiological and biological research demonstrated.

Conclusions

Through the Citizens' Jury, we have begun to identify under what conditions, if any, should researchers in Scotland be granted access to the archive. Through the feasibility study, we have demonstrated the potential value of research access for health data science and predictive medicine.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00189-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278?pdf=render 36962407,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292,Health worker experiences of implementing TB infection prevention and control: A qualitative evidence synthesis to inform implementation recommendations.,"van der Westhuizen HM, Dorward J, Roberts N, Greenhalgh T, Ehrlich R, Butler CC, Tonkin-Crine S.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-07-07,Y,,,,"Implementation of TB infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in health facilities is frequently inadequate, despite nosocomial TB transmission to patients and health workers causing harm. We aimed to review qualitative evidence of the complexity associated with implementing TB IPC, to help guide the development of TB IPC implementation plans. We undertook a qualitative evidence synthesis of studies that used qualitative methods to explore the experiences of health workers implementing TB IPC in health facilities. We searched eight databases in November 2021, complemented by citation tracking. Two reviewers screened titles and abstracts and reviewed full texts of potentially eligible papers. We used the Critical Appraisals Skills Programme checklist for quality appraisal, thematic synthesis to identify key findings and the GRADE-CERQual method to appraise the certainty of review findings. The review protocol was pre-registered on PROSPERO, ID CRD42020165314. We screened 1062 titles and abstracts and reviewed 102 full texts, with 37 studies included in the synthesis. We developed 10 key findings, five of which we had high confidence in. We describe several components of TB IPC as a complex intervention. Health workers were influenced by their personal occupational TB risk perceptions when deciding whether to implement TB IPC and neglected the contribution of TB IPC to patient safety. Health workers and researchers expressed multiple uncertainties (for example the duration of infectiousness of people with TB), assumptions and misconceptions about what constitutes effective TB IPC, including focussing TB IPC on patients known with TB on treatment who pose a small risk of transmission. Instead, TB IPC resources should target high risk areas for transmission (crowded, poorly ventilated spaces). Furthermore, TB IPC implementation plans should support health workers to translate TB IPC guidelines to local contexts, including how to navigate unintended stigma caused by IPC, and using limited IPC resources effectively.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021216; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021216?pdf=render -32401709,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2,COVID-19: a public health approach to manage domestic violence is needed.,"Chandan JS, Taylor J, Bradbury-Jones C, Nirantharakumar K, Kane E, Bandyopadhyay S.",,The Lancet. Public health,2020,2020-05-10,Y,,,,,Chandan et al. comment on the effect the covid pandemic may have on domestic violence and propose surveillance for domestic violence is needed. ,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30112-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171?pdf=render -37075078,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223,The association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events by age and frailty: A cohort study.,"Sheppard JP, Koshiaris C, Stevens R, Lay-Flurrie S, Banerjee A, Bellows BK, Clegg A, Hobbs FDR, Payne RA, Swain S, Usher-Smith JA, McManus RJ.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-04-19,Y,,,,"

Background

Antihypertensives are effective at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, but limited data exist quantifying their association with serious adverse events, particularly in older people with frailty. This study aimed to examine this association using nationally representative electronic health record data.

Methods and findings

This was a retrospective cohort study utilising linked data from 1,256 general practices across England held within the Clinical Practice Research Datalink between 1998 and 2018. Included patients were aged 40+ years, with a systolic blood pressure reading between 130 and 179 mm Hg, and not previously prescribed antihypertensive treatment. The main exposure was defined as a first prescription of antihypertensive treatment. The primary outcome was hospitalisation or death within 10 years from falls. Secondary outcomes were hypotension, syncope, fractures, acute kidney injury, electrolyte abnormalities, and primary care attendance with gout. The association between treatment and these serious adverse events was examined by Cox regression adjusted for propensity score. This propensity score was generated from a multivariable logistic regression model with patient characteristics, medical history and medication prescriptions as covariates, and new antihypertensive treatment as the outcome. Subgroup analyses were undertaken by age and frailty. Of 3,834,056 patients followed for a median of 7.1 years, 484,187 (12.6%) were prescribed new antihypertensive treatment in the 12 months before the index date (baseline). Antihypertensives were associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation or death from falls (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21 to 1.26), hypotension (aHR 1.32, 95% CI 1.29 to 1.35), syncope (aHR 1.20, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.22), acute kidney injury (aHR 1.44, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.47), electrolyte abnormalities (aHR 1.45, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.48), and primary care attendance with gout (aHR 1.35, 95% CI 1.32 to 1.37). The absolute risk of serious adverse events with treatment was very low, with 6 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year. In older patients (80 to 89 years) and those with severe frailty, this absolute risk was increased, with 61 and 84 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year (respectively). Findings were consistent in sensitivity analyses using different approaches to address confounding and taking into account the competing risk of death. A strength of this analysis is that it provides evidence regarding the association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events, in a population of patients more representative than those enrolled in previous randomised controlled trials. Although treatment effect estimates fell within the 95% CIs of those from such trials, these analyses were observational in nature and so bias from unmeasured confounding cannot be ruled out.

Conclusions

Antihypertensive treatment was associated with serious adverse events. Overall, the absolute risk of this harm was low, with the exception of older patients and those with moderate to severe frailty, where the risks were similar to the likelihood of benefit from treatment. In these populations, physicians may want to consider alternative approaches to management of blood pressure and refrain from prescribing new treatment.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987?pdf=render 32909959,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3164,Reporting guidelines for clinical trial reports for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the CONSORT-AI Extension.,"Liu X, Rivera SC, Moher D, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-09-09,Y,,,,"The CONSORT 2010 (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement provides minimum guidelines for reporting randomised trials. Its widespread use has been instrumental in ensuring transparency when evaluating new interventions. More recently, there has been a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence (AI) need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate impact on health outcomes.The CONSORT-AI extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trials evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for clinical trial protocols: SPIRIT-AI. Both guidelines were developed through a staged consensus process, involving a literature review and expert consultation to generate 29 candidate items, which were assessed by an international multi-stakeholder group in a two-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed on in a two-day consensus meeting (31 stakeholders) and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants).The CONSORT-AI extension includes 14 new items, which were considered sufficiently important for AI interventions, that they should be routinely reported in addition to the core CONSORT 2010 items. CONSORT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention is integrated, the handling of inputs and outputs of the AI intervention, the human-AI interaction and providing analysis of error cases.CONSORT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness in reporting clinical trials for AI interventions. It will assist editors and peer-reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret and critically appraise the quality of clinical trial design and risk of bias in the reported outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m3164.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3164; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7490784 -32935062,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1383,Prospective data linkage to facilitate COVID-19 trials - A call to action.,"Paprica PA, Sydes MR, McGrail KM, Morris AD, Schull MJ, Walker R.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-08-11,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1383/2566; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1383; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253?pdf=render 35568032,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.04.009,Whole-exome sequencing identifies rare genetic variants associated with human plasma metabolites.,"Bomba L, Walter K, Guo Q, Surendran P, Kundu K, Nongmaithem S, Karim MA, Stewart ID, Langenberg C, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Roberts DJ, Ouwehand WH, INTERVAL study, Dunham I, Butterworth AS, Soranzo N.",,American journal of human genetics,2022,2022-05-13,Y,Sequencing; Proteomics; drug targets; Metabolomics; Endophenotypes; Loss-of-function; Metabolon; Wgs; Wes; Rare Genetic Variant,,,"Metabolite levels measured in the human population are endophenotypes for biological processes. We combined sequencing data for 3,924 (whole-exome sequencing, WES, discovery) and 2,805 (whole-genome sequencing, WGS, replication) donors from a prospective cohort of blood donors in England. We used multiple approaches to select and aggregate rare genetic variants (minor allele frequency [MAF] < 0.1%) in protein-coding regions and tested their associations with 995 metabolites measured in plasma by using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We identified 40 novel associations implicating rare coding variants (27 genes and 38 metabolites), of which 28 (15 genes and 28 metabolites) were replicated. We developed algorithms to prioritize putative driver variants at each locus and used mediation and Mendelian randomization analyses to test directionality at associations of metabolite and protein levels at the ACY1 locus. Overall, 66% of reported associations implicate gene targets of approved drugs or bioactive drug-like compounds, contributing to drug targets' validating efforts.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/337646/3/1-s2.0-S0002929722001574-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.04.009; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9247822; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9247822?pdf=render +32401709,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2,COVID-19: a public health approach to manage domestic violence is needed.,"Chandan JS, Taylor J, Bradbury-Jones C, Nirantharakumar K, Kane E, Bandyopadhyay S.",,The Lancet. Public health,2020,2020-05-10,Y,,,,,Chandan et al. comment on the effect the covid pandemic may have on domestic violence and propose surveillance for domestic violence is needed. ,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30112-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171?pdf=render +32935062,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1383,Prospective data linkage to facilitate COVID-19 trials - A call to action.,"Paprica PA, Sydes MR, McGrail KM, Morris AD, Schull MJ, Walker R.",,International journal of population data science,2020,2020-08-11,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1383/2566; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1383; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253?pdf=render 35861818,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.121.025473,Interatrial Block Predicts Life-Threatening Arrhythmias in Dilated Cardiomyopathy.,"Henkens MTHM, López Martínez H, Weerts J, Sammani A, Raafs AG, Verdonschot JAJ, van de Leur RR, Sikking MA, Stroeks S, van Empel VPM, Brunner-La Rocca HP, van Stipdonk AMW, Farmakis D, Hazebroek MR, Vernooy K, Bayés-de-Luna A, Asselbergs FW, Bayés-Genís A, Heymans SRB.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2022,2022-07-15,Y,Electrocardiography; Dilated cardiomyopathy; Sudden Cardiac Death; Interatrial Block; Non‐ischemic Cardiomyopathy; Life‐threatening Arrhythmias,,,"Background Interatrial block (IAB) has been associated with supraventricular arrhythmias and stroke, and even with sudden cardiac death in the general population. Whether IAB is associated with life-threatening arrhythmias (LTA) and sudden cardiac death in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) remains unknown. This study aimed to determine the association between IAB and LTA in ambulant patients with DCM. Methods and Results A derivation cohort (Maastricht Dilated Cardiomyopathy Registry; N=469) and an external validation cohort (Utrecht Cardiomyopathy Cohort; N=321) were used for this study. The presence of IAB (P-wave duration>120 milliseconds) or atrial fibrillation (AF) was determined using digital calipers by physicians blinded to the study data. In the derivation cohort, IAB and AF were present in 291 (62%) and 70 (15%) patients with DCM, respectively. LTA (defined as sudden cardiac death, justified shock from implantable cardioverter-defibrillator or anti-tachypacing, or hemodynamic unstable ventricular fibrillation/tachycardia) occurred in 49 patients (3 with no IAB, 35 with IAB, and 11 patients with AF, respectively; median follow-up, 4.4 years [2.1; 7.4]). The LTA-free survival distribution significantly differed between IAB or AF versus no IAB (both P<0.01), but not between IAB versus AF (P=0.999). This association remained statistically significant in the multivariable model (IAB: HR, 4.8 (1.4-16.1), P=0.013; AF: HR, 6.4 (1.7-24.0), P=0.007). In the external validation cohort, the survival distribution was also significantly worse for IAB or AF versus no IAB (P=0.037; P=0.005), but not for IAB versus AF (P=0.836). Conclusions IAB is an easy to assess, widely applicable marker associated with LTA in DCM. IAB and AF seem to confer similar risk of LTA. Further research on IAB in DCM, and on the management of IAB in DCM is warranted.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.025473; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9707810; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9707810?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.121.025473 35045937,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2021.12.022,Relation of Iron Status to Prognosis After Acute Coronary Syndrome.,"Gürgöze MT, Kardys I, Akkerhuis KM, Oemrawsingh RM, Groot HE, van der Harst P, Umans VA, Kietselaer B, Ronner E, Lenderink T, Asselbergs FW, Manintveld OC, Boersma E.",,The American journal of cardiology,2022,2022-01-16,N,,,,"Iron deficiency has been extensively researched and is associated with adverse outcomes in heart failure. However, to our knowledge, the temporal evolution of iron status has not been previously investigated in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Therefore, we aimed to explore the temporal pattern of repeatedly measured iron, ferritin, transferrin, and transferrin saturation (TSAT) in relation to prognosis post-ACS. BIOMArCS (BIOMarker study to identify the Acute risk of a Coronary Syndrome) is a prospective, multicenter, observational cohort study conducted in The Netherlands between 2008 and 2015. A total of 844 patients with post-ACS were enrolled and underwent high-frequency (median 17) blood sampling during 1 year follow-up. Biomarkers of iron status were measured batchwise in a central laboratory. We analyzed 3 patient subsets, including the case-cohort (n = 187). The primary endpoint (PE) was a composite of cardiovascular mortality and repeat nonfatal ACS, including unstable angina pectoris requiring revascularization. The association between iron status and the PE was analyzed using multivariable joint models. Mean age was 63 years; 78% were men, and >50% had iron deficiency at first sample in the case-cohort. After adjustment for a broad range of clinical variables, 1 SD decrease in log-iron was associated with a 2.2-fold greater risk of the PE (hazard ratio 2.19, 95% confidence interval 1.34 to 3.54, p = 0.002). Similarly, 1 SD decrease in log-TSAT was associated with a 78% increased risk of the PE (hazard ratio 1.78, 95% confidence interval 1.17 to 2.65, p = 0.006). Ferritin and transferrin were not associated with the PE. Repeated measurements of iron and TSAT predict risk of adverse outcomes in patients with post-ACS during 1 year follow-up. Trial Registration: The Netherlands Trial Register. Unique identifiers: NTR1698 and NTR1106. Registered at https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/1614 and https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/1073.",,pdf:http://www.ajconline.org/article/S0002914921012418/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2021.12.022 -30444743,https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424,"Risk Factors for 1-Year Mortality and Hospital Utilization Patterns in Critical Care Survivors: A Retrospective, Observational, Population-Based Data Linkage Study.","Szakmany T, Walters AM, Pugh R, Battle C, Berridge DM, Lyons RA.",,Critical care medicine,2019,2019-01-01,N,,,,"

Objectives

Clear understanding of the long-term consequences of critical care survivorship is essential. We investigated the care process and individual factors associated with long-term mortality among ICU survivors and explored hospital use in this group.

Design

Population-based data linkage study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank.

Setting

All ICUs between 2006 and 2013 in Wales, United Kingdom.

Patients

We identified 40,631 patients discharged alive from Welsh adult ICUs.

Interventions

None.

Measurements and main results

Primary outcome was 365-day survival. The secondary outcomes were 30- and 90-day survival and hospital utilization in the 365 days following ICU discharge. Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted to compare survival rates. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to determine risk factors of mortality. Seven-thousand eight-hundred eighty-three patients (19.4%) died during the 1-year follow-up period. In the multivariable Cox regression analysis, advanced age and comorbidities were significant determinants of long-term mortality. Expedited discharge due to ICU bed shortage was associated with higher risk. The rate of hospitalization in the year prior to the critical care admission was 28 hospitalized days/1,000 d; post critical care was 88 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who were still alive; and 57 hospitalized days/1,000 d and 412 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who died by the end of the study, respectively.

Conclusions

One in five ICU survivors die within 1 year, with advanced age and comorbidity being significant predictors of outcome, leading to high resource use. Care process factors indicating high system stress were associated with increased risk. More detailed understanding is needed on the effects of the potentially modifiable factors to optimize service delivery and improve long-term outcomes of the critically ill.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424 -34226637,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1,Effects of adiposity on the human plasma proteome: observational and Mendelian randomisation estimates.,"Goudswaard LJ, Bell JA, Hughes DA, Corbin LJ, Walter K, Davey Smith G, Soranzo N, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Ouwehand WH, Watkins NA, Roberts DJ, Butterworth AS, Hers I, Timpson NJ.",,International journal of obesity (2005),2021,2021-07-05,Y,,,,"

Background

Variation in adiposity is associated with cardiometabolic disease outcomes, but mechanisms leading from this exposure to disease are unclear. This study aimed to estimate effects of body mass index (BMI) on an extensive set of circulating proteins.

Methods

We used SomaLogic proteomic data from up to 2737 healthy participants from the INTERVAL study. Associations between self-reported BMI and 3622 unique plasma proteins were explored using linear regression. These were complemented by Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses using a genetic risk score (GRS) comprised of 654 BMI-associated polymorphisms from a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of adult BMI. A disease enrichment analysis was performed using DAVID Bioinformatics 6.8 for proteins which were altered by BMI.

Results

Observationally, BMI was associated with 1576 proteins (P < 1.4 × 10-5), with particularly strong evidence for a positive association with leptin and fatty acid-binding protein-4 (FABP4), and a negative association with sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). Observational estimates were likely confounded, but the GRS for BMI did not associate with measured confounders. MR analyses provided evidence for a causal relationship between BMI and eight proteins including leptin (0.63 standard deviation (SD) per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.48-0.79, P = 1.6 × 10-15), FABP4 (0.64 SD per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.46-0.83, P = 6.7 × 10-12) and SHBG (-0.45 SD per SD BMI, 95% CI -0.65 to -0.25, P = 1.4 × 10-5). There was agreement in the magnitude of observational and MR estimates (R2 = 0.33) and evidence that proteins most strongly altered by BMI were enriched for genes involved in cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence for a broad impact of adiposity on the human proteome. Proteins strongly altered by BMI include those involved in regulating appetite, sex hormones and inflammation; such proteins are also enriched for cardiovascular disease-related genes. Altogether, results help focus attention onto new proteomic signatures of obesity-related disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-00896-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324?pdf=render +37075078,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223,The association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events by age and frailty: A cohort study.,"Sheppard JP, Koshiaris C, Stevens R, Lay-Flurrie S, Banerjee A, Bellows BK, Clegg A, Hobbs FDR, Payne RA, Swain S, Usher-Smith JA, McManus RJ.",,PLoS medicine,2023,2023-04-19,Y,,,,"

Background

Antihypertensives are effective at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, but limited data exist quantifying their association with serious adverse events, particularly in older people with frailty. This study aimed to examine this association using nationally representative electronic health record data.

Methods and findings

This was a retrospective cohort study utilising linked data from 1,256 general practices across England held within the Clinical Practice Research Datalink between 1998 and 2018. Included patients were aged 40+ years, with a systolic blood pressure reading between 130 and 179 mm Hg, and not previously prescribed antihypertensive treatment. The main exposure was defined as a first prescription of antihypertensive treatment. The primary outcome was hospitalisation or death within 10 years from falls. Secondary outcomes were hypotension, syncope, fractures, acute kidney injury, electrolyte abnormalities, and primary care attendance with gout. The association between treatment and these serious adverse events was examined by Cox regression adjusted for propensity score. This propensity score was generated from a multivariable logistic regression model with patient characteristics, medical history and medication prescriptions as covariates, and new antihypertensive treatment as the outcome. Subgroup analyses were undertaken by age and frailty. Of 3,834,056 patients followed for a median of 7.1 years, 484,187 (12.6%) were prescribed new antihypertensive treatment in the 12 months before the index date (baseline). Antihypertensives were associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation or death from falls (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21 to 1.26), hypotension (aHR 1.32, 95% CI 1.29 to 1.35), syncope (aHR 1.20, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.22), acute kidney injury (aHR 1.44, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.47), electrolyte abnormalities (aHR 1.45, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.48), and primary care attendance with gout (aHR 1.35, 95% CI 1.32 to 1.37). The absolute risk of serious adverse events with treatment was very low, with 6 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year. In older patients (80 to 89 years) and those with severe frailty, this absolute risk was increased, with 61 and 84 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year (respectively). Findings were consistent in sensitivity analyses using different approaches to address confounding and taking into account the competing risk of death. A strength of this analysis is that it provides evidence regarding the association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events, in a population of patients more representative than those enrolled in previous randomised controlled trials. Although treatment effect estimates fell within the 95% CIs of those from such trials, these analyses were observational in nature and so bias from unmeasured confounding cannot be ruled out.

Conclusions

Antihypertensive treatment was associated with serious adverse events. Overall, the absolute risk of this harm was low, with the exception of older patients and those with moderate to severe frailty, where the risks were similar to the likelihood of benefit from treatment. In these populations, physicians may want to consider alternative approaches to management of blood pressure and refrain from prescribing new treatment.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987?pdf=render 34796724,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.120.019814,"Dietary Fatty Acids, Macronutrient Substitutions, Food Sources and Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease: Findings From the EPIC-CVD Case-Cohort Study Across Nine European Countries.","Steur M, Johnson L, Sharp SJ, Imamura F, Sluijs I, Key TJ, Wood A, Chowdhury R, Guevara M, Jakobsen MU, Johansson I, Koulman A, Overvad K, Sánchez MJ, van der Schouw YT, Trichopoulou A, Weiderpass E, Wennberg M, Zheng JS, Boeing H, Boer JMA, Boutron-Ruault MC, Ericson U, Heath AK, Huybrechts I, Imaz L, Kaaks R, Krogh V, Kühn T, Kyrø C, Masala G, Melander O, Moreno-Iribas C, Panico S, Quirós JR, Rodríguez-Barranco M, Sacerdote C, Santiuste C, Skeie G, Tjønneland A, Tumino R, Verschuren WMM, Zamora-Ros R, Dahm CC, Perez-Cornago A, Schulze MB, Tong TYN, Riboli E, Wareham NJ, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Forouhi NG.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2021,2021-11-19,Y,Coronary Heart Disease; Primary Prevention; Dietary Guidelines; Nutritional Epidemiology; Saturated Fat,,,"Background There is controversy about associations between total dietary fatty acids, their classes (saturated fatty acids [SFAs], monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids), and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Specifically, the relevance of food sources of SFAs to CHD associations is uncertain. Methods and Results We conducted a case-cohort study involving 10 529 incident CHD cases and a random subcohort of 16 730 adults selected from a cohort of 385 747 participants in 9 countries of the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study. We estimated multivariable adjusted country-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs per 5% of energy intake from dietary fatty acids, with and without isocaloric macronutrient substitutions, using Prentice-weighted Cox regression models and pooled results using random-effects meta-analysis. We found no evidence for associations of the consumption of total or fatty acid classes with CHD, regardless of macronutrient substitutions. In analyses considering food sources, CHD incidence was lower per 1% higher energy intake of SFAs from yogurt (HR, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.88-0.99]), cheese (HR, 0.98 [95% CI, 0.96-1.00]), and fish (HR, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.75-1.00]), but higher for SFAs from red meat (HR, 1.07 [95% CI, 1.02-1.12]) and butter (HR, 1.02 [95% CI, 1.00-1.04]). Conclusions This observational study found no strong associations of total fatty acids, SFAs, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, with incident CHD. By contrast, we found associations of SFAs with CHD in opposite directions dependent on the food source. These findings should be further confirmed, but support public health recommendations to consider food sources alongside the macronutrients they contain, and suggest the importance of the overall food matrix.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.120.019814; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.019814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075396; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075396?pdf=render 37605204,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-03013-3,The development of a core outcome set for studies of pregnant women with multimorbidity.,"Lee SI, Hanley S, Vowles Z, Plachcinski R, Moss N, Singh M, Gale C, Fagbamigbe AF, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Subramanian A, Taylor B, Nelson-Piercy C, Damase-Michel C, Yau C, McCowan C, O'Reilly D, Santorelli G, Dolk H, Hope H, Phillips K, Abel KM, Eastwood KA, Kent L, Locock L, Loane M, Mhereeg M, Brocklehurst P, McCann S, Brophy S, Wambua S, Hemali Sudasinghe SPB, Thangaratinam S, Nirantharakumar K, Black M, MuM-PreDiCT Group.",,BMC medicine,2023,2023-08-21,Y,Pregnancy; Maternity; Outcome; Multimorbidity; Multiple Chronic Conditions; Core Outcome Set; Multiple Long-term Conditions,,,"

Background

Heterogeneity in reported outcomes can limit the synthesis of research evidence. A core outcome set informs what outcomes are important and should be measured as a minimum in all future studies. We report the development of a core outcome set applicable to observational and interventional studies of pregnant women with multimorbidity.

Methods

We developed the core outcome set in four stages: (i) a systematic literature search, (ii) three focus groups with UK stakeholders, (iii) two rounds of Delphi surveys with international stakeholders and (iv) two international virtual consensus meetings. Stakeholders included women with multimorbidity and experience of pregnancy in the last 5 years, or are planning a pregnancy, their partners, health or social care professionals and researchers. Study adverts were shared through stakeholder charities and organisations.

Results

Twenty-six studies were included in the systematic literature search (2017 to 2021) reporting 185 outcomes. Thematic analysis of the focus groups added a further 28 outcomes. Two hundred and nine stakeholders completed the first Delphi survey. One hundred and sixteen stakeholders completed the second Delphi survey where 45 outcomes reached Consensus In (≥70% of all participants rating an outcome as Critically Important). Thirteen stakeholders reviewed 15 Borderline outcomes in the first consensus meeting and included seven additional outcomes. Seventeen stakeholders reviewed these 52 outcomes in a second consensus meeting, the threshold was ≥80% of all participants voting for inclusion. The final core outcome set included 11 outcomes. The five maternal outcomes were as follows: maternal death, severe maternal morbidity, change in existing long-term conditions (physical and mental), quality and experience of care and development of new mental health conditions. The six child outcomes were as follows: survival of baby, gestational age at birth, neurodevelopmental conditions/impairment, quality of life, birth weight and separation of baby from mother for health care needs.

Conclusions

Multimorbidity in pregnancy is a new and complex clinical research area. Following a rigorous process, this complexity was meaningfully reduced to a core outcome set that balances the views of a diverse stakeholder group.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-03013-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10441728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10441728?pdf=render -34859219,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275,Maternal immune activation downregulates schizophrenia genes in the foetal mouse brain.,"Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Hamley JC, Knight JC.",,Brain communications,2021,2021-11-15,Y,Infection; Genetics; Schizophrenia; Immune; Maternal,,,"Susceptibility to schizophrenia is mediated by genetic and environmental risk factors. Maternal immune activation by infections during pregnancy is hypothesized to be a key environmental risk factor. However, little is known about how maternal immune activation contributes to schizophrenia pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated if maternal immune activation influences the expression of genes associated with schizophrenia in foetal mouse brains. We found that two sets of schizophrenia genes were downregulated more than expected by chance in the foetal mouse brain following maternal immune activation, namely those genes associated with schizophrenia through genome-wide association study (fold change = 1.93, false discovery rate = 4 × 10-4) and downregulated genes in adult schizophrenia brains (fold change = 1.51, false discovery rate = 4 × 10-10). We found that these genes mapped to key biological processes, such as neuronal cell adhesion. We also identified cortical excitatory neurons and inhibitory interneurons as the most vulnerable cell types to the deleterious effects of this interaction. Subsequently, we used gene expression information from herpes simplex virus 1 infection of neuronal precursor cells as orthogonal evidence to support our findings and to demonstrate that schizophrenia-associated cell adhesion genes, PCDHA2, PCDHA3 and PCDHA5, were downregulated following herpes simplex virus 1 infection. Collectively, our results provide novel evidence for a link between genetic and environmental risk factors in schizophrenia pathogenesis. These findings carry important implications for early preventative strategies in schizophrenia.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/3/4/fcab275/41365065/fcab275.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770?pdf=render +30444743,https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424,"Risk Factors for 1-Year Mortality and Hospital Utilization Patterns in Critical Care Survivors: A Retrospective, Observational, Population-Based Data Linkage Study.","Szakmany T, Walters AM, Pugh R, Battle C, Berridge DM, Lyons RA.",,Critical care medicine,2019,2019-01-01,N,,,,"

Objectives

Clear understanding of the long-term consequences of critical care survivorship is essential. We investigated the care process and individual factors associated with long-term mortality among ICU survivors and explored hospital use in this group.

Design

Population-based data linkage study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank.

Setting

All ICUs between 2006 and 2013 in Wales, United Kingdom.

Patients

We identified 40,631 patients discharged alive from Welsh adult ICUs.

Interventions

None.

Measurements and main results

Primary outcome was 365-day survival. The secondary outcomes were 30- and 90-day survival and hospital utilization in the 365 days following ICU discharge. Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted to compare survival rates. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to determine risk factors of mortality. Seven-thousand eight-hundred eighty-three patients (19.4%) died during the 1-year follow-up period. In the multivariable Cox regression analysis, advanced age and comorbidities were significant determinants of long-term mortality. Expedited discharge due to ICU bed shortage was associated with higher risk. The rate of hospitalization in the year prior to the critical care admission was 28 hospitalized days/1,000 d; post critical care was 88 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who were still alive; and 57 hospitalized days/1,000 d and 412 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who died by the end of the study, respectively.

Conclusions

One in five ICU survivors die within 1 year, with advanced age and comorbidity being significant predictors of outcome, leading to high resource use. Care process factors indicating high system stress were associated with increased risk. More detailed understanding is needed on the effects of the potentially modifiable factors to optimize service delivery and improve long-term outcomes of the critically ill.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424 +34226637,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1,Effects of adiposity on the human plasma proteome: observational and Mendelian randomisation estimates.,"Goudswaard LJ, Bell JA, Hughes DA, Corbin LJ, Walter K, Davey Smith G, Soranzo N, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Ouwehand WH, Watkins NA, Roberts DJ, Butterworth AS, Hers I, Timpson NJ.",,International journal of obesity (2005),2021,2021-07-05,Y,,,,"

Background

Variation in adiposity is associated with cardiometabolic disease outcomes, but mechanisms leading from this exposure to disease are unclear. This study aimed to estimate effects of body mass index (BMI) on an extensive set of circulating proteins.

Methods

We used SomaLogic proteomic data from up to 2737 healthy participants from the INTERVAL study. Associations between self-reported BMI and 3622 unique plasma proteins were explored using linear regression. These were complemented by Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses using a genetic risk score (GRS) comprised of 654 BMI-associated polymorphisms from a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of adult BMI. A disease enrichment analysis was performed using DAVID Bioinformatics 6.8 for proteins which were altered by BMI.

Results

Observationally, BMI was associated with 1576 proteins (P < 1.4 × 10-5), with particularly strong evidence for a positive association with leptin and fatty acid-binding protein-4 (FABP4), and a negative association with sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). Observational estimates were likely confounded, but the GRS for BMI did not associate with measured confounders. MR analyses provided evidence for a causal relationship between BMI and eight proteins including leptin (0.63 standard deviation (SD) per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.48-0.79, P = 1.6 × 10-15), FABP4 (0.64 SD per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.46-0.83, P = 6.7 × 10-12) and SHBG (-0.45 SD per SD BMI, 95% CI -0.65 to -0.25, P = 1.4 × 10-5). There was agreement in the magnitude of observational and MR estimates (R2 = 0.33) and evidence that proteins most strongly altered by BMI were enriched for genes involved in cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence for a broad impact of adiposity on the human proteome. Proteins strongly altered by BMI include those involved in regulating appetite, sex hormones and inflammation; such proteins are also enriched for cardiovascular disease-related genes. Altogether, results help focus attention onto new proteomic signatures of obesity-related disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-00896-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324?pdf=render 36048760,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010294,Neurocognitive trajectory and proteomic signature of inherited risk for Alzheimer's disease.,"Paranjpe MD, Chaffin M, Zahid S, Ritchie S, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Gerszten R, Guo X, Heckbert S, Tracy R, Danesh J, Lander ES, Inouye M, Kathiresan S, Butterworth AS, Khera AV.",,PLoS genetics,2022,2022-09-01,Y,,,,"For Alzheimer's disease-a leading cause of dementia and global morbidity-improved identification of presymptomatic high-risk individuals and identification of new circulating biomarkers are key public health needs. Here, we tested the hypothesis that a polygenic predictor of risk for Alzheimer's disease would identify a subset of the population with increased risk of clinically diagnosed dementia, subclinical neurocognitive dysfunction, and a differing circulating proteomic profile. Using summary association statistics from a recent genome-wide association study, we first developed a polygenic predictor of Alzheimer's disease comprised of 7.1 million common DNA variants. We noted a 7.3-fold (95% CI 4.8 to 11.0; p < 0.001) gradient in risk across deciles of the score among 288,289 middle-aged participants of the UK Biobank study. In cross-sectional analyses stratified by age, minimal differences in risk of Alzheimer's disease and performance on a digit recall test were present according to polygenic score decile at age 50 years, but significant gradients emerged by age 65. Similarly, among 30,541 participants of the Mass General Brigham Biobank, we again noted no significant differences in Alzheimer's disease diagnosis at younger ages across deciles of the score, but for those over 65 years we noted an odds ratio of 2.0 (95% CI 1.3 to 3.2; p = 0.002) in the top versus bottom decile of the polygenic score. To understand the proteomic signature of inherited risk, we performed aptamer-based profiling in 636 blood donors (mean age 43 years) with very high or low polygenic scores. In addition to the well-known apolipoprotein E biomarker, this analysis identified 27 additional proteins, several of which have known roles related to disease pathogenesis. Differences in protein concentrations were consistent even among the youngest subset of blood donors (mean age 33 years). Of these 28 proteins, 7 of the 8 proteins with concentrations available were similarly associated with the polygenic score in participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. These data highlight the potential for a DNA-based score to identify high-risk individuals during the prolonged presymptomatic phase of Alzheimer's disease and to enable biomarker discovery based on profiling of young individuals in the extremes of the score distribution.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1010294&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010294; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436054; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436054?pdf=render -35241573,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108,Comparing antibiotic prescribing between clinicians in UK primary care: an analysis in a cohort study of eight different measures of antibiotic prescribing.,"Van Staa T, Li Y, Gold N, Chadborn T, Welfare W, Palin V, Ashcroft DM, Bircher J.",,BMJ quality & safety,2022,2022-03-03,Y,General Practice; Antibiotic Management; Healthcare Quality Improvement,,,"

Background

There is a need to reduce antimicrobial uses in humans. Previous studies have found variations in antibiotic (AB) prescribing between practices in primary care. This study assessed variability of AB prescribing between clinicians.

Methods

Clinical Practice Research Datalink, which collects electronic health records in primary care, was used to select anonymised clinicians providing 500+ consultations during 2012-2017. Eight measures of AB prescribing were assessed, such as overall and incidental AB prescribing, repeat AB courses and extent of risk-based prescribing. Poisson regression models with random effect for clinicians were fitted.

Results

6111 clinicians from 466 general practices were included. Considerable variability between individual clinicians was found for most AB measures. For example, the rate of AB prescribing varied between 77.4 and 350.3 per 1000 consultations; percentage of repeat AB courses within 30 days ranged from 13.1% to 34.3%; predicted patient risk of hospital admission for infection-related complications in those prescribed AB ranged from 0.03% to 0.32% (5th and 95th percentiles). The adjusted relative rate between clinicians in rates of AB prescribing was 5.23. Weak correlation coefficients (<0.5) were found between most AB measures. There was considerable variability in case mix seen by clinicians. The largest potential impact to reduce AB prescribing could be around encouraging risk-based prescribing and addressing repeat issues of ABs. Reduction of repeat AB courses to prescribing habit of median clinician would save 21 813 AB prescriptions per 1000 clinicians per year.

Conclusions

The wide variation seen in all measures of AB prescribing and weak correlation between them suggests that a single AB measure, such as prescribing rate, is not sufficient to underpin the optimisation of AB prescribing.",,pdf:https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/qhc/early/2022/03/02/bmjqs-2020-012108.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525?pdf=render 33986429,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89743-x,Predicting sex from retinal fundus photographs using automated deep learning.,"Korot E, Pontikos N, Liu X, Wagner SK, Faes L, Huemer J, Balaskas K, Denniston AK, Khawaja A, Keane PA.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-05-13,Y,,,,"Deep learning may transform health care, but model development has largely been dependent on availability of advanced technical expertise. Herein we present the development of a deep learning model by clinicians without coding, which predicts reported sex from retinal fundus photographs. A model was trained on 84,743 retinal fundus photos from the UK Biobank dataset. External validation was performed on 252 fundus photos from a tertiary ophthalmic referral center. For internal validation, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of the code free deep learning (CFDL) model was 0.93. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and accuracy (ACC) were 88.8%, 83.6%, 87.3% and 86.5%, and for external validation were 83.9%, 72.2%, 78.2% and 78.6% respectively. Clinicians are currently unaware of distinct retinal feature variations between males and females, highlighting the importance of model explainability for this task. The model performed significantly worse when foveal pathology was present in the external validation dataset, ACC: 69.4%, compared to 85.4% in healthy eyes, suggesting the fovea is a salient region for model performance OR (95% CI): 0.36 (0.19, 0.70) p = 0.0022. Automated machine learning (AutoML) may enable clinician-driven automated discovery of novel insights and disease biomarkers.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-89743-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89743-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8119673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8119673?pdf=render -32878619,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3,COVID-19 length of hospital stay: a systematic review and data synthesis.,"Rees EM, Nightingale ES, Jafari Y, Waterlow NR, Clifford S, B Pearson CA, Group CW, Jombart T, Procter SR, Knight GM.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-09-03,Y,Length Of Stay; Hospitalisation; Icu Capacity; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Bed Demand,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on health systems, with rapidly increasing demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. As the pandemic escalates, determining the resulting needs for healthcare resources (beds, staff, equipment) has become a key priority for many countries. Projecting future demand requires estimates of how long patients with COVID-19 need different levels of hospital care.

Methods

We performed a systematic review of early evidence on length of stay (LoS) of patients with COVID-19 in hospital and in ICU. We subsequently developed a method to generate LoS distributions which combines summary statistics reported in multiple studies, accounting for differences in sample sizes. Applying this approach, we provide distributions for total hospital and ICU LoS from studies in China and elsewhere, for use by the community.

Results

We identified 52 studies, the majority from China (46/52). Median hospital LoS ranged from 4 to 53 days within China, and 4 to 21 days outside of China, across 45 studies. ICU LoS was reported by eight studies-four each within and outside China-with median values ranging from 6 to 12 and 4 to 19 days, respectively. Our summary distributions have a median hospital LoS of 14 (IQR 10-19) days for China, compared with 5 (IQR 3-9) days outside of China. For ICU, the summary distributions are more similar (median (IQR) of 8 (5-13) days for China and 7 (4-11) days outside of China). There was a visible difference by discharge status, with patients who were discharged alive having longer LoS than those who died during their admission, but no trend associated with study date.

Conclusion

Patients with COVID-19 in China appeared to remain in hospital for longer than elsewhere. This may be explained by differences in criteria for admission and discharge between countries, and different timing within the pandemic. In the absence of local data, the combined summary LoS distributions provided here can be used to model bed demands for contingency planning and then updated, with the novel method presented here, as more studies with aggregated statistics emerge outside China.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3 -36936592,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151,Covid-19 variants of concern and pregnancy.,"Stock SJ, Harmer C, Calvert C.",,BMJ medicine,2022,2022-03-02,Y,Pregnancy complications; Covid-19,,,,,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000151.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363?pdf=render +34859219,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275,Maternal immune activation downregulates schizophrenia genes in the foetal mouse brain.,"Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Hamley JC, Knight JC.",,Brain communications,2021,2021-11-15,Y,Infection; Genetics; Schizophrenia; Immune; Maternal,,,"Susceptibility to schizophrenia is mediated by genetic and environmental risk factors. Maternal immune activation by infections during pregnancy is hypothesized to be a key environmental risk factor. However, little is known about how maternal immune activation contributes to schizophrenia pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated if maternal immune activation influences the expression of genes associated with schizophrenia in foetal mouse brains. We found that two sets of schizophrenia genes were downregulated more than expected by chance in the foetal mouse brain following maternal immune activation, namely those genes associated with schizophrenia through genome-wide association study (fold change = 1.93, false discovery rate = 4 × 10-4) and downregulated genes in adult schizophrenia brains (fold change = 1.51, false discovery rate = 4 × 10-10). We found that these genes mapped to key biological processes, such as neuronal cell adhesion. We also identified cortical excitatory neurons and inhibitory interneurons as the most vulnerable cell types to the deleterious effects of this interaction. Subsequently, we used gene expression information from herpes simplex virus 1 infection of neuronal precursor cells as orthogonal evidence to support our findings and to demonstrate that schizophrenia-associated cell adhesion genes, PCDHA2, PCDHA3 and PCDHA5, were downregulated following herpes simplex virus 1 infection. Collectively, our results provide novel evidence for a link between genetic and environmental risk factors in schizophrenia pathogenesis. These findings carry important implications for early preventative strategies in schizophrenia.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/3/4/fcab275/41365065/fcab275.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770?pdf=render 36408685,https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.122.009526,"Multimarker Analysis of Serially Measured GDF-15, NT-proBNP, ST2, GAL-3, cTnI, Creatinine, and Prognosis in Acute Heart Failure.","Gürgöze MT, van Vark LC, Baart SJ, Kardys I, Akkerhuis KM, Manintveld OC, Postmus D, Hillege HL, Lesman-Leegte I, Asselbergs FW, Brunner-la-Rocca HP, van den Bos EJ, Orsel JG, de Ridder SPJ, Pinto YM, Boersma E.",,Circulation. Heart failure,2023,2022-11-21,Y,Prognosis; Biomarkers; Heart Failure; Growth Differentiation Factor 15,,,"

Background

Studies on serially measured GDF-15 (growth differentiation factor 15) in acute heart failure (HF) are limited. Moreover, several pathophysiological pathways contribute to HF. Therefore, we aimed to explore the (additional) prognostic value of serially measured GDF-15 using a multi-marker approach to more accurately predict HF risk.

Methods

TRIUMPH (Translational Initiative on Unique and Novel Strategies for Management of Patients With Heart Failure) is a prospective cohort of 496 patients with acute HF who were enrolled in 14 hospitals in the Netherlands between 2009 and 2014. Blood sampling was scheduled at 7 moments during 1-year follow-up. GDF-15, NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide), ST2 (suppression of tumorigenicity 2), galectin-3, troponin I, and creatinine were measured in a central laboratory. We associated repeated measurements of these biomarkers with the composite primary end point of all-cause mortality and HF rehospitalization, using multivariable joint modeling.

Results

Median age was 74 years, and 37% were women. Median baseline GDF-15 was 4632 pg/mL. The primary end point was reached in 188 (40%) patients. The average estimated GDF-15 level increased weeks before the primary end point was reached. The hazard ratio per 1 SD difference in log-GDF-15 was 2.14 (95% CI, 1.78-2.57) unadjusted, 1.96 (1.49-2.53) after adjustment for clinical confounders and 1.44 (1.05-1.91) when jointly modeled with all biomarkers. The adjusted HRs for NT-proBNP were 2.38 (1.78-3.33) and 1.52 (1.15-2.08), respectively. The multimarker model combining GDF-15, NT-proBNP, and troponin I provided a favorable risk discrimination (area under the curve=0.785).

Conclusions

Sequentially measured GDF-15 independently and dynamically predicts risk of adverse outcomes during 1-year follow-up after index admission for acute HF. NT-proBNP remains a robust predictor among potential candidates. Multiple biomarkers should be considered for stratification in clinical practice.

Registration

URL: https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/1783; Unique Identifier: NTR1893. (The trial can be found temporarily at https://trialsearch.who.int/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=NTR1893.).",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.122.009526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.122.009526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9833118; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9833118?pdf=render -35365070,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8,Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in English care homes: a modelling study.,"Rosello A, Barnard RC, Smith DRM, Evans S, Grimm F, Davies NG, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Modelling Working Group, Deeny SR, Knight GM, Edmunds WJ.",,BMC infectious diseases,2022,2022-04-01,Y,PCR; Testing; mathematical model; Long-term Care Facility; Care Home; Non-pharmaceutical Interventions; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

COVID-19 outbreaks still occur in English care homes despite the interventions in place.

Methods

We developed a stochastic compartmental model to simulate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within an English care home. We quantified the outbreak risk with baseline non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) already in place, the role of community prevalence in driving outbreaks, and the relative contribution of all importation routes into a fully susceptible care home. We also considered the potential impact of additional control measures in care homes with and without immunity, namely: increasing staff and resident testing frequency, using lateral flow antigen testing (LFD) tests instead of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), enhancing infection prevention and control (IPC), increasing the proportion of residents isolated, shortening the delay to isolation, improving the effectiveness of isolation, restricting visitors and limiting staff to working in one care home. We additionally present a Shiny application for users to apply this model to their facility of interest, specifying care home, outbreak and intervention characteristics.

Results

The model suggests that importation of SARS-CoV-2 by staff, from the community, is the main driver of outbreaks, that importation by visitors or from hospitals is rare, and that the past testing strategy (monthly testing of residents and daily testing of staff by PCR) likely provides negligible benefit in preventing outbreaks. Daily staff testing by LFD was 39% (95% 18-55%) effective in preventing outbreaks at 30 days compared to no testing.

Conclusions

Increasing the frequency of testing in staff and enhancing IPC are important to preventing importations to the care home. Further work is needed to understand the impact of vaccination in this population, which is likely to be very effective in preventing outbreaks.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8972713; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8972713?pdf=render +32878619,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3,COVID-19 length of hospital stay: a systematic review and data synthesis.,"Rees EM, Nightingale ES, Jafari Y, Waterlow NR, Clifford S, B Pearson CA, Group CW, Jombart T, Procter SR, Knight GM.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-09-03,Y,Length Of Stay; Hospitalisation; Icu Capacity; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Bed Demand,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on health systems, with rapidly increasing demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. As the pandemic escalates, determining the resulting needs for healthcare resources (beds, staff, equipment) has become a key priority for many countries. Projecting future demand requires estimates of how long patients with COVID-19 need different levels of hospital care.

Methods

We performed a systematic review of early evidence on length of stay (LoS) of patients with COVID-19 in hospital and in ICU. We subsequently developed a method to generate LoS distributions which combines summary statistics reported in multiple studies, accounting for differences in sample sizes. Applying this approach, we provide distributions for total hospital and ICU LoS from studies in China and elsewhere, for use by the community.

Results

We identified 52 studies, the majority from China (46/52). Median hospital LoS ranged from 4 to 53 days within China, and 4 to 21 days outside of China, across 45 studies. ICU LoS was reported by eight studies-four each within and outside China-with median values ranging from 6 to 12 and 4 to 19 days, respectively. Our summary distributions have a median hospital LoS of 14 (IQR 10-19) days for China, compared with 5 (IQR 3-9) days outside of China. For ICU, the summary distributions are more similar (median (IQR) of 8 (5-13) days for China and 7 (4-11) days outside of China). There was a visible difference by discharge status, with patients who were discharged alive having longer LoS than those who died during their admission, but no trend associated with study date.

Conclusion

Patients with COVID-19 in China appeared to remain in hospital for longer than elsewhere. This may be explained by differences in criteria for admission and discharge between countries, and different timing within the pandemic. In the absence of local data, the combined summary LoS distributions provided here can be used to model bed demands for contingency planning and then updated, with the novel method presented here, as more studies with aggregated statistics emerge outside China.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3 +35241573,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108,Comparing antibiotic prescribing between clinicians in UK primary care: an analysis in a cohort study of eight different measures of antibiotic prescribing.,"Van Staa T, Li Y, Gold N, Chadborn T, Welfare W, Palin V, Ashcroft DM, Bircher J.",,BMJ quality & safety,2022,2022-03-03,Y,General Practice; Antibiotic Management; Healthcare Quality Improvement,,,"

Background

There is a need to reduce antimicrobial uses in humans. Previous studies have found variations in antibiotic (AB) prescribing between practices in primary care. This study assessed variability of AB prescribing between clinicians.

Methods

Clinical Practice Research Datalink, which collects electronic health records in primary care, was used to select anonymised clinicians providing 500+ consultations during 2012-2017. Eight measures of AB prescribing were assessed, such as overall and incidental AB prescribing, repeat AB courses and extent of risk-based prescribing. Poisson regression models with random effect for clinicians were fitted.

Results

6111 clinicians from 466 general practices were included. Considerable variability between individual clinicians was found for most AB measures. For example, the rate of AB prescribing varied between 77.4 and 350.3 per 1000 consultations; percentage of repeat AB courses within 30 days ranged from 13.1% to 34.3%; predicted patient risk of hospital admission for infection-related complications in those prescribed AB ranged from 0.03% to 0.32% (5th and 95th percentiles). The adjusted relative rate between clinicians in rates of AB prescribing was 5.23. Weak correlation coefficients (<0.5) were found between most AB measures. There was considerable variability in case mix seen by clinicians. The largest potential impact to reduce AB prescribing could be around encouraging risk-based prescribing and addressing repeat issues of ABs. Reduction of repeat AB courses to prescribing habit of median clinician would save 21 813 AB prescriptions per 1000 clinicians per year.

Conclusions

The wide variation seen in all measures of AB prescribing and weak correlation between them suggests that a single AB measure, such as prescribing rate, is not sufficient to underpin the optimisation of AB prescribing.",,pdf:https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/qhc/early/2022/03/02/bmjqs-2020-012108.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525?pdf=render 34328441,https://doi.org/10.2196/29840,Predicting Depressive Symptom Severity Through Individuals' Nearby Bluetooth Device Count Data Collected by Mobile Phones: Preliminary Longitudinal Study.,"Zhang Y, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, Laiou P, Matcham F, Oetzmann C, Lamers F, Siddi S, Simblett S, Rintala A, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Haro JM, Penninx BWJH, Narayan VA, Annas P, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB.",,JMIR mHealth and uHealth,2021,2021-07-30,Y,Monitoring; Depression; Mental health; Hierarchical Bayesian Model; Bluetooth; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Digital Health; Digital Biomarkers; Digital Phenotyping,,,"

Background

Research in mental health has found associations between depression and individuals' behaviors and statuses, such as social connections and interactions, working status, mobility, and social isolation and loneliness. These behaviors and statuses can be approximated by the nearby Bluetooth device count (NBDC) detected by Bluetooth sensors in mobile phones.

Objective

This study aimed to explore the value of the NBDC data in predicting depressive symptom severity as measured via the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8).

Methods

The data used in this paper included 2886 biweekly PHQ-8 records collected from 316 participants recruited from three study sites in the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom as part of the EU Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Central Nervous System (RADAR-CNS) study. From the NBDC data 2 weeks prior to each PHQ-8 score, we extracted 49 Bluetooth features, including statistical features and nonlinear features for measuring the periodicity and regularity of individuals' life rhythms. Linear mixed-effect models were used to explore associations between Bluetooth features and the PHQ-8 score. We then applied hierarchical Bayesian linear regression models to predict the PHQ-8 score from the extracted Bluetooth features.

Results

A number of significant associations were found between Bluetooth features and depressive symptom severity. Generally speaking, along with depressive symptom worsening, one or more of the following changes were found in the preceding 2 weeks of the NBDC data: (1) the amount decreased, (2) the variance decreased, (3) the periodicity (especially the circadian rhythm) decreased, and (4) the NBDC sequence became more irregular. Compared with commonly used machine learning models, the proposed hierarchical Bayesian linear regression model achieved the best prediction metrics (R2=0.526) and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 3.891. Bluetooth features can explain an extra 18.8% of the variance in the PHQ-8 score relative to the baseline model without Bluetooth features (R2=0.338, RMSE=4.547).

Conclusions

Our statistical results indicate that the NBDC data have the potential to reflect changes in individuals' behaviors and statuses concurrent with the changes in the depressive state. The prediction results demonstrate that the NBDC data have a significant value in predicting depressive symptom severity. These findings may have utility for the mental health monitoring practice in real-world settings.",,pdf:https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/7/e29840/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/29840; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8367113 +35365070,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8,Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in English care homes: a modelling study.,"Rosello A, Barnard RC, Smith DRM, Evans S, Grimm F, Davies NG, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Modelling Working Group, Deeny SR, Knight GM, Edmunds WJ.",,BMC infectious diseases,2022,2022-04-01,Y,PCR; Testing; mathematical model; Long-term Care Facility; Care Home; Non-pharmaceutical Interventions; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

COVID-19 outbreaks still occur in English care homes despite the interventions in place.

Methods

We developed a stochastic compartmental model to simulate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within an English care home. We quantified the outbreak risk with baseline non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) already in place, the role of community prevalence in driving outbreaks, and the relative contribution of all importation routes into a fully susceptible care home. We also considered the potential impact of additional control measures in care homes with and without immunity, namely: increasing staff and resident testing frequency, using lateral flow antigen testing (LFD) tests instead of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), enhancing infection prevention and control (IPC), increasing the proportion of residents isolated, shortening the delay to isolation, improving the effectiveness of isolation, restricting visitors and limiting staff to working in one care home. We additionally present a Shiny application for users to apply this model to their facility of interest, specifying care home, outbreak and intervention characteristics.

Results

The model suggests that importation of SARS-CoV-2 by staff, from the community, is the main driver of outbreaks, that importation by visitors or from hospitals is rare, and that the past testing strategy (monthly testing of residents and daily testing of staff by PCR) likely provides negligible benefit in preventing outbreaks. Daily staff testing by LFD was 39% (95% 18-55%) effective in preventing outbreaks at 30 days compared to no testing.

Conclusions

Increasing the frequency of testing in staff and enhancing IPC are important to preventing importations to the care home. Further work is needed to understand the impact of vaccination in this population, which is likely to be very effective in preventing outbreaks.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8972713; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8972713?pdf=render +36936592,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151,Covid-19 variants of concern and pregnancy.,"Stock SJ, Harmer C, Calvert C.",,BMJ medicine,2022,2022-03-02,Y,Pregnancy complications; Covid-19,,,,,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000151.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363?pdf=render 33306713,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243383,"Health, educational and employment outcomes among children treated for a skin disorder: Scotland-wide retrospective record linkage cohort study of 766,244 children.","Fleming M, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Pell JP.",,PloS one,2020,2020-12-11,Y,,,,"

Background

To compare health, educational and employment outcomes of schoolchildren receiving medication for a skin disorder with peers.

Methods

This retrospective population cohort study linked eight Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, school examinations, school absences/exclusions and unemployment to investigate educational (absence, exclusion, special educational need, academic attainment), employment, and health (admissions and mortality) outcomes of 766,244 children attending local authority run primary, secondary and special schools in Scotland between 2009 and 2013.

Results

After adjusting for sociodemographic and maternity confounders the 130,087 (17.0%) children treated for a skin disorder had increased hospitalisation, particularly within one year of commencing treatment (IRR 1.38, 95% CI 1.35-1.41, p<0.001) and mortality (HR 1.50, 95% CI 1.18-1.90, p<0.001). They had greater special educational need (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.17-1.21, p<0.001) and more frequent absences from school (IRR 1.07, 95% CI 1.06-1.08, p<0.001) but did not exhibit poorer exam attainment or increased post-school unemployment. The associations remained after further adjustment for comorbid chronic conditions.

Conclusions

Despite increased hospitalisation, school absenteeism, and special educational need, children treated for a skin disorder did not have poorer exam attainment or employment outcomes. Whilst findings relating to educational and employment outcomes are reassuring, the association with increased risk of mortality is alarming and merits further investigation.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243383&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243383; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7732076; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7732076?pdf=render 32573463,https://doi.org/10.2196/18185,Superusers' Engagement in Asthma Online Communities: Asynchronous Web-Based Interview Study.,"De Simoni A, Shah AT, Fulton O, Parkinson J, Sheikh A, Panzarasa P, Pagliari C, Coulson NS, Griffiths CJ.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-06-23,Y,Asthma; Misinformation; Social Networks; Leadership; Social Support; Self-management; Social Media; Ehealth; Online Health Communities; Superusers; Online Forums; Peer-to-peer Support,,,"

Background

Superusers, defined as the 1% of users who write a large number of posts, play critical roles in online health communities (OHCs), catalyzing engagement and influencing other users' self-care. Their unique online behavior is key to sustaining activity in OHCs and making them flourish. Our previous work showed the presence of 20 to 30 superusers active on a weekly basis among 3345 users in the nationwide Asthma UK OHC and that the community would disintegrate if superusers were removed. Recruiting these highly skilled individuals for research purposes can be challenging, and little is known about superusers.

Objective

This study aimed to explore superusers' motivation to actively engage in OHCs, the difficulties they may face, and their interactions with health care professionals (HCPs).

Methods

An asynchronous web-based structured interview study was conducted. Superusers of the Asthma UK OHC and Facebook groups were recruited through Asthma UK staff to pilot and subsequently complete the questionnaire. Open-ended questions were analyzed using content analysis.

Results

There were 17 superusers recruited for the study (14 patients with asthma and 3 carers); the majority were female (15/17). The age range of participants was 18 to 75 years. They were active in OHCs for 1 to 6 years and spent between 1 and 20 hours per week reading and 1 and 3 hours per week writing posts. Superusers' participation in OHCs was prompted by curiosity about asthma and its medical treatment and by the availability of spare time when they were off work due to asthma exacerbations or retired. Their engagement increased over time as participants furthered their familiarity with the OHCs and their knowledge of asthma and its self-management. Financial or social recognition of the superuser role was not important; their reward came from helping and interacting with others. According to the replies provided, they showed careful judgment to distinguish what can be dealt with through peer advice and what needs input from HCPs. Difficulties were encountered when dealing with misunderstandings about asthma and its treatment, patients not seeking advice from HCPs when needed, and miracle cures or dangerous ideas. Out of 17 participants, only 3 stated that their HCPs were aware of their engagement with OHCs. All superusers thought that HCPs should direct patients to OHCs, provided they are trusted and moderated. In addition, 9 users felt that HCPs themselves should take part in OHCs.

Conclusions

Superusers from a UK-wide online community are highly motivated, altruistic, and mostly female individuals who exhibit judgment about the complexity of coping with asthma and the limits of their advice. Engagement with OHCs satisfies their psychosocial needs. Future research should explore how to address their unmet needs, their interactions with HCPs, and the potential integration of OHCs in traditional healthcare.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/6/e18185/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/18185; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7381072 +35880304,https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664,Telomere Length and Risk of Incident Fracture and Arthroplasty: Findings From UK Biobank.,"Curtis EM, Codd V, Nelson C, D'Angelo S, Wang Q, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Matthews PM, Tobias JH, Danesh J, Cooper C, Samani NJ, Harvey NC.",,Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research,2022,2022-09-13,Y,Aging; Osteoporosis; Osteoarthritis; epidemiology; Leucocyte Telomere Length,,,"We investigated independent associations between telomere length and risk of fracture and arthroplasty in UK Biobank participants. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was measured in baseline samples using a validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. We used, in men and women separately, Cox proportional hazards models to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) for incident fracture (any, osteoporotic) or arthroplasty (hip or knee) over 1,186,410 person-years of follow-up. Covariates included age, white cell count, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, and menopause (women). In further analyses we adjusted for either estimated bone mineral density (eBMD) from heel quantitative ultrasound, handgrip strength, gait speed, total fat mass (bioimpedance), or blood biomarkers, all measured at baseline (2006-2010). We studied 59,500 women and 51,895 men, mean ± standard deviation (SD) age 56.4 ± 8.0 and 57.0 ± 8.3 years, respectively. During follow-up there were 5619 fractures; 5285 hip and 4261 knee arthroplasties. In confounder-adjusted models, longer LTL was associated with reduced risk of incident knee arthroplasty in both men (HR/SD 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88-0.97) and women (0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96), and hip arthroplasty in men (0.91; 95% CI, 0.87-0.95), but not women (0.98; 95% CI, 0.94-1.01). Longer LTL was weakly associated with reduced risk of any incident fracture in women (HR/SD 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93-1.00) with less evidence in men (0.98; 95% CI, 0.93-1.02). Associations with incident outcomes were not materially altered by adjustment for heel eBMD, grip strength, gait speed, fat mass, or blood biomarker measures. In this, the largest study to date, longer LTL was associated with lower risk of incident knee or hip arthroplasty, but only weakly associated with lower risk of fracture. The relative risks were low at a population level, but our findings suggest that common factors acting on the myeloid and musculoskeletal systems might influence later life musculoskeletal outcomes. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).",,pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/341783442/J_of_Bone_Mineral_Res_2022_Curtis_Telomere_Length_and_Risk_of_Incident_Fracture_and_Arthroplasty_Findings_From_UK_1_.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022?pdf=render 35212847,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-022-10425-5,Identifying Dysphagia and Demographic Associations in Older Adults Using Electronic Health Records: A National Longitudinal Observational Study in Wales (United Kingdom) 2008-2018.,"Hollinghurst J, Smithard DG.",,Dysphagia,2022,2022-02-25,Y,Prevalence; Frailty; epidemiology; Old Age; Dysphagia; Deprivation,,,"Dysphagia is increasingly being recognised as a geriatric syndrome (giant). There is limited research on the prevalence of dysphagia using electronic health records. To investigate associations between dysphagia, as recorded in electronic health records and age, frailty using the electronic frailty index, gender and deprivation (Welsh index of multiple deprivation). A Cross-sectional longitudinal cohort study in over 400,000 older adults was undertaken (65 +) in Wales (United Kingdom) per year from 2008 to 2018. We used the secure anonymised information linkage databank to identify dysphagia diagnoses in primary and secondary care. We used chi-squared tests and multivariate logistic regression to investigate associations between dysphagia diagnosis and age, frailty (using the electronic Frailty index), gender and deprivation. Data indicated < 1% of individuals were recorded as having a dysphagia diagnosis per year. We found dysphagia to be statistically significantly associated with older age, more severe frailty and individuals from more deprived areas. Multivariate analyses indicated increased odds ratios [OR (95% confidence intervals)] for a dysphagia diagnosis with increased age [reference 65-74: aged 75-84 OR 1.09 (1.07, 1.12), 85 + OR 1.23 (1.20, 1.27)], frailty (reference fit: mild frailty 2.45 (2.38, 2.53), moderate frailty 4.64 (4.49, 4.79) and severe frailty 7.87 (7.55, 8.21)] and individuals from most deprived areas [reference 5. Least deprived, 1. Most deprived: 1.10 (1.06, 1.14)]. The study has identified that prevalence of diagnosed dysphagia is lower than previously reported. This study has confirmed the association of dysphagia with increasing age and frailty. A previously unreported association with deprivation has been identified. Deprivation is a multifactorial problem that is known to affect health outcomes, and the association with dysphagia should not be a surprise. Research in to this relationship is indicated.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00455-022-10425-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-022-10425-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9643178; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9643178?pdf=render -32679111,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8,COVID-19 pandemic and admission rates for and management of acute coronary syndromes in England.,"Mafham MM, Spata E, Goldacre R, Gair D, Curnow P, Bray M, Hollings S, Roebuck C, Gale CP, Mamas MA, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Luescher TF, Denwood T, Landray MJ, Emberson JR, Collins R, Morris EJA, Casadei B, Baigent C.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-07-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Several countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have reported a substantial drop in the number of patients attending the emergency department with acute coronary syndromes and a reduced number of cardiac procedures. We aimed to understand the scale, nature, and duration of changes to admissions for different types of acute coronary syndrome in England and to evaluate whether in-hospital management of patients has been affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We analysed data on hospital admissions in England for types of acute coronary syndrome from Jan 1, 2019, to May 24, 2020, that were recorded in the Secondary Uses Service Admitted Patient Care database. Admissions were classified as ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-STEMI (NSTEMI), myocardial infarction of unknown type, or other acute coronary syndromes (including unstable angina). We identified revascularisation procedures undertaken during these admissions (ie, coronary angiography without percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI], PCI, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery). We calculated the numbers of weekly admissions and procedures undertaken; percentage reductions in weekly admissions and across subgroups were also calculated, with 95% CIs.

Findings

Hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome declined from mid-February, 2020, falling from a 2019 baseline rate of 3017 admissions per week to 1813 per week by the end of March, 2020, a reduction of 40% (95% CI 37-43). This decline was partly reversed during April and May, 2020, such that by the last week of May, 2020, there were 2522 admissions, representing a 16% (95% CI 13-20) reduction from baseline. During the period of declining admissions, there were reductions in the numbers of admissions for all types of acute coronary syndrome, including both STEMI and NSTEMI, but relative and absolute reductions were larger for NSTEMI, with 1267 admissions per week in 2019 and 733 per week by the end of March, 2020, a percent reduction of 42% (95% CI 38-46). In parallel, reductions were recorded in the number of PCI procedures for patients with both STEMI (438 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 346 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 21%, 95% CI 12-29) and NSTEMI (383 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 240 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 37%, 29-45). The median length of stay among patients with acute coronary syndrome fell from 4 days (IQR 2-9) in 2019 to 3 days (1-5) by the end of March, 2020.

Interpretation

Compared with the weekly average in 2019, there was a substantial reduction in the weekly numbers of patients with acute coronary syndrome who were admitted to hospital in England by the end of March, 2020, which had been partly reversed by the end of May, 2020. The reduced number of admissions during this period is likely to have resulted in increases in out-of-hospital deaths and long-term complications of myocardial infarction and missed opportunities to offer secondary prevention treatment for patients with coronary heart disease. The full extent of the effect of COVID-19 on the management of patients with acute coronary syndrome will continue to be assessed by updating these analyses.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31356-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983?pdf=render -33048945,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290,Neurodevelopmental multimorbidity and educational outcomes of Scottish schoolchildren: A population-based record linkage cohort study.,"Fleming M, Salim EE, Mackay DF, Henderson A, Kinnear D, Clark D, King A, McLay JS, Cooper SA, Pell JP.",,PLoS medicine,2020,2020-10-13,Y,,,,"

Background

Neurodevelopmental conditions commonly coexist in children, but compared to adults, childhood multimorbidity attracts less attention in research and clinical practice. We previously reported that children treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression have more school absences and exclusions, additional support needs, poorer attainment, and increased unemployment. They are also more likely to have coexisting conditions, including autism and intellectual disability. We investigated prevalence of neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (≥2 conditions) among Scottish schoolchildren and their educational outcomes compared to peers.

Methods and findings

We retrospectively linked 6 Scotland-wide databases to analyse 766,244 children (390,290 [50.9%] boys; 375,954 [49.1%] girls) aged 4 to 19 years (mean = 10.9) attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. Children were distributed across all deprivation quintiles (most to least deprived: 22.7%, 20.1%, 19.3%, 19.5%, 18.4%). The majority (96.2%) were white ethnicity. We ascertained autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities from records of additional support needs and ADHD and depression through relevant encashed prescriptions. We identified neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (≥2 of these conditions) in 4,789 (0.6%) children, with ASD and intellectual disability the most common combination. On adjusting for sociodemographic (sex, age, ethnicity, deprivation) and maternity (maternal age, maternal smoking, sex-gestation-specific birth weight centile, gestational age, 5-minute Apgar score, mode of delivery, parity) factors, multimorbidity was associated with increased school absenteeism and exclusion, unemployment, and poorer exam attainment. Significant dose relationships were evident between number of conditions (0, 1, ≥2) and the last 3 outcomes. Compared to children with no conditions, children with 1 condition, and children with 2 or more conditions, had more absenteeism (1 condition adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.28, 95% CI 1.27-1.30, p < 0.001 and 2 or more conditions adjusted IRR 1.23, 95% CI 1.20-1.28, p < 0.001), greater exclusion (adjusted IRR 2.37, 95% CI 2.25-2.48, p < 0.001 and adjusted IRR 3.04, 95% CI 2.74-3.38, p < 0.001), poorer attainment (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.92, 95% CI 3.63-4.23, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 12.07, 95% CI 9.15-15.94, p < 0.001), and increased unemployment (adjusted OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.49-1.66, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.83-2.45, p < 0.001). Associations remained after further adjustment for comorbid physical conditions and additional support needs. Coexisting depression was the strongest driver of absenteeism and coexisting ADHD the strongest driver of exclusion. Absence of formal primary care diagnoses was a limitation since ascertaining depression and ADHD from prescriptions omitted affected children receiving alternative or no treatment and some antidepressants can be prescribed for other indications.

Conclusions

Structuring clinical practice and training around single conditions may disadvantage children with neurodevelopmental multimorbidity, who we observed had significantly poorer educational outcomes compared to children with 1 condition and no conditions.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326?pdf=render 32692755,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236193,A genetic model of ivabradine recapitulates results from randomized clinical trials.,"Legault MA, Sandoval J, Provost S, Barhdadi A, Lemieux Perreault LP, Shah S, Lumbers RT, de Denus S, Tyl B, Tardif JC, Dubé MP.",,PloS one,2020,2020-07-21,Y,,,,"

Background

Naturally occurring human genetic variants provide a valuable tool to identify drug targets and guide drug prioritization and clinical trial design. Ivabradine is a heart rate lowering drug with protective effects on heart failure despite increasing the risk of atrial fibrillation. In patients with coronary artery disease without heart failure, the drug does not protect against major cardiovascular adverse events prompting questions about the ability of genetics to have predicted those effects. This study evaluates the effect of a variant in HCN4, ivabradine's drug target, on safety and efficacy endpoints.

Methods

We used genetic association testing and Mendelian randomization to predict the effect of ivabradine and heart rate lowering on cardiovascular outcomes.

Results

Using data from the UK Biobank and large GWAS consortia, we evaluated the effect of a heart rate-reducing genetic variant at the HCN4 locus encoding ivabradine's drug target. These genetic association analyses showed increases in risk for atrial fibrillation (OR 1.09, 95% CI: 1.06-1.13, P = 9.3 ×10-9) in the UK Biobank. In a cause-specific competing risk model to account for the increased risk of atrial fibrillation, the HCN4 variant reduced incident heart failure in participants that did not develop atrial fibrillation (HR 0.90, 95% CI: 0.83-0.98, P = 0.013). In contrast, the same heart rate reducing HCN4 variant did not prevent a composite endpoint of myocardial infarction or cardiovascular death (OR 0.99, 95% CI: 0.93-1.04, P = 0.61).

Conclusion

Genetic modelling of ivabradine recapitulates its benefits in heart failure, promotion of atrial fibrillation, and neutral effect on myocardial infarction.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236193&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236193; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373274?pdf=render -35880304,https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664,Telomere Length and Risk of Incident Fracture and Arthroplasty: Findings From UK Biobank.,"Curtis EM, Codd V, Nelson C, D'Angelo S, Wang Q, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Matthews PM, Tobias JH, Danesh J, Cooper C, Samani NJ, Harvey NC.",,Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research,2022,2022-09-13,Y,Aging; Osteoporosis; Osteoarthritis; epidemiology; Leucocyte Telomere Length,,,"We investigated independent associations between telomere length and risk of fracture and arthroplasty in UK Biobank participants. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was measured in baseline samples using a validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. We used, in men and women separately, Cox proportional hazards models to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) for incident fracture (any, osteoporotic) or arthroplasty (hip or knee) over 1,186,410 person-years of follow-up. Covariates included age, white cell count, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, and menopause (women). In further analyses we adjusted for either estimated bone mineral density (eBMD) from heel quantitative ultrasound, handgrip strength, gait speed, total fat mass (bioimpedance), or blood biomarkers, all measured at baseline (2006-2010). We studied 59,500 women and 51,895 men, mean ± standard deviation (SD) age 56.4 ± 8.0 and 57.0 ± 8.3 years, respectively. During follow-up there were 5619 fractures; 5285 hip and 4261 knee arthroplasties. In confounder-adjusted models, longer LTL was associated with reduced risk of incident knee arthroplasty in both men (HR/SD 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88-0.97) and women (0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96), and hip arthroplasty in men (0.91; 95% CI, 0.87-0.95), but not women (0.98; 95% CI, 0.94-1.01). Longer LTL was weakly associated with reduced risk of any incident fracture in women (HR/SD 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93-1.00) with less evidence in men (0.98; 95% CI, 0.93-1.02). Associations with incident outcomes were not materially altered by adjustment for heel eBMD, grip strength, gait speed, fat mass, or blood biomarker measures. In this, the largest study to date, longer LTL was associated with lower risk of incident knee or hip arthroplasty, but only weakly associated with lower risk of fracture. The relative risks were low at a population level, but our findings suggest that common factors acting on the myeloid and musculoskeletal systems might influence later life musculoskeletal outcomes. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).",,pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/341783442/J_of_Bone_Mineral_Res_2022_Curtis_Telomere_Length_and_Risk_of_Incident_Fracture_and_Arthroplasty_Findings_From_UK_1_.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022?pdf=render 31220083,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002833,Associations of genetically determined iron status across the phenome: A mendelian randomization study.,"Gill D, Benyamin B, Moore LSP, Monori G, Zhou A, Koskeridis F, Evangelou E, Laffan M, Walker AP, Tsilidis KK, Dehghan A, Elliott P, Hyppönen E, Tzoulaki I.",,PLoS medicine,2019,2019-06-20,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Iron is integral to many physiological processes, and variations in its levels, even within the normal range, can have implications for health. The objective of this study was to explore the broad clinical effects of varying iron status.

Methods and findings

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data obtained from 48,972 European individuals (55% female) across 19 cohorts in the Genetics of Iron Status Consortium were used to identify 3 genetic variants (rs1800562 and rs1799945 in the hemochromatosis gene [HFE] and rs855791 in the transmembrane protease serine 6 gene [TMPRSS6]) that associate with increased serum iron, ferritin, and transferrin saturation and decreased transferrin levels, thus serving as instruments for systemic iron status. Phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) of these instruments was performed on 424,439 European individuals (54% female) in the UK Biobank who were aged 40-69 years when recruited from 2006 to 2010, with their genetic data linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) from April, 1995 to March, 2016. Two-sample summary data mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to investigate the effect of varying iron status on outcomes across the human phenome. MR-PheWAS analysis for the 3 iron status genetic instruments was performed separately and then pooled by meta-analysis. Correction was made for testing of multiple correlated phenotypes using a 5% false discovery rate (FDR) threshold. Heterogeneity between MR estimates for different instruments was used to indicate possible bias due to effects of the genetic variants through pathways unrelated to iron status. There were 904 distinct phenotypes included in the MR-PheWAS analyses. After correcting for multiple testing, the 3 genetic instruments for systemic iron status demonstrated consistent evidence of a causal effect of higher iron status on decreasing risk of traits related to anemia (iron deficiency anemia: odds ratio [OR] scaled to a standard deviation [SD] increase in genetically determined serum iron levels 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64-0.81, P = 4 × 10-8) and hypercholesterolemia (hypercholesterolemia: OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.83-0.93, P = 2 × 10-5) and increasing risk of traits related to infection of the skin and related structures (cellulitis and abscess of the leg: OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.10-1.42, P = 6 × 10-4). The main limitations of this study relate to possible bias from pleiotropic effects of the considered genetic variants and misclassification of diagnoses in the HES data. Furthermore, this work only investigated participants with European ancestry, and the findings may not be applicable to other ethnic groups.

Conclusions

Our findings offer novel, to our knowledge, insight into previously unreported effects of iron status, highlighting a potential protective effect of higher iron status on hypercholesterolemia and a detrimental role on risk of skin and skin structure infections. Given the modifiable and variable nature of iron status, these findings warrant further investigation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002833; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002833; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6586257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6586257?pdf=render -32371477,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473,Rapid implementation of mobile technology for real-time epidemiology of COVID-19.,"Drew DA, Nguyen LH, Steves CJ, Menni C, Freydin M, Varsavsky T, Sudre CH, Cardoso MJ, Ourselin S, Wolf J, Spector TD, Chan AT, COPE Consortium.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2020,2020-05-05,Y,,,,"The rapid pace of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents challenges to the robust collection of population-scale data to address this global health crisis. We established the COronavirus Pandemic Epidemiology (COPE) Consortium to unite scientists with expertise in big data research and epidemiology to develop the COVID Symptom Study, previously known as the COVID Symptom Tracker, mobile application. This application-which offers data on risk factors, predictive symptoms, clinical outcomes, and geographical hotspots-was launched in the United Kingdom on 24 March 2020 and the United States on 29 March 2020 and has garnered more than 2.8 million users as of 2 May 2020. Our initiative offers a proof of concept for the repurposing of existing approaches to enable rapidly scalable epidemiologic data collection and analysis, which is critical for a data-driven response to this public health challenge.","Drew et al. decribe the use of a smart-phone App to track Covid-19 symptoms reported by users to track, in real time, information on newly infected individuals. It has been launched in the UK and US and has 2.8 million users and is used to rapidly identify emerging hot spots for infection.",pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/26b29c08-29bc-43d9-abb5-56c0c6af9efc/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009?pdf=render +33048945,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290,Neurodevelopmental multimorbidity and educational outcomes of Scottish schoolchildren: A population-based record linkage cohort study.,"Fleming M, Salim EE, Mackay DF, Henderson A, Kinnear D, Clark D, King A, McLay JS, Cooper SA, Pell JP.",,PLoS medicine,2020,2020-10-13,Y,,,,"

Background

Neurodevelopmental conditions commonly coexist in children, but compared to adults, childhood multimorbidity attracts less attention in research and clinical practice. We previously reported that children treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression have more school absences and exclusions, additional support needs, poorer attainment, and increased unemployment. They are also more likely to have coexisting conditions, including autism and intellectual disability. We investigated prevalence of neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (≥2 conditions) among Scottish schoolchildren and their educational outcomes compared to peers.

Methods and findings

We retrospectively linked 6 Scotland-wide databases to analyse 766,244 children (390,290 [50.9%] boys; 375,954 [49.1%] girls) aged 4 to 19 years (mean = 10.9) attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. Children were distributed across all deprivation quintiles (most to least deprived: 22.7%, 20.1%, 19.3%, 19.5%, 18.4%). The majority (96.2%) were white ethnicity. We ascertained autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities from records of additional support needs and ADHD and depression through relevant encashed prescriptions. We identified neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (≥2 of these conditions) in 4,789 (0.6%) children, with ASD and intellectual disability the most common combination. On adjusting for sociodemographic (sex, age, ethnicity, deprivation) and maternity (maternal age, maternal smoking, sex-gestation-specific birth weight centile, gestational age, 5-minute Apgar score, mode of delivery, parity) factors, multimorbidity was associated with increased school absenteeism and exclusion, unemployment, and poorer exam attainment. Significant dose relationships were evident between number of conditions (0, 1, ≥2) and the last 3 outcomes. Compared to children with no conditions, children with 1 condition, and children with 2 or more conditions, had more absenteeism (1 condition adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.28, 95% CI 1.27-1.30, p < 0.001 and 2 or more conditions adjusted IRR 1.23, 95% CI 1.20-1.28, p < 0.001), greater exclusion (adjusted IRR 2.37, 95% CI 2.25-2.48, p < 0.001 and adjusted IRR 3.04, 95% CI 2.74-3.38, p < 0.001), poorer attainment (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.92, 95% CI 3.63-4.23, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 12.07, 95% CI 9.15-15.94, p < 0.001), and increased unemployment (adjusted OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.49-1.66, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.83-2.45, p < 0.001). Associations remained after further adjustment for comorbid physical conditions and additional support needs. Coexisting depression was the strongest driver of absenteeism and coexisting ADHD the strongest driver of exclusion. Absence of formal primary care diagnoses was a limitation since ascertaining depression and ADHD from prescriptions omitted affected children receiving alternative or no treatment and some antidepressants can be prescribed for other indications.

Conclusions

Structuring clinical practice and training around single conditions may disadvantage children with neurodevelopmental multimorbidity, who we observed had significantly poorer educational outcomes compared to children with 1 condition and no conditions.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326?pdf=render +32679111,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8,COVID-19 pandemic and admission rates for and management of acute coronary syndromes in England.,"Mafham MM, Spata E, Goldacre R, Gair D, Curnow P, Bray M, Hollings S, Roebuck C, Gale CP, Mamas MA, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Luescher TF, Denwood T, Landray MJ, Emberson JR, Collins R, Morris EJA, Casadei B, Baigent C.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-07-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Several countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have reported a substantial drop in the number of patients attending the emergency department with acute coronary syndromes and a reduced number of cardiac procedures. We aimed to understand the scale, nature, and duration of changes to admissions for different types of acute coronary syndrome in England and to evaluate whether in-hospital management of patients has been affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We analysed data on hospital admissions in England for types of acute coronary syndrome from Jan 1, 2019, to May 24, 2020, that were recorded in the Secondary Uses Service Admitted Patient Care database. Admissions were classified as ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-STEMI (NSTEMI), myocardial infarction of unknown type, or other acute coronary syndromes (including unstable angina). We identified revascularisation procedures undertaken during these admissions (ie, coronary angiography without percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI], PCI, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery). We calculated the numbers of weekly admissions and procedures undertaken; percentage reductions in weekly admissions and across subgroups were also calculated, with 95% CIs.

Findings

Hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome declined from mid-February, 2020, falling from a 2019 baseline rate of 3017 admissions per week to 1813 per week by the end of March, 2020, a reduction of 40% (95% CI 37-43). This decline was partly reversed during April and May, 2020, such that by the last week of May, 2020, there were 2522 admissions, representing a 16% (95% CI 13-20) reduction from baseline. During the period of declining admissions, there were reductions in the numbers of admissions for all types of acute coronary syndrome, including both STEMI and NSTEMI, but relative and absolute reductions were larger for NSTEMI, with 1267 admissions per week in 2019 and 733 per week by the end of March, 2020, a percent reduction of 42% (95% CI 38-46). In parallel, reductions were recorded in the number of PCI procedures for patients with both STEMI (438 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 346 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 21%, 95% CI 12-29) and NSTEMI (383 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 240 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 37%, 29-45). The median length of stay among patients with acute coronary syndrome fell from 4 days (IQR 2-9) in 2019 to 3 days (1-5) by the end of March, 2020.

Interpretation

Compared with the weekly average in 2019, there was a substantial reduction in the weekly numbers of patients with acute coronary syndrome who were admitted to hospital in England by the end of March, 2020, which had been partly reversed by the end of May, 2020. The reduced number of admissions during this period is likely to have resulted in increases in out-of-hospital deaths and long-term complications of myocardial infarction and missed opportunities to offer secondary prevention treatment for patients with coronary heart disease. The full extent of the effect of COVID-19 on the management of patients with acute coronary syndrome will continue to be assessed by updating these analyses.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31356-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983?pdf=render 31242963,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.06.019,An online decision tree for vaccine efficacy trial design during infectious disease epidemics: The InterVax-Tool.,"Bellan SE, Eggo RM, Gsell PS, Kucharski AJ, Dean NE, Donohue R, Zook M, Edmunds WJ, Odhiambo F, Longini IM, Brisson M, Mahon BE, Henao-Restrepo AM.",,Vaccine,2019,2019-06-24,Y,Vaccines; Decision support system; epidemics; Outbreaks; Emerging Infectious Diseases; Phase Iii Trial; Scientific Communication; Public Health Emergency; Vaccine Trial Design,"Applied Analytics, Better Care, Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"

Background

Licensed vaccines are urgently needed for emerging infectious diseases, but the nature of these epidemics causes challenges for the design of phase III trials to evaluate vaccine efficacy. Designing and executing rigorous, fast, and ethical, vaccine efficacy trials is difficult, and the decisions and limitations in the design of these trials encompass epidemiological, logistical, regulatory, statistical, and ethical dimensions.

Results

Trial design decisions are complex and interrelated, but current guidance documents do not lend themselves to efficient decision-making. We created InterVax-Tool (http://vaxeval.com), an online, interactive decision-support tool, to help diverse stakeholders navigate the decisions in the design of phase III vaccine trials. InterVax-Tool offers high-level visual and interactive assistance through a set of four decision trees, guiding users through selection of the: (1) Primary Endpoint, (2) Target Population, (3) Randomization Scheme, and, (4) Comparator. We provide guidance on how key considerations - grouped as Epidemiological, Vaccine-related, Infrastructural, or Sociocultural - inform each decision in the trial design process.

Conclusions

InterVax-Tool facilitates structured, transparent, and collaborative discussion of trial design, while recording the decision-making process. Users can save and share their decisions, which is useful both for comparing proposed trial designs, and for justifying particular design choices. Here, we describe the goals and features of InterVax-Tool as well as its application to the design of a Zika vaccine efficacy trial.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.06.019; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.06.019; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6620503 32807724,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.auec.2020.07.007,Pain assessment following burn injury in Australia and New Zealand: Variation in practice and its association on in-hospital outcomes.,"Tracy LM, Cleland H, Cameron PA, Gabbe BJ.",,Australasian emergency care,2021,2020-08-15,N,Australia; Burn; Pain; New Zealand; Registry; Pain Assessment,,,"

Background

Pain is common following burn injury. Pain assessments are required to ensure appropriate pain management is provided. This study aimed to describe the prevalence and potential variation in practice of validated and documented pain assessment following burn injury in Australian and New Zealand burn units, identify clinical characteristics of patients who receive a pain assessment, and explore the associations between receiving a pain assessment and in-hospital outcomes.

Methods

Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) admissions data were extracted. Responses to the pain assessment field were presented by contributing burns unit using frequencies and percentages. Demographic, injury severity and event, and in-hospital outcomes data were assessed.

Results

There were 3009 admissions over the study period; 2481 of these received an assessment. The rate of pain assessment varied considerably between units. Women and adult patients more commonly received a pain assessment. Receiving a pain assessment was associated with a 53% adjusted increase in LOS.

Conclusions

There are differences in the profile of patients who receive a pain assessment after burn injury. The findings of this study will be reported back to designated burns units to improve pain assessment rates and patient care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.auec.2020.07.007 +32371477,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473,Rapid implementation of mobile technology for real-time epidemiology of COVID-19.,"Drew DA, Nguyen LH, Steves CJ, Menni C, Freydin M, Varsavsky T, Sudre CH, Cardoso MJ, Ourselin S, Wolf J, Spector TD, Chan AT, COPE Consortium.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2020,2020-05-05,Y,,,,"The rapid pace of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents challenges to the robust collection of population-scale data to address this global health crisis. We established the COronavirus Pandemic Epidemiology (COPE) Consortium to unite scientists with expertise in big data research and epidemiology to develop the COVID Symptom Study, previously known as the COVID Symptom Tracker, mobile application. This application-which offers data on risk factors, predictive symptoms, clinical outcomes, and geographical hotspots-was launched in the United Kingdom on 24 March 2020 and the United States on 29 March 2020 and has garnered more than 2.8 million users as of 2 May 2020. Our initiative offers a proof of concept for the repurposing of existing approaches to enable rapidly scalable epidemiologic data collection and analysis, which is critical for a data-driven response to this public health challenge.","Drew et al. decribe the use of a smart-phone App to track Covid-19 symptoms reported by users to track, in real time, information on newly infected individuals. It has been launched in the UK and US and has 2.8 million users and is used to rapidly identify emerging hot spots for infection.",pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/26b29c08-29bc-43d9-abb5-56c0c6af9efc/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009?pdf=render 35762393,https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyac117,Using Patient-Reported Outcomes in Dose-Finding Oncology Trials: Surveys of Key Stakeholders and the National Cancer Research Institute Consumer Forum.,"Lai-Kwon J, Vanderbeek AM, Minchom A, Lee Aiyegbusi O, Ogunleye D, Stephens R, Calvert M, Yap C.",,The oncologist,2022,2022-09-01,Y,Cancer; Quality of life; Clinical Trials; Drug Development; Adverse Events; Patient-reported Outcomes,,,"

Background

Patient-reported adverse events may be a useful adjunct for assessing a drug's tolerability in dose-finding oncology trials (DFOT). We conducted surveys of international stakeholders and the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Consumer Forum to understand attitudes about patient-reported outcome (PRO) use in DFOT.

Methods

A 35-question survey of clinicians, trial managers, statisticians, funders, and regulators of DFOT was distributed via professional bodies examining experience using PROs, benefits/barriers, and their potential role in defining tolerable doses. An 8-question survey of the NCRI Consumer Forum explored similar themes.

Results

International survey: 112 responses from 15 September-30 November 2020; 103 trialists [48 clinicians (42.9%), 38 statisticians (34.0%), 17 trial managers (15.2%)], 7 regulators (6.3%), 2 funders (1.8%)]. Most trialists had no experience designing (73, 70.9%), conducting (52, 50.5%), or reporting (88, 85.4%) PROs in DFOT. Most agreed that PROs could identify new toxicities (75, 67.0%) and provide data on the frequency (86, 76.8%) and duration (81, 72.3%) of toxicities. The top 3 barriers were lack of guidance regarding PRO selection (73/103, 70.9%), missing PRO data (71/103, 68.9%), and overburdening staff (68/103, 66.0%). NCRI survey: 57 responses on 21 March 2021. A total of 28 (49.1%) were willing to spend <15 min/day completing PROs. Most (55, 96.5%) preferred to complete PROs online. 61 (54.5%) trialists and 57 (100%) consumers agreed that patient-reported adverse events should be used to inform dose-escalation decisions.

Conclusion

Stakeholders reported minimal experience using PROs in DFOT but broadly supported their use. Guidelines are needed to standardize PRO selection, analysis, and reporting in DFOT.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyac117; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyac117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438918; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438918?pdf=render 35238940,https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac040,"Design, recruitment, and baseline characteristics of the EMPA-KIDNEY trial.",EMPA-KIDNEY Collaborative Group.,,"Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association",2022,2022-06-01,Y,"Cardiovascular disease; Empagliflozin; Sodium-glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitor; Ckd, Clinical Trial",,,"

Background

The effects of the sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor empagliflozin on renal and cardiovascular disease have not been tested in a dedicated population of people with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Methods

The EMPA-KIDNEY trial is an international randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial assessing whether empagliflozin 10 mg daily decreases the risk of kidney disease progression or cardiovascular death in people with CKD. People with or without diabetes mellitus (DM) were eligible provided they had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥20 but <45 mL/min/1.73 m2 or an eGFR ≥45 but <90 mL/min/1.73 m2 with a urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (uACR) ≥200 mg/g. The trial design is streamlined, as extra work for collaborating sites is kept to a minimum and only essential information is collected.

Results

Between 15 May 2019 and 16 April 2021, 6609 people from eight countries in Europe, North America and East Asia were randomized. The mean age at randomization was 63.8 years [standard deviation (SD) 13.9)], 2192 (33%) were female and 3570 (54%) had no prior history of DM. The mean eGFR was 37.5 mL/min/1.73 m2 (SD 14.8), including 5185 (78%) with an eGFR <45 mL/min/1.73 m2. The median uACR was 412 mg/g) (quartile 1-quartile 3 94-1190), with a uACR <300 mg/g in 3194 (48%). The causes of kidney disease included diabetic kidney disease [n = 2057 (31%)], glomerular disease [n = 1669 (25%)], hypertensive/renovascular disease [n = 1445 (22%)], other [n = 808 (12%)] and unknown causes [n = 630 (10%)].

Conclusions

EMPA-KIDNEY will evaluate the efficacy and safety of empagliflozin in a widely generalizable population of people with CKD at risk of kidney disease progression. Results are anticipated in 2022.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ndt/article-pdf/37/7/1317/44138360/gfac040.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac040; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9217655; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9217655?pdf=render 34791170,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab759,A sex-specific prediction model is not enough to achieve equality for women in preventative cardiovascular medicine.,"Kimenai DM, Shah ASV, Mills NL.",,European heart journal,2022,2022-01-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/3/239/42296399/ehab759.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab759; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8790764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8790764?pdf=render +30585256,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6,"Personal radio use and cancer risks among 48,518 British police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study.","Gao H, Aresu M, Vergnaud AC, McRobie D, Spear J, Heard A, Kongsgård HW, Singh D, Muller DC, Elliott P.",,British journal of cancer,2019,2018-12-26,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile phones have been classified as potentially carcinogenic. No study has investigated use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), a source of RF-EMF with wide occupational use, and cancer risks.

Methods

We investigated association of monthly personal radio use and risk of cancer using Cox proportional hazards regression among 48,518 police officers and staff of the Airwave Health Monitoring Study in Great Britain.

Results

During median follow-up of 5.9 years, 716 incident cancer cases were identified. Among users, the median of the average monthly duration of use in the year prior to enrolment was 30.5  min (inter-quartile range 8.1, 68.1). Overall, there was no association between personal radio use and risk of all cancers (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93, 1.03). For head and neck cancers HR = 0.72 (95% CI: 0.30, 1.70) among personal radio users vs non-users, and among users it was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.23) per doubling of minutes of personal radio use.

Conclusions

With the limited follow-up to date, we found no evidence of association of personal radio use with cancer risk. Continued follow-up of the cohort is warranted.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0365-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010?pdf=render 35193912,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053884,"Variation in health visiting contacts for children in England: cross-sectional analysis of the 2-2½ year review using administrative data (Community Services Dataset, CSDS).","Fraser C, Harron K, Barlow J, Bennett S, Woods G, Shand J, Kendall S, Woodman J.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-02-22,Y,Public Health; Community Child Health; Child Protection; Organisation Of Health Services,,,"

Objective

The 2-2½ year universal health visiting review in England is a key time point for assessing child development and promoting school readiness. We aimed to ascertain which children were least likely to receive their 2-2½ year review and whether there were additional non-mandated contacts for children who missed this review.

Design, setting, participants

Cross-sectional analysis of the 2-2½ year review and additional health visiting contacts for 181 130 children aged 2 in England 2018/2019, stratified by ethnicity, deprivation, safeguarding vulnerability indicator and Looked After Child status.

Analysis

We used data from 33 local authorities submitting highly complete data on health visiting contacts to the Community Services Dataset. We calculated the percentage of children with a recorded 2-2½ year review and/or any additional health visiting contacts and average number of contacts, by child characteristic.

Results

The most deprived children were slightly less likely to receive a 2-2½ year review than the least deprived children (72% vs 78%) and Looked After Children much less likely, compared with other children (44% vs 69%). When all additional contacts were included, the pattern was reversed (deprivation) or disappeared (Looked After children). A substantial proportion of all children (24%), children with a 'safeguarding vulnerability' (22%) and Looked After children (29%) did not have a record of either a 2-2½ year review or any other face-to-face contact in the year.

Conclusions

A substantial minority of children aged 2 with known vulnerabilities did not see the health visiting team at all in the year. Some higher need children (eg, deprived and Looked After) appeared to be seeing the health visiting team but not receiving their mandated health review. Further work is needed to establish the reasons for this, and potential solutions. There is an urgent need to improve the quality of national health visiting data.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e053884.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053884; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8867374; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8867374?pdf=render 35835762,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31626-4,"Natural Killer cells demonstrate distinct eQTL and transcriptome-wide disease associations, highlighting their role in autoimmunity.","Gilchrist JJ, Makino S, Naranbhai V, Sharma PK, Koturan S, Tong O, Taylor CA, Watson RA, de Los Aires AV, Cooper R, Lau E, Danielli S, Hameiri-Bowen D, Lee W, Ng E, Whalley J, Knight JC, Fairfax BP.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-07-14,Y,,,,"Natural Killer cells are innate lymphocytes with central roles in immunosurveillance and are implicated in autoimmune pathogenesis. The degree to which regulatory variants affect Natural Killer cell gene expression is poorly understood. Here we perform expression quantitative trait locus mapping of negatively selected Natural Killer cells from a population of healthy Europeans (n = 245). We find a significant subset of genes demonstrate expression quantitative trait loci specific to Natural Killer cells and these are highly informative of human disease, in particular autoimmunity. A Natural Killer cell transcriptome-wide association study across five common autoimmune diseases identifies further novel associations at 27 genes. In addition to these cis observations, we find novel master-regulatory regions impacting expression of trans gene networks at regions including 19q13.4, the Killer cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor region, GNLY, MC1R and UVSSA. Our findings provide new insights into the unique biology of Natural Killer cells, demonstrating markedly different expression quantitative trait loci from other immune cells, with implications for disease mechanisms.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31626-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31626-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283523?pdf=render -30585256,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6,"Personal radio use and cancer risks among 48,518 British police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study.","Gao H, Aresu M, Vergnaud AC, McRobie D, Spear J, Heard A, Kongsgård HW, Singh D, Muller DC, Elliott P.",,British journal of cancer,2019,2018-12-26,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile phones have been classified as potentially carcinogenic. No study has investigated use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), a source of RF-EMF with wide occupational use, and cancer risks.

Methods

We investigated association of monthly personal radio use and risk of cancer using Cox proportional hazards regression among 48,518 police officers and staff of the Airwave Health Monitoring Study in Great Britain.

Results

During median follow-up of 5.9 years, 716 incident cancer cases were identified. Among users, the median of the average monthly duration of use in the year prior to enrolment was 30.5  min (inter-quartile range 8.1, 68.1). Overall, there was no association between personal radio use and risk of all cancers (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93, 1.03). For head and neck cancers HR = 0.72 (95% CI: 0.30, 1.70) among personal radio users vs non-users, and among users it was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.23) per doubling of minutes of personal radio use.

Conclusions

With the limited follow-up to date, we found no evidence of association of personal radio use with cancer risk. Continued follow-up of the cohort is warranted.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0365-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010?pdf=render 34345870,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100286,The effects of genotype on inflammatory response in hippocampal progenitor cells: A computational approach.,"Lee H, Metz A, McDiarmid A, Palmos A, Lee SH, Curtis CJ, Patel H, Newhouse SJ, Thuret S.",,"Brain, behavior, & immunity - health",2021,2021-08-01,Y,Hippocampus; Neurogenesis; Inflammation; Neural stem cells; in vitro model; single nucleotide polymorphisms SNP; Eqtl; Gene Variants,,,"Cell culture models are valuable tools to study biological mechanisms underlying health and disease in a controlled environment. Although their genotype influences their phenotype, subtle genetic variations in cell lines are rarely characterised and taken into account for in vitro studies. To investigate how the genetic makeup of a cell line might affect the cellular response to inflammation, we characterised the single nucleotide variants (SNPs) relevant to inflammation-related genes in an established hippocampal progenitor cell line (HPC0A07/03C) that is frequently used as an in vitro model for hippocampal neurogenesis (HN). SNPs were identified using a genotyping array, and genes associated with chronic inflammatory and neuroinflammatory response gene ontology terms were retrieved using the AmiGO application. SNPs associated with these genes were then extracted from the genotyping dataset, for which a literature search was conducted, yielding relevant research articles for a total of 17 SNPs. Of these variants, 10 were found to potentially affect hippocampal neurogenesis whereby a majority (n=7) is likely to reduce neurogenesis under inflammatory conditions. Taken together, the existing literature seems to suggest that all stages of hippocampal neurogenesis could be negatively affected due to the genetic makeup in HPC0A07/03C cells under inflammation. Additional experiments will be needed to validate these specific findings in a laboratory setting. However, this computational approach already confirms that in vitro studies in general should control for cell lines subtle genetic variations which could mask or exacerbate findings.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100286; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100286; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261829; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261829?pdf=render -34347787,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809,Developing a Natural Language Processing tool to identify perinatal self-harm in electronic healthcare records.,"Ayre K, Bittar A, Kam J, Verma S, Howard LM, Dutta R.",,PloS one,2021,2021-08-04,Y,,,,"

Background

Self-harm occurring within pregnancy and the postnatal year (""perinatal self-harm"") is a clinically important yet under-researched topic. Current research likely under-estimates prevalence due to methodological limitations. Electronic healthcare records (EHRs) provide a source of clinically rich data on perinatal self-harm.

Aims

(1) To create a Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool that can, with acceptable precision and recall, identify mentions of acts of perinatal self-harm within EHRs. (2) To use this tool to identify service-users who have self-harmed perinatally, based on their EHRs.

Methods

We used the Clinical Record Interactive Search system to extract de-identified EHRs of secondary mental healthcare service-users at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We developed a tool that applied several layers of linguistic processing based on the spaCy NLP library for Python. We evaluated mention-level performance in the following domains: span, status, temporality and polarity. Evaluation was done against a manually coded reference standard. Mention-level performance was reported as precision, recall, F-score and Cohen's kappa for each domain. Performance was also assessed at 'service-user' level and explored whether a heuristic rule improved this. We report per-class statistics for service-user performance, as well as likelihood ratios and post-test probabilities.

Results

Mention-level performance: micro-averaged F-score, precision and recall for span, polarity and temporality >0.8. Kappa for status 0.68, temporality 0.62, polarity 0.91. Service-user level performance with heuristic: F-score, precision, recall of minority class 0.69, macro-averaged F-score 0.81, positive LR 9.4 (4.8-19), post-test probability 69.0% (53-82%). Considering the task difficulty, the tool performs well, although temporality was the attribute with the lowest level of annotator agreement.

Conclusions

It is feasible to develop an NLP tool that identifies, with acceptable validity, mentions of perinatal self-harm within EHRs, although with limitations regarding temporality. Using a heuristic rule, it can also function at a service-user-level.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253809&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818?pdf=render -32781946,https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405,Key questions for modelling COVID-19 exit strategies.,"Thompson RN, Hollingsworth TD, Isham V, Arribas-Bel D, Ashby B, Britton T, Challenor P, Chappell LHK, Clapham H, Cunniffe NJ, Dawid AP, Donnelly CA, Eggo RM, Funk S, Gilbert N, Glendinning P, Gog JR, Hart WS, Heesterbeek H, House T, Keeling M, Kiss IZ, Kretzschmar ME, Lloyd AL, McBryde ES, McCaw JM, McKinley TJ, Miller JC, Morris M, O'Neill PD, Parag KV, Pearson CAB, Pellis L, Pulliam JRC, Ross JV, Tomba GS, Silverman BW, Struchiner CJ, Tildesley MJ, Trapman P, Webb CR, Mollison D, Restif O.",,Proceedings. Biological sciences,2020,2020-08-12,Y,Uncertainty; Mathematical Modelling; Epidemic Control; Exit Strategy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Combinations of intense non-pharmaceutical interventions (lockdowns) were introduced worldwide to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Many governments have begun to implement exit strategies that relax restrictions while attempting to control the risk of a surge in cases. Mathematical modelling has played a central role in guiding interventions, but the challenge of designing optimal exit strategies in the face of ongoing transmission is unprecedented. Here, we report discussions from the Isaac Newton Institute 'Models for an exit strategy' workshop (11-15 May 2020). A diverse community of modellers who are providing evidence to governments worldwide were asked to identify the main questions that, if answered, would allow for more accurate predictions of the effects of different exit strategies. Based on these questions, we propose a roadmap to facilitate the development of reliable models to guide exit strategies. This roadmap requires a global collaborative effort from the scientific community and policymakers, and has three parts: (i) improve estimation of key epidemiological parameters; (ii) understand sources of heterogeneity in populations; and (iii) focus on requirements for data collection, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. This will provide important information for planning exit strategies that balance socio-economic benefits with public health.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516?pdf=render 34903266,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02561-2,CIDER: an interpretable meta-clustering framework for single-cell RNA-seq data integration and evaluation.,"Hu Z, Ahmed AA, Yau C.",,Genome biology,2021,2021-12-13,Y,Clustering; Confounding Factors; Single-cell Rna-seq,,,"Clustering of joint single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) data is often challenged by confounding factors, such as batch effects and biologically relevant variability. Existing batch effect removal methods typically require strong assumptions on the composition of cell populations being near identical across samples. Here, we present CIDER, a meta-clustering workflow based on inter-group similarity measures. We demonstrate that CIDER outperforms other scRNA-Seq clustering methods and integration approaches in both simulated and real datasets. Moreover, we show that CIDER can be used to assess the biological correctness of integration in real datasets, while it does not require the existence of prior cellular annotations.",,pdf:https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13059-021-02561-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02561-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8667531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8667531?pdf=render 33482294,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.01.003,Real-time imputation of missing predictor values improved the application of prediction models in daily practice.,"Nijman SWJ, Groenhof TKJ, Hoogland J, Bots ML, Brandjes M, Jacobs JJL, Asselbergs FW, Moons KGM, Debray TPA.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2021,2021-01-19,N,Prediction; Missing Data; Electronic Health Records; Multiple Imputations; Computerized Decision Support System; Real-time Imputation,,,"

Objectives

In clinical practice, many prediction models cannot be used when predictor values are missing. We, therefore, propose and evaluate methods for real-time imputation.

Study design and setting

We describe (i) mean imputation (where missing values are replaced by the sample mean), (ii) joint modeling imputation (JMI, where we use a multivariate normal approximation to generate patient-specific imputations), and (iii) conditional modeling imputation (CMI, where a multivariable imputation model is derived for each predictor from a population). We compared these methods in a case study evaluating the root mean squared error (RMSE) and coverage of the 95% confidence intervals (i.e., the proportion of confidence intervals that contain the true predictor value) of imputed predictor values.

Results

-RMSE was lowest when adopting JMI or CMI, although imputation of individual predictors did not always lead to substantial improvements as compared to mean imputation. JMI and CMI appeared particularly useful when the values of multiple predictors of the model were missing. Coverage reached the nominal level (i.e., 95%) for both CMI and JMI.

Conclusion

Multiple imputations using either CMI or JMI is recommended when dealing with missing predictor values in real-time settings.",,pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621000056/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.01.003 +32781946,https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405,Key questions for modelling COVID-19 exit strategies.,"Thompson RN, Hollingsworth TD, Isham V, Arribas-Bel D, Ashby B, Britton T, Challenor P, Chappell LHK, Clapham H, Cunniffe NJ, Dawid AP, Donnelly CA, Eggo RM, Funk S, Gilbert N, Glendinning P, Gog JR, Hart WS, Heesterbeek H, House T, Keeling M, Kiss IZ, Kretzschmar ME, Lloyd AL, McBryde ES, McCaw JM, McKinley TJ, Miller JC, Morris M, O'Neill PD, Parag KV, Pearson CAB, Pellis L, Pulliam JRC, Ross JV, Tomba GS, Silverman BW, Struchiner CJ, Tildesley MJ, Trapman P, Webb CR, Mollison D, Restif O.",,Proceedings. Biological sciences,2020,2020-08-12,Y,Uncertainty; Mathematical Modelling; Epidemic Control; Exit Strategy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Combinations of intense non-pharmaceutical interventions (lockdowns) were introduced worldwide to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Many governments have begun to implement exit strategies that relax restrictions while attempting to control the risk of a surge in cases. Mathematical modelling has played a central role in guiding interventions, but the challenge of designing optimal exit strategies in the face of ongoing transmission is unprecedented. Here, we report discussions from the Isaac Newton Institute 'Models for an exit strategy' workshop (11-15 May 2020). A diverse community of modellers who are providing evidence to governments worldwide were asked to identify the main questions that, if answered, would allow for more accurate predictions of the effects of different exit strategies. Based on these questions, we propose a roadmap to facilitate the development of reliable models to guide exit strategies. This roadmap requires a global collaborative effort from the scientific community and policymakers, and has three parts: (i) improve estimation of key epidemiological parameters; (ii) understand sources of heterogeneity in populations; and (iii) focus on requirements for data collection, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. This will provide important information for planning exit strategies that balance socio-economic benefits with public health.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516?pdf=render +34347787,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809,Developing a Natural Language Processing tool to identify perinatal self-harm in electronic healthcare records.,"Ayre K, Bittar A, Kam J, Verma S, Howard LM, Dutta R.",,PloS one,2021,2021-08-04,Y,,,,"

Background

Self-harm occurring within pregnancy and the postnatal year (""perinatal self-harm"") is a clinically important yet under-researched topic. Current research likely under-estimates prevalence due to methodological limitations. Electronic healthcare records (EHRs) provide a source of clinically rich data on perinatal self-harm.

Aims

(1) To create a Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool that can, with acceptable precision and recall, identify mentions of acts of perinatal self-harm within EHRs. (2) To use this tool to identify service-users who have self-harmed perinatally, based on their EHRs.

Methods

We used the Clinical Record Interactive Search system to extract de-identified EHRs of secondary mental healthcare service-users at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We developed a tool that applied several layers of linguistic processing based on the spaCy NLP library for Python. We evaluated mention-level performance in the following domains: span, status, temporality and polarity. Evaluation was done against a manually coded reference standard. Mention-level performance was reported as precision, recall, F-score and Cohen's kappa for each domain. Performance was also assessed at 'service-user' level and explored whether a heuristic rule improved this. We report per-class statistics for service-user performance, as well as likelihood ratios and post-test probabilities.

Results

Mention-level performance: micro-averaged F-score, precision and recall for span, polarity and temporality >0.8. Kappa for status 0.68, temporality 0.62, polarity 0.91. Service-user level performance with heuristic: F-score, precision, recall of minority class 0.69, macro-averaged F-score 0.81, positive LR 9.4 (4.8-19), post-test probability 69.0% (53-82%). Considering the task difficulty, the tool performs well, although temporality was the attribute with the lowest level of annotator agreement.

Conclusions

It is feasible to develop an NLP tool that identifies, with acceptable validity, mentions of perinatal self-harm within EHRs, although with limitations regarding temporality. Using a heuristic rule, it can also function at a service-user-level.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253809&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818?pdf=render 37060915,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00510-x,"Higher dose corticosteroids in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 who are hypoxic but not requiring ventilatory support (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.","RECOVERY Collaborative Group. Electronic address: recoverytrial@ndph.ox.ac.uk, RECOVERY Collaborative Group.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2023,2023-04-13,Y,,,,"

Background

Low-dose corticosteroids have been shown to reduce mortality for patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilatory support (non-invasive mechanical ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). We evaluated the use of a higher dose of corticosteroids in this patient group.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19. Eligible and consenting adult patients with clinical evidence of hypoxia (ie, receiving oxygen or with oxygen saturation <92% on room air) were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual care with higher dose corticosteroids (dexamethasone 20 mg once daily for 5 days followed by 10 mg dexamethasone once daily for 5 days or until discharge if sooner) or usual standard of care alone (which included dexamethasone 6 mg once daily for 10 days or until discharge if sooner). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality among all randomised participants. On May 11, 2022, the independent data monitoring committee recommended stopping recruitment of patients receiving no oxygen or simple oxygen only due to safety concerns. We report the results for these participants only. Recruitment of patients receiving ventilatory support is ongoing. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936).

Findings

Between May 25, 2021, and May 13, 2022, 1272 patients with COVID-19 and hypoxia receiving no oxygen (eight [1%]) or simple oxygen only (1264 [99%]) were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus higher dose corticosteroids (659 patients) versus usual care alone (613 patients, of whom 87% received low-dose corticosteroids during the follow-up period). Of those randomly assigned, 745 (59%) were in Asia, 512 (40%) in the UK, and 15 (1%) in Africa. 248 (19%) had diabetes and 769 (60%) were male. Overall, 123 (19%) of 659 patients allocated to higher dose corticosteroids versus 75 (12%) of 613 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·59 [95% CI 1·20-2·10]; p=0·0012). There was also an excess of pneumonia reported to be due to non-COVID infection (64 cases [10%] vs 37 cases [6%]; absolute difference 3·7% [95% CI 0·7-6·6]) and an increase in hyperglycaemia requiring increased insulin dose (142 [22%] vs 87 [14%]; absolute difference 7·4% [95% CI 3·2-11·5]).

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised for COVID-19 with clinical hypoxia who required either no oxygen or simple oxygen only, higher dose corticosteroids significantly increased the risk of death compared with usual care, which included low-dose corticosteroids. The RECOVERY trial continues to assess the effects of higher dose corticosteroids in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 who require non-invasive ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), National Institute of Health and Care Research, and Wellcome Trust.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00510-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00510-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10156147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10156147?pdf=render 35099396,https://doi.org/10.2196/21341,"Collaborative Research and Development of a Novel, Patient-Centered Digital Platform (MyEyeSite) for Rare Inherited Retinal Disease Data: Acceptability and Feasibility Study.","Gilbert RM, Sumodhee D, Pontikos N, Hollyhead C, Patrick A, Scarles S, Van Der Smissen S, Young RM, Nettleton N, Webster AR, Cammack J.",,JMIR formative research,2022,2022-01-31,Y,Genetics; Mobile phone; Ophthalmology; Rare Diseases; Digital Health; Gdpr; Eye Data; Inherited Retinal Diseases (Ird); Myeyesite; Subject Access Request (Sar),,,"

Background

Inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) are a leading cause of blindness in children and working age adults in the United Kingdom and other countries, with an appreciable socioeconomic impact. However, by definition, IRD data are individually rare, and as a result, this patient group has been underserved by research. Researchers need larger amounts of these rare data to make progress in this field, for example, through the development of gene therapies. The challenge has been how to find and make these data available to researchers in the most productive way. MyEyeSite is a research collaboration aiming to design and develop a digital platform (the MyEyeSite platform) for people with rare IRDs that will enable patients, doctors, and researchers to aggregate and share specialist eye health data. A crucial component of this platform is the MyEyeSite patient application, which will provide the means for patients with IRD to interact with the system and, in particular, to collate, manage, and share their personal specialist IRD data both for research and their own health care.

Objective

This study aims to test the acceptability and feasibility of the MyEyeSite platform in the target IRD population through a collaborative patient-centered study.

Methods

Qualitative data were generated through focus groups and workshops, and quantitative data were obtained through a survey of patients with IRD. Participants were recruited through clinics at Moorfields Eye Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre through their patient and public involvement databases.

Results

Our IRD focus group sample (n=50) highlighted the following themes: frustration with the current system regarding data sharing within the United Kingdom's NHS; positive expectations of the potential benefits of the MyEyeSite patient application, resulting from increased access to this specialized data; and concerns regarding data security, including potentially unethical use of the data outside the NHS. Of the surveyed 80 participants, 68 (85%) were motivated to have a more active role in their eye care and share their data for research purposes using a secure technology, such as a web application or mobile app.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that patients with IRD are highly motivated to be actively involved in managing their own data for research and their own eye care. It demonstrates the feasibility of involving patients with IRD in the detailed design of the MyEyeSite platform exemplar, with input from the patient with IRD workshops playing a key role in determining both the functionality and accessibility of the designs and prototypes. The development of a user-centered technological solution to the problem of rare health data has the potential to benefit not only the patient with IRD community but also others with rare diseases.",,pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2022/1/e21341/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/21341; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8845013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8845013?pdf=render 35184736,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02271-x,Comparative assessment of methods for short-term forecasts of COVID-19 hospital admissions in England at the local level.,"Meakin S, Abbott S, Bosse N, Munday J, Gruson H, Hellewell J, Sherratt K, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-02-21,Y,Forecasting; Infectious disease; outbreak; Real-time; Ensemble; Healthcare Demand; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Forecasting healthcare demand is essential in epidemic settings, both to inform situational awareness and facilitate resource planning. Ideally, forecasts should be robust across time and locations. During the COVID-19 pandemic in England, it is an ongoing concern that demand for hospital care for COVID-19 patients in England will exceed available resources.

Methods

We made weekly forecasts of daily COVID-19 hospital admissions for National Health Service (NHS) Trusts in England between August 2020 and April 2021 using three disease-agnostic forecasting models: a mean ensemble of autoregressive time series models, a linear regression model with 7-day-lagged local cases as a predictor, and a scaled convolution of local cases and a delay distribution. We compared their point and probabilistic accuracy to a mean-ensemble of them all and to a simple baseline model of no change from the last day of admissions. We measured predictive performance using the weighted interval score (WIS) and considered how this changed in different scenarios (the length of the predictive horizon, the date on which the forecast was made, and by location), as well as how much admissions forecasts improved when future cases were known.

Results

All models outperformed the baseline in the majority of scenarios. Forecasting accuracy varied by forecast date and location, depending on the trajectory of the outbreak, and all individual models had instances where they were the top- or bottom-ranked model. Forecasts produced by the mean-ensemble were both the most accurate and most consistently accurate forecasts amongst all the models considered. Forecasting accuracy was improved when using future observed, rather than forecast, cases, especially at longer forecast horizons.

Conclusions

Assuming no change in current admissions is rarely better than including at least a trend. Using confirmed COVID-19 cases as a predictor can improve admissions forecasts in some scenarios, but this is variable and depends on the ability to make consistently good case forecasts. However, ensemble forecasts can make forecasts that make consistently more accurate forecasts across time and locations. Given minimal requirements on data and computation, our admissions forecasting ensemble could be used to anticipate healthcare needs in future epidemic or pandemic settings.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02271-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02271-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8858706; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8858706?pdf=render 32346541,https://doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkz004,Predictors of itch and pain in the 12 months following burn injury: results from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) Long-Term Outcomes Project.,"Tracy LM, Edgar DW, Schrale R, Cleland H, Gabbe BJ, BRANZ Adult Long-Term Outcomes Pilot Project participating sites and working party.",,Burns & trauma,2020,2020-02-27,Y,Australia; Pain; New Zealand; Cohort study; Outcomes; Predictor; Itch; Burn Registry,Better Care,injuries and accidents,"

Background

Itch and pain are common complaints of patients with burn injuries. This study aimed to describe the prevalence and predictors of itch and moderate to severe pain in the first 12 months following a burn injury, and determine the association between itch, moderate to severe pain, work-related outcomes, and health-related quality of life following a burn injury.

Methods

Burn patients aged 18 years and older were recruited from five Australian specialist burn units. Patients completed the 36-item Short Form Health Survey Version 2 (SF-36 V2), the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) work scale, and a specially developed questionnaire relating to itch at 1, 6, and 12 months post-injury. Moderate to severe pain was defined as a score less than 40 on the bodily pain domain of the SF-36 V2. Multivariate mixed-effects regression models were used to identify patient and burn injury predictors of itch and moderate to severe pain.

Results

Three hundred and twenty-eight patients were included. The prevalence of itch decreased from 50% at 1 month to 27% at 12 months. Similarly, the prevalence of moderate to severe pain decreased from 23% at 1 month to 13% at 12 months. Compared to patients aged 18-34, the adjusted odds of experiencing any itch were 59% (95% CI: 0.20, 0.82) and 55% (95% CI: 0.22, 0.91) lower for patients aged between 35 and 49 and ≥ 50 years, respectively. Compared to patients aged 18-34, the adjusted odds of experiencing moderate to severe pain were 3.12 (95% CI: 1.35, 7.20) and 3.42 (95% CI: 1.47, 7.93) times higher for patients aged 35-49 and ≥ 50 years, respectively.

Conclusions

Less than 15% of patients reported moderate or severe pain at 12 months, while approximately one-quarter of the patients reported itch at the same period. The presence of moderate to severe pain was associated with a greater negative impact on health-related quality of life and work outcomes compared to itch. Further research is needed to improve our ability to identify patients at higher risk of persistent itch and pain who would benefit from targeted review and intervention studies.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/burnstrauma/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/burnst/tkz004/33423529/tkz004.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkz004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175773; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175773?pdf=render -33542327,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3,Classification of paediatric brain tumours by diffusion weighted imaging and machine learning.,"Novak J, Zarinabad N, Rose H, Arvanitis T, MacPherson L, Pinkey B, Oates A, Hales P, Grundy R, Auer D, Gutierrez DR, Jaspan T, Avula S, Abernethy L, Kaur R, Hargrave D, Mitra D, Bailey S, Davies N, Clark C, Peet A.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-02-04,Y,,,,"To determine if apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) can discriminate between posterior fossa brain tumours on a multicentre basis. A total of 124 paediatric patients with posterior fossa tumours (including 55 Medulloblastomas, 36 Pilocytic Astrocytomas and 26 Ependymomas) were scanned using diffusion weighted imaging across 12 different hospitals using a total of 18 different scanners. Apparent diffusion coefficient maps were produced and histogram data was extracted from tumour regions of interest. Total histograms and histogram metrics (mean, variance, skew, kurtosis and 10th, 20th and 50th quantiles) were used as data input for classifiers with accuracy determined by tenfold cross validation. Mean ADC values from the tumour regions of interest differed between tumour types, (ANOVA P < 0.001). A cut off value for mean ADC between Ependymomas and Medulloblastomas was found to be of 0.984 × 10-3 mm2 s-1 with sensitivity 80.8% and specificity 80.0%. Overall classification for the ADC histogram metrics were 85% using Naïve Bayes and 84% for Random Forest classifiers. The most commonly occurring posterior fossa paediatric brain tumours can be classified using Apparent Diffusion Coefficient histogram values to a high accuracy on a multicentre basis.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82214-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387?pdf=render 30993728,https://doi.org/10.1111/cen.13990,Risk of incident circulatory disease in patients treated for differentiated thyroid carcinoma with no history of cardiovascular disease.,"Toulis KA, Viola D, Gkoutos G, Keerthy D, Boelaert K, Nirantharakumar K.",,Clinical endocrinology,2019,2019-05-17,N,Atrial fibrillation; Cardiovascular events; Thyroid cancer; Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma,,,"

Context

The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is increasing, yet the prognosis is favourable and long-term survival is expected. Exogenous TSH suppression has been used for many years to prevent DTC recurrence and may be associated with increased risks of circulatory diseases.

Design

Risks of circulatory disease in patients treated for DTC were compared to randomly matched patients without DTC (controls) up to a 1:5 ratio using age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and smoking as the matching parameters in a population-based, open cohort study using The Health Improvement Network.

Patients

A total of 3009 patients treated for DTC with no pre-existing cardiovascular disease were identified and matched to 11 303 controls, followed up to median of 5 years.

Results

A total of 1259 incident circulatory events were recorded during the observation period. No difference in the risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) (adjusted hazards ratio [aHR]: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.80-1.36) or heart failure (HF) (aHR: 1.27, 95% CI: 0.89-1.81) was detected. The risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke was significantly higher in patients with DTC (aHR: 1.71, 95% CI: 1.36-2.15 and aHR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.05-1.72, respectively). In a sensitivity analysis limited to newly diagnosed patients with DTC, only the risk of AF was consistently elevated (aHR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.33-2.60).

Conclusions

The increased risk of AF in patients who have undergone treatment for DTC but without pre-existing CVD may warrant periodic screening for this arrhythmia. Whereas no evidence of increased risk of IHD or HF was observed, the increased risk of stroke/TIA warrants further investigation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cen.13990 32637892,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100392,The association between exposure to childhood maltreatment and the subsequent development of functional somatic and visceral pain syndromes.,"Chandan JS, Keerthy D, Zemedikun DT, Okoth K, Gokhale KM, Raza K, Bandyopadhyay S, Taylor J, Nirantharakumar K.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-06-06,Y,epidemiology; Primary Care; Childhood Maltreatment; Central Sensitivity Syndromes,,,"BACKGROUND:Childhood maltreatment is a global public health issue linked to a vast mortality and morbidity burden. This study builds on current literature to explore the risk of developing central sensitivity syndromes (CSS) (consisting of somatic and visceral pain syndromes) subsequent to childhood maltreatment exposure. METHODS:A retrospective population based open cohort study using the UK primary care database, 'The Health Improvement Network,' between 1st January 1995-31st December 2018. 80,657 adult patients who had experienced childhood maltreatment or maltreatment related concerns (exposed patients) were matched to 161,314 unexposed patients by age and sex. Outcomes of interest were the development of CSS: either somatic (Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, temporomandibular joint disorder, chronic lower back pain, chronic headache, myofascial pain syndrome and restless leg syndrome) or visceral (Interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, chronic prostatitis and irritable bowel syndrome) in nature. Effect sizes are presented as adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR) with confidence intervals (CI). Models were adjusted for the following covariates at cohort entry: age, sex, deprivation, anxiety, depression and serious mental ill health. RESULTS:The average age at cohort entry was 23.4 years and the median follow was 2.2 years. There was an increased risk of developing fibromyalgia (aIRR 2.06; 95% CI 1.71-2.48), chronic fatigue syndrome (1.47; 1.08-2.00), chronic lower back pain (1.99; 1.68-2.35), restless leg syndrome (1.82; 1.41-2.35) and irritable bowel syndrome (1.15; 1.08-1.22) when compared to the unexposed group, whereas no statistical association was seen with the development of temporomandibular joint disorder (1.00; 0.88-1.13), chronic headache (1.04; 0.59-1.86), interstitial cystitis (1.19; 0.51-2.74), vulvodynia (0.65; 0.34-1.26), chronic prostatitis (0.34; 0.07-1.77) and myofascial pain syndrome (0.88; 0.36-2.14). Outcome numbers were low, most likely, due to the rarity of visceral conditions (aside from irritable bowel syndrome). The association between a history of childhood maltreatment and CSS were mainly observed in somatic CSS. INTERPRETATION:The debilitating effects of CSS carry a substantial physical, psychological and economic burden to both the individuals who are diagnosed with them and the health services who serve them. Primary prevention approaches targeting childhood maltreatment as well as secondary preventative approaches should be considered to minimise the associated burden of CSS.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S258953702030136X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7329705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7329705?pdf=render -33659712,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2,Healthcare use by people who use illicit opioids (HUPIO): development of a cohort based on electronic primary care records in England.,"Lewer D, Padmanathan P, Qummer Ul Arfeen M, Denaxas S, Forbes H, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Hickman M.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Drug dependence; Illicit Drugs; Substance Use Disorders; Electronic Health Records; Opioid Agonist Therapy,,,"Background: People who use illicit opioids such as heroin have substantial health needs, but there are few longitudinal studies of general health and healthcare in this population. Most research to date has focused on a narrow set of outcomes, including overdoses and HIV or hepatitis infections. We developed and validated a cohort using UK primary care electronic health records (Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD and AURUM databases) to facilitate research into healthcare use by people who use illicit opioid use (HUPIO). Methods: Participants are patients in England with primary care records indicating a history of illicit opioid use. We identified codes including prescriptions of opioid agonist therapies (methadone and buprenorphine) and clinical observations such as 'heroin dependence'. We constructed a cohort of patients with at least one of these codes and aged 18-64 at cohort entry, with follow-up between January 1997 and March 2020. We validated the cohort by comparing patient characteristics and mortality rates to other cohorts of people who use illicit opioids, with different recruitment methods. Results: Up to March 2020, the HUPIO cohort included 138,761 patients with a history of illicit opioid use. Demographic characteristics and all-cause mortality were similar to existing cohorts: 69% were male; the median age at index for patients in CPRD AURUM (the database with more included participants) was 35.3 (interquartile range 29.1-42.6); the average age of new cohort entrants increased over time; 76% had records indicating current tobacco smoking; patients disproportionately lived in deprived neighbourhoods; and all-cause mortality risk was 6.6 (95% CI 6.5-6.7) times the general population of England. Conclusions: Primary care data offer new opportunities to study holistic health outcomes and healthcare of this population. The large sample enables investigation of rare outcomes, whilst the availability of linkage to external datasets allows investigation of hospital use, cancer treatment, and mortality.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498?pdf=render +33542327,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3,Classification of paediatric brain tumours by diffusion weighted imaging and machine learning.,"Novak J, Zarinabad N, Rose H, Arvanitis T, MacPherson L, Pinkey B, Oates A, Hales P, Grundy R, Auer D, Gutierrez DR, Jaspan T, Avula S, Abernethy L, Kaur R, Hargrave D, Mitra D, Bailey S, Davies N, Clark C, Peet A.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-02-04,Y,,,,"To determine if apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) can discriminate between posterior fossa brain tumours on a multicentre basis. A total of 124 paediatric patients with posterior fossa tumours (including 55 Medulloblastomas, 36 Pilocytic Astrocytomas and 26 Ependymomas) were scanned using diffusion weighted imaging across 12 different hospitals using a total of 18 different scanners. Apparent diffusion coefficient maps were produced and histogram data was extracted from tumour regions of interest. Total histograms and histogram metrics (mean, variance, skew, kurtosis and 10th, 20th and 50th quantiles) were used as data input for classifiers with accuracy determined by tenfold cross validation. Mean ADC values from the tumour regions of interest differed between tumour types, (ANOVA P < 0.001). A cut off value for mean ADC between Ependymomas and Medulloblastomas was found to be of 0.984 × 10-3 mm2 s-1 with sensitivity 80.8% and specificity 80.0%. Overall classification for the ADC histogram metrics were 85% using Naïve Bayes and 84% for Random Forest classifiers. The most commonly occurring posterior fossa paediatric brain tumours can be classified using Apparent Diffusion Coefficient histogram values to a high accuracy on a multicentre basis.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82214-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387?pdf=render 34062542,https://doi.org/10.1159/000517521,Structural Endpoints and Outcome Measures in Uveitis.,"Wintergerst MWM, Liu X, Terheyden JH, Pohlmann D, Li JQ, Montesano G, Ometto G, Holz FG, Crabb DP, Pleyer U, Heinz C, Denniston AK, Finger RP.",,Ophthalmologica. Journal international d'ophtalmologie. International journal of ophthalmology. Zeitschrift fur Augenheilkunde,2021,2021-06-01,N,Biomarker; Uveitis; Outcome; Outcome Measure; Endpoint; Imaging Biomarker; Inflammatory Eye Diseases; Instrument-based Measure,,,"Most uveitis entities are rare diseases but, taken together, are responsible for 5-10% of worldwide visual impairment which largely affects persons of working age. As with many rare diseases, there is a lack of high-level evidence regarding its clinical management, partly due to a dearth of reliable and objective quantitative endpoints for clinical trials. This review provides an overview of available structural outcome measures for uveitis disease activity and damage in an anatomical order from the anterior to the posterior segment of the eye. While there is a multitude of available structural outcome measures, not all might qualify as endpoints for clinical uveitis trials, and thorough testing of applicability is warranted. Furthermore, a consensus on endpoint definition, standardization, and ""core outcomes"" is required. As stipulated by regulatory agencies, endpoints should be precisely defined, clinically important, internally consistent, reliable, responsive to treatment, and relevant for the respective subtype of uveitis. Out of all modalities used for assessment of the reviewed structural outcome measures, optical coherence tomography, color fundus photography, fundus autofluorescence, and fluorescein/indocyanine green angiography represent current ""core modalities"" for reliable and objective quantification of uveitis outcome measures, based on their practical availability and the evidence provided so far.",,pdf:https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/517521; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000517521 32916155,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2020.101072,"Corrigendum to ""Genome-wide association study of adipocyte lipolysis in the GENetics of adipocyte lipolysis (GENiAL) cohort"" [Molecular Metabolism 34 (2020) 85-96].","Kulyté A, Lundbäck V, Lindgren CM, Luan J, Lotta LA, Langenberg C, Arner P, Strawbridge RJ, Dahlman I.",,Molecular metabolism,2020,2020-09-08,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2020.101072; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2020.101072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7492984; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7492984?pdf=render 32704413,https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.2.7,A Clinician's Guide to Artificial Intelligence: How to Critically Appraise Machine Learning Studies.,"Faes L, Liu X, Wagner SK, Fu DJ, Balaskas K, Sim DA, Bachmann LM, Keane PA, Denniston AK.",,Translational vision science & technology,2020,2020-02-12,Y,Artificial intelligence; Critical Appraisal; Machine Learning,,,"In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the prospect of machine learning models demonstrating expert-level diagnosis in multiple disease contexts. However, there is concern that the excitement around this field may be associated with inadequate scrutiny of methodology and insufficient adoption of scientific good practice in the studies involving artificial intelligence in health care. This article aims to empower clinicians and researchers to critically appraise studies of clinical applications of machine learning, through: (1) introducing basic machine learning concepts and nomenclature; (2) outlining key applicable principles of evidence-based medicine; and (3) highlighting some of the potential pitfalls in the design and reporting of these studies.",,pdf:https://tvst.arvojournals.org/arvo/content_public/journal/tvst/938366/i2164-2591-9-2-7_1597165820.03912.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.2.7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7346877; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7346877?pdf=render +33659712,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2,Healthcare use by people who use illicit opioids (HUPIO): development of a cohort based on electronic primary care records in England.,"Lewer D, Padmanathan P, Qummer Ul Arfeen M, Denaxas S, Forbes H, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Hickman M.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Drug dependence; Illicit Drugs; Substance Use Disorders; Electronic Health Records; Opioid Agonist Therapy,,,"Background: People who use illicit opioids such as heroin have substantial health needs, but there are few longitudinal studies of general health and healthcare in this population. Most research to date has focused on a narrow set of outcomes, including overdoses and HIV or hepatitis infections. We developed and validated a cohort using UK primary care electronic health records (Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD and AURUM databases) to facilitate research into healthcare use by people who use illicit opioid use (HUPIO). Methods: Participants are patients in England with primary care records indicating a history of illicit opioid use. We identified codes including prescriptions of opioid agonist therapies (methadone and buprenorphine) and clinical observations such as 'heroin dependence'. We constructed a cohort of patients with at least one of these codes and aged 18-64 at cohort entry, with follow-up between January 1997 and March 2020. We validated the cohort by comparing patient characteristics and mortality rates to other cohorts of people who use illicit opioids, with different recruitment methods. Results: Up to March 2020, the HUPIO cohort included 138,761 patients with a history of illicit opioid use. Demographic characteristics and all-cause mortality were similar to existing cohorts: 69% were male; the median age at index for patients in CPRD AURUM (the database with more included participants) was 35.3 (interquartile range 29.1-42.6); the average age of new cohort entrants increased over time; 76% had records indicating current tobacco smoking; patients disproportionately lived in deprived neighbourhoods; and all-cause mortality risk was 6.6 (95% CI 6.5-6.7) times the general population of England. Conclusions: Primary care data offer new opportunities to study holistic health outcomes and healthcare of this population. The large sample enables investigation of rare outcomes, whilst the availability of linkage to external datasets allows investigation of hospital use, cancer treatment, and mortality.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498?pdf=render 33017023,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.3502,Trends in Optic Neuritis Incidence and Prevalence in the UK and Association With Systemic and Neurologic Disease.,"Braithwaite T, Subramanian A, Petzold A, Galloway J, Adderley NJ, Mollan SP, Plant GT, Nirantharakumar K, Denniston AK.",,JAMA neurology,2020,2020-12-01,N,,,,"

Importance

Epidemiologic data on optic neuritis (ON) incidence and associations with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are sparse.

Objective

To estimate 22-year trends in ON prevalence and incidence and association with IMIDs in the United Kingdom.

Design, setting, and participants

This cohort study analyzed data from The Health Improvement Network from January 1, 1995, to September 1, 2019. The study included 10 937 511 patients 1 year or older with 75.2 million person-years' follow-up. Annual ON incidence rates were estimated yearly (January 1, 1997, to December 31, 2018), and annual ON prevalence was estimated by performing sequential cross-sectional studies on data collected on January 1 each year for the same period. Data for 1995, 1996, and 2019 were excluded as incomplete. Risk factors for ON were explored in a cohort analysis from January 1, 1997, to December 31, 2018. Matched case-control and retrospective cohort studies were performed using data from January 1, 1995, to September 1, 2019, to explore the odds of antecedent diagnosis and hazard of incident diagnosis of 66 IMIDs in patients compared with controls.

Exposures

Optic neuritis.

Main outcomes and measures

Annual point prevalence and incidence rates of ON, adjusted incident rate ratios (IRRs) for risk factors, and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for 66 IMIDs.

Results

A total of 10 937 511 patients (median [IQR] age at cohort entry, 32.6 [18.0-50.4] years; 5 571 282 [50.9%] female) were studied. A total of 1962 of 2826 patients (69.4%) with incident ON were female and 1192 of 1290 92.4%) were White, with a mean (SD) age of 35.6 (15.6) years. Overall incidence across 22 years was stable at 3.7 (95% CI, 3.6-3.9) per 100 000 person-years. Annual point prevalence (per 100 000 population) increased with database maturity, from 69.3 (95% CI, 57.2-81.3) in 1997 to 114.8 (95% CI, 111.0-118.6) in 2018. The highest risk of incident ON was associated with female sex, obesity, reproductive age, smoking, and residence at higher latitude, with significantly lower risk in South Asian or mixed race/ethnicity compared with White people. Patients with ON had significantly higher odds of prior multiple sclerosis (MS) (OR, 98.22; 95% CI, 65.40-147.52), syphilis (OR, 5.76; 95% CI, 1.39-23.96), Mycoplasma (OR, 3.90; 95% CI, 1.09-13.93), vasculitis (OR, 3.70; 95% CI, 1.68-8.15), sarcoidosis (OR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.21-5.18), Epstein-Barr virus (OR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.80-2.92), Crohn disease (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.13-3.43), and psoriasis (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.03-1.58). Patients with ON had a significantly higher hazard of incident MS (HR, 284.97; 95% CI, 167.85-483.81), Behçet disease (HR, 17.39; 95% CI, 1.55-195.53), sarcoidosis (HR, 14.80; 95% CI, 4.86-45.08), vasculitis (HR, 4.89; 95% CI, 1.82-13.10), Sjögren syndrome (HR, 3.48; 95% CI, 1.38-8.76), and herpetic infection (HR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.24-2.28).

Conclusions and relevance

The UK incidence of ON is stable. Even though predominantly associated with MS, ON has numerous other associations with IMIDs. Although individually rare, together these associations outnumber MS-associated ON and typically require urgent management to preserve sight.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/100688542/NEU20_1602R_Merged_PDF.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.3502; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7536630; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.3502 -31053412,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006,Severe burns in Australian and New Zealand adults: Epidemiology and burn centre care.,"Toppi J, Cleland H, Gabbe B.",,Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries,2019,2019-04-30,N,Mortality; Burn; Severe burns; epidemiology,,,"

Introduction

Studies describing the epidemiology of severe burns (>20% total body surface area) in adults are limited despite the extensive associated morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of severe burn injuries admitted to burn centres in Australia and New Zealand.

Materials and methods

Data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) were used in this study. Patients were eligible for inclusion if they were admitted between August 2009 and June 2013, were adults (18-years or older), and had burns of 20% total body surface area (TBSA) or greater. Demographics, burn characteristics and in-hospital mortality risk factors were investigated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis.

Results

There were 496 BRANZ registered patients who met the inclusion criteria. Over half of the patients were aged 18-40 years and most were male. The median (IQR) TBSA was 31 (25-47). Most (75%) patients had burns involving <50% TBSA, 58% sustained their burn injury at home, and 86% had sustained flame burns. Leisure activities, working for income and preparing food together accounted for over 48% of the activities undertaken at the time of injury. The in-hospital mortality rate was 17% and the median (IQR) length of stay was 24 (12-44) days. Seventy-two percent were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and 40% of patients had an associated inhalation injury. Alcohol and/or drug involvement was suspected in 25% of cases.

Conclusion

This study describes the demographics, burn injury characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of severe burn injuries in adults whilst also identifying key predictors of inpatient mortality. Key findings included the over-representation of young males, intentional self-harm injuries and flame as a cause of burns and highlights high risk groups to help aid in the development of targeted prevention strategies.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50368/Download/0050368-25062019091637.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006 33928785,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.049844,Unfolded Protein Response as a Compensatory Mechanism and Potential Therapeutic Target in PLN R14del Cardiomyopathy.,"Feyen DAM, Perea-Gil I, Maas RGC, Harakalova M, Gavidia AA, Arthur Ataam J, Wu TH, Vink A, Pei J, Vadgama N, Suurmeijer AJ, Te Rijdt WP, Vu M, Amatya PL, Prado M, Zhang Y, Dunkenberger L, Sluijter JPG, Sallam K, Asselbergs FW, Mercola M, Karakikes I.",,Circulation,2021,2021-04-30,N,"Unfolded protein response; Models, Biological; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Phospholamban; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated; Sequence Analysis, Rna",,,"

Background

Phospholamban (PLN) is a critical regulator of calcium cycling and contractility in the heart. The loss of arginine at position 14 in PLN (R14del) is associated with dilated cardiomyopathy with a high prevalence of ventricular arrhythmias. How the R14 deletion causes dilated cardiomyopathy is poorly understood, and there are no disease-specific therapies.

Methods

We used single-cell RNA sequencing to uncover PLN R14del disease mechanisms in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CMs). We used both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional functional contractility assays to evaluate the impact of modulating disease-relevant pathways in PLN R14del hiPSC-CMs.

Results

Modeling of the PLN R14del cardiomyopathy with isogenic pairs of hiPSC-CMs recapitulated the contractile deficit associated with the disease in vitro. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed the induction of the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway in PLN R14del compared with isogenic control hiPSC-CMs. The activation of UPR was also evident in the hearts from PLN R14del patients. Silencing of each of the 3 main UPR signaling branches (IRE1, ATF6, or PERK) by siRNA exacerbated the contractile dysfunction of PLN R14del hiPSC-CMs. We explored the therapeutic potential of activating the UPR with a small molecule activator, BiP (binding immunoglobulin protein) inducer X. PLN R14del hiPSC-CMs treated with BiP protein inducer X showed a dose-dependent amelioration of the contractility deficit in both 2-dimensional cultures and 3-dimensional engineered heart tissues without affecting calcium homeostasis.

Conclusions

Together, these findings suggest that the UPR exerts a protective effect in the setting of PLN R14del cardiomyopathy and that modulation of the UPR might be exploited therapeutically.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.049844; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.049844; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8667423; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8667423?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.049844 -35279265,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7,"Global, regional, and national prevalence of, and risk factors for, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2019: a systematic review and modelling analysis.","Adeloye D, Song P, Zhu Y, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I, NIHR RESPIRE Global Respiratory Health Unit.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-03-10,Y,,,,"

Background

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an increasingly important cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality worldwide. We aimed to estimate global, regional, and national COPD prevalence and risk factors to guide policy and population interventions.

Methods

For this systematic review and modelling study, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, and CINAHL, for population-based studies on COPD prevalence published between Jan 1, 1990, and Dec 31, 2019. We included data reported using the two main case definitions: the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease fixed ratio (GOLD; FEV1/FVC<0·7) and the lower limit of normal (LLN; FEV1/FVCFindingsWe identified 162 articles reporting population-based studies conducted across 260 sites in 65 countries. In 2019, the global prevalence of COPD among people aged 30-79 years was 10·3% (95% CI 8·2-12·8) using the GOLD case definition, which translates to 391·9 million people (95% CI 312·6-487·9), and 7·6% (5·8-10·1) using the LLN definition, which translates to 292·0 million people (219·8-385·6). Using the GOLD definition, we estimated that 391·9 million (95% CI 312·6-487·9) people aged 30-79 years had COPD worldwide in 2019, with most (315·5 million [246·7-399·6]; 80·5%) living in LMICs. The overall prevalence of GOLD-COPD among people aged 30-79 years was the highest in the Western Pacific region (11·7% [95% CI 9·3-14·6]) and lowest in the region of the Americas (6·8% [95% CI 5·6-8·2]). Globally, male sex (OR 2·1 [95% CI 1·8-2·3]), smoking (current smoker 3·2 [2·5-4·0]; ever smoker 2·3 [2·0-2·5]), body-mass index of less than 18·5 kg/m2 (2·2 [1·7-2·7]), biomass exposure (1·4 [1·2-1·7]), and occupational exposure to dust or smoke (1·4 [1·3-1·6]) were all substantial risk factors for COPD.

Interpretation

With more than three-quarters of global COPD cases in LMICs, tackling this chronic condition is a major and increasing challenge for health systems in these settings. In the absence of targeted population-wide efforts and health system reforms in these settings, many of which are under-resourced, achieving a substantial reduction in the burden of COPD globally might remain a difficult task.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00511-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9050565 -37208429,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w,Rare variant contribution to cholestatic liver disease in a South Asian population in the United Kingdom.,"Zöllner J, Finer S, Linton KJ, Genes and Health Research Team, van Heel DA, Williamson C, Dixon PH.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-05-19,Y,,,,"This study assessed the contribution of five genes previously known to be involved in cholestatic liver disease in British Bangladeshi and Pakistani people. Five genes (ABCB4, ABCB11, ATP8B1, NR1H4, TJP2) were interrogated by exome sequencing data of 5236 volunteers. Included were non-synonymous or loss of function (LoF) variants with a minor allele frequency < 5%. Variants were filtered, and annotated to perform rare variant burden analysis, protein structure, and modelling analysis in-silico. Out of 314 non-synonymous variants, 180 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were mostly heterozygous unless specified. 90 were novel and of those variants, 22 were considered likely pathogenic and 9 pathogenic. We identified variants in volunteers with gallstone disease (n = 31), intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP, n = 16), cholangiocarcinoma and cirrhosis (n = 2). Fourteen novel LoF variants were identified: 7 frameshift, 5 introduction of premature stop codon and 2 splice acceptor variants. The rare variant burden was significantly increased in ABCB11. Protein modelling demonstrated variants that appeared to likely cause significant structural alterations. This study highlights the significant genetic burden contributing to cholestatic liver disease. Novel likely pathogenic and pathogenic variants were identified addressing the underrepresentation of diverse ancestry groups in genomic research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085?pdf=render +31053412,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006,Severe burns in Australian and New Zealand adults: Epidemiology and burn centre care.,"Toppi J, Cleland H, Gabbe B.",,Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries,2019,2019-04-30,N,Mortality; Burn; Severe burns; epidemiology,,,"

Introduction

Studies describing the epidemiology of severe burns (>20% total body surface area) in adults are limited despite the extensive associated morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of severe burn injuries admitted to burn centres in Australia and New Zealand.

Materials and methods

Data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) were used in this study. Patients were eligible for inclusion if they were admitted between August 2009 and June 2013, were adults (18-years or older), and had burns of 20% total body surface area (TBSA) or greater. Demographics, burn characteristics and in-hospital mortality risk factors were investigated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis.

Results

There were 496 BRANZ registered patients who met the inclusion criteria. Over half of the patients were aged 18-40 years and most were male. The median (IQR) TBSA was 31 (25-47). Most (75%) patients had burns involving <50% TBSA, 58% sustained their burn injury at home, and 86% had sustained flame burns. Leisure activities, working for income and preparing food together accounted for over 48% of the activities undertaken at the time of injury. The in-hospital mortality rate was 17% and the median (IQR) length of stay was 24 (12-44) days. Seventy-two percent were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and 40% of patients had an associated inhalation injury. Alcohol and/or drug involvement was suspected in 25% of cases.

Conclusion

This study describes the demographics, burn injury characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of severe burn injuries in adults whilst also identifying key predictors of inpatient mortality. Key findings included the over-representation of young males, intentional self-harm injuries and flame as a cause of burns and highlights high risk groups to help aid in the development of targeted prevention strategies.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50368/Download/0050368-25062019091637.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006 32170038,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-316088,Cardiovascular risk factors and the risk of major adverse limb events in patients with symptomatic cardiovascular disease.,"Hageman SHJ, de Borst GJ, Dorresteijn JAN, Bots ML, Westerink J, Asselbergs FW, Visseren FLJ, UCC-SMART Study Group.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2020,2020-03-13,N,Hypertension; Smoking Cessation; Peripheral Vascular Disease; Cardiac Risk Factors And Prevention; Lipoproteins And Hyperlipidaemia,,,"

Aim

To determine the relationship between non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-c), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and smoking and the risk of major adverse limb events (MALE) and the combination with major adverse cardiovascular events (MALE/MACE) in patients with symptomatic vascular disease.

Methods

Patients with symptomatic vascular disease from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort - Secondary Manifestations of ARTerial disease (1996-2017) study were included. The effects of non-HDL-c, SBP and smoking on the risk of MALE were analysed with Cox proportional hazard models stratified for presence of peripheral artery disease (PAD). MALE was defined as major amputation, peripheral revascularisation or thrombolysis in the lower limb.

Results

In 8139 patients (median follow-up 7.8 years, IQR 4.0-11.8), 577 MALE (8.7 per 1000 person-years) and 1933 MALE/MACE were observed (29.1 per 1000 person-years). In patients with PAD there was no relation between non-HDL-c and MALE, and in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease (CVD) or abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) the risk of MALE was higher per 1 mmol/L non-HDL-c (HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.29). Per 10 mm Hg SBP, the risk of MALE was higher in patients with PAD (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12) and in patients with CVD/CAD/AAA (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.22). The risk of MALE was higher in smokers with PAD (HR 1.45, 95% CI 0.97 to 2.14) and CAD/CVD/AAA (HR 7.08, 95% CI 3.99 to 12.57).

Conclusions

The risk of MALE and MALE/MACE in patients with symptomatic vascular disease differs according to vascular disease location and is associated with non-HDL-c, SBP and smoking. These findings confirm the importance of MALE as an outcome and underline the importance of risk factor management in patients with vascular disease.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10096914/1/Hageman_Manuscript_MALE_20200211_clean.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-316088 30551632,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122845,"Incidence, Costs and Predictors of Non-Union, Delayed Union and Mal-Union Following Long Bone Fracture.","Ekegren CL, Edwards ER, de Steiger R, Gabbe BJ.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2018,2018-12-13,Y,Costs; Bone; Fracture; Data Linkage; Non-union; Mal-union; Delayed Union,Improving Public Health,,"Fracture healing complications are common and result in significant healthcare burden. The aim of this study was to determine the rate, costs and predictors of two-year readmission for surgical management of healing complications (delayed, mal, non-union) following fracture of the humerus, tibia or femur. Humeral, tibial and femoral (excluding proximal) fractures registered by the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry over five years (n = 3962) were linked with population-level hospital admissions data to identify two-year readmissions for delayed, mal or non-union. Study outcomes included hospital length-of-stay (LOS) and inpatient costs. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine demographic and injury-related factors associated with admission for fracture healing complications. Of the 3886 patients linked, 8.1% were readmitted for healing complications within two years post-fracture, with non-union the most common complication and higher rates for femoral and tibial shaft fractures. Admissions for fracture healing complications incurred total costs of $4.9 million AUD, with a median LOS of two days. After adjusting for confounders, patients had higher odds of developing complications if they were older, receiving compensation or had tibial or femoral shaft fractures. Patients who are older, with tibial and femoral shaft fractures should be targeted for future research aimed at preventing complications.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2845/pdf?version=1544701398; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122845; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6313538; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6313538?pdf=render 36005401,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd9080237,The Relationship of Maternal Gestational Mass Spectrometry-Derived Metabolites with Offspring Congenital Heart Disease: Results from Multivariable and Mendelian Randomization Analyses.,"Taylor K, McBride N, Zhao J, Oddie S, Azad R, Wright J, Andreassen OA, Stewart ID, Langenberg C, Magnus MC, Borges MC, Caputo M, Lawlor DA.",,Journal of cardiovascular development and disease,2022,2022-07-27,Y,Metabolites; Congenital heart disease; Alspac; Moba; Born In Bradford,,,"Background: It is plausible that maternal pregnancy metabolism influences the risk of offspring congenital heart disease (CHD). We sought to explore this through a systematic approach using different methods and data. Methods: We undertook multivariable logistic regression of the odds of CHD for 923 mass spectrometry (MS)-derived metabolites in a sub-sample of a UK birth cohort (Born in Bradford (BiB); N = 2605, 46 CHD cases). We considered metabolites reaching a p-value threshold <0.05 to be suggestively associated with CHD. We sought validation of our findings, by repeating the multivariable regression analysis within the BiB cohort for any suggestively associated metabolite that was measured by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or clinical chemistry (N = 7296, 87 CHD cases), and by using genetic risk scores (GRS: weighted genetic risk scores of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were associated with any suggestive metabolite) in Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses. The MR analyses were performed in BiB and two additional European birth cohorts (N = 38,662, 319 CHD cases). Results: In the main multivariable analyses, we identified 44 metabolites suggestively associated with CHD, including those from the following super pathways: amino acids, lipids, co-factors and vitamins, xenobiotics, nucleotides, energy, and several unknown molecules. Of these 44, isoleucine and leucine were available in the larger BiB cohort (NMR), and for these the results were validated. The MR analyses were possible for 27/44 metabolites and for 11 there was consistency with the multivariable regression results. Conclusions: In summary, we have used complimentary data sources and statistical techniques to construct layers of evidence. We found that pregnancy amino acid metabolism, androgenic steroid lipids, and levels of succinylcarnitine could be important contributing factors for CHD.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2308-3425/9/8/237/pdf?version=1658976309; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd9080237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410051; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410051?pdf=render -30120083,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004,"Genome-Wide Association Study of Circadian Rhythmicity in 71,500 UK Biobank Participants and Polygenic Association with Mood Instability.","Ferguson A, Lyall LM, Ward J, Strawbridge RJ, Cullen B, Graham N, Niedzwiedz CL, Johnston KJA, MacKay D, Biello SM, Pell JP, Cavanagh J, McIntosh AM, Doherty A, Bailey MES, Lyall DM, Wyse CA, Smith DJ.",,EBioMedicine,2018,2018-08-14,Y,Mood Instability; Gwas; Polygenic Risk Score; Circadian Rhythmicity; Relative Amplitude,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Circadian rhythms are fundamental to health and are particularly important for mental wellbeing. Disrupted rhythms of rest and activity are recognised as risk factors for major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

Methods

We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of low relative amplitude (RA), an objective measure of rest-activity cycles derived from the accelerometer data of 71,500 UK Biobank participants. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for low RA were used to investigate potential associations with psychiatric phenotypes.

Outcomes

Two independent genetic loci were associated with low RA, within genomic regions for Neurofascin (NFASC) and Solute Carrier Family 25 Member 17 (SLC25A17). A secondary GWAS of RA as a continuous measure identified a locus within Meis Homeobox 1 (MEIS1). There were no significant genetic correlations between low RA and any of the psychiatric phenotypes assessed. However, PRS for low RA was significantly associated with mood instability across multiple PRS thresholds (at PRS threshold 0·05: OR = 1·02, 95% CI = 1·01-1·02, p = 9·6 × 10-5), and with major depressive disorder (at PRS threshold 0·1: OR = 1·03, 95% CI = 1·01-1·05, p = 0·025) and neuroticism (at PRS threshold 0·5: Beta = 0·02, 95% CI = 0·007-0·04, p = 0·021).

Interpretation

Overall, our findings contribute new knowledge on the complex genetic architecture of circadian rhythmicity and suggest a putative biological link between disrupted circadian function and mood disorder phenotypes, particularly mood instability, but also major depressive disorder and neuroticism.

Funding

Medical Research Council (MR/K501335/1).",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396418302925/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782?pdf=render +37208429,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w,Rare variant contribution to cholestatic liver disease in a South Asian population in the United Kingdom.,"Zöllner J, Finer S, Linton KJ, Genes and Health Research Team, van Heel DA, Williamson C, Dixon PH.",,Scientific reports,2023,2023-05-19,Y,,,,"This study assessed the contribution of five genes previously known to be involved in cholestatic liver disease in British Bangladeshi and Pakistani people. Five genes (ABCB4, ABCB11, ATP8B1, NR1H4, TJP2) were interrogated by exome sequencing data of 5236 volunteers. Included were non-synonymous or loss of function (LoF) variants with a minor allele frequency < 5%. Variants were filtered, and annotated to perform rare variant burden analysis, protein structure, and modelling analysis in-silico. Out of 314 non-synonymous variants, 180 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were mostly heterozygous unless specified. 90 were novel and of those variants, 22 were considered likely pathogenic and 9 pathogenic. We identified variants in volunteers with gallstone disease (n = 31), intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP, n = 16), cholangiocarcinoma and cirrhosis (n = 2). Fourteen novel LoF variants were identified: 7 frameshift, 5 introduction of premature stop codon and 2 splice acceptor variants. The rare variant burden was significantly increased in ABCB11. Protein modelling demonstrated variants that appeared to likely cause significant structural alterations. This study highlights the significant genetic burden contributing to cholestatic liver disease. Novel likely pathogenic and pathogenic variants were identified addressing the underrepresentation of diverse ancestry groups in genomic research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085?pdf=render +35279265,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7,"Global, regional, and national prevalence of, and risk factors for, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2019: a systematic review and modelling analysis.","Adeloye D, Song P, Zhu Y, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I, NIHR RESPIRE Global Respiratory Health Unit.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2022,2022-03-10,Y,,,,"

Background

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an increasingly important cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality worldwide. We aimed to estimate global, regional, and national COPD prevalence and risk factors to guide policy and population interventions.

Methods

For this systematic review and modelling study, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, and CINAHL, for population-based studies on COPD prevalence published between Jan 1, 1990, and Dec 31, 2019. We included data reported using the two main case definitions: the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease fixed ratio (GOLD; FEV1/FVC<0·7) and the lower limit of normal (LLN; FEV1/FVCFindingsWe identified 162 articles reporting population-based studies conducted across 260 sites in 65 countries. In 2019, the global prevalence of COPD among people aged 30-79 years was 10·3% (95% CI 8·2-12·8) using the GOLD case definition, which translates to 391·9 million people (95% CI 312·6-487·9), and 7·6% (5·8-10·1) using the LLN definition, which translates to 292·0 million people (219·8-385·6). Using the GOLD definition, we estimated that 391·9 million (95% CI 312·6-487·9) people aged 30-79 years had COPD worldwide in 2019, with most (315·5 million [246·7-399·6]; 80·5%) living in LMICs. The overall prevalence of GOLD-COPD among people aged 30-79 years was the highest in the Western Pacific region (11·7% [95% CI 9·3-14·6]) and lowest in the region of the Americas (6·8% [95% CI 5·6-8·2]). Globally, male sex (OR 2·1 [95% CI 1·8-2·3]), smoking (current smoker 3·2 [2·5-4·0]; ever smoker 2·3 [2·0-2·5]), body-mass index of less than 18·5 kg/m2 (2·2 [1·7-2·7]), biomass exposure (1·4 [1·2-1·7]), and occupational exposure to dust or smoke (1·4 [1·3-1·6]) were all substantial risk factors for COPD.

Interpretation

With more than three-quarters of global COPD cases in LMICs, tackling this chronic condition is a major and increasing challenge for health systems in these settings. In the absence of targeted population-wide efforts and health system reforms in these settings, many of which are under-resourced, achieving a substantial reduction in the burden of COPD globally might remain a difficult task.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00511-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9050565 36446465,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065142,"Prevalence, pathophysiology, prediction and health-related quality of life of long COVID: study protocol of the longitudinal multiple cohort CORona Follow Up (CORFU) study.","Ghossein-Doha C, Wintjens MSJN, Janssen EBNJ, Klein D, Heemskerk SCM, Asselbergs FW, Birnie E, Bonsel GJ, van Bussel BCT, Cals JWL, Ten Cate H, Haagsma J, Hemmen B, van der Horst ICC, Kietselaer BLJH, Klok FA, de Kruif MD, Linschoten M, van Santen S, Vernooy K, Willems LH, Westerborg R, Warle M, van Kuijk SMJ.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-11-29,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Protocols & Guidelines; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

The variety, time patterns and long-term prognosis of persistent COVID-19 symptoms (long COVID-19) in patients who suffered from mild to severe acute COVID-19 are incompletely understood. Cohort studies will be combined to describe the prevalence of long COVID-19 symptoms, and to explore the pathophysiological mechanisms and impact on health-related quality of life. A prediction model for long COVID-19 will be developed and internally validated to guide care in future patients.

Methods and analysis

Data from seven COVID-19 cohorts will be aggregated in the longitudinal multiple cohort CORona Follow Up (CORFU) study. CORFU includes Dutch patients who suffered from COVID-19 at home, were hospitalised without or with intensive care unit treatment, needed inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation and controls who did not suffer from COVID-19. Individual cohort study designs were aligned and follow-up has been synchronised. Cohort participants will be followed up for a maximum of 24 months after acute infection. Next to the clinical characteristics measured in individual cohorts, the CORFU questionnaire on long COVID-19 outcomes and determinants will be administered digitally at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after the infection. The primary outcome is the prevalence of long COVID-19 symptoms up to 2 years after acute infection. Secondary outcomes are health-related quality of life (eg, EQ-5D), physical functioning, and the prevalence of thromboembolic complications, respiratory complications, cardiovascular diseases and endothelial dysfunction. A prediction model and a patient platform prototype will be developed.

Ethics and dissemination

Approval was obtained from the medical research ethics committee of Maastricht University Medical Center+ and Maastricht University (METC 2021-2990) and local committees of the participating cohorts. The project is supported by ZonMW and EuroQol Research Foundation. Results will be published in open access peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented at (inter)national conferences.

Trial registration number

NCT05240742.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e065142.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709810; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709810?pdf=render +30120083,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004,"Genome-Wide Association Study of Circadian Rhythmicity in 71,500 UK Biobank Participants and Polygenic Association with Mood Instability.","Ferguson A, Lyall LM, Ward J, Strawbridge RJ, Cullen B, Graham N, Niedzwiedz CL, Johnston KJA, MacKay D, Biello SM, Pell JP, Cavanagh J, McIntosh AM, Doherty A, Bailey MES, Lyall DM, Wyse CA, Smith DJ.",,EBioMedicine,2018,2018-08-14,Y,Mood Instability; Gwas; Polygenic Risk Score; Circadian Rhythmicity; Relative Amplitude,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

Circadian rhythms are fundamental to health and are particularly important for mental wellbeing. Disrupted rhythms of rest and activity are recognised as risk factors for major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

Methods

We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of low relative amplitude (RA), an objective measure of rest-activity cycles derived from the accelerometer data of 71,500 UK Biobank participants. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for low RA were used to investigate potential associations with psychiatric phenotypes.

Outcomes

Two independent genetic loci were associated with low RA, within genomic regions for Neurofascin (NFASC) and Solute Carrier Family 25 Member 17 (SLC25A17). A secondary GWAS of RA as a continuous measure identified a locus within Meis Homeobox 1 (MEIS1). There were no significant genetic correlations between low RA and any of the psychiatric phenotypes assessed. However, PRS for low RA was significantly associated with mood instability across multiple PRS thresholds (at PRS threshold 0·05: OR = 1·02, 95% CI = 1·01-1·02, p = 9·6 × 10-5), and with major depressive disorder (at PRS threshold 0·1: OR = 1·03, 95% CI = 1·01-1·05, p = 0·025) and neuroticism (at PRS threshold 0·5: Beta = 0·02, 95% CI = 0·007-0·04, p = 0·021).

Interpretation

Overall, our findings contribute new knowledge on the complex genetic architecture of circadian rhythmicity and suggest a putative biological link between disrupted circadian function and mood disorder phenotypes, particularly mood instability, but also major depressive disorder and neuroticism.

Funding

Medical Research Council (MR/K501335/1).",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396418302925/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782?pdf=render 37723491,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01221-3,Identification of novel genetic risk factors of dilated cardiomyopathy: from canine to human.,"Niskanen JE, Ohlsson Å, Ljungvall I, Drögemüller M, Ernst RF, Dooijes D, van Deutekom HWM, van Tintelen JP, Snijders Blok CJB, van Vugt M, van Setten J, Asselbergs FW, Petrič AD, Salonen M, Hundi S, Hörtenhuber M, DoGA consortium, Kere J, Pyle WG, Donner J, Postma AV, Leeb T, Andersson G, Hytönen MK, Häggström J, Wiberg M, Friederich J, Eberhard J, Harakalova M, van Steenbeek FG, Wess G, Lohi H.",,Genome medicine,2023,2023-09-18,Y,Genetics; Cardiac; Arrhythmia; Cardiology; Gwas; Transcriptomics; Complex Trait; Companion Animal,,,"

Background

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a life-threatening heart disease and a common cause of heart failure due to systolic dysfunction and subsequent left or biventricular dilatation. A significant number of cases have a genetic etiology; however, as a complex disease, the exact genetic risk factors are largely unknown, and many patients remain without a molecular diagnosis.

Methods

We performed GWAS followed by whole-genome, transcriptome, and immunohistochemical analyses in a spontaneously occurring canine model of DCM. Canine gene discovery was followed up in three human DCM cohorts.

Results

Our results revealed two independent additive loci associated with the typical DCM phenotype comprising left ventricular systolic dysfunction and dilatation. We highlight two novel candidate genes, RNF207 and PRKAA2, known for their involvement in cardiac action potentials, energy homeostasis, and morphology. We further illustrate the distinct genetic etiologies underlying the typical DCM phenotype and ventricular premature contractions. Finally, we followed up on the canine discoveries in human DCM patients and discovered candidate variants in our two novel genes.

Conclusions

Collectively, our study yields insight into the molecular pathophysiology of DCM and provides a large animal model for preclinical studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01221-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506233; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506233?pdf=render 31363735,https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddz187,Towards clinical utility of polygenic risk scores.,"Lambert SA, Abraham G, Inouye M.",,Human molecular genetics,2019,2019-11-01,N,,,,"Prediction of disease risk is an essential part of preventative medicine, often guiding clinical management. Risk prediction typically includes risk factors such as age, sex, family history of disease and lifestyle (e.g. smoking status); however, in recent years, there has been increasing interest to include genomic information into risk models. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) aggregate the effects of many genetic variants across the human genome into a single score and have recently been shown to have predictive value for multiple common diseases. In this review, we summarize the potential use cases for seven common diseases (breast cancer, prostate cancer, coronary artery disease, obesity, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease) where PRS has or could have clinical utility. PRS analysis for these diseases frequently revolved around (i) risk prediction performance of a PRS alone and in combination with other non-genetic risk factors, (ii) estimation of lifetime risk trajectories, (iii) the independent information of PRS and family history of disease or monogenic mutations and (iv) estimation of the value of adding a PRS to specific clinical risk prediction scenarios. We summarize open questions regarding PRS usability, ancestry bias and transferability, emphasizing the need for the next wave of studies to focus on the implementation and health-economic value of PRS testing. In conclusion, it is becoming clear that PRS have value in disease risk prediction and there are multiple areas where this may have clinical utility.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article-pdf/28/R2/R133/31081033/ddz187.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddz187 33541353,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01872-8,The impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission across 130 countries and territories.,"Liu Y, Morgenstern C, Kelly J, Lowe R, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-02-05,Y,Quantitative; Pandemic; Health Impact Assessment; Public Health Intervention; Longitudinal Analysis; Policy Evaluation; Non-pharmaceutical Interventions; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are used to reduce transmission of SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, empirical evidence of the effectiveness of specific NPIs has been inconsistent. We assessed the effectiveness of NPIs around internal containment and closure, international travel restrictions, economic measures, and health system actions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 130 countries and territories.

Methods

We used panel (longitudinal) regression to estimate the effectiveness of 13 categories of NPIs in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission using data from January to June 2020. First, we examined the temporal association between NPIs using hierarchical cluster analyses. We then regressed the time-varying reproduction number (Rt) of COVID-19 against different NPIs. We examined different model specifications to account for the temporal lag between NPIs and changes in Rt, levels of NPI intensity, time-varying changes in NPI effect, and variable selection criteria. Results were interpreted taking into account both the range of model specifications and temporal clustering of NPIs.

Results

There was strong evidence for an association between two NPIs (school closure, internal movement restrictions) and reduced Rt. Another three NPIs (workplace closure, income support, and debt/contract relief) had strong evidence of effectiveness when ignoring their level of intensity, while two NPIs (public events cancellation, restriction on gatherings) had strong evidence of their effectiveness only when evaluating their implementation at maximum capacity (e.g. restrictions on 1000+ people gathering were not effective, restrictions on < 10 people gathering were). Evidence about the effectiveness of the remaining NPIs (stay-at-home requirements, public information campaigns, public transport closure, international travel controls, testing, contact tracing) was inconsistent and inconclusive. We found temporal clustering between many of the NPIs. Effect sizes varied depending on whether or not we included data after peak NPI intensity.

Conclusion

Understanding the impact that specific NPIs have had on SARS-CoV-2 transmission is complicated by temporal clustering, time-dependent variation in effects, and differences in NPI intensity. However, the effectiveness of school closure and internal movement restrictions appears robust across different model specifications, with some evidence that other NPIs may also be effective under particular conditions. This provides empirical evidence for the potential effectiveness of many, although not all, actions policy-makers are taking to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01872-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01872-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7861967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7861967?pdf=render 37575973,https://doi.org/10.2147/clep.s417176,Anxiety and Depression in People with Eczema or Psoriasis: A Comparison of Associations in UK Biobank and Linked Primary Care Data.,"Matthewman J, Mansfield KE, Hayes JF, Adesanya EI, Smith CH, Roberts A, Langan SM, Henderson AD.",,Clinical epidemiology,2023,2023-08-07,Y,Depression; Psoriasis; Anxiety; Eczema; Cross-sectional study; Data Linkage; Electronic Health Records; Ascertainment; Uk Biobank,,,"

Introduction

Previous research has shown associations between eczema and psoriasis and anxiety and depression. We investigated whether associations are consistent across different settings of ascertainment for depression and anxiety, including interview and survey responses from UK Biobank (a large longitudinal cohort recruiting individuals aged 40-69 years between 2006-2010), and linked primary care data, with the aim of drawing more reliable conclusions through triangulation.

Methods

In cross-sectional studies, we estimated associations between eczema or psoriasis and anxiety or depression, defining anxiety or depression as 1) self-reported previous diagnosis at UK Biobank recruitment interview; 2) PHQ-9/GAD-7 score indicating depression or anxiety from a UK Biobank mental health follow-up survey in 2016; and 3) diagnosis in linked primary care electronic health record data.

Results

We analysed 230,047 people with linked Biobank and primary care data. We found poor agreement between the data sources for eczema, psoriasis, anxiety, and depression. Eg, 9474 had a previous eczema diagnosis in primary care data, 4069 self-reported previous eczema diagnosis at the UK biobank interview, and 1536 had eczema in both data sources (for depression 40,455; 13,320; and 9588 respectively). Having eczema or psoriasis (recorded in primary care or baseline interview) was associated with higher odds of anxiety and depression. Eg, the adjusted odds ratio for depression comparing those with eczema to those without was greater than 1 when defining the outcome from 1) the recruitment interview (1.36, 95% confidence interval 1.27-1.45); 2) the follow-up survey (1.24, 1.09-1.39), and 3) primary care records (1.56, 1.50-1.62).

Discussion

Our findings support increased prevalence of mental illness in people with psoriasis and eczema across multiple data sources, which should be considered in planning of mental health services. However, we found poor agreement in disease ascertainment between settings, with implications for data interpretation in electronic health records.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S417176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10421744; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10421744?pdf=render +35913736,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045,Impact of cancer diagnosis on distribution and trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations in the USA between 2004 and 2017.,"Kobo O, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Gevaert S, Rana JS, Van Spall HGC, Roguin A, Petersen SE, Ky B, Mamas MA.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2022,2022-10-01,N,Prognosis; trends; Cardio- Oncology,,,"

Background and aims

There is limited data on temporal trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations and outcomes amongst cancer patients. We describe the distribution, trends of admissions, and in-hospital mortality associated with key cardiovascular diseases among cancer patients in the USA between 2004 and 2017.

Methods

Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample we, identified admissions with five cardiovascular diseases of interest: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pulmonary embolism (PE), ischaemic stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter, and intracranial haemorrhage. Patients were stratified by cancer status and type. We estimated crude annual rates of hospitalizations and annual in-hospital all-cause mortality rates.

Results

From >42.5 million hospitalizations with a primary cardiovascular diagnosis, 1.9 million (4.5%) had a concurrent record of cancer. Between 2004 and 2017, cardiovascular admission rates increased by 23.2% in patients with cancer, whilst decreasing by 10.9% in patients without cancer. The admission rate increased among cancer patients across all admission causes and cancer types except prostate cancer. Patients with haematological (9.7-13.5), lung (7.4-8.9), and GI cancer (4.6-6.3) had the highest crude rates of cardiovascular hospitalizations per 100 000 US population. Heart failure was the most common reason for cardiovascular admission in patients across all cancer types, except GI cancer (crude admission rates of 13.6-16.6 per 100 000 US population for patients with cancer).

Conclusions

In contrast to declining trends in patients without cancer, primary cardiovascular admissions in patients with cancer is increasing. The highest admission rates are in patients with haematological cancer, and the most common cause of admission is heart failure.",,pdf:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/01GTEZMFA3PQ4FR2HWVVMJE1PP/file/01GTEZP5YQ68PC7TFPP52TS6QR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045 35193920,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055773,Investigating the optimal handling of uncertain pregnancy episodes in the CPRD GOLD Pregnancy Register: a methodological study using UK primary care data.,"Campbell J, Bhaskaran K, Thomas S, Williams R, McDonald HI, Minassian C.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-02-22,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Maternal Medicine,,,"

Objectives

To investigate why episodes of pregnancy identified from electronic health records may be incomplete or conflicting (overlapping), and provide guidance on how to handle them.

Setting

Pregnancy Register generated from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD UK primary care database.

Participants

Female patients with at least one pregnancy episode in the Register (01 January 1937-31 December 2017) which had no recorded outcome or conflicted with another episode.

Design

We identified multiple scenarios potentially explaining why uncertain episodes occur. Criteria were established and systematically applied to determine whether episodes had evidence of each scenario. Linked Hospital Episode Statistics were used to identify pregnancy events not captured in primary care.

Results

Of 5.8 million pregnancy episodes in the Register, 932 604 (16%) had no recorded outcome, and 478 341 (8.5%) conflicted with another episode (251 026 distinct conflicting pairs of episodes among 210 593 women). 826 146 (89%) of the episodes without outcome recorded in primary care and 215 577 (86%) of the conflicting pairs were consistent with one or more of our proposed scenarios. For 689 737 (74%) episodes with recorded outcome missing and 215 544 (86%) of the conflicting pairs (at least one episode), supportive evidence (eg, antenatal records, linked hospital records) suggested they were true and current pregnancies. Furthermore, 516 818 (55 %) and 160 936 (64%), respectively, were during research quality follow-up time. For a sizeable proportion of uncertain episode, there is evidence to suggest that historical outcomes being recorded by the general practitioner during an ongoing pregnancy may offer explanation (73 208 (29.2%) and 349 874 (37.5%)).

Conclusions

This work provides insight to users of the CPRD Pregnancy Register on why uncertain pregnancy episodes exist and indicates that most of these episodes are likely to be real pregnancies. Guidance is given to help researchers consider whether to include/exclude uncertain pregnancies from their studies, and how to tailor approaches to minimise underestimation and bias.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e055773.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055773; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8867343; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8867343?pdf=render 35386996,https://doi.org/10.3389/falgy.2021.677677,Purinergic Receptors in the Airways: Potential Therapeutic Targets for Asthma?,"Thompson RJ, Sayers I, Kuokkanen K, Hall IP.",,Frontiers in allergy,2021,2021-05-31,Y,Lung; Bioinformatics; Asthma; airway; Gene Expression; purinergic receptor; Purinergic Signaling,,,"Extracellular ATP functions as a signaling messenger through its actions on purinergic receptors, and is known to be involved in numerous physiological and pathophysiological processes throughout the body, including in the lungs and airways. Consequently, purinergic receptors are considered to be promising therapeutic targets for many respiratory diseases, including asthma. This review explores how online bioinformatics resources combined with recently generated datasets can be utilized to investigate purinergic receptor gene expression in tissues and cell types of interest in respiratory disease to identify potential therapeutic targets, which can then be investigated further. These approaches show that different purinergic receptors are expressed at different levels in lung tissue, and that purinergic receptors tend to be expressed at higher levels in immune cells and at more moderate levels in airway structural cells. Notably, P2RX1, P2RX4, P2RX7, P2RY1, P2RY11, and P2RY14 were revealed as the most highly expressed purinergic receptors in lung tissue, therefore suggesting that these receptors have good potential as therapeutic targets for asthma and other respiratory diseases.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/falgy.2021.677677/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/falgy.2021.677677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974712; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974712?pdf=render -35913736,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045,Impact of cancer diagnosis on distribution and trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations in the USA between 2004 and 2017.,"Kobo O, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Gevaert S, Rana JS, Van Spall HGC, Roguin A, Petersen SE, Ky B, Mamas MA.",,European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes,2022,2022-10-01,N,Prognosis; trends; Cardio- Oncology,,,"

Background and aims

There is limited data on temporal trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations and outcomes amongst cancer patients. We describe the distribution, trends of admissions, and in-hospital mortality associated with key cardiovascular diseases among cancer patients in the USA between 2004 and 2017.

Methods

Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample we, identified admissions with five cardiovascular diseases of interest: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pulmonary embolism (PE), ischaemic stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter, and intracranial haemorrhage. Patients were stratified by cancer status and type. We estimated crude annual rates of hospitalizations and annual in-hospital all-cause mortality rates.

Results

From >42.5 million hospitalizations with a primary cardiovascular diagnosis, 1.9 million (4.5%) had a concurrent record of cancer. Between 2004 and 2017, cardiovascular admission rates increased by 23.2% in patients with cancer, whilst decreasing by 10.9% in patients without cancer. The admission rate increased among cancer patients across all admission causes and cancer types except prostate cancer. Patients with haematological (9.7-13.5), lung (7.4-8.9), and GI cancer (4.6-6.3) had the highest crude rates of cardiovascular hospitalizations per 100 000 US population. Heart failure was the most common reason for cardiovascular admission in patients across all cancer types, except GI cancer (crude admission rates of 13.6-16.6 per 100 000 US population for patients with cancer).

Conclusions

In contrast to declining trends in patients without cancer, primary cardiovascular admissions in patients with cancer is increasing. The highest admission rates are in patients with haematological cancer, and the most common cause of admission is heart failure.",,pdf:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/01GTEZMFA3PQ4FR2HWVVMJE1PP/file/01GTEZP5YQ68PC7TFPP52TS6QR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045 35189884,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-07607-0,Factors influencing follow-up care post-TIA and minor stroke: a qualitative study using the theoretical domains framework.,"Turner GM, Aquino MRJV, Atkins L, Foy R, Mant J, Calvert M.",,BMC health services research,2022,2022-02-21,Y,Follow-up; Transient Ischaemic Attack; Tia; Minor Stroke; Theoretical Domains Framework,,,"

Background

Follow-up care after transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke has been found to be sub-optimal, with individuals often feeling abandoned. We aimed to explore factors influencing holistic follow-up care after TIA and minor stroke.

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews with 24 healthcare providers (HCPs): 5 stroke doctors, 4 nurses, 9 allied health professionals and 6 general practitioners. Participants were recruited from three TIA clinics, seven general practices and one community care trust in the West Midlands, England. Interview transcripts were deductively coded using the Theoretical Domains Framework and themes were generated from coded data.

Results

There was no clear pathway for supporting people with TIA or minor stroke after rapid specialist review in hospital; consequently, these patients had limited access to HCPs from all settings ('Environmental context and resources'). There was lack of understanding of potential needs post-TIA/minor stroke, in particular residual problems such as anxiety/fatigue ('Knowledge'). Identification and management of needs was largely influenced by HCPs' perceived role, professional training ('Social professional role and identity') and time constraints ('Environmental context and resources'). Follow-up was often passive - with onerous on patients to seek support - and predominantly focused on acute medical management ('Intentions'/'Goal').

Conclusions

Follow-up care post-TIA/minor stroke is currently sub-optimal. Through identifying factors which influence follow-up, we can inform guidelines and practical strategies to improve holistic healthcare.",,pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12913-022-07607-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-07607-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859903?pdf=render 35251129,https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.818574,Calculating Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) in UK Biobank: A Practical Guide for Epidemiologists.,"Collister JA, Liu X, Clifton L.",,Frontiers in genetics,2022,2022-02-18,Y,Polygenic Score; Genetic Risk Score; Uk Biobank; Polygenic Risk Score; Worked Example,,,"A polygenic risk score estimates the genetic risk of an individual for some disease or trait, calculated by aggregating the effect of many common variants associated with the condition. With the increasing availability of genetic data in large cohort studies such as the UK Biobank, inclusion of this genetic risk as a covariate in statistical analyses is becoming more widespread. Previously this required specialist knowledge, but as tooling and data availability have improved it has become more feasible for statisticians and epidemiologists to calculate existing scores themselves for use in analyses. While tutorial resources exist for conducting genome-wide association studies and generating of new polygenic risk scores, fewer guides exist for the simple calculation and application of existing genetic scores. This guide outlines the key steps of this process: selection of suitable polygenic risk scores from the literature, extraction of relevant genetic variants and verification of their quality, calculation of the risk score and key considerations of its inclusion in statistical models, using the UK Biobank imputed data as a model data set. Many of the techniques in this guide will generalize to other datasets, however we also focus on some of the specific techniques required for using data in the formats UK Biobank have selected. This includes some of the challenges faced when working with large numbers of variants, where the computation time required by some tools is impractical. While we have focused on only a couple of tools, which may not be the best ones for every given aspect of the process, one barrier to working with genetic data is the sheer volume of tools available, and the difficulty for a novice to assess their viability. By discussing in depth a couple of tools that are adequate for the calculation even at large scale, we hope to make polygenic risk scores more accessible to a wider range of researchers.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.818574/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.818574; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8894758; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8894758?pdf=render 37542272,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02948-x,Common mental health disorders in adults with inflammatory skin conditions: nationwide population-based matched cohort studies in the UK.,"Henderson AD, Adesanya E, Mulick A, Matthewman J, Vu N, Davies F, Smith CH, Hayes J, Mansfield KE, Langan SM.",,BMC medicine,2023,2023-08-04,Y,Depression; Anxiety; Skin Disease; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Background

Psoriasis and atopic eczema are common inflammatory skin diseases. Existing research has identified increased risks of common mental disorders (anxiety, depression) in people with eczema and psoriasis; however, explanations for the associations remain unclear. We aimed to establish the risk factors for mental illness in those with eczema or psoriasis and identify the population groups most at risk.

Methods

We used routinely collected data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD. Adults registered with a general practice in CPRD (1997-2019) were eligible for inclusion. Individuals with eczema/psoriasis were matched (age, sex, practice) to up to five adults without eczema/psoriasis. We used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for hazards of anxiety or depression in people with eczema/psoriasis compared to people without. We adjusted for known confounders (deprivation, asthma [eczema], psoriatic arthritis [psoriasis], Charlson comorbidity index, calendar period) and potential mediators (harmful alcohol use, body mass index [BMI], smoking status, and, in eczema only, sleep quality [insomnia diagnoses, specific sleep problem medications] and high-dose oral glucocorticoids).

Results

We identified two cohorts with and without eczema (1,032,782, matched to 4,990,125 without), and with and without psoriasis (366,884, matched to 1,834,330 without). Sleep quality was imbalanced in the eczema cohorts, twice as many people with eczema had evidence of poor sleep at baseline than those without eczema, including over 20% of those with severe eczema. After adjusting for potential confounders and mediators, eczema and psoriasis were associated with anxiety (adjusted HR [95% CI]: eczema 1.14 [1.13-1.16], psoriasis 1.17 [1.15-1.19]) and depression (adjusted HR [95% CI]: eczema 1.11 [1.1-1.12], psoriasis 1.21 [1.19-1.22]). However, we found evidence that these increased hazards are unlikely to be constant over time and were especially high 1-year after study entry.

Conclusions

Atopic eczema and psoriasis are associated with increased incidence of anxiety and depression in adults. These associations may be mediated through known modifiable risk factors, especially sleep quality in people with eczema. Our findings highlight potential opportunities for the prevention of anxiety and depression in people with eczema/psoriasis through treatment of modifiable risk factors and enhanced eczema/psoriasis management.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02948-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403838; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403838?pdf=render +33560344,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067,Association of Metformin with Susceptibility to COVID-19 in People with Type 2 Diabetes.,"Wang J, Cooper JM, Gokhale K, Acosta-Mena D, Dhalla S, Byne N, Chandan JS, Anand A, Okoth K, Subramanian A, Bangash MN, Jackson T, Zemedikun D, Taverner T, Hanif W, Ghosh S, Narendran P, Toulis KA, Tahrani AA, Surenthirakumaran R, Adderley NJ, Haroon S, Khunti K, Sainsbury C, Thomas GN, Nirantharakumar K.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2021,2021-04-01,Y,Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Metformin; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Infection,,,"

Objective

Diabetes has emerged as an important risk factor for mortality from COVID-19. Metformin, the most commonly prescribed glucose-lowering agent, has been proposed to influence susceptibility to and outcomes of COVID-19 via multiple mechanisms. We investigated whether, in patients with diabetes, metformin is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 and its outcomes.

Research design and methods

We performed a propensity score-matched cohort study with active comparators using a large UK primary care dataset. Adults with type 2 diabetes patients and a current prescription for metformin and other glucose-lowering agents (MF+) were compared to those with a current prescription for glucose-lowering agents that did not include metformin (MF-). Outcomes were confirmed COVID-19, suspected/confirmed COVID-19, and associated mortality. A negative control outcome analysis (back pain) was also performed.

Results

There were 29 558 and 10 271 patients in the MF+ and MF- groups, respectively, who met the inclusion criteria. In the propensity score-matched analysis, the adjusted hazard ratios for suspected/confirmed COVID-19, confirmed COVID-19, and COVID-19-related mortality were 0.85 (95% CI 0.67, 1.08), 0.80 (95% CI 0.49, 1.30), and 0.87 (95% CI 0.34, 2.20) respectively. The negative outcome control analysis did not suggest unobserved confounding.

Conclusion

Current prescription of metformin was not associated with the risk of COVID-19 or COVID-19-related mortality. It is safe to continue prescribing metformin to improve glycemic control in patients with.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/106/5/1255/41848481/dgab067.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928949 32702311,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30392-2,Effect of delays in the 2-week-wait cancer referral pathway during the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer survival in the UK: a modelling study.,"Sud A, Torr B, Jones ME, Broggio J, Scott S, Loveday C, Garrett A, Gronthoud F, Nicol DL, Jhanji S, Boyce SA, Williams M, Riboli E, Muller DC, Kipps E, Larkin J, Navani N, Swanton C, Lyratzopoulos G, McFerran E, Lawler M, Houlston R, Turnbull C.",,The Lancet. Oncology,2020,2020-07-20,Y,,,,"

Background

During the COVID-19 lockdown, referrals via the 2-week-wait urgent pathway for suspected cancer in England, UK, are reported to have decreased by up to 84%. We aimed to examine the impact of different scenarios of lockdown-accumulated backlog in cancer referrals on cancer survival, and the impact on survival per referred patient due to delayed referral versus risk of death from nosocomial infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Methods

In this modelling study, we used age-stratified and stage-stratified 10-year cancer survival estimates for patients in England, UK, for 20 common tumour types diagnosed in 2008-17 at age 30 years and older from Public Health England. We also used data for cancer diagnoses made via the 2-week-wait referral pathway in 2013-16 from the Cancer Waiting Times system from NHS Digital. We applied per-day hazard ratios (HRs) for cancer progression that we generated from observational studies of delay to treatment. We quantified the annual numbers of cancers at stage I-III diagnosed via the 2-week-wait pathway using 2-week-wait age-specific and stage-specific breakdowns. From these numbers, we estimated the aggregate number of lives and life-years lost in England for per-patient delays of 1-6 months in presentation, diagnosis, or cancer treatment, or a combination of these. We assessed three scenarios of a 3-month period of lockdown during which 25%, 50%, and 75% of the normal monthly volumes of symptomatic patients delayed their presentation until after lockdown. Using referral-to-diagnosis conversion rates and COVID-19 case-fatality rates, we also estimated the survival increment per patient referred.

Findings

Across England in 2013-16, an average of 6281 patients with stage I-III cancer were diagnosed via the 2-week-wait pathway per month, of whom 1691 (27%) would be predicted to die within 10 years from their disease. Delays in presentation via the 2-week-wait pathway over a 3-month lockdown period (with an average presentational delay of 2 months per patient) would result in 181 additional lives and 3316 life-years lost as a result of a backlog of referrals of 25%, 361 additional lives and 6632 life-years lost for a 50% backlog of referrals, and 542 additional lives and 9948 life-years lost for a 75% backlog in referrals. Compared with all diagnostics for the backlog being done in month 1 after lockdown, additional capacity across months 1-3 would result in 90 additional lives and 1662 live-years lost due to diagnostic delays for the 25% backlog scenario, 183 additional lives and 3362 life-years lost under the 50% backlog scenario, and 276 additional lives and 5075 life-years lost under the 75% backlog scenario. However, a delay in additional diagnostic capacity with provision spread across months 3-8 after lockdown would result in 401 additional lives and 7332 life-years lost due to diagnostic delays under the 25% backlog scenario, 811 additional lives and 14 873 life-years lost under the 50% backlog scenario, and 1231 additional lives and 22 635 life-years lost under the 75% backlog scenario. A 2-month delay in 2-week-wait investigatory referrals results in an estimated loss of between 0·0 and 0·7 life-years per referred patient, depending on age and tumour type.

Interpretation

Prompt provision of additional capacity to address the backlog of diagnostics will minimise deaths as a result of diagnostic delays that could add to those predicted due to expected presentational delays. Prioritisation of patient groups for whom delay would result in most life-years lost warrants consideration as an option for mitigating the aggregate burden of mortality in patients with cancer.

Funding

None.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10107201/1/Lyratzopoulos_main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30392-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116538; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116538?pdf=render 33453763,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(21)00005-4,Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the detection and management of colorectal cancer in England: a population-based study.,"Morris EJA, Goldacre R, Spata E, Mafham M, Finan PJ, Shelton J, Richards M, Spencer K, Emberson J, Hollings S, Curnow P, Gair D, Sebag-Montefiore D, Cunningham C, Rutter MD, Nicholson BD, Rashbass J, Landray M, Collins R, Casadei B, Baigent C.",,The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology,2021,2021-01-15,Y,,,,"

Background

There are concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on cancer care but there is little direct evidence to quantify any effect. This study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the detection and management of colorectal cancer in England.

Methods

Data were extracted from four population-based datasets spanning NHS England (the National Cancer Cancer Waiting Time Monitoring, Monthly Diagnostic, Secondary Uses Service Admitted Patient Care and the National Radiotherapy datasets) for all referrals, colonoscopies, surgical procedures, and courses of rectal radiotherapy from Jan 1, 2019, to Oct 31, 2020, related to colorectal cancer in England. Differences in patterns of care were investigated between 2019 and 2020. Percentage reductions in monthly numbers and proportions were calculated.

Findings

As compared to the monthly average in 2019, in April, 2020, there was a 63% (95% CI 53-71) reduction (from 36 274 to 13 440) in the monthly number of 2-week referrals for suspected cancer and a 92% (95% CI 89-95) reduction in the number of colonoscopies (from 46 441 to 3484). Numbers had just recovered by October, 2020. This resulted in a 22% (95% CI 8-34) relative reduction in the number of cases referred for treatment (from a monthly average of 2781 in 2019 to 2158 referrals in April, 2020). By October, 2020, the monthly rate had returned to 2019 levels but did not exceed it, suggesting that, from April to October, 2020, over 3500 fewer people had been diagnosed and treated for colorectal cancer in England than would have been expected. There was also a 31% (95% CI 19-42) relative reduction in the numbers receiving surgery in April, 2020, and a lower proportion of laparoscopic and a greater proportion of stoma-forming procedures, relative to the monthly average in 2019. By October, 2020, laparoscopic surgery and stoma rates were similar to 2019 levels. For rectal cancer, there was a 44% (95% CI 17-76) relative increase in the use of neoadjuvant radiotherapy in April, 2020, relative to the monthly average in 2019, due to greater use of short-course regimens. Although in June, 2020, there was a drop in the use of short-course regimens, rates remained above 2019 levels until October, 2020.

Interpretation

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sustained reduction in the number of people referred, diagnosed, and treated for colorectal cancer. By October, 2020, achievement of care pathway targets had returned to 2019 levels, albeit with smaller volumes of patients and with modifications to usual practice. As pressure grows in the NHS due to the second wave of COVID-19, urgent action is needed to address the growing burden of undetected and untreated colorectal cancer in England.

Funding

Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, NHS Digital, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(21)00005-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(21)00005-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808901; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808901?pdf=render -33560344,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067,Association of Metformin with Susceptibility to COVID-19 in People with Type 2 Diabetes.,"Wang J, Cooper JM, Gokhale K, Acosta-Mena D, Dhalla S, Byne N, Chandan JS, Anand A, Okoth K, Subramanian A, Bangash MN, Jackson T, Zemedikun D, Taverner T, Hanif W, Ghosh S, Narendran P, Toulis KA, Tahrani AA, Surenthirakumaran R, Adderley NJ, Haroon S, Khunti K, Sainsbury C, Thomas GN, Nirantharakumar K.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2021,2021-04-01,Y,Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Metformin; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Infection,,,"

Objective

Diabetes has emerged as an important risk factor for mortality from COVID-19. Metformin, the most commonly prescribed glucose-lowering agent, has been proposed to influence susceptibility to and outcomes of COVID-19 via multiple mechanisms. We investigated whether, in patients with diabetes, metformin is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 and its outcomes.

Research design and methods

We performed a propensity score-matched cohort study with active comparators using a large UK primary care dataset. Adults with type 2 diabetes patients and a current prescription for metformin and other glucose-lowering agents (MF+) were compared to those with a current prescription for glucose-lowering agents that did not include metformin (MF-). Outcomes were confirmed COVID-19, suspected/confirmed COVID-19, and associated mortality. A negative control outcome analysis (back pain) was also performed.

Results

There were 29 558 and 10 271 patients in the MF+ and MF- groups, respectively, who met the inclusion criteria. In the propensity score-matched analysis, the adjusted hazard ratios for suspected/confirmed COVID-19, confirmed COVID-19, and COVID-19-related mortality were 0.85 (95% CI 0.67, 1.08), 0.80 (95% CI 0.49, 1.30), and 0.87 (95% CI 0.34, 2.20) respectively. The negative outcome control analysis did not suggest unobserved confounding.

Conclusion

Current prescription of metformin was not associated with the risk of COVID-19 or COVID-19-related mortality. It is safe to continue prescribing metformin to improve glycemic control in patients with.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/106/5/1255/41848481/dgab067.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928949 37006331,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad041,Polygenic risk score prediction of multiple sclerosis in individuals of South Asian ancestry.,"Breedon JR, Marshall CR, Giovannoni G, van Heel DA, Genes & Health Research Team , Dobson R, Jacobs BM.",,Brain communications,2023,2023-02-22,Y,Genetics; Multiple sclerosis; Ethnicity,,,"Polygenic risk scores aggregate an individual's burden of risk alleles to estimate the overall genetic risk for a specific trait or disease. Polygenic risk scores derived from genome-wide association studies of European populations perform poorly for other ancestral groups. Given the potential for future clinical utility, underperformance of polygenic risk scores in South Asian populations has the potential to reinforce health inequalities. To determine whether European-derived polygenic risk scores underperform at multiple sclerosis prediction in a South Asian-ancestry population compared with a European-ancestry cohort, we used data from two longitudinal genetic cohort studies: Genes & Health (2015-present), a study of ∼50 000 British-Bangladeshi and British-Pakistani individuals, and UK Biobank (2006-present), which is comprised of ∼500 000 predominantly White British individuals. We compared individuals with and without multiple sclerosis in both studies (Genes & Health: N Cases = 42, N Control = 40 490; UK Biobank: N Cases = 2091, N Control = 374 866). Polygenic risk scores were calculated using clumping and thresholding with risk allele effect sizes obtained from the largest multiple sclerosis genome-wide association study to date. Scores were calculated with and without the major histocompatibility complex region, the most influential locus in determining multiple sclerosis risk. Polygenic risk score prediction was evaluated using Nagelkerke's pseudo-R 2 metric adjusted for case ascertainment, age, sex and the first four genetic principal components. We found that, as expected, European-derived polygenic risk scores perform poorly in the Genes & Health cohort, explaining 1.1% (including the major histocompatibility complex) and 1.5% (excluding the major histocompatibility complex) of disease risk. In contrast, multiple sclerosis polygenic risk scores explained 4.8% (including the major histocompatibility complex) and 2.8% (excluding the major histocompatibility complex) of disease risk in European-ancestry UK Biobank participants. These findings suggest that polygenic risk score prediction of multiple sclerosis based on European genome-wide association study results is less accurate in a South Asian population. Genetic studies of ancestrally diverse populations are required to ensure that polygenic risk scores can be useful across ancestries.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/5/2/fcad041/49521070/fcad041.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad041; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053643?pdf=render -36998408,https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340,A longitudinal study reveals persistence of antimicrobial resistance on livestock farms is not due to antimicrobial usage alone.,"Smith RP, May HE, AbuOun M, Stubberfield E, Gilson D, Chau KK, Crook DW, Shaw LP, Read DS, Stoesser N, Vilar MJ, Anjum MF.",,Frontiers in microbiology,2023,2023-03-14,Y,Sheep; Cattle; Pigs; Antimicrobial resistance; Longitudinal; Antimicrobial Usage,,,"

Introduction

There are concerns that antimicrobial usage (AMU) is driving an increase in multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria so treatment of microbial infections is becoming harder in humans and animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors, including usage, that affect antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on farm over time.

Methods

A population of 14 cattle, sheep and pig farms within a defined area of England were sampled three times over a year to collect data on AMR in faecal Enterobacterales flora; AMU; and husbandry or management practices. Ten pooled samples were collected at each visit, with each comprising of 10 pinches of fresh faeces. Up to 14 isolates per visit were whole genome sequenced to determine presence of AMR genes.

Results

Sheep farms had very low AMU in comparison to the other species and very few sheep isolates were genotypically resistant at any time point. AMR genes were detected persistently across pig farms at all visits, even on farms with low AMU, whereas AMR bacteria was consistently lower on cattle farms than pigs, even for those with comparably high AMU. MDR bacteria was also more commonly detected on pig farms than any other livestock species.

Discussion

The results may be explained by a complex combination of factors on pig farms including historic AMU; co-selection of AMR bacteria; variation in amounts of antimicrobials used between visits; potential persistence in environmental reservoirs of AMR bacteria; or importation of pigs with AMR microbiota from supplying farms. Pig farms may also be at increased risk of AMR due to the greater use of oral routes of group antimicrobial treatment, which were less targeted than cattle treatments; the latter mostly administered to individual animals. Also, farms which exhibited either increasing or decreasing trends of AMR across the study did not have corresponding trends in their AMU. Therefore, our results suggest that factors other than AMU on individual farms are important for persistence of AMR bacteria on farms, which may be operating at the farm and livestock species level.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416?pdf=render -34337345,https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038,Validation of Wearable Camera Still Images to Assess Posture in Free-Living Conditions.,"Martinez J, Decker A, Cho CC, Doherty A, Swartz AM, Staudenmayer JW, Strath SJ.",,Journal for the measurement of physical behaviour,2021,2021-02-24,N,Activpal; Autographer; Objective Measuring,,,"

Purpose

To assess the convergent validity of body worn wearable camera (WC) still-images (IMGs) for determining posture compared with activPAL (AP) classifications.

Methods

Participants (n=16, mean age 46.7±23.8yrs, 9F) wore an Autographer WC above the xyphoid process and an AP during three, 2hr free-living visits. IMGs were captured on average 8.47 seconds apart and were annotated with output consisting of events, transitory states, unknown and gaps. Events were annotations that matched AP classifications (sit, stand and move) consisting of at least 3 IMGs, transitory states were posture annotations fewer than 3 IMGs, unknown were IMGs that could not be accurately classified, and gaps were time between annotations. For analyses, annotation and AP output were converted to one-sec epochs and matched second-by-second. Total and average length of visits and events are reported in minutes. Bias and 95% CIs for event posture times from IMGs to AP posture times were calculated to determine accuracy and precision. Confusion matrices using total AP posture times were computed to determine misclassification.

Results

43 visits were analyzed with a total visit and event time of 5027.73 and 4237.23 minutes and average visit and event lengths being 116.92 and 98.54 minutes, respectively. Bias was not statistically significant for sitting but significant for standing and movement (0.84, -6.87 and 6.04 minutes). From confusion matrices, IMGs correctly classified sitting, standing and movement 85.69%, 54.87%, and 69.41% of total AP time, respectively.

Conclusion

WC IMGs provide a good estimation of overall sitting time but underestimate standing and overestimate movement time. Future work is warranted to improve posture classifications and examine IMG accuracy and precision in assessing activity type behaviors.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8320753; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038 34468736,https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euab162,Comparing clinical performance of current implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation recommendations in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.,"Bosman LP, Bosman LP, Nielsen Gerlach CL, Cadrin-Tourigny J, Orgeron G, Tichnell C, Murray B, Bourfiss M, van der Heijden JF, Yap SC, Zeppenfeld K, van den Berg MP, Wilde AAM, Asselbergs FW, Tandri H, Calkins H, van Tintelen JP, James CA, Te Riele ASJM.",,"Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology",2022,2022-02-01,Y,Prognosis; Risk stratification; Ventricular Arrhythmias; Implantable Cardioverter-defibrillator; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy,,,"

Aims

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) patients have an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias (VA). Four implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) recommendation algorithms are available The International Task Force Consensus ('ITFC'), an ITFC modification by Orgeron et al. ('mITFC'), the AHA/HRS/ACC guideline for VA management ('AHA'), and the HRS expert consensus statement ('HRS'). This study aims to validate and compare the performance of these algorithms in ARVC.

Methods and results

We classified 617 definite ARVC patients (38.5 ± 15.1 years, 52.4% male, 39.2% prior sustained VA) according to four algorithms. Clinical performance was evaluated by sensitivity, specificity, ROC-analysis, and decision curve analysis for any sustained VA and for fast VA (>250 b.p.m.). During 6.4 [2.8-11.5] years follow-up, 282 (45.7%) patients experienced any sustained VA, and 63 (10.2%) fast VA. For any sustained VA, ITFC and mITFC provide higher sensitivity than AHA and HRS (94.0-97.8% vs. 76.7-83.5%), but lower specificity (15.9-32.0% vs. 42.7%-60.1%). Similarly, for fast VA, ITFC and mITFC provide higher sensitivity than AHA and HRS (95.2-97.1% vs. 76.7-78.4%) but lower specificity (42.7-43.1 vs. 76.7-78.4%). Decision curve analysis showed ITFC and mITFC to be superior for a 5-year sustained VA risk ICD indication threshold between 5-25% or 2-9% for fast VA.

Conclusion

The ITFC and mITFC provide the highest protection rates, whereas AHA and HRS decrease unnecessary ICD placements. ITFC or mITFC should be used if we consider the 5-year threshold for ICD indication to lie within 5-25% for sustained VA or 2-9% for fast VA. These data will inform decision-making for ICD placement in ARVC.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/europace/article-pdf/24/2/296/42370389/euab162.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euab162; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8824519; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8824519?pdf=render 35144751,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.045,Echocardiographic Deformation Imaging for Early Detection of Genetic Cardiomyopathies: JACC Review Topic of the Week.,"Taha K, Kirkels FP, Teske AJ, Asselbergs FW, van Tintelen JP, Doevendans PA, Kutty S, Haugaa KH, Cramer MJ.",,Journal of the American College of Cardiology,2022,2022-02-01,N,Early Detection; Speckle Tracking; Family Screening; Deformation Imaging; Genetic Cardiomyopathy,,,"Clinical screening of the relatives of patients with genetic cardiomyopathies is challenging, as they often lack detectable cardiac abnormalities at presentation. Life-threatening adverse events can already occur in these early stages of disease, so sensitive tools to reveal the earliest signs of disease are needed. The utility of echocardiographic deformation imaging for early detection has been explored for this population in multiple studies but has not been broadly implemented in clinical practice. The authors discuss contemporary evidence on the utility of deformation imaging in relatives of patients with genetic cardiomyopathies. The available body of data shows that deformation imaging reveals early disease-specific abnormalities in dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. Deformation imaging seems promising to enhance the screening and follow-up protocols in relatives, and the authors propose measures to accelerate its implementation in clinical care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.045; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.045 -32619549,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012,Ultra-High-Throughput Clinical Proteomics Reveals Classifiers of COVID-19 Infection.,"Messner CB, Demichev V, Wendisch D, Michalick L, White M, Freiwald A, Textoris-Taube K, Vernardis SI, Egger AS, Kreidl M, Ludwig D, Kilian C, Agostini F, Zelezniak A, Thibeault C, Pfeiffer M, Hippenstiel S, Hocke A, von Kalle C, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Langenberg C, Lilley KS, Kuebler WM, Mülleder M, Drosten C, Suttorp N, Witzenrath M, Kurth F, Sander LE, Ralser M.",,Cell systems,2020,2020-06-02,Y,Mass spectrometry; High-throughput Proteomics; Swath-ms; Antiviral Immune Response; Clinical Classifiers; Covid-19 Infection,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global challenge, and point-of-care diagnostic classifiers are urgently required. Here, we present a platform for ultra-high-throughput serum and plasma proteomics that builds on ISO13485 standardization to facilitate simple implementation in regulated clinical laboratories. Our low-cost workflow handles up to 180 samples per day, enables high precision quantification, and reduces batch effects for large-scale and longitudinal studies. We use our platform on samples collected from a cohort of early hospitalized cases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and identify 27 potential biomarkers that are differentially expressed depending on the WHO severity grade of COVID-19. They include complement factors, the coagulation system, inflammation modulators, and pro-inflammatory factors upstream and downstream of interleukin 6. All protocols and software for implementing our approach are freely available. In total, this work supports the development of routine proteomic assays to aid clinical decision making and generate hypotheses about potential COVID-19 therapeutic targets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7264033 +36998408,https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340,A longitudinal study reveals persistence of antimicrobial resistance on livestock farms is not due to antimicrobial usage alone.,"Smith RP, May HE, AbuOun M, Stubberfield E, Gilson D, Chau KK, Crook DW, Shaw LP, Read DS, Stoesser N, Vilar MJ, Anjum MF.",,Frontiers in microbiology,2023,2023-03-14,Y,Sheep; Cattle; Pigs; Antimicrobial resistance; Longitudinal; Antimicrobial Usage,,,"

Introduction

There are concerns that antimicrobial usage (AMU) is driving an increase in multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria so treatment of microbial infections is becoming harder in humans and animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors, including usage, that affect antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on farm over time.

Methods

A population of 14 cattle, sheep and pig farms within a defined area of England were sampled three times over a year to collect data on AMR in faecal Enterobacterales flora; AMU; and husbandry or management practices. Ten pooled samples were collected at each visit, with each comprising of 10 pinches of fresh faeces. Up to 14 isolates per visit were whole genome sequenced to determine presence of AMR genes.

Results

Sheep farms had very low AMU in comparison to the other species and very few sheep isolates were genotypically resistant at any time point. AMR genes were detected persistently across pig farms at all visits, even on farms with low AMU, whereas AMR bacteria was consistently lower on cattle farms than pigs, even for those with comparably high AMU. MDR bacteria was also more commonly detected on pig farms than any other livestock species.

Discussion

The results may be explained by a complex combination of factors on pig farms including historic AMU; co-selection of AMR bacteria; variation in amounts of antimicrobials used between visits; potential persistence in environmental reservoirs of AMR bacteria; or importation of pigs with AMR microbiota from supplying farms. Pig farms may also be at increased risk of AMR due to the greater use of oral routes of group antimicrobial treatment, which were less targeted than cattle treatments; the latter mostly administered to individual animals. Also, farms which exhibited either increasing or decreasing trends of AMR across the study did not have corresponding trends in their AMU. Therefore, our results suggest that factors other than AMU on individual farms are important for persistence of AMR bacteria on farms, which may be operating at the farm and livestock species level.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416?pdf=render +34337345,https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038,Validation of Wearable Camera Still Images to Assess Posture in Free-Living Conditions.,"Martinez J, Decker A, Cho CC, Doherty A, Swartz AM, Staudenmayer JW, Strath SJ.",,Journal for the measurement of physical behaviour,2021,2021-02-24,N,Activpal; Autographer; Objective Measuring,,,"

Purpose

To assess the convergent validity of body worn wearable camera (WC) still-images (IMGs) for determining posture compared with activPAL (AP) classifications.

Methods

Participants (n=16, mean age 46.7±23.8yrs, 9F) wore an Autographer WC above the xyphoid process and an AP during three, 2hr free-living visits. IMGs were captured on average 8.47 seconds apart and were annotated with output consisting of events, transitory states, unknown and gaps. Events were annotations that matched AP classifications (sit, stand and move) consisting of at least 3 IMGs, transitory states were posture annotations fewer than 3 IMGs, unknown were IMGs that could not be accurately classified, and gaps were time between annotations. For analyses, annotation and AP output were converted to one-sec epochs and matched second-by-second. Total and average length of visits and events are reported in minutes. Bias and 95% CIs for event posture times from IMGs to AP posture times were calculated to determine accuracy and precision. Confusion matrices using total AP posture times were computed to determine misclassification.

Results

43 visits were analyzed with a total visit and event time of 5027.73 and 4237.23 minutes and average visit and event lengths being 116.92 and 98.54 minutes, respectively. Bias was not statistically significant for sitting but significant for standing and movement (0.84, -6.87 and 6.04 minutes). From confusion matrices, IMGs correctly classified sitting, standing and movement 85.69%, 54.87%, and 69.41% of total AP time, respectively.

Conclusion

WC IMGs provide a good estimation of overall sitting time but underestimate standing and overestimate movement time. Future work is warranted to improve posture classifications and examine IMG accuracy and precision in assessing activity type behaviors.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8320753; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038 31443926,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(19)31674-5,Medium and long-term risks of specific cardiovascular diseases in survivors of 20 adult cancers: a population-based cohort study using multiple linked UK electronic health records databases.,"Strongman H, Gadd S, Matthews A, Mansfield KE, Stanway S, Lyon AR, Dos-Santos-Silva I, Smeeth L, Bhaskaran K.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2019,2019-08-20,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Background

The past few decades have seen substantial improvements in cancer survival, but concerns exist about long-term cardiovascular disease risk in survivors. Evidence is scarce on the risks of specific cardiovascular diseases in survivors of a wide range of cancers to inform prevention and management. In this study, we used large-scale electronic health records data from multiple linked UK databases to address these evidence gaps.

Methods

For this population-based cohort study, we used linked primary care, hospital, and cancer registry data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink to identify cohorts of survivors of the 20 most common cancers who were 18 years or older and alive 12 months after diagnosis and controls without history of cancer, matched for age, sex, and general practice. We compared risks for a range of cardiovascular disease outcomes using crude and adjusted Cox models. We fitted interactions to investigate effect modification, and flexible parametric survival models to estimate absolute excess risks over time.

Findings

Between Jan 1, 1990, and Dec 31, 2015, 126 120 individuals with a diagnosis of a cancer of interest still being followed up at least 1 year later were identified and matched to 630 144 controls. After exclusions, 108 215 cancer survivors and 523 541 controls were included in the main analyses. Venous thromboembolism risk was elevated in survivors of 18 of 20 site-specific cancers compared with that of controls; adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) ranged from 1·72 (95% CI 1·57-1·89) in patients after prostate cancer to 9·72 (5·50-17·18) after pancreatic cancer. HRs decreased over time, but remained elevated more than 5 years after diagnosis. We observed increased risks of heart failure or cardiomyopathy in patients after ten of 20 cancers, including haematological (adjusted HR 1·94, 1·66-2·25, with non-Hodgkin lymphoma; 1·77, 1·50-2·09, with leukaemia; and 3·29, 2·59-4·18, with multiple myeloma), oesophageal (1·96, 1·46-2·64), lung (1·82, 1·52-2·17) kidney (1·73, 1·38-2·17) and ovarian (1·59, 1·19-2·12). Elevated risks of arrhythmia, pericarditis, coronary artery disease, stroke, and valvular heart disease were also observed for multiple cancers, including haematological malignancies. HRs for heart failure or cardiomyopathy and venous thromboembolism were greater in patients without previous cardiovascular disease and in younger patients. However, absolute excess risks were generally greater with increasing age. Increased risks of these outcomes seemed most pronounced in patients who had received chemotherapy.

Interpretation

Survivors of most site-specific cancers had increased medium-term to long-term risk for one or more cardiovascular diseases compared with that for the general population, with substantial variations between cancer sites.

Funding

Wellcome Trust and Royal Society.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673619316745/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31674-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6857444; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6857444?pdf=render -33724919,https://doi.org/10.2196/26627,Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Analysis of Public Attitudes on Facebook and Twitter Toward COVID-19 Vaccines in the United Kingdom and the United States: Observational Study.,"Hussain A, Tahir A, Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Gogate M, Dashtipour K, Ali A, Sheikh A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2021,2021-04-05,Y,Artificial intelligence; Vaccination; Public Health; Health Informatics; Natural Language Processing; Facebook; Social Media; Twitter; Sentiment Analysis; Infodemiology; Deep Learning; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Global efforts toward the development and deployment of a vaccine for COVID-19 are rapidly advancing. To achieve herd immunity, widespread administration of vaccines is required, which necessitates significant cooperation from the general public. As such, it is crucial that governments and public health agencies understand public sentiments toward vaccines, which can help guide educational campaigns and other targeted policy interventions.

Objective

The aim of this study was to develop and apply an artificial intelligence-based approach to analyze public sentiments on social media in the United Kingdom and the United States toward COVID-19 vaccines to better understand the public attitude and concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

Over 300,000 social media posts related to COVID-19 vaccines were extracted, including 23,571 Facebook posts from the United Kingdom and 144,864 from the United States, along with 40,268 tweets from the United Kingdom and 98,385 from the United States from March 1 to November 22, 2020. We used natural language processing and deep learning-based techniques to predict average sentiments, sentiment trends, and topics of discussion. These factors were analyzed longitudinally and geospatially, and manual reading of randomly selected posts on points of interest helped identify underlying themes and validated insights from the analysis.

Results

Overall averaged positive, negative, and neutral sentiments were at 58%, 22%, and 17% in the United Kingdom, compared to 56%, 24%, and 18% in the United States, respectively. Public optimism over vaccine development, effectiveness, and trials as well as concerns over their safety, economic viability, and corporation control were identified. We compared our findings to those of nationwide surveys in both countries and found them to correlate broadly.

Conclusions

Artificial intelligence-enabled social media analysis should be considered for adoption by institutions and governments alongside surveys and other conventional methods of assessing public attitude. Such analyses could enable real-time assessment, at scale, of public confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccines, help address the concerns of vaccine sceptics, and help develop more effective policies and communication strategies to maximize uptake.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26627/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/26627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023383 -33825703,https://doi.org/10.1107/s2059798321000826,Vagabond: bond-based parametrization reduces overfitting for refinement of proteins.,Ginn HM.,,"Acta crystallographica. Section D, Structural biology",2021,2021-03-30,Y,Models; X-ray diffraction; Protein Flexibility; Bonds; Refinement Software,,,"Structural biology methods have delivered over 150 000 high-resolution structures of macromolecules, which have fundamentally altered our understanding of biology and our approach to developing new medicines. However, the description of molecular flexibility is instrinsically flawed and in almost all cases, regardless of the experimental method used for structure determination, there remains a strong overfitting bias during molecular model building and refinement. In the worst case this can lead to wholly incorrect structures and thus incorrect biological interpretations. Here, by reparametrizing the description of these complex structures in terms of bonds rather than atomic positions, and by modelling flexibility using a deterministic ensemble of structures, it is demonstrated that structures can be described using fewer parameters than in conventional refinement. The current implementation, applied to X-ray diffraction data, significantly reduces the extent of overfitting, allowing the experimental data to reveal more biological information in electron-density maps.",,pdf:https://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2021/04/00/qj5007/qj5007.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798321000826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884?pdf=render +32619549,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012,Ultra-High-Throughput Clinical Proteomics Reveals Classifiers of COVID-19 Infection.,"Messner CB, Demichev V, Wendisch D, Michalick L, White M, Freiwald A, Textoris-Taube K, Vernardis SI, Egger AS, Kreidl M, Ludwig D, Kilian C, Agostini F, Zelezniak A, Thibeault C, Pfeiffer M, Hippenstiel S, Hocke A, von Kalle C, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Langenberg C, Lilley KS, Kuebler WM, Mülleder M, Drosten C, Suttorp N, Witzenrath M, Kurth F, Sander LE, Ralser M.",,Cell systems,2020,2020-06-02,Y,Mass spectrometry; High-throughput Proteomics; Swath-ms; Antiviral Immune Response; Clinical Classifiers; Covid-19 Infection,,,"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global challenge, and point-of-care diagnostic classifiers are urgently required. Here, we present a platform for ultra-high-throughput serum and plasma proteomics that builds on ISO13485 standardization to facilitate simple implementation in regulated clinical laboratories. Our low-cost workflow handles up to 180 samples per day, enables high precision quantification, and reduces batch effects for large-scale and longitudinal studies. We use our platform on samples collected from a cohort of early hospitalized cases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and identify 27 potential biomarkers that are differentially expressed depending on the WHO severity grade of COVID-19. They include complement factors, the coagulation system, inflammation modulators, and pro-inflammatory factors upstream and downstream of interleukin 6. All protocols and software for implementing our approach are freely available. In total, this work supports the development of routine proteomic assays to aid clinical decision making and generate hypotheses about potential COVID-19 therapeutic targets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7264033 33184391,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76816-6,Prediction of vascular aging based on smartphone acquired PPG signals.,"Dall'Olio L, Curti N, Remondini D, Safi Harb Y, Asselbergs FW, Castellani G, Uh HW.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-11-12,Y,,,,"Photoplethysmography (PPG) measured by smartphone has the potential for a large scale, non-invasive, and easy-to-use screening tool. Vascular aging is linked to increased arterial stiffness, which can be measured by PPG. We investigate the feasibility of using PPG to predict healthy vascular aging (HVA) based on two approaches: machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL). We performed data preprocessing, including detrending, demodulating, and denoising on the raw PPG signals. For ML, ridge penalized regression has been applied to 38 features extracted from PPG, whereas for DL several convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been applied to the whole PPG signals as input. The analysis has been conducted using the crowd-sourced Heart for Heart data. The prediction performance of ML using two features (AUC of 94.7%) - the a wave of the second derivative PPG and tpr, including four covariates, sex, height, weight, and smoking - was similar to that of the best performing CNN, 12-layer ResNet (AUC of 95.3%). Without having the heavy computational cost of DL, ML might be advantageous in finding potential biomarkers for HVA prediction. The whole workflow of the procedure is clearly described, and open software has been made available to facilitate replication of the results.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76816-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76816-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7661535; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7661535?pdf=render -33782080,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512,Impact of COVID-19 national lockdown on asthma exacerbations: interrupted time-series analysis of English primary care data.,"Shah SA, Quint JK, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A.",,Thorax,2021,2021-03-29,Y,Asthma; Asthma Epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The impact of COVID-19 and ensuing national lockdown on asthma exacerbations is unclear.

Methods

We conducted an interrupted time-series (lockdown on 23 March 2020 as point of interruption) analysis in asthma cohort identified using a validated algorithm from a national-level primary care database, the Optimum Patient Care Database. We derived asthma exacerbation rates for every week and compared exacerbation rates in the period: January to August 2020 with a pre-COVID-19 period and January to August 2016-2019. Exacerbations were defined as asthma-related hospital attendance/admission (including accident and emergency visit), or an acute course of oral corticosteroids with evidence of respiratory review, as recorded in primary care. We used a generalised least squares modelling approach and stratified the analyses by age, sex, English region and healthcare setting.

Results

From a database of 9 949 387 patients, there were 100 165 patients with asthma who experienced at least one exacerbation during 2016-2020. Of 278 996 exacerbation episodes, 49 938 (17.9%) required hospital visit. Comparing pre-lockdown to post-lockdown period, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the level (-0.196 episodes per person-year; p<0.001; almost 20 episodes for every 100 patients with asthma per year) of exacerbation rates across all patients. The reductions in level in stratified analyses were: 0.005-0.244 (healthcare setting, only those without hospital attendance/admission were significant), 0.210-0.277 (sex), 0.159-0.367 (age), 0.068-0.590 (region).

Conclusions

There has been a significant reduction in attendance to primary care for asthma exacerbations during the pandemic. This reduction was observed in all age groups, both sexes and across most regions in England.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/9/860.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425?pdf=render -34581777,https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453,G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 regulates thrombin signaling in platelets via PAR-1.,"Downes K, Zhao X, Gleadall NS, McKinney H, Kempster C, Batista J, Thomas PL, Cooper M, Michael JV, Kreuzhuber R, Wedderburn K, Waller K, Varney B, Verdier H, Kriek N, Ashford SE, Stirrups KE, Dunster JL, McKenzie SE, Ouwehand WH, Gibbins JM, Yang J, Astle WJ, Ma P.",,Blood advances,2022,2022-04-01,Y,,,,"The interindividual variation in the functional response of platelets to activation by agonists is heritable. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of quantitative measures of platelet function have identified fewer than 20 distinctly associated variants, some with unknown mechanisms. Here, we report GWASs of pathway-specific functional responses to agonism by adenosine 5'-diphosphate, a glycoprotein VI-specific collagen mimetic, and thrombin receptor-agonist peptides, each specific to 1 of the G protein-coupled receptors PAR-1 and PAR-4, in subsets of 1562 individuals. We identified an association (P = 2.75 × 10-40) between a common intronic variant, rs10886430, in the G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 gene (GRK5) and the sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. The variant resides in a megakaryocyte-specific enhancer that is bound by the transcription factors GATA1 and MEIS1. The minor allele (G) is associated with fewer GRK5 transcripts in platelets and the greater sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. We show that thrombin-mediated activation of human platelets causes binding of GRK5 to PAR-1 and that deletion of the mouse homolog Grk5 enhances thrombin-induced platelet activation sensitivity and increases platelet accumulation at the site of vascular injury. This corroborates evidence that the human G allele of rs10886430 is associated with a greater risk for cardiovascular disease. In summary, by combining the results of pathway-specific GWASs and expression quantitative trait locus studies in humans with the results from platelet function studies in Grk5-/- mice, we obtain evidence that GRK5 regulates the human platelet response to thrombin via the PAR-1 pathway.",,pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/6/7/2319/1886257/advancesadv2021005453.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276?pdf=render +33724919,https://doi.org/10.2196/26627,Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Analysis of Public Attitudes on Facebook and Twitter Toward COVID-19 Vaccines in the United Kingdom and the United States: Observational Study.,"Hussain A, Tahir A, Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Gogate M, Dashtipour K, Ali A, Sheikh A.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2021,2021-04-05,Y,Artificial intelligence; Vaccination; Public Health; Health Informatics; Natural Language Processing; Facebook; Social Media; Twitter; Sentiment Analysis; Infodemiology; Deep Learning; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Global efforts toward the development and deployment of a vaccine for COVID-19 are rapidly advancing. To achieve herd immunity, widespread administration of vaccines is required, which necessitates significant cooperation from the general public. As such, it is crucial that governments and public health agencies understand public sentiments toward vaccines, which can help guide educational campaigns and other targeted policy interventions.

Objective

The aim of this study was to develop and apply an artificial intelligence-based approach to analyze public sentiments on social media in the United Kingdom and the United States toward COVID-19 vaccines to better understand the public attitude and concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

Over 300,000 social media posts related to COVID-19 vaccines were extracted, including 23,571 Facebook posts from the United Kingdom and 144,864 from the United States, along with 40,268 tweets from the United Kingdom and 98,385 from the United States from March 1 to November 22, 2020. We used natural language processing and deep learning-based techniques to predict average sentiments, sentiment trends, and topics of discussion. These factors were analyzed longitudinally and geospatially, and manual reading of randomly selected posts on points of interest helped identify underlying themes and validated insights from the analysis.

Results

Overall averaged positive, negative, and neutral sentiments were at 58%, 22%, and 17% in the United Kingdom, compared to 56%, 24%, and 18% in the United States, respectively. Public optimism over vaccine development, effectiveness, and trials as well as concerns over their safety, economic viability, and corporation control were identified. We compared our findings to those of nationwide surveys in both countries and found them to correlate broadly.

Conclusions

Artificial intelligence-enabled social media analysis should be considered for adoption by institutions and governments alongside surveys and other conventional methods of assessing public attitude. Such analyses could enable real-time assessment, at scale, of public confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccines, help address the concerns of vaccine sceptics, and help develop more effective policies and communication strategies to maximize uptake.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26627/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/26627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023383 30537243,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1370,"Can advanced analytics fix modern medicine's problem of uncertainty, imprecision, and inaccuracy?","Ahmad T, Freeman JV, Asselbergs FW.",,European journal of heart failure,2019,2018-12-10,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1370 33043790,https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076820961776,Advancing UK regulatory science and innovation in healthcare.,"Calvert MJ, Marston E, Samuels M, Rivera SC, Torlinska B, Oliver K, Denniston AK, Hoare S.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2021,2020-10-12,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0141076820961776; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076820961776; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7809339; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7809339?pdf=render -34632432,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-5247(21)00128-2,Epidemiology of Mycobacterium abscessus in England: an observational study.,"Lipworth S, Hough N, Weston N, Muller-Pebody B, Phin N, Myers R, Chapman S, Flight W, Alexander E, Smith EG, Robinson E, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS, Hopkins S, Eyre DW, Walker TM.",,The Lancet. Microbe,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Mycobacterium abscessus has emerged as a significant clinical concern following reports that it is readily transmissible in health-care settings between patients with cystic fibrosis. We linked routinely collected whole-genome sequencing and health-care usage data with the aim of investigating the extent to which such transmission explains acquisition in patients with and without cystic fibrosis in England.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study, we analysed consecutive M abscessus whole-genome sequencing data from England (beginning of February, 2015, to Nov 14, 2019) to identify genomically similar isolates. Linkage to a national health-care usage database was used to investigate possible contacts between patients. Multivariable regression analysis was done to investigate factors associated with acquisition of a genomically clustered strain (genomic distance <25 single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]).

Findings

2297 isolates from 906 patients underwent whole-genome sequencing as part of the routine Public Health England diagnostic service. Of 14 genomic clusters containing isolates from ten or more patients, all but one contained patients with cystic fibrosis and patients without cystic fibrosis. Patients with cystic fibrosis were equally likely to have clustered isolates (258 [60%] of 431 patients) as those without cystic fibrosis (322 [63%] of 513 patients; p=0·38). High-density phylogenetic clusters were randomly distributed over a wide geographical area. Most isolates with a closest genetic neighbour consistent with potential transmission had no identifiable relevant epidemiological contacts. Having a clustered isolate was independently associated with increasing age (adjusted odds ratio 1·14 per 10 years, 95% CI 1·04-1·26), but not time spent as an hospital inpatient or outpatient. We identified two sibling pairs with cystic fibrosis with genetically highly divergent isolates and one pair with closely related isolates, and 25 uninfected presumed household contacts with cystic fibrosis.

Interpretation

Previously identified widely disseminated dominant clones of M abscessus are not restricted to patients with cystic fibrosis and occur in other chronic respiratory diseases. Although our analysis showed a small number of cases where person-to-person transmission could not be excluded, it did not support this being a major mechanism for M abscessus dissemination at a national level in England. Overall, these data should reassure patients and clinicians that the risk of acquisition from other patients in health-care settings is relatively low and motivate future research efforts to focus on identifying routes of acquisition outside of the cystic fibrosis health-care-associated niche.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research, Health Data Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, The Medical Research Council, and Public Health England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666524721001282/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00128-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8481905 +33825703,https://doi.org/10.1107/s2059798321000826,Vagabond: bond-based parametrization reduces overfitting for refinement of proteins.,Ginn HM.,,"Acta crystallographica. Section D, Structural biology",2021,2021-03-30,Y,Models; X-ray diffraction; Protein Flexibility; Bonds; Refinement Software,,,"Structural biology methods have delivered over 150 000 high-resolution structures of macromolecules, which have fundamentally altered our understanding of biology and our approach to developing new medicines. However, the description of molecular flexibility is instrinsically flawed and in almost all cases, regardless of the experimental method used for structure determination, there remains a strong overfitting bias during molecular model building and refinement. In the worst case this can lead to wholly incorrect structures and thus incorrect biological interpretations. Here, by reparametrizing the description of these complex structures in terms of bonds rather than atomic positions, and by modelling flexibility using a deterministic ensemble of structures, it is demonstrated that structures can be described using fewer parameters than in conventional refinement. The current implementation, applied to X-ray diffraction data, significantly reduces the extent of overfitting, allowing the experimental data to reveal more biological information in electron-density maps.",,pdf:https://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2021/04/00/qj5007/qj5007.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798321000826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884?pdf=render +34581777,https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453,G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 regulates thrombin signaling in platelets via PAR-1.,"Downes K, Zhao X, Gleadall NS, McKinney H, Kempster C, Batista J, Thomas PL, Cooper M, Michael JV, Kreuzhuber R, Wedderburn K, Waller K, Varney B, Verdier H, Kriek N, Ashford SE, Stirrups KE, Dunster JL, McKenzie SE, Ouwehand WH, Gibbins JM, Yang J, Astle WJ, Ma P.",,Blood advances,2022,2022-04-01,Y,,,,"The interindividual variation in the functional response of platelets to activation by agonists is heritable. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of quantitative measures of platelet function have identified fewer than 20 distinctly associated variants, some with unknown mechanisms. Here, we report GWASs of pathway-specific functional responses to agonism by adenosine 5'-diphosphate, a glycoprotein VI-specific collagen mimetic, and thrombin receptor-agonist peptides, each specific to 1 of the G protein-coupled receptors PAR-1 and PAR-4, in subsets of 1562 individuals. We identified an association (P = 2.75 × 10-40) between a common intronic variant, rs10886430, in the G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 gene (GRK5) and the sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. The variant resides in a megakaryocyte-specific enhancer that is bound by the transcription factors GATA1 and MEIS1. The minor allele (G) is associated with fewer GRK5 transcripts in platelets and the greater sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. We show that thrombin-mediated activation of human platelets causes binding of GRK5 to PAR-1 and that deletion of the mouse homolog Grk5 enhances thrombin-induced platelet activation sensitivity and increases platelet accumulation at the site of vascular injury. This corroborates evidence that the human G allele of rs10886430 is associated with a greater risk for cardiovascular disease. In summary, by combining the results of pathway-specific GWASs and expression quantitative trait locus studies in humans with the results from platelet function studies in Grk5-/- mice, we obtain evidence that GRK5 regulates the human platelet response to thrombin via the PAR-1 pathway.",,pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/6/7/2319/1886257/advancesadv2021005453.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276?pdf=render +33782080,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512,Impact of COVID-19 national lockdown on asthma exacerbations: interrupted time-series analysis of English primary care data.,"Shah SA, Quint JK, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A.",,Thorax,2021,2021-03-29,Y,Asthma; Asthma Epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The impact of COVID-19 and ensuing national lockdown on asthma exacerbations is unclear.

Methods

We conducted an interrupted time-series (lockdown on 23 March 2020 as point of interruption) analysis in asthma cohort identified using a validated algorithm from a national-level primary care database, the Optimum Patient Care Database. We derived asthma exacerbation rates for every week and compared exacerbation rates in the period: January to August 2020 with a pre-COVID-19 period and January to August 2016-2019. Exacerbations were defined as asthma-related hospital attendance/admission (including accident and emergency visit), or an acute course of oral corticosteroids with evidence of respiratory review, as recorded in primary care. We used a generalised least squares modelling approach and stratified the analyses by age, sex, English region and healthcare setting.

Results

From a database of 9 949 387 patients, there were 100 165 patients with asthma who experienced at least one exacerbation during 2016-2020. Of 278 996 exacerbation episodes, 49 938 (17.9%) required hospital visit. Comparing pre-lockdown to post-lockdown period, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the level (-0.196 episodes per person-year; p<0.001; almost 20 episodes for every 100 patients with asthma per year) of exacerbation rates across all patients. The reductions in level in stratified analyses were: 0.005-0.244 (healthcare setting, only those without hospital attendance/admission were significant), 0.210-0.277 (sex), 0.159-0.367 (age), 0.068-0.590 (region).

Conclusions

There has been a significant reduction in attendance to primary care for asthma exacerbations during the pandemic. This reduction was observed in all age groups, both sexes and across most regions in England.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/9/860.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425?pdf=render 31234639,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.118.038814,Use of Genetic Variants Related to Antihypertensive Drugs to Inform on Efficacy and Side Effects.,"Gill D, Georgakis MK, Koskeridis F, Jiang L, Feng Q, Wei WQ, Theodoratou E, Elliott P, Denny JC, Malik R, Evangelou E, Dehghan A, Dichgans M, Tzoulaki I.",,Circulation,2019,2019-06-25,Y,Antihypertensive drugs; Mendelian Randomization Analysis,"Better Care, The Human Phenome",,"

Background

Drug effects can be investigated through natural variation in the genes for their protein targets. The present study aimed to use this approach to explore the potential side effects and repurposing potential of antihypertensive drugs, which are among the most commonly used medications worldwide.

Methods

Genetic proxies for the effect of antihypertensive drug classes were identified as variants in the genes for the corresponding targets that associated with systolic blood pressure at genome-wide significance. Mendelian randomization estimates for drug effects on coronary heart disease and stroke risk were compared with randomized, controlled trial results. A phenome-wide association study in the UK Biobank was performed to identify potential side effects and repurposing opportunities, with findings investigated in the Vanderbilt University biobank (BioVU) and in observational analysis of the UK Biobank.

Results

Suitable genetic proxies for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, β-blockers, and calcium channel blockers (CCBs) were identified. Mendelian randomization estimates for their effect on coronary heart disease and stroke risk, respectively, were comparable to results from randomized, controlled trials against placebo. A phenome-wide association study in the UK Biobank identified an association of the CCB standardized genetic risk score with increased risk of diverticulosis (odds ratio, 1.02 per standard deviation increase; 95% CI, 1.01-1.04), with a consistent estimate found in BioVU (odds ratio, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00-1.02). Cox regression analysis of drug use in the UK Biobank suggested that this association was specific to nondihydropyridine CCBs (hazard ratio 1.49 considering thiazide diuretic agents as a comparator; 95% CI, 1.04-2.14) but not dihydropyridine CCBs (hazard ratio, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.83-1.32).

Conclusions

Genetic variants can be used to explore the efficacy and side effects of antihypertensive medications. The identified potential effect of nondihydropyridine CCBs on diverticulosis risk could have clinical implications and warrants further investigation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.118.038814; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.038814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6687408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6687408?pdf=render -34661196,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019,Pericoronary and periaortic adipose tissue density are associated with inflammatory disease activity in Takayasu arteritis and atherosclerosis.,"Wall C, Huang Y, Le EPV, Ćorović A, Uy CP, Gopalan D, Ma C, Manavaki R, Fryer TD, Aloj L, Graves MJ, Tombetti E, Ariff B, Bambrough P, Hoole SP, Rusk RA, Jayne DR, Dweck MR, Newby D, Fayad ZA, Bennett MR, Peters JE, Slomka P, Dey D, Mason JC, Rudd JHF, Tarkin JM.",,European heart journal open,2021,2021-08-06,Y,coronary artery disease; Takayasu Arteritis; Pericoronary Adipose Tissue Density,,,"

Aims

To examine pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) and periaortic adipose tissue (PAAT) density on coronary computed tomography angiography for assessing arterial inflammation in Takayasu arteritis (TAK) and atherosclerosis.

Methods and results

PCAT and PAAT density was measured in coronary (n = 1016) and aortic (n = 108) segments from 108 subjects [TAK + coronary artery disease (CAD), n = 36; TAK, n = 18; atherosclerotic CAD, n = 32; matched controls, n = 22]. Median PCAT and PAAT densities varied between groups (mPCAT: P < 0.0001; PAAT: P = 0.0002). PCAT density was 7.01 ± standard error of the mean (SEM) 1.78 Hounsfield Unit (HU) higher in coronary segments from TAK + CAD patients than stable CAD patients (P = 0.0002), and 8.20 ± SEM 2.04 HU higher in TAK patients without CAD than controls (P = 0.0001). mPCAT density was correlated with Indian Takayasu Clinical Activity Score (r = 0.43, P = 0.001) and C-reactive protein (r = 0.41, P < 0.0001) and was higher in active vs. inactive TAK (P = 0.002). mPCAT density above -74 HU had 100% sensitivity and 95% specificity for differentiating active TAK from controls [area under the curve = 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.97-1)]. The association of PCAT density and coronary arterial inflammation measured by 68Ga-DOTATATE positron emission tomography (PET) equated to an increase of 2.44 ± SEM 0.77 HU in PCAT density for each unit increase in 68Ga-DOTATATE maximum tissue-to-blood ratio (P = 0.002). These findings remained in multivariable sensitivity analyses adjusted for potential confounders.

Conclusions

PCAT and PAAT density are higher in TAK than atherosclerotic CAD or controls and are associated with clinical, biochemical, and PET markers of inflammation. Owing to excellent diagnostic accuracy, PCAT density could be useful as a clinical adjunct for assessing disease activity in TAK.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/1/2/oeab019/41727950/oeab019.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012?pdf=render +34632432,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-5247(21)00128-2,Epidemiology of Mycobacterium abscessus in England: an observational study.,"Lipworth S, Hough N, Weston N, Muller-Pebody B, Phin N, Myers R, Chapman S, Flight W, Alexander E, Smith EG, Robinson E, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS, Hopkins S, Eyre DW, Walker TM.",,The Lancet. Microbe,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Mycobacterium abscessus has emerged as a significant clinical concern following reports that it is readily transmissible in health-care settings between patients with cystic fibrosis. We linked routinely collected whole-genome sequencing and health-care usage data with the aim of investigating the extent to which such transmission explains acquisition in patients with and without cystic fibrosis in England.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study, we analysed consecutive M abscessus whole-genome sequencing data from England (beginning of February, 2015, to Nov 14, 2019) to identify genomically similar isolates. Linkage to a national health-care usage database was used to investigate possible contacts between patients. Multivariable regression analysis was done to investigate factors associated with acquisition of a genomically clustered strain (genomic distance <25 single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]).

Findings

2297 isolates from 906 patients underwent whole-genome sequencing as part of the routine Public Health England diagnostic service. Of 14 genomic clusters containing isolates from ten or more patients, all but one contained patients with cystic fibrosis and patients without cystic fibrosis. Patients with cystic fibrosis were equally likely to have clustered isolates (258 [60%] of 431 patients) as those without cystic fibrosis (322 [63%] of 513 patients; p=0·38). High-density phylogenetic clusters were randomly distributed over a wide geographical area. Most isolates with a closest genetic neighbour consistent with potential transmission had no identifiable relevant epidemiological contacts. Having a clustered isolate was independently associated with increasing age (adjusted odds ratio 1·14 per 10 years, 95% CI 1·04-1·26), but not time spent as an hospital inpatient or outpatient. We identified two sibling pairs with cystic fibrosis with genetically highly divergent isolates and one pair with closely related isolates, and 25 uninfected presumed household contacts with cystic fibrosis.

Interpretation

Previously identified widely disseminated dominant clones of M abscessus are not restricted to patients with cystic fibrosis and occur in other chronic respiratory diseases. Although our analysis showed a small number of cases where person-to-person transmission could not be excluded, it did not support this being a major mechanism for M abscessus dissemination at a national level in England. Overall, these data should reassure patients and clinicians that the risk of acquisition from other patients in health-care settings is relatively low and motivate future research efforts to focus on identifying routes of acquisition outside of the cystic fibrosis health-care-associated niche.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research, Health Data Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, The Medical Research Council, and Public Health England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666524721001282/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00128-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8481905 32212911,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.013684,Prognostic significance of troponin level in 3121 patients presenting with atrial fibrillation (The NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative TROP-AF study).,"Kaura A, Arnold AD, Panoulas V, Glampson B, Davies J, Mulla A, Woods K, Omigie J, Shah AD, Channon KM, Weber JN, Thursz MR, Elliott P, Hemingway H, Williams B, Asselbergs FW, O'Sullivan M, Lord GM, Melikian N, Lefroy DC, Francis DP, Shah AM, Kharbanda R, Perera D, Patel RS, Mayet J.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2020,2020-03-26,Y,Troponin; Mortality; Atrial fibrillation; coronary artery disease; angiography,,,"Background Patients presenting with atrial fibrillation (AF) often undergo a blood test to measure troponin, but interpretation of the result is impeded by uncertainty about its clinical importance. We investigated the relationship between troponin level, coronary angiography, and all-cause mortality in real-world patients presenting with AF. Methods and Results We used National Institute of Health Research Health Informatics Collaborative data to identify patients admitted between 2010 and 2017 at 5 tertiary centers in the United Kingdom with a primary diagnosis of AF. Peak troponin results were scaled as multiples of the upper limit of normal. A total of 3121 patients were included in the analysis. Over a median follow-up of 1462 (interquartile range, 929-1975) days, there were 586 deaths (18.8%). The adjusted hazard ratio for mortality associated with a positive troponin (value above upper limit of normal) was 1.20 (95% CI, 1.01-1.43; P<0.05). Higher troponin levels were associated with higher risk of mortality, reaching a maximum hazard ratio of 2.6 (95% CI, 1.9-3.4) at ≈250 multiples of the upper limit of normal. There was an exponential relationship between higher troponin levels and increased odds of coronary angiography. The mortality risk was 36% lower in patients undergoing coronary angiography than in those who did not (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.42-0.89; P=0.01). Conclusions Increased troponin was associated with increased risk of mortality in patients presenting with AF. The lower hazard ratio in patients undergoing invasive management raises the possibility that the clinical importance of troponin release in AF may be mediated by coronary artery disease, which may be responsive to revascularization.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.119.013684; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.013684; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7428631; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7428631?pdf=render -35751107,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1,Epigenomic analysis reveals a dynamic and context-specific macrophage enhancer landscape associated with innate immune activation and tolerance.,"Zhang P, Amarasinghe HE, Whalley JP, Tay C, Fang H, Migliorini G, Brown AC, Allcock A, Scozzafava G, Rath P, Davies B, Knight JC.",,Genome biology,2022,2022-06-24,Y,,,,"

Background

Chromatin states and enhancers associate gene expression, cell identity and disease. Here, we systematically delineate the acute innate immune response to endotoxin in terms of human macrophage enhancer activity and contrast with endotoxin tolerance, profiling the coding and non-coding transcriptome, chromatin accessibility and epigenetic modifications.

Results

We describe the spectrum of enhancers under acute and tolerance conditions and the regulatory networks between these enhancers and biological processes including gene expression, splicing regulation, transcription factor binding and enhancer RNA signatures. We demonstrate that the vast majority of differentially regulated enhancers on acute stimulation are subject to tolerance and that expression quantitative trait loci, disease-risk variants and eRNAs are enriched in these regulatory regions and related to context-specific gene expression. We find enrichment for context-specific eQTL involving endotoxin response and specific infections and delineate specific differential regions informative for GWAS variants in inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis, together with a context-specific enhancer involving a bacterial infection eQTL for KLF4. We show enrichment in differential enhancers for tolerance involving transcription factors NFκB-p65, STATs and IRFs and prioritize putative causal genes directly linking genetic variants and disease risk enhancers. We further delineate similarities and differences in epigenetic landscape between stem cell-derived macrophages and primary cells and characterize the context-specific enhancer activities for key innate immune response genes KLF4, SLAMF1 and IL2RA.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates the importance of context-specific macrophage enhancers in gene regulation and utility for interpreting disease associations, providing a roadmap to link genetic variants with molecular and cellular functions.",,pdf:https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144?pdf=render +34661196,https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019,Pericoronary and periaortic adipose tissue density are associated with inflammatory disease activity in Takayasu arteritis and atherosclerosis.,"Wall C, Huang Y, Le EPV, Ćorović A, Uy CP, Gopalan D, Ma C, Manavaki R, Fryer TD, Aloj L, Graves MJ, Tombetti E, Ariff B, Bambrough P, Hoole SP, Rusk RA, Jayne DR, Dweck MR, Newby D, Fayad ZA, Bennett MR, Peters JE, Slomka P, Dey D, Mason JC, Rudd JHF, Tarkin JM.",,European heart journal open,2021,2021-08-06,Y,coronary artery disease; Takayasu Arteritis; Pericoronary Adipose Tissue Density,,,"

Aims

To examine pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) and periaortic adipose tissue (PAAT) density on coronary computed tomography angiography for assessing arterial inflammation in Takayasu arteritis (TAK) and atherosclerosis.

Methods and results

PCAT and PAAT density was measured in coronary (n = 1016) and aortic (n = 108) segments from 108 subjects [TAK + coronary artery disease (CAD), n = 36; TAK, n = 18; atherosclerotic CAD, n = 32; matched controls, n = 22]. Median PCAT and PAAT densities varied between groups (mPCAT: P < 0.0001; PAAT: P = 0.0002). PCAT density was 7.01 ± standard error of the mean (SEM) 1.78 Hounsfield Unit (HU) higher in coronary segments from TAK + CAD patients than stable CAD patients (P = 0.0002), and 8.20 ± SEM 2.04 HU higher in TAK patients without CAD than controls (P = 0.0001). mPCAT density was correlated with Indian Takayasu Clinical Activity Score (r = 0.43, P = 0.001) and C-reactive protein (r = 0.41, P < 0.0001) and was higher in active vs. inactive TAK (P = 0.002). mPCAT density above -74 HU had 100% sensitivity and 95% specificity for differentiating active TAK from controls [area under the curve = 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.97-1)]. The association of PCAT density and coronary arterial inflammation measured by 68Ga-DOTATATE positron emission tomography (PET) equated to an increase of 2.44 ± SEM 0.77 HU in PCAT density for each unit increase in 68Ga-DOTATATE maximum tissue-to-blood ratio (P = 0.002). These findings remained in multivariable sensitivity analyses adjusted for potential confounders.

Conclusions

PCAT and PAAT density are higher in TAK than atherosclerotic CAD or controls and are associated with clinical, biochemical, and PET markers of inflammation. Owing to excellent diagnostic accuracy, PCAT density could be useful as a clinical adjunct for assessing disease activity in TAK.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/1/2/oeab019/41727950/oeab019.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012?pdf=render 31657946,https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201903-0673oc,Long-Term Outcomes after Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Older Adults. A Registry-based Cohort Study.,"Maiden MJ, Cameron PA, Rosenfeld JV, Cooper DJ, McLellan S, Gabbe BJ.",,American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine,2020,2020-01-01,N,Elderly; Brain trauma; Functional Performance; Critical Care Outcomes,,,"Rationale: Older adults (≥65 yr old) account for an increasing proportion of patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet clinical trials and outcome studies contain relatively few of these patients.Objectives: To determine functional status 6 months after severe TBI in older adults, changes in this status over 2 years, and outcome covariates.Methods: This was a registry-based cohort study of older adults who were admitted to hospitals in Victoria, Australia, between 2007 and 2016 with severe TBI. Functional status was assessed with Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE) 6, 12, and 24 months after injury. Cohort subgroups were defined by admission to an ICU. Features associated with functional outcome were assessed from the ICU subgroup.Measurements and Main Results: The study included 540 older adults who had been hospitalized with severe TBI over the 10-year period; 428 (79%) patients died in hospital, and 456 (84%) died 6 months after injury. There were 277 patients who had not been admitted to an ICU; at 6 months, 268 (97%) had died, 8 (3%) were dependent (GOSE 2-4), and 1 (0.4%) was functionally independent (GOSE 5-8). There were 263 patients who had been admitted to an ICU; at 6 months, 188 (73%) had died, 39 (15%) were dependent, and 32 (12%) were functionally independent. These proportions did not change over longer follow-up. The only clinical features associated with a lower rate of functional independence were Injury Severity Score ≥25 (adjusted odds ratio, 0.24 [95% confidence interval, 0.09-0.67]; P = 0.007) and older age groups (P = 0.017).Conclusions: Severe TBI in older adults is a condition with very high mortality, and few recover to functional independence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201903-0673OC +35751107,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1,Epigenomic analysis reveals a dynamic and context-specific macrophage enhancer landscape associated with innate immune activation and tolerance.,"Zhang P, Amarasinghe HE, Whalley JP, Tay C, Fang H, Migliorini G, Brown AC, Allcock A, Scozzafava G, Rath P, Davies B, Knight JC.",,Genome biology,2022,2022-06-24,Y,,,,"

Background

Chromatin states and enhancers associate gene expression, cell identity and disease. Here, we systematically delineate the acute innate immune response to endotoxin in terms of human macrophage enhancer activity and contrast with endotoxin tolerance, profiling the coding and non-coding transcriptome, chromatin accessibility and epigenetic modifications.

Results

We describe the spectrum of enhancers under acute and tolerance conditions and the regulatory networks between these enhancers and biological processes including gene expression, splicing regulation, transcription factor binding and enhancer RNA signatures. We demonstrate that the vast majority of differentially regulated enhancers on acute stimulation are subject to tolerance and that expression quantitative trait loci, disease-risk variants and eRNAs are enriched in these regulatory regions and related to context-specific gene expression. We find enrichment for context-specific eQTL involving endotoxin response and specific infections and delineate specific differential regions informative for GWAS variants in inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis, together with a context-specific enhancer involving a bacterial infection eQTL for KLF4. We show enrichment in differential enhancers for tolerance involving transcription factors NFκB-p65, STATs and IRFs and prioritize putative causal genes directly linking genetic variants and disease risk enhancers. We further delineate similarities and differences in epigenetic landscape between stem cell-derived macrophages and primary cells and characterize the context-specific enhancer activities for key innate immune response genes KLF4, SLAMF1 and IL2RA.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates the importance of context-specific macrophage enhancers in gene regulation and utility for interpreting disease associations, providing a roadmap to link genetic variants with molecular and cellular functions.",,pdf:https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144?pdf=render 34737870,https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.15003,Research priorities to address the global burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the next decade.,"Adeloye D, Agarwal D, Barnes PJ, Bonay M, van Boven JF, Bryant J, Caramori G, Dockrell D, D'Urzo A, Ekström M, Erhabor G, Esteban C, Greene CM, Hurst J, Juvekar S, Khoo EM, Ko FW, Lipworth B, López-Campos JL, Maddocks M, Mannino DM, Martinez FJ, Martinez-Garcia MA, McNamara RJ, Miravitlles M, Pinnock H, Pooler A, Quint JK, Schwarz P, Slavich GM, Song P, Tai A, Watz H, Wedzicha JA, Williams MC, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I.",,Journal of global health,2021,2021-10-09,Y,,,,"

Background

The global prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased markedly in recent decades. Given the scarcity of resources available to address global health challenges and respiratory medicine being relatively under-invested in, it is important to define research priorities for COPD globally. In this paper, we aim to identify a ranked set of COPD research priorities that need to be addressed in the next 10 years to substantially reduce the global impact of COPD.

Methods

We adapted the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methodology to identify global COPD research priorities.

Results

62 experts contributed 230 research ideas, which were scored by 34 researchers according to six pre-defined criteria: answerability, effectiveness, feasibility, deliverability, burden reduction, and equity. The top-ranked research priority was the need for new effective strategies to support smoking cessation. Of the top 20 overall research priorities, six were focused on feasible and cost-effective pulmonary rehabilitation delivery and access, particularly in primary/community care and low-resource settings. Three of the top 10 overall priorities called for research on improved screening and accurate diagnostic methods for COPD in low-resource primary care settings. Further ideas that drew support involved a better understanding of risk factors for COPD, development of effective training programmes for health workers and physicians in low resource settings, and evaluation of novel interventions to encourage physical activity.

Conclusions

The experts agreed that the most pressing feasible research questions to address in the next decade for COPD reduction were on prevention, diagnosis and rehabilitation of COPD, especially in low resource settings. The largest gains should be expected in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) settings, as the large majority of COPD deaths occur in those settings. Research priorities identified by this systematic international process should inform and motivate policymakers, funders, and researchers to support and conduct research to reduce the global burden of COPD.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.15003; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.15003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8542376; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8542376?pdf=render 35907789,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04838-0,fcfdr: an R package to leverage continuous and binary functional genomic data in GWAS.,"Hutchinson A, Liley J, Wallace C.",,BMC bioinformatics,2022,2022-07-30,Y,Functional genomics; Power; FDR; Gwas; Multiple Testing,,,"

Background

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are limited in power to detect associations that exceed the stringent genome-wide significance threshold. This limitation can be alleviated by leveraging relevant auxiliary data, such as functional genomic data. Frameworks utilising the conditional false discovery rate have been developed for this purpose, and have been shown to increase power for GWAS discovery whilst controlling the false discovery rate. However, the methods are currently only applicable for continuous auxiliary data and cannot be used to leverage auxiliary data with a binary representation, such as whether SNPs are synonymous or non-synonymous, or whether they reside in regions of the genome with specific activity states.

Results

We describe an extension to the cFDR framework for binary auxiliary data, called ""Binary cFDR"". We demonstrate FDR control of our method using detailed simulations, and show that Binary cFDR performs better than a comparator method in terms of sensitivity and FDR control. We introduce an all-encompassing user-oriented CRAN R package ( https://annahutch.github.io/fcfdr/ ; https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/fcfdr/index.html ) and demonstrate its utility in an application to type 1 diabetes, where we identify additional genetic associations.

Conclusions

Our all-encompassing R package, fcfdr, serves as a comprehensive toolkit to unite GWAS and functional genomic data in order to increase statistical power to detect genetic associations.",,pdf:https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12859-022-04838-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04838-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9338519; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9338519?pdf=render -32685697,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1,The contribution of pre-symptomatic infection to the transmission dynamics of COVID-2019.,"Liu Y, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases nCoV Working Group, Funk S, Flasche S.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-04-01,Y,Incubation period; Serial Interval; Covid-19; Pre-symptomatic Transmission,,,"Background: Pre-symptomatic transmission can be a key determinant of the effectiveness of containment and mitigation strategies for infectious diseases, particularly if interventions rely on syndromic case finding. For COVID-19, infections in the absence of apparent symptoms have been reported frequently alongside circumstantial evidence for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission. We estimated the potential contribution of pre-symptomatic cases to COVID-19 transmission. Methods: Using the probability for symptom onset on a given day inferred from the incubation period, we attributed the serial interval reported from Shenzen, China, into likely pre-symptomatic and symptomatic transmission. We used the serial interval derived for cases isolated more than 6 days after symptom onset as the no active case finding scenario and the unrestricted serial interval as the active case finding scenario. We reported the estimate assuming no correlation between the incubation period and the serial interval alongside a range indicating alternative assumptions of positive and negative correlation. Results: We estimated that 23% (range accounting for correlation: 12 - 28%) of transmissions in Shenzen may have originated from pre-symptomatic infections. Through accelerated case isolation following symptom onset, this percentage increased to 46% (21 - 46%), implying that about 35% of secondary infections among symptomatic cases have been prevented. These results were robust to using reported incubation periods and serial intervals from other settings. Conclusions: Pre-symptomatic transmission may be essential to consider for containment and mitigation strategies for COVID-19.",,pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-58/v1/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944?pdf=render 31863937,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105333,A systematic review of the association between fault or blame-related attributions and procedures after transport injury and health and work-related outcomes.,"Giummarra MJ, Lau G, Grant G, Gabbe BJ.",,Accident; analysis and prevention,2020,2019-12-19,N,Depression; Recovery; Pain; Anxiety; Mental health; Ptsd; Fault; Road Trauma; Transport Injury,,,"Attributions of fault are often associated with worse injury outcomes; however, the consistency and magnitude of these impacts is not known. This review examined the prognostic role of fault on health, mental health, pain and work outcomes after transport injury. A systematic search of five electronic databases (Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library) yielded 16,324 records published between 2000 and January 2018. Eligibility criteria were: adult transport injury survivors; prospective design; multivariable analysis; fault-related factor analysed; pain, mental health, general health or work-related outcome. Citations (n = 10,558, excluding duplicates) and full text articles (n = 555) were screened manually (Reviewer 1), and using concurrent machine learning and text mining (Reviewer 2; using Abstrackr, WordStat and QDA miner). Data from 55 papers that met all inclusion criteria were extracted, papers were evaluated for risk of bias using the QUIPS tool, and overall level of evidence was assessed using the GRADE tool. There were six main fault-related factors classified as: fault or responsibility, fault-based compensation, lawyer involvement or litigation, blame or guilt, road user or position in vehicle, and impact direction. Overall there were inconsistent associations between fault and transport injury outcomes, and 60% of papers had high risk of bias. There was moderate evidence that fault-based compensation claims were associated with poorer health-related outcomes, and that lawyer involvement was associated with poorer work outcomes beyond 12 months post-injury. However, the evidence of negative associations between fault-based compensation claims and work-related outcomes was limited. Lawyer involvement and fault-based compensation claims were associated with adverse mental health outcomes six months post-injury, but not beyond 12 months. The most consistent associations between fault and negative outcomes were not for fault attributions, per se, but were related to fault-related procedures (e.g., lawyer engagement, fault-based compensation claims).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105333 32255392,https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2019.1709650,Non-invasive Instrument-Based Tests for Quantifying Anterior Chamber Flare in Uveitis: A Systematic Review.,"Liu X, McNally TW, Beese S, Downie LE, Solebo AL, Faes L, Husain S, Keane PA, Moore DJ, Denniston AK.",,Ocular immunology and inflammation,2021,2020-04-07,N,"Diagnostic test; Systematic review; Uveitis; optical coherence tomography; Laser Flare Photometry; Anterior Chamber Flare; Tyndall Effect; Aqueous Humor, Aqueous Humour; Aqueous Protein Concentration",,,"Purpose: Anterior chamber (AC) flare is a key sign for anterior uveitis. New instrument-based techniques for measuring AC flare can offer automation and objectivity. This review aims to identify objective instrument-based measures for AC flare.Methods: In this systematic review, we identified studies reporting correlation between instrument-based tests versus clinician AC flare grading, and/or aqueous protein concentration, as well as test reliability.Results: Four index tests were identified in 11 studies: laser-flare photometry (LFP), optical coherence tomography, ocular flare analysis meter (OFAM) and the double-pass technique. The correlation between LFP and clinician grading was 0.40-0.93 and 0.87-0.94 for LFP and protein concentration. The double-pass technique showed no correlation with clinician grading and insufficient information was available for OFAM.Conclusion: LFP shows moderate to strong correlation with clinician grading and aqueous protein concentration. LFP could be a superior reference test compared to clinician AC flare grading for validating new index tests.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10097154/3/Solebo_Liu%20AC%20Flare%20SR%20290919.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2019.1709650 +32685697,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1,The contribution of pre-symptomatic infection to the transmission dynamics of COVID-2019.,"Liu Y, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases nCoV Working Group, Funk S, Flasche S.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-04-01,Y,Incubation period; Serial Interval; Covid-19; Pre-symptomatic Transmission,,,"Background: Pre-symptomatic transmission can be a key determinant of the effectiveness of containment and mitigation strategies for infectious diseases, particularly if interventions rely on syndromic case finding. For COVID-19, infections in the absence of apparent symptoms have been reported frequently alongside circumstantial evidence for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission. We estimated the potential contribution of pre-symptomatic cases to COVID-19 transmission. Methods: Using the probability for symptom onset on a given day inferred from the incubation period, we attributed the serial interval reported from Shenzen, China, into likely pre-symptomatic and symptomatic transmission. We used the serial interval derived for cases isolated more than 6 days after symptom onset as the no active case finding scenario and the unrestricted serial interval as the active case finding scenario. We reported the estimate assuming no correlation between the incubation period and the serial interval alongside a range indicating alternative assumptions of positive and negative correlation. Results: We estimated that 23% (range accounting for correlation: 12 - 28%) of transmissions in Shenzen may have originated from pre-symptomatic infections. Through accelerated case isolation following symptom onset, this percentage increased to 46% (21 - 46%), implying that about 35% of secondary infections among symptomatic cases have been prevented. These results were robust to using reported incubation periods and serial intervals from other settings. Conclusions: Pre-symptomatic transmission may be essential to consider for containment and mitigation strategies for COVID-19.",,pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-58/v1/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944?pdf=render 35520099,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1718,"What makes administrative data ""research-ready""? A systematic review and thematic analysis of published literature.","Grath-Lone LM, Jay MA, Blackburn R, Gordon E, Zylbersztejn A, Wiljaars L, Gilbert R.",,International journal of population data science,2022,2022-04-27,Y,Systematic review; Administrative Data; Thematic Analysis; Research-ready,,,"

Introduction

Administrative data are a valuable research resource, but are under-utilised in the UK due to governance, technical and other barriers (e.g., the time and effort taken to gain secure data access). In recent years, there has been considerable government investment in making administrative data ""research-ready"", but there is no definition of what this term means. A common understanding of what constitutes research-ready administrative data is needed to establish clear principles and frameworks for their development and the realisation of their full research potential.

Objective

To define the characteristics of research-ready administrative data based on a systematic review and synthesis of existing literature.

Methods

On 29th June 2021, we systematically searched seven electronic databases for (1) peer-reviewed literature (2) related to research-ready administrative data (3) written in the English language. Following supplementary searches and snowball screening, we conducted a thematic analysis of the identified relevant literature.

Results

Overall, we screened 2,375 records and identified 38 relevant studies published between 2012 and 2021. Most related to administrative data from the UK and US and particularly to health data. The term research-ready was used inconsistently in the literature and there was some conflation with the concept of data being ready for statistical analysis. From the thematic analysis, we identified five defining characteristics of research-ready administrative data: (a) accessible, (b) broad, (c) curated, (d) documented and (e) enhanced for research purposes.

Conclusions

Our proposed characteristics of research-ready administrative data could act as a starting point to help data owners and researchers develop common principles and standards. In the more immediate term, the proposed characteristics are a useful framework for cataloguing existing research-ready administrative databases and relevant resources that can support their development.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1718; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9052961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9052961?pdf=render 33021418,https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2020.1799038,Noninvasive Instrument-based Tests for Detecting and Measuring Vitreous Inflammation in Uveitis: A Systematic Review.,"Liu X, Hui BT, Way C, Beese S, Adriano A, Keane PA, Moore DJ, Denniston AK.",,Ocular immunology and inflammation,2022,2020-10-06,Y,Imaging; Diagnostic test; Systematic review; Vitreous; ultrasound; Uveitis; optical coherence tomography; Vitritis; Retinal Photography; Vitreous Inflammation,,,"

Purpose

This systematic review aims to identify instrument-based tests for quantifying vitreous inflammation in uveitis, report the test reliability and the level of correlation with clinician grading.

Methods

Studies describing instrument-based tests for detecting vitreous inflammation were identified by searching bibliographic databases and trials registers. Test reliability measures and level of correlation with clinician vitreous haze grading are extracted.

Results

Twelve studies describing ultrasound, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and retinal photography for detecting vitreous inflammation were included: Ultrasound was used for detection of disease features, whereas OCT and retinal photography provided quantifiable measurements. Correlation with clinician grading for OCT was 0.53-0.60 (three studies) and for retinal photography was 0.51 (1 study). Both instruments showed high inter- and intra-observer reliability (>0.70 intraclass correlation and Cohen's kappa), where reported in four studies.

Conclusion

Retinal photography and OCT are able to detect and measure vitreous inflammation. Both techniques are reliable, automatable, and warrant further evaluation.",,pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09273948.2020.1799038?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2020.1799038; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935946; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935946?pdf=render 32623924,https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.119.14302,Estimated 24-Hour Urinary Sodium Excretion and Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality Among 398 628 Individuals in UK Biobank.,"Elliott P, Muller DC, Schneider-Luftman D, Pazoki R, Evangelou E, Dehghan A, Neal B, Tzoulaki I.",,"Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)",2020,2020-07-06,N,Cardiovascular diseases; Mortality; Blood pressure; risk,,,"We report on an analysis to explore the association between estimated 24-hour urinary sodium excretion (surrogate for sodium intake) and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. Data were obtained from 398 628 UK Biobank prospective cohort study participants (40-69 years) recruited between 2006 and 2010, with no history of CVD, renal disease, diabetes mellitus or cancer, and cardiovascular events and mortality recorded during follow-up. Hazard ratios between 24-hour sodium excretion were estimated from spot urinary sodium concentrations across incident CVD and its components and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. In restricted cubic splines analyses, there was little evidence for an association between estimated 24-hour sodium excretion and CVD, coronary heart disease, or stroke; hazard ratios for CVD (95% CIs) for the 15th and 85th percentiles (2.5 and 4.2 g/day, respectively) compared with the 50th percentile of estimated sodium excretion (3.2 g/day) were 1.05 (1.01-1.10) and 0.96 (0.92-1.00), respectively. An inverse association was observed with heart failure, but that was no longer apparent in sensitivity analysis. A J-shaped association was observed between estimated sodium excretion and mortality. Our findings do not support a J-shaped association of estimated sodium excretion with CVD, although such an association was apparent for all-cause and cause-specific mortality across a wide range of diseases. Reasons for these differences are unclear; methodological limitations, including the use of estimating equations based on spot urinary data, need to be considered in interpreting our findings.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14302; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14302 -35728939,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681,Reductions in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0-4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Etoori D, Harron KL, Mc Grath-Lone L, Verfürden ML, Gilbert R, Blackburn R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2022,2022-06-21,Y,Child Health; Health Services Research; Healthcare Disparities; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To quantify reductions in hospital care for clinically vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Birth cohort.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

All children aged <5 years with a birth recorded in hospital administrative data (January 2010-March 2021).

Main exposure

Clinical vulnerability defined by a chronic health condition, preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation) or low birth weight (<2500 g).

Main outcomes

Reductions in care defined by predicted hospital contact rates for 2020, estimated from 2015 to 2019, minus observed rates per 1000 child years during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-2021).

Results

Of 3 813 465 children, 17.7% (one in six) were clinically vulnerable (9.5% born preterm or low birth weight, 10.3% had a chronic condition). Reductions in hospital care during the pandemic were much higher for clinically vulnerable children than peers: respectively, outpatient attendances (314 vs 73 per 1000 child years), planned admissions (55 vs 10) and unplanned admissions (105 vs 79). Clinically vulnerable children accounted for 50.1% of the reduction in outpatient attendances, 55.0% in planned admissions and 32.8% in unplanned hospital admissions. During the pandemic, weekly rates of planned care returned to prepandemic levels for infants with chronic conditions but not older children. Reductions in care differed by ethnic group and level of deprivation. Virtual outpatient attendances increased from 3.2% to 24.8% during the pandemic.

Conclusion

One in six clinically vulnerable children accounted for one-third to one half of the reduction in hospital care during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e31.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837?pdf=render 31650125,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30012-3,A chronological map of 308 physical and mental health conditions from 4 million individuals in the English National Health Service.,"Kuan V, Denaxas S, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Direk K, Bhatti O, Husain S, Sutaria S, Hingorani M, Nitsch D, Parisinos CA, Lumbers RT, Mathur R, Sofat R, Casas JP, Wong ICK, Hemingway H, Hingorani AD.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2019,2019-05-20,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"

Background

To effectively prevent, detect, and treat health conditions that affect people during their lifecourse, health-care professionals and researchers need to know which sections of the population are susceptible to which health conditions and at which ages. Hence, we aimed to map the course of human health by identifying the 50 most common health conditions in each decade of life and estimating the median age at first diagnosis.

Methods

We developed phenotyping algorithms and codelists for physical and mental health conditions that involve intensive use of health-care resources. Individuals older than 1 year were included in the study if their primary-care and hospital-admission records met research standards set by the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and they had been registered in a general practice in England contributing up-to-standard data for at least 1 year during the study period. We used linked records of individuals from the CALIBER platform to calculate the sex-standardised cumulative incidence for these conditions by 10-year age groups between April 1, 2010, and March 31, 2015. We also derived the median age at diagnosis and prevalence estimates stratified by age, sex, and ethnicity (black, white, south Asian) over the study period from the primary-care and secondary-care records of patients.

Findings

We developed case definitions for 308 disease phenotypes. We used records of 2 784 138 patients for the calculation of cumulative incidence and of 3 872 451 patients for the calculation of period prevalence and median age at diagnosis of these conditions. Conditions that first gained prominence at key stages of life were: atopic conditions and infections that led to hospital admission in children (<10 years); acne and menstrual disorders in the teenage years (10-19 years); mental health conditions, obesity, and migraine in individuals aged 20-29 years; soft-tissue disorders and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in individuals aged 30-39 years; dyslipidaemia, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction in individuals aged 40-59 years; cancer, osteoarthritis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, cataract, diverticular disease, type 2 diabetes, and deafness in individuals aged 60-79 years; and atrial fibrillation, dementia, acute and chronic kidney disease, heart failure, ischaemic heart disease, anaemia, and osteoporosis in individuals aged 80 years or older. Black or south-Asian individuals were diagnosed earlier than white individuals for 258 (84%) of the 308 conditions. Bone fractures and atopic conditions were recorded earlier in male individuals, whereas female individuals were diagnosed at younger ages with nutritional anaemias, tubulointerstitial nephritis, and urinary disorders.

Interpretation

We have produced the first chronological map of human health with cumulative-incidence and period-prevalence estimates for multiple morbidities in parallel from birth to advanced age. This can guide clinicians, policy makers, and researchers on how to formulate differential diagnoses, allocate resources, and target research priorities on the basis of the knowledge of who gets which diseases when. We have published our phenotyping algorithms on the CALIBER open-access Portal which will facilitate future research by providing a curated list of reusable case definitions.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, National Institute for Health Research, Medical Research Council, Arthritis Research UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Department of Health and Social Care (England), Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, National Institute for Social Care and Health Research, and The Alan Turing Institute.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30012-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30012-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6798263; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6798263?pdf=render +35728939,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681,Reductions in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0-4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Etoori D, Harron KL, Mc Grath-Lone L, Verfürden ML, Gilbert R, Blackburn R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2022,2022-06-21,Y,Child Health; Health Services Research; Healthcare Disparities; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To quantify reductions in hospital care for clinically vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Birth cohort.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

All children aged <5 years with a birth recorded in hospital administrative data (January 2010-March 2021).

Main exposure

Clinical vulnerability defined by a chronic health condition, preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation) or low birth weight (<2500 g).

Main outcomes

Reductions in care defined by predicted hospital contact rates for 2020, estimated from 2015 to 2019, minus observed rates per 1000 child years during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-2021).

Results

Of 3 813 465 children, 17.7% (one in six) were clinically vulnerable (9.5% born preterm or low birth weight, 10.3% had a chronic condition). Reductions in hospital care during the pandemic were much higher for clinically vulnerable children than peers: respectively, outpatient attendances (314 vs 73 per 1000 child years), planned admissions (55 vs 10) and unplanned admissions (105 vs 79). Clinically vulnerable children accounted for 50.1% of the reduction in outpatient attendances, 55.0% in planned admissions and 32.8% in unplanned hospital admissions. During the pandemic, weekly rates of planned care returned to prepandemic levels for infants with chronic conditions but not older children. Reductions in care differed by ethnic group and level of deprivation. Virtual outpatient attendances increased from 3.2% to 24.8% during the pandemic.

Conclusion

One in six clinically vulnerable children accounted for one-third to one half of the reduction in hospital care during the pandemic.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e31.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837?pdf=render 34396248,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2020.07.001,Prediction of Lifetime and 10-Year Risk of Cancer in Individual Patients With Established Cardiovascular Disease.,"van 't Klooster CC, Ridker PM, Cook NR, Aerts JGJV, Westerink J, Asselbergs FW, van der Graaf Y, Visseren FLJ, UCC-SMART Study Group.",,JACC. CardioOncology,2020,2020-08-28,Y,"Lung cancer; Colorectal Cancer; Risk Prediction; Crp, C-reactive Protein; Sd, Standard Deviation; Cvd, Cardiovascular Disease; Ci, Confidence Interval; Aic, Akaike’s Information Criterion",,,"

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer share many common risk factors; patients with CVD also may be at risk of developing cancer.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to derive and externally validate prediction models for the estimation of lifetime and 10-year risk for total, colorectal, and lung cancer in patients with established CVD.

Methods

Data from patients with established CVD from the UCC-SMART cohort (N = 7,280) were used for model development, and from the CANTOS trial (N = 9,322) for model validation. Predictors were selected based on previously published cancer risk scores, clinical availability, and presence in the derivation dataset. Fine and Gray competing risk-adjusted lifetime models were developed for the outcomes total, colorectal, and lung cancer.

Results

Selected predictors were age, sex, smoking, weight, height, alcohol use, antiplatelet use, diabetes, and C-reactive protein. External calibration for the 4-year risk of lung, colorectal, and total cancer was reasonable in our models, as was discrimination with C-statistics of 0.74, 0.64, and 0.63, respectively. Median predicted lifetime and 10-year risks in CANTOS were 26% (range 1% to 52%) and 13% (range 1% to 31%) for total cancer; 4% (range 0% to 13%) and 2% (range 0% to 6%) for colorectal cancer; and 5% (range 0% to 37%) and 2% (range 0% to 24%) for lung cancer.

Conclusions

Lifetime and 10-year risk of total, colorectal, and lung cancer can be estimated reasonably well in patients with established CVD with readily available clinical predictors. With additional study, these tools could be used in clinical practice to further aid in the emphasis of healthy lifestyle changes and to guide thresholds for targeted diagnostics and screening.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2020.07.001; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2020.07.001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8352343; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8352343?pdf=render 34563860,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102228,Shape registration with learned deformations for 3D shape reconstruction from sparse and incomplete point clouds.,"Chen X, Ravikumar N, Xia Y, Attar R, Diaz-Pinto A, Piechnik SK, Neubauer S, Petersen SE, Frangi AF.",,Medical image analysis,2021,2021-09-09,N,Deep Learning; Graph Convolutional Network; Cardiac Mesh Reconstruction; Cardiac Surface Reconstruction; Contours To Mesh Reconstruction,,,"Shape reconstruction from sparse point clouds/images is a challenging and relevant task required for a variety of applications in computer vision and medical image analysis (e.g. surgical navigation, cardiac motion analysis, augmented/virtual reality systems). A subset of such methods, viz. 3D shape reconstruction from 2D contours, is especially relevant for computer-aided diagnosis and intervention applications involving meshes derived from multiple 2D image slices, views or projections. We propose a deep learning architecture, coined Mesh Reconstruction Network (MR-Net), which tackles this problem. MR-Net enables accurate 3D mesh reconstruction in real-time despite missing data and with sparse annotations. Using 3D cardiac shape reconstruction from 2D contours defined on short-axis cardiac magnetic resonance image slices as an exemplar, we demonstrate that our approach consistently outperforms state-of-the-art techniques for shape reconstruction from unstructured point clouds. Our approach can reconstruct 3D cardiac meshes to within 2.5-mm point-to-point error, concerning the ground-truth data (the original image spatial resolution is ∼1.8×1.8×10mm3). We further evaluate the robustness of the proposed approach to incomplete data, and contours estimated using an automatic segmentation algorithm. MR-Net is generic and could reconstruct shapes of other organs, making it compelling as a tool for various applications in medical image analysis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102228; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102228 30862657,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-2004,Risk of Incident Obstructive Sleep Apnea Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.,"Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Tracy A, Taverner T, Hanif W, Toulis KA, Thomas GN, Tahrani AA, Nirantharakumar K.",,Diabetes care,2019,2019-03-12,N,,,,"

Objective

This study compared the incidence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with and without type 2 diabetes and investigated risk factors for OSA in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Research design and methods

A retrospective cohort study was performed to compare OSA incidence between adult patients with and without type 2 diabetes matched for age, sex, and BMI. Patients with a prevalent OSA diagnosis were excluded. The study cohort was derived from The Health Improvement Network (THIN), a U.K. primary care database, from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2017.

Results

There were 3,110 (0.88%) and 5,968 (0.46%) incident OSA cases identified in the 360,250 exposed and 1,296,489 unexposed patient cohorts, respectively. Adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR) of OSA in patients with type 2 diabetes compared with those without was 1.48 (95% CI 1.42-1.55; P < 0.001). In a multivariate regression analysis of patients with type 2 diabetes, significant predictors of OSA were diabetes-related foot disease (1.23 [1.06-1.42]; P = 0.005), being prescribed insulin in the last 60 days (1.58 [1.42-1.75]; P < 0.001), male sex (2.27 [2.09-2.46]; P < 0.001), being overweight (2.02 [1.54-2.64]; P < 0.001) or obese (8.29 [6.42-10.69]; P < 0.001), heart failure (1.41 [1.18-1.70]; P < 0.001), ischemic heart disease (1.22 [1.11-1.34]; P < 0.001), atrial fibrillation (1.23 [1.04-1.46]; P = 0.015), hypertension (1.32 [1.23-1.43]; P < 0.001), and depression (1.75 [1.61-1.91]; P < 0.001).

Conclusions

When considered alongside previous evidence, this study indicates that the association between type 2 diabetes and OSA is bidirectional. In addition to known predictors of OSA, diabetes-related foot disease and insulin treatment were identified as risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes.",,pdf:https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/42/5/954.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-2004 33635119,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.120.002963,Life-Time Covariation of Major Cardiovascular Diseases: A 40-Year Longitudinal Study and Genetic Studies.,"Lind L, Sundström J, Ärnlöv J, Ingelsson M, Henry A, Lumbers RT, Lampa E.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2021,2021-02-26,N,Adult; Myocardial infarction; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Heart Failure,,,"

Background

It is known that certain cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are associated, like atrial fibrillation and stroke. However, for other CVDs, the links and temporal trends are less studied. In this longitudinal study, we have investigated temporal epidemiological and genetic associations between different CVDs.

Methods

The ULSAM (Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men; 2322 men aged 50 years) has been followed for 40 years regarding 4 major CVDs (incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation). For the genetic analyses, publicly available data were used.

Results

Using multistate modeling, significant relationships were seen between pairs of all of the 4 investigated CVDs. However, the risk of obtaining one additional CVD differed substantially both between different CVDs and between their temporal order. The relationship between heart failure and atrial fibrillation showed a high risk ratio (risk ratios, 24-26) regardless of the temporal order. A consistent association was seen also for myocardial infarction and atrial fibrillation but with a lower relative risk (risk ratios, 4-5). In contrast, the risk of receiving a diagnosis of heart failure following a myocardial infarction was almost twice as high as for the reverse temporal order (risk ratios, 16 versus 9). Genetic loci linked to traditional risk factors could partly explain the observed associations between the CVDs, but pathway analyses disclosed also other pathophysiological links.

Conclusions

During 40 years, all of the 4 investigated CVDs were pairwise associated with each other regardless of the temporal order of occurrence, but the risk magnitude differed between different CVDs and their temporal order. Genetic analyses disclosed new pathophysiological links between CVDs.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.120.002963; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.120.002963; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8284356; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8284356?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.120.002963 33637859,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-021-00404-9,Automatic multilabel detection of ICD10 codes in Dutch cardiology discharge letters using neural networks.,"Sammani A, Bagheri A, van der Heijden PGM, Te Riele ASJM, Baas AF, Oosters CAJ, Oberski D, Asselbergs FW.",,NPJ digital medicine,2021,2021-02-26,Y,,,,"Standard reference terminology of diagnoses and risk factors is crucial for billing, epidemiological studies, and inter/intranational comparisons of diseases. The International Classification of Disease (ICD) is a standardized and widely used method, but the manual classification is an enormously time-consuming endeavor. Natural language processing together with machine learning allows automated structuring of diagnoses using ICD-10 codes, but the limited performance of machine learning models, the necessity of gigantic datasets, and poor reliability of terminal parts of these codes restricted clinical usability. We aimed to create a high performing pipeline for automated classification of reliable ICD-10 codes in the free medical text in cardiology. We focussed on frequently used and well-defined three- and four-digit ICD-10 codes that still have enough granularity to be clinically relevant such as atrial fibrillation (I48), acute myocardial infarction (I21), or dilated cardiomyopathy (I42.0). Our pipeline uses a deep neural network known as a Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit Neural Network and was trained and tested with 5548 discharge letters and validated in 5089 discharge and procedural letters. As in clinical practice discharge letters may be labeled with more than one code, we assessed the single- and multilabel performance of main diagnoses and cardiovascular risk factors. We investigated using both the entire body of text and only the summary paragraph, supplemented by age and sex. Given the privacy-sensitive information included in discharge letters, we added a de-identification step. The performance was high, with F1 scores of 0.76-0.99 for three-character and 0.87-0.98 for four-character ICD-10 codes, and was best when using complete discharge letters. Adding variables age/sex did not affect results. For model interpretability, word coefficients were provided and qualitative assessment of classification was manually performed. Because of its high performance, this pipeline can be useful to decrease the administrative burden of classifying discharge diagnoses and may serve as a scaffold for reimbursement and research applications.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-021-00404-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-021-00404-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7910461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7910461?pdf=render 30102210,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(18)30425-x,A roadmap for restoring trust in Big Data.,"Lawler M, Morris AD, Sullivan R, Birney E, Middleton A, Makaroff L, Knoppers BM, Horgan D, Eggermont A.",,The Lancet. Oncology,2018,2018-08-01,N,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30425-X -35849350,https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac612,Whole-genome long-read TAPS deciphers DNA methylation patterns at base resolution using PacBio SMRT sequencing technology.,"Chen J, Cheng J, Chen X, Inoue M, Liu Y, Song CX.",,Nucleic acids research,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"Long-read sequencing provides valuable information on difficult-to-map genomic regions, which can complement short-read sequencing to improve genome assembly, yet limited methods are available to accurately detect DNA methylation over long distances at a whole-genome scale. By combining our recently developed TET-assisted pyridine borane sequencing (TAPS) method, which enables direct detection of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, with PacBio single-molecule real-time sequencing, we present here whole-genome long-read TAPS (wglrTAPS). To evaluate the performance of wglrTAPS, we applied it to mouse embryonic stem cells as a proof of concept, and an N50 read length of 3.5 kb is achieved. By sequencing wglrTAPS to 8.2× depth, we discovered a significant proportion of CpG sites that were not covered in previous 27.5× short-read TAPS. Our results demonstrate that wglrTAPS facilitates methylation profiling on problematic genomic regions with repetitive elements or structural variations, and also in an allelic manner, all of which are extremely difficult for short-read sequencing methods to resolve. This method therefore enhances applications of third-generation sequencing technologies for DNA epigenetics.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/50/18/e104/46501243/gkac612.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac612; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9561279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9561279?pdf=render 33323251,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30123-2,A comparison of deep learning performance against health-care professionals in detecting diseases from medical imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Liu X, Faes L, Kale AU, Wagner SK, Fu DJ, Bruynseels A, Mahendiran T, Moraes G, Shamdas M, Kern C, Ledsam JR, Schmid MK, Balaskas K, Topol EJ, Bachmann LM, Keane PA, Denniston AK.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2019,2019-09-25,N,,,,"

Background

Deep learning offers considerable promise for medical diagnostics. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of deep learning algorithms versus health-care professionals in classifying diseases using medical imaging.

Methods

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched Ovid-MEDLINE, Embase, Science Citation Index, and Conference Proceedings Citation Index for studies published from Jan 1, 2012, to June 6, 2019. Studies comparing the diagnostic performance of deep learning models and health-care professionals based on medical imaging, for any disease, were included. We excluded studies that used medical waveform data graphics material or investigated the accuracy of image segmentation rather than disease classification. We extracted binary diagnostic accuracy data and constructed contingency tables to derive the outcomes of interest: sensitivity and specificity. Studies undertaking an out-of-sample external validation were included in a meta-analysis, using a unified hierarchical model. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42018091176.

Findings

Our search identified 31 587 studies, of which 82 (describing 147 patient cohorts) were included. 69 studies provided enough data to construct contingency tables, enabling calculation of test accuracy, with sensitivity ranging from 9·7% to 100·0% (mean 79·1%, SD 0·2) and specificity ranging from 38·9% to 100·0% (mean 88·3%, SD 0·1). An out-of-sample external validation was done in 25 studies, of which 14 made the comparison between deep learning models and health-care professionals in the same sample. Comparison of the performance between health-care professionals in these 14 studies, when restricting the analysis to the contingency table for each study reporting the highest accuracy, found a pooled sensitivity of 87·0% (95% CI 83·0-90·2) for deep learning models and 86·4% (79·9-91·0) for health-care professionals, and a pooled specificity of 92·5% (95% CI 85·1-96·4) for deep learning models and 90·5% (80·6-95·7) for health-care professionals.

Interpretation

Our review found the diagnostic performance of deep learning models to be equivalent to that of health-care professionals. However, a major finding of the review is that few studies presented externally validated results or compared the performance of deep learning models and health-care professionals using the same sample. Additionally, poor reporting is prevalent in deep learning studies, which limits reliable interpretation of the reported diagnostic accuracy. New reporting standards that address specific challenges of deep learning could improve future studies, enabling greater confidence in the results of future evaluations of this promising technology.

Funding

None.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750019301232/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30123-2 +35849350,https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac612,Whole-genome long-read TAPS deciphers DNA methylation patterns at base resolution using PacBio SMRT sequencing technology.,"Chen J, Cheng J, Chen X, Inoue M, Liu Y, Song CX.",,Nucleic acids research,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"Long-read sequencing provides valuable information on difficult-to-map genomic regions, which can complement short-read sequencing to improve genome assembly, yet limited methods are available to accurately detect DNA methylation over long distances at a whole-genome scale. By combining our recently developed TET-assisted pyridine borane sequencing (TAPS) method, which enables direct detection of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, with PacBio single-molecule real-time sequencing, we present here whole-genome long-read TAPS (wglrTAPS). To evaluate the performance of wglrTAPS, we applied it to mouse embryonic stem cells as a proof of concept, and an N50 read length of 3.5 kb is achieved. By sequencing wglrTAPS to 8.2× depth, we discovered a significant proportion of CpG sites that were not covered in previous 27.5× short-read TAPS. Our results demonstrate that wglrTAPS facilitates methylation profiling on problematic genomic regions with repetitive elements or structural variations, and also in an allelic manner, all of which are extremely difficult for short-read sequencing methods to resolve. This method therefore enhances applications of third-generation sequencing technologies for DNA epigenetics.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/50/18/e104/46501243/gkac612.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac612; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9561279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9561279?pdf=render 34870142,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192,"Effectiveness of infection prevention and control interventions, excluding personal protective equipment, to prevent nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and call for action.","Jafari Y, Yin M, Lim C, Pople D, Evans S, Stimson J, Pham TM, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 working group, Read JM, Robotham JV, Cooper BS, Knight GM.",,Infection prevention in practice,2022,2021-11-29,Y,,,,"Many infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions have been adopted by hospitals to limit nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The aim of this systematic review is to identify evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions. We conducted a literature search of five databases (OVID MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, COVID-19 Portfolio (pre-print), Web of Science). SWIFT ActiveScreener software was used to screen English titles and abstracts published between 1st January 2020 and 6th April 2021. Intervention studies, defined by Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care, that evaluated IPC interventions with an outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in either patients or healthcare workers were included. Personal protective equipment (PPE) was excluded as this intervention had been previously reviewed. Risks of bias were assessed using the Cochrane tool for randomised trials (RoB2) and non-randomized studies of interventions (ROBINS-I). From 23,156 screened articles, we identified seven articles that met the inclusion criteria, all of which evaluated interventions to prevent infections in healthcare workers and the majority of which were focused on effectiveness of prophylaxes. Due to heterogeneity in interventions, we did not conduct a meta-analysis. All agents used for prophylaxes have little to no evidence of effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infections. We did not find any studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions including but not limited to screening, isolation and improved ventilation. There is limited evidence from interventional studies, excluding PPE, evaluating IPC measures for SARS-CoV-2. This review calls for urgent action to implement such studies to inform policies to protect our most vulnerable populations and healthcare workers.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8628369; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8628369?pdf=render -33941991,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339,"Multimodal deep learning from satellite and street-level imagery for measuring income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation in urban areas.","Suel E, Bhatt S, Brauer M, Flaxman S, Ezzati M.",,Remote sensing of environment,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Segmentation; Satellite Images; Convolutional Neural Networks; Street-Level Images; Urban Measurements,,,"Data collected at large scale and low cost (e.g. satellite and street level imagery) have the potential to substantially improve resolution, spatial coverage, and temporal frequency of measurement of urban inequalities. Multiple types of data from different sources are often available for a given geographic area. Yet, most studies utilize a single type of input data when making measurements due to methodological difficulties in their joint use. We propose two deep learning-based methods for jointly utilizing satellite and street level imagery for measuring urban inequalities. We use London as a case study for three selected outputs, each measured in decile classes: income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation. We compare the performances of our proposed multimodal models to corresponding unimodal ones using mean absolute error (MAE). First, satellite tiles are appended to street level imagery to enhance predictions at locations where street images are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 20, 10, and 9% in units of decile classes for income, overcrowding, and living environment. The second approach, novel to the best of our knowledge, uses a U-Net architecture to make predictions for all grid cells in a city at high spatial resolution (e.g. for 3 m × 3 m pixels in London in our experiments). It can utilize city wide availability of satellite images as well as more sparse information from street-level images where they are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 6, 10, and 11%. We also show examples of prediction maps from both approaches to visually highlight performance differences.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619?pdf=render 31145509,https://doi.org/10.1002/gepi.22215,A comparison of two workflows for regulome and transcriptome-based prioritization of genetic variants associated with myocardial mass.,"Manduchi E, Hemerich D, van Setten J, Tragante V, Harakalova M, Pei J, Williams SM, van der Harst P, Asselbergs FW, Moore JH.",,Genetic epidemiology,2019,2019-05-30,N,Functional genomics; Gwas; left ventricular mass; Snp Preselection,,,"A typical task arising from main effect analyses in a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) is to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), in linkage disequilibrium with the observed signals, that are likely causal variants and the affected genes. The affected genes may not be those closest to associating SNPs. Functional genomics data from relevant tissues are believed to be helpful in selecting likely causal SNPs and interpreting implicated biological mechanisms, ultimately facilitating prevention and treatment in the case of a disease trait. These data are typically used post GWAS analyses to fine-map the statistically significant signals identified agnostically by testing all SNPs and applying a multiple testing correction. The number of tested SNPs is typically in the millions, so the multiple testing burden is high. Motivated by this, in this study we investigated an alternative workflow, which consists in utilizing the available functional genomics data as a first step to reduce the number of SNPs tested for association. We analyzed GWAS on electrocardiographic QRS duration using these two workflows. The alternative workflow identified more SNPs, including some residing in loci not discovered with the typical workflow. Moreover, the latter are corroborated by other reports on QRS duration. This indicates the potential value of incorporating functional genomics information at the onset in GWAS analyses.",,pdf:https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/89611268/Manduchi_et_al_2019_Genetic_Epidemiology.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gepi.22215; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6687530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6687530?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gepi.22215 34459239,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.120.021115,Factor V Leiden and the Risk of Bleeding in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes Treated With Antiplatelet Therapy: Pooled Analysis of 3 Randomized Clinical Trials.,"Mahmoodi BK, Eriksson N, Ross S, Claassens DMF, Asselbergs FW, Meijer K, Siegbahn A, James S, Pare G, Wallentin L, Ten Berg JM.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2021,2021-08-28,Y,Bleeding; acute coronary syndrome; Factor V Leiden; Antiplatelet Therapy,,,"Background Whether factor V Leiden is associated with lower bleeding risk in patients with acute coronary syndromes using (dual) antiplatelet therapy has yet to be investigated. Methods and Results We pooled data from 3 randomized clinical trials, conducted in patients with acute coronary syndromes, with adjudicated bleeding outcomes. Cox regression models were used to obtain overall and cause-specific hazard ratios (HRs) to account for competing risk of atherothrombotic outcomes (ie, composite of ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular death) in each study. Estimates from the individual studies were pooled using fixed effect meta-analysis. The 3 studies combined included 17 623 patients of whom 969 (5.5%) were either heterozygous or homozygous (n=23) carriers of factor V Leiden. During 1 year of follow-up, a total of 1289 (7.3%) patients developed major (n=559) or minor bleeding. Factor V Leiden was associated with a lower risk of combined major and minor bleeding (adjusted cause-specific HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.56-1.00; P=0.046; I2=0%) but a comparable risk of major bleeding (adjusted cause-specific HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.62-1.39; P=0.73; I2=0%). Adjusted pooled cause-specific HRs for the association of factor V Leiden with atherothrombotic events alone and in combination with bleeding events were 0.75 (95% CI, 0.55-1.02; P=0.06; I2=0%) and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.61-0.92; P=0.007; I2=0%), respectively. Conclusions Given that the lower risk of bleeding conferred by factor V Leiden was not counterbalanced by a higher risk of atherothrombotic events, these findings warrant future assessment for personalized medicine such as selecting patients for extended or intensive antiplatelet therapy.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.120.021115; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.021115; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649290?pdf=render +33941991,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339,"Multimodal deep learning from satellite and street-level imagery for measuring income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation in urban areas.","Suel E, Bhatt S, Brauer M, Flaxman S, Ezzati M.",,Remote sensing of environment,2021,2021-05-01,Y,Segmentation; Satellite Images; Convolutional Neural Networks; Street-Level Images; Urban Measurements,,,"Data collected at large scale and low cost (e.g. satellite and street level imagery) have the potential to substantially improve resolution, spatial coverage, and temporal frequency of measurement of urban inequalities. Multiple types of data from different sources are often available for a given geographic area. Yet, most studies utilize a single type of input data when making measurements due to methodological difficulties in their joint use. We propose two deep learning-based methods for jointly utilizing satellite and street level imagery for measuring urban inequalities. We use London as a case study for three selected outputs, each measured in decile classes: income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation. We compare the performances of our proposed multimodal models to corresponding unimodal ones using mean absolute error (MAE). First, satellite tiles are appended to street level imagery to enhance predictions at locations where street images are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 20, 10, and 9% in units of decile classes for income, overcrowding, and living environment. The second approach, novel to the best of our knowledge, uses a U-Net architecture to make predictions for all grid cells in a city at high spatial resolution (e.g. for 3 m × 3 m pixels in London in our experiments). It can utilize city wide availability of satellite images as well as more sparse information from street-level images where they are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 6, 10, and 11%. We also show examples of prediction maps from both approaches to visually highlight performance differences.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619?pdf=render 33090454,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19597,Atopic eczema and obesity: a population-based study.,"Ascott A, Mansfield KE, Schonmann Y, Mulick A, Abuabara K, Roberts A, Smeeth L, Langan SM.",,The British journal of dermatology,2021,2020-12-01,N,,,,"

Background

Atopic eczema is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease. Research suggests an association between atopic eczema and obesity, with inconsistent evidence from European populations.

Objectives

To explore the association between diagnosed atopic eczema and being overweight or obese, and whether increased atopic eczema severity was associated with higher body mass index.

Methods

We undertook a cross-sectional analysis within a cohort of adults (matched by age, sex and general practice) with and without a diagnosis of atopic eczema. We used primary care (Clinical Practice Research Datalink Gold) and linked hospital admissions data (1998-2016). We used conditional logistic regression to compare the odds of being overweight or obese (adjusting for confounders and potential mediators) in those with atopic eczema (mild, moderate and severe, and all eczema) vs. those without.

Results

We identified 441 746 people with atopic eczema, matched to 1 849 722 without. People with atopic eczema had slightly higher odds of being overweight or obese vs. those without [odds ratio (OR) 1·08, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·07-1·09] after adjusting for age, asthma and socioeconomic deprivation. Adjusting for potential mediators (high-dose glucocorticoids, harmful alcohol use, anxiety, depression, smoking) had a minimal impact on effect estimates (OR 1·07, 95% CI 1·06-1·08). We saw no evidence that odds of being overweight or obese increased with increasing atopic eczema severity, and there was no association in people with severe eczema.

Conclusions

We found evidence of a small overall association between atopic eczema and being overweight or obese. However, there was no association with obesity among those with the most severe eczema. Our findings are largely reassuring for this prevalent patient group who may already have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4658151/1/Ascott-etal-2020_Atopic_eczema_and-obesity.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19597 -33434193,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487,Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.,"Ramakrishnan R, Doherty A, Smith-Byrne K, Rahimi K, Bennett D, Woodward M, Walmsley R, Dwyer T.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-01-12,Y,,,,"

Background

Higher levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uncertainty exists on whether the inverse relationship between PA and incidence of CVD is greater at the highest levels of PA. Past studies have mostly relied on self-reported evidence from questionnaire-based PA, which is crude and cannot capture all PA undertaken. We investigated the association between accelerometer-measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA and incident CVD.

Methods and findings

We obtained accelerometer-measured moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activities and total volume of PA, over a 7-day period in 2013-2015, for 90,211 participants without prior or concurrent CVD in the UK Biobank cohort. Participants in the lowest category of total PA smoked more, had higher body mass index and C-reactive protein, and were diagnosed with hypertension. PA was associated with 3,617 incident CVD cases during 440,004 person-years of follow-up (median (interquartile range [IQR]): 5.2 (1.2) years) using Cox regression models. We found a linear dose-response relationship for PA, whether measured as moderate-intensity, vigorous-intensity, or as total volume, with risk of incident of CVD. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for increasing quarters of the PA distribution relative to the lowest fourth were for moderate-intensity PA: 0.71 (0.65, 0.77), 0.59 (0.54, 0.65), and 0.46 (0.41, 0.51); for vigorous-intensity PA: 0.70 (0.64, 0.77), 0.54 (0.49,0.59), and 0.41 (0.37,0.46); and for total volume of PA: 0.73 (0.67, 0.79), 0.63 (0.57, 0.69), and 0.47 (0.43, 0.52). We took account of potential confounders but unmeasured confounding remains a possibility, and while removal of early deaths did not affect the estimated HRs, we cannot completely dismiss the likelihood that reverse causality has contributed to the findings. Another possible limitation of this work is the quantification of PA intensity-levels based on methods validated in relatively small studies.

Conclusions

In this study, we found no evidence of a threshold for the inverse association between objectively measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA with CVD. Our findings suggest that PA is not only associated with lower risk for of CVD, but the greatest benefit is seen for those who are active at the highest level.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951?pdf=render 31702773,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btz796,Model selection for metabolomics: predicting diagnosis of coronary artery disease using automated machine learning.,"Orlenko A, Kofink D, Lyytikäinen LP, Nikus K, Mishra P, Kuukasjärvi P, Karhunen PJ, Kähönen M, Laurikka JO, Lehtimäki T, Asselbergs FW, Moore JH.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2020,2020-03-01,Y,,,,"

Motivation

Selecting the optimal machine learning (ML) model for a given dataset is often challenging. Automated ML (AutoML) has emerged as a powerful tool for enabling the automatic selection of ML methods and parameter settings for the prediction of biomedical endpoints. Here, we apply the tree-based pipeline optimization tool (TPOT) to predict angiographic diagnoses of coronary artery disease (CAD). With TPOT, ML models are represented as expression trees and optimal pipelines discovered using a stochastic search method called genetic programing. We provide some guidelines for TPOT-based ML pipeline selection and optimization-based on various clinical phenotypes and high-throughput metabolic profiles in the Angiography and Genes Study (ANGES).

Results

We analyzed nuclear magnetic resonance-derived lipoprotein and metabolite profiles in the ANGES cohort with a goal to identify the role of non-obstructive CAD patients in CAD diagnostics. We performed a comparative analysis of TPOT-generated ML pipelines with selected ML classifiers, optimized with a grid search approach, applied to two phenotypic CAD profiles. As a result, TPOT-generated ML pipelines that outperformed grid search optimized models across multiple performance metrics including balanced accuracy and area under the precision-recall curve. With the selected models, we demonstrated that the phenotypic profile that distinguishes non-obstructive CAD patients from no CAD patients is associated with higher precision, suggesting a discrepancy in the underlying processes between these phenotypes.

Availability and implementation

TPOT is freely available via http://epistasislab.github.io/tpot/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/36/6/1772/36089203/btz796.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btz796; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7703753; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7703753?pdf=render 31055854,https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50143,"Traumatic spinal cord injury in Victoria, 2007-2016.","Beck B, Cameron PA, Braaf S, Nunn A, Fitzgerald MC, Judson RT, Teague WJ, Lennox A, Middleton JW, Harrison JE, Gabbe BJ.",,The Medical journal of Australia,2019,2019-05-01,N,"Spinal cord injuries; epidemiology; Traumatology; Trauma, Nervous System",,,"

Objective

To investigate trends in the incidence and causes of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in Victoria over a 10-year period.

Design, setting, participants

Retrospective cohort study: analysis of Victorian State Trauma Registry (VSTR) data for people who sustained TSCIs during 2007-2016.

Main outcomes and measures

Temporal trends in population-based incidence rates of TSCI (injury to the spinal cord with an Abbreviated Injury Scale [AIS] score of 4 or more).

Results

There were 706 cases of TSCI, most the result of transport events (269 cases, 38%) or low falls (197 cases, 28%). The overall crude incidence of TSCI was 1.26 cases per 100 000 population (95% CI, 1.17-1.36 per 100 000 population), and did not change over the study period (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.01; 95% CI, 0.99-1.04). However, the incidence of TSCI resulting from low falls increased by 9% per year (95% CI, 4-15%). The proportion of TSCI cases classified as incomplete tetraplegia increased from 41% in 2007 to 55% in 2016 (P < 0.001). Overall in-hospital mortality was 15% (104 deaths), and was highest among people aged 65 years or more (31%, 70 deaths).

Conclusions

Given the devastating consequences of TSCI, improved primary prevention strategies are needed, particularly as the incidence of TSCI did not decline over the study period. The epidemiologic profile of TSCI has shifted, with an increasing number of TSCI events in older adults. This change has implications for prevention, acute and post-discharge care, and support.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.5694/mja2.50143; doi:https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50143 33246414,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-020-01163-z,Patient-specific record linkage between emergency department and hospital admission data for a cohort of people who inject drugs: methodological considerations for frequent presenters.,"Di Rico R, Nambiar D, Gabbe B, Stoové M, Dietze P.",,BMC medical research methodology,2020,2020-11-27,Y,Methods; Australia; Data Linkage; Record Linkage; Administrative Data; People Who Inject Drugs; Patient Pathways; Frequent Presenters; Vaed; Vemd,,,"

Background

People who inject drugs (PWID) have been identified as frequent users of emergency department (ED) and hospital inpatient services. The specific challenges of record linkage in cohorts with numerous administrative health records occurring in close proximity are not well understood. Here, we present a method for patient-specific record linkage of ED and hospital admission data for a cohort of PWID.

Methods

Data from 688 PWID were linked to two state-wide administrative health databases identifying all ED visits and hospital admissions for the cohort between January 2008 and June 2013. We linked patient-specific ED and hospital admissions data, using administrative date-time timestamps and pre-specified linkage criteria, to identify hospital admissions stemming from ED presentations for a given individual. The ability of standalone databases to identify linked ED visits or hospital admissions was examined.

Results

There were 3459 ED visits and 1877 hospital admissions identified during the study period. Thirty-four percent of ED visits were linked to hospital admissions. Most links had hospital admission timestamps in-between or identical to their ED visit timestamps (n = 1035, 87%). Allowing 24-h between ED visits and hospital admissions captured more linked records, but increased manual inspection requirements. In linked records (n = 1190), the ED 'departure status' variable correctly reflected subsequent hospital admission in only 68% of cases. The hospital 'admission type' variable was non-specific in identifying if a preceding ED visit had occurred.

Conclusions

Linking ED visits with subsequent hospital admissions in PWID requires access to date and time variables for accurate temporal sorting, especially for same-day presentations. Selecting time-windows to capture linked records requires discretion. Researchers risk under-ascertainment of hospital admissions if using ED data alone.",,pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12874-020-01163-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-020-01163-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7694355; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7694355?pdf=render -36168404,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501,Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 and after booster vaccination with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273: A population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Vivaldi G, Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Tydeman F, Talaei M, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-09-23,Y,Vaccination; Breakthrough Infection; Chadox1; Sars-cov-2; Bnt162b2; Mrna-1273,,,"

Background

Little is known about how demographic, behavioural, and vaccine-related factors affect risk of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to identify risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Methods

This prospective, population-based, UK study in adults (≥16 years) vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 assessed risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection up to February, 2022, for participants who completed a primary vaccination course (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2) and those who received a booster dose (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273). Cox regression models explored associations between sociodemographic, behavioural, clinical, pharmacological, and nutritional factors and test-positive breakthrough infection, adjusted for local weekly SARS-CoV-2 incidence.

Findings

1051 (7·1%) of 14 713 post-primary participants and 1009 (9·5%) of 10 665 post-booster participants reported breakthrough infection, over a median follow-up of 203 days (IQR 195-216) and 85 days (66-103), respectively. Primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 (vs BNT162b2) was associated with higher risk of infection in both post-primary analysis (adjusted hazard ratio 1·63, 95% CI 1·41-1·88) and after an mRNA-1273 booster (1·26 [1·00-1·57] vs BNT162b2 primary and booster). Lower risk of infection was associated with older age (post-primary: 0·97 [0·96-0·97] per year; post-booster: 0·97 [0·97-0·98]), whereas higher risk of infection was associated with lower educational attainment (post-primary: 1·78 [1·44-2·20] for primary/secondary vs postgraduate; post-booster: 1·46 [1·16-1·83]) and at least three weekly visits to indoor public places (post-primary: 1·36 [1·13-1·63] vs none; post-booster: 1·29 [1·07-1·56]).

Interpretation

Vaccine type, socioeconomic status, age, and behaviours affect risk of breakthrough infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Funding

Barts Charity, UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825?pdf=render +33434193,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487,Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.,"Ramakrishnan R, Doherty A, Smith-Byrne K, Rahimi K, Bennett D, Woodward M, Walmsley R, Dwyer T.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-01-12,Y,,,,"

Background

Higher levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uncertainty exists on whether the inverse relationship between PA and incidence of CVD is greater at the highest levels of PA. Past studies have mostly relied on self-reported evidence from questionnaire-based PA, which is crude and cannot capture all PA undertaken. We investigated the association between accelerometer-measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA and incident CVD.

Methods and findings

We obtained accelerometer-measured moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activities and total volume of PA, over a 7-day period in 2013-2015, for 90,211 participants without prior or concurrent CVD in the UK Biobank cohort. Participants in the lowest category of total PA smoked more, had higher body mass index and C-reactive protein, and were diagnosed with hypertension. PA was associated with 3,617 incident CVD cases during 440,004 person-years of follow-up (median (interquartile range [IQR]): 5.2 (1.2) years) using Cox regression models. We found a linear dose-response relationship for PA, whether measured as moderate-intensity, vigorous-intensity, or as total volume, with risk of incident of CVD. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for increasing quarters of the PA distribution relative to the lowest fourth were for moderate-intensity PA: 0.71 (0.65, 0.77), 0.59 (0.54, 0.65), and 0.46 (0.41, 0.51); for vigorous-intensity PA: 0.70 (0.64, 0.77), 0.54 (0.49,0.59), and 0.41 (0.37,0.46); and for total volume of PA: 0.73 (0.67, 0.79), 0.63 (0.57, 0.69), and 0.47 (0.43, 0.52). We took account of potential confounders but unmeasured confounding remains a possibility, and while removal of early deaths did not affect the estimated HRs, we cannot completely dismiss the likelihood that reverse causality has contributed to the findings. Another possible limitation of this work is the quantification of PA intensity-levels based on methods validated in relatively small studies.

Conclusions

In this study, we found no evidence of a threshold for the inverse association between objectively measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA with CVD. Our findings suggest that PA is not only associated with lower risk for of CVD, but the greatest benefit is seen for those who are active at the highest level.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951?pdf=render 32294163,https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euaa039,Diagnosing arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy by 2010 Task Force Criteria: clinical performance and simplified practical implementation.,"Bosman LP, Cadrin-Tourigny J, Bourfiss M, Aliyari Ghasabeh M, Sharma A, Tichnell C, Roudijk RW, Murray B, Tandri H, Khairy P, Kamel IR, Zimmerman SL, Reitsma JB, Asselbergs FW, van Tintelen JP, van der Heijden JF, Hauer RNW, Calkins H, James CA, Te Riele ASJM.",,"Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology",2020,2020-05-01,Y,Diagnosis; Cardiomyopathy; ventricular arrhythmia; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy,,,"

Aims

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is diagnosed by a complex set of clinical tests as per 2010 Task Force Criteria (TFC). Avoiding misdiagnosis is crucial to prevent sudden cardiac death as well as unnecessary implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantations. This study aims to validate the overall performance of the TFC in a real-world cohort of patients referred for ARVC evaluation.

Methods and results

We included patients consecutively referred to our centres for ARVC evaluation. Patients were diagnosed by consensus of three independent clinical experts. Using this as a reference standard, diagnostic performance was measured for each individual criterion as well as the overall TFC classification. Of 407 evaluated patients (age 38 ± 17 years, 51% male), the expert panel diagnosed 66 (16%) with ARVC. The clinically observed TFC was false negative in 7/66 (11%) patients and false positive in 10/69 (14%) patients. Idiopathic outflow tract ventricular tachycardia was the most common alternative diagnosis. While the TFC performed well overall (sensitivity and specificity 92%), signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG, P = 0.43), and several family history criteria (P ≥ 0.17) failed to discriminate. Eliminating these criteria reduced false positives without increasing false negatives (net reclassification improvement 4.3%, P = 0.019). Furthermore, all ARVC patients met at least one electrocardiogram (ECG) or arrhythmia criterion (sensitivity 100%).

Conclusion

The TFC perform well but are complex and can lead to misdiagnosis. Simplification by eliminating SAECG and several family history criteria improves diagnostic accuracy. Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy can be ruled out using ECG and arrhythmia criteria alone, hence these tests may serve as a first-line screening strategy among at-risk individuals.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/europace/article-pdf/22/5/787/33178222/euaa039.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euaa039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7203633; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7203633?pdf=render -36717723,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2,A patient-centric modeling framework captures recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Ruffieux H, Hanson AL, Lodge S, Lawler NG, Whiley L, Gray N, Nolan TH, Bergamaschi L, Mescia F, Turner L, de Sa A, Pelly VS, Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease-National Institute of Health Research (CITIID-NIHR) BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Kotagiri P, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Holmes E, Wist J, Nicholson JK, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Richardson S, Bantug GR, Hess C.",,Nature immunology,2023,2023-01-30,Y,,,,"The biology driving individual patient responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection remains ill understood. Here, we developed a patient-centric framework leveraging detailed longitudinal phenotyping data and covering a year after disease onset, from 215 infected individuals with differing disease severities. Our analyses revealed distinct 'systemic recovery' profiles, with specific progression and resolution of the inflammatory, immune cell, metabolic and clinical responses. In particular, we found a strong inter-patient and intra-patient temporal covariation of innate immune cell numbers, kynurenine metabolites and lipid metabolites, which highlighted candidate immunologic and metabolic pathways influencing the restoration of homeostasis, the risk of death and that of long COVID. Based on these data, we identified a composite signature predictive of systemic recovery, using a joint model on cellular and molecular parameters measured soon after disease onset. New predictions can be generated using the online tool http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/covid-19-systemic-recovery-prediction-app , designed to test our findings prospectively.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01380-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000?pdf=render -33493433,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30743-9,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on radiotherapy services in England, UK: a population-based study.","Spencer K, Jones CM, Girdler R, Roe C, Sharpe M, Lawton S, Miller L, Lewis P, Evans M, Sebag-Montefiore D, Roques T, Smittenaar R, Morris E.",,The Lancet. Oncology,2021,2021-01-22,Y,,,,"

Background

The indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes is of increasing concern. However, the extent to which key treatment modalities have been affected is unclear. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on radiotherapy activity in England.

Methods

In this population-based study, data relating to all radiotherapy delivered for cancer in the English NHS, between Feb 4, 2019, and June 28, 2020, were extracted from the National Radiotherapy Dataset. Changes in mean weekly radiotherapy courses, attendances (reflecting fractions), and fractionation patterns following the start of the UK lockdown were compared with corresponding months in 2019 overall, for specific diagnoses, and across age groups. The significance of changes in radiotherapy activity during lockdown was examined using interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis.

Findings

In 2020, mean weekly radiotherapy courses fell by 19·9% in April, 6·2% in May, and 11·6% in June compared with corresponding months in 2019. A relatively greater fall was observed for attendances (29·1% in April, 31·4% in May, and 31·5% in June). These changes were significant on ITS analysis (p<0·0001). A greater reduction in treatment courses between 2019 and 2020 was seen for patients aged 70 years or older compared with those aged younger than 70 years (34·4% vs 7·3% in April). By diagnosis, the largest reduction from 2019 to 2020 in treatment courses was for prostate cancer (77·0% in April) and non-melanoma skin cancer (72·4% in April). Conversely, radiotherapy courses in April, 2020, compared with April, 2019, increased by 41·2% in oesophageal cancer, 64·2% in bladder cancer, and 36·3% in rectal cancer. Increased use of ultra-hypofractionated (26 Gy in five fractions) breast radiotherapy as a percentage of all courses (0·2% in April, 2019, to 60·6% in April, 2020; ITS p<0·0001) contributed to the substantial reduction in attendances.

Interpretation

Radiotherapy activity fell significantly, but use of hypofractionated regimens rapidly increased in the English NHS during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in treatments for some cancers suggests that radiotherapy compensated for reduced surgical activity. These data will assist health-care providers in understanding the indirect consequences of the pandemic and the role of radiotherapy services in minimising these consequences.

Funding

None.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470204520307439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30743-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861?pdf=render +36168404,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501,Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 and after booster vaccination with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273: A population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK).,"Vivaldi G, Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Tydeman F, Talaei M, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-09-23,Y,Vaccination; Breakthrough Infection; Chadox1; Sars-cov-2; Bnt162b2; Mrna-1273,,,"

Background

Little is known about how demographic, behavioural, and vaccine-related factors affect risk of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to identify risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Methods

This prospective, population-based, UK study in adults (≥16 years) vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 assessed risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection up to February, 2022, for participants who completed a primary vaccination course (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2) and those who received a booster dose (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273). Cox regression models explored associations between sociodemographic, behavioural, clinical, pharmacological, and nutritional factors and test-positive breakthrough infection, adjusted for local weekly SARS-CoV-2 incidence.

Findings

1051 (7·1%) of 14 713 post-primary participants and 1009 (9·5%) of 10 665 post-booster participants reported breakthrough infection, over a median follow-up of 203 days (IQR 195-216) and 85 days (66-103), respectively. Primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 (vs BNT162b2) was associated with higher risk of infection in both post-primary analysis (adjusted hazard ratio 1·63, 95% CI 1·41-1·88) and after an mRNA-1273 booster (1·26 [1·00-1·57] vs BNT162b2 primary and booster). Lower risk of infection was associated with older age (post-primary: 0·97 [0·96-0·97] per year; post-booster: 0·97 [0·97-0·98]), whereas higher risk of infection was associated with lower educational attainment (post-primary: 1·78 [1·44-2·20] for primary/secondary vs postgraduate; post-booster: 1·46 [1·16-1·83]) and at least three weekly visits to indoor public places (post-primary: 1·36 [1·13-1·63] vs none; post-booster: 1·29 [1·07-1·56]).

Interpretation

Vaccine type, socioeconomic status, age, and behaviours affect risk of breakthrough infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Funding

Barts Charity, UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825?pdf=render 34863512,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.10.038,Review of the requirements for effective mass casualty preparedness for trauma systems. A disaster waiting to happen?,"Gabbe BJ, Veitch W, Mather A, Curtis K, Holland AJA, Gomez D, Civil I, Nathens A, Fitzgerald M, Martin K, Teague WJ, Joseph A.",,British journal of anaesthesia,2022,2021-12-02,N,Disaster Preparedness; Mass Casualty Incidents; Trauma Systems; Narrative Review; Trauma Centres,,,"Mass casualty incidents (MCIs) are diverse, unpredictable, and increasing in frequency, but preparation is possible and necessary. The nature of MCIs requires a trauma response but also requires effective and tested disaster preparedness planning. From an international perspective, the aims of this narrative review are to describe the key components necessary for optimisation of trauma system preparedness for MCIs, whether trauma systems and centres meet these components and areas for improvement of trauma system response. Many of the principles necessary for response to MCIs are embedded in trauma system design and trauma centre function. These include robust communication networks, established triage systems, and capacity to secure centres from threats to safety and quality of care. However, evidence from the current literature indicates the need to strengthen trauma system preparedness for MCIs through greater trauma leader representation at all levels of disaster preparedness planning, enhanced training of staff and simulated disaster training, expanded surge capacity planning, improved staff management and support during the MCI and in the post-disaster recovery phase, clear provision for the treatment of paediatric patients in disaster plans, and diversified and pre-agreed systems for essential supplies and services continuity. Mass casualty preparedness is a complex, iterative process that requires an integrated, multidisciplinary, and tiered approach. Through effective preparedness planning, trauma systems should be well-placed to deliver an optimal response when faced with MCIs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.10.038; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.10.038 +36717723,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2,A patient-centric modeling framework captures recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"Ruffieux H, Hanson AL, Lodge S, Lawler NG, Whiley L, Gray N, Nolan TH, Bergamaschi L, Mescia F, Turner L, de Sa A, Pelly VS, Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease-National Institute of Health Research (CITIID-NIHR) BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Kotagiri P, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Holmes E, Wist J, Nicholson JK, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Richardson S, Bantug GR, Hess C.",,Nature immunology,2023,2023-01-30,Y,,,,"The biology driving individual patient responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection remains ill understood. Here, we developed a patient-centric framework leveraging detailed longitudinal phenotyping data and covering a year after disease onset, from 215 infected individuals with differing disease severities. Our analyses revealed distinct 'systemic recovery' profiles, with specific progression and resolution of the inflammatory, immune cell, metabolic and clinical responses. In particular, we found a strong inter-patient and intra-patient temporal covariation of innate immune cell numbers, kynurenine metabolites and lipid metabolites, which highlighted candidate immunologic and metabolic pathways influencing the restoration of homeostasis, the risk of death and that of long COVID. Based on these data, we identified a composite signature predictive of systemic recovery, using a joint model on cellular and molecular parameters measured soon after disease onset. New predictions can be generated using the online tool http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/covid-19-systemic-recovery-prediction-app , designed to test our findings prospectively.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01380-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000?pdf=render 35247983,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02673-1,"Age is the main determinant of COVID-19 related in-hospital mortality with minimal impact of pre-existing comorbidities, a retrospective cohort study.","Henkens MTHM, Raafs AG, Verdonschot JAJ, Linschoten M, van Smeden M, Wang P, van der Hooft BHM, Tieleman R, Janssen MLF, Ter Bekke RMA, Hazebroek MR, van der Horst ICC, Asselbergs FW, Magdelijns FJH, Heymans SRB, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.",,BMC geriatrics,2022,2022-03-05,Y,Mortality; Hospitalization; Netherlands; Mediation Analysis; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Age and comorbidities increase COVID-19 related in-hospital mortality risk, but the extent by which comorbidities mediate the impact of age remains unknown.

Methods

In this multicenter retrospective cohort study with data from 45 Dutch hospitals, 4806 proven COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Dutch hospitals (between February and July 2020) from the CAPACITY-COVID registry were included (age 69[58-77]years, 64% men). The primary outcome was defined as a combination of in-hospital mortality or discharge with palliative care. Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the associations between sex, age, and comorbidities with the primary outcome. The effect of comorbidities on the relation of age with the primary outcome was evaluated using mediation analysis.

Results

In-hospital COVID-19 related mortality occurred in 1108 (23%) patients, 836 (76%) were aged ≥70 years (70+). Both age 70+ and female sex were univariably associated with outcome (odds ratio [OR]4.68, 95%confidence interval [4.02-5.45], OR0.68[0.59-0.79], respectively;both p<  0.001). All comorbidities were univariably associated with outcome (p<0.001), and all but dyslipidemia remained significant after adjustment for age70+ and sex. The impact of comorbidities was attenuated after age-spline adjustment, only leaving female sex, diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic kidney disease (CKD), and chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) significantly associated (female OR0.65[0.55-0.75], DM OR1.47[1.26-1.72], CKD OR1.61[1.32-1.97], COPD OR1.30[1.07-1.59]). Pre-existing comorbidities in older patients negligibly (<6% in all comorbidities) mediated the association between higher age and outcome.

Conclusions

Age is the main determinant of COVID-19 related in-hospital mortality, with negligible mediation effect of pre-existing comorbidities.

Trial registration

CAPACITY-COVID ( NCT04325412 ).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02673-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02673-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8897728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8897728?pdf=render 34648354,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj1541,Mapping the proteo-genomic convergence of human diseases.,"Pietzner M, Wheeler E, Carrasco-Zanini J, Cortes A, Koprulu M, Wörheide MA, Oerton E, Cook J, Stewart ID, Kerrison ND, Luan J, Raffler J, Arnold M, Arlt W, O'Rahilly S, Kastenmüller G, Gamazon ER, Hingorani AD, Scott RA, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2021,2021-11-12,N,,,,"Characterization of the genetic regulation of proteins is essential for understanding disease etiology and developing therapies. We identified 10,674 genetic associations for 3892 plasma proteins to create a cis-anchored gene-protein-disease map of 1859 connections that highlights strong cross-disease biological convergence. This proteo-genomic map provides a framework to connect etiologically related diseases, to provide biological context for new or emerging disorders, and to integrate different biological domains to establish mechanisms for known gene-disease links. Our results identify proteo-genomic connections within and between diseases and establish the value of cis-protein variants for annotation of likely causal disease genes at loci identified in genome-wide association studies, thereby addressing a major barrier to experimental validation and clinical translation of genetic discoveries.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9904207; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj1541; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9904207; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9904207?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj1541 +33493433,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30743-9,"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on radiotherapy services in England, UK: a population-based study.","Spencer K, Jones CM, Girdler R, Roe C, Sharpe M, Lawton S, Miller L, Lewis P, Evans M, Sebag-Montefiore D, Roques T, Smittenaar R, Morris E.",,The Lancet. Oncology,2021,2021-01-22,Y,,,,"

Background

The indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes is of increasing concern. However, the extent to which key treatment modalities have been affected is unclear. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on radiotherapy activity in England.

Methods

In this population-based study, data relating to all radiotherapy delivered for cancer in the English NHS, between Feb 4, 2019, and June 28, 2020, were extracted from the National Radiotherapy Dataset. Changes in mean weekly radiotherapy courses, attendances (reflecting fractions), and fractionation patterns following the start of the UK lockdown were compared with corresponding months in 2019 overall, for specific diagnoses, and across age groups. The significance of changes in radiotherapy activity during lockdown was examined using interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis.

Findings

In 2020, mean weekly radiotherapy courses fell by 19·9% in April, 6·2% in May, and 11·6% in June compared with corresponding months in 2019. A relatively greater fall was observed for attendances (29·1% in April, 31·4% in May, and 31·5% in June). These changes were significant on ITS analysis (p<0·0001). A greater reduction in treatment courses between 2019 and 2020 was seen for patients aged 70 years or older compared with those aged younger than 70 years (34·4% vs 7·3% in April). By diagnosis, the largest reduction from 2019 to 2020 in treatment courses was for prostate cancer (77·0% in April) and non-melanoma skin cancer (72·4% in April). Conversely, radiotherapy courses in April, 2020, compared with April, 2019, increased by 41·2% in oesophageal cancer, 64·2% in bladder cancer, and 36·3% in rectal cancer. Increased use of ultra-hypofractionated (26 Gy in five fractions) breast radiotherapy as a percentage of all courses (0·2% in April, 2019, to 60·6% in April, 2020; ITS p<0·0001) contributed to the substantial reduction in attendances.

Interpretation

Radiotherapy activity fell significantly, but use of hypofractionated regimens rapidly increased in the English NHS during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in treatments for some cancers suggests that radiotherapy compensated for reduced surgical activity. These data will assist health-care providers in understanding the indirect consequences of the pandemic and the role of radiotherapy services in minimising these consequences.

Funding

None.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470204520307439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30743-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861?pdf=render 31653530,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.echo.2019.08.015,A Practical Guide to Assess the Reproducibility of Echocardiographic Measurements.,"Bunting KV, Steeds RP, Slater LT, Rogers JK, Gkoutos GV, Kotecha D.",,Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography,2019,2019-10-22,N,Reproducibility; Echocardiography; Repeatability; reliability,,,"Echocardiography plays an essential role in the diagnosis and assessment of cardiovascular disease. Measurements derived from echocardiography are also used to determine the severity of disease, its progression over time, and to aid in the choice of optimal therapy. It is therefore clinically important that echocardiographic measurements be reproducible, repeatable, and reliable. There are a variety of statistical tests available to assess these parameters, and in this article the authors summarize those available for use by echocardiographers to improve their clinical practice. Correlation coefficients, linear regression, Bland-Altman plots, and the coefficient of variation are explored, along with their limitations. The authors also provide an online tool for the easy calculation of these statistics in the clinical environment (www.birmingham.ac.uk/echo). Quantifying and enhancing the reproducibility of echocardiography has important potential to improve the value of echocardiography as the basis for good clinical decision-making.",,pdf:http://www.onlinejase.com/article/S0894731719309460/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.echo.2019.08.015 34053260,https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0283,Exploring surveillance data biases when estimating the reproduction number: with insights into subpopulation transmission of COVID-19 in England.,"Sherratt K, Abbott S, Meakin SR, Hellewell J, Munday JD, Bosse N, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Funk S.",,"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences",2021,2021-05-31,Y,Transmission; Surveillance; Bias; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Time-varying Reproduction Number,,,"The time-varying reproduction number (Rt: the average number of secondary infections caused by each infected person) may be used to assess changes in transmission potential during an epidemic. While new infections are not usually observed directly, they can be estimated from data. However, data may be delayed and potentially biased. We investigated the sensitivity of Rt estimates to different data sources representing COVID-19 in England, and we explored how this sensitivity could track epidemic dynamics in population sub-groups. We sourced public data on test-positive cases, hospital admissions and deaths with confirmed COVID-19 in seven regions of England over March through August 2020. We estimated Rt using a model that mapped unobserved infections to each data source. We then compared differences in Rt with the demographic and social context of surveillance data over time. Our estimates of transmission potential varied for each data source, with the relative inconsistency of estimates varying across regions and over time. Rt estimates based on hospital admissions and deaths were more spatio-temporally synchronous than when compared to estimates from all test positives. We found these differences may be linked to biased representations of subpopulations in each data source. These included spatially clustered testing, and where outbreaks in hospitals, care homes, and young age groups reflected the link between age and severity of the disease. We highlight that policy makers could better target interventions by considering the source populations of Rt estimates. Further work should clarify the best way to combine and interpret Rt estimates from different data sources based on the desired use. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK'.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0283; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0283; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165604; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165604?pdf=render 35354069,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.03.002,Early prediction of incident liver disease using conventional risk factors and gut-microbiome-augmented gradient boosting.,"Liu Y, Méric G, Havulinna AS, Teo SM, Åberg F, Ruuskanen M, Sanders J, Zhu Q, Tripathi A, Verspoor K, Cheng S, Jain M, Jousilahti P, Vázquez-Baeza Y, Loomba R, Lahti L, Niiranen T, Salomaa V, Knight R, Inouye M.",,Cell metabolism,2022,2022-03-29,Y,Prediction; Gut; Disease; Microbiota; liver disease; Metagenomics; Microbiome,,,"The gut microbiome has shown promise as a predictive biomarker for various diseases. However, the potential of gut microbiota for prospective risk prediction of liver disease has not been assessed. Here, we utilized shallow shotgun metagenomic sequencing of a large population-based cohort (N > 7,000) with ∼15 years of follow-up in combination with machine learning to investigate the predictive capacity of gut microbial predictors individually and in conjunction with conventional risk factors for incident liver disease. Separately, conventional and microbial factors showed comparable predictive capacity. However, microbiome augmentation of conventional risk factors using machine learning significantly improved the performance. Similarly, disease-free survival analysis showed significantly improved stratification using microbiome-augmented models. Investigation of predictive microbial signatures revealed previously unknown taxa for liver disease, as well as those previously associated with hepatic function and disease. This study supports the potential clinical validity of gut metagenomic sequencing to complement conventional risk factors for prediction of liver diseases.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.03.002; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.03.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9097589 -36962800,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843,Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health service utilization across regions of Ethiopia: An interrupted time series analysis of health information system data from 2019-2020.,"Mebratie AD, Nega A, Gage A, Mariam DH, Eshetu MK, Arsenault C.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-09-12,Y,,,,"The spread of COVID-19 and associated deaths have remained low in Ethiopia. However, the pandemic could pose a public health crisis indirectly through disruptions in essential health services. The aim of this study was to examine disruptions in health service utilization during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic across 10 regions in Ethiopia. We analyzed utilization of 21 different health services across all of Ethiopia (except the Tigray region) for the period of January 2019 to December 2020. Data were extracted from the Ethiopian district health information system (DHIS2). Monthly visits in 2020 were graphed relative to the same months in 2019. Interrupted time series analysis was used to estimate the effect of the pandemic on service utilization in each region. We found that disruptions in health services were generally higher in urban regions which were most affected by COVID. Outpatient visits declined by 52%, 54%, and 58%, specifically in Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa and Harari, the three urban regions. Similarly, there was a 47% reduction in inpatient admissions in Addis Ababa. In agrarian regions, the pandemic caused an 11% to 17% reduction in outpatient visits and a 10% to 27% decline in inpatient admissions. Visits for children with diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition also declined substantially while maternal health services were less affected. Our study indicates that disruptions in health services were more pronounced in areas that were relatively harder hit by the pandemic. Our results show that the Ethiopian health system has a limited capacity to absorb shocks. During future waves of COVID or future pandemics, the Ethiopian health system must be better prepared to maintain essential services and mitigate the indirect impact of the pandemic on public health, particularly in urban areas.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875?pdf=render 31492797,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032165,Evaluation of the impact of the GRACE risk score on the management and outcome of patients hospitalised with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome in the UK: protocol of the UKGRIS cluster-randomised registry-based trial.,"Everett CC, Fox KA, Reynolds C, Fernandez C, Sharples L, Stocken DD, Carruthers K, Hemingway H, Yan AT, Goodman SG, Brieger D, Chew DP, Gale CP.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-09-05,Y,Risk stratification; acute coronary syndrome; Grace; Nsteacs; Cluster Randomised Trial; Guideline-indicated Treatment,"Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"INTRODUCTION:For non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS) there is a gap between the use of class I guideline recommended therapies and clinical practice. The Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score is recommended in international guidelines for the risk stratification of NSTEACS, but its impact on adherence to guideline-indicated treatments and reducing adverse clinical outcomes is unknown. The objective of the UK GRACE Risk Score Intervention Study (UKGRIS) trial is to assess the effectiveness of the GRACE risk score tool and associated treatment recommendations on the use of guideline-indicated care and clinical outcomes. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:The UKGRIS, a parallel-group cluster randomised registry-based controlled trial, will allocate hospitals in a 1:1 ratio to manage NSTEACS by standard care or according to the GRACE risk score and associated international guidelines. UKGRIS will recruit a minimum of 3000 patients from at least 30 English National Health Service hospitals and collect healthcare data from national electronic health records. The co-primary endpoints are the use of guideline-indicated therapies, and the composite of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, new onset heart failure hospitalisation or cardiovascular readmission at 12 months. Secondary endpoints include duration of inpatient hospital stay over 12 months, EQ-5D-5L responses and utilities, unscheduled revascularisation and the components of the composite endpoint over 12 months follow-up. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:The study has ethical approval (North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee reference: 14/NE/1180). Findings will be announced at relevant conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals in line with the funder's open access policy. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:ISRCTN29731761; Pre-results.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/9/e032165.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032165; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6731819; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6731819?pdf=render -33947203,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.053033,Evidence-Based Assessment of Genes in Dilated Cardiomyopathy.,"Jordan E, Peterson L, Ai T, Asatryan B, Bronicki L, Brown E, Celeghin R, Edwards M, Fan J, Ingles J, James CA, Jarinova O, Johnson R, Judge DP, Lahrouchi N, Lekanne Deprez RH, Lumbers RT, Mazzarotto F, Medeiros Domingo A, Miller RL, Morales A, Murray B, Peters S, Pilichou K, Protonotarios A, Semsarian C, Shah P, Syrris P, Thaxton C, van Tintelen JP, Walsh R, Wang J, Ware J, Hershberger RE.",,Circulation,2021,2021-05-05,Y,Genetics; Cardiomyopathy,,,"

Background

Each of the cardiomyopathies, classically categorized as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, has a signature genetic theme. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy are largely understood as genetic diseases of sarcomere or desmosome proteins, respectively. In contrast, >250 genes spanning >10 gene ontologies have been implicated in DCM, representing a complex and diverse genetic architecture. To clarify this, a systematic curation of evidence to establish the relationship of genes with DCM was conducted.

Methods

An international panel with clinical and scientific expertise in DCM genetics evaluated evidence supporting monogenic relationships of genes with idiopathic DCM. The panel used the Clinical Genome Resource semiquantitative gene-disease clinical validity classification framework with modifications for DCM genetics to classify genes into categories on the basis of the strength of currently available evidence. Representation of DCM genes on clinically available genetic testing panels was evaluated.

Results

Fifty-one genes with human genetic evidence were curated. Twelve genes (23%) from 8 gene ontologies were classified as having definitive (BAG3, DES, FLNC, LMNA, MYH7, PLN, RBM20, SCN5A, TNNC1, TNNT2, TTN) or strong (DSP) evidence. Seven genes (14%; ACTC1, ACTN2, JPH2, NEXN, TNNI3, TPM1, VCL) including 2 additional ontologies were classified as moderate evidence; these genes are likely to emerge as strong or definitive with additional evidence. Of these 19 genes, 6 were similarly classified for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 3 for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Of the remaining 32 genes (63%), 25 (49%) had limited evidence, 4 (8%) were disputed, 2 (4%) had no disease relationship, and 1 (2%) was supported by animal model data only. Of the 16 evaluated clinical genetic testing panels, most definitive genes were included, but panels also included numerous genes with minimal human evidence.

Conclusions

In the curation of 51 genes, 19 had high evidence (12 definitive/strong, 7 moderate). It is notable that these 19 genes explain only a minority of cases, leaving the remainder of DCM genetic architecture incompletely addressed. Clinical genetic testing panels include most high-evidence genes; however, genes lacking robust evidence are also commonly included. We recommend that high-evidence DCM genes be used for clinical practice and that caution be exercised in the interpretation of variants in variable-evidence DCM genes.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.053033; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.053033; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247549; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247549?pdf=render 35834561,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039,"Associations between moderate alcohol consumption, brain iron, and cognition in UK Biobank participants: Observational and mendelian randomization analyses.","Topiwala A, Wang C, Ebmeier KP, Burgess S, Bell S, Levey DF, Zhou H, McCracken C, Roca-Fernández A, Petersen SE, Raman B, Husain M, Gelernter J, Miller KL, Smith SM, Nichols TE.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-07-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Brain iron deposition has been linked to several neurodegenerative conditions and reported in alcohol dependence. Whether iron accumulation occurs in moderate drinkers is unknown. Our objectives were to investigate evidence in support of causal relationships between alcohol consumption and brain iron levels and to examine whether higher brain iron represents a potential pathway to alcohol-related cognitive deficits.

Methods and findings

Observational associations between brain iron markers and alcohol consumption (n = 20,729 UK Biobank participants) were compared with associations with genetically predicted alcohol intake and alcohol use disorder from 2-sample mendelian randomization (MR). Alcohol intake was self-reported via a touchscreen questionnaire at baseline (2006 to 2010). Participants with complete data were included. Multiorgan susceptibility-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (9.60 ± 1.10 years after baseline) was used to ascertain iron content of each brain region (quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and T2*) and liver tissues (T2*), a marker of systemic iron. Main outcomes were susceptibility (χ) and T2*, measures used as indices of iron deposition. Brain regions of interest included putamen, caudate, hippocampi, thalami, and substantia nigra. Potential pathways to alcohol-related iron brain accumulation through elevated systemic iron stores (liver) were explored in causal mediation analysis. Cognition was assessed at the scan and in online follow-up (5.82 ± 0.86 years after baseline). Executive function was assessed with the trail-making test, fluid intelligence with puzzle tasks, and reaction time by a task based on the ""Snap"" card game. Mean age was 54.8 ± 7.4 years and 48.6% were female. Weekly alcohol consumption was 17.7 ± 15.9 units and never drinkers comprised 2.7% of the sample. Alcohol consumption was associated with markers of higher iron (χ) in putamen (β = 0.08 standard deviation (SD) [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06 to 0.09], p < 0.001), caudate (β = 0.05 [0.04 to 0.07], p < 0.001), and substantia nigra (β = 0.03 [0.02 to 0.05], p < 0.001) and lower iron in the thalami (β = -0.06 [-0.07 to -0.04], p < 0.001). Quintile-based analyses found these associations in those consuming >7 units (56 g) alcohol weekly. MR analyses provided weak evidence these relationships are causal. Genetically predicted alcoholic drinks weekly positively associated with putamen and hippocampus susceptibility; however, these associations did not survive multiple testing corrections. Weak evidence for a causal relationship between genetically predicted alcohol use disorder and higher putamen susceptibility was observed; however, this was not robust to multiple comparisons correction. Genetically predicted alcohol use disorder was associated with serum iron and transferrin saturation. Elevated liver iron was observed at just >11 units (88 g) alcohol weekly c.f. <7 units (56 g). Systemic iron levels partially mediated associations of alcohol intake with brain iron. Markers of higher basal ganglia iron associated with slower executive function, lower fluid intelligence, and slower reaction times. The main limitations of the study include that χ and T2* can reflect changes in myelin as well as iron, alcohol use was self-reported, and MR estimates can be influenced by genetic pleiotropy.

Conclusions

To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the largest investigation of moderate alcohol consumption and iron homeostasis to date. Alcohol consumption above 7 units weekly associated with higher brain iron. Iron accumulation represents a potential mechanism for alcohol-related cognitive decline.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9282660; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9282660?pdf=render +33947203,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.053033,Evidence-Based Assessment of Genes in Dilated Cardiomyopathy.,"Jordan E, Peterson L, Ai T, Asatryan B, Bronicki L, Brown E, Celeghin R, Edwards M, Fan J, Ingles J, James CA, Jarinova O, Johnson R, Judge DP, Lahrouchi N, Lekanne Deprez RH, Lumbers RT, Mazzarotto F, Medeiros Domingo A, Miller RL, Morales A, Murray B, Peters S, Pilichou K, Protonotarios A, Semsarian C, Shah P, Syrris P, Thaxton C, van Tintelen JP, Walsh R, Wang J, Ware J, Hershberger RE.",,Circulation,2021,2021-05-05,Y,Genetics; Cardiomyopathy,,,"

Background

Each of the cardiomyopathies, classically categorized as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, has a signature genetic theme. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy are largely understood as genetic diseases of sarcomere or desmosome proteins, respectively. In contrast, >250 genes spanning >10 gene ontologies have been implicated in DCM, representing a complex and diverse genetic architecture. To clarify this, a systematic curation of evidence to establish the relationship of genes with DCM was conducted.

Methods

An international panel with clinical and scientific expertise in DCM genetics evaluated evidence supporting monogenic relationships of genes with idiopathic DCM. The panel used the Clinical Genome Resource semiquantitative gene-disease clinical validity classification framework with modifications for DCM genetics to classify genes into categories on the basis of the strength of currently available evidence. Representation of DCM genes on clinically available genetic testing panels was evaluated.

Results

Fifty-one genes with human genetic evidence were curated. Twelve genes (23%) from 8 gene ontologies were classified as having definitive (BAG3, DES, FLNC, LMNA, MYH7, PLN, RBM20, SCN5A, TNNC1, TNNT2, TTN) or strong (DSP) evidence. Seven genes (14%; ACTC1, ACTN2, JPH2, NEXN, TNNI3, TPM1, VCL) including 2 additional ontologies were classified as moderate evidence; these genes are likely to emerge as strong or definitive with additional evidence. Of these 19 genes, 6 were similarly classified for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 3 for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Of the remaining 32 genes (63%), 25 (49%) had limited evidence, 4 (8%) were disputed, 2 (4%) had no disease relationship, and 1 (2%) was supported by animal model data only. Of the 16 evaluated clinical genetic testing panels, most definitive genes were included, but panels also included numerous genes with minimal human evidence.

Conclusions

In the curation of 51 genes, 19 had high evidence (12 definitive/strong, 7 moderate). It is notable that these 19 genes explain only a minority of cases, leaving the remainder of DCM genetic architecture incompletely addressed. Clinical genetic testing panels include most high-evidence genes; however, genes lacking robust evidence are also commonly included. We recommend that high-evidence DCM genes be used for clinical practice and that caution be exercised in the interpretation of variants in variable-evidence DCM genes.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.053033; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.053033; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247549; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247549?pdf=render +36962800,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843,Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health service utilization across regions of Ethiopia: An interrupted time series analysis of health information system data from 2019-2020.,"Mebratie AD, Nega A, Gage A, Mariam DH, Eshetu MK, Arsenault C.",,PLOS global public health,2022,2022-09-12,Y,,,,"The spread of COVID-19 and associated deaths have remained low in Ethiopia. However, the pandemic could pose a public health crisis indirectly through disruptions in essential health services. The aim of this study was to examine disruptions in health service utilization during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic across 10 regions in Ethiopia. We analyzed utilization of 21 different health services across all of Ethiopia (except the Tigray region) for the period of January 2019 to December 2020. Data were extracted from the Ethiopian district health information system (DHIS2). Monthly visits in 2020 were graphed relative to the same months in 2019. Interrupted time series analysis was used to estimate the effect of the pandemic on service utilization in each region. We found that disruptions in health services were generally higher in urban regions which were most affected by COVID. Outpatient visits declined by 52%, 54%, and 58%, specifically in Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa and Harari, the three urban regions. Similarly, there was a 47% reduction in inpatient admissions in Addis Ababa. In agrarian regions, the pandemic caused an 11% to 17% reduction in outpatient visits and a 10% to 27% decline in inpatient admissions. Visits for children with diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition also declined substantially while maternal health services were less affected. Our study indicates that disruptions in health services were more pronounced in areas that were relatively harder hit by the pandemic. Our results show that the Ethiopian health system has a limited capacity to absorb shocks. During future waves of COVID or future pandemics, the Ethiopian health system must be better prepared to maintain essential services and mitigate the indirect impact of the pandemic on public health, particularly in urban areas.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875?pdf=render 33414548,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00751-5,A cross-platform approach identifies genetic regulators of human metabolism and health.,"Lotta LA, Pietzner M, Stewart ID, Wittemans LBL, Li C, Bonelli R, Raffler J, Biggs EK, Oliver-Williams C, Auyeung VPW, Luan J, Wheeler E, Paige E, Surendran P, Michelotti GA, Scott RA, Burgess S, Zuber V, Sanderson E, Koulman A, Imamura F, Forouhi NG, Khaw KT, MacTel Consortium, Griffin JL, Wood AM, Kastenmüller G, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Gribble FM, Reimann F, Bahlo M, Fauman E, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-01-07,N,,,,"In cross-platform analyses of 174 metabolites, we identify 499 associations (P < 4.9 × 10-10) characterized by pleiotropy, allelic heterogeneity, large and nonlinear effects and enrichment for nonsynonymous variation. We identify a signal at GLP2R (p.Asp470Asn) shared among higher citrulline levels, body mass index, fasting glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide and type 2 diabetes, with β-arrestin signaling as the underlying mechanism. Genetically higher serine levels are shown to reduce the likelihood (by 95%) and predict development of macular telangiectasia type 2, a rare degenerative retinal disease. Integration of genomic and small molecule data across platforms enables the discovery of regulators of human metabolism and translation into clinical insights.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612925; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00751-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612925; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612925?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00751-5 32222069,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19052,Risk of hospitalization and death due to infection in people with psoriasis: a population-based cohort study using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink.,"Yiu ZZN, Parisi R, Lunt M, Warren RB, Griffiths CEM, Langan SM, Ashcroft DM.",,The British journal of dermatology,2021,2020-05-12,N,,,,"

Background

Psoriasis is associated with risk factors for serious infections, but the independent relationship between psoriasis and serious infection is as yet unclear.

Objectives

To determine whether people with psoriasis have a higher risk of hospitalization due to any infection, respiratory infections, soft-tissue and skin infections, or a higher risk of death due to infection.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study of people (≥ 18 years) with psoriasis using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD) linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and Office for National Statistics (ONS) mortality records between 1 April 2003 and 31 December 2016, and matched with up to six comparators on age, sex and general practice. Hospitalization was ascertained from HES records; death was ascertained from ONS mortality records. Stratified Cox proportional hazard models were estimated, with stepwise adjustment in different models for potential confounders or mediators between psoriasis and serious infection.

Results

There were 69 315 people with psoriasis and 338 620 comparators who were followed up for a median (interquartile range) of 4·9 (5·9) and 5·1 (6·3) years, respectively. People with psoriasis had a higher incidence rate of serious infection [20·5 per 1000 person-years, 95% confidence interval (CI) 20·0-21·0, n = 7631] compared with those without psoriasis (16·1 per 1000 person-years, 95% CI 15·9-16·3, n = 30 761). The fully adjusted hazard ratio for the association between psoriasis and serious infection was 1·36 (95% CI 1·31-1·40), with similar results across the other outcomes.

Conclusions

Psoriasis is associated with a small increase in the risk of serious infection. Further research is needed to understand how psoriasis predisposes to a higher risk of infection.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.19052; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19052 37117760,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00166-9,"Measurement and initial characterization of leukocyte telomere length in 474,074 participants in UK Biobank.","Codd V, Denniff M, Swinfield C, Warner SC, Papakonstantinou M, Sheth S, Nanus DE, Budgeon CA, Musicha C, Bountziouka V, Wang Q, Bramley R, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Stoma S, Jiang T, Butterworth AS, Wood AM, Di Angelantonio E, Thompson JR, Danesh JN, Nelson CP, Samani NJ.",,Nature aging,2022,2022-02-17,N,,,,"Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a proposed marker of biological age. Here we report the measurement and initial characterization of LTL in 474,074 participants in UK Biobank. We confirm that older age and male sex associate with shorter LTL, with women on average ~7 years younger in 'biological age' than men. Compared to white Europeans, LTL is markedly longer in African and Chinese ancestries. Older paternal age at birth is associated with longer individual LTL. Higher white cell count is associated with shorter LTL, but proportions of white cell subtypes show weaker associations. Age, ethnicity, sex and white cell count explain ~5.5% of LTL variance. Using paired samples from 1,351 participants taken ~5 years apart, we estimate the within-individual variability in LTL and provide a correction factor for this. This resource provides opportunities to investigate determinants and biomedical consequences of variation in LTL.",,pdf:http://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/c6bcd158-b06f-460d-a191-701cfeaed2bf/download; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00166-9 37127670,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01379-x,Biobank-scale inference of ancestral recombination graphs enables genealogical analysis of complex traits.,"Zhang BC, Biddanda A, Gunnarsson ÁF, Cooper F, Palamara PF.",,Nature genetics,2023,2023-05-01,Y,,,,"Genome-wide genealogies compactly represent the evolutionary history of a set of genomes and inferring them from genetic data has the potential to facilitate a wide range of analyses. We introduce a method, ARG-Needle, for accurately inferring biobank-scale genealogies from sequencing or genotyping array data, as well as strategies to utilize genealogies to perform association and other complex trait analyses. We use these methods to build genome-wide genealogies using genotyping data for 337,464 UK Biobank individuals and test for association across seven complex traits. Genealogy-based association detects more rare and ultra-rare signals (N = 134, frequency range 0.0007-0.1%) than genotype imputation using ~65,000 sequenced haplotypes (N = 64). In a subset of 138,039 exome sequencing samples, these associations strongly tag (average r = 0.72) underlying sequencing variants enriched (4.8×) for loss-of-function variation. These results demonstrate that inferred genome-wide genealogies may be leveraged in the analysis of complex traits, complementing approaches that require the availability of large, population-specific sequencing panels.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01379-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01379-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10181934; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10181934?pdf=render 33391794,https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200958,"ACE inhibition and cardiometabolic risk factors, lung ACE2 and TMPRSS2 gene expression, and plasma ACE2 levels: a Mendelian randomization study.","Gill D, Arvanitis M, Carter P, Hernández Cordero AI, Jo B, Karhunen V, Larsson SC, Li X, Lockhart SM, Mason A, Pashos E, Saha A, Tan VY, Zuber V, Bossé Y, Fahle S, Hao K, Jiang T, Joubert P, Lunt AC, Ouwehand WH, Roberts DJ, Timens W, van den Berge M, Watkins NA, Battle A, Butterworth AS, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Engelhardt BE, Peters JE, Sin DD, Burgess S.",,Royal Society open science,2020,2020-11-18,Y,Genetic epidemiology; Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors; Mendelian Randomization; Covid-19,,,"Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and serine protease TMPRSS2 have been implicated in cell entry for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in the lung epithelium might have implications for the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and severity of COVID-19. We use human genetic variants that proxy angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor drug effects and cardiovascular risk factors to investigate whether these exposures affect lung ACE2 and TMPRSS2 gene expression and circulating ACE2 levels. We observed no consistent evidence of an association of genetically predicted serum ACE levels with any of our outcomes. There was weak evidence for an association of genetically predicted serum ACE levels with ACE2 gene expression in the Lung eQTL Consortium (p = 0.014), but this finding did not replicate. There was evidence of a positive association of genetic liability to type 2 diabetes mellitus with lung ACE2 gene expression in the Gene-Tissue Expression (GTEx) study (p = 4 × 10-4) and with circulating plasma ACE2 levels in the INTERVAL study (p = 0.03), but not with lung ACE2 expression in the Lung eQTL Consortium study (p = 0.68). There were no associations of genetically proxied liability to the other cardiometabolic traits with any outcome. This study does not provide consistent evidence to support an effect of serum ACE levels (as a proxy for ACE inhibitors) or cardiometabolic risk factors on lung ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression or plasma ACE2 levels.",,pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.200958; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200958; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7735342; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7735342?pdf=render -34888366,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245,MOCOnet: Robust Motion Correction of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance T1 Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks.,"Gonzales RA, Zhang Q, Papież BW, Werys K, Lukaschuk E, Popescu IA, Burrage MK, Shanmuganathan M, Ferreira VM, Piechnik SK.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-11-23,Y,image registration; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; T1 Mapping; Deep Learning; Shmolli,,,"Background: Quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) T1 mapping has shown promise for advanced tissue characterisation in routine clinical practise. However, T1 mapping is prone to motion artefacts, which affects its robustness and clinical interpretation. Current methods for motion correction on T1 mapping are model-driven with no guarantee on generalisability, limiting its widespread use. In contrast, emerging data-driven deep learning approaches have shown good performance in general image registration tasks. We propose MOCOnet, a convolutional neural network solution, for generalisable motion artefact correction in T1 maps. Methods: The network architecture employs U-Net for producing distance vector fields and utilises warping layers to apply deformation to the feature maps in a coarse-to-fine manner. Using the UK Biobank imaging dataset scanned at 1.5T, MOCOnet was trained on 1,536 mid-ventricular T1 maps (acquired using the ShMOLLI method) with motion artefacts, generated by a customised deformation procedure, and tested on a different set of 200 samples with a diverse range of motion. MOCOnet was compared to a well-validated baseline multi-modal image registration method. Motion reduction was visually assessed by 3 human experts, with motion scores ranging from 0% (strictly no motion) to 100% (very severe motion). Results: MOCOnet achieved fast image registration (<1 second per T1 map) and successfully suppressed a wide range of motion artefacts. MOCOnet significantly reduced motion scores from 37.1±21.5 to 13.3±10.5 (p < 0.001), whereas the baseline method reduced it to 15.8±15.6 (p < 0.001). MOCOnet was significantly better than the baseline method in suppressing motion artefacts and more consistently (p = 0.007). Conclusion: MOCOnet demonstrated significantly better motion correction performance compared to a traditional image registration approach. Salvaging data affected by motion with robustness and in a time-efficient manner may enable better image quality and reliable images for immediate clinical interpretation.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951?pdf=render 35717168,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4,The contribution of hospital-acquired infections to the COVID-19 epidemic in England in the first half of 2020.,"Knight GM, Pham TM, Stimson J, Funk S, Jafari Y, Pople D, Evans S, Yin M, Brown CS, Bhattacharya A, Hope R, Semple MG, ISARIC4C Investigators, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Read JM, Cooper BS, Robotham JV.",,BMC infectious diseases,2022,2022-06-18,Y,Mathematical Modelling; Nosocomial Transmission; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 is known to transmit in hospital settings, but the contribution of infections acquired in hospitals to the epidemic at a national scale is unknown.

Methods

We used comprehensive national English datasets to determine the number of COVID-19 patients with identified hospital-acquired infections (with symptom onset > 7 days after admission and before discharge) in acute English hospitals up to August 2020. As patients may leave the hospital prior to detection of infection or have rapid symptom onset, we combined measures of the length of stay and the incubation period distribution to estimate how many hospital-acquired infections may have been missed. We used simulations to estimate the total number (identified and unidentified) of symptomatic hospital-acquired infections, as well as infections due to onward community transmission from missed hospital-acquired infections, to 31st July 2020.

Results

In our dataset of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in acute English hospitals with a recorded symptom onset date (n = 65,028), 7% were classified as hospital-acquired. We estimated that only 30% (range across weeks and 200 simulations: 20-41%) of symptomatic hospital-acquired infections would be identified, with up to 15% (mean, 95% range over 200 simulations: 14.1-15.8%) of cases currently classified as community-acquired COVID-19 potentially linked to hospital transmission. We estimated that 26,600 (25,900 to 27,700) individuals acquired a symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in an acute Trust in England before 31st July 2020, resulting in 15,900 (15,200-16,400) or 20.1% (19.2-20.7%) of all identified hospitalised COVID-19 cases.

Conclusions

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to hospitalised patients likely caused approximately a fifth of identified cases of hospitalised COVID-19 in the ""first wave"" in England, but less than 1% of all infections in England. Using time to symptom onset from admission for inpatients as a detection method likely misses a substantial proportion (> 60%) of hospital-acquired infections.",,pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9206097; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9206097?pdf=render +34888366,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245,MOCOnet: Robust Motion Correction of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance T1 Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks.,"Gonzales RA, Zhang Q, Papież BW, Werys K, Lukaschuk E, Popescu IA, Burrage MK, Shanmuganathan M, Ferreira VM, Piechnik SK.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-11-23,Y,image registration; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; T1 Mapping; Deep Learning; Shmolli,,,"Background: Quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) T1 mapping has shown promise for advanced tissue characterisation in routine clinical practise. However, T1 mapping is prone to motion artefacts, which affects its robustness and clinical interpretation. Current methods for motion correction on T1 mapping are model-driven with no guarantee on generalisability, limiting its widespread use. In contrast, emerging data-driven deep learning approaches have shown good performance in general image registration tasks. We propose MOCOnet, a convolutional neural network solution, for generalisable motion artefact correction in T1 maps. Methods: The network architecture employs U-Net for producing distance vector fields and utilises warping layers to apply deformation to the feature maps in a coarse-to-fine manner. Using the UK Biobank imaging dataset scanned at 1.5T, MOCOnet was trained on 1,536 mid-ventricular T1 maps (acquired using the ShMOLLI method) with motion artefacts, generated by a customised deformation procedure, and tested on a different set of 200 samples with a diverse range of motion. MOCOnet was compared to a well-validated baseline multi-modal image registration method. Motion reduction was visually assessed by 3 human experts, with motion scores ranging from 0% (strictly no motion) to 100% (very severe motion). Results: MOCOnet achieved fast image registration (<1 second per T1 map) and successfully suppressed a wide range of motion artefacts. MOCOnet significantly reduced motion scores from 37.1±21.5 to 13.3±10.5 (p < 0.001), whereas the baseline method reduced it to 15.8±15.6 (p < 0.001). MOCOnet was significantly better than the baseline method in suppressing motion artefacts and more consistently (p = 0.007). Conclusion: MOCOnet demonstrated significantly better motion correction performance compared to a traditional image registration approach. Salvaging data affected by motion with robustness and in a time-efficient manner may enable better image quality and reliable images for immediate clinical interpretation.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951?pdf=render 37117689,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00309-6,Author Correction: Nutriome-metabolome relationships provide insights into dietary intake and metabolism.,"Posma JM, Garcia-Perez I, Frost G, Aljuraiban GS, Chan Q, Van Horn L, Daviglus M, Stamler J, Holmes E, Elliott P, Nicholson JK.",,Nature food,2021,2021-07-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00309-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00309-6 -34645794,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8,A cross-sectional analysis of meteorological factors and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 409 cities across 26 countries.,"Sera F, Armstrong B, Abbott S, Meakin S, O'Reilly K, von Borries R, Schneider R, Royé D, Hashizume M, Pascal M, Tobias A, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, MCC Collaborative Research Network, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Gasparrini A, Lowe R.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-10-13,Y,,,,"There is conflicting evidence on the influence of weather on COVID-19 transmission. Our aim is to estimate weather-dependent signatures in the early phase of the pandemic, while controlling for socio-economic factors and non-pharmaceutical interventions. We identify a modest non-linear association between mean temperature and the effective reproduction number (Re) in 409 cities in 26 countries, with a decrease of 0.087 (95% CI: 0.025; 0.148) for a 10 °C increase. Early interventions have a greater effect on Re with a decrease of 0.285 (95% CI 0.223; 0.347) for a 5th - 95th percentile increase in the government response index. The variation in the effective reproduction number explained by government interventions is 6 times greater than for mean temperature. We find little evidence of meteorological conditions having influenced the early stages of local epidemics and conclude that population behaviour and government interventions are more important drivers of transmission.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25914-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574?pdf=render 33713332,https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-021-00996-1,End-stage kidney disease in patients with clinically manifest vascular disease; incidence and risk factors: results from the UCC-SMART cohort study.,"Østergaard HB, Westerink J, Verhaar MC, Bots ML, Asselbergs FW, de Borst GJ, Kappelle LJ, Visseren FLJ, van der Leeuw J, UCC-SMART studygroup.",,Journal of nephrology,2021,2021-03-13,Y,Cardiovascular disease; incidence; End-stage Kidney Disease; Modifiable Risk Factors,,,"

Background

Patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) are at increased risk of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Insights into the incidence and role of modifiable risk factors for end-stage kidney disease may provide means for prevention in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Methods

We included 8402 patients with stable cardiovascular disease. Incidence rates (IRs) for end-stage kidney disease were determined stratified according to vascular disease location. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the risk of end-stage kidney disease for the different determinants.

Results

Sixty-five events were observed with a median follow-up of 8.6 years. The overall incidence rate of end-stage kidney disease was 0.9/1000 person-years. Patients with polyvascular disease had the highest incidence rate (1.8/1000 person-years). Smoking (Hazard ratio (HR) 1.87; 95% CI 1.10-3.19), type 2 diabetes (HR 1.81; 95% CI 1.05-3.14), higher systolic blood pressure (HR 1.37; 95% CI 1.24-1.52/10 mmHg), lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (HR 2.86; 95% CI 2.44-3.23/10 mL/min/1.73 m2) and higher urine albumin/creatinine ratio (uACR) (HR 1.19; 95% CI 1.15-1.23/10 mg/mmol) were independently associated with elevated risk of end-stage kidney disease. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, non-HDL-cholesterol and exercise were not independently associated with risk of end-stage kidney disease.

Conclusions

Incidence of end-stage kidney disease in patients with cardiovascular disease varies according to vascular disease location. Several modifiable risk factors for end-stage kidney disease were identified in patients with cardiovascular disease. These findings highlight the potential of risk factor management in patients with manifest cardiovascular disease.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40620-021-00996-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-021-00996-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494654; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494654?pdf=render +34645794,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8,A cross-sectional analysis of meteorological factors and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 409 cities across 26 countries.,"Sera F, Armstrong B, Abbott S, Meakin S, O'Reilly K, von Borries R, Schneider R, Royé D, Hashizume M, Pascal M, Tobias A, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, MCC Collaborative Research Network, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Gasparrini A, Lowe R.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-10-13,Y,,,,"There is conflicting evidence on the influence of weather on COVID-19 transmission. Our aim is to estimate weather-dependent signatures in the early phase of the pandemic, while controlling for socio-economic factors and non-pharmaceutical interventions. We identify a modest non-linear association between mean temperature and the effective reproduction number (Re) in 409 cities in 26 countries, with a decrease of 0.087 (95% CI: 0.025; 0.148) for a 10 °C increase. Early interventions have a greater effect on Re with a decrease of 0.285 (95% CI 0.223; 0.347) for a 5th - 95th percentile increase in the government response index. The variation in the effective reproduction number explained by government interventions is 6 times greater than for mean temperature. We find little evidence of meteorological conditions having influenced the early stages of local epidemics and conclude that population behaviour and government interventions are more important drivers of transmission.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25914-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574?pdf=render 34503513,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02087-1,Genome-wide analysis of blood lipid metabolites in over 5000 South Asians reveals biological insights at cardiometabolic disease loci.,"Harshfield EL, Fauman EB, Stacey D, Paul DS, Ziemek D, Ong RMY, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Rasheed A, Sattar T, Zameer-Ul-Asar, Saleem I, Hina Z, Ishtiaq U, Qamar N, Mallick NH, Yaqub Z, Saghir T, Rizvi SNH, Memon A, Ishaq M, Rasheed SZ, Memon FU, Jalal A, Abbas S, Frossard P, Saleheen D, Wood AM, Griffin JL, Koulman A.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-09-10,Y,Genetics; Lipidomics; Network Analysis; South Asian; Gaussian Graphical Modelling,,,"

Background

Genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors can lead to perturbations in circulating lipid levels and increase the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, how changes in individual lipid species contribute to disease risk is often unclear. Moreover, little is known about the role of lipids on cardiovascular disease in Pakistan, a population historically underrepresented in cardiovascular studies.

Methods

We characterised the genetic architecture of the human blood lipidome in 5662 hospital controls from the Pakistan Risk of Myocardial Infarction Study (PROMIS) and 13,814 healthy British blood donors from the INTERVAL study. We applied a candidate causal gene prioritisation tool to link the genetic variants associated with each lipid to the most likely causal genes, and Gaussian Graphical Modelling network analysis to identify and illustrate relationships between lipids and genetic loci.

Results

We identified 253 genetic associations with 181 lipids measured using direct infusion high-resolution mass spectrometry in PROMIS, and 502 genetic associations with 244 lipids in INTERVAL. Our analyses revealed new biological insights at genetic loci associated with cardiometabolic diseases, including novel lipid associations at the LPL, MBOAT7, LIPC, APOE-C1-C2-C4, SGPP1, and SPTLC3 loci.

Conclusions

Our findings, generated using a distinctive lipidomics platform in an understudied South Asian population, strengthen and expand the knowledge base of the genetic determinants of lipids and their association with cardiometabolic disease-related loci.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02087-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02087-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8431908; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8431908?pdf=render -35188939,https://doi.org/10.1097/pts.0000000000000867,Optimizing Hospital Electronic Prescribing Systems: A Systematic Scoping Review.,"Williams J, Malden S, Heeney C, Bouamrane M, Holder M, Perera U, Bates DW, Sheikh A.",,Journal of patient safety,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

Considerable international investment in hospital electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems has been made, but despite this, it is proving difficult for most organizations to realize safety, quality, and efficiency gains in prescribing. The objective of this work was to develop policy-relevant insights into the optimization of hospital ePrescribing systems to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of these expensive digital health infrastructures.

Methods

We undertook a systematic scoping review of the literature by searching MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL databases. We searched for primary studies reporting on ePrescribing optimization strategies and independently screened and abstracted data until saturation was achieved. Findings were theoretically and thematically synthesized taking a medicine life-cycle perspective, incorporating consultative phases with domain experts.

Results

We identified 23,609 potentially eligible studies from which 1367 satisfied our inclusion criteria. Thematic synthesis was conducted on a data set of 76 studies, of which 48 were based in the United States. Key approaches to optimization included the following: stakeholder engagement, system or process redesign, technological innovations, and education and training packages. Single-component interventions (n = 26) described technological optimization strategies focusing on a single, specific step in the prescribing process. Multicomponent interventions (n = 50) used a combination of optimization strategies, typically targeting multiple steps in the medicines management process.

Discussion

We identified numerous optimization strategies for enhancing the performance of ePrescribing systems. Key considerations for ePrescribing optimization include meaningful stakeholder engagement to reconceptualize the service delivery model and implementing technological innovations with supporting training packages to simultaneously impact on different facets of the medicines management process.",,html:https://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2022/03000/Optimizing_Hospital_Electronic_Prescribing.36.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000867; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945?pdf=render -34991479,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y,The dynamics of frailty development and progression in older adults in primary care in England (2006-2017): a retrospective cohort profile.,"Fogg C, Fraser SDS, Roderick P, de Lusignan S, Clegg A, Brailsford S, Barkham A, Patel HP, Windle V, Harris S, Zhu S, England T, Evenden D, Lambert F, Walsh B, Frailty Dynamics study team.",,BMC geriatrics,2022,2022-01-06,Y,Adults; Frailty; Cohort study; Primary Care; Service Use; Electronic Health Records; Trajectories; Computer Simulation Modelling,,,"

Background

Frailty is a common condition in older adults and has a major impact on patient outcomes and service use. Information on the prevalence in middle-aged adults and the patterns of progression of frailty at an individual and population level is scarce. To address this, a cohort was defined from a large primary care database in England to describe the epidemiology of frailty and understand the dynamics of frailty within individuals and across the population. This article describes the structure of the dataset, cohort characteristics and planned analyses.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study using electronic health records. Participants were aged ≥50 years registered in practices contributing to the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre between 2006 to 2017. Data include GP practice details, patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, twice-yearly electronic Frailty Index (eFI), deaths, medication use and primary and secondary care health service use. Participants in each cohort year by age group, GP and patient characteristics at cohort entry are described.

Results

The cohort includes 2,177,656 patients, contributing 15,552,946 person-years, registered at 419 primary care practices in England. The mean age was 61 years, 52.1% of the cohort was female, and 77.6% lived in urban environments. Frailty increased with age, affecting 10% of adults aged 50-64 and 43.7% of adults aged ≥65. The prevalence of long-term conditions and specific frailty deficits increased with age, as did the eFI and the severity of frailty categories.

Conclusion

A comprehensive understanding of frailty dynamics will inform predictions of current and future care needs to facilitate timely planning of appropriate interventions, service configurations and workforce requirements. Analysis of this large, nationally representative cohort including participants aged ≥50 will capture earlier transitions to frailty and enable a detailed understanding of progression and impact. These results will inform novel simulation models which predict future health and service needs of older people living with frailty.

Study registration

Registered on www.clinicaltrials.gov October 25th 2019, NCT04139278 .",,pdf:https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8740419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8740419?pdf=render 35103484,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.121.003553,Genetically Predicted Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Coronary Artery Disease: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization. ,"Cupido AJ, Kraaijenhof JM, Burgess S, Asselbergs FW, Hovingh GK, Gill D.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2022,2022-02-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145750/1/CIRCGEN.121.003553.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003553; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612391; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612391?pdf=render -37269091,https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547231172763,Remote Administration of ADHD-Sensitive Cognitive Tasks: A Pilot Study.,"Sun S, Denyer H, Sankesara H, Deng Q, Ranjan Y, Conde P, Rashid Z, Bendayan R, Asherson P, Bilbow A, Groom M, Hollis C, Folarin AA, Dobson RJB, Kuntsi J.",,Journal of attention disorders,2023,2023-06-02,Y,ADHD; Remote Monitoring; Response Inhibition; Attention Regulation; Radar-base,,,"

Objective

We assessed the feasibility and validity of remote researcher-led administration and self-administration of modified versions of two cognitive tasks sensitive to ADHD, a four-choice reaction time task (Fast task) and a combined Continuous Performance Test/Go No-Go task (CPT/GNG), through a new remote measurement technology system.

Method

We compared the cognitive performance measures (mean and variability of reaction times (MRT, RTV), omission errors (OE) and commission errors (CE)) at a remote baseline researcher-led administration and three remote self-administration sessions between participants with and without ADHD (n = 40).

Results

The most consistent group differences were found for RTV, MRT and CE at the baseline researcher-led administration and the first self-administration, with 8 of the 10 comparisons statistically significant and all comparisons indicating medium to large effect sizes.

Conclusion

Remote administration of cognitive tasks successfully captured the difficulties with response inhibition and regulation of attention, supporting the feasibility and validity of remote assessments.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10870547231172763; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547231172763; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10291103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10291103?pdf=render 32150548,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605,The influence of rare variants in circulating metabolic biomarkers.,"Riveros-Mckay F, Oliver-Williams C, Karthikeyan S, Walter K, Kundu K, Ouwehand WH, Roberts D, Di Angelantonio E, Soranzo N, Danesh J, INTERVAL Study, Wheeler E, Zeggini E, Butterworth AS, Barroso I.",,PLoS genetics,2020,2020-03-09,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,cardiovascular,"Circulating metabolite levels are biomarkers for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here we studied, association of rare variants and 226 serum lipoproteins, lipids and amino acids in 7,142 (discovery plus follow-up) healthy participants. We leveraged the information from multiple metabolite measurements on the same participants to improve discovery in rare variant association analyses for gene-based and gene-set tests by incorporating correlated metabolites as covariates in the validation stage. Gene-based analysis corrected for the effective number of tests performed, confirmed established associations at APOB, APOC3, PAH, HAL and PCSK (p<1.32x10-7) and identified novel gene-trait associations at a lower stringency threshold with ACSL1, MYCN, FBXO36 and B4GALNT3 (p<2.5x10-6). Regulation of the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex was associated for the first time, in gene-set analyses also corrected for effective number of tests, with IDL and LDL parameters, as well as circulating cholesterol (pMETASKAT<2.41x10-6). In conclusion, using an approach that leverages metabolite measurements obtained in the same participants, we identified novel loci and pathways involved in the regulation of these important metabolic biomarkers. As large-scale biobanks continue to amass sequencing and phenotypic information, analytical approaches such as ours will be useful to fully exploit the copious amounts of biological data generated in these efforts.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108731; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108731?pdf=render +34991479,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y,The dynamics of frailty development and progression in older adults in primary care in England (2006-2017): a retrospective cohort profile.,"Fogg C, Fraser SDS, Roderick P, de Lusignan S, Clegg A, Brailsford S, Barkham A, Patel HP, Windle V, Harris S, Zhu S, England T, Evenden D, Lambert F, Walsh B, Frailty Dynamics study team.",,BMC geriatrics,2022,2022-01-06,Y,Adults; Frailty; Cohort study; Primary Care; Service Use; Electronic Health Records; Trajectories; Computer Simulation Modelling,,,"

Background

Frailty is a common condition in older adults and has a major impact on patient outcomes and service use. Information on the prevalence in middle-aged adults and the patterns of progression of frailty at an individual and population level is scarce. To address this, a cohort was defined from a large primary care database in England to describe the epidemiology of frailty and understand the dynamics of frailty within individuals and across the population. This article describes the structure of the dataset, cohort characteristics and planned analyses.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study using electronic health records. Participants were aged ≥50 years registered in practices contributing to the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre between 2006 to 2017. Data include GP practice details, patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, twice-yearly electronic Frailty Index (eFI), deaths, medication use and primary and secondary care health service use. Participants in each cohort year by age group, GP and patient characteristics at cohort entry are described.

Results

The cohort includes 2,177,656 patients, contributing 15,552,946 person-years, registered at 419 primary care practices in England. The mean age was 61 years, 52.1% of the cohort was female, and 77.6% lived in urban environments. Frailty increased with age, affecting 10% of adults aged 50-64 and 43.7% of adults aged ≥65. The prevalence of long-term conditions and specific frailty deficits increased with age, as did the eFI and the severity of frailty categories.

Conclusion

A comprehensive understanding of frailty dynamics will inform predictions of current and future care needs to facilitate timely planning of appropriate interventions, service configurations and workforce requirements. Analysis of this large, nationally representative cohort including participants aged ≥50 will capture earlier transitions to frailty and enable a detailed understanding of progression and impact. These results will inform novel simulation models which predict future health and service needs of older people living with frailty.

Study registration

Registered on www.clinicaltrials.gov October 25th 2019, NCT04139278 .",,pdf:https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8740419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8740419?pdf=render +35188939,https://doi.org/10.1097/pts.0000000000000867,Optimizing Hospital Electronic Prescribing Systems: A Systematic Scoping Review.,"Williams J, Malden S, Heeney C, Bouamrane M, Holder M, Perera U, Bates DW, Sheikh A.",,Journal of patient safety,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

Considerable international investment in hospital electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems has been made, but despite this, it is proving difficult for most organizations to realize safety, quality, and efficiency gains in prescribing. The objective of this work was to develop policy-relevant insights into the optimization of hospital ePrescribing systems to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of these expensive digital health infrastructures.

Methods

We undertook a systematic scoping review of the literature by searching MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL databases. We searched for primary studies reporting on ePrescribing optimization strategies and independently screened and abstracted data until saturation was achieved. Findings were theoretically and thematically synthesized taking a medicine life-cycle perspective, incorporating consultative phases with domain experts.

Results

We identified 23,609 potentially eligible studies from which 1367 satisfied our inclusion criteria. Thematic synthesis was conducted on a data set of 76 studies, of which 48 were based in the United States. Key approaches to optimization included the following: stakeholder engagement, system or process redesign, technological innovations, and education and training packages. Single-component interventions (n = 26) described technological optimization strategies focusing on a single, specific step in the prescribing process. Multicomponent interventions (n = 50) used a combination of optimization strategies, typically targeting multiple steps in the medicines management process.

Discussion

We identified numerous optimization strategies for enhancing the performance of ePrescribing systems. Key considerations for ePrescribing optimization include meaningful stakeholder engagement to reconceptualize the service delivery model and implementing technological innovations with supporting training packages to simultaneously impact on different facets of the medicines management process.",,html:https://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2022/03000/Optimizing_Hospital_Electronic_Prescribing.36.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000867; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945?pdf=render +37269091,https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547231172763,Remote Administration of ADHD-Sensitive Cognitive Tasks: A Pilot Study.,"Sun S, Denyer H, Sankesara H, Deng Q, Ranjan Y, Conde P, Rashid Z, Bendayan R, Asherson P, Bilbow A, Groom M, Hollis C, Folarin AA, Dobson RJB, Kuntsi J.",,Journal of attention disorders,2023,2023-06-02,Y,ADHD; Remote Monitoring; Response Inhibition; Attention Regulation; Radar-base,,,"

Objective

We assessed the feasibility and validity of remote researcher-led administration and self-administration of modified versions of two cognitive tasks sensitive to ADHD, a four-choice reaction time task (Fast task) and a combined Continuous Performance Test/Go No-Go task (CPT/GNG), through a new remote measurement technology system.

Method

We compared the cognitive performance measures (mean and variability of reaction times (MRT, RTV), omission errors (OE) and commission errors (CE)) at a remote baseline researcher-led administration and three remote self-administration sessions between participants with and without ADHD (n = 40).

Results

The most consistent group differences were found for RTV, MRT and CE at the baseline researcher-led administration and the first self-administration, with 8 of the 10 comparisons statistically significant and all comparisons indicating medium to large effect sizes.

Conclusion

Remote administration of cognitive tasks successfully captured the difficulties with response inhibition and regulation of attention, supporting the feasibility and validity of remote assessments.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10870547231172763; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547231172763; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10291103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10291103?pdf=render +35388009,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6,Publisher Correction: Elucidating mechanisms of genetic cross-disease associations at the PROCR vascular disease locus.,"Stacey D, Chen L, Stanczyk PJ, Howson JMM, Mason AM, Burgess S, MacDonald S, Langdown J, McKinney H, Downes K, Farahi N, Peters JE, Basu S, Pankow JS, Tang W, Pankratz N, Sabater-Lleal M, de Vries PS, Smith NL, CHARGE Hemostasis Working Group, Gelinas AD, Schneider DJ, Janjic N, Samani NJ, Ye S, Summers C, Chilvers ER, Danesh J, Paul DS.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-04-06,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29641-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867?pdf=render 32075790,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m331,Associations between macrolide antibiotics prescribing during pregnancy and adverse child outcomes in the UK: population based cohort study.,"Fan H, Gilbert R, O'Callaghan F, Li L.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-02-19,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the association between macrolide antibiotics prescribing during pregnancy and major malformations, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder in children.

Design

Population based cohort study.

Setting

The UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.

Participants

The study cohort included 104 605 children born from 1990 to 2016 whose mothers were prescribed one macrolide monotherapy (erythromycin, clarithromycin, or azithromycin) or one penicillin monotherapy from the fourth gestational week to delivery. Two negative control cohorts consisted of 82 314 children whose mothers were prescribed macrolides or penicillins before conception, and 53 735 children who were siblings of the children in the study cohort.

Main outcome measures

Risks of any major malformations and system specific major malformations (nervous, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, genital, and urinary) after macrolide or penicillin prescribing during the first trimester (four to 13 gestational weeks), second to third trimester (14 gestational weeks to birth), or any trimester of pregnancy. Additionally, risks of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder.

Results

Major malformations were recorded in 186 of 8632 children (21.55 per 1000) whose mothers were prescribed macrolides and 1666 of 95 973 children (17.36 per 1000) whose mothers were prescribed penicillins during pregnancy. Macrolide prescribing during the first trimester was associated with an increased risk of any major malformation compared with penicillin (27.65 v 17.65 per 1000, adjusted risk ratio 1.55, 95% confidence interval 1.19 to 2.03) and specifically cardiovascular malformations (10.60 v 6.61 per 1000, 1.62, 1.05 to 2.51). Macrolide prescribing in any trimester was associated with an increased risk of genital malformations (4.75 v 3.07 per 1000, 1.58, 1.14 to 2.19, mainly hypospadias). Erythromycin in the first trimester was associated with an increased risk of any major malformation (27.39 v 17.65 per 1000, 1.50, 1.13 to 1.99). No statistically significant associations were found for other system specific malformations or for neurodevelopmental disorders. Findings were robust to sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions

Prescribing macrolide antibiotics during the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of any major malformation and specifically cardiovascular malformations compared with penicillin antibiotics. Macrolide prescribing in any trimester was associated with an increased risk of genital malformations. These findings show that macrolides should be used with caution during pregnancy and if feasible alternative antibiotics should be prescribed until further research is available.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03948620.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/368/bmj.m331.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m331; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7190043 +35068290,https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317,Higher body mass index raises immature platelet count: potential contribution to obesity-related thrombosis.,"Goudswaard LJ, Corbin LJ, Burley KL, Mumford A, Akbari P, Soranzo N, Butterworth AS, Watkins NA, Pournaras DJ, Harris J, Timpson NJ, Hers I.",,Platelets,2022,2022-01-24,N,Obesity; Aggregation; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomization; Immature Platelets,,,"Higher body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for thrombosis. Platelets are essential for hemostasis but contribute to thrombosis when activated pathologically. We hypothesized that higher BMI leads to changes in platelet characteristics, thereby increasing thrombotic risk. The effect of BMI on platelet traits (measured by Sysmex) was explored in 33 388 UK blood donors (INTERVAL study). Linear regression showed that higher BMI was positively associated with greater plateletcrit (PCT), platelet count (PLT), immature platelet count (IPC), and side fluorescence (SFL, a measure of mRNA content used to derive IPC). Mendelian randomization (MR), applied to estimate a causal effect with BMI proxied by a genetic risk score, provided causal estimates for a positive effect of BMI on both SFL and IPC, but there was little evidence for a causal effect of BMI on PCT or PLT. Follow-up analyses explored the functional relevance of platelet characteristics in a pre-operative cardiac cohort (COPTIC). Linear regression provided observational evidence for a positive association between IPC and agonist-induced whole blood platelet aggregation. Results indicate that higher BMI raises the number of immature platelets, which is associated with greater whole blood platelet aggregation in a cardiac cohort. Higher IPC could therefore contribute to obesity-related thrombosis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317 35482474,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21627,Biomarkers of disease progression in people with psoriasis: a scoping review.,"Ramessur R, Corbett M, Marshall D, Acencio ML, Barbosa IA, Dand N, Di Meglio P, Haddad S, Jensen AHM, Koopmann W, Mahil SK, Ostaszewski M, Rahmatulla S, Rastrick J, Saklatvala J, Weidinger S, Wright K, Eyerich K, Ndlovu M, Barker JN, Skov L, Conrad C, Smith CH, BIOMAP consortium.",,The British journal of dermatology,2022,2022-07-11,Y,,,,"

Background

Identification of those at risk of more severe psoriasis and/or associated morbidities offers opportunity for early intervention, reduced disease burden and more cost-effective healthcare. Prognostic biomarkers of disease progression have thus been the focus of intense research, but none are part of routine practice.

Objectives

To identify and catalogue candidate biomarkers of disease progression in psoriasis for the translational research community.

Methods

A systematic search of CENTRAL, Embase, LILACS and MEDLINE was performed for relevant articles published between 1990 and December 2021. Eligibility criteria were studies involving patients with psoriasis (any age, n ≥ 50) reporting biomarkers associated with disease progression. The main outcomes were any measure of skin severity or any prespecified psoriasis comorbidity. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second; studies meeting minimal quality criteria (longitudinal design and/or use of methods to control for confounding) were formally assessed for bias. Candidate biomarkers were identified by an expert multistakeholder group using a majority voting consensus exercise, and mapped to relevant cellular and molecular pathways.

Results

Of 181 included studies, most investigated genomic or proteomic biomarkers associated with disease severity (n = 145) or psoriatic arthritis (n = 30). Methodological and reporting limitations compromised interpretation of findings, most notably a lack of longitudinal studies, and inadequate control for key prognostic factors. The following candidate biomarkers with future potential utility were identified for predicting disease severity: LCE3D, interleukin (IL)23R, IL23A, NFKBIL1 loci, HLA-C*06:02 (genomic), IL-17A, IgG aHDL, GlycA, I-FABP and kallikrein 8 (proteomic), tyramine (metabolomic); psoriatic arthritis: HLA-C*06:02, HLA-B*27, HLA-B*38, HLA-B*08, and variation at the IL23R and IL13 loci (genomic); IL-17A, CXCL10, Mac-2 binding protein, integrin b5, matrix metalloproteinase-3 and macrophage-colony stimulating factor (proteomic) and tyramine and mucic acid (metabolomic); and type 2 diabetes mellitus: variation in IL12B and IL23R loci (genomic). No biomarkers were supported by sufficient evidence for clinical use without further validation.

Conclusions

This review provides a comprehensive catalogue of investigated biomarkers of disease progression in psoriasis. Future studies must address the common methodological limitations identified herein to expedite discovery and validation of biomarkers for clinical use. What is already known about this topic? The current treatment paradigm in psoriasis is reactive. There is a need to develop effective risk-stratified management approaches that can proactively attenuate the substantial burden of disease. Prognostic biomarkers of disease progression have therefore been the focus of intense research. What does this study add? This review is the first to scope, collate and catalogue research investigating biomarkers of disease progression in psoriasis. The review identifies potentially promising candidate biomarkers for further investigation and highlights common important limitations that should be considered when designing and conducting future studies in this area.",,pdf:https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/files/177671246/Br_J_Dermatol_2022_Ramessur_Biomarkers_of_disease_progression_in_people_with_psoriasis_a_scoping_review.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796834; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796834?pdf=render 34965929,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-065834,GP consultation rates for sequelae after acute covid-19 in patients managed in the community or hospital in the UK: population based study.,"Whittaker HR, Gulea C, Koteci A, Kallis C, Morgan AD, Iwundu C, Weeks M, Gupta R, Quint JK.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-12-29,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To describe the rates for consulting a general practitioner (GP) for sequelae after acute covid-19 in patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 and those managed in the community, and to determine how the rates change over time for patients in the community and after vaccination for covid-19.

Design

Population based study.

Setting

1392 general practices in England contributing to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum database.

Participants

456 002 patients with a diagnosis of covid-19 between 1 August 2020 and 14 February 2021 (44.7% men; median age 61 years), admitted to hospital within two weeks of diagnosis or managed in the community, and followed-up for a maximum of 9.2 months. A negative control group included individuals without covid-19 (n=38 511) and patients with influenza before the pandemic (n=21 803).

Main outcome measures

Comparison of rates for consulting a GP for new symptoms, diseases, prescriptions, and healthcare use in individuals admitted to hospital and those managed in the community, separately, before and after covid-19 infection, using Cox regression and negative binomial regression for healthcare use. The analysis was repeated for the negative control and influenza cohorts. In individuals in the community, outcomes were also described over time after a diagnosis of covid-19, and compared before and after vaccination for individuals who were symptomatic after covid-19 infection, using negative binomial regression.

Results

Relative to the negative control and influenza cohorts, patients in the community (n=437 943) had significantly higher GP consultation rates for multiple sequelae, and the most common were loss of smell or taste, or both (adjusted hazard ratio 5.28, 95% confidence interval 3.89 to 7.17, P<0.001); venous thromboembolism (3.35, 2.87 to 3.91, P<0.001); lung fibrosis (2.41, 1.37 to 4.25, P=0.002), and muscle pain (1.89, 1.63 to 2.20, P<0.001); and also for healthcare use after a diagnosis of covid-19 compared with 12 months before infection. For absolute proportions, the most common outcomes ≥4 weeks after a covid-19 diagnosis in patients in the community were joint pain (2.5%), anxiety (1.2%), and prescriptions for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (1.2%). Patients admitted to hospital (n=18 059) also had significantly higher GP consultation rates for multiple sequelae, most commonly for venous thromboembolism (16.21, 11.28 to 23.31, P<0.001), nausea (4.64, 2.24 to 9.21, P<0.001), prescriptions for paracetamol (3.68, 2.86 to 4.74, P<0.001), renal failure (3.42, 2.67 to 4.38, P<0.001), and healthcare use after a covid-19 diagnosis compared with 12 months before infection. For absolute proportions, the most common outcomes ≥4 weeks after a covid-19 diagnosis in patients admitted to hospital were venous thromboembolism (3.5%), joint pain (2.7%), and breathlessness (2.8%). In patients in the community, anxiety and depression, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, general pain, nausea, chest tightness, and tinnitus persisted throughout follow-up. GP consultation rates were reduced for all symptoms, prescriptions, and healthcare use, except for neuropathic pain, cognitive impairment, strong opiates, and paracetamol use in patients in the community after the first vaccination dose for covid-19 relative to before vaccination. GP consultation rates were also reduced for ischaemic heart disease, asthma, and gastro-oesophageal disease.

Conclusions

GP consultation rates for sequelae after acute covid-19 infection differed between patients with covid-19 who were admitted to hospital and those managed in the community. For individuals in the community, rates of some sequelae decreased over time but those for others, such as anxiety and depression, persisted. Rates of some outcomes decreased after vaccination in this group.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/375/bmj-2021-065834.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-065834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8715128; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8715128?pdf=render -35388009,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6,Publisher Correction: Elucidating mechanisms of genetic cross-disease associations at the PROCR vascular disease locus.,"Stacey D, Chen L, Stanczyk PJ, Howson JMM, Mason AM, Burgess S, MacDonald S, Langdown J, McKinney H, Downes K, Farahi N, Peters JE, Basu S, Pankow JS, Tang W, Pankratz N, Sabater-Lleal M, de Vries PS, Smith NL, CHARGE Hemostasis Working Group, Gelinas AD, Schneider DJ, Janjic N, Samani NJ, Ye S, Summers C, Chilvers ER, Danesh J, Paul DS.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-04-06,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29641-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867?pdf=render +35421974,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5,An implementation framework and a feasibility evaluation of a clinical decision support system for diabetes management in secondary mental healthcare using CogStack.,"Patel D, Msosa YJ, Wang T, Mustafa OG, Gee S, Williams J, Roberts A, Dobson RJ, Gaughran F.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2022,2022-04-14,Y,Monitoring; Diabetes; Clinical Decision Support; Pre-diabetes; Ehealth; Alerting; Cogstack,,,"

Background

Improvements to the primary prevention of physical health illnesses like diabetes in the general population have not been mirrored to the same extent in people with serious mental illness (SMI). This work evaluates the technical feasibility of implementing an electronic clinical decision support system (eCDSS) for supporting the management of dysglycaemia and diabetes in patients with serious mental illness in a secondary mental healthcare setting.

Methods

A stepwise approach was taken as an overarching and guiding framework for this work. Participatory methods were employed to design and deploy a monitoring and alerting eCDSS. The eCDSS was evaluated for its technical feasibility. The initial part of the feasibility evaluation was conducted in an outpatient community mental health team. Thereafter, the evaluation of the eCDSS progressed to a more in-depth in silico validation.

Results

A digital health intervention that enables monitoring and alerting of at-risk patients based on an approved diabetes management guideline was developed. The eCDSS generated alerts according to expected standards and in line with clinical guideline recommendations.

Conclusions

It is feasible to design and deploy a functional monitoring and alerting eCDSS in secondary mental healthcare. Further work is required in order to fully evaluate the integration of the eCDSS into routine clinical workflows. By describing and sharing the steps that were and will be taken from concept to clinical testing, useful insights could be provided to teams that are interested in building similar digital health interventions.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062?pdf=render 37433797,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38816-8,The role of vaccination and public awareness in forecasts of Mpox incidence in the United Kingdom.,"Brand SPC, Cavallaro M, Cumming F, Turner C, Florence I, Blomquist P, Hilton J, Guzman-Rincon LM, House T, Nokes DJ, Keeling MJ.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-07-11,Y,,,,"Beginning in May 2022, Mpox virus spread rapidly in high-income countries through close human-to-human contact primarily amongst communities of gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men (GBMSM). Behavioural change arising from increased knowledge and health warnings may have reduced the rate of transmission and modified Vaccinia-based vaccination is likely to be an effective longer-term intervention. We investigate the UK epidemic presenting 26-week projections using a stochastic discrete-population transmission model which includes GBMSM status, rate of formation of new sexual partnerships, and clique partitioning of the population. The Mpox cases peaked in mid-July; our analysis is that the decline was due to decreased transmission rate per infected individual and infection-induced immunity among GBMSM, especially those with the highest rate of new partners. Vaccination did not cause Mpox incidence to turn over, however, we predict that a rebound in cases due to behaviour reversion was prevented by high-risk group-targeted vaccination.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38816-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38816-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10336136; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10336136?pdf=render -34470746,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204,Disruption in essential health services in Mexico during COVID-19: an interrupted time series analysis of health information system data.,"Doubova SV, Leslie HH, Kruk ME, Pérez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.",,BMJ global health,2021,2021-09-01,Y,Hypertension; Cancer; Diabetes; Maternal Health; Health Systems Evaluation,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health systems around the world. The objectives of this study are to estimate the overall effect of the pandemic on essential health service use and outcomes in Mexico, describe observed and predicted trends in services over 24 months, and to estimate the number of visits lost through December 2020.

Methods

We used health information system data for January 2019 to December 2020 from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which provides health services for more than half of Mexico's population-65 million people. Our analysis includes nine indicators of service use and three outcome indicators for reproductive, maternal and child health and non-communicable disease services. We used an interrupted time series design and linear generalised estimating equation models to estimate the change in service use and outcomes from April to December 2020. Estimates were expressed using average marginal effects on the risk ratio scale.

Results

The study found that across nine health services, an estimated 8.74 million patient visits were lost in Mexico. This included a decline of over two thirds for breast and cervical cancer screenings (79% and 68%, respectively), over half for sick child visits and female contraceptive services, approximately one-third for childhood vaccinations, diabetes, hypertension and antenatal care consultations, and a decline of 10% for deliveries performed at IMSS. In terms of patient outcomes, the proportion of patients with diabetes and hypertension with controlled conditions declined by 22% and 17%, respectively. Caesarean section rate did not change.

Conclusion

Significant disruptions in health services show that the pandemic has strained the resilience of the Mexican health system and calls for urgent efforts to resume essential services and plan for catching up on missed preventive care even as the COVID-19 crisis continues in Mexico.",,pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/6/9/e006204.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469?pdf=render 35991675,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335,Primary healthcare protects vulnerable populations from inequity in COVID-19 vaccination: An ecological analysis of nationwide data from Brazil.,"Bastos LSL, Aguilar S, Rache B, Maçaira P, Baião F, Cerbino-Neto J, Rocha R, Hamacher S, Ranzani OT, Bozza FA.",,Lancet regional health. Americas,2022,2022-08-17,Y,Vaccine; Socioeconomic Factors; Human Development; Primary Healthcare; Low-and-middle-income Countries; Covid19,,,"

Background

There is limited information on the inequity of access to vaccination in low-and-middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we described the progression of the Brazilian immunisation program for COVID-19, and the association of socioeconomic development with vaccination rates, considering the potential protective effect of primary health care coverage.

Methods

We performed an ecological analysis of COVID-19 immunisation data from the Brazilian National Immunization Program from January 17 to August 31, 2021. We analysed the dynamics of vaccine coverage in the adult population of 5,570 Brazilian municipalities. We estimated the association of human development index (HDI) levels (low, medium, and high) with age-sex standardised first dose coverage using a multivariable negative binomial regression model. We evaluated the interaction between the HDI and primary health care coverage. Finally, we compared the adjusted monthly progression of vaccination rates, hospital admission and in-hospital death rates among HDI levels.

Findings

From January 17 to August 31, 2021, 202,427,355 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Brazil. By the end of the period, 64·2% of adults had first and 31·4% second doses, with more than 90% of those aged ≥60 years with primary scheme completed. Four distinct vaccine platforms were used in the country, ChAdOx1-S/nCoV-19, Sinovac-CoronaVac, BNT162b2, Ad26.COV2.S, composing 44·8%, 33·2%, 19·6%, and 2·4% of total doses, respectively. First dose coverage differed between municipalities with high, medium, and low HDI (Median [interquartile range] 72 [66, 79], 68 [61, 75] and 63 [55, 70] doses per 100 people, respectively). Municipalities with low (Rate Ratio [RR, 95% confidence interval]: 0·87 [0·85-0·88]) and medium (RR [95% CI]: 0·94 [0·93-0·95]) development were independently associated with lower vaccination rates compared to those with high HDI. Primary health care coverage modified the association of HDI and vaccination rate, improving vaccination rates in those municipalities of low HDI and high primary health care coverage. Low HDI municipalities presented a delayed decrease in adjusted in-hospital death rates by first dose coverage compared to high HDI locations.

Interpretation

In Brazil, socioeconomic disparities negatively impacted the first dose vaccination rate. However, the primary health care mitigated these disparities, suggesting that the primary health care coverage guarantees more equitable access to vaccines in vulnerable locations.

Funding

This work is part of the Grand Challenges ICODA pilot initiative, delivered by Health Data Research UK and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation. This study was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845?pdf=render -35068290,https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317,Higher body mass index raises immature platelet count: potential contribution to obesity-related thrombosis.,"Goudswaard LJ, Corbin LJ, Burley KL, Mumford A, Akbari P, Soranzo N, Butterworth AS, Watkins NA, Pournaras DJ, Harris J, Timpson NJ, Hers I.",,Platelets,2022,2022-01-24,N,Obesity; Aggregation; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomization; Immature Platelets,,,"Higher body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for thrombosis. Platelets are essential for hemostasis but contribute to thrombosis when activated pathologically. We hypothesized that higher BMI leads to changes in platelet characteristics, thereby increasing thrombotic risk. The effect of BMI on platelet traits (measured by Sysmex) was explored in 33 388 UK blood donors (INTERVAL study). Linear regression showed that higher BMI was positively associated with greater plateletcrit (PCT), platelet count (PLT), immature platelet count (IPC), and side fluorescence (SFL, a measure of mRNA content used to derive IPC). Mendelian randomization (MR), applied to estimate a causal effect with BMI proxied by a genetic risk score, provided causal estimates for a positive effect of BMI on both SFL and IPC, but there was little evidence for a causal effect of BMI on PCT or PLT. Follow-up analyses explored the functional relevance of platelet characteristics in a pre-operative cardiac cohort (COPTIC). Linear regression provided observational evidence for a positive association between IPC and agonist-induced whole blood platelet aggregation. Results indicate that higher BMI raises the number of immature platelets, which is associated with greater whole blood platelet aggregation in a cardiac cohort. Higher IPC could therefore contribute to obesity-related thrombosis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317 -35421974,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5,An implementation framework and a feasibility evaluation of a clinical decision support system for diabetes management in secondary mental healthcare using CogStack.,"Patel D, Msosa YJ, Wang T, Mustafa OG, Gee S, Williams J, Roberts A, Dobson RJ, Gaughran F.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2022,2022-04-14,Y,Monitoring; Diabetes; Clinical Decision Support; Pre-diabetes; Ehealth; Alerting; Cogstack,,,"

Background

Improvements to the primary prevention of physical health illnesses like diabetes in the general population have not been mirrored to the same extent in people with serious mental illness (SMI). This work evaluates the technical feasibility of implementing an electronic clinical decision support system (eCDSS) for supporting the management of dysglycaemia and diabetes in patients with serious mental illness in a secondary mental healthcare setting.

Methods

A stepwise approach was taken as an overarching and guiding framework for this work. Participatory methods were employed to design and deploy a monitoring and alerting eCDSS. The eCDSS was evaluated for its technical feasibility. The initial part of the feasibility evaluation was conducted in an outpatient community mental health team. Thereafter, the evaluation of the eCDSS progressed to a more in-depth in silico validation.

Results

A digital health intervention that enables monitoring and alerting of at-risk patients based on an approved diabetes management guideline was developed. The eCDSS generated alerts according to expected standards and in line with clinical guideline recommendations.

Conclusions

It is feasible to design and deploy a functional monitoring and alerting eCDSS in secondary mental healthcare. Further work is required in order to fully evaluate the integration of the eCDSS into routine clinical workflows. By describing and sharing the steps that were and will be taken from concept to clinical testing, useful insights could be provided to teams that are interested in building similar digital health interventions.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062?pdf=render -32564639,https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298,Mortality statistics in England and Wales: the SARS-CoV-2 paradox.,"Harrison G, Newport D, Robbins T, Arvanitis TN, Stein A.",,The Journal of international medical research,2020,2020-06-01,Y,Respiratory disease; United Kingdom; Mortality Rate; Paradox; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objective

To analyse mortality statistics in the United Kingdom during the initial phases of the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and to understand the impact of the pandemic on national mortality.

Methods

Retrospective review of weekly national mortality statistics in the United Kingdom over the past 5 years, including subgroup analysis of respiratory mortality rates.

Results

During the early phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the first months of 2020, there were consistently fewer deaths per week compared with the preceding 5 years. This pattern was not observed at any other time within the past 5 years. We have termed this phenomenon the ""SARS-CoV-2 paradox."" We postulate potential explanations for this seeming paradox and explore the implications of these data.

Conclusions

Paradoxically, but potentially importantly, lower rather than higher weekly mortality rates were observed during the early stages of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This paradox may have implications for current and future healthcare utilisation. A rebound increase in non-SARS-CoV-2 mortality later this year might coincide with the peak of SARS-CoV-2 admissions and mortality.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307394?pdf=render +34470746,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204,Disruption in essential health services in Mexico during COVID-19: an interrupted time series analysis of health information system data.,"Doubova SV, Leslie HH, Kruk ME, Pérez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.",,BMJ global health,2021,2021-09-01,Y,Hypertension; Cancer; Diabetes; Maternal Health; Health Systems Evaluation,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health systems around the world. The objectives of this study are to estimate the overall effect of the pandemic on essential health service use and outcomes in Mexico, describe observed and predicted trends in services over 24 months, and to estimate the number of visits lost through December 2020.

Methods

We used health information system data for January 2019 to December 2020 from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which provides health services for more than half of Mexico's population-65 million people. Our analysis includes nine indicators of service use and three outcome indicators for reproductive, maternal and child health and non-communicable disease services. We used an interrupted time series design and linear generalised estimating equation models to estimate the change in service use and outcomes from April to December 2020. Estimates were expressed using average marginal effects on the risk ratio scale.

Results

The study found that across nine health services, an estimated 8.74 million patient visits were lost in Mexico. This included a decline of over two thirds for breast and cervical cancer screenings (79% and 68%, respectively), over half for sick child visits and female contraceptive services, approximately one-third for childhood vaccinations, diabetes, hypertension and antenatal care consultations, and a decline of 10% for deliveries performed at IMSS. In terms of patient outcomes, the proportion of patients with diabetes and hypertension with controlled conditions declined by 22% and 17%, respectively. Caesarean section rate did not change.

Conclusion

Significant disruptions in health services show that the pandemic has strained the resilience of the Mexican health system and calls for urgent efforts to resume essential services and plan for catching up on missed preventive care even as the COVID-19 crisis continues in Mexico.",,pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/6/9/e006204.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469?pdf=render 31699727,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030882,Optical coherence tomography (OCT) in unconscious and systemically unwell patients using a mobile OCT device: a pilot study.,"Liu X, Kale AU, Capewell N, Talbot N, Ahmed S, Keane PA, Mollan S, Belli A, Blanch RJ, Veenith T, Denniston AK.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-11-07,Y,optical coherence tomography; Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography; Adult Intensive & Critical Care,,,"

Objective

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of retinal imaging in critical care using a novel mobile optical coherence tomography (OCT) device. The Heidelberg SPECTRALIS FLEX module (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) is an OCT unit with a boom arm, enabling ocular OCT assessment in less mobile patients.

Design

We undertook an evaluation of the feasibility of using the SPECTRALIS FLEX for undertaking ocular OCT images in unconscious and critically ill patients.

Setting

This study was conducted in the critical care unit of a large tertiary referral unit in the United Kingdom.

Participants

13 systemically unwell patients admitted to the critical care unit were purposively sampled to enable evaluation in patients with a range of clinical states.

Outcome measures

The primary outcome was the feasibility of acquiring clinically interpretable OCT scans on a consecutive series of patients. The standardised scanning protocol included macula-focused OCT, OCT optic nerve head (ONH), OCT angiography (OCTA) of the macula and ONH OCTA.

Results

OCT images from 13 patients were attempted. The success rates of each scan type are 84% for OCT macula, 76% for OCT ONH, 56% for OCTA macula and 36% for OCTA ONH. The overall mean success rate of scans per patient was 64% (95% CI 46% to 81%). Clinicians reported clinical value in 100% scans which were successfully obtained, including both ruling in and ruling out relevant ocular complications such as corneal thinning, macular oedema and optic disc swelling. The most common causes of failure to achieve clinically interpretable scans were inadequately sustained OCT alignment in delirious patients and a compromised ocular surface due to corneal exposure.

Conclusions

This prospective evaluation indicates the feasibility and potential clinical value of the SPECTRALIS FLEX OCT system on the critical care unit. Portable OCT systems have the potential to bring instrument-based ophthalmic assessment to critically ill patients, enabling detection and micron-level monitoring of ocular complications.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/11/e030882.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030882; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858135; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858135?pdf=render +32564639,https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298,Mortality statistics in England and Wales: the SARS-CoV-2 paradox.,"Harrison G, Newport D, Robbins T, Arvanitis TN, Stein A.",,The Journal of international medical research,2020,2020-06-01,Y,Respiratory disease; United Kingdom; Mortality Rate; Paradox; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Objective

To analyse mortality statistics in the United Kingdom during the initial phases of the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and to understand the impact of the pandemic on national mortality.

Methods

Retrospective review of weekly national mortality statistics in the United Kingdom over the past 5 years, including subgroup analysis of respiratory mortality rates.

Results

During the early phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the first months of 2020, there were consistently fewer deaths per week compared with the preceding 5 years. This pattern was not observed at any other time within the past 5 years. We have termed this phenomenon the ""SARS-CoV-2 paradox."" We postulate potential explanations for this seeming paradox and explore the implications of these data.

Conclusions

Paradoxically, but potentially importantly, lower rather than higher weekly mortality rates were observed during the early stages of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This paradox may have implications for current and future healthcare utilisation. A rebound increase in non-SARS-CoV-2 mortality later this year might coincide with the peak of SARS-CoV-2 admissions and mortality.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307394?pdf=render 32040531,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228940,Risk assessment for hospital admission in patients with COPD; a multi-centre UK prospective observational study.,"Fermont JM, Bolton CE, Fisk M, Mohan D, Macnee W, Cockcroft JR, McEniery C, Fuld J, Cheriyan J, Tal-Singer R, Wilkinson IB, Wood AM, Polkey MI, Müllerova H.",,PloS one,2020,2020-02-10,Y,,Better Care,,"In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), acute exacerbation of COPD requiring hospital admission is associated with mortality and healthcare costs. The ERICA study assessed multiple clinical measures in people with COPD, including the short physical performance battery (SPPB), a simple test of physical function with 3 components (gait speed, balance and sit-to-stand). We tested the hypothesis that SPPB score would relate to risk of hospital admissions and length of hospital stay. Data were analysed from 714 of the total 729 participants (434 men and 280 women) with COPD. Data from this prospective observational longitudinal study were obtained from 4 secondary and 1 tertiary centres from England, Scotland, and Wales. The main outcome measures were to estimate the risk of hospitalisation with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD and length of hospital stay derived from hospital episode statistics (HES). In total, 291 of 714 individuals experienced 762 hospitalised AECOPD during five-year follow up. Poorer performance of SPPB was associated with both higher rate (IRR 1.08 per 1 point decrease, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.14) and increased length of stay (IRR 1.18 per 1 point decrease, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.27) for hospitalised AECOPD. For the individual sit-to-stand component of the SPPB, the association was even stronger (IRR 1.14, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.26 for rate and IRR 1.32, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.49 for length of stay for hospitalised AECOPD). The SPPB, and in particular the sit-to-stand component can both evaluate the risk of H-AECOPD and length of hospital stay in COPD. The SPPB can aid in clinical decision making and when prioritising healthcare resources.","This article looks at risk assessment for hospital admission in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is a group of lung conditions that make it difficult to empty air out of the lungs. The objective of the risk assessment was to eventually aid in clinical decision making and prioritising healthcare resources.",pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228940&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228940; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7010290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7010290?pdf=render 33888728,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86331-x,A multidimensional measure of polypharmacy for older adults using the Health and Retirement Study.,"Carr E, Federman A, Dzahini O, Dobson RJ, Bendayan R.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-04-22,Y,,,,"Polypharmacy is commonly defined based on the number of medications taken concurrently using standard cut-offs, but several studies have highlighted the need for a multidimensional assessment. We developed a multidimensional measure of polypharmacy and compared with standard cut-offs. Data were extracted for 2141 respondents of the 2007 Prescription Drug Survey, a sub-study of the Health Retirement Study. Latent classes were identified based on multiple indicators of polypharmacy, including quantity, temporality and risk profile. A four-class model was selected based on fit statistics and clinical interpretability: 'High risk, long-term' (Class 1), 'Low risk, long-term' (Class 2), 'High risk, short-term' (Class 3), and 'High risk for drug interactions, medium-term, regular' (Class 4). Classes differed regarding sex, cohabitation, disability and multimorbidity. Participants in the 'low risk' class tended to be male, cohabitating, and reported fewer health conditions, compared to 'high risk' classes. Polypharmacy classes were compared to standard cut-offs (5+ or 9+ medications) in terms of overlap and mortality risk. The three 'high risk' classes overlapped with the groups concurrently taking 5+ and 9+ medications per month. However, the multidimensional measure further differentiated individuals in terms of risk profile and temporality of medication taking, thus offering a richer assessment of polypharmacy.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86331-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86331-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062687; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062687?pdf=render -35380004,https://doi.org/10.1042/bcj20220105,Development of a colorimetric assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity.,"Garland GD, Harvey RF, Mulroney TE, Monti M, Fuller S, Haigh R, Gerber PP, Barer MR, Matheson NJ, Willis AE.",,The Biochemical journal,2022,2022-04-01,Y,Coronavirus; Assay Development; Covid 19,,,"Diagnostic testing continues to be an integral component of the strategy to contain the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) global pandemic, the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes the 3C-like protease (3CLpro) which is essential for coronavirus replication. This study adapts an in vitro colorimetric gold nanoparticle (AuNP) based protease assay to specifically detect the activity of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro as a purified recombinant protein and as a cellular protein exogenously expressed in HEK293T human cells. We also demonstrate that the specific sensitivity of the assay for SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro can be improved by use of an optimised peptide substrate and through hybrid dimerisation with inactive 3CLpro mutant monomers. These findings highlight the potential for further development of the AuNP protease assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity as a novel, accessible and cost-effective diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 infection at the point-of-care. Importantly, this versatile assay could also be easily adapted to detect specific protease activity associated with other viruses or diseases conditions.",,pdf:https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article-pdf/479/8/901/932114/bcj-2022-0105.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20220105; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461?pdf=render 34910136,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab863,Long-term safety and efficacy of anacetrapib in patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease.,"HPS3/TIMI55-REVEAL Collaborative Group, Writing Committee, Sammons E, Hopewell JC, Chen F, Stevens W, Wallendszus K, Valdes-Marquez E, Dayanandan R, Knott C, Murphy K, Wincott E, Baxter A, Goodenough R, Lay M, Hill M, Macdonnell S, Fabbri G, Lucci D, Fajardo-Moser M, Brenner S, Hao D, Zhang H, Liu J, Wuhan B, Mosegaard S, Herrington W, Wanner C, Angermann C, Ertl G, Maggioni A, Barter P, Mihaylova B, Mitchel Y, Blaustein R, Goto S, Tobert J, DeLucca P, Chen Y, Chen Z, Gray A, Haynes R, Armitage J, Baigent C, Wiviott S, Cannon C, Braunwald E, Collins R, Bowman L, Landray M, REVEAL Collaborative Group.",,European heart journal,2022,2022-04-01,Y,Randomized Trial; Cetp Inhibitor Therapy,,,"

Aims

REVEAL was the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that adding cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor therapy to intensive statin therapy reduced the risk of major coronary events. We now report results from extended follow-up beyond the scheduled study treatment period.

Methods and results

A total of 30 449 adults with prior atherosclerotic vascular disease were randomly allocated to anacetrapib 100 mg daily or matching placebo, in addition to open-label atorvastatin therapy. After stopping the randomly allocated treatment, 26 129 survivors entered a post-trial follow-up period, blind to their original treatment allocation. The primary outcome was first post-randomization major coronary event (i.e. coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization) during the in-trial and post-trial treatment periods, with analysis by intention-to-treat. Allocation to anacetrapib conferred a 9% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3-15%; P = 0.004] proportional reduction in the incidence of major coronary events during the study treatment period (median 4.1 years). During extended follow-up (median 2.2 years), there was a further 20% (95% CI 10-29%; P < 0.001) reduction. Overall, there was a 12% (95% CI 7-17%, P < 0.001) proportional reduction in major coronary events during the overall follow-up period (median 6.3 years), corresponding to a 1.8% (95% CI 1.0-2.6%) absolute reduction. There were no significant effects on non-vascular mortality, site-specific cancer, or other serious adverse events. Morbidity follow-up was obtained for 25 784 (99%) participants.

Conclusion

The beneficial effects of anacetrapib on major coronary events increased with longer follow-up, and no adverse effects emerged on non-vascular mortality or morbidity. These findings illustrate the importance of sufficiently long treatment and follow-up duration in randomized trials of lipid-modifying agents to assess their full benefits and potential harms.

Trial registration

International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) 48678192; ClinicalTrials.gov No. NCT01252953; EudraCT No. 2010-023467-18.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/14/1416/43292041/ehab863.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab863; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986460?pdf=render +35380004,https://doi.org/10.1042/bcj20220105,Development of a colorimetric assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity.,"Garland GD, Harvey RF, Mulroney TE, Monti M, Fuller S, Haigh R, Gerber PP, Barer MR, Matheson NJ, Willis AE.",,The Biochemical journal,2022,2022-04-01,Y,Coronavirus; Assay Development; Covid 19,,,"Diagnostic testing continues to be an integral component of the strategy to contain the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) global pandemic, the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes the 3C-like protease (3CLpro) which is essential for coronavirus replication. This study adapts an in vitro colorimetric gold nanoparticle (AuNP) based protease assay to specifically detect the activity of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro as a purified recombinant protein and as a cellular protein exogenously expressed in HEK293T human cells. We also demonstrate that the specific sensitivity of the assay for SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro can be improved by use of an optimised peptide substrate and through hybrid dimerisation with inactive 3CLpro mutant monomers. These findings highlight the potential for further development of the AuNP protease assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity as a novel, accessible and cost-effective diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 infection at the point-of-care. Importantly, this versatile assay could also be easily adapted to detect specific protease activity associated with other viruses or diseases conditions.",,pdf:https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article-pdf/479/8/901/932114/bcj-2022-0105.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20220105; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461?pdf=render 35000827,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clon.2021.12.017,Can Real-world Data and Rapid Learning Drive Improvements in Lung Cancer Survival? The RAPID-RT Study.,"Price G, Devaney S, French DP, Holley R, Holm S, Kontopantelis E, McWilliam A, Payne K, Proudlove N, Sanders C, Willans R, van Staa T, Hamrang L, Turner B, Parsons S, Faivre-Finn C.",,Clinical oncology (Royal College of Radiologists (Great Britain)),2022,2022-01-06,N,,,,,,pdf:http://www.clinicaloncologyonline.net/article/S0936655521005161/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clon.2021.12.017 37118290,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00293-x,Immune system-wide Mendelian randomization and triangulation analyses support autoimmunity as a modifiable component in dementia-causing diseases.,"Lindbohm JV, Mars N, Sipilä PN, Singh-Manoux A, Runz H, FinnGen, Livingston G, Seshadri S, Xavier R, Hingorani AD, Ripatti S, Kivimäki M.",,Nature aging,2022,2022-10-14,Y,,,,"Immune system and blood-brain barrier dysfunction are implicated in the development of Alzheimer's and other dementia-causing diseases, but their causal role remains unknown. We performed Mendelian randomization for 1,827 immune system- and blood-brain barrier-related biomarkers and identified 127 potential causal risk factors for dementia-causing diseases. Pathway analyses linked these biomarkers to amyloid-β, tau and α-synuclein pathways and to autoimmunity-related processes. A phenome-wide analysis using Mendelian randomization-based polygenic risk score in the FinnGen study (n = 339,233) for the biomarkers indicated shared genetic background for dementias and autoimmune diseases. This association was further supported by human leukocyte antigen analyses. In inverse-probability-weighted analyses that simulate randomized controlled drug trials in observational data, anti-inflammatory methotrexate treatment reduced the incidence of Alzheimer's disease in high-risk individuals (hazard ratio compared with no treatment, 0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.49-0.88, P = 0.005). These converging results from different lines of human research suggest that autoimmunity is a modifiable component in dementia-causing diseases.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00293-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00293-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154235; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154235?pdf=render +30082368,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755,Validating injury burden estimates using population birth cohorts and longitudinal cohort studies of injury outcomes: the VIBES-Junior study protocol.,"Gabbe BJ, Dipnall JF, Lynch JW, Rivara FP, Lyons RA, Ameratunga S, Brussoni M, Lecky FE, Bradley C, Simpson PM, Beck B, Demmler JC, Lyons J, Schneeberg A, Harrison JE.",,BMJ open,2018,2018-08-05,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Paediatrics; Trauma Management,"Improving Public Health, The Human Phenome",,"

Introduction

Traumatic injury is a leading contributor to the global disease burden in children and adolescents, but methods used to estimate burden do not account for differences in patterns of injury and recovery between children and adults. A lack of empirical data on postinjury disability in children has limited capacity to derive valid disability weights and describe the long-term individual and societal impacts of injury in the early part of life. The aim of this study is to establish valid estimates of the burden of non-fatal injury in children and adolescents.

Methods and analysis

Five longitudinal studies of paediatric injury survivors <18 years at the time of injury (Australia, Canada, UK and USA) and two whole-of-population linked administrative data paediatric studies (Australia and Wales) will be analysed over a 3-year period commencing 2018. Meta-analysis of deidentified patient-level data (n≈2,600) from five injury-specific longitudinal studies (Victorian State Trauma Registry; Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry; UK Burden of Injury; British Columbia Children's Hospital Longitudinal Injury Outcomes; Children's Health After Injury) and >1 million children from two whole-of-population cohorts (South Australian Early Childhood Data Project and Wales Electronic Cohort for Children). Systematic analysis of pooled injury-specific cohort data using a variety of statistical techniques, and parallel analysis of whole-of-population cohorts, will be used to develop estimated disability weights for years lost due to disability, establish appropriate injury classifications and explore factors influencing recovery.

Ethics and dissemination

The project was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee project number 12 311. Results of this study will be submitted for publication in internationally peer-reviewed journals. The findings from this project have the capacity to improve the validity of paediatric injury burden measurements in future local and global burden of disease studies.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/8/8/e024755.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268?pdf=render 34437535,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009723,The impact of age on genetic risk for common diseases.,"Jiang X, Holmes C, McVean G.",,PLoS genetics,2021,2021-08-26,Y,,,,"Inherited genetic variation contributes to individual risk for many complex diseases and is increasingly being used for predictive patient stratification. Previous work has shown that genetic factors are not equally relevant to human traits across age and other contexts, though the reasons for such variation are not clear. Here, we introduce methods to infer the form of the longitudinal relationship between genetic relative risk for disease and age and to test whether all genetic risk factors behave similarly. We use a proportional hazards model within an interval-based censoring methodology to estimate age-varying individual variant contributions to genetic relative risk for 24 common diseases within the British ancestry subset of UK Biobank, applying a Bayesian clustering approach to group variants by their relative risk profile over age and permutation tests for age dependency and multiplicity of profiles. We find evidence for age-varying relative risk profiles in nine diseases, including hypertension, skin cancer, atherosclerotic heart disease, hypothyroidism and calculus of gallbladder, several of which show evidence, albeit weak, for multiple distinct profiles of genetic relative risk. The predominant pattern shows genetic risk factors having the greatest relative impact on risk of early disease, with a monotonic decrease over time, at least for the majority of variants, although the magnitude and form of the decrease varies among diseases. As a consequence, for diseases where genetic relative risk decreases over age, genetic risk factors have stronger explanatory power among younger populations, compared to older ones. We show that these patterns cannot be explained by a simple model involving the presence of unobserved covariates such as environmental factors. We discuss possible models that can explain our observations and the implications for genetic risk prediction.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009723&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009723; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8389405; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8389405?pdf=render 33367483,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa1079,A non-linear regression method for estimation of gene-environment heritability.,"Kerin M, Marchini J.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2021,2021-04-01,Y,,,,"

Motivation

Gene-environment (GxE) interactions are one of the least studied aspects of the genetic architecture of human traits and diseases. The environment of an individual is inherently high dimensional, evolves through time and can be expensive and time consuming to measure. The UK Biobank study, with all 500 000 participants having undergone an extensive baseline questionnaire, represents a unique opportunity to assess GxE heritability for many traits and diseases in a well powered setting.

Results

We have developed a randomized Haseman-Elston non-linear regression method applicable when many environmental variables have been measured on each individual. The method (GPLEMMA) simultaneously estimates a linear environmental score (ES) and its GxE heritability. We compare the method via simulation to a whole-genome regression approach (LEMMA) for estimating GxE heritability. We show that GPLEMMA is more computationally efficient than LEMMA on large datasets, and produces results highly correlated with those from LEMMA when applied to simulated data and real data from the UK Biobank.

Availability and implementation

Software implementing the GPLEMMA method is available from https://jmarchini.org/gplemma/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/36/24/5632/36899551/btaa1079.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa1079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023682?pdf=render -30082368,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755,Validating injury burden estimates using population birth cohorts and longitudinal cohort studies of injury outcomes: the VIBES-Junior study protocol.,"Gabbe BJ, Dipnall JF, Lynch JW, Rivara FP, Lyons RA, Ameratunga S, Brussoni M, Lecky FE, Bradley C, Simpson PM, Beck B, Demmler JC, Lyons J, Schneeberg A, Harrison JE.",,BMJ open,2018,2018-08-05,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Paediatrics; Trauma Management,"Improving Public Health, The Human Phenome",,"

Introduction

Traumatic injury is a leading contributor to the global disease burden in children and adolescents, but methods used to estimate burden do not account for differences in patterns of injury and recovery between children and adults. A lack of empirical data on postinjury disability in children has limited capacity to derive valid disability weights and describe the long-term individual and societal impacts of injury in the early part of life. The aim of this study is to establish valid estimates of the burden of non-fatal injury in children and adolescents.

Methods and analysis

Five longitudinal studies of paediatric injury survivors <18 years at the time of injury (Australia, Canada, UK and USA) and two whole-of-population linked administrative data paediatric studies (Australia and Wales) will be analysed over a 3-year period commencing 2018. Meta-analysis of deidentified patient-level data (n≈2,600) from five injury-specific longitudinal studies (Victorian State Trauma Registry; Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry; UK Burden of Injury; British Columbia Children's Hospital Longitudinal Injury Outcomes; Children's Health After Injury) and >1 million children from two whole-of-population cohorts (South Australian Early Childhood Data Project and Wales Electronic Cohort for Children). Systematic analysis of pooled injury-specific cohort data using a variety of statistical techniques, and parallel analysis of whole-of-population cohorts, will be used to develop estimated disability weights for years lost due to disability, establish appropriate injury classifications and explore factors influencing recovery.

Ethics and dissemination

The project was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee project number 12 311. Results of this study will be submitted for publication in internationally peer-reviewed journals. The findings from this project have the capacity to improve the validity of paediatric injury burden measurements in future local and global burden of disease studies.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/8/8/e024755.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268?pdf=render -33821553,https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697,The impact of disruptions due to COVID-19 on HIV transmission and control among men who have sex with men in China.,"Booton RD, Fu G, MacGregor L, Li J, Ong JJ, Tucker JD, Turner KM, Tang W, Vickerman P, Mitchell KM.",,Journal of the International AIDS Society,2021,2021-04-01,Y,Modelling; Hiv Transmission; Men Who Have Sex With Men; People’s Republic Of China; Key And Vulnerable Populations; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting HIV care globally, with gaps in HIV treatment expected to increase HIV transmission and HIV-related mortality. We estimated how COVID-19-related disruptions could impact HIV transmission and mortality among men who have sex with men (MSM) in four cities in China, over a one- and five-year time horizon.

Methods

Regional data from China indicated that the number of MSM undergoing facility-based HIV testing reduced by 59% during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside reductions in ART initiation (34%), numbers of all sexual partners (62%) and consistency of condom use (25%), but initial data indicated no change in viral suppression. A mathematical model of HIV transmission/treatment among MSM was used to estimate the impact of disruptions on HIV infections/HIV-related deaths. Disruption scenarios were assessed for their individual and combined impact over one and five years for 3/4/6-month disruption periods, starting from 1 January 2020.

Results

Our model predicted new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths would be increased most by disruptions to viral suppression, with 25% reductions (25% virally suppressed MSM stop taking ART) for a three-month period increasing HIV infections by 5% to 14% over one year and deaths by 7% to 12%. Observed reductions in condom use increased HIV infections by 5% to 14% but had minimal impact (<1%) on deaths. Smaller impacts on infections and deaths (<3%) were seen for disruptions to facility HIV testing and ART initiation, but reduced partner numbers resulted in 11% to 23% fewer infections and 0.4% to 1.0% fewer deaths. Longer disruption periods (4/6 months) amplified the impact of disruption scenarios. When realistic disruptions were modelled simultaneously, an overall decrease in new HIV infections occurred over one year (3% to 17%), but not for five years (1% increase to 4% decrease), whereas deaths mostly increased over one year (1% to 2%) and five years (1.2 increase to 0.3 decrease).

Conclusions

The overall impact of COVID-19 on new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths is dependent on the nature, scale and length of the various disruptions. Resources should be directed to ensuring levels of viral suppression and condom use are maintained to mitigate any adverse effects of COVID-19-related disruption on HIV transmission and control among MSM in China.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.25697; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092?pdf=render 31820220,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-019-09867-w,The Association Between Fault Attribution and Work Participation After Road Traffic Injury: A Registry-Based Observational Study.,"Lau G, Gabbe BJ, Collie A, Ponsford J, Ameratunga S, Cameron PA, Harrison JE, Giummarra MJ.",,Journal of occupational rehabilitation,2020,2020-06-01,N,Trauma; Injury; Recovery; Traffic; Accidents; Return To Work,,,"Purpose To characterise associations between fault attribution and work participation and capacity after road traffic injury. Methods People aged 15-65 years, working pre-injury, without serious brain injury, who survived to 12 months after road traffic injury were included from two Victorian trauma registries (n = 2942). Fault profiles from linked compensation claims were defined as no other at fault, another at fault, denied another at fault, claimed another at fault, and unknown. Claimant reports in the denied and claimed another at fault groups contradicted police reports. Patients reported work capacity (Glasgow outcome scale-extended) and return to work (RTW) at 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury (early and sustained RTW, delayed RTW (≥ 12 months), failed RTW attempts, no RTW attempts). Analyses adjusted for demographic, clinical and injury covariates. Results The risk of not returning to work was higher if another was at fault [adjusted relative risk ratio (aRRR) = 1.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.29, 2.17] or was claimed to be at fault (aRRR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.04, 2.41), and lower for those who denied that another was at fault (aRRR = 0.51, 95% CI 0.29, 0.91), compared to cases with no other at fault. Similarly, people had higher odds of work capacity limitations if another was at fault (12m: AOR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.24, 1.80; 24m: 1.63, 95% CI 1.35, 1.97) or was claimed to be at fault (12m: AOR = 1.54, 95% CI 1.16, 2.05; 24m: AOR = 1.80, 95% CI 1.34, 2.41), and lower odds if they denied another was at fault (6m: AOR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.48, 0.95), compared to cases with no other at fault. Conclusion Targeted interventions are needed to support work participation in people at risk of poor RTW post-injury. While interventions targeting fault and justice-related attributions are currently lacking, these may be beneficial for people who believe that another caused their injury.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-019-09867-w 35507331,https://doi.org/10.1002/art.42154,Comparative Genetic Analysis of Psoriatic Arthritis and Psoriasis for the Discovery of Genetic Risk Factors and Risk Prediction Modeling.,"Soomro M, Stadler M, Dand N, Bluett J, Jadon D, Jalali-Najafabadi F, Duckworth M, Ho P, Marzo-Ortega H, Helliwell PS, Ryan AW, Kane D, Korendowych E, Simpson MA, Packham J, McManus R, Gabay C, Lamacchia C, Nissen MJ, Brown MA, Verstappen SMM, Van Staa T, Barker JN, Smith CH, BADBIR Study Group, BSTOP study group, FitzGerald O, McHugh N, Warren RB, Bowes J, Barton A.",,"Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)",2022,2022-08-04,Y,,,,"

Objectives

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) has a strong genetic component, and the identification of genetic risk factors could help identify the ~30% of psoriasis patients at high risk of developing PsA. Our objectives were to identify genetic risk factors and pathways that differentiate PsA from cutaneous-only psoriasis (PsC) and to evaluate the performance of PsA risk prediction models.

Methods

Genome-wide meta-analyses were conducted separately for 5,065 patients with PsA and 21,286 healthy controls and separately for 4,340 patients with PsA and 6,431 patients with PsC. The heritability of PsA was calculated as a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability estimate (h2 SNP ) and biologic pathways that differentiate PsA from PsC were identified using Priority Index software. The generalizability of previously published PsA risk prediction pipelines was explored, and a risk prediction model was developed with external validation.

Results

We identified a novel genome-wide significant susceptibility locus for the development of PsA on chromosome 22q11 (rs5754467; P = 1.61 × 10-9 ), and key pathways that differentiate PsA from PsC, including NF-κB signaling (adjusted P = 1.4 × 10-45 ) and Wnt signaling (adjusted P = 9.5 × 10-58 ). The heritability of PsA in this cohort was found to be moderate (h2 SNP  = 0.63), which was similar to the heritability of PsC (h2 SNP  = 0.61). We observed modest performance of published classification pipelines (maximum area under the curve 0.61), with similar performance of a risk model derived using the current data.

Conclusion

Key biologic pathways associated with the development of PsA were identified, but the investigation of risk classification revealed modest utility in the available data sets, possibly because many of the PsC patients included in the present study were receiving treatments that are also effective in PsA. Future predictive models of PsA should be tested in PsC patients recruited from primary care.",,pdf:https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/191095/1/Arthritis%20%20%20Rheumatology%20-%202022%20-%20Soomro%20-%20Comparative%20Genetic%20Analysis%20of%20Psoriatic%20Arthritis%20and%20Psoriasis%20for%20the.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/art.42154; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9539852; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9539852?pdf=render 33493066,https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.031659,"Sex, Age, and Socioeconomic Differences in Nonfatal Stroke Incidence and Subsequent Major Adverse Outcomes.","Akyea RK, Vinogradova Y, Qureshi N, Patel RS, Kontopantelis E, Ntaios G, Asselbergs FW, Kai J, Weng SF.",,Stroke,2021,2021-01-25,Y,Population; Cardiovascular diseases; epidemiology; incidence; Secondary Prevention,,,"

Background and purpose

Data about variations in stroke incidence and subsequent major adverse outcomes are essential to inform secondary prevention and prioritizing resources to those at the greatest risk of major adverse end points. We aimed to describe the age, sex, and socioeconomic differences in the rates of first nonfatal stroke and subsequent major adverse outcomes.

Methods

The cohort study used linked Clinical Practice Research Datalink and Hospital Episode Statistics data from the United Kingdom. The incidence rate (IR) ratio of first nonfatal stroke and subsequent major adverse outcomes (composite major adverse cardiovascular events, recurrent stroke, cardiovascular disease-related, and all-cause mortality) were calculated and presented by year, sex, age group, and socioeconomic status based on an individual's location of residence, in adults with incident nonfatal stroke diagnosis between 1998 and 2017.

Results

A total of 82 774 first nonfatal stroke events were recorded in either primary care or hospital data-an IR of 109.20 per 100 000 person-years (95% CI, 108.46-109.95). Incidence was significantly higher in women compared with men (IR ratio, 1.13 [95% CI, 1.12-1.15]; P<0.001). Rates adjusted for age and sex were higher in the lowest compared with the highest socioeconomic status group (IR ratio, 1.10 [95% CI, 1.08-1.13]; P<0.001). For subsequent major adverse outcomes, the overall incidence for major adverse cardiovascular event was 38.05 per 100 person-years (95% CI, 37.71-38.39) with a slightly higher incidence in women compared with men (38.42 versus 37.62; IR ratio, 1.02 [95% CI, 1.00-1.04]; P=0.0229). Age and socioeconomic status largely accounted for the observed higher incidence of adverse outcomes in women.

Conclusions

In the United Kingdom, incidence of initial stroke and subsequent major adverse outcomes are higher in women, older populations, and people living in socially deprived areas.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.031659; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.031659; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834661; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834661?pdf=render -33472714,https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980021000197,Diet and risk of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study.,"Wang SE, Hodge AM, Dashti SG, Dixon-Suen SC, Mitchell H, Thomas RJ, Williamson EM, Makalic E, Boussioutas A, Haydon AM, Giles GG, Milne RL, Kendall BJ, English DR.",,Public health nutrition,2021,2021-01-21,N,Fat; Diet; Prospective Cohort Study; Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease; Carbonated Beverages,,,"

Objective

To examine associations between diet and risk of developing gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Design

Prospective cohort with a median follow-up of 15·8 years. Baseline diet was measured using a FFQ. GERD was defined as self-reported current or history of daily heartburn or acid regurgitation beginning at least 2 years after baseline. Sex-specific logistic regressions were performed to estimate OR for GERD associated with diet quality scores and intakes of nutrients, food groups and individual foods and beverages. The effect of substituting saturated fat for monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat on GERD risk was examined.

Setting

Melbourne, Australia.

Participants

A cohort of 20 926 participants (62 % women) aged 40-59 years at recruitment between 1990 and 1994.

Results

For men, total fat intake was associated with increased risk of GERD (OR 1·05 per 5 g/d; 95 % CI 1·01, 1·09; P = 0·016), whereas total carbohydrate (OR 0·89 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0·82, 0·98; P = 0·010) and starch intakes (OR 0·84 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0·75, 0·94; P = 0·005) were associated with reduced risk. Nutrients were not associated with risk for women. For both sexes, substituting saturated fat for polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat did not change risk. For both sexes, fish, chicken, cruciferous vegetables and carbonated beverages were associated with increased risk, whereas total fruit and citrus were associated with reduced risk. No association was observed with diet quality scores.

Conclusions

Diet is a possible risk factor for GERD, but food considered as triggers of GERD symptoms might not necessarily contribute to disease development. Potential differential associations for men and women warrant further investigation.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/274F1A424FA99A10625C3447D256A318/S1368980021000197a.pdf/div-class-title-diet-and-risk-of-gastro-oesophageal-reflux-disease-in-the-melbourne-collaborative-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980021000197 +33821553,https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697,The impact of disruptions due to COVID-19 on HIV transmission and control among men who have sex with men in China.,"Booton RD, Fu G, MacGregor L, Li J, Ong JJ, Tucker JD, Turner KM, Tang W, Vickerman P, Mitchell KM.",,Journal of the International AIDS Society,2021,2021-04-01,Y,Modelling; Hiv Transmission; Men Who Have Sex With Men; People’s Republic Of China; Key And Vulnerable Populations; Covid-19 Pandemic,,,"

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting HIV care globally, with gaps in HIV treatment expected to increase HIV transmission and HIV-related mortality. We estimated how COVID-19-related disruptions could impact HIV transmission and mortality among men who have sex with men (MSM) in four cities in China, over a one- and five-year time horizon.

Methods

Regional data from China indicated that the number of MSM undergoing facility-based HIV testing reduced by 59% during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside reductions in ART initiation (34%), numbers of all sexual partners (62%) and consistency of condom use (25%), but initial data indicated no change in viral suppression. A mathematical model of HIV transmission/treatment among MSM was used to estimate the impact of disruptions on HIV infections/HIV-related deaths. Disruption scenarios were assessed for their individual and combined impact over one and five years for 3/4/6-month disruption periods, starting from 1 January 2020.

Results

Our model predicted new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths would be increased most by disruptions to viral suppression, with 25% reductions (25% virally suppressed MSM stop taking ART) for a three-month period increasing HIV infections by 5% to 14% over one year and deaths by 7% to 12%. Observed reductions in condom use increased HIV infections by 5% to 14% but had minimal impact (<1%) on deaths. Smaller impacts on infections and deaths (<3%) were seen for disruptions to facility HIV testing and ART initiation, but reduced partner numbers resulted in 11% to 23% fewer infections and 0.4% to 1.0% fewer deaths. Longer disruption periods (4/6 months) amplified the impact of disruption scenarios. When realistic disruptions were modelled simultaneously, an overall decrease in new HIV infections occurred over one year (3% to 17%), but not for five years (1% increase to 4% decrease), whereas deaths mostly increased over one year (1% to 2%) and five years (1.2 increase to 0.3 decrease).

Conclusions

The overall impact of COVID-19 on new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths is dependent on the nature, scale and length of the various disruptions. Resources should be directed to ensuring levels of viral suppression and condom use are maintained to mitigate any adverse effects of COVID-19-related disruption on HIV transmission and control among MSM in China.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.25697; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092?pdf=render 34593247,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.09.027,An evaluation of the association between fault attribution and healthcare costs and trajectories in the first three years after transport injury.,"Melita J G, Joanna F D, Alex C, Jennie P, Shanthi A, Belinda J G.",,Injury,2021,2021-09-20,N,Trauma; Compensation; Insurance; Biopsychosocial; Health Service Use,,,"

Background

People with complex medical and psychosocial issues have high healthcare needs. This registry-based cohort study sought to quantify the association between external fault attribution, recorded during compensation claim lodgement, and the cost and patterns of healthcare utilisation.

Methods

6,144 survivors of transport-related major trauma between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2016 were extracted from the Victorian State Trauma Registry (VSTR) and linked to treatment payments from the Transport Accident Commission (TAC). Associations between fault and healthcare costs were examined with Generalised Linear Regression. Healthcare trajectories were identified using Group-Based Multi-Trajectory Modelling and included medical treatments from a physician, or pain, mental health and physical therapy treatments for the first three years post-injury. Trajectories were validated against the EQ-5D-3L health status summary score using mixed linear regression.

Results

While injury severity had the strongest association with healthcare use, people who attributed fault to another had 9% higher healthcare costs. Six multi-trajectory groups were identified: 36% had low treatments over time; 25% had a rapid decline from high medical and physical therapy by 12-months; 12% had moderate to high medical and physical therapy that declined by 2-3 years; 11% had a gradual decline in medical treatment, an early increase in physical therapy but low pain and mental health treatment; 8% had high or increasing medical and physical therapy, moderate mental health therapy and low pain treatment; and 7% had moderate-high treatment across all domains. All groups had poorer health status compared with the group with low treatment levels, and people who attributed fault to another had higher risk of following trajectories with higher levels of treatment versus the low treatment group (beta=0.34, SE=0.12, p=0.01).

Conclusion

These findings highlight the need to provide pro-active multidisciplinary care coordination for people with complex needs after injury to better optimise recovery.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.09.027 -36470992,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0,Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF): improving the assessment and classification of MPN patients.,"Ryou H, Sirinukunwattana K, Aberdeen A, Grindstaff G, Stolz BJ, Byrne H, Harrington HA, Sousos N, Godfrey AL, Harrison CN, Psaila B, Mead AJ, Rees G, Turner GDH, Rittscher J, Royston D.",,Leukemia,2023,2022-12-05,Y,,,,"The grading of fibrosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) is an important component of disease classification, prognostication and monitoring. However, current fibrosis grading systems are only semi-quantitative and fail to fully capture sample heterogeneity. To improve the quantitation of reticulin fibrosis, we developed a machine learning approach using bone marrow trephine (BMT) samples (n = 107) from patients diagnosed with MPN or a reactive marrow. The resulting Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF) enhances the detection and monitoring of fibrosis within BMTs, and aids MPN subtyping. When combined with megakaryocyte feature analysis, CIF discriminates between the frequently challenging differential diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia (ET) and pre-fibrotic myelofibrosis with high predictive accuracy [area under the curve = 0.94]. CIF also shows promise in the identification of MPN patients at risk of disease progression; analysis of samples from 35 patients diagnosed with ET and enrolled in the Primary Thrombocythemia-1 trial identified features predictive of post-ET myelofibrosis (area under the curve = 0.77). In addition to these clinical applications, automated analysis of fibrosis has clear potential to further refine disease classification boundaries and inform future studies of the micro-environmental factors driving disease initiation and progression in MPN and other stem cell disorders.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41375-022-01773-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027?pdf=render +33472714,https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980021000197,Diet and risk of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study.,"Wang SE, Hodge AM, Dashti SG, Dixon-Suen SC, Mitchell H, Thomas RJ, Williamson EM, Makalic E, Boussioutas A, Haydon AM, Giles GG, Milne RL, Kendall BJ, English DR.",,Public health nutrition,2021,2021-01-21,N,Fat; Diet; Prospective Cohort Study; Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease; Carbonated Beverages,,,"

Objective

To examine associations between diet and risk of developing gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Design

Prospective cohort with a median follow-up of 15·8 years. Baseline diet was measured using a FFQ. GERD was defined as self-reported current or history of daily heartburn or acid regurgitation beginning at least 2 years after baseline. Sex-specific logistic regressions were performed to estimate OR for GERD associated with diet quality scores and intakes of nutrients, food groups and individual foods and beverages. The effect of substituting saturated fat for monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat on GERD risk was examined.

Setting

Melbourne, Australia.

Participants

A cohort of 20 926 participants (62 % women) aged 40-59 years at recruitment between 1990 and 1994.

Results

For men, total fat intake was associated with increased risk of GERD (OR 1·05 per 5 g/d; 95 % CI 1·01, 1·09; P = 0·016), whereas total carbohydrate (OR 0·89 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0·82, 0·98; P = 0·010) and starch intakes (OR 0·84 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0·75, 0·94; P = 0·005) were associated with reduced risk. Nutrients were not associated with risk for women. For both sexes, substituting saturated fat for polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat did not change risk. For both sexes, fish, chicken, cruciferous vegetables and carbonated beverages were associated with increased risk, whereas total fruit and citrus were associated with reduced risk. No association was observed with diet quality scores.

Conclusions

Diet is a possible risk factor for GERD, but food considered as triggers of GERD symptoms might not necessarily contribute to disease development. Potential differential associations for men and women warrant further investigation.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/274F1A424FA99A10625C3447D256A318/S1368980021000197a.pdf/div-class-title-diet-and-risk-of-gastro-oesophageal-reflux-disease-in-the-melbourne-collaborative-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980021000197 32811694,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2020.01.005,Driving improved burns care and patient outcomes through clinical registry data: A review of quality indicators in the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand.,"Gong J, Singer Y, Cleland H, Wood F, Cameron P, Tracy LM, Gabbe BJ.",,Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries,2021,2020-08-15,N,Burns; Quality Indicators; Clinical Quality Registry,,,"

Background

In 2009, the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) published a set of clinical quality indicators (QIs) to monitor performance, improve quality of care, and inform and change policy. With several years of data collected since the initial development of the indicators for burns, the BRANZ QI Working Party reviewed the clinical QIs for relevance and meaning, and considered new QIs that had not been collected previously.

Method

Using published literature and expert opinion, the QI Working Party, consisting of multidisciplinary burn clinicians, reviewed the QIs for burn care to be included as routine data items in the BRANZ.

Results

In July 2016, the list of clinical QIs in the BRANZ was updated to 23 QIs/data items, covering structure, process, and outcome measures. Four QIs were removed as they were not found to be useful, nine QIs/data items were revised, and eight new QIs/data items were added as they were considered to be clinically useful.

Conclusion

This review outlines the changes made to the QIs collected by the BRANZ four years since their development and implementation. Ongoing refinement of the BRANZ QIs will ensure that high quality data is collected to drive improvements in clinical and patient outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2020.01.005 -35606928,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677,Biomarkers of systemic treatment response in people with psoriasis: a scoping review.,"Corbett M, Ramessur R, Marshall D, Acencio ML, Ostaszewski M, Barbosa IA, Dand N, Di Meglio P, Haddad S, Jensen AHM, Koopmann W, Mahil SK, Rahmatulla S, Rastrick J, Saklatvala J, Weidinger S, Wright K, Eyerich K, Barker JN, Ndlovu M, Conrad C, Skov L, Smith CH, BIOMAP consortium.",,The British journal of dermatology,2022,2022-07-20,Y,,,,"

Background

Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare.

Objectives

To perform a scoping review to identify and catalogue candidate biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis for the translational research community.

Methods

A systematic search of CENTRAL, Embase, LILACS and MEDLINE was performed for relevant articles published between 1990 and December 2021. Eligibility criteria were studies involving patients with psoriasis (any age, n ≥ 50) reporting biomarkers associated with systemic treatment response. The main outcomes were any measure of systemic treatment efficacy or safety. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second; studies meeting minimal quality criteria (use of methods to control for confounding) were formally assessed for bias. Candidate biomarkers were identified by an expert multistakeholder group using a majority voting consensus exercise and mapped to relevant cellular and molecular pathways.

Results

Of 71 included studies (67 studying effectiveness outcomes and eight safety outcomes; four studied both), most reported genomic or proteomic biomarkers associated with response to biologics (48 studies). Methodological or reporting limitations frequently compromised the interpretation of findings, including inadequate control for key covariates, lack of adjustment for multiple testing, and selective outcome reporting. We identified candidate biomarkers of efficacy to tumour necrosis factor inhibitors [variation in CARD14, CDKAL1, IL1B, IL12B and IL17RA loci, and lipopolysaccharide-induced phosphorylation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB in type 2 dendritic cells] and ustekinumab (HLA-C*06:02 and variation in an IL1B locus). None were supported by sufficient evidence for clinical use without further validation studies. Candidate biomarkers were found to be involved in the immune cellular crosstalk implicated in psoriasis pathogenesis, most notably antigen presentation, T helper (Th)17 cell differentiation, positive regulation of NF-κB, and Th17 cell activation.

Conclusions

This comprehensive catalogue provides a key resource for researchers and reveals a diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes in the included studies. The candidate biomarkers identified require further evaluation in methodologically robust studies to establish potential clinical utility. Future studies should aim to address the common methodological limitations highlighted in this review to expedite discovery and validation of biomarkers for clinical use. What is already known about this topic? Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare. What does this study add? This review provides a comprehensive catalogue of investigated biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis. A diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes was found in the included studies, serving as a key resource for the translational research community.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796396; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396?pdf=render 31815634,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-019-0972-4,Metformin use and cardiovascular outcomes after acute myocardial infarction in patients with type 2 diabetes: a cohort study.,"Bromage DI, Godec TR, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Yellon DM.",,Cardiovascular diabetology,2019,2019-12-09,Y,Acute myocardial infarction; Type 2 diabetes; Cohort studies; Metformin; cardioprotection; Outcomes,,,"

Background

The use of metformin after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has been associated with reduced mortality in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, it is not known if it is acutely cardioprotective in patients taking metformin at the time of AMI. We compared patient outcomes according to metformin status at the time of admission for fatal and non-fatal AMI in a large cohort of patients in England.

Methods

This study used linked data from primary care, hospital admissions and death registry from 4.7 million inhabitants in England, as part of the CALIBER resource. The primary endpoint was a composite of acute myocardial infarction requiring hospitalisation, stroke and cardiovascular death. The secondary endpoints were heart failure (HF) hospitalisation and all-cause mortality.

Results

4,030 patients with T2DM and incident AMI recorded between January 1998 and October 2010 were included. At AMI admission, 63.9% of patients were receiving metformin and 36.1% another oral hypoglycaemic drug. Median follow-up was 343 (IQR: 1-1436) days. Adjusted analyses showed an increased hazard of the composite endpoint in metformin users compared to non-users (HR 1.09 [1.01-1.19]), but not of the secondary endpoints. The higher risk of the composite endpoint in metformin users was only observed in people taking metformin at AMI admission, whereas metformin use post-AMI was associated with a reduction in risk of all-cause mortality (0.76 [0.62-0.93], P = 0.009).

Conclusions

Our study suggests that metformin use at the time of first AMI is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death in patients with T2DM, while its use post-AMI might be beneficial. Further investigation in well-designed randomised controlled trials is indicated, especially in view of emerging evidence of cardioprotection from sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors.",,pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-019-0972-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-019-0972-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6900858; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6900858?pdf=render -35094586,https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691,The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium: Optimizing the use of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials.,"Snyder C, Crossnohere N, King M, Reeve BB, Bottomley A, Calvert M, Thorner E, Wu AW, Brundage M, PROTEUS-Trials Consortium.",,"Clinical trials (London, England)",2022,2022-01-31,Y,Clinical Trials; Protocols; Data Visualization; Patient-reported Outcomes; Reporting Methods; Measure Selection,,,"

Background

The assessment of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials has enormous potential to promote patient-centred care, but for this potential to be realized, the patient-reported outcomes must be captured effectively and communicated clearly. Over the past decade, methodologic tools have been developed to inform the design, analysis, reporting, and interpretation of patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials. We formed the PROTEUS-Trials Consortium (Patient-Reported Outcomes Tools: Engaging Users and Stakeholders) to disseminate and implement these methodologic tools.

Methods

PROTEUS-Trials are engaging with patient, clinician, research, and regulatory stakeholders from 27 organizations in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe to develop both organization-specific and cross-cutting strategies for implementing and disseminating the methodologic tools. Guided by the Knowledge-to-Action framework, we conducted consortium-wide webinars and meetings, as well as individual calls with participating organizations, to develop a workplan, which we are currently executing.

Results

Six methodologic tools serve as the foundation for PROTEUS-Trials dissemination and implementation efforts: the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for writing protocols with patient-reported outcomes, the International Society for Quality of Life Research Minimum Standards for selecting a patient-reported outcome measure, Setting International Standards in Analysing Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Endpoints Data Consortium recommendations for patient-reported outcome data analysis, the Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for reporting clinical trials with patient-reported outcomes, recommendations for the graphic display of patient-reported outcome data, and a Clinician's Checklist for reading and using an article about patient-reported outcomes. The PROTEUS-Trials website (www.TheProteusConsortium.org) serves as a central repository for the methodologic tools and associated resources. To date, we have developed (1) a roadmap to visually display where each of the six methodologic tools applies along the clinical trial trajectory, (2) web tutorials that provide guidance on the methodologic tools at different levels of detail, (3) checklists to provide brief summaries of each tool's recommendations, (4) a handbook to provide a self-guided approach to learning about the tools and recommendations, and (5) publications that address key topics related to patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials. We are also conducting organization-specific activities, including meetings, presentations, workshops, and webinars to publicize the existence of the methodologic tools and the PROTEUS-Trials resources. Work to develop communications strategies to ensure that PROTEUS-Trials reach key audiences with relevant information about patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials and PROTEUS-Trials is ongoing.

Discussion

The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium aims to help researchers generate patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials to (1) enable investigators, regulators, and policy-makers to take the patient perspective into account when conducting research and making decisions; (2) help patients understand treatment options and make treatment decisions; and (3) inform clinicians' discussions with patients regarding treatment options. In these ways, the PROTEUS Consortium promotes patient-centred research and care.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/160459757/17407745221077691.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669?pdf=render 35331425,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.09.001,Clinical Characteristics and Follow-Up of Pediatric-Onset Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy.,"Roudijk RW, Verheul L, Bosman LP, Bourfiss M, Breur JMPJ, Slieker MG, Blank AC, Dooijes D, van der Heijden JF, van den Heuvel F, Clur SA, Udink Ten Cate FEA, van den Berg MP, Wilde AAM, Asselbergs FW, Peter van Tintelen J, Te Riele ASJM.",,JACC. Clinical electrophysiology,2022,2021-12-22,N,Genetics; Ventricular tachycardia; Heart Failure; Sudden Cardiac Death; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Pediatric-onset; Cascade Screening,,,"

Objectives

The goal of this study was to describe characteristics, cascade screening results, and predictors of adverse outcome in pediatric-onset arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).

Background

Although ARVC is increasingly recognized in children, pediatric ARVC cohorts remain underrepresented in the literature.

Methods

This study included 12 probands with pediatric-onset ARVC (aged <18 years at diagnosis) and 68 pediatric relatives (aged <18 years at first evaluation) referred for cascade screening. ARVC diagnosis was based on 2010 Task Force Criteria. Clinical presentation, diagnostic testing, and outcomes (sustained ventricular tachycardia [VT]; heart failure) were ascertained. Predictors of adverse outcome were determined by using univariable logistic regression.

Results

Pediatric-onset ARVC was diagnosed in 12 probands and 12 (18%) relatives at a median age of 16.6 years (interquartile range: 13.8-17.4 years), whereas 12 (18%) relatives reached ARVC diagnosis as adults (median age, 22.0 years; interquartile range: 20.0-26.7 years). Sudden cardiac death/arrest was the first disease manifestation in 3 (25%) probands and 3 (4%) relatives. In patients without ARVC diagnosis at presentation (n = 61), electrocardiogram and Holter monitoring abnormalities occurred before development of imaging Task Force Criteria (7.3 ± 5.0 years vs 8.4 ± 5.0 years). Clinical course was characterized by sustained VT (91%) and heart failure (36%) in probands, which were rare in relatives (2% and 0%, respectively). Male sex (P < 0.01), T-wave inversion V1-V3 (P < 0.01), premature ventricular complexes/runs (P ≤ 0.01), and decrease in biventricular ejection fraction (P ≤ 0.01) were associated with VT occurrence.

Conclusions

Pediatric ARVC carries high arrhythmic risk, especially in probands. Disease progression is particularly observed on electrocardiogram or Holter monitoring. Arrhythmic events are associated with male sex, T-wave inversions, premature ventricular complexes/runs, and reduced biventricular ejection fraction.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.09.001; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.09.001 +36470992,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0,Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF): improving the assessment and classification of MPN patients.,"Ryou H, Sirinukunwattana K, Aberdeen A, Grindstaff G, Stolz BJ, Byrne H, Harrington HA, Sousos N, Godfrey AL, Harrison CN, Psaila B, Mead AJ, Rees G, Turner GDH, Rittscher J, Royston D.",,Leukemia,2023,2022-12-05,Y,,,,"The grading of fibrosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) is an important component of disease classification, prognostication and monitoring. However, current fibrosis grading systems are only semi-quantitative and fail to fully capture sample heterogeneity. To improve the quantitation of reticulin fibrosis, we developed a machine learning approach using bone marrow trephine (BMT) samples (n = 107) from patients diagnosed with MPN or a reactive marrow. The resulting Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF) enhances the detection and monitoring of fibrosis within BMTs, and aids MPN subtyping. When combined with megakaryocyte feature analysis, CIF discriminates between the frequently challenging differential diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia (ET) and pre-fibrotic myelofibrosis with high predictive accuracy [area under the curve = 0.94]. CIF also shows promise in the identification of MPN patients at risk of disease progression; analysis of samples from 35 patients diagnosed with ET and enrolled in the Primary Thrombocythemia-1 trial identified features predictive of post-ET myelofibrosis (area under the curve = 0.77). In addition to these clinical applications, automated analysis of fibrosis has clear potential to further refine disease classification boundaries and inform future studies of the micro-environmental factors driving disease initiation and progression in MPN and other stem cell disorders.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41375-022-01773-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027?pdf=render 29966429,https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487318785228,"Clinically recorded heart rate and incidence of 12 coronary, cardiac, cerebrovascular and peripheral arterial diseases in 233,970 men and women: A linked electronic health record study.","Archangelidi O, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Timmis A, Jouven X, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.",,European journal of preventive cardiology,2018,2018-07-02,N,Heart rate; Sudden death; Heart Failure; cardiovascular; Linked Electronic Health Records,,,"Background In healthy population cohorts, resting heart rate above 90 bpm is associated with mortality from coronary heart disease, but it is not clear whether associations are present at lower heart rates or whether these associations differ between women. Methods The CALIBER resource of linked electronic health records from primary care, hospitalisations, myocardial infarction registry and cause-specific mortality in the UK was used to assess associations between resting heart rate and 12 fatal and non-fatal coronary, cardiac, cerebral and peripheral vascular cardiovascular diseases and death using Cox proportional hazard models. Results Among 233,970 patients, 29,690 fatal and non-fatal events occurred. Fully adjusted models showed that resting heart rate was not associated in men or women with cerebrovascular events. In men a resting heart rate of 70-79 bpm (29.1% of all men) versus less than 60 bpm was associated with an increased risk of heart failure (hazard ratio (HR) 1.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26-2.16), unheralded coronary death (HR 1.65, 95% CI 1.13-2.41), total cardiovascular events (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.15-1.28) and all-cause mortality (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.22-1.58). Women with a higher resting heart rate level of 80-89 bpm versus 60 bpm had a higher risk of total cardiovascular disease events (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.07-1.24) and all-cause mortality (HR 1.21, 95% CI 1.07-1.35) compared to a resting heart rate less than 60 bpm. The risk was also present at higher heart rates (>90 bpm) for heart failure and sudden cardiac death. Conclusions A resting heart rate that clinicians currently consider as 'normal' in the general population is specifically associated with the incidence of certain major cardiovascular diseases and death, with the risk starting at lower resting heart rate levels in men compared to women. Further research is required to evaluate whether interventions to lower resting heart rate are warranted to prevent disease. The study is registered at: clinicaltrials.gov (ID: NCT01947361).",,pdf:http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/134568/7/OArchangelidi_EJPC_accepted.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487318785228 +35606928,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677,Biomarkers of systemic treatment response in people with psoriasis: a scoping review.,"Corbett M, Ramessur R, Marshall D, Acencio ML, Ostaszewski M, Barbosa IA, Dand N, Di Meglio P, Haddad S, Jensen AHM, Koopmann W, Mahil SK, Rahmatulla S, Rastrick J, Saklatvala J, Weidinger S, Wright K, Eyerich K, Barker JN, Ndlovu M, Conrad C, Skov L, Smith CH, BIOMAP consortium.",,The British journal of dermatology,2022,2022-07-20,Y,,,,"

Background

Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare.

Objectives

To perform a scoping review to identify and catalogue candidate biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis for the translational research community.

Methods

A systematic search of CENTRAL, Embase, LILACS and MEDLINE was performed for relevant articles published between 1990 and December 2021. Eligibility criteria were studies involving patients with psoriasis (any age, n ≥ 50) reporting biomarkers associated with systemic treatment response. The main outcomes were any measure of systemic treatment efficacy or safety. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second; studies meeting minimal quality criteria (use of methods to control for confounding) were formally assessed for bias. Candidate biomarkers were identified by an expert multistakeholder group using a majority voting consensus exercise and mapped to relevant cellular and molecular pathways.

Results

Of 71 included studies (67 studying effectiveness outcomes and eight safety outcomes; four studied both), most reported genomic or proteomic biomarkers associated with response to biologics (48 studies). Methodological or reporting limitations frequently compromised the interpretation of findings, including inadequate control for key covariates, lack of adjustment for multiple testing, and selective outcome reporting. We identified candidate biomarkers of efficacy to tumour necrosis factor inhibitors [variation in CARD14, CDKAL1, IL1B, IL12B and IL17RA loci, and lipopolysaccharide-induced phosphorylation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB in type 2 dendritic cells] and ustekinumab (HLA-C*06:02 and variation in an IL1B locus). None were supported by sufficient evidence for clinical use without further validation studies. Candidate biomarkers were found to be involved in the immune cellular crosstalk implicated in psoriasis pathogenesis, most notably antigen presentation, T helper (Th)17 cell differentiation, positive regulation of NF-κB, and Th17 cell activation.

Conclusions

This comprehensive catalogue provides a key resource for researchers and reveals a diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes in the included studies. The candidate biomarkers identified require further evaluation in methodologically robust studies to establish potential clinical utility. Future studies should aim to address the common methodological limitations highlighted in this review to expedite discovery and validation of biomarkers for clinical use. What is already known about this topic? Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare. What does this study add? This review provides a comprehensive catalogue of investigated biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis. A diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes was found in the included studies, serving as a key resource for the translational research community.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796396; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396?pdf=render +35094586,https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691,The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium: Optimizing the use of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials.,"Snyder C, Crossnohere N, King M, Reeve BB, Bottomley A, Calvert M, Thorner E, Wu AW, Brundage M, PROTEUS-Trials Consortium.",,"Clinical trials (London, England)",2022,2022-01-31,Y,Clinical Trials; Protocols; Data Visualization; Patient-reported Outcomes; Reporting Methods; Measure Selection,,,"

Background

The assessment of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials has enormous potential to promote patient-centred care, but for this potential to be realized, the patient-reported outcomes must be captured effectively and communicated clearly. Over the past decade, methodologic tools have been developed to inform the design, analysis, reporting, and interpretation of patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials. We formed the PROTEUS-Trials Consortium (Patient-Reported Outcomes Tools: Engaging Users and Stakeholders) to disseminate and implement these methodologic tools.

Methods

PROTEUS-Trials are engaging with patient, clinician, research, and regulatory stakeholders from 27 organizations in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe to develop both organization-specific and cross-cutting strategies for implementing and disseminating the methodologic tools. Guided by the Knowledge-to-Action framework, we conducted consortium-wide webinars and meetings, as well as individual calls with participating organizations, to develop a workplan, which we are currently executing.

Results

Six methodologic tools serve as the foundation for PROTEUS-Trials dissemination and implementation efforts: the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for writing protocols with patient-reported outcomes, the International Society for Quality of Life Research Minimum Standards for selecting a patient-reported outcome measure, Setting International Standards in Analysing Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Endpoints Data Consortium recommendations for patient-reported outcome data analysis, the Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for reporting clinical trials with patient-reported outcomes, recommendations for the graphic display of patient-reported outcome data, and a Clinician's Checklist for reading and using an article about patient-reported outcomes. The PROTEUS-Trials website (www.TheProteusConsortium.org) serves as a central repository for the methodologic tools and associated resources. To date, we have developed (1) a roadmap to visually display where each of the six methodologic tools applies along the clinical trial trajectory, (2) web tutorials that provide guidance on the methodologic tools at different levels of detail, (3) checklists to provide brief summaries of each tool's recommendations, (4) a handbook to provide a self-guided approach to learning about the tools and recommendations, and (5) publications that address key topics related to patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials. We are also conducting organization-specific activities, including meetings, presentations, workshops, and webinars to publicize the existence of the methodologic tools and the PROTEUS-Trials resources. Work to develop communications strategies to ensure that PROTEUS-Trials reach key audiences with relevant information about patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials and PROTEUS-Trials is ongoing.

Discussion

The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium aims to help researchers generate patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials to (1) enable investigators, regulators, and policy-makers to take the patient perspective into account when conducting research and making decisions; (2) help patients understand treatment options and make treatment decisions; and (3) inform clinicians' discussions with patients regarding treatment options. In these ways, the PROTEUS Consortium promotes patient-centred research and care.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/160459757/17407745221077691.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669?pdf=render 33185016,https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41593,Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs and Susceptibility to COVID-19.,"Chandan JS, Zemedikun DT, Thayakaran R, Byne N, Dhalla S, Acosta-Mena D, Gokhale KM, Thomas T, Sainsbury C, Subramanian A, Cooper J, Anand A, Okoth KO, Wang J, Adderley NJ, Taverner T, Denniston AK, Lord J, Thomas GN, Buckley CD, Raza K, Bhala N, Nirantharakumar K, Haroon S.",,"Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.)",2021,2021-05-01,Y,,,,"

Objective

To identify whether active use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increases susceptibility to developing suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared to the use of other common analgesics.

Methods

We performed a propensity score-matched cohort study with active comparators, using a large UK primary care data set. The cohort consisted of adult patients age ≥18 years with osteoarthritis (OA) who were followed up from January 30 to July 31, 2020. Patients prescribed an NSAID (excluding topical preparations) were compared to those prescribed either co-codamol (paracetamol and codeine) or co-dydramol (paracetamol and dihydrocodeine). A total of 13,202 patients prescribed NSAIDs were identified, compared to 12,457 patients prescribed the comparator drugs. The primary outcome measure was the documentation of suspected or confirmed COVID-19, and the secondary outcome measure was all-cause mortality.

Results

During follow-up, the incidence rates of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 were 15.4 and 19.9 per 1,000 person-years in the NSAID-exposed group and comparator group, respectively. Adjusted hazard ratios for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 among the unmatched and propensity score-matched OA cohorts, using data from clinical consultations in primary care settings, were 0.82 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.62-1.10) and 0.79 (95% CI 0.57-1.11), respectively, and adjusted hazard ratios for the risk of all-cause mortality were 0.97 (95% CI 0.75-1.27) and 0.85 (95% CI 0.61-1.20), respectively. There was no effect modification by age or sex.

Conclusion

No increase in the risk of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 or mortality was observed among patients with OA in a primary care setting who were prescribed NSAIDs as compared to those who received comparator drugs. These results are reassuring and suggest that in the absence of acute illness, NSAIDs can be safely prescribed during the ongoing pandemic.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/art.41593; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41593; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8252419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8252419?pdf=render 33062309,https://doi.org/10.1177/2059513120952336,Epidemiology of burn injury in older adults: An Australian and New Zealand perspective.,"Tracy LM, Singer Y, Schrale R, Gong J, Darton A, Wood F, Kurmis R, Edgar D, Cleland H, Gabbe BJ.",,"Scars, burns & healing",2020,2020-01-01,Y,Burns; Australia; New Zealand; Older Adults; scald; Burn Database,,,"

Introduction

The ageing global population presents a novel set of challenges for trauma systems. Less research has focused on the older adult population with burns and how they differ compared to younger patients. This study aimed to describe, and compare with younger peers, the number, causes and surgical management of older adults with burn injuries in Australia and New Zealand.

Methods

The Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand was used to identify patients with burn injuries between 1 July 2009 and 31 December 2018. Temporal trends in incidence rates were evaluated and categorised by age at injury. Patient demographics, injury severity and event characteristics, surgical intervention and in-hospital outcomes were investigated.

Results

There were 2394 burn-injured older adults admitted during the study period, accounting for 13.4% of adult admissions. Scalds were the most common cause of burn injury in older adults. The incidence of older adult burns increased by 2.96% each year (incidence rate ratio = 1.030, 95% confidence interval = 1.013-1.046, P < 0.001). Compared to their younger peers, a smaller proportion of older adult patients were taken to theatre for a surgical procedure, though a larger proportion of older adults received a skin graft.

Discussion

Differences in patient and injury characteristics, surgical management and in-hospital outcomes were observed for older adults. These findings provide the Australian and New Zealand burn care community with a greater understanding of burn injury and their treatments in a unique group of patients who are at risk of poorer outcomes than younger people.

Lay summary

The number and proportion of older persons in every country of the world is growing. This may create challenges for healthcare systems. While burn injuries are a unique subset of trauma that affect individuals of all ages, less is known about burns in older adults and how they differ from younger patients.We wanted to look at the number, type, management, and outcomes of burns in older adults in Australia and New Zealand. To do this, we used data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand, or BRANZ. The BRANZ is a database that collects information on patients that present to Australian and New Zealand hospitals that have a specialist burns unit.Our research found that one in eight adult burns patients was over the age of 65, and that the rate of burn injuries in older adults has increased over the last decade. Older adult burns patients were most commonly affected by scalds after coming in contact with wet heat such as boiling liquids or steam. Fewer older adults went to theatre for an operation or surgical procedure compared to their younger counterparts. However, a larger proportion of older adults that went to theatre had a skin graft (where skin is removed from an uninjured part of the body and placed over the injured part).This research provides important information about a unique and growing group of patients to the local burn care community. It also highlights potential avenues for injury prevention initiatives.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2059513120952336; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2059513120952336; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7534068; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7534068?pdf=render 33325834,https://doi.org/10.2196/23530,Cystic Fibrosis Point of Personalized Detection (CFPOPD): An Interactive Web Application.,"Wolfe C, Pestian T, Gecili E, Su W, Keogh RH, Pestian JP, Seid M, Diggle PJ, Ziady A, Clancy JP, Grossoehme DH, Szczesniak RD, Brokamp C.",,JMIR medical informatics,2020,2020-12-16,Y,Chronic disease; Clinical Decision Support; Medical Monitoring; Clinical Decision Rules; Application Programming Interface,,,"

Background

Despite steady gains in life expectancy, individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease still experience rapid pulmonary decline throughout their clinical course, which can ultimately end in respiratory failure. Point-of-care tools for accurate and timely information regarding the risk of rapid decline is essential for clinical decision support.

Objective

This study aims to translate a novel algorithm for earlier, more accurate prediction of rapid lung function decline in patients with CF into an interactive web-based application that can be integrated within electronic health record systems, via collaborative development with clinicians.

Methods

Longitudinal clinical history, lung function measurements, and time-invariant characteristics were obtained for 30,879 patients with CF who were followed in the US Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Registry (2003-2015). We iteratively developed the application using the R Shiny framework and by conducting a qualitative study with care provider focus groups (N=17).

Results

A clinical conceptual model and 4 themes were identified through coded feedback from application users: (1) ambiguity in rapid decline, (2) clinical utility, (3) clinical significance, and (4) specific suggested revisions. These themes were used to revise our application to the currently released version, available online for exploration. This study has advanced the application's potential prognostic utility for monitoring individuals with CF lung disease. Further application development will incorporate additional clinical characteristics requested by the users and also a more modular layout that can be useful for care provider and family interactions.

Conclusions

Our framework for creating an interactive and visual analytics platform enables generalized development of applications to synthesize, model, and translate electronic health data, thereby enhancing clinical decision support and improving care and health outcomes for chronic diseases and disorders. A prospective implementation study is necessary to evaluate this tool's effectiveness regarding increased communication, enhanced shared decision-making, and improved clinical outcomes for patients with CF.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2020/12/e23530/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/23530; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7773511 36706770,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(23)00007-4,Global investments in pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: development assistance and domestic spending on health between 1990 and 2026.,Global Burden of Disease 2021 Health Financing Collaborator Network.,,The Lancet. Global health,2023,2023-01-24,Y,,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted gaps in health surveillance systems, disease prevention, and treatment globally. Among the many factors that might have led to these gaps is the issue of the financing of national health systems, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as a robust global system for pandemic preparedness. We aimed to provide a comparative assessment of global health spending at the onset of the pandemic; characterise the amount of development assistance for pandemic preparedness and response disbursed in the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic; and examine expectations for future health spending and put into context the expected need for investment in pandemic preparedness.

Methods

In this analysis of global health spending between 1990 and 2021, and prediction from 2021 to 2026, we estimated four sources of health spending: development assistance for health (DAH), government spending, out-of-pocket spending, and prepaid private spending across 204 countries and territories. We used the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Creditor Reporting System (CRS) and the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database (GHED) to estimate spending. We estimated development assistance for general health, COVID-19 response, and pandemic preparedness and response using a keyword search. Health spending estimates were combined with estimates of resources needed for pandemic prevention and preparedness to analyse future health spending patterns, relative to need.

Findings

In 2019, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, US$9·2 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 9·1-9·3) was spent on health worldwide. We found great disparities in the amount of resources devoted to health, with high-income countries spending $7·3 trillion (95% UI 7·2-7·4) in 2019; 293·7 times the $24·8 billion (95% UI 24·3-25·3) spent by low-income countries in 2019. That same year, $43·1 billion in development assistance was provided to maintain or improve health. The pandemic led to an unprecedented increase in development assistance targeted towards health; in 2020 and 2021, $1·8 billion in DAH contributions was provided towards pandemic preparedness in LMICs, and $37·8 billion was provided for the health-related COVID-19 response. Although the support for pandemic preparedness is 12·2% of the recommended target by the High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP), the support provided for the health-related COVID-19 response is 252·2% of the recommended target. Additionally, projected spending estimates suggest that between 2022 and 2026, governments in 17 (95% UI 11-21) of the 137 LMICs will observe an increase in national government health spending equivalent to an addition of 1% of GDP, as recommended by the HLIP.

Interpretation

There was an unprecedented scale-up in DAH in 2020 and 2021. We have a unique opportunity at this time to sustain funding for crucial global health functions, including pandemic preparedness. However, historical patterns of underfunding of pandemic preparedness suggest that deliberate effort must be made to ensure funding is maintained.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(23)00007-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00007-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998276 -37315048,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091,LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting.,"Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.",,PloS one,2023,2023-06-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Uneven vaccination and less resilient health care systems mean hospitals in LMICs are at risk of being overwhelmed during periods of increased COVID-19 infection. Risk-scores proposed for rapid triage of need for admission from the emergency department (ED) have been developed in higher-income settings during initial waves of the pandemic.

Methods

Routinely collected data for public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa from the 27th August 2020 to 11th March 2022 were used to derive a cohort of 446,084 ED patients with suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission at 30 days. The cohort was divided into derivation and Omicron variant validation sets. We developed the LMIC-PRIEST score based on the coefficients from multivariable analysis in the derivation cohort and existing triage practices. We externally validated accuracy in the Omicron period and a UK cohort.

Results

We analysed 305,564 derivation, 140,520 Omicron and 12,610 UK validation cases. Over 100 events per predictor parameter were modelled. Multivariable analyses identified eight predictor variables retained across models. We used these findings and clinical judgement to develop a score based on South African Triage Early Warning Scores and also included age, sex, oxygen saturation, inspired oxygen, diabetes and heart disease. The LMIC-PRIEST score achieved C-statistics: 0.82 (95% CI: 0.82 to 0.83) development cohort; 0.79 (95% CI: 0.78 to 0.80) Omicron cohort; and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.79 to 0.80) UK cohort. Differences in prevalence of outcomes led to imperfect calibration in external validation. However, use of the score at thresholds of three or less would allow identification of very low-risk patients (NPV ≥0.99) who could be rapidly discharged using information collected at initial assessment.

Conclusion

The LMIC-PRIEST score shows good discrimination and high sensitivity at lower thresholds and can be used to rapidly identify low-risk patients in LMIC ED settings.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287091&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677?pdf=render 33769566,https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15459,Emerging therapies and their delivery for treating age-related macular degeneration.,"Thomas CN, Sim DA, Lee WH, Alfahad N, Dick AD, Denniston AK, Hill LJ.",,British journal of pharmacology,2022,2021-05-12,N,Retina; Complement; Immunotherapy; Age-related macular degeneration; Drug Delivery; Anti-vegf; Ocular Disease,,,"Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness in the Western world and is characterised in its latter stages by retinal cell death and neovascularisation and earlier stages with the loss of parainflammatory homeostasis. Patients with neovascular AMD (nAMD) are treated with frequent intraocular injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapies, which are not only unpopular with patients but carry risks of sight-threatening complications. A minority of patients are unresponsive with no alternative treatment available, and some patients who respond initially eventually develop a tolerance to treatment. New therapeutics with improved delivery methods and sustainability of clinical effects are required, in particular for non-neovascular AMD (90% of cases and no current approved treatments). There are age-related and disease-related changes that occur which can affect ocular drug delivery. Here, we review the latest emerging therapies for AMD, their delivery routes and implications for translating to clinical practice. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed issue on Inflammation, Repair and Ageing. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v179.9/issuetoc.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bph.15459; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15459 -34767555,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832,Educational and health outcomes of schoolchildren in local authority care in Scotland: A retrospective record linkage study.,"Fleming M, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Minnis H, Pell JP.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-11-12,Y,,,,"

Background

Looked after children are defined as children who are in the care of their local authority. Previous studies have reported that looked after children have poorer mental and physical health, increased behavioural problems, and increased self-harm and mortality compared to peers. They also experience poorer educational outcomes, yet population-wide research into the latter is lacking, particularly in the United Kingdom. Education and health share a bidirectional relationship; therefore, it is important to dually investigate both outcomes. Our study aimed to compare educational and health outcomes for looked after children with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity, and comorbidity confounders.

Methods and findings

Linkage of 9 Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions, unemployment, and looked after children provided retrospective data on 715,111 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2012 (13,898 [1.9%] looked after). Compared to peers, 13,898 (1.9%) looked after children were more likely to be absent (adjusted incidence rate ratio [AIRR] 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24 to 1.30) and excluded (AIRR 4.09, 95% CI 3.86 to 4.33) from school, have special educational need (SEN; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.48, 95% CI 3.35 to 3.62) and neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (AOR 2.45, 95% CI 2.34 to 2.57), achieve the lowest level of academic attainment (AOR 5.92, 95% CI 5.17 to 6.78), and be unemployed after leaving school (AOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.96 to 2.29). They were more likely to require treatment for epilepsy (AOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.78), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; AOR 3.01, 95% CI 2.76 to 3.27), and depression (AOR 1.90, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.22), be hospitalised overall (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.23, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.28) for injury (AHR 1.80, 95% CI 1.69 to 1.91) and self-harm (AHR 5.19, 95% CI 4.66 to 5.78), and die prematurely (AHR 3.21, 95% CI 2.16 to 4.77). Compared to children looked after at home, children looked after away from home had less absenteeism (AIRR 0.35, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.36), less exclusion (AIRR 0.63, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.71), less unemployment (AOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.62), and better attainment (AIRR 0.31, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.40). Therefore, among those in care, being cared for away from home appeared to be a protective factor resulting in better educational outcomes. The main limitations of this study were lack of data on local authority care preschool or before 2009, total time spent in care, and age of first contact with social care.

Conclusions

Looked after children had poorer health and educational outcomes than peers independent of increased neurodevelopmental conditions and SEN. Further work is required to understand whether poorer outcomes relate to reasons for entering care, including maltreatment and adverse childhood events, neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities, or characteristics of the care system.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203?pdf=render 32951912,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2020.08.030,"Corrigendum to: ""Genome-wide and Mendelian randomisation studies of liver MRI yield insights into the pathogenesis of steatohepatitis"" [J Hepatol (2020) 241-251].","Parisinos CA, Wilman HR, Thomas EL, Kelly M, Nicholls RC, McGonigle J, Neubauer S, Hingorani AD, Patel RS, Hemingway H, Bell JD, Banerjee R, Yaghootkar H.",,Journal of hepatology,2020,2020-09-18,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168827820336035/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2020.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8055539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8055539?pdf=render +37315048,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091,LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting.,"Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.",,PloS one,2023,2023-06-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Uneven vaccination and less resilient health care systems mean hospitals in LMICs are at risk of being overwhelmed during periods of increased COVID-19 infection. Risk-scores proposed for rapid triage of need for admission from the emergency department (ED) have been developed in higher-income settings during initial waves of the pandemic.

Methods

Routinely collected data for public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa from the 27th August 2020 to 11th March 2022 were used to derive a cohort of 446,084 ED patients with suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission at 30 days. The cohort was divided into derivation and Omicron variant validation sets. We developed the LMIC-PRIEST score based on the coefficients from multivariable analysis in the derivation cohort and existing triage practices. We externally validated accuracy in the Omicron period and a UK cohort.

Results

We analysed 305,564 derivation, 140,520 Omicron and 12,610 UK validation cases. Over 100 events per predictor parameter were modelled. Multivariable analyses identified eight predictor variables retained across models. We used these findings and clinical judgement to develop a score based on South African Triage Early Warning Scores and also included age, sex, oxygen saturation, inspired oxygen, diabetes and heart disease. The LMIC-PRIEST score achieved C-statistics: 0.82 (95% CI: 0.82 to 0.83) development cohort; 0.79 (95% CI: 0.78 to 0.80) Omicron cohort; and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.79 to 0.80) UK cohort. Differences in prevalence of outcomes led to imperfect calibration in external validation. However, use of the score at thresholds of three or less would allow identification of very low-risk patients (NPV ≥0.99) who could be rapidly discharged using information collected at initial assessment.

Conclusion

The LMIC-PRIEST score shows good discrimination and high sensitivity at lower thresholds and can be used to rapidly identify low-risk patients in LMIC ED settings.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287091&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677?pdf=render +34767555,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832,Educational and health outcomes of schoolchildren in local authority care in Scotland: A retrospective record linkage study.,"Fleming M, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Minnis H, Pell JP.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-11-12,Y,,,,"

Background

Looked after children are defined as children who are in the care of their local authority. Previous studies have reported that looked after children have poorer mental and physical health, increased behavioural problems, and increased self-harm and mortality compared to peers. They also experience poorer educational outcomes, yet population-wide research into the latter is lacking, particularly in the United Kingdom. Education and health share a bidirectional relationship; therefore, it is important to dually investigate both outcomes. Our study aimed to compare educational and health outcomes for looked after children with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity, and comorbidity confounders.

Methods and findings

Linkage of 9 Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions, unemployment, and looked after children provided retrospective data on 715,111 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2012 (13,898 [1.9%] looked after). Compared to peers, 13,898 (1.9%) looked after children were more likely to be absent (adjusted incidence rate ratio [AIRR] 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24 to 1.30) and excluded (AIRR 4.09, 95% CI 3.86 to 4.33) from school, have special educational need (SEN; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.48, 95% CI 3.35 to 3.62) and neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (AOR 2.45, 95% CI 2.34 to 2.57), achieve the lowest level of academic attainment (AOR 5.92, 95% CI 5.17 to 6.78), and be unemployed after leaving school (AOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.96 to 2.29). They were more likely to require treatment for epilepsy (AOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.78), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; AOR 3.01, 95% CI 2.76 to 3.27), and depression (AOR 1.90, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.22), be hospitalised overall (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.23, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.28) for injury (AHR 1.80, 95% CI 1.69 to 1.91) and self-harm (AHR 5.19, 95% CI 4.66 to 5.78), and die prematurely (AHR 3.21, 95% CI 2.16 to 4.77). Compared to children looked after at home, children looked after away from home had less absenteeism (AIRR 0.35, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.36), less exclusion (AIRR 0.63, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.71), less unemployment (AOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.62), and better attainment (AIRR 0.31, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.40). Therefore, among those in care, being cared for away from home appeared to be a protective factor resulting in better educational outcomes. The main limitations of this study were lack of data on local authority care preschool or before 2009, total time spent in care, and age of first contact with social care.

Conclusions

Looked after children had poorer health and educational outcomes than peers independent of increased neurodevelopmental conditions and SEN. Further work is required to understand whether poorer outcomes relate to reasons for entering care, including maltreatment and adverse childhood events, neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities, or characteristics of the care system.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203?pdf=render 33692554,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03243-6,Improving reporting standards for polygenic scores in risk prediction studies.,"Wand H, Lambert SA, Tamburro C, Iacocca MA, O'Sullivan JW, Sillari C, Kullo IJ, Rowley R, Dron JS, Brockman D, Venner E, McCarthy MI, Antoniou AC, Easton DF, Hegele RA, Khera AV, Chatterjee N, Kooperberg C, Edwards K, Vlessis K, Kinnear K, Danesh JN, Parkinson H, Ramos EM, Roberts MC, Ormond KE, Khoury MJ, Janssens ACJW, Goddard KAB, Kraft P, MacArthur JAL, Inouye M, Wojcik GL.",,Nature,2021,2021-03-10,N,,,,"Polygenic risk scores (PRSs), which often aggregate results from genome-wide association studies, can bridge the gap between initial discovery efforts and clinical applications for the estimation of disease risk using genetics. However, there is notable heterogeneity in the application and reporting of these risk scores, which hinders the translation of PRSs into clinical care. Here, in a collaboration between the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Complex Disease Working Group and the Polygenic Score (PGS) Catalog, we present the Polygenic Risk Score Reporting Standards (PRS-RS), in which we update the Genetic Risk Prediction Studies (GRIPS) Statement to reflect the present state of the field. Drawing on the input of experts in epidemiology, statistics, disease-specific applications, implementation and policy, this comprehensive reporting framework defines the minimal information that is needed to interpret and evaluate PRSs, especially with respect to downstream clinical applications. Items span detailed descriptions of study populations, statistical methods for the development and validation of PRSs and considerations for the potential limitations of these scores. In addition, we emphasize the need for data availability and transparency, and we encourage researchers to deposit and share PRSs through the PGS Catalog to facilitate reproducibility and comparative benchmarking. By providing these criteria in a structured format that builds on existing standards and ontologies, the use of this framework in publishing PRSs will facilitate translation into clinical care and progress towards defining best practice.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8609771; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03243-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609771; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609771?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03243-6 33025017,https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa126,Using Natural Language Processing on Electronic Health Records to Enhance Detection and Prediction of Psychosis Risk.,"Irving J, Patel R, Oliver D, Colling C, Pritchard M, Broadbent M, Baldwin H, Stahl D, Stewart R, Fusar-Poli P.",,Schizophrenia bulletin,2021,2021-03-01,N,Prediction; Prevention; Psychosis; Machine Learning; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing,,,"

Background

Using novel data mining methods such as natural language processing (NLP) on electronic health records (EHRs) for screening and detecting individuals at risk for psychosis.

Method

The study included all patients receiving a first index diagnosis of nonorganic and nonpsychotic mental disorder within the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust between January 1, 2008, and July 28, 2018. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO)-regularized Cox regression was used to refine and externally validate a refined version of a five-item individualized, transdiagnostic, clinically based risk calculator previously developed (Harrell's C = 0.79) and piloted for implementation. The refined version included 14 additional NLP-predictors: tearfulness, poor appetite, weight loss, insomnia, cannabis, cocaine, guilt, irritability, delusions, hopelessness, disturbed sleep, poor insight, agitation, and paranoia.

Results

A total of 92 151 patients with a first index diagnosis of nonorganic and nonpsychotic mental disorder within the SLaM Trust were included in the derivation (n = 28 297) or external validation (n = 63 854) data sets. Mean age was 33.6 years, 50.7% were women, and 67.0% were of white race/ethnicity. Mean follow-up was 1590 days. The overall 6-year risk of psychosis in secondary mental health care was 3.4 (95% CI, 3.3-3.6). External validation indicated strong performance on unseen data (Harrell's C 0.85, 95% CI 0.84-0.86), an increase of 0.06 from the original model.

Conclusions

Using NLP on EHRs can considerably enhance the prognostic accuracy of psychosis risk calculators. This can help identify patients at risk of psychosis who require assessment and specialized care, facilitating earlier detection and potentially improving patient outcomes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/47/2/405/36620462/sbaa126.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa126; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965059; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965059?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa126 -32542387,https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222,Towards personalized guidelines: using machine-learning algorithms to guide antimicrobial selection.,"Moran E, Robinson E, Green C, Keeling M, Collyer B.",,The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy,2020,2020-09-01,N,,,,"

Background

Electronic decision support systems could reduce the use of inappropriate or ineffective empirical antibiotics. We assessed the accuracy of an open-source machine-learning algorithm trained in predicting antibiotic resistance for three Gram-negative bacterial species isolated from patients' blood and urine within 48 h of hospital admission.

Methods

This retrospective, observational study used routine clinical information collected between January 2010 and October 2016 in Birmingham, UK. Patients from whose blood or urine cultures Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae or Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated were identified. Their demographic, microbiology and prescribing data were used to train an open-source machine-learning algorithm-XGBoost-in predicting resistance to co-amoxiclav and piperacillin/tazobactam. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictors of resistance and create a point-scoring tool. The performance of both methods was compared with that of the original prescribers.

Results

There were 15 695 admissions. The AUC of the receiver operating characteristic curve for the point-scoring tools ranged from 0.61 to 0.67, and performed no better than medical staff in the selection of appropriate antibiotics. The machine-learning system performed statistically but marginally better (AUC 0.70) and could have reduced the use of unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotics by as much as 40% among those given co-amoxiclav, piperacillin/tazobactam or carbapenems. A validation study is required.

Conclusions

Machine-learning algorithms have the potential to help clinicians predict antimicrobial resistance in patients found to have a Gram-negative infection of blood or urine. Prospective studies are required to assess performance in an unselected patient cohort, understand the acceptability of such systems to clinicians and patients, and assess the impact on patient outcome.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443728; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222 31564467,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(19)30369-4,"The burden of mental ill health associated with childhood maltreatment in the UK, using The Health Improvement Network database: a population-based retrospective cohort study.","Chandan JS, Thomas T, Gokhale KM, Bandyopadhyay S, Taylor J, Nirantharakumar K.",,The lancet. Psychiatry,2019,2019-09-26,N,,,,"

Background

Childhood maltreatment is a global public health, human rights, and moral issue that is associated with a substantial mental health burden. We aimed to assess the association between childhood maltreatment and the development of mental ill health and the initiation of new prescriptions for mental ill health.

Methods

In this population-based, retrospective, open cohort study, we used a dataset from individuals in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database. THIN database comprises UK electronic medical records taken from 787 general practices throughout the UK. We used read codes in these records to identify exposed patients (those with a read code identifying officially confirmed childhood maltreatment or a maltreatment-related concern) and up to two unexposed patients (those without such read codes) from the same general practice, who were matched by age and sex. We evaluated the risk of developing depression, anxiety, or serious mental illness (a composite mental ill health outcome) or initiation of a prescription drug used to treat mental ill health, and the odds ratio of these events at baseline, in the exposed versus unexposed patients.

Findings

The first possible date for cohort entry (the study start date) was Jan 1, 1995, and patients could enter the cohort until the study end date, Dec 31, 2018. During the study period, 11 831 850 patients were eligible to participate. Of these patients, we identified 217 758 (1·8%) patients with any recorded childhood maltreatment. These patients were matched to 423 410 unexposed control patients with no recorded exposure to childhood maltreatment. The exposed group were followed up for a median of 1·8 years (IQR 0·6-4·3) versus 3·2 years (1·3-6·1) in the unexposed group. During the study period, 11 665 (5·9%) new diagnoses of mental ill health were made in the exposed group, giving an incidence rate of 16·8 events per 1000 person-years versus 15 301 (3·7%) new recorded diagnoses at an incidence rate of 8·3 events per 1000 person-years in the unexposed cohort, giving an adjusted IRR of 2·14 (95% CI 2·08-2·19). 30 911 (14·8%) patients in the exposed group received a new prescription for any type of mental ill health (incidence rate 46·5 events per 1000 person-years) versus 36 390 (8·9%) patients in the unexposed group (20·5 per 1000 person-years) resulting in an adjusted IRR of 2·44 (95% CI 2·40-2·48).

Interpretation

Childhood maltreatment is thought to affect one in three children globally; therefore, a doubled risk of developing mental ill health among these individuals represents a substantial contribution to the mental ill health burden in the UK. It is imperative that public health approaches, including those aimed at preventing and detecting childhood maltreatment and its associated negative consequences, are implemented to prevent mental ill health.

Funding

None.",,pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/77236664/Chandan_et_al_The_burden_of_mental_ill_health_associated_with_childhood_maltreatment_in_the_UK_using_The_Health_Improvement_Network_database_The_Lancet_Psychiatry_2019.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30369-4 -36401199,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6,Patient characteristics associated with retrospectively self-reported treatment outcomes following psychological therapy for anxiety or depressive disorders - a cohort of GLAD study participants.,"Rayner C, Coleman JRI, Skelton M, Armour C, Bradley J, Buckman JEJ, Davies MR, Hirsch CR, Hotopf M, Hübel C, Jones IR, Kalsi G, Kingston N, Krebs G, Lin Y, Monssen D, McIntosh AM, Mundy JR, Peel AJ, Rimes KA, Rogers HC, Smith DJ, Ter Kuile AR, Thompson KN, Veale D, Wingrove J, Walters JTR, Breen G, Eley TC.",,BMC psychiatry,2022,2022-11-18,Y,Counselling; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Minimal Phenotyping,,,"

Background

Progress towards stratified care for anxiety and depression will require the identification of new predictors. We collected data on retrospectively self-reported therapeutic outcomes in adults who received psychological therapy in the UK in the past ten years. We aimed to replicate factors associated with traditional treatment outcome measures from the literature.

Methods

Participants were from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study, a UK-based volunteer cohort study. We investigated associations between retrospectively self-reported outcomes following therapy, on a five-point scale (global rating of change; GRC) and a range of sociodemographic, clinical and therapy-related factors, using ordinal logistic regression models (n = 2890).

Results

Four factors were associated with therapy outcomes (adjusted odds ratios, OR). One sociodemographic factor, having university-level education, was associated with favourable outcomes (OR = 1.37, 95%CI: 1.18, 1.59). Two clinical factors, greater number of reported episodes of illness (OR = 0.95, 95%CI: 0.92, 0.97) and higher levels of personality disorder symptoms (OR = 0.89, 95%CI: 0.87, 0.91), were associated with less favourable outcomes. Finally, reported regular use of additional therapeutic activities was associated with favourable outcomes (OR = 1.39, 95%CI: 1.19, 1.63). There were no statistically significant differences between fully adjusted multivariable and unadjusted univariable odds ratios.

Conclusion

Therapy outcome data can be collected quickly and inexpensively using retrospectively self-reported measures in large observational cohorts. Retrospectively self-reported therapy outcomes were associated with four factors previously reported in the literature. Similar data collected in larger observational cohorts may enable detection of novel associations with therapy outcomes, to generate new hypotheses, which can be followed up in prospective studies.",,pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224?pdf=render 33678251,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.08.026,"The intersect of genetics, environment, and microbiota in asthma-perspectives and challenges.","Tang HHF, Teo SM, Sly PD, Holt PG, Inouye M.",,The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,2021,2021-03-01,N,Environment; Genomics; Asthma; Microbiota; systems biology; Gene-environment Interaction; Allergy And Immunology,,,"In asthma, a significant portion of the interaction between genetics and environment occurs through microbiota. The proposed mechanisms behind this interaction are complex and at times contradictory. This review covers recent developments in our understanding of this interaction: the ""microbial hypothesis"" and the ""farm effect""; the role of endotoxin and genetic variation in pattern recognition systems; the interaction with allergen exposure; the additional involvement of host gut and airway microbiota; the role of viral respiratory infections in interaction with the 17q21 and CDHR3 genetic loci; and the importance of in utero and early-life timing of exposures. We propose a unified framework for understanding how all these phenomena interact to drive asthma pathogenesis. Finally, we point out some future challenges for continued research in this field, in particular the need for multiomic integration, as well as the potential utility of asthma endotyping.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.08.026 -34192199,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049,Staff-pupil SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways in schools in Wales: a population-level linked data approach.,"Thompson DA, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Marchant E, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Hollinghurst J, North L, Lyons J, Torabi F, Davies G, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.",,BMJ paediatrics open,2021,2021-05-10,Y,Disease transmission; Schools; Public Health; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Better understanding of the role that children and school staff play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to guide policy development on controlling infection while minimising disruption to children's education and well-being.

Methods

Our national e-cohort (n=464531) study used anonymised linked data for pupils, staff and associated households linked via educational settings in Wales. We estimated the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for staff and pupils over the period August- December 2020, dependent on measures of recent exposure to known cases linked to their educational settings.

Results

The total number of cases in a school was not associated with a subsequent increase in the odds of testing positive (staff OR per case: 0.92, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.00; pupil OR per case: 0.98, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.02). Among pupils, the number of recent cases within the same year group was significantly associated with subsequent increased odds of testing positive (OR per case: 1.12, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.15). These effects were adjusted for a range of demographic covariates, and in particular any known cases within the same household, which had the strongest association with testing positive (staff OR: 39.86, 95% CI 35.01 to 45.38; pupil OR: 9.39, 95% CI 8.94 to 9.88).

Conclusions

In a national school cohort, the odds of staff testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection were not significantly increased in the 14-day period after case detection in the school. However, pupils were found to be at increased odds, following cases appearing within their own year group, where most of their contacts occur. Strong mitigation measures over the whole of the study period may have reduced wider spread within the school environment.",,pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/5/1/e001049.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870?pdf=render 32680743,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2020.06.008,"Adaptation, self-motivation and support services are key to physical activity participation three to five years after major trauma: a qualitative study.","Ekegren CL, Braaf S, Ameratunga S, Ponsford J, Nunn A, Cameron P, Lyons RA, Gabbe BJ.",,Journal of physiotherapy,2020,2020-07-14,N,Trauma; Recovery; Exercise; wounds and injuries; Sedentary Lifestyle,,,"

Questions

What are the perceived long-term impacts of major trauma on physical activity participation over time? What factors influence physical activity participation in people recovering from major trauma?

Design

Longitudinal qualitative study.

Participants

Sixty-six people aged ≥ 16 years with non-neurological major trauma.

Methods

Participants were interviewed 3 years (n = 66), 4 years (n = 63) and 5 years (n = 57) after their injury. A thematic analysis was performed.

Results

Despite wanting to be physically active, many participants experienced significant, long-term physical activity restriction after their injury, which persisted over time. Restrictions were often related to a fear of re-injury or of exacerbating pain and fatigue levels. These restrictions were a source of distress and frustration for many participants, given the perceived impacts on their social life, family roles and enjoyment of life. Participants were also concerned about weight gain, health decline and reduced physical fitness. Participants valued the support of insurers and specialised services in facilitating access to modified activities, such as clinical Pilates and hydrotherapy. Many participants also recognised the importance of adaptation, goal-setting, self-motivation and determination to be physically active despite limitations.

Conclusion

People recovering from major trauma experienced significant and persistent physical activity restriction after their injury. Given the high prevalence of activity restrictions, distress and health concerns that were reported, there is an urgent need to develop and evaluate support strategies to improve physical activity participation in this group.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2020.06.008; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2020.06.008 -34708157,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3,Estimating the duration of seropositivity of human seasonal coronaviruses using seroprevalence studies.,"Rees EM, Waterlow NR, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Lowe R, Kucharski AJ.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-12-21,Y,Catalytic model; Seroprevalence; Waning Immunity; Seasonal Coronavirus,,,"Background: The duration of immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still uncertain, but it is of key clinical and epidemiological importance. Seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoV) have been circulating for longer and, therefore, may offer insights into the long-term dynamics of reinfection for such viruses. Methods: Combining historical seroprevalence data from five studies covering the four circulating HCoVs with an age-structured reverse catalytic model, we estimated the likely duration of seropositivity following seroconversion. Results: We estimated that antibody persistence lasted between 0.9 (95% Credible interval: 0.6 - 1.6) and 3.8 (95% CrI: 2.0 - 7.4) years. Furthermore, we found the force of infection in older children and adults (those over 8.5 [95% CrI: 7.5 - 9.9] years) to be higher compared with young children in the majority of studies. Conclusions: These estimates of endemic HCoV dynamics could provide an indication of the future long-term infection and reinfection patterns of SARS-CoV-2.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721?pdf=render +32542387,https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222,Towards personalized guidelines: using machine-learning algorithms to guide antimicrobial selection.,"Moran E, Robinson E, Green C, Keeling M, Collyer B.",,The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy,2020,2020-09-01,N,,,,"

Background

Electronic decision support systems could reduce the use of inappropriate or ineffective empirical antibiotics. We assessed the accuracy of an open-source machine-learning algorithm trained in predicting antibiotic resistance for three Gram-negative bacterial species isolated from patients' blood and urine within 48 h of hospital admission.

Methods

This retrospective, observational study used routine clinical information collected between January 2010 and October 2016 in Birmingham, UK. Patients from whose blood or urine cultures Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae or Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated were identified. Their demographic, microbiology and prescribing data were used to train an open-source machine-learning algorithm-XGBoost-in predicting resistance to co-amoxiclav and piperacillin/tazobactam. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictors of resistance and create a point-scoring tool. The performance of both methods was compared with that of the original prescribers.

Results

There were 15 695 admissions. The AUC of the receiver operating characteristic curve for the point-scoring tools ranged from 0.61 to 0.67, and performed no better than medical staff in the selection of appropriate antibiotics. The machine-learning system performed statistically but marginally better (AUC 0.70) and could have reduced the use of unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotics by as much as 40% among those given co-amoxiclav, piperacillin/tazobactam or carbapenems. A validation study is required.

Conclusions

Machine-learning algorithms have the potential to help clinicians predict antimicrobial resistance in patients found to have a Gram-negative infection of blood or urine. Prospective studies are required to assess performance in an unselected patient cohort, understand the acceptability of such systems to clinicians and patients, and assess the impact on patient outcome.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443728; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222 +33222494,https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605,Cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.,"Linschoten M, Peters S, van Smeden M, Jewbali LS, Schaap J, Siebelink HM, Smits PC, Tieleman RG, van der Harst P, van Gilst WH, Asselbergs FW, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.",,European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care,2020,2020-11-21,Y,Pulmonary embolism; Cohorts; Cardiac Complications; Patient Registry; Covid-19/coronavirus,,,"

Aims

To determine the frequency and pattern of cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Methods and results

CAPACITY-COVID is an international patient registry established to determine the role of cardiovascular disease in the COVID-19 pandemic. In this registry, data generated during routine clinical practice are collected in a standardised manner for patients with a (highly suspected) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection requiring hospitalisation. For the current analysis, consecutive patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 registered between 28 March and 3 July 2020 were included. Patients were followed for the occurrence of cardiac complications and pulmonary embolism from admission to discharge. In total, 3011 patients were included, of which 1890 (62.8%) were men. The median age was 67 years (interquartile range 56-76); 937 (31.0%) patients had a history of cardiac disease, with pre-existent coronary artery disease being most common (n=463, 15.4%). During hospitalisation, 595 (19.8%) patients died, including 16 patients (2.7%) with cardiac causes. Cardiac complications were diagnosed in 349 (11.6%) patients, with atrial fibrillation (n=142, 4.7%) being most common. The incidence of other cardiac complications was 1.8% for heart failure (n=55), 0.5% for acute coronary syndrome (n=15), 0.5% for ventricular arrhythmia (n=14), 0.1% for bacterial endocarditis (n=4) and myocarditis (n=3), respectively, and 0.03% for pericarditis (n=1). Pulmonary embolism was diagnosed in 198 (6.6%) patients.

Conclusion

This large study among 3011 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 shows that the incidence of cardiac complications during hospital admission is low, despite a frequent history of cardiovascular disease. Long-term cardiac outcomes and the role of pre-existing cardiovascular disease in COVID-19 outcome warrants further investigation.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjacc/article-pdf/9/8/817/49790126/ehjacc0817.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244?pdf=render 32285648,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12689,Predicting sustained ventricular arrhythmias in dilated cardiomyopathy: a meta-analysis and systematic review.,"Sammani A, Kayvanpour E, Bosman LP, Sedaghat-Hamedani F, Proctor T, Gi WT, Broezel A, Jensen K, Katus HA, Te Riele ASJM, Meder B, Asselbergs FW.",,ESC heart failure,2020,2020-04-14,Y,Prognosis; Dilated cardiomyopathy; risk; Sudden Cardiac Death; Implantable Cardiac-defibrillator,,,"

Aims

Patients with non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are at increased risk of sudden cardiac death. Identification of patients that may benefit from implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation remains challenging. In this study, we aimed to determine predictors of sustained ventricular arrhythmias in patients with DCM.

Methods and results

We searched MEDLINE/Embase for studies describing predictors of sustained ventricular arrhythmias in patients with DCM. Quality and bias were assessed using the Quality in Prognostic Studies tool, articles with high risk of bias in ≥2 areas were excluded. Unadjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of uniformly defined predictors were pooled, while all other predictors were evaluated in a systematic review. We included 55 studies (11 451 patients and 3.7 ± 2.3 years follow-up). Crude annual event rate was 4.5%. Younger age [HR 0.82; 95% CI (0.74-1.00)], hypertension [HR 1.95; 95% CI (1.26-3.00)], prior sustained ventricular arrhythmia [HR 4.15; 95% CI (1.32-13.02)], left ventricular ejection fraction on ultrasound [HR 1.45; 95% CI (1.19-1.78)], left ventricular dilatation (HR 1.10), and presence of late gadolinium enhancement [HR 5.55; 95% CI (4.02-7.67)] were associated with arrhythmic outcome in pooled analyses. Prior non-sustained ventricular arrhythmia and several genotypes [mutations in Phospholamban (PLN), Lamin A/C (LMNA), and Filamin-C (FLNC)] were associated with arrhythmic outcome in non-pooled analyses. Quality of evidence was moderate, and heterogeneity among studies was moderate to high.

Conclusions

In patients with DCM, the annual event rate of sustained ventricular arrhythmias is approximately 4.5%. This risk is considerably higher in younger patients with hypertension, prior (non-)sustained ventricular arrhythmia, decreased left ventricular ejection fraction, left ventricular dilatation, late gadolinium enhancement, and genetic mutations (PLN, LMNA, and FLNC). These results may help determine appropriate candidates for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.12689; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373946; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373946?pdf=render +36401199,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6,Patient characteristics associated with retrospectively self-reported treatment outcomes following psychological therapy for anxiety or depressive disorders - a cohort of GLAD study participants.,"Rayner C, Coleman JRI, Skelton M, Armour C, Bradley J, Buckman JEJ, Davies MR, Hirsch CR, Hotopf M, Hübel C, Jones IR, Kalsi G, Kingston N, Krebs G, Lin Y, Monssen D, McIntosh AM, Mundy JR, Peel AJ, Rimes KA, Rogers HC, Smith DJ, Ter Kuile AR, Thompson KN, Veale D, Wingrove J, Walters JTR, Breen G, Eley TC.",,BMC psychiatry,2022,2022-11-18,Y,Counselling; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Minimal Phenotyping,,,"

Background

Progress towards stratified care for anxiety and depression will require the identification of new predictors. We collected data on retrospectively self-reported therapeutic outcomes in adults who received psychological therapy in the UK in the past ten years. We aimed to replicate factors associated with traditional treatment outcome measures from the literature.

Methods

Participants were from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study, a UK-based volunteer cohort study. We investigated associations between retrospectively self-reported outcomes following therapy, on a five-point scale (global rating of change; GRC) and a range of sociodemographic, clinical and therapy-related factors, using ordinal logistic regression models (n = 2890).

Results

Four factors were associated with therapy outcomes (adjusted odds ratios, OR). One sociodemographic factor, having university-level education, was associated with favourable outcomes (OR = 1.37, 95%CI: 1.18, 1.59). Two clinical factors, greater number of reported episodes of illness (OR = 0.95, 95%CI: 0.92, 0.97) and higher levels of personality disorder symptoms (OR = 0.89, 95%CI: 0.87, 0.91), were associated with less favourable outcomes. Finally, reported regular use of additional therapeutic activities was associated with favourable outcomes (OR = 1.39, 95%CI: 1.19, 1.63). There were no statistically significant differences between fully adjusted multivariable and unadjusted univariable odds ratios.

Conclusion

Therapy outcome data can be collected quickly and inexpensively using retrospectively self-reported measures in large observational cohorts. Retrospectively self-reported therapy outcomes were associated with four factors previously reported in the literature. Similar data collected in larger observational cohorts may enable detection of novel associations with therapy outcomes, to generate new hypotheses, which can be followed up in prospective studies.",,pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224?pdf=render 31912232,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-019-02170-7,Adherence to the Dutch dietary guidelines and 15-year incidence of heart failure in the EPIC-NL cohort.,"Harbers MC, de Kroon AM, Boer JMA, Asselbergs FW, Geleijnse JM, Verschuren WMM, van der Schouw YT, Sluijs I.",,European journal of nutrition,2020,2020-01-07,N,Heart Failure; Dietary Patterns; Dutch Healthy Diet 2015 Index; Dutch Dietary Guidelines,,,"

Purpose

A healthy diet may contribute to the primary prevention of heart failure (HF), but evidence is still inconclusive. We aimed to study the association between adherence to the Dutch dietary guidelines and incidence of HF.

Methods

We studied 37,468 participants aged 20-70 years and free of HF at baseline from the EPIC-NL cohort. At baseline (1993-1997), data were collected on demographics, lifestyle, and presence of chronic diseases. Dietary intake was assessed using a 178-item validated food frequency questionnaire. Dietary intake data were used to calculate scores on the Dutch Healthy Diet 2015 Index (DHD15-index) measuring adherence to the Dutch dietary guidelines. The DHD15-index is based on the average daily intake of 14 food groups resulting in a total score ranging between 0 and 140, with higher scores indicating better adherence. HF morbidity and mortality during follow-up were ascertained through linkage with national registries. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for the association between DHD15 adherence and HF risk, adjusting for sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics.

Results

The average score on the DHD15-index was 71 (SD = 15). During a median follow-up of 15.2 years (IQR 14.1-16.5), 674 HF events occurred. After adjustment for demographic and lifestyle characteristics, higher scores on the DHD15-index were associated with lower risk of HF (HRQ4vsQ1 0.73; 95% CI 0.58-0.93; Ptrend 0.001).

Conclusion

In a large Dutch population of middle-aged adults, higher adherence to the Dutch dietary guidelines was associated with lower risk of HF.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10104999/1/Harbers%20et%20al.%202019%20Adh%20do%20Dutch%20dietary%20guidelines%20and%20HF.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-019-02170-7 -33222494,https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605,Cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.,"Linschoten M, Peters S, van Smeden M, Jewbali LS, Schaap J, Siebelink HM, Smits PC, Tieleman RG, van der Harst P, van Gilst WH, Asselbergs FW, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.",,European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care,2020,2020-11-21,Y,Pulmonary embolism; Cohorts; Cardiac Complications; Patient Registry; Covid-19/coronavirus,,,"

Aims

To determine the frequency and pattern of cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Methods and results

CAPACITY-COVID is an international patient registry established to determine the role of cardiovascular disease in the COVID-19 pandemic. In this registry, data generated during routine clinical practice are collected in a standardised manner for patients with a (highly suspected) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection requiring hospitalisation. For the current analysis, consecutive patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 registered between 28 March and 3 July 2020 were included. Patients were followed for the occurrence of cardiac complications and pulmonary embolism from admission to discharge. In total, 3011 patients were included, of which 1890 (62.8%) were men. The median age was 67 years (interquartile range 56-76); 937 (31.0%) patients had a history of cardiac disease, with pre-existent coronary artery disease being most common (n=463, 15.4%). During hospitalisation, 595 (19.8%) patients died, including 16 patients (2.7%) with cardiac causes. Cardiac complications were diagnosed in 349 (11.6%) patients, with atrial fibrillation (n=142, 4.7%) being most common. The incidence of other cardiac complications was 1.8% for heart failure (n=55), 0.5% for acute coronary syndrome (n=15), 0.5% for ventricular arrhythmia (n=14), 0.1% for bacterial endocarditis (n=4) and myocarditis (n=3), respectively, and 0.03% for pericarditis (n=1). Pulmonary embolism was diagnosed in 198 (6.6%) patients.

Conclusion

This large study among 3011 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 shows that the incidence of cardiac complications during hospital admission is low, despite a frequent history of cardiovascular disease. Long-term cardiac outcomes and the role of pre-existing cardiovascular disease in COVID-19 outcome warrants further investigation.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjacc/article-pdf/9/8/817/49790126/ehjacc0817.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244?pdf=render +34708157,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3,Estimating the duration of seropositivity of human seasonal coronaviruses using seroprevalence studies.,"Rees EM, Waterlow NR, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Lowe R, Kucharski AJ.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-12-21,Y,Catalytic model; Seroprevalence; Waning Immunity; Seasonal Coronavirus,,,"Background: The duration of immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still uncertain, but it is of key clinical and epidemiological importance. Seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoV) have been circulating for longer and, therefore, may offer insights into the long-term dynamics of reinfection for such viruses. Methods: Combining historical seroprevalence data from five studies covering the four circulating HCoVs with an age-structured reverse catalytic model, we estimated the likely duration of seropositivity following seroconversion. Results: We estimated that antibody persistence lasted between 0.9 (95% Credible interval: 0.6 - 1.6) and 3.8 (95% CrI: 2.0 - 7.4) years. Furthermore, we found the force of infection in older children and adults (those over 8.5 [95% CrI: 7.5 - 9.9] years) to be higher compared with young children in the majority of studies. Conclusions: These estimates of endemic HCoV dynamics could provide an indication of the future long-term infection and reinfection patterns of SARS-CoV-2.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721?pdf=render 33437953,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100658,"Education, biological ageing, all-cause and cause-specific mortality and morbidity: UK biobank cohort study.","Chadeau-Hyam M, Bodinier B, Vermeulen R, Karimi M, Zuber V, Castagné R, Elliott J, Muller D, Petrovic D, Whitaker M, Stringhini S, Tzoulaki I, Kivimäki M, Vineis P, Elliott P, Kelly-Irving M, Delpierre C.",,EClinicalMedicine,2020,2020-11-19,Y,Biomarkers; Prospective Cohort; Uk Biobank; Mendelian Randomisation; Biological Ageing; Social Embedding; Allostatic Load Mortality; Incidentpathologies,,,"

Background

Socioeconomic position as measured by education may be embodied and affect the functioning of key physiological systems. Links between social disadvantage, its biological imprint, and cause-specific mortality and morbidity have not been investigated in large populations, and yet may point towards areas for public health interventions beyond targeting individual behaviours.

Methods

Using data from 366,748 UK Biobank participants with 13 biomarker measurements, we calculated a Biological Health Score (BHS, ranging from 0 to 1) capturing the level of functioning of five physiological systems. Associations between BHS and incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer, and mortality from all, CVD, cancer, and external causes were examined. We explored the role of education in these associations. Mendelian randomisation using genetic evidence was used to triangulate these findings.

Findings

An increase in BHS of 0.1 was associated with all-cause (HR = 1.14 [1.12-1.16] and 1.09 [1.07-1.12] in men and women respectively), cancer (HR = 1.11 [1.09-1.14] and 1.07 [1.04-1.10]) and CVD (HR = 1.25 [1.20-1.31] and 1.21 [1.11-1.31]) mortality, CVD incidence (HR = 1.15 [1.13-1.16] and 1.17 [1.15-1.19]). These associations survived adjustment for education, lifestyle-behaviours, body mass index (BMI), co-morbidities and medical treatments. Mendelian randomisation further supported the link between the BHS and CVD incidence (HR = 1.31 [1.21-1.42]). The BHS contributed to CVD incidence prediction (age-adjusted C-statistic = 0.58), other than through education and health behaviours.

Interpretation

The BHS captures features of the embodiment of education, health behaviours, and more proximal unknown factors which all complementarily contribute to all-cause, cancer and CVD morbidity and premature death.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537020304028/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100658; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788440; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788440?pdf=render +34192199,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049,Staff-pupil SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways in schools in Wales: a population-level linked data approach.,"Thompson DA, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Marchant E, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Hollinghurst J, North L, Lyons J, Torabi F, Davies G, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.",,BMJ paediatrics open,2021,2021-05-10,Y,Disease transmission; Schools; Public Health; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Better understanding of the role that children and school staff play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to guide policy development on controlling infection while minimising disruption to children's education and well-being.

Methods

Our national e-cohort (n=464531) study used anonymised linked data for pupils, staff and associated households linked via educational settings in Wales. We estimated the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for staff and pupils over the period August- December 2020, dependent on measures of recent exposure to known cases linked to their educational settings.

Results

The total number of cases in a school was not associated with a subsequent increase in the odds of testing positive (staff OR per case: 0.92, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.00; pupil OR per case: 0.98, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.02). Among pupils, the number of recent cases within the same year group was significantly associated with subsequent increased odds of testing positive (OR per case: 1.12, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.15). These effects were adjusted for a range of demographic covariates, and in particular any known cases within the same household, which had the strongest association with testing positive (staff OR: 39.86, 95% CI 35.01 to 45.38; pupil OR: 9.39, 95% CI 8.94 to 9.88).

Conclusions

In a national school cohort, the odds of staff testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection were not significantly increased in the 14-day period after case detection in the school. However, pupils were found to be at increased odds, following cases appearing within their own year group, where most of their contacts occur. Strong mitigation measures over the whole of the study period may have reduced wider spread within the school environment.",,pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/5/1/e001049.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870?pdf=render 34310590,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009098,Projecting contact matrices in 177 geographical regions: An update and comparison with empirical data for the COVID-19 era.,"Prem K, Zandvoort KV, Klepac P, Eggo RM, Davies NG, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Cook AR, Jit M.",,PLoS computational biology,2021,2021-07-26,Y,,,,"Mathematical models have played a key role in understanding the spread of directly-transmissible infectious diseases such as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), as well as the effectiveness of public health responses. As the risk of contracting directly-transmitted infections depends on who interacts with whom, mathematical models often use contact matrices to characterise the spread of infectious pathogens. These contact matrices are usually generated from diary-based contact surveys. However, the majority of places in the world do not have representative empirical contact studies, so synthetic contact matrices have been constructed using more widely available setting-specific survey data on household, school, classroom, and workplace composition combined with empirical data on contact patterns in Europe. In 2017, the largest set of synthetic contact matrices to date were published for 152 geographical locations. In this study, we update these matrices with the most recent data and extend our analysis to 177 geographical locations. Due to the observed geographic differences within countries, we also quantify contact patterns in rural and urban settings where data is available. Further, we compare both the 2017 and 2020 synthetic matrices to out-of-sample empirically-constructed contact matrices, and explore the effects of using both the empirical and synthetic contact matrices when modelling physical distancing interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the synthetic contact matrices show qualitative similarities to the contact patterns in the empirically-constructed contact matrices. Models parameterised with the empirical and synthetic matrices generated similar findings with few differences observed in age groups where the empirical matrices have missing or aggregated age groups. This finding means that synthetic contact matrices may be used in modelling outbreaks in settings for which empirical studies have yet to be conducted.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009098&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009098; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8354454; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8354454?pdf=render +36539756,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6,ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA): a multi-centre prospective cohort study protocol.,"Denyer H, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Folarin A, Ramos C, Nemeth P, Bilbow A, Woodward E, Whitwell S, Müller-Sedgwick U, Larsson H, Dobson RJ, Kuntsi J.",,BMC psychiatry,2022,2022-12-20,Y,ADHD; Cardiovascular disease; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Medication Adherence; Remote Monitoring; Mhealth; Digital Phenotyping; Remote Measurement Technology,,,"

Background

Emerging evidence points at substantial comorbidity between adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cardiometabolic diseases, but our understanding of the comorbidity and how to manage cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD is limited. The ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA) project uses remote measurement technology to obtain real-world data from daily life to assess the extent to which ADHD medication treatment and physical activity, individually and jointly, may influence cardiometabolic risks in adults with ADHD. Our second main aim is to obtain valuable real-world data on adherence to pharmacological treatment and its predictors and correlates during daily life from adults with ADHD.

Methods

ART-CARMA is a multi-site prospective cohort study within the EU-funded collaboration 'TIMESPAN' (Management of chronic cardiometabolic disease and treatment discontinuity in adult ADHD patients) that will recruit 300 adults from adult ADHD waiting lists. The participants will be monitored remotely over a period of 12 months that starts from pre-treatment initiation. Passive monitoring, which involves the participants wearing a wrist-worn device (EmbracePlus) and downloading the RADAR-base Passive App and the Empatica Care App on their smartphone, provides ongoing data collection on a wide range of variables, such as physical activity, sleep, pulse rate (PR) and pulse rate variability (PRV), systolic peaks, electrodermal activity (EDA), oxygen saturation (SpO2), peripheral temperature, smartphone usage including social connectivity, and the environment (e.g. ambient noise, light levels, relative location). By combining data across these variables measured, processes such as physical activity, sleep, autonomic arousal, and indicators of cardiovascular health can be captured. Active remote monitoring involves the participant completing tasks using a smartphone app (such as completing clinical questionnaires or speech tasks), measuring their blood pressure and weight, or using a PC/laptop (cognitive tasks). The ART system is built on the RADAR-base mobile-health platform.

Discussion

The long-term goal is to use these data to improve the management of cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD, and to improve ADHD medication treatment adherence and the personalisation of treatment.",,pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531?pdf=render 31233103,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btz469,PhenoScanner V2: an expanded tool for searching human genotype-phenotype associations.,"Kamat MA, Blackshaw JA, Young R, Surendran P, Burgess S, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Staley JR.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2019,2019-11-01,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"

Summary

PhenoScanner is a curated database of publicly available results from large-scale genetic association studies in humans. This online tool facilitates 'phenome scans', where genetic variants are cross-referenced for association with many phenotypes of different types. Here we present a major update of PhenoScanner ('PhenoScanner V2'), including over 150 million genetic variants and more than 65 billion associations (compared to 350 million associations in PhenoScanner V1) with diseases and traits, gene expression, metabolite and protein levels, and epigenetic markers. The query options have been extended to include searches by genes, genomic regions and phenotypes, as well as for genetic variants. All variants are positionally annotated using the Variant Effect Predictor and the phenotypes are mapped to Experimental Factor Ontology terms. Linkage disequilibrium statistics from the 1000 Genomes project can be used to search for phenotype associations with proxy variants.

Availability and implementation

PhenoScanner V2 is available at www.phenoscanner.medschl.cam.ac.uk.",Kamat et al. developed an improved version of phenoscanner which is a publicly available large-scale genetic dataset for evaluation of genetic associations.,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/35/22/4851/30706861/btz469.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btz469; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6853652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6853652?pdf=render 35710247,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060280,Structured follow-up pathway to support people after transient ischaemic attack and minor stroke (SUPPORT TIA): protocol for a feasibility study and process evaluation.,"Turner GM, Jones R, Collis P, Patel S, Jowett S, Tearne S, Foy R, Atkins L, Mant J, Calvert M.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-06-16,Y,Qualitative Research; Rehabilitation Medicine; Stroke Medicine; Protocols & Guidelines; Organisation Of Health Services; Depression & Mood Disorders,,,"

Introduction

People who experience transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke have limited follow-up despite rapid specialist review in hospital. This means they often have unmet needs and feel abandoned following discharge. Care needs after TIA/minor stroke include information provision (diagnosis and stroke risk), stroke prevention (medication and lifestyle change) and holistic care (residual problems and return to work or usual activities). This protocol describes a feasibility study and process evaluation of an intervention to support people after TIA/minor stroke. The study aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of (1) the intervention and (2) the trial procedures for a future randomised controlled trial of this intervention.

Methods and analysis

This is a multicentre, randomised (1:1) feasibility study with a mixed-methods process evaluation. Sixty participants will be recruited from TIA clinics or stroke wards at three hospital sites (England). Intervention arm participants will be offered a nurse or allied health professional-led follow-up appointment 4 weeks after TIA/minor stroke. The multifaceted intervention includes: a needs checklist, action plan, resources to support management of needs, a general practitioner letter and training to deliver the intervention. Control arm participants will receive usual care. Follow-up will be self-completed questionnaires (12 weeks and 24 weeks) and a clinic appointment (24 weeks). Follow-up questionnaires will measure anxiety, depression, fatigue, health related quality of life, self-efficacy and medication adherence. The clinic appointment will collect body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol and medication. Assessment of feasibility and acceptability will include quantitative process variables (such as recruitment and questionnaire response rates), structured observations of study processes, and interviews with a subsample of participants and clinical staff.

Ethics and dissemination

Favourable ethical opinion was gained from the Wales Research Ethics Committee (REC) 1 (23 February 2021, REC reference: 21/WA/0036). Study results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences. A lay summary and dissemination strategy will be codesigned with consumers. The lay summary and journal publication will be distributed on social media.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN39864003.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/6/e060280.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060280; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9207897; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9207897?pdf=render -36539756,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6,ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA): a multi-centre prospective cohort study protocol.,"Denyer H, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Folarin A, Ramos C, Nemeth P, Bilbow A, Woodward E, Whitwell S, Müller-Sedgwick U, Larsson H, Dobson RJ, Kuntsi J.",,BMC psychiatry,2022,2022-12-20,Y,ADHD; Cardiovascular disease; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Medication Adherence; Remote Monitoring; Mhealth; Digital Phenotyping; Remote Measurement Technology,,,"

Background

Emerging evidence points at substantial comorbidity between adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cardiometabolic diseases, but our understanding of the comorbidity and how to manage cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD is limited. The ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA) project uses remote measurement technology to obtain real-world data from daily life to assess the extent to which ADHD medication treatment and physical activity, individually and jointly, may influence cardiometabolic risks in adults with ADHD. Our second main aim is to obtain valuable real-world data on adherence to pharmacological treatment and its predictors and correlates during daily life from adults with ADHD.

Methods

ART-CARMA is a multi-site prospective cohort study within the EU-funded collaboration 'TIMESPAN' (Management of chronic cardiometabolic disease and treatment discontinuity in adult ADHD patients) that will recruit 300 adults from adult ADHD waiting lists. The participants will be monitored remotely over a period of 12 months that starts from pre-treatment initiation. Passive monitoring, which involves the participants wearing a wrist-worn device (EmbracePlus) and downloading the RADAR-base Passive App and the Empatica Care App on their smartphone, provides ongoing data collection on a wide range of variables, such as physical activity, sleep, pulse rate (PR) and pulse rate variability (PRV), systolic peaks, electrodermal activity (EDA), oxygen saturation (SpO2), peripheral temperature, smartphone usage including social connectivity, and the environment (e.g. ambient noise, light levels, relative location). By combining data across these variables measured, processes such as physical activity, sleep, autonomic arousal, and indicators of cardiovascular health can be captured. Active remote monitoring involves the participant completing tasks using a smartphone app (such as completing clinical questionnaires or speech tasks), measuring their blood pressure and weight, or using a PC/laptop (cognitive tasks). The ART system is built on the RADAR-base mobile-health platform.

Discussion

The long-term goal is to use these data to improve the management of cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD, and to improve ADHD medication treatment adherence and the personalisation of treatment.",,pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531?pdf=render 33905882,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102050,Phenotype discovery from population brain imaging.,"Gong W, Beckmann CF, Smith SM.",,Medical image analysis,2021,2021-03-31,Y,Neuroimaging; Uk Biobank; Behaviour Prediction; Phenotype Discovery; Multimodal Independent Component Analysis,,,"Neuroimaging allows for the non-invasive study of the brain in rich detail. Data-driven discovery of patterns of population variability in the brain has the potential to be extremely valuable for early disease diagnosis and understanding the brain. The resulting patterns can be used as imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs), and may complement existing expert-curated IDPs. However, population datasets, comprising many different structural and functional imaging modalities from thousands of subjects, provide a computational challenge not previously addressed. Here, for the first time, a multimodal independent component analysis approach is presented that is scalable for data fusion of voxel-level neuroimaging data in the full UK Biobank (UKB) dataset, that will soon reach 100,000 imaged subjects. This new computational approach can estimate modes of population variability that enhance the ability to predict thousands of phenotypic and behavioural variables using data from UKB and the Human Connectome Project. A high-dimensional decomposition achieved improved predictive power compared with widely-used analysis strategies, single-modality decompositions and existing IDPs. In UKB data (14,503 subjects with 47 different data modalities), many interpretable associations with non-imaging phenotypes were identified, including multimodal spatial maps related to fluid intelligence, handedness and disease, in some cases where IDP-based approaches failed.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102050; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850869; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850869?pdf=render +36696816,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441,Causal effects of maternal circulating amino acids on offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomisation study.,"Zhao J, Stewart ID, Baird D, Mason D, Wright J, Zheng J, Gaunt TR, Evans DM, Freathy RM, Langenberg C, Warrington NM, Lawlor DA, Borges MC, MR-PREG Consortium.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2023-01-23,Y,Amino acids; Gwas; Birthweight; Causal Effect; Mendelian Randomisation,,,"

Background

Amino acids are key to protein synthesis, energy metabolism, cell signaling and gene expression; however, the contribution of specific maternal amino acids to fetal growth is unclear.

Methods

We explored the effect of maternal circulating amino acids on fetal growth, proxied by birthweight, using two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) and summary data from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of serum amino acids levels (sample 1, n = 86,507) and a maternal GWAS of offspring birthweight in UK Biobank and Early Growth Genetics Consortium, adjusting for fetal genotype effects (sample 2, n = 406,063 with maternal and/or fetal genotype effect estimates). A total of 106 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms robustly associated with 19 amino acids (p < 4.9 × 10-10) were used as genetic instrumental variables (IV). Wald ratio and inverse variance weighted methods were used in MR main analysis. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed to explore IV assumption violations.

Findings

Our results provide evidence that maternal circulating glutamine (59 g offspring birthweight increase per standard deviation increase in maternal amino acid level, 95% CI: 7, 110) and serine (27 g, 95% CI: 9, 46) raise, while leucine (-59 g, 95% CI: -106, -11) and phenylalanine (-25 g, 95% CI: -47, -4) lower offspring birthweight. These findings are supported by sensitivity analyses.

Interpretation

Our findings strengthen evidence for key roles of maternal circulating amino acids during pregnancy in healthy fetal growth.

Funding

A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found under Acknowledgments.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767?pdf=render 36719157,https://doi.org/10.2215/cjn.05080422,Fibroblast Growth Factor-23 and Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study.,"Donovan K, Herrington WG, Paré G, Pigeyre M, Haynes R, Sardell R, Butterworth AS, Folkersen L, Gustafsson S, Wang Q, Baigent C, Mälarstig A, Holmes MV, Staplin N, on behalf of the SCALLOP Consortium .",,Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN,2023,2023-01-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23) is associated with a range of cardiovascular and noncardiovascular diseases in conventional epidemiological studies, but substantial residual confounding may exist. Mendelian randomization approaches can help control for such confounding.

Methods

SCALLOP Consortium data of 19,195 participants were used to generate an FGF-23 genetic score. Data from 337,448 UK Biobank participants were used to estimate associations between higher genetically predicted FGF-23 concentration and the odds of any atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (n=26,266 events), nonatherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (n=12,652), and noncardiovascular diseases previously linked to FGF-23. Measurements of carotid intima-media thickness and left ventricular mass were available in a subset. Associations with cardiovascular outcomes were also tested in three large case-control consortia: CARDIOGRAMplusC4D (coronary artery disease, n=181,249 cases), MEGASTROKE (stroke, n=34,217), and HERMES (heart failure, n=47,309).

Results

We identified 34 independent variants for circulating FGF-23, which formed a validated genetic score. There were no associations between genetically predicted FGF-23 and any of the cardiovascular or noncardiovascular outcomes. In UK Biobank, the odds ratio (OR) for any atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease per 1-SD higher genetically predicted logFGF-23 was 1.03 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.98 to 1.08), and for any nonatherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, it was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.94 to 1.09). The ORs in the case-control consortia were 1.00 (95% CI, 0.97 to 1.03) for coronary artery disease, 1.01 (95% CI, 0.95 to 1.07) for stroke, and 1.00 (95% CI, 0.95 to 1.05) for heart failure. In those with imaging, logFGF-23 was not associated with carotid or cardiac abnormalities.

Conclusions

Genetically predicted FGF-23 levels are not associated with atherosclerotic and nonatherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases, suggesting no important causal link.

Podcast

This article contains a podcast at https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/CJASN/2023_01_10_CJN05080422.mp3.",,pdf:http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1745425/FULLTEXT01; doi:https://doi.org/10.2215/CJN.05080422; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614195?pdf=render 37221222,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-023-00307-w,SLCO1B1*5 is protective against non-senile cataracts in cohort prescribed statins: analysis in a British-South Asian cohort.,"Magavern EF, van Heel DA, Genes & Health Research Team, Smedley D, Caulfield MJ.",,The pharmacogenomics journal,2023,2023-05-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Reported association between statin use and cataract risk is controversial. The SLCO1B1 gene encodes a transport protein responsible for statin clearance. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible association between the SLCO1B1*5 reduced function variant and cataract risk in statin users of South Asian ethnicity.

Methods

The Genes & Health cohort consists of British-Bangladeshi and British-Pakistani participants from East London, Manchester and Bradford, UK. SLCO1B1*5 genotype was assessed with the Illumina GSAMD-24v3-0-EA chip. Medication data from primary care health record linkage was used to compare those who had regularly used statins compared to those who had not. Multivariable logistic regression was used to test for association between statin use and cataracts, adjusting for population characteristics and potential confounders in 36,513 participants. Multivariable logistic regression was used to test association between SLCO1B1*5 heterozygotes or homozygotes and cataracts, in subgroups having been regularly prescribed statins versus not.

Results

Statins were prescribed to 35% (12,704) of participants (average age 41 years old, 45% male). Non-senile cataract was diagnosed in 5% (1686) of participants. An apparent association between statins and non-senile cataract (12% in statin users and 0.8% in non-statin users) was negated by inclusion of confounders. In those prescribed a statin, presence of the SLCO1B1*5 genotype was independently associated with a decreased risk of non-senile cataract (OR 0.7 (CI 0.5-0.9, p 0.007)).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that there is no independent association between statin use and non-senile cataract risk after adjusting for confounders. Among statin users, the SLCO1B1*5 genotype is associated with a 30% risk reduction of non-senile cataracts. Stratification of on-drug cohorts by validated pharmacogenomic variants is a useful tool to support or repudiate adverse drug events in observational cohorts.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41397-023-00307-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-023-00307-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506906; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506906?pdf=render -36696816,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441,Causal effects of maternal circulating amino acids on offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomisation study.,"Zhao J, Stewart ID, Baird D, Mason D, Wright J, Zheng J, Gaunt TR, Evans DM, Freathy RM, Langenberg C, Warrington NM, Lawlor DA, Borges MC, MR-PREG Consortium.",,EBioMedicine,2023,2023-01-23,Y,Amino acids; Gwas; Birthweight; Causal Effect; Mendelian Randomisation,,,"

Background

Amino acids are key to protein synthesis, energy metabolism, cell signaling and gene expression; however, the contribution of specific maternal amino acids to fetal growth is unclear.

Methods

We explored the effect of maternal circulating amino acids on fetal growth, proxied by birthweight, using two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) and summary data from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of serum amino acids levels (sample 1, n = 86,507) and a maternal GWAS of offspring birthweight in UK Biobank and Early Growth Genetics Consortium, adjusting for fetal genotype effects (sample 2, n = 406,063 with maternal and/or fetal genotype effect estimates). A total of 106 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms robustly associated with 19 amino acids (p < 4.9 × 10-10) were used as genetic instrumental variables (IV). Wald ratio and inverse variance weighted methods were used in MR main analysis. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed to explore IV assumption violations.

Findings

Our results provide evidence that maternal circulating glutamine (59 g offspring birthweight increase per standard deviation increase in maternal amino acid level, 95% CI: 7, 110) and serine (27 g, 95% CI: 9, 46) raise, while leucine (-59 g, 95% CI: -106, -11) and phenylalanine (-25 g, 95% CI: -47, -4) lower offspring birthweight. These findings are supported by sensitivity analyses.

Interpretation

Our findings strengthen evidence for key roles of maternal circulating amino acids during pregnancy in healthy fetal growth.

Funding

A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found under Acknowledgments.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767?pdf=render 34091032,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118235,Subspace-constrained approaches to low-rank fMRI acceleration.,"Mason HT, Graedel NN, Miller KL, Chiew M.",,NeuroImage,2021,2021-06-03,Y,fMRI; Tikhonov regularization; Acceleration; temporal resolution; Low Rank; Temporal Smoothing; K-t Faster; Low Resolution Priors,,,"Acceleration methods in fMRI aim to reconstruct high fidelity images from under-sampled k-space, allowing fMRI datasets to achieve higher temporal resolution, reduced physiological noise aliasing, and increased statistical degrees of freedom. While low levels of acceleration are typically part of standard fMRI protocols through parallel imaging, there exists the potential for approaches that allow much greater acceleration. One such existing approach is k-t FASTER, which exploits the inherent low-rank nature of fMRI. In this paper, we present a reformulated version of k-t FASTER which includes additional L2 constraints within a low-rank framework. We evaluated the effect of three different constraints against existing low-rank approaches to fMRI reconstruction: Tikhonov constraints, low-resolution priors, and temporal subspace smoothness. The different approaches are separately tested for robustness to under-sampling and thermal noise levels, in both retrospectively and prospectively-undersampled finger-tapping task fMRI data. Reconstruction quality is evaluated by accurate reconstruction of low-rank subspaces and activation maps. The use of L2 constraints was found to achieve consistently improved results, producing high fidelity reconstructions of statistical parameter maps at higher acceleration factors and lower SNR values than existing methods, but at a cost of longer computation time. In particular, the Tikhonov constraint proved very robust across all tested datasets, and the temporal subspace smoothness constraint provided the best reconstruction scores in the prospectively-undersampled dataset. These results demonstrate that regularized low-rank reconstruction of fMRI data can recover functional information at high acceleration factors without the use of any model-based spatial constraints.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118235; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118235; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611820; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611820?pdf=render -32413819,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050,Vitamin D concentrations and COVID-19 infection in UK Biobank.,"Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Ho F, Celis-Morales CA, Katikireddi SV, Niedzwiedz CL, Jani BD, Welsh P, Mair FS, Gray SR, O'Donnell CA, Gill JM, Sattar N, Pell JP.",,Diabetes & metabolic syndrome,2020,2020-05-07,N,Vitamin D; Ethnicity; Covid-19,,,"

Background and aims

COVID-19 and low levels of vitamin D appear to disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic individuals. We aimed to establish whether blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration was associated with COVID-19 risk, and whether it explained the higher incidence of COVID-19 in black and South Asian people.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including 25(OH)D concentration and ethnicity, were linked to COVID-19 test results. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and confirmed COVID-19, and the association between ethnicity and both 25(OH)D and COVID-19.

Results

Complete data were available for 348,598 UK Biobank participants. Of these, 449 had confirmed COVID-19 infection. Vitamin D was associated with COVID-19 infection univariably (OR = 0.99; 95% CI 0.99-0.999; p = 0.013), but not after adjustment for confounders (OR = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.998-1.01; p = 0.208). Ethnicity was associated with COVID-19 infection univariably (blacks versus whites OR = 5.32, 95% CI = 3.68-7.70, p-value<0.001; South Asians versus whites OR = 2.65, 95% CI = 1.65-4.25, p-value<0.001). Adjustment for 25(OH)D concentration made little difference to the magnitude of the association.

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between vitamin D concentrations and risk of COVID-19 infection, nor that vitamin D concentration may explain ethnic differences in COVID-19 infection.","This study aimed to investigate if low levels of vitamin D were associated with a higher likelihood of having COVID-19, which could be a cause of higher rates of COVID infection amoung black and South Asian people.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7204679; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050 35505938,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417,Multivariate profile and acute-phase correlates of cognitive deficits in a COVID-19 hospitalised cohort.,"Hampshire A, Chatfield DA, MPhil AM, Jolly A, Trender W, Hellyer PJ, Giovane MD, Newcombe VFJ, Outtrim JG, Warne B, Bhatti J, Pointon L, Elmer A, Sithole N, Bradley J, Kingston N, Sawcer SJ, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, and Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-04-28,Y,Memory; Cognition; Attention; Planning; Cognitive Assessment; Reasoning; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Preliminary evidence has highlighted a possible association between severe COVID-19 and persistent cognitive deficits. Further research is required to confirm this association, determine whether cognitive deficits relate to clinical features from the acute phase or to mental health status at the point of assessment, and quantify rate of recovery.

Methods

46 individuals who received critical care for COVID-19 at Addenbrooke's hospital between 10th March 2020 and 31st July 2020 (16 mechanically ventilated) underwent detailed computerised cognitive assessment alongside scales measuring anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder under supervised conditions at a mean follow up of 6.0 (± 2.1) months following acute illness. Patient and matched control (N = 460) performances were transformed into standard deviation from expected scores, accounting for age and demographic factors using N = 66,008 normative datasets. Global accuracy and response time composites were calculated (G_SScore & G_RT). Linear modelling predicted composite score deficits from acute severity, mental-health status at assessment, and time from hospital admission. The pattern of deficits across tasks was qualitatively compared with normal age-related decline, and early-stage dementia.

Findings

COVID-19 survivors were less accurate (G_SScore=-0.53SDs) and slower (G_RT=+0.89SDs) in their responses than expected compared to their matched controls. Acute illness, but not chronic mental health, significantly predicted cognitive deviation from expected scores (G_SScore (p=​​0.0037) and G_RT (p = 0.0366)). The most prominent task associations with COVID-19 were for higher cognition and processing speed, which was qualitatively distinct from the profiles of normal ageing and dementia and similar in magnitude to the effects of ageing between 50 and 70 years of age. A trend towards reduced deficits with time from illness (r∼=0.15) did not reach statistical significance.

Interpretation

Cognitive deficits after severe COVID-19 relate most strongly to acute illness severity, persist long into the chronic phase, and recover slowly if at all, with a characteristic profile highlighting higher cognitive functions and processing speed.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility (BRC-1215-20014), the Addenbrooke's Charities Trust and NIHR COVID-19 BioResource RG9402. AH is funded by the UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology Centre and Imperial College London Biomedical Research Centre. ETB and DKM are supported by NIHR Senior Investigator awards. JBR is supported by the Wellcome Trust (220258) and Medical Research Council (SUAG/051 G101400). VFJN is funded by an Academy of Medical Sciences/ The Health Foundation Clinician Scientist Fellowship. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S258953702200147X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584?pdf=render -35288697,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01750-1,COVID-19 and resilience of healthcare systems in ten countries.,"Arsenault C, Gage A, Kim MK, Kapoor NR, Akweongo P, Amponsah F, Aryal A, Asai D, Awoonor-Williams JK, Ayele W, Bedregal P, Doubova SV, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Gordon-Strachan G, Mariam DH, Hensman D, Joseph JP, Kaewkamjornchai P, Eshetu MK, Gelaw SK, Kubota S, Leerapan B, Margozzini P, Mebratie AD, Mehata S, Moshabela M, Mthethwa L, Nega A, Oh J, Park S, Passi-Solar Á, Pérez-Cuevas R, Phengsavanh A, Reddy T, Rittiphairoj T, Sapag JC, Thermidor R, Tlou B, Valenzuela Guiñez F, Bauhoff S, Kruk ME.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-03-14,Y,,,,"Declines in health service use during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could have important effects on population health. In this study, we used an interrupted time series design to assess the immediate effect of the pandemic on 31 health services in two low-income (Ethiopia and Haiti), six middle-income (Ghana, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Thailand) and high-income (Chile and South Korea) countries. Despite efforts to maintain health services, disruptions of varying magnitude and duration were found in every country, with no clear patterns by country income group or pandemic intensity. Disruptions in health services often preceded COVID-19 waves. Cancer screenings, TB screening and detection and HIV testing were most affected (26-96% declines). Total outpatient visits declined by 9-40% at national levels and remained lower than predicted by the end of 2020. Maternal health services were disrupted in approximately half of the countries, with declines ranging from 5% to 33%. Child vaccinations were disrupted for shorter periods, but we estimate that catch-up campaigns might not have reached all children missed. By contrast, provision of antiretrovirals for HIV was not affected. By the end of 2020, substantial disruptions remained in half of the countries. Preliminary data for 2021 indicate that disruptions likely persisted. Although a portion of the declines observed might result from decreased needs during lockdowns (from fewer infectious illnesses or injuries), a larger share likely reflects a shortfall of health system resilience. Countries must plan to compensate for missed healthcare during the current pandemic and invest in strategies for better health system resilience for future emergencies.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01750-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01750-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770?pdf=render +32413819,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050,Vitamin D concentrations and COVID-19 infection in UK Biobank.,"Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Ho F, Celis-Morales CA, Katikireddi SV, Niedzwiedz CL, Jani BD, Welsh P, Mair FS, Gray SR, O'Donnell CA, Gill JM, Sattar N, Pell JP.",,Diabetes & metabolic syndrome,2020,2020-05-07,N,Vitamin D; Ethnicity; Covid-19,,,"

Background and aims

COVID-19 and low levels of vitamin D appear to disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic individuals. We aimed to establish whether blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration was associated with COVID-19 risk, and whether it explained the higher incidence of COVID-19 in black and South Asian people.

Methods

UK Biobank recruited 502,624 participants aged 37-73 years between 2006 and 2010. Baseline exposure data, including 25(OH)D concentration and ethnicity, were linked to COVID-19 test results. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed for the association between 25(OH)D and confirmed COVID-19, and the association between ethnicity and both 25(OH)D and COVID-19.

Results

Complete data were available for 348,598 UK Biobank participants. Of these, 449 had confirmed COVID-19 infection. Vitamin D was associated with COVID-19 infection univariably (OR = 0.99; 95% CI 0.99-0.999; p = 0.013), but not after adjustment for confounders (OR = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.998-1.01; p = 0.208). Ethnicity was associated with COVID-19 infection univariably (blacks versus whites OR = 5.32, 95% CI = 3.68-7.70, p-value<0.001; South Asians versus whites OR = 2.65, 95% CI = 1.65-4.25, p-value<0.001). Adjustment for 25(OH)D concentration made little difference to the magnitude of the association.

Conclusions

Our findings do not support a potential link between vitamin D concentrations and risk of COVID-19 infection, nor that vitamin D concentration may explain ethnic differences in COVID-19 infection.","This study aimed to investigate if low levels of vitamin D were associated with a higher likelihood of having COVID-19, which could be a cause of higher rates of COVID infection amoung black and South Asian people.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7204679; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050 31780306,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(19)30298-6,Pharmacoepidemiology research: delivering evidence about drug safety and effectiveness in mental health.,"Davis KAS, Farooq S, Hayes JF, John A, Lee W, MacCabe JH, McIntosh A, Osborn DPJ, Stewart RJ, Woelbert E.",,The lancet. Psychiatry,2020,2019-11-25,N,,,,"Research that provides an evidence base for the pharmacotherapy of people with mental disorders is needed. The abundance of digital data has facilitated pharmacoepidemiology and, in particular, observational research on the effectiveness of real-world medication. Advantages of pharmacoepidemiological research are the availability of large patient samples, and coverage of under-researched subpopulations in their naturalistic conditions. Such research is also cheaper and quicker to do than randomised controlled trials, meaning that issues regarding generic medication, stopping medication (deprescribing), and long-term outcomes are more likely to be addressed. Pharmacoepidemiological methods can also be extended to pharmacovigilance and to aid the development of new purposes for existing drugs. Drawbacks of observational pharmacoepidemiological studies come from the non-randomised nature of treatment selection, leading to confounding by indication. Potential methods for managing this drawback include active comparison groups, within-individual designs, and propensity scoring. Many of the more rigorous pharmacoepidemiology studies have been strengthened through multiple analytical approaches triangulated to improve confidence in inferred causal relationships. With developments in data resources and analytical techniques, it is encouraging that guidelines are beginning to include evidence from robust observational pharmacoepidemiological studies alongside randomised controlled trials. Collaboration between guideline writers and researchers involved in pharmacoepidemiology could help researchers to answer the questions that are important to policy makers and ensure that results are integrated into the evidence base. Further development of statistical and data science techniques, alongside public engagement and capacity building (data resources and researcher base), will be necessary to take full advantage of future opportunities.",,html:https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/6650/1/Pharamcoepidemiology%20Lancet%20Psych%202019%20submitted%20version.docx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30298-6 +35288697,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01750-1,COVID-19 and resilience of healthcare systems in ten countries.,"Arsenault C, Gage A, Kim MK, Kapoor NR, Akweongo P, Amponsah F, Aryal A, Asai D, Awoonor-Williams JK, Ayele W, Bedregal P, Doubova SV, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Gordon-Strachan G, Mariam DH, Hensman D, Joseph JP, Kaewkamjornchai P, Eshetu MK, Gelaw SK, Kubota S, Leerapan B, Margozzini P, Mebratie AD, Mehata S, Moshabela M, Mthethwa L, Nega A, Oh J, Park S, Passi-Solar Á, Pérez-Cuevas R, Phengsavanh A, Reddy T, Rittiphairoj T, Sapag JC, Thermidor R, Tlou B, Valenzuela Guiñez F, Bauhoff S, Kruk ME.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-03-14,Y,,,,"Declines in health service use during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could have important effects on population health. In this study, we used an interrupted time series design to assess the immediate effect of the pandemic on 31 health services in two low-income (Ethiopia and Haiti), six middle-income (Ghana, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Thailand) and high-income (Chile and South Korea) countries. Despite efforts to maintain health services, disruptions of varying magnitude and duration were found in every country, with no clear patterns by country income group or pandemic intensity. Disruptions in health services often preceded COVID-19 waves. Cancer screenings, TB screening and detection and HIV testing were most affected (26-96% declines). Total outpatient visits declined by 9-40% at national levels and remained lower than predicted by the end of 2020. Maternal health services were disrupted in approximately half of the countries, with declines ranging from 5% to 33%. Child vaccinations were disrupted for shorter periods, but we estimate that catch-up campaigns might not have reached all children missed. By contrast, provision of antiretrovirals for HIV was not affected. By the end of 2020, substantial disruptions remained in half of the countries. Preliminary data for 2021 indicate that disruptions likely persisted. Although a portion of the declines observed might result from decreased needs during lockdowns (from fewer infectious illnesses or injuries), a larger share likely reflects a shortfall of health system resilience. Countries must plan to compensate for missed healthcare during the current pandemic and invest in strategies for better health system resilience for future emergencies.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01750-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01750-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770?pdf=render 33782396,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22213-0,Implications of the school-household network structure on SARS-CoV-2 transmission under school reopening strategies in England.,"Munday JD, Sherratt K, Meakin S, Endo A, Pearson CAB, Hellewell J, Abbott S, Bosse NI, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Atkins KE, Wallinga J, Edmunds WJ, van Hoek AJ, Funk S.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-03-29,Y,,,,"In early 2020 many countries closed schools to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Since then, governments have sought to relax the closures, engendering a need to understand associated risks. Using address records, we construct a network of schools in England connected through pupils who share households. We evaluate the risk of transmission between schools under different reopening scenarios. We show that whilst reopening select year-groups causes low risk of large-scale transmission, reopening secondary schools could result in outbreaks affecting up to 2.5 million households if unmitigated, highlighting the importance of careful monitoring and within-school infection control to avoid further school closures or other restrictions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22213-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22213-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007691; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007691?pdf=render 35416614,https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0,Opportunities and Risks of UK Medical Device Reform.,"Han JED, Ibrahim H, Aiyegbusi OL, Liu X, Marston E, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ.",,Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science,2022,2022-04-13,Y,Regulations; Medical devices; In Vitro Diagnostics; Ce Mark; Ukca,,,"

Objectives

To identify the potential opportunities and risks around future UK regulatory reform of medical devices.

Design

A mixed methods approach, comprising a rapid literature review, one-to-one, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, a multidisciplinary stakeholder workshop, and a post-workshop survey.

Setting

United Kingdom.

Participants

32 key stakeholders across the medical device sector were identified both from the public and private sectors.

Results

Opportunities relating to regulatory independence were identified, including the potential to create and implement a regulatory framework that ensures availability of medical devices; innovation and investment potential; and safety to the citizens of the UK. The most significant risks identified included threats to the safety of individual patients and the wider health system arising from the delay in awaiting regulatory approval due to the shortage of approved bodies; and reduced competitiveness of UK market and device manufacturers. Recommendations were identified to mitigate risks, centred on harnessing broader cross-sector collaborations, promoting patient and public partnership, and maximizing international engagement.

Conclusions

The UK's medical device sector is at a time-critical juncture to construct a regulatory framework to navigate its exit of Europe and respond to Europe's transition to new medical device regulations whilst also addressing the ongoing demand for rapid approval for new devices in response to the global pandemic. Investment, capacity-building, and international engagement will play a central role in mitigating risks and maximizing opportunities for medical device regulation.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047?pdf=render -33939619,https://doi.org/10.2196/29072,Predicting Risk of Hospital Admission in Patients With Suspected COVID-19 in a Community Setting: Protocol for Development and Validation of a Multivariate Risk Prediction Tool.,"Espinosa-Gonzalez AB, Neves AL, Fiorentino F, Prociuk D, Husain L, Ramtale SC, Mi E, Mi E, Macartney J, Anand SN, Sherlock J, Saravanakumar K, Mayer E, de Lusignan S, Greenhalgh T, Delaney BC.",,JMIR research protocols,2021,2021-05-25,Y,Primary Care; Hospital Admission; Electronic Health Records; Early Warning Score; Risk Prediction Tool; Covid-19 Severity,,,"

Background

During the pandemic, remote consultations have become the norm for assessing patients with signs and symptoms of COVID-19 to decrease the risk of transmission. This has intensified the clinical uncertainty already experienced by primary care clinicians when assessing patients with suspected COVID-19 and has prompted the use of risk prediction scores, such as the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), to assess severity and guide treatment. However, the risk prediction tools available have not been validated in a community setting and are not designed to capture the idiosyncrasies of COVID-19 infection.

Objective

The objective of this study is to produce a multivariate risk prediction tool, RECAP-V1 (Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care), to support primary care clinicians in the identification of those patients with COVID-19 that are at higher risk of deterioration and facilitate the early escalation of their treatment with the aim of improving patient outcomes.

Methods

The study follows a prospective cohort observational design, whereby patients presenting in primary care with signs and symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 will be followed and their data linked to hospital outcomes (hospital admission and death). Data collection will be carried out by primary care clinicians in four arms: North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (NWL CCGs), Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC), Covid Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS), and South East London CCGs (Doctaly platform). The study involves the use of an electronic template that incorporates a list of items (known as RECAP-V0) thought to be associated with disease outcome according to previous qualitative work. Data collected will be linked to patient outcomes in highly secure environments. We will then use multivariate logistic regression analyses for model development and validation.

Results

Recruitment of participants started in October 2020. Initially, only the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC arms were active. As of March 24, 2021, we have recruited a combined sample of 3827 participants in these two arms. CCAS and Doctaly joined the study in February 2021, with CCAS starting the recruitment process on March 15, 2021. The first part of the analysis (RECAP-V1 model development) is planned to start in April 2021 using the first half of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC combined data set. Posteriorly, the model will be validated with the rest of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC data as well as the CCAS and Doctaly data sets. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee on May 27, 2020 (Integrated Research Application System number: 283024, Research Ethics Committee reference number: 20/NW/0266) and badged as National Institute of Health Research Urgent Public Health Study on October 14, 2020.

Conclusions

We believe the validated RECAP-V1 early warning score will be a valuable tool for the assessment of severity in patients with suspected COVID-19 in the community, either in face-to-face or remote consultations, and will facilitate the timely escalation of treatment with the potential to improve patient outcomes.

Trial registration

ISRCTN registry ISRCTN13953727; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13953727.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

DERR1-10.2196/29072.",,pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i5e29072_app1.pdf&filename=e079f888f9036dd40808005eb7b49b6f.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/29072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8153031 35073907,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02218-8,Association between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and later risk of cardiovascular outcomes.,"Oliver-Williams C, Stevens D, Payne RA, Wilkinson IB, Smith GCS, Wood A.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-01-25,Y,Pregnancy; Cardiovascular disease; Pre-eclampsia; Women; Gestational Hypertension,,,"

Background

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are common pregnancy complications that are associated with greater cardiovascular disease risk for mothers. However, risk of cardiovascular disease subtypes associated with gestational hypertension or pre-eclampsia is unclear. The present study aims to compare the risk of cardiovascular disease outcomes for women with and without a history of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia using national hospital admissions data.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of national medical records from all National Health Service hospitals in England. Women who had one or more singleton live births in England between 1997 and 2015 were included in the analysis. Risk of total cardiovascular disease and 19 pre-specified cardiovascular disease subtypes, including stroke, coronary heart disease, cardiomyopathy and peripheral arterial disease, was calculated separately for women with a history of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia compared to normotensive pregnancies.

Results

Amongst 2,359,386 first live births, there were 85,277 and 74,542 hospital admissions with a diagnosis of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia, respectively. During 18 years (16,309,386 person-years) of follow-up, the number and incidence of total CVD for normotensive women, women with prior gestational hypertension and women with prior pre-eclampsia were n = 8668, 57.1 (95% CI: 55.9-58.3) per 100,000 person-years; n = 521, 85.8 (78.6-93.5) per 100,000 person-years; and n = 518, 99.3 (90.9-108.2) per 100,000 person-years, respectively. Adjusted HRs (aHR) for total CVD were aHR (95% CI) = 1.45 (1.33-1.59) for women with prior gestational hypertension and aHR = 1.62 (1.48-1.78) for women with prior pre-eclampsia. Gestational hypertension was strongly associated with dilated cardiomyopathy, aHR = 2.85 (1.67-4.86), and unstable angina, aHR = 1.92 (1.33-2.77). Pre-eclampsia was strongly associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, aHR = 3.27 (1.49-7.19), and acute myocardial infarction, aHR = 2.46 (1.72-3.53). Associations were broadly homogenous across cardiovascular disease subtypes and increased with a greater number of affected pregnancies.

Conclusions

Women with either previous gestational hypertension or pre-eclampsia are at greater risk of a range of cardiovascular outcomes. These women may benefit from clinical risk assessment or early interventions to mitigate their greater risk of various cardiovascular outcomes.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02218-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02218-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8787919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8787919?pdf=render -33299071,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5,Belief of having had unconfirmed Covid-19 infection reduces willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing.,"Bachtiger P, Adamson A, Quint JK, Peters NS.",,NPJ digital medicine,2020,2020-11-06,Y,,,,"Contact tracing and lockdown are health policies being used worldwide to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19). The UK National Health Service (NHS) Track and Trace Service has plans for a nationwide app that notifies the need for self-isolation to those in contact with a person testing positive for COVID-19. To be successful, such an app will require high uptake, the determinants and willingness for which are unclear but essential to understand for effective public health benefit. The objective of this study was to measure the determinants of willingness to participate in an NHS app-based contact-tracing programme using a questionnaire within the Care Information Exchange (CIE)-the largest patient-facing electronic health record in the NHS. Among 47,708 registered NHS users of the CIE, 27% completed a questionnaire asking about willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing, understanding of government advice, mental and physical wellbeing and their healthcare utilisation-related or not to COVID-19. Descriptive statistics are reported alongside univariate and multivariable logistic regression models, with positive or negative responses to a question on app-based contact tracing as the dependent variable. 26.1% of all CIE participants were included in the analysis (N = 12,434, 43.0% male, mean age 55.2). 60.3% of respondents were willing to participate in app-based contact tracing. Out of those who responded 'no', 67.2% stated that this was due to privacy concerns. In univariate analysis, worsening mood, fear and anxiety in relation to changes in government rules around lockdown were associated with lower willingness to participate. Multivariable analysis showed that difficulty understanding government rules was associated with a decreased inclination to download the app, with those scoring 1-2 and 3-4 in their understanding of the new government rules being 45% and 27% less inclined to download the contact-tracing app, respectively; when compared to those who rated their understanding as 5-6/10 (OR for 1-2/10 = 0.57 [CI 0.48-0.67]; OR for 3-4/10 = 0.744 [CI 0.64-0.87]), whereas scores of 7-8 and 9-10 showed a 43% and 31% respective increase. Those reporting an unconfirmed belief of having previously had and recovered from COVID-19 were 27% less likely to be willing to download the app; belief of previous recovery from COVID-19 infection OR 0.727 [0.585-0.908]). In this large UK-wide questionnaire of wellbeing in lockdown, a willingness for app-based contact tracing over an appropriate age range is 60%-close to the estimated 56% population uptake, and substantially less than the smartphone-user uptake considered necessary for an app-based contact tracing to be an effective intervention to help suppress an epidemic. Difficulty comprehending government advice and uncertainty of diagnosis, based on a public health policy of not testing to confirm self-reported COVID-19 infection during lockdown, therefore reduce willingness to adopt a government contact-tracing app to a level below the threshold for effectiveness as a tool to suppress an epidemic.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-00357-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058?pdf=render +33939619,https://doi.org/10.2196/29072,Predicting Risk of Hospital Admission in Patients With Suspected COVID-19 in a Community Setting: Protocol for Development and Validation of a Multivariate Risk Prediction Tool.,"Espinosa-Gonzalez AB, Neves AL, Fiorentino F, Prociuk D, Husain L, Ramtale SC, Mi E, Mi E, Macartney J, Anand SN, Sherlock J, Saravanakumar K, Mayer E, de Lusignan S, Greenhalgh T, Delaney BC.",,JMIR research protocols,2021,2021-05-25,Y,Primary Care; Hospital Admission; Electronic Health Records; Early Warning Score; Risk Prediction Tool; Covid-19 Severity,,,"

Background

During the pandemic, remote consultations have become the norm for assessing patients with signs and symptoms of COVID-19 to decrease the risk of transmission. This has intensified the clinical uncertainty already experienced by primary care clinicians when assessing patients with suspected COVID-19 and has prompted the use of risk prediction scores, such as the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), to assess severity and guide treatment. However, the risk prediction tools available have not been validated in a community setting and are not designed to capture the idiosyncrasies of COVID-19 infection.

Objective

The objective of this study is to produce a multivariate risk prediction tool, RECAP-V1 (Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care), to support primary care clinicians in the identification of those patients with COVID-19 that are at higher risk of deterioration and facilitate the early escalation of their treatment with the aim of improving patient outcomes.

Methods

The study follows a prospective cohort observational design, whereby patients presenting in primary care with signs and symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 will be followed and their data linked to hospital outcomes (hospital admission and death). Data collection will be carried out by primary care clinicians in four arms: North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (NWL CCGs), Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC), Covid Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS), and South East London CCGs (Doctaly platform). The study involves the use of an electronic template that incorporates a list of items (known as RECAP-V0) thought to be associated with disease outcome according to previous qualitative work. Data collected will be linked to patient outcomes in highly secure environments. We will then use multivariate logistic regression analyses for model development and validation.

Results

Recruitment of participants started in October 2020. Initially, only the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC arms were active. As of March 24, 2021, we have recruited a combined sample of 3827 participants in these two arms. CCAS and Doctaly joined the study in February 2021, with CCAS starting the recruitment process on March 15, 2021. The first part of the analysis (RECAP-V1 model development) is planned to start in April 2021 using the first half of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC combined data set. Posteriorly, the model will be validated with the rest of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC data as well as the CCAS and Doctaly data sets. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee on May 27, 2020 (Integrated Research Application System number: 283024, Research Ethics Committee reference number: 20/NW/0266) and badged as National Institute of Health Research Urgent Public Health Study on October 14, 2020.

Conclusions

We believe the validated RECAP-V1 early warning score will be a valuable tool for the assessment of severity in patients with suspected COVID-19 in the community, either in face-to-face or remote consultations, and will facilitate the timely escalation of treatment with the potential to improve patient outcomes.

Trial registration

ISRCTN registry ISRCTN13953727; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13953727.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

DERR1-10.2196/29072.",,pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i5e29072_app1.pdf&filename=e079f888f9036dd40808005eb7b49b6f.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/29072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8153031 34139154,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005,A time-resolved proteomic and prognostic map of COVID-19.,"Demichev V, Tober-Lau P, Lemke O, Nazarenko T, Thibeault C, Whitwell H, Röhl A, Freiwald A, Szyrwiel L, Ludwig D, Correia-Melo C, Aulakh SK, Helbig ET, Stubbemann P, Lippert LJ, Grüning NM, Blyuss O, Vernardis S, White M, Messner CB, Joannidis M, Sonnweber T, Klein SJ, Pizzini A, Wohlfarter Y, Sahanic S, Hilbe R, Schaefer B, Wagner S, Mittermaier M, Machleidt F, Garcia C, Ruwwe-Glösenkamp C, Lingscheid T, Bosquillon de Jarcy L, Stegemann MS, Pfeiffer M, Jürgens L, Denker S, Zickler D, Enghard P, Zelezniak A, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Uhrig A, Müller-Redetzky H, Zoller H, Löffler-Ragg J, Keller MA, Tancevski I, Timms JF, Zaikin A, Hippenstiel S, Ramharter M, Witzenrath M, Suttorp N, Lilley K, Mülleder M, Sander LE, PA-COVID-19 Study group, Ralser M, Kurth F.",,Cell systems,2021,2021-06-14,Y,Proteomics; Biomarkers; Physiological parameters; Machine Learning; Disease Prognosis; Clinical Disease Progression; Patient Trajectories; Longitudinal Profiling; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 is highly variable in its clinical presentation, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe organ damage and death. We characterized the time-dependent progression of the disease in 139 COVID-19 inpatients by measuring 86 accredited diagnostic parameters, such as blood cell counts and enzyme activities, as well as untargeted plasma proteomes at 687 sampling points. We report an initial spike in a systemic inflammatory response, which is gradually alleviated and followed by a protein signature indicative of tissue repair, metabolic reconstitution, and immunomodulation. We identify prognostic marker signatures for devising risk-adapted treatment strategies and use machine learning to classify therapeutic needs. We show that the machine learning models based on the proteome are transferable to an independent cohort. Our study presents a map linking routinely used clinical diagnostic parameters to plasma proteomes and their dynamics in an infectious disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201874 -36541441,https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182,"Predicting sex, age, general cognition and mental health with machine learning on brain structural connectomes.","Yeung HW, Stolicyn A, Buchanan CR, Tucker-Drob EM, Bastin ME, Luz S, McIntosh AM, Whalley HC, Cox SR, Smith K.",,Human brain mapping,2023,2022-12-21,Y,Cognition; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; General Psychopathology; Deep Learning; Structural Connectomes,,,"There is an increasing expectation that advanced, computationally expensive machine learning (ML) techniques, when applied to large population-wide neuroimaging datasets, will help to uncover key differences in the human brain in health and disease. We take a comprehensive approach to explore how multiple aspects of brain structural connectivity can predict sex, age, general cognitive function and general psychopathology, testing different ML algorithms from deep learning (DL) model (BrainNetCNN) to classical ML methods. We modelled N = 8183 structural connectomes from UK Biobank using six different structural network weightings obtained from diffusion MRI. Streamline count generally provided the highest prediction accuracies in all prediction tasks. DL did not improve on prediction accuracies from simpler linear models. Further, high correlations between gradient attribution coefficients from DL and model coefficients from linear models suggested the models ranked the importance of features in similar ways, which indirectly suggested the similarity in models' strategies for making predictive decision to some extent. This highlights that model complexity is unlikely to improve detection of associations between structural connectomes and complex phenotypes with the current sample size.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898?pdf=render 33737684,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85877-0,"Proteomic blood profiling in mild, severe and critical COVID-19 patients.","Patel H, Ashton NJ, Dobson RJB, Andersson LM, Yilmaz A, Blennow K, Gisslen M, Zetterberg H.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,"The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic manifests itself as a mild respiratory tract infection in most individuals, leading to COVID-19 disease. However, in some infected individuals, this can progress to severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), leading to multi-organ failure and death. This study explores the proteomic differences between mild, severe, and critical COVID-19 positive patients to further understand the disease progression, identify proteins associated with disease severity, and identify potential therapeutic targets. Blood protein profiling was performed on 59 COVID-19 mild (n = 26), severe (n = 9) or critical (n = 24) cases and 28 controls using the OLINK inflammation, autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurology panels. Differential expression analysis was performed within and between disease groups to generate nine different analyses. From the 368 proteins measured per individual, more than 75% were observed to be significantly perturbed in COVID-19 cases. Six proteins (IL6, CKAP4, Gal-9, IL-1ra, LILRB4 and PD-L1) were identified to be associated with disease severity. The results have been made readily available through an interactive web-based application for instant data exploration and visualization, and can be accessed at https://phidatalab-shiny.rosalind.kcl.ac.uk/COVID19/ . Our results demonstrate that dynamic changes in blood proteins associated with disease severity can potentially be used as early biomarkers to monitor disease severity in COVID-19 and serve as potential therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85877-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85877-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7973581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7973581?pdf=render -34173574,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039,Schools and COVID-19: Reopening Pandora's box?,"Ziauddeen N, Woods-Townsend K, Saxena S, Gilbert R, Alwan NA.",,"Public health in practice (Oxford, England)",2020,2020-11-01,Y,Safety; Covid-19; School Re-Opening,,,"Schools in countries across the world are reopening as lockdown to slow progression of COVID-19 is eased. The UK government ordered school closures in England from March 20, 2020, later than the rest of Europe. A temporary and limited return for some year groups was trialled from June 2020. Teachers, school governors, the public and doctors have openly challenged the decision. The UK government has struggled to provide enough detailed information to convince the public, teachers and health practitioners, that effective systems for protection, including test, trace and isolate, are in place to prevent and manage outbreaks in schools. Risks of infection on reopening to children, staff and families must be weighed against the harms of closure to children's education and social development. The potential consequences, if the re-opening of schools is managed badly, is subsequent waves of COVID-19 infection leading to more deaths, further school closures and prolonged restrictions, losing any ground gained thus far. This article weighs the evidence for risks and benefits of reopening schools during the pandemic.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860?pdf=render -33480434,https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267,"Complex differences in infection rates between ethnic groups in Scotland: a retrospective, national census-linked cohort study of 1.65 million cases.","Gruer LD, Cézard GI, Wallace LA, Hutchinson SJ, Douglas AF, Buchanan D, Katikireddi SV, Millard AD, Goldberg DJ, Sheikh A, Bhopal RS.",,"Journal of public health (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-03-01,Y,Infectious disease; epidemiology; Ethnicity,,,"

Background

Ethnicity can influence susceptibility to infection, as COVID-19 has shown. Few countries have systematically investigated ethnic variations in infection.

Methods

We linked the Scotland 2001 Census, including ethnic group, to national databases of hospitalizations/deaths and serological diagnoses of bloodborne viruses for 2001-2013. We calculated age-adjusted rate ratios (RRs) in 12 ethnic groups for all infections combined, 15 infection categories, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses.

Results

We analysed over 1.65 million infection-related hospitalisations/deaths. Compared with White Scottish, RRs for all infections combined were 0.8 or lower for Other White British, Other White and Chinese males and females, and 1.2-1.4 for Pakistani and African males and females. Adjustment for socioeconomic status or birthplace had little effect. RRs for specific infection categories followed similar patterns with striking exceptions. For HIV, RRs were 136 in African females and 14 in males; for HBV, 125 in Chinese females and 59 in males, 55 in African females and 24 in males; and for HCV, 2.3-3.1 in Pakistanis and Africans.

Conclusions

Ethnic differences were found in overall rates and many infection categories, suggesting multiple causative pathways. We recommend census linkage as a powerful method for studying the disproportionate impact of COVID-19.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267/36684631/fdaa267.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762?pdf=render +33299071,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5,Belief of having had unconfirmed Covid-19 infection reduces willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing.,"Bachtiger P, Adamson A, Quint JK, Peters NS.",,NPJ digital medicine,2020,2020-11-06,Y,,,,"Contact tracing and lockdown are health policies being used worldwide to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19). The UK National Health Service (NHS) Track and Trace Service has plans for a nationwide app that notifies the need for self-isolation to those in contact with a person testing positive for COVID-19. To be successful, such an app will require high uptake, the determinants and willingness for which are unclear but essential to understand for effective public health benefit. The objective of this study was to measure the determinants of willingness to participate in an NHS app-based contact-tracing programme using a questionnaire within the Care Information Exchange (CIE)-the largest patient-facing electronic health record in the NHS. Among 47,708 registered NHS users of the CIE, 27% completed a questionnaire asking about willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing, understanding of government advice, mental and physical wellbeing and their healthcare utilisation-related or not to COVID-19. Descriptive statistics are reported alongside univariate and multivariable logistic regression models, with positive or negative responses to a question on app-based contact tracing as the dependent variable. 26.1% of all CIE participants were included in the analysis (N = 12,434, 43.0% male, mean age 55.2). 60.3% of respondents were willing to participate in app-based contact tracing. Out of those who responded 'no', 67.2% stated that this was due to privacy concerns. In univariate analysis, worsening mood, fear and anxiety in relation to changes in government rules around lockdown were associated with lower willingness to participate. Multivariable analysis showed that difficulty understanding government rules was associated with a decreased inclination to download the app, with those scoring 1-2 and 3-4 in their understanding of the new government rules being 45% and 27% less inclined to download the contact-tracing app, respectively; when compared to those who rated their understanding as 5-6/10 (OR for 1-2/10 = 0.57 [CI 0.48-0.67]; OR for 3-4/10 = 0.744 [CI 0.64-0.87]), whereas scores of 7-8 and 9-10 showed a 43% and 31% respective increase. Those reporting an unconfirmed belief of having previously had and recovered from COVID-19 were 27% less likely to be willing to download the app; belief of previous recovery from COVID-19 infection OR 0.727 [0.585-0.908]). In this large UK-wide questionnaire of wellbeing in lockdown, a willingness for app-based contact tracing over an appropriate age range is 60%-close to the estimated 56% population uptake, and substantially less than the smartphone-user uptake considered necessary for an app-based contact tracing to be an effective intervention to help suppress an epidemic. Difficulty comprehending government advice and uncertainty of diagnosis, based on a public health policy of not testing to confirm self-reported COVID-19 infection during lockdown, therefore reduce willingness to adopt a government contact-tracing app to a level below the threshold for effectiveness as a tool to suppress an epidemic.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-00357-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058?pdf=render +36541441,https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182,"Predicting sex, age, general cognition and mental health with machine learning on brain structural connectomes.","Yeung HW, Stolicyn A, Buchanan CR, Tucker-Drob EM, Bastin ME, Luz S, McIntosh AM, Whalley HC, Cox SR, Smith K.",,Human brain mapping,2023,2022-12-21,Y,Cognition; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; General Psychopathology; Deep Learning; Structural Connectomes,,,"There is an increasing expectation that advanced, computationally expensive machine learning (ML) techniques, when applied to large population-wide neuroimaging datasets, will help to uncover key differences in the human brain in health and disease. We take a comprehensive approach to explore how multiple aspects of brain structural connectivity can predict sex, age, general cognitive function and general psychopathology, testing different ML algorithms from deep learning (DL) model (BrainNetCNN) to classical ML methods. We modelled N = 8183 structural connectomes from UK Biobank using six different structural network weightings obtained from diffusion MRI. Streamline count generally provided the highest prediction accuracies in all prediction tasks. DL did not improve on prediction accuracies from simpler linear models. Further, high correlations between gradient attribution coefficients from DL and model coefficients from linear models suggested the models ranked the importance of features in similar ways, which indirectly suggested the similarity in models' strategies for making predictive decision to some extent. This highlights that model complexity is unlikely to improve detection of associations between structural connectomes and complex phenotypes with the current sample size.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898?pdf=render 30887727,https://doi.org/10.1002/ppul.24314,Physical activity among children with asthma: Cross-sectional analysis in the UK millennium cohort.,"Pike KC, Griffiths LJ, Dezateux C, Pearce A.",,Pediatric pulmonology,2019,2019-03-18,Y,Children; Cohort study; epidemiology; Physical Activity; Asthma And Early Wheeze,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Although beneficial for health and well-being, most children do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Evidence for children with asthma is mixed, with symptom severity rarely considered. This paper aimed to address this gap.

Methods

We analyzed cross-sectional associations between physical activity and parent-reported asthma symptoms and severity for 6497 UK Millennium Cohort Study 7-year-old participants (3321, [49%] girls). Primary outcomes were daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA, minutes) and proportion of children achieving recommended minimum daily levels of 60 minutes of MVPA. Daily steps, sedentary time, and total activity counts per minute (cpm) were recorded, as were parent-reported asthma symptoms, medications, and recent hospital admissions. Associations were investigated using quantile (continuous outcomes) and Poisson (binary outcomes) regression, adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, health, and environmental factors.

Results

Neither asthma status nor severity was associated with MVPA; children recently hospitalized for asthma were less likely to achieve recommended daily MVPA (risk ratio [95% confidence interval [CI]]: 0.67 [0.44, 1.03]). Recent wheeze, current asthma, and severe asthma symptoms were associated with fewer sedentary hours (difference in medians [95% CI]: -0.18 [-0.27, -0.08]; -0.14 [-0.24, -0.05]; -0.15, [-0.28, -0.02], respectively) and hospital admission with lower total activity (-48 cpm [-68, -28]).

Conclusion

Children with asthma are as physically active as their asthma-free counterparts, while those recently hospitalized for asthma are less active. Qualitative studies are needed to understand the perceptions of children and families about physical activity following hospital admission and to inform support and advice needed to maintain active lifestyles for children with asthma.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ppul.24314; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ppul.24314; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6617805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6617805?pdf=render -34547359,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018,Mixed evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis: A systematic review.,"Bajwa H, Baghchechi M, Mujahid M, Kang Dufour MS, Langan SM, Abuabara K.",,Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,2022,2021-09-20,N,dermatitis; Socioeconomic status; Eczema; Atopic; Socioeconomic Position,,,"

Background

Lower socioeconomic position usually portends worse health outcomes, but multiple studies have found that atopic dermatitis is associated with higher socioeconomic position. The nature of this relationship remains unclear.

Objective

To systematically review the literature on socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis and determine whether the association varies by patient or study characteristics.

Methods

A literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Embase databases. Individual-level studies addressing the association between all measures of socioeconomic position and the prevalence or incidence of atopic dermatitis were eligible for inclusion. Two independent reviewers screened all texts and extracted all data for qualitative synthesis.

Results

Eighty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the 88 studies, 42% (37) found a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position, 15% (13) found a negative association, and 43% (38) found a null or inconsistent association. Studies conducted in Europe, among children, and based on self-report of eczema were more likely to find a positive association with socioeconomic position.

Limitations

Studies varied both in terms of the measurement of socioeconomic position and the definition of atopic dermatitis, limiting quantitative synthesis.

Conclusion

The evidence of a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position is not consistent.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8810617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018 +33480434,https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267,"Complex differences in infection rates between ethnic groups in Scotland: a retrospective, national census-linked cohort study of 1.65 million cases.","Gruer LD, Cézard GI, Wallace LA, Hutchinson SJ, Douglas AF, Buchanan D, Katikireddi SV, Millard AD, Goldberg DJ, Sheikh A, Bhopal RS.",,"Journal of public health (Oxford, England)",2022,2022-03-01,Y,Infectious disease; epidemiology; Ethnicity,,,"

Background

Ethnicity can influence susceptibility to infection, as COVID-19 has shown. Few countries have systematically investigated ethnic variations in infection.

Methods

We linked the Scotland 2001 Census, including ethnic group, to national databases of hospitalizations/deaths and serological diagnoses of bloodborne viruses for 2001-2013. We calculated age-adjusted rate ratios (RRs) in 12 ethnic groups for all infections combined, 15 infection categories, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses.

Results

We analysed over 1.65 million infection-related hospitalisations/deaths. Compared with White Scottish, RRs for all infections combined were 0.8 or lower for Other White British, Other White and Chinese males and females, and 1.2-1.4 for Pakistani and African males and females. Adjustment for socioeconomic status or birthplace had little effect. RRs for specific infection categories followed similar patterns with striking exceptions. For HIV, RRs were 136 in African females and 14 in males; for HBV, 125 in Chinese females and 59 in males, 55 in African females and 24 in males; and for HCV, 2.3-3.1 in Pakistanis and Africans.

Conclusions

Ethnic differences were found in overall rates and many infection categories, suggesting multiple causative pathways. We recommend census linkage as a powerful method for studying the disproportionate impact of COVID-19.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267/36684631/fdaa267.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762?pdf=render +34173574,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039,Schools and COVID-19: Reopening Pandora's box?,"Ziauddeen N, Woods-Townsend K, Saxena S, Gilbert R, Alwan NA.",,"Public health in practice (Oxford, England)",2020,2020-11-01,Y,Safety; Covid-19; School Re-Opening,,,"Schools in countries across the world are reopening as lockdown to slow progression of COVID-19 is eased. The UK government ordered school closures in England from March 20, 2020, later than the rest of Europe. A temporary and limited return for some year groups was trialled from June 2020. Teachers, school governors, the public and doctors have openly challenged the decision. The UK government has struggled to provide enough detailed information to convince the public, teachers and health practitioners, that effective systems for protection, including test, trace and isolate, are in place to prevent and manage outbreaks in schools. Risks of infection on reopening to children, staff and families must be weighed against the harms of closure to children's education and social development. The potential consequences, if the re-opening of schools is managed badly, is subsequent waves of COVID-19 infection leading to more deaths, further school closures and prolonged restrictions, losing any ground gained thus far. This article weighs the evidence for risks and benefits of reopening schools during the pandemic.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860?pdf=render 36208161,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac426,CODE-EHR best practice framework for the use of structured electronic healthcare records in clinical research.,"Kotecha D, Asselbergs FW, Achenbach S, Anker SD, Atar D, Baigent C, Banerjee A, Beger B, Brobert G, Casadei B, Ceccarelli C, Cowie MR, Crea F, Cronin M, Denaxas S, Derix A, Fitzsimons D, Fredriksson M, Gale CP, Gkoutos GV, Goettsch W, Hemingway H, Ingvar M, Jonas A, Kazmierski R, Løgstrup S, Thomas Lumbers R, Lüscher TF, McGreavy P, Piña IL, Roessig L, Steinbeisser C, Sundgren M, Tyl B, van Thiel G, van Bochove K, Vardas PE, Villanueva T, Vrana M, Weber W, Weidinger F, Windecker S, Wood A, Grobbee DE, Innovative Medicines Initiative BigData@Heart Consortium, European Society of Cardiology, CODE-EHR international consensus group.",,European heart journal,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"Big data is central to new developments in global clinical science aiming to improve the lives of patients. Technological advances have led to the routine use of structured electronic healthcare records with the potential to address key gaps in clinical evidence. The covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the potential of big data and related analytics, but also important pitfalls. Verification, validation, and data privacy, as well as the social mandate to undertake research are key challenges. The European Society of Cardiology and the BigData@Heart consortium have brought together a range of international stakeholders, including patient representatives, clinicians, scientists, regulators, journal editors and industry. We propose the CODE-EHR Minimum Standards Framework as a means to improve the design of studies, enhance transparency and develop a roadmap towards more robust and effective utilisation of healthcare data for research purposes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/37/3578/46535456/ehac426.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac426; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452067; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452067?pdf=render -34568585,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671,Linking education and hospital data in England: linkage process and quality.,"Libuy N, Harron K, Gilbert R, Caulton R, Cameron E, Blackburn R.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-09-16,Y,Bias; Data Linkage; Record Linkage; Administrative Data; Hospital Records; Linkage Error; Educational Records,,,"

Introduction

Linkage of administrative data for universal state education and National Health Service (NHS) hospital care would enable research into the inter-relationships between education and health for all children in England.

Objectives

We aim to describe the linkage process and evaluate the quality of linkage of four one-year birth cohorts within the National Pupil Database (NPD) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Methods

We used multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to link longitudinal records from state schools to the chronology of records in the NHS Personal Demographics Service (PDS; linkage stage 1), and HES (linkage stage 2). We calculated linkage rates and compared pupil characteristics in linked and unlinked samples for each stage of linkage and each cohort (1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00, and 2004/05).

Results

Of the 2,287,671 pupil records, 2,174,601 (95%) linked to HES. Linkage rates improved over time (92% in 1990/91 to 99% in 2004/05). Ethnic minority pupils and those living in more deprived areas were less likely to be matched to hospital records, but differences in pupil characteristics between linked and unlinked samples were moderate to small.

Conclusion

We linked nearly all pupils to at least one hospital record. The high coverage of the linkage represents a unique opportunity for wide-scale analyses across the domains of health and education. However, missed links disproportionately affected ethnic minorities or those living in the poorest neighbourhoods: selection bias could be mitigated by increasing the quality and completeness of identifiers recorded in administrative data or the application of statistical methods that account for missed links.

Highlights

Longitudinal administrative records for all children attending state school and acute hospital services in England have been used for research for more than two decades, but lack of a shared unique identifier has limited scope for linkage between these databases.We applied multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to 4 one-year cohorts of children born 1 September-31 August in 1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00 and 2004/05. In stage 1, full names, date of birth, and postcode histories from education data in the National Pupil Database were linked to the NHS Personal Demographic Service. In stage 2, NHS number, postcode, date of birth and sex were linked to hospital records in Hospital Episode Statistics.Between 92% and 99% of school pupils linked to at least one hospital record. Ethnic minority pupils and pupils who were living in the most deprived areas were least likely to link. Ethnic minority pupils were less likely than white children to link at the first step in both algorithms.Bias due to linkage errors could lead to an underestimate of the health needs in disadvantaged groups. Improved data quality, more sensitive linkage algorithms, and/or statistical methods that account for missed links in analyses, should be considered to reduce linkage bias.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1671/3248; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153?pdf=render 31163036,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217158,Differences in the epidemiology of out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths.,"Beck B, Smith K, Mercier E, Gabbe B, Bassed R, Mitra B, Teague W, Siedenburg J, McLellan S, Cameron P.",,PloS one,2019,2019-06-04,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Trauma is a leading cause of mortality. Holistic views of trauma systems consider injury as a public health problem that requires efforts in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. However, the performance of trauma systems is commonly judged on the in-hospital mortality rate. Such a focus misses opportunities to consider all deaths within a population, to understand differences in in-hospital and out-of-hospital trauma deaths and to inform population-level injury prevention efforts. The aim of this study was to provide an epidemiological overview of out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths in a geographically-defined area over a 10-year period.

Methods

We performed a population-based review of out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths over the period of 01 July 2006 to 30 June 2016 in Victoria, Australia, using data from the National Coronial Information System and the Victorian State Trauma Registry. Temporal trends in population-based incidence rates were evaluated.

Results

Over the study period, there were 11,246 trauma deaths, of which 71% were out-of-hospital deaths. Out-of-hospital trauma deaths commonly resulted from intentional self-harm events (50%) and transport events (35%), while in-hospital trauma deaths commonly resulted from low falls (≤1 metre) (50%). The incidence of overall trauma deaths did not change over the study period (incidence rate ratio 0.998; 95%CI: 0.991, 1.004; P = 0.56).

Conclusions

Out-of-hospital deaths accounted for most trauma deaths. Given the notable differences between out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths, monitoring of all trauma deaths is necessary to inform injury prevention activities and to reduce trauma mortality. The absence of a change in the incidence of both out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths demonstrates the need for enhanced activities across all aspects of injury prevention.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217158; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217158; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6548370; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6548370?pdf=render -35614427,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6,"The association between childhood hearing loss and self-reported peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm: longitudinal analyses of a prospective, nationally representative cohort study.","Butcher E, Cortina-Borja M, Dezateux C, Knowles R.",,BMC public health,2022,2022-05-25,Y,Child; Hearing loss; Cohort studies; Mental health; Self-harm; Depressive Symptoms; Peer Victimisation,,,"

Background

Childhood hearing loss (HL) predicts poor mental health and is associated with a higher risk of communication difficulties. The relationship of childhood HL with specific types of poor mental health (such as depressive symptoms or self-harm) and peer victimisation remains unclear.

Methods

We analysed data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a prospective observational cohort study of children living in the UK at age 9 months and born between 2000 to 2002. Data were available on the children and their families at ages 9 months, then at 3, 5, 7, 11, and 14 years. Participants were 10,858 singleton children with self-reported data on peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm at age 14 years. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to estimate odds ratios (OR) for HL with peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm. HL presence was examined in terms of any HL between ages 9 months and 14 years, as well as by HL trajectory type (defined by onset and persistence). Analyses were adjusted for potential sources of confounding, survey design, and attrition at age 14 years. Interactions between sex and HL were examined in each model and multiple imputation procedures used to address missing data.

Results

Children with any HL had increased odds of depressive symptoms (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.09-1.60), self-harm (1.41, 1.12-1.78) and, in girls only, peer victimisation (girls: 1.81, 1.29-2.55; boys: 1.05, 0.73-1.51), compared to those without HL. HL with later age at onset and persistence to age 14 years was the only trajectory associated with all outcomes.

Conclusions

Childhood HL may predict peer victimisation (in girls), depressive symptoms, and self-harm. Further research is needed to identify HL trajectories and methods to facilitate good mental health in children with HL.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522?pdf=render 36562446,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069048,CODE-EHR best practice framework for the use of structured electronic healthcare records in clinical research.,"Kotecha D, Asselbergs FW, Achenbach S, Anker SD, Atar D, Baigent C, Banerjee A, Beger B, Brobert G, Casadei B, Ceccarelli C, Cowie MR, Crea F, Cronin M, Denaxas S, Derix A, Fitzsimons D, Fredriksson M, Gale CP, Gkoutos GV, Goettsch W, Hemingway H, Ingvar M, Jonas A, Kazmierski R, Løgstrup S, Lumbers RT, Lüscher TF, McGreavy P, Piña IL, Roessig L, Steinbeisser C, Sundgren M, Tyl B, van Thiel G, van Bochove K, Vardas PE, Villanueva T, Vrana M, Weber W, Weidinger F, Windecker S, Wood A, Grobbee DE, Innovative Medicines Initiative BigData@Heart Consortium, European Society of Cardiology, CODE-EHR international consensus group.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-08-29,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-069048.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069048; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403753 -31196949,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018,Educational and health outcomes of children treated for asthma: Scotland-wide record linkage study of 683 716 children. ,"Fleming M, Fitton CA, Steiner MFC, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Pell JP.",,The European respiratory journal,2019,2019-09-05,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"The global prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing. The condition impacts physical and psychosocial morbidity; therefore, wide-ranging effects on health and education outcomes are plausible. Linkage of eight Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions and unemployment, provided data on 683 716 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. We compared schoolchildren on medication for asthma with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity and comorbidity confounders, and explored effect modifiers and mediators. The 45 900 (6.0%) children treated for asthma had an increased risk of hospitalisation, particularly within the first year of treatment (incidence rate ratio 1.98, 95% CI 1.93-2.04), and increased mortality (HR 1.77, 95% CI 1.30-2.40). They were more likely to have special educational need for mental (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.49-2.08) and physical (OR 2.76, 95% CI 2.57-2.95) health reasons, and performed worse in school exams (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06-1.16). Higher absenteeism (incidence rate ratio 1.25, 95% CI 1.24-1.26) partially explained their poorer attainment. Children with treated asthma have poorer education and health outcomes than their peers. Educational interventions that mitigate the adverse effects of absenteeism should be considered.",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/3/1802309.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030?pdf=render +34547359,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018,Mixed evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis: A systematic review.,"Bajwa H, Baghchechi M, Mujahid M, Kang Dufour MS, Langan SM, Abuabara K.",,Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,2022,2021-09-20,N,dermatitis; Socioeconomic status; Eczema; Atopic; Socioeconomic Position,,,"

Background

Lower socioeconomic position usually portends worse health outcomes, but multiple studies have found that atopic dermatitis is associated with higher socioeconomic position. The nature of this relationship remains unclear.

Objective

To systematically review the literature on socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis and determine whether the association varies by patient or study characteristics.

Methods

A literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Embase databases. Individual-level studies addressing the association between all measures of socioeconomic position and the prevalence or incidence of atopic dermatitis were eligible for inclusion. Two independent reviewers screened all texts and extracted all data for qualitative synthesis.

Results

Eighty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the 88 studies, 42% (37) found a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position, 15% (13) found a negative association, and 43% (38) found a null or inconsistent association. Studies conducted in Europe, among children, and based on self-report of eczema were more likely to find a positive association with socioeconomic position.

Limitations

Studies varied both in terms of the measurement of socioeconomic position and the definition of atopic dermatitis, limiting quantitative synthesis.

Conclusion

The evidence of a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position is not consistent.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8810617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018 +34568585,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671,Linking education and hospital data in England: linkage process and quality.,"Libuy N, Harron K, Gilbert R, Caulton R, Cameron E, Blackburn R.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-09-16,Y,Bias; Data Linkage; Record Linkage; Administrative Data; Hospital Records; Linkage Error; Educational Records,,,"

Introduction

Linkage of administrative data for universal state education and National Health Service (NHS) hospital care would enable research into the inter-relationships between education and health for all children in England.

Objectives

We aim to describe the linkage process and evaluate the quality of linkage of four one-year birth cohorts within the National Pupil Database (NPD) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Methods

We used multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to link longitudinal records from state schools to the chronology of records in the NHS Personal Demographics Service (PDS; linkage stage 1), and HES (linkage stage 2). We calculated linkage rates and compared pupil characteristics in linked and unlinked samples for each stage of linkage and each cohort (1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00, and 2004/05).

Results

Of the 2,287,671 pupil records, 2,174,601 (95%) linked to HES. Linkage rates improved over time (92% in 1990/91 to 99% in 2004/05). Ethnic minority pupils and those living in more deprived areas were less likely to be matched to hospital records, but differences in pupil characteristics between linked and unlinked samples were moderate to small.

Conclusion

We linked nearly all pupils to at least one hospital record. The high coverage of the linkage represents a unique opportunity for wide-scale analyses across the domains of health and education. However, missed links disproportionately affected ethnic minorities or those living in the poorest neighbourhoods: selection bias could be mitigated by increasing the quality and completeness of identifiers recorded in administrative data or the application of statistical methods that account for missed links.

Highlights

Longitudinal administrative records for all children attending state school and acute hospital services in England have been used for research for more than two decades, but lack of a shared unique identifier has limited scope for linkage between these databases.We applied multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to 4 one-year cohorts of children born 1 September-31 August in 1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00 and 2004/05. In stage 1, full names, date of birth, and postcode histories from education data in the National Pupil Database were linked to the NHS Personal Demographic Service. In stage 2, NHS number, postcode, date of birth and sex were linked to hospital records in Hospital Episode Statistics.Between 92% and 99% of school pupils linked to at least one hospital record. Ethnic minority pupils and pupils who were living in the most deprived areas were least likely to link. Ethnic minority pupils were less likely than white children to link at the first step in both algorithms.Bias due to linkage errors could lead to an underestimate of the health needs in disadvantaged groups. Improved data quality, more sensitive linkage algorithms, and/or statistical methods that account for missed links in analyses, should be considered to reduce linkage bias.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1671/3248; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153?pdf=render +35614427,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6,"The association between childhood hearing loss and self-reported peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm: longitudinal analyses of a prospective, nationally representative cohort study.","Butcher E, Cortina-Borja M, Dezateux C, Knowles R.",,BMC public health,2022,2022-05-25,Y,Child; Hearing loss; Cohort studies; Mental health; Self-harm; Depressive Symptoms; Peer Victimisation,,,"

Background

Childhood hearing loss (HL) predicts poor mental health and is associated with a higher risk of communication difficulties. The relationship of childhood HL with specific types of poor mental health (such as depressive symptoms or self-harm) and peer victimisation remains unclear.

Methods

We analysed data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a prospective observational cohort study of children living in the UK at age 9 months and born between 2000 to 2002. Data were available on the children and their families at ages 9 months, then at 3, 5, 7, 11, and 14 years. Participants were 10,858 singleton children with self-reported data on peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm at age 14 years. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to estimate odds ratios (OR) for HL with peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm. HL presence was examined in terms of any HL between ages 9 months and 14 years, as well as by HL trajectory type (defined by onset and persistence). Analyses were adjusted for potential sources of confounding, survey design, and attrition at age 14 years. Interactions between sex and HL were examined in each model and multiple imputation procedures used to address missing data.

Results

Children with any HL had increased odds of depressive symptoms (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.09-1.60), self-harm (1.41, 1.12-1.78) and, in girls only, peer victimisation (girls: 1.81, 1.29-2.55; boys: 1.05, 0.73-1.51), compared to those without HL. HL with later age at onset and persistence to age 14 years was the only trajectory associated with all outcomes.

Conclusions

Childhood HL may predict peer victimisation (in girls), depressive symptoms, and self-harm. Further research is needed to identify HL trajectories and methods to facilitate good mental health in children with HL.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522?pdf=render 32887683,https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217421,Genomic risk scores for juvenile idiopathic arthritis and its subtypes.,"Cánovas R, Cobb J, Brozynska M, Bowes J, Li YR, Smith SL, Hakonarson H, Thomson W, Ellis JA, Abraham G, Munro JE, Inouye M.",,Annals of the rheumatic diseases,2020,2020-09-04,Y,Polymorphism; Arthritis; Genetic; Juvenile; Rheumatoid,,,"

Objectives

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is an autoimmune disease and a common cause of chronic disability in children. Diagnosis of JIA is based purely on clinical symptoms, which can be variable, leading to diagnosis and treatment delays. Despite JIA having substantial heritability, the construction of genomic risk scores (GRSs) to aid or expedite diagnosis has not been assessed. Here, we generate GRSs for JIA and its subtypes and evaluate their performance.

Methods

We examined three case/control cohorts (UK, US-based and Australia) with genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes. We trained GRSs for JIA and its subtypes using lasso-penalised linear models in cross-validation on the UK cohort, and externally tested it in the other cohorts.

Results

The JIA GRS alone achieved cross-validated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC)=0.670 in the UK cohort and externally-validated AUCs of 0.657 and 0.671 in the US-based and Australian cohorts, respectively. In logistic regression of case/control status, the corresponding odds ratios (ORs) per standard deviation (SD) of GRS were 1.831 (1.685 to 1.991) and 2.008 (1.731 to 2.345), and were unattenuated by adjustment for sex or the top 10 genetic principal components. Extending our analysis to JIA subtypes revealed that the enthesitis-related JIA had both the longest time-to-referral and the subtype GRS with the strongest predictive capacity overall across data sets: AUCs 0.82 in UK; 0.84 in Australian; and 0.70 in US-based. The particularly common oligoarthritis JIA also had a GRS that outperformed those for JIA overall, with AUCs of 0.72, 0.74 and 0.77, respectively.

Conclusions

A GRS for JIA has potential to augment clinical JIA diagnosis protocols, prioritising higher-risk individuals for follow-up and treatment. Consistent with JIA heterogeneity, subtype-specific GRSs showed particularly high performance for enthesitis-related and oligoarthritis JIA.",,pdf:https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/79/12/1572.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217421; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7677485; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7677485?pdf=render -31588514,https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzz151,Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior 6 Months After Musculoskeletal Trauma: What Factors Predict Recovery?,"Ekegren CL, Climie RE, Simpson PM, Owen N, Dunstan DW, Veitch W, Gabbe BJ.",,Physical therapy,2020,2020-02-01,N,,,,"

Background

Physical activity is increasingly recognized as an important marker of functional recovery following fracture.

Objective

The objectives of this study were to measure sedentary behavior and physical activity 2 weeks and 6 months following fracture and to determine associated demographic and injury factors.

Design

This was an observational study.

Methods

Two weeks and 6 months following fracture, 83 adults who were 18 to 69 years old and had upper limb (UL) or lower limb (LL) fractures wore an accelerometer and an inclinometer for 10 days. We calculated sitting time, steps, moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA), and vigorous-intensity physical activity and conducted linear mixed-effects multivariable regression analyses to determine factors associated with temporal changes in activity.

Results

At 6 months versus 2 weeks after fracture, participants sat less, took more steps, and engaged in more MPA. Participants with LL fractures sat 2 hours more, took 66% fewer steps, and engaged in 77% less MPA than participants with UL fractures. Greater reductions in sitting time were observed for participants in the youngest age group and with LL fractures, participants with high preinjury activity, and participants who were overweight or obese. For steps, greater improvement was observed for participants in the youngest and middle-aged groups and those with LL fractures. For MPA, greater improvement was observed for middle-aged participants and those with LL fractures.

Limitations

Although this study was sufficiently powered for the analysis of major categories, a convenience sample that may not be representative of all people with musculoskeletal trauma was used.

Conclusions

Working-age adults with LL fractures had lower levels of physical activity 6 months after fracture than those with UL fractures. Older adults showed less improvement over time, suggesting that they are an important target group for interventions aimed at regaining preinjury activity levels.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article-pdf/100/2/332/32901113/pzz151.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzz151 34555069,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257361,Predicting fracture outcomes from clinical registry data using artificial intelligence supplemented models for evidence-informed treatment (PRAISE) study protocol.,"Dipnall JF, Page R, Du L, Costa M, Lyons RA, Cameron P, de Steiger R, Hau R, Bucknill A, Oppy A, Edwards E, Varma D, Jung MC, Gabbe BJ.",,PloS one,2021,2021-09-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Distal radius (wrist) fractures are the second most common fracture admitted to hospital. The anatomical pattern of these types of injuries is diverse, with variation in clinical management, guidelines for management remain inconclusive, and the uptake of findings from clinical trials into routine practice limited. Robust predictive modelling, which considers both the characteristics of the fracture and patient, provides the best opportunity to reduce variation in care and improve patient outcomes. This type of data is housed in unstructured data sources with no particular format or schema. The ""Predicting fracture outcomes from clinical Registry data using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supplemented models for Evidence-informed treatment (PRAISE)"" study aims to use AI methods on unstructured data to describe the fracture characteristics and test if using this information improves identification of key fracture characteristics and prediction of patient-reported outcome measures and clinical outcomes following wrist fractures compared to prediction models based on standard registry data.

Methods and design

Adult (16+ years) patients presenting to the emergency department, treated in a short stay unit, or admitted to hospital for >24h for management of a wrist fracture in four Victorian hospitals will be included in this study. The study will use routine registry data from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (VOTOR), and electronic medical record (EMR) information (e.g. X-rays, surgical reports, radiology reports, images). A multimodal deep learning fracture reasoning system (DLFRS) will be developed that reasons on EMR information. Machine learning prediction models will test the performance with/without output from the DLFRS.

Discussion

The PRAISE study will establish the use of AI techniques to provide enhanced information about fracture characteristics in people with wrist fractures. Prediction models using AI derived characteristics are expected to provide better prediction of clinical and patient-reported outcomes following distal radius fracture.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257361&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257361; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460020; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460020?pdf=render +31588514,https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzz151,Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior 6 Months After Musculoskeletal Trauma: What Factors Predict Recovery?,"Ekegren CL, Climie RE, Simpson PM, Owen N, Dunstan DW, Veitch W, Gabbe BJ.",,Physical therapy,2020,2020-02-01,N,,,,"

Background

Physical activity is increasingly recognized as an important marker of functional recovery following fracture.

Objective

The objectives of this study were to measure sedentary behavior and physical activity 2 weeks and 6 months following fracture and to determine associated demographic and injury factors.

Design

This was an observational study.

Methods

Two weeks and 6 months following fracture, 83 adults who were 18 to 69 years old and had upper limb (UL) or lower limb (LL) fractures wore an accelerometer and an inclinometer for 10 days. We calculated sitting time, steps, moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA), and vigorous-intensity physical activity and conducted linear mixed-effects multivariable regression analyses to determine factors associated with temporal changes in activity.

Results

At 6 months versus 2 weeks after fracture, participants sat less, took more steps, and engaged in more MPA. Participants with LL fractures sat 2 hours more, took 66% fewer steps, and engaged in 77% less MPA than participants with UL fractures. Greater reductions in sitting time were observed for participants in the youngest age group and with LL fractures, participants with high preinjury activity, and participants who were overweight or obese. For steps, greater improvement was observed for participants in the youngest and middle-aged groups and those with LL fractures. For MPA, greater improvement was observed for middle-aged participants and those with LL fractures.

Limitations

Although this study was sufficiently powered for the analysis of major categories, a convenience sample that may not be representative of all people with musculoskeletal trauma was used.

Conclusions

Working-age adults with LL fractures had lower levels of physical activity 6 months after fracture than those with UL fractures. Older adults showed less improvement over time, suggesting that they are an important target group for interventions aimed at regaining preinjury activity levels.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article-pdf/100/2/332/32901113/pzz151.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzz151 +31196949,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018,Educational and health outcomes of children treated for asthma: Scotland-wide record linkage study of 683 716 children. ,"Fleming M, Fitton CA, Steiner MFC, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Pell JP.",,The European respiratory journal,2019,2019-09-05,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"The global prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing. The condition impacts physical and psychosocial morbidity; therefore, wide-ranging effects on health and education outcomes are plausible. Linkage of eight Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions and unemployment, provided data on 683 716 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. We compared schoolchildren on medication for asthma with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity and comorbidity confounders, and explored effect modifiers and mediators. The 45 900 (6.0%) children treated for asthma had an increased risk of hospitalisation, particularly within the first year of treatment (incidence rate ratio 1.98, 95% CI 1.93-2.04), and increased mortality (HR 1.77, 95% CI 1.30-2.40). They were more likely to have special educational need for mental (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.49-2.08) and physical (OR 2.76, 95% CI 2.57-2.95) health reasons, and performed worse in school exams (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06-1.16). Higher absenteeism (incidence rate ratio 1.25, 95% CI 1.24-1.26) partially explained their poorer attainment. Children with treated asthma have poorer education and health outcomes than their peers. Educational interventions that mitigate the adverse effects of absenteeism should be considered.",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/3/1802309.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030?pdf=render +37418234,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8,A Systematic Analysis of the Clinical Outcome Associated with Multiple Reclassified Desmosomal Gene Variants in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy Patients.,"Nagyova E, Hoorntje ET, Te Rijdt WP, Bosman LP, Syrris P, Protonotarios A, Elliott PM, Tsatsopoulou A, Mestroni L, Taylor MRG, Sinagra G, Merlo M, Wada Y, Horie M, Mogensen J, Christensen AH, Gerull B, Song L, Yao Y, Fan S, Saguner AM, Duru F, Koskenvuo JW, Cruz Marino T, Tichnell C, Judge DP, Dooijes D, Lekanne Deprez RH, Basso C, Pilichou K, Bauce B, Wilde AAM, Charron P, Fressart V, van der Heijden JF, van den Berg MP, Asselbergs FW, James CA, Jongbloed JDH, Harakalova M, van Tintelen JP.",,Journal of cardiovascular translational research,2023,2023-07-07,N,Genetics; Arrhythmia; Arvc; Composite Endpoint; Multiple Variants; Desmosomal Genes,,,"The presence of multiple pathogenic variants in desmosomal genes (DSC2, DSG2, DSP, JUP, and PKP2) in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) has been linked to a severe phenotype. However, the pathogenicity of variants is reclassified frequently, which may result in a changed clinical risk prediction. Here, we present the collection, reclassification, and clinical outcome correlation for the largest series of ARVC patients carrying multiple desmosomal pathogenic variants to date (n = 331). After reclassification, only 29% of patients remained carriers of two (likely) pathogenic variants. They reached the composite endpoint (ventricular arrhythmias, heart failure, and death) significantly earlier than patients with one or no remaining reclassified variant (hazard ratios of 1.9 and 1.8, respectively). Periodic reclassification of variants contributes to more accurate risk stratification and subsequent clinical management strategy. Graphical Abstract.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8 30649175,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2018.4537,Cardiovascular Risk Factors Associated With Venous Thromboembolism.,"Gregson J, Kaptoge S, Bolton T, Pennells L, Willeit P, Burgess S, Bell S, Sweeting M, Rimm EB, Kabrhel C, Zöller B, Assmann G, Gudnason V, Folsom AR, Arndt V, Fletcher A, Norman PE, Nordestgaard BG, Kitamura A, Mahmoodi BK, Whincup PH, Knuiman M, Salomaa V, Meisinger C, Koenig W, Kavousi M, Völzke H, Cooper JA, Ninomiya T, Casiglia E, Rodriguez B, Ben-Shlomo Y, Després JP, Simons L, Barrett-Connor E, Björkelund C, Notdurfter M, Kromhout D, Price J, Sutherland SE, Sundström J, Kauhanen J, Gallacher J, Beulens JWJ, Dankner R, Cooper C, Giampaoli S, Deen JF, Gómez de la Cámara A, Kuller LH, Rosengren A, Svensson PJ, Nagel D, Crespo CJ, Brenner H, Albertorio-Diaz JR, Atkins R, Brunner EJ, Shipley M, Njølstad I, Lawlor DA, van der Schouw YT, Selmer RM, Trevisan M, Verschuren WMM, Greenland P, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Lowe GDO, Wood AM, Butterworth AS, Thompson SG, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Meade T, Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration.",,JAMA cardiology,2019,2019-02-01,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Importance

It is uncertain to what extent established cardiovascular risk factors are associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Objective

To estimate the associations of major cardiovascular risk factors with VTE, ie, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

Design, setting, and participants

This study included individual participant data mostly from essentially population-based cohort studies from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration (ERFC; 731 728 participants; 75 cohorts; years of baseline surveys, February 1960 to June 2008; latest date of follow-up, December 2015) and the UK Biobank (421 537 participants; years of baseline surveys, March 2006 to September 2010; latest date of follow-up, February 2016). Participants without cardiovascular disease at baseline were included. Data were analyzed from June 2017 to September 2018.

Exposures

A panel of several established cardiovascular risk factors.

Main outcomes and measures

Hazard ratios (HRs) per 1-SD higher usual risk factor levels (or presence/absence). Incident fatal outcomes in ERFC (VTE, 1041; coronary heart disease [CHD], 25 131) and incident fatal/nonfatal outcomes in UK Biobank (VTE, 2321; CHD, 3385). Hazard ratios were adjusted for age, sex, smoking status, diabetes, and body mass index (BMI).

Results

Of the 731 728 participants from the ERFC, 403 396 (55.1%) were female, and the mean (SD) age at the time of the survey was 51.9 (9.0) years; of the 421 537 participants from the UK Biobank, 233 699 (55.4%) were female, and the mean (SD) age at the time of the survey was 56.4 (8.1) years. Risk factors for VTE included older age (ERFC: HR per decade, 2.67; 95% CI, 2.45-2.91; UK Biobank: HR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.71-1.92), current smoking (ERFC: HR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.20-1.58; UK Biobank: HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.08-1.40), and BMI (ERFC: HR per 1-SD higher BMI, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.35-1.50; UK Biobank: HR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.32-1.41). For these factors, there were similar HRs for pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis in UK Biobank (except adiposity was more strongly associated with pulmonary embolism) and similar HRs for unprovoked vs provoked VTE. Apart from adiposity, these risk factors were less strongly associated with VTE than CHD. There were inconsistent associations of VTEs with diabetes and blood pressure across ERFC and UK Biobank, and there was limited ability to study lipid and inflammation markers.

Conclusions and relevance

Older age, smoking, and adiposity were consistently associated with higher VTE risk.",,pdf:https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=sph_facpub; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2018.4537; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6386140 34725404,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00748-y,Probabilistic modelling of effects of antibiotics and calendar time on transmission of healthcare-associated infection.,"Laager M, Cooper BS, Eyre DW, CDC Modeling Infectious Diseases in Healthcare Program (MInD-Healthcare).",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-11-01,Y,,,,"Healthcare-associated infection and antimicrobial resistance are major concerns. However, the extent to which antibiotic exposure affects transmission and detection of infections such as MRSA is unclear. Additionally, temporal trends are typically reported in terms of changes in incidence, rather than analysing underling transmission processes. We present a data-augmented Markov chain Monte Carlo approach for inferring changing transmission parameters over time, screening test sensitivity, and the effect of antibiotics on detection and transmission. We expand a basic model to allow use of typing information when inferring sources of infections. Using simulated data, we show that the algorithms are accurate, well-calibrated and able to identify antibiotic effects in sufficiently large datasets. We apply the models to study MRSA transmission in an intensive care unit in Oxford, UK with 7924 admissions over 10 years. We find that falls in MRSA incidence over time were associated with decreases in both the number of patients admitted to the ICU colonised with MRSA and in transmission rates. In our inference model, the data were not informative about the effect of antibiotics on risk of transmission or acquisition of MRSA, a consequence of the limited number of possible transmission events in the data. Our approach has potential to be applied to a range of healthcare-associated infections and settings and could be applied to study the impact of other potential risk factors for transmission. Evidence generated could be used to direct infection control interventions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-00748-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00748-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8560804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8560804?pdf=render -37418234,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8,A Systematic Analysis of the Clinical Outcome Associated with Multiple Reclassified Desmosomal Gene Variants in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy Patients.,"Nagyova E, Hoorntje ET, Te Rijdt WP, Bosman LP, Syrris P, Protonotarios A, Elliott PM, Tsatsopoulou A, Mestroni L, Taylor MRG, Sinagra G, Merlo M, Wada Y, Horie M, Mogensen J, Christensen AH, Gerull B, Song L, Yao Y, Fan S, Saguner AM, Duru F, Koskenvuo JW, Cruz Marino T, Tichnell C, Judge DP, Dooijes D, Lekanne Deprez RH, Basso C, Pilichou K, Bauce B, Wilde AAM, Charron P, Fressart V, van der Heijden JF, van den Berg MP, Asselbergs FW, James CA, Jongbloed JDH, Harakalova M, van Tintelen JP.",,Journal of cardiovascular translational research,2023,2023-07-07,N,Genetics; Arrhythmia; Arvc; Composite Endpoint; Multiple Variants; Desmosomal Genes,,,"The presence of multiple pathogenic variants in desmosomal genes (DSC2, DSG2, DSP, JUP, and PKP2) in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) has been linked to a severe phenotype. However, the pathogenicity of variants is reclassified frequently, which may result in a changed clinical risk prediction. Here, we present the collection, reclassification, and clinical outcome correlation for the largest series of ARVC patients carrying multiple desmosomal pathogenic variants to date (n = 331). After reclassification, only 29% of patients remained carriers of two (likely) pathogenic variants. They reached the composite endpoint (ventricular arrhythmias, heart failure, and death) significantly earlier than patients with one or no remaining reclassified variant (hazard ratios of 1.9 and 1.8, respectively). Periodic reclassification of variants contributes to more accurate risk stratification and subsequent clinical management strategy. Graphical Abstract.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8 +35301688,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2,Electrocardiogram-based mortality prediction in patients with COVID-19 using machine learning.,"van de Leur RR, Bleijendaal H, Taha K, Mast T, Gho JMIH, Linschoten M, van Rees B, Henkens MTHM, Heymans S, Sturkenboom N, Tio RA, Offerhaus JA, Bor WL, Maarse M, Haerkens-Arends HE, Kolk MZH, van der Lingen ACJ, Selder JJ, Wierda EE, van Bergen PFMM, Winter MM, Zwinderman AH, Doevendans PA, van der Harst P, Pinto YM, Asselbergs FW, van Es R, Tjong FVY, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2022,2022-03-17,Y,Mortality; Electrocardiogram; Arrhythmia; Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Covid-19,,,"

Background and purpose

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is frequently obtained in the work-up of COVID-19 patients. So far, no study has evaluated whether ECG-based machine learning models have added value to predict in-hospital mortality specifically in COVID-19 patients.

Methods

Using data from the CAPACITY-COVID registry, we studied 882 patients admitted with COVID-19 across seven hospitals in the Netherlands. Raw format 12-lead ECGs recorded within 72 h of admission were studied. With data from five hospitals (n = 634), three models were developed: (a) a logistic regression baseline model using age and sex, (b) a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model using age, sex and human annotated ECG features, and (c) a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) using age, sex and the raw ECG waveforms. Data from two hospitals (n = 248) was used for external validation.

Results

Performances for models a, b and c were comparable with an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.65-0.79), 0.76 (95% CI 0.68-0.82) and 0.77 (95% CI 0.70-0.83) respectively. Predictors of mortality in the LASSO model were age, low QRS voltage, ST depression, premature atrial complexes, sex, increased ventricular rate, and right bundle branch block.

Conclusion

This study shows that the ECG-based prediction models could be helpful for the initial risk stratification of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and that several ECG abnormalities are associated with in-hospital all-cause mortality of COVID-19 patients. Moreover, this proof-of-principle study shows that the use of pre-trained DNNs for ECG analysis does not underperform compared with time-consuming manual annotation of ECG features.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464?pdf=render 37253531,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009997,Effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention to face the COVID-19 pandemic in Rio de Janeiro's favelas: difference-in-differences analysis.,"Batista-da-Silva AA, Moraes CB, Bozza HR, Bastos LDSL, Ranzani OT, Hamacher S, Bozza FA, Comitê Gestor Conexão Saúde.",,BMJ global health,2023,2023-05-01,Y,"Control strategies; Public Health; Intervention Study; Infections, Diseases, Disorders, Injuries; Covid-19",,,"

Introduction

Few community-based interventions addressing the transmission control and clinical management of COVID-19 cases have been reported, especially in poor urban communities from low-income and middle-income countries. Here, we analyse the impact of a multicomponent intervention that combines community engagement, mobile surveillance, massive testing and telehealth on COVID-19 cases detection and mortality rates in a large vulnerable community (Complexo da Maré) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Methods

We performed a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis to estimate the impact of the multicomponent intervention in Maré, before (March-August 2020) and after the intervention (September 2020 to April 2021), compared with equivalent local vulnerable communities. We applied a negative binomial regression model to estimate the intervention effect in weekly cases and mortality rates in Maré.

Results

Before the intervention, Maré presented lower rates of reported COVID-19 cases compared with the control group (1373 vs 1579 cases/100 000 population), comparable mortality rates (309 vs 287 deaths/100 000 population) and higher case fatality rates (13.7% vs 12.2%). After the intervention, Maré displayed a 154% (95% CI 138.6% to 170.4%) relative increase in reported case rates. Relative changes in reported death rates were -60% (95% CI -69.0% to -47.9%) in Maré and -28% (95% CI -42.0% to -9.8%) in the control group. The case fatality rate was reduced by 77% (95% CI -93.1% to -21.1%) in Maré and 52% (95% CI -81.8% to -29.4%) in the control group. The DID showed a reduction of 46% (95% CI 17% to 65%) of weekly reported deaths and an increased 23% (95% CI 5% to 44%) of reported cases in Maré after intervention onset.

Conclusion

An integrated intervention combining communication, surveillance and telehealth, with a strong community engagement component, could reduce COVID-19 mortality and increase case detection in a large vulnerable community in Rio de Janeiro. These findings show that investment in community-based interventions may reduce mortality and improve pandemic control in poor communities from low-income and middle-income countries.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009997; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009997; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230340; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230340?pdf=render 33550229,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040167,Assessing public support for extending smoke-free policies beyond enclosed public places and workplaces: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Boderie NW, Mölenberg FJ, Sheikh A, Bramer WM, Burdorf A, van Lenthe FJ, Been JV.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-02-05,Y,Tobacco smoke pollution; Attitude; Smoke-free Policy,,,"

Introduction

Smoke-free enclosed public environments are effective in reducing exposure to secondhand smoke and yield major public health benefits. Building on this, many countries are now implementing smoke-free policies regulating smoking beyond enclosed public places and workplaces. In order to successfully implement such 'novel smoke-free policies', public support is essential. We aim to provide the first comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis assessing levels and determinants of public support for novel smoke-free policies.

Methods and analysis

The primary objective of this review is to summarise the level of public support for novel smoke-free policies. Eight online databases (Embase.com, Medline ALL Ovid, Web of Science Core Collection, WHO Library Database, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, Scientific Online Library Online, PsychINFO and Google Scholar) will be searched from 1 January 2004 by two independent researchers with no language restrictions. The initial search was performed on 15 April 2020 and will be updated prior to finalisation of the report. Studies are eligible if assessing support for novel smoke-free policies in the general population (age ≥16 years) and have a sample size of n≥400. Studies funded by the tobacco industry or evaluating support among groups with vested interest are excluded. The primary outcome is proportion of public support for smoke-free policies, subdivided according to the spaces covered: (1) indoor private spaces (eg, cars) (2) indoor semiprivate spaces (eg, multi-unit housing) (3) outdoor (semi)private spaces (eg, courtyards) (4) non-hospitality outdoor public spaces (eg, parks, hospital grounds, playgrounds) and (5) hospitality outdoor public spaces (eg, restaurant terraces). The secondary objective is to identify determinants associated with public support on three levels: (1) within-study determinants (eg, smoking status) (2) between-study determinants (eg, survey year) and (3) context-specific determinants (eg, social norms). Risk of bias will be assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool and a sensitivity analysis will be performed excluding studies at high risk of bias.

Ethics and dissemination

No formal ethical approval is required. Findings will be disseminated to academics, policymakers and the general public.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/2/e040167.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040167; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925902?pdf=render -35301688,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2,Electrocardiogram-based mortality prediction in patients with COVID-19 using machine learning.,"van de Leur RR, Bleijendaal H, Taha K, Mast T, Gho JMIH, Linschoten M, van Rees B, Henkens MTHM, Heymans S, Sturkenboom N, Tio RA, Offerhaus JA, Bor WL, Maarse M, Haerkens-Arends HE, Kolk MZH, van der Lingen ACJ, Selder JJ, Wierda EE, van Bergen PFMM, Winter MM, Zwinderman AH, Doevendans PA, van der Harst P, Pinto YM, Asselbergs FW, van Es R, Tjong FVY, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2022,2022-03-17,Y,Mortality; Electrocardiogram; Arrhythmia; Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Covid-19,,,"

Background and purpose

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is frequently obtained in the work-up of COVID-19 patients. So far, no study has evaluated whether ECG-based machine learning models have added value to predict in-hospital mortality specifically in COVID-19 patients.

Methods

Using data from the CAPACITY-COVID registry, we studied 882 patients admitted with COVID-19 across seven hospitals in the Netherlands. Raw format 12-lead ECGs recorded within 72 h of admission were studied. With data from five hospitals (n = 634), three models were developed: (a) a logistic regression baseline model using age and sex, (b) a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model using age, sex and human annotated ECG features, and (c) a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) using age, sex and the raw ECG waveforms. Data from two hospitals (n = 248) was used for external validation.

Results

Performances for models a, b and c were comparable with an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.65-0.79), 0.76 (95% CI 0.68-0.82) and 0.77 (95% CI 0.70-0.83) respectively. Predictors of mortality in the LASSO model were age, low QRS voltage, ST depression, premature atrial complexes, sex, increased ventricular rate, and right bundle branch block.

Conclusion

This study shows that the ECG-based prediction models could be helpful for the initial risk stratification of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and that several ECG abnormalities are associated with in-hospital all-cause mortality of COVID-19 patients. Moreover, this proof-of-principle study shows that the use of pre-trained DNNs for ECG analysis does not underperform compared with time-consuming manual annotation of ECG features.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464?pdf=render 32845538,https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2020-0572,Cancer and Risk of COVID-19 Through a General Community Survey.,"Lee KA, Ma W, Sikavi DR, Drew DA, Nguyen LH, Bowyer RCE, Cardoso MJ, Fall T, Freidin MB, Gomez M, Graham M, Guo CG, Joshi AD, Kwon S, Lo CH, Lochlainn MN, Menni C, Murray B, Mehta R, Song M, Sudre CH, Bataille V, Varsavsky T, Visconti A, Franks PW, Wolf J, Steves CJ, Ourselin S, Spector TD, Chan AT, COPE consortium.",,The oncologist,2021,2020-09-07,Y,,,,"Individuals with cancer may be at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and adverse outcomes. However, evidence from large population-based studies examining whether cancer and cancer-related therapy exacerbates the risk of COVID-19 infection is still limited. Data were collected from the COVID Symptom Study smartphone application since March 29 through May 8, 2020. Among 23,266 participants with cancer and 1,784,293 without cancer, we documented 10,404 reports of a positive COVID-19 test. Compared with participants without cancer, those living with cancer had a 60% increased risk of a positive COVID-19 test. Among patients with cancer, current treatment with chemotherapy or immunotherapy was associated with a 2.2-fold increased risk of a positive test. The association between cancer and COVID-19 infection was stronger among participants >65 years and males. Future studies are needed to identify subgroups by tumor types and treatment regimens who are particularly at risk for COVID-19 infection and adverse outcomes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/oncolo/article-pdf/26/1/e182/41923952/oncolo_26_1_n_a.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2020-0572; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7460944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7460944?pdf=render 34935001,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00282-8,Prevalence and duration of detectable SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibodies in staff and residents of long-term care facilities over the first year of the pandemic (VIVALDI study): prospective cohort study in England.,"Krutikov M, Palmer T, Tut G, Fuller C, Azmi B, Giddings R, Shrotri M, Kaur N, Sylla P, Lancaster T, Irwin-Singer A, Hayward A, Moss P, Copas A, Shallcross L.",,The lancet. Healthy longevity,2022,2021-12-16,Y,,,,"

Background

Long-term care facilities (LTCFs) have reported high SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and related mortality, but the proportion of infected people among those who have survived, and duration of the antibody response to natural infection, is unknown. We determined the prevalence and stability of nucleocapsid antibodies (the standard assay for detection of previous infection) in staff and residents in LTCFs in England.

Methods

This was a prospective cohort study of residents 65 years or older and of staff 65 years or younger in 201 LTCFs in England between March 1, 2020, and May 7, 2021. Participants were linked to a unique pseudo-identifier based on their UK National Health Service identification number. Serial blood samples were tested for IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein using the Abbott ARCHITECT i-system (Abbott, Maidenhead, UK) immunoassay. Primary endpoints were prevalence and cumulative incidence of antibody positivity, which were weighted to the LTCF population. Incidence rate of loss of antibodies (seroreversion) was estimated from Kaplan-Meier curves.

Findings

9488 samples were included, 8636 (91·0%) of which could be individually linked to 1434 residents and 3288 staff members. The cumulative incidence of nucleocapsid seropositivity was 34·6% (29·6-40·0) in residents and 26·1% (23·0-29·5) in staff over 11 months. 239 (38·6%) residents and 503 women (81·3%) were included in the antibody-waning analysis, and median follow-up was 149 days (IQR 107-169). The incidence rate of seroreversion was 2·1 per 1000 person-days at risk, and median time to reversion was 242·5 days.

Interpretation

At least a quarter of staff and a third of surviving residents were infected with SAR-CoV-2 during the first two waves of the pandemic in England. Nucleocapsid-specific antibodies often become undetectable within the first year following infection, which is likely to lead to marked underestimation of the true proportion of people with previous infection. Given that natural infection might act to boost vaccine responses, better assays to identify natural infection should be developed.

Funding

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756821002828/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00282-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8676418 -35477539,https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183,Activation of innate-adaptive immune machinery by poly(I:C) exposes a therapeutic vulnerability to prevent relapse in stroma-rich colon cancer.,"Corry SM, McCorry AM, Lannagan TR, Leonard NA, Fisher NC, Byrne RM, Tsantoulis P, Cortes-Lavaud X, Amirkhah R, Redmond KL, McCooey AJ, Malla SB, Rogan E, Sakhnevych S, Gillespie MA, White M, Richman SD, Jackstadt RF, Campbell AD, Maguire S, S:CORT and ACRCelerate consortia, McDade SS, Longley DB, Loughrey MB, Coleman HG, Kerr EM, Tejpar S, Maughan T, Leedham SJ, Small DM, Ryan AE, Sansom OJ, Lawler M, Dunne PD.",,Gut,2022,2022-04-27,Y,Cancer; Colorectal Cancer; Adjuvant Treatment; Colon Carcinogenesis,,,"

Objective

Stroma-rich tumours represent a poor prognostic subtype in stage II/III colon cancer (CC), with high relapse rates and limited response to standard adjuvant chemotherapy.

Design

To address the lack of efficacious therapeutic options for patients with stroma-rich CC, we stratified our human tumour cohorts according to stromal content, enabling identification of the biology underpinning relapse and potential therapeutic vulnerabilities specifically within stroma-rich tumours that could be exploited clinically. Following human tumour-based discovery and independent clinical validation, we use a series of in vitro and stroma-rich in vivo models to test and validate the therapeutic potential of elevating the biology associated with reduced relapse in human tumours.

Results

By performing our analyses specifically within the stroma-rich/high-fibroblast (HiFi) subtype of CC, we identify and validate the clinical value of a HiFi-specific prognostic signature (HPS), which stratifies tumours based on STAT1-related signalling (High-HPS v Low-HPS=HR 0.093, CI 0.019 to 0.466). Using in silico, in vitro and in vivo models, we demonstrate that the HPS is associated with antigen processing and presentation within discrete immune lineages in stroma-rich CC, downstream of double-stranded RNA and viral response signalling. Treatment with the TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) elevated the HPS signalling and antigen processing phenotype across in vitro and in vivo models. In an in vivo model of stroma-rich CC, poly(I:C) treatment significantly increased systemic cytotoxic T cell activity (p<0.05) and reduced liver metastases (p<0.0002).

Conclusion

This study reveals new biological insight that offers a novel therapeutic option to reduce relapse rates in patients with the worst prognosis CC.",,pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/early/2022/04/10/gutjnl-2021-326183.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095?pdf=render 33829489,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.20140,Defining trajectories of response in patients with psoriasis treated with biologic therapies.,"Geifman N, Azadbakht N, Zeng J, Wilkinson T, Dand N, Buchan I, Stocken D, Di Meglio P, Warren RB, Barker JN, Reynolds NJ, Barnes MR, Smith CH, Griffiths CEM, Peek N, BADBIR Study Group, on behalf of the PSORT Consortium.",,The British journal of dermatology,2021,2021-06-04,N,,,,"

Background

The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of biologic therapies for psoriasis are significantly compromised by variable treatment responses. Thus, more precise management of psoriasis is needed.

Objectives

To identify subgroups of patients with psoriasis treated with biologic therapies, based on changes in their disease activity over time, that may better inform patient management.

Methods

We applied latent class mixed modelling to identify trajectory-based patient subgroups from longitudinal, routine clinical data on disease severity, as measured by the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), from 3546 patients in the British Association of Dermatologists Biologics and Immunomodulators Register, as well as in an independent cohort of 2889 patients pooled across four clinical trials.

Results

We discovered four discrete classes of global response trajectories, each characterized in terms of time to response, size of effect and relapse. Each class was associated with differing clinical characteristics, e.g. body mass index, baseline PASI and prevalence of different manifestations. The results were verified in a second cohort of clinical trial participants, where similar trajectories following the initiation of biologic therapy were identified. Further, we found differential associations of the genetic marker HLA-C*06:02 between our registry-identified trajectories.

Conclusions

These subgroups, defined by change in disease over time, may be indicative of distinct endotypes driven by different biological mechanisms and may help inform the management of patients with psoriasis. Future work will aim to further delineate these mechanisms by extensively characterizing the subgroups with additional molecular and pharmacological data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.20140 32402553,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2020.03.029,"Visual Field Outcomes from the Multicenter, Randomized Controlled Laser in Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension Trial (LiGHT).","Wright DM, Konstantakopoulou E, Montesano G, Nathwani N, Garg A, Garway-Heath D, Crabb DP, Gazzard G, Laser in Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension Trial (LiGHT) Study Group.",,Ophthalmology,2020,2020-04-03,N,,,,"

Purpose

To compare visual field outcomes of ocular hypertensive and glaucoma patients treated first with medical therapy with those treated first with selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT).

Design

Secondary analysis of patients from the Laser in Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension study, a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Participants

Three hundred forty-four patients (588 eyes) treated first with medical therapy and 344 patients (590 eyes) treated first with SLT.

Methods

Visual fields (VFs) were measured using standard automated perimetry and arranged in series (median length and duration, 9 VFs over 48 months). Hierarchical linear models were used to estimate pointwise VF progression rates, which were then averaged to produce a global progression estimate for each eye. Proportions of points and patients in each treatment group with fast (<-1 dB/year) or moderate (<-0.5 dB/year) progression were compared using log-binomial regression.

Main outcome measures

Pointwise and global progression rates of total deviation (TD) and pattern deviation (PD).

Results

A greater proportion of eyes underwent moderate or fast TD progression in the medical therapy group compared with the SLT group (26.2% vs. 16.9%; risk ratio [RR], 1.55; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23-1.93; P < 0.001). A similar pattern was observed for pointwise rates (medical therapy, 26.1% vs. SLT, 19.0%; RR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.33-1.42; P < 0.001). A greater proportion of pointwise PD rates were categorized as moderate or fast in the medical therapy group (medical therapy, 11.5% vs. SLT, 8.3%; RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.32-1.46; P < 0.001). No statistical difference was found in the proportion of eyes that underwent moderate or fast PD progression (medical therapy, 9.9% vs. SLT, 7.1%; RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 0.95, 2.03; P = 0.0928).

Conclusions

A slightly larger proportion of ocular hypertensive and glaucoma patients treated first with medical therapy underwent rapid VF progression compared with those treated first with SLT.",,pdf:https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/24492/1/Wright%20Crabb%20et%20al%20Ophthalmology%202020.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2020.03.029 -34653419,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(21)00205-x,Life expectancy and risk of death in 6791 communities in England from 2002 to 2019: high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data.,"Rashid T, Bennett JE, Paciorek CJ, Doyle Y, Pearson-Stuttard J, Flaxman S, Fecht D, Toledano MB, Li G, Daby HI, Johnson E, Davies B, Ezzati M.",,The Lancet. Public health,2021,2021-10-13,Y,,,,"

Background

High-resolution data for how mortality and longevity have changed in England, UK are scarce. We aimed to estimate trends from 2002 to 2019 in life expectancy and probabilities of death at different ages for all 6791 middle-layer super output areas (MSOAs) in England.

Methods

We performed a high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data from the UK Small Area Health Statistics Unit research database using de-identified data for all deaths in England from 2002 to 2019, with information on age, sex, and MSOA of residence, and population counts by age, sex, and MSOA. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to obtain estimates of age-specific death rates by sharing information across age groups, MSOAs, and years. We used life table methods to calculate life expectancy at birth and probabilities of death in different ages by sex and MSOA.

Findings

In 2002-06 and 2006-10, all but a few (0-1%) MSOAs had a life expectancy increase for female and male sexes. In 2010-14, female life expectancy decreased in 351 (5·2%) of 6791 MSOAs. By 2014-19, the number of MSOAs with declining life expectancy was 1270 (18·7%) for women and 784 (11·5%) for men. The life expectancy increase from 2002 to 2019 was smaller in MSOAs where life expectancy had been lower in 2002 (mostly northern urban MSOAs), and larger in MSOAs where life expectancy had been higher in 2002 (mostly MSOAs in and around London). As a result of these trends, the gap between the first and 99th percentiles of MSOA life expectancy for women increased from 10·7 years (95% credible interval 10·4-10·9) in 2002 to reach 14·2 years (13·9-14·5) in 2019, and for men increased from 11·5 years (11·3-11·7) in 2002 to 13·6 years (13·4-13·9) in 2019.

Interpretation

In the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy declined in increasing numbers of communities in England. To ensure that this trend does not continue or worsen, there is a need for pro-equity economic and social policies, and greater investment in public health and health care throughout the entire country.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Imperial College London, Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and National Institutes of Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S246826672100205X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00205-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8554392 +35477539,https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183,Activation of innate-adaptive immune machinery by poly(I:C) exposes a therapeutic vulnerability to prevent relapse in stroma-rich colon cancer.,"Corry SM, McCorry AM, Lannagan TR, Leonard NA, Fisher NC, Byrne RM, Tsantoulis P, Cortes-Lavaud X, Amirkhah R, Redmond KL, McCooey AJ, Malla SB, Rogan E, Sakhnevych S, Gillespie MA, White M, Richman SD, Jackstadt RF, Campbell AD, Maguire S, S:CORT and ACRCelerate consortia, McDade SS, Longley DB, Loughrey MB, Coleman HG, Kerr EM, Tejpar S, Maughan T, Leedham SJ, Small DM, Ryan AE, Sansom OJ, Lawler M, Dunne PD.",,Gut,2022,2022-04-27,Y,Cancer; Colorectal Cancer; Adjuvant Treatment; Colon Carcinogenesis,,,"

Objective

Stroma-rich tumours represent a poor prognostic subtype in stage II/III colon cancer (CC), with high relapse rates and limited response to standard adjuvant chemotherapy.

Design

To address the lack of efficacious therapeutic options for patients with stroma-rich CC, we stratified our human tumour cohorts according to stromal content, enabling identification of the biology underpinning relapse and potential therapeutic vulnerabilities specifically within stroma-rich tumours that could be exploited clinically. Following human tumour-based discovery and independent clinical validation, we use a series of in vitro and stroma-rich in vivo models to test and validate the therapeutic potential of elevating the biology associated with reduced relapse in human tumours.

Results

By performing our analyses specifically within the stroma-rich/high-fibroblast (HiFi) subtype of CC, we identify and validate the clinical value of a HiFi-specific prognostic signature (HPS), which stratifies tumours based on STAT1-related signalling (High-HPS v Low-HPS=HR 0.093, CI 0.019 to 0.466). Using in silico, in vitro and in vivo models, we demonstrate that the HPS is associated with antigen processing and presentation within discrete immune lineages in stroma-rich CC, downstream of double-stranded RNA and viral response signalling. Treatment with the TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) elevated the HPS signalling and antigen processing phenotype across in vitro and in vivo models. In an in vivo model of stroma-rich CC, poly(I:C) treatment significantly increased systemic cytotoxic T cell activity (p<0.05) and reduced liver metastases (p<0.0002).

Conclusion

This study reveals new biological insight that offers a novel therapeutic option to reduce relapse rates in patients with the worst prognosis CC.",,pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/early/2022/04/10/gutjnl-2021-326183.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095?pdf=render 33407780,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04951-6,Reporting guidelines for clinical trials of artificial intelligence interventions: the SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI guidelines.,"Ibrahim H, Liu X, Rivera SC, Moher D, Chan AW, Sydes MR, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK.",,Trials,2021,2021-01-06,Y,Artificial intelligence; Checklist; RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIALS; Research Report; Clinical Trials; Guidelines; Research Design; Machine Learning,,,"

Background

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is an area of immense interest. The high profile of 'AI in health' means that there are unusually strong drivers to accelerate the introduction and implementation of innovative AI interventions, which may not be supported by the available evidence, and for which the usual systems of appraisal may not yet be sufficient.

Main text

We are beginning to see the emergence of randomised clinical trials evaluating AI interventions in real-world settings. It is imperative that these studies are conducted and reported to the highest standards to enable effective evaluation because they will potentially be a key part of the evidence that is used when deciding whether an AI intervention is sufficiently safe and effective to be approved and commissioned. Minimum reporting guidelines for clinical trial protocols and reports have been instrumental in improving the quality of clinical trials and promoting completeness and transparency of reporting for the evaluation of new health interventions. The current guidelines-SPIRIT and CONSORT-are suited to traditional health interventions but research has revealed that they do not adequately address potential sources of bias specific to AI systems. Examples of elements that require specific reporting include algorithm version and the procedure for acquiring input data. In response, the SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI guidelines were developed by a multidisciplinary group of international experts using a consensus building methodological process. The extensions include a number of new items that should be reported in addition to the core items. Each item, where possible, was informed by challenges identified in existing studies of AI systems in health settings.

Conclusion

The SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI guidelines provide the first international standards for clinical trials of AI systems. The guidelines are designed to ensure complete and transparent reporting of clinical trial protocols and reports involving AI interventions and have the potential to improve the quality of these clinical trials through improvements in their design and delivery. Their use will help to efficiently identify the safest and most effective AI interventions and commission them with confidence for the benefit of patients and the public.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13063-020-04951-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04951-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788716; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788716?pdf=render +34653419,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(21)00205-x,Life expectancy and risk of death in 6791 communities in England from 2002 to 2019: high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data.,"Rashid T, Bennett JE, Paciorek CJ, Doyle Y, Pearson-Stuttard J, Flaxman S, Fecht D, Toledano MB, Li G, Daby HI, Johnson E, Davies B, Ezzati M.",,The Lancet. Public health,2021,2021-10-13,Y,,,,"

Background

High-resolution data for how mortality and longevity have changed in England, UK are scarce. We aimed to estimate trends from 2002 to 2019 in life expectancy and probabilities of death at different ages for all 6791 middle-layer super output areas (MSOAs) in England.

Methods

We performed a high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data from the UK Small Area Health Statistics Unit research database using de-identified data for all deaths in England from 2002 to 2019, with information on age, sex, and MSOA of residence, and population counts by age, sex, and MSOA. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to obtain estimates of age-specific death rates by sharing information across age groups, MSOAs, and years. We used life table methods to calculate life expectancy at birth and probabilities of death in different ages by sex and MSOA.

Findings

In 2002-06 and 2006-10, all but a few (0-1%) MSOAs had a life expectancy increase for female and male sexes. In 2010-14, female life expectancy decreased in 351 (5·2%) of 6791 MSOAs. By 2014-19, the number of MSOAs with declining life expectancy was 1270 (18·7%) for women and 784 (11·5%) for men. The life expectancy increase from 2002 to 2019 was smaller in MSOAs where life expectancy had been lower in 2002 (mostly northern urban MSOAs), and larger in MSOAs where life expectancy had been higher in 2002 (mostly MSOAs in and around London). As a result of these trends, the gap between the first and 99th percentiles of MSOA life expectancy for women increased from 10·7 years (95% credible interval 10·4-10·9) in 2002 to reach 14·2 years (13·9-14·5) in 2019, and for men increased from 11·5 years (11·3-11·7) in 2002 to 13·6 years (13·4-13·9) in 2019.

Interpretation

In the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy declined in increasing numbers of communities in England. To ensure that this trend does not continue or worsen, there is a need for pro-equity economic and social policies, and greater investment in public health and health care throughout the entire country.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Imperial College London, Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and National Institutes of Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S246826672100205X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00205-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8554392 33602244,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01924-7,The impact of local and national restrictions in response to COVID-19 on social contacts in England: a longitudinal natural experiment.,"Jarvis CI, Gimma A, van Zandvoort K, Wong KLM, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Edmunds WJ.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-02-19,Y,Pandemic; England; United Kingdom; Disease Outbreak; Non-pharmaceutical Interventions; Covid-19; Contact Survey; Lockdowns,,,"

Background

England's COVID-19 response transitioned from a national lockdown to localised interventions. In response to rising cases, these were supplemented by national restrictions on contacts (the Rule of Six), then 10 pm closing for bars and restaurants, and encouragement to work from home. These were quickly followed by a 3-tier system applying different restrictions in different localities. As cases continued to rise, a second national lockdown was declared. We used a national survey to quantify the impact of these restrictions on epidemiologically relevant contacts.

Methods

We compared paired measures on setting-specific contacts before and after each restriction started and tested for differences using paired permutation tests on the mean change in contacts and the proportion of individuals decreasing their contacts.

Results

Following the imposition of each measure, individuals tended to report fewer contacts than they had before. However, the magnitude of the changes was relatively small and variable. For instance, although early closure of bars and restaurants appeared to have no measurable effect on contacts, the work from home directive reduced mean daily work contacts by 0.99 (95% confidence interval CI] 0.03-1.94), and the Rule of Six reduced non-work and school contacts by a mean of 0.25 (0.01-0.5) per day. Whilst Tier 3 appeared to also reduce non-work and school contacts, the evidence for an effect of the lesser restrictions (Tiers 1 and 2) was much weaker. There may also have been some evidence of saturation of effects, with those who were in Tier 1 (least restrictive) reducing their contacts markedly when they entered lockdown, which was not reflected in similar changes in those who were already under tighter restrictions (Tiers 2 and 3).

Conclusions

The imposition of various local and national measures in England during the summer and autumn of 2020 has gradually reduced contacts. However, these changes are smaller than the initial lockdown in March. This may partly be because many individuals were already starting from a lower number of contacts.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-01924-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01924-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7892289; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7892289?pdf=render 31101093,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6888-9,Educational and health outcomes of children and adolescents receiving antiepileptic medication: Scotland-wide record linkage study of 766 244 schoolchildren.,"Fleming M, Fitton CA, Steiner MFC, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Pell JP.",,BMC public health,2019,2019-05-17,Y,Epilepsy; Health; Prescribing; Educational Outcomes; Record Linkage; Population Cohort,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Childhood epilepsy can adversely affect education and employment in addition to health. Previous studies are small or highly selective producing conflicting results. This retrospective cohort study aims to compare educational and health outcomes of children receiving antiepileptic medication versus peers.

Methods

Record linkage of Scotland-wide databases covering dispensed prescriptions, acute and psychiatric hospitalisations, maternity records, deaths, annual pupil census, school absences/exclusions, special educational needs, school examinations, and (un)employment provided data on 766,244 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. Outcomes were adjusted for sociodemographic and maternity confounders and comorbid conditions.

Results

Compared with peers, children on antiepileptic medication were more likely to experience school absence (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR] 1.43, 95% CI: 1.38, 1.48), special educational needs (Odds ratio [OR] 9.60, 95% CI: 9.02, 10.23), achieve the lowest level of attainment (OR 3.43, 95% CI: 2.74, 4.29) be unemployed (OR 1.82, 95% CI: 1.60, 2.07), be admitted to hospital (Hazard Ratio [HR] 3.56, 95% CI: 3.42, 3.70), and die (HR 22.02, 95% CI: 17.00, 28.53). Absenteeism partly explained poorer attainment and higher unemployment. Girls and younger children on antiepileptic medication had higher risk of poor outcomes.

Conclusions

Children on antiepileptic medication fare worse than peers across educational and health outcomes. In order to reduce school absenteeism and mitigate its effects, children with epilepsy should receive integrated care from a multidisciplinary team that spans education and healthcare.",,pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-019-6888-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6888-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6525436; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6525436?pdf=render 35265823,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101317,Variation in global COVID-19 symptoms by geography and by chronic disease: A global survey using the COVID-19 Symptom Mapper.,"Kadirvelu B, Burcea G, Quint JK, Costelloe CE, Faisal AA.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-03-06,Y,"Comorbidities; Pcr, Polymerase Chain Reaction; Covid-19; Covid-19 Symptoms; Covid Symptom Profile; Covid Symptoms Mapper; Covid Symptoms Survey; Covid-19, The Coronavirus Disease That First Appeared In 2019 Caused By The Sars-cov-2 Coronavirus.; Who, World Health Organization, A Specialized Agency Of The United Nations Responsible For International Public Health.",,,"

Background

COVID-19 is typically characterised by a triad of symptoms: cough, fever and loss of taste and smell, however, this varies globally. This study examines variations in COVID-19 symptom profiles based on underlying chronic disease and geographical location.

Methods

Using a global online symptom survey of 78,299 responders in 190 countries between 09/04/2020 and 22/09/2020, we conducted an exploratory study to examine symptom profiles associated with a positive COVID-19 test result by country and underlying chronic disease (single, co- or multi-morbidities) using statistical and machine learning methods.

Findings

From the results of 7980 COVID-19 tested positive responders, we find that symptom patterns differ by country. For example, India reported a lower proportion of headache (22.8% vs 47.8%, p<1e-13) and itchy eyes (7.3% vs. 16.5%, p=2e-8) than other countries. As with geographic location, we find people differed in their reported symptoms if they suffered from specific chronic diseases. For example, COVID-19 positive responders with asthma (25.3% vs. 13.7%, p=7e-6) were more likely to report shortness of breath compared to those with no underlying chronic disease.

Interpretation

We have identified variation in COVID-19 symptom profiles depending on geographic location and underlying chronic disease. Failure to reflect this symptom variation in public health messaging may contribute to asymptomatic COVID-19 spread and put patients with chronic diseases at a greater risk of infection. Future work should focus on symptom profile variation in the emerging variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is crucial to speed up clinical diagnosis, predict prognostic outcomes and target treatment.

Funding

We acknowledge funding to AAF by a UKRI Turing AI Fellowship and to CEC by a personal NIHR Career Development Fellowship (grant number NIHR-2016-090-015). JKQ has received grants from The Health Foundation, MRC, GSK, Bayer, BI, Asthma UK-British Lung Foundation, IQVIA, Chiesi AZ, and Insmed. This work is supported by BREATHE - The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health [MC_PC_19004]. BREATHE is funded through the UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and delivered through Health Data Research UK. Imperial College London is grateful for the support from the Northwest London NIHR Applied Research Collaboration. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022000475/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101317; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8898170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8898170?pdf=render 35246709,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02257-3,Ethnic inequalities in clozapine use among people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia: a retrospective cohort study using data from electronic clinical records.,"de Freitas DF, Patel I, Kadra-Scalzo G, Pritchard M, Shetty H, Broadbent M, Patel R, Downs J, Segev A, Khondoker M, MacCabe JH, Bhui K, Hayes RD.",,Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology,2022,2022-03-04,Y,Clozapine; Health Inequalities; Benign Ethnic Neutropenia; Black British; Refractory Psychosis; Asian British,,,"

Purpose

Clozapine is the most effective intervention for treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Several studies report ethnic disparities in clozapine treatment. However, few studies restrict analyses to TRS cohorts alone or address confounding by benign ethnic neutropenia. This study investigates ethnic equity in access to clozapine treatment for people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia spectrum disorder.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study, using information from 11 years of clinical records (2007-2017) from the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. We identified a cohort of service-users with TRS using a validated algorithm. We investigated associations between ethnicity and clozapine treatment, adjusting for sociodemographic factors, psychiatric multi-morbidity, substance misuse, neutropenia, and service-use.

Results

Among 2239 cases of TRS, Black service-users were less likely to be receive clozapine compared with White British service-users after adjusting for confounders (Black African aOR = 0.49, 95% CI [0.33, 0.74], p = 0.001; Black Caribbean aOR = 0.64, 95% CI [0.43, 0.93], p = 0.019; Black British aOR = 0.61, 95% CI [0.41, 0.91], p = 0.016). It was additionally observed that neutropenia was not related to treatment with clozapine. Also, a detention under the Mental Health Act was negatively associated clozapine receipt, suggesting people with TRS who were detained are less likely to be treated with clozapine.

Conclusion

Black service-users with TRS were less likely to receive clozapine than White British service-users. Considering the protective effect of treatment with clozapine, these inequities may place Black service-users at higher risk for hospital admissions and mortality.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-022-02257-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02257-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246775; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246775?pdf=render -33725121,https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250,COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: characteristics and outcomes in a multinational network of cohorts across three countries.,"Tan EH, Sena AG, Prats-Uribe A, You SC, Ahmed WU, Kostka K, Reich C, Duvall SL, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Duarte-Salles T, Bertolin SF, Hripcsak G, Natarajan K, Falconer T, Spotnitz M, Ostropolets A, Blacketer C, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Alser O, Lane JCE, Dawoud DM, Shah K, Yang Y, Zhang L, Areia C, Golozar A, Recalde M, Casajust P, Jonnagaddala J, Subbian V, Vizcaya D, Lai LYH, Nyberg F, Morales DR, Posada JD, Shah NH, Gong M, Vivekanantham A, Abend A, Minty EP, Suchard M, Rijnbeek P, Ryan PB, Prieto-Alhambra D.",,"Rheumatology (Oxford, England)",2021,2021-10-01,Y,Mortality; Hospitalization; Open Science; Autoimmune Condition; Observational Health Data Sciences And Informatics (Ohdsi); Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (Omop); Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Patients with autoimmune diseases were advised to shield to avoid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but information on their prognosis is lacking. We characterized 30-day outcomes and mortality after hospitalization with COVID-19 among patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, and compared outcomes after hospital admissions among similar patients with seasonal influenza.

Methods

A multinational network cohort study was conducted using electronic health records data from Columbia University Irving Medical Center [USA, Optum (USA), Department of Veterans Affairs (USA), Information System for Research in Primary Care-Hospitalization Linked Data (Spain) and claims data from IQVIA Open Claims (USA) and Health Insurance and Review Assessment (South Korea). All patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, diagnosed and/or hospitalized between January and June 2020 with COVID-19, and similar patients hospitalized with influenza in 2017-18 were included. Outcomes were death and complications within 30 days of hospitalization.

Results

We studied 133 589 patients diagnosed and 48 418 hospitalized with COVID-19 with prevalent autoimmune diseases. Most patients were female, aged ≥50 years with previous comorbidities. The prevalence of hypertension (45.5-93.2%), chronic kidney disease (14.0-52.7%) and heart disease (29.0-83.8%) was higher in hospitalized vs diagnosed patients with COVID-19. Compared with 70 660 hospitalized with influenza, those admitted with COVID-19 had more respiratory complications including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and higher 30-day mortality (2.2-4.3% vs 6.32-24.6%).

Conclusion

Compared with influenza, COVID-19 is a more severe disease, leading to more complications and higher mortality.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-pdf/60/SI/SI37/40544680/keab250.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171?pdf=render -31848017,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.12.016,Pre-injury health status of major trauma patients with orthopaedic injuries.,"Gelaw AY, Gabbe BJ, Simpson PM, Ekegren CL.",,Injury,2020,2019-12-10,N,Trauma; Injury; Quality of life; Health Status; Orthopaedic; Pre-injury,,,"

Background

Pre-injury health status is an important determining factor of long-term outcomes after orthopaedic major trauma. Determining pre-injury health status of major trauma patients with orthopaedic injuries is also important for evaluating the change from pre to post-injury health status.

Objectives

Describe pre-injury health statuses reported at three different time points (6, 12 and 24 months) after injury and compare these with Australian normative values; determine the agreement between pre-injury health status collected at multiple time points post-injury; and identify factors associated with reporting better pre-injury health status.

Materials and methods

A registry-based cohort study was conducted. Major trauma patients with orthopaedic injuries captured by the Victorian State Trauma Registry with a date of injury from January 2009 to December 2016 were included. Pre-injury health status (measured using the EuroQol-Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS)), reported 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury, was compared against Australian population normative values. The Bland-Altman method of comparison was used to determine the agreement between pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 6 to 12 and 6 to 24 months post-injury. Mixed effects ordinal logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with reporting better pre-injury health status.

Results

A total of 3,371 patients were eligible for the study. The median (IQR) pre-injury EQ-VAS score reported 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury was 90 (85-100) out of 100. Participants' pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury were significantly higher than Australian population normative values. Pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 6 months post-injury agreed with pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 12 and 24 months post-injury. A significant association exists between pre-injury health status and age, comorbidities, injury characteristics, socioeconomic status and pre-injury work status.

Conclusions

People with orthopaedic major trauma have better pre-injury health compared to the general Australian population. Therefore, population-specific values should be used as baseline measures to evaluate orthopaedic trauma outcomes. Pre-injury health status values reported at three different post-injury time points were comparable. If conducting a retrospective pre-injury health evaluation, researchers need be aware of factors that influence self-reporting of pre-injury health status and the response shift that may happen due to encountering injury.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.12.016 37338017,https://doi.org/10.1111/jvh.13863,Contribution of alcohol use in HIV/hepatitis C virus co-infection to all-cause and cause-specific mortality: A collaboration of cohort studies.,"Trickey A, Ingle SM, Boyd A, Gill MJ, Grabar S, Jarrin I, Obel N, Touloumi G, Zangerle R, Rauch A, Rentsch CT, Satre DD, Silverberg MJ, Bonnet F, Guest J, Burkholder G, Crane H, Teira R, Berenguer J, Wyen C, Abgrall S, Hessamfar M, Reiss P, d'Arminio Monforte A, McGinnis KA, Sterne JAC, Wittkop L, Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration.",,Journal of viral hepatitis,2023,2023-06-20,N,Mortality; Alcohol; Hepatitis C virus; HIV; Cohort; Cause-specific,,,"Among persons with HIV (PWH), higher alcohol use and having hepatitis C virus (HCV) are separately associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We investigated whether the association between alcohol use and mortality among PWH is modified by HCV. Data were combined from European and North American cohorts of adult PWH who started antiretroviral therapy (ART). Self-reported alcohol use data, collected in diverse ways between cohorts, were converted to grams/day. Eligible PWH started ART during 2001-2017 and were followed from ART initiation for mortality. Interactions between the associations of baseline alcohol use (0, 0.1-20.0, >20.0 g/day) and HCV status were assessed using multivariable Cox models. Of 58,769 PWH, 29,711 (51%), 23,974 (41%) and 5084 (9%) self-reported alcohol use of 0 g/day, 0.1-20.0 g/day, and > 20.0 g/day, respectively, and 4799 (8%) had HCV at baseline. There were 844 deaths in 37,729 person-years and 2755 deaths in 443,121 person-years among those with and without HCV, respectively. Among PWH without HCV, adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for mortality were 1.18 (95% CI: 1.08-1.29) for 0.0 g/day and 1.84 (1.62-2.09) for >20.0 g/day compared with 0.1-20.0 g/day. This J-shaped pattern was absent among those with HCV: aHRs were 1.00 (0.86-1.17) for 0.0 g/day and 1.64 (1.33-2.02) for >20.0 g/day compared with 0.1-20.0 g/day (interaction p < .001). Among PWH without HCV, mortality was higher in both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers compared with moderate alcohol drinkers. Among those with HCV, mortality was higher in heavy drinkers but not non-drinkers, potentially due to differing reasons for not drinking (e.g. illness) between those with and without HCV.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jvh.13863; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jvh.13863 +31848017,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.12.016,Pre-injury health status of major trauma patients with orthopaedic injuries.,"Gelaw AY, Gabbe BJ, Simpson PM, Ekegren CL.",,Injury,2020,2019-12-10,N,Trauma; Injury; Quality of life; Health Status; Orthopaedic; Pre-injury,,,"

Background

Pre-injury health status is an important determining factor of long-term outcomes after orthopaedic major trauma. Determining pre-injury health status of major trauma patients with orthopaedic injuries is also important for evaluating the change from pre to post-injury health status.

Objectives

Describe pre-injury health statuses reported at three different time points (6, 12 and 24 months) after injury and compare these with Australian normative values; determine the agreement between pre-injury health status collected at multiple time points post-injury; and identify factors associated with reporting better pre-injury health status.

Materials and methods

A registry-based cohort study was conducted. Major trauma patients with orthopaedic injuries captured by the Victorian State Trauma Registry with a date of injury from January 2009 to December 2016 were included. Pre-injury health status (measured using the EuroQol-Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS)), reported 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury, was compared against Australian population normative values. The Bland-Altman method of comparison was used to determine the agreement between pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 6 to 12 and 6 to 24 months post-injury. Mixed effects ordinal logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with reporting better pre-injury health status.

Results

A total of 3,371 patients were eligible for the study. The median (IQR) pre-injury EQ-VAS score reported 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury was 90 (85-100) out of 100. Participants' pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 6, 12 and 24 months post-injury were significantly higher than Australian population normative values. Pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 6 months post-injury agreed with pre-injury EQ-VAS scores reported 12 and 24 months post-injury. A significant association exists between pre-injury health status and age, comorbidities, injury characteristics, socioeconomic status and pre-injury work status.

Conclusions

People with orthopaedic major trauma have better pre-injury health compared to the general Australian population. Therefore, population-specific values should be used as baseline measures to evaluate orthopaedic trauma outcomes. Pre-injury health status values reported at three different post-injury time points were comparable. If conducting a retrospective pre-injury health evaluation, researchers need be aware of factors that influence self-reporting of pre-injury health status and the response shift that may happen due to encountering injury.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.12.016 +33725121,https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250,COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: characteristics and outcomes in a multinational network of cohorts across three countries.,"Tan EH, Sena AG, Prats-Uribe A, You SC, Ahmed WU, Kostka K, Reich C, Duvall SL, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Duarte-Salles T, Bertolin SF, Hripcsak G, Natarajan K, Falconer T, Spotnitz M, Ostropolets A, Blacketer C, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Alser O, Lane JCE, Dawoud DM, Shah K, Yang Y, Zhang L, Areia C, Golozar A, Recalde M, Casajust P, Jonnagaddala J, Subbian V, Vizcaya D, Lai LYH, Nyberg F, Morales DR, Posada JD, Shah NH, Gong M, Vivekanantham A, Abend A, Minty EP, Suchard M, Rijnbeek P, Ryan PB, Prieto-Alhambra D.",,"Rheumatology (Oxford, England)",2021,2021-10-01,Y,Mortality; Hospitalization; Open Science; Autoimmune Condition; Observational Health Data Sciences And Informatics (Ohdsi); Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (Omop); Covid-19,,,"

Objective

Patients with autoimmune diseases were advised to shield to avoid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but information on their prognosis is lacking. We characterized 30-day outcomes and mortality after hospitalization with COVID-19 among patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, and compared outcomes after hospital admissions among similar patients with seasonal influenza.

Methods

A multinational network cohort study was conducted using electronic health records data from Columbia University Irving Medical Center [USA, Optum (USA), Department of Veterans Affairs (USA), Information System for Research in Primary Care-Hospitalization Linked Data (Spain) and claims data from IQVIA Open Claims (USA) and Health Insurance and Review Assessment (South Korea). All patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, diagnosed and/or hospitalized between January and June 2020 with COVID-19, and similar patients hospitalized with influenza in 2017-18 were included. Outcomes were death and complications within 30 days of hospitalization.

Results

We studied 133 589 patients diagnosed and 48 418 hospitalized with COVID-19 with prevalent autoimmune diseases. Most patients were female, aged ≥50 years with previous comorbidities. The prevalence of hypertension (45.5-93.2%), chronic kidney disease (14.0-52.7%) and heart disease (29.0-83.8%) was higher in hospitalized vs diagnosed patients with COVID-19. Compared with 70 660 hospitalized with influenza, those admitted with COVID-19 had more respiratory complications including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and higher 30-day mortality (2.2-4.3% vs 6.32-24.6%).

Conclusion

Compared with influenza, COVID-19 is a more severe disease, leading to more complications and higher mortality.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-pdf/60/SI/SI37/40544680/keab250.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171?pdf=render 33742045,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85354-8,Short and long-read genome sequencing methodologies for somatic variant detection; genomic analysis of a patient with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.,"Roberts HE, Lopopolo M, Pagnamenta AT, Sharma E, Parkes D, Lonie L, Freeman C, Knight SJL, Lunter G, Dreau H, Lockstone H, Taylor JC, Schuh A, Bowden R, Buck D.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-03-19,Y,,,,"Recent advances in throughput and accuracy mean that the Oxford Nanopore Technologies PromethION platform is a now a viable solution for genome sequencing. Much of the validation of bioinformatic tools for this long-read data has focussed on calling germline variants (including structural variants). Somatic variants are outnumbered many-fold by germline variants and their detection is further complicated by the effects of tumour purity/subclonality. Here, we evaluate the extent to which Nanopore sequencing enables detection and analysis of somatic variation. We do this through sequencing tumour and germline genomes for a patient with diffuse B-cell lymphoma and comparing results with 150 bp short-read sequencing of the same samples. Calling germline single nucleotide variants (SNVs) from specific chromosomes of the long-read data achieved good specificity and sensitivity. However, results of somatic SNV calling highlight the need for the development of specialised joint calling algorithms. We find the comparative genome-wide performance of different tools varies significantly between structural variant types, and suggest long reads are especially advantageous for calling large somatic deletions and duplications. Finally, we highlight the utility of long reads for phasing clinically relevant variants, confirming that a somatic 1.6 Mb deletion and a p.(Arg249Met) mutation involving TP53 are oriented in trans.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85354-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85354-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7979876; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7979876?pdf=render 37719470,https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14143429,What you see is what you breathe? Estimating air pollution spatial variation using street level imagery.,"Suel E, Sorek-Hamer M, Moise I, von Pohle M, Sahasrabhojanee A, Asanjan AA, Arku RE, Alli AS, Barratt B, Clark SN, Middel A, Deardorff E, Lingenfelter V, Oza N, Yadav N, Ezzati M, Brauer M.",,Remote sensing,2022,2022-07-01,Y,Air pollution; Computer vision; Urban pollution; transferability; Deep Learning; Data Science; Street Images,,,"High spatial resolution information on urban air pollution levels is unavailable in many areas globally, partially due to high input data needs of existing estimation approaches. Here we introduce a computer vision method to estimate annual means for air pollution levels from street level images. We used annual mean estimates of NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations from locally calibrated models as labels from London, New York, and Vancouver to allow for compilation of a sufficiently large dataset (~250k images for each city). Our experimental setup is designed to quantify intra and intercity transferability of image-based model estimates. Performances were high and comparable to traditional land-use regression (LUR) and dispersion models when training and testing on images from the same city (R2 values between 0.51 and 0.95 when validated on data from ground monitoring stations). Like LUR models, transferability of models between cities in different geographies is more difficult. Specifically, transferability between the three cities i.e., London, New York, and Vancouver, which have similar pollution source profiles were moderately successful (R2 values between zero and 0.67). Comparatively, performances when transferring models trained on these cities with very different source profiles i.e., Accra in Ghana and Hong Kong were lower (R2 between zero and 0.21) suggesting the need for local calibration with local calibration using additional measurement data from cities that share similar source profiles.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14143429; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7615101; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7615101?pdf=render 31950165,https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdz188,Is child weight status correctly reported to parents? Cross-sectional analysis of National Child Measurement Programme data using ethnic-specific BMI adjustments.,"Firman N, Boomla K, Hudda MT, Robson J, Whincup P, Dezateux C.",,"Journal of public health (Oxford, England)",2020,2020-11-01,Y,Obesity; Children; Ethnicity,,,"

Background

BMI underestimates and overestimates body fat in children from South Asian and Black ethnic groups, respectively.

Methods

We used cross-sectional NCMP data (2015-17) for 38 270 children in three inner-London local authorities: City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets (41% South Asian, 18.8% Black): 20 439 4-5 year-olds (48.9% girls) and 17 831 10-11 year-olds (49.1% girls). We estimated the proportion of parents who would have received different information about their child's weight status, and the area-level prevalence of obesity-defined as ≥98th centile-had ethnic-specific BMI adjustments been employed in the English National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP).

Results

Had ethnic-specific adjustment been employed, 19.7% (3112/15 830) of parents of children from South Asian backgrounds would have been informed that their child was in a heavier weight category, and 19.1% (1381/7217) of parents of children from Black backgrounds would have been informed that their child was in a lighter weight category. Ethnic-specific adjustment increased obesity prevalence from 7.9% (95% CI: 7.6, 8.3) to 9.1% (8.7, 9.5) amongst 4-5 year-olds and from 17.5% (16.9, 18.1) to 18.8% (18.2, 19.4) amongst 10-11 year-olds.

Conclusions

Ethnic-specific adjustment in the NCMP would ensure equitable categorization of weight status, provide correct information to parents and support local service provision for families.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-pdf/42/4/e541/34469388/fdz188.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdz188; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7685848; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7685848?pdf=render -36084617,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243,Machine learning integration of multimodal data identifies key features of blood pressure regulation.,"Louca P, Tran TQB, Toit CD, Christofidou P, Spector TD, Mangino M, Suhre K, Padmanabhan S, Menni C.",,EBioMedicine,2022,2022-09-06,Y,Diet; Blood pressure; Genomics; Metabolomics; Machine Learning,,,"

Background

Association studies have identified several biomarkers for blood pressure and hypertension, but a thorough understanding of their mutual dependencies is lacking. By integrating two different high-throughput datasets, biochemical and dietary data, we aim to understand the multifactorial contributors of blood pressure (BP).

Methods

We included 4,863 participants from TwinsUK with concurrent BP, metabolomics, genomics, biochemical measures, and dietary data. We used 5-fold cross-validation with the machine learning XGBoost algorithm to identify features of importance in context of one another in TwinsUK (80% training, 20% test). The features tested in TwinsUK were then probed using the same algorithm in an independent dataset of 2,807 individuals from the Qatari Biobank (QBB).

Findings

Our model explained 39·2% [4·5%, MAE:11·32 mmHg (95%CI, +/- 0·65)] of the variance in systolic BP (SBP) in TwinsUK. Of the top 50 features, the most influential non-demographic variables were dihomo-linolenate, cis-4-decenoyl carnitine, lactate, chloride, urate, and creatinine along with dietary intakes of total, trans and saturated fat. We also highlight the incremental value of each included dimension. Furthermore, we replicated our model in the QBB [SBP variance explained = 45·2% (13·39%)] cohort and 30 of the top 50 features overlapped between cohorts.

Interpretation

We show that an integrated analysis of omics, biochemical and dietary data improves our understanding of their in-between relationships and expands the range of potential biomarkers for blood pressure. Our results point to potentially key biological pathways to be prioritised for mechanistic studies.

Funding

Chronic Disease Research Foundation, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Qatar Foundation.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9463529; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529?pdf=render 32135128,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3026(20)30031-4,"Cardiovascular adverse events in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with first-line cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) or CHOP with rituximab (R-CHOP): a systematic review and meta-analysis.","Linschoten M, Kamphuis JAM, van Rhenen A, Bosman LP, Cramer MJ, Doevendans PA, Teske AJ, Asselbergs FW.",,The Lancet. Haematology,2020,2020-03-02,N,,,,"BACKGROUND:Patients treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma are at risk of cardiovascular adverse events, with the risk of heart failure being particularly high. A regimen of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone, with (R-CHOP) or without (CHOP) rituximab is the standard first-line treatment for aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide are both associated with left ventricular dysfunction. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the cardiovascular toxicity of this regimen. METHODS:We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library from database inception to June 3, 2019, for clinical trials and observational studies in adult patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, peripheral T-cell lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma not otherwise specified) that received first-line treatment with R-CHOP or CHOP. Studies reporting on cardiovascular adverse events and treatment-related cardiovascular mortality were included. Abstracts and articles not written in English were excluded. The main outcomes were the proportion of patients with grade 3-4 cardiovascular adverse events and heart failure. Meta-analyses of one-sample proportions were done in all patients receiving CHOP or R-CHOP. Subgroup analyses on summary estimates were done to determine the effect of number of CHOP or R-CHOP cycles, cycle interval, age, and sex. FINDINGS:Of 2314 identified entries, 137 studies (21 211 patients) published between April, 1984, and June, 2019 were eligible (9541 patients treated with CHOP, 11 293 patients treated with R-CHOP, 377 both regimens used in the study; median follow-up 39·0 months [IQR 25·5-52·8]). From the included studies, 85 subgroups were treated with CHOP, 76 with R-CHOP, and in four studies both CHOP and R-CHOP were used without a subdivision in separate groups. The pooled proportion for grade 3-4 cardiovascular adverse events, based on 77 studies (n=14 351 patients), was 2·35% (95% CI 1·81-2·93; heterogeneity test Q=326·21; τ2=0·0042; I2=71·40%; p<0·0001). For heart failure, the pooled proportion, based on 38 studies (n=5936 patients), was 4·62% (2·25-7·65; heterogeneity test Q=527·33; τ2=0·0384; I2=95·05%; p<0·0001), with a significant increase in reported heart failure from 1·64% (95% CI 0·82-2·65) to 11·72% (3·00-24·53) when cardiac function was evaluated post-chemotherapy (p=0·017). 53 (39%) of 137 studies were rated as having high risk of bias for incomplete outcome data and 54 (39%) for selective reporting. INTERPRETATION:The considerable increase of reported heart failures with cardiac monitoring, indicates that this complication often remains undiagnosed in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who received first-line R-CHOP or CHOP. Our findings are of importance to raise awareness of this complication among clinicians treating patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and stresses the need for cardiac monitoring during and after chemotherapy. Prompt initiation of treatment for heart failure in the presymptomatic phase can mitigate the progression to more advanced heart failure stages. FUNDING:None.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10096913/1/Linschoten-et.al_LANCET_V4_Manuscript_Clean.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3026(20)30031-4 35498042,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.768972,Unravelling the Difference Between Men and Women in Post-CABG Survival.,"Schmidt AF, Haitjema S, Sartipy U, Holzmann MJ, Malenka DJ, Ross CS, van Gilst W, Rouleau JL, Meeder AM, Baker RA, Shiomi H, Kimura T, Tran L, Smith JA, Reid CM, Asselbergs FW, den Ruijter HM.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2022,2022-04-13,Y,Atherosclerosis; Sex; Gender; Prognosis; Cabg; Outcome,,,"

Objectives

Women have a worse prognosis after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery compared to men. We sought to quantify to what extent this difference in post-CABG survival could be attributed to sex itself, or whether this was mediated by difference between men and women at the time of intervention. Additionally, we explored to what extent these effects were homogenous across patient subgroups.

Methods

Time to all-cause mortality was available for 102,263 CABG patients, including 20,988 (21%) women, sourced through an individual participant data meta-analysis of five cohort studies. Difference between men and women in survival duration was assessed using Kaplan-Meier estimates, and Cox's proportional hazards model.

Results

During a median follow-up of 5 years, 13,598 (13%) patients died, with women more likely to die than men: female HR 1.20 (95%CI 1.16; 1.25). We found that differences in patient characteristics at the time of CABG procedure mediated this sex effect, and accounting for these resulted in a neutral female HR 0.98 (95%CI 0.94; 1.02). Next we performed a priori defined subgroup analyses of the five most prominent mediators: age, creatinine, peripheral vascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and heart failure. We found that women without peripheral vascular disease (PVD) or women aged 70+, survived longer than men (interaction p-values 0.04 and 6 × 10-5, respectively), with an effect reversal in younger women.

Conclusion

Sex differences in post-CABG survival were readily explained by difference in patient characteristics and comorbidities. Pre-planned analyses revealed patient subgroups (aged 70+, or without PVD) of women that survived longer than men, and a subgroup of younger women with comparatively poorer survival.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.768972/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.768972; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043514; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043514?pdf=render +36084617,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243,Machine learning integration of multimodal data identifies key features of blood pressure regulation.,"Louca P, Tran TQB, Toit CD, Christofidou P, Spector TD, Mangino M, Suhre K, Padmanabhan S, Menni C.",,EBioMedicine,2022,2022-09-06,Y,Diet; Blood pressure; Genomics; Metabolomics; Machine Learning,,,"

Background

Association studies have identified several biomarkers for blood pressure and hypertension, but a thorough understanding of their mutual dependencies is lacking. By integrating two different high-throughput datasets, biochemical and dietary data, we aim to understand the multifactorial contributors of blood pressure (BP).

Methods

We included 4,863 participants from TwinsUK with concurrent BP, metabolomics, genomics, biochemical measures, and dietary data. We used 5-fold cross-validation with the machine learning XGBoost algorithm to identify features of importance in context of one another in TwinsUK (80% training, 20% test). The features tested in TwinsUK were then probed using the same algorithm in an independent dataset of 2,807 individuals from the Qatari Biobank (QBB).

Findings

Our model explained 39·2% [4·5%, MAE:11·32 mmHg (95%CI, +/- 0·65)] of the variance in systolic BP (SBP) in TwinsUK. Of the top 50 features, the most influential non-demographic variables were dihomo-linolenate, cis-4-decenoyl carnitine, lactate, chloride, urate, and creatinine along with dietary intakes of total, trans and saturated fat. We also highlight the incremental value of each included dimension. Furthermore, we replicated our model in the QBB [SBP variance explained = 45·2% (13·39%)] cohort and 30 of the top 50 features overlapped between cohorts.

Interpretation

We show that an integrated analysis of omics, biochemical and dietary data improves our understanding of their in-between relationships and expands the range of potential biomarkers for blood pressure. Our results point to potentially key biological pathways to be prioritised for mechanistic studies.

Funding

Chronic Disease Research Foundation, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Qatar Foundation.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9463529; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529?pdf=render 32073627,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa002,Educational and health outcomes of children and adolescents receiving antidepressant medication: Scotland-wide retrospective record linkage cohort study of 766 237 schoolchildren.,"Fleming M, Fitton CA, Steiner MFC, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Pell JP.",,International journal of epidemiology,2020,2020-08-01,Y,Depression; Health; Prescribing; Educational Outcomes; Record Linkage; Population Cohort,,,"

Background

Childhood depression is relatively common, under-researched and can impact social and cognitive function and self-esteem.

Methods

Record linkage of routinely collected Scotland-wide administrative databases covering prescriptions [prescribing information system (PIS)], hospitalizations (Scottish Morbidity Records 01 and 04), maternity records (Scottish Morbidity Records 02), deaths (National Records of Scotland), annual pupil census, school absences/exclusions, special educational needs (Scottish Exchange of Educational Data; ScotXed), examinations (Scottish Qualifications Authority) and (un)employment (ScotXed) provided data on 766 237 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013 inclusively. We compared educational and health outcomes of children receiving antidepressant medication with their peers, adjusting for confounders (socio-demographic, maternity and comorbidity) and explored effect modifiers and mediators.

Results

Compared with peers, children receiving antidepressants were more likely to be absent [adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.85-1.95] or excluded (adjusted IRR 1.48, 95% CI 1.29-1.69) from school, have special educational needs [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.77, 95% CI 1.65-1.90], have the lowest level of academic attainment (adjusted OR 3.00, 95% CI 2.51-3.58) and be unemployed after leaving school (adjusted OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.71-2.08). They had increased hospitalization [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 2.07, 95% CI 1.98-2.18] and mortality (adjusted HR 2.73, 95% CI 1.73-4.29) over 5 years' follow-up. Higher absenteeism partially explained poorer attainment and unemployment. Treatment with antidepressants was less common among boys than girls (0.5% vs 1.0%) but the associations with special educational need and unemployment were stronger in boys.

Conclusions

Children receiving antidepressants fare worse than their peers across a wide range of education and health outcomes. Interventions to reduce absenteeism or mitigate its effects should be investigated.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/49/4/1380/34275416/dyaa002.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660154; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660154?pdf=render -33064085,https://doi.org/10.2196/17003,"Impact of Electronic Health Record Interface Design on Unsafe Prescribing of Ciclosporin, Tacrolimus, and Diltiazem: Cohort Study in English National Health Service Primary Care.","MacKenna B, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Croker R, Goldacre B.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-10-16,Y,Diltiazem; Prescribing; Ciclosporin; Primary Care; Tacrolimus; Electronic Health Records; Clinical Software; Branded Prescribing,,,"

Background

In England, national safety guidance recommends that ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem are prescribed by brand name due to their narrow therapeutic windows and, in the case of tacrolimus, to reduce the chance of organ transplantation rejection. Various small studies have shown that changes to electronic health record (EHR) system interfaces can affect prescribing choices.

Objective

Our objectives were to assess variation by EHR systems in breach of safety guidance around prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and to conduct user-interface research into the causes of such breaches.

Methods

We carried out a retrospective cohort study using prescribing data in English primary care. Participants were English general practices and their respective EHR systems. The main outcome measures were (1) the variation in ratio of safety breaches to adherent prescribing in all practices and (2) the description of observations of EHR system usage.

Results

A total of 2,575,411 prescriptions were issued in 2018 for ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem (over 60 mg); of these, 316,119 prescriptions breached NHS guidance (12.27%). Breaches were most common among users of the EMIS EHR system (breaches in 18.81% of ciclosporin and tacrolimus prescriptions and in 17.99% of diltiazem prescriptions), but breaches were observed in all EHR systems.

Conclusions

Design choices in EHR systems strongly influence safe prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and breaches are prevalent in general practices in England. We recommend that all EHR vendors review their systems to increase safe prescribing of these medicines in line with national guidance. Almost all clinical practice is now mediated through an EHR system; further quantitative research into the effect of EHR system design on clinical practice is long overdue.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/10/e17003/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/17003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7600019 36647047,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02722-5,"Polypharmacy during pregnancy and associated risk factors: a retrospective analysis of 577 medication exposures among 1.5 million pregnancies in the UK, 2000-2019.","Subramanian A, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Anand A, Phillips K, Lee SI, Cockburn N, Fagbamigbe AF, Damase-Michel C, Yau C, McCowan C, O'Reilly D, Santorelli G, Hope H, Kennedy JI, Abel KM, Eastwood KA, Locock L, Black M, Loane M, Moss N, Plachcinski R, Thangaratinam S, Brophy S, Agrawal U, Vowles Z, Brocklehurst P, Dolk H, Nelson-Piercy C, Nirantharakumar K, MuM-PreDiCT Group.",,BMC medicine,2023,2023-01-16,Y,Pregnancy; Prescriptions; Polypharmacy; Medications; Multimorbidity; Multiple Medications; Multiple Long-term Conditions,,,"

Background

The number of medications prescribed during pregnancy has increased over the past few decades. Few studies have described the prevalence of multiple medication use among pregnant women. This study aims to describe the overall prevalence over the last two decades among all pregnant women and those with multimorbidity and to identify risk factors for polypharmacy in pregnancy.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was conducted between 2000 and 2019 using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) pregnancy register. Prescription records for 577 medication categories were obtained. Prevalence estimates for polypharmacy (ranging from 2+ to 11+ medications) were presented along with the medications commonly prescribed individually and in pairs during the first trimester and the entire pregnancy period. Logistic regression models were performed to identify risk factors for polypharmacy.

Results

During the first trimester (812,354 pregnancies), the prevalence of polypharmacy ranged from 24.6% (2+ medications) to 0.1% (11+ medications). During the entire pregnancy period (774,247 pregnancies), the prevalence ranged from 58.7 to 1.4%. Broad-spectrum penicillin (6.6%), compound analgesics (4.5%) and treatment of candidiasis (4.3%) were commonly prescribed. Pairs of medication prescribed to manage different long-term conditions commonly included selective beta 2 agonists or selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Risk factors for being prescribed 2+ medications during the first trimester of pregnancy include being overweight or obese [aOR: 1.16 (1.14-1.18) and 1.55 (1.53-1.57)], belonging to an ethnic minority group [aOR: 2.40 (2.33-2.47), 1.71 (1.65-1.76), 1.41 (1.35-1.47) and 1.39 (1.30-1.49) among women from South Asian, Black, other and mixed ethnicities compared to white women] and smoking or previously smoking [aOR: 1.19 (1.18-1.20) and 1.05 (1.03-1.06)]. Higher and lower age, higher gravidity, increasing number of comorbidities and increasing level of deprivation were also associated with increased odds of polypharmacy.

Conclusions

The prevalence of polypharmacy during pregnancy has increased over the past two decades and is particularly high in younger and older women; women with high BMI, smokers and ex-smokers; and women with multimorbidity, higher gravidity and higher levels of deprivation. Well-conducted pharmaco-epidemiological research is needed to understand the effects of multiple medication use on the developing foetus.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02722-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02722-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843951?pdf=render +33064085,https://doi.org/10.2196/17003,"Impact of Electronic Health Record Interface Design on Unsafe Prescribing of Ciclosporin, Tacrolimus, and Diltiazem: Cohort Study in English National Health Service Primary Care.","MacKenna B, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Croker R, Goldacre B.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-10-16,Y,Diltiazem; Prescribing; Ciclosporin; Primary Care; Tacrolimus; Electronic Health Records; Clinical Software; Branded Prescribing,,,"

Background

In England, national safety guidance recommends that ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem are prescribed by brand name due to their narrow therapeutic windows and, in the case of tacrolimus, to reduce the chance of organ transplantation rejection. Various small studies have shown that changes to electronic health record (EHR) system interfaces can affect prescribing choices.

Objective

Our objectives were to assess variation by EHR systems in breach of safety guidance around prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and to conduct user-interface research into the causes of such breaches.

Methods

We carried out a retrospective cohort study using prescribing data in English primary care. Participants were English general practices and their respective EHR systems. The main outcome measures were (1) the variation in ratio of safety breaches to adherent prescribing in all practices and (2) the description of observations of EHR system usage.

Results

A total of 2,575,411 prescriptions were issued in 2018 for ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem (over 60 mg); of these, 316,119 prescriptions breached NHS guidance (12.27%). Breaches were most common among users of the EMIS EHR system (breaches in 18.81% of ciclosporin and tacrolimus prescriptions and in 17.99% of diltiazem prescriptions), but breaches were observed in all EHR systems.

Conclusions

Design choices in EHR systems strongly influence safe prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and breaches are prevalent in general practices in England. We recommend that all EHR vendors review their systems to increase safe prescribing of these medicines in line with national guidance. Almost all clinical practice is now mediated through an EHR system; further quantitative research into the effect of EHR system design on clinical practice is long overdue.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/10/e17003/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/17003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7600019 30382236,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-018-0229-6,The diagnostic accuracy of OCT angiography in naive and treated neovascular age-related macular degeneration: a review.,"Perrott-Reynolds R, Cann R, Cronbach N, Neo YN, Ho V, McNally O, Madi HA, Cochran C, Chakravarthy U.",,"Eye (London, England)",2019,2018-10-31,N,,,,"Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a non-invasive retinal imaging innovation that has been gaining popularity for the evaluation of the retinal vasculature. Of clinical importance is its current use either as an alternative or in conjunction with conventional dye-based angiography in neovascular age-related macular degeneration. OCTA is not without limitations and these include image artefact, a relatively small field of view and failure of the segmentation algorithms, which can confound the interpretation of findings. While there are numerous publications on OCTA in neovascular AMD, few have examined the diagnostic accuracy of this new technology compared with the accepted gold standard of fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA). In this review, we summarise the literature on the clinical application of OCTA in nAMD. In particular, we have reviewed the published articles that have reported the sensitivity and specificity of OCTA in the diagnosis of nAMD, and those that have described and or correlated the morphological findings and compared them to dye-based angiography.",Perrott et al. reviewed strengths and limitations of an eye (retinal) imagining method for diagnosis of a condition affecting the central part of the retina (the macula). This degenerative condition may result in loss of central vision in older adults. Perrott et al. concluded that diagnostic accuracy depends on both method and equipment. ,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-018-0229-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-018-0229-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6367454; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6367454?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-018-0229-6 30351417,https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty837,pJRES Binning Algorithm (JBA): a new method to facilitate the recovery of metabolic information from pJRES 1H NMR spectra.,"Rodriguez-Martinez A, Ayala R, Posma JM, Harvey N, Jiménez B, Sonomura K, Sato TA, Matsuda F, Zalloua P, Gauguier D, Nicholson JK, Dumas ME.",,"Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)",2019,2019-06-01,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"

Motivation

Data processing is a key bottleneck for 1H NMR-based metabolic profiling of complex biological mixtures, such as biofluids. These spectra typically contain several thousands of signals, corresponding to possibly few hundreds of metabolites. A number of binning-based methods have been proposed to reduce the dimensionality of 1 D 1H NMR datasets, including statistical recoupling of variables (SRV). Here, we introduce a new binning method, named JBA (""pJRES Binning Algorithm""), which aims to extend the applicability of SRV to pJRES spectra.

Results

The performance of JBA is comprehensively evaluated using 617 plasma 1H NMR spectra from the FGENTCARD cohort. The results presented here show that JBA exhibits higher sensitivity than SRV to detect peaks from low-abundance metabolites. In addition, JBA allows a more efficient removal of spectral variables corresponding to pure electronic noise, and this has a positive impact on multivariate model building.

Availability and implementation

The algorithm is implemented using the MWASTools R/Bioconductor package.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/35/11/1916/28759353/bty837.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty837; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6546129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6546129?pdf=render -32835195,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5,The effects of physical distancing on population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.,"Drake TM, Docherty AB, Weiser TG, Yule S, Sheikh A, Harrison EM.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2020,2020-06-12,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30134-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602?pdf=render 33910683,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.04.033,"Characteristics, management and outcomes of patients with severe traumatic brain injury in Victoria, Australia compared to United Kingdom and Europe: A comparison between two harmonised prospective cohort studies.","Wiegers EJA, Trapani T, Gabbe BJ, Gantner D, Lecky F, Maas AIR, Menon DK, Murray L, Rosenfeld JV, Vallance S, Lingsma HF, Steyerberg EW, Cooper DJ, CENTER-TBI and OzENTER-TBI investigators and participants12, Collaboration groups: CENTER-TBI and OzENTER-TBI investigators and participants.",,Injury,2021,2021-04-20,N,Traumatic brain injury; Intensive Care; Comparative Effectiveness Research; Trauma Systems; Outcome Comparison,,,"

Objective

The aim of this manuscript is to compare characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients with severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) between Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe.

Methods

We enrolled patients with severe TBI in Victoria, Australia (OzENTER-TBI), in the UK and Europe (CENTER-TBI) from 2015 to 2017. Main outcome measures were mortality and unfavourable outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended <5) 6 months after injury. Expected outcomes were compared according to the IMPACT-CT prognostic model, with observed to expected (O/E) ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

Results

We included 107 patients from Australia, 171 from UK, and 596 from Europe. Compared to the UK and Europe, patients in Australia were younger (median 32 vs 44 vs 44 years), a larger proportion had secondary brain insults including hypotension (30% vs 17% vs 21%) and a larger proportion received ICP monitoring (75% vs 74% vs 58%). Hospital length of stay was shorter in Australia than in the UK (median: 17 vs 23 vs 16 days), and a higher proportion of patients were discharged to a rehabilitation unit in Australia than in the UK and Europe (64% vs 26% vs 28%). Mortality overall was lower than expected (27% vs 35%, O/E ratio 0.77 [95% CI: 0.64 - 0.87]. O/E ratios were comparable between regions for mortality in Australia 0.86 [95% CI: 0.49-1.23] vs UK 0.82 [0.51-1.15] vs Europe 0.76 [0.60-0.87]). Unfavourable outcome rates overall were in line with historic expectations (O/E ratio 1.32 [0.96-1.68] vs 1.13 [0.84-1.42] vs 0.96 [0.85-1.09]).

Conclusions

There are major differences in case-mix between Australia, UK, and Europe; Australian patients are younger and have a higher rate of secondary brain insults. Despite some differences in management and discharge policies, mortality was less than expected overall, and did not differ between regions. Functional outcomes were similar between regions, but worse than expected, emphasizing the need to improve treatment for patients with severe TBI.",,pdf:http://www.injuryjournal.com/article/S0020138321003429/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.04.033 +32835195,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5,The effects of physical distancing on population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.,"Drake TM, Docherty AB, Weiser TG, Yule S, Sheikh A, Harrison EM.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2020,2020-06-12,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30134-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602?pdf=render 32247823,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2020.03.032,Genome-wide and Mendelian randomisation studies of liver MRI yield insights into the pathogenesis of steatohepatitis.,"Parisinos CA, Wilman HR, Thomas EL, Kelly M, Nicholls RC, McGonigle J, Neubauer S, Hingorani AD, Patel RS, Hemingway H, Bell JD, Banerjee R, Yaghootkar H.",,Journal of hepatology,2020,2020-04-02,Y,metabolic syndrome; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; fibrosis; Transaminases; Genome-wide Association Study; Steatohepatitis; Ct1,Understanding the Causes of Disease,oral and gastrointestinal,"

Background & aims

MRI-based corrected T1 (cT1) is a non-invasive method to grade the severity of steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis. We aimed to identify genetic variants influencing liver cT1 and use genetics to understand mechanisms underlying liver fibroinflammatory disease and its link with other metabolic traits and diseases.

Methods

First, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 14,440 Europeans, with liver cT1 measures, from the UK Biobank. Second, we explored the effects of the cT1 variants on liver blood tests, and a range of metabolic traits and diseases. Third, we used Mendelian randomisation to test the causal effects of 24 predominantly metabolic traits on liver cT1 measures.

Results

We identified 6 independent genetic variants associated with liver cT1 that reached the GWAS significance threshold (p <5×10-8). Four of the variants (rs759359281 in SLC30A10, rs13107325 in SLC39A8, rs58542926 in TM6SF2, rs738409 in PNPLA3) were also associated with elevated aminotransferases and had variable effects on liver fat and other metabolic traits. Insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver and body mass index were causally associated with elevated cT1, whilst favourable adiposity (instrumented by variants associated with higher adiposity but lower risk of cardiometabolic disease and lower liver fat) was found to be protective.

Conclusion

The association between 2 metal ion transporters and cT1 indicates an important new mechanism in steatohepatitis. Future studies are needed to determine whether interventions targeting the identified transporters might prevent liver disease in at-risk individuals.

Lay summary

We estimated levels of liver inflammation and scarring based on magnetic resonance imaging of 14,440 UK Biobank participants. We performed a genetic study and identified variations in 6 genes associated with levels of liver inflammation and scarring. Participants with variations in 4 of these genes also had higher levels of markers of liver cell injury in blood samples, further validating their role in liver health. Two identified genes are involved in the transport of metal ions in our body. Further investigation of these variations may lead to better detection, assessment, and/or treatment of liver inflammation and scarring.",,pdf:http://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S016882782030194X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2020.03.032; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7372222; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7372222?pdf=render 29780001,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3026(18)30053-x,Automated typing of red blood cell and platelet antigens: a whole-genome sequencing study.,"Lane WJ, Westhoff CM, Gleadall NS, Aguad M, Smeland-Wagman R, Vege S, Simmons DP, Mah HH, Lebo MS, Walter K, Soranzo N, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J, Roberts DJ, Watkins NA, Ouwehand WH, Butterworth AS, Kaufman RM, Rehm HL, Silberstein LE, Green RC, MedSeq Project.",,The Lancet. Haematology,2018,2018-05-17,N,,The Human Phenome,,"

Background

There are more than 300 known red blood cell (RBC) antigens and 33 platelet antigens that differ between individuals. Sensitisation to antigens is a serious complication that can occur in prenatal medicine and after blood transfusion, particularly for patients who require multiple transfusions. Although pre-transfusion compatibility testing largely relies on serological methods, reagents are not available for many antigens. Methods based on single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays have been used, but typing for ABO and Rh-the most important blood groups-cannot be done with SNP typing alone. We aimed to develop a novel method based on whole-genome sequencing to identify RBC and platelet antigens.

Methods

This whole-genome sequencing study is a subanalysis of data from patients in the whole-genome sequencing arm of the MedSeq Project randomised controlled trial (NCT01736566) with no measured patient outcomes. We created a database of molecular changes in RBC and platelet antigens and developed an automated antigen-typing algorithm based on whole-genome sequencing (bloodTyper). This algorithm was iteratively improved to address cis-trans haplotype ambiguities and homologous gene alignments. Whole-genome sequencing data from 110 MedSeq participants (30 × depth) were used to initially validate bloodTyper through comparison with conventional serology and SNP methods for typing of 38 RBC antigens in 12 blood-group systems and 22 human platelet antigens. bloodTyper was further validated with whole-genome sequencing data from 200 INTERVAL trial participants (15 × depth) with serological comparisons.

Findings

We iteratively improved bloodTyper by comparing its typing results with conventional serological and SNP typing in three rounds of testing. The initial whole-genome sequencing typing algorithm was 99·5% concordant across the first 20 MedSeq genomes. Addressing discordances led to development of an improved algorithm that was 99·8% concordant for the remaining 90 MedSeq genomes. Additional modifications led to the final algorithm, which was 99·2% concordant across 200 INTERVAL genomes (or 99·9% after adjustment for the lower depth of coverage).

Interpretation

By enabling more precise antigen-matching of patients with blood donors, antigen typing based on whole-genome sequencing provides a novel approach to improve transfusion outcomes with the potential to transform the practice of transfusion medicine.

Funding

National Human Genome Research Institute, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, National Health Service Blood and Transplant, National Institute for Health Research, and Wellcome Trust.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S235230261830053X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3026(18)30053-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6438177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6438177?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3026(18)30053-x 33664499,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-021-00835-8,Colocalization analysis of polycystic ovary syndrome to identify potential disease-mediating genes and proteins.,"Censin JC, Bovijn J, Holmes MV, Lindgren CM.",,European journal of human genetics : EJHG,2021,2021-03-04,Y,,,,"Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common complex disease in women with a strong genetic component and downstream consequences for reproductive, metabolic and psychological health. There are currently 19 known PCOS risk loci, primarily identified in women of Han Chinese or European ancestry, and 14 of these risk loci were identified or replicated in a genome-wide association study of PCOS performed in up to 10,074 cases and 103,164 controls of European descent. However, for most of these loci the gene responsible for the association is unknown. We therefore use a Bayesian colocalization approach (Coloc) to highlight genes in PCOS-associated regions that may have a role in mediating the disease risk. We evaluated the posterior probabilities of evidence consistent with shared causal variants between 14 PCOS genetic risk loci and intermediate cellular phenotypes in one protein (N = 3301) and two expression quantitative trait locus datasets (N = 31,684 and N = 80-491). Through these analyses, we identified seven proteins or genes with evidence of a possibly shared causal variant for almost 30% of known PCOS signals, including follicle stimulating hormone and ERBB3, IKZF4, RPS26, SUOX, ZFP36L2, and C8orf49. Several of these potential effector proteins and genes have been implicated in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal signalling pathway and provide an avenue for functional follow-up in order to demonstrate a causal role in PCOS pathophysiology.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41431-021-00835-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-021-00835-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8440598; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8440598?pdf=render @@ -1762,136 +1762,136 @@ PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm 32678323,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-0642-3,"Cross-sectional associations between central and general adiposity with albuminuria: observations from 400,000 people in UK Biobank.","Zhu P, Lewington S, Haynes R, Emberson J, Landray MJ, Cherney D, Woodward M, Baigent C, Herrington WG, Staplin N.",,International journal of obesity (2005),2020,2020-07-16,Y,,,,"

Background

Whether measures of central adiposity are more or less strongly associated with risk of albuminuria than body mass index (BMI), and by how much diabetes/levels of glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) explain or modify these associations, is uncertain.

Methods

Ordinal logistic regression was used to estimate associations between values of central adiposity (waist-to-hip ratio) and, separately, general adiposity (BMI) with categories of urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (uACR) in 408,527 UK Biobank participants. Separate central and general adiposity-based models were initially adjusted for potential confounders and measurement error, then sequentially, models were mutually adjusted (e.g. waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI, and vice versa), and finally they were adjusted for potential mediators.

Results

Levels of albuminuria were generally low: 20,425 (5%) had a uACR ≥3 mg/mmol. After adjustment for confounders and measurement error, each 0.06 higher waist-to-hip ratio was associated with a 55% (95%CI 53-57%) increase in the odds of being in a higher uACR category. After adjustment for baseline BMI, this association was reduced to 32% (30-34%). Each 5 kg/m2 higher BMI was associated with a 47% (46-49%) increase in the odds of being in a higher uACR category. Adjustment for baseline waist-to-hip ratio reduced this association to 35% (33-37%). Those with higher HbA1c were at progressively higher odds of albuminuria, but positive associations between both waist-to-hip ratio and BMI were apparent irrespective of HbA1c. Altogether, about 40% of central adiposity associations appeared to be mediated by diabetes, vascular disease and blood pressure.

Conclusions

Conventional epidemiological approaches suggest that higher waist-to-hip ratio and BMI are independently positively associated with albuminuria. Adiposity-albuminuria associations appear strong among people with normal HbA1c, as well as people with pre-diabetes or diabetes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-020-0642-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-0642-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577847; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577847?pdf=render 36245269,https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2022111857,Cryo-EM structures of perforin-2 in isolation and assembled on a membrane suggest a mechanism for pore formation.,"Yu X, Ni T, Munson G, Zhang P, Gilbert RJC.",,The EMBO journal,2022,2022-10-17,Y,Cryo-electron Tomography; Cryo-em; Subtomogram Averaging; Pore-forming Protein; Perforin-2,,,"Perforin-2 (PFN2, MPEG1) is a key pore-forming protein in mammalian innate immunity restricting intracellular bacteria proliferation. It forms a membrane-bound pre-pore complex that converts to a pore-forming structure upon acidification; but its mechanism of conformational transition has been debated. Here we used cryo-electron microscopy, tomography and subtomogram averaging to determine structures of PFN2 in pre-pore and pore conformations in isolation and bound to liposomes. In isolation and upon acidification, the pre-assembled complete pre-pore rings convert to pores in both flat ring and twisted conformations. On membranes, in situ assembled PFN2 pre-pores display various degrees of completeness; whereas PFN2 pores are mainly incomplete arc structures that follow the same subunit packing arrangements as found in isolation. Both assemblies on membranes use their P2 β-hairpin for binding to the lipid membrane surface. Overall, these structural snapshots suggest a molecular mechanism for PFN2 pre-pore to pore transition on a targeted membrane, potentially using the twisted pore as an intermediate or alternative state to the flat conformation, with the capacity to cause bilayer distortion during membrane insertion.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.15252/embj.2022111857; doi:https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2022111857; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9713709; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9713709?pdf=render 34442458,https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11080814,Reduced MIP-1β as a Trait Marker and Reduced IL-7 and IL-12 as State Markers of Anorexia Nervosa. ,"Keeler JL, Patsalos O, Chung R, Schmidt U, Breen G, Treasure J, Himmerich H, Dalton B.",,Journal of personalized medicine,2021,2021-08-20,Y,,,,"Alterations in certain inflammatory markers have been found in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). However, their relation to clinical characteristics has not been extensively explored, nor is it clear whether they are trait or state features of the disorder. This cross-sectional study measured serum concentrations of 36 inflammatory markers in people with acute AN (n = 56), recovered AN (rec-AN; n = 24) and healthy controls (HC; n = 51). The relationship between body mass index (BMI), eating disorder psychopathology, depression symptoms and inflammatory markers was assessed. Statistical models controlled for variables known to influence cytokine concentrations (i.e., age, ethnicity, smoking status and medication usage). Overall, most inflammatory markers including pro-inflammatory cytokines were unchanged in AN and rec-AN. However, in AN and rec-AN, concentrations of macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1β were lower than HCs. Interleukin (IL)-7 and IL-12/IL-23p40 were reduced in AN, and concentrations of macrophage-derived chemokine, MIP-1α and tumor necrosis factor-α were reduced in rec-AN compared to HC. In conclusion, a reduction in MIP-1β may be a trait marker of the illness, whereas reductions in IL-7 and IL-12/IL-23p40 may be state markers. The absence of increased pro-inflammatory cytokines in AN is contradictory to the wider literature, although the inclusion of covariates may explain our differing findings.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/11/8/814/pdf?version=1629458822; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11080814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8399452; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8399452?pdf=render +32479194,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826,"Lipoprotein(a) in Alzheimer, Atherosclerotic, Cerebrovascular, Thrombotic, and Valvular Disease: Mendelian Randomization Investigation.","Larsson SC, Gill D, Mason AM, Jiang T, Bäck M, Butterworth AS, Burgess S.",,Circulation,2020,2020-06-01,N,Atherosclerosis; Lipoprotein(a); Alzheimer disease; Stroke; Heart valve diseases; Mendelian Randomization Analysis,,,,,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826 35255491,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5,SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank.,"Douaud G, Lee S, Alfaro-Almagro F, Arthofer C, Wang C, McCarthy P, Lange F, Andersson JLR, Griffanti L, Duff E, Jbabdi S, Taschler B, Keating P, Winkler AM, Collins R, Matthews PM, Allen N, Miller KL, Nichols TE, Smith SM.",,Nature,2022,2022-03-07,Y,,,,"There is strong evidence of brain-related abnormalities in COVID-191-13. However, it remains unknown whether the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection can be detected in milder cases, and whether this can reveal possible mechanisms contributing to brain pathology. Here we investigated brain changes in 785 participants of UK Biobank (aged 51-81 years) who were imaged twice using magnetic resonance imaging, including 401 cases who tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 between their two scans-with 141 days on average separating their diagnosis and the second scan-as well as 384 controls. The availability of pre-infection imaging data reduces the likelihood of pre-existing risk factors being misinterpreted as disease effects. We identified significant longitudinal effects when comparing the two groups, including (1) a greater reduction in grey matter thickness and tissue contrast in the orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus; (2) greater changes in markers of tissue damage in regions that are functionally connected to the primary olfactory cortex; and (3) a greater reduction in global brain size in the SARS-CoV-2 cases. The participants who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 also showed on average a greater cognitive decline between the two time points. Importantly, these imaging and cognitive longitudinal effects were still observed after excluding the 15 patients who had been hospitalised. These mainly limbic brain imaging results may be the in vivo hallmarks of a degenerative spread of the disease through olfactory pathways, of neuroinflammatory events, or of the loss of sensory input due to anosmia. Whether this deleterious effect can be partially reversed, or whether these effects will persist in the long term, remains to be investigated with additional follow-up.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046077; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046077?pdf=render 32808938,https://doi.org/10.2196/17022,Technological Capabilities to Assess Digital Excellence in Hospitals in High Performing Health Care Systems: International eDelphi Exercise.,"Krasuska M, Williams R, Sheikh A, Franklin BD, Heeney C, Lane W, Mozaffar H, Mason K, Eason S, Hinder S, Dunscombe R, Potts HWW, Cresswell K.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2020,2020-08-18,Y,"Delphi Technique; Digital Maturity; Digital Excellence; Hospitals, Ehealth",,,"

Background

Hospitals worldwide are developing ambitious digital transformation programs as part of broader efforts to create digitally advanced health care systems. However, there is as yet no consensus on how best to characterize and assess digital excellence in hospitals.

Objective

Our aim was to develop an international agreement on a defined set of technological capabilities to assess digital excellence in hospitals.

Methods

We conducted a two-stage international modified electronic Delphi (eDelphi) consensus-building exercise, which included a qualitative analysis of free-text responses. In total, 31 international health informatics experts participated, representing clinical, academic, public, and vendor organizations.

Results

We identified 35 technological capabilities that indicate digital excellence in hospitals. These are divided into two categories: (a) capabilities within a hospital (n=20) and (b) capabilities enabling communication with other parts of the health and social care system, and with patients and carers (n=15). The analysis of free-text responses pointed to the importance of nontechnological aspects of digitally enabled change, including social and organizational factors. Examples included an institutional culture characterized by a willingness to transform established ways of working and openness to risk-taking. The availability of a range of skills within digitization teams, including technological, project management and business expertise, and availability of resources to support hospital staff, were also highlighted.

Conclusions

We have identified a set of criteria for assessing digital excellence in hospitals. Our findings highlight the need to broaden the focus from technical functionalities to wider digital transformation capabilities.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/8/e17022/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/17022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7463397 32714939,https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2020.00080,Future Directions for Integrative Objective Assessment of Eating Using Wearable Sensing Technology.,"Skinner A, Toumpakari Z, Stone C, Johnson L.",,Frontiers in nutrition,2020,2020-07-02,Y,Technology; Assessment; Eating; Objective; Wearable,,,"Established methods for nutritional assessment suffer from a number of important limitations. Diaries are burdensome to complete, food frequency questionnaires only capture average food intake, and both suffer from difficulties in self estimation of portion size and biases resulting from misreporting. Online and app versions of these methods have been developed, but issues with misreporting and portion size estimation remain. New methods utilizing passive data capture are required that address reporting bias, extend timescales for data collection, and transform what is possible for measuring habitual intakes. Digital and sensing technologies are enabling the development of innovative and transformative new methods in this area that will provide a better understanding of eating behavior and associations with health. In this article we describe how wrist-worn wearables, on-body cameras, and body-mounted biosensors can be used to capture data about when, what, and how much people eat and drink. We illustrate how these new techniques can be integrated to provide complete solutions for the passive, objective assessment of a wide range of traditional dietary factors, as well as novel measures of eating architecture, within person variation in intakes, and food/nutrient combinations within meals. We also discuss some of the challenges these new approaches will bring.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2020.00080/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2020.00080; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7343846; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7343846?pdf=render -32479194,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826,"Lipoprotein(a) in Alzheimer, Atherosclerotic, Cerebrovascular, Thrombotic, and Valvular Disease: Mendelian Randomization Investigation.","Larsson SC, Gill D, Mason AM, Jiang T, Bäck M, Butterworth AS, Burgess S.",,Circulation,2020,2020-06-01,N,Atherosclerosis; Lipoprotein(a); Alzheimer disease; Stroke; Heart valve diseases; Mendelian Randomization Analysis,,,,,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826 33201485,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-020-01517-8,ONCOR: design of the Dutch cardio-oncology registry.,"Kamphuis JAM, Linschoten M, Cramer MJ, Alsemgeest F, van Kessel DJW, Urgel K, Post MC, Manintveld OC, Hassing HC, Liesting C, Wardeh AJ, Olde Bijvank EGM, Schaap J, Stevense-den Boer AM, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Teske AJ.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2021,2020-11-17,Y,Research Design; Registries; Cardio-oncology,,,"

Background

The relative new subspecialty 'cardio-oncology' was established to meet the growing demand for an interdisciplinary approach to the management of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular adverse events. In recent years, specialised cardio-oncology services have been implemented worldwide, which all strive to improve the cardiovascular health of cancer patients. However, limited data are currently available on the outcomes and experiences of these specialised services, and optimal strategies for cardio-oncological care have not been established.

Aim

The ONCOR registry has been created for prospective data collection and evaluation of cardio-oncological care in daily practice.

Methods

Dutch hospitals using a standardised cardio-oncology care pathway are included in this national, multicentre, observational cohort study. All patients visiting these cardio-oncology services are eligible for study inclusion. Data collection at baseline consists of the (planned) cancer treatment and the cardiovascular risk profile, which are used to estimate the cardiotoxic risk. Information regarding invasive and noninvasive tests is collected during the time patients receive cardio-oncological care. Outcome data consist of the incidence of cardiovascular complications and major adverse cardiac events, and the impact of these events on the oncological treatment.

Discussion

Outcomes of the ONCOR registry may aid in gaining more insight into the incidence of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular complications. The registry facilitates research on mechanisms of cardiovascular complications and on diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic strategies. In addition, it provides a platform for future (interventional) studies. Centres with cardio-oncology services that are interested in contributing to the ONCOR registry are hereby invited to participate.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-020-01517-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-020-01517-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062648; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062648?pdf=render +32724101,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x,Neonatal genetics of gene expression reveal potential origins of autoimmune and allergic disease risk.,"Huang QQ, Tang HHF, Teo SM, Mok D, Ritchie SC, Nath AP, Brozynska M, Salim A, Bakshi A, Holt BJ, Khor CC, Sly PD, Holt PG, Holt KE, Inouye M.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-07-28,Y,,,,"Chronic immune-mediated diseases of adulthood often originate in early childhood. To investigate genetic associations between neonatal immunity and disease, we map expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in resting myeloid cells and CD4+ T cells from cord blood samples, as well as in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation, respectively. Cis-eQTLs are largely specific to cell type or stimulation, and 31% and 52% of genes with cis-eQTLs have response eQTLs (reQTLs) in myeloid cells and T cells, respectively. We identified cis regulatory factors acting as mediators of trans effects. There is extensive colocalisation between condition-specific neonatal cis-eQTLs and variants associated with immune-mediated diseases, in particular CTSH had widespread colocalisation across diseases. Mendelian randomisation shows causal neonatal gene expression effects on disease risk for BTN3A2, HLA-C and others. Our study elucidates the genetics of gene expression in neonatal immune cells, and aetiological origins of autoimmune and allergic diseases.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17477-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553?pdf=render 35606419,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01074-w,Phenotypic and genetic associations of quantitative magnetic susceptibility in UK Biobank brain imaging.,"Wang C, Martins-Bach AB, Alfaro-Almagro F, Douaud G, Klein JC, Llera A, Fiscone C, Bowtell R, Elliott LT, Smith SM, Tendler BC, Miller KL.",,Nature neuroscience,2022,2022-05-23,Y,,,,"A key aim in epidemiological neuroscience is identification of markers to assess brain health and monitor therapeutic interventions. Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) is an emerging magnetic resonance imaging technique that measures tissue magnetic susceptibility and has been shown to detect pathological changes in tissue iron, myelin and calcification. We present an open resource of QSM-based imaging measures of multiple brain structures in 35,273 individuals from the UK Biobank prospective epidemiological study. We identify statistically significant associations of 251 phenotypes with magnetic susceptibility that include body iron, disease, diet and alcohol consumption. Genome-wide associations relate magnetic susceptibility to 76 replicating clusters of genetic variants with biological functions involving iron, calcium, myelin and extracellular matrix. These patterns of associations include relationships that are unique to QSM, in particular being complementary to T2* signal decay time measures. These new imaging phenotypes are being integrated into the core UK Biobank measures provided to researchers worldwide, creating the potential to discover new, non-invasive markers of brain health.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-022-01074-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01074-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9174052; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9174052?pdf=render 32719032,https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00670-20,DNA Thermo-Protection Facilitates Whole-Genome Sequencing of Mycobacteria Direct from Clinical Samples. ,"George S, Xu Y, Rodger G, Morgan M, Sanderson ND, Hoosdally SJ, Thulborn S, Robinson E, Rathod P, Walker AS, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Dingle KE.",,Journal of clinical microbiology,2020,2020-09-22,Y,,,,"Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the leading cause of death from bacterial infection. Improved rapid diagnosis and antimicrobial resistance determination, such as by whole-genome sequencing, are required. Our aim was to develop a simple, low-cost method of preparing DNA for sequencing direct from M. tuberculosis-positive clinical samples (without culture). Simultaneous sputum liquefaction, bacteria heat inactivation (99°C/30 min), and enrichment for mycobacteria DNA were achieved using an equal volume of thermo-protection buffer (4 M KCl, 0.05 M HEPES buffer, pH 7.5, 0.1% dithiothreitol [DTT]). The buffer emulated intracellular conditions found in hyperthermophiles, thus protecting DNA from rapid thermodegradation, which renders it a poor template for sequencing. Initial validation experiments employed mycobacteria DNA, either extracted or intracellular. Next, mock clinical samples (infection-negative human sputum spiked with 0 to 105Mycobacterium bovis BCG cells/ml) underwent liquefaction in thermo-protection buffer and heat inactivation. DNA was extracted and sequenced. Human DNA degraded faster than mycobacteria DNA, resulting in target enrichment. Four replicate experiments achieved M. tuberculosis detection at 101 BCG cells/ml, with 31 to 59 M. tuberculosis complex reads. Maximal genome coverage (>97% at 5× depth) occurred at 104 BCG cells/ml; >91% coverage (1× depth) occurred at 103 BCG cells/ml. Final validation employed M. tuberculosis-positive clinical samples (n = 20), revealing that initial sample volumes of ≥1 ml typically yielded higher mean depths of M. tuberculosis genome coverage, with an overall range of 0.55 to 81.02. A mean depth of 3 gave >96% 1-fold tuberculosis (TB) genome coverage (in 15/20 clinical samples). A mean depth of 15 achieved >99% 5-fold genome coverage (in 9/20 clinical samples). In summary, direct-from-sample sequencing of M. tuberculosis genomes was facilitated by a low-cost thermo-protection buffer.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00670-20; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00670-20; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7512152; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7512152?pdf=render -32724101,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x,Neonatal genetics of gene expression reveal potential origins of autoimmune and allergic disease risk.,"Huang QQ, Tang HHF, Teo SM, Mok D, Ritchie SC, Nath AP, Brozynska M, Salim A, Bakshi A, Holt BJ, Khor CC, Sly PD, Holt PG, Holt KE, Inouye M.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-07-28,Y,,,,"Chronic immune-mediated diseases of adulthood often originate in early childhood. To investigate genetic associations between neonatal immunity and disease, we map expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in resting myeloid cells and CD4+ T cells from cord blood samples, as well as in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation, respectively. Cis-eQTLs are largely specific to cell type or stimulation, and 31% and 52% of genes with cis-eQTLs have response eQTLs (reQTLs) in myeloid cells and T cells, respectively. We identified cis regulatory factors acting as mediators of trans effects. There is extensive colocalisation between condition-specific neonatal cis-eQTLs and variants associated with immune-mediated diseases, in particular CTSH had widespread colocalisation across diseases. Mendelian randomisation shows causal neonatal gene expression effects on disease risk for BTN3A2, HLA-C and others. Our study elucidates the genetics of gene expression in neonatal immune cells, and aetiological origins of autoimmune and allergic diseases.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17477-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553?pdf=render -34167318,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.054302,Cardiac Troponin Thresholds and Kinetics to Differentiate Myocardial Injury and Myocardial Infarction.,"Wereski R, Kimenai DM, Taggart C, Doudesis D, Lee KK, Lowry MTH, Bularga A, Lowe DJ, Fujisawa T, Apple FS, Collinson PO, Anand A, Chapman AR, Mills NL.",,Circulation,2021,2021-06-25,Y,Kinetics; Troponin; Myocardial infarction; Predictive Value Of Tests,,,"

Background

Although the 99th percentile is the recommended diagnostic threshold for myocardial infarction, some guidelines also advocate the use of higher troponin thresholds to rule in myocardial infarction at presentation. It is unclear whether the magnitude or change in troponin concentration can differentiate causes of myocardial injury and infarction in practice.

Methods

In a secondary analysis of a multicenter randomized controlled trial, we identified 46 092 consecutive patients presenting with suspected acute coronary syndrome without ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentrations at presentation and on serial testing were compared between patients with myocardial injury and infarction. The positive predictive value and specificity were determined at the sex-specific 99th percentile upper reference limit and rule-in thresholds of 64 ng/L and 5-fold of the upper reference limit for a diagnosis of type 1 myocardial infarction.

Results

Troponin was above the 99th percentile in 8188 patients (18%). The diagnosis was type 1 or type 2 myocardial infarction in 50% and 14% and acute or chronic myocardial injury in 20% and 16%, respectively. Troponin concentrations were similar at presentation in type 1 (median [25th-75th percentile] 91 [30-493] ng/L) and type 2 (50 [22-147] ng/L) myocardial infarction and in acute (50 [26-134] ng/L) and chronic (51 [31-130] ng/L) myocardial injury. The 99th percentile and rule-in thresholds of 64 ng/L and 5-fold upper reference limit gave a positive predictive value of 57% (95% CI, 56%-58%), 59% (58%-61%), and 62% (60%-64%) and a specificity of 96% (96%-96%), 96% (96%-96%), and 98% (97%-98%), respectively. The absolute, relative, and rate of change in troponin concentration were highest in patients with type 1 myocardial infarction (P<0.001 for all). Discrimination improved when troponin concentration and change in troponin were combined compared with troponin concentration at presentation alone (area under the curve, 0.661 [0.642-0.680] versus 0.613 [0.594-0.633]).

Conclusions

Although we observed important differences in the kinetics, cardiac troponin concentrations at presentation are insufficient to distinguish type 1 myocardial infarction from other causes of myocardial injury or infarction in practice and should not guide management decisions in isolation. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT01852123.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.054302; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.054302; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360674; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360674?pdf=render 37128097,https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0092-z,RETRACTED ARTICLE: Dietary metabotype modelling predicts individual responses to dietary interventions.,"Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Chambers ES, Mathers JC, Draper J, Beckmann M, Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Frost G.",,Nature food,2020,2020-06-17,N,,,,"Habitual consumption of poor quality diets is linked directly to risk factors for many non-communicable diseases. This has resulted in the vast majority of countries and the World Health Organization developing policies for healthy eating to reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the population. However, there is mounting evidence of variability in individual metabolic responses to any dietary intervention. We have developed a method for applying a pipeline for understanding interindividual differences in response to diet, based on coupling data from highly controlled dietary studies with deep metabolic phenotyping. In this feasibility study, we create an individual Dietary Metabotype Score (DMS) that embodies interindividual variability in dietary response and captures consequent dynamic changes in concentrations of urinary metabolites. We find an inverse relationship between the DMS and blood glucose concentration. There is also a relationship between the DMS and urinary metabolic energy loss. Furthermore, we use a metabolic entropy approach to visualize individual and collective responses to dietary interventions. Potentially, the DMS offers a method to target and to enhance dietary response at the individual level, thereby reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases at the population level.",,html:http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/80100; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0092-z -35211795,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5,Exploring the relevance of NUP93 variants in steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome using next generation sequencing and a fly kidney model.,"Bierzynska A, Bull K, Miellet S, Dean P, Neal C, Colby E, McCarthy HJ, Hegde S, Sinha MD, Bugarin Diz C, Stirrups K, Megy K, Mapeta R, Penkett C, Marsh S, Forrester N, Afzal M, Stark H, BioResource N, Williams M, Welsh GI, Koziell AB, Hartley PS, Saleem MA.",,"Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany)",2022,2022-02-24,Y,Podocyte; Fsgs; Srns; Nephrocyte; Nup93,,,"

Background

Variants in genes encoding nuclear pore complex (NPC) proteins are a newly identified cause of paediatric steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS). Recent reports describing NUP93 variants suggest these could be a significant cause of paediatric onset SRNS. We report NUP93 cases in the UK and demonstrate in vivo functional effects of Nup93 depletion in a fly (Drosophila melanogaster) nephrocyte model.

Methods

Three hundred thirty-seven paediatric SRNS patients from the National cohort of patients with Nephrotic Syndrome (NephroS) were whole exome and/or whole genome sequenced. Patients were screened for over 70 genes known to be associated with Nephrotic Syndrome (NS). D. melanogaster Nup93 knockdown was achieved by RNA interference using nephrocyte-restricted drivers.

Results

Six novel homozygous and compound heterozygous NUP93 variants were detected in 3 sporadic and 2 familial paediatric onset SRNS characterised histologically by focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and progressing to kidney failure by 12 months from clinical diagnosis. Silencing of the two orthologs of human NUP93 expressed in D. melanogaster, Nup93-1, and Nup93-2 resulted in significant signal reduction of up to 82% in adult pericardial nephrocytes with concomitant disruption of NPC protein expression. Additionally, nephrocyte morphology was highly abnormal in Nup93-1 and Nup93-2 silenced flies surviving to adulthood.

Conclusion

We expand the spectrum of NUP93 variants detected in paediatric onset SRNS and demonstrate its incidence within a national cohort. Silencing of either D. melanogaster Nup93 ortholog caused a severe nephrocyte phenotype, signaling an important role for the nucleoporin complex in podocyte biology. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489583?pdf=render +34167318,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.054302,Cardiac Troponin Thresholds and Kinetics to Differentiate Myocardial Injury and Myocardial Infarction.,"Wereski R, Kimenai DM, Taggart C, Doudesis D, Lee KK, Lowry MTH, Bularga A, Lowe DJ, Fujisawa T, Apple FS, Collinson PO, Anand A, Chapman AR, Mills NL.",,Circulation,2021,2021-06-25,Y,Kinetics; Troponin; Myocardial infarction; Predictive Value Of Tests,,,"

Background

Although the 99th percentile is the recommended diagnostic threshold for myocardial infarction, some guidelines also advocate the use of higher troponin thresholds to rule in myocardial infarction at presentation. It is unclear whether the magnitude or change in troponin concentration can differentiate causes of myocardial injury and infarction in practice.

Methods

In a secondary analysis of a multicenter randomized controlled trial, we identified 46 092 consecutive patients presenting with suspected acute coronary syndrome without ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentrations at presentation and on serial testing were compared between patients with myocardial injury and infarction. The positive predictive value and specificity were determined at the sex-specific 99th percentile upper reference limit and rule-in thresholds of 64 ng/L and 5-fold of the upper reference limit for a diagnosis of type 1 myocardial infarction.

Results

Troponin was above the 99th percentile in 8188 patients (18%). The diagnosis was type 1 or type 2 myocardial infarction in 50% and 14% and acute or chronic myocardial injury in 20% and 16%, respectively. Troponin concentrations were similar at presentation in type 1 (median [25th-75th percentile] 91 [30-493] ng/L) and type 2 (50 [22-147] ng/L) myocardial infarction and in acute (50 [26-134] ng/L) and chronic (51 [31-130] ng/L) myocardial injury. The 99th percentile and rule-in thresholds of 64 ng/L and 5-fold upper reference limit gave a positive predictive value of 57% (95% CI, 56%-58%), 59% (58%-61%), and 62% (60%-64%) and a specificity of 96% (96%-96%), 96% (96%-96%), and 98% (97%-98%), respectively. The absolute, relative, and rate of change in troponin concentration were highest in patients with type 1 myocardial infarction (P<0.001 for all). Discrimination improved when troponin concentration and change in troponin were combined compared with troponin concentration at presentation alone (area under the curve, 0.661 [0.642-0.680] versus 0.613 [0.594-0.633]).

Conclusions

Although we observed important differences in the kinetics, cardiac troponin concentrations at presentation are insufficient to distinguish type 1 myocardial infarction from other causes of myocardial injury or infarction in practice and should not guide management decisions in isolation. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT01852123.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.054302; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.054302; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360674; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360674?pdf=render 32548911,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779,A registry-based algorithm to predict ejection fraction in patients with heart failure.,"Uijl A, Lund LH, Vaartjes I, Brugts JJ, Linssen GC, Asselbergs FW, Hoes AW, Dahlström U, Koudstaal S, Savarese G.",,ESC heart failure,2020,2020-06-17,Y,Prediction; Ejection fraction; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records; Hfpef; Hfref; Hfmref,,,"

Aims

Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) is required to categorize heart failure (HF) [i.e. HF with preserved (HFpEF), mid-range (HFmrEF), and reduced (HFrEF) EF] but is often not captured in population-based cohorts or non-HF registries. The aim was to create an algorithm that identifies EF subphenotypes for research purposes.

Methods and results

We included 42 061 HF patients from the Swedish Heart Failure Registry. As primary analysis, we performed two logistic regression models including 22 variables to predict (i) EF≥ vs. <50% and (ii) EF≥ vs. <40%. In the secondary analysis, we performed a multivariable multinomial analysis with 22 variables to create a model for all three separate EF subphenotypes: HFrEF vs. HFmrEF vs. HFpEF. The models were validated in the database from the CHECK-HF study, a cross-sectional survey of 10 627 patients from the Netherlands. The C-statistic (discrimination) was 0.78 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-0.78] for EF ≥50% and 0.76 (95% CI 0.75-0.76) for EF ≥40%. Similar results were achieved for HFrEF and HFpEF in the multinomial model, but the C-statistic for HFmrEF was lower: 0.63 (95% CI 0.63-0.64). The external validation showed similar discriminative ability to the development cohort.

Conclusions

Routine clinical characteristics could potentially be used to identify different EF subphenotypes in databases where EF is not readily available. Accuracy was good for the prediction of HFpEF and HFrEF but lower for HFmrEF. The proposed algorithm enables more effective research on HF in the big data setting.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7524089; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7524089?pdf=render +35211795,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5,Exploring the relevance of NUP93 variants in steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome using next generation sequencing and a fly kidney model.,"Bierzynska A, Bull K, Miellet S, Dean P, Neal C, Colby E, McCarthy HJ, Hegde S, Sinha MD, Bugarin Diz C, Stirrups K, Megy K, Mapeta R, Penkett C, Marsh S, Forrester N, Afzal M, Stark H, BioResource N, Williams M, Welsh GI, Koziell AB, Hartley PS, Saleem MA.",,"Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany)",2022,2022-02-24,Y,Podocyte; Fsgs; Srns; Nephrocyte; Nup93,,,"

Background

Variants in genes encoding nuclear pore complex (NPC) proteins are a newly identified cause of paediatric steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS). Recent reports describing NUP93 variants suggest these could be a significant cause of paediatric onset SRNS. We report NUP93 cases in the UK and demonstrate in vivo functional effects of Nup93 depletion in a fly (Drosophila melanogaster) nephrocyte model.

Methods

Three hundred thirty-seven paediatric SRNS patients from the National cohort of patients with Nephrotic Syndrome (NephroS) were whole exome and/or whole genome sequenced. Patients were screened for over 70 genes known to be associated with Nephrotic Syndrome (NS). D. melanogaster Nup93 knockdown was achieved by RNA interference using nephrocyte-restricted drivers.

Results

Six novel homozygous and compound heterozygous NUP93 variants were detected in 3 sporadic and 2 familial paediatric onset SRNS characterised histologically by focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and progressing to kidney failure by 12 months from clinical diagnosis. Silencing of the two orthologs of human NUP93 expressed in D. melanogaster, Nup93-1, and Nup93-2 resulted in significant signal reduction of up to 82% in adult pericardial nephrocytes with concomitant disruption of NPC protein expression. Additionally, nephrocyte morphology was highly abnormal in Nup93-1 and Nup93-2 silenced flies surviving to adulthood.

Conclusion

We expand the spectrum of NUP93 variants detected in paediatric onset SRNS and demonstrate its incidence within a national cohort. Silencing of either D. melanogaster Nup93 ortholog caused a severe nephrocyte phenotype, signaling an important role for the nucleoporin complex in podocyte biology. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489583?pdf=render 34346861,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000615,Generalizable characteristics of false-positive bacterial variant calls. ,Bush SJ.,,Microbial genomics,2021,2021-08-01,Y,,,,"Minimizing false positives is a critical issue when variant calling as no method is without error. It is common practice to post-process a variant-call file (VCF) using hard filter criteria intended to discriminate true-positive (TP) from false-positive (FP) calls. These are applied on the simple principle that certain characteristics are disproportionately represented among the set of FP calls and that a user-chosen threshold can maximize the number detected. To provide guidance on this issue, this study empirically characterized all false SNP and indel calls made using real Illumina sequencing data from six disparate species and 166 variant-calling pipelines (the combination of 14 read aligners with up to 13 different variant callers, plus four 'all-in-one' pipelines). We did not seek to optimize filter thresholds but instead to draw attention to those filters of greatest efficacy and the pipelines to which they may most usefully be applied. In this respect, this study acts as a coda to our previous benchmarking evaluation of bacterial variant callers, and provides general recommendations for effective practice. The results suggest that, of the pipelines analysed in this study, the most straightforward way of minimizing false positives would simply be to use Snippy. We also find that a disproportionate number of false calls, irrespective of the variant-calling pipeline, are located in the vicinity of indels, and highlight this as an issue for future development.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000615; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000615; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8549357; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8549357?pdf=render -32303767,https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040,Real-World Clinical Outcomes Two Years After Transition to Psychosis in Individuals at Clinical High Risk: Electronic Health Record Cohort Study. ,"Fusar-Poli P, De Micheli A, Patel R, Signorini L, Miah S, Spencer T, McGuire P.",,Schizophrenia bulletin,2020,2020-04-18,N,,,,"The objective of this study is to describe the 2-year real-world clinical outcomes after transition to psychosis in patients at clinical high-risk. The study used the clinical electronic health record cohort study including all patients receiving a first index primary diagnosis of nonorganic International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 psychotic disorder within the early psychosis pathway in the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service (NHS) Trust from 2001 to 2017. Outcomes encompassed: cumulative probability (at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months) of receiving a first (1) treatment with antipsychotic, (2) informal admission, (3) compulsory admission, and (4) treatment with clozapine and (5) numbers of days spent in hospital (at 12 and 24 months) in patients transitioning to psychosis from clinical high-risk services (Outreach and Support in south London; OASIS) compared to other first-episode groups. Analyses included logistic and 0-inflated negative binomial regressions. In the study, 1561 patients were included; those who had initially been managed by OASIS and had subsequently transitioned to a first episode of psychosis (n = 130) were more likely to receive antipsychotic medication (at 3, 6, and 24 months; all P < .023), to be admitted informally (at all timepoints, all P < .004) and on a compulsory basis (at all timepoints, all P < .013), and to have spent more time in hospital (all timepoints, all P < .007) than first-episode patients who were already psychotic when seen by the OASIS service (n = 310), or presented to early intervention services (n = 1121). The likelihood of receiving clozapine was similar across all groups (at 12/24 months, all P < .101). Transition to psychosis from a clinical high-risk state is associated with severe real-world clinical outcomes. Prevention of transition to psychosis should remain a core target of future research. The study protocol was registered on www.researchregistry.com; researchregistry5039).",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/46/5/1114/33777256/sbaa040.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040 34937765,https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2021-044309,Predictors of health-related quality of life following injury in childhood and adolescence: a pooled analysis.,"Dipnall JF, Rivara FP, Lyons RA, Ameratunga S, Brussoni M, Lecky FE, Bradley C, Beck B, Lyons J, Schneeberg A, Harrison JE, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention,2022,2021-12-22,N,Public Health; Disability; Longitudinal,,,"

Background

Injury is a leading contributor to the global disease burden in children and places children at risk for adverse and lasting impacts on their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and development. This study aimed to identify key predictors of HRQoL following injury in childhood and adolescence.

Methods

Data from 2259 injury survivors (<18 years when injured) were pooled from four longitudinal cohort studies (Australia, Canada, UK, USA) from the paediatric Validating Injury Burden Estimates Study (VIBES-Junior). Outcomes were the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) total, physical, psychosocial functioning scores at 1, 3-4, 6, 12, 24 months postinjury.

Results

Mean PedsQL total score increased with higher socioeconomic status and decreased with increasing age. It was lower for transport-related incidents, ≥1 comorbidities, intentional injuries, spinal cord injury, vertebral column fracture, moderate/severe traumatic brain injury and fracture of patella/tibia/fibula/ankle. Mean PedsQL physical score was lower for females, fracture of femur, fracture of pelvis and burns. Mean PedsQL psychosocial score was lower for asphyxiation/non-fatal submersion and muscle/tendon/dislocation injuries.

Conclusions

Postinjury HRQoL was associated with survivors' socioeconomic status, intent, mechanism of injury and comorbidity status. Patterns of physical and psychosocial functioning postinjury differed according to sex and nature of injury sustained. The findings improve understanding of the long-term individual and societal impacts of injury in the early part of life and guide the prioritisation of prevention efforts, inform health and social service planning to help reduce injury burden, and help guide future Global Burden of Disease estimates.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2021-044309 35258317,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.121.024260,Prognostic Significance of Ventricular Arrhythmias in 13 444 Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Retrospective Cohort Study Based on Routine Clinical Data (NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative VA-ACS Study).,"Sau A, Kaura A, Kaura A, Ahmed A, Patel KHK, Li X, Mulla A, Glampson B, Panoulas V, Davies J, Woods K, Gautama S, Shah AD, Elliott P, Hemingway H, Williams B, Asselbergs FW, Melikian N, Peters NS, Shah AM, Perera D, Kharbanda R, Patel RS, Channon KM, Mayet J, Ng FS.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2022,2022-03-08,Y,Cardiac arrest; acute coronary syndrome; ventricular arrhythmia,,,"Background A minority of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) cases are associated with ventricular arrhythmias (VA) and/or cardiac arrest (CA). We investigated the effect of VA/CA at the time of ACS on long-term outcomes. Methods and Results We analyzed routine clinical data from 5 National Health Service trusts in the United Kingdom, collected between 2010 and 2017 by the National Institute for Health Research Health Informatics Collaborative. A total of 13 444 patients with ACS, 376 (2.8%) of whom had concurrent VA, survived to hospital discharge and were followed up for a median of 3.42 years. Patients with VA or CA at index presentation had significantly increased risks of subsequent VA during follow-up (VA group: adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 4.15 [95% CI, 2.42-7.09]; CA group: adjusted HR, 2.60 [95% CI, 1.23-5.48]). Patients who suffered a CA in the context of ACS and survived to discharge also had a 36% increase in long-term mortality (adjusted HR, 1.36 [95% CI, 1.04-1.78]), although the concurrent diagnosis of VA alone during ACS did not affect all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 1.03 [95% CI, 0.80-1.33]). Conclusions Patients who develop VA or CA during ACS who survive to discharge have increased risks of subsequent VA, whereas those who have CA during ACS also have an increase in long-term mortality. These individuals may represent a subgroup at greater risk of subsequent arrhythmic events as a result of intrinsically lower thresholds for developing VA.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.121.024260; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.024260; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075290?pdf=render 31134468,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-1288-4,UNRAVEL: big data analytics research data platform to improve care of patients with cardiomyopathies using routine electronic health records and standardised biobanking.,"Sammani A, Jansen M, Linschoten M, Bagheri A, de Jonge N, Kirkels H, van Laake LW, Vink A, van Tintelen JP, Dooijes D, Te Riele ASJM, Harakalova M, Baas AF, Asselbergs FW.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2019,2019-09-01,Y,Cardiomyopathy; Electronic Health Record; Biobanking; Big Data Analytics; Machine learning; Research Data Platform,,,"

Introduction

Despite major advances in our understanding of genetic cardiomyopathies, they remain the leading cause of premature sudden cardiac death and end-stage heart failure in persons under the age of 60 years. Integrated research databases based on a large number of patients may provide a scaffold for future research. Using routine electronic health records and standardised biobanking, big data analysis on a larger number of patients and investigations are possible. In this article, we describe the UNRAVEL research data platform embedded in routine practice to facilitate research in genetic cardiomyopathies.

Design

Eligible participants with proven or suspected cardiac disease and their relatives are asked for permission to use their data and to draw blood for biobanking. Routinely collected clinical data are included in a research database by weekly extraction. A text-mining tool has been developed to enrich UNRAVEL with unstructured data in clinical notes.

Preliminary results

Thus far, 828 individuals with a median age of 57 years have been included, 58% of whom are male. All data are captured in a temporal sequence amounting to a total of 18,565 electrocardiograms, 3619 echocardiograms, data from over 20,000 radiological examinations and 650,000 individual laboratory measurements.

Conclusion

Integration of routine electronic health care in a research data platform allows efficient data collection, including all investigations in chronological sequence. Trials embedded in the electronic health record are now possible, providing cost-effective ways to answer clinical questions. We explicitly welcome national and international collaboration and have provided our protocols and other materials on www.unravelrdp.nl .",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-019-1288-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-1288-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712144?pdf=render -32750130,https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894,Development and validation of a universal blood donor genotyping platform: a multinational prospective study.,"Gleadall NS, Veldhuisen B, Gollub J, Butterworth AS, Ord J, Penkett CJ, Timmer TC, Sauer CM, van der Bolt N, Brown C, Brugger K, Dilthey AT, Duarte D, Grimsley S, van den Hurk K, Jongerius JM, Luken J, Megy K, Miflin G, Nelson CS, Prinsze FJ, Sambrook J, Simeoni I, Sweeting M, Thornton N, Trompeter S, Tuna S, Varma R, Walker MR, NIHR BioResource, Danesh J, Roberts DJ, Ouwehand WH, Stirrups KE, Rendon A, Westhoff CM, Di Angelantonio E, van der Schoot CE, Astle WJ, Watkins NA, Lane WJ.",,Blood advances,2020,2020-08-01,N,,,,"Each year, blood transfusions save millions of lives. However, under current blood-matching practices, sensitization to non-self-antigens is an unavoidable adverse side effect of transfusion. We describe a universal donor typing platform that could be adopted by blood services worldwide to facilitate a universal extended blood-matching policy and reduce sensitization rates. This DNA-based test is capable of simultaneously typing most clinically relevant red blood cell (RBC), human platelet (HPA), and human leukocyte (HLA) antigens. Validation was performed, using samples from 7927 European, 27 South Asian, 21 East Asian, and 9 African blood donors enrolled in 2 national biobanks. We illustrated the usefulness of the platform by analyzing antibody data from patients sensitized with multiple RBC alloantibodies. Genotyping results demonstrated concordance of 99.91%, 99.97%, and 99.03% with RBC, HPA, and HLA clinically validated typing results in 89 371, 3016, and 9289 comparisons, respectively. Genotyping increased the total number of antigen typing results available from 110 980 to >1 200 000. Dense donor typing allowed identification of 2 to 6 times more compatible donors to serve 3146 patients with multiple RBC alloantibodies, providing at least 1 match for 176 individuals for whom previously no blood could be found among the same donors. This genotyping technology is already being used to type thousands of donors taking part in national genotyping studies. Extraction of dense antigen-typing data from these cohorts provides blood supply organizations with the opportunity to implement a policy of genomics-based precision matching of blood.",,pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/4/15/3495/1751450/advancesadv2020001894.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894 +32303767,https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040,Real-World Clinical Outcomes Two Years After Transition to Psychosis in Individuals at Clinical High Risk: Electronic Health Record Cohort Study. ,"Fusar-Poli P, De Micheli A, Patel R, Signorini L, Miah S, Spencer T, McGuire P.",,Schizophrenia bulletin,2020,2020-04-18,N,,,,"The objective of this study is to describe the 2-year real-world clinical outcomes after transition to psychosis in patients at clinical high-risk. The study used the clinical electronic health record cohort study including all patients receiving a first index primary diagnosis of nonorganic International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 psychotic disorder within the early psychosis pathway in the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service (NHS) Trust from 2001 to 2017. Outcomes encompassed: cumulative probability (at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months) of receiving a first (1) treatment with antipsychotic, (2) informal admission, (3) compulsory admission, and (4) treatment with clozapine and (5) numbers of days spent in hospital (at 12 and 24 months) in patients transitioning to psychosis from clinical high-risk services (Outreach and Support in south London; OASIS) compared to other first-episode groups. Analyses included logistic and 0-inflated negative binomial regressions. In the study, 1561 patients were included; those who had initially been managed by OASIS and had subsequently transitioned to a first episode of psychosis (n = 130) were more likely to receive antipsychotic medication (at 3, 6, and 24 months; all P < .023), to be admitted informally (at all timepoints, all P < .004) and on a compulsory basis (at all timepoints, all P < .013), and to have spent more time in hospital (all timepoints, all P < .007) than first-episode patients who were already psychotic when seen by the OASIS service (n = 310), or presented to early intervention services (n = 1121). The likelihood of receiving clozapine was similar across all groups (at 12/24 months, all P < .101). Transition to psychosis from a clinical high-risk state is associated with severe real-world clinical outcomes. Prevention of transition to psychosis should remain a core target of future research. The study protocol was registered on www.researchregistry.com; researchregistry5039).",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/46/5/1114/33777256/sbaa040.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040 +35353173,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407,Inflammation and Brain Structure in Schizophrenia and Other Neuropsychiatric Disorders: A Mendelian Randomization Study.,"Williams JA, Burgess S, Suckling J, Lalousis PA, Batool F, Griffiths SL, Palmer E, Karwath A, Barsky A, Gkoutos GV, Wood S, Barnes NM, David AS, Donohoe G, Neill JC, Deakin B, Khandaker GM, Upthegrove R, PIMS Collaboration.",,JAMA psychiatry,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Previous in vitro and postmortem research suggests that inflammation may lead to structural brain changes via activation of microglia and/or astrocytic dysfunction in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Objective

To investigate the relationship between inflammation and changes in brain structures in vivo and to explore a transcriptome-driven functional basis with relevance to mental illness.

Design, setting, and participants

This study used multistage linked analyses, including mendelian randomization (MR), gene expression correlation, and connectivity analyses. A total of 20 688 participants in the UK Biobank, which includes clinical, genomic, and neuroimaging data, and 6 postmortem brains from neurotypical individuals in the Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA), including RNA microarray data. Data were extracted in February 2021 and analyzed between March and October 2021.

Exposures

Genetic variants regulating levels and activity of circulating interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-2, IL-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were used as exposures in MR analyses.

Main outcomes and measures

Brain imaging measures, including gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (CT), were used as outcomes. Associations were considered significant at a multiple testing-corrected threshold of P < 1.1 × 10-4. Differential gene expression in AHBA data was modeled in brain regions mapped to areas significant in MR analyses; genes were tested for biological and disease overrepresentation in annotation databases and for connectivity in protein-protein interaction networks.

Results

Of 20 688 participants in the UK Biobank sample, 10 828 (52.3%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 55.5 (7.5) years. In the UK Biobank sample, genetically predicted levels of IL-6 were associated with GMV in the middle temporal cortex (z score, 5.76; P = 8.39 × 10-9), inferior temporal (z score, 3.38; P = 7.20 × 10-5), fusiform (z score, 4.70; P = 2.60 × 10-7), and frontal (z score, -3.59; P = 3.30 × 10-5) cortex together with CT in the superior frontal region (z score, -5.11; P = 3.22 × 10-7). No significant associations were found for IL-1, IL-2, CRP, or BDNF after correction for multiple comparison. In the AHBA sample, 5 of 6 participants (83%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 42.5 (13.4) years. Brain-wide coexpression analysis showed a highly interconnected network of genes preferentially expressed in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), which further formed a highly connected protein-protein interaction network with IL-6 (enrichment test of expected vs observed network given the prevalence and degree of interactions in the STRING database: 43 nodes/30 edges observed vs 8 edges expected; mean node degree, 1.4; genome-wide significance, P = 4.54 × 10-9). MTG differentially expressed genes that were functionally enriched for biological processes in schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy.

Conclusions and relevance

In this study, genetically determined IL-6 was associated with brain structure and potentially affects areas implicated in developmental neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8968718; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8968718 34095526,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.579,Record linkage to enhance consented cohort and routinely collected health data from a UK birth cohort.,"Tingay KS, Bandyopadhyay A, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Brophy S, Bedford H, Cortina-Borja M, Setakis E, Walton S, Fitzsimons E, Dezateux C, Lyons RA.",,International journal of population data science,2019,2019-04-02,Y,,,,"

Background

In longitudinal health research, combining the richness of cohort data to the extensiveness of routine data opens up new possibilities, providing information not available from one data source alone. In this study, we set out to extend information from a longitudinal birth cohort study by linking to the cohort child's routine primary and secondary health care data. The resulting linked datasets will be used to examine health outcomes and patterns of health service utilisation for a set of common childhood health problems. We describe the experiences and challenges of acquiring and linking electronic health records for participants in a national longitudinal study, the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS).

Method

Written parental consent to link routine health data to survey responses of the MCS cohort member, mother and her partner was obtained for 90.7% of respondents when interviews took place at age seven years in the MCS. Probabilistic and deterministic linkage was used to link MCS cohort members to multiple routinely-collected health data sources in Wales and Scotland.

Results

Overall linkage rates for the consented population using country-specific health service data sources were 97.6% for Scotland and 99.9% for Wales. Linkage rates between different health data sources ranged from 65.3% to 99.6%. Issues relating to acquisition and linkage of data sources are discussed.

Conclusions

Linking longitudinal cohort participants with routine data sources is becoming increasingly popular in population data research. Our results suggest that this is a valid method to enhance information held in both sources of data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.579; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.579; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142967?pdf=render +32750130,https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894,Development and validation of a universal blood donor genotyping platform: a multinational prospective study.,"Gleadall NS, Veldhuisen B, Gollub J, Butterworth AS, Ord J, Penkett CJ, Timmer TC, Sauer CM, van der Bolt N, Brown C, Brugger K, Dilthey AT, Duarte D, Grimsley S, van den Hurk K, Jongerius JM, Luken J, Megy K, Miflin G, Nelson CS, Prinsze FJ, Sambrook J, Simeoni I, Sweeting M, Thornton N, Trompeter S, Tuna S, Varma R, Walker MR, NIHR BioResource, Danesh J, Roberts DJ, Ouwehand WH, Stirrups KE, Rendon A, Westhoff CM, Di Angelantonio E, van der Schoot CE, Astle WJ, Watkins NA, Lane WJ.",,Blood advances,2020,2020-08-01,N,,,,"Each year, blood transfusions save millions of lives. However, under current blood-matching practices, sensitization to non-self-antigens is an unavoidable adverse side effect of transfusion. We describe a universal donor typing platform that could be adopted by blood services worldwide to facilitate a universal extended blood-matching policy and reduce sensitization rates. This DNA-based test is capable of simultaneously typing most clinically relevant red blood cell (RBC), human platelet (HPA), and human leukocyte (HLA) antigens. Validation was performed, using samples from 7927 European, 27 South Asian, 21 East Asian, and 9 African blood donors enrolled in 2 national biobanks. We illustrated the usefulness of the platform by analyzing antibody data from patients sensitized with multiple RBC alloantibodies. Genotyping results demonstrated concordance of 99.91%, 99.97%, and 99.03% with RBC, HPA, and HLA clinically validated typing results in 89 371, 3016, and 9289 comparisons, respectively. Genotyping increased the total number of antigen typing results available from 110 980 to >1 200 000. Dense donor typing allowed identification of 2 to 6 times more compatible donors to serve 3146 patients with multiple RBC alloantibodies, providing at least 1 match for 176 individuals for whom previously no blood could be found among the same donors. This genotyping technology is already being used to type thousands of donors taking part in national genotyping studies. Extraction of dense antigen-typing data from these cohorts provides blood supply organizations with the opportunity to implement a policy of genomics-based precision matching of blood.",,pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/4/15/3495/1751450/advancesadv2020001894.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894 36204496,https://doi.org/10.1177/23992026211048421,Beyond trust: Amplifying unheard voices on concerns about harm resulting from health data-sharing.,"Mulrine S, Blell M, Murtagh M.",,Medicine access @ point of care,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Data; Qualitative Methods; Data-sharing; Underrepresented Groups,,,"

Background

The point of care in many health systems is increasingly a point of health data generation, data which may be shared and used in a variety of ways by a range of different actors.

Aim

We set out to gather data about the perspectives on health data-sharing of people living in North East England who have been underrepresented within other public engagement activities and who are marginalized in society.

Methods

Multi-site ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in the Teesside region of England over a 6-month period in 2019 as part of a large-scale health data innovation program called Connected Health Cities. Organizations working with marginalized groups were contacted to recruit staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries for participation in qualitative research. The data gathered were analyzed thematically and vignettes constructed to illustrate findings.

Results

Previous encounters with health and social care professionals and the broader socio-political contexts of people's lives shape the perspectives of people from marginalized groups about sharing of data from their health records. While many would welcome improved care, the risks to people with socially produced vulnerabilities must be appreciated by those advocating systems that share data for personalized medicine or other forms of data-driven care.

Conclusion

Forms of innovation in medicine which rely on greater data-sharing may present risks to groups and individuals with existing vulnerabilities, and advocates of these innovations should address the lack of trustworthiness of those receiving data before asking that people trust new systems to provide health benefits.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/23992026211048421; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/23992026211048421; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9413596; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9413596?pdf=render -35353173,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407,Inflammation and Brain Structure in Schizophrenia and Other Neuropsychiatric Disorders: A Mendelian Randomization Study.,"Williams JA, Burgess S, Suckling J, Lalousis PA, Batool F, Griffiths SL, Palmer E, Karwath A, Barsky A, Gkoutos GV, Wood S, Barnes NM, David AS, Donohoe G, Neill JC, Deakin B, Khandaker GM, Upthegrove R, PIMS Collaboration.",,JAMA psychiatry,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Previous in vitro and postmortem research suggests that inflammation may lead to structural brain changes via activation of microglia and/or astrocytic dysfunction in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Objective

To investigate the relationship between inflammation and changes in brain structures in vivo and to explore a transcriptome-driven functional basis with relevance to mental illness.

Design, setting, and participants

This study used multistage linked analyses, including mendelian randomization (MR), gene expression correlation, and connectivity analyses. A total of 20 688 participants in the UK Biobank, which includes clinical, genomic, and neuroimaging data, and 6 postmortem brains from neurotypical individuals in the Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA), including RNA microarray data. Data were extracted in February 2021 and analyzed between March and October 2021.

Exposures

Genetic variants regulating levels and activity of circulating interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-2, IL-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were used as exposures in MR analyses.

Main outcomes and measures

Brain imaging measures, including gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (CT), were used as outcomes. Associations were considered significant at a multiple testing-corrected threshold of P < 1.1 × 10-4. Differential gene expression in AHBA data was modeled in brain regions mapped to areas significant in MR analyses; genes were tested for biological and disease overrepresentation in annotation databases and for connectivity in protein-protein interaction networks.

Results

Of 20 688 participants in the UK Biobank sample, 10 828 (52.3%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 55.5 (7.5) years. In the UK Biobank sample, genetically predicted levels of IL-6 were associated with GMV in the middle temporal cortex (z score, 5.76; P = 8.39 × 10-9), inferior temporal (z score, 3.38; P = 7.20 × 10-5), fusiform (z score, 4.70; P = 2.60 × 10-7), and frontal (z score, -3.59; P = 3.30 × 10-5) cortex together with CT in the superior frontal region (z score, -5.11; P = 3.22 × 10-7). No significant associations were found for IL-1, IL-2, CRP, or BDNF after correction for multiple comparison. In the AHBA sample, 5 of 6 participants (83%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 42.5 (13.4) years. Brain-wide coexpression analysis showed a highly interconnected network of genes preferentially expressed in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), which further formed a highly connected protein-protein interaction network with IL-6 (enrichment test of expected vs observed network given the prevalence and degree of interactions in the STRING database: 43 nodes/30 edges observed vs 8 edges expected; mean node degree, 1.4; genome-wide significance, P = 4.54 × 10-9). MTG differentially expressed genes that were functionally enriched for biological processes in schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy.

Conclusions and relevance

In this study, genetically determined IL-6 was associated with brain structure and potentially affects areas implicated in developmental neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8968718; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8968718 37130615,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0389,Predicting the risk of acute kidney injury in primary care: derivation and validation of STRATIFY-AKI.,"Koshiaris C, Archer L, Lay-Flurrie S, Snell KI, Riley RD, Stevens R, Banerjee A, Usher-Smith JA, Clegg A, Payne RA, Ogden M, Hobbs FR, McManus RJ, Sheppard JP.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2023,2023-07-27,Y,Blood pressure; Vascular diseases; epidemiology; Primary Health Care; Electronic Health Records; Drug-related Side Effects And Adverse Reactions,,,"

Background

Antihypertensives reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease but are also associated with harms including acute kidney injury (AKI). Few data exist to guide clinical decision making regarding these risks.

Aim

To develop a prediction model estimating the risk of AKI in people potentially indicated for antihypertensive treatment.

Design and setting

Observational cohort study using routine primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) in England.

Method

People aged ≥40 years, with at least one blood pressure measurement between 130 mmHg and 179 mmHg were included. Outcomes were admission to hospital or death with AKI within 1, 5, and 10 years. The model was derived with data from CPRD GOLD (n = 1 772 618), using a Fine-Gray competing risks approach, with subsequent recalibration using pseudo-values. External validation used data from CPRD Aurum (n = 3 805 322).

Results

The mean age of participants was 59.4 years and 52% were female. The final model consisted of 27 predictors and showed good discrimination at 1, 5, and 10 years (C-statistic for 10-year risk 0.821, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.818 to 0.823). There was some overprediction at the highest predicted probabilities (ratio of observed to expected event probability for 10-year risk 0.633, 95% CI = 0.621 to 0.645), affecting patients with the highest risk. Most patients (>95%) had a low 1- to 5-year risk of AKI, and at 10 years only 0.1% of the population had a high AKI and low CVD risk.

Conclusion

This clinical prediction model enables GPs to accurately identify patients at high risk of AKI, which will aid treatment decisions. As the vast majority of patients were at low risk, such a model may provide useful reassurance that most antihypertensive treatment is safe and appropriate while flagging the few for whom this is not the case.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/01/31/BJGP.2022.0389.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0389; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10170524; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10170524?pdf=render 34740937,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056601,Analysis of mental and physical disorders associated with COVID-19 in online health forums: a natural language processing study.,"Patel R, Smeraldi F, Abdollahyan M, Irving J, Bessant C.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-11-05,Y,information technology; Health Informatics; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

Online health forums provide rich and untapped real-time data on population health. Through novel data extraction and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, we characterise the evolution of mental and physical health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic among online health forum users.

Setting and design

We obtained data from three leading online health forums: HealthBoards, Inspire and HealthUnlocked, from the period 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2020. Using NLP, we analysed the content of posts related to COVID-19.

Primary outcome measures

(1) Proportion of forum posts containing COVID-19 keywords; (2) proportion of forum users making their very first post about COVID-19; (3) proportion of COVID-19-related posts containing content related to physical and mental health comorbidities.

Results

Data from 739 434 posts created by 53 134 unique users were analysed. A total of 35 581 posts (4.8%) contained a COVID-19 keyword. Posts discussing COVID-19 and related comorbid disorders spiked in early March to mid-March around the time of global implementation of lockdowns prompting a large number of users to post on online health forums for the first time. Over a quarter of COVID-19-related thread titles mentioned a physical or mental health comorbidity.

Conclusions

We demonstrate that it is feasible to characterise the content of online health forum user posts regarding COVID-19 and measure changes over time. The pandemic and corresponding public response has had a significant impact on posters' queries regarding mental health. Social media data sources such as online health forums can be harnessed to strengthen population-level mental health surveillance.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/11/e056601.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056601; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8573296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8573296?pdf=render -34732839,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0,Stratification of chemotherapy-treated stage III colorectal cancer patients using multiplexed imaging and single-cell analysis of T-cell populations.,"Stachtea X, Loughrey MB, Salvucci M, Lindner AU, Cho S, McDonough E, Sood A, Graf J, Santamaria-Pang A, Corwin A, Laurent-Puig P, Dasgupta S, Shia J, Owens JR, Abate S, Van Schaeybroeck S, Lawler M, Prehn JHM, Ginty F, Longley DB.",,"Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc",2022,2021-11-03,Y,,,,"Colorectal cancer (CRC) has one of the highest cancer incidences and mortality rates. In stage III, postoperative chemotherapy benefits <20% of patients, while more than 50% will develop distant metastases. Biomarkers for identification of patients at increased risk of disease recurrence following adjuvant chemotherapy are currently lacking. In this study, we assessed immune signatures in the tumor and tumor microenvironment (TME) using an in situ multiplexed immunofluorescence imaging and single-cell analysis technology (Cell DIVETM) and evaluated their correlations with patient outcomes. Tissue microarrays (TMAs) with up to three 1 mm diameter cores per patient were prepared from 117 stage III CRC patients treated with adjuvant fluoropyrimidine/oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) chemotherapy. Single sections underwent multiplexed immunofluorescence staining for immune cell markers (CD45, CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3, PD1) and tumor/cell segmentation markers (DAPI, pan-cytokeratin, AE1, NaKATPase, and S6). We used annotations and a probabilistic classification algorithm to build statistical models of immune cell types. Images were also qualitatively assessed independently by a Pathologist as 'high', 'moderate' or 'low', for stromal and total immune cell content. Excellent agreement was found between manual assessment and total automated scores (p < 0.0001). Moreover, compared to single markers, a multi-marker classification of regulatory T cells (Tregs: CD3+/CD4+FOXP3+/PD1-) was significantly associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (p = 0.049 and 0.032) of FOLFOX-treated patients. Our results also showed that PD1- Tregs rather than PD1+ Tregs were associated with improved survival. These findings were supported by results from an independent FOLFOX-treated cohort of 191 stage III CRC patients, where higher PD1- Tregs were associated with an increase overall survival (p = 0.015) for CD3+/CD4+/FOXP3+/PD1-. Overall, compared to single markers, multi-marker classification provided more accurate quantitation of immune cell types with stronger correlations with outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41379-021-00953-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416?pdf=render 31040096,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(19)30114-2,"Antimicrobial-impregnated central venous catheters for prevention of neonatal bloodstream infection (PREVAIL): an open-label, parallel-group, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial.","Gilbert R, Brown M, Rainford N, Donohue C, Fraser C, Sinha A, Dorling J, Gray J, McGuire W, Gamble C, Oddie SJ, PREVAIL trial team.",,The Lancet. Child & adolescent health,2019,2019-04-27,N,,"Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"

Background

Bloodstream infection is associated with high mortality and serious morbidity in preterm babies. Evidence from clinical trials shows that antimicrobial-impregnated central venous catheters (CVCs) reduce catheter-related bloodstream infection in adults and children receiving intensive care, but there is a paucity of similar evidence for babies receiving neonatal intensive care.

Methods

This open-label, parallel-group, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial was done in 18 neonatal intensive care units in England. Newborn babies who needed a peripherally inserted CVC (PICC) were allocated randomly (1:1) to receive either a PICC impregnated with miconazole and rifampicin or a standard (non-antimicrobial-impregnated) PICC. Random allocation was done with a web-based program, which was centrally controlled to ensure allocation concealment. Randomisation sequences were computer-generated in random blocks of two and four, and stratified by site. Masking of clinicians to PICC allocation was impractical because rifampicin caused brown staining of the antimicrobial-impregnated PICC. However, participant inclusion in analyses and occurrence of outcome events were determined following an analysis plan that was specified before individuals saw the unblinded data. The primary outcome was the time from random allocation to first microbiologically confirmed bloodstream or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) infection between 24 h after randomisation and 48 h after PICC removal or death. We analysed outcome data according to the intention-to-treat principle. We excluded babies for whom a PICC was not inserted from safety analyses, as these analyses were done with groups defined by the PICC used. This trial is registered with ISRCTN, number 81931394.

Findings

Between Aug 12, 2015, and Jan 11, 2017, we randomly assigned 861 babies (754 [88%] born before 32 weeks of gestation) to receive an antimicrobial-impregnated PICC (430 babies) or standard PICC (431 babies). The median time to PICC removal was 8·20 days (IQR 4·77-12·13) in the antimicrobial-impregnated PICC group versus 7·86 days (5·00-12·53) days in the standard PICC group (hazard ratio [HR] 1·03, 95% CI 0·89-1·18, p=0·73), with 46 (11%) of 430 babies versus 44 (10%) of 431 babies having a microbiologically confirmed bloodstream or CSF infection. The time from random allocation to first bloodstream or CSF infection was similar between the two groups (HR 1·11, 95% CI 0·73-1·67, p=0·63). Secondary outcomes relating to infection, rifampicin resistance in positive blood or CSF cultures, mortality, clinical outcomes at neonatal unit discharge, and time to PICC removal were similar between the two groups, although rifampicin resistance in positive cultures of PICC tips was higher in the antimicrobial-impregnated PICC group (relative risk 3·51, 95% CI 1·16-10·57, p=0·018). 60 adverse events were reported from 49 (13%) patients in the antimicrobial-impregnated PICC group and 50 events from 45 (10%) babies in the standard PICC group.

Interpretation

We found no evidence of benefit or harm associated with miconazole and rifampicin-impregnated PICCs compared with standard PICCs for newborn babies. Future research should focus on other types of antimicrobial impregnation of PICCs and alternative approaches for preventing infection.

Funding

UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352464219301142/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(19)30114-2 31810636,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.034,Twelve month mortality rates and independent living in people aged 65 years or older after isolated hip fracture: A prospective registry-based study.,"Giummarra MJ, Ekegren CL, Gong J, Simpson P, Cameron PA, Edwards E, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury,2020,2019-11-23,N,Function; Mortality; Recovery; epidemiology; Falls,,,"Introduction:This study investigated which patient and injury characteristics are associated with 12-month mortality rates and living independently after isolated hip fracture.

Methods:Older adults aged ≥65 years were included if they had an isolated hip fracture, were admitted to hospital between July 2009 and June 2016, inclusive, and were registered to the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry. Mortality up to 12 months (365 days) post-injury, and functional outcomes (Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended; GOS-E) at 12 months post-injury were examined. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs), and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of living independently compared with severe disability or death on the GOS-E.

Results:4,912 patients were included, of whom 28% died, 46% had moderate-severe disability, and 26% were living independently 12 months post-injury. Mortality rates were lower in women (aHR=0.56, 95%CI: 0.50, 0.63), and in people injured in a high fall vs low fall (aHR=0.47, 95%CI: 0.31, 0.72). Mortality rates were higher in people in the older age groups (75-84 years: aHR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.21, 1.93; 95+ years: aHR=3.58, 95%CI: 2.68, 4.77), living in areas with the highest level of socioeconomic disadvantage (aHR=1.25, 95%CI: 1.01, 1.55), with a Charlson Comorbidity Index weighting of one (aHR=1.60, 95%CI: 1.36, 1.88) or more than one (aHR=2.21, 95%CI: 1.94, 2.53), whose injury occurred in a residential institution versus at home (aHR=2.63, 95%CI: 1.97, 3.52), that resulted in intensive care unit admission (aHR=1.68, 95%CI: 1.21, 2.32), and in people who did not have surgery versus people who had internal fixation (aHR=1.65, 95%CI: 1.33, 2.04). Independent living was inversely associated with most of the same characteristics; however, people also had lower odds of living independently if they were from metropolitan residential areas versus rural areas (aOR=0.77, 95%CI: 0.62, 0.96), or had mild to moderate (aOR=0.33, 95%CI: 0.27, 0.39) or marked to severe (aOR=0.13, 95%CI: 0.09, 0.20) preinjury disability vs no preinjury disability.

Conclusions:Characteristics that are associated with social disadvantage, frailty, poor health and reduced independence before injury were associated with increased rates of death and reduced odds of living independently 12 months after isolated hip fracture.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.034 +34732839,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0,Stratification of chemotherapy-treated stage III colorectal cancer patients using multiplexed imaging and single-cell analysis of T-cell populations.,"Stachtea X, Loughrey MB, Salvucci M, Lindner AU, Cho S, McDonough E, Sood A, Graf J, Santamaria-Pang A, Corwin A, Laurent-Puig P, Dasgupta S, Shia J, Owens JR, Abate S, Van Schaeybroeck S, Lawler M, Prehn JHM, Ginty F, Longley DB.",,"Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc",2022,2021-11-03,Y,,,,"Colorectal cancer (CRC) has one of the highest cancer incidences and mortality rates. In stage III, postoperative chemotherapy benefits <20% of patients, while more than 50% will develop distant metastases. Biomarkers for identification of patients at increased risk of disease recurrence following adjuvant chemotherapy are currently lacking. In this study, we assessed immune signatures in the tumor and tumor microenvironment (TME) using an in situ multiplexed immunofluorescence imaging and single-cell analysis technology (Cell DIVETM) and evaluated their correlations with patient outcomes. Tissue microarrays (TMAs) with up to three 1 mm diameter cores per patient were prepared from 117 stage III CRC patients treated with adjuvant fluoropyrimidine/oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) chemotherapy. Single sections underwent multiplexed immunofluorescence staining for immune cell markers (CD45, CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3, PD1) and tumor/cell segmentation markers (DAPI, pan-cytokeratin, AE1, NaKATPase, and S6). We used annotations and a probabilistic classification algorithm to build statistical models of immune cell types. Images were also qualitatively assessed independently by a Pathologist as 'high', 'moderate' or 'low', for stromal and total immune cell content. Excellent agreement was found between manual assessment and total automated scores (p < 0.0001). Moreover, compared to single markers, a multi-marker classification of regulatory T cells (Tregs: CD3+/CD4+FOXP3+/PD1-) was significantly associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (p = 0.049 and 0.032) of FOLFOX-treated patients. Our results also showed that PD1- Tregs rather than PD1+ Tregs were associated with improved survival. These findings were supported by results from an independent FOLFOX-treated cohort of 191 stage III CRC patients, where higher PD1- Tregs were associated with an increase overall survival (p = 0.015) for CD3+/CD4+/FOXP3+/PD1-. Overall, compared to single markers, multi-marker classification provided more accurate quantitation of immune cell types with stronger correlations with outcomes.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41379-021-00953-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416?pdf=render 30949070,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00109,Real World Implementation of a Transdiagnostic Risk Calculator for the Automatic Detection of Individuals at Risk of Psychosis in Clinical Routine: Study Protocol.,"Fusar-Poli P, Oliver D, Spada G, Patel R, Stewart R, Dobson R, McGuire P.",,Frontiers in psychiatry,2019,2019-03-13,Y,Schizophrenia; Prevention; risk; Psychosis; Transdiagnostic,"Applied Analytics, Better Care",,"Background: Primary indicated prevention in individuals at-risk for psychosis has the potential to improve the outcomes of this disorder. The ability to detect the majority of at-risk individuals is the main barrier toward extending benefits for the lives of many adolescents and young adults. Current detection strategies are highly inefficient. Only 5% (standalone specialized early detection services) to 12% (youth mental health services) of individuals who will develop a first psychotic disorder can be detected at the time of their at-risk stage. To overcome these challenges a pragmatic, clinically-based, individualized, transdiagnostic risk calculator has been developed to detect individuals at-risk of psychosis in secondary mental health care at scale. This calculator has been externally validated and has demonstrated good prognostic performance. However, it is not known whether it can be used in the real world clinical routine. For example, clinicians may not be willing to adhere to the recommendations made by the transdiagnostic risk calculator. Implementation studies are needed to address pragmatic challenges relating to the real world use of the transdiagnostic risk calculator. The aim of the current study is to provide in-vitro and in-vivo feasibility data to support the implementation of the transdiagnostic risk calculator in clinical routine. Method: This is a study which comprises of two subsequent phases: an in-vitro phase of 1 month and an in-vivo phase of 11 months. The in-vitro phase aims at developing and integrating the transdiagnostic risk calculator in the local electronic health register (primary outcome). The in-vivo phase aims at addressing the clinicians' adherence to the recommendations made by the transdiagnostic risk calculator (primary outcome) and other secondary feasibility parameters that are necessary to estimate the resources needed for its implementation. Discussion: This is the first implementation study for risk prediction models in individuals at-risk for psychosis. Ultimately, successful implementation is the true measure of a prediction model's utility. Therefore, the overall translational deliverable of the current study would be to extend the benefits of primary indicated prevention and improve outcomes of first episode psychosis. This may produce significant social benefits for many adolescents and young adults and their families.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00109/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6436079; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6436079?pdf=render +34441449,https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516,Stability of OCT and OCTA in the Intensive Therapy Unit Setting. ,"Courtie EF, Kale AU, Hui BTK, Liu X, Capewell NI, Bishop JRB, Whitehouse T, Veenith T, Logan A, Denniston AK, Blanch RJ.",,"Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)",2021,2021-08-23,Y,,,,"To assess the stability of retinal structure and blood flow measures over time and in different clinical settings using portable optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) as a potential biomarker of central perfusion in critical illness, 18 oesophagectomy patients completed retinal structure and blood flow measurements by portable OCT and OCTA in the eye clinic and intensive therapy unit (ITU) across three timepoints: (1) pre-operation in a clinic setting; (2) 24-48 h post-operation during ITU admission; and (3) seven days post-operation, if the patient was still admitted. Blood flow and macular structural measures were stable between the examination settings, with no consistent variation between pre- and post-operation scans, while retinal nerve fibre layer thickness increased in the post-operative scans (+2.31 µm, p = 0.001). Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) measurements were the most stable, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of up to 0.92 for right eye FAZ area. Blood flow and structural measures were lower in left eyes than right eyes. Retinal blood flow assessed in patients before and during an ITU stay using portable OCTA showed no systematic differences between the clinical settings. The stability of retinal blood flow measures suggests the potential for portable OCTA to provide clinically useful measures in ITU patients.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/8/1516/pdf?version=1629792973; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026?pdf=render 37188768,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04836-9,Fine-mapping of retinal vascular complexity loci identifies Notch regulation as a shared mechanism with myocardial infarction outcomes.,"Villaplana-Velasco A, Pigeyre M, Engelmann J, Rawlik K, Canela-Xandri O, Tochel C, Lona-Durazo F, Mookiah MRK, Doney A, Parra EJ, Trucco E, MacGillivray T, Rannikmae K, Tenesa A, Pairo-Castineira E, Bernabeu MO.",,Communications biology,2023,2023-05-15,Y,,,,"There is increasing evidence that the complexity of the retinal vasculature measured as fractal dimension, Df, might offer earlier insights into the progression of coronary artery disease (CAD) before traditional biomarkers can be detected. This association could be partly explained by a common genetic basis; however, the genetic component of Df is poorly understood. We present a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 38,000 individuals with white British ancestry from the UK Biobank aimed to comprehensively study the genetic component of Df and analyse its relationship with CAD. We replicated 5 Df loci and found 4 additional loci with suggestive significance (P < 1e-05) to contribute to Df variation, which previously were reported in retinal tortuosity and complexity, hypertension, and CAD studies. Significant negative genetic correlation estimates support the inverse relationship between Df and CAD, and between Df and myocardial infarction (MI), one of CAD's fatal outcomes. Fine-mapping of Df loci revealed Notch signalling regulatory variants supporting a shared mechanism with MI outcomes. We developed a predictive model for MI incident cases, recorded over a 10-year period following clinical and ophthalmic evaluation, combining clinical information, Df, and a CAD polygenic risk score. Internal cross-validation demonstrated a considerable improvement in the area under the curve (AUC) of our predictive model (AUC = 0.770 ± 0.001) when comparing with an established risk model, SCORE, (AUC = 0.741 ± 0.002) and extensions thereof leveraging the PRS (AUC = 0.728 ± 0.001). This evidences that Df provides risk information beyond demographic, lifestyle, and genetic risk factors. Our findings shed new light on the genetic basis of Df, unveiling a common control with MI, and highlighting the benefits of its application in individualised MI risk prediction.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04836-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10185685; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10185685?pdf=render 34236053,https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.149446,Combining multiomics and drug perturbation profiles to identify muscle-specific treatments for spinal muscular atrophy.,"Meijboom KE, Volpato V, Monzón-Sandoval J, Hoolachan JM, Hammond SM, Abendroth F, de Jong OG, Hazell G, Ahlskog N, Wood MJ, Webber C, Bowerman M.",,JCI insight,2021,2021-07-08,Y,Bioinformatics; Drug therapy; Neuroscience; Genetic diseases; Muscle Biology,,,"Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disorder caused by loss of survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. While SMN restoration therapies are beneficial, they are not a cure. We aimed to identify potentially novel treatments to alleviate muscle pathology combining transcriptomics, proteomics, and perturbational data sets. This revealed potential drug candidates for repurposing in SMA. One of the candidates, harmine, was further investigated in cell and animal models, improving multiple disease phenotypes, including lifespan, weight, and key molecular networks in skeletal muscle. Our work highlights the potential of multiple and parallel data-driven approaches for the development of potentially novel treatments for use in combination with SMN restoration therapies.",,pdf:http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/149446/files/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.149446; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8410072; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8410072?pdf=render 35477868,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057579,Public opinion on sharing data from health services for clinical and research purposes without explicit consent: an anonymous online survey in the UK.,"Jones LA, Nelder JR, Fryer JM, Alsop PH, Geary MR, Prince M, Cardinal RN.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-04-27,Y,Information management; Mental health; Health Policy; Health Informatics,,,"

Objectives

UK National Health Service/Health and Social Care (NHS/HSC) data are variably shared between healthcare organisations for direct care, and increasingly de-identified for research. Few large-scale studies have examined public opinion on sharing, including of mental health (MH) versus physical health (PH) data. We measured data sharing preferences.

Design/setting/interventions/outcomes

Pre-registered anonymous online survey, measuring expressed preferences, recruiting February to September 2020. Participants were randomised to one of three framing statements regarding MH versus PH data.

Participants

Open to all UK residents. Participants numbered 29 275; 40% had experienced an MH condition.

Results

Most (76%) supported identifiable data sharing for direct clinical care without explicit consent, but 20% opposed this. Preference for clinical/identifiable sharing decreased with geographical distance and was slightly less for MH than PH data, with small framing effects. Preference for research/de-identified data sharing without explicit consent showed the same small PH/MH and framing effects, plus greater preference for sharing structured data than de-identified free text. There was net support for research sharing to the NHS, academic institutions, and national research charities, net ambivalence about sharing to profit-making companies researching treatments, and net opposition to sharing to other companies (similar to sharing publicly). De-identified linkage to non-health data was generally supported, except to data held by private companies. We report demographic influences on preference. A majority (89%) supported a single NHS mechanism to choose uses of their data. Support for data sharing increased during COVID-19.

Conclusions

Support for healthcare data sharing for direct care without explicit consent is broad but not universal. There is net support for the sharing of de-identified data for research to the NHS, academia, and the charitable sector, but not the commercial sector. A single national NHS-hosted system for patients to control the use of their NHS data for clinical purposes and for research would have broad support.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN37444142.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057579.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057579; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058801; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058801?pdf=render -34441449,https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516,Stability of OCT and OCTA in the Intensive Therapy Unit Setting. ,"Courtie EF, Kale AU, Hui BTK, Liu X, Capewell NI, Bishop JRB, Whitehouse T, Veenith T, Logan A, Denniston AK, Blanch RJ.",,"Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)",2021,2021-08-23,Y,,,,"To assess the stability of retinal structure and blood flow measures over time and in different clinical settings using portable optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) as a potential biomarker of central perfusion in critical illness, 18 oesophagectomy patients completed retinal structure and blood flow measurements by portable OCT and OCTA in the eye clinic and intensive therapy unit (ITU) across three timepoints: (1) pre-operation in a clinic setting; (2) 24-48 h post-operation during ITU admission; and (3) seven days post-operation, if the patient was still admitted. Blood flow and macular structural measures were stable between the examination settings, with no consistent variation between pre- and post-operation scans, while retinal nerve fibre layer thickness increased in the post-operative scans (+2.31 µm, p = 0.001). Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) measurements were the most stable, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of up to 0.92 for right eye FAZ area. Blood flow and structural measures were lower in left eyes than right eyes. Retinal blood flow assessed in patients before and during an ITU stay using portable OCTA showed no systematic differences between the clinical settings. The stability of retinal blood flow measures suggests the potential for portable OCTA to provide clinically useful measures in ITU patients.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/8/1516/pdf?version=1629792973; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026?pdf=render -37538507,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175,PIK3R3 is a candidate regulator of platelet count in people of Bangladeshi ancestry.,"Burley K, Fitzgibbon L, van Heel D, Genes & Health Research Team@EastLondonGenes, Vuckovic D, Mumford AD, Genes & Health Research Team.",,Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis,2023,2023-05-14,Y,Blood platelets; Cardiovascular diseases; Bangladesh; Genome-wide Association Study; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases,,,"

Background

Blood platelets are mediators of atherothrombotic disease and are regulated by complex sets of genes. Association studies in European ancestry populations have already detected informative platelet regulatory loci. Studies in other ancestries can potentially reveal new associations because of different allele frequencies, linkage structures, and variant effects.

Objectives

To reveal new regulatory genes for platelet count (PLT).

Methods

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed in 20,218 Bangladeshi and 9198 Pakistani individuals from the Genes & Health study. Loci significantly associated with PLT underwent fine-mapping to identify candidate genes.

Results

Of 1588 significantly associated variants (P < 5 × 10-8) at 20 loci in the Bangladeshi analysis, most replicated findings in prior transancestry GWAS and in the Pakistani analysis. However, the Bangladeshi locus defined by rs946528 (chr1:46019890) did not associate with PLT in the Pakistani analysis but was in the same linkage disequilibrium block (r2 ≥ 0.5) as PLT-associated variants in prior East Asian GWAS. The single independent association signal was refined to a 95% credible set of 343 variants spanning 8 coding genes. Functional annotation, mapping to megakaryocyte regulatory regions, and colocalization with blood expression quantitative trait loci identified the likely mediator of the PLT phenotype to be PIK3R3 encoding a regulator of phosphoinositol 3-kinase (PI3K).

Conclusion

Abnormal PI3K activity in the vessel wall is already implicated in the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis. Our identification of a new association between PIK3R3 and PLT provides further mechanistic insights into the contribution of the PI3K pathway to platelet biology.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561?pdf=render -35386118,https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651,Genome-Wide Association Study of Alzheimer's Disease Brain Imaging Biomarkers and Neuropsychological Phenotypes in the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery Dataset.,"Homann J, Osburg T, Ohlei O, Dobricic V, Deecke L, Bos I, Vandenberghe R, Gabel S, Scheltens P, Teunissen CE, Engelborghs S, Frisoni G, Blin O, Richardson JC, Bordet R, Lleó A, Alcolea D, Popp J, Clark C, Peyratout G, Martinez-Lage P, Tainta M, Dobson RJB, Legido-Quigley C, Sleegers K, Van Broeckhoven C, Wittig M, Franke A, Lill CM, Blennow K, Zetterberg H, Lovestone S, Streffer J, Ten Kate M, Vos SJB, Barkhof F, Visser PJ, Bertram L.",,Frontiers in aging neuroscience,2022,2022-03-21,Y,X chromosome; MRI; Imaging; Cognitive function; Genome-wide Association Study; Gwas; Alzheimer’s Disease (Ad),,,"Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative disease with an increasing prevalence in industrialized, aging populations. AD susceptibility has an established genetic basis which has been the focus of a large number of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) published over the last decade. Most of these GWAS used dichotomized clinical diagnostic status, i.e., case vs. control classification, as outcome phenotypes, without the use of biomarkers. An alternative and potentially more powerful study design is afforded by using quantitative AD-related phenotypes as GWAS outcome traits, an analysis paradigm that we followed in this work. Specifically, we utilized genotype and phenotype data from n = 931 individuals collected under the auspices of the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery (EMIF-AD MBD) study to perform a total of 19 separate GWAS analyses. As outcomes we used five magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) traits and seven cognitive performance traits. For the latter, longitudinal data from at least two timepoints were available in addition to cross-sectional assessments at baseline. Our GWAS analyses revealed several genome-wide significant associations for the neuropsychological performance measures, in particular those assayed longitudinally. Among the most noteworthy signals were associations in or near EHBP1 (EH domain binding protein 1; on chromosome 2p15) and CEP112 (centrosomal protein 112; 17q24.1) with delayed recall as well as SMOC2 (SPARC related modular calcium binding 2; 6p27) with immediate recall in a memory performance test. On the X chromosome, which is often excluded in other GWAS, we identified a genome-wide significant signal near IL1RAPL1 (interleukin 1 receptor accessory protein like 1; Xp21.3). While polygenic score (PGS) analyses showed the expected strong associations with SNPs highlighted in relevant previous GWAS on hippocampal volume and cognitive function, they did not show noteworthy associations with recent AD risk GWAS findings. In summary, our study highlights the power of using quantitative endophenotypes as outcome traits in AD-related GWAS analyses and nominates several new loci not previously implicated in cognitive decline.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8979334; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8979334?pdf=render 36474045,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01233-6,Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants and genes for coronary artery disease in over a million participants.,"Aragam KG, Jiang T, Goel A, Kanoni S, Wolford BN, Atri DS, Weeks EM, Wang M, Hindy G, Zhou W, Grace C, Roselli C, Marston NA, Kamanu FK, Surakka I, Venegas LM, Sherliker P, Koyama S, Ishigaki K, Åsvold BO, Brown MR, Brumpton B, de Vries PS, Giannakopoulou O, Giardoglou P, Gudbjartsson DF, Güldener U, Haider SMI, Helgadottir A, Ibrahim M, Kastrati A, Kessler T, Kyriakou T, Konopka T, Li L, Ma L, Meitinger T, Mucha S, Munz M, Murgia F, Nielsen JB, Nöthen MM, Pang S, Reinberger T, Schnitzler G, Smedley D, Thorleifsson G, von Scheidt M, Ulirsch JC, Biobank Japan, EPIC-CVD, Arnar DO, Burtt NP, Costanzo MC, Flannick J, Ito K, Jang DK, Kamatani Y, Khera AV, Komuro I, Kullo IJ, Lotta LA, Nelson CP, Roberts R, Thorgeirsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Webb TR, Baras A, Björkegren JLM, Boerwinkle E, Dedoussis G, Holm H, Hveem K, Melander O, Morrison AC, Orho-Melander M, Rallidis LS, Ruusalepp A, Sabatine MS, Stefansson K, Zalloua P, Ellinor PT, Farrall M, Danesh J, Ruff CT, Finucane HK, Hopewell JC, Clarke R, Gupta RM, Erdmann J, Samani NJ, Schunkert H, Watkins H, Willer CJ, Deloukas P, Kathiresan S, Butterworth AS, CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium.",,Nature genetics,2022,2022-12-06,Y,,,,"The discovery of genetic loci associated with complex diseases has outpaced the elucidation of mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for coronary artery disease (CAD) comprising 181,522 cases among 1,165,690 participants of predominantly European ancestry. We detected 241 associations, including 30 new loci. Cross-ancestry meta-analysis with a Japanese GWAS yielded 38 additional new loci. We prioritized likely causal variants using functionally informed fine-mapping, yielding 42 associations with less than five variants in the 95% credible set. Similarity-based clustering suggested roles for early developmental processes, cell cycle signaling and vascular cell migration and proliferation in the pathogenesis of CAD. We prioritized 220 candidate causal genes, combining eight complementary approaches, including 123 supported by three or more approaches. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we experimentally validated the effect of an enhancer in MYO9B, which appears to mediate CAD risk by regulating vascular cell motility. Our analysis identifies and systematically characterizes >250 risk loci for CAD to inform experimental interrogation of putative causal mechanisms for CAD.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01233-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01233-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9729111; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9729111?pdf=render +35386118,https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651,Genome-Wide Association Study of Alzheimer's Disease Brain Imaging Biomarkers and Neuropsychological Phenotypes in the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery Dataset.,"Homann J, Osburg T, Ohlei O, Dobricic V, Deecke L, Bos I, Vandenberghe R, Gabel S, Scheltens P, Teunissen CE, Engelborghs S, Frisoni G, Blin O, Richardson JC, Bordet R, Lleó A, Alcolea D, Popp J, Clark C, Peyratout G, Martinez-Lage P, Tainta M, Dobson RJB, Legido-Quigley C, Sleegers K, Van Broeckhoven C, Wittig M, Franke A, Lill CM, Blennow K, Zetterberg H, Lovestone S, Streffer J, Ten Kate M, Vos SJB, Barkhof F, Visser PJ, Bertram L.",,Frontiers in aging neuroscience,2022,2022-03-21,Y,X chromosome; MRI; Imaging; Cognitive function; Genome-wide Association Study; Gwas; Alzheimer’s Disease (Ad),,,"Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative disease with an increasing prevalence in industrialized, aging populations. AD susceptibility has an established genetic basis which has been the focus of a large number of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) published over the last decade. Most of these GWAS used dichotomized clinical diagnostic status, i.e., case vs. control classification, as outcome phenotypes, without the use of biomarkers. An alternative and potentially more powerful study design is afforded by using quantitative AD-related phenotypes as GWAS outcome traits, an analysis paradigm that we followed in this work. Specifically, we utilized genotype and phenotype data from n = 931 individuals collected under the auspices of the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery (EMIF-AD MBD) study to perform a total of 19 separate GWAS analyses. As outcomes we used five magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) traits and seven cognitive performance traits. For the latter, longitudinal data from at least two timepoints were available in addition to cross-sectional assessments at baseline. Our GWAS analyses revealed several genome-wide significant associations for the neuropsychological performance measures, in particular those assayed longitudinally. Among the most noteworthy signals were associations in or near EHBP1 (EH domain binding protein 1; on chromosome 2p15) and CEP112 (centrosomal protein 112; 17q24.1) with delayed recall as well as SMOC2 (SPARC related modular calcium binding 2; 6p27) with immediate recall in a memory performance test. On the X chromosome, which is often excluded in other GWAS, we identified a genome-wide significant signal near IL1RAPL1 (interleukin 1 receptor accessory protein like 1; Xp21.3). While polygenic score (PGS) analyses showed the expected strong associations with SNPs highlighted in relevant previous GWAS on hippocampal volume and cognitive function, they did not show noteworthy associations with recent AD risk GWAS findings. In summary, our study highlights the power of using quantitative endophenotypes as outcome traits in AD-related GWAS analyses and nominates several new loci not previously implicated in cognitive decline.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8979334; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8979334?pdf=render +37538507,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175,PIK3R3 is a candidate regulator of platelet count in people of Bangladeshi ancestry.,"Burley K, Fitzgibbon L, van Heel D, Genes & Health Research Team@EastLondonGenes, Vuckovic D, Mumford AD, Genes & Health Research Team.",,Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis,2023,2023-05-14,Y,Blood platelets; Cardiovascular diseases; Bangladesh; Genome-wide Association Study; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases,,,"

Background

Blood platelets are mediators of atherothrombotic disease and are regulated by complex sets of genes. Association studies in European ancestry populations have already detected informative platelet regulatory loci. Studies in other ancestries can potentially reveal new associations because of different allele frequencies, linkage structures, and variant effects.

Objectives

To reveal new regulatory genes for platelet count (PLT).

Methods

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed in 20,218 Bangladeshi and 9198 Pakistani individuals from the Genes & Health study. Loci significantly associated with PLT underwent fine-mapping to identify candidate genes.

Results

Of 1588 significantly associated variants (P < 5 × 10-8) at 20 loci in the Bangladeshi analysis, most replicated findings in prior transancestry GWAS and in the Pakistani analysis. However, the Bangladeshi locus defined by rs946528 (chr1:46019890) did not associate with PLT in the Pakistani analysis but was in the same linkage disequilibrium block (r2 ≥ 0.5) as PLT-associated variants in prior East Asian GWAS. The single independent association signal was refined to a 95% credible set of 343 variants spanning 8 coding genes. Functional annotation, mapping to megakaryocyte regulatory regions, and colocalization with blood expression quantitative trait loci identified the likely mediator of the PLT phenotype to be PIK3R3 encoding a regulator of phosphoinositol 3-kinase (PI3K).

Conclusion

Abnormal PI3K activity in the vessel wall is already implicated in the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis. Our identification of a new association between PIK3R3 and PLT provides further mechanistic insights into the contribution of the PI3K pathway to platelet biology.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561?pdf=render 33627748,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-021-00406-7,Real-time clinician text feeds from electronic health records.,"Teo JTH, Dinu V, Bernal W, Davidson P, Oliynyk V, Breen C, Barker RD, Dobson RJB.",,NPJ digital medicine,2021,2021-02-24,Y,,,,"Analyses of search engine and social media feeds have been attempted for infectious disease outbreaks, but have been found to be susceptible to artefactual distortions from health scares or keyword spamming in social media or the public internet. We describe an approach using real-time aggregation of keywords and phrases of freetext from real-time clinician-generated documentation in electronic health records to produce a customisable real-time viral pneumonia signal providing up to 4 days warning for secondary care capacity planning. This low-cost approach is open-source, is locally customisable, is not dependent on any specific electronic health record system and can provide an ensemble of signals if deployed at multiple organisational scales.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-021-00406-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-021-00406-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7904856; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7904856?pdf=render 33528799,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-021-01542-1,Risk stratification and subclinical phenotyping of dilated and/or arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy mutation-positive relatives: CVON eDETECT consortium.,"Roudijk RW, Taha K, Bourfiss M, Loh P, van den Heuvel L, Boonstra MJ, van Lint F, van der Voorn SM, Te Riele ASJM, Bosman LP, Christiaans I, van Veen TAB, Remme CA, van den Berg MP, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2021,2021-02-02,Y,Dilated cardiomyopathy; Phospholamban; Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy; Pathogenic Variants; Cascade Screening; Plakophilin‑2,,,"In relatives of index patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, early detection of disease onset is essential to prevent sudden cardiac death and facilitate early treatment of heart failure. However, the optimal screening interval and combination of diagnostic techniques are unknown. The clinical course of disease in index patients and their relatives is variable due to incomplete and age-dependent penetrance. Several biomarkers, electrocardiographic and imaging (echocardiographic deformation imaging and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging) techniques are promising non-invasive methods for detection of subclinical cardiomyopathy. However, these techniques need optimisation and integration into clinical practice. Furthermore, determining the optimal interval and intensity of cascade screening may require a personalised approach. To address this, the CVON-eDETECT (early detection of disease in cardiomyopathy mutation carriers) consortium aims to integrate electronic health record data from long-term follow-up, diagnostic data sets, tissue and plasma samples in a multidisciplinary biobank environment to provide personalised risk stratification for heart failure and sudden cardiac death. Adequate risk stratification may lead to personalised screening, treatment and optimal timing of implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation. In this article, we describe non-invasive diagnostic techniques used for detection of subclinical disease in relatives of index patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-021-01542-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-021-01542-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160055?pdf=render -33589465,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637,"Community-based complex interventions to sustain independence in older people, stratified by frailty: a protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.","Crocker TF, Clegg A, Riley RD, Lam N, Bajpai R, Jordão M, Patetsini E, Ramiz R, Ensor J, Forster A, Gladman JRF.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-02-15,Y,Preventive Medicine; Clinical Trials; Primary Care; Geriatric Medicine; Rehabilitation Medicine; Occupational & Industrial Medicine,,,"

Introduction

Maintaining independence is a primary goal of community health and care services for older people, but there is currently insufficient guidance about which services to implement. Therefore, we aim to synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people, including the effect of frailty, and group interventions to identify the best configurations.

Methods and analysis

Systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA). We will include randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people living at home (mean age ≥65 years), compared with usual care or another complex intervention. We will search MEDLINE (1946 to September 2020), Embase (1947 to September 2020), CINAHL (1981 to September 2020), PsycINFO (1806 to September 2020), CENTRAL and clinical trial registries from inception to September 2020, without date/language restrictions, and scan included papers' reference lists. Main outcomes were: living at home, activities of daily living (basic/instrumental), home-care services usage, hospitalisation, care home admission, costs and cost effectiveness. Additional outcomes were: health status, depression, loneliness, falls and mortality. Interventions will be coded, summarised and grouped. An NMA using a multivariate random-effects model for each outcome separately will determine the relative effects of different complex interventions. For each outcome, we will produce summary effect estimates for each pair of treatments in the network, with 95% CI, ranking plots and measures, and the borrowing of strength statistic. Inconsistency will be examined using a 'design-by-treatment interaction' model. We will assess risk of bias (Cochrane tool V.2) and certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation for NMA approach.

Ethics and dissemination

This research will use aggregated, anonymised, published data. Findings will be reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance. They will be disseminated to policy-makers, commissioners and providers, and via conferences and scientific journals.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019162195.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/2/e045637.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376?pdf=render 33532905,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-021-01539-w,BIO FOr CARE: biomarkers of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy development and progression in carriers of Dutch founder truncating MYBPC3 variants-design and status.,"Jansen M, Christiaans I, van der Crabben SN, Michels M, Huurman R, Hoedemaekers YM, Dooijes D, Jongbloed JDH, Boven LG, Lekanne Deprez RH, Wilde AAM, Jans JJM, van der Velden J, de Boer RA, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2021,2021-02-02,Y,Prognosis; Biomarkers; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Mybpc3,,,"

Background

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most prevalent monogenic heart disease, commonly caused by truncating variants in the MYBPC3 gene. HCM is an important cause of sudden cardiac death; however, overall prognosis is good and penetrance in genotype-positive individuals is incomplete. The underlying mechanisms are poorly understood and risk stratification remains limited.

Aim

To create a nationwide cohort of carriers of truncating MYBPC3 variants for identification of predictive biomarkers for HCM development and progression.

Methods

In the multicentre, observational BIO FOr CARe (Identification of BIOmarkers of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy development and progression in Dutch MYBPC3 FOunder variant CARriers) cohort, carriers of the c.2373dupG, c.2827C > T, c.2864_2865delCT and c.3776delA MYBPC3 variants are included and prospectively undergo longitudinal blood collection. Clinical data are collected from first presentation onwards. The primary outcome constitutes a composite endpoint of HCM progression (maximum wall thickness ≥ 20 mm, septal reduction therapy, heart failure occurrence, sustained ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death).

Results

So far, 250 subjects (median age 54.9 years (interquartile range 43.3, 66.6), 54.8% male) have been included. HCM was diagnosed in 169 subjects and dilated cardiomyopathy in 4. The primary outcome was met in 115 subjects. Blood samples were collected from 131 subjects.

Conclusion

BIO FOr CARe is a genetically homogeneous, phenotypically heterogeneous cohort incorporating a clinical data registry and longitudinal blood collection. This provides a unique opportunity to study biomarkers for HCM development and prognosis. The established infrastructure can be extended to study other genetic variants. Other centres are invited to join our consortium.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-021-01539-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-021-01539-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160056; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160056?pdf=render -35764313,https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345,Long-Read Sequencing Identifies the First Retrotransposon Insertion and Resolves Structural Variants Causing Antithrombin Deficiency.,"de la Morena-Barrio B, Stephens J, de la Morena-Barrio ME, Stefanucci L, Padilla J, Miñano A, Gleadall N, García JL, López-Fernández MF, Morange PE, Puurunen M, Undas A, Vidal F, Raymond FL, Vicente V, Ouwehand WH, Corral J, Sanchis-Juan A, NIHR BioResource.",,Thrombosis and haemostasis,2022,2022-06-28,Y,,,,"The identification of inherited antithrombin deficiency (ATD) is critical to prevent potentially life-threatening thrombotic events. Causal variants in SERPINC1 are identified for up to 70% of cases, the majority being single-nucleotide variants and indels. The detection and characterization of structural variants (SVs) in ATD remain challenging due to the high number of repetitive elements in SERPINC1. Here, we performed long-read whole-genome sequencing on 10 familial and 9 singleton cases with type I ATD proven by functional and antigen assays, who were selected from a cohort of 340 patients with this rare disorder because genetic analyses were either negative, ambiguous, or not fully characterized. We developed an analysis workflow to identify disease-associated SVs. This approach resolved, independently of its size or type, all eight SVs detected by multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification, and identified for the first time a complex rearrangement previously misclassified as a deletion. Remarkably, we identified the mechanism explaining ATD in 2 out of 11 cases with previous unknown defect: the insertion of a novel 2.4 kb SINE-VNTR-Alu retroelement, which was characterized by de novo assembly and verified by specific polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing in the probands and affected relatives. The nucleotide-level resolution achieved for all SVs allowed breakpoint analysis, which revealed repetitive elements and microhomologies supporting a common replication-based mechanism for all the SVs. Our study underscores the utility of long-read sequencing technology as a complementary method to identify, characterize, and unveil the molecular mechanism of disease-causing SVs involved in ATD, and enlarges the catalogue of genetic disorders caused by retrotransposon insertions.",,pdf:http://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/s-0042-1749345.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088?pdf=render 32327693,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0921-5,Predicted loss and gain of function mutations in ACO1 are associated with erythropoiesis.,"Oskarsson GR, Oddsson A, Magnusson MK, Kristjansson RP, Halldorsson GH, Ferkingstad E, Zink F, Helgadottir A, Ivarsdottir EV, Arnadottir GA, Jensson BO, Katrinardottir H, Sveinbjornsson G, Kristinsdottir AM, Lee AL, Saemundsdottir J, Stefansdottir L, Sigurdsson JK, Davidsson OB, Benonisdottir S, Jonasdottir A, Jonasdottir A, Jonsson S, Gudmundsson RL, Asselbergs FW, Tragante V, Gunnarsson B, Masson G, Thorleifsson G, Rafnar T, Holm H, Olafsson I, Onundarson PT, Gudbjartsson DF, Norddahl GL, Thorsteinsdottir U, Sulem P, Stefansson K.",,Communications biology,2020,2020-04-23,Y,,,,"Hemoglobin is the essential oxygen-carrying molecule in humans and is regulated by cellular iron and oxygen sensing mechanisms. To search for novel variants associated with hemoglobin concentration, we performed genome-wide association studies of hemoglobin concentration using a combined set of 684,122 individuals from Iceland and the UK. Notably, we found seven novel variants, six rare coding and one common, at the ACO1 locus associating with either decreased or increased hemoglobin concentration. Of these variants, the missense Cys506Ser and the stop-gained Lys334Ter mutations are specific to eight and ten generation pedigrees, respectively, and have the two largest effects in the study (EffectCys506Ser = -1.61 SD, CI95 = [-1.98, -1.35]; EffectLys334Ter = 0.63 SD, CI95 = [0.36, 0.91]). We also find Cys506Ser to associate with increased risk of persistent anemia (OR = 17.1, P = 2 × 10-14). The strong bidirectional effects seen in this study implicate ACO1, a known iron sensing molecule, as a major homeostatic regulator of hemoglobin concentration.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-0921-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0921-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7181819; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7181819?pdf=render 31358974,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0653-z,New alcohol-related genes suggest shared genetic mechanisms with neuropsychiatric disorders.,"Evangelou E, Gao H, Chu C, Ntritsos G, Blakeley P, Butts AR, Pazoki R, Suzuki H, Koskeridis F, Yiorkas AM, Karaman I, Elliott J, Luo Q, Aeschbacher S, Bartz TM, Baumeister SE, Braund PS, Brown MR, Brody JA, Clarke TK, Dimou N, Faul JD, Homuth G, Jackson AU, Kentistou KA, Joshi PK, Lemaitre RN, Lind PA, Lyytikäinen LP, Mangino M, Milaneschi Y, Nelson CP, Nolte IM, Perälä MM, Polasek O, Porteous D, Ratliff SM, Smith JA, Stančáková A, Teumer A, Tuominen S, Thériault S, Vangipurapu J, Whitfield JB, Wood A, Yao J, Yu B, Zhao W, Arking DE, Auvinen J, Liu C, Männikkö M, Risch L, Rotter JI, Snieder H, Veijola J, Blakemore AI, Boehnke M, Campbell H, Conen D, Eriksson JG, Grabe HJ, Guo X, van der Harst P, Hartman CA, Hayward C, Heath AC, Jarvelin MR, Kähönen M, Kardia SLR, Kühne M, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Lahti J, Lehtimäki T, McIntosh AM, Mohlke KL, Morrison AC, Martin NG, Oldehinkel AJ, Penninx BWJH, Psaty BM, Raitakari OT, Rudan I, Samani NJ, Scott LJ, Spector TD, Verweij N, Weir DR, Wilson JF, Levy D, Tzoulaki I, Bell JD, Matthews PM, Rothenfluh A, Desrivières S, Schumann G, Elliott P.",,Nature human behaviour,2019,2019-07-29,N,,,,"Excessive alcohol consumption is one of the main causes of death and disability worldwide. Alcohol consumption is a heritable complex trait. Here we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of alcohol consumption (g d-1) from the UK Biobank, the Alcohol Genome-Wide Consortium and the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Plus consortia, collecting data from 480,842 people of European descent to decipher the genetic architecture of alcohol intake. We identified 46 new common loci and investigated their potential functional importance using magnetic resonance imaging data and gene expression studies. We identify genetic pathways associated with alcohol consumption and suggest genetic mechanisms that are shared with neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.",,pdf:https://boris.unibe.ch/174991/1/nihms-1649425.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0653-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7711277; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7711277?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0653-z -34857859,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8,A computational exploration of resilience and evolvability of protein-protein interaction networks.,"Klein B, Holmér L, Smith KM, Johnson MM, Swain A, Stolp L, Teufel AI, Kleppe AS.",,Communications biology,2021,2021-12-02,Y,,,,"Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks represent complex intra-cellular protein interactions, and the presence or absence of such interactions can lead to biological changes in an organism. Recent network-based approaches have shown that a phenotype's PPI network's resilience to environmental perturbations is related to its placement in the tree of life; though we still do not know how or why certain intra-cellular factors can bring about this resilience. Here, we explore the influence of gene expression and network properties on PPI networks' resilience. We use publicly available data of PPIs for E. coli, S. cerevisiae, and H. sapiens, where we compute changes in network resilience as new nodes (proteins) are added to the networks under three node addition mechanisms-random, degree-based, and gene-expression-based attachments. By calculating the resilience of the resulting networks, we estimate the effectiveness of these node addition mechanisms. We demonstrate that adding nodes with gene-expression-based preferential attachment (as opposed to random or degree-based) preserves and can increase the original resilience of PPI network in all three species, regardless of gene expression distribution or network structure. These findings introduce a general notion of prospective resilience, which highlights the key role of network structures in understanding the evolvability of phenotypic traits.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02867-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913?pdf=render +33589465,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637,"Community-based complex interventions to sustain independence in older people, stratified by frailty: a protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.","Crocker TF, Clegg A, Riley RD, Lam N, Bajpai R, Jordão M, Patetsini E, Ramiz R, Ensor J, Forster A, Gladman JRF.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-02-15,Y,Preventive Medicine; Clinical Trials; Primary Care; Geriatric Medicine; Rehabilitation Medicine; Occupational & Industrial Medicine,,,"

Introduction

Maintaining independence is a primary goal of community health and care services for older people, but there is currently insufficient guidance about which services to implement. Therefore, we aim to synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people, including the effect of frailty, and group interventions to identify the best configurations.

Methods and analysis

Systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA). We will include randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people living at home (mean age ≥65 years), compared with usual care or another complex intervention. We will search MEDLINE (1946 to September 2020), Embase (1947 to September 2020), CINAHL (1981 to September 2020), PsycINFO (1806 to September 2020), CENTRAL and clinical trial registries from inception to September 2020, without date/language restrictions, and scan included papers' reference lists. Main outcomes were: living at home, activities of daily living (basic/instrumental), home-care services usage, hospitalisation, care home admission, costs and cost effectiveness. Additional outcomes were: health status, depression, loneliness, falls and mortality. Interventions will be coded, summarised and grouped. An NMA using a multivariate random-effects model for each outcome separately will determine the relative effects of different complex interventions. For each outcome, we will produce summary effect estimates for each pair of treatments in the network, with 95% CI, ranking plots and measures, and the borrowing of strength statistic. Inconsistency will be examined using a 'design-by-treatment interaction' model. We will assess risk of bias (Cochrane tool V.2) and certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation for NMA approach.

Ethics and dissemination

This research will use aggregated, anonymised, published data. Findings will be reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance. They will be disseminated to policy-makers, commissioners and providers, and via conferences and scientific journals.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019162195.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/2/e045637.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376?pdf=render +35764313,https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345,Long-Read Sequencing Identifies the First Retrotransposon Insertion and Resolves Structural Variants Causing Antithrombin Deficiency.,"de la Morena-Barrio B, Stephens J, de la Morena-Barrio ME, Stefanucci L, Padilla J, Miñano A, Gleadall N, García JL, López-Fernández MF, Morange PE, Puurunen M, Undas A, Vidal F, Raymond FL, Vicente V, Ouwehand WH, Corral J, Sanchis-Juan A, NIHR BioResource.",,Thrombosis and haemostasis,2022,2022-06-28,Y,,,,"The identification of inherited antithrombin deficiency (ATD) is critical to prevent potentially life-threatening thrombotic events. Causal variants in SERPINC1 are identified for up to 70% of cases, the majority being single-nucleotide variants and indels. The detection and characterization of structural variants (SVs) in ATD remain challenging due to the high number of repetitive elements in SERPINC1. Here, we performed long-read whole-genome sequencing on 10 familial and 9 singleton cases with type I ATD proven by functional and antigen assays, who were selected from a cohort of 340 patients with this rare disorder because genetic analyses were either negative, ambiguous, or not fully characterized. We developed an analysis workflow to identify disease-associated SVs. This approach resolved, independently of its size or type, all eight SVs detected by multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification, and identified for the first time a complex rearrangement previously misclassified as a deletion. Remarkably, we identified the mechanism explaining ATD in 2 out of 11 cases with previous unknown defect: the insertion of a novel 2.4 kb SINE-VNTR-Alu retroelement, which was characterized by de novo assembly and verified by specific polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing in the probands and affected relatives. The nucleotide-level resolution achieved for all SVs allowed breakpoint analysis, which revealed repetitive elements and microhomologies supporting a common replication-based mechanism for all the SVs. Our study underscores the utility of long-read sequencing technology as a complementary method to identify, characterize, and unveil the molecular mechanism of disease-causing SVs involved in ATD, and enlarges the catalogue of genetic disorders caused by retrotransposon insertions.",,pdf:http://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/s-0042-1749345.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088?pdf=render 30014898,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.07.015,Estimation of TETRA radio use in the Airwave Health Monitoring Study of the British police forces.,"Vergnaud AC, Aresu M, Kongsgård HW, McRobie D, Singh D, Spear J, Heard A, Gao H, Carpenter JR, Elliott P.",,Environmental research,2018,2018-07-09,N,Tetra; Occupational Exposure; Occupational Cohort; Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

The Airwave Health Monitoring Study aims to investigate the possible long-term health effects of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) use among the police forces in Great Britain. Here, we investigate whether objective data from the network operator could be used to correct for misreporting in self-reported data and expand the radio usage availability in our cohort.

Methods

We estimated average monthly usage of personal radio in the 12 months prior to enrolment from a missing value imputation model and evaluated its performance against objective and self-reported data. Factors associated with TETRA radio usage variables were investigated using Chi-square tests and analysis of variance.

Results

The imputed data were better correlated with objective than self-reported usage (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.72 vs. 0. 52 and kappa 0.56 [95% confidence interval 0.55, 0.56] vs. 0.46 [0.45, 0.47]), although the imputation model tended to under-estimate use for higher users. Participants with higher personal radio usage were more likely to be younger, men vs. women and officer vs. staff. The median average monthly usage level for the entire cohort was estimated to be 29.3 min (95% CI: [7.2, 66.6]).

Conclusion

The availability of objective personal radio records for a large proportion of users allowed us to develop a robust imputation model and hence obtain personal radio usage estimates for ~50,000 participants. This substantially reduced exposure misclassification compared to using self-reported data and will allow us to carry out analyses of TETRA usage for the entire cohort in future work.",,pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4648566/1/Estimation%20of%20TETRA%20radio_GREEN%20AAM.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.07.015 35051442,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471,Reduced amplification efficiency of the RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase target enables tracking of the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant using routine diagnostic tests.,"Valley-Omar Z, Marais G, Iranzadeh A, Naidoo M, Korsman S, Maponga T, Hussey H, Davies MA, Boulle A, Doolabh D, Laubscher M, Wojno J, Deetlefs JD, Maritz J, Scott L, Msomi N, Naicker C, Tegally H, de Oliveira T, Bhiman J, Williamson C, Preiser W, Hardie D, Hsiao NY.",,Journal of virological methods,2022,2022-01-18,Y,Surveillance; Diagnostic test; South Africa; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant,,,"Routine SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the Western Cape region of South Africa (January-August 2021) found a reduced RT-PCR amplification efficiency of the RdRp-gene target of the Seegene, Allplex 2019-nCoV diagnostic assay from June 2021 when detecting the Delta variant. We investigated whether the reduced amplification efficiency denoted by an increased RT-PCR cycle threshold value (RΔE) can be used as an indirect measure of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant prevalence. We found a significant increase in the median RΔE for patient samples tested from June 2021, which coincided with the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant within our sample set. Whole genome sequencing on a subset of patient samples identified a highly conserved G15451A, non-synonymous mutation exclusively within the RdRp gene of Delta variants, which may cause reduced RT-PCR amplification efficiency. While whole genome sequencing plays an important in identifying novel SARS-CoV-2 variants, monitoring RΔE value can serve as a useful surrogate for rapid tracking of Delta variant prevalence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409?pdf=render +34857859,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8,A computational exploration of resilience and evolvability of protein-protein interaction networks.,"Klein B, Holmér L, Smith KM, Johnson MM, Swain A, Stolp L, Teufel AI, Kleppe AS.",,Communications biology,2021,2021-12-02,Y,,,,"Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks represent complex intra-cellular protein interactions, and the presence or absence of such interactions can lead to biological changes in an organism. Recent network-based approaches have shown that a phenotype's PPI network's resilience to environmental perturbations is related to its placement in the tree of life; though we still do not know how or why certain intra-cellular factors can bring about this resilience. Here, we explore the influence of gene expression and network properties on PPI networks' resilience. We use publicly available data of PPIs for E. coli, S. cerevisiae, and H. sapiens, where we compute changes in network resilience as new nodes (proteins) are added to the networks under three node addition mechanisms-random, degree-based, and gene-expression-based attachments. By calculating the resilience of the resulting networks, we estimate the effectiveness of these node addition mechanisms. We demonstrate that adding nodes with gene-expression-based preferential attachment (as opposed to random or degree-based) preserves and can increase the original resilience of PPI network in all three species, regardless of gene expression distribution or network structure. These findings introduce a general notion of prospective resilience, which highlights the key role of network structures in understanding the evolvability of phenotypic traits.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02867-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913?pdf=render 32891970,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104689,Exploring placement stability for children in out-of-home care in England: a sequence analysis of longitudinal administrative data.,"Mc Grath-Lone L, Harron K, Dearden L, Gilbert R.",,Child abuse & neglect,2020,2020-09-03,N,Sequence analysis; Administrative Data; Longitudinal Care Histories,,,"

Background

To monitor stability of care, the proportion of children in England who have experienced three or more placements in the preceding 12-month period is published in government statistics. However, these annual snapshots cannot capture the complexity and heterogeneity of children's longitudinal care histories.

Objective

To describe the stability of care histories from birth to age 18 for children in England using a national administrative social care dataset, the Children Looked After return (CLA).

Participants and setting

We analyzed CLA data for a large, representative sample of children born between 1992 and 1994 (N = 16,000).

Methods

Using sequence analysis methods, we identified distinct patterns of stability, based on the number, duration, and timing of care placements throughout childhood.

Results

Although care histories were varied, six distinct patterns of stability were evident including; adolescent 1st entries (17.6%), long-term complex care (13.1%) and early intervention (6.9%). Overall, most children (58.4%) had a care history that we classified as shorter term care with an average of 276 days and 2.48 placements in care throughout childhood. Few children (4.0%) had a care history that could be described as long-term stable care.

Conclusions

Longitudinal analyses of administrative data can refine our understanding of how out-of-home care is used as a social care intervention. Sequence analysis is a particularly useful tool for exploring heterogeneous and complex care histories. Considering out-of-home care histories from a life course perspective over the entire childhood period could enable service providers to better understand and address the needs of looked after children.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7613165; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613165; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613165?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104689 34151246,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjco.2021.05.020,Cardiovascular and Renal Risk Factors and Complications Associated With COVID-19.,"Touyz RM, Boyd MOE, Guzik T, Padmanabhan S, McCallum L, Delles C, Mark PB, Petrie JR, Rios F, Montezano AC, Sykes R, Berry C.",,CJC open,2021,2021-06-16,Y,,,,"The current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, represents the largest medical challenge in decades. It has exposed unexpected cardiovascular vulnerabilities at all stages of the disease (pre-infection, acute phase, and subsequent chronic phase). The major cardiometabolic drivers identified as having epidemiologic and mechanistic associations with COVID-19 are abnormal adiposity, dysglycemia, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Hypertension is of particular interest, because components of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), which are critically involved in the pathophysiology of hypertension, are also implicated in COVID-19. Specifically, angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), a multifunctional protein of the RAS, which is part of the protective axis of the RAS, is also the receptor through which SARS-CoV-2 enters host cells, causing viral infection. Cardiovascular and cardiometabolic comorbidities not only predispose people to COVID-19, but also are complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, increasing evidence indicates that acute kidney injury is common in COVID-19, occurs early and in temporal association with respiratory failure, and is associated with poor prognosis, especially in the presence of cardiovascular risk factors. Here, we discuss cardiovascular and kidney disease in the context of COVID-19 and provide recent advances on putative pathophysiological mechanisms linking cardiovascular disease and COVID-19, focusing on the RAS and ACE2, as well as the immune system and inflammation. We provide up-to-date information on the relationships among hypertension, diabetes, and COVID-19 and emphasize the major cardiovascular diseases associated with COVID-19. We also briefly discuss emerging cardiovascular complications associated with long COVID-19, notably postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjco.2021.05.020; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjco.2021.05.020; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8205551; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8205551?pdf=render -37565978,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007,Penetrance and Prognosis of MYH7 Variant-Associated Cardiomyopathies: Results From a Dutch Multicenter Cohort Study.,"Jansen M, de Brouwer R, Hassanzada F, Schoemaker AE, Schmidt AF, Kooijman-Reumerman MD, Bracun V, Slieker MG, Dooijes D, Vermeer AMC, Wilde AAM, Amin AS, Lekanne Deprez RH, Herkert JC, Christiaans I, de Boer RA, Jongbloed JDH, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.",,JACC. Heart failure,2023,2023-08-09,N,Myosin; Screening; Prognosis; Cardiomyopathy; Penetrance; Myh7,,,"

Background

MYH7 variants cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), noncompaction cardiomyopathy (NCCM), and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Screening of relatives of patients with genetic cardiomyopathy is recommended from 10 to 12 years of age onward, irrespective of the affected gene.

Objectives

This study sought to study the penetrance and prognosis of MYH7 variant-associated cardiomyopathies.

Methods

In this multicenter cohort study, penetrance and major cardiomyopathy-related events (MCEs) were assessed in carriers of (likely) pathogenic MYH7 variants by using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests. Prognostic factors were evaluated using Cox regression with time-dependent coefficients.

Results

In total, 581 subjects (30.1% index patients, 48.4% male, median age 37.0 years [IQR: 19.5-50.2 years]) were included. HCM was diagnosed in 226 subjects, NCCM in 70, and DCM in 55. Early penetrance and MCEs (age <12 years) were common among NCCM-associated variant carriers (21.2% and 12.0%, respectively) and DCM-associated variant carriers (15.3% and 10.0%, respectively), compared with HCM-associated variant carriers (2.9% and 2.1%, respectively). Penetrance was significantly increased in carriers of converter region variants (adjusted HR: 1.87; 95% CI: 1.15-3.04; P = 0.012) and at age ≤1 year in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 21.17; 95% CI: 4.81-93.20; P < 0.001) and subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 2.45; 95% CI: 1.09-5.50; P = 0.030). The risk of MCE was increased in subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 1.82; 95% CI: 1.15-2.87; P = 0.010) and at age ≤5 years in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 38.82; 95% CI: 5.16-291.88; P < 0.001).

Conclusions

MYH7 variants can cause cardiomyopathies and MCEs at a young age. Screening at younger ages may be warranted, particularly in carriers of NCCM- or DCM-associated variants and/or with a family history of MCEs at <12 years.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007 34455223,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102213,Medical image segmentation automatic quality control: A multi-dimensional approach.,"Fournel J, Bartoli A, Bendahan D, Guye M, Bernard M, Rauseo E, Khanji MY, Petersen SE, Jacquier A, Ghattas B.",,Medical image analysis,2021,2021-08-12,N,Deep Learning; Cmr Image Segmentation; Medical Image Segmentation Automatic Quality Control; Multi-dimensional Quality Control,,,"In clinical applications, using erroneous segmentations of medical images can have dramatic consequences. Current approaches dedicated to medical image segmentation automatic quality control do not predict segmentation quality at slice-level (2D), resulting in sub-optimal evaluations. Our 2D-based deep learning method simultaneously performs quality control at 2D-level and 3D-level for cardiovascular MR image segmentations. We compared it with 3D approaches by training both on 36,540 (2D) / 3842 (3D) samples to predict Dice Similarity Coefficients (DSC) for 4 different structures from the left ventricle, i.e., trabeculations (LVT), myocardium (LVM), papillary muscles (LVPM) and blood (LVC). The 2D-based method outperformed the 3D method. At the 2D-level, the mean absolute errors (MAEs) of the DSC predictions for 3823 samples, were 0.02, 0.02, 0.05 and 0.02 for LVM, LVC, LVT and LVPM, respectively. At the 3D-level, for 402 samples, the corresponding MAEs were 0.02, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04. The method was validated in a clinical practice evaluation against semi-qualitative scores provided by expert cardiologists for 1016 subjects of the UK BioBank. Finally, we provided evidence that a multi-level QC could be used to enhance clinical measurements derived from image segmentations.",,pdf:http://manuscript.elsevier.com/S1361841521002589/pdf/S1361841521002589.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102213 +37565978,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007,Penetrance and Prognosis of MYH7 Variant-Associated Cardiomyopathies: Results From a Dutch Multicenter Cohort Study.,"Jansen M, de Brouwer R, Hassanzada F, Schoemaker AE, Schmidt AF, Kooijman-Reumerman MD, Bracun V, Slieker MG, Dooijes D, Vermeer AMC, Wilde AAM, Amin AS, Lekanne Deprez RH, Herkert JC, Christiaans I, de Boer RA, Jongbloed JDH, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.",,JACC. Heart failure,2023,2023-08-09,N,Myosin; Screening; Prognosis; Cardiomyopathy; Penetrance; Myh7,,,"

Background

MYH7 variants cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), noncompaction cardiomyopathy (NCCM), and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Screening of relatives of patients with genetic cardiomyopathy is recommended from 10 to 12 years of age onward, irrespective of the affected gene.

Objectives

This study sought to study the penetrance and prognosis of MYH7 variant-associated cardiomyopathies.

Methods

In this multicenter cohort study, penetrance and major cardiomyopathy-related events (MCEs) were assessed in carriers of (likely) pathogenic MYH7 variants by using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests. Prognostic factors were evaluated using Cox regression with time-dependent coefficients.

Results

In total, 581 subjects (30.1% index patients, 48.4% male, median age 37.0 years [IQR: 19.5-50.2 years]) were included. HCM was diagnosed in 226 subjects, NCCM in 70, and DCM in 55. Early penetrance and MCEs (age <12 years) were common among NCCM-associated variant carriers (21.2% and 12.0%, respectively) and DCM-associated variant carriers (15.3% and 10.0%, respectively), compared with HCM-associated variant carriers (2.9% and 2.1%, respectively). Penetrance was significantly increased in carriers of converter region variants (adjusted HR: 1.87; 95% CI: 1.15-3.04; P = 0.012) and at age ≤1 year in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 21.17; 95% CI: 4.81-93.20; P < 0.001) and subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 2.45; 95% CI: 1.09-5.50; P = 0.030). The risk of MCE was increased in subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 1.82; 95% CI: 1.15-2.87; P = 0.010) and at age ≤5 years in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 38.82; 95% CI: 5.16-291.88; P < 0.001).

Conclusions

MYH7 variants can cause cardiomyopathies and MCEs at a young age. Screening at younger ages may be warranted, particularly in carriers of NCCM- or DCM-associated variants and/or with a family history of MCEs at <12 years.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007 34732073,https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.121.034787,"Risk, Clinical Course, and Outcome of Ischemic Stroke in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: A Multicenter Cohort Study.","Sluis WM, Linschoten M, Buijs JE, Biesbroek JM, den Hertog HM, Ribbers T, Nieuwkamp DJ, van Houwelingen RC, Dias A, van Uden IWM, Kerklaan JP, Bienfait HP, Vermeer SE, de Jong SW, Ali M, Wermer MJH, de Graaf MT, Brouwers PJAM, Asselbergs FW, Kappelle LJ, van der Worp HB, Algra AM, CAPACITY-COVID Collaborative Consortium*.",,Stroke,2021,2021-11-04,Y,Intensive care units; Pulmonary embolism; incidence; Hospital Mortality; Patient Discharge; Covid-19,,,"

Background and purpose

The frequency of ischemic stroke in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) varies in the current literature, and risk factors are unknown. We assessed the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of acute ischemic stroke in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Methods

We included patients with a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) infection admitted in 16 Dutch hospitals participating in the international CAPACITY-COVID registry between March 1 and August 1, 2020. Patients were screened for the occurrence of acute ischemic stroke. We calculated the cumulative incidence of ischemic stroke and compared risk factors, cardiovascular complications, and in-hospital mortality in patients with and without ischemic stroke.

Results

We included 2147 patients with COVID-19, of whom 586 (27.3%) needed treatment at an intensive care unit. Thirty-eight patients (1.8%) had an ischemic stroke. Patients with stroke were older but did not differ in sex or cardiovascular risk factors. Median time between the onset of COVID-19 symptoms and diagnosis of stroke was 2 weeks. The incidence of ischemic stroke was higher among patients who were treated at an intensive care unit (16/586; 2.7% versus nonintensive care unit, 22/1561; 1.4%; P=0.039). Pulmonary embolism was more common in patients with (8/38; 21.1%) than in those without stroke (160/2109; 7.6%; adjusted risk ratio, 2.08 [95% CI, 1.52-2.84]). Twenty-seven patients with ischemic stroke (71.1%) died during admission or were functionally dependent at discharge. Patients with ischemic stroke were at a higher risk of in-hospital mortality (adjusted risk ratio, 1.56 [95% CI, 1.13-2.15]) than patients without stroke.

Conclusions

In this multicenter cohort study, the cumulative incidence of acute ischemic stroke in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 was ≈2%, with a higher risk in patients treated at an intensive care unit. The majority of stroke patients had a poor outcome. The association between ischemic stroke and pulmonary embolism warrants further investigation.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.034787; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.034787; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8607920; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8607920?pdf=render 31350550,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz197,Statistics on mortality following acute myocardial infarction in 842 897 Europeans.,"Alabas OA, Jernberg T, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Rutherford MJ, West RM, Hall M, Timmis A, Lindahl B, Fox KAA, Hemingway H, Gale CP.",,Cardiovascular research,2020,2020-01-01,N,Mortality; Acute myocardial infarction; Sweden; UK; Minap; Swedeheart,,,"

Aims

To compare ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-STEMI (NSTEMI) mortality between Sweden and the UK, adjusting for background population rates of expected death, case mix, and treatments.

Methods and results

National data were collected from hospitals in Sweden [n = 73 hospitals, 180 368 patients, Swedish Web-system for Enhancement and Development of Evidence-based care in Heart disease Evaluated According to Recommended Therapies (SWEDEHEART)] and the UK [n = 247, 662 529 patients, Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP)] between 2003 and 2013. There were lower rates of revascularization [STEMI (43.8% vs. 74.9%); NSTEMI (27.5% vs. 43.6%)] and pharmacotherapies at time of hospital discharge including [aspirin (82.9% vs. 90.2%) and (79.9% vs. 88.0%), β-blockers (73.4% vs. 86.4%) and (65.3% vs. 85.1%)] in the UK compared with Sweden, respectively. Standardized net probability of death (NPD) between admission and 1 month was higher in the UK for STEMI [8.0 (95% confidence interval 7.4-8.5) vs. 6.7 (6.5-6.9)] and NSTEMI [6.8 (6.4-7.2) vs. 4.9 (4.7-5.0)]. Between 6 months and 1 year and more than 1 year, NPD remained higher in the UK for NSTEMI [2.9 (2.5-3.3) vs. 2.3 (2.2-2.5)] and [21.4 (20.0-22.8) vs. 18.3 (17.6-19.0)], but was similar for STEMI [0.7 (0.4-1.0) vs. 0.9 (0.7-1.0)] and [8.4 (6.7-10.1) vs. 8.3 (7.5-9.1)].

Conclusion

Short-term mortality following STEMI and NSTEMI was higher in the UK compared with Sweden. Mid- and longer-term mortality remained higher in the UK for NSTEMI but was similar for STEMI. Differences in mortality may be due to differential use of guideline-indicated treatments.",,pdf:https://leicester.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Statistics_on_mortality_following_acute_myocardial_infarction_in_842_897_Europeans_/10208480/1/files/18403874.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz197 -35322056,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5,Automated quality assessment of large digitised histology cohorts by artificial intelligence.,"Haghighat M, Browning L, Sirinukunwattana K, Malacrino S, Khalid Alham N, Colling R, Cui Y, Rakha E, Hamdy FC, Verrill C, Rittscher J.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-03-23,Y,,,,"Research using whole slide images (WSIs) of histopathology slides has increased exponentially over recent years. Glass slides from retrospective cohorts, some with patient follow-up data are digitised for the development and validation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Such resources, therefore, become very important, with the need to ensure that their quality is of the standard necessary for downstream AI development. However, manual quality control of large cohorts of WSIs by visual assessment is unfeasible, and whilst quality control AI algorithms exist, these focus on bespoke aspects of image quality, e.g. focus, or use traditional machine-learning methods, which are unable to classify the range of potential image artefacts that should be considered. In this study, we have trained and validated a multi-task deep neural network to automate the process of quality control of a large retrospective cohort of prostate cases from which glass slides have been scanned several years after production, to determine both the usability of the images at the diagnostic level (considered in this study to be the minimal standard for research) and the common image artefacts present. Using a two-layer approach, quality overlays of WSIs were generated from a quality assessment (QA) undertaken at patch-level at [Formula: see text] magnification. From these quality overlays the slide-level quality scores were predicted and then compared to those generated by three specialist urological pathologists, with a Pearson correlation of 0.89 for overall 'usability' (at a diagnostic level), and 0.87 and 0.82 for focus and H&E staining quality scores respectively. To demonstrate its wider potential utility, we subsequently applied our QA pipeline to the TCGA prostate cancer cohort and to a colorectal cancer cohort, for comparison. Our model, designated as PathProfiler, indicates comparable predicted usability of images from the cohorts assessed (86-90% of WSIs predicted to be usable), and perhaps more significantly is able to predict WSIs that could benefit from an intervention such as re-scanning or re-staining for quality improvement. We have shown in this study that AI can be used to automate the process of quality control of large retrospective WSI cohorts to maximise their utility for research.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08351-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120?pdf=render -35605170,https://doi.org/10.2196/37668,Differences in Clinical Presentation With Long COVID After Community and Hospital Infection and Associations With All-Cause Mortality: English Sentinel Network Database Study.,"Meza-Torres B, Delanerolle G, Okusi C, Mayor N, Anand S, Macartney J, Gatenby P, Glampson B, Chapman M, Curcin V, Mayer E, Joy M, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-08-16,Y,Phenotype; Hospitalization; Social Class; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Post–covid-19 Syndrome; Post–acute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts,,,"

Background

Most studies of long COVID (symptoms of COVID-19 infection beyond 4 weeks) have focused on people hospitalized in their initial illness. Long COVID is thought to be underrecorded in UK primary care electronic records.

Objective

We sought to determine which symptoms people present to primary care after COVID-19 infection and whether presentation differs in people who were not hospitalized, as well as post-long COVID mortality rates.

Methods

We used routine data from the nationally representative primary care sentinel cohort of the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (N=7,396,702), applying a predefined long COVID phenotype and grouped by whether the index infection occurred in hospital or in the community. We included COVID-19 infection cases from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We conducted a before-and-after analysis of long COVID symptoms prespecified by the Office of National Statistics, comparing symptoms presented between 1 and 6 months after the index infection matched with the same months 1 year previously. We conducted logistic regression analysis, quoting odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs.

Results

In total, 5.63% (416,505/7,396,702) and 1.83% (7623/416,505) of the patients had received a coded diagnosis of COVID-19 infection and diagnosis of, or referral for, long COVID, respectively. People with diagnosis or referral of long COVID had higher odds of presenting the prespecified symptoms after versus before COVID-19 infection (OR 2.66, 95% CI 2.46-2.88, for those with index community infection and OR 2.42, 95% CI 2.03-2.89, for those hospitalized). After an index community infection, patients were more likely to present with nonspecific symptoms (OR 3.44, 95% CI 3.00-3.95; P<.001) compared with after a hospital admission (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.56-2.80; P<.001). Mental health sequelae were more strongly associated with index hospital infections (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.64-2.96) than with index community infections (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.21-1.53; P<.001). People presenting to primary care after hospital infection were more likely to be men (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.25-1.64; P<.001), more socioeconomically deprived (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.24-1.63; P<.001), and with higher multimorbidity scores (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.26-1.57; P<.001) than those presenting after an index community infection. All-cause mortality in people with long COVID was associated with increasing age, male sex (OR 3.32, 95% CI 1.34-9.24; P=.01), and higher multimorbidity score (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.34-3.29; P<.001). Vaccination was associated with reduced odds of mortality (OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.03-0.35; P<.001).

Conclusions

The low percentage of people recorded as having long COVID after COVID-19 infection reflects either low prevalence or underrecording. The characteristics and comorbidities of those presenting with long COVID after a community infection are different from those hospitalized. This study provides insights into the presentation of long COVID in primary care and implications for workload.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e37668/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/37668; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384859 37286573,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38383-y,Elevated plasma complement factor H related 5 protein is associated with venous thromboembolism.,"Iglesias MJ, Sanchez-Rivera L, Ibrahim-Kosta M, Naudin C, Munsch G, Goumidi L, Farm M, Smith PM, Thibord F, Kral-Pointner JB, Hong MG, Suchon P, Germain M, Schottmaier W, Dusart P, Boland A, Kotol D, Edfors F, Koprulu M, Pietzner M, Langenberg C, Damrauer SM, Johnson AD, Klarin DM, Smith NL, Smadja DM, Holmström M, Magnusson M, Silveira A, Uhlén M, Renné T, Martinez-Perez A, Emmerich J, Deleuze JF, Antovic J, Soria Fernandez JM, Assinger A, Schwenk JM, Souto Andres JC, Morange PE, Butler LM, Trégouët DA, Odeberg J.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-06-07,Y,,,,"Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common, multi-causal disease with potentially serious short- and long-term complications. In clinical practice, there is a need for improved plasma biomarker-based tools for VTE diagnosis and risk prediction. Here we show, using proteomics profiling to screen plasma from patients with suspected acute VTE, and several case-control studies for VTE, how Complement Factor H Related 5 protein (CFHR5), a regulator of the alternative pathway of complement activation, is a VTE-associated plasma biomarker. In plasma, higher CFHR5 levels are associated with increased thrombin generation potential and recombinant CFHR5 enhanced platelet activation in vitro. GWAS analysis of ~52,000 participants identifies six loci associated with CFHR5 plasma levels, but Mendelian randomization do not demonstrate causality between CFHR5 and VTE. Our results indicate an important role for the regulation of the alternative pathway of complement activation in VTE and that CFHR5 represents a potential diagnostic and/or risk predictive plasma biomarker.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38383-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247781; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247781?pdf=render 31204027,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.06.012,"Comparing the outcomes of isolated, serious traumatic brain injury in older adults managed at major trauma centres and neurosurgical services: A registry-based cohort study.","Dunn MS, Beck B, Simpson PM, Cameron PA, Kennedy M, Maiden M, Judson R, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury,2019,2019-06-10,N,Traumatic brain injury; Functional Outcome; Older Adult; Tbi; Trauma Systems,,,"

Background

The incidence of older adult traumatic brain injury (TBI) is increasing in both high and middle to low-income countries. It is unknown whether older adults with isolated, serious TBI can be safely managed outside of major trauma centres. This registry based cohort study aimed to compare mortality and functional outcomes of older adults with isolated, serious TBI who were managed at specialised Major Trauma Services (MTS) and Metropolitan Neurosurgical Services (MNS).

Method

Older adults (65 years and over) who sustained an isolated, serious TBI following a low fall (from standing or ≤ 1 m) were extracted from the Victorian State Trauma Registry from 2007 to 2016. Multivariable models were fitted to assess the association between hospital designation (MTS vs. MNS) and the two outcomes of interest: in-hospital mortality and functional outcome, adjusting for potential confounders. Functional outcomes were measured using the Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended at six months post-injury.

Results

From 2007-2016, there were 1904 older adults who sustained an isolated, serious TBI from a low fall who received definitive care at an MTS (n = 1124) or an MNS (n = 780). After adjusting for confounders, there was no mortality benefit for patients managed at an MTS over an MNS (OR = 0.84; 95% CI: 0.65, 1.08; P = 0.17) or improvement in functional outcome six months post-injury (OR = 1.13; 95% CI: 0.94, 1.36; P = 0.21).

Conclusion

For older adults with isolated, serious TBI following a low fall, there was no difference in mortality or functional outcome based on definitive management at an MTS or an MNS. This confirms that MNS without the added designation of a major trauma centre are a suitable destination for the management of isolated, serious TBI in older adults.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.06.012 +35605170,https://doi.org/10.2196/37668,Differences in Clinical Presentation With Long COVID After Community and Hospital Infection and Associations With All-Cause Mortality: English Sentinel Network Database Study.,"Meza-Torres B, Delanerolle G, Okusi C, Mayor N, Anand S, Macartney J, Gatenby P, Glampson B, Chapman M, Curcin V, Mayer E, Joy M, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.",,JMIR public health and surveillance,2022,2022-08-16,Y,Phenotype; Hospitalization; Social Class; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Post–covid-19 Syndrome; Post–acute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts,,,"

Background

Most studies of long COVID (symptoms of COVID-19 infection beyond 4 weeks) have focused on people hospitalized in their initial illness. Long COVID is thought to be underrecorded in UK primary care electronic records.

Objective

We sought to determine which symptoms people present to primary care after COVID-19 infection and whether presentation differs in people who were not hospitalized, as well as post-long COVID mortality rates.

Methods

We used routine data from the nationally representative primary care sentinel cohort of the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (N=7,396,702), applying a predefined long COVID phenotype and grouped by whether the index infection occurred in hospital or in the community. We included COVID-19 infection cases from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We conducted a before-and-after analysis of long COVID symptoms prespecified by the Office of National Statistics, comparing symptoms presented between 1 and 6 months after the index infection matched with the same months 1 year previously. We conducted logistic regression analysis, quoting odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs.

Results

In total, 5.63% (416,505/7,396,702) and 1.83% (7623/416,505) of the patients had received a coded diagnosis of COVID-19 infection and diagnosis of, or referral for, long COVID, respectively. People with diagnosis or referral of long COVID had higher odds of presenting the prespecified symptoms after versus before COVID-19 infection (OR 2.66, 95% CI 2.46-2.88, for those with index community infection and OR 2.42, 95% CI 2.03-2.89, for those hospitalized). After an index community infection, patients were more likely to present with nonspecific symptoms (OR 3.44, 95% CI 3.00-3.95; P<.001) compared with after a hospital admission (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.56-2.80; P<.001). Mental health sequelae were more strongly associated with index hospital infections (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.64-2.96) than with index community infections (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.21-1.53; P<.001). People presenting to primary care after hospital infection were more likely to be men (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.25-1.64; P<.001), more socioeconomically deprived (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.24-1.63; P<.001), and with higher multimorbidity scores (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.26-1.57; P<.001) than those presenting after an index community infection. All-cause mortality in people with long COVID was associated with increasing age, male sex (OR 3.32, 95% CI 1.34-9.24; P=.01), and higher multimorbidity score (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.34-3.29; P<.001). Vaccination was associated with reduced odds of mortality (OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.03-0.35; P<.001).

Conclusions

The low percentage of people recorded as having long COVID after COVID-19 infection reflects either low prevalence or underrecording. The characteristics and comorbidities of those presenting with long COVID after a community infection are different from those hospitalized. This study provides insights into the presentation of long COVID in primary care and implications for workload.",,pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e37668/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/37668; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384859 +35322056,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5,Automated quality assessment of large digitised histology cohorts by artificial intelligence.,"Haghighat M, Browning L, Sirinukunwattana K, Malacrino S, Khalid Alham N, Colling R, Cui Y, Rakha E, Hamdy FC, Verrill C, Rittscher J.",,Scientific reports,2022,2022-03-23,Y,,,,"Research using whole slide images (WSIs) of histopathology slides has increased exponentially over recent years. Glass slides from retrospective cohorts, some with patient follow-up data are digitised for the development and validation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Such resources, therefore, become very important, with the need to ensure that their quality is of the standard necessary for downstream AI development. However, manual quality control of large cohorts of WSIs by visual assessment is unfeasible, and whilst quality control AI algorithms exist, these focus on bespoke aspects of image quality, e.g. focus, or use traditional machine-learning methods, which are unable to classify the range of potential image artefacts that should be considered. In this study, we have trained and validated a multi-task deep neural network to automate the process of quality control of a large retrospective cohort of prostate cases from which glass slides have been scanned several years after production, to determine both the usability of the images at the diagnostic level (considered in this study to be the minimal standard for research) and the common image artefacts present. Using a two-layer approach, quality overlays of WSIs were generated from a quality assessment (QA) undertaken at patch-level at [Formula: see text] magnification. From these quality overlays the slide-level quality scores were predicted and then compared to those generated by three specialist urological pathologists, with a Pearson correlation of 0.89 for overall 'usability' (at a diagnostic level), and 0.87 and 0.82 for focus and H&E staining quality scores respectively. To demonstrate its wider potential utility, we subsequently applied our QA pipeline to the TCGA prostate cancer cohort and to a colorectal cancer cohort, for comparison. Our model, designated as PathProfiler, indicates comparable predicted usability of images from the cohorts assessed (86-90% of WSIs predicted to be usable), and perhaps more significantly is able to predict WSIs that could benefit from an intervention such as re-scanning or re-staining for quality improvement. We have shown in this study that AI can be used to automate the process of quality control of large retrospective WSI cohorts to maximise their utility for research.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08351-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120?pdf=render +35584845,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904,Reporting guideline for the early stage clinical evaluation of decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence: DECIDE-AI.,"Vasey B, Nagendran M, Campbell B, Clifton DA, Collins GS, Denaxas S, Denniston AK, Faes L, Geerts B, Ibrahim M, Liu X, Mateen BA, Mathur P, McCradden MD, Morgan L, Ordish J, Rogers C, Saria S, Ting DSW, Watkinson P, Weber W, Wheatstone P, McCulloch P, DECIDE-AI expert group.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-05-18,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/377/bmj-2022-070904.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9116198 36244350,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(22)00225-0,The burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in the WHO European region in 2019: a cross-country systematic analysis.,European Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators.,,The Lancet. Public health,2022,2022-10-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents one of the most crucial threats to public health and modern health care. Previous studies have identified challenges with estimating the magnitude of the problem and its downstream effect on human health and mortality. To our knowledge, this study presents the most comprehensive set of regional and country-level estimates of AMR burden in the WHO European region to date.

Methods

We estimated deaths and disability-adjusted life-years attributable to and associated with AMR for 23 bacterial pathogens and 88 pathogen-drug combinations for the WHO European region and its countries in 2019. Our methodological approach consisted of five broad components: the number of deaths in which infection had a role, the proportion of infectious deaths attributable to a given infectious syndrome, the proportion of infectious syndrome deaths attributable to a given pathogen, the percentage of a given pathogen resistant to an antimicrobial drug of interest, and the excess risk of mortality (or duration of an infection) associated with this resistance. These components were then used to estimate the disease burden by using two counterfactual scenarios: deaths attributable to AMR (considering an alternative scenario where infections with resistant pathogens are replaced with susceptible ones) and deaths associated with AMR (considering an alternative scenario where drug-resistant infections would not occur at all). Data were solicited from a wide array of international stakeholders; these included research hospitals, surveillance networks, and infection databases maintained by private laboratories and medical technology companies. We generated 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) for final estimates as the 25th and 975th ordered values across 1000 posterior draws, and models were cross-validated for out-of-sample predictive validity.

Findings

We estimated 541 000 deaths (95% UI 370 000-763 000) associated with bacterial AMR and 133 000 deaths (90 100-188 000) attributable to bacterial AMR in the whole WHO European region in 2019. The largest fatal burden of AMR in the region came from bloodstream infections, with 195 000 deaths (104 000-333 000) associated with resistance, followed by intra-abdominal infections (127 000 deaths [81 900-185 000]) and respiratory infections (120 000 deaths [94 500-154 000]). Seven leading pathogens were responsible for about 457 000 deaths associated with resistance in 53 countries of this region; these pathogens were, in descending order of mortality, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter baumannii. Methicillin-resistant S aureus was shown to be the leading pathogen-drug combination in 27 countries for deaths attributable to AMR, while aminopenicillin-resistant E coli predominated in 47 countries for deaths associated with AMR.

Interpretation

The high levels of resistance for several important bacterial pathogens and pathogen-drug combinations, together with the high mortality rates associated with these pathogens, show that AMR is a serious threat to public health in the WHO European region. Our regional and cross-country analyses open the door for strategies that can be tailored to leading pathogen-drug combinations and the available resources in a specific location. These results underscore that the most effective way to tackle AMR in this region will require targeted efforts and investments in conjunction with continuous outcome-based research endeavours.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Department of Health and Social Care using UK aid funding managed by the Fleming Fund.",,pdf:https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/136826/2/hdl_136826.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00225-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9630253 37247330,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad260,SCORE2-Diabetes: 10-year cardiovascular risk estimation in type 2 diabetes in Europe.,SCORE2-Diabetes Working Group and the ESC Cardiovascular Risk Collaboration.,,European heart journal,2023,2023-07-01,Y,Cardiovascular diseases; Prediction model; Diabetes,,,"

Aims

To develop and validate a recalibrated prediction model (SCORE2-Diabetes) to estimate the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals with type 2 diabetes in Europe.

Methods and results

SCORE2-Diabetes was developed by extending SCORE2 algorithms using individual-participant data from four large-scale datasets comprising 229 460 participants (43 706 CVD events) with type 2 diabetes and without previous CVD. Sex-specific competing risk-adjusted models were used including conventional risk factors (i.e. age, smoking, systolic blood pressure, total, and HDL-cholesterol), as well as diabetes-related variables (i.e. age at diabetes diagnosis, glycated haemoglobin [HbA1c] and creatinine-based estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]). Models were recalibrated to CVD incidence in four European risk regions. External validation included 217 036 further individuals (38 602 CVD events), and showed good discrimination, and improvement over SCORE2 (C-index change from 0.009 to 0.031). Regional calibration was satisfactory. SCORE2-Diabetes risk predictions varied several-fold, depending on individuals' levels of diabetes-related factors. For example, in the moderate-risk region, the estimated 10-year CVD risk was 11% for a 60-year-old man, non-smoker, with type 2 diabetes, average conventional risk factors, HbA1c of 50 mmol/mol, eGFR of 90 mL/min/1.73 m2, and age at diabetes diagnosis of 60 years. By contrast, the estimated risk was 17% in a similar man, with HbA1c of 70 mmol/mol, eGFR of 60 mL/min/1.73 m2, and age at diabetes diagnosis of 50 years. For a woman with the same characteristics, the risk was 8% and 13%, respectively.

Conclusion

SCORE2-Diabetes, a new algorithm developed, calibrated, and validated to predict 10-year risk of CVD in individuals with type 2 diabetes, enhances identification of individuals at higher risk of developing CVD across Europe.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad260; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad260; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10361012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10361012?pdf=render 34371093,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.07.066,The impact of psoriasis and sexual orientation on mental and physical health among adults in the United States.,"Mansh MD, Mulick A, Langan SM.",,Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,2022,2021-08-08,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.07.066; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.07.066; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612892; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612892?pdf=render -35584845,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904,Reporting guideline for the early stage clinical evaluation of decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence: DECIDE-AI.,"Vasey B, Nagendran M, Campbell B, Clifton DA, Collins GS, Denaxas S, Denniston AK, Faes L, Geerts B, Ibrahim M, Liu X, Mateen BA, Mathur P, McCradden MD, Morgan L, Ordish J, Rogers C, Saria S, Ting DSW, Watkinson P, Weber W, Wheatstone P, McCulloch P, DECIDE-AI expert group.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-05-18,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/377/bmj-2022-070904.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9116198 30984759,https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2019.00048,"Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing's Red Herring: ""Genetic Ancestry"" and Personalized Medicine.","Blell M, Hunter MA.",,Frontiers in medicine,2019,2019-03-29,Y,RACE; Ethics; Ethnicity; Genetic Testing; Personalized Medicine,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"The growth in the direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry poses a number of challenges for healthcare practice, among a number of other areas of concern. Several companies providing this service send their customers reports including information variously referred to as genetic ethnicity, genetic heritage, biogeographic ancestry, and genetic ancestry. In this article, we argue that such information should not be used in healthcare consultations or to assess health risks. Far from representing a move toward personalized medicine, use of this information poses risks both to patients as individuals and to racialized ethnic groups because of the way it misrepresents human genetic diversity.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2019.00048/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2019.00048; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6449432; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6449432?pdf=render 35948708,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05023-2,Spatially resolved clonal copy number alterations in benign and malignant tissue.,"Erickson A, He M, Berglund E, Marklund M, Mirzazadeh R, Schultz N, Kvastad L, Andersson A, Bergenstråhle L, Bergenstråhle J, Larsson L, Alonso Galicia L, Shamikh A, Basmaci E, Díaz De Ståhl T, Rajakumar T, Doultsinos D, Thrane K, Ji AL, Khavari PA, Tarish F, Tanoglidi A, Maaskola J, Colling R, Mirtti T, Hamdy FC, Woodcock DJ, Helleday T, Mills IG, Lamb AD, Lundeberg J.",,Nature,2022,2022-08-10,Y,,,,"Defining the transition from benign to malignant tissue is fundamental to improving early diagnosis of cancer1. Here we use a systematic approach to study spatial genome integrity in situ and describe previously unidentified clonal relationships. We used spatially resolved transcriptomics2 to infer spatial copy number variations in >120,000 regions across multiple organs, in benign and malignant tissues. We demonstrate that genome-wide copy number variation reveals distinct clonal patterns within tumours and in nearby benign tissue using an organ-wide approach focused on the prostate. Our results suggest a model for how genomic instability arises in histologically benign tissue that may represent early events in cancer evolution. We highlight the power of capturing the molecular and spatial continuums in a tissue context and challenge the rationale for treatment paradigms, including focal therapy.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05023-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05023-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9365699; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9365699?pdf=render 34110679,https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.13038,Cost-effectiveness of precision diagnostic testing for precision medicine approaches against non-small-cell lung cancer: A systematic review.,"Henderson R, Keeling P, French D, Smart D, Sullivan R, Lawler M.",,Molecular oncology,2021,2021-07-19,Y,Biomarker; Economic evaluation; non-small-cell lung cancer; Cost-effectiveness Analysis; Precision Medicine; Precision Diagnostic Test,,,"Precision diagnostic testing (PDT) employs appropriate biomarkers to identify cancer patients that may optimally respond to precision medicine (PM) approaches, such as treatments with targeted agents and immuno-oncology drugs. To date, there are no published systematic appraisals evaluating the cost-effectiveness of PDT in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To address this gap, we conducted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses searches for the years 2009-2019. Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards were employed to screen, assess and extract data. Employing base costs, life years gained or quality-adjusted life years, as well as willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold for each country, net monetary benefit was calculated to determine cost-effectiveness of each intervention. Thirty-seven studies (50%) were included for analysis; a further 37 (50%) were excluded, having failed population-, intervention-, comparator-, outcomes- and study-design criteria. Within the 37 studies included, we defined 64 scenarios. Eleven scenarios compared PDT-guided PM with non-guided therapy [epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), n = 5; programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), n = 6]. Twenty-eight scenarios compared PDT-guided PM with chemotherapy alone (anaplastic lymphoma kinase, n = 3; EGFR, n = 17; PD-L1, n = 8). Twenty-five scenarios compared PDT-guided PM with chemotherapy alone, while varying the PDT approach. Thirty-four scenarios (53%) were cost-effective, 28 (44%) were not cost-effective, and two were marginal, dependent on their country's WTP threshold. When PDT-guided therapy was compared with a therapy-for-all patients approach, all scenarios (100%) proved cost-effective. Seven of 37 studies had been structured appropriately to assess PDT-PM cost-effectiveness. Within these seven studies, all evaluated scenarios were cost-effective. However, 81% of studies had been poorly designed. Our systematic analysis implies that more robust health economic evaluation could help identify additional approaches towards PDT cost-effectiveness, underpinning value-based care and enhanced outcomes for patients with NSCLC.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/1878-0261.13038; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.13038; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8486593; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8486593?pdf=render 33449072,https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glab009,Multimorbidity Patterns and Memory Trajectories in Older Adults: Evidence From the English Longitudinal Study of Aging.,"Bendayan R, Zhu Y, Federman AD, Dobson RJB.",,"The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences",2021,2021-04-01,Y,Longitudinal; Cognitive Decline; Multiple Health Conditions,,,"

Background

We aimed to examine the multimorbidity patterns within a representative sample of UK older adults and their association with concurrent and subsequent memory.

Methods

Our sample consisted of 11 449 respondents (mean age at baseline was 65.02) from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA). We used 14 health conditions and immediate and delayed recall scores (IMRC and DLRC) over 7 waves (14 years of follow-up). Latent class analyses were performed to identify the multimorbidity patterns and linear mixed models were estimated to explore their association with their memory trajectories. Models were adjusted by sociodemographics, body mass index (BMI), and health behaviors.

Results

Results showed 8 classes: Class 1: Heart Disease/Stroke (26%), Class 2: Asthma/Lung Disease (16%), Class 3: Arthritis/Hypertension (13%), Class 4: Depression/Arthritis (12%), Class 5: Hypertension/Cataracts/Diabetes (10%), Class 6: Psychiatric Problems/Depression (10%), Class 7: Cancer (7%), and Class 8: Arthritis/Cataracts (6%). At baseline, Class 4 was found to have lower IMRC and DLRC scores and Class 5 in DLRC, compared to the no multimorbidity group (n = 6380, 55.72% of total cohort). For both tasks, in unadjusted models, we found an accelerated decline in Classes 1, 3, and 8; and, for DLRC, also in Classes 2 and 5. However, it was fully attenuated after adjustments.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that individuals with certain combinations of health conditions are more likely to have lower levels of memory compared to those with no multimorbidity and their memory scores tend to differ between combinations. Sociodemographics and health behaviors have a key role to understand who is more likely to be at risk of an accelerated decline.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article-pdf/76/5/867/37955188/glab009.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glab009; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087269; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8087269?pdf=render 32340307,https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11040460,An Improved Phenotype-Driven Tool for Rare Mendelian Variant Prioritization: Benchmarking Exomiser on Real Patient Whole-Exome Data.,"Cipriani V, Pontikos N, Arno G, Sergouniotis PI, Lenassi E, Thawong P, Danis D, Michaelides M, Webster AR, Moore AT, Robinson PN, Jacobsen JOB, Smedley D.",,Genes,2020,2020-04-23,Y,Bioinformatics; Whole-exome Sequencing; Rare Disease; Whole-genome Sequencing; Human Phenotype Ontology; Variant Prioritization; Phenotypic Similarity; Inherited Retinal Disease,,,"Next-generation sequencing has revolutionized rare disease diagnostics, but many patients remain without a molecular diagnosis, particularly because many candidate variants usually survive despite strict filtering. Exomiser was launched in 2014 as a Java tool that performs an integrative analysis of patients' sequencing data and their phenotypes encoded with Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) terms. It prioritizes variants by leveraging information on variant frequency, predicted pathogenicity, and gene-phenotype associations derived from human diseases, model organisms, and protein-protein interactions. Early published releases of Exomiser were able to prioritize disease-causative variants as top candidates in up to 97% of simulated whole-exomes. The size of the tested real patient datasets published so far are very limited. Here, we present the latest Exomiser version 12.0.1 with many new features. We assessed the performance using a set of 134 whole-exomes from patients with a range of rare retinal diseases and known molecular diagnosis. Using default settings, Exomiser ranked the correct diagnosed variants as the top candidate in 74% of the dataset and top 5 in 94%; not using the patients' HPO profiles (i.e., variant-only analysis) decreased the performance to 3% and 27%, respectively. In conclusion, Exomiser is an effective support tool for rare Mendelian phenotype-driven variant prioritization.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/11/4/460/pdf?version=1587647599; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11040460; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7230372; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7230372?pdf=render -35509371,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2,Single-cell multi-omics analysis reveals IFN-driven alterations in T lymphocytes and natural killer cells in systemic lupus erythematosus.,"Trzupek D, Lee M, Hamey F, Wicker LS, Todd JA, Ferreira RC.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Biomarker; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle); Type I Interferon (Ifn); Multi-omics; Single-cell Rna-sequencing (Scrna-seq); Abseq; Bd Rhapsody; Cytotoxic Cd4+ T Cells (Ctls),,,"Background: The characterisation of the peripheral immune system in the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) at the single-cell level has been limited by the reduced sensitivity of current whole-transcriptomic technologies. Here we employ a targeted single-cell multi-omics approach, combining protein and mRNA quantification, to generate a high-resolution map of the T lymphocyte and natural killer (NK) cell populations in blood from SLE patients. Methods: We designed a custom panel to quantify the transcription of 534 genes in parallel with the expression of 51 surface protein targets using the BD Rhapsody AbSeq single-cell system. We applied this technology to profile 20,656 T and NK cells isolated from peripheral blood from an SLE patient with a type I interferon (IFN)-induced gene expression signature (IFN hi), and an age- and sex- matched IFN low SLE patient and healthy donor. Results: We confirmed the presence of a rare cytotoxic CD4 + T cell (CTL) subset, which was exclusively present in the IFN hi patient. Furthermore, we identified additional alterations consistent with increased immune activation in this patient, most notably a shift towards terminally differentiated CD57 + CD8 + T cell and CD16 + NK dim phenotypes, and the presence of a subset of recently-activated naïve CD4 + T cells. Conclusions: Our results identify IFN-driven changes in the composition and phenotype of T and NK cells that are consistent with a systemic immune activation within the IFN hi patient, and underscore the added resolving power of this multi-omics approach to identify rare immune subsets. Consequently, we were able to find evidence for novel cellular peripheral biomarkers of SLE disease activity, including a subpopulation of CD57 + CD4 + CTLs.",,pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-149/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903?pdf=render -31372838,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w,"A computerised decision support system for cardiovascular risk management 'live' in the electronic health record environment: development, validation and implementation-the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort Initiative.","Groenhof TKJ, Rittersma ZH, Bots ML, Brandjes M, Jacobs JJL, Grobbee DE, van Solinge WW, Visseren FLJ, Haitjema S, Asselbergs FW, Members of the UCC-CVRM Study Group.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2019,2019-09-01,Y,Adherence; Health Information Technology; Big Data; Real-world Data; Cardiovascular Risk Management; Computerised Decision Support System,,,"

Purpose

We set out to develop a real-time computerised decision support system (CDSS) embedded in the electronic health record (EHR) with information on risk factors, estimated risk, and guideline-based advice on treatment strategy in order to improve adherence to cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) guidelines with the ultimate aim of improving patient healthcare.

Methods

We defined a project plan including the scope and requirements, infrastructure and interface, data quality and study population, validation and evaluation of the CDSS.

Results

In collaboration with clinicians, data scientists, epidemiologists, ICT architects, and user experience and interface designers we developed a CDSS that provides 'live' information on CVRM within the environment of the EHR. The CDSS provides information on cardiovascular risk factors (age, sex, medical and family history, smoking, blood pressure, lipids, kidney function, and glucose intolerance measurements), estimated 10-year cardiovascular risk, guideline-compliant suggestions for both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment to optimise risk factors, and an estimate on the change in 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease if treatment goals are adhered to. Our pilot study identified a number of issues that needed to be addressed, such as missing data, rules and regulations, privacy, and patient participation.

Conclusion

Development of a CDSS is complex and requires a multidisciplinary approach. We identified opportunities and challenges in our project developing a CDSS aimed at improving adherence to CVRM guidelines. The regulatory environment, including guidance on scientific evaluation, legislation, and privacy issues needs to evolve within this emerging field of eHealth.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712110; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712110?pdf=render -34244281,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611,"Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers in the UK: UK-REACH ethico-legal research, qualitative research on healthcare workers' experiences and stakeholder engagement protocol.","Gogoi M, Reed-Berendt R, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Wobi F, Gupta A, Abubakar I, Dove E, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-07-09,Y,Medical Ethics; Qualitative Research; Medical Law; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging evidence suggests that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds may be disproportionately affected. The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) project has been initiated to generate rapid evidence on whether and why ethnicity affects COVID-19 diagnosis and clinical outcomes in healthcare workers (HCWs) in the UK, through five interlinked work packages/work streams, three of which form the basis of this protocol. The ethico-legal work (Work Package 3) aims to understand and address legal, ethical and acceptability issues around big data research; the HCWs' experiences study (Work Package 4) explores their work and personal experiences, perceptions of risk, support and coping mechanisms; the stakeholder engagement work (Work Package 5) aims to provide feedback and support with the formulation and dissemination of the project recommendations.

Methods and analysis

Work Package 3 has two different research strands: (A) desk-based doctrinal research; and (B) empirical qualitative research with key opinion leaders. For the empirical research, in-depth interviews will be conducted digitally and recorded with participants' permission. Recordings will be transcribed, coded and analysed using thematic analysis. In Work Package 4, online in-depth interviews and focus groups will be conducted with approximately 150 HCWs, from across the UK, and these will be recorded with participants' consent. The recordings will be transcribed and coded and data will be analysed using thematic analysis. Work Package 5 will achieve its objectives through regular group meetings and in-group discussions.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been received from the London-Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority (Ref No 20/HRA/4718). Results of the study will be published in open-access journals, and disseminated through conference presentations, project website, stakeholder organisations, media and scientific advisory groups.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e049611.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361?pdf=render 31782492,https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293,The association of fish consumption and its urinary metabolites with cardiovascular risk factors: the International Study of Macro-/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP).,"Gibson R, Lau CE, Loo RL, Ebbels TMD, Chekmeneva E, Dyer AR, Miura K, Ueshima H, Zhao L, Daviglus ML, Stamler J, Van Horn L, Elliott P, Holmes E, Chan Q.",,The American journal of clinical nutrition,2020,2020-02-01,Y,Hypertension; Blood pressure; FISH; Shellfish; Biomarkers; body mass index; Seafood; Metabonomics; Homarine; Intermap Metabolomics,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Results from observational studies regarding associations between fish (including shellfish) intake and cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood pressure (BP) and BMI, are inconsistent.

Objective

To investigate associations of fish consumption and associated urinary metabolites with BP and BMI in free-living populations.

Methods

We used cross-sectional data from the International Study of Macro-/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP), including 4680 men and women (40-59 y) from Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and United States. Dietary intakes were assessed by four 24-h dietary recalls and BP from 8 measurements. Urinary metabolites (2 timed 24-h urinary samples) associated with fish intake acquired from NMR spectroscopy were identified. Linear models were used to estimate BP and BMI differences across categories of intake and per 2 SD higher intake of fish and its biomarkers.

Results

No significant associations were observed between fish intake and BP. There was a direct association with fish intake and BMI in the Japanese population sample (P trend = 0.03; fully adjusted model). In Japan, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and taurine, respectively, demonstrated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values of 0.81 and 0.78 in discriminating high against low fish intake, whereas homarine (a metabolite found in shellfish muscle) demonstrated an AUC of 0.80 for high/nonshellfish intake. Direct associations were observed between urinary TMAO and BMI for all regions except Japan (P < 0.0001) and in Western populations between TMAO and BP (diastolic blood pressure: mean difference 1.28; 95% CI: 0.55, 2.02 mmHg; P = 0.0006, systolic blood pressure: mean difference 1.67; 95% CI: 0.60, 2.73 mmHg; P = 0.002).

Conclusions

Urinary TMAO showed a stronger association with fish intake in the Japanese compared with the Western population sample. Urinary TMAO was directly associated with BP in the Western but not the Japanese population sample. Associations between fish intake and its biomarkers and downstream associations with BP/BMI appear to be context specific. INTERMAP is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00005271.",Gibson et al.’s study investigates whether having fish in diet will have an effect on urinary metabolism. They’ve assessed dietary and BP measurement across Asian and Westerns and shown that the relationship was stronger in Japanese population compared to Western population and is highly context dependant. ,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997096; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997096?pdf=render -33444378,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417,Probabilistic transmission models incorporating sequencing data for healthcare-associated Clostridioides difficile outperform heuristic rules and identify strain-specific differences in transmission.,"Eyre DW, Laager M, Walker AS, Cooper BS, Wilson DJ, CDC Modeling Infectious Diseases in Healthcare Program (MInD-Healthcare).",,PLoS computational biology,2021,2021-01-14,Y,,,,"Fitting stochastic transmission models to electronic patient data can offer detailed insights into the transmission of healthcare-associated infections and improve infection control. Pathogen whole-genome sequencing may improve the precision of model inferences, but computational constraints have limited modelling applications predominantly to small datasets and specific outbreaks, whereas large-scale sequencing studies have mostly relied on simple rules for identifying/excluding plausible transmission. We present a novel approach for integrating detailed epidemiological data on patient contact networks in hospitals with large-scale pathogen sequencing data. We apply our approach to study Clostridioides difficile transmission using a dataset of 1223 infections in Oxfordshire, UK, 2007-2011. 262 (21% [95% credibility interval 20-22%]) infections were estimated to have been acquired from another known case. There was heterogeneity by sequence type (ST) in the proportion of cases acquired from another case with the highest rates in ST1 (ribotype-027), ST42 (ribotype-106) and ST3 (ribotype-001). These same STs also had higher rates of transmission mediated via environmental contamination/spores persisting after patient discharge/recovery; for ST1 these persisted longer than for most other STs except ST3 and ST42. We also identified variation in transmission between hospitals, medical specialties and over time; by 2011 nearly all transmission from known cases had ceased in our hospitals. Our findings support previous work suggesting only a minority of C. difficile infections are acquired from known cases but highlight a greater role for environmental contamination than previously thought. Our approach is applicable to other healthcare-associated infections. Our findings have important implications for effective control of C. difficile.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057?pdf=render +31372838,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w,"A computerised decision support system for cardiovascular risk management 'live' in the electronic health record environment: development, validation and implementation-the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort Initiative.","Groenhof TKJ, Rittersma ZH, Bots ML, Brandjes M, Jacobs JJL, Grobbee DE, van Solinge WW, Visseren FLJ, Haitjema S, Asselbergs FW, Members of the UCC-CVRM Study Group.",,Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation,2019,2019-09-01,Y,Adherence; Health Information Technology; Big Data; Real-world Data; Cardiovascular Risk Management; Computerised Decision Support System,,,"

Purpose

We set out to develop a real-time computerised decision support system (CDSS) embedded in the electronic health record (EHR) with information on risk factors, estimated risk, and guideline-based advice on treatment strategy in order to improve adherence to cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) guidelines with the ultimate aim of improving patient healthcare.

Methods

We defined a project plan including the scope and requirements, infrastructure and interface, data quality and study population, validation and evaluation of the CDSS.

Results

In collaboration with clinicians, data scientists, epidemiologists, ICT architects, and user experience and interface designers we developed a CDSS that provides 'live' information on CVRM within the environment of the EHR. The CDSS provides information on cardiovascular risk factors (age, sex, medical and family history, smoking, blood pressure, lipids, kidney function, and glucose intolerance measurements), estimated 10-year cardiovascular risk, guideline-compliant suggestions for both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment to optimise risk factors, and an estimate on the change in 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease if treatment goals are adhered to. Our pilot study identified a number of issues that needed to be addressed, such as missing data, rules and regulations, privacy, and patient participation.

Conclusion

Development of a CDSS is complex and requires a multidisciplinary approach. We identified opportunities and challenges in our project developing a CDSS aimed at improving adherence to CVRM guidelines. The regulatory environment, including guidance on scientific evaluation, legislation, and privacy issues needs to evolve within this emerging field of eHealth.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712110; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712110?pdf=render +35509371,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2,Single-cell multi-omics analysis reveals IFN-driven alterations in T lymphocytes and natural killer cells in systemic lupus erythematosus.,"Trzupek D, Lee M, Hamey F, Wicker LS, Todd JA, Ferreira RC.",,Wellcome open research,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Biomarker; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle); Type I Interferon (Ifn); Multi-omics; Single-cell Rna-sequencing (Scrna-seq); Abseq; Bd Rhapsody; Cytotoxic Cd4+ T Cells (Ctls),,,"Background: The characterisation of the peripheral immune system in the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) at the single-cell level has been limited by the reduced sensitivity of current whole-transcriptomic technologies. Here we employ a targeted single-cell multi-omics approach, combining protein and mRNA quantification, to generate a high-resolution map of the T lymphocyte and natural killer (NK) cell populations in blood from SLE patients. Methods: We designed a custom panel to quantify the transcription of 534 genes in parallel with the expression of 51 surface protein targets using the BD Rhapsody AbSeq single-cell system. We applied this technology to profile 20,656 T and NK cells isolated from peripheral blood from an SLE patient with a type I interferon (IFN)-induced gene expression signature (IFN hi), and an age- and sex- matched IFN low SLE patient and healthy donor. Results: We confirmed the presence of a rare cytotoxic CD4 + T cell (CTL) subset, which was exclusively present in the IFN hi patient. Furthermore, we identified additional alterations consistent with increased immune activation in this patient, most notably a shift towards terminally differentiated CD57 + CD8 + T cell and CD16 + NK dim phenotypes, and the presence of a subset of recently-activated naïve CD4 + T cells. Conclusions: Our results identify IFN-driven changes in the composition and phenotype of T and NK cells that are consistent with a systemic immune activation within the IFN hi patient, and underscore the added resolving power of this multi-omics approach to identify rare immune subsets. Consequently, we were able to find evidence for novel cellular peripheral biomarkers of SLE disease activity, including a subpopulation of CD57 + CD4 + CTLs.",,pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-149/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903?pdf=render 35861824,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.121.025935,Candidate Plasma Biomarkers to Detect Anthracycline-Related Cardiomyopathy in Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Case Control Study in the Dutch Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.,"Leerink JM, Feijen EAM, Moerland PD, de Baat EC, Merkx R, van der Pal HJH, Tissing WJE, Louwerens M, van den Heuvel-Eibrink MM, Versluys AB, Asselbergs FW, Sammani A, Teske AJ, van Dalen EC, van der Heiden-van der Loo M, van Dulmen-den Broeder E, de Vries ACH, Kapusta L, Loonen J, Pinto YM, Kremer LCM, Mavinkurve-Groothuis AMC, Kok WEM.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2022,2022-07-13,Y,Biomarkers; Childhood Cancer Survivors; Cardio‐oncology; Chemokine Ligands; Cancer Therapy–related Cardiac Dysfunction; Anthracycline‐related Cardiomyopathy,,,"Background Plasma biomarkers may aid in the detection of anthracycline-related cardiomyopathy (ACMP). However, the currently available biomarkers have limited diagnostic value in long-term childhood cancer survivors. This study sought to identify diagnostic plasma biomarkers for ACMP in childhood cancer survivors. Methods and Results We measured 275 plasma proteins in 28 ACMP cases with left ventricular ejection fraction <45%, 29 anthracycline-treated controls with left ventricular ejection fraction ≥53% matched on sex, time after cancer, and anthracycline dose, and 29 patients with genetically determined dilated cardiomyopathy with left ventricular ejection fraction <45%. Multivariable linear regression was used to identify differentially expressed proteins. Elastic net model, including clinical characteristics, was used to assess discrimination of proteins diagnostic for ACMP. NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide) and the inflammatory markers CCL19 (C-C motif chemokine ligands 19) and CCL20, PSPD (pulmonary surfactant protein-D), and PTN (pleiotrophin) were significantly upregulated in ACMP compared with controls. An elastic net model selected 45 proteins, including NT-proBNP, CCL19, CCL20 and PSPD, but not PTN, that discriminated ACMP cases from controls with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.78. This model was not superior to a model including NT-proBNP and clinical characteristics (AUC=0.75; P=0.766). However, when excluding 8 ACMP cases with heart failure, the full model was superior to that including only NT-proBNP and clinical characteristics (AUC=0.75 versus AUC=0.50; P=0.022). The same 45 proteins also showed good discrimination between dilated cardiomyopathy and controls (AUC=0.89), underscoring their association with cardiomyopathy. Conclusions We identified 3 specific inflammatory proteins as candidate plasma biomarkers for ACMP in long-term childhood cancer survivors and demonstrated protein overlap with dilated cardiomyopathy.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.025935; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9707839; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9707839?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.121.025935 34750105,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2021.0380,OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19.,"Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Croker R, Inglesby P, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Morton CE, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson EJ, Hulme WJ, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B, (The OpenSAFELY Collaborative).",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2022,2021-12-31,Y,Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.

Aim

To describe the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice, taking respiratory disease and laboratory procedures as examples.

Design and setting

Working on behalf of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 23.8 million patient records in general practice, in situ using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Activity using Clinical Terms Version 3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 to September 2020 are described.

Results

Activity recorded in general practice declined during the pandemic, but largely recovered by September. There was a large drop in coded activity for laboratory tests, with broad recovery to pre-pandemic levels by September. One exception was the international normalised ratio test, with a smaller reduction (median tests per 1000 patients in 2020: February 8.0; April 6.2; September 6.9). The pattern of recording for respiratory symptoms was less affected, following an expected seasonal pattern and classified as 'no change'. Respiratory infections exhibited a sustained drop, not returning to pre-pandemic levels by September. Asthma reviews experienced a small drop but recovered, whereas chronic obstructive pulmonary disease reviews remained below baseline.

Conclusion

An open-source software framework was delivered to describe trends and variation in clinical activity across an unprecedented scale of primary care data. The COVD-19 pandemic led to a substantial change in healthcare activity. Most laboratory tests showed substantial reduction, largely recovering to near-normal levels by September, with some important tests less affected and recording of respiratory disease codes was mixed.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/72/714/e63.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589464?pdf=render +34244281,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611,"Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers in the UK: UK-REACH ethico-legal research, qualitative research on healthcare workers' experiences and stakeholder engagement protocol.","Gogoi M, Reed-Berendt R, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Wobi F, Gupta A, Abubakar I, Dove E, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-07-09,Y,Medical Ethics; Qualitative Research; Medical Law; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging evidence suggests that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds may be disproportionately affected. The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) project has been initiated to generate rapid evidence on whether and why ethnicity affects COVID-19 diagnosis and clinical outcomes in healthcare workers (HCWs) in the UK, through five interlinked work packages/work streams, three of which form the basis of this protocol. The ethico-legal work (Work Package 3) aims to understand and address legal, ethical and acceptability issues around big data research; the HCWs' experiences study (Work Package 4) explores their work and personal experiences, perceptions of risk, support and coping mechanisms; the stakeholder engagement work (Work Package 5) aims to provide feedback and support with the formulation and dissemination of the project recommendations.

Methods and analysis

Work Package 3 has two different research strands: (A) desk-based doctrinal research; and (B) empirical qualitative research with key opinion leaders. For the empirical research, in-depth interviews will be conducted digitally and recorded with participants' permission. Recordings will be transcribed, coded and analysed using thematic analysis. In Work Package 4, online in-depth interviews and focus groups will be conducted with approximately 150 HCWs, from across the UK, and these will be recorded with participants' consent. The recordings will be transcribed and coded and data will be analysed using thematic analysis. Work Package 5 will achieve its objectives through regular group meetings and in-group discussions.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been received from the London-Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority (Ref No 20/HRA/4718). Results of the study will be published in open-access journals, and disseminated through conference presentations, project website, stakeholder organisations, media and scientific advisory groups.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e049611.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361?pdf=render +33444378,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417,Probabilistic transmission models incorporating sequencing data for healthcare-associated Clostridioides difficile outperform heuristic rules and identify strain-specific differences in transmission.,"Eyre DW, Laager M, Walker AS, Cooper BS, Wilson DJ, CDC Modeling Infectious Diseases in Healthcare Program (MInD-Healthcare).",,PLoS computational biology,2021,2021-01-14,Y,,,,"Fitting stochastic transmission models to electronic patient data can offer detailed insights into the transmission of healthcare-associated infections and improve infection control. Pathogen whole-genome sequencing may improve the precision of model inferences, but computational constraints have limited modelling applications predominantly to small datasets and specific outbreaks, whereas large-scale sequencing studies have mostly relied on simple rules for identifying/excluding plausible transmission. We present a novel approach for integrating detailed epidemiological data on patient contact networks in hospitals with large-scale pathogen sequencing data. We apply our approach to study Clostridioides difficile transmission using a dataset of 1223 infections in Oxfordshire, UK, 2007-2011. 262 (21% [95% credibility interval 20-22%]) infections were estimated to have been acquired from another known case. There was heterogeneity by sequence type (ST) in the proportion of cases acquired from another case with the highest rates in ST1 (ribotype-027), ST42 (ribotype-106) and ST3 (ribotype-001). These same STs also had higher rates of transmission mediated via environmental contamination/spores persisting after patient discharge/recovery; for ST1 these persisted longer than for most other STs except ST3 and ST42. We also identified variation in transmission between hospitals, medical specialties and over time; by 2011 nearly all transmission from known cases had ceased in our hospitals. Our findings support previous work suggesting only a minority of C. difficile infections are acquired from known cases but highlight a greater role for environmental contamination than previously thought. Our approach is applicable to other healthcare-associated infections. Our findings have important implications for effective control of C. difficile.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057?pdf=render 32108548,https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881120907973,Synthetic cannabinoid use in psychiatric patients and relationship to hospitalisation: A retrospective electronic case register study.,"Hobbs M, Patel R, Morrison PD, Kalk N, Stone JM.",,"Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)",2020,2020-02-28,Y,Cannabis; Psychosis; Hospitalisation; Synthetic Cannabinoids,,,"

Introduction and objectives

Cannabis use has been associated with psychosis and with poor outcome in patients with mental illness. Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) have been suggested to pose an even greater risk to mental health, but the effect on clinical outcome has not been directly measured. In this study, we aimed to investigate the demographics and hospitalisation of psychiatric patients who were SC users.

Methods

We searched the Biomedical Research Centre Clinical Record Interactive Search register for SC users and age- and sex-matched SC non-users who had been psychiatric patients under the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. We recorded diagnosis, homelessness, cannabis use and the total number of days admitted as an inpatient to secondary and tertiary mental-health services.

Results

We identified 635 SC users and 635 age- and sex-matched SC non-users. SC users were significantly more likely to be homeless (χ2=138.0; p<0.0001) and to use cannabis (χ2=257.3; p<0.0001) than SC non-users. SC users had significantly more inpatient days after their first recorded use of SCs than controls (M (SD)=85.5 (199.7) vs. 25.4 (92.32); p<0.0001). Post hoc tests revealed that SC non-users who used cannabis had fewer inpatient days than SC users (p<0.0001), and that non-users of both SC and cannabis had fewer inpatient days than SC non-using cannabis users (p=0.02).

Conclusions

SC use may lead to an increase in the number of days spent in hospital in patients with psychiatric illness. This highlights the need for clinicians to ask specifically about SC use.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7249610?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881120907973; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7249610; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7249610?pdf=render 33664493,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01275-z,The need for ethical guidance for the use of patient-reported outcomes in research and clinical practice.,"Cruz Rivera S, Mercieca-Bebber R, Aiyegbusi OL, Scott J, Hunn A, Fernandez C, Ives J, Ells C, Price G, Draper H, Calvert MJ.",,Nature medicine,2021,2021-04-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01275-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01275-z 34503493,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02107-0,"Estimating the impact of reopening schools on the reproduction number of SARS-CoV-2 in England, using weekly contact survey data.","Munday JD, Jarvis CI, Gimma A, Wong KLM, van Zandvoort K, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Edmunds WJ.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-09-10,Y,School Closure; Reproduction Number; Social Contacts; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Comix,,,"

Background

Schools were closed in England on 4 January 2021 as part of increased national restrictions to curb transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The UK government reopened schools on 8 March. Although there was evidence of lower individual-level transmission risk amongst children compared to adults, the combined effects of this with increased contact rates in school settings and the resulting impact on the overall transmission rate in the population were not clear.

Methods

We measured social contacts of > 5000 participants weekly from March 2020, including periods when schools were both open and closed, amongst other restrictions. We combined these data with estimates of the susceptibility and infectiousness of children compared with adults to estimate the impact of reopening schools on the reproduction number.

Results

Our analysis indicates that reopening all schools under the same measures as previous periods that combined lockdown with face-to-face schooling would be likely to increase the reproduction number substantially. Assuming a baseline of 0.8, we estimated a likely increase to between 1.0 and 1.5 with the reopening of all schools or to between 0.9 and 1.2 reopening primary or secondary schools alone.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that reopening schools would likely halt the fall in cases observed between January and March 2021 and would risk a return to rising infections, but these estimates relied heavily on the latest estimates or reproduction number and the validity of the susceptibility and infectiousness profiles we used at the time of reopening.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02107-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02107-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8428960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8428960?pdf=render 34216337,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-021-01466-6,"Physical activity in relation to circulating hormone concentrations in 117,100 men in UK Biobank.","Watts EL, Perez-Cornago A, Doherty A, Allen NE, Fensom GK, Tin Tin S, Key TJ, Travis RC.",,Cancer causes & control : CCC,2021,2021-07-03,Y,Testosterone; IGF-I; Physical Activity; Accelerometer; Shbg; Uk Biobank,,,"

Purpose

Physical activity may reduce the risk of some types of cancer in men. Biological mechanisms may involve changes in hormone concentrations; however, this relationship is not well established. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the associations of physical activity with circulating insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG, which modifies sex hormone activity), and total and free testosterone concentrations, and the extent these associations might be mediated by body mass index (BMI).

Methods

Circulating concentrations of these hormones and anthropometric measurements and self-reported physical activity data were available for 117,100 healthy male UK Biobank participants at recruitment. Objectively measured accelerometer physical activity levels were also collected on average 5.7 years after recruitment in 28,000 men. Geometric means of hormone concentrations were estimated using multivariable-adjusted analysis of variance, with and without adjustment for BMI.

Results

The associations between physical activity and hormones were modest and similar for objectively measured (accelerometer) and self-reported physical activity. Compared to men with the lowest objectively measured physical activity, men with high physical activity levels had 14% and 8% higher concentrations of SHBG and total testosterone, respectively, and these differences were attenuated to 6% and 3% following adjustment for BMI.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that the associations of physical activity with the hormones investigated are, at most, modest; and following adjustment for BMI, the small associations with SHBG and total testosterone were largely attenuated. Therefore, it is unlikely that changes in these circulating hormones explain the associations of physical activity with risk of cancer either independently or via BMI.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10552-021-01466-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-021-01466-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492588; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492588?pdf=render -35879886,https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722002501,"Depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.","Young KS, Purves KL, Hübel C, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Bristow S, Krebs G, Danese A, Hirsch C, Parsons CE, Vassos E, Adey BN, Bright S, Hegemann L, Lee YT, Kalsi G, Monssen D, Mundy J, Peel AJ, Rayner C, Rogers HC, Ter Kuile A, Ward C, York K, Lin Y, Palmos AB, Schmidt U, Veale D, Nicholson TR, Pollak TA, Stevelink SAM, Moukhtarian T, Martineau AR, Holt H, Maughan B, Al-Chalabi A, Chaudhuri KR, Richardson MP, Bradley JR, Chinnery PF, Kingston N, Papadia S, Stirrups KE, Linger R, Hotopf M, Eley TC, Breen G.",,Psychological medicine,2022,2022-07-26,Y,Depression; Anxiety; Ptsd; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health is still being unravelled. It is important to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms. This study aimed to examine changes in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms using prospective and retrospective symptom change assessments, and to find and examine the effect of key risk factors.

Method

Online questionnaires were administered to 34 465 individuals (aged 16 years or above) in April/May 2020 in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one-third (n = 12 718) of included participants had prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety and had completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments (between September 2018 and February 2020), allowing prospective investigation of symptom change.

Results

Prospective symptom analyses showed small decreases in depression (PHQ-9: -0.43 points) and anxiety [generalised anxiety disorder scale - 7 items (GAD)-7: -0.33 points] and increases in PTSD (PCL-6: 0.22 points). Conversely, retrospective symptom analyses demonstrated significant large increases (PHQ-9: 2.40; GAD-7 = 1.97), with 55% reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic on a global change rating. Across both prospective and retrospective measures of symptom change, worsening depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms were associated with prior mental health diagnoses, female gender, young age and unemployed/student status.

Conclusions

We highlight the effect of prior mental health diagnoses on worsening mental health during the pandemic and confirm previously reported sociodemographic risk factors. Discrepancies between prospective and retrospective measures of changes in mental health may be related to recall bias-related underestimation of prior symptom severity.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8C3760ED596F1ED8B80F729AC5E47B9B/S0033291722002501a.pdf/div-class-title-depression-anxiety-and-ptsd-symptoms-before-and-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-the-uk-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722002501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709?pdf=render -34788413,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab149,Data Resource Profile: The Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) Database.,"Mc Grath-Lone L, Libuy N, Harron K, Jay MA, Wijlaars L, Etoori D, Lilliman M, Gilbert R, Blackburn R.",,International journal of epidemiology,2022,2022-02-01,Y,Education; Social Care; Adolescent Health; Administrative Data; Linked Data; Key Words: Child Health,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/51/1/17/42555483/dyab149.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab149; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856003; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856003?pdf=render 31950891,https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.96,Predicting high-cost care in a mental health setting.,"Colling C, Khondoker M, Patel R, Fok M, Harland R, Broadbent M, McCrone P, Stewart R.",,BJPsych open,2020,2020-01-17,Y,Prediction; Natural Language Processing; Mental Health Service; Digital Health Records,,,"

Background

The density of information in digital health records offers new potential opportunities for automated prediction of cost-relevant outcomes.

Aims

We investigated the extent to which routinely recorded data held in the electronic health record (EHR) predict priority service outcomes and whether natural language processing tools enhance the predictions. We evaluated three high priority outcomes: in-patient duration, readmission following in-patient care and high service cost after first presentation.

Method

We used data obtained from a clinical database derived from the EHR of a large mental healthcare provider within the UK. We combined structured data with text-derived data relating to diagnosis statements, medication and psychiatric symptomatology. Predictors of the three different clinical outcomes were modelled using logistic regression with performance evaluated against a validation set to derive areas under receiver operating characteristic curves.

Results

In validation samples, the full models (using all available data) achieved areas under receiver operating characteristic curves between 0.59 and 0.85 (in-patient duration 0.63, readmission 0.59, high service use 0.85). Adding natural language processing-derived data to the models increased the variance explained across all clinical scenarios (observed increase in r2 = 12-46%).

Conclusions

EHR data offer the potential to improve routine clinical predictions by utilising previously inaccessible data. Of our scenarios, prediction of high service use after initial presentation achieved the highest performance.","This study uses data from a mental healthcare provider to predict 3 things: 1) extended duration of stay in a hospital, 2) the likelihood of needing to be admitted to hospital again after discharge, and 3) likehood of needing 'high intesity service' (high cost services). The authors developed a natural language processing model (a computer system than aims to interpret text and draw out useful information) to review the text, diagnoses, medications and the patient symptoms to work out which patients would fall within those 3 categories. They conclude that their model could be used to improve services through predicting users who will require the most intense and costly care.",pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6EF9FC74DC5A744C9D841DD649992ABE/S2056472419000966a.pdf/div-class-title-predicting-high-cost-care-in-a-mental-health-setting-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.96; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7001466; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7001466?pdf=render +34788413,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab149,Data Resource Profile: The Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) Database.,"Mc Grath-Lone L, Libuy N, Harron K, Jay MA, Wijlaars L, Etoori D, Lilliman M, Gilbert R, Blackburn R.",,International journal of epidemiology,2022,2022-02-01,Y,Education; Social Care; Adolescent Health; Administrative Data; Linked Data; Key Words: Child Health,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/51/1/17/42555483/dyab149.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab149; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856003; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856003?pdf=render +35879886,https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722002501,"Depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.","Young KS, Purves KL, Hübel C, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Bristow S, Krebs G, Danese A, Hirsch C, Parsons CE, Vassos E, Adey BN, Bright S, Hegemann L, Lee YT, Kalsi G, Monssen D, Mundy J, Peel AJ, Rayner C, Rogers HC, Ter Kuile A, Ward C, York K, Lin Y, Palmos AB, Schmidt U, Veale D, Nicholson TR, Pollak TA, Stevelink SAM, Moukhtarian T, Martineau AR, Holt H, Maughan B, Al-Chalabi A, Chaudhuri KR, Richardson MP, Bradley JR, Chinnery PF, Kingston N, Papadia S, Stirrups KE, Linger R, Hotopf M, Eley TC, Breen G.",,Psychological medicine,2022,2022-07-26,Y,Depression; Anxiety; Ptsd; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health is still being unravelled. It is important to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms. This study aimed to examine changes in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms using prospective and retrospective symptom change assessments, and to find and examine the effect of key risk factors.

Method

Online questionnaires were administered to 34 465 individuals (aged 16 years or above) in April/May 2020 in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one-third (n = 12 718) of included participants had prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety and had completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments (between September 2018 and February 2020), allowing prospective investigation of symptom change.

Results

Prospective symptom analyses showed small decreases in depression (PHQ-9: -0.43 points) and anxiety [generalised anxiety disorder scale - 7 items (GAD)-7: -0.33 points] and increases in PTSD (PCL-6: 0.22 points). Conversely, retrospective symptom analyses demonstrated significant large increases (PHQ-9: 2.40; GAD-7 = 1.97), with 55% reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic on a global change rating. Across both prospective and retrospective measures of symptom change, worsening depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms were associated with prior mental health diagnoses, female gender, young age and unemployed/student status.

Conclusions

We highlight the effect of prior mental health diagnoses on worsening mental health during the pandemic and confirm previously reported sociodemographic risk factors. Discrepancies between prospective and retrospective measures of changes in mental health may be related to recall bias-related underestimation of prior symptom severity.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8C3760ED596F1ED8B80F729AC5E47B9B/S0033291722002501a.pdf/div-class-title-depression-anxiety-and-ptsd-symptoms-before-and-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-the-uk-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722002501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709?pdf=render 36865374,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18175.1,GroundsWell: Community-engaged and data-informed systems transformation of Urban Green and Blue Space for population health - a new initiative.,"Hunter RF, Rodgers SE, Hilton J, Clarke M, Garcia L, Ward Thompson C, Geary R, Green MA, O'Neill C, Longo A, Lovell R, Nurse A, Wheeler BW, Clement S, Porroche-Escudero A, Mitchell R, Barr B, Barry J, Bell S, Bryan D, Buchan I, Butters O, Clemens T, Clewley N, Corcoran R, Elliott L, Ellis G, Guell C, Jurek-Loughrey A, Kee F, Maguire A, Maskell S, Murtagh B, Smith G, Taylor T, Jepson R, GroundsWell Consortium.",,Wellcome open research,2022,2022-09-20,Y,Public Health; Non-Communicable Disease; Green And Blue Space; Complex Systems; Data Science; Citizen Science; Interdisciplinary; Health Inequalities,,,"Natural environments, such as parks, woodlands and lakes, have positive impacts on health and wellbeing. Urban Green and Blue Spaces (UGBS), and the activities that take place in them, can significantly influence the health outcomes of all communities, and reduce health inequalities. Improving access and quality of UGBS needs understanding of the range of systems (e.g. planning, transport, environment, community) in which UGBS are located. UGBS offers an ideal exemplar for testing systems innovations as it reflects place-based and whole society processes , with potential to reduce non-communicable disease (NCD) risk and associated social inequalities in health. UGBS can impact multiple behavioural and environmental aetiological pathways. However, the systems which desire, design, develop, and deliver UGBS are fragmented and siloed, with ineffective mechanisms for data generation, knowledge exchange and mobilisation. Further, UGBS need to be co-designed with and by those whose health could benefit most from them, so they are appropriate, accessible, valued and used well. This paper describes a major new prevention research programme and partnership, GroundsWell, which aims to transform UGBS-related systems by improving how we plan, design, evaluate and manage UGBS so that it benefits all communities, especially those who are in poorest health. We use a broad definition of health to include physical, mental, social wellbeing and quality of life. Our objectives are to transform systems so that UGBS are planned, developed, implemented, maintained and evaluated with our communities and data systems to enhance health and reduce inequalities. GroundsWell will use interdisciplinary, problem-solving approaches to accelerate and optimise community collaborations among citizens, users, implementers, policymakers and researchers to impact research, policy, practice and active citizenship. GroundsWell will be shaped and developed in three pioneer cities (Belfast, Edinburgh, Liverpool) and their regional contexts, with embedded translational mechanisms to ensure that outputs and impact have UK-wide and international application.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18175.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9971655; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9971655?pdf=render 35545669,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04712-2,Genetic and chemotherapeutic influences on germline hypermutation.,"Kaplanis J, Ide B, Sanghvi R, Neville M, Danecek P, Coorens T, Prigmore E, Short P, Gallone G, McRae J, Genomics England Research Consortium, Carmichael J, Barnicoat A, Firth H, O'Brien P, Rahbari R, Hurles M.",,Nature,2022,2022-05-11,Y,,,,"Mutations in the germline generates all evolutionary genetic variation and is a cause of genetic disease. Parental age is the primary determinant of the number of new germline mutations in an individual's genome1,2. Here we analysed the genome-wide sequences of 21,879 families with rare genetic diseases and identified 12 individuals with a hypermutated genome with between two and seven times more de novo single-nucleotide variants than expected. In most families (9 out of 12), the excess mutations came from the father. Two families had genetic drivers of germline hypermutation, with fathers carrying damaging genetic variation in DNA-repair genes. For five of the families, paternal exposure to chemotherapeutic agents before conception was probably a key driver of hypermutation. Our results suggest that the germline is well protected from mutagenic effects, hypermutation is rare, the number of excess mutations is relatively modest and most individuals with a hypermutated genome will not have a genetic disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04712-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04712-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9117138; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9117138?pdf=render 36608816,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabet.2022.101418,Empagliflozin cardiovascular and renal effectiveness and safety compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors across 11 countries in Europe and Asia: Results from the EMPagliflozin compaRative effectIveness and SafEty (EMPRISE) study.,"Karasik A, Lanzinger S, Chia-Hui Tan E, Yabe D, Kim DJ, Sheu WH, Melzer-Cohen C, Holl RW, Ha KH, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, Nyström T, Niskanen L, Linnemann Jensen M, Hoti F, Klement R, Déruaz-Luyet A, Kyaw MH, Koeneman L, Vistisen D, Carstensen B, Halvorsen S, Langslet G, Fazeli Farsani S, Patorno E, Núñez J, EMPRISE Europe and Asia Study Group.",,Diabetes & metabolism,2023,2023-01-03,N,Cardiovascular diseases; Meta-analysis; Heart Failure; All-cause Mortality; Pharmacoepidemiology; Observational Study; Comparative Effectiveness; Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors; Empagliflozin; Sodium-glucose Transporter 2 Inhibitors,,,"

Background

Continued expansion of indications for sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors increases importance of evaluating cardiovascular and kidney efficacy and safety of empagliflozin in patients with type 2 diabetes compared to similar therapies.

Methods

The EMPRISE Europe and Asia study is a non-interventional cohort study using data from 2014-2019 in seven European (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) and four Asian (Israel, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) countries. Patients with type 2 diabetes initiating empagliflozin were 1:1 propensity score matched to patients initiating dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors. Primary endpoints included hospitalization for heart failure, all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction and stroke. Other cardiovascular, renal, and safety outcomes were examined.

Findings

Among 83,946 matched patient pairs, (0·7 years overall mean follow-up time), initiation of empagliflozin was associated with lower risk of hospitalization for heart failure compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (Hazard Ratio 0·70; 95% CI 0.60 to 0.83). Risks of all-cause mortality (0·55; 0·48 to 0·63), stroke (0·82; 0·71 to 0·96), and end-stage renal disease (0·43; 0·30 to 0·63) were lower and risk for myocardial infarction, bone fracture, severe hypoglycemia, and lower-limb amputation were similar between initiators of empagliflozin and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors. Initiation of empagliflozin was associated with higher risk for diabetic ketoacidosis (1·97; 1·28 to 3·03) compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors. Results were consistent across continents and regions.

Interpretation

Results from this EMPRISE Europe and Asia study complements previous clinical trials and real-world studies by providing further evidence of the beneficial cardiorenal effects and overall safety of empagliflozin compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabet.2022.101418; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabet.2022.101418 34212120,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001112,"Incorporating parent, former patient and clinician perspectives in the design of a national UK double-cluster, randomised controlled trial addressing uncertainties in preterm nutrition.","Lammons W, Moss B, Battersby C, Cornelius V, Babalis D, Modi N.",,BMJ paediatrics open,2021,2021-06-15,Y,Neonatology; Qualitative Research; Health Services Research,,,"

Background

Comparative effectiveness randomised controlled trials are powerful tools to resolve uncertainties in existing treatments and care processes. We sought parent and patient perspectives on the design of a planned national, double-cluster randomised controlled trial (COLLABORATE) to resolve two longstanding uncertainties in preterm nutrition.

Methods

We used qualitative focus groups and interviews with parents, former patients and clinicians. We followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist and conducted framework analysis, a specific methodology within thematic analysis.

Results

We identified support for the trial's methodology and vision, and elicited themes illustrating parents' emotional needs in relation to clinical research. These were: relieving the pressure on mothers to breastfeed; opt-out consent as reducing parent stress; the desire for research to be a partnership between clinicians, parents and researchers; the value of presenting trial information in a collaborative tone; and in a format that allows assimilation by parents at their own pace. We identified anxiety and cognitive dissonance among some clinicians in which they recognised the uncertainties that justify the trial but felt unable to participate because of their strongly held views.

Conclusions

The early involvement of parents and former patients identified the centrality of parents' emotional needs in the design of comparative effectiveness research. These insights have been incorporated into trial enrolment processes and information provided to participants. Specific outputs were a two-sided leaflet providing very brief as well as more detailed information, and use of language that parents perceive as inclusive and participatory. Further work is warranted to support clinicians to address personal biases that inhibit trial participation.",,pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/5/1/e001112.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001112; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8208018; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8208018?pdf=render 35962208,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01951-8,Publisher Correction: Reporting guideline for the early-stage clinical evaluation of decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence: DECIDE-AI.,"Vasey B, Nagendran M, Campbell B, Clifton DA, Collins GS, Denaxas S, Denniston AK, Faes L, Geerts B, Ibrahim M, Liu X, Mateen BA, Mathur P, McCradden MD, Morgan L, Ordish J, Rogers C, Saria S, Ting DSW, Watkinson P, Weber W, Wheatstone P, McCulloch P, DECIDE-AI expert group.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-10-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01951-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01951-8 -31021418,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046,'It's like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn't die': a qualitative exploration of young people's adaptation to eczema and implications for self-care.,"Ghio D, Muller I, Greenwell K, Roberts A, McNiven A, Langan SM, Santer M.",,The British journal of dermatology,2020,2019-07-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Eczema is a common childhood inflammatory skin condition, affecting more than one in five children. A popular perception is that children 'outgrow eczema', although epidemiological studies have shown that, for many, eczema follows a lifelong episodic course.

Objectives

To explore the perceptions of young people about the nature of their eczema and how these perceptions relate to their self-care and adapting to living with eczema.

Methods

This is a secondary inductive thematic analysis of interviews conducted for Healthtalk.org. In total 23 interviews with young people with eczema were included. Of the 23 participants, 17 were female and six male, ranging from 17 to 25 years old.

Results

Participants generally experienced eczema as an episodic long-term condition and reported a mismatch between information received about eczema and their experiences. The experience of eczema as long term and episodic had implications for self-care, challenging the process of identifying triggers of eczema flare-ups and evaluating the success of treatment regimens. Participants' experiences of eczema over time also had implications for adaptation and finding a balance between accepting eczema as long term and hoping it would go away. This linked to a gradual shift in treatment expectations from 'cure' to 'control' of eczema.

Conclusions

For young people who continue to experience eczema beyond childhood, a greater focus on self-care for a long-term condition may be helpful. Greater awareness of the impact of early messages around 'growing out of' eczema and provision of high-quality information may help patients to manage expectations and support adaptation to treatment regimens. What's already known about this topic? There is a common perception that people 'grow out of' eczema, but for many people eczema follows a lifelong episodic course. Qualitative work has shown that parents can find that being told their child will grow out of eczema is dismissive, and that they have difficulty with messages about 'control not cure' of eczema. It is unclear how young people perceive their eczema and the implications of this perception for their adaptation and self-care. What does this study add? The message that many people 'grow out of' eczema has a potentially detrimental effect for young people where the condition persists. This has implications for young people's perceptions of their eczema, their learning to self-care and how they adapt to living with eczema and eczema treatments. What are the clinical implications of this work? Clinicians need to promote awareness among young people that eczema is a long-term episodic condition in order to engage them with effective self-care. Young people transitioning to self-care need evidence-based information that is specific and relatable to them.", ,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18046; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719?pdf=render 30928767,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2019.03.002,Understanding the factors that influence health promotion evaluation: The development and validation of the evaluation practice analysis survey.,"Schwarzman J, Bauman A, Gabbe BJ, Rissel C, Shilton T, Smith BJ.",,Evaluation and program planning,2019,2019-03-22,N,Measurement; Validity; reliability; Health Promotion; Evaluation Capacity Building; Evaluation Practice,,,"The demand for improved quality of health promotion evaluation and greater capacity to undertake evaluation is growing, yet evidence of the challenges and facilitators to evaluation practice within the health promotion field is lacking. A limited number of evaluation capacity measurement instruments have been validated in government or non-government organisations (NGO), however there is no instrument designed for health promotion organisations. This study aimed to develop and validate an Evaluation Practice Analysis Survey (EPAS) to examine evaluation practices in health promotion organisations. Qualitative interviews, existing frameworks and instruments informed the survey development. Health promotion practitioners from government agencies and NGOs completed the survey (n = 169). Principal components analysis was used to determine scale structure and Cronbach's α used to estimate internal reliability. Logistic regression was conducted to assess predictive validity of selected EPAS scale. The final survey instrument included 25 scales (125 items). The EPAS demonstrated good internal reliability (α > 0.7) for 23 scales. Dedicated resources and time for evaluation, leadership, organisational culture and internal support for evaluation showed promising predictive validity. The EPAS can be used to describe elements of evaluation capacity at the individual, organisational and system levels and to guide initiatives to improve evaluation practice in health promotion organisations.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa49960/Download/0049960-14052019134527.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2019.03.002 -32576090,https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.029042,Telemedicine Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety After Stroke: Proof-of-Concept Randomized Controlled Trial.,"Chun HY, Carson AJ, Tsanas A, Dennis MS, Mead GE, Calabria C, Whiteley WN.",,Stroke,2020,2020-06-24,Y,Stroke; Anxiety; Workflow; Telemedicine; psychotherapy,,,"

Background and purpose

Disabling anxiety affects a quarter of stroke survivors but access to treatment is poor. We developed a telemedicine model for delivering guided self-help cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety after stroke (TASK-CBT). We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of TASK-CBT in a randomized controlled trial workflow that enabled all trial procedures to be carried out remotely. In addition, we explored the feasibility of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor as a way of measuring objective outcomes in this clinical trial.

Methods

We recruited adult community-based stroke patients (n=27) and randomly allocated them to TASK-CBT (n=14) or relaxation therapy (TASK-Relax), an active comparator (n=13).

Results

In our sample (mean age 65 [±10]; 56% men; 63% stroke, 37% transient ischemic attacks), remote self-enrolment, electronic signature, intervention delivery, and automated follow-up were feasible. All participants completed all TASK-CBT sessions (14/14). Lower levels of anxiety were observed in TASK-CBT when compared with TASK-Relax at both weeks 6 and 20. Mean actigraphy sensor wearing-time was 33 days (±15).

Conclusions

Our preliminary feasibility data from the current study support a larger definitive clinical trial and the use of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor in anxious stroke survivors. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT03439813.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539?pdf=render +31021418,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046,'It's like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn't die': a qualitative exploration of young people's adaptation to eczema and implications for self-care.,"Ghio D, Muller I, Greenwell K, Roberts A, McNiven A, Langan SM, Santer M.",,The British journal of dermatology,2020,2019-07-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Eczema is a common childhood inflammatory skin condition, affecting more than one in five children. A popular perception is that children 'outgrow eczema', although epidemiological studies have shown that, for many, eczema follows a lifelong episodic course.

Objectives

To explore the perceptions of young people about the nature of their eczema and how these perceptions relate to their self-care and adapting to living with eczema.

Methods

This is a secondary inductive thematic analysis of interviews conducted for Healthtalk.org. In total 23 interviews with young people with eczema were included. Of the 23 participants, 17 were female and six male, ranging from 17 to 25 years old.

Results

Participants generally experienced eczema as an episodic long-term condition and reported a mismatch between information received about eczema and their experiences. The experience of eczema as long term and episodic had implications for self-care, challenging the process of identifying triggers of eczema flare-ups and evaluating the success of treatment regimens. Participants' experiences of eczema over time also had implications for adaptation and finding a balance between accepting eczema as long term and hoping it would go away. This linked to a gradual shift in treatment expectations from 'cure' to 'control' of eczema.

Conclusions

For young people who continue to experience eczema beyond childhood, a greater focus on self-care for a long-term condition may be helpful. Greater awareness of the impact of early messages around 'growing out of' eczema and provision of high-quality information may help patients to manage expectations and support adaptation to treatment regimens. What's already known about this topic? There is a common perception that people 'grow out of' eczema, but for many people eczema follows a lifelong episodic course. Qualitative work has shown that parents can find that being told their child will grow out of eczema is dismissive, and that they have difficulty with messages about 'control not cure' of eczema. It is unclear how young people perceive their eczema and the implications of this perception for their adaptation and self-care. What does this study add? The message that many people 'grow out of' eczema has a potentially detrimental effect for young people where the condition persists. This has implications for young people's perceptions of their eczema, their learning to self-care and how they adapt to living with eczema and eczema treatments. What are the clinical implications of this work? Clinicians need to promote awareness among young people that eczema is a long-term episodic condition in order to engage them with effective self-care. Young people transitioning to self-care need evidence-based information that is specific and relatable to them.", ,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18046; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719?pdf=render 37034358,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101932,Contextualising adverse events of special interest to characterise the baseline incidence rates in 24 million patients with COVID-19 across 26 databases: a multinational retrospective cohort study.,"Voss EA, Shoaibi A, Yin Hui Lai L, Blacketer C, Alshammari T, Makadia R, Haynes K, Sena AG, Rao G, van Sandijk S, Fraboulet C, Boyer L, Le Carrour T, Horban S, Morales DR, Martínez Roldán J, Ramírez-Anguita JM, Mayer MA, de Wilde M, John LH, Duarte-Salles T, Roel E, Pistillo A, Kolde R, Maljković F, Denaxas S, Papez V, Kahn MG, Natarajan K, Reich C, Secora A, Minty EP, Shah NH, Posada JD, Garcia Morales MT, Bosca D, Cadenas Juanino H, Diaz Holgado A, Pedrera Jiménez M, Serrano Balazote P, García Barrio N, Şen S, Üresin AY, Erdogan B, Belmans L, Byttebier G, Malbrain MLNG, Dedman DJ, Cuccu Z, Vashisht R, Butte AJ, Patel A, Dahm L, Han C, Bu F, Arshad F, Ostropolets A, Nyberg F, Hripcsak G, Suchard MA, Prieto-Alhambra D, Rijnbeek PR, Schuemie MJ, Ryan PB.",,EClinicalMedicine,2023,2023-04-04,Y,Observational Research; Omop Cdm; Covid-19; Adverse Events Of Special Interest,,,"

Background

Adverse events of special interest (AESIs) were pre-specified to be monitored for the COVID-19 vaccines. Some AESIs are not only associated with the vaccines, but with COVID-19. Our aim was to characterise the incidence rates of AESIs following SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients and compare these to historical rates in the general population.

Methods

A multi-national cohort study with data from primary care, electronic health records, and insurance claims mapped to a common data model. This study's evidence was collected between Jan 1, 2017 and the conclusion of each database (which ranged from Jul 2020 to May 2022). The 16 pre-specified prevalent AESIs were: acute myocardial infarction, anaphylaxis, appendicitis, Bell's palsy, deep vein thrombosis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, encephalomyelitis, Guillain- Barré syndrome, haemorrhagic stroke, non-haemorrhagic stroke, immune thrombocytopenia, myocarditis/pericarditis, narcolepsy, pulmonary embolism, transverse myelitis, and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia. Age-sex standardised incidence rate ratios (SIR) were estimated to compare post-COVID-19 to pre-pandemic rates in each of the databases.

Findings

Substantial heterogeneity by age was seen for AESI rates, with some clearly increasing with age but others following the opposite trend. Similarly, differences were also observed across databases for same health outcome and age-sex strata. All studied AESIs appeared consistently more common in the post-COVID-19 compared to the historical cohorts, with related meta-analytic SIRs ranging from 1.32 (1.05 to 1.66) for narcolepsy to 11.70 (10.10 to 13.70) for pulmonary embolism.

Interpretation

Our findings suggest all AESIs are more common after COVID-19 than in the general population. Thromboembolic events were particularly common, and over 10-fold more so. More research is needed to contextualise post-COVID-19 complications in the longer term.

Funding

None.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101932; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101932; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072853; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072853?pdf=render 33024096,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18783-0,Changing travel patterns in China during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.,"Gibbs H, Liu Y, Pearson CAB, Jarvis CI, Grundy C, Quilty BJ, Diamond C, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 working group, Eggo RM.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-10-06,Y,,,,"Understanding changes in human mobility in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial for assessing the impacts of travel restrictions designed to reduce disease spread. Here, relying on data from mainland China, we investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of human mobility between 1st January and 1st March 2020, and discuss their public health implications. An outbound travel surge from Wuhan before travel restrictions were implemented was also observed across China due to the Lunar New Year, indicating that holiday travel may have played a larger role in mobility changes compared to impending travel restrictions. Holiday travel also shifted healthcare pressure related to COVID-19 towards locations with lower healthcare capacity. Network analyses showed no sign of major changes in the transportation network after Lunar New Year. Changes observed were temporary and did not lead to structural reorganisation of the transportation network during the study period.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18783-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18783-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7538915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7538915?pdf=render -35908569,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01109-6,"Baricitinib in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial and updated meta-analysis.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-07-01,Y,,,,"

Background

We aimed to evaluate the use of baricitinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) 1-2 inhibitor, for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus baricitinib 4 mg once daily by mouth for 10 days or until discharge if sooner (baricitinib group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality assessed in the intention-to-treat population. A meta-analysis was done, which included the results from the RECOVERY trial and all previous randomised controlled trials of baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936) and is ongoing.

Findings

Between Feb 2 and Dec 29, 2021, from 10 852 enrolled, 8156 patients were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus baricitinib versus usual care alone. At randomisation, 95% of patients were receiving corticosteroids and 23% were receiving tocilizumab (with planned use within the next 24 h recorded for a further 9%). Overall, 514 (12%) of 4148 patients allocated to baricitinib versus 546 (14%) of 4008 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (age-adjusted rate ratio 0·87; 95% CI 0·77-0·99; p=0·028). This 13% proportional reduction in mortality was somewhat smaller than that seen in a meta-analysis of eight previous trials of a JAK inhibitor (involving 3732 patients and 425 deaths), in which allocation to a JAK inhibitor was associated with a 43% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0·57; 95% CI 0·45-0·72). Including the results from RECOVERY in an updated meta-analysis of all nine completed trials (involving 11 888 randomly assigned patients and 1485 deaths) allocation to baricitinib or another JAK inhibitor was associated with a 20% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0·80; 95% CI 0·72-0·89; p<0·0001). In RECOVERY, there was no significant excess in death or infection due to non-COVID-19 causes and no significant excess of thrombosis, or other safety outcomes.

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, baricitinib significantly reduced the risk of death but the size of benefit was somewhat smaller than that suggested by previous trials. The total randomised evidence to date suggests that JAK inhibitors (chiefly baricitinib) reduce mortality in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 by about one-fifth.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673622011096/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01109-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998?pdf=render +32576090,https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.029042,Telemedicine Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety After Stroke: Proof-of-Concept Randomized Controlled Trial.,"Chun HY, Carson AJ, Tsanas A, Dennis MS, Mead GE, Calabria C, Whiteley WN.",,Stroke,2020,2020-06-24,Y,Stroke; Anxiety; Workflow; Telemedicine; psychotherapy,,,"

Background and purpose

Disabling anxiety affects a quarter of stroke survivors but access to treatment is poor. We developed a telemedicine model for delivering guided self-help cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety after stroke (TASK-CBT). We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of TASK-CBT in a randomized controlled trial workflow that enabled all trial procedures to be carried out remotely. In addition, we explored the feasibility of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor as a way of measuring objective outcomes in this clinical trial.

Methods

We recruited adult community-based stroke patients (n=27) and randomly allocated them to TASK-CBT (n=14) or relaxation therapy (TASK-Relax), an active comparator (n=13).

Results

In our sample (mean age 65 [±10]; 56% men; 63% stroke, 37% transient ischemic attacks), remote self-enrolment, electronic signature, intervention delivery, and automated follow-up were feasible. All participants completed all TASK-CBT sessions (14/14). Lower levels of anxiety were observed in TASK-CBT when compared with TASK-Relax at both weeks 6 and 20. Mean actigraphy sensor wearing-time was 33 days (±15).

Conclusions

Our preliminary feasibility data from the current study support a larger definitive clinical trial and the use of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor in anxious stroke survivors. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT03439813.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539?pdf=render 31504409,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz587,The relation between systemic inflammation and incident cancer in patients with stable cardiovascular disease: a cohort study.,"Van't Klooster CC, Ridker PM, Hjortnaes J, van der Graaf Y, Asselbergs FW, Westerink J, Aerts JGJV, Visseren FLJ.",,European heart journal,2019,2019-12-01,Y,Risk factor; High-sensitive C-reactive Protein; Incident Cancer; Chronic Systemic Low-grade Inflammation; Patients With Vascular Disease,,,"

Aims

Low-grade inflammation, measured by elevated plasma concentrations of high-sensitive C-reactive protein (CRP), is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). There is evidence that low-grade inflammation is also related to a higher risk of cancer. The present prospective cohort study evaluates the relation between low-grade systemic inflammation and risk of cancer in patients with stable CVD.

Methods and results

In total, 7178 patients with stable CVD and plasma CRP levels ≤10 mg/L were included. Data were linked to the Dutch national cancer registry. Cox regression models were fitted to study the relation between CRP and incident CVD and cancer. After a median follow-up time of 8.3 years (interquartile range 4.6-12.3) 1072 incident cancer diagnoses were observed. C-reactive protein concentration was related to total cancer [hazard ratio (HR) 1.35; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10-1.65] comparing last quintile to first quintile of CRP. Especially lung cancer, independent of histopathological subtype, was related to CRP (HR 3.39; 95% CI 2.02-5.69 comparing last to first quintile of CRP). Incidence of epithelial neoplasms and especially squamous cell neoplasms were related to CRP concentration, irrespective of anatomical location. Sensitivity analyses after excluding patients with a cancer diagnosis within 1, 2, and 5 years of follow-up showed similar results. No effect modification was observed by smoking status or time since smoking cessation (P-values for interaction > 0.05).

Conclusion

Chronic systemic low-grade inflammation, measured by CRP levels ≤10 mg/L, is a risk factor for incident cancer, markedly lung cancer, in patients with stable CVD. The relation between inflammation and incident cancer is seen in former and current smokers and is uncertain in never smokers.","Inflammation is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and is linked with a higher risk of cancer. This study investigates the relationship between inflammation and risk of cancer in patients with stable CVD. The study reports that low-grade inflammation, is a risk factor for incident cancer, markedly lung cancer, in patients with stable CVD.",pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/40/48/3901/32523962/ehz587.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz587; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925382?pdf=render +35908569,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01109-6,"Baricitinib in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial and updated meta-analysis.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-07-01,Y,,,,"

Background

We aimed to evaluate the use of baricitinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) 1-2 inhibitor, for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus baricitinib 4 mg once daily by mouth for 10 days or until discharge if sooner (baricitinib group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality assessed in the intention-to-treat population. A meta-analysis was done, which included the results from the RECOVERY trial and all previous randomised controlled trials of baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936) and is ongoing.

Findings

Between Feb 2 and Dec 29, 2021, from 10 852 enrolled, 8156 patients were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus baricitinib versus usual care alone. At randomisation, 95% of patients were receiving corticosteroids and 23% were receiving tocilizumab (with planned use within the next 24 h recorded for a further 9%). Overall, 514 (12%) of 4148 patients allocated to baricitinib versus 546 (14%) of 4008 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (age-adjusted rate ratio 0·87; 95% CI 0·77-0·99; p=0·028). This 13% proportional reduction in mortality was somewhat smaller than that seen in a meta-analysis of eight previous trials of a JAK inhibitor (involving 3732 patients and 425 deaths), in which allocation to a JAK inhibitor was associated with a 43% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0·57; 95% CI 0·45-0·72). Including the results from RECOVERY in an updated meta-analysis of all nine completed trials (involving 11 888 randomly assigned patients and 1485 deaths) allocation to baricitinib or another JAK inhibitor was associated with a 20% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0·80; 95% CI 0·72-0·89; p<0·0001). In RECOVERY, there was no significant excess in death or infection due to non-COVID-19 causes and no significant excess of thrombosis, or other safety outcomes.

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, baricitinib significantly reduced the risk of death but the size of benefit was somewhat smaller than that suggested by previous trials. The total randomised evidence to date suggests that JAK inhibitors (chiefly baricitinib) reduce mortality in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 by about one-fifth.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673622011096/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01109-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998?pdf=render 32514173,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0941-1,Developing specific reporting guidelines for diagnostic accuracy studies assessing AI interventions: The STARD-AI Steering Group.,"Sounderajah V, Ashrafian H, Aggarwal R, De Fauw J, Denniston AK, Greaves F, Karthikesalingam A, King D, Liu X, Markar SR, McInnes MDF, Panch T, Pearson-Stuttard J, Ting DSW, Golub RM, Moher D, Bossuyt PM, Darzi A.",,Nature medicine,2020,2020-06-01,N,,,,,,html:http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/85586; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0941-1 -33436814,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0,A natural language processing approach for identifying temporal disease onset information from mental healthcare text.,"Viani N, Botelle R, Kerwin J, Yin L, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-01-12,Y,,,,"Receiving timely and appropriate treatment is crucial for better health outcomes, and research on the contribution of specific variables is essential. In the mental health domain, an important research variable is the date of psychosis symptom onset, as longer delays in treatment are associated with worse intervention outcomes. The growing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) within mental health services provides an invaluable opportunity to study this problem at scale retrospectively. However, disease onset information is often only available in open text fields, requiring natural language processing (NLP) techniques for automated analyses. Since this variable can be documented at different points during a patient's care, NLP methods that model clinical and temporal associations are needed. We address the identification of psychosis onset by: 1) manually annotating a corpus of mental health EHRs with disease onset mentions, 2) modelling the underlying NLP problem as a paragraph classification approach, and 3) combining multiple onset paragraphs at the patient level to generate a ranked list of likely disease onset dates. For 22/31 test patients (71%) the correct onset date was found among the top-3 NLP predictions. The proposed approach was also applied at scale, allowing an onset date to be estimated for 2483 patients.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80457-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184?pdf=render 31748235,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6055,Association of troponin level and age with mortality in 250 000 patients: cohort study across five UK acute care centres.,"Kaura A, Panoulas V, Glampson B, Davies J, Mulla A, Woods K, Omigie J, Shah AD, Channon KM, Weber JN, Thursz MR, Elliott P, Hemingway H, Williams B, Asselbergs FW, O'Sullivan M, Kharbanda R, Lord GM, Melikian N, Patel RS, Perera D, Shah AM, Francis DP, Mayet J.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2019,2019-11-20,Y,,,,"

Objective

To determine the relation between age and troponin level and its prognostic implication.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Five cardiovascular centres in the UK National Institute for Health Research Health Informatics Collaborative (UK-NIHR HIC).

Participants

257 948 consecutive patients undergoing troponin testing for any clinical reason between 2010 and 2017.

Main outcome measure

All cause mortality.

Results

257 948 patients had troponin measured during the study period. Analyses on troponin were performed using the peak troponin level, which was the highest troponin level measured during the patient's hospital stay. Troponin levels were standardised as a multiple of each laboratory's 99th centile of the upper limit of normal (ULN). During a median follow-up of 1198 days (interquartile range 514-1866 days), 55 850 (21.7%) deaths occurred. A positive troponin result (that is, higher than the upper limit of normal) signified a 3.2 higher mortality hazard (95% confidence interval 3.1 to 3.2) over three years. Mortality varied noticeably with age, with a hazard ratio of 10.6 (8.5 to 13.3) in 18-29 year olds and 1.5 (1.4 to 1.6) in those older than 90. A positive troponin result was associated with an approximately 15 percentage points higher absolute three year mortality across all age groups. The excess mortality with a positive troponin result was heavily concentrated in the first few weeks. Results were analysed using multivariable adjusted restricted cubic spline Cox regression. A direct relation was seen between troponin level and mortality in patients without acute coronary syndrome (ACS, n=120 049), whereas an inverted U shaped relation was found in patients with ACS (n=14 468), with a paradoxical decline in mortality at peak troponin levels >70×ULN. In the group with ACS, the inverted U shaped relation persisted after multivariable adjustment in those who were managed invasively; however, a direct positive relation was found between troponin level and mortality in patients managed non-invasively.

Conclusions

A positive troponin result was associated with a clinically important increased mortality, regardless of age, even if the level was only slightly above normal. The excess mortality with a raised troponin was heavily concentrated in the first few weeks.

Study registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03507309.",Kaura et al. used a large database of about a quarter of a million patients who had toponin measurements and concluded that there was an association between positive troponin results and mortality regardless of age ,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/367/bmj.l6055.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6865859 +33436814,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0,A natural language processing approach for identifying temporal disease onset information from mental healthcare text.,"Viani N, Botelle R, Kerwin J, Yin L, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.",,Scientific reports,2021,2021-01-12,Y,,,,"Receiving timely and appropriate treatment is crucial for better health outcomes, and research on the contribution of specific variables is essential. In the mental health domain, an important research variable is the date of psychosis symptom onset, as longer delays in treatment are associated with worse intervention outcomes. The growing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) within mental health services provides an invaluable opportunity to study this problem at scale retrospectively. However, disease onset information is often only available in open text fields, requiring natural language processing (NLP) techniques for automated analyses. Since this variable can be documented at different points during a patient's care, NLP methods that model clinical and temporal associations are needed. We address the identification of psychosis onset by: 1) manually annotating a corpus of mental health EHRs with disease onset mentions, 2) modelling the underlying NLP problem as a paragraph classification approach, and 3) combining multiple onset paragraphs at the patient level to generate a ranked list of likely disease onset dates. For 22/31 test patients (71%) the correct onset date was found among the top-3 NLP predictions. The proposed approach was also applied at scale, allowing an onset date to be estimated for 2483 patients.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80457-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184?pdf=render 33012285,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01779-4,The impact of COVID-19 control measures on social contacts and transmission in Kenyan informal settlements.,"Quaife M, van Zandvoort K, Gimma A, Shah K, McCreesh N, Prem K, Barasa E, Mwanga D, Kangwana B, Pinchoff J, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Edmunds WJ, Jarvis CI, Austrian K.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-10-05,Y,Social Contacts; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Physical Distancing,,,"

Background

Many low- and middle-income countries have implemented control measures against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, it is not clear to what extent these measures explain the low numbers of recorded COVID-19 cases and deaths in Africa. One of the main aims of control measures is to reduce respiratory pathogen transmission through direct contact with others. In this study, we collect contact data from residents of informal settlements around Nairobi, Kenya, to assess if control measures have changed contact patterns, and estimate the impact of changes on the basic reproduction number (R0).

Methods

We conducted a social contact survey with 213 residents of five informal settlements around Nairobi in early May 2020, 4 weeks after the Kenyan government introduced enhanced physical distancing measures and a curfew between 7 pm and 5 am. Respondents were asked to report all direct physical and non-physical contacts made the previous day, alongside a questionnaire asking about the social and economic impact of COVID-19 and control measures. We examined contact patterns by demographic factors, including socioeconomic status. We described the impact of COVID-19 and control measures on income and food security. We compared contact patterns during control measures to patterns from non-pandemic periods to estimate the change in R0.

Results

We estimate that control measures reduced physical contacts by 62% and non-physical contacts by either 63% or 67%, depending on the pre-COVID-19 comparison matrix used. Masks were worn by at least one person in 92% of contacts. Respondents in the poorest socioeconomic quintile reported 1.5 times more contacts than those in the richest. Eighty-six percent of respondents reported a total or partial loss of income due to COVID-19, and 74% reported eating less or skipping meals due to having too little money for food.

Conclusion

COVID-19 control measures have had a large impact on direct contacts and therefore transmission, but have also caused considerable economic and food insecurity. Reductions in R0 are consistent with the comparatively low epidemic growth in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries that implemented similar, early control measures. However, negative and inequitable impacts on economic and food security may mean control measures are not sustainable in the longer term.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01779-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01779-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7533154; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7533154?pdf=render -32784218,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x712313,Suboptimal prescribing behaviour associated with clinical software design features: a retrospective cohort study in English NHS primary care.,"MacKenna B, Curtis HJ, Walker AJ, Bacon S, Croker R, Goldacre B.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2020,2020-08-27,N,Cohort studies; Primary Care; Clinical Software; Drugs Prescribing; Ghost-branded Generics,,,"

Background

Electronic health record (EHR) systems are used by clinicians to record patients' medical information, and support clinical activities such as prescribing. In England, healthcare professionals are advised to 'prescribe generically' because generic drugs are usually cheaper than branded alternatives, and have fixed reimbursement costs. 'Ghost-branded generics' are a new category of medicines savings, caused by prescribers specifying a manufacturer for a generic product, often resulting in a higher reimbursement price compared with the true generic.

Aim

To describe time trends and practice factors associated with excess medication costs from ghost-branded generic prescribing.

Design and setting

Retrospective cohort study of English GP prescribing data and EHR deployment data.

Method

A retrospective cohort study was conducted, based on data from the OpenPrescribing.net database from May 2013 to May 2019. Total spending on ghost-branded generics across England was calculated, and excess spend on ghost-branded generics calculated as a percentage of all spending on generics for every CCG and general practice in England, for every month in the study period.

Results

There were 31.8 million ghost-branded generic items and £9.5 million excess cost in 2018, compared with 7.45 million ghost-branded generic items and £1.3 million excess cost in 2014. Most excess costs were associated with one EHR, SystmOne, and it was identified that SystmOne offered ghost-branded generic options as the default. After informing the vendor, the authors monitored for subsequent change in costs, and report a rapid decrease in ghost-branded generic expenditure.

Conclusion

A design choice in a commonly used EHR has led to £9.5 million in avoidable excess prescribing costs for the NHS in 1 year. Notifying the vendor led to a change in user interface and a rapid, substantial spend reduction. This finding illustrates that EHR user interface design has a substantial impact on the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of clinical practice; this should be a priority for quantitative research.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/70/698/e636.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X712313; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425205?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x712313 -31675503,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004,Uganda Genome Resource Enables Insights into Population History and Genomic Discovery in Africa.,"Gurdasani D, Carstensen T, Fatumo S, Chen G, Franklin CS, Prado-Martinez J, Bouman H, Abascal F, Haber M, Tachmazidou I, Mathieson I, Ekoru K, DeGorter MK, Nsubuga RN, Finan C, Wheeler E, Chen L, Cooper DN, Schiffels S, Chen Y, Ritchie GRS, Pollard MO, Fortune MD, Mentzer AJ, Garrison E, Bergström A, Hatzikotoulas K, Adeyemo A, Doumatey A, Elding H, Wain LV, Ehret G, Auer PL, Kooperberg CL, Reiner AP, Franceschini N, Maher D, Montgomery SB, Kadie C, Widmer C, Xue Y, Seeley J, Asiki G, Kamali A, Young EH, Pomilla C, Soranzo N, Zeggini E, Pirie F, Morris AP, Heckerman D, Tyler-Smith C, Motala AA, Rotimi C, Kaleebu P, Barroso I, Sandhu MS.",,Cell,2019,2019-10-01,N,,,,"Genomic studies in African populations provide unique opportunities to understand disease etiology, human diversity, and population history. In the largest study of its kind, comprising genome-wide data from 6,400 individuals and whole-genome sequences from 1,978 individuals from rural Uganda, we find evidence of geographically correlated fine-scale population substructure. Historically, the ancestry of modern Ugandans was best represented by a mixture of ancient East African pastoralists. We demonstrate the value of the largest sequence panel from Africa to date as an imputation resource. Examining 34 cardiometabolic traits, we show systematic differences in trait heritability between European and African populations, probably reflecting the differential impact of genes and environment. In a multi-trait pan-African GWAS of up to 14,126 individuals, we identify novel loci associated with anthropometric, hematological, lipid, and glycemic traits. We find that several functionally important signals are driven by Africa-specific variants, highlighting the value of studying diverse populations across the region.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867419311201/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7202134; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7202134?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004 30765456,https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043014,Crash characteristics of on-road single-bicycle crashes: an under-recognised problem.,"Beck B, Stevenson MR, Cameron P, Oxley J, Newstead S, Olivier J, Boufous S, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention,2019,2019-02-14,N,epidemiology; Functional Outcome; Bicycle,,,"Compared with crashes with motor vehicles, single-bicycle crashes are an under-recognised contributor to cycling injury and the aetiology is poorly understood. Using an in-depth crash investigation technique, this study describes the crash characteristics and patient outcomes of a sample of cyclists admitted to hospital following on-road bicycle crashes. Enrolled cyclists completed a structured interview, and injury details and patient outcomes were extracted from trauma registries. Single-bicycle crashes (n=62) accounted for 48% of on-road crashes and commonly involved experienced cyclists. Common single-bicycle crash types included loss-of-control events, interactions with tram tracks, striking potholes or objects or resulting from mechanical issues with the bicycle. To address single-bicycle crashes, targeted countermeasures are required for each of these specific crash types.",,pdf:https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Crash_characteristics_of_on-road_single-bicycle_crashes_an_under-recognised_problem/19807744/1/files/35209867.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043014 33617936,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012,Global and national estimates of the number of healthcare workers at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.,"McCarthy CV, Sandmann FG, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M.",,The Journal of hospital infection,2021,2021-02-20,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195670121000712/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121?pdf=render +32784218,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x712313,Suboptimal prescribing behaviour associated with clinical software design features: a retrospective cohort study in English NHS primary care.,"MacKenna B, Curtis HJ, Walker AJ, Bacon S, Croker R, Goldacre B.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2020,2020-08-27,N,Cohort studies; Primary Care; Clinical Software; Drugs Prescribing; Ghost-branded Generics,,,"

Background

Electronic health record (EHR) systems are used by clinicians to record patients' medical information, and support clinical activities such as prescribing. In England, healthcare professionals are advised to 'prescribe generically' because generic drugs are usually cheaper than branded alternatives, and have fixed reimbursement costs. 'Ghost-branded generics' are a new category of medicines savings, caused by prescribers specifying a manufacturer for a generic product, often resulting in a higher reimbursement price compared with the true generic.

Aim

To describe time trends and practice factors associated with excess medication costs from ghost-branded generic prescribing.

Design and setting

Retrospective cohort study of English GP prescribing data and EHR deployment data.

Method

A retrospective cohort study was conducted, based on data from the OpenPrescribing.net database from May 2013 to May 2019. Total spending on ghost-branded generics across England was calculated, and excess spend on ghost-branded generics calculated as a percentage of all spending on generics for every CCG and general practice in England, for every month in the study period.

Results

There were 31.8 million ghost-branded generic items and £9.5 million excess cost in 2018, compared with 7.45 million ghost-branded generic items and £1.3 million excess cost in 2014. Most excess costs were associated with one EHR, SystmOne, and it was identified that SystmOne offered ghost-branded generic options as the default. After informing the vendor, the authors monitored for subsequent change in costs, and report a rapid decrease in ghost-branded generic expenditure.

Conclusion

A design choice in a commonly used EHR has led to £9.5 million in avoidable excess prescribing costs for the NHS in 1 year. Notifying the vendor led to a change in user interface and a rapid, substantial spend reduction. This finding illustrates that EHR user interface design has a substantial impact on the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of clinical practice; this should be a priority for quantitative research.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/70/698/e636.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X712313; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425205?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x712313 +31675503,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004,Uganda Genome Resource Enables Insights into Population History and Genomic Discovery in Africa.,"Gurdasani D, Carstensen T, Fatumo S, Chen G, Franklin CS, Prado-Martinez J, Bouman H, Abascal F, Haber M, Tachmazidou I, Mathieson I, Ekoru K, DeGorter MK, Nsubuga RN, Finan C, Wheeler E, Chen L, Cooper DN, Schiffels S, Chen Y, Ritchie GRS, Pollard MO, Fortune MD, Mentzer AJ, Garrison E, Bergström A, Hatzikotoulas K, Adeyemo A, Doumatey A, Elding H, Wain LV, Ehret G, Auer PL, Kooperberg CL, Reiner AP, Franceschini N, Maher D, Montgomery SB, Kadie C, Widmer C, Xue Y, Seeley J, Asiki G, Kamali A, Young EH, Pomilla C, Soranzo N, Zeggini E, Pirie F, Morris AP, Heckerman D, Tyler-Smith C, Motala AA, Rotimi C, Kaleebu P, Barroso I, Sandhu MS.",,Cell,2019,2019-10-01,N,,,,"Genomic studies in African populations provide unique opportunities to understand disease etiology, human diversity, and population history. In the largest study of its kind, comprising genome-wide data from 6,400 individuals and whole-genome sequences from 1,978 individuals from rural Uganda, we find evidence of geographically correlated fine-scale population substructure. Historically, the ancestry of modern Ugandans was best represented by a mixture of ancient East African pastoralists. We demonstrate the value of the largest sequence panel from Africa to date as an imputation resource. Examining 34 cardiometabolic traits, we show systematic differences in trait heritability between European and African populations, probably reflecting the differential impact of genes and environment. In a multi-trait pan-African GWAS of up to 14,126 individuals, we identify novel loci associated with anthropometric, hematological, lipid, and glycemic traits. We find that several functionally important signals are driven by Africa-specific variants, highlighting the value of studying diverse populations across the region.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867419311201/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7202134; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7202134?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004 32656368,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2,What settings have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 transmission clusters?,"Leclerc QJ, Fuller NM, Knight LE, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Knight GM.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-06-05,Y,Transmission; Cluster; Coronavirus; Settings; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Background: Concern about the health impact of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in widespread enforced reductions in people's movement (""lockdowns""). However, there are increasing concerns about the severe economic and wider societal consequences of these measures. Some countries have begun to lift some of the rules on physical distancing in a stepwise manner, with differences in what these ""exit strategies"" entail and their timeframes. The aim of this work was to inform such exit strategies by exploring the types of indoor and outdoor settings where transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to occur and result in clusters of cases. Identifying potential settings that result in transmission clusters allows these to be kept under close surveillance and/or to remain closed as part of strategies that aim to avoid a resurgence in transmission following the lifting of lockdown measures. Methods: We performed a systematic review of available literature and media reports to find settings reported in peer reviewed articles and media with these characteristics. These sources are curated and made available in an editable online database. Results: We found many examples of SARS-CoV-2 clusters linked to a wide range of mostly indoor settings. Few reports came from schools, many from households, and an increasing number were reported in hospitals and elderly care settings across Europe. Conclusions: We identified possible places that are linked to clusters of COVID-19 cases and could be closely monitored and/or remain closed in the first instance following the progressive removal of lockdown restrictions. However, in part due to the limits in surveillance capacities in many settings, the gathering of information such as cluster sizes and attack rates is limited in several ways: inherent recall bias, biased media reporting and missing data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724?pdf=render -34645462,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9,T lymphocyte senescence is attenuated in Parkinson's disease.,"Kouli A, Jensen M, Papastavrou V, Scott KM, Kolenda C, Parker C, Solim IH, Camacho M, Martin-Ruiz C, Williams-Gray CH.",,Journal of neuroinflammation,2021,2021-10-13,Y,T lymphocytes; Immunosenescence; Parkinson’s Disease; Ageing Markers,,,"

Background

Immune involvement is well-described in Parkinson's disease (PD), including an adaptive T lymphocyte response. Given the increasing prevalence of Parkinson's disease in older age, age-related dysregulation of T lymphocytes may be relevant in this disorder, and we have previously observed changes in age-associated CD8+ T cell subsets in mid-stage PD. This study aimed to further characterise T cell immunosenescence in newly diagnosed PD patients, including shifts in CD4+ and CD8+ subpopulations, and changes in markers of cellular ageing in CD8+ T lymphocytes.

Methods

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were extracted from the blood of 61 newly diagnosed PD patients and 63 age- and sex-matched controls. Flow cytometric analysis was used for immunophenotyping of CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocyte subsets, and analysis of recent thymic emigrant cells. Telomere length within CD8+ T lymphocytes was assessed, as well as the expression of the telomerase reverse transcriptase enzyme (hTERT), and the cell-ageing markers p16INK4a and p21CIP1/Waf1.

Results

The number of CD8+ TEMRA T cells was found to be significantly reduced in PD patients compared to controls. The expression of p16INK4a in CD8+ lymphocytes was also lower in patients versus controls. Chronic latent CMV infection was associated with increased senescent CD8+ lymphocytes in healthy controls, but this shift was less apparent in PD patients.

Conclusions

Taken together, our data demonstrate a reduction in CD8+ T cell replicative senescence which is present at the earliest stages of Parkinson's disease.",,pdf:https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513368; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513368?pdf=render 32987048,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.09.053,Predicting 10-year risk of recurrent cardiovascular events andcardiovascular interventions in patients with established cardiovascular disease: results from UCC-SMART and REACH.,"Klooster CCV', Bhatt DL, Steg PG, Massaro JM, Dorresteijn JAN, Westerink J, Ruigrok YM, de Borst GJ, Asselbergs FW, van der Graaf Y, Visseren FLJ, UCC-SMART study group.",,International journal of cardiology,2021,2020-09-25,N,Risk Prediction; Cardiovascular Interventions; Major Cardiovascular Events; Patients With Established Cardiovascular Disease,,,"

Background

Existing cardiovascular risk scores for patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) estimate residual risk of recurrent major cardiovascular events (MACE). The aim of the current study is to develop and externally validate a prediction model to estimate the 10-year combined risk of recurrent MACE and cardiovascular interventions (MACE+) in patients with established CVD.

Methods

Data of patients with established CVD from the UCC-SMART cohort (N = 8421) were used for model development, and patient data from REACH Western Europe (N = 14,528) and REACH North America (N = 19,495) for model validation. Predictors were selected based on the existing SMART risk score. A Fine and Gray competing risk-adjusted 10-year risk model was developed for the combined outcome MACE+. The model was validated in all patients and in strata of coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CeVD), peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Results

External calibration for 2-year risk in REACH Western Europe and REACH North America was good, c-statistics were moderate: 0.60 and 0.58, respectively. In strata of CVD at baseline good external calibration was observed in patients with CHD and CeVD, however, poor calibration was seen in patients with PAD. C-statistics for patients with CHD were 0.60 and 0.57, for patients with CeVD 0.62 and 0.61, and for patients with PAD 0.53 and 0.54 in REACH Western Europe and REACH North America, respectively.

Conclusions

The 10-year combined risk of recurrent MACE and cardiovascular interventions can be estimated in patients with established CHD or CeVD. However, cardiovascular interventions in patients with PAD could not be predicted reliably.",,pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S0167527320338341/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.09.053 -35017564,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27950-w,Mapping inhibitory sites on the RNA polymerase of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus using nanobodies.,"Keown JR, Zhu Z, Carrique L, Fan H, Walker AP, Serna Martin I, Pardon E, Steyaert J, Fodor E, Grimes JM.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-01-11,Y,,,,"Influenza A viruses cause seasonal epidemics and global pandemics, representing a considerable burden to healthcare systems. Central to the replication cycle of influenza viruses is the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase which transcribes and replicates the viral RNA genome. The polymerase undergoes conformational rearrangements and interacts with viral and host proteins to perform these functions. Here we determine the structure of the 1918 influenza virus polymerase in transcriptase and replicase conformations using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). We then structurally and functionally characterise the binding of single-domain nanobodies to the polymerase of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus. Combining these functional and structural data we identify five sites on the polymerase which are sensitive to inhibition by nanobodies. We propose that the binding of nanobodies at these sites either prevents the polymerase from assuming particular functional conformations or interactions with viral or host factors. The polymerase is highly conserved across the influenza A subtypes, suggesting these sites as effective targets for potential influenza antiviral development.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27950-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27950-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8752864; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8752864?pdf=render 32934998,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v3i1.412,Creating individual level air pollution exposures in an anonymised data safe haven: a platform for evaluating impact on educational attainment.,"Mizen A, Lyons J, Doherty R, Berridge D, Wilkinson P, Milojevic A, Carruthers D, Akbari A, Lake I, Davies GA, Sallakh MA, Mavrogianni A, Dearden L, Johnson R, Rodgers SE.",,International journal of population data science,2018,2018-08-21,Y,Air pollution; Cognition; Asthma; Data Linkage; Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis,,,"

Introduction

There is a lack of evidence on the adverse effects of air pollution on cognition for people with air quality-related health conditions. We propose that educational attainment, as a proxy for cognition, may increase with improved air quality. This study will explore whether asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis, when exacerbated by acute exposure to air pollution, is associated with educational attainment.

Objective

To describe the preparation of individual and household-level linked environmental and health data for analysis within an anonymised safe haven. Also to introduce our statistical analysis plan for our study: COgnition, Respiratory Tract illness and Effects of eXposure (CORTEX).

Methods

We imported daily air pollution and aeroallergen data, and individual level education data into the SAIL databank, an anonymised safe haven for person-based records. We linked individual-level education, socioeconomic and health data to air quality data for home and school locations, creating tailored exposures for individuals across a city. We developed daily exposure data for all pupils in repeated cross sectional exam cohorts (2009-2015).

Conclusion

We have used the SAIL databank, an innovative, data safe haven to create individual-level exposures to air pollution and pollen for multiple daily home and school locations. The analysis platform will allow us to evaluate retrospectively the impact of air quality on attainment for multiple cross-sectional cohorts of pupils. Our methods will allow us to distinguish between the pollution impacts on educational attainment for pupils with and without respiratory health conditions. The results from this study will further our understanding of the effects of air quality and respiratory-related health conditions on cognition.

Highlights

This city-wide study includes longitudinal routinely-recorded educational attainment data for all pupils taking exams over seven years;High spatial resolution air pollution data were linked within a privacy protected databank to obtain individual exposure at multiple daily locations;This study will use health data linked at the individual level to explore associations between air pollution, related morbidity, and educational attainment.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/412/533; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v3i1.412; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7299475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7299475?pdf=render -32430455,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038530,Evaluating the real-world implementation of the Family Nurse Partnership in England: protocol for a data linkage study.,"Cavallaro FL, Gilbert R, Wijlaars L, Kennedy E, Swarbrick A, van der Meulen J, Harron K.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-05-18,Y,Public Health; Community Child Health; Child Protection; Health Informatics,,,"

Introduction

Almost 20 000 babies are born to teenage mothers each year in England, with poorer outcomes for mothers and babies than among older mothers. A nurse home visitation programme in the USA was found to improve a wide range of outcomes for young mothers and their children. However, a randomised controlled trial in England found no effect on short-term primary outcomes, although cognitive development up to age 2 showed improvement. Our study will use linked routinely collected health, education and social care data to evaluate the real-world effects of the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) on child outcomes up to age 7, with a focus on identifying whether the FNP works better for particular groups of families, thereby informing programme targeting and resource allocation.

Methods and analysis

We will construct a retrospective cohort of all women aged 13-24 years giving birth in English NHS hospitals between 2010 and 2017, linking information on mothers and children from FNP programme data, Hospital Episodes Statistics and the National Pupil Database. To assess the effectiveness of FNP, we will compare outcomes for eligible mothers ever and never enrolled in FNP, and their children, using two analysis strategies to adjust for measured confounding: propensity score matching and analyses adjusting for maternal characteristics up to enrolment/28 weeks gestation. Outcomes of interest include early childhood development, childhood unplanned hospital admissions for injury or maltreatment-related diagnoses and children in care. Subgroup analyses will determine whether the effect of FNP varied according to maternal characteristics (eg, age and education).

Ethics and dissemination

The Nottingham Research Ethics Committee approved this study. Mothers participating in FNP were supportive of our planned research. Results will inform policy-makers for targeting home visiting programmes. Methodological findings on the accuracy and reliability of cross-sectoral data linkage will be of interest to researchers.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/5/e038530.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038530; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239518; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239518?pdf=render +34645462,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9,T lymphocyte senescence is attenuated in Parkinson's disease.,"Kouli A, Jensen M, Papastavrou V, Scott KM, Kolenda C, Parker C, Solim IH, Camacho M, Martin-Ruiz C, Williams-Gray CH.",,Journal of neuroinflammation,2021,2021-10-13,Y,T lymphocytes; Immunosenescence; Parkinson’s Disease; Ageing Markers,,,"

Background

Immune involvement is well-described in Parkinson's disease (PD), including an adaptive T lymphocyte response. Given the increasing prevalence of Parkinson's disease in older age, age-related dysregulation of T lymphocytes may be relevant in this disorder, and we have previously observed changes in age-associated CD8+ T cell subsets in mid-stage PD. This study aimed to further characterise T cell immunosenescence in newly diagnosed PD patients, including shifts in CD4+ and CD8+ subpopulations, and changes in markers of cellular ageing in CD8+ T lymphocytes.

Methods

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were extracted from the blood of 61 newly diagnosed PD patients and 63 age- and sex-matched controls. Flow cytometric analysis was used for immunophenotyping of CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocyte subsets, and analysis of recent thymic emigrant cells. Telomere length within CD8+ T lymphocytes was assessed, as well as the expression of the telomerase reverse transcriptase enzyme (hTERT), and the cell-ageing markers p16INK4a and p21CIP1/Waf1.

Results

The number of CD8+ TEMRA T cells was found to be significantly reduced in PD patients compared to controls. The expression of p16INK4a in CD8+ lymphocytes was also lower in patients versus controls. Chronic latent CMV infection was associated with increased senescent CD8+ lymphocytes in healthy controls, but this shift was less apparent in PD patients.

Conclusions

Taken together, our data demonstrate a reduction in CD8+ T cell replicative senescence which is present at the earliest stages of Parkinson's disease.",,pdf:https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513368; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513368?pdf=render 31787481,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.10.061,Association of physical health multimorbidity with mortality in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Using a novel semantic search system that captures physical diseases in electronic patient records.,"Kugathasan P, Wu H, Gaughran F, Nielsen RE, Pritchard M, Dobson R, Stewart R, Stubbs B.",,Schizophrenia research,2020,2019-11-28,N,Mortality; Schizophrenia; Somatic; Comorbidity; Severe Mental Illness,,,"

Objective

Single physical comorbidities have been associated with the premature mortality in people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD). We investigated the association of physical multimorbidity (≥two physical health conditions) with mortality in people with SSD.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study between 2013 and 2017. All people with a diagnosis of SSD (ICD-10: F20-F29), who had contact with secondary mental healthcare within South London during 2011-2012 were included. A novel semantic search system captured conditions from electronic mental health records, and all-cause mortality were retrieved. Hazard ratios (HRs) and population attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated for associations between physical multimorbidity and all-cause mortality.

Results

Among the 9775 people with SSD (mean (SD) age, 45.9 (15.4); males, 59.3%), 6262 (64%) had physical multimorbidity, and 880 (9%) died during the 5-year follow-up. The top three physical multimorbidity combinations with highest mortality were cardiovascular-respiratory (HR: 2.23; 95% CI, 1.49-3.32), respiratory-skin (HR: 2.06; 95% CI, 1.31-3.24), and respiratory-digestive (HR: 1.88; 95% CI, 1.14-3.11), when adjusted for age, gender, and all other physical disease systems. Combinations of physical diseases with highest PAFs were cardiovascular-respiratory (PAF: 35.7%), neurologic-respiratory (PAF: 32.7%), as well as respiratory-skin (PAF: 29.8%).

Conclusions

Approximately 2/3 of patients with SSD had physical multimorbidity and the risk of mortality in these patients was further increased compared to those with none or single physical conditions. These findings suggest that in order to reduce the physical health burden and subsequent mortality in people with SSD, proactive coordinated prevention and management efforts are required and should extend beyond the current focus on single physical comorbidities.",,pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/124987758/AAM_Association_of_physical_health_multimorbidity....pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.10.061 +35017564,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27950-w,Mapping inhibitory sites on the RNA polymerase of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus using nanobodies.,"Keown JR, Zhu Z, Carrique L, Fan H, Walker AP, Serna Martin I, Pardon E, Steyaert J, Fodor E, Grimes JM.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-01-11,Y,,,,"Influenza A viruses cause seasonal epidemics and global pandemics, representing a considerable burden to healthcare systems. Central to the replication cycle of influenza viruses is the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase which transcribes and replicates the viral RNA genome. The polymerase undergoes conformational rearrangements and interacts with viral and host proteins to perform these functions. Here we determine the structure of the 1918 influenza virus polymerase in transcriptase and replicase conformations using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). We then structurally and functionally characterise the binding of single-domain nanobodies to the polymerase of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus. Combining these functional and structural data we identify five sites on the polymerase which are sensitive to inhibition by nanobodies. We propose that the binding of nanobodies at these sites either prevents the polymerase from assuming particular functional conformations or interactions with viral or host factors. The polymerase is highly conserved across the influenza A subtypes, suggesting these sites as effective targets for potential influenza antiviral development.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27950-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27950-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8752864; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8752864?pdf=render +32430455,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038530,Evaluating the real-world implementation of the Family Nurse Partnership in England: protocol for a data linkage study.,"Cavallaro FL, Gilbert R, Wijlaars L, Kennedy E, Swarbrick A, van der Meulen J, Harron K.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-05-18,Y,Public Health; Community Child Health; Child Protection; Health Informatics,,,"

Introduction

Almost 20 000 babies are born to teenage mothers each year in England, with poorer outcomes for mothers and babies than among older mothers. A nurse home visitation programme in the USA was found to improve a wide range of outcomes for young mothers and their children. However, a randomised controlled trial in England found no effect on short-term primary outcomes, although cognitive development up to age 2 showed improvement. Our study will use linked routinely collected health, education and social care data to evaluate the real-world effects of the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) on child outcomes up to age 7, with a focus on identifying whether the FNP works better for particular groups of families, thereby informing programme targeting and resource allocation.

Methods and analysis

We will construct a retrospective cohort of all women aged 13-24 years giving birth in English NHS hospitals between 2010 and 2017, linking information on mothers and children from FNP programme data, Hospital Episodes Statistics and the National Pupil Database. To assess the effectiveness of FNP, we will compare outcomes for eligible mothers ever and never enrolled in FNP, and their children, using two analysis strategies to adjust for measured confounding: propensity score matching and analyses adjusting for maternal characteristics up to enrolment/28 weeks gestation. Outcomes of interest include early childhood development, childhood unplanned hospital admissions for injury or maltreatment-related diagnoses and children in care. Subgroup analyses will determine whether the effect of FNP varied according to maternal characteristics (eg, age and education).

Ethics and dissemination

The Nottingham Research Ethics Committee approved this study. Mothers participating in FNP were supportive of our planned research. Results will inform policy-makers for targeting home visiting programmes. Methodological findings on the accuracy and reliability of cross-sectoral data linkage will be of interest to researchers.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/5/e038530.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038530; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239518; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239518?pdf=render +32360702,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068,Comorbidities and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure across the ejection fraction spectrum: A blueprint for clinical trial design.,"Savarese G, Settergren C, Schrage B, Thorvaldsen T, Löfman I, Sartipy U, Mellbin L, Meyers A, Farsani SF, Brueckmann M, Brodovicz KG, Vedin O, Asselbergs FW, Dahlström U, Cosentino F, Lund LH.",,International journal of cardiology,2020,2020-04-30,N,Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Atrial fibrillation; Ejection fraction; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Trial Design,,,"

Background

Comorbidities may differently affect treatment response and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure (HF) with preserved (HFpEF) vs. mid-range/mildly-reduced (HFmrEF) vs. reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction (EF), complicating trial design. In patients with HF, we performed a comprehensive analysis of type 2 diabetes (T2DM), atrial fibrillation (AF) chronic kidney disease (CKD), and cause-specific outcomes.

Methods and results

Of 42,583 patients from the Swedish HF registry (23% HFpEF, 21% HFmrEF, 56% HFrEF), 24% had T2DM, 51% CKD, 56% AF, and 8% all three comorbidities. HFpEF had higher prevalence of CKD and AF, HFmrEF had intermediate prevalence of AF, and prevalence of T2DM was similar across the EF spectrum. Patients with T2DM, AF and/or CKD were more likely to have also other comorbidities and more severe HF. Risk of cardiovascular (CV) events was highest in HFrEF vs. HFpEF and HFmrEF; non-CV risk was highest in HFpEF vs. HFmrEF vs. HFrEF. T2DM increased CV and non-CV events similarly but less so in HFpEF. CKD increased CV events somewhat more than non-CV events and less so in HFpEF. AF increased CV events considerably more than non-CV events and more so in HFpEF and HFmrEF.

Conclusion

HFpEF is distinguished from HFmrEF and HFrEF by more comorbidities, non-CV events, but lower effect of T2DM and CKD on events. CV events are most frequent in HFrEF. To enrich for CV vs. non-CV events, trialists should not exclude patients with lower EF, AF and/or CKD, who report higher CV risk.",,pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S016752732031679X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068 +35300523,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.056663,Therapeutic Targets for Heart Failure Identified Using Proteomics and Mendelian Randomization.,"Henry A, Gordillo-Marañón M, Finan C, Schmidt AF, Ferreira JP, Karra R, Sundström J, Lind L, Ärnlöv J, Zannad F, Mälarstig A, Hingorani AD, Lumbers RT, HERMES and SCALLOP Consortia.",,Circulation,2022,2022-03-18,Y,Proteomics; Heart Failure; Drug Target Prediction; Mendelian Randomization Analysis,,,"

Background

Heart failure (HF) is a highly prevalent disorder for which disease mechanisms are incompletely understood. The discovery of disease-associated proteins with causal genetic evidence provides an opportunity to identify new therapeutic targets.

Methods

We investigated the observational and causal associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins, which were measured using affinity-based proteomic assays. First, we estimated the associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins with incident heart failure by means of a fixed-effect meta-analysis of 4 population-based studies, composed of a total of 3019 participants with 732 HF events. The causal effects of HF-associated proteins were then investigated by Mendelian randomization, using cis-protein quantitative loci genetic instruments identified from genomewide association studies in more than 30 000 individuals. To improve the precision of causal estimates, we implemented an Mendelian randomization model that accounted for linkage disequilibrium between instruments and tested the robustness of causal estimates through a multiverse sensitivity analysis that included up to 120 combinations of instrument selection parameters and Mendelian randomization models per protein. The druggability of candidate proteins was surveyed, and mechanism of action and potential on-target side effects were explored with cross-trait Mendelian randomization analysis.

Results

Forty-four of ninety proteins were positively associated with risk of incident HF (P<6.0×10-4). Among these, 8 proteins had evidence of a causal association with HF that was robust to multiverse sensitivity analysis: higher CSF-1 (macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1), Gal-3 (galectin-3) and KIM-1 (kidney injury molecule 1) were positively associated with risk of HF, whereas higher ADM (adrenomedullin), CHI3L1 (chitinase-3-like protein 1), CTSL1 (cathepsin L1), FGF-23 (fibroblast growth factor 23), and MMP-12 (matrix metalloproteinase-12) were protective. Therapeutics targeting ADM and Gal-3 are currently under evaluation in clinical trials, and all the remaining proteins were considered druggable, except KIM-1.

Conclusions

We identified 44 circulating proteins that were associated with incident HF, of which 8 showed evidence of a causal relationship and 7 were druggable, including adrenomedullin, which represents a particularly promising drug target. Our approach demonstrates a tractable roadmap for the triangulation of population genomic and proteomic data for the prioritization of therapeutic targets for complex human diseases.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023?pdf=render 34172543,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042893,Developing a model to predict individualised treatment for gonorrhoea: a modelling study.,"Findlater L, Mohammed H, Gobin M, Fifer H, Ross J, Geffen Obregon O, Turner KME.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-25,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Genitourinary Medicine; Sexual Medicine,,,"

Objective

To develop a tool predicting individualised treatment for gonorrhoea, enabling treatment with previously recommended antibiotics, to reduce use of last-line treatment ceftriaxone.

Design

A modelling study.

Setting

England and Wales.

Participants

Individuals accessing sentinel health services.

Intervention

Developing an Excel model which uses participants' demographic, behavioural and clinical characteristics to predict susceptibility to legacy antibiotics. Model parameters were calculated using data for 2015-2017 from the Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme.

Main outcome measures

Estimated number of doses of ceftriaxone saved, and number of people delayed effective treatment, by model use in clinical practice. Model outputs are the predicted risk of resistance to ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, penicillin and cefixime, in groups of individuals with different combinations of characteristics (gender, sexual orientation, number of recent sexual partners, age, ethnicity), and a treatment recommendation.

Results

Between 2015 and 2017, 8013 isolates were collected: 64% from men who have sex with men, 18% from heterosexual men and 18% from women. Across participant subgroups, stratified by all predictors, resistance prevalence was high for ciprofloxacin (range: 11%-51%) and penicillin (range: 6%-33%). Resistance prevalence for azithromycin and cefixime ranged from 0% to 13% and for ceftriaxone it was 0%. Simulating model use, 88% of individuals could be given cefixime and 10% azithromycin, saving 97% of ceftriaxone doses, with 1% of individuals delayed effective treatment.

Conclusions

Using demographic and behavioural characteristics, we could not reliably identify a participant subset in which ciprofloxacin or penicillin would be effective. Cefixime resistance was almost universally low; however, substituting ceftriaxone for near-uniform treatment with cefixime risks re-emergence of resistance to cefixime and ceftriaxone. Several subgroups had low azithromycin resistance, but widespread azithromycin monotherapy risks resistance at population level. However, this dataset had limitations; further exploration of individual characteristics to predict resistance to a wider range of legacy antibiotics may still be appropriate.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e042893.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042893; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8237724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8237724?pdf=render 35231023,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907,Changes in social contacts in England during the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and March 2021 as measured by the CoMix survey: A repeated cross-sectional study.,"Gimma A, Munday JD, Wong KLM, Coletti P, van Zandvoort K, Prem K, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Klepac P, Rubin GJ, Funk S, Edmunds WJ, Jarvis CI.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,"

Background

During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the United Kingdom government imposed public health policies in England to reduce social contacts in hopes of curbing virus transmission. We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study to measure contact patterns weekly from March 2020 to March 2021 to estimate the impact of these policies, covering 3 national lockdowns interspersed by periods of less restrictive policies.

Methods and findings

The repeated cross-sectional survey data were collected using online surveys of representative samples of the UK population by age and gender. Survey participants were recruited by the online market research company Ipsos MORI through internet-based banner and social media ads and email campaigns. The participant data used for this analysis are restricted to those who reported living in England. We calculated the mean daily contacts reported using a (clustered) bootstrap and fitted a censored negative binomial model to estimate age-stratified contact matrices and estimate proportional changes to the basic reproduction number under controlled conditions using the change in contacts as a scaling factor. To put the findings in perspective, we discuss contact rates recorded throughout the year in terms of previously recorded rates from the POLYMOD study social contact study. The survey recorded 101,350 observations from 19,914 participants who reported 466,710 contacts over 53 weeks. We observed changes in social contact patterns in England over time and by participants' age, personal risk factors, and perception of risk. The mean reported contacts for adults 18 to 59 years old ranged between 2.39 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.20 to 2.60) contacts and 4.93 (95% CI 4.65 to 5.19) contacts during the study period. The mean contacts for school-age children (5 to 17 years old) ranged from 3.07 (95% CI 2.89 to 3.27) to 15.11 (95% CI 13.87 to 16.41). This demonstrates a sustained decrease in social contacts compared to a mean of 11.08 (95% CI 10.54 to 11.57) contacts per participant in all age groups combined as measured by the POLYMOD social contact study in 2005 to 2006. Contacts measured during periods of lockdowns were lower than in periods of eased social restrictions. The use of face coverings outside the home has remained high since the government mandated use in some settings in July 2020. The main limitations of this analysis are the potential for selection bias, as participants are recruited through internet-based campaigns, and recall bias, in which participants may under- or overreport the number of contacts they have made.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that recorded contacts reduced dramatically compared to prepandemic levels (as measured in the POLYMOD study), with changes in reported contacts correlated with government interventions throughout the pandemic. Despite easing of restrictions in the summer of 2020, the mean number of reported contacts only returned to about half of that observed prepandemic at its highest recorded level. The CoMix survey provides a unique repeated cross-sectional data set for a full year in England, from the first day of the first lockdown, for use in statistical analyses and mathematical modelling of COVID-19 and other diseases.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8887739; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8887739?pdf=render -32360702,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068,Comorbidities and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure across the ejection fraction spectrum: A blueprint for clinical trial design.,"Savarese G, Settergren C, Schrage B, Thorvaldsen T, Löfman I, Sartipy U, Mellbin L, Meyers A, Farsani SF, Brueckmann M, Brodovicz KG, Vedin O, Asselbergs FW, Dahlström U, Cosentino F, Lund LH.",,International journal of cardiology,2020,2020-04-30,N,Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Atrial fibrillation; Ejection fraction; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Trial Design,,,"

Background

Comorbidities may differently affect treatment response and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure (HF) with preserved (HFpEF) vs. mid-range/mildly-reduced (HFmrEF) vs. reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction (EF), complicating trial design. In patients with HF, we performed a comprehensive analysis of type 2 diabetes (T2DM), atrial fibrillation (AF) chronic kidney disease (CKD), and cause-specific outcomes.

Methods and results

Of 42,583 patients from the Swedish HF registry (23% HFpEF, 21% HFmrEF, 56% HFrEF), 24% had T2DM, 51% CKD, 56% AF, and 8% all three comorbidities. HFpEF had higher prevalence of CKD and AF, HFmrEF had intermediate prevalence of AF, and prevalence of T2DM was similar across the EF spectrum. Patients with T2DM, AF and/or CKD were more likely to have also other comorbidities and more severe HF. Risk of cardiovascular (CV) events was highest in HFrEF vs. HFpEF and HFmrEF; non-CV risk was highest in HFpEF vs. HFmrEF vs. HFrEF. T2DM increased CV and non-CV events similarly but less so in HFpEF. CKD increased CV events somewhat more than non-CV events and less so in HFpEF. AF increased CV events considerably more than non-CV events and more so in HFpEF and HFmrEF.

Conclusion

HFpEF is distinguished from HFmrEF and HFrEF by more comorbidities, non-CV events, but lower effect of T2DM and CKD on events. CV events are most frequent in HFrEF. To enrich for CV vs. non-CV events, trialists should not exclude patients with lower EF, AF and/or CKD, who report higher CV risk.",,pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S016752732031679X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068 34468322,https://doi.org/10.2196/30083,An Early Warning Risk Prediction Tool (RECAP-V1) for Patients Diagnosed With COVID-19: Protocol for a Statistical Analysis Plan.,"Fiorentino F, Prociuk D, Espinosa Gonzalez AB, Neves AL, Husain L, Ramtale SC, Mi E, Mi E, Macartney J, Anand SN, Sherlock J, Saravanakumar K, Mayer E, de Lusignan S, Greenhalgh T, Delaney BC.",,JMIR research protocols,2021,2021-10-05,Y,Modeling; Early warning; Risk Score; Remote Assessment; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts have been made to develop early warning risk scores to help clinicians decide which patient is likely to deteriorate and require hospitalization. The RECAP (Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care) study investigates the predictive risk of hospitalization, deterioration, and death of patients with confirmed COVID-19, based on a set of parameters chosen through a Delphi process performed by clinicians. We aim to use rich data collected remotely through the use of electronic data templates integrated in the electronic health systems of several general practices across the United Kingdom to construct accurate predictive models. The models will be based on preexisting conditions and monitoring data of a patient's clinical parameters (eg, blood oxygen saturation) to make reliable predictions as to the patient's risk of hospital admission, deterioration, and death.

Objective

This statistical analysis plan outlines the statistical methods to build the prediction model to be used in the prioritization of patients in the primary care setting. The statistical analysis plan for the RECAP study includes the development and validation of the RECAP-V1 prediction model as a primary outcome. This prediction model will be adapted as a three-category risk score split into red (high risk), amber (medium risk), and green (low risk) for any patient with suspected COVID-19. The model will predict the risk of deterioration and hospitalization.

Methods

After the data have been collected, we will assess the degree of missingness and use a combination of traditional data imputation using multiple imputation by chained equations, as well as more novel machine-learning approaches to impute the missing data for the final analysis. For predictive model development, we will use multiple logistic regression analyses to construct the model. We aim to recruit a minimum of 1317 patients for model development and validation. We will then externally validate the model on an independent dataset of 1400 patients. The model will also be applied for multiple different datasets to assess both its performance in different patient groups and its applicability for different methods of data collection.

Results

As of May 10, 2021, we have recruited 3732 patients. A further 2088 patients have been recruited through the National Health Service Clinical Assessment Service, and approximately 5000 patients have been recruited through the DoctalyHealth platform.

Conclusions

The methodology for the development of the RECAP-V1 prediction model as well as the risk score will provide clinicians with a statistically robust tool to help prioritize COVID-19 patients.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04435041; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04435041.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

DERR1-10.2196/30083.",,pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2021/10/e30083/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/30083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494068 -35300523,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.056663,Therapeutic Targets for Heart Failure Identified Using Proteomics and Mendelian Randomization.,"Henry A, Gordillo-Marañón M, Finan C, Schmidt AF, Ferreira JP, Karra R, Sundström J, Lind L, Ärnlöv J, Zannad F, Mälarstig A, Hingorani AD, Lumbers RT, HERMES and SCALLOP Consortia.",,Circulation,2022,2022-03-18,Y,Proteomics; Heart Failure; Drug Target Prediction; Mendelian Randomization Analysis,,,"

Background

Heart failure (HF) is a highly prevalent disorder for which disease mechanisms are incompletely understood. The discovery of disease-associated proteins with causal genetic evidence provides an opportunity to identify new therapeutic targets.

Methods

We investigated the observational and causal associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins, which were measured using affinity-based proteomic assays. First, we estimated the associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins with incident heart failure by means of a fixed-effect meta-analysis of 4 population-based studies, composed of a total of 3019 participants with 732 HF events. The causal effects of HF-associated proteins were then investigated by Mendelian randomization, using cis-protein quantitative loci genetic instruments identified from genomewide association studies in more than 30 000 individuals. To improve the precision of causal estimates, we implemented an Mendelian randomization model that accounted for linkage disequilibrium between instruments and tested the robustness of causal estimates through a multiverse sensitivity analysis that included up to 120 combinations of instrument selection parameters and Mendelian randomization models per protein. The druggability of candidate proteins was surveyed, and mechanism of action and potential on-target side effects were explored with cross-trait Mendelian randomization analysis.

Results

Forty-four of ninety proteins were positively associated with risk of incident HF (P<6.0×10-4). Among these, 8 proteins had evidence of a causal association with HF that was robust to multiverse sensitivity analysis: higher CSF-1 (macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1), Gal-3 (galectin-3) and KIM-1 (kidney injury molecule 1) were positively associated with risk of HF, whereas higher ADM (adrenomedullin), CHI3L1 (chitinase-3-like protein 1), CTSL1 (cathepsin L1), FGF-23 (fibroblast growth factor 23), and MMP-12 (matrix metalloproteinase-12) were protective. Therapeutics targeting ADM and Gal-3 are currently under evaluation in clinical trials, and all the remaining proteins were considered druggable, except KIM-1.

Conclusions

We identified 44 circulating proteins that were associated with incident HF, of which 8 showed evidence of a causal relationship and 7 were druggable, including adrenomedullin, which represents a particularly promising drug target. Our approach demonstrates a tractable roadmap for the triangulation of population genomic and proteomic data for the prioritization of therapeutic targets for complex human diseases.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023?pdf=render +33430602,https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.120.007022,Proteomic and Functional Studies Reveal Detyrosinated Tubulin as Treatment Target in Sarcomere Mutation-Induced Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.,"Schuldt M, Pei J, Harakalova M, Dorsch LM, Schlossarek S, Mokry M, Knol JC, Pham TV, Schelfhorst T, Piersma SR, Dos Remedios C, Dalinghaus M, Michels M, Asselbergs FW, Moutin MJ, Carrier L, Jimenez CR, van der Velden J, Kuster DWD.",,Circulation. Heart failure,2021,2021-01-12,Y,Mutation; Genotype; Tubulin; Heart diseases; Proteomics; Treatment; Cardiomyopathies,,,"

Background

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic heart disease. While ≈50% of patients with HCM carry a sarcomere gene mutation (sarcomere mutation-positive, HCMSMP), the genetic background is unknown in the other half of the patients (sarcomere mutation-negative, HCMSMN). Genotype-specific differences have been reported in cardiac function. Moreover, HCMSMN patients have later disease onset and a better prognosis than HCMSMP patients. To define if genotype-specific derailments at the protein level may explain the heterogeneity in disease development, we performed a proteomic analysis in cardiac tissue from a clinically well-phenotyped HCM patient group.

Methods

A proteomics screen was performed in cardiac tissue from 39 HCMSMP patients, 11HCMSMN patients, and 8 nonfailing controls. Patients with HCM had obstructive cardiomyopathy with left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and diastolic dysfunction. A novel MYBPC32373insG mouse model was used to confirm functional relevance of our proteomic findings.

Results

In all HCM patient samples, we found lower levels of metabolic pathway proteins and higher levels of extracellular matrix proteins. Levels of total and detyrosinated α-tubulin were markedly higher in HCMSMP than in HCMSMN and controls. Higher tubulin detyrosination was also found in 2 unrelated MYBPC3 mouse models and its inhibition with parthenolide normalized contraction and relaxation time of isolated cardiomyocytes.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that microtubules and especially its detyrosination contribute to the pathomechanism of patients with HCMSMP. This is of clinical importance since it represents a potential treatment target to improve cardiac function in patients with HCMSMP, whereas a beneficial effect may be limited in patients with HCMSMN.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533?pdf=render 33004356,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x712673,First do no harm: valproate and medicines safety in pregnancy.,"Robson J, Moss N, McGettigan P, Beardsley SJ, Lovegrove E, Dezateux C.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2020,2020-10-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/70/699/477.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X712673; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7518898; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7518898?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x712673 34600625,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01609-3,"Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980-2019: a network meta-regression.",GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"

Background

The burden of fatal police violence is an urgent public health crisis in the USA. Mounting evidence shows that deaths at the hands of the police disproportionately impact people of certain races and ethnicities, pointing to systemic racism in policing. Recent high-profile killings by police in the USA have prompted calls for more extensive and public data reporting on police violence. This study examines the presence and extent of under-reporting of police violence in US Government-run vital registration data, offers a method for correcting under-reporting in these datasets, and presents revised estimates of deaths due to police violence in the USA.

Methods

We compared data from the USA National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) to three non-governmental, open-source databases on police violence: Fatal Encounters, Mapping Police Violence, and The Counted. We extracted and standardised the age, sex, US state of death registration, year of death, and race and ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic of other races, and Hispanic of any race) of each decedent for all data sources and used a network meta-regression to quantify the rate of under-reporting within the NVSS. Using these rates to inform correction factors, we provide adjusted estimates of deaths due to police violence for all states, ages, sexes, and racial and ethnic groups from 1980 to 2019 across the USA.

Findings

Across all races and states in the USA, we estimate 30 800 deaths (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 30 300-31 300) from police violence between 1980 and 2018; this represents 17 100 more deaths (16 600-17 600) than reported by the NVSS. Over this time period, the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence was highest in non-Hispanic Black people (0·69 [95% UI 0·67-0·71] per 100 000), followed by Hispanic people of any race (0·35 [0·34-0·36]), non-Hispanic White people (0·20 [0·19-0·20]), and non-Hispanic people of other races (0·15 [0·14- 0·16]). This variation is further affected by the decedent's sex and shows large discrepancies between states. Between 1980 and 2018, the NVSS did not report 55·5% (54·8-56·2) of all deaths attributable to police violence. When aggregating all races, the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence was 0·25 (0·24-0·26) per 100 000 in the 1980s and 0·34 (0·34-0·35) per 100 000 in the 2010s, an increase of 38·4% (32·4-45·1) over the period of study.

Interpretation

We found that more than half of all deaths due to police violence that we estimated in the USA from 1980 to 2018 were unreported in the NVSS. Compounding this, we found substantial differences in the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence over time and by racial and ethnic groups within the USA. Proven public health intervention strategies are needed to address these systematic biases. State-level estimates allow for appropriate targeting of these strategies to address police violence and improve its reporting.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621016093/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01609-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485022; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485022?pdf=render -33714592,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007,"Place and Underlying Cause of Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study of 3.5 Million Deaths in England and Wales, 2014 to 2020.","Wu J, Mafham M, Mamas MA, Rashid M, Kontopantelis E, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Gale CP.",,Mayo Clinic proceedings,2021,2021-02-16,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe the place and cause of death during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to assess its impact on excess mortality.

Methods

This national death registry included all adult (aged ≥18 years) deaths in England and Wales between January 1, 2014, and June 30, 2020. Daily deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared against the expected daily deaths, estimated with use of the Farrington surveillance algorithm for daily historical data between 2014 and 2020 by place and cause of death.

Results

Between March 2 and June 30, 2020, there was an excess mortality of 57,860 (a proportional increase of 35%) compared with the expected deaths, of which 50,603 (87%) were COVID-19 related. At home, only 14% (2267) of the 16,190 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, with 5963 deaths due to cancer and 2485 deaths due to cardiac disease, few of which involved COVID-19. In care homes or hospices, 61% (15,623) of the 25,611 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, 5539 of which were due to respiratory disease, and most of these (4315 deaths) involved COVID-19. In the hospital, there were 16,174 fewer deaths than expected that did not involve COVID-19, with 4088 fewer deaths due to cancer and 1398 fewer deaths due to cardiac disease than expected.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large excess of deaths in care homes that were poorly characterized and likely to be the result of undiagnosed COVID-19. There was a smaller but important and ongoing excess in deaths at home, particularly from cancer and cardiac disease, suggesting public avoidance of hospital care for non-COVID-19 conditions.",,pdf:http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025619621001397/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692?pdf=render -33430602,https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.120.007022,Proteomic and Functional Studies Reveal Detyrosinated Tubulin as Treatment Target in Sarcomere Mutation-Induced Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.,"Schuldt M, Pei J, Harakalova M, Dorsch LM, Schlossarek S, Mokry M, Knol JC, Pham TV, Schelfhorst T, Piersma SR, Dos Remedios C, Dalinghaus M, Michels M, Asselbergs FW, Moutin MJ, Carrier L, Jimenez CR, van der Velden J, Kuster DWD.",,Circulation. Heart failure,2021,2021-01-12,Y,Mutation; Genotype; Tubulin; Heart diseases; Proteomics; Treatment; Cardiomyopathies,,,"

Background

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic heart disease. While ≈50% of patients with HCM carry a sarcomere gene mutation (sarcomere mutation-positive, HCMSMP), the genetic background is unknown in the other half of the patients (sarcomere mutation-negative, HCMSMN). Genotype-specific differences have been reported in cardiac function. Moreover, HCMSMN patients have later disease onset and a better prognosis than HCMSMP patients. To define if genotype-specific derailments at the protein level may explain the heterogeneity in disease development, we performed a proteomic analysis in cardiac tissue from a clinically well-phenotyped HCM patient group.

Methods

A proteomics screen was performed in cardiac tissue from 39 HCMSMP patients, 11HCMSMN patients, and 8 nonfailing controls. Patients with HCM had obstructive cardiomyopathy with left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and diastolic dysfunction. A novel MYBPC32373insG mouse model was used to confirm functional relevance of our proteomic findings.

Results

In all HCM patient samples, we found lower levels of metabolic pathway proteins and higher levels of extracellular matrix proteins. Levels of total and detyrosinated α-tubulin were markedly higher in HCMSMP than in HCMSMN and controls. Higher tubulin detyrosination was also found in 2 unrelated MYBPC3 mouse models and its inhibition with parthenolide normalized contraction and relaxation time of isolated cardiomyocytes.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that microtubules and especially its detyrosination contribute to the pathomechanism of patients with HCMSMP. This is of clinical importance since it represents a potential treatment target to improve cardiac function in patients with HCMSMP, whereas a beneficial effect may be limited in patients with HCMSMN.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533?pdf=render 32814899,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2635-8,Genetic and functional insights into the fractal structure of the heart.,"Meyer HV, Dawes TJW, Serrani M, Bai W, Tokarczuk P, Cai J, de Marvao A, Henry A, Lumbers RT, Gierten J, Thumberger T, Wittbrodt J, Ware JS, Rueckert D, Matthews PM, Prasad SK, Costantino ML, Cook SA, Birney E, O'Regan DP.",,Nature,2020,2020-08-19,N,,,,"The inner surfaces of the human heart are covered by a complex network of muscular strands that is thought to be a remnant of embryonic development1,2. The function of these trabeculae in adults and their genetic architecture are unknown. Here we performed a genome-wide association study to investigate image-derived phenotypes of trabeculae using the fractal analysis of trabecular morphology in 18,096 participants of the UK Biobank. We identified 16 significant loci that contain genes associated with haemodynamic phenotypes and regulation of cytoskeletal arborization3,4. Using biomechanical simulations and observational data from human participants, we demonstrate that trabecular morphology is an important determinant of cardiac performance. Through genetic association studies with cardiac disease phenotypes and Mendelian randomization, we find a causal relationship between trabecular morphology and risk of cardiovascular disease. These findings suggest a previously unknown role for myocardial trabeculae in the function of the adult heart, identify conserved pathways that regulate structural complexity and reveal the influence of the myocardial trabeculae on susceptibility to cardiovascular disease.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10110799/1/Meyer_accepted_version.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2635-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116759; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116759?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2635-8 -32032817,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172,Distinguishing between paediatric brain tumour types using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging and machine learning: A multi-site study.,"Grist JT, Withey S, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.",,NeuroImage. Clinical,2020,2020-01-23,Y,Diffusion; Perfusion; Machine Learning,Understanding the Causes of Disease,cancer and neoplasms,"The imaging and subsequent accurate diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours presents a radiological challenge, with magnetic resonance imaging playing a key role in providing tumour specific imaging information. Diffusion weighted and perfusion imaging are commonly used to aid the non-invasive diagnosis of children's brain tumours, but are usually evaluated by expert qualitative review. Quantitative studies are mainly single centre and single modality. The aim of this work was to combine multi-centre diffusion and perfusion imaging, with machine learning, to develop machine learning based classifiers to discriminate between three common paediatric tumour types. The results show that diffusion and perfusion weighted imaging of both the tumour and whole brain provide significant features which differ between tumour types, and that combining these features gives the optimal machine learning classifier with >80% predictive precision. This work represents a step forward to aid in the non-invasive diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours, using advanced clinical imaging.",Grist et al. team trained computers to analyse brain images from children for identification of tumours. They’ve shown that applying analytical methods to enable machine distinguishes between the entire brain area and the tumour area in the images more than 80% improves how machine analyses the image to identify exact tumour area. ,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468?pdf=render -33531015,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9,The importance of supplementary immunisation activities to prevent measles outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya.,"Mburu CN, Ojal J, Chebet R, Akech D, Karia B, Tuju J, Sigilai A, Abbas K, Jit M, Funk S, Smits G, van Gageldonk PGM, van der Klis FRM, Tabu C, Nokes DJ, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Scott J, Flasche S, Adetifa I.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-02-03,Y,outbreak; Measles; Vaccination Coverage; Supplementary Immunisation Activities; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine measles immunisation and supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) in most countries including Kenya. We assessed the risk of measles outbreaks during the pandemic in Kenya as a case study for the African Region.

Methods

Combining measles serological data, local contact patterns, and vaccination coverage into a cohort model, we predicted the age-adjusted population immunity in Kenya and estimated the probability of outbreaks when contact-reducing COVID-19 interventions are lifted. We considered various scenarios for reduced measles vaccination coverage from April 2020.

Results

In February 2020, when a scheduled SIA was postponed, population immunity was close to the herd immunity threshold and the probability of a large outbreak was 34% (8-54). As the COVID-19 contact restrictions are nearly fully eased, from December 2020, the probability of a large measles outbreak will increase to 38% (19-54), 46% (30-59), and 54% (43-64) assuming a 15%, 50%, and 100% reduction in measles vaccination coverage. By December 2021, this risk increases further to 43% (25-56), 54% (43-63), and 67% (59-72) for the same coverage scenarios respectively. However, the increased risk of a measles outbreak following the lifting of all restrictions can be overcome by conducting a SIA with ≥ 95% coverage in under-fives.

Conclusion

While contact restrictions sufficient for SAR-CoV-2 control temporarily reduce measles transmissibility and the risk of an outbreak from a measles immunity gap, this risk rises rapidly once these restrictions are lifted. Implementing delayed SIAs will be critical for prevention of measles outbreaks given the roll-back of contact restrictions in Kenya.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026?pdf=render -34568827,https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab041,Development and Validation of a Nonremission Risk Prediction Model in First-Episode Psychosis: An Analysis of 2 Longitudinal Studies.,"Leighton SP, Krishnadas R, Upthegrove R, Marwaha S, Steyerberg EW, Gkoutos GV, Broome MR, Liddle PF, Everard L, Singh SP, Freemantle N, Fowler D, Jones PB, Sharma V, Murray R, Wykes T, Drake RJ, Buchan I, Rogers S, Cavanagh J, Lewis SW, Birchwood M, Mallikarjun PK.",,Schizophrenia bulletin open,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Schizophrenia; Prognosis; Logistic regression; early intervention; Psychotic Disorders; Precision Medicine,,,"Psychosis is a major mental illness with first onset in young adults. The prognosis is poor in around half of the people affected, and difficult to predict. The few tools available to predict prognosis have major weaknesses which limit their use in clinical practice. We aimed to develop and validate a risk prediction model of symptom nonremission in first-episode psychosis. Our development cohort consisted of 1027 patients with first-episode psychosis recruited between 2005 and 2010 from 14 early intervention services across the National Health Service in England. Our validation cohort consisted of 399 patients with first-episode psychosis recruited between 2006 and 2009 from a further 11 English early intervention services. The one-year nonremission rate was 52% and 54% in the development and validation cohorts, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression was used to develop a risk prediction model for nonremission, which was externally validated. The prediction model showed good discrimination C-statistic of 0.73 (0.71, 0.75) and adequate calibration with intercept alpha of 0.12 (0.02, 0.22) and slope beta of 0.98 (0.85, 1.11). Our model improved the net-benefit by 15% at a risk threshold of 50% compared to the strategy of treating all, equivalent to 15 more detected nonremitted first-episode psychosis individuals per 100 without incorrectly classifying remitted cases. Once prospectively validated, our first episode psychosis prediction model could help identify patients at increased risk of nonremission at initial clinical contact.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizbullopen/article-pdf/2/1/sgab041/40430058/sgab041.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab041; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458108; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458108?pdf=render +33714592,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007,"Place and Underlying Cause of Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study of 3.5 Million Deaths in England and Wales, 2014 to 2020.","Wu J, Mafham M, Mamas MA, Rashid M, Kontopantelis E, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Gale CP.",,Mayo Clinic proceedings,2021,2021-02-16,Y,,,,"

Objective

To describe the place and cause of death during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to assess its impact on excess mortality.

Methods

This national death registry included all adult (aged ≥18 years) deaths in England and Wales between January 1, 2014, and June 30, 2020. Daily deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared against the expected daily deaths, estimated with use of the Farrington surveillance algorithm for daily historical data between 2014 and 2020 by place and cause of death.

Results

Between March 2 and June 30, 2020, there was an excess mortality of 57,860 (a proportional increase of 35%) compared with the expected deaths, of which 50,603 (87%) were COVID-19 related. At home, only 14% (2267) of the 16,190 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, with 5963 deaths due to cancer and 2485 deaths due to cardiac disease, few of which involved COVID-19. In care homes or hospices, 61% (15,623) of the 25,611 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, 5539 of which were due to respiratory disease, and most of these (4315 deaths) involved COVID-19. In the hospital, there were 16,174 fewer deaths than expected that did not involve COVID-19, with 4088 fewer deaths due to cancer and 1398 fewer deaths due to cardiac disease than expected.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large excess of deaths in care homes that were poorly characterized and likely to be the result of undiagnosed COVID-19. There was a smaller but important and ongoing excess in deaths at home, particularly from cancer and cardiac disease, suggesting public avoidance of hospital care for non-COVID-19 conditions.",,pdf:http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025619621001397/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692?pdf=render 33879569,https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118,Mendelian randomization identifies blood metabolites previously linked to midlife cognition as causal candidates in Alzheimer's disease.,"Lord J, Jermy B, Green R, Wong A, Xu J, Legido-Quigley C, Dobson R, Richards M, Proitsi P.",,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,2021,2021-04-01,Y,Biomarkers; Alzheimer’s disease; Metabolomics; Causality; Mendelian Randomization,,,"There are currently no disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and an understanding of preclinical causal biomarkers to help target disease pathogenesis in the earliest phases remains elusive. Here, we investigated whether 19 metabolites previously associated with midlife cognition-a preclinical predictor of AD-translate to later clinical risk, using Mendelian randomization (MR) to tease out AD-specific causal relationships. Summary statistics from the largest genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for AD and metabolites were used to perform bidirectional univariable MR. Bayesian model averaging (BMA) was additionally performed to address high correlation between metabolites and identify metabolite combinations that may be on the AD causal pathway. Univariable MR indicated four extra-large high-density lipoproteins (XL.HDL) on the causal pathway to AD: free cholesterol (XL.HDL.FC: 95% CI = 0.78 to 0.94), total lipids (XL.HDL.L: 95% CI = 0.80 to 0.97), phospholipids (XL.HDL.PL: 95% CI = 0.81 to 0.97), and concentration of XL.HDL particles (95% CI = 0.79 to 0.96), significant at an adjusted P < 0.009. MR-BMA corroborated XL.HDL.FC to be among the top three causal metabolites, in addition to total cholesterol in XL.HDL (XL.HDL.C) and glycoprotein acetyls (GP). Both XL.HDL.C and GP demonstrated suggestive univariable evidence of causality (P < 0.05), and GP successfully replicated within an independent dataset. This study offers insight into the causal relationship between metabolites demonstrating association with midlife cognition and AD. It highlights GP in addition to several XL.HDLs-particularly XL.HDL.FC-as causal candidates warranting further investigation. As AD pathology is thought to develop decades prior to symptom onset, expanding on these findings could inform risk reduction strategies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8072203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8072203?pdf=render -31073125,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z,Systematic review of clinical prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care.,"Daines L, McLean S, Buelo A, Lewis S, Sheikh A, Pinnock H.",,NPJ primary care respiratory medicine,2019,2019-05-09,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"Diagnosing asthma is challenging. Misdiagnosis can lead to untreated symptoms, incorrect treatment and avoidable deaths. The best combination of clinical features and tests to achieve a diagnosis of asthma is unclear. As asthma is usually diagnosed in non-specialist settings, a clinical prediction model to aid the assessment of the probability of asthma in primary care may improve diagnostic accuracy. We aimed to identify and describe existing prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in children and adults in primary care. We searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL, TRIP and US National Guidelines Clearinghouse databases from 1 January 1990 to 23 November 17. We included prediction models designed for use in primary care or equivalent settings to aid the diagnostic decision-making of clinicians assessing patients with symptoms suggesting asthma. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full texts for eligibility, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. From 13,798 records, 53 full-text articles were reviewed. We included seven modelling studies; all were at high risk of bias. Model performance varied, and the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve ranged from 0.61 to 0.82. Patient-reported wheeze, symptom variability and history of allergy or allergic rhinitis were associated with asthma. In conclusion, clinical prediction models may support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care, but existing models are at high risk of bias and thus unreliable for informing practice. Future studies should adhere to recognised standards, conduct model validation and include a broader range of clinical data to derive a prediction model of value for clinicians.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-019-0132-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212?pdf=render +34568827,https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab041,Development and Validation of a Nonremission Risk Prediction Model in First-Episode Psychosis: An Analysis of 2 Longitudinal Studies.,"Leighton SP, Krishnadas R, Upthegrove R, Marwaha S, Steyerberg EW, Gkoutos GV, Broome MR, Liddle PF, Everard L, Singh SP, Freemantle N, Fowler D, Jones PB, Sharma V, Murray R, Wykes T, Drake RJ, Buchan I, Rogers S, Cavanagh J, Lewis SW, Birchwood M, Mallikarjun PK.",,Schizophrenia bulletin open,2021,2021-01-01,Y,Schizophrenia; Prognosis; Logistic regression; early intervention; Psychotic Disorders; Precision Medicine,,,"Psychosis is a major mental illness with first onset in young adults. The prognosis is poor in around half of the people affected, and difficult to predict. The few tools available to predict prognosis have major weaknesses which limit their use in clinical practice. We aimed to develop and validate a risk prediction model of symptom nonremission in first-episode psychosis. Our development cohort consisted of 1027 patients with first-episode psychosis recruited between 2005 and 2010 from 14 early intervention services across the National Health Service in England. Our validation cohort consisted of 399 patients with first-episode psychosis recruited between 2006 and 2009 from a further 11 English early intervention services. The one-year nonremission rate was 52% and 54% in the development and validation cohorts, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression was used to develop a risk prediction model for nonremission, which was externally validated. The prediction model showed good discrimination C-statistic of 0.73 (0.71, 0.75) and adequate calibration with intercept alpha of 0.12 (0.02, 0.22) and slope beta of 0.98 (0.85, 1.11). Our model improved the net-benefit by 15% at a risk threshold of 50% compared to the strategy of treating all, equivalent to 15 more detected nonremitted first-episode psychosis individuals per 100 without incorrectly classifying remitted cases. Once prospectively validated, our first episode psychosis prediction model could help identify patients at increased risk of nonremission at initial clinical contact.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizbullopen/article-pdf/2/1/sgab041/40430058/sgab041.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab041; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458108; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458108?pdf=render +33531015,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9,The importance of supplementary immunisation activities to prevent measles outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya.,"Mburu CN, Ojal J, Chebet R, Akech D, Karia B, Tuju J, Sigilai A, Abbas K, Jit M, Funk S, Smits G, van Gageldonk PGM, van der Klis FRM, Tabu C, Nokes DJ, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Scott J, Flasche S, Adetifa I.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-02-03,Y,outbreak; Measles; Vaccination Coverage; Supplementary Immunisation Activities; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine measles immunisation and supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) in most countries including Kenya. We assessed the risk of measles outbreaks during the pandemic in Kenya as a case study for the African Region.

Methods

Combining measles serological data, local contact patterns, and vaccination coverage into a cohort model, we predicted the age-adjusted population immunity in Kenya and estimated the probability of outbreaks when contact-reducing COVID-19 interventions are lifted. We considered various scenarios for reduced measles vaccination coverage from April 2020.

Results

In February 2020, when a scheduled SIA was postponed, population immunity was close to the herd immunity threshold and the probability of a large outbreak was 34% (8-54). As the COVID-19 contact restrictions are nearly fully eased, from December 2020, the probability of a large measles outbreak will increase to 38% (19-54), 46% (30-59), and 54% (43-64) assuming a 15%, 50%, and 100% reduction in measles vaccination coverage. By December 2021, this risk increases further to 43% (25-56), 54% (43-63), and 67% (59-72) for the same coverage scenarios respectively. However, the increased risk of a measles outbreak following the lifting of all restrictions can be overcome by conducting a SIA with ≥ 95% coverage in under-fives.

Conclusion

While contact restrictions sufficient for SAR-CoV-2 control temporarily reduce measles transmissibility and the risk of an outbreak from a measles immunity gap, this risk rises rapidly once these restrictions are lifted. Implementing delayed SIAs will be critical for prevention of measles outbreaks given the roll-back of contact restrictions in Kenya.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026?pdf=render +32032817,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172,Distinguishing between paediatric brain tumour types using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging and machine learning: A multi-site study.,"Grist JT, Withey S, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.",,NeuroImage. Clinical,2020,2020-01-23,Y,Diffusion; Perfusion; Machine Learning,Understanding the Causes of Disease,cancer and neoplasms,"The imaging and subsequent accurate diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours presents a radiological challenge, with magnetic resonance imaging playing a key role in providing tumour specific imaging information. Diffusion weighted and perfusion imaging are commonly used to aid the non-invasive diagnosis of children's brain tumours, but are usually evaluated by expert qualitative review. Quantitative studies are mainly single centre and single modality. The aim of this work was to combine multi-centre diffusion and perfusion imaging, with machine learning, to develop machine learning based classifiers to discriminate between three common paediatric tumour types. The results show that diffusion and perfusion weighted imaging of both the tumour and whole brain provide significant features which differ between tumour types, and that combining these features gives the optimal machine learning classifier with >80% predictive precision. This work represents a step forward to aid in the non-invasive diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours, using advanced clinical imaging.",Grist et al. team trained computers to analyse brain images from children for identification of tumours. They’ve shown that applying analytical methods to enable machine distinguishes between the entire brain area and the tumour area in the images more than 80% improves how machine analyses the image to identify exact tumour area. ,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468?pdf=render 32305733,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.03.022,The relation between healthy lifestyle changes and decrease in systemic inflammation in patients with stable cardiovascular disease.,"van 't Klooster CC, van der Graaf Y, Ridker PM, Westerink J, Hjortnaes J, Sluijs I, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, Kappelle LJ, Visseren FLJ, UCC-SMART study group.",,Atherosclerosis,2020,2020-04-06,N,C-reactive Protein; Lifestyle Changes; Low-grade Inflammation; Patients With Stable Cardiovascular Disease,,,"

Background and aims

Pharmacological lowering of inflammation has proven effective in reducing recurrent cardiovascular event rates. Aim of the current study is to evaluate lifestyle changes (smoking cessation, weight loss, physical activity level increase, alcohol moderation, and a summary lifestyle improvement score) in relation to change in plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration in patients with established cardiovascular disease.

Methods

In total, 1794 patients from the UCC-SMART cohort with stable cardiovascular disease and CRP levels ≤10 mg/L, who returned for a follow-up study visit after median 9.9 years (IQR 5.4-10.8), were included. The relation between changes in smoking status, weight, physical activity, alcohol consumption, a summary lifestyle improvement score and change in plasma CRP concentration was evaluated with linear regression analyses.

Results

Smoking cessation was related to a 0.40 mg/L decline in CRP concentration (β-coefficient -0.40; 95%CI -0.73,-0.07). Weight loss (per 1SD = 6.4 kg) and increase in physical activity (per 1 SD = 48 MET hours per week) were related to a decrease in CRP concentration (β-coefficients -0.25; 95%CI -0.33,-0.16 and -0.09; 95%CI -0.17,-0.01 per SD). Change in alcohol consumption was not related to CRP difference. Every point higher in the summary lifestyle improvement score was related to a decrease in CRP concentration of 0.17 mg/L (β-coefficient -0.17; 95%CI -0.26,-0.07).

Conclusions

Smoking cessation, increase in physical activity, and weight loss are related to a decrease in CRP concentration in patients with stable cardiovascular disease. Patients with the highest summary lifestyle improvement score have the most decrease in CRP concentration. These results may indicate that healthy lifestyle changes contribute to lowering systemic inflammation, potentially leading to a lower cardiovascular risk in patients with established cardiovascular disease.",,pdf:http://www.atherosclerosis-journal.com/article/S0021915020301763/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.03.022 33628949,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16020.1,The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children - A resource for COVID-19 research: Questionnaire data capture April-May 2020. ,"Northstone K, Howarth S, Smith D, Bowring C, Wells N, Timpson NJ.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-06-10,Y,,,,"The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) is a prospective population-based cohort study which recruited pregnant women in 1990-1992. The resource provides an informative and efficient setting for collecting data on the current coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In early March 2020, a questionnaire was developed in collaboration with other longitudinal population studies to ensure cross-cohort comparability. It targeted retrospective and current COVID-19 infection information (exposure assessment, symptom tracking and reported clinical outcomes) and the impact of both disease and mitigating measures implemented to manage the COVID-19 crisis more broadly. Data were collected on symptoms of COVID-19 and seasonal flu, travel prior to the pandemic, mental health and social, behavioural and lifestyle factors. The online questionnaire was deployed across the parent and offspring generations between the 9 th April and 15 th May 2020. 6807 participants completed the questionnaire (2706 original mothers, 1014 original fathers/partners, 2973 offspring (mean age ~28 years) and 114 partners of offspring). Eight (0.01%) participants (4 G0 and 4 G1) reported a positive test for COVID-19, 77 (1.13%; 28 G0 and 49 G1) reported that they had been told by a doctor they likely had COVID-19 and 865 (12.7%; 426 G0 and 439 G1) suspected that they have had COVID-19.  Using algorithmically defined cases, we estimate that the predicted proportion of COVID-19 cases fell between 1.03% - 4.19% depending on timing of measurement during the period of reporting. Data from this first questionnaire will be complemented with at least two more follow-up questionnaires, linkage to health records and results of biological testing as they become available. Data has been released as: 1) a standard dataset containing all participant responses with key sociodemographic factors and 2) as a composite release coordinating data from the existing resource, thus enabling bespoke research across all areas supported by the study.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16020.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7883314; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7883314?pdf=render -36721385,https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192,Reduced circulating BMP9 and pBMP10 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.,"Dunmore BJ, Upton PD, Auckland K, Samanta RJ, CITIID‐NIHR BioResource COVID‐19 Collaboration, EpiCov Database, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Gräf S, Summers C, Morrell NW.",,Pulmonary circulation,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Endothelial Cell Dysfunction; Bmps; Viral Infections And Pathogenesis,,,"Similar to other causes of acute respiratory distress syndrome, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by the aberrant expression of vascular injury biomarkers. We present the first report that circulating plasma bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), BMP9 and pBMP10, involved in vascular protection, are reduced in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/345820/2/pul2.12192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210?pdf=render -34515361,https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610,Porin threading drives receptor disengagement and establishes active colicin transport through Escherichia coli OmpF.,"Francis MR, Webby MN, Housden NG, Kaminska R, Elliston E, Chinthammit B, Lukoyanova N, Kleanthous C.",,The EMBO journal,2021,2021-09-13,Y,Cryo-electron microscopy; Outer membrane; Bacteriocins; Gram-negative Bacteria; fluorescent microscopy,,,"Bacteria deploy weapons to kill their neighbours during competition for resources and to aid survival within microbiomes. Colicins were the first such antibacterial system identified, yet how these bacteriocins cross the outer membrane (OM) of Escherichia coli is unknown. Here, by solving the structures of translocation intermediates via cryo-EM and by imaging toxin import, we uncover the mechanism by which the Tol-dependent nuclease colicin E9 (ColE9) crosses the bacterial OM. We show that threading of ColE9's disordered N-terminal domain through two pores of the trimeric porin OmpF causes the colicin to disengage from its primary receptor, BtuB, and reorganises the translocon either side of the membrane. Subsequent import of ColE9 through the lumen of a single OmpF subunit is driven by the proton-motive force, which is delivered by the TolQ-TolR-TolA-TolB assembly. Our study answers longstanding questions, such as why OmpF is a better translocator than OmpC, and reconciles the mechanisms by which both Tol- and Ton-dependent bacteriocins cross the bacterial outer membrane.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.15252/embj.2021108610; doi:https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637?pdf=render +31073125,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z,Systematic review of clinical prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care.,"Daines L, McLean S, Buelo A, Lewis S, Sheikh A, Pinnock H.",,NPJ primary care respiratory medicine,2019,2019-05-09,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"Diagnosing asthma is challenging. Misdiagnosis can lead to untreated symptoms, incorrect treatment and avoidable deaths. The best combination of clinical features and tests to achieve a diagnosis of asthma is unclear. As asthma is usually diagnosed in non-specialist settings, a clinical prediction model to aid the assessment of the probability of asthma in primary care may improve diagnostic accuracy. We aimed to identify and describe existing prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in children and adults in primary care. We searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL, TRIP and US National Guidelines Clearinghouse databases from 1 January 1990 to 23 November 17. We included prediction models designed for use in primary care or equivalent settings to aid the diagnostic decision-making of clinicians assessing patients with symptoms suggesting asthma. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full texts for eligibility, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. From 13,798 records, 53 full-text articles were reviewed. We included seven modelling studies; all were at high risk of bias. Model performance varied, and the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve ranged from 0.61 to 0.82. Patient-reported wheeze, symptom variability and history of allergy or allergic rhinitis were associated with asthma. In conclusion, clinical prediction models may support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care, but existing models are at high risk of bias and thus unreliable for informing practice. Future studies should adhere to recognised standards, conduct model validation and include a broader range of clinical data to derive a prediction model of value for clinicians.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-019-0132-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212?pdf=render 30981377,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.03.007,How much space do drivers provide when passing cyclists? Understanding the impact of motor vehicle and infrastructure characteristics on passing distance.,"Beck B, Chong D, Olivier J, Perkins M, Tsay A, Rushford A, Li L, Cameron P, Fry R, Johnson M.",,Accident; analysis and prevention,2019,2019-04-10,N,Road Infrastructure; Overtaking; Cyclist Safety; Passing Distance,,,"

Background

Understanding factors that influence the distance that drivers provide when passing cyclists is critical to reducing subjective risk and improving cycling participation. This study aimed to quantify passing distance and assess the impact of motor vehicle and road infrastructure characteristics on passing distance.

Methods

An on-road observational study was conducted in Victoria, Australia. Participants had a custom device installed on their bicycle and rode as per their usual cycling for one to two weeks. A hierarchical linear model was used to investigate the relationship between motor vehicle and infrastructure characteristics (location, presence of on-road marked bicycle lane and the presence of parked cars on the kerbside) and passing distance (defined as the lateral distance between the end of the bicycle handlebars and the passing motor vehicle).

Results

Sixty cyclists recorded 18,527 passing events over 422 trips. The median passing distance was 173 cm (Q1: 137 cm, Q3: 224 cm) and 1085 (5.9%) passing events were less than 100 cm. Relative to sedans, 4WDs had a reduced mean passing distance of 15 cm (Q1: 12 cm, Q3: 17 cm) and buses had a reduced mean passing distance of 28 cm (Q1: 16 cm, Q3: 40 cm). Relative to passing events that occurred on roads without a marked bicycle lane and without parked cars, passing events on roads with a bike lane with no parked cars had a reduced mean passing distance of 27 cm (Q1: 25 cm, Q3: 29 cm), and passing events on roads with a bike lane and parked cars had a mean lower passing distance of 40 cm (Q1: 37 cm, Q3: 43 cm).

Conclusions

One in every 17 passing events was a close (<100 cm) passing event. We identified that on-road bicycle lanes and parked cars reduced passing distance. These data can be used to inform the selection and design of cycling-related infrastructure and road use with the aim of improving safety for cyclists.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50030/Download/0050030-20052019102229.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.03.007 34183345,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047709,Developing a reporting guideline for artificial intelligence-centred diagnostic test accuracy studies: the STARD-AI protocol.,"Sounderajah V, Ashrafian H, Golub RM, Shetty S, De Fauw J, Hooft L, Moons K, Collins G, Moher D, Bossuyt PM, Darzi A, Karthikesalingam A, Denniston AK, Mateen BA, Ting D, Treanor D, King D, Greaves F, Godwin J, Pearson-Stuttard J, Harling L, McInnes M, Rifai N, Tomasev N, Normahani P, Whiting P, Aggarwal R, Vollmer S, Markar SR, Panch T, Liu X, STARD-AI Steering Committee.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-06-28,Y,Health Informatics; Protocols & Guidelines; Quality In Health Care,,,"

Introduction

Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Study (STARD) was developed to improve the completeness and transparency of reporting in studies investigating diagnostic test accuracy. However, its current form, STARD 2015 does not address the issues and challenges raised by artificial intelligence (AI)-centred interventions. As such, we propose an AI-specific version of the STARD checklist (STARD-AI), which focuses on the reporting of AI diagnostic test accuracy studies. This paper describes the methods that will be used to develop STARD-AI.

Methods and analysis

The development of the STARD-AI checklist can be distilled into six stages. (1) A project organisation phase has been undertaken, during which a Project Team and a Steering Committee were established; (2) An item generation process has been completed following a literature review, a patient and public involvement and engagement exercise and an online scoping survey of international experts; (3) A three-round modified Delphi consensus methodology is underway, which will culminate in a teleconference consensus meeting of experts; (4) Thereafter, the Project Team will draft the initial STARD-AI checklist and the accompanying documents; (5) A piloting phase among expert users will be undertaken to identify items which are either unclear or missing. This process, consisting of surveys and semistructured interviews, will contribute towards the explanation and elaboration document and (6) On finalisation of the manuscripts, the group's efforts turn towards an organised dissemination and implementation strategy to maximise end-user adoption.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been granted by the Joint Research Compliance Office at Imperial College London (reference number: 19IC5679). A dissemination strategy will be aimed towards five groups of stakeholders: (1) academia, (2) policy, (3) guidelines and regulation, (4) industry and (5) public and non-specific stakeholders. We anticipate that dissemination will take place in Q3 of 2021.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e047709.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047709; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8240576; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8240576?pdf=render +36721385,https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192,Reduced circulating BMP9 and pBMP10 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.,"Dunmore BJ, Upton PD, Auckland K, Samanta RJ, CITIID‐NIHR BioResource COVID‐19 Collaboration, EpiCov Database, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Gräf S, Summers C, Morrell NW.",,Pulmonary circulation,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Endothelial Cell Dysfunction; Bmps; Viral Infections And Pathogenesis,,,"Similar to other causes of acute respiratory distress syndrome, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by the aberrant expression of vascular injury biomarkers. We present the first report that circulating plasma bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), BMP9 and pBMP10, involved in vascular protection, are reduced in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/345820/2/pul2.12192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210?pdf=render +34515361,https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610,Porin threading drives receptor disengagement and establishes active colicin transport through Escherichia coli OmpF.,"Francis MR, Webby MN, Housden NG, Kaminska R, Elliston E, Chinthammit B, Lukoyanova N, Kleanthous C.",,The EMBO journal,2021,2021-09-13,Y,Cryo-electron microscopy; Outer membrane; Bacteriocins; Gram-negative Bacteria; fluorescent microscopy,,,"Bacteria deploy weapons to kill their neighbours during competition for resources and to aid survival within microbiomes. Colicins were the first such antibacterial system identified, yet how these bacteriocins cross the outer membrane (OM) of Escherichia coli is unknown. Here, by solving the structures of translocation intermediates via cryo-EM and by imaging toxin import, we uncover the mechanism by which the Tol-dependent nuclease colicin E9 (ColE9) crosses the bacterial OM. We show that threading of ColE9's disordered N-terminal domain through two pores of the trimeric porin OmpF causes the colicin to disengage from its primary receptor, BtuB, and reorganises the translocon either side of the membrane. Subsequent import of ColE9 through the lumen of a single OmpF subunit is driven by the proton-motive force, which is delivered by the TolQ-TolR-TolA-TolB assembly. Our study answers longstanding questions, such as why OmpF is a better translocator than OmpC, and reconciles the mechanisms by which both Tol- and Ton-dependent bacteriocins cross the bacterial outer membrane.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.15252/embj.2021108610; doi:https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637?pdf=render 31062032,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz073,"Cohort Profile: Extended Cohort for E-health, Environment and DNA (EXCEED).","John C, Reeve NF, Free RC, Williams AT, Ntalla I, Farmaki AE, Bethea J, Barton LM, Shrine N, Batini C, Packer R, Terry S, Hargadon B, Wang Q, Melbourne CA, Adams EL, Bee CE, Harrington K, Miola J, Brunskill NJ, Brightling CE, Barwell J, Wallace SE, Hsu R, Shepherd DJ, Hollox EJ, Wain LV, Tobin MD.",,International journal of epidemiology,2019,2019-06-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/48/3/678/29005217/dyz073.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz073; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6659362; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6659362?pdf=render 35142634,https://doi.org/10.2196/31885,Investigating Genetic and Other Determinants of First-Onset Myocardial Infarction in Malaysia: Protocol for the Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk Study.,"Chowdhury R, Noh MFM, Ismail SR, van Daalen KR, Kamaruddin PSNM, Zulkiply SH, Azizul NH, Khalid NM, Ali A, Idris IM, Mei YS, Abdullah SR, Faridus N, Yusof NAM, Yusoff NNFM, Jamal R, Rahim AAA, Ghapar AKA, Radhakrishnan AK, Fong AYY, Ismail O, Krishinan S, Lee CY, Bang LH, Mageswaren E, Mahendran K, Amin NHM, Muthusamy G, Jin AOH, Ramli AW, Ross NT, Ruhani AI, Yahya M, Yusoff Y, Abidin SKZ, Amado L, Bolton T, Weston S, Crawte J, Ovenden N, Michielsen A, Monower MM, Mahiyuddin WRW, Wood A, Di Angelantonio E, Sulaiman NS, Danesh J, Butterworth AS.",,JMIR research protocols,2022,2022-02-10,Y,Myocardial infarction; Malaysia; Cardiovascular disease; Case-control study,,,"

Background

Although the burden of premature myocardial infarction (MI) is high in Malaysia, direct evidence on the determinants of MI in this multi-ethnic population remains sparse.

Objective

The Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk (MAVERIK) study is a retrospective case-control study established to investigate the genomic, lipid-related, and other determinants of acute MI in Malaysia. In this paper, we report the study protocol and early results.

Methods

By June 2019, we had enrolled approximately 2500 patients with their first MI and 2500 controls without cardiovascular disease, who were frequency-matched by age, sex, and ethnicity, from 17 hospitals in Malaysia. For each participant, serum and whole blood have been collected and stored. Clinical, demographic, and behavioral information has been obtained using a 200-item questionnaire.

Results

Tobacco consumption, a history of diabetes, hypertension, markers of visceral adiposity, indicators of lower socioeconomic status, and a family history of coronary disease were more prevalent in cases than in controls. Adjusted (age and sex) logistic regression models for traditional risk factors indicated that current smoking (odds ratio [OR] 4.11, 95% CI 3.56-4.75; P<.001), previous smoking (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.12-1.60; P=.001), a history of high blood pressure (OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.86-2.44; P<.001), a history of diabetes mellitus (OR 2.72, 95% CI 2.34-3.17; P<.001), a family history of coronary heart disease (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.07-1.55; P=.009), and obesity (BMI >30 kg/m2; OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.05-1.34; P=.009) were associated with MI in age- and sex-adjusted models.

Conclusions

The MAVERIK study can serve as a useful platform to investigate genetic and other risk factors for MI in an understudied Southeast Asian population. It should help to hasten the discovery of disease-causing pathways and inform regionally appropriate strategies that optimize public health action.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

RR1-10.2196/31885.",,pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2022/2/e31885/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8874931 +32080192,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y,Author Correction: Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.,"Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-02-20,Y,,,,An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14717-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171?pdf=render 35235826,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051,"Assessing the clinical severity of the Omicron variant in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, using the diagnostic PCR proxy marker of RdRp target delay to distinguish between Omicron and Delta infections - a survival analysis.","Hussey H, Davies MA, Heekes A, Williamson C, Valley-Omar Z, Hardie D, Korsman S, Doolabh D, Preiser W, Maponga T, Iranzadeh A, Wasserman S, Boloko L, Symons G, Raubenheimer P, Parker A, Schrueder N, Solomon W, Rousseau P, Wolter N, Jassat W, Cohen C, Lessells R, Wilkinson RJ, Boulle A, Hsiao NY.",,International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases,2022,2022-02-27,Y,South Africa; Clinical Severity; Sars-cov-2; Omicron Variant; Rdrp Target Delay,,,"

Background

At present, it is unclear whether the extent of reduced risk of severe disease seen with SARS-Cov-2 Omicron variant infection is caused by a decrease in variant virulence or by higher levels of population immunity.

Methods

RdRp target delay (RTD) in the Seegene AllplexTM 2019-nCoV PCR assay is a proxy marker for the Delta variant. The absence of this proxy marker in the transition period was used to identify suspected Omicron infections. Cox regression was performed for the outcome of hospital admission in those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the Seegene AllplexTM assay from November 1 to December 14, 2021 in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, in the public sector. Adjustments were made for vaccination status and prior diagnosis of infection.

Results

A total of 150 cases with RTD and 1486 cases without RTD were included. Cases without RTD had a lower hazard of admission (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.34-0.91). Complete vaccination was protective against admission, with an aHR of 0.45 (95% CI, 0.26-0.77).

Conclusion

Omicron has resulted in a lower risk of hospital admission compared with contemporaneous Delta infection, when using the proxy marker of RTD. Under-ascertainment of reinfections with an immune escape variant remains a challenge to accurately assessing variant virulence.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8882068; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8882068?pdf=render 31196905,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-028929,Recorded poor insight as a predictor of service use outcomes: cohort study of patients with first-episode psychosis in a large mental healthcare database.,"Ramu N, Kolliakou A, Sanyal J, Patel R, Stewart R.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-06-12,Y,Insight; Psychosis; Natural Language Processing; Mental Health Outcomes; Cris; Service Use Outcomes,Applied Analytics,,"

Objectives

To investigate recorded poor insight in relation to mental health and service use outcomes in a cohort with first-episode psychosis.

Design

We developed a natural language processing algorithm to ascertain statements of poor or diminished insight and tested this in a cohort of patients with first-episode psychosis.

Setting

The clinical record text at the South London and Maudsley National Health Service Trust in the UK was used.

Participants

We applied the algorithm to characterise a cohort of 2026 patients with first-episode psychosis attending an early intervention service.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Recorded poor insight within 1 month of registration was investigated in relation to (1) incidence of psychiatric hospitalisation, (2) odds of legally enforced hospitalisation, (3) number of days spent as a mental health inpatient and (4) number of different antipsychotic agents prescribed; outcomes were measured over varying follow-up periods from 12 months to 60 months, adjusting for a range of sociodemographic and clinical covariates.

Results

Recorded poor insight, present in 48.9% of the sample, was positively associated with youngest and oldest age groups, unemployment and schizophrenia (compared with bipolar disorder) and was negatively associated with Asian ethnicity, married status, home ownership and recorded cannabis use. It was significantly associated with higher levels of all four outcomes over the succeeding 12 months. Associations with hospitalisation incidence and number of antipsychotics remained independently significant when measured over 60 and 48 months, respectively.

Conclusions

Recorded poor insight in people with recent onset psychosis predicted higher subsequent inpatient mental healthcare use. Improving insight might benefit patients' course of illness as well as reduce mental health service use.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/6/e028929.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-028929; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6577359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6577359?pdf=render -32080192,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y,Author Correction: Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.,"Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-02-20,Y,,,,An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14717-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171?pdf=render 34810237,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217629,Prospective validation of the 4C prognostic models for adults hospitalised with COVID-19 using the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol.,"Knight SR, Gupta RK, Ho A, Pius R, Buchan I, Carson G, Drake TM, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Gamble C, Green CA, Halpin S, Hardwick HE, Holden KA, Horby PW, Jackson C, Mclean KA, Merson L, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Norman L, Olliaro PL, Pritchard MG, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Sheikh A, Solomon T, Sudlow C, Swann OV, Turtle LCW, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Docherty A, Semple MG, Noursadeghi M, Harrison EM, ISARIC Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium (ISARIC4C) Investigators, ISARIC4C investigators.",,Thorax,2022,2021-11-22,Y,Covid-19,,,"

Purpose

To prospectively validate two risk scores to predict mortality (4C Mortality) and in-hospital deterioration (4C Deterioration) among adults hospitalised with COVID-19.

Methods

Prospective observational cohort study of adults (age ≥18 years) with confirmed or highly suspected COVID-19 recruited into the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study in 306 hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales. Patients were recruited between 27 August 2020 and 17 February 2021, with at least 4 weeks follow-up before final data extraction. The main outcome measures were discrimination and calibration of models for in-hospital deterioration (defined as any requirement of ventilatory support or critical care, or death) and mortality, incorporating predefined subgroups.

Results

76 588 participants were included, of whom 27 352 (37.4%) deteriorated and 12 581 (17.4%) died. Both the 4C Mortality (0.78 (0.77 to 0.78)) and 4C Deterioration scores (pooled C-statistic 0.76 (95% CI 0.75 to 0.77)) demonstrated consistent discrimination across all nine National Health Service regions, with similar performance metrics to the original validation cohorts. Calibration remained stable (4C Mortality: pooled slope 1.09, pooled calibration-in-the-large 0.12; 4C Deterioration: 1.00, -0.04), with no need for temporal recalibration during the second UK pandemic wave of hospital admissions.

Conclusion

Both 4C risk stratification models demonstrate consistent performance to predict clinical deterioration and mortality in a large prospective second wave validation cohort of UK patients. Despite recent advances in the treatment and management of adults hospitalised with COVID-19, both scores can continue to inform clinical decision making.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN66726260.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/77/6/606.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8610617; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8610617?pdf=render 33722066,https://doi.org/10.1161/circinterventions.120.009434,Clopidogrel Versus Ticagrelor or Prasugrel After Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention According to CYP2C19 Genotype: A POPular Genetics Subanalysis.,"Claassens DMF, Bergmeijer TO, Vos GJA, Hermanides RS, van 't Hof AWJ, van der Harst P, Barbato E, Morisco C, Tjon Joe Gin RM, Asselbergs FW, Mosterd A, Herrman JR, Dewilde WJM, Janssen PWA, Kelder JC, Mahmoodi BK, Deneer VHM, Ten Berg JM.",,Circulation. Cardiovascular interventions,2021,2021-03-16,N,Myocardial infarction; Percutaneous coronary intervention; acute coronary syndrome; Clopidogrel; Genetic Testing; Pharmacogenetics; Ticagrelor,,,[Figure: see text].,,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCINTERVENTIONS.120.009434; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCINTERVENTIONS.120.009434 33777379,https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa045,Accelerometer-measured physical activity and functional behaviours among people on dialysis.,"Nawab KA, Storey BC, Staplin N, Walmsley R, Haynes R, Sutherland S, Crosbie S, Pugh CW, Harper CHS, Landray MJ, Doherty A, Herrington WG.",,Clinical kidney journal,2021,2020-08-31,Y,Age; Haemodialysis; epidemiology; Physical Activity; cardiovascular,,,"

Background

The feasibility of wrist-worn accelerometers, and the patterns and determinants of physical activity, among people on dialysis are uncertain.

Methods

People on maintenance dialysis were fitted with a wrist-worn AxivityAX3 accelerometer. Subsets also wore a 14-day electrocardiograph patch (Zio®PatchXT) and wearable cameras. Age-, sex- and season-matched UK Biobank control groups were derived for comparison.

Results

Median (interquartile range) accelerometer wear time for the 101 recruits was 12.5 (10.4-13.5) days, of which 73 participants (mean age 66.5 years) had excellent wear on both dialysis and non-dialysis days. Mean (standard error) overall physical activity levels were 15.5 (0.7) milligravity units (mg), 14.8 (0.7) mg on dialysis days versus 16.2 (0.8) mg on non-dialysis days. This compared with 28.1 (0.5) mg for apparently healthy controls, 23.4 (0.4) mg for controls with prior cardiovascular disease (CVD) and/or diabetes mellitus and 22.9 (0.6) mg for heart failure controls. Each day, we estimated that those on dialysis spent an average of about 1 hour (h/day) walking, 0.6 h/day engaging in moderate-intensity activity, 0.7 h/day on light tasks, 13.2 h/day sedentary and 8.6 h/day asleep. Older age and self-reported leg weakness were associated with decreased levels of physical activity, but the presence of prior CVD, arrhythmias and listing for transplantation were not.

Conclusions

Wrist-worn accelerometers are an acceptable and reliable method to measure physical activity in people on dialysis and may also be used to estimate functional behaviours. Among people on dialysis, who are broadly half as active as general population controls, age and leg weakness appear to be more important determinants of low activity levels than CVD.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/14/3/950/36670473/sfaa045.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7986362; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7986362?pdf=render @@ -1901,74 +1901,74 @@ PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm 34458849,https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfimm/iqab014,Protease inhibitor plasma concentrations associate with COVID-19 infection.,"Medjeral-Thomas NR, Troldborg A, Hansen AG, Pihl R, Clarke CL, Peters JE, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Palarasah Y, Botto M, Pickering MC, Thiel S.",,Oxford open immunology,2021,2021-07-07,Y,Coronavirus; Protease inhibitors; innate immunity; Covid-19,,,"Protease inhibitors influence a range of innate immunity and inflammatory pathways. We quantified plasma concentrations of key anti-inflammatory protease inhibitors in chronic haemodialysis patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The samples were collected early in the disease course to determine whether plasma protease inhibitor levels associated with the presence and severity of COVID-19. We used antibody-based immunoassays to measure plasma concentrations of C1 esterase inhibitor, alpha2-macroglobulin, antithrombin and inter-alpha-inhibitor heavy chain 4 (ITIH4) in 100 serial samples from 27 haemodialysis patients with COVID-19. ITIH4 was tested in two assays, one measuring intact ITIH4 and another also detecting any fragmented ITIH4 (total ITIH4). Control cohorts were 32 haemodialysis patients without COVID-19 and 32 healthy controls. We compared protease inhibitor concentration based on current and future COVID-19 severity and with C-reactive protein. Results were adjusted for repeated measures and multiple comparisons. Analysis of all available samples demonstrated lower plasma C1 esterase inhibitor and α2M and higher total ITIH4 in COVID-19 compared with dialysis controls. These differences were also seen in the first sample collected after COVID-19 diagnosis, a median of 4 days from diagnostic swab. Plasma ITIH4 levels were higher in severe than the non-severe COVID-19. Serum C-reactive protein correlated positively with plasma levels of antithrombin, intact ITIH4 and total ITIH4. In conclusion, plasma protease inhibitor concentrations are altered in COVID-19.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ooim/article-pdf/2/1/iqab014/48744499/iqab014.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfimm/iqab014; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8371939; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8371939?pdf=render 37263751,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01667-2022,Genome-wide association study of chronic sputum production implicates loci involved in mucus production and infection.,"Packer RJ, Shrine N, Hall R, Melbourne CA, Thompson R, Williams AT, Paynton ML, Guyatt AL, Allen RJ, Lee PH, John C, Campbell A, Hayward C, de Vries M, Vonk JM, Davitte J, Hessel E, Michalovich D, Betts JC, Sayers I, Yeo A, Hall IP, Tobin MD, Wain LV.",,The European respiratory journal,2023,2023-06-15,Y,,,,"

Background

Chronic sputum production impacts on quality of life and is a feature of many respiratory diseases. Identification of the genetic variants associated with chronic sputum production in a disease agnostic sample could improve understanding of its causes and identify new molecular targets for treatment.

Methods

We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of chronic sputum production in UK Biobank. Signals meeting genome-wide significance (p<5×10-8) were investigated in additional independent studies, were fine-mapped and putative causal genes identified by gene expression analysis. GWASs of respiratory traits were interrogated to identify whether the signals were driven by existing respiratory disease among the cases and variants were further investigated for wider pleiotropic effects using phenome-wide association studies (PheWASs).

Results

From a GWAS of 9714 cases and 48 471 controls, we identified six novel genome-wide significant signals for chronic sputum production including signals in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus, chromosome 11 mucin locus (containing MUC2, MUC5AC and MUC5B) and FUT2 locus. The four common variant associations were supported by independent studies with a combined sample size of up to 2203 cases and 17 627 controls. The mucin locus signal had previously been reported for association with moderate-to-severe asthma. The HLA signal was fine-mapped to an amino acid change of threonine to arginine (frequency 36.8%) in HLA-DRB1 (HLA-DRB1*03:147). The signal near FUT2 was associated with expression of several genes including FUT2, for which the direction of effect was tissue dependent. Our PheWAS identified a wide range of associations including blood cell traits, liver biomarkers, infections, gastrointestinal and thyroid-associated diseases, and respiratory disease.

Conclusions

Novel signals at the FUT2 and mucin loci suggest that mucin fucosylation may be a driver of chronic sputum production even in the absence of diagnosed respiratory disease and provide genetic support for this pathway as a target for therapeutic intervention.",,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/61/6/2201667.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01667-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284065?pdf=render 35103486,https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01132-21,Using Community Ecology Theory and Computational Microbiome Methods To Study Human Milk as a Biological System.,"Shenhav L, Azad MB.",,mSystems,2022,2022-02-01,Y,Lactation; Human Milk; Breastfeeding; Chronobiology; Computational Methods; System Biology; Human Microbiome; Community Ecology Theory,,,"Human milk is a complex and dynamic biological system that has evolved to optimally nourish and protect human infants. Yet, according to a recent priority-setting review, ""our current understanding of human milk composition and its individual components and their functions fails to fully recognize the importance of the chronobiology and systems biology of human milk in the context of milk synthesis, optimal timing and duration of feeding, and period of lactation"" (P. Christian et al., Am J Clin Nutr 113:1063-1072, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab075). We attribute this critical knowledge gap to three major reasons as follows. (i) Studies have typically examined each subsystem of the mother-milk-infant ""triad"" in isolation and often focus on a single element or component (e.g., maternal lactation physiology or milk microbiome or milk oligosaccharides or infant microbiome or infant gut physiology). This undermines our ability to develop comprehensive representations of the interactions between these elements and study their response to external perturbations. (ii) Multiomics studies are often cross-sectional, presenting a snapshot of milk composition, largely ignoring the temporal variability during lactation. The lack of temporal resolution precludes the characterization and inference of robust interactions between the dynamic subsystems of the triad. (iii) We lack computational methods to represent and decipher the complex ecosystem of the mother-milk-infant triad and its environment. In this review, we advocate for longitudinal multiomics data collection and demonstrate how incorporating knowledge gleaned from microbial community ecology and computational methods developed for microbiome research can serve as an anchor to advance the study of human milk and its many components as a ""system within a system.""",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01132-21; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01132-21; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8805635; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8805635?pdf=render +32895551,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6,Phenome-wide Mendelian randomization mapping the influence of the plasma proteome on complex diseases.,"Zheng J, Haberland V, Baird D, Walker V, Haycock PC, Hurle MR, Gutteridge A, Erola P, Liu Y, Luo S, Robinson J, Richardson TG, Staley JR, Elsworth B, Burgess S, Sun BB, Danesh J, Runz H, Maranville JC, Martin HM, Yarmolinsky J, Laurin C, Holmes MV, Liu JZ, Estrada K, Santos R, McCarthy L, Waterworth D, Nelson MR, Smith GD, Butterworth AS, Hemani G, Scott RA, Gaunt TR.",,Nature genetics,2020,2020-09-07,Y,,,,"The human proteome is a major source of therapeutic targets. Recent genetic association analyses of the plasma proteome enable systematic evaluation of the causal consequences of variation in plasma protein levels. Here we estimated the effects of 1,002 proteins on 225 phenotypes using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization. Of 413 associations supported by evidence from MR, 130 (31.5%) were not supported by results of colocalization analyses, suggesting that genetic confounding due to linkage disequilibrium is widespread in naïve phenome-wide association studies of proteins. Combining MR and colocalization evidence in cis-only analyses, we identified 111 putatively causal effects between 65 proteins and 52 disease-related phenotypes ( https://www.epigraphdb.org/pqtl/ ). Evaluation of data from historic drug development programs showed that target-indication pairs with MR and colocalization support were more likely to be approved, evidencing the value of this approach in identifying and prioritizing potential therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/76368/1/Zheng_et_al_final_manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464?pdf=render 34796246,https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofab496,"Acceptability, Usability, and Performance of Lateral Flow Immunoassay Tests for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Antibodies: REACT-2 Study of Self-Testing in Nonhealthcare Key Workers.","Davies B, Araghi M, Moshe M, Gao H, Bennet K, Jenkins J, Atchison C, Darzi A, Ashby D, Riley S, Barclay W, Elliott P, Ward H, Cooke G.",,Open forum infectious diseases,2021,2021-10-04,Y,Sensitivity and specificity; Antibody testing; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Diagnostic Testing,,,"

Background

Seroprevalence studies are essential to understand the epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Various technologies, including laboratory assays and point-of-care self-tests, are available for antibody testing. The interpretation of seroprevalence studies requires comparative data on the performance of antibody tests.

Methods

In June 2020, current and former members of the United Kingdom police forces and fire service performed a self-test lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), had a nurse-performed LFIA, and provided a venous blood sample for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We present the prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and the acceptability and usability of self-test LFIAs, and we determine the sensitivity and specificity of LFIAs compared with laboratory ELISA.

Results

In this cohort of 5189 current and former members of the police service and 263 members of the fire service, 7.4% (396 of 5348; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.7-8.1) were antibody positive. Seroprevalence was 8.9% (95% CI, 6.9-11.4) in those under 40 years, 11.5% (95% CI, 8.8-15.0) in those of nonwhite ethnicity, and 7.8% (95% CI, 7.1-8.7) in those currently working. Self-test LFIA had an acceptability of 97.7% and a usability of 90.0%. There was substantial agreement between within-participant LFIA results (kappa 0.80; 95% CI, 0.77-0.83). The LFIAs had a similar performance: compared with ELISA, sensitivity was 82.1% (95% CI, 77.7-86.0) self-test and 76.4% (95% CI, 71.9-80.5) nurse-performed with specificity of 97.8% (95% CI, 97.3-98.2) and 98.5% (95% CI, 98.1-98.8), respectively.

Conclusions

A greater proportion of this nonhealthcare key worker cohort showed evidence of previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 than the general population at 6.0% (95% CI, 5.8-6.1) after the first wave in England. The high acceptability and usability reported by participants and similar performance of self-test and nurse-performed LFIAs indicate that the self-test LFIA is fit for purpose for home testing in occupational and community prevalence studies.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article-pdf/8/11/ofab496/41174715/ofab496.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofab496; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522420; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522420?pdf=render 33332257,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000434,Read trimming has minimal effect on bacterial SNP-calling accuracy. ,Bush SJ.,,Microbial genomics,2020,2020-12-11,Y,,,,"Read alignment is the central step of many analytic pipelines that perform variant calling. To reduce error, it is common practice to pre-process raw sequencing reads to remove low-quality bases and residual adapter contamination, a procedure collectively known as 'trimming'. Trimming is widely assumed to increase the accuracy of variant calling, although there are relatively few systematic evaluations of its effects and no clear consensus on its efficacy. As sequencing datasets increase both in number and size, it is worthwhile reappraising computational operations of ambiguous benefit, particularly when the scope of many analyses now routinely incorporates thousands of samples, increasing the time and cost required. Using a curated set of 17 Gram-negative bacterial genomes, this study initially evaluated the impact of four read-trimming utilities (Atropos, fastp, Trim Galore and Trimmomatic), each used with a range of stringencies, on the accuracy and completeness of three bacterial SNP-calling pipelines. It was found that read trimming made only small, and statistically insignificant, increases in SNP-calling accuracy even when using the highest-performing pre-processor in this study, fastp. To extend these findings, >6500 publicly archived sequencing datasets from Escherichia coli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus were re-analysed using a common analytic pipeline. Of the approximately 125 million SNPs and 1.25 million indels called across all samples, the same bases were called in 98.8 and 91.9 % of cases, respectively, irrespective of whether raw reads or trimmed reads were used. Nevertheless, the proportion of mixed calls (i.e. calls where <100 % of the reads support the variant allele; considered a proxy of false positives) was significantly reduced after trimming, which suggests that while trimming rarely alters the set of variant bases, it can affect the proportion of reads supporting each call. It was concluded that read quality- and adapter-trimming add relatively little value to a SNP-calling pipeline and may only be necessary if small differences in the absolute number of SNP calls, or the false call rate, are critical. Broadly similar conclusions can be drawn about the utility of trimming to an indel-calling pipeline. Read trimming remains routinely performed prior to variant calling likely out of concern that doing otherwise would typically have negative consequences. While historically this may have been the case, the data in this study suggests that read trimming is not always a practical necessity.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000434; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000434; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8116680; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8116680?pdf=render -32895551,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6,Phenome-wide Mendelian randomization mapping the influence of the plasma proteome on complex diseases.,"Zheng J, Haberland V, Baird D, Walker V, Haycock PC, Hurle MR, Gutteridge A, Erola P, Liu Y, Luo S, Robinson J, Richardson TG, Staley JR, Elsworth B, Burgess S, Sun BB, Danesh J, Runz H, Maranville JC, Martin HM, Yarmolinsky J, Laurin C, Holmes MV, Liu JZ, Estrada K, Santos R, McCarthy L, Waterworth D, Nelson MR, Smith GD, Butterworth AS, Hemani G, Scott RA, Gaunt TR.",,Nature genetics,2020,2020-09-07,Y,,,,"The human proteome is a major source of therapeutic targets. Recent genetic association analyses of the plasma proteome enable systematic evaluation of the causal consequences of variation in plasma protein levels. Here we estimated the effects of 1,002 proteins on 225 phenotypes using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization. Of 413 associations supported by evidence from MR, 130 (31.5%) were not supported by results of colocalization analyses, suggesting that genetic confounding due to linkage disequilibrium is widespread in naïve phenome-wide association studies of proteins. Combining MR and colocalization evidence in cis-only analyses, we identified 111 putatively causal effects between 65 proteins and 52 disease-related phenotypes ( https://www.epigraphdb.org/pqtl/ ). Evaluation of data from historic drug development programs showed that target-indication pairs with MR and colocalization support were more likely to be approved, evidencing the value of this approach in identifying and prioritizing potential therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/76368/1/Zheng_et_al_final_manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464?pdf=render 32591531,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16969-0,Genetic drug target validation using Mendelian randomisation.,"Schmidt AF, Finan C, Gordillo-Marañón M, Asselbergs FW, Freitag DF, Patel RS, Tyl B, Chopade S, Faraway R, Zwierzyna M, Hingorani AD.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-06-26,Y,,,,"Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis is an important tool to elucidate the causal relevance of environmental and biological risk factors for disease. However, causal inference is undermined if genetic variants used to instrument a risk factor also influence alternative disease-pathways (horizontal pleiotropy). Here we report how the 'no horizontal pleiotropy assumption' is strengthened when proteins are the risk factors of interest. Proteins are typically the proximal effectors of biological processes encoded in the genome. Moreover, proteins are the targets of most medicines, so MR studies of drug targets are becoming a fundamental tool in drug development. To enable such studies, we introduce a mathematical framework that contrasts MR analysis of proteins with that of risk factors located more distally in the causal chain from gene to disease. We illustrate key model decisions and introduce an analytical framework for maximising power and evaluating the robustness of analyses.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16969-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16969-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320010; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320010?pdf=render +34039579,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721,Changes in daily mental health service use and mortality at the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in 10 UK sites: a regression discontinuity in time design.,"Bakolis I, Stewart R, Baldwin D, Beenstock J, Bibby P, Broadbent M, Cardinal R, Chen S, Chinnasamy K, Cipriani A, Douglas S, Horner P, Jackson CA, John A, Joyce DW, Lee SC, Lewis J, McIntosh A, Nixon N, Osborn D, Phiri P, Rathod S, Smith T, Sokal R, Waller R, Landau S.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-05-26,Y,Mental health; Adult Psychiatry; Old Age Psychiatry; Organisation Of Health Services; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To investigate changes in daily mental health (MH) service use and mortality in response to the introduction and the lifting of the COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in Spring 2020.

Design

A regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) analysis of daily service-level activity.

Setting and participants

Mental healthcare data were extracted from 10 UK providers.

Outcome measures

Daily (weekly for one site) deaths from all causes, referrals and discharges, inpatient care (admissions, discharges, caseloads) and community services (face-to-face (f2f)/non-f2f contacts, caseloads): Adult, older adult and child/adolescent mental health; early intervention in psychosis; home treatment teams and liaison/Accident and Emergency (A&E). Data were extracted from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 May 2020 for all sites, supplemented to 31 July 2020 for four sites. Changes around the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy (23 March and 10 May, respectively) were estimated using a RDiT design with a difference-in-difference approach generating incidence rate ratios (IRRs), meta-analysed across sites.

Results

Pooled estimates for the lockdown transition showed increased daily deaths (IRR 2.31, 95% CI 1.86 to 2.87), reduced referrals (IRR 0.62, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.70) and reduced inpatient admissions (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.83) and caseloads (IRR 0.85, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.91) compared with the pre lockdown period. All community services saw shifts from f2f to non-f2f contacts, but varied in caseload changes. Lift of lockdown was associated with reduced deaths (IRR 0.42, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.66), increased referrals (IRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.60) and increased inpatient admissions (IRR 1.21, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.42) and caseloads (IRR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.12) compared with the lockdown period. Site-wide activity, inpatient care and community services did not return to pre lockdown levels after lift of lockdown, while number of deaths did. Between-site heterogeneity most often indicated variation in size rather than direction of effect.

Conclusions

MH service delivery underwent sizeable changes during the first national lockdown, with as-yet unknown and unevaluated consequences.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049721.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668?pdf=render 34330923,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24930-y,Toxin import through the antibiotic efflux channel TolC.,"Housden NG, Webby MN, Lowe ED, El-Baba TJ, Kaminska R, Redfield C, Robinson CV, Kleanthous C.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-07-30,Y,,,,"Bacteria often secrete diffusible protein toxins (bacteriocins) to kill bystander cells during interbacterial competition. Here, we use biochemical, biophysical and structural analyses to show how a bacteriocin exploits TolC, a major outer-membrane antibiotic efflux channel in Gram-negative bacteria, to transport itself across the outer membrane of target cells. Klebicin C (KlebC), a rRNase toxin produced by Klebsiella pneumoniae, binds TolC of a related species (K. quasipneumoniae) with high affinity through an N-terminal, elongated helical hairpin domain common amongst bacteriocins. The KlebC helical hairpin opens like a switchblade to bind TolC. A cryo-EM structure of this partially translocated state, at 3.1 Å resolution, reveals that KlebC associates along the length of the TolC channel. Thereafter, the unstructured N-terminus of KlebC protrudes beyond the TolC iris, presenting a TonB-box sequence to the periplasm. Association with proton-motive force-linked TonB in the inner membrane drives toxin import through the channel. Finally, we demonstrate that KlebC binding to TolC blocks drug efflux from bacteria. Our results indicate that TolC, in addition to its known role in antibiotic export, can function as a protein import channel for bacteriocins.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24930-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24930-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8324772; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8324772?pdf=render 32289242,https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.190297,"Why is cancer not more common? A changing microenvironment may help to explain why, and suggests strategies for anti-cancer therapy.","Jiang X, Tomlinson IPM.",,Open biology,2020,2020-04-15,Y,Cancer Genetics; Evolutionary Biology; Mathematical Modelling,,,"One of the great unsolved puzzles in cancer biology is not why cancers occur, but rather explaining why so few cancers occur compared with the theoretical number that could occur, given the number of progenitor cells in the body and the normal mutation rate. We hypothesized that a contributory explanation is that the tumour microenvironment (TME) is not fixed due to factors such as immune cell infiltration, and that this could impair the ability of neoplastic cells to retain a high enough fitness to become a cancer. The TME has implicitly been assumed to be static in most cancer evolution models, and we therefore developed a mathematical model of spatial cancer evolution assuming that the TME, and thus the optimum cancer phenotype, changes over time. Based on simulations, we show how cancer cell populations adapt to diverse changing TME conditions and fitness landscapes. Compared with static TMEs, which generate neutral dynamics, changing TMEs lead to complex adaptations with characteristic spatio-temporal heterogeneity involving variable fitness effects of driver mutations, subclonal mixing, subclonal competition and phylogeny patterns. In many cases, cancer cell populations fail to grow or undergo spontaneous regression, and even extinction. Our analyses predict that cancer evolution in a changing TME is challenging, and can help to explain why cancer is neither inevitable nor as common as expected. Should cancer driver mutations with effects dependent of the TME exist, they are likely to be selected. Anti-cancer prevention and treatment strategies based on changing the TME are feasible and potentially effective.",,pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsob.190297; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.190297; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7241076; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7241076?pdf=render -34039579,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721,Changes in daily mental health service use and mortality at the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in 10 UK sites: a regression discontinuity in time design.,"Bakolis I, Stewart R, Baldwin D, Beenstock J, Bibby P, Broadbent M, Cardinal R, Chen S, Chinnasamy K, Cipriani A, Douglas S, Horner P, Jackson CA, John A, Joyce DW, Lee SC, Lewis J, McIntosh A, Nixon N, Osborn D, Phiri P, Rathod S, Smith T, Sokal R, Waller R, Landau S.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-05-26,Y,Mental health; Adult Psychiatry; Old Age Psychiatry; Organisation Of Health Services; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To investigate changes in daily mental health (MH) service use and mortality in response to the introduction and the lifting of the COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in Spring 2020.

Design

A regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) analysis of daily service-level activity.

Setting and participants

Mental healthcare data were extracted from 10 UK providers.

Outcome measures

Daily (weekly for one site) deaths from all causes, referrals and discharges, inpatient care (admissions, discharges, caseloads) and community services (face-to-face (f2f)/non-f2f contacts, caseloads): Adult, older adult and child/adolescent mental health; early intervention in psychosis; home treatment teams and liaison/Accident and Emergency (A&E). Data were extracted from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 May 2020 for all sites, supplemented to 31 July 2020 for four sites. Changes around the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy (23 March and 10 May, respectively) were estimated using a RDiT design with a difference-in-difference approach generating incidence rate ratios (IRRs), meta-analysed across sites.

Results

Pooled estimates for the lockdown transition showed increased daily deaths (IRR 2.31, 95% CI 1.86 to 2.87), reduced referrals (IRR 0.62, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.70) and reduced inpatient admissions (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.83) and caseloads (IRR 0.85, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.91) compared with the pre lockdown period. All community services saw shifts from f2f to non-f2f contacts, but varied in caseload changes. Lift of lockdown was associated with reduced deaths (IRR 0.42, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.66), increased referrals (IRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.60) and increased inpatient admissions (IRR 1.21, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.42) and caseloads (IRR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.12) compared with the lockdown period. Site-wide activity, inpatient care and community services did not return to pre lockdown levels after lift of lockdown, while number of deaths did. Between-site heterogeneity most often indicated variation in size rather than direction of effect.

Conclusions

MH service delivery underwent sizeable changes during the first national lockdown, with as-yet unknown and unevaluated consequences.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049721.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668?pdf=render 37173061,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.12.021,"Evidence for human milk as a biological system and recommendations for study design-a report from ""Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN)"" Working Group 4.","Donovan SM, Aghaeepour N, Andres A, Azad MB, Becker M, Carlson SE, Järvinen KM, Lin W, Lönnerdal B, Slupsky CM, Steiber AL, Raiten DJ.",,The American journal of clinical nutrition,2023,2023-04-01,Y,Immune; systems biology; Human Milk; Microbiome; Infant Development,,,"Human milk contains all of the essential nutrients required by the infant within a complex matrix that enhances the bioavailability of many of those nutrients. In addition, human milk is a source of bioactive components, living cells and microbes that facilitate the transition to life outside the womb. Our ability to fully appreciate the importance of this matrix relies on the recognition of short- and long-term health benefits and, as highlighted in previous sections of this supplement, its ecology (i.e., interactions among the lactating parent and breastfed infant as well as within the context of the human milk matrix itself). Designing and interpreting studies to address this complexity depends on the availability of new tools and technologies that account for such complexity. Past efforts have often compared human milk to infant formula, which has provided some insight into the bioactivity of human milk, as a whole, or of individual milk components supplemented with formula. However, this experimental approach cannot capture the contributions of the individual components to the human milk ecology, the interaction between these components within the human milk matrix, or the significance of the matrix itself to enhance human milk bioactivity on outcomes of interest. This paper presents approaches to explore human milk as a biological system and the functional implications of that system and its components. Specifically, we discuss study design and data collection considerations and how emerging analytical technologies, bioinformatics, and systems biology approaches could be applied to advance our understanding of this critical aspect of human biology.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.12.021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356565?pdf=render +31862893,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1,Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.,"Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-12-20,Y,,,,"Recent genome-wide association studies in stroke have enabled the generation of genomic risk scores (GRS) but their predictive power has been modest compared to established stroke risk factors. Here, using a meta-scoring approach, we develop a metaGRS for ischaemic stroke (IS) and analyse this score in the UK Biobank (n = 395,393; 3075 IS events by age 75). The metaGRS hazard ratio for IS (1.26, 95% CI 1.22-1.31 per metaGRS standard deviation) doubles that of a previous GRS, identifying a subset of individuals at monogenic levels of risk: the top 0.25% of metaGRS have three-fold risk of IS. The metaGRS is similarly or more predictive compared to several risk factors, such as family history, blood pressure, body mass index, and smoking. We estimate the reductions needed in modifiable risk factors for individuals with different levels of genomic risk and suggest that, for individuals with high metaGRS, achieving risk factor levels recommended by current guidelines may be insufficient to mitigate risk.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13848-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280?pdf=render 36434067,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04252-5,A conserved glutathione binding site in poliovirus is a target for antivirals and vaccine stabilisation.,"Bahar MW, Nasta V, Fox H, Sherry L, Grehan K, Porta C, Macadam AJ, Stonehouse NJ, Rowlands DJ, Fry EE, Stuart DI.",,Communications biology,2022,2022-11-25,Y,,,,"Strategies to prevent the recurrence of poliovirus (PV) after eradication may utilise non-infectious, recombinant virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines. Despite clear advantages over inactivated or attenuated virus vaccines, instability of VLPs can compromise their immunogenicity. Glutathione (GSH), an important cellular reducing agent, is a crucial co-factor for the morphogenesis of enteroviruses, including PV. We report cryo-EM structures of GSH bound to PV serotype 3 VLPs showing that it can enhance particle stability. GSH binds the positively charged pocket at the interprotomer interface shown recently to bind GSH in enterovirus F3 and putative antiviral benzene sulphonamide compounds in other enteroviruses. We show, using high-resolution cryo-EM, the binding of a benzene sulphonamide compound with a PV serotype 2 VLP, consistent with antiviral activity through over-stabilizing the interprotomer pocket, preventing the capsid rearrangements necessary for viral infection. Collectively, these results suggest GSH or an analogous tight-binding antiviral offers the potential for stabilizing VLP vaccines.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-04252-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04252-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9700776; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9700776?pdf=render 36436752,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.11.024,"Outcomes of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection during resurgence driven by Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5 compared with previous waves in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.","Davies MA, Morden E, Rousseau P, Arendse J, Bam JL, Boloko L, Cloete K, Cohen C, Chetty N, Dane P, Heekes A, Hsiao NY, Hunter M, Hussey H, Jacobs T, Jassat W, Kariem S, Kassanjee R, Laenen I, Roux SL, Lessells R, Mahomed H, Maughan D, Meintjes G, Mendelson M, Mnguni A, Moodley M, Murie K, Naude J, Ntusi NAB, Paleker M, Parker A, Pienaar D, Preiser W, Prozesky H, Raubenheimer P, Rossouw L, Schrueder N, Smith B, Smith M, Solomon W, Symons G, Taljaard J, Wasserman S, Wilkinson RJ, Wolmarans M, Wolter N, Boulle A.",,International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases,2023,2022-11-24,Y,"Covid-19; Omicron; Ba.4; Ba.5; Death, Severe Hospitalization",,,"

Objectives

We aimed to compare the clinical severity of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 infection with BA.1 and earlier variant infections among laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in the Western Cape, South Africa, using timing of infection to infer the lineage/variant causing infection.

Methods

We included public sector patients aged ≥20 years with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 between May 01-May 21, 2022 (BA.4/BA.5 wave) and equivalent previous wave periods. We compared the risk between waves of (i) death and (ii) severe hospitalization/death (all within 21 days of diagnosis) using Cox regression adjusted for demographics, comorbidities, admission pressure, vaccination, and previous infection.

Results

Among 3793 patients from the BA.4/BA.5 wave and 190,836 patients from previous waves, the risk of severe hospitalization/death was similar in the BA.4/BA.5 and BA.1 waves (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.93; 1.34). Both Omicron waves had a lower risk of severe outcomes than previous waves. Previous infection (aHR 0.29, 95% CI 0.24; 0.36) and vaccination (aHR 0.17; 95% CI 0.07; 0.40 for at least three doses vs no vaccine) were protective.

Conclusion

Disease severity was similar among diagnosed COVID-19 cases in the BA.4/BA.5 and BA.1 periods in the context of growing immunity against SARS-CoV-2 due to previous infection and vaccination, both of which were strongly protective.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.11.024; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.11.024; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9686046; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9686046?pdf=render -31862893,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1,Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.,"Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-12-20,Y,,,,"Recent genome-wide association studies in stroke have enabled the generation of genomic risk scores (GRS) but their predictive power has been modest compared to established stroke risk factors. Here, using a meta-scoring approach, we develop a metaGRS for ischaemic stroke (IS) and analyse this score in the UK Biobank (n = 395,393; 3075 IS events by age 75). The metaGRS hazard ratio for IS (1.26, 95% CI 1.22-1.31 per metaGRS standard deviation) doubles that of a previous GRS, identifying a subset of individuals at monogenic levels of risk: the top 0.25% of metaGRS have three-fold risk of IS. The metaGRS is similarly or more predictive compared to several risk factors, such as family history, blood pressure, body mass index, and smoking. We estimate the reductions needed in modifiable risk factors for individuals with different levels of genomic risk and suggest that, for individuals with high metaGRS, achieving risk factor levels recommended by current guidelines may be insufficient to mitigate risk.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13848-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280?pdf=render +32546850,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9,Genetic aetiology of self-harm ideation and behaviour.,"Campos AI, Verweij KJH, Statham DJ, Madden PAF, Maciejewski DF, Davis KAS, John A, Hotopf M, Heath AC, Martin NG, Rentería ME.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-06-16,Y,,,,"Family studies have identified a heritable component to self-harm that is partially independent from comorbid psychiatric disorders. However, the genetic aetiology of broad sense (non-suicidal and suicidal) self-harm has not been characterised on the molecular level. In addition, controversy exists about the degree to which suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm share a common genetic aetiology. In the present study, we conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on lifetime self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour (i.e. any lifetime self-harm act regardless of suicidal intent) using data from the UK Biobank (n > 156,000). We also perform genome wide gene-based tests and characterize the SNP heritability and genetic correlations between these traits. Finally, we test whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) for self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour predict suicide attempt, suicide thoughts and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) in an independent target sample of 8,703 Australian adults. Our GWAS results identified one genome-wide significant locus associated with each of the two phenotypes. SNP heritability (hsnp2) estimates were ~10%, and both traits were highly genetically correlated (LDSC rg > 0.8). Gene-based tests identified seven genes associated with self-harm ideation and four with self-harm behaviour. Furthermore, in the target sample, PRS for self-harm ideation were significantly associated with suicide thoughts and NSSH, and PRS for self-harm behaviour predicted suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Follow up regressions identified a shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide thoughts, and between suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Evidence for shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide attempt was not statistically significant.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66737-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971?pdf=render 36029521,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac171,Cohort Profile: The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH). ,"Bryant L, Free RC, Woolf K, Melbourne C, Guyatt AL, John C, Gupta A, Gray LJ, Nellums L, Martin CA, McManus IC, Garwood C, Modhawdia V, Carr S, Wain LV, Tobin MD, Khunti K, Akubakar I, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group+.",,International journal of epidemiology,2023,2023-02-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/52/1/e38/49127215/dyac171.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac171; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452183; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452183?pdf=render 33220850,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32465-x,Urgent actions and policies needed to address COVID-19 among UK ethnic minorities.,"Mathur R, Bear L, Khunti K, Eggo RM.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-11-19,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S014067362032465X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32465-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7831890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7831890?pdf=render 31969318,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6987,Risk of herpes zoster after exposure to varicella to explore the exogenous boosting hypothesis: self controlled case series study using UK electronic healthcare data.,"Forbes H, Douglas I, Finn A, Breuer J, Bhaskaran K, Smeeth L, Packer S, Langan SM, Mansfield KE, Marlow R, Whitaker H, Warren-Gash C.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-01-22,Y,,,,"

Objective

To assess the magnitude and duration of any hypothesised protective effect of household exposure to a child with varicella on the relative incidence of herpes zoster in adults.

Design

Self controlled case series.

Setting

UK general practices contributing to Clinical Practice Research Datalink.

Participants

9604 adults (≥18 years) with a diagnosis of herpes zoster (in primary care or hospital records) between 1997 and 2018, who during their observation period lived with a child (<18 years) with a diagnosis of varicella.

Main outcome measures

Relative incidence of herpes zoster in the 20 years after exposure to a child with varicella in the household compared with baseline time (all other time, excluding the 60 days before exposure).

Results

6584 of the 9604 adults with herpes zoster (68.6%) were women. Median age of exposure to a child with varicella was 38.3 years (interquartile range 32.3-48.8 years) and median observation period was 14.7 (11.1-17.7) years. 4116 adults developed zoster in the baseline period, 433 in the 60 days before exposure and 5055 in the risk period. After adjustment for age, calendar time, and season, strong evidence suggested that in the two years after household exposure to a child with varicella, adults were 33% less likely to develop zoster (incidence ratio 0.67, 95% confidence interval 0.62 to 0.73) compared with baseline time. In the 10-20 years after exposure, adults were 27% less likely to develop herpes zoster (0.73, 0.62 to 0.87) compared with baseline time. A stronger boosting effect was observed among men than among women after exposure to varicella.

Conclusions

The relative incidence of zoster was lower in the periods after exposure to a household contact with varicella, with modest but long lasting protective effects observed. This study suggests that exogenous boosting provides some protection from the risk of herpes zoster, but not complete immunity, as assumed by previous cost effectiveness estimates of varicella immunisation.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/368/bmj.l6987.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6987; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7190015 31666364,https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00963-19,Metagenomic Nanopore Sequencing of Influenza Virus Direct from Clinical Respiratory Samples. ,"Lewandowski K, Xu Y, Pullan ST, Lumley SF, Foster D, Sanderson N, Vaughan A, Morgan M, Bright N, Kavanagh J, Vipond R, Carroll M, Marriott AC, Gooch KE, Andersson M, Jeffery K, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS, Matthews PC.",,Journal of clinical microbiology,2019,2019-12-23,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Influenza is a major global public health threat as a result of its highly pathogenic variants, large zoonotic reservoir, and pandemic potential. Metagenomic viral sequencing offers the potential for a diagnostic test for influenza virus which also provides insights on transmission, evolution, and drug resistance and simultaneously detects other viruses. We therefore set out to apply the Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing method to metagenomic sequencing of respiratory samples. We generated influenza virus reads down to a limit of detection of 102 to 103 genome copies/ml in pooled samples, observing a strong relationship between the viral titer and the proportion of influenza virus reads (P = 4.7 × 10-5). Applying our methods to clinical throat swabs, we generated influenza virus reads for 27/27 samples with mid-to-high viral titers (cycle threshold [CT ] values, <30) and 6/13 samples with low viral titers (CT values, 30 to 40). No false-positive reads were generated from 10 influenza virus-negative samples. Thus, Nanopore sequencing operated with 83% sensitivity (95% confidence interval [CI], 67 to 93%) and 100% specificity (95% CI, 69 to 100%) compared to the current diagnostic standard. Coverage of full-length virus was dependent on sample composition, being negatively influenced by increased host and bacterial reads. However, at high influenza virus titers, we were able to reconstruct >99% complete sequences for all eight gene segments. We also detected a human coronavirus coinfection in one clinical sample. While further optimization is required to improve sensitivity, this approach shows promise for the Nanopore platform to be used in the diagnosis and genetic analysis of influenza virus and other respiratory viruses.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00963-19; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00963-19; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6935926; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6935926?pdf=render 36568709,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000215,Burden and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among people using illicit opioids: matched cohort study in England.,"Lewer D, Cox S, Hurst JR, Padmanathan P, Petersen I, Quint JK.",,BMJ medicine,2022,2022-09-28,Y,"Substance-related disorders; Pulmonary disease, chronic obstructive; epidemiology; Health Services; Primary Health Care; Healthcare Disparities",,,"

Objective

To understand the burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among people who use illicit opioids such as heroin, and evaluate inequalities in treatment.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

Patients registered at primary care practices in England.

Participants

106 789 patients in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink with illicit opioid use recorded between 2001 and 2018, and a subcohort of 3903 patients with a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. For both cohorts, the study sampled a comparison group with no history of illicit opioids that was matched by age, sex, and general practice.

Main outcome measures

In the base cohort: diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and death due to the disease. In the subcohort: five treatments (influenza vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine, pulmonary rehabilitation, bronchodilators or corticosteroids, and smoking cessation support) and exacerbations requiring hospital admission.

Results

680 of 106 789 participants died due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, representing 5.1% of all cause deaths. Illicit opioid use was associated with 14.59 times (95% confidence interval 12.28 to 17.33) the risk of death related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 5.89 times (5.62 to 6.18) the risk of a diagnosis of the disease. Among patients with a new diagnosis, comorbid illicit opioid use was associated with current smoking, underweight, worse lung function, and more severe breathlessness. After adjusting for these differences, illicit opioids were associated with 1.96 times (1.82 to 2.12) times the risk of exacerbations requiring hospital admission, but not associated with a substantially different probability of the five treatments.

Conclusions

Death due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is about 15 times more common among people who use illicit opioids than the general population. This inequality does not appear to be explained by differences in treatment, but late diagnosis of the disease among people who use illicit opioids might contribute.",,pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000215.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000215; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770021; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770021?pdf=render 37302069,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112613,Proteomic analysis of circulating immune cells identifies cellular phenotypes associated with COVID-19 severity.,"Potts M, Fletcher-Etherington A, Nightingale K, Mescia F, Bergamaschi L, Calero-Nieto FJ, Antrobus R, Williamson J, Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease-National Institute of Health Research (CITIID-NIHR) COVID BioResource Collaboration, Parsons H, Huttlin EL, Kingston N, Göttgens B, Bradley JR, Lehner PJ, Matheson NJ, Smith KGC, Wills MR, Lyons PA, Weekes MP.",,Cell reports,2023,2023-05-29,Y,Cp: Immunology,,,"Certain serum proteins, including C-reactive protein (CRP) and D-dimer, have prognostic value in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Nonetheless, these factors are non-specific, providing limited mechanistic insight into the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) populations that drive the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19. To identify cellular phenotypes associated with disease, we performed a comprehensive, unbiased analysis of total and plasma-membrane PBMC proteomes from 40 unvaccinated individuals with SARS-CoV-2, spanning the whole disease spectrum. Combined with RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and flow cytometry from the same donors, we define a comprehensive multi-omic profile for each severity level, revealing that immune-cell dysregulation progresses with increasing disease. The cell-surface proteins CEACAMs1, 6, and 8, CD177, CD63, and CD89 are strongly associated with severe COVID-19, corresponding to the emergence of atypical CD3+CD4+CEACAM1/6/8+CD177+CD63+CD89+ and CD16+CEACAM1/6/8+ mononuclear cells. Utilization of these markers may facilitate real-time patient assessment by flow cytometry and identify immune populations that could be targeted to ameliorate immunopathology.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S2211124723006241/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112613; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10243220; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10243220?pdf=render -32546850,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9,Genetic aetiology of self-harm ideation and behaviour.,"Campos AI, Verweij KJH, Statham DJ, Madden PAF, Maciejewski DF, Davis KAS, John A, Hotopf M, Heath AC, Martin NG, Rentería ME.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-06-16,Y,,,,"Family studies have identified a heritable component to self-harm that is partially independent from comorbid psychiatric disorders. However, the genetic aetiology of broad sense (non-suicidal and suicidal) self-harm has not been characterised on the molecular level. In addition, controversy exists about the degree to which suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm share a common genetic aetiology. In the present study, we conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on lifetime self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour (i.e. any lifetime self-harm act regardless of suicidal intent) using data from the UK Biobank (n > 156,000). We also perform genome wide gene-based tests and characterize the SNP heritability and genetic correlations between these traits. Finally, we test whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) for self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour predict suicide attempt, suicide thoughts and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) in an independent target sample of 8,703 Australian adults. Our GWAS results identified one genome-wide significant locus associated with each of the two phenotypes. SNP heritability (hsnp2) estimates were ~10%, and both traits were highly genetically correlated (LDSC rg > 0.8). Gene-based tests identified seven genes associated with self-harm ideation and four with self-harm behaviour. Furthermore, in the target sample, PRS for self-harm ideation were significantly associated with suicide thoughts and NSSH, and PRS for self-harm behaviour predicted suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Follow up regressions identified a shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide thoughts, and between suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Evidence for shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide attempt was not statistically significant.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66737-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971?pdf=render 36697134,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.10.034,Somatostatin Receptor PET/MR Imaging of Inflammation in Patients With Large Vessel Vasculitis and Atherosclerosis.,"Ćorović A, Wall C, Nus M, Gopalan D, Huang Y, Imaz M, Zulcinski M, Peverelli M, Uryga A, Lambert J, Bressan D, Maughan RT, Pericleous C, Dubash S, Jordan N, Jayne DR, Hoole SP, Calvert PA, Dean AF, Rassl D, Barwick T, Iles M, Frontini M, Hannon G, Manavaki R, Fryer TD, Aloj L, Graves MJ, Gilbert FJ, Dweck MR, Newby DE, Fayad ZA, Reynolds G, Morgan AW, Aboagye EO, Davenport AP, Jørgensen HF, Mallat Z, Bennett MR, Peters JE, Rudd JHF, Mason JC, Tarkin JM.",,Journal of the American College of Cardiology,2023,2023-01-01,Y,Atherosclerosis; Inflammation; Molecular Imaging; Giant Cell Arteritis; Takayasu Arteritis; Somatostatin Receptor,,,"

Background

Assessing inflammatory disease activity in large vessel vasculitis (LVV) can be challenging by conventional measures.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate somatostatin receptor 2 (SST2) as a novel inflammation-specific molecular imaging target in LVV.

Methods

In a prospective, observational cohort study, in vivo arterial SST2 expression was assessed by positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) using 68Ga-DOTATATE and 18F-FET-βAG-TOCA. Ex vivo mapping of the imaging target was performed using immunofluorescence microscopy; imaging mass cytometry; and bulk, single-cell, and single-nucleus RNA sequencing.

Results

Sixty-one participants (LVV: n = 27; recent atherosclerotic myocardial infarction of ≤2 weeks: n = 25; control subjects with an oncologic indication for imaging: n = 9) were included. Index vessel SST2 maximum tissue-to-blood ratio was 61.8% (P < 0.0001) higher in active/grumbling LVV than inactive LVV and 34.6% (P = 0.0002) higher than myocardial infarction, with good diagnostic accuracy (area under the curve: ≥0.86; P < 0.001 for both). Arterial SST2 signal was not elevated in any of the control subjects. SST2 PET/MRI was generally consistent with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography imaging in LVV patients with contemporaneous clinical scans but with very low background signal in the brain and heart, allowing for unimpeded assessment of nearby coronary, myocardial, and intracranial artery involvement. Clinically effective treatment for LVV was associated with a 0.49 ± 0.24 (standard error of the mean [SEM]) (P = 0.04; 22.3%) reduction in the SST2 maximum tissue-to-blood ratio after 9.3 ± 3.2 months. SST2 expression was localized to macrophages, pericytes, and perivascular adipocytes in vasculitis specimens, with specific receptor binding confirmed by autoradiography. SSTR2-expressing macrophages coexpressed proinflammatory markers.

Conclusions

SST2 PET/MRI holds major promise for diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring in LVV. (PET Imaging of Giant Cell and Takayasu Arteritis [PITA], NCT04071691; Residual Inflammation and Plaque Progression Long-Term Evaluation [RIPPLE], NCT04073810).",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.10.034; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.10.034; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883634?pdf=render 36820079,https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00274-2022,Characteristics and risk factors for post-COVID-19 breathlessness after hospitalisation for COVID-19.,"Daines L, Zheng B, Elneima O, Harrison E, Lone NI, Hurst JR, Brown JS, Sapey E, Chalmers JD, Quint JK, Pfeffer P, Siddiqui S, Walker S, Poinasamy K, McAuley H, Sereno M, Shikotra A, Singapuri A, Docherty AB, Marks M, Toshner M, Howard LS, Horsley A, Jenkins G, Porter JC, Ho LP, Raman B, Wain LV, Brightling CE, Evans RA, Heaney LG, De Soyza A, Sheikh A.",,ERJ open research,2023,2023-01-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Persistence of respiratory symptoms, particularly breathlessness, after acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has emerged as a significant clinical problem. We aimed to characterise and identify risk factors for patients with persistent breathlessness following COVID-19 hospitalisation.

Methods

PHOSP-COVID is a multicentre prospective cohort study of UK adults hospitalised for COVID-19. Clinical data were collected during hospitalisation and at a follow-up visit. Breathlessness was measured by a numeric rating scale of 0-10. We defined post-COVID-19 breathlessness as an increase in score of ≥1 compared to the pre-COVID-19 level. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify risk factors and to develop a prediction model for post-COVID-19 breathlessness.

Results

We included 1226 participants (37% female, median age 59 years, 22% mechanically ventilated). At a median 5 months after discharge, 50% reported post-COVID-19 breathlessness. Risk factors for post-COVID-19 breathlessness were socioeconomic deprivation (adjusted OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.14-2.44), pre-existing depression/anxiety (adjusted OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.06-2.35), female sex (adjusted OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.21-2.00) and admission duration (adjusted OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02). Black ethnicity (adjusted OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.35-0.89) and older age groups (adjusted OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.14-0.66) were less likely to report post-COVID-19 breathlessness. Post-COVID-19 breathlessness was associated with worse performance on the shuttle walk test and forced vital capacity, but not with obstructive airflow limitation. The prediction model had fair discrimination (concordance statistic 0.66, 95% CI 0.63-0.69) and good calibration (calibration slope 1.00, 95% CI 0.80-1.21).

Conclusions

Post-COVID-19 breathlessness was commonly reported in this national cohort of patients hospitalised for COVID-19 and is likely to be a multifactorial problem with physical and emotional components.",,pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/early/2023/01/26/23120541.00274-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00274-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9790090; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9790090?pdf=render 32724860,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15651.2,Using a knowledge exchange event to assess study participants' attitudes to research in a rapidly evolving research context.,"Beange I, Kirkham EJ, Fletcher-Watson S, Iveson MH, Lawrie SM, Batty GD, Boardman JP, Deary IJ, Black C, Porteous DJ, McIntosh AM.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-08-28,Y,Health; Cohort; Scotland; Data Linkage; Public Engagement; Opinion; Knowledge Exchange; Big Data; Data Science; Guthrie,,,"Background: The UK hosts some of the world's longest-running longitudinal cohort studies, which make repeated observations of their participants and use these data to explore health outcomes. An alternative method for data collection is record linkage; the linking together of electronic health and administrative records. Applied nationally, this could provide unrivalled opportunities to follow a large number of people in perpetuity. However, public attitudes to the use of data in research are currently unclear. Here we report on an event where we collected attitudes towards recent opportunities and controversies within health data science. Methods: The event was attended by ~250 individuals (cohort members and their guests), who had been invited through the offices of their participating cohort studies. There were a series of presentations describing key research results and the audience participated in 15 multiple-choice questions using interactive voting pads. Results: Our participants showed a high level of trust in researchers (87% scoring them 4/5 or 5/5) and doctors (81%); but less trust in commercial companies (35%). They supported the idea of researchers using information from both neonatal blood spots (Guthrie spots) (97% yes) and from electronic health records (95% yes). Our respondents were willing to wear devices like a 'Fit-bit' (88% agreed) or take a brain scan that might predict later mental illness (73%). However, they were less willing to take a new drug for research purposes (45%). They were keen to encourage others to take part in research; whether that be offering the opportunity to pregnant mothers (97% agreed) or extending invitations to their own children and grandchildren (98%). Conclusions: Our participants were broadly supportive of research access to data, albeit less supportive when commercial interests were involved. Public engagement events that facilitate two-way interactions can influence and support future research and public engagement efforts.",,pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-24/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15651.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7361507; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7361507?pdf=render +34321180,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013,The impact of distance on post-ICU disability.,"D'Arcy J, Haines K, Paul E, Doherty Z, Goodwin A, Bailey M, Barrett J, Bellomo R, Bucknall T, Gabbe BJ, Higgins AM, Iwashyna TJ, Murray LJ, Myles PS, Ponsford J, Pilcher D, Udy AA, Walker C, Young M, Cooper DJJ, Hodgson CL, ICU-Recovery Investigators.",,Australian critical care : official journal of the Confederation of Australian Critical Care Nurses,2022,2021-07-25,N,Quality of life; Mechanical ventilation; Distance; Disability; Intensive Care,,,"

Background

Nonurban residential living is associated with adverse outcomes for a number of chronic health conditions. However, it is unclear what effect it has amongst survivors of critical illness.

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to determine whether patients living greater than 50 km from the treating intensive care unit (ICU) have disability outcomes at 6 months that differ from people living within 50 km.

Methods

This was a multicentre, prospective cohort study conducted in five metropolitan ICUs. Participants were adults admitted to the ICU, who received >24 h of mechanical ventilation and survived to hospital discharge. In a secondary analysis of these data, the cohort was dichotomised based on residential distance from the treating ICU: <50 km and ≥50 km. The primary outcome was patient-reported disability using the 12-item World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0). This was recorded at 6 months after ICU admission by telephone interview. Secondary outcomes included health status as measured by EQ-5D-5L return to work and psychological function as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between distance from the ICU and moderate to severe disability, adjusted for potential confounders. Variables included in the multivariable model were deemed to be clinically relevant and had baseline imbalance between groups (p < 0.10). These included marital status and hours of mechanical ventilation. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted using distance in kilometres as a continuous variable.

Results

A total of 262 patients were enrolled, and 169 (65%) lived within 50 km of the treating ICU and 93 (35%) lived ≥50 km from the treating ICU (interquartile range [IQR] 10-664 km). There was no difference in patient-reported disability at 6 months between patients living <50 km and those living ≥50 km (WHODAS total disability % [IQR] 10.4 [2.08-25] v 14.6 [2.08-20.8], P = 0.74). There was also no difference between groups for the six major life domains of the WHODAS. There was no difference in rates of anxiety or depression as measured by HADS score (HADS anxiety median [IQR] 4 [1-7] v 3 [1-7], P = 0.60) (HADS depression median [IQR] 3 [1-6] v 3 [1-6], P = 0.62); health status as measured by EQ-5D (mean [SD] 66.7 [20] v 69.8 [22.2], P = 0.24); or health-related unemployment (% (N) 39 [26] v 25 [29.1], P = 0.61). After adjusting for confounders, living ≥50 km from the treating ICU was not associated with increased disability (odds ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval: 0.33-1.16; P = 0.13) CONCLUSIONS: Survivors of intensive care in Victoria, Australia, who live at least 50 km from the treating ICU did not have greater disability than people living less than 50 km at 6 months after discharge. Living 50 km or more from the treating ICU was not associated with disability, nor was it associated with anxiety or depression, health status, or unemployment due to health.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013 32505923,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102818,"Children first, or last?",Modi N.,,EBioMedicine,2020,2020-06-04,Y,,,,,,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396420301936/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102818; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7276509; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7276509?pdf=render +33087179,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9,Reconstructing the early global dynamics of under-ascertained COVID-19 cases and infections.,"Russell TW, Golding N, Hellewell J, Abbott S, Wright L, Pearson CAB, van Zandvoort K, Jarvis CI, Gibbs H, Liu Y, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-10-22,Y,Surveillance; Situational Awareness; Under-reporting; Case Ascertainment; Outbreak Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Asymptomatic or subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infections are often unreported, which means that confirmed case counts may not accurately reflect underlying epidemic dynamics. Understanding the level of ascertainment (the ratio of confirmed symptomatic cases to the true number of symptomatic individuals) and undetected epidemic progression is crucial to informing COVID-19 response planning, including the introduction and relaxation of control measures. Estimating case ascertainment over time allows for accurate estimates of specific outcomes such as seroprevalence, which is essential for planning control measures.

Methods

Using reported data on COVID-19 cases and fatalities globally, we estimated the proportion of symptomatic cases (i.e. any person with any of fever ≥ 37.5 °C, cough, shortness of breath, sudden onset of anosmia, ageusia or dysgeusia illness) that were reported in 210 countries and territories, given those countries had experienced more than ten deaths. We used published estimates of the baseline case fatality ratio (CFR), which was adjusted for delays and under-ascertainment, then calculated the ratio of this baseline CFR to an estimated local delay-adjusted CFR to estimate the level of under-ascertainment in a particular location. We then fit a Bayesian Gaussian process model to estimate the temporal pattern of under-ascertainment.

Results

Based on reported cases and deaths, we estimated that, during March 2020, the median percentage of symptomatic cases detected across the 84 countries which experienced more than ten deaths ranged from 2.4% (Bangladesh) to 100% (Chile). Across the ten countries with the highest number of total confirmed cases as of 6 July 2020, we estimated that the peak number of symptomatic cases ranged from 1.4 times (Chile) to 18 times (France) larger than reported. Comparing our model with national and regional seroprevalence data where available, we find that our estimates are consistent with observed values. Finally, we estimated seroprevalence for each country. As of 7 June, our seroprevalence estimates range from 0% (many countries) to 13% (95% CrI 5.6-24%) (Belgium).

Conclusions

We found substantial under-ascertainment of symptomatic cases, particularly at the peak of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in many countries. Reported case counts will therefore likely underestimate the rate of outbreak growth initially and underestimate the decline in the later stages of an epidemic. Although there was considerable under-reporting in many locations, our estimates were consistent with emerging serological data, suggesting that the proportion of each country's population infected with SARS-CoV-2 worldwide is generally low.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796?pdf=render 30609404,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.11.014,Integrating Genomics into Healthcare: A Global Responsibility.,"Stark Z, Dolman L, Manolio TA, Ozenberger B, Hill SL, Caulfied MJ, Levy Y, Glazer D, Wilson J, Lawler M, Boughtwood T, Braithwaite J, Goodhand P, Birney E, North KN.",,American journal of human genetics,2019,2019-01-01,N,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Genomic sequencing is rapidly transitioning into clinical practice, and implementation into healthcare systems has been supported by substantial government investment, totaling over US$4 billion, in at least 14 countries. These national genomic-medicine initiatives are driving transformative change under real-life conditions while simultaneously addressing barriers to implementation and gathering evidence for wider adoption. We review the diversity of approaches and current progress made by national genomic-medicine initiatives in the UK, France, Australia, and US and provide a roadmap for sharing strategies, standards, and data internationally to accelerate implementation.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929718304221/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.11.014; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6323624; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6323624?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.11.014 -34321180,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013,The impact of distance on post-ICU disability.,"D'Arcy J, Haines K, Paul E, Doherty Z, Goodwin A, Bailey M, Barrett J, Bellomo R, Bucknall T, Gabbe BJ, Higgins AM, Iwashyna TJ, Murray LJ, Myles PS, Ponsford J, Pilcher D, Udy AA, Walker C, Young M, Cooper DJJ, Hodgson CL, ICU-Recovery Investigators.",,Australian critical care : official journal of the Confederation of Australian Critical Care Nurses,2022,2021-07-25,N,Quality of life; Mechanical ventilation; Distance; Disability; Intensive Care,,,"

Background

Nonurban residential living is associated with adverse outcomes for a number of chronic health conditions. However, it is unclear what effect it has amongst survivors of critical illness.

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to determine whether patients living greater than 50 km from the treating intensive care unit (ICU) have disability outcomes at 6 months that differ from people living within 50 km.

Methods

This was a multicentre, prospective cohort study conducted in five metropolitan ICUs. Participants were adults admitted to the ICU, who received >24 h of mechanical ventilation and survived to hospital discharge. In a secondary analysis of these data, the cohort was dichotomised based on residential distance from the treating ICU: <50 km and ≥50 km. The primary outcome was patient-reported disability using the 12-item World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0). This was recorded at 6 months after ICU admission by telephone interview. Secondary outcomes included health status as measured by EQ-5D-5L return to work and psychological function as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between distance from the ICU and moderate to severe disability, adjusted for potential confounders. Variables included in the multivariable model were deemed to be clinically relevant and had baseline imbalance between groups (p < 0.10). These included marital status and hours of mechanical ventilation. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted using distance in kilometres as a continuous variable.

Results

A total of 262 patients were enrolled, and 169 (65%) lived within 50 km of the treating ICU and 93 (35%) lived ≥50 km from the treating ICU (interquartile range [IQR] 10-664 km). There was no difference in patient-reported disability at 6 months between patients living <50 km and those living ≥50 km (WHODAS total disability % [IQR] 10.4 [2.08-25] v 14.6 [2.08-20.8], P = 0.74). There was also no difference between groups for the six major life domains of the WHODAS. There was no difference in rates of anxiety or depression as measured by HADS score (HADS anxiety median [IQR] 4 [1-7] v 3 [1-7], P = 0.60) (HADS depression median [IQR] 3 [1-6] v 3 [1-6], P = 0.62); health status as measured by EQ-5D (mean [SD] 66.7 [20] v 69.8 [22.2], P = 0.24); or health-related unemployment (% (N) 39 [26] v 25 [29.1], P = 0.61). After adjusting for confounders, living ≥50 km from the treating ICU was not associated with increased disability (odds ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval: 0.33-1.16; P = 0.13) CONCLUSIONS: Survivors of intensive care in Victoria, Australia, who live at least 50 km from the treating ICU did not have greater disability than people living less than 50 km at 6 months after discharge. Living 50 km or more from the treating ICU was not associated with disability, nor was it associated with anxiety or depression, health status, or unemployment due to health.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013 33905495,https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab291,Endonuclease enrichment TAPS for cost-effective genome-wide base-resolution DNA methylation detection.,"Cheng J, Siejka-Zielińska P, Liu Y, Chandran A, Kriaucionis S, Song CX.",,Nucleic acids research,2021,2021-07-01,Y,,,,"Whole genome base-resolution methylome sequencing allows for the most comprehensive analysis of DNA methylation, however, the considerable sequencing cost often limits its applications. While reduced representation sequencing can be an affordable alternative, over 80% of CpGs in the genome are not covered. Building on our recently developed TET-assisted pyridine borane sequencing (TAPS) method, we here described endonuclease enrichment TAPS (eeTAPS), which utilizes dihydrouracil (DHU)-cleaving endonuclease digestion of TAPS-converted DNA to enrich methylated CpG sites (mCpGs). eeTAPS can accurately detect 87% of mCpGs in the mouse genome with a sequencing depth equivalent to 4× whole genome sequencing. In comparison, reduced representation TAPS (rrTAPS) detected less than 4% of mCpGs with 2.5× sequencing depth. Our results demonstrate eeTAPS to be a new strategy for cost-effective genome-wide methylation analysis at single-CpG resolution that can fill the gap between whole-genome and reduced representation sequencing.",,pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3e48f9e0-d3c3-41ec-99ff-cc64d141d6cf/files/rcz30pt21m; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287915?pdf=render -33087179,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9,Reconstructing the early global dynamics of under-ascertained COVID-19 cases and infections.,"Russell TW, Golding N, Hellewell J, Abbott S, Wright L, Pearson CAB, van Zandvoort K, Jarvis CI, Gibbs H, Liu Y, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-10-22,Y,Surveillance; Situational Awareness; Under-reporting; Case Ascertainment; Outbreak Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Asymptomatic or subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infections are often unreported, which means that confirmed case counts may not accurately reflect underlying epidemic dynamics. Understanding the level of ascertainment (the ratio of confirmed symptomatic cases to the true number of symptomatic individuals) and undetected epidemic progression is crucial to informing COVID-19 response planning, including the introduction and relaxation of control measures. Estimating case ascertainment over time allows for accurate estimates of specific outcomes such as seroprevalence, which is essential for planning control measures.

Methods

Using reported data on COVID-19 cases and fatalities globally, we estimated the proportion of symptomatic cases (i.e. any person with any of fever ≥ 37.5 °C, cough, shortness of breath, sudden onset of anosmia, ageusia or dysgeusia illness) that were reported in 210 countries and territories, given those countries had experienced more than ten deaths. We used published estimates of the baseline case fatality ratio (CFR), which was adjusted for delays and under-ascertainment, then calculated the ratio of this baseline CFR to an estimated local delay-adjusted CFR to estimate the level of under-ascertainment in a particular location. We then fit a Bayesian Gaussian process model to estimate the temporal pattern of under-ascertainment.

Results

Based on reported cases and deaths, we estimated that, during March 2020, the median percentage of symptomatic cases detected across the 84 countries which experienced more than ten deaths ranged from 2.4% (Bangladesh) to 100% (Chile). Across the ten countries with the highest number of total confirmed cases as of 6 July 2020, we estimated that the peak number of symptomatic cases ranged from 1.4 times (Chile) to 18 times (France) larger than reported. Comparing our model with national and regional seroprevalence data where available, we find that our estimates are consistent with observed values. Finally, we estimated seroprevalence for each country. As of 7 June, our seroprevalence estimates range from 0% (many countries) to 13% (95% CrI 5.6-24%) (Belgium).

Conclusions

We found substantial under-ascertainment of symptomatic cases, particularly at the peak of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in many countries. Reported case counts will therefore likely underestimate the rate of outbreak growth initially and underestimate the decline in the later stages of an epidemic. Although there was considerable under-reporting in many locations, our estimates were consistent with emerging serological data, suggesting that the proportion of each country's population infected with SARS-CoV-2 worldwide is generally low.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796?pdf=render 33623826,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16164.2,"The effectiveness of social bubbles as part of a Covid-19 lockdown exit strategy, a modelling study.","Leng T, White C, Hilton J, Kucharski A, Pellis L, Stage H, Davies NG, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease 2019 nCoV Working Group, Keeling MJ, Flasche S.",,Wellcome open research,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Exit Strategy; Covid-19; Contact Clustering; Social Bubble,,,"Background: ​ During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown, contact clustering in social bubbles may allow extending contacts beyond the household at minimal additional risk and hence has been considered as part of modified lockdown policy or a gradual lockdown exit strategy. We estimated the impact of such strategies on epidemic and mortality risk using the UK as a case study. Methods: ​ We used an individual based model for a synthetic population similar to the UK, stratified into transmission risks from the community, within the household and from other households in the same social bubble. The base case considers a situation where non-essential shops and schools are closed, the secondary household attack rate is 20% and the initial reproduction number is 0.8. We simulate social bubble strategies (where two households form an exclusive pair) for households including children, for single occupancy households, and for all households. We test the sensitivity of results to a range of alternative model assumptions and parameters. Results:  Clustering contacts outside the household into exclusive bubbles is an effective strategy of increasing contacts while limiting the associated increase in epidemic risk. In the base case, social bubbles reduced fatalities by 42% compared to an unclustered increase of contacts. We find that if all households were to form social bubbles the reproduction number would likely increase to above the epidemic threshold of R=1. Strategies allowing households with young children or single occupancy households to form social bubbles increased the reproduction number by less than 11%. The corresponding increase in mortality is proportional to the increase in the epidemic risk but is focussed in older adults irrespective of inclusion in social bubbles. Conclusions: ​ If managed appropriately, social bubbles can be an effective way of extending contacts beyond the household while limiting the increase in epidemic risk.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16164.2; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16164.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7871360; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7871360?pdf=render 37601966,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100361,Genotyping and population characteristics of the China Kadoorie Biobank.,"Walters RG, Millwood IY, Lin K, Schmidt Valle D, McDonnell P, Hacker A, Avery D, Edris A, Fry H, Cai N, Kretzschmar WW, Ansari MA, Lyons PA, Collins R, Donnelly P, Hill M, Peto R, Shen H, Jin X, Nie C, Xu X, Guo Y, Yu C, Lv J, Clarke RJ, Li L, Chen Z, China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group.",,Cell genomics,2023,2023-07-20,Y,Genetics; Genetic epidemiology; Genotyping; complex disease; Gwas; Genetic Association Studies; Biobank; Omics; Prospective; Cardiovascular Health,,,"The China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) is a population-based prospective cohort of >512,000 adults recruited from 2004 to 2008 from 10 geographically diverse regions across China. Detailed data from questionnaires and physical measurements were collected at baseline, with additional measurements at three resurveys involving ∼5% of surviving participants. Analyses of genome-wide genotyping, for >100,000 participants using custom-designed Axiom arrays, reveal extensive relatedness, recent consanguinity, and signatures reflecting large-scale population movements from recent Chinese history. Systematic genome-wide association studies of incident disease, captured through electronic linkage to death and disease registries and to the national health insurance system, replicate established disease loci and identify 14 novel disease associations. Together with studies of candidate drug targets and disease risk factors and contributions to international genetics consortia, these demonstrate the breadth, depth, and quality of the CKB data. Ongoing high-throughput omics assays of collected biosamples and planned whole-genome sequencing will further enhance the scientific value of this biobank.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100361; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10435379; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10435379?pdf=render 36914875,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01314-0,Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses improve resolution of genes and pathways influencing lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk.,"Shrine N, Izquierdo AG, Chen J, Packer R, Hall RJ, Guyatt AL, Batini C, Thompson RJ, Pavuluri C, Malik V, Hobbs BD, Moll M, Kim W, Tal-Singer R, Bakke P, Fawcett KA, John C, Coley K, Piga NN, Pozarickij A, Lin K, Millwood IY, Chen Z, Li L, China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group, Wijnant SRA, Lahousse L, Brusselle G, Uitterlinden AG, Manichaikul A, Oelsner EC, Rich SS, Barr RG, Kerr SM, Vitart V, Brown MR, Wielscher M, Imboden M, Jeong A, Bartz TM, Gharib SA, Flexeder C, Karrasch S, Gieger C, Peters A, Stubbe B, Hu X, Ortega VE, Meyers DA, Bleecker ER, Gabriel SB, Gupta N, Smith AV, Luan J, Zhao JH, Hansen AF, Langhammer A, Willer C, Bhatta L, Porteous D, Smith BH, Campbell A, Sofer T, Lee J, Daviglus ML, Yu B, Lim E, Xu H, O'Connor GT, Thareja G, Albagha OME, Qatar Genome Program Research (QGPR) Consortium, Suhre K, Granell R, Faquih TO, Hiemstra PS, Slats AM, Mullin BH, Hui J, James A, Beilby J, Patasova K, Hysi P, Koskela JT, Wyss AB, Jin J, Sikdar S, Lee M, May-Wilson S, Pirastu N, Kentistou KA, Joshi PK, Timmers PRHJ, Williams AT, Free RC, Wang X, Morrison JL, Gilliland FD, Chen Z, Wang CA, Foong RE, Harris SE, Taylor A, Redmond P, Cook JP, Mahajan A, Lind L, Palviainen T, Lehtimäki T, Raitakari OT, Kaprio J, Rantanen T, Pietiläinen KH, Cox SR, Pennell CE, Hall GL, Gauderman WJ, Brightling C, Wilson JF, Vasankari T, Laitinen T, Salomaa V, Mook-Kanamori DO, Timpson NJ, Zeggini E, Dupuis J, Hayward C, Brumpton B, Langenberg C, Weiss S, Homuth G, Schmidt CO, Probst-Hensch N, Jarvelin MR, Morrison AC, Polasek O, Rudan I, Lee JH, Sayers I, Rawlins EL, Dudbridge F, Silverman EK, Strachan DP, Walters RG, Morris AP, London SJ, Cho MH, Wain LV, Hall IP, Tobin MD.",,Nature genetics,2023,2023-03-13,Y,,,,"Lung-function impairment underlies chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and predicts mortality. In the largest multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of lung function to date, comprising 580,869 participants, we identified 1,020 independent association signals implicating 559 genes supported by ≥2 criteria from a systematic variant-to-gene mapping framework. These genes were enriched in 29 pathways. Individual variants showed heterogeneity across ancestries, age and smoking groups, and collectively as a genetic risk score showed strong association with COPD across ancestry groups. We undertook phenome-wide association studies for selected associated variants as well as trait and pathway-specific genetic risk scores to infer possible consequences of intervening in pathways underlying lung function. We highlight new putative causal variants, genes, proteins and pathways, including those targeted by existing drugs. These findings bring us closer to understanding the mechanisms underlying lung function and COPD, and should inform functional genomics experiments and potentially future COPD therapies.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-023-01314-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01314-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10011137; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10011137?pdf=render 34609275,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000630,"A genomic epidemiological study shows that prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in Enterobacterales is associated with the livestock host, as well as antimicrobial usage.","AbuOun M, Jones H, Stubberfield E, Gilson D, Shaw LP, Hubbard ATM, Chau KK, Sebra R, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Read DS, Gweon HS, Walker AS, Stoesser N, Smith RP, Anjum MF, On Behalf Of The Rehab Consortium.",,Microbial genomics,2021,2021-10-01,Y,Plasmid; Livestock; Antimicrobial resistance; Antimicrobial Usage,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000630; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000630; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8627209; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8627209?pdf=render 37681566,https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.123.030280,Age at Menopause and the Risk of Stroke: Observational and Mendelian Randomization Analysis in 204 244 Postmenopausal Women.,"Tschiderer L, Peters SAE, van der Schouw YT, van Westing AC, Tong TYN, Willeit P, Seekircher L, Moreno-Iribas C, Huerta JM, Crous-Bou M, Söderholm M, Schulze MB, Johansson C, Själander S, Heath AK, Macciotta A, Dahm CC, Ibsen DB, Pala V, Mellemkjær L, Burgess S, Wood A, Kaaks R, Katzke V, Amiano P, Rodriguez-Barranco M, Engström G, Weiderpass E, Tjønneland A, Halkjær J, Panico S, Danesh J, Butterworth A, Onland-Moret NC.",,Journal of the American Heart Association,2023,2023-09-08,N,Stroke; Age At Menopause; Mendelian Randomization Analysis; Observational Analysis,,,"Background Observational studies have shown that women with an early menopause are at higher risk of stroke compared with women with a later menopause. However, associations with stroke subtypes are inconsistent, and the causality is unclear. Methods and Results We analyzed data of the UK Biobank and EPIC-CVD (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Cardiovascular Diseases) study. A total of 204 244 postmenopausal women without a history of stroke at baseline were included (7883 from EPIC-CVD [5292 from the subcohort], 196 361 from the UK Biobank). Pooled mean baseline age was 58.9 years (SD, 5.8), and pooled mean age at menopause was 47.8 years (SD, 6.2). Over a median follow-up of 12.6 years (interquartile range, 11.8-13.3), 6770 women experienced a stroke (5155 ischemic strokes, 1615 hemorrhagic strokes, 976 intracerebral hemorrhages, and 639 subarachnoid hemorrhages). In multivariable adjusted observational Cox regression analyses, the pooled hazard ratios per 5 years younger age at menopause were 1.09 (95% CI, 1.07-1.12) for stroke, 1.09 (95% CI, 1.06-1.13) for ischemic stroke, 1.10 (95% CI, 1.04-1.16) for hemorrhagic stroke, 1.14 (95% CI, 1.08-1.20) for intracerebral hemorrhage, and 1.00 (95% CI, 0.84-1.20) for subarachnoid hemorrhage. When using 2-sample Mendelian randomization analysis, we found no statistically significant association between genetically proxied age at menopause and risk of any type of stroke. Conclusions In our study, earlier age at menopause was related to a higher risk of stroke. We found no statistically significant association between genetically proxied age at menopause and risk of stroke, suggesting no causal relationship.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.123.030280 -36527096,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9,"""Data makes the story come to life:"" understanding the ethical and legal implications of Big Data research involving ethnic minority healthcare workers in the United Kingdom-a qualitative study.","Dove ES, Reed-Berendt R, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMC medical ethics,2022,2022-12-16,Y,Ethics; Public Health; United Kingdom; Healthcare Workers; Ethnic Minorities; Big Data; Covid-19,,,"The aim of UK-REACH (""The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers"") is to understand if, how, and why healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) from ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. In this article, we present findings from the ethical and legal stream of the study, which undertook qualitative research seeking to understand and address legal, ethical, and social acceptability issues around data protection, privacy, and information governance associated with the linkage of HCWs' registration data and healthcare data. We interviewed 22 key opinion leaders in healthcare and health research from across the UK in two-to-one semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were coded using qualitative thematic analysis. Participants told us that a significant aspect of Big Data research in public health is varying drivers of mistrust-of the research itself, research staff and funders, and broader concerns of mistrust within participant communities, particularly in the context of COVID-19 and those situated in more marginalised community settings. However, despite the challenges, participants also identified ways in which legally compliant and ethically informed approaches to research can be crafted to mitigate or overcome mistrust and establish greater confidence in Big Data public health research. Overall, our research indicates that a ""Big Data Ethics by Design"" approach to research in this area can help assure (1) that meaningful community and participant engagement is taking place and that extant challenges are addressed, and (2) that any new challenges or hitherto unknown unknowns can be rapidly and properly considered to ensure potential (but material) harms are identified and minimised where necessary. Our findings indicate such an approach, in turn, will help drive better scientific breakthroughs that translate into medical innovations and effective public health interventions, which benefit the publics studied, including those who are often marginalised in research.",,pdf:https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740?pdf=render 31792462,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0665-2,Plasma protein patterns as comprehensive indicators of health.,"Williams SA, Kivimaki M, Langenberg C, Hingorani AD, Casas JP, Bouchard C, Jonasson C, Sarzynski MA, Shipley MJ, Alexander L, Ash J, Bauer T, Chadwick J, Datta G, DeLisle RK, Hagar Y, Hinterberg M, Ostroff R, Weiss S, Ganz P, Wareham NJ.",,Nature medicine,2019,2019-12-02,N,,,,"Proteins are effector molecules that mediate the functions of genes1,2 and modulate comorbidities3-10, behaviors and drug treatments11. They represent an enormous potential resource for personalized, systemic and data-driven diagnosis, prevention, monitoring and treatment. However, the concept of using plasma proteins for individualized health assessment across many health conditions simultaneously has not been tested. Here, we show that plasma protein expression patterns strongly encode for multiple different health states, future disease risks and lifestyle behaviors. We developed and validated protein-phenotype models for 11 different health indicators: liver fat, kidney filtration, percentage body fat, visceral fat mass, lean body mass, cardiopulmonary fitness, physical activity, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, diabetes risk and primary cardiovascular event risk. The analyses were prospectively planned, documented and executed at scale on archived samples and clinical data, with a total of ~85 million protein measurements in 16,894 participants. Our proof-of-concept study demonstrates that protein expression patterns reliably encode for many different health issues, and that large-scale protein scanning12-16 coupled with machine learning is viable for the development and future simultaneous delivery of multiple measures of health. We anticipate that, with further validation and the addition of more protein-phenotype models, this approach could enable a single-source, individualized so-called liquid health check.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6922049?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0665-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922049?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0665-2 +36527096,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9,"""Data makes the story come to life:"" understanding the ethical and legal implications of Big Data research involving ethnic minority healthcare workers in the United Kingdom-a qualitative study.","Dove ES, Reed-Berendt R, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMC medical ethics,2022,2022-12-16,Y,Ethics; Public Health; United Kingdom; Healthcare Workers; Ethnic Minorities; Big Data; Covid-19,,,"The aim of UK-REACH (""The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers"") is to understand if, how, and why healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) from ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. In this article, we present findings from the ethical and legal stream of the study, which undertook qualitative research seeking to understand and address legal, ethical, and social acceptability issues around data protection, privacy, and information governance associated with the linkage of HCWs' registration data and healthcare data. We interviewed 22 key opinion leaders in healthcare and health research from across the UK in two-to-one semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were coded using qualitative thematic analysis. Participants told us that a significant aspect of Big Data research in public health is varying drivers of mistrust-of the research itself, research staff and funders, and broader concerns of mistrust within participant communities, particularly in the context of COVID-19 and those situated in more marginalised community settings. However, despite the challenges, participants also identified ways in which legally compliant and ethically informed approaches to research can be crafted to mitigate or overcome mistrust and establish greater confidence in Big Data public health research. Overall, our research indicates that a ""Big Data Ethics by Design"" approach to research in this area can help assure (1) that meaningful community and participant engagement is taking place and that extant challenges are addressed, and (2) that any new challenges or hitherto unknown unknowns can be rapidly and properly considered to ensure potential (but material) harms are identified and minimised where necessary. Our findings indicate such an approach, in turn, will help drive better scientific breakthroughs that translate into medical innovations and effective public health interventions, which benefit the publics studied, including those who are often marginalised in research.",,pdf:https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740?pdf=render 36522333,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35454-4,Multi-omics identify falling LRRC15 as a COVID-19 severity marker and persistent pro-thrombotic signals in convalescence.,"Gisby JS, Buang NB, Papadaki A, Clarke CL, Malik TH, Medjeral-Thomas N, Pinheiro D, Mortimer PM, Lewis S, Sandhu E, McAdoo SP, Prendecki MF, Willicombe M, Pickering MC, Botto M, Thomas DC, Peters JE.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-12-15,Y,,,,"Patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) are at high risk of severe COVID-19. Here, we perform longitudinal blood sampling of ESKD haemodialysis patients with COVID-19, collecting samples pre-infection, serially during infection, and after clinical recovery. Using plasma proteomics, and RNA-sequencing and flow cytometry of immune cells, we identify transcriptomic and proteomic signatures of COVID-19 severity, and find distinct temporal molecular profiles in patients with severe disease. Supervised learning reveals that the plasma proteome is a superior indicator of clinical severity than the PBMC transcriptome. We show that a decreasing trajectory of plasma LRRC15, a proposed co-receptor for SARS-CoV-2, is associated with a more severe clinical course. We observe that two months after the acute infection, patients still display dysregulated gene expression related to vascular, platelet and coagulation pathways, including PF4 (platelet factor 4), which may explain the prolonged thrombotic risk following COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35454-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35454-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9753891; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9753891?pdf=render 33415961,https://doi.org/10.19191/ep20.5-6.s1.p179.088,Initial plans for a large-scale investigation into the chronic health effects of earthquakes in Italy: building on Barbara Pacelli's legacy.,"Allara E, Ripoll Gallardo A, Fabiani L, Barone Adesi F, Sofianopoulou E, Ragazzoni L, Wood A, Faggiano F, Della Corte F.",,Epidemiologia e prevenzione,2020,2020-09-01,N,,,,"Barbara Pacelli, a young Italian epidemiologist, passed away unexpectedly in September 2019. During her prolific professional life, she gave several scientific contributions to natural disaster epidemiology, particularly in relation to the medium and long-term health effects of earthquakes. In this opinion paper, we reflect on Barbara's legacy and outline potential actions that could arise from her work. Particularly, availability of electronic health records would enable a systematic and large-scale investigation into the long-term health effects of earthquakes in Italy, a country with high seismic risk. This effort would have high societal value as it would likely enable mitigation of substantial morbidity and mortality in areas affected by earthquakes. In this paper, we define scope, objectives, potential data sources, and analysis methods that could be used to systematically assess the chronic health effects of recent earthquakes in Italy. Keywords: earthquakes; chronic diseases; electronic health records; retrospective cohort; case crossover study.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.19191/EP20.5-6.S1.P179.088 -35523486,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258,Using digital health tools for the Remote Assessment of Treatment Prognosis in Depression (RAPID): a study protocol for a feasibility study.,"de Angel V, Lewis S, Munir S, Matcham F, Dobson R, Hotopf M.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-05-06,Y,Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Health Informatics; Depression & Mood Disorders,,,"

Introduction

Digital health tools such as smartphones and wearable devices could improve psychological treatment outcomes in depression through more accurate and comprehensive measures of patient behaviour. However, in this emerging field, most studies are small and based on student populations outside of a clinical setting. The current study aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of using smartphones and wearable devices to collect behavioural and clinical data in people undergoing therapy for depressive disorders and establish the extent to which they can be potentially useful biomarkers of depression and recovery after treatment.

Methods and analysis

This is an observational, prospective cohort study of 65 people attending psychological therapy for depression in multiple London-based sites. It will collect continuous passive data from smartphone sensors and a Fitbit fitness tracker, and deliver questionnaires, speech tasks and cognitive assessments through smartphone-based apps. Objective data on sleep, physical activity, location, Bluetooth contact, smartphone use and heart rate will be gathered for 7 months, and compared with clinical and contextual data. A mixed methods design, including a qualitative interview of patient experiences, will be used to evaluate key feasibility indicators, digital phenotypes of depression and therapy prognosis. Patient and public involvement was sought for participant-facing documents and the study design of the current research proposal.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the London Westminster Research Ethics Committee, and the Health Research Authority, Integrated Research Application System (project ID: 270918). Privacy and confidentiality will be guaranteed and the procedures for handling, processing, storage and destruction of the data will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. Findings from this study will form part of a doctoral thesis, will be presented at national and international meetings or academic conferences and will generate manuscripts to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

Trial registration number

https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PMYTA.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/5/e059258.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394?pdf=render 31113941,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10417-4,Author Correction: Towards a data-integrated cell.,"Malod-Dognin N, Petschnigg J, Windels SFL, Povh J, Hemingway H, Ketteler R, Pržulj N.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-05-21,Y,,,,"The original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Harry Hemingway, which was incorrectly given as Harry Hemmingway. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10417-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10417-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6529418; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6529418?pdf=render +35523486,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258,Using digital health tools for the Remote Assessment of Treatment Prognosis in Depression (RAPID): a study protocol for a feasibility study.,"de Angel V, Lewis S, Munir S, Matcham F, Dobson R, Hotopf M.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-05-06,Y,Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Health Informatics; Depression & Mood Disorders,,,"

Introduction

Digital health tools such as smartphones and wearable devices could improve psychological treatment outcomes in depression through more accurate and comprehensive measures of patient behaviour. However, in this emerging field, most studies are small and based on student populations outside of a clinical setting. The current study aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of using smartphones and wearable devices to collect behavioural and clinical data in people undergoing therapy for depressive disorders and establish the extent to which they can be potentially useful biomarkers of depression and recovery after treatment.

Methods and analysis

This is an observational, prospective cohort study of 65 people attending psychological therapy for depression in multiple London-based sites. It will collect continuous passive data from smartphone sensors and a Fitbit fitness tracker, and deliver questionnaires, speech tasks and cognitive assessments through smartphone-based apps. Objective data on sleep, physical activity, location, Bluetooth contact, smartphone use and heart rate will be gathered for 7 months, and compared with clinical and contextual data. A mixed methods design, including a qualitative interview of patient experiences, will be used to evaluate key feasibility indicators, digital phenotypes of depression and therapy prognosis. Patient and public involvement was sought for participant-facing documents and the study design of the current research proposal.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the London Westminster Research Ethics Committee, and the Health Research Authority, Integrated Research Application System (project ID: 270918). Privacy and confidentiality will be guaranteed and the procedures for handling, processing, storage and destruction of the data will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. Findings from this study will form part of a doctoral thesis, will be presented at national and international meetings or academic conferences and will generate manuscripts to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

Trial registration number

https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PMYTA.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/5/e059258.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394?pdf=render 36269859,https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206083119,Metabolome-wide association study on ABCA7 indicates a role of ceramide metabolism in Alzheimer's disease.,"Dehghan A, Pinto RC, Karaman I, Huang J, Durainayagam BR, Ghanbari M, Nazeer A, Zhong Q, Liggi S, Whiley L, Mustafa R, Kivipelto M, Solomon A, Ngandu T, Kanekiyo T, Aikawa T, Radulescu CI, Barnes SJ, Graça G, Chekmeneva E, Camuzeaux S, Lewis MR, Kaluarachchi MR, Ikram MA, Holmes E, Tzoulaki I, Matthews PM, Griffin JL, Elliott P.",,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,2022,2022-10-21,Y,Ceramide; Alzheimer’s disease; Metabolomics; Genome-wide Association Study; Abca7,,,"Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified genetic loci associated with the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the molecular mechanisms by which they confer risk are largely unknown. We conducted a metabolome-wide association study (MWAS) of AD-associated loci from GWASs using untargeted metabolic profiling (metabolomics) by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). We identified an association of lactosylceramides (LacCer) with AD-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ABCA7 (P = 5.0 × 10-5 to 1.3 × 10-44). We showed that plasma LacCer concentrations are associated with cognitive performance and genetically modified levels of LacCer are associated with AD risk. We then showed that concentrations of sphingomyelins, ceramides, and hexosylceramides were altered in brain tissue from Abca7 knockout mice, compared with wild type (WT) (P = 0.049-1.4 × 10-5), but not in a mouse model of amyloidosis. Furthermore, activation of microglia increases intracellular concentrations of hexosylceramides in part through induction in the expression of sphingosine kinase, an enzyme with a high control coefficient for sphingolipid and ceramide synthesis. Our work suggests that the risk for AD arising from functional variations in ABCA7 is mediated at least in part through ceramides. Modulation of their metabolism or downstream signaling may offer new therapeutic opportunities for AD.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206083119; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206083119; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9618092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9618092?pdf=render 32097451,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa015,Commentary: Using human genetics to guide the repurposing of medicines.,"Bovijn J, Censin JC, Lindgren CM, Holmes MV.",,International journal of epidemiology,2020,2020-08-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/49/4/1140/34275903/dyaa015.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660148; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660148?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa015 35189575,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103878,The impact of hypoxia on B cells in COVID-19.,"Kotagiri P, Mescia F, Hanson AL, Turner L, Bergamaschi L, Peñalver A, Richoz N, Moore SD, Ortmann BM, Dunmore BJ, Morgan MD, Tuong ZK, Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease-National Institute of Health Research (CITIID-NIHR) COVID BioResource Collaboration, Göttgens B, Toshner M, Hess C, Maxwell PH, Clatworthy MR, Nathan JA, Bradley JR, Lyons PA, Burrows N, Smith KGC.",,EBioMedicine,2022,2022-02-19,Y,Hypoxia; B cells; Lymphopenia; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Prominent early features of COVID-19 include severe, often clinically silent, hypoxia and a pronounced reduction in B cells, the latter important in defence against SARS-CoV-2. This presentation resembles the phenotype of mice with VHL-deficient B cells, in which Hypoxia-Inducible Factors are constitutively active, suggesting hypoxia might drive B cell abnormalities in COVID-19.

Methods

Detailed B cell phenotyping was undertaken by flow-cytometry on longitudinal samples from patients with COVID-19 across a range of severities (NIHR Cambridge BioResource). The impact of hypoxia on the transcriptome was assessed by single-cell and whole blood RNA sequencing analysis. The direct effect of hypoxia on B cells was determined through immunisation studies in genetically modified and hypoxia-exposed mice.

Findings

We demonstrate the breadth of early and persistent defects in B cell subsets in moderate/severe COVID-19, including reduced marginal zone-like, memory and transitional B cells, changes also observed in B cell VHL-deficient mice. These findings were associated with hypoxia-related transcriptional changes in COVID-19 patient B cells, and similar B cell abnormalities were seen in mice kept in hypoxic conditions.

Interpretation

Hypoxia may contribute to the pronounced and persistent B cell pathology observed in acute COVID-19 pneumonia. Assessment of the impact of early oxygen therapy on these immune defects should be considered, as their correction could contribute to improved outcomes.

Funding

Evelyn Trust, Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust, UKRI/NIHR, Wellcome Trust.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396422000627/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103878; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856886?pdf=render -36895957,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037,Investigating genotype-phenotype relationship of extreme neuropathic pain disorders in a UK national cohort.,"Themistocleous AC, Baskozos G, Blesneac I, Comini M, Megy K, Chong S, Deevi SVV, Ginsberg L, Gosal D, Hadden RDM, Horvath R, Mahdi-Rogers M, Manzur A, Mapeta R, Marshall A, Matthews E, McCarthy MI, Reilly MM, Renton T, Rice ASC, Vale TA, van Zuydam N, Walker SM, Woods CG, Bennett DLH.",,Brain communications,2023,2023-02-20,Y,Sodium channels; Neuropathic pain; Peripheral Neuropathy; Whole Genome Sequencing,,,"The aims of our study were to use whole genome sequencing in a cross-sectional cohort of patients to identify new variants in genes implicated in neuropathic pain, to determine the prevalence of known pathogenic variants and to understand the relationship between pathogenic variants and clinical presentation. Patients with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes (both sensory loss and gain) were recruited from secondary care clinics in the UK and underwent whole genome sequencing as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Bioresource Rare Diseases project. A multidisciplinary team assessed the pathogenicity of rare variants in genes previously known to cause neuropathic pain disorders and exploratory analysis of research candidate genes was completed. Association testing for genes carrying rare variants was completed using the gene-wise approach of the combined burden and variance-component test SKAT-O. Patch clamp analysis was performed on transfected HEK293T cells for research candidate variants of genes encoding ion channels. The results include the following: (i) Medically actionable variants were found in 12% of study participants (205 recruited), including known pathogenic variants: SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1): c.2544T>C, p.Ile848Thr that causes inherited erythromelalgia, and SPTLC1(ENST00000262554.2):c.340T>G, p.Cys133Tr variant that causes hereditary sensory neuropathy type-1. (ii) Clinically relevant variants were most common in voltage-gated sodium channels (Nav). (iii) SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1):c.554G>A, pArg185His variant was more common in non-freezing cold injury participants than controls and causes a gain of function of NaV1.7 after cooling (the environmental trigger for non-freezing cold injury). (iv) Rare variant association testing showed a significant difference in distribution for genes NGF, KIF1A, SCN8A, TRPM8, KIF1A, TRPA1 and the regulatory regions of genes SCN11A, FLVCR1, KIF1A and SCN9A between European participants with neuropathic pain and controls. (v) The TRPA1(ENST00000262209.4):c.515C>T, p.Ala172Val variant identified in participants with episodic somatic pain disorder demonstrated gain-of-channel function to agonist stimulation. Whole genome sequencing identified clinically relevant variants in over 10% of participants with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes. The majority of these variants were found in ion channels. Combining genetic analysis with functional validation can lead to a better understanding as to how rare variants in ion channels lead to sensory neuron hyper-excitability, and how cold, as an environmental trigger, interacts with the gain-of-function NaV1.7 p.Arg185His variant. Our findings highlight the role of ion channel variants in the pathogenesis of extreme neuropathic pain disorders, likely mediated through changes in sensory neuron excitability and interaction with environmental triggers.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/5/2/fcad037/49446967/fcad037.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512?pdf=render 35585198,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01772-9,Reporting guideline for the early-stage clinical evaluation of decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence: DECIDE-AI.,"Vasey B, Nagendran M, Campbell B, Clifton DA, Collins GS, Denaxas S, Denniston AK, Faes L, Geerts B, Ibrahim M, Liu X, Mateen BA, Mathur P, McCradden MD, Morgan L, Ordish J, Rogers C, Saria S, Ting DSW, Watkinson P, Weber W, Wheatstone P, McCulloch P, DECIDE-AI expert group.",,Nature medicine,2022,2022-05-18,N,,,,"A growing number of artificial intelligence (AI)-based clinical decision support systems are showing promising performance in preclinical, in silico evaluation, but few have yet demonstrated real benefit to patient care. Early-stage clinical evaluation is important to assess an AI system's actual clinical performance at small scale, ensure its safety, evaluate the human factors surrounding its use and pave the way to further large-scale trials. However, the reporting of these early studies remains inadequate. The present statement provides a multi-stakeholder, consensus-based reporting guideline for the Developmental and Exploratory Clinical Investigations of DEcision support systems driven by Artificial Intelligence (DECIDE-AI). We conducted a two-round, modified Delphi process to collect and analyze expert opinion on the reporting of early clinical evaluation of AI systems. Experts were recruited from 20 pre-defined stakeholder categories. The final composition and wording of the guideline was determined at a virtual consensus meeting. The checklist and the Explanation & Elaboration (E&E) sections were refined based on feedback from a qualitative evaluation process. In total, 123 experts participated in the first round of Delphi, 138 in the second round, 16 in the consensus meeting and 16 in the qualitative evaluation. The DECIDE-AI reporting guideline comprises 17 AI-specific reporting items (made of 28 subitems) and ten generic reporting items, with an E&E paragraph provided for each. Through consultation and consensus with a range of stakeholders, we developed a guideline comprising key items that should be reported in early-stage clinical studies of AI-based decision support systems in healthcare. By providing an actionable checklist of minimal reporting items, the DECIDE-AI guideline will facilitate the appraisal of these studies and replicability of their findings.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01772-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01772-9 +36895957,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037,Investigating genotype-phenotype relationship of extreme neuropathic pain disorders in a UK national cohort.,"Themistocleous AC, Baskozos G, Blesneac I, Comini M, Megy K, Chong S, Deevi SVV, Ginsberg L, Gosal D, Hadden RDM, Horvath R, Mahdi-Rogers M, Manzur A, Mapeta R, Marshall A, Matthews E, McCarthy MI, Reilly MM, Renton T, Rice ASC, Vale TA, van Zuydam N, Walker SM, Woods CG, Bennett DLH.",,Brain communications,2023,2023-02-20,Y,Sodium channels; Neuropathic pain; Peripheral Neuropathy; Whole Genome Sequencing,,,"The aims of our study were to use whole genome sequencing in a cross-sectional cohort of patients to identify new variants in genes implicated in neuropathic pain, to determine the prevalence of known pathogenic variants and to understand the relationship between pathogenic variants and clinical presentation. Patients with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes (both sensory loss and gain) were recruited from secondary care clinics in the UK and underwent whole genome sequencing as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Bioresource Rare Diseases project. A multidisciplinary team assessed the pathogenicity of rare variants in genes previously known to cause neuropathic pain disorders and exploratory analysis of research candidate genes was completed. Association testing for genes carrying rare variants was completed using the gene-wise approach of the combined burden and variance-component test SKAT-O. Patch clamp analysis was performed on transfected HEK293T cells for research candidate variants of genes encoding ion channels. The results include the following: (i) Medically actionable variants were found in 12% of study participants (205 recruited), including known pathogenic variants: SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1): c.2544T>C, p.Ile848Thr that causes inherited erythromelalgia, and SPTLC1(ENST00000262554.2):c.340T>G, p.Cys133Tr variant that causes hereditary sensory neuropathy type-1. (ii) Clinically relevant variants were most common in voltage-gated sodium channels (Nav). (iii) SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1):c.554G>A, pArg185His variant was more common in non-freezing cold injury participants than controls and causes a gain of function of NaV1.7 after cooling (the environmental trigger for non-freezing cold injury). (iv) Rare variant association testing showed a significant difference in distribution for genes NGF, KIF1A, SCN8A, TRPM8, KIF1A, TRPA1 and the regulatory regions of genes SCN11A, FLVCR1, KIF1A and SCN9A between European participants with neuropathic pain and controls. (v) The TRPA1(ENST00000262209.4):c.515C>T, p.Ala172Val variant identified in participants with episodic somatic pain disorder demonstrated gain-of-channel function to agonist stimulation. Whole genome sequencing identified clinically relevant variants in over 10% of participants with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes. The majority of these variants were found in ion channels. Combining genetic analysis with functional validation can lead to a better understanding as to how rare variants in ion channels lead to sensory neuron hyper-excitability, and how cold, as an environmental trigger, interacts with the gain-of-function NaV1.7 p.Arg185His variant. Our findings highlight the role of ion channel variants in the pathogenesis of extreme neuropathic pain disorders, likely mediated through changes in sensory neuron excitability and interaction with environmental triggers.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/5/2/fcad037/49446967/fcad037.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512?pdf=render 31478583,https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1615,Association between beta-blocker use and mortality/morbidity in older patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. A propensity score-matched analysis from the Swedish Heart Failure Registry.,"Stolfo D, Uijl A, Benson L, Schrage B, Fudim M, Asselbergs FW, Koudstaal S, Sinagra G, Dahlström U, Rosano G, Savarese G.",,European journal of heart failure,2020,2019-10-23,N,Elderly; Heart Failure; Beta-blocker; Registry; Swedehf,Improving Public Health,cardiovascular,"

Background

Beta-blockers reduce mortality and morbidity in heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, patients older than 80 years are poorly represented in randomized controlled trials. We assessed the association between beta-blocker use and outcomes in HFrEF patients aged ≥80 years.

Methods and results

We included patients with an ejection fraction <40% and aged ≥80 years from the Swedish HF Registry. The association between beta-blocker use, all-cause mortality and cardiovascular (CV) mortality/HF hospitalization was assessed by Cox proportional hazard models in a 1:1 propensity score-matched cohort. To assess consistency, the same analyses were performed in a positive control cohort with age <80 years. A negative control outcome analysis was run using hospitalization for cancer as endpoint. Of 6562 patients aged ≥80 years, 5640 (86%) received beta-blockers. In the matched cohort including 1732 patients, beta-blocker use was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 0.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79-0.99]. Reduction in CV mortality/HF hospitalization was not significant (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.85-1.05) due to the lack of association with HF hospitalization, whereas CV death was significantly reduced. After adjustment rather than matching for the propensity score in the overall cohort, beta-blocker use was associated with reduced risk of all outcomes. In patients aged <80 years, use of beta-blockers was associated with reduced risk of all-cause death (HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.92) and of the composite outcome (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.77-0.99).

Conclusions

In HFrEF patients ≥80 years of age, use of beta-blockers was high and was associated with improved all-cause and CV survival.",This study looked at 6562 people with severe heart failure and whether there was an association between taking beta-blockers (a drug to control heart rate) and heart disease. They used a national Swedish registry of patients with heart failure and compared those who were taking beta blockers (866 patients) to those not taking beta blockers (866 patients). The study found that patients who were taking beta blockers tended also to have lower risk of heart complications and were more likely to survive.,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.1615; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1615 32706893,https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020002230,Artificial intelligence-based morphological fingerprinting of megakaryocytes: a new tool for assessing disease in MPN patients.,"Sirinukunwattana K, Aberdeen A, Theissen H, Sousos N, Psaila B, Mead AJ, Turner GDH, Rees G, Rittscher J, Royston D.",,Blood advances,2020,2020-07-01,N,,,,"Accurate diagnosis and classification of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) requires integration of clinical, morphological, and genetic findings. Despite major advances in our understanding of the molecular and genetic basis of MPNs, the morphological assessment of bone marrow trephines (BMT) is critical in differentiating MPN subtypes and their reactive mimics. However, morphological assessment is heavily constrained by a reliance on subjective, qualitative, and poorly reproducible criteria. To improve the morphological assessment of MPNs, we have developed a machine learning approach for the automated identification, quantitative analysis, and abstract representation of megakaryocyte features using reactive/nonneoplastic BMT samples (n = 43) and those from patients with established diagnoses of essential thrombocythemia (n = 45), polycythemia vera (n = 18), or myelofibrosis (n = 25). We describe the application of an automated workflow for the identification and delineation of relevant histological features from routinely prepared BMTs. Subsequent analysis enabled the tissue diagnosis of MPN with a high predictive accuracy (area under the curve = 0.95) and revealed clear evidence of the potential to discriminate between important MPN subtypes. Our method of visually representing abstracted megakaryocyte features in the context of analyzed patient cohorts facilitates the interpretation and monitoring of samples in a manner that is beyond conventional approaches. The automated BMT phenotyping approach described here has significant potential as an adjunct to standard genetic and molecular testing in established or suspected MPN patients, either as part of the routine diagnostic pathway or in the assessment of disease progression/response to treatment.",,pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/4/14/3284/1749738/advancesadv2020002230.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020002230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7391156; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7391156?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020002230 -35296488,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552,"AlzEye: longitudinal record-level linkage of ophthalmic imaging and hospital admissions of 353 157 patients in London, UK.","Wagner SK, Hughes F, Cortina-Borja M, Pontikos N, Struyven R, Liu X, Montgomery H, Alexander DC, Topol E, Petersen SE, Balaskas K, Hindley J, Petzold A, Rahi JS, Denniston AK, Keane PA.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-16,Y,Ophthalmology; Health Informatics; Medical Retina; Medical Ophthalmology,,,"

Purpose

Retinal signatures of systemic disease ('oculomics') are increasingly being revealed through a combination of high-resolution ophthalmic imaging and sophisticated modelling strategies. Progress is currently limited not mainly by technical issues, but by the lack of large labelled datasets, a sine qua non for deep learning. Such data are derived from prospective epidemiological studies, in which retinal imaging is typically unimodal, cross-sectional, of modest number and relates to cohorts, which are not enriched with subpopulations of interest, such as those with systemic disease. We thus linked longitudinal multimodal retinal imaging from routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) data with systemic disease data from hospital admissions using a privacy-by-design third-party linkage approach.

Participants

Between 1 January 2008 and 1 April 2018, 353 157 participants aged 40 years or older, who attended Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a tertiary ophthalmic institution incorporating a principal central site, four district hubs and five satellite clinics in and around London, UK serving a catchment population of approximately six million people.

Findings to date

Among the 353 157 individuals, 186 651 had a total of 1 337 711 Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care episodes. Systemic diagnoses recorded at these episodes include 12 022 patients with myocardial infarction, 11 735 with all-cause stroke and 13 363 with all-cause dementia. A total of 6 261 931 retinal images of seven different modalities and across three manufacturers were acquired from 1 54 830 patients. The majority of retinal images were retinal photographs (n=1 874 175) followed by optical coherence tomography (n=1 567 358).

Future plans

AlzEye combines the world's largest single institution retinal imaging database with nationally collected systemic data to create an exceptional large-scale, enriched cohort that reflects the diversity of the population served. First analyses will address cardiovascular diseases and dementia, with a view to identifying hidden retinal signatures that may lead to earlier detection and risk management of these life-threatening conditions.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e058552.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293?pdf=render 34252085,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162,Detecting behavioural changes in human movement to inform the spatial scale of interventions against COVID-19.,"Gibbs H, Nightingale E, Liu Y, Cheshire J, Danon L, Smeeth L, Pearson CAB, Grundy C, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 working group, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM.",,PLoS computational biology,2021,2021-07-12,Y,,,,"On March 23 2020, the UK enacted an intensive, nationwide lockdown to mitigate transmission of COVID-19. As restrictions began to ease, more localized interventions were used to target resurgences in transmission. Understanding the spatial scale of networks of human interaction, and how these networks change over time, is critical to targeting interventions at the most at-risk areas without unnecessarily restricting areas at low risk of resurgence. We use detailed human mobility data aggregated from Facebook users to determine how the spatially-explicit network of movements changed before and during the lockdown period, in response to the easing of restrictions, and to the introduction of locally-targeted interventions. We also apply community detection techniques to the weighted, directed network of movements to identify geographically-explicit movement communities and measure the evolution of these community structures through time. We found that the mobility network became more sparse and the number of mobility communities decreased under the national lockdown, a change that disproportionately affected long distance connections central to the mobility network. We also found that the community structure of areas in which locally-targeted interventions were implemented following epidemic resurgence did not show reorganization of community structure but did show small decreases in indicators of travel outside of local areas. We propose that communities detected using Facebook or other mobility data be used to assess the impact of spatially-targeted restrictions and may inform policymakers about the spatial extent of human movement patterns in the UK. These data are available in near real-time, allowing quantification of changes in the distribution of the population across the UK, as well as changes in travel patterns to inform our understanding of the impact of geographically-targeted interventions.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8297940; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8297940?pdf=render -37393924,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00860-7,"The unfinished agenda of communicable diseases among children and adolescents before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Child and Adolescent Communicable Disease Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2023,2023-06-29,Y,,,,"

Background

Communicable disease control has long been a focus of global health policy. There have been substantial reductions in the burden and mortality of communicable diseases among children younger than 5 years, but we know less about this burden in older children and adolescents, and it is unclear whether current programmes and policies remain aligned with targets for intervention. This knowledge is especially important for policy and programmes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to use the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019 to systematically characterise the burden of communicable diseases across childhood and adolescence.

Methods

In this systematic analysis of the GBD study from 1990 to 2019, all communicable diseases and their manifestations as modelled within GBD 2019 were included, categorised as 16 subgroups of common diseases or presentations. Data were reported for absolute count, prevalence, and incidence across measures of cause-specific mortality (deaths and years of life lost), disability (years lived with disability [YLDs]), and disease burden (disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs]) for children and adolescents aged 0-24 years. Data were reported across the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and across time (1990-2019), and for 204 countries and territories. For HIV, we reported the mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) as a measure of health system performance.

Findings

In 2019, there were 3·0 million deaths and 30·0 million years of healthy life lost to disability (as measured by YLDs), corresponding to 288·4 million DALYs from communicable diseases among children and adolescents globally (57·3% of total communicable disease burden across all ages). Over time, there has been a shift in communicable disease burden from young children to older children and adolescents (largely driven by the considerable reductions in children younger than 5 years and slower progress elsewhere), although children younger than 5 years still accounted for most of the communicable disease burden in 2019. Disease burden and mortality were predominantly in low-SDI settings, with high and high-middle SDI settings also having an appreciable burden of communicable disease morbidity (4·0 million YLDs in 2019 alone). Three cause groups (enteric infections, lower-respiratory-tract infections, and malaria) accounted for 59·8% of the global communicable disease burden in children and adolescents, with tuberculosis and HIV both emerging as important causes during adolescence. HIV was the only cause for which disease burden increased over time, particularly in children and adolescents older than 5 years, and especially in females. Excess MIRs for HIV were observed for males aged 15-19 years in low-SDI settings.

Interpretation

Our analysis supports continued policy focus on enteric infections and lower-respiratory-tract infections, with orientation to children younger than 5 years in settings of low socioeconomic development. However, efforts should also be targeted to other conditions, particularly HIV, given its increased burden in older children and adolescents. Older children and adolescents also experience a large burden of communicable disease, further highlighting the need for efforts to extend beyond the first 5 years of life. Our analysis also identified substantial morbidity caused by communicable diseases affecting child and adolescent health across the world.

Funding

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence for Driving Investment in Global Adolescent Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00860-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221?pdf=render 32862087,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.07.014,Sex-specific predictors of PCSK9 levels in a European population: The IMPROVE study.,"Ferri N, Ruscica M, Coggi D, Bonomi A, Amato M, Frigerio B, Sansaro D, Ravani A, Veglia F, Capra N, Lupo MG, Macchi C, Castelnuovo S, Savonen K, Silveira A, Kurl S, Giral P, Pirro M, Strawbridge RJ, Gigante B, Smit AJ, Tremoli E, Colombo GI, Baldassarre D, IMPROVE study group.",,Atherosclerosis,2020,2020-07-30,N,Atherosclerosis; Cardiovascular risk factors; Sex differences; Pcsk9 Predictors,,,"

Background and aims

Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is one of the key regulators of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol plasma levels. Circulating PCSK9, which differs between genders, represents a valid pharmacological target for preventing cardiovascular (CV) events. We aimed to investigate sex-related associations between PCSK9 plasma levels and biochemical and anthropomorphic factors, and familial and personal morbidities, in a large European cohort (n = 3673) of men (47.9%) and women (52.1%).

Methods

Individuals (aged 54-79 years) free of CV diseases were enrolled in seven centers of five European countries: Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. PCSK9 plasma levels were measured by ELISA.

Results

PCSK9 was higher in women than in men. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that latitude, sex, and treatments with statins and fibrates were the strongest predictors of PCSK9 in the whole group. These variables, together with triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, were also associated with PCSK9 in men or women. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and pack-years were PCSK9 independent predictors in women, whereas hypercholesterolemia and physical activity were independent predictors in men. The associations between PCSK9 and latitude, uric acid, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and physical activity were significantly different in men and women (pinteraction <0.05 for all).

Conclusions

Besides confirming the association with lipids in the whole group, our study revealed previously unknown differences in PCSK9 predictors in men and women. These might be taken into account when defining individual risk for CV events and/or for refining PCSK9 lowering treatments.",,pdf:http://www.atherosclerosis-journal.com/article/S0021915020303816/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.07.014 +35296488,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552,"AlzEye: longitudinal record-level linkage of ophthalmic imaging and hospital admissions of 353 157 patients in London, UK.","Wagner SK, Hughes F, Cortina-Borja M, Pontikos N, Struyven R, Liu X, Montgomery H, Alexander DC, Topol E, Petersen SE, Balaskas K, Hindley J, Petzold A, Rahi JS, Denniston AK, Keane PA.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-16,Y,Ophthalmology; Health Informatics; Medical Retina; Medical Ophthalmology,,,"

Purpose

Retinal signatures of systemic disease ('oculomics') are increasingly being revealed through a combination of high-resolution ophthalmic imaging and sophisticated modelling strategies. Progress is currently limited not mainly by technical issues, but by the lack of large labelled datasets, a sine qua non for deep learning. Such data are derived from prospective epidemiological studies, in which retinal imaging is typically unimodal, cross-sectional, of modest number and relates to cohorts, which are not enriched with subpopulations of interest, such as those with systemic disease. We thus linked longitudinal multimodal retinal imaging from routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) data with systemic disease data from hospital admissions using a privacy-by-design third-party linkage approach.

Participants

Between 1 January 2008 and 1 April 2018, 353 157 participants aged 40 years or older, who attended Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a tertiary ophthalmic institution incorporating a principal central site, four district hubs and five satellite clinics in and around London, UK serving a catchment population of approximately six million people.

Findings to date

Among the 353 157 individuals, 186 651 had a total of 1 337 711 Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care episodes. Systemic diagnoses recorded at these episodes include 12 022 patients with myocardial infarction, 11 735 with all-cause stroke and 13 363 with all-cause dementia. A total of 6 261 931 retinal images of seven different modalities and across three manufacturers were acquired from 1 54 830 patients. The majority of retinal images were retinal photographs (n=1 874 175) followed by optical coherence tomography (n=1 567 358).

Future plans

AlzEye combines the world's largest single institution retinal imaging database with nationally collected systemic data to create an exceptional large-scale, enriched cohort that reflects the diversity of the population served. First analyses will address cardiovascular diseases and dementia, with a view to identifying hidden retinal signatures that may lead to earlier detection and risk management of these life-threatening conditions.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e058552.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293?pdf=render 32184442,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0857-9,Genome-wide association identifies seven loci for pelvic organ prolapse in Iceland and the UK Biobank.,"Olafsdottir T, Thorleifsson G, Sulem P, Stefansson OA, Medek H, Olafsson K, Ingthorsson O, Gudmundsson V, Jonsdottir I, Halldorsson GH, Kristjansson RP, Frigge ML, Stefansdottir L, Sigurdsson JK, Oddsson A, Sigurdsson A, Eggertsson HP, Melsted P, Halldorsson BV, Lund SH, Styrkarsdottir U, Steinthorsdottir V, Gudmundsson J, Holm H, Tragante V, Asselbergs FW, Thorsteinsdottir U, Gudbjartsson DF, Jonsdottir K, Rafnar T, Stefansson K.",,Communications biology,2020,2020-03-17,Y,,,,"Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a downward descent of one or more of the pelvic organs, resulting in a protrusion of the vaginal wall and/or uterus. We performed a genome-wide association study of POP using data from Iceland and the UK Biobank, a total of 15,010 cases with hospital-based diagnosis code and 340,734 female controls, and found eight sequence variants at seven loci associating with POP (P < 5 × 10-8); seven common (minor allele frequency >5%) and one with minor allele frequency of 4.87%. Some of the variants associating with POP also associated with traits of similar pathophysiology. Of these, rs3820282, which may alter the estrogen-based regulation of WNT4, also associates with leiomyoma of uterus, gestational duration and endometriosis. Rs3791675 at EFEMP1, a gene involved in connective tissue homeostasis, also associates with hernias and carpal tunnel syndrome. Our results highlight the role of connective tissue metabolism and estrogen exposure in the etiology of POP.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-0857-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0857-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7078216; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7078216?pdf=render +37393924,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00860-7,"The unfinished agenda of communicable diseases among children and adolescents before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Child and Adolescent Communicable Disease Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2023,2023-06-29,Y,,,,"

Background

Communicable disease control has long been a focus of global health policy. There have been substantial reductions in the burden and mortality of communicable diseases among children younger than 5 years, but we know less about this burden in older children and adolescents, and it is unclear whether current programmes and policies remain aligned with targets for intervention. This knowledge is especially important for policy and programmes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to use the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019 to systematically characterise the burden of communicable diseases across childhood and adolescence.

Methods

In this systematic analysis of the GBD study from 1990 to 2019, all communicable diseases and their manifestations as modelled within GBD 2019 were included, categorised as 16 subgroups of common diseases or presentations. Data were reported for absolute count, prevalence, and incidence across measures of cause-specific mortality (deaths and years of life lost), disability (years lived with disability [YLDs]), and disease burden (disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs]) for children and adolescents aged 0-24 years. Data were reported across the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and across time (1990-2019), and for 204 countries and territories. For HIV, we reported the mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) as a measure of health system performance.

Findings

In 2019, there were 3·0 million deaths and 30·0 million years of healthy life lost to disability (as measured by YLDs), corresponding to 288·4 million DALYs from communicable diseases among children and adolescents globally (57·3% of total communicable disease burden across all ages). Over time, there has been a shift in communicable disease burden from young children to older children and adolescents (largely driven by the considerable reductions in children younger than 5 years and slower progress elsewhere), although children younger than 5 years still accounted for most of the communicable disease burden in 2019. Disease burden and mortality were predominantly in low-SDI settings, with high and high-middle SDI settings also having an appreciable burden of communicable disease morbidity (4·0 million YLDs in 2019 alone). Three cause groups (enteric infections, lower-respiratory-tract infections, and malaria) accounted for 59·8% of the global communicable disease burden in children and adolescents, with tuberculosis and HIV both emerging as important causes during adolescence. HIV was the only cause for which disease burden increased over time, particularly in children and adolescents older than 5 years, and especially in females. Excess MIRs for HIV were observed for males aged 15-19 years in low-SDI settings.

Interpretation

Our analysis supports continued policy focus on enteric infections and lower-respiratory-tract infections, with orientation to children younger than 5 years in settings of low socioeconomic development. However, efforts should also be targeted to other conditions, particularly HIV, given its increased burden in older children and adolescents. Older children and adolescents also experience a large burden of communicable disease, further highlighting the need for efforts to extend beyond the first 5 years of life. Our analysis also identified substantial morbidity caused by communicable diseases affecting child and adolescent health across the world.

Funding

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence for Driving Investment in Global Adolescent Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00860-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221?pdf=render 33203906,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76518-z,Accelerated MRI-predicted brain ageing and its associations with cardiometabolic and brain disorders.,"Kolbeinsson A, Filippi S, Panagakis Y, Matthews PM, Elliott P, Dehghan A, Tzoulaki I.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-11-17,Y,,,,"Brain structure in later life reflects both influences of intrinsic aging and those of lifestyle, environment and disease. We developed a deep neural network model trained on brain MRI scans of healthy people to predict ""healthy"" brain age. Brain regions most informative for the prediction included the cerebellum, hippocampus, amygdala and insular cortex. We then applied this model to data from an independent group of people not stratified for health. A phenome-wide association analysis of over 1,410 traits in the UK Biobank with differences between the predicted and chronological ages for the second group identified significant associations with over 40 traits including diseases (e.g., type I and type II diabetes), disease risk factors (e.g., increased diastolic blood pressure and body mass index), and poorer cognitive function. These observations highlight relationships between brain and systemic health and have implications for understanding contributions of the latter to late life dementia risk.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76518-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76518-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7672070; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7672070?pdf=render 31794059,https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18778,What is the evidence for interactions between filaggrin null mutations and environmental exposures in the aetiology of atopic dermatitis? A systematic review.,"Blakeway H, Van-de-Velde V, Allen VB, Kravvas G, Palla L, Page MJ, Flohr C, Weller RB, Irvine AD, McPherson T, Roberts A, Williams HC, Reynolds N, Brown SJ, Paternoster L, Langan SM, (on behalf of UK TREND Eczema Network).",,The British journal of dermatology,2020,2020-02-11,Y,,,,"

Background

Epidemiological studies indicate that gene-environment interactions play a role in atopic dermatitis (AD).

Objectives

To review the evidence for gene-environment interactions in AD aetiology, focusing on filaggrin (FLG) loss-of-function mutations.

Methods

A systematic search from inception to September 2018 in Embase, MEDLINE and BIOSIS was performed. Search terms included all synonyms for AD and filaggrin/FLG; any genetic or epidemiological study design using any statistical methods were included. Quality assessment using criteria modified from guidance (ROBINS-I and Human Genome Epidemiology Network) for nonrandomized and genetic studies was completed, including consideration of power. Heterogeneity of study design and analyses precluded the use of meta-analysis.

Results

Of 1817 papers identified, 12 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria required and performed formal interaction testing. There was some evidence for FLG-environment interactions in six of the studies (P-value for interaction ≤ 0·05), including early-life cat ownership, older siblings, water hardness, phthalate exposure, higher urinary phthalate metabolite levels (which all increased AD risk additional to FLG null genotype) and prolonged breastfeeding (which decreased AD risk in the context of FLG null genotype). Major limitations of published studies were the low numbers of individuals (ranging from five to 94) with AD and FLG loss-of-function mutations and exposure to specific environmental factors, and variation in exposure definitions.

Conclusions

Evidence on FLG-environment interactions in AD aetiology is limited. However, many of the studies lacked large enough sample sizes to assess these interactions fully. Further research is needed with larger sample sizes and clearly defined exposure assessment. Linked Comment: Park and Seo. Br J Dermatol 2020; 183:411.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18778; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18778; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7496176; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7496176?pdf=render -32935027,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093,Health Data Linkage for UK Public Interest Research: Key Obstacles and Solutions.,"Mourby MJ, Doidge J, Jones KH, Aidinlis S, Smith H, Bell J, Gilbert R, Dutey-Magni P, Kaye J.",,International journal of population data science,2019,2019-04-02,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Analysis of linked health data can generate important, even life-saving, insights into population health. Yet obstacles both legal and organisational in nature can impede this work.

Approach

We focus on three UK infrastructures set up to link and share data for research: the Administrative Data Research Network, NHS Digital, and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. Bringing an interdisciplinary perspective, we identify key issues underpinning their challenges and successes in linking health data for research.

Results

We identify examples of uncertainty surrounding legal powers to share and link data, and around data protection obligations, as well as systemic delays and historic public backlash. These issues require updated official guidance on the relevant law, approaches to linkage which are planned for impact and ongoing utility, greater transparency between data providers and researchers, and engagement with the patient population which is both high-profile and carefully considered.

Conclusions

Health data linkage for research presents varied challenges, to which there can be no single solution. Our recommendations would require action from a number of data providers and regulators to be meaningfully advanced. This illustrates the scale and complexity of the challenge of health data linkage, in the UK and beyond: a challenge which our case studies suggest no single organisation can combat alone. Planned programmes of linkage are critical because they allow time for organisations to address these challenges without adversely affecting the feasibility of individual research projects.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1093/1035; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514?pdf=render 32681152,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-020-0343-3,Identifying unknown metabolites using NMR-based metabolic profiling techniques.,"Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Serrano-Contreras JI, Boulangé CL, Chan Q, Frost G, Stamler J, Elliott P, Lindon JC, Holmes E, Nicholson JK.",,Nature protocols,2020,2020-07-17,N,,,,"Metabolic profiling of biological samples provides important insights into multiple physiological and pathological processes but is hindered by a lack of automated annotation and standardized methods for structure elucidation of candidate disease biomarkers. Here we describe a system for identifying molecular species derived from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy-based metabolic phenotyping studies, with detailed information on sample preparation, data acquisition and data modeling. We provide eight different modular workflows to be followed in a recommended sequential order according to their level of difficulty. This multi-platform system involves the use of statistical spectroscopic tools such as Statistical Total Correlation Spectroscopy (STOCSY), Subset Optimization by Reference Matching (STORM) and Resolution-Enhanced (RED)-STORM to identify other signals in the NMR spectra relating to the same molecule. It also uses two-dimensional NMR spectroscopic analysis, separation and pre-concentration techniques, multiple hyphenated analytical platforms and data extraction from existing databases. The complete system, using all eight workflows, would take up to a month, as it includes multi-dimensional NMR experiments that require prolonged experiment times. However, easier identification cases using fewer steps would take 2 or 3 days. This approach to biomarker discovery is efficient and cost-effective and offers increased chemical space coverage of the metabolome, resulting in faster and more accurate assignment of NMR-generated biomarkers arising from metabolic phenotyping studies. It requires a basic understanding of MATLAB to use the statistical spectroscopic tools and analytical skills to perform solid phase extraction (SPE), liquid chromatography (LC) fraction collection, LC-NMR-mass spectroscopy and one-dimensional and two-dimensional NMR experiments.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-020-0343-3 +32935027,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093,Health Data Linkage for UK Public Interest Research: Key Obstacles and Solutions.,"Mourby MJ, Doidge J, Jones KH, Aidinlis S, Smith H, Bell J, Gilbert R, Dutey-Magni P, Kaye J.",,International journal of population data science,2019,2019-04-02,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Analysis of linked health data can generate important, even life-saving, insights into population health. Yet obstacles both legal and organisational in nature can impede this work.

Approach

We focus on three UK infrastructures set up to link and share data for research: the Administrative Data Research Network, NHS Digital, and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. Bringing an interdisciplinary perspective, we identify key issues underpinning their challenges and successes in linking health data for research.

Results

We identify examples of uncertainty surrounding legal powers to share and link data, and around data protection obligations, as well as systemic delays and historic public backlash. These issues require updated official guidance on the relevant law, approaches to linkage which are planned for impact and ongoing utility, greater transparency between data providers and researchers, and engagement with the patient population which is both high-profile and carefully considered.

Conclusions

Health data linkage for research presents varied challenges, to which there can be no single solution. Our recommendations would require action from a number of data providers and regulators to be meaningfully advanced. This illustrates the scale and complexity of the challenge of health data linkage, in the UK and beyond: a challenge which our case studies suggest no single organisation can combat alone. Planned programmes of linkage are critical because they allow time for organisations to address these challenges without adversely affecting the feasibility of individual research projects.",,pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1093/1035; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514?pdf=render 35587468,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003981,Integrating polygenic risk scores in the prediction of type 2 diabetes risk and subtypes in British Pakistanis and Bangladeshis: A population-based cohort study.,"Hodgson S, Huang QQ, Sallah N, Genes & Health Research Team, Griffiths CJ, Newman WG, Trembath RC, Wright J, Lumbers RT, Kuchenbaecker K, van Heel DA, Mathur R, Martin HC, Finer S.",,PLoS medicine,2022,2022-05-19,Y,,,,"

Background

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is highly prevalent in British South Asians, yet they are underrepresented in research. Genes & Health (G&H) is a large, population study of British Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (BPB) comprising genomic and routine health data. We assessed the extent to which genetic risk for T2D is shared between BPB and European populations (EUR). We then investigated whether the integration of a polygenic risk score (PRS) for T2D with an existing risk tool (QDiabetes) could improve prediction of incident disease and the characterisation of disease subtypes.

Methods and findings

In this observational cohort study, we assessed whether common genetic loci associated with T2D in EUR individuals were replicated in 22,490 BPB individuals in G&H. We replicated fewer loci in G&H (n = 76/338, 22%) than would be expected given power if all EUR-ascertained loci were transferable (n = 101, 30%; p = 0.001). Of the 27 transferable loci that were powered to interrogate this, only 9 showed evidence of shared causal variants. We constructed a T2D PRS and combined it with a clinical risk instrument (QDiabetes) in a novel, integrated risk tool (IRT) to assess risk of incident diabetes. To assess model performance, we compared categorical net reclassification index (NRI) versus QDiabetes alone. In 13,648 patients free from T2D followed up for 10 years, NRI was 3.2% for IRT versus QDiabetes (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.0% to 4.4%). IRT performed best in reclassification of individuals aged less than 40 years deemed low risk by QDiabetes alone (NRI 5.6%, 95% CI 3.6% to 7.6%), who tended to be free from comorbidities and slim. After adjustment for QDiabetes score, PRS was independently associated with progression to T2D after gestational diabetes (hazard ratio (HR) per SD of PRS 1.23, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.42, p = 0.028). Using cluster analysis of clinical features at diabetes diagnosis, we replicated previously reported disease subgroups, including Mild Age-Related, Mild Obesity-related, and Insulin-Resistant Diabetes, and showed that PRS distribution differs between subgroups (p = 0.002). Integrating PRS in this cluster analysis revealed a Probable Severe Insulin Deficient Diabetes (pSIDD) subgroup, despite the absence of clinical measures of insulin secretion or resistance. We also observed differences in rates of progression to micro- and macrovascular complications between subgroups after adjustment for confounders. Study limitations include the absence of an external replication cohort and the potential biases arising from missing or incorrect routine health data.

Conclusions

Our analysis of the transferability of T2D loci between EUR and BPB indicates the need for larger, multiancestry studies to better characterise the genetic contribution to disease and its varied aetiology. We show that a T2D PRS optimised for this high-risk BPB population has potential clinical application in BPB, improving the identification of T2D risk (especially in the young) on top of an established clinical risk algorithm and aiding identification of subgroups at diagnosis, which may help future efforts to stratify care and treatment of the disease.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003981&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003981; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9119501; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9119501?pdf=render -33995410,https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052,Plasma Lectin Pathway Complement Proteins in Patients With COVID-19 and Renal Disease.,"Medjeral-Thomas NR, Troldborg A, Hansen AG, Gisby J, Clarke CL, Prendecki M, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Lightstone L, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Peters JE, Pickering MC, Thiel S.",,Frontiers in immunology,2021,2021-04-29,Y,Complement; Lectin; Coronavirus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Covid-19,,,"We do not understand why non-white ethnicity and chronic kidney disease increase susceptibility to COVID-19. The lectin pathway of complement activation is a key contributor to innate immunity and inflammation. Concentrations of plasma lectin pathway proteins influence pathway activity and vary with ethnicity. We measured circulating lectin proteins in a multi-ethnic cohort of chronic kidney disease patients with and without COVID19 infection to determine if lectin pathway activation was contributing to COVID19 severity. We measured 11 lectin proteins in serial samples from a cohort of 33 patients with chronic kidney impairment and COVID19. Controls were single plasma samples from 32 patients on dialysis and 32 healthy individuals. We demonstrated multiple associations between recognition molecules and associated proteases of the lectin pathway and COVID-19, including COVID-19 severity. Some of these associations were unique to patients of Asian and White ethnicity. Our novel findings demonstrate that COVID19 infection alters the concentration of plasma lectin proteins and some of these changes were linked to ethnicity. This suggests a role for the lectin pathway in the host response to COVID-19 and suggest that variability within this pathway may contribute to ethnicity-associated differences in susceptibility to severe COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695?pdf=render -33932483,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015,Probabilistic linkage without personal information successfully linked national clinical datasets.,"Blake HA, Sharples LD, Harron K, van der Meulen JH, Walker K.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2021,2021-04-28,Y,Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Personal Information; Probabilistic Linkage; National Clinical Datasets; Patient Identifiers,,,"

Background

Probabilistic linkage can link patients from different clinical databases without the need for personal information. If accurate linkage can be achieved, it would accelerate the use of linked datasets to address important clinical and public health questions.

Objective

We developed a step-by-step process for probabilistic linkage of national clinical and administrative datasets without personal information, and validated it against deterministic linkage using patient identifiers.

Study design and setting

We used electronic health records from the National Bowel Cancer Audit and Hospital Episode Statistics databases for 10,566 bowel cancer patients undergoing emergency surgery in the English National Health Service.

Results

Probabilistic linkage linked 81.4% of National Bowel Cancer Audit records to Hospital Episode Statistics, vs. 82.8% using deterministic linkage. No systematic differences were seen between patients that were and were not linked, and regression models for mortality and length of hospital stay according to patient and tumour characteristics were not sensitive to the linkage approach.

Conclusion

Probabilistic linkage was successful in linking national clinical and administrative datasets for patients undergoing a major surgical procedure. It allows analysts outside highly secure data environments to undertake linkage while minimizing costs and delays, protecting data security, and maintaining linkage quality.",,pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621001384/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443839 35188868,https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2038863,The potential of fecal microbiota and amino acids to detect and monitor patients with adenoma.,"Bosch S, Acharjee A, Quraishi MN, Rojas P, Bakkali A, Jansen EE, Brizzio Brentar M, Kuijvenhoven J, Stokkers P, Struys E, Beggs AD, Gkoutos GV, de Meij TG, de Boer NK.",,Gut microbes,2022,2022-01-01,Y,Biomarker; Surveillance; Adenoma; Colorectal Cancer; Omics,,,"The risk of recurrent dysplastic colonic lesions is increased following polypectomy. Yield of endoscopic surveillance after adenoma removal is low, while interval colorectal cancers occur. To longitudinally assess the dynamics of fecal microbiota and amino acids in the presence of adenomatous lesions and after their endoscopic removal. In this longitudinal case-control study, patients collected fecal samples prior to bowel preparation before scheduled colonoscopy and 3 months after this intervention. Based on colonoscopy outcomes, patients with advanced adenomas and nonadvanced adenomas (0.5-1.0 cm) who underwent polypectomy during endoscopy (n = 19) were strictly matched on age, body-mass index, and smoking habits to controls without endoscopic abnormalities (n = 19). Microbial taxa were measured by 16S RNA sequencing, and amino acids (AA) were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Adenoma patients were discriminated from controls based on AA and microbial composition. Levels of proline (p = .001), ornithine (p = .02) and serine (p = .02) were increased in adenoma patients compared to controls but decreased to resemble those of controls after adenoma removal. These AAs were combined as a potential adenoma-specific panel (AUC 0.79(0.64-0.94)). For bacterial taxa, differences between patients with adenomas and controls were found (Bifidobacterium spp.↓, Anaerostipes spp.↓, Butyricimonas spp.↑, Faecalitalea spp.↑ and Catenibacterium spp.↑), but no alterations in relative abundance were observed after polypectomy. Furthermore, Faecalitalea spp. and Butyricimonas spp. were significantly correlated with adenoma-specific amino acids. We selected an amino acid panel specifically increased in the presence of adenomas and a microbial signature present in adenoma patients, irrespective of polypectomy. Upon validation, these panels may improve the effectiveness of the surveillance program by detection of high-risk individuals and determination of surveillance endoscopy timing, leading to less unnecessary endoscopies and less interval cancer.",,pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19490976.2022.2038863?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2038863; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865277; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865277?pdf=render 33972514,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22338-2,Genetic analysis in European ancestry individuals identifies 517 loci associated with liver enzymes.,"Pazoki R, Vujkovic M, Elliott J, Evangelou E, Gill D, Ghanbari M, van der Most PJ, Pinto RC, Wielscher M, Farlik M, Zuber V, de Knegt RJ, Snieder H, Uitterlinden AG, Lifelines Cohort Study, Lynch JA, Jiang X, Said S, Kaplan DE, Lee KM, Serper M, Carr RM, Tsao PS, Atkinson SR, Dehghan A, Tzoulaki I, Ikram MA, Herzig KH, Järvelin MR, Alizadeh BZ, O'Donnell CJ, Saleheen D, Voight BF, Chang KM, Thursz MR, Elliott P, VA Million Veteran Program.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-05-10,Y,,,,"Serum concentration of hepatic enzymes are linked to liver dysfunction, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. We perform genetic analysis on serum levels of alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) using data on 437,438 UK Biobank participants. Replication in 315,572 individuals from European descent from the Million Veteran Program, Rotterdam Study and Lifeline study confirms 517 liver enzyme SNPs. Genetic risk score analysis using the identified SNPs is strongly associated with serum activity of liver enzymes in two independent European descent studies (The Airwave Health Monitoring study and the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966). Gene-set enrichment analysis using the identified SNPs highlights involvement in liver development and function, lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, and vascular formation. Mendelian randomization analysis shows association of liver enzyme variants with coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke. Genetic risk score for elevated serum activity of liver enzymes is associated with higher fat percentage of body, trunk, and liver and body mass index. Our study highlights the role of molecular pathways regulated by the liver in metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22338-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22338-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8110798; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8110798?pdf=render +33995410,https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052,Plasma Lectin Pathway Complement Proteins in Patients With COVID-19 and Renal Disease.,"Medjeral-Thomas NR, Troldborg A, Hansen AG, Gisby J, Clarke CL, Prendecki M, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Lightstone L, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Peters JE, Pickering MC, Thiel S.",,Frontiers in immunology,2021,2021-04-29,Y,Complement; Lectin; Coronavirus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Covid-19,,,"We do not understand why non-white ethnicity and chronic kidney disease increase susceptibility to COVID-19. The lectin pathway of complement activation is a key contributor to innate immunity and inflammation. Concentrations of plasma lectin pathway proteins influence pathway activity and vary with ethnicity. We measured circulating lectin proteins in a multi-ethnic cohort of chronic kidney disease patients with and without COVID19 infection to determine if lectin pathway activation was contributing to COVID19 severity. We measured 11 lectin proteins in serial samples from a cohort of 33 patients with chronic kidney impairment and COVID19. Controls were single plasma samples from 32 patients on dialysis and 32 healthy individuals. We demonstrated multiple associations between recognition molecules and associated proteases of the lectin pathway and COVID-19, including COVID-19 severity. Some of these associations were unique to patients of Asian and White ethnicity. Our novel findings demonstrate that COVID19 infection alters the concentration of plasma lectin proteins and some of these changes were linked to ethnicity. This suggests a role for the lectin pathway in the host response to COVID-19 and suggest that variability within this pathway may contribute to ethnicity-associated differences in susceptibility to severe COVID-19.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695?pdf=render +33932483,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015,Probabilistic linkage without personal information successfully linked national clinical datasets.,"Blake HA, Sharples LD, Harron K, van der Meulen JH, Walker K.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2021,2021-04-28,Y,Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Personal Information; Probabilistic Linkage; National Clinical Datasets; Patient Identifiers,,,"

Background

Probabilistic linkage can link patients from different clinical databases without the need for personal information. If accurate linkage can be achieved, it would accelerate the use of linked datasets to address important clinical and public health questions.

Objective

We developed a step-by-step process for probabilistic linkage of national clinical and administrative datasets without personal information, and validated it against deterministic linkage using patient identifiers.

Study design and setting

We used electronic health records from the National Bowel Cancer Audit and Hospital Episode Statistics databases for 10,566 bowel cancer patients undergoing emergency surgery in the English National Health Service.

Results

Probabilistic linkage linked 81.4% of National Bowel Cancer Audit records to Hospital Episode Statistics, vs. 82.8% using deterministic linkage. No systematic differences were seen between patients that were and were not linked, and regression models for mortality and length of hospital stay according to patient and tumour characteristics were not sensitive to the linkage approach.

Conclusion

Probabilistic linkage was successful in linking national clinical and administrative datasets for patients undergoing a major surgical procedure. It allows analysts outside highly secure data environments to undertake linkage while minimizing costs and delays, protecting data security, and maintaining linkage quality.",,pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621001384/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443839 34036180,https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1385,Linking data on women in public family law court proceedings concerning their children to mental health service records in South London.,"Pearson RJ, Jewell A, Wijlaars L, Bedston S, Finch E, Broadhurst K, Downs J, Gilbert R.",,International journal of population data science,2021,2021-02-24,Y,,,,"

Introduction

Maternal mental health problems and substance misuse are key risk factors for child neglect or abuse and court-mandated placement into care. Linkage between mental health records and family court data could raise awareness about parent mental health needs and inform approaches to address them.

Objectives

To evaluate data linkage between administrative family court data and electronic mental health records for a population-based mental health service for 1.3 million people in South London.

Methods

We deterministically linked administrative family court data for women (n=5463) involved in care proceedings in South London with service user records from the South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Trust (SLaM). We restricted the cohort to women involved in proceedings between 2007 and 2019, in local authorities where SLaM solely provides secondary/tertiary mental health services and the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) (n=3226). We analysed the associations between match status and sociodemographic/case characteristics using multivariable logistic regression.

Results

Two-thirds (2317/3226; 66%) of women linked to a SLaM service user record at some point; most (91%) who linked accessed secondary/tertiary mental health services, indicating serious mental illness. Accounting for possible missed matches, we estimated that 70-83% of women accessed SLaM services at some point. Older women at index proceedings (>35yrs OR: 0.69, 95%CI: 0.54-0.88vs <25yrs) and Black women or women from other ethnic groups (Black ethnic groups 0.65, 0.50-0.83; other ethnicity 0.59, 0.43-0.81 vs White ethnic groups) had lower odds of linking. Odds of linking were higher for women with an infant in proceedings (1.42, 1.18-1.71), or with curtailed/terminated parental responsibility (1.44, 1.20-1.73).

Conclusion

Our linkage supports growing evidence of a high burden of mental health problems and substance misuse among women whose children enter care in England, compared to the general population. Research using this linkage should inform strategies to address the considerable mental health needs of vulnerable women and their children.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8133060; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8133060?pdf=render 35042708,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055572,Use of the kidney failure risk equation to inform clinical care of patients with chronic kidney disease: a mixed-methods systematic review.,"Bhachu HK, Fenton A, Cockwell P, Aiyegbusi O, Kyte D, Calvert M.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-01-18,Y,Dialysis; Renal transplantation; Chronic Renal Failure; End Stage Renal Failure,,,"

Rationale and objective

The Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) predicts the risk of end-stage kidney disease in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the utility of KFRE in clinical practice.

Study design

Systematic review.

Setting and study populations

Adult patients with CKD but not receiving renal replacement therapy enrolled in studies where KFRE was used in clinical care pathways.

Selection criteria for studies

All studies published from April 2011 to October 2021 identified from Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase and reference and citation searches of included studies.

Data extraction

Relevant data were extracted, and two reviewers independently assessed study quality using appropriate appraisal tools.

Analytical approach

Findings reported as a narrative synthesis due to heterogeneity of the included studies.

Results

Of 1635 studies identified, 440 duplicates were removed. The remaining 1195 titles and abstracts were screened. All five studies for full-text review were included in the analysis. Three uses of KFRE were assessed: (1) primary to specialty care interface; (2) general nephrology to multidisciplinary care transition; and (3) treatment planning. Evidence of impact on number of patient referrals into nephrology care was conflicting. However, wait times improved in one study. Although KFRE identified high-risk patients for increased multidisciplinary support, there was concern patients stepped down, no longer meeting eligibility criteria, may lack access to services.

Conclusions

This is the first systematic review of studies that have assessed the actual impact of KFRE in clinical practice with five studies of varying quality reported to date. Trials are in progress assessing the impact on clinical outcomes of using KFRE in clinical practice, and KFRE is being incorporated into guidelines for CKD management. Further studies are needed to assess the impact of KFRE on clinical care.

Trial registration number

Protocol registered on PROSPERO before initiation of the study (Ref: CRD42020219926).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/1/e055572.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055572; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8768913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8768913?pdf=render 36451358,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253,Hospitalisation for COVID-19 predicts long lasting cerebrovascular impairment: A prospective observational cohort study.,"Tsvetanov KA, Spindler LRB, Stamatakis EA, Newcombe VFJ, Lupson VC, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Outtrim JG, Elmer A, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration.",,NeuroImage. Clinical,2022,2022-11-07,Y,Cerebrovascular; Microvascular; Neurology; Cardiorespiratory; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"Human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has multiple neurological consequences, but its long-term effect on brain health is still uncertain. The cerebrovascular consequences of COVID-19 may also affect brain health. We studied the chronic effect of COVID-19 on cerebrovascular health, in relation to acute severity, adverse clinical outcomes and in contrast to control group data. Here we assess cerebrovascular health in 45 patients six months after hospitalisation for acute COVID-19 using the resting state fluctuation amplitudes (RSFA) from functional magnetic resonance imaging, in relation to disease severity and in contrast with 42 controls. Acute COVID-19 severity was indexed by COVID-19 WHO Progression Scale, inflammatory and coagulatory biomarkers. Chronic widespread changes in frontoparietal RSFA were related to the severity of the acute COVID-19 episode. This relationship was not explained by chronic cardiorespiratory dysfunction, age, or sex. The level of cerebrovascular dysfunction was associated with cognitive, mental, and physical health at follow-up. The principal findings were consistent across univariate and multivariate approaches. The results indicate chronic cerebrovascular impairment following severe acute COVID-19, with the potential for long-term consequences on cognitive function and mental wellbeing.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639388; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639388?pdf=render -36717224,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548,Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC): a neonatal survey refined for real-time parent feedback.,"Sakonidou S, Kotzamanis S, Tallett A, Poots AJ, Modi N, Bell D, Gale C.",,Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition,2023,2023-01-30,Y,"Intensive care units; Child Health Services; Paediatrics; Neonatology; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal",,,"

Objective

Assessing parent experiences of neonatal services can help improve quality of care; however, there is no formally evaluated UK instrument available to assess this prospectively. Our objective was to refine an existing retrospective survey for 'real-time' feedback.

Methods

Co-led by a parent representative, we recruited a convenience sample of parents of infants in a London tertiary neonatal unit. Our steering group selected questions from the existing retrospective 61-question Picker survey (2014), added and revised questions assessing communication and parent involvement. We established face validity, ensuring questions adequately captured the topic, conducted parent cognitive interviews to evaluate parental understanding of questions,and adapted the survey in three revision cycles. We evaluated survey performance.

Results

The revised Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC) survey contains 28 questions (10 new) focusing on communication and parent involvement. We cognitively interviewed six parents, and 67 parents completed 197 PEC surveys in the survey performance evaluation. Missing entries exceeded 5% for nine questions; we removed one and format-adjusted the rest as they had performed well during cognitive testing. There was strong inter-item correlation between two question pairs; however, all were retained as they individually assessed important concepts.

Conclusion

Revised from the original 61-question Picker survey, the 28-question PEC survey is the first UK instrument formally evaluated to assess parent experience while infants are still receiving neonatal care. Developed with parents, it focuses on communication and parent involvement, enabling continuous assessment and iterative improvement of family-centred interventions in neonatal care.",,pdf:https://fn.bmj.com/content/fetalneonatal/early/2023/01/30/archdischild-2022-324548.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049?pdf=render 30681347,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.118.002328,Integrative Functional Annotation of 52 Genetic Loci Influencing Myocardial Mass Identifies Candidate Regulatory Variants and Target Genes.,"Hemerich D, Pei J, Harakalova M, van Setten J, Boymans S, Boukens BJ, Efimov IR, Michels M, van der Velden J, Vink A, Cheng C, van der Harst P, Moore JH, Mokry M, Tragante V, Asselbergs FW.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2019,2019-02-01,N,Genetics; Electrocardiography; Acetylation; Heart Failure; Cardiomyopathies,The Human Phenome,,"BACKGROUND:Regulatory elements may be involved in the mechanisms by which 52 loci influence myocardial mass, reflected by abnormal amplitude and duration of the QRS complex on the ECG. Functional annotation thus far did not take into account how these elements are affected in disease context. METHODS:We generated maps of regulatory elements on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients (ChIP-seq N=14 and RNA-seq N=11) and nondiseased hearts (ChIP-seq N=4 and RNA-seq N=11). We tested enrichment of QRS-associated loci on elements differentially acetylated and directly regulating differentially expressed genes between hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients and controls. We further performed functional annotation on QRS-associated loci using these maps of differentially active regulatory elements. RESULTS:Regions differentially affected in disease showed a stronger enrichment ( P=8.6×10-5) for QRS-associated variants than those not showing differential activity ( P=0.01). Promoters of genes differentially regulated between hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients and controls showed more enrichment ( P=0.001) than differentially acetylated enhancers ( P=0.8) and super-enhancers ( P=0.025). We also identified 74 potential causal variants overlapping these differential regulatory elements. Eighteen of the genes mapped confirmed previous findings, now also pinpointing the potentially affected regulatory elements and candidate causal variants. Fourteen new genes were also mapped. CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggest differentially active regulatory elements between hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients and controls can offer more insights into the mechanisms of QRS-associated loci than elements not affected by disease.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002328; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002328; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6380958; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6380958?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.118.002328 +36717224,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548,Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC): a neonatal survey refined for real-time parent feedback.,"Sakonidou S, Kotzamanis S, Tallett A, Poots AJ, Modi N, Bell D, Gale C.",,Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition,2023,2023-01-30,Y,"Intensive care units; Child Health Services; Paediatrics; Neonatology; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal",,,"

Objective

Assessing parent experiences of neonatal services can help improve quality of care; however, there is no formally evaluated UK instrument available to assess this prospectively. Our objective was to refine an existing retrospective survey for 'real-time' feedback.

Methods

Co-led by a parent representative, we recruited a convenience sample of parents of infants in a London tertiary neonatal unit. Our steering group selected questions from the existing retrospective 61-question Picker survey (2014), added and revised questions assessing communication and parent involvement. We established face validity, ensuring questions adequately captured the topic, conducted parent cognitive interviews to evaluate parental understanding of questions,and adapted the survey in three revision cycles. We evaluated survey performance.

Results

The revised Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC) survey contains 28 questions (10 new) focusing on communication and parent involvement. We cognitively interviewed six parents, and 67 parents completed 197 PEC surveys in the survey performance evaluation. Missing entries exceeded 5% for nine questions; we removed one and format-adjusted the rest as they had performed well during cognitive testing. There was strong inter-item correlation between two question pairs; however, all were retained as they individually assessed important concepts.

Conclusion

Revised from the original 61-question Picker survey, the 28-question PEC survey is the first UK instrument formally evaluated to assess parent experience while infants are still receiving neonatal care. Developed with parents, it focuses on communication and parent involvement, enabling continuous assessment and iterative improvement of family-centred interventions in neonatal care.",,pdf:https://fn.bmj.com/content/fetalneonatal/early/2023/01/30/archdischild-2022-324548.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049?pdf=render 31382511,https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11080454,Indoxyl Sulfate Stimulates Angiogenesis by Regulating Reactive Oxygen Species Production via CYP1B1. ,"Pei J, Juni R, Harakalova M, Duncker DJ, Asselbergs FW, Koolwijk P, Hinsbergh VV, Verhaar MC, Mokry M, Cheng C.",,Toxins,2019,2019-08-02,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Indoxyl sulfate (IS) is an accumulative protein-bound uremic toxin found in patients with kidney disease. It is reported that IS impairs the vascular endothelium, but a comprehensive overview of all mechanisms active in IS-injury currently remains lacking. Here we performed RNA sequencing in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) after IS or control medium treatment and identified 1293 genes that were affected in a IS-induced response. Gene enrichment analysis highlighted pathways involved in altered vascular formation and cell metabolism. We confirmed these transcriptome profiles at the functional level by demonstrating decreased viability and increased cell senescence in response to IS treatment. In line with the additional pathways highlighted by the transcriptome analysis, we further could demonstrate that IS exposure of HUVECs promoted tubule formation as shown by the increase in total tubule length in a 3D HUVECs/pericytes co-culture assay. Notably, the pro-angiogenic response of IS and increased ROS production were abolished when CYP1B1, one of the main target genes that was highly upregulated by IS, was silenced. This observation indicates IS-induced ROS in endothelial cells is CYP1B1-dependent. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that IS promotes angiogenesis and CYP1B1 is an important factor in IS-activated angiogenic response.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/11/8/454/pdf?version=1565690179; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11080454; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6723868; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6723868?pdf=render 33293538,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20096-1,Patient and public perspectives on cell and gene therapies: a systematic review.,"Aiyegbusi OL, Macpherson K, Elston L, Myles S, Washington J, Sungum N, Briggs M, Newsome PN, Calvert MJ.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-12-08,Y,,,,"Cell and gene therapies offer opportunities for treating disease with potential to restore function, and cure disease. However, they are not without risk and pose complex logistical, economic, ethical and social challenges for health systems. Here we report our systematic review of the current evidence on patient and public knowledge and perspectives of cell and gene therapies, to inform future research, education and awareness raising activities. We screened 10,735 titles and abstracts, and evaluated the full texts of 151 publications. The final selection was 35 publications. Four themes were generated from the narrative synthesis of the study findings namely: (1) Knowledge and understanding of cell and gene therapies, (2) Acceptance of cell and gene therapies (3) Understanding of risk and benefits of therapy, and (4) Information needs and current sources of information. As potential funders or future recipients, it is important that the public and patients are aware of these therapies, understand the issues involved, and can contribute to the debate. This review highlights the need for appropriate patient and public education on the various aspects of cell and gene therapies. High quality studies exploring patient and public opinions and experiences of cell and gene therapy are required. Patient and public perceptions of these therapies, alongside evidence of clinical and cost-effectiveness, will be central to their uptake and use.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20096-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20096-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7722871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7722871?pdf=render 35617980,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)00532-3,Measuring the availability of human resources for health and its relationship to universal health coverage for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.,GBD 2019 Human Resources for Health Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2022,2022-05-23,Y,,,,"

Background

Human resources for health (HRH) include a range of occupations that aim to promote or improve human health. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the WHO Health Workforce 2030 strategy have drawn attention to the importance of HRH for achieving policy priorities such as universal health coverage (UHC). Although previous research has found substantial global disparities in HRH, the absence of comparable cross-national estimates of existing workforces has hindered efforts to quantify workforce requirements to meet health system goals. We aimed to use comparable and standardised data sources to estimate HRH densities globally, and to examine the relationship between a subset of HRH cadres and UHC effective coverage performance.

Methods

Through the International Labour Organization and Global Health Data Exchange databases, we identified 1404 country-years of data from labour force surveys and 69 country-years of census data, with detailed microdata on health-related employment. From the WHO National Health Workforce Accounts, we identified 2950 country-years of data. We mapped data from all occupational coding systems to the International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 (ISCO-88), allowing for standardised estimation of densities for 16 categories of health workers across the full time series. Using data from 1990 to 2019 for 196 of 204 countries and territories, covering seven Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) super-regions and 21 regions, we applied spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) to model HRH densities from 1990 to 2019 for all countries and territories. We used stochastic frontier meta-regression to model the relationship between the UHC effective coverage index and densities for the four categories of health workers enumerated in SDG indicator 3.c.1 pertaining to HRH: physicians, nurses and midwives, dentistry personnel, and pharmaceutical personnel. We identified minimum workforce density thresholds required to meet a specified target of 80 out of 100 on the UHC effective coverage index, and quantified national shortages with respect to those minimum thresholds.

Findings

We estimated that, in 2019, the world had 104·0 million (95% uncertainty interval 83·5-128·0) health workers, including 12·8 million (9·7-16·6) physicians, 29·8 million (23·3-37·7) nurses and midwives, 4·6 million (3·6-6·0) dentistry personnel, and 5·2 million (4·0-6·7) pharmaceutical personnel. We calculated a global physician density of 16·7 (12·6-21·6) per 10 000 population, and a nurse and midwife density of 38·6 (30·1-48·8) per 10 000 population. We found the GBD super-regions of sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and north Africa and the Middle East had the lowest HRH densities. To reach 80 out of 100 on the UHC effective coverage index, we estimated that, per 10 000 population, at least 20·7 physicians, 70·6 nurses and midwives, 8·2 dentistry personnel, and 9·4 pharmaceutical personnel would be needed. In total, the 2019 national health workforces fell short of these minimum thresholds by 6·4 million physicians, 30·6 million nurses and midwives, 3·3 million dentistry personnel, and 2·9 million pharmaceutical personnel.

Interpretation

Considerable expansion of the world's health workforce is needed to achieve high levels of UHC effective coverage. The largest shortages are in low-income settings, highlighting the need for increased financing and coordination to train, employ, and retain human resources in the health sector. Actual HRH shortages might be larger than estimated because minimum thresholds for each cadre of health workers are benchmarked on health systems that most efficiently translate human resources into UHC attainment.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673622005323/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00532-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9168805 -33705244,https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277,Stroke risk following traumatic brain injury: Systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Turner GM, McMullan C, Aiyegbusi OL, Bem D, Marshall T, Calvert M, Mant J, Belli A.",,International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society,2021,2021-04-04,Y,Meta-analysis; Traumatic brain injury; Stroke; Systematic review; risk,,,"

Background

Traumatic brain injury is a global health problem; worldwide, >60 million people experience a traumatic brain injury each year and incidence is rising. Traumatic brain injury has been proposed as an independent risk factor for stroke.

Aims

To investigate the association between traumatic brain injury and stroke risk.

Summary of review

We undertook a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library from inception to 4 December 2020. We used random-effects meta-analysis to pool hazard ratios for studies which reported stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury compared to controls. Searches identified 10,501 records; 58 full texts were assessed for eligibility and 18 met the inclusion criteria. The review included a large sample size of 2,606,379 participants from four countries. Six studies included a non-traumatic brain injury control group, all found traumatic brain injury patients had significantly increased risk of stroke compared to controls (pooled hazard ratio 1.86; 95% confidence interval 1.46-2.37). Findings suggest stroke risk may be highest in the first four months post-traumatic brain injury, but remains significant up to five years post-traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury appears to be associated with increased stroke risk regardless of severity or subtype of traumatic brain injury. There was some evidence to suggest an association between reduced stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury and Vitamin K antagonists and statins, but increased stroke risk with certain classes of antidepressants.

Conclusion

Traumatic brain injury is an independent risk factor for stroke, regardless of traumatic brain injury severity or type. Post-traumatic brain injury review and management of risk factors for stroke may be warranted.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17474930211004277; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616?pdf=render 35875883,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115,Long COVID and the cardiovascular system-elucidating causes and cellular mechanisms in order to develop targeted diagnostic and therapeutic strategies: a joint Scientific Statement of the ESC Working Groups on Cellular Biology of the Heart and Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases.,"Gyöngyösi M, Alcaide P, Asselbergs FW, Brundel BJJM, Camici GG, Martins PDC, Ferdinandy P, Fontana M, Girao H, Gnecchi M, Gollmann-Tepeköylü C, Kleinbongard P, Krieg T, Madonna R, Paillard M, Pantazis A, Perrino C, Pesce M, Schiattarella GG, Sluijter JPG, Steffens S, Tschöpe C, Van Linthout S, Davidson SM.",,Cardiovascular research,2023,2023-03-01,Y,Cardiac; cardiovascular; Covid-19; Long Covid; Post Covid,,,"Long COVID has become a world-wide, non-communicable epidemic, caused by long-lasting multiorgan symptoms that endure for weeks or months after SARS-CoV-2 infection has already subsided. This scientific document aims to provide insight into the possible causes and therapeutic options available for the cardiovascular manifestations of long COVID. In addition to chronic fatigue, which is a common symptom of long COVID, patients may present with chest pain, ECG abnormalities, postural orthostatic tachycardia, or newly developed supraventricular or ventricular arrhythmias. Imaging of the heart and vessels has provided evidence of chronic, post-infectious perimyocarditis with consequent left or right ventricular failure, arterial wall inflammation, or microthrombosis in certain patient populations. Better understanding of the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms of long COVID will aid in the development of effective treatment strategies for its cardiovascular manifestations. A number of mechanisms have been proposed, including those involving direct effects on the myocardium, microthrombotic damage to vessels or endothelium, or persistent inflammation. Unfortunately, existing circulating biomarkers, coagulation, and inflammatory markers, are not highly predictive for either the presence or outcome of long COVID when measured 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Further studies are needed to understand underlying mechanisms, identify specific biomarkers, and guide future preventive strategies or treatments to address long COVID and its cardiovascular sequelae.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/cvr/cvac115/46855438/cvac115.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470?pdf=render +33705244,https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277,Stroke risk following traumatic brain injury: Systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Turner GM, McMullan C, Aiyegbusi OL, Bem D, Marshall T, Calvert M, Mant J, Belli A.",,International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society,2021,2021-04-04,Y,Meta-analysis; Traumatic brain injury; Stroke; Systematic review; risk,,,"

Background

Traumatic brain injury is a global health problem; worldwide, >60 million people experience a traumatic brain injury each year and incidence is rising. Traumatic brain injury has been proposed as an independent risk factor for stroke.

Aims

To investigate the association between traumatic brain injury and stroke risk.

Summary of review

We undertook a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library from inception to 4 December 2020. We used random-effects meta-analysis to pool hazard ratios for studies which reported stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury compared to controls. Searches identified 10,501 records; 58 full texts were assessed for eligibility and 18 met the inclusion criteria. The review included a large sample size of 2,606,379 participants from four countries. Six studies included a non-traumatic brain injury control group, all found traumatic brain injury patients had significantly increased risk of stroke compared to controls (pooled hazard ratio 1.86; 95% confidence interval 1.46-2.37). Findings suggest stroke risk may be highest in the first four months post-traumatic brain injury, but remains significant up to five years post-traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury appears to be associated with increased stroke risk regardless of severity or subtype of traumatic brain injury. There was some evidence to suggest an association between reduced stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury and Vitamin K antagonists and statins, but increased stroke risk with certain classes of antidepressants.

Conclusion

Traumatic brain injury is an independent risk factor for stroke, regardless of traumatic brain injury severity or type. Post-traumatic brain injury review and management of risk factors for stroke may be warranted.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17474930211004277; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616?pdf=render 33516292,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30210-3,Associations between pre-pregnancy psychosocial risk factors and infant outcomes: a population-based cohort study in England.,"Harron K, Gilbert R, Fagg J, Guttmann A, van der Meulen J.",,The Lancet. Public health,2021,2021-02-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Existing studies evaluating the association between maternal risk factors and specific infant outcomes such as birthweight, injury admissions, and mortality have mostly focused on single risk factors. We aimed to identify routinely recorded psychosocial characteristics of pregnant women most at risk of adverse infant outcomes to inform targeting of early intervention.

Methods

We created a cohort using administrative hospital data (Hospital Episode Statistics) for all births to mothers aged 15-44 years in England, UK, who gave birth on or after April 1, 2010, and who were discharged before or on March 31, 2015. We used generalised linear models to evaluate associations between psychosocial risk factors recorded in hospital records in the 2 years before the 20th week of pregnancy (ie, teenage motherhood, deprivation, pre-pregnancy hospital admissions for mental health or behavioural conditions, and pre-pregnancy hospital admissions for adversity, including drug or alcohol abuse, violence, and self-harm) and infant outcomes (ie, birthweight, unplanned admission for injury, or death from any cause, within 12 months from postnatal discharge).

Findings

Of 2 520 501 births initially assessed, 2 137 103 were eligible and were included in the birth outcome analysis. Among the eligible births, 93 279 (4·4%) were births to teenage mothers (age <20 years), 168 186 (7·9%) were births to previous teenage mothers, 51 312 (2·4%) were births to mothers who had a history of hospital admissions for mental health or behavioural conditions, 58 107 (2·7%) were births to mothers who had a history of hospital admissions for adversity, and 580 631 (27·2%) were births to mothers living in areas of high deprivation. 1 377 706 (64·5%) of births were to mothers with none of the above risk factors. Infants born to mothers with any of these risk factors had poorer outcomes than those born to mothers without these risk factors. Those born to mothers with a history of mental health or behavioural conditions were 124 g lighter (95% CI 114-134 g) than those born to mothers without these conditions. For teenage mothers compared with older mothers, 3·6% (95% CI 3·3-3·9%) more infants had an unplanned admission for injury, and there were 10·2 (95% CI 7·5-12·9) more deaths per 10 000 infants.

Interpretation

Health-care services should respond proactively to pre-pregnancy psychosocial risk factors. Our study demonstrates a need for effective interventions before, during, and after pregnancy to reduce the downstream burden on health services and prevent long-term adverse effects for children.

Funding

Wellcome Trust.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2468266720302103/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30210-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7848754; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7848754?pdf=render 32336304,https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.39,Prevalence and incidence of clinical outcomes in patients presenting to secondary mental health care with mood instability and sleep disturbance.,"McDonald K, Smith T, Broadbent M, Patel R, Geddes JR, Saunders KEA.",,European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists,2020,2020-04-27,Y,Sleep; Psychiatry; epidemiology; Mood; Electronic Health Records,,,"

Background

Mood instability and sleep disturbance are common symptoms in people with mental illness. Both features are clinically important and associated with poorer illness trajectories. We compared clinical outcomes in people presenting to secondary mental health care with mood instability and/or sleep disturbance with outcomes in people without either mood instability or sleep disturbance.

Methods

Data were from electronic health records of 31,391 patients ages 16-65 years presenting to secondary mental health services between 2008 and 2016. Mood instability and sleep disturbance were identified using natural language processing. Prevalence of mood instability and sleep disturbance were estimated at baseline. Incidence rate ratios were estimates for clinical outcomes including psychiatric diagnoses, prescribed medication, and hospitalization within 2-years of presentation in persons with mood instability and/or sleep disturbance compared to individuals without either symptom.

Results

Mood instability was present in 9.58%, and sleep disturbance in 26.26% of patients within 1-month of presenting to secondary mental health services. Compared with individuals without either symptom, those with mood instability and sleep disturbance showed significantly increased incidence of prescription of any psychotropic medication (incidence rate ratios [IRR] = 7.04, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 6.53-7.59), and hospitalization (IRR = 5.32, 95% CI 5.32, 4.67-6.07) within 2-years of presentation. Incidence rates of most clinical outcomes were considerably increased among persons with both mood instability and sleep disturbance, relative to persons with only one symptom.

Conclusions

Mood instability and sleep disturbance are present in a wide range of mental disorders, beyond those in which they are conventionally considered to be symptoms. They are associated with poor outcomes, particularly when they occur together. The poor prognosis associated with mood instability and sleep disorder may be, in part, because they are often treated as secondary symptoms. Mood instability and sleep disturbance need better recognition as clinical targets for treatment in their own right.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A209144AEF3BF1C7774F5FE041090CA8/S0924933820000395a.pdf/div-class-title-prevalence-and-incidence-of-clinical-outcomes-in-patients-presenting-to-secondary-mental-health-care-with-mood-instability-and-sleep-disturbance-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.39; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7355164; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7355164?pdf=render 30772400,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.028,Hierarchical complexity of the adult human structural connectome.,"Smith K, Bastin ME, Cox SR, Valdés Hernández MC, Wiseman S, Escudero J, Sudlow C.",,NeuroImage,2019,2019-02-14,Y,MRI; Brain Networks; Hierarchical Complexity; Human Structural Connectome,The Human Phenome,,"The structural network of the human brain has a rich topology which many have sought to characterise using standard network science measures and concepts. However, this characterisation remains incomplete and the non-obvious features of this topology have largely confounded attempts towards comprehensive constructive modelling. This calls for new perspectives. Hierarchical complexity is an emerging paradigm of complex network topology based on the observation that complex systems are composed of hierarchies within which the roles of hierarchically equivalent nodes display highly variable connectivity patterns. Here we test the hierarchical complexity of the human structural connectomes of a group of seventy-nine healthy adults. Binary connectomes are found to be more hierarchically complex than three benchmark random network models. This provides a new key description of brain structure, revealing a rich diversity of connectivity patterns within hierarchically equivalent nodes. Dividing the connectomes into four tiers based on degree magnitudes indicates that the most complex nodes are neither those with the highest nor lowest degrees but are instead found in the middle tiers. Spatial mapping of the brain regions in each hierarchical tier reveals consistency with the current anatomical, functional and neuropsychological knowledge of the human brain. The most complex tier (Tier 3) involves regions believed to bridge high-order cognitive (Tier 1) and low-order sensorimotor processing (Tier 2). We then show that such diversity of connectivity patterns aligns with the diversity of functional roles played out across the brain, demonstrating that hierarchical complexity can characterise functional diversity strictly from the network topology.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.028; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6503942 @@ -1981,24 +1981,24 @@ PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm 37132645,https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291721002257,"Life expectancy, mortality risks and cause of death in patients with serious mental illness in South East London: a comparison between 2008-2012 and 2013-2017.","Chang CK, Chesney E, Teng WN, Hollandt S, Pritchard M, Shetty H, Stewart R, McGuire P, Patel R.",,Psychological medicine,2023,2021-09-07,Y,Mortality; Schizophrenia; Life expectancy; Cause of death; Bipolar disorder; Standardised Mortality Ratio,,,"

Background

People with serious mental illness (SMI) have a significantly shorter life expectancy than the general population. This study investigates whether the mortality rate in this group has changed over the last decade.

Methods

Using Clinical Record Interactive Search software, we extracted data from a large electronic database of patients in South East London. All patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder from 2008 to 2012 and/or 2013 to 2017 were included. Estimates of life expectancy at birth, standardised mortality ratios and causes of death were obtained for each cohort according to diagnosis and gender. Comparisons were made between cohorts and with the general population using data obtained from the UK Office of National Statistics.

Results

In total, 26 005 patients were included. In men, life expectancy was greater in 2013-2017 (64.9 years; 95% CI 63.6-66.3) than in 2008-2012 (63.2 years; 95% CI 61.5-64.9). Similarly, in women, life expectancy was greater in 2013-2017 (69.1 years; 95% CI 67.5-70.7) than in 2008-2012 (68.1 years; 95% CI 66.2-69.9). The difference with general population life expectancy fell by 0.9 years between cohorts in men, and 0.5 years in women. In the 2013-2017 cohorts, cancer accounted for a similar proportion of deaths as cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions

Relative to the general population, life expectancy for people with SMI is still much worse, though it appears to be improving. The increased cancer-related mortality suggests that physical health monitoring should consider including cancer as well.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F28CB69D452C5EFDAFF77D0FE59FC094/S0033291721002257a.pdf/div-class-title-life-expectancy-mortality-risks-and-cause-of-death-in-patients-with-serious-mental-illness-in-south-east-london-a-comparison-between-2008-2012-and-2013-2017-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721002257; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975985; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975985?pdf=render 36180121,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057712,Development of a core outcome set and identification of patient-reportable outcomes for primary brain tumour trials: protocol for the COBra study.,"Retzer A, Sivell S, Scott H, Nelson A, Bulbeck H, Seddon K, Grant R, Adams R, Watts C, Aiyegbusi OL, Kearns P, Cruz Rivera S, Dirven L, Baddeley E, Calvert M, Byrne A.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-09-30,Y,Clinical Trials; Qualitative Research; Adult Palliative Care; Neurological Oncology,,,"

Introduction

Primary brain tumours, specifically gliomas, are a rare disease group. The disease and treatment negatively impacts on patients and those close to them. The high rates of physical and cognitive morbidity differ from other cancers causing reduced health-related quality of life. Glioma trials using outcomes that allow holistic analysis of treatment benefits and risks enable informed care decisions. Currently, outcome assessment in glioma trials is inconsistent, hindering evidence synthesis. A core outcome set (COS) - an agreed minimum set of outcomes to be measured and reported - may address this. International initiatives focus on defining core outcomes assessments across brain tumour types. This protocol describes the development of a COS involving UK stakeholders for use in glioma trials, applicable across glioma types, with provision to identify subsets as required. Due to stakeholder interest in data reported from the patient perspective, outcomes from the COS that can be patient-reported will be identified.

Methods and analysis

Stage I: (1) trial registry review to identify outcomes collected in glioma trials and (2) systematic review of qualitative literature exploring glioma patient and key stakeholder research priorities. Stage II: semi-structured interviews with glioma patients and caregivers. Outcome lists will be generated from stages I and II. Stage III: study team will remove duplicate items from the outcome lists and ensure accessible terminology for inclusion in the Delphi survey. Stage IV: a two-round Delphi process whereby the outcomes will be rated by key stakeholders. Stage V: a consensus meeting where participants will finalise the COS. The study team will identify the COS outcomes that can be patient-reported. Further research is needed to match patient-reported outcomes to available measures.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval was obtained (REF SMREC 21/59, Cardiff University School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee). Study findings will be disseminated widely through conferences and journal publication. The final COS will be adopted and promoted by patient and carer groups and its use by funders encouraged.

Prospero registration number

CRD42021236979.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e057712.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057712; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9528585; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9528585?pdf=render 31847828,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1057-x,TIA and minor stroke: a qualitative study of long-term impact and experiences of follow-up care.,"Turner GM, McMullan C, Atkins L, Foy R, Mant J, Calvert M.",,BMC family practice,2019,2019-12-17,Y,Rehabilitation; Quality of life; Qualitative; Transient Ischemic Attack; Minor Stroke,,,"

Background

Transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke are often considered transient events; however, many patients experience residual problems and reduced quality of life. Current follow-up healthcare focuses on stroke prevention and care for other long-term problems is not routinely provided. We aimed to explore patient and healthcare provider (HCP) experiences of residual problems post-TIA/minor stroke, the impact of TIA/minor stroke on patients' lives, and current follow-up care and sources of support.

Methods

This qualitative study recruited participants from three TIA clinics, seven general practices and one community care trust in the West Midlands, England. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 TIA/minor stroke patients and 24 HCPs from primary, secondary and community care. Data was analysed using framework analysis.

Results

A diverse range of residual problems were reported post-TIA/minor stroke, including psychological, cognitive and physical impairments. Consultants and general practitioners generally lacked awareness of these long-term problems; however, there was better recognition among nurses and allied HCPs. Residual problems significantly affected patients' lives, including return to work, social activities, and relationships with family and friends. Follow-up care was variable and medically focused. While HCPs prioritised medical investigations and stroke prevention medication, patients emphasised the importance of understanding their diagnosis, individualised support regarding stroke risk, and addressing residual problems.

Conclusion

HCPs could better communicate information about TIA/minor stroke diagnosis and secondary stroke prevention using lay language, and improve their identification of and response to important residual impairments affecting patients.",,pdf:https://bmcfampract.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12875-019-1057-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1057-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918619?pdf=render +31806382,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023,Variation in documented inhalation injury rates following burn injury in Australia and New Zealand.,"Tracy LM, Dyson K, Mercier LL, Cleland H, McInnes JA, Cameron PA, Singer Y, Edgar DW, Darton A, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury,2020,2019-11-17,N,Variation; Australia; New Zealand; Inhalation Injury; Burn Registry,,,"

Introduction

The negative impact of inhalation injuries on in-hospital outcomes for burn patients is well known, but the burns community is yet to form a consensus on diagnostic criteria and clinical definitions. The diagnosis of inhalation injuries is consequently highly subjective. This study aimed to assess the variation in the rate of documented inhalation injury for adult patients in Australian and New Zealand burn units.

Methods

Data for sequential admissions collected from eight adult burn centres across Australia and New Zealand between July 2009 and June 2016 were extracted from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ). Inhalation injury was classified in two ways: (i) a field in the BRANZ data dictionary, and (ii) through a series of International Classification of Disease 10th Revision Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes. Variation in inhalation injury prevalence was assessed using descriptive statistics, funnel plots, logistic regression, and predicted probabilities.

Results

There were 11,206 admissions to BRANZ sites over the study period. Inhalation injury prevalence was the highest at Site D (13.1% for the BRANZ field and 11.8% for the ICD-10-AM codes), but there was significant variation between the contributing sites and the inhalation injury classification methods.

Conclusion

There is significant variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury among Australian and New Zealand burns units. The variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury across Australian and New Zealand sites reinforces the need for a consensus definition in the diagnosis of these injuries. Further work is required to improve data quality and reconcile the differences between clinical and ICD-10-AM coding prevalence before changes in clinical practice can be recommended from these data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023 30835202,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.43657,An atlas of polygenic risk score associations to highlight putative causal relationships across the human phenome.,"Richardson TG, Harrison S, Hemani G, Davey Smith G.",,eLife,2019,2019-03-05,Y,Human; Genetics; Genomics; Causal Inference; Mendelian Randomization; Genetic Liability; Phenome-wide Association Study; Polygenic Risk Scores,The Human Phenome,,"The age of large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has provided us with an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the genetic liability of complex disease using polygenic risk scores (PRS). In this study, we have analysed 162 PRS (p<5×10-05) derived from GWAS and 551 heritable traits from the UK Biobank study (N = 334,398). Findings can be investigated using a web application (http:‌//‌mrcieu.‌mrsoftware.org/‌PRS‌_atlas/), which we envisage will help uncover both known and novel mechanisms which contribute towards disease susceptibility. To demonstrate this, we have investigated the results from a phenome-wide evaluation of schizophrenia genetic liability. Amongst findings were inverse associations with measures of cognitive function which extensive follow-up analyses using Mendelian randomization (MR) provided evidence of a causal relationship. We have also investigated the effect of multiple risk factors on disease using mediation and multivariable MR frameworks. Our atlas provides a resource for future endeavours seeking to unravel the causal determinants of complex disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.43657; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.43657; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6400585; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6400585?pdf=render +31063847,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009,Transcriptomic analysis of probable asymptomatic and symptomatic alzheimer brains.,"Patel H, Hodges AK, Curtis C, Lee SH, Troakes C, Dobson RJB, Newhouse SJ.",,"Brain, behavior, and immunity",2019,2019-05-04,N,Human; Mitochondria; Brain; Frontal lobe; Astrocytes; Neuropathology; Alzheimer’s disease; Gene Expression; Microarray Analysis; Gene Regulatory Networks,,,"Individuals with intact cognition and neuropathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are referred to as asymptomatic AD (AsymAD). These individuals are highly likely to develop AD, yet transcriptomic changes in the brain which might reveal mechanisms for their AD vulnerability are currently unknown. Entorhinal cortex, frontal cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum tissue from 27 control, 33 AsymAD and 52 AD human brains were microarray expression profiled. Differential expression analysis identified a significant increase of transcriptomic activity in the frontal cortex of AsymAD subjects, suggesting fundamental changes in AD may initially begin within the frontal cortex region prior to AD diagnosis. Co-expression analysis identified an overactivation of the brain ""glutamate-glutamine cycle"", and disturbances in the brain energy pathways in both AsymAD and AD subjects, while the connectivity of key hub genes in this network indicates a shift from an already increased cell proliferation in AsymAD subjects to stress response and removal of amyloidogenic proteins in AD subjects. This study provides new insight into the earliest biological changes occurring in the brain prior to the manifestation of clinical AD symptoms and provides new potential therapeutic targets for early disease intervention.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009 37414900,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02429-x,A multi-ancestry polygenic risk score improves risk prediction for coronary artery disease.,"Patel AP, Wang M, Ruan Y, Koyama S, Clarke SL, Yang X, Tcheandjieu C, Agrawal S, Fahed AC, Ellinor PT, Genes & Health Research Team; the Million Veteran Program, Tsao PS, Sun YV, Cho K, Wilson PWF, Assimes TL, van Heel DA, Butterworth AS, Aragam KG, Natarajan P, Khera AV.",,Nature medicine,2023,2023-07-06,Y,,,,"Identification of individuals at highest risk of coronary artery disease (CAD)-ideally before onset-remains an important public health need. Prior studies have developed genome-wide polygenic scores to enable risk stratification, reflecting the substantial inherited component to CAD risk. Here we develop a new and significantly improved polygenic score for CAD, termed GPSMult, that incorporates genome-wide association data across five ancestries for CAD (>269,000 cases and >1,178,000 controls) and ten CAD risk factors. GPSMult strongly associated with prevalent CAD (odds ratio per standard deviation 2.14, 95% confidence interval 2.10-2.19, P < 0.001) in UK Biobank participants of European ancestry, identifying 20.0% of the population with 3-fold increased risk and conversely 13.9% with 3-fold decreased risk as compared with those in the middle quintile. GPSMult was also associated with incident CAD events (hazard ratio per standard deviation 1.73, 95% confidence interval 1.70-1.76, P < 0.001), identifying 3% of healthy individuals with risk of future CAD events equivalent to those with existing disease and significantly improving risk discrimination and reclassification. Across multiethnic, external validation datasets inclusive of 33,096, 124,467, 16,433 and 16,874 participants of African, European, Hispanic and South Asian ancestry, respectively, GPSMult demonstrated increased strength of associations across all ancestries and outperformed all available previously published CAD polygenic scores. These data contribute a new GPSMult for CAD to the field and provide a generalizable framework for how large-scale integration of genetic association data for CAD and related traits from diverse populations can meaningfully improve polygenic risk prediction.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02429-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02429-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353935; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353935?pdf=render -31806382,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023,Variation in documented inhalation injury rates following burn injury in Australia and New Zealand.,"Tracy LM, Dyson K, Mercier LL, Cleland H, McInnes JA, Cameron PA, Singer Y, Edgar DW, Darton A, Gabbe BJ.",,Injury,2020,2019-11-17,N,Variation; Australia; New Zealand; Inhalation Injury; Burn Registry,,,"

Introduction

The negative impact of inhalation injuries on in-hospital outcomes for burn patients is well known, but the burns community is yet to form a consensus on diagnostic criteria and clinical definitions. The diagnosis of inhalation injuries is consequently highly subjective. This study aimed to assess the variation in the rate of documented inhalation injury for adult patients in Australian and New Zealand burn units.

Methods

Data for sequential admissions collected from eight adult burn centres across Australia and New Zealand between July 2009 and June 2016 were extracted from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ). Inhalation injury was classified in two ways: (i) a field in the BRANZ data dictionary, and (ii) through a series of International Classification of Disease 10th Revision Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes. Variation in inhalation injury prevalence was assessed using descriptive statistics, funnel plots, logistic regression, and predicted probabilities.

Results

There were 11,206 admissions to BRANZ sites over the study period. Inhalation injury prevalence was the highest at Site D (13.1% for the BRANZ field and 11.8% for the ICD-10-AM codes), but there was significant variation between the contributing sites and the inhalation injury classification methods.

Conclusion

There is significant variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury among Australian and New Zealand burns units. The variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury across Australian and New Zealand sites reinforces the need for a consensus definition in the diagnosis of these injuries. Further work is required to improve data quality and reconcile the differences between clinical and ICD-10-AM coding prevalence before changes in clinical practice can be recommended from these data.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023 35876478,https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2808.211787,Lack of Evidence for Ribavirin Treatment of Lassa Fever in Systematic Review of Published and Unpublished Studies1.,"Cheng HY, French CE, Salam AP, Dawson S, McAleenan A, McGuinness LA, Savović J, Horby PW, Sterne JAC.",,Emerging infectious diseases,2022,2022-08-01,Y,Viruses; Bias; Ribavirin; Systematic review; Observational Study; Lassa Fever,,,"Ribavirin has been used widely to treat Lassa fever in West Africa since the 1980s. However, few studies have systematically appraised the evidence for its use. We conducted a systematic review of published and unpublished literature retrieved from electronic databases and gray literature from inception to March 8, 2022. We identified 13 studies of the comparative effectiveness of ribavirin versus no ribavirin treatment on mortality outcomes, including unpublished data from a study in Sierra Leone provided through a US Freedom of Information Act request. Although ribavirin was associated with decreased mortality rates, results of these studies were at critical or serious risk for bias when appraised using the ROBINS-I tool. Important risks for bias related to lack of control for confounders, immortal time bias, and missing outcome data. Robust evidence supporting the use of ribavirin in Lassa fever is lacking. Well-conducted clinical trials to elucidate the effectiveness of ribavirin for Lassa fever are needed.",,pdf:https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/8/pdfs/21-1787.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2808.211787; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9328902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9328902?pdf=render -31063847,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009,Transcriptomic analysis of probable asymptomatic and symptomatic alzheimer brains.,"Patel H, Hodges AK, Curtis C, Lee SH, Troakes C, Dobson RJB, Newhouse SJ.",,"Brain, behavior, and immunity",2019,2019-05-04,N,Human; Mitochondria; Brain; Frontal lobe; Astrocytes; Neuropathology; Alzheimer’s disease; Gene Expression; Microarray Analysis; Gene Regulatory Networks,,,"Individuals with intact cognition and neuropathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are referred to as asymptomatic AD (AsymAD). These individuals are highly likely to develop AD, yet transcriptomic changes in the brain which might reveal mechanisms for their AD vulnerability are currently unknown. Entorhinal cortex, frontal cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum tissue from 27 control, 33 AsymAD and 52 AD human brains were microarray expression profiled. Differential expression analysis identified a significant increase of transcriptomic activity in the frontal cortex of AsymAD subjects, suggesting fundamental changes in AD may initially begin within the frontal cortex region prior to AD diagnosis. Co-expression analysis identified an overactivation of the brain ""glutamate-glutamine cycle"", and disturbances in the brain energy pathways in both AsymAD and AD subjects, while the connectivity of key hub genes in this network indicates a shift from an already increased cell proliferation in AsymAD subjects to stress response and removal of amyloidogenic proteins in AD subjects. This study provides new insight into the earliest biological changes occurring in the brain prior to the manifestation of clinical AD symptoms and provides new potential therapeutic targets for early disease intervention.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009 35131700,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102366,Multi-dynamic modelling reveals strongly time-varying resting fMRI correlations.,"Pervaiz U, Vidaurre D, Gohil C, Smith SM, Woolrich MW.",,Medical image analysis,2022,2022-01-29,Y,Hidden Markov model; Functional Connectivity; Deep Learning; Dynamic Functional Connectivity; Lstm; Rnns; Time-varying Functional Connectivity; Transient Brain Networks; Adversarial Learning,,,"The activity of functional brain networks is responsible for the emergence of time-varying cognition and behaviour. Accordingly, time-varying correlations (Functional Connectivity) in resting fMRI have been shown to be predictive of behavioural traits, and psychiatric and neurological conditions. Typically, methods that measure time varying Functional Connectivity (FC), such as sliding windows approaches, do not separately model when changes occur in the mean activity levels from when changes occur in the FC, therefore conflating these two distinct types of modulation. We show that this can bias the estimation of time-varying FC to appear more stable over time than it actually is. Here, we propose an alternative approach that models changes in the mean brain activity and in the FC as being able to occur at different times to each other. We refer to this method as the Multi-dynamic Adversarial Generator Encoder (MAGE) model, which includes a model of the network dynamics that captures long-range time dependencies, and is estimated on fMRI data using principles of Generative Adversarial Networks. We evaluated the approach across several simulation studies and resting fMRI data from the Human Connectome Project (1003 subjects), as well as from UK Biobank (13301 subjects). Importantly, we find that separating fluctuations in the mean activity levels from those in the FC reveals much stronger changes in FC over time, and is a better predictor of individual behavioural variability.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102366; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102366; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907871?pdf=render -32724858,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481,Outcomes important to patients with non-infectious posterior segment-involving uveitis: a qualitative study.,"Tallouzi MO, Moore DJ, Bucknall N, Murray PI, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, Mathers JM.",,BMJ open ophthalmology,2020,2020-07-21,Y,Inflammation; Public Health; Treatment Other,,,"

Objective

Uveitis, a group of disorders characterised by intraocular inflammation, causes 10%-15% of total blindness in the developed world. The most sight-threatening forms of non-infectious uveitis are those affecting the posterior segment of the eye, collectively known as posterior segment-involving uveitis (PSIU). Numerous different clinical outcomes have been used in trials evaluating treatments for PSIU, but these may not represent patients' and carers' concerns. Therefore, the aims of this study were to understand the impact of PSIU on adult patients' and carers' lives and to explore what outcomes of treatment are important to them.

Methods and analysis

Four focus group discussions were undertaken to understand the perspectives of adult patients (=18) and carers (10) with PSIU. Participants were grouped according to whether or not their uveitis was complicated by the sight-threatening condition uveitic macular oedema. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using the framework analytical approach. Outcomes were identified and grouped into outcome domains.

Results

Eleven core domains were identified as important to patients and carers undergoing treatment for PSIU, comprising (1) visual function, (2) symptoms, (3) functional ability, (4) impact on relationships, (5) financial impact, (6) psychological morbidity and emotional well-being, (7) psychosocial adjustment to uveitis, (8) doctor/patient/interprofessional relationships and access to healthcare, (9) treatment burden, (10) treatment side effects, and (11) disease control.

Conclusion

The domains identified represent patients' and carers' experience and perspectives and can be used to reflect on outcomes assessed in PSIU. They will directly inform the development of a core outcome set for PSIU clinical trials.",,pdf:https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/bmjophth/5/1/e000481.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431?pdf=render 30778056,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08797-8,Towards a data-integrated cell.,"Malod-Dognin N, Petschnigg J, Windels SFL, Povh J, Hemingway H, Ketteler R, Pržulj N.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-02-18,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"We are increasingly accumulating molecular data about a cell. The challenge is how to integrate them within a unified conceptual and computational framework enabling new discoveries. Hence, we propose a novel, data-driven concept of an integrated cell, iCell. Also, we introduce a computational prototype of an iCell, which integrates three omics, tissue-specific molecular interaction network types. We construct iCells of four cancers and the corresponding tissue controls and identify the most rewired genes in cancer. Many of them are of unknown function and cannot be identified as different in cancer in any specific molecular network. We biologically validate that they have a role in cancer by knockdown experiments followed by cell viability assays. We find additional support through Kaplan-Meier survival curves of thousands of patients. Finally, we extend this analysis to uncover pan-cancer genes. Our methodology is universal and enables integrative comparisons of diverse omics data over cells and tissues.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08797-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08797-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6379402; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6379402?pdf=render 31666709,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-019-0657-y,Comment on: 'Quantification of anterior chamber reaction after intravitreal injections of conbercept and ranibizumab: a pilot study'.,"Minocha A, Liu X, Denniston AK, Petrushkin H, Solebo AL.",,"Eye (London, England)",2020,2019-10-30,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-019-0657-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-019-0657-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7376231; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7376231?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-019-0657-y +32724858,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481,Outcomes important to patients with non-infectious posterior segment-involving uveitis: a qualitative study.,"Tallouzi MO, Moore DJ, Bucknall N, Murray PI, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, Mathers JM.",,BMJ open ophthalmology,2020,2020-07-21,Y,Inflammation; Public Health; Treatment Other,,,"

Objective

Uveitis, a group of disorders characterised by intraocular inflammation, causes 10%-15% of total blindness in the developed world. The most sight-threatening forms of non-infectious uveitis are those affecting the posterior segment of the eye, collectively known as posterior segment-involving uveitis (PSIU). Numerous different clinical outcomes have been used in trials evaluating treatments for PSIU, but these may not represent patients' and carers' concerns. Therefore, the aims of this study were to understand the impact of PSIU on adult patients' and carers' lives and to explore what outcomes of treatment are important to them.

Methods and analysis

Four focus group discussions were undertaken to understand the perspectives of adult patients (=18) and carers (10) with PSIU. Participants were grouped according to whether or not their uveitis was complicated by the sight-threatening condition uveitic macular oedema. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using the framework analytical approach. Outcomes were identified and grouped into outcome domains.

Results

Eleven core domains were identified as important to patients and carers undergoing treatment for PSIU, comprising (1) visual function, (2) symptoms, (3) functional ability, (4) impact on relationships, (5) financial impact, (6) psychological morbidity and emotional well-being, (7) psychosocial adjustment to uveitis, (8) doctor/patient/interprofessional relationships and access to healthcare, (9) treatment burden, (10) treatment side effects, and (11) disease control.

Conclusion

The domains identified represent patients' and carers' experience and perspectives and can be used to reflect on outcomes assessed in PSIU. They will directly inform the development of a core outcome set for PSIU clinical trials.",,pdf:https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/bmjophth/5/1/e000481.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431?pdf=render 33199917,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00725-7,Genome-wide association study of intracranial aneurysms identifies 17 risk loci and genetic overlap with clinical risk factors.,"Bakker MK, van der Spek RAA, van Rheenen W, Morel S, Bourcier R, Hostettler IC, Alg VS, van Eijk KR, Koido M, Akiyama M, Terao C, Matsuda K, Walters RG, Lin K, Li L, Millwood IY, Chen Z, Rouleau GA, Zhou S, Rannikmäe K, Sudlow CLM, Houlden H, van den Berg LH, Dina C, Naggara O, Gentric JC, Shotar E, Eugène F, Desal H, Winsvold BS, Børte S, Johnsen MB, Brumpton BM, Sandvei MS, Willer CJ, Hveem K, Zwart JA, Verschuren WMM, Friedrich CM, Hirsch S, Schilling S, Dauvillier J, Martin O, HUNT All-In Stroke, China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group, BioBank Japan Project Consortium, ICAN Study Group, CADISP Group, Genetics and Observational Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (GOSH) Study investigators, International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC), Jones GT, Bown MJ, Ko NU, Kim H, Coleman JRI, Breen G, Zaroff JG, Klijn CJM, Malik R, Dichgans M, Sargurupremraj M, Tatlisumak T, Amouyel P, Debette S, Rinkel GJE, Worrall BB, Pera J, Slowik A, Gaál-Paavola EI, Niemelä M, Jääskeläinen JE, von Und Zu Fraunberg M, Lindgren A, Broderick JP, Werring DJ, Woo D, Redon R, Bijlenga P, Kamatani Y, Veldink JH, Ruigrok YM.",,Nature genetics,2020,2020-11-16,N,,,,"Rupture of an intracranial aneurysm leads to subarachnoid hemorrhage, a severe type of stroke. To discover new risk loci and the genetic architecture of intracranial aneurysms, we performed a cross-ancestry, genome-wide association study in 10,754 cases and 306,882 controls of European and East Asian ancestry. We discovered 17 risk loci, 11 of which are new. We reveal a polygenic architecture and explain over half of the disease heritability. We show a high genetic correlation between ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms. We also find a suggestive role for endothelial cells by using gene mapping and heritability enrichment. Drug-target enrichment shows pleiotropy between intracranial aneurysms and antiepileptic and sex hormone drugs, providing insights into intracranial aneurysm pathophysiology. Finally, genetic risks for smoking and high blood pressure, the two main clinical risk factors, play important roles in intracranial aneurysm risk, and drive most of the genetic correlation between intracranial aneurysms and other cerebrovascular traits.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7116530?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00725-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116530?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00725-7 -35347521,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w,Knowledge translation concerns for the CONSORT-PRO extension reporting guidance: a review of reviews.,"Mercieca-Bebber R, Aiyegbusi OL, King MT, Brundage M, Snyder C, Calvert M.",,"Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation",2022,2022-03-26,Y,Quality of life; research methodology; Reporting; Patient-reported Outcomes; Research Waste; Consort-pro,,,"This review of reviews aimed to appraise the use of the CONSORT-PRO Extension as an evaluation tool for assessing the reporting of patient-reported outcome (PROs) in publications, and to describe the reporting of PRO research across reviews. We also outlined how variation in such evaluations impacts knowledge translation and may lead to potential misuse of the CONSORT-PRO Extension. We systematically searched Medline, Pubmed and CINAHL from 2013 to 2025 March 2021 for reviews of the completeness of reporting of PRO endpoints according to CONSORT-PRO criteria. Two reviewers extracted details of each review, the percentage of included studies that addressed each CONSORT-PRO item, and key recommendations from each review. Fourteen reviews met inclusion criteria, and only six of these used the full CONSORT-PRO checklist with minimal justified modifications. The remaining eight studies made significant or unjustified adjustments to the CONSORT-PRO Extension. Review studies also varied in how they scored multi-component CONSORT-PRO items. CONSORT-PRO items were often unreported in trial reports, and certain CONSORT-PRO items were reported less often than others. The reporting of statistical approaches to dealing with missing PRO data were poor in RCTs included in all 14 review articles. Studies reviewing PRO publications often omitted recommended CONSORT-PRO items from their evaluations, which may cause confusion among readers regarding how best to report their PRO research according to the CONSORT-PRO extension. Many trials published since CONSORT-PRO's release did not report recommended CONSORT-PRO items, which may lead to misinterpretation and consequently to research waste.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606?pdf=render 31013802,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081325,Using Patient-Reported Outcomes to Predict Revision Arthroplasty Following Femoral Neck Fracture: Enhancing the Value of Clinical Registries through Data Linkage. ,"Ekegren CL, de Steiger R, Edwards ER, Page RS, Hau R, Liew S, Oppy A, Gabbe BJ.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2019,2019-04-12,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"The aim of this study was to determine the association between patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) six months following femoral neck fracture after a low fall and future arthroplasty, and the factors associated with this. Six-month post-fracture PROMs were collected from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (VOTOR) for patients aged >55 years who were admitted for a femoral neck fracture after a low fall between March 2007 and June 2015. These cases were linked with those registered by Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR) up to October 2016. Multivariable analysis was performed using a Cox proportional hazards model to determine factors associated with future arthroplasty, including six-month PROMs. Of the 7077 hip fracture patients registered by VOTOR during the study period, 2325 met the inclusion criteria. Internal fixation being used for the initial hip fracture surgery, being younger and having no pre-injury disability were all independently associated with future revision or conversion to arthroplasty. Out of all PROMs, reporting pain and discomfort six months post-fracture was associated with a 9.5-fold increase in the risk of future arthroplasty (95% CI: 3.81, 23.67). The value of clinical registries can be enhanced via data linkage, in this case by using PROMs to predict arthroplasty following femoral neck fracture.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1325/pdf?version=1555077276; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081325; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517898; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517898?pdf=render +35347521,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w,Knowledge translation concerns for the CONSORT-PRO extension reporting guidance: a review of reviews.,"Mercieca-Bebber R, Aiyegbusi OL, King MT, Brundage M, Snyder C, Calvert M.",,"Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation",2022,2022-03-26,Y,Quality of life; research methodology; Reporting; Patient-reported Outcomes; Research Waste; Consort-pro,,,"This review of reviews aimed to appraise the use of the CONSORT-PRO Extension as an evaluation tool for assessing the reporting of patient-reported outcome (PROs) in publications, and to describe the reporting of PRO research across reviews. We also outlined how variation in such evaluations impacts knowledge translation and may lead to potential misuse of the CONSORT-PRO Extension. We systematically searched Medline, Pubmed and CINAHL from 2013 to 2025 March 2021 for reviews of the completeness of reporting of PRO endpoints according to CONSORT-PRO criteria. Two reviewers extracted details of each review, the percentage of included studies that addressed each CONSORT-PRO item, and key recommendations from each review. Fourteen reviews met inclusion criteria, and only six of these used the full CONSORT-PRO checklist with minimal justified modifications. The remaining eight studies made significant or unjustified adjustments to the CONSORT-PRO Extension. Review studies also varied in how they scored multi-component CONSORT-PRO items. CONSORT-PRO items were often unreported in trial reports, and certain CONSORT-PRO items were reported less often than others. The reporting of statistical approaches to dealing with missing PRO data were poor in RCTs included in all 14 review articles. Studies reviewing PRO publications often omitted recommended CONSORT-PRO items from their evaluations, which may cause confusion among readers regarding how best to report their PRO research according to the CONSORT-PRO extension. Many trials published since CONSORT-PRO's release did not report recommended CONSORT-PRO items, which may lead to misinterpretation and consequently to research waste.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606?pdf=render 32558637,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000393,Evaluation of methods for detecting human reads in microbial sequencing datasets. ,"Bush SJ, Connor TR, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS.",,Microbial genomics,2020,2020-07-01,Y,,,,"Sequencing data from host-associated microbes can often be contaminated by the body of the investigator or research subject. Human DNA is typically removed from microbial reads either by subtractive alignment (dropping all reads that map to the human genome) or by using a read classification tool to predict those of human origin, and then discarding them. To inform best practice guidelines, we benchmarked eight alignment-based and two classification-based methods of human read detection using simulated data from 10 clinically prevalent bacteria and three viruses, into which contaminating human reads had been added. While the majority of methods successfully detected >99 % of the human reads, they were distinguishable by variance. The most precise methods, with negligible variance, were Bowtie2 and SNAP, both of which misidentified few, if any, bacterial reads (and no viral reads) as human. While correctly detecting a similar number of human reads, methods based on taxonomic classification, such as Kraken2 and Centrifuge, could misclassify bacterial reads as human, although the extent of this was species-specific. Among the most sensitive methods of human read detection was BWA, although this also made the greatest number of false positive classifications. Across all methods, the set of human reads not identified as such, although often representing <0.1 % of the total reads, were non-randomly distributed along the human genome with many originating from the repeat-rich sex chromosomes. For viral reads and longer (>300 bp) bacterial reads, the highest performing approaches were classification-based, using Kraken2 or Centrifuge. For shorter (c. 150 bp) bacterial reads, combining multiple methods of human read detection maximized the recovery of human reads from contaminated short read datasets without being compromised by false positives. A particularly high-performance approach with shorter bacterial reads was a two-stage classification using Bowtie2 followed by SNAP. Using this approach, we re-examined 11 577 publicly archived bacterial read sets for hitherto undetected human contamination. We were able to extract a sufficient number of reads to call known human SNPs, including those with clinical significance, in 6 % of the samples. These results show that phenotypically distinct human sequence is detectable in publicly archived microbial read datasets.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000393; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000393; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478626; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478626?pdf=render 36498739,https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11237163,Biopsychosocial Response to the COVID-19 Lockdown in People with Major Depressive Disorder and Multiple Sclerosis.,"Siddi S, Giné-Vázquez I, Bailon R, Matcham F, Lamers F, Kontaxis S, Laporta E, Garcia E, Arranz B, Dalla Costa G, Guerrero AI, Zabalza A, Buron MD, Comi G, Leocani L, Annas P, Hotopf M, Penninx BWJH, Magyari M, Sørensen PS, Montalban X, Lavelle G, Ivan A, Oetzmann C, White KM, Difrancesco S, Locatelli P, Mohr DC, Aguiló J, Narayan V, Folarin A, Dobson RJB, Dineley J, Leightley D, Cummins N, Vairavan S, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Rintala A, Girolamo G, Preti A, Simblett S, Wykes T, Pab Members, Myin-Germeys I, Haro JM, On Behalf Of The Radar-Cns Consortium.",,Journal of clinical medicine,2022,2022-12-01,Y,Stress; Heart rate; Multiple sclerosis; Physical Activity; Social Activity; Major Depressive Disorder; Depression Severity; Decentralized; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Changes in lifestyle, finances and work status during COVID-19 lockdowns may have led to biopsychosocial changes in people with pre-existing vulnerabilities such as Major Depressive Disorders (MDDs) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

Methods

Data were collected as a part of the RADAR-CNS (Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Central Nervous System) program. We analyzed the following data from long-term participants in a decentralized multinational study: symptoms of depression, heart rate (HR) during the day and night; social activity; sedentary state, steps and physical activity of varying intensity. Linear mixed-effects regression analyses with repeated measures were fitted to assess the changes among three time periods (pre, during and post-lockdown) across the groups, adjusting for depression severity before the pandemic and gender.

Results

Participants with MDDs (N = 255) and MS (N = 214) were included in the analyses. Overall, depressive symptoms remained stable across the three periods in both groups. A lower mean HR and HR variation were observed between pre and during lockdown during the day for MDDs and during the night for MS. HR variation during rest periods also decreased between pre- and post-lockdown in both clinical conditions. We observed a reduction in physical activity for MDDs and MS upon the introduction of lockdowns. The group with MDDs exhibited a net increase in social interaction via social network apps over the three periods.

Conclusions

Behavioral responses to the lockdown measured by social activity, physical activity and HR may reflect changes in stress in people with MDDs and MS. Remote technology monitoring might promptly activate an early warning of physical and social alterations in these stressful situations. Future studies must explore how stress does or does not impact depression severity.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/11/23/7163/pdf?version=1670311452; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11237163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738639?pdf=render 37343968,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-072976,Risk prediction of covid-19 related death or hospital admission in adults testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection during the omicron wave in England (QCOVID4): cohort study.,"Hippisley-Cox J, Khunti K, Sheikh A, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Coupland CAC.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2023,2023-06-21,Y,,,,"

Objectives

To derive and validate risk prediction algorithms (QCOVID4) to estimate the risk of covid-19 related death and hospital admission in people with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result during the period when the omicron variant of the virus was predominant in England, and to evaluate performance compared with a high risk cohort from NHS Digital.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

QResearch database linked to English national data on covid-19 vaccinations, SARS-CoV-2 test results, hospital admissions, and cancer and mortality data, 11 December 2021 to 31 March 2022, with follow-up to 30 June 2022.

Participants

1.3 million adults in the derivation cohort and 0.15 million adults in the validation cohort, aged 18-100 years, with a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Main outcome measures

Primary outcome was covid-19 related death and secondary outcome was hospital admission for covid-19. Risk equations with predictor variables were derived from models fitted in the derivation cohort. Performance was evaluated in a separate validation cohort.

Results

Of 1 297 922 people with a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the derivation cohort, 18 756 (1.5%) had a covid-19 related hospital admission and 3878 (0.3%) had a covid-19 related death during follow-up. The final QCOVID4 models included age, deprivation score and a range of health and sociodemographic factors, number of covid-19 vaccinations, and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. The risk of death related to covid-19 was lower among those who had received a covid-19 vaccine, with evidence of a dose-response relation (42% risk reduction associated with one vaccine dose and 92% reduction with four or more doses in men). Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a reduction in the risk of covid-19 related death (49% reduction in men). The QCOVID4 algorithm for covid-19 explained 76.0% (95% confidence interval 73.9% to 78.2%) of the variation in time to covid-19 related death in men with a D statistic of 3.65 (3.43 to 3.86) and Harrell's C statistic of 0.970 (0.962 to 0.979). Results were similar for women. QCOVID4 was well calibrated. QCOVID4 was substantially more efficient than the NHS Digital algorithm for correctly identifying patients at high risk of covid-19 related death. Of the 461 covid-19 related deaths in the validation cohort, 333 (72.2%) were in the QCOVID4 high risk group and 95 (20.6%) in the NHS Digital high risk group.

Conclusion

The QCOVID4 risk algorithm, modelled from data during the period when the omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was predominant in England, now includes vaccination dose and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, and predicted covid-19 related death among people with a positive test result. QCOVID4 more accurately identified individuals at the highest levels of absolute risk for targeted interventions than the approach adopted by NHS Digital. QCOVID4 performed well and could be used for targeting treatments for covid-19 disease.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/381/bmj-2022-072976.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-072976; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10282241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10282241?pdf=render 35189842,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1,"Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse in Major Depressive Disorder (RADAR-MDD): recruitment, retention, and data availability in a longitudinal remote measurement study.","Matcham F, Leightley D, Siddi S, Lamers F, White KM, Annas P, de Girolamo G, Difrancesco S, Haro JM, Horsfall M, Ivan A, Lavelle G, Li Q, Lombardini F, Mohr DC, Narayan VA, Oetzmann C, Penninx BWJH, Bruce S, Nica R, Simblett SK, Wykes T, Brasen JC, Myin-Germeys I, Rintala A, Conde P, Dobson RJB, Folarin AA, Stewart C, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Cummins N, Manyakov NV, Vairavan S, Hotopf M, RADAR-CNS consortium.",,BMC psychiatry,2022,2022-02-21,Y,Cohort study; Longitudinal; Major Depressive Disorder; Multicentre; Remote Measurement Technologies,,,"

Background

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is prevalent, often chronic, and requires ongoing monitoring of symptoms to track response to treatment and identify early indicators of relapse. Remote Measurement Technologies (RMT) provide an opportunity to transform the measurement and management of MDD, via data collected from inbuilt smartphone sensors and wearable devices alongside app-based questionnaires and tasks. A key question for the field is the extent to which participants can adhere to research protocols and the completeness of data collected. We aimed to describe drop out and data completeness in a naturalistic multimodal longitudinal RMT study, in people with a history of recurrent MDD. We further aimed to determine whether those experiencing a depressive relapse at baseline contributed less complete data.

Methods

Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse - Major Depressive Disorder (RADAR-MDD) is a multi-centre, prospective observational cohort study conducted as part of the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse - Central Nervous System (RADAR-CNS) program. People with a history of MDD were provided with a wrist-worn wearable device, and smartphone apps designed to: a) collect data from smartphone sensors; and b) deliver questionnaires, speech tasks, and cognitive assessments. Participants were followed-up for a minimum of 11 months and maximum of 24 months.

Results

Individuals with a history of MDD (n = 623) were enrolled in the study,. We report 80% completion rates for primary outcome assessments across all follow-up timepoints. 79.8% of people participated for the maximum amount of time available and 20.2% withdrew prematurely. We found no evidence of an association between the severity of depression symptoms at baseline and the availability of data. In total, 110 participants had > 50% data available across all data types.

Conclusions

RADAR-MDD is the largest multimodal RMT study in the field of mental health. Here, we have shown that collecting RMT data from a clinical population is feasible. We found comparable levels of data availability in active and passive forms of data collection, demonstrating that both are feasible in this patient group.",,pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860359?pdf=render -35294976,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1,Mental health service use among mothers involved in public family law proceedings: linked data cohort study in South London 2007-2019.,"Pearson RJ, Grant C, Wijlaars L, Finch E, Bedston S, Broadhurst K, Gilbert R.",,Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology,2022,2022-03-16,Y,Substance Misuse; Child Protection; Record Linkage; Maternal Mental Health; Family Court,,,"

Purpose

Mental health problems and substance misuse are common among the mothers of children who experience court-mandated placement into care in England, yet there is limited research characterising these health needs to inform evidence-based policy. In this descriptive study, we aimed to generate evidence about the type, severity, and timing of mental health and substance misuse needs among women involved in public family law proceedings concerning child placement into care ('care proceedings').

Methods

This is a retrospective, matched cohort study using linked family court and mental health service records for 2137 (66%) of the 3226 women involved in care proceedings between 2007 and 2019 in the South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Trust (SLaM) catchment area. We compared mental health service use and risk of dying with 17,096 female-matched controls who accessed SLaM between 2007 and 2019, aged 16-55 years, and were not involved in care proceedings.

Results

Most women (79%) were known to SLaM before care proceedings began. Women had higher rates of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (19% vs 11% matched controls), personality disorders (21% vs 11%), and substance misuse (33% vs 12%). They were more likely to have a SLaM inpatient admission (27% vs 14%) or to be sectioned (19% vs 8%). Women had a 2.15 (95% CI 1.68-2.74) times greater hazard of dying, compared to matched controls, adjusted for age.

Conclusion

Women involved in care proceedings experience a particularly high burden of severe and complex mental health and substance misuse need. Women's increased risk of mortality following proceedings highlights that interventions responding to maternal mental health and substance misuse within family courts should offer continued, long-term support.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900?pdf=render 33075408,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.10.007,Factors associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes in patients with psoriasis-insights from a global registry-based study.,"Mahil SK, Dand N, Mason KJ, Yiu ZZN, Tsakok T, Meynell F, Coker B, McAteer H, Moorhead L, Mackenzie T, Rossi MT, Rivera R, Mahe E, Carugno A, Magnano M, Rech G, Balogh EA, Feldman SR, De La Cruz C, Choon SE, Naldi L, Lambert J, Spuls P, Jullien D, Bachelez H, McMahon DE, Freeman EE, Gisondi P, Puig L, Warren RB, Di Meglio P, Langan SM, Capon F, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, PsoProtect study group.",,The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology,2021,2020-10-16,Y,Psoriasis; Immunosuppressants; risk factors; Hospitalization; Biologics; Covid-19,,,"

Background

The multimorbid burden and use of systemic immunosuppressants in people with psoriasis may confer greater risk of adverse outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the data are limited.

Objective

Our aim was to characterize the course of COVID-19 in patients with psoriasis and identify factors associated with hospitalization.

Methods

Clinicians reported patients with psoriasis with confirmed/suspected COVID-19 via an international registry, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the association between clinical and/or demographic characteristics and hospitalization. A separate patient-facing registry characterized risk-mitigating behaviors.

Results

Of 374 clinician-reported patients from 25 countries, 71% were receiving a biologic, 18% were receiving a nonbiologic, and 10% were not receiving any systemic treatment for psoriasis. In all, 348 patients (93%) were fully recovered from COVID-19, 77 (21%) were hospitalized, and 9 (2%) died. Increased hospitalization risk was associated with older age (multivariable-adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.59 per 10 years; 95% CI = 1.19-2.13), male sex (OR = 2.51; 95% CI = 1.23-5.12), nonwhite ethnicity (OR = 3.15; 95% CI = 1.24-8.03), and comorbid chronic lung disease (OR = 3.87; 95% CI = 1.52-9.83). Hospitalization was more frequent in patients using nonbiologic systemic therapy than in those using biologics (OR = 2.84; 95% CI = 1.31-6.18). No significant differences were found between classes of biologics. Independent patient-reported data (n = 1626 across 48 countries) suggested lower levels of social isolation in individuals receiving nonbiologic systemic therapy than in those receiving biologics (OR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.50-0.94).

Conclusion

In this international case series of patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis, biologic use was associated with lower risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization than with use of nonbiologic systemic therapies; however, further investigation is warranted on account of potential selection bias and unmeasured confounding. Established risk factors (being older, being male, being of nonwhite ethnicity, and having comorbidities) were associated with higher hospitalization rates.",,pdf:http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091674920314135/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.10.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566694; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566694?pdf=render +35294976,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1,Mental health service use among mothers involved in public family law proceedings: linked data cohort study in South London 2007-2019.,"Pearson RJ, Grant C, Wijlaars L, Finch E, Bedston S, Broadhurst K, Gilbert R.",,Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology,2022,2022-03-16,Y,Substance Misuse; Child Protection; Record Linkage; Maternal Mental Health; Family Court,,,"

Purpose

Mental health problems and substance misuse are common among the mothers of children who experience court-mandated placement into care in England, yet there is limited research characterising these health needs to inform evidence-based policy. In this descriptive study, we aimed to generate evidence about the type, severity, and timing of mental health and substance misuse needs among women involved in public family law proceedings concerning child placement into care ('care proceedings').

Methods

This is a retrospective, matched cohort study using linked family court and mental health service records for 2137 (66%) of the 3226 women involved in care proceedings between 2007 and 2019 in the South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Trust (SLaM) catchment area. We compared mental health service use and risk of dying with 17,096 female-matched controls who accessed SLaM between 2007 and 2019, aged 16-55 years, and were not involved in care proceedings.

Results

Most women (79%) were known to SLaM before care proceedings began. Women had higher rates of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (19% vs 11% matched controls), personality disorders (21% vs 11%), and substance misuse (33% vs 12%). They were more likely to have a SLaM inpatient admission (27% vs 14%) or to be sectioned (19% vs 8%). Women had a 2.15 (95% CI 1.68-2.74) times greater hazard of dying, compared to matched controls, adjusted for age.

Conclusion

Women involved in care proceedings experience a particularly high burden of severe and complex mental health and substance misuse need. Women's increased risk of mortality following proceedings highlights that interventions responding to maternal mental health and substance misuse within family courts should offer continued, long-term support.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900?pdf=render 33879482,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042949,"Gender differences in clinical presentation and illicit substance use during first episode psychosis: a natural language processing, electronic case register study.","Irving J, Colling C, Shetty H, Pritchard M, Stewart R, Fusar-Poli P, McGuire P, Patel R.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-04-20,Y,Substance Misuse; Health Informatics; Schizophrenia & Psychotic Disorders,,,"

Objective

To determine whether gender differences in symptom presentation at first episode psychosis (FEP) remain even when controlling for substance use, age and ethnicity, using natural language processing applied to electronic health records (EHRs).

Design, setting and participants

Data were extracted from EHRs of 3350 people (62% male patients) who had presented to the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust with a FEP between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2017. Logistic regression was used to examine gender differences in the presentation of positive, negative, depressive, mania and disorganisation symptoms.

Exposures for observational studies

Gender (male vs female).

Main outcomes and measures

Presence of positive, negative, depressive, mania and disorganisation symptoms at initial clinical presentation.

Results

Eight symptoms were significantly more prevalent in men (poverty of thought, negative symptoms, social withdrawal, poverty of speech, aggression, grandiosity, paranoia and agitation). Conversely, tearfulness, low energy, reduced appetite, low mood, pressured speech, mood instability, flight of ideas, guilt, mutism, insomnia, poor concentration, tangentiality and elation were more prevalent in women than men. Negative symptoms were more common among men (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.33 to 2.62) and depressive and manic symptoms more common among women (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.35). After adjustment for illicit substance use, the strength of associations between gender and negative, manic and depression symptoms increased, whereas gender differences in aggression, agitation, paranoia and grandiosity became insignificant.

Conclusions

There are clear gender differences in the clinical presentation of FEP. Our findings suggest that gender can have a substantial influence on the nature of clinical presentation in people with psychosis, and that this is only partly explained by exposure to illicit substance use.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/4/e042949.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042949; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8061860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8061860?pdf=render 34972825,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-01029-0,Improving local prevalence estimates of SARS-CoV-2 infections using a causal debiasing framework.,"Nicholson G, Lehmann B, Padellini T, Pouwels KB, Jersakova R, Lomax J, King RE, Mallon AM, Diggle PJ, Richardson S, Blangiardo M, Holmes C.",,Nature microbiology,2022,2021-12-31,Y,,,,"Global and national surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology is mostly based on targeted schemes focused on testing individuals with symptoms. These tested groups are often unrepresentative of the wider population and exhibit test positivity rates that are biased upwards compared with the true population prevalence. Such data are routinely used to infer infection prevalence and the effective reproduction number, Rt, which affects public health policy. Here, we describe a causal framework that provides debiased fine-scale spatiotemporal estimates by combining targeted test counts with data from a randomized surveillance study in the United Kingdom called REACT. Our probabilistic model includes a bias parameter that captures the increased probability of an infected individual being tested, relative to a non-infected individual, and transforms observed test counts to debiased estimates of the true underlying local prevalence and Rt. We validated our approach on held-out REACT data over a 7-month period. Furthermore, our local estimates of Rt are indicative of 1-week- and 2-week-ahead changes in SARS-CoV-2-positive case numbers. We also observed increases in estimated local prevalence and Rt that reflect the spread of the Alpha and Delta variants. Our results illustrate how randomized surveys can augment targeted testing to improve statistical accuracy in monitoring the spread of emerging and ongoing infectious disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-021-01029-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-01029-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727294; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8727294?pdf=render 30921401,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214607,Effect of impregnated central venous catheters on thrombosis in paediatric intensive care: Post-hoc analyses of the CATCH trial.,"Wu Y, Fraser C, Gilbert R, Mok Q.",,PloS one,2019,2019-03-28,Y,,"Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"

Purpose

The CATheter infections in CHildren (CATCH) trial reported reduced risks of bloodstream infection with antibiotic impregnated compared with heparin-bonded or standard central venous catheters (CVC) in paediatric intensive care. CVC impregnation did not increase the risk of thrombosis which was recorded in 24% of participants. This post-hoc analysis determines the effect of CVC impregnation on the risk of thrombosis leading to CVC removal or swollen limb.

Methods

We analysed patients in the CATCH trial, blind to CVC allocation, to define clinically relevant thrombosis based on the clinical sign most frequently recorded in patients where the CVC was removed because of concerns regarding thrombosis. In post-hoc, three-way comparisons of antibiotic, heparin and standard CVCs, we determined the effect of CVC type on time to clinically relevant thrombosis, using Cox proportional hazards regression.

Results

Of 1409 participants with a successful CVC insertion, the sign most frequently resulting in CVC removal was swollen limb (37.6%; 41/109), with lower rates of removal of CVC following 2 episodes of difficulty withdrawing blood or of flushing to unblock the CVC. In intention to treat analyses (n = 1485), clinically relevant thrombosis, defined by 1 or more record of swollen limb or CVC removal due to concerns about thrombosis, was recorded in 11.9% (58/486) of antibiotic CVCs, 12.1% (60/497) of heparin CVCs, and 10.2% (51/502) of standard CVCs. We found no differences in time to clinically relevant thrombosis according to type of CVC.

Conclusions

We found no evidence for an increased risk of clinically relevant thrombosis in antibiotic impregnated compared to heparin-bonded or standard CVCs in children receiving intensive care.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0214607&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214607; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6438638; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6438638?pdf=render @@ -2006,9 +2006,9 @@ PMC8718341,https://doi.org/,"Loneliness, coping, suicidal thoughts and self-harm 37316763,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-023-01530-7,Autosomal Dominant STAT6 Gain of Function Causes Severe Atopy Associated with Lymphoma.,"Minskaia E, Maimaris J, Jenkins P, Albuquerque AS, Hong Y, Eleftheriou D, Gilmour KC, Grace R, Moreira F, Grimbacher B, NIHR Bioresource-Rare Diseases Consortium, Morris EC, Burns SO.",,Journal of clinical immunology,2023,2023-06-14,Y,Lymphoma; STAT6; Atopy; Gain-of-function,,,"The transcription factor STAT6 (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 6) is a key regulator of Th2 (T-helper 2) mediated allergic inflammation via the IL-4 (interleukin-4) JAK (Janus kinase)/STAT signalling pathway. We identified a novel heterozygous germline mutation STAT6 c.1255G > C, p.D419H leading to overactivity of IL-4 JAK/STAT signalling pathway, in a kindred affected by early-onset atopic dermatitis, food allergy, eosinophilic asthma, anaphylaxis and follicular lymphoma. STAT6 D419H expression and functional activity were compared with wild type STAT6 in transduced HEK293T cells and to healthy control primary skin fibroblasts and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). We observed consistently higher STAT6 levels at baseline and higher STAT6 and phosphorylated STAT6 following IL-4 stimulation in D419H cell lines and primary cells compared to wild type controls. The pSTAT6/STAT6 ratios were unchanged between D419H and control cells suggesting that elevated pSTAT6 levels resulted from higher total basal STAT6 expression. The selective JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib reduced pSTAT6 levels in D419H HEK293T cells and patient PBMC. Nuclear staining demonstrated increased STAT6 in patient fibroblasts at baseline and both STAT6 and pSTAT6 after IL-4 stimulation. We also observed higher transcriptional upregulation of downstream genes (XBP1 and EPAS1) in patient PBMC. Our study confirms STAT6 gain of function (GOF) as a novel monogenetic cause of early onset atopic disease. The clinical association of lymphoma in our kindred, along with previous data linking somatic STAT6 D419H mutations to follicular lymphoma suggest that patients with STAT6 GOF disease may be at higher risk of lymphomagenesis.245 words.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-023-01530-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-023-01530-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499697; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499697?pdf=render 35537820,https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217993,Mendelian randomisation of eosinophils and other cell types in relation to lung function and disease.,"Guyatt A, John C, Williams AT, Shrine N, Reeve NF, SpiroMeta consortium, Sayers I, Hall I, Wain LV, Sheehan N, Dudbridge F, Tobin MD.",,Thorax,2023,2022-05-10,Y,respiratory infection; Copd Epidemiology; Eosinophil Biology; Asthma Mechanisms; Asthma Epidemiology; Asthma Genetics; Copd Exacerbations Mechanisms,,,"

Rationale

Eosinophils are associated with airway inflammation in respiratory disease. Eosinophil production and survival is controlled partly by interleukin-5: anti-interleukin-5 agents reduce asthma and response correlates with baseline eosinophil counts. However, whether raised eosinophils are causally related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other respiratory phenotypes is not well understood.

Objectives

We investigated causality between eosinophils and: lung function, acute exacerbations of COPD, asthma-COPD overlap (ACO), moderate-to-severe asthma and respiratory infections.

Methods

We performed Mendelian randomisation (MR) using 151 variants from genome-wide association studies of blood eosinophils in UK Biobank/INTERVAL, and respiratory traits in UK Biobank/SpiroMeta, using methods relying on different assumptions for validity. We performed multivariable analyses using eight cell types where there was possible evidence of causation by eosinophils.

Measurements and main results

Causal estimates derived from individual variants were highly heterogeneous, which may arise from pleiotropy. The average effect of raising eosinophils was to increase risk of ACO (weighted median OR per SD eosinophils, 1.44 (95%CI 1.19 to 1.74)), and moderate-severe asthma (weighted median OR 1.50 (95%CI 1.23 to 1.83)), and to reduce forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1 (weighted median estimator, SD FEV1/FVC: -0.054 (95% CI -0.078 to -0.029), effect only prominent in individuals with asthma).

Conclusions

Broad consistency across MR methods may suggest causation by eosinophils (although of uncertain magnitude), yet heterogeneity necessitates caution: other important mechanisms may be responsible for the impairment of respiratory health by these eosinophil-raising variants. These results could suggest that anti-IL5 agents (designed to lower eosinophils) may be valuable in treating other respiratory conditions, including people with overlapping features of asthma and COPD.",,pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/05/10/thoraxjnl-2021-217993.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217993; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176352; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176352?pdf=render 33847595,https://doi.org/10.2196/22397,Using General-purpose Sentiment Lexicons for Suicide Risk Assessment in Electronic Health Records: Corpus-Based Analysis.,"Bittar A, Velupillai S, Roberts A, Dutta R.",,JMIR medical informatics,2021,2021-04-13,Y,"Psychiatry; risk assessment; Suicide; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing; Suicide, Attempted; Sentiment Analysis; Corpus Linguistics",,,"

Background

Suicide is a serious public health issue, accounting for 1.4% of all deaths worldwide. Current risk assessment tools are reported as performing little better than chance in predicting suicide. New methods for studying dynamic features in electronic health records (EHRs) are being increasingly explored. One avenue of research involves using sentiment analysis to examine clinicians' subjective judgments when reporting on patients. Several recent studies have used general-purpose sentiment analysis tools to automatically identify negative and positive words within EHRs to test correlations between sentiment extracted from the texts and specific medical outcomes (eg, risk of suicide or in-hospital mortality). However, little attention has been paid to analyzing the specific words identified by general-purpose sentiment lexicons when applied to EHR corpora.

Objective

This study aims to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the coverage of six general-purpose sentiment lexicons against a corpus of EHR texts to ascertain the extent to which such lexical resources are fit for use in suicide risk assessment.

Methods

The data for this study were a corpus of 198,451 EHR texts made up of two subcorpora drawn from a 1:4 case-control study comparing clinical notes written over the period leading up to a suicide attempt (cases, n=2913) with those not preceding such an attempt (controls, n=14,727). We calculated word frequency distributions within each subcorpus to identify representative keywords for both the case and control subcorpora. We quantified the relative coverage of the 6 lexicons with respect to this list of representative keywords in terms of weighted precision, recall, and F score.

Results

The six lexicons achieved reasonable precision (0.53-0.68) but very low recall (0.04-0.36). Many of the most representative keywords in the suicide-related (case) subcorpus were not identified by any of the lexicons. The sentiment-bearing status of these keywords for this use case is thus doubtful.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that these 6 sentiment lexicons are not optimal for use in suicide risk assessment. We propose a set of guidelines for the creation of more suitable lexical resources for distinguishing suicide-related from non-suicide-related EHR texts.",,pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2021/4/e22397/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/22397; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8080148 +32423943,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974,Study protocol for a multicentre longitudinal mixed methods study to explore the Outcomes of ChildrEn and fAmilies in the first year after paediatric Intensive Care: the OCEANIC study.,"Manning JC, Latour JM, Curley MAQ, Draper ES, Jilani T, Quinlan PR, Watson RS, Rennick JE, Colville G, Pinto N, Latif A, Popejoy E, Coad J, OCEANIC Study Investigators.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-05-17,Y,Qualitative Research; Statistics & Research Methods; Paediatric Intensive & Critical Care,,,"

Introduction

Annually in the UK, 20 000 children become very ill or injured and need specialist care within a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Most children survive. However, some children and their families may experience problems after they have left the PICU including physical, functional and/or emotional problems. It is unknown which children and families experience such problems, when these occur or what causes them. The aim of this mixed-method longitudinal cohort study is to understand the physical, functional, emotional and social impact of children surviving PICU (aged: 1 month-17 years), their parents and siblings, during the first year after a PICU admission.

Methods and analysis

A quantitative study involving 300 child survivors of PICU; 300 parents; and 150-300 siblings will collect data (using self-completion questionnaires) at baseline, PICU discharge, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post-PICU discharge. Questionnaires will comprise validated and reliable instruments. Demographic data, PICU admission and treatment data, health-related quality of life, functional status, strengths and difficulties behaviour and post-traumatic stress symptoms will be collected from the child. Parent and sibling data will be collected on the impact of paediatric health conditions on the family's functioning capabilities, levels of anxiety and social impact of the child's PICU admission. Data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Concurrently, an embedded qualitative study involving semistructured interviews with 24 enrolled families at 3 months and 9 months post-PICU discharge will be undertaken. Framework analysis will be used to analyse the qualitative data.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has received ethical approval from the National Health Services Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 19/WM/0290) and full governance clearance. This will be the first UK study to comprehensively investigate physical, functional, emotional and social consequences of PICU survival in the first-year postdischarge.Clinical Trials Registration Number: ISRCTN28072812 [Pre-results].",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/5/e038974.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532?pdf=render 33328634,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03043-4,Mapping routine measles vaccination in low- and middle-income countries.,Local Burden of Disease Vaccine Coverage Collaborators.,,Nature,2021,2020-12-16,Y,,,,"The safe, highly effective measles vaccine has been recommended globally since 1974, yet in 2017 there were more than 17 million cases of measles and 83,400 deaths in children under 5 years old, and more than 99% of both occurred in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)1-4. Globally comparable, annual, local estimates of routine first-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV1) coverage are critical for understanding geographically precise immunity patterns, progress towards the targets of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), and high-risk areas amid disruptions to vaccination programmes caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)5-8. Here we generated annual estimates of routine childhood MCV1 coverage at 5 × 5-km2 pixel and second administrative levels from 2000 to 2019 in 101 LMICs, quantified geographical inequality and assessed vaccination status by geographical remoteness. After widespread MCV1 gains from 2000 to 2010, coverage regressed in more than half of the districts between 2010 and 2019, leaving many LMICs far from the GVAP goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019. MCV1 coverage was lower in rural than in urban locations, although a larger proportion of unvaccinated children overall lived in urban locations; strategies to provide essential vaccination services should address both geographical contexts. These results provide a tool for decision-makers to strengthen routine MCV1 immunization programmes and provide equitable disease protection for all children.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03043-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03043-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7739806; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7739806?pdf=render 35977952,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29931-z,GWAS meta-analysis of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy implicates multiple hepatic genes and regulatory elements.,"Dixon PH, Levine AP, Cebola I, Chan MMY, Amin AS, Aich A, Mozere M, Maude H, Mitchell AL, Zhang J, NIHR BioResource, Genomics England Research Consortium Collaborators, Chambers J, Syngelaki A, Donnelly J, Cooley S, Geary M, Nicolaides K, Thorsell M, Hague WM, Estiu MC, Marschall HU, Gale DP, Williamson C.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-08-17,Y,,,,"Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a pregnancy-specific liver disorder affecting 0.5-2% of pregnancies. The majority of cases present in the third trimester with pruritus, elevated serum bile acids and abnormal serum liver tests. ICP is associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including spontaneous preterm birth and stillbirth. Whilst rare mutations affecting hepatobiliary transporters contribute to the aetiology of ICP, the role of common genetic variation in ICP has not been systematically characterised to date. Here, we perform genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and meta-analyses for ICP across three studies including 1138 cases and 153,642 controls. Eleven loci achieve genome-wide significance and have been further investigated and fine-mapped using functional genomics approaches. Our results pinpoint common sequence variation in liver-enriched genes and liver-specific cis-regulatory elements as contributing mechanisms to ICP susceptibility.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29931-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29931-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9385867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9385867?pdf=render -32423943,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974,Study protocol for a multicentre longitudinal mixed methods study to explore the Outcomes of ChildrEn and fAmilies in the first year after paediatric Intensive Care: the OCEANIC study.,"Manning JC, Latour JM, Curley MAQ, Draper ES, Jilani T, Quinlan PR, Watson RS, Rennick JE, Colville G, Pinto N, Latif A, Popejoy E, Coad J, OCEANIC Study Investigators.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-05-17,Y,Qualitative Research; Statistics & Research Methods; Paediatric Intensive & Critical Care,,,"

Introduction

Annually in the UK, 20 000 children become very ill or injured and need specialist care within a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Most children survive. However, some children and their families may experience problems after they have left the PICU including physical, functional and/or emotional problems. It is unknown which children and families experience such problems, when these occur or what causes them. The aim of this mixed-method longitudinal cohort study is to understand the physical, functional, emotional and social impact of children surviving PICU (aged: 1 month-17 years), their parents and siblings, during the first year after a PICU admission.

Methods and analysis

A quantitative study involving 300 child survivors of PICU; 300 parents; and 150-300 siblings will collect data (using self-completion questionnaires) at baseline, PICU discharge, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post-PICU discharge. Questionnaires will comprise validated and reliable instruments. Demographic data, PICU admission and treatment data, health-related quality of life, functional status, strengths and difficulties behaviour and post-traumatic stress symptoms will be collected from the child. Parent and sibling data will be collected on the impact of paediatric health conditions on the family's functioning capabilities, levels of anxiety and social impact of the child's PICU admission. Data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Concurrently, an embedded qualitative study involving semistructured interviews with 24 enrolled families at 3 months and 9 months post-PICU discharge will be undertaken. Framework analysis will be used to analyse the qualitative data.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has received ethical approval from the National Health Services Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 19/WM/0290) and full governance clearance. This will be the first UK study to comprehensively investigate physical, functional, emotional and social consequences of PICU survival in the first-year postdischarge.Clinical Trials Registration Number: ISRCTN28072812 [Pre-results].",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/5/e038974.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532?pdf=render 34480422,https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.13517,The genomics of heart failure: design and rationale of the HERMES consortium.,"Lumbers RT, Shah S, Lin H, Czuba T, Henry A, Swerdlow DI, Mälarstig A, Andersson C, Verweij N, Holmes MV, Ärnlöv J, Svensson P, Hemingway H, Sallah N, Almgren P, Aragam KG, Asselin G, Backman JD, Biggs ML, Bloom HL, Boersma E, Brandimarto J, Brown MR, Brunner-La Rocca HP, Carey DJ, Chaffin MD, Chasman DI, Chazara O, Chen X, Chen X, Chung JH, Chutkow W, Cleland JGF, Cook JP, de Denus S, Dehghan A, Delgado GE, Denaxas S, Doney AS, Dörr M, Dudley SC, Engström G, Esko T, Fatemifar G, Felix SB, Finan C, Ford I, Fougerousse F, Fouodjio R, Ghanbari M, Ghasemi S, Giedraitis V, Giulianini F, Gottdiener JS, Gross S, Guðbjartsson DF, Gui H, Gutmann R, Haggerty CM, van der Harst P, Hedman ÅK, Helgadottir A, Hillege H, Hyde CL, Jacob J, Jukema JW, Kamanu F, Kardys I, Kavousi M, Khaw KT, Kleber ME, Køber L, Koekemoer A, Kraus B, Kuchenbaecker K, Langenberg C, Lind L, Lindgren CM, London B, Lotta LA, Lovering RC, Luan J, Magnusson P, Mahajan A, Mann D, Margulies KB, Marston NA, März W, McMurray JJV, Melander O, Melloni G, Mordi IR, Morley MP, Morris AD, Morris AP, Morrison AC, Nagle MW, Nelson CP, Newton-Cheh C, Niessner A, Niiranen T, Nowak C, O'Donoghue ML, Owens AT, Palmer CNA, Paré G, Perola M, Perreault LL, Portilla-Fernandez E, Psaty BM, Rice KM, Ridker PM, Romaine SPR, Roselli C, Rotter JI, Ruff CT, Sabatine MS, Salo P, Salomaa V, van Setten J, Shalaby AA, Smelser DT, Smith NL, Stefansson K, Stender S, Stott DJ, Sveinbjörnsson G, Tammesoo ML, Tardif JC, Taylor KD, Teder-Laving M, Teumer A, Thorgeirsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Torp-Pedersen C, Trompet S, Tuckwell D, Tyl B, Uitterlinden AG, Vaura F, Veluchamy A, Visscher PM, Völker U, Voors AA, Wang X, Wareham NJ, Weeke PE, Weiss R, White HD, Wiggins KL, Xing H, Yang J, Yang Y, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Yu B, Zannad F, Zhao F, Regeneron Genetics Center, Wilk JB, Holm H, Sattar N, Lubitz SA, Lanfear DE, Shah S, Dunn ME, Wells QS, Asselbergs FW, Hingorani AD, Dubé MP, Samani NJ, Lang CC, Cappola TP, Ellinor PT, Vasan RS, Smith JG.",,ESC heart failure,2021,2021-09-03,Y,Genetics; Biomarkers; Cardiomyopathy; Heart Failure; Association Studies,,,"

Aims

The HERMES (HEart failure Molecular Epidemiology for Therapeutic targetS) consortium aims to identify the genomic and molecular basis of heart failure.

Methods and results

The consortium currently includes 51 studies from 11 countries, including 68 157 heart failure cases and 949 888 controls, with data on heart failure events and prognosis. All studies collected biological samples and performed genome-wide genotyping of common genetic variants. The enrolment of subjects into participating studies ranged from 1948 to the present day, and the median follow-up following heart failure diagnosis ranged from 2 to 116 months. Forty-nine of 51 individual studies enrolled participants of both sexes; in these studies, participants with heart failure were predominantly male (34-90%). The mean age at diagnosis or ascertainment across all studies ranged from 54 to 84 years. Based on the aggregate sample, we estimated 80% power to genetic variant associations with risk of heart failure with an odds ratio of ≥1.10 for common variants (allele frequency ≥ 0.05) and ≥1.20 for low-frequency variants (allele frequency 0.01-0.05) at P < 5 × 10-8 under an additive genetic model.

Conclusions

HERMES is a global collaboration aiming to (i) identify the genetic determinants of heart failure; (ii) generate insights into the causal pathways leading to heart failure and enable genetic approaches to target prioritization; and (iii) develop genomic tools for disease stratification and risk prediction.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.13517; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.13517; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8712846; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8712846?pdf=render 34320164,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvab239,"The RECOVERY trial: cardiovascular implications of a large, simple randomized trial in COVID-19.","Pessoa-Amorim G, Mafham MM.",,Cardiovascular research,2021,2021-07-01,Y,Immunomodulation; Antiviral; Randomized Trial; Antithrombotic; Covid-19,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article-pdf/117/9/e110/39354428/cvab239.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvab239; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318096; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318096?pdf=render PMC7614905,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Individuals at Greatest Need of a Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment,,,Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease,2023,2023-07-25,Y,Screening; Genomics; Cardiovascular disease; Electronic Health Records; Primary Care Records,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7614905/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7614905/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614905; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614905?pdf=render @@ -2017,56 +2017,56 @@ PMC7614905,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Individ 36347531,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070918,Development and external validation of a risk prediction model for falls in patients with an indication for antihypertensive treatment: retrospective cohort study.,"Archer L, Koshiaris C, Lay-Flurrie S, Snell KIE, Riley RD, Stevens R, Banerjee A, Usher-Smith JA, Clegg A, Payne RA, Hobbs FDR, McManus RJ, Sheppard JP, STRAtifying Treatments In the multi-morbid Frail elderlY (STRATIFY) investigators.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-11-08,Y,,,,"

Objective

To develop and externally validate the STRAtifying Treatments In the multi-morbid Frail elderlY (STRATIFY)-Falls clinical prediction model to identify the risk of hospital admission or death from a fall in patients with an indication for antihypertensive treatment.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Primary care data from electronic health records contained within the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD).

Participants

Patients aged 40 years or older with at least one blood pressure measurement between 130 mm Hg and 179 mm Hg.

Main outcome measure

First serious fall, defined as hospital admission or death with a primary diagnosis of a fall within 10 years of the index date (12 months after cohort entry). Model development was conducted using a Fine-Gray approach in data from CPRD GOLD, accounting for the competing risk of death from other causes, with subsequent recalibration at one, five, and 10 years using pseudo values. External validation was conducted using data from CPRD Aurum, with performance assessed through calibration curves and the observed to expected ratio, C statistic, and D statistic, pooled across general practices, and clinical utility using decision curve analysis at thresholds around 10%.

Results

Analysis included 1 772 600 patients (experiencing 62 691 serious falls) from CPRD GOLD used in model development, and 3 805 366 (experiencing 206 956 serious falls) from CPRD Aurum in the external validation. The final model consisted of 24 predictors, including age, sex, ethnicity, alcohol consumption, living in an area of high social deprivation, a history of falls, multiple sclerosis, and prescriptions of antihypertensives, antidepressants, hypnotics, and anxiolytics. Upon external validation, the recalibrated model showed good discrimination, with pooled C statistics of 0.833 (95% confidence interval 0.831 to 0.835) and 0.843 (0.841 to 0.844) at five and 10 years, respectively. Original model calibration was poor on visual inspection and although this was improved with recalibration, under-prediction of risk remained (observed to expected ratio at 10 years 1.839, 95% confidence interval 1.811 to 1.865). Nevertheless, decision curve analysis suggests potential clinical utility, with net benefit larger than other strategies.

Conclusions

This prediction model uses commonly recorded clinical characteristics and distinguishes well between patients at high and low risk of falls in the next 1-10 years. Although miscalibration was evident on external validation, the model still had potential clinical utility around risk thresholds of 10% and so could be useful in routine clinical practice to help identify those at high risk of falls who might benefit from closer monitoring or early intervention to prevent future falls. Further studies are needed to explore the appropriate thresholds that maximise the model's clinical utility and cost effectiveness.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/379/bmj-2022-070918.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070918; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9641577 30819382,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.01.009,Adverse Drug Reactions to Guideline-Recommended Heart Failure Drugs in Women: A Systematic Review of the Literature.,"Bots SH, Groepenhoff F, Eikendal ALM, Tannenbaum C, Rochon PA, Regitz-Zagrosek V, Miller VM, Day D, Asselbergs FW, den Ruijter HM.",,JACC. Heart failure,2019,2019-03-01,N,Women; Sex differences; Heart Failure; Adverse drug reactions; Sex-specific Reporting,The Human Phenome,,"OBJECTIVES:This study sought to summarize all available evidence on sex differences in adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to heart failure (HF) medication. BACKGROUND:Women are more likely to experience ADRs than men, and these reactions may negatively affect women's immediate and long-term health. HF in particular is associated with increased ADR risk because of the high number of comorbidities and older age. However, little is known about ADRs in women with HF who are treated with guideline-recommended drugs. METHODS:A systematic search of PubMed and EMBASE was performed to collect all available information on ADRs to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, β-blockers, angiotensin II receptor blockers, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, ivabradine, and digoxin in both women and men with HF. RESULTS:The search identified 155 eligible records, of which only 11 (7%) reported ADR data for women and men separately. Sex-stratified reporting of ADRs did not increase over the last decades. Six of the 11 studies did not report sex differences. Three studies reported a higher risk of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor-related ADRs in women, 1 study showed higher digoxin-related mortality risk for women, and 1 study reported a higher risk of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist-related ADRs in men. No sex differences in ADRs were reported for angiotensin II receptor blockers and β-blockers. Sex-stratified data were not available for ivabradine. CONCLUSIONS:These results underline the scarcity of ADR data stratified by sex. The study investigators call for a change in standard scientific practice toward reporting of ADR data for women and men separately.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.01.009; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.01.009 31844048,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13585-5,Genome-wide analysis identifies molecular systems and 149 genetic loci associated with income.,"Hill WD, Davies NM, Ritchie SJ, Skene NG, Bryois J, Bell S, Di Angelantonio E, Roberts DJ, Xueyi S, Davies G, Liewald DCM, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Butterworth AS, McIntosh AM, Gale CR, Deary IJ.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-12-16,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Socioeconomic position (SEP) is a multi-dimensional construct reflecting (and influencing) multiple socio-cultural, physical, and environmental factors. In a sample of 286,301 participants from UK Biobank, we identify 30 (29 previously unreported) independent-loci associated with income. Using a method to meta-analyze data from genetically-correlated traits, we identify an additional 120 income-associated loci. These loci show clear evidence of functionality, with transcriptional differences identified across multiple cortical tissues, and links to GABAergic and serotonergic neurotransmission. By combining our genome wide association study on income with data from eQTL studies and chromatin interactions, 24 genes are prioritized for follow up, 18 of which were previously associated with intelligence. We identify intelligence as one of the likely causal, partly-heritable phenotypes that might bridge the gap between molecular genetic inheritance and phenotypic consequence in terms of income differences. These results indicate that, in modern era Great Britain, genetic effects contribute towards some of the observed socioeconomic inequalities.","This study linked genetic sequencing data and information on household income to identify parts of the genome that are more common in people who live in more affluent households. The authors identified 150 parts of the genome that were associated with income, and found that these genetic regions were more commonly expressed in the brain and testes. The results indicate that intelligence and income are causally linked, and suggest that genetics partly explain a small amount of variation (~2%) in household income in the UK.",pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13585-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13585-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6915786; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6915786?pdf=render -36053624,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543,Use of parenteral nutrition in the first postnatal week in England and Wales: an observational study using real-world data.,"Webbe J, Battersby C, Longford N, Oughham K, Uthaya S, Modi N, Gale C.",,BMJ paediatrics open,2022,2022-08-01,Y,epidemiology; Neonatology,,,"

Background

Parenteral nutrition (PN) is used to provide supplemental support to neonates while enteral feeding is being established. PN is a high-cost intervention with beneficial and harmful effects. Internationally, there is substantial variation in how PN is used, and there are limited contemporary data describing use across Great Britain.

Objective

To describe PN use in the first postnatal week in infants born and admitted to neonatal care in England, Scotland and Wales.

Method

Data describing neonates admitted to National Health Service neonatal units between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017, extracted from routinely recorded data held the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD); the denominator was live births, from Office for National Statistics.

Results

Over the study period 62 145 neonates were given PN in the first postnatal week (1.4% of all live births); use was higher in more preterm neonates (76% of livebirths at <28 weeks, 0.2% of term livebirths) and in neonates with lower birth weight. 15% (9181/62145) of neonates given PN in the first postnatal week were born at term. There was geographic variation in PN administration: the proportion of live births given PN within neonatal regional networks ranged from 1.0% (95% CIs 1.0 to 1.0) to 2.8% (95% CI 2.7 to 2.9).

Conclusions and relevance

Significant variation exists in neonatal PN use; it is unlikely this reflects optimal use of an expensive intervention. Research is needed to identify which babies will benefit most and which are at risk of harm from early PN.

Trial registration number

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03767634; registration date: 6 December 2018.",,pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/6/1/e001543.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803?pdf=render 32880390,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa627,"Systemic Corticosteroids and Mortality in Severe and Critical COVID-19 Patients in Wuhan, China. ","Wu J, Huang J, Zhu G, Liu Y, Xiao H, Zhou Q, Si X, Yi H, Wang C, Yang D, Chen S, Liu X, Liu Z, Wang Q, Lv Q, Huang Y, Yu Y, Guan X, Li Y, Nirantharakumar K, Cheng K, Peng S, Xiao H.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2020,2020-12-01,Y,,,,"Systemic corticosteroids are now recommended in many treatment guidelines, although supporting evidence is limited to 1 randomized controlled clinical trial (RECOVERY). To identify whether corticosteroids were beneficial to COVID-19 patients. A total of 1514 severe and 249 critical hospitalized COVID-19 patients from 2 medical centers in Wuhan, China. Multivariable Cox models, Cox model with time-varying exposure and propensity score analysis (inverse-probability-of-treatment-weighting [IPTW] and propensity score matching [PSM]) were used to estimate the association of corticosteroid use with risk of in-hospital mortality in severe and critical cases. Corticosteroids were administered in 531 (35.1%) severe and 159 (63.9%) critical patients. Compared to the non-corticosteroid group, systemic corticosteroid use was not associated with beneficial effect in reducing in-hospital mortality in either severe cases (HR = 1.77; 95% CI, 1.08-2.89; P = 0.023), or critical cases (HR = 2.07; 95% CI, 1.08-3.98; P = 0.028). Findings were similar in time-varying Cox analysis. For patients with severe COVID-19 at admission, corticosteroid use was not associated with improved or harmful outcome in either PSM or IPTW analysis. For critical COVID-19 patients at admission, results were consistent with multivariable Cox model analysis. Corticosteroid use was not associated with beneficial effect in reducing in-hospital mortality for severe or critical cases in Wuhan. Absence of the beneficial effect in our study in contrast to that observed in the RECOVERY clinical trial may be due to biases in observational data, in particular prescription by indication bias, differences in clinical characteristics of patients, choice of corticosteroid used, timing of initiation of treatment, and duration of treatment.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/105/12/e4230/41829325/dgaa627.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7499588; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7499588?pdf=render +36053624,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543,Use of parenteral nutrition in the first postnatal week in England and Wales: an observational study using real-world data.,"Webbe J, Battersby C, Longford N, Oughham K, Uthaya S, Modi N, Gale C.",,BMJ paediatrics open,2022,2022-08-01,Y,epidemiology; Neonatology,,,"

Background

Parenteral nutrition (PN) is used to provide supplemental support to neonates while enteral feeding is being established. PN is a high-cost intervention with beneficial and harmful effects. Internationally, there is substantial variation in how PN is used, and there are limited contemporary data describing use across Great Britain.

Objective

To describe PN use in the first postnatal week in infants born and admitted to neonatal care in England, Scotland and Wales.

Method

Data describing neonates admitted to National Health Service neonatal units between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017, extracted from routinely recorded data held the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD); the denominator was live births, from Office for National Statistics.

Results

Over the study period 62 145 neonates were given PN in the first postnatal week (1.4% of all live births); use was higher in more preterm neonates (76% of livebirths at <28 weeks, 0.2% of term livebirths) and in neonates with lower birth weight. 15% (9181/62145) of neonates given PN in the first postnatal week were born at term. There was geographic variation in PN administration: the proportion of live births given PN within neonatal regional networks ranged from 1.0% (95% CIs 1.0 to 1.0) to 2.8% (95% CI 2.7 to 2.9).

Conclusions and relevance

Significant variation exists in neonatal PN use; it is unlikely this reflects optimal use of an expensive intervention. Research is needed to identify which babies will benefit most and which are at risk of harm from early PN.

Trial registration number

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03767634; registration date: 6 December 2018.",,pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/6/1/e001543.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803?pdf=render 35143473,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531,SARS-CoV-2 antibodies protect against reinfection for at least 6 months in a multicentre seroepidemiological workplace cohort.,"Finch E, Lowe R, Fischinger S, de St Aubin M, Siddiqui SM, Dayal D, Loesche MA, Rhee J, Beger S, Hu Y, Gluck MJ, Mormann B, Hasdianda MA, Musk ER, Alter G, Menon AS, Nilles EJ, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group and the SpaceX COVID-19 Cohort Collaborative.",,PLoS biology,2022,2022-02-10,Y,,,,"Identifying the potential for SARS-CoV-2 reinfection is crucial for understanding possible long-term epidemic dynamics. We analysed longitudinal PCR and serological testing data from a prospective cohort of 4,411 United States employees in 4 states between April 2020 and February 2021. We conducted a multivariable logistic regression investigating the association between baseline serological status and subsequent PCR test result in order to calculate an odds ratio for reinfection. We estimated an odds ratio for reinfection ranging from 0.14 (95% CI: 0.019 to 0.63) to 0.28 (95% CI: 0.05 to 1.1), implying that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at baseline is associated with around 72% to 86% reduced odds of a subsequent PCR positive test based on our point estimates. This suggests that primary infection with SARS-CoV-2 provides protection against reinfection in the majority of individuals, at least over a 6-month time period. We also highlight 2 major sources of bias and uncertainty to be considered when estimating the relative risk of reinfection, confounders and the choice of baseline time point, and show how to account for both in reinfection analysis.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865659; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865659?pdf=render 31711539,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-019-0211-7,Text mining brain imaging reports.,"Alex B, Grover C, Tobin R, Sudlow C, Mair G, Whiteley W.",,Journal of biomedical semantics,2019,2019-11-12,Y,Stroke Classification; Text Mining; Electronic Healthcare Records; Neuroimaging Reports,,,"

Background

With the improvements to text mining technology and the availability of large unstructured Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) datasets, it is now possible to extract structured information from raw text contained within EHR at reasonably high accuracy. We describe a text mining system for classifying radiologists' reports of CT and MRI brain scans, assigning labels indicating occurrence and type of stroke, as well as other observations. Our system, the Edinburgh Information Extraction for Radiology reports (EdIE-R) system, which we describe here, was developed and tested on a collection of radiology reports.The work reported in this paper is based on 1168 radiology reports from the Edinburgh Stroke Study (ESS), a hospital-based register of stroke and transient ischaemic attack patients. We manually created annotations for this data in parallel with developing the rule-based EdIE-R system to identify phenotype information related to stroke in radiology reports. This process was iterative and domain expert feedback was considered at each iteration to adapt and tune the EdIE-R text mining system which identifies entities, negation and relations between entities in each report and determines report-level labels (phenotypes).

Results

The inter-annotator agreement (IAA) for all types of annotations is high at 96.96 for entities, 96.46 for negation, 95.84 for relations and 94.02 for labels. The equivalent system scores on the blind test set are equally high at 95.49 for entities, 94.41 for negation, 98.27 for relations and 96.39 for labels for the first annotator and 96.86, 96.01, 96.53 and 92.61, respectively for the second annotator.

Conclusion

Automated reading of such EHR data at such high levels of accuracies opens up avenues for population health monitoring and audit, and can provide a resource for epidemiological studies. We are in the process of validating EdIE-R in separate larger cohorts in NHS England and Scotland. The manually annotated ESS corpus will be available for research purposes on application.",,pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-019-0211-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-019-0211-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6849161; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6849161?pdf=render 35876425,https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.29147,"MED27, SLC6A7, and MPPE1 Variants in a Complex Neurodevelopmental Disorder with Severe Dystonia.","Reid KM, Spaull R, Salian S, Barwick K, Meyer E, Zhen J, Hirata H, Sheipouri D, Benkerroum H, Gorman KM, Papandreou A, Simpson MA, Hirano Y, Farabella I, Topf M, Grozeva D, Carss K, Smith M, Pall H, Lunt P, De Gressi S, Kamsteeg EJ, Haack TB, Carr L, Guerreiro R, Bras J, Maher ER, Scott RH, Vandenberg RJ, Raymond FL, Chong WK, Sudhakar S, Mankad K, Reith ME, Campeau PM, Harvey RJ, Kurian MA.",,Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society,2022,2022-07-25,Y,Dystonia; Status Dystonicus; Med27; Mppe1; Slc6a7,,,"

Background

Despite advances in next generation sequencing technologies, the identification of variants of uncertain significance (VUS) can often hinder definitive diagnosis in patients with complex neurodevelopmental disorders.

Objective

The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the underlying cause of disease in a family with two children with severe developmental delay associated with generalized dystonia and episodic status dystonicus, chorea, epilepsy, and cataracts.

Methods

Candidate genes identified by autozygosity mapping and whole-exome sequencing were characterized using cellular and vertebrate model systems.

Results

Homozygous variants were found in three candidate genes: MED27, SLC6A7, and MPPE1. Although the patients had features of MED27-related disorder, the SLC6A7 and MPPE1 variants were functionally investigated. SLC6A7 variant in vitro overexpression caused decreased proline transport as a result of reduced cell-surface expression, and zebrafish knockdown of slc6a7 exhibited developmental delay and fragile motor neuron morphology that could not be rescued by L-proline transporter-G396S RNA. Lastly, patient fibroblasts displayed reduced cell-surface expression of glycophosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins linked to MPPE1 dysfunction.

Conclusions

We report a family harboring a homozygous MED27 variant with additional loss-of-function SLC6A7 and MPPE1 gene variants, which potentially contribute to a blended phenotype caused by multilocus pathogenic variants. © 2022 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.",,pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/338319463/Movement_Disorders_2022_Reid_MED27_SLC6A7_and_MPPE1_Variants_in_a_Complex_Neurodevelopmental_Disorder_with_Severe.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.29147; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796674; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796674?pdf=render 34151270,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjno-2021-000133,"Variation in waiting times by diagnostic category: an observational study of 1,951 referrals to a neurology outpatient clinic.","Biggin F, Howcroft T, Davies Q, Knight J, Emsley HCA.",,BMJ neurology open,2021,2021-06-03,Y,Neurology; Outpatient; Observational Study; Waiting Times; Routinely Collected Data,,,"

Objective

To investigate the frequency of diagnoses seen among new referrals to neurology outpatient services; to understand how these services are used through exploratory analysis of diagnostic tests and follow-up appointments; and to examine the waiting times between referral and appointment.

Methods

Routine data from new National Health Service appointments at a single consultant-delivered clinic between September 2016 and January 2019 were collected. These clinical data were then linked to hospital administrative data. The combined data were assigned diagnostic categories based on working diagnoses to allow further analysis using descriptive statistics.

Results

Five diagnostic categories accounted for 62% of all patients seen within the study period, the most common of which was headache disorders. Following a first appointment, 50% of all patients were offered at least one diagnostic test, and 35% were offered a follow-up appointment, with variation in both measures by diagnostic category. Waiting times from referral to appointment also varied by diagnostic category. 65% of patients with a seizure/epilepsy disorder were seen within the 18-week referral to treatment target, compared with 38% of patients with a movement disorder.

Conclusions

A small number of diagnostic categories account for a large proportion of new patients. This information could be used in policy decision-making to describe a minimum subset of categories for diagnostic coding. We found significant differences in waiting times by diagnostic category, as well as tests ordered, and follow-up offered; further investigation could address causes of variation.",,pdf:https://neurologyopen.bmj.com/content/bmjno/3/1/e000133.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjno-2021-000133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8183200; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8183200?pdf=render -33174830,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453,Optimized use of Oxford Nanopore flowcells for hybrid assemblies.,"Lipworth S, Pickford H, Sanderson N, Chau KK, Kavanagh J, Barker L, Vaughan A, Swann J, Andersson M, Jeffery K, Morgan M, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Stoesser N, Walker AS.",,Microbial genomics,2020,2020-11-01,Y,Enterobacteriaceae; Hybrid Assembly; Nanopore Sequencing; Bacterial Genomics; Long-read Assembly,,,"Hybrid assemblies are highly valuable for studies of Enterobacteriaceae due to their ability to fully resolve the structure of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, which are involved in the carriage of clinically important genes (e.g. those involved in antimicrobial resistance/virulence). The widespread application of this technique is currently primarily limited by cost. Recent data have suggested that non-inferior, and even superior, hybrid assemblies can be produced using a fraction of the total output from a multiplexed nanopore [Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)] flowcell run. In this study we sought to determine the optimal minimal running time for flowcells when acquiring reads for hybrid assembly. We then evaluated whether the ONT wash kit might allow users to exploit shorter running times by sequencing multiple libraries per flowcell. After 24 h of sequencing, most chromosomes and plasmids had circularized and there was no benefit associated with longer running times. Quality was similar at 12 h, suggesting that shorter running times are likely to be acceptable for certain applications (e.g. plasmid genomics). The ONT wash kit was highly effective in removing DNA between libraries. Contamination between libraries did not appear to affect subsequent hybrid assemblies, even when the same barcodes were used successively on a single flowcell. Utilizing shorter run times in combination with between-library nuclease washes allows at least 36 Enterobacteriaceae isolates to be sequenced per flowcell, significantly reducing the per-isolate sequencing cost. Ultimately this will facilitate large-scale studies utilizing hybrid assembly, advancing our understanding of the genomics of key human pathogens.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331?pdf=render -35337642,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00018-8,"Implementation of corticosteroids in treatment of COVID-19 in the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK: prospective, cohort study.","Närhi F, Moonesinghe SR, Shenkin SD, Drake TM, Mulholland RH, Donegan C, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Girvan M, Hardwick HE, Ho A, Leeming G, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Pius R, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Spencer RG, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Harrison EM, Semple MG, Docherty AB, ISARIC4C investigators.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-04-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Dexamethasone was the first intervention proven to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 being treated in hospital. We aimed to evaluate the adoption of corticosteroids in the treatment of COVID-19 in the UK after the RECOVERY trial publication on June 16, 2020, and to identify discrepancies in care.

Methods

We did an audit of clinical implementation of corticosteroids in a prospective, observational, cohort study in 237 UK acute care hospitals between March 16, 2020, and April 14, 2021, restricted to patients aged 18 years or older with proven or high likelihood of COVID-19, who received supplementary oxygen. The primary outcome was administration of dexamethasone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone, or methylprednisolone. This study is registered with ISRCTN, ISRCTN66726260.

Findings

Between June 17, 2020, and April 14, 2021, 47 795 (75·2%) of 63 525 of patients on supplementary oxygen received corticosteroids, higher among patients requiring critical care than in those who received ward care (11 185 [86·6%] of 12 909 vs 36 415 [72·4%] of 50 278). Patients 50 years or older were significantly less likely to receive corticosteroids than those younger than 50 years (adjusted odds ratio 0·79 [95% CI 0·70-0·89], p=0·0001, for 70-79 years; 0·52 [0·46-0·58], p<0·0001, for >80 years), independent of patient demographics and illness severity. 84 (54·2%) of 155 pregnant women received corticosteroids. Rates of corticosteroid administration increased from 27·5% in the week before June 16, 2020, to 75-80% in January, 2021.

Interpretation

Implementation of corticosteroids into clinical practice in the UK for patients with COVID-19 has been successful, but not universal. Patients older than 70 years, independent of illness severity, chronic neurological disease, and dementia, were less likely to receive corticosteroids than those who were younger, as were pregnant women. This could reflect appropriate clinical decision making, but the possibility of inequitable access to life-saving care should be considered.

Funding

UK National Institute for Health Research and UK Medical Research Council.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750022000188/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00018-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8940185 33248277,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.11.014,Text-mining in electronic healthcare records can be used as efficient tool for screening and data collection in cardiovascular trials: a multicenter validation study.,"van Dijk WB, Fiolet ATL, Schuit E, Sammani A, Groenhof TKJ, van der Graaf R, de Vries MC, Alings M, Schaap J, Asselbergs FW, Grobbee DE, Groenwold RHH, Mosterd A.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2021,2020-11-25,N,Screening; Recruitment; trials; Multicenter; cardiovascular; Text-mining; Data-mining; Electronic Medical Records (Emrs); Data-collections; Electronic Healthcare Records (Ehrs); Lodoco2,,,"

Objective

This study aimed to validate trial patient eligibility screening and baseline data collection using text-mining in electronic healthcare records (EHRs), comparing the results to those of an international trial.

Study design and setting

In three medical centers with different EHR vendors, EHR-based text-mining was used to automatically screen patients for trial eligibility and extract baseline data on nineteen characteristics. First, the yield of screening with automated EHR text-mining search was compared with manual screening by research personnel. Second, the accuracy of extracted baseline data by EHR text mining was compared to manual data entry by research personnel.

Results

Of the 92,466 patients visiting the out-patient cardiology departments, 568 (0.6%) were enrolled in the trial during its recruitment period using manual screening methods. Automated EHR data screening of all patients showed that the number of patients needed to screen could be reduced by 73,863 (79.9%). The remaining 18,603 (20.1%) contained 458 of the actual participants (82.4% of participants). In trial participants, automated EHR text-mining missed a median of 2.8% (Interquartile range [IQR] across all variables 0.4-8.5%) of all data points compared to manually collected data. The overall accuracy of automatically extracted data was 88.0% (IQR 84.7-92.8%).

Conclusion

Automatically extracting data from EHRs using text-mining can be used to identify trial participants and to collect baseline information.",,pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435620311859/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.11.014 +35337642,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00018-8,"Implementation of corticosteroids in treatment of COVID-19 in the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK: prospective, cohort study.","Närhi F, Moonesinghe SR, Shenkin SD, Drake TM, Mulholland RH, Donegan C, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Girvan M, Hardwick HE, Ho A, Leeming G, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Pius R, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Spencer RG, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Harrison EM, Semple MG, Docherty AB, ISARIC4C investigators.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2022,2022-04-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Dexamethasone was the first intervention proven to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 being treated in hospital. We aimed to evaluate the adoption of corticosteroids in the treatment of COVID-19 in the UK after the RECOVERY trial publication on June 16, 2020, and to identify discrepancies in care.

Methods

We did an audit of clinical implementation of corticosteroids in a prospective, observational, cohort study in 237 UK acute care hospitals between March 16, 2020, and April 14, 2021, restricted to patients aged 18 years or older with proven or high likelihood of COVID-19, who received supplementary oxygen. The primary outcome was administration of dexamethasone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone, or methylprednisolone. This study is registered with ISRCTN, ISRCTN66726260.

Findings

Between June 17, 2020, and April 14, 2021, 47 795 (75·2%) of 63 525 of patients on supplementary oxygen received corticosteroids, higher among patients requiring critical care than in those who received ward care (11 185 [86·6%] of 12 909 vs 36 415 [72·4%] of 50 278). Patients 50 years or older were significantly less likely to receive corticosteroids than those younger than 50 years (adjusted odds ratio 0·79 [95% CI 0·70-0·89], p=0·0001, for 70-79 years; 0·52 [0·46-0·58], p<0·0001, for >80 years), independent of patient demographics and illness severity. 84 (54·2%) of 155 pregnant women received corticosteroids. Rates of corticosteroid administration increased from 27·5% in the week before June 16, 2020, to 75-80% in January, 2021.

Interpretation

Implementation of corticosteroids into clinical practice in the UK for patients with COVID-19 has been successful, but not universal. Patients older than 70 years, independent of illness severity, chronic neurological disease, and dementia, were less likely to receive corticosteroids than those who were younger, as were pregnant women. This could reflect appropriate clinical decision making, but the possibility of inequitable access to life-saving care should be considered.

Funding

UK National Institute for Health Research and UK Medical Research Council.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750022000188/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00018-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8940185 +33174830,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453,Optimized use of Oxford Nanopore flowcells for hybrid assemblies.,"Lipworth S, Pickford H, Sanderson N, Chau KK, Kavanagh J, Barker L, Vaughan A, Swann J, Andersson M, Jeffery K, Morgan M, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Stoesser N, Walker AS.",,Microbial genomics,2020,2020-11-01,Y,Enterobacteriaceae; Hybrid Assembly; Nanopore Sequencing; Bacterial Genomics; Long-read Assembly,,,"Hybrid assemblies are highly valuable for studies of Enterobacteriaceae due to their ability to fully resolve the structure of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, which are involved in the carriage of clinically important genes (e.g. those involved in antimicrobial resistance/virulence). The widespread application of this technique is currently primarily limited by cost. Recent data have suggested that non-inferior, and even superior, hybrid assemblies can be produced using a fraction of the total output from a multiplexed nanopore [Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)] flowcell run. In this study we sought to determine the optimal minimal running time for flowcells when acquiring reads for hybrid assembly. We then evaluated whether the ONT wash kit might allow users to exploit shorter running times by sequencing multiple libraries per flowcell. After 24 h of sequencing, most chromosomes and plasmids had circularized and there was no benefit associated with longer running times. Quality was similar at 12 h, suggesting that shorter running times are likely to be acceptable for certain applications (e.g. plasmid genomics). The ONT wash kit was highly effective in removing DNA between libraries. Contamination between libraries did not appear to affect subsequent hybrid assemblies, even when the same barcodes were used successively on a single flowcell. Utilizing shorter run times in combination with between-library nuclease washes allows at least 36 Enterobacteriaceae isolates to be sequenced per flowcell, significantly reducing the per-isolate sequencing cost. Ultimately this will facilitate large-scale studies utilizing hybrid assembly, advancing our understanding of the genomics of key human pathogens.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331?pdf=render 35112706,https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.049257,Molecular Subtyping Resource: a user-friendly tool for rapid biological discovery from transcriptional data.,"Ahmaderaghi B, Amirkhah R, Jackson J, Lannagan TRM, Gilroy K, Malla SB, Redmond KL, Quinn G, McDade SS, ACRCelerate Consortium, Maughan T, Leedham S, Campbell ASD, Sansom OJ, Lawler M, Dunne PD.",,Disease models & mechanisms,2022,2022-03-30,Y,Bioinformatics; Rna-seq; Data Analytics,,,"Generation of transcriptional data has dramatically increased in the past decade, driving the development of analytical algorithms that enable interrogation of the biology underpinning the profiled samples. However, these resources require users to have expertise in data wrangling and analytics, reducing opportunities for biological discovery by 'wet-lab' users with a limited programming skillset. Although commercial solutions exist, costs for software access can be prohibitive for academic research groups. To address these challenges, we have developed an open source and user-friendly data analysis platform for on-the-fly bioinformatic interrogation of transcriptional data derived from human or mouse tissue, called Molecular Subtyping Resource (MouSR). This internet-accessible analytical tool, https://mousr.qub.ac.uk/, enables users to easily interrogate their data using an intuitive 'point-and-click' interface, which includes a suite of molecular characterisation options including quality control, differential gene expression, gene set enrichment and microenvironmental cell population analyses from RNA sequencing. The MouSR online tool provides a unique freely available option for users to perform rapid transcriptomic analyses and comprehensive interrogation of the signalling underpinning transcriptional datasets, which alleviates a major bottleneck for biological discovery. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.049257; doi:https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.049257; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8990914 34446501,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052629,Using patient-reported outcome measures during the management of patients with end-stage kidney disease requiring treatment with haemodialysis (PROM-HD): a qualitative study.,"Anderson NE, McMullan C, Calvert M, Dutton M, Cockwell P, Aiyegbusi OL, Kyte D.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-08-26,Y,Dialysis; Nephrology; Telemedicine; Qualitative Research; End Stage Renal Failure,,,"

Objectives

Patients undergoing haemodialysis report elevated symptoms and reduced health-related quality of life, and often prioritise improvements in psychosocial well-being over long-term survival. Systematic collection and use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) may help support tailored healthcare and improve outcomes. This study investigates the methodological basis for routine PRO assessment, particularly using electronic formats (ePROs), to maximise the potential of PRO use, through exploration of the experiences, views and perceptions of patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) on implementation and use of PROs in haemodialysis settings.

Study design

Qualitative study.

Setting and participants

Semistructured interviews with 22 patients undergoing haemodialysis, and 17 HCPs in the UK.

Analytical approach

Transcripts were analysed deductively using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and inductively using thematic analysis.

Results

For effective implementation, the potential value of PROs needs to be demonstrated empirically to stakeholders. Any intervention must remain flexible enough for individual and aggregate use, measuring outcomes that matter to patients and clinicians, while maintaining operational simplicity. Any implementation must sit within a wider framework of education and support for both patients and clinicians who demonstrate varying previous experience of using PROs and often confuse related concepts. Implementation plans must recognise the multidimensionality of end-stage kidney disease and treatment by haemodialysis, while acknowledging the associated challenges of delivering care in a highly specialised environment. To support implementation, careful consideration needs to be given to barriers and facilitators including effective leadership, the role of champions, effective launch and ongoing evaluation.

Conclusions

Using the CFIR to explore the experiences, views and perceptions of key stakeholders, this study identified key factors at organisational and individual levels which could assist effective implementation of ePROs in haemodialysis settings. Further research will be required to evaluate subsequent ePRO interventions to demonstrate the impact and benefit to the dialysis community.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/8/e052629.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8395280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8395280?pdf=render -36845321,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2,"Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with COPD from the United States, South Korea, and Europe.","Moreno-Martos D, Verhamme K, Ostropolets A, Kostka K, Duarte-Sales T, Prieto-Alhambra D, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Ahmed WU, Blacketer C, DuVall S, Lai L, Matheny M, Nyberg F, Posada J, Rijnbeek P, Spotnitz M, Sena A, Shah N, Suchard M, Chan You S, Hripcsak G, Ryan P, Morales D.",,Wellcome open research,2022,2022-03-24,Y,COPD; Coronavirus; Epidemiology.; Sars-cov-2; Covid,,,"Background: Characterization studies of COVID-19 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are limited in size and scope. The aim of the study is to provide a large-scale characterization of COVID-19 patients with COPD. Methods: We included thirteen databases contributing data from January-June 2020 from North America (US), Europe and Asia. We defined two cohorts of patients with COVID-19 namely a 'diagnosed' and 'hospitalized' cohort. We followed patients from COVID-19 index date to 30 days or death. We performed descriptive analysis and reported the frequency of characteristics and outcomes among COPD patients with COVID-19. Results: The study included 934,778 patients in the diagnosed COVID-19 cohort and 177,201 in the hospitalized COVID-19 cohort. Observed COPD prevalence in the diagnosed cohort ranged from 3.8% (95%CI 3.5-4.1%) in French data to 22.7% (95%CI 22.4-23.0) in US data, and from 1.9% (95%CI 1.6-2.2) in South Korean to 44.0% (95%CI 43.1-45.0) in US data, in the hospitalized cohorts. COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort had greater comorbidity than those in the diagnosed cohort, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Mortality was higher in COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort and ranged from 7.6% (95%CI 6.9-8.4) to 32.2% (95%CI 28.0-36.7) across databases. ARDS, acute renal failure, cardiac arrhythmia and sepsis were the most common outcomes among hospitalized COPD patients.   Conclusion: COPD patients with COVID-19 have high levels of COVID-19-associated comorbidities and poor COVID-19 outcomes. Further research is required to identify patients with COPD at high risk of worse outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545?pdf=render 31331193,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041546,Impact of ADCY9 Genotype on Response to Anacetrapib.,"Hopewell JC, Ibrahim M, Hill M, Shaw PM, Braunwald E, Blaustein RO, Bowman L, Landray MJ, Sabatine MS, Collins R, HPS3/TIMI55–REVEAL Collaborative Group.",,Circulation,2019,2019-07-23,Y,Randomized controlled trial; Pharmacogenetics; Anacetrapib; Cholesterol Ester Transfer Protein; Adenylate Cyclase 9,"Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"

Background

Exploratory analyses of previous randomized trials generated a hypothesis that the clinical response to cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor therapy differs by ADCY9 genotype, prompting the ongoing dal-GenE trial in individuals with a particular genetic profile. The randomized placebo-controlled REVEAL trial (Randomized Evaluation of the Effects of Anacetrapib through Lipid-Modification) demonstrated the clinical efficacy of the CETP inhibitor anacetrapib among patients with preexisting atherosclerotic vascular disease. In the present study, we examined the impact of ADCY9 genotype on response to anacetrapib in the REVEAL trial.

Methods

Individuals with stable atherosclerotic vascular disease who were treated with intensive atorvastatin therapy received either anacetrapib 100 mg daily or matching placebo. Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for the first 5 principal components of ancestry, were used to estimate the effects of allocation to anacetrapib on major vascular events (a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, or presumed ischemic stroke) and the interaction with ADCY9 rs1967309 genotype.

Results

Among 19 210 genotyped individuals of European ancestry, 2504 (13.0%) had a first major vascular event during 4 years median follow-up: 1216 (12.6%) among anacetrapib-allocated participants and 1288 (13.4%) among placebo-allocated participants. Proportional reductions in the risk of major vascular events with anacetrapib did not differ significantly by ADCY9 genotype: hazard ratio (HR) = 0.92 (95% CI, 0.81-1.05) for GG; HR = 0.94 (95% CI, 0.84-1.06) for AG; and HR = 0.93 (95% CI, 0.76-1.13) for AA genotype carriers, respectively; genotypic P for interaction = 0.96. Furthermore, there were no associations between ADCY9 genotype and the proportional reductions in the separate components of major vascular events or meaningful differences in lipid response to anacetrapib.

Conclusions

The REVEAL trial is the single largest study to date evaluating the ADCY9 pharmacogenetic interaction. It provides no support for the hypothesis that ADCY9 genotype is materially relevant to the clinical effects of the CETP inhibitor anacetrapib. The ongoing dal-GenE study will provide direct evidence as to whether there is any specific pharmacogenetic interaction with dalcetrapib.

Clinical trial registration

URL: https://www.

Clinicaltrials

gov. Unique identifier: NCT01252953. URL: http://www.isrctn.com. Unique identifier: ISRCTN48678192. URL: https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu. Unique identifier: 2010-023467-18.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041546; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041546; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749971; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749971?pdf=render +36845321,https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2,"Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with COPD from the United States, South Korea, and Europe.","Moreno-Martos D, Verhamme K, Ostropolets A, Kostka K, Duarte-Sales T, Prieto-Alhambra D, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Ahmed WU, Blacketer C, DuVall S, Lai L, Matheny M, Nyberg F, Posada J, Rijnbeek P, Spotnitz M, Sena A, Shah N, Suchard M, Chan You S, Hripcsak G, Ryan P, Morales D.",,Wellcome open research,2022,2022-03-24,Y,COPD; Coronavirus; Epidemiology.; Sars-cov-2; Covid,,,"Background: Characterization studies of COVID-19 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are limited in size and scope. The aim of the study is to provide a large-scale characterization of COVID-19 patients with COPD. Methods: We included thirteen databases contributing data from January-June 2020 from North America (US), Europe and Asia. We defined two cohorts of patients with COVID-19 namely a 'diagnosed' and 'hospitalized' cohort. We followed patients from COVID-19 index date to 30 days or death. We performed descriptive analysis and reported the frequency of characteristics and outcomes among COPD patients with COVID-19. Results: The study included 934,778 patients in the diagnosed COVID-19 cohort and 177,201 in the hospitalized COVID-19 cohort. Observed COPD prevalence in the diagnosed cohort ranged from 3.8% (95%CI 3.5-4.1%) in French data to 22.7% (95%CI 22.4-23.0) in US data, and from 1.9% (95%CI 1.6-2.2) in South Korean to 44.0% (95%CI 43.1-45.0) in US data, in the hospitalized cohorts. COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort had greater comorbidity than those in the diagnosed cohort, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Mortality was higher in COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort and ranged from 7.6% (95%CI 6.9-8.4) to 32.2% (95%CI 28.0-36.7) across databases. ARDS, acute renal failure, cardiac arrhythmia and sepsis were the most common outcomes among hospitalized COPD patients.   Conclusion: COPD patients with COVID-19 have high levels of COVID-19-associated comorbidities and poor COVID-19 outcomes. Further research is required to identify patients with COPD at high risk of worse outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545?pdf=render 33758017,https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf9648,The impact of population-wide rapid antigen testing on SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in Slovakia.,"Pavelka M, Van-Zandvoort K, Abbott S, Sherratt K, Majdan M, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Inštitút Zdravotných Analýz, Jarčuška P, Krajčí M, Flasche S, Funk S.",,"Science (New York, N.Y.)",2021,2021-03-23,Y,,,,"Slovakia conducted multiple rounds of population-wide rapid antigen testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in late 2020, combined with a period of additional contact restrictions. Observed prevalence decreased by 58% (95% confidence interval: 57 to 58%) within 1 week in the 45 counties that were subject to two rounds of mass testing, an estimate that remained robust when adjusting for multiple potential confounders. Adjusting for epidemic growth of 4.4% (1.1 to 6.9%) per day preceding the mass testing campaign, the estimated decrease in prevalence compared with a scenario of unmitigated growth was 70% (67 to 73%). Modeling indicated that this decrease could not be explained solely by infection control measures but required the addition of the isolation and quarantine of household members of those testing positive.",,pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/e974db95-138d-4a9f-aa91-2f8f6c705f36/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf9648; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8139426; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8139426?pdf=render +33245137,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155,"Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.","Perez-Cornago A, Crowe FL, Appleby PN, Bradbury KE, Wood AM, Jakobsen MU, Johnson L, Sacerdote C, Steur M, Weiderpass E, Würtz AML, Kühn T, Katzke V, Trichopoulou A, Karakatsani A, La Vecchia C, Masala G, Tumino R, Panico S, Sluijs I, Skeie G, Imaz L, Petrova D, Quirós JR, Yohar SMC, Jakszyn P, Melander O, Sonestedt E, Andersson J, Wennberg M, Aune D, Riboli E, Schulze MB, di Angelantonio E, Wareham NJ, Danesh J, Forouhi NG, Butterworth AS, Key TJ.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-03-01,Y,Seeds; Fruit; Legumes; vegetables; Coronary Heart Disease; Nuts,,,"

Background

Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

Methods

We conducted a prospective analysis of 490 311 men and women without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6 years of follow-up, n cases = 8504), in 10 European countries. Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-h recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD.

Results

There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined [HR per 200 g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.90-0.99, P-trend = 0.009], and with total fruits (per 100 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10 g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend = 0.020), total fibre (per 10 g/day 0.91, 0.85-0.98, P-trend = 0.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4 g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend = 0.022) and fruit fibre (per 2 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk.

Conclusions

In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/1/212/36449032/dyaa155.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513?pdf=render 31922447,https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076819890551,Moving beyond project-specific patient and public involvement in research.,"Turner G, Aiyegbusi OL, Price G, Skrybant M, Calvert M.",,Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,2020,2020-01-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0141076819890551; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076819890551; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6961168; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6961168?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076819890551 31992634,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100117,Optimising electronic prescribing in hospitals: a scoping review protocol. ,"Williams J, Bates DW, Sheikh A.",,BMJ health & care informatics,2020,2020-01-01,Y,,,,"Electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems can improve the quality of prescribing decisions and substantially reduce the risk of serious medication errors in hospitals. However, realising these benefits depends on ensuring that relevant sociotechnical considerations are addressed. Optimising ePrescribing systems is essential to maximise the associated benefits and minimise the accompanying risks of these large-scale and expensive health informatics infrastructures. We will undertake a systematic scoping review of the literature to identify strategies to achieve optimisation of ePrescribing systems. We will search Medline, Embase and CINAHL for the period 1 January 2010 to 1 June 2019 and the grey literature by using Google Scholar. Independent reviewers will screen the results using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and will extract data for narrative and thematic synthesis. This work will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and we will ensure that the findings are both accessible and interpretable to the public, academics, policymakers and National Health Service leaders.",,pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/27/1/e100117.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7062357; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7062357?pdf=render -33245137,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155,"Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.","Perez-Cornago A, Crowe FL, Appleby PN, Bradbury KE, Wood AM, Jakobsen MU, Johnson L, Sacerdote C, Steur M, Weiderpass E, Würtz AML, Kühn T, Katzke V, Trichopoulou A, Karakatsani A, La Vecchia C, Masala G, Tumino R, Panico S, Sluijs I, Skeie G, Imaz L, Petrova D, Quirós JR, Yohar SMC, Jakszyn P, Melander O, Sonestedt E, Andersson J, Wennberg M, Aune D, Riboli E, Schulze MB, di Angelantonio E, Wareham NJ, Danesh J, Forouhi NG, Butterworth AS, Key TJ.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-03-01,Y,Seeds; Fruit; Legumes; vegetables; Coronary Heart Disease; Nuts,,,"

Background

Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

Methods

We conducted a prospective analysis of 490 311 men and women without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6 years of follow-up, n cases = 8504), in 10 European countries. Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-h recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD.

Results

There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined [HR per 200 g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.90-0.99, P-trend = 0.009], and with total fruits (per 100 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10 g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend = 0.020), total fibre (per 10 g/day 0.91, 0.85-0.98, P-trend = 0.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4 g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend = 0.022) and fruit fibre (per 2 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk.

Conclusions

In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/1/212/36449032/dyaa155.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513?pdf=render 36812516,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000007,A proteomic survival predictor for COVID-19 patients in intensive care.,"Demichev V, Tober-Lau P, Nazarenko T, Lemke O, Kaur Aulakh S, Whitwell HJ, Röhl A, Freiwald A, Mittermaier M, Szyrwiel L, Ludwig D, Correia-Melo C, Lippert LJ, Helbig ET, Stubbemann P, Olk N, Thibeault C, Grüning NM, Blyuss O, Vernardis S, White M, Messner CB, Joannidis M, Sonnweber T, Klein SJ, Pizzini A, Wohlfarter Y, Sahanic S, Hilbe R, Schaefer B, Wagner S, Machleidt F, Garcia C, Ruwwe-Glösenkamp C, Lingscheid T, Bosquillon de Jarcy L, Stegemann MS, Pfeiffer M, Jürgens L, Denker S, Zickler D, Spies C, Edel A, Müller NB, Enghard P, Zelezniak A, Bellmann-Weiler R, Weiss G, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Uhrig A, Zoller H, Löffler-Ragg J, Keller MA, Tancevski I, Timms JF, Zaikin A, Hippenstiel S, Ramharter M, Müller-Redetzky H, Witzenrath M, Suttorp N, Lilley K, Mülleder M, Sander LE, PA-COVID-19 Study group, Kurth F, Ralser M.",,PLOS digital health,2022,2022-01-18,Y,,,,"Global healthcare systems are challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need to optimize allocation of treatment and resources in intensive care, as clinically established risk assessments such as SOFA and APACHE II scores show only limited performance for predicting the survival of severely ill COVID-19 patients. Additional tools are also needed to monitor treatment, including experimental therapies in clinical trials. Comprehensively capturing human physiology, we speculated that proteomics in combination with new data-driven analysis strategies could produce a new generation of prognostic discriminators. We studied two independent cohorts of patients with severe COVID-19 who required intensive care and invasive mechanical ventilation. SOFA score, Charlson comorbidity index, and APACHE II score showed limited performance in predicting the COVID-19 outcome. Instead, the quantification of 321 plasma protein groups at 349 timepoints in 50 critically ill patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation revealed 14 proteins that showed trajectories different between survivors and non-survivors. A predictor trained on proteomic measurements obtained at the first time point at maximum treatment level (i.e. WHO grade 7), which was weeks before the outcome, achieved accurate classification of survivors (AUROC 0.81). We tested the established predictor on an independent validation cohort (AUROC 1.0). The majority of proteins with high relevance in the prediction model belong to the coagulation system and complement cascade. Our study demonstrates that plasma proteomics can give rise to prognostic predictors substantially outperforming current prognostic markers in intensive care.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000007&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931303; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931303?pdf=render 35411997,https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.13752,"Outcomes of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Omicron-driven fourth wave compared with previous waves in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.","Davies MA, Kassanjee R, Rousseau P, Morden E, Johnson L, Solomon W, Hsiao NY, Hussey H, Meintjes G, Paleker M, Jacobs T, Raubenheimer P, Heekes A, Dane P, Bam JL, Smith M, Preiser W, Pienaar D, Mendelson M, Naude J, Schrueder N, Mnguni A, Le Roux S, Murie K, Prozesky H, Mahomed H, Rossouw L, Wasserman S, Maughan D, Boloko L, Smith B, Taljaard J, Symons G, Ntusi NAB, Parker A, Wolter N, Jassat W, Cohen C, Lessells R, Wilkinson RJ, Arendse J, Kariem S, Moodley M, Wolmarans M, Cloete K, Boulle A, Western Cape and South African National Departments of Health in collaboration with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa Affiliations.",,Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH,2022,2022-05-10,Y,Vaccination; Immunity; DELTA; Sub-Saharan Africa; Covid-19; Prior Infection; Omicron,,,"

Objectives

The objective was to compare COVID-19 outcomes in the Omicron-driven fourth wave with prior waves in the Western Cape, assess the contribution of undiagnosed prior infection to differences in outcomes in a context of high seroprevalence due to prior infection and determine whether protection against severe disease conferred by prior infection and/or vaccination was maintained.

Methods

In this cohort study, we included public sector patients aged ≥20 years with a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis between 14 November and 11 December 2021 (wave four) and equivalent prior wave periods. We compared the risk between waves of the following outcomes using Cox regression: death, severe hospitalisation or death and any hospitalisation or death (all ≤14 days after diagnosis) adjusted for age, sex, comorbidities, geography, vaccination and prior infection.

Results

We included 5144 patients from wave four and 11,609 from prior waves. The risk of all outcomes was lower in wave four compared to the Delta-driven wave three (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for death 0.27 [0.19; 0.38]. Risk reduction was lower when adjusting for vaccination and prior diagnosed infection (aHR: 0.41, 95% CI: 0.29; 0.59) and reduced further when accounting for unascertained prior infections (aHR: 0.72). Vaccine protection was maintained in wave four (aHR for outcome of death: 0.24; 95% CI: 0.10; 0.58).

Conclusions

In the Omicron-driven wave, severe COVID-19 outcomes were reduced mostly due to protection conferred by prior infection and/or vaccination, but intrinsically reduced virulence may account for a modest reduction in risk of severe hospitalisation or death compared to the Delta-driven wave.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/tmi.13752; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.13752; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115442; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115442?pdf=render -32156302,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2,Temporal information extraction from mental health records to identify duration of untreated psychosis.,"Viani N, Kam J, Yin L, Bittar A, Dutta R, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.",,Journal of biomedical semantics,2020,2020-03-10,Y,Schizophrenia; Mental health; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing; Temporal Information Extraction,,,"

Background

Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is an important clinical construct in the field of mental health, as longer DUP can be associated with worse intervention outcomes. DUP estimation requires knowledge about when psychosis symptoms first started (symptom onset), and when psychosis treatment was initiated. Electronic health records (EHRs) represent a useful resource for retrospective clinical studies on DUP, but the core information underlying this construct is most likely to lie in free text, meaning it is not readily available for clinical research. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a means to addressing this problem by automatically extracting relevant information in a structured form. As a first step, it is important to identify appropriate documents, i.e., those that are likely to include the information of interest. Next, temporal information extraction methods are needed to identify time references for early psychosis symptoms. This NLP challenge requires solving three different tasks: time expression extraction, symptom extraction, and temporal ""linking"". In this study, we focus on the first step, using two relevant EHR datasets.

Results

We applied a rule-based NLP system for time expression extraction that we had previously adapted to a corpus of mental health EHRs from patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (first referrals). We extended this work by applying this NLP system to a larger set of documents and patients, to identify additional texts that would be relevant for our long-term goal, and developed a new corpus from a subset of these new texts (early intervention services). Furthermore, we added normalized value annotations (""2011-05"") to the annotated time expressions (""May 2011"") in both corpora. The finalized corpora were used for further NLP development and evaluation, with promising results (normalization accuracy 71-86%). To highlight the specificities of our annotation task, we also applied the final adapted NLP system to a different temporally annotated clinical corpus.

Conclusions

Developing domain-specific methods is crucial to address complex NLP tasks such as symptom onset extraction and retrospective calculation of duration of a preclinical syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first clinical text resource annotated for temporal entities in the mental health domain.",,pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705?pdf=render 32198138,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6927,"Machine learning and artificial intelligence research for patient benefit: 20 critical questions on transparency, replicability, ethics, and effectiveness.","Vollmer S, Mateen BA, Bohner G, Király FJ, Ghani R, Jonsson P, Cumbers S, Jonas A, McAllister KSL, Myles P, Granger D, Birse M, Branson R, Moons KGM, Collins GS, Ioannidis JPA, Holmes C, Hemingway H.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-03-20,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/368/bmj.l6927.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6927 +32156302,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2,Temporal information extraction from mental health records to identify duration of untreated psychosis.,"Viani N, Kam J, Yin L, Bittar A, Dutta R, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.",,Journal of biomedical semantics,2020,2020-03-10,Y,Schizophrenia; Mental health; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing; Temporal Information Extraction,,,"

Background

Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is an important clinical construct in the field of mental health, as longer DUP can be associated with worse intervention outcomes. DUP estimation requires knowledge about when psychosis symptoms first started (symptom onset), and when psychosis treatment was initiated. Electronic health records (EHRs) represent a useful resource for retrospective clinical studies on DUP, but the core information underlying this construct is most likely to lie in free text, meaning it is not readily available for clinical research. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a means to addressing this problem by automatically extracting relevant information in a structured form. As a first step, it is important to identify appropriate documents, i.e., those that are likely to include the information of interest. Next, temporal information extraction methods are needed to identify time references for early psychosis symptoms. This NLP challenge requires solving three different tasks: time expression extraction, symptom extraction, and temporal ""linking"". In this study, we focus on the first step, using two relevant EHR datasets.

Results

We applied a rule-based NLP system for time expression extraction that we had previously adapted to a corpus of mental health EHRs from patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (first referrals). We extended this work by applying this NLP system to a larger set of documents and patients, to identify additional texts that would be relevant for our long-term goal, and developed a new corpus from a subset of these new texts (early intervention services). Furthermore, we added normalized value annotations (""2011-05"") to the annotated time expressions (""May 2011"") in both corpora. The finalized corpora were used for further NLP development and evaluation, with promising results (normalization accuracy 71-86%). To highlight the specificities of our annotation task, we also applied the final adapted NLP system to a different temporally annotated clinical corpus.

Conclusions

Developing domain-specific methods is crucial to address complex NLP tasks such as symptom onset extraction and retrospective calculation of duration of a preclinical syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first clinical text resource annotated for temporal entities in the mental health domain.",,pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705?pdf=render 32435697,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0267-x,Generation and evaluation of artificial mental health records for Natural Language Processing.,"Ive J, Viani N, Kam J, Yin L, Verma S, Puntis S, Cardinal RN, Roberts A, Stewart R, Velupillai S.",,NPJ digital medicine,2020,2020-05-14,Y,Medical research; Scientific Community,,,"A serious obstacle to the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods in the clinical domain is the accessibility of textual data. The mental health domain is particularly challenging, partly because clinical documentation relies heavily on free text that is difficult to de-identify completely. This problem could be tackled by using artificial medical data. In this work, we present an approach to generate artificial clinical documents. We apply this approach to discharge summaries from a large mental healthcare provider and discharge summaries from an intensive care unit. We perform an extensive intrinsic evaluation where we (1) apply several measures of text preservation; (2) measure how much the model memorises training data; and (3) estimate clinical validity of the generated text based on a human evaluation task. Furthermore, we perform an extrinsic evaluation by studying the impact of using artificial text in a downstream NLP text classification task. We found that using this artificial data as training data can lead to classification results that are comparable to the original results. Additionally, using only a small amount of information from the original data to condition the generation of the artificial data is successful, which holds promise for reducing the risk of these artificial data retaining rare information from the original data. This is an important finding for our long-term goal of being able to generate artificial clinical data that can be released to the wider research community and accelerate advances in developing computational methods that use healthcare data.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-0267-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0267-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7224173; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7224173?pdf=render 33933206,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00676-0,"Tocilizumab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-05-01,Y,,,,"

Background

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of tocilizumab in adult patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 with both hypoxia and systemic inflammation.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Those trial participants with hypoxia (oxygen saturation <92% on air or requiring oxygen therapy) and evidence of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein ≥75 mg/L) were eligible for random assignment in a 1:1 ratio to usual standard of care alone versus usual standard of care plus tocilizumab at a dose of 400 mg-800 mg (depending on weight) given intravenously. A second dose could be given 12-24 h later if the patient's condition had not improved. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936).

Findings

Between April 23, 2020, and Jan 24, 2021, 4116 adults of 21 550 patients enrolled into the RECOVERY trial were included in the assessment of tocilizumab, including 3385 (82%) patients receiving systemic corticosteroids. Overall, 621 (31%) of the 2022 patients allocated tocilizumab and 729 (35%) of the 2094 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·85; 95% CI 0·76-0·94; p=0·0028). Consistent results were seen in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including those receiving systemic corticosteroids. Patients allocated to tocilizumab were more likely to be discharged from hospital within 28 days (57% vs 50%; rate ratio 1·22; 1·12-1·33; p<0·0001). Among those not receiving invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, patients allocated tocilizumab were less likely to reach the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (35% vs 42%; risk ratio 0·84; 95% CI 0·77-0·92; p<0·0001).

Interpretation

In hospitalised COVID-19 patients with hypoxia and systemic inflammation, tocilizumab improved survival and other clinical outcomes. These benefits were seen regardless of the amount of respiratory support and were additional to the benefits of systemic corticosteroids.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00676-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00676-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8084355 31197928,https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.4811,Methods to generate and validate a Pregnancy Register in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink primary care database.,"Minassian C, Williams R, Meeraus WH, Smeeth L, Campbell OMR, Thomas SL.",,Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety,2019,2019-06-13,Y,Pregnancy; United Kingdom; Pregnancy Outcome; Pharmacoepidemiology; Electronic Health Records; Pregnancy Trimesters,"Applied Analytics, The Human Phenome",,"

Purpose

Primary care databases are increasingly used for researching pregnancy, eg, the effects of maternal drug exposures. However, ascertaining pregnancies, their timing, and outcomes in these data is challenging. While individual studies have adopted different methods, no systematic approach to characterise all pregnancies in a primary care database has yet been published. Therefore, we developed a new algorithm to establish a Pregnancy Register in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD primary care database.

Methods

We compiled over 4000 read and entity codes to identify pregnancy-related records among women aged 11 to 49 years in CPRD GOLD. Codes were categorised by the stage or outcome of pregnancy to facilitate delineation of pregnancy episodes. We constructed hierarchical rule systems to handle information from multiple sources. We assessed the validity of the Register to identify pregnancy outcomes by comparing our results to linked hospitalisation records and Office for National Statistics population rates.

Results

Our algorithm identified 5.8 million pregnancies among 2.4 million women (January 1987-February 2018). We observed close agreement with hospitalisation data regarding completeness of pregnancy outcomes (91% sensitivity for deliveries and 77% for pregnancy losses) and their timing (median 0 days difference, interquartile range 0-2 days). Miscarriage and prematurity rates were consistent with population figures, although termination and, to a lesser extent, live birth rates were underestimated in the Register.

Conclusions

The Pregnancy Register offers huge research potential because of its large size, high completeness, and availability. Further validation work is underway to enhance this data resource and identify optimal approaches for its use.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pds.4811; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.4811; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6618019; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6618019?pdf=render 33875891,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00826-4,An expanded set of genome-wide association studies of brain imaging phenotypes in UK Biobank.,"Smith SM, Douaud G, Chen W, Hanayik T, Alfaro-Almagro F, Sharp K, Elliott LT.",,Nature neuroscience,2021,2021-04-19,Y,,,,"UK Biobank is a major prospective epidemiological study, including multimodal brain imaging, genetics and ongoing health outcomes. Previously, we published genome-wide associations of 3,144 brain imaging-derived phenotypes, with a discovery sample of 8,428 individuals. Here we present a new open resource of genome-wide association study summary statistics, using the 2020 data release, almost tripling the discovery sample size. We now include the X chromosome and new classes of imaging-derived phenotypes (subcortical volumes and tissue contrast). Previously, we found 148 replicated clusters of associations between genetic variants and imaging phenotypes; in this study, we found 692, including 12 on the X chromosome. We describe some of the newly found associations, focusing on the X chromosome and autosomal associations involving the new classes of imaging-derived phenotypes. Our novel associations implicate, for example, pathways involved in the rare X-linked STAR (syndactyly, telecanthus and anogenital and renal malformations) syndrome, Alzheimer's disease and mitochondrial disorders.",,pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3a84eaef-5966-4690-b5d3-658070577382/files/s3197xm84x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00826-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610742; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610742?pdf=render 34319235,https://doi.org/10.2196/28873,Remote Assessment of Lung Disease and Impact on Physical and Mental Health (RALPMH): Protocol for a Prospective Observational Study.,"Ranjan Y, Althobiani M, Jacob J, Orini M, Dobson RJ, Porter J, Hurst J, Folarin AA.",,JMIR research protocols,2021,2021-10-07,Y,Lung diseases; Mental health; Remote Monitoring; Respiratory Health; Internet Of Things; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Wearables; Cardiopulmonary Diseases; Covid-19,,,"

Background

Chronic lung disorders like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are characterized by exacerbations. They are unpleasant for patients and sometimes severe enough to cause hospital admission and death. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable populations with these disorders are at high risk, and their routine care cannot be done properly. Remote monitoring offers a low cost and safe solution for gaining visibility into the health of people in their daily lives, making it useful for vulnerable populations.

Objective

The primary objective is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of remote monitoring using wearables and mobile phones in patients with pulmonary diseases. The secondary objective is to provide power calculations for future studies centered around understanding the number of exacerbations according to sample size and duration.

Methods

Twenty participants will be recruited in each of three cohorts (COPD, IPF, and posthospitalization COVID). Data collection will be done remotely using the RADAR-Base (Remote Assessment of Disease And Relapse) mobile health (mHealth) platform for different devices, including Garmin wearable devices and smart spirometers, mobile app questionnaires, surveys, and finger pulse oximeters. Passive data include wearable-derived continuous heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiration rate, activity, and sleep. Active data include disease-specific patient-reported outcome measures, mental health questionnaires, and symptom tracking to track disease trajectory. Analyses will assess the feasibility of lung disorder remote monitoring (including data quality, data completeness, system usability, and system acceptability). We will attempt to explore disease trajectory, patient stratification, and identification of acute clinical events such as exacerbations. A key aspect is understanding the potential of real-time data collection. We will simulate an intervention to acquire responses at the time of the event to assess model performance for exacerbation identification.

Results

The Remote Assessment of Lung Disease and Impact on Physical and Mental Health (RALPMH) study provides a unique opportunity to assess the use of remote monitoring in the evaluation of lung disorders. The study started in the middle of June 2021. The data collection apparatus, questionnaires, and wearable integrations were setup and tested by the clinical teams prior to the start of recruitment. While recruitment is ongoing, real-time exacerbation identification models are currently being constructed. The models will be pretrained daily on data of previous days, but the inference will be run in real time.

Conclusions

The RALPMH study will provide a reference infrastructure for remote monitoring of lung diseases. It specifically involves information regarding the feasibility and acceptability of remote monitoring and the potential of real-time data collection and analysis in the context of chronic lung disorders. It will help plan and inform decisions in future studies in the area of respiratory health.

Trial registration

ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN16275601; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN16275601.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

PRR1-10.2196/28873.",,pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i10e28873_app2.pdf&filename=4dda9f18456291d5d5d6facee1b77a71.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/28873; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8500349 -32553019,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391,Genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in hospital sink drains and patients.,"Constantinides B, Chau KK, Quan TP, Rodger G, Andersson MI, Jeffery K, Lipworth S, Gweon HS, Peniket A, Pike G, Millo J, Byukusenge M, Holdaway M, Gibbons C, Mathers AJ, Crook DW, Peto TEA, Walker AS, Stoesser N.",,Microbial genomics,2020,2020-07-01,Y,Wastewater; Antibiotic Resistance; Resistome; Sinks; Enterobacterales,,,"Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. are important human pathogens that cause a wide spectrum of clinical disease. In healthcare settings, sinks and other wastewater sites have been shown to be reservoirs of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella spp., particularly in the context of outbreaks of resistant strains amongst patients. Without focusing exclusively on resistance markers or a clinical outbreak, we demonstrate that many hospital sink drains are abundantly and persistently colonized with diverse populations of E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca, including both antimicrobial-resistant and susceptible strains. Using whole-genome sequencing of 439 isolates, we show that environmental bacterial populations are largely structured by ward and sink, with only a handful of lineages, such as E. coli ST635, being widely distributed, suggesting different prevailing ecologies, which may vary as a result of different inputs and selection pressures. Whole-genome sequencing of 46 contemporaneous patient isolates identified one (2 %; 95 % CI 0.05-11 %) E. coli urine infection-associated isolate with high similarity to a prior sink isolate, suggesting that sinks may contribute to up to 10 % of infections caused by these organisms in patients on the ward over the same timeframe. Using metagenomics from 20 sink-timepoints, we show that sinks also harbour many clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes including blaCTX-M, blaSHV and mcr, and may act as niches for the exchange and amplification of these genes. Our study reinforces the potential role of sinks in contributing to Enterobacterales infection and antimicrobial resistance in hospital patients, something that could be amenable to intervention. This article contains data hosted by Microreact.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627?pdf=render 31112426,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.118.002436,Mortality Risk Associated With Truncating Founder Mutations in Titin.,"Jansen M, Baas AF, van Spaendonck-Zwarts KY, Ummels AS, van den Wijngaard A, Jongbloed JDH, van Slegtenhorst MA, Lekanne Deprez RH, Wessels MW, Michels M, Houweling AC, Hoorntje ET, Helderman-van den Enden PJTM, Barge-Schaapveld DQCM, Peter van Tintelen J, van den Berg MP, Wilde AAM, Ploos van Amstel HK, Hennekam EAM, Asselbergs FW, Sijbrands EJG, Dooijes D.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2019,2019-05-01,N,"Mutation; Mortality; Natural history; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated; Titin",,,"Background Truncating titin variants (TTNtv) are the most prevalent genetic cause of dilated cardiomyopathy, found in ≤25% of familial cases. Moreover, TTNtv associated with dilated cardiomyopathy are estimated to be present in 0.5% of the general population. The prognosis of asymptomatic carriers of TTNtv is poorly understood because TTNtv are associated with a highly variable phenotype. We aim to assess the natural history and clinical relevance of TTNtv by analyzing standardized mortality ratios (SMR) in multigenerational pedigrees and in close relatives of present-day patients. Methods Haplotype and genealogical analyses were performed on 3 recurrent TTNtv. Subsequently, the family tree mortality ratio method was used to compare all-cause mortality of subjects at an a priori 50% risk of carrying TTNtv to the general Dutch population. SMRs were stratified for sex, age, and calendar period. Subgroups were compared with Poisson regression. Similarly, SMRs were calculated in parents of 128 present-day dilated cardiomyopathy probands with TTNtv using the reverse parent-offspring method. Results The TTNtv were established as founder mutations and traced to 18th century ancestors. In 20 522 person-years, overall mortality was not significantly increased (SMR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.95-1.18; P=0.162). However, mortality was significantly increased in subjects living after 1965 (SMR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.04-1.53; P=0.009) and aged ≥60 years (SMR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.01-1.35; P=0.02). The reverse parent-offspring analysis showed overall excess mortality (SMR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.07-1.48; P=0.003), driven by subjects aged ≥60 years. Conclusions The natural history of the analyzed TTNtv shows a relatively mild disease course with significant excess mortality in elderly patients. With increasing life expectancy, TTNtv-associated morbidity and mortality will likely become more prevalent.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002436; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002436 +32553019,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391,Genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in hospital sink drains and patients.,"Constantinides B, Chau KK, Quan TP, Rodger G, Andersson MI, Jeffery K, Lipworth S, Gweon HS, Peniket A, Pike G, Millo J, Byukusenge M, Holdaway M, Gibbons C, Mathers AJ, Crook DW, Peto TEA, Walker AS, Stoesser N.",,Microbial genomics,2020,2020-07-01,Y,Wastewater; Antibiotic Resistance; Resistome; Sinks; Enterobacterales,,,"Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. are important human pathogens that cause a wide spectrum of clinical disease. In healthcare settings, sinks and other wastewater sites have been shown to be reservoirs of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella spp., particularly in the context of outbreaks of resistant strains amongst patients. Without focusing exclusively on resistance markers or a clinical outbreak, we demonstrate that many hospital sink drains are abundantly and persistently colonized with diverse populations of E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca, including both antimicrobial-resistant and susceptible strains. Using whole-genome sequencing of 439 isolates, we show that environmental bacterial populations are largely structured by ward and sink, with only a handful of lineages, such as E. coli ST635, being widely distributed, suggesting different prevailing ecologies, which may vary as a result of different inputs and selection pressures. Whole-genome sequencing of 46 contemporaneous patient isolates identified one (2 %; 95 % CI 0.05-11 %) E. coli urine infection-associated isolate with high similarity to a prior sink isolate, suggesting that sinks may contribute to up to 10 % of infections caused by these organisms in patients on the ward over the same timeframe. Using metagenomics from 20 sink-timepoints, we show that sinks also harbour many clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes including blaCTX-M, blaSHV and mcr, and may act as niches for the exchange and amplification of these genes. Our study reinforces the potential role of sinks in contributing to Enterobacterales infection and antimicrobial resistance in hospital patients, something that could be amenable to intervention. This article contains data hosted by Microreact.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627?pdf=render 34563995,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2021.09.006,"The impact of cigarette smoking on life expectancy in schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar affective disorder: An electronic case register cohort study.","Chesney E, Robson D, Patel R, Shetty H, Richardson S, Chang CK, McGuire P, McNeill A.",,Schizophrenia research,2021,2021-09-23,Y,Mortality; Schizophrenia; Tobacco; Smoking; Life expectancy; Bipolar Affective Disorder,,,"Severe mental disorders are associated with a life expectancy that is 10-20 years shorter than the general population's. The prevalence of cigarette smoking in these populations is very high. We examined the effect of smoking on life expectancy and survival in patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar affective disorder from 2007 to 2018 in South East London, UK. Smoking status was determined using unstructured text data extracted from electronic health records. A total of 21,588 patients were identified of which 16,717, (77.4%) were classified as current smokers and 3438 (15.9%) as non-smokers. In female participants, life expectancy at birth was 67.6 years in current smokers (95% CI: 66.4-68.8) and 74.9 years in non-smokers (95% CI: 72.8-77.0), a difference of 7.3 years. In male participants, life expectancy at birth was 63.5 years in current smokers (95% CI: 62.5-64.5) and 68.5 years in non-smokers (95% CI, 64.4-72.6), a difference of 5.0 years. Adjusted survival models found that current smoking status was associated with an increased mortality risk for both females (aHR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.21-1.66, p < 0.001) and males (aHR: 1.49; 95% CI: 1.25-1.79, p < 0.001). In terms of the effect sizes, these risks were similar to those associated with a diagnosis of co-morbid alcohol or opioid use disorder. Smoking may account for a substantial proportion of the reduced life expectancy in patients with psychotic disorders. Increased emphasis on reducing cigarette smoking in these populations may be the most effective way to reduce the mortality gap with the general population.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2021.09.006; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2021.09.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8653908 +33323250,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30121-9,"Development and validation of multivariable prediction models of remission, recovery, and quality of life outcomes in people with first episode psychosis: a machine learning approach.","Leighton SP, Upthegrove R, Krishnadas R, Benros ME, Broome MR, Gkoutos GV, Liddle PF, Singh SP, Everard L, Jones PB, Fowler D, Sharma V, Freemantle N, Christensen RHB, Albert N, Nordentoft M, Schwannauer M, Cavanagh J, Gumley AI, Birchwood M, Mallikarjun PK.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2019,2019-09-12,N,,,,"

Background

Outcomes for people with first-episode psychosis are highly heterogeneous. Few reliable validated methods are available to predict the outcome for individual patients in the first clinical contact. In this study, we aimed to build multivariable prediction models of 1-year remission and recovery outcomes using baseline clinical variables in people with first-episode psychosis.

Methods

In this machine learning approach, we applied supervised machine learning, using regularised regression and nested leave-one-site-out cross-validation, to baseline clinical data from the English Evaluating the Development and Impact of Early Intervention Services (EDEN) study (n=1027), to develop and internally validate prediction models at 1-year follow-up. We assessed four binary outcomes that were recorded at 1 year: symptom remission, social recovery, vocational recovery, and quality of life (QoL). We externally validated the prediction models by selecting from the top predictor variables identified in the internal validation models the variables shared with the external validation datasets comprised of two Scottish longitudinal cohort studies (n=162) and the OPUS trial, a randomised controlled trial of specialised assertive intervention versus standard treatment (n=578).

Findings

The performance of prediction models was robust for the four 1-year outcomes of symptom remission (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0·703, 95% CI 0·664-0·742), social recovery (0·731, 0·697-0·765), vocational recovery (0·736, 0·702-0·771), and QoL (0·704, 0·667-0·742; p<0·0001 for all outcomes), on internal validation. We externally validated the outcomes of symptom remission (AUC 0·680, 95% CI 0·587-0·773), vocational recovery (0·867, 0·805-0·930), and QoL (0·679, 0·522-0·836) in the Scottish datasets, and symptom remission (0·616, 0·553-0·679), social recovery (0·573, 0·504-0·643), vocational recovery (0·660, 0·610-0·710), and QoL (0·556, 0·481-0·631) in the OPUS dataset.

Interpretation

In our machine learning analysis, we showed that prediction models can reliably and prospectively identify poor remission and recovery outcomes at 1 year for patients with first-episode psychosis using baseline clinical variables at first clinical contact.

Funding

Lundbeck Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750019301219/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30121-9 37043172,https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-023-02511-3,Commentary: Patient Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence; What have We Learned and How Should We Move Forward?,"Camaradou JCL, Hogg HDJ.",,Advances in therapy,2023,2023-04-12,Y,Development; Artificial intelligence; Technology; Product; Clinical; Innovation; Patient; Perspectives; Engagement; Involvement; Acceptability; Public; Multi-stakeholder; Start-ups; Small Medium-sized Enterprises,,,"Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare has now begun to make its contributions to real-world patient care with varying degrees of both public and clinical acceptability around it. The heavy investment from governments, industry and academia needed to reach this point has helped to surface different perspectives on AI. As clinical AI applications become a reality, however, there is an increasing need to harness and integrate patient perspectives, which address the distinct needs of different populations, healthcare systems and clinical problems more closely. Despite this need, patient perspectives on AI implementation have little presence in academic literature and within implementation science and are not sufficiently considered throughout the MedTech and eHealthtech product development cycle, which brings its own challenges and opportunities. This joint patient expert/clinician commentary aims to briefly summarise views on AI. It reflects upon recommendations on how stakeholders such as clinicians and Health & MedTech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can make practical usage of these views. The recommendations of the authors centre around how to work better with patients to enable both product centric and patient centric innovation and person-centred care.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-023-02511-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10092909; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10092909?pdf=render; pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12325-023-02511-3.pdf 32792438,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036564,Association between health indicators of maternal adversity and the rate of infant entry to local authority care in England: a longitudinal ecological study.,"Pearson RJ, Jay MA, Wijlaars LPMM, De Stavola B, Syed S, Bedston SJ, Gilbert R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-08-13,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Child Protection,,,"

Objective

Infants enter care at varying rates across local authorities (LAs) in England, but evidence is lacking on what is driving these differences. With this ecological study, we aimed to explore the extent to which adversity indicated within women's hospitalisation histories, predelivery, explained the rate of infant entry into care.

Methods

We used two longitudinal person-level data sets on hospitalisations and entries to care to create annual measures for 131 English LAs, between 2006/2007 and 2013/2014 (April-March). We combined these measures by LA and financial year, along with other publicly available data on LA characteristics. We used linear mixed-effects models to analyse the relationship between the outcome-LA-specific rate of infant entry into care (per 10 000 infants in the LA population) - and LA-specific percentage of live births with maternal history of adversity-related hospital admissions (ie, substance misuse, mental health problems or violence-related admissions in the 3 years before delivery), adjusted for other predictors of entry into care.

Results

Rate of infant entry into care (mean: 85.16 per 10 000, SD: 41.07) and percentage of live births with maternal history of adversity-related hospital admissions (4.62%, 2.44%) varied greatly by LA. The prevalence of maternal adversity accounted for 24% of the variation in rate of entry (95% CI 14% to 35%). After adjustment, a percentage point increase in prevalence of maternal adversity-both within and between LAs-was associated with an estimated 2.56 (per 10 000) more infants entering care (1.31-3.82).

Conclusions

The prevalence of maternal adversity before birth helped to explain the variation in LA rates of infant entry into care. Preventive interventions are needed to improve maternal well-being before and during pregnancy, and potentially reduce risk of child maltreatment and therefore entries to care. Evidence on who to target and data to evaluate change require linkage between parent-child healthcare data and administrative data from children's social care.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/8/e036564.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036564; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7430489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7430489?pdf=render -33323250,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30121-9,"Development and validation of multivariable prediction models of remission, recovery, and quality of life outcomes in people with first episode psychosis: a machine learning approach.","Leighton SP, Upthegrove R, Krishnadas R, Benros ME, Broome MR, Gkoutos GV, Liddle PF, Singh SP, Everard L, Jones PB, Fowler D, Sharma V, Freemantle N, Christensen RHB, Albert N, Nordentoft M, Schwannauer M, Cavanagh J, Gumley AI, Birchwood M, Mallikarjun PK.",,The Lancet. Digital health,2019,2019-09-12,N,,,,"

Background

Outcomes for people with first-episode psychosis are highly heterogeneous. Few reliable validated methods are available to predict the outcome for individual patients in the first clinical contact. In this study, we aimed to build multivariable prediction models of 1-year remission and recovery outcomes using baseline clinical variables in people with first-episode psychosis.

Methods

In this machine learning approach, we applied supervised machine learning, using regularised regression and nested leave-one-site-out cross-validation, to baseline clinical data from the English Evaluating the Development and Impact of Early Intervention Services (EDEN) study (n=1027), to develop and internally validate prediction models at 1-year follow-up. We assessed four binary outcomes that were recorded at 1 year: symptom remission, social recovery, vocational recovery, and quality of life (QoL). We externally validated the prediction models by selecting from the top predictor variables identified in the internal validation models the variables shared with the external validation datasets comprised of two Scottish longitudinal cohort studies (n=162) and the OPUS trial, a randomised controlled trial of specialised assertive intervention versus standard treatment (n=578).

Findings

The performance of prediction models was robust for the four 1-year outcomes of symptom remission (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0·703, 95% CI 0·664-0·742), social recovery (0·731, 0·697-0·765), vocational recovery (0·736, 0·702-0·771), and QoL (0·704, 0·667-0·742; p<0·0001 for all outcomes), on internal validation. We externally validated the outcomes of symptom remission (AUC 0·680, 95% CI 0·587-0·773), vocational recovery (0·867, 0·805-0·930), and QoL (0·679, 0·522-0·836) in the Scottish datasets, and symptom remission (0·616, 0·553-0·679), social recovery (0·573, 0·504-0·643), vocational recovery (0·660, 0·610-0·710), and QoL (0·556, 0·481-0·631) in the OPUS dataset.

Interpretation

In our machine learning analysis, we showed that prediction models can reliably and prospectively identify poor remission and recovery outcomes at 1 year for patients with first-episode psychosis using baseline clinical variables at first clinical contact.

Funding

Lundbeck Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750019301219/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30121-9 31160290,https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.00400-19,Improved Performance Predicting Clarithromycin Resistance in Mycobacterium abscessus on an Independent Data Set. ,"Lipworth S, Hough N, Buchanan R, Smith EG, Robinson E, Alexander E, Peto T, Crook D, Walker T.",,Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy,2019,2019-07-25,N,,,cancer and neoplasms,,,pdf:https://aac.asm.org/content/aac/63/8/e00400-19.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.00400-19; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6658746; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6658746?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.00400-19 35151371,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2022.01.017,Immuno-proteomic profiling reveals aberrant immune cell regulation in the airways of individuals with ongoing post-COVID-19 respiratory disease.,"Vijayakumar B, Boustani K, Ogger PP, Papadaki A, Tonkin J, Orton CM, Ghai P, Suveizdyte K, Hewitt RJ, Desai SR, Devaraj A, Snelgrove RJ, Molyneaux PL, Garner JL, Peters JE, Shah PL, Lloyd CM, Harker JA.",,Immunity,2022,2022-01-26,Y,T cells; Proteomics; Respiratory Tract; Airways; Respiratory Viral Infection; Tissue-resident Memory; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid,,,"Some patients hospitalized with acute COVID-19 suffer respiratory symptoms that persist for many months. We delineated the immune-proteomic landscape in the airways and peripheral blood of healthy controls and post-COVID-19 patients 3 to 6 months after hospital discharge. Post-COVID-19 patients showed abnormal airway (but not plasma) proteomes, with an elevated concentration of proteins associated with apoptosis, tissue repair, and epithelial injury versus healthy individuals. Increased numbers of cytotoxic lymphocytes were observed in individuals with greater airway dysfunction, while increased B cell numbers and altered monocyte subsets were associated with more widespread lung abnormalities. A one-year follow-up of some post-COVID-19 patients indicated that these abnormalities resolved over time. In summary, COVID-19 causes a prolonged change to the airway immune landscape in those with persistent lung disease, with evidence of cell death and tissue repair linked to the ongoing activation of cytotoxic T cells.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S1074761322000462/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2022.01.017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789571?pdf=render +37645200,https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2,An agenda-setting paper on data sharing platforms: euCanSHare workshop.,"Devriendt T, Ammann C, W Asselbergs F, Bernier A, Costas R, Friedrich MG, Gelpi JL, Jarvelin MR, Kuulasmaa K, Lekadir K, Mayrhofer MT, Papez V, Pasterkamp G, Petersen SE, Schmidt CO, Schulz-Menger J, Söderberg S, Shabani M, Veronesi G, Viezzer DS, Borry P.",,Open research Europe,2021,2021-11-23,Y,data sharing; Incentives; Science Policy; Open Science; Data Infrastructure,,,"Various data sharing platforms are being developed to enhance the sharing of cohort data by addressing the fragmented state of data storage and access systems. However, policy challenges in several domains remain unresolved. The euCanSHare workshop was organized to identify and discuss these challenges and to set the future research agenda. Concerns over the multiplicity and long-term sustainability of platforms, lack of resources, access of commercial parties to medical data, credit and recognition mechanisms in academia and the organization of data access committees are outlined. Within these areas, solutions need to be devised to ensure an optimal functioning of platforms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835?pdf=render 31995663,https://doi.org/10.1111/cts.12725,Using Real-World Data to Guide Ustekinumab Dosing Strategies for Psoriasis: A Prospective Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Study.,"Pan S, Tsakok T, Dand N, Lonsdale DO, Loeff FC, Bloem K, de Vries A, Baudry D, Duckworth M, Mahil S, Pushpa-Rajah A, Russell A, Alsharqi A, Becher G, Murphy R, Wahie S, Wright A, Griffiths CEM, Reynolds NJ, Barker J, Warren RB, David Burden A, Rispens T, Standing JF, Smith CH, BADBIR Study Group, the BSTOP Study Group, the PSORT Consortium.",,Clinical and translational science,2020,2020-01-29,Y,,,skin,"Variation in response to biologic therapy for inflammatory diseases, such as psoriasis, is partly driven by variation in drug exposure. Real-world psoriasis data were used to develop a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model for the first-line therapeutic antibody ustekinumab. The impact of differing dosing strategies on response was explored. Data were collected from a UK prospective multicenter observational cohort (491 patients on ustekinumab monotherapy, drug levels, and anti-drug antibody measurements on 797 serum samples, 1,590 measurements of Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI)). Ustekinumab PKs were described with a linear one-compartment model. A maximum effect (Emax ) model inhibited progression of psoriatic skin lesions in the turnover PD mechanism describing PASI evolution while on treatment. A mixture model on half-maximal effective concentration identified a potential nonresponder group, with simulations suggesting that, in future, the model could be incorporated into a Bayesian therapeutic drug monitoring ""dashboard"" to individualize dosing and improve treatment outcomes.",,pdf:https://ascpt.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cts.12725; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cts.12725; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7070790; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7070790?pdf=render 35608616,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05714-5,Risk of incident obstructive sleep apnoea in patients with type 1 diabetes: a population-based retrospective cohort study.,"Alshehri Z, Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Gokhale KM, Karamat MA, Ray CJ, Kumar P, Nirantharakumar K, Tahrani AA.",,Diabetologia,2022,2022-05-24,Y,Obesity; Depression; type 1 diabetes; Sleep Apnoea,,,"

Aims/hypothesis

People with type 2 diabetes are at increased risk of developing obstructive sleep apnoea. However, it is not known whether people with type 1 diabetes are also at an increased risk of obstructive sleep apnoea. This study aimed to examine whether people with type 1 diabetes are at increased risk of incident obstructive sleep apnoea compared with a matched cohort without type 1 diabetes.

Methods

We used a UK primary care database, The Health Improvement Network (THIN), to perform a retrospective cohort study between January 1995 and January 2018 comparing sleep apnoea incidence between patients with type 1 diabetes (exposed) and without type 1 diabetes (unexposed) (matched for age, sex, BMI and general practice). The outcome was incidence of obstructive sleep apnoea. Baseline covariates and characteristics were assessed at the start of the study based on the most recent value recorded prior to the index date. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios, based on a complete-case analysis.

Results

In total, 34,147 exposed and 129,500 matched unexposed patients were included. The median follow-up time was 5.43 years ((IQR 2.19-10.11), and the mean BMI was 25.82 kg/m2 (SD 4.33). The adjusted HR for incident obstructive sleep apnoea in patients with type 1 diabetes vs those without type 1 diabetes was 1.53 (95% CI 1.25, 1.86; p<0.001). Predictors of incident obstructive sleep apnoea in patients with type 1 diabetes were older age, male sex, obesity, being prescribed antihypertensive or lipid-lowering drugs, atrial fibrillation and depression.

Conclusions/interpretation

Individuals with type 1 diabetes are at increased risk of obstructive sleep apnoea compared with people without diabetes. Clinicians should suspect obstructive sleep apnoea in patients with type 1 diabetes if they are old, have obesity, are male, have atrial fibrillation or depression, or if they are taking lipid-lowering or antihypertensive drugs.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00125-022-05714-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05714-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283161; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283161?pdf=render -37645200,https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2,An agenda-setting paper on data sharing platforms: euCanSHare workshop.,"Devriendt T, Ammann C, W Asselbergs F, Bernier A, Costas R, Friedrich MG, Gelpi JL, Jarvelin MR, Kuulasmaa K, Lekadir K, Mayrhofer MT, Papez V, Pasterkamp G, Petersen SE, Schmidt CO, Schulz-Menger J, Söderberg S, Shabani M, Veronesi G, Viezzer DS, Borry P.",,Open research Europe,2021,2021-11-23,Y,data sharing; Incentives; Science Policy; Open Science; Data Infrastructure,,,"Various data sharing platforms are being developed to enhance the sharing of cohort data by addressing the fragmented state of data storage and access systems. However, policy challenges in several domains remain unresolved. The euCanSHare workshop was organized to identify and discuss these challenges and to set the future research agenda. Concerns over the multiplicity and long-term sustainability of platforms, lack of resources, access of commercial parties to medical data, credit and recognition mechanisms in academia and the organization of data access committees are outlined. Within these areas, solutions need to be devised to ensure an optimal functioning of platforms.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835?pdf=render 31308017,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-2423,"Educational and Health Outcomes of Children Treated for Type 1 Diabetes: Scotland-Wide Record Linkage Study of 766,047 Children.","Fleming M, Fitton CA, Steiner MFC, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Lindsay RS, Mackay DF, Pell JP.",,Diabetes care,2019,2019-07-15,N,,,,"

Objective

This study was conducted to determine the association between childhood type 1 diabetes and educational and health outcomes.

Research design and methods

Record linkage of nine Scotland-wide databases (diabetes register, dispensed prescriptions, maternity records, hospital admissions, death certificates, annual pupil census, school absences/exclusions, school examinations, and unemployment) produced a cohort of 766,047 singleton children born in Scotland who attended Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. We compared the health and education outcomes of schoolchildren receiving insulin with their peers, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

The 3,330 children (0.47%) treated for type 1 diabetes were more likely to be admitted to the hospital (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 3.97, 95% CI 3.79-4.16), die (adjusted HR 3.84, 95% CI 1.98-7.43), be absent from school (adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.34, 95% CI 1.30-1.39), and have learning difficulties (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.38). Among children with type 1 diabetes, higher mean HbA1c (particularly HbA1c in the highest quintile) was associated with greater absenteeism (adjusted IRR 1.75, 95% CI 1.56-1.96), increased school exclusion (adjusted IRR 2.82, 95% CI 1.14-6.98), poorer attainment (adjusted OR 3.52, 95% CI 1.72-7.18), and higher risk of unemployment (adjusted OR 2.01, 95% CI 1.05-3.85).

Conclusions

Children with type 1 diabetes fare worse than their peers in respect of education and health outcomes, especially if they have higher mean HbA1c. Interventions are required to minimize school absence and ensure that it does not affect educational attainment.",,pdf:https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/42/9/1700.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-2423; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6706279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6706279?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-2423 32709645,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035968,Infant formula composition and educational performance: a protocol to extend follow-up for a set of randomised controlled trials using linked administrative education records.,"Verfürden M, Harron K, Jerrim J, Fewtrell M, Gilbert R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-07-23,Y,Public Health; Clinical Trials; Paediatric Neurology; Nutrition & Dietetics,,,"

Introduction

The effect of infant nutrition on long-term cognition is important for parents and policy makers. However, most clinical trials typically have short follow-up periods, when measures of cognition are poorly predictive of later function. The few trials with longer-term follow-up have high levels of attrition, which can lead to selection bias, and in turn to erroneous interpretation of long-term harms and benefits of infant nutrition. We address the need for unbiased, long-term follow-up, by linking measures of educational performance from administrative education records. Educational performance is a meaningful marker of cognitive function in children and it is strongly correlated with IQ. We aim to evaluate educational performance for children who, as infants, were part of a series of trials that randomised participants to either nutritionally modified infant formula or standard formula. Most trialists anticipated positive effects of these interventions on later cognitive function.

Methods and analysis

Using data from 1923 participants of seven randomised infant formula trials linked to the English National Pupil Database (NPD), this study will provide new insights into the effect of nutrient intake in infancy on school achievement. Our primary outcome will be the mean differences in z-scores between intervention and control groups for a compulsory Mathematics exam sat at age 16. Secondary outcomes will be z-scores for a compulsory English exam at age 16 and z-scores for compulsory Mathematics and English exams at age 11. We will also evaluate intervention effects on the likelihood of receiving special educational needs (SEN) support. All analyses will be performed separately by trial.

Ethics and dissemination

Research ethics approval, and approval from the Health Research Authority Confidentiality Advisory Group, has been obtained for this study. The results of this study will be disseminated to scientific, practitioner, and lay audiences, submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, and will contribute towards a PhD dissertation.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/7/e035968.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035968; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380883; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380883?pdf=render +34561430,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3,Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) as a drug target for cardiovascular disease.,"Schmidt AF, Hunt NB, Gordillo-Marañón M, Charoen P, Drenos F, Kivimaki M, Lawlor DA, Giambartolomei C, Papacosta O, Chaturvedi N, Bis JC, O'Donnell CJ, Wannamethee G, Wong A, Price JF, Hughes AD, Gaunt TR, Franceschini N, Mook-Kanamori DO, Zwierzyna M, Sofat R, Hingorani AD, Finan C.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-09-24,Y,,,,"Development of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors for coronary heart disease (CHD) has yet to deliver licensed medicines. To distinguish compound from drug target failure, we compared evidence from clinical trials and drug target Mendelian randomization of CETP protein concentration, comparing this to Mendelian randomization of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). We show that previous failures of CETP inhibitors are likely compound related, as illustrated by significant degrees of between-compound heterogeneity in effects on lipids, blood pressure, and clinical outcomes observed in trials. On-target CETP inhibition, assessed through Mendelian randomization, is expected to reduce the risk of CHD, heart failure, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, while increasing the risk of age-related macular degeneration. In contrast, lower PCSK9 concentration is anticipated to decrease the risk of CHD, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke, while potentially increasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease and asthma. Due to distinct effects on lipoprotein metabolite profiles, joint inhibition of CETP and PCSK9 may provide added benefit. In conclusion, we provide genetic evidence that CETP is an effective target for CHD prevention but with a potential on-target adverse effect on age-related macular degeneration.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25703-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530?pdf=render 33208942,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2927-z,Host ANP32A mediates the assembly of the influenza virus replicase.,"Carrique L, Fan H, Walker AP, Keown JR, Sharps J, Staller E, Barclay WS, Fodor E, Grimes JM.",,Nature,2020,2020-11-18,Y,,,,"Aquatic birds represent a vast reservoir from which new pandemic influenza A viruses can emerge1. Influenza viruses contain a negative-sense segmented RNA genome that is transcribed and replicated by the viral heterotrimeric RNA polymerase (FluPol) in the context of viral ribonucleoprotein complexes2,3. RNA polymerases of avian influenza A viruses (FluPolA) replicate viral RNA inefficiently in human cells because of species-specific differences in acidic nuclear phosphoprotein 32 (ANP32), a family of essential host proteins for FluPol activity4. Host-adaptive mutations, particularly a glutamic-acid-to-lysine mutation at amino acid residue 627 (E627K) in the 627 domain of the PB2 subunit, enable avian FluPolA to overcome this restriction and efficiently replicate viral RNA in the presence of human ANP32 proteins. However, the molecular mechanisms of genome replication and the interplay with ANP32 proteins remain largely unknown. Here we report cryo-electron microscopy structures of influenza C virus polymerase (FluPolC) in complex with human and chicken ANP32A. In both structures, two FluPolC molecules form an asymmetric dimer bridged by the N-terminal leucine-rich repeat domain of ANP32A. The C-terminal low-complexity acidic region of ANP32A inserts between the two juxtaposed PB2 627 domains of the asymmetric FluPolA dimer, suggesting a mechanism for how the adaptive PB2(E627K) mutation enables the replication of viral RNA in mammalian hosts. We propose that this complex represents a replication platform for the viral RNA genome, in which one of the FluPol molecules acts as a replicase while the other initiates the assembly of the nascent replication product into a viral ribonucleoprotein complex.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2927-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2927-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116770?pdf=render 31647808,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008405,Causal relationships between obesity and the leading causes of death in women and men.,"Censin JC, Peters SAE, Bovijn J, Ferreira T, Pulit SL, Mägi R, Mahajan A, Holmes MV, Lindgren CM.",,PLoS genetics,2019,2019-10-24,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Obesity traits are causally implicated with risk of cardiometabolic diseases. It remains unclear whether there are similar causal effects of obesity traits on other non-communicable diseases. Also, it is largely unexplored whether there are any sex-specific differences in the causal effects of obesity traits on cardiometabolic diseases and other leading causes of death. We constructed sex-specific genetic risk scores (GRS) for three obesity traits; body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), and WHR adjusted for BMI, including 565, 324, and 337 genetic variants, respectively. These GRSs were then used as instrumental variables to assess associations between the obesity traits and leading causes of mortality in the UK Biobank using Mendelian randomization. We also investigated associations with potential mediators, including smoking, glycemic and blood pressure traits. Sex-differences were subsequently assessed by Cochran's Q-test (Phet). A Mendelian randomization analysis of 228,466 women and 195,041 men showed that obesity causes coronary artery disease, stroke (particularly ischemic), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, type 2 and 1 diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic liver disease, and acute and chronic renal failure. Higher BMI led to higher risk of type 2 diabetes in women than in men (Phet = 1.4×10-5). Waist-hip-ratio led to a higher risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Phet = 3.7×10-6) and higher risk of chronic renal failure (Phet = 1.0×10-4) in men than women. Obesity traits have an etiological role in the majority of the leading global causes of death. Sex differences exist in the effects of obesity traits on risk of type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and renal failure, which may have downstream implications for public health.","This study aimed to quantify (as genetic risk scores) the causal effects of obesity on leading causes of death, separately, in men and women. Analysis of genetic data for 228,466 women and 195,041 men showed that obesity causes coronary artery disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, type 2 and 1 diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic liver disease, and acute and chronic renal failure. The authors identified some important differences in these causal effects for men and women.",pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008405&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008405; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6812754; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6812754?pdf=render -34561430,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3,Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) as a drug target for cardiovascular disease.,"Schmidt AF, Hunt NB, Gordillo-Marañón M, Charoen P, Drenos F, Kivimaki M, Lawlor DA, Giambartolomei C, Papacosta O, Chaturvedi N, Bis JC, O'Donnell CJ, Wannamethee G, Wong A, Price JF, Hughes AD, Gaunt TR, Franceschini N, Mook-Kanamori DO, Zwierzyna M, Sofat R, Hingorani AD, Finan C.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-09-24,Y,,,,"Development of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors for coronary heart disease (CHD) has yet to deliver licensed medicines. To distinguish compound from drug target failure, we compared evidence from clinical trials and drug target Mendelian randomization of CETP protein concentration, comparing this to Mendelian randomization of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). We show that previous failures of CETP inhibitors are likely compound related, as illustrated by significant degrees of between-compound heterogeneity in effects on lipids, blood pressure, and clinical outcomes observed in trials. On-target CETP inhibition, assessed through Mendelian randomization, is expected to reduce the risk of CHD, heart failure, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, while increasing the risk of age-related macular degeneration. In contrast, lower PCSK9 concentration is anticipated to decrease the risk of CHD, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke, while potentially increasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease and asthma. Due to distinct effects on lipoprotein metabolite profiles, joint inhibition of CETP and PCSK9 may provide added benefit. In conclusion, we provide genetic evidence that CETP is an effective target for CHD prevention but with a potential on-target adverse effect on age-related macular degeneration.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25703-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530?pdf=render 33185739,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00395-020-00828-6,Functional investigation of the coronary artery disease gene SVEP1.,"Winkler MJ, Müller P, Sharifi AM, Wobst J, Winter H, Mokry M, Ma L, van der Laan SW, Pang S, Miritsch B, Hinterdobler J, Werner J, Stiller B, Güldener U, Webb TR, Asselbergs FW, Björkegren JLM, Maegdefessel L, Schunkert H, Sager HB, Kessler T.",,Basic research in cardiology,2020,2020-11-13,Y,Genetics; Atherosclerosis; coronary artery disease; Svep1,,,"A missense variant of the sushi, von Willebrand factor type A, EGF and pentraxin domain containing protein 1 (SVEP1) is genome-wide significantly associated with coronary artery disease. The mechanisms how SVEP1 impacts atherosclerosis are not known. We found endothelial cells (EC) and vascular smooth muscle cells to represent the major cellular source of SVEP1 in plaques. Plaques were larger in atherosclerosis-prone Svep1 haploinsufficient (ApoE-/-Svep1+/-) compared to Svep1 wild-type mice (ApoE-/-Svep1+/+) and ApoE-/-Svep1+/- mice displayed elevated plaque neutrophil, Ly6Chigh monocyte, and macrophage numbers. We assessed how leukocytes accumulated more inside plaques in ApoE-/-Svep1+/- mice and found enhanced leukocyte recruitment from blood into plaques. In vitro, we examined how SVEP1 deficiency promotes leukocyte recruitment and found elevated expression of the leukocyte attractant chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 (CXCL1) in EC after incubation with missense compared to wild-type SVEP1. Increasing wild-type SVEP1 levels silenced endothelial CXCL1 release. In line, plasma Cxcl1 levels were elevated in ApoE-/-Svep1+/- mice. Our studies reveal an atheroprotective role of SVEP1. Deficiency of wild-type Svep1 increased endothelial CXCL1 expression leading to enhanced recruitment of proinflammatory leukocytes from blood to plaque. Consequently, elevated vascular inflammation resulted in enhanced plaque progression in Svep1 deficiency.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00395-020-00828-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00395-020-00828-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7666586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7666586?pdf=render +31350032,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003,"Epidemiology of burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015.","McInnes JA, Cleland HJ, Cameron PA, Darton A, Tracy LM, Wood FM, Singer Y, Gabbe BJ.",,Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries,2019,2019-07-24,N,Burns; Mortality; Australia; New Zealand; epidemiology; Fatality,,,"

Background

Knowledge of the epidemiology of burn-related fatalities is limited, with most previous studies based on hospital and burn centre data only.

Aims

To describe the epidemiological characteristics of all burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, and to identify any trends in burn-related fatality incidence over the study period.

Methods

Data from the National Coronial Information System, including data for pre-hospital and in-hospital burn-related fatality cases, was used to examine the characteristics of burn-related fatalities occurring in Australia and New Zealand from 2009 to 2015. Burn-related fatality rates per 100,000 population were estimated, and incidence trends assessed using Poisson regression analysis.

Results

Of the 310 burn-related fatalities that occurred in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015, 41% occurred in a pre-hospital setting. Overall, most burn-related fatality cases were fire related, occurred at home, and were of people aged 41-80 years. One quarter of all burn-related fatalities were a result of intentional self-harm. The population incidence of all burn-related fatalities combined, and for NSW, decreased over the study period.

Conclusions

This study has identified the importance of examining all burn-related fatalities. If this is not done, vulnerable population subgroups will be missed and prevention efforts poorly targeted.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003 34812717,https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000700,Antimicrobial resistance determinants are associated with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia and adaptation to the healthcare environment: a bacterial genome-wide association study. ,"Young BC, Wu CH, Charlesworth J, Earle S, Price JR, Gordon NC, Cole K, Dunn L, Liu E, Oakley S, Godwin H, Fung R, Miller R, Knox K, Votintseva A, Quan TP, Tilley R, Scarborough M, Crook DW, Peto TE, Walker AS, Llewelyn MJ, Wilson DJ.",,Microbial genomics,2021,2021-11-01,Y,,,,"Staphylococcus aureus is a major bacterial pathogen in humans, and a dominant cause of severe bloodstream infections. Globally, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in S. aureus remains challenging. While human risk factors for infection have been defined, contradictory evidence exists for the role of bacterial genomic variation in S. aureus disease. To investigate the contribution of bacterial lineage and genomic variation to the development of bloodstream infection, we undertook a genome-wide association study comparing bacteria from 1017 individuals with bacteraemia to 984 adults with asymptomatic S. aureus nasal carriage. Within 984 carriage isolates, we also compared healthcare-associated (HA) carriage with community-associated (CA) carriage. All major global lineages were represented in both bacteraemia and carriage, with no evidence for different infection rates. However, kmers tagging trimethoprim resistance-conferring mutation F99Y in dfrB were significantly associated with bacteraemia-vs-carriage (P=10-8.9-10-9.3). Pooling variation within genes, bacteraemia-vs-carriage was associated with the presence of mecA (HMP=10-5.3) as well as the presence of SCCmec (HMP=10-4.4). Among S. aureus carriers, no lineages were associated with HA-vs-CA carriage. However, we found a novel signal of HA-vs-CA carriage in the foldase protein prsA, where kmers representing conserved sequence allele were associated with CA carriage (P=10-7.1-10-19.4), while in gyrA, a ciprofloxacin resistance-conferring mutation, L84S, was associated with HA carriage (P=10-7.2). In an extensive study of S. aureus bacteraemia and nasal carriage in the UK, we found strong evidence that all S. aureus lineages are equally capable of causing bloodstream infection, and of being carried in the healthcare environment. Genomic variation in the foldase protein prsA is a novel genomic marker of healthcare origin in S. aureus but was not associated with bacteraemia. AMR determinants were associated with both bacteraemia and healthcare-associated carriage, suggesting that AMR increases the propensity not only to survive in healthcare environments, but also to cause invasive disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000700; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8743558; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8743558?pdf=render 34022072,https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd012721.pub3,Beta-blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system for chronic heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.,"Martin N, Manoharan K, Davies C, Lumbers RT.",,The Cochrane database of systematic reviews,2021,2021-05-22,N,,,,"

Background

Beta-blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system improve survival and reduce morbidity in people with heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF); a review of the evidence is required to determine whether these treatments are beneficial for people with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).

Objectives

To assess the effects of beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists in people with HFpEF.

Search methods

We updated searches of CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, and one clinical trial register on 14 May 2020 to identify eligible studies, with no language or date restrictions. We checked references from trial reports and review articles for additional studies.  SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials with a parallel group design, enrolling adults with HFpEF, defined by LVEF greater than 40%.

Data collection and analysis

We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane.

Main results

We included 41 randomised controlled trials (231 reports), totalling 23,492 participants across all comparisons. The risk of bias was frequently unclear and only five studies had a low risk of bias in all domains. Beta-blockers (BBs) We included 10 studies (3087 participants) investigating BBs. Five studies used a placebo comparator and in five the comparator was usual care. The mean age of participants ranged from 30 years to 81 years. A possible reduction in cardiovascular mortality was observed (risk ratio (RR) 0.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62 to 0.99; number needed to treat for an additional benefit (NNTB) 25; 1046 participants; three studies), however, the certainty of evidence was low. There may be little to no effect on all-cause mortality (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.67 to 1.00; 1105 participants; four studies; low-certainty evidence). The effects on heart failure hospitalisation, hyperkalaemia, and quality of life remain uncertain. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) We included 13 studies (4459 participants) investigating MRA. Eight studies used a placebo comparator and in five the comparator was usual care. The mean age of participants ranged from 54.5 to 80 years. Pooled analysis indicated that MRA treatment probably reduces heart failure hospitalisation (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.98; NNTB = 41; 3714 participants; three studies; moderate-certainty evidence). However, MRA treatment probably has little or no effect on all-cause mortality (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.06; 4207 participants; five studies; moderate-certainty evidence) and cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.11; 4070 participants; three studies; moderate-certainty evidence). MRA treatment may have little or no effect on quality of life measures (mean difference (MD) 0.84, 95% CI -2.30 to 3.98; 511 participants; three studies; low-certainty evidence). MRA treatment was associated with a higher risk of hyperkalaemia (RR 2.11, 95% CI 1.77 to 2.51; number needed to treat for an additional harmful outcome (NNTH) = 11; 4291 participants; six studies; high-certainty evidence). Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) We included eight studies (2061 participants) investigating ACEIs. Three studies used a placebo comparator and in five the comparator was usual care. The mean age of participants ranged from 70 to 82 years. Pooled analyses with moderate-certainty evidence suggest that ACEI treatment likely has little or no effect on cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.42; 945 participants; two studies), all-cause mortality (RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.45; 1187 participants; five studies) and heart failure hospitalisation (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.15; 1019 participants; three studies), and may result in little or no effect on the quality of life (MD -0.09, 95% CI -3.66 to 3.48; 154 participants; two studies; low-certainty evidence). The effects on hyperkalaemia remain uncertain. Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) Eight studies (8755 participants) investigating ARBs were included. Five studies used a placebo comparator and in three the comparator was usual care. The mean age of participants ranged from 61 to 75 years. Pooled analyses with high certainty of evidence suggest that ARB treatment has little or no effect on cardiovascular mortality (RR 1.02, 95% 0.90 to 1.14; 7254 participants; three studies), all-cause mortality (RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.11; 7964 participants; four studies), heart failure hospitalisation (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.02; 7254 participants; three studies), and quality of life (MD 0.41, 95% CI -0.86 to 1.67; 3117 participants; three studies). ARB was associated with a higher risk of hyperkalaemia (RR 1.88, 95% CI 1.07 to 3.33; 7148 participants; two studies; high-certainty evidence). Angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNIs) Three studies (7702 participants) investigating ARNIs were included. Two studies used ARBs as the comparator and one used standardised medical therapy, based on participants' established treatments at enrolment. The mean age of participants ranged from 71 to 73 years. Results suggest that ARNIs may have little or no effect on cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.79 to 1.15; 4796 participants; one study; moderate-certainty evidence), all-cause mortality (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.11; 7663 participants; three studies; high-certainty evidence), or quality of life (high-certainty evidence). However, ARNI treatment may result in a slight reduction in heart failure hospitalisation, compared to usual care (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.00; 7362 participants; two studies; moderate-certainty evidence). ARNI treatment was associated with a reduced risk of hyperkalaemia compared with valsartan (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.01; 5054 participants; two studies; moderate-certainty evidence).

Authors' conclusions

There is evidence that MRA and ARNI treatment in HFpEF probably reduces heart failure hospitalisation but probably has little or no effect on cardiovascular mortality and quality of life. BB treatment may reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality, however, further trials are needed. The current evidence for BBs, ACEIs, and ARBs is limited and does not support their use in HFpEF in the absence of an alternative indication. Although MRAs and ARNIs are probably effective at reducing the risk of heart failure hospitalisation, the treatment effect sizes are modest. There is a need for improved approaches to patient stratification to identify the subgroup of patients who are most likely to benefit from MRAs and ARNIs, as well as for an improved understanding of disease biology, and for new therapeutic approaches.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10044558/1/Lumbers_et_al-2017-.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012721.pub3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8140651; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8140651?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd012721.pub3 -31350032,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003,"Epidemiology of burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015.","McInnes JA, Cleland HJ, Cameron PA, Darton A, Tracy LM, Wood FM, Singer Y, Gabbe BJ.",,Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries,2019,2019-07-24,N,Burns; Mortality; Australia; New Zealand; epidemiology; Fatality,,,"

Background

Knowledge of the epidemiology of burn-related fatalities is limited, with most previous studies based on hospital and burn centre data only.

Aims

To describe the epidemiological characteristics of all burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, and to identify any trends in burn-related fatality incidence over the study period.

Methods

Data from the National Coronial Information System, including data for pre-hospital and in-hospital burn-related fatality cases, was used to examine the characteristics of burn-related fatalities occurring in Australia and New Zealand from 2009 to 2015. Burn-related fatality rates per 100,000 population were estimated, and incidence trends assessed using Poisson regression analysis.

Results

Of the 310 burn-related fatalities that occurred in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015, 41% occurred in a pre-hospital setting. Overall, most burn-related fatality cases were fire related, occurred at home, and were of people aged 41-80 years. One quarter of all burn-related fatalities were a result of intentional self-harm. The population incidence of all burn-related fatalities combined, and for NSW, decreased over the study period.

Conclusions

This study has identified the importance of examining all burn-related fatalities. If this is not done, vulnerable population subgroups will be missed and prevention efforts poorly targeted.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003 -32597303,https://doi.org/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768,Targeted RNA sequencing enhances gene expression profiling of ultra-low input samples.,"Curion F, Handel AE, Attar M, Gallone G, Bowden R, Cader MZ, Clark MB.",,RNA biology,2020,2020-06-28,Y,Method; Gene Expression; Rna-seq; Targeted Rna Sequencing; Low-input Sequencing; Captureseq; Stem-cell-derived Neurons,,,"RNA-seq is the standard method for profiling gene expression in many biological systems. Due to the wide dynamic range and complex nature of the transcriptome, RNA-seq provides an incomplete characterization, especially of lowly expressed genes and transcripts. Targeted RNA sequencing (RNA CaptureSeq) focuses sequencing on genes of interest, providing exquisite sensitivity for transcript detection and quantification. However, uses of CaptureSeq have focused on bulk samples and its performance on very small populations of cells is unknown. Here we show CaptureSeq greatly enhances transcriptomic profiling of target genes in ultra-low-input samples and provides equivalent performance to that on bulk samples. We validate the performance of CaptureSeq using multiple probe sets on samples of iPSC-derived cortical neurons. We demonstrate up to 275-fold enrichment for target genes, the detection of 10% additional genes and a greater than 5-fold increase in identified gene isoforms. Analysis of spike-in controls demonstrated CaptureSeq improved both detection sensitivity and expression quantification. Comparison to the CORTECON database of cerebral cortex development revealed CaptureSeq enhanced the identification of sample differentiation stage. CaptureSeq provides sensitive, reliable and quantitative expression measurements on hundreds-to-thousands of target genes from ultra-low-input samples and has the potential to greatly enhance transcriptomic profiling when samples are limiting.",,pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746246; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746246?pdf=render 32283057,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.03.957,"Clinical Impact of Antibodies against Ustekinumab in Psoriasis: An Observational, Cross-Sectional, Multicenter Study.","Loeff FC, Tsakok T, Dijk L, Hart MH, Duckworth M, Baudry D, Russell A, Dand N, van Leeuwen A, Griffiths CEM, Reynolds NJ, Barker J, Burden AD, Warren RB, de Vries A, Bloem K, Wolbink GJ, Smith CH, Rispens T, BADBIR, BSTOP Study Groups, PSORT consortium.",,The Journal of investigative dermatology,2020,2020-04-10,N,,,,"Ustekinumab is an effective treatment for psoriasis, but response varies between patients. The formation of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) may explain part of this variation by reducing the free ustekinumab level. Currently, published analyses of the clinical impact of ADAs are incomplete. In this observational cross-sectional multicenter study of 340 patients, we evaluated the impact of ADAs on ustekinumab level and clinical response as assessed by the PASI. Circulating ADA levels were measured using two assays: a drug-sensitive radioimmunoassay and a drug-tolerant ELISA. Circulating ustekinumab levels were measured using an ELISA. ADAs were detected in 3.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.2-4.2) and in 10.6% (95% CI = 7.9-13.9) of patients using the radioimmunoassay and drug-tolerant ELISA, respectively. At least 85% of the ADAs were neutralizing. Compared with patients negative for ADAs, ADA positivity in the radioimmunoassay and drug-tolerant ELISA were associated with lower median ustekinumab levels (-0.62 μg/ml [95% CI = -1.190 to -0.30] and -0.74 μg/ml [95% CI = -1.09 to -0.47], respectively) and higher absolute PASI (6.6 [95% CI = 3.0-9.9] and 1.9 [95% CI = 0.4-4.0], respectively). Absence of detectable ustekinumab regardless of ADA status correlated with poor clinical outcome (median sample PASI 10.1, 6.5 [95% CI = 3.9-8.8] compared with patients positive for ustekinumab). In conclusion, substantially reduced drug exposure resulting from ADAs formation is associated with impaired clinical response.",,pdf:http://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022202X20313701/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.03.957 -32095773,https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957,Advancing the Use of Mobile Technologies in Clinical Trials: Recommendations from the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative.,"Coran P, Goldsack JC, Grandinetti CA, Bakker JP, Bolognese M, Dorsey ER, Vasisht K, Amdur A, Dell C, Helfgott J, Kirchoff M, Miller CJ, Narayan A, Patel D, Peterson B, Ramirez E, Schiller D, Switzer T, Wing L, Forrest A, Doherty A.",,Digital biomarkers,2019,2019-09-01,N,Clinical Trials; Regulatory Approval; Wearable Sensors; Mobile Technologies,"Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"Mobile technologies offer the potential to reduce the costs of conducting clinical trials by collecting high-quality information on health outcomes in real-world settings that are relevant to patients and clinicians. However, widespread use of mobile technologies in clinical trials has been impeded by their perceived challenges. To advance solutions to these challenges, the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) has issued best practices and realistic approaches that clinical trial sponsors can now use. These include CTTI recommendations on technology selection; data collection, analysis, and interpretation; data management; protocol design and execution; and US Food and Drug Administration submission and inspection. The scientific principles underpinning the clinical trials enterprise continue to apply to studies using mobile technologies. These recommendations provide a framework for including mobile technologies in clinical trials that can lead to more efficient assessment of new therapies for patients.","The authors of this publication have developed a set of guidelines for planning, running and writing up research that uses mobile technologies in clinical trials. The guidelines they have put together should make it easer for patient experience to be recorded in clinical trials.",pdf:https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/503957; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7011727; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7011727?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957 +32597303,https://doi.org/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768,Targeted RNA sequencing enhances gene expression profiling of ultra-low input samples.,"Curion F, Handel AE, Attar M, Gallone G, Bowden R, Cader MZ, Clark MB.",,RNA biology,2020,2020-06-28,Y,Method; Gene Expression; Rna-seq; Targeted Rna Sequencing; Low-input Sequencing; Captureseq; Stem-cell-derived Neurons,,,"RNA-seq is the standard method for profiling gene expression in many biological systems. Due to the wide dynamic range and complex nature of the transcriptome, RNA-seq provides an incomplete characterization, especially of lowly expressed genes and transcripts. Targeted RNA sequencing (RNA CaptureSeq) focuses sequencing on genes of interest, providing exquisite sensitivity for transcript detection and quantification. However, uses of CaptureSeq have focused on bulk samples and its performance on very small populations of cells is unknown. Here we show CaptureSeq greatly enhances transcriptomic profiling of target genes in ultra-low-input samples and provides equivalent performance to that on bulk samples. We validate the performance of CaptureSeq using multiple probe sets on samples of iPSC-derived cortical neurons. We demonstrate up to 275-fold enrichment for target genes, the detection of 10% additional genes and a greater than 5-fold increase in identified gene isoforms. Analysis of spike-in controls demonstrated CaptureSeq improved both detection sensitivity and expression quantification. Comparison to the CORTECON database of cerebral cortex development revealed CaptureSeq enhanced the identification of sample differentiation stage. CaptureSeq provides sensitive, reliable and quantitative expression measurements on hundreds-to-thousands of target genes from ultra-low-input samples and has the potential to greatly enhance transcriptomic profiling when samples are limiting.",,pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746246; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746246?pdf=render 35484151,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29932-y,Childhood body size directly increases type 1 diabetes risk based on a lifecourse Mendelian randomization approach.,"Richardson TG, Crouch DJM, Power GM, Morales-Berstein F, Hazelwood E, Fang S, Cho Y, Inshaw JRJ, Robertson CC, Sidore C, Cucca F, Rich SS, Todd JA, Davey Smith G.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-04-28,Y,,,,"The rising prevalence of childhood obesity has been postulated as an explanation for the increasing rate of individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In this study, we use Mendelian randomization (MR) to provide evidence that childhood body size has an effect on T1D risk (OR = 2.05 per change in body size category, 95% CI = 1.20 to 3.50, P = 0.008), which remains after accounting for body size at birth and during adulthood using multivariable MR (OR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.21 to 4.42, P = 0.013). We validate this direct effect of childhood body size using data from a large-scale T1D meta-analysis based on n = 15,573 cases and n = 158,408 controls (OR = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.21 to 3.12, P = 0.006). We also provide evidence that childhood body size influences risk of asthma, eczema and hypothyroidism, although multivariable MR suggested that these effects are mediated by body size in later life. Our findings support a causal role for higher childhood body size on risk of being diagnosed with T1D, whereas its influence on the other immune-associated diseases is likely explained by a long-term effect of remaining overweight for many years over the lifecourse.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29932-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29932-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9051135; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9051135?pdf=render +32095773,https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957,Advancing the Use of Mobile Technologies in Clinical Trials: Recommendations from the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative.,"Coran P, Goldsack JC, Grandinetti CA, Bakker JP, Bolognese M, Dorsey ER, Vasisht K, Amdur A, Dell C, Helfgott J, Kirchoff M, Miller CJ, Narayan A, Patel D, Peterson B, Ramirez E, Schiller D, Switzer T, Wing L, Forrest A, Doherty A.",,Digital biomarkers,2019,2019-09-01,N,Clinical Trials; Regulatory Approval; Wearable Sensors; Mobile Technologies,"Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"Mobile technologies offer the potential to reduce the costs of conducting clinical trials by collecting high-quality information on health outcomes in real-world settings that are relevant to patients and clinicians. However, widespread use of mobile technologies in clinical trials has been impeded by their perceived challenges. To advance solutions to these challenges, the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) has issued best practices and realistic approaches that clinical trial sponsors can now use. These include CTTI recommendations on technology selection; data collection, analysis, and interpretation; data management; protocol design and execution; and US Food and Drug Administration submission and inspection. The scientific principles underpinning the clinical trials enterprise continue to apply to studies using mobile technologies. These recommendations provide a framework for including mobile technologies in clinical trials that can lead to more efficient assessment of new therapies for patients.","The authors of this publication have developed a set of guidelines for planning, running and writing up research that uses mobile technologies in clinical trials. The guidelines they have put together should make it easer for patient experience to be recorded in clinical trials.",pdf:https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/503957; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7011727; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7011727?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957 36315390,https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23834,"Risk and protective factors for new-onset binge eating, low weight, and self-harm symptoms in >35,000 individuals in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.","Davies HL, Hübel C, Herle M, Kakar S, Mundy J, Peel AJ, Ter Kuile AR, Zvrskovec J, Monssen D, Lim KX, Davies MR, Palmos AB, Lin Y, Kalsi G, Rogers HC, Bristow S, Glen K, Malouf CM, Kelly EJ, Purves KL, Young KS, Hotopf M, Armour C, McIntosh AM, Eley TC, Treasure J, Breen G.",,The International journal of eating disorders,2023,2022-10-31,Y,Mental health; Psychiatric disorders; Eating Disorders; Comorbidity; Suicidal Ideation,,,"

Objective

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with poor mental health, including increases in eating disorders and self-harm symptoms. We investigated risk and protective factors for the new onset of these symptoms during the pandemic.

Method

Data were from the COVID-19 Psychiatry and Neurological Genetics study and the Repeated Assessment of Mental health in Pandemics Study (n = 36,715). Exposures were socio-demographic characteristics, lifetime psychiatric disorder, and COVID-related variables, including SARS-CoV-2 infection/illness with COVID-19. We identified four subsamples of participants without pre-pandemic experience of our outcomes: binge eating (n = 24,211), low weight (n = 24,364), suicidal and/or self-harm ideation (n = 18,040), and self-harm (n = 29,948). Participants reported on our outcomes at frequent intervals (fortnightly to monthly). We fitted multiple logistic regression models to identify factors associated with the new onset of our outcomes.

Results

Within each subsample, new onset was reported by: 21% for binge eating, 10.8% for low weight, 23.5% for suicidal and/or self-harm ideation, and 3.5% for self-harm. Shared risk factors included having a lifetime psychiatric disorder, not being in paid employment, higher pandemic worry scores, and being racially minoritized. Conversely, infection with SARS-CoV-2/illness with COVID-19 was linked to lower odds of binge eating, low weight, and suicidal and/or self-harm ideation.

Discussion

Overall, we detected shared risk factors that may drive the comorbidity between eating disorders and self-harm. Subgroups of individuals with these risk factors may require more frequent monitoring during future pandemics.

Public significance

In a sample of 35,000 UK residents, people who had a psychiatric disorder, identified as being part of a racially minoritized group, were not in paid employment, or were more worried about the pandemic were more likely to experience binge eating, low weight, suicidal and/or self-harm ideation, and self-harm for the first time during the pandemic. People with these risk factors may need particular attention during future pandemics to enable early identification of new psychiatric symptoms.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/eat.23834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9874817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9874817?pdf=render 34662334,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009436,Machine learning to predict the source of campylobacteriosis using whole genome data.,"Arning N, Sheppard SK, Bayliss S, Clifton DA, Wilson DJ.",,PLoS genetics,2021,2021-10-18,Y,,,,"Campylobacteriosis is among the world's most common foodborne illnesses, caused predominantly by the bacterium Campylobacter jejuni. Effective interventions require determination of the infection source which is challenging as transmission occurs via multiple sources such as contaminated meat, poultry, and drinking water. Strain variation has allowed source tracking based upon allelic variation in multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) genes allowing isolates from infected individuals to be attributed to specific animal or environmental reservoirs. However, the accuracy of probabilistic attribution models has been limited by the ability to differentiate isolates based upon just 7 MLST genes. Here, we broaden the input data spectrum to include core genome MLST (cgMLST) and whole genome sequences (WGS), and implement multiple machine learning algorithms, allowing more accurate source attribution. We increase attribution accuracy from 64% using the standard iSource population genetic approach to 71% for MLST, 85% for cgMLST and 78% for kmerized WGS data using the classifier we named aiSource. To gain insight beyond the source model prediction, we use Bayesian inference to analyse the relative affinity of C. jejuni strains to infect humans and identified potential differences, in source-human transmission ability among clonally related isolates in the most common disease causing lineage (ST-21 clonal complex). Providing generalizable computationally efficient methods, based upon machine learning and population genetics, we provide a scalable approach to global disease surveillance that can continuously incorporate novel samples for source attribution and identify fine-scale variation in transmission potential.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009436&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009436; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8553134; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8553134?pdf=render 31408153,https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euz220,"Subtypes of atrial fibrillation with concomitant valvular heart disease derived from electronic health records: phenotypes, population prevalence, trends and prognosis.","Banerjee A, Allan V, Denaxas S, Shah A, Kotecha D, Lambiase PD, Joseph J, Lund LH, Hemingway H.",,"Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology",2019,2019-12-01,Y,Mortality; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Valvular Heart Disease; Electronic Health Records; Systemic Embolism,The Human Phenome,,"

Aims

To evaluate population-based electronic health record (EHR) definitions of atrial fibrillation (AF) and valvular heart disease (VHD) subtypes, time trends in prevalence and prognosis.

Methods and results

A total of 76 019 individuals with AF were identified in England in 1998-2010 in the CALIBER resource, linking primary and secondary care EHR. An algorithm was created, implemented, and refined to identify 18 VHD subtypes using 406 diagnosis, procedure, and prescription codes. Cox models were used to investigate associations with a composite endpoint of incident stroke (ischaemic, haemorrhagic, and unspecified), systemic embolism (SSE), and all-cause mortality. Among individuals with AF, the prevalence of AF with concomitant VHD increased from 11.4% (527/4613) in 1998 to 17.6% (7014/39 868) in 2010 and also in individuals aged over 65 years. Those with mechanical valves, mitral stenosis (MS), or aortic stenosis had highest risk of clinical events compared to AF patients with no VHD, in relative [hazard ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.13 (1.02-1.24), 1.20 (1.05-1.36), and 1.27 (1.19-1.37), respectively] and absolute (excess risk: 2.04, 4.20, and 6.37 per 100 person-years, respectively) terms. Of the 95.2% of individuals with indication for warfarin (men and women with CHA2DS2-VASc ≥1 and ≥2, respectively), only 21.8% had a prescription 90 days prior to the study.

Conclusion

Prevalence of VHD among individuals with AF increased from 1998 to 2010. Atrial fibrillation associated with aortic stenosis, MS, or mechanical valves (compared to AF without VHD) was associated with an excess absolute risk of stroke, SSE, and mortality, but anticoagulation was underused in the pre-direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) era, highlighting need for urgent clarity regarding DOACs in AF and concomitant VHD.","This study identified EHR records of AF and vavular heard disease in over 70k UK individuals and looked for associations with stroke, systemic embolism and mortality. They used CALIBER - a data source connecting office of national statistics, CPRD and HES data from over 10 years. They reported clear methodology on how the EHR was used to classify disease, showed overall prevalence change in different AF related diseases over time, and were able to provide insights at a more granular level - for example, valvular heart disease subtypes in AF than previous studies. The full code list (EHR codes) is provided in supplement, so methods are theoretically reproducible. Immediate impact to patient is less strong and there is wasn't much emphasis on diversity and inclusion.",pdf:https://academic.oup.com/europace/article-pdf/21/12/1776/31175830/euz220.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euz220; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6888023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6888023?pdf=render @@ -2075,38 +2075,38 @@ PMC7614905,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Individ 36258219,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06824-6,"Experiences of the Data Monitoring Committee for the RECOVERY trial, a large-scale adaptive platform randomised trial of treatments for patients hospitalised with COVID-19.","Sandercock PAG, Darbyshire J, DeMets D, Fowler R, Lalloo DG, Munavvar M, Staplin N, Warris A, Wittes J, Emberson JR.",,Trials,2022,2022-10-18,Y,,,,"

Aim

To inform the oversight of future clinical trials during a pandemic, we summarise the experiences of the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) for the Randomised Evaluation of COVID therapy trial (RECOVERY), a large-scale randomised adaptive platform clinical trial of treatments for hospitalised patients with COVID-19.

Methods and findings

During the first 24 months of the trial (March 2020 to February 2022), the DMC oversaw accumulating data for 14 treatments in adults (plus 10 in children) involving > 45,000 randomised patients. Five trial aspects key for the DMC in performing its role were: a large committee of members, including some with extensive DMC experience and others who had broad clinical expertise; clear strategic planning, communication, and responsiveness by the trial principal investigators; data collection and analysis systems able to cope with phases of very rapid recruitment and link to electronic health records; an ability to work constructively with regulators (and other DMCs) to address emerging concerns without the need to release unblinded mortality results; and the use of videoconferencing systems that enabled national and international members to meet at short notice and from home during the pandemic when physical meetings were impossible. Challenges included that the first four treatments introduced were effectively 'competing' for patients (increasing pressure to make rapid decisions on each one); balancing the global health imperative to report on findings with the need to maintain confidentiality until the results were sufficiently certain to appropriately inform treatment decisions; and reliably assessing safety, especially for newer agents introduced after the initial wave and in the small numbers of pregnant women and children included. We present a series of case vignettes to illustrate some of the issues and the DMC decision-making related to hydroxychloroquine, dexamethasone, casirivimab + imdevimab, and tocilizumab.

Conclusions

RECOVERY's streamlined adaptive platform design, linked to hospital-level and population-level health data, enabled the rapid and reliable assessment of multiple treatments for hospitalised patients with COVID-19. The later introduction of factorial assessments increased the trial's efficiency, without compromising the DMC's ability to assess safety and efficacy. Requests for the release of unblinded primary outcome data to regulators at points when data were not mature required significant efforts in communication with the regulators by the DMC to avoid inappropriate early trial termination.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-022-06824-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06824-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9579551; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9579551?pdf=render 31182084,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0824-x,The effect of computerized decision support systems on cardiovascular risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Groenhof TKJ, Asselbergs FW, Groenwold RHH, Grobbee DE, Visseren FLJ, Bots ML, UCC-SMART study group.",,BMC medical informatics and decision making,2019,2019-06-10,Y,Cdss; Computerized Decision Support; Cardiovascular Risk Management,,,"

Background

Cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) is notoriously difficult because of multi-morbidity and the different phenotypes and severities of cardiovascular disease. Computerized decision support systems (CDSS) enable the clinician to integrate the latest scientific evidence and patient information into tailored strategies. The effect on cardiovascular risk factor management is yet to be confirmed.

Methods

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effects of CDSS on CVRM, defined as the change in absolute values and attainment of treatment goals of systolic blood pressure (SBP), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) and HbA1c. Also, CDSS characteristics related to more effective CVRM were identified. Eligible articles were methodologically appraised using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. We calculated mean differences, relative risks, and if appropriate (I2 < 70%), pooled the results using a random-effects model.

Results

Of the 14,335 studies identified, 22 were included. Four studies reported on SBP, 3 on LDL-c, 10 on CVRM in patients with type II diabetes and 5 on guideline adherence. The CDSSs varied considerably in technical performance and content. Heterogeneity of results was such that quantitative pooling was often not appropriate. Among CVRM patients, the results tended towards a beneficial effect of CDSS, but only LDL-c target attainment in diabetes patients reached statistical significance. Prompting, integration into the electronical health record, patient empowerment, and medication support were related to more effective CVRM.

Conclusion

We did not find a clear clinical benefit from CDSS in cardiovascular risk factor levels and target attainment. Some features of CDSS seem more promising than others. However, the variability in CDSS characteristics and heterogeneity of the results - emphasizing the immaturity of this research area - limit stronger conclusions. Clinical relevance of CDSS in CVRM might additionally be sought in the improvement of shared decision making and patient empowerment.",,pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-019-0824-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0824-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558725?pdf=render 31641117,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12682-9,Sequence variants with large effects on cardiac electrophysiology and disease.,"Norland K, Sveinbjornsson G, Thorolfsdottir RB, Davidsson OB, Tragante V, Rajamani S, Helgadottir A, Gretarsdottir S, van Setten J, Asselbergs FW, Sverrisson JT, Stephensen SS, Oskarsson G, Sigurdsson EL, Andersen K, Danielsen R, Thorgeirsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Arnar DO, Sulem P, Holm H, Gudbjartsson DF, Stefansson K.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-10-22,Y,,,,"Features of the QRS complex of the electrocardiogram, reflecting ventricular depolarisation, associate with various physiologic functions and several pathologic conditions. We test 32.5 million variants for association with ten measures of the QRS complex in 12 leads, using 405,732 electrocardiograms from 81,192 Icelanders. We identify 190 associations at 130 loci, the majority of which have not been reported before, including associations with 21 rare or low-frequency coding variants. Assessment of genes expressed in the heart yields an additional 13 rare QRS coding variants at 12 loci. We find 51 unreported associations between the QRS variants and echocardiographic traits and cardiovascular diseases, including atrial fibrillation, complete AV block, heart failure and supraventricular tachycardia. We demonstrate the advantage of in-depth analysis of the QRS complex in conjunction with other cardiovascular phenotypes to enhance our understanding of the genetic basis of myocardial mass, cardiac conduction and disease.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12682-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12682-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6805929; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6805929?pdf=render +37248441,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1,Genome-wide association meta-analysis of spontaneous coronary artery dissection identifies risk variants and genes related to artery integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation.,"Adlam D, Berrandou TE, Georges A, Nelson CP, Giannoulatou E, Henry J, Ma L, Blencowe M, Turley TN, Yang ML, Chopade S, Finan C, Braund PS, Sadeg-Sayoud I, Iismaa SE, Kosel ML, Zhou X, Hamby SE, Cheng J, Liu L, Tarr I, Muller DWM, d'Escamard V, King A, Brunham LR, Baranowska-Clarke AA, Debette S, Amouyel P, Olin JW, Patil S, Hesselson SE, Junday K, Kanoni S, Aragam KG, Butterworth AS, CARDIoGRAMPlusC4D, MEGASTROKE, International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC) Intracranial Aneurysm Working Group, Tweet MS, Gulati R, Combaret N, DISCO register, Kadian-Dodov D, Kalman JM, Fatkin D, Hingorani AD, Saw J, Webb TR, Hayes SN, Yang X, Ganesh SK, Olson TM, Kovacic JC, Graham RM, Samani NJ, Bouatia-Naji N.",,Nature genetics,2023,2023-05-29,Y,,,,"Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an understudied cause of myocardial infarction primarily affecting women. It is not known to what extent SCAD is genetically distinct from other cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD). Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (1,917 cases and 9,292 controls) identifying 16 risk loci for SCAD. Integrative functional annotations prioritized genes that are likely to be regulated in vascular smooth muscle cells and artery fibroblasts and implicated in extracellular matrix biology. One locus containing the tissue factor gene F3, which is involved in blood coagulation cascade initiation, appears to be specific for SCAD risk. Several associated variants have diametrically opposite associations with CAD, suggesting that shared biological processes contribute to both diseases, but through different mechanisms. We also infer a causal role for high blood pressure in SCAD. Our findings provide novel pathophysiological insights involving arterial integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation in SCAD and set the stage for future specific therapeutics and preventions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398?pdf=render 35460409,https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac090,New horizons in evidence-based care for older people: individual participant data meta-analysis.,"Clegg A, Bandeen-Roche K, Farrin A, Forster A, Gill TM, Gladman J, Kerse N, Lindley R, McManus RJ, Melis R, Mujica-Mota R, Raina P, Rockwood K, Teh R, van der Windt D, Witham M.",,Age and ageing,2022,2022-04-01,Y,Ageing; Meta-analysis; Frailty; Older People; Stratified Care; Individual Participant Data,,,"Evidence-based decisions on clinical and cost-effectiveness of interventions are ideally informed by meta-analyses of intervention trial data. However, when undertaken, such meta-analyses in ageing research have typically been conducted using standard methods whereby summary (aggregate) data are extracted from published trial reports. Although meta-analysis of aggregate data can provide useful insights into the average effect of interventions within a selected trial population, it has limitations regarding robust conclusions on which subgroups of people stand to gain the greatest benefit from an intervention or are at risk of experiencing harm. Future evidence synthesis using individual participant data from ageing research trials for meta-analysis could transform understanding of the effectiveness of interventions for older people, supporting evidence-based and sustainable commissioning. A major advantage of individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) is that it enables examination of characteristics that predict treatment effects, such as frailty, disability, cognitive impairment, ethnicity, gender and other wider determinants of health. Key challenges of IPDMA relate to the complexity and resources needed for obtaining, managing and preparing datasets, requiring a meticulous approach involving experienced researchers, frequently with expertise in designing and analysing clinical trials. In anticipation of future IPDMA work in ageing research, we are establishing an international Ageing Research Trialists collective, to bring together trialists with a common focus on transforming care for older people as a shared ambition across nations.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/4/afac090/43408856/afac090.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac090; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9034697; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9034697?pdf=render 34552082,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25833-8,Modelling the persistence and control of Rift Valley fever virus in a spatially heterogeneous landscape.,"Tennant WSD, Cardinale E, Cêtre-Sossah C, Moutroifi Y, Le Godais G, Colombi D, Spencer SEF, Tildesley MJ, Keeling MJ, Charafouddine O, Colizza V, Edmunds WJ, Métras R.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-09-22,Y,,,,"The persistence mechanisms of Rift Valley fever (RVF), a zoonotic arboviral haemorrhagic fever, at both local and broader geographical scales have yet to be fully understood and rigorously quantified. We developed a mathematical metapopulation model describing RVF virus transmission in livestock across the four islands of the Comoros archipelago, accounting for island-specific environments and inter-island animal movements. By fitting our model in a Bayesian framework to 2004-2015 surveillance data, we estimated the importance of environmental drivers and animal movements on disease persistence, and tested the impact of different control scenarios on reducing disease burden throughout the archipelago. Here we report that (i) the archipelago network was able to sustain viral transmission in the absence of explicit disease introduction events after early 2007, (ii) repeated outbreaks during 2004-2020 may have gone under-detected by local surveillance, and (iii) co-ordinated within-island control measures are more effective than between-island animal movement restrictions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25833-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25833-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458460?pdf=render -37248441,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1,Genome-wide association meta-analysis of spontaneous coronary artery dissection identifies risk variants and genes related to artery integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation.,"Adlam D, Berrandou TE, Georges A, Nelson CP, Giannoulatou E, Henry J, Ma L, Blencowe M, Turley TN, Yang ML, Chopade S, Finan C, Braund PS, Sadeg-Sayoud I, Iismaa SE, Kosel ML, Zhou X, Hamby SE, Cheng J, Liu L, Tarr I, Muller DWM, d'Escamard V, King A, Brunham LR, Baranowska-Clarke AA, Debette S, Amouyel P, Olin JW, Patil S, Hesselson SE, Junday K, Kanoni S, Aragam KG, Butterworth AS, CARDIoGRAMPlusC4D, MEGASTROKE, International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC) Intracranial Aneurysm Working Group, Tweet MS, Gulati R, Combaret N, DISCO register, Kadian-Dodov D, Kalman JM, Fatkin D, Hingorani AD, Saw J, Webb TR, Hayes SN, Yang X, Ganesh SK, Olson TM, Kovacic JC, Graham RM, Samani NJ, Bouatia-Naji N.",,Nature genetics,2023,2023-05-29,Y,,,,"Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an understudied cause of myocardial infarction primarily affecting women. It is not known to what extent SCAD is genetically distinct from other cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD). Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (1,917 cases and 9,292 controls) identifying 16 risk loci for SCAD. Integrative functional annotations prioritized genes that are likely to be regulated in vascular smooth muscle cells and artery fibroblasts and implicated in extracellular matrix biology. One locus containing the tissue factor gene F3, which is involved in blood coagulation cascade initiation, appears to be specific for SCAD risk. Several associated variants have diametrically opposite associations with CAD, suggesting that shared biological processes contribute to both diseases, but through different mechanisms. We also infer a causal role for high blood pressure in SCAD. Our findings provide novel pathophysiological insights involving arterial integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation in SCAD and set the stage for future specific therapeutics and preventions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398?pdf=render -31289267,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10724-w,Mapping the drivers of within-host pathogen evolution using massive data sets.,"Palmer DS, Turner I, Fidler S, Frater J, Goedhals D, Goulder P, Huang KG, Oxenius A, Phillips R, Shapiro R, Vuuren CV, McLean AR, McVean G.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-07-09,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"Differences among hosts, resulting from genetic variation in the immune system or heterogeneity in drug treatment, can impact within-host pathogen evolution. Genetic association studies can potentially identify such interactions. However, extensive and correlated genetic population structure in hosts and pathogens presents a substantial risk of confounding analyses. Moreover, the multiple testing burden of interaction scanning can potentially limit power. We present a Bayesian approach for detecting host influences on pathogen evolution that exploits vast existing data sets of pathogen diversity to improve power and control for stratification. The approach models key processes, including recombination and selection, and identifies regions of the pathogen genome affected by host factors. Our simulations and empirical analysis of drug-induced selection on the HIV-1 genome show that the method recovers known associations and has superior precision-recall characteristics compared to other approaches. We build a high-resolution map of HLA-induced selection in the HIV-1 genome, identifying novel epitope-allele combinations.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10724-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10724-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6616926; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6616926?pdf=render 35820692,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881,Clinical prediction models for mortality in patients with covid-19: external validation and individual participant data meta-analysis.,"de Jong VMT, Rousset RZ, Antonio-Villa NE, Buenen AG, Van Calster B, Bello-Chavolla OY, Brunskill NJ, Curcin V, Damen JAA, Fermín-Martínez CA, Fernández-Chirino L, Ferrari D, Free RC, Gupta RK, Haldar P, Hedberg P, Korang SK, Kurstjens S, Kusters R, Major RW, Maxwell L, Nair R, Naucler P, Nguyen TL, Noursadeghi M, Rosa R, Soares F, Takada T, van Royen FS, van Smeden M, Wynants L, Modrák M, CovidRetro collaboration, Asselbergs FW, Linschoten M, CAPACITY-COVID consortium, Moons KGM, Debray TPA.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2022,2022-07-12,Y,,,,"

Objective

To externally validate various prognostic models and scoring rules for predicting short term mortality in patients admitted to hospital for covid-19.

Design

Two stage individual participant data meta-analysis.

Setting

Secondary and tertiary care.

Participants

46 914 patients across 18 countries, admitted to a hospital with polymerase chain reaction confirmed covid-19 from November 2019 to April 2021.

Data sources

Multiple (clustered) cohorts in Brazil, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States previously identified by a living systematic review of covid-19 prediction models published in The BMJ, and through PROSPERO, reference checking, and expert knowledge.

Model selection and eligibility criteria

Prognostic models identified by the living systematic review and through contacting experts. A priori models were excluded that had a high risk of bias in the participant domain of PROBAST (prediction model study risk of bias assessment tool) or for which the applicability was deemed poor.

Methods

Eight prognostic models with diverse predictors were identified and validated. A two stage individual participant data meta-analysis was performed of the estimated model concordance (C) statistic, calibration slope, calibration-in-the-large, and observed to expected ratio (O:E) across the included clusters.

Main outcome measures

30 day mortality or in-hospital mortality.

Results

Datasets included 27 clusters from 18 different countries and contained data on 46 914patients. The pooled estimates ranged from 0.67 to 0.80 (C statistic), 0.22 to 1.22 (calibration slope), and 0.18 to 2.59 (O:E ratio) and were prone to substantial between study heterogeneity. The 4C Mortality Score by Knight et al (pooled C statistic 0.80, 95% confidence interval 0.75 to 0.84, 95% prediction interval 0.72 to 0.86) and clinical model by Wang et al (0.77, 0.73 to 0.80, 0.63 to 0.87) had the highest discriminative ability. On average, 29% fewer deaths were observed than predicted by the 4C Mortality Score (pooled O:E 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.45 to 1.11, 95% prediction interval 0.21 to 2.39), 35% fewer than predicted by the Wang clinical model (0.65, 0.52 to 0.82, 0.23 to 1.89), and 4% fewer than predicted by Xie et al's model (0.96, 0.59 to 1.55, 0.21 to 4.28).

Conclusion

The prognostic value of the included models varied greatly between the data sources. Although the Knight 4C Mortality Score and Wang clinical model appeared most promising, recalibration (intercept and slope updates) is needed before implementation in routine care.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-069881.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913?pdf=render +31289267,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10724-w,Mapping the drivers of within-host pathogen evolution using massive data sets.,"Palmer DS, Turner I, Fidler S, Frater J, Goedhals D, Goulder P, Huang KG, Oxenius A, Phillips R, Shapiro R, Vuuren CV, McLean AR, McVean G.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-07-09,Y,,Applied Analytics,,"Differences among hosts, resulting from genetic variation in the immune system or heterogeneity in drug treatment, can impact within-host pathogen evolution. Genetic association studies can potentially identify such interactions. However, extensive and correlated genetic population structure in hosts and pathogens presents a substantial risk of confounding analyses. Moreover, the multiple testing burden of interaction scanning can potentially limit power. We present a Bayesian approach for detecting host influences on pathogen evolution that exploits vast existing data sets of pathogen diversity to improve power and control for stratification. The approach models key processes, including recombination and selection, and identifies regions of the pathogen genome affected by host factors. Our simulations and empirical analysis of drug-induced selection on the HIV-1 genome show that the method recovers known associations and has superior precision-recall characteristics compared to other approaches. We build a high-resolution map of HLA-induced selection in the HIV-1 genome, identifying novel epitope-allele combinations.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10724-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10724-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6616926; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6616926?pdf=render +31539079,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970,Association of Untargeted Urinary Metabolomics and Lung Cancer Risk Among Never-Smoking Women in China.,"Seow WJ, Shu XO, Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Walker DI, Hu W, Cai Q, Gao YT, Xiang YB, Moore SC, Bassig BA, Wong JYY, Zhang J, Ji BT, Boulangé CL, Kaluarachchi M, Wijeyesekera A, Zheng W, Elliott P, Rothman N, Lan Q.",,JAMA network open,2019,2019-09-04,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Importance

Chinese women have the highest rate of lung cancer among female never-smokers in the world, and the etiology is poorly understood.

Objective

To assess the association between metabolomics and lung cancer risk among never-smoking women.

Design, setting, and participants

This nested case-control study included 275 never-smoking female patients with lung cancer and 289 never-smoking cancer-free control participants from the prospective Shanghai Women's Health Study recruited from December 28, 1996, to May 23, 2000. Validated food frequency questionnaires were used for the collection of dietary information. Metabolomic analysis was conducted from November 13, 2015, to January 6, 2016. Data analysis was conducted from January 6, 2016, to November 29, 2018.

Exposures

Untargeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomic profiles were characterized using prediagnosis urine samples. A total of 39 416 metabolites were measured.

Main outcomes and measures

Incident lung cancer.

Results

Among the 564 women, those who developed lung cancer (275 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 61.0 [52-65] years) and those who did not develop lung cancer (289 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 62.0 [53-66] years) at follow-up (median [interquartile range] follow-up, 10.9 [9.0-11.7] years) were similar in terms of their secondhand smoke exposure, history of respiratory diseases, and body mass index. A peak metabolite, identified as 5-methyl-2-furoic acid, was significantly associated with lower lung cancer risk (odds ratio, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.46-0.72]; P < .001; false discovery rate = 0.039). Furthermore, this peak was weakly correlated with self-reported dietary soy intake (ρ = 0.21; P < .001). Increasing tertiles of this metabolite were associated with lower lung cancer risk (in comparison with first tertile, odds ratio for second tertile, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.34-0.80]; and odds ratio for third tertile, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.30-0.70]), and the association was consistent across different histological subtypes and follow-up times. Additionally, metabolic pathway analysis found several systemic biological alterations that were associated with lung cancer risk, including 1-carbon metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation.

Conclusions and relevance

This prospective study of the untargeted urinary metabolome and lung cancer among never-smoking women in China provides support for the hypothesis that soy-based metabolites are associated with lower lung cancer risk in never-smoking women and suggests that biological processes linked to air pollution may be associated with higher lung cancer risk in this population.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2751559/seow_2019_oi_190459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6755532 31822727,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55098-7,Co-incidence of RCC-susceptibility polymorphisms with HIF cis-acting sequences supports a pathway tuning model of cancer.,"Schmid V, Lafleur VN, Lombardi O, Li R, Salama R, Colli L, Choudhry H, Chanock S, Ratcliffe PJ, Mole DR.",,Scientific reports,2019,2019-12-10,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Emerging evidence suggests that dysregulation of oncogenic pathways requires precise tuning in order for cancer to develop. To test this, we examined the overlap between cis-acting elements of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathway and cancer-susceptibility polymorphisms as defined in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In renal cancer, where HIF is constitutively and un-physiologically activated by mutation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumour suppressor, we observed marked excess overlap, which extended to potential susceptibility polymorphisms that are below the conventional threshold applied in GWAS. In contrast, in other cancers where HIF is upregulated by different mechanisms, including micro-environmental hypoxia, we observed no excess in overlap. Our findings support a 'pathway tuning' model of cancer, whereby precise modulation of multiple outputs of specific, activated pathways is important in oncogenesis. This implies that selective pressures to modulate such pathways operate during cancer development and should focus attempts to identify their nature and consequences.",This study investigated the association between proteins responsible for DNA replication the susceptibility to cancer using GWAS. ,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55098-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55098-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6904466; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6904466?pdf=render 36589292,https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2022.1050596,Telomere length analysis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using large-scale whole genome sequence data.,"Al Khleifat A, Iacoangeli A, Jones AR, van Vugt JJFA, Moisse M, Shatunov A, Zwamborn RAJ, van der Spek RAA, Cooper-Knock J, Topp S, van Rheenen W, Kenna B, Van Eijk KR, Kenna K, Byrne R, López V, Opie-Martin S, Vural A, Campos Y, Weber M, Smith B, Fogh I, Silani V, Morrison KE, Dobson R, van Es MA, McLaughlin RL, Vourc'h P, Chio A, Corcia P, de Carvalho M, Gotkine M, Panades MP, Mora JS, Shaw PJ, Landers JE, Glass JD, Shaw CE, Basak N, Hardiman O, Robberecht W, Van Damme P, van den Berg LH, Veldink JH, Al-Chalabi A.",,Frontiers in cellular neuroscience,2022,2022-12-15,Y,Genomics; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als); Bigdata; Whole Genome Sequence (Wgs); Telomere–Genetics; Mnd–Motor Neuron Disorders,,,"

Background

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of upper and lower motor neurons, leading to progressive weakness of voluntary muscles, with death following from neuromuscular respiratory failure, typically within 3 to 5 years. There is a strong genetic contribution to ALS risk. In 10% or more, a family history of ALS or frontotemporal dementia is obtained, and the Mendelian genes responsible for ALS in such families have now been identified in about 50% of cases. Only about 14% of apparently sporadic ALS is explained by known genetic variation, suggesting that other forms of genetic variation are important. Telomeres maintain DNA integrity during cellular replication, differ between sexes, and shorten naturally with age. Sex and age are risk factors for ALS and we therefore investigated telomere length in ALS.

Methods

Samples were from Project MinE, an international ALS whole genome sequencing consortium that includes phenotype data. For validation we used donated brain samples from motor cortex from people with ALS and controls. Ancestry and relatedness were evaluated by principal components analysis and relationship matrices of DNA microarray data. Whole genome sequence data were from Illumina HiSeq platforms and aligned using the Isaac pipeline. TelSeq was used to quantify telomere length using whole genome sequence data. We tested the association of telomere length with ALS and ALS survival using Cox regression.

Results

There were 6,580 whole genome sequences, reducing to 6,195 samples (4,315 from people with ALS and 1,880 controls) after quality control, and 159 brain samples (106 ALS, 53 controls). Accounting for age and sex, there was a 20% (95% CI 14%, 25%) increase of telomere length in people with ALS compared to controls (p = 1.1 × 10-12), validated in the brain samples (p = 0.03). Those with shorter telomeres had a 10% increase in median survival (p = 5.0×10-7). Although there was no difference in telomere length between sporadic ALS and familial ALS (p=0.64), telomere length in 334 people with ALS due to expanded C9orf72 repeats was shorter than in those without expanded C9orf72 repeats (p = 5.0×10-4).

Discussion

Although telomeres shorten with age, longer telomeres are a risk factor for ALS and worsen prognosis. Longer telomeres are associated with ALS.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2022.1050596/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2022.1050596; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799999; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799999?pdf=render 33770123,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249189,Association of genetic liability for psychiatric disorders with accelerometer-assessed physical activity in the UK Biobank.,"Dennison CA, Legge SE, Bracher-Smith M, Menzies G, Escott-Price V, Smith DJ, Doherty AR, Owen MJ, O'Donovan MC, Walters JTR.",,PloS one,2021,2021-03-26,Y,,,,"Levels of activity are often affected in psychiatric disorders and can be core symptoms of illness. Advances in technology now allow the accurate assessment of activity levels but it remains unclear whether alterations in activity arise from shared risk factors for developing psychiatric disorders, such as genetics, or are better explained as consequences of the disorders and their associated factors. We aimed to examine objectively-measured physical activity in individuals with psychiatric disorders, and assess the role of genetic liability for psychiatric disorders on physical activity. Accelerometer data were available on 95,529 UK Biobank participants, including measures of overall mean activity and minutes per day of moderate activity, walking, sedentary activity, and sleep. Linear regressions measured associations between psychiatric diagnosis and activity levels, and polygenic risk scores (PRS) for psychiatric disorders and activity levels. Genetic correlations were calculated between psychiatric disorders and different types of activity. Having a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, or autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was associated with reduced overall activity compared to unaffected controls. In individuals without a psychiatric disorder, reduced overall activity levels were associated with PRS for schizophrenia, depression, and ASD. ADHD PRS was associated with increased overall activity. Genetic correlations were consistent with PRS findings. Variation in physical activity is an important feature across psychiatric disorders. Whilst levels of activity are associated with genetic liability to psychiatric disorders to a very limited extent, the substantial differences in activity levels in those with psychiatric disorders most likely arise as a consequences of disorder-related factors.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249189&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249189; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508577; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508577?pdf=render 34155378,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00887-y,The HIF complex recruits the histone methyltransferase SET1B to activate specific hypoxia-inducible genes.,"Ortmann BM, Burrows N, Lobb IT, Arnaiz E, Wit N, Bailey PSJ, Jordon LH, Lombardi O, Peñalver A, McCaffrey J, Seear R, Mole DR, Ratcliffe PJ, Maxwell PH, Nathan JA.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-06-21,Y,,,,"Hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs) are fundamental to cellular adaptation to low oxygen levels, but it is unclear how they interact with chromatin and activate their target genes. Here, we use genome-wide mutagenesis to identify genes involved in HIF transcriptional activity, and define a requirement for the histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) methyltransferase SET1B. SET1B loss leads to a selective reduction in transcriptional activation of HIF target genes, resulting in impaired cell growth, angiogenesis and tumor establishment in SET1B-deficient xenografts. Mechanistically, we show that SET1B accumulates on chromatin in hypoxia, and is recruited to HIF target genes by the HIF complex. The selective induction of H3K4 trimethylation at HIF target loci is both HIF- and SET1B-dependent and, when impaired, correlates with decreased promoter acetylation and gene expression. Together, these findings show SET1B as a determinant of site-specific histone methylation and provide insight into how HIF target genes are differentially regulated.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7611696; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00887-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611696; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611696?pdf=render -31539079,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970,Association of Untargeted Urinary Metabolomics and Lung Cancer Risk Among Never-Smoking Women in China.,"Seow WJ, Shu XO, Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Walker DI, Hu W, Cai Q, Gao YT, Xiang YB, Moore SC, Bassig BA, Wong JYY, Zhang J, Ji BT, Boulangé CL, Kaluarachchi M, Wijeyesekera A, Zheng W, Elliott P, Rothman N, Lan Q.",,JAMA network open,2019,2019-09-04,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Importance

Chinese women have the highest rate of lung cancer among female never-smokers in the world, and the etiology is poorly understood.

Objective

To assess the association between metabolomics and lung cancer risk among never-smoking women.

Design, setting, and participants

This nested case-control study included 275 never-smoking female patients with lung cancer and 289 never-smoking cancer-free control participants from the prospective Shanghai Women's Health Study recruited from December 28, 1996, to May 23, 2000. Validated food frequency questionnaires were used for the collection of dietary information. Metabolomic analysis was conducted from November 13, 2015, to January 6, 2016. Data analysis was conducted from January 6, 2016, to November 29, 2018.

Exposures

Untargeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomic profiles were characterized using prediagnosis urine samples. A total of 39 416 metabolites were measured.

Main outcomes and measures

Incident lung cancer.

Results

Among the 564 women, those who developed lung cancer (275 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 61.0 [52-65] years) and those who did not develop lung cancer (289 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 62.0 [53-66] years) at follow-up (median [interquartile range] follow-up, 10.9 [9.0-11.7] years) were similar in terms of their secondhand smoke exposure, history of respiratory diseases, and body mass index. A peak metabolite, identified as 5-methyl-2-furoic acid, was significantly associated with lower lung cancer risk (odds ratio, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.46-0.72]; P < .001; false discovery rate = 0.039). Furthermore, this peak was weakly correlated with self-reported dietary soy intake (ρ = 0.21; P < .001). Increasing tertiles of this metabolite were associated with lower lung cancer risk (in comparison with first tertile, odds ratio for second tertile, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.34-0.80]; and odds ratio for third tertile, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.30-0.70]), and the association was consistent across different histological subtypes and follow-up times. Additionally, metabolic pathway analysis found several systemic biological alterations that were associated with lung cancer risk, including 1-carbon metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation.

Conclusions and relevance

This prospective study of the untargeted urinary metabolome and lung cancer among never-smoking women in China provides support for the hypothesis that soy-based metabolites are associated with lower lung cancer risk in never-smoking women and suggests that biological processes linked to air pollution may be associated with higher lung cancer risk in this population.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2751559/seow_2019_oi_190459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6755532 33316211,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3018(20)30305-2,HIV infection and COVID-19 death: a population-based cohort analysis of UK primary care data and linked national death registrations within the OpenSAFELY platform.,"Bhaskaran K, Rentsch CT, MacKenna B, Schultze A, Mehrkar A, Bates CJ, Eggo RM, Morton CE, Bacon SCJ, Inglesby P, Douglas IJ, Walker AJ, McDonald HI, Cockburn J, Williamson EJ, Evans D, Forbes HJ, Curtis HJ, Hulme WJ, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.",,The lancet. HIV,2021,2020-12-11,Y,,,,"

Background

Whether HIV infection is associated with risk of death due to COVID-19 is unclear. We aimed to investigate this association in a large-scale population-based study in England.

Methods

We did a retrospective cohort study. Working on behalf of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform to analyse routinely collected electronic primary care data linked to national death registrations. We included all adults (aged ≥18 years) alive and in follow-up on Feb 1, 2020, and with at least 1 year of continuous registration with a general practitioner before this date. People with a primary care record for HIV infection were compared with people without HIV. The outcome was COVID-19 death, defined as the presence of International Classification of Diseases 10 codes U07.1 or U07.2 anywhere on the death certificate. Cox regression models were used to estimate the association between HIV infection and COVID-19 death; they were initially adjusted for age and sex, then we added adjustment for index of multiple deprivation and ethnicity, and then for a broad range of comorbidities. Interaction terms were added to assess effect modification by age, sex, ethnicity, comorbidities, and calendar time.

Results

17 282 905 adults were included, of whom 27 480 (0·16%) had HIV recorded. People living with HIV were more likely to be male, of Black ethnicity, and from a more deprived geographical area than the general population. 14 882 COVID-19 deaths occurred during the study period, with 25 among people with HIV. People living with HIV had higher risk of COVID-19 death than those without HIV after adjusting for age and sex: hazard ratio (HR) 2·90 (95% CI 1·96-4·30; p<0·0001). The association was attenuated, but risk remained high, after adjustment for deprivation, ethnicity, smoking and obesity: adjusted HR 2·59 (95% CI 1·74-3·84; p<0·0001). There was some evidence that the association was larger among people of Black ethnicity: HR 4·31 (95% CI 2·42-7·65) versus 1·84 (1·03-3·26) in non-Black individuals (p-interaction=0·044).

Interpretation

People with HIV in the UK seem to be at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality. Targeted policies should be considered to address this raised risk as the pandemic response evolves.

Funding

Wellcome, Royal Society, National Institute for Health Research, National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, UK Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3018(20)30305-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3018(20)30305-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7773630; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7773630?pdf=render 34362923,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25066-9,Enhanced NF-κB signaling in type-2 dendritic cells at baseline predicts non-response to adalimumab in psoriasis.,"Andres-Ejarque R, Ale HB, Grys K, Tosi I, Solanky S, Ainali C, Catak Z, Sreeneebus H, Saklatvala J, Dand N, de Rinaldis E, Chapman A, Nestle FO, Barnes MR, Warren RB, Reynolds NJ, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Di Meglio P, PSORT Consortium.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-08-06,Y,,,,"Biologic therapies have transformed the management of psoriasis, but clinical outcome is variable leaving an unmet clinical need for predictive biomarkers of response. Here we perform in-depth immunomonitoring of blood immune cells of 67 patients with psoriasis, before and during therapy with the anti-TNF drug adalimumab, to identify immune mediators of clinical response and evaluate their predictive value. Enhanced NF-κBp65 phosphorylation, induced by TNF and LPS in type-2 dendritic cells (DC) before therapy, significantly correlates with lack of clinical response after 12 weeks of treatment. The heightened NF-κB activation is linked to increased DC maturation in vitro and frequency of IL-17+ T cells in the blood of non-responders before therapy. Moreover, lesional skin of non-responders contains higher numbers of dermal DC expressing the maturation marker CD83 and producing IL-23, and increased numbers of IL-17+ T cells. Finally, we identify and clinically validate LPS-induced NF-κBp65 phosphorylation before therapy as a predictive biomarker of non-response to adalimumab, with 100% sensitivity and 90.1% specificity in an independent cohort. Our study uncovers important molecular and cellular mediators underpinning adalimumab mechanisms of action in psoriasis and we propose a blood biomarker for predicting clinical outcome.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25066-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25066-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8346545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8346545?pdf=render -31477933,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x,A method for genome-wide genealogy estimation for thousands of samples.,"Speidel L, Forest M, Shi S, Myers SR.",,Nature genetics,2019,2019-09-02,N,,,,"Knowledge of genome-wide genealogies for thousands of individuals would simplify most evolutionary analyses for humans and other species, but has remained computationally infeasible. We have developed a method, Relate, scaling to >10,000 sequences while simultaneously estimating branch lengths, mutational ages and variable historical population sizes, as well as allowing for data errors. Application to 1,000 Genomes Project haplotypes produces joint genealogical histories for 26 human populations. Highly diverged lineages are present in all groups, but most frequent in Africa. Outside Africa, these mainly reflect ancient introgression from groups related to Neanderthals and Denisovans, while African signals instead reflect unknown events unique to that continent. Our approach allows more powerful inferences of natural selection than has previously been possible. We identify multiple regions under strong positive selection, and multi-allelic traits including hair color, body mass index and blood pressure, showing strong evidence of directional selection, varying among human groups.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610517; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x 34767815,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2021.08.446,"Differences in Clinical Features and Comorbid Burden between HLA-C∗06:02 Carrier Groups in >9,000 People with Psoriasis.","Douroudis K, Ramessur R, Barbosa IA, Baudry D, Duckworth M, Angit C, Capon F, Chung R, Curtis CJ, Di Meglio P, Goulding JMR, Griffiths CEM, Lee SH, Mahil SK, Parslew R, Reynolds NJ, Shipman AR, Warren RB, Yiu ZZN, Simpson MA, Barker JN, Dand N, Smith CH, BADBIR, BSTOP Study Groups.",,The Journal of investigative dermatology,2022,2021-11-10,N,,,,"The identification of robust endotypes-disease subgroups of clinical relevance-is fundamental to stratified medicine. We hypothesized that HLA-C∗06:02 status, the major genetic determinant of psoriasis, defines a psoriasis endotype of clinical relevance. Using two United Kingdom-based cross-sectional datasets-an observational severe-psoriasis study (Biomarkers of Systemic Treatment Outcomes in Psoriasis; n = 3,767) and a large population-based bioresource (UK Biobank, including n = 5,519 individuals with psoriasis)-we compared demographic, environmental, and clinical variables of interest in HLA-C∗06:02-positive (one or two copies of the HLA-C∗06:02 allele) with those in HLA-C∗06:02‒negative (no copies) individuals of European ancestry. We used multivariable regression analyses to account for mediation effects established a priori. We confirm previous observations that HLA-C∗06:02-positive status is associated with earlier age of psoriasis onset and extend findings to reveal an association with disease expressivity in females (Biomarkers of Systemic Treatment Outcomes in Psoriasis: P = 2.7 × 10-14, UK Biobank: P = 1.0 × 10-8). We also show HLA-C∗06:02-negative status to be associated with characteristic clinical features (large plaque disease, OR for HLA-C∗06:02 = 0.73, P = 7.4 × 10-4; nail involvement, OR = 0.70, P = 2.4 × 10-6); higher central adiposity (Biomarkers of Systemic Treatment Outcomes in Psoriasis: waist circumference difference of 2.0 cm, P = 8.4 × 10-4; UK Biobank: waist circumference difference of 1.4 cm, P = 1.5 × 10-4), especially in women; and a higher prevalence of other cardiometabolic comorbidities. These findings extend the clinical phenotype delineated by HLA-C∗06:02 and highlight its potential as an important biomarker to consider in future multimarker stratified medicine approaches.",,pdf:http://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022202X21024738/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2021.08.446 +31477933,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x,A method for genome-wide genealogy estimation for thousands of samples.,"Speidel L, Forest M, Shi S, Myers SR.",,Nature genetics,2019,2019-09-02,N,,,,"Knowledge of genome-wide genealogies for thousands of individuals would simplify most evolutionary analyses for humans and other species, but has remained computationally infeasible. We have developed a method, Relate, scaling to >10,000 sequences while simultaneously estimating branch lengths, mutational ages and variable historical population sizes, as well as allowing for data errors. Application to 1,000 Genomes Project haplotypes produces joint genealogical histories for 26 human populations. Highly diverged lineages are present in all groups, but most frequent in Africa. Outside Africa, these mainly reflect ancient introgression from groups related to Neanderthals and Denisovans, while African signals instead reflect unknown events unique to that continent. Our approach allows more powerful inferences of natural selection than has previously been possible. We identify multiple regions under strong positive selection, and multi-allelic traits including hair color, body mass index and blood pressure, showing strong evidence of directional selection, varying among human groups.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610517; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x 32936291,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.3275,Association of Clinical and Demographic Factors With the Severity of Palmoplantar Pustulosis.,"Benzian-Olsson N, Dand N, Chaloner C, Bata-Csorgo Z, Borroni R, Burden AD, Cooper HL, Cornelius V, Cro S, Dasandi T, Griffiths CEM, Kingo K, Koks S, Lachmann H, McAteer H, Meynell F, Mrowietz U, Parslew R, Patel P, Pink AE, Reynolds NJ, Tanew A, Torz K, Trattner H, Wahie S, Warren RB, Wright A, Barker JN, Navarini AA, Smith CH, Capon F, ERASPEN consortium and the APRICOT and PLUM study team.",,JAMA dermatology,2020,2020-11-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Although palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP) can significantly impact quality of life, the factors underlying disease severity have not been studied.

Objective

To examine the factors associated with PPP severity.

Design, setting, and participants

An observational, cross-sectional study of 2 cohorts was conducted. A UK data set including 203 patients was obtained through the Anakinra in Pustular Psoriasis, Response in a Controlled Trial (2016-2019) and its sister research study Pustular Psoriasis, Elucidating Underlying Mechanisms (2016-2020). A Northern European cohort including 193 patients was independently ascertained by the European Rare and Severe Psoriasis Expert Network (2014-2017). Patients had been recruited in secondary or tertiary dermatology referral centers. All patients were of European descent. The PPP diagnosis was established by dermatologists, based on clinical examination and/or published consensus criteria. The present study was conducted from October 1, 2014, to March 15, 2020.

Main outcomes and measures

Demographic characteristics, comorbidities, smoking status, Palmoplantar Pustulosis Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PPPASI), measuring severity from 0 (no sign of disease) to 72 (very severe disease), or Physician Global Assessment (PGA), measuring severity as 0 (clear), 1 (almost clear), 2 (mild), 3 (moderate), and 4 (severe).

Results

Among the 203 UK patients (43 men [21%], 160 women [79%]; median age at onset, 48 [interquartile range (IQR), 38-59] years), the PPPASI was inversely correlated with age of onset (r = -0.18, P = .01). Similarly, in the 159 Northern European patients who were eligible for inclusion in this analysis (25 men [16%], 134 women [84%]; median age at onset, 45 [IQR, 34-53.3] years), the median age at onset was lower in individuals with a moderate to severe PGA score (41 years [IQR, 30.5-52 years]) compared with those with a clear to mild PGA score (46.5 years [IQR, 35-55 years]) (P = .04). In the UK sample, the median PPPASI score was higher in women (9.6 [IQR, 3.0-16.2]) vs men (4.0 [IQR, 1.0-11.7]) (P = .01). Likewise, moderate to severe PPP was more prevalent among Northern European women (57 of 134 [43%]) compared with men (5 of 25 [20%]) (P = .03). In the UK cohort, the median PPPASI score was increased in current smokers (10.7 [IQR, 4.2-17.5]) compared with former smokers (7 [IQR, 2.0-14.4]) and nonsmokers (2.2 [IQR, 1-6]) (P = .003). Comparable differences were observed in the Northern European data set, as the prevalence of moderate to severe PPP was higher in former and current smokers (51 of 130 [39%]) compared with nonsmokers (6 of 24 [25%]) (P = .14).

Conclusions and relevance

The findings of this study suggest that PPP severity is associated with early-onset disease, female sex, and smoking status. Thus, smoking cessation intervention might be beneficial.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/articlepdf/2770779/jamadermatology_benzianolsson_2020_oi_200054_1604610894.93046.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.3275; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7495329 33243818,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043540,"National administrative record linkage between specialist community drug and alcohol treatment data (the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS)) and inpatient hospitalisation data (Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)) in England: design, method and evaluation.","Roberts E, Doidge JC, Harron KL, Hotopf M, Knight J, White M, Eastwood B, Drummond C.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-11-26,Y,epidemiology; Public Health; Substance Misuse,,,"

Objectives

The creation and evaluation of a national record linkage between substance misuse treatment, and inpatient hospitalisation data in England.

Design

A deterministic record linkage using personal identifiers to link the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) curated by Public Health England (PHE), and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care curated by National Health Service (NHS) Digital.

Setting and participants

Adults accessing substance misuse treatment in England between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019 (n=268 251) were linked to inpatient hospitalisation records available since 1 April 1997.

Outcome measures

Using a gold-standard subset, linked using NHS number, we report the overall linkage sensitivity and precision. Predictors for linkage error were identified, and inverse probability weighting was used to interrogate any potential impact on the analysis of length of hospital stay.

Results

79.7% (n=213 814) people were linked to at least one HES record, with an estimated overall sensitivity of between 82.5% and 83.3%, and a precision of between 90.3% and 96.4%. Individuals were more likely to link if they were women, white and aged between 46 and 60. Linked individuals were more likely to have an average length of hospital stay ≥5 days if they were men, older, had no fixed residential address or had problematic opioid use. These associations did not change substantially after probability weighting, suggesting they were not affected by bias from linkage error.

Conclusions

Linkage between substance misuse treatment and hospitalisation records offers a powerful new tool to evaluate the impact of treatment on substance related harm in England. While linkage error can produce misleading results, linkage bias appears to have little effect on the association between substance misuse treatment and length of hospital admission. As subsequent analyses are conducted, potential biases associated with the linkage process should be considered in the interpretation of any findings.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e043540.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043540; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7692978; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7692978?pdf=render 31951611,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000586,Dating genomic variants and shared ancestry in population-scale sequencing data.,"Albers PK, McVean G.",,PLoS biology,2020,2020-01-17,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"The origin and fate of new mutations within species is the fundamental process underlying evolution. However, while much attention has been focused on characterizing the presence, frequency, and phenotypic impact of genetic variation, the evolutionary histories of most variants are largely unexplored. We have developed a nonparametric approach for estimating the date of origin of genetic variants in large-scale sequencing data sets. The accuracy and robustness of the approach is demonstrated through simulation. Using data from two publicly available human genomic diversity resources, we estimated the age of more than 45 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human genome and release the Atlas of Variant Age as a public online database. We characterize the relationship between variant age and frequency in different geographical regions and demonstrate the value of age information in interpreting variants of functional and selective importance. Finally, we use allele age estimates to power a rapid approach for inferring the ancestry shared between individual genomes and to quantify genealogical relationships at different points in the past, as well as to describe and explore the evolutionary history of modern human populations.", ,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000586&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000586; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6992231; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6992231?pdf=render 31317072,https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10191,"Our data, our society, our health: A vision for inclusive and transparent health data science in the United Kingdom and beyond.","Ford E, Boyd A, Bowles JKF, Havard A, Aldridge RW, Curcin V, Greiver M, Harron K, Katikireddi V, Rodgers SE, Sperrin M.",,Learning health systems,2019,2019-03-25,Y,Transparency; Health Systems; Stakeholder Involvement; Data Flows; Health Data Science; Citizen‐driven Science,,,"The last 6 years have seen sustained investment in health data science in the United Kingdom and beyond, which should result in a data science community that is inclusive of all stakeholders, working together to use data to benefit society through the improvement of public health and well-being. However, opportunities made possible through the innovative use of data are still not being fully realised, resulting in research inefficiencies and avoidable health harms. In this paper, we identify the most important barriers to achieving higher productivity in health data science. We then draw on previous research, domain expertise, and theory to outline how to go about overcoming these barriers, applying our core values of inclusivity and transparency. We believe a step change can be achieved through meaningful stakeholder involvement at every stage of research planning, design, and execution and team-based data science, as well as harnessing novel and secure data technologies. Applying these values to health data science will safeguard a social licence for health data research and ensure transparent and secure data usage for public benefit.",,pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lrh2.10191; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10191; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6628981; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6628981?pdf=render 32601055,https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x710873,Prescription of suboptimal statin treatment regimens: a retrospective cohort study of trends and variation in English primary care.,"Curtis HJ, Walker AJ, MacKenna B, Croker R, Goldacre B.",,The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners,2020,2020-07-30,Y,Lipids; Cardiovascular diseases; Retrospective studies; Primary Health Care; statins,,,"

Background

Since 2014 English national guidance recommends 'high-intensity' statins, reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by ≥40%.

Aim

To describe trends and variation in low-/medium-intensity statin prescribing and assess the feasibility of rapid prescribing behaviour change.

Design and setting

A retrospective cohort study using OpenPrescribing data from all 8142 standard NHS general practices in England from August 2010 to March 2019.

Method

Statins were categorised as high- or low-/medium-intensity using two different thresholds, and the proportion prescribed below these thresholds was calculated. The authors plotted trends and geographical variation, carried out mixed-effects logistic regression to identify practice characteristics associated with breaching of guidance, and used indicator saturation to identify sudden prescribing changes.

Results

The proportion of statins prescribed below the recommended 40% LDL-lowering threshold has decreased gradually from 80% in 2011/2012 to 45% in 2019; the proportion below a pragmatic 37% threshold decreased from 30% to 18% in 2019. Guidance from 2014 had minimal impact on trends. Wide variation was found between practices (interdecile ranges 20% to 85% and 10% to 30% respectively in 2018). Regression identified no strong associations with breaching of guidance. Indicator saturation identified several practices exhibiting sudden changes towards greater guideline compliance.

Conclusion

Breaches of guidance on choice of statin remain common, with substantial variation between practices. Some have implemented rapid change, indicating the feasibility of rapid prescribing behaviour change. This article discusses the potential for a national strategic approach, using data and evidence to optimise care, including targeted education alongside audit and feedback to outliers through services such as OpenPrescribing.",,pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/70/697/e525.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X710873; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7357867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7357867?pdf=render 33623019,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21505-9,Flavivirus maturation leads to the formation of an occupied lipid pocket in the surface glycoproteins.,"Renner M, Dejnirattisai W, Carrique L, Martin IS, Karia D, Ilca SL, Ho SF, Kotecha A, Keown JR, Mongkolsapaya J, Screaton GR, Grimes JM.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-02-23,Y,,,,"Flaviviruses such as Dengue (DENV) or Zika virus (ZIKV) assemble into an immature form within the endoplasmatic reticulum (ER), and are then processed by furin protease in the trans-Golgi. To better grasp maturation, we carry out cryo-EM reconstructions of immature Spondweni virus (SPOV), a human flavivirus of the same serogroup as ZIKV. By employing asymmetric localised reconstruction we push the resolution to 3.8 Å, enabling us to refine an atomic model which includes the crucial furin protease recognition site and a conserved Histidine pH-sensor. For direct comparison, we also solve structures of the mature forms of SPONV and DENV to 2.6 Å and 3.1 Å, respectively. We identify an ordered lipid that is present in only the mature forms of ZIKV, SPOV, and DENV and can bind as a consequence of rearranging amphipathic stem-helices of E during maturation. We propose a structural role for the pocket and suggest it stabilizes mature E.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21505-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21505-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7902656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7902656?pdf=render -34600575,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0,"Application of ensemble clustering and survival tree analysis for identifying prognostic clinicogenomic features in patients with colorectal cancer from the 100,000 Genomes Project.","Wei Y, Papachristou N, Mueller S, Genomics England Research Consortium, Chang WH, Lai AG.",,BMC research notes,2021,2021-10-02,Y,,,,"

Objective

The objective of this study was to employ ensemble clustering and tree-based risk model approaches to identify interactions between clinicogenomic features for colorectal cancer using the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Results

Among the 2211 patients with colorectal cancer (mean age of diagnosis: 67.7; 59.7% male), 16.3%, 36.3%, 39.0% and 8.4% had stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 cancers, respectively. Almost every patient had surgery (99.7%), 47.4% had chemotherapy, 7.6% had radiotherapy and 1.4% had immunotherapy. On average, tumour mutational burden (TMB) was 18 mutations/Mb and 34.4%, 31.3% and 25.7% of patients had structural or copy number mutations in KRAS, BRAF and NRAS, respectively. In the fully adjusted Cox model, patients with advanced cancer [stage 3 hazard ratio (HR)  =  3.2; p  <  0.001; stage 4 HR  =  10.2; p  <  0.001] and those who had immunotherapy (HR  =  1.8; p  <  0.04) or radiotherapy (HR  =  1.5; p  <  0.02) treatment had a higher risk of dying. The ensemble clustering approach generated four distinct clusters where patients in cluster 2 had the best survival outcomes (1-year: 98.7%; 2-year: 96.7%; 3-year: 93.0%) while patients in cluster 3 (1-year: 87.9; 2-year: 70.0%; 3-year: 53.1%) had the worst outcomes. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log rank test revealed that the clusters were separated into distinct prognostic groups (p  <  0.0001). Survival tree or recursive partitioning analyses were performed to further explore risk groups within each cluster. Among patients in cluster 2, for example, interactions between cancer stage, grade, radiotherapy, TMB, BRAF mutation status were identified. Patients with stage 4 cancer and TMB  ≥  1.6 mutations/Mb had 4 times higher risk of dying relative to the baseline hazard in that cluster.",,pdf:https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486?pdf=render 34543281,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003786,The blood metabolome of incident kidney cancer: A case-control study nested within the MetKid consortium.,"Guida F, Tan VY, Corbin LJ, Smith-Byrne K, Alcala K, Langenberg C, Stewart ID, Butterworth AS, Surendran P, Achaintre D, Adamski J, Amiano P, Bergmann MM, Bull CJ, Dahm CC, Gicquiau A, Giles GG, Gunter MJ, Haller T, Langhammer A, Larose TL, Ljungberg B, Metspalu A, Milne RL, Muller DC, Nøst TH, Pettersen Sørgjerd E, Prehn C, Riboli E, Rinaldi S, Rothwell JA, Scalbert A, Schmidt JA, Severi G, Sieri S, Vermeulen R, Vincent EE, Waldenberger M, Timpson NJ, Johansson M.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-09-20,Y,,,,"

Background

Excess bodyweight and related metabolic perturbations have been implicated in kidney cancer aetiology, but the specific molecular mechanisms underlying these relationships are poorly understood. In this study, we sought to identify circulating metabolites that predispose kidney cancer and to evaluate the extent to which they are influenced by body mass index (BMI).

Methods and findings

We assessed the association between circulating levels of 1,416 metabolites and incident kidney cancer using pre-diagnostic blood samples from up to 1,305 kidney cancer case-control pairs from 5 prospective cohort studies. Cases were diagnosed on average 8 years after blood collection. We found 25 metabolites robustly associated with kidney cancer risk. In particular, 14 glycerophospholipids (GPLs) were inversely associated with risk, including 8 phosphatidylcholines (PCs) and 2 plasmalogens. The PC with the strongest association was PC ae C34:3 with an odds ratio (OR) for 1 standard deviation (SD) increment of 0.75 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68 to 0.83, p = 2.6 × 10-8). In contrast, 4 amino acids, including glutamate (OR for 1 SD = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.20 to 1.60, p = 1.6 × 10-5), were positively associated with risk. Adjusting for BMI partly attenuated the risk association for some-but not all-metabolites, whereas other known risk factors of kidney cancer, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, had minimal impact on the observed associations. A mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis of the influence of BMI on the blood metabolome highlighted that some metabolites associated with kidney cancer risk are influenced by BMI. Specifically, elevated BMI appeared to decrease levels of several GPLs that were also found inversely associated with kidney cancer risk (e.g., -0.17 SD change [ßBMI] in 1-(1-enyl-palmitoyl)-2-linoleoyl-GPC (P-16:0/18:2) levels per SD change in BMI, p = 3.4 × 10-5). BMI was also associated with increased levels of glutamate (ßBMI: 0.12, p = 1.5 × 10-3). While our results were robust across the participating studies, they were limited to study participants of European descent, and it will, therefore, be important to evaluate if our findings can be generalised to populations with different genetic backgrounds.

Conclusions

This study suggests a potentially important role of the blood metabolome in kidney cancer aetiology by highlighting a wide range of metabolites associated with the risk of developing kidney cancer and the extent to which changes in levels of these metabolites are driven by BMI-the principal modifiable risk factor of kidney cancer.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003786&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003786; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8496779; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8496779?pdf=render -34876579,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0,Biological heterogeneity in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension identified through unsupervised transcriptomic profiling of whole blood.,"Kariotis S, Jammeh E, Swietlik EM, Pickworth JA, Rhodes CJ, Otero P, Wharton J, Iremonger J, Dunning MJ, Pandya D, Mascarenhas TS, Errington N, Thompson AAR, Romanoski CE, Rischard F, Garcia JGN, Yuan JX, An TS, Desai AA, Coghlan G, Lordan J, Corris PA, Howard LS, Condliffe R, Kiely DG, Church C, Pepke-Zaba J, Toshner M, Wort S, Gräf S, Morrell NW, Wilkins MR, Lawrie A, Wang D, UK National PAH Cohort Study Consortium.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-12-07,Y,,,,"Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) is a rare but fatal disease diagnosed by right heart catheterisation and the exclusion of other forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension, producing a heterogeneous population with varied treatment response. Here we show unsupervised machine learning identification of three major patient subgroups that account for 92% of the cohort, each with unique whole blood transcriptomic and clinical feature signatures. These subgroups are associated with poor, moderate, and good prognosis. The poor prognosis subgroup is associated with upregulation of the ALAS2 and downregulation of several immunoglobulin genes, while the good prognosis subgroup is defined by upregulation of the bone morphogenetic protein signalling regulator NOG, and the C/C variant of HLA-DPA1/DPB1 (independently associated with survival). These findings independently validated provide evidence for the existence of 3 major subgroups (endophenotypes) within the IPAH classification, could improve risk stratification and provide molecular insights into the pathogenesis of IPAH.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27326-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638?pdf=render +34600575,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0,"Application of ensemble clustering and survival tree analysis for identifying prognostic clinicogenomic features in patients with colorectal cancer from the 100,000 Genomes Project.","Wei Y, Papachristou N, Mueller S, Genomics England Research Consortium, Chang WH, Lai AG.",,BMC research notes,2021,2021-10-02,Y,,,,"

Objective

The objective of this study was to employ ensemble clustering and tree-based risk model approaches to identify interactions between clinicogenomic features for colorectal cancer using the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Results

Among the 2211 patients with colorectal cancer (mean age of diagnosis: 67.7; 59.7% male), 16.3%, 36.3%, 39.0% and 8.4% had stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 cancers, respectively. Almost every patient had surgery (99.7%), 47.4% had chemotherapy, 7.6% had radiotherapy and 1.4% had immunotherapy. On average, tumour mutational burden (TMB) was 18 mutations/Mb and 34.4%, 31.3% and 25.7% of patients had structural or copy number mutations in KRAS, BRAF and NRAS, respectively. In the fully adjusted Cox model, patients with advanced cancer [stage 3 hazard ratio (HR)  =  3.2; p  <  0.001; stage 4 HR  =  10.2; p  <  0.001] and those who had immunotherapy (HR  =  1.8; p  <  0.04) or radiotherapy (HR  =  1.5; p  <  0.02) treatment had a higher risk of dying. The ensemble clustering approach generated four distinct clusters where patients in cluster 2 had the best survival outcomes (1-year: 98.7%; 2-year: 96.7%; 3-year: 93.0%) while patients in cluster 3 (1-year: 87.9; 2-year: 70.0%; 3-year: 53.1%) had the worst outcomes. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log rank test revealed that the clusters were separated into distinct prognostic groups (p  <  0.0001). Survival tree or recursive partitioning analyses were performed to further explore risk groups within each cluster. Among patients in cluster 2, for example, interactions between cancer stage, grade, radiotherapy, TMB, BRAF mutation status were identified. Patients with stage 4 cancer and TMB  ≥  1.6 mutations/Mb had 4 times higher risk of dying relative to the baseline hazard in that cluster.",,pdf:https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486?pdf=render 32680598,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2020.07.002,"Health and return to work in the first two years following road traffic injury: a comparison of outcomes between compensation claimants in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia.","Giummarra MJ, Murgatroyd D, Tran Y, Adie S, Mittal R, Ponsford J, Cameron P, Gabbe B, Harris IA, Cameron ID.",,Injury,2020,2020-07-03,N,Trauma; Injury; Recovery; Traffic; Insurance; Accidents; Outcomes; Return To Work; Compensation And Redress,,,"

Background

People who sustain road traffic injuries often have poor health outcomes. While outcomes are often worse in people with a compensation claim, especially in fault-based schemes versus no-fault schemes, few studies have directly compared outcomes across scheme types.

Objective

To compare health and work outcomes between people who had no compensation claim, a fault-based claim, or ""no-fault"" transport or workers compensation claim after hospitalisation for a road traffic injury.

Methods

Participants aged >=18 years admitted to hospital in New South Wales or Victoria for >24 hours were recruited in two separate prospective cohort studies (N=1,034). People who died or sustained minor or very severe injuries were excluded. Groups included Compulsory Third Party (fault-based, n=128), no-fault Transport Accident Commission (TAC; n=454) and workers compensation claimants (n=73), or no claim (n=226). Outcomes at six, 12- and 24-months post-injury included health [SF-12 Mental Component Score (MCS) and Physical Component Score (PCS)], and return to work for people working pre-injury. Multivariable mixed effects linear and logistic regressions, adjusting for demographic and injury covariates, examined differences in health and work outcomes between claimant groups, with fixed effects of time and random effects of participant ID.

Results

Health status was better in people with a no-fault TAC claim (MCS: m=50.62, 95%CI:49.62,51.62; PCS: m=40.49, 95%CI:39.46,41.52) or no claim (MCS: m=49.99, 95%CI:49.62,51.62; PCS: m=44.36, 95%CI:43.00,45.72), than people with a workers compensation (MCS: m=45.73, 95%CI:43.46,48.00; PCS: m=38.94, 95%CI:36.59,41.30) or fault-based CTP claim (MCS: m=41.34, 95%CI:39.54,43.13; PCS: m=35.64, 95%CI:33.78,37.49). Relative to fault-based CTP claimants, the odds of returning to work were higher for people with no claim (AOR=6.84, 95%CI:1.73,27.05) but did not differ for no-fault TAC (AOR=1.21, 95%CI:0.36,4.05) or workers compensation claimants (AOR=0.83,95%CI: 0.17,3.99). While people with a fault-based CTP claim had poorer mental and physical health and return to work after injury, they showed greater improvements in mental health, and similar levels of improvement in physical health and work participation over time to the other groups.

Conclusion

The patterns of health and work across scheme types provide important insights against which we can contrast the effects of future scheme designs on client outcomes.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2020.07.002 +34876579,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0,Biological heterogeneity in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension identified through unsupervised transcriptomic profiling of whole blood.,"Kariotis S, Jammeh E, Swietlik EM, Pickworth JA, Rhodes CJ, Otero P, Wharton J, Iremonger J, Dunning MJ, Pandya D, Mascarenhas TS, Errington N, Thompson AAR, Romanoski CE, Rischard F, Garcia JGN, Yuan JX, An TS, Desai AA, Coghlan G, Lordan J, Corris PA, Howard LS, Condliffe R, Kiely DG, Church C, Pepke-Zaba J, Toshner M, Wort S, Gräf S, Morrell NW, Wilkins MR, Lawrie A, Wang D, UK National PAH Cohort Study Consortium.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-12-07,Y,,,,"Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) is a rare but fatal disease diagnosed by right heart catheterisation and the exclusion of other forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension, producing a heterogeneous population with varied treatment response. Here we show unsupervised machine learning identification of three major patient subgroups that account for 92% of the cohort, each with unique whole blood transcriptomic and clinical feature signatures. These subgroups are associated with poor, moderate, and good prognosis. The poor prognosis subgroup is associated with upregulation of the ALAS2 and downregulation of several immunoglobulin genes, while the good prognosis subgroup is defined by upregulation of the bone morphogenetic protein signalling regulator NOG, and the C/C variant of HLA-DPA1/DPB1 (independently associated with survival). These findings independently validated provide evidence for the existence of 3 major subgroups (endophenotypes) within the IPAH classification, could improve risk stratification and provide molecular insights into the pathogenesis of IPAH.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27326-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638?pdf=render 33197716,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2020.101871,Accurate brain age prediction with lightweight deep neural networks.,"Peng H, Gong W, Beckmann CF, Vedaldi A, Smith SM.",,Medical image analysis,2021,2020-10-19,Y,Neuroimaging; Predictive Analysis; Brain Age Prediction; Convolutional Neuralnetworks,,,"Deep learning has huge potential for accurate disease prediction with neuroimaging data, but the prediction performance is often limited by training-dataset size and computing memory requirements. To address this, we propose a deep convolutional neural network model, Simple Fully Convolutional Network (SFCN), for accurate prediction of brain age using T1-weighted structural MRI data. Compared with other popular deep network architectures, SFCN has fewer parameters, so is more compatible with small dataset size and 3D volume data. The network architecture was combined with several techniques for boosting performance, including data augmentation, pre-training, model regularization, model ensemble and prediction bias correction. We compared our overall SFCN approach with several widely-used machine learning models. It achieved state-of-the-art performance in UK Biobank data (N = 14,503), with mean absolute error (MAE) = 2.14y in brain age prediction and 99.5% in sex classification. SFCN also won (both parts of) the 2019 Predictive Analysis Challenge for brain age prediction, involving 79 competing teams (N = 2,638, MAE = 2.90y). We describe here the details of our approach, and its optimisation and validation. Our approach can easily be generalised to other tasks using different image modalities, and is released on GitHub.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2020.101871; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610710; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610710?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2020.101871 34748544,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001255,Predicting novel candidate human obesity genes and their site of action by systematic functional screening in Drosophila.,"Agrawal N, Lawler K, Davidson CM, Keogh JM, Legg R, INTERVAL, Barroso I, Farooqi IS, Brand AH.",,PLoS biology,2021,2021-11-08,Y,,,,"The discovery of human obesity-associated genes can reveal new mechanisms to target for weight loss therapy. Genetic studies of obese individuals and the analysis of rare genetic variants can identify novel obesity-associated genes. However, establishing a functional relationship between these candidate genes and adiposity remains a significant challenge. We uncovered a large number of rare homozygous gene variants by exome sequencing of severely obese children, including those from consanguineous families. By assessing the function of these genes in vivo in Drosophila, we identified 4 genes, not previously linked to human obesity, that regulate adiposity (itpr, dachsous, calpA, and sdk). Dachsous is a transmembrane protein upstream of the Hippo signalling pathway. We found that 3 further members of the Hippo pathway, fat, four-jointed, and hippo, also regulate adiposity and that they act in neurons, rather than in adipose tissue (fat body). Screening Hippo pathway genes in larger human cohorts revealed rare variants in TAOK2 associated with human obesity. Knockdown of Drosophila tao increased adiposity in vivo demonstrating the strength of our approach in predicting novel human obesity genes and signalling pathways and their site of action.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001255&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001255; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8575313; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8575313?pdf=render 34988540,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2021.100201,Comparison of depression and anxiety symptom networks in reporters and non-reporters of lifetime trauma in two samples of differing severity.,"Peel AJ, Armour C, Buckman JEJ, Coleman JRI, Curzons SCB, Davies MR, Hübel C, Jones I, Kalsi G, McAtarsney-Kovacs M, McIntosh AM, Monssen D, Mundy J, Rayner C, Rogers HC, Skelton M, Ter Kuile A, Thompson KN, Breen G, Danese A, Eley TC.",,Journal of affective disorders reports,2021,2021-12-01,Y,Trauma; Depression; Anxiety; Self-report; Network Analysis,,,"

Background

Reported trauma is associated with differences in the course and outcomes of depression and anxiety. However, no research has explored the association between reported trauma and patterns of clinically relevant symptoms of both depression and anxiety.

Methods

We used network analysis to investigate associations between reported trauma and depression and anxiety symptom interactions in affected individuals from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study (n = 17720), and population volunteers from the UK Biobank (n = 11120). Participants with current moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety were grouped into reporters and non-reporters of lifetime trauma. Networks of 16 depression and anxiety symptoms in the two groups were compared using the network comparison test.

Results

In the GLAD Study, networks of reporters and non-reporters of lifetime trauma did not differ on any metric. In the UK Biobank, the symptom network of reporters had significantly greater density (7.80) than the network of non-reporters (7.05).

Limitations

The data collected in the GLAD Study and the UK Biobank are self-reported with validated or semi-validated questionnaires.

Conclusions

Reported lifetime trauma was associated with stronger interactions between symptoms of depression and anxiety in population volunteers. Differences between reporters and non-reporters may not be observed in individuals with severe depression and/or anxiety due to limited variance in the presentation of disorder.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2021.100201; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2021.100201; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8689407 31801372,https://doi.org/10.1161/atvbaha.119.313226,"Carotid Intima-Media Thickness: Novel Loci, Sex-Specific Effects, and Genetic Correlations With Obesity and Glucometabolic Traits in UK Biobank.","Strawbridge RJ, Ward J, Bailey MES, Cullen B, Ferguson A, Graham N, Johnston KJA, Lyall LM, Pearsall R, Pell J, Shaw RJ, Tank R, Lyall DM, Smith DJ.",,"Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology",2020,2019-12-05,Y,"Atherosclerosis; Obesity; Intima-media thickness; coronary artery disease; carotid artery; Genetics, Association Studies; Diabetes, Type 2",Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Objective

Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of most cardiovascular disease, but mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis are incompletely understood. Ultrasound measurement of the carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) can be used to measure vascular remodeling, which is indicative of atherosclerosis. Genome-wide association studies have identified many genetic loci associated with cIMT, but heterogeneity of measurements collected by many small cohorts have been a major limitation in these efforts. Here, we conducted genome-wide association analyses in UKB (UK Biobank; N=22 179), the largest single study with consistent cIMT measurements. Approach and Results: We used BOLT-LMM software to run linear regression of cIMT in UKB, adjusted for age, sex, and genotyping chip. In white British participants, we identified 5 novel loci associated with cIMT and replicated most previously reported loci. In the first sex-specific analyses of cIMT, we identified a locus on chromosome 5, associated with cIMT in women only and highlight VCAN as a good candidate gene at this locus. Genetic correlations with body mass index and glucometabolic traits were also observed. Two loci influenced risk of ischemic heart disease.

Conclusions

These findings replicate previously reported associations, highlight novel biology, and provide new directions for investigating the sex differences observed in cardiovascular disease presentation and progression.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.313226; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.313226; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6975521; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6975521?pdf=render -35577541,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616,Changes in adolescents' planned hospital care during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of linked administrative data.,"Mc Grath-Lone L, Etoori D, Gilbert R, Harron KL, Woodman J, Blackburn R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2022,2022-05-16,Y,Social Work; Child Health Services; Adolescent Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To describe changes in planned hospital care during the pandemic for vulnerable adolescents receiving children's social care (CSC) services or special educational needs (SEN) support, relative to their peers.

Design

Observational cohort in the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data database (linked de-identified administrative health, education and social care records of all children in England).

Study population

All secondary school pupils in years 7-11 in academic year 2019/2020 (N=3 030 235).

Main exposure

Receiving SEN support or CSC services.

Main outcomes

Changes in outpatient attendances and planned hospital admissions during the first 9 months of the pandemic (23 March-31 December 2020), estimated by comparing predicted with observed numbers and rates per 1000 child-years.

Results

A fifth of pupils (20.5%) received some form of statutory support: 14.2% received SEN support only, 3.6% received CSC services only and 2.7% received both. Decreases in planned hospital care were greater for these vulnerable adolescents than their peers: -290 vs -225 per 1000 child-years for outpatient attendances and -36 vs -16 per 1000 child-years for planned admissions. Overall, 21% of adolescents who were vulnerable disproportionately bore 25% of the decrease in outpatient attendances and 37% of the decrease in planned hospital admissions. Vulnerable adolescents were less likely than their peers to have face-to-face outpatient care.

Conclusion

These findings indicate that socially vulnerable groups of children have high health needs, which may need to be prioritised to ensure equitable provision, including for catch-up of planned care postpandemic.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e29.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329?pdf=render 34820659,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100028,The Data Use Ontology to streamline responsible access to human biomedical datasets.,"Lawson J, Cabili MN, Kerry G, Boughtwood T, Thorogood A, Alper P, Bowers SR, Boyles RR, Brookes AJ, Brush M, Burdett T, Clissold H, Donnelly S, Dyke SOM, Freeberg MA, Haendel MA, Hata C, Holub P, Jeanson F, Jene A, Kawashima M, Kawashima S, Konopko M, Kyomugisha I, Li H, Linden M, Rodriguez LL, Morita M, Mulder N, Muller J, Nagaie S, Nasir J, Ogishima S, Ota Wang V, Paglione LD, Pandya RN, Parkinson H, Philippakis AA, Prasser F, Rambla J, Reinold K, Rushton GA, Saltzman A, Saunders G, Sofia HJ, Spalding JD, Swertz MA, Tulchinsky I, van Enckevort EJ, Varma S, Voisin C, Yamamoto N, Yamasaki C, Zass L, Guidry Auvil JM, Nyrönen TH, Courtot M.",,Cell genomics,2021,2021-11-10,Y,Standard; Consent; Ontology; Data Access; Fair; Secondary Data Use; Ga4gh; Controlled Access; Automated Data Access; Data Restrictions,,,"Human biomedical datasets that are critical for research and clinical studies to benefit human health also often contain sensitive or potentially identifying information of individual participants. Thus, care must be taken when they are processed and made available to comply with ethical and regulatory frameworks and informed consent data conditions. To enable and streamline data access for these biomedical datasets, the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) Data Use and Researcher Identities (DURI) work stream developed and approved the Data Use Ontology (DUO) standard. DUO is a hierarchical vocabulary of human and machine-readable data use terms that consistently and unambiguously represents a dataset's allowable data uses. DUO has been implemented by major international stakeholders such as the Broad and Sanger Institutes and is currently used in annotation of over 200,000 datasets worldwide. Using DUO in data management and access facilitates researchers' discovery and access of relevant datasets. DUO annotations increase the FAIRness of datasets and support data linkages using common data use profiles when integrating the data for secondary analyses. DUO is implemented in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and, to increase community awareness and engagement, hosted in an open, centralized GitHub repository. DUO, together with the GA4GH Passport standard, offers a new, efficient, and streamlined data authorization and access framework that has enabled increased sharing of biomedical datasets worldwide.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8591903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8591903?pdf=render -31851298,https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301,A prospective cohort analysis of gut microbial co-metabolism in Alaska Native and rural African people at high and low risk of colorectal cancer.,"Ocvirk S, Wilson AS, Posma JM, Li JV, Koller KR, Day GM, Flanagan CA, Otto JE, Sacco PE, Sacco FD, Sapp FR, Wilson AS, Newton K, Brouard F, DeLany JP, Behnning M, Appolonia CN, Soni D, Bhatti F, Methé B, Fitch A, Morris A, Gaskins HR, Kinross J, Nicholson JK, Thomas TK, O'Keefe SJD.",,The American journal of clinical nutrition,2020,2020-02-01,N,Butyrate; Deoxycholic acid; dietary fiber; Bile acids; Colorectal Cancer; Gut Microbiota; Short-chain Fatty Acids; Alaska Native People; Rural African People,,,"

Background

Alaska Native (AN) people have the world's highest recorded incidence of sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) (∼91:100,000), whereas rural African (RA) people have the lowest risk (<5:100,000). Previous data supported the hypothesis that diet affected CRC risk through its effects on the colonic microbiota that produce tumor-suppressive or -promoting metabolites.

Objectives

We investigated whether differences in these metabolites may contribute to the high risk of CRC in AN people.

Methods

A cross-sectional observational study assessed dietary intake from 32 AN and 21 RA healthy middle-aged volunteers before screening colonoscopy. Analysis of fecal microbiota composition by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and fecal/urinary metabolites by 1H-NMR spectroscopy was complemented with targeted quantification of fecal SCFAs, bile acids, and functional microbial genes.

Results

Adenomatous polyps were detected in 16 of 32 AN participants, but not found in RA participants. The AN diet contained higher proportions of fat and animal protein and less fiber. AN fecal microbiota showed a compositional predominance of Blautia and Lachnoclostridium, higher microbial capacity for bile acid conversion, and low abundance of some species involved in saccharolytic fermentation (e.g., Prevotellaceae, Ruminococcaceae), but no significant lack of butyrogenic bacteria. Significantly lower concentrations of tumor-suppressive butyrate (22.5 ± 3.1 compared with 47.2 ± 7.3 SEM µmol/g) coincided with significantly higher concentrations of tumor-promoting deoxycholic acid (26.7 ± 4.2 compared with 11 ± 1.9 µmol/g) in AN fecal samples. AN participants had lower quantities of fecal/urinary metabolites than RA participants and metabolite profiles correlated with the abundance of distinct microbial genera in feces. The main microbial and metabolic CRC-associated markers were not significantly altered in AN participants with adenomatous polyps.

Conclusions

The low-fiber, high-fat diet of AN people and exposure to carcinogens derived from diet or environment are associated with a tumor-promoting colonic milieu as reflected by the high rates of adenomatous polyps in AN participants.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-pdf/111/2/406/32447385/nqz301.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997097; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997097?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301 +35577541,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616,Changes in adolescents' planned hospital care during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of linked administrative data.,"Mc Grath-Lone L, Etoori D, Gilbert R, Harron KL, Woodman J, Blackburn R.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2022,2022-05-16,Y,Social Work; Child Health Services; Adolescent Health; Covid-19,,,"

Objective

To describe changes in planned hospital care during the pandemic for vulnerable adolescents receiving children's social care (CSC) services or special educational needs (SEN) support, relative to their peers.

Design

Observational cohort in the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data database (linked de-identified administrative health, education and social care records of all children in England).

Study population

All secondary school pupils in years 7-11 in academic year 2019/2020 (N=3 030 235).

Main exposure

Receiving SEN support or CSC services.

Main outcomes

Changes in outpatient attendances and planned hospital admissions during the first 9 months of the pandemic (23 March-31 December 2020), estimated by comparing predicted with observed numbers and rates per 1000 child-years.

Results

A fifth of pupils (20.5%) received some form of statutory support: 14.2% received SEN support only, 3.6% received CSC services only and 2.7% received both. Decreases in planned hospital care were greater for these vulnerable adolescents than their peers: -290 vs -225 per 1000 child-years for outpatient attendances and -36 vs -16 per 1000 child-years for planned admissions. Overall, 21% of adolescents who were vulnerable disproportionately bore 25% of the decrease in outpatient attendances and 37% of the decrease in planned hospital admissions. Vulnerable adolescents were less likely than their peers to have face-to-face outpatient care.

Conclusion

These findings indicate that socially vulnerable groups of children have high health needs, which may need to be prioritised to ensure equitable provision, including for catch-up of planned care postpandemic.",,pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e29.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329?pdf=render 32907855,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3339,Risk stratification of patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 using the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol: development and validation of the 4C Mortality Score.,"Knight SR, Ho A, Pius R, Buchan I, Carson G, Drake TM, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Gamble C, Green CA, Gupta R, Halpin S, Hardwick HE, Holden KA, Horby PW, Jackson C, Mclean KA, Merson L, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Norman L, Noursadeghi M, Olliaro PL, Pritchard MG, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Sheikh A, Solomon T, Sudlow C, Swann OV, Turtle LC, Openshaw PJ, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-09-09,Y,,,,"

Objective

To develop and validate a pragmatic risk score to predict mortality in patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19).

Design

Prospective observational cohort study.

Setting

International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study (performed by the ISARIC Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium-ISARIC-4C) in 260 hospitals across England, Scotland, and Wales. Model training was performed on a cohort of patients recruited between 6 February and 20 May 2020, with validation conducted on a second cohort of patients recruited after model development between 21 May and 29 June 2020. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (age ≥18 years) admitted to hospital with covid-19 at least four weeks before final data extraction.

Main outcome measure

In-hospital mortality.

Results

35 463 patients were included in the derivation dataset (mortality rate 32.2%) and 22 361 in the validation dataset (mortality rate 30.1%). The final 4C Mortality Score included eight variables readily available at initial hospital assessment: age, sex, number of comorbidities, respiratory rate, peripheral oxygen saturation, level of consciousness, urea level, and C reactive protein (score range 0-21 points). The 4C Score showed high discrimination for mortality (derivation cohort: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.79, 95% confidence interval 0.78 to 0.79; validation cohort: 0.77, 0.76 to 0.77) with excellent calibration (validation: calibration-in-the-large=0, slope=1.0). Patients with a score of at least 15 (n=4158, 19%) had a 62% mortality (positive predictive value 62%) compared with 1% mortality for those with a score of 3 or less (n=1650, 7%; negative predictive value 99%). Discriminatory performance was higher than 15 pre-existing risk stratification scores (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve range 0.61-0.76), with scores developed in other covid-19 cohorts often performing poorly (range 0.63-0.73).

Conclusions

An easy-to-use risk stratification score has been developed and validated based on commonly available parameters at hospital presentation. The 4C Mortality Score outperformed existing scores, showed utility to directly inform clinical decision making, and can be used to stratify patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 into different management groups. The score should be further validated to determine its applicability in other populations.

Study registration

ISRCTN66726260.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m3339.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3339; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116472?pdf=render +31851298,https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301,A prospective cohort analysis of gut microbial co-metabolism in Alaska Native and rural African people at high and low risk of colorectal cancer.,"Ocvirk S, Wilson AS, Posma JM, Li JV, Koller KR, Day GM, Flanagan CA, Otto JE, Sacco PE, Sacco FD, Sapp FR, Wilson AS, Newton K, Brouard F, DeLany JP, Behnning M, Appolonia CN, Soni D, Bhatti F, Methé B, Fitch A, Morris A, Gaskins HR, Kinross J, Nicholson JK, Thomas TK, O'Keefe SJD.",,The American journal of clinical nutrition,2020,2020-02-01,N,Butyrate; Deoxycholic acid; dietary fiber; Bile acids; Colorectal Cancer; Gut Microbiota; Short-chain Fatty Acids; Alaska Native People; Rural African People,,,"

Background

Alaska Native (AN) people have the world's highest recorded incidence of sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) (∼91:100,000), whereas rural African (RA) people have the lowest risk (<5:100,000). Previous data supported the hypothesis that diet affected CRC risk through its effects on the colonic microbiota that produce tumor-suppressive or -promoting metabolites.

Objectives

We investigated whether differences in these metabolites may contribute to the high risk of CRC in AN people.

Methods

A cross-sectional observational study assessed dietary intake from 32 AN and 21 RA healthy middle-aged volunteers before screening colonoscopy. Analysis of fecal microbiota composition by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and fecal/urinary metabolites by 1H-NMR spectroscopy was complemented with targeted quantification of fecal SCFAs, bile acids, and functional microbial genes.

Results

Adenomatous polyps were detected in 16 of 32 AN participants, but not found in RA participants. The AN diet contained higher proportions of fat and animal protein and less fiber. AN fecal microbiota showed a compositional predominance of Blautia and Lachnoclostridium, higher microbial capacity for bile acid conversion, and low abundance of some species involved in saccharolytic fermentation (e.g., Prevotellaceae, Ruminococcaceae), but no significant lack of butyrogenic bacteria. Significantly lower concentrations of tumor-suppressive butyrate (22.5 ± 3.1 compared with 47.2 ± 7.3 SEM µmol/g) coincided with significantly higher concentrations of tumor-promoting deoxycholic acid (26.7 ± 4.2 compared with 11 ± 1.9 µmol/g) in AN fecal samples. AN participants had lower quantities of fecal/urinary metabolites than RA participants and metabolite profiles correlated with the abundance of distinct microbial genera in feces. The main microbial and metabolic CRC-associated markers were not significantly altered in AN participants with adenomatous polyps.

Conclusions

The low-fiber, high-fat diet of AN people and exposure to carcinogens derived from diet or environment are associated with a tumor-promoting colonic milieu as reflected by the high rates of adenomatous polyps in AN participants.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-pdf/111/2/406/32447385/nqz301.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997097; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997097?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301 31980021,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1077-6,General practitioners' views on use of patient reported outcome measures in primary care: a cross-sectional survey and qualitative study.,"Turner GM, Litchfield I, Finnikin S, Aiyegbusi OL, Calvert M.",,BMC family practice,2020,2020-01-24,Y,Survey; Qualitative; General Practitioners; Primary Care; Patient Reported Outcome Measures (Proms),,,"BACKGROUND:Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly used to assess impact of disease and treatment on quality of life and symptoms; however, their use in primary care is fragmented. We aimed to understand how PROMs are currently being used in primary care, the barriers and facilitators of this use and if appropriate how it might be optimised. METHODS:Cross-sectional survey and semi-structured interviews among general practitioners (GPs) in England. GPs' opinions were explored using an electronic, self-completed questionnaire disseminated to 100 GPs via an online doctors' community and semi-structured qualitative interviews with 25 GPs. RESULTS:Most GPs surveyed (77/100; 77%) reported using one or more PROM, primarily to aid clinical management (n = 66) or as screening/diagnostic tools (n = 62). Qualitative interviews highlighted challenges in identifying and selecting PROMs; however, some GPs valued PROMs for shared decision making and to direct patient discussions. The interviews identified key barriers to PROM use including: time constraints; insufficient knowledge; lack of integration into clinical systems; and PROMs being mandated without consultation or explanation. Evidence of the benefit of PROMs is required to promote uptake and use of PROMs in primary care. CONCLUSION:Implementation of PROMs in primary care requires integration with clinical systems, a bottom-up approach to PROM selection and system design involving meaningful consultation with patients and primary care clinicians and training/support for use.",,pdf:https://bmcfampract.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12875-019-1077-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1077-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6979354; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6979354?pdf=render 33221853,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa188,Metabolic profiles of socio-economic position: a multi-cohort analysis.,"Robinson O, Carter AR, Ala-Korpela M, Casas JP, Chaturvedi N, Engmann J, Howe LD, Hughes AD, Järvelin MR, Kähönen M, Karhunen V, Kuh D, Shah T, Ben-Shlomo Y, Sofat R, Lau CE, Lehtimäki T, Menon U, Raitakari O, Ryan A, Providencia R, Smith S, Taylor J, Tillin T, Viikari J, Wong A, Hingorani AD, Kivimäki M, Vineis P.",,International journal of epidemiology,2021,2021-07-01,Y,Lipoproteins; Metabolomics; Education; Occupation; Life Course; Socio-economic Status; Metabonomic,,,"

Background

Low socio-economic position (SEP) is a risk factor for multiple health outcomes, but its molecular imprints in the body remain unclear.

Methods

We examined SEP as a determinant of serum nuclear magnetic resonance metabolic profiles in ∼30 000 adults and 4000 children across 10 UK and Finnish cohort studies.

Results

In risk-factor-adjusted analysis of 233 metabolic measures, low educational attainment was associated with 37 measures including higher levels of triglycerides in small high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and lower levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), omega-3 fatty acids, apolipoprotein A1, large and very large HDL particles (including levels of their respective lipid constituents) and cholesterol measures across different density lipoproteins. Among adults whose father worked in manual occupations, associations with apolipoprotein A1, large and very large HDL particles and HDL-2 cholesterol remained after adjustment for SEP in later life. Among manual workers, levels of glutamine were higher compared with non-manual workers. All three indicators of low SEP were associated with lower DHA, omega-3 fatty acids and HDL diameter. At all ages, children of manual workers had lower levels of DHA as a proportion of total fatty acids.

Conclusions

Our work indicates that social and economic factors have a measurable impact on human physiology. Lower SEP was independently associated with a generally unfavourable metabolic profile, consistent across ages and cohorts. The metabolites we found to be associated with SEP, including DHA, are known to predict cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline in later life and may contribute to health inequalities.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/3/768/38892080/dyaa188.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa188; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271201; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271201?pdf=render 33785494,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046365,Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on remote mental healthcare and prescribing in psychiatry: an electronic health record study.,"Patel R, Irving J, Brinn A, Broadbent M, Shetty H, Pritchard M, Downs J, Stewart R, Harland R, McGuire P.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-03-30,Y,Psychiatry; Mental health; epidemiology; Telemedicine; Health Informatics,,,"

Objectives

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted mental healthcare delivery, with many services shifting from in-person to remote patient contact. We investigated the impact of the pandemic on the use of remote consultation and on the prescribing of psychiatric medications.

Design and setting

The Clinical Record Interactive Search tool was used to examine deidentified electronic health records of people receiving mental healthcare from the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. Data from the period before and after the onset of the pandemic were analysed using linear regression, and visualised using locally estimated scatterplot smoothing.

Participants

All patients receiving care from SLaM between 7 January 2019 and 20 September 2020 (around 37 500 patients per week).

Outcome measures

(i) The number of clinical contacts (in-person, remote or non-attended) with mental healthcare professionals per week.(ii) Prescribing of antipsychotic and mood stabiliser medications per week.

Results

Following the onset of the pandemic, the frequency of in-person contacts was significantly reduced compared with that in the previous year (β coefficient: -5829.6 contacts, 95% CI -6919.5 to -4739.6, p<0.001), while the frequency of remote contacts significantly increased (β coefficient: 3338.5 contacts, 95% CI 3074.4 to 3602.7, p<0.001). Rates of remote consultation were lower in older adults than in working age adults, children and adolescents. Despite this change in the type of patient contact, antipsychotic and mood stabiliser prescribing remained at similar levels.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a marked increase in remote consultation, particularly among younger patients. However, there was no evidence that this has led to changes in psychiatric prescribing. Nevertheless, further work is needed to ensure that older patients are able to access mental healthcare remotely.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/3/e046365.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046365; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8728386; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8728386?pdf=render @@ -2121,27 +2121,27 @@ PMC7614905,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Individ 34316022,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01505-8,Assessing the role of cortisol in cancer: a wide-ranged Mendelian randomisation study.,"Larsson SC, Lee WH, Kar S, Burgess S, Allara E.",,British journal of cancer,2021,2021-07-27,N,,,,"

Background

Cortisol's immunosuppressive, obesogenic, and hyperglycaemic effects suggest that it may play a role in cancer development. However, whether cortisol increases cancer risk is not known. We investigated the potential causal association between plasma cortisol and risk of overall and common site-specific cancers using Mendelian randomisation.

Methods

Three genetic variants associated with morning plasma cortisol levels at the genome-wide significance level (P < 5 × 10-8) in the Cortisol Network consortium were used as genetic instruments. Summary-level genome-wide association study data for the cancer outcomes were obtained from large-scale cancer consortia, the UK Biobank, and the FinnGen consortium. Two-sample Mendelian randomisation analyses were performed using the fixed-effects inverse-variance weighted method. Estimates across data sources were combined using meta-analysis.

Results

A standard deviation increase in genetically predicted plasma cortisol was associated with increased risk of endometrial cancer (odds ratio 1.50, 95% confidence interval 1.13-1.99; P = 0.005). There was no significant association between genetically predicted plasma cortisol and risk of other common site-specific cancers, including breast, ovarian, prostate, colorectal, lung, or malignant skin cancer, or overall cancer.

Conclusions

These results indicate that elevated plasma cortisol levels may increase the risk of endometrial cancer but not other cancers. The mechanism by which this occurs remains to be investigated.",,pdf:http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1617122/FULLTEXT01; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01505-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8476513; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8476513?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01505-8 36463938,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.11.027,"Summary of the Joint National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration Workshop Titled ""Exploring the Science Surrounding the Safe Use of Bioactive Ingredients in Infant Formula: Considerations for an Assessment Framework"".","Donovan SM, Abrams SA, Azad MB, Belfort MB, Bode L, Carlson SE, Dallas DC, Hettinga K, Järvinen K, Kim JH, Lebrilla CB, McGuire MK, Sela DA, Neu J.",,The Journal of pediatrics,2023,2022-12-02,N,Safety; Composition; Ingredients; formula; Human Milk; Bioactives,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10121942; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.11.027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121942?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.11.027 31678026,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(19)30410-4,Quantifying risks and interventions that have affected the burden of lower respiratory infections among children younger than 5 years: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.,GBD 2017 Lower Respiratory Infections Collaborators.,,The Lancet. Infectious diseases,2020,2019-10-31,Y,,,,"

Background

Despite large reductions in under-5 lower respiratory infection (LRI) mortality in many locations, the pace of progress for LRIs has generally lagged behind that of other childhood infectious diseases. To better inform programmes and policies focused on preventing and treating LRIs, we assessed the contributions and patterns of risk factor attribution, intervention coverage, and sociodemographic development in 195 countries and territories by drawing from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) LRI estimates.

Methods

We used four strategies to model LRI burden: the mortality due to LRIs was modelled using vital registration data, demographic surveillance data, and verbal autopsy data in a predictive ensemble modelling tool; the incidence of LRIs was modelled using population representative surveys, health-care utilisation data, and scientific literature in a compartmental meta-regression tool; the attribution of risk factors for LRI mortality was modelled in a counterfactual framework; and trends in LRI mortality were analysed applying changes in exposure to risk factors over time. In GBD, infectious disease mortality, including that due to LRI, is among HIV-negative individuals. We categorised locations based on their burden in 1990 to make comparisons in the changing burden between 1990 and 2017 and evaluate the relative percent change in mortality rate, incidence, and risk factor exposure to explain differences in the health loss associated with LRIs among children younger than 5 years.

Findings

In 2017, LRIs caused 808 920 deaths (95% uncertainty interval 747 286-873 591) in children younger than 5 years. Since 1990, there has been a substantial decrease in the number of deaths (from 2 337 538 to 808 920 deaths; 65·4% decrease, 61·5-68·5) and in mortality rate (from 362·7 deaths [330·1-392·0] per 100 000 children to 118·9 deaths [109·8-128·3] per 100 000 children; 67·2% decrease, 63·5-70·1). LRI incidence declined globally (32·4% decrease, 27·2-37·5). The percent change in under-5 mortality rate and incidence has varied across locations. Among the risk factors assessed in this study, those responsible for the greatest decrease in under-5 LRI mortality between 1990 and 2017 were increased coverage of vaccination against Haemophilus influenza type b (11·4% decrease, 0·0-24·5), increased pneumococcal vaccine coverage (6·3% decrease, 6·1-6·3), and reductions in household air pollution (8·4%, 6·8-9·2).

Interpretation

Our findings show that there have been substantial but uneven declines in LRI mortality among countries between 1990 and 2017. Although improvements in indicators of sociodemographic development could explain some of these trends, changes in exposure to modifiable risk factors are related to the rates of decline in LRI mortality. No single intervention would universally accelerate reductions in health loss associated with LRIs in all settings, but emphasising the most dominant risk factors, particularly in countries with high case fatality, can contribute to the reduction of preventable deaths.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(19)30410-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30410-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7185492 -31115347,https://doi.org/10.2196/12412,Health Data Processes: A Framework for Analyzing and Discussing Efficient Use and Reuse of Health Data With a Focus on Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.,"Hjollund NHI, Valderas JM, Kyte D, Calvert MJ.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2019,2019-05-21,Y,Data collection; Medical Informatics; Patient-physician Relationship; Patient-reported Outcome,,,"The collection and use of patient health data are central to any kind of activity in the health care system. These data may be produced during routine clinical processes or obtained directly from the patient using patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. Although efficiency and other reasons justify data availability for a range of potentially relevant uses, these data are nearly always collected for a single specific purpose. The health care literature reflects this narrow scope, and there is limited literature on the joint use of health data for daily clinical use, clinical research, surveillance, and administrative purposes. The aim of this paper is to provide a framework for discussing the efficient use of health data with a specific focus on the role of PRO measures. PRO data may be used at an individual patient level to inform patient care or shared decision making and to tailor care to individual needs or group-level needs as a complement to health record data, such as that on mortality and readmission, in order to inform service delivery and measure the real-world effectiveness of treatment. PRO measures may be used either for their own sake, to provide valuable information from the patient perspective, or as a proxy for clinical data that would otherwise not be feasible to collect. We introduce a framework to analyze any health care activity that involves health data. The framework consists of four data processes (patient identification, data collection, data aggregation and data use), further structured into two dichotomous dimensions in each data process (level: group vs patient; timeframe: ad hoc vs systematic). This framework is used to analyze various health activities with respect to joint use of data, considering the technical, legal, organizational, and logistical challenges that characterize each data process. Finally, we propose a model for joint use of health data with data collected during follow-up as a base. Demands for health data will continue to increase, which will further add to the need for the concerted use and reuse of PRO data for parallel purposes. Repeated and uncoordinated PRO data collection for the same patient for different purposes results in misuse of resources for the patient and the health care system as well as reduced response rates owing to questionnaire fatigue. PRO data can be routinely collected both at the hospital (from inpatients as well as outpatients) and outside of hospital settings; in primary or social care settings; or in the patient's home, provided the health informatics infrastructure is in place. In the future, clinical settings are likely to be a prominent source of PRO data; however, we are also likely to see increased remote collection of PRO data by patients in their own home (telePRO). Data collection for research and quality surveillance will have to adapt to this circumstance and adopt complementary data capture methods that take advantage of the utility of PRO data collected during daily clinical practice. The European Union's regulation with respect to the protection of personal data-General Data Protection Regulation-imposes severe restrictions on the use of health data for parallel purposes, and steps should be taken to alleviate the consequences while still protecting personal data against misuse.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2019/5/e12412/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/12412; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6547770 30842207,https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314763,Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 inhibitors in reducing cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Du H, Li X, Su N, Li L, Hao X, Gao H, Kwong JS, Vandvik PO, Yang X, Nemeth I, Mordi IR, Li Q, Zhang L, Rao L, Lang CC, Li J, Tian H, Li S.",,Heart (British Cardiac Society),2019,2019-03-06,N,Cardiovascular disease; Systematic review; Lipid-lowering Drugs; Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol; Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/kexin Type 9 Inhibitors,,,"

Background

To evaluate the effects of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).

Methods

Our systematic review included randomised controlled trials if they studied PCSK9 inhibitors in patients for primary and/or secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases or with hypercholesterolaemia/hyperlipidaemia. Dichotomous variables from individual studies were pooled by relative risks (RR) and their 95% CIs using the random-effect model. Risk difference (RD) in the 10-year frame was also estimated using the pooled RR and the estimated baseline risk using the control group. Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation was used to assess the quality of evidence.

Results

We included 54 trials with 97 910 patients in the analysis. Compared with controls, PCSK9 inhibitors significantly reduced the risk of MACE by 16% (RR, 0.84; 95% CI 0.79 to 0.89; RD: 47 fewer per 1000 vs 286 as the baseline risk; 95% CI 32 to 59 fewer), non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) by 17% (RR, 0.83; 95% CI 0.74 to 0.93; RD, 35 fewer per 1000 vs 207 as the baseline; 95% CI 13 to 53 fewer) and any stroke by 25% (RR, 0.75; 95% CI 0.65 to 0.85; RD, 16 fewer per 1000 vs 61 as the baseline; 95% CI 9 to 21 fewer) with moderate quality evidence. No significant differences were found between PCSK9 inhibitors and control groups in all-cause mortality, cardiovascular death, heart failure or unstable angina with low-quality evidence.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that PCSK9 inhibitors could significantly reduce the risk of MACE, non-fatal MI and stroke.

Trial registration

PROSPERO; CRD42017073904.",,pdf:https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/files/30348534/Author_Accepted_Manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314763 -34307493,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574,Automated Quality-Controlled Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Pericardial Fat Quantification Using a Convolutional Neural Network in the UK Biobank.,"Bard A, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Ardissino M, Lee AM, Pugliese F, Dey D, Sarkar S, Munroe PB, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-07-07,Y,Obesity; Neural network; Machine Learning; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Pericardial Fat; Automated Image Analysis; Epicardial Fat,,,"Background: Pericardial adipose tissue (PAT) may represent a novel risk marker for cardiovascular disease. However, absence of rapid radiation-free PAT quantification methods has precluded its examination in large cohorts. Objectives: We developed a fully automated quality-controlled tool for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) PAT quantification in the UK Biobank (UKB). Methods: Image analysis comprised contouring an en-bloc PAT area on four-chamber cine images. We created a ground truth manual analysis dataset randomly split into training and test sets. We built a neural network for automated segmentation using a Multi-residual U-net architecture with incorporation of permanently active dropout layers to facilitate quality control of the model's output using Monte Carlo sampling. We developed an in-built quality control feature, which presents predicted Dice scores. We evaluated model performance against the test set (n = 87), the whole UKB Imaging cohort (n = 45,519), and an external dataset (n = 103). In an independent dataset, we compared automated CMR and cardiac computed tomography (CCT) PAT quantification. Finally, we tested association of CMR PAT with diabetes in the UKB (n = 42,928). Results: Agreement between automated and manual segmentations in the test set was almost identical to inter-observer variability (mean Dice score = 0.8). The quality control method predicted individual Dice scores with Pearson r = 0.75. Model performance remained high in the whole UKB Imaging cohort and in the external dataset, with medium-good quality segmentation in 94.3% (mean Dice score = 0.77) and 94.4% (mean Dice score = 0.78), respectively. There was high correlation between CMR and CCT PAT measures (Pearson r = 0.72, p-value 5.3 ×10-18). Larger CMR PAT area was associated with significantly greater odds of diabetes independent of age, sex, and body mass index. Conclusions: We present a novel fully automated method for CMR PAT quantification with good model performance on independent and external datasets, high correlation with reference standard CCT PAT measurement, and expected clinical associations with diabetes.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033?pdf=render 35048991,https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djac011,Associations Between Glycemic Traits and Colorectal Cancer: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis.,"Murphy N, Song M, Papadimitriou N, Carreras-Torres R, Langenberg C, Martin RM, Tsilidis KK, Barroso I, Chen J, Frayling TM, Bull CJ, Vincent EE, Cotterchio M, Gruber SB, Pai RK, Newcomb PA, Perez-Cornago A, van Duijnhoven FJB, Van Guelpen B, Vodicka P, Wolk A, Wu AH, Peters U, Chan AT, Gunter MJ.",,Journal of the National Cancer Institute,2022,2022-05-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Glycemic traits-such as hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, and type 2 diabetes-have been associated with higher colorectal cancer risk in observational studies; however, causality of these associations is uncertain. We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to estimate the causal effects of fasting insulin, 2-hour glucose, fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and type 2 diabetes with colorectal cancer.

Methods

Genome-wide association study summary data were used to identify genetic variants associated with circulating levels of fasting insulin (n = 34), 2-hour glucose (n = 13), fasting glucose (n = 70), HbA1c (n = 221), and type 2 diabetes (n = 268). Using 2-sample MR, we examined these variants in relation to colorectal cancer risk (48 214 case patient and 64 159 control patients).

Results

In inverse-variance models, higher fasting insulin levels increased colorectal cancer risk (odds ratio [OR] per 1-SD = 1.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15 to 2.36). We found no evidence of any effect of 2-hour glucose (OR per 1-SD = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.86 to 1.21) or fasting glucose (OR per 1-SD = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.88 to 1.23) concentrations on colorectal cancer risk. Genetic liability to type 2 diabetes (OR per 1-unit increase in log odds = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.01 to 1.07) and higher HbA1c levels (OR per 1-SD = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.00 to 1.19) increased colorectal cancer risk, although these findings may have been biased by pleiotropy. Higher HbA1c concentrations increased rectal cancer risk in men (OR per 1-SD = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.05 to 1.40), but not in women.

Conclusions

Our results support a causal effect of higher fasting insulin, but not glucose traits or type 2 diabetes, on increased colorectal cancer risk. This suggests that pharmacological or lifestyle interventions that lower circulating insulin levels may be beneficial in preventing colorectal tumorigenesis.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djac011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djac011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9086764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9086764?pdf=render -33849854,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206,Protocol for a scoping review exploring the use of patient-reported outcomes in adult social care.,"Hughes SE, Aiyegbusi OL, Lasserson DS, Collis P, Cruz Rivera S, McMullan C, Turner GM, Glasby J, Calvert M.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-04-13,Y,Protocols & Guidelines; Quality In Health Care; Organisation Of Health Services,,,"

Introduction

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are measures of a person's own views of their health, functioning and quality of life. They are typically assessed using validated, self-completed questionnaires known as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). PROMs are used in healthcare settings to support care planning, clinical decision-making, patient-practitioner communication and quality improvement. PROMs have a potential role in the delivery of social care where people often have multiple and complex long-term health conditions. However, the use of PROMs in this context is currently unclear. The objective of this scoping review is to explore the evidence relating to the use of PROMs in adult social care.

Methods and analyses

The electronic databases Medline (Ovid), PsychInfo (Ovid), ASSIA (ProQuest), Social Care Online (SCIE), Web of Science and EMBASE (Ovid) were searched on 29 September 2020 to identify eligible studies and other publically available documents published since 2010. A grey literature search and hand searching of citations and reference lists of the included studies will also be undertaken. No restrictions on study design or language of publication will be applied. Screening and data extraction will be completed independently by two reviewers. Quality appraisal of the included documents will use the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance) checklists. A customised data charting table will be used for data extraction, with analysis of qualitative data using the framework method. The review findings will be presented as tables and in a narrative summary.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical review is not required as scoping reviews are a form of secondary data analysis that synthesise data from publically available sources. Review findings will be shared with service users and other relevant stakeholders and disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations. This protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (www.osf.io).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/4/e045206.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391?pdf=render +31115347,https://doi.org/10.2196/12412,Health Data Processes: A Framework for Analyzing and Discussing Efficient Use and Reuse of Health Data With a Focus on Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.,"Hjollund NHI, Valderas JM, Kyte D, Calvert MJ.",,Journal of medical Internet research,2019,2019-05-21,Y,Data collection; Medical Informatics; Patient-physician Relationship; Patient-reported Outcome,,,"The collection and use of patient health data are central to any kind of activity in the health care system. These data may be produced during routine clinical processes or obtained directly from the patient using patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. Although efficiency and other reasons justify data availability for a range of potentially relevant uses, these data are nearly always collected for a single specific purpose. The health care literature reflects this narrow scope, and there is limited literature on the joint use of health data for daily clinical use, clinical research, surveillance, and administrative purposes. The aim of this paper is to provide a framework for discussing the efficient use of health data with a specific focus on the role of PRO measures. PRO data may be used at an individual patient level to inform patient care or shared decision making and to tailor care to individual needs or group-level needs as a complement to health record data, such as that on mortality and readmission, in order to inform service delivery and measure the real-world effectiveness of treatment. PRO measures may be used either for their own sake, to provide valuable information from the patient perspective, or as a proxy for clinical data that would otherwise not be feasible to collect. We introduce a framework to analyze any health care activity that involves health data. The framework consists of four data processes (patient identification, data collection, data aggregation and data use), further structured into two dichotomous dimensions in each data process (level: group vs patient; timeframe: ad hoc vs systematic). This framework is used to analyze various health activities with respect to joint use of data, considering the technical, legal, organizational, and logistical challenges that characterize each data process. Finally, we propose a model for joint use of health data with data collected during follow-up as a base. Demands for health data will continue to increase, which will further add to the need for the concerted use and reuse of PRO data for parallel purposes. Repeated and uncoordinated PRO data collection for the same patient for different purposes results in misuse of resources for the patient and the health care system as well as reduced response rates owing to questionnaire fatigue. PRO data can be routinely collected both at the hospital (from inpatients as well as outpatients) and outside of hospital settings; in primary or social care settings; or in the patient's home, provided the health informatics infrastructure is in place. In the future, clinical settings are likely to be a prominent source of PRO data; however, we are also likely to see increased remote collection of PRO data by patients in their own home (telePRO). Data collection for research and quality surveillance will have to adapt to this circumstance and adopt complementary data capture methods that take advantage of the utility of PRO data collected during daily clinical practice. The European Union's regulation with respect to the protection of personal data-General Data Protection Regulation-imposes severe restrictions on the use of health data for parallel purposes, and steps should be taken to alleviate the consequences while still protecting personal data against misuse.",,pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2019/5/e12412/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/12412; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6547770 +34307493,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574,Automated Quality-Controlled Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Pericardial Fat Quantification Using a Convolutional Neural Network in the UK Biobank.,"Bard A, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Ardissino M, Lee AM, Pugliese F, Dey D, Sarkar S, Munroe PB, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Petersen SE.",,Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine,2021,2021-07-07,Y,Obesity; Neural network; Machine Learning; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Pericardial Fat; Automated Image Analysis; Epicardial Fat,,,"Background: Pericardial adipose tissue (PAT) may represent a novel risk marker for cardiovascular disease. However, absence of rapid radiation-free PAT quantification methods has precluded its examination in large cohorts. Objectives: We developed a fully automated quality-controlled tool for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) PAT quantification in the UK Biobank (UKB). Methods: Image analysis comprised contouring an en-bloc PAT area on four-chamber cine images. We created a ground truth manual analysis dataset randomly split into training and test sets. We built a neural network for automated segmentation using a Multi-residual U-net architecture with incorporation of permanently active dropout layers to facilitate quality control of the model's output using Monte Carlo sampling. We developed an in-built quality control feature, which presents predicted Dice scores. We evaluated model performance against the test set (n = 87), the whole UKB Imaging cohort (n = 45,519), and an external dataset (n = 103). In an independent dataset, we compared automated CMR and cardiac computed tomography (CCT) PAT quantification. Finally, we tested association of CMR PAT with diabetes in the UKB (n = 42,928). Results: Agreement between automated and manual segmentations in the test set was almost identical to inter-observer variability (mean Dice score = 0.8). The quality control method predicted individual Dice scores with Pearson r = 0.75. Model performance remained high in the whole UKB Imaging cohort and in the external dataset, with medium-good quality segmentation in 94.3% (mean Dice score = 0.77) and 94.4% (mean Dice score = 0.78), respectively. There was high correlation between CMR and CCT PAT measures (Pearson r = 0.72, p-value 5.3 ×10-18). Larger CMR PAT area was associated with significantly greater odds of diabetes independent of age, sex, and body mass index. Conclusions: We present a novel fully automated method for CMR PAT quantification with good model performance on independent and external datasets, high correlation with reference standard CCT PAT measurement, and expected clinical associations with diabetes.",,pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033?pdf=render 31730918,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.11.006,Data mining information from electronic health records produced high yield and accuracy for current smoking status.,"Groenhof TKJ, Koers LR, Blasse E, de Groot M, Grobbee DE, Bots ML, Asselbergs FW, Lely AT, Haitjema S, UPOD, UCC-CVRM Study Groups.",,Journal of clinical epidemiology,2020,2019-11-12,N,data mining; Data Quality; Electronic Health Records; Text Mining; Learning Healthcare System; Routine Clinical Data,The Human Phenome,,"

Objectives

Researchers are increasingly using routine clinical data for care evaluations and feedback to patients and clinicians. The quality of these evaluations depends on the quality and completeness of the input data.

Study design and setting

We assessed the performance of an electronic health record (EHR)-based data mining algorithm, using the example of the smoking status in a cardiovascular population. As a reference standard, we used the questionnaire from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort (UCC). To assess diagnostic accuracy, we calculated sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV).

Results

We analyzed 1,661 patients included in the UCC to January 18, 2019. Of those, 14% (n = 238) had missing information on smoking status in the UCC questionnaire. Data mining provided information on smoking status in 99% of the 1,661 participants. Diagnostic accuracy for current smoking was sensitivity 88%, specificity 92%, NPV 98%, and PPV 63%. From false positives, 85% reported they had quit smoking at the time of the UCC.

Conclusion

Data mining showed great potential in retrieving information on smoking (a near complete yield). Its diagnostic performance is good for negative smoking statuses. The implications of misclassification with data mining are dependent on the application of the data.",Utilises data mining and routine data to identify a patients smoking status. Does not account for long term smoking behaviour and is limited by the smaller size the dataset.,pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435619304846/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.11.006 +33849854,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206,Protocol for a scoping review exploring the use of patient-reported outcomes in adult social care.,"Hughes SE, Aiyegbusi OL, Lasserson DS, Collis P, Cruz Rivera S, McMullan C, Turner GM, Glasby J, Calvert M.",,BMJ open,2021,2021-04-13,Y,Protocols & Guidelines; Quality In Health Care; Organisation Of Health Services,,,"

Introduction

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are measures of a person's own views of their health, functioning and quality of life. They are typically assessed using validated, self-completed questionnaires known as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). PROMs are used in healthcare settings to support care planning, clinical decision-making, patient-practitioner communication and quality improvement. PROMs have a potential role in the delivery of social care where people often have multiple and complex long-term health conditions. However, the use of PROMs in this context is currently unclear. The objective of this scoping review is to explore the evidence relating to the use of PROMs in adult social care.

Methods and analyses

The electronic databases Medline (Ovid), PsychInfo (Ovid), ASSIA (ProQuest), Social Care Online (SCIE), Web of Science and EMBASE (Ovid) were searched on 29 September 2020 to identify eligible studies and other publically available documents published since 2010. A grey literature search and hand searching of citations and reference lists of the included studies will also be undertaken. No restrictions on study design or language of publication will be applied. Screening and data extraction will be completed independently by two reviewers. Quality appraisal of the included documents will use the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance) checklists. A customised data charting table will be used for data extraction, with analysis of qualitative data using the framework method. The review findings will be presented as tables and in a narrative summary.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical review is not required as scoping reviews are a form of secondary data analysis that synthesise data from publically available sources. Review findings will be shared with service users and other relevant stakeholders and disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations. This protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (www.osf.io).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/4/e045206.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391?pdf=render 33004550,https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2019-320185,Thiopurine monotherapy is effective in ulcerative colitis but significantly less so in Crohn's disease: long-term outcomes for 11 928 patients in the UK inflammatory bowel disease bioresource.,"Stournaras E, Qian W, Pappas A, Hong YY, Shawky R, UK IBD BioResource Investigators, Raine T, Parkes M, UK IBD Bioresource Investigators.",,Gut,2021,2020-10-01,Y,Tolerance; 6-mercaptopurine; Ulcerative colitis; Crohn's Disease; Azathioprine,,,"

Objective

Thiopurines are widely used as maintenance therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) but the evidence base for their use is sparse and their role increasingly questioned. Using the largest series reported to date, we assessed the long-term effectiveness of thiopurines in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), including their impact on need for surgery.

Design

Outcomes were assessed in 11 928 patients (4968 UC, 6960 CD) in the UK IBD BioResource initiated on thiopurine monotherapy with the intention of maintaining medically induced remission. Effectiveness was assessed retrospectively using patient-level data and a definition that required avoidance of escalation to biological therapy or surgery while on thiopurines. Analyses included overall effectiveness, time-to-event analysis for treatment escalation and comparison of surgery rates in patients tolerant or intolerant of thiopurines.

Results

Using 68 132 patient-years of exposure, thiopurine monotherapy appeared effective for the duration of treatment in 2617/4968 (52.7%) patients with UC compared with 2378/6960 (34.2%) patients with CD (p<0.0001). This difference was corroborated in a multivariable analysis: after adjusting for variables including treatment era, thiopurine monotherapy was less effective in CD than UC (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.51, p<0.0001). Thiopurine intolerance was associated with increased risk of surgery in UC (HR 2.44, p<0.0001); with a more modest impact on need for surgery in CD (HR=1.23, p=0.0015).

Conclusion

Thiopurine monotherapy is an effective long-term treatment for UC but significantly less effective in CD.",,pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/70/4/677.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2019-320185; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948184?pdf=render 35135642,https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291721004402,"Catatonia: demographic, clinical and laboratory associations.","Rogers JP, Pollak TA, Begum N, Griffin A, Carter B, Pritchard M, Broadbent M, Kolliakou A, Ke J, Stewart R, Patel R, Bomford A, Amad A, Zandi MS, Lewis G, Nicholson TR, David AS.",,Psychological medicine,2023,2021-11-02,Y,Mortality; Inflammation; NMDA receptor; epidemiology; incidence; Catatonia; Admission,,,"

Background

Catatonia, a severe neuropsychiatric syndrome, has few studies of sufficient scale to clarify its epidemiology or pathophysiology. We aimed to characterise demographic associations, peripheral inflammatory markers and outcome of catatonia.

Methods

Electronic healthcare records were searched for validated clinical diagnoses of catatonia. In a case-control study, demographics and inflammatory markers were compared in psychiatric inpatients with and without catatonia. In a cohort study, the two groups were compared in terms of their duration of admission and mortality.

Results

We identified 1456 patients with catatonia (of whom 25.1% had two or more episodes) and 24 956 psychiatric inpatients without catatonia. Incidence was 10.6 episodes of catatonia per 100 000 person-years. Patients with and without catatonia were similar in sex, younger and more likely to be of Black ethnicity. Serum iron was reduced in patients with catatonia [11.6 v. 14.2 μmol/L, odds ratio (OR) 0.65 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.95), p = 0.03] and creatine kinase was raised [2545 v. 459 IU/L, OR 1.53 (95% CI 1.29-1.81), p < 0.001], but there was no difference in C-reactive protein or white cell count. N-Methyl-d-aspartate receptor antibodies were significantly associated with catatonia, but there were small numbers of positive results. Duration of hospitalisation was greater in the catatonia group (median: 43 v. 25 days), but there was no difference in mortality after adjustment.

Conclusions

In the largest clinical study of catatonia, we found catatonia occurred in approximately 1 per 10 000 person-years. Evidence for a proinflammatory state was mixed. Catatonia was associated with prolonged inpatient admission but not with increased mortality.",,pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/2676547CEE9AA7C0AC726A2E6CA4AA9B/S0033291721004402a.pdf/div-class-title-catatonia-demographic-clinical-and-laboratory-associations-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721004402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10123832; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10123832?pdf=render 31504546,https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz174,"Cohort Profile: East London Genes & Health (ELGH), a community-based population genomics and health study in British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani people.","Finer S, Martin HC, Khan A, Hunt KA, MacLaughlin B, Ahmed Z, Ashcroft R, Durham C, MacArthur DG, McCarthy MI, Robson J, Trivedi B, Griffiths C, Wright J, Trembath RC, van Heel DA.",,International journal of epidemiology,2020,2020-02-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/49/1/20/32995529/dyz174.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz174; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7124496; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7124496?pdf=render 34662348,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009992,Genome-wide association studies reveal the role of polymorphisms affecting factor H binding protein expression in host invasion by Neisseria meningitidis.,"Earle SG, Lobanovska M, Lavender H, Tang C, Exley RM, Ramos-Sevillano E, Browning DF, Kostiou V, Harrison OB, Bratcher HB, Varani G, Tang CM, Wilson DJ, Maiden MCJ.",,PLoS pathogens,2021,2021-10-18,Y,,,,"Many invasive bacterial diseases are caused by organisms that are ordinarily harmless components of the human microbiome. Effective interventions against these microbes require an understanding of the processes whereby symbiotic or commensal relationships transition into pathology. Here, we describe bacterial genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of Neisseria meningitidis, a common commensal of the human respiratory tract that is nevertheless a leading cause of meningitis and sepsis. An initial GWAS discovered bacterial genetic variants, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), associated with invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) versus carriage in several loci across the meningococcal genome, encoding antigens and other extracellular components, confirming the polygenic nature of the invasive phenotype. In particular, there was a significant peak of association around the fHbp locus, encoding factor H binding protein (fHbp), which promotes bacterial immune evasion of human complement by recruiting complement factor H (CFH) to the meningococcal surface. The association around fHbp with IMD was confirmed by a validation GWAS, and we found that the SNPs identified in the validation affected the 5' region of fHbp mRNA, altering secondary RNA structures, thereby increasing fHbp expression and enhancing bacterial escape from complement-mediated killing. This finding is consistent with the known link between complement deficiencies and CFH variation with human susceptibility to IMD. These observations demonstrate the importance of human and bacterial genetic variation across the fHbp:CFH interface in determining IMD susceptibility, the transition from carriage to disease.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1009992&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009992; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8553145; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8553145?pdf=render 32888428,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.08.008,Genome-wide Study Identifies Association between HLA-B∗55:01 and Self-Reported Penicillin Allergy.,"Krebs K, Bovijn J, Zheng N, Lepamets M, Censin JC, Jürgenson T, Särg D, Abner E, Laisk T, Luo Y, Skotte L, Geller F, Feenstra B, Wang W, Auton A, 23andMe Research Team, Raychaudhuri S, Esko T, Metspalu A, Laur S, Roden DM, Wei WQ, Holmes MV, Lindgren CM, Phillips EJ, Mägi R, Milani L, Fadista J.",,American journal of human genetics,2020,2020-09-03,Y,Pharmacogenomics; Gwas; Ehr; Ptpn22; Penicillin Allergy; 23Andme; Biovu; Ukbb; Estbb; Hla-b∗55:01,,,"Hypersensitivity reactions to drugs are often unpredictable and can be life threatening, underscoring a need for understanding their underlying mechanisms and risk factors. The extent to which germline genetic variation influences the risk of commonly reported drug allergies such as penicillin allergy remains largely unknown. We extracted data from the electronic health records of more than 600,000 participants from the UK, Estonian, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center's BioVU biobanks to study the role of genetic variation in the occurrence of self-reported penicillin hypersensitivity reactions. We used imputed SNP to HLA typing data from these cohorts to further fine map the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) association and replicated our results in 23andMe's research cohort involving a total of 1.12 million individuals. Genome-wide meta-analysis of penicillin allergy revealed two loci, including one located in the HLA region on chromosome 6. This signal was further fine-mapped to the HLA-B∗55:01 allele (OR 1.41 95% CI 1.33-1.49, p value 2.04 × 10-31) and confirmed by independent replication in 23andMe's research cohort (OR 1.30 95% CI 1.25-1.34, p value 1.00 × 10-47). The lead SNP was also associated with lower lymphocyte counts and in silico follow-up suggests a potential effect on T-lymphocytes at HLA-B∗55:01. We also observed a significant hit in PTPN22 and the GWAS results correlated with the genetics of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. We present robust evidence for the role of an allele of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I gene HLA-B in the occurrence of penicillin allergy.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929720302767/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.08.008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7536643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7536643?pdf=render -37221040,https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700,"Coverage, completion and outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessments in a multi-ethnic nationwide cohort of UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH Study.","Martin CA, Woolf K, Bryant L, Goss C, Gogoi M, Lagrata S, Papineni P, Qureshi I, Wobi F, Nellums L, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,Occupational and environmental medicine,2023,2023-05-23,Y,Ethnic Groups; risk assessment; Health Personnel; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

There are limited data on the outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessment in healthcare workers (HCWs) or the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic and occupational factors with risk assessment outcomes.

Methods

We used questionnaire data from UK-REACH (UK Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers), an ethnically diverse, nationwide cohort of UK HCWs. We derived four binary outcomes: (1) offered a risk assessment; (2) completed a risk assessment; (3) working practices changed as a result of the risk assessment; (4) wanted changes to working practices after risk assessment but working practices did not change.We examined the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk variables on our outcomes using multivariable logistic regression.

Results

8649 HCWs were included in total. HCWs from ethnic minority groups were more likely to report being offered a risk assessment than white HCWs, and those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report having completed an assessment if offered. Ethnic minority HCWs had lower odds of reporting having their work change as a result of risk assessment. Those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report no changes to their working practices despite wanting them.Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with lower odds of being offered a risk assessment and having adjustments made to working practices.

Discussion

We found differences in risk assessment outcomes by ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk factors. These findings are concerning and warrant further research using actual (rather than reported) risk assessment outcomes in an unselected cohort.",,pdf:https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/80/7/399.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065?pdf=render 34000257,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00897-7,"Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial.",RECOVERY Collaborative Group.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-05-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Many patients with COVID-19 have been treated with plasma containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 177 NHS hospitals from across the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either usual care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus high-titre convalescent plasma (convalescent plasma group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.

Findings

Between May 28, 2020, and Jan 15, 2021, 11558 (71%) of 16287 patients enrolled in RECOVERY were eligible to receive convalescent plasma and were assigned to either the convalescent plasma group or the usual care group. There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between the two groups: 1399 (24%) of 5795 patients in the convalescent plasma group and 1408 (24%) of 5763 patients in the usual care group died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·00, 95% CI 0·93-1·07; p=0·95). The 28-day mortality rate ratio was similar in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including in those patients without detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at randomisation. Allocation to convalescent plasma had no significant effect on the proportion of patients discharged from hospital within 28 days (3832 [66%] patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 3822 [66%] patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·94-1·03; p=0·57). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at randomisation, there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients meeting the composite endpoint of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death (1568 [29%] of 5493 patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 1568 [29%] of 5448 patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·93-1·05; p=0·79).

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00897-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00897-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8121538 +37221040,https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700,"Coverage, completion and outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessments in a multi-ethnic nationwide cohort of UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH Study.","Martin CA, Woolf K, Bryant L, Goss C, Gogoi M, Lagrata S, Papineni P, Qureshi I, Wobi F, Nellums L, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,Occupational and environmental medicine,2023,2023-05-23,Y,Ethnic Groups; risk assessment; Health Personnel; Covid-19,,,"

Introduction

There are limited data on the outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessment in healthcare workers (HCWs) or the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic and occupational factors with risk assessment outcomes.

Methods

We used questionnaire data from UK-REACH (UK Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers), an ethnically diverse, nationwide cohort of UK HCWs. We derived four binary outcomes: (1) offered a risk assessment; (2) completed a risk assessment; (3) working practices changed as a result of the risk assessment; (4) wanted changes to working practices after risk assessment but working practices did not change.We examined the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk variables on our outcomes using multivariable logistic regression.

Results

8649 HCWs were included in total. HCWs from ethnic minority groups were more likely to report being offered a risk assessment than white HCWs, and those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report having completed an assessment if offered. Ethnic minority HCWs had lower odds of reporting having their work change as a result of risk assessment. Those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report no changes to their working practices despite wanting them.Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with lower odds of being offered a risk assessment and having adjustments made to working practices.

Discussion

We found differences in risk assessment outcomes by ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk factors. These findings are concerning and warrant further research using actual (rather than reported) risk assessment outcomes in an unselected cohort.",,pdf:https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/80/7/399.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065?pdf=render 36215124,https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.121.003598,Gene Sequencing Identifies Perturbation in Nitric Oxide Signaling as a Nonlipid Molecular Subtype of Coronary Artery Disease.,"Khera AV, Wang M, Chaffin M, Emdin CA, Samani NJ, Schunkert H, Watkins H, McPherson R, Erdmann J, Elosua R, Boerwinkle E, Ardissino D, Butterworth AS, Di Angelantonio E, Naheed A, Danesh J, Chowdhury R, Krumholz HM, Sheu WH, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Chen YI, Gabriel S, Lander ES, Saleheen D, Kathiresan S.",,Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine,2022,2022-10-10,N,Atherosclerosis; coronary artery disease; Genetic Association Studies; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type Iii; Precision Medicine,,,"

Background

A key goal of precision medicine is to disaggregate common, complex diseases into discrete molecular subtypes. Rare coding variants in the low-density lipoprotein receptor gene (LDLR) are identified in 1% to 2% of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, defining a molecular subtype with risk driven by hypercholesterolemia.

Methods

To search for additional subtypes, we compared the frequency of rare, predicted loss-of-function and damaging missense variants aggregated within a given gene in 41 081 CAD cases versus 217 115 controls.

Results

Rare variants in LDLR were most strongly associated with CAD, present in 1% of cases and associated with 4.4-fold increased CAD risk. A second subtype was characterized by variants in endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene (NOS3), a key enzyme regulating vascular tone, endothelial function, and platelet aggregation. A rare predicted loss-of-function or damaging missense variants in NOS3 was present in 0.6% of cases and associated with 2.42-fold increased risk of CAD (95% CI, 1.80-3.26; P=5.50×10-9). These variants were associated with higher systolic blood pressure (+3.25 mm Hg; [95% CI, 1.86-4.65]; P=5.00×10-6) and increased risk of hypertension (adjusted odds ratio 1.31; [95% CI, 1.14-1.51]; P=2.00×10-4) but not circulating cholesterol concentrations, suggesting that, beyond lipid pathways, nitric oxide synthesis is a key nonlipid driver of CAD risk.

Conclusions

Beyond LDLR, we identified an additional nonlipid molecular subtype of CAD characterized by rare variants in the NOS3 gene.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003598; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003598 31830076,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226040,Linking surveillance and clinical data for evaluating trends in bloodstream infection rates in neonatal units in England.,"Fraser C, Muller-Pebody B, Blackburn R, Gray J, Oddie SJ, Gilbert RE, Harron K.",,PloS one,2019,2019-12-12,Y,,"Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease",,"

Objective

To evaluate variation in trends in bloodstream infection (BSI) rates in neonatal units (NNUs) in England according to the data sources and linkage methods used.

Methods

We used deterministic and probabilistic methods to link clinical records from 112 NNUs in the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD) to national laboratory infection surveillance data from Public Health England. We calculated the proportion of babies in NNRD (aged <1 year and admitted between 2010-2017) with a BSI caused by clearly pathogenic organisms between two days after admission and two days after discharge. We used Poisson regression to determine trends in the proportion of babies with BSI based on i) deterministic and probabilistic linkage of NNRD and surveillance data (primary measure), ii) deterministic linkage of NNRD-surveillance data, iii) NNRD records alone, and iv) linked NNRD-surveillance data augmented with clinical records of laboratory-confirmed BSI in NNRD.

Results

Using deterministic and probabilistic linkage, 5,629 of 349,740 babies admitted to a NNU in NNRD linked with 6,660 BSI episodes accounting for 38% of 17,388 BSI records aged <1 year in surveillance data. The proportion of babies with BSI due to clearly pathogenic organisms during their NNU admission was 1.0% using deterministic plus probabilistic linkage (primary measure), compared to 1.0% using deterministic linkage alone, 0.6% using NNRD records alone, and 1.2% using linkage augmented with clinical records of BSI in NNRD. Equivalent proportions for babies born before 32 weeks of gestation were 5.0%, 4.8%, 2.9% and 5.9%. The proportion of babies who linked to a BSI decreased by 7.5% each year (95% confidence interval [CI]: -14.3%, -0.1%) using deterministic and probabilistic linkage but was stable using clinical records of BSI or deterministic linkage alone.

Conclusion

Linkage that combines BSI records from national laboratory surveillance and clinical NNU data sources, and use of probabilistic methods, substantially improved ascertainment of BSI and estimates of BSI trends over time, compared with single data sources.",Fraser et al. linked records from 112 neonatal units and laboratory records in England to evaluated variations in trends in bloodstream infection and concluded that record linkage improved ascertainment of BSI and trend estimated over time compared to use of single dataset for this analysis.,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226040&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226040; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6907823; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6907823?pdf=render 32735845,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2020.07.003,Differential IRF8 Transcription Factor Requirement Defines Two Pathways of Dendritic Cell Development in Humans.,"Cytlak U, Resteu A, Pagan S, Green K, Milne P, Maisuria S, McDonald D, Hulme G, Filby A, Carpenter B, Queen R, Hambleton S, Hague R, Lango Allen H, Thaventhiran JED, Doody G, Collin M, Bigley V.",,Immunity,2020,2020-07-30,Y,Transcription factor; Immunity; Hematopoiesis; Dendritic Cell; Primary Immunodeficiency; Irf8; Cytof; Single-cell Rna Sequencing,,,"The formation of mammalian dendritic cells (DCs) is controlled by multiple hematopoietic transcription factors, including IRF8. Loss of IRF8 exerts a differential effect on DC subsets, including plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and the classical DC lineages cDC1 and cDC2. In humans, cDC2-related subsets have been described including AXL+SIGLEC6+ pre-DC, DC2 and DC3. The origin of this heterogeneity is unknown. Using high-dimensional analysis, in vitro differentiation, and an allelic series of human IRF8 deficiency, we demonstrated that cDC2 (CD1c+DC) heterogeneity originates from two distinct pathways of development. The lymphoid-primed IRF8hi pathway, marked by CD123 and BTLA, carried pDC, cDC1, and DC2 trajectories, while the common myeloid IRF8lo pathway, expressing SIRPA, formed DC3s and monocytes. We traced distinct trajectories through the granulocyte-macrophage progenitor (GMP) compartment showing that AXL+SIGLEC6+ pre-DCs mapped exclusively to the DC2 pathway. In keeping with their lower requirement for IRF8, DC3s expand to replace DC2s in human partial IRF8 deficiency.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S1074761320302831/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2020.07.003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7447982 36113526,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(22)00332-1,"Mapping development and health effects of cooking with solid fuels in low-income and middle-income countries, 2000-18: a geospatial modelling study.",Local Burden of Disease Household Air Pollution Collaborators.,,The Lancet. Global health,2022,2022-10-01,Y,,,,"

Background

More than 3 billion people do not have access to clean energy and primarily use solid fuels to cook. Use of solid fuels generates household air pollution, which was associated with more than 2 million deaths in 2019. Although local patterns in cooking vary systematically, subnational trends in use of solid fuels have yet to be comprehensively analysed. We estimated the prevalence of solid-fuel use with high spatial resolution to explore subnational inequalities, assess local progress, and assess the effects on health in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) without universal access to clean fuels.

Methods

We did a geospatial modelling study to map the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking at a 5 km × 5 km resolution in 98 LMICs based on 2·1 million household observations of the primary cooking fuel used from 663 population-based household surveys over the years 2000 to 2018. We use observed temporal patterns to forecast household air pollution in 2030 and to assess the probability of attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target indicator for clean cooking. We aligned our estimates of household air pollution to geospatial estimates of ambient air pollution to establish the risk transition occurring in LMICs. Finally, we quantified the effect of residual primary solid-fuel use for cooking on child health by doing a counterfactual risk assessment to estimate the proportion of deaths from lower respiratory tract infections in children younger than 5 years that could be associated with household air pollution.

Findings

Although primary reliance on solid-fuel use for cooking has declined globally, it remains widespread. 593 million people live in districts where the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking exceeds 95%. 66% of people in LMICs live in districts that are not on track to meet the SDG target for universal access to clean energy by 2030. Household air pollution continues to be a major contributor to particulate exposure in LMICs, and rising ambient air pollution is undermining potential gains from reductions in the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking in many countries. We estimated that, in 2018, 205 000 (95% uncertainty interval 147 000-257 000) children younger than 5 years died from lower respiratory tract infections that could be attributed to household air pollution.

Interpretation

Efforts to accelerate the adoption of clean cooking fuels need to be substantially increased and recalibrated to account for subnational inequalities, because there are substantial opportunities to improve air quality and avert child mortality associated with household air pollution.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:https://repository.kaust.edu.sa/bitstream/10754/686177/1/1-s2.0-S2214109X22003321-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00332-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9638039 31292179,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028375,Predicting asthma attacks in primary care: protocol for developing a machine learning-based prediction model.,"Tibble H, Tsanas A, Horne E, Horne R, Mizani M, Simpson CR, Sheikh A.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-07-09,Y,Prediction; Asthma; Primary Care; Machine Learning; Asthma Attacks,Applied Analytics,,"

Introduction

Asthma is a long-term condition with rapid onset worsening of symptoms ('attacks') which can be unpredictable and may prove fatal. Models predicting asthma attacks require high sensitivity to minimise mortality risk, and high specificity to avoid unnecessary prescribing of preventative medications that carry an associated risk of adverse events. We aim to create a risk score to predict asthma attacks in primary care using a statistical learning approach trained on routinely collected electronic health record data.

Methods and analysis

We will employ machine-learning classifiers (naïve Bayes, support vector machines, and random forests) to create an asthma attack risk prediction model, using the Asthma Learning Health System (ALHS) study patient registry comprising 500 000 individuals across 75 Scottish general practices, with linked longitudinal primary care prescribing records, primary care Read codes, accident and emergency records, hospital admissions and deaths. Models will be compared on a partition of the dataset reserved for validation, and the final model will be tested in both an unseen partition of the derivation dataset and an external dataset from the Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Effectiveness II (SIVE II) study.

Ethics and dissemination

Permissions for the ALHS project were obtained from the South East Scotland Research Ethics Committee 02 [16/SS/0130] and the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (1516-0489). Permissions for the SIVE II project were obtained from the Privacy Advisory Committee (National Services NHS Scotland) [68/14] and the National Research Ethics Committee West Midlands-Edgbaston [15/WM/0035]. The subsequent research paper will be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal and code scripts used for all components of the data cleaning, compiling, and analysis will be made available in the open source GitHub website (https://github.com/hollytibble).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/7/e028375.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028375; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6624024; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6624024?pdf=render 37479374,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(23)00195-3,"Global, regional, and national burden of meningitis and its aetiologies, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Meningitis Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators.,,The Lancet. Neurology,2023,2023-08-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Although meningitis is largely preventable, it still causes hundreds of thousands of deaths globally each year. WHO set ambitious goals to reduce meningitis cases by 2030, and assessing trends in the global meningitis burden can help track progress and identify gaps in achieving these goals. Using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, we aimed to assess incident cases and deaths due to acute infectious meningitis by aetiology and age from 1990 to 2019, for 204 countries and territories.

Methods

We modelled meningitis mortality using vital registration, verbal autopsy, sample-based vital registration, and mortality surveillance data. Meningitis morbidity was modelled with a Bayesian compartmental model, using data from the published literature identified by a systematic review, as well as surveillance data, inpatient hospital admissions, health insurance claims, and cause-specific meningitis mortality estimates. For aetiology estimation, data from multiple causes of death, vital registration, hospital discharge, microbial laboratory, and literature studies were analysed by use of a network analysis model to estimate the proportion of meningitis deaths and cases attributable to the following aetiologies: Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, group B Streptococcus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, viruses, and a residual other pathogen category.

Findings

In 2019, there were an estimated 236 000 deaths (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 204 000-277 000) and 2·51 million (2·11-2·99) incident cases due to meningitis globally. The burden was greatest in children younger than 5 years, with 112 000 deaths (87 400-145 000) and 1·28 million incident cases (0·947-1·71) in 2019. Age-standardised mortality rates decreased from 7·5 (6·6-8·4) per 100 000 population in 1990 to 3·3 (2·8-3·9) per 100 000 population in 2019. The highest proportion of total all-age meningitis deaths in 2019 was attributable to S pneumoniae (18·1% [17·1-19·2]), followed by N meningitidis (13·6% [12·7-14·4]) and K pneumoniae (12·2% [10·2-14·3]). Between 1990 and 2019, H influenzae showed the largest reduction in the number of deaths among children younger than 5 years (76·5% [69·5-81·8]), followed by N meningitidis (72·3% [64·4-78·5]) and viruses (58·2% [47·1-67·3]).

Interpretation

Substantial progress has been made in reducing meningitis mortality over the past three decades. However, more meningitis-related deaths might be prevented by quickly scaling up immunisation and expanding access to health services. Further reduction in the global meningitis burden should be possible through low-cost multivalent vaccines, increased access to accurate and rapid diagnostic assays, enhanced surveillance, and early treatment.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(23)00195-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356620; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356620?pdf=render -32220655,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6,"The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study.","Prem K, Liu Y, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Davies N, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Klepac P.",,The Lancet. Public health,2020,2020-03-25,Y,,,,"

Background

In December, 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus, emerged in Wuhan, China. Since then, the city of Wuhan has taken unprecedented measures in response to the outbreak, including extended school and workplace closures. We aimed to estimate the effects of physical distancing measures on the progression of the COVID-19 epidemic, hoping to provide some insights for the rest of the world.

Methods

To examine how changes in population mixing have affected outbreak progression in Wuhan, we used synthetic location-specific contact patterns in Wuhan and adapted these in the presence of school closures, extended workplace closures, and a reduction in mixing in the general community. Using these matrices and the latest estimates of the epidemiological parameters of the Wuhan outbreak, we simulated the ongoing trajectory of an outbreak in Wuhan using an age-structured susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model for several physical distancing measures. We fitted the latest estimates of epidemic parameters from a transmission model to data on local and internationally exported cases from Wuhan in an age-structured epidemic framework and investigated the age distribution of cases. We also simulated lifting of the control measures by allowing people to return to work in a phased-in way and looked at the effects of returning to work at different stages of the underlying outbreak (at the beginning of March or April).

Findings

Our projections show that physical distancing measures were most effective if the staggered return to work was at the beginning of April; this reduced the median number of infections by more than 92% (IQR 66-97) and 24% (13-90) in mid-2020 and end-2020, respectively. There are benefits to sustaining these measures until April in terms of delaying and reducing the height of the peak, median epidemic size at end-2020, and affording health-care systems more time to expand and respond. However, the modelled effects of physical distancing measures vary by the duration of infectiousness and the role school children have in the epidemic.

Interpretation

Restrictions on activities in Wuhan, if maintained until April, would probably help to delay the epidemic peak. Our projections suggest that premature and sudden lifting of interventions could lead to an earlier secondary peak, which could be flattened by relaxing the interventions gradually. However, there are limitations to our analysis, including large uncertainties around estimates of R0 and the duration of infectiousness.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30073-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7158905 30768153,https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz015,Association of the coronary artery disease risk gene GUCY1A3 with ischaemic events after coronary intervention.,"Kessler T, Wolf B, Eriksson N, Kofink D, Mahmoodi BK, Rai H, Tragante V, Åkerblom A, Becker RC, Bernlochner I, Bopp R, James S, Katus HA, Mayer K, Munz M, Nordio F, O'Donoghue ML, Sager HB, Sibbing D, Solakov L, Storey RF, Wobst J, Asselbergs FW, Byrne RA, Erdmann J, Koenig W, Laugwitz KL, Ten Berg JM, Wallentin L, Kastrati A, Schunkert H.",,Cardiovascular research,2019,2019-08-01,N,Platelet aggregation; Genetic variation; Genome-wide Association Studies; Stent Thrombosis; On-aspirin Platelet Reactivity,,,"

Aim

A common genetic variant at the GUCY1A3 coronary artery disease locus has been shown to influence platelet aggregation. The risk of ischaemic events including stent thrombosis varies with the efficacy of aspirin to inhibit platelet reactivity. This study sought to investigate whether homozygous GUCY1A3 (rs7692387) risk allele carriers display higher on-aspirin platelet reactivity and risk of ischaemic events early after coronary intervention.

Methods and results

The association of GUCY1A3 genotype and on-aspirin platelet reactivity was analysed in the genetics substudy of the ISAR-ASPI registry (n = 1678) using impedance aggregometry. The clinical outcome cardiovascular death or stent thrombosis within 30 days after stenting was investigated in a meta-analysis of substudies of the ISAR-ASPI registry, the PLATO trial (n = 3236), and the Utrecht Coronary Biobank (n = 1003) comprising a total 5917 patients. Homozygous GUCY1A3 risk allele carriers (GG) displayed increased on-aspirin platelet reactivity compared with non-risk allele (AA/AG) carriers [150 (interquartile range 91-209) vs. 134 (85-194) AU⋅min, P < 0.01]. More homozygous risk allele carriers, compared with non-risk allele carriers, were assigned to the high-risk group for ischaemic events (>203 AU⋅min; 29.5 vs. 24.2%, P = 0.02). Homozygous risk allele carriers were also at higher risk for cardiovascular death or stent thrombosis (hazard ratio 1.70, 95% confidence interval 1.08-2.68; P = 0.02). Bleeding risk was not altered.

Conclusion

We conclude that homozygous GUCY1A3 risk allele carriers are at increased risk of cardiovascular death or stent thrombosis within 30 days after coronary stenting, likely due to higher on-aspirin platelet reactivity. Whether GUCY1A3 genotype helps to tailor antiplatelet treatment remains to be investigated.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article-pdf/115/10/1512/28981341/cvz015.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz015 +32220655,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6,"The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study.","Prem K, Liu Y, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Davies N, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Klepac P.",,The Lancet. Public health,2020,2020-03-25,Y,,,,"

Background

In December, 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus, emerged in Wuhan, China. Since then, the city of Wuhan has taken unprecedented measures in response to the outbreak, including extended school and workplace closures. We aimed to estimate the effects of physical distancing measures on the progression of the COVID-19 epidemic, hoping to provide some insights for the rest of the world.

Methods

To examine how changes in population mixing have affected outbreak progression in Wuhan, we used synthetic location-specific contact patterns in Wuhan and adapted these in the presence of school closures, extended workplace closures, and a reduction in mixing in the general community. Using these matrices and the latest estimates of the epidemiological parameters of the Wuhan outbreak, we simulated the ongoing trajectory of an outbreak in Wuhan using an age-structured susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model for several physical distancing measures. We fitted the latest estimates of epidemic parameters from a transmission model to data on local and internationally exported cases from Wuhan in an age-structured epidemic framework and investigated the age distribution of cases. We also simulated lifting of the control measures by allowing people to return to work in a phased-in way and looked at the effects of returning to work at different stages of the underlying outbreak (at the beginning of March or April).

Findings

Our projections show that physical distancing measures were most effective if the staggered return to work was at the beginning of April; this reduced the median number of infections by more than 92% (IQR 66-97) and 24% (13-90) in mid-2020 and end-2020, respectively. There are benefits to sustaining these measures until April in terms of delaying and reducing the height of the peak, median epidemic size at end-2020, and affording health-care systems more time to expand and respond. However, the modelled effects of physical distancing measures vary by the duration of infectiousness and the role school children have in the epidemic.

Interpretation

Restrictions on activities in Wuhan, if maintained until April, would probably help to delay the epidemic peak. Our projections suggest that premature and sudden lifting of interventions could lead to an earlier secondary peak, which could be flattened by relaxing the interventions gradually. However, there are limitations to our analysis, including large uncertainties around estimates of R0 and the duration of infectiousness.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, and Health Data Research UK.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30073-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7158905 33444330,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003498,Polygenic risk scores in cardiovascular risk prediction: A cohort study and modelling analyses.,"Sun L, Pennells L, Kaptoge S, Nelson CP, Ritchie SC, Abraham G, Arnold M, Bell S, Bolton T, Burgess S, Dudbridge F, Guo Q, Sofianopoulou E, Stevens D, Thompson JR, Butterworth AS, Wood A, Danesh J, Samani NJ, Inouye M, Di Angelantonio E.",,PLoS medicine,2021,2021-01-14,Y,,,,"

Background

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) can stratify populations into cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk groups. We aimed to quantify the potential advantage of adding information on PRSs to conventional risk factors in the primary prevention of CVD.

Methods and findings

Using data from UK Biobank on 306,654 individuals without a history of CVD and not on lipid-lowering treatments (mean age [SD]: 56.0 [8.0] years; females: 57%; median follow-up: 8.1 years), we calculated measures of risk discrimination and reclassification upon addition of PRSs to risk factors in a conventional risk prediction model (i.e., age, sex, systolic blood pressure, smoking status, history of diabetes, and total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol). We then modelled the implications of initiating guideline-recommended statin therapy in a primary care setting using incidence rates from 2.1 million individuals from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The C-index, a measure of risk discrimination, was 0.710 (95% CI 0.703-0.717) for a CVD prediction model containing conventional risk predictors alone. Addition of information on PRSs increased the C-index by 0.012 (95% CI 0.009-0.015), and resulted in continuous net reclassification improvements of about 10% and 12% in cases and non-cases, respectively. If a PRS were assessed in the entire UK primary care population aged 40-75 years, assuming that statin therapy would be initiated in accordance with the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines (i.e., for persons with a predicted risk of ≥10% and for those with certain other risk factors, such as diabetes, irrespective of their 10-year predicted risk), then it could help prevent 1 additional CVD event for approximately every 5,750 individuals screened. By contrast, targeted assessment only among people at intermediate (i.e., 5% to <10%) 10-year CVD risk could help prevent 1 additional CVD event for approximately every 340 individuals screened. Such a targeted strategy could help prevent 7% more CVD events than conventional risk prediction alone. Potential gains afforded by assessment of PRSs on top of conventional risk factors would be about 1.5-fold greater than those provided by assessment of C-reactive protein, a plasma biomarker included in some risk prediction guidelines. Potential limitations of this study include its restriction to European ancestry participants and a lack of health economic evaluation.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that addition of PRSs to conventional risk factors can modestly enhance prediction of first-onset CVD and could translate into population health benefits if used at scale.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003498&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003498; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808664; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808664?pdf=render PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Individuals at Greatest Need of a Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment,"Chung R, Xu Z, Arnold M, Ip S, Harrison H, Barrett J, Pennells L, Kim L, Di Angelantonio E, Paige E, Ritchie S, Inouye M, Usher‐Smith J, Wood A.",,Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease,2023,2023-07-25,Y,Screening; Genomics; Cardiovascular disease; epidemiology; risk factors; Primary Prevention; Electronic Health Records; Primary Care Records,,,,,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10492989/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10492989/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10492989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10492989?pdf=render 37063605,https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12955,Estimation of reproduction numbers in real time: Conceptual and statistical challenges.,"Pellis L, Birrell PJ, Blake J, Overton CE, Scarabel F, Stage HB, Brooks-Pollock E, Danon L, Hall I, House TA, Keeling MJ, Read JM, JUNIPER Consortium, De Angelis D.",,"Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, (Statistics in Society)",2022,2022-11-22,Y,Growth Rate; Reproduction Numbers; Real‐Time Estimation,,,"The reproduction number R has been a central metric of the COVID-19 pandemic response, published weekly by the UK government and regularly reported in the media. Here, we provide a formal definition and discuss the advantages and most common misconceptions around this quantity. We consider the intuition behind different formulations of R , the complexities in its estimation (including the unavoidable lags involved), and its value compared to other indicators (e.g. the growth rate) that can be directly observed from aggregate surveillance data and react more promptly to changes in epidemic trend. As models become more sophisticated, with age and/or spatial structure, formulating R becomes increasingly complicated and inevitably model-dependent. We present some models currently used in the UK pandemic response as examples. Ultimately, limitations in the available data streams, data quality and time constraints force pragmatic choices to be made on a quantity that is an average across time, space, social structure and settings. Effectively communicating these challenges is important but often difficult in an emergency.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jrsssa/article-pdf/185/Supplement_1/S112/49420672/jrsssa_185_supplement_1_s112.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12955; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100071; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100071?pdf=render @@ -2150,8 +2150,8 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 33442528,https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00257-4,Privacy preserving data visualizations.,"Avraam D, Wilson R, Butters O, Burton T, Nicolaides C, Jones E, Boyd A, Burton P.",,EPJ data science,2021,2021-01-07,Y,Privacy Protection; Anonymization; Sensitive Data; Data Visualizations; Disclosure Control,,,"Data visualizations are a valuable tool used during both statistical analysis and the interpretation of results as they graphically reveal useful information about the structure, properties and relationships between variables, which may otherwise be concealed in tabulated data. In disciplines like medicine and the social sciences, where collected data include sensitive information about study participants, the sharing and publication of individual-level records is controlled by data protection laws and ethico-legal norms. Thus, as data visualizations - such as graphs and plots - may be linked to other released information and used to identify study participants and their personal attributes, their creation is often prohibited by the terms of data use. These restrictions are enforced to reduce the risk of breaching data subject confidentiality, however they limit analysts from displaying useful descriptive plots for their research features and findings. Here we propose the use of anonymization techniques to generate privacy-preserving visualizations that retain the statistical properties of the underlying data while still adhering to strict data disclosure rules. We demonstrate the use of (i) the well-known k-anonymization process which preserves privacy by reducing the granularity of the data using suppression and generalization, (ii) a novel deterministic approach that replaces individual-level observations with the centroids of each k nearest neighbours, and (iii) a probabilistic procedure that perturbs individual attributes with the addition of random stochastic noise. We apply the proposed methods to generate privacy-preserving data visualizations for exploratory data analysis and inferential regression plot diagnostics, and we discuss their strengths and limitations.",,pdf:https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00257-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00257-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7790778; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7790778?pdf=render 32139493,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035121,Community treatment orders and associations with readmission rates and duration of psychiatric hospital admission: a controlled electronic case register study.,"Barkhuizen W, Cullen AE, Shetty H, Pritchard M, Stewart R, McGuire P, Patel R.",,BMJ open,2020,2020-03-05,Y,Psychiatry; Mental health; epidemiology; Health Policy; Health Informatics; Medical Law,,,"

Objectives

Limited evidence is available regarding the effect of community treatment orders (CTOs) on mortality and readmission to psychiatric hospital. We compared clinical outcomes between patients placed on CTOs to a control group of patients discharged to voluntary community mental healthcare.

Design and setting

An observational study using deidentified electronic health record data from inpatients receiving mental healthcare in South London using the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) system. Data from patients discharged between November 2008 and May 2014 from compulsory inpatient treatment under the Mental Health Act were analysed.

Participants

830 participants discharged on a CTO (mean age 40 years; 63% male) and 3659 control participants discharged without a CTO (mean age 42 years; 53% male).

Outcome measures

The number of days spent in the community until readmission, the number of days spent in inpatient care in the 2 years prior to and the 2 years following the index admission and mortality.

Results

The mean duration of a CTO was 3.2 years. Patients receiving care from forensic psychiatry services were five times more likely and patients receiving a long-acting injectable antipsychotic were twice as likely to be placed on a CTO. There was a significant association between CTO receipt and readmission in adjusted models (HR: 1.60, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.80, p<0.001). Compared with controls, patients on a CTO spent 17.3 additional days (95% CI 4.0 to 30.6, p=0.011) in a psychiatric hospital in the 2 years following index admission and had a lower mortality rate (HR: 0.66, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.88, p=0.004).

Conclusions

Many patients spent longer on CTOs than initially anticipated by policymakers. Those on CTOs are readmitted sooner, spend more time in hospital and have a lower mortality rate. These findings merit consideration in future amendments to the UK Mental Health Act.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/3/e035121.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7059496; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7059496?pdf=render 33385551,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117689,Deep learning-based unlearning of dataset bias for MRI harmonisation and confound removal.,"Dinsdale NK, Jenkinson M, Namburete AIL.",,NeuroImage,2021,2020-12-30,Y,MRI; Harmonization; Joint Domain Adaptation,,,"Increasingly large MRI neuroimaging datasets are becoming available, including many highly multi-site multi-scanner datasets. Combining the data from the different scanners is vital for increased statistical power; however, this leads to an increase in variance due to nonbiological factors such as the differences in acquisition protocols and hardware, which can mask signals of interest. We propose a deep learning based training scheme, inspired by domain adaptation techniques, which uses an iterative update approach to aim to create scanner-invariant features while simultaneously maintaining performance on the main task of interest, thus reducing the influence of scanner on network predictions. We demonstrate the framework for regression, classification and segmentation tasks with two different network architectures. We show that not only can the framework harmonise many-site datasets but it can also adapt to many data scenarios, including biased datasets and limited training labels. Finally, we show that the framework can be extended for the removal of other known confounds in addition to scanner. The overall framework is therefore flexible and should be applicable to a wide range of neuroimaging studies.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117689; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7903160; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7903160?pdf=render -32979922,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4,Diabetes as a risk factor for incident peripheral arterial disease in women compared to men: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Chase-Vilchez AZ, Chan IHY, Peters SAE, Woodward M.",,Cardiovascular diabetology,2020,2020-09-26,Y,Sex difference; Diabetes; Cardiovascular disease; Peripheral Arterial Disease; Peripheral Vascular Disease,,,"

Aims/hypothesis

Previous meta-analyses have suggested that diabetes confers a greater excess risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia, and heart failure in women compared to men. While the underlying mechanism that explains such greater excess risk is unknown, in the current meta-analysis we hypothesized that we would find a similar sex difference in the relationship between diabetes and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Methods

PubMed MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Embase were systematically searched for prospective population-based cohort studies, with no restriction on publication date, language, or country. We included studies that reported the relative risk (RR), and its variability, for incident PAD associated with diabetes in both sexes. We excluded studies that did not adjust at least for age, and in which participants had pre-existing PAD. In cases where sex-specific results were not reported, study authors were contacted. Random-effects meta-analyses with inverse variance weighting were used to obtain summary sex-specific RRs and the women: men ratio of RRs for PAD. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess study quality.

Results

Data from seven cohorts, totalling 2071,260 participants (49.8% women), were included. The relative risk for incident PAD associated with diabetes compared with no diabetes was 1.96 (95% CI 1.29-2.63) in women and 1.84 (95% CI 1.29-2.86) in men, after adjusting for potential confounders. The multiple-adjusted RR ratio was 1.05 (95% CI 0.90-1.22), with virtually no heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 0%). All studies scored 6-8, on the Newcastle-Ottawa scale of 0-9, indicating good quality. Eleven of the 12 studies that met review inclusion criteria did not report sex-specific relative risk, and these data were collected through direct correspondence with the study authors.

Conclusion/interpretation

Consistent with other studies, we found evidence that diabetes is an independent risk factor for PAD. However, in contrast to similar studies of other types of cardiovascular disease, we did not find evidence that diabetes confers a greater excess risk in women compared to men for PAD. More research is needed to explain this sex differential between PAD and other forms of CVD, in the sequelae of diabetes. In addition, we found that very few studies reported the sex-specific relative risk for the association between diabetes and PAD, adding to existing evidence for the need for improved reporting of sex-disaggregated results in cardiovascular disease research.",,pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021?pdf=render 37291107,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38766-1,South Asian medical cohorts reveal strong founder effects and high rates of homozygosity.,"Wall JD, Sathirapongsasuti JF, Gupta R, Rasheed A, Venkatesan R, Belsare S, Menon R, Phalke S, Mittal A, Fang J, Tanneeru D, Deshmukh M, Bassi A, Robinson J, Chaudhary R, Murugan S, Ul-Asar Z, Saleem I, Ishtiaq U, Fatima A, Sheikh SS, Hameed S, Ishaq M, Rasheed SZ, Memon FU, Jalal A, Abbas S, Frossard P, Fuchsberger C, Forer L, Schoenherr S, Bei Q, Bhangale T, Tom J, Gadde SGK, B V P, Naik NK, Wang M, Kwok PY, Khera AV, Lakshmi BR, Butterworth AS, Chowdhury R, Danesh J, di Angelantonio E, Naheed A, Goyal V, Kandadai RM, Kumar H, Borgohain R, Mukherjee A, Wadia PM, Yadav R, Desai S, Kumar N, Biswas A, Pal PK, Muthane UB, Das SK, Ramprasad VL, Kukkle PL, Seshagiri S, Kathiresan S, Ghosh A, Mohan V, Saleheen D, Stawiski EW, Peterson AS.",,Nature communications,2023,2023-06-08,Y,,,,"The benefits of large-scale genetic studies for healthcare of the populations studied are well documented, but these genetic studies have traditionally ignored people from some parts of the world, such as South Asia. Here we describe whole genome sequence (WGS) data from 4806 individuals recruited from the healthcare delivery systems of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, combined with WGS from 927 individuals from isolated South Asian populations. We characterize population structure in South Asia and describe a genotyping array (SARGAM) and imputation reference panel that are optimized for South Asian genomes. We find evidence for high rates of reproductive isolation, endogamy and consanguinity that vary across the subcontinent and that lead to levels of rare homozygotes that reach 100 times that seen in outbred populations. Founder effects increase the power to associate functional variants with disease processes and make South Asia a uniquely powerful place for population-scale genetic studies.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38766-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38766-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250394?pdf=render +32979922,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4,Diabetes as a risk factor for incident peripheral arterial disease in women compared to men: a systematic review and meta-analysis.,"Chase-Vilchez AZ, Chan IHY, Peters SAE, Woodward M.",,Cardiovascular diabetology,2020,2020-09-26,Y,Sex difference; Diabetes; Cardiovascular disease; Peripheral Arterial Disease; Peripheral Vascular Disease,,,"

Aims/hypothesis

Previous meta-analyses have suggested that diabetes confers a greater excess risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia, and heart failure in women compared to men. While the underlying mechanism that explains such greater excess risk is unknown, in the current meta-analysis we hypothesized that we would find a similar sex difference in the relationship between diabetes and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Methods

PubMed MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Embase were systematically searched for prospective population-based cohort studies, with no restriction on publication date, language, or country. We included studies that reported the relative risk (RR), and its variability, for incident PAD associated with diabetes in both sexes. We excluded studies that did not adjust at least for age, and in which participants had pre-existing PAD. In cases where sex-specific results were not reported, study authors were contacted. Random-effects meta-analyses with inverse variance weighting were used to obtain summary sex-specific RRs and the women: men ratio of RRs for PAD. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess study quality.

Results

Data from seven cohorts, totalling 2071,260 participants (49.8% women), were included. The relative risk for incident PAD associated with diabetes compared with no diabetes was 1.96 (95% CI 1.29-2.63) in women and 1.84 (95% CI 1.29-2.86) in men, after adjusting for potential confounders. The multiple-adjusted RR ratio was 1.05 (95% CI 0.90-1.22), with virtually no heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 0%). All studies scored 6-8, on the Newcastle-Ottawa scale of 0-9, indicating good quality. Eleven of the 12 studies that met review inclusion criteria did not report sex-specific relative risk, and these data were collected through direct correspondence with the study authors.

Conclusion/interpretation

Consistent with other studies, we found evidence that diabetes is an independent risk factor for PAD. However, in contrast to similar studies of other types of cardiovascular disease, we did not find evidence that diabetes confers a greater excess risk in women compared to men for PAD. More research is needed to explain this sex differential between PAD and other forms of CVD, in the sequelae of diabetes. In addition, we found that very few studies reported the sex-specific relative risk for the association between diabetes and PAD, adding to existing evidence for the need for improved reporting of sex-disaggregated results in cardiovascular disease research.",,pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021?pdf=render 32956399,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003336,Antibiotic prescribing for lower UTI in elderly patients in primary care and risk of bloodstream infection: A cohort study using electronic health records in England.,"Shallcross L, Rockenschaub P, Blackburn R, Nazareth I, Freemantle N, Hayward A.",,PLoS medicine,2020,2020-09-21,Y,,,,"

Background

Research has questioned the safety of delaying or withholding antibiotics for suspected urinary tract infection (UTI) in older patients. We evaluated the association between antibiotic treatment for lower UTI and risk of bloodstream infection (BSI) in adults aged ≥65 years in primary care.

Methods and findings

We analyzed primary care records from patients aged ≥65 years in England with community-onset UTI using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (2007-2015) linked to Hospital Episode Statistics and census data. The primary outcome was BSI within 60 days, comparing patients treated immediately with antibiotics and those not treated immediately. Crude and adjusted associations between exposure and outcome were estimated using generalized estimating equations. A total of 147,334 patients were included representing 280,462 episodes of lower UTI. BSI occurred in 0.4% (1,025/244,963) of UTI episodes with immediate antibiotics versus 0.6% (228/35,499) of episodes without immediate antibiotics. After adjusting for patient demographics, year of consultation, comorbidities, smoking status, recent hospitalizations, recent accident and emergency (A&E) attendances, recent antibiotic prescribing, and home visits, the odds of BSI were equivalent in patients who were not treated with antibiotics immediately and those who were treated on the date of their UTI consultation (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.13, 95% CI 0.97-1.32, p-value = 0.105). Delaying or withholding antibiotics was associated with increased odds of death in the subsequent 60 days (aOR 1.17, 95% CI 1.09-1.26, p-value < 0.001), but there was limited evidence that increased deaths were attributable to urinary-source BSI. Limitations include overlap between the categories of immediate and delayed antibiotic prescribing, residual confounding underlying differences between patients who were/were not treated with antibiotics, and lack of microbiological diagnosis for BSI.

Conclusions

In this study, we observed that delaying or withholding antibiotics in older adults with suspected UTI did not increase patients' risk of BSI, in contrast with a previous study that analyzed the same dataset, but mortality was increased. Our findings highlight uncertainty around the risks of delaying or withholding antibiotic treatment, which is exacerbated by systematic differences between patients who were and were not treated immediately with antibiotics. Overall, our findings emphasize the need for improved diagnostic/risk prediction strategies to guide antibiotic prescribing for suspected UTI in older adults.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003336&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003336; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505443; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505443?pdf=render 35308309,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101346,"Healthcare workers' views on mandatory SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in the UK: A cross-sectional, mixed-methods analysis from the UK-REACH study.","Woolf K, Gogoi M, Martin CA, Papineni P, Lagrata S, Nellums LB, McManus IC, Guyatt AL, Melbourne C, Bryant L, Gupta A, John C, Carr S, Tobin MD, Simpson S, Gregary B, Aujayeb A, Zingwe S, Reza R, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,EClinicalMedicine,2022,2022-03-15,Y,,,,"

Background

Several countries now have mandatory SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for healthcare workers (HCWs) or the general population. HCWs' views on this are largely unknown. Using data from the nationwide UK-REACH study we aimed to understand UK HCW's views on improving SARS-CoV-2 vaccination coverage, including mandatory vaccination.

Methods

Between 21st April and 26th June 2021, we administered an online questionnaire via email to 17 891 UK HCWs recruited as part of a longitudinal cohort from across the UK who had previously responded to a baseline questionnaire (primarily recruited through email) as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) nationwide prospective cohort study. We categorised responses to a free-text question ""What should society do if people do not get vaccinated against COVID-19?"" using qualitative content analysis. We collapsed categories into a binary variable: favours mandatory vaccination or not, using logistic regression to calculate its demographic predictors, and its occupational, health, and attitudinal predictors adjusted for demographics.

Findings

Of 5633 questionnaire respondents, 3235 answered the free text question. Median age of free text responders was 47 years (IQR 36-56) and 2705 (74.3%) were female. 18% (n = 578) favoured mandatory vaccination (201 [6%] participants for HCWs and others working with vulnerable populations; 377 [12%] for the general population), but the most frequent suggestion was education (32%, n = 1047). Older HCWs (OR 1.84; 95% CI 1.44-2.34 [≥55 years vs 16 years to <40 years]), HCWs vaccinated against influenza (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.11-2.01 [2 vaccines vs none]), and with more positive vaccination attitudes generally (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.06-1.15) were more likely to favour mandatory vaccination, whereas female HCWs (OR= 0.79, 95% CI 0.63-0.96, vs male HCWs) and Black HCWs (OR=0.46, 95% CI 0.25-0.85, vs white HCWs) were less likely to.

Interpretation

Only one in six of the HCWs in this large, diverse, UK-wide sample favoured mandatory vaccination. Building trust, educating, and supporting HCWs who are hesitant about vaccination may be more acceptable, effective, and equitable.

Funding

MRC-UK Research and Innovation grant (MR/V027549/1) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Core funding was also provided by NIHR Biomedical Research Centres.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022000761/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101346; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8923694; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8923694?pdf=render 29743285,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k1717,Risk of stroke and transient ischaemic attack in patients with a diagnosis of resolved atrial fibrillation: retrospective cohort studies.,"Adderley NJ, Nirantharakumar K, Marshall T.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2018,2018-05-09,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"

Objectives

To determine rates of stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and all cause mortality in patients with a diagnosis of ""resolved"" atrial fibrillation compared to patients with unresolved atrial fibrillation and without atrial fibrillation.

Design

Two retrospective cohort studies.

Setting

General practices contributing to The Health Improvement Network, 1 January 2000 to 15 May 2016.

Participants

Adults aged 18 years or more with no previous stroke or TIA: 11 159 with resolved atrial fibrillation, 15 059 controls with atrial fibrillation, and 22 266 controls without atrial fibrillation.

Main outcome measures

Primary outcome was incidence of stroke or TIA. Secondary outcome was all cause mortality.

Results

Adjusted incidence rate ratios for stroke or TIA in patients with resolved atrial fibrillation were 0.76 (95% confidence interval 0.67 to 0.85, P<0.001) versus controls with atrial fibrillation and 1.63 (1.46 to 1.83, P<0.001) versus controls without atrial fibrillation. Adjusted incidence rate ratios for mortality in patients with resolved atrial fibrillation were 0.60 (0.56 to 0.65, P<0.001) versus controls with atrial fibrillation and 1.13 (1.06 to 1.21, P<0.001) versus controls without atrial fibrillation. When patients with resolved atrial fibrillation and documented recurrent atrial fibrillation were excluded the adjusted incidence rate ratio for stroke or TIA was 1.45 (1.26 to 1.67, P<0.001) versus controls without atrial fibrillation.

Conclusion

Patients with resolved atrial fibrillation remain at higher risk of stroke or TIA than patients without atrial fibrillation. The risk is increased even in those in whom recurrent atrial fibrillation is not documented. Guidelines should be updated to advocate continued use of anticoagulants in patients with resolved atrial fibrillation.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/361/bmj.k1717.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k1717; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5942157 @@ -2162,8 +2162,8 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 32732227,https://doi.org/10.1136/jmedgenet-2020-106922,Data-driven modelling of mutational hotspots and in silico predictors in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.,"Waring A, Harper A, Salatino S, Kramer C, Neubauer S, Thomson K, Watkins H, Farrall M.",,Journal of medical genetics,2021,2020-07-30,Y,Genetics; Cardiomyopathy; Clinical Genetics,,,"

Background

Although rare missense variants in Mendelian disease genes often cluster in specific regions of proteins, it is unclear how to consider this when evaluating the pathogenicity of a gene or variant. Here we introduce methods for gene association and variant interpretation that use this powerful signal.

Methods

We present statistical methods to detect missense variant clustering (BIN-test) combined with burden information (ClusterBurden). We introduce a flexible generalised additive modelling (GAM) framework to identify mutational hotspots using burden and clustering information (hotspot model) and supplemented by in silico predictors (hotspot+ model). The methods were applied to synthetic data and a case-control dataset, comprising 5338 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients and 125 748 population reference samples over 34 putative cardiomyopathy genes.

Results

In simulations, the BIN-test was almost twice as powerful as the Anderson-Darling or Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests; ClusterBurden was computationally faster and more powerful than alternative position-informed methods. For 6/8 sarcomeric genes with strong clustering, Clusterburden showed enhanced power over burden-alone, equivalent to increasing the sample size by 50%. Hotspot+ models that combine burden, clustering and in silico predictors outperform generic pathogenicity predictors and effectively integrate ACMG criteria PM1 and PP3 to yield strong or moderate evidence of pathogenicity for 31.8% of examined variants of uncertain significance.

Conclusion

GAMs represent a unified statistical modelling framework to combine burden, clustering and functional information. Hotspot models can refine maps of regional burden and hotspot+ models can be powerful predictors of variant pathogenicity. The BIN-test is a fast powerful approach to detect missense variant clustering that when combined with burden information (ClusterBurden) may enhance disease-gene discovery.",,pdf:https://jmg.bmj.com/content/jmedgenet/58/8/556.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jmedgenet-2020-106922; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8327322; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8327322?pdf=render 33495597,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00764-0,Common genetic variants and modifiable risk factors underpin hypertrophic cardiomyopathy susceptibility and expressivity.,"Harper AR, Goel A, Grace C, Thomson KL, Petersen SE, Xu X, Waring A, Ormondroyd E, Kramer CM, Ho CY, Neubauer S, HCMR Investigators, Tadros R, Ware JS, Bezzina CR, Farrall M, Watkins H.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-01-25,N,,,,"Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common, serious, genetic heart disorder. Rare pathogenic variants in sarcomere genes cause HCM, but with unexplained phenotypic heterogeneity. Moreover, most patients do not carry such variants. We report a genome-wide association study of 2,780 cases and 47,486 controls that identified 12 genome-wide-significant susceptibility loci for HCM. Single-nucleotide polymorphism heritability indicated a strong polygenic influence, especially for sarcomere-negative HCM (64% of cases; h2g = 0.34 ± 0.02). A genetic risk score showed substantial influence on the odds of HCM in a validation study, halving the odds in the lowest quintile and doubling them in the highest quintile, and also influenced phenotypic severity in sarcomere variant carriers. Mendelian randomization identified diastolic blood pressure (DBP) as a key modifiable risk factor for sarcomere-negative HCM, with a one standard deviation increase in DBP increasing the HCM risk fourfold. Common variants and modifiable risk factors have important roles in HCM that we suggest will be clinically actionable.",,pdf:https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/113790/1/EMS128763.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00764-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8240954; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8240954?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00764-0 29899974,https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.13830.2,Knowledge discovery for Deep Phenotyping serious mental illness from Electronic Mental Health records.,"Jackson R, Patel R, Velupillai S, Gkotsis G, Hoyle D, Stewart R.",,F1000Research,2018,2018-02-21,Y,Schizophrenia; Serious Mental Illness; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing; Word2vec,,,"Background: Deep Phenotyping is the precise and comprehensive analysis of phenotypic features in which the individual components of the phenotype are observed and described. In UK mental health clinical practice, most clinically relevant information is recorded as free text in the Electronic Health Record, and offers a granularity of information beyond what is expressed in most medical knowledge bases. The SNOMED CT nomenclature potentially offers the means to model such information at scale, yet given a sufficiently large body of clinical text collected over many years, it is difficult to identify the language that clinicians favour to express concepts. Methods: By utilising a large corpus of healthcare data, we sought to make use of semantic modelling and clustering techniques to represent the relationship between the clinical vocabulary of internationally recognised SMI symptoms and the preferred language used by clinicians within a care setting. We explore how such models can be used for discovering novel vocabulary relevant to the task of phenotyping Serious Mental Illness (SMI) with only a small amount of prior knowledge.  Results: 20 403 terms were derived and curated via a two stage methodology. The list was reduced to 557 putative concepts based on eliminating redundant information content. These were then organised into 9 distinct categories pertaining to different aspects of psychiatric assessment. 235 concepts were found to be expressions of putative clinical significance. Of these, 53 were identified having novel synonymy with existing SNOMED CT concepts. 106 had no mapping to SNOMED CT. Conclusions: We demonstrate a scalable approach to discovering new concepts of SMI symptomatology based on real-world clinical observation. Such approaches may offer the opportunity to consider broader manifestations of SMI symptomatology than is typically assessed via current diagnostic frameworks, and create the potential for enhancing nomenclatures such as SNOMED CT based on real-world expressions.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.13830.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5968362; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5968362?pdf=render; pdf:https://f1000research.com/articles/7-210/v2/pdf -34090494,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8,A framework for handling missing accelerometer outcome data in trials.,"Tackney MS, Cook DG, Stahl D, Ismail K, Williamson E, Carpenter J.",,Trials,2021,2021-06-05,Y,Clinical Trial; Missing Data; Accelerometer; Multiple Imputation; Wearables,,,"Accelerometers and other wearable devices are increasingly being used in clinical trials to provide an objective measure of the impact of an intervention on physical activity. Missing data are ubiquitous in this setting, typically for one of two reasons: patients may not wear the device as per protocol, and/or the device may fail to collect data (e.g. flat battery, water damage). However, it is not always possible to distinguish whether the participant stopped wearing the device, or if the participant is wearing the device but staying still. Further, a lack of consensus in the literature on how to aggregate the data before analysis (hourly, daily, weekly) leads to a lack of consensus in how to define a ""missing"" outcome. Different trials have adopted different definitions (ranging from having insufficient step counts in a day, through to missing a certain number of days in a week). We propose an analysis framework that uses wear time to define missingness on the epoch and day level, and propose a multiple imputation approach, at the day level, which treats partially observed daily step counts as right censored. This flexible approach allows the inclusion of auxiliary variables, and is consistent with almost all the primary analysis models described in the literature, and readily allows sensitivity analysis (to the missing at random assumption) to be performed. Having presented our framework, we illustrate its application to the analysis of the 2019 MOVE-IT trial of motivational interviewing to increase exercise.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870?pdf=render 33420068,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-020-00267-3,Mammalian expression of virus-like particles as a proof of principle for next generation polio vaccines.,"Bahar MW, Porta C, Fox H, Macadam AJ, Fry EE, Stuart DI.",,NPJ vaccines,2021,2021-01-08,Y,,,,"Global vaccination programs using live-attenuated oral and inactivated polio vaccine (OPV and IPV) have almost eradicated poliovirus (PV) but these vaccines or their production pose significant risk in a polio-free world. Recombinant PV virus-like particles (VLPs), lacking the viral genome, represent safe next-generation vaccines, however their production requires optimisation. Here we present an efficient mammalian expression strategy producing good yields of wild-type PV VLPs for all three serotypes and a thermostabilised variant for PV3. Whilst the wild-type VLPs were predominantly in the non-native C-antigenic form, the thermostabilised PV3 VLPs adopted the native D-antigenic conformation eliciting neutralising antibody titres equivalent to the current IPV and were indistinguishable from natural empty particles by cryo-electron microscopy with a similar stabilising lipidic pocket-factor in the VP1 β-barrel. This factor may not be available in alternative expression systems, which may require synthetic pocket-binding factors. VLPs equivalent to these mammalian expressed thermostabilized particles, represent safer non-infectious vaccine candidates for the post-eradication era.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-020-00267-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-020-00267-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7794334; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7794334?pdf=render +34090494,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8,A framework for handling missing accelerometer outcome data in trials.,"Tackney MS, Cook DG, Stahl D, Ismail K, Williamson E, Carpenter J.",,Trials,2021,2021-06-05,Y,Clinical Trial; Missing Data; Accelerometer; Multiple Imputation; Wearables,,,"Accelerometers and other wearable devices are increasingly being used in clinical trials to provide an objective measure of the impact of an intervention on physical activity. Missing data are ubiquitous in this setting, typically for one of two reasons: patients may not wear the device as per protocol, and/or the device may fail to collect data (e.g. flat battery, water damage). However, it is not always possible to distinguish whether the participant stopped wearing the device, or if the participant is wearing the device but staying still. Further, a lack of consensus in the literature on how to aggregate the data before analysis (hourly, daily, weekly) leads to a lack of consensus in how to define a ""missing"" outcome. Different trials have adopted different definitions (ranging from having insufficient step counts in a day, through to missing a certain number of days in a week). We propose an analysis framework that uses wear time to define missingness on the epoch and day level, and propose a multiple imputation approach, at the day level, which treats partially observed daily step counts as right censored. This flexible approach allows the inclusion of auxiliary variables, and is consistent with almost all the primary analysis models described in the literature, and readily allows sensitivity analysis (to the missing at random assumption) to be performed. Having presented our framework, we illustrate its application to the analysis of the 2019 MOVE-IT trial of motivational interviewing to increase exercise.",,pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870?pdf=render 33421867,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.053,Comorbidity of self-harm and disordered eating in young people: Evidence from a UK population-based cohort.,"Warne N, Heron J, Mars B, Moran P, Stewart A, Munafò M, Biddle L, Skinner A, Gunnell D, Bould H.",,Journal of affective disorders,2021,2021-01-07,Y,epidemiology; Self-harm; Comorbidity; Alspac; Disordered Eating,,,"

Background

Self-harm and eating disorders are often comorbid in clinical samples but their co-occurrence in the general population is unclear. Given that only a small proportion of individuals who self-harm or have disordered eating present to clinical services, and that both self-harm and eating disorders are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, it is important to study these behaviours at a population level.

Methods

We assessed the co-occurrence of self-harm and disordered eating behaviours in 3384 females and 2326 males from a UK population-based cohort: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Participants reported on their self-harm and disordered eating behaviours (fasting, purging, binge-eating and excessive exercise) in the last year via questionnaire at 16 and 24 years. At each age we assessed how many individuals who self-harm also reported disordered eating, and how many individuals with disordered eating also reported self-harm.

Results

We found high comorbidity of self-harm and disordered eating. Almost two-thirds of 16-year-old females, and two-in-five 24-year old males who self-harmed also reported some form of disordered eating. Young people with disordered eating reported higher levels of self-harm at both ages compared to those without disordered eating.

Limitations

We were not able to measure whether participants identified their disordered eating as a method of self-harm.

Conclusions

Self-harm and disordered eating commonly co-occur in young people in the general population. It is important to screen for both sets of difficulties to provide appropriate treatment.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.053; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.053; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8150329 33050951,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01789-2,Response strategies for COVID-19 epidemics in African settings: a mathematical modelling study.,"van Zandvoort K, Jarvis CI, Pearson CAB, Davies NG, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Ratnayake R, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Jit M, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Checchi F.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-10-14,Y,Control; Response; Africa; Coronavirus; mathematical model; Low-income; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

The health impact of COVID-19 may differ in African settings as compared to countries in Europe or China due to demographic, epidemiological, environmental and socio-economic factors. We evaluated strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 burden in African countries, so as to support decisions that balance minimising mortality, protecting health services and safeguarding livelihoods.

Methods

We used a Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered mathematical model, stratified by age, to predict the evolution of COVID-19 epidemics in three countries representing a range of age distributions in Africa (from oldest to youngest average age: Mauritius, Nigeria and Niger), under various effectiveness assumptions for combinations of different non-pharmaceutical interventions: self-isolation of symptomatic people, physical distancing and 'shielding' (physical isolation) of the high-risk population. We adapted model parameters to better represent uncertainty about what might be expected in African populations, in particular by shifting the distribution of severity risk towards younger ages and increasing the case-fatality ratio. We also present sensitivity analyses for key model parameters subject to uncertainty.

Results

We predicted median symptomatic attack rates over the first 12 months of 23% (Niger) to 42% (Mauritius), peaking at 2-4 months, if epidemics were unmitigated. Self-isolation while symptomatic had a maximum impact of about 30% on reducing severe cases, while the impact of physical distancing varied widely depending on percent contact reduction and R0. The effect of shielding high-risk people, e.g. by rehousing them in physical isolation, was sensitive mainly to residual contact with low-risk people, and to a lesser extent to contact among shielded individuals. Mitigation strategies incorporating self-isolation of symptomatic individuals, moderate physical distancing and high uptake of shielding reduced predicted peak bed demand and mortality by around 50%. Lockdowns delayed epidemics by about 3 months. Estimates were sensitive to differences in age-specific social mixing patterns, as published in the literature, and assumptions on transmissibility, infectiousness of asymptomatic cases and risk of severe disease or death by age.

Conclusions

In African settings, as elsewhere, current evidence suggests large COVID-19 epidemics are expected. However, African countries have fewer means to suppress transmission and manage cases. We found that self-isolation of symptomatic persons and general physical distancing are unlikely to avert very large epidemics, unless distancing takes the form of stringent lockdown measures. However, both interventions help to mitigate the epidemic. Shielding of high-risk individuals can reduce health service demand and, even more markedly, mortality if it features high uptake and low contact of shielded and unshielded people, with no increase in contact among shielded people. Strategies combining self-isolation, moderate physical distancing and shielding could achieve substantial reductions in mortality in African countries. Temporary lockdowns, where socioeconomically acceptable, can help gain crucial time for planning and expanding health service capacity.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01789-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01789-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553800?pdf=render 36982069,https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065161,The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Adults with Major Depressive Disorder from Catalonia: A Decentralized Longitudinal Study.,"Lavalle R, Condominas E, Haro JM, Giné-Vázquez I, Bailon R, Laporta E, Garcia E, Kontaxis S, Alacid GR, Lombardini F, Preti A, Peñarrubia-Maria MT, Coromina M, Arranz B, Vilella E, Rubio-Alacid E, Radar-Mdd Spain, Matcham F, Lamers F, Hotopf M, Penninx BWJH, Annas P, Narayan V, Simblett SK, Siddi S, The Radar-Cns Consortium.",,International journal of environmental research and public health,2023,2023-03-15,Y,Quarantine; Depression; Anxiety; Spain; Lockdown; Remote Measurement Technology; Sars-cov-2; Decentralized Study,,,"The present study analyzes the effects of each containment phase of the first COVID-19 wave on depression levels in a cohort of 121 adults with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) from Catalonia recruited from 1 November 2019, to 16 October 2020. This analysis is part of the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-MDD (RADAR-MDD) study. Depression was evaluated with the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), and anxiety was evaluated with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). Depression's levels were explored across the phases (pre-lockdown, lockdown, and four post-lockdown phases) according to the restrictions of Spanish/Catalan governments. Then, a mixed model was fitted to estimate how depression varied over the phases. A significant rise in depression severity was found during the lockdown and phase 0 (early post-lockdown), compared with the pre-lockdown. Those with low pre-lockdown depression experienced an increase in depression severity during the ""new normality"", while those with high pre-lockdown depression decreased compared with the pre-lockdown. These findings suggest that COVID-19 restrictions affected the depression level depending on their pre-lockdown depression severity. Individuals with low levels of depression are more reactive to external stimuli than those with more severe depression, so the lockdown may have worse detrimental effects on them.",,pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/5161/pdf?version=1678866764; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065161; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10048808; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10048808?pdf=render @@ -2175,17 +2175,17 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 32488134,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65855-8,The Human Leukocyte Antigen Locus and Rheumatic Heart Disease Susceptibility in South Asians and Europeans.,"Auckland K, Mittal B, Cairns BJ, Garg N, Kumar S, Mentzer AJ, Kado J, Perman ML, Steer AC, Hill AVS, Parks T.",,Scientific reports,2020,2020-06-02,Y,,,,"Rheumatic heart disease (RHD), an autoinflammatory heart disease, was recently declared a global health priority by the World Health Organization. Here we report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of RHD susceptibility in 1,163 South Asians (672 cases; 491 controls) recruited in India and Fiji. We analysed directly obtained and imputed genotypes, and followed-up associated loci in 1,459 Europeans (150 cases; 1,309 controls) from the UK Biobank study. We identify a novel susceptibility signal in the class III region of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex in the South Asian dataset that clearly replicates in the Europeans (rs201026476; combined odds ratio 1.81, 95% confidence intervals 1.51-2.18, P = 3.48×10-10). Importantly, this signal remains despite conditioning on the lead class I and class II variants (P = 0.00033). These findings suggest the class III region is a key determinant of RHD susceptibility offering important new insight into pathogenesis while partly explaining the inconsistency of earlier reports.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65855-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65855-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7265443; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7265443?pdf=render 32384159,https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa068,Effectiveness of interventions targeting air travellers for delaying local outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2. ,"Clifford S, Pearson CAB, Klepac P, Van Zandvoort K, Quilty BJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Eggo RM, Flasche S.",,Journal of travel medicine,2020,2020-08-01,Y,,,,"We evaluated if interventions aimed at air travellers can delay local severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) community transmission in a previously unaffected country. We simulated infected air travellers arriving into countries with no sustained SARS-CoV-2 transmission or other introduction routes from affected regions. We assessed the effectiveness of syndromic screening at departure and/or arrival and traveller sensitisation to the COVID-2019-like symptoms with the aim to trigger rapid self-isolation and reporting on symptom onset to enable contact tracing. We assumed that syndromic screening would reduce the number of infected arrivals and that traveller sensitisation reduces the average number of secondary cases. We use stochastic simulations to account for uncertainty in both arrival and secondary infections rates, and present sensitivity analyses on arrival rates of infected travellers and the effectiveness of traveller sensitisation. We report the median expected delay achievable in each scenario and an inner 50% interval. Under baseline assumptions, introducing exit and entry screening in combination with traveller sensitisation can delay a local SARS-CoV-2 outbreak by 8 days (50% interval: 3-14 days) when the rate of importation is 1 infected traveller per week at time of introduction. The additional benefit of entry screening is small if exit screening is effective: the combination of only exit screening and traveller sensitisation can delay an outbreak by 7 days (50% interval: 2-13 days). In the absence of screening, with less effective sensitisation, or a higher rate of importation, these delays shrink rapidly to <4 days. Syndromic screening and traveller sensitisation in combination may have marginally delayed SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in unaffected countries.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article-pdf/27/5/taaa068/33666000/taaa068.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa068; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239177?pdf=render 32855398,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18060-0,Multi-site clonality analysis uncovers pervasive heterogeneity across melanoma metastases.,"Rabbie R, Ansari-Pour N, Cast O, Lau D, Scott F, Welsh SJ, Parkinson C, Khoja L, Moore L, Tullett M, Wong K, Ferreira I, Gómez JMM, Levesque M, Gallagher FA, Jiménez-Sánchez A, Riva L, Miller ML, Allinson K, Campbell PJ, Corrie P, Wedge DC, Adams DJ.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-08-27,Y,,,,"Metastatic melanoma carries a poor prognosis despite modern systemic therapies. Understanding the evolution of the disease could help inform patient management. Through whole-genome sequencing of 13 melanoma metastases sampled at autopsy from a treatment naïve patient and by leveraging the analytical power of multi-sample analyses, we reveal evidence of diversification among metastatic lineages. UV-induced mutations dominate the trunk, whereas APOBEC-associated mutations are found in the branches of the evolutionary tree. Multi-sample analyses from a further seven patients confirmed that lineage diversification was pervasive, representing an important mode of melanoma dissemination. Our analyses demonstrate that joint analysis of cancer cell fraction estimates across multiple metastases can uncover previously unrecognised levels of tumour heterogeneity and highlight the limitations of inferring heterogeneity from a single biopsy.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18060-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18060-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453196; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453196?pdf=render -32543438,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355,Impact of air pollution on educational attainment for respiratory health treated students: A cross sectional data linkage study.,"Mizen A, Lyons J, Milojevic A, Doherty R, Wilkinson P, Carruthers D, Akbari A, Lake I, Davies GA, Al Sallakh M, Fry R, Dearden L, Rodgers SE.",,Health & place,2020,2020-05-12,Y,Air pollution; Asthma; poLLen; Data Linkage; Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis; Educational Attainment,,,"

Introduction

There is some evidence that exam results are worse when students are acutely exposed to air pollution. Studies investigating the association between air pollution and academic attainment have been constrained by small sample sizes.

Methods

Cross sectional educational attainment data (2009-2015) from students aged 15-16 years in Cardiff, Wales were linked to primary health care data, modelled air pollution and measured pollen data, and analysed using multilevel linear regression models. Annual cohort, school and individual level confounders were adjusted for in single and multi-pollutant/pollen models. We stratified by treatment of asthma and/or Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (SAR).

Results

A unit (10μg/m3) increase of short-term exposure to NO2 was associated with 0.044 (95% CI: -0.079, -0.008) reduction of standardised Capped Point Score (CPS) after adjusting for individual and household risk factors for 18,241 students. This association remained statistically significant after controlling for other pollutants and pollen. There was no association of PM2.5, O3, or Pollen with standardised CPS remaining after adjustment. We found no evidence that treatment for asthma or SAR modified the observed NO2 effect on educational attainment.

Conclusion

Our study showed that short-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution, specifically NO2, was associated with detrimental educational attainment for students aged 15-16. Longitudinal investigations in different settings are required to confirm this possible impact and further work may uncover the long-term economic implications, and degree to which impacts are cumulative and permanent.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7214342 32554230,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107196,"Long-term outcomes after epilepsy surgery, a retrospective cohort study linking patient-reported outcomes and routine healthcare data.","Kansu B, Pickrell WO, Lacey AS, Edwards F, Samolia G, Rees MI, Elwes R, Hatfield R, Gray W, Hamandi K.",,Epilepsy & behavior : E&B,2020,2020-06-15,N,Quality of life; Epilepsy Surgery; refractory epilepsy; Long-term Outcomes; Seizure Cessation,,,"

Objective

The objective of the study was to assess the long-term outcomes of epilepsy surgery between 1995 and 2015 in South Wales, UK, linking case note review, postal questionnaire, and routinely collected healthcare data.

Method

We identified patients from a departmental database and collected outcome data from patient case notes, a postal questionnaire, and the QOLIE-31-P and linked with Welsh routinely collected data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank.

Results

Fifty-seven patients were included. Median age at surgery was 34 years (11-70), median: 24 years (2-56) after onset of habitual seizures. Median follow-up was 7 years (2-19). Twenty-eight (49%) patients were free from disabling seizures (Engel Class 1), 9 (16%) experienced rare disabling seizures (Class 2), 13 (23%) had worthwhile improvements (Class 3), and 7 (12%) had no improvement (Class 4). There was a 30% mean reduction in total antiepileptic drug (AED) load at five years postsurgery. Thirty-eight (66.7%) patients experienced tonic-clonic seizures presurgery verses 8 (14%) at last review. Seizure-free patients self-reported a greater overall quality of life (QOL; QOLIE-31-P) when compared with those not achieving seizure freedom. Seizure-free individuals scored a mean of 67.6/100 (100 is best), whereas those with continuing seizures scored 46.0/100 (p < 0.006). There was a significant decrease in the median rate of hospital admissions for any cause after epilepsy surgery (9.8 days per 1000 patient days before surgery compared with 3.9 after p < 0.005).

Significance

Epilepsy surgery was associated with significant improvements in seizures, a reduced AED load, and an improved QOL that closely correlated with seizure outcomes and reduced hospital admission rates following surgery. Despite this, there was a long delay from onset of habitual seizures to surgery. The importance of long-term follow-up is emphasized in terms of evolving medical needs and health and social care outcomes.",,pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa54431/Download/54431__17581__158937c9323541589d7af7dbafa1672d.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107196 33444539,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(20)30559-2,Development and validation of the ISARIC 4C Deterioration model for adults hospitalised with COVID-19: a prospective cohort study.,"Gupta RK, Harrison EM, Ho A, Docherty AB, Knight SR, van Smeden M, Abubakar I, Lipman M, Quartagno M, Pius R, Buchan I, Carson G, Drake TM, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Gamble C, Green CA, Halpin S, Hardwick HE, Holden KA, Horby PW, Jackson C, Mclean KA, Merson L, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Norman L, Olliaro PL, Pritchard MG, Russell CD, Scott-Brown J, Shaw CA, Sheikh A, Solomon T, Sudlow C, Swann OV, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Noursadeghi M, ISARIC4C Investigators.",,The Lancet. Respiratory medicine,2021,2021-01-11,Y,,,,"

Background

Prognostic models to predict the risk of clinical deterioration in acute COVID-19 cases are urgently required to inform clinical management decisions.

Methods

We developed and validated a multivariable logistic regression model for in-hospital clinical deterioration (defined as any requirement of ventilatory support or critical care, or death) among consecutively hospitalised adults with highly suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who were prospectively recruited to the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium (ISARIC4C) study across 260 hospitals in England, Scotland, and Wales. Candidate predictors that were specified a priori were considered for inclusion in the model on the basis of previous prognostic scores and emerging literature describing routinely measured biomarkers associated with COVID-19 prognosis. We used internal-external cross-validation to evaluate discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility across eight National Health Service (NHS) regions in the development cohort. We further validated the final model in held-out data from an additional NHS region (London).

Findings

74 944 participants (recruited between Feb 6 and Aug 26, 2020) were included, of whom 31 924 (43·2%) of 73 948 with available outcomes met the composite clinical deterioration outcome. In internal-external cross-validation in the development cohort of 66 705 participants, the selected model (comprising 11 predictors routinely measured at the point of hospital admission) showed consistent discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility across all eight NHS regions. In held-out data from London (n=8239), the model showed a similarly consistent performance (C-statistic 0·77 [95% CI 0·76 to 0·78]; calibration-in-the-large 0·00 [-0·05 to 0·05]); calibration slope 0·96 [0·91 to 1·01]), and greater net benefit than any other reproducible prognostic model.

Interpretation

The 4C Deterioration model has strong potential for clinical utility and generalisability to predict clinical deterioration and inform decision making among adults hospitalised with COVID-19.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Department for International Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EU Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-)emerging Epidemics, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at University of Liverpool, NIHR HPRU in Respiratory Infections at Imperial College London.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(20)30559-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30559-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7832571 +32543438,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355,Impact of air pollution on educational attainment for respiratory health treated students: A cross sectional data linkage study.,"Mizen A, Lyons J, Milojevic A, Doherty R, Wilkinson P, Carruthers D, Akbari A, Lake I, Davies GA, Al Sallakh M, Fry R, Dearden L, Rodgers SE.",,Health & place,2020,2020-05-12,Y,Air pollution; Asthma; poLLen; Data Linkage; Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis; Educational Attainment,,,"

Introduction

There is some evidence that exam results are worse when students are acutely exposed to air pollution. Studies investigating the association between air pollution and academic attainment have been constrained by small sample sizes.

Methods

Cross sectional educational attainment data (2009-2015) from students aged 15-16 years in Cardiff, Wales were linked to primary health care data, modelled air pollution and measured pollen data, and analysed using multilevel linear regression models. Annual cohort, school and individual level confounders were adjusted for in single and multi-pollutant/pollen models. We stratified by treatment of asthma and/or Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (SAR).

Results

A unit (10μg/m3) increase of short-term exposure to NO2 was associated with 0.044 (95% CI: -0.079, -0.008) reduction of standardised Capped Point Score (CPS) after adjusting for individual and household risk factors for 18,241 students. This association remained statistically significant after controlling for other pollutants and pollen. There was no association of PM2.5, O3, or Pollen with standardised CPS remaining after adjustment. We found no evidence that treatment for asthma or SAR modified the observed NO2 effect on educational attainment.

Conclusion

Our study showed that short-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution, specifically NO2, was associated with detrimental educational attainment for students aged 15-16. Longitudinal investigations in different settings are required to confirm this possible impact and further work may uncover the long-term economic implications, and degree to which impacts are cumulative and permanent.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7214342 35187482,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab291,Metabolic correlates of late midlife cognitive outcomes: findings from the 1946 British Birth Cohort.,"Green R, Lord J, Xu J, Maddock J, Kim M, Dobson R, Legido-Quigley C, Wong A, Richards M, Proitsi P.",,Brain communications,2022,2021-12-15,Y,Cognition; Dementia; Metabolomics; epidemiology; Network Analysis,,,"Investigating associations between metabolites and late midlife cognitive function could reveal potential markers and mechanisms relevant to early dementia. Here, we systematically explored the metabolic correlates of cognitive outcomes measured across the seventh decade of life, while untangling influencing life course factors. Using levels of 1019 metabolites profiled by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (age 60-64), we evaluated relationships between metabolites and cognitive outcomes in the British 1946 Birth Cohort (N = 1740). We additionally conducted pathway and network analyses to allow for greater insight into potential mechanisms, and sequentially adjusted for life course factors across four models, including sex and blood collection (Model 1), Model 1 + body mass index and lipid medication (Model 2), Model 2 + social factors and childhood cognition (Model 3) and Model 3 + lifestyle influences (Model 4). After adjusting for multiple tests, 155 metabolites, 10 pathways and 5 network modules were associated with cognitive outcomes. Of the 155, 35 metabolites were highly connected in their network module (termed 'hub' metabolites), presenting as promising marker candidates. Notably, we report relationships between a module comprised of acylcarnitines and processing speed which remained robust to life course adjustment, revealing palmitoylcarnitine (C16) as a hub (Model 4: β = -0.10, 95% confidence interval = -0.15 to -0.052, P = 5.99 × 10-5). Most associations were sensitive to adjustment for social factors and childhood cognition; in the final model, four metabolites remained after multiple testing correction, and 80 at P < 0.05. Two modules demonstrated associations that were partly or largely attenuated by life course factors: one enriched in modified nucleosides and amino acids (overall attenuation = 39.2-55.5%), and another in vitamin A and C metabolites (overall attenuation = 68.6-92.6%). Our other findings, including a module enriched in sphingolipid pathways, were entirely explained by life course factors, particularly childhood cognition and education. Using a large birth cohort study with information across the life course, we highlighted potential metabolic mechanisms associated with cognitive function in late midlife, suggesting marker candidates and life course relationships for further study.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/4/1/fcab291/42546494/fcab291.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8853724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8853724?pdf=render -35304391,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610,Results of a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial exploring the use of an electronic patient-reported outcome measure in the management of UK patients with advanced chronic kidney disease.,"Kyte D, Anderson N, Bishop J, Bissell A, Brettell E, Calvert M, Chadburn M, Cockwell P, Dutton M, Eddington H, Forster E, Hadley G, Ives NJ, Jackson LJ, O'Brien S, Price G, Sharpe K, Stringer S, Verdi R, Waters J, Wilcockson A.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-18,Y,Clinical Trials; Nephrology; End Stage Renal Failure,,,"

Objectives

The use of routine remote follow-up of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing exponentially. It has been suggested that online electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) could be used in parallel, to facilitate real-time symptom monitoring aimed at improving outcomes. We tested the feasibility of this approach in a pilot trial of ePROM symptom monitoring versus usual care in patients with advanced CKD not on dialysis.

Design

A 12-month, parallel, pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) and qualitative substudy.

Setting and participants

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK. Adult patients with advanced CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥6 and ≤15 mL/min/1.73 m2, or a projected risk of progression to kidney failure within 2 years ≥20%).

Intervention

Monthly online ePROM symptom reporting, including automated feedback of tailored self-management advice and triggered clinical notifications in the advent of severe symptoms. Real-time ePROM data were made available to the clinical team via the electronic medical record.

Outcomes

Feasibility (recruitment and retention rates, and acceptability/adherence to the ePROM intervention). Health-related quality of life, clinical data (eg, measures of kidney function, kidney failure, hospitalisation, death) and healthcare utilisation.

Results

52 patients were randomised (31% of approached). Case report form returns were high (99.5%), as was retention (96%). Overall, 73% of expected ePROM questionnaires were received. Intervention adherence was high beyond 90 days (74%) and 180 days (65%); but dropped beyond 270 days (46%). Qualitative interviews supported proof of concept and intervention acceptability, but highlighted necessary changes aimed at enhancing overall functionality/scalability of the ePROM system.

Limitations

Small sample size.

Conclusions

This pilot trial demonstrates that patients are willing to be randomised to a trial assessing ePROM symptom monitoring. The intervention was considered acceptable; though measures to improve longer-term engagement are needed. A full-scale RCT is considered feasible.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN12669006 and the UK NIHR Portfolio (CPMS ID: 36497).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e050610.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185?pdf=render 32376654,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1203,Use of genetic variation to separate the effects of early and later life adiposity on disease risk: mendelian randomisation study.,"Richardson TG, Sanderson E, Elsworth B, Tilling K, Davey Smith G.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2020,2020-05-06,Y,,,,"

Objective

To evaluate whether body size in early life has an independent effect on risk of disease in later life or whether its influence is mediated by body size in adulthood.

Design

Two sample univariable and multivariable mendelian randomisation.

Setting

The UK Biobank prospective cohort study and four large scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) consortiums.

Participants

453 169 participants enrolled in UK Biobank and a combined total of more than 700 000 people from different GWAS consortiums.

Exposures

Measured body mass index during adulthood (mean age 56.5) and self-reported perceived body size at age 10.

Main outcome measures

Coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and prostate cancer.

Results

Having a larger genetically predicted body size in early life was associated with an increased odds of coronary artery disease (odds ratio 1.49 for each change in body size category unless stated otherwise, 95% confidence interval 1.33 to 1.68) and type 2 diabetes (2.32, 1.76 to 3.05) based on univariable mendelian randomisation analyses. However, little evidence was found of a direct effect (ie, not through adult body size) based on multivariable mendelian randomisation estimates (coronary artery disease: 1.02, 0.86 to 1.22; type 2 diabetes:1.16, 0.74 to 1.82). In the multivariable mendelian randomisation analysis of breast cancer risk, strong evidence was found of a protective direct effect for larger body size in early life (0.59, 0.50 to 0.71), with less evidence of a direct effect of adult body size on this outcome (1.08, 0.93 to 1.27). Including age at menarche as an additional exposure provided weak evidence of a total causal effect (univariable mendelian randomisation odds ratio 0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.91 to 1.06) but strong evidence of a direct causal effect, independent of early life and adult body size (multivariable mendelian randomisation odds ratio 0.90, 0.85 to 0.95). No strong evidence was found of a causal effect of either early or later life measures on prostate cancer (early life body size odds ratio 1.06, 95% confidence interval 0.81 to 1.40; adult body size 0.87, 0.70 to 1.08).

Conclusions

The findings suggest that the positive association between body size in childhood and risk of coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes in adulthood can be attributed to individuals remaining large into later life. However, having a smaller body size during childhood might increase the risk of breast cancer regardless of body size in adulthood, with timing of puberty also putatively playing a role.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/369/bmj.m1203.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1203; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7201936 +35304391,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610,Results of a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial exploring the use of an electronic patient-reported outcome measure in the management of UK patients with advanced chronic kidney disease.,"Kyte D, Anderson N, Bishop J, Bissell A, Brettell E, Calvert M, Chadburn M, Cockwell P, Dutton M, Eddington H, Forster E, Hadley G, Ives NJ, Jackson LJ, O'Brien S, Price G, Sharpe K, Stringer S, Verdi R, Waters J, Wilcockson A.",,BMJ open,2022,2022-03-18,Y,Clinical Trials; Nephrology; End Stage Renal Failure,,,"

Objectives

The use of routine remote follow-up of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing exponentially. It has been suggested that online electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) could be used in parallel, to facilitate real-time symptom monitoring aimed at improving outcomes. We tested the feasibility of this approach in a pilot trial of ePROM symptom monitoring versus usual care in patients with advanced CKD not on dialysis.

Design

A 12-month, parallel, pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) and qualitative substudy.

Setting and participants

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK. Adult patients with advanced CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥6 and ≤15 mL/min/1.73 m2, or a projected risk of progression to kidney failure within 2 years ≥20%).

Intervention

Monthly online ePROM symptom reporting, including automated feedback of tailored self-management advice and triggered clinical notifications in the advent of severe symptoms. Real-time ePROM data were made available to the clinical team via the electronic medical record.

Outcomes

Feasibility (recruitment and retention rates, and acceptability/adherence to the ePROM intervention). Health-related quality of life, clinical data (eg, measures of kidney function, kidney failure, hospitalisation, death) and healthcare utilisation.

Results

52 patients were randomised (31% of approached). Case report form returns were high (99.5%), as was retention (96%). Overall, 73% of expected ePROM questionnaires were received. Intervention adherence was high beyond 90 days (74%) and 180 days (65%); but dropped beyond 270 days (46%). Qualitative interviews supported proof of concept and intervention acceptability, but highlighted necessary changes aimed at enhancing overall functionality/scalability of the ePROM system.

Limitations

Small sample size.

Conclusions

This pilot trial demonstrates that patients are willing to be randomised to a trial assessing ePROM symptom monitoring. The intervention was considered acceptable; though measures to improve longer-term engagement are needed. A full-scale RCT is considered feasible.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN12669006 and the UK NIHR Portfolio (CPMS ID: 36497).",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e050610.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185?pdf=render 36240095,https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000201006,Contribution of Common Genetic Variants to Risk of Early Onset Ischemic Stroke.,"Jaworek T, Xu H, Gaynor BJ, Cole JW, Rannikmae K, Stanne TM, Tomppo L, Abedi V, Amouyel P, Armstrong ND, Attia J, Bell S, Benavente OR, Boncoraglio GB, Butterworth A, Cervical Artery Dissections and Ischemic Stroke Patients (CADSIP) Consortium, Carcel-Marquez J, Chen Z, Chong M, Cruchaga C, Cushman M, Danesh J, Debette S, Duggan DJ, Durda JP, Engstrom G, Enzinger C, Faul JD, Fecteau NS, Fernandez-Cadenas I, Gieger C, Giese AK, Grewal RP, Grittner U, Havulinna AS, Heitsch L, Hochberg MC, Holliday E, Hu J, Ilinca A, INVENT Consortium, Irvin MR, Jackson RD, Jacob MA, Janssen RR, Jimenez-Conde J, Johnson JA, Kamatani Y, Kardia SL, Koido M, Kubo M, Lange L, Lee JM, Lemmens R, Levi CR, Li J, Li L, Lin K, Lopez H, Luke S, Maguire J, McArdle PF, McDonough CW, Meschia JF, Metso T, Muller-Nurasyid M, O'Connor TD, O'Donnell M, Peddareddygari LR, Pera J, Perry JA, Peters A, Putaala J, Ray D, Rexrode K, Ribases M, Rosand J, Rothwell PM, Rundek T, Ryan KA, Sacco RL, Salomaa V, Sanchez-Mora C, Schmidt R, Sharma P, Slowik A, Smith JA, Smith NL, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Soederholm M, Stine OC, Strbian D, Sudlow CL, Tatlisumak T, Terao C, Thijs V, Torres-Aguila NP, Tregouet DA, Tuladhar AM, Veldink JH, Walters RG, Weir DR, Woo D, Worrall BB, Hong CC, Ross O, Zand R, Leeuw FE, Lindgren AG, Pare G, Anderson CD, Markus HS, Jern C, Malik R, Dichgans M, Mitchell BD, Kittner SJ, Early Onset Stroke Genetics Consortium of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC).",,Neurology,2022,2022-08-31,Y,,,,"

Background and objectives

Current genome-wide association studies of ischemic stroke have focused primarily on late onset disease. As a complement to these studies, we sought to identifythe contribution of common genetic variants to risk of early onset ischemic stroke.

Methods

We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of early onset stroke (EOS), ages 18-59, using individual level data or summary statistics in 16,730 cases and 599,237 non-stroke controls obtained across 48 different studies. We further compared effect sizes at associated loci between EOS and late onset stroke (LOS) and compared polygenic risk scores for venous thromboembolism between EOS and LOS.

Results

We observed genome-wide significant associations of EOS with two variants in ABO, a known stroke locus. These variants tag blood subgroups O1 and A1, and the effect sizes of both variants were significantly larger in EOS compared to LOS. The odds ratio (OR) for rs529565, tagging O1, 0.88 (95% CI: 0.85-0.91) in EOS vs 0.96 (95% CI: 0.92-1.00) in LOS, and the OR for rs635634, tagging A1, was 1.16 (1.11-1.21) for EOS vs 1.05 (0.99-1.11) in LOS; p-values for interaction = 0.001 and 0.005, respectively. Using polygenic risk scores, we observed that greater genetic risk for venous thromboembolism, another prothrombotic condition, was more strongly associated with EOS compared to LOS (p=0.008).

Discussion

The ABO locus, genetically predicted blood group A, and higher genetic propensity for venous thrombosis are more strongly associated with EOS than with LOS, supporting a stronger role of prothrombotic factors in EOS.",,pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/99/16/e1738.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000201006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9620803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9620803?pdf=render 33830302,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-021-05428-0,Analysis of overlapping genetic association in type 1 and type 2 diabetes.,"Inshaw JRJ, Sidore C, Cucca F, Stefana MI, Crouch DJM, McCarthy MI, Mahajan A, Todd JA.",,Diabetologia,2021,2021-04-08,Y,Genetics; Insulin; Systematic; Statistics; Type 2 diabetes; type 1 diabetes; Analyses; Genome-wide Association Study; Co-localisation,,,"

Aims/hypothesis

Given the potential shared aetiology between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, we aimed to identify any genetic regions associated with both diseases. For associations where there is a shared signal and the allele that increases risk to one disease also increases risk to the other, inference about shared aetiology could be made, with the potential to develop therapeutic strategies to treat or prevent both diseases simultaneously. Alternatively, if a genetic signal co-localises with divergent effect directions, it could provide valuable biological insight into how the association affects the two diseases differently.

Methods

Using publicly available type 2 diabetes summary statistics from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of European ancestry individuals (74,124 cases and 824,006 controls) and type 1 diabetes GWAS summary statistics from a meta-analysis of studies on individuals from the UK and Sardinia (7467 cases and 10,218 controls), we identified all regions of 0.5 Mb that contained variants associated with both diseases (false discovery rate <0.01). In each region, we performed forward stepwise logistic regression to identify independent association signals, then examined co-localisation of each type 1 diabetes signal with each type 2 diabetes signal using coloc. Any association with a co-localisation posterior probability of ≥0.9 was considered a genuine shared association with both diseases.

Results

Of the 81 association signals from 42 genetic regions that showed association with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, four association signals co-localised between both diseases (posterior probability ≥0.9): (1) chromosome 16q23.1, near CTRB1/BCAR1, which has been previously identified; (2) chromosome 11p15.5, near the INS gene; (3) chromosome 4p16.3, near TMEM129 and (4) chromosome 1p31.3, near PGM1. In each of these regions, the effect of genetic variants on type 1 diabetes was in the opposite direction to the effect on type 2 diabetes. Use of additional datasets also supported the previously identified co-localisation on chromosome 9p24.2, near the GLIS3 gene, in this case with a concordant direction of effect.

Conclusions/interpretation

Four of five association signals that co-localise between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are in opposite directions, suggesting a complex genetic relationship between the two diseases.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00125-021-05428-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-021-05428-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8099827; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8099827?pdf=render 31666367,https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.01037-19,Hash-Based Core Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing for Clostridium difficile. ,"Eyre DW, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS, Wilcox MH.",,Journal of clinical microbiology,2019,2019-12-23,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"Pathogen whole-genome sequencing has huge potential as a tool to better understand infection transmission. However, rapidly identifying closely related genomes among a background of thousands of other genomes is challenging. Here, we describe a refinement to core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) in which alleles at each gene are reproducibly converted to a unique hash, or short string of letters (hash-cgMLST). This avoids the resource-intensive need for a single centralized database of sequentially numbered alleles. We test the reproducibility and discriminatory power of cgMLST/hash-cgMLST compared to those of mapping-based approaches in Clostridium difficile, using repeated sequencing of the same isolates (replicates) and data from consecutive infection isolates from six English hospitals. Hash-cgMLST provided the same results as standard cgMLST, with minimal performance penalty. Comparing 272 replicate sequence pairs using reference-based mapping, there were 0, 1, or 2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between 262 (96%), 5 (2%), and 1 (<1%) of the pairs, respectively. Using hash-cgMLST, 218 (80%) of replicate pairs assembled with SPAdes had zero gene differences, and 31 (11%), 5 (2%), and 18 (7%) pairs had 1, 2, and >2 differences, respectively. False gene differences were clustered in specific genes and associated with fragmented assemblies, but were reduced using the SKESA assembler. Considering 412 pairs of infections with ≤2 SNPS, i.e., consistent with recent transmission, 376 (91%) had ≤2 gene differences and 16 (4%) had ≥4. Comparing a genome to 100,000 others took <1 min using hash-cgMLST. Hash-cgMLST is an effective surveillance tool for rapidly identifying clusters of related genomes. However, cgMLST/hash-cgMLST generate more false variants than mapping-based approaches. Follow-up mapping-based analyses are likely required to precisely define close genetic relationships.",,pdf:https://jcm.asm.org/content/jcm/58/1/e01037-19.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01037-19; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6935933; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6935933?pdf=render -36210437,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7,Hesitancy for receiving regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH study.,"Veli N, Martin CA, Woolf K, Nazareth J, Pan D, Al-Oraibi A, Baggaley RF, Bryant L, Nellums LB, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-10-10,Y,Vaccination; Ethnicity; Healthcare; Hesitancy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Regular vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may be needed to maintain immunity in 'at-risk' populations, which include healthcare workers (HCWs). However, little is known about the proportion of HCWs who might be hesitant about receiving a hypothetical regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or the factors associated with this hesitancy.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of questionnaire data collected as part of UK-REACH, a nationwide, longitudinal cohort study of HCWs. The outcome measure was binary, either a participant indicated they would definitely accept regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination if recommended or they indicated some degree of hesitancy regarding acceptance (probably accept or less likely). We used logistic regression to identify factors associated with hesitancy for receiving regular vaccination.

Results

A total of 5454 HCWs were included in the analysed cohort, 23.5% of whom were hesitant about regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Black HCWs were more likely to be hesitant than White HCWs (aOR 2.60, 95%CI 1.80-3.72) as were those who reported a previous episode of COVID-19 (1.33, 1.13-1.57 [vs those who tested negative]). Those who received influenza vaccination in the previous two seasons were over five times less likely to report hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination than those not vaccinated against influenza in either season (0.18, 0.14-0.21). HCWs who trusted official sources of vaccine information (such as NHS or government adverts or websites) were less likely to report hesitancy for a regular vaccination programme. Those who had been exposed to information advocating against vaccination from friends and family were more likely to be hesitant.

Conclusions

In this study, nearly a quarter of UK HCWs were hesitant about receiving a regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We have identified key factors associated with hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, which can be used to identify groups of HCWs at the highest risk of vaccine hesitancy and tailor interventions accordingly. Family and friends of HCWs may influence decisions about regular vaccination. This implies that working with HCWs and their social networks to allay concerns about SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could improve uptake in a regular vaccination programme.

Trial registration

ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389?pdf=render 30497795,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32207-4,Changes in health in the countries of the UK and 150 English Local Authority areas 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016.,"Steel N, Ford JA, Newton JN, Davis ACJ, Vos T, Naghavi M, Glenn S, Hughes A, Dalton AM, Stockton D, Humphreys C, Dallat M, Schmidt J, Flowers J, Fox S, Abubakar I, Aldridge RW, Baker A, Brayne C, Brugha T, Capewell S, Car J, Cooper C, Ezzati M, Fitzpatrick J, Greaves F, Hay R, Hay S, Kee F, Larson HJ, Lyons RA, Majeed A, McKee M, Rawaf S, Rutter H, Saxena S, Sheikh A, Smeeth L, Viner RM, Vollset SE, Williams HC, Wolfe C, Woolf A, Murray CJL.",,"Lancet (London, England)",2018,2018-10-24,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Previous studies have reported national and regional Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates for the UK. Because of substantial variation in health within the UK, action to improve it requires comparable estimates of disease burden and risks at country and local levels. The slowdown in the rate of improvement in life expectancy requires further investigation. We use GBD 2016 data on mortality, causes of death, and disability to analyse the burden of disease in the countries of the UK and within local authorities in England by deprivation quintile.

Methods

We extracted data from the GBD 2016 to estimate years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and attributable risks from 1990 to 2016 for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the UK, and 150 English Upper-Tier Local Authorities. We estimated the burden of disease by cause of death, condition, year, and sex. We analysed the association between burden of disease and socioeconomic deprivation using the Index of Multiple Deprivation. We present results for all 264 GBD causes of death combined and the leading 20 specific causes, and all 84 GBD risks or risk clusters combined and 17 specific risks or risk clusters.

Findings

The leading causes of age-adjusted YLLs in all UK countries in 2016 were ischaemic heart disease, lung cancers, cerebrovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Age-standardised rates of YLLs for all causes varied by two times between local areas in England according to levels of socioeconomic deprivation (from 14 274 per 100 000 population [95% uncertainty interval 12 791-15 875] in Blackpool to 6888 [6145-7739] in Wokingham). Some Upper-Tier Local Authorities, particularly those in London, did better than expected for their level of deprivation. Allowing for differences in age structure, more deprived Upper-Tier Local Authorities had higher attributable YLLs for most major risk factors in the GBD. The population attributable fractions for all-cause YLLs for individual major risk factors varied across Upper-Tier Local Authorities. Life expectancy and YLLs have improved more slowly since 2010 in all UK countries compared with 1990-2010. In nine of 150 Upper-Tier Local Authorities, YLLs increased after 2010. For attributable YLLs, the rate of improvement slowed most substantially for cardiovascular disease and breast, colorectal, and lung cancers, and showed little change for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Morbidity makes an increasing contribution to overall burden in the UK compared with mortality. The age-standardised UK DALY rate for low back and neck pain (1795 [1258-2356]) was higher than for ischaemic heart disease (1200 [1155-1246]) or lung cancer (660 [642-679]). The leading causes of ill health (measured through YLDs) in the UK in 2016 were low back and neck pain, skin and subcutaneous diseases, migraine, depressive disorders, and sense organ disease. Age-standardised YLD rates varied much less than equivalent YLL rates across the UK, which reflects the relative scarcity of local data on causes of ill health.

Interpretation

These estimates at local, regional, and national level will allow policy makers to match resources and priorities to levels of burden and risk factors. Improvement in YLLs and life expectancy slowed notably after 2010, particularly in cardiovascular disease and cancer, and targeted actions are needed if the rate of improvement is to recover. A targeted policy response is also required to address the increasing proportion of burden due to morbidity, such as musculoskeletal problems and depression. Improving the quality and completeness of available data on these causes is an essential component of this response.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Public Health England.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673618322074/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32207-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6215773; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6215773?pdf=render +36210437,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7,Hesitancy for receiving regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH study.,"Veli N, Martin CA, Woolf K, Nazareth J, Pan D, Al-Oraibi A, Baggaley RF, Bryant L, Nellums LB, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-10-10,Y,Vaccination; Ethnicity; Healthcare; Hesitancy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2,,,"

Background

Regular vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may be needed to maintain immunity in 'at-risk' populations, which include healthcare workers (HCWs). However, little is known about the proportion of HCWs who might be hesitant about receiving a hypothetical regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or the factors associated with this hesitancy.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of questionnaire data collected as part of UK-REACH, a nationwide, longitudinal cohort study of HCWs. The outcome measure was binary, either a participant indicated they would definitely accept regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination if recommended or they indicated some degree of hesitancy regarding acceptance (probably accept or less likely). We used logistic regression to identify factors associated with hesitancy for receiving regular vaccination.

Results

A total of 5454 HCWs were included in the analysed cohort, 23.5% of whom were hesitant about regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Black HCWs were more likely to be hesitant than White HCWs (aOR 2.60, 95%CI 1.80-3.72) as were those who reported a previous episode of COVID-19 (1.33, 1.13-1.57 [vs those who tested negative]). Those who received influenza vaccination in the previous two seasons were over five times less likely to report hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination than those not vaccinated against influenza in either season (0.18, 0.14-0.21). HCWs who trusted official sources of vaccine information (such as NHS or government adverts or websites) were less likely to report hesitancy for a regular vaccination programme. Those who had been exposed to information advocating against vaccination from friends and family were more likely to be hesitant.

Conclusions

In this study, nearly a quarter of UK HCWs were hesitant about receiving a regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We have identified key factors associated with hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, which can be used to identify groups of HCWs at the highest risk of vaccine hesitancy and tailor interventions accordingly. Family and friends of HCWs may influence decisions about regular vaccination. This implies that working with HCWs and their social networks to allay concerns about SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could improve uptake in a regular vaccination programme.

Trial registration

ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN11811602.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389?pdf=render 33203707,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1328,Plasma Vitamin C and Type 2 Diabetes: Genome-Wide Association Study and Mendelian Randomization Analysis in European Populations.,"Zheng JS, Luan J, Sofianopoulou E, Imamura F, Stewart ID, Day FR, Pietzner M, Wheeler E, Lotta LA, Gundersen TE, Amiano P, Ardanaz E, Chirlaque MD, Fagherazzi G, Franks PW, Kaaks R, Laouali N, Mancini FR, Nilsson PM, Onland-Moret NC, Olsen A, Overvad K, Panico S, Palli D, Ricceri F, Rolandsson O, Spijkerman AMW, Sánchez MJ, Schulze MB, Sala N, Sieri S, Tjønneland A, Tumino R, van der Schouw YT, Weiderpass E, Riboli E, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Sharp SJ, Langenberg C, Forouhi NG, Wareham NJ.",,Diabetes care,2021,2020-11-17,Y,,,,"

Objective

Higher plasma vitamin C levels are associated with lower type 2 diabetes risk, but whether this association is causal is uncertain. To investigate this, we studied the association of genetically predicted plasma vitamin C with type 2 diabetes.

Research design and methods

We conducted genome-wide association studies of plasma vitamin C among 52,018 individuals of European ancestry to discover novel genetic variants. We performed Mendelian randomization analyses to estimate the association of genetically predicted differences in plasma vitamin C with type 2 diabetes in up to 80,983 case participants and 842,909 noncase participants. We compared this estimate with the observational association between plasma vitamin C and incident type 2 diabetes, including 8,133 case participants and 11,073 noncase participants.

Results

We identified 11 genomic regions associated with plasma vitamin C (P < 5 × 10-8), with the strongest signal at SLC23A1, and 10 novel genetic loci including SLC23A3, CHPT1, BCAS3, SNRPF, RER1, MAF, GSTA5, RGS14, AKT1, and FADS1. Plasma vitamin C was inversely associated with type 2 diabetes (hazard ratio per SD 0.88; 95% CI 0.82, 0.94), but there was no association between genetically predicted plasma vitamin C (excluding FADS1 variant due to its apparent pleiotropic effect) and type 2 diabetes (1.03; 95% CI 0.96, 1.10).

Conclusions

These findings indicate discordance between biochemically measured and genetically predicted plasma vitamin C levels in the association with type 2 diabetes among European populations. The null Mendelian randomization findings provide no strong evidence to suggest the use of vitamin C supplementation for type 2 diabetes prevention.",,pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-pdf/44/1/98/532486/dc201328.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1328; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7783939; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7783939?pdf=render 35908040,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01534-9,"ISARIC-COVID-19 dataset: A Prospective, Standardized, Global Dataset of Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19.","ISARIC Clinical Characterization Group, Garcia-Gallo E, Merson L, Kennon K, Kelly S, Citarella BW, Fryer DV, Shrapnel S, Lee J, Duque S, Fuentes YV, Balan V, Smith S, Wei J, Gonçalves BP, Russell CD, Sigfrid L, Dagens A, Olliaro PL, Baruch J, Kartsonaki C, Dunning J, Rojek A, Rashan A, Beane A, Murthy S, Reyes LF.",,Scientific data,2022,2022-07-30,Y,,,,"The International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 dataset is one of the largest international databases of prospectively collected clinical data on people hospitalized with COVID-19. This dataset was compiled during the COVID-19 pandemic by a network of hospitals that collect data using the ISARIC-World Health Organization Clinical Characterization Protocol and data tools. The database includes data from more than 705,000 patients, collected in more than 60 countries and 1,500 centres worldwide. Patient data are available from acute hospital admissions with COVID-19 and outpatient follow-ups. The data include signs and symptoms, pre-existing comorbidities, vital signs, chronic and acute treatments, complications, dates of hospitalization and discharge, mortality, viral strains, vaccination status, and other data. Here, we present the dataset characteristics, explain its architecture and how to gain access, and provide tools to facilitate its use.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01534-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01534-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9339000; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9339000?pdf=render 32745807,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.06.023,An epigenome-wide association study of Alzheimer's disease blood highlights robust DNA hypermethylation in the HOXB6 gene.,"Roubroeks JAY, Smith AR, Smith RG, Pishva E, Ibrahim Z, Sattlecker M, Hannon EJ, Kłoszewska I, Mecocci P, Soininen H, Tsolaki M, Vellas B, Wahlund LO, Aarsland D, Proitsi P, Hodges A, Lovestone S, Newhouse SJ, Dobson RJB, Mill J, van den Hove DLA, Lunnon K.",,Neurobiology of aging,2020,2020-07-03,Y,Blood; DNA methylation; Biomarker; Alzheimer's disease (AD); Mild Cognitive Impairment (Mci); Hoxb6,,,"A growing number of epigenome-wide association studies have demonstrated a role for DNA methylation in the brain in Alzheimer's disease. With the aim of exploring peripheral biomarker potential, we have examined DNA methylation patterns in whole blood collected from 284 individuals in the AddNeuroMed study, which included 89 nondemented controls, 86 patients with Alzheimer's disease, and 109 individuals with mild cognitive impairment, including 38 individuals who progressed to Alzheimer's disease within 1 year. We identified significant differentially methylated regions, including 12 adjacent hypermethylated probes in the HOXB6 gene in Alzheimer's disease, which we validated using pyrosequencing. Using weighted gene correlation network analysis, we identified comethylated modules of genes that were associated with key variables such as APOE genotype and diagnosis. In summary, this study represents the first large-scale epigenome-wide association study of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment using blood. We highlight the differences in various loci and pathways in early disease, suggesting that these patterns relate to cognitive decline at an early stage.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.06.023; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.06.023; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7649340 @@ -2196,8 +2196,8 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 33822969,https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab219,Plasma Cortisol and Risk of Atrial Fibrillation: A Mendelian Randomization Study.,"Larsson SC, Lee WH, Burgess S, Allara E.",,The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism,2021,2021-06-01,Y,Cortisol; Atrial fibrillation; Mendelian Randomization; Cushing’s Syndrome,,,"

Context

Atrial fibrillation (AF), cardiac arrhythmias, and related risk factors are common in patients with Cushing's syndrome, or clinical chronic hypercortisolism. While hypercortisolism may be associated with AF, this association has not yet been ascertained causally.

Objective

To determine whether plasma cortisol is causally associated with AF using a 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design.

Methods

Three genetic variants in the SERPINA1/SERPINA6 locus and functionally associated with plasma cortisol were identified in the CORtisol NETwork consortium (12 597 participants). Summary-level genome-wide association study (GWAS) data for the associations between the cortisol-associated variants and AF were obtained from a GWAS meta-analysis of 6 studies (60 620 AF cases and 970 216 noncases) and the FinnGen consortium (17 325 AF cases and 97 214 noncases). The fixed-effects inverse-variance weighted approach accounting for genetic correlations between variants was used for analysis. Multivariable MR analyses were conducted to assess potential mediating effects of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and waist circumference (WC). Summary-level GWAS data for SBP and WC were obtained respectively from the International Consortium of Blood Pressure (757 601 participants) and the Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits consortium (232 101 participants).

Results

One standard deviation increase in genetically predicted plasma cortisol was associated with greater risk of AF (odds ratio [OR] 1.20, 95% CI 1.06-1.35). The association attenuated when adjusting for genetically predicted SBP and WC (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.72-1.38).

Conclusion

Evidence derived from the MR study suggests a positive association between plasma cortisol and risk of AF, likely mediated through SBP and WC.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/106/7/e2521/38663107/dgab219.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab219; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8208666 32831200,https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-200208,Dickkopf-1 Overexpression in vitro Nominates Candidate Blood Biomarkers Relating to Alzheimer's Disease Pathology.,"Shi L, Winchester LM, Liu BY, Killick R, Ribe EM, Westwood S, Baird AL, Buckley NJ, Hong S, Dobricic V, Kilpert F, Franke A, Kiddle S, Sattlecker M, Dobson R, Cuadrado A, Hye A, Ashton NJ, Morgan AR, Bos I, Vos SJB, Ten Kate M, Scheltens P, Vandenberghe R, Gabel S, Meersmans K, Engelborghs S, De Roeck EE, Sleegers K, Frisoni GB, Blin O, Richardson JC, Bordet R, Molinuevo JL, Rami L, Wallin A, Kettunen P, Tsolaki M, Verhey F, Lleó A, Alcolea D, Popp J, Peyratout G, Martinez-Lage P, Tainta M, Johannsen P, Teunissen CE, Freund-Levi Y, Frölich L, Legido-Quigley C, Barkhof F, Blennow K, Rasmussen KL, Nordestgaard BG, Frikke-Schmidt R, Nielsen SF, Soininen H, Vellas B, Kloszewska I, Mecocci P, Zetterberg H, Morgan BP, Streffer J, Visser PJ, Bertram L, Nevado-Holgado AJ, Lovestone S.",,Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD,2020,2020-01-01,Y,Replication; Wnt signaling; Dickkopf-1; Somascan; Atn Framework,,,"

Background

Previous studies suggest that Dickkopf-1 (DKK1), an inhibitor of Wnt signaling, plays a role in amyloid-induced toxicity and hence Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the effect of DKK1 expression on protein expression, and whether such proteins are altered in disease, is unknown.

Objective

We aim to test whether DKK1 induced protein signature obtained in vitro were associated with markers of AD pathology as used in the amyloid/tau/neurodegeneration (ATN) framework as well as with clinical outcomes.

Methods

We first overexpressed DKK1 in HEK293A cells and quantified 1,128 proteins in cell lysates using aptamer capture arrays (SomaScan) to obtain a protein signature induced by DKK1. We then used the same assay to measure the DKK1-signature proteins in human plasma in two large cohorts, EMIF (n = 785) and ANM (n = 677).

Results

We identified a 100-protein signature induced by DKK1 in vitro. Subsets of proteins, along with age and apolipoprotein E ɛ4 genotype distinguished amyloid pathology (A + T-N-, A+T+N-, A+T-N+, and A+T+N+) from no AD pathology (A-T-N-) with an area under the curve of 0.72, 0.81, 0.88, and 0.85, respectively. Furthermore, we found that some signature proteins (e.g., Complement C3 and albumin) were associated with cognitive score and AD diagnosis in both cohorts.

Conclusions

Our results add further evidence for a role of DKK regulation of Wnt signaling in AD and suggest that DKK1 induced signature proteins obtained in vitro could reflect theATNframework as well as predict disease severity and progression in vivo.",,pdf:https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/artpub/2020/pmc_32831200/pmc_32831200.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-200208; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7683080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7683080?pdf=render 31005938,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027289,"Longitudinal access and exposure to green-blue spaces and individual-level mental health and well-being: protocol for a longitudinal, population-wide record-linked natural experiment.","Mizen A, Song J, Fry R, Akbari A, Berridge D, Parker SC, Johnson R, Lovell R, Lyons RA, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Stratton G, Wheeler BW, White J, White M, Rodgers SE.",,BMJ open,2019,2019-04-20,Y,Geographic information systems; Mental health; Environmental exposure; Longitudinal; Wellbeing; Routine Linked Data,Improving Public Health,,"

Introduction

Studies suggest that access and exposure to green-blue spaces (GBS) have beneficial impacts on mental health. However, the evidence base is limited with respect to longitudinal studies. The main aim of this longitudinal, population-wide, record-linked natural experiment, is to model the daily lived experience by linking GBS accessibility indices, residential GBS exposure and health data; to enable quantification of the impact of GBS on well-being and common mental health disorders, for a national population.

Methods and analysis

This research will estimate the impact of neighbourhood GBS access, GBS exposure and visits to GBS on the risk of common mental health conditions and the opportunity for promoting subjective well-being (SWB); both key priorities for public health. We will use a Geographic Information System (GIS) to create quarterly household GBS accessibility indices and GBS exposure using digital map and satellite data for 1.4 million homes in Wales, UK (2008-2018). We will link the GBS accessibility indices and GBS exposures to individual-level mental health outcomes for 1.7 million people with general practitioner (GP) data and data from the National Survey for Wales (n=~12 000) on well-being in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We will examine if these associations are modified by multiple sociophysical variables, migration and socioeconomic disadvantage. Subgroup analyses will examine associations by different types of GBS. This longitudinal study will be augmented by cross-sectional research using survey data on self-reported visits to GBS and SWB.

Ethics and dissemination

All data will be anonymised and linked within the privacy protecting SAIL Databank. We will be using anonymised data and therefore we are exempt from National Research Ethics Committee (NREC). An Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP) application (Project ID: 0562) to link these data has been approved.The research programme will be undertaken in close collaboration with public/patient involvement groups. A multistrategy programme of dissemination is planned with the academic community, policy-makers, practitioners and the public.",,pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/4/e027289.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027289; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6528002; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6528002?pdf=render -33033260,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5,Prostate cancer evolution from multilineage primary to single lineage metastases with implications for liquid biopsy.,"Woodcock DJ, Riabchenko E, Taavitsainen S, Kankainen M, Gundem G, Brewer DS, Ellonen P, Lepistö M, Golubeva YA, Warner AC, Tolonen T, Jasu J, Isaacs WB, Emmert-Buck MR, Nykter M, Visakorpi T, Bova GS, Wedge DC.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-10-08,Y,,,,"The evolutionary progression from primary to metastatic prostate cancer is largely uncharted, and the implications for liquid biopsy are unexplored. We infer detailed reconstructions of tumor phylogenies in ten prostate cancer patients with fatal disease, and investigate them in conjunction with histopathology and tumor DNA extracted from blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Substantial evolution occurs within the prostate, resulting in branching into multiple spatially intermixed lineages. One dominant lineage emerges that initiates and drives systemic metastasis, where polyclonal seeding between sites is common. Routes to metastasis differ between patients, and likely genetic drivers of metastasis distinguish the metastatic lineage from the lineage that remains confined to the prostate within each patient. Body fluids capture features of the dominant lineage, and subclonal expansions that occur in the metastatic phase are non-uniformly represented. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis reveals lineages not detected in blood-borne DNA, suggesting possible clinical utility.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18843-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111?pdf=render 32664951,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-020-00895-5,H3K27ac acetylome signatures reveal the epigenomic reorganization in remodeled non-failing human hearts.,"Pei J, Harakalova M, Treibel TA, Lumbers RT, Boukens BJ, Efimov IR, van Dinter JT, González A, López B, El Azzouzi H, van den Dungen N, van Dijk CGM, Krebber MM, den Ruijter HM, Pasterkamp G, Duncker DJ, Nieuwenhuis EES, de Weger R, Huibers MM, Vink A, Moore JH, Moon JC, Verhaar MC, Kararigas G, Mokry M, Asselbergs FW, Cheng C.",,Clinical epigenetics,2020,2020-07-14,Y,Transcription factor; Histone acetylation; Transcriptome; Myocardial Remodeling,,,"

Background

H3K27ac histone acetylome changes contribute to the phenotypic response in heart diseases, particularly in end-stage heart failure. However, such epigenetic alterations have not been systematically investigated in remodeled non-failing human hearts. Therefore, valuable insight into cardiac dysfunction in early remodeling is lacking. This study aimed to reveal the acetylation changes of chromatin regions in response to myocardial remodeling and their correlations to transcriptional changes of neighboring genes.

Results

We detected chromatin regions with differential acetylation activity (DARs; Padj. < 0.05) between remodeled non-failing patient hearts and healthy donor hearts. The acetylation level of the chromatin region correlated with its RNA polymerase II occupancy level and the mRNA expression level of its adjacent gene per sample. Annotated genes from DARs were enriched in disease-related pathways, including fibrosis and cell metabolism regulation. DARs that change in the same direction have a tendency to cluster together, suggesting the well-reorganized chromatin architecture that facilitates the interactions of regulatory domains in response to myocardial remodeling. We further show the differences between the acetylation level and the mRNA expression level of cell-type-specific markers for cardiomyocytes and 11 non-myocyte cell types. Notably, we identified transcriptome factor (TF) binding motifs that were enriched in DARs and defined TFs that were predicted to bind to these motifs. We further showed 64 genes coding for these TFs that were differentially expressed in remodeled myocardium when compared with controls.

Conclusions

Our study reveals extensive novel insight on myocardial remodeling at the DNA regulatory level. Differences between the acetylation level and the transcriptional level of cell-type-specific markers suggest additional mechanism(s) between acetylome and transcriptome. By integrating these two layers of epigenetic profiles, we further provide promising TF-encoding genes that could serve as master regulators of myocardial remodeling. Combined, our findings highlight the important role of chromatin regulatory signatures in understanding disease etiology.",,pdf:https://clinicalepigeneticsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13148-020-00895-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-020-00895-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7362435; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7362435?pdf=render +33033260,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5,Prostate cancer evolution from multilineage primary to single lineage metastases with implications for liquid biopsy.,"Woodcock DJ, Riabchenko E, Taavitsainen S, Kankainen M, Gundem G, Brewer DS, Ellonen P, Lepistö M, Golubeva YA, Warner AC, Tolonen T, Jasu J, Isaacs WB, Emmert-Buck MR, Nykter M, Visakorpi T, Bova GS, Wedge DC.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-10-08,Y,,,,"The evolutionary progression from primary to metastatic prostate cancer is largely uncharted, and the implications for liquid biopsy are unexplored. We infer detailed reconstructions of tumor phylogenies in ten prostate cancer patients with fatal disease, and investigate them in conjunction with histopathology and tumor DNA extracted from blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Substantial evolution occurs within the prostate, resulting in branching into multiple spatially intermixed lineages. One dominant lineage emerges that initiates and drives systemic metastasis, where polyclonal seeding between sites is common. Routes to metastasis differ between patients, and likely genetic drivers of metastasis distinguish the metastatic lineage from the lineage that remains confined to the prostate within each patient. Body fluids capture features of the dominant lineage, and subclonal expansions that occur in the metastatic phase are non-uniformly represented. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis reveals lineages not detected in blood-borne DNA, suggesting possible clinical utility.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18843-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111?pdf=render 32246132,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0603-8,A harmonized meta-knowledgebase of clinical interpretations of somatic genomic variants in cancer.,"Wagner AH, Walsh B, Mayfield G, Tamborero D, Sonkin D, Krysiak K, Deu-Pons J, Duren RP, Gao J, McMurry J, Patterson S, Del Vecchio Fitz C, Pitel BA, Sezerman OU, Ellrott K, Warner JL, Rieke DT, Aittokallio T, Cerami E, Ritter DI, Schriml LM, Freimuth RR, Haendel M, Raca G, Madhavan S, Baudis M, Beckmann JS, Dienstmann R, Chakravarty D, Li XS, Mockus S, Elemento O, Schultz N, Lopez-Bigas N, Lawler M, Goecks J, Griffith M, Griffith OL, Margolin AA, Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium.",,Nature genetics,2020,2020-04-03,Y,,,,"Precision oncology relies on accurate discovery and interpretation of genomic variants, enabling individualized diagnosis, prognosis and therapy selection. We found that six prominent somatic cancer variant knowledgebases were highly disparate in content, structure and supporting primary literature, impeding consensus when evaluating variants and their relevance in a clinical setting. We developed a framework for harmonizing variant interpretations to produce a meta-knowledgebase of 12,856 aggregate interpretations. We demonstrated large gains in overlap between resources across variants, diseases and drugs as a result of this harmonization. We subsequently demonstrated improved matching between a patient cohort and harmonized interpretations of potential clinical significance, observing an increase from an average of 33% per individual knowledgebase to 57% in aggregate. Our analyses illuminate the need for open, interoperable sharing of variant interpretation data. We also provide a freely available web interface (search.cancervariants.org) for exploring the harmonized interpretations from these six knowledgebases.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-020-0603-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0603-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7127986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7127986?pdf=render 33757590,https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-021-01043-3,Multi-omics integration identifies key upstream regulators of pathomechanisms in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy due to truncating MYBPC3 mutations.,"Pei J, Schuldt M, Nagyova E, Gu Z, El Bouhaddani S, Yiangou L, Jansen M, Calis JJA, Dorsch LM, Blok CS, van den Dungen NAM, Lansu N, Boukens BJ, Efimov IR, Michels M, Verhaar MC, de Weger R, Vink A, van Steenbeek FG, Baas AF, Davis RP, Uh HW, Kuster DWD, Cheng C, Mokry M, van der Velden J, Asselbergs FW, Harakalova M.",,Clinical epigenetics,2021,2021-03-23,Y,Transcription factors; Proteome; Transcriptome; Hcm; Mybpc3; Histone Acetylome,,,"

Background

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic disease of the cardiac muscle, frequently caused by mutations in MYBPC3. However, little is known about the upstream pathways and key regulators causing the disease. Therefore, we employed a multi-omics approach to study the pathomechanisms underlying HCM comparing patient hearts harboring MYBPC3 mutations to control hearts.

Results

Using H3K27ac ChIP-seq and RNA-seq we obtained 9310 differentially acetylated regions and 2033 differentially expressed genes, respectively, between 13 HCM and 10 control hearts. We obtained 441 differentially expressed proteins between 11 HCM and 8 control hearts using proteomics. By integrating multi-omics datasets, we identified a set of DNA regions and genes that differentiate HCM from control hearts and 53 protein-coding genes as the major contributors. This comprehensive analysis consistently points toward altered extracellular matrix formation, muscle contraction, and metabolism. Therefore, we studied enriched transcription factor (TF) binding motifs and identified 9 motif-encoded TFs, including KLF15, ETV4, AR, CLOCK, ETS2, GATA5, MEIS1, RXRA, and ZFX. Selected candidates were examined in stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes with and without mutated MYBPC3. Furthermore, we observed an abundance of acetylation signals and transcripts derived from cardiomyocytes compared to non-myocyte populations.

Conclusions

By integrating histone acetylome, transcriptome, and proteome profiles, we identified major effector genes and protein networks that drive the pathological changes in HCM with mutated MYBPC3. Our work identifies 38 highly affected protein-coding genes as potential plasma HCM biomarkers and 9 TFs as potential upstream regulators of these pathomechanisms that may serve as possible therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://clinicalepigeneticsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13148-021-01043-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-021-01043-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989210; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989210?pdf=render 30524708,https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfy090,The potential for improving cardio-renal outcomes by sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibition in people with chronic kidney disease: a rationale for the EMPA-KIDNEY study.,"Herrington WG, Preiss D, Haynes R, von Eynatten M, Staplin N, Hauske SJ, George JT, Green JB, Landray MJ, Baigent C, Wanner C.",,Clinical kidney journal,2018,2018-10-25,Y,Clinical Trial; cardiovascular; Ckd; Diabetic Kidney Disease; Sglt-2 Inhibitor,"Better, Faster and More Efficient Clinical Trials",,"Diabetes is a common cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD), but in aggregate, non-diabetic diseases account for a higher proportion of cases of CKD than diabetes in many parts of the world. Inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system reduces the risk of kidney disease progression and treatments that lower blood pressure (BP) or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduce cardiovascular (CV) risk in this population. Nevertheless, despite such interventions, considerable risks for kidney and CV complications remain. Recently, large placebo-controlled outcome trials have shown that sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors reduce the risk of CV disease (including CV death and hospitalization for heart failure) in people with type 2 diabetes who are at high risk of atherosclerotic disease, and these effects were largely independent of improvements in hyperglycaemia, BP and body weight. In the kidney, increased sodium delivery to the macula densa mediated by SGLT-2 inhibition has the potential to reduce intraglomerular pressure, which may explain why SGLT-2 inhibitors reduce albuminuria and appear to slow kidney function decline in people with diabetes. Importantly, in the trials completed to date, these benefits appeared to be maintained at lower levels of kidney function, despite attenuation of glycosuric effects, and did not appear to be dependent on ambient hyperglycaemia. There is therefore a rationale for studying the cardio-renal effects of SGLT-2 inhibition in people at risk of CV disease and hyperfiltration (i.e. those with substantially reduced nephron mass and/or albuminuria), irrespective of whether they have diabetes.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/11/6/749/27765283/sfy090.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfy090; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6275453; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6275453?pdf=render @@ -2206,16 +2206,16 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 31341063,https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aan5662,The gut microbiota influences skeletal muscle mass and function in mice. ,"Lahiri S, Kim H, Garcia-Perez I, Reza MM, Martin KA, Kundu P, Cox LM, Selkrig J, Posma JM, Zhang H, Padmanabhan P, Moret C, Gulyás B, Blaser MJ, Auwerx J, Holmes E, Nicholson J, Wahli W, Pettersson S.",,Science translational medicine,2019,2019-07-01,N,,,,"The functional interactions between the gut microbiota and the host are important for host physiology, homeostasis, and sustained health. We compared the skeletal muscle of germ-free mice that lacked a gut microbiota to the skeletal muscle of pathogen-free mice that had a gut microbiota. Compared to pathogen-free mouse skeletal muscle, germ-free mouse skeletal muscle showed atrophy, decreased expression of insulin-like growth factor 1, and reduced transcription of genes associated with skeletal muscle growth and mitochondrial function. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry analysis of skeletal muscle, liver, and serum from germ-free mice revealed multiple changes in the amounts of amino acids, including glycine and alanine, compared to pathogen-free mice. Germ-free mice also showed reduced serum choline, the precursor of acetylcholine, the key neurotransmitter that signals between muscle and nerve at neuromuscular junctions. Reduced expression of genes encoding Rapsyn and Lrp4, two proteins important for neuromuscular junction assembly and function, was also observed in skeletal muscle from germ-free mice compared to pathogen-free mice. Transplanting the gut microbiota from pathogen-free mice into germ-free mice resulted in an increase in skeletal muscle mass, a reduction in muscle atrophy markers, improved oxidative metabolic capacity of the muscle, and elevated expression of the neuromuscular junction assembly genes Rapsyn and Lrp4 Treating germ-free mice with short-chain fatty acids (microbial metabolites) partly reversed skeletal muscle impairments. Our results suggest a role for the gut microbiota in regulating skeletal muscle mass and function in mice.",,pdf:https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/scitransmed/11/502/eaan5662.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aan5662; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7501733; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7501733?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aan5662 31243008,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-316693,Origins of disparities in preventable child mortality in England and Sweden: a birth cohort study.,"Zylbersztejn A, Gilbert R, Hjern A, Hardelid P.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2020,2019-06-26,Y,Respiratory tract infection; Sweden; England; Child Mortality; Sudden Unexpected Death In Infancy,Improving Public Health,,"

Objective

To compare mortality in children aged <5 years from two causes amenable to healthcare prevention in England and Sweden: respiratory tract infection (RTI) and sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI).

Design

Birth cohort study using linked administrative health databases from England and Sweden.

Setting and participants

Singleton live births between 2003 and 2012 in England and Sweden, followed up from age 31 days until the fifth birthday, death or 31 December 2013.

Main outcome measures

The main outcome measures were HR for RTI-related mortality at 31-364 days and at 1-4 years and SUDI mortality at 31-364 days in England versus Sweden estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. We calculated unadjusted HRs and HRs adjusted for birth characteristics (gestational age, birth weight, sex and congenital anomalies) and socioeconomic factors (maternal age and socioeconomic status).

Results

The English cohort comprised 3 928 483 births, 768 RTI-related deaths at 31-364 days, 691 RTI-related deaths at 1-4 years and 1166 SUDIs; the corresponding figures for the Swedish cohort were 1 012 682, 131, 118 and 189. At 31-364 days, unadjusted HR for RTI-related death in England versus Sweden was 1.52 (95% CI 1.26 to 1.82). After adjusting for birth characteristics, the HR reduced to 1.16 (95% CI 0.96 to 1.40) and for socioeconomic factors to 1.11 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.34). At 1-4 years, unadjusted HR was 1.58 (95% CI 1.30 to 1.92) and decreased to 1.32 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.61) after adjusting for birth characteristics and to 1.30 (95% CI 1.07 to 1.59) after further adjustment for socioeconomic factors. For SUDI, the respective HRs were 1.59 (95% CI 1.36 to 1.85) in the unadjusted model, and 1.40 (95% CI 1.20 to 1.63) after accounting for birth characteristics and 1.19 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.39) in the fully adjusted model.

Conclusion

Interventions that improve maternal health before and during pregnancy to reduce the prevalence of adverse birth characteristics and address poverty could reduce child mortality due to RTIs and SUDIs in England.","Zylbersztejn et al. shown that helping mothers to have a healthier pregnancy: better mental health before and during pregnancy, reducing birth complications and addressing poverty are the potential areas which can affect reduction of child mortality at birth. ",pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/1/53.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-316693; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6951233; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6951233?pdf=render 32025702,https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa007,Genomic diversity affects the accuracy of bacterial single-nucleotide polymorphism-calling pipelines. ,"Bush SJ, Foster D, Eyre DW, Clark EL, De Maio N, Shaw LP, Stoesser N, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS.",,GigaScience,2020,2020-02-01,Y,,The Human Phenome,,"Accurately identifying single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from bacterial sequencing data is an essential requirement for using genomics to track transmission and predict important phenotypes such as antimicrobial resistance. However, most previous performance evaluations of SNP calling have been restricted to eukaryotic (human) data. Additionally, bacterial SNP calling requires choosing an appropriate reference genome to align reads to, which, together with the bioinformatic pipeline, affects the accuracy and completeness of a set of SNP calls obtained. This study evaluates the performance of 209 SNP-calling pipelines using a combination of simulated data from 254 strains of 10 clinically common bacteria and real data from environmentally sourced and genomically diverse isolates within the genera Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Escherichia, and Klebsiella. We evaluated the performance of 209 SNP-calling pipelines, aligning reads to genomes of the same or a divergent strain. Irrespective of pipeline, a principal determinant of reliable SNP calling was reference genome selection. Across multiple taxa, there was a strong inverse relationship between pipeline sensitivity and precision, and the Mash distance (a proxy for average nucleotide divergence) between reads and reference genome. The effect was especially pronounced for diverse, recombinogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli but less dominant for clonal species such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The accuracy of SNP calling for a given species is compromised by increasing intra-species diversity. When reads were aligned to the same genome from which they were sequenced, among the highest-performing pipelines was Novoalign/GATK. By contrast, when reads were aligned to particularly divergent genomes, the highest-performing pipelines often used the aligners NextGenMap or SMALT, and/or the variant callers LoFreq, mpileup, or Strelka.","The authors compared the accuracy of data processing steps (called bioinformatics pipelines) for identifying different types of bacteria, and which antibiotics they are resistant to. They identified which processes were most likely to introduce errors for different bacteria, and make recommendations about which pipelines should be used.",pdf:https://watermark.silverchair.com/giaa007.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAArgwggK0BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKlMIICoQIBADCCApoGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQM317Vywl4J0MoRskUAgEQgIICa7pwfJ56Mly4Anv1BPEAmwtKXOLcmFeMLRa66xhgPdK6Ci4Aw3rp4lJMizin326QALNQsODRERKONUxtXgEWVQAk130Fd7XbP6mDWd-0WqGT3cSidkfYveDUH3QNU5fMzLfCj598hrJEAk1z7LTkxKHEy9DQWfFNTCjY53IC7QawbMnwVvVq_lpTKlRP8_qZiTe8qiEKqWNVZ6woCjOc2Rro01EG5_atdzA8zpmJq2R4tx28FbVmIM7dsgYcT7L9DYQIcPQwJxaZSleSNtEyNXeo-WcHn_ezUiaRb0lthzfWPPdge5nY3tlFAelL_HeYo6jn4CkFdniFC28Gr7TuFnrJyj28_OsKYJICwvgwmNPj-T5rf9MGAMgBV3SLK6l87grZuO1r4Q8AfpvbJY9vHrDDayBzhuXMW_g2CFpQDYzMp4tGX8Yu3uS5qDWR81xG0Xqf5p0i0wsw1ZD1ZDA8tla87WrJCjbGwWjoXx2ihhyp6aXc4DC_8FCavms7sXqxQEsoVtDp6hvmpDsPPSvdGRAOjKeaQD2mWFi_3U7ndjd2_0dGVvsD5zDl0_GrRV8QEGNDocCzvibp-DyCby-tfRS4UsoqVA96Gs3ZgVtZzcQbcDt3C069xpbFOJD2rqJ4oyiGdUUh9uWDxgQFKiRvQZbblRH-htJ8tPKjv371GO1Wm6E-asCRSjCkT4vRP3lzDlab36iWZVp5vS5XoumjEnV9wxKBEqkYGywEdZUlG57ygWi11YTdMK3EYXbFqU0xFXvw34Sdl47d5bUDjYEEcxBciYLJqWhQKY9opr4bt5T3SCS107QDE4VOmd4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7002876; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7002876?pdf=render -34308406,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180,Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy in United Kingdom healthcare workers: Results from the UK-REACH prospective nationwide cohort study.,"Woolf K, McManus IC, Martin CA, Nellums LB, Guyatt AL, Melbourne C, Bryant L, Gogoi M, Wobi F, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Gupta A, John C, Tobin MD, Carr S, Simpson S, Gregary B, Aujayeb A, Zingwe S, Reza R, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2021,2021-07-19,Y,,,,"

Background

In most countries, healthcare workers (HCWs) represent a priority group for vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) due to their elevated risk of COVID-19 and potential contribution to nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Concerns have been raised that HCWs from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant (defined by the World Health Organisation as refusing or delaying a vaccination) than those of White ethnicity, but there are limited data on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy and its predictors in UK HCWs.

Methods

Nationwide prospective cohort study and qualitative study in a multi-ethnic cohort of clinical and non-clinical UK HCWs. We analysed ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy adjusting for demographics, vaccine trust, and perceived risk of COVID-19. We explored reasons for hesitancy in qualitative data using a framework analysis.

Findings

11,584 HCWs were included in the cohort analysis. 23% (2704) reported vaccine hesitancy. Compared to White British HCWs (21.3% hesitant), HCWs from Black Caribbean (54.2%), Mixed White and Black Caribbean (38.1%), Black African (34.4%), Chinese (33.1%), Pakistani (30.4%), and White Other (28.7%) ethnic groups were significantly more likely to be hesitant. In adjusted analysis, Black Caribbean (aOR 3.37, 95% CI 2.11 - 5.37), Black African (aOR 2.05, 95% CI 1.49 - 2.82), White Other ethnic groups (aOR 1.48, 95% CI 1.19 - 1.84) were significantly more likely to be hesitant. Other independent predictors of hesitancy were younger age, female sex, higher score on a COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs scale, lower trust in employer, lack of influenza vaccine uptake in the previous season, previous COVID-19, and pregnancy. Qualitative data from 99 participants identified the following contributors to hesitancy: lack of trust in government and employers, safety concerns due to the speed of vaccine development, lack of ethnic diversity in vaccine studies, and confusing and conflicting information. Participants felt uptake in ethnic minority communities might be improved through inclusive communication, involving HCWs in the vaccine rollout, and promoting vaccination through trusted networks.

Interpretation

Despite increased risk of COVID-19, HCWs from some ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant than their White British colleagues. Strategies to build trust and dispel myths surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine in these communities are urgently required. Emphasis should be placed on the safety and benefit of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in pregnancy and in those with previous COVID-19. Public health communications should be inclusive, non-stigmatising and utilise trusted networks.

Funding

UKRI-MRC and NIHR.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519?pdf=render 34051883,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01169-7,"Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Tobacco Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-05-27,Y,,,,"

Background

Ending the global tobacco epidemic is a defining challenge in global health. Timely and comprehensive estimates of the prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden are needed to guide tobacco control efforts nationally and globally.

Methods

We estimated the prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden for 204 countries and territories, by age and sex, from 1990 to 2019 as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study. We modelled multiple smoking-related indicators from 3625 nationally representative surveys. We completed systematic reviews and did Bayesian meta-regressions for 36 causally linked health outcomes to estimate non-linear dose-response risk curves for current and former smokers. We used a direct estimation approach to estimate attributable burden, providing more comprehensive estimates of the health effects of smoking than previously available.

Findings

Globally in 2019, 1·14 billion (95% uncertainty interval 1·13-1·16) individuals were current smokers, who consumed 7·41 trillion (7·11-7·74) cigarette-equivalents of tobacco in 2019. Although prevalence of smoking had decreased significantly since 1990 among both males (27·5% [26·5-28·5] reduction) and females (37·7% [35·4-39·9] reduction) aged 15 years and older, population growth has led to a significant increase in the total number of smokers from 0·99 billion (0·98-1·00) in 1990. Globally in 2019, smoking tobacco use accounted for 7·69 million (7·16-8·20) deaths and 200 million (185-214) disability-adjusted life-years, and was the leading risk factor for death among males (20·2% [19·3-21·1] of male deaths). 6·68 million [86·9%] of 7·69 million deaths attributable to smoking tobacco use were among current smokers.

Interpretation

In the absence of intervention, the annual toll of 7·69 million deaths and 200 million disability-adjusted life-years attributable to smoking will increase over the coming decades. Substantial progress in reducing the prevalence of smoking tobacco use has been observed in countries from all regions and at all stages of development, but a large implementation gap remains for tobacco control. Countries have a clear and urgent opportunity to pass strong, evidence-based policies to accelerate reductions in the prevalence of smoking and reap massive health benefits for their citizens.

Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621011697/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01169-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8223261 +34308406,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180,Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy in United Kingdom healthcare workers: Results from the UK-REACH prospective nationwide cohort study.,"Woolf K, McManus IC, Martin CA, Nellums LB, Guyatt AL, Melbourne C, Bryant L, Gogoi M, Wobi F, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Gupta A, John C, Tobin MD, Carr S, Simpson S, Gregary B, Aujayeb A, Zingwe S, Reza R, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2021,2021-07-19,Y,,,,"

Background

In most countries, healthcare workers (HCWs) represent a priority group for vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) due to their elevated risk of COVID-19 and potential contribution to nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Concerns have been raised that HCWs from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant (defined by the World Health Organisation as refusing or delaying a vaccination) than those of White ethnicity, but there are limited data on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy and its predictors in UK HCWs.

Methods

Nationwide prospective cohort study and qualitative study in a multi-ethnic cohort of clinical and non-clinical UK HCWs. We analysed ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy adjusting for demographics, vaccine trust, and perceived risk of COVID-19. We explored reasons for hesitancy in qualitative data using a framework analysis.

Findings

11,584 HCWs were included in the cohort analysis. 23% (2704) reported vaccine hesitancy. Compared to White British HCWs (21.3% hesitant), HCWs from Black Caribbean (54.2%), Mixed White and Black Caribbean (38.1%), Black African (34.4%), Chinese (33.1%), Pakistani (30.4%), and White Other (28.7%) ethnic groups were significantly more likely to be hesitant. In adjusted analysis, Black Caribbean (aOR 3.37, 95% CI 2.11 - 5.37), Black African (aOR 2.05, 95% CI 1.49 - 2.82), White Other ethnic groups (aOR 1.48, 95% CI 1.19 - 1.84) were significantly more likely to be hesitant. Other independent predictors of hesitancy were younger age, female sex, higher score on a COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs scale, lower trust in employer, lack of influenza vaccine uptake in the previous season, previous COVID-19, and pregnancy. Qualitative data from 99 participants identified the following contributors to hesitancy: lack of trust in government and employers, safety concerns due to the speed of vaccine development, lack of ethnic diversity in vaccine studies, and confusing and conflicting information. Participants felt uptake in ethnic minority communities might be improved through inclusive communication, involving HCWs in the vaccine rollout, and promoting vaccination through trusted networks.

Interpretation

Despite increased risk of COVID-19, HCWs from some ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant than their White British colleagues. Strategies to build trust and dispel myths surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine in these communities are urgently required. Emphasis should be placed on the safety and benefit of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in pregnancy and in those with previous COVID-19. Public health communications should be inclusive, non-stigmatising and utilise trusted networks.

Funding

UKRI-MRC and NIHR.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519?pdf=render 32690604,https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2019-319866,Image-based consensus molecular subtype (imCMS) classification of colorectal cancer using deep learning.,"Sirinukunwattana K, Domingo E, Richman SD, Redmond KL, Blake A, Verrill C, Leedham SJ, Chatzipli A, Hardy C, Whalley CM, Wu CH, Beggs AD, McDermott U, Dunne PD, Meade A, Walker SM, Murray GI, Samuel L, Seymour M, Tomlinson I, Quirke P, Maughan T, Rittscher J, Koelzer VH, S:CORT consortium.",,Gut,2021,2020-07-20,Y,Molecular Pathology; Computerised Image Analysis; Colorectal Pathology,,,"

Objective

Complex phenotypes captured on histological slides represent the biological processes at play in individual cancers, but the link to underlying molecular classification has not been clarified or systematised. In colorectal cancer (CRC), histological grading is a poor predictor of disease progression, and consensus molecular subtypes (CMSs) cannot be distinguished without gene expression profiling. We hypothesise that image analysis is a cost-effective tool to associate complex features of tissue organisation with molecular and outcome data and to resolve unclassifiable or heterogeneous cases. In this study, we present an image-based approach to predict CRC CMS from standard H&E sections using deep learning.

Design

Training and evaluation of a neural network were performed using a total of n=1206 tissue sections with comprehensive multi-omic data from three independent datasets (training on FOCUS trial, n=278 patients; test on rectal cancer biopsies, GRAMPIAN cohort, n=144 patients; and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), n=430 patients). Ground truth CMS calls were ascertained by matching random forest and single sample predictions from CMS classifier.

Results

Image-based CMS (imCMS) accurately classified slides in unseen datasets from TCGA (n=431 slides, AUC)=0.84) and rectal cancer biopsies (n=265 slides, AUC=0.85). imCMS spatially resolved intratumoural heterogeneity and provided secondary calls correlating with bioinformatic prediction from molecular data. imCMS classified samples previously unclassifiable by RNA expression profiling, reproduced the expected correlations with genomic and epigenetic alterations and showed similar prognostic associations as transcriptomic CMS.

Conclusion

This study shows that a prediction of RNA expression classifiers can be made from H&E images, opening the door to simple, cheap and reliable biological stratification within routine workflows.",,pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/70/3/544.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2019-319866; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7873419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7873419?pdf=render 31485076,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1530-7,Structures of influenza A virus RNA polymerase offer insight into viral genome replication.,"Fan H, Walker AP, Carrique L, Keown JR, Serna Martin I, Karia D, Sharps J, Hengrung N, Pardon E, Steyaert J, Grimes JM, Fodor E.",,Nature,2019,2019-09-04,Y,,,,"Influenza A viruses are responsible for seasonal epidemics, and pandemics can arise from the transmission of novel zoonotic influenza A viruses to humans1,2. Influenza A viruses contain a segmented negative-sense RNA genome, which is transcribed and replicated by the viral-RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (FluPolA) composed of PB1, PB2 and PA subunits3-5. Although the high-resolution crystal structure of FluPolA of bat influenza A virus has previously been reported6, there are no complete structures available for human and avian FluPolA. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms of genomic viral RNA (vRNA) replication-which proceeds through a complementary RNA (cRNA) replicative intermediate, and requires oligomerization of the polymerase7-10-remain largely unknown. Here, using crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, we determine the structures of FluPolA from human influenza A/NT/60/1968 (H3N2) and avian influenza A/duck/Fujian/01/2002 (H5N1) viruses at a resolution of 3.0-4.3 Å, in the presence or absence of a cRNA or vRNA template. In solution, FluPolA forms dimers of heterotrimers through the C-terminal domain of the PA subunit, the thumb subdomain of PB1 and the N1 subdomain of PB2. The cryo-electron microscopy structure of monomeric FluPolA bound to the cRNA template reveals a binding site for the 3' cRNA at the dimer interface. We use a combination of cell-based and in vitro assays to show that the interface of the FluPolA dimer is required for vRNA synthesis during replication of the viral genome. We also show that a nanobody (a single-domain antibody) that interferes with FluPolA dimerization inhibits the synthesis of vRNA and, consequently, inhibits virus replication in infected cells. Our study provides high-resolution structures of medically relevant FluPolA, as well as insights into the replication mechanisms of the viral RNA genome. In addition, our work identifies sites in FluPolA that could be targeted in the development of antiviral drugs.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6795553?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1530-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6795553; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6795553?pdf=render 35012533,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02193-0,Circulating inflammatory cytokines and risk of five cancers: a Mendelian randomization analysis.,"Bouras E, Karhunen V, Gill D, Huang J, Haycock PC, Gunter MJ, Johansson M, Brennan P, Key T, Lewis SJ, Martin RM, Murphy N, Platz EA, Travis R, Yarmolinsky J, Zuber V, Martin P, Katsoulis M, Freisling H, Nøst TH, Schulze MB, Dossus L, Hung RJ, Amos CI, Ahola-Olli A, Palaniswamy S, Männikkö M, Auvinen J, Herzig KH, Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi S, Lehtimäki T, Salomaa V, Raitakari O, Salmi M, Jalkanen S, PRACTICAL consortium, Jarvelin MR, Dehghan A, Tsilidis KK.",,BMC medicine,2022,2022-01-11,Y,Cancer; Cytokines; Inflammation; Mendelian Randomisation,,,"

Background

Epidemiological and experimental evidence has linked chronic inflammation to cancer aetiology. It is unclear whether associations for specific inflammatory biomarkers are causal or due to bias. In order to examine whether altered genetically predicted concentration of circulating cytokines are associated with cancer development, we performed a two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis.

Methods

Up to 31,112 individuals of European descent were included in genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses of 47 circulating cytokines. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) robustly associated with the cytokines, located in or close to their coding gene (cis), were used as instrumental variables. Inverse-variance weighted MR was used as the primary analysis, and the MR assumptions were evaluated in sensitivity and colocalization analyses and a false discovery rate (FDR) correction for multiple comparisons was applied. Corresponding germline GWAS summary data for five cancer outcomes (breast, endometrial, lung, ovarian, and prostate), and their subtypes were selected from the largest cancer-specific GWASs available (cases ranging from 12,906 for endometrial to 133,384 for breast cancer).

Results

There was evidence of inverse associations of macrophage migration inhibitory factor with breast cancer (OR per SD = 0.88, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.94), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist with endometrial cancer (0.86, 0.80 to 0.93), interleukin-18 with lung cancer (0.87, 0.81 to 0.93), and beta-chemokine-RANTES with ovarian cancer (0.70, 0.57 to 0.85) and positive associations of monokine induced by gamma interferon with endometrial cancer (3.73, 1.86 to 7.47) and cutaneous T-cell attracting chemokine with lung cancer (1.51, 1.22 to 1.87). These associations were similar in sensitivity analyses and supported in colocalization analyses.

Conclusions

Our study adds to current knowledge on the role of specific inflammatory biomarker pathways in cancer aetiology. Further validation is needed to assess the potential of these cytokines as pharmacological or lifestyle targets for cancer prevention.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02193-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02193-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8750876; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8750876?pdf=render 31607442,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.09.036,Over view of major traumatic injury in Australia--Implications for trauma system design.,"Cameron PA, Fitzgerald MC, Curtis K, McKie E, Gabbe B, Earnest A, Christey G, Clarke C, Crozier J, Dinh M, Ellis DY, Howard T, Joseph AP, McDermott K, Matthew J, Ogilvie R, Pollard C, Rao S, Reade M, Rushworth N, Zalstein S, Australian Trauma Quality Improvement Program (AusTQIP) collaboration.",,Injury,2020,2019-10-03,N,Quality improvement; epidemiology; Older Adults; Risk Adjustment; Trauma System; Major Trauma; System Of Care; Trauma Registries; Injury Burden,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Trauma registries are known to drive improvements and optimise trauma systems worldwide. This is the first reported comparison of the epidemiology and outcomes at major centres across Australia.

Methods

The Australian Trauma Registry was a collaboration of 26 major trauma centres across Australia at the time of this study and currently collects information on patients admitted to these centres who die after injury and/or sustain major trauma (Injury Severity Score (ISS) > 12). Data from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017 were analysed. Primary endpoints were risk adjusted length of stay and mortality (adjusted for age, cause of injury, arrival Glasgow coma scale (GCS), shock-index grouped in quartiles and ISS).

Results

There were 8423 patients from 24 centres included. The median age (IQR) was 48 (28-68) years. Median (IQR) ISS was 17 (14-25). There was a predominance of males (72%) apart from the extremes of age. Transport-related cases accounted for 45% of major trauma, followed by falls (35.1%). Patients took 1.42 (1.03-2.12) h to reach hospital and spent 7.10 (3.64-15.00) days in hospital. Risk adjusted length of stay and mortality did not differ significantly across sites. Primary endpoints across sites were also similar in paediatric and older adult (>65) age groups.

Conclusion

Australia has the capability to identify national injury trends to target prevention and reduce the burden of injury. Quality of care following injury can now be benchmarked across Australia and with the planned enhancements to data collection and reporting, this will enable improved management of trauma victims.","This paper looks at the implications for trauma system design based on major traumatic injuries in Australia and aims to describe the current epidemiology of major trauma across the country, identifying improvements and future directions in the system of trauma care in Australia. This is the first reported comparison of the epidemiology and outcomes at major centres across Australia. They concluded that Australia now has the capability to identify national injury trends in patients admitted to major trauma services, optimising prevention and treamtnet strategies, thereby potentially reducing the burden of injury.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.09.036 34562388,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01258-7,"Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19: a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050.",Global Burden of Disease 2020 Health Financing Collaborator Network.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-09-22,Y,,,,"

Background

The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020.

Methods

We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$ per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050.

Findings

In 2019, health spending globally reached $8·8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8·7-8·8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total, $40·4 billion (0·5%, 95% UI 0·5-0·5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24·6% (UI 24·0-25·1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54·8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this, $13·7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12·3 billion was newly committed and $1·4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3·1 billion (22·4%) of the funds focused on country-level coordination and $2·4 billion (17·9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714·4 million (7·7%) of COVID-19 development assistance for health went to Latin America, despite this region reporting 34·3% of total recorded COVID-19 deaths in low-income or middle-income countries in 2020. Spending on health is expected to rise to $1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied.

Interpretation

Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01258-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01258-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8457757; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8457757?pdf=render 34059199,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.65325,Alcohol consumption in the general population is associated with structural changes in multiple organ systems.,"Evangelou E, Suzuki H, Bai W, Pazoki R, Gao H, Matthews PM, Elliott P.",,eLife,2021,2021-06-01,Y,Brain; Liver; Heart; Aorta; Imaging; alcohol consumption; epidemiology; Global Health; None,,,"

Background

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with damage to various organs, but its multi-organ effects have not been characterised across the usual range of alcohol drinking in a large general population sample.

Methods

We assessed global effect sizes of alcohol consumption on quantitative magnetic resonance imaging phenotypic measures of the brain, heart, aorta, and liver of UK Biobank participants who reported drinking alcohol.

Results

We found a monotonic association of higher alcohol consumption with lower normalised brain volume across the range of alcohol intakes (-1.7 × 10-3 ± 0.76 × 10-3 per doubling of alcohol consumption, p=3.0 × 10-14). Alcohol consumption was also associated directly with measures of left ventricular mass index and left ventricular and atrial volume indices. Liver fat increased by a mean of 0.15% per doubling of alcohol consumption.

Conclusions

Our results imply that there is not a 'safe threshold' below which there are no toxic effects of alcohol. Current public health guidelines concerning alcohol consumption may need to be revisited.

Funding

See acknowledgements.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.65325; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65325; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192119; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192119?pdf=render -32461653,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z,Evaluating drug targets through human loss-of-function genetic variation.,"Minikel EV, Karczewski KJ, Martin HC, Cummings BB, Whiffin N, Rhodes D, Alföldi J, Trembath RC, van Heel DA, Daly MJ, Genome Aggregation Database Production Team, Genome Aggregation Database Consortium, Schreiber SL, MacArthur DG.",,Nature,2020,2020-05-27,Y,,,,"Naturally occurring human genetic variants that are predicted to inactivate protein-coding genes provide an in vivo model of human gene inactivation that complements knockout studies in cells and model organisms. Here we report three key findings regarding the assessment of candidate drug targets using human loss-of-function variants. First, even essential genes, in which loss-of-function variants are not tolerated, can be highly successful as targets of inhibitory drugs. Second, in most genes, loss-of-function variants are sufficiently rare that genotype-based ascertainment of homozygous or compound heterozygous 'knockout' humans will await sample sizes that are approximately 1,000 times those presently available, unless recruitment focuses on consanguineous individuals. Third, automated variant annotation and filtering are powerful, but manual curation remains crucial for removing artefacts, and is a prerequisite for recall-by-genotype efforts. Our results provide a roadmap for human knockout studies and should guide the interpretation of loss-of-function variants in drug development.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2267-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226?pdf=render 33277303,https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1137,Sex Differences in the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease Associated With Type 2 Diabetes: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis.,"Peters TM, Holmes MV, Richards JB, Palmer T, Forgetta V, Lindgren CM, Asselbergs FW, Nelson CP, Samani NJ, McCarthy MI, Mahajan A, Davey Smith G, Woodward M, O'Keeffe LM, Peters SAE.",,Diabetes care,2021,2020-12-04,Y,,,,"

Objective

Observational studies have demonstrated that type 2 diabetes is a stronger risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) in women compared with men. However, it is not clear whether this reflects a sex differential in the causal effect of diabetes on CHD risk or results from sex-specific residual confounding.

Research design and methods

Using 270 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for type 2 diabetes identified in a type 2 diabetes genome-wide association study, we performed a sex-stratified Mendelian randomization (MR) study of type 2 diabetes and CHD using individual participant data in UK Biobank (251,420 women and 212,049 men). Weighted median, MR-Egger, MR-pleiotropy residual sum and outlier, and radial MR from summary-level analyses were used for pleiotropy assessment.

Results

MR analyses showed that genetic risk of type 2 diabetes increased the odds of CHD for women (odds ratio 1.13 [95% CI 1.08-1.18] per 1-log unit increase in odds of type 2 diabetes) and men (1.21 [1.17-1.26] per 1-log unit increase in odds of type 2 diabetes). Sensitivity analyses showed some evidence of directional pleiotropy; however, results were similar after correction for outlier SNPs.

Conclusions

This MR analysis supports a causal effect of genetic liability to type 2 diabetes on risk of CHD that is not stronger for women than men. Assuming a lack of bias, these findings suggest that the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes for CHD risk reduction is of equal priority in both sexes.",,pdf:https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/44/2/556.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1137; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7818328; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7818328?pdf=render +32461653,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z,Evaluating drug targets through human loss-of-function genetic variation.,"Minikel EV, Karczewski KJ, Martin HC, Cummings BB, Whiffin N, Rhodes D, Alföldi J, Trembath RC, van Heel DA, Daly MJ, Genome Aggregation Database Production Team, Genome Aggregation Database Consortium, Schreiber SL, MacArthur DG.",,Nature,2020,2020-05-27,Y,,,,"Naturally occurring human genetic variants that are predicted to inactivate protein-coding genes provide an in vivo model of human gene inactivation that complements knockout studies in cells and model organisms. Here we report three key findings regarding the assessment of candidate drug targets using human loss-of-function variants. First, even essential genes, in which loss-of-function variants are not tolerated, can be highly successful as targets of inhibitory drugs. Second, in most genes, loss-of-function variants are sufficiently rare that genotype-based ascertainment of homozygous or compound heterozygous 'knockout' humans will await sample sizes that are approximately 1,000 times those presently available, unless recruitment focuses on consanguineous individuals. Third, automated variant annotation and filtering are powerful, but manual curation remains crucial for removing artefacts, and is a prerequisite for recall-by-genotype efforts. Our results provide a roadmap for human knockout studies and should guide the interpretation of loss-of-function variants in drug development.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2267-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226?pdf=render 31719529,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12515-9,Genome-wide association study of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis reveals genomic loci stratified by ANCA status.,"Lyons PA, Peters JE, Alberici F, Liley J, Coulson RMR, Astle W, Baldini C, Bonatti F, Cid MC, Elding H, Emmi G, Epplen J, Guillevin L, Jayne DRW, Jiang T, Gunnarsson I, Lamprecht P, Leslie S, Little MA, Martorana D, Moosig F, Neumann T, Ohlsson S, Quickert S, Ramirez GA, Rewerska B, Schett G, Sinico RA, Szczeklik W, Tesar V, Vukcevic D, European Vasculitis Genetics Consortium, Terrier B, Watts RA, Vaglio A, Holle JU, Wallace C, Smith KGC.",,Nature communications,2019,2019-11-12,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a rare inflammatory disease of unknown cause. 30% of patients have anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) specific for myeloperoxidase (MPO). Here, we describe a genome-wide association study in 676 EGPA cases and 6809 controls, that identifies 4 EGPA-associated loci through conventional case-control analysis, and 4 additional associations through a conditional false discovery rate approach. Many variants are also associated with asthma and six are associated with eosinophil count in the general population. Through Mendelian randomisation, we show that a primary tendency to eosinophilia contributes to EGPA susceptibility. Stratification by ANCA reveals that EGPA comprises two genetically and clinically distinct syndromes. MPO+ ANCA EGPA is an eosinophilic autoimmune disease sharing certain clinical features and an HLA-DQ association with MPO+ ANCA-associated vasculitis, while ANCA-negative EGPA may instead have a mucosal/barrier dysfunction origin. Four candidate genes are targets of therapies in development, supporting their exploration in EGPA.","This study aimed to identify parts of the genome that cause a rare inflammatory disease called EGPA, which usually starts with non-specific and common (asthma, raised levels of white blood cells) symptoms, followed by more distinctive patterns of symptoms as the disease progresses. The authors used two different statistical methods to compare the genomes of 534 people with EGPA and 6688 people without EGPA. They identified 8 parts of the genome that are likely to contribute to EGPA, but do not fully explain the disease. The study suggests that there are two types of EGPA that have different symptoms (with/without autoimmune vasculitis) and genetic causes. Four of the parts of the genome identified by the study are the target for drugs that are currently underdevelopment.",pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12515-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12515-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851141; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851141?pdf=render 33428996,https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2020.12.008,Validation of Risk Prediction Models to Inform Clinical Decisions After Acute Kidney Injury.,"Sawhney S, Tan Z, Black C, Marks A, Mclernon DJ, Ronksley P, James MT.",,American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation,2021,2021-01-09,Y,Mortality; Death; net benefit; Risk Prediction; Follow-up Care; Acute Kidney Injury (Aki); Chronic Kidney Disease (Ckd); Hospital Readmission; Ckd Progression; Ckd Surveillance; Model-guided Decisions; Post-aki Care; Post-discharge Monitoring,,,"

Rationale & objective

There is limited evidence to guide follow-up after acute kidney injury (AKI). Knowledge gaps include which patients to prioritize, at what time point, and for mitigation of which outcomes. In this study, we sought to compare the net benefit of risk model-based clinical decisions following AKI.

Study design

External validation of 2 risk models of AKI outcomes: the Grampian -Aberdeen (United Kingdom) AKI readmissions model and the Alberta (Canada) kidney disease risk model of chronic kidney disease (CKD) glomerular (G) filtration rate categories 4 and 5 (CKD G4 and G5). Process mining to delineate existing care pathways.

Setting & participants

Validation was based on data from adult hospital survivors of AKI from Grampian, 2011-2013.

Predictors

KDIGO-based measures of AKI severity and comorbidities specified in the original models.

Outcomes

Death or readmission within 90 days for all hospital survivors. Progression to new CKD G4-G5 for patients surviving at least 90 days after AKI.

Analytical approach

Decision curve analysis to assess the ""net benefit"" of use of risk models to guide clinical care compared to alternative approaches (eg, prioritizing all AKI, severe AKI, or only those without kidney recovery).

Results

26,575 of 105,461 hospital survivors in Grampian (mean age, 60.9 ± 19.8 [SD] years) were included for validation of the death or readmission model, and 9,382 patients (mean age, 60.9 ± 19.8 years) for the CKD G4-G5 model. Both models discriminated well (area under the curve [AUC], 0.77 and 0.86, respectively). Decision curve analysis showed greater net benefit for follow up of all AKI than only severe AKI in most cases. Both original and refitted models provided net benefit superior to any other decision strategy. In process mining of all hospital discharges, 41% of readmissions and deaths occurred among people recovering after AKI. 1,464 of 3,776 people (39%) readmitted after AKI had received no intervening monitoring.

Limitations

Both original models overstated risks, indicating a need for regular updating.

Conclusions

Follow up after AKI has potential net benefit for preempting readmissions, death, and subsequent CKD progression. Decisions could be improved by using risk models and by focusing on AKI across a full spectrum of severity. The current lack of monitoring among many with poor outcomes indicates possible opportunities for implementation of decision support.",,pdf:http://www.ajkd.org/article/S0272638621000044/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2020.12.008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8234511; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8234511?pdf=render 32380893,https://doi.org/10.1177/0962280220920669,Optimal individualized decision rules from a multi-arm trial: A comparison of methods and an application to tailoring inter-donation intervals among blood donors in the UK.,"Xu Y, Wood AM, Sweeting MJ, Roberts DJ, Tom BD.",,Statistical methods in medical research,2020,2020-05-08,Y,Blood Donation; Precision Medicine; Individualized Treatment Rule; Utility Function; Multi-arm Trial,,,"There is a growing interest in precision medicine where individual heterogeneity is incorporated into decision-making and treatments are tailored to individuals to provide better healthcare. One important aspect of precision medicine is the estimation of the optimal individualized treatment rule (ITR) that optimizes the expected outcome. Most methods developed for this purpose are restricted to the setting with two treatments, while clinical studies with more than two treatments are common in practice. In this work, we summarize methods to estimate the optimal ITR in the multi-arm setting and compare their performance in large-scale clinical trials via simulation studies. We then illustrate their utilities with a case study using the data from the INTERVAL trial, which randomly assigned over 20,000 male blood donors from England to one of the three inter-donation intervals (12-week, 10-week, and eight-week) over two years. We estimate the optimal individualized donation strategies under three different objectives. Our findings are fairly consistent across five different approaches that are applied: when we target the maximization of the total units of blood collected, almost all donors are assigned to the eight-week inter-donation interval, whereas if we aim at minimizing the low hemoglobin deferral rates, almost all donors are assigned to donate every 12 weeks. However, when the goal is to maximize the utility score that ""discounts"" the total units of blood collected by the incidences of low hemoglobin deferrals, we observe some heterogeneity in the optimal inter-donation interval across donors and the optimal donor assignment strategy is highly dependent on the trade-off parameter in the utility function.",,pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0962280220920669; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0962280220920669; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7682530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7682530?pdf=render @@ -2226,17 +2226,17 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 32134384,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.52677,Brain aging comprises many modes of structural and functional change with distinct genetic and biophysical associations. ,"Smith SM, Elliott LT, Alfaro-Almagro F, McCarthy P, Nichols TE, Douaud G, Miller KL.",,eLife,2020,2020-03-05,Y,,,,"Brain imaging can be used to study how individuals' brains are aging, compared against population norms. This can inform on aspects of brain health; for example, smoking and blood pressure can be seen to accelerate brain aging. Typically, a single 'brain age' is estimated per subject, whereas here we identified 62 modes of subject variability, from 21,407 subjects' multimodal brain imaging data in UK Biobank. The modes represent different aspects of brain aging, showing distinct patterns of functional and structural brain change, and distinct patterns of association with genetics, lifestyle, cognition, physical measures and disease. While conventional brain-age modelling found no genetic associations, 34 modes had genetic associations. We suggest that it is important not to treat brain aging as a single homogeneous process, and that modelling of distinct patterns of structural and functional change will reveal more biologically meaningful markers of brain aging in health and disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.52677; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7162660; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7162660?pdf=render 32502389,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30133-x,"Effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 cases, deaths, and demand for hospital services in the UK: a modelling study.","Davies NG, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Gimma A, Edmunds WJ, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 working group.",,The Lancet. Public health,2020,2020-06-02,Y,,,,"

Background

Non-pharmaceutical interventions have been implemented to reduce transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the UK. Projecting the size of an unmitigated epidemic and the potential effect of different control measures has been crucial to support evidence-based policy making during the early stages of the epidemic. This study assesses the potential impact of different control measures for mitigating the burden of COVID-19 in the UK.

Methods

We used a stochastic age-structured transmission model to explore a range of intervention scenarios, tracking 66·4 million people aggregated to 186 county-level administrative units in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The four base interventions modelled were school closures, physical distancing, shielding of people aged 70 years or older, and self-isolation of symptomatic cases. We also modelled the combination of these interventions, as well as a programme of intensive interventions with phased lockdown-type restrictions that substantially limited contacts outside of the home for repeated periods. We simulated different triggers for the introduction of interventions, and estimated the impact of varying adherence to interventions across counties. For each scenario, we projected estimated new cases over time, patients requiring inpatient and critical care (ie, admission to the intensive care units [ICU]) treatment, and deaths, and compared the effect of each intervention on the basic reproduction number, R0.

Findings

We projected a median unmitigated burden of 23 million (95% prediction interval 13-30) clinical cases and 350 000 deaths (170 000-480 000) due to COVID-19 in the UK by December, 2021. We found that the four base interventions were each likely to decrease R0, but not sufficiently to prevent ICU demand from exceeding health service capacity. The combined intervention was more effective at reducing R0, but only lockdown periods were sufficient to bring R0 near or below 1; the most stringent lockdown scenario resulted in a projected 120 000 cases (46 000-700 000) and 50 000 deaths (9300-160 000). Intensive interventions with lockdown periods would need to be in place for a large proportion of the coming year to prevent health-care demand exceeding availability.

Interpretation

The characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 mean that extreme measures are probably required to bring the epidemic under control and to prevent very large numbers of deaths and an excess of demand on hospital beds, especially those in ICUs.

Funding

Medical Research Council.","The paper identifies the following; This paper identifies the influence of different interventions on COVID on cases, deaths, and demands for hospital services in the UK. This was achieved utilising modelling techniques. The paper concludes that the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 mean that extreme measures are probably required to bring the epidemic under control and to prevent very large numbers of deaths and an excess of demand on hospital beds, especially those in ICUs. However, Biobank is not very representative of age, ethniticity and deprivation.",doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30133-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30133-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7266572; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7266572?pdf=render 30941398,https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwz090,Determinants of Transmission Risk During the Late Stage of the West African Ebola Epidemic.,"Robert A, Edmunds WJ, Watson CH, Henao-Restrepo AM, Gsell PS, Williamson E, Longini IM, Sakoba K, Kucharski AJ, Touré A, Nadlaou SD, Diallo B, Barry MS, Fofana TO, Camara L, Kaba IL, Sylla L, Diaby ML, Soumah O, Diallo A, Niare A, Diallo A, Eggo RM.",,American journal of epidemiology,2019,2019-07-01,Y,Regression analysis; Guinea; risk factors; Multiple Imputation; Ebola,"Applied Analytics, Improving Public Health",,"Understanding risk factors for Ebola transmission is key for effective prediction and design of interventions. We used data on 860 cases in 129 chains of transmission from the latter half of the 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic in Guinea. Using negative binomial regression, we determined characteristics associated with the number of secondary cases resulting from each infected individual. We found that attending an Ebola treatment unit was associated with a 38% decrease in secondary cases (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.62, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.38, 0.99) among individuals that did not survive. Unsafe burial was associated with a higher number of secondary cases (IRR = 1.82, 95% CI: 1.10, 3.02). The average number of secondary cases was higher for the first generation of a transmission chain (mean = 1.77) compared with subsequent generations (mean = 0.70). Children were least likely to transmit (IRR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.57) compared with adults, whereas older adults were associated with higher numbers of secondary cases. Men were less likely to transmit than women (IRR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.55, 0.93). This detailed surveillance data set provided an invaluable insight into transmission routes and risks. Our analysis highlights the key role that age, receiving treatment, and safe burial played in the spread of EVD.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/aje/article-pdf/188/7/1319/28890395/kwz090.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwz090; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6601535; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6601535?pdf=render -36065116,https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321,Brain injury in COVID-19 is associated with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses.,"Needham EJ, Ren AL, Digby RJ, Norton EJ, Ebrahimi S, Outtrim JG, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Leibowitz MM, Newcombe VFJ, Doffinger R, Barcenas-Morales G, Fonseca C, Taussig MJ, Burnstein RM, Samanta RJ, Dunai C, Sithole N, Ashton NJ, Zetterberg H, Gisslén M, Edén A, Marklund E, Openshaw PJM, Dunning J, Griffiths MJ, Cavanagh J, Breen G, Irani SR, Elmer A, Kingston N, Summers C, Bradley JR, Taams LS, Michael BD, Bullmore ET, Smith KGC, Lyons PA, Coles AJ, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, CITIID-NIHR COVID-19 BioResource Collaboration, Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.",,Brain : a journal of neurology,2022,2022-11-01,Y,Autoantibodies; Brain injury; neuroinflammation; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 is associated with neurological complications including stroke, delirium and encephalitis. Furthermore, a post-viral syndrome dominated by neuropsychiatric symptoms is common, and is seemingly unrelated to COVID-19 severity. The true frequency and underlying mechanisms of neurological injury are unknown, but exaggerated host inflammatory responses appear to be a key driver of COVID-19 severity. We investigated the dynamics of, and relationship between, serum markers of brain injury [neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and total tau] and markers of dysregulated host response (autoantibody production and cytokine profiles) in 175 patients admitted with COVID-19 and 45 patients with influenza. During hospitalization, sera from patients with COVID-19 demonstrated elevations of NfL and GFAP in a severity-dependent manner, with evidence of ongoing active brain injury at follow-up 4 months later. These biomarkers were associated with elevations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the presence of autoantibodies to a large number of different antigens. Autoantibodies were commonly seen against lung surfactant proteins but also brain proteins such as myelin associated glycoprotein. Commensurate findings were seen in the influenza cohort. A distinct process characterized by elevation of serum total tau was seen in patients at follow-up, which appeared to be independent of initial disease severity and was not associated with dysregulated immune responses unlike NfL and GFAP. These results demonstrate that brain injury is a common consequence of both COVID-19 and influenza, and is therefore likely to be a feature of severe viral infection more broadly. The brain injury occurs in the context of dysregulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses, with no single pathogenic mechanism clearly responsible.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-pdf/145/11/4097/47170622/awac321.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359?pdf=render 33737413,https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n628,Association between living with children and outcomes from covid-19: OpenSAFELY cohort study of 12 million adults in England.,"Forbes H, Morton CE, Bacon S, McDonald HI, Minassian C, Brown JP, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Schultze A, DeVito NJ, MacKenna B, Hulme WJ, Croker R, Walker AJ, Williamson EJ, Bates C, Mehrkar A, Curtis HJ, Evans D, Wing K, Inglesby P, Drysdale H, Wong AYS, Cockburn J, McManus R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Evans SJW, Bhaskaran K, Eggo RM, Goldacre B, Tomlinson LA.",,BMJ (Clinical research ed.),2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,"

Objective

To investigate whether risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) differed between adults living with and without children during the first two waves of the UK pandemic.

Design

Population based cohort study, on behalf of NHS England.

Setting

Primary care data and pseudonymously linked hospital and intensive care admissions and death records from England, during wave 1 (1 February to 31 August 2020) and wave 2 (1 September to 18 December 2020).

Participants

Two cohorts of adults (18 years and over) registered at a general practice on 1 February 2020 and 1 September 2020.

Main outcome measures

Adjusted hazard ratios for SARS-CoV-2 infection, covid-19 related admission to hospital or intensive care, or death from covid-19, by presence of children in the household.

Results

Among 9 334 392adults aged 65 years and under, during wave 1, living with children was not associated with materially increased risks of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection, covid-19 related hospital or intensive care admission, or death from covid-19. In wave 2, among adults aged 65 years and under, living with children of any age was associated with an increased risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection (hazard ratio 1.06 (95% confidence interval 1.05 to 1.08) for living with children aged 0-11 years; 1.22 (1.20 to 1.24) for living with children aged 12-18 years) and covid-19 related hospital admission (1.18 (1.06 to 1.31) for living with children aged 0-11; 1.26 (1.12 to 1.40) for living with children aged 12-18). Living with children aged 0-11 was associated with reduced risk of death from both covid-19 and non-covid-19 causes in both waves; living with children of any age was also associated with lower risk of dying from non-covid-19 causes. For adults 65 years and under during wave 2, living with children aged 0-11 years was associated with an increased absolute risk of having SARS-CoV-2 infection recorded of 40-60 per 10 000 people, from 810 to between 850 and 870, and an increase in the number of hospital admissions of 1-5 per 10 000 people, from 160 to between 161 and 165. Living with children aged 12-18 years was associated with an increase of 160-190 per 10 000 in the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections and an increase of 2-6 per 10 000 in the number of hospital admissions.

Conclusions

In contrast to wave 1, evidence existed of increased risk of reported SARS-CoV-2 infection and covid-19 outcomes among adults living with children during wave 2. However, this did not translate into a materially increased risk of covid-19 mortality, and absolute increases in risk were small.",,pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/372/bmj.n628.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n628; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970340; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970340?pdf=render 34098341,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414,Accuracy of four lateral flow immunoassays for anti SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: a head-to-head comparative study.,"Jones HE, Mulchandani R, Taylor-Phillips S, Ades AE, Shute J, Perry KR, Chandra NL, Brooks T, Charlett A, Hickman M, Oliver I, Kaptoge S, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Wyllie D, COMPARE study investigators, EDSAB-HOME investigators.",,EBioMedicine,2021,2021-06-04,Y,Seroepidemiology; Rapid Testing; Serosurveillance; Lateral Flow Devices; Covid-19,,,"

Background

SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests are used for population surveillance and might have a future role in individual risk assessment. Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) can deliver results rapidly and at scale, but have widely varying accuracy.

Methods

In a laboratory setting, we performed head-to-head comparisons of four LFIAs: the Rapid Test Consortium's AbC-19TM Rapid Test, OrientGene COVID IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette, SureScreen COVID-19 Rapid Test Cassette, and Biomerica COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test. We analysed blood samples from 2,847 key workers and 1,995 pre-pandemic blood donors with all four devices.

Findings

We observed a clear trade-off between sensitivity and specificity: the IgG band of the SureScreen device and the AbC-19TM device had higher specificities but OrientGene and Biomerica higher sensitivities. Based on analysis of pre-pandemic samples, SureScreen IgG band had the highest specificity (98.9%, 95% confidence interval 98.3 to 99.3%), which translated to the highest positive predictive value across any pre-test probability: for example, 95.1% (95% uncertainty interval 92.6, 96.8%) at 20% pre-test probability. All four devices showed higher sensitivity at higher antibody concentrations (""spectrum effects""), but the extent of this varied by device.

Interpretation

The estimates of sensitivity and specificity can be used to adjust for test error rates when using these devices to estimate the prevalence of antibody. If tests were used to determine whether an individual has SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, in an example scenario in which 20% of individuals have antibodies we estimate around 5% of positive results on the most specific device would be false positives.

Funding

Public Health England.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919?pdf=render +36065116,https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321,Brain injury in COVID-19 is associated with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses.,"Needham EJ, Ren AL, Digby RJ, Norton EJ, Ebrahimi S, Outtrim JG, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Leibowitz MM, Newcombe VFJ, Doffinger R, Barcenas-Morales G, Fonseca C, Taussig MJ, Burnstein RM, Samanta RJ, Dunai C, Sithole N, Ashton NJ, Zetterberg H, Gisslén M, Edén A, Marklund E, Openshaw PJM, Dunning J, Griffiths MJ, Cavanagh J, Breen G, Irani SR, Elmer A, Kingston N, Summers C, Bradley JR, Taams LS, Michael BD, Bullmore ET, Smith KGC, Lyons PA, Coles AJ, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, CITIID-NIHR COVID-19 BioResource Collaboration, Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.",,Brain : a journal of neurology,2022,2022-11-01,Y,Autoantibodies; Brain injury; neuroinflammation; Covid-19,,,"COVID-19 is associated with neurological complications including stroke, delirium and encephalitis. Furthermore, a post-viral syndrome dominated by neuropsychiatric symptoms is common, and is seemingly unrelated to COVID-19 severity. The true frequency and underlying mechanisms of neurological injury are unknown, but exaggerated host inflammatory responses appear to be a key driver of COVID-19 severity. We investigated the dynamics of, and relationship between, serum markers of brain injury [neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and total tau] and markers of dysregulated host response (autoantibody production and cytokine profiles) in 175 patients admitted with COVID-19 and 45 patients with influenza. During hospitalization, sera from patients with COVID-19 demonstrated elevations of NfL and GFAP in a severity-dependent manner, with evidence of ongoing active brain injury at follow-up 4 months later. These biomarkers were associated with elevations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the presence of autoantibodies to a large number of different antigens. Autoantibodies were commonly seen against lung surfactant proteins but also brain proteins such as myelin associated glycoprotein. Commensurate findings were seen in the influenza cohort. A distinct process characterized by elevation of serum total tau was seen in patients at follow-up, which appeared to be independent of initial disease severity and was not associated with dysregulated immune responses unlike NfL and GFAP. These results demonstrate that brain injury is a common consequence of both COVID-19 and influenza, and is therefore likely to be a feature of severe viral infection more broadly. The brain injury occurs in the context of dysregulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses, with no single pathogenic mechanism clearly responsible.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-pdf/145/11/4097/47170622/awac321.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359?pdf=render 33536631,https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01575-z,A genome-wide meta-analysis yields 46 new loci associating with biomarkers of iron homeostasis.,"Bell S, Rigas AS, Magnusson MK, Ferkingstad E, Allara E, Bjornsdottir G, Ramond A, Sørensen E, Halldorsson GH, Paul DS, Burgdorf KS, Eggertsson HP, Howson JMM, Thørner LW, Kristmundsdottir S, Astle WJ, Erikstrup C, Sigurdsson JK, Vuckovic D, Dinh KM, Tragante V, Surendran P, Pedersen OB, Vidarsson B, Jiang T, Paarup HM, Onundarson PT, Akbari P, Nielsen KR, Lund SH, Juliusson K, Magnusson MI, Frigge ML, Oddsson A, Olafsson I, Kaptoge S, Hjalgrim H, Runarsson G, Wood AM, Jonsdottir I, Hansen TF, Sigurdardottir O, Stefansson H, Rye D, DBDS Genomic Consortium, Peters JE, Westergaard D, Holm H, Soranzo N, Banasik K, Thorleifsson G, Ouwehand WH, Thorsteinsdottir U, Roberts DJ, Sulem P, Butterworth AS, Gudbjartsson DF, Danesh J, Brunak S, Di Angelantonio E, Ullum H, Stefansson K.",,Communications biology,2021,2021-02-03,Y,,,,"Iron is essential for many biological functions and iron deficiency and overload have major health implications. We performed a meta-analysis of three genome-wide association studies from Iceland, the UK and Denmark of blood levels of ferritin (N = 246,139), total iron binding capacity (N = 135,430), iron (N = 163,511) and transferrin saturation (N = 131,471). We found 62 independent sequence variants associating with iron homeostasis parameters at 56 loci, including 46 novel loci. Variants at DUOX2, F5, SLC11A2 and TMPRSS6 associate with iron deficiency anemia, while variants at TF, HFE, TFR2 and TMPRSS6 associate with iron overload. A HBS1L-MYB intergenic region variant associates both with increased risk of iron overload and reduced risk of iron deficiency anemia. The DUOX2 missense variant is present in 14% of the population, associates with all iron homeostasis biomarkers, and increases the risk of iron deficiency anemia by 29%. The associations implicate proteins contributing to the main physiological processes involved in iron homeostasis: iron sensing and storage, inflammation, absorption of iron from the gut, iron recycling, erythropoiesis and bleeding/menstruation.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01575-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01575-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7859200; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7859200?pdf=render 30814958,https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00036,Risk Assessment Tools and Data-Driven Approaches for Predicting and Preventing Suicidal Behavior.,"Velupillai S, Hadlaczky G, Baca-Garcia E, Gorrell GM, Werbeloff N, Nguyen D, Patel R, Leightley D, Downs J, Hotopf M, Dutta R.",,Frontiers in psychiatry,2019,2019-02-13,Y,Machine Learning; Suicidality; Natural Language Processing; Clinical Informatics; Suicide Risk Assessment; Suicide Risk Prediction,Applied Analytics,,"Risk assessment of suicidal behavior is a time-consuming but notoriously inaccurate activity for mental health services globally. In the last 50 years a large number of tools have been designed for suicide risk assessment, and tested in a wide variety of populations, but studies show that these tools suffer from low positive predictive values. More recently, advances in research fields such as machine learning and natural language processing applied on large datasets have shown promising results for health care, and may enable an important shift in advancing precision medicine. In this conceptual review, we discuss established risk assessment tools and examples of novel data-driven approaches that have been used for identification of suicidal behavior and risk. We provide a perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of these applications to mental health-related data, and suggest research directions to enable improvement in clinical practice.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00036; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00036; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6381841; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6381841?pdf=render 34051920,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(21)00065-7,"Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of chewing tobacco use in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Chewing Tobacco Collaborators.,,The Lancet. Public health,2021,2021-05-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Chewing tobacco and other types of smokeless tobacco use have had less attention from the global health community than smoked tobacco use. However, the practice is popular in many parts of the world and has been linked to several adverse health outcomes. Understanding trends in prevalence with age, over time, and by location and sex is important for policy setting and in relation to monitoring and assessing commitment to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Methods

We estimated prevalence of chewing tobacco use as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 using a modelling strategy that used information on multiple types of smokeless tobacco products. We generated a time series of prevalence of chewing tobacco use among individuals aged 15 years and older from 1990 to 2019 in 204 countries and territories, including age-sex specific estimates. We also compared these trends to those of smoked tobacco over the same time period.

Findings

In 2019, 273·9 million (95% uncertainty interval 258·5 to 290·9) people aged 15 years and older used chewing tobacco, and the global age-standardised prevalence of chewing tobacco use was 4·72% (4·46 to 5·01). 228·2 million (213·6 to 244·7; 83·29% [82·15 to 84·42]) chewing tobacco users lived in the south Asia region. Prevalence among young people aged 15-19 years was over 10% in seven locations in 2019. Although global age-standardised prevalence of smoking tobacco use decreased significantly between 1990 and 2019 (annualised rate of change: -1·21% [-1·26 to -1·16]), similar progress was not observed for chewing tobacco (0·46% [0·13 to 0·79]). Among the 12 highest prevalence countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palau, Sri Lanka, and Yemen), only Yemen had a significant decrease in the prevalence of chewing tobacco use, which was among males between 1990 and 2019 (-0·94% [-1·72 to -0·14]), compared with nine of 12 countries that had significant decreases in the prevalence of smoking tobacco. Among females, none of these 12 countries had significant decreases in prevalence of chewing tobacco use, whereas seven of 12 countries had a significant decrease in the prevalence of tobacco smoking use for the period.

Interpretation

Chewing tobacco remains a substantial public health problem in several regions of the world, and predominantly in south Asia. We found little change in the prevalence of chewing tobacco use between 1990 and 2019, and that control efforts have had much larger effects on the prevalence of smoking tobacco use than on chewing tobacco use in some countries. Mitigating the health effects of chewing tobacco requires stronger regulations and policies that specifically target use of chewing tobacco, especially in countries with high prevalence.

Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2468266721000657/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00065-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8251505 36314129,https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.122.060700,Mild-to-Moderate Kidney Dysfunction and Cardiovascular Disease: Observational and Mendelian Randomization Analyses.,"Gaziano L, Sun L, Arnold M, Bell S, Cho K, Kaptoge SK, Song RJ, Burgess S, Posner DC, Mosconi K, Robinson-Cohen C, Mason AM, Bolton TR, Tao R, Allara E, Schubert P, Chen L, Staley JR, Staplin N, Altay S, Amiano P, Arndt V, Ärnlöv J, Barr ELM, Björkelund C, Boer JMA, Brenner H, Casiglia E, Chiodini P, Cooper JA, Coresh J, Cushman M, Dankner R, Davidson KW, de Jongh RT, Donfrancesco C, Engström G, Freisling H, de la Cámara AG, Gudnason V, Hankey GJ, Hansson PO, Heath AK, Hoorn EJ, Imano H, Jassal SK, Kaaks R, Katzke V, Kauhanen J, Kiechl S, Koenig W, Kronmal RA, Kyrø C, Lawlor DA, Ljungberg B, MacDonald C, Masala G, Meisinger C, Melander O, Moreno Iribas C, Ninomiya T, Nitsch D, Nordestgaard BG, Onland-Moret C, Palmieri L, Petrova D, Garcia JRQ, Rosengren A, Sacerdote C, Sakurai M, Santiuste C, Schulze MB, Sieri S, Sundström J, Tikhonoff V, Tjønneland A, Tong T, Tumino R, Tzoulaki I, van der Schouw YT, Monique Verschuren WM, Völzke H, Wallace RB, Wannamethee SG, Weiderpass E, Willeit P, Woodward M, Yamagishi K, Zamora-Ros R, Akwo EA, Pyarajan S, Gagnon DR, Tsao PS, Muralidhar S, Edwards TL, Damrauer SM, Joseph J, Pennells L, Wilson PWF, Harrison S, Gaziano TA, Inouye M, Baigent C, Casas JP, Langenberg C, Wareham N, Riboli E, Gaziano JM, Danesh J, Hung AM, Butterworth AS, Wood AM, Di Angelantonio E, Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration/EPIC-CVD/Million Veteran Program.",,Circulation,2022,2022-10-31,Y,Kidney diseases; Cardiovascular diseases; Coronary disease; Stroke,,,"

Background

End-stage renal disease is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular events. It is unknown, however, whether mild-to-moderate kidney dysfunction is causally related to coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke.

Methods

Observational analyses were conducted using individual-level data from 4 population data sources (Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, EPIC-CVD [European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Cardiovascular Disease Study], Million Veteran Program, and UK Biobank), comprising 648 135 participants with no history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes at baseline, yielding 42 858 and 15 693 incident CHD and stroke events, respectively, during 6.8 million person-years of follow-up. Using a genetic risk score of 218 variants for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), we conducted Mendelian randomization analyses involving 413 718 participants (25 917 CHD and 8622 strokes) in EPIC-CVD, Million Veteran Program, and UK Biobank.

Results

There were U-shaped observational associations of creatinine-based eGFR with CHD and stroke, with higher risk in participants with eGFR values <60 or >105 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2, compared with those with eGFR between 60 and 105 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2. Mendelian randomization analyses for CHD showed an association among participants with eGFR <60 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2, with a 14% (95% CI, 3%-27%) higher CHD risk per 5 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2 lower genetically predicted eGFR, but not for those with eGFR >105 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2. Results were not materially different after adjustment for factors associated with the eGFR genetic risk score, such as lipoprotein(a), triglycerides, hemoglobin A1c, and blood pressure. Mendelian randomization results for stroke were nonsignificant but broadly similar to those for CHD.

Conclusions

In people without manifest cardiovascular disease or diabetes, mild-to-moderate kidney dysfunction is causally related to risk of CHD, highlighting the potential value of preventive approaches that preserve and modulate kidney function.",,pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060700; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9662821; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9662821?pdf=render -32207686,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363,Characterising a healthy adult with a rare HAO1 knockout to support a therapeutic strategy for primary hyperoxaluria. ,"McGregor TL, Hunt KA, Yee E, Mason D, Nioi P, Ticau S, Pelosi M, Loken PR, Finer S, Lawlor DA, Fauman EB, Huang QQ, Griffiths CJ, MacArthur DG, Trembath RC, Oglesbee D, Lieske JC, Erbe DV, Wright J, van Heel DA.",,eLife,2020,2020-03-24,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,metabolic and endocrine,"By sequencing autozygous human populations, we identified a healthy adult woman with lifelong complete knockout of HAO1 (expected ~1 in 30 million outbred people). HAO1 (glycolate oxidase) silencing is the mechanism of lumasiran, an investigational RNA interference therapeutic for primary hyperoxaluria type 1. Her plasma glycolate levels were 12 times, and urinary glycolate 6 times, the upper limit of normal observed in healthy reference individuals (n = 67). Plasma metabolomics and lipidomics (1871 biochemicals) revealed 18 markedly elevated biochemicals (>5 sd outliers versus n = 25 controls) suggesting additional HAO1 effects. Comparison with lumasiran preclinical and clinical trial data suggested she has <2% residual glycolate oxidase activity. Cell line p.Leu333SerfsTer4 expression showed markedly reduced HAO1 protein levels and cellular protein mis-localisation. In this woman, lifelong HAO1 knockout is safe and without clinical phenotype, de-risking a therapeutic approach and informing therapeutic mechanisms. Unlocking evidence from the diversity of human genetic variation can facilitate drug development.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54363; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859?pdf=render 32080354,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-020-0165-2,Genome-wide association study of angioedema induced by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker treatment.,"Rasmussen ER, Hallberg P, Baranova EV, Eriksson N, Karawajczyk M, Johansson C, Cavalli M, Maroteau C, Veluchamy A, Islander G, Hugosson S, Terreehorst I, Asselbergs FW, Norling P, Johansson HE, Kohnke H, Syvänen AC, Siddiqui MK, Lang CC, Magnusson PKE, Yue QY, Wadelius C, von Buchwald C, Bygum A, Alfirevic A, Maitland-van der Zee AH, Palmer CNA, Wadelius M.",,The pharmacogenomics journal,2020,2020-02-21,Y,,,,"Angioedema in the mouth or upper airways is a feared adverse reaction to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) and angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) treatment, which is used for hypertension, heart failure and diabetes complications. This candidate gene and genome-wide association study aimed to identify genetic variants predisposing to angioedema induced by these drugs. The discovery cohort consisted of 173 cases and 4890 controls recruited in Sweden. In the candidate gene analysis, ETV6, BDKRB2, MME, and PRKCQ were nominally associated with angioedema (p < 0.05), but did not pass Bonferroni correction for multiple testing (p < 2.89 × 10-5). In the genome-wide analysis, intronic variants in the calcium-activated potassium channel subunit alpha-1 (KCNMA1) gene on chromosome 10 were significantly associated with angioedema (p < 5 × 10-8). Whilst the top KCNMA1 hit was not significant in the replication cohort (413 cases and 599 ACEi-exposed controls from the US and Northern Europe), a meta-analysis of the replication and discovery cohorts (in total 586 cases and 1944 ACEi-exposed controls) revealed that each variant allele increased the odds of experiencing angioedema 1.62 times (95% confidence interval 1.05-2.50, p = 0.030). Associated KCNMA1 variants are not known to be functional, but are in linkage disequilibrium with variants in transcription factor binding sites active in relevant tissues. In summary, our data suggest that common variation in KCNMA1 is associated with risk of angioedema induced by ACEi or ARB treatment. Future whole exome or genome sequencing studies will show whether rare variants in KCNMA1 or other genes contribute to the risk of ACEi- and ARB-induced angioedema.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41397-020-0165-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-020-0165-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674154; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674154?pdf=render -31462703,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z,Elevated risk of invasive group A streptococcal disease and host genetic variation in the human leucocyte antigen locus.,"Parks T, Elliott K, Lamagni T, Auckland K, Mentzer AJ, Guy R, Cartledge D, Strakova L, Connor DO, Pollard AJ, Neville MJ, Mahajan A, Ashrafian H, Chapman SJ, Hill AVS, Sriskandan S, Knight JC.",,Genes and immunity,2020,2019-08-29,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) disease is uncommon but carries a high case-fatality rate relative to other infectious diseases. Given the ubiquity of mild GAS infections, it remains unclear why healthy individuals will occasionally develop life-threatening infections, raising the possibility of host genetic predisposition. Here, we present the results of a case-control study including 43 invasive GAS cases and 1540 controls. Using HLA imputation and linear mixed models, we find each copy of the HLA-DQA1*01:03 allele associates with a twofold increased risk of disease (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.3-4.4, P = 0.009), an association which persists with classical HLA typing of a subset of cases and analysis with an alternative large control dataset with validated HLA data. Moreover, we propose the association is driven by the allele itself rather than the background haplotype. Overall this finding provides impetus for further investigation of the immunogenetic basis of this devastating bacterial disease.",This article presents a case-control study to investigate why healthy individuals develop life-threatening infections caused by GAS which is a particularly invasive infectious disease. They conclude that further research into the genetics behind this invasive disease may help bring about much needed progess in the development of treatments and vaccinations for the same.,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-019-0082-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814?pdf=render +32207686,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363,Characterising a healthy adult with a rare HAO1 knockout to support a therapeutic strategy for primary hyperoxaluria. ,"McGregor TL, Hunt KA, Yee E, Mason D, Nioi P, Ticau S, Pelosi M, Loken PR, Finer S, Lawlor DA, Fauman EB, Huang QQ, Griffiths CJ, MacArthur DG, Trembath RC, Oglesbee D, Lieske JC, Erbe DV, Wright J, van Heel DA.",,eLife,2020,2020-03-24,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,metabolic and endocrine,"By sequencing autozygous human populations, we identified a healthy adult woman with lifelong complete knockout of HAO1 (expected ~1 in 30 million outbred people). HAO1 (glycolate oxidase) silencing is the mechanism of lumasiran, an investigational RNA interference therapeutic for primary hyperoxaluria type 1. Her plasma glycolate levels were 12 times, and urinary glycolate 6 times, the upper limit of normal observed in healthy reference individuals (n = 67). Plasma metabolomics and lipidomics (1871 biochemicals) revealed 18 markedly elevated biochemicals (>5 sd outliers versus n = 25 controls) suggesting additional HAO1 effects. Comparison with lumasiran preclinical and clinical trial data suggested she has <2% residual glycolate oxidase activity. Cell line p.Leu333SerfsTer4 expression showed markedly reduced HAO1 protein levels and cellular protein mis-localisation. In this woman, lifelong HAO1 knockout is safe and without clinical phenotype, de-risking a therapeutic approach and informing therapeutic mechanisms. Unlocking evidence from the diversity of human genetic variation can facilitate drug development.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54363; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859?pdf=render 31491683,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105279,The road to recovery for vulnerable road users hospitalised for orthopaedic injury following an on-road crash.,"Devlin A, Beck B, Simpson PM, Ekegren CL, Giummarra MJ, Edwards ER, Cameron PA, Liew S, Oppy A, Richardson M, Page R, Gabbe BJ.",,Accident; analysis and prevention,2019,2019-09-03,N,Quality of life; Pedestrian; Cyclist; Bicyclist; Road Crash; Motorcyclist; Pedal Cyclist; Orthopaedic Injury; Motorcycle Rider,,,"BACKGROUND:Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are vulnerable to serious injury due to limited external protective devices. Understanding the level of recovery, and differences between these road user groups, is an important step towards improved understanding of the burden of road trauma, and prioritisation of prevention efforts. This study aimed to characterise and describe patient-reported outcomes of vulnerable road users at 6 and 12 months following orthopaedic trauma. METHODS:A registry-based cohort study was conducted using data from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (VOTOR) and included pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists who were hospitalised for an orthopaedic injury following an on-road collision that occurred between January 2009 and December 2016. Outcomes were measured using the 3-level EuroQol 5 dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D-3 L), Glasgow Outcome Scale - Extended (GOS-E) and return to work questions. Outcomes were collected at 6 and 12 months post-injury. Multivariable generalized estimating equations (GEE), adjusted for confounders, were used to compare outcomes between the road user groups over time. RESULTS:6186 orthopaedic trauma patients met the inclusion criteria during the 8-year period. Most patients were motorcyclists (42.8%) followed by cyclists (32.6%) and pedestrians (24.6%). Problems were most prevalent on the usual activities item of the EQ-5D-3 L at 6-months post-injury, and the pain/discomfort item of the EQ-5D-3 L at 12 months. The adjusted odds of reporting problems on all EQ-5D-3 L items were lower for cyclists when compared to pedestrians. Moreover, an average cyclist had a greater odds of a good recovery on the GOS-E, (AOR 2.75, 95% CI 2.33, 3.25) and a greater odds of returning to work (AOR = 3.13, 95% CI 2.46, 3.99) compared to an average pedestrian. CONCLUSION:Pedestrians and motorcyclists involved in on-road collisions experienced poorer patient-reported outcomes at 6 and 12 months post-injury when compared to cyclists. A focus on both primary injury prevention strategies, and investment in ongoing support and treatment to maximise recovery, is necessary to reduce the burden of road trauma for vulnerable road users.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105279 +31462703,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z,Elevated risk of invasive group A streptococcal disease and host genetic variation in the human leucocyte antigen locus.,"Parks T, Elliott K, Lamagni T, Auckland K, Mentzer AJ, Guy R, Cartledge D, Strakova L, Connor DO, Pollard AJ, Neville MJ, Mahajan A, Ashrafian H, Chapman SJ, Hill AVS, Sriskandan S, Knight JC.",,Genes and immunity,2020,2019-08-29,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) disease is uncommon but carries a high case-fatality rate relative to other infectious diseases. Given the ubiquity of mild GAS infections, it remains unclear why healthy individuals will occasionally develop life-threatening infections, raising the possibility of host genetic predisposition. Here, we present the results of a case-control study including 43 invasive GAS cases and 1540 controls. Using HLA imputation and linear mixed models, we find each copy of the HLA-DQA1*01:03 allele associates with a twofold increased risk of disease (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.3-4.4, P = 0.009), an association which persists with classical HLA typing of a subset of cases and analysis with an alternative large control dataset with validated HLA data. Moreover, we propose the association is driven by the allele itself rather than the background haplotype. Overall this finding provides impetus for further investigation of the immunogenetic basis of this devastating bacterial disease.",This article presents a case-control study to investigate why healthy individuals develop life-threatening infections caused by GAS which is a particularly invasive infectious disease. They conclude that further research into the genetics behind this invasive disease may help bring about much needed progess in the development of treatments and vaccinations for the same.,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-019-0082-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814?pdf=render 32814572,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01712-9,The effect of travel restrictions on the geographical spread of COVID-19 between large cities in China: a modelling study.,"Quilty BJ, Diamond C, Liu Y, Gibbs H, Russell TW, Jarvis CI, Prem K, Pearson CAB, Clifford S, Flasche S, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Klepac P, Eggo RM, Jit M.",,BMC medicine,2020,2020-08-19,Y,China; Wuhan; Mobility; Delay; Outbreaks; Modelling; Travel Restrictions; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Cordon Sanitaire,,,"

Background

To contain the spread of COVID-19, a cordon sanitaire was put in place in Wuhan prior to the Lunar New Year, on 23 January 2020. We assess the efficacy of the cordon sanitaire to delay the introduction and onset of local transmission of COVID-19 in other major cities in mainland China.

Methods

We estimated the number of infected travellers from Wuhan to other major cities in mainland China from November 2019 to February 2020 using previously estimated COVID-19 prevalence in Wuhan and publicly available mobility data. We focused on Beijing, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen as four representative major cities to identify the potential independent contribution of the cordon sanitaire and holiday travel. To do this, we simulated outbreaks generated by infected arrivals in these destination cities using stochastic branching processes. We also modelled the effect of the cordon sanitaire in combination with reduced transmissibility scenarios to simulate the effect of local non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Results

We find that in the four cities, given the potentially high prevalence of COVID-19 in Wuhan between December 2019 and early January 2020, local transmission may have been seeded as early as 1-8 January 2020. By the time the cordon sanitaire was imposed, infections were likely in the thousands. The cordon sanitaire alone did not substantially affect the epidemic progression in these cities, although it may have had some effect in smaller cities. Reduced transmissibility resulted in a notable decrease in the incidence of infection in the four studied cities.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that sustained transmission was likely occurring several weeks prior to the implementation of the cordon sanitaire in four major cities of mainland China and that the observed decrease in incidence was likely attributable to other non-pharmaceutical, transmission-reducing interventions.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01712-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01712-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7437104; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7437104?pdf=render 33991015,https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12330,TMEM106B and CPOX are genetic determinants of cerebrospinal fluid Alzheimer's disease biomarker levels.,"Hong S, Dobricic V, Ohlei O, Bos I, Vos SJB, Prokopenko D, Tijms BM, Andreasson U, Blennow K, Vandenberghe R, Gabel S, Scheltens P, Teunissen CE, Engelborghs S, Frisoni G, Blin O, Richardson JC, Bordet R, Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), Lleó A, Alcolea D, Popp J, Clark C, Peyratout G, Martinez-Lage P, Tainta M, Dobson RJB, Legido-Quigley C, Sleegers K, Van Broeckhoven C, Tanzi RE, Ten Kate M, Wittig M, Franke A, Lill CM, Barkhof F, Lovestone S, Streffer J, Zetterberg H, Visser PJ, Bertram L.",,Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association,2021,2021-05-14,N,Cerebrospinal fluid; Alzheimer's disease; Biomarker; Genome-wide Association Study; Neurogranin; Neurofilament Light; Chitinase-3-like Protein 1,,,"

Introduction

Neurofilament light (NfL), chitinase-3-like protein 1 (YKL-40), and neurogranin (Ng) are biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) to monitor axonal damage, astroglial activation, and synaptic degeneration, respectively.

Methods

We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using DNA and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from the EMIF-AD Multimodal Biomarker Discovery study for discovery, and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study for validation analyses. GWAS were performed for all three CSF biomarkers using linear regression models adjusting for relevant covariates.

Results

We identify novel genome-wide significant associations between DNA variants in TMEM106B and CSF levels of NfL, and between CPOX and YKL-40. We confirm previous work suggesting that YKL-40 levels are associated with DNA variants in CHI3L1.

Discussion

Our study provides important new insights into the genetic architecture underlying interindividual variation in three AD-related CSF biomarkers. In particular, our data shed light on the sequence of events regarding the initiation and progression of neuropathological processes relevant in AD.",,pdf:https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/artpub/2021/270272/270272.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12330 35091648,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41525-021-00267-9,"Structural variation analysis of 6,500 whole genome sequences in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.","Al Khleifat A, Iacoangeli A, van Vugt JJFA, Bowles H, Moisse M, Zwamborn RAJ, van der Spek RAA, Shatunov A, Cooper-Knock J, Topp S, Byrne R, Gellera C, López V, Jones AR, Opie-Martin S, Vural A, Campos Y, van Rheenen W, Kenna B, Van Eijk KR, Kenna K, Weber M, Smith B, Fogh I, Silani V, Morrison KE, Dobson R, van Es MA, McLaughlin RL, Vourc'h P, Chio A, Corcia P, de Carvalho M, Gotkine M, Panades MP, Mora JS, Shaw PJ, Landers JE, Glass JD, Shaw CE, Basak N, Hardiman O, Robberecht W, Van Damme P, van den Berg LH, Veldink JH, Al-Chalabi A.",,NPJ genomic medicine,2022,2022-01-28,Y,,,,"There is a strong genetic contribution to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) risk, with heritability estimates of up to 60%. Both Mendelian and small effect variants have been identified, but in common with other conditions, such variants only explain a little of the heritability. Genomic structural variation might account for some of this otherwise unexplained heritability. We therefore investigated association between structural variation in a set of 25 ALS genes, and ALS risk and phenotype. As expected, the repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene was identified as associated with ALS. Two other ALS-associated structural variants were identified: inversion in the VCP gene and insertion in the ERBB4 gene. All three variants were associated both with increased risk of ALS and specific phenotypic patterns of disease expression. More than 70% of people with respiratory onset ALS harboured ERBB4 insertion compared with 25% of the general population, suggesting respiratory onset ALS may be a distinct genetic subtype.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41525-021-00267-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41525-021-00267-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8799638; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8799638?pdf=render @@ -2250,16 +2250,16 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 31770382,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002974,"Long-term mortality in mothers of infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome: A population-based parallel-cohort study in England and Ontario, Canada.","Guttmann A, Blackburn R, Amartey A, Zhou L, Wijlaars L, Saunders N, Harron K, Chiu M, Gilbert R.",,PLoS medicine,2019,2019-11-26,Y,,Improving Public Health,,"

Background

Opioid addiction is a major public health threat to healthy life expectancy; however, little is known of long-term mortality for mothers with opioid use in pregnancy. Pregnancy and delivery care are opportunities to improve access to addiction and supportive services. Treating neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) as a marker of opioid use during pregnancy, this study reports long-term maternal mortality among mothers with a birth affected by NAS in relation to that of mothers without a NAS-affected birth in 2 high-prevalence jurisdictions, England and Ontario, Canada.

Methods and findings

We conducted a population-based study using linked administrative health data to develop parallel cohorts of mother-infant dyads in England and Ontario between 2002 and 2012. The study population comprised 13,577 and 4,966 mothers of infants with NAS and 4,205,675 and 929,985 control mothers in England and Ontario, respectively. Death records captured all-cause maternal mortality after delivery through March 31, 2016, and cause-specific maternal mortality to December 31, 2014. The primary exposure was a live birth of an infant with NAS, and the main outcome was all deaths among mothers following their date of delivery. We modelled the association between NAS and all-cause maternal mortality using Cox regression, and the cumulative incidence of cause-specific mortality within a competing risks framework. All-cause mortality rates, 10-year cumulative incidence risk of death, and crude and age-adjusted hazard ratios were calculated. Estimated crude 10-year mortality based on Kaplan-Meier curves in mothers of infants with NAS was 5.1% (95% CI 4.7%-5.6%) in England and 4.6% (95% CI 3.8%-5.5%) in Ontario versus 0.4% (95% CI 0.41%-0.42%) in England and 0.4% (95% CI 0.38%-0.41%) in Ontario for controls (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Survival curves showed no clear inflection point or period of heightened risk. The crude hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 12.1 (95% 11.1-13.2; p < 0.001) in England and 11.4 (9.7-13.4; p < 0.001) in Ontario; age adjustment did not reduce the hazard ratios. The cumulative incidence of death was higher among NAS mothers than controls for almost all causes of death. The majority of deaths were by avoidable causes, defined as those that are preventable, amenable to care, or both. Limitations included lack of direct measures of maternal opioid use, other substance misuse, and treatments or supports received.

Conclusions

In this study, we found that approximately 1 in 20 mothers of infants with NAS died within 10 years of delivery in both England and Canada-a mortality risk 11-12 times higher than for control mothers. Risk of death was not limited to the early postpartum period targeted by most public health programs. Policy responses to the current opioid epidemic require effective strategies for long-term support to improve the health and welfare of opioid-using mothers and their children.",This paper investigates the mortality of mothers of infants with Neonatal abstinence syndrome. This population has a greatly increased mortality compared to mothers who don't have NAS. The paper highlights the lack of long term support for this group.,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002974&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002974; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6879118; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6879118?pdf=render 34516908,https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abh0534,Cell-free DNA TAPS provides multimodal information for early cancer detection.,"Siejka-Zielińska P, Cheng J, Jackson F, Liu Y, Soonawalla Z, Reddy S, Silva M, Puta L, McCain MV, Culver EL, Bekkali N, Schuster-Böckler B, Palamara PF, Mann D, Reeves H, Barnes E, Sivakumar S, Song CX.",,Science advances,2021,2021-09-01,Y,,,,"Multimodal, genome-wide characterization of epigenetic and genetic information in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) could enable more sensitive early cancer detection, but it is technologically challenging. Recently, we developed TET-assisted pyridine borane sequencing (TAPS), which is a mild, bisulfite-free method for base-resolution direct DNA methylation sequencing. Here, we optimized TAPS for cfDNA (cfTAPS) to provide high-quality and high-depth whole-genome cell-free methylomes. We applied cfTAPS to 85 cfDNA samples from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and noncancer controls. From only 10 ng of cfDNA (1 to 3 ml of plasma), we generated the most comprehensive cfDNA methylome to date. We demonstrated that cfTAPS provides multimodal information about cfDNA characteristics, including DNA methylation, tissue of origin, and DNA fragmentation. Integrated analysis of these epigenetic and genetic features enables accurate identification of early HCC and PDAC.",,pdf:https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.abh0534?download=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abh0534; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8442905; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8442905?pdf=render 35232957,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01852-x,Correction: Association of low-frequency and rare coding variants with information processing speed.,"Bressler J, Davies G, Smith AV, Saba Y, Bis JC, Jian X, Hayward C, Yanek L, Smith JA, Mirza SS, Wang R, Adams HHH, Becker D, Boerwinkle E, Campbell A, Cox SR, Eiriksdottir G, Fawns-Ritchie C, Gottesman RF, Grove ML, Guo X, Hofer E, Kardia SLR, Knol MJ, Koini M, Lopez OL, Marioni RE, Nyquist P, Pattie A, Polasek O, Porteous DJ, Rudan I, Satizabal CL, Schmidt H, Schmidt R, Sidney S, Simino J, Smith BH, Turner ST, van der Lee SJ, Ware EB, Whitmer RA, Yaffe K, Yang Q, Zhao W, Gudnason V, Launer LJ, Fitzpatrick AL, Psaty BM, Fornage M, Arfan Ikram M, van Duijn CM, Seshadri S, Mosley TH, Deary IJ.",,Translational psychiatry,2022,2022-03-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-01852-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01852-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8888652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8888652?pdf=render -32334655,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5,"Health sector spending and spending on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and development assistance for health: progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.",Global Burden of Disease Health Financing Collaborator Network.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-04-23,Y,,Better Care,infection,"

Background

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 aims to ""ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages"". While a substantial effort has been made to quantify progress towards SDG3, less research has focused on tracking spending towards this goal. We used spending estimates to measure progress in financing the priority areas of SDG3, examine the association between outcomes and financing, and identify where resource gains are most needed to achieve the SDG3 indicators for which data are available.

Methods

We estimated domestic health spending, disaggregated by source (government, out-of-pocket, and prepaid private) from 1995 to 2017 for 195 countries and territories. For disease-specific health spending, we estimated spending for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis for 135 low-income and middle-income countries, and malaria in 106 malaria-endemic countries, from 2000 to 2017. We also estimated development assistance for health (DAH) from 1990 to 2019, by source, disbursing development agency, recipient, and health focus area, including DAH for pandemic preparedness. Finally, we estimated future health spending for 195 countries and territories from 2018 until 2030. We report all spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2019 US$, unless otherwise stated.

Findings

Since the development and implementation of the SDGs in 2015, global health spending has increased, reaching $7·9 trillion (95% uncertainty interval 7·8-8·0) in 2017 and is expected to increase to $11·0 trillion (10·7-11·2) by 2030. In 2017, in low-income and middle-income countries spending on HIV/AIDS was $20·2 billion (17·0-25·0) and on tuberculosis it was $10·9 billion (10·3-11·8), and in malaria-endemic countries spending on malaria was $5·1 billion (4·9-5·4). Development assistance for health was $40·6 billion in 2019 and HIV/AIDS has been the health focus area to receive the highest contribution since 2004. In 2019, $374 million of DAH was provided for pandemic preparedness, less than 1% of DAH. Although spending has increased across HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria since 2015, spending has not increased in all countries, and outcomes in terms of prevalence, incidence, and per-capita spending have been mixed. The proportion of health spending from pooled sources is expected to increase from 81·6% (81·6-81·7) in 2015 to 83·1% (82·8-83·3) in 2030.

Interpretation

Health spending on SDG3 priority areas has increased, but not in all countries, and progress towards meeting the SDG3 targets has been mixed and has varied by country and by target. The evidence on the scale-up of spending and improvements in health outcomes suggest a nuanced relationship, such that increases in spending do not always results in improvements in outcomes. Although countries will probably need more resources to achieve SDG3, other constraints in the broader health system such as inefficient allocation of resources across interventions and populations, weak governance systems, human resource shortages, and drug shortages, will also need to be addressed.

Funding

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30608-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7180045 33990564,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22752-6,Epigenome-wide association meta-analysis of DNA methylation with coffee and tea consumption.,"Karabegović I, Portilla-Fernandez E, Li Y, Ma J, Maas SCE, Sun D, Hu EA, Kühnel B, Zhang Y, Ambatipudi S, Fiorito G, Huang J, Castillo-Fernandez JE, Wiggins KL, de Klein N, Grioni S, Swenson BR, Polidoro S, Treur JL, Cuenin C, Tsai PC, Costeira R, Chajes V, Braun K, Verweij N, Kretschmer A, Franke L, van Meurs JBJ, Uitterlinden AG, de Knegt RJ, Ikram MA, Dehghan A, Peters A, Schöttker B, Gharib SA, Sotoodehnia N, Bell JT, Elliott P, Vineis P, Relton C, Herceg Z, Brenner H, Waldenberger M, Rebholz CM, Voortman T, Pan Q, Fornage M, Levy D, Kayser M, Ghanbari M.",,Nature communications,2021,2021-05-14,Y,,,,"Coffee and tea are extensively consumed beverages worldwide which have received considerable attention regarding health. Intake of these beverages is consistently linked to, among others, reduced risk of diabetes and liver diseases; however, the mechanisms of action remain elusive. Epigenetics is suggested as a mechanism mediating the effects of dietary and lifestyle factors on disease onset. Here we report the results from epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) on coffee and tea consumption in 15,789 participants of European and African-American ancestries from 15 cohorts. EWAS meta-analysis of coffee consumption reveals 11 CpGs surpassing the epigenome-wide significance threshold (P-value <1.1×10-7), which annotated to the AHRR, F2RL3, FLJ43663, HDAC4, GFI1 and PHGDH genes. Among them, cg14476101 is significantly associated with expression of the PHGDH and risk of fatty liver disease. Knockdown of PHGDH expression in liver cells shows a correlation with expression levels of genes associated with circulating lipids, suggesting a role of PHGDH in hepatic-lipid metabolism. EWAS meta-analysis on tea consumption reveals no significant association, only two CpGs annotated to CACNA1A and PRDM16 genes show suggestive association (P-value <5.0×10-6). These findings indicate that coffee-associated changes in DNA methylation levels may explain the mechanism of action of coffee consumption in conferring risk of diseases.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22752-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22752-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8121846; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8121846?pdf=render +32334655,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5,"Health sector spending and spending on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and development assistance for health: progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.",Global Burden of Disease Health Financing Collaborator Network.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-04-23,Y,,Better Care,infection,"

Background

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 aims to ""ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages"". While a substantial effort has been made to quantify progress towards SDG3, less research has focused on tracking spending towards this goal. We used spending estimates to measure progress in financing the priority areas of SDG3, examine the association between outcomes and financing, and identify where resource gains are most needed to achieve the SDG3 indicators for which data are available.

Methods

We estimated domestic health spending, disaggregated by source (government, out-of-pocket, and prepaid private) from 1995 to 2017 for 195 countries and territories. For disease-specific health spending, we estimated spending for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis for 135 low-income and middle-income countries, and malaria in 106 malaria-endemic countries, from 2000 to 2017. We also estimated development assistance for health (DAH) from 1990 to 2019, by source, disbursing development agency, recipient, and health focus area, including DAH for pandemic preparedness. Finally, we estimated future health spending for 195 countries and territories from 2018 until 2030. We report all spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2019 US$, unless otherwise stated.

Findings

Since the development and implementation of the SDGs in 2015, global health spending has increased, reaching $7·9 trillion (95% uncertainty interval 7·8-8·0) in 2017 and is expected to increase to $11·0 trillion (10·7-11·2) by 2030. In 2017, in low-income and middle-income countries spending on HIV/AIDS was $20·2 billion (17·0-25·0) and on tuberculosis it was $10·9 billion (10·3-11·8), and in malaria-endemic countries spending on malaria was $5·1 billion (4·9-5·4). Development assistance for health was $40·6 billion in 2019 and HIV/AIDS has been the health focus area to receive the highest contribution since 2004. In 2019, $374 million of DAH was provided for pandemic preparedness, less than 1% of DAH. Although spending has increased across HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria since 2015, spending has not increased in all countries, and outcomes in terms of prevalence, incidence, and per-capita spending have been mixed. The proportion of health spending from pooled sources is expected to increase from 81·6% (81·6-81·7) in 2015 to 83·1% (82·8-83·3) in 2030.

Interpretation

Health spending on SDG3 priority areas has increased, but not in all countries, and progress towards meeting the SDG3 targets has been mixed and has varied by country and by target. The evidence on the scale-up of spending and improvements in health outcomes suggest a nuanced relationship, such that increases in spending do not always results in improvements in outcomes. Although countries will probably need more resources to achieve SDG3, other constraints in the broader health system such as inefficient allocation of resources across interventions and populations, weak governance systems, human resource shortages, and drug shortages, will also need to be addressed.

Funding

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30608-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7180045 35403197,https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac055,Physical activity attenuates but does not eliminate coronary heart disease risk amongst adults with risk factors: EPIC-CVD case-cohort study.,"Fortuin-de Smidt MC, Sewe MO, Lassale C, Weiderpass E, Andersson J, Huerta JM, Ekelund U, Aleksandrova K, Tong TY, Dahm CC, Tjønneland A, Kyrø C, Steindorf K, Schulze MB, Katzke V, Sacerdote C, Agnoli C, Masala G, Tumino R, Panico S, Boer JM, Onland-Moret NC, Wendel-Vos GW, van der Schouw YT, Borch KB, Agudo A, Petrova D, Chirlaque MD, Conchi MI, Amiano P, Melander O, Heath AK, Aune D, Forouhi NG, Langenberg C, Brage S, Riboli E, Wareham NJ, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Wennberg P.",,European journal of preventive cardiology,2022,2022-09-01,N,Coronary Heart Disease; risk factors; Physical Activity; Case-cohort Study; Population Preventable Fraction,,,"

Aims

This study aimed to evaluate the association between physical activity and the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in individuals with and without CHD risk factors.

Methods and results

EPIC-CVD is a case-cohort study of 29 333 participants that included 13 582 incident CHD cases and a randomly selected sub-cohort nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Self-reported physical activity was summarized using the Cambridge physical activity index (inactive, moderately inactive, moderately active, and active). Participants were categorized into sub-groups based on the presence or the absence of the following risk factors: obesity (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2), hypercholesterolaemia (total cholesterol ≥6.2 mmol/L), history of diabetes, hypertension (self-reported or ≥140/90 mmHg), and current smoking. Prentice-weighted Cox regression was used to assess the association between physical activity and incident CHD events (non-fatal and fatal).Compared to inactive participants without the respective CHD risk factor (referent), excess CHD risk was highest in physically inactive and lowest in moderately active participants with CHD risk factors. Corresponding excess CHD risk estimates amongst those with obesity were 47% [95% confidence interval (CI) 32-64%] and 21% (95%CI 2-44%), with hypercholesterolaemia were 80% (95%CI 55-108%) and 48% (95%CI 22-81%), with hypertension were 80% (95%CI 65-96%) and 49% (95%CI 28-74%), with diabetes were 142% (95%CI 63-260%), and 100% (95%CI 32-204%), and amongst smokers were 152% (95%CI 122-186%) and 109% (95%CI 74-150%).

Conclusions

In people with CHD risk factors, moderate physical activity, equivalent to 40 mins of walking per day, attenuates but does not completely offset CHD risk.",,pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac055/43683452/zwac055.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac055 33837077,https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe3868,Niche and local geography shape the pangenome of wastewater- and livestock-associated Enterobacteriaceae. ,"Shaw LP, Chau KK, Kavanagh J, AbuOun M, Stubberfield E, Gweon HS, Barker L, Rodger G, Bowes MJ, Hubbard ATM, Pickford H, Swann J, Gilson D, Smith RP, Hoosdally SJ, Sebra R, Brett H, Peto TEA, Bailey MJ, Crook DW, Read DS, Anjum MF, Walker AS, Stoesser N, REHAB consortium.",,Science advances,2021,2021-04-09,Y,,,,"Escherichia coli and other Enterobacteriaceae are diverse species with ""open"" pangenomes, where genes move intra- and interspecies via horizontal gene transfer. However, most analyses focus on clinical isolates. The pangenome dynamics of natural populations remain understudied, despite their suggested role as reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. Here, we analyze near-complete genomes for 827 Enterobacteriaceae (553 Escherichia and 274 non-Escherichia spp.) with 2292 circularized plasmids in total, collected from 19 locations (livestock farms and wastewater treatment works in the United Kingdom) within a 30-km radius at three time points over a year. We find different dynamics for chromosomal and plasmid-borne genes. Plasmids have a higher burden of AMR genes and insertion sequences, and AMR-gene-carrying plasmids show evidence of being under stronger selective pressure. Environmental niche and local geography both play a role in shaping plasmid dynamics. Our results highlight the importance of local strategies for controlling the spread of AMR.",,pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10126288/1/eabe3868.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe3868; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8034854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8034854?pdf=render 34755628,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01546-4,"Global, regional, and national mortality among young people aged 10-24 years, 1950-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Adolescent Mortality Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-10-28,Y,,,,"

Background

Documentation of patterns and long-term trends in mortality in young people, which reflect huge changes in demographic and social determinants of adolescent health, enables identification of global investment priorities for this age group. We aimed to analyse data on the number of deaths, years of life lost, and mortality rates by sex and age group in people aged 10-24 years in 204 countries and territories from 1950 to 2019 by use of estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019.

Methods

We report trends in estimated total numbers of deaths and mortality rate per 100 000 population in young people aged 10-24 years by age group (10-14 years, 15-19 years, and 20-24 years) and sex in 204 countries and territories between 1950 and 2019 for all causes, and between 1980 and 2019 by cause of death. We analyse variation in outcomes by region, age group, and sex, and compare annual rate of change in mortality in young people aged 10-24 years with that in children aged 0-9 years from 1990 to 2019. We then analyse the association between mortality in people aged 10-24 years and socioeconomic development using the GBD Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite measure based on average national educational attainment in people older than 15 years, total fertility rate in people younger than 25 years, and income per capita. We assess the association between SDI and all-cause mortality in 2019, and analyse the ratio of observed to expected mortality by SDI using the most recent available data release (2017).

Findings

In 2019 there were 1·49 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval 1·39-1·59) worldwide in people aged 10-24 years, of which 61% occurred in males. 32·7% of all adolescent deaths were due to transport injuries, unintentional injuries, or interpersonal violence and conflict; 32·1% were due to communicable, nutritional, or maternal causes; 27·0% were due to non-communicable diseases; and 8·2% were due to self-harm. Since 1950, deaths in this age group decreased by 30·0% in females and 15·3% in males, and sex-based differences in mortality rate have widened in most regions of the world. Geographical variation has also increased, particularly in people aged 10-14 years. Since 1980, communicable and maternal causes of death have decreased sharply as a proportion of total deaths in most GBD super-regions, but remain some of the most common causes in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, where more than half of all adolescent deaths occur. Annual percentage decrease in all-cause mortality rate since 1990 in adolescents aged 15-19 years was 1·3% in males and 1·6% in females, almost half that of males aged 1-4 years (2·4%), and around a third less than in females aged 1-4 years (2·5%). The proportion of global deaths in people aged 0-24 years that occurred in people aged 10-24 years more than doubled between 1950 and 2019, from 9·5% to 21·6%.

Interpretation

Variation in adolescent mortality between countries and by sex is widening, driven by poor progress in reducing deaths in males and older adolescents. Improving global adolescent mortality will require action to address the specific vulnerabilities of this age group, which are being overlooked. Furthermore, indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to jeopardise efforts to improve health outcomes including mortality in young people aged 10-24 years. There is an urgent need to respond to the changing global burden of adolescent mortality, address inequities where they occur, and improve the availability and quality of primary mortality data in this age group.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621015464/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01546-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8576274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8576274?pdf=render 33743846,https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00079-7,The potential health and economic value of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination alongside physical distancing in the UK: a transmission model-based future scenario analysis and economic evaluation.,"Sandmann FG, Davies NG, Vassall A, Edmunds WJ, Jit M, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 working group.",,The Lancet. Infectious diseases,2021,2021-03-18,Y,,,,"

Background

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK first adopted physical distancing measures in March, 2020. Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 became available in December, 2020. We explored the health and economic value of introducing SARS-CoV-2 immunisation alongside physical distancing in the UK to gain insights about possible future scenarios in a post-vaccination era.

Methods

We used an age-structured dynamic transmission and economic model to explore different scenarios of UK mass immunisation programmes over 10 years. We compared vaccinating 75% of individuals aged 15 years or older (and annually revaccinating 50% of individuals aged 15-64 years and 75% of individuals aged 65 years or older) to no vaccination. We assumed either 50% vaccine efficacy against disease and 45-week protection (worst-case scenario) or 95% vaccine efficacy against infection and 3-year protection (best-case scenario). Natural immunity was assumed to wane within 45 weeks. We also explored the additional impact of physical distancing on vaccination by assuming either an initial lockdown followed by voluntary physical distancing, or an initial lockdown followed by increased physical distancing mandated above a certain threshold of incident daily infections. We considered benefits in terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and costs, both to the health-care payer and the national economy. We discounted future costs and QALYs at 3·5% annually and assumed a monetary value per QALY of £20 000 and a conservative long-run cost per vaccine dose of £15. We explored and varied these parameters in sensitivity analyses. We expressed the health and economic benefits of each scenario with the net monetary value: QALYs × (monetary value per QALY) - costs.

Findings

Without the initial lockdown, vaccination, and increased physical distancing, we estimated 148·0 million (95% uncertainty interval 48·5-198·8) COVID-19 cases and 3·1 million (0·84-4·5) deaths would occur in the UK over 10 years. In the best-case scenario, vaccination minimises community transmission without future periods of increased physical distancing, whereas SARS-CoV-2 becomes endemic with biannual epidemics in the worst-case scenario. Ongoing transmission is also expected in intermediate scenarios with vaccine efficacy similar to published clinical trial data. From a health-care perspective, introducing vaccination leads to incremental net monetary values ranging from £12·0 billion to £334·7 billion in the best-case scenario and from -£1·1 billion to £56·9 billion in the worst-case scenario. Incremental net monetary values of increased physical distancing might be negative from a societal perspective if national economy losses are persistent and large.

Interpretation

Our model findings highlight the substantial health and economic value of introducing SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Smaller outbreaks could continue even with vaccines, but population-wide implementation of increased physical distancing might no longer be justifiable. Our study provides early insights about possible future post-vaccination scenarios from an economic and epidemiological perspective.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research, European Commission, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00079-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7972313; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00079-7 -32328990,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4,The Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) Data Portal.,"Bauermeister S, Orton C, Thompson S, Barker RA, Bauermeister JR, Ben-Shlomo Y, Brayne C, Burn D, Campbell A, Calvin C, Chandran S, Chaturvedi N, Chêne G, Chessell IP, Corbett A, Davis DHJ, Denis M, Dufouil C, Elliott P, Fox N, Hill D, Hofer SM, Hu MT, Jindra C, Kee F, Kim CH, Kim C, Kivimaki M, Koychev I, Lawson RA, Linden GJ, Lyons RA, Mackay C, Matthews PM, McGuiness B, Middleton L, Moody C, Moore K, Na DL, O'Brien JT, Ourselin S, Paranjothy S, Park KS, Porteous DJ, Richards M, Ritchie CW, Rohrer JD, Rossor MN, Rowe JB, Scahill R, Schnier C, Schott JM, Seo SW, South M, Steptoe M, Tabrizi SJ, Tales A, Tillin T, Timpson NJ, Toga AW, Visser PJ, Wade-Martins R, Wilkinson T, Williams J, Wong A, Gallacher JEJ.",,European journal of epidemiology,2020,2020-04-23,Y,Cohorts; epidemiology; data management; Data Repository; Data Access; Data Platform,,,"The Dementias Platform UK Data Portal is a data repository facilitating access to data for 3 370 929 individuals in 42 cohorts. The Data Portal is an end-to-end data management solution providing a secure, fully auditable, remote access environment for the analysis of cohort data. All projects utilising the data are by default collaborations with the cohort research teams generating the data. The Data Portal uses UK Secure eResearch Platform infrastructure to provide three core utilities: data discovery, access, and analysis. These are delivered using a 7 layered architecture comprising: data ingestion, data curation, platform interoperability, data discovery, access brokerage, data analysis and knowledge preservation. Automated, streamlined, and standardised procedures reduce the administrative burden for all stakeholders, particularly for requests involving multiple independent datasets, where a single request may be forwarded to multiple data controllers. Researchers are provided with their own secure 'lab' using VMware which is accessed using two factor authentication. Over the last 2 years, 160 project proposals involving 579 individual cohort data access requests were received. These were received from 268 applicants spanning 72 institutions (56 academic, 13 commercial, 3 government) in 16 countries with 84 requests involving multiple cohorts. Projects are varied including multi-modal, machine learning, and Mendelian randomisation analyses. Data access is usually free at point of use although a small number of cohorts require a data access fee.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320955; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320955?pdf=render +32328990,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4,The Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) Data Portal.,"Bauermeister S, Orton C, Thompson S, Barker RA, Bauermeister JR, Ben-Shlomo Y, Brayne C, Burn D, Campbell A, Calvin C, Chandran S, Chaturvedi N, Chêne G, Chessell IP, Corbett A, Davis DHJ, Denis M, Dufouil C, Elliott P, Fox N, Hill D, Hofer SM, Hu MT, Jindra C, Kee F, Kim CH, Kim C, Kivimaki M, Koychev I, Lawson RA, Linden GJ, Lyons RA, Mackay C, Matthews PM, McGuiness B, Middleton L, Moody C, Moore K, Na DL, O'Brien JT, Ourselin S, Paranjothy S, Park KS, Porteous DJ, Richards M, Ritchie CW, Rohrer JD, Rossor MN, Rowe JB, Scahill R, Schnier C, Schott JM, Seo SW, South M, Steptoe M, Tabrizi SJ, Tales A, Tillin T, Timpson NJ, Toga AW, Visser PJ, Wade-Martins R, Wilkinson T, Williams J, Wong A, Gallacher JEJ.",,European journal of epidemiology,2020,2020-04-23,Y,Cohorts; epidemiology; data management; Data Access; Data Repository; Data Platform,,,"The Dementias Platform UK Data Portal is a data repository facilitating access to data for 3 370 929 individuals in 42 cohorts. The Data Portal is an end-to-end data management solution providing a secure, fully auditable, remote access environment for the analysis of cohort data. All projects utilising the data are by default collaborations with the cohort research teams generating the data. The Data Portal uses UK Secure eResearch Platform infrastructure to provide three core utilities: data discovery, access, and analysis. These are delivered using a 7 layered architecture comprising: data ingestion, data curation, platform interoperability, data discovery, access brokerage, data analysis and knowledge preservation. Automated, streamlined, and standardised procedures reduce the administrative burden for all stakeholders, particularly for requests involving multiple independent datasets, where a single request may be forwarded to multiple data controllers. Researchers are provided with their own secure 'lab' using VMware which is accessed using two factor authentication. Over the last 2 years, 160 project proposals involving 579 individual cohort data access requests were received. These were received from 268 applicants spanning 72 institutions (56 academic, 13 commercial, 3 government) in 16 countries with 84 requests involving multiple cohorts. Projects are varied including multi-modal, machine learning, and Mendelian randomisation analyses. Data access is usually free at point of use although a small number of cohorts require a data access fee.",,pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320955; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320955?pdf=render +36693378,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002,Loci for insulin processing and secretion provide insight into type 2 diabetes risk.,"Broadaway KA, Yin X, Williamson A, Parsons VA, Wilson EP, Moxley AH, Vadlamudi S, Varshney A, Jackson AU, Ahuja V, Bornstein SR, Corbin LJ, Delgado GE, Dwivedi OP, Fernandes Silva L, Frayling TM, Grallert H, Gustafsson S, Hakaste L, Hammar U, Herder C, Herrmann S, Højlund K, Hughes DA, Kleber ME, Lindgren CM, Liu CT, Luan J, Malmberg A, Moissl AP, Morris AP, Perakakis N, Peters A, Petrie JR, Roden M, Schwarz PEH, Sharma S, Silveira A, Strawbridge RJ, Tuomi T, Wood AR, Wu P, Zethelius B, Baldassarre D, Eriksson JG, Fall T, Florez JC, Fritsche A, Gigante B, Hamsten A, Kajantie E, Laakso M, Lahti J, Lawlor DA, Lind L, März W, Meigs JB, Sundström J, Timpson NJ, Wagner R, Walker M, Wareham NJ, Watkins H, Barroso I, O'Rahilly S, Grarup N, Parker SC, Boehnke M, Langenberg C, Wheeler E, Mohlke KL.",,American journal of human genetics,2023,2023-01-23,Y,Enhancer; Signal; Meta-analysis; Type 2 diabetes; colocalization; proinsulin; Gwas; Eqtl; Fine-mapping; Conditional,,,"Insulin secretion is critical for glucose homeostasis, and increased levels of the precursor proinsulin relative to insulin indicate pancreatic islet beta-cell stress and insufficient insulin secretory capacity in the setting of insulin resistance. We conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association results for fasting proinsulin from 16 European-ancestry studies in 45,861 individuals. We found 36 independent signals at 30 loci (p value < 5 × 10-8), which validated 12 previously reported loci for proinsulin and ten additional loci previously identified for another glycemic trait. Half of the alleles associated with higher proinsulin showed higher rather than lower effects on glucose levels, corresponding to different mechanisms. Proinsulin loci included genes that affect prohormone convertases, beta-cell dysfunction, vesicle trafficking, beta-cell transcriptional regulation, and lysosomes/autophagy processes. We colocalized 11 proinsulin signals with islet expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data, suggesting candidate genes, including ARSG, WIPI1, SLC7A14, and SIX3. The NKX6-3/ANK1 proinsulin signal colocalized with a T2D signal and an adipose ANK1 eQTL signal but not the islet NKX6-3 eQTL. Signals were enriched for islet enhancers, and we showed a plausible islet regulatory mechanism for the lead signal in the MADD locus. These results show how detailed genetic studies of an intermediate phenotype can elucidate mechanisms that may predispose one to disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750?pdf=render 35104837,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04474-x,Altered TMPRSS2 usage by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron impacts infectivity and fusogenicity.,"Meng B, Abdullahi A, Ferreira IATM, Goonawardane N, Saito A, Kimura I, Yamasoba D, Gerber PP, Fatihi S, Rathore S, Zepeda SK, Papa G, Kemp SA, Ikeda T, Toyoda M, Tan TS, Kuramochi J, Mitsunaga S, Ueno T, Shirakawa K, Takaori-Kondo A, Brevini T, Mallery DL, Charles OJ, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium, Ecuador-COVID19 Consortium, Bowen JE, Joshi A, Walls AC, Jackson L, Martin D, Smith KGC, Bradley J, Briggs JAG, Choi J, Madissoon E, Meyer KB, Mlcochova P, Ceron-Gutierrez L, Doffinger R, Teichmann SA, Fisher AJ, Pizzuto MS, de Marco A, Corti D, Hosmillo M, Lee JH, James LC, Thukral L, Veesler D, Sigal A, Sampaziotis F, Goodfellow IG, Matheson NJ, Sato K, Gupta RK.",,Nature,2022,2022-02-01,Y,,,,"The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 variant emerged in 20211 and has multiple mutations in its spike protein2. Here we show that the spike protein of Omicron has a higher affinity for ACE2 compared with Delta, and a marked change in its antigenicity increases Omicron's evasion of therapeutic monoclonal and vaccine-elicited polyclonal neutralizing antibodies after two doses. mRNA vaccination as a third vaccine dose rescues and broadens neutralization. Importantly, the antiviral drugs remdesivir and molnupiravir retain efficacy against Omicron BA.1. Replication was similar for Omicron and Delta virus isolates in human nasal epithelial cultures. However, in lung cells and gut cells, Omicron demonstrated lower replication. Omicron spike protein was less efficiently cleaved compared with Delta. The differences in replication were mapped to the entry efficiency of the virus on the basis of spike-pseudotyped virus assays. The defect in entry of Omicron pseudotyped virus to specific cell types effectively correlated with higher cellular RNA expression of TMPRSS2, and deletion of TMPRSS2 affected Delta entry to a greater extent than Omicron. Furthermore, drug inhibitors targeting specific entry pathways3 demonstrated that the Omicron spike inefficiently uses the cellular protease TMPRSS2, which promotes cell entry through plasma membrane fusion, with greater dependency on cell entry through the endocytic pathway. Consistent with suboptimal S1/S2 cleavage and inability to use TMPRSS2, syncytium formation by the Omicron spike was substantially impaired compared with the Delta spike. The less efficient spike cleavage of Omicron at S1/S2 is associated with a shift in cellular tropism away from TMPRSS2-expressing cells, with implications for altered pathogenesis.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04474-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04474-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8942856; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8942856?pdf=render 30498058,https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-315866,Risk factors for permanent childhood hearing impairment.,"Butcher E, Dezateux C, Knowles RL.",,Archives of disease in childhood,2020,2018-11-28,Y,Deafness; epidemiology,Improving Public Health,,"

Objective

While several perinatal risk factors for permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) are known, association with gestational length remains unclear. We hypothesised that shorter gestational length predicts higher PCHI risk.

Design

19 504 participants from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (born 2000-2002, prior to newborn screening).

Methods

Multivariable discrete-time survival analysis to examine associations between parent-reported PCHI by age 11 years and gestational length, plus other prespecified factors.

Results

PCHI affected 2.1 per 1000 children (95% CI 1.5 to 3.0) by age 11; however, gestational length did not predict PCHI risk (HR, 95% CI 1.00, 0.98 to 1.03 per day increase). Risk was increased in those with neonatal illness, with or without admission to neonatal care (6.33, 2.27 to 17.63 and 2.62, 1.15 to 5.97, respectively), of Bangladeshi or Pakistani ethnicity (2.78, 1.06 to 7.31) or born to younger mothers (0.92, 0.87 to 0.97 per year).

Conclusion

Neonatal illness, rather than gestational length, predicts PCHI risk. Further research should explore associations with ethnicity.","This study looked at whether there is a link between gestational length of a child (the length of time of pregnancy) and the likelihood of permanent hearing impairment. The authors looked at data from over 19000 children from a study called the Millenium Cohort Study. They found that shorter gestational length did not increase the likelihood of childhood permanent hearting impairment. However, they found that children who had neonatal illness (illness in the immediate days after birth), if they were Bangladeshi or Pakistani in ethnicity, or if they were born to younger mothers.",pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/2/187.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-315866; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7025723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7025723?pdf=render -36693378,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002,Loci for insulin processing and secretion provide insight into type 2 diabetes risk.,"Broadaway KA, Yin X, Williamson A, Parsons VA, Wilson EP, Moxley AH, Vadlamudi S, Varshney A, Jackson AU, Ahuja V, Bornstein SR, Corbin LJ, Delgado GE, Dwivedi OP, Fernandes Silva L, Frayling TM, Grallert H, Gustafsson S, Hakaste L, Hammar U, Herder C, Herrmann S, Højlund K, Hughes DA, Kleber ME, Lindgren CM, Liu CT, Luan J, Malmberg A, Moissl AP, Morris AP, Perakakis N, Peters A, Petrie JR, Roden M, Schwarz PEH, Sharma S, Silveira A, Strawbridge RJ, Tuomi T, Wood AR, Wu P, Zethelius B, Baldassarre D, Eriksson JG, Fall T, Florez JC, Fritsche A, Gigante B, Hamsten A, Kajantie E, Laakso M, Lahti J, Lawlor DA, Lind L, März W, Meigs JB, Sundström J, Timpson NJ, Wagner R, Walker M, Wareham NJ, Watkins H, Barroso I, O'Rahilly S, Grarup N, Parker SC, Boehnke M, Langenberg C, Wheeler E, Mohlke KL.",,American journal of human genetics,2023,2023-01-23,Y,Enhancer; Signal; Meta-analysis; Type 2 diabetes; colocalization; proinsulin; Gwas; Eqtl; Fine-mapping; Conditional,,,"Insulin secretion is critical for glucose homeostasis, and increased levels of the precursor proinsulin relative to insulin indicate pancreatic islet beta-cell stress and insufficient insulin secretory capacity in the setting of insulin resistance. We conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association results for fasting proinsulin from 16 European-ancestry studies in 45,861 individuals. We found 36 independent signals at 30 loci (p value < 5 × 10-8), which validated 12 previously reported loci for proinsulin and ten additional loci previously identified for another glycemic trait. Half of the alleles associated with higher proinsulin showed higher rather than lower effects on glucose levels, corresponding to different mechanisms. Proinsulin loci included genes that affect prohormone convertases, beta-cell dysfunction, vesicle trafficking, beta-cell transcriptional regulation, and lysosomes/autophagy processes. We colocalized 11 proinsulin signals with islet expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data, suggesting candidate genes, including ARSG, WIPI1, SLC7A14, and SIX3. The NKX6-3/ANK1 proinsulin signal colocalized with a T2D signal and an adipose ANK1 eQTL signal but not the islet NKX6-3 eQTL. Signals were enriched for islet enhancers, and we showed a plausible islet regulatory mechanism for the lead signal in the MADD locus. These results show how detailed genetic studies of an intermediate phenotype can elucidate mechanisms that may predispose one to disease.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750?pdf=render 34864818,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01736-6,Association of low-frequency and rare coding variants with information processing speed.,"Bressler J, Davies G, Smith AV, Saba Y, Bis JC, Jian X, Hayward C, Yanek L, Smith JA, Mirza SS, Wang R, Adams HHH, Becker D, Boerwinkle E, Campbell A, Cox SR, Eiriksdottir G, Fawns-Ritchie C, Gottesman RF, Grove ML, Guo X, Hofer E, Kardia SLR, Knol MJ, Koini M, Lopez OL, Marioni RE, Nyquist P, Pattie A, Polasek O, Porteous DJ, Rudan I, Satizabal CL, Schmidt H, Schmidt R, Sidney S, Simino J, Smith BH, Turner ST, van der Lee SJ, Ware EB, Whitmer RA, Yaffe K, Yang Q, Zhao W, Gudnason V, Launer LJ, Fitzpatrick AL, Psaty BM, Fornage M, Arfan Ikram M, van Duijn CM, Seshadri S, Mosley TH, Deary IJ.",,Translational psychiatry,2021,2021-12-04,Y,,,,"Measures of information processing speed vary between individuals and decline with age. Studies of aging twins suggest heritability may be as high as 67%. The Illumina HumanExome Bead Chip genotyping array was used to examine the association of rare coding variants with performance on the Digit-Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) in community-dwelling adults participating in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. DSST scores were available for 30,576 individuals of European ancestry from nine cohorts and for 5758 individuals of African ancestry from four cohorts who were older than 45 years and free of dementia and clinical stroke. Linear regression models adjusted for age and gender were used for analysis of single genetic variants, and the T5, T1, and T01 burden tests that aggregate the number of rare alleles by gene were also applied. Secondary analyses included further adjustment for education. Meta-analyses to combine cohort-specific results were carried out separately for each ancestry group. Variants in RNF19A reached the threshold for statistical significance (p = 2.01 × 10-6) using the T01 test in individuals of European descent. RNF19A belongs to the class of E3 ubiquitin ligases that confer substrate specificity when proteins are ubiquitinated and targeted for degradation through the 26S proteasome. Variants in SLC22A7 and OR51A7 were suggestively associated with DSST scores after adjustment for education for African-American participants and in the European cohorts, respectively. Further functional characterization of its substrates will be required to confirm the role of RNF19A in cognitive function.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-021-01736-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01736-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8643353; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8643353?pdf=render 32457287,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15948-9,"The UK Biobank imaging enhancement of 100,000 participants: rationale, data collection, management and future directions.","Littlejohns TJ, Holliday J, Gibson LM, Garratt S, Oesingmann N, Alfaro-Almagro F, Bell JD, Boultwood C, Collins R, Conroy MC, Crabtree N, Doherty N, Frangi AF, Harvey NC, Leeson P, Miller KL, Neubauer S, Petersen SE, Sellors J, Sheard S, Smith SM, Sudlow CLM, Matthews PM, Allen NE.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-05-26,Y,,,,"UK Biobank is a population-based cohort of half a million participants aged 40-69 years recruited between 2006 and 2010. In 2014, UK Biobank started the world's largest multi-modal imaging study, with the aim of re-inviting 100,000 participants to undergo brain, cardiac and abdominal magnetic resonance imaging, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and carotid ultrasound. The combination of large-scale multi-modal imaging with extensive phenotypic and genetic data offers an unprecedented resource for scientists to conduct health-related research. This article provides an in-depth overview of the imaging enhancement, including the data collected, how it is managed and processed, and future directions.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15948-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15948-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7250878; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7250878?pdf=render 33478953,https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-219517,Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of death from COVID-19: an OpenSAFELY cohort analysis based on two cohorts.,"Wong AY, MacKenna B, Morton CE, Schultze A, Walker AJ, Bhaskaran K, Brown JP, Rentsch CT, Williamson E, Drysdale H, Croker R, Bacon S, Hulme W, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Wing K, Forbes H, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Smeeth L, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.",,Annals of the rheumatic diseases,2021,2021-01-21,Y,Arthritis; Rheumatoid; Osteoarthritis; epidemiology; Covid-19,,,"

Objectives

To assess the association between routinely prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and deaths from COVID-19 using OpenSAFELY, a secure analytical platform.

Methods

We conducted two cohort studies from 1 March to 14 June 2020. Working on behalf of National Health Service England, we used routine clinical data in England linked to death data. In study 1, we identified people with an NSAID prescription in the last 3 years from the general population. In study 2, we identified people with rheumatoid arthritis/osteoarthritis. We defined exposure as current NSAID prescription within the 4 months before 1 March 2020. We used Cox regression to estimate HRs for COVID-19 related death in people currently prescribed NSAIDs, compared with those not currently prescribed NSAIDs, accounting for age, sex, comorbidities, other medications and geographical region.

Results

In study 1, we included 536 423 current NSAID users and 1 927 284 non-users in the general population. We observed no evidence of difference in risk of COVID-19 related death associated with current use (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.14) in the multivariable-adjusted model. In study 2, we included 1 708 781 people with rheumatoid arthritis/osteoarthritis, of whom 175 495 (10%) were current NSAID users. In the multivariable-adjusted model, we observed a lower risk of COVID-19 related death (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.94) associated with current use of NSAID versus non-use.

Conclusions

We found no evidence of a harmful effect of routinely prescribed NSAIDs on COVID-19 related deaths. Risks of COVID-19 do not need to influence decisions about the routine therapeutic use of NSAIDs.",,pdf:https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/80/7/943.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-219517; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7823433; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7823433?pdf=render @@ -2272,17 +2272,17 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 34727949,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02130-1,Higher thyrotropin leads to unfavorable lipid profile and somewhat higher cardiovascular disease risk: evidence from multi-cohort Mendelian randomization and metabolomic profiling.,"van Vliet NA, Bos MM, Thesing CS, Chaker L, Pietzner M, Houtman E, Neville MJ, Li-Gao R, Trompet S, Mustafa R, Ahmadizar F, Beekman M, Bot M, Budde K, Christodoulides C, Dehghan A, Delles C, Elliott P, Evangelou M, Gao H, Ghanbari M, van Herwaarden AE, Ikram MA, Jaeger M, Jukema JW, Karaman I, Karpe F, Kloppenburg M, Meessen JMTA, Meulenbelt I, Milaneschi Y, Mooijaart SP, Mook-Kanamori DO, Netea MG, Netea-Maier RT, Peeters RP, Penninx BWJH, Sattar N, Slagboom PE, Suchiman HED, Völzke H, Willems van Dijk K, Noordam R, van Heemst D, BBMRI Metabolomics Consortium.",,BMC medicine,2021,2021-11-03,Y,Metabolomics; coronary artery disease; thyroid hormones; Mendelian Randomization,,,"

Background

Observational studies suggest interconnections between thyroid status, metabolism, and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), but causality remains to be proven. The present study aimed to investigate the potential causal relationship between thyroid status and cardiovascular disease and to characterize the metabolomic profile associated with thyroid status.

Methods

Multi-cohort two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was performed utilizing genome-wide significant variants as instruments for standardized thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) within the reference range. Associations between TSH and fT4 and metabolic profile were investigated in a two-stage manner: associations between TSH and fT4 and the full panel of 161 metabolomic markers were first assessed hypothesis-free, then directional consistency was assessed through Mendelian randomization, another metabolic profile platform, and in individuals with biochemically defined thyroid dysfunction.

Results

Circulating TSH was associated with 52/161 metabolomic markers, and fT4 levels were associated with 21/161 metabolomic markers among 9432 euthyroid individuals (median age varied from 23.0 to 75.4 years, 54.5% women). Positive associations between circulating TSH levels and concentrations of very low-density lipoprotein subclasses and components, triglycerides, and triglyceride content of lipoproteins were directionally consistent across the multivariable regression, MR, metabolomic platforms, and for individuals with hypo- and hyperthyroidism. Associations with fT4 levels inversely reflected those observed with TSH. Among 91,810 CAD cases and 656,091 controls of European ancestry, per 1-SD increase of genetically determined TSH concentration risk of CAD increased slightly, but not significantly, with an OR of 1.03 (95% CI 0.99-1.07; p value 0.16), whereas higher genetically determined fT4 levels were not associated with CAD risk (OR 1.00 per SD increase of fT4; 95% CI 0.96-1.04; p value 0.59).

Conclusions

Lower thyroid status leads to an unfavorable lipid profile and a somewhat increased cardiovascular disease risk.",,pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02130-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02130-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8565073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8565073?pdf=render 34228774,https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.11330,Association Between Administration of IL-6 Antagonists and Mortality Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Meta-analysis.,"WHO Rapid Evidence Appraisal for COVID-19 Therapies (REACT) Working Group, Shankar-Hari M, Vale CL, Godolphin PJ, Fisher D, Higgins JPT, Spiga F, Savovic J, Tierney J, Baron G, Benbenishty JS, Berry LR, Broman N, Cavalcanti AB, Colman R, De Buyser SL, Derde LPG, Domingo P, Omar SF, Fernandez-Cruz A, Feuth T, Garcia F, Garcia-Vicuna R, Gonzalez-Alvaro I, Gordon AC, Haynes R, Hermine O, Horby PW, Horick NK, Kumar K, Lambrecht BN, Landray MJ, Leal L, Lederer DJ, Lorenzi E, Mariette X, Merchante N, Misnan NA, Mohan SV, Nivens MC, Oksi J, Perez-Molina JA, Pizov R, Porcher R, Postma S, Rajasuriar R, Ramanan AV, Ravaud P, Reid PD, Rutgers A, Sancho-Lopez A, Seto TB, Sivapalasingam S, Soin AS, Staplin N, Stone JH, Strohbehn GW, Sunden-Cullberg J, Torre-Cisneros J, Tsai LW, van Hoogstraten H, van Meerten T, Veiga VC, Westerweel PE, Murthy S, Diaz JV, Marshall JC, Sterne JAC.",,JAMA,2021,2021-08-01,N,,,,"

Importance

Clinical trials assessing the efficacy of IL-6 antagonists in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 have variously reported benefit, no effect, and harm.

Objective

To estimate the association between administration of IL-6 antagonists compared with usual care or placebo and 28-day all-cause mortality and other outcomes.

Data sources

Trials were identified through systematic searches of electronic databases between October 2020 and January 2021. Searches were not restricted by trial status or language. Additional trials were identified through contact with experts.

Study selection

Eligible trials randomly assigned patients hospitalized for COVID-19 to a group in whom IL-6 antagonists were administered and to a group in whom neither IL-6 antagonists nor any other immunomodulators except corticosteroids were administered. Among 72 potentially eligible trials, 27 (37.5%) met study selection criteria.

Data extraction and synthesis

In this prospective meta-analysis, risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool. Inconsistency among trial results was assessed using the I2 statistic. The primary analysis was an inverse variance-weighted fixed-effects meta-analysis of odds ratios (ORs) for 28-day all-cause mortality.

Main outcomes and measures

The primary outcome measure was all-cause mortality at 28 days after randomization. There were 9 secondary outcomes including progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death and risk of secondary infection by 28 days.

Results

A total of 10 930 patients (median age, 61 years [range of medians, 52-68 years]; 3560 [33%] were women) participating in 27 trials were included. By 28 days, there were 1407 deaths among 6449 patients randomized to IL-6 antagonists and 1158 deaths among 4481 patients randomized to usual care or placebo (summary OR, 0.86 [95% CI, 0.79-0.95]; P = .003 based on a fixed-effects meta-analysis). This corresponds to an absolute mortality risk of 22% for IL-6 antagonists compared with an assumed mortality risk of 25% for usual care or placebo. The corresponding summary ORs were 0.83 (95% CI, 0.74-0.92; P < .001) for tocilizumab and 1.08 (95% CI, 0.86-1.36; P = .52) for sarilumab. The summary ORs for the association with mortality compared with usual care or placebo in those receiving corticosteroids were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.68-0.87) for tocilizumab and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.61-1.38) for sarilumab. The ORs for the association with progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death, compared with usual care or placebo, were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.70-0.85) for all IL-6 antagonists, 0.74 (95% CI, 0.66-0.82) for tocilizumab, and 1.00 (95% CI, 0.74-1.34) for sarilumab. Secondary infections by 28 days occurred in 21.9% of patients treated with IL-6 antagonists vs 17.6% of patients treated with usual care or placebo (OR accounting for trial sample sizes, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.85-1.16).

Conclusions and relevance

In this prospective meta-analysis of clinical trials of patients hospitalized for COVID-19, administration of IL-6 antagonists, compared with usual care or placebo, was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality.

Trial registration

PROSPERO Identifier: CRD42021230155.",,pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/2781880/jama_shankarhari_2021_oi_210079_1628008971.18515.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.11330; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261689; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.11330 32553130,https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30264-3,"Global, regional, and national estimates of the population at increased risk of severe COVID-19 due to underlying health conditions in 2020: a modelling study.","Clark A, Jit M, Warren-Gash C, Guthrie B, Wang HHX, Mercer SW, Sanderson C, McKee M, Troeger C, Ong KL, Checchi F, Perel P, Joseph S, Gibbs HP, Banerjee A, Eggo RM, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 working group.",,The Lancet. Global health,2020,2020-06-15,Y,,,,"

Background

The risk of severe COVID-19 if an individual becomes infected is known to be higher in older individuals and those with underlying health conditions. Understanding the number of individuals at increased risk of severe COVID-19 and how this varies between countries should inform the design of possible strategies to shield or vaccinate those at highest risk.

Methods

We estimated the number of individuals at increased risk of severe disease (defined as those with at least one condition listed as ""at increased risk of severe COVID-19"" in current guidelines) by age (5-year age groups), sex, and country for 188 countries using prevalence data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 and UN population estimates for 2020. The list of underlying conditions relevant to COVID-19 was determined by mapping the conditions listed in GBD 2017 to those listed in guidelines published by WHO and public health agencies in the UK and the USA. We analysed data from two large multimorbidity studies to determine appropriate adjustment factors for clustering and multimorbidity. To help interpretation of the degree of risk among those at increased risk, we also estimated the number of individuals at high risk (defined as those that would require hospital admission if infected) using age-specific infection-hospitalisation ratios for COVID-19 estimated for mainland China and making adjustments to reflect country-specific differences in the prevalence of underlying conditions and frailty. We assumed males were twice at likely as females to be at high risk. We also calculated the number of individuals without an underlying condition that could be considered at increased risk because of their age, using minimum ages from 50 to 70 years. We generated uncertainty intervals (UIs) for our estimates by running low and high scenarios using the lower and upper 95% confidence limits for country population size, disease prevalences, multimorbidity fractions, and infection-hospitalisation ratios, and plausible low and high estimates for the degree of clustering, informed by multimorbidity studies.

Findings

We estimated that 1·7 billion (UI 1·0-2·4) people, comprising 22% (UI 15-28) of the global population, have at least one underlying condition that puts them at increased risk of severe COVID-19 if infected (ranging from <5% of those younger than 20 years to >66% of those aged 70 years or older). We estimated that 349 million (186-787) people (4% [3-9] of the global population) are at high risk of severe COVID-19 and would require hospital admission if infected (ranging from <1% of those younger than 20 years to approximately 20% of those aged 70 years or older). We estimated 6% (3-12) of males to be at high risk compared with 3% (2-7) of females. The share of the population at increased risk was highest in countries with older populations, African countries with high HIV/AIDS prevalence, and small island nations with high diabetes prevalence. Estimates of the number of individuals at increased risk were most sensitive to the prevalence of chronic kidney disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic respiratory disease.

Interpretation

About one in five individuals worldwide could be at increased risk of severe COVID-19, should they become infected, due to underlying health conditions, but this risk varies considerably by age. Our estimates are uncertain, and focus on underlying conditions rather than other risk factors such as ethnicity, socioeconomic deprivation, and obesity, but provide a starting point for considering the number of individuals that might need to be shielded or vaccinated as the global pandemic unfolds.

Funding

UK Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, Health Data Research UK, Medical Research Council, and National Institute for Health Research.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30264-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30264-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7295519 -35023833,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802,Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction.,"Gadd DA, Hillary RF, McCartney DL, Zaghlool SB, Stevenson AJ, Cheng Y, Fawns-Ritchie C, Nangle C, Campbell A, Flaig R, Harris SE, Walker RM, Shi L, Tucker-Drob EM, Gieger C, Peters A, Waldenberger M, Graumann J, McRae AF, Deary IJ, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Visscher PM, Cox SR, Evans KL, McIntosh AM, Suhre K, Marioni RE.",,eLife,2022,2022-01-13,Y,Human; Prediction; Aging; Genetics; Proteomics; Genomics; Biomarker; epidemiology; Global Health; Epigenetic; Morbiditiy,,,"Protein biomarkers have been identified across many age-related morbidities. However, characterising epigenetic influences could further inform disease predictions. Here, we leverage epigenome-wide data to study links between the DNA methylation (DNAm) signatures of the circulating proteome and incident diseases. Using data from four cohorts, we trained and tested epigenetic scores (EpiScores) for 953 plasma proteins, identifying 109 scores that explained between 1% and 58% of the variance in protein levels after adjusting for known protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) genetic effects. By projecting these EpiScores into an independent sample (Generation Scotland; n = 9537) and relating them to incident morbidities over a follow-up of 14 years, we uncovered 137 EpiScore-disease associations. These associations were largely independent of immune cell proportions, common lifestyle and health factors, and biological aging. Notably, we found that our diabetes-associated EpiScores highlighted previous top biomarker associations from proteome-wide assessments of diabetes. These EpiScores for protein levels can therefore be a valuable resource for disease prediction and risk stratification.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71802; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990?pdf=render 34582791,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007,Whole-genome sequencing in diverse subjects identifies genetic correlates of leukocyte traits: The NHLBI TOPMed program.,"Mikhaylova AV, McHugh CP, Polfus LM, Raffield LM, Boorgula MP, Blackwell TW, Brody JA, Broome J, Chami N, Chen MH, Conomos MP, Cox C, Curran JE, Daya M, Ekunwe L, Glahn DC, Heard-Costa N, Highland HM, Hobbs BD, Ilboudo Y, Jain D, Lange LA, Miller-Fleming TW, Min N, Moon JY, Preuss MH, Rosen J, Ryan K, Smith AV, Sun Q, Surendran P, de Vries PS, Walter K, Wang Z, Wheeler M, Yanek LR, Zhong X, Abecasis GR, Almasy L, Barnes KC, Beaty TH, Becker LC, Blangero J, Boerwinkle E, Butterworth AS, Chavan S, Cho MH, Choquet H, Correa A, Cox N, DeMeo DL, Faraday N, Fornage M, Gerszten RE, Hou L, Johnson AD, Jorgenson E, Kaplan R, Kooperberg C, Kundu K, Laurie CA, Lettre G, Lewis JP, Li B, Li Y, Lloyd-Jones DM, Loos RJF, Manichaikul A, Meyers DA, Mitchell BD, Morrison AC, Ngo D, Nickerson DA, Nongmaithem S, North KE, O'Connell JR, Ortega VE, Pankratz N, Perry JA, Psaty BM, Rich SS, Soranzo N, Rotter JI, Silverman EK, Smith NL, Tang H, Tracy RP, Thornton TA, Vasan RS, Zein J, Mathias RA, NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, Reiner AP, Auer PL.",,American journal of human genetics,2021,2021-09-27,N,Whole-genome Sequencing; Blood-cell Counts,,,"Many common and rare variants associated with hematologic traits have been discovered through imputation on large-scale reference panels. However, the majority of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been conducted in Europeans, and determining causal variants has proved challenging. We performed a GWAS of total leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil counts generated from 109,563,748 variants in the autosomes and the X chromosome in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, which included data from 61,802 individuals of diverse ancestry. We discovered and replicated 7 leukocyte trait associations, including (1) the association between a chromosome X, pseudo-autosomal region (PAR), noncoding variant located between cytokine receptor genes (CSF2RA and CLRF2) and lower eosinophil count; and (2) associations between single variants found predominantly among African Americans at the S1PR3 (9q22.1) and HBB (11p15.4) loci and monocyte and lymphocyte counts, respectively. We further provide evidence indicating that the newly discovered eosinophil-lowering chromosome X PAR variant might be associated with reduced susceptibility to common allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis and asthma. Additionally, we found a burden of very rare FLT3 (13q12.2) variants associated with monocyte counts. Together, these results emphasize the utility of whole-genome sequencing in diverse samples in identifying associations missed by European-ancestry-driven GWASs.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929721003062/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8546043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8546043?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007 +35023833,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802,Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction.,"Gadd DA, Hillary RF, McCartney DL, Zaghlool SB, Stevenson AJ, Cheng Y, Fawns-Ritchie C, Nangle C, Campbell A, Flaig R, Harris SE, Walker RM, Shi L, Tucker-Drob EM, Gieger C, Peters A, Waldenberger M, Graumann J, McRae AF, Deary IJ, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Visscher PM, Cox SR, Evans KL, McIntosh AM, Suhre K, Marioni RE.",,eLife,2022,2022-01-13,Y,Human; Prediction; Aging; Genetics; Proteomics; Genomics; Biomarker; epidemiology; Global Health; Epigenetic; Morbiditiy,,,"Protein biomarkers have been identified across many age-related morbidities. However, characterising epigenetic influences could further inform disease predictions. Here, we leverage epigenome-wide data to study links between the DNA methylation (DNAm) signatures of the circulating proteome and incident diseases. Using data from four cohorts, we trained and tested epigenetic scores (EpiScores) for 953 plasma proteins, identifying 109 scores that explained between 1% and 58% of the variance in protein levels after adjusting for known protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) genetic effects. By projecting these EpiScores into an independent sample (Generation Scotland; n = 9537) and relating them to incident morbidities over a follow-up of 14 years, we uncovered 137 EpiScore-disease associations. These associations were largely independent of immune cell proportions, common lifestyle and health factors, and biological aging. Notably, we found that our diabetes-associated EpiScores highlighted previous top biomarker associations from proteome-wide assessments of diabetes. These EpiScores for protein levels can therefore be a valuable resource for disease prediction and risk stratification.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71802; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990?pdf=render 35202437,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264341,Protein prediction for trait mapping in diverse populations.,"Schubert R, Geoffroy E, Gregga I, Mulford AJ, Aguet F, Ardlie K, Gerszten R, Clish C, Van Den Berg D, Taylor KD, Durda P, Johnson WC, Cornell E, Guo X, Liu Y, Tracy R, Conomos M, Blackwell T, Papanicolaou G, Lappalainen T, Mikhaylova AV, Thornton TA, Cho MH, Gignoux CR, Lange L, Lange E, Rich SS, Rotter JI, NHLBI TOPMed Consortium, Manichaikul A, Im HK, Wheeler HE.",,PloS one,2022,2022-02-24,Y,,,,"Genetically regulated gene expression has helped elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying complex traits. Improved high-throughput technology allows similar interrogation of the genetically regulated proteome for understanding complex trait mechanisms. Here, we used the Trans-omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Multi-omics pilot study, which comprises data from Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), to optimize genetic predictors of the plasma proteome for genetically regulated proteome-wide association studies (PWAS) in diverse populations. We built predictive models for protein abundances using data collected in TOPMed MESA, for which we have measured 1,305 proteins by a SOMAscan assay. We compared predictive models built via elastic net regression to models integrating posterior inclusion probabilities estimated by fine-mapping SNPs prior to elastic net. In order to investigate the transferability of predictive models across ancestries, we built protein prediction models in all four of the TOPMed MESA populations, African American (n = 183), Chinese (n = 71), European (n = 416), and Hispanic/Latino (n = 301), as well as in all populations combined. As expected, fine-mapping produced more significant protein prediction models, especially in African ancestries populations, potentially increasing opportunity for discovery. When we tested our TOPMed MESA models in the independent European INTERVAL study, fine-mapping improved cross-ancestries prediction for some proteins. Using GWAS summary statistics from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study, which comprises ∼50,000 Hispanic/Latinos, African Americans, Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Native Americans, we applied S-PrediXcan to perform PWAS for 28 complex traits. The most protein-trait associations were discovered, colocalized, and replicated in large independent GWAS using proteome prediction model training populations with similar ancestries to PAGE. At current training population sample sizes, performance between baseline and fine-mapped protein prediction models in PWAS was similar, highlighting the utility of elastic net. Our predictive models in diverse populations are publicly available for use in proteome mapping methods at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4837327.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264341; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8870552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8870552?pdf=render; pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264341&type=printable 33495596,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00762-2,Shared genetic pathways contribute to risk of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies with opposite directions of effect. ,"Tadros R, Francis C, Xu X, Vermeer AMC, Harper AR, Huurman R, Kelu Bisabu K, Walsh R, Hoorntje ET, Te Rijdt WP, Buchan RJ, van Velzen HG, van Slegtenhorst MA, Vermeulen JM, Offerhaus JA, Bai W, de Marvao A, Lahrouchi N, Beekman L, Karper JC, Veldink JH, Kayvanpour E, Pantazis A, Baksi AJ, Whiffin N, Mazzarotto F, Sloane G, Suzuki H, Schneider-Luftman D, Elliott P, Richard P, Ader F, Villard E, Lichtner P, Meitinger T, Tanck MWT, van Tintelen JP, Thain A, McCarty D, Hegele RA, Roberts JD, Amyot J, Dubé MP, Cadrin-Tourigny J, Giraldeau G, L'Allier PL, Garceau P, Tardif JC, Boekholdt SM, Lumbers RT, Asselbergs FW, Barton PJR, Cook SA, Prasad SK, O'Regan DP, van der Velden J, Verweij KJH, Talajic M, Lettre G, Pinto YM, Meder B, Charron P, de Boer RA, Christiaans I, Michels M, Wilde AAM, Watkins H, Matthews PM, Ware JS, Bezzina CR.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-01-25,Y,,,,"The heart muscle diseases hypertrophic (HCM) and dilated (DCM) cardiomyopathies are leading causes of sudden death and heart failure in young, otherwise healthy, individuals. We conducted genome-wide association studies and multi-trait analyses in HCM (1,733 cases), DCM (5,521 cases) and nine left ventricular (LV) traits (19,260 UK Biobank participants with structurally normal hearts). We identified 16 loci associated with HCM, 13 with DCM and 23 with LV traits. We show strong genetic correlations between LV traits and cardiomyopathies, with opposing effects in HCM and DCM. Two-sample Mendelian randomization supports a causal association linking increased LV contractility with HCM risk. A polygenic risk score explains a significant portion of phenotypic variability in carriers of HCM-causing rare variants. Our findings thus provide evidence that polygenic risk score may account for variability in Mendelian diseases. More broadly, we provide insights into how genetic pathways may lead to distinct disorders through opposing genetic effects.",,pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7611259?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00762-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611259; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611259?pdf=render +34773122,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x,"Author Correction: A genome-wide association study with 1,126,563 individuals identifies new risk loci for Alzheimer's disease.","Wightman DP, Jansen IE, Savage JE, Shadrin AA, Bahrami S, Holland D, Rongve A, Børte S, Winsvold BS, Drange OK, Martinsen AE, Skogholt AH, Willer C, Bråthen G, Bosnes I, Nielsen JB, Fritsche LG, Thomas LF, Pedersen LM, Gabrielsen ME, Johnsen MB, Meisingset TW, Zhou W, Proitsi P, Hodges A, Dobson R, Velayudhan L, Heilbron K, Auton A, 23andMe Research Team, Sealock JM, Davis LK, Pedersen NL, Reynolds CA, Karlsson IK, Magnusson S, Stefansson H, Thordardottir S, Jonsson PV, Snaedal J, Zettergren A, Skoog I, Kern S, Waern M, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Stordal E, Hveem K, Zwart JA, Athanasiu L, Selnes P, Saltvedt I, Sando SB, Ulstein I, Djurovic S, Fladby T, Aarsland D, Selbæk G, Ripke S, Stefansson K, Andreassen OA, Posthuma D.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-12-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00977-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x 33349334,https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58242,Molecular rationale for antibody-mediated targeting of the hantavirus fusion glycoprotein. ,"Rissanen I, Stass R, Krumm SA, Seow J, Hulswit RJ, Paesen GC, Hepojoki J, Vapalahti O, Lundkvist Å, Reynard O, Volchkov V, Doores KJ, Huiskonen JT, Bowden TA.",,eLife,2020,2020-12-22,Y,,,,"The intricate lattice of Gn and Gc glycoprotein spike complexes on the hantavirus envelope facilitates host-cell entry and is the primary target of the neutralizing antibody-mediated immune response. Through study of a neutralizing monoclonal antibody termed mAb P-4G2, which neutralizes the zoonotic pathogen Puumala virus (PUUV), we provide a molecular-level basis for antibody-mediated targeting of the hantaviral glycoprotein lattice. Crystallographic analysis demonstrates that P-4G2 binds to a multi-domain site on PUUV Gc and may preclude fusogenic rearrangements of the glycoprotein that are required for host-cell entry. Furthermore, cryo-electron microscopy of PUUV-like particles in the presence of P-4G2 reveals a lattice-independent configuration of the Gc, demonstrating that P-4G2 perturbs the (Gn-Gc)4 lattice. This work provides a structure-based blueprint for rationalizing antibody-mediated targeting of hantaviruses.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58242; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58242; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7755396; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7755396?pdf=render 33981765,https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00049-2021,Pleiotropic associations of heterozygosity for the SERPINA1 Z allele in the UK Biobank.,"Fawcett KA, Song K, Qian G, Farmaki AE, Packer R, John C, Shrine N, Granell R, Ring S, Timpson NJ, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Eastell R, Wain LV, Scott RA, Tobin MD, Hall IP.",,ERJ open research,2021,2021-04-01,Y,,,,"Homozygosity for the SERPINA1 Z allele causes α1-antitrypsin deficiency, a rare condition that can cause lung and liver disease. However, the effects of Z allele heterozygosity on nonrespiratory phenotypes, and on lung function in the general population, remain unclear. We conducted a large, population-based study to determine Z allele effects on >2400 phenotypes in the UK Biobank (N=303 353). Z allele heterozygosity was strongly associated with increased height (β=1.02 cm, p=3.91×10-68), and with other nonrespiratory phenotypes including increased risk of gall bladder disease, reduced risk of heart disease and lower blood pressure, reduced risk of osteoarthritis and reduced bone mineral density, increased risk of headache and enlarged prostate, as well as with blood biomarkers of liver function. Heterozygosity was associated with higher height-adjusted forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) (β=19.36 mL, p=9.21×10-4) and FEV1/forced vital capacity (β=0.0031, p=1.22×10-5) in nonsmokers, whereas in smokers, this protective effect was abolished. Furthermore, we show for the first time that sex modifies the association of the Z allele on lung function. We conclude that Z allele heterozygosity and homozygosity exhibit opposing effects on lung function in the UK population, and that these associations are modified by smoking and sex. In exploratory analyses, heterozygosity for the Z allele also showed pleiotropic associations with nonrespiratory health-related traits and disease risk.",,pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/7/2/00049-2021.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00049-2021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8107350; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8107350?pdf=render -34773122,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x,"Author Correction: A genome-wide association study with 1,126,563 individuals identifies new risk loci for Alzheimer's disease.","Wightman DP, Jansen IE, Savage JE, Shadrin AA, Bahrami S, Holland D, Rongve A, Børte S, Winsvold BS, Drange OK, Martinsen AE, Skogholt AH, Willer C, Bråthen G, Bosnes I, Nielsen JB, Fritsche LG, Thomas LF, Pedersen LM, Gabrielsen ME, Johnsen MB, Meisingset TW, Zhou W, Proitsi P, Hodges A, Dobson R, Velayudhan L, Heilbron K, Auton A, 23andMe Research Team, Sealock JM, Davis LK, Pedersen NL, Reynolds CA, Karlsson IK, Magnusson S, Stefansson H, Thordardottir S, Jonsson PV, Snaedal J, Zettergren A, Skoog I, Kern S, Waern M, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Stordal E, Hveem K, Zwart JA, Athanasiu L, Selnes P, Saltvedt I, Sando SB, Ulstein I, Djurovic S, Fladby T, Aarsland D, Selbæk G, Ripke S, Stefansson K, Andreassen OA, Posthuma D.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-12-01,N,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00977-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x 32573913,https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12106,Genome-wide association study of rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease patients identifies novel genes and pathways.,"Sherva R, Gross A, Mukherjee S, Koesterer R, Amouyel P, Bellenguez C, Dufouil C, Bennett DA, Chibnik L, Cruchaga C, Del-Aguila J, Farrer LA, Mayeux R, Munsie L, Winslow A, Newhouse S, Saykin AJ, Kauwe JSK, Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium, Crane PK, Green RC.",,Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association,2020,2020-06-23,N,Disease Progression; Genetic Association; Cognitive Decline; Pathway analysis,,,"

Introduction

Variability exists in the disease trajectories of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. We performed a genome-wide association study to examine rate of cognitive decline (ROD) in patients with AD.

Methods

We tested for interactions between genetic variants and time since diagnosis to predict the ROD of a composite cognitive score in 3946 AD cases and performed pathway analysis on the top genes.

Results

Suggestive associations (P < 1.0 × 10-6 ) were observed on chromosome 15 in DNA polymerase-γ (rs3176205, P = 1.11 × 10-7 ), chromosome 7 (rs60465337,P = 4.06 × 10-7 ) in contactin-associated protein-2, in RP11-384F7.1 on chromosome 3 (rs28853947, P = 5.93 × 10-7 ), family with sequence similarity 214 member-A on chromosome 15 (rs2899492, P = 5.94 × 10-7 ), and intergenic regions on chromosomes 16 (rs4949142, P = 4.02 × 10-7 ) and 4 (rs1304013, P = 7.73 × 10-7 ). Significant pathways involving neuronal development and function, apoptosis, memory, and inflammation were identified.

Discussion

Pathways related to AD, intelligence, and neurological function determine AD progression, while previously identified AD risk variants, including the apolipoprotein (APOE) ε4 and ε2 variants, do not have a major impact.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7924136; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12106; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7924136; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7924136?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12106 35072136,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100029,GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare.,"Rehm HL, Page AJH, Smith L, Adams JB, Alterovitz G, Babb LJ, Barkley MP, Baudis M, Beauvais MJS, Beck T, Beckmann JS, Beltran S, Bernick D, Bernier A, Bonfield JK, Boughtwood TF, Bourque G, Bowers SR, Brookes AJ, Brudno M, Brush MH, Bujold D, Burdett T, Buske OJ, Cabili MN, Cameron DL, Carroll RJ, Casas-Silva E, Chakravarty D, Chaudhari BP, Chen SH, Cherry JM, Chung J, Cline M, Clissold HL, Cook-Deegan RM, Courtot M, Cunningham F, Cupak M, Davies RM, Denisko D, Doerr MJ, Dolman LI, Dove ES, Dursi LJ, Dyke SOM, Eddy JA, Eilbeck K, Ellrott KP, Fairley S, Fakhro KA, Firth HV, Fitzsimons MS, Fiume M, Flicek P, Fore IM, Freeberg MA, Freimuth RR, Fromont LA, Fuerth J, Gaff CL, Gan W, Ghanaim EM, Glazer D, Green RC, Griffith M, Griffith OL, Grossman RL, Groza T, Auvil JMG, Guigó R, Gupta D, Haendel MA, Hamosh A, Hansen DP, Hart RK, Hartley DM, Haussler D, Hendricks-Sturrup RM, Ho CWL, Hobb AE, Hoffman MM, Hofmann OM, Holub P, Hsu JS, Hubaux JP, Hunt SE, Husami A, Jacobsen JO, Jamuar SS, Janes EL, Jeanson F, Jené A, Johns AL, Joly Y, Jones SJM, Kanitz A, Kato K, Keane TM, Kekesi-Lafrance K, Kelleher J, Kerry G, Khor SS, Knoppers BM, Konopko MA, Kosaki K, Kuba M, Lawson J, Leinonen R, Li S, Lin MF, Linden M, Liu X, Udara Liyanage I, Lopez J, Lucassen AM, Lukowski M, Mann AL, Marshall J, Mattioni M, Metke-Jimenez A, Middleton A, Milne RJ, Molnár-Gábor F, Mulder N, Munoz-Torres MC, Nag R, Nakagawa H, Nasir J, Navarro A, Nelson TH, Niewielska A, Nisselle A, Niu J, Nyrönen TH, O'Connor BD, Oesterle S, Ogishima S, Wang VO, Paglione LAD, Palumbo E, Parkinson HE, Philippakis AA, Pizarro AD, Prlic A, Rambla J, Rendon A, Rider RA, Robinson PN, Rodarmer KW, Rodriguez LL, Rubin AF, Rueda M, Rushton GA, Ryan RS, Saunders GI, Schuilenburg H, Schwede T, Scollen S, Senf A, Sheffield NC, Skantharajah N, Smith AV, Sofia HJ, Spalding D, Spurdle AB, Stark Z, Stein LD, Suematsu M, Tan P, Tedds JA, Thomson AA, Thorogood A, Tickle TL, Tokunaga K, Törnroos J, Torrents D, Upchurch S, Valencia A, Guimera RV, Vamathevan J, Varma S, Vears DF, Viner C, Voisin C, Wagner AH, Wallace SE, Walsh BP, Williams MS, Winkler EC, Wold BJ, Wood GM, Woolley JP, Yamasaki C, Yates AD, Yung CK, Zass LJ, Zaytseva K, Zhang J, Goodhand P, North K, Birney E.",,Cell genomics,2021,2021-11-01,Y,,,,"The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) aims to accelerate biomedical advances by enabling the responsible sharing of clinical and genomic data through both harmonized data aggregation and federated approaches. The decreasing cost of genomic sequencing (along with other genome-wide molecular assays) and increasing evidence of its clinical utility will soon drive the generation of sequence data from tens of millions of humans, with increasing levels of diversity. In this perspective, we present the GA4GH strategies for addressing the major challenges of this data revolution. We describe the GA4GH organization, which is fueled by the development efforts of eight Work Streams and informed by the needs of 24 Driver Projects and other key stakeholders. We present the GA4GH suite of secure, interoperable technical standards and policy frameworks and review the current status of standards, their relevance to key domains of research and clinical care, and future plans of GA4GH. Broad international participation in building, adopting, and deploying GA4GH standards and frameworks will catalyze an unprecedented effort in data sharing that will be critical to advancing genomic medicine and ensuring that all populations can access its benefits.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100029; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8774288; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8774288?pdf=render -34083753,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6,"Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000-2018.","Bhattacharjee NV, Schaeffer LE, Hay SI, Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators.",,Nature human behaviour,2021,2021-06-03,Y,,,,"Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)-giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6 months of life-is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization's Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of ≥70% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of ≥70% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01108-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614?pdf=render 34661663,https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639,Association Between Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors and the Risk of Hospitalization or Death Among Patients With Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease and COVID-19.,"Izadi Z, Brenner EJ, Mahil SK, Dand N, Yiu ZZN, Yates M, Ungaro RC, Zhang X, Agrawal M, Colombel JF, Gianfrancesco MA, Hyrich KL, Strangfeld A, Carmona L, Mateus EF, Lawson-Tovey S, Klingberg E, Cuomo G, Caprioli M, Cruz-Machado AR, Mazeda Pereira AC, Hasseli R, Pfeil A, Lorenz HM, Hoyer BF, Trupin L, Rush S, Katz P, Schmajuk G, Jacobsohn L, Seet AM, Al Emadi S, Wise L, Gilbert EL, Duarte-García A, Valenzuela-Almada MO, Isnardi CA, Quintana R, Soriano ER, Hsu TY, D'Silva KM, Sparks JA, Patel NJ, Xavier RM, Marques CDL, Kakehasi AM, Flipo RM, Claudepierre P, Cantagrel A, Goupille P, Wallace ZS, Bhana S, Costello W, Grainger R, Hausmann JS, Liew JW, Sirotich E, Sufka P, Robinson PC, Machado PM, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Yazdany J, Kappelman MD, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Allianc, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA).",,JAMA network open,2021,2021-10-01,Y,,,,"

Importance

Although tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors are widely prescribed globally because of their ability to ameliorate shared immune pathways across immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), the impact of COVID-19 among individuals with IMIDs who are receiving TNF inhibitors remains insufficiently understood.

Objective

To examine the association between the receipt of TNF inhibitor monotherapy and the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among adult patients with IMIDs.

Design, setting, and participants

This cohort study was a pooled analysis of data from 3 international COVID-19 registries comprising individuals with rheumatic diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis from March 12, 2020, to February 1, 2021. Clinicians directly reported COVID-19 outcomes as well as demographic and clinical characteristics of individuals with IMIDs and confirmed or suspected COVID-19 using online data entry portals. Adults (age ≥18 years) with a diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, or psoriasis were included.

Exposures

Treatment exposure categories included TNF inhibitor monotherapy (reference treatment), TNF inhibitors in combination with methotrexate therapy, TNF inhibitors in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy, methotrexate monotherapy, azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy, and Janus kinase (Jak) inhibitor monotherapy.

Main outcomes and measures

The main outcome was COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death. Registry-level analyses and a pooled analysis of data across the 3 registries were conducted using multilevel multivariable logistic regression models, adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics and accounting for country, calendar month, and registry-level correlations.

Results

A total of 6077 patients from 74 countries were included in the analyses; of those, 3215 individuals (52.9%) were from Europe, 3563 individuals (58.6%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 48.8 (16.5) years. The most common IMID diagnoses were rheumatoid arthritis (2146 patients [35.3%]) and Crohn disease (1537 patients [25.3%]). A total of 1297 patients (21.3%) were hospitalized, and 189 patients (3.1%) died. In the pooled analysis, compared with patients who received TNF inhibitor monotherapy, higher odds of hospitalization or death were observed among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy (odds ratio [OR], 1.74; 95% CI, 1.17-2.58; P = .006), azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy (OR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.30-2.61; P = .001), methotrexate monotherapy (OR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.57-2.56; P < .001), and Jak inhibitor monotherapy (OR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.21-2.73; P = .004) but not among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with methotrexate therapy (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.85-1.63; P = .33). Similar findings were obtained in analyses that accounted for potential reporting bias and sensitivity analyses that excluded patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis based on symptoms alone.

Conclusions and relevance

In this cohort study, TNF inhibitor monotherapy was associated with a lower risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among individuals with IMIDs.",,doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524310; pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2785080/izadi_2021_oi_210864_1633624160.94853.pdf +34083753,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6,"Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000-2018.","Bhattacharjee NV, Schaeffer LE, Hay SI, Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators.",,Nature human behaviour,2021,2021-06-03,Y,,,,"Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)-giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6 months of life-is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization's Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of ≥70% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of ≥70% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01108-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614?pdf=render 32888493,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.045,"Trans-ethnic and Ancestry-Specific Blood-Cell Genetics in 746,667 Individuals from 5 Global Populations.","Chen MH, Raffield LM, Mousas A, Sakaue S, Huffman JE, Moscati A, Trivedi B, Jiang T, Akbari P, Vuckovic D, Bao EL, Zhong X, Manansala R, Laplante V, Chen M, Lo KS, Qian H, Lareau CA, Beaudoin M, Hunt KA, Akiyama M, Bartz TM, Ben-Shlomo Y, Beswick A, Bork-Jensen J, Bottinger EP, Brody JA, van Rooij FJA, Chitrala K, Cho K, Choquet H, Correa A, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Dimou N, Ding J, Elliott P, Esko T, Evans MK, Floyd JS, Broer L, Grarup N, Guo MH, Greinacher A, Haessler J, Hansen T, Howson JMM, Huang QQ, Huang W, Jorgenson E, Kacprowski T, Kähönen M, Kamatani Y, Kanai M, Karthikeyan S, Koskeridis F, Lange LA, Lehtimäki T, Lerch MM, Linneberg A, Liu Y, Lyytikäinen LP, Manichaikul A, Martin HC, Matsuda K, Mohlke KL, Mononen N, Murakami Y, Nadkarni GN, Nauck M, Nikus K, Ouwehand WH, Pankratz N, Pedersen O, Preuss M, Psaty BM, Raitakari OT, Roberts DJ, Rich SS, Rodriguez BAT, Rosen JD, Rotter JI, Schubert P, Spracklen CN, Surendran P, Tang H, Tardif JC, Trembath RC, Ghanbari M, Völker U, Völzke H, Watkins NA, Zonderman AB, VA Million Veteran Program, Wilson PWF, Li Y, Butterworth AS, Gauchat JF, Chiang CWK, Li B, Loos RJF, Astle WJ, Evangelou E, van Heel DA, Sankaran VG, Okada Y, Soranzo N, Johnson AD, Reiner AP, Auer PL, Lettre G.",,Cell,2020,2020-09-01,N,"Interleukin-7, Genetic Architecture, Fine-mapping, Selective Sweeps, Polygenic Trait Score, Phenome-wide Association Study",,,"Most loci identified by GWASs have been found in populations of European ancestry (EUR). In trans-ethnic meta-analyses for 15 hematological traits in 746,667 participants, including 184,535 non-EUR individuals, we identified 5,552 trait-variant associations at p < 5 × 10-9, including 71 novel associations not found in EUR populations. We also identified 28 additional novel variants in ancestry-specific, non-EUR meta-analyses, including an IL7 missense variant in South Asians associated with lymphocyte count in vivo and IL-7 secretion levels in vitro. Fine-mapping prioritized variants annotated as functional and generated 95% credible sets that were 30% smaller when using the trans-ethnic as opposed to the EUR-only results. We explored the clinical significance and predictive value of trans-ethnic variants in multiple populations and compared genetic architecture and the effect of natural selection on these blood phenotypes between populations. Altogether, our results for hematological traits highlight the value of a more global representation of populations in genetic studies.",,pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867420308229/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7480402; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7480402?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.045 35013731,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100299,Persistent hesitancy for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines among healthcare workers in the United Kingdom: analysis of longitudinal data from the UK-REACH cohort study.,"Martin CA, Woolf K, Bryant L, Carr S, Gray LJ, Gupta A, Guyatt AL, John C, Melbourne C, McManus IC, Nazareth J, Nellums LB, Tobin MD, Pan D, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.",,The Lancet regional health. Europe,2022,2022-01-04,Y,,,,,,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100299; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100299; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8730737; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8730737?pdf=render 34667060,https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02730-2021,Global Initiative for Asthma Strategy 2021: executive summary and rationale for key changes. ,"Reddel HK, Bacharier LB, Bateman ED, Brightling CE, Brusselle GG, Buhl R, Cruz AA, Duijts L, Drazen JM, FitzGerald JM, Fleming LJ, Inoue H, Ko FW, Krishnan JA, Levy ML, Lin J, Mortimer K, Pitrez PM, Sheikh A, Yorgancioglu AA, Boulet LP.",,The European respiratory journal,2022,2021-12-31,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/59/1/2102730.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02730-2021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719459; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719459?pdf=render @@ -2325,15 +2325,15 @@ PMC10492989,https://doi.org/,Using Polygenic Risk Scores for Prioritizing Indivi 30487518,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07345-0,Interethnic analyses of blood pressure loci in populations of East Asian and European descent.,"Takeuchi F, Akiyama M, Matoba N, Katsuya T, Nakatochi M, Tabara Y, Narita A, Saw WY, Moon S, Spracklen CN, Chai JF, Kim YJ, Zhang L, Wang C, Li H, Li H, Wu JY, Dorajoo R, Nierenberg JL, Wang YX, He J, Bennett DA, Takahashi A, Momozawa Y, Hirata M, Matsuda K, Rakugi H, Nakashima E, Isono M, Shirota M, Hozawa A, Ichihara S, Matsubara T, Yamamoto K, Kohara K, Igase M, Han S, Gordon-Larsen P, Huang W, Lee NR, Adair LS, Hwang MY, Lee J, Chee ML, Sabanayagam C, Zhao W, Liu J, Reilly DF, Sun L, Huo S, Edwards TL, Long J, Chang LC, Chen CH, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Friedlander Y, Kelly TN, Bin Wei W, Xu L, Cai H, Xiang YB, Lin K, Clarke R, Walters RG, Millwood IY, Li L, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, Elliott P, van der Harst P, International Genomics of Blood Pressure (iGEN-BP) Consortium, Chen Z, Sasaki M, Shu XO, Jonas JB, He J, Heng CK, Chen YT, Zheng W, Lin X, Teo YY, Tai ES, Cheng CY, Wong TY, Sim X, Mohlke KL, Yamamoto M, Kim BJ, Miki T, Nabika T, Yokota M, Kamatani Y, Kubo M, Kato N.",,Nature communications,2018,2018-11-28,Y,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"Blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and more than 200 genetic loci associated with BP are known. Here, we perform a multi-stage genome-wide association study for BP (max N = 289,038) principally in East Asians and meta-analysis in East Asians and Europeans. We report 19 new genetic loci and ancestry-specific BP variants, conforming to a common ancestry-specific variant association model. At 10 unique loci, distinct non-rare ancestry-specific variants colocalize within the same linkage disequilibrium block despite the significantly discordant effects for the proxy shared variants between the ethnic groups. The genome-wide transethnic correlation of causal-variant effect-sizes is 0.898 and 0.851 for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively. Some of the ancestry-specific association signals are also influenced by a selective sweep. Our results provide new evidence for the role of common ancestry-specific variants and natural selection in ethnic differences in complex traits such as BP.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07345-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07345-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6261994; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6261994?pdf=render 34416195,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01207-1,"Global, regional, and national progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for neonatal and child health: all-cause and cause-specific mortality findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Under-5 Mortality Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2021,2021-08-17,Y,,,,"

Background

Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 has targeted elimination of preventable child mortality, reduction of neonatal death to less than 12 per 1000 livebirths, and reduction of death of children younger than 5 years to less than 25 per 1000 livebirths, for each country by 2030. To understand current rates, recent trends, and potential trajectories of child mortality for the next decade, we present the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 findings for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality in children younger than 5 years of age, with multiple scenarios for child mortality in 2030 that include the consideration of potential effects of COVID-19, and a novel framework for quantifying optimal child survival.

Methods

We completed all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality analyses from 204 countries and territories for detailed age groups separately, with aggregated mortality probabilities per 1000 livebirths computed for neonatal mortality rate (NMR) and under-5 mortality rate (U5MR). Scenarios for 2030 represent different potential trajectories, notably including potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of improvements preferentially targeting neonatal survival. Optimal child survival metrics were developed by age, sex, and cause of death across all GBD location-years. The first metric is a global optimum and is based on the lowest observed mortality, and the second is a survival potential frontier that is based on stochastic frontier analysis of observed mortality and Healthcare Access and Quality Index.

Findings

Global U5MR decreased from 71·2 deaths per 1000 livebirths (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 68·3-74·0) in 2000 to 37·1 (33·2-41·7) in 2019 while global NMR correspondingly declined more slowly from 28·0 deaths per 1000 live births (26·8-29·5) in 2000 to 17·9 (16·3-19·8) in 2019. In 2019, 136 (67%) of 204 countries had a U5MR at or below the SDG 3.2 threshold and 133 (65%) had an NMR at or below the SDG 3.2 threshold, and the reference scenario suggests that by 2030, 154 (75%) of all countries could meet the U5MR targets, and 139 (68%) could meet the NMR targets. Deaths of children younger than 5 years totalled 9·65 million (95% UI 9·05-10·30) in 2000 and 5·05 million (4·27-6·02) in 2019, with the neonatal fraction of these deaths increasing from 39% (3·76 million [95% UI 3·53-4·02]) in 2000 to 48% (2·42 million; 2·06-2·86) in 2019. NMR and U5MR were generally higher in males than in females, although there was no statistically significant difference at the global level. Neonatal disorders remained the leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years in 2019, followed by lower respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, congenital birth defects, and malaria. The global optimum analysis suggests NMR could be reduced to as low as 0·80 (95% UI 0·71-0·86) deaths per 1000 livebirths and U5MR to 1·44 (95% UI 1·27-1·58) deaths per 1000 livebirths, and in 2019, there were as many as 1·87 million (95% UI 1·35-2·58; 37% [95% UI 32-43]) of 5·05 million more deaths of children younger than 5 years than the survival potential frontier.

Interpretation

Global child mortality declined by almost half between 2000 and 2019, but progress remains slower in neonates and 65 (32%) of 204 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, are not on track to meet either SDG 3.2 target by 2030. Focused improvements in perinatal and newborn care, continued and expanded delivery of essential interventions such as vaccination and infection prevention, an enhanced focus on equity, continued focus on poverty reduction and education, and investment in strengthening health systems across the development spectrum have the potential to substantially improve U5MR. Given the widespread effects of COVID-19, considerable effort will be required to maintain and accelerate progress.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621012071/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01207-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8429803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8429803?pdf=render 32109421,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.02.006,Genome-wide Association Analysis in Humans Links Nucleotide Metabolism to Leukocyte Telomere Length.,"Li C, Stoma S, Lotta LA, Warner S, Albrecht E, Allione A, Arp PP, Broer L, Buxton JL, Da Silva Couto Alves A, Deelen J, Fedko IO, Gordon SD, Jiang T, Karlsson R, Kerrison N, Loe TK, Mangino M, Milaneschi Y, Miraglio B, Pervjakova N, Russo A, Surakka I, van der Spek A, Verhoeven JE, Amin N, Beekman M, Blakemore AI, Canzian F, Hamby SE, Hottenga JJ, Jones PD, Jousilahti P, Mägi R, Medland SE, Montgomery GW, Nyholt DR, Perola M, Pietiläinen KH, Salomaa V, Sillanpää E, Suchiman HE, van Heemst D, Willemsen G, Agudo A, Boeing H, Boomsma DI, Chirlaque MD, Fagherazzi G, Ferrari P, Franks P, Gieger C, Eriksson JG, Gunter M, Hägg S, Hovatta I, Imaz L, Kaprio J, Kaaks R, Key T, Krogh V, Martin NG, Melander O, Metspalu A, Moreno C, Onland-Moret NC, Nilsson P, Ong KK, Overvad K, Palli D, Panico S, Pedersen NL, Penninx BWJH, Quirós JR, Jarvelin MR, Rodríguez-Barranco M, Scott RA, Severi G, Slagboom PE, Spector TD, Tjonneland A, Trichopoulou A, Tumino R, Uitterlinden AG, van der Schouw YT, van Duijn CM, Weiderpass E, Denchi EL, Matullo G, Butterworth AS, Danesh J, Samani NJ, Wareham NJ, Nelson CP, Langenberg C, Codd V.",,American journal of human genetics,2020,2020-02-27,Y,Biological Aging; Telomere Length; Age-related Disease; Mendelian Randomisation,The Human Phenome,,"Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a heritable biomarker of genomic aging. In this study, we perform a genome-wide meta-analysis of LTL by pooling densely genotyped and imputed association results across large-scale European-descent studies including up to 78,592 individuals. We identify 49 genomic regions at a false dicovery rate (FDR) < 0.05 threshold and prioritize genes at 31, with five highlighting nucleotide metabolism as an important regulator of LTL. We report six genome-wide significant loci in or near SENP7, MOB1B, CARMIL1, PRRC2A, TERF2, and RFWD3, and our results support recently identified PARP1, POT1, ATM, and MPHOSPH6 loci. Phenome-wide analyses in >350,000 UK Biobank participants suggest that genetically shorter telomere length increases the risk of hypothyroidism and decreases the risk of thyroid cancer, lymphoma, and a range of proliferative conditions. Our results replicate previously reported associations with increased risk of coronary artery disease and lower risk for multiple cancer types. Our findings substantially expand current knowledge on genes that regulate LTL and their impact on human health and disease.","This study performs some genetic meta-analysis across large-scale european-descent studies which include over 72,000 individulas. The results of the analyses identify certain characteristics of the genes which increase the risk of hypothyroidism (insufficient production of thyroid hormone) and decrease the risk of thyroid cancer and a range of cancerous conditions. The findings expand current knowlege on these associations between the genes and their impact on diseases.",pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929720300483/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.02.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7058826; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7058826?pdf=render -34127860,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5,"Fine-mapping, trans-ancestral and genomic analyses identify causal variants, cells, genes and drug targets for type 1 diabetes.","Robertson CC, Inshaw JRJ, Onengut-Gumuscu S, Chen WM, Santa Cruz DF, Yang H, Cutler AJ, Crouch DJM, Farber E, Bridges SL, Edberg JC, Kimberly RP, Buckner JH, Deloukas P, Divers J, Dabelea D, Lawrence JM, Marcovina S, Shah AS, Greenbaum CJ, Atkinson MA, Gregersen PK, Oksenberg JR, Pociot F, Rewers MJ, Steck AK, Dunger DB, Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, Wicker LS, Concannon P, Todd JA, Rich SS.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-06-14,Y,,,,"We report the largest and most diverse genetic study of type 1 diabetes (T1D) to date (61,427 participants), yielding 78 genome-wide-significant (P < 5 × 10-8) regions, including 36 that are new. We define credible sets of T1D-associated variants and show that they are enriched in immune-cell accessible chromatin, particularly CD4+ effector T cells. Using chromatin-accessibility profiling of CD4+ T cells from 115 individuals, we map chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci and identify five regions where T1D risk variants co-localize with chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci. We highlight rs72928038 in BACH2 as a candidate causal T1D variant leading to decreased enhancer accessibility and BACH2 expression in T cells. Finally, we prioritize potential drug targets by integrating genetic evidence, functional genomic maps and immune protein-protein interactions, identifying 12 genes implicated in T1D that have been targeted in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases. These findings provide an expanded genomic landscape for T1D.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8273124; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124?pdf=render 35385311,https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl6579,Mendelian randomization supports bidirectional causality between telomere length and clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential.,"Nakao T, Bick AG, Taub MA, Zekavat SM, Uddin MM, Niroula A, Carty CL, Lane J, Honigberg MC, Weinstock JS, Pampana A, Gibson CJ, Griffin GK, Clarke SL, Bhattacharya R, Assimes TL, Emery LS, Stilp AM, Wong Q, Broome J, Laurie CA, Khan AT, Smith AV, Blackwell TW, Codd V, Nelson CP, Yoneda ZT, Peralta JM, Bowden DW, Irvin MR, Boorgula M, Zhao W, Yanek LR, Wiggins KL, Hixson JE, Gu CC, Peloso GM, Roden DM, Reupena MS, Hwu CM, DeMeo DL, North KE, Kelly S, Musani SK, Bis JC, Lloyd-Jones DM, Johnsen JM, Preuss M, Tracy RP, Peyser PA, Qiao D, Desai P, Curran JE, Freedman BI, Tiwari HK, Chavan S, Smith JA, Smith NL, Kelly TN, Hidalgo B, Cupples LA, Weeks DE, Hawley NL, Minster RL, Samoan Obesity, Lifestyle and Genetic Adaptations Study (OLaGA) Group, Deka R, Naseri TT, de Las Fuentes L, Raffield LM, Morrison AC, Vries PS, Ballantyne CM, Kenny EE, Rich SS, Whitsel EA, Cho MH, Shoemaker MB, Pace BS, Blangero J, Palmer ND, Mitchell BD, Shuldiner AR, Barnes KC, Redline S, Kardia SLR, Abecasis GR, Becker LC, Heckbert SR, He J, Post W, Arnett DK, Vasan RS, Darbar D, Weiss ST, McGarvey ST, de Andrade M, Chen YI, Kaplan RC, Meyers DA, Custer BS, Correa A, Psaty BM, Fornage M, Manson JE, Boerwinkle E, Konkle BA, Loos RJF, Rotter JI, Silverman EK, Kooperberg C, Danesh J, Samani NJ, Jaiswal S, Libby P, Ellinor PT, Pankratz N, Ebert BL, Reiner AP, Mathias RA, Do R, NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, Natarajan P.",,Science advances,2022,2022-04-06,Y,,,,"Human genetic studies support an inverse causal relationship between leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and coronary artery disease (CAD), but directionally mixed effects for LTL and diverse malignancies. Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), characterized by expansion of hematopoietic cells bearing leukemogenic mutations, predisposes both hematologic malignancy and CAD. TERT (which encodes telomerase reverse transcriptase) is the most significantly associated germline locus for CHIP in genome-wide association studies. Here, we investigated the relationship between CHIP, LTL, and CAD in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program (n = 63,302) and UK Biobank (n = 47,080). Bidirectional Mendelian randomization studies were consistent with longer genetically imputed LTL increasing propensity to develop CHIP, but CHIP then, in turn, hastens to shorten measured LTL (mLTL). We also demonstrated evidence of modest mediation between CHIP and CAD by mLTL. Our data promote an understanding of potential causal relationships across CHIP and LTL toward prevention of CAD.",,pdf:https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12581&context=open_access_pubs; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl6579; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986098; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986098?pdf=render +34127860,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5,"Fine-mapping, trans-ancestral and genomic analyses identify causal variants, cells, genes and drug targets for type 1 diabetes.","Robertson CC, Inshaw JRJ, Onengut-Gumuscu S, Chen WM, Santa Cruz DF, Yang H, Cutler AJ, Crouch DJM, Farber E, Bridges SL, Edberg JC, Kimberly RP, Buckner JH, Deloukas P, Divers J, Dabelea D, Lawrence JM, Marcovina S, Shah AS, Greenbaum CJ, Atkinson MA, Gregersen PK, Oksenberg JR, Pociot F, Rewers MJ, Steck AK, Dunger DB, Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, Wicker LS, Concannon P, Todd JA, Rich SS.",,Nature genetics,2021,2021-06-14,Y,,,,"We report the largest and most diverse genetic study of type 1 diabetes (T1D) to date (61,427 participants), yielding 78 genome-wide-significant (P < 5 × 10-8) regions, including 36 that are new. We define credible sets of T1D-associated variants and show that they are enriched in immune-cell accessible chromatin, particularly CD4+ effector T cells. Using chromatin-accessibility profiling of CD4+ T cells from 115 individuals, we map chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci and identify five regions where T1D risk variants co-localize with chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci. We highlight rs72928038 in BACH2 as a candidate causal T1D variant leading to decreased enhancer accessibility and BACH2 expression in T cells. Finally, we prioritize potential drug targets by integrating genetic evidence, functional genomic maps and immune protein-protein interactions, identifying 12 genes implicated in T1D that have been targeted in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases. These findings provide an expanded genomic landscape for T1D.",,html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8273124; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124?pdf=render 33230300,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00713-x,Discovery of rare variants associated with blood pressure regulation through meta-analysis of 1.3 million individuals.,"Surendran P, Feofanova EV, Lahrouchi N, Ntalla I, Karthikeyan S, Cook J, Chen L, Mifsud B, Yao C, Kraja AT, Cartwright JH, Hellwege JN, Giri A, Tragante V, Thorleifsson G, Liu DJ, Prins BP, Stewart ID, Cabrera CP, Eales JM, Akbarov A, Auer PL, Bielak LF, Bis JC, Braithwaite VS, Brody JA, Daw EW, Warren HR, Drenos F, Nielsen SF, Faul JD, Fauman EB, Fava C, Ferreira T, Foley CN, Franceschini N, Gao H, Giannakopoulou O, Giulianini F, Gudbjartsson DF, Guo X, Harris SE, Havulinna AS, Helgadottir A, Huffman JE, Hwang SJ, Kanoni S, Kontto J, Larson MG, Li-Gao R, Lindström J, Lotta LA, Lu Y, Luan J, Mahajan A, Malerba G, Masca NGD, Mei H, Menni C, Mook-Kanamori DO, Mosen-Ansorena D, Müller-Nurasyid M, Paré G, Paul DS, Perola M, Poveda A, Rauramaa R, Richard M, Richardson TG, Sepúlveda N, Sim X, Smith AV, Smith JA, Staley JR, Stanáková A, Sulem P, Thériault S, Thorsteinsdottir U, Trompet S, Varga TV, Velez Edwards DR, Veronesi G, Weiss S, Willems SM, Yao J, Young R, Yu B, Zhang W, Zhao JH, Zhao W, Zhao W, Evangelou E, Aeschbacher S, Asllanaj E, Blankenberg S, Bonnycastle LL, Bork-Jensen J, Brandslund I, Braund PS, Burgess S, Cho K, Christensen C, Connell J, Mutsert R, Dominiczak AF, Dörr M, Eiriksdottir G, Farmaki AE, Gaziano JM, Grarup N, Grove ML, Hallmans G, Hansen T, Have CT, Heiss G, Jørgensen ME, Jousilahti P, Kajantie E, Kamat M, Käräjämäki A, Karpe F, Koistinen HA, Kovesdy CP, Kuulasmaa K, Laatikainen T, Lannfelt L, Lee IT, Lee WJ, LifeLines Cohort Study, Linneberg A, Martin LW, Moitry M, Nadkarni G, Neville MJ, Palmer CNA, Papanicolaou GJ, Pedersen O, Peters J, Poulter N, Rasheed A, Rasmussen KL, Rayner NW, Mägi R, Renström F, Rettig R, Rossouw J, Schreiner PJ, Sever PS, Sigurdsson EL, Skaaby T, Sun YV, Sundstrom J, Thorgeirsson G, Esko T, Trabetti E, Tsao PS, Tuomi T, Turner ST, Tzoulaki I, Vaartjes I, Vergnaud AC, Willer CJ, Wilson PWF, Witte DR, Yonova-Doing E, Zhang H, Aliya N, Almgren P, Amouyel P, Asselbergs FW, Barnes MR, Blakemore AI, Boehnke M, Bots ML, Bottinger EP, Buring JE, Chambers JC, Chen YI, Chowdhury R, Conen D, Correa A, Davey Smith G, Boer RA, Deary IJ, Dedoussis G, Deloukas P, Di Angelantonio E, Elliott P, EPIC-CVD, EPIC-InterAct, Felix SB, Ferrières J, Ford I, Fornage M, Franks PW, Franks S, Frossard P, Gambaro G, Gaunt TR, Groop L, Gudnason V, Harris TB, Hayward C, Hennig BJ, Herzig KH, Ingelsson E, Tuomilehto J, Järvelin MR, Jukema JW, Kardia SLR, Kee F, Kooner JS, Kooperberg C, Launer LJ, Lind L, Loos RJF, Majumder AAS, Laakso M, McCarthy MI, Melander O, Mohlke KL, Murray AD, Nordestgaard BG, Orho-Melander M, Packard CJ, Padmanabhan S, Palmas W, Polasek O, Porteous DJ, Prentice AM, Province MA, Relton CL, Rice K, Ridker PM, Rolandsson O, Rosendaal FR, Rotter JI, Rudan I, Salomaa V, Samani NJ, Sattar N, Sheu WH, Smith BH, Soranzo N, Spector TD, Starr JM, Sebert S, Taylor KD, Lakka TA, Timpson NJ, Tobin MD, Understanding Society Scientific Group, van der Harst P, van der Meer P, Ramachandran VS, Verweij N, Virtamo J, Völker U, Weir DR, Zeggini E, Charchar FJ, Million Veteran Program, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C, Tomaszewski M, Butterworth AS, Caulfield MJ, Danesh J, Edwards TL, Holm H, Hung AM, Lindgren CM, Liu C, Manning AK, Morris AP, Morrison AC, O'Donnell CJ, Psaty BM, Saleheen D, Stefansson K, Boerwinkle E, Chasman DI, Levy D, Newton-Cheh C, Munroe PB, Howson JMM.",,Nature genetics,2020,2020-11-23,Y,,,,"Genetic studies of blood pressure (BP) to date have mainly analyzed common variants (minor allele frequency > 0.05). In a meta-analysis of up to ~1.3 million participants, we discovered 106 new BP-associated genomic regions and 87 rare (minor allele frequency ≤ 0.01) variant BP associations (P < 5 × 10-8), of which 32 were in new BP-associated loci and 55 were independent BP-associated single-nucleotide variants within known BP-associated regions. Average effects of rare variants (44% coding) were ~8 times larger than common variant effects and indicate potential candidate causal genes at new and known loci (for example, GATA5 and PLCB3). BP-associated variants (including rare and common) were enriched in regions of active chromatin in fetal tissues, potentially linking fetal development with BP regulation in later life. Multivariable Mendelian randomization suggested possible inverse effects of elevated systolic and diastolic BP on large artery stroke. Our study demonstrates the utility of rare-variant analyses for identifying candidate genes and the results highlight potential therapeutic targets.",,pdf:https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/174218286/s41588_020_00713_x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00713-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610439; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610439?pdf=render 30224653,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x,Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits.,"Evangelou E, Warren HR, Mosen-Ansorena D, Mifsud B, Pazoki R, Gao H, Ntritsos G, Dimou N, Cabrera CP, Karaman I, Ng FL, Evangelou M, Witkowska K, Tzanis E, Hellwege JN, Giri A, Velez Edwards DR, Sun YV, Cho K, Gaziano JM, Wilson PWF, Tsao PS, Kovesdy CP, Esko T, Mägi R, Milani L, Almgren P, Boutin T, Debette S, Ding J, Giulianini F, Holliday EG, Jackson AU, Li-Gao R, Lin WY, Luan J, Mangino M, Oldmeadow C, Prins BP, Qian Y, Sargurupremraj M, Shah N, Surendran P, Thériault S, Verweij N, Willems SM, Zhao JH, Amouyel P, Connell J, de Mutsert R, Doney ASF, Farrall M, Menni C, Morris AD, Noordam R, Paré G, Poulter NR, Shields DC, Stanton A, Thom S, Abecasis G, Amin N, Arking DE, Ayers KL, Barbieri CM, Batini C, Bis JC, Blake T, Bochud M, Boehnke M, Boerwinkle E, Boomsma DI, Bottinger EP, Braund PS, Brumat M, Campbell A, Campbell H, Chakravarti A, Chambers JC, Chauhan G, Ciullo M, Cocca M, Collins F, Cordell HJ, Davies G, de Borst MH, de Geus EJ, Deary IJ, Deelen J, Del Greco M F, Demirkale CY, Dörr M, Ehret GB, Elosua R, Enroth S, Erzurumluoglu AM, Ferreira T, Frånberg M, Franco OH, Gandin I, Gasparini P, Giedraitis V, Gieger C, Girotto G, Goel A, Gow AJ, Gudnason V, Guo X, Gyllensten U, Hamsten A, Harris TB, Harris SE, Hartman CA, Havulinna AS, Hicks AA, Hofer E, Hofman A, Hottenga JJ, Huffman JE, Hwang SJ, Ingelsson E, James A, Jansen R, Jarvelin MR, Joehanes R, Johansson Å, Johnson AD, Joshi PK, Jousilahti P, Jukema JW, Jula A, Kähönen M, Kathiresan S, Keavney BD, Khaw KT, Knekt P, Knight J, Kolcic I, Kooner JS, Koskinen S, Kristiansson K, Kutalik Z, Laan M, Larson M, Launer LJ, Lehne B, Lehtimäki T, Liewald DCM, Lin L, Lind L, Lindgren CM, Liu Y, Loos RJF, Lopez LM, Lu Y, Lyytikäinen LP, Mahajan A, Mamasoula C, Marrugat J, Marten J, Milaneschi Y, Morgan A, Morris AP, Morrison AC, Munson PJ, Nalls MA, Nandakumar P, Nelson CP, Niiranen T, Nolte IM, Nutile T, Oldehinkel AJ, Oostra BA, O'Reilly PF, Org E, Padmanabhan S, Palmas W, Palotie A, Pattie A, Penninx BWJH, Perola M, Peters A, Polasek O, Pramstaller PP, Nguyen QT, Raitakari OT, Ren M, Rettig R, Rice K, Ridker PM, Ried JS, Riese H, Ripatti S, Robino A, Rose LM, Rotter JI, Rudan I, Ruggiero D, Saba Y, Sala CF, Salomaa V, Samani NJ, Sarin AP, Schmidt R, Schmidt H, Shrine N, Siscovick D, Smith AV, Snieder H, Sõber S, Sorice R, Starr JM, Stott DJ, Strachan DP, Strawbridge RJ, Sundström J, Swertz MA, Taylor KD, Teumer A, Tobin MD, Tomaszewski M, Toniolo D, Traglia M, Trompet S, Tuomilehto J, Tzourio C, Uitterlinden AG, Vaez A, van der Most PJ, van Duijn CM, Vergnaud AC, Verwoert GC, Vitart V, Völker U, Vollenweider P, Vuckovic D, Watkins H, Wild SH, Willemsen G, Wilson JF, Wright AF, Yao J, Zemunik T, Zhang W, Attia JR, Butterworth AS, Chasman DI, Conen D, Cucca F, Danesh J, Hayward C, Howson JMM, Laakso M, Lakatta EG, Langenberg C, Melander O, Mook-Kanamori DO, Palmer CNA, Risch L, Scott RA, Scott RJ, Sever P, Spector TD, van der Harst P, Wareham NJ, Zeggini E, Levy D, Munroe PB, Newton-Cheh C, Brown MJ, Metspalu A, Hung AM, O'Donnell CJ, Edwards TL, Psaty BM, Tzoulaki I, Barnes MR, Wain LV, Elliott P, Caulfield MJ, Million Veteran Program.",,Nature genetics,2018,2018-09-17,N,,Understanding the Causes of Disease,,"High blood pressure is a highly heritable and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We report the largest genetic association study of blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic and pulse pressure) to date in over 1 million people of European ancestry. We identify 535 novel blood pressure loci that not only offer new biological insights into blood pressure regulation but also highlight shared genetic architecture between blood pressure and lifestyle exposures. Our findings identify new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation with potential for improved cardiovascular disease prevention in the future.",,pdf:https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/10138/251517/1/s41588_018_0205_x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6284793; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6284793?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x 32861314,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30750-9,"Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Universal Health Coverage Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-08-27,Y,,,,"

Background

Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) involves all people receiving the health services they need, of high quality, without experiencing financial hardship. Making progress towards UHC is a policy priority for both countries and global institutions, as highlighted by the agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO's Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13). Measuring effective coverage at the health-system level is important for understanding whether health services are aligned with countries' health profiles and are of sufficient quality to produce health gains for populations of all ages.

Methods

Based on the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, we assessed UHC effective coverage for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. Drawing from a measurement framework developed through WHO's GPW13 consultation, we mapped 23 effective coverage indicators to a matrix representing health service types (eg, promotion, prevention, and treatment) and five population-age groups spanning from reproductive and newborn to older adults (≥65 years). Effective coverage indicators were based on intervention coverage or outcome-based measures such as mortality-to-incidence ratios to approximate access to quality care; outcome-based measures were transformed to values on a scale of 0-100 based on the 2·5th and 97·5th percentile of location-year values. We constructed the UHC effective coverage index by weighting each effective coverage indicator relative to its associated potential health gains, as measured by disability-adjusted life-years for each location-year and population-age group. For three tests of validity (content, known-groups, and convergent), UHC effective coverage index performance was generally better than that of other UHC service coverage indices from WHO (ie, the current metric for SDG indicator 3.8.1 on UHC service coverage), the World Bank, and GBD 2017. We quantified frontiers of UHC effective coverage performance on the basis of pooled health spending per capita, representing UHC effective coverage index levels achieved in 2019 relative to country-level government health spending, prepaid private expenditures, and development assistance for health. To assess current trajectories towards the GPW13 UHC billion target-1 billion more people benefiting from UHC by 2023-we estimated additional population equivalents with UHC effective coverage from 2018 to 2023.

Findings

Globally, performance on the UHC effective coverage index improved from 45·8 (95% uncertainty interval 44·2-47·5) in 1990 to 60·3 (58·7-61·9) in 2019, yet country-level UHC effective coverage in 2019 still spanned from 95 or higher in Japan and Iceland to lower than 25 in Somalia and the Central African Republic. Since 2010, sub-Saharan Africa showed accelerated gains on the UHC effective coverage index (at an average increase of 2·6% [1·9-3·3] per year up to 2019); by contrast, most other GBD super-regions had slowed rates of progress in 2010-2019 relative to 1990-2010. Many countries showed lagging performance on effective coverage indicators for non-communicable diseases relative to those for communicable diseases and maternal and child health, despite non-communicable diseases accounting for a greater proportion of potential health gains in 2019, suggesting that many health systems are not keeping pace with the rising non-communicable disease burden and associated population health needs. In 2019, the UHC effective coverage index was associated with pooled health spending per capita (r=0·79), although countries across the development spectrum had much lower UHC effective coverage than is potentially achievable relative to their health spending. Under maximum efficiency of translating health spending into UHC effective coverage performance, countries would need to reach $1398 pooled health spending per capita (US$ adjusted for purchasing power parity) in order to achieve 80 on the UHC effective coverage index. From 2018 to 2023, an estimated 388·9 million (358·6-421·3) more population equivalents would have UHC effective coverage, falling well short of the GPW13 target of 1 billion more people benefiting from UHC during this time. Current projections point to an estimated 3·1 billion (3·0-3·2) population equivalents still lacking UHC effective coverage in 2023, with nearly a third (968·1 million [903·5-1040·3]) residing in south Asia.

Interpretation

The present study demonstrates the utility of measuring effective coverage and its role in supporting improved health outcomes for all people-the ultimate goal of UHC and its achievement. Global ambitions to accelerate progress on UHC service coverage are increasingly unlikely unless concerted action on non-communicable diseases occurs and countries can better translate health spending into improved performance. Focusing on effective coverage and accounting for the world's evolving health needs lays the groundwork for better understanding how close-or how far-all populations are in benefiting from UHC.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673620307509/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30750-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7562819 31919418,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13690-5,Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomisation analysis provide insights into the pathogenesis of heart failure.,"Shah S, Henry A, Roselli C, Lin H, Sveinbjörnsson G, Fatemifar G, Hedman ÅK, Wilk JB, Morley MP, Chaffin MD, Helgadottir A, Verweij N, Dehghan A, Almgren P, Andersson C, Aragam KG, Ärnlöv J, Backman JD, Biggs ML, Bloom HL, Brandimarto J, Brown MR, Buckbinder L, Carey DJ, Chasman DI, Chen X, Chen X, Chung J, Chutkow W, Cook JP, Delgado GE, Denaxas S, Doney AS, Dörr M, Dudley SC, Dunn ME, Engström G, Esko T, Felix SB, Finan C, Ford I, Ghanbari M, Ghasemi S, Giedraitis V, Giulianini F, Gottdiener JS, Gross S, Guðbjartsson DF, Gutmann R, Haggerty CM, van der Harst P, Hyde CL, Ingelsson E, Jukema JW, Kavousi M, Khaw KT, Kleber ME, Køber L, Koekemoer A, Langenberg C, Lind L, Lindgren CM, London B, Lotta LA, Lovering RC, Luan J, Magnusson P, Mahajan A, Margulies KB, März W, Melander O, Mordi IR, Morgan T, Morris AD, Morris AP, Morrison AC, Nagle MW, Nelson CP, Niessner A, Niiranen T, O'Donoghue ML, Owens AT, Palmer CNA, Parry HM, Perola M, Portilla-Fernandez E, Psaty BM, Regeneron Genetics Center, Rice KM, Ridker PM, Romaine SPR, Rotter JI, Salo P, Salomaa V, van Setten J, Shalaby AA, Smelser DT, Smith NL, Stender S, Stott DJ, Svensson P, Tammesoo ML, Taylor KD, Teder-Laving M, Teumer A, Thorgeirsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Torp-Pedersen C, Trompet S, Tyl B, Uitterlinden AG, Veluchamy A, Völker U, Voors AA, Wang X, Wareham NJ, Waterworth D, Weeke PE, Weiss R, Wiggins KL, Xing H, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Yu B, Zannad F, Zhao JH, Hemingway H, Samani NJ, McMurray JJV, Yang J, Visscher PM, Newton-Cheh C, Malarstig A, Holm H, Lubitz SA, Sattar N, Holmes MV, Cappola TP, Asselbergs FW, Hingorani AD, Kuchenbaecker K, Ellinor PT, Lang CC, Stefansson K, Smith JG, Vasan RS, Swerdlow DI, Lumbers RT.",,Nature communications,2020,2020-01-09,Y,,,,"Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained. We report results from a GWAS meta-analysis of HF comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. Twelve independent variants at 11 genomic loci are associated with HF, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function, suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Functional analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homoeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Mendelian randomisation analysis supports causal roles for several HF risk factors, and demonstrates CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, and hypertension. These findings extend our knowledge of the pathways underlying HF and may inform new therapeutic strategies.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13690-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13690-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6952380; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6952380?pdf=render 33069325,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30977-6,"Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.",GBD 2019 Demographics Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-10-01,Y,,,,"

Background

Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019.

Methods

8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate age-specific fertility rates for 5-year age groups between ages 15 and 49 years. With extensions to age groups 10-14 and 50-54 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was then aggregated using the estimated age-specific fertility between ages 10 and 54 years. 7417 sources were used for under-5 mortality estimation and 7355 for adult mortality. ST-GPR was used to synthesise data sources after correction for known biases. Adult mortality was measured as the probability of death between ages 15 and 60 years based on vital registration, sample registration, and sibling histories, and was also estimated using ST-GPR. HIV-free life tables were then estimated using estimates of under-5 and adult mortality rates using a relational model life table system created for GBD, which closely tracks observed age-specific mortality rates from complete vital registration when available. Independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated by an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance and other sources were incorporated into the estimates in countries with large epidemics. Annual and single-year age estimates of net migration and population for each country and territory were generated using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model that analysed estimated age-specific fertility and mortality rates along with 1250 censuses and 747 population registry years. We classified location-years into seven categories on the basis of the natural rate of increase in population (calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate) and the net migration rate. We computed healthy life expectancy (HALE) using years lived with disability (YLDs) per capita, life tables, and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty was propagated throughout the demographic estimation process, including fertility, mortality, and population, with 1000 draw-level estimates produced for each metric.

Findings

The global TFR decreased from 2·72 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2·66-2·79) in 2000 to 2·31 (2·17-2·46) in 2019. Global annual livebirths increased from 134·5 million (131·5-137·8) in 2000 to a peak of 139·6 million (133·0-146·9) in 2016. Global livebirths then declined to 135·3 million (127·2-144·1) in 2019. Of the 204 countries and territories included in this study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2·1, which is considered a good approximation of replacement-level fertility. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27·1% (95% UI 26·4-27·8) of global livebirths. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 67·2 years (95% UI 66·8-67·6) in 2000 to 73·5 years (72·8-74·3) in 2019. The total number of deaths increased from 50·7 million (49·5-51·9) in 2000 to 56·5 million (53·7-59·2) in 2019. Under-5 deaths declined from 9·6 million (9·1-10·3) in 2000 to 5·0 million (4·3-6·0) in 2019. Global population increased by 25·7%, from 6·2 billion (6·0-6·3) in 2000 to 7·7 billion (7·5-8·0) in 2019. In 2019, 34 countries had negative natural rates of increase; in 17 of these, the population declined because immigration was not sufficient to counteract the negative rate of decline. Globally, HALE increased from 58·6 years (56·1-60·8) in 2000 to 63·5 years (60·8-66·1) in 2019. HALE increased in 202 of 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019.

Interpretation

Over the past 20 years, fertility rates have been dropping steadily and life expectancy has been increasing, with few exceptions. Much of this change follows historical patterns linking social and economic determinants, such as those captured by the GBD Socio-demographic Index, with demographic outcomes. More recently, several countries have experienced a combination of low fertility and stagnating improvement in mortality rates, pushing more populations into the late stages of the demographic transition. Tracking demographic change and the emergence of new patterns will be essential for global health monitoring.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.",,pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673620309776/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30977-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566045 -35984822,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807,Genetically predicted cortisol levels and risk of venous thromboembolism.,"Allara E, Lee WH, Burgess S, INVENT consortium, Larsson SC.",,PloS one,2022,2022-08-19,Y,,,,"

Introduction

In observational studies, venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been associated with Cushing's syndrome and with persistent mental stress, two conditions associated with higher cortisol levels. However, it remains unknown whether high cortisol levels within the usual range are causally associated with VTE risk. We aimed to assess the association between plasma cortisol levels and VTE risk using Mendelian randomization.

Methods

Three genetic variants in the SERPINA1/SERPINA6 locus (rs12589136, rs11621961 and rs2749527) were used to proxy plasma cortisol. The associations of the cortisol-associated genetic variants with VTE were acquired from the INVENT (28 907 cases and 157 243 non-cases) and FinnGen (6913 cases and 169 986 non-cases) consortia. Corresponding data for VTE subtypes were available from the FinnGen consortium and UK Biobank. Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses (inverse-variance weighted method) were performed.

Results

Genetic predisposition to higher plasma cortisol levels was associated with a reduced risk of VTE (odds ratio [OR] per one standard deviation increment 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62-0.87, p<0.001). The association was stronger for deep vein thrombosis (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.55-0.88, p = 0.003) than for pulmonary embolism which did not achieve statistical significance (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.63-1.09, p = 0.184). Adjusting for genetically predicted systolic blood pressure inverted the direction of the point estimate for VTE, although the resulting CI was wide (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.70-1.61, p = 0.780).

Conclusions

This study provides evidence that genetically predicted plasma cortisol levels in the high end of the normal range are associated with a decreased risk of VTE and that this association may be mediated by blood pressure. This study has implications for the planning of observational studies of cortisol and VTE, suggesting that blood pressure traits should be measured and accounted for.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272807&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895?pdf=render 31664920,https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-019-1187-z,Phenome-wide association analysis of LDL-cholesterol lowering genetic variants in PCSK9.,"Schmidt AF, Holmes MV, Preiss D, Swerdlow DI, Denaxas S, Fatemifar G, Faraway R, Finan C, Valentine D, Fairhurst-Hunter Z, Hartwig FP, Horta BL, Hypponen E, Power C, Moldovan M, van Iperen E, Hovingh K, Demuth I, Norman K, Steinhagen-Thiessen E, Demuth J, Bertram L, Lill CM, Coassin S, Willeit J, Kiechl S, Willeit K, Mason D, Wright J, Morris R, Wanamethee G, Whincup P, Ben-Shlomo Y, McLachlan S, Price JF, Kivimaki M, Welch C, Sanchez-Galvez A, Marques-Vidal P, Nicolaides A, Panayiotou AG, Onland-Moret NC, van der Schouw YT, Matullo G, Fiorito G, Guarrera S, Sacerdote C, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C, Scott RA, Luan J, Bobak M, Malyutina S, Pająk A, Kubinova R, Tamosiunas A, Pikhart H, Grarup N, Pedersen O, Hansen T, Linneberg A, Jess T, Cooper J, Humphries SE, Brilliant M, Kitchner T, Hakonarson H, Carrell DS, McCarty CA, Lester KH, Larson EB, Crosslin DR, de Andrade M, Roden DM, Denny JC, Carty C, Hancock S, Attia J, Holliday E, Scott R, Schofield P, O'Donnell M, Yusuf S, Chong M, Pare G, van der Harst P, Said MA, Eppinga RN, Verweij N, Snieder H, Lifelines Cohort authors, Christen T, Mook-Kanamori DO, ICBP Consortium, Gustafsson S, Lind L, Ingelsson E, Pazoki R, Franco O, Hofman A, Uitterlinden A, Dehghan A, Teumer A, Baumeister S, Dörr M, Lerch MM, Völker U, Völzke H, Ward J, Pell JP, Meade T, Christophersen IE, Maitland-van der Zee AH, Baranova EV, Young R, Ford I, Campbell A, Padmanabhan S, Bots ML, Grobbee DE, Froguel P, Thuillier D, Roussel R, Bonnefond A, Cariou B, Smart M, Bao Y, Kumari M, Mahajan A, Hopewell JC, Seshadri S, METASTROKE Consortium of the ISGC, Dale C, Costa RPE, Ridker PM, Chasman DI, Reiner AP, Ritchie MD, Lange LA, Cornish AJ, Dobbins SE, Hemminki K, Kinnersley B, Sanson M, Labreche K, Simon M, Bondy M, Law P, Speedy H, Allan J, Li N, Went M, Weinhold N, Morgan G, Sonneveld P, Nilsson B, Goldschmidt H, Sud A, Engert A, Hansson M, Hemingway H, Asselbergs FW, Patel RS, Keating BJ, Sattar N, Houlston R, Casas JP, Hingorani AD.",,BMC cardiovascular disorders,2019,2019-10-29,Y,Genetic Association Studies; Ldl-cholesterol; Mendelian Randomisation; Phenome-wide Association Scan,,,"

Background

We characterised the phenotypic consequence of genetic variation at the PCSK9 locus and compared findings with recent trials of pharmacological inhibitors of PCSK9.

Methods

Published and individual participant level data (300,000+ participants) were combined to construct a weighted PCSK9 gene-centric score (GS). Seventeen randomized placebo controlled PCSK9 inhibitor trials were included, providing data on 79,578 participants. Results were scaled to a one mmol/L lower LDL-C concentration.

Results

The PCSK9 GS (comprising 4 SNPs) associations with plasma lipid and apolipoprotein levels were consistent in direction with treatment effects. The GS odds ratio (OR) for myocardial infarction (MI) was 0.53 (95% CI 0.42; 0.68), compared to a PCSK9 inhibitor effect of 0.90 (95% CI 0.86; 0.93). For ischemic stroke ORs were 0.84 (95% CI 0.57; 1.22) for the GS, compared to 0.85 (95% CI 0.78; 0.93) in the drug trials. ORs with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) were 1.29 (95% CI 1.11; 1.50) for the GS, as compared to 1.00 (95% CI 0.96; 1.04) for incident T2DM in PCSK9 inhibitor trials. No genetic associations were observed for cancer, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or Alzheimer's disease - outcomes for which large-scale trial data were unavailable.

Conclusions

Genetic variation at the PCSK9 locus recapitulates the effects of therapeutic inhibition of PCSK9 on major blood lipid fractions and MI. While indicating an increased risk of T2DM, no other possible safety concerns were shown; although precision was moderate.",,pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12872-019-1187-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-019-1187-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6820948; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6820948?pdf=render +35984822,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807,Genetically predicted cortisol levels and risk of venous thromboembolism.,"Allara E, Lee WH, Burgess S, INVENT consortium, Larsson SC.",,PloS one,2022,2022-08-19,Y,,,,"

Introduction

In observational studies, venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been associated with Cushing's syndrome and with persistent mental stress, two conditions associated with higher cortisol levels. However, it remains unknown whether high cortisol levels within the usual range are causally associated with VTE risk. We aimed to assess the association between plasma cortisol levels and VTE risk using Mendelian randomization.

Methods

Three genetic variants in the SERPINA1/SERPINA6 locus (rs12589136, rs11621961 and rs2749527) were used to proxy plasma cortisol. The associations of the cortisol-associated genetic variants with VTE were acquired from the INVENT (28 907 cases and 157 243 non-cases) and FinnGen (6913 cases and 169 986 non-cases) consortia. Corresponding data for VTE subtypes were available from the FinnGen consortium and UK Biobank. Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses (inverse-variance weighted method) were performed.

Results

Genetic predisposition to higher plasma cortisol levels was associated with a reduced risk of VTE (odds ratio [OR] per one standard deviation increment 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62-0.87, p<0.001). The association was stronger for deep vein thrombosis (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.55-0.88, p = 0.003) than for pulmonary embolism which did not achieve statistical significance (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.63-1.09, p = 0.184). Adjusting for genetically predicted systolic blood pressure inverted the direction of the point estimate for VTE, although the resulting CI was wide (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.70-1.61, p = 0.780).

Conclusions

This study provides evidence that genetically predicted plasma cortisol levels in the high end of the normal range are associated with a decreased risk of VTE and that this association may be mediated by blood pressure. This study has implications for the planning of observational studies of cortisol and VTE, suggesting that blood pressure traits should be measured and accounted for.",,pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272807&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895?pdf=render 36050321,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32821-z,Genetic analyses of the electrocardiographic QT interval and its components identify additional loci and pathways.,"Young WJ, Lahrouchi N, Isaacs A, Duong T, Foco L, Ahmed F, Brody JA, Salman R, Noordam R, Benjamins JW, Haessler J, Lyytikäinen LP, Repetto L, Concas MP, van den Berg ME, Weiss S, Baldassari AR, Bartz TM, Cook JP, Evans DS, Freudling R, Hines O, Isaksen JL, Lin H, Mei H, Moscati A, Müller-Nurasyid M, Nursyifa C, Qian Y, Richmond A, Roselli C, Ryan KA, Tarazona-Santos E, Thériault S, van Duijvenboden S, Warren HR, Yao J, Raza D, Aeschbacher S, Ahlberg G, Alonso A, Andreasen L, Bis JC, Boerwinkle E, Campbell A, Catamo E, Cocca M, Cutler MJ, Darbar D, De Grandi A, De Luca A, Ding J, Ellervik C, Ellinor PT, Felix SB, Froguel P, Fuchsberger C, Gögele M, Graff C, Graff M, Guo X, Hansen T, Heckbert SR, Huang PL, Huikuri HV, Hutri-Kähönen N, Ikram MA, Jackson RD, Junttila J, Kavousi M, Kors JA, Leal TP, Lemaitre RN, Lin HJ, Lind L, Linneberg A, Liu S, MacFarlane PW, Mangino M, Meitinger T, Mezzavilla M, Mishra PP, Mitchell RN, Mononen N, Montasser ME, Morrison AC, Nauck M, Nauffal V, Navarro P, Nikus K, Pare G, Patton KK, Pelliccione G, Pittman A, Porteous DJ, Pramstaller PP, Preuss MH, Raitakari OT, Reiner AP, Ribeiro ALP, Rice KM, Risch L, Schlessinger D, Schotten U, Schurmann C, Shen X, Shoemaker MB, Sinagra G, Sinner MF, Soliman EZ, Stoll M, Strauch K, Tarasov K, Taylor KD, Tinker A, Trompet S, Uitterlinden A, Völker U, Völzke H, Waldenberger M, Weng LC, Whitsel EA, Wilson JG, Avery CL, Conen D, Correa A, Cucca F, Dörr M, Gharib SA, Girotto G, Grarup N, Hayward C, Jamshidi Y, Järvelin MR, Jukema JW, Kääb S, Kähönen M, Kanters JK, Kooperberg C, Lehtimäki T, Lima-Costa MF, Liu Y, Loos RJF, Lubitz SA, Mook-Kanamori DO, Morris AP, O'Connell JR, Olesen MS, Orini M, Padmanabhan S, Pattaro C, Peters A, Psaty BM, Rotter JI, Stricker B, van der Harst P, van Duijn CM, Verweij N, Wilson JF, Arking DE, Ramirez J, Lambiase PD, Sotoodehnia N, Mifsud B, Newton-Cheh C, Munroe PB.",,Nature communications,2022,2022-09-01,Y,,,,"The QT interval is an electrocardiographic measure representing the sum of ventricular depolarization and repolarization, estimated by QRS duration and JT interval, respectively. QT interval abnormalities are associated with potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmia. Using genome-wide multi-ancestry analyses (>250,000 individuals) we identify 177, 156 and 121 independent loci for QT, JT and QRS, respectively, including a male-specific X-chromosome locus. Using gene-based rare-variant methods, we identify associations with Mendelian disease genes. Enrichments are observed in established pathways for QT and JT, and previously unreported genes indicated in insulin-receptor signalling and cardiac energy metabolism. In contrast for QRS, connective tissue components and processes for cell growth and extracellular matrix interactions are significantly enriched. We demonstrate polygenic risk score associations with atrial fibrillation, conduction disease and sudden cardiac death. Prioritization of druggable genes highlight potential therapeutic targets for arrhythmia. Together, these results substantially advance our understanding of the genetic architecture of ventricular depolarization and repolarization.",,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32821-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32821-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436946; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436946?pdf=render 36376532,https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05492-5,Publisher Correction: Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries.,"Mishra A, Malik R, Hachiya T, Jürgenson T, Namba S, Posner DC, Kamanu FK, Koido M, Le Grand Q, Shi M, He Y, Georgakis MK, Caro I, Krebs K, Liaw YC, Vaura FC, Lin K, Winsvold BS, Srinivasasainagendra V, Parodi L, Bae HJ, Chauhan G, Chong MR, Tomppo L, Akinyemi R, Roshchupkin GV, Habib N, Jee YH, Thomassen JQ, Abedi V, Cárcel-Márquez J, Nygaard M, Leonard HL, Yang C, Yonova-Doing E, Knol MJ, Lewis AJ, Judy RL, Ago T, Amouyel P, Armstrong ND, Bakker MK, Bartz TM, Bennett DA, Bis JC, Bordes C, Børte S, Cain A, Ridker PM, Cho K, Chen Z, Cruchaga C, Cole JW, de Jager PL, de Cid R, Endres M, Ferreira LE, Geerlings MI, Gasca NC, Gudnason V, Hata J, He J, Heath AK, Ho YL, Havulinna AS, Hopewell JC, Hyacinth HI, Inouye M, Jacob MA, Jeon CE, Jern C, Kamouchi M, Keene KL, Kitazono T, Kittner SJ, Konuma T, Kumar A, Lacaze P, Launer LJ, Lee KJ, Lepik K, Li J, Li L, Manichaikul A, Markus HS, Marston NA, Meitinger T, Mitchell BD, Montellano FA, Morisaki T, Mosley TH, Nalls MA, Nordestgaard BG, O'Donnell MJ, Okada Y, Onland-Moret NC, Ovbiagele B, Peters A, Psaty BM, Rich SS, Rosand J, Sabatine MS, Sacco RL, Saleheen D, Sandset EC, Salomaa V, Sargurupremraj M, Sasaki M, Satizabal CL, Schmidt CO, Shimizu A, Smith NL, Sloane KL, Sutoh Y, Sun YV, Tanno K, Tiedt S, Tatlisumak T, Torres-Aguila NP, Tiwari HK, Trégouët DA, Trompet S, Tuladhar AM, Tybjærg-Hansen A, van Vugt M, Vibo R, Verma SS, Wiggins KL, Wennberg P, Woo D, Wilson PWF, Xu H, Yang Q, Yoon K, COMPASS Consortium, INVENT Consortium, Dutch Parelsnoer Initiative (PSI) Cerebrovascular Disease Study Group, Estonian Biobank, PRECISE4Q Consortium, FinnGen Consortium, NINDS Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN), MEGASTROKE Consortium, SIREN Consortium, China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group, VA Million Veteran Program, International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC), Biobank Japan, CHARGE Consortium, GIGASTROKE Consortium, Millwood IY, Gieger C, Ninomiya T, Grabe HJ, Jukema JW, Rissanen IL, Strbian D, Kim YJ, Chen PH, Mayerhofer E, Howson JMM, Irvin MR, Adams H, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Christensen K, Ikram MA, Rundek T, Worrall BB, Lathrop GM, Riaz M, Simonsick EM, Kõrv J, França PHC, Zand R, Prasad K, Frikke-Schmidt R, de Leeuw FE, Liman T, Haeusler KG, Ruigrok YM, Heuschmann PU, Longstreth WT, Jung KJ, Bastarache L, Paré G, Damrauer SM, Chasman DI, Rotter JI, Anderson CD, Zwart JA, Niiranen TJ, Fornage M, Liaw YP, Seshadri S, Fernández-Cadenas I, Walters RG, Ruff CT, Owolabi MO, Huffman JE, Milani L, Kamatani Y, Dichgans M, Debette S.",,Nature,2022,2022-12-01,Y,,,,,,pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05492-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05492-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9712088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9712088?pdf=render 33069324,https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31404-5,Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.,GBD 2019 Viewpoint Collaborators.,,"Lancet (London, England)",2020,2020-10-01,N,,,,"The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a rules-based synthesis of the available evidence on levels and trends in health outcomes, a diverse set of risk factors, and health system responses. GBD 2019 covered 204 countries and territories, as well as first administrative level disaggregations for 22 countries, from 1990 to 2019. Because GBD is highly standardised and comprehensive, spanning both fatal and non-fatal outcomes, and uses a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of hierarchical disease and injury causes, the study provides a powerful basis for detailed and broad insights on global health trends and emerging challenges. GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3·5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. All GBD estimates are publicly available and adhere to the Guidelines on Accurate and Transparent Health Estimate Reporting. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled. These insights are subject to the many limitations outlined in each of the component GBD capstone papers.",,pdf:https://repository.udca.edu.co/bitstream/11158/3790/1/1-s2.0-S0140673620314045-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31404-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116361; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116361?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31404-5 diff --git a/data/papers.json b/data/papers.json index ac8068c4..f04e65ef 100644 --- a/data/papers.json +++ b/data/papers.json @@ -305,23 +305,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8683272; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.12.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8683272; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8683272?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36356998", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271", - "title": "Studying the Long-term Impact of COVID-19 in Kids (SLICK). Healthcare use and costs in children and young people following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection: protocol for an observational study using linked primary and secondary routinely collected healthcare data from England, Scotland and Wales.", - "authorString": "Swann OV, Lone NI, Harrison EM, Tomlinson LA, Walker AJ, Seaborne MJ, Pollock L, Farrell J, Hall PS, Seth S, Williams TC, Preston J, Ainsworth JS, Semple FF, Baillie JK, Katikireddi SV, Akbari A, Lyons R, Simpson CR, Semple MG, Goldacre B, Brophy S, Sheikh A, Docherty AB.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Health Economics; Covid-19; Paediatric Infectious Disease &Amp; Immunisation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

SARS-CoV-2 infection rarely causes hospitalisation in children and young people (CYP), but mild or asymptomatic infections are common. Persistent symptoms following infection have been reported in CYP but subsequent healthcare use is unclear. We aim to describe healthcare use in CYP following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify those at risk of ongoing healthcare needs.

Methods and analysis

We will use anonymised individual-level, population-scale national data linking demographics, comorbidities, primary and secondary care use and mortality between 1 January 2019 and 1 May 2022. SARS-CoV-2 test data will be linked from 1 January 2020 to 1 May 2022. Analyses will use Trusted Research Environments: OpenSAFELY in England, Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in Wales and Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 in Scotland (EAVE-II). CYP aged \u22654\u2009and <18 years who underwent SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) testing between 1 January 2020 and 1 May 2021 and those untested CYP will be examined.The primary outcome measure is cumulative healthcare cost over 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 testing, stratified into primary or secondary care, and physical or mental healthcare. We will estimate the burden of healthcare use attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infections in the 12 months after testing using a matched cohort study of RT-PCR positive, negative or untested CYP matched on testing date, with adjustment for confounders. We will identify factors associated with higher healthcare needs in the 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection using an unmatched cohort of RT-PCR positive CYP. Multivariable logistic regression and machine learning approaches will identify risk factors for high healthcare use and characterise patterns of healthcare use post infection.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was approved by the South-Central Oxford C Health Research Authority Ethics Committee (13/SC/0149). Findings will be preprinted and published in peer-reviewed journals. Analysis code and code lists will be available through public GitHub repositories and OpenCodelists with meta-data via HDR-UK Innovation Gateway.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063271.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35042645", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.061", @@ -339,6 +322,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.061; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.061; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8760602" }, + { + "id": "36356998", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271", + "title": "Studying the Long-term Impact of COVID-19 in Kids (SLICK). Healthcare use and costs in children and young people following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection: protocol for an observational study using linked primary and secondary routinely collected healthcare data from England, Scotland and Wales.", + "authorString": "Swann OV, Lone NI, Harrison EM, Tomlinson LA, Walker AJ, Seaborne MJ, Pollock L, Farrell J, Hall PS, Seth S, Williams TC, Preston J, Ainsworth JS, Semple FF, Baillie JK, Katikireddi SV, Akbari A, Lyons R, Simpson CR, Semple MG, Goldacre B, Brophy S, Sheikh A, Docherty AB.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Health Economics; Covid-19; Paediatric Infectious Disease &Amp; Immunisation", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

SARS-CoV-2 infection rarely causes hospitalisation in children and young people (CYP), but mild or asymptomatic infections are common. Persistent symptoms following infection have been reported in CYP but subsequent healthcare use is unclear. We aim to describe healthcare use in CYP following community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify those at risk of ongoing healthcare needs.

Methods and analysis

We will use anonymised individual-level, population-scale national data linking demographics, comorbidities, primary and secondary care use and mortality between 1 January 2019 and 1 May 2022. SARS-CoV-2 test data will be linked from 1 January 2020 to 1 May 2022. Analyses will use Trusted Research Environments: OpenSAFELY in England, Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in Wales and Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 in Scotland (EAVE-II). CYP aged \u22654\u2009and <18 years who underwent SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) testing between 1 January 2020 and 1 May 2021 and those untested CYP will be examined.The primary outcome measure is cumulative healthcare cost over 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 testing, stratified into primary or secondary care, and physical or mental healthcare. We will estimate the burden of healthcare use attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infections in the 12 months after testing using a matched cohort study of RT-PCR positive, negative or untested CYP matched on testing date, with adjustment for confounders. We will identify factors associated with higher healthcare needs in the 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection using an unmatched cohort of RT-PCR positive CYP. Multivariable logistic regression and machine learning approaches will identify risk factors for high healthcare use and characterise patterns of healthcare use post infection.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was approved by the South-Central Oxford C Health Research Authority Ethics Committee (13/SC/0149). Findings will be preprinted and published in peer-reviewed journals. Analysis code and code lists will be available through public GitHub repositories and OpenCodelists with meta-data via HDR-UK Innovation Gateway.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063271.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9659708?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36806073", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071261", @@ -713,23 +713,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-021-00281-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201435; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201435?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37407076", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639", - "title": "Hospital admissions linked to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents: cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained infections in England.", - "authorString": "Wilde H, Tomlinson C, Mateen BA, Selby D, Kanthimathinathan HK, Ramnarayan P, Du Pre P, Johnson M, Pathan N, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Lai AG, Gurdasani D, Pagel C, Denaxas S, Vollmer S, Brown K, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To describe hospital admissions associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents.

Design

Cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained SARS-CoV-2 infections using electronic health care record data.

Setting

England, July 2020 to February 2022.

Participants

About 12 million children and adolescents (age <18 years) who were resident in England.

Main outcome measures

Ascertainment of a first SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions: due to SARS-CoV-2, with SARS-CoV-2 as a contributory factor, incidental to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and hospital acquired SARS-CoV-2.

Results

3\u2009226\u2009535 children and adolescents had a recorded first SARS-CoV-2 infection during the observation period, and 29\u2009230 (0.9%) infections involved a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. The median length of stay was 2 (interquartile range 1-4) days) and 1710 of 29\u2009230 (5.9%) SARS-CoV-2 associated admissions involved paediatric critical care. 70 deaths occurred in which covid-19 or paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome was listed as a cause, of which 55 (78.6%) were in participants with a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. SARS-CoV-2 was the cause or a contributory factor in 21\u2009000 of 29\u2009230 (71.8%) participants who were admitted to hospital and only 380 (1.3%) participants acquired infection as an inpatient and 7855 (26.9%) participants were admitted with incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection. Boys, younger children (<5 years), and those from ethnic minority groups or areas of high deprivation were more likely to be admitted to hospital (all P<0.001). The covid-19 vaccination programme in England has identified certain conditions as representing a higher risk of admission to hospital with SARS-CoV-2: 11\u2009085 (37.9%) of participants admitted to hospital had evidence of such a condition, and a further 4765 (16.3%) of participants admitted to hospital had a medical or developmental health condition not included in the vaccination programme's list.

Conclusions

Most SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions in children and adolescents in England were due to SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-2 was a contributory factor. These results should inform future public health initiatives and research.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/382/bmj-2022-073639.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32873607", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000644", @@ -747,6 +730,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/7/1/e000644.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000644; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467523?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37407076", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639", + "title": "Hospital admissions linked to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents: cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained infections in England.", + "authorString": "Wilde H, Tomlinson C, Mateen BA, Selby D, Kanthimathinathan HK, Ramnarayan P, Du Pre P, Johnson M, Pathan N, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Lai AG, Gurdasani D, Pagel C, Denaxas S, Vollmer S, Brown K, CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-07-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

To describe hospital admissions associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents.

Design

Cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained SARS-CoV-2 infections using electronic health care record data.

Setting

England, July 2020 to February 2022.

Participants

About 12 million children and adolescents (age <18 years) who were resident in England.

Main outcome measures

Ascertainment of a first SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions: due to SARS-CoV-2, with SARS-CoV-2 as a contributory factor, incidental to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and hospital acquired SARS-CoV-2.

Results

3\u2009226\u2009535 children and adolescents had a recorded first SARS-CoV-2 infection during the observation period, and 29\u2009230 (0.9%) infections involved a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. The median length of stay was 2 (interquartile range 1-4) days) and 1710 of 29\u2009230 (5.9%) SARS-CoV-2 associated admissions involved paediatric critical care. 70 deaths occurred in which covid-19 or paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome was listed as a cause, of which 55 (78.6%) were in participants with a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. SARS-CoV-2 was the cause or a contributory factor in 21\u2009000 of 29\u2009230 (71.8%) participants who were admitted to hospital and only 380 (1.3%) participants acquired infection as an inpatient and 7855 (26.9%) participants were admitted with incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection. Boys, younger children (<5 years), and those from ethnic minority groups or areas of high deprivation were more likely to be admitted to hospital (all P<0.001). The covid-19 vaccination programme in England has identified certain conditions as representing a higher risk of admission to hospital with SARS-CoV-2: 11\u2009085 (37.9%) of participants admitted to hospital had evidence of such a condition, and a further 4765 (16.3%) of participants admitted to hospital had a medical or developmental health condition not included in the vaccination programme's list.

Conclusions

Most SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions in children and adolescents in England were due to SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-2 was a contributory factor. These results should inform future public health initiatives and research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/382/bmj-2022-073639.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318942?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34430796", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2021.08.011", @@ -1291,23 +1291,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9842203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9842203?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36749628", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/42449", - "title": "Charting a Course for Smartphones and Wearables to Transform Population Health Research.", - "authorString": "Dixon WG, van der Veer SN, Ali SM, Laidlaw L, Dobson RJB, Sudlow C, Chico T, MacArthur JAL, Doherty A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Research; Health; Clinical; Data; Digital; Devices; Wearable; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Person-generated Health Data; Population Health Research", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The use of data from smartphones and wearable devices has huge potential for population health research, given the high level of device ownership; the range of novel health-relevant data types available from consumer devices; and the frequency and duration with which data are, or could be, collected. Yet, the uptake and success of large-scale mobile health research in the last decade have not met this intensely promoted opportunity. We make the argument that digital person-generated health data are required and necessary to answer many top priority research questions, using illustrative examples taken from the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships. We then summarize the findings from 2 UK initiatives that considered the challenges and possible solutions for what needs to be done and how such solutions can be implemented to realize the future opportunities of digital person-generated health data for clinically important population health research. Examples of important areas that must be addressed to advance the field include digital inequality and possible selection bias; easy access for researchers to the appropriate data collection tools, including how best to harmonize data items; analysis methodologies for time series data; patient and public involvement and engagement methods for optimizing recruitment, retention, and public trust; and methods for providing research participants with greater control over their data. There is also a major opportunity, provided through the linkage of digital person-generated health data to routinely collected data, to support novel population health research, bringing together clinician-reported and patient-reported measures. We recognize that well-conducted studies need a wide range of diverse challenges to be skillfully addressed in unison (eg, challenges regarding epidemiology, data science and biostatistics, psychometrics, behavioral and social science, software engineering, user interface design, information governance, data management, and patient and public involvement and engagement). Consequently, progress would be accelerated by the establishment of a new interdisciplinary community where all relevant and necessary skills are brought together to allow for excellence throughout the life cycle of a research study. This will require a partnership of diverse people, methods, and technologies. If done right, the synergy of such a partnership has the potential to transform many millions of people's lives for the better.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e42449/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36332519", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104905", @@ -1325,6 +1308,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104905" }, + { + "id": "36749628", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/42449", + "title": "Charting a Course for Smartphones and Wearables to Transform Population Health Research.", + "authorString": "Dixon WG, van der Veer SN, Ali SM, Laidlaw L, Dobson RJB, Sudlow C, Chico T, MacArthur JAL, Doherty A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-02-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Research; Health; Clinical; Data; Digital; Devices; Wearable; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Person-generated Health Data; Population Health Research", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The use of data from smartphones and wearable devices has huge potential for population health research, given the high level of device ownership; the range of novel health-relevant data types available from consumer devices; and the frequency and duration with which data are, or could be, collected. Yet, the uptake and success of large-scale mobile health research in the last decade have not met this intensely promoted opportunity. We make the argument that digital person-generated health data are required and necessary to answer many top priority research questions, using illustrative examples taken from the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships. We then summarize the findings from 2 UK initiatives that considered the challenges and possible solutions for what needs to be done and how such solutions can be implemented to realize the future opportunities of digital person-generated health data for clinically important population health research. Examples of important areas that must be addressed to advance the field include digital inequality and possible selection bias; easy access for researchers to the appropriate data collection tools, including how best to harmonize data items; analysis methodologies for time series data; patient and public involvement and engagement methods for optimizing recruitment, retention, and public trust; and methods for providing research participants with greater control over their data. There is also a major opportunity, provided through the linkage of digital person-generated health data to routinely collected data, to support novel population health research, bringing together clinician-reported and patient-reported measures. We recognize that well-conducted studies need a wide range of diverse challenges to be skillfully addressed in unison (eg, challenges regarding epidemiology, data science and biostatistics, psychometrics, behavioral and social science, software engineering, user interface design, information governance, data management, and patient and public involvement and engagement). Consequently, progress would be accelerated by the establishment of a new interdisciplinary community where all relevant and necessary skills are brought together to allow for excellence throughout the life cycle of a research study. This will require a partnership of diverse people, methods, and technologies. If done right, the synergy of such a partnership has the potential to transform many millions of people's lives for the better.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e42449/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42449; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614184?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35706489", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101428", @@ -1393,23 +1393,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-022-03031-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-03031-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843843?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37126810", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7326/m21-4269", - "title": "Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data.", - "authorString": "Hulme WJ, Williamson E, Horne EMF, Green A, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, MacKenna B, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Tomlinson L, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Palmer T, Goldacre B, Hern\u00e1n MA, Sterne JAC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Annals of internal medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The COVID-19 vaccines were developed and rigorously evaluated in randomized trials during 2020. However, important questions, such as the magnitude and duration of protection, their effectiveness against new virus variants, and the effectiveness of booster vaccination, could not be answered by randomized trials and have therefore been addressed in observational studies. Analyses of observational data can be biased because of confounding and because of inadequate design that does not consider the evolution of the pandemic over time and the rapid uptake of vaccination. Emulating a hypothetical \"target trial\" using observational data assembled during vaccine rollouts can help manage such potential sources of bias. This article describes 2 approaches to target trial emulation. In the sequential approach, on each day, eligible persons who have not yet been vaccinated are matched to a vaccinated person. The single-trial approach sets a single baseline at the start of the rollout and considers vaccination as a time-varying variable. The nature of the confounding depends on the analysis strategy: Estimating \"per-protocol\" effects (accounting for vaccination of initially unvaccinated persons after baseline) may require adjustment for both baseline and \"time-varying\" confounders. These issues are illustrated by using observational data from 2\u2009780\u2009931 persons in the United Kingdom aged 70 years or older to estimate the effect of a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Addressing the issues discussed in this article should help authors of observational studies provide robust evidence to guide clinical and policy decisions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10152408; doi:https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-4269; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37056776", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146702", @@ -1428,38 +1411,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146702/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146702; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10087108; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10087108?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35796183", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119", - "title": "SARS-CoV-2 infection risk among 77,587 healthcare workers: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, United Kingdom, April to November 2020.", - "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, North L, Szakmany T, Pugh R, Davies GA, Sivakumaran S, Jarvis R, Rolles M, Pickrell WO, Akbari A, Davies G, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Torabi F, Fry R, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Public Health; Healthcare Workers; Infection Risk; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

To better understand the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among healthcare workers, leading to recommendations for the prioritisation of personal protective equipment, testing, training and vaccination.

Design

Observational, longitudinal, national cohort study.

Setting

Our cohort were secondary care (hospital-based) healthcare workers employed by NHS Wales (United Kingdom) organisations from 1 April 2020 to 30 November 2020.

Participants

We included 577,756 monthly observations among 77,587 healthcare workers. Using linked anonymised datasets, participants were grouped into 20 staff roles. Additionally, each role was deemed either patient-facing, non-patient-facing or undetermined. This was linked to individual demographic details and dates of positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests.

Main outcome measures

We used univariable and multivariable logistic regression models to determine odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test.

Results

Patient-facing healthcare workers were at the highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection with an adjusted OR (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 2.28 (95% CI 2.10-2.47). We found that after adjustment, foundation year doctors (OR 1.83 [95% CI 1.47-2.27]), healthcare support workers [OR 1.36 [95% CI 1.20-1.54]) and hospital nurses (OR 1.27 [95% CI 1.12-1.44]) were at the highest risk of infection among all staff groups. Younger healthcare workers and those living in more deprived areas were at a higher risk of infection. We also observed that infection rates varied over time and by organisation.

Conclusions

These findings have important policy implications for the prioritisation of vaccination, testing, training and personal protective equipment provision for patient-facing roles and the higher risk staff groups.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "37368589", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489", - "title": "Association between Residential Exposure to Air Pollution and Incident Coronary Heart Disease Is Not Mediated by Leukocyte Telomere Length: A UK Biobank Study.", - "authorString": "Kuo CL, Liu R, Godoy LDC, Pilling LC, Fortinsky RH, Brugge D.", + "id": "37126810", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7326/m21-4269", + "title": "Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data.", + "authorString": "Hulme WJ, Williamson E, Horne EMF, Green A, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Morton CE, MacKenna B, Croker R, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Tomlinson L, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Palmer T, Goldacre B, Hern\u00e1n MA, Sterne JAC.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Toxics", + "journalTitle": "Annals of internal medicine", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-28", + "date": "2023-05-02", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Pm10; Pm2.5; No2; Nox; Pm2.5 Absorbance; Pm2.5\u201310", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Higher air pollution exposure and shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) are both associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and share plausible mechanisms, including inflammation. LTL may serve as a biomarker of air pollution exposure and may be intervened with to reduce the risk of CHD. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to test the mediation effect of LTL in the relationship between air pollution exposure and incident CHD. Using the UK Biobank (UKB) data (n = 317,601), we conducted a prospective study linking residential air pollution exposure (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, NOx) and LTL to incident CHD during a mean follow-up of 12.6 years. Cox proportional hazards models and generalized additive models with penalized spline functions were used to model the associations of pollutant concentrations and LTL with incident CHD. We found non-linear associations of air pollution exposure with LTL and CHD. Pollutant concentrations in the lower range were decreasingly associated with longer LTL and reduced risk of CHD. The associations between lower pollutant concentrations and reduced risk of CHD, however, were minimally mediated by LTL (<3%). Our findings suggest that air pollution influences CHD through pathways that do not involve LTL. Replication is needed with improved measurements of air pollution that more accurately assesses personal exposure.", + "abstract": "The COVID-19 vaccines were developed and rigorously evaluated in randomized trials during 2020. However, important questions, such as the magnitude and duration of protection, their effectiveness against new virus variants, and the effectiveness of booster vaccination, could not be answered by randomized trials and have therefore been addressed in observational studies. Analyses of observational data can be biased because of confounding and because of inadequate design that does not consider the evolution of the pandemic over time and the rapid uptake of vaccination. Emulating a hypothetical \"target trial\" using observational data assembled during vaccine rollouts can help manage such potential sources of bias. This article describes 2 approaches to target trial emulation. In the sequential approach, on each day, eligible persons who have not yet been vaccinated are matched to a vaccinated person. The single-trial approach sets a single baseline at the start of the rollout and considers vaccination as a time-varying variable. The nature of the confounding depends on the analysis strategy: Estimating \"per-protocol\" effects (accounting for vaccination of initially unvaccinated persons after baseline) may require adjustment for both baseline and \"time-varying\" confounders. These issues are illustrated by using observational data from 2\u2009780\u2009931 persons in the United Kingdom aged 70 years or older to estimate the effect of a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Addressing the issues discussed in this article should help authors of observational studies provide robust evidence to guide clinical and policy decisions.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073?pdf=render" + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10152408; doi:https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-4269; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152408?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35909577", @@ -1478,6 +1444,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1725/3455; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1725; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9284509; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9284509?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35796183", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119", + "title": "SARS-CoV-2 infection risk among 77,587 healthcare workers: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, United Kingdom, April to November 2020.", + "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, North L, Szakmany T, Pugh R, Davies GA, Sivakumaran S, Jarvis R, Rolles M, Pickrell WO, Akbari A, Davies G, Griffiths R, Lyons J, Torabi F, Fry R, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Public Health; Healthcare Workers; Infection Risk; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

To better understand the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among healthcare workers, leading to recommendations for the prioritisation of personal protective equipment, testing, training and vaccination.

Design

Observational, longitudinal, national cohort study.

Setting

Our cohort were secondary care (hospital-based) healthcare workers employed by NHS Wales (United Kingdom) organisations from 1 April 2020 to 30 November 2020.

Participants

We included 577,756 monthly observations among 77,587 healthcare workers. Using linked anonymised datasets, participants were grouped into 20 staff roles. Additionally, each role was deemed either patient-facing, non-patient-facing or undetermined. This was linked to individual demographic details and dates of positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests.

Main outcome measures

We used univariable and multivariable logistic regression models to determine odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test.

Results

Patient-facing healthcare workers were at the highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection with an adjusted OR (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 2.28 (95% CI 2.10-2.47). We found that after adjustment, foundation year doctors (OR 1.83 [95% CI 1.47-2.27]), healthcare support workers [OR 1.36 [95% CI 1.20-1.54]) and hospital nurses (OR 1.27 [95% CI 1.12-1.44]) were at the highest risk of infection among all staff groups. Younger healthcare workers and those living in more deprived areas were at a higher risk of infection. We also observed that infection rates varied over time and by organisation.

Conclusions

These findings have important policy implications for the prioritisation of vaccination, testing, training and personal protective equipment provision for patient-facing roles and the higher risk staff groups.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221107119; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9747896?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34706926", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217090", @@ -1496,21 +1479,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/3/223.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217090; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8862053; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8862053?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35468332", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4", - "title": "Severity of omicron variant of concern and effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease in Scotland (EAVE II): a national cohort study with nested test-negative design.", - "authorString": "Sheikh A, Kerr S, Woolhouse M, McMenamin J, Robertson C, EAVE II Collaborators.", + "id": "37368589", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489", + "title": "Association between Residential Exposure to Air Pollution and Incident Coronary Heart Disease Is Not Mediated by Leukocyte Telomere Length: A UK Biobank Study.", + "authorString": "Kuo CL, Liu R, Godoy LDC, Pilling LC, Fortinsky RH, Brugge D.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Infectious diseases", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-22", + "journalTitle": "Toxics", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-28", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Pm10; Pm2.5; No2; Nox; Pm2.5 Absorbance; Pm2.5\u201310", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Since its emergence in November, 2021, in southern Africa, the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant of concern (VOC) has rapidly spread across the world. We aimed to investigate the severity of omicron and the extent to which booster vaccines are effective in preventing symptomatic infection.

Methods

In this study, using the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, we did a cohort analysis with a nested test-negative design incident case-control study covering the period Nov 1-Dec 19, 2021, to provide initial estimates of omicron severity and the effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease relative to 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose. Primary care data derived from 940 general practices across Scotland were linked to laboratory data and hospital admission data. We compared outcomes between infection with the delta VOC (defined as S-gene positive) and the omicron VOC (defined as S-gene negative). We assessed effectiveness against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, with infection confirmed through a positive RT-PCR.

Findings

By Dec 19, 2021, there were 23\u2008840 S-gene-negative cases in Scotland, which were predominantly among those aged 20-39 years (11\u2008732 [49\u00b72%]). The proportion of S-gene-negative cases that were possible reinfections was more than ten times that of S-gene-positive cases (7\u00b76% vs 0\u00b77%; p<0\u00b70001). There were 15 hospital admissions in S-gene-negative individuals, giving an adjusted observed-to-expected admissions ratio of 0\u00b732 (95% CI 0\u00b719-0\u00b752). The booster vaccine dose was associated with a 57% (54-60) reduction in the risk of symptomatic S-gene-negative infection relative to individuals who tested positive 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Interpretation

These early national data suggest that omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation compared with delta. Although offering the greatest protection against delta, the booster dose of vaccination offers substantial additional protection against the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 for omicron compared with 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, National Core Studies, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government, UK Research and Innovation, and University of Edinburgh.", + "abstract": "Higher air pollution exposure and shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) are both associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and share plausible mechanisms, including inflammation. LTL may serve as a biomarker of air pollution exposure and may be intervened with to reduce the risk of CHD. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to test the mediation effect of LTL in the relationship between air pollution exposure and incident CHD. Using the UK Biobank (UKB) data (n = 317,601), we conducted a prospective study linking residential air pollution exposure (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, NOx) and LTL to incident CHD during a mean follow-up of 12.6 years. Cox proportional hazards models and generalized additive models with penalized spline functions were used to model the associations of pollutant concentrations and LTL with incident CHD. We found non-linear associations of air pollution exposure with LTL and CHD. Pollutant concentrations in the lower range were decreasingly associated with longer LTL and reduced risk of CHD. The associations between lower pollutant concentrations and reduced risk of CHD, however, were minimally mediated by LTL (<3%). Our findings suggest that air pollution influences CHD through pathways that do not involve LTL. Replication is needed with improved measurements of air pollution that more accurately assesses personal exposure.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00141-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9033213" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060489; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10301073?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36526323", @@ -1530,21 +1513,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e068252.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068252; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764602?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33045103", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446", - "title": "Socio-economic predictors of time to care home admission in people living with dementia in Wales: A routine data linkage study. ", - "authorString": "Giebel C, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Schnier C, Wilkinson T, North L, Gabbay M, Rodgers S.", + "id": "35468332", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4", + "title": "Severity of omicron variant of concern and effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease in Scotland (EAVE II): a national cohort study with nested test-negative design.", + "authorString": "Sheikh A, Kerr S, Woolhouse M, McMenamin J, Robertson C, EAVE II Collaborators.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of geriatric psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2020-10-19", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Infectious diseases", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-22", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Limited research has shown that people with dementia (PwD) from lower socio-economic backgrounds can face difficulties in accessing the right care at the right time. This study examined whether socio-economic status (SES) and rural versus urban living location are associated with the time between diagnosis and care home admission in PwD living in Wales, UK. This study linked routine health data and an e-cohort of PwD who have been admitted into a care home between 2000 and 2018 living in Wales. Survival analysis explored the effects of SES, living location, living situation, and frailty on the time between diagnosis and care home admission. In 34,514 PwD, the average time between diagnosis and care home admission was 1.5 (\u00b11.4) years. Cox regression analysis showed that increased age, living alone, frailty, and living in less disadvantaged neighbourhoods were associated with faster rate to care home admission. Living in rural regions predicted a slower rate until care home admission. This is one of the first studies to show a link between socio-economic factors on time to care home admission in dementia. Future research needs to address variations in care needs between PwD from different socio-economic and geographical backgrounds.", + "abstract": "

Background

Since its emergence in November, 2021, in southern Africa, the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant of concern (VOC) has rapidly spread across the world. We aimed to investigate the severity of omicron and the extent to which booster vaccines are effective in preventing symptomatic infection.

Methods

In this study, using the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, we did a cohort analysis with a nested test-negative design incident case-control study covering the period Nov 1-Dec 19, 2021, to provide initial estimates of omicron severity and the effectiveness of vaccine boosters against symptomatic disease relative to 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose. Primary care data derived from 940 general practices across Scotland were linked to laboratory data and hospital admission data. We compared outcomes between infection with the delta VOC (defined as S-gene positive) and the omicron VOC (defined as S-gene negative). We assessed effectiveness against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, with infection confirmed through a positive RT-PCR.

Findings

By Dec 19, 2021, there were 23\u2008840 S-gene-negative cases in Scotland, which were predominantly among those aged 20-39 years (11\u2008732 [49\u00b72%]). The proportion of S-gene-negative cases that were possible reinfections was more than ten times that of S-gene-positive cases (7\u00b76% vs 0\u00b77%; p<0\u00b70001). There were 15 hospital admissions in S-gene-negative individuals, giving an adjusted observed-to-expected admissions ratio of 0\u00b732 (95% CI 0\u00b719-0\u00b752). The booster vaccine dose was associated with a 57% (54-60) reduction in the risk of symptomatic S-gene-negative infection relative to individuals who tested positive 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Interpretation

These early national data suggest that omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation compared with delta. Although offering the greatest protection against delta, the booster dose of vaccination offers substantial additional protection against the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 for omicron compared with 25 weeks or more after the second vaccine dose.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, National Core Studies, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government, UK Research and Innovation, and University of Edinburgh.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448?pdf=render; pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5446" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00141-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00141-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9033213" }, { "id": "33252680", @@ -1563,6 +1546,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/4/1208/38839537/afaa252.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa252; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8244560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8244560?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa252" }, + { + "id": "33045103", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446", + "title": "Socio-economic predictors of time to care home admission in people living with dementia in Wales: A routine data linkage study. ", + "authorString": "Giebel C, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Schnier C, Wilkinson T, North L, Gabbay M, Rodgers S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of geriatric psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2020-10-19", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Limited research has shown that people with dementia (PwD) from lower socio-economic backgrounds can face difficulties in accessing the right care at the right time. This study examined whether socio-economic status (SES) and rural versus urban living location are associated with the time between diagnosis and care home admission in PwD living in Wales, UK. This study linked routine health data and an e-cohort of PwD who have been admitted into a care home between 2000 and 2018 living in Wales. Survival analysis explored the effects of SES, living location, living situation, and frailty on the time between diagnosis and care home admission. In 34,514 PwD, the average time between diagnosis and care home admission was 1.5 (\u00b11.4) years. Cox regression analysis showed that increased age, living alone, frailty, and living in less disadvantaged neighbourhoods were associated with faster rate to care home admission. Living in rural regions predicted a slower rate until care home admission. This is one of the first studies to show a link between socio-economic factors on time to care home admission in dementia. Future research needs to address variations in care needs between PwD from different socio-economic and geographical backgrounds.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5446; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7984448?pdf=render; pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5446" + }, { "id": "37435691", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.15207", @@ -1597,23 +1597,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213858722001589/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(22)00158-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246477?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37494295", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840", - "title": "Educational outcomes in childhood cancer survivors: A Scotland-wide record-linkage study of 766,217 schoolchildren.", - "authorString": "Baughan N, Pell JP, Mackay DF, Clark D, King A, Fleming M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

A cancer diagnosis during childhood greatly disrupts the lives of those affected, causing physical and psychological challenges. We aim to investigate educational outcomes among schoolchildren with a previous cancer diagnosis compared to their peers.

Methods

Individual records from four national education databases and three national health databases were linked to construct a cohort of all singleton schoolchildren born in Scotland attending Scottish local-authority schools between 2009-2013. Pupils previously diagnosed with any cancer, haematological cancers, and central nervous system (CNS) cancers, were compared to their unaffected peers with respect to five educational outcomes: special educational need (SEN), absenteeism, school exclusion, academic attainment, and unemployment. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic and maternity factors and chronic conditions.

Results

Of 766,217 pupils, 1,313 (0.17%) had a previous cancer diagnosis. Children with any cancer had increased odds of SEN (OR 3.26, 95% CI 2.86-3.71), absenteeism (IRR 1.82, 95% CI 1.70-1.94), and low attainment (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.52-3.03) compared to their peers. Similar findings were observed for haematological (SEN OR 2.62, 95% CI 2.12-3.24; absenteeism IRR 2.04, 95% CI 1.85-2.25; low attainment OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.31-3.61) and CNS (SEN OR 6.44, 95% CI 4.91-8.46; absenteeism IRR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51-2.04; low attainment OR 3.33, 95% CI 1.52-7.30) cancers. Lower exclusions were observed among children with any cancer (IRR 0.51, 95% CI 0.31-0.83) and CNS cancer (IRR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06-0.61). No associations were observed with unemployment.

Conclusions

This study highlights the wider impacts of childhood cancer on educational outcomes. These children need to be supported, as poor educational outcomes can further impact later health.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0286840&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35915784", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462", @@ -1631,6 +1614,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100462; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9330654; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9330654?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37494295", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840", + "title": "Educational outcomes in childhood cancer survivors: A Scotland-wide record-linkage study of 766,217 schoolchildren.", + "authorString": "Baughan N, Pell JP, Mackay DF, Clark D, King A, Fleming M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-07-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

A cancer diagnosis during childhood greatly disrupts the lives of those affected, causing physical and psychological challenges. We aim to investigate educational outcomes among schoolchildren with a previous cancer diagnosis compared to their peers.

Methods

Individual records from four national education databases and three national health databases were linked to construct a cohort of all singleton schoolchildren born in Scotland attending Scottish local-authority schools between 2009-2013. Pupils previously diagnosed with any cancer, haematological cancers, and central nervous system (CNS) cancers, were compared to their unaffected peers with respect to five educational outcomes: special educational need (SEN), absenteeism, school exclusion, academic attainment, and unemployment. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic and maternity factors and chronic conditions.

Results

Of 766,217 pupils, 1,313 (0.17%) had a previous cancer diagnosis. Children with any cancer had increased odds of SEN (OR 3.26, 95% CI 2.86-3.71), absenteeism (IRR 1.82, 95% CI 1.70-1.94), and low attainment (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.52-3.03) compared to their peers. Similar findings were observed for haematological (SEN OR 2.62, 95% CI 2.12-3.24; absenteeism IRR 2.04, 95% CI 1.85-2.25; low attainment OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.31-3.61) and CNS (SEN OR 6.44, 95% CI 4.91-8.46; absenteeism IRR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51-2.04; low attainment OR 3.33, 95% CI 1.52-7.30) cancers. Lower exclusions were observed among children with any cancer (IRR 0.51, 95% CI 0.31-0.83) and CNS cancer (IRR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06-0.61). No associations were observed with unemployment.

Conclusions

This study highlights the wider impacts of childhood cancer on educational outcomes. These children need to be supported, as poor educational outcomes can further impact later health.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0286840&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286840; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10370705?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34148733", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.05.018", @@ -1818,23 +1818,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00543-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758152" }, - { - "id": "37123891", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143", - "title": "Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities.", - "authorString": "Mansouri-Benssassi E, Rogers S, Reel S, Malone M, Smith J, Ritchie F, Jefferson E.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Heliyon", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-03", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "AI; Machine Learning; Data Privacy; Safe Haven; Disclosure Control; Trusted Research Environment", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare and medicine have increased in recent years. To enable access to personal data, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (otherwise known as Safe Havens) provide safe and secure environments in which researchers can access sensitive personal data and develop AI (in particular machine learning (ML)) models. However, currently few TREs support the training of ML models in part due to a gap in the practical decision-making guidance for TREs in handling model disclosure. Specifically, the training of ML models creates a need to disclose new types of outputs from TREs. Although TREs have clear policies for the disclosure of statistical outputs, the extent to which trained models can leak personal training data once released is not well understood.

Background

We review, for a general audience, different types of ML models and their applicability within healthcare. We explain the outputs from training a ML model and how trained ML models can be vulnerable to external attacks to discover personal data encoded within the model.

Risks

We present the challenges for disclosure control of trained ML models in the context of training and exporting models from TREs. We provide insights and analyse methods that could be introduced within TREs to mitigate the risk of privacy breaches when disclosing trained models.

Discussion

Although specific guidelines and policies exist for statistical disclosure controls in TREs, they do not satisfactorily address these new types of output requests; i.e., trained ML models. There is significant potential for new interdisciplinary research opportunities in developing and adapting policies and tools for safely disclosing ML outputs from TREs.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35858680", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-068946", @@ -1852,6 +1835,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-068946.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-068946; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9295078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9295078?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37123891", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143", + "title": "Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities.", + "authorString": "Mansouri-Benssassi E, Rogers S, Reel S, Malone M, Smith J, Ritchie F, Jefferson E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Heliyon", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-03", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "AI; Machine Learning; Data Privacy; Safe Haven; Disclosure Control; Trusted Research Environment", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare and medicine have increased in recent years. To enable access to personal data, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (otherwise known as Safe Havens) provide safe and secure environments in which researchers can access sensitive personal data and develop AI (in particular machine learning (ML)) models. However, currently few TREs support the training of ML models in part due to a gap in the practical decision-making guidance for TREs in handling model disclosure. Specifically, the training of ML models creates a need to disclose new types of outputs from TREs. Although TREs have clear policies for the disclosure of statistical outputs, the extent to which trained models can leak personal training data once released is not well understood.

Background

We review, for a general audience, different types of ML models and their applicability within healthcare. We explain the outputs from training a ML model and how trained ML models can be vulnerable to external attacks to discover personal data encoded within the model.

Risks

We present the challenges for disclosure control of trained ML models in the context of training and exporting models from TREs. We provide insights and analyse methods that could be introduced within TREs to mitigate the risk of privacy breaches when disclosing trained models.

Discussion

Although specific guidelines and policies exist for statistical disclosure controls in TREs, they do not satisfactorily address these new types of output requests; i.e., trained ML models. There is significant potential for new interdisciplinary research opportunities in developing and adapting policies and tools for safely disclosing ML outputs from TREs.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10130764?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34216888", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104556", @@ -1896,7 +1896,7 @@ "pubYear": "2023", "date": "2023-01-17", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Longitudinal data; Cellulitis; Lymphoedema; Economic Burden; Sail Databank", + "keywords": "Longitudinal data; Cellulitis; Lymphoedema; Sail Databank; Economic Burden", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", "abstract": "This study aimed to estimate costs associated with managing patients with cellulitis from the UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. The analysis was undertaken through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank, which brings together population-scale, individual-level anonymised linked data from a wide range of sources, including 80% of primary care general practices within Wales (population coverage ~3.2 million). The data covered a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019. All patients linked to the relevant codes were tracked through primary care settings, recording the number of general practice visits (number of days with an event recorded) and number of in-patient stays. Resources were valued in monetary terms (\u00a3 sterling), with costs determined from national published sources of unit costs. These resources were then extrapolated out to reflect UK NHS costs. This is the first attempt to estimate the financial burden of cellulitis using routine data sources on a national scale. The estimated direct annual costs to the Welsh NHS (\u00a328\u2009554\u2009338) are considerable. In-Patient events and length of stay costs are the main cost drivers, with annual Welsh NHS estimates of \u00a319\u2009664\u2009126 with primary care events costing \u00a38\u2009890\u2009212. Initiatives to support patients and healthcare professionals in identifying early signs/risks of cellulitis, improve the accuracy of initial diagnosis, prevent cellulitis recurrence, and improve evidence-based treatment pathways would result in major financial savings, to both the Welsh and UK NHS. In light of these findings, Wales has developed the innovative National Lymphoedema cellulitis Improvement Programme to address these burdens; providing a proactive model of cellulitis care.", @@ -1920,57 +1920,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62054/Download/62054__26063__5453b00901174a7d9a0797547f023fba.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac077; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284263; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10284263?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36719907", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086", - "title": "Outcome of COVID-19 in hospitalised immunocompromised patients: An analysis of the WHO ISARIC CCP-UK prospective cohort study.", - "authorString": "Turtle L, Thorpe M, Drake TM, Swets M, Palmieri C, Russell CD, Ho A, Aston S, Wootton DG, Richter A, de Silva TI, Hardwick HE, Leeming G, Law A, Openshaw PJM, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-31", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Immunocompromised patients may be at higher risk of mortality if hospitalised with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with immunocompetent patients. However, previous studies have been contradictory. We aimed to determine whether immunocompromised patients were at greater risk of in-hospital death and how this risk changed over the pandemic.

Methods and findings

We included patients > = 19 years with symptomatic community-acquired COVID-19 recruited to the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK prospective cohort study. We defined immunocompromise as immunosuppressant medication preadmission, cancer treatment, organ transplant, HIV, or congenital immunodeficiency. We used logistic regression to compare the risk of death in both groups, adjusting for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, vaccination, and comorbidities. We used Bayesian logistic regression to explore mortality over time. Between 17 January 2020 and 28 February 2022, we recruited 156,552 eligible patients, of whom 21,954 (14%) were immunocompromised. In total, 29% (n = 6,499) of immunocompromised and 21% (n = 28,608) of immunocompetent patients died in hospital. The odds of in-hospital mortality were elevated for immunocompromised patients (adjusted OR 1.44, 95% CI [1.39, 1.50], p < 0.001). Not all immunocompromising conditions had the same risk, for example, patients on active cancer treatment were less likely to have their care escalated to intensive care (adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI [0.7, 0.85], p < 0.001) or ventilation (adjusted OR 0.65, 95% CI [0.56, 0.76], p < 0.001). However, cancer patients were more likely to die (adjusted OR 2.0, 95% CI [1.87, 2.15], p < 0.001). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidities, and vaccination status. As the pandemic progressed, in-hospital mortality reduced more slowly for immunocompromised patients than for immunocompetent patients. This was particularly evident with increasing age: the probability of the reduction in hospital mortality being less for immunocompromised patients aged 50 to 69 years was 88% for men and 83% for women, and for those >80 years was 99% for men and 98% for women. The study is limited by a lack of detailed drug data prior to admission, including steroid doses, meaning that we may have incorrectly categorised some immunocompromised patients as immunocompetent.

Conclusions

Immunocompromised patients remain at elevated risk of death from COVID-19. Targeted measures such as additional vaccine doses, monoclonal antibodies, and nonpharmaceutical preventive interventions should be continually encouraged for this patient group.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 66726260.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "37368983", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294", - "title": "Relationship Among Diabetes, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease Phenotypes: A UK Biobank Cohort Study.", - "authorString": "Brown OI, Drozd M, McGowan H, Giannoudi M, Conning-Rowland M, Gierula J, Straw S, Wheatcroft SB, Bridge K, Roberts LD, Levelt E, Ajjan R, Griffin KJ, Bailey MA, Kearney MT, Cubbon RM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Diabetes care", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Obesity and diabetes frequently coexist, yet their individual contributions to cardiovascular risk remain debated. We explored cardiovascular disease biomarkers, events, and mortality in the UK Biobank stratified by BMI and diabetes.

Research design and methods

A total of 451,355 participants were stratified by ethnicity-specific BMI categories (normal, overweight, obese) and diabetes status. We examined cardiovascular biomarkers including carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), arterial stiffness, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and cardiac contractility index (CCI). Poisson regression models estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular death, with normal-weight nondiabetes as comparator.

Results

Five percent of participants had diabetes (10% normal weight, 34% overweight, and 55% obese vs. 34%, 43%, and 23%, respectively, without diabetes). In the nondiabetes group, overweight/obesity was associated with higher CIMT, arterial stiffness, and CCI and lower LVEF (P < 0.005); these relationships were diminished in the diabetes group. Within BMI classes, diabetes was associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarker phenotype (P < 0.005), particularly in the normal-weight group. After 5,323,190 person-years follow-up, incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular mortality rose across increasing BMI categories without diabetes (P < 0.005); this was comparable in the diabetes groups (P-interaction > 0.05). Normal-weight diabetes had comparable adjusted cardiovascular mortality to obese nondiabetes (IRR 1.22 [95% CI 0.96-1.56]; P = 0.1).

Conclusions

Obesity and diabetes are additively associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarkers and mortality risk. While adiposity metrics are more strongly correlated with cardiovascular biomarkers than diabetes-oriented metrics, both correlate weakly, suggesting that other factors underpin the high cardiovascular risk of normal-weight diabetes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "34850818", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223", - "title": "COVID-19 infection risk amongst 14,104 vaccinated care home residents: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, UK, December 2020-March 2021. ", - "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, North L, Perry M, Akbari A, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA, Fry R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "vaccinations for COVID-19 have been prioritised for older people living in care homes. However, vaccination trials included limited numbers of older people. we aimed to study infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 for older care home residents following vaccination and identify factors associated with increased risk of infection. we conducted an observational data-linkage study including 14,104 vaccinated older care home residents in Wales (UK) using anonymised electronic health records and administrative data. we used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination, after landmark times of either 7 or 21 days post-vaccination. We adjusted HRs for age, sex, frailty, prior SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination type. we observed a small proportion of care home residents with positive polymerase chain reaction (tests following vaccination 1.05% (N\u2009=\u2009148), with 90% of infections occurring within 28 days. For the 7-day landmark analysis we found a reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for vaccinated individuals who had a previous infection; HR (95% confidence interval) 0.54 (0.30, 0.95). For the 21-day landmark analysis, we observed high HRs for individuals with low and intermediate frailty compared with those without; 4.59 (1.23, 17.12) and 4.85 (1.68, 14.04), respectively. increased risk of infection after 21 days was associated with frailty. We found most infections occurred within 28 days of vaccination, suggesting extra precautions to reduce transmission risk should be taken in this time frame.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/1/afab223/42083726/afab223.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37254630", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13808", @@ -1989,21 +1938,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13808; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13808; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10352557; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10352557?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32951042", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207", - "title": "The impact of COVID-19 on adjusted mortality risk in care homes for older adults in Wales, UK: a retrospective population-based cohort study for mortality in 2016-2020. ", - "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, Lyons J, Fry R, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Watkins A, Verity F, Lyons RA.", + "id": "37368983", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294", + "title": "Relationship Among Diabetes, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease Phenotypes: A UK Biobank Cohort Study.", + "authorString": "Brown OI, Drozd M, McGowan H, Giannoudi M, Conning-Rowland M, Gierula J, Straw S, Wheatcroft SB, Bridge K, Roberts LD, Levelt E, Ajjan R, Griffin KJ, Bailey MA, Kearney MT, Cubbon RM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-01", + "journalTitle": "Diabetes care", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "mortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases, which may lead to increased mortality risk. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. to analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4 years. we used anonymised electronic health records and administrative data from the secure anonymised information linkage databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020. we calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted HRs for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions. survival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1.72 (1.55, 1.90) compared with 2016. Compared with the general population in 2016-2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2.15 (2.11, 2.20) in 2016-2019 to 2.94 (2.81, 3.08) in 2020. the survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.", + "abstract": "

Objective

Obesity and diabetes frequently coexist, yet their individual contributions to cardiovascular risk remain debated. We explored cardiovascular disease biomarkers, events, and mortality in the UK Biobank stratified by BMI and diabetes.

Research design and methods

A total of 451,355 participants were stratified by ethnicity-specific BMI categories (normal, overweight, obese) and diabetes status. We examined cardiovascular biomarkers including carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), arterial stiffness, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and cardiac contractility index (CCI). Poisson regression models estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular death, with normal-weight nondiabetes as comparator.

Results

Five percent of participants had diabetes (10% normal weight, 34% overweight, and 55% obese vs. 34%, 43%, and 23%, respectively, without diabetes). In the nondiabetes group, overweight/obesity was associated with higher CIMT, arterial stiffness, and CCI and lower LVEF (P < 0.005); these relationships were diminished in the diabetes group. Within BMI classes, diabetes was associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarker phenotype (P < 0.005), particularly in the normal-weight group. After 5,323,190 person-years follow-up, incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular mortality rose across increasing BMI categories without diabetes (P < 0.005); this was comparable in the diabetes groups (P-interaction > 0.05). Normal-weight diabetes had comparable adjusted cardiovascular mortality to obese nondiabetes (IRR 1.22 [95% CI 0.96-1.56]; P = 0.1).

Conclusions

Obesity and diabetes are additively associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarkers and mortality risk. While adiposity metrics are more strongly correlated with cardiovascular biomarkers than diabetes-oriented metrics, both correlate weakly, suggesting that other factors underpin the high cardiovascular risk of normal-weight diabetes.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/1/25/42362959/afaa207.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-0294; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10369123?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36638616", @@ -2022,6 +1971,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.106425; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.106425" }, + { + "id": "34850818", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223", + "title": "COVID-19 infection risk amongst 14,104 vaccinated care home residents: a national observational longitudinal cohort study in Wales, UK, December 2020-March 2021. ", + "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, North L, Perry M, Akbari A, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA, Fry R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "vaccinations for COVID-19 have been prioritised for older people living in care homes. However, vaccination trials included limited numbers of older people. we aimed to study infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 for older care home residents following vaccination and identify factors associated with increased risk of infection. we conducted an observational data-linkage study including 14,104 vaccinated older care home residents in Wales (UK) using anonymised electronic health records and administrative data. we used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination, after landmark times of either 7 or 21 days post-vaccination. We adjusted HRs for age, sex, frailty, prior SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination type. we observed a small proportion of care home residents with positive polymerase chain reaction (tests following vaccination 1.05% (N\u2009=\u2009148), with 90% of infections occurring within 28 days. For the 7-day landmark analysis we found a reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for vaccinated individuals who had a previous infection; HR (95% confidence interval) 0.54 (0.30, 0.95). For the 21-day landmark analysis, we observed high HRs for individuals with low and intermediate frailty compared with those without; 4.59 (1.23, 17.12) and 4.85 (1.68, 14.04), respectively. increased risk of infection after 21 days was associated with frailty. We found most infections occurred within 28 days of vaccination, suggesting extra precautions to reduce transmission risk should be taken in this time frame.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/1/afab223/42083726/afab223.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8690013?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37468507", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37580-5", @@ -2056,6 +2022,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2021.11.017; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2021.11.017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8626872" }, + { + "id": "36719907", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086", + "title": "Outcome of COVID-19 in hospitalised immunocompromised patients: An analysis of the WHO ISARIC CCP-UK prospective cohort study.", + "authorString": "Turtle L, Thorpe M, Drake TM, Swets M, Palmieri C, Russell CD, Ho A, Aston S, Wootton DG, Richter A, de Silva TI, Hardwick HE, Leeming G, Law A, Openshaw PJM, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Immunocompromised patients may be at higher risk of mortality if hospitalised with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with immunocompetent patients. However, previous studies have been contradictory. We aimed to determine whether immunocompromised patients were at greater risk of in-hospital death and how this risk changed over the pandemic.

Methods and findings

We included patients > = 19 years with symptomatic community-acquired COVID-19 recruited to the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK prospective cohort study. We defined immunocompromise as immunosuppressant medication preadmission, cancer treatment, organ transplant, HIV, or congenital immunodeficiency. We used logistic regression to compare the risk of death in both groups, adjusting for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, vaccination, and comorbidities. We used Bayesian logistic regression to explore mortality over time. Between 17 January 2020 and 28 February 2022, we recruited 156,552 eligible patients, of whom 21,954 (14%) were immunocompromised. In total, 29% (n = 6,499) of immunocompromised and 21% (n = 28,608) of immunocompetent patients died in hospital. The odds of in-hospital mortality were elevated for immunocompromised patients (adjusted OR 1.44, 95% CI [1.39, 1.50], p < 0.001). Not all immunocompromising conditions had the same risk, for example, patients on active cancer treatment were less likely to have their care escalated to intensive care (adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI [0.7, 0.85], p < 0.001) or ventilation (adjusted OR 0.65, 95% CI [0.56, 0.76], p < 0.001). However, cancer patients were more likely to die (adjusted OR 2.0, 95% CI [1.87, 2.15], p < 0.001). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidities, and vaccination status. As the pandemic progressed, in-hospital mortality reduced more slowly for immunocompromised patients than for immunocompetent patients. This was particularly evident with increasing age: the probability of the reduction in hospital mortality being less for immunocompromised patients aged 50 to 69 years was 88% for men and 83% for women, and for those >80 years was 99% for men and 98% for women. The study is limited by a lack of detailed drug data prior to admission, including steroid doses, meaning that we may have incorrectly categorised some immunocompromised patients as immunocompetent.

Conclusions

Immunocompromised patients remain at elevated risk of death from COVID-19. Targeted measures such as additional vaccine doses, monoclonal antibodies, and nonpharmaceutical preventive interventions should be continually encouraged for this patient group.

Trial registration

ISRCTN 66726260.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9928075?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "32951042", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207", + "title": "The impact of COVID-19 on adjusted mortality risk in care homes for older adults in Wales, UK: a retrospective population-based cohort study for mortality in 2016-2020. ", + "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, Lyons J, Fry R, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Watkins A, Verity F, Lyons RA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "mortality in care homes has had a prominent focus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Care homes are particularly vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases, which may lead to increased mortality risk. Multiple and interconnected challenges face the care home sector in the prevention and management of outbreaks of COVID-19, including adequate supply of personal protective equipment, staff shortages and insufficient or lack of timely COVID-19 testing. to analyse the mortality of older care home residents in Wales during COVID-19 lockdown and compare this across the population of Wales and the previous 4 years. we used anonymised electronic health records and administrative data from the secure anonymised information linkage databank to create a cross-sectional cohort study. We anonymously linked data for Welsh residents to mortality data up to the 14th June 2020. we calculated survival curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the risk of mortality. We adjusted HRs for age, gender, social economic status and prior health conditions. survival curves show an increased proportion of deaths between 23rd March and 14th June 2020 in care homes for older people, with an adjusted HR of 1.72 (1.55, 1.90) compared with 2016. Compared with the general population in 2016-2019, adjusted care home mortality HRs for older adults rose from 2.15 (2.11, 2.20) in 2016-2019 to 2.94 (2.81, 3.08) in 2020. the survival curves and increased HRs show a significantly increased risk of death in the 2020 study periods.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/1/25/42362959/afaa207.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa207; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7546151?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36769519", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12030872", @@ -2090,23 +2090,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01143-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01143-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9352574; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9352574?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35135770", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027", - "title": "Evaluation of NEWS2 response thresholds in a retrospective observational study from a UK acute hospital.", - "authorString": "Pankhurst T, Sapey E, Gyves H, Evison F, Gallier S, Gkoutos G, Ball S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-02-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Internal Medicine; Health Policy; Health Informatics", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Use of National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) has been mandated in adults admitted to acute hospitals in England. Urgent clinical review is recommended at NEWS2 \u22655. This policy is recognised as requiring ongoing evaluation. We assessed NEWS2 acquisition, alerting at key thresholds and patient outcomes, to understand how response recommendations would affect clinical resource allocation.

Setting

Adult acute hospital in England.

Design

Retrospective observational cohort study.

Participants

100\u2009362 consecutive admissions between November 2018 and July 2019.

Outcome

Death or admission to intensive care unit within 24 hours of a score.

Methods

NEWS2 were assembled as single scores from consecutive 24-hour time frames, (the first NEWS2 termed 'Index-NEWS2'), or as all scores from the admission (termed All-NEWS2). Scores were excluded when a patient was in intensive care, in the presence of a decision not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or on day 1 of elective admission.

Results

A mean of 4.5 NEWS2 were acquired per patient per day. The outcome rate following an Index-NEWS2 was 0.22/100 patient-days. The sensitivity of outcome prediction at Index-NEWS2 \u22655=0.46, and number needed to evaluate (NNE)=52. At this threshold, a mean of 37.6 alerts/100 patient-days would be generated, occurring in 12.3% of patients on any single day. Threshold changes to increase sensitivity by 0.1, would result in a twofold increase in alert rate and 1.5-fold increase in NNE. Overall, NEWS2 classification performance was significantly worse on Index-scores than All-scores (c-statistic=0.78 vs 0.85; p<0.001).

Conclusions

The combination of low event-rate, high alert-rate and low sensitivity, in patients for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, means that at current NEWS2 thresholds, resource demand would be sufficient to meaningfully compete with other pathways to clinical evaluation. In analyses that epitomise in-patient screening, NEWS2 performance suggests a need for re-evaluation of current response recommendations in this population.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e054027.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36195871", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02533-8", @@ -2124,6 +2107,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02533-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02533-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9533594; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9533594?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35135770", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027", + "title": "Evaluation of NEWS2 response thresholds in a retrospective observational study from a UK acute hospital.", + "authorString": "Pankhurst T, Sapey E, Gyves H, Evison F, Gallier S, Gkoutos G, Ball S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-02-08", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Internal Medicine; Health Policy; Health Informatics", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Use of National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) has been mandated in adults admitted to acute hospitals in England. Urgent clinical review is recommended at NEWS2 \u22655. This policy is recognised as requiring ongoing evaluation. We assessed NEWS2 acquisition, alerting at key thresholds and patient outcomes, to understand how response recommendations would affect clinical resource allocation.

Setting

Adult acute hospital in England.

Design

Retrospective observational cohort study.

Participants

100\u2009362 consecutive admissions between November 2018 and July 2019.

Outcome

Death or admission to intensive care unit within 24 hours of a score.

Methods

NEWS2 were assembled as single scores from consecutive 24-hour time frames, (the first NEWS2 termed 'Index-NEWS2'), or as all scores from the admission (termed All-NEWS2). Scores were excluded when a patient was in intensive care, in the presence of a decision not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or on day 1 of elective admission.

Results

A mean of 4.5 NEWS2 were acquired per patient per day. The outcome rate following an Index-NEWS2 was 0.22/100 patient-days. The sensitivity of outcome prediction at Index-NEWS2 \u22655=0.46, and number needed to evaluate (NNE)=52. At this threshold, a mean of 37.6 alerts/100 patient-days would be generated, occurring in 12.3% of patients on any single day. Threshold changes to increase sensitivity by 0.1, would result in a twofold increase in alert rate and 1.5-fold increase in NNE. Overall, NEWS2 classification performance was significantly worse on Index-scores than All-scores (c-statistic=0.78 vs 0.85; p<0.001).

Conclusions

The combination of low event-rate, high alert-rate and low sensitivity, in patients for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, means that at current NEWS2 thresholds, resource demand would be sufficient to meaningfully compete with other pathways to clinical evaluation. In analyses that epitomise in-patient screening, NEWS2 performance suggests a need for re-evaluation of current response recommendations in this population.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e054027.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830252?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36891499", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101370", @@ -2158,6 +2158,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/a-2038-0541.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2038-0541; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465241?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35381005", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264828", + "title": "Reproducible disease phenotyping at scale: Example of coronary artery disease in UK Biobank.", + "authorString": "Patel RS, Denaxas S, Howe LJ, Eggo RM, Shah AD, Allen NE, Danesh J, Hingorani A, Sudlow C, Hemingway H.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Importance

A lack of internationally agreed standards for combining available data sources at scale risks inconsistent disease phenotyping limiting research reproducibility.

Objective

To develop and then evaluate if a rules-based algorithm can identify coronary artery disease (CAD) sub-phenotypes using electronic health records (EHR) and questionnaire data from UK Biobank (UKB).

Design

Case-control and cohort study.

Setting

Prospective cohort study of 502K individuals aged 40-69 years recruited between 2006-2010 into the UK Biobank with linked hospitalization and mortality data and genotyping.

Participants

We included all individuals for phenotyping into 6 predefined CAD phenotypes using hospital admission and procedure codes, mortality records and baseline survey data. Of these, 408,470 unrelated individuals of European descent had a polygenic risk score (PRS) for CAD estimated.

Exposure

CAD Phenotypes.

Main outcomes and measures

Association with baseline risk factors, mortality (n = 14,419 over 7.8 years median f/u), and a PRS for CAD.

Results

The algorithm classified individuals with CAD into prevalent MI (n = 4,900); incident MI (n = 4,621), prevalent CAD without MI (n = 10,910), incident CAD without MI (n = 8,668), prevalent self-reported MI (n = 2,754); prevalent self-reported CAD without MI (n = 5,623), yielding 37,476 individuals with any type of CAD. Risk factors were similar across the six CAD phenotypes, except for fewer men in the self-reported CAD without MI group (46.7% v 70.1% for the overall group). In age- and sex- adjusted survival analyses, mortality was highest following incident MI (HR 6.66, 95% CI 6.07-7.31) and lowest for prevalent self-reported CAD without MI at baseline (HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.15-1.50) compared to disease-free controls. There were similar graded associations across the six phenotypes per SD increase in PRS, with the strongest association for prevalent MI (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.46-1.55) and the weakest for prevalent self-reported CAD without MI (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.05-1.12). The algorithm is available in the open phenotype HDR UK phenotype library (https://portal.caliberresearch.org/).

Conclusions

An algorithmic, EHR-based approach distinguished six phenotypes of CAD with distinct survival and PRS associations, supporting adoption of open approaches to help standardize CAD phenotyping and its wider potential value for reproducible research in other conditions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264828&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8982857; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8982857?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34713086", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916", @@ -2176,21 +2193,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.598916; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8521860?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35381005", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264828", - "title": "Reproducible disease phenotyping at scale: Example of coronary artery disease in UK Biobank.", - "authorString": "Patel RS, Denaxas S, Howe LJ, Eggo RM, Shah AD, Allen NE, Danesh J, Hingorani A, Sudlow C, Hemingway H.", + "id": "36244382", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01656-7", + "title": "Severe COVID-19 outcomes after full vaccination of primary schedule and initial boosters: pooled analysis of national prospective cohort studies of 30 million individuals in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.", + "authorString": "Agrawal U, Bedston S, McCowan C, Oke J, Patterson L, Robertson C, Akbari A, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Bradley DT, Fagbamigbe AF, Grange Z, Hall ECR, Joy M, Katikireddi SV, Kerr S, Ritchie L, Murphy S, Owen RK, Rudan I, Shah SA, Simpson CR, Torabi F, Tsang RSM, de Lusignan S, Lyons RA, O'Reilly D, Sheikh A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-05", + "date": "2022-10-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Importance

A lack of internationally agreed standards for combining available data sources at scale risks inconsistent disease phenotyping limiting research reproducibility.

Objective

To develop and then evaluate if a rules-based algorithm can identify coronary artery disease (CAD) sub-phenotypes using electronic health records (EHR) and questionnaire data from UK Biobank (UKB).

Design

Case-control and cohort study.

Setting

Prospective cohort study of 502K individuals aged 40-69 years recruited between 2006-2010 into the UK Biobank with linked hospitalization and mortality data and genotyping.

Participants

We included all individuals for phenotyping into 6 predefined CAD phenotypes using hospital admission and procedure codes, mortality records and baseline survey data. Of these, 408,470 unrelated individuals of European descent had a polygenic risk score (PRS) for CAD estimated.

Exposure

CAD Phenotypes.

Main outcomes and measures

Association with baseline risk factors, mortality (n = 14,419 over 7.8 years median f/u), and a PRS for CAD.

Results

The algorithm classified individuals with CAD into prevalent MI (n = 4,900); incident MI (n = 4,621), prevalent CAD without MI (n = 10,910), incident CAD without MI (n = 8,668), prevalent self-reported MI (n = 2,754); prevalent self-reported CAD without MI (n = 5,623), yielding 37,476 individuals with any type of CAD. Risk factors were similar across the six CAD phenotypes, except for fewer men in the self-reported CAD without MI group (46.7% v 70.1% for the overall group). In age- and sex- adjusted survival analyses, mortality was highest following incident MI (HR 6.66, 95% CI 6.07-7.31) and lowest for prevalent self-reported CAD without MI at baseline (HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.15-1.50) compared to disease-free controls. There were similar graded associations across the six phenotypes per SD increase in PRS, with the strongest association for prevalent MI (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.46-1.55) and the weakest for prevalent self-reported CAD without MI (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.05-1.12). The algorithm is available in the open phenotype HDR UK phenotype library (https://portal.caliberresearch.org/).

Conclusions

An algorithmic, EHR-based approach distinguished six phenotypes of CAD with distinct survival and PRS associations, supporting adoption of open approaches to help standardize CAD phenotyping and its wider potential value for reproducible research in other conditions.", + "abstract": "

Background

Current UK vaccination policy is to offer future COVID-19 booster doses to individuals at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19, but it is still uncertain which groups of the population could benefit most. In response to an urgent request from the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, we aimed to identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes (ie, COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death) in individuals who had completed their primary COVID-19 vaccination schedule and had received the first booster vaccine.

Methods

We constructed prospective cohorts across all four UK nations through linkages of primary care, RT-PCR testing, vaccination, hospitalisation, and mortality data on 30 million people. We included individuals who received primary vaccine doses of BNT162b2 (tozinameran; Pfizer-BioNTech) or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccines in our initial analyses. We then restricted analyses to those given a BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 (elasomeran; Moderna) booster and had a severe COVID-19 outcome between Dec 20, 2021, and Feb 28, 2022 (when the omicron (B.1.1.529) variant was dominant). We fitted time-dependent Poisson regression models and calculated adjusted rate ratios (aRRs) and 95% CIs for the associations between risk factors and COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death. We adjusted for a range of potential covariates, including age, sex, comorbidities, and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Stratified analyses were conducted by vaccine type. We then did pooled analyses across UK nations using fixed-effect meta-analyses.

Findings

Between Dec 8, 2020, and Feb 28, 2022, 16\u2008208\u2008600 individuals completed their primary vaccine schedule and 13\u2008836\u2008390 individuals received a booster dose. Between Dec 20, 2021, and Feb 28, 2022, 59\u2008510 (0\u00b74%) of the primary vaccine group and 26\u2008100 (0\u00b72%) of those who received their booster had severe COVID-19 outcomes. The risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes reduced after receiving the booster (rate change: 8\u00b78 events per 1000 person-years to 7\u00b76 events per 1000 person-years). Older adults (\u226580 years vs 18-49 years; aRR 3\u00b760 [95% CI 3\u00b745-3\u00b775]), those with comorbidities (\u22655 comorbidities vs none; 9\u00b751 [9\u00b707-9\u00b797]), being male (male vs female; 1\u00b723 [1\u00b720-1\u00b726]), and those with certain underlying health conditions-in particular, individuals receiving immunosuppressants (yes vs no; 5\u00b780 [5\u00b753-6\u00b709])-and those with chronic kidney disease (stage 5 vs no; 3\u00b771 [2\u00b790-4\u00b774]) remained at high risk despite the initial booster. Individuals with a history of COVID-19 infection were at reduced risk (infected \u22659 months before booster dose vs no previous infection; aRR 0\u00b741 [95% CI 0\u00b729-0\u00b758]).

Interpretation

Older people, those with multimorbidity, and those with specific underlying health conditions remain at increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and death after the initial vaccine booster and should, therefore, be prioritised for additional boosters, including novel optimised versions, and the increasing array of COVID-19 therapeutics.

Funding

National Core Studies-Immunity, UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Health Data Research UK, the Scottish Government, and the University of Edinburgh.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264828&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8982857; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8982857?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01656-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01656-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9560746; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9560746?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36035235", @@ -2209,23 +2226,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ng.neurology.org/content/nng/8/5/e200015.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/NXG.0000000000200015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403885; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403885?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36244382", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01656-7", - "title": "Severe COVID-19 outcomes after full vaccination of primary schedule and initial boosters: pooled analysis of national prospective cohort studies of 30 million individuals in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.", - "authorString": "Agrawal U, Bedston S, McCowan C, Oke J, Patterson L, Robertson C, Akbari A, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Bradley DT, Fagbamigbe AF, Grange Z, Hall ECR, Joy M, Katikireddi SV, Kerr S, Ritchie L, Murphy S, Owen RK, Rudan I, Shah SA, Simpson CR, Torabi F, Tsang RSM, de Lusignan S, Lyons RA, O'Reilly D, Sheikh A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Current UK vaccination policy is to offer future COVID-19 booster doses to individuals at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19, but it is still uncertain which groups of the population could benefit most. In response to an urgent request from the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, we aimed to identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes (ie, COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death) in individuals who had completed their primary COVID-19 vaccination schedule and had received the first booster vaccine.

Methods

We constructed prospective cohorts across all four UK nations through linkages of primary care, RT-PCR testing, vaccination, hospitalisation, and mortality data on 30 million people. We included individuals who received primary vaccine doses of BNT162b2 (tozinameran; Pfizer-BioNTech) or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccines in our initial analyses. We then restricted analyses to those given a BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 (elasomeran; Moderna) booster and had a severe COVID-19 outcome between Dec 20, 2021, and Feb 28, 2022 (when the omicron (B.1.1.529) variant was dominant). We fitted time-dependent Poisson regression models and calculated adjusted rate ratios (aRRs) and 95% CIs for the associations between risk factors and COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death. We adjusted for a range of potential covariates, including age, sex, comorbidities, and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Stratified analyses were conducted by vaccine type. We then did pooled analyses across UK nations using fixed-effect meta-analyses.

Findings

Between Dec 8, 2020, and Feb 28, 2022, 16\u2008208\u2008600 individuals completed their primary vaccine schedule and 13\u2008836\u2008390 individuals received a booster dose. Between Dec 20, 2021, and Feb 28, 2022, 59\u2008510 (0\u00b74%) of the primary vaccine group and 26\u2008100 (0\u00b72%) of those who received their booster had severe COVID-19 outcomes. The risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes reduced after receiving the booster (rate change: 8\u00b78 events per 1000 person-years to 7\u00b76 events per 1000 person-years). Older adults (\u226580 years vs 18-49 years; aRR 3\u00b760 [95% CI 3\u00b745-3\u00b775]), those with comorbidities (\u22655 comorbidities vs none; 9\u00b751 [9\u00b707-9\u00b797]), being male (male vs female; 1\u00b723 [1\u00b720-1\u00b726]), and those with certain underlying health conditions-in particular, individuals receiving immunosuppressants (yes vs no; 5\u00b780 [5\u00b753-6\u00b709])-and those with chronic kidney disease (stage 5 vs no; 3\u00b771 [2\u00b790-4\u00b774]) remained at high risk despite the initial booster. Individuals with a history of COVID-19 infection were at reduced risk (infected \u22659 months before booster dose vs no previous infection; aRR 0\u00b741 [95% CI 0\u00b729-0\u00b758]).

Interpretation

Older people, those with multimorbidity, and those with specific underlying health conditions remain at increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and death after the initial vaccine booster and should, therefore, be prioritised for additional boosters, including novel optimised versions, and the increasing array of COVID-19 therapeutics.

Funding

National Core Studies-Immunity, UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), Health Data Research UK, the Scottish Government, and the University of Edinburgh.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01656-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01656-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9560746; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9560746?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36000189", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2022-0052", @@ -2311,23 +2311,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/108/15/1200.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320047; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678560; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678560?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34497074", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483", - "title": "Modelling the impact of lockdown-easing measures on cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths in England.", - "authorString": "Ziauddeen H, Subramaniam N, Gurdasani D.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-09-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Health Policy", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

To assess the potential impacts of successive lockdown-easing measures in England, at a point in the COVID-19 pandemic when community transmission levels were relatively high.

Design

We developed a Bayesian model to infer incident cases and reproduction number (R) in England, from incident death data. We then used this to forecast excess cases and deaths in multiple plausible scenarios in which R increases at one or more time points.

Setting

England.

Participants

Publicly available national incident death data for COVID-19 were examined.

Primary outcome

Excess cumulative cases and deaths forecast at 90 days, in simulated scenarios of plausible increases in R after successive easing of lockdown in England, compared with a baseline scenario where R remained constant.

Results

Our model inferred an R of 0.75 on 13 May when England first started easing lockdown. In the most conservative scenario modelled where R increased to 0.80 as lockdown was eased further on 1 June and then remained constant, the model predicted an excess 257 (95% CI 108 to 492) deaths and 26 447 (95% CI 11 105 to 50 549) cumulative cases over 90 days. In the scenario with maximal increases in R (but staying \u22641), the model predicts 3174 (95% CI 1334 to 6060) excess cumulative deaths and 421 310 (95% CI 177 012 to 804 811) cases. Observed data from the forecasting period aligned most closely to the scenario in which R increased to 0.85 on 1 June, and 0.9 on 4 July.

Conclusions

When levels of transmission are high, even small changes in R with easing of lockdown can have significant impacts on expected cases and deaths, even if R remains \u22641. This will have a major impact on population health, tracing systems and healthcare services in England. Following an elimination strategy rather than one of maintenance of R \u22641 would substantially mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic within England.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/9/e042483.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32741245", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/0954411920946526", @@ -2345,6 +2328,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0954411920946526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0954411920946526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675765; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675765?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34497074", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483", + "title": "Modelling the impact of lockdown-easing measures on cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths in England.", + "authorString": "Ziauddeen H, Subramaniam N, Gurdasani D.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-09-08", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Health Policy", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

To assess the potential impacts of successive lockdown-easing measures in England, at a point in the COVID-19 pandemic when community transmission levels were relatively high.

Design

We developed a Bayesian model to infer incident cases and reproduction number (R) in England, from incident death data. We then used this to forecast excess cases and deaths in multiple plausible scenarios in which R increases at one or more time points.

Setting

England.

Participants

Publicly available national incident death data for COVID-19 were examined.

Primary outcome

Excess cumulative cases and deaths forecast at 90 days, in simulated scenarios of plausible increases in R after successive easing of lockdown in England, compared with a baseline scenario where R remained constant.

Results

Our model inferred an R of 0.75 on 13 May when England first started easing lockdown. In the most conservative scenario modelled where R increased to 0.80 as lockdown was eased further on 1 June and then remained constant, the model predicted an excess 257 (95% CI 108 to 492) deaths and 26 447 (95% CI 11 105 to 50 549) cumulative cases over 90 days. In the scenario with maximal increases in R (but staying \u22641), the model predicts 3174 (95% CI 1334 to 6060) excess cumulative deaths and 421 310 (95% CI 177 012 to 804 811) cases. Observed data from the forecasting period aligned most closely to the scenario in which R increased to 0.85 on 1 June, and 0.9 on 4 July.

Conclusions

When levels of transmission are high, even small changes in R with easing of lockdown can have significant impacts on expected cases and deaths, even if R remains \u22641. This will have a major impact on population health, tracing systems and healthcare services in England. Following an elimination strategy rather than one of maintenance of R \u22641 would substantially mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic within England.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/9/e042483.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042483; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8438582?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37124948", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100638", @@ -2396,23 +2396,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465; doi:https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20201465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10161906; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10161906?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36497616", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544", - "title": "Association between Internet Usage and Quality of Life of Elderly People in England: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).", - "authorString": "Vidiasratri AR, Bath PA, Bath PA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of environmental research and public health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Internet; Quality of life; Older People", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The WHO has stated that the number of senior citizens above age 65 across the world will double by the year 2050: in the UK, the whole population is projected to grow by about 2.5% over a decade, from mid-2018. Although people are living longer, they are not healthier in old age, and there is an increasing number of illnesses and disabilities in the ageing population, which have an impact on their overall well-being and quality of life (QoL). Alongside these trends, Internet technologies have improved and provide a wide range of information, including on medical and health issues. This study aimed to examine the association between the utilisation of the internet among older people in England and their QoL. This study utilised the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), a longitudinal study of a representative sample of people aged 50 and over in England. The data from Wave 9 were analysed using bivariate analysis and logistic regression. The results show a strong association between QoL and utilisation of the Internet in older people, even when adjusting for demographic variables and health. Higher use of the internet was associated with older people being less likely to have higher QoL. The excessive use of the internet for communication and gathering information also contributed to lower QoL. From the findings, poorer QoL was also found in people in older age groups, in those who are married, and those who never suffer from chronic diseases. Our findings suggest that the quality of life in older people might not only be associated with the frequency of usage but also the purpose for which the internet is used; however, this relationship is complex and further research should explore this in greater depth. Further research should also investigate how older people's use of the Internet changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of this on the QoL in older age.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15544/pdf?version=1669349785; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35140406", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01701-w", @@ -2430,6 +2413,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01701-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01701-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9018414; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9018414?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36497616", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544", + "title": "Association between Internet Usage and Quality of Life of Elderly People in England: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).", + "authorString": "Vidiasratri AR, Bath PA, Bath PA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of environmental research and public health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Internet; Quality of life; Older People", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The WHO has stated that the number of senior citizens above age 65 across the world will double by the year 2050: in the UK, the whole population is projected to grow by about 2.5% over a decade, from mid-2018. Although people are living longer, they are not healthier in old age, and there is an increasing number of illnesses and disabilities in the ageing population, which have an impact on their overall well-being and quality of life (QoL). Alongside these trends, Internet technologies have improved and provide a wide range of information, including on medical and health issues. This study aimed to examine the association between the utilisation of the internet among older people in England and their QoL. This study utilised the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), a longitudinal study of a representative sample of people aged 50 and over in England. The data from Wave 9 were analysed using bivariate analysis and logistic regression. The results show a strong association between QoL and utilisation of the Internet in older people, even when adjusting for demographic variables and health. Higher use of the internet was associated with older people being less likely to have higher QoL. The excessive use of the internet for communication and gathering information also contributed to lower QoL. From the findings, poorer QoL was also found in people in older age groups, in those who are married, and those who never suffer from chronic diseases. Our findings suggest that the quality of life in older people might not only be associated with the frequency of usage but also the purpose for which the internet is used; however, this relationship is complex and further research should explore this in greater depth. Further research should also investigate how older people's use of the Internet changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of this on the QoL in older age.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15544/pdf?version=1669349785; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315544; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9738189?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36630477", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004156", @@ -2549,23 +2549,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003871; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789178; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789178?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35476839", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967", - "title": "Healthcare contacts with self-harm during COVID-19: An e-cohort whole-population-based study using individual-level linked routine electronic health records in Wales, UK, 2016-March 2021.", - "authorString": "DelPozo-Banos M, Lee SC, Friedmann Y, Akbari A, Torabi F, Lloyd K, Lyons RA, John A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Reduced rates of help seeking by those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported.

Objectives

To understand changes in healthcare service contacts for self-harm during the COVID-19 pandemic across primary, emergency and secondary care.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study used routine electronic healthcare data for Wales, United Kingdom, from 2016 to March 14, 2021. Population-based data from primary care, emergency departments and hospital admissions were linked at individual-level. All Welsh residents aged \u226510 years over the study period were included in the study. Primary, emergency and secondary care contacts with self-harm at any time between 2016 and March 14, 2021 were identified. Outcomes were counts, incidence, prevalence and proportion of self-harm contacts relative to all contacts in each and all settings, as well as the proportion of people contacting one or more settings with self-harm. Weekly trends were modelled using generalised estimated equations, with differences between 2020 (to March 2021) and comparison years 2016-2018 (to March 2017-2019) quantified using difference in differences, from which mean rate of odds ratios (\u03bcROR) across years was reported.

Results

The study included 3,552,210 individuals over the study period. Self-harm contacts reduced across services in March and December 2020 compared to previous years. Primary care contacts with self-harm reduced disproportionately compared to non-self-harm contacts (\u03bcROR = 0.7, p<0.05), while their proportion increased in emergency departments during April 2020 (\u03bcROR = 1.3, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years) and hospital admissions during April-May 2020 (\u03bcROR = 1.2, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years). Despite this, those who self-harmed in April 2020 were more likely to be seen in primary care than other settings compared to previous years (\u03bcROR = 1.2, p<0.05). A lower proportion of those with self-harm contacts in emergency departments were subsequently admitted to hospital in December 2020 compared to previous years (\u03bcROR = 0.5, p<0.05).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been less likely to seek help, and those who did so faced more stringent criteria for admission. Communications encouraging those who self-harm to seek help during pandemics may be beneficial. However, this needs to be supported by maintained provision of mental health services.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266967&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35340900", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221074122", @@ -2583,6 +2566,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076221074122; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221074122; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943308; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943308?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35476839", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967", + "title": "Healthcare contacts with self-harm during COVID-19: An e-cohort whole-population-based study using individual-level linked routine electronic health records in Wales, UK, 2016-March 2021.", + "authorString": "DelPozo-Banos M, Lee SC, Friedmann Y, Akbari A, Torabi F, Lloyd K, Lyons RA, John A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-27", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Reduced rates of help seeking by those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported.

Objectives

To understand changes in healthcare service contacts for self-harm during the COVID-19 pandemic across primary, emergency and secondary care.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study used routine electronic healthcare data for Wales, United Kingdom, from 2016 to March 14, 2021. Population-based data from primary care, emergency departments and hospital admissions were linked at individual-level. All Welsh residents aged \u226510 years over the study period were included in the study. Primary, emergency and secondary care contacts with self-harm at any time between 2016 and March 14, 2021 were identified. Outcomes were counts, incidence, prevalence and proportion of self-harm contacts relative to all contacts in each and all settings, as well as the proportion of people contacting one or more settings with self-harm. Weekly trends were modelled using generalised estimated equations, with differences between 2020 (to March 2021) and comparison years 2016-2018 (to March 2017-2019) quantified using difference in differences, from which mean rate of odds ratios (\u03bcROR) across years was reported.

Results

The study included 3,552,210 individuals over the study period. Self-harm contacts reduced across services in March and December 2020 compared to previous years. Primary care contacts with self-harm reduced disproportionately compared to non-self-harm contacts (\u03bcROR = 0.7, p<0.05), while their proportion increased in emergency departments during April 2020 (\u03bcROR = 1.3, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years) and hospital admissions during April-May 2020 (\u03bcROR = 1.2, p<0.05 in 2/3 comparison years). Despite this, those who self-harmed in April 2020 were more likely to be seen in primary care than other settings compared to previous years (\u03bcROR = 1.2, p<0.05). A lower proportion of those with self-harm contacts in emergency departments were subsequently admitted to hospital in December 2020 compared to previous years (\u03bcROR = 0.5, p<0.05).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that those who self-harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been less likely to seek help, and those who did so faced more stringent criteria for admission. Communications encouraging those who self-harm to seek help during pandemics may be beneficial. However, this needs to be supported by maintained provision of mental health services.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266967&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266967; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9045644?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36369151", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34244-2", @@ -2617,23 +2617,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/hsc.14109; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.14109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100139; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10100139?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36810667", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103", - "title": "Morbidity Associated With Primary Hyperparathyroidism-A Population-based Study With a Subanalysis on Vitamin D.", - "authorString": "Soto-Pedre E, Lin YY, Soto-Hernaez J, Newey PJ, Leese GP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Calcium; Vitamin D; Mortality; Primary Hyperparathyroidism", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Context

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is associated with increased risk of morbidity and death, and vitamin D levels are a potentially confounding variable.

Objective

The aim of this study was to assess morbidity and mortality associated with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Methods

In this population-based retrospective matched cohort study, data linkage of biochemistry, hospital admissions, prescribing, imaging, pathology, and deaths was used to identify patients across the region of Tayside, Scotland, who had PHPT from 1997 to 2019. Cox proportional hazards models and hazards ratios (HR) were used to explore the relationship between exposure to PHPT and several clinical outcomes. Comparisons were made with an age- and gender-matched cohort.

Results

In 11 616 people with PHPT (66.8% female), with a mean follow-up period of 8.8 years, there was an adjusted HR of death of 2.05 (95% CI, 1.97-2.13) for those exposed to PHPT. There was also an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (HR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.24-1.45), cerebrovascular disease (HR = 1.29; 95% CI, 1.15-1.45), diabetes (HR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.26-1.54), renal stones (HR = 3.02; 95% CI, 2.19-4.17) and osteoporosis (HR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.16-1.49). Following adjustment for serum vitamin D concentrations (n = 2748), increased risks for death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis persisted, but not for cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease.

Conclusion

In a large population-based study, PHPT was associated with death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis, independent of serum vitamin D concentration.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad103/49516503/dgad103.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10438903" - }, { "id": "36178783", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.9.34", @@ -2651,6 +2634,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.9.34; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.9.34; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9527330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9527330?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36810667", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103", + "title": "Morbidity Associated With Primary Hyperparathyroidism-A Population-based Study With a Subanalysis on Vitamin D.", + "authorString": "Soto-Pedre E, Lin YY, Soto-Hernaez J, Newey PJ, Leese GP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Calcium; Vitamin D; Mortality; Primary Hyperparathyroidism", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Context

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is associated with increased risk of morbidity and death, and vitamin D levels are a potentially confounding variable.

Objective

The aim of this study was to assess morbidity and mortality associated with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Methods

In this population-based retrospective matched cohort study, data linkage of biochemistry, hospital admissions, prescribing, imaging, pathology, and deaths was used to identify patients across the region of Tayside, Scotland, who had PHPT from 1997 to 2019. Cox proportional hazards models and hazards ratios (HR) were used to explore the relationship between exposure to PHPT and several clinical outcomes. Comparisons were made with an age- and gender-matched cohort.

Results

In 11 616 people with PHPT (66.8% female), with a mean follow-up period of 8.8 years, there was an adjusted HR of death of 2.05 (95% CI, 1.97-2.13) for those exposed to PHPT. There was also an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (HR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.24-1.45), cerebrovascular disease (HR = 1.29; 95% CI, 1.15-1.45), diabetes (HR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.26-1.54), renal stones (HR = 3.02; 95% CI, 2.19-4.17) and osteoporosis (HR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.16-1.49). Following adjustment for serum vitamin D concentrations (n = 2748), increased risks for death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis persisted, but not for cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease.

Conclusion

In a large population-based study, PHPT was associated with death, diabetes, renal stones, and osteoporosis, independent of serum vitamin D concentration.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad103/49516503/dgad103.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad103; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10438903" + }, { "id": "36139476", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11182901", @@ -2720,38 +2720,55 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/acps.13523; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.13523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10463092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10463092?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36580462", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381", - "title": "Investigating the potential impact of PCSK9-inhibitors on mood disorders using eQTL-based Mendelian randomization.", - "authorString": "Aman A, Slob EAW, Ward J, Cullen B, Graham N, Lyall DM, Sattar N, Strawbridge RJ.", + "id": "36215226", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230", + "title": "Effect of a test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid-19: phase 3 randomised controlled trial (CORONAVIT).", + "authorString": "Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Greenig M, Talaei M, Perdek N, Pfeffer P, Vivaldi G, Maltby S, Symons J, Barlow NL, Normandale A, Garcha R, Richter AG, Faustini SE, Orton C, Ford D, Lyons RA, Davies GA, Kee F, Griffiths CJ, Norrie J, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Relton C, Martineau AR.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-29", + "date": "2022-09-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Prescription of PCSK9-inhibitors has increased in recent years but not much is known about its off-target effects. PCSK9-expression is evident in non-hepatic tissues, notably the brain, and genetic variation in the PCSK9 locus has recently been shown to be associated with mood disorder-related traits. We investigated whether PCSK9 inhibition, proxied by a genetic reduction in expression of PCSK9 mRNA, might have a causal adverse effect on mood disorder-related traits. We used genetic variants in the PCSK9 locus associated with reduced PCSK9 expression (eQTLs) in the European population from GTEx v8 and examined the effect on PCSK9 protein levels and three mood disorder-related traits (major depressive disorder, mood instability, and neuroticism), using summary statistics from the largest European ancestry genome-wide association studies. We conducted summary-based Mendelian randomization analyses to estimate the causal effects, and attempted replication using data from eQTLGen, Brain-eMETA, and the CAGE consortium. We found that genetically reduced PCSK9 gene-expression levels were significantly associated with reduced PCSK9 protein levels but not with increased risk of mood disorder-related traits. Further investigation of nearby genes demonstrated that reduced USP24 gene-expression levels was significantly associated with increased risk of mood instability (p-value range = 5.2x10-5-0.03), and neuroticism score (p-value range = 2.9x10-5-0.02), but not with PCSK9 protein levels. Our results suggest that genetic variation in this region acts on mood disorders through a PCSK9-independent pathway, and therefore PCSK9-inhibitors are unlikely to have an adverse impact on mood disorder-related traits.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To determine the effect of population level implementation of a test-and-treat approach to correction of suboptimal vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) <75 nmol/L) on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid 19.

Design

Phase 3 open label randomised controlled trial.

Setting

United Kingdom.

Participants

6200 people aged \u226516 years who were not taking vitamin D supplements at baseline.

Interventions

Offer of a postal finger prick test of blood 25(OH)D concentration with provision of a six month supply of lower dose vitamin D (800 IU/day, n=1550) or higher dose vitamin D (3200 IU/day, n=1550) to those with blood 25(OH)D concentration <75 nmol/L, compared with no offer of testing or supplementation (n=3100). Follow-up was for six months.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was the proportion of participants with at least one swab test or doctor confirmed acute respiratory tract infection of any cause. A secondary outcome was the proportion of participants with swab test confirmed covid-19. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios and associated 95% confidence intervals. The primary analysis was conducted by intention to treat.

Results

Of 3100 participants offered a vitamin D test, 2958 (95.4%) accepted and 2674 (86.3%) had 25(OH)D concentrations <75 nmol/L and received vitamin D supplements (n=1328 lower dose, n=1346 higher dose). Compared with 136/2949 (4.6%) participants in the no offer group, at least one acute respiratory tract infection of any cause occurred in 87/1515 (5.7%) in the lower dose group (odds ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval 0.96 to 1.66) and 76/1515 (5.0%) in the higher dose group (1.09, 0.82 to 1.46). Compared with 78/2949 (2.6%) participants in the no offer group, 55/1515 (3.6%) developed covid-19 in the lower dose group (1.39, 0.98 to 1.97) and 45/1515 (3.0%) in the higher dose group (1.13, 0.78 to 1.63).

Conclusions

Among people aged 16 years and older with a high baseline prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D status, implementation of a population level test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation was not associated with a reduction in risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection or covid-19.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04579640.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279381&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2022-071230.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36215226", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230", - "title": "Effect of a test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid-19: phase 3 randomised controlled trial (CORONAVIT).", - "authorString": "Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Greenig M, Talaei M, Perdek N, Pfeffer P, Vivaldi G, Maltby S, Symons J, Barlow NL, Normandale A, Garcha R, Richter AG, Faustini SE, Orton C, Ford D, Lyons RA, Davies GA, Kee F, Griffiths CJ, Norrie J, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Relton C, Martineau AR.", + "id": "37363696", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5885059", + "title": "Gender Disparity in Expression of Sarcopenia in Haemodialysis Recipients: Analysis from the FITNESS Cohort.", + "authorString": "Anderson BM, Wilson DV, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", + "journalTitle": "International journal of nephrology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-17", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

There has been little exploration of the interplay between sarcopenia and frailty in haemodialysis, particularly regarding gender difference. We aimed to (1) assess whether ultrasound-derived low muscle mass (LMM) and sarcopenia are more common in male or female haemodialysis recipients; (2) assess whether age influences any observed gender difference, and (3) explore the interplay between sarcopenia, frailty, and gender in haemodialysis recipients.

Methods

This was an exploratory analysis of a subgroup of adult prevalent (\u22653\u2009months) haemodialysis with frailty phenotype (FP) scores. Bilateral anterior thigh thickness (BATT) was obtained according to an established ultrasound protocol. Associations with frailty were explored via both linear and logistic regressions for BATT, LMM, and sarcopenia with a priori covariables, stratified by gender.

Results

In total of 223 studies, participants had ultrasound measurements. Males showed greater prevalence of LMM. On adjusted analyses, LMM was associated with lower hand grip strength in males (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-4.17; 95% C.I. -7.57 to -0.77; P=0.02), but not females (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-1.88; 95% C.I. -5.41 to 1.64; P=0.29). LMM was also associated with slower walking speed in both males (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-0.115; 95% C.I. -0.258 to -0.013; P=0.03) and females (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-0.152; 95% C.I. -0.300 to -0.005; P=0.04). Sarcopenia was associated with greater odds of frailty on adjusted models in males (OR\u2009=\u20099.86; 95% C.I. 1.8 to 54.0; P=0.01), but not females (OR\u2009=\u20095.16; 95% C.I. 0.22 to 124; P=0.31).

Conclusions

The clinical expression and significance of sarcopenia differ substantially between males and females on haemodialysis. Further work is required to elucidate underlying mechanisms and guide tailored treatment.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5885059; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10290558; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10290558?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "36580462", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381", + "title": "Investigating the potential impact of PCSK9-inhibitors on mood disorders using eQTL-based Mendelian randomization.", + "authorString": "Aman A, Slob EAW, Ward J, Cullen B, Graham N, Lyall DM, Sattar N, Strawbridge RJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-07", + "date": "2022-12-29", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To determine the effect of population level implementation of a test-and-treat approach to correction of suboptimal vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) <75 nmol/L) on risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection and covid 19.

Design

Phase 3 open label randomised controlled trial.

Setting

United Kingdom.

Participants

6200 people aged \u226516 years who were not taking vitamin D supplements at baseline.

Interventions

Offer of a postal finger prick test of blood 25(OH)D concentration with provision of a six month supply of lower dose vitamin D (800 IU/day, n=1550) or higher dose vitamin D (3200 IU/day, n=1550) to those with blood 25(OH)D concentration <75 nmol/L, compared with no offer of testing or supplementation (n=3100). Follow-up was for six months.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was the proportion of participants with at least one swab test or doctor confirmed acute respiratory tract infection of any cause. A secondary outcome was the proportion of participants with swab test confirmed covid-19. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios and associated 95% confidence intervals. The primary analysis was conducted by intention to treat.

Results

Of 3100 participants offered a vitamin D test, 2958 (95.4%) accepted and 2674 (86.3%) had 25(OH)D concentrations <75 nmol/L and received vitamin D supplements (n=1328 lower dose, n=1346 higher dose). Compared with 136/2949 (4.6%) participants in the no offer group, at least one acute respiratory tract infection of any cause occurred in 87/1515 (5.7%) in the lower dose group (odds ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval 0.96 to 1.66) and 76/1515 (5.0%) in the higher dose group (1.09, 0.82 to 1.46). Compared with 78/2949 (2.6%) participants in the no offer group, 55/1515 (3.6%) developed covid-19 in the lower dose group (1.39, 0.98 to 1.97) and 45/1515 (3.0%) in the higher dose group (1.13, 0.78 to 1.63).

Conclusions

Among people aged 16 years and older with a high baseline prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D status, implementation of a population level test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation was not associated with a reduction in risk of all cause acute respiratory tract infection or covid-19.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04579640.", + "abstract": "Prescription of PCSK9-inhibitors has increased in recent years but not much is known about its off-target effects. PCSK9-expression is evident in non-hepatic tissues, notably the brain, and genetic variation in the PCSK9 locus has recently been shown to be associated with mood disorder-related traits. We investigated whether PCSK9 inhibition, proxied by a genetic reduction in expression of PCSK9 mRNA, might have a causal adverse effect on mood disorder-related traits. We used genetic variants in the PCSK9 locus associated with reduced PCSK9 expression (eQTLs) in the European population from GTEx v8 and examined the effect on PCSK9 protein levels and three mood disorder-related traits (major depressive disorder, mood instability, and neuroticism), using summary statistics from the largest European ancestry genome-wide association studies. We conducted summary-based Mendelian randomization analyses to estimate the causal effects, and attempted replication using data from eQTLGen, Brain-eMETA, and the CAGE consortium. We found that genetically reduced PCSK9 gene-expression levels were significantly associated with reduced PCSK9 protein levels but not with increased risk of mood disorder-related traits. Further investigation of nearby genes demonstrated that reduced USP24 gene-expression levels was significantly associated with increased risk of mood instability (p-value range = 5.2x10-5-0.03), and neuroticism score (p-value range = 2.9x10-5-0.02), but not with PCSK9 protein levels. Our results suggest that genetic variation in this region acts on mood disorders through a PCSK9-independent pathway, and therefore PCSK9-inhibitors are unlikely to have an adverse impact on mood disorder-related traits.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2022-071230.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9449358?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279381&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279381; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9799310?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37586846", @@ -2770,23 +2787,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2023-002378; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10432634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10432634?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37363696", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5885059", - "title": "Gender Disparity in Expression of Sarcopenia in Haemodialysis Recipients: Analysis from the FITNESS Cohort.", - "authorString": "Anderson BM, Wilson DV, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of nephrology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-17", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There has been little exploration of the interplay between sarcopenia and frailty in haemodialysis, particularly regarding gender difference. We aimed to (1) assess whether ultrasound-derived low muscle mass (LMM) and sarcopenia are more common in male or female haemodialysis recipients; (2) assess whether age influences any observed gender difference, and (3) explore the interplay between sarcopenia, frailty, and gender in haemodialysis recipients.

Methods

This was an exploratory analysis of a subgroup of adult prevalent (\u22653\u2009months) haemodialysis with frailty phenotype (FP) scores. Bilateral anterior thigh thickness (BATT) was obtained according to an established ultrasound protocol. Associations with frailty were explored via both linear and logistic regressions for BATT, LMM, and sarcopenia with a priori covariables, stratified by gender.

Results

In total of 223 studies, participants had ultrasound measurements. Males showed greater prevalence of LMM. On adjusted analyses, LMM was associated with lower hand grip strength in males (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-4.17; 95% C.I. -7.57 to -0.77; P=0.02), but not females (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-1.88; 95% C.I. -5.41 to 1.64; P=0.29). LMM was also associated with slower walking speed in both males (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-0.115; 95% C.I. -0.258 to -0.013; P=0.03) and females (\u03b2\u2009=\u2009-0.152; 95% C.I. -0.300 to -0.005; P=0.04). Sarcopenia was associated with greater odds of frailty on adjusted models in males (OR\u2009=\u20099.86; 95% C.I. 1.8 to 54.0; P=0.01), but not females (OR\u2009=\u20095.16; 95% C.I. 0.22 to 124; P=0.31).

Conclusions

The clinical expression and significance of sarcopenia differ substantially between males and females on haemodialysis. Further work is required to elucidate underlying mechanisms and guide tailored treatment.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5885059; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10290558; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10290558?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35024157", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211059350", @@ -3127,23 +3127,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-022-03043-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-03043-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9847024; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9847024?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37561812", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368", - "title": "Call detail record aggregation methodology impacts infectious disease models informed by human mobility.", - "authorString": "Gibbs H, Musah A, Seidu O, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Gray J, Adewole WA, Cheshire J, Marks M, Eggo RM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS computational biology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "This paper demonstrates how two different methods used to calculate population-level mobility from Call Detail Records (CDR) produce varying predictions of the spread of epidemics informed by these data. Our findings are based on one CDR dataset describing inter-district movement in Ghana in 2021, produced using two different aggregation methodologies. One methodology, \"all pairs,\" is designed to retain long distance network connections while the other, \"sequential\" methodology is designed to accurately reflect the volume of travel between locations. We show how the choice of methodology feeds through models of human mobility to the predictions of a metapopulation SEIR model of disease transmission. We also show that this impact varies depending on the location of pathogen introduction and the transmissibility of infections. For central locations or highly transmissible diseases, we do not observe significant differences between aggregation methodologies on the predicted spread of disease. For less transmissible diseases or those introduced into remote locations, we find that the choice of aggregation methodology influences the speed of spatial spread as well as the size of the peak number of infections in individual districts. Our findings can help researchers and users of epidemiological models to understand how methodological choices at the level of model inputs may influence the results of models of infectious disease transmission, as well as the circumstances in which these choices do not alter model predictions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32300742", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100296", @@ -3161,6 +3144,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537020300407/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100296; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7152819; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7152819?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37561812", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368", + "title": "Call detail record aggregation methodology impacts infectious disease models informed by human mobility.", + "authorString": "Gibbs H, Musah A, Seidu O, Ampofo W, Asiedu-Bekoe F, Gray J, Adewole WA, Cheshire J, Marks M, Eggo RM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PLoS computational biology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "This paper demonstrates how two different methods used to calculate population-level mobility from Call Detail Records (CDR) produce varying predictions of the spread of epidemics informed by these data. Our findings are based on one CDR dataset describing inter-district movement in Ghana in 2021, produced using two different aggregation methodologies. One methodology, \"all pairs,\" is designed to retain long distance network connections while the other, \"sequential\" methodology is designed to accurately reflect the volume of travel between locations. We show how the choice of methodology feeds through models of human mobility to the predictions of a metapopulation SEIR model of disease transmission. We also show that this impact varies depending on the location of pathogen introduction and the transmissibility of infections. For central locations or highly transmissible diseases, we do not observe significant differences between aggregation methodologies on the predicted spread of disease. For less transmissible diseases or those introduced into remote locations, we find that the choice of aggregation methodology influences the speed of spatial spread as well as the size of the peak number of infections in individual districts. Our findings can help researchers and users of epidemiological models to understand how methodological choices at the level of model inputs may influence the results of models of infectious disease transmission, as well as the circumstances in which these choices do not alter model predictions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011368; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10443843?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35756853", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100428", @@ -3246,23 +3246,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162001?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35715350", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010", - "title": "Safety of COVID-19 vaccination and acute neurological events: A self-controlled case series in England using the OpenSAFELY platform.", - "authorString": "Walker JL, Schultze A, Tazare J, Tamborska A, Singh B, Donegan K, Stowe J, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Curtis HJ, Williamson EJ, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Davy S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Hickman G, MacKenna B, Tomlinson L, Ca Green A, Fisher L, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Bates C, Evans SJ, Solomon T, Andrews NJ, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, McDonald HI.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Vaccine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Transverse Myelitis; Guillain-barr\u00e9 Syndrome; Vaccine Safety; Self-controlled Case Series; Bell\u2019s Palsy; Covid-19 Vaccines", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

We investigated the potential association of COVID-19 vaccination with three acute neurological events: Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England we analysed primary care data from >17 million patients in England linked to emergency care, hospital admission and mortality records in the OpenSAFELY platform. Separately for each vaccine brand, we used a self-controlled case series design to estimate the incidence rate ratio for each outcome in the period following vaccination (4-42\u00a0days for GBS, 4-28\u00a0days for transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy) compared to a within-person baseline, using conditional Poisson regression.

Results

Among 7,783,441 ChAdOx1 vaccinees, there was an increased rate of GBS (N\u00a0=\u00a0517; incidence rate ratio 2\u00b785; 95% CI2\u00b733-3\u00b747) and Bell's palsy (N\u00a0=\u00a05,350; 1\u00b739; 1\u00b727-1\u00b753) following a first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine, corresponding to 11.0 additional cases of GBS and 17.9 cases of Bell's palsy per 1 million vaccinees if causal. For GBS this applied to the first, but not the second, dose. There was no clear evidence of an association of ChAdOx1 vaccination with transverse myelitis (N\u00a0=\u00a0199; 1\u00b751; 0\u00b796-2\u00b737). Among 5,729,152 BNT162b2 vaccinees, there was no evidence of any association with GBS (N\u00a0=\u00a0283; 1\u00b709; 0\u00b775-1\u00b757), transverse myelitis (N\u00a0=\u00a0109; 1\u00b762; 0\u00b786-3\u00b703) or Bell's palsy (N\u00a0=\u00a03,609; 0\u00b789; 0\u00b776-1\u00b703). Among 255,446 mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients there was no evidence of an association with Bell's palsy (N\u00a0=\u00a078; 0\u00b788, 0\u00b732-2\u00b742).

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccines save lives, but it is important to understand rare adverse events. We observed a short-term increased rate of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome and Bell's palsy after first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine. The absolute risk, assuming a causal effect attributable to vaccination, was low.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36174228", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac189", @@ -3280,6 +3263,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/52/1/e46/49127271/dyac189.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac189; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9620716; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9620716?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac189" }, + { + "id": "35715350", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010", + "title": "Safety of COVID-19 vaccination and acute neurological events: A self-controlled case series in England using the OpenSAFELY platform.", + "authorString": "Walker JL, Schultze A, Tazare J, Tamborska A, Singh B, Donegan K, Stowe J, Morton CE, Hulme WJ, Curtis HJ, Williamson EJ, Mehrkar A, Eggo RM, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Davy S, Evans D, Inglesby P, Hickman G, MacKenna B, Tomlinson L, Ca Green A, Fisher L, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Bates C, Evans SJ, Solomon T, Andrews NJ, Douglas IJ, Goldacre B, Smeeth L, McDonald HI.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Vaccine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-06-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Transverse Myelitis; Guillain-barr\u00e9 Syndrome; Vaccine Safety; Self-controlled Case Series; Bell\u2019s Palsy; Covid-19 Vaccines", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

We investigated the potential association of COVID-19 vaccination with three acute neurological events: Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England we analysed primary care data from >17 million patients in England linked to emergency care, hospital admission and mortality records in the OpenSAFELY platform. Separately for each vaccine brand, we used a self-controlled case series design to estimate the incidence rate ratio for each outcome in the period following vaccination (4-42\u00a0days for GBS, 4-28\u00a0days for transverse myelitis and Bell's palsy) compared to a within-person baseline, using conditional Poisson regression.

Results

Among 7,783,441 ChAdOx1 vaccinees, there was an increased rate of GBS (N\u00a0=\u00a0517; incidence rate ratio 2\u00b785; 95% CI2\u00b733-3\u00b747) and Bell's palsy (N\u00a0=\u00a05,350; 1\u00b739; 1\u00b727-1\u00b753) following a first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine, corresponding to 11.0 additional cases of GBS and 17.9 cases of Bell's palsy per 1 million vaccinees if causal. For GBS this applied to the first, but not the second, dose. There was no clear evidence of an association of ChAdOx1 vaccination with transverse myelitis (N\u00a0=\u00a0199; 1\u00b751; 0\u00b796-2\u00b737). Among 5,729,152 BNT162b2 vaccinees, there was no evidence of any association with GBS (N\u00a0=\u00a0283; 1\u00b709; 0\u00b775-1\u00b757), transverse myelitis (N\u00a0=\u00a0109; 1\u00b762; 0\u00b786-3\u00b703) or Bell's palsy (N\u00a0=\u00a03,609; 0\u00b789; 0\u00b776-1\u00b703). Among 255,446 mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients there was no evidence of an association with Bell's palsy (N\u00a0=\u00a078; 0\u00b788, 0\u00b732-2\u00b742).

Conclusions

COVID-19 vaccines save lives, but it is important to understand rare adverse events. We observed a short-term increased rate of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome and Bell's palsy after first dose of ChAdOx1 vaccine. The absolute risk, assuming a causal effect attributable to vaccination, was low.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9170533?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34670038", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2113864", @@ -3416,23 +3416,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00289-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8221738; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00289-9" }, - { - "id": "37358897", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/45849", - "title": "Development of a Corpus Annotated With Mentions of Pain in Mental Health Records: Natural Language Processing Approach.", - "authorString": "Chaturvedi J, Chance N, Mirza L, Vernugopan V, Velupillai S, Stewart R, Roberts A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR formative research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Pain; Mental health; Annotation; Information Extraction; Natural Language Processing", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Pain is a widespread issue, with 20% of adults (1 in 5) experiencing it globally. A strong association has been demonstrated between pain and mental health conditions, and this association is known to exacerbate disability and impairment. Pain is also known to be strongly related to emotions, which can lead to damaging consequences. As pain is a common reason for people to access health care facilities, electronic health records (EHRs) are a potential source of information on this pain. Mental health EHRs could be particularly beneficial since they can show the overlap of pain with mental health. Most mental health EHRs contain the majority of their information within the free-text sections of the records. However, it is challenging to extract information from free text. Natural language processing (NLP) methods are therefore required to extract this information from the text.

Objective

This research describes the development of a corpus of manually labeled mentions of pain and pain-related entities from the documents of a mental health EHR database, for use in the development and evaluation of future NLP methods.

Methods

The EHR database used, Clinical Record Interactive Search, consists of anonymized patient records from The South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. The corpus was developed through a process of manual annotation where pain mentions were marked as relevant (ie, referring to physical pain afflicting the patient), negated (ie, indicating absence of pain), or not relevant (ie, referring to pain affecting someone other than the patient, or metaphorical and hypothetical mentions). Relevant mentions were also annotated with additional attributes such as anatomical location affected by pain, pain character, and pain management measures, if mentioned.

Results

A total of 5644 annotations were collected from 1985 documents (723 patients). Over 70% (n=4028) of the mentions found within the documents were annotated as relevant, and about half of these mentions also included the anatomical location affected by the pain. The most common pain character was chronic pain, and the most commonly mentioned anatomical location was the chest. Most annotations (n=1857, 33%) were from patients who had a primary diagnosis of mood disorders (International Classification of Diseases-10th edition, chapter F30-39).

Conclusions

This research has helped better understand how pain is mentioned within the context of mental health EHRs and provided insight into the kind of information that is typically mentioned around pain in such a data source. In future work, the extracted information will be used to develop and evaluate a machine learning-based NLP application to automatically extract relevant pain information from EHR databases.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e45849/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45849; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35185750", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.787107", @@ -3450,6 +3433,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.787107/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.787107; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8847736; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8847736?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37358897", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/45849", + "title": "Development of a Corpus Annotated With Mentions of Pain in Mental Health Records: Natural Language Processing Approach.", + "authorString": "Chaturvedi J, Chance N, Mirza L, Vernugopan V, Velupillai S, Stewart R, Roberts A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JMIR formative research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Pain; Mental health; Annotation; Information Extraction; Natural Language Processing", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Pain is a widespread issue, with 20% of adults (1 in 5) experiencing it globally. A strong association has been demonstrated between pain and mental health conditions, and this association is known to exacerbate disability and impairment. Pain is also known to be strongly related to emotions, which can lead to damaging consequences. As pain is a common reason for people to access health care facilities, electronic health records (EHRs) are a potential source of information on this pain. Mental health EHRs could be particularly beneficial since they can show the overlap of pain with mental health. Most mental health EHRs contain the majority of their information within the free-text sections of the records. However, it is challenging to extract information from free text. Natural language processing (NLP) methods are therefore required to extract this information from the text.

Objective

This research describes the development of a corpus of manually labeled mentions of pain and pain-related entities from the documents of a mental health EHR database, for use in the development and evaluation of future NLP methods.

Methods

The EHR database used, Clinical Record Interactive Search, consists of anonymized patient records from The South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. The corpus was developed through a process of manual annotation where pain mentions were marked as relevant (ie, referring to physical pain afflicting the patient), negated (ie, indicating absence of pain), or not relevant (ie, referring to pain affecting someone other than the patient, or metaphorical and hypothetical mentions). Relevant mentions were also annotated with additional attributes such as anatomical location affected by pain, pain character, and pain management measures, if mentioned.

Results

A total of 5644 annotations were collected from 1985 documents (723 patients). Over 70% (n=4028) of the mentions found within the documents were annotated as relevant, and about half of these mentions also included the anatomical location affected by the pain. The most common pain character was chronic pain, and the most commonly mentioned anatomical location was the chest. Most annotations (n=1857, 33%) were from patients who had a primary diagnosis of mood disorders (International Classification of Diseases-10th edition, chapter F30-39).

Conclusions

This research has helped better understand how pain is mentioned within the context of mental health EHRs and provided insight into the kind of information that is typically mentioned around pain in such a data source. In future work, the extracted information will be used to develop and evaluate a machine learning-based NLP application to automatically extract relevant pain information from EHR databases.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e45849/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45849; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337440?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36243955", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac287", @@ -3484,23 +3484,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621027549/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02754-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8687670" }, - { - "id": "37346822", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2", - "title": "First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY.", - "authorString": "Hopcroft LE, Curtis HJ, Brown AD, Hulme WJ, Andrews CD, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Eggo RM, Mahalingasivam V, Parker EPK, Tomlinson LA, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Goldacre B, Walker AJ, MacKenna B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-09", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Vaccine; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programme in England was extended to include all adolescents and children by April 2022. The aim of this paper is to describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups amongst adolescents and children in England by August 2022. Methods: With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 3.21 million children and adolescents' records in general practice in England,\u00a0 in situ\u00a0and within the infrastructure of the electronic health record software vendor TPP using OpenSAFELY. Vaccine coverage across various demographic (sex, deprivation index and ethnicity) and clinical (risk status) populations is described. Results: Coverage is higher amongst adolescents than it is amongst children, with 53.5% adolescents and 10.8% children having received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Within those groups, coverage varies by ethnicity, deprivation index and risk status; there is no evidence of variation by sex. Conclusion: First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage is shown to vary amongst various demographic and clinical groups of children and adolescents.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34104901", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00093-3", @@ -3518,6 +3501,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00093-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8175048; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8175048?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(21)00093-3" }, + { + "id": "37346822", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2", + "title": "First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY.", + "authorString": "Hopcroft LE, Curtis HJ, Brown AD, Hulme WJ, Andrews CD, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Eggo RM, Mahalingasivam V, Parker EPK, Tomlinson LA, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Goldacre B, Walker AJ, MacKenna B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-09", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Vaccine; Primary Health Care; Public Health; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programme in England was extended to include all adolescents and children by April 2022. The aim of this paper is to describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups amongst adolescents and children in England by August 2022. Methods: With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 3.21 million children and adolescents' records in general practice in England,\u00a0 in situ\u00a0and within the infrastructure of the electronic health record software vendor TPP using OpenSAFELY. Vaccine coverage across various demographic (sex, deprivation index and ethnicity) and clinical (risk status) populations is described. Results: Coverage is higher amongst adolescents than it is amongst children, with 53.5% adolescents and 10.8% children having received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Within those groups, coverage varies by ethnicity, deprivation index and risk status; there is no evidence of variation by sex. Conclusion: First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage is shown to vary amongst various demographic and clinical groups of children and adolescents.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18735.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280033?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36219788", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac185", @@ -3535,23 +3535,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac185/47708280/dyac185.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac185; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10244047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10244047?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35511729", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084", - "title": "COVID-19 risk factors amongst 14,786 care home residents: an observational longitudinal analysis including daily community positive test rates of COVID-19, hospital stays and vaccination status in Wales (UK) between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. ", - "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, Hollinghurst R, North L, Mizen A, Akbari A, Long S, Lyons RA, Fry R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "COVID-19 vaccinations have been prioritised for high risk individuals. Determine individual-level risk factors for care home residents testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Longitudinal observational cohort study using individual-level linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six older care home residents (aged 65+) living in Wales between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. Our dataset consisted of 2,613,341 individual-level daily observations within 697 care homes. We estimated odds ratios (ORs [95% confidence interval]) using multilevel logistic regression models. Our outcome of interest was a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. We included time-dependent covariates for the estimated community positive test rate of COVID-19, hospital inpatient status, vaccination status and frailty. Additional covariates were included for age, sex and specialist care home services. The multivariable regression model indicated an increase in age (OR 1.01 [1.00,1.01] per year), community positive test rate (OR 1.13 [1.12,1.13] per percent increase), hospital inpatients (OR 7.40 [6.54,8.36]), and residents in care homes with non-specialist dementia care (OR 1.42 [1.01,1.99]) had an increased odds of a positive test. Having a positive test prior to the observation period (OR 0.58 [0.49,0.68]) and either one or two doses of a vaccine (0.21 [0.17,0.25] and 0.05 [0.02,0.09], respectively) were associated with a decreased odds. Care providers need to remain vigilant despite the vaccination rollout, and extra precautions should be taken when caring for the most vulnerable. Minimising potential COVID-19 infection for care home residents when admitted to hospital should be prioritised.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac084/43520659/afac084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35502909", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095239", @@ -3586,6 +3569,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2022-071249.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071249; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10441183" }, + { + "id": "35511729", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084", + "title": "COVID-19 risk factors amongst 14,786 care home residents: an observational longitudinal analysis including daily community positive test rates of COVID-19, hospital stays and vaccination status in Wales (UK) between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. ", + "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, Hollinghurst R, North L, Mizen A, Akbari A, Long S, Lyons RA, Fry R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "COVID-19 vaccinations have been prioritised for high risk individuals. Determine individual-level risk factors for care home residents testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Longitudinal observational cohort study using individual-level linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six older care home residents (aged 65+) living in Wales between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021. Our dataset consisted of 2,613,341 individual-level daily observations within 697 care homes. We estimated odds ratios (ORs [95% confidence interval]) using multilevel logistic regression models. Our outcome of interest was a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. We included time-dependent covariates for the estimated community positive test rate of COVID-19, hospital inpatient status, vaccination status and frailty. Additional covariates were included for age, sex and specialist care home services. The multivariable regression model indicated an increase in age (OR 1.01 [1.00,1.01] per year), community positive test rate (OR 1.13 [1.12,1.13] per percent increase), hospital inpatients (OR 7.40 [6.54,8.36]), and residents in care homes with non-specialist dementia care (OR 1.42 [1.01,1.99]) had an increased odds of a positive test. Having a positive test prior to the observation period (OR 0.58 [0.49,0.68]) and either one or two doses of a vaccine (0.21 [0.17,0.25] and 0.05 [0.02,0.09], respectively) were associated with a decreased odds. Care providers need to remain vigilant despite the vaccination rollout, and extra precautions should be taken when caring for the most vulnerable. Minimising potential COVID-19 infection for care home residents when admitted to hospital should be prioritised.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/5/afac084/43520659/afac084.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac084; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9070807?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "31566668", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110", + "title": "External validation of the electronic Frailty Index using the population of Wales within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. ", + "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Akbari A, Clegg A, Lyons RA, Watkins A, Rodgers SE.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-11-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "frailty has major implications for health and social care services internationally. The development, validation and national implementation of the electronic Frailty Index (eFI) using routine primary care data has enabled change in the care of older people living with frailty in England. to externally validate the eFI in Wales and assess new frailty-related outcomes. retrospective cohort study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, comprising 469,000 people aged 65-95, registered with a SAIL contributing general practice on 1 January 2010. four categories (fit; mild; moderate and severe) of frailty were constructed using recognised cut points from the eFI. We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) from Cox regression models for validation of existing outcomes: 1-, 3- and 5-year mortality, hospitalisation, and care home admission for validation. We also analysed, as novel outcomes, 1-year mortality following hospitalisation and frailty transition times. HR trends for the validation outcomes in SAIL followed the original results from ResearchOne and THIN databases. Relative to the fit category, adjusted HRs in SAIL (95% CI) for 1-year mortality following hospitalisation were 1.05 (95% CI 1.03-1.08) for mild frailty, 1.24 (95% CI 1.21-1.28) for moderate frailty and 1.51 (95% CI 1.45-1.57) for severe frailty. The median time (lower and upper quartile) between frailty categories was 2,165\u00a0days (lower and upper quartiles: 1,510 and 2,831) from fit to mild, 1,155\u00a0days (lower and upper quartiles: 756 and 1,610) from mild to moderate and 898\u00a0days (lower and upper quartiles: 584 and 1,275) from moderate to severe. further validation of the eFI showed robust predictive validity and utility for new outcomes.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/48/6/922/30302589/afz110.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35918110", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057433", @@ -3620,23 +3637,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1083072/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1083072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10166867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10166867?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31566668", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110", - "title": "External validation of the electronic Frailty Index using the population of Wales within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. ", - "authorString": "Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Akbari A, Clegg A, Lyons RA, Watkins A, Rodgers SE.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-11-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "frailty has major implications for health and social care services internationally. The development, validation and national implementation of the electronic Frailty Index (eFI) using routine primary care data has enabled change in the care of older people living with frailty in England. to externally validate the eFI in Wales and assess new frailty-related outcomes. retrospective cohort study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, comprising 469,000 people aged 65-95, registered with a SAIL contributing general practice on 1 January 2010. four categories (fit; mild; moderate and severe) of frailty were constructed using recognised cut points from the eFI. We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) from Cox regression models for validation of existing outcomes: 1-, 3- and 5-year mortality, hospitalisation, and care home admission for validation. We also analysed, as novel outcomes, 1-year mortality following hospitalisation and frailty transition times. HR trends for the validation outcomes in SAIL followed the original results from ResearchOne and THIN databases. Relative to the fit category, adjusted HRs in SAIL (95% CI) for 1-year mortality following hospitalisation were 1.05 (95% CI 1.03-1.08) for mild frailty, 1.24 (95% CI 1.21-1.28) for moderate frailty and 1.51 (95% CI 1.45-1.57) for severe frailty. The median time (lower and upper quartile) between frailty categories was 2,165\u00a0days (lower and upper quartiles: 1,510 and 2,831) from fit to mild, 1,155\u00a0days (lower and upper quartiles: 756 and 1,610) from mild to moderate and 898\u00a0days (lower and upper quartiles: 584 and 1,275) from moderate to severe. further validation of the eFI showed robust predictive validity and utility for new outcomes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/48/6/922/30302589/afz110.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afz110; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6814149?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36369736", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2139979", @@ -3722,23 +3722,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/00326f17-60ca-4c01-8814-727df6504005/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf0874; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8158959; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8158959?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35290489", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7", - "title": "Dynamic susceptibility-contrast magnetic resonance imaging with contrast agent leakage correction aids in predicting grade in pediatric brain tumours: a multicenter study.", - "authorString": "Withey SB, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Morgan PS, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Pediatric radiology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-15", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Brain; Tumor; Children; Perfusion; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Blood volume; Multicenter; Leakage Correction; Dynamic Susceptibility-contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) measured using dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI can differentiate between low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors. Multicenter studies are required for translation into clinical practice.

Objective

We compared leakage-corrected dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI perfusion parameters acquired at multiple centers in low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors.

Materials and methods

Eighty-five pediatric patients underwent pre-treatment dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI scans at four centers. MRI protocols were variable. We analyzed data using the Boxerman leakage-correction method producing pixel-by-pixel estimates of leakage-uncorrected (rCBVuncorr) and corrected (rCBVcorr) relative cerebral blood volume, and the leakage parameter, K2. Histological diagnoses were obtained. Tumors were classified by high-grade tumor. We compared whole-tumor median perfusion parameters between low- and high-grade tumors and across tumor types.

Results

Forty tumors were classified as low grade, 45 as high grade. Mean whole-tumor median rCBVuncorr was higher in high-grade tumors than low-grade tumors (mean \u00b1 standard deviation [SD] = 2.37\u00b12.61 vs. -0.14\u00b15.55; P<0.01). Average median rCBV increased following leakage correction (2.54\u00b11.63 vs. 1.68\u00b11.36; P=0.010), remaining higher in high-grade tumors than low grade-tumors. Low-grade tumors, particularly pilocytic astrocytomas, showed T1-dominant leakage effects; high-grade tumors showed T2*-dominance (mean K2=0.017\u00b10.049 vs. 0.002\u00b10.017). Parameters varied with tumor type but not center. Median rCBVuncorr was higher (mean = 1.49 vs. 0.49; P=0.015) and K2 lower (mean = 0.005 vs. 0.016; P=0.013) in children who received a pre-bolus of contrast agent compared to those who did not. Leakage correction removed the difference.

Conclusion

Dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI acquired at multiple centers helped distinguish between children's brain tumors. Relative cerebral blood volume was significantly higher in high-grade compared to low-grade tumors and differed among common tumor types. Vessel leakage correction is required to provide accurate rCBV, particularly in low-grade enhancing tumors.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33993870", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w", @@ -3757,21 +3740,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02000-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8126470; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8126470?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35354646", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629", - "title": "Relationship between asthma and severe COVID-19: a national cohort study.", - "authorString": "Dolby T, Nafilyan V, Morgan A, Kallis C, Sheikh A, Quint JK.", + "id": "35290489", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7", + "title": "Dynamic susceptibility-contrast magnetic resonance imaging with contrast agent leakage correction aids in predicting grade in pediatric brain tumours: a multicenter study.", + "authorString": "Withey SB, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Morgan PS, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Thorax", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-03-30", + "journalTitle": "Pediatric radiology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-15", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Asthma; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Brain; Tumor; Children; Perfusion; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Blood volume; Multicenter; Leakage Correction; Dynamic Susceptibility-contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

We aimed to determine whether children and adults with poorly controlled or more severe asthma have greater risk of hospitalisation and/or death from COVID-19.

Methods

We used individual-level data from the Office for National Statistics Public Health Data Asset, based on the 2011 census in England, and the General Practice Extraction Service data for pandemic planning and research linked to death registration records and Hospital Episode Statistics admission data. Adults were followed from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2021 for hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. For children, only hospitalisation was included.

Results

Our cohort comprised 35 202 533 adults and 2 996 503 children aged 12-17 years. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, pre-existing health conditions and vaccine status, the risk of death involving COVID-19 for adults with asthma prescribed low dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was not significantly different from those without asthma. Adults with asthma prescribed medium and high dosage ICS had an elevated risk of COVID-19 death; HRs 1.18 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.23) and 1.36 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.44), respectively. A similar pattern was observed for COVID-19 hospitalisation; fully adjusted HRs 1.53 (95% CI 1.50 to 1.56) and 1.52 (95% CI 1.46 to 1.56) for adults with asthma prescribed medium and high-dosage ICS, respectively. Risk of hospitalisation was greater for children with asthma prescribed one (2.58 (95% CI 1.82 to 3.66)) or two or more (3.80 (95% CI 2.41 to 5.95)) courses of oral corticosteroids in the year prior to the pandemic.

Discussion

People with mild and/or well-controlled asthma are neither at significantly increased risk of hospitalisation with nor more likely to die from COVID-19 than adults without asthma.", + "abstract": "

Background

Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) measured using dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI can differentiate between low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors. Multicenter studies are required for translation into clinical practice.

Objective

We compared leakage-corrected dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI perfusion parameters acquired at multiple centers in low- and high-grade pediatric brain tumors.

Materials and methods

Eighty-five pediatric patients underwent pre-treatment dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI scans at four centers. MRI protocols were variable. We analyzed data using the Boxerman leakage-correction method producing pixel-by-pixel estimates of leakage-uncorrected (rCBVuncorr) and corrected (rCBVcorr) relative cerebral blood volume, and the leakage parameter, K2. Histological diagnoses were obtained. Tumors were classified by high-grade tumor. We compared whole-tumor median perfusion parameters between low- and high-grade tumors and across tumor types.

Results

Forty tumors were classified as low grade, 45 as high grade. Mean whole-tumor median rCBVuncorr was higher in high-grade tumors than low-grade tumors (mean \u00b1 standard deviation [SD] = 2.37\u00b12.61 vs. -0.14\u00b15.55; P<0.01). Average median rCBV increased following leakage correction (2.54\u00b11.63 vs. 1.68\u00b11.36; P=0.010), remaining higher in high-grade tumors than low grade-tumors. Low-grade tumors, particularly pilocytic astrocytomas, showed T1-dominant leakage effects; high-grade tumors showed T2*-dominance (mean K2=0.017\u00b10.049 vs. 0.002\u00b10.017). Parameters varied with tumor type but not center. Median rCBVuncorr was higher (mean = 1.49 vs. 0.49; P=0.015) and K2 lower (mean = 0.005 vs. 0.016; P=0.013) in children who received a pre-bolus of contrast agent compared to those who did not. Leakage correction removed the difference.

Conclusion

Dynamic susceptibility-contrast MRI acquired at multiple centers helped distinguish between children's brain tumors. Relative cerebral blood volume was significantly higher in high-grade compared to low-grade tumors and differed among common tumor types. Vessel leakage correction is required to provide accurate rCBV, particularly in low-grade enhancing tumors.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/03/29/thoraxjnl-2021-218629.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05266-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9107460?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34385524", @@ -3791,21 +3774,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-95802-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95802-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360941; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360941?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37674175", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y", - "title": "Using the COM-B framework to elucidate facilitators and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnant women: a qualitative study.", - "authorString": "Patterson L, Berry E, Parsons C, Clarke B, Little A, Beggs J, Chuter A, Jackson T, Hsia Y, McGrath H, Millman C, Murphy S, Bradley DT, Milligan S.", + "id": "35354646", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629", + "title": "Relationship between asthma and severe COVID-19: a national cohort study.", + "authorString": "Dolby T, Nafilyan V, Morgan A, Kallis C, Sheikh A, Quint JK.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC pregnancy and childbirth", + "journalTitle": "Thorax", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-09-06", + "date": "2022-03-30", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Pregnancy; Qualitative; Barriers; Facilitators; Com-b; Covid-19 Vaccination", + "keywords": "Asthma; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Since April 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been recommended for pregnant women. Despite this, COVID-19 vaccine uptake in this group is low compared to the non-pregnant population of childbearing age. Our aim was to understand barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant women in Northern Ireland using the COM-B framework, and so to make recommendations for public health interventions. The COM-B proposes that human behaviour is influenced by the extent to which a person has the capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact that behaviour. Understanding the factors underpinning behaviour through this lens helps discern what needs to change to change behaviour, therefore supporting the development of targeted interventions.This study consisted of eight semi-structured interviews with new/expectant mothers who did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant since April 2021, and a focus group with five participants who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant. Interview and focus group data were analysed using semi-deductive reflexive thematic analysis framed by a subtle realist approach. The COM-B was used to categorise codes and subthemes were developed within each COM-B construct.Within Psychological Capability, subthemes captured the need for consistent and reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and access to balanced and jargon-free, risk-benefit information that is tailored to the pregnant individual. The behaviour/opinions of family, friends, and local healthcare providers had a powerful influence on COVID-19 vaccine decisions (Social Opportunity). Integrating the COVID-19 vaccine as part of routine antenatal pathways was believed to support access and sense of familiarity (Physical Opportunity). Participants valued health autonomy, however experienced internal conflict driven by concerns about long-term side effects for their baby (Reflective Motivation). Feelings of fear, lack of empathy from healthcare providers, and anticipated guilt commonly underpinned indecision as to whether to get the vaccine (Automatic Motivation).Our study highlighted that the choice to accept a vaccine during pregnancy generates internal conflict and worry. Several participants cited their concern was primarily around the safety for their baby. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play a significant part when it comes to decision making about COVID-19 vaccines among pregnant women. HCPs and pregnant women should be involved in the development of interventions to improve the delivery and communication of information.", + "abstract": "

Background

We aimed to determine whether children and adults with poorly controlled or more severe asthma have greater risk of hospitalisation and/or death from COVID-19.

Methods

We used individual-level data from the Office for National Statistics Public Health Data Asset, based on the 2011 census in England, and the General Practice Extraction Service data for pandemic planning and research linked to death registration records and Hospital Episode Statistics admission data. Adults were followed from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2021 for hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. For children, only hospitalisation was included.

Results

Our cohort comprised 35 202 533 adults and 2 996 503 children aged 12-17 years. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, pre-existing health conditions and vaccine status, the risk of death involving COVID-19 for adults with asthma prescribed low dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was not significantly different from those without asthma. Adults with asthma prescribed medium and high dosage ICS had an elevated risk of COVID-19 death; HRs 1.18 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.23) and 1.36 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.44), respectively. A similar pattern was observed for COVID-19 hospitalisation; fully adjusted HRs 1.53 (95% CI 1.50 to 1.56) and 1.52 (95% CI 1.46 to 1.56) for adults with asthma prescribed medium and high-dosage ICS, respectively. Risk of hospitalisation was greater for children with asthma prescribed one (2.58 (95% CI 1.82 to 3.66)) or two or more (3.80 (95% CI 2.41 to 5.95)) courses of oral corticosteroids in the year prior to the pandemic.

Discussion

People with mild and/or well-controlled asthma are neither at significantly increased risk of hospitalisation with nor more likely to die from COVID-19 than adults without asthma.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/03/29/thoraxjnl-2021-218629.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8983409?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37678881", @@ -3824,6 +3807,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad157; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484725?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37674175", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y", + "title": "Using the COM-B framework to elucidate facilitators and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnant women: a qualitative study.", + "authorString": "Patterson L, Berry E, Parsons C, Clarke B, Little A, Beggs J, Chuter A, Jackson T, Hsia Y, McGrath H, Millman C, Murphy S, Bradley DT, Milligan S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC pregnancy and childbirth", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-09-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Pregnancy; Qualitative; Barriers; Facilitators; Com-b; Covid-19 Vaccination", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Since April 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been recommended for pregnant women. Despite this, COVID-19 vaccine uptake in this group is low compared to the non-pregnant population of childbearing age. Our aim was to understand barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant women in Northern Ireland using the COM-B framework, and so to make recommendations for public health interventions. The COM-B proposes that human behaviour is influenced by the extent to which a person has the capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact that behaviour. Understanding the factors underpinning behaviour through this lens helps discern what needs to change to change behaviour, therefore supporting the development of targeted interventions.This study consisted of eight semi-structured interviews with new/expectant mothers who did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant since April 2021, and a focus group with five participants who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while pregnant. Interview and focus group data were analysed using semi-deductive reflexive thematic analysis framed by a subtle realist approach. The COM-B was used to categorise codes and subthemes were developed within each COM-B construct.Within Psychological Capability, subthemes captured the need for consistent and reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and access to balanced and jargon-free, risk-benefit information that is tailored to the pregnant individual. The behaviour/opinions of family, friends, and local healthcare providers had a powerful influence on COVID-19 vaccine decisions (Social Opportunity). Integrating the COVID-19 vaccine as part of routine antenatal pathways was believed to support access and sense of familiarity (Physical Opportunity). Participants valued health autonomy, however experienced internal conflict driven by concerns about long-term side effects for their baby (Reflective Motivation). Feelings of fear, lack of empathy from healthcare providers, and anticipated guilt commonly underpinned indecision as to whether to get the vaccine (Automatic Motivation).Our study highlighted that the choice to accept a vaccine during pregnancy generates internal conflict and worry. Several participants cited their concern was primarily around the safety for their baby. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play a significant part when it comes to decision making about COVID-19 vaccines among pregnant women. HCPs and pregnant women should be involved in the development of interventions to improve the delivery and communication of information.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05958-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10481472?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37480048", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-023-03394-6", @@ -3841,23 +3841,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12872-023-03394-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-023-03394-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10362581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10362581?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34697502", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7", - "title": "Neurological complications after first dose of COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection.", - "authorString": "Patone M, Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, Razvi S, Hunt D, Mei XW, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Watkinson P, Coupland CAC, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Ravanan R, Sheikh A, Robertson C, Hippisley-Cox J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-25", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Emerging reports of rare neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection and vaccinations are leading to regulatory, clinical and public health concerns. We undertook a self-controlled case series study to investigate hospital admissions from neurological complications in the 28\u2009days after a first dose of ChAdOx1nCoV-19 (n\u2009=\u200920,417,752) or BNT162b2 (n\u2009=\u200912,134,782), and after a SARS-CoV-2-positive test (n\u2009=\u20092,005,280). There was an increased risk of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.15-3.92 at 15-21\u2009days after vaccination) and Bell's palsy (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.08-1.56 at 15-21\u2009days) with ChAdOx1nCoV-19. There was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.71 at 15-21\u2009days) with BNT162b2. An independent Scottish cohort provided further support for the association between ChAdOx1nCoV and Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (IRR, 2.32; 95% CI: 1.08-5.02 at 1-28\u2009days). There was a substantially higher risk of all neurological outcomes in the 28\u2009days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test including Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (IRR, 5.25; 95% CI: 3.00-9.18). Overall, we estimated 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome per 10\u2009million people receiving ChAdOx1nCoV-19 and 145 excess cases per 10\u2009million people after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. In summary, although we find an increased risk of neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines, the risk of these complications is greater following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01556-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32016358", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjaa021", @@ -3892,6 +3875,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103485; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8299112; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8299112?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34697502", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7", + "title": "Neurological complications after first dose of COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection.", + "authorString": "Patone M, Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Pan J, Katikireddi SV, Razvi S, Hunt D, Mei XW, Dixon S, Zaccardi F, Khunti K, Watkinson P, Coupland CAC, Doidge J, Harrison DA, Ravanan R, Sheikh A, Robertson C, Hippisley-Cox J.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature medicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-25", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Emerging reports of rare neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection and vaccinations are leading to regulatory, clinical and public health concerns. We undertook a self-controlled case series study to investigate hospital admissions from neurological complications in the 28\u2009days after a first dose of ChAdOx1nCoV-19 (n\u2009=\u200920,417,752) or BNT162b2 (n\u2009=\u200912,134,782), and after a SARS-CoV-2-positive test (n\u2009=\u20092,005,280). There was an increased risk of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.15-3.92 at 15-21\u2009days after vaccination) and Bell's palsy (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.08-1.56 at 15-21\u2009days) with ChAdOx1nCoV-19. There was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.71 at 15-21\u2009days) with BNT162b2. An independent Scottish cohort provided further support for the association between ChAdOx1nCoV and Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (IRR, 2.32; 95% CI: 1.08-5.02 at 1-28\u2009days). There was a substantially higher risk of all neurological outcomes in the 28\u2009days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test including Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome (IRR, 5.25; 95% CI: 3.00-9.18). Overall, we estimated 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome per 10\u2009million people receiving ChAdOx1nCoV-19 and 145 excess cases per 10\u2009million people after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. In summary, although we find an increased risk of neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines, the risk of these complications is greater following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01556-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01556-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629105?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37181393", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacasi.2022.12.006", @@ -3926,6 +3926,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/39/Supplement_1/i121/50741599/btad240.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btad240; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10311304; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10311304?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35197114", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2", + "title": "Comparison of methods for predicting COVID-19-related death in the general population using the OpenSAFELY platform.", + "authorString": "OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Williamson EJ, Tazare J, Bhaskaran K, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Tomlinson L, Wing K, Bacon S, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Forbes HJ, Minassian C, Morton CE, Nightingale E, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Nicholson BD, Leon DA, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Davies NG, DeVito NJ, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Hulme WJ, Morley J, Douglas I, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Wong A, Schultze A, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Grieve R, Harrison DA, Steyerberg EW, Eggo RM, Diaz-Ordaz K, Keogh R, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Diagnostic and prognostic research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-02-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mortality; Infectious disease; Risk stratification; Statistical methodology; Risk Prediction; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Obtaining accurate estimates of the risk of COVID-19-related death in the general population is challenging in the context of changing levels of circulating infection.

Methods

We propose a modelling approach to predict 28-day COVID-19-related death which explicitly accounts for COVID-19 infection prevalence using a series of sub-studies from new landmark times incorporating time-updating proxy measures of COVID-19 infection prevalence. This was compared with an approach ignoring infection prevalence. The target population was adults registered at a general practice in England in March 2020. The outcome was 28-day COVID-19-related death. Predictors included demographic characteristics and comorbidities. Three proxies of local infection prevalence were used: model-based estimates, rate of COVID-19-related attendances in emergency care, and rate of suspected COVID-19 cases in primary care. We used data within the TPP SystmOne electronic health record system linked to Office for National Statistics mortality data, using the OpenSAFELY platform, working on behalf of NHS England. Prediction models were developed in case-cohort samples with a 100-day follow-up. Validation was undertaken in 28-day cohorts from the target population. We considered predictive performance (discrimination and calibration) in geographical and temporal subsets of data not used in developing the risk prediction models. Simple models were contrasted to models including a full range of predictors.

Results

Prediction models were developed on 11,972,947 individuals, of whom 7999 experienced COVID-19-related death. All models discriminated well between individuals who did and did not experience the outcome, including simple models adjusting only for basic demographics and number of comorbidities: C-statistics 0.92-0.94. However, absolute risk estimates were substantially miscalibrated when infection prevalence was not explicitly modelled.

Conclusions

Our proposed models allow absolute risk estimation in the context of changing infection prevalence but predictive performance is sensitive to the proxy for infection prevalence. Simple models can provide excellent discrimination and may simplify implementation of risk prediction tools.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36526319", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064910", @@ -3960,23 +3977,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/374/bmj.n1931.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1931; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8388189?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35197114", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2", - "title": "Comparison of methods for predicting COVID-19-related death in the general population using the OpenSAFELY platform.", - "authorString": "OpenSAFELY Collaborative, Williamson EJ, Tazare J, Bhaskaran K, McDonald HI, Walker AJ, Tomlinson L, Wing K, Bacon S, Bates C, Curtis HJ, Forbes HJ, Minassian C, Morton CE, Nightingale E, Mehrkar A, Evans D, Nicholson BD, Leon DA, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Davies NG, DeVito NJ, Drysdale H, Cockburn J, Hulme WJ, Morley J, Douglas I, Rentsch CT, Mathur R, Wong A, Schultze A, Croker R, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Grieve R, Harrison DA, Steyerberg EW, Eggo RM, Diaz-Ordaz K, Keogh R, Evans SJW, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Diagnostic and prognostic research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-02-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mortality; Infectious disease; Risk stratification; Statistical methodology; Risk Prediction; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Obtaining accurate estimates of the risk of COVID-19-related death in the general population is challenging in the context of changing levels of circulating infection.

Methods

We propose a modelling approach to predict 28-day COVID-19-related death which explicitly accounts for COVID-19 infection prevalence using a series of sub-studies from new landmark times incorporating time-updating proxy measures of COVID-19 infection prevalence. This was compared with an approach ignoring infection prevalence. The target population was adults registered at a general practice in England in March 2020. The outcome was 28-day COVID-19-related death. Predictors included demographic characteristics and comorbidities. Three proxies of local infection prevalence were used: model-based estimates, rate of COVID-19-related attendances in emergency care, and rate of suspected COVID-19 cases in primary care. We used data within the TPP SystmOne electronic health record system linked to Office for National Statistics mortality data, using the OpenSAFELY platform, working on behalf of NHS England. Prediction models were developed in case-cohort samples with a 100-day follow-up. Validation was undertaken in 28-day cohorts from the target population. We considered predictive performance (discrimination and calibration) in geographical and temporal subsets of data not used in developing the risk prediction models. Simple models were contrasted to models including a full range of predictors.

Results

Prediction models were developed on 11,972,947 individuals, of whom 7999 experienced COVID-19-related death. All models discriminated well between individuals who did and did not experience the outcome, including simple models adjusting only for basic demographics and number of comorbidities: C-statistics 0.92-0.94. However, absolute risk estimates were substantially miscalibrated when infection prevalence was not explicitly modelled.

Conclusions

Our proposed models allow absolute risk estimation in the context of changing infection prevalence but predictive performance is sensitive to the proxy for infection prevalence. Simple models can provide excellent discrimination and may simplify implementation of risk prediction tools.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00120-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8865947?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35473737", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060413", @@ -4028,23 +4028,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00187-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00187-X" }, - { - "id": "37363797", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653", - "title": "Impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care in England: a time-series analyses using OpenSAFELY and effects of predictors including deprivation.", - "authorString": "Zhong X, Pate A, Yang YT, Fahmi A, Ashcroft DM, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Massey J, Fisher L, Inglesby P, OpenSAFELY collaborative, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet regional health. Europe", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Antimicrobial resistance; Primary Care; Broad-spectrum Antibiotics; Covid-19 Pandemic", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the healthcare systems, adding extra pressure to reduce antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate changes in antibiotic prescription patterns after COVID-19 started.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform to access the TPP SystmOne electronic health record (EHR) system in primary care and selected patients prescribed antibiotics from 2019 to 2021. To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing, we evaluated prescribing rates and its predictors and used interrupted time series analysis by fitting binomial logistic regression models.

Findings

Over 32 million antibiotic prescriptions were extracted over the study period; 8.7% were broad-spectrum. The study showed increases in broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing (odds ratio [OR] 1.37; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36-1.38) as an immediate impact of the pandemic, followed by a gradual recovery with a 1.1-1.2% decrease in odds of broad-spectrum prescription per month. The same pattern was found within subgroups defined by age, sex, region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic deprivation quintiles. More deprived patients were more likely to receive broad-spectrum antibiotics, which differences remained stable over time. The most significant increase in broad-spectrum prescribing was observed for lower respiratory tract infection (OR 2.33; 95% CI 2.1-2.50) and otitis media (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.80-2.13).

Interpretation

An immediate reduction in antibiotic prescribing and an increase in the proportion of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing in primary care was observed. The trends recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic on AMR needs further investigation.

Funding

This work was supported by Health Data Research UK and by National Institute for Health Research.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36941845", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2023.100613", @@ -4062,6 +4045,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2023.100613; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2023.100613; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10024232; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10024232?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37363797", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653", + "title": "Impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care in England: a time-series analyses using OpenSAFELY and effects of predictors including deprivation.", + "authorString": "Zhong X, Pate A, Yang YT, Fahmi A, Ashcroft DM, Goldacre B, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Massey J, Fisher L, Inglesby P, OpenSAFELY collaborative, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet regional health. Europe", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Antimicrobial resistance; Primary Care; Broad-spectrum Antibiotics; Covid-19 Pandemic", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the healthcare systems, adding extra pressure to reduce antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate changes in antibiotic prescription patterns after COVID-19 started.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform to access the TPP SystmOne electronic health record (EHR) system in primary care and selected patients prescribed antibiotics from 2019 to 2021. To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing, we evaluated prescribing rates and its predictors and used interrupted time series analysis by fitting binomial logistic regression models.

Findings

Over 32 million antibiotic prescriptions were extracted over the study period; 8.7% were broad-spectrum. The study showed increases in broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing (odds ratio [OR] 1.37; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36-1.38) as an immediate impact of the pandemic, followed by a gradual recovery with a 1.1-1.2% decrease in odds of broad-spectrum prescription per month. The same pattern was found within subgroups defined by age, sex, region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic deprivation quintiles. More deprived patients were more likely to receive broad-spectrum antibiotics, which differences remained stable over time. The most significant increase in broad-spectrum prescribing was observed for lower respiratory tract infection (OR 2.33; 95% CI 2.1-2.50) and otitis media (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.80-2.13).

Interpretation

An immediate reduction in antibiotic prescribing and an increase in the proportion of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing in primary care was observed. The trends recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic on AMR needs further investigation.

Funding

This work was supported by Health Data Research UK and by National Institute for Health Research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100653; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10186397?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33228632", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12920-020-00826-6", @@ -4317,6 +4317,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.05.010; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.05.010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176893; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176893?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35572721", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419", + "title": "Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in double and triple vaccinated adults and single dose vaccine effectiveness among children in Autumn 2021 in England: REACT-1 study.", + "authorString": "Chadeau-Hyam M, Eales O, Bodinier B, Wang H, Haw D, Whitaker M, Elliott J, Walters CE, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "School-aged children; Vaccine Effectiveness; Booster Dose; Children Vaccination; Sars-cov-2 Prevalence", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection with Delta variant was increasing in England in late summer 2021 among children aged 5 to 17 years, and adults who had received two vaccine doses. In September 2021, a third (booster) dose was offered to vaccinated adults aged 50 years and over, vulnerable adults and healthcare/care-home workers, and a single vaccine dose already offered to 16 and 17 year-olds was extended to children aged 12 to 15 years.

Methods

SARS-CoV-2 community prevalence in England was available from self-administered throat and nose swabs using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in round 13 (24 June to 12 July 2021, N = 98,233), round 14 (9 to 27 September 2021, N\u00a0=\u00a0100,527) and round 15 (19 October to 5 November 2021, N\u00a0=\u00a0100,112) from the REACT-1 study randomised community surveys. Linking to National Health Service (NHS) vaccination data for consenting participants, we estimated vaccine effectiveness in children aged 12 to 17 years and compared swab-positivity rates in adults who received a third dose with those who received two doses.

Findings

Weighted SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was 1.57% (1.48%, 1.66%) in round 15 compared with 0.83% (0.76%, 0.89%) in round 14, and the previously observed link between infections and hospitalisations and deaths had weakened. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in children aged 12 to 17 years was estimated (round 15) at 64.0% (50.9%, 70.6%) and 67.7% (53.8%, 77.5%) for symptomatic infections. Adults who received a third vaccine dose were less likely to test positive compared to those who received two doses, with adjusted OR of 0.36 (0.25, 0.53).

Interpretation

Vaccination of children aged 12 to 17 years and third (booster) doses in adults were effective at reducing infection risk. High rates of vaccination, including booster doses, are a key part of the strategy to reduce infection rates in the community.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001493/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31469943", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3255", @@ -4335,21 +4352,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3255; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3255; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7003475?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35572721", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419", - "title": "Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in double and triple vaccinated adults and single dose vaccine effectiveness among children in Autumn 2021 in England: REACT-1 study.", - "authorString": "Chadeau-Hyam M, Eales O, Bodinier B, Wang H, Haw D, Whitaker M, Elliott J, Walters CE, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.", + "id": "32634370", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200121", + "title": "Core regulatory circuitries in defining cancer cell identity across the malignant spectrum.", + "authorString": "Jahangiri L, Tsaprouni L, Trigg RM, Williams JA, Gkoutos GV, Turner SD, Pereira J.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-06", + "journalTitle": "Open biology", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-08", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "School-aged children; Vaccine Effectiveness; Booster Dose; Children Vaccination; Sars-cov-2 Prevalence", + "keywords": "Cell Identity; Super-enhancers; Core Regulatory Circuitry; Liquid And Solid Cancers", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection with Delta variant was increasing in England in late summer 2021 among children aged 5 to 17 years, and adults who had received two vaccine doses. In September 2021, a third (booster) dose was offered to vaccinated adults aged 50 years and over, vulnerable adults and healthcare/care-home workers, and a single vaccine dose already offered to 16 and 17 year-olds was extended to children aged 12 to 15 years.

Methods

SARS-CoV-2 community prevalence in England was available from self-administered throat and nose swabs using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in round 13 (24 June to 12 July 2021, N = 98,233), round 14 (9 to 27 September 2021, N\u00a0=\u00a0100,527) and round 15 (19 October to 5 November 2021, N\u00a0=\u00a0100,112) from the REACT-1 study randomised community surveys. Linking to National Health Service (NHS) vaccination data for consenting participants, we estimated vaccine effectiveness in children aged 12 to 17 years and compared swab-positivity rates in adults who received a third dose with those who received two doses.

Findings

Weighted SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was 1.57% (1.48%, 1.66%) in round 15 compared with 0.83% (0.76%, 0.89%) in round 14, and the previously observed link between infections and hospitalisations and deaths had weakened. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in children aged 12 to 17 years was estimated (round 15) at 64.0% (50.9%, 70.6%) and 67.7% (53.8%, 77.5%) for symptomatic infections. Adults who received a third vaccine dose were less likely to test positive compared to those who received two doses, with adjusted OR of 0.36 (0.25, 0.53).

Interpretation

Vaccination of children aged 12 to 17 years and third (booster) doses in adults were effective at reducing infection risk. High rates of vaccination, including booster doses, are a key part of the strategy to reduce infection rates in the community.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.", + "abstract": "Gene expression programmes driving cell identity are established by tightly regulated transcription factors that auto- and cross-regulate in a feed-forward manner, forming core regulatory circuitries (CRCs). CRC transcription factors create and engage super-enhancers by recruiting acetylation writers depositing permissive H3K27ac chromatin marks. These super-enhancers are largely associated with BET proteins, including BRD4, that influence higher-order chromatin structure. The orchestration of these events triggers accessibility of RNA polymerase machinery and the imposition of lineage-specific gene expression. In cancers, CRCs drive cell identity by superimposing developmental programmes on a background of genetic alterations. Further, the establishment and maintenance of oncogenic states are reliant on CRCs that drive factors involved in tumour development. Hence, the molecular dissection of CRC components driving cell identity and cancer state can contribute to elucidating mechanisms of diversion from pre-determined developmental programmes and highlight cancer dependencies. These insights can provide valuable opportunities for identifying and re-purposing drug targets. In this article, we review the current understanding of CRCs across solid and liquid malignancies and avenues of investigation for drug development efforts. We also review techniques used to understand CRCs and elaborate the indication of discussed CRC transcription factors in the wider context of cancer CRC models.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537022001493/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101419; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9076030?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsob.200121; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574545?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37528841", @@ -4368,23 +4385,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102064; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10388579; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10388579?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32634370", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200121", - "title": "Core regulatory circuitries in defining cancer cell identity across the malignant spectrum.", - "authorString": "Jahangiri L, Tsaprouni L, Trigg RM, Williams JA, Gkoutos GV, Turner SD, Pereira J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Open biology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cell Identity; Super-enhancers; Core Regulatory Circuitry; Liquid And Solid Cancers", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Gene expression programmes driving cell identity are established by tightly regulated transcription factors that auto- and cross-regulate in a feed-forward manner, forming core regulatory circuitries (CRCs). CRC transcription factors create and engage super-enhancers by recruiting acetylation writers depositing permissive H3K27ac chromatin marks. These super-enhancers are largely associated with BET proteins, including BRD4, that influence higher-order chromatin structure. The orchestration of these events triggers accessibility of RNA polymerase machinery and the imposition of lineage-specific gene expression. In cancers, CRCs drive cell identity by superimposing developmental programmes on a background of genetic alterations. Further, the establishment and maintenance of oncogenic states are reliant on CRCs that drive factors involved in tumour development. Hence, the molecular dissection of CRC components driving cell identity and cancer state can contribute to elucidating mechanisms of diversion from pre-determined developmental programmes and highlight cancer dependencies. These insights can provide valuable opportunities for identifying and re-purposing drug targets. In this article, we review the current understanding of CRCs across solid and liquid malignancies and avenues of investigation for drug development efforts. We also review techniques used to understand CRCs and elaborate the indication of discussed CRC transcription factors in the wider context of cancer CRC models.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsob.200121; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574545?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37558806", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40215-4", @@ -4402,23 +4402,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40215-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10412533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10412533?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37171130", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030", - "title": "Strategies and techniques for quality control and semantic enrichment with multimodal data: a case study in colorectal cancer with eHDPrep.", - "authorString": "Toner TM, Pancholi R, Miller P, Forster T, Coleman HG, Overton IM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "GigaScience", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Quality control; Bioinformatics; Data integration; Quality assessment; Colorectal Cancer; Medical Informatics; Ontology; Health Data; Semantic Enrichment", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Integration of data from multiple domains can greatly enhance the quality and applicability of knowledge generated in analysis workflows. However, working with health data is challenging, requiring careful preparation in order to support meaningful interpretation and robust results. Ontologies encapsulate relationships between variables that can enrich the semantic content of health datasets to enhance interpretability and inform downstream analyses.

Findings

We developed an R package for electronic health data preparation, \"eHDPrep,\" demonstrated upon a multimodal colorectal cancer dataset (661 patients, 155 variables; Colo-661); a further demonstrator is taken from The Cancer Genome Atlas (459 patients, 94 variables; TCGA-COAD). eHDPrep offers user-friendly methods for quality control, including internal consistency checking and redundancy removal with information-theoretic variable merging. Semantic enrichment functionality is provided, enabling generation of new informative \"meta-variables\" according to ontological common ancestry between variables, demonstrated with SNOMED CT and the Gene Ontology in the current study. eHDPrep also facilitates numerical encoding, variable extraction from free text, completeness analysis, and user review of modifications to the dataset.

Conclusions

eHDPrep provides effective tools to assess and enhance data quality, laying the foundation for robust performance and interpretability in downstream analyses. Application to multimodal colorectal cancer datasets resulted in improved data quality, structuring, and robust encoding, as well as enhanced semantic information. We make eHDPrep available as an R package from CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/package = eHDPrep) and GitHub (https://github.com/overton-group/eHDPrep).", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/gigascience/giad030/50383140/giad030.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36944118", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-1238", @@ -4436,6 +4419,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-pdf/46/5/967/702262/dc221238.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-1238; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154665; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154665?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37171130", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030", + "title": "Strategies and techniques for quality control and semantic enrichment with multimodal data: a case study in colorectal cancer with eHDPrep.", + "authorString": "Toner TM, Pancholi R, Miller P, Forster T, Coleman HG, Overton IM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "GigaScience", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Quality control; Bioinformatics; Data integration; Quality assessment; Colorectal Cancer; Medical Informatics; Ontology; Health Data; Semantic Enrichment", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Integration of data from multiple domains can greatly enhance the quality and applicability of knowledge generated in analysis workflows. However, working with health data is challenging, requiring careful preparation in order to support meaningful interpretation and robust results. Ontologies encapsulate relationships between variables that can enrich the semantic content of health datasets to enhance interpretability and inform downstream analyses.

Findings

We developed an R package for electronic health data preparation, \"eHDPrep,\" demonstrated upon a multimodal colorectal cancer dataset (661 patients, 155 variables; Colo-661); a further demonstrator is taken from The Cancer Genome Atlas (459 patients, 94 variables; TCGA-COAD). eHDPrep offers user-friendly methods for quality control, including internal consistency checking and redundancy removal with information-theoretic variable merging. Semantic enrichment functionality is provided, enabling generation of new informative \"meta-variables\" according to ontological common ancestry between variables, demonstrated with SNOMED CT and the Gene Ontology in the current study. eHDPrep also facilitates numerical encoding, variable extraction from free text, completeness analysis, and user review of modifications to the dataset.

Conclusions

eHDPrep provides effective tools to assess and enhance data quality, laying the foundation for robust performance and interpretability in downstream analyses. Application to multimodal colorectal cancer datasets resulted in improved data quality, structuring, and robust encoding, as well as enhanced semantic information. We make eHDPrep available as an R package from CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/package = eHDPrep) and GitHub (https://github.com/overton-group/eHDPrep).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/gigascience/giad030/50383140/giad030.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10176503?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37678576", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2023.08.025", @@ -4538,23 +4538,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/4/276/pdf?version=1647939572; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12040276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9031427; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9031427?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36217535", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6", - "title": "Multi-omic phenotyping reveals host-microbe responses to bariatric surgery, glycaemic control and obesity.", - "authorString": "Penney NC, Yeung DKT, Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Kopytek A, Garratt B, Ashrafian H, Frost G, Marchesi JR, Purkayastha S, Hoyles L, Darzi A, Holmes E.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Communications medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Obesity; Type 2 diabetes; Dynamical Systems; Microbiome", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Resolution of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is common following bariatric surgery, particularly Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.

Methods

To address this we compare the integrated serum, urine and faecal metabolic profiles of participants with obesity\u00a0\u00b1 T2D (n\u2009=\u200980, T2D\u2009=\u200942) with participants who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy (pre and 3-months post-surgery; n\u2009=\u200927), taking diet into account. We co-model these data with shotgun metagenomic profiles of the gut microbiota to provide a comprehensive atlas of host-gut microbe responses to bariatric surgery, weight-loss and glycaemic control at the systems level.

Results

Here we show that bariatric surgery reverses several disrupted pathways characteristic of T2D. The differential metabolite set representative of bariatric surgery overlaps with both diabetes (19.3% commonality) and body mass index (18.6% commonality). However, the percentage overlap between diabetes and body mass index is minimal (4.0% commonality), consistent with weight-independent mechanisms of T2D resolution. The gut microbiota is more strongly correlated to body mass index than T2D, although we identify some pathways such as amino acid metabolism that correlate with changes to the gut microbiota and which influence glycaemic control.

Conclusion

We identify multi-omic signatures associated with responses to surgery, body mass index, and glycaemic control. Improved understanding of gut microbiota - host co-metabolism may lead to novel therapies for weight-loss or diabetes. However, further experiments are required to provide mechanistic insight into the role of the gut microbiota in host metabolism and establish proof of causality.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00185-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35336739", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11030365", @@ -4572,6 +4555,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/3/365/pdf?version=1645777713; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11030365; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8944988; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8944988?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36217535", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6", + "title": "Multi-omic phenotyping reveals host-microbe responses to bariatric surgery, glycaemic control and obesity.", + "authorString": "Penney NC, Yeung DKT, Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Kopytek A, Garratt B, Ashrafian H, Frost G, Marchesi JR, Purkayastha S, Hoyles L, Darzi A, Holmes E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Communications medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Obesity; Type 2 diabetes; Dynamical Systems; Microbiome", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Resolution of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is common following bariatric surgery, particularly Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.

Methods

To address this we compare the integrated serum, urine and faecal metabolic profiles of participants with obesity\u00a0\u00b1 T2D (n\u2009=\u200980, T2D\u2009=\u200942) with participants who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy (pre and 3-months post-surgery; n\u2009=\u200927), taking diet into account. We co-model these data with shotgun metagenomic profiles of the gut microbiota to provide a comprehensive atlas of host-gut microbe responses to bariatric surgery, weight-loss and glycaemic control at the systems level.

Results

Here we show that bariatric surgery reverses several disrupted pathways characteristic of T2D. The differential metabolite set representative of bariatric surgery overlaps with both diabetes (19.3% commonality) and body mass index (18.6% commonality). However, the percentage overlap between diabetes and body mass index is minimal (4.0% commonality), consistent with weight-independent mechanisms of T2D resolution. The gut microbiota is more strongly correlated to body mass index than T2D, although we identify some pathways such as amino acid metabolism that correlate with changes to the gut microbiota and which influence glycaemic control.

Conclusion

We identify multi-omic signatures associated with responses to surgery, body mass index, and glycaemic control. Improved understanding of gut microbiota - host co-metabolism may lead to novel therapies for weight-loss or diabetes. However, further experiments are required to provide mechanistic insight into the role of the gut microbiota in host metabolism and establish proof of causality.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00185-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00185-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9546886?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37415095", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16202-9", @@ -4674,23 +4674,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3267; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9286682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9286682?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35909058", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6", - "title": "Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care (RECAP) risk prediction tool: derivation and real-world validation studies.", - "authorString": "Espinosa-Gonzalez A, Prociuk D, Fiorentino F, Ramtale C, Mi E, Mi E, Glampson B, Neves AL, Okusi C, Husain L, Macartney J, Brown M, Browne B, Warren C, Chowla R, Heaversedge J, Greenhalgh T, de Lusignan S, Mayer E, Delaney BC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Accurate assessment of COVID-19 severity in the community is essential for patient care and requires COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores adequately validated in a community setting. Following a qualitative phase to identify signs, symptoms, and risk factors, we aimed to develop and validate two COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores. Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care-General Practice score (RECAP-GP; without peripheral oxygen saturation [SpO2]) and RECAP-oxygen saturation score (RECAP-O2; with SpO2).

Methods

RECAP was a prospective cohort study that used multivariable logistic regression. Data on signs and symptoms (predictors) of disease were collected from community-based patients with suspected COVID-19 via primary care electronic health records and linked with secondary data on hospital admission (outcome) within 28 days of symptom onset. Data sources for RECAP-GP were Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (RCGP-RSC) primary care practices (development set), northwest London primary care practices (validation set), and the NHS COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS; validation set). The data source for RECAP-O2 was the Doctaly Assist platform (development set and validation set in subsequent sample). The two probabilistic risk prediction models were built by backwards elimination using the development sets and validated by application to the validation datasets. Estimated sample size per model, including the development and validation sets was 2880 people.

Findings

Data were available from 8311 individuals. Observations, such as SpO2, were mostly missing in the northwest London, RCGP-RSC, and CCAS data; however, SpO2 was available for 1364 (70\u00b70%) of 1948 patients who used Doctaly. In the final predictive models, RECAP-GP (n=1863) included sex (male and female), age (years), degree of breathlessness (three point scale), temperature symptoms (two point scale), and presence of hypertension (yes or no); the area under the curve was 0\u00b780 (95% CI 0\u00b776-0\u00b785) and on validation the negative predictive value of a low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98\u00b71-99\u00b72; 1435 of 1453). RECAP-O2 included age (years), degree of breathlessness (two point scale), fatigue (two point scale), and SpO2 at rest (as a percentage); the area under the curve was 0\u00b784 (0\u00b778-0\u00b790) and on validation the negative predictive value of low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98\u00b79-99\u00b77; 1176 of 1183).

Interpretation

Both RECAP models are valid tools to assess COVID-19 patients in the community. RECAP-GP can be used initially, without need for observations, to identify patients who require monitoring. If the patient is monitored and SpO2 is available, RECAP-O2 is useful to assess the need for treatment escalation.

Funding

Community Jameel and the Imperial College President's Excellence Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, and Health Data Research UK.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00123-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37536152", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.07.016", @@ -4708,6 +4691,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2023.07.016" }, + { + "id": "35909058", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6", + "title": "Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care (RECAP) risk prediction tool: derivation and real-world validation studies.", + "authorString": "Espinosa-Gonzalez A, Prociuk D, Fiorentino F, Ramtale C, Mi E, Mi E, Glampson B, Neves AL, Okusi C, Husain L, Macartney J, Brown M, Browne B, Warren C, Chowla R, Heaversedge J, Greenhalgh T, de Lusignan S, Mayer E, Delaney BC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Accurate assessment of COVID-19 severity in the community is essential for patient care and requires COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores adequately validated in a community setting. Following a qualitative phase to identify signs, symptoms, and risk factors, we aimed to develop and validate two COVID-19-specific risk prediction scores. Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care-General Practice score (RECAP-GP; without peripheral oxygen saturation [SpO2]) and RECAP-oxygen saturation score (RECAP-O2; with SpO2).

Methods

RECAP was a prospective cohort study that used multivariable logistic regression. Data on signs and symptoms (predictors) of disease were collected from community-based patients with suspected COVID-19 via primary care electronic health records and linked with secondary data on hospital admission (outcome) within 28 days of symptom onset. Data sources for RECAP-GP were Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (RCGP-RSC) primary care practices (development set), northwest London primary care practices (validation set), and the NHS COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS; validation set). The data source for RECAP-O2 was the Doctaly Assist platform (development set and validation set in subsequent sample). The two probabilistic risk prediction models were built by backwards elimination using the development sets and validated by application to the validation datasets. Estimated sample size per model, including the development and validation sets was 2880 people.

Findings

Data were available from 8311 individuals. Observations, such as SpO2, were mostly missing in the northwest London, RCGP-RSC, and CCAS data; however, SpO2 was available for 1364 (70\u00b70%) of 1948 patients who used Doctaly. In the final predictive models, RECAP-GP (n=1863) included sex (male and female), age (years), degree of breathlessness (three point scale), temperature symptoms (two point scale), and presence of hypertension (yes or no); the area under the curve was 0\u00b780 (95% CI 0\u00b776-0\u00b785) and on validation the negative predictive value of a low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98\u00b71-99\u00b72; 1435 of 1453). RECAP-O2 included age (years), degree of breathlessness (two point scale), fatigue (two point scale), and SpO2 at rest (as a percentage); the area under the curve was 0\u00b784 (0\u00b778-0\u00b790) and on validation the negative predictive value of low risk designation was 99% (95% CI 98\u00b79-99\u00b77; 1176 of 1183).

Interpretation

Both RECAP models are valid tools to assess COVID-19 patients in the community. RECAP-GP can be used initially, without need for observations, to identify patients who require monitoring. If the patient is monitored and SpO2 is available, RECAP-O2 is useful to assess the need for treatment escalation.

Funding

Community Jameel and the Imperial College President's Excellence Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, and Health Data Research UK.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00123-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00123-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333950?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32851419", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02372-4", @@ -4777,21 +4777,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12967-019-1912-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-019-1912-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6518609; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6518609?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37340474", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9", - "title": "Antidepressant drug prescription and incidence of COVID-19 in mental health outpatients: a retrospective cohort study.", - "authorString": "Glebov OO, Mueller C, Stewart R, Aarsland D, Perera G.", + "id": "35050151", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12010029", + "title": "Integration of Metabolomic and Clinical Data Improves the Prediction of Intensive Care Unit Length of Stay Following Major Traumatic Injury. ", + "authorString": "Acharjee A, Hazeldine J, Bazarova A, Deenadayalu L, Zhang J, Bentley C, Russ D, Lord JM, Gkoutos GV, Young SP, Foster MA.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-21", + "journalTitle": "Metabolites", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-31", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Antidepressants; Ssri; respiratory infection; Drug Repurposing; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Currently, the main pharmaceutical intervention for COVID-19 is vaccination. While antidepressant (AD) drugs have shown some efficacy in treatment of symptomatic COVID-19, their preventative potential remains largely unexplored. Analysis of association between prescription of ADs and COVID-19 incidence in the population would be beneficial for assessing the utility of ADs in COVID-19 prevention.

Methods

Retrospective study of association between AD prescription and COVID-19 diagnosis was performed in a cohort of community-dwelling adult mental health outpatients during the 1st wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Clinical record interactive search (CRIS) was performed for mentions of ADs within 3\u00a0months preceding admission to inpatient care of the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. Incidence of positive COVID-19 tests upon admission and during inpatient treatment was the primary outcome measure.

Results

AD mention was associated with approximately 40% lower incidence of positive COVID-19 test results when adjusted for socioeconomic parameters and physical health. This association was also observed for prescription of ADs of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class.

Conclusions

This preliminary study suggests that ADs, and SSRIs in particular, may be of benefit for preventing COVID-19 infection spread in the community. The key limitations of the study are its retrospective nature and the focus on a mental health patient cohort. A more definitive assessment of AD and SSRI preventative potential warrants prospective studies in the wider demographic.", + "abstract": "Recent advances in emergency medicine and the co-ordinated delivery of trauma care mean more critically-injured patients now reach the hospital alive and survive life-saving operations. Indeed, between 2008 and 2017, the odds of surviving a major traumatic injury in the UK increased by nineteen percent. However, the improved survival rates of severely-injured patients have placed an increased burden on the healthcare system, with major trauma a common cause of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions that last \u226510 days. Improved understanding of the factors influencing patient outcomes is now urgently needed. We investigated the serum metabolomic profile of fifty-five major trauma patients across three post-injury phases: acute (days 0-4), intermediate (days 5-14) and late (days 15-112). Using ICU length of stay (LOS) as a clinical outcome, we aimed to determine whether the serum metabolome measured at days 0-4 post-injury for patients with an extended (\u226510 days) ICU LOS differed from that of patients with a short (<10 days) ICU LOS. In addition, we investigated whether combining metabolomic profiles with clinical scoring systems would generate a variable that would identify patients with an extended ICU LOS with a greater degree of accuracy than models built on either variable alone. The number of metabolites unique to and shared across each time segment varied across acute, intermediate and late segments. A one-way ANOVA revealed the most variation in metabolite levels across the different time-points was for the metabolites lactate, glucose, anserine and 3-hydroxybutyrate. A total of eleven features were selected to differentiate between <10 days ICU LOS vs. >10 days ICU LOS. New Injury Severity Score (NISS), testosterone, and the metabolites cadaverine, urea, isoleucine, acetoacetate, dimethyl sulfone, syringate, creatinine, xylitol, and acetone form the integrated biomarker set. Using metabolic enrichment analysis, we found valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism, and glycine, serine and threonine metabolism were the top three pathways differentiating ICU LOS with a p < 0.05. A combined model of NISS and testosterone and all nine selected metabolites achieved an AUROC of 0.824. Differences exist in the serum metabolome of major trauma patients who subsequently experience a short or prolonged ICU LOS in the acute post-injury setting. Combining metabolomic data with anatomical scoring systems allowed us to discriminate between these two groups with a greater degree of accuracy than that of either variable alone.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/1/29/pdf?version=1642410547; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12010029; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8780653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8780653?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35793922", @@ -4811,21 +4811,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/7/e059385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9260199?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35050151", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12010029", - "title": "Integration of Metabolomic and Clinical Data Improves the Prediction of Intensive Care Unit Length of Stay Following Major Traumatic Injury. ", - "authorString": "Acharjee A, Hazeldine J, Bazarova A, Deenadayalu L, Zhang J, Bentley C, Russ D, Lord JM, Gkoutos GV, Young SP, Foster MA.", + "id": "37340474", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9", + "title": "Antidepressant drug prescription and incidence of COVID-19 in mental health outpatients: a retrospective cohort study.", + "authorString": "Glebov OO, Mueller C, Stewart R, Aarsland D, Perera G.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Metabolites", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-31", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Antidepressants; Ssri; respiratory infection; Drug Repurposing; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Recent advances in emergency medicine and the co-ordinated delivery of trauma care mean more critically-injured patients now reach the hospital alive and survive life-saving operations. Indeed, between 2008 and 2017, the odds of surviving a major traumatic injury in the UK increased by nineteen percent. However, the improved survival rates of severely-injured patients have placed an increased burden on the healthcare system, with major trauma a common cause of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions that last \u226510 days. Improved understanding of the factors influencing patient outcomes is now urgently needed. We investigated the serum metabolomic profile of fifty-five major trauma patients across three post-injury phases: acute (days 0-4), intermediate (days 5-14) and late (days 15-112). Using ICU length of stay (LOS) as a clinical outcome, we aimed to determine whether the serum metabolome measured at days 0-4 post-injury for patients with an extended (\u226510 days) ICU LOS differed from that of patients with a short (<10 days) ICU LOS. In addition, we investigated whether combining metabolomic profiles with clinical scoring systems would generate a variable that would identify patients with an extended ICU LOS with a greater degree of accuracy than models built on either variable alone. The number of metabolites unique to and shared across each time segment varied across acute, intermediate and late segments. A one-way ANOVA revealed the most variation in metabolite levels across the different time-points was for the metabolites lactate, glucose, anserine and 3-hydroxybutyrate. A total of eleven features were selected to differentiate between <10 days ICU LOS vs. >10 days ICU LOS. New Injury Severity Score (NISS), testosterone, and the metabolites cadaverine, urea, isoleucine, acetoacetate, dimethyl sulfone, syringate, creatinine, xylitol, and acetone form the integrated biomarker set. Using metabolic enrichment analysis, we found valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism, and glycine, serine and threonine metabolism were the top three pathways differentiating ICU LOS with a p < 0.05. A combined model of NISS and testosterone and all nine selected metabolites achieved an AUROC of 0.824. Differences exist in the serum metabolome of major trauma patients who subsequently experience a short or prolonged ICU LOS in the acute post-injury setting. Combining metabolomic data with anatomical scoring systems allowed us to discriminate between these two groups with a greater degree of accuracy than that of either variable alone.", + "abstract": "

Background

Currently, the main pharmaceutical intervention for COVID-19 is vaccination. While antidepressant (AD) drugs have shown some efficacy in treatment of symptomatic COVID-19, their preventative potential remains largely unexplored. Analysis of association between prescription of ADs and COVID-19 incidence in the population would be beneficial for assessing the utility of ADs in COVID-19 prevention.

Methods

Retrospective study of association between AD prescription and COVID-19 diagnosis was performed in a cohort of community-dwelling adult mental health outpatients during the 1st wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Clinical record interactive search (CRIS) was performed for mentions of ADs within 3\u00a0months preceding admission to inpatient care of the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. Incidence of positive COVID-19 tests upon admission and during inpatient treatment was the primary outcome measure.

Results

AD mention was associated with approximately 40% lower incidence of positive COVID-19 test results when adjusted for socioeconomic parameters and physical health. This association was also observed for prescription of ADs of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class.

Conclusions

This preliminary study suggests that ADs, and SSRIs in particular, may be of benefit for preventing COVID-19 infection spread in the community. The key limitations of the study are its retrospective nature and the focus on a mental health patient cohort. A more definitive assessment of AD and SSRI preventative potential warrants prospective studies in the wider demographic.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/1/29/pdf?version=1642410547; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12010029; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8780653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8780653?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02877-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283271?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35595824", @@ -4844,23 +4844,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12517-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12517-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121858; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121858?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33745917", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011", - "title": "The dynamics of procalcitonin in COVID-19 patients admitted to Intensive care unit - a multi-centre cohort study in the South West of England, UK.", - "authorString": "Williams P, McWilliams C, Soomro K, Harding I, Gurney S, Thomas M, Albur M, Martin Williams O.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of infection", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7970419; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36857859", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104489", @@ -4878,6 +4861,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104489; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104489; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9989643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9989643?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33745917", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011", + "title": "The dynamics of procalcitonin in COVID-19 patients admitted to Intensive care unit - a multi-centre cohort study in the South West of England, UK.", + "authorString": "Williams P, McWilliams C, Soomro K, Harding I, Gurney S, Thomas M, Albur M, Martin Williams O.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of infection", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7970419; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7970419?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37200350", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285979", @@ -4963,23 +4963,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-023-02784-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02784-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991879; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991879?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35567479", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283", - "title": "Shielding reduced incidence of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory arthritis but vulnerability is associated with increased mortality.", - "authorString": "Cooksey R, Underwood J, Brophy S, Atkinson M, Kennedy J, Choy E.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Rheumatology (Oxford, England)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "RA; As; PSA; Electronic Health Records; Inflammatory Arthritis; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Investigate whether individuals with inflammatory arthritis (IA), their treatments and shielding status affect the risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19 for the entire population of Wales, UK.

Methods

Retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked, anonymized electronic health data from SAIL Databank, including primary/secondary care, rheumatology, Office for National Statistics Mortality and COVID-19 laboratory data. Individuals aged 18\u2009years and over testing positive for COVID-19 between March 2020 and May 2021 with READ Codes present for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis formed the study cases.

Results

A total of 1966 people with IA and 166\u2009602 without tested positive for COVID-19. The incidence rate was 3.5% (1966/56\u2009914) in IA, vs 6% in the general population (166\u2009602/2\u2009760\u2009442), (difference: 2.5%, 95% CI: 2.4%, 2.7%, P\u00a0\u22640.001). In an adjusted Cox proportional hazard model, IA was not associated with higher mortality (HR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.64, P=0.286). Significant risk factors included shielding (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.40, 1.64, P\u00a0\u22640.001), hospitalization for previous infections (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.28, P\u00a0\u22640.001), hospitalizations one year pre-pandemic (HR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.44, P\u00a0\u22640.001) and glucocorticoid use (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.25, P\u00a0\u22640.001).

Conclusions

Individuals with IA had a lower incidence of COVID-19, probably due to shielding. IA was not associated with increased mortality following COVID-19 infection; being vulnerable (shielded), comorbidities and other factors were associated with increased risk. These key risk factors can identify individuals with IA at greater risk from COVID-19 and advised to shield during high community prevalence.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62372/Download/62372__26337__5539f4f995224d80a2156218d11a03cb.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35413949", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29521-z", @@ -4998,21 +4981,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29521-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29521-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9005552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9005552?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35189888", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4", - "title": "Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK).", - "authorString": "Talaei M, Faustini S, Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Perdek N, Maltby S, Bigogno CM, Symons J, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.", + "id": "35567479", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283", + "title": "Shielding reduced incidence of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory arthritis but vulnerability is associated with increased mortality.", + "authorString": "Cooksey R, Underwood J, Brophy S, Atkinson M, Kennedy J, Choy E.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "journalTitle": "Rheumatology (Oxford, England)", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-02-22", + "date": "2022-06-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Obesity; Diet; Serology; Alcohol; Exercise; Micronutrients; Lifestyle; Ethnicity; Occupation; Sars-cov-2", + "keywords": "RA; As; PSA; Electronic Health Records; Inflammatory Arthritis; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.

Methods

We did a prospective population-based study in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-naive UK adults recruited between May 1 and November 2, 2020, without a positive swab test result for SARS-CoV-2 prior to enrolment. Information on 88 potential sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological risk factors was obtained through online questionnaires, and combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein were determined in dried blood spots obtained between November 6, 2020, and April 18, 2021. We used logistic and linear regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and adjusted geometric mean ratios (aGMRs) for potential determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity (all participants) and antibody titres (seropositive participants only), respectively.

Results

Of\u00a011,130 participants,\u00a01696 (15.2%) were seropositive. Factors independently associated with \u00a0higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity included frontline health/care occupation (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.48-2.33), international travel (1.20, 1.07-1.35), number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (\u2265\u20095 vs. 0/week: 1.29, 1.06-1.57, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.01), body mass index (BMI) \u2265\u200925 vs.\u2009<\u200925\u2009kg/m2 (1.24, 1.11-1.39), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.65, 1.10-2.49) and alcohol consumption \u226515 vs. 0\u2009units/week (1.23, 1.04-1.46). Light physical exercise associated with \u00a0lower risk (0.80, 0.70-0.93, for \u2265\u200910 vs. 0-4\u2009h/week). Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies associated with factors including BMI \u2265\u200930 vs.\u2009<\u200925\u2009kg/m2 (aGMR 1.10, 1.02-1.19), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.22, 1.04-1.44), frontline health/care occupation (1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.39), international travel (1.11, 1.05-1.16) and number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (\u2265\u20095 vs. 0/week: 1.12, 1.02-1.23, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.01); these associations were not substantially attenuated by adjustment for COVID-19 disease severity.

Conclusions

Higher alcohol consumption and lower light physical exercise represent new modifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recognised associations between South Asian ethnic origin and obesity and higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity were independent of other sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical, and pharmacological factors investigated. Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies in people of South Asian ancestry and in obese people were not explained by greater COVID-19 disease severity in these groups.", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Investigate whether individuals with inflammatory arthritis (IA), their treatments and shielding status affect the risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19 for the entire population of Wales, UK.

Methods

Retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked, anonymized electronic health data from SAIL Databank, including primary/secondary care, rheumatology, Office for National Statistics Mortality and COVID-19 laboratory data. Individuals aged 18\u2009years and over testing positive for COVID-19 between March 2020 and May 2021 with READ Codes present for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis formed the study cases.

Results

A total of 1966 people with IA and 166\u2009602 without tested positive for COVID-19. The incidence rate was 3.5% (1966/56\u2009914) in IA, vs 6% in the general population (166\u2009602/2\u2009760\u2009442), (difference: 2.5%, 95% CI: 2.4%, 2.7%, P\u00a0\u22640.001). In an adjusted Cox proportional hazard model, IA was not associated with higher mortality (HR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.64, P=0.286). Significant risk factors included shielding (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.40, 1.64, P\u00a0\u22640.001), hospitalization for previous infections (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.28, P\u00a0\u22640.001), hospitalizations one year pre-pandemic (HR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.44, P\u00a0\u22640.001) and glucocorticoid use (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.25, P\u00a0\u22640.001).

Conclusions

Individuals with IA had a lower incidence of COVID-19, probably due to shielding. IA was not associated with increased mortality following COVID-19 infection; being vulnerable (shielded), comorbidities and other factors were associated with increased risk. These key risk factors can identify individuals with IA at greater risk from COVID-19 and advised to shield during high community prevalence.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62372/Download/62372__26337__5539f4f995224d80a2156218d11a03cb.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keac283; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9248059?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33517931", @@ -5031,6 +5014,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DAB4F3EAD33B9437269C92D7A0A5DDC4/S0924933821000067a.pdf/div-class-title-the-association-between-c-reactive-protein-mood-disorder-and-cognitive-function-in-uk-biobank-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057439; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8057439?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35189888", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4", + "title": "Determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK).", + "authorString": "Talaei M, Faustini S, Holt H, Jolliffe DA, Vivaldi G, Greenig M, Perdek N, Maltby S, Bigogno CM, Symons J, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Richter AG, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-02-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Obesity; Diet; Serology; Alcohol; Exercise; Micronutrients; Lifestyle; Ethnicity; Occupation; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Prospective population-based studies investigating multiple determinants of pre-vaccination antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are lacking.

Methods

We did a prospective population-based study in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-naive UK adults recruited between May 1 and November 2, 2020, without a positive swab test result for SARS-CoV-2 prior to enrolment. Information on 88 potential sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical and pharmacological risk factors was obtained through online questionnaires, and combined IgG/IgA/IgM responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein were determined in dried blood spots obtained between November 6, 2020, and April 18, 2021. We used logistic and linear regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and adjusted geometric mean ratios (aGMRs) for potential determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity (all participants) and antibody titres (seropositive participants only), respectively.

Results

Of\u00a011,130 participants,\u00a01696 (15.2%) were seropositive. Factors independently associated with \u00a0higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity included frontline health/care occupation (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.48-2.33), international travel (1.20, 1.07-1.35), number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (\u2265\u20095 vs. 0/week: 1.29, 1.06-1.57, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.01), body mass index (BMI) \u2265\u200925 vs.\u2009<\u200925\u2009kg/m2 (1.24, 1.11-1.39), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.65, 1.10-2.49) and alcohol consumption \u226515 vs. 0\u2009units/week (1.23, 1.04-1.46). Light physical exercise associated with \u00a0lower risk (0.80, 0.70-0.93, for \u2265\u200910 vs. 0-4\u2009h/week). Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies associated with factors including BMI \u2265\u200930 vs.\u2009<\u200925\u2009kg/m2 (aGMR 1.10, 1.02-1.19), South Asian vs. White ethnicity (1.22, 1.04-1.44), frontline health/care occupation (1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.39), international travel (1.11, 1.05-1.16) and number of visits to shops and other indoor public places (\u2265\u20095 vs. 0/week: 1.12, 1.02-1.23, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.01); these associations were not substantially attenuated by adjustment for COVID-19 disease severity.

Conclusions

Higher alcohol consumption and lower light physical exercise represent new modifiable risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recognised associations between South Asian ethnic origin and obesity and higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity were independent of other sociodemographic, behavioural, nutritional, clinical, and pharmacological factors investigated. Among seropositive participants, higher titres of anti-Spike antibodies in people of South Asian ancestry and in obese people were not explained by greater COVID-19 disease severity in these groups.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02286-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860623?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37006328", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065", @@ -5049,21 +5049,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065/49588224/fcad065.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad065; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053639?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36333839", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834", - "title": "The impact of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown on presentations with psychosis to mental health services for older adults: An electronic health records study in South London.", - "authorString": "Simkin L, Yung P, Greig F, Perera G, Tsamakis K, Rizos E, Stewart R, Velayudhan L, Mueller C.", + "id": "32565483", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039097", + "title": "Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.", + "authorString": "Simpson CR, Robertson C, Vasileiou E, McMenamin J, Gunson R, Ritchie LD, Woolhouse M, Morrice L, Kelly D, Stagg HR, Marques D, Murray J, Sheikh A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of geriatric psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-24", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Dementia; Hallucinations; Delusions; Psychosis; Older Adults; Lockdown; Covid-19; Non-white Ethnicity", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Public Health; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine)", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Social distancing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic may have had adverse effects on older adults' mental health. Whereby the impact on mood is well-described, less is known about psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare characteristics associated with psychotic symptoms during the first UK lockdown and a pre-pandemic comparison period.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study we analysed anonymised records from patients referred to mental health services for older adults in South London in the 16-week period of the UK lockdown starting in March 2020, and in the comparable pre-pandemic period in 2019. We used logistic regression models to compare the associations of different patient characteristics with increased odds of presenting with any psychotic symptom (defined as hallucinations and/or delusion), hallucinations, or delusions, during lockdown and the corresponding pre-pandemic period.

Results

1991 referrals were identified. There were fewer referrals during lockdown but a higher proportion of presentations with any psychotic symptom (48.7% vs. 42.8%, p\u00a0=\u00a00.018), particularly hallucinations (41.0% vs. 27.8%, p\u00a0<\u00a00.001). Patients of non-White ethnicity (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-2.99) and patients with dementia (adjusted OR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.91-4.99) were more likely to be referred with psychotic symptoms during lockdown. While a weaker association between dementia and psychotic symptoms was found in the pre-COVID period (adjusted OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.19-2.03), interaction terms indicated higher odds of patients of non-White ethnicity or dementia to present with psychosis during the lockdown period.

Conclusions

During lockdown, referrals to mental health services for adults decreased, but contained a higher proportion with psychotic symptoms. The stronger association with psychotic symptoms in non-White ethnic groups and patients with dementia during lockdown suggests that barriers in accessing care might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Following the emergence of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic, population-level surveillance and rapid assessment of the effectiveness of existing or new therapeutic or preventive interventions are required to ensure that interventions are targeted to those at highest risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19. We aim to repurpose and expand an existing pandemic reporting platform to determine the attack rate of SARS-CoV-2, the uptake and effectiveness of any new pandemic vaccine (once available) and any protective effect conferred by existing or new antimicrobial drugs and other therapies.

Methods and analysis

A prospective observational cohort will be used to monitor daily/weekly the progress of the COVID-19 epidemic and to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions in approximately 5.4\u2009million individuals registered in general practices across Scotland. A national linked dataset of patient-level primary care data, out-of-hours, hospitalisation, mortality and laboratory data will be assembled. The primary outcomes will measure association between: (A) laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, morbidity and mortality, and demographic, socioeconomic and clinical population characteristics; and (B) healthcare burden of COVID-19 and demographic, socioeconomic and clinical population characteristics. The secondary outcomes will estimate: (A) the uptake (for vaccines only); (B) effectiveness; and (C) safety of new or existing therapies, vaccines and antimicrobials against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The association between population characteristics and primary outcomes will be assessed via multivariate logistic regression models. The effectiveness of therapies, vaccines and antimicrobials will be assessed from time-dependent Cox models or Poisson regression models. Self-controlled study designs will be explored to estimate the risk of therapeutic and prophylactic-related adverse events.

Ethics and dissemination

We obtained approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee, Southeast Scotland 02. The study findings will be presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/6/e039097.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039097; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7311023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7311023?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32405103", @@ -5083,21 +5083,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30854-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30854-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7217641" }, { - "id": "32565483", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039097", - "title": "Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.", - "authorString": "Simpson CR, Robertson C, Vasileiou E, McMenamin J, Gunson R, Ritchie LD, Woolhouse M, Morrice L, Kelly D, Stagg HR, Marques D, Murray J, Sheikh A.", + "id": "36333839", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834", + "title": "The impact of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown on presentations with psychosis to mental health services for older adults: An electronic health records study in South London.", + "authorString": "Simkin L, Yung P, Greig F, Perera G, Tsamakis K, Rizos E, Stewart R, Velayudhan L, Mueller C.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "journalTitle": "International journal of geriatric psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Dementia; Hallucinations; Delusions; Psychosis; Older Adults; Lockdown; Covid-19; Non-white Ethnicity", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Social distancing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic may have had adverse effects on older adults' mental health. Whereby the impact on mood is well-described, less is known about psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare characteristics associated with psychotic symptoms during the first UK lockdown and a pre-pandemic comparison period.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study we analysed anonymised records from patients referred to mental health services for older adults in South London in the 16-week period of the UK lockdown starting in March 2020, and in the comparable pre-pandemic period in 2019. We used logistic regression models to compare the associations of different patient characteristics with increased odds of presenting with any psychotic symptom (defined as hallucinations and/or delusion), hallucinations, or delusions, during lockdown and the corresponding pre-pandemic period.

Results

1991 referrals were identified. There were fewer referrals during lockdown but a higher proportion of presentations with any psychotic symptom (48.7% vs. 42.8%, p\u00a0=\u00a00.018), particularly hallucinations (41.0% vs. 27.8%, p\u00a0<\u00a00.001). Patients of non-White ethnicity (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-2.99) and patients with dementia (adjusted OR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.91-4.99) were more likely to be referred with psychotic symptoms during lockdown. While a weaker association between dementia and psychotic symptoms was found in the pre-COVID period (adjusted OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.19-2.03), interaction terms indicated higher odds of patients of non-White ethnicity or dementia to present with psychosis during the lockdown period.

Conclusions

During lockdown, referrals to mental health services for adults decreased, but contained a higher proportion with psychotic symptoms. The stronger association with psychotic symptoms in non-White ethnic groups and patients with dementia during lockdown suggests that barriers in accessing care might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/gps.5834; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9828419?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "32990744", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095", + "title": "An extensible big data software architecture managing a research resource of real-world clinical radiology data linked to other health data from the whole Scottish population.", + "authorString": "Nind T, Sutherland J, McAllister G, Hardy D, Hume A, MacLeod R, Caldwell J, Krueger S, Tramma L, Teviotdale R, Abdelatif M, Gillen K, Ward J, Scobbie D, Baillie I, Brooks A, Prodan B, Kerr W, Sloan-Murphy D, Herrera JFR, McManus D, Morris C, Sinclair C, Baxter R, Parsons M, Morris A, Jefferson E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "GigaScience", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-21", + "date": "2020-09-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Public Health; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine)", + "keywords": "ML; AI; Radiology; Big Data", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Following the emergence of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic, population-level surveillance and rapid assessment of the effectiveness of existing or new therapeutic or preventive interventions are required to ensure that interventions are targeted to those at highest risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19. We aim to repurpose and expand an existing pandemic reporting platform to determine the attack rate of SARS-CoV-2, the uptake and effectiveness of any new pandemic vaccine (once available) and any protective effect conferred by existing or new antimicrobial drugs and other therapies.

Methods and analysis

A prospective observational cohort will be used to monitor daily/weekly the progress of the COVID-19 epidemic and to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions in approximately 5.4\u2009million individuals registered in general practices across Scotland. A national linked dataset of patient-level primary care data, out-of-hours, hospitalisation, mortality and laboratory data will be assembled. The primary outcomes will measure association between: (A) laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, morbidity and mortality, and demographic, socioeconomic and clinical population characteristics; and (B) healthcare burden of COVID-19 and demographic, socioeconomic and clinical population characteristics. The secondary outcomes will estimate: (A) the uptake (for vaccines only); (B) effectiveness; and (C) safety of new or existing therapies, vaccines and antimicrobials against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The association between population characteristics and primary outcomes will be assessed via multivariate logistic regression models. The effectiveness of therapies, vaccines and antimicrobials will be assessed from time-dependent Cox models or Poisson regression models. Self-controlled study designs will be explored to estimate the risk of therapeutic and prophylactic-related adverse events.

Ethics and dissemination

We obtained approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee, Southeast Scotland 02. The study findings will be presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.", + "abstract": "

Aim

To enable a world-leading research dataset of routinely collected clinical images linked to other routinely collected data from the whole Scottish national population. This includes more than 30 million different radiological examinations from a population of 5.4 million and >2 PB of data collected since 2010.

Methods

Scotland has a central archive of radiological data used to directly provide clinical care to patients. We have developed an architecture and platform to securely extract a copy of those data, link it to other clinical or social datasets, remove personal data to protect privacy, and make the resulting data available to researchers in a controlled Safe Haven environment.

Results

An extensive software platform has been developed to host, extract, and link data from cohorts to answer research questions. The platform has been tested on 5 different test cases and is currently being further enhanced to support 3 exemplar research projects.

Conclusions

The data available are from a range of radiological modalities and scanner types and were collected under different environmental conditions. These real-world, heterogenous data are valuable for training algorithms to support clinical decision making, especially for deep learning where large data volumes are required. The resource is now available for international research access. The platform and data can support new health research using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, as well as enabling discovery science.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/6/e039097.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039097; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7311023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7311023?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/9/10/giaa095/33802377/giaa095.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34750106", @@ -5134,21 +5151,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02921-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02921-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280894; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280894?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32990744", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095", - "title": "An extensible big data software architecture managing a research resource of real-world clinical radiology data linked to other health data from the whole Scottish population.", - "authorString": "Nind T, Sutherland J, McAllister G, Hardy D, Hume A, MacLeod R, Caldwell J, Krueger S, Tramma L, Teviotdale R, Abdelatif M, Gillen K, Ward J, Scobbie D, Baillie I, Brooks A, Prodan B, Kerr W, Sloan-Murphy D, Herrera JFR, McManus D, Morris C, Sinclair C, Baxter R, Parsons M, Morris A, Jefferson E.", + "id": "36987388", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885", + "title": "Characterizing the Differences in Descriptions of Violence on Reddit During the COVID-19 Pandemic.", + "authorString": "Li L, Neubauer L, Stewart R, Roberts A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "GigaScience", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-09-01", + "journalTitle": "Journal of interpersonal violence", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-28", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "ML; AI; Radiology; Big Data", + "keywords": "Increase rate; Data Classification; Reddit; Violence Types", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aim

To enable a world-leading research dataset of routinely collected clinical images linked to other routinely collected data from the whole Scottish national population. This includes more than 30 million different radiological examinations from a population of 5.4 million and >2 PB of data collected since 2010.

Methods

Scotland has a central archive of radiological data used to directly provide clinical care to patients. We have developed an architecture and platform to securely extract a copy of those data, link it to other clinical or social datasets, remove personal data to protect privacy, and make the resulting data available to researchers in a controlled Safe Haven environment.

Results

An extensive software platform has been developed to host, extract, and link data from cohorts to answer research questions. The platform has been tested on 5 different test cases and is currently being further enhanced to support 3 exemplar research projects.

Conclusions

The data available are from a range of radiological modalities and scanner types and were collected under different environmental conditions. These real-world, heterogenous data are valuable for training algorithms to support clinical decision making, especially for deep learning where large data volumes are required. The resource is now available for international research access. The platform and data can support new health research using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, as well as enabling discovery science.", + "abstract": "Concerns have been raised over the experiences of violence such as domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media such as Reddit represent an alternative outlet for reporting experiences of violence where healthcare access has been limited. This study analyzed seven violence-related subreddits to investigate the trends of different violence patterns from January 2018 to February 2022 to enhance the health-service providers' existing service or provide some new perspective for existing violence research. Specifically, we collected violence-related texts from Reddit using keyword searching and identified six major types with supervised machine learning classifiers: DV, IPV, physical violence, sexual violence, emotional violence, and nonspecific violence or others. The increase rate (IR) of each violence type was calculated and temporally compared in five phases of the pandemic. The phases include one pre-pandemic phase (Phase 0, the date before February 26, 2020) and four pandemic phases (Phases 1-4) with separation dates of June 17, 2020, September 7, 2020, and June 4, 2021. We found that the number of IPV-related posts increased most in the earliest phase; however, that for COVID-citing IPV was highest in the mid-pandemic phase. IRs for DV, IPV, and emotional violence also showed increases across all pandemic phases, with IRs of 26.9%, 58.8%, and 28.8%, respectively, from the pre-pandemic to the first pandemic phase. In the other three pandemic phases, all the IRs for these three types of violence were positive, though lower than the IRs in the first pandemic phase. The findings highlight the importance of identifying and providing help to those who suffer from such violent experiences and support the role of social media site monitoring as a means of informative surveillance for help-providing authorities and violence research groups.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/9/10/giaa095/33802377/giaa095.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa095; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7523405?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064198; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064198?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33780469", @@ -5167,23 +5184,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0248195&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248195; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007012?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36987388", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885", - "title": "Characterizing the Differences in Descriptions of Violence on Reddit During the COVID-19 Pandemic.", - "authorString": "Li L, Neubauer L, Stewart R, Roberts A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of interpersonal violence", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Increase rate; Data Classification; Reddit; Violence Types", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Concerns have been raised over the experiences of violence such as domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media such as Reddit represent an alternative outlet for reporting experiences of violence where healthcare access has been limited. This study analyzed seven violence-related subreddits to investigate the trends of different violence patterns from January 2018 to February 2022 to enhance the health-service providers' existing service or provide some new perspective for existing violence research. Specifically, we collected violence-related texts from Reddit using keyword searching and identified six major types with supervised machine learning classifiers: DV, IPV, physical violence, sexual violence, emotional violence, and nonspecific violence or others. The increase rate (IR) of each violence type was calculated and temporally compared in five phases of the pandemic. The phases include one pre-pandemic phase (Phase 0, the date before February 26, 2020) and four pandemic phases (Phases 1-4) with separation dates of June 17, 2020, September 7, 2020, and June 4, 2021. We found that the number of IPV-related posts increased most in the earliest phase; however, that for COVID-citing IPV was highest in the mid-pandemic phase. IRs for DV, IPV, and emotional violence also showed increases across all pandemic phases, with IRs of 26.9%, 58.8%, and 28.8%, respectively, from the pre-pandemic to the first pandemic phase. In the other three pandemic phases, all the IRs for these three types of violence were positive, though lower than the IRs in the first pandemic phase. The findings highlight the importance of identifying and providing help to those who suffer from such violent experiences and support the role of social media site monitoring as a means of informative surveillance for help-providing authorities and violence research groups.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231163885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064198; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064198?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37596262", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40679-y", @@ -5269,6 +5269,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/10/e043010.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7580065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7580065?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36755846", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfac241", + "title": "Depression is associated with frailty and lower quality of life in haemodialysis recipients, but not with mortality or hospitalization.", + "authorString": "Anderson BM, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical kidney journal", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-10-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mortality; Depression; Frailty; Haemodialysis; Hospitalization; Health-related Quality Of Life", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Frailty and depression are highly prevalent in haemodialysis recipients, exhibit a reciprocal relationship, and are associated with increased mortality and hospitalization, and lower quality of life. Despite this, there has been little exploration of the relationship between depression and frailty upon patient outcomes. We aimed to explore the relationship between depression and frailty, and their associations with mortality, hospitalization and quality of life.

Methods

We performed a prospective cohort study of prevalent haemodialysis recipients linked to national datasets for outcomes including mortality and hospitalization. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), frailty using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and quality of life using the EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) Summary Index.

Results

A total of 485 prevalent haemodialysis recipients were recruited, with 111 deaths and 1241 hospitalizations during follow-up. CFS was independently associated with mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1.31; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08, 1.59; P\u00a0=\u00a0.006], hospitalization [incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.13; 95% CI 1.03, 1.25; P\u00a0=\u00a0.010] and lower quality of life (Coef. -0.401; 95% CI -0.511, -0.292; P\u00a0<\u00a0.001). PHQ-9 score was independently associated with lower quality of life (Coef. -0.042; 95% CI -0.063, -0.021; P\u00a0<\u00a0.001), but not mortality (HR 1.00; 95% CI 0.96, 1.04; P\u00a0=\u00a0.901) or hospitalization (IRR 0.99; 95% CI 0.97, 1.01; P\u00a0=\u00a0.351). In an adjusted model including CFS, moderate depression was associated with reduced hospitalization (IRR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56, 0.93; P\u00a0=\u00a0.013).

Conclusions

With the addition of frailty, depression was associated with lower hospital admissions, but poorer quality of life. The relationship between frailty and depression, and their influence on outcomes is complex, requiring further study.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/16/2/342/49100412/sfac241.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfac241; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9900564; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9900564?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36332942", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-002142", @@ -5287,21 +5304,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/9/2/e002142.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-002142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639145; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639145?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36755846", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfac241", - "title": "Depression is associated with frailty and lower quality of life in haemodialysis recipients, but not with mortality or hospitalization.", - "authorString": "Anderson BM, Qasim M, Correa G, Evison F, Gallier S, Ferro CJ, Jackson TA, Sharif A.", + "id": "37311808", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y", + "title": "Natural history of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study.", + "authorString": "Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Mills NL, Winter AJ, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical kidney journal", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-10-31", + "date": "2023-06-13", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mortality; Depression; Frailty; Haemodialysis; Hospitalization; Health-related Quality Of Life", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Frailty and depression are highly prevalent in haemodialysis recipients, exhibit a reciprocal relationship, and are associated with increased mortality and hospitalization, and lower quality of life. Despite this, there has been little exploration of the relationship between depression and frailty upon patient outcomes. We aimed to explore the relationship between depression and frailty, and their associations with mortality, hospitalization and quality of life.

Methods

We performed a prospective cohort study of prevalent haemodialysis recipients linked to national datasets for outcomes including mortality and hospitalization. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), frailty using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and quality of life using the EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) Summary Index.

Results

A total of 485 prevalent haemodialysis recipients were recruited, with 111 deaths and 1241 hospitalizations during follow-up. CFS was independently associated with mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1.31; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08, 1.59; P\u00a0=\u00a0.006], hospitalization [incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.13; 95% CI 1.03, 1.25; P\u00a0=\u00a0.010] and lower quality of life (Coef. -0.401; 95% CI -0.511, -0.292; P\u00a0<\u00a0.001). PHQ-9 score was independently associated with lower quality of life (Coef. -0.042; 95% CI -0.063, -0.021; P\u00a0<\u00a0.001), but not mortality (HR 1.00; 95% CI 0.96, 1.04; P\u00a0=\u00a0.901) or hospitalization (IRR 0.99; 95% CI 0.97, 1.01; P\u00a0=\u00a0.351). In an adjusted model including CFS, moderate depression was associated with reduced hospitalization (IRR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56, 0.93; P\u00a0=\u00a0.013).

Conclusions

With the addition of frailty, depression was associated with lower hospital admissions, but poorer quality of life. The relationship between frailty and depression, and their influence on outcomes is complex, requiring further study.", + "abstract": "Previous studies on the natural history of long-COVID have been few and selective. Without comparison groups, disease progression cannot be differentiated from symptoms originating from other causes. The Long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS) is a Scotland-wide, general population cohort of adults who had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection matched to PCR-negative adults. Serial, self-completed, online questionnaires collected information on pre-existing health conditions and current health six, 12 and 18 months after index test. Of those with previous symptomatic infection, 35% reported persistent incomplete/no recovery, 12% improvement and 12% deterioration. At six and 12 months, one or more symptom was reported by 71.5% and 70.7% respectively of those previously infected, compared with 53.5% and 56.5% of those never infected. Altered taste, smell and confusion improved over time compared to the never infected group and adjusted for confounders. Conversely, late onset dry and productive cough, and hearing problems were more likely following SARS-CoV-2 infection.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/16/2/342/49100412/sfac241.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfac241; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9900564; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9900564?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39193-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32635913", @@ -5321,38 +5338,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01169-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7339522; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7339522?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37311808", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y", - "title": "Natural history of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study.", - "authorString": "Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Mills NL, Winter AJ, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Previous studies on the natural history of long-COVID have been few and selective. Without comparison groups, disease progression cannot be differentiated from symptoms originating from other causes. The Long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS) is a Scotland-wide, general population cohort of adults who had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection matched to PCR-negative adults. Serial, self-completed, online questionnaires collected information on pre-existing health conditions and current health six, 12 and 18 months after index test. Of those with previous symptomatic infection, 35% reported persistent incomplete/no recovery, 12% improvement and 12% deterioration. At six and 12 months, one or more symptom was reported by 71.5% and 70.7% respectively of those previously infected, compared with 53.5% and 56.5% of those never infected. Altered taste, smell and confusion improved over time compared to the never infected group and adjusted for confounders. Conversely, late onset dry and productive cough, and hearing problems were more likely following SARS-CoV-2 infection.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39193-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39193-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10263377?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "35289755", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/31021", - "title": "Concept Libraries for Repeatable and Reusable Research: Qualitative Study Exploring the Needs of Users.", - "authorString": "Almowil Z, Zhou SM, Brophy S, Croxall J.", + "id": "34598993", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410", + "title": "Changes in neonatal admissions, care processes and outcomes in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic: a whole population cohort study.", + "authorString": "Greenbury SF, Longford N, Ougham K, Angelini ED, Battersby C, Uthaya S, Modi N.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR human factors", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-15", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Reproducible Research; Clinical Codes; Concept Libraries", + "keywords": "Public Health; Neonatology; Neonatal Intensive & Critical Care", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Big data research in the field of health sciences is hindered by a lack of agreement on how to identify and define different conditions and their medications. This means that researchers and health professionals often have different phenotype definitions for the same condition. This lack of agreement makes it difficult to compare different study findings and hinders the ability to conduct repeatable and reusable research.

Objective

This study aims to examine the requirements of various users, such as researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and managers, in the development of a data portal for phenotypes (a concept library).

Methods

This was a qualitative study using interviews and focus group discussion. One-to-one interviews were conducted with researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and senior research managers in health data science (N=6) to explore their specific needs in the development of a concept library. In addition, a focus group discussion with researchers (N=14) working with the Secured Anonymized Information Linkage databank, a national eHealth data linkage infrastructure, was held to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for the phenotyping system and the proposed concept library. The interviews and focus group discussion were transcribed verbatim, and 2 thematic analyses were performed.

Results

Most of the participants thought that the prototype concept library would be a very helpful resource for conducting repeatable research, but they specified that many requirements are needed before its development. Although all the participants stated that they were aware of some existing concept libraries, most of them expressed negative perceptions about them. The participants mentioned several facilitators that would stimulate them to share their work and reuse the work of others, and they pointed out several barriers that could inhibit them from sharing their work and reusing the work of others. The participants suggested some developments that they would like to see to improve reproducible research output using routine data.

Conclusions

The study indicated that most interviewees valued a concept library for phenotypes. However, only half of the participants felt that they would contribute by providing definitions for the concept library, and they reported many barriers regarding sharing their work on a publicly accessible platform. Analysis of interviews and the focus group discussion revealed that different stakeholders have different requirements, facilitators, barriers, and concerns about a prototype concept library.", + "abstract": "

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic instigated multiple societal and healthcare interventions with potential to affect perinatal practice. We evaluated population-level changes in preterm and full-term admissions to neonatal units, care processes and outcomes.

Design

Observational cohort study using the UK National Neonatal Research Database.

Setting

England and Wales.

Participants

Admissions to National Health Service neonatal units from 2012 to 2020.

Main outcome measures

Admissions by gestational age, ethnicity and Index of Multiple Deprivation, and key care processes and outcomes.

Methods

We calculated differences in numbers and rates between April and June 2020 (spring), the first 3 months of national lockdown (COVID-19 period), and December 2019-February 2020 (winter), prior to introduction of mitigation measures, and compared them with the corresponding differences in the previous 7 years. We considered the COVID-19 period highly unusual if the spring-winter difference was smaller or larger than all previous corresponding differences, and calculated the level of confidence in this conclusion.

Results

Marked fluctuations occurred in all measures over the 8 years with several highly unusual changes during the COVID-19 period. Total admissions fell, having risen over all previous years (COVID-19 difference: -1492; previous 7-year difference range: +100, +1617; p<0.001); full-term black admissions rose (+66; -64, +35; p<0.001) whereas Asian (-137; -14, +101; p<0.001) and white (-319; -235, +643: p<0.001) admissions fell. Transfers to higher and lower designation neonatal units increased (+129; -4, +88; p<0.001) and decreased (-47; -25, +12; p<0.001), respectively. Total preterm admissions decreased (-350; -26, +479; p<0.001). The fall in extremely preterm admissions was most marked in the two lowest socioeconomic quintiles.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate substantial changes occurred in care pathways and clinical thresholds, with disproportionate effects on black ethnic groups, during the immediate COVID-19 period, and raise the intriguing possibility that non-healthcare interventions may reduce extremely preterm births.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8965669" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e054410.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34862222", @@ -5372,21 +5372,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/21/6/e620.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8806292?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2021-0386" }, { - "id": "34598993", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410", - "title": "Changes in neonatal admissions, care processes and outcomes in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic: a whole population cohort study.", - "authorString": "Greenbury SF, Longford N, Ougham K, Angelini ED, Battersby C, Uthaya S, Modi N.", + "id": "35289755", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/31021", + "title": "Concept Libraries for Repeatable and Reusable Research: Qualitative Study Exploring the Needs of Users.", + "authorString": "Almowil Z, Zhou SM, Brophy S, Croxall J.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-01", + "journalTitle": "JMIR human factors", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-15", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Public Health; Neonatology; Neonatal Intensive & Critical Care", + "keywords": "Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Reproducible Research; Clinical Codes; Concept Libraries", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic instigated multiple societal and healthcare interventions with potential to affect perinatal practice. We evaluated population-level changes in preterm and full-term admissions to neonatal units, care processes and outcomes.

Design

Observational cohort study using the UK National Neonatal Research Database.

Setting

England and Wales.

Participants

Admissions to National Health Service neonatal units from 2012 to 2020.

Main outcome measures

Admissions by gestational age, ethnicity and Index of Multiple Deprivation, and key care processes and outcomes.

Methods

We calculated differences in numbers and rates between April and June 2020 (spring), the first 3 months of national lockdown (COVID-19 period), and December 2019-February 2020 (winter), prior to introduction of mitigation measures, and compared them with the corresponding differences in the previous 7 years. We considered the COVID-19 period highly unusual if the spring-winter difference was smaller or larger than all previous corresponding differences, and calculated the level of confidence in this conclusion.

Results

Marked fluctuations occurred in all measures over the 8 years with several highly unusual changes during the COVID-19 period. Total admissions fell, having risen over all previous years (COVID-19 difference: -1492; previous 7-year difference range: +100, +1617; p<0.001); full-term black admissions rose (+66; -64, +35; p<0.001) whereas Asian (-137; -14, +101; p<0.001) and white (-319; -235, +643: p<0.001) admissions fell. Transfers to higher and lower designation neonatal units increased (+129; -4, +88; p<0.001) and decreased (-47; -25, +12; p<0.001), respectively. Total preterm admissions decreased (-350; -26, +479; p<0.001). The fall in extremely preterm admissions was most marked in the two lowest socioeconomic quintiles.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate substantial changes occurred in care pathways and clinical thresholds, with disproportionate effects on black ethnic groups, during the immediate COVID-19 period, and raise the intriguing possibility that non-healthcare interventions may reduce extremely preterm births.", + "abstract": "

Background

Big data research in the field of health sciences is hindered by a lack of agreement on how to identify and define different conditions and their medications. This means that researchers and health professionals often have different phenotype definitions for the same condition. This lack of agreement makes it difficult to compare different study findings and hinders the ability to conduct repeatable and reusable research.

Objective

This study aims to examine the requirements of various users, such as researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and managers, in the development of a data portal for phenotypes (a concept library).

Methods

This was a qualitative study using interviews and focus group discussion. One-to-one interviews were conducted with researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and senior research managers in health data science (N=6) to explore their specific needs in the development of a concept library. In addition, a focus group discussion with researchers (N=14) working with the Secured Anonymized Information Linkage databank, a national eHealth data linkage infrastructure, was held to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for the phenotyping system and the proposed concept library. The interviews and focus group discussion were transcribed verbatim, and 2 thematic analyses were performed.

Results

Most of the participants thought that the prototype concept library would be a very helpful resource for conducting repeatable research, but they specified that many requirements are needed before its development. Although all the participants stated that they were aware of some existing concept libraries, most of them expressed negative perceptions about them. The participants mentioned several facilitators that would stimulate them to share their work and reuse the work of others, and they pointed out several barriers that could inhibit them from sharing their work and reusing the work of others. The participants suggested some developments that they would like to see to improve reproducible research output using routine data.

Conclusions

The study indicated that most interviewees valued a concept library for phenotypes. However, only half of the participants felt that they would contribute by providing definitions for the concept library, and they reported many barriers regarding sharing their work on a publicly accessible platform. Analysis of interviews and the focus group discussion revealed that different stakeholders have different requirements, facilitators, barriers, and concerns about a prototype concept library.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e054410.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054410; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8488283?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8965669" }, { "id": "35607618", @@ -5405,23 +5405,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S2666389922000514/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2022.100471; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9122960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9122960?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37068964", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0301", - "title": "OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 2: changes in primary care clinical activity in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.", - "authorString": "Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Wiedemann M, Fisher L, Croker R, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Hickman G, Evans D, Ward T, Davy S, Hulme WJ, Macdonald O, Conibere R, Lewis T, Myers M, Wanninayake S, Collison K, Drury C, Samuel M, Sood H, Cipriani A, Fazel S, Sharma M, Baqir W, Bates C, Parry J, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity across a broad range of clinical services. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.

Aim

To describe changes in the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice across six clinical areas: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, female and reproductive health, screening and related procedures, and processes related to medication.

Design and setting

With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 23.8 million patient records in general practice, in situ using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Common primary care activities were analysed using Clinical Terms Version 3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 to December 2020, presenting median and deciles of code usage across practices per month.

Results

Substantial and widespread changes in clinical activity in primary care were identified since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with generally good recovery by December 2020. A few exceptions showed poor recovery and warrant further investigation, such as mental health (for example, for 'Depression interim review' the median occurrences across practices in December 2020 was down by 41.6% compared with December 2019).

Conclusion

Granular NHS general practice data at population-scale can be used to monitor disruptions to healthcare services and guide the development of mitigation strategies. The authors are now developing real-time monitoring dashboards for the key measures identified in this study, as well as further studies using primary care data to monitor and mitigate the indirect health impacts of COVID-19 on the NHS.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/01/31/BJGP.2022.0301.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36649943", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001704", @@ -5440,21 +5423,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/bmjqir/12/1/e001704.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9853220; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9853220?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33079204", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079", - "title": "Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac procedure activity in England and associated 30-day mortality.", - "authorString": "Mohamed MO, Banerjee A, Clarke S, de Belder M, Patwala A, Goodwin AT, Kwok CS, Rashid M, Gale CP, Curzen N, Mamas MA.", + "id": "37068964", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0301", + "title": "OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 2: changes in primary care clinical activity in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.", + "authorString": "Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Wiedemann M, Fisher L, Croker R, Morton CE, Inglesby P, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon SC, Hickman G, Evans D, Ward T, Davy S, Hulme WJ, Macdonald O, Conibere R, Lewis T, Myers M, Wanninayake S, Collison K, Drury C, Samuel M, Sood H, Cipriani A, Fazel S, Sharma M, Baqir W, Bates C, Parry J, Goldacre B, OpenSAFELY Collaborative.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-01", + "journalTitle": "The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-27", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mortality; Cardiac; England; Procedures; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Primary Health Care; General Practice; Electronic Health Records; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

Limited data exist on the impact of COVID-19 on national changes in cardiac procedure activity, including patient characteristics and clinical outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods and results

All major cardiac procedures (n\u2009=\u2009374\u00a0899) performed between 1 January and 31 May for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 were analysed, stratified by procedure type and time-period (pre-COVID: January-May 2018 and 2019 and January-February 2020 and COVID: March-May 2020). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality for procedures performed in the COVID period. Overall, there was a deficit of 45\u00a0501 procedures during the COVID period compared to the monthly averages (March-May) in 2018-2019. Cardiac catheterization and device implantations were the most affected in terms of numbers (n\u2009=\u200919\u00a0637 and n\u2009=\u200910\u00a0453), whereas surgical procedures such as mitral valve replacement, other valve replacement/repair, atrioseptal defect/ventriculoseptal defect repair, and coronary artery bypass grafting were the most affected as a relative percentage difference (\u0394) to previous years' averages. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement was the least affected (\u0394 -10.6%). No difference in 30-day mortality was observed between pre-COVID and COVID time-periods for all cardiac procedures except cardiac catheterization [OR 1.25 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.47, P\u2009=\u20090.006] and cardiac device implantation (OR 1.35 95% CI 1.15-1.58, P\u2009<\u20090.001).

Conclusion

Cardiac procedural activity has significantly declined across England during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a deficit in excess of 45\u00a0000 procedures, without an increase in risk of mortality for most cardiac procedures performed during the pandemic. Major restructuring of cardiac services is necessary to deal with this deficit, which would inevitably impact long-term morbidity and mortality.", + "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity across a broad range of clinical services. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.

Aim

To describe changes in the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice across six clinical areas: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, female and reproductive health, screening and related procedures, and processes related to medication.

Design and setting

With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 23.8 million patient records in general practice, in situ using OpenSAFELY.

Method

Common primary care activities were analysed using Clinical Terms Version 3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 to December 2020, presenting median and deciles of code usage across practices per month.

Results

Substantial and widespread changes in clinical activity in primary care were identified since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with generally good recovery by December 2020. A few exceptions showed poor recovery and warrant further investigation, such as mental health (for example, for 'Depression interim review' the median occurrences across practices in December 2020 was down by 41.6% compared with December 2019).

Conclusion

Granular NHS general practice data at population-scale can be used to monitor disruptions to healthcare services and guide the development of mitigation strategies. The authors are now developing real-time monitoring dashboards for the key measures identified in this study, as well as further studies using primary care data to monitor and mitigate the indirect health impacts of COVID-19 on the NHS.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/article-pdf/7/3/247/37776880/qcaa079.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/01/31/BJGP.2022.0301.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10131234?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34238721", @@ -5473,6 +5456,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00105-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00105-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257056" }, + { + "id": "33079204", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079", + "title": "Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac procedure activity in England and associated 30-day mortality.", + "authorString": "Mohamed MO, Banerjee A, Clarke S, de Belder M, Patwala A, Goodwin AT, Kwok CS, Rashid M, Gale CP, Curzen N, Mamas MA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mortality; Cardiac; England; Procedures; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Aims

Limited data exist on the impact of COVID-19 on national changes in cardiac procedure activity, including patient characteristics and clinical outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods and results

All major cardiac procedures (n\u2009=\u2009374\u00a0899) performed between 1 January and 31 May for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 were analysed, stratified by procedure type and time-period (pre-COVID: January-May 2018 and 2019 and January-February 2020 and COVID: March-May 2020). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality for procedures performed in the COVID period. Overall, there was a deficit of 45\u00a0501 procedures during the COVID period compared to the monthly averages (March-May) in 2018-2019. Cardiac catheterization and device implantations were the most affected in terms of numbers (n\u2009=\u200919\u00a0637 and n\u2009=\u200910\u00a0453), whereas surgical procedures such as mitral valve replacement, other valve replacement/repair, atrioseptal defect/ventriculoseptal defect repair, and coronary artery bypass grafting were the most affected as a relative percentage difference (\u0394) to previous years' averages. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement was the least affected (\u0394 -10.6%). No difference in 30-day mortality was observed between pre-COVID and COVID time-periods for all cardiac procedures except cardiac catheterization [OR 1.25 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.47, P\u2009=\u20090.006] and cardiac device implantation (OR 1.35 95% CI 1.15-1.58, P\u2009<\u20090.001).

Conclusion

Cardiac procedural activity has significantly declined across England during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a deficit in excess of 45\u00a0000 procedures, without an increase in risk of mortality for most cardiac procedures performed during the pandemic. Major restructuring of cardiac services is necessary to deal with this deficit, which would inevitably impact long-term morbidity and mortality.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/article-pdf/7/3/247/37776880/qcaa079.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7665465?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31878916", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7919-2", @@ -5524,23 +5524,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/49/5/1637/34947124/dyaa144.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa144; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746409?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa144" }, - { - "id": "33948220", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661", - "title": "Association between glycosylated haemoglobin and outcomes for patients discharged from hospital with diabetes: A health informatics approach.", - "authorString": "Robbins T, Sankaranarayanan S, Randeva H, Keung SNLC, Arvanitis TN.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Digital health", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Biochemistry; Diabetes; Hospital Discharge; Readmission; Health Informatics", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims/objectives

Extensive research considers associations between inpatient glycaemic control and outcomes during hospital admission; this cautions against overly tight glycaemic targets. Little research considers glycaemic control following hospital discharge. This is despite a clear understanding that people with diabetes are at increased risk of negative outcomes, following discharge. We evaluate absolute and relative Hba1c values, and frequency of Hba1c monitoring, on readmission and mortality rates for people discharged from hospital with diabetes.

Methods

All discharges (n\u2009=\u200946,357) with diabetes from a major tertiary referral centre over 3\u2009years were extracted, including biochemistry data. We conducted an evaluation of association between Hba1c, mortality and readmission, statistical significance and standardised Cohen's D effect size calculations.

Results

399 patients had a Hba1c performed during their admission. 3,138 patients had a Hba1c within 1\u2009year of discharge. Mean average Hba1c for readmissions was 57.82 vs 60.39 for not readmitted (p\u2009=\u20090.009, Cohen's D 0.28). Mean average number of days to Hba1c testing in readmitted was 97 vs 113 for those not readmitted (p\u2009=\u20090.00006, Cohen's D 0.39). Further evaluation of mortality outcomes, cohorts of T1DM and T2DM and association of relative change in Hba1c was performed.

Conclusions

Lower Hba1c values following discharge from hospital are significantly associated with increased risk of readmission, as is a shorter duration until testing. Similar patterns observed for mortality. Findings particularly prominent for T1DM. Further research needed to consider underlying causation and design of appropriate risk stratification models.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076211007661; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35079067", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05414-5", @@ -5558,6 +5541,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-05414-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05414-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789863?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33948220", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661", + "title": "Association between glycosylated haemoglobin and outcomes for patients discharged from hospital with diabetes: A health informatics approach.", + "authorString": "Robbins T, Sankaranarayanan S, Randeva H, Keung SNLC, Arvanitis TN.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Digital health", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Biochemistry; Diabetes; Hospital Discharge; Readmission; Health Informatics", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Aims/objectives

Extensive research considers associations between inpatient glycaemic control and outcomes during hospital admission; this cautions against overly tight glycaemic targets. Little research considers glycaemic control following hospital discharge. This is despite a clear understanding that people with diabetes are at increased risk of negative outcomes, following discharge. We evaluate absolute and relative Hba1c values, and frequency of Hba1c monitoring, on readmission and mortality rates for people discharged from hospital with diabetes.

Methods

All discharges (n\u2009=\u200946,357) with diabetes from a major tertiary referral centre over 3\u2009years were extracted, including biochemistry data. We conducted an evaluation of association between Hba1c, mortality and readmission, statistical significance and standardised Cohen's D effect size calculations.

Results

399 patients had a Hba1c performed during their admission. 3,138 patients had a Hba1c within 1\u2009year of discharge. Mean average Hba1c for readmissions was 57.82 vs 60.39 for not readmitted (p\u2009=\u20090.009, Cohen's D 0.28). Mean average number of days to Hba1c testing in readmitted was 97 vs 113 for those not readmitted (p\u2009=\u20090.00006, Cohen's D 0.39). Further evaluation of mortality outcomes, cohorts of T1DM and T2DM and association of relative change in Hba1c was performed.

Conclusions

Lower Hba1c values following discharge from hospital are significantly associated with increased risk of readmission, as is a shorter duration until testing. Similar patterns observed for mortality. Findings particularly prominent for T1DM. Further research needed to consider underlying causation and design of appropriate risk stratification models.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20552076211007661; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211007661; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8054217?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34432797", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255748", @@ -5592,6 +5592,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537021003801/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101100; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8548919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8548919?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32341912", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042x19893470", + "title": "Urban-rural and socioeconomic status: Impact on multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized patients.", + "authorString": "Robertson L, Ayansina D, Johnston M, Marks A, Black C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of comorbidity", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Prevalence; Socioeconomic status; Hospitalization; Electronic Health Records; Multimorbidity; Urban\u2013rural", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

The aim of this study was to describe multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized adults, by urban-rural area of residence and socioeconomic status (SES).

Methods

Linked hospital episode data were used. Adults (\u226518 years) admitted to hospital as an inpatient during 2014 in Grampian, Scotland, were included. Conditions were identified from admissions during the 5 years prior to the first admission in 2014. Multimorbidity was defined as \u22652 conditions and measured using Tonelli et al. based on International Classification of Diseases-10 coding (preselected list of 30 conditions). We used proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to summarize the prevalence of multimorbidity by age group, sex, urban-rural category and deprivation. The association between multimorbidity and patient characteristics was assessed using the \u03c7 2 test.

Results

Forty one thousand five hundred and forty-five patients were included (median age 62, 52.6% female). Overall, 27.4% (95% CI 27.0, 27.8) of patients were multimorbid. Multimorbidity prevalence was 28.8% (95% CI 28.1, 29.5) in large urban versus 22.0% (95% CI 20.9, 23.3) in remote rural areas and 28.7% (95% CI 27.2, 30.3) in the most deprived versus 26.0% (95% CI 25.2, 26.9) in the least deprived areas. This effect was consistent in all age groups, but not statistically significant in the age group 18-29 years. Multimorbidity increased with age but was similar for males and females.

Conclusion

Given the scarcity of research into the effect of urban-rural area and SES on multimorbidity prevalence among hospitalized patients, these findings should inform future research into new models of care, including the consideration of urban-rural area and SES.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2235042X19893470; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042X19893470; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36536453", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00137-7", @@ -5626,23 +5643,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01638-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01638-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8542730" }, - { - "id": "32341912", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042x19893470", - "title": "Urban-rural and socioeconomic status: Impact on multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized patients.", - "authorString": "Robertson L, Ayansina D, Johnston M, Marks A, Black C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of comorbidity", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Prevalence; Socioeconomic status; Hospitalization; Electronic Health Records; Multimorbidity; Urban\u2013rural", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

The aim of this study was to describe multimorbidity prevalence in hospitalized adults, by urban-rural area of residence and socioeconomic status (SES).

Methods

Linked hospital episode data were used. Adults (\u226518 years) admitted to hospital as an inpatient during 2014 in Grampian, Scotland, were included. Conditions were identified from admissions during the 5 years prior to the first admission in 2014. Multimorbidity was defined as \u22652 conditions and measured using Tonelli et al. based on International Classification of Diseases-10 coding (preselected list of 30 conditions). We used proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to summarize the prevalence of multimorbidity by age group, sex, urban-rural category and deprivation. The association between multimorbidity and patient characteristics was assessed using the \u03c7 2 test.

Results

Forty one thousand five hundred and forty-five patients were included (median age 62, 52.6% female). Overall, 27.4% (95% CI 27.0, 27.8) of patients were multimorbid. Multimorbidity prevalence was 28.8% (95% CI 28.1, 29.5) in large urban versus 22.0% (95% CI 20.9, 23.3) in remote rural areas and 28.7% (95% CI 27.2, 30.3) in the most deprived versus 26.0% (95% CI 25.2, 26.9) in the least deprived areas. This effect was consistent in all age groups, but not statistically significant in the age group 18-29 years. Multimorbidity increased with age but was similar for males and females.

Conclusion

Given the scarcity of research into the effect of urban-rural area and SES on multimorbidity prevalence among hospitalized patients, these findings should inform future research into new models of care, including the consideration of urban-rural area and SES.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2235042X19893470; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2235042X19893470; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7171988?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36145196", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14183821", @@ -5711,23 +5711,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38756-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226446; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10226446?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34089614", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028", - "title": "Cohort Profile: Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) Database.", - "authorString": "Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Ritchie LD, Agrawal U, Woolhouse M, Murray JL, Stagg HR, Docherty AB, McCowan C, Wood R, Stock SJ, Sheikh A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/4/1064/40146583/dyab028.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34232969", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1151", @@ -5745,6 +5728,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1151/2553; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1151; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473295; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473295?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35922409", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6", + "title": "Dynamics of a national Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic during January 2022 in England.", + "authorString": "Elliott P, Eales O, Bodinier B, Tang D, Wang H, Jonnerby J, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-03", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Rapid transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has led to record-breaking case incidence rates around the world. Since May 2020, the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study tracked the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England through RT-PCR of self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly-selected participants aged 5 years and over. In January 2022, we found an overall weighted prevalence of 4.41% (n\u2009=\u2009102,174), three-fold higher than in November to December 2021; we sequenced 2,374 (99.2%) Omicron infections (19 BA.2), and only 19 (0.79%) Delta, with a growth rate advantage for BA.2 compared to BA.1 or BA.1.1. Prevalence was decreasing overall (reproduction number R\u2009=\u20090.95, 95% credible interval [CrI], 0.93, 0.97), but increasing in children aged 5 to 17 years (R\u2009=\u20091.13, 95% CrI, 1.09, 1.18). In England during January 2022, we observed unprecedented levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially among children, driven by almost complete replacement of Delta by Omicron.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32121-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35671273", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837", @@ -5763,21 +5763,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268837&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268837; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173611?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35922409", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6", - "title": "Dynamics of a national Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic during January 2022 in England.", - "authorString": "Elliott P, Eales O, Bodinier B, Tang D, Wang H, Jonnerby J, Haw D, Elliott J, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Atchison C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Ward H, Darzi A, Cooke GS, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA.", + "id": "34089614", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028", + "title": "Cohort Profile: Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) Database.", + "authorString": "Mulholland RH, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Ritchie LD, Agrawal U, Woolhouse M, Murray JL, Stagg HR, Docherty AB, McCowan C, Wood R, Stock SJ, Sheikh A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-03", + "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-08-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Rapid transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has led to record-breaking case incidence rates around the world. Since May 2020, the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study tracked the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England through RT-PCR of self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly-selected participants aged 5 years and over. In January 2022, we found an overall weighted prevalence of 4.41% (n\u2009=\u2009102,174), three-fold higher than in November to December 2021; we sequenced 2,374 (99.2%) Omicron infections (19 BA.2), and only 19 (0.79%) Delta, with a growth rate advantage for BA.2 compared to BA.1 or BA.1.1. Prevalence was decreasing overall (reproduction number R\u2009=\u20090.95, 95% credible interval [CrI], 0.93, 0.97), but increasing in children aged 5 to 17 years (R\u2009=\u20091.13, 95% CrI, 1.09, 1.18). In England during January 2022, we observed unprecedented levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially among children, driven by almost complete replacement of Delta by Omicron.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32121-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32121-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9349208?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/4/1064/40146583/dyab028.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8195245?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36573802", @@ -5796,23 +5796,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac233/48422792/dyac233.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac233; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10396423; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10396423?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36691170", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344", - "title": "Pre-COVID-19 pandemic health-related behaviours in children (2018-2020) and association with being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (2020-2021): a retrospective cohort study using survey data linked with routine health data in Wales, UK.", - "authorString": "Marchant E, Lowthian E, Crick T, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Dadaczynski K, Okan O, James M, Cowley L, Torabi F, Kennedy J, Akbari A, Lyons R, Brophy S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Public Health; Community Child Health; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Examine if pre-COVID-19 pandemic (prior March 2020) health-related behaviours during primary school are associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive between 1 March 2020 and 31 August 2021.

Design

Retrospective cohort study using an online cohort survey (January 2018 to February 2020) linked with routine PCR SARS-CoV-2 test results.

Setting

Children attending primary schools in Wales (2018-2020), UK, who were part of the Health and Attainment of Pupils in a Primary Education Network (HAPPEN)_school network.

Participants

Complete linked records of eligible participants were obtained for n=7062 individuals. 39.1% (n=2764) were tested (age 10.6\u00b10.9; 48.9% girls) and 8.1% (n=569) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (age 10.6\u00b11.0; 54.5% girls).

Main outcome measures

Logistic regression of health-related behaviours and demographics were used to determine the ORs of factors associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Results

Consuming sugary snacks (1-2\u2009days/week OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.49; 5-6\u2009days/week OR=1.31, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.61; reference 0 days), can swim 25 m (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.39) and age (OR=1.25, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.35) were associated with an increased likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2. Eating breakfast (OR=1.52, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.27), weekly physical activity \u226560 min (1-2\u2009days OR=1.69, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.74; 3-4\u2009days OR=1.76, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.82; reference 0 days), out-of-school club participation (OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.10), can ride a bike (OR=1.39, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.93), age (OR=1.16, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.28) and girls (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.46) were associated with an increased likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Living in least deprived areas (quintile 4 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.90; quintile 5 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.89) compared with the most deprived (quintile 1) was associated with a decreased likelihood.

Conclusions

Associations may be related to parental health literacy and monitoring behaviours. Physically active behaviours may include coparticipation with others and exposure to SARS-CoV-2. A risk-versus-benefit approach must be considered in relation to promoting these health behaviours, given the importance of health-related behaviours such as childhood physical activity for development.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e061344.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36863848", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325152", @@ -5831,21 +5814,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2023/03/01/archdischild-2022-325152.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325152; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313975; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313975?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37587484", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9", - "title": "Implementation of the trial emulation approach in medical research: a scoping review.", - "authorString": "Scola G, Chis Ster A, Bean D, Pareek N, Emsley R, Landau S.", + "id": "36691170", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344", + "title": "Pre-COVID-19 pandemic health-related behaviours in children (2018-2020) and association with being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (2020-2021): a retrospective cohort study using survey data linked with routine health data in Wales, UK.", + "authorString": "Marchant E, Lowthian E, Crick T, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Dadaczynski K, Okan O, James M, Cowley L, Torabi F, Kennedy J, Akbari A, Lyons R, Brophy S.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medical research methodology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-16", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Causal Inference; Observational Data; Target Trial; Trial Emulation", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Public Health; Community Child Health; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

When conducting randomised controlled trials is impractical, an alternative is to carry out an observational study. However, making valid causal inferences from observational data is challenging because of the risk of several statistical biases. In 2016 Hern\u00e1n and Robins put forward the 'target trial framework' as a guide to best design and analyse observational studies whilst preventing the most common biases. This framework consists of (1) clearly defining a causal question about an intervention, (2) specifying the protocol of the hypothetical trial, and (3) explaining how the observational data will be used to emulate it.

Methods

The aim of this scoping review was to identify and review all explicit attempts of trial emulation studies across all medical fields. Embase, Medline and Web of Science were searched for trial emulation studies published in English from database inception to February 25, 2021. The following information was extracted from studies that were deemed eligible for review: the subject area, the type of observational data that they leveraged, and the statistical methods they used to address the following biases: (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias.

Results

The search resulted in 617 studies, 38 of which we deemed eligible for review. Of those 38 studies, most focused on cardiology, infectious diseases or oncology and the majority used electronic health records/electronic medical records data and cohort studies data. Different statistical methods were used to address confounding at baseline and selection bias, predominantly conditioning on the confounders (N\u2009=\u200918/49, 37%) and inverse probability of censoring weighting (N\u2009=\u20097/20, 35%) respectively. Different approaches were used to address immortal time bias, assigning individuals to treatment strategies at start of follow-up based on their data available at that specific time (N\u2009=\u200921, 55%), using the sequential trial emulations approach (N\u2009=\u200911, 29%) or the cloning approach (N\u2009=\u20096, 16%).

Conclusion

Different methods can be leveraged to address (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias. When working with observational data, and if possible, the 'target trial' framework should be used as it provides a structured conceptual approach to observational research.", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Examine if pre-COVID-19 pandemic (prior March 2020) health-related behaviours during primary school are associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive between 1 March 2020 and 31 August 2021.

Design

Retrospective cohort study using an online cohort survey (January 2018 to February 2020) linked with routine PCR SARS-CoV-2 test results.

Setting

Children attending primary schools in Wales (2018-2020), UK, who were part of the Health and Attainment of Pupils in a Primary Education Network (HAPPEN)_school network.

Participants

Complete linked records of eligible participants were obtained for n=7062 individuals. 39.1% (n=2764) were tested (age 10.6\u00b10.9; 48.9% girls) and 8.1% (n=569) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (age 10.6\u00b11.0; 54.5% girls).

Main outcome measures

Logistic regression of health-related behaviours and demographics were used to determine the ORs of factors associated with (1) being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and (2) testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Results

Consuming sugary snacks (1-2\u2009days/week OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.49; 5-6\u2009days/week OR=1.31, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.61; reference 0 days), can swim 25 m (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.39) and age (OR=1.25, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.35) were associated with an increased likelihood of being tested for SARS-CoV-2. Eating breakfast (OR=1.52, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.27), weekly physical activity \u226560 min (1-2\u2009days OR=1.69, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.74; 3-4\u2009days OR=1.76, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.82; reference 0 days), out-of-school club participation (OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.10), can ride a bike (OR=1.39, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.93), age (OR=1.16, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.28) and girls (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.46) were associated with an increased likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Living in least deprived areas (quintile 4 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.90; quintile 5 OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.89) compared with the most deprived (quintile 1) was associated with a decreased likelihood.

Conclusions

Associations may be related to parental health literacy and monitoring behaviours. Physically active behaviours may include coparticipation with others and exposure to SARS-CoV-2. A risk-versus-benefit approach must be considered in relation to promoting these health behaviours, given the importance of health-related behaviours such as childhood physical activity for development.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e061344.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9453425?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34599903", @@ -5864,6 +5847,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00380-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00380-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8480963" }, + { + "id": "37587484", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9", + "title": "Implementation of the trial emulation approach in medical research: a scoping review.", + "authorString": "Scola G, Chis Ster A, Bean D, Pareek N, Emsley R, Landau S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medical research methodology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Causal Inference; Observational Data; Target Trial; Trial Emulation", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

When conducting randomised controlled trials is impractical, an alternative is to carry out an observational study. However, making valid causal inferences from observational data is challenging because of the risk of several statistical biases. In 2016 Hern\u00e1n and Robins put forward the 'target trial framework' as a guide to best design and analyse observational studies whilst preventing the most common biases. This framework consists of (1) clearly defining a causal question about an intervention, (2) specifying the protocol of the hypothetical trial, and (3) explaining how the observational data will be used to emulate it.

Methods

The aim of this scoping review was to identify and review all explicit attempts of trial emulation studies across all medical fields. Embase, Medline and Web of Science were searched for trial emulation studies published in English from database inception to February 25, 2021. The following information was extracted from studies that were deemed eligible for review: the subject area, the type of observational data that they leveraged, and the statistical methods they used to address the following biases: (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias.

Results

The search resulted in 617 studies, 38 of which we deemed eligible for review. Of those 38 studies, most focused on cardiology, infectious diseases or oncology and the majority used electronic health records/electronic medical records data and cohort studies data. Different statistical methods were used to address confounding at baseline and selection bias, predominantly conditioning on the confounders (N\u2009=\u200918/49, 37%) and inverse probability of censoring weighting (N\u2009=\u20097/20, 35%) respectively. Different approaches were used to address immortal time bias, assigning individuals to treatment strategies at start of follow-up based on their data available at that specific time (N\u2009=\u200921, 55%), using the sequential trial emulations approach (N\u2009=\u200911, 29%) or the cloning approach (N\u2009=\u20096, 16%).

Conclusion

Different methods can be leveraged to address (A) confounding bias, (B) immortal time bias, and (C) selection bias. When working with observational data, and if possible, the 'target trial' framework should be used as it provides a structured conceptual approach to observational research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02000-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10428565?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35909578", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1717", @@ -5898,23 +5898,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/doi/10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010562/2061976/bloodadvances.2023010562.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010562; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506044; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506044?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37340508", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0", - "title": "CNETML: maximum likelihood inference of phylogeny from copy number profiles of multiple samples.", - "authorString": "Lu B, Curtius K, Graham TA, Yang Z, Barnes CP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Genome biology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Maximum likelihood; Copy Number Alteration; Phylogeny Inference; Low-coverage Sequencing; Model Of Evolution", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Phylogenetic trees based on copy number profiles from multiple samples of a patient are helpful to understand cancer evolution. Here, we develop a new maximum likelihood method, CNETML, to infer phylogenies from such data. CNETML is the first program to jointly infer the tree topology, node ages, and mutation rates from total copy numbers of longitudinal samples. Our extensive simulations suggest CNETML performs well on copy numbers relative to ploidy and under slight violation of model assumptions. The application of CNETML to real data generates results consistent with previous discoveries and provides novel early copy number events for further investigation.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36481043", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(22)00389-2", @@ -5932,6 +5915,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(22)00389-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(22)00389-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757903?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37340508", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0", + "title": "CNETML: maximum likelihood inference of phylogeny from copy number profiles of multiple samples.", + "authorString": "Lu B, Curtius K, Graham TA, Yang Z, Barnes CP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Genome biology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Maximum likelihood; Copy Number Alteration; Phylogeny Inference; Low-coverage Sequencing; Model Of Evolution", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Phylogenetic trees based on copy number profiles from multiple samples of a patient are helpful to understand cancer evolution. Here, we develop a new maximum likelihood method, CNETML, to infer phylogenies from such data. CNETML is the first program to jointly infer the tree topology, node ages, and mutation rates from total copy numbers of longitudinal samples. Our extensive simulations suggest CNETML performs well on copy numbers relative to ploidy and under slight violation of model assumptions. The application of CNETML to real data generates results consistent with previous discoveries and provides novel early copy number events for further investigation.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02983-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10283241?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36716318", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004174", @@ -5966,6 +5966,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12859-022-04641-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04641-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974006; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974006?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35173150", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28527-x", + "title": "Population antibody responses following COVID-19 vaccination in 212,102 individuals.", + "authorString": "Ward H, Whitaker M, Flower B, Tang SN, Atchison C, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Cann A, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Riley S, Barclay WS, Elliott P, Cooke GS.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-02-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Population antibody surveillance helps track immune responses to COVID-19 vaccinations at scale, and identify host factors that may affect antibody production. We analyse data from 212,102 vaccinated individuals within the REACT-2 programme in England, which uses self-administered lateral flow antibody tests in sequential cross-sectional community samples; 71,923 (33.9%) received at least one dose of BNT162b2 vaccine and 139,067 (65.6%) received ChAdOx1. For both vaccines, antibody positivity peaks 4-5 weeks after first dose and then declines. At least 21 days after second dose of BNT162b2, close to 100% of respondents test positive, while for ChAdOx1, this is significantly reduced, particularly in the oldest age groups (72.7% [70.9-74.4] at ages 75 years and above). For both vaccines, antibody positivity decreases with age, and is higher in females and those with previous infection. Antibody positivity is lower in transplant recipients, obese individuals, smokers and those with specific comorbidities. These groups will benefit from additional vaccine doses.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28527-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28527-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850615; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850615?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32946449", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237676", @@ -5984,21 +6001,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237676&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237676; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7500586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7500586?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35173150", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28527-x", - "title": "Population antibody responses following COVID-19 vaccination in 212,102 individuals.", - "authorString": "Ward H, Whitaker M, Flower B, Tang SN, Atchison C, Darzi A, Donnelly CA, Cann A, Diggle PJ, Ashby D, Riley S, Barclay WS, Elliott P, Cooke GS.", + "id": "37634386", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014", + "title": "Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in incidence of severe mental illness - A population-based linkage study using primary and secondary care routinely collected data between 2000 and 2017.", + "authorString": "Lee SC, DelPozo-Banos M, Lloyd K, Jones I, Walters JTR, John A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-02-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-25", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Deprivation; Severe Mental Illness; Inequality; Recession; Urbanicity; Austerity", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Population antibody surveillance helps track immune responses to COVID-19 vaccinations at scale, and identify host factors that may affect antibody production. We analyse data from 212,102 vaccinated individuals within the REACT-2 programme in England, which uses self-administered lateral flow antibody tests in sequential cross-sectional community samples; 71,923 (33.9%) received at least one dose of BNT162b2 vaccine and 139,067 (65.6%) received ChAdOx1. For both vaccines, antibody positivity peaks 4-5 weeks after first dose and then declines. At least 21 days after second dose of BNT162b2, close to 100% of respondents test positive, while for ChAdOx1, this is significantly reduced, particularly in the oldest age groups (72.7% [70.9-74.4] at ages 75 years and above). For both vaccines, antibody positivity decreases with age, and is higher in females and those with previous infection. Antibody positivity is lower in transplant recipients, obese individuals, smokers and those with specific comorbidities. These groups will benefit from additional vaccine doses.", + "abstract": "

Objective

In 2008, the UK entered a period of economic recession followed by sustained austerity measures. We investigate changes in inequalities by area deprivation and urbanicity in incidence of severe mental illness (SMI, including schizophrenia-related disorders and bipolar disorder) between 2000 and 2017.

Methods

We analysed 4.4 million individuals from primary and secondary care routinely collected datasets (2000-2017) in Wales and estimated the incidence of SMI by deprivation and urbanicity measured by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and urban/rural indicator respectively. Using linear modelling and joinpoint regression approaches, we examined time trends of the incidence and incidence rate ratios (IRR) of SMI by the WIMD and urban/rural indicator adjusted for available confounders.

Results

We observed a turning point of time trends of incidence of SMI at 2008/2009 where slope changes of time trends were significantly increasing. IRRs by deprivation/urbanicity remained stable or significantly decreased over the study period except for those with bipolar disorder sourced from secondary care settings, with increasing trend of IRRs (increase in IRR by deprivation after 2010: 1.6\u00a0% per year, 95\u00a0% CI: 1.0\u00a0%-2.2\u00a0%; increase in IRR by urbanicity 1.0\u00a0% per year, 95\u00a0% CI: 0.6\u00a0%-1.3\u00a0%).

Conclusions

There was an association between recession/austerity and an increase in the incidence of SMI over time. There were variations in the effects of deprivation/urbanicity on incidence of SMI associated with short- and long-term socioeconomic change. These findings may support targeted interventions and social protection systems to reduce incidence of SMI.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28527-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28527-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850615; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850615?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014" }, { "id": "37159441", @@ -6034,23 +6051,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13059-021-02395-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02395-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247108; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247108?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37634386", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014", - "title": "Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in incidence of severe mental illness - A population-based linkage study using primary and secondary care routinely collected data between 2000 and 2017.", - "authorString": "Lee SC, DelPozo-Banos M, Lloyd K, Jones I, Walters JTR, John A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-25", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Deprivation; Severe Mental Illness; Inequality; Recession; Urbanicity; Austerity", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

In 2008, the UK entered a period of economic recession followed by sustained austerity measures. We investigate changes in inequalities by area deprivation and urbanicity in incidence of severe mental illness (SMI, including schizophrenia-related disorders and bipolar disorder) between 2000 and 2017.

Methods

We analysed 4.4 million individuals from primary and secondary care routinely collected datasets (2000-2017) in Wales and estimated the incidence of SMI by deprivation and urbanicity measured by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and urban/rural indicator respectively. Using linear modelling and joinpoint regression approaches, we examined time trends of the incidence and incidence rate ratios (IRR) of SMI by the WIMD and urban/rural indicator adjusted for available confounders.

Results

We observed a turning point of time trends of incidence of SMI at 2008/2009 where slope changes of time trends were significantly increasing. IRRs by deprivation/urbanicity remained stable or significantly decreased over the study period except for those with bipolar disorder sourced from secondary care settings, with increasing trend of IRRs (increase in IRR by deprivation after 2010: 1.6\u00a0% per year, 95\u00a0% CI: 1.0\u00a0%-2.2\u00a0%; increase in IRR by urbanicity 1.0\u00a0% per year, 95\u00a0% CI: 0.6\u00a0%-1.3\u00a0%).

Conclusions

There was an association between recession/austerity and an increase in the incidence of SMI over time. There were variations in the effects of deprivation/urbanicity on incidence of SMI associated with short- and long-term socioeconomic change. These findings may support targeted interventions and social protection systems to reduce incidence of SMI.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.014" - }, { "id": "37185201", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067337", @@ -6221,40 +6221,6 @@ "laySummary": "This study investigated which genes encourage cancer tumors to grow. The study identifies genes and distinguishes their role in different types of cancers. Their method is validated using whole exome and whole genome sequencing", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53454-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53454-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6874647; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6874647?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35726508", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117", - "title": "Improving quantification of anticholinergic burden using the Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition Scale - a healthcare improvement study in a geriatric ward setting.", - "authorString": "Balasundaram B, Ang WST, Stewart R, Bishara D, Ooi CH, Li F, Akram F, Eu Kwek AB.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Dementia; Delirium; Anticholinergic drugs; Anticholinergic Burden Scales; Anticholinergic Effect On Cognition Scale", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Anticholinergic burden refers to the cumulative effects of taking multiple medications with anticholinergic effects. This study was carried out in a public hospital in Singapore, aimed to improve and achieve a 100% comprehensive identification and review of measured, anticholinergic burden in a geriatric psychiatry liaison service to geriatric wards. We evaluated changes in pre-to post-assessment anticholinergic burden scores and trainee feedback.

Method

Plan Do Study Act methodology was employed, and Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition scale (AEC) was implemented as the study intervention. A survey instrument evaluated trainee feedback.

Results

There was no measured anticholinergic burden in a baseline of 170 assessments. 75 liaison psychiatry assessments were conducted between June and November 2021 in two cycles. 94.7% of pre-assessments (at the time of assessment) and 71.1% of post-assessments (following assessment) had a record of AEC scores in clinical documentation in cycle one, improving in the second cycle to 100%, 94.6%, respectively. A high post-assessment AEC score of 3 and over reduced from 15.8% in cycle one to 5.4% in cycle two. The trainee feedback suggested an enriching educational experience.

Conclusions

Using the AEC scale, the findings support the feasibility of comprehensive identification and review of measured anticholinergic burden in older people with neurocognitive disorders.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "35197134", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24", - "title": "Birth without intervention in women with severe mental illness: cohort study.", - "authorString": "Taylor C, Stewart R, Gibson R, Pasupathy D, Shetty H, Howard L.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BJPsych open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-02-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Schizophrenia; epidemiology; Perinatal Psychiatry; Bipolar Affective Disorders; Birth Without Intervention", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Summary

The rate of normal birth outcomes (i.e. full-term births without intervention) for women with severe mental illness (SMI - psychotic and bipolar disorders) is not known. We examined rates of birth without intervention (spontaneous labour onset, spontaneous vaginal delivery without instruments, no episiotomy and no indication of pre- or post-delivery anaesthesia) in women with SMI (584 pregnancies) compared with a control population (70 942 pregnancies). Outcome ratios were calculated standardising for age. Women with SMI were less likely to have a birth without intervention (29.5%) relative to the control population (36.8%) (standardised outcome ratio 0.74, 95% CI 0.63-0.87).", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4FEB5E5A08973A5347ABA87F440CF09B/S2056472422000242a.pdf/div-class-title-birth-without-intervention-in-women-with-severe-mental-illness-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36735963", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/09553002.2023.2173823", @@ -6272,6 +6238,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09553002.2023.2173823; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09553002.2023.2173823" }, + { + "id": "35726508", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117", + "title": "Improving quantification of anticholinergic burden using the Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition Scale - a healthcare improvement study in a geriatric ward setting.", + "authorString": "Balasundaram B, Ang WST, Stewart R, Bishara D, Ooi CH, Li F, Akram F, Eu Kwek AB.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-06-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Dementia; Delirium; Anticholinergic drugs; Anticholinergic Burden Scales; Anticholinergic Effect On Cognition Scale", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Anticholinergic burden refers to the cumulative effects of taking multiple medications with anticholinergic effects. This study was carried out in a public hospital in Singapore, aimed to improve and achieve a 100% comprehensive identification and review of measured, anticholinergic burden in a geriatric psychiatry liaison service to geriatric wards. We evaluated changes in pre-to post-assessment anticholinergic burden scores and trainee feedback.

Method

Plan Do Study Act methodology was employed, and Anticholinergic Effect on Cognition scale (AEC) was implemented as the study intervention. A survey instrument evaluated trainee feedback.

Results

There was no measured anticholinergic burden in a baseline of 170 assessments. 75 liaison psychiatry assessments were conducted between June and November 2021 in two cycles. 94.7% of pre-assessments (at the time of assessment) and 71.1% of post-assessments (following assessment) had a record of AEC scores in clinical documentation in cycle one, improving in the second cycle to 100%, 94.6%, respectively. A high post-assessment AEC score of 3 and over reduced from 15.8% in cycle one to 5.4% in cycle two. The trainee feedback suggested an enriching educational experience.

Conclusions

Using the AEC scale, the findings support the feasibility of comprehensive identification and review of measured anticholinergic burden in older people with neurocognitive disorders.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221103117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9379386?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35927670", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-02902-8", @@ -6289,6 +6272,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12882-022-02902-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-02902-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9351155; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9351155?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35197134", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24", + "title": "Birth without intervention in women with severe mental illness: cohort study.", + "authorString": "Taylor C, Stewart R, Gibson R, Pasupathy D, Shetty H, Howard L.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BJPsych open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-02-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Schizophrenia; epidemiology; Perinatal Psychiatry; Bipolar Affective Disorders; Birth Without Intervention", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Summary

The rate of normal birth outcomes (i.e. full-term births without intervention) for women with severe mental illness (SMI - psychotic and bipolar disorders) is not known. We examined rates of birth without intervention (spontaneous labour onset, spontaneous vaginal delivery without instruments, no episiotomy and no indication of pre- or post-delivery anaesthesia) in women with SMI (584 pregnancies) compared with a control population (70 942 pregnancies). Outcome ratios were calculated standardising for age. Women with SMI were less likely to have a birth without intervention (29.5%) relative to the control population (36.8%) (standardised outcome ratio 0.74, 95% CI 0.63-0.87).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4FEB5E5A08973A5347ABA87F440CF09B/S2056472422000242a.pdf/div-class-title-birth-without-intervention-in-women-with-severe-mental-illness-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.24; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935938?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33240522", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207620965046", @@ -6408,23 +6408,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1121/2984; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473277; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473277?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32723851", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122", - "title": "HDR UK supporting mobilising computable biomedical knowledge in the UK. ", - "authorString": "Sebire NJ, Cake C, Morris AD.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ health & care informatics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Computable biomedical knowledge (CBK) represents an evolving area of health informatics, with potential for rapid translational patient benefit. Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national Institute for Health Data Science, whose aim is to unite the UK's health data to enable discoveries that improve people's lives. The three main components include the UK HDR Alliance of data custodians, committed to making health data available for research and innovation purposes for public benefit while ensuring safe use of data and building public trust, the HDR Hubs, as centres of expertise for curating data and providing expert domain-specific services, and the HDR Innovation Gateway ('Gateway'), providing discovery, accessibility, security and interoperability services. To support CBK developments, HDR UK is encouraging use of open data standards for research purposes, with guidance around areas in which standards are emerging, aims to work closely with the international CBK community to support initiatives and aid with evaluation and collaboration, and has established a phenomics workstream to create a national platform for dissemination of machine readable and computable phenotypical algorithms to reduce duplication of effort and improve reproducibility in clinical studies.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/27/2/e100122.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34376451", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048852", @@ -6443,21 +6426,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/8/e048852.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048852; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359861; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359861?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36224173", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5", - "title": "Outcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study.", - "authorString": "Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Winter AJ, Mills NL, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.", + "id": "32723851", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122", + "title": "HDR UK supporting mobilising computable biomedical knowledge in the UK. ", + "authorString": "Sebire NJ, Cake C, Morris AD.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-12", + "journalTitle": "BMJ health & care informatics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "With increasing numbers infected by SARS-CoV-2, understanding long-COVID is essential to inform health and social care support. A Scottish population cohort of 33,281 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and 62,957 never-infected individuals were followed-up via 6, 12 and 18-month questionnaires and linkage to hospitalization and death records. Of the 31,486 symptomatic infections,1,856 (6%) had not recovered and 13,350 (42%) only partially. No recovery was associated with hospitalized infection, age, female sex, deprivation, respiratory disease, depression and multimorbidity. Previous symptomatic infection was associated with poorer quality of life, impairment across all daily activities and 24 persistent symptoms including breathlessness (OR 3.43, 95% CI 3.29-3.58), palpitations (OR 2.51, OR 2.36-2.66), chest pain (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.96-2.23), and confusion (OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.78-3.07). Asymptomatic infection was not associated with adverse outcomes. Vaccination was associated with reduced risk of seven symptoms. Here we describe the nature of long-COVID and the factors associated with it.", + "abstract": "Computable biomedical knowledge (CBK) represents an evolving area of health informatics, with potential for rapid translational patient benefit. Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national Institute for Health Data Science, whose aim is to unite the UK's health data to enable discoveries that improve people's lives. The three main components include the UK HDR Alliance of data custodians, committed to making health data available for research and innovation purposes for public benefit while ensuring safe use of data and building public trust, the HDR Hubs, as centres of expertise for curating data and providing expert domain-specific services, and the HDR Innovation Gateway ('Gateway'), providing discovery, accessibility, security and interoperability services. To support CBK developments, HDR UK is encouraging use of open data standards for research purposes, with guidance around areas in which standards are emerging, aims to work closely with the international CBK community to support initiatives and aid with evaluation and collaboration, and has established a phenomics workstream to create a national platform for dissemination of machine readable and computable phenotypical algorithms to reduce duplication of effort and improve reproducibility in clinical studies.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/files/64233779/s41467_022_33415_5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/27/2/e100122.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100122; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7388881?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "36745545", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887", + "title": "The use of representative community samples to assess SARS-CoV-2 lineage competition: Alpha outcompetes Beta and wild-type in England from January to March 2021.", + "authorString": "Eales O, Page AJ, Tang SN, Walters CE, Wang H, Haw D, Trotter AJ, Le Viet T, Foster-Nyarko E, Prosolek S, Atchison C, Ashby D, Cooke G, Barclay W, Donnelly CA, O'Grady J, Volz E, The Covid-Genomics Uk Cog-Uk Consortium, Darzi A, Ward H, Elliott P, Riley S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Microbial genomics", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-02-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 lineages informs our understanding of possible future changes in transmissibility and vaccine efficacy and will be a high priority for public health for the foreseeable future. However, small changes in the frequency of one lineage over another are often difficult to interpret because surveillance samples are obtained using a variety of methods all of which are known to contain biases. As a case study, using an approach which is largely free of biases, we here describe lineage dynamics and phylogenetic relationships of the Alpha and Beta variant in England during the first 3 months of 2021 using sequences obtained from a random community sample who provided a throat and nose swab for rt-PCR as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. Overall, diversity decreased during the first quarter of 2021, with the Alpha variant (first identified in Kent) becoming predominant, driven by a reproduction number 0.3 higher than for the prior wild-type. During January, positive samples were more likely to be Alpha in those aged 18 to 54 years old. Although individuals infected with the Alpha variant were no more likely to report one or more classic COVID-19 symptoms compared to those infected with wild-type, they were more likely to be antibody-positive 6 weeks after infection. Further, viral load was higher in those infected with the Alpha variant as measured by cycle threshold (Ct) values. The presence of infections with non-imported Beta variant (first identified in South Africa) during January, but not during February or March, suggests initial establishment in the community followed by fade-out. However, this occurred during a period of stringent social distancing. These results highlight how sequence data from representative community surveys such as REACT-1 can augment routine genomic surveillance during periods of lineage diversity.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36447940", @@ -6494,38 +6494,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.14707" }, { - "id": "33934335", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466", - "title": "Long-term trends in critical care admissions in Wales*. ", - "authorString": "Pugh RJ, Bailey R, Szakmany T, Al Sallakh M, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Battle C, Thorpe C, Subbe CP, Lyons RA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Anaesthesia", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "As national populations age, demands on critical care services are expected to increase. In many healthcare settings, longitudinal trends indicate rising numbers and proportions of patients admitted to ICU who are older; elsewhere, including some parts of the UK, a decrease has raised concerns with regard to rationing according to age. Our aim was to investigate admission trends in Wales, where critical care capacity has not risen in the last decade. We used the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank to identify and characterise critical care admissions in patients aged \u2265 18 years from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2017. We categorised 85,629 ICU admissions as youngest (18-64 years), older (65-79 years) and oldest (\u2265 80 years). The oldest group accounted for 15% of admissions, the older age group 39% and the youngest group 46%. Relative to the national population, the incidence of admission rates per 10,000 population in the oldest group decreased significantly over the study period from 91.5/10,000 in 2008 to 77.5/10,000 (a relative decrease of 15%), and among the older group from 89.2/10,000 in 2008 to 75.3/10,000 in 2017 (a relative decrease of 16%). We observed significant decreases in admissions with high comorbidity (modified Charlson comorbidity index); increases in the proportion of older patients admitted who were considered 'fit' rather than frail (electronic frailty index); and decreases in admissions with a medical diagnosis. In contrast to other healthcare settings, capacity constraints and surgical imperatives appear to have contributed to a relative exclusion of older patients presenting with acute medical illness.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56830/Download/56830__24941__ed34d96421c74ecca52d5a3aaf9afc85.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "36745545", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887", - "title": "The use of representative community samples to assess SARS-CoV-2 lineage competition: Alpha outcompetes Beta and wild-type in England from January to March 2021.", - "authorString": "Eales O, Page AJ, Tang SN, Walters CE, Wang H, Haw D, Trotter AJ, Le Viet T, Foster-Nyarko E, Prosolek S, Atchison C, Ashby D, Cooke G, Barclay W, Donnelly CA, O'Grady J, Volz E, The Covid-Genomics Uk Cog-Uk Consortium, Darzi A, Ward H, Elliott P, Riley S.", + "id": "36224173", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5", + "title": "Outcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study.", + "authorString": "Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, Winter AJ, Mills NL, Black C, Scott JT, O'Donnell CA, Blane DN, Browne S, Ibbotson TR, Pell JP.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Microbial genomics", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-01", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-12", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 lineages informs our understanding of possible future changes in transmissibility and vaccine efficacy and will be a high priority for public health for the foreseeable future. However, small changes in the frequency of one lineage over another are often difficult to interpret because surveillance samples are obtained using a variety of methods all of which are known to contain biases. As a case study, using an approach which is largely free of biases, we here describe lineage dynamics and phylogenetic relationships of the Alpha and Beta variant in England during the first 3 months of 2021 using sequences obtained from a random community sample who provided a throat and nose swab for rt-PCR as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. Overall, diversity decreased during the first quarter of 2021, with the Alpha variant (first identified in Kent) becoming predominant, driven by a reproduction number 0.3 higher than for the prior wild-type. During January, positive samples were more likely to be Alpha in those aged 18 to 54 years old. Although individuals infected with the Alpha variant were no more likely to report one or more classic COVID-19 symptoms compared to those infected with wild-type, they were more likely to be antibody-positive 6 weeks after infection. Further, viral load was higher in those infected with the Alpha variant as measured by cycle threshold (Ct) values. The presence of infections with non-imported Beta variant (first identified in South Africa) during January, but not during February or March, suggests initial establishment in the community followed by fade-out. However, this occurred during a period of stringent social distancing. These results highlight how sequence data from representative community surveys such as REACT-1 can augment routine genomic surveillance during periods of lineage diversity.", + "abstract": "With increasing numbers infected by SARS-CoV-2, understanding long-COVID is essential to inform health and social care support. A Scottish population cohort of 33,281 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and 62,957 never-infected individuals were followed-up via 6, 12 and 18-month questionnaires and linkage to hospitalization and death records. Of the 31,486 symptomatic infections,1,856 (6%) had not recovered and 13,350 (42%) only partially. No recovery was associated with hospitalized infection, age, female sex, deprivation, respiratory disease, depression and multimorbidity. Previous symptomatic infection was associated with poorer quality of life, impairment across all daily activities and 24 persistent symptoms including breathlessness (OR 3.43, 95% CI 3.29-3.58), palpitations (OR 2.51, OR 2.36-2.66), chest pain (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.96-2.23), and confusion (OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.78-3.07). Asymptomatic infection was not associated with adverse outcomes. Vaccination was associated with reduced risk of seven symptoms. Here we describe the nature of long-COVID and the factors associated with it.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000887; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997751?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/files/64233779/s41467_022_33415_5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33415-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556711?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33611594", @@ -6544,6 +6527,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/article-pdf/28/14/1599/41827245/zwaa155.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaa155; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928969; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928969?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33934335", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466", + "title": "Long-term trends in critical care admissions in Wales*. ", + "authorString": "Pugh RJ, Bailey R, Szakmany T, Al Sallakh M, Hollinghurst J, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Battle C, Thorpe C, Subbe CP, Lyons RA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Anaesthesia", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "As national populations age, demands on critical care services are expected to increase. In many healthcare settings, longitudinal trends indicate rising numbers and proportions of patients admitted to ICU who are older; elsewhere, including some parts of the UK, a decrease has raised concerns with regard to rationing according to age. Our aim was to investigate admission trends in Wales, where critical care capacity has not risen in the last decade. We used the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank to identify and characterise critical care admissions in patients aged \u2265 18 years from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2017. We categorised 85,629 ICU admissions as youngest (18-64 years), older (65-79 years) and oldest (\u2265 80 years). The oldest group accounted for 15% of admissions, the older age group 39% and the youngest group 46%. Relative to the national population, the incidence of admission rates per 10,000 population in the oldest group decreased significantly over the study period from 91.5/10,000 in 2008 to 77.5/10,000 (a relative decrease of 15%), and among the older group from 89.2/10,000 in 2008 to 75.3/10,000 in 2017 (a relative decrease of 16%). We observed significant decreases in admissions with high comorbidity (modified Charlson comorbidity index); increases in the proportion of older patients admitted who were considered 'fit' rather than frail (electronic frailty index); and decreases in admissions with a medical diagnosis. In contrast to other healthcare settings, capacity constraints and surgical imperatives appear to have contributed to a relative exclusion of older patients presenting with acute medical illness.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56830/Download/56830__24941__ed34d96421c74ecca52d5a3aaf9afc85.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15466; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138728?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33004880", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73228-4", @@ -6561,6 +6561,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73228-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73228-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7529768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7529768?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33243817", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813", + "title": "COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland (COPS): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.", + "authorString": "Stock SJ, McAllister D, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Stagg HR, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Hopkins L, Donaghy J, Ritchie L, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-11-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Obstetrics; epidemiology; Neonatology; Perinatology; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

The effects of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy are not fully delineated. We will describe the incidence of COVID-19 in pregnancy at population level in Scotland, in a prospective cohort study using linked data. We will determine associations between COVID-19 and adverse pregnancy, neonatal and maternal outcomes and the proportion of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates associated with maternal COVID-19.

Methods and analysis

Prospective cohort study using national linked data sets. We will include all women in Scotland, UK, who were pregnant on or became pregnant after, 1 March 2020 (the date of the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Scotland) and all births in Scotland from 1 March 2020 onwards. Individual-level data will be extracted from data sets containing details of all livebirths, stillbirth, terminations of pregnancy and miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies treated in hospital or attending general practice. Records will be linked within the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, which includes primary care records, virology and serology results and details of COVID-19 Community Hubs and Assessment Centre contacts and deaths. We will perform analyses using definitions for confirmed, probable and possible COVID-19 and report serology results (where available). Outcomes will include congenital anomaly, miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy, preterm birth, neonatal infection, severe maternal disease and maternal deaths. We will perform descriptive analyses and appropriate modelling, adjusting for demographic and pregnancy characteristics and the presence of comorbidities. The cohort will provide a platform for future studies of the effectiveness and safety of therapeutic interventions and immunisations for COVID-19 and their effects on childhood and developmental outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland is a substudy of EAVE II(, which has approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee. Findings will be reported to Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and published in peer-reviewed journals.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e042813.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32499256", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033424", @@ -6595,23 +6612,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-022-01482-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-022-01482-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8981770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8981770?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33243817", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813", - "title": "COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland (COPS): protocol for an observational study using linked Scottish national data.", - "authorString": "Stock SJ, McAllister D, Vasileiou E, Simpson CR, Stagg HR, Agrawal U, McCowan C, Hopkins L, Donaghy J, Ritchie L, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Obstetrics; epidemiology; Neonatology; Perinatology; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

The effects of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy are not fully delineated. We will describe the incidence of COVID-19 in pregnancy at population level in Scotland, in a prospective cohort study using linked data. We will determine associations between COVID-19 and adverse pregnancy, neonatal and maternal outcomes and the proportion of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates associated with maternal COVID-19.

Methods and analysis

Prospective cohort study using national linked data sets. We will include all women in Scotland, UK, who were pregnant on or became pregnant after, 1 March 2020 (the date of the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Scotland) and all births in Scotland from 1 March 2020 onwards. Individual-level data will be extracted from data sets containing details of all livebirths, stillbirth, terminations of pregnancy and miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies treated in hospital or attending general practice. Records will be linked within the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform, which includes primary care records, virology and serology results and details of COVID-19 Community Hubs and Assessment Centre contacts and deaths. We will perform analyses using definitions for confirmed, probable and possible COVID-19 and report serology results (where available). Outcomes will include congenital anomaly, miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy, preterm birth, neonatal infection, severe maternal disease and maternal deaths. We will perform descriptive analyses and appropriate modelling, adjusting for demographic and pregnancy characteristics and the presence of comorbidities. The cohort will provide a platform for future studies of the effectiveness and safety of therapeutic interventions and immunisations for COVID-19 and their effects on childhood and developmental outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland is a substudy of EAVE II(, which has approval from the National Research Ethics Service Committee. Findings will be reported to Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and published in peer-reviewed journals.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/11/e042813.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042813; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7691999?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37236697", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(23)00065-1", @@ -6731,23 +6731,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/21/7886/pdf?version=1604329387; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21217886; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660606?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32704561", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140", - "title": "Prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes'\u00a0or 'at risk' ranges in hospital emergencies with no prior diagnosis of diabetes by gender, age and ethnicity.", - "authorString": "Ghosh S, Manley SE, Nightingale PG, Williams JA, Susarla R, Alonso-Perez I, Stratton IM, Gkoutos GV, Webber J, Luzio SD, Hanif W, Roberts GA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-15", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Hyperglycaemia; Undiagnosed Diabetes; Emergency Admissions", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

To establish the prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes'\u00a0and 'at risk' ranges\u00a0in emergency hospital admissions with no prior diagnosis of diabetes; characteristics of people with hyperglycaemia; and factors influencing glucose measurement.

Methods

Electronic patient records for 113\u00a0097 hospital admissions over 1\u00a0year from 2014 to 2015 included 43\u00a0201 emergencies with glucose available for 31\u00a0927 (74%) admissions, comprising 22\u00a0045 people. Data are presented for 18\u00a0965 people with no prior diagnosis of diabetes and glucose available on first attendance.

Results

Three quarters (14\u00a0214) were White Europeans aged 62 (43-78)\u00a0years, median (IQ range); 12% (2241) South Asians 46 (32-64)\u00a0years; 9% (1726) Unknown/Other ethnicities 43 (29-61)\u00a0years; and 4% (784) Afro-Caribbeans 49 (33-63)\u00a0years, P\u00a0<\u00a0.001. Overall, 5% (1003) had glucose in the 'diabetes'\u00a0range (\u226511.1\u00a0mmol/L) higher at 8% (175) for South Asians; 16% (3042) were 'at risk' (7.8-11.0\u00a0mmol/L), that is 17% (2379) White Europeans, 15% (338) South Asians, 14% (236) Unknown/Others and 11% (89) Afro-Caribbeans, P\u00a0<\u00a0.001. The prevalence for South Asians aged <30\u00a0years was 2.1% and 5.2%, respectively, 2.6% and 8.6% for Afro-Caribbeans <30\u00a0years, and 2.0% and 8.4% for White Europeans <40\u00a0years. Glucose increased with age and was more often in the 'diabetes'\u00a0range for South Asians than White Europeans with South Asian men particularly affected. One third of all emergency admissions were for <24\u00a0hours with 58% of these having glucose measured compared to 82% with duration >24\u00a0hours.

Conclusions

Hyperglycaemia was evident in 21% of adults admitted as an emergency; various aspects related to follow-up and initial testing, age and ethnicity need to be considered by professional bodies addressing undiagnosed diabetes in hospital admissions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/edm2.140; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35474585", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15366", @@ -6766,21 +6749,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15366; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15366; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9541840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9541840?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32877922", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216", - "title": "Frailty Is Associated With Neutrophil Dysfunction Which Is Correctable With Phosphoinositol-3-Kinase Inhibitors.", - "authorString": "Wilson D, Drew W, Jasper A, Crisford H, Nightingale P, Newby P, Jackson T, Lord JM, Sapey E.", + "id": "32704561", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140", + "title": "Prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes'\u00a0or 'at risk' ranges in hospital emergencies with no prior diagnosis of diabetes by gender, age and ethnicity.", + "authorString": "Ghosh S, Manley SE, Nightingale PG, Williams JA, Susarla R, Alonso-Perez I, Stratton IM, Gkoutos GV, Webber J, Luzio SD, Hanif W, Roberts GA.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences", + "journalTitle": "Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-01", + "date": "2020-05-15", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Inflammation; Proteinases; innate immunity; Comorbidity", + "keywords": "Hyperglycaemia; Undiagnosed Diabetes; Emergency Admissions", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Neutrophil dysfunction has been described with age, appears exaggerated in infection, with altered phosphoinositol signaling a potential mechanism. However, functional aging is heterogeneous. Frailty is a negative health status and is more common in older adults. We hypothesized that neutrophil migration may be compromised in frailty, associated with the degree of frailty experienced by the older person. We compared measures of frailty, neutrophil function, and systemic inflammation in 40 young and 77 older community-dwelling adults in the United Kingdom. Systemic neutrophils exhibited an age-associated reduction in the accuracy of migration (chemotaxis) which was further blunted with frailty. The degree of migratory inaccuracy correlated with physical (adjusted hand grip strength) and cognitive (Stroop test) markers of frailty. Regression analysis demonstrated that age, Charlson comorbidity index, and frailty index were able to predict neutrophil chemotaxis. Reduced chemotaxis of neutrophils from frail adults could be reversed using selective PI3K inhibitors. Exposure of neutrophils from young adults to plasma from chronically inflamed frail older adults could not recapitulate the migratory deficit in vitro, and there were no relationships with systemic inflammation and neutrophil dysfunction. Frailty exaggerated the neutrophil deficits seen with advanced age but aspects of the frailty-associated deficit in neutrophil function are rescuable and thus potentially form a therapeutic target to improve outcomes from infection in older adults.", + "abstract": "

Aims

To establish the prevalence of admission plasma glucose in 'diabetes'\u00a0and 'at risk' ranges\u00a0in emergency hospital admissions with no prior diagnosis of diabetes; characteristics of people with hyperglycaemia; and factors influencing glucose measurement.

Methods

Electronic patient records for 113\u00a0097 hospital admissions over 1\u00a0year from 2014 to 2015 included 43\u00a0201 emergencies with glucose available for 31\u00a0927 (74%) admissions, comprising 22\u00a0045 people. Data are presented for 18\u00a0965 people with no prior diagnosis of diabetes and glucose available on first attendance.

Results

Three quarters (14\u00a0214) were White Europeans aged 62 (43-78)\u00a0years, median (IQ range); 12% (2241) South Asians 46 (32-64)\u00a0years; 9% (1726) Unknown/Other ethnicities 43 (29-61)\u00a0years; and 4% (784) Afro-Caribbeans 49 (33-63)\u00a0years, P\u00a0<\u00a0.001. Overall, 5% (1003) had glucose in the 'diabetes'\u00a0range (\u226511.1\u00a0mmol/L) higher at 8% (175) for South Asians; 16% (3042) were 'at risk' (7.8-11.0\u00a0mmol/L), that is 17% (2379) White Europeans, 15% (338) South Asians, 14% (236) Unknown/Others and 11% (89) Afro-Caribbeans, P\u00a0<\u00a0.001. The prevalence for South Asians aged <30\u00a0years was 2.1% and 5.2%, respectively, 2.6% and 8.6% for Afro-Caribbeans <30\u00a0years, and 2.0% and 8.4% for White Europeans <40\u00a0years. Glucose increased with age and was more often in the 'diabetes'\u00a0range for South Asians than White Europeans with South Asian men particularly affected. One third of all emergency admissions were for <24\u00a0hours with 58% of these having glucose measured compared to 82% with duration >24\u00a0hours.

Conclusions

Hyperglycaemia was evident in 21% of adults admitted as an emergency; various aspects related to follow-up and initial testing, age and ethnicity need to be considered by professional bodies addressing undiagnosed diabetes in hospital admissions.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article-pdf/75/12/2320/34289886/glaa216.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/edm2.140; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.140; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375073?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35608440", @@ -6799,6 +6782,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9161371; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq4411; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161371; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161371?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32877922", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216", + "title": "Frailty Is Associated With Neutrophil Dysfunction Which Is Correctable With Phosphoinositol-3-Kinase Inhibitors.", + "authorString": "Wilson D, Drew W, Jasper A, Crisford H, Nightingale P, Newby P, Jackson T, Lord JM, Sapey E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-11-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Inflammation; Proteinases; innate immunity; Comorbidity", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Neutrophil dysfunction has been described with age, appears exaggerated in infection, with altered phosphoinositol signaling a potential mechanism. However, functional aging is heterogeneous. Frailty is a negative health status and is more common in older adults. We hypothesized that neutrophil migration may be compromised in frailty, associated with the degree of frailty experienced by the older person. We compared measures of frailty, neutrophil function, and systemic inflammation in 40 young and 77 older community-dwelling adults in the United Kingdom. Systemic neutrophils exhibited an age-associated reduction in the accuracy of migration (chemotaxis) which was further blunted with frailty. The degree of migratory inaccuracy correlated with physical (adjusted hand grip strength) and cognitive (Stroop test) markers of frailty. Regression analysis demonstrated that age, Charlson comorbidity index, and frailty index were able to predict neutrophil chemotaxis. Reduced chemotaxis of neutrophils from frail adults could be reversed using selective PI3K inhibitors. Exposure of neutrophils from young adults to plasma from chronically inflamed frail older adults could not recapitulate the migratory deficit in vitro, and there were no relationships with systemic inflammation and neutrophil dysfunction. Frailty exaggerated the neutrophil deficits seen with advanced age but aspects of the frailty-associated deficit in neutrophil function are rescuable and thus potentially form a therapeutic target to improve outcomes from infection in older adults.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article-pdf/75/12/2320/34289886/glaa216.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7662170?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34722933", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16507.1", @@ -6833,6 +6833,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ebooks.iospress.nl/pdf/doi/10.3233/SHTI230319; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI230319" }, + { + "id": "34957254", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287", + "title": "Radiomics Analysis Derived From LGE-MRI Predict Sudden Cardiac Death in Participants With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.", + "authorString": "Wang J, Bravo L, Zhang J, Liu W, Wan K, Sun J, Zhu Y, Han Y, Gkoutos GV, Chen Y.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Sudden Cardiac Death; Machine Learning; Late Gadolinium Enhancement; Radiomics", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Objectives: To identify significant radiomics features derived from late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) images in participants with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and assess their prognostic value in predicting sudden cardiac death (SCD) endpoint. Method: The 157 radiomic features of 379 sequential participants with HCM who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were extracted. CoxNet (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Elastic Net) and Random Forest models were applied to optimize feature selection for the SCD risk prediction and cross-validation was performed. Results: During a median follow-up of 29 months (interquartile range, 20-42 months), 27 participants with HCM experienced SCD events. Cox analysis revealed that two selected features, local binary patterns (LBP) (19) (hazard ratio (HR), 1.028, 95% CI: 1.032-1.134; P = 0.001) and Moment (1) (HR, 1.212, 95%CI: 1.032-1.423; P = 0.02) provided significant prognostic value to predict the SCD endpoints after adjustment for the clinical risk predictors and late gadolinium enhancement. Furthermore, the univariately significant risk predictor was improved by the addition of the selected radiomics features, LBP (19) and Moment (1), to predict SCD events (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The radiomics features of LBP (19) and Moment (1) extracted from LGE images, reflecting scar heterogeneity, have independent prognostic value in identifying high SCD risk patients with HCM.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33565992", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/22164", @@ -6867,23 +6884,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264529&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264529; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880762?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34957254", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287", - "title": "Radiomics Analysis Derived From LGE-MRI Predict Sudden Cardiac Death in Participants With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.", - "authorString": "Wang J, Bravo L, Zhang J, Liu W, Wan K, Sun J, Zhu Y, Han Y, Gkoutos GV, Chen Y.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Sudden Cardiac Death; Machine Learning; Late Gadolinium Enhancement; Radiomics", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Objectives: To identify significant radiomics features derived from late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) images in participants with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and assess their prognostic value in predicting sudden cardiac death (SCD) endpoint. Method: The 157 radiomic features of 379 sequential participants with HCM who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were extracted. CoxNet (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Elastic Net) and Random Forest models were applied to optimize feature selection for the SCD risk prediction and cross-validation was performed. Results: During a median follow-up of 29 months (interquartile range, 20-42 months), 27 participants with HCM experienced SCD events. Cox analysis revealed that two selected features, local binary patterns (LBP) (19) (hazard ratio (HR), 1.028, 95% CI: 1.032-1.134; P = 0.001) and Moment (1) (HR, 1.212, 95%CI: 1.032-1.423; P = 0.02) provided significant prognostic value to predict the SCD endpoints after adjustment for the clinical risk predictors and late gadolinium enhancement. Furthermore, the univariately significant risk predictor was improved by the addition of the selected radiomics features, LBP (19) and Moment (1), to predict SCD events (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The radiomics features of LBP (19) and Moment (1) extracted from LGE images, reflecting scar heterogeneity, have independent prognostic value in identifying high SCD risk patients with HCM.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.766287; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8702805?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32576605", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214051", @@ -6901,23 +6901,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/74/10/861.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307459; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307459?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34514500", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459", - "title": "The Impact of Cocirculating Pathogens on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/Coronavirus Disease 2019 Surveillance: How Concurrent Epidemics May Introduce Bias and Decrease the Observed SARS-CoV-2 Percentage Positivity.", - "authorString": "Kovacevic A, Eggo RM, Baguelin M, Domenech de Cell\u00e8s M, Opatowski L.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of infectious diseases", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mathematical Modeling; Multiplex Testing; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Surveillance; Cocirculating Respiratory Viruses", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Circulation of seasonal non-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) respiratory viruses with syndromic overlap during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may alter the quality of COVID-19 surveillance, with possible consequences for real-time analysis and delay in implementation of control measures.

Methods

Using a multipathogen susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) transmission model formalizing cocirculation of SARS-CoV-2 and another respiratory virus, we assessed how an outbreak of secondary virus may affect 2 COVID-19 surveillance indicators: testing demand and positivity. Using simulation, we assessed to what extent the use of multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests on a subsample of symptomatic individuals can help correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity and improve surveillance quality.

Results

We find that a non-SARS-CoV-2 epidemic strongly increases SARS-CoV-2 daily testing demand and artificially reduces the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity for the duration of the outbreak. We estimate that performing 1 multiplex test for every 1000 COVID-19 tests on symptomatic individuals could be sufficient to maintain surveillance of other respiratory viruses in the population and correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity.

Conclusions

This study showed that cocirculating respiratory viruses can distort SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Correction of the positivity rate can be achieved by using multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests, and a low number of samples is sufficient to avoid bias in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-pdf/225/2/199/42224165/jiab459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34983063", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btab879", @@ -6935,6 +6918,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/38/6/1639/42744567/btab879.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btab879; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8896646; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8896646?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34514500", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459", + "title": "The Impact of Cocirculating Pathogens on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/Coronavirus Disease 2019 Surveillance: How Concurrent Epidemics May Introduce Bias and Decrease the Observed SARS-CoV-2 Percentage Positivity.", + "authorString": "Kovacevic A, Eggo RM, Baguelin M, Domenech de Cell\u00e8s M, Opatowski L.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of infectious diseases", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mathematical Modeling; Multiplex Testing; Sars-cov-2; Covid-19 Surveillance; Cocirculating Respiratory Viruses", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Circulation of seasonal non-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) respiratory viruses with syndromic overlap during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may alter the quality of COVID-19 surveillance, with possible consequences for real-time analysis and delay in implementation of control measures.

Methods

Using a multipathogen susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) transmission model formalizing cocirculation of SARS-CoV-2 and another respiratory virus, we assessed how an outbreak of secondary virus may affect 2 COVID-19 surveillance indicators: testing demand and positivity. Using simulation, we assessed to what extent the use of multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests on a subsample of symptomatic individuals can help correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity and improve surveillance quality.

Results

We find that a non-SARS-CoV-2 epidemic strongly increases SARS-CoV-2 daily testing demand and artificially reduces the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity for the duration of the outbreak. We estimate that performing 1 multiplex test for every 1000 COVID-19 tests on symptomatic individuals could be sufficient to maintain surveillance of other respiratory viruses in the population and correct the observed SARS-CoV-2 percentage positivity.

Conclusions

This study showed that cocirculating respiratory viruses can distort SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Correction of the positivity rate can be achieved by using multiplex polymerase chain reaction tests, and a low number of samples is sufficient to avoid bias in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-pdf/225/2/199/42224165/jiab459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab459; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763960?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35505353", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02349-6", @@ -7020,23 +7020,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-021-01522-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01522-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8289859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8289859?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34693751", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332", - "title": "The diagnosis of asthma. Can physiological tests of small airways function help?", - "authorString": "Almeshari MA, Stockley J, Sapey E.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Chronic respiratory disease", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Diagnosis; Asthma; Spirometry; Oscillometry; Small Airways Function", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Asthma is a common, chronic, and heterogeneous disease with a global impact and substantial economic costs. It is also associated with significant mortality and morbidity and the burden of undiagnosed asthma is significant. Asthma can be difficult to diagnose as there is no gold standard test and, while spirometry is central in diagnosing asthma, it may not be sufficient to confirm or exclude the diagnosis. The most commonly reported spirometric measures (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity assess function in the larger airways. However, small airway dysfunction is highly prevalent in asthma and some studies suggest small airway involvement is one of the earliest disease manifestations. Moreover, there are new inhaled therapies with ultrafine particles that are specifically designed to target the small airways. Potentially, tests of small airways may more accurately diagnose early or mild asthma and assess the response to treatment than spirometry. Furthermore, some assessment techniques do not rely on forced ventilatory manoeuvres and may, therefore, be easier for certain groups to perform. This review discusses the current evidence of small airways tests in asthma and future research that may be needed to further assess their utility.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14799731211053332; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35581158", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac098", @@ -7054,6 +7037,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10149895/1/afac098.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac098; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9113942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9113942?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34693751", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332", + "title": "The diagnosis of asthma. Can physiological tests of small airways function help?", + "authorString": "Almeshari MA, Stockley J, Sapey E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Chronic respiratory disease", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Diagnosis; Asthma; Spirometry; Oscillometry; Small Airways Function", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Asthma is a common, chronic, and heterogeneous disease with a global impact and substantial economic costs. It is also associated with significant mortality and morbidity and the burden of undiagnosed asthma is significant. Asthma can be difficult to diagnose as there is no gold standard test and, while spirometry is central in diagnosing asthma, it may not be sufficient to confirm or exclude the diagnosis. The most commonly reported spirometric measures (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity assess function in the larger airways. However, small airway dysfunction is highly prevalent in asthma and some studies suggest small airway involvement is one of the earliest disease manifestations. Moreover, there are new inhaled therapies with ultrafine particles that are specifically designed to target the small airways. Potentially, tests of small airways may more accurately diagnose early or mild asthma and assess the response to treatment than spirometry. Furthermore, some assessment techniques do not rely on forced ventilatory manoeuvres and may, therefore, be easier for certain groups to perform. This review discusses the current evidence of small airways tests in asthma and future research that may be needed to further assess their utility.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14799731211053332; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/14799731211053332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8543738?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33879450", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319118", @@ -7071,23 +7071,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/18/1480.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8408584; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8408584?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33838587", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460", - "title": "Competition between RSV and influenza: Limits of modelling inference from surveillance data.", - "authorString": "Waterlow NR, Flasche S, Minter A, Eggo RM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Epidemics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Interaction; Competition; Influenza; Respiratory syncytial virus; Inference", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Influenza cause a large burden of disease. Evidence of their interaction via temporary cross-protection implies that prevention of one could inadvertently lead to an increase in the burden of the other. However, evidence for the public health impact of such interaction is sparse and largely derives from ecological analyses of peak shifts in surveillance data. To test the robustness of estimates of interaction parameters between RSV and Influenza from surveillance data we conducted a simulation and back-inference study. We developed a two-pathogen interaction model, parameterised to simulate RSV and Influenza epidemiology in the UK. Using the infection model in combination with a surveillance-like stochastic observation process we generated a range of possible RSV and Influenza trajectories and then used Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to back-infer parameters including those describing competition. We find that in most scenarios both the strength and duration of RSV and Influenza interaction could be estimated from the simulated surveillance data reasonably well. However, the robustness of inference declined towards the extremes of the plausible parameter ranges, with misleading results. It was for instance not possible to tell the difference between low/moderate interaction and no interaction. In conclusion, our results illustrate that in a plausible parameter range, the strength of RSV and Influenza interaction can be estimated from a single season of high-quality surveillance data but also highlights the importance to test parameter identifiability a priori in such situations.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193815" - }, { "id": "35310465", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1697", @@ -7122,6 +7105,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8581917; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8581917?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33838587", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460", + "title": "Competition between RSV and influenza: Limits of modelling inference from surveillance data.", + "authorString": "Waterlow NR, Flasche S, Minter A, Eggo RM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Epidemics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Interaction; Competition; Influenza; Respiratory syncytial virus; Inference", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Influenza cause a large burden of disease. Evidence of their interaction via temporary cross-protection implies that prevention of one could inadvertently lead to an increase in the burden of the other. However, evidence for the public health impact of such interaction is sparse and largely derives from ecological analyses of peak shifts in surveillance data. To test the robustness of estimates of interaction parameters between RSV and Influenza from surveillance data we conducted a simulation and back-inference study. We developed a two-pathogen interaction model, parameterised to simulate RSV and Influenza epidemiology in the UK. Using the infection model in combination with a surveillance-like stochastic observation process we generated a range of possible RSV and Influenza trajectories and then used Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to back-infer parameters including those describing competition. We find that in most scenarios both the strength and duration of RSV and Influenza interaction could be estimated from the simulated surveillance data reasonably well. However, the robustness of inference declined towards the extremes of the plausible parameter ranges, with misleading results. It was for instance not possible to tell the difference between low/moderate interaction and no interaction. In conclusion, our results illustrate that in a plausible parameter range, the strength of RSV and Influenza interaction can be estimated from a single season of high-quality surveillance data but also highlights the importance to test parameter identifiability a priori in such situations.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100460; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193815" + }, { "id": "34261639", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1592", @@ -7173,23 +7173,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.119.012812; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.012812; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6898825; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6898825?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36543718", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402", - "title": "SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination.", - "authorString": "Liew F, Talwar S, Cross A, Willett BJ, Scott S, Logan N, Siggins MK, Swieboda D, Sidhu JK, Efstathiou C, Moore SC, Davis C, Mohamed N, Nunag J, King C, Thompson AAR, Rowland-Jones SL, Docherty AB, Chalmers JD, Ho LP, Horsley A, Raman B, Poinasamy K, Marks M, Kon OM, Howard L, Wootton DG, Dunachie S, Quint JK, Evans RA, Wain LV, Fontanella S, de Silva TI, Ho A, Harrison E, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Brightling C, Thwaites RS, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, ISARIC4C Investigators, PHOSP-COVID collaborative group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-12-19", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Vaccination; Mucosal immunity; Convalescent; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Immunity; Sars-cov-2 Variants; Nasal Antibody", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced.

Methods

In this follow up study, plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data.

Findings

Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months (p\u00a0<\u00a00.0001). Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months (p\u00a0<\u00a00.0001) with plasma neutralising titres that were raised against all variants compared to controls (p\u00a0<\u00a00.0001). Of 323 with complete data, 307 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal (1.46-fold change after 10 months, p\u00a0=\u00a00.011) and the median remained below the positive threshold determined by pre-pandemic controls. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG anti-S responses (R\u00a0=\u00a00.05, p\u00a0=\u00a00.18), indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination.

Interpretation

The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity.

Funding

This study has been supported by ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. ISARIC4C is supported by grants from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre provided infrastructure support for this research. The PHOSP-COVD study is jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation and National Institute of Health and Care Research. The funders were not involved in the study design, interpretation of data or the writing of this manuscript.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34183342", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046392", @@ -7207,6 +7190,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e046392.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8245289; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8245289?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36543718", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402", + "title": "SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination.", + "authorString": "Liew F, Talwar S, Cross A, Willett BJ, Scott S, Logan N, Siggins MK, Swieboda D, Sidhu JK, Efstathiou C, Moore SC, Davis C, Mohamed N, Nunag J, King C, Thompson AAR, Rowland-Jones SL, Docherty AB, Chalmers JD, Ho LP, Horsley A, Raman B, Poinasamy K, Marks M, Kon OM, Howard L, Wootton DG, Dunachie S, Quint JK, Evans RA, Wain LV, Fontanella S, de Silva TI, Ho A, Harrison E, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Brightling C, Thwaites RS, Turtle L, Openshaw PJM, ISARIC4C Investigators, PHOSP-COVID collaborative group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-12-19", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Vaccination; Mucosal immunity; Convalescent; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Immunity; Sars-cov-2 Variants; Nasal Antibody", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Most studies of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 focus on circulating antibody, giving limited insights into mucosal defences that prevent viral replication and onward transmission. We studied nasal and plasma antibody responses one year after hospitalisation for COVID-19, including a period when SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was introduced.

Methods

In this follow up study, plasma and nasosorption samples were prospectively collected from 446 adults hospitalised for COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 via the ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. IgA and IgG responses to NP and S of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta and Omicron (BA.1) variants were measured by electrochemiluminescence and compared with plasma neutralisation data.

Findings

Strong and consistent nasal anti-NP and anti-S IgA responses were demonstrated, which remained elevated for nine months (p\u00a0<\u00a00.0001). Nasal and plasma anti-S IgG remained elevated for at least 12 months (p\u00a0<\u00a00.0001) with plasma neutralising titres that were raised against all variants compared to controls (p\u00a0<\u00a00.0001). Of 323 with complete data, 307 were vaccinated between 6 and 12 months; coinciding with rises in nasal and plasma IgA and IgG anti-S titres for all SARS-CoV-2 variants, although the change in nasal IgA was minimal (1.46-fold change after 10 months, p\u00a0=\u00a00.011) and the median remained below the positive threshold determined by pre-pandemic controls. Samples 12 months after admission showed no association between nasal IgA and plasma IgG anti-S responses (R\u00a0=\u00a00.05, p\u00a0=\u00a00.18), indicating that nasal IgA responses are distinct from those in plasma and minimally boosted by vaccination.

Interpretation

The decline in nasal IgA responses 9 months after infection and minimal impact of subsequent vaccination may explain the lack of long-lasting nasal defence against reinfection and the limited effects of vaccination on transmission. These findings highlight the need to develop vaccines that enhance nasal immunity.

Funding

This study has been supported by ISARIC4C and PHOSP-COVID consortia. ISARIC4C is supported by grants from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre provided infrastructure support for this research. The PHOSP-COVD study is jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation and National Institute of Health and Care Research. The funders were not involved in the study design, interpretation of data or the writing of this manuscript.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104402; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9762734?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34644365", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258484", @@ -7241,23 +7241,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1715/3382; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1715; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9135049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9135049?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37185641", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022", - "title": "EXAcerbations of COPD and their OutcomeS on CardioVascular diseases (EXACOS-CV) Programme: protocol of multicountry observational cohort studies.", - "authorString": "Nordon C, Rhodes K, Quint JK, Vogelmeier CF, Simons SO, Hawkins NM, Marshall J, Ouwens M, Garbe E, M\u00fcllerov\u00e1 H.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Cardiology; Vascular Medicine; Chronic Airways Disease", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the risk of certain cardiovascular (CV) events is increased by threefold to fivefold in the year following acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD), compared with a non-exacerbation period. While the effect of severe AECOPD is well established, the relationship of moderate exacerbation or prior exacerbation to elevated risk of CV events is less clear. We will conduct cohort studies in multiple countries to further characterise the association between AECOPD and CV events.

Methods and analysis

Retrospective longitudinal cohort studies will be conducted within routinely collected electronic healthcare records or claims databases. The study cohorts will include patients meeting inclusion criteria for COPD between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018. Moderate exacerbation is defined as an outpatient visit and/or medication dispensation/prescription for exacerbation; severe exacerbation is defined as hospitalisation for COPD. The primary outcomes of interest are the time to (1) first hospitalisation for a CV event (including acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, arrhythmias or cerebral ischaemia) since cohort entry or (2) death. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazards models will compare the hazard of a CV event between exposed periods following exacerbation (split into these periods: 1-7, 8-14, 15-30, 31-180 and 181-365 days) and the unexposed reference time period, adjusted on time-fixed and time-varying confounders.

Ethics and dissemination

Studies have been approved in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, where an institutional review board is mandated. For each study, the results will be published in peer-reviewed journals.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/4/e070022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34632260", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkab042", @@ -7293,21 +7276,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooad072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10474970; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10474970?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35255492", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6", - "title": "Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19.", - "authorString": "Kousathanas A, Pairo-Castineira E, Rawlik K, Stuckey A, Odhams CA, Walker S, Russell CD, Malinauskas T, Wu Y, Millar J, Shen X, Elliott KS, Griffiths F, Oosthuyzen W, Morrice K, Keating S, Wang B, Rhodes D, Klaric L, Zechner M, Parkinson N, Siddiq A, Goddard P, Donovan S, Maslove D, Nichol A, Semple MG, Zainy T, Maleady-Crowe F, Todd L, Salehi S, Knight J, Elgar G, Chan G, Arumugam P, Patch C, Rendon A, Bentley D, Kingsley C, Kosmicki JA, Horowitz JE, Baras A, Abecasis GR, Ferreira MAR, Justice A, Mirshahi T, Oetjens M, Rader DJ, Ritchie MD, Verma A, Fowler TA, Shankar-Hari M, Summers C, Hinds C, Horby P, Ling L, McAuley D, Montgomery H, Openshaw PJM, Elliott P, Walsh T, Tenesa A, GenOMICC investigators, 23andMe investigators, COVID-19 Human Genetics Initiative, Fawkes A, Murphy L, Rowan K, Ponting CP, Vitart V, Wilson JF, Yang J, Bretherick AD, Scott RH, Hendry SC, Moutsianas L, Law A, Caulfield MJ, Baillie JK.", + "id": "37185641", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022", + "title": "EXAcerbations of COPD and their OutcomeS on CardioVascular diseases (EXACOS-CV) Programme: protocol of multicountry observational cohort studies.", + "authorString": "Nordon C, Rhodes K, Quint JK, Vogelmeier CF, Simons SO, Hawkins NM, Marshall J, Ouwens M, Garbe E, M\u00fcllerov\u00e1 H.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-07", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-26", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Cardiology; Vascular Medicine; Chronic Airways Disease", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2-4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes-including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)-in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the risk of certain cardiovascular (CV) events is increased by threefold to fivefold in the year following acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD), compared with a non-exacerbation period. While the effect of severe AECOPD is well established, the relationship of moderate exacerbation or prior exacerbation to elevated risk of CV events is less clear. We will conduct cohort studies in multiple countries to further characterise the association between AECOPD and CV events.

Methods and analysis

Retrospective longitudinal cohort studies will be conducted within routinely collected electronic healthcare records or claims databases. The study cohorts will include patients meeting inclusion criteria for COPD between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018. Moderate exacerbation is defined as an outpatient visit and/or medication dispensation/prescription for exacerbation; severe exacerbation is defined as hospitalisation for COPD. The primary outcomes of interest are the time to (1) first hospitalisation for a CV event (including acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, arrhythmias or cerebral ischaemia) since cohort entry or (2) death. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazards models will compare the hazard of a CV event between exposed periods following exacerbation (split into these periods: 1-7, 8-14, 15-30, 31-180 and 181-365 days) and the unexposed reference time period, adjusted on time-fixed and time-varying confounders.

Ethics and dissemination

Studies have been approved in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, where an institutional review board is mandated. For each study, the results will be published in peer-reviewed journals.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04576-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/4/e070022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10151875?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33842409", @@ -7344,21 +7327,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/3/680/pdf?version=1679031223; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030680; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10057771; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10057771?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36036238", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180", - "title": "Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led allergy clinic model in primary care: Feasibility trial.", - "authorString": "Hammersley V, Kelman M, Morrice L, Kendall M, Mukerjhee M, Harley S, Schwarze J, Sheikh A.", + "id": "35255492", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6", + "title": "Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19.", + "authorString": "Kousathanas A, Pairo-Castineira E, Rawlik K, Stuckey A, Odhams CA, Walker S, Russell CD, Malinauskas T, Wu Y, Millar J, Shen X, Elliott KS, Griffiths F, Oosthuyzen W, Morrice K, Keating S, Wang B, Rhodes D, Klaric L, Zechner M, Parkinson N, Siddiq A, Goddard P, Donovan S, Maslove D, Nichol A, Semple MG, Zainy T, Maleady-Crowe F, Todd L, Salehi S, Knight J, Elgar G, Chan G, Arumugam P, Patch C, Rendon A, Bentley D, Kingsley C, Kosmicki JA, Horowitz JE, Baras A, Abecasis GR, Ferreira MAR, Justice A, Mirshahi T, Oetjens M, Rader DJ, Ritchie MD, Verma A, Fowler TA, Shankar-Hari M, Summers C, Hinds C, Horby P, Ling L, McAuley D, Montgomery H, Openshaw PJM, Elliott P, Walsh T, Tenesa A, GenOMICC investigators, 23andMe investigators, COVID-19 Human Genetics Initiative, Fawkes A, Murphy L, Rowan K, Ponting CP, Vitart V, Wilson JF, Yang J, Bretherick AD, Scott RH, Hendry SC, Moutsianas L, Law A, Caulfield MJ, Baillie JK.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical and translational allergy", + "journalTitle": "Nature", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-01", + "date": "2022-03-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Allergy; Quality of life; Primary Care", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

It is now widely acknowledged that there are serious shortcomings in allergy care provision for patients seen in primary care. We sought to assess the feasibility of delivering and evaluating a new nurse-led allergy service in primary care, measured by recruitment, retention and estimates of the potential impact of the intervention on disease-specific quality of life.

Methods

Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led primary care-based allergy clinic in Edinburgh, UK undertaken during the period 2017-2021 with a focus on suspected food allergy and atopic eczema in young children, allergic rhinitis in children and young people, and suspected anaphylaxis in adults. Prior to March 2020, patients were seen face-to-face (Phase 1). Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, recruitment was halted between March-August 2020, and a remote clinic was restarted in September 2020 (Phase 2). Disease-specific quality of life was measured at baseline and 6-12\u00a0weeks post intervention using validated instruments. Quantitative data were descriptively analysed. We undertook interviews with 16 carers/patients and nine healthcare professionals, which were thematically analysed.

Results

During Phase 1, 426/506 (84%) referred patients met the eligibility criteria; 40/46 (87%) of Phase 2 referrals were eligible. Males and females were recruited in approximately equal numbers. The majority (83%) of referrals were for possible food allergy or anaphylaxis. Complete data were available for 338/426 (79%) patients seen in Phase 1 and 30/40 (75%) in Phase 2. Compared with baseline assessments, there were improvements in disease-specific quality of life for most categories of patients. Patients/carers and healthcare professionals reported high levels of satisfaction, this being reinforced by the qualitative interviews in which convenience and speed of access to expert opinion, the quality\u00a0of the consultation, and patient/care empowerment were particularly emphasised.

Conclusion

This large feasibility trial has demonstrated that it is possible to recruit, deliver and retain individuals into a nurse-led allergy clinic with both face-to-face and remote consultations. Our data indicate that the intervention was considered acceptable to patients/carers and healthcare professionals. The before-after data of disease-specific quality of life suggest that the intervention may prove effective, but this now needs to be confirmed through a formal randomised controlled trial.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov reference NCT03826953.", + "abstract": "Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2-4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes-including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)-in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9362986; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04576-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04576-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9259496?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35003715", @@ -7377,6 +7360,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.05026; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.05026; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8709900; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8709900?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36036238", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180", + "title": "Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led allergy clinic model in primary care: Feasibility trial.", + "authorString": "Hammersley V, Kelman M, Morrice L, Kendall M, Mukerjhee M, Harley S, Schwarze J, Sheikh A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical and translational allergy", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Allergy; Quality of life; Primary Care", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

It is now widely acknowledged that there are serious shortcomings in allergy care provision for patients seen in primary care. We sought to assess the feasibility of delivering and evaluating a new nurse-led allergy service in primary care, measured by recruitment, retention and estimates of the potential impact of the intervention on disease-specific quality of life.

Methods

Mixed-methods evaluation of a nurse-led primary care-based allergy clinic in Edinburgh, UK undertaken during the period 2017-2021 with a focus on suspected food allergy and atopic eczema in young children, allergic rhinitis in children and young people, and suspected anaphylaxis in adults. Prior to March 2020, patients were seen face-to-face (Phase 1). Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, recruitment was halted between March-August 2020, and a remote clinic was restarted in September 2020 (Phase 2). Disease-specific quality of life was measured at baseline and 6-12\u00a0weeks post intervention using validated instruments. Quantitative data were descriptively analysed. We undertook interviews with 16 carers/patients and nine healthcare professionals, which were thematically analysed.

Results

During Phase 1, 426/506 (84%) referred patients met the eligibility criteria; 40/46 (87%) of Phase 2 referrals were eligible. Males and females were recruited in approximately equal numbers. The majority (83%) of referrals were for possible food allergy or anaphylaxis. Complete data were available for 338/426 (79%) patients seen in Phase 1 and 30/40 (75%) in Phase 2. Compared with baseline assessments, there were improvements in disease-specific quality of life for most categories of patients. Patients/carers and healthcare professionals reported high levels of satisfaction, this being reinforced by the qualitative interviews in which convenience and speed of access to expert opinion, the quality\u00a0of the consultation, and patient/care empowerment were particularly emphasised.

Conclusion

This large feasibility trial has demonstrated that it is possible to recruit, deliver and retain individuals into a nurse-led allergy clinic with both face-to-face and remote consultations. Our data indicate that the intervention was considered acceptable to patients/carers and healthcare professionals. The before-after data of disease-specific quality of life suggest that the intervention may prove effective, but this now needs to be confirmed through a formal randomised controlled trial.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov reference NCT03826953.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9362986; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/clt2.12180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9362986?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35997000", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15530", @@ -7394,23 +7394,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62203/Download/62203__26254__0c88bfc9ff7e4fe2acaea5e2a2d74058.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15530; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826317?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "PMC9644982", - "doi": "https://doi.org/", - "title": "Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on Care Homes in Wales.", - "authorString": "Fry R, Hollinghurst J, North L, Emmerson C, Long S, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Lyons R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", - "pubYear": null, - "date": "2022-11-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35813279", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00147-7", @@ -7428,6 +7411,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00147-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00147-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9252508; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9252508?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "PMC9644982", + "doi": "https://doi.org/", + "title": "Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on Care Homes in Wales.", + "authorString": "Fry R, Hollinghurst J, North L, Emmerson C, Long S, Akbari A, Gravenor M, Lyons R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "pubYear": null, + "date": "2022-11-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9644982/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644982?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33901420", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00677-2", @@ -7530,6 +7530,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ene.15114; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15114; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9377012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9377012?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33965593", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055", + "title": "Intolerance to Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Asthma and the General Population: A UK Population-Based Cohort Study.", + "authorString": "Morales DR, Lipworth BJ, Donnan PT, Wang H.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Hypertension; Angiotensin converting enzyme; Asthma; epidemiology; Cough", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) intolerance commonly occurs, requiring switching to an angiotensin-II receptor blocker (ARB). Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor intolerance may be mediated by bradykinin, potentially affecting airway hyperresponsiveness.

Objective

To assess the risk for switching to ARBs in asthma.

Methods

We conducted a new-user cohort study of ACEI initiators identified from electronic health records from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The risk for switching to ARBs in people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the general population was compared. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression, stratified by British Thoracic Society (BTS) treatment step and ACEI type.

Results

Of 642,336 new users of ACEI, 6.4% had active asthma. The hazard of switching to ARB was greater in people with asthma (HR\u00a0= 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14-1.18; P \u2264 .001) and highest in those at BTS step 3 or greater\u00a0(HR\u00a0= 1.35, 95% CI, 1.32-1.39; and HR\u00a0= 1.18, 95% CI, 1.15-1.22, P \u2264 .001 for patients aged \u226560 and <60 years, respectively). Hazard was highest with enalapril (HR\u00a0= 1.25, 95% CI, 1.18-1.34, P \u2264 .001; HR\u00a0= 1.44, 95% CI, 1.32-1.58, P\u00a0\u2264 .001 for BTS step 3 or greater asthma). No increased hazard was observed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or those younger than age 60 years at BTS step 1/2. The number needed to treat varied by age, sex, and body mass index (BMI), ranging between 21 and 4, and was lowest in older women with a BMI of 25 or greater.

Conclusions

People with active asthma are more likely to switch to ARBs after commencing ACEI therapy. The number needed to treat varies by age, sex, BMI, and BTS step. Angiotensin-II receptor blocker could potentially be considered first-line in people with asthma and in those with high-risk characteristics.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc8443840?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37294923", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad192", @@ -7581,23 +7598,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/11/11/1326/pdf?version=1605520057; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11111326; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7697406; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7697406?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33965593", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055", - "title": "Intolerance to Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Asthma and the General Population: A UK Population-Based Cohort Study.", - "authorString": "Morales DR, Lipworth BJ, Donnan PT, Wang H.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-06", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Hypertension; Angiotensin converting enzyme; Asthma; epidemiology; Cough", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) intolerance commonly occurs, requiring switching to an angiotensin-II receptor blocker (ARB). Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor intolerance may be mediated by bradykinin, potentially affecting airway hyperresponsiveness.

Objective

To assess the risk for switching to ARBs in asthma.

Methods

We conducted a new-user cohort study of ACEI initiators identified from electronic health records from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The risk for switching to ARBs in people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the general population was compared. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression, stratified by British Thoracic Society (BTS) treatment step and ACEI type.

Results

Of 642,336 new users of ACEI, 6.4% had active asthma. The hazard of switching to ARB was greater in people with asthma (HR\u00a0= 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14-1.18; P \u2264 .001) and highest in those at BTS step 3 or greater\u00a0(HR\u00a0= 1.35, 95% CI, 1.32-1.39; and HR\u00a0= 1.18, 95% CI, 1.15-1.22, P \u2264 .001 for patients aged \u226560 and <60 years, respectively). Hazard was highest with enalapril (HR\u00a0= 1.25, 95% CI, 1.18-1.34, P \u2264 .001; HR\u00a0= 1.44, 95% CI, 1.32-1.58, P\u00a0\u2264 .001 for BTS step 3 or greater asthma). No increased hazard was observed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or those younger than age 60 years at BTS step 1/2. The number needed to treat varied by age, sex, and body mass index (BMI), ranging between 21 and 4, and was lowest in older women with a BMI of 25 or greater.

Conclusions

People with active asthma are more likely to switch to ARBs after commencing ACEI therapy. The number needed to treat varies by age, sex, BMI, and BTS step. Angiotensin-II receptor blocker could potentially be considered first-line in people with asthma and in those with high-risk characteristics.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc8443840?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.04.055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443840?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36936262", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000371", @@ -7870,23 +7870,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7076561; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0597-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7076561; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7076561?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0597-x" }, - { - "id": "32463370", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/16452", - "title": "Challenges of Clustering Multimodal Clinical Data: Review of Applications in Asthma Subtyping.", - "authorString": "Horne E, Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR medical informatics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cluster analysis; Asthma; data mining; Machine Learning; Unsupervised Machine Learning", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

In the current era of personalized medicine, there is increasing interest in understanding the heterogeneity in disease populations. Cluster analysis is a method commonly used to identify subtypes in heterogeneous disease populations. The clinical data used in such applications are typically multimodal, which can make the application of traditional cluster analysis methods challenging.

Objective

This study aimed to review the research literature on the application of clustering multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. We assessed common problems and shortcomings in the application of cluster analysis methods in determining asthma subtypes, such that they can be brought to the attention of the research community and avoided in future studies.

Methods

We searched PubMed and Scopus bibliographic databases with terms related to cluster analysis and asthma to identify studies that applied dissimilarity-based cluster analysis methods. We recorded the analytic methods used in each study at each step of the cluster analysis process.

Results

Our literature search identified 63 studies that applied cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. The features fed into the cluster algorithms were of a mixed type in 47 (75%) studies and continuous in 12 (19%), and the feature type was unclear in the remaining 4 (6%) studies. A total of 23 (37%) studies used hierarchical clustering with Ward linkage, and 22 (35%) studies used k-means clustering. Of these 45 studies, 39 had mixed-type features, but only 5 specified dissimilarity measures that could handle mixed-type features. A further 9 (14%) studies used a preclustering step to create small clusters to feed on a hierarchical method. The original sample sizes in these 9 studies ranged from 84 to 349. The remaining studies used hierarchical clustering with other linkages (n=3), medoid-based methods (n=3), spectral clustering (n=1), and multiple kernel k-means clustering (n=1), and in 1 study, the methods were unclear. Of 63 studies, 54 (86%) explained the methods used to determine the number of clusters, 24 (38%) studies tested the quality of their cluster solution, and 11 (17%) studies tested the stability of their solution. Reporting of the cluster analysis was generally poor in terms of the methods employed and their justification.

Conclusions

This review highlights common issues in the application of cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. Some of these issues were related to the multimodal nature of the data, but many were more general issues in the application of cluster analysis. Although cluster analysis may be a useful tool for investigating disease subtypes, we recommend that future studies carefully consider the implications of clustering multimodal data, the cluster analysis process itself, and the reporting of methods to facilitate replication and interpretation of findings.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2020/5/e16452/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16452; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7290450" - }, { "id": "36949447", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z", @@ -7904,6 +7887,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15345-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10031708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10031708?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32463370", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/16452", + "title": "Challenges of Clustering Multimodal Clinical Data: Review of Applications in Asthma Subtyping.", + "authorString": "Horne E, Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JMIR medical informatics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-05-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Cluster analysis; Asthma; data mining; Machine Learning; Unsupervised Machine Learning", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

In the current era of personalized medicine, there is increasing interest in understanding the heterogeneity in disease populations. Cluster analysis is a method commonly used to identify subtypes in heterogeneous disease populations. The clinical data used in such applications are typically multimodal, which can make the application of traditional cluster analysis methods challenging.

Objective

This study aimed to review the research literature on the application of clustering multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. We assessed common problems and shortcomings in the application of cluster analysis methods in determining asthma subtypes, such that they can be brought to the attention of the research community and avoided in future studies.

Methods

We searched PubMed and Scopus bibliographic databases with terms related to cluster analysis and asthma to identify studies that applied dissimilarity-based cluster analysis methods. We recorded the analytic methods used in each study at each step of the cluster analysis process.

Results

Our literature search identified 63 studies that applied cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. The features fed into the cluster algorithms were of a mixed type in 47 (75%) studies and continuous in 12 (19%), and the feature type was unclear in the remaining 4 (6%) studies. A total of 23 (37%) studies used hierarchical clustering with Ward linkage, and 22 (35%) studies used k-means clustering. Of these 45 studies, 39 had mixed-type features, but only 5 specified dissimilarity measures that could handle mixed-type features. A further 9 (14%) studies used a preclustering step to create small clusters to feed on a hierarchical method. The original sample sizes in these 9 studies ranged from 84 to 349. The remaining studies used hierarchical clustering with other linkages (n=3), medoid-based methods (n=3), spectral clustering (n=1), and multiple kernel k-means clustering (n=1), and in 1 study, the methods were unclear. Of 63 studies, 54 (86%) explained the methods used to determine the number of clusters, 24 (38%) studies tested the quality of their cluster solution, and 11 (17%) studies tested the stability of their solution. Reporting of the cluster analysis was generally poor in terms of the methods employed and their justification.

Conclusions

This review highlights common issues in the application of cluster analysis to multimodal clinical data to identify asthma subtypes. Some of these issues were related to the multimodal nature of the data, but many were more general issues in the application of cluster analysis. Although cluster analysis may be a useful tool for investigating disease subtypes, we recommend that future studies carefully consider the implications of clustering multimodal data, the cluster analysis process itself, and the reporting of methods to facilitate replication and interpretation of findings.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2020/5/e16452/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16452; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7290450" + }, { "id": "37004203", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcad050", @@ -7921,23 +7921,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/qjmed/hcad050/50051055/hcad050.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcad050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250078?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33801002", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190", - "title": "A Novel Coupled Reaction-Diffusion System for Explainable Gene Expression Profiling. ", - "authorString": "Farouq MW, Boulila W, Hussain Z, Rashid A, Shah M, Hussain S, Ng N, Ng D, Hanif H, Shaikh MG, Sheikh A, Hussain A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Machine learning (ML)-based algorithms are playing an important role in cancer diagnosis and are increasingly being used to aid clinical decision-making. However, these commonly operate as 'black boxes' and it is unclear how decisions are derived. Recently, techniques have been applied to help us understand how specific ML models work and explain the rational for outputs. This study aims to determine why a given type of cancer has a certain phenotypic characteristic. Cancer results in cellular dysregulation and a thorough consideration of cancer regulators is required. This would increase our understanding of the nature of the disease and help discover more effective diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment methods for a variety of cancer types and stages. Our study proposes a novel explainable analysis of potential biomarkers denoting tumorigenesis in non-small cell lung cancer. A number of these biomarkers are known to appear following various treatment pathways. An enhanced analysis is enabled through a novel mathematical formulation for the regulators of mRNA, the regulators of ncRNA, and the coupled mRNA-ncRNA regulators. Temporal gene expression profiles are approximated in a two-dimensional spatial domain for the transition states before converging to the stationary state, using a system comprised of coupled-reaction partial differential equations. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed mathematical gene-expression profile represents a best fit for the population abundance of these oncogenes. In future, our proposed solution can lead to the development of alternative interpretable approaches, through the application of ML models to discover unknown dynamics in gene regulatory systems.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/6/2190/pdf?version=1616388230; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36518792", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001398", @@ -7955,6 +7938,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001398; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000001398; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9742089; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9742089?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33801002", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190", + "title": "A Novel Coupled Reaction-Diffusion System for Explainable Gene Expression Profiling. ", + "authorString": "Farouq MW, Boulila W, Hussain Z, Rashid A, Shah M, Hussain S, Ng N, Ng D, Hanif H, Shaikh MG, Sheikh A, Hussain A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Machine learning (ML)-based algorithms are playing an important role in cancer diagnosis and are increasingly being used to aid clinical decision-making. However, these commonly operate as 'black boxes' and it is unclear how decisions are derived. Recently, techniques have been applied to help us understand how specific ML models work and explain the rational for outputs. This study aims to determine why a given type of cancer has a certain phenotypic characteristic. Cancer results in cellular dysregulation and a thorough consideration of cancer regulators is required. This would increase our understanding of the nature of the disease and help discover more effective diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment methods for a variety of cancer types and stages. Our study proposes a novel explainable analysis of potential biomarkers denoting tumorigenesis in non-small cell lung cancer. A number of these biomarkers are known to appear following various treatment pathways. An enhanced analysis is enabled through a novel mathematical formulation for the regulators of mRNA, the regulators of ncRNA, and the coupled mRNA-ncRNA regulators. Temporal gene expression profiles are approximated in a two-dimensional spatial domain for the transition states before converging to the stationary state, using a system comprised of coupled-reaction partial differential equations. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed mathematical gene-expression profile represents a best fit for the population abundance of these oncogenes. In future, our proposed solution can lead to the development of alternative interpretable approaches, through the application of ML models to discover unknown dynamics in gene regulatory systems.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/6/2190/pdf?version=1616388230; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062190; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8003942?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36812617", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000162", @@ -8006,23 +8006,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6287639/9312710/09319241.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3050524; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7821632; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7821632?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31462651", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2", - "title": "Hierarchical Template Matching for 3D Myocardial Tracking and Cardiac Strain Estimation.", - "authorString": "Bhalodiya JM, Palit A, Ferrante E, Tiwari MK, Bhudia SK, Arvanitis TN, Williams MA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-08-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Myocardial tracking and strain estimation can non-invasively assess cardiac functioning using subject-specific MRI. As the left-ventricle does not have a uniform shape and functioning from base to apex, the development of 3D MRI has provided opportunities for simultaneous 3D tracking, and 3D strain estimation. We have extended a Local Weighted Mean (LWM) transformation function for 3D, and incorporated in a Hierarchical Template Matching model to solve 3D myocardial tracking and strain estimation problem. The LWM does not need to solve a large system of equations, provides smooth displacement of myocardial points, and adapt local geometric differences in images. Hence, 3D myocardial tracking can be performed with 1.49\u2009mm median error, and without large error outliers. The maximum error of tracking is up to 24% reduced compared to benchmark methods. Moreover, the estimated strain can be insightful to improve 3D imaging protocols, and the computer code of LWM could also be useful for geo-spatial and manufacturing image analysis researchers.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48927-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37398988", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-023-00821-9", @@ -8040,6 +8023,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40258-023-00821-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-023-00821-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403424?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31462651", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2", + "title": "Hierarchical Template Matching for 3D Myocardial Tracking and Cardiac Strain Estimation.", + "authorString": "Bhalodiya JM, Palit A, Ferrante E, Tiwari MK, Bhudia SK, Arvanitis TN, Williams MA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-08-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Myocardial tracking and strain estimation can non-invasively assess cardiac functioning using subject-specific MRI. As the left-ventricle does not have a uniform shape and functioning from base to apex, the development of 3D MRI has provided opportunities for simultaneous 3D tracking, and 3D strain estimation. We have extended a Local Weighted Mean (LWM) transformation function for 3D, and incorporated in a Hierarchical Template Matching model to solve 3D myocardial tracking and strain estimation problem. The LWM does not need to solve a large system of equations, provides smooth displacement of myocardial points, and adapt local geometric differences in images. Hence, 3D myocardial tracking can be performed with 1.49\u2009mm median error, and without large error outliers. The maximum error of tracking is up to 24% reduced compared to benchmark methods. Moreover, the estimated strain can be insightful to improve 3D imaging protocols, and the computer code of LWM could also be useful for geo-spatial and manufacturing image analysis researchers.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48927-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48927-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6713749?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36713473", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac694", @@ -8278,6 +8278,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100254; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7798427; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7798427?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34071236", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763", + "title": "Integration of the Microbiome, Metabolome and Transcriptomics Data Identified Novel Metabolic Pathway Regulation in Colorectal Cancer. ", + "authorString": "Bisht V, Nash K, Xu Y, Agarwal P, Bosch S, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of molecular sciences", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Integrative multiomics data analysis provides a unique opportunity for the mechanistic understanding of colorectal cancer (CRC) in addition to the identification of potential novel therapeutic targets. In this study, we used public omics data sets to investigate potential associations between microbiome, metabolome, bulk transcriptomics and single cell RNA sequencing datasets. We identified multiple potential interactions, for example 5-aminovalerate interacting with Adlercreutzia; cholesteryl ester interacting with bacterial genera Staphylococcus, Blautia and Roseburia. Using public single cell and bulk RNA sequencing, we identified 17 overlapping genes involved in epithelial cell pathways, with particular significance of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway and the ACAT1 gene that indirectly regulates the esterification of cholesterol. These findings demonstrate that the integration of multiomics data sets from diverse populations can help us in untangling the colorectal cancer pathogenesis as well as postulate the disease pathology mechanisms and therapeutic targets.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/11/5763/pdf?version=1622194941; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35962974", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac158", @@ -8312,23 +8329,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9578/pdf?version=1659598966; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159578; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9368485; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9368485?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34071236", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763", - "title": "Integration of the Microbiome, Metabolome and Transcriptomics Data Identified Novel Metabolic Pathway Regulation in Colorectal Cancer. ", - "authorString": "Bisht V, Nash K, Xu Y, Agarwal P, Bosch S, Gkoutos GV, Acharjee A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of molecular sciences", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Integrative multiomics data analysis provides a unique opportunity for the mechanistic understanding of colorectal cancer (CRC) in addition to the identification of potential novel therapeutic targets. In this study, we used public omics data sets to investigate potential associations between microbiome, metabolome, bulk transcriptomics and single cell RNA sequencing datasets. We identified multiple potential interactions, for example 5-aminovalerate interacting with Adlercreutzia; cholesteryl ester interacting with bacterial genera Staphylococcus, Blautia and Roseburia. Using public single cell and bulk RNA sequencing, we identified 17 overlapping genes involved in epithelial cell pathways, with particular significance of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway and the ACAT1 gene that indirectly regulates the esterification of cholesterol. These findings demonstrate that the integration of multiomics data sets from diverse populations can help us in untangling the colorectal cancer pathogenesis as well as postulate the disease pathology mechanisms and therapeutic targets.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/11/5763/pdf?version=1622194941; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115763; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8198673?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36997954", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07251-x", @@ -8346,23 +8346,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-023-07251-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-023-07251-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064573; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10064573?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35304633", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w", - "title": "An exploration of wellbeing in men diagnosed with prostate cancer undergoing active surveillance: a qualitative study.", - "authorString": "Eymech O, Brunckhorst O, Fox L, Jawaid A, Van Hemelrijck M, Stewart R, Dasgupta P, Ahmed K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-19", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Quality of life; Mental health; prostate cancer; Active Surveillance; Mental Wellbeing; Psa Anxiety", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Purpose

There is a growing emphasis on improving quality of life of people with prostate cancer. However, those undergoing active surveillance remain underrepresented in the literature with less known about their unique challenges. Therefore, we aimed to explore their lived experiences post diagnosis and its effect on their mental, social, and physical wellbeing.

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 men undergoing active surveillance for low-risk disease. Thematic analysis was used to inductively co-construct themes through the lens of the biopsychosocial model.

Results

Mental wellbeing was strongly affected in our participants due to the overwhelming emotional impact of their diagnosis resulting in an 'Emotional Diagnostic Disequilibrium'. Informational awareness and education about prostate cancer helped patients with 'Recognition of the Impact'. Patients experienced an 'Unsettling Monitoring Cycle' due to the increased fear and anxiety around PSA monitoring appointments, with some men ignoring their mental wellbeing needs as their disease is 'A Future Problem'. 'Concealment of Diagnosis' left many feeling isolated and highlighted an important coping mechanisms in the 'Importance of a Social Support Network' theme. Finally, physical health mostly changed through alterations in health behaviour, leading to 'A Healthier Lifestyle' with increasing attribution of physical symptoms to age through 'Symptomatic Overshadowing'.

Conclusion

The greatest disease impact on men's wellbeing was at the time of diagnosis, with a subsequent cyclical anxiety and fear of disease progression prominent around monitoring appointments. Future research should explore ways to better support patients with these issues and at these times, improving their quality of life.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33082154", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3731", @@ -8380,6 +8363,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/371/bmj.m3731.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3731; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574532?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35304633", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w", + "title": "An exploration of wellbeing in men diagnosed with prostate cancer undergoing active surveillance: a qualitative study.", + "authorString": "Eymech O, Brunckhorst O, Fox L, Jawaid A, Van Hemelrijck M, Stewart R, Dasgupta P, Ahmed K.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-19", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Quality of life; Mental health; prostate cancer; Active Surveillance; Mental Wellbeing; Psa Anxiety", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Purpose

There is a growing emphasis on improving quality of life of people with prostate cancer. However, those undergoing active surveillance remain underrepresented in the literature with less known about their unique challenges. Therefore, we aimed to explore their lived experiences post diagnosis and its effect on their mental, social, and physical wellbeing.

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 men undergoing active surveillance for low-risk disease. Thematic analysis was used to inductively co-construct themes through the lens of the biopsychosocial model.

Results

Mental wellbeing was strongly affected in our participants due to the overwhelming emotional impact of their diagnosis resulting in an 'Emotional Diagnostic Disequilibrium'. Informational awareness and education about prostate cancer helped patients with 'Recognition of the Impact'. Patients experienced an 'Unsettling Monitoring Cycle' due to the increased fear and anxiety around PSA monitoring appointments, with some men ignoring their mental wellbeing needs as their disease is 'A Future Problem'. 'Concealment of Diagnosis' left many feeling isolated and highlighted an important coping mechanisms in the 'Importance of a Social Support Network' theme. Finally, physical health mostly changed through alterations in health behaviour, leading to 'A Healthier Lifestyle' with increasing attribution of physical symptoms to age through 'Symptomatic Overshadowing'.

Conclusion

The greatest disease impact on men's wellbeing was at the time of diagnosis, with a subsequent cyclical anxiety and fear of disease progression prominent around monitoring appointments. Future research should explore ways to better support patients with these issues and at these times, improving their quality of life.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06976-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8933126?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "29992526", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-018-0877-8", @@ -8482,23 +8482,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612723; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/MCP.0000000000000863; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612723?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000863" }, - { - "id": "36680646", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6", - "title": "Characterising patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms: evidence from nine UK longitudinal studies.", - "authorString": "Bowyer RCE, Huggins C, Toms R, Shaw RJ, Hou B, Thompson EJ, Kwong ASF, Williams DM, Kibble M, Ploubidis GB, Timpson NJ, Sterne JAC, Chaturvedi N, Steves CJ, Tilling K, Silverwood RJ, CONVALESCENCE Study.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European journal of epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Clustering; Longitudinal Studies; Symptom Patterns; Covid-19; Long Covid", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Multiple studies across global populations have established the primary symptoms characterising Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and long COVID. However, as symptoms may also occur in the absence of COVID-19, a lack of appropriate controls has often meant that specificity of symptoms to acute COVID-19 or long COVID, and the extent and length of time for which they are elevated after COVID-19, could not be examined. We analysed individual symptom prevalences and characterised patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms across nine UK longitudinal studies, totalling over 42,000 participants. Conducting latent class analyses separately in three groups ('no COVID-19', 'COVID-19 in last 12\u00a0weeks', 'COVID-19\u2009>\u200912\u00a0weeks ago'), the data did not support the presence of more than two distinct symptom patterns, representing high and low symptom burden, in each group. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 in last 12\u00a0weeks' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of acute COVID-19, including loss of taste and smell, fatigue, cough, shortness of breath and muscle pains or aches. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19\u2009>\u200912\u00a0weeks ago' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of long COVID, including fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain or aches, difficulty concentrating and chest tightness. The identified symptom patterns among individuals with COVID-19\u2009>\u200912\u00a0weeks ago were strongly associated with self-reported length of time unable to function as normal due to COVID-19 symptoms, suggesting that the symptom pattern identified corresponds to long COVID. Building the evidence base regarding typical long COVID symptoms will improve diagnosis of this condition and the ability to elicit underlying biological mechanisms, leading to better patient access to treatment and services.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35836669", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001188", @@ -8517,21 +8500,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/txd.0000000000001188; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000001188; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9276282; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9276282?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37644002", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9", - "title": "Neonatal and maternal outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination: a population-based matched cohort study.", - "authorString": "Lindsay L, Calvert C, Shi T, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Bhaskaran K, Katikireddi SV, McCabe R, McCowan C, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R, Stock SJ.", + "id": "36680646", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6", + "title": "Characterising patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms: evidence from nine UK longitudinal studies.", + "authorString": "Bowyer RCE, Huggins C, Toms R, Shaw RJ, Hou B, Thompson EJ, Kwong ASF, Williams DM, Kibble M, Ploubidis GB, Timpson NJ, Sterne JAC, Chaturvedi N, Steves CJ, Tilling K, Silverwood RJ, CONVALESCENCE Study.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "journalTitle": "European journal of epidemiology", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-29", + "date": "2023-01-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Clustering; Longitudinal Studies; Symptom Patterns; Covid-19; Long Covid", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Understanding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy on neonatal and maternal outcomes informs clinical decision-making. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study to investigate associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and, separately, COVID-19 vaccination just before or during pregnancy and the risk of adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes among women in Scotland with a singleton pregnancy ending at \u226520 weeks gestation. Neonatal outcomes are stillbirth, neonatal death, extended perinatal mortality, preterm birth (overall, spontaneous, and provider-initiated), small-for-gestational age, and low Apgar score. Maternal outcomes are admission to critical care or death, venous thromboembolism, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and pregnancy-related bleeding. We use conditional logistic regression to derive odds ratios adjusted for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics (aORs). We find that infection is associated with an increased risk of preterm (aOR=1.36, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]\u2009=\u20091.16-1.59) and very preterm birth (aOR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.20-3.02), maternal admission to critical care or death (aOR=1.72, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.39-2.12), and venous thromboembolism (aOR = 2.53, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.47-4.35). We find no evidence of increased risk for any of our outcomes following vaccination. These data suggest SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes, and COVID-19 vaccination remains a safe way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies against infection.", + "abstract": "Multiple studies across global populations have established the primary symptoms characterising Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and long COVID. However, as symptoms may also occur in the absence of COVID-19, a lack of appropriate controls has often meant that specificity of symptoms to acute COVID-19 or long COVID, and the extent and length of time for which they are elevated after COVID-19, could not be examined. We analysed individual symptom prevalences and characterised patterns of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms across nine UK longitudinal studies, totalling over 42,000 participants. Conducting latent class analyses separately in three groups ('no COVID-19', 'COVID-19 in last 12\u00a0weeks', 'COVID-19\u2009>\u200912\u00a0weeks ago'), the data did not support the presence of more than two distinct symptom patterns, representing high and low symptom burden, in each group. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19 in last 12\u00a0weeks' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of acute COVID-19, including loss of taste and smell, fatigue, cough, shortness of breath and muscle pains or aches. Comparing the high symptom burden classes between the 'COVID-19\u2009>\u200912\u00a0weeks ago' and 'no COVID-19' groups we identified symptoms characteristic of long COVID, including fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain or aches, difficulty concentrating and chest tightness. The identified symptom patterns among individuals with COVID-19\u2009>\u200912\u00a0weeks ago were strongly associated with self-reported length of time unable to function as normal due to COVID-19 symptoms, suggesting that the symptom pattern identified corresponds to long COVID. Building the evidence base regarding typical long COVID symptoms will improve diagnosis of this condition and the ability to elicit underlying biological mechanisms, leading to better patient access to treatment and services.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00962-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9860244?pdf=render" }, { "id": "30928998", @@ -8550,6 +8533,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.rhinologyjournal.com/download.php?id=1882; doi:https://doi.org/10.4193/Rhin18.237" }, + { + "id": "37644002", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9", + "title": "Neonatal and maternal outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination: a population-based matched cohort study.", + "authorString": "Lindsay L, Calvert C, Shi T, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Bhaskaran K, Katikireddi SV, McCabe R, McCowan C, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Wood R, Stock SJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Understanding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy on neonatal and maternal outcomes informs clinical decision-making. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study to investigate associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and, separately, COVID-19 vaccination just before or during pregnancy and the risk of adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes among women in Scotland with a singleton pregnancy ending at \u226520 weeks gestation. Neonatal outcomes are stillbirth, neonatal death, extended perinatal mortality, preterm birth (overall, spontaneous, and provider-initiated), small-for-gestational age, and low Apgar score. Maternal outcomes are admission to critical care or death, venous thromboembolism, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and pregnancy-related bleeding. We use conditional logistic regression to derive odds ratios adjusted for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics (aORs). We find that infection is associated with an increased risk of preterm (aOR=1.36, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]\u2009=\u20091.16-1.59) and very preterm birth (aOR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.20-3.02), maternal admission to critical care or death (aOR=1.72, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.39-2.12), and venous thromboembolism (aOR = 2.53, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.47-4.35). We find no evidence of increased risk for any of our outcomes following vaccination. These data suggest SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes, and COVID-19 vaccination remains a safe way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies against infection.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40965-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10465539?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37080566", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01720-2022", @@ -8839,6 +8839,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://fn.bmj.com/content/fetalneonatal/early/2023/01/05/archdischild-2022-324713.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324713; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313998; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10313998?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37272361", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.5268", + "title": "Relationship between Eczema and Self-reported Difficulties Keeping up with School Education: A Cross-sectional Study.", + "authorString": "Beckman L, Hagquist C, Svensson \u00c5, Langan SM, Von Kobyletzki L.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Acta dermato-venereologica", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Eczema is a common chronic disease that affects both children and adults, and may have an adverse impact on school performance, as it is characteristically pruritic, and hence may lead to poor concentration and inadequate sleep. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship between eczema and self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education. The study was based on cross-sectional questionnaire data collected in schools among all 9th graders (15-16 years old) within a Swedish county. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association between having eczema and self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education. A total of 2,620 pupils participated (50.1% female). An increased odds ratio (OR) of self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education was found in adolescents with eczema compared with those without eczema after adjustment for sex and\u00a0 family residence (OR 2.13, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.32-3.44), and with additional adjustment for sleeping problems, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, allergy, rhinitis, asthma, and alcohol consumption (adjusted OR 1.78, CI 1.05-3.00). Eczema may be a relevant risk factor for difficulty keeping up with school education in adolescents. However, studies that can assess temporality, based in different settings with objective reports of both eczema and self-reported difficulties at school, are needed to confirm these findings.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.5268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259463; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259463?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31612961", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz895", @@ -8857,21 +8874,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/48/D1/D933/31697824/gkz895.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz895; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7145571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7145571?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37272361", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.5268", - "title": "Relationship between Eczema and Self-reported Difficulties Keeping up with School Education: A Cross-sectional Study.", - "authorString": "Beckman L, Hagquist C, Svensson \u00c5, Langan SM, Von Kobyletzki L.", + "id": "35835543", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196", + "title": "Eligibility for early rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation in the UK Biobank.", + "authorString": "Kany S, Cardoso VR, Bravo L, Williams JA, Schnabel R, Fabritz L, Gkoutos GV, Kirchhof P.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Acta dermato-venereologica", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-05", + "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-10", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Catheter ablation", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Eczema is a common chronic disease that affects both children and adults, and may have an adverse impact on school performance, as it is characteristically pruritic, and hence may lead to poor concentration and inadequate sleep. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship between eczema and self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education. The study was based on cross-sectional questionnaire data collected in schools among all 9th graders (15-16 years old) within a Swedish county. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association between having eczema and self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education. A total of 2,620 pupils participated (50.1% female). An increased odds ratio (OR) of self-reported difficulties keeping up with school education was found in adolescents with eczema compared with those without eczema after adjustment for sex and\u00a0 family residence (OR 2.13, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.32-3.44), and with additional adjustment for sleeping problems, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, allergy, rhinitis, asthma, and alcohol consumption (adjusted OR 1.78, CI 1.05-3.00). Eczema may be a relevant risk factor for difficulty keeping up with school education in adolescents. However, studies that can assess temporality, based in different settings with objective reports of both eczema and self-reported difficulties at school, are needed to confirm these findings.", + "abstract": "

Objective

The Early Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation for Stroke Prevention (EAST-AFNET4) trial showed a clinical benefit of early rhythm-control therapy in patients with recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF). The generalisability of the results in the general population is not known.

Methods

Participants in the population-based UK Biobank were assessed for eligibility based on the EAST-AFNET4 inclusion/exclusion criteria. Treatment of all eligible participants was classified as early rhythm-control (antiarrhythmic drug therapy or AF ablation) or usual care. To assess treatment effects, primary care data and Hospital Episode Statistics were merged with UK Biobank data.Efficacy and safety outcomes were compared between groups in the entire cohort and in a propensity-matched data set.

Results

AF was present in 35 526/502 493 (7.1%) participants, including 8340 (988 with AF <1 year) with AF at enrolment and 27 186 with incident AF during follow-up. Most participants (22 003/27 186; 80.9%) with incident AF were eligible for early rhythm-control.Eligible participants were older (70 years vs 63 years) and more likely to be female (42% vs 21%) compared with ineligible patients. Of 9004 participants with full primary care data, 874 (9.02%) received early rhythm-control. Safety outcomes were not different between patients receiving early rhythm-control and controls. The primary outcome of EAST-AFNET 4, a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke/transient ischaemic attack and hospitalisation for heart failure or acute coronary syndrome occurred less often in participants receiving early rhythm-control compared with controls in the entire cohort (HR 0.82, 95%\u2009CI 0.71 to 0.94, p=0.005). In the propensity-score matched analysis, early rhythm-control did not significantly decrease of the primary outcome compared with usual care (HR 0.87, 95%\u2009CI 0.72 to 1.04, p=0.124).

Conclusion

Around 80% of participants diagnosed with AF in the UK population are eligible for early rhythm-control. Early rhythm-control therapy was safe in routine care.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.5268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259463; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259463?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2022/07/13/heartjnl-2022-321196.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33479422", @@ -8907,23 +8924,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-021-00241-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-021-00241-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8042947; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8042947?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35835543", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196", - "title": "Eligibility for early rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation in the UK Biobank.", - "authorString": "Kany S, Cardoso VR, Bravo L, Williams JA, Schnabel R, Fabritz L, Gkoutos GV, Kirchhof P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Catheter ablation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

The Early Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation for Stroke Prevention (EAST-AFNET4) trial showed a clinical benefit of early rhythm-control therapy in patients with recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF). The generalisability of the results in the general population is not known.

Methods

Participants in the population-based UK Biobank were assessed for eligibility based on the EAST-AFNET4 inclusion/exclusion criteria. Treatment of all eligible participants was classified as early rhythm-control (antiarrhythmic drug therapy or AF ablation) or usual care. To assess treatment effects, primary care data and Hospital Episode Statistics were merged with UK Biobank data.Efficacy and safety outcomes were compared between groups in the entire cohort and in a propensity-matched data set.

Results

AF was present in 35 526/502 493 (7.1%) participants, including 8340 (988 with AF <1 year) with AF at enrolment and 27 186 with incident AF during follow-up. Most participants (22 003/27 186; 80.9%) with incident AF were eligible for early rhythm-control.Eligible participants were older (70 years vs 63 years) and more likely to be female (42% vs 21%) compared with ineligible patients. Of 9004 participants with full primary care data, 874 (9.02%) received early rhythm-control. Safety outcomes were not different between patients receiving early rhythm-control and controls. The primary outcome of EAST-AFNET 4, a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke/transient ischaemic attack and hospitalisation for heart failure or acute coronary syndrome occurred less often in participants receiving early rhythm-control compared with controls in the entire cohort (HR 0.82, 95%\u2009CI 0.71 to 0.94, p=0.005). In the propensity-score matched analysis, early rhythm-control did not significantly decrease of the primary outcome compared with usual care (HR 0.87, 95%\u2009CI 0.72 to 1.04, p=0.124).

Conclusion

Around 80% of participants diagnosed with AF in the UK population are eligible for early rhythm-control. Early rhythm-control therapy was safe in routine care.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2022/07/13/heartjnl-2022-321196.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321196; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664114?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33200120", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100630", @@ -8958,23 +8958,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008031&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7363110; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7363110?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35443953", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523", - "title": "Can we accurately forecast non-elective bed occupancy and admissions in the NHS? A time-series MSARIMA analysis of longitudinal data from an NHS Trust.", - "authorString": "Eyles E, Redaniel MT, Jones T, Prat M, Keen T.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; Health Services Administration & Management; Accident & Emergency Medicine", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

The main objective of the study was to develop more accurate and precise short-term forecasting models for admissions and bed occupancy for an NHS Trust located in Bristol, England. Subforecasts for the medical and surgical specialties, and for different lengths of stay were realised DESIGN: Autoregressive integrated moving average models were specified on a training dataset of daily count data, then tested on a 6-week forecast horizon. Explanatory variables were included in the models: day of the week, holiday days, lagged temperature and precipitation.

Setting

A secondary care hospital in an NHS Trust in South West England.

Participants

Hospital admissions between September 2016 and March 2020, comprising 1291 days.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The accuracy of the forecasts was assessed through standard measures, as well as compared with the actual data using accuracy thresholds of 10% and 20% of the mean number of admissions or occupied beds.

Results

The overall Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) admissions forecast was compared with the Trust's forecast, and found to be more accurate, namely, being closer to the actual value 95.6% of the time. Furthermore, it was more precise than the Trust's. The subforecasts, as well as those for bed occupancy, tended to be less accurate compared with the overall forecasts. All of the explanatory variables improved the forecasts.

Conclusions

ARIMA models can forecast non-elective admissions in an NHS Trust accurately on a 6-week horizon, which is an improvement on the current predictive modelling in the Trust. These models can be readily applied to other contexts, improving patient flow.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e056523.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36446790", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35017-7", @@ -9026,6 +9009,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221131897; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221131897; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9909113; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9909113?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221131897" }, + { + "id": "35443953", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523", + "title": "Can we accurately forecast non-elective bed occupancy and admissions in the NHS? A time-series MSARIMA analysis of longitudinal data from an NHS Trust.", + "authorString": "Eyles E, Redaniel MT, Jones T, Prat M, Keen T.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; Health Services Administration & Management; Accident & Emergency Medicine", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

The main objective of the study was to develop more accurate and precise short-term forecasting models for admissions and bed occupancy for an NHS Trust located in Bristol, England. Subforecasts for the medical and surgical specialties, and for different lengths of stay were realised DESIGN: Autoregressive integrated moving average models were specified on a training dataset of daily count data, then tested on a 6-week forecast horizon. Explanatory variables were included in the models: day of the week, holiday days, lagged temperature and precipitation.

Setting

A secondary care hospital in an NHS Trust in South West England.

Participants

Hospital admissions between September 2016 and March 2020, comprising 1291 days.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The accuracy of the forecasts was assessed through standard measures, as well as compared with the actual data using accuracy thresholds of 10% and 20% of the mean number of admissions or occupied beds.

Results

The overall Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) admissions forecast was compared with the Trust's forecast, and found to be more accurate, namely, being closer to the actual value 95.6% of the time. Furthermore, it was more precise than the Trust's. The subforecasts, as well as those for bed occupancy, tended to be less accurate compared with the overall forecasts. All of the explanatory variables improved the forecasts.

Conclusions

ARIMA models can forecast non-elective admissions in an NHS Trust accurately on a 6-week horizon, which is an improvement on the current predictive modelling in the Trust. These models can be readily applied to other contexts, improving patient flow.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e056523.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021768?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35383067", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055447", @@ -9145,6 +9145,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/7/1/e000770.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2020-000770; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7754643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7754643?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36350656", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac1010", + "title": "The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog: knowledgebase and deposition resource.", + "authorString": "Sollis E, Mosaku A, Abid A, Buniello A, Cerezo M, Gil L, Groza T, G\u00fcne\u015f O, Hall P, Hayhurst J, Ibrahim A, Ji Y, John S, Lewis E, MacArthur JAL, McMahon A, Osumi-Sutherland D, Panoutsopoulou K, Pendlington Z, Ramachandran S, Stefancsik R, Stewart J, Whetzel P, Wilson R, Hindorff L, Cunningham F, Lambert SA, Inouye M, Parkinson H, Harris LW.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nucleic acids research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog (www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas) is a FAIR knowledgebase providing detailed, structured, standardised and interoperable genome-wide association study (GWAS) data to\u00a0>200 000 users per year from academic research, healthcare and industry. The Catalog contains variant-trait associations and supporting metadata for\u00a0>45 000 published GWAS across\u00a0>5000 human traits, and\u00a0>40 000 full P-value summary statistics datasets. Content is curated from publications or acquired via author submission of prepublication summary statistics through a new submission portal and validation tool. GWAS data volume has vastly increased in recent years. We have updated our software to meet this scaling challenge and to enable rapid release of submitted summary statistics. The scope of the repository has expanded to include additional data types of high interest to the community, including sequencing-based GWAS, gene-based analyses and copy number variation analyses. Community outreach has increased the number of shared datasets from under-represented traits, e.g. cancer, and we continue to contribute to awareness of the lack of population diversity in GWAS. Interoperability of the Catalog has been enhanced through links to other resources including the Polygenic Score Catalog and the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, refinements to GWAS trait annotation, and the development of a standard format for GWAS data.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/51/D1/D977/48440802/gkac1010.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac1010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9825413; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9825413?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33632765", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215986", @@ -9163,55 +9180,55 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/8/835.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8311087; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8311087?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33545096", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5", - "title": "Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.", - "authorString": "RECOVERY Collaborative Group.", + "id": "31774502", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071", + "title": "An observational study of international normalized ratio control according to NICE criteria in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: the SAIL Warfarin Out of Range Descriptors Study (SWORDS).", + "authorString": "Harris DE, Thayer D, Wang T, Brooks C, Murley G, Gravenor M, Hill NR, Lister S, Halcox J.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-02", + "date": "2021-01-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", + "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Warfarin; Pharmacoepidemiology", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once per day by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatment groups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment and were twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants and local study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.

Findings

Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16\u2008442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) were eligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was 65\u00b73 years (SD 15\u00b77) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall, 561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0\u00b797, 95% CI 0\u00b787-1\u00b707; p=0\u00b750). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median 10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (rate ratio 1\u00b704, 95% CI 0\u00b798-1\u00b710; p=0\u00b719). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, no significant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (risk ratio 0\u00b795, 95% CI 0\u00b787-1\u00b703; p=0\u00b724).

Interpretation

In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00149-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Aims

In patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation prescribed warfarin, the UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) defines poor anticoagulation as a time in therapeutic range (TTR) of <65%, any two international normalized ratios (INRs) within a 6-month period of \u22641.5 ('low'), two INRs \u22655 within 6\u2009months, or any INR \u22658 ('high'). Our objectives were to (i) quantify the number of patients with poor INR control and (ii) describe the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with poor INR control.

Method and results

Linked anonymized health record data for Wales, UK (2006-2017) was used to evaluate patients prescribed warfarin who had at least 6\u2009months of INR data. 32 380 patients were included. In total, 13 913 (43.0%) patients had at least one of the NICE markers of poor INR control. Importantly, in the 24 123 (74.6%) of the cohort with an acceptable TTR (\u226565%), 5676 (23.5%) had either low or high INR readings at some point in their history. In a multivariable regression female gender, age (\u226575 years), excess alcohol, diabetes heart failure, ischaemic heart disease, and respiratory disease were independently associated with all markers of poor INR control.

Conclusion

Acceptable INR control according to NICE standards is poor. Of those with an acceptable TTR (>65%), one-quarter still had unacceptably low or high INR levels according to NICE criteria. Thus, only using TTR to assess effectiveness with warfarin has the potential to miss a large number of patients with non-therapeutic INRs who are likely to be at increased risk.", + "laySummary": "This retrospective observational cohort study aimed to quanitfy the number of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) prescribed warfarin who exhibit NICE-defined poor international normalised ratio (INR) control. Another objective was to describe the relationship between demographic and clinical characteristics of these patients and poor INR control. The results from statistical analyses in this study suggest a considerable opportunity to improve both embloc and bleeding risk, eben though the relationship between poor INR control and these clinical outcomes remains to be determined.", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcvp/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071/31700014/pvz071.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7811400; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7811400?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36350656", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac1010", - "title": "The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog: knowledgebase and deposition resource.", - "authorString": "Sollis E, Mosaku A, Abid A, Buniello A, Cerezo M, Gil L, Groza T, G\u00fcne\u015f O, Hall P, Hayhurst J, Ibrahim A, Ji Y, John S, Lewis E, MacArthur JAL, McMahon A, Osumi-Sutherland D, Panoutsopoulou K, Pendlington Z, Ramachandran S, Stefancsik R, Stewart J, Whetzel P, Wilson R, Hindorff L, Cunningham F, Lambert SA, Inouye M, Parkinson H, Harris LW.", + "id": "35879616", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w", + "title": "Symptoms and risk factors for long COVID in non-hospitalized adults.", + "authorString": "Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, Hughes S, Myles P, Williams T, Gokhale KM, Taverner T, Chandan JS, Brown K, Simms-Williams N, Shah AD, Singh M, Kidy F, Okoth K, Hotham R, Bashir N, Cockburn N, Lee SI, Turner GM, Gkoutos GV, Aiyegbusi OL, McMullan C, Denniston AK, Sapey E, Lord JM, Wraith DC, Leggett E, Iles C, Marshall T, Price MJ, Marwaha S, Davies EH, Jackson LJ, Matthews KL, Camaradou J, Calvert M, Haroon S.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nucleic acids research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-01", + "journalTitle": "Nature medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-25", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog (www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas) is a FAIR knowledgebase providing detailed, structured, standardised and interoperable genome-wide association study (GWAS) data to\u00a0>200 000 users per year from academic research, healthcare and industry. The Catalog contains variant-trait associations and supporting metadata for\u00a0>45 000 published GWAS across\u00a0>5000 human traits, and\u00a0>40 000 full P-value summary statistics datasets. Content is curated from publications or acquired via author submission of prepublication summary statistics through a new submission portal and validation tool. GWAS data volume has vastly increased in recent years. We have updated our software to meet this scaling challenge and to enable rapid release of submitted summary statistics. The scope of the repository has expanded to include additional data types of high interest to the community, including sequencing-based GWAS, gene-based analyses and copy number variation analyses. Community outreach has increased the number of shared datasets from under-represented traits, e.g. cancer, and we continue to contribute to awareness of the lack of population diversity in GWAS. Interoperability of the Catalog has been enhanced through links to other resources including the Polygenic Score Catalog and the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, refinements to GWAS trait annotation, and the development of a standard format for GWAS data.", + "abstract": "Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is associated with a range of persistent symptoms impacting everyday functioning, known as post-COVID-19 condition or long COVID. We undertook a retrospective matched cohort study using a UK-based primary care database, Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum, to determine symptoms that are associated with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond 12 weeks in non-hospitalized adults and the risk factors associated with developing persistent symptoms. We selected 486,149 adults with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 1,944,580 propensity score-matched adults with no recorded evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Outcomes included 115 individual symptoms, as well as long COVID, defined as a composite outcome of 33 symptoms by the World Health Organization clinical case definition. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for the outcomes. A total of 62 symptoms were significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection after 12 weeks. The largest aHRs were for anosmia (aHR 6.49, 95% CI 5.02-8.39), hair loss (3.99, 3.63-4.39), sneezing (2.77, 1.40-5.50), ejaculation difficulty (2.63, 1.61-4.28) and reduced libido (2.36, 1.61-3.47). Among the cohort of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, risk factors for long COVID included female sex, belonging to an ethnic minority, socioeconomic deprivation, smoking, obesity and a wide range of comorbidities. The risk of developing long COVID was also found to be increased along a gradient of decreasing age. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a plethora of symptoms that are associated with a range of sociodemographic and clinical risk factors.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/51/D1/D977/48440802/gkac1010.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac1010; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9825413; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9825413?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01909-w.pdf" }, { - "id": "31774502", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071", - "title": "An observational study of international normalized ratio control according to NICE criteria in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: the SAIL Warfarin Out of Range Descriptors Study (SWORDS).", - "authorString": "Harris DE, Thayer D, Wang T, Brooks C, Murley G, Gravenor M, Hill NR, Lister S, Halcox J.", + "id": "33545096", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5", + "title": "Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.", + "authorString": "RECOVERY Collaborative Group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-01", + "date": "2021-02-02", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Warfarin; Pharmacoepidemiology", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

In patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation prescribed warfarin, the UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) defines poor anticoagulation as a time in therapeutic range (TTR) of <65%, any two international normalized ratios (INRs) within a 6-month period of \u22641.5 ('low'), two INRs \u22655 within 6\u2009months, or any INR \u22658 ('high'). Our objectives were to (i) quantify the number of patients with poor INR control and (ii) describe the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with poor INR control.

Method and results

Linked anonymized health record data for Wales, UK (2006-2017) was used to evaluate patients prescribed warfarin who had at least 6\u2009months of INR data. 32 380 patients were included. In total, 13 913 (43.0%) patients had at least one of the NICE markers of poor INR control. Importantly, in the 24 123 (74.6%) of the cohort with an acceptable TTR (\u226565%), 5676 (23.5%) had either low or high INR readings at some point in their history. In a multivariable regression female gender, age (\u226575 years), excess alcohol, diabetes heart failure, ischaemic heart disease, and respiratory disease were independently associated with all markers of poor INR control.

Conclusion

Acceptable INR control according to NICE standards is poor. Of those with an acceptable TTR (>65%), one-quarter still had unacceptably low or high INR levels according to NICE criteria. Thus, only using TTR to assess effectiveness with warfarin has the potential to miss a large number of patients with non-therapeutic INRs who are likely to be at increased risk.", - "laySummary": "This retrospective observational cohort study aimed to quanitfy the number of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) prescribed warfarin who exhibit NICE-defined poor international normalised ratio (INR) control. Another objective was to describe the relationship between demographic and clinical characteristics of these patients and poor INR control. The results from statistical analyses in this study suggest a considerable opportunity to improve both embloc and bleeding risk, eben though the relationship between poor INR control and these clinical outcomes remains to be determined.", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcvp/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071/31700014/pvz071.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvz071; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7811400; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7811400?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Background

Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once per day by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatment groups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment and were twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants and local study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.

Findings

Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16\u2008442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) were eligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was 65\u00b73 years (SD 15\u00b77) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall, 561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0\u00b797, 95% CI 0\u00b787-1\u00b707; p=0\u00b750). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median 10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (rate ratio 1\u00b704, 95% CI 0\u00b798-1\u00b710; p=0\u00b719). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, no significant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (risk ratio 0\u00b795, 95% CI 0\u00b787-1\u00b703; p=0\u00b724).

Interpretation

In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00149-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00149-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7884931?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37561116", @@ -9230,23 +9247,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85332; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10414967?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35879616", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w", - "title": "Symptoms and risk factors for long COVID in non-hospitalized adults.", - "authorString": "Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, Hughes S, Myles P, Williams T, Gokhale KM, Taverner T, Chandan JS, Brown K, Simms-Williams N, Shah AD, Singh M, Kidy F, Okoth K, Hotham R, Bashir N, Cockburn N, Lee SI, Turner GM, Gkoutos GV, Aiyegbusi OL, McMullan C, Denniston AK, Sapey E, Lord JM, Wraith DC, Leggett E, Iles C, Marshall T, Price MJ, Marwaha S, Davies EH, Jackson LJ, Matthews KL, Camaradou J, Calvert M, Haroon S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-25", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is associated with a range of persistent symptoms impacting everyday functioning, known as post-COVID-19 condition or long COVID. We undertook a retrospective matched cohort study using a UK-based primary care database, Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum, to determine symptoms that are associated with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond 12 weeks in non-hospitalized adults and the risk factors associated with developing persistent symptoms. We selected 486,149 adults with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 1,944,580 propensity score-matched adults with no recorded evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Outcomes included 115 individual symptoms, as well as long COVID, defined as a composite outcome of 33 symptoms by the World Health Organization clinical case definition. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for the outcomes. A total of 62 symptoms were significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection after 12 weeks. The largest aHRs were for anosmia (aHR 6.49, 95% CI 5.02-8.39), hair loss (3.99, 3.63-4.39), sneezing (2.77, 1.40-5.50), ejaculation difficulty (2.63, 1.61-4.28) and reduced libido (2.36, 1.61-3.47). Among the cohort of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, risk factors for long COVID included female sex, belonging to an ethnic minority, socioeconomic deprivation, smoking, obesity and a wide range of comorbidities. The risk of developing long COVID was also found to be increased along a gradient of decreasing age. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a plethora of symptoms that are associated with a range of sociodemographic and clinical risk factors.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01909-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9388369?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01909-w.pdf" - }, { "id": "35497059", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101392", @@ -9383,6 +9383,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad055/49604587/zwad055.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10442054; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10442054?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36933612", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162", + "title": "Healthcare systems data in the context of clinical trials - A comparison of cardiovascular data from a clinical trial dataset with routinely collected data.", + "authorString": "Macnair A, Nankivell M, Murray ML, Rosen SD, Appleyard S, Sydes MR, Forcat S, Welland A, Clarke NW, Mangar S, Kynaston H, Kockelbergh R, Al-Hasso A, Deighan J, Marshall J, Parmar M, Langley RE, Gilbert DC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Contemporary clinical trials", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-16", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Cardiovascular disease; prostate cancer; Clinical Trials; Healthcare Systems Data", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Routinely-collected healthcare systems data (HSD) are proposed to improve the efficiency of clinical trials. A comparison was undertaken between cardiovascular (CVS) data from a clinical trial database with two HSD resources.

Methods

Protocol-defined and clinically reviewed CVS events (heart failure (HF), acute coronary syndrome (ACS), thromboembolic stroke, venous and arterial thromboembolism) were identified within the trial data. Data (using pre-specified codes) was obtained from NHS Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) HF and myocardial ischaemia audits for trial participants recruited in England between 2010 and 2018 who had provided consent. The primary comparison was trial data versus HES inpatient (APC) main diagnosis (Box-1). Correlations are presented with descriptive statistics and Venn diagrams. Reasons for non-correlation were explored.

Results

From 1200 eligible participants, 71 protocol-defined clinically reviewed CVS events were recorded in the trial database. 45 resulted in a hospital admission and therefore could have been recorded by either HES APC/ NICOR. Of these, 27/45 (60%) were recorded by HES inpatient (Box-1) with an additional 30 potential events also identified. HF and ACS were potentially recorded in all 3 datasets; trial data recorded 18, HES APC 29 and NICOR 24 events respectively. 12/18 (67%) of the HF/ACS events in the trial dataset were recorded by NICOR.

Conclusion

Concordance between datasets was lower than anticipated and the HSD used could not straightforwardly replace current trial practices, nor directly identify protocol-defined CVS events. Further work is required to improve the quality of HSD and consider event definitions when designing clinical trials incorporating HSD.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162" + }, { "id": "37118449", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00224-w", @@ -9401,21 +9418,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00224-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00224-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154219; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154219?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36933612", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162", - "title": "Healthcare systems data in the context of clinical trials - A comparison of cardiovascular data from a clinical trial dataset with routinely collected data.", - "authorString": "Macnair A, Nankivell M, Murray ML, Rosen SD, Appleyard S, Sydes MR, Forcat S, Welland A, Clarke NW, Mangar S, Kynaston H, Kockelbergh R, Al-Hasso A, Deighan J, Marshall J, Parmar M, Langley RE, Gilbert DC.", + "id": "32525266", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209", + "title": "Radiomic Analysis of Native T1 Mapping Images Discriminates Between MYH7 and MYBPC3-Related Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.", + "authorString": "Wang J, Yang F, Liu W, Sun J, Han Y, Li D, Gkoutos GV, Zhu Y, Chen Y.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Contemporary clinical trials", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-16", + "journalTitle": "Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-11", "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Cardiovascular disease; prostate cancer; Clinical Trials; Healthcare Systems Data", + "keywords": "Human genetics; Cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic; Support vector machine; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Machine Learning", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Routinely-collected healthcare systems data (HSD) are proposed to improve the efficiency of clinical trials. A comparison was undertaken between cardiovascular (CVS) data from a clinical trial database with two HSD resources.

Methods

Protocol-defined and clinically reviewed CVS events (heart failure (HF), acute coronary syndrome (ACS), thromboembolic stroke, venous and arterial thromboembolism) were identified within the trial data. Data (using pre-specified codes) was obtained from NHS Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) HF and myocardial ischaemia audits for trial participants recruited in England between 2010 and 2018 who had provided consent. The primary comparison was trial data versus HES inpatient (APC) main diagnosis (Box-1). Correlations are presented with descriptive statistics and Venn diagrams. Reasons for non-correlation were explored.

Results

From 1200 eligible participants, 71 protocol-defined clinically reviewed CVS events were recorded in the trial database. 45 resulted in a hospital admission and therefore could have been recorded by either HES APC/ NICOR. Of these, 27/45 (60%) were recorded by HES inpatient (Box-1) with an additional 30 potential events also identified. HF and ACS were potentially recorded in all 3 datasets; trial data recorded 18, HES APC 29 and NICOR 24 events respectively. 12/18 (67%) of the HF/ACS events in the trial dataset were recorded by NICOR.

Conclusion

Concordance between datasets was lower than anticipated and the HSD used could not straightforwardly replace current trial practices, nor directly identify protocol-defined CVS events. Further work is required to improve the quality of HSD and consider event definitions when designing clinical trials incorporating HSD.", + "abstract": "

Background

The phenotype via conventional cardiac MRI analysis of MYH7 (\u03b2-myosin heavy chain)- and MYBPC3 (\u03b2-myosin-binding protein C)-associated hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) groups is similar. Few studies exist on the genotypic-phenotypic association as assessed by machine learning in HCM patients.

Purpose

To explore the phenotypic differences based on radiomics analysis of T1 mapping images between MYH7 and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups.

Study type

Prospective observational study.

Subjects

In all, 102 HCM patients with pathogenic, or likely pathogenic mutation, in MYH7 (n = 68) or MYBPC3 (n = 34) genes.

Field strength/sequence

Cardiac MRI was performed at 3.0T with balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP), phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), and modified Look-Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) T1 mapping sequences.

Assessment

All patients underwent next-generation sequencing and Sanger genetic sequencing. Left ventricular native T1 and LGE were analyzed. One hundred and fifty-seven radiomic features were extracted and modeled using a support vector machine (SVM) combined with principal component analysis (PCA). Each subgroup was randomly split 4:1 (feature selection / test validation).

Statistical tests

Mann-Whitney U-tests and Student's t-tests were performed to assess differences between subgroups. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the model's ability to stratify patients based on radiomic features.

Results

There were no significant differences between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups based on traditional native T1 values (global, basal, and middle short-axis slice native T1 ; P = 0.760, 0.914, and 0.178, respectively). However, the SVM model combined with PCA achieved an accuracy and area under the curve (AUC) of 92.0% and 0.968 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.968-0.971), respectively. For the test validation dataset, the accuracy and AUC were 85.5% and 0.886 (95% CI: 0.881-0.901), respectively.

Data conclusion

Radiomic analysis of native T1 mapping images may be able to discriminate between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM patients, exceeding the performance of conventional native T1 values.

Level of evidence

3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2020;52:1714-1721.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2023.107162" + "urls": "pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/96738891/Manuscript_Clear_No_Blind.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209" }, { "id": "34894331", @@ -9452,21 +9469,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12874-021-01301-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-021-01301-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176581?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32525266", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209", - "title": "Radiomic Analysis of Native T1 Mapping Images Discriminates Between MYH7 and MYBPC3-Related Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.", - "authorString": "Wang J, Yang F, Liu W, Sun J, Han Y, Li D, Gkoutos GV, Zhu Y, Chen Y.", + "id": "34308306", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100888", + "title": "The BCD Triage Sieve outperforms all existing major incident triage tools: Comparative analysis using the UK national trauma registry population.", + "authorString": "Malik NS, Chernbumroong S, Xu Y, Vassallo J, Lee J, Bowley DM, Hodgetts T, Moran CG, Lord JM, Belli A, Keene D, Foster M, Gkoutos GV.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-11", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Human genetics; Cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic; Support vector machine; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Machine Learning", + "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-15", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "ramp; Disaster; Start; Military Medicine; Major Incident; Triage; Injury Severity Score; Mass Casualty; Major Trauma; Prehospital Medicine; Life-saving Intervention; Careflight; Jumpstart; Bcd Triage Sieve; Mimms; Mptt-24; Mstart", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The phenotype via conventional cardiac MRI analysis of MYH7 (\u03b2-myosin heavy chain)- and MYBPC3 (\u03b2-myosin-binding protein C)-associated hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) groups is similar. Few studies exist on the genotypic-phenotypic association as assessed by machine learning in HCM patients.

Purpose

To explore the phenotypic differences based on radiomics analysis of T1 mapping images between MYH7 and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups.

Study type

Prospective observational study.

Subjects

In all, 102 HCM patients with pathogenic, or likely pathogenic mutation, in MYH7 (n = 68) or MYBPC3 (n = 34) genes.

Field strength/sequence

Cardiac MRI was performed at 3.0T with balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP), phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), and modified Look-Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) T1 mapping sequences.

Assessment

All patients underwent next-generation sequencing and Sanger genetic sequencing. Left ventricular native T1 and LGE were analyzed. One hundred and fifty-seven radiomic features were extracted and modeled using a support vector machine (SVM) combined with principal component analysis (PCA). Each subgroup was randomly split 4:1 (feature selection / test validation).

Statistical tests

Mann-Whitney U-tests and Student's t-tests were performed to assess differences between subgroups. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the model's ability to stratify patients based on radiomic features.

Results

There were no significant differences between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM subgroups based on traditional native T1 values (global, basal, and middle short-axis slice native T1 ; P = 0.760, 0.914, and 0.178, respectively). However, the SVM model combined with PCA achieved an accuracy and area under the curve (AUC) of 92.0% and 0.968 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.968-0.971), respectively. For the test validation dataset, the accuracy and AUC were 85.5% and 0.886 (95% CI: 0.881-0.901), respectively.

Data conclusion

Radiomic analysis of native T1 mapping images may be able to discriminate between MYH7- and MYBPC3-associated HCM patients, exceeding the performance of conventional native T1 values.

Level of evidence

3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2020;52:1714-1721.", + "abstract": "

Background

Natural disasters, conflict, and terrorism are major global causes of death and disability. Central to the healthcare response is triage, vital to ensure the right care is provided to the right patient at the right time. The ideal triage tool has high sensitivity for the highest priority (P1) patients with acceptably low over-triage. This study compared the performance of major incident triage tools in predicting P1 casualty status in adults in the prospective UK Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) registry.

Methods

TARN patients aged 16+ years (January 2008-December 2017) were included. Ten existing triage tools were applied using patients' first recorded pre-hospital physiology. Patients were subsequently assigned triage categories (P1, P2, P3, Expectant or Dead) based on pre-defined, intervention-based criteria. Tool performance was assessed by comparing tool-predicted and intervention-based priority status.

Findings

195,709 patients were included; mortality was 7\u00b70% (n=13,601); median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 9 (IQR 9-17); 97\u00b71% sustained blunt injuries. 22,144 (11\u00b73%) patients fulfilled intervention-based criteria for P1 status, exhibiting higher mortality (12\u00b78% vs. 5\u00b70%, p<0.001), increased intensive care requirement (52\u00b74% vs 5\u00b70%, p<0.001), and more severe injuries (median ISS 21\u00a0vs 9, p<0.001) compared with P2 patients.In 16-64 year olds, the highest performing tool was the Battlefield Casualty Drills (BCD) Triage Sieve (Prediction of P1 status: 70\u00b74% sensitivity, over-triage 70\u00b79%, area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) 0\u00b7068 [95%CI 0\u00b7676-0\u00b7684]). The UK National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) Triage Sieve had sensitivity of 44\u00b79%; over-triage 56\u00b74%; AUC 0\u00b7666 (95%CI 0\u00b7662-0\u00b7670). All tools performed poorly amongst the elderly (65+ years).

Interpretation

The BCD Triage Sieve performed best in this nationally representative population; we recommend it supersede the NARU Triage Sieve as the UK primary major incident triage tool. Validated triage category definitions are recommended for appraising future major incidents.

Funding

This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre. GVG also acknowledges support from the MRC Heath Data Research UK (HDRUK/CFC/01). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the Department of Health and Social Care, or the Ministry of Defence.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/96738891/Manuscript_Clear_No_Blind.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27209" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537021001681/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100888; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257989?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34556677", @@ -9485,40 +9502,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-96189-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96189-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460620; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460620?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36874571", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1", - "title": "Settings for non-household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the second lockdown in England and Wales - analysis of the Virus Watch household community cohort study.", - "authorString": "Hoskins S, Beale S, Nguyen V, Fragaszy E, Navaratnam AMD, Smith C, French C, Kovar J, Byrne T, Fong WLE, Geismar C, Patel P, Yavlinksy A, Johnson AM, Aldridge RW, Hayward A, Virus Watch Collaborative.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-03", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Transmission; Activities; Pandemic; Work; Public Transport; Shopping; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: \"Lockdowns\" to control serious respiratory virus pandemics were widely used during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.\u00a0 However, there is limited information to understand the settings in which most transmission occurs during lockdowns, to support refinement of similar policies for future pandemics.\u00a0 Methods: Among Virus Watch household cohort participants we identified those infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outside the household.\u00a0 Using survey activity data, we undertook multivariable logistic regressions assessing the contribution of activities on non-household infection risk.\u00a0 We calculated adjusted population attributable fractions (APAF) to estimate which activity accounted for the greatest proportion of non-household infections during the pandemic's second wave. Results: Among 10,858 adults, 18% of cases were likely due to household transmission.\u00a0 Among 10,475 participants (household-acquired cases excluded), including 874 non-household-acquired infections, infection was associated with: leaving home for work or education (AOR 1.20 (1.02 - 1.42), APAF 6.9%); public transport (more than once per week AOR 1.82 (1.49 - 2.23), public transport APAF 12.42%); and shopping (more than once per week AOR 1.69 (1.29 - 2.21), shopping APAF 34.56%).\u00a0 Other non-household activities were rare and not significantly associated with infection. Conclusions: During lockdown, going to work and using public or shared transport independently increased infection risk, however only a minority did these activities.\u00a0 Most participants visited shops, accounting for one-third of non-household transmission. \u00a0Transmission in restricted hospitality and leisure settings was minimal suggesting these restrictions were effective.\u00a0 \u00a0If future respiratory infection pandemics emerge these findings highlight the value of working from home, using forms of transport that minimise exposure to others, minimising exposure to shops and restricting non-essential activities.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "34308306", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100888", - "title": "The BCD Triage Sieve outperforms all existing major incident triage tools: Comparative analysis using the UK national trauma registry population.", - "authorString": "Malik NS, Chernbumroong S, Xu Y, Vassallo J, Lee J, Bowley DM, Hodgetts T, Moran CG, Lord JM, Belli A, Keene D, Foster M, Gkoutos GV.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-15", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "ramp; Disaster; Start; Military Medicine; Major Incident; Triage; Injury Severity Score; Mass Casualty; Major Trauma; Prehospital Medicine; Life-saving Intervention; Careflight; Jumpstart; Bcd Triage Sieve; Mimms; Mptt-24; Mstart", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Natural disasters, conflict, and terrorism are major global causes of death and disability. Central to the healthcare response is triage, vital to ensure the right care is provided to the right patient at the right time. The ideal triage tool has high sensitivity for the highest priority (P1) patients with acceptably low over-triage. This study compared the performance of major incident triage tools in predicting P1 casualty status in adults in the prospective UK Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) registry.

Methods

TARN patients aged 16+ years (January 2008-December 2017) were included. Ten existing triage tools were applied using patients' first recorded pre-hospital physiology. Patients were subsequently assigned triage categories (P1, P2, P3, Expectant or Dead) based on pre-defined, intervention-based criteria. Tool performance was assessed by comparing tool-predicted and intervention-based priority status.

Findings

195,709 patients were included; mortality was 7\u00b70% (n=13,601); median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 9 (IQR 9-17); 97\u00b71% sustained blunt injuries. 22,144 (11\u00b73%) patients fulfilled intervention-based criteria for P1 status, exhibiting higher mortality (12\u00b78% vs. 5\u00b70%, p<0.001), increased intensive care requirement (52\u00b74% vs 5\u00b70%, p<0.001), and more severe injuries (median ISS 21\u00a0vs 9, p<0.001) compared with P2 patients.In 16-64 year olds, the highest performing tool was the Battlefield Casualty Drills (BCD) Triage Sieve (Prediction of P1 status: 70\u00b74% sensitivity, over-triage 70\u00b79%, area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) 0\u00b7068 [95%CI 0\u00b7676-0\u00b7684]). The UK National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) Triage Sieve had sensitivity of 44\u00b79%; over-triage 56\u00b74%; AUC 0\u00b7666 (95%CI 0\u00b7662-0\u00b7670). All tools performed poorly amongst the elderly (65+ years).

Interpretation

The BCD Triage Sieve performed best in this nationally representative population; we recommend it supersede the NARU Triage Sieve as the UK primary major incident triage tool. Validated triage category definitions are recommended for appraising future major incidents.

Funding

This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre. GVG also acknowledges support from the MRC Heath Data Research UK (HDRUK/CFC/01). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the Department of Health and Social Care, or the Ministry of Defence.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537021001681/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100888; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8257989?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37699069", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead218", @@ -9537,21 +9520,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead218" }, { - "id": "37022975", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201", - "title": "Stable Incidence and Increasing Prevalence of Primary Hyperparathyroidism in a Population-based Study in Scotland.", - "authorString": "Soto-Pedre E, Newey PJ, Leese GP.", + "id": "36874571", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1", + "title": "Settings for non-household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the second lockdown in England and Wales - analysis of the Virus Watch household community cohort study.", + "authorString": "Hoskins S, Beale S, Nguyen V, Fragaszy E, Navaratnam AMD, Smith C, French C, Kovar J, Byrne T, Fong WLE, Geismar C, Patel P, Yavlinksy A, Johnson AM, Aldridge RW, Hayward A, Virus Watch Collaborative.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-09-01", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-03", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Parathyroid gland; Prevalence; epidemiology; incidence; Primary Hyperparathyroidism", + "keywords": "Transmission; Activities; Pandemic; Work; Public Transport; Shopping; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Context

Previous studies, including our own, have demonstrated a highly variable incidence of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) from year to year.

Objective

We planned to provide a current estimate of the incidence and prevalence of PHPT in a community-based study.

Methods

A population-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted in Tayside (Scotland) from 2007 to 2018. Record-linkage technology (demography, biochemistry, prescribing, hospital admissions, radiology, and mortality data) was used to identify all patients. Cases of PHPT were defined as those with at least 2 raised serum corrected calcium concentration CCA (> 2.55 mmol/L) and/or hospital admissions with PHPT diagnoses and/or surgery records with parathyroidectomy during the follow-up period. The number of prevalent and incident cases of PHPT per calendar year by age and sex were estimated.

Results

A total of 2118 people (72.3% female, mean age 65 years) were identified with an incident case of PHPT. The overall prevalence of PHPT over the 12 years of the study was 0.84% (95% CI, 0.68%-1.02%), steadily increasing from 0.71% in 2007 to 1.02% in 2018. From 2008, the incidence of PHPT was relatively stable from 4 to 6 cases per 10 000 person-years, declining from 11.5 per 10 000 person-years in 2007. The incidence varied from 0.59 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 0.40%-0.77%) for those aged 20 to 29 years, to 12.4 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 11.2%-13.3%) in those aged 70 to 79 years. Incidence of PHPT was 2.5 times higher in women than in men.

Conclusion

This study is the first showing a relatively steady annual incidence of PHPT at 4 to 6 per 10 000 person-years. This population-based study reports a PHPT prevalence of 0.84%.", + "abstract": "Background: \"Lockdowns\" to control serious respiratory virus pandemics were widely used during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.\u00a0 However, there is limited information to understand the settings in which most transmission occurs during lockdowns, to support refinement of similar policies for future pandemics.\u00a0 Methods: Among Virus Watch household cohort participants we identified those infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outside the household.\u00a0 Using survey activity data, we undertook multivariable logistic regressions assessing the contribution of activities on non-household infection risk.\u00a0 We calculated adjusted population attributable fractions (APAF) to estimate which activity accounted for the greatest proportion of non-household infections during the pandemic's second wave. Results: Among 10,858 adults, 18% of cases were likely due to household transmission.\u00a0 Among 10,475 participants (household-acquired cases excluded), including 874 non-household-acquired infections, infection was associated with: leaving home for work or education (AOR 1.20 (1.02 - 1.42), APAF 6.9%); public transport (more than once per week AOR 1.82 (1.49 - 2.23), public transport APAF 12.42%); and shopping (more than once per week AOR 1.69 (1.29 - 2.21), shopping APAF 34.56%).\u00a0 Other non-household activities were rare and not significantly associated with infection. Conclusions: During lockdown, going to work and using public or shared transport independently increased infection risk, however only a minority did these activities.\u00a0 Most participants visited shops, accounting for one-third of non-household transmission. \u00a0Transmission in restricted hospitality and leisure settings was minimal suggesting these restrictions were effective.\u00a0 \u00a0If future respiratory infection pandemics emerge these findings highlight the value of working from home, using forms of transport that minimise exposure to others, minimising exposure to shops and restricting non-essential activities.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad201/50034331/dgad201.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10505547" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17981.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9975411?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35308936", @@ -9587,6 +9570,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.15102" }, + { + "id": "37022975", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201", + "title": "Stable Incidence and Increasing Prevalence of Primary Hyperparathyroidism in a Population-based Study in Scotland.", + "authorString": "Soto-Pedre E, Newey PJ, Leese GP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-09-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Parathyroid gland; Prevalence; epidemiology; incidence; Primary Hyperparathyroidism", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Context

Previous studies, including our own, have demonstrated a highly variable incidence of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) from year to year.

Objective

We planned to provide a current estimate of the incidence and prevalence of PHPT in a community-based study.

Methods

A population-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted in Tayside (Scotland) from 2007 to 2018. Record-linkage technology (demography, biochemistry, prescribing, hospital admissions, radiology, and mortality data) was used to identify all patients. Cases of PHPT were defined as those with at least 2 raised serum corrected calcium concentration CCA (> 2.55 mmol/L) and/or hospital admissions with PHPT diagnoses and/or surgery records with parathyroidectomy during the follow-up period. The number of prevalent and incident cases of PHPT per calendar year by age and sex were estimated.

Results

A total of 2118 people (72.3% female, mean age 65 years) were identified with an incident case of PHPT. The overall prevalence of PHPT over the 12 years of the study was 0.84% (95% CI, 0.68%-1.02%), steadily increasing from 0.71% in 2007 to 1.02% in 2018. From 2008, the incidence of PHPT was relatively stable from 4 to 6 cases per 10 000 person-years, declining from 11.5 per 10 000 person-years in 2007. The incidence varied from 0.59 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 0.40%-0.77%) for those aged 20 to 29 years, to 12.4 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI, 11.2%-13.3%) in those aged 70 to 79 years. Incidence of PHPT was 2.5 times higher in women than in men.

Conclusion

This study is the first showing a relatively steady annual incidence of PHPT at 4 to 6 per 10 000 person-years. This population-based study reports a PHPT prevalence of 0.84%.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad201/50034331/dgad201.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad201; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10505547" + }, { "id": "35256633", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07291-4", @@ -9621,23 +9621,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76860-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76860-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7670409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7670409?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33952557", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964", - "title": "Study protocol of the Edinburgh and Lothian Virus Intervention Study in Kids: a randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline nose drops in children with upper respiratory tract infections (ELVIS Kids).", - "authorString": "Ramalingam S, Graham C, Oatey K, Rayson P, Stoddart A, Sheikh A, Cunningham S, ELVIS Kids Trial Investigators.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Virology; Community Child Health; Neonatology; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Edinburgh and Lothians' Viral Intervention Study Kids is a parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline (HS) nose drops (~2.6% sodium chloride) vs standard care in children <7 years of age with symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI).

Methods and analysis

Children are recruited prior to URTI or within 48 hours of developing URTI symptoms by advertising in areas such as local schools/nurseries, health centres/hospitals, recreational facilities, public events, workplaces, local/social media. Willing parents/guardians, of children <7 years of age will be asked to contact the research team at their local site. Children will be randomised to either a control arm (standard symptomatic care), or intervention arm (three drops/nostril of HS, at least four times a day, until 24 hours after asymptomatic or a maximum of 28 days). All participants are requested to provide a nasal swab at the start of the study (intervention arm: before HS drops) and then daily for four more days. Parent/guardian complete a validated daily diary, an end of illness diary, a satisfaction questionnaire and a wheeze questionnaire (day 28). The parent/guardian of a child in the intervention arm is taught to prepare HS nose drops. Parent/guardian of children asymptomatic at recruitment are requested to inform the research team within 48 hours of their child developing an URTI and follow the instructions already provided. The day 28 questionnaire determines if the child experienced a wheeze following illness. Participation in the study ends on day 28.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has been approved by the West of Scotland Research Ethics Service (18/WS/0080). It is cosponsored by Academic and Clinical Central Office for Research and Development-a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and National Health Service Lothian Health Board. The findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and via the study website.

Trial registration number

NCT03463694.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049964.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35440469", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0083", @@ -9672,6 +9655,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/8/1839/pdf?version=1565745447; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081839; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6722677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6722677?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33952557", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964", + "title": "Study protocol of the Edinburgh and Lothian Virus Intervention Study in Kids: a randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline nose drops in children with upper respiratory tract infections (ELVIS Kids).", + "authorString": "Ramalingam S, Graham C, Oatey K, Rayson P, Stoddart A, Sheikh A, Cunningham S, ELVIS Kids Trial Investigators.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Virology; Community Child Health; Neonatology; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Edinburgh and Lothians' Viral Intervention Study Kids is a parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial of hypertonic saline (HS) nose drops (~2.6% sodium chloride) vs standard care in children <7 years of age with symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI).

Methods and analysis

Children are recruited prior to URTI or within 48 hours of developing URTI symptoms by advertising in areas such as local schools/nurseries, health centres/hospitals, recreational facilities, public events, workplaces, local/social media. Willing parents/guardians, of children <7 years of age will be asked to contact the research team at their local site. Children will be randomised to either a control arm (standard symptomatic care), or intervention arm (three drops/nostril of HS, at least four times a day, until 24 hours after asymptomatic or a maximum of 28 days). All participants are requested to provide a nasal swab at the start of the study (intervention arm: before HS drops) and then daily for four more days. Parent/guardian complete a validated daily diary, an end of illness diary, a satisfaction questionnaire and a wheeze questionnaire (day 28). The parent/guardian of a child in the intervention arm is taught to prepare HS nose drops. Parent/guardian of children asymptomatic at recruitment are requested to inform the research team within 48 hours of their child developing an URTI and follow the instructions already provided. The day 28 questionnaire determines if the child experienced a wheeze following illness. Participation in the study ends on day 28.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has been approved by the West of Scotland Research Ethics Service (18/WS/0080). It is cosponsored by Academic and Clinical Central Office for Research and Development-a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and National Health Service Lothian Health Board. The findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and via the study website.

Trial registration number

NCT03463694.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049964.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049964; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8103393?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36994768", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c210037", @@ -9706,23 +9706,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02158-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02158-7" }, - { - "id": "34141852", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828", - "title": "Media representations of opposition to the 'junk food advertising ban' on the Transport for London (TfL) network: A thematic content analysis of UK news and trade press.", - "authorString": "Thompson C, Clary C, Er V, Adams J, Boyland E, Burgoine T, Cornelsen L, de Vocht F, Egan M, Lake AA, Lock K, Mytton O, Petticrew M, White M, Yau A, Cummins S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "SSM - population health", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Regulation; Media; Advertising; Childhood Obesity", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Advertising of less healthy foods and drinks is hypothesised to be associated with obesity in adults and children. In February 2019, Transport for London implemented restrictions on advertisements for foods and beverages high in fat, salt or sugar across its network as part of a city-wide strategy to tackle childhood obesity. The policy was extensively debated in the press. This paper identifies arguments for and against the restrictions. Focusing on arguments against the restrictions, it then goes on to deconstruct the discursive strategies underpinning them.

Methods

A qualitative thematic content analysis of media coverage of the restrictions (the 'ban') in UK newspapers and trade press was followed by a document analysis of arguments against the ban. A search period of March 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 covered: (i) the launch of the public consultation on the ban in May 2018; (ii) the announcement of the ban in November 2018; and (iii) its implementation in February 2019. A systematic search of printed and online publications in English distributed in the UK or published on UK-specific websites identified 152 articles.

Results

Arguments in favour of the ban focused on inequalities and childhood obesity. Arguments against the ban centred on two claims: that childhood obesity was not the 'right' priority; and that an advertising ban was not an effective way to address childhood obesity. These claims were justified via three discursive approaches: (i) claiming more 'important' priorities for action; (ii) disputing the science behind the ban; (iii) emphasising potential financial costs of the ban.

Conclusion

The discursive tactics used in media sources to argue against the ban draw on frames widely used by unhealthy commodities industries in response to structural public health interventions. Our analyses highlight the need for interventions to be framed in ways that can pre-emptively counter common criticisms.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35780515", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2022.100604", @@ -9740,6 +9723,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/99415/2/Appropriately%20smoothing%20prevalence%20data%20to%20inform%20estimates%20of%20growth%20rate%20and%20reproduction%20number.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2022.100604; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9220254; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9220254?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34141852", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828", + "title": "Media representations of opposition to the 'junk food advertising ban' on the Transport for London (TfL) network: A thematic content analysis of UK news and trade press.", + "authorString": "Thompson C, Clary C, Er V, Adams J, Boyland E, Burgoine T, Cornelsen L, de Vocht F, Egan M, Lake AA, Lock K, Mytton O, Petticrew M, White M, Yau A, Cummins S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "SSM - population health", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-27", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Regulation; Media; Advertising; Childhood Obesity", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Advertising of less healthy foods and drinks is hypothesised to be associated with obesity in adults and children. In February 2019, Transport for London implemented restrictions on advertisements for foods and beverages high in fat, salt or sugar across its network as part of a city-wide strategy to tackle childhood obesity. The policy was extensively debated in the press. This paper identifies arguments for and against the restrictions. Focusing on arguments against the restrictions, it then goes on to deconstruct the discursive strategies underpinning them.

Methods

A qualitative thematic content analysis of media coverage of the restrictions (the 'ban') in UK newspapers and trade press was followed by a document analysis of arguments against the ban. A search period of March 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 covered: (i) the launch of the public consultation on the ban in May 2018; (ii) the announcement of the ban in November 2018; and (iii) its implementation in February 2019. A systematic search of printed and online publications in English distributed in the UK or published on UK-specific websites identified 152 articles.

Results

Arguments in favour of the ban focused on inequalities and childhood obesity. Arguments against the ban centred on two claims: that childhood obesity was not the 'right' priority; and that an advertising ban was not an effective way to address childhood obesity. These claims were justified via three discursive approaches: (i) claiming more 'important' priorities for action; (ii) disputing the science behind the ban; (iii) emphasising potential financial costs of the ban.

Conclusion

The discursive tactics used in media sources to argue against the ban draw on frames widely used by unhealthy commodities industries in response to structural public health interventions. Our analyses highlight the need for interventions to be framed in ways that can pre-emptively counter common criticisms.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100828; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8184652?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33577558", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003497", @@ -9757,23 +9757,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003497&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003497; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880491; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880491?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37000839", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076", - "title": "Predicting a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis using primary care health records-A machine learning approach.", - "authorString": "Kennedy J, Kennedy N, Cooksey R, Choy E, Siebert S, Rahman M, Brophy S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-31", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Ankylosing spondylitis is the second most common cause of inflammatory arthritis. However, a successful diagnosis can take a decade to confirm from symptom onset (via x-rays). The aim of this study was to use machine learning methods to develop a profile of the characteristics of people who are likely to be given a diagnosis of AS in future. The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank was used. Patients with ankylosing spondylitis were identified using their routine data and matched with controls who had no record of a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis or axial spondyloarthritis. Data was analysed separately for men and women. The model was developed using feature/variable selection and principal component analysis to develop decision trees. The decision tree with the highest average F value was selected and validated with a test dataset. The model for men indicated that lower back pain, uveitis, and NSAID use under age 20 is associated with AS development. The model for women showed an older age of symptom presentation compared to men with back pain and multiple pain relief medications. The models showed good prediction (positive predictive value 70%-80%) in test data but in the general population where prevalence is very low (0.09% of the population in this dataset) the positive predictive value would be very low (0.33%-0.25%). Machine learning can be used to help profile and understand the characteristics of people who will develop AS, and in test datasets with artificially high prevalence, will perform well. However, when applied to a general population with low prevalence rates, such as that in primary care, the positive predictive value for even the best model would be 1.4%. Multiple models may be needed to narrow down the population over time to improve the predictive value and therefore reduce the time to diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279076&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34527726", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00167-2021", @@ -9791,6 +9774,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/7/3/00167-2021.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00167-2021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8435805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8435805?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37000839", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076", + "title": "Predicting a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis using primary care health records-A machine learning approach.", + "authorString": "Kennedy J, Kennedy N, Cooksey R, Choy E, Siebert S, Rahman M, Brophy S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Ankylosing spondylitis is the second most common cause of inflammatory arthritis. However, a successful diagnosis can take a decade to confirm from symptom onset (via x-rays). The aim of this study was to use machine learning methods to develop a profile of the characteristics of people who are likely to be given a diagnosis of AS in future. The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank was used. Patients with ankylosing spondylitis were identified using their routine data and matched with controls who had no record of a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis or axial spondyloarthritis. Data was analysed separately for men and women. The model was developed using feature/variable selection and principal component analysis to develop decision trees. The decision tree with the highest average F value was selected and validated with a test dataset. The model for men indicated that lower back pain, uveitis, and NSAID use under age 20 is associated with AS development. The model for women showed an older age of symptom presentation compared to men with back pain and multiple pain relief medications. The models showed good prediction (positive predictive value 70%-80%) in test data but in the general population where prevalence is very low (0.09% of the population in this dataset) the positive predictive value would be very low (0.33%-0.25%). Machine learning can be used to help profile and understand the characteristics of people who will develop AS, and in test datasets with artificially high prevalence, will perform well. However, when applied to a general population with low prevalence rates, such as that in primary care, the positive predictive value for even the best model would be 1.4%. Multiple models may be needed to narrow down the population over time to improve the predictive value and therefore reduce the time to diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279076&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279076; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10065228?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33971933", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05295-5", @@ -10233,23 +10233,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163445321001158/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.03.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948670; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7948670?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31594227", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-190571", - "title": "Partner Bereavement and Detection of Dementia: A UK-Based Cohort Study Using Routine Health Data.", - "authorString": "Forbes HJ, Wong AYS, Morton C, Bhaskaran K, Smeeth L, Richards M, Schmidt SAJ, Langan SM, Warren-Gash C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Diagnosis; Dementia; epidemiology; Bereavement; Clinical Practice Research Datalink", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

In the UK, an estimated one third of people with dementia have not received a diagnosis. Good evidence suggests that dementia risk is increased among widowed individuals; however, it is not clear if they are being diagnosed in routine primary care.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate if bereavement influenced the probability of having received a dementia diagnosis.

Methods

A population-based cohort study using UK electronic health records, between 1997 and 2017, among 247,586 opposite-sex partners. Those experiencing partner bereavement were matched (age, sex, and date of bereavement) to a non-bereaved person living in a partnership. Multivariate cox regression was performed.

Results

Partner bereavement was associated with an increased risk of receiving a diagnosis of dementia in the first three months (hazard ratio (HR) 1.43, 95% CI 1.20-1.71) and first six months (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.09-1.41), while there was a small reduced risk of getting a dementia diagnosis over all follow-up (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89-0.98).

Conclusions

Partner bereavement appears to lead to a short-term increased risk of the surviving partner receiving a diagnosis of dementia, suggesting that bereavement unmasks existing undiagnosed dementia. Over the longer term, however, bereaved individuals are less likely to have a diagnosis of dementia in their health records than non-bereaved individuals.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6918907?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-190571; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33212507", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa279", @@ -10267,6 +10250,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article-pdf/38/3/1122/36533820/msaa279.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa279; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7947781; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7947781?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31594227", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-190571", + "title": "Partner Bereavement and Detection of Dementia: A UK-Based Cohort Study Using Routine Health Data.", + "authorString": "Forbes HJ, Wong AYS, Morton C, Bhaskaran K, Smeeth L, Richards M, Schmidt SAJ, Langan SM, Warren-Gash C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Diagnosis; Dementia; epidemiology; Bereavement; Clinical Practice Research Datalink", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

In the UK, an estimated one third of people with dementia have not received a diagnosis. Good evidence suggests that dementia risk is increased among widowed individuals; however, it is not clear if they are being diagnosed in routine primary care.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate if bereavement influenced the probability of having received a dementia diagnosis.

Methods

A population-based cohort study using UK electronic health records, between 1997 and 2017, among 247,586 opposite-sex partners. Those experiencing partner bereavement were matched (age, sex, and date of bereavement) to a non-bereaved person living in a partnership. Multivariate cox regression was performed.

Results

Partner bereavement was associated with an increased risk of receiving a diagnosis of dementia in the first three months (hazard ratio (HR) 1.43, 95% CI 1.20-1.71) and first six months (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.09-1.41), while there was a small reduced risk of getting a dementia diagnosis over all follow-up (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89-0.98).

Conclusions

Partner bereavement appears to lead to a short-term increased risk of the surviving partner receiving a diagnosis of dementia, suggesting that bereavement unmasks existing undiagnosed dementia. Over the longer term, however, bereaved individuals are less likely to have a diagnosis of dementia in their health records than non-bereaved individuals.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6918907?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-190571; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918907?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32424068", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.250704.119", @@ -10454,23 +10454,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/aor.14628; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/aor.14628" }, - { - "id": "35685390", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00072-1", - "title": "Modifiable traits, healthy behaviours, and leukocyte telomere length: a population-based study in UK Biobank.", - "authorString": "Bountziouka V, Musicha C, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Wang Q, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Thompson JR, Danesh JN, Wood AM, Nelson CP, Codd V, Samani NJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The lancet. Healthy longevity", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Telomere length is associated with risk of several age-related diseases and cancers. We aimed to investigate the extent to which telomere length might be modifiable through lifestyle and behaviour, and whether such modification has any clinical consequences.

Methods

In this population-based study, we included participants from UK Biobank who had leukocyte telomere length (LTL) measurement, ethnicity, and white blood cell count data. We investigated associations of LTL with 117 potentially modifiable traits, as well as two indices of healthy behaviours incorporating between them smoking, physical activity, diet, maintenance of a healthy bodyweight, and alcohol intake, using both available and imputed data. To help interpretation, associations were summarised as the number of equivalent years of age-related change in LTL by dividing the trait \u03b2 coefficients with the age \u03b2 coefficient. We used mendelian randomisation to test causality of selected associations. We investigated whether the associations of LTL with 22 diseases were modified by the number of healthy behaviours and the extent to which the associations of more healthy behaviours with greater life expectancy and lower risk of coronary artery disease might be mediated through LTL.

Findings

422\u2008797 participants were available for the analysis (227\u2008620 [53\u00b78%] were women and 400\u2008036 [94\u00b76%] were White). 71 traits showed significant (p<4\u00b727\u2008\u00d7\u200810-4) associations with LTL but most were modest, equivalent to less than 1 year of age-related change in LTL. In multivariable analyses of 17 traits with stronger associations (equivalent to \u22652 years of age-related change in LTL), oily fish intake, educational attainment, and general health status retained a significant association of this magnitude, with walking pace and current smoking being additionally significant at this level of association in the imputed models. Mendelian randomisation analysis suggested that educational attainment and smoking behaviour causally affect LTL. Both indices of healthy behaviour were positively and linearly associated with LTL, with those with the most healthy behaviours having longer LTL equivalent to about 3\u00b75 years of age-related change in LTL than those with the least heathy behaviours (p<0\u00b7001). However, healthy behaviours explained less than 0\u00b72% of the total variation in LTL and did not significantly modify the association of LTL with risk of any of the diseases studied. Neither the association of more healthy behaviours on greater life expectancy or lower risk of coronary artery disease were substantially mediated through LTL.

Interpretation

Although several potentially modifiable traits and healthy behaviours have a quantifiable association with LTL, at least some of which are likely to be causal, these effects are not of a sufficient magnitude to substantially alter the association between LTL and various diseases or life expectancy. Attempts to change telomere length through lifestyle or behavioural changes might not confer substantial clinical benefit.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and British Heart Foundation.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756822000721/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00072-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9068584" - }, { "id": "36102151", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac527", @@ -10488,6 +10471,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/107/12/3302/47260242/dgac527.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac527; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9693767" }, + { + "id": "35685390", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(22)00072-1", + "title": "Modifiable traits, healthy behaviours, and leukocyte telomere length: a population-based study in UK Biobank.", + "authorString": "Bountziouka V, Musicha C, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Wang Q, Angelantonio ED, Butterworth AS, Thompson JR, Danesh JN, Wood AM, Nelson CP, Codd V, Samani NJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The lancet. Healthy longevity", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Telomere length is associated with risk of several age-related diseases and cancers. We aimed to investigate the extent to which telomere length might be modifiable through lifestyle and behaviour, and whether such modification has any clinical consequences.

Methods

In this population-based study, we included participants from UK Biobank who had leukocyte telomere length (LTL) measurement, ethnicity, and white blood cell count data. We investigated associations of LTL with 117 potentially modifiable traits, as well as two indices of healthy behaviours incorporating between them smoking, physical activity, diet, maintenance of a healthy bodyweight, and alcohol intake, using both available and imputed data. To help interpretation, associations were summarised as the number of equivalent years of age-related change in LTL by dividing the trait \u03b2 coefficients with the age \u03b2 coefficient. We used mendelian randomisation to test causality of selected associations. We investigated whether the associations of LTL with 22 diseases were modified by the number of healthy behaviours and the extent to which the associations of more healthy behaviours with greater life expectancy and lower risk of coronary artery disease might be mediated through LTL.

Findings

422\u2008797 participants were available for the analysis (227\u2008620 [53\u00b78%] were women and 400\u2008036 [94\u00b76%] were White). 71 traits showed significant (p<4\u00b727\u2008\u00d7\u200810-4) associations with LTL but most were modest, equivalent to less than 1 year of age-related change in LTL. In multivariable analyses of 17 traits with stronger associations (equivalent to \u22652 years of age-related change in LTL), oily fish intake, educational attainment, and general health status retained a significant association of this magnitude, with walking pace and current smoking being additionally significant at this level of association in the imputed models. Mendelian randomisation analysis suggested that educational attainment and smoking behaviour causally affect LTL. Both indices of healthy behaviour were positively and linearly associated with LTL, with those with the most healthy behaviours having longer LTL equivalent to about 3\u00b75 years of age-related change in LTL than those with the least heathy behaviours (p<0\u00b7001). However, healthy behaviours explained less than 0\u00b72% of the total variation in LTL and did not significantly modify the association of LTL with risk of any of the diseases studied. Neither the association of more healthy behaviours on greater life expectancy or lower risk of coronary artery disease were substantially mediated through LTL.

Interpretation

Although several potentially modifiable traits and healthy behaviours have a quantifiable association with LTL, at least some of which are likely to be causal, these effects are not of a sufficient magnitude to substantially alter the association between LTL and various diseases or life expectancy. Attempts to change telomere length through lifestyle or behavioural changes might not confer substantial clinical benefit.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and British Heart Foundation.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756822000721/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00072-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9068584" + }, { "id": "36150783", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00147-9", @@ -10557,38 +10557,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28157-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28157-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789777?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36935397", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055", - "title": "Validating a novel natural language processing pathway for automated quality assurance in surgical oncology: incomplete excision rates of 34 955 basal cell carcinomas.", - "authorString": "Ali SR, Dobbs TD, Jovic M, Strafford H, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Lacey AS, Williams N, Pickrell WO, Hutchings HA, Whitaker IS.", + "id": "36806317", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00749-3", + "title": "Long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in an app and wearable-based multinational remote digital depression study.", + "authorString": "Zhang Y, Pratap A, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Matcham F, Vairavan S, Dineley J, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, White KM, Oetzmann C, Ivan A, Lamers F, Siddi S, Rambla CH, Simblett S, Nica R, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Haro JM, Penninx BWJH, Annas P, Narayan VA, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB, RADAR-CNS consortium.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The British journal of surgery", + "journalTitle": "NPJ digital medicine", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-01", + "date": "2023-02-17", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "Recent growth in digital technologies has enabled the recruitment and monitoring of large and diverse populations in remote health studies. However, the generalizability of inference drawn from remotely collected health data could be severely impacted by uneven participant engagement and attrition over the course of the study. We report findings on long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in a large multinational observational digital study for depression containing active (surveys) and passive sensor data collected via Android smartphones, and Fitbit devices from 614 participants for up to 2 years. Majority of participants (67.6%) continued to remain engaged in the study after 43 weeks. Unsupervised clustering of participants' study apps and Fitbit usage data showed 3 distinct engagement subgroups for each data stream. We found: (i) the least engaged group had the highest depression severity (4 PHQ8 points higher) across all data streams; (ii) the least engaged group (completed 4 bi-weekly surveys) took significantly longer to respond to survey notifications (3.8\u2009h more) and were 5 years younger compared to the most engaged group (completed 20 bi-weekly surveys); and (iii) a considerable proportion (44.6%) of the participants who stopped completing surveys after 8 weeks continued to share passive Fitbit data for significantly longer (average 42 weeks). Additionally, multivariate survival models showed participants' age, ownership and brand of smartphones, and recruitment sites to be associated with retention in the study. Together these findings could inform the design of future digital health studies to enable equitable and balanced data collection from diverse populations.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/bjs/znad055/49561408/znad055.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-023-00749-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00749-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9938183; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9938183?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36806317", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00749-3", - "title": "Long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in an app and wearable-based multinational remote digital depression study.", - "authorString": "Zhang Y, Pratap A, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Matcham F, Vairavan S, Dineley J, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, White KM, Oetzmann C, Ivan A, Lamers F, Siddi S, Rambla CH, Simblett S, Nica R, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Haro JM, Penninx BWJH, Annas P, Narayan VA, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB, RADAR-CNS consortium.", + "id": "36935397", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055", + "title": "Validating a novel natural language processing pathway for automated quality assurance in surgical oncology: incomplete excision rates of 34 955 basal cell carcinomas.", + "authorString": "Ali SR, Dobbs TD, Jovic M, Strafford H, Fonferko-Shadrach B, Lacey AS, Williams N, Pickrell WO, Hutchings HA, Whitaker IS.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "NPJ digital medicine", + "journalTitle": "The British journal of surgery", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-17", + "date": "2023-08-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Recent growth in digital technologies has enabled the recruitment and monitoring of large and diverse populations in remote health studies. However, the generalizability of inference drawn from remotely collected health data could be severely impacted by uneven participant engagement and attrition over the course of the study. We report findings on long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in a large multinational observational digital study for depression containing active (surveys) and passive sensor data collected via Android smartphones, and Fitbit devices from 614 participants for up to 2 years. Majority of participants (67.6%) continued to remain engaged in the study after 43 weeks. Unsupervised clustering of participants' study apps and Fitbit usage data showed 3 distinct engagement subgroups for each data stream. We found: (i) the least engaged group had the highest depression severity (4 PHQ8 points higher) across all data streams; (ii) the least engaged group (completed 4 bi-weekly surveys) took significantly longer to respond to survey notifications (3.8\u2009h more) and were 5 years younger compared to the most engaged group (completed 20 bi-weekly surveys); and (iii) a considerable proportion (44.6%) of the participants who stopped completing surveys after 8 weeks continued to share passive Fitbit data for significantly longer (average 42 weeks). Additionally, multivariate survival models showed participants' age, ownership and brand of smartphones, and recruitment sites to be associated with retention in the study. Together these findings could inform the design of future digital health studies to enable equitable and balanced data collection from diverse populations.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-023-00749-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00749-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9938183; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9938183?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/bjs/znad055/49561408/znad055.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znad055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10416688?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35074819", @@ -10624,23 +10624,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36997-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36997-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10015012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10015012?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31315158", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235", - "title": "Non-invasive coronary CT angiography-derived fractional flow reserve: A benchmark study comparing the diagnostic performance of four different computational methodologies.", - "authorString": "Carson JM, Pant S, Roobottom C, Alcock R, Javier Blanco P, Alberto Bulant C, Vassilevski Y, Simakov S, Gamilov T, Pryamonosov R, Liang F, Ge X, Liu Y, Nithiarasu P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-08-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Fractional Flow Reserve; Benchmark; Haemodynamic Models", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Non-invasive coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (cFFR) is an emergent approach to determine the functional relevance of obstructive coronary lesions. Its feasibility and diagnostic performance has been reported in several studies. It is unclear if differences in sensitivity and specificity between these studies are due to study design, population, or \"computational methodology.\" We evaluate the diagnostic performance of four different computational workflows for the prediction of cFFR using a limited data set of 10 patients, three based on reduced-order modelling and one based on a 3D rigid-wall model. The results for three of these methodologies yield similar accuracy of 6.5%\u00a0to 10.5% mean absolute difference between computed and measured FFR. The main aspects of modelling which affected cFFR estimation were choice of inlet and outlet boundary conditions and estimation of flow distribution in the coronary network. One of the reduced-order models showed the lowest overall deviation from the clinical FFR measurements, indicating that reduced-order models are capable of a similar level of accuracy to a 3D model. In addition, this reduced-order model did not include a lumped pressure-drop model for a stenosis, which implies that the additional effort of isolating a stenosis and inserting a pressure-drop element in the spatial mesh may not be required for FFR estimation. The present benchmark study is the first of this kind, in which we attempt to homogenize the data required to compute FFR using mathematical models. The clinical data utilised in the cFFR workflows are made publicly available online.", - "laySummary": "Retrospective case series of 10 patients having coronary angiogram and invasive fractional flow reserve measurement. The authors used 4 different techniques to estimate coronary vessel flow rate and compared their measurement agreement with clinical FFA measurements and with each other. They found that all 4 methods gave different results, but one approach was more similar with the clinical gold standard. They propose this method with most worthy of further investigaiton.", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3235; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33203640", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043828", @@ -10675,6 +10658,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2023/03/06/BJGP.2022.0353.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0353; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9997656?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31315158", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235", + "title": "Non-invasive coronary CT angiography-derived fractional flow reserve: A benchmark study comparing the diagnostic performance of four different computational methodologies.", + "authorString": "Carson JM, Pant S, Roobottom C, Alcock R, Javier Blanco P, Alberto Bulant C, Vassilevski Y, Simakov S, Gamilov T, Pryamonosov R, Liang F, Ge X, Liu Y, Nithiarasu P.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-08-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Fractional Flow Reserve; Benchmark; Haemodynamic Models", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Non-invasive coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (cFFR) is an emergent approach to determine the functional relevance of obstructive coronary lesions. Its feasibility and diagnostic performance has been reported in several studies. It is unclear if differences in sensitivity and specificity between these studies are due to study design, population, or \"computational methodology.\" We evaluate the diagnostic performance of four different computational workflows for the prediction of cFFR using a limited data set of 10 patients, three based on reduced-order modelling and one based on a 3D rigid-wall model. The results for three of these methodologies yield similar accuracy of 6.5%\u00a0to 10.5% mean absolute difference between computed and measured FFR. The main aspects of modelling which affected cFFR estimation were choice of inlet and outlet boundary conditions and estimation of flow distribution in the coronary network. One of the reduced-order models showed the lowest overall deviation from the clinical FFR measurements, indicating that reduced-order models are capable of a similar level of accuracy to a 3D model. In addition, this reduced-order model did not include a lumped pressure-drop model for a stenosis, which implies that the additional effort of isolating a stenosis and inserting a pressure-drop element in the spatial mesh may not be required for FFR estimation. The present benchmark study is the first of this kind, in which we attempt to homogenize the data required to compute FFR using mathematical models. The clinical data utilised in the cFFR workflows are made publicly available online.", + "laySummary": "Retrospective case series of 10 patients having coronary angiogram and invasive fractional flow reserve measurement. The authors used 4 different techniques to estimate coronary vessel flow rate and compared their measurement agreement with clinical FFA measurements and with each other. They found that all 4 methods gave different results, but one approach was more similar with the clinical gold standard. They propose this method with most worthy of further investigaiton.", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3235; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3235; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6851543?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37042240", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circimaging.122.014519", @@ -10692,23 +10692,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.122.014519" }, - { - "id": "34353320", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x", - "title": "Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: an electronic birth cohort study.", - "authorString": "Lowthian E, Anthony R, Evans A, Daniel R, Long S, Bandyopadhyay A, John A, Bellis MA, Paranjothy S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-08-06", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Survival analysis; Cohort; Mental health; Wales; Administrative Data; Adverse Childhood Experiences", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are negatively associated with a range of child health outcomes. In this study, we explored associations between five individual ACEs and child mental health diagnoses or symptoms. ACEs included living with someone who had an alcohol-related problem, common mental health disorder or serious mental illness, or experienced victimisation or death of a household member.

Methods

We analysed data from a population-level electronic cohort of children in Wales, UK, (N = 191,035) between the years of 1998 and 2012. We used Cox regression with discrete time-varying exposure variables to model time to child mental health diagnosis during the first 15 years of life. Child mental health diagnoses include five categories: (i) externalising symptoms (anti-social behaviour), (ii) internalising symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression), (iii) developmental delay (e.g. learning disability), (iv) other (e.g. eating disorder, personality disorders),\u00a0and (v) any mental health diagnosis, which was created by combining externalising symptoms, internalising symptoms and other. Our analyses were adjusted for social deprivation and perinatal risk factors.

Results

There were strong univariable associations between the five individual ACEs, sociodemographic and perinatal factors (e.g. gestational weight at birth) and an increased risk of child mental health diagnoses. After adjusting for sociodemographic and perinatal aspects, there was a remaining conditional increased risk of any child mental health diagnosis, associated with victimisation (conditional hazard ratio (cHR) 1.90, CI 95% 1.34-2.69), and living with an adult with a common mental health diagnosis (cHR 1.63, CI 95% 1.52-1.75). Coefficients of product terms between ACEs and deprivation were not statistically significant.

Conclusion

The increased risk of child mental health diagnosis associated with victimisation, or exposure to common mental health diagnoses, and alcohol problems in the household supports the need for policy measures and intervention strategies for children and their families.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35301875", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.121.023146", @@ -10726,6 +10709,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.121.023146; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.023146; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075433; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9075433?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34353320", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x", + "title": "Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: an electronic birth cohort study.", + "authorString": "Lowthian E, Anthony R, Evans A, Daniel R, Long S, Bandyopadhyay A, John A, Bellis MA, Paranjothy S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-08-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Survival analysis; Cohort; Mental health; Wales; Administrative Data; Adverse Childhood Experiences", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are negatively associated with a range of child health outcomes. In this study, we explored associations between five individual ACEs and child mental health diagnoses or symptoms. ACEs included living with someone who had an alcohol-related problem, common mental health disorder or serious mental illness, or experienced victimisation or death of a household member.

Methods

We analysed data from a population-level electronic cohort of children in Wales, UK, (N = 191,035) between the years of 1998 and 2012. We used Cox regression with discrete time-varying exposure variables to model time to child mental health diagnosis during the first 15 years of life. Child mental health diagnoses include five categories: (i) externalising symptoms (anti-social behaviour), (ii) internalising symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression), (iii) developmental delay (e.g. learning disability), (iv) other (e.g. eating disorder, personality disorders),\u00a0and (v) any mental health diagnosis, which was created by combining externalising symptoms, internalising symptoms and other. Our analyses were adjusted for social deprivation and perinatal risk factors.

Results

There were strong univariable associations between the five individual ACEs, sociodemographic and perinatal factors (e.g. gestational weight at birth) and an increased risk of child mental health diagnoses. After adjusting for sociodemographic and perinatal aspects, there was a remaining conditional increased risk of any child mental health diagnosis, associated with victimisation (conditional hazard ratio (cHR) 1.90, CI 95% 1.34-2.69), and living with an adult with a common mental health diagnosis (cHR 1.63, CI 95% 1.52-1.75). Coefficients of product terms between ACEs and deprivation were not statistically significant.

Conclusion

The increased risk of child mental health diagnosis associated with victimisation, or exposure to common mental health diagnoses, and alcohol problems in the household supports the need for policy measures and intervention strategies for children and their families.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344166?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32516805", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa375", @@ -10845,23 +10845,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.injuryjournal.com/article/S0020138322002327/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.03.039" }, - { - "id": "36112916", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853", - "title": "Inferring risks of coronavirus transmission from community household data.", - "authorString": "House T, Riley H, Pellis L, Pouwels KB, Bacon S, Eidukas A, Jahanshahi K, Eggo RM, Sarah Walker A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Statistical methods in medical research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Infection; Model; epidemic; risk factors; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The response of many governments to the COVID-19 pandemic has involved measures to control within- and between-household transmission, providing motivation to improve understanding of the absolute and relative risks in these contexts. Here, we perform exploratory, residual-based, and transmission-dynamic household analysis of the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey data from 26 April 2020 to 15 July 2021 in England. This provides evidence for: (i) temporally varying rates of introduction of infection into households broadly following the trajectory of the overall epidemic and vaccination programme; (ii) susceptible-Infectious transmission probabilities of within-household transmission in the 15-35% range; (iii) the emergence of the Alpha and Delta variants, with the former being around 50% more infectious than wildtype and 35% less infectious than Delta within households; (iv) significantly (in the range of 25-300%) more risk of bringing infection into the household for workers in patient-facing roles pre-vaccine; (v) increased risk for secondary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools are open; (vi) increased risk for primary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools were open since the emergence of new variants.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35945198", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32095-5", @@ -10879,6 +10862,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32095-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32095-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9363492; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9363492?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36112916", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853", + "title": "Inferring risks of coronavirus transmission from community household data.", + "authorString": "House T, Riley H, Pellis L, Pouwels KB, Bacon S, Eidukas A, Jahanshahi K, Eggo RM, Sarah Walker A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Statistical methods in medical research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Infection; Model; epidemic; risk factors; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The response of many governments to the COVID-19 pandemic has involved measures to control within- and between-household transmission, providing motivation to improve understanding of the absolute and relative risks in these contexts. Here, we perform exploratory, residual-based, and transmission-dynamic household analysis of the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey data from 26 April 2020 to 15 July 2021 in England. This provides evidence for: (i) temporally varying rates of introduction of infection into households broadly following the trajectory of the overall epidemic and vaccination programme; (ii) susceptible-Infectious transmission probabilities of within-household transmission in the 15-35% range; (iii) the emergence of the Alpha and Delta variants, with the former being around 50% more infectious than wildtype and 35% less infectious than Delta within households; (iv) significantly (in the range of 25-300%) more risk of bringing infection into the household for workers in patient-facing roles pre-vaccine; (v) increased risk for secondary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools are open; (vi) increased risk for primary school-age children of bringing the infection into the household when schools were open since the emergence of new variants.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/09622802211055853; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9465559?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34649997", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-0437", @@ -10913,6 +10913,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01613-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01613-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7815736; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7815736?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31857590", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6", + "title": "Machine learning for the detection of early immunological markers as predictors of multi-organ dysfunction.", + "authorString": "Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Hazeldine J, Bentley C, Foster M, Gkoutos GV, Lord JM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Scientific data", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-12-19", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The immune response to major trauma has been analysed mainly within post-hospital admission settings where the inflammatory response is already underway and the early drivers of clinical outcome cannot be readily determined. Thus, there is a need to better understand the immediate immune response to injury and how this might influence important patient outcomes such as multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). In this study, we have assessed the immune response to trauma in 61 patients at three different post-injury time points (ultra-early (<=1\u2009h), 4-12\u2009h, 48-72\u2009h) and analysed relationships with the development of MODS. We developed a pipeline using Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator and Elastic Net feature selection methods that were able to identify 3 physiological features (decrease in neutrophil CD62L and CD63 expression and monocyte CD63 expression and frequency) as possible biomarkers for MODS development. After univariate and multivariate analysis for each feature alongside a stability analysis, the addition of these 3 markers to standard clinical trauma injury severity scores yields a Generalized Liner Model (GLM) with an average Area Under the Curve value of 0.92\u2009\u00b1\u20090.06. This performance provides an 8% improvement over the Probability of Survival (PS14) outcome measure and a 13% improvement over the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) for identifying patients at risk of MODS.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0337-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36543561", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0156", @@ -10948,21 +10965,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145566/1/ChungIncidence%2C%20morbidity%2C%20mortality%20and%20disparities%20in%20dementia_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12635; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10078672; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10078672?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31857590", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6", - "title": "Machine learning for the detection of early immunological markers as predictors of multi-organ dysfunction.", - "authorString": "Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Hazeldine J, Bentley C, Foster M, Gkoutos GV, Lord JM.", + "id": "35976089", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135", + "title": "Reference ranges for GDF-15, and risk factors associated with GDF-15, in a large general population cohort.", + "authorString": "Welsh P, Kimenai DM, Marioni RE, Hayward C, Campbell A, Porteous D, Mills NL, O'Rahilly S, Sattar N.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific data", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-12-19", + "journalTitle": "Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-18", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Biochemical markers; Guidelines; Reference Ranges", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Growth differentiation factor (GDF)-15 is attracting interest as a biomarker in several areas of medicine. We aimed to evaluate the reference range for GDF-15 in\u00a0a\u00a0general population, and to explore demographics, classical cardiovascular disease risk factors, and other cardiac biomarkers associated with GDF-15.

Methods

GDF-15 was measured in serum from 19,462 individuals in the Generation Scotland Scottish Family Health Study. Associations of cardiometabolic risk factors with GDF-15 were tested using adjusted linear regression. Among 18,507 participants with no heart disease, heart failure, or stroke, and not pregnant, reference ranges (median and 97.5th centiles) were derived by decade age bands and sex.

Results

Among males in the reference range population, median (97.5th centile) GDF-15 concentration at age <30 years was 537 (1,135)\u00a0pg/mL, rising to 931 (2,492)\u00a0pg/mL at 50-59\u00a0years, and 2,152 (5,972) pg/mL at\u00a0\u226580 years. In females, median GDF-15 at age <30\u00a0years was 628 (2,195)\u00a0pg/mL, 881 (2,323)\u00a0pg/mL at 50-59\u00a0years, and 1847 (6,830)\u00a0pg/mL at\u00a0\u226580\u00a0years. Among those known to be pregnant, median GDF-15 was 19,311\u00a0pg/mL. After adjustment, GDF-15 was\u00a0higher in participants with adverse cardiovascular risk factors, including current smoking (+26.1%), those with previous heart disease (+12.7%), stroke (+17.1%), heart failure (+25.3%), and particularly diabetes (+60.2%). GDF-15 had positive associations with cardiac biomarkers cardiac troponin I, cardiac troponin T, and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP).

Conclusions

These data define reference ranges for GDF-15 for comparison in future studies, and identify potentially confounding risk factors and mediators to be considered in interpreting GDF-15 concentrations.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9524804; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9524804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9524804?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135" + }, + { + "id": "34765951", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163", + "title": "Net effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibition in different patient groups: a meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled randomized trials.", + "authorString": "Staplin N, Roddick AJ, Emberson J, Reith C, Riding A, Wonnacott A, Kuverji A, Bhandari S, Baigent C, Haynes R, Herrington WG.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-26", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Safety; Heart Failure; Randomized Trials; Ckd; Sodium-glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitors", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The immune response to major trauma has been analysed mainly within post-hospital admission settings where the inflammatory response is already underway and the early drivers of clinical outcome cannot be readily determined. Thus, there is a need to better understand the immediate immune response to injury and how this might influence important patient outcomes such as multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). In this study, we have assessed the immune response to trauma in 61 patients at three different post-injury time points (ultra-early (<=1\u2009h), 4-12\u2009h, 48-72\u2009h) and analysed relationships with the development of MODS. We developed a pipeline using Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator and Elastic Net feature selection methods that were able to identify 3 physiological features (decrease in neutrophil CD62L and CD63 expression and monocyte CD63 expression and frequency) as possible biomarkers for MODS development. After univariate and multivariate analysis for each feature alongside a stability analysis, the addition of these 3 markers to standard clinical trauma injury severity scores yields a Generalized Liner Model (GLM) with an average Area Under the Curve value of 0.92\u2009\u00b1\u20090.06. This performance provides an 8% improvement over the Probability of Survival (PS14) outcome measure and a 13% improvement over the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) for identifying patients at risk of MODS.", + "abstract": "

Background

The net absolute effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors across different patient groups have not been quantified.

Methods

We performed a meta-analysis of published large (>500 participants/arm) placebo-controlled SGLT-2 inhibitor trials after systematically searching MEDLINE and Embase databases from inception to 28th August 2021 (PROSPERO 2021 CRD42021240468).

Findings

Four heart failure trials (n=15,684 participants), four trials in type 2 diabetes mellitus at high atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk (n=42,568), and three trials in chronic kidney disease (n=19,289) were included. Relative risks (RRs) for all cardiovascular, renal and safety outcomes were broadly similar across these three patient groups, and between people with or without diabetes. Overall, compared to placebo, allocation to SGLT-2 inhibition reduced risk of hospitalization for heart failure or cardiovascular death by 23% (RR=0.77, 95%CI 0.73-0.80; n=6658), cardiovascular death by 14% (0.86, 0.81-0.92; n=3962), major adverse cardiovascular events by 11% (0.89, 0.84-0.94; n=5703), kidney disease progression by 36% (0.64, 0.59-0.70; n=2275), acute kidney injury by 30% (0.70, 0.62-0.79; n=1013 events) and severe hypoglycaemia by 13% (0.87, 0.79-0.97; n=1484). There was no effect of SGLT-2 inhibition on risk of non-cardiovascular death (0.93, 0.86-1.01; n=2226), but a net 12% reduction in all-cause mortality remained evident (0.88, 0.84-0.93; n=6188). However, the risk of ketoacidosis was 2-times higher among those allocated SGLT-2 inhibitors compared to placebo (2.03, 1.41-2.93; n=159; absolute excess in people with diabetes \u223c0.3/1000 patient years). A small increased risk of urinary tract infection was evident (1.07, 1.02-1.13; n=5384) alongside a known increased risk of mycotic genital infections. Overall, risk of lower limb amputations was increased by 16% (1.16, 1.02-1.31; n=1074), but this risk was largely driven by a single outlying trial (CANVAS).

Interpretations

The relative effects of SGLT-2 inhibition on key safety and efficacy outcomes are consistent across the different studied groups of patient. Consequently, absolute benefits and harms are determined by the absolute baseline risk of particular outcomes, with absolute benefits on mortality and on non-fatal serious cardiac/renal outcomes substantially exceeding the risks of amputation and ketoacidosis in the main patient groups studied to date.

Funding

MRC-UK & KRUK.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0337-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0337-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6923383?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37679419", @@ -10981,23 +11015,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01462-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484788; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10484788?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35976089", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135", - "title": "Reference ranges for GDF-15, and risk factors associated with GDF-15, in a large general population cohort.", - "authorString": "Welsh P, Kimenai DM, Marioni RE, Hayward C, Campbell A, Porteous D, Mills NL, O'Rahilly S, Sattar N.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-18", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Biochemical markers; Guidelines; Reference Ranges", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Growth differentiation factor (GDF)-15 is attracting interest as a biomarker in several areas of medicine. We aimed to evaluate the reference range for GDF-15 in\u00a0a\u00a0general population, and to explore demographics, classical cardiovascular disease risk factors, and other cardiac biomarkers associated with GDF-15.

Methods

GDF-15 was measured in serum from 19,462 individuals in the Generation Scotland Scottish Family Health Study. Associations of cardiometabolic risk factors with GDF-15 were tested using adjusted linear regression. Among 18,507 participants with no heart disease, heart failure, or stroke, and not pregnant, reference ranges (median and 97.5th centiles) were derived by decade age bands and sex.

Results

Among males in the reference range population, median (97.5th centile) GDF-15 concentration at age <30 years was 537 (1,135)\u00a0pg/mL, rising to 931 (2,492)\u00a0pg/mL at 50-59\u00a0years, and 2,152 (5,972) pg/mL at\u00a0\u226580 years. In females, median GDF-15 at age <30\u00a0years was 628 (2,195)\u00a0pg/mL, 881 (2,323)\u00a0pg/mL at 50-59\u00a0years, and 1847 (6,830)\u00a0pg/mL at\u00a0\u226580\u00a0years. Among those known to be pregnant, median GDF-15 was 19,311\u00a0pg/mL. After adjustment, GDF-15 was\u00a0higher in participants with adverse cardiovascular risk factors, including current smoking (+26.1%), those with previous heart disease (+12.7%), stroke (+17.1%), heart failure (+25.3%), and particularly diabetes (+60.2%). GDF-15 had positive associations with cardiac biomarkers cardiac troponin I, cardiac troponin T, and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP).

Conclusions

These data define reference ranges for GDF-15 for comparison in future studies, and identify potentially confounding risk factors and mediators to be considered in interpreting GDF-15 concentrations.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9524804; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9524804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9524804?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0135" - }, { "id": "33446033", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458220977579", @@ -11015,23 +11032,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1460458220977579; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458220977579" }, - { - "id": "34765951", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163", - "title": "Net effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibition in different patient groups: a meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled randomized trials.", - "authorString": "Staplin N, Roddick AJ, Emberson J, Reith C, Riding A, Wonnacott A, Kuverji A, Bhandari S, Baigent C, Haynes R, Herrington WG.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Safety; Heart Failure; Randomized Trials; Ckd; Sodium-glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitors", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The net absolute effects of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors across different patient groups have not been quantified.

Methods

We performed a meta-analysis of published large (>500 participants/arm) placebo-controlled SGLT-2 inhibitor trials after systematically searching MEDLINE and Embase databases from inception to 28th August 2021 (PROSPERO 2021 CRD42021240468).

Findings

Four heart failure trials (n=15,684 participants), four trials in type 2 diabetes mellitus at high atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk (n=42,568), and three trials in chronic kidney disease (n=19,289) were included. Relative risks (RRs) for all cardiovascular, renal and safety outcomes were broadly similar across these three patient groups, and between people with or without diabetes. Overall, compared to placebo, allocation to SGLT-2 inhibition reduced risk of hospitalization for heart failure or cardiovascular death by 23% (RR=0.77, 95%CI 0.73-0.80; n=6658), cardiovascular death by 14% (0.86, 0.81-0.92; n=3962), major adverse cardiovascular events by 11% (0.89, 0.84-0.94; n=5703), kidney disease progression by 36% (0.64, 0.59-0.70; n=2275), acute kidney injury by 30% (0.70, 0.62-0.79; n=1013 events) and severe hypoglycaemia by 13% (0.87, 0.79-0.97; n=1484). There was no effect of SGLT-2 inhibition on risk of non-cardiovascular death (0.93, 0.86-1.01; n=2226), but a net 12% reduction in all-cause mortality remained evident (0.88, 0.84-0.93; n=6188). However, the risk of ketoacidosis was 2-times higher among those allocated SGLT-2 inhibitors compared to placebo (2.03, 1.41-2.93; n=159; absolute excess in people with diabetes \u223c0.3/1000 patient years). A small increased risk of urinary tract infection was evident (1.07, 1.02-1.13; n=5384) alongside a known increased risk of mycotic genital infections. Overall, risk of lower limb amputations was increased by 16% (1.16, 1.02-1.31; n=1074), but this risk was largely driven by a single outlying trial (CANVAS).

Interpretations

The relative effects of SGLT-2 inhibition on key safety and efficacy outcomes are consistent across the different studied groups of patient. Consequently, absolute benefits and harms are determined by the absolute baseline risk of particular outcomes, with absolute benefits on mortality and on non-fatal serious cardiac/renal outcomes substantially exceeding the risks of amputation and ketoacidosis in the main patient groups studied to date.

Funding

MRC-UK & KRUK.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8571171?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33711543", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103728", @@ -11321,23 +11321,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/JTN.0000000000000708" }, - { - "id": "33123364", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192", - "title": "Temporal changes in complement activation in haemodialysis patients with COVID-19 as a predictor of disease progression.", - "authorString": "Prendecki M, Clarke C, Medjeral-Thomas N, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Peters JE, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Pickering MC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical kidney journal", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Complement; Haemodialysis; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Complement activation may play a pathogenic role in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by contributing to tissue inflammation and microvascular thrombosis.

Methods

Serial samples were collected from patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis (HD). Thirty-nine patients had confirmed COVID-19 and 10 patients had no evidence of COVID-19. Plasma C5a and C3a levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

We identified elevated levels of plasma C3a and C5a in HD patients with severe COVID-19 compared with controls. Serial sampling identified that C5a levels were elevated prior to clinical deterioration in patients who developed severe disease. C3a more closely mirrored both clinical and biochemical disease severity.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that activation of complement plays a role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19, leading to endothelial injury and lung damage. C5a may be an earlier biomarker of disease severity than conventional parameters such as C-reactive protein and this warrants further investigation in dedicated biomarker studies. Our data support the testing of complement inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for patients with severe COVID-19.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/13/5/889/33980535/sfaa192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37367415", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd10060250", @@ -11372,6 +11355,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9047242; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac146; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9047242; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9047242?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33123364", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192", + "title": "Temporal changes in complement activation in haemodialysis patients with COVID-19 as a predictor of disease progression.", + "authorString": "Prendecki M, Clarke C, Medjeral-Thomas N, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Peters JE, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Pickering MC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical kidney journal", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-10-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Complement; Haemodialysis; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Complement activation may play a pathogenic role in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by contributing to tissue inflammation and microvascular thrombosis.

Methods

Serial samples were collected from patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis (HD). Thirty-nine patients had confirmed COVID-19 and 10 patients had no evidence of COVID-19. Plasma C5a and C3a levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

We identified elevated levels of plasma C3a and C5a in HD patients with severe COVID-19 compared with controls. Serial sampling identified that C5a levels were elevated prior to clinical deterioration in patients who developed severe disease. C3a more closely mirrored both clinical and biochemical disease severity.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that activation of complement plays a role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19, leading to endothelial injury and lung damage. C5a may be an earlier biomarker of disease severity than conventional parameters such as C-reactive protein and this warrants further investigation in dedicated biomarker studies. Our data support the testing of complement inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for patients with severe COVID-19.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ckj/article-pdf/13/5/889/33980535/sfaa192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaa192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577776?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36606535", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.18841", @@ -11389,6 +11389,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4668507/1/Hollestein_etal_2023_The-association-between-atopic-eczema.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.18841" }, + { + "id": "36382153", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5334/gh.1166", + "title": "Risk Factors and Prevalence of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review.", + "authorString": "Fundikira LS, Chillo P, Mutagaywa R, Kamuhabwa A, Kwesigabo G, Asselbergs FW, van Laake LW.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Global heart", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Dilated cardiomyopathy; Sub-Saharan Africa; Cardiovascular risk factors", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Highlights\u00a0 Prevalence of DCM varies widely in SSA.Cardiovascular risk factors are important in patients with DCM.The role of genetics in idiopathic DCM is not studied in major part of SSA.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://globalheartjournal.com/articles/10.5334/gh.1166/galley/1329/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/gh.1166; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9585983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9585983?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31971603", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384", @@ -11407,21 +11424,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384; doi:https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-3384; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9128944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9128944?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36382153", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5334/gh.1166", - "title": "Risk Factors and Prevalence of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review.", - "authorString": "Fundikira LS, Chillo P, Mutagaywa R, Kamuhabwa A, Kwesigabo G, Asselbergs FW, van Laake LW.", + "id": "35776101", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac140", + "title": "Incremental value of risk factor variability for cardiovascular risk prediction in individuals with type 2 diabetes: results from UK primary care electronic health records.", + "authorString": "Xu Z, Arnold M, Sun L, Stevens D, Chung R, Ip S, Barrett J, Kaptoge S, Pennells L, Di Angelantonio E, Wood AM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Global heart", + "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-21", + "date": "2022-12-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Dilated cardiomyopathy; Sub-Saharan Africa; Cardiovascular risk factors", + "keywords": "Variability; Cardiovascular disease; Type 2 diabetes; Risk Prediction; Repeated Measurements; Electronic Health Records", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Highlights\u00a0 Prevalence of DCM varies widely in SSA.Cardiovascular risk factors are important in patients with DCM.The role of genetics in idiopathic DCM is not studied in major part of SSA.", + "abstract": "

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction models for individuals with type 2 diabetes are important tools to guide intensification of interventions for CVD prevention. We aimed to assess the added value of incorporating risk factors variability in CVD risk prediction for people with type 2 diabetes.

Methods

We used electronic health records (EHRs) data from 83\u200a910 adults with type 2 diabetes but without pre-existing CVD from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink for 2004-2017. Using a landmark-modelling approach, we developed and validated sex-specific Cox models, incorporating conventional predictors and trajectories plus variability of systolic blood pressure (SBP), total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Such models were compared against simpler models using single last observed values or means.

Results

The standard deviations (SDs) of SBP, HDL cholesterol and HbA1c were associated with higher CVD risk (P\u2009<\u20090.05). Models incorporating trajectories and variability of continuous predictors demonstrated improvement in risk discrimination (C-index\u2009=\u20090.659, 95% CI: 0.654-0.663) as compared with using last observed values (C-index\u2009=\u20090.651, 95% CI: 0.646-0.656) or means (C-index\u2009=\u20090.650, 95% CI: 0.645-0.655). Inclusion of SDs of SBP yielded the greatest improvement in discrimination (C-index increase\u2009=\u20090.005, 95% CI: 0.004-0.007) in comparison to incorporating SDs of total cholesterol (C-index\u2009increase =\u20090.002, 95% CI: 0.000-0.003), HbA1c (C-index increase\u2009=\u20090.002, 95% CI: 0.000-0.003) or HDL cholesterol (C-index\u2009increase=\u20090.003, 95% CI: 0.002-0.005).

Conclusion

Incorporating variability of predictors from EHRs provides a modest improvement in CVD risk discrimination for individuals with type 2 diabetes. Given that repeat measures are readily available in EHRs especially for regularly monitored patients with diabetes, this improvement could easily be achieved.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://globalheartjournal.com/articles/10.5334/gh.1166/galley/1329/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/gh.1166; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9585983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9585983?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac140/45030523/dyac140.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac140; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9749723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9749723?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31532828", @@ -11440,23 +11457,6 @@ "laySummary": "People who suffer with primary adrenal insufficiency are more likely to be admitted to hospital. But the risk to patients catching infections whilst being treated in hospital is unknown. This study found that people with PAI being treated in hospital have a higher risk of catching an infection. Some of this risk is linked with how PAI is treated.", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/105/2/418/33574680/dgz006.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgz006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7046014" }, - { - "id": "35776101", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac140", - "title": "Incremental value of risk factor variability for cardiovascular risk prediction in individuals with type 2 diabetes: results from UK primary care electronic health records.", - "authorString": "Xu Z, Arnold M, Sun L, Stevens D, Chung R, Ip S, Barrett J, Kaptoge S, Pennells L, Di Angelantonio E, Wood AM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Variability; Cardiovascular disease; Type 2 diabetes; Risk Prediction; Repeated Measurements; Electronic Health Records", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction models for individuals with type 2 diabetes are important tools to guide intensification of interventions for CVD prevention. We aimed to assess the added value of incorporating risk factors variability in CVD risk prediction for people with type 2 diabetes.

Methods

We used electronic health records (EHRs) data from 83\u200a910 adults with type 2 diabetes but without pre-existing CVD from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink for 2004-2017. Using a landmark-modelling approach, we developed and validated sex-specific Cox models, incorporating conventional predictors and trajectories plus variability of systolic blood pressure (SBP), total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Such models were compared against simpler models using single last observed values or means.

Results

The standard deviations (SDs) of SBP, HDL cholesterol and HbA1c were associated with higher CVD risk (P\u2009<\u20090.05). Models incorporating trajectories and variability of continuous predictors demonstrated improvement in risk discrimination (C-index\u2009=\u20090.659, 95% CI: 0.654-0.663) as compared with using last observed values (C-index\u2009=\u20090.651, 95% CI: 0.646-0.656) or means (C-index\u2009=\u20090.650, 95% CI: 0.645-0.655). Inclusion of SDs of SBP yielded the greatest improvement in discrimination (C-index increase\u2009=\u20090.005, 95% CI: 0.004-0.007) in comparison to incorporating SDs of total cholesterol (C-index\u2009increase =\u20090.002, 95% CI: 0.000-0.003), HbA1c (C-index increase\u2009=\u20090.002, 95% CI: 0.000-0.003) or HDL cholesterol (C-index\u2009increase=\u20090.003, 95% CI: 0.002-0.005).

Conclusion

Incorporating variability of predictors from EHRs provides a modest improvement in CVD risk discrimination for individuals with type 2 diabetes. Given that repeat measures are readily available in EHRs especially for regularly monitored patients with diabetes, this improvement could easily be achieved.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac140/45030523/dyac140.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac140; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9749723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9749723?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37562944", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2023-213186", @@ -11474,23 +11474,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2023-213186" }, - { - "id": "37667806", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211", - "title": "Planning to conceive within a year is associated with better pregnancy-specific disease-related patient knowledge and better medication adherence in women of childbearing age with inflammatory bowel disease.", - "authorString": "Selinger CP, Laube R, Steed H, Brookes M, BioResource N, Leong RWL.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-30", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Pregnancy; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Patient Knowledge; Medication Adherence", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Adherence to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) medication is crucial to maintain remission, especially during pregnancy.

Objective

To examine the influence of family planning and pregnancy-related patient knowledge regarding IBD and pregnancy on adherence.

Design

Cross-sectional survey study.

Methods

We surveyed female patients with IBD aged 18-35\u2009years, who at recruitment to the UK IBD BioResource had not had children. We elicited disease and treatment history, demographics and family planning status via an online questionnaire. Patient knowledge as assessed by the validated Crohn's and Colitis Pregnancy Knowledge Score (CCPKnow) and adherence by visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results

In 326 responders (13.8% response rate), good adherence (VAS\u2009\u2a7e\u200980) was found in only 38.35%. Disease- and treatment-related factors were not significantly associated with good adherence, except for methotrexate (70.0% adherent of 10 exposed patients versus 37.2% non-exposed; p\u2009=\u20090.036). Patients planning pregnancy for the next year were more often adherent (59.0% versus 35.5%; p\u2009=\u20090.019) and knowledgeable (median CCPKnow 8 versus 7; p\u2009=\u20090.035) compared to those in other family planning categories. Pregnancy-related patient knowledge was significantly associated with adherence (Pearson correlation 0.141; p\u2009=\u20090.015). Adherent patients had significantly higher CCPKnow scores than non-adherent patients (median 8 versus 6; p\u2009=\u20090.009). On binary regression analysis, only planning to conceive within 12\u2009months was independently associated with better adherence (p\u2009=\u20090.016), but not methotrexate exposure (p\u2009=\u20090.076) and CCPKnow (p\u2009=\u20090.056).

Conclusions

In a cohort of women of childbearing age with IBD overall medication, adherence was low. Planning to conceive within the next year was associated with better adherence and greater patient knowledge.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34785588", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2021-001784", @@ -11508,6 +11491,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/8/2/e001784.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2021-001784; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8595296?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37667806", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211", + "title": "Planning to conceive within a year is associated with better pregnancy-specific disease-related patient knowledge and better medication adherence in women of childbearing age with inflammatory bowel disease.", + "authorString": "Selinger CP, Laube R, Steed H, Brookes M, BioResource N, Leong RWL.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Pregnancy; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Patient Knowledge; Medication Adherence", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Adherence to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) medication is crucial to maintain remission, especially during pregnancy.

Objective

To examine the influence of family planning and pregnancy-related patient knowledge regarding IBD and pregnancy on adherence.

Design

Cross-sectional survey study.

Methods

We surveyed female patients with IBD aged 18-35\u2009years, who at recruitment to the UK IBD BioResource had not had children. We elicited disease and treatment history, demographics and family planning status via an online questionnaire. Patient knowledge as assessed by the validated Crohn's and Colitis Pregnancy Knowledge Score (CCPKnow) and adherence by visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results

In 326 responders (13.8% response rate), good adherence (VAS\u2009\u2a7e\u200980) was found in only 38.35%. Disease- and treatment-related factors were not significantly associated with good adherence, except for methotrexate (70.0% adherent of 10 exposed patients versus 37.2% non-exposed; p\u2009=\u20090.036). Patients planning pregnancy for the next year were more often adherent (59.0% versus 35.5%; p\u2009=\u20090.019) and knowledgeable (median CCPKnow 8 versus 7; p\u2009=\u20090.035) compared to those in other family planning categories. Pregnancy-related patient knowledge was significantly associated with adherence (Pearson correlation 0.141; p\u2009=\u20090.015). Adherent patients had significantly higher CCPKnow scores than non-adherent patients (median 8 versus 6; p\u2009=\u20090.009). On binary regression analysis, only planning to conceive within 12\u2009months was independently associated with better adherence (p\u2009=\u20090.016), but not methotrexate exposure (p\u2009=\u20090.076) and CCPKnow (p\u2009=\u20090.056).

Conclusions

In a cohort of women of childbearing age with IBD overall medication, adherence was low. Planning to conceive within the next year was associated with better adherence and greater patient knowledge.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17562848231193211; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10475232?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36098502", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.78427", @@ -11712,23 +11712,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05992-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8040367; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8040367?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34189274", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362", - "title": "Concept libraries for automatic electronic health record based phenotyping: A review.", - "authorString": "Almowil ZA, Zhou SM, Brophy S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-06-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Review; Phenotype Algorithms; Linked Electronic Health Records; Concept Libraries", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Electronic health records (EHR) are linked together to examine disease history and to undertake research into the causes and outcomes of disease. However, the process of constructing algorithms for phenotyping (e.g., identifying disease characteristics) or health characteristics (e.g., smoker) is very time consuming and resource costly. In addition, results can vary greatly between researchers. Reusing or building on algorithms that others have created is a compelling solution to these problems. However, sharing algorithms is not a common practice and many published studies do not detail the clinical code lists used by the researchers in the disease/characteristic definition. To address these challenges, a number of centres across the world have developed health data portals which contain concept libraries (e.g., algorithms for defining concepts such as disease and characteristics) in order to facilitate disease phenotyping and health studies.

Objectives

This study aims to review the literature of existing concept libraries, examine their utilities, identify the current gaps, and suggest future developments.

Methods

The five-stage framework of Arksey and O'Malley was used for the literature search. This approach included defining the research questions, identifying relevant studies through literature review, selecting eligible studies, charting and extracting data, and summarising and reporting the findings.

Results

This review identified seven publicly accessible Electronic Health data concept libraries which were developed in different countries including UK, USA, and Canada. The concept libraries (n = 7) investigated were either general libraries that hold phenotypes of multiple specialties (n = 4) or specialized libraries that manage only certain specialities such as rare diseases (n = 3). There were some clear differences between the general libraries such as archiving data from different electronic sources, and using a range of different types of coding systems. However, they share some clear similarities such as enabling users to upload their own code lists, and allowing users to use/download the publicly accessible code. In addition, there were some differences between the specialized libraries such as difference in ability to search, and if it was possible to use different searching queries such as simple or complex searches. Conversely, there were some similarities between the specialized libraries such as enabling users to upload their own concepts into the libraries and to show where they were published, which facilitates assessing the validity of the concepts. All the specialized libraries aimed to encourage the reuse of research methods such as lists of clinical code and/or metadata.

Conclusion

The seven libraries identified have been developed independently and appear to replicate similar concepts but in different ways. Collaboration between similar libraries would greatly facilitate the use of these libraries for the user. The process of building code lists takes time and effort. Access to existing code lists increases consistency and accuracy of definitions across studies. Concept library developers should collaborate with each other to raise awareness of their existence and of their various functions, which could increase users' contributions to those libraries and promote their wide-ranging adoption.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37609702", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5681", @@ -11746,6 +11729,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pds.5681; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5681" }, + { + "id": "34189274", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362", + "title": "Concept libraries for automatic electronic health record based phenotyping: A review.", + "authorString": "Almowil ZA, Zhou SM, Brophy S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-06-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Review; Phenotype Algorithms; Linked Electronic Health Records; Concept Libraries", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Electronic health records (EHR) are linked together to examine disease history and to undertake research into the causes and outcomes of disease. However, the process of constructing algorithms for phenotyping (e.g., identifying disease characteristics) or health characteristics (e.g., smoker) is very time consuming and resource costly. In addition, results can vary greatly between researchers. Reusing or building on algorithms that others have created is a compelling solution to these problems. However, sharing algorithms is not a common practice and many published studies do not detail the clinical code lists used by the researchers in the disease/characteristic definition. To address these challenges, a number of centres across the world have developed health data portals which contain concept libraries (e.g., algorithms for defining concepts such as disease and characteristics) in order to facilitate disease phenotyping and health studies.

Objectives

This study aims to review the literature of existing concept libraries, examine their utilities, identify the current gaps, and suggest future developments.

Methods

The five-stage framework of Arksey and O'Malley was used for the literature search. This approach included defining the research questions, identifying relevant studies through literature review, selecting eligible studies, charting and extracting data, and summarising and reporting the findings.

Results

This review identified seven publicly accessible Electronic Health data concept libraries which were developed in different countries including UK, USA, and Canada. The concept libraries (n = 7) investigated were either general libraries that hold phenotypes of multiple specialties (n = 4) or specialized libraries that manage only certain specialities such as rare diseases (n = 3). There were some clear differences between the general libraries such as archiving data from different electronic sources, and using a range of different types of coding systems. However, they share some clear similarities such as enabling users to upload their own code lists, and allowing users to use/download the publicly accessible code. In addition, there were some differences between the specialized libraries such as difference in ability to search, and if it was possible to use different searching queries such as simple or complex searches. Conversely, there were some similarities between the specialized libraries such as enabling users to upload their own concepts into the libraries and to show where they were published, which facilitates assessing the validity of the concepts. All the specialized libraries aimed to encourage the reuse of research methods such as lists of clinical code and/or metadata.

Conclusion

The seven libraries identified have been developed independently and appear to replicate similar concepts but in different ways. Collaboration between similar libraries would greatly facilitate the use of these libraries for the user. The process of building code lists takes time and effort. Access to existing code lists increases consistency and accuracy of definitions across studies. Concept library developers should collaborate with each other to raise awareness of their existence and of their various functions, which could increase users' contributions to those libraries and promote their wide-ranging adoption.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1362; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8210840?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36813664", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2023.02.029", @@ -11763,23 +11763,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2023.02.029" }, - { - "id": "36609574", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8", - "title": "A population-based matched cohort study of major congenital anomalies following COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection.", - "authorString": "Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Loane M, Dolk H, Morris J, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons CL, Katikireddi SV, O'Leary M, McAllister D, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock SJ, Wood R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-06", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Evidence on associations between COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of congenital anomalies is limited. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study using linked electronic health records from Scotland (May 2020-April 2022) to estimate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and, separately, SARS-CoV-2 infection between six weeks pre-conception and 19 weeks and six days gestation and the risk of [1] any major congenital anomaly and [2] any non-genetic major congenital anomaly. Mothers vaccinated in this pregnancy exposure period mostly received an mRNA vaccine (73.7% Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and 7.9% Moderna mRNA-1273). Of the 6731 babies whose mothers were vaccinated in the pregnancy exposure period, 153 had any anomaly and 120 had a non-genetic anomaly. Primary analyses find no association between any vaccination and any anomaly (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] = 1.01, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]\u2009=\u20090.83-1.24) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 1.00, 95% CI\u2009=\u20090.81-1.22). Primary analyses also find no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and any anomaly (aOR\u2009=\u20091.02, 95% CI\u2009=\u20090.66-1.60) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI\u2009=\u20090.57-1.54). Findings are robust to sensitivity analyses. These data provide reassurance on the safety of vaccination, in particular mRNA vaccines, just before or in early pregnancy.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35771-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36302124", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2127572", @@ -11797,6 +11780,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2127572; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2127572; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9746546; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9746546?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36609574", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8", + "title": "A population-based matched cohort study of major congenital anomalies following COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection.", + "authorString": "Calvert C, Carruthers J, Denny C, Donaghy J, Hopcroft LEM, Hopkins L, Goulding A, Lindsay L, McLaughlin T, Moore E, Taylor B, Loane M, Dolk H, Morris J, Auyeung B, Bhaskaran K, Gibbons CL, Katikireddi SV, O'Leary M, McAllister D, Shi T, Simpson CR, Robertson C, Sheikh A, Stock SJ, Wood R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Evidence on associations between COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of congenital anomalies is limited. Here we report a national, population-based, matched cohort study using linked electronic health records from Scotland (May 2020-April 2022) to estimate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and, separately, SARS-CoV-2 infection between six weeks pre-conception and 19 weeks and six days gestation and the risk of [1] any major congenital anomaly and [2] any non-genetic major congenital anomaly. Mothers vaccinated in this pregnancy exposure period mostly received an mRNA vaccine (73.7% Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and 7.9% Moderna mRNA-1273). Of the 6731 babies whose mothers were vaccinated in the pregnancy exposure period, 153 had any anomaly and 120 had a non-genetic anomaly. Primary analyses find no association between any vaccination and any anomaly (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] = 1.01, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]\u2009=\u20090.83-1.24) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 1.00, 95% CI\u2009=\u20090.81-1.22). Primary analyses also find no association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and any anomaly (aOR\u2009=\u20091.02, 95% CI\u2009=\u20090.66-1.60) or non-genetic anomalies (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI\u2009=\u20090.57-1.54). Findings are robust to sensitivity analyses. These data provide reassurance on the safety of vaccination, in particular mRNA vaccines, just before or in early pregnancy.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35771-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35771-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9821346?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34514354", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab001", @@ -11815,21 +11815,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jamiaopen/article-pdf/4/3/ooab001/40325375/ooab001.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8423424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8423424?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34716166", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268", - "title": "Electronic reminders and rewards to improve adherence to inhaled asthma treatment in adolescents: a non-randomised feasibility study in tertiary care.", - "authorString": "De Simoni A, Fleming L, Holliday L, Horne R, Priebe S, Bush A, Sheikh A, Griffiths C.", + "id": "33472631", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3", + "title": "Evaluation and improvement of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) for COVID-19: a multi-hospital study.", + "authorString": "Carr E, Bendayan R, Bean D, Stammers M, Wang W, Zhang H, Searle T, Kraljevic Z, Shek A, Phan HTT, Muruet W, Gupta RK, Shinton AJ, Wyatt M, Shi T, Zhang X, Pickles A, Stahl D, Zakeri R, Noursadeghi M, O'Gallagher K, Rogers M, Folarin A, Karwath A, Wickstr\u00f8m KE, K\u00f6hn-Luque A, Slater L, Cardoso VR, Bourdeaux C, Holten AR, Ball S, McWilliams C, Roguski L, Borca F, Batchelor J, Amundsen EK, Wu X, Gkoutos GV, Sun J, Pinto A, Guthrie B, Breen C, Douiri A, Wu H, Curcin V, Teo JT, Shah AM, Dobson RJB.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-29", + "date": "2021-01-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Asthma; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine); Paediatric Thoracic Medicine", + "keywords": "Prediction model; Blood parameters; Covid-19; News2 Score", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To test the feasibility and acceptability of a short-term reminder and incentives intervention in adolescents with low adherence to asthma medications.

Methods

Mixed-methods feasibility study in a tertiary care clinic. Adolescents recruited to a 24-week programme with three 8-weekly visits, receiving electronic reminders to prompt inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) inhalation through a mobile app coupled with electronic monitoring devices (EMD). From the second visit, monetary incentives based on adherence of ICS inhalation: \u00a31 per dose, maximum \u00a32\u2009/day, up to \u00a3112/study, collected as gift cards at the third visit. End of study interviews and questionnaires assessing perceptions of asthma and ICS, analysed using the Perceptions and Practicalities Framework.

Participants

Adolescents (11-18 years) with documented low ICS adherence (<80% by EMD), and poor asthma control at the first clinic visit.

Results

10 out of 12 adolescents approached were recruited (7 males, 3 females, 12-16 years). Eight participants provided adherence measures up to the fourth visits and received rewards. Mean study duration was 281 days, with 7/10 participants unable to attend their fourth visit due to COVID-19 lockdown. Only 3/10 participants managed to pair the app/EMD up to the fourth visit, which was associated with improved ICS adherence (from 0.51, SD 0.07 to 0.86, SD 0.05). Adherence did not change in adolescents unable to pair the app/EMD. The intervention was acceptable to participants and parents/guardians. Exit interviews showed that participants welcomed reminders and incentives, though expressed frustration with app/EMD technological difficulties. Participants stated the intervention helped through reminding ICS doses, promoting self-monitoring and increasing motivation to take inhalers.

Conclusions

An intervention using electronic reminders and incentives through an app coupled with an EMD was feasible and acceptable to adolescents with asthma. A pilot randomised controlled trial is warranted to better estimate the effect size on adherence, with improved technical support for the EMD.", + "abstract": "

Background

The National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) is currently recommended in the UK for the risk stratification of COVID-19 patients, but little is known about its ability to detect severe cases. We aimed to evaluate NEWS2 for the prediction of severe COVID-19 outcome and identify and validate a set of blood and physiological parameters routinely collected at hospital admission to improve upon the use of NEWS2 alone for medium-term risk stratification.

Methods

Training cohorts comprised 1276 patients admitted to King's College Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust with COVID-19 disease from 1 March to 30 April 2020. External validation cohorts included 6237 patients from five UK NHS Trusts (Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, University Hospitals Southampton, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, University College London Hospitals, University Hospitals Birmingham), one hospital in Norway (Oslo University Hospital), and two hospitals in Wuhan, China (Wuhan Sixth Hospital and Taikang Tongji Hospital). The outcome was severe COVID-19 disease (transfer to intensive care unit (ICU) or death) at 14\u2009days after hospital admission. Age, physiological measures, blood biomarkers, sex, ethnicity, and comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases) measured at hospital admission were considered in the models.

Results

A baseline model of 'NEWS2 + age' had poor-to-moderate discrimination for severe COVID-19 infection at 14\u2009days (area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) in training cohort\u2009=\u20090.700, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.680, 0.722; Brier score\u2009=\u20090.192, 95% CI 0.186, 0.197). A supplemented model adding eight routinely collected blood and physiological parameters (supplemental oxygen flow rate, urea, age, oxygen saturation, C-reactive protein, estimated glomerular filtration rate, neutrophil count, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio) improved discrimination (AUC\u2009=\u20090.735; 95% CI 0.715, 0.757), and these improvements were replicated across seven UK and non-UK sites. However, there was evidence of miscalibration with the model tending to underestimate risks in most sites.

Conclusions

NEWS2 score had poor-to-moderate discrimination for medium-term COVID-19 outcome which raises questions about its use as a screening tool at hospital admission. Risk stratification was improved by including readily available blood and physiological parameters measured at hospital admission, but there was evidence of miscalibration in external sites. This highlights the need for a better understanding of the use of early warning scores for COVID.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e053268.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33521768", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8", + "title": "Tackling immunosenescence to improve COVID-19 outcomes and vaccine response in older adults.", + "authorString": "Cox LS, Bellantuono I, Lord JM, Sapey E, Mannick JB, Partridge L, Gordon AL, Steves CJ, Witham MD.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The lancet. Healthy longevity", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-11-09", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30011-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36207647", @@ -11849,21 +11866,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-022-09682-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017567; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017567?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33472631", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3", - "title": "Evaluation and improvement of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) for COVID-19: a multi-hospital study.", - "authorString": "Carr E, Bendayan R, Bean D, Stammers M, Wang W, Zhang H, Searle T, Kraljevic Z, Shek A, Phan HTT, Muruet W, Gupta RK, Shinton AJ, Wyatt M, Shi T, Zhang X, Pickles A, Stahl D, Zakeri R, Noursadeghi M, O'Gallagher K, Rogers M, Folarin A, Karwath A, Wickstr\u00f8m KE, K\u00f6hn-Luque A, Slater L, Cardoso VR, Bourdeaux C, Holten AR, Ball S, McWilliams C, Roguski L, Borca F, Batchelor J, Amundsen EK, Wu X, Gkoutos GV, Sun J, Pinto A, Guthrie B, Breen C, Douiri A, Wu H, Curcin V, Teo JT, Shah AM, Dobson RJB.", + "id": "34716166", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268", + "title": "Electronic reminders and rewards to improve adherence to inhaled asthma treatment in adolescents: a non-randomised feasibility study in tertiary care.", + "authorString": "De Simoni A, Fleming L, Holliday L, Horne R, Priebe S, Bush A, Sheikh A, Griffiths C.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-21", + "date": "2021-10-29", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Prediction model; Blood parameters; Covid-19; News2 Score", + "keywords": "Asthma; Respiratory Medicine (See Thoracic Medicine); Paediatric Thoracic Medicine", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) is currently recommended in the UK for the risk stratification of COVID-19 patients, but little is known about its ability to detect severe cases. We aimed to evaluate NEWS2 for the prediction of severe COVID-19 outcome and identify and validate a set of blood and physiological parameters routinely collected at hospital admission to improve upon the use of NEWS2 alone for medium-term risk stratification.

Methods

Training cohorts comprised 1276 patients admitted to King's College Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust with COVID-19 disease from 1 March to 30 April 2020. External validation cohorts included 6237 patients from five UK NHS Trusts (Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, University Hospitals Southampton, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, University College London Hospitals, University Hospitals Birmingham), one hospital in Norway (Oslo University Hospital), and two hospitals in Wuhan, China (Wuhan Sixth Hospital and Taikang Tongji Hospital). The outcome was severe COVID-19 disease (transfer to intensive care unit (ICU) or death) at 14\u2009days after hospital admission. Age, physiological measures, blood biomarkers, sex, ethnicity, and comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases) measured at hospital admission were considered in the models.

Results

A baseline model of 'NEWS2 + age' had poor-to-moderate discrimination for severe COVID-19 infection at 14\u2009days (area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) in training cohort\u2009=\u20090.700, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.680, 0.722; Brier score\u2009=\u20090.192, 95% CI 0.186, 0.197). A supplemented model adding eight routinely collected blood and physiological parameters (supplemental oxygen flow rate, urea, age, oxygen saturation, C-reactive protein, estimated glomerular filtration rate, neutrophil count, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio) improved discrimination (AUC\u2009=\u20090.735; 95% CI 0.715, 0.757), and these improvements were replicated across seven UK and non-UK sites. However, there was evidence of miscalibration with the model tending to underestimate risks in most sites.

Conclusions

NEWS2 score had poor-to-moderate discrimination for medium-term COVID-19 outcome which raises questions about its use as a screening tool at hospital admission. Risk stratification was improved by including readily available blood and physiological parameters measured at hospital admission, but there was evidence of miscalibration in external sites. This highlights the need for a better understanding of the use of early warning scores for COVID.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To test the feasibility and acceptability of a short-term reminder and incentives intervention in adolescents with low adherence to asthma medications.

Methods

Mixed-methods feasibility study in a tertiary care clinic. Adolescents recruited to a 24-week programme with three 8-weekly visits, receiving electronic reminders to prompt inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) inhalation through a mobile app coupled with electronic monitoring devices (EMD). From the second visit, monetary incentives based on adherence of ICS inhalation: \u00a31 per dose, maximum \u00a32\u2009/day, up to \u00a3112/study, collected as gift cards at the third visit. End of study interviews and questionnaires assessing perceptions of asthma and ICS, analysed using the Perceptions and Practicalities Framework.

Participants

Adolescents (11-18 years) with documented low ICS adherence (<80% by EMD), and poor asthma control at the first clinic visit.

Results

10 out of 12 adolescents approached were recruited (7 males, 3 females, 12-16 years). Eight participants provided adherence measures up to the fourth visits and received rewards. Mean study duration was 281 days, with 7/10 participants unable to attend their fourth visit due to COVID-19 lockdown. Only 3/10 participants managed to pair the app/EMD up to the fourth visit, which was associated with improved ICS adherence (from 0.51, SD 0.07 to 0.86, SD 0.05). Adherence did not change in adolescents unable to pair the app/EMD. The intervention was acceptable to participants and parents/guardians. Exit interviews showed that participants welcomed reminders and incentives, though expressed frustration with app/EMD technological difficulties. Participants stated the intervention helped through reminding ICS doses, promoting self-monitoring and increasing motivation to take inhalers.

Conclusions

An intervention using electronic reminders and incentives through an app coupled with an EMD was feasible and acceptable to adolescents with asthma. A pilot randomised controlled trial is warranted to better estimate the effect size on adherence, with improved technical support for the EMD.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01893-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7817348?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/10/e053268.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053268; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8559117?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34641870", @@ -11899,23 +11916,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396423002207/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104655; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10279550; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10279550?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33521768", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8", - "title": "Tackling immunosenescence to improve COVID-19 outcomes and vaccine response in older adults.", - "authorString": "Cox LS, Bellantuono I, Lord JM, Sapey E, Mannick JB, Partridge L, Gordon AL, Steves CJ, Witham MD.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The lancet. Healthy longevity", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-09", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30011-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30011-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834195?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35039282", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049506", @@ -12069,23 +12069,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jamiaopen/article-pdf/3/4/545/36625793/ooaa047.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaa047; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7717266; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7717266?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33780550", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457", - "title": "Impact of a physician - critical care practitioner pre-hospital service in Wales on trauma survival: a retrospective analysis of linked registry data.", - "authorString": "Lyons J, Gabbe BJ, Rawlinson D, Lockey D, Fry RJ, Akbari A, Lyons RA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Anaesthesia", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-29", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Trauma; Survival; Critical Care; Pre-hospital Care", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service for Wales launched in 2015. This service delivers senior pre-hospital doctors and advanced critical care practitioners to the scene of time-critical life- and limb-threatening incidents to provide advanced decision-making and pre-hospital clinical care. The impact of the service on 30-day mortality was evaluated retrospectively using a data linkage system. The study included patients who sustained moderate-to-severe blunt traumatic injuries (injury severity score\u00a0\u2265\u00a09) between 27 April 2015 and 30 November 2018. The association between pre-hospital management by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service and 30-day mortality was assessed using multivariable logistic regression. In total, data from 4035 patients were analysed, of which 412 (10%) were treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service. A greater proportion of patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service had an injury severity score\u00a0\u2265\u00a016 and Glasgow coma scale\u00a0\u2264\u00a012 (288 (70%) vs. 1435 (40%) and 126 (31%) vs. 325 (9%), respectively). The unadjusted 30-day mortality rate was 11.7% for patients managed by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service compared with 9.6% for patients managed by standard pre-hospital care services. However, after adjustment for differences in case-mix, the 30-day mortality rate for patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service was 37% lower (adjusted odds ratio 0.63 (95%CI 0.41-0.97); p\u00a0=\u00a00.037). The introduction of an emergency medical retrieval service was associated with a reduction in 30-day mortality for patients with blunt traumatic injury.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56616/Download/56616__19761__8c6edaf906b846a69c8b19bdb94d015d.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457" - }, { "id": "36299367", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00211-2022", @@ -12120,6 +12103,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516571/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516571/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10516571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10516571?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33780550", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457", + "title": "Impact of a physician - critical care practitioner pre-hospital service in Wales on trauma survival: a retrospective analysis of linked registry data.", + "authorString": "Lyons J, Gabbe BJ, Rawlinson D, Lockey D, Fry RJ, Akbari A, Lyons RA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Anaesthesia", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-29", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Trauma; Survival; Critical Care; Pre-hospital Care", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service for Wales launched in 2015. This service delivers senior pre-hospital doctors and advanced critical care practitioners to the scene of time-critical life- and limb-threatening incidents to provide advanced decision-making and pre-hospital clinical care. The impact of the service on 30-day mortality was evaluated retrospectively using a data linkage system. The study included patients who sustained moderate-to-severe blunt traumatic injuries (injury severity score\u00a0\u2265\u00a09) between 27 April 2015 and 30 November 2018. The association between pre-hospital management by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service and 30-day mortality was assessed using multivariable logistic regression. In total, data from 4035 patients were analysed, of which 412 (10%) were treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service. A greater proportion of patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service had an injury severity score\u00a0\u2265\u00a016 and Glasgow coma scale\u00a0\u2264\u00a012 (288 (70%) vs. 1435 (40%) and 126 (31%) vs. 325 (9%), respectively). The unadjusted 30-day mortality rate was 11.7% for patients managed by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service compared with 9.6% for patients managed by standard pre-hospital care services. However, after adjustment for differences in case-mix, the 30-day mortality rate for patients treated by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service was 37% lower (adjusted odds ratio 0.63 (95%CI 0.41-0.97); p\u00a0=\u00a00.037). The introduction of an emergency medical retrieval service was associated with a reduction in 30-day mortality for patients with blunt traumatic injury.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56616/Download/56616__19761__8c6edaf906b846a69c8b19bdb94d015d.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15457" + }, + { + "id": "35896970", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4", + "title": "SARS-CoV-2 lineage dynamics in England from September to November 2021: high diversity of Delta sub-lineages and increased transmissibility of AY.4.2.", + "authorString": "Eales O, Page AJ, de Oliveira Martins L, Wang H, Bodinier B, Haw D, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC infectious diseases", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-27", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mutation; Genetic diversity; Transmission Advantage; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, evolutionary pressure has driven large increases in the transmissibility of the virus. However, with increasing levels of immunity through vaccination and natural infection the evolutionary pressure will switch towards immune escape. Genomic surveillance in regions of high immunity is crucial in detecting emerging variants that can more successfully navigate the immune landscape.

Methods

We present phylogenetic relationships and lineage dynamics within England (a country with high levels of immunity), as inferred from a random community sample of individuals who provided a self-administered throat and nose swab for rt-PCR testing as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. During round 14 (9 September-27 September 2021) and 15 (19 October-5 November 2021) lineages were determined for 1322 positive individuals, with 27.1% of those which reported their symptom status reporting no symptoms in the previous month.

Results

We identified 44 unique lineages, all of which were Delta or Delta sub-lineages, and found a reduction in their mutation rate over the study period. The proportion of the Delta sub-lineage AY.4.2 was increasing, with a reproduction number 15% (95% CI 8-23%) greater than the most prevalent lineage, AY.4. Further, AY.4.2 was less associated with the most predictive COVID-19 symptoms (p\u2009=\u20090.029) and had a reduced mutation rate (p\u2009=\u20090.050). Both AY.4.2 and AY.4 were found to be geographically clustered in September but this was no longer the case by late October/early November, with only the lineage AY.6 exhibiting clustering towards the South of England.

Conclusions

As SARS-CoV-2 moves towards endemicity and new variants emerge, genomic data obtained from random community samples can augment routine surveillance data without the potential biases introduced due to higher sampling rates of symptomatic individuals.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32855306", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-321650", @@ -12137,23 +12154,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/70/6/1053.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-321650; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7447105; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7447105?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33262478", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8", - "title": "Risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy at first screening in persons with type 1 diabetes diagnosed under 18 years of age.", - "authorString": "Rafferty J, Owens DR, Luzio SD, Watts P, Akbari A, Thomas RL.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Eye (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2020-12-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To determine the risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy (DR) in children and young people (CYP) with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) at first screening.

Methods

Records from the Diabetes Eye Screening Wales (DESW) service for people in Wales, UK, with T1DM diagnosed under age 18 years were combined with other electronic health record (EHR) data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Data close to the screening date were collected, and risk factors derived from multivariate, multinomial logistic regression modelling.

Results

Data from 4172 persons, with median (lower quartile, upper quartile) age 16.3 (13.0, 22.3) years and duration of diabetes 6.6 (2.3, 12.3) years were analysed. 62.6% (n\u2009=\u20092613) had no DR, 26.7% (n\u2009=\u20091112) background DR, and 10.7% (n\u2009=\u2009447) had referable DR (RDR). No RDR was observed under 19 years of age. Factors associated with an increased risk of DR were diabetes duration, elevated HbA1c, and diastolic blood pressure. People diagnosed with T1DM at 12 years or older had an additional risk for each year they had diabetes compared to those diagnosed before age 12 controlling for the diabetes duration (odds ratios 1.23 and 1.34, respectively).

Conclusions

This study found that 37.4% of the study cohort had DR at first screening, the risk being greater the longer the duration of diabetes or higher the HbA1c and diastolic blood pressure. In addition, people diagnosed at 12 years of age or over were more likely to have DR with each additional year with diabetes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-020-01326-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8" - }, { "id": "36564466", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26141-x", @@ -12172,38 +12172,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26141-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26141-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9789116; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9789116?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32737300", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2", - "title": "Distinct genetic architectures and environmental factors associate with host response to the \u03b32-herpesvirus infections.", - "authorString": "Sallah N, Miley W, Labo N, Carstensen T, Fatumo S, Gurdasani D, Pollard MO, Dilthey AT, Mentzer AJ, Marshall V, Cornejo Castro EM, Pomilla C, Young EH, Asiki G, Hibberd ML, Sandhu M, Kellam P, Newton R, Whitby D, Barroso I.", + "id": "33262478", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8", + "title": "Risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy at first screening in persons with type 1 diabetes diagnosed under 18 years of age.", + "authorString": "Rafferty J, Owens DR, Luzio SD, Watts P, Akbari A, Thomas RL.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-31", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "journalTitle": "Eye (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2020-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) establish life-long infections and are associated with malignancies. Striking geographic variation in incidence and the fact that virus alone is insufficient to cause disease, suggests other co-factors are involved. Here we present epidemiological analysis and genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 4365 individuals from an African population cohort, to assess the influence of host genetic and non-genetic factors on virus antibody responses. EBV/KSHV co-infection (OR\u2009=\u20095.71(1.58-7.12)), HIV positivity (OR\u2009=\u20092.22(1.32-3.73)) and living in a more rural area (OR\u2009=\u20091.38(1.01-1.89)) are strongly associated with immunogenicity. GWAS reveals associations with KSHV antibody response in the HLA-B/C region (p\u2009=\u20096.64\u2009\u00d7\u200910-09). For EBV, associations are identified for VCA (rs71542439, p\u2009=\u20091.15\u2009\u00d7\u200910-12). Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and trans-ancestry fine-mapping substantiate that distinct variants in HLA-DQA1 (p\u2009=\u20095.24\u2009\u00d7\u200910-44) are driving associations for EBNA-1 in Africa. This study highlights complex interactions between KSHV and EBV, in addition to distinct genetic architectures resulting in important differences in pathogenesis and transmission.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17696-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "35896970", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4", - "title": "SARS-CoV-2 lineage dynamics in England from September to November 2021: high diversity of Delta sub-lineages and increased transmissibility of AY.4.2.", - "authorString": "Eales O, Page AJ, de Oliveira Martins L, Wang H, Bodinier B, Haw D, Jonnerby J, Atchison C, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Chadeau-Hyam M, Donnelly CA, Elliott P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC infectious diseases", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mutation; Genetic diversity; Transmission Advantage; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Delta Variant", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, evolutionary pressure has driven large increases in the transmissibility of the virus. However, with increasing levels of immunity through vaccination and natural infection the evolutionary pressure will switch towards immune escape. Genomic surveillance in regions of high immunity is crucial in detecting emerging variants that can more successfully navigate the immune landscape.

Methods

We present phylogenetic relationships and lineage dynamics within England (a country with high levels of immunity), as inferred from a random community sample of individuals who provided a self-administered throat and nose swab for rt-PCR testing as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study. During round 14 (9 September-27 September 2021) and 15 (19 October-5 November 2021) lineages were determined for 1322 positive individuals, with 27.1% of those which reported their symptom status reporting no symptoms in the previous month.

Results

We identified 44 unique lineages, all of which were Delta or Delta sub-lineages, and found a reduction in their mutation rate over the study period. The proportion of the Delta sub-lineage AY.4.2 was increasing, with a reproduction number 15% (95% CI 8-23%) greater than the most prevalent lineage, AY.4. Further, AY.4.2 was less associated with the most predictive COVID-19 symptoms (p\u2009=\u20090.029) and had a reduced mutation rate (p\u2009=\u20090.050). Both AY.4.2 and AY.4 were found to be geographically clustered in September but this was no longer the case by late October/early November, with only the lineage AY.6 exhibiting clustering towards the South of England.

Conclusions

As SARS-CoV-2 moves towards endemicity and new variants emerge, genomic data obtained from random community samples can augment routine surveillance data without the potential biases introduced due to higher sampling rates of symptomatic individuals.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To determine the risk factors for having diabetic retinopathy (DR) in children and young people (CYP) with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) at first screening.

Methods

Records from the Diabetes Eye Screening Wales (DESW) service for people in Wales, UK, with T1DM diagnosed under age 18 years were combined with other electronic health record (EHR) data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Data close to the screening date were collected, and risk factors derived from multivariate, multinomial logistic regression modelling.

Results

Data from 4172 persons, with median (lower quartile, upper quartile) age 16.3 (13.0, 22.3) years and duration of diabetes 6.6 (2.3, 12.3) years were analysed. 62.6% (n\u2009=\u20092613) had no DR, 26.7% (n\u2009=\u20091112) background DR, and 10.7% (n\u2009=\u2009447) had referable DR (RDR). No RDR was observed under 19 years of age. Factors associated with an increased risk of DR were diabetes duration, elevated HbA1c, and diastolic blood pressure. People diagnosed with T1DM at 12 years or older had an additional risk for each year they had diabetes compared to those diagnosed before age 12 controlling for the diabetes duration (odds ratios 1.23 and 1.34, respectively).

Conclusions

This study found that 37.4% of the study cohort had DR at first screening, the risk being greater the longer the duration of diabetes or higher the HbA1c and diastolic blood pressure. In addition, people diagnosed at 12 years of age or over were more likely to have DR with each additional year with diabetes.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07628-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326417?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-020-01326-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452782?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01326-8" }, { "id": "37156754", @@ -12239,6 +12222,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.1580" }, + { + "id": "32737300", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2", + "title": "Distinct genetic architectures and environmental factors associate with host response to the \u03b32-herpesvirus infections.", + "authorString": "Sallah N, Miley W, Labo N, Carstensen T, Fatumo S, Gurdasani D, Pollard MO, Dilthey AT, Mentzer AJ, Marshall V, Cornejo Castro EM, Pomilla C, Young EH, Asiki G, Hibberd ML, Sandhu M, Kellam P, Newton R, Whitby D, Barroso I.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) establish life-long infections and are associated with malignancies. Striking geographic variation in incidence and the fact that virus alone is insufficient to cause disease, suggests other co-factors are involved. Here we present epidemiological analysis and genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 4365 individuals from an African population cohort, to assess the influence of host genetic and non-genetic factors on virus antibody responses. EBV/KSHV co-infection (OR\u2009=\u20095.71(1.58-7.12)), HIV positivity (OR\u2009=\u20092.22(1.32-3.73)) and living in a more rural area (OR\u2009=\u20091.38(1.01-1.89)) are strongly associated with immunogenicity. GWAS reveals associations with KSHV antibody response in the HLA-B/C region (p\u2009=\u20096.64\u2009\u00d7\u200910-09). For EBV, associations are identified for VCA (rs71542439, p\u2009=\u20091.15\u2009\u00d7\u200910-12). Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and trans-ancestry fine-mapping substantiate that distinct variants in HLA-DQA1 (p\u2009=\u20095.24\u2009\u00d7\u200910-44) are driving associations for EBNA-1 in Africa. This study highlights complex interactions between KSHV and EBV, in addition to distinct genetic architectures resulting in important differences in pathogenesis and transmission.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17696-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17696-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7395761?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36525457", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279250", @@ -12256,23 +12256,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279250&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757548; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9757548?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37717030", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6", - "title": "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of common infections in primary care and the change to antibiotic prescribing in England.", - "authorString": "Yang YT, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, Fisher L, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Antimicrobial resistance and infection control", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-09-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Infection; Antibiotics; Primary Care; Antibiotic Stewardship; Covid-19 Pandemic", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic altered the management of common infections in primary care. This study aimed to evaluate infection-coded consultation rates and antibiotic use during the pandemic and how any change may have affected clinical outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform analysed routinely collected electronic health data from GP practices in England between January 2019 and December 2021. Infection coded consultations and antibiotic prescriptions were used estimate multiple measures over calendar months, including age-sex adjusted prescribing rates, prescribing by infection and antibiotic type, infection consultation rates, coding quality and rate of same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infections. Interrupted time series (ITS) estimated the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on infection-coded consultation rates. The impact of the pandemic on non- COVID-19 infection-related hospitalisations was also estimated.

Results

Records from 24 million patients were included. The rate of infection-related consultations fell for all infections (mean reduction of 39% in 2020 compared to 2019 mean rate), except for UTI which remained stable. Modelling infection-related consultation rates highlighted this with an incidence rate ratio of 0.44 (95% CI 0.36-0.53) for incident consultations and 0.43 (95% CI 0.33-0.54) for prevalent consultations. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) saw the largest reduction of 0.11 (95% CI 0.07-0.17). Antibiotic prescribing rates fell with a mean reduction of 118.4 items per 1000 patients in 2020, returning to pre-pandemic rates by summer 2021. Prescribing for LRTI decreased 20% and URTI increased 15.9%. Over 60% of antibiotics were issued without an associated same-day infection code, which increased during the pandemic. Infection-related hospitalisations reduced (by 62%), with the largest reduction observed for pneumonia infections (72.9%). Same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infection increased from 1 to 10.5% between the second and third national lockdowns and rose again during 2022.

Conclusions

Changes to consultations and hospital admissions may be driven by reduced transmission of non-COVID-19 infections due to reduced social mixing and lockdowns. Inconsistencies in coding practice emphasises the need for improvement to inform new antibiotic stewardship policies and prevent resistance to novel infections.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37667866", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/cen.14966", @@ -12290,6 +12273,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cen.14966; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cen.14966" }, + { + "id": "37717030", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6", + "title": "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of common infections in primary care and the change to antibiotic prescribing in England.", + "authorString": "Yang YT, Zhong X, Fahmi A, Watts S, Ashcroft DM, Massey J, Fisher L, MacKenna B, Mehrkar A, Bacon SCJ, Goldacre B, Hand K, van Staa T, Palin V.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Antimicrobial resistance and infection control", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-09-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Infection; Antibiotics; Primary Care; Antibiotic Stewardship; Covid-19 Pandemic", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic altered the management of common infections in primary care. This study aimed to evaluate infection-coded consultation rates and antibiotic use during the pandemic and how any change may have affected clinical outcomes.

Methods

With the approval of NHS England, a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform analysed routinely collected electronic health data from GP practices in England between January 2019 and December 2021. Infection coded consultations and antibiotic prescriptions were used estimate multiple measures over calendar months, including age-sex adjusted prescribing rates, prescribing by infection and antibiotic type, infection consultation rates, coding quality and rate of same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infections. Interrupted time series (ITS) estimated the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on infection-coded consultation rates. The impact of the pandemic on non- COVID-19 infection-related hospitalisations was also estimated.

Results

Records from 24 million patients were included. The rate of infection-related consultations fell for all infections (mean reduction of 39% in 2020 compared to 2019 mean rate), except for UTI which remained stable. Modelling infection-related consultation rates highlighted this with an incidence rate ratio of 0.44 (95% CI 0.36-0.53) for incident consultations and 0.43 (95% CI 0.33-0.54) for prevalent consultations. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) saw the largest reduction of 0.11 (95% CI 0.07-0.17). Antibiotic prescribing rates fell with a mean reduction of 118.4 items per 1000 patients in 2020, returning to pre-pandemic rates by summer 2021. Prescribing for LRTI decreased 20% and URTI increased 15.9%. Over 60% of antibiotics were issued without an associated same-day infection code, which increased during the pandemic. Infection-related hospitalisations reduced (by 62%), with the largest reduction observed for pneumonia infections (72.9%). Same-day antibiotic prescribing for COVID-19 infection increased from 1 to 10.5% between the second and third national lockdowns and rose again during 2022.

Conclusions

Changes to consultations and hospital admissions may be driven by reduced transmission of non-COVID-19 infections due to reduced social mixing and lockdowns. Inconsistencies in coding practice emphasises the need for improvement to inform new antibiotic stewardship policies and prevent resistance to novel infections.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01280-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10504725?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36571960", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2022.11.049", @@ -12307,6 +12307,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2022.11.049" }, + { + "id": "34044910", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002", + "title": "Translational biomarkers in the era of precision medicine.", + "authorString": "Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Russ D, Bisht V, Williams JA, Tsaprouni LG, Gkoutos GV.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Advances in clinical chemistry", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2020-10-03", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Clinical Trials; Omics; Big Data; Translational Biomarkers", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "In this chapter we discuss the past, present and future of clinical biomarker development. We explore the advent of new technologies, paving the way in which health, medicine and disease is understood. This review includes the identification of physicochemical assays, current regulations, the development and reproducibility of clinical trials, as well as, the revolution of omics technologies and state-of-the-art integration and analysis approaches.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002" + }, { "id": "35444210", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-022-00269-5", @@ -12341,23 +12358,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60257/Download/60257__24327__e83f9d0502424e5e9075c668a2672db1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/pes.2021-0174" }, - { - "id": "34044910", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002", - "title": "Translational biomarkers in the era of precision medicine.", - "authorString": "Bravo-Merodio L, Acharjee A, Russ D, Bisht V, Williams JA, Tsaprouni LG, Gkoutos GV.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Advances in clinical chemistry", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2020-10-03", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Clinical Trials; Omics; Big Data; Translational Biomarkers", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "In this chapter we discuss the past, present and future of clinical biomarker development. We explore the advent of new technologies, paving the way in which health, medicine and disease is understood. This review includes the identification of physicochemical assays, current regulations, the development and reproducibility of clinical trials, as well as, the revolution of omics technologies and state-of-the-art integration and analysis approaches.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2020.08.002" - }, { "id": "34626176", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab253", @@ -12409,23 +12409,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009121&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009121; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8259985; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8259985?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "29716529", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8", - "title": "Severe localised granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's granulomatosis) manifesting with extensive cranial nerve palsies and cranial diabetes insipidus: a case report and literature review.", - "authorString": "Peters JE, Gupta V, Saeed IT, Offiah C, Jawad ASM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC neurology", - "pubYear": "2018", - "date": "2018-05-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Diabetes insipidus; Cyclophosphamide; pituitary; Vasculitis; Rituximab; Anca; Cavernous Sinus Syndrome; Collet-sicard Syndrome; Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis; Wegener\u2019s Granulomatosis", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA,\u00a0formerly Wegener's granulomatosis) is a multisystem vasculitis of small- to medium-sized blood vessels. Cranial involvement can result in cranial nerve palsies and, rarely, pituitary infiltration.

Case presentation

We describe the case of a 32\u00a0year-old woman with limited but severe GPA manifesting as progressive cranial nerve palsies and pituitary dysfunction. Our patient initially presented with localised ENT involvement, but despite treatment with methotrexate, she deteriorated. Granulomatous inflammatory tissue around the skull base resulted in cavernous sinus syndrome, facial nerve palsy, palsies of cranial nerves IX-XII (Collet-Sicard syndrome), and the rare complication of cranial diabetes insipidus due to pituitary infiltration. The glossopharyngeal, vagus and accessory nerve palsies resulted in severe dysphagia and she required nasogastric tube feeding. Her neurological deficits substantially improved with treatment including high dose corticosteroid, cyclophosphamide and rituximab.

Conclusions

This case emphasises that serious morbidity can arise from localised cranial Wegener's granulomatosis in the absence of systemic disease. In such cases intensive induction immunosuppression is required.\u00a0Analysis of previously reported cases of pituitary involvement in GPA reveals that this rare complication predominantly affects female patients.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36617894", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/1354750x.2022.2162966", @@ -12443,6 +12426,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1354750x.2022.2162966; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1354750X.2022.2162966" }, + { + "id": "29716529", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8", + "title": "Severe localised granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's granulomatosis) manifesting with extensive cranial nerve palsies and cranial diabetes insipidus: a case report and literature review.", + "authorString": "Peters JE, Gupta V, Saeed IT, Offiah C, Jawad ASM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC neurology", + "pubYear": "2018", + "date": "2018-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Diabetes insipidus; Cyclophosphamide; pituitary; Vasculitis; Rituximab; Anca; Cavernous Sinus Syndrome; Collet-sicard Syndrome; Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis; Wegener\u2019s Granulomatosis", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA,\u00a0formerly Wegener's granulomatosis) is a multisystem vasculitis of small- to medium-sized blood vessels. Cranial involvement can result in cranial nerve palsies and, rarely, pituitary infiltration.

Case presentation

We describe the case of a 32\u00a0year-old woman with limited but severe GPA manifesting as progressive cranial nerve palsies and pituitary dysfunction. Our patient initially presented with localised ENT involvement, but despite treatment with methotrexate, she deteriorated. Granulomatous inflammatory tissue around the skull base resulted in cavernous sinus syndrome, facial nerve palsy, palsies of cranial nerves IX-XII (Collet-Sicard syndrome), and the rare complication of cranial diabetes insipidus due to pituitary infiltration. The glossopharyngeal, vagus and accessory nerve palsies resulted in severe dysphagia and she required nasogastric tube feeding. Her neurological deficits substantially improved with treatment including high dose corticosteroid, cyclophosphamide and rituximab.

Conclusions

This case emphasises that serious morbidity can arise from localised cranial Wegener's granulomatosis in the absence of systemic disease. In such cases intensive induction immunosuppression is required.\u00a0Analysis of previously reported cases of pituitary involvement in GPA reveals that this rare complication predominantly affects female patients.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-018-1058-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5930853?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35012379", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745211069985", @@ -12494,23 +12494,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/14306; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/14306; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7199134" }, - { - "id": "29938349", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5", - "title": "Shared Genetic Contribution of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: Implications for Prognosis and Treatment.", - "authorString": "Strawbridge RJ, van Zuydam NR.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Current diabetes reports", - "pubYear": "2018", - "date": "2018-06-25", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Type 2 diabetes; Ischemic stroke; coronary artery disease; risk factors; Peripheral Artery Disease; Genetics; Mendelian Randomisation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Purpose of review

The increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is well established. This review collates the available evidence and assesses the shared genetic background between T2D and CVD: the causal contribution of common risk factors to T2D and CVD and how genetics can be used to improve drug development and clinical outcomes.

Recent findings

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of T2D and CVD support a shared genetic background but minimal individual locus overlap. Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses show that T2D is causal for CVD, but GWAS of CVD, T2D and their common risk factors provided limited evidence for individual locus overlap. Distinct but functionally related pathways were enriched for CVD and T2D genetic associations reflecting the lack of locus overlap and providing some explanation for the variable associations of common risk factors with CVD and T2D from MR analyses.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36812613", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000190", @@ -12528,6 +12511,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000190&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000190; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931327; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9931327?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "29938349", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5", + "title": "Shared Genetic Contribution of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: Implications for Prognosis and Treatment.", + "authorString": "Strawbridge RJ, van Zuydam NR.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Current diabetes reports", + "pubYear": "2018", + "date": "2018-06-25", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Type 2 diabetes; Ischemic stroke; coronary artery disease; risk factors; Peripheral Artery Disease; Genetics; Mendelian Randomisation", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Purpose of review

The increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is well established. This review collates the available evidence and assesses the shared genetic background between T2D and CVD: the causal contribution of common risk factors to T2D and CVD and how genetics can be used to improve drug development and clinical outcomes.

Recent findings

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of T2D and CVD support a shared genetic background but minimal individual locus overlap. Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses show that T2D is causal for CVD, but GWAS of CVD, T2D and their common risk factors provided limited evidence for individual locus overlap. Distinct but functionally related pathways were enriched for CVD and T2D genetic associations reflecting the lack of locus overlap and providing some explanation for the variable associations of common risk factors with CVD and T2D from MR analyses.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1021-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6015804?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36529816", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26357-x", @@ -12664,6 +12664,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100356.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100356; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8286765; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8286765?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35085490", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00542-7", + "title": "SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine effectiveness in England (REACT-1): a series of cross-sectional random community surveys.", + "authorString": "Chadeau-Hyam M, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Bodinier B, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Donnelly CA, Elliott P, COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Respiratory medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

England has experienced a third wave of the COVID-19 epidemic since the end of May, 2021, coinciding with the rapid spread of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant, despite high levels of vaccination among adults. Vaccination rates (single dose) in England are lower among children aged 16-17 years and 12-15 years, whose vaccination in England commenced in August and September, 2021, respectively. We aimed to analyse the underlying dynamics driving patterns in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence during September, 2021, in England.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study, which commenced data collection in May, 2020, involves a series of random cross-sectional surveys in the general population of England aged 5 years and older. Using RT-PCR swab positivity data from 100\u2009527 participants with valid throat and nose swabs in round 14 of REACT-1 (Sept 9-27, 2021), we estimated community-based prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and vaccine effectiveness against infection by combining round 14 data with data from round 13 (June 24 to July 12, 2021; n=172\u2009862).

Findings

During September, 2021, we estimated a mean RT-PCR positivity rate of 0\u00b783% (95% CrI 0\u00b776-0\u00b789), with a reproduction number (R) overall of 1\u00b703 (95% CrI 0\u00b794-1\u00b714). Among the 475 (62\u00b72%) of 764 sequenced positive swabs, all were of the delta variant; 22 (4\u00b763%; 95% CI 3\u00b707-6\u00b791) included the Tyr145His mutation in the spike protein associated with the AY.4 sublineage, and there was one Glu484Lys mutation. Age, region, key worker status, and household size jointly contributed to the risk of swab positivity. The highest weighted prevalence was observed among children aged 5-12 years, at 2\u00b732% (95% CrI 1\u00b796-2\u00b773) and those aged 13-17 years, at 2\u00b755% (2\u00b711-3\u00b708). The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic grew in those aged 5-11 years, with an R of 1\u00b742 (95% CrI 1\u00b718-1\u00b768), but declined in those aged 18-54 years, with an R of 0\u00b781 (0\u00b768-0\u00b797). At ages 18-64 years, the adjusted vaccine effectiveness against infection was 62\u00b78% (95% CI 49\u00b73-72\u00b77) after two doses compared to unvaccinated people, for all vaccines combined, 44\u00b78% (22\u00b75-60\u00b77) for the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccine, and 71\u00b73% (56\u00b76-81\u00b70) for the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine. In individuals aged 18 years and older, the weighted prevalence of swab positivity was 0\u00b735% (95% CrI 0\u00b731-0\u00b740) if the second dose was administered up to 3 months before their swab but 0\u00b755% (0\u00b750-0\u00b761) for those who received their second dose 3-6 months before their swab, compared to 1\u00b776% (1\u00b760-1\u00b795) among unvaccinated individuals.

Interpretation

In September, 2021, at the start of the autumn school term in England, infections were increasing exponentially in children aged 5-17 years, at a time when vaccination rates were low in this age group. In adults, compared to those who received their second dose less than 3 months ago, the higher prevalence of swab positivity at 3-6 months following two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine suggests an increased risk of breakthrough infections during this period. The vaccination programme needs to reach children as well as unvaccinated and partially vaccinated adults to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and associated disruptions to work and education.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005427/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00542-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8786320" + }, { "id": "33112263", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1530/eje-20-0296", @@ -12681,23 +12698,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://eje.bioscientifica.com/downloadpdf/journals/eje/184/1/EJE-20-0296.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1530/EJE-20-0296; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7707806; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7707806?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35277405", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070", - "title": "Predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in 36\u2009101 people with affective disorders: a large representative cohort study.", - "authorString": "Ma R, Perera G, Romano E, Vancampfort D, Koyanagi A, Stewart R, Mueller C, Stubbs B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-11", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Adult Psychiatry; Depression & Mood Disorders", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

To investigate predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in people with affective disorders.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

The South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust (SLaM) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register.

Participants

A large cohort of people with affective disorders (International Classification of Diseases- 10th version [ICD-10] codes F30-F34) diagnosed between January 2008 and March 2016 was assembled using data from the SLaM BRC Case Register.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation were ascertained from linked national hospitalisation data. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses were administrated to identify predictors of first falls and fractures.

Results

Of 36\u2009101 people with affective disorders (mean age 44.4 years, 60.2% female), 816 (incidence rate 9.91 per 1000 person-years) and 1117 (incidence rate 11.92 per 1000 person-years) experienced either a fall or fracture, respectively. In multivariable analyses, older age, analgesic use, increased physical illness burden, previous hospital admission due to certain comorbid physical illnesses and increase in attendances to accident and emergency services following diagnosis were significant risk factors for both falls and fractures. Having a history of falls was a strong risk factor for recurrent falls, and a previous fracture was also associated with future fractures.

Conclusions

Over a mean 5 years' follow-up, approximately 8% of people with affective disorders were hospitalised with a fall or fracture. Several similar factors were found to predict risk of falls and fracture, for example, older age, comorbid physical disorders and analgesic use. Routine screening for bone mineral density and fall prevention programmes should be considered for this clinical group.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e055070.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "29925668", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2017-210370", @@ -12715,23 +12715,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/72/10/896.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2017-210370; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6161658; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6161658?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35085490", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00542-7", - "title": "SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine effectiveness in England (REACT-1): a series of cross-sectional random community surveys.", - "authorString": "Chadeau-Hyam M, Wang H, Eales O, Haw D, Bodinier B, Whitaker M, Walters CE, Ainslie KEC, Atchison C, Fronterre C, Diggle PJ, Page AJ, Trotter AJ, Ashby D, Barclay W, Taylor G, Cooke G, Ward H, Darzi A, Riley S, Donnelly CA, Elliott P, COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Respiratory medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

England has experienced a third wave of the COVID-19 epidemic since the end of May, 2021, coinciding with the rapid spread of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant, despite high levels of vaccination among adults. Vaccination rates (single dose) in England are lower among children aged 16-17 years and 12-15 years, whose vaccination in England commenced in August and September, 2021, respectively. We aimed to analyse the underlying dynamics driving patterns in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence during September, 2021, in England.

Methods

The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study, which commenced data collection in May, 2020, involves a series of random cross-sectional surveys in the general population of England aged 5 years and older. Using RT-PCR swab positivity data from 100\u2009527 participants with valid throat and nose swabs in round 14 of REACT-1 (Sept 9-27, 2021), we estimated community-based prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and vaccine effectiveness against infection by combining round 14 data with data from round 13 (June 24 to July 12, 2021; n=172\u2009862).

Findings

During September, 2021, we estimated a mean RT-PCR positivity rate of 0\u00b783% (95% CrI 0\u00b776-0\u00b789), with a reproduction number (R) overall of 1\u00b703 (95% CrI 0\u00b794-1\u00b714). Among the 475 (62\u00b72%) of 764 sequenced positive swabs, all were of the delta variant; 22 (4\u00b763%; 95% CI 3\u00b707-6\u00b791) included the Tyr145His mutation in the spike protein associated with the AY.4 sublineage, and there was one Glu484Lys mutation. Age, region, key worker status, and household size jointly contributed to the risk of swab positivity. The highest weighted prevalence was observed among children aged 5-12 years, at 2\u00b732% (95% CrI 1\u00b796-2\u00b773) and those aged 13-17 years, at 2\u00b755% (2\u00b711-3\u00b708). The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic grew in those aged 5-11 years, with an R of 1\u00b742 (95% CrI 1\u00b718-1\u00b768), but declined in those aged 18-54 years, with an R of 0\u00b781 (0\u00b768-0\u00b797). At ages 18-64 years, the adjusted vaccine effectiveness against infection was 62\u00b78% (95% CI 49\u00b73-72\u00b77) after two doses compared to unvaccinated people, for all vaccines combined, 44\u00b78% (22\u00b75-60\u00b77) for the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccine, and 71\u00b73% (56\u00b76-81\u00b70) for the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine. In individuals aged 18 years and older, the weighted prevalence of swab positivity was 0\u00b735% (95% CrI 0\u00b731-0\u00b740) if the second dose was administered up to 3 months before their swab but 0\u00b755% (0\u00b750-0\u00b761) for those who received their second dose 3-6 months before their swab, compared to 1\u00b776% (1\u00b760-1\u00b795) among unvaccinated individuals.

Interpretation

In September, 2021, at the start of the autumn school term in England, infections were increasing exponentially in children aged 5-17 years, at a time when vaccination rates were low in this age group. In adults, compared to those who received their second dose less than 3 months ago, the higher prevalence of swab positivity at 3-6 months following two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine suggests an increased risk of breakthrough infections during this period. The vaccination programme needs to reach children as well as unvaccinated and partially vaccinated adults to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and associated disruptions to work and education.

Funding

Department of Health and Social Care, England.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213260021005427/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00542-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8786320" - }, { "id": "33402395", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-215204", @@ -12749,6 +12732,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/75/7/681.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-215204; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8223662; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8223662?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35277405", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070", + "title": "Predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in 36\u2009101 people with affective disorders: a large representative cohort study.", + "authorString": "Ma R, Perera G, Romano E, Vancampfort D, Koyanagi A, Stewart R, Mueller C, Stubbs B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-11", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Adult Psychiatry; Depression & Mood Disorders", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

To investigate predictors of falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation in people with affective disorders.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

The South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust (SLaM) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register.

Participants

A large cohort of people with affective disorders (International Classification of Diseases- 10th version [ICD-10] codes F30-F34) diagnosed between January 2008 and March 2016 was assembled using data from the SLaM BRC Case Register.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Falls and fractures leading to hospitalisation were ascertained from linked national hospitalisation data. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses were administrated to identify predictors of first falls and fractures.

Results

Of 36\u2009101 people with affective disorders (mean age 44.4 years, 60.2% female), 816 (incidence rate 9.91 per 1000 person-years) and 1117 (incidence rate 11.92 per 1000 person-years) experienced either a fall or fracture, respectively. In multivariable analyses, older age, analgesic use, increased physical illness burden, previous hospital admission due to certain comorbid physical illnesses and increase in attendances to accident and emergency services following diagnosis were significant risk factors for both falls and fractures. Having a history of falls was a strong risk factor for recurrent falls, and a previous fracture was also associated with future fractures.

Conclusions

Over a mean 5 years' follow-up, approximately 8% of people with affective disorders were hospitalised with a fall or fracture. Several similar factors were found to predict risk of falls and fracture, for example, older age, comorbid physical disorders and analgesic use. Routine screening for bone mineral density and fall prevention programmes should be considered for this clinical group.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e055070.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8919445?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37549998", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106460", @@ -12783,23 +12783,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-00846-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00846-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8310793; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8310793?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34870259", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005", - "title": "Sequencing-based genome-wide association studies reporting standards.", - "authorString": "McMahon A, Lewis E, Buniello A, Cerezo M, Hall P, Sollis E, Parkinson H, Hindorff LA, Harris LW, MacArthur JAL.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genome sequencing has recently become a viable genotyping technology for use in genome-wide association studies (GWASs), offering the potential to analyze a broader range of genome-wide variation, including rare variants. To survey current standards, we assessed the content and quality of reporting of statistical methods, analyses, results, and datasets in 167 exome- or genome-wide-sequencing-based GWAS publications published from 2014 to 2020; 81% of publications included tests of aggregate association across multiple variants, with multiple test models frequently used. We observed a lack of standardized terms and incomplete reporting of datasets, particularly for variants analyzed in aggregate tests. We also find a lower frequency of sharing of summary statistics compared with array-based GWASs. Reporting standards and increased data sharing are required to ensure sequencing-based association study data are findable, interoperable, accessible, and reusable (FAIR). To support that, we recommend adopting the standard terminology of sequencing-based GWAS (seqGWAS). Further, we recommend that single-variant analyses be reported following the same standards and conventions as standard array-based GWASs and be shared in the GWAS Catalog. We also provide initial recommended standards for aggregate analyses metadata and summary statistics.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33052324", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100574", @@ -12834,6 +12817,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2213858721002072/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(21)00207-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8440227; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8440227?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34870259", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005", + "title": "Sequencing-based genome-wide association studies reporting standards.", + "authorString": "McMahon A, Lewis E, Buniello A, Cerezo M, Hall P, Sollis E, Parkinson H, Hindorff LA, Harris LW, MacArthur JAL.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Genome sequencing has recently become a viable genotyping technology for use in genome-wide association studies (GWASs), offering the potential to analyze a broader range of genome-wide variation, including rare variants. To survey current standards, we assessed the content and quality of reporting of statistical methods, analyses, results, and datasets in 167 exome- or genome-wide-sequencing-based GWAS publications published from 2014 to 2020; 81% of publications included tests of aggregate association across multiple variants, with multiple test models frequently used. We observed a lack of standardized terms and incomplete reporting of datasets, particularly for variants analyzed in aggregate tests. We also find a lower frequency of sharing of summary statistics compared with array-based GWASs. Reporting standards and increased data sharing are required to ensure sequencing-based association study data are findable, interoperable, accessible, and reusable (FAIR). To support that, we recommend adopting the standard terminology of sequencing-based GWAS (seqGWAS). Further, we recommend that single-variant analyses be reported following the same standards and conventions as standard array-based GWASs and be shared in the GWAS Catalog. We also provide initial recommended standards for aggregate analyses metadata and summary statistics.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8637874?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "30423068", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty605", @@ -12852,21 +12852,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/34/17/i857/25702307/bty605.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6129279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6129279?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33356394", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.16547", - "title": "Urate, Blood Pressure, and Cardiovascular Disease: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials.", - "authorString": "Gill D, Cameron AC, Burgess S, Li X, Doherty DJ, Karhunen V, Abdul-Rahim AH, Taylor-Rowan M, Zuber V, Tsao PS, Klarin D, VA Million Veteran Program, Evangelou E, Elliott P, Damrauer SM, Quinn TJ, Dehghan A, Theodoratou E, Dawson J, Tzoulaki I.", + "id": "35296643", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z", + "title": "Antibody decay, T cell immunity and breakthrough infections following two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with infliximab and vedolizumab.", + "authorString": "Lin S, Kennedy NA, Saifuddin A, Sandoval DM, Reynolds CJ, Seoane RC, Kottoor SH, Pieper FP, Lin KM, Butler DK, Chanchlani N, Nice R, Chee D, Bewshea C, Janjua M, McDonald TJ, Sebastian S, Alexander JL, Constable L, Lee JC, Murray CD, Hart AL, Irving PM, Jones GR, Kok KB, Lamb CA, Lees CW, Altmann DM, Boyton RJ, Goodhand JR, Powell N, Ahmad T, CLARITY IBD study.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2020-12-28", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-16", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cardiovascular diseases; Blood pressure; Uric acid; Systematic review; Odds Ratio", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Serum urate has been implicated in hypertension and cardiovascular disease, but it is not known whether it is exerting a causal effect. To investigate this, we performed Mendelian randomization analysis using data from UK Biobank, Million Veterans Program and genome-wide association study consortia, and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The main Mendelian randomization analyses showed that every 1-SD increase in genetically predicted serum urate was associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (odds ratio, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.10-1.30]; P=4\u00d710-5), peripheral artery disease (1.12 [95% CI, 1.03-1.21]; P=9\u00d710-3), and stroke (1.11 [95% CI, 1.05-1.18]; P=2\u00d710-4). In Mendelian randomization mediation analyses, elevated blood pressure was estimated to mediate approximately one-third of the effect of urate on cardiovascular disease risk. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials showed a favorable effect of urate-lowering treatment on systolic blood pressure (mean difference, -2.55 mm\u2009Hg [95% CI, -4.06 to -1.05]; P=1\u00d710-3) and major adverse cardiovascular events in those with previous cardiovascular disease (odds ratio, 0.40 [95% CI, 0.22-0.73]; P=3\u00d710-3) but no significant effect on major adverse cardiovascular events in all individuals (odds ratio, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.44-1.03]; P=0.07). In summary, these Mendelian randomization and clinical trial data support an effect of higher serum urate on increasing blood pressure, which may mediate a consequent effect on cardiovascular disease risk. High-quality trials are necessary to provide definitive evidence on the specific clinical contexts where urate lowering may be of cardiovascular benefit.", + "abstract": "Anti tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF)\u00a0drugs increase the risk of serious respiratory infection and impair protective immunity following pneumococcal and influenza vaccination. Here we report SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immune responses and breakthrough infections in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, who are treated either with the anti-TNF antibody, infliximab, or with vedolizumab targeting a gut-specific anti-integrin that does not impair systemic immunity. Geometric mean [SD] anti-S RBD antibody concentrations are lower and half-lives shorter in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, following two doses of BNT162b2 (566.7\u2009U/mL [6.2] vs 4555.3\u2009U/mL [5.4], p <0.0001; 26.8 days [95% CI 26.2 - 27.5] vs 47.6 days [45.5 - 49.8], p <0.0001); similar results are also observed with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (184.7\u2009U/mL [5.0] vs 784.0\u2009U/mL [3.5], p <0.0001; 35.9 days [34.9 - 36.8] vs 58.0 days [55.0 - 61.3], p value < 0.0001). One fifth of patients fail to mount a T cell response in both treatment groups. Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections are more frequent (5.8% (201/3441) vs 3.9% (66/1682), p = 0.0039) in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, and the risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection is predicted by peak anti-S RBD antibody concentration after two vaccine doses. Irrespective of the treatments, higher, more sustained antibody levels are observed in patients with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to vaccination. Our results thus suggest that adapted vaccination schedules may be required to induce immunity in at-risk, anti-TNF-treated patients.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28517-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35781133", @@ -12903,21 +12903,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2019.00922/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00922; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6775242; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6775242?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35296643", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z", - "title": "Antibody decay, T cell immunity and breakthrough infections following two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with infliximab and vedolizumab.", - "authorString": "Lin S, Kennedy NA, Saifuddin A, Sandoval DM, Reynolds CJ, Seoane RC, Kottoor SH, Pieper FP, Lin KM, Butler DK, Chanchlani N, Nice R, Chee D, Bewshea C, Janjua M, McDonald TJ, Sebastian S, Alexander JL, Constable L, Lee JC, Murray CD, Hart AL, Irving PM, Jones GR, Kok KB, Lamb CA, Lees CW, Altmann DM, Boyton RJ, Goodhand JR, Powell N, Ahmad T, CLARITY IBD study.", + "id": "33356394", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.16547", + "title": "Urate, Blood Pressure, and Cardiovascular Disease: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials.", + "authorString": "Gill D, Cameron AC, Burgess S, Li X, Doherty DJ, Karhunen V, Abdul-Rahim AH, Taylor-Rowan M, Zuber V, Tsao PS, Klarin D, VA Million Veteran Program, Evangelou E, Elliott P, Damrauer SM, Quinn TJ, Dehghan A, Theodoratou E, Dawson J, Tzoulaki I.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-16", + "journalTitle": "Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2020-12-28", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Cardiovascular diseases; Blood pressure; Uric acid; Systematic review; Odds Ratio", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Anti tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF)\u00a0drugs increase the risk of serious respiratory infection and impair protective immunity following pneumococcal and influenza vaccination. Here we report SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immune responses and breakthrough infections in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, who are treated either with the anti-TNF antibody, infliximab, or with vedolizumab targeting a gut-specific anti-integrin that does not impair systemic immunity. Geometric mean [SD] anti-S RBD antibody concentrations are lower and half-lives shorter in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, following two doses of BNT162b2 (566.7\u2009U/mL [6.2] vs 4555.3\u2009U/mL [5.4], p <0.0001; 26.8 days [95% CI 26.2 - 27.5] vs 47.6 days [45.5 - 49.8], p <0.0001); similar results are also observed with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination (184.7\u2009U/mL [5.0] vs 784.0\u2009U/mL [3.5], p <0.0001; 35.9 days [34.9 - 36.8] vs 58.0 days [55.0 - 61.3], p value < 0.0001). One fifth of patients fail to mount a T cell response in both treatment groups. Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections are more frequent (5.8% (201/3441) vs 3.9% (66/1682), p = 0.0039) in patients treated with infliximab than vedolizumab, and the risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection is predicted by peak anti-S RBD antibody concentration after two vaccine doses. Irrespective of the treatments, higher, more sustained antibody levels are observed in patients with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to vaccination. Our results thus suggest that adapted vaccination schedules may be required to induce immunity in at-risk, anti-TNF-treated patients.", + "abstract": "Serum urate has been implicated in hypertension and cardiovascular disease, but it is not known whether it is exerting a causal effect. To investigate this, we performed Mendelian randomization analysis using data from UK Biobank, Million Veterans Program and genome-wide association study consortia, and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The main Mendelian randomization analyses showed that every 1-SD increase in genetically predicted serum urate was associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (odds ratio, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.10-1.30]; P=4\u00d710-5), peripheral artery disease (1.12 [95% CI, 1.03-1.21]; P=9\u00d710-3), and stroke (1.11 [95% CI, 1.05-1.18]; P=2\u00d710-4). In Mendelian randomization mediation analyses, elevated blood pressure was estimated to mediate approximately one-third of the effect of urate on cardiovascular disease risk. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials showed a favorable effect of urate-lowering treatment on systolic blood pressure (mean difference, -2.55 mm\u2009Hg [95% CI, -4.06 to -1.05]; P=1\u00d710-3) and major adverse cardiovascular events in those with previous cardiovascular disease (odds ratio, 0.40 [95% CI, 0.22-0.73]; P=3\u00d710-3) but no significant effect on major adverse cardiovascular events in all individuals (odds ratio, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.44-1.03]; P=0.07). In summary, these Mendelian randomization and clinical trial data support an effect of higher serum urate on increasing blood pressure, which may mediate a consequent effect on cardiovascular disease risk. High-quality trials are necessary to provide definitive evidence on the specific clinical contexts where urate lowering may be of cardiovascular benefit.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28517-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8927425?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16547; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7803439?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33307988", @@ -12936,23 +12936,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0961203320979045; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203320979045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854491; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854491?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36682888", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097", - "title": "Adversity profiles of children receiving care and support from social services: A latent-class analysis of school-aged children in Wales.", - "authorString": "Anthony R, Scourfield J, Moore G, Paranjothy S, Evans A, Brophy S, Daniel R, Long S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Child: care, health and development", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-31", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Care; Child Welfare; Social Services; Latent Class Analysis; Adverse Childhood Experiences", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Children receive care and support from social services due to the risk of harm or impeded development or because of disability. This study aimed to identify typologies of adversity experienced by children receiving care and support from social services and to explore how typologies differ by sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study of 'Children Receiving Care and Support' (N\u2009=\u200912\u2009792) during 2017/2018 in Wales, UK. We sought to (1) examine the prevalence of household adversities experienced by children in receipt of care and support from social services; (2) identify typologies of household adversities; and (3) explore how typologies of household adversities differ by family characteristics (demographics, measures of social disadvantage, perinatal and care factors).

Results

We found evidence for multiple risk factor constellations. The four-class solution suggested four distinct classes of adversities: child disability (50.0%), low adversities (20.3%), family poor health (6.7%) and multiple risks (23.0%). Children in the 'multiple risk' class were significantly more likely to be younger, more deprived and 'looked after' by the local authority compared with those in the 'low adversities' class.

Conclusions

Given the presence of different constellations of household adversities, policies and interventions that address multiple risk factors simultaneously may be more effective and have longer-lasting benefits.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cch.13097; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097" - }, { "id": "36576182", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058058", @@ -12970,6 +12953,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e058058.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058058; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723859?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36682888", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097", + "title": "Adversity profiles of children receiving care and support from social services: A latent-class analysis of school-aged children in Wales.", + "authorString": "Anthony R, Scourfield J, Moore G, Paranjothy S, Evans A, Brophy S, Daniel R, Long S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Child: care, health and development", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-31", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Care; Child Welfare; Social Services; Latent Class Analysis; Adverse Childhood Experiences", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Children receive care and support from social services due to the risk of harm or impeded development or because of disability. This study aimed to identify typologies of adversity experienced by children receiving care and support from social services and to explore how typologies differ by sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study of 'Children Receiving Care and Support' (N\u2009=\u200912\u2009792) during 2017/2018 in Wales, UK. We sought to (1) examine the prevalence of household adversities experienced by children in receipt of care and support from social services; (2) identify typologies of household adversities; and (3) explore how typologies of household adversities differ by family characteristics (demographics, measures of social disadvantage, perinatal and care factors).

Results

We found evidence for multiple risk factor constellations. The four-class solution suggested four distinct classes of adversities: child disability (50.0%), low adversities (20.3%), family poor health (6.7%) and multiple risks (23.0%). Children in the 'multiple risk' class were significantly more likely to be younger, more deprived and 'looked after' by the local authority compared with those in the 'low adversities' class.

Conclusions

Given the presence of different constellations of household adversities, policies and interventions that address multiple risk factors simultaneously may be more effective and have longer-lasting benefits.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cch.13097; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13097" + }, { "id": "37140153", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead093", @@ -13055,23 +13055,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjdh/article-pdf/3/3/426/47117043/ztac046.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztac046; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708037; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9708037?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36082449", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279", - "title": "Global colorectal cancer research, 2007-2021: Outputs and funding. ", - "authorString": "Begum M, Lewison G, Wang X, Dunne PD, Maughan T, Sullivan R, Lawler M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of cancer", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-09-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The purpose of this study was to provide an evidence base for colorectal cancer research activity that might influence policy, mainly at the national level. Improvements in healthcare delivery have lengthened life expectancy, but within a situation of increased cancer incidence. The disease burden of CRC has risen significantly, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Research is key to its control and reduction, but few studies have delineated the volume and funding of global research on CRC. We identified research papers in the Web of Science (WoS) from 2007 to 2021, and determined the contributions of the leading countries, the research domains studied, and their sources of funding. We identified 62\u2009716 papers, representing 5.7% of all cancer papers. This percentage was somewhat disproportionate to the disease burden (7.7% in 2015), especially in Eastern Europe. International collaboration increased over the time period in almost all countries except in China. Genetics, surgery and prognosis were the leading research domains. However, research on palliative care and quality-of-life in CRC was lacking. In Western Europe, the main funding source was the charity sector, particularly in the UK, but in most other countries government played the leading role, especially in China and the USA. There was little support from industry. Several Asian countries provided minimal contestable funding, which may have reduced the impact of their CRC research. Certain countries must perform more CRC research overall, especially in domains such as screening, palliative care and quality-of-life. The private-non-profit sector should be an alternative source of support.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37739596", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.07.008", @@ -13089,23 +13072,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.07.008" }, - { - "id": "35898465", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924", - "title": "Diabetic Foot Risk Classification at the Time of Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis and Subsequent Risk of Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study.", - "authorString": "Wang Z, Hazlehurst J, Subramanian A, Tahrani AA, Hanif W, Thomas N, Singh P, Wang J, Sainsbury C, Nirantharakumar K, Crowe FL.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in endocrinology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-11", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mortality; Type 2 diabetes; Diabetic Foot Disease; Diabetic Foot Risk; Foot Risk Examination", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aim

We aimed to compare the mortality of individuals at low, moderate, and high risk of diabetic foot disease (DFD) in the context of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, before developing active diabetic foot problem.

Methods

This was a population-based cohort study of adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes utilizing IQVIA Medical Research Data. The outcome was all-cause mortality among individuals with low, moderate, and high risk of DFD, and also in those with no record of foot assessment and those who declined foot examination.

Results

Of 225,787 individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, 34,061 (15.1%) died during the study period from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2019. Moderate risk and high risk of DFD were associated with increased mortality risk compared to low risk of DFD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.50, 95% CI 1.42, 1.58; aHR 2.01, 95% CI 1.84, 2.20, respectively). Individuals who declined foot examination or who had no record also had increased mortality risk of 75% and 25% vs. those at low risk of DFD, respectively (aHR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51, 2.04; aHR 1.25, 95% CI 1.20, 1.30).

Conclusion

Individuals with new-onset type 2 diabetes who had moderate to high risk of DFD were more likely to die compared to those at low risk of DFD. The associations between declined foot examination and absence of foot examinations, and increased risk of mortality further highlight the importance of assessing foot risk as it identifies not only patients at risk of diabetic foot ulceration but also mortality.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36834176", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043477", @@ -13140,6 +13106,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jcsm.12971; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jcsm.12971; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9178164; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9178164?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35898465", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924", + "title": "Diabetic Foot Risk Classification at the Time of Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis and Subsequent Risk of Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study.", + "authorString": "Wang Z, Hazlehurst J, Subramanian A, Tahrani AA, Hanif W, Thomas N, Singh P, Wang J, Sainsbury C, Nirantharakumar K, Crowe FL.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in endocrinology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-11", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mortality; Type 2 diabetes; Diabetic Foot Disease; Diabetic Foot Risk; Foot Risk Examination", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Aim

We aimed to compare the mortality of individuals at low, moderate, and high risk of diabetic foot disease (DFD) in the context of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, before developing active diabetic foot problem.

Methods

This was a population-based cohort study of adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes utilizing IQVIA Medical Research Data. The outcome was all-cause mortality among individuals with low, moderate, and high risk of DFD, and also in those with no record of foot assessment and those who declined foot examination.

Results

Of 225,787 individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, 34,061 (15.1%) died during the study period from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2019. Moderate risk and high risk of DFD were associated with increased mortality risk compared to low risk of DFD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.50, 95% CI 1.42, 1.58; aHR 2.01, 95% CI 1.84, 2.20, respectively). Individuals who declined foot examination or who had no record also had increased mortality risk of 75% and 25% vs. those at low risk of DFD, respectively (aHR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51, 2.04; aHR 1.25, 95% CI 1.20, 1.30).

Conclusion

Individuals with new-onset type 2 diabetes who had moderate to high risk of DFD were more likely to die compared to those at low risk of DFD. The associations between declined foot examination and absence of foot examinations, and increased risk of mortality further highlight the importance of assessing foot risk as it identifies not only patients at risk of diabetic foot ulceration but also mortality.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.888924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9309507?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "36082449", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279", + "title": "Global colorectal cancer research, 2007-2021: Outputs and funding. ", + "authorString": "Begum M, Lewison G, Wang X, Dunne PD, Maughan T, Sullivan R, Lawler M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of cancer", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-09-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The purpose of this study was to provide an evidence base for colorectal cancer research activity that might influence policy, mainly at the national level. Improvements in healthcare delivery have lengthened life expectancy, but within a situation of increased cancer incidence. The disease burden of CRC has risen significantly, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Research is key to its control and reduction, but few studies have delineated the volume and funding of global research on CRC. We identified research papers in the Web of Science (WoS) from 2007 to 2021, and determined the contributions of the leading countries, the research domains studied, and their sources of funding. We identified 62\u2009716 papers, representing 5.7% of all cancer papers. This percentage was somewhat disproportionate to the disease burden (7.7% in 2015), especially in Eastern Europe. International collaboration increased over the time period in almost all countries except in China. Genetics, surgery and prognosis were the leading research domains. However, research on palliative care and quality-of-life in CRC was lacking. In Western Europe, the main funding source was the charity sector, particularly in the UK, but in most other countries government played the leading role, especially in China and the USA. There was little support from industry. Several Asian countries provided minimal contestable funding, which may have reduced the impact of their CRC research. Certain countries must perform more CRC research overall, especially in domains such as screening, palliative care and quality-of-life. The private-non-profit sector should be an alternative source of support.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34279; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10086800?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33722197", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05951-w", @@ -13192,21 +13192,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.14336/ad.2022.0829; doi:https://doi.org/10.14336/AD.2022.0829; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017143; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10017143?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37705832", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003", - "title": "SGLT2 inhibitors in CKD and HFpEF: two new large trials and two new meta-analyses.", - "authorString": "Mayne KJ, Preiss D, Herrington WG.", + "id": "34190735", + "doi": "https://doi.org/", + "title": "The changing characteristics of COVID-19 presentations. A regional comparison of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalised patients during the first and second wave.", + "authorString": "Atkin C, Kamwa V, Reddy-Kolanu V, Parekh D, Evison F, Nightingale P, Gallier S, Ball S, Sapey E.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The British journal of cardiology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-21", + "journalTitle": "Acute medicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-01", "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Cardiovascular disease; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 (Sglt2) Inhibitor", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Background

This study assesses COVID-19 hospitalised patient demography and outcomes during wave 1 and wave 2, prior to new variants of the virus.

Methods

All patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab between 10th March 2020 and 5th July 2020 (wave 1) and 1st September 2020 and 16th November 2020 (wave 2) admitted to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust were included (n=4856), followed for 28 days.

Results

Wave 2 patients were younger, more ethnically diverse, had less co-morbidities and disease presentation was milder on presentation. After matching for these factors, mortality was reduced, but without differences in intensive care admissions.

Conclusion

Prior to new SARS-CoV-2 variants, outcomes for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 were improving but with similar intensive care needs.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003" + "urls": "" }, { "id": "33813844", @@ -13226,21 +13226,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16534; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.16534; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8115430; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8115430?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34190735", - "doi": "https://doi.org/", - "title": "The changing characteristics of COVID-19 presentations. A regional comparison of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalised patients during the first and second wave.", - "authorString": "Atkin C, Kamwa V, Reddy-Kolanu V, Parekh D, Evison F, Nightingale P, Gallier S, Ball S, Sapey E.", + "id": "37705832", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003", + "title": "SGLT2 inhibitors in CKD and HFpEF: two new large trials and two new meta-analyses.", + "authorString": "Mayne KJ, Preiss D, Herrington WG.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Acute medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-01", + "journalTitle": "The British journal of cardiology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-02-21", "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Cardiovascular disease; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 (Sglt2) Inhibitor", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

This study assesses COVID-19 hospitalised patient demography and outcomes during wave 1 and wave 2, prior to new variants of the virus.

Methods

All patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab between 10th March 2020 and 5th July 2020 (wave 1) and 1st September 2020 and 16th November 2020 (wave 2) admitted to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust were included (n=4856), followed for 28 days.

Results

Wave 2 patients were younger, more ethnically diverse, had less co-morbidities and disease presentation was milder on presentation. After matching for these factors, mortality was reduced, but without differences in intensive care admissions.

Conclusion

Prior to new SARS-CoV-2 variants, outcomes for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 were improving but with similar intensive care needs.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10495762?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.5837/bjc.2023.003" }, { "id": "37736873", @@ -13429,23 +13429,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-pdf/108/11/1274/47371055/znab183.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znab183; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344569; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8344569?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35765786", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052", - "title": "Global, regional, and national prevalence of asthma in 2019: a systematic analysis and modelling study.", - "authorString": "Song P, Adeloye D, Salim H, Dos Santos JP, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of global health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-29", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Asthma has a significant impact on people of all ages, particularly children. A lack of universally accepted case definition and confirmatory tests and a poor understanding of major risks interfere with a global response. We aimed to provide global estimates of asthma prevalence and cases in 2019 across four main epidemiological case definitions - current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma. We further investigated major associated factors to determine regional and national distributions of prevalence and cases for current wheezing and ever asthma.

Methods

We identified relevant population-based studies published between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2019. Using a multilevel multivariable mixed-effects meta-regression model, we assessed the age- and sex-adjusted associations of asthma with study-level variables, including year, setting, region and socio-demographic index (SDI). Using a random-effects meta-analysis, we then identified risk factors for current wheezing and asthma. From a \"risk factor-based model\", which included current smoking, and biomass exposure for current wheezing, and rural setting, current smoking, biomass exposure, and SDI for ever asthma, we estimated case numbers and prevalence across regions and 201 countries and territories in 2019.

Results

220 population-based studies conducted in 88 countries were retained. In 2019, the global prevalence estimates of asthma in people aged 5-69 years by various definitions, namely current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma were 11.5% (95% confidence interval (CI)\u2009=\u20099.1-14.3), 17.9% (95% CI\u2009=\u200914.2-22.3), 5.4% (95% CI\u2009=\u20093.2-9.0) and 9.8% (95% CI\u2009=\u20097.8-12.2), respectively. These translated to 754.6 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009599. 7-943.4), 1181.3 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009938.0-1,471.0), 357.4 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009213.0-590.8), 645.2 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009513.1-806.2) cases, respectively. The overall prevalence of current wheezing among people aged 5-69 years was the highest in the African Region at 13.2% (95% CI\u2009=\u200910.5-16.5), and the lowest in the Americas Region at 10.0% (95% CI\u2009=\u20098.0-12.5). For ever asthma, the estimated prevalence in those aged 5-69 years was also the highest in the African Region at 11.3% (95% CI\u2009=\u20099.0-14.1), but the lowest in South-East Asia Region (8.8, 95% CI\u2009=\u20097.0-11.0).

Conclusions

Although varying approaches to case identification in different settings make epidemiological estimates of asthma very difficult, this analysis reaffirms asthma as a common global respiratory condition before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, with higher prevalence than previously reported in many world settings.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/jogh-12-04052.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32997638", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1109/jbhi.2020.3027987", @@ -13463,6 +13446,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6221020/9281055/09210178.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/JBHI.2020.3027987; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8545177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8545177?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35765786", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052", + "title": "Global, regional, and national prevalence of asthma in 2019: a systematic analysis and modelling study.", + "authorString": "Song P, Adeloye D, Salim H, Dos Santos JP, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of global health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-06-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Asthma has a significant impact on people of all ages, particularly children. A lack of universally accepted case definition and confirmatory tests and a poor understanding of major risks interfere with a global response. We aimed to provide global estimates of asthma prevalence and cases in 2019 across four main epidemiological case definitions - current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma. We further investigated major associated factors to determine regional and national distributions of prevalence and cases for current wheezing and ever asthma.

Methods

We identified relevant population-based studies published between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2019. Using a multilevel multivariable mixed-effects meta-regression model, we assessed the age- and sex-adjusted associations of asthma with study-level variables, including year, setting, region and socio-demographic index (SDI). Using a random-effects meta-analysis, we then identified risk factors for current wheezing and asthma. From a \"risk factor-based model\", which included current smoking, and biomass exposure for current wheezing, and rural setting, current smoking, biomass exposure, and SDI for ever asthma, we estimated case numbers and prevalence across regions and 201 countries and territories in 2019.

Results

220 population-based studies conducted in 88 countries were retained. In 2019, the global prevalence estimates of asthma in people aged 5-69 years by various definitions, namely current wheezing, ever wheezing, current asthma, and ever asthma were 11.5% (95% confidence interval (CI)\u2009=\u20099.1-14.3), 17.9% (95% CI\u2009=\u200914.2-22.3), 5.4% (95% CI\u2009=\u20093.2-9.0) and 9.8% (95% CI\u2009=\u20097.8-12.2), respectively. These translated to 754.6 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009599. 7-943.4), 1181.3 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009938.0-1,471.0), 357.4 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009213.0-590.8), 645.2 million (95% CI\u2009=\u2009513.1-806.2) cases, respectively. The overall prevalence of current wheezing among people aged 5-69 years was the highest in the African Region at 13.2% (95% CI\u2009=\u200910.5-16.5), and the lowest in the Americas Region at 10.0% (95% CI\u2009=\u20098.0-12.5). For ever asthma, the estimated prevalence in those aged 5-69 years was also the highest in the African Region at 11.3% (95% CI\u2009=\u20099.0-14.1), but the lowest in South-East Asia Region (8.8, 95% CI\u2009=\u20097.0-11.0).

Conclusions

Although varying approaches to case identification in different settings make epidemiological estimates of asthma very difficult, this analysis reaffirms asthma as a common global respiratory condition before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, with higher prevalence than previously reported in many world settings.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/jogh-12-04052.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9239324?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "30984881", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15151.1", @@ -13548,23 +13548,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009324&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009324; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452068; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8452068?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31000744", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w", - "title": "Measuring social, environmental and health inequalities using deep learning and street imagery.", - "authorString": "Suel E, Polak JW, Bennett JE, Ezzati M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-04-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics, Improving Public Health", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Cities are home to an increasing majority of the world's population. Currently, it is difficult to track social, economic, environmental and health outcomes in cities with high spatial and temporal resolution, needed to evaluate policies regarding urban inequalities. We applied a deep learning approach to street\u00a0images for measuring spatial distributions of income, education, unemployment, housing, living environment, health and crime. Our model predicts different outcomes directly from raw images without extracting intermediate user-defined features. To evaluate the performance of the approach, we first trained neural networks on a subset of images from London using ground truth data at high spatial resolution from official statistics. We then compared how trained networks separated the best-off from worst-off deciles for different outcomes in images not used in training. The best performance was achieved for quality of the living environment and mean income. Allocation was least successful for crime and self-reported health (but not objectively measured health). We also evaluated how networks trained in London predict outcomes three other major cities in the UK: Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. The transferability analysis showed that networks trained in London, fine-tuned with only 1% of images in other cities, achieved performances similar to ones from trained on data from target cities themselves. Our findings demonstrate that street\u00a0imagery has the potential complement traditional survey-based and administrative data sources for high-resolution urban surveillance to measure inequalities and monitor the impacts of policies that aim to address them.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42036-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33262239", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00677-20", @@ -13582,6 +13565,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/85021/8/mSystems-2020-Penney-e00677-20.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00677-20; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7716389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7716389?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31000744", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w", + "title": "Measuring social, environmental and health inequalities using deep learning and street imagery.", + "authorString": "Suel E, Polak JW, Bennett JE, Ezzati M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-04-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics, Improving Public Health", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Cities are home to an increasing majority of the world's population. Currently, it is difficult to track social, economic, environmental and health outcomes in cities with high spatial and temporal resolution, needed to evaluate policies regarding urban inequalities. We applied a deep learning approach to street\u00a0images for measuring spatial distributions of income, education, unemployment, housing, living environment, health and crime. Our model predicts different outcomes directly from raw images without extracting intermediate user-defined features. To evaluate the performance of the approach, we first trained neural networks on a subset of images from London using ground truth data at high spatial resolution from official statistics. We then compared how trained networks separated the best-off from worst-off deciles for different outcomes in images not used in training. The best performance was achieved for quality of the living environment and mean income. Allocation was least successful for crime and self-reported health (but not objectively measured health). We also evaluated how networks trained in London predict outcomes three other major cities in the UK: Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. The transferability analysis showed that networks trained in London, fine-tuned with only 1% of images in other cities, achieved performances similar to ones from trained on data from target cities themselves. Our findings demonstrate that street\u00a0imagery has the potential complement traditional survey-based and administrative data sources for high-resolution urban surveillance to measure inequalities and monitor the impacts of policies that aim to address them.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42036-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42036-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6473002?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35997594", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001223", @@ -13668,21 +13668,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.859310/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.859310; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021445; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9021445?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31607513", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051", - "title": "Genome-wide Association Studies in Ancestrally Diverse Populations: Opportunities, Methods, Pitfalls, and Recommendations.", - "authorString": "Peterson RE, Kuchenbaecker K, Walters RK, Chen CY, Popejoy AB, Periyasamy S, Lam M, Iyegbe C, Strawbridge RJ, Brick L, Carey CE, Martin AR, Meyers JL, Su J, Chen J, Edwards AC, Kalungi A, Koen N, Majara L, Schwarz E, Smoller JW, Stahl EA, Sullivan PF, Vassos E, Mowry B, Prieto ML, Cuellar-Barboza A, Bigdeli TB, Edenberg HJ, Huang H, Duncan LE.", + "id": "35317796", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1", + "title": "Correction to: Lifetime risk of cardiovascular-renal disease in type 2 diabetes: a population-based study in 473,399 individuals.", + "authorString": "Zhang R, Mamza JB, Morris T, Godfrey G, Asselbergs FW, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cell", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-10-10", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Population genetics; Diversity; Psychiatry; complex disease; Gwas; Ancestry; Admixed Populations; Trans-ethnic; Trans-ancestry; Cross-ancestry", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have focused primarily on populations of European descent, but it is essential that diverse populations become better represented. Increasing diversity among study participants will advance our understanding of genetic architecture in all populations and ensure that genetic research is broadly applicable. To facilitate and promote research in multi-ancestry and admixed cohorts, we outline key methodological considerations and highlight opportunities, challenges, solutions, and areas in need of development. Despite the perception that analyzing genetic data from diverse populations is difficult, it is scientifically and ethically imperative, and there is an expanding analytical toolbox to do it well.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867419310025/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8941726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8941726?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36134546", @@ -13702,21 +13702,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/jogh-12-05044.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05044; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494196; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494196?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35317796", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1", - "title": "Correction to: Lifetime risk of cardiovascular-renal disease in type 2 diabetes: a population-based study in 473,399 individuals.", - "authorString": "Zhang R, Mamza JB, Morris T, Godfrey G, Asselbergs FW, Denaxas S, Hemingway H, Banerjee A.", + "id": "31607513", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051", + "title": "Genome-wide Association Studies in Ancestrally Diverse Populations: Opportunities, Methods, Pitfalls, and Recommendations.", + "authorString": "Peterson RE, Kuchenbaecker K, Walters RK, Chen CY, Popejoy AB, Periyasamy S, Lam M, Iyegbe C, Strawbridge RJ, Brick L, Carey CE, Martin AR, Meyers JL, Su J, Chen J, Edwards AC, Kalungi A, Koen N, Majara L, Schwarz E, Smoller JW, Stahl EA, Sullivan PF, Vassos E, Mowry B, Prieto ML, Cuellar-Barboza A, Bigdeli TB, Edenberg HJ, Huang H, Duncan LE.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "journalTitle": "Cell", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-10-10", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Population genetics; Diversity; Psychiatry; complex disease; Gwas; Ancestry; Admixed Populations; Trans-ethnic; Trans-ancestry; Cross-ancestry", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have focused primarily on populations of European descent, but it is essential that diverse populations become better represented. Increasing diversity among study participants will advance our understanding of genetic architecture in all populations and ensure that genetic research is broadly applicable. To facilitate and promote research in multi-ancestry and admixed cohorts, we outline key methodological considerations and highlight opportunities, challenges, solutions, and areas in need of development. Despite the perception that analyzing genetic data from diverse populations is difficult, it is scientifically and ethically imperative, and there is an expanding analytical toolbox to do it well.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02308-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8941726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8941726?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867419310025/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6939869?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.051" }, { "id": "35985824", @@ -13735,23 +13735,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/99/18/e1968.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000201064; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651462; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9651462?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37293269", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6", - "title": "Do poverty and wealth look the same the world over? A comparative study of 12 cities from five high-income countries using street images.", - "authorString": "Suel E, Muller E, Bennett JE, Blakely T, Doyle Y, Lynch J, Mackenbach JD, Middel A, Mizdrak A, Nathvani R, Brauer M, Ezzati M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EPJ data science", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Computer vision; Visual Similarity; Urban Inequalities; Street Images", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Urbanization and inequalities are two of the major policy themes of our time, intersecting in large cities where social and economic inequalities are particularly pronounced. Large scale street-level images are a source of city-wide visual information and allow for comparative analyses of multiple cities. Computer vision methods based on deep learning applied to street images have been shown to successfully measure inequalities in socioeconomic and environmental features, yet existing work has been within specific geographies and have not looked at how visual environments compare across different cities and countries. In this study, we aim to apply existing methods to understand whether, and to what extent, poor and wealthy groups live in visually similar neighborhoods across cities and countries. We present novel insights on similarity of neighborhoods using street-level images and deep learning methods. We analyzed 7.2 million images from 12 cities in five high-income countries, home to more than 85 million people: Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), Toronto and Vancouver (Canada), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. (United States of America), and London (United Kingdom). Visual features associated with neighborhood disadvantage are more distinct and unique to each city than those associated with affluence. For example, from what is visible from street images, high density poor neighborhoods located near the city center (e.g., in London) are visually distinct from poor suburban neighborhoods characterized by lower density and lower accessibility (e.g., in Atlanta). This suggests that differences between two cities is also driven by historical factors, policies, and local geography. Our results also have implications for image-based measures of inequality in cities especially when trained on data from cities that are visually distinct from target cities. We showed that these are more prone to errors for disadvantaged areas especially when transferring across cities, suggesting more attention needs to be paid to improving methods for capturing heterogeneity in poor environment across cities around the world.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35870544", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101330", @@ -13769,6 +13752,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/123456789/79542/2/Petersen%20Artificial%20intelligence%20and%20cardiovascular%202022%20Accepted.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101330" }, + { + "id": "37293269", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6", + "title": "Do poverty and wealth look the same the world over? A comparative study of 12 cities from five high-income countries using street images.", + "authorString": "Suel E, Muller E, Bennett JE, Blakely T, Doyle Y, Lynch J, Mackenbach JD, Middel A, Mizdrak A, Nathvani R, Brauer M, Ezzati M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EPJ data science", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Computer vision; Visual Similarity; Urban Inequalities; Street Images", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Urbanization and inequalities are two of the major policy themes of our time, intersecting in large cities where social and economic inequalities are particularly pronounced. Large scale street-level images are a source of city-wide visual information and allow for comparative analyses of multiple cities. Computer vision methods based on deep learning applied to street images have been shown to successfully measure inequalities in socioeconomic and environmental features, yet existing work has been within specific geographies and have not looked at how visual environments compare across different cities and countries. In this study, we aim to apply existing methods to understand whether, and to what extent, poor and wealthy groups live in visually similar neighborhoods across cities and countries. We present novel insights on similarity of neighborhoods using street-level images and deep learning methods. We analyzed 7.2 million images from 12 cities in five high-income countries, home to more than 85 million people: Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), Toronto and Vancouver (Canada), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. (United States of America), and London (United Kingdom). Visual features associated with neighborhood disadvantage are more distinct and unique to each city than those associated with affluence. For example, from what is visible from street images, high density poor neighborhoods located near the city center (e.g., in London) are visually distinct from poor suburban neighborhoods characterized by lower density and lower accessibility (e.g., in Atlanta). This suggests that differences between two cities is also driven by historical factors, policies, and local geography. Our results also have implications for image-based measures of inequality in cities especially when trained on data from cities that are visually distinct from target cities. We showed that these are more prone to errors for disadvantaged areas especially when transferring across cities, suggesting more attention needs to be paid to improving methods for capturing heterogeneity in poor environment across cities around the world.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00394-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10245348?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32657853", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/sap.0000000000002434", @@ -13871,23 +13871,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30369-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30369-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9981672; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9981672?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32926504", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121", - "title": "Implementing high-dimensional propensity score principles to improve confounder adjustment in UK electronic health records.", - "authorString": "Tazare J, Smeeth L, Evans SJW, Williamson E, Douglas IJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-09-14", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Pharmacoepidemiology; Electronic Health Records; Electronic Medical Records; High-dimensional Propensity Score; Database Research; Confounder Adjustment", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Purpose

Recent evidence from US claims data suggests use of high-dimensional propensity score (hd-PS) methods improve adjustment for confounding in non-randomised studies of interventions. However, it is unclear how best to apply hd-PS principles outside their original setting, given important differences between claims data and electronic health records (EHRs). We aimed to implement the hd-PS in the setting of United Kingdom (UK) EHRs.

Methods

We studied the interaction between clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Whilst previous observational studies suggested an interaction (with reduced effect of clopidogrel), case-only, genetic and randomised trial approaches showed no interaction, strongly suggesting the original observational findings were subject to confounding. We derived a cohort of clopidogrel users from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked with the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project. Analyses estimated the hazard ratio (HR) for myocardial infarction (MI) comparing PPI users with non-users using a Cox model adjusting for confounders. To reflect unique characteristics of UK EHRs, we varied the application of hd-PS principles including the level of grouping within coding systems and adapting the assessment of code recurrence. Results were compared with traditional analyses.

Results

Twenty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-one patients took clopidogrel, of whom 9111 were prescribed a PPI. Traditional PS approaches obtained a HR for the association between PPI use and MI of 1.17 (95% CI: 1.00-1.35). Applying hd-PS modifications resulted in estimates closer to the expected null (HR 1.00; 95% CI: 0.78-1.28).

Conclusions

hd-PS provided improved adjustment for confounding compared with other approaches, suggesting hd-PS can be usefully applied in UK EHRs.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pds.5121; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121" - }, { "id": "33147524", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.08.027", @@ -13906,21 +13889,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55250/Download/55250__18631__3d6d08f3b7ee4cb8ad15423815dac637.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.08.027" }, { - "id": "37740900", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176", - "title": "Interventions for reducing anticholinergic medication burden in older adults-a systematic review and meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Braithwaite E, Todd OM, Atkin A, Hulatt R, Tadrous R, Alldred DP, Pirmohamed M, Walker L, Lawton R, Clegg A.", + "id": "32926504", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121", + "title": "Implementing high-dimensional propensity score principles to improve confounder adjustment in UK electronic health records.", + "authorString": "Tazare J, Smeeth L, Evans SJW, Williamson E, Douglas IJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-09-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cognition; Meta-analysis; Systematic review; Falls; Older People; Older Adult; Anticholinergic Medication", + "journalTitle": "Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-09-14", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Pharmacoepidemiology; Electronic Health Records; Electronic Medical Records; High-dimensional Propensity Score; Database Research; Confounder Adjustment", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Anticholinergic medications block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Many medications have anticholinergic properties, and the cumulative effect of these medications is termed anticholinergic burden. Increased anticholinergic burden can have short-term side effects such as dry mouth, blurred vision and urinary retention as well as long-term effects including dementia, worsening physical function and falls.

Methods

We carried out a systematic review (SR) with meta-analysis (MA) looking at randomised controlled trials addressing interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden in older adults.

Results

We identified seven papers suitable for inclusion in our SR and MA. Interventions included multi-disciplinary involvement in medication reviews and deprescribing of AC medications. Pooled data revealed no significant difference in outcomes between control and intervention group for falls (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.52-1.11, n\u2009=\u2009647), cognition (mean difference = 1.54, 95% CI: -0.04 to 3.13, n\u2009=\u2009405), anticholinergic burden (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.11 to 0.18, n\u2009=\u2009710) or quality of life (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.04 to 0.12, n\u2009=\u2009461).

Discussion

Overall, there was no significant difference with interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden. As we did not see a significant change in anticholinergic burden scores following interventions, it is likely other outcomes would not change. Short follow-up time and lack of training and support surrounding successful deprescribing may have contributed.", + "abstract": "

Purpose

Recent evidence from US claims data suggests use of high-dimensional propensity score (hd-PS) methods improve adjustment for confounding in non-randomised studies of interventions. However, it is unclear how best to apply hd-PS principles outside their original setting, given important differences between claims data and electronic health records (EHRs). We aimed to implement the hd-PS in the setting of United Kingdom (UK) EHRs.

Methods

We studied the interaction between clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Whilst previous observational studies suggested an interaction (with reduced effect of clopidogrel), case-only, genetic and randomised trial approaches showed no interaction, strongly suggesting the original observational findings were subject to confounding. We derived a cohort of clopidogrel users from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked with the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project. Analyses estimated the hazard ratio (HR) for myocardial infarction (MI) comparing PPI users with non-users using a Cox model adjusting for confounders. To reflect unique characteristics of UK EHRs, we varied the application of hd-PS principles including the level of grouping within coding systems and adapting the assessment of code recurrence. Results were compared with traditional analyses.

Results

Twenty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-one patients took clopidogrel, of whom 9111 were prescribed a PPI. Traditional PS approaches obtained a HR for the association between PPI use and MI of 1.17 (95% CI: 1.00-1.35). Applying hd-PS modifications resulted in estimates closer to the expected null (HR 1.00; 95% CI: 0.78-1.28).

Conclusions

hd-PS provided improved adjustment for confounding compared with other approaches, suggesting hd-PS can be usefully applied in UK EHRs.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/pds.5121; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.5121" }, { "id": "32788201", @@ -13939,6 +13922,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/106/1/44.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-319027; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788194; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788194?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37740900", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176", + "title": "Interventions for reducing anticholinergic medication burden in older adults-a systematic review and meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Braithwaite E, Todd OM, Atkin A, Hulatt R, Tadrous R, Alldred DP, Pirmohamed M, Walker L, Lawton R, Clegg A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Age and ageing", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-09-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Cognition; Meta-analysis; Systematic review; Falls; Older People; Older Adult; Anticholinergic Medication", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Anticholinergic medications block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Many medications have anticholinergic properties, and the cumulative effect of these medications is termed anticholinergic burden. Increased anticholinergic burden can have short-term side effects such as dry mouth, blurred vision and urinary retention as well as long-term effects including dementia, worsening physical function and falls.

Methods

We carried out a systematic review (SR) with meta-analysis (MA) looking at randomised controlled trials addressing interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden in older adults.

Results

We identified seven papers suitable for inclusion in our SR and MA. Interventions included multi-disciplinary involvement in medication reviews and deprescribing of AC medications. Pooled data revealed no significant difference in outcomes between control and intervention group for falls (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.52-1.11, n\u2009=\u2009647), cognition (mean difference = 1.54, 95% CI: -0.04 to 3.13, n\u2009=\u2009405), anticholinergic burden (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.11 to 0.18, n\u2009=\u2009710) or quality of life (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.04 to 0.12, n\u2009=\u2009461).

Discussion

Overall, there was no significant difference with interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden. As we did not see a significant change in anticholinergic burden scores following interventions, it is likely other outcomes would not change. Short follow-up time and lack of training and support surrounding successful deprescribing may have contributed.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10517713?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36538350", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/41200", @@ -14008,21 +14008,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/files/173598342/ESC_Heart_Failure_2022_Godec_Cardiovascular_outcomes_associated_with_treatment_of_type_2_diabetes_in_patients_with.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.13910; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9065866; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9065866?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32616677", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000009924", - "title": "Accuracy of identifying incident stroke cases from linked health care data in UK Biobank.", - "authorString": "Rannikm\u00e4e K, Ngoh K, Bush K, Al-Shahi Salman R, Doubal F, Flaig R, Henshall DE, Hutchison A, Nolan J, Osborne S, Samarasekera N, Schnier C, Whiteley W, Wilkinson T, Wilson K, Woodfield R, Zhang Q, Allen N, Sudlow CLM.", + "id": "37658971", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w", + "title": "Multimorbidity in Heart Failure: Leveraging Cluster Analysis to Guide Tailored Treatment Strategies.", + "authorString": "van de Veerdonk MC, Savarese G, Handoko ML, Beulens JWJ, Asselbergs F, Uijl A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Neurology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "journalTitle": "Current heart failure reports", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-09-02", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Clustering; Phenotyping; Heart Failure; Machine Learning; Treatment Response; Precision Medicine", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

In UK Biobank (UKB), a large population-based prospective study, cases of many diseases are ascertained through linkage to routinely collected, coded national health datasets. We assessed the accuracy of these for identifying incident strokes.

Methods

In a regional UKB subpopulation (n = 17,249), we identified all participants with \u22651 code signifying a first stroke after recruitment (incident stroke-coded cases) in linked hospital admission, primary care, or death record data. Stroke physicians reviewed their full electronic patient records (EPRs) and generated reference standard diagnoses. We evaluated the number and proportion of cases that were true-positives (i.e., positive predictive value [PPV]) for all codes combined and by code source and type.

Results

Of 232 incident stroke-coded cases, 97% had EPR information available. Data sources were 30% hospital admission only, 39% primary care only, 28% hospital and primary care, and 3% death records only. While 42% of cases were coded as unspecified stroke type, review of EPRs enabled a pathologic type to be assigned in >99%. PPVs (95% confidence intervals) were 79% (73%-84%) for any stroke (89% for hospital admission codes, 80% for primary care codes) and 83% (74%-90%) for ischemic stroke. PPVs for small numbers of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes were low but imprecise.

Conclusions

Stroke and ischemic stroke cases in UKB can be ascertained through linked health datasets with sufficient accuracy for many research studies. Further work is needed to understand the accuracy of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes and to develop scalable approaches for better identifying stroke types.", + "abstract": "

Review purpose

This review summarises key findings on treatment effects within phenotypical clusters of patients with heart failure (HF), making a distinction between patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Findings

Treatment response differed among clusters; ACE inhibitors were beneficial in all HFrEF phenotypes, while only some studies show similar beneficial prognostic effects in HFpEF patients. Beta-blockers had favourable effects in all HFrEF patients but not in HFpEF phenotypes and tended to worsen prognosis in older, cardiorenal patients. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists had more favourable prognostic effects in young, obese males and metabolic HFpEF patients. While a phenotype-guided approach is a promising solution for individualised treatment strategies, there are several aspects that still require improvements before such an approach could be implemented in clinical practice. Stronger evidence from clinical trials and real-world data may assist in establishing a phenotype-guided treatment approach for patient with HF in the future.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/95/6/e697.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000009924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w" }, { "id": "34649961", @@ -14041,23 +14041,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10138810/1/ForUCLDiscovery.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a039230" }, - { - "id": "37658971", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w", - "title": "Multimorbidity in Heart Failure: Leveraging Cluster Analysis to Guide Tailored Treatment Strategies.", - "authorString": "van de Veerdonk MC, Savarese G, Handoko ML, Beulens JWJ, Asselbergs F, Uijl A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Current heart failure reports", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-09-02", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Clustering; Phenotyping; Heart Failure; Machine Learning; Treatment Response; Precision Medicine", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Review purpose

This review summarises key findings on treatment effects within phenotypical clusters of patients with heart failure (HF), making a distinction between patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Findings

Treatment response differed among clusters; ACE inhibitors were beneficial in all HFrEF phenotypes, while only some studies show similar beneficial prognostic effects in HFpEF patients. Beta-blockers had favourable effects in all HFrEF patients but not in HFpEF phenotypes and tended to worsen prognosis in older, cardiorenal patients. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists had more favourable prognostic effects in young, obese males and metabolic HFpEF patients. While a phenotype-guided approach is a promising solution for individualised treatment strategies, there are several aspects that still require improvements before such an approach could be implemented in clinical practice. Stronger evidence from clinical trials and real-world data may assist in establishing a phenotype-guided treatment approach for patient with HF in the future.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00626-w" - }, { "id": "35667411", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2022.05.003", @@ -14092,40 +14075,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cardio.jmir.org/2023/1/e41248/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/41248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9929726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9929726?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "30240446", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896", - "title": "Polygenic risk scores for major depressive disorder and neuroticism as predictors of antidepressant response: Meta-analysis of three treatment cohorts.", - "authorString": "Ward J, Graham N, Strawbridge RJ, Ferguson A, Jenkins G, Chen W, Hodgson K, Frye M, Weinshilboum R, Uher R, Lewis CM, Biernacka J, Smith DJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2018", - "date": "2018-09-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Better Care", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "There are currently no reliable approaches for correctly identifying which patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) will respond well to antidepressant therapy. However, recent genetic advances suggest that Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) could allow MDD patients to be stratified for antidepressant response. We used PRS for MDD and PRS for neuroticism as putative predictors of antidepressant response within three treatment cohorts: The Genome-based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression (GENDEP) cohort, and 2 sub-cohorts from the Pharmacogenomics Research Network Antidepressant Medication Pharmacogenomics Study PRGN-AMPS (total patient number = 760). Results across cohorts were combined via meta-analysis within a random effects model. Overall, PRS for MDD and neuroticism did not significantly predict antidepressant response but there was a consistent direction of effect, whereby greater genetic loading for both MDD (best MDD result, p < 5*10-5 MDD-PRS at 4 weeks, \u03b2 = -0.019, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.01) and neuroticism (best neuroticism result, p < 0.1 neuroticism-PRS at 8 weeks, \u03b2 = -0.017, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.03) were associated with less favourable response. We conclude that the PRS approach may offer some promise for treatment stratification in MDD and should now be assessed within larger clinical cohorts.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203896&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "36936265", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276", - "title": "Trends, variation, and clinical characteristics of recipients of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies for covid-19 in community settings: retrospective, descriptive cohort study of 23.4 million people in OpenSAFELY.", - "authorString": "Green ACA, Curtis HJ, Higgins R, Nab L, Mahalingasivam V, Smith RM, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Drysdale H, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Tazare J, Zheng B, Andrews CD, Bacon SCJ, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Fisher L, Hickman G, Hopcroft LEM, Hulme WJ, Massey J, MacDonald O, Morley J, Morton CE, Park RY, Walker AJ, Ward T, Wiedemann M, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Goldacre B, Tomlinson LA, MacKenna B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Therapeutics; Community health services; Public Health; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To ascertain patient eligibility status and describe coverage of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMAB) as treatment for covid-19 in community settings in England.

Design

Retrospective, descriptive cohort study, approved by NHS England.

Setting

Routine clinical data from 23.4\u2009million people linked to data on covid-19 infection and treatment, within the OpenSAFELY-TPP database.

Participants

Outpatients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes.

Interventions

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (paxlovid), sotrovimab, molnupiravir, casirivimab/imdevimab, or remdesivir, used in the community by covid-19 medicine delivery units.

Results

93\u2009870 outpatients with covid-19 were identified between 11 December 2021 and 28 April 2022 to be at high risk of severe outcomes and therefore potentially eligible for antiviral or nMAB treatment (or both). Of these patients, 19\u2009040 (20%) received treatment (sotrovimab, 9660 (51%); molnupiravir, 4620 (24%); paxlovid, 4680 (25%); casirivimab/imdevimab, 50 (<1%); and remdesivir, 30 (<1%)). The proportion of patients treated increased from 9% (190/2220) in the first week of treatment availability to 29% (460/1600) in the latest week. The proportion treated varied by high risk group, being lowest in those with liver disease (16%; 95%\u2009confidence interval 15% to 17%); by treatment type, with sotrovimab favoured over molnupiravir and paxlovid in all but three high risk groups (Down's syndrome (35%; 30% to 39%), rare neurological conditions (45%; 43% to 47%), and immune deficiencies (48%; 47% to 50%)); by age, ranging from \u226580 years (13%; 12% to 14%) to 50-59 years (23%; 22% to 23%); by ethnic group, ranging from black (11%; 10% to 12%) to white (21%; 21% to 21%); by NHS region, ranging from 13% (12% to 14%) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 25% (24% to 25%) in the East of England); and by deprivation level, ranging from 15% (14% to 15%) in the most deprived areas to 23% (23% to 24%) in the least deprived areas. Groups that also had lower coverage included unvaccinated patients (7%; 6% to 9%), those with dementia (6%; 5% to 7%), and care home residents (6%; 6% to 7%).

Conclusions

Using the OpenSAFELY platform, we were able to identify patients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes who were potentially eligible to receive treatment and assess the coverage of these new treatments among these patients. In the context of a rapid deployment of a new service, the NHS analytical code used to determine eligibility could have been over-inclusive and some of the eligibility criteria not fully captured in healthcare data. However targeted activity might be needed to resolve apparent lower treatment coverage observed among certain groups, in particular (at present): different NHS regions, ethnic groups, people aged \u226580 years, those living in socioeconomically deprived areas, and care home residents.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000276.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32103533", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8503", @@ -14143,6 +14092,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4656008/1/manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8503; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612316; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612316?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8503" }, + { + "id": "32616677", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000009924", + "title": "Accuracy of identifying incident stroke cases from linked health care data in UK Biobank.", + "authorString": "Rannikm\u00e4e K, Ngoh K, Bush K, Al-Shahi Salman R, Doubal F, Flaig R, Henshall DE, Hutchison A, Nolan J, Osborne S, Samarasekera N, Schnier C, Whiteley W, Wilkinson T, Wilson K, Woodfield R, Zhang Q, Allen N, Sudlow CLM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Neurology", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

In UK Biobank (UKB), a large population-based prospective study, cases of many diseases are ascertained through linkage to routinely collected, coded national health datasets. We assessed the accuracy of these for identifying incident strokes.

Methods

In a regional UKB subpopulation (n = 17,249), we identified all participants with \u22651 code signifying a first stroke after recruitment (incident stroke-coded cases) in linked hospital admission, primary care, or death record data. Stroke physicians reviewed their full electronic patient records (EPRs) and generated reference standard diagnoses. We evaluated the number and proportion of cases that were true-positives (i.e., positive predictive value [PPV]) for all codes combined and by code source and type.

Results

Of 232 incident stroke-coded cases, 97% had EPR information available. Data sources were 30% hospital admission only, 39% primary care only, 28% hospital and primary care, and 3% death records only. While 42% of cases were coded as unspecified stroke type, review of EPRs enabled a pathologic type to be assigned in >99%. PPVs (95% confidence intervals) were 79% (73%-84%) for any stroke (89% for hospital admission codes, 80% for primary care codes) and 83% (74%-90%) for ischemic stroke. PPVs for small numbers of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes were low but imprecise.

Conclusions

Stroke and ischemic stroke cases in UKB can be ascertained through linked health datasets with sufficient accuracy for many research studies. Further work is needed to understand the accuracy of death record and hemorrhagic stroke codes and to develop scalable approaches for better identifying stroke types.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/95/6/e697.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000009924; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7455356?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "30240446", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896", + "title": "Polygenic risk scores for major depressive disorder and neuroticism as predictors of antidepressant response: Meta-analysis of three treatment cohorts.", + "authorString": "Ward J, Graham N, Strawbridge RJ, Ferguson A, Jenkins G, Chen W, Hodgson K, Frye M, Weinshilboum R, Uher R, Lewis CM, Biernacka J, Smith DJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2018", + "date": "2018-09-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Better Care", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "There are currently no reliable approaches for correctly identifying which patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) will respond well to antidepressant therapy. However, recent genetic advances suggest that Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) could allow MDD patients to be stratified for antidepressant response. We used PRS for MDD and PRS for neuroticism as putative predictors of antidepressant response within three treatment cohorts: The Genome-based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression (GENDEP) cohort, and 2 sub-cohorts from the Pharmacogenomics Research Network Antidepressant Medication Pharmacogenomics Study PRGN-AMPS (total patient number = 760). Results across cohorts were combined via meta-analysis within a random effects model. Overall, PRS for MDD and neuroticism did not significantly predict antidepressant response but there was a consistent direction of effect, whereby greater genetic loading for both MDD (best MDD result, p < 5*10-5 MDD-PRS at 4 weeks, \u03b2 = -0.019, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.01) and neuroticism (best neuroticism result, p < 0.1 neuroticism-PRS at 8 weeks, \u03b2 = -0.017, S.E = 0.008, p = 0.03) were associated with less favourable response. We conclude that the PRS approach may offer some promise for treatment stratification in MDD and should now be assessed within larger clinical cohorts.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203896&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203896; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150505?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36276403", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.875198", @@ -14160,6 +14143,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.875198/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.875198; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9582845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9582845?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36936265", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276", + "title": "Trends, variation, and clinical characteristics of recipients of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies for covid-19 in community settings: retrospective, descriptive cohort study of 23.4 million people in OpenSAFELY.", + "authorString": "Green ACA, Curtis HJ, Higgins R, Nab L, Mahalingasivam V, Smith RM, Mehrkar A, Inglesby P, Drysdale H, DeVito NJ, Croker R, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Tazare J, Zheng B, Andrews CD, Bacon SCJ, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Fisher L, Hickman G, Hopcroft LEM, Hulme WJ, Massey J, MacDonald O, Morley J, Morton CE, Park RY, Walker AJ, Ward T, Wiedemann M, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Douglas IJ, Evans SJW, Goldacre B, Tomlinson LA, MacKenna B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ medicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Therapeutics; Community health services; Public Health; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

To ascertain patient eligibility status and describe coverage of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMAB) as treatment for covid-19 in community settings in England.

Design

Retrospective, descriptive cohort study, approved by NHS England.

Setting

Routine clinical data from 23.4\u2009million people linked to data on covid-19 infection and treatment, within the OpenSAFELY-TPP database.

Participants

Outpatients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes.

Interventions

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (paxlovid), sotrovimab, molnupiravir, casirivimab/imdevimab, or remdesivir, used in the community by covid-19 medicine delivery units.

Results

93\u2009870 outpatients with covid-19 were identified between 11 December 2021 and 28 April 2022 to be at high risk of severe outcomes and therefore potentially eligible for antiviral or nMAB treatment (or both). Of these patients, 19\u2009040 (20%) received treatment (sotrovimab, 9660 (51%); molnupiravir, 4620 (24%); paxlovid, 4680 (25%); casirivimab/imdevimab, 50 (<1%); and remdesivir, 30 (<1%)). The proportion of patients treated increased from 9% (190/2220) in the first week of treatment availability to 29% (460/1600) in the latest week. The proportion treated varied by high risk group, being lowest in those with liver disease (16%; 95%\u2009confidence interval 15% to 17%); by treatment type, with sotrovimab favoured over molnupiravir and paxlovid in all but three high risk groups (Down's syndrome (35%; 30% to 39%), rare neurological conditions (45%; 43% to 47%), and immune deficiencies (48%; 47% to 50%)); by age, ranging from \u226580 years (13%; 12% to 14%) to 50-59 years (23%; 22% to 23%); by ethnic group, ranging from black (11%; 10% to 12%) to white (21%; 21% to 21%); by NHS region, ranging from 13% (12% to 14%) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 25% (24% to 25%) in the East of England); and by deprivation level, ranging from 15% (14% to 15%) in the most deprived areas to 23% (23% to 24%) in the least deprived areas. Groups that also had lower coverage included unvaccinated patients (7%; 6% to 9%), those with dementia (6%; 5% to 7%), and care home residents (6%; 6% to 7%).

Conclusions

Using the OpenSAFELY platform, we were able to identify patients with covid-19 at high risk of severe outcomes who were potentially eligible to receive treatment and assess the coverage of these new treatments among these patients. In the context of a rapid deployment of a new service, the NHS analytical code used to determine eligibility could have been over-inclusive and some of the eligibility criteria not fully captured in healthcare data. However targeted activity might be needed to resolve apparent lower treatment coverage observed among certain groups, in particular (at present): different NHS regions, ethnic groups, people aged \u226580 years, those living in socioeconomically deprived areas, and care home residents.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000276.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951378?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37606853", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07944-8", @@ -14194,23 +14194,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861682?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37143831", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022", - "title": "Ethnic variation in asthma healthcare utilisation and exacerbation: systematic review and meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Akin-Imran A, Bajpai A, McCartan D, Heaney LG, Kee F, Redmond C, Busby J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "ERJ open research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Patients from ethnic minority groups (EMGs) frequently report poorer asthma outcomes; however, a broad synthesis summarising ethnic disparities is yet to be undertaken. What is the magnitude of ethnic disparities in asthma healthcare utilisation, exacerbations and mortality?

Methods

MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched for studies reporting ethnic variation in asthma healthcare outcomes (primary care attendance, exacerbation, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalisation, hospital readmission, ventilation/intubation and mortality) between White patients and those from EMGs. Estimates were displayed using forest plots and random-effects models were used to calculate pooled estimates. We conducted subgroup analyses to explore heterogeneity, including by specific ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, Asian and other).

Results

65 studies, comprising 699\u2009882 patients, were included. Most studies (92.3%) were conducted in the United States of America (USA). Patients from EMGs had evidence suggestive of lower levels of primary care attendance (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.48-1.09), but substantially higher ED visits (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.53-1.98), hospitalisations (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.48-1.79) and ventilation/intubation (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.65-4.31) when compared to White patients. In addition, we found evidence suggestive of increased hospital readmissions (OR 1.19, 95% CI 0.90-1.57) and exacerbation rates (OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.94-1.28) among EMGs. No eligible studies explored disparities in mortality. ED visits were much higher among Black and Hispanic patients, while Asian and other ethnicities had similar rates to White patients.

Conclusions

EMGs had higher secondary care utilisation and exacerbations. Despite the global importance of this issue, the majority of studies were performed in the USA. Further research into the causes of these disparities, including whether these vary by specific ethnicity, is required to aid the design of effective interventions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/early/2023/02/16/23120541.00591-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35130878", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02234-2", @@ -14245,6 +14228,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.2417; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9305958; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9305958?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37143831", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022", + "title": "Ethnic variation in asthma healthcare utilisation and exacerbation: systematic review and meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Akin-Imran A, Bajpai A, McCartan D, Heaney LG, Kee F, Redmond C, Busby J.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "ERJ open research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Patients from ethnic minority groups (EMGs) frequently report poorer asthma outcomes; however, a broad synthesis summarising ethnic disparities is yet to be undertaken. What is the magnitude of ethnic disparities in asthma healthcare utilisation, exacerbations and mortality?

Methods

MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched for studies reporting ethnic variation in asthma healthcare outcomes (primary care attendance, exacerbation, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalisation, hospital readmission, ventilation/intubation and mortality) between White patients and those from EMGs. Estimates were displayed using forest plots and random-effects models were used to calculate pooled estimates. We conducted subgroup analyses to explore heterogeneity, including by specific ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, Asian and other).

Results

65 studies, comprising 699\u2009882 patients, were included. Most studies (92.3%) were conducted in the United States of America (USA). Patients from EMGs had evidence suggestive of lower levels of primary care attendance (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.48-1.09), but substantially higher ED visits (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.53-1.98), hospitalisations (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.48-1.79) and ventilation/intubation (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.65-4.31) when compared to White patients. In addition, we found evidence suggestive of increased hospital readmissions (OR 1.19, 95% CI 0.90-1.57) and exacerbation rates (OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.94-1.28) among EMGs. No eligible studies explored disparities in mortality. ED visits were much higher among Black and Hispanic patients, while Asian and other ethnicities had similar rates to White patients.

Conclusions

EMGs had higher secondary care utilisation and exacerbations. Despite the global importance of this issue, the majority of studies were performed in the USA. Further research into the causes of these disparities, including whether these vary by specific ethnicity, is required to aid the design of effective interventions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/early/2023/02/16/23120541.00591-2022.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00591-2022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10152257?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31912053", "doi": "https://doi.org/", @@ -14432,23 +14432,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.12.003; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.12.003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7832229; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7832229?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35634533", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1", - "title": "A comprehensive high cost drugs dataset from the NHS in England - An OpenSAFELY-TPP Short Data Report.", - "authorString": "Rowan A, Bates C, Hulme W, Evans D, Davy S, A Kennedy N, Galloway J, E Mansfield K, Bechman K, Matthewman J, Yates M, Brown J, Schultze A, Norton S, J Walker A, E Morton C, Bhaskaran K, T Rentsch C, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hickman G, Ward T, Green A, Fisher L, J Curtis H, Tazare J, M Eggo R, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, I McDonald H, Mathur R, Ys Wong A, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, J Douglas I, Smeeth L, A Tomlinson L, W Lees C, Evans S, Smith C, M Langan S, Mehkar A, MacKenna B, Goldacre B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Medications; Biosimilars; Healthcare Administration; Opensafely", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no routine comprehensive hospital medicines data from the UK available to researchers. These records can be important for many analyses including the effect of certain medicines on the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. With the approval of NHS England, we set out to obtain data on one specific group of medicines, \"high-cost drugs\" (HCD) which are typically specialist medicines for the management of long-term conditions, prescribed by hospitals to patients. Additionally, we aimed to make these data available to all approved researchers in OpenSAFELY-TPP. This report is intended to support all studies carried out in OpenSAFELY-TPP, and those elsewhere, working with this dataset or similar data. Methods: Working with the North East Commissioning Support Unit and NHS Digital, we arranged for collation of a single national HCD dataset to help inform responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The dataset was developed from payment submissions from hospitals to commissioners. Results: In the financial year (FY) 2018/19 there were 2.8 million submissions for 1.1 million unique patient IDs recorded in the HCD. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 2.6. In FY 2019/20 there were 4.0 million submissions for 1.3 million unique patient IDs. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 3.1. Of the 21 variables in the dataset, three are now available for analysis in OpenSafely-TPP: Financial year and month of drug being dispensed; drug name; and a description of the drug dispensed. Conclusions: We have described the process for sourcing a national HCD dataset, making these data available for COVID-19-related analysis through OpenSAFELY-TPP and provided information on the variables included in the dataset, data coverage and an initial descriptive analysis.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32790708", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237298", @@ -14466,6 +14449,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237298&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237298; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425844; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7425844?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35634533", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1", + "title": "A comprehensive high cost drugs dataset from the NHS in England - An OpenSAFELY-TPP Short Data Report.", + "authorString": "Rowan A, Bates C, Hulme W, Evans D, Davy S, A Kennedy N, Galloway J, E Mansfield K, Bechman K, Matthewman J, Yates M, Brown J, Schultze A, Norton S, J Walker A, E Morton C, Bhaskaran K, T Rentsch C, Williamson E, Croker R, Bacon S, Hickman G, Ward T, Green A, Fisher L, J Curtis H, Tazare J, M Eggo R, Inglesby P, Cockburn J, I McDonald H, Mathur R, Ys Wong A, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, J Douglas I, Smeeth L, A Tomlinson L, W Lees C, Evans S, Smith C, M Langan S, Mehkar A, MacKenna B, Goldacre B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Medications; Biosimilars; Healthcare Administration; Opensafely", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no routine comprehensive hospital medicines data from the UK available to researchers. These records can be important for many analyses including the effect of certain medicines on the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. With the approval of NHS England, we set out to obtain data on one specific group of medicines, \"high-cost drugs\" (HCD) which are typically specialist medicines for the management of long-term conditions, prescribed by hospitals to patients. Additionally, we aimed to make these data available to all approved researchers in OpenSAFELY-TPP. This report is intended to support all studies carried out in OpenSAFELY-TPP, and those elsewhere, working with this dataset or similar data. Methods: Working with the North East Commissioning Support Unit and NHS Digital, we arranged for collation of a single national HCD dataset to help inform responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The dataset was developed from payment submissions from hospitals to commissioners. Results: In the financial year (FY) 2018/19 there were 2.8 million submissions for 1.1 million unique patient IDs recorded in the HCD. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 2.6. In FY 2019/20 there were 4.0 million submissions for 1.3 million unique patient IDs. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 3.1. Of the 21 variables in the dataset, three are now available for analysis in OpenSafely-TPP: Financial year and month of drug being dispensed; drug name; and a description of the drug dispensed. Conclusions: We have described the process for sourcing a national HCD dataset, making these data available for COVID-19-related analysis through OpenSAFELY-TPP and provided information on the variables included in the dataset, data coverage and an initial descriptive analysis.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17360.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9120928?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31685485", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031365", @@ -14500,40 +14500,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2665991322000984/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(22)00098-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9179144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9179144?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37337639", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291", - "title": "Trans-ethnic polygenic risk scores for body mass index: An international hundred K+ cohorts consortium study.", - "authorString": "Qu HQ, Connolly JJ, Kraft P, Long J, Pereira A, Flatley C, Turman C, Prins B, Mentch F, Lotufo PA, Magnus P, Stampfer MJ, Tamimi R, Eliassen AH, Zheng W, Knudsen GPS, Helgeland O, Butterworth AS, Hakonarson H, Sleiman PM, IHCC consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical and translational medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Obesity; Population admixture; body mass index; Polygenic Risk Score; Trans-ethnic", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

While polygenic risk scores hold significant promise in estimating an individual's risk of developing a complex trait such as obesity, their application in the clinic has, to date, been limited by a lack of data from non-European populations. As a collaboration model of the International Hundred K+ Cohorts Consortium (IHCC), we endeavored to develop a globally applicable trans-ethnic PRS for body mass index (BMI) through this relatively new international effort.

Methods

The polygenic risk score (PRS) model was developed, trained and tested at the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) based on a BMI meta-analysis from the GIANT consortium. The validated PRS models were subsequently disseminated to the participating sites. Scores were generated by each site locally on their cohorts and summary statistics returned to CAG for final analysis.

Results

We show that in the absence of a well powered trans-ethnic GWAS from which to derive marker SNPs and effect estimates for PRS, trans-ethnic scores can be generated from European ancestry GWAS using Bayesian approaches such as LDpred, by adjusting the summary statistics using trans-ethnic linkage disequilibrium reference panels. The ported trans-ethnic scores outperform population specific-PRS across all non-European ancestry populations investigated including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilian cohort.

Conclusions

Here we show that for a truly polygenic trait such as BMI adjusting the summary statistics of a well powered European ancestry study using trans-ethnic LD reference results in a score that is predictive across a range of ancestries including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilians.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "31104603", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276", - "title": "Outbreak analytics: a developing data science for informing the response to emerging pathogens.", - "authorString": "Polonsky JA, Baidjoe A, Kamvar ZN, Cori A, Durski K, Edmunds WJ, Eggo RM, Funk S, Kaiser L, Keating P, de Waroux OLP, Marks M, Moraga P, Morgan O, Nouvellet P, Ratnayake R, Roberts CH, Whitworth J, Jombart T.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-07-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Methods; Software; epidemics; Infectious; pipeline; Tools", - "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Despite continued efforts to improve health systems worldwide, emerging pathogen epidemics remain a major public health concern. Effective response to such outbreaks relies on timely intervention, ideally informed by all available sources of data. The collection, visualization and analysis of outbreak data are becoming increasingly complex, owing to the diversity in types of data, questions and available methods to address them. Recent advances have led to the rise of outbreak analytics, an emerging data science focused on the technological and methodological aspects of the outbreak data pipeline, from collection to analysis, modelling and reporting to inform outbreak response. In this article, we assess the current state of the field. After laying out the context of outbreak response, we critically review the most common analytics components, their inter-dependencies, data requirements and the type of information they can provide to inform operations in real time. We discuss some challenges and opportunities and conclude on the potential role of outbreak analytics for improving our understanding of, and response to outbreaks of emerging pathogens. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: epidemic forecasting and control'. This theme issue is linked with the earlier issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: approaches and important themes'.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37532769", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05171-9", @@ -14551,6 +14517,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05171-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05171-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10397182; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10397182?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37337639", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291", + "title": "Trans-ethnic polygenic risk scores for body mass index: An international hundred K+ cohorts consortium study.", + "authorString": "Qu HQ, Connolly JJ, Kraft P, Long J, Pereira A, Flatley C, Turman C, Prins B, Mentch F, Lotufo PA, Magnus P, Stampfer MJ, Tamimi R, Eliassen AH, Zheng W, Knudsen GPS, Helgeland O, Butterworth AS, Hakonarson H, Sleiman PM, IHCC consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical and translational medicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Obesity; Population admixture; body mass index; Polygenic Risk Score; Trans-ethnic", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

While polygenic risk scores hold significant promise in estimating an individual's risk of developing a complex trait such as obesity, their application in the clinic has, to date, been limited by a lack of data from non-European populations. As a collaboration model of the International Hundred K+ Cohorts Consortium (IHCC), we endeavored to develop a globally applicable trans-ethnic PRS for body mass index (BMI) through this relatively new international effort.

Methods

The polygenic risk score (PRS) model was developed, trained and tested at the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) based on a BMI meta-analysis from the GIANT consortium. The validated PRS models were subsequently disseminated to the participating sites. Scores were generated by each site locally on their cohorts and summary statistics returned to CAG for final analysis.

Results

We show that in the absence of a well powered trans-ethnic GWAS from which to derive marker SNPs and effect estimates for PRS, trans-ethnic scores can be generated from European ancestry GWAS using Bayesian approaches such as LDpred, by adjusting the summary statistics using trans-ethnic linkage disequilibrium reference panels. The ported trans-ethnic scores outperform population specific-PRS across all non-European ancestry populations investigated including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilian cohort.

Conclusions

Here we show that for a truly polygenic trait such as BMI adjusting the summary statistics of a well powered European ancestry study using trans-ethnic LD reference results in a score that is predictive across a range of ancestries including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilians.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10280047?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34399584", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.032619", @@ -14568,6 +14551,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.032619; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.032619; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611731; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611731?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.032619" }, + { + "id": "31104603", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276", + "title": "Outbreak analytics: a developing data science for informing the response to emerging pathogens.", + "authorString": "Polonsky JA, Baidjoe A, Kamvar ZN, Cori A, Durski K, Edmunds WJ, Eggo RM, Funk S, Kaiser L, Keating P, de Waroux OLP, Marks M, Moraga P, Morgan O, Nouvellet P, Ratnayake R, Roberts CH, Whitworth J, Jombart T.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-07-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Methods; Software; epidemics; Infectious; pipeline; Tools", + "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Despite continued efforts to improve health systems worldwide, emerging pathogen epidemics remain a major public health concern. Effective response to such outbreaks relies on timely intervention, ideally informed by all available sources of data. The collection, visualization and analysis of outbreak data are becoming increasingly complex, owing to the diversity in types of data, questions and available methods to address them. Recent advances have led to the rise of outbreak analytics, an emerging data science focused on the technological and methodological aspects of the outbreak data pipeline, from collection to analysis, modelling and reporting to inform outbreak response. In this article, we assess the current state of the field. After laying out the context of outbreak response, we critically review the most common analytics components, their inter-dependencies, data requirements and the type of information they can provide to inform operations in real time. We discuss some challenges and opportunities and conclude on the potential role of outbreak analytics for improving our understanding of, and response to outbreaks of emerging pathogens. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: epidemic forecasting and control'. This theme issue is linked with the earlier issue 'Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: approaches and important themes'.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6558557?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34286192", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0083", @@ -14619,23 +14619,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.12.015; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.12.015" }, - { - "id": "33890864", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/24728", - "title": "The Value of Routinely Collected Data in Evaluating Home Assessment and Modification Interventions to Prevent Falls in Older People: Systematic Literature Review. ", - "authorString": "Daniels H, Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Clegg A, Hillcoat-Nall\u00e9tamby S, Nikolova S, Rodgers SE, Williams N, Akbari A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR aging", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Falls in older people commonly occur at home. Home assessment and modification (HAM) interventions can be effective in reducing falls; however, there are some concerns over the validity of evaluation findings. Routinely collected data could improve the quality of HAM evaluations and strengthen their evidence base. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the evidence of the use of routinely collected data in the evaluations of HAM interventions. We searched the following databases from inception until January 31, 2020: PubMed, Ovid, CINAHL, OpenGrey, CENTRAL, LILACS, and Web of Knowledge. Eligible studies were those evaluating HAMs designed to reduce falls involving participants aged 60 years or more. We included study protocols and full reports. Bias was assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. A total of 7 eligible studies were identified in 8 papers. Government organizations provided the majority of data across studies, with health care providers and third-sector organizations also providing data. Studies used a range of demographic, clinical and health, and administrative data. The purpose of using routinely collected data spanned recruiting and creating a sample, stratification, generating independent variables or covariates, and measuring key study-related outcomes. Nonhome-based modification interventions (eg, in nursing homes) using routinely collected data were not included in this study. We included two protocols, which meant that the results of those studies were not available. MeSH headings were excluded from the PubMed search because of a reduction in specificity. This means that some studies that met the inclusion criteria may not have been identified. Routine data can be used successfully in many aspects of HAM evaluations and can reduce biases and improve other important design considerations. However, the use of these data in these studies is currently not widespread. There are a number of governance barriers to be overcome to allow these types of linkage and to ensure that the use of routinely collected data in evaluations of HAM interventions is exploited to its full potential.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://aging.jmir.org/2021/2/e24728/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/24728; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37067859", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000245", @@ -14671,21 +14654,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/12/8/1230/pdf?version=1659687887; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12081230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410389?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36644660", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677", - "title": "Evaluation of prototype risk prediction tools for clinicians and people living with type 2 diabetes in North West London using the think aloud method.", - "authorString": "Gardner C, Wake D, Brodie D, Silverstein A, Young S, Cunningham S, Sainsbury C, Ilia M, Lucas A, Willis T, Halligan J.", + "id": "33890864", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/24728", + "title": "The Value of Routinely Collected Data in Evaluating Home Assessment and Modification Interventions to Prevent Falls in Older People: Systematic Literature Review. ", + "authorString": "Daniels H, Hollinghurst J, Fry R, Clegg A, Hillcoat-Nall\u00e9tamby S, Nikolova S, Rodgers SE, Williams N, Akbari A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Digital health", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-08", + "journalTitle": "JMIR aging", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-04-23", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Internet; Diabetes; Qualitative; risk factors; Machine Learning; Health Informatics; Behaviour Change; Personalised Medicine; Digital Health", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in North West London (NWL) is relatively high compared to other parts of the United Kingdom with outcomes suboptimal. This presents a need for more effective strategies to identify people living with type 2 diabetes who need additional support. An emerging subset of web-based interventions for diabetes self-management and population management has used artificial intelligence and machine learning models to stratify the risk of complications from diabetes and identify patients in need of immediate support. In this study, two prototype risk prediction tools on the MyWay Diabetes and MyWay Clinical platforms were evaluated with six clinicians and six people living with type 2 diabetes in NWL using the think aloud method. The results of the sessions with people living with type 2 diabetes showed that the concept of the tool was intuitive, however, more instruction on how to correctly use the risk prediction tool would be valuable. The feedback from the sessions with clinicians was that the data presented in the tool aligned with the key diabetes targets in NWL, and that this would be useful for identifying and inviting patients to the practice who are overdue for tests and at risk of complications. The findings of the evaluation have been used to support the development of the prototype risk predictions tools. This study demonstrates the value of conducting usability testing on web-based interventions designed to support the targeted management of type 2 diabetes in local communities.", + "abstract": "Falls in older people commonly occur at home. Home assessment and modification (HAM) interventions can be effective in reducing falls; however, there are some concerns over the validity of evaluation findings. Routinely collected data could improve the quality of HAM evaluations and strengthen their evidence base. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the evidence of the use of routinely collected data in the evaluations of HAM interventions. We searched the following databases from inception until January 31, 2020: PubMed, Ovid, CINAHL, OpenGrey, CENTRAL, LILACS, and Web of Knowledge. Eligible studies were those evaluating HAMs designed to reduce falls involving participants aged 60 years or more. We included study protocols and full reports. Bias was assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. A total of 7 eligible studies were identified in 8 papers. Government organizations provided the majority of data across studies, with health care providers and third-sector organizations also providing data. Studies used a range of demographic, clinical and health, and administrative data. The purpose of using routinely collected data spanned recruiting and creating a sample, stratification, generating independent variables or covariates, and measuring key study-related outcomes. Nonhome-based modification interventions (eg, in nursing homes) using routinely collected data were not included in this study. We included two protocols, which meant that the results of those studies were not available. MeSH headings were excluded from the PubMed search because of a reduction in specificity. This means that some studies that met the inclusion criteria may not have been identified. Routine data can be used successfully in many aspects of HAM evaluations and can reduce biases and improve other important design considerations. However, the use of these data in these studies is currently not widespread. There are a number of governance barriers to be overcome to allow these types of linkage and to ensure that the use of routinely collected data in evaluations of HAM interventions is exploited to its full potential.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://aging.jmir.org/2021/2/e24728/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/24728; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8105762?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34169636", @@ -14738,6 +14721,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/4/347.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7146921; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7146921?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36644660", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677", + "title": "Evaluation of prototype risk prediction tools for clinicians and people living with type 2 diabetes in North West London using the think aloud method.", + "authorString": "Gardner C, Wake D, Brodie D, Silverstein A, Young S, Cunningham S, Sainsbury C, Ilia M, Lucas A, Willis T, Halligan J.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Digital health", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-08", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Internet; Diabetes; Qualitative; risk factors; Machine Learning; Health Informatics; Behaviour Change; Personalised Medicine; Digital Health", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in North West London (NWL) is relatively high compared to other parts of the United Kingdom with outcomes suboptimal. This presents a need for more effective strategies to identify people living with type 2 diabetes who need additional support. An emerging subset of web-based interventions for diabetes self-management and population management has used artificial intelligence and machine learning models to stratify the risk of complications from diabetes and identify patients in need of immediate support. In this study, two prototype risk prediction tools on the MyWay Diabetes and MyWay Clinical platforms were evaluated with six clinicians and six people living with type 2 diabetes in NWL using the think aloud method. The results of the sessions with people living with type 2 diabetes showed that the concept of the tool was intuitive, however, more instruction on how to correctly use the risk prediction tool would be valuable. The feedback from the sessions with clinicians was that the data presented in the tool aligned with the key diabetes targets in NWL, and that this would be useful for identifying and inviting patients to the practice who are overdue for tests and at risk of complications. The findings of the evaluation have been used to support the development of the prototype risk predictions tools. This study demonstrates the value of conducting usability testing on web-based interventions designed to support the targeted management of type 2 diabetes in local communities.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221128677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9834412?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31951005", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz211", @@ -14789,23 +14789,6 @@ "laySummary": "Bean et al. looked at using clinical notes to calculate risk scores: CHADSVASC and HASBLED for 10,030 AF patients from 2011 to October 2017), they\u2019ve validated their natural language processing algorithm with getting clinicians to calculate the risk in conventional manner for 40 of cases, the two scores were in higher agreement for stroke risk compared to HAS-BLED They\u2019ve concluded on usefulness of NLP method in risk calculation at the large scale.", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225625&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225625; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6876873; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6876873?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31153319", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272", - "title": "Developing a large scale population screening tool for the assessment of Parkinson's disease using telephone-quality voice.", - "authorString": "Arora S, Baghai-Ravary L, Tsanas A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-05-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", - "healthCategories": "neurological", - "abstract": "Recent studies have demonstrated that analysis of laboratory-quality voice recordings can be used to accurately differentiate people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) from healthy controls (HCs). These findings could help facilitate the development of remote screening and monitoring tools for PD. In this study, 2759 telephone-quality voice recordings from 1483 PD and 15\u2009321 recordings from 8300 HC participants were analyzed. To account for variations in phonetic backgrounds, data were acquired from seven countries. A statistical framework for analyzing voice was developed, whereby 307 dysphonia measures that quantify different properties of voice impairment, such as breathiness, roughness, monopitch, hoarse voice quality, and exaggerated vocal tremor, were computed. Feature selection algorithms were used to identify robust parsimonious feature subsets, which were used in combination with a random forests (RFs) classifier to accurately distinguish PD from HC. The best tenfold cross-validation performance was obtained using Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization and RF, leading to mean sensitivity of 64.90% (standard deviation, SD, 2.90%) and mean specificity of 67.96% (SD 2.90%). This large scale study is a step forward toward assessing the development of a reliable, cost-effective, and practical clinical decision support tool for screening the population at large for PD using telephone-quality voice.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://asa.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1121/1.5100272; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272" - }, { "id": "37516479", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(23)00126-3", @@ -14823,6 +14806,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00126-3" }, + { + "id": "31153319", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272", + "title": "Developing a large scale population screening tool for the assessment of Parkinson's disease using telephone-quality voice.", + "authorString": "Arora S, Baghai-Ravary L, Tsanas A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", + "healthCategories": "neurological", + "abstract": "Recent studies have demonstrated that analysis of laboratory-quality voice recordings can be used to accurately differentiate people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) from healthy controls (HCs). These findings could help facilitate the development of remote screening and monitoring tools for PD. In this study, 2759 telephone-quality voice recordings from 1483 PD and 15\u2009321 recordings from 8300 HC participants were analyzed. To account for variations in phonetic backgrounds, data were acquired from seven countries. A statistical framework for analyzing voice was developed, whereby 307 dysphonia measures that quantify different properties of voice impairment, such as breathiness, roughness, monopitch, hoarse voice quality, and exaggerated vocal tremor, were computed. Feature selection algorithms were used to identify robust parsimonious feature subsets, which were used in combination with a random forests (RFs) classifier to accurately distinguish PD from HC. The best tenfold cross-validation performance was obtained using Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization and RF, leading to mean sensitivity of 64.90% (standard deviation, SD, 2.90%) and mean specificity of 67.96% (SD 2.90%). This large scale study is a step forward toward assessing the development of a reliable, cost-effective, and practical clinical decision support tool for screening the population at large for PD using telephone-quality voice.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://asa.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1121/1.5100272; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509044?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5100272" + }, { "id": "32444447", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317902", @@ -14840,23 +14840,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/11/1061.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317902; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7588403; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7588403?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31628383", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6", - "title": "Whole genome sequencing of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from a high burden tuberculosis region of North West Pakistan.", - "authorString": "Jabbar A, Phelan JE, de Sessions PF, Khan TA, Rahman H, Khan SN, Cantillon DM, Wildner LM, Ali S, Campino S, Waddell SJ, Clark TG.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-10-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, is a leading infectious cause of mortality worldwide, including in Pakistan. Drug resistant M. tuberculosis is an emerging threat for TB control, making it important to detect the underlying genetic mutations, and thereby inform treatment decision making and prevent transmission. Whole genome sequencing has emerged as the new diagnostic to reliably predict drug resistance within a clinically relevant time frame, and its deployment will have the greatest impact on TB control in highly endemic regions. To evaluate the mutations leading to drug resistance and to assess for evidence of the transmission of resistant strains, 81\u2009M. tuberculosis samples from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (North West Pakistan) were subjected to whole genome sequencing and standard drug susceptibility testing for eleven anti-TB drugs. We found the majority of M. tuberculosis isolates were the CAS/Delhi strain-type (lineage 3; n\u2009=\u200957; 70.4%) and multi-drug resistant (MDR; n\u2009=\u200962; 76.5%). The most frequent resistance mutations were observed in the katG and rpoB genes, conferring resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin respectively. Mutations were also observed in genes conferring resistance to other first and second-line drugs, including in pncA (pyrazinamide), embB (ethambutol), gyrA (fluoroquinolones), rrs (aminoglycosides), rpsL, rrs and giB (streptomycin) loci. Whilst the majority of mutations have been reported in global datasets, we describe unreported putative resistance markers in katG, ethA (ethionamide), gyrA and gyrB (fluoroquinolones), and pncA. Analysis of the mutations revealed that acquisition of rifampicin resistance often preceded isoniazid in our isolates. We also observed a high proportion (17.6%) of pre-MDR isolates with fluoroquinolone resistance markers, potentially due to unregulated anti-TB drug use. Our isolates were compared to previously sequenced strains from Pakistan in a combined phylogenetic tree analysis. The presence of lineage 2 was only observed in our isolates. Using a cut-off of less than ten genome-wide mutation differences between isolates, a transmission analysis revealed 18\u2009M. tuberculosis isolates clustering within eight networks, thereby providing evidence of drug-resistant TB transmission in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Overall, we have demonstrated that drug-resistant TB isolates are circulating and transmitted in North West Pakistan. Further, we have shown the usefulness of whole genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool for characterizing M. tuberculosis isolates, which will assist future epidemiological studies and disease control activities in Pakistan.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51562-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33612430", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00017-0", @@ -14891,6 +14874,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/article-pdf/22/8/950/39199744/jeaa088.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeaa088; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8291671; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8291671?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31628383", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6", + "title": "Whole genome sequencing of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from a high burden tuberculosis region of North West Pakistan.", + "authorString": "Jabbar A, Phelan JE, de Sessions PF, Khan TA, Rahman H, Khan SN, Cantillon DM, Wildner LM, Ali S, Campino S, Waddell SJ, Clark TG.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-10-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, is a leading infectious cause of mortality worldwide, including in Pakistan. Drug resistant M. tuberculosis is an emerging threat for TB control, making it important to detect the underlying genetic mutations, and thereby inform treatment decision making and prevent transmission. Whole genome sequencing has emerged as the new diagnostic to reliably predict drug resistance within a clinically relevant time frame, and its deployment will have the greatest impact on TB control in highly endemic regions. To evaluate the mutations leading to drug resistance and to assess for evidence of the transmission of resistant strains, 81\u2009M. tuberculosis samples from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (North West Pakistan) were subjected to whole genome sequencing and standard drug susceptibility testing for eleven anti-TB drugs. We found the majority of M. tuberculosis isolates were the CAS/Delhi strain-type (lineage 3; n\u2009=\u200957; 70.4%) and multi-drug resistant (MDR; n\u2009=\u200962; 76.5%). The most frequent resistance mutations were observed in the katG and rpoB genes, conferring resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin respectively. Mutations were also observed in genes conferring resistance to other first and second-line drugs, including in pncA (pyrazinamide), embB (ethambutol), gyrA (fluoroquinolones), rrs (aminoglycosides), rpsL, rrs and giB (streptomycin) loci. Whilst the majority of mutations have been reported in global datasets, we describe unreported putative resistance markers in katG, ethA (ethionamide), gyrA and gyrB (fluoroquinolones), and pncA. Analysis of the mutations revealed that acquisition of rifampicin resistance often preceded isoniazid in our isolates. We also observed a high proportion (17.6%) of pre-MDR isolates with fluoroquinolone resistance markers, potentially due to unregulated anti-TB drug use. Our isolates were compared to previously sequenced strains from Pakistan in a combined phylogenetic tree analysis. The presence of lineage 2 was only observed in our isolates. Using a cut-off of less than ten genome-wide mutation differences between isolates, a transmission analysis revealed 18\u2009M. tuberculosis isolates clustering within eight networks, thereby providing evidence of drug-resistant TB transmission in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Overall, we have demonstrated that drug-resistant TB isolates are circulating and transmitted in North West Pakistan. Further, we have shown the usefulness of whole genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool for characterizing M. tuberculosis isolates, which will assist future epidemiological studies and disease control activities in Pakistan.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51562-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51562-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6802378?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34435642", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab350", @@ -14993,6 +14993,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/2/e055603.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055603; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8830221?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35792838", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453", + "title": "Flashfm-ivis: interactive visualization for fine-mapping of multiple quantitative traits.", + "authorString": "Zhou F, Butterworth AS, Asimit JL.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Summary

flashfm-ivis provides a suite of interactive visualization plots to view potential causal genetic variants that underlie associations that are shared or distinct between multiple quantitative traits and compares results between single- and multi-trait fine-mapping. Unique features include network diagrams that show joint effects between variants for each trait and regional association plots that integrate fine-mapping results, all with user-controlled zoom features for an interactive exploration of potential causal variants across traits.

Availability and implementation

flashfm-ivis is an open-source software under the MIT license. It is available as an interactive web-based tool (http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/flashfm-ivis/) and as an R package. Code and documentation are available at https://github.com/fz-cambridge/flashfm-ivis and https://zenodo.org/record/6376244#.YjnarC-l2X0. Additional features can be downloaded as standalone R libraries to encourage reuse.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information are available at Bioinformatics online.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36580444", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004141", @@ -15028,21 +15045,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28252-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28252-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8821634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8821634?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35792838", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453", - "title": "Flashfm-ivis: interactive visualization for fine-mapping of multiple quantitative traits.", - "authorString": "Zhou F, Butterworth AS, Asimit JL.", + "id": "34516619", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178", + "title": "Optimal echocardiographic assessment of myocardial dysfunction for arrhythmic risk stratification in phospholamban mutation carriers.", + "authorString": "Taha K, Verstraelen TE, de Brouwer R, de Bruin-Bon RHACM, Cramer MJ, Te Rijdt WP, Bouma BJ, de Boer RA, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Wilde AAM, van den Berg MP, Teske AJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-01", + "date": "2022-10-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Risk stratification; ventricular arrhythmia; Phospholamban; Mechanical Dispersion; Deformation Imaging; Genetic Cardiomyopathy", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Summary

flashfm-ivis provides a suite of interactive visualization plots to view potential causal genetic variants that underlie associations that are shared or distinct between multiple quantitative traits and compares results between single- and multi-trait fine-mapping. Unique features include network diagrams that show joint effects between variants for each trait and regional association plots that integrate fine-mapping results, all with user-controlled zoom features for an interactive exploration of potential causal variants across traits.

Availability and implementation

flashfm-ivis is an open-source software under the MIT license. It is available as an interactive web-based tool (http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/flashfm-ivis/) and as an R package. Code and documentation are available at https://github.com/fz-cambridge/flashfm-ivis and https://zenodo.org/record/6376244#.YjnarC-l2X0. Additional features can be downloaded as standalone R libraries to encourage reuse.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information are available at Bioinformatics online.", + "abstract": "

Aims

Phospholamban (PLN) p.Arg14del mutation carriers are at risk of developing malignant ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) and/or heart failure. Currently, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) plays an important role in risk assessment for VA in these individuals. We aimed to study the incremental prognostic value of left ventricular mechanical dispersion (LVMD) by echocardiographic deformation imaging for prediction of sustained VA in PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers.

Methods and results

We included 243 PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers, which were classified into three groups according to the '45/45' rule: (i) normal left ventricular (LV) function, defined as preserved LVEF \u226545% with normal LVMD \u226445 ms (n = 139), (ii) mechanical LV dysfunction, defined as preserved LVEF \u226545% with abnormal LVMD >45 ms (n = 63), and (iii) overt LV dysfunction, defined as reduced LVEF <45% (n = 41). During a median follow-up of 3.3 (interquartile range 1.8-6.0) years, sustained VA occurred in 35 individuals. The negative predictive value of having normal LV function at baseline was 99% [95% confidence interval (CI): 92-100%] for developing sustained VA. The positive predictive value of mechanical LV dysfunction was 20% (95% CI: 15-27%). Mechanical LV dysfunction was an independent predictor of sustained VA in multivariable analysis [hazard ratio adjusted for VA history: 20.48 (95% CI: 2.57-162.84)].

Conclusion

LVMD has incremental prognostic value on top of LVEF in PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers, particularly in those with preserved LVEF. The '45/45' rule is a practical approach to echocardiographic risk stratification in this challenging group of patients. This approach may also have added value in other diseases where LVEF deterioration is a relative late marker of myocardial dysfunction.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9438951?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178/40357499/jeab178.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584619?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33249608", @@ -15062,38 +15079,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/opo.12765" }, { - "id": "34516619", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178", - "title": "Optimal echocardiographic assessment of myocardial dysfunction for arrhythmic risk stratification in phospholamban mutation carriers.", - "authorString": "Taha K, Verstraelen TE, de Brouwer R, de Bruin-Bon RHACM, Cramer MJ, Te Rijdt WP, Bouma BJ, de Boer RA, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Wilde AAM, van den Berg MP, Teske AJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Cardiovascular Imaging", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Risk stratification; ventricular arrhythmia; Phospholamban; Mechanical Dispersion; Deformation Imaging; Genetic Cardiomyopathy", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

Phospholamban (PLN) p.Arg14del mutation carriers are at risk of developing malignant ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) and/or heart failure. Currently, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) plays an important role in risk assessment for VA in these individuals. We aimed to study the incremental prognostic value of left ventricular mechanical dispersion (LVMD) by echocardiographic deformation imaging for prediction of sustained VA in PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers.

Methods and results

We included 243 PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers, which were classified into three groups according to the '45/45' rule: (i) normal left ventricular (LV) function, defined as preserved LVEF \u226545% with normal LVMD \u226445 ms (n = 139), (ii) mechanical LV dysfunction, defined as preserved LVEF \u226545% with abnormal LVMD >45 ms (n = 63), and (iii) overt LV dysfunction, defined as reduced LVEF <45% (n = 41). During a median follow-up of 3.3 (interquartile range 1.8-6.0) years, sustained VA occurred in 35 individuals. The negative predictive value of having normal LV function at baseline was 99% [95% confidence interval (CI): 92-100%] for developing sustained VA. The positive predictive value of mechanical LV dysfunction was 20% (95% CI: 15-27%). Mechanical LV dysfunction was an independent predictor of sustained VA in multivariable analysis [hazard ratio adjusted for VA history: 20.48 (95% CI: 2.57-162.84)].

Conclusion

LVMD has incremental prognostic value on top of LVEF in PLN p.Arg14del mutation carriers, particularly in those with preserved LVEF. The '45/45' rule is a practical approach to echocardiographic risk stratification in this challenging group of patients. This approach may also have added value in other diseases where LVEF deterioration is a relative late marker of myocardial dysfunction.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178/40357499/jeab178.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab178; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9584619?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33653161", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617", - "title": "Making a distinction between data cleaning and central monitoring in clinical trials.", - "authorString": "Love SB, Yorke-Edwards V, Diaz-Montana C, Murray ML, Masters L, Gabriel M, Joffe N, Sydes MR.", + "id": "33692093", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557", + "title": "Improving the diagnosis of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation.", + "authorString": "Bunting KV, Gill SK, Sitch A, Mehta S, O'Connor K, Lip GY, Kirchhof P, Strauss VY, Rahimi K, Camm AJ, Stanbury M, Griffith M, Townend JN, Gkoutos GV, Karwath A, Steeds RP, Kotecha D, RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation (RATE-AF) trial group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical trials (London, England)", + "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-02", + "date": "2021-03-10", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Echocardiography; Heart Failure; Systolic; Diastolic", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

To improve the echocardiographic assessment of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) by comparing conventional averaging of consecutive beats with an index-beat approach, whereby measurements are taken after two cycles with similar R-R interval.

Methods

Transthoracic echocardiography was performed using a standardised and blinded protocol in patients enrolled in the RATE-AF (RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation) randomised trial. We compared reproducibility of the index-beat and conventional consecutive-beat methods to calculate left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain (GLS) and E/e' (mitral E wave max/average diastolic tissue Doppler velocity), and assessed intraoperator/interoperator variability, time efficiency and validity against natriuretic peptides.

Results

160 patients were included, 46% of whom were women, with a median age of 75 years (IQR 69-82) and a median heart rate of 100 beats per minute (IQR 86-112). The index-beat had the lowest within-beat coefficient of variation for LVEF (32%, vs 51% for 5 consecutive beats and 53% for 10 consecutive beats), GLS (26%, vs 43% and 42%) and E/e' (25%, vs 41% and 41%). Intraoperator (n=50) and interoperator (n=18) reproducibility were both superior for index-beats and this method was quicker to perform (p<0.001): 35.4 s to measure E/e' (95% CI 33.1 to 37.8) compared with 44.7 s for 5-beat (95% CI 41.8 to 47.5) and 98.1 s for 10-beat (95% CI 91.7 to 104.4) analyses. Using a single index-beat did not compromise the association of LVEF, GLS or E/e' with natriuretic peptide levels.

Conclusions

Compared with averaging of multiple beats in patients with AF, the index-beat approach improves reproducibility and saves time without a negative impact on validity, potentially improving the diagnosis and classification of heart failure in patients with AF.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1740774520976617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/11/902.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32954362", @@ -15112,6 +15112,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7497842; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0093-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7497842; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7497842?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0093-y" }, + { + "id": "33653161", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617", + "title": "Making a distinction between data cleaning and central monitoring in clinical trials.", + "authorString": "Love SB, Yorke-Edwards V, Diaz-Montana C, Murray ML, Masters L, Gabriel M, Joffe N, Sydes MR.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical trials (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1740774520976617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774520976617; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8174009?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34985035", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/htr.0000000000000741", @@ -15130,21 +15147,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/HTR.0000000000000741" }, { - "id": "33692093", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557", - "title": "Improving the diagnosis of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation.", - "authorString": "Bunting KV, Gill SK, Sitch A, Mehta S, O'Connor K, Lip GY, Kirchhof P, Strauss VY, Rahimi K, Camm AJ, Stanbury M, Griffith M, Townend JN, Gkoutos GV, Karwath A, Steeds RP, Kotecha D, RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation (RATE-AF) trial group.", + "id": "31416346", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041980", + "title": "Machine Learning to Predict the Likelihood of Acute Myocardial Infarction.", + "authorString": "Than MP, Pickering JW, Sandoval Y, Shah ASV, Tsanas A, Apple FS, Blankenberg S, Cullen L, Mueller C, Neumann JT, Twerenbold R, Westermann D, Beshiri A, Mills NL, MI3 Collaborative.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-10", + "journalTitle": "Circulation", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-08-16", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Echocardiography; Heart Failure; Systolic; Diastolic", - "nationalPriorities": "", + "keywords": "Troponin; Myocardial infarction; acute coronary syndrome; Machine Learning", + "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To improve the echocardiographic assessment of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) by comparing conventional averaging of consecutive beats with an index-beat approach, whereby measurements are taken after two cycles with similar R-R interval.

Methods

Transthoracic echocardiography was performed using a standardised and blinded protocol in patients enrolled in the RATE-AF (RAte control Therapy Evaluation in permanent Atrial Fibrillation) randomised trial. We compared reproducibility of the index-beat and conventional consecutive-beat methods to calculate left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain (GLS) and E/e' (mitral E wave max/average diastolic tissue Doppler velocity), and assessed intraoperator/interoperator variability, time efficiency and validity against natriuretic peptides.

Results

160 patients were included, 46% of whom were women, with a median age of 75 years (IQR 69-82) and a median heart rate of 100 beats per minute (IQR 86-112). The index-beat had the lowest within-beat coefficient of variation for LVEF (32%, vs 51% for 5 consecutive beats and 53% for 10 consecutive beats), GLS (26%, vs 43% and 42%) and E/e' (25%, vs 41% and 41%). Intraoperator (n=50) and interoperator (n=18) reproducibility were both superior for index-beats and this method was quicker to perform (p<0.001): 35.4 s to measure E/e' (95% CI 33.1 to 37.8) compared with 44.7 s for 5-beat (95% CI 41.8 to 47.5) and 98.1 s for 10-beat (95% CI 91.7 to 104.4) analyses. Using a single index-beat did not compromise the association of LVEF, GLS or E/e' with natriuretic peptide levels.

Conclusions

Compared with averaging of multiple beats in patients with AF, the index-beat approach improves reproducibility and saves time without a negative impact on validity, potentially improving the diagnosis and classification of heart failure in patients with AF.", + "abstract": "

Background

Variations in cardiac troponin concentrations by age, sex, and time between samples in patients with suspected myocardial infarction are not currently accounted for in diagnostic approaches. We aimed to combine these variables through machine learning to improve the assessment of risk for individual patients.

Methods

A machine learning algorithm (myocardial-ischemic-injury-index [MI3]) incorporating age, sex, and paired high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentrations, was trained on 3013 patients and tested on 7998 patients with suspected myocardial infarction. MI3 uses gradient boosting to compute a value (0-100) reflecting an individual's likelihood of a diagnosis of type 1 myocardial infarction and estimates the sensitivity, negative predictive value, specificity and positive predictive value for that individual. Assessment was by calibration and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Secondary analysis evaluated example MI3 thresholds from the training set that identified patients as low risk (99% sensitivity) and high risk (75% positive predictive value), and performance at these thresholds was compared in the test set to the 99th percentile and European Society of Cardiology rule-out pathways.

Results

Myocardial infarction occurred in 404 (13.4%) patients in the training set and 849 (10.6%) patients in the test set. MI3 was well calibrated with a very high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.963 [0.956-0.971] in the test set and similar performance in early and late presenters. Example MI3 thresholds identifying low- and high-risk patients in the training set were 1.6 and 49.7, respectively. In the test set, MI3 values were <1.6 in 69.5% with a negative predictive value of 99.7% (99.5-99.8%) and sensitivity of 97.8% (96.7-98.7%), and were \u226549.7 in 10.6% with a positive predictive value of 71.8% (68.9-75.0%) and specificity of 96.7% (96.3-97.1%). Using these thresholds, MI3 performed better than the European Society of Cardiology 0/3-hour pathway (sensitivity, 82.5% [74.5-88.8%]; specificity, 92.2% [90.7-93.5%]) and the 99th percentile at any time point (sensitivity, 89.6% [87.4-91.6%]); specificity, 89.3% [88.6-90.0%]).

Conclusions

Using machine learning, MI3 provides an individualized and objective assessment of the likelihood of myocardial infarction, which can be used to identify low- and high-risk patients who may benefit from earlier clinical decisions.

Clinical trial registration

URL: https://www.anzctr.org.au. Unique identifier: ACTRN12616001441404.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/11/902.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142420?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041980; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041980; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749969; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749969?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34847088", @@ -15163,23 +15180,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2022/01000/The_Authors_Respond.22.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001429" }, - { - "id": "31416346", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041980", - "title": "Machine Learning to Predict the Likelihood of Acute Myocardial Infarction.", - "authorString": "Than MP, Pickering JW, Sandoval Y, Shah ASV, Tsanas A, Apple FS, Blankenberg S, Cullen L, Mueller C, Neumann JT, Twerenbold R, Westermann D, Beshiri A, Mills NL, MI3 Collaborative.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Circulation", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-08-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Troponin; Myocardial infarction; acute coronary syndrome; Machine Learning", - "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Variations in cardiac troponin concentrations by age, sex, and time between samples in patients with suspected myocardial infarction are not currently accounted for in diagnostic approaches. We aimed to combine these variables through machine learning to improve the assessment of risk for individual patients.

Methods

A machine learning algorithm (myocardial-ischemic-injury-index [MI3]) incorporating age, sex, and paired high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I concentrations, was trained on 3013 patients and tested on 7998 patients with suspected myocardial infarction. MI3 uses gradient boosting to compute a value (0-100) reflecting an individual's likelihood of a diagnosis of type 1 myocardial infarction and estimates the sensitivity, negative predictive value, specificity and positive predictive value for that individual. Assessment was by calibration and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Secondary analysis evaluated example MI3 thresholds from the training set that identified patients as low risk (99% sensitivity) and high risk (75% positive predictive value), and performance at these thresholds was compared in the test set to the 99th percentile and European Society of Cardiology rule-out pathways.

Results

Myocardial infarction occurred in 404 (13.4%) patients in the training set and 849 (10.6%) patients in the test set. MI3 was well calibrated with a very high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.963 [0.956-0.971] in the test set and similar performance in early and late presenters. Example MI3 thresholds identifying low- and high-risk patients in the training set were 1.6 and 49.7, respectively. In the test set, MI3 values were <1.6 in 69.5% with a negative predictive value of 99.7% (99.5-99.8%) and sensitivity of 97.8% (96.7-98.7%), and were \u226549.7 in 10.6% with a positive predictive value of 71.8% (68.9-75.0%) and specificity of 96.7% (96.3-97.1%). Using these thresholds, MI3 performed better than the European Society of Cardiology 0/3-hour pathway (sensitivity, 82.5% [74.5-88.8%]; specificity, 92.2% [90.7-93.5%]) and the 99th percentile at any time point (sensitivity, 89.6% [87.4-91.6%]); specificity, 89.3% [88.6-90.0%]).

Conclusions

Using machine learning, MI3 provides an individualized and objective assessment of the likelihood of myocardial infarction, which can be used to identify low- and high-risk patients who may benefit from earlier clinical decisions.

Clinical trial registration

URL: https://www.anzctr.org.au. Unique identifier: ACTRN12616001441404.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041980; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041980; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749969; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749969?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37645022", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.0058-2023", @@ -15231,23 +15231,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://journals.lww.com/co-pulmonarymedicine/Fulltext/9900/Effectiveness_and_safety_of_coronavirus_disease.53.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/MCP.0000000000000948; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10090353; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10090353?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36707908", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w", - "title": "A comparison of international modelling methods to evaluate health economics of colorectal cancer screening: a systematic review protocol.", - "authorString": "Adair O, McFerran E, Owen T, McKee C, Lamrock F, Lawler M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Systematic reviews", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Screening; Economic evaluation; Colorectal Cancer; Health Economics; Cost-effectiveness Analysis; Quality-adjusted Life Years; Cost-utility; Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratio; Cost\u2013benefit; Life Years Gained", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is becoming an increasing health problem worldwide. However, with the help of screening, early diagnosis can reduce incidence and mortality rates. To elevate the economic burden that CRC can cause, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) can assist healthcare systems to make screening programmes more cost-effective and prolong survival for early-stage CRC patients. This review aims to identify different CEA modelling methods used internationally to evaluate health economics of CRC screening.

Methods

This review will systematically search electronic databases which include MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and Scopus. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance recommendations will design the review, and the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement will be used to extract relevant data from studies retrieved. Two reviewers will screen through the evidence using the PICOS (Participant, Intervention, Comparators, Outcomes, Study Design) framework, with a third reviewer to settle any disagreements. Once data extraction and quality assessment are complete, the results will be presented qualitatively and tabulated using the CHEERS checklist.

Discussion

The results obtained from the systematic review will highlight how different CRC screening programmes around the world utilise and incorporate health economic modelling methods to be more cost-effective. This information can help modellers develop CEA models which can be adapted to suit the specific screening programmes that they are evaluating.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42022296113.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32908801", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.9.38", @@ -15265,6 +15248,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.9.38; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.9.38; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453042; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453042?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36707908", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w", + "title": "A comparison of international modelling methods to evaluate health economics of colorectal cancer screening: a systematic review protocol.", + "authorString": "Adair O, McFerran E, Owen T, McKee C, Lamrock F, Lawler M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Systematic reviews", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-27", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Screening; Economic evaluation; Colorectal Cancer; Health Economics; Cost-effectiveness Analysis; Quality-adjusted Life Years; Cost-utility; Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratio; Cost\u2013benefit; Life Years Gained", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is becoming an increasing health problem worldwide. However, with the help of screening, early diagnosis can reduce incidence and mortality rates. To elevate the economic burden that CRC can cause, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) can assist healthcare systems to make screening programmes more cost-effective and prolong survival for early-stage CRC patients. This review aims to identify different CEA modelling methods used internationally to evaluate health economics of CRC screening.

Methods

This review will systematically search electronic databases which include MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and Scopus. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance recommendations will design the review, and the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement will be used to extract relevant data from studies retrieved. Two reviewers will screen through the evidence using the PICOS (Participant, Intervention, Comparators, Outcomes, Study Design) framework, with a third reviewer to settle any disagreements. Once data extraction and quality assessment are complete, the results will be presented qualitatively and tabulated using the CHEERS checklist.

Discussion

The results obtained from the systematic review will highlight how different CRC screening programmes around the world utilise and incorporate health economic modelling methods to be more cost-effective. This information can help modellers develop CEA models which can be adapted to suit the specific screening programmes that they are evaluating.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42022296113.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02173-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883863?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34026049", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.25484.2", @@ -15282,23 +15282,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://f1000research.com/articles/9-1095/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.25484.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8108552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8108552?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32665523", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/hjh.0000000000002579", - "title": "Association of SBP and BMI with cognitive and structural brain phenotypes in UK Biobank.", - "authorString": "Ferguson AC, Tank R, Lyall LM, Ward J, Welsh P, Celis-Morales C, McQueenie R, Strawbridge RJ, Mackay DF, Pell JP, Smith DJ, Sattar N, Cavanagh J, Lyall DM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of hypertension", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-12-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To test for associations between SBP and BMI, with domain-specific cognitive abilities and examine which brain structural phenotypes mediate those associations.

Methods

Using cross-sectional UK Biobank data (final N\u200a=\u200a28\u200a412), we examined SBP/BMI vs. cognitive test scores of pairs-matching, matrix completion, trail making test A/B, digit symbol substitution, verbal-numerical reasoning, tower rearranging and simple reaction time. We adjusted for potential confounders of age, sex, deprivation, medication, apolipoprotein e4 genotype, smoking, population stratification and genotypic array. We tested for mediation via multiple structural brain imaging phenotypes and corrected for multiple testing with false discovery rate.

Results

We found positive associations for higher BMI with worse reaction time, reasoning, tower rearranging and matrix completion tasks by 0.024-0.067 SDs per BMI SD (all P\u200a<\u200a0.001). Higher SBP was associated with worse reasoning (0.034 SDs) and matrix completion scores (-0.024 SDs; both P\u200a<\u200a0.001). Both BMI and SBP were associated with multiple brain structural metrics including total grey/white matter volumes, frontal lobe volumes, white matter tract integrity and white matter hyperintensity volumes: specific metrics mediated around one-third of the associations with cognition.

Conclusion

Our findings add to the body of evidence that addressing cardiovascular risk factors may also preserve cognitive function, via specific aspects of brain structure.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://journals.lww.com/jhypertension/Fulltext/2020/12000/Association_of_SBP_and_BMI_with_cognitive_and.22.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000002579" - }, { "id": "36942567", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circep.122.011585", @@ -15333,6 +15316,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e44126/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/44126; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10365629; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10365629?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32665523", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/hjh.0000000000002579", + "title": "Association of SBP and BMI with cognitive and structural brain phenotypes in UK Biobank.", + "authorString": "Ferguson AC, Tank R, Lyall LM, Ward J, Welsh P, Celis-Morales C, McQueenie R, Strawbridge RJ, Mackay DF, Pell JP, Smith DJ, Sattar N, Cavanagh J, Lyall DM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of hypertension", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

To test for associations between SBP and BMI, with domain-specific cognitive abilities and examine which brain structural phenotypes mediate those associations.

Methods

Using cross-sectional UK Biobank data (final N\u200a=\u200a28\u200a412), we examined SBP/BMI vs. cognitive test scores of pairs-matching, matrix completion, trail making test A/B, digit symbol substitution, verbal-numerical reasoning, tower rearranging and simple reaction time. We adjusted for potential confounders of age, sex, deprivation, medication, apolipoprotein e4 genotype, smoking, population stratification and genotypic array. We tested for mediation via multiple structural brain imaging phenotypes and corrected for multiple testing with false discovery rate.

Results

We found positive associations for higher BMI with worse reaction time, reasoning, tower rearranging and matrix completion tasks by 0.024-0.067 SDs per BMI SD (all P\u200a<\u200a0.001). Higher SBP was associated with worse reasoning (0.034 SDs) and matrix completion scores (-0.024 SDs; both P\u200a<\u200a0.001). Both BMI and SBP were associated with multiple brain structural metrics including total grey/white matter volumes, frontal lobe volumes, white matter tract integrity and white matter hyperintensity volumes: specific metrics mediated around one-third of the associations with cognition.

Conclusion

Our findings add to the body of evidence that addressing cardiovascular risk factors may also preserve cognitive function, via specific aspects of brain structure.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://journals.lww.com/jhypertension/Fulltext/2020/12000/Association_of_SBP_and_BMI_with_cognitive_and.22.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000002579" + }, { "id": "35987738", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.06.017", @@ -15401,23 +15401,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-021-05493-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323543; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323543?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37074763", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/44237", - "title": "Data-Driven Identification of Unusual Prescribing Behavior: Analysis and Use of an Interactive Data Tool Using 6 Months of Primary Care Data From 6500 Practices in England.", - "authorString": "Hopcroft LE, Massey J, Curtis HJ, Mackenna B, Croker R, Brown AD, O'Dwyer T, Macdonald O, Evans D, Inglesby P, Bacon SC, Goldacre B, Walker AJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR medical informatics", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-19", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "General Practice; Prescribing; Primary Care; Electronic Health Records; Ehr; Outliers; Dashboard; Data Science", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Approaches to addressing unwarranted variation in health care service delivery have traditionally relied on the prospective identification of activities and outcomes, based on a hypothesis, with subsequent reporting against defined measures. Practice-level prescribing data in England are made publicly available by the National Health Service (NHS) Business Services Authority for all general practices. There is an opportunity to adopt a more data-driven approach to capture variability and identify outliers by applying hypothesis-free, data-driven algorithms to national data sets.

Objective

This study aimed to develop and apply a hypothesis-free algorithm to identify unusual prescribing behavior in primary care data at multiple administrative levels in the NHS in England and to visualize these results using organization-specific interactive dashboards, thereby demonstrating proof of concept for prioritization approaches.

Methods

Here we report a new data-driven approach to quantify how \"unusual\" the prescribing rates of a particular chemical within an organization are as compared to peer organizations, over a period of 6 months (June-December 2021). This is followed by a ranking to identify which chemicals are the most notable outliers in each organization. These outlying chemicals are calculated for all practices, primary care networks, clinical commissioning groups, and sustainability and transformation partnerships in England. Our results are presented via organization-specific interactive dashboards, the iterative development of which has been informed by user feedback.

Results

We developed interactive dashboards for every practice (n=6476) in England, highlighting the unusual prescribing of 2369 chemicals (dashboards are also provided for 42 sustainability and transformation partnerships, 106 clinical commissioning groups, and 1257 primary care networks). User feedback and internal review of case studies demonstrate that our methodology identifies prescribing behavior that sometimes warrants further investigation or is a known issue.

Conclusions

Data-driven approaches have the potential to overcome existing biases with regard to the planning and execution of audits, interventions, and policy making within NHS organizations, potentially revealing new targets for improved health care service delivery. We present our dashboards as a proof of concept for generating candidate lists to aid expert users in their interpretation of prescribing data and prioritize further investigations and qualitative research in terms of potential targets for improved performance.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2023/1/e44237/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/44237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162592" - }, { "id": "34088700", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-2518", @@ -15436,21 +15419,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-pdf/44/7/1699/632992/dc202518.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-2518; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8323186?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37303488", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392", - "title": "Changes in medication safety indicators in England throughout the covid-19 pandemic using OpenSAFELY: population based, retrospective cohort study of 57 million patients using federated analytics.", - "authorString": "Fisher L, Hopcroft LE, Rodgers S, Barrett J, Oliver K, Avery AJ, Evans D, Curtis H, Croker R, Macdonald O, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Hickman G, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Smith B, Ward T, Hulme W, Green A, Massey J, Walker AJ, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.", + "id": "37074763", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/44237", + "title": "Data-Driven Identification of Unusual Prescribing Behavior: Analysis and Use of an Interactive Data Tool Using 6 Months of Primary Care Data From 6500 Practices in England.", + "authorString": "Hopcroft LE, Massey J, Curtis HJ, Mackenna B, Croker R, Brown AD, O'Dwyer T, Macdonald O, Evans D, Inglesby P, Bacon SC, Goldacre B, Walker AJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ medicine", + "journalTitle": "JMIR medical informatics", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-11", + "date": "2023-04-19", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Primary Health Care; Medical Informatics; Covid-19", + "keywords": "General Practice; Prescribing; Primary Care; Electronic Health Records; Ehr; Outliers; Dashboard; Data Science", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To implement complex, PINCER (pharmacist led information technology intervention) prescribing indicators, on a national scale with general practice data to describe the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on safe prescribing.

Design

Population based, retrospective cohort study using federated analytics.

Setting

Electronic general practice health record data from 56.8 million NHS patients by use of the OpenSAFELY platform, with the approval of the National Health Service (NHS) England.

Participants

NHS patients (aged 18-120 years) who were alive and registered at a general practice that used TPP or EMIS computer systems and were recorded as at risk of at least one potentially hazardous PINCER indicator.

Main outcome measure

Between 1 September 2019 and 1 September 2021, monthly trends and between practice variation for compliance with 13 PINCER indicators, as calculated on the first of every month, were reported. Prescriptions that do not adhere to these indicators are potentially hazardous and can cause gastrointestinal bleeds; are cautioned against in specific conditions (specifically heart failure, asthma, and chronic renal failure); or require blood test monitoring. The percentage for each indicator is formed of a numerator of patients deemed to be at risk of a potentially hazardous prescribing event and the denominator is of patients for which assessment of the indicator is clinically meaningful. Higher indicator percentages represent potentially poorer performance on medication safety.

Results

The PINCER indicators were successfully implemented across general practice data for 56.8 million patient records from 6367 practices in OpenSAFELY. Hazardous prescribing remained largely unchanged during the covid-19 pandemic, with no evidence of increases in indicators of harm as captured by the PINCER indicators. The percentage of patients at risk of potentially hazardous prescribing, as defined by each PINCER indicator, at mean quarter 1 (Q1) 2020 (representing before the pandemic) ranged from 1.11% (age \u226565 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 36.20% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test), while Q1 2021 (representing after the pandemic) percentages ranged from 0.75% (age \u226565 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 39.23% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test). Transient delays occurred in blood test monitoring for some medications, particularly angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (where blood monitoring worsened from a mean of 5.16% in Q1 2020 to 12.14% in Q1 2021, and began to recover in June 2021). All indicators substantially recovered by September 2021. We identified 1 813 058 patients (3.1%) at risk of at least one potentially hazardous prescribing event.

Conclusion

NHS data from general practices can be analysed at national scale to generate insights into service delivery. Potentially hazardous prescribing was largely unaffected by the covid-19 pandemic in primary care health records in England.", + "abstract": "

Background

Approaches to addressing unwarranted variation in health care service delivery have traditionally relied on the prospective identification of activities and outcomes, based on a hypothesis, with subsequent reporting against defined measures. Practice-level prescribing data in England are made publicly available by the National Health Service (NHS) Business Services Authority for all general practices. There is an opportunity to adopt a more data-driven approach to capture variability and identify outliers by applying hypothesis-free, data-driven algorithms to national data sets.

Objective

This study aimed to develop and apply a hypothesis-free algorithm to identify unusual prescribing behavior in primary care data at multiple administrative levels in the NHS in England and to visualize these results using organization-specific interactive dashboards, thereby demonstrating proof of concept for prioritization approaches.

Methods

Here we report a new data-driven approach to quantify how \"unusual\" the prescribing rates of a particular chemical within an organization are as compared to peer organizations, over a period of 6 months (June-December 2021). This is followed by a ranking to identify which chemicals are the most notable outliers in each organization. These outlying chemicals are calculated for all practices, primary care networks, clinical commissioning groups, and sustainability and transformation partnerships in England. Our results are presented via organization-specific interactive dashboards, the iterative development of which has been informed by user feedback.

Results

We developed interactive dashboards for every practice (n=6476) in England, highlighting the unusual prescribing of 2369 chemicals (dashboards are also provided for 42 sustainability and transformation partnerships, 106 clinical commissioning groups, and 1257 primary care networks). User feedback and internal review of case studies demonstrate that our methodology identifies prescribing behavior that sometimes warrants further investigation or is a known issue.

Conclusions

Data-driven approaches have the potential to overcome existing biases with regard to the planning and execution of audits, interventions, and policy making within NHS organizations, potentially revealing new targets for improved health care service delivery. We present our dashboards as a proof of concept for generating candidate lists to aid expert users in their interpretation of prescribing data and prioritize further investigations and qualitative research in terms of potential targets for improved performance.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000392.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2023/1/e44237/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/44237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10162592" }, { "id": "32946551", @@ -15469,6 +15452,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/49/6/1056/33993322/afaa158.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa158; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7583515; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7583515?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37303488", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392", + "title": "Changes in medication safety indicators in England throughout the covid-19 pandemic using OpenSAFELY: population based, retrospective cohort study of 57 million patients using federated analytics.", + "authorString": "Fisher L, Hopcroft LE, Rodgers S, Barrett J, Oliver K, Avery AJ, Evans D, Curtis H, Croker R, Macdonald O, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Bacon S, Davy S, Dillingham I, Evans D, Hickman G, Inglesby P, Morton CE, Smith B, Ward T, Hulme W, Green A, Massey J, Walker AJ, Bates C, Cockburn J, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Goldacre B, MacKenna B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ medicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-11", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Primary Health Care; Medical Informatics; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

To implement complex, PINCER (pharmacist led information technology intervention) prescribing indicators, on a national scale with general practice data to describe the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on safe prescribing.

Design

Population based, retrospective cohort study using federated analytics.

Setting

Electronic general practice health record data from 56.8 million NHS patients by use of the OpenSAFELY platform, with the approval of the National Health Service (NHS) England.

Participants

NHS patients (aged 18-120 years) who were alive and registered at a general practice that used TPP or EMIS computer systems and were recorded as at risk of at least one potentially hazardous PINCER indicator.

Main outcome measure

Between 1 September 2019 and 1 September 2021, monthly trends and between practice variation for compliance with 13 PINCER indicators, as calculated on the first of every month, were reported. Prescriptions that do not adhere to these indicators are potentially hazardous and can cause gastrointestinal bleeds; are cautioned against in specific conditions (specifically heart failure, asthma, and chronic renal failure); or require blood test monitoring. The percentage for each indicator is formed of a numerator of patients deemed to be at risk of a potentially hazardous prescribing event and the denominator is of patients for which assessment of the indicator is clinically meaningful. Higher indicator percentages represent potentially poorer performance on medication safety.

Results

The PINCER indicators were successfully implemented across general practice data for 56.8 million patient records from 6367 practices in OpenSAFELY. Hazardous prescribing remained largely unchanged during the covid-19 pandemic, with no evidence of increases in indicators of harm as captured by the PINCER indicators. The percentage of patients at risk of potentially hazardous prescribing, as defined by each PINCER indicator, at mean quarter 1 (Q1) 2020 (representing before the pandemic) ranged from 1.11% (age \u226565 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 36.20% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test), while Q1 2021 (representing after the pandemic) percentages ranged from 0.75% (age \u226565 years and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to 39.23% (amiodarone and no thyroid function test). Transient delays occurred in blood test monitoring for some medications, particularly angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (where blood monitoring worsened from a mean of 5.16% in Q1 2020 to 12.14% in Q1 2021, and began to recover in June 2021). All indicators substantially recovered by September 2021. We identified 1 813 058 patients (3.1%) at risk of at least one potentially hazardous prescribing event.

Conclusion

NHS data from general practices can be analysed at national scale to generate insights into service delivery. Potentially hazardous prescribing was largely unaffected by the covid-19 pandemic in primary care health records in England.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/2/1/e000392.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10254692?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32763878", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/18690", @@ -15503,23 +15503,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.080; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.080; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499753; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10499753?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36543768", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2", - "title": "Multi-organ imaging demonstrates the heart-brain-liver axis in UK Biobank participants.", - "authorString": "McCracken C, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Veldsman M, Raman B, Dennis A, Husain M, Nichols TE, Petersen SE, Neubauer S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Medical imaging provides numerous insights into the subclinical changes that precede serious diseases such as heart disease and dementia. However, most imaging research either describes a single organ system or draws on clinical cohorts with small sample sizes. In this study, we use state-of-the-art multi-organ magnetic resonance imaging phenotypes to investigate cross-sectional relationships across the heart-brain-liver axis in 30,444 UK Biobank participants. Despite controlling for an extensive range of demographic and clinical covariates, we find significant associations between imaging-derived phenotypes of the heart (left ventricular structure, function and aortic distensibility), brain (brain volumes, white matter hyperintensities and white matter microstructure), and liver (liver fat, liver iron and fibroinflammation). Simultaneous three-organ modelling identifies differentially important pathways across the heart-brain-liver axis with evidence of both direct and indirect associations. This study describes a potentially cumulative burden of multiple-organ dysfunction and provides essential insight into multi-organ disease prevention.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35321-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37669576", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.024", @@ -15537,6 +15520,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2023.08.024" }, + { + "id": "36543768", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2", + "title": "Multi-organ imaging demonstrates the heart-brain-liver axis in UK Biobank participants.", + "authorString": "McCracken C, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Veldsman M, Raman B, Dennis A, Husain M, Nichols TE, Petersen SE, Neubauer S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-12-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Medical imaging provides numerous insights into the subclinical changes that precede serious diseases such as heart disease and dementia. However, most imaging research either describes a single organ system or draws on clinical cohorts with small sample sizes. In this study, we use state-of-the-art multi-organ magnetic resonance imaging phenotypes to investigate cross-sectional relationships across the heart-brain-liver axis in 30,444 UK Biobank participants. Despite controlling for an extensive range of demographic and clinical covariates, we find significant associations between imaging-derived phenotypes of the heart (left ventricular structure, function and aortic distensibility), brain (brain volumes, white matter hyperintensities and white matter microstructure), and liver (liver fat, liver iron and fibroinflammation). Simultaneous three-organ modelling identifies differentially important pathways across the heart-brain-liver axis with evidence of both direct and indirect associations. This study describes a potentially cumulative burden of multiple-organ dysfunction and provides essential insight into multi-organ disease prevention.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35321-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35321-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9772225?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37394283", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14444", @@ -15571,23 +15571,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0245636&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245636; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840051; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840051?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36501061", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031", - "title": "Associations of Genetically Predicted Vitamin B12 Status across the Phenome.", - "authorString": "Dib MJ, Ahmadi KR, Zagkos L, Gill D, Morris B, Elliott P, Dehghan A, Tzoulaki I.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nutrients", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Vitamin B12; Deficiency; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomisation; Pernicious Anaemia", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Variation in vitamin B12 levels has been associated with a range of diseases across the life-course, the causal nature of which remains elusive. We aimed to interrogate genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in relation to a plethora of clinical outcomes available in the UK Biobank. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data obtained from a Danish and Icelandic cohort of 45,576 individuals were used to identify 8 genetic variants associated with vitamin B12 levels, serving as genetic instruments for vitamin B12 status in subsequent analyses. We conducted a Mendelian randomisation (MR)-phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) of vitamin B12 status with 945 distinct phenotypes in 439,738 individuals from the UK Biobank using these 8 genetic instruments to proxy alterations in vitamin B12 status. We used external GWAS summary statistics for replication of significant findings. Correction for multiple testing was taken into consideration using a 5% false discovery rate (FDR) threshold. MR analysis identified an association between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and lower risk of vitamin B deficiency (including all B vitamin deficiencies), serving as a positive control outcome. We further identified associations between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and a reduced risk of megaloblastic anaemia (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.20-0.50) and pernicious anaemia (0.29, 0.19-0.45), which was supported in replication analyses. Our study highlights that higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status is potentially protective of risk of vitamin B12 deficiency associated with pernicious anaemia diagnosis, and reduces risk of megaloblastic anaemia. The potential use of genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in disease diagnosis, progression and management remains to be investigated.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/23/5031/pdf?version=1669449806; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34427560", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1684/ejd.2021.4108", @@ -15605,6 +15588,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1684/ejd.2021.4108" }, + { + "id": "36501061", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031", + "title": "Associations of Genetically Predicted Vitamin B12 Status across the Phenome.", + "authorString": "Dib MJ, Ahmadi KR, Zagkos L, Gill D, Morris B, Elliott P, Dehghan A, Tzoulaki I.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nutrients", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Vitamin B12; Deficiency; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomisation; Pernicious Anaemia", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Variation in vitamin B12 levels has been associated with a range of diseases across the life-course, the causal nature of which remains elusive. We aimed to interrogate genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in relation to a plethora of clinical outcomes available in the UK Biobank. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data obtained from a Danish and Icelandic cohort of 45,576 individuals were used to identify 8 genetic variants associated with vitamin B12 levels, serving as genetic instruments for vitamin B12 status in subsequent analyses. We conducted a Mendelian randomisation (MR)-phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) of vitamin B12 status with 945 distinct phenotypes in 439,738 individuals from the UK Biobank using these 8 genetic instruments to proxy alterations in vitamin B12 status. We used external GWAS summary statistics for replication of significant findings. Correction for multiple testing was taken into consideration using a 5% false discovery rate (FDR) threshold. MR analysis identified an association between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and lower risk of vitamin B deficiency (including all B vitamin deficiencies), serving as a positive control outcome. We further identified associations between higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status and a reduced risk of megaloblastic anaemia (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.20-0.50) and pernicious anaemia (0.29, 0.19-0.45), which was supported in replication analyses. Our study highlights that higher genetically predicted vitamin B12 status is potentially protective of risk of vitamin B12 deficiency associated with pernicious anaemia diagnosis, and reduces risk of megaloblastic anaemia. The potential use of genetically predicted vitamin B12 status in disease diagnosis, progression and management remains to be investigated.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/23/5031/pdf?version=1669449806; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9740080?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35673545", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17231.2", @@ -15622,23 +15622,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17231.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9152464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9152464?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34629034", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409", - "title": "Are individual and social factors specific to the home associated with children's behaviour and physical environment at home.", - "authorString": "Sheldrick MPR, Maitland C, Mackintosh KA, Rosenberg M, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Stratton G.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of sports sciences", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-09", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Youth; Family; House; Sedentary Time; Moderate-vigorous Physical Activity", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "This study used linear regression analyses to investigate the influence of parent-reported home-specific social and individual factors on: (i) 235 children's home-based objectively measured overall sitting time, breaks in sitting, and PA, and; (ii) the home physical environment via an audit. Parental importance assigned to active play for children was positively associated with PA equipment (accessibility and availability), as well as light physical activity (LPA) and sitting breaks on both weekdays and weekend days. Parental preference for being active at home and limits on screen-time were associated with less household media equipment and portable media equipment, respectively. Greater parental importance placed on playing electronic games/using computers for fun was associated with less LPA and more sitting on weekdays. Further, children who preferred being sedentary sat more and engaged in less moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on weekdays. Parental and child preferences and priorities, as well as parental rules for activity at home, were associated with children's home-based sitting and PA, especially on weekdays. Such factors were also associated with the physical environment in the expected directions. The findings suggest interventions need to target social and individual factors, alongside adapting the physical environment to create homes more promotive of physical activity.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56833/Download/56833__19829__9b0bb77f67e84342b525fbccaba98e67.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409" - }, { "id": "35151869", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104010", @@ -15690,6 +15673,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.1016032/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.1016032; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9681217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9681217?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34629034", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409", + "title": "Are individual and social factors specific to the home associated with children's behaviour and physical environment at home.", + "authorString": "Sheldrick MPR, Maitland C, Mackintosh KA, Rosenberg M, Griffiths LJ, Fry R, Stratton G.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of sports sciences", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-09", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Youth; Family; House; Sedentary Time; Moderate-vigorous Physical Activity", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "This study used linear regression analyses to investigate the influence of parent-reported home-specific social and individual factors on: (i) 235 children's home-based objectively measured overall sitting time, breaks in sitting, and PA, and; (ii) the home physical environment via an audit. Parental importance assigned to active play for children was positively associated with PA equipment (accessibility and availability), as well as light physical activity (LPA) and sitting breaks on both weekdays and weekend days. Parental preference for being active at home and limits on screen-time were associated with less household media equipment and portable media equipment, respectively. Greater parental importance placed on playing electronic games/using computers for fun was associated with less LPA and more sitting on weekdays. Further, children who preferred being sedentary sat more and engaged in less moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on weekdays. Parental and child preferences and priorities, as well as parental rules for activity at home, were associated with children's home-based sitting and PA, especially on weekdays. Such factors were also associated with the physical environment in the expected directions. The findings suggest interventions need to target social and individual factors, alongside adapting the physical environment to create homes more promotive of physical activity.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56833/Download/56833__19829__9b0bb77f67e84342b525fbccaba98e67.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1928409" + }, { "id": "37649471", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i3.1705", @@ -15707,23 +15707,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i3.1705; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464864; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10464864?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37119604", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367", - "title": "Whole-population trends in pathology-confirmed cancer incidence in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A retrospective observational study.", - "authorString": "Greene GJ, Thomson CS, Donnelly D, Chung D, Bhatti L, Gavin AT, Lawler M, Huws DW, Rolles MJ, Benn\u00e9e F, Morrison DS.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cancer epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Pandemic; Population-based Incidence; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Pathology-Confirmed Cancer", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic interrupted normal cancer diagnosis procedures. Population-based cancer registries report incidence at least 18 months after it happens. Our goal was to make more timely estimates by using pathologically confirmed cancers (PDC) as a proxy for incidence. We compared the 2020 and 2021 PDC with the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (NI).

Methods

Numbers of female breast (ICD-10 C50), lung (C33-34), colorectal (C18-20), gynaecological (C51-58), prostate (C61), head and neck (C00-C14, C30-32), upper gastro-intestinal (C15-16), urological (C64-68), malignant melanoma (C43), and non-melanoma skin (NMSC) (C44) cancers were counted. Multiple pairwise comparisons generated incidence rate ratios (IRR).

Results

Data were accessible within 5 months of the pathological diagnosis date. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of pathologically confirmed malignancies (excluding NMSC) decreased by 7315 (14.1 %). Scotland experienced early monthly declines of up to 64 % (colorectal cancers, April 2020 versus April 2019). Wales experienced the greatest overall change in 2020, but Northern Ireland experienced the quickest recovery. The pandemic's effects varied by cancer type, with no significant change in lung cancer diagnoses in Wales in 2020 (IRR 0.97 (95 % CI 0.90-1.05)), followed by an increase in 2021 (IRR 1.11 (1.03-1.20).

Conclusion

PDC are useful in reporting cancer incidence quicker than cancer registrations. Temporal and geographical differences between participating countries mirrored differences in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating face validity and the potential for quick cancer diagnosis assessment. To verify their sensitivity and specificity against the gold standard of cancer registrations, however, additional research is required.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34610958", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2019-209368", @@ -15758,6 +15741,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/3/4/fcab241/41829863/fcab241.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab241; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688778; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688778?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37119604", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367", + "title": "Whole-population trends in pathology-confirmed cancer incidence in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A retrospective observational study.", + "authorString": "Greene GJ, Thomson CS, Donnelly D, Chung D, Bhatti L, Gavin AT, Lawler M, Huws DW, Rolles MJ, Benn\u00e9e F, Morrison DS.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cancer epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Pandemic; Population-based Incidence; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Pathology-Confirmed Cancer", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic interrupted normal cancer diagnosis procedures. Population-based cancer registries report incidence at least 18 months after it happens. Our goal was to make more timely estimates by using pathologically confirmed cancers (PDC) as a proxy for incidence. We compared the 2020 and 2021 PDC with the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (NI).

Methods

Numbers of female breast (ICD-10 C50), lung (C33-34), colorectal (C18-20), gynaecological (C51-58), prostate (C61), head and neck (C00-C14, C30-32), upper gastro-intestinal (C15-16), urological (C64-68), malignant melanoma (C43), and non-melanoma skin (NMSC) (C44) cancers were counted. Multiple pairwise comparisons generated incidence rate ratios (IRR).

Results

Data were accessible within 5 months of the pathological diagnosis date. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of pathologically confirmed malignancies (excluding NMSC) decreased by 7315 (14.1 %). Scotland experienced early monthly declines of up to 64 % (colorectal cancers, April 2020 versus April 2019). Wales experienced the greatest overall change in 2020, but Northern Ireland experienced the quickest recovery. The pandemic's effects varied by cancer type, with no significant change in lung cancer diagnoses in Wales in 2020 (IRR 0.97 (95 % CI 0.90-1.05)), followed by an increase in 2021 (IRR 1.11 (1.03-1.20).

Conclusion

PDC are useful in reporting cancer incidence quicker than cancer registrations. Temporal and geographical differences between participating countries mirrored differences in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating face validity and the potential for quick cancer diagnosis assessment. To verify their sensitivity and specificity against the gold standard of cancer registrations, however, additional research is required.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102367; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121133?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33468531", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047101", @@ -15894,23 +15894,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8861899; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.5420; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8861899; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.5420" }, - { - "id": "37225263", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139", - "title": "Delphi consensus survey: the opinions of patients living with refractory ulcerative proctitis and the health care professionals who care for them.", - "authorString": "Kyriacou M, Radford S, Moran GW, Focus group collaborators group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open gastroenterology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Ulcerative colitis; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Adjuvant Treatment", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Refractory ulcerative proctitis presents a huge clinical challenge not only for the patients living with this chronic, progressive condition but also for the professionals who care for them. Currently, there is limited research and evidence-based guidance, resulting in many patients living with the symptomatic burden of disease and reduced quality of life. The aim of this study was to establish a consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis disease burden and best practice for management.

Methods

A three-round Delphi consensus survey was conducted among patients living with refractory proctitis and the healthcare experts with knowledge on this disease from the UK. A brainstorming stage involving a focus group where the participants came up with an initial list of statements was completed. Following this, there were three rounds of Delphi surveys in which the participants were asked to rank the importance of the statements and provide any additional comments or clarifications. Calculation of mean scores, analysis of comments and revisions were performed to produce a final list of statements.

Results

In total, 14 statements were suggested by the focus group at the initial brainstorming stage. Following completion of three Delphi survey rounds, all 14 statements reached consensus following appropriate revision.

Conclusions

We established consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis from both the experts who manage this disease and the patients living with it. This represents the first step towards developing clinical research data and ultimately the evidence needed for best practice management guidance of this condition.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopengastro.bmj.com/content/bmjgast/10/1/e001139.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37309807", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jead123", @@ -15962,6 +15945,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60128/Download/60128__24479__4d74009536e649b0b17180e2bfd80435.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12606; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9347957; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9347957?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37225263", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139", + "title": "Delphi consensus survey: the opinions of patients living with refractory ulcerative proctitis and the health care professionals who care for them.", + "authorString": "Kyriacou M, Radford S, Moran GW, Focus group collaborators group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open gastroenterology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Ulcerative colitis; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Adjuvant Treatment", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Refractory ulcerative proctitis presents a huge clinical challenge not only for the patients living with this chronic, progressive condition but also for the professionals who care for them. Currently, there is limited research and evidence-based guidance, resulting in many patients living with the symptomatic burden of disease and reduced quality of life. The aim of this study was to establish a consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis disease burden and best practice for management.

Methods

A three-round Delphi consensus survey was conducted among patients living with refractory proctitis and the healthcare experts with knowledge on this disease from the UK. A brainstorming stage involving a focus group where the participants came up with an initial list of statements was completed. Following this, there were three rounds of Delphi surveys in which the participants were asked to rank the importance of the statements and provide any additional comments or clarifications. Calculation of mean scores, analysis of comments and revisions were performed to produce a final list of statements.

Results

In total, 14 statements were suggested by the focus group at the initial brainstorming stage. Following completion of three Delphi survey rounds, all 14 statements reached consensus following appropriate revision.

Conclusions

We established consensus on the thoughts and opinions related to refractory proctitis from both the experts who manage this disease and the patients living with it. This represents the first step towards developing clinical research data and ultimately the evidence needed for best practice management guidance of this condition.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopengastro.bmj.com/content/bmjgast/10/1/e001139.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001139; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10230891?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34631820", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.716577", @@ -16132,23 +16132,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/5/e057343.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057343; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9121475?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37001969", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219", - "title": "Identifying opportunities for upstream evaluations relevant to child and maternal health: a UK policy-mapping review.", - "authorString": "Stewart E, Pearce A, Given J, Gilbert R, Brophy S, Cookson R, Hardelid P, Harron KL, Leyland A, Wood R, Dundas R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Archives of disease in childhood", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-31", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Child Development; Child Health", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Interventions to tackle the social determinants of health can improve outcomes during pregnancy and early childhood, leading to better health across the life course. Variation in content, timing and implementation of policies across the 4 UK nations allows for evaluation. We conducted a policy-mapping review (1981-2021) to identify relevant UK early years policies across the social determinants of health framework, and determine suitable candidates for evaluation using administrative data.

Methods

We used open keyword and category searches of UK and devolved Government websites, and hand searched policy reviews. Policies were rated and included using five criteria: (1) Potential for policy to affect maternal and child health outcomes; (2) Implementation variation across the UK; (3) Population reach and expected effect size; (4) Ability to identify exposed/eligible group in administrative data; (5) Potential to affect health inequalities. An expert consensus workshop determined a final shortlist.

Results

336 policies and 306 strategy documents were identified. Policies were mainly excluded due to criteria 2-4, leaving 88. The consensus workshop identified three policy areas as suitable candidates for natural experiment evaluation using administrative data: pregnancy grants, early years education and childcare, and Universal Credit.

Conclusion

Our comprehensive policy review identifies valuable opportunities to evaluate sociostructural impacts on mother and child outcomes. However, many potentially impactful policies were excluded. This may lead to the inverse evidence law, where there is least evidence for policies believed to be most effective. This could be ameliorated by better access to administrative data, staged implementation of future policies or alternative evaluation methods.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2023/03/30/archdischild-2022-325219.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34859617", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.309", @@ -16234,6 +16217,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0266; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8165581?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37001969", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219", + "title": "Identifying opportunities for upstream evaluations relevant to child and maternal health: a UK policy-mapping review.", + "authorString": "Stewart E, Pearce A, Given J, Gilbert R, Brophy S, Cookson R, Hardelid P, Harron KL, Leyland A, Wood R, Dundas R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Archives of disease in childhood", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Child Development; Child Health", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Interventions to tackle the social determinants of health can improve outcomes during pregnancy and early childhood, leading to better health across the life course. Variation in content, timing and implementation of policies across the 4 UK nations allows for evaluation. We conducted a policy-mapping review (1981-2021) to identify relevant UK early years policies across the social determinants of health framework, and determine suitable candidates for evaluation using administrative data.

Methods

We used open keyword and category searches of UK and devolved Government websites, and hand searched policy reviews. Policies were rated and included using five criteria: (1) Potential for policy to affect maternal and child health outcomes; (2) Implementation variation across the UK; (3) Population reach and expected effect size; (4) Ability to identify exposed/eligible group in administrative data; (5) Potential to affect health inequalities. An expert consensus workshop determined a final shortlist.

Results

336 policies and 306 strategy documents were identified. Policies were mainly excluded due to criteria 2-4, leaving 88. The consensus workshop identified three policy areas as suitable candidates for natural experiment evaluation using administrative data: pregnancy grants, early years education and childcare, and Universal Credit.

Conclusion

Our comprehensive policy review identifies valuable opportunities to evaluate sociostructural impacts on mother and child outcomes. However, many potentially impactful policies were excluded. This may lead to the inverse evidence law, where there is least evidence for policies believed to be most effective. This could be ameliorated by better access to administrative data, staged implementation of future policies or alternative evaluation methods.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/early/2023/03/30/archdischild-2022-325219.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-325219; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314013?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32908283", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1034-x", @@ -16251,23 +16251,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1034-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1034-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598943; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598943?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37311637", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973", - "title": "Number and timing of primary cleft lip and palate repair surgeries in England: whole nation study of electronic health records before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.", - "authorString": "Etoori D, Park MH, Blackburn RM, Fitzsimons KJ, Butterworth S, Medina J, Mc Grath-Lone L, Russell C, van der Meulen J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Paediatric Surgery; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To quantify differences in number and timing of first primary cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair procedures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021; 2020/2021) compared with the preceding year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020; 2019/2021).

Design

National observational study of administrative hospital data.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

Children <5 years undergoing primary repair for an orofacial cleft Population Consensus and Surveys Classification of Interventions and Procedures-fourth revisions (OPCS-4) codes F031, F291).

Main exposure

Procedure date (2020/2021 vs 2019/2020).

Main outcomes

Numbers and timing (age in months) of first primary CLP procedures.

Results

1716 CLP primary repair procedures were included in the analysis. In 2020/2021, 774 CLP procedures were carried out compared with 942 in 2019/2020, a reduction of 17.8% (95% CI 9.5% to 25.4%). The reduction varied over time in 2020/2021, with no surgeries at all during the first 2\u2009months (April and May 2020). Compared with 2019/2020, first primary lip repair procedures performed in 2020/2021 were delayed by 1.6 months on average (95% CI 0.9 to 2.2 months). Delays in primary palate repairs were smaller on average but varied across the nine geographical regions.

Conclusion

There were significant reductions in the number and delays in timing of first primary CLP repair procedures in England during the first year of the pandemic, which may affect long-term outcomes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/6/e071973.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37118525", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00328-3", @@ -16303,21 +16286,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1037-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1037-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7598944?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33344049", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5", - "title": "Automated Segmentation of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Images: Benchmark Data and Clinically Relevant Metrics.", - "authorString": "Giarratano Y, Bianchi E, Gray C, Morris A, MacGillivray T, Dhillon B, Bernabeu MO.", + "id": "37311637", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973", + "title": "Number and timing of primary cleft lip and palate repair surgeries in England: whole nation study of electronic health records before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.", + "authorString": "Etoori D, Park MH, Blackburn RM, Fitzsimons KJ, Butterworth S, Medina J, Mc Grath-Lone L, Russell C, van der Meulen J.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Translational vision science & technology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-12-03", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-13", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Automated Segmentation; Retinal Vasculature; Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Paediatric Surgery; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Purpose

To generate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images with associated ground truth manual segmentations, and to establish a standard for OCTA image segmentation by surveying a broad range of state-of-the-art vessel enhancement and binarization procedures.

Methods

Handcrafted filters and neural network architectures were used to perform vessel enhancement. Thresholding methods and machine learning approaches were applied to obtain the final binarization. Evaluation was performed by using pixelwise metrics and newly proposed topological metrics. Finally, we compare the error in the computation of clinically relevant vascular network metrics (e.g., foveal avascular zone area and vessel density) across segmentation methods.

Results

Our results show that, for the set of images considered, deep learning architectures (U-Net and CS-Net) achieve the best performance (Dice = 0.89). For applications where manually segmented data are not available to retrain these approaches, our findings suggest that optimally oriented flux (OOF) is the best handcrafted filter (Dice = 0.86). Moreover, our results show up to 25% differences in vessel density accuracy depending on the segmentation method used.

Conclusions

In this study, we derive and validate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal OCTA images with associated ground truth manual segmentations. Our findings should be taken into account when comparing the results of clinical studies and performing meta-analyses. Finally, we release our data and source code to support standardization efforts in OCTA image segmentation.

Translational relevance

This work establishes a standard for OCTA retinal image segmentation and introduces the importance of evaluating segmentation performance in terms of clinically relevant metrics.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To quantify differences in number and timing of first primary cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair procedures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021; 2020/2021) compared with the preceding year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020; 2019/2021).

Design

National observational study of administrative hospital data.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

Children <5 years undergoing primary repair for an orofacial cleft Population Consensus and Surveys Classification of Interventions and Procedures-fourth revisions (OPCS-4) codes F031, F291).

Main exposure

Procedure date (2020/2021 vs 2019/2020).

Main outcomes

Numbers and timing (age in months) of first primary CLP procedures.

Results

1716 CLP primary repair procedures were included in the analysis. In 2020/2021, 774 CLP procedures were carried out compared with 942 in 2019/2020, a reduction of 17.8% (95% CI 9.5% to 25.4%). The reduction varied over time in 2020/2021, with no surgeries at all during the first 2\u2009months (April and May 2020). Compared with 2019/2020, first primary lip repair procedures performed in 2020/2021 were delayed by 1.6 months on average (95% CI 0.9 to 2.2 months). Delays in primary palate repairs were smaller on average but varied across the nine geographical regions.

Conclusion

There were significant reductions in the number and delays in timing of first primary CLP repair procedures in England during the first year of the pandemic, which may affect long-term outcomes.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/6/e071973.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071973; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10276964?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37477803", @@ -16336,6 +16319,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11897-023-00615-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-023-00615-z" }, + { + "id": "33344049", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5", + "title": "Automated Segmentation of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Images: Benchmark Data and Clinically Relevant Metrics.", + "authorString": "Giarratano Y, Bianchi E, Gray C, Morris A, MacGillivray T, Dhillon B, Bernabeu MO.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Translational vision science & technology", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-12-03", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Automated Segmentation; Retinal Vasculature; Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Purpose

To generate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images with associated ground truth manual segmentations, and to establish a standard for OCTA image segmentation by surveying a broad range of state-of-the-art vessel enhancement and binarization procedures.

Methods

Handcrafted filters and neural network architectures were used to perform vessel enhancement. Thresholding methods and machine learning approaches were applied to obtain the final binarization. Evaluation was performed by using pixelwise metrics and newly proposed topological metrics. Finally, we compare the error in the computation of clinically relevant vascular network metrics (e.g., foveal avascular zone area and vessel density) across segmentation methods.

Results

Our results show that, for the set of images considered, deep learning architectures (U-Net and CS-Net) achieve the best performance (Dice = 0.89). For applications where manually segmented data are not available to retrain these approaches, our findings suggest that optimally oriented flux (OOF) is the best handcrafted filter (Dice = 0.86). Moreover, our results show up to 25% differences in vessel density accuracy depending on the segmentation method used.

Conclusions

In this study, we derive and validate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal OCTA images with associated ground truth manual segmentations. Our findings should be taken into account when comparing the results of clinical studies and performing meta-analyses. Finally, we release our data and source code to support standardization efforts in OCTA image segmentation.

Translational relevance

This work establishes a standard for OCTA retinal image segmentation and introduces the importance of evaluating segmentation performance in terms of clinically relevant metrics.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.13.5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718823?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31477110", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4286-8", @@ -16574,6 +16574,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750020302193/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30219-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8212701; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8212701?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32182948", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665", + "title": "Dysregulated Antibody, Natural Killer Cell and Immune Mediator Profiles in Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases. ", + "authorString": "Martin TC, Ilieva KM, Visconti A, Beaumont M, Kiddle SJ, Dobson RJB, Mangino M, Lim EM, Pezer M, Steves CJ, Bell JT, Wilson SG, Lauc G, Roederer M, Walsh JP, Spector TD, Karagiannis SN.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cells", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-03-09", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "inflammatory and immune system", + "abstract": "The pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) is poorly understood and the association between different immune features and the germline variants involved in AITD are yet unclear. We previously observed systemic depletion of IgG core fucosylation and antennary \u03b11,2 fucosylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in AITD, correlated with anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) levels. Fucose depletion is known to potentiate strong antibody-mediated NK cell activation and enhanced target antigen-expressing cell killing. In autoimmunity, this may translate to autoantibody-mediated immune cell recruitment and attack of self-antigen expressing normal tissues. Hence, we investigated the crosstalk between immune cell traits, secreted proteins, genetic variants and the glycosylation patterns of serum IgG, in a multi-omic and cross-sectional study of 622 individuals from the TwinsUK cohort, 172 of whom were diagnosed with AITD. We observed associations between two genetic variants (rs505922 and rs687621), AITD status, the secretion of Desmoglein-2 protein, and the profile of two IgG N-glycan traits in AITD, but further studies need to be performed to better understand their crosstalk in AITD. On the other side, enhanced afucosylated IgG was positively associated with activatory CD335- CD314+ CD158b+ NK cell subsets. Increased levels of the apoptosis and inflammation markers Caspase-2 and Interleukin-1\u03b1 positively associated with AITD. Two genetic variants associated with AITD, rs1521 and rs3094228, were also associated with altered expression of the thyrocyte-expressed ligands known to recognize the NK cell immunoreceptors CD314 and CD158b. Our analyses reveal a combination of heightened Fc-active IgG antibodies, effector cells, cytokines and apoptotic signals in AITD, and AITD genetic variants associated with altered expression of thyrocyte-expressed ligands to NK cell immunoreceptors. Together, TPOAb responses, dysregulated immune features, germline variants associated with immunoactivity profiles, are consistent with a positive autoreactive antibody-dependent NK cell-mediated immune response likely drawn to the thyroid gland in AITD.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/9/3/665/pdf?version=1584361130; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37124165", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.127934", @@ -16608,23 +16625,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45534; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/45534; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193205" }, - { - "id": "32182948", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665", - "title": "Dysregulated Antibody, Natural Killer Cell and Immune Mediator Profiles in Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases. ", - "authorString": "Martin TC, Ilieva KM, Visconti A, Beaumont M, Kiddle SJ, Dobson RJB, Mangino M, Lim EM, Pezer M, Steves CJ, Bell JT, Wilson SG, Lauc G, Roederer M, Walsh JP, Spector TD, Karagiannis SN.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cells", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-03-09", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "inflammatory and immune system", - "abstract": "The pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) is poorly understood and the association between different immune features and the germline variants involved in AITD are yet unclear. We previously observed systemic depletion of IgG core fucosylation and antennary \u03b11,2 fucosylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in AITD, correlated with anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) levels. Fucose depletion is known to potentiate strong antibody-mediated NK cell activation and enhanced target antigen-expressing cell killing. In autoimmunity, this may translate to autoantibody-mediated immune cell recruitment and attack of self-antigen expressing normal tissues. Hence, we investigated the crosstalk between immune cell traits, secreted proteins, genetic variants and the glycosylation patterns of serum IgG, in a multi-omic and cross-sectional study of 622 individuals from the TwinsUK cohort, 172 of whom were diagnosed with AITD. We observed associations between two genetic variants (rs505922 and rs687621), AITD status, the secretion of Desmoglein-2 protein, and the profile of two IgG N-glycan traits in AITD, but further studies need to be performed to better understand their crosstalk in AITD. On the other side, enhanced afucosylated IgG was positively associated with activatory CD335- CD314+ CD158b+ NK cell subsets. Increased levels of the apoptosis and inflammation markers Caspase-2 and Interleukin-1\u03b1 positively associated with AITD. Two genetic variants associated with AITD, rs1521 and rs3094228, were also associated with altered expression of the thyrocyte-expressed ligands known to recognize the NK cell immunoreceptors CD314 and CD158b. Our analyses reveal a combination of heightened Fc-active IgG antibodies, effector cells, cytokines and apoptotic signals in AITD, and AITD genetic variants associated with altered expression of thyrocyte-expressed ligands to NK cell immunoreceptors. Together, TPOAb responses, dysregulated immune features, germline variants associated with immunoactivity profiles, are consistent with a positive autoreactive antibody-dependent NK cell-mediated immune response likely drawn to the thyroid gland in AITD.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/9/3/665/pdf?version=1584361130; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9030665; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7140647?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37679551", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01635-6", @@ -16642,23 +16642,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01635-6" }, - { - "id": "35650647", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y", - "title": "A scoping methodological review of simulation studies comparing statistical and machine learning approaches to risk prediction for time-to-event data.", - "authorString": "Smith H, Sweeting M, Morris T, Crowther MJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Diagnostic and prognostic research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Survival analysis; Machine Learning; Simulation Studies; Clinical Risk Prediction; Prognostic Modelling", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There is substantial interest in the adaptation and application of so-called machine learning approaches to prognostic modelling of censored time-to-event data. These methods must be compared and evaluated against existing methods in a variety of scenarios to determine their predictive performance. A scoping review of how machine learning methods have been compared to traditional survival models is important to identify the comparisons that have been made and issues where they are lacking, biased towards one approach or misleading.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of research articles published between 1 January 2000 and 2 December 2020 using PubMed. Eligible articles were those that used simulation studies to compare statistical and machine learning methods for risk prediction with a time-to-event outcome in a medical/healthcare setting. We focus on data-generating mechanisms (DGMs), the methods that have been compared, the estimands of the simulation studies, and the performance measures used to evaluate them.

Results

A total of ten articles were identified as eligible for the review. Six of the articles evaluated a method that was developed by the authors, four of which were machine learning methods, and the results almost always stated that this developed method's performance was equivalent to or better than the other methods compared. Comparisons were often biased towards the novel approach, with the majority only comparing against a basic Cox proportional hazards model, and in scenarios where it is clear it would not perform well. In many of the articles reviewed, key information was unclear, such as the number of simulation repetitions and how performance measures were calculated.

Conclusion

It is vital that method comparisons are unbiased and comprehensive, and this should be the goal even if realising it is difficult. Fully assessing how newly developed methods perform and how they compare to a variety of traditional statistical methods for prognostic modelling is imperative as these methods are already being applied in clinical contexts. Evaluations of the performance and usefulness of recently developed methods for risk prediction should be continued and reporting standards improved as these methods become increasingly popular.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36545688", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2022.83", @@ -16686,30 +16669,13 @@ "pubYear": "2020", "date": "2020-01-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Fever; Cough; United Kingdom; Diagnostic Testing Capacity; Covid-19; Swab Test", + "keywords": "Fever; Cough; United Kingdom; Diagnostic Testing Capacity; Swab Test; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", "abstract": "Background: Diagnostic testing forms a major part of the UK's response to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with tests offered to anyone with a continuous cough, high temperature or anosmia. Testing capacity must be sufficient during the winter respiratory season when levels of cough and fever are high due to non-COVID-19 causes. This study aims to make predictions about the contribution of baseline cough or fever to future testing demand in the UK. Methods: In this analysis of the Bug Watch community cohort study, we estimated the incidence of cough or fever in England in 2018-2019. We then estimated the COVID-19 diagnostic testing rates required in the UK for baseline cough or fever cases for the period July 2020-June 2021. This was explored for different rates of the population requesting tests, four COVID-19 second wave scenarios and high and low baseline cough or fever incidence scenarios. Results: Under the high baseline cough or fever scenario, incidence in the UK is expected to rise rapidly from 250,708 (95%CI 181,095 - 347,080) cases per day in September to a peak of 444,660 (95%CI 353,084 - 559,988) in December. If 80% of these cases request tests, testing demand would exceed 1.4 million tests per week for five consecutive months. Demand was significantly lower in the low cough or fever incidence scenario, with 129,115 (95%CI 111,596 - 151,679) tests per day in January 2021, compared to 340,921 (95%CI 276,039 - 424,491) tests per day in the higher incidence scenario. Conclusions: Our results show that national COVID-19 testing demand is highly dependent on background cough or fever incidence. This study highlights that the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic must ensure that a high proportion of people with symptoms request tests, and that testing capacity is sufficient to meet the high predicted demand.", "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16304.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7890379?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35260393", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099", - "title": "Overcoming disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. ", - "authorString": "Doubova SV, Robledo-Aburto ZA, Duque-Molina C, Borrayo-S\u00e1nchez G, Gonz\u00e1lez-Le\u00f3n M, Avil\u00e9s-Hern\u00e1ndez R, Contreras-S\u00e1nchez SE, Leslie HH, Kruk M, P\u00e9rez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ global health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/7/3/e008099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36648036", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.06.011", @@ -16745,21 +16711,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2023.1290" }, { - "id": "37284234", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9", - "title": "The shock, the coping, the resilience: smartphone application use reveals Covid-19 lockdown effects on human behaviors.", - "authorString": "Liu XF, Wang ZZ, Xu XK, Wu Y, Zhao Z, Deng H, Wang P, Chao N, Huang YC.", + "id": "35650647", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y", + "title": "A scoping methodological review of simulation studies comparing statistical and machine learning approaches to risk prediction for time-to-event data.", + "authorString": "Smith H, Sweeting M, Morris T, Crowther MJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EPJ data science", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-05", + "journalTitle": "Diagnostic and prognostic research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-06-02", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Human behaviors; Natural Experiment; Lockdown; Smartphone Apps; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Survival analysis; Machine Learning; Simulation Studies; Clinical Risk Prediction; Prognostic Modelling", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Human mobility restriction policies have been widely used to contain the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). However, a critical question is how these policies affect individuals' behavioral and psychological well-being during and after confinement periods. Here, we analyze China's five most stringent city-level lockdowns in 2021, treating them as natural experiments that allow for examining behavioral changes in millions of people through smartphone application use. We made three fundamental observations. First, the use of physical and economic activity-related apps experienced a steep decline, yet apps that provide daily necessities maintained normal usage. Second, apps that fulfilled lower-level human needs, such as working, socializing, information seeking, and entertainment, saw an immediate and substantial increase in screen time. Those that satisfied higher-level needs, such as education, only attracted delayed attention. Third, human behaviors demonstrated resilience as most routines resumed after the lockdowns were lifted. Nonetheless, long-term lifestyle changes were observed, as significant numbers of people chose to continue working and learning online, becoming \"digital residents.\" This study also demonstrates the capability of smartphone screen time analytics in the study of human behaviors.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9.", + "abstract": "

Background

There is substantial interest in the adaptation and application of so-called machine learning approaches to prognostic modelling of censored time-to-event data. These methods must be compared and evaluated against existing methods in a variety of scenarios to determine their predictive performance. A scoping review of how machine learning methods have been compared to traditional survival models is important to identify the comparisons that have been made and issues where they are lacking, biased towards one approach or misleading.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of research articles published between 1 January 2000 and 2 December 2020 using PubMed. Eligible articles were those that used simulation studies to compare statistical and machine learning methods for risk prediction with a time-to-event outcome in a medical/healthcare setting. We focus on data-generating mechanisms (DGMs), the methods that have been compared, the estimands of the simulation studies, and the performance measures used to evaluate them.

Results

A total of ten articles were identified as eligible for the review. Six of the articles evaluated a method that was developed by the authors, four of which were machine learning methods, and the results almost always stated that this developed method's performance was equivalent to or better than the other methods compared. Comparisons were often biased towards the novel approach, with the majority only comparing against a basic Cox proportional hazards model, and in scenarios where it is clear it would not perform well. In many of the articles reviewed, key information was unclear, such as the number of simulation repetitions and how performance measures were calculated.

Conclusion

It is vital that method comparisons are unbiased and comprehensive, and this should be the goal even if realising it is difficult. Fully assessing how newly developed methods perform and how they compare to a variety of traditional statistical methods for prognostic modelling is imperative as these methods are already being applied in clinical contexts. Evaluations of the performance and usefulness of recently developed methods for risk prediction should be continued and reporting standards improved as these methods become increasingly popular.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://diagnprognres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-022-00124-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9161606?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35260393", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099", + "title": "Overcoming disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. ", + "authorString": "Doubova SV, Robledo-Aburto ZA, Duque-Molina C, Borrayo-S\u00e1nchez G, Gonz\u00e1lez-Le\u00f3n M, Avil\u00e9s-Hern\u00e1ndez R, Contreras-S\u00e1nchez SE, Leslie HH, Kruk M, P\u00e9rez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ global health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/7/3/e008099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8905410?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34230034", @@ -16778,6 +16761,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/bmjresp/8/1/e000967.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2021-000967; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261886?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37284234", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9", + "title": "The shock, the coping, the resilience: smartphone application use reveals Covid-19 lockdown effects on human behaviors.", + "authorString": "Liu XF, Wang ZZ, Xu XK, Wu Y, Zhao Z, Deng H, Wang P, Chao N, Huang YC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EPJ data science", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Human behaviors; Natural Experiment; Lockdown; Smartphone Apps; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Human mobility restriction policies have been widely used to contain the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). However, a critical question is how these policies affect individuals' behavioral and psychological well-being during and after confinement periods. Here, we analyze China's five most stringent city-level lockdowns in 2021, treating them as natural experiments that allow for examining behavioral changes in millions of people through smartphone application use. We made three fundamental observations. First, the use of physical and economic activity-related apps experienced a steep decline, yet apps that provide daily necessities maintained normal usage. Second, apps that fulfilled lower-level human needs, such as working, socializing, information seeking, and entertainment, saw an immediate and substantial increase in screen time. Those that satisfied higher-level needs, such as education, only attracted delayed attention. Third, human behaviors demonstrated resilience as most routines resumed after the lockdowns were lifted. Nonetheless, long-term lifestyle changes were observed, as significant numbers of people chose to continue working and learning online, becoming \"digital residents.\" This study also demonstrates the capability of smartphone screen time analytics in the study of human behaviors.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10240109?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37198478", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06034-3", @@ -16829,23 +16829,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jaad.org/article/S0190962219326143/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2019.08.039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7704103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7704103?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35487738", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017", - "title": "Variation in the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity: systematic review and meta-analysis of 193 international studies.", - "authorString": "Ho IS, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Akbari A, Davies J, Hodgins P, Khunti K, Kadam U, Lyons R, McCowan C, Mercer SW, Nirantharakumar K, Guthrie B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-29", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Geriatric Medicine; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine)", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

(1) To estimate the pooled prevalence of multimorbidity in all age groups, globally. (2) To examine how measurement of multimorbidity impacted the estimated prevalence.

Methods

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we conducted searches in nine bibliographic databases (PsycINFO, Embase, Global Health, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global) for prevalence studies published between database inception and 21 January 2020. Studies reporting the prevalence of multimorbidity (in all age groups and in community, primary care, care home and hospital settings) were included. Studies with an index condition or those that did not include people with no long-term conditions in the denominator were excluded. Retrieved studies were independently reviewed by two reviewers, and relevant data were extracted using predesigned pro forma. We used meta-analysis to pool the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity across studies, and used random-effects meta-regression and subgroup analysis to examine the association of heterogeneous prevalence estimates with study and measure characteristics.

Results

13\u2009807 titles were screened, of which 193 met inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was 42.4% (95% CI 38.9% to 46.0%) with high heterogeneity (I2 >99%). In adjusted meta-regression models, participant mean age and the number of conditions included in a measure accounted for 47.8% of heterogeneity in effect sizes. The estimated prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in studies with older adults and those that included larger numbers of conditions. There was no significant difference in estimated prevalence between low-income or middle-income countries (36.8%) and high-income countries (44.3%), or between self-report (40.0%) and administrative/clinical databases (52.7%).

Conclusions

The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in older populations and when studies included a larger number of baseline conditions. The findings suggest that, to improve study comparability and quality of reporting, future studies should use a common core conditions set for multimorbidity measurement and report multimorbidity prevalence stratified by sociodemographics.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020172409.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057017.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33990383", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323546", @@ -16863,6 +16846,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/71/4/705.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323546; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8921573; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8921573?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35487738", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017", + "title": "Variation in the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity: systematic review and meta-analysis of 193 international studies.", + "authorString": "Ho IS, Azcoaga-Lorenzo A, Akbari A, Davies J, Hodgins P, Khunti K, Kadam U, Lyons R, McCowan C, Mercer SW, Nirantharakumar K, Guthrie B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Geriatric Medicine; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine)", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

(1) To estimate the pooled prevalence of multimorbidity in all age groups, globally. (2) To examine how measurement of multimorbidity impacted the estimated prevalence.

Methods

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we conducted searches in nine bibliographic databases (PsycINFO, Embase, Global Health, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global) for prevalence studies published between database inception and 21 January 2020. Studies reporting the prevalence of multimorbidity (in all age groups and in community, primary care, care home and hospital settings) were included. Studies with an index condition or those that did not include people with no long-term conditions in the denominator were excluded. Retrieved studies were independently reviewed by two reviewers, and relevant data were extracted using predesigned pro forma. We used meta-analysis to pool the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity across studies, and used random-effects meta-regression and subgroup analysis to examine the association of heterogeneous prevalence estimates with study and measure characteristics.

Results

13\u2009807 titles were screened, of which 193 met inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was 42.4% (95% CI 38.9% to 46.0%) with high heterogeneity (I2 >99%). In adjusted meta-regression models, participant mean age and the number of conditions included in a measure accounted for 47.8% of heterogeneity in effect sizes. The estimated prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in studies with older adults and those that included larger numbers of conditions. There was no significant difference in estimated prevalence between low-income or middle-income countries (36.8%) and high-income countries (44.3%), or between self-report (40.0%) and administrative/clinical databases (52.7%).

Conclusions

The pooled prevalence of multimorbidity was significantly higher in older populations and when studies included a larger number of baseline conditions. The findings suggest that, to improve study comparability and quality of reporting, future studies should use a common core conditions set for multimorbidity measurement and report multimorbidity prevalence stratified by sociodemographics.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020172409.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057017.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058768?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "30279426", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32876-3", @@ -16880,23 +16880,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32876-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32876-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6168481; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6168481?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35471746", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x", - "title": "The resilient intensive care unit.", - "authorString": "Salluh JIF, Kurtz P, Bastos LSL, Quintairos A, Zampieri FG, Bozza FA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Annals of intensive care", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) to respond to a crisis and demonstrated their fragility. Unsurprisingly, higher than usual mortality rates, lengths of stay (LOS), and ICU-acquired complications occurred during the pandemic. However, worse outcomes were not universal nor constant across ICUs and significant variation in outcomes was reported, demonstrating that some ICUs could adequately manage the surge of COVID-19.

Methods

In the present editorial, we discuss the concept of a resilient Intensive Care Unit, including which metrics can be used to address the capacity to respond, sustain results and incorporate new practices that lead to improvement.

Results

We believe that a resiliency analysis adds a component of preparedness to the usual ICU performance evaluation and outcomes metrics to be used during the crisis and in regular times.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a resilient health system. Although this concept has been discussed for health systems, it was not tested in intensive care. Future studies should evaluate this concept to improve ICU organization for standard and pandemic times.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34873584", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101212", @@ -16931,6 +16914,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://content.iospress.com:443/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad191163?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad191163; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-191163; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175937; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175937?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35471746", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x", + "title": "The resilient intensive care unit.", + "authorString": "Salluh JIF, Kurtz P, Bastos LSL, Quintairos A, Zampieri FG, Bozza FA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Annals of intensive care", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) to respond to a crisis and demonstrated their fragility. Unsurprisingly, higher than usual mortality rates, lengths of stay (LOS), and ICU-acquired complications occurred during the pandemic. However, worse outcomes were not universal nor constant across ICUs and significant variation in outcomes was reported, demonstrating that some ICUs could adequately manage the surge of COVID-19.

Methods

In the present editorial, we discuss the concept of a resilient Intensive Care Unit, including which metrics can be used to address the capacity to respond, sustain results and incorporate new practices that lead to improvement.

Results

We believe that a resiliency analysis adds a component of preparedness to the usual ICU performance evaluation and outcomes metrics to be used during the crisis and in regular times.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a resilient health system. Although this concept has been discussed for health systems, it was not tested in intensive care. Future studies should evaluate this concept to improve ICU organization for standard and pandemic times.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-022-01011-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9038989?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34639581", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910265", @@ -16965,23 +16965,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/520674; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000520674; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8985014; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000520674" }, - { - "id": "36137640", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586", - "title": "Myocardial infarction and stroke subsequent to urinary tract infection (MISSOURI): protocol for a self-controlled case series using linked electronic health records.", - "authorString": "Reeve NF, Best V, Gillespie D, Hughes K, Lugg-Widger FV, Cannings-John R, Torabi F, Wootton M, Akbari A, Ahmed H.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Urinary tract infections", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

There is increasing interest in the relationship between acute infections and acute cardiovascular events. Most previous research has focused on understanding whether the risk of acute cardiovascular events increases following a respiratory tract infection. The relationship between urinary tract infections (UTIs) and acute cardiovascular events is less well studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine whether there is a causal relationship between UTI and acute myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke.

Methods and analysis

We will undertake a self-controlled case series study using linked anonymised general practice, hospital admission and microbiology data held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Self-controlled case series is a relatively novel study design where individuals act as their own controls, thereby inherently controlling for time-invariant confounders. Only individuals who experience an exposure and outcome of interest are included.We will identify individuals in the SAIL Databank who have a hospital admission record for acute MI or stroke during the study period of 2010-2020. Individuals will need to be aged 30-100 during the study period and be Welsh residents for inclusion. UTI will be identified using general practice, microbiology and hospital admissions data. We will calculate the incidence of MI and stroke in predefined risk periods following an UTI and in 'baseline' periods (without UTI exposure) and use conditional Poisson regression models to derive incidence rate ratios.

Ethics and dissemination

Data access, research permissions and approvals have been obtained from the SAIL independent Information Governance Review Panel, project number 0972. Findings will be disseminated through conferences, blogs, social media threads and peer-reviewed journals. Results will be of interest internationally to primary and secondary care clinicians who manage UTIs and may inform future clinical trials of preventative therapy.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e064586.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35403174", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.14218/jctp.2022.00003", @@ -16999,6 +16982,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://publinestorage.blob.core.windows.net/journals/JCTP.2022.2(1).23.00003.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.14218/jctp.2022.00003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8994161; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8994161?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35277454", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320417", + "title": "Smartphone detection of atrial fibrillation using photoplethysmography: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Gill S, Bunting KV, Sartini C, Cardoso VR, Ghoreishi N, Uh HW, Williams JA, Suzart-Woischnik K, Banerjee A, Asselbergs FW, Eijkemans M, Gkoutos GV, Kotecha D.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Photoplethysmography; Smartphone", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Timely diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (AF) is essential to reduce complications from this increasingly common condition. We sought to assess the diagnostic accuracy of smartphone camera photoplethysmography (PPG) compared with conventional electrocardiogram (ECG) for AF detection.

Methods

This is a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane (1980-December 2020), including any study or abstract, where smartphone PPG was compared with a reference ECG (1, 3 or 12-lead). Random effects meta-analysis was performed to pool sensitivity/specificity and identify publication bias, with study quality assessed using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2) risk of bias tool.

Results

28 studies were included (10 full-text publications and 18 abstracts), providing 31 comparisons of smartphone PPG versus ECG for AF detection. 11\u2009404 participants were included (2950 in AF), with most studies being small and based in secondary care. Sensitivity and specificity for AF detection were high, ranging from 81% to 100%, and from 85% to 100%, respectively. 20 comparisons from 17 studies were meta-analysed, including 6891 participants (2299 with AF); the pooled sensitivity was 94% (95% CI 92% to 95%) and specificity 97% (96%-98%), with substantial heterogeneity (p<0.01). Studies were of poor quality overall and none met all the QUADAS-2 criteria, with particular issues regarding selection bias and the potential for publication bias.

Conclusion

PPG provides a non-invasive, patient-led screening tool for AF. However, current evidence is limited to small, biased, low-quality studies with unrealistically high sensitivity and specificity. Further studies are needed, preferably independent from manufacturers, in order to advise clinicians on the true value of PPG technology for AF detection.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2022/03/10/heartjnl-2021-320417.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9554073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9554073?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36224187", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33826-4", @@ -17017,21 +17017,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33826-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33826-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556436; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9556436?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35277454", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320417", - "title": "Smartphone detection of atrial fibrillation using photoplethysmography: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Gill S, Bunting KV, Sartini C, Cardoso VR, Ghoreishi N, Uh HW, Williams JA, Suzart-Woischnik K, Banerjee A, Asselbergs FW, Eijkemans M, Gkoutos GV, Kotecha D.", + "id": "36137640", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586", + "title": "Myocardial infarction and stroke subsequent to urinary tract infection (MISSOURI): protocol for a self-controlled case series using linked electronic health records.", + "authorString": "Reeve NF, Best V, Gillespie D, Hughes K, Lugg-Widger FV, Cannings-John R, Torabi F, Wootton M, Akbari A, Ahmed H.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-26", + "date": "2022-09-22", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Atrial fibrillation; Photoplethysmography; Smartphone", + "keywords": "Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Urinary tract infections", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Timely diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (AF) is essential to reduce complications from this increasingly common condition. We sought to assess the diagnostic accuracy of smartphone camera photoplethysmography (PPG) compared with conventional electrocardiogram (ECG) for AF detection.

Methods

This is a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane (1980-December 2020), including any study or abstract, where smartphone PPG was compared with a reference ECG (1, 3 or 12-lead). Random effects meta-analysis was performed to pool sensitivity/specificity and identify publication bias, with study quality assessed using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2) risk of bias tool.

Results

28 studies were included (10 full-text publications and 18 abstracts), providing 31 comparisons of smartphone PPG versus ECG for AF detection. 11\u2009404 participants were included (2950 in AF), with most studies being small and based in secondary care. Sensitivity and specificity for AF detection were high, ranging from 81% to 100%, and from 85% to 100%, respectively. 20 comparisons from 17 studies were meta-analysed, including 6891 participants (2299 with AF); the pooled sensitivity was 94% (95% CI 92% to 95%) and specificity 97% (96%-98%), with substantial heterogeneity (p<0.01). Studies were of poor quality overall and none met all the QUADAS-2 criteria, with particular issues regarding selection bias and the potential for publication bias.

Conclusion

PPG provides a non-invasive, patient-led screening tool for AF. However, current evidence is limited to small, biased, low-quality studies with unrealistically high sensitivity and specificity. Further studies are needed, preferably independent from manufacturers, in order to advise clinicians on the true value of PPG technology for AF detection.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

There is increasing interest in the relationship between acute infections and acute cardiovascular events. Most previous research has focused on understanding whether the risk of acute cardiovascular events increases following a respiratory tract infection. The relationship between urinary tract infections (UTIs) and acute cardiovascular events is less well studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine whether there is a causal relationship between UTI and acute myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke.

Methods and analysis

We will undertake a self-controlled case series study using linked anonymised general practice, hospital admission and microbiology data held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. Self-controlled case series is a relatively novel study design where individuals act as their own controls, thereby inherently controlling for time-invariant confounders. Only individuals who experience an exposure and outcome of interest are included.We will identify individuals in the SAIL Databank who have a hospital admission record for acute MI or stroke during the study period of 2010-2020. Individuals will need to be aged 30-100 during the study period and be Welsh residents for inclusion. UTI will be identified using general practice, microbiology and hospital admissions data. We will calculate the incidence of MI and stroke in predefined risk periods following an UTI and in 'baseline' periods (without UTI exposure) and use conditional Poisson regression models to derive incidence rate ratios.

Ethics and dissemination

Data access, research permissions and approvals have been obtained from the SAIL independent Information Governance Review Panel, project number 0972. Findings will be disseminated through conferences, blogs, social media threads and peer-reviewed journals. Results will be of interest internationally to primary and secondary care clinicians who manage UTIs and may inform future clinical trials of preventative therapy.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2022/03/10/heartjnl-2021-320417.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-320417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9554073; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9554073?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/9/e064586.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064586; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9511592?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33653753", @@ -17118,23 +17118,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36214-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36214-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247810; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247810?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37438684", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3", - "title": "Estimating medication adherence from Electronic Health Records: comparing methods for mining and processing asthma treatment prescriptions.", - "authorString": "Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medical research methodology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Adherence; Asthma; Compliance; corticosteroid; Electronic Health Records", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Medication adherence is usually defined as the extent of the agreement between the medication regimen agreed to by patients with their healthcare provider and the real-world implementation. Proactive identification of those with poor adherence may be useful to identify those with poor disease control and offers the opportunity for ameliorative action. Adherence can be estimated from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by comparing medication dispensing records to the prescribed regimen. Several methods have been developed in the literature to infer adherence from EHRs, however there is no clear consensus on what should be considered the gold standard in each use case. Our objectives were to critically evaluate different measures of medication adherence in a large longitudinal Scottish EHR dataset. We used asthma, a chronic condition with high prevalence and high rates of non-adherence, as a case study.

Methods

Over 1.6 million asthma controllers were prescribed for our cohort of 91,334 individuals, between January 2009 and March 2017. Eight adherence measures were calculated, and different approaches to estimating the amount of medication supply available at any time were compared.

Results

Estimates from different measures of adherence varied substantially. Three of the main drivers of the differences between adherence measures were the expected duration (if taken as in accordance with the dose directions), whether there was overlapping supply between prescriptions, and whether treatment had been discontinued. However, there are also wider, study-related, factors which are crucial to consider when comparing the adherence measures.

Conclusions

We evaluated the limitations of various medication adherence measures, and highlight key considerations about the underlying data, condition, and population to guide researchers choose appropriate adherence measures. This guidance will enable researchers to make more informed decisions about the methodology they employ, ensuring that adherence is captured in the most meaningful way for their particular application needs.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3" - }, { "id": "36350810", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276781", @@ -17203,6 +17186,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i1e18229_app1.pdf&filename=7e28e6f3581cda60eb7faa74a1bb7968.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/18229; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862000" }, + { + "id": "37438684", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3", + "title": "Estimating medication adherence from Electronic Health Records: comparing methods for mining and processing asthma treatment prescriptions.", + "authorString": "Tibble H, Sheikh A, Tsanas A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medical research methodology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-07-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Adherence; Asthma; Compliance; corticosteroid; Electronic Health Records", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Medication adherence is usually defined as the extent of the agreement between the medication regimen agreed to by patients with their healthcare provider and the real-world implementation. Proactive identification of those with poor adherence may be useful to identify those with poor disease control and offers the opportunity for ameliorative action. Adherence can be estimated from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by comparing medication dispensing records to the prescribed regimen. Several methods have been developed in the literature to infer adherence from EHRs, however there is no clear consensus on what should be considered the gold standard in each use case. Our objectives were to critically evaluate different measures of medication adherence in a large longitudinal Scottish EHR dataset. We used asthma, a chronic condition with high prevalence and high rates of non-adherence, as a case study.

Methods

Over 1.6 million asthma controllers were prescribed for our cohort of 91,334 individuals, between January 2009 and March 2017. Eight adherence measures were calculated, and different approaches to estimating the amount of medication supply available at any time were compared.

Results

Estimates from different measures of adherence varied substantially. Three of the main drivers of the differences between adherence measures were the expected duration (if taken as in accordance with the dose directions), whether there was overlapping supply between prescriptions, and whether treatment had been discontinued. However, there are also wider, study-related, factors which are crucial to consider when comparing the adherence measures.

Conclusions

We evaluated the limitations of various medication adherence measures, and highlight key considerations about the underlying data, condition, and population to guide researchers choose appropriate adherence measures. This guidance will enable researchers to make more informed decisions about the methodology they employ, ensuring that adherence is captured in the most meaningful way for their particular application needs.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10337150?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12874-023-01935-3" + }, { "id": "34639458", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910156", @@ -17255,21 +17255,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/3/282.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317271; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7041499; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7041499?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36332947", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843", - "title": "Numbers and types of neurological emergencies in England and the influence of socioeconomic deprivation: a retrospective analysis of hospital episode statistics data.", - "authorString": "Jackson M, Szczepaniak M, Wall J, Maskery M, Mummery C, Morrish P, Williams A, Knight J, Emsley HCA.", + "id": "32249120", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044", + "title": "Area deprivation, urbanicity, severe mental illness and social drift - A population-based linkage study using routinely collected primary and secondary care data.", + "authorString": "Lee SC, DelPozo-Banos M, Lloyd K, Jones I, Walters JTR, Owen MJ, O'Donovan M, John A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Epilepsy; Neurology; Public Health", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

In this first large-scale analysis of neurological emergency admissions in England, we determine the number and types of emergency admissions with neurological emergency diagnostic codes, how many are under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon and how such admissions vary by levels of deprivation.

Design

Retrospective empirical research employing a derived list of neurological emergency diagnostic codes SETTING: This study used the Hospital Episode Statistics data set for the financial year 2019/2020 based on 17\u2009million in-year inpatient admissions in England including 6.5\u2009million (100%) emergency admissions with any diagnosis codes.

Results

There were 1.4\u2009million (21.2%) emergency inpatient admissions with a mention of any neurological code, approx. 248\u2009455 (3.8%) with mention of a specific neurological emergency code from the derived list, and 72\u2009485 (1.1%) included such a code as the primary reason for admission. The highest number of in-year admissions for adults was for epilepsy (145 995), with epilepsy as the primary diagnostic code in 15\u2009945 (10.9%). Acute nerve root/spinal cord syndrome (41 215), head injury (29 235) and subarachnoid haemorrhage (18 505) accounted for the next three highest number of admissions. 3230 (1.4%) in-year emergency hospital admissions with mention of a neurological emergency code were under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon, with only 1315 (0.9%) admissions with mention of an epilepsy code under a neurologist. There was significant variation for epilepsy and functional neurological disorders (FNDs) in particular by Index of Multiple Deprivation decile. The association between deprivation and epilepsy and FND was significant with p-values of 2.5e-6 and 1.5e-8, respectively.

Conclusions

This study has identified important findings in relation to the burden of neurological emergency admissions but further work is needed, with greater clinical engagement in diagnostic coding, to better understand the implications for workforce and changes to service delivery needing to be implemented.", + "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia research", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-04-02", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Schizophrenia; Bipolar disorder; Deprivation; Severe Mental Illness; Urbanicity; Social Drift", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", + "healthCategories": "mental health", + "abstract": "We investigated whether associations between area deprivation, urbanicity and elevated risk of severe mental illnesses (SMIs, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) is accounted for by social drift or social causation. We extracted primary and secondary care electronic health records from 2004 to 2015 from a population of 3.9 million. We identified prevalent and incident individuals with SMIs and their level of deprivation and urbanicity using the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and urban/rural indicator. The presence of social drift was determined by whether odds ratios (ORs) from logistic regression is greater than the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) from Poisson regression. Additionally, we performed longitudinal analysis to measure the proportion of change in deprivation level and rural/urban residence 10\u00a0years after an incident diagnosis of SMI and compared it to the general population using standardised rate ratios (SRRs). Prevalence and incidence of SMIs were significantly associated with deprivation and urbanicity (all ORs and IRRs significantly >1). ORs and IRRs were similar across all conditions and cohorts (ranging from 1.1 to 1.4). Results from the longitudinal analysis showed individuals with SMIs are more likely to move compared to the general population. However, they did not preferentially move to more deprived or urban areas. There was little evidence of downward social drift over a 10-year period. These findings have implications for the allocation of resources, service configuration and access to services in deprived communities, as well as, for broader public health interventions addressing poverty, and social and environmental contexts.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e061843.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044" }, { "id": "35537476", @@ -17288,23 +17288,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/01410768221095245; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768221095245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9234890?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32249120", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044", - "title": "Area deprivation, urbanicity, severe mental illness and social drift - A population-based linkage study using routinely collected primary and secondary care data.", - "authorString": "Lee SC, DelPozo-Banos M, Lloyd K, Jones I, Walters JTR, Owen MJ, O'Donovan M, John A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia research", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-04-02", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Schizophrenia; Bipolar disorder; Deprivation; Severe Mental Illness; Urbanicity; Social Drift", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", - "healthCategories": "mental health", - "abstract": "We investigated whether associations between area deprivation, urbanicity and elevated risk of severe mental illnesses (SMIs, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) is accounted for by social drift or social causation. We extracted primary and secondary care electronic health records from 2004 to 2015 from a population of 3.9 million. We identified prevalent and incident individuals with SMIs and their level of deprivation and urbanicity using the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) and urban/rural indicator. The presence of social drift was determined by whether odds ratios (ORs) from logistic regression is greater than the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) from Poisson regression. Additionally, we performed longitudinal analysis to measure the proportion of change in deprivation level and rural/urban residence 10\u00a0years after an incident diagnosis of SMI and compared it to the general population using standardised rate ratios (SRRs). Prevalence and incidence of SMIs were significantly associated with deprivation and urbanicity (all ORs and IRRs significantly >1). ORs and IRRs were similar across all conditions and cohorts (ranging from 1.1 to 1.4). Results from the longitudinal analysis showed individuals with SMIs are more likely to move compared to the general population. However, they did not preferentially move to more deprived or urban areas. There was little evidence of downward social drift over a 10-year period. These findings have implications for the allocation of resources, service configuration and access to services in deprived communities, as well as, for broader public health interventions addressing poverty, and social and environmental contexts.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.044" - }, { "id": "34974610", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab874", @@ -17322,6 +17305,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/4/271/46630082/ehab874.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab874" }, + { + "id": "36332947", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843", + "title": "Numbers and types of neurological emergencies in England and the influence of socioeconomic deprivation: a retrospective analysis of hospital episode statistics data.", + "authorString": "Jackson M, Szczepaniak M, Wall J, Maskery M, Mummery C, Morrish P, Williams A, Knight J, Emsley HCA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-04", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Epilepsy; Neurology; Public Health", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

In this first large-scale analysis of neurological emergency admissions in England, we determine the number and types of emergency admissions with neurological emergency diagnostic codes, how many are under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon and how such admissions vary by levels of deprivation.

Design

Retrospective empirical research employing a derived list of neurological emergency diagnostic codes SETTING: This study used the Hospital Episode Statistics data set for the financial year 2019/2020 based on 17\u2009million in-year inpatient admissions in England including 6.5\u2009million (100%) emergency admissions with any diagnosis codes.

Results

There were 1.4\u2009million (21.2%) emergency inpatient admissions with a mention of any neurological code, approx. 248\u2009455 (3.8%) with mention of a specific neurological emergency code from the derived list, and 72\u2009485 (1.1%) included such a code as the primary reason for admission. The highest number of in-year admissions for adults was for epilepsy (145 995), with epilepsy as the primary diagnostic code in 15\u2009945 (10.9%). Acute nerve root/spinal cord syndrome (41 215), head injury (29 235) and subarachnoid haemorrhage (18 505) accounted for the next three highest number of admissions. 3230 (1.4%) in-year emergency hospital admissions with mention of a neurological emergency code were under the care of a neurologist or neurosurgeon, with only 1315 (0.9%) admissions with mention of an epilepsy code under a neurologist. There was significant variation for epilepsy and functional neurological disorders (FNDs) in particular by Index of Multiple Deprivation decile. The association between deprivation and epilepsy and FND was significant with p-values of 2.5e-6 and 1.5e-8, respectively.

Conclusions

This study has identified important findings in relation to the burden of neurological emergency admissions but further work is needed, with greater clinical engagement in diagnostic coding, to better understand the implications for workforce and changes to service delivery needing to be implemented.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e061843.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639083?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32128788", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18889", @@ -17340,21 +17340,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18889; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18889; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7587014; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7587014?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31529485", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526", - "title": "The association of smoking and socioeconomic status on cutaneous melanoma: a population-based, data-linkage, case-control study.", - "authorString": "Gibson JAG, Dobbs TD, Griffiths R, Song J, Akbari A, Whitaker S, Watkins A, Langan SM, Hutchings HA, Lyons RA, Whitaker IS.", + "id": "37269003", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x", + "title": "Non-adherence and non-persistence to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Shahzad H, Mahmood S, McGee S, Hubbard J, Haque S, Paudyal V, Denniston AK, Hill LJ, Jalal Z.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-12-01", + "journalTitle": "Systematic reviews", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-02", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", + "keywords": "Meta-analysis; Intravitreal; Anti-vegf; Non-adherence; Macular; Non-persistence; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Previous studies have identified an inverse association between melanoma and smoking; however, data from population-based studies are scarce.

Objectives

To determine the association between smoking and socioeconomic (SES) on the risk of development of melanoma. Furthermore, we sought to determine the implications of smoking and SES on survival.

Methods

We conducted a population-based case-control study. Cases were identified from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU) during 2000-2015 and controls from the general population. Smoking and SES were obtained from data linkage with other national databases. The association of smoking status and SES on the incidence of melanoma were assessed using binary logistic regression. Multivariate survival analysis was performed on a melanoma cohort using a Cox proportional hazard model using survival as the outcome.

Results

During 2000-2015, 9636 patients developed melanoma. Smoking data were obtained for 7124 (73\u00b79%) of these patients. There were 26\u00a0408 controls identified from the general population. Smoking was inversely associated with melanoma incidence [odds ratio (OR) 0\u00b770,\u00a095% confidence interval (CI) 0\u00b765-0\u00b776]. Smoking was associated with an increased overall mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1\u00b730, 95% CI 1\u00b709-1\u00b755], but not associated with melanoma-specific mortality. Patients with higher SES had an increased association with melanoma incidence (OR 1\u00b758,\u00a095% CI 1\u00b744-1\u00b773). Higher SES was associated with an increased chance of both overall (HR 0\u00b767, 95% CI 0\u00b756-0\u00b781) and disease-specific survival (HR 0\u00b769, 95% CI 0\u00b753-0\u00b790).

Conclusions

Our study has demonstrated that smoking appeared to be associated with reduced incidence of melanoma. Although smoking increases overall mortality, no association was observed with melanoma-specific mortality. Further work is required to determine if there is a biological mechanism underlying this relationship or an alternative explanation, such as survival bias. What's already known about this topic? Previous studies have been contradictory with both negative and positive associations between smoking and the incidence of melanoma reported. Previous studies have either been limited by publication bias because of selective reporting or underpowered. What does this study add? Our large study identified an inverse association between smoking status and melanoma incidence. Although smoking status was negatively associated with overall disease survival, no significant association was noted in melanoma-specific survival. Socioeconomic status remains closely associated with melanoma. Although higher socioeconomic populations are more likely to develop the disease, patients with lower socioeconomic status continue to have a worse prognosis.", - "laySummary": "This study investiages whether there is a smoking and socioeconomic status is linked to the risk of developing melanoma (a skin cancer). They used a Welsh database to find data on individuals who had melanoma and linked this data with smoking status and socioeconomic status on other national databases. They found that melanoma was less likely in those who smoked, but was associated with less chance of survival (due to health problems other than melanoma). Those in higher socioeconomic status had overall higher likelihood of survival.", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Background

Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections play a key role in treating a range of macular diseases. The effectiveness of these therapies is dependent on patients' adherence (the extent to which a patient takes their medicines as per agreed recommendations from the healthcare provider) and persistence (continuation of the treatment for the prescribed duration) to their prescribed treatment regimens. The aim of this systematic review was to demonstrate the need for further investigation into the prevalence of, and factors contributing to, patient-led non-adherence and non-persistence, thus facilitating improved clinical outcomes.

Methods

Systematic searches were conducted in Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library. Studies in English conducted before February 2023 that reported the level of, and/or barriers to, non-adherence or non-persistence to intravitreal anti-VEGF ocular disease therapy were included. Duplicate papers, literature reviews, expert opinion articles, case studies, and case series were excluded following screening by two independent authors.

Results

Data from a total of 409,215 patients across 52 studies were analysed. Treatment regimens included pro re nata, monthly and treat-and-extend protocols; study durations ranged from 4\u00a0months to 8\u00a0years. Of the 52 studies, 22 included a breakdown of reasons for patient non-adherence/non-persistence. Patient-led non-adherence varied between 17.5 and 35.0% depending on the definition used. Overall pooled prevalence of patient-led treatment non-persistence was 30.0% (P\u2009=\u20090.000). Reasons for non-adherence/non-persistence included dissatisfaction with treatment results (29.9%), financial burden (19%), older age/comorbidities (15.5%), difficulty booking appointments (8.5%), travel distance/social isolation (7.9%), lack of time (5.8%), satisfaction with the perceived improvement in their condition (4.4%), fear of injection (4.0%), loss of motivation (4.0%), apathy towards eyesight (2.5%), dissatisfaction with facilities 2.3%, and discomfort/pain (0.3%). Three studies found non-adherence rates between 51.6 and 68.8% during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to fear of exposure to COVID-19 and difficulties travelling during lockdown.

Discussion

Results suggest high levels of patient-led non-adherence/non-persistence to anti-VEGF therapy, mostly due to dissatisfaction with treatment results, a combination of comorbidities, loss of motivation and the burden of travel. This study provides key information on prevalence and factors contributing to non-adherence/non-persistence in anti-VEGF treatment for macular diseases, aiding identification of at-risk individuals to improve real-world visual outcomes. Improvements in the literature can be achieved by establishing uniform definitions and standard timescales for what constitutes non-adherence/non-persistence.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42020216205.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080?pdf=render" }, { "id": "30659777", @@ -17374,38 +17374,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ijpo.12505; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12505; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6563186?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37269003", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x", - "title": "Non-adherence and non-persistence to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Shahzad H, Mahmood S, McGee S, Hubbard J, Haque S, Paudyal V, Denniston AK, Hill LJ, Jalal Z.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Systematic reviews", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Meta-analysis; Intravitreal; Anti-vegf; Non-adherence; Macular; Non-persistence; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections play a key role in treating a range of macular diseases. The effectiveness of these therapies is dependent on patients' adherence (the extent to which a patient takes their medicines as per agreed recommendations from the healthcare provider) and persistence (continuation of the treatment for the prescribed duration) to their prescribed treatment regimens. The aim of this systematic review was to demonstrate the need for further investigation into the prevalence of, and factors contributing to, patient-led non-adherence and non-persistence, thus facilitating improved clinical outcomes.

Methods

Systematic searches were conducted in Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library. Studies in English conducted before February 2023 that reported the level of, and/or barriers to, non-adherence or non-persistence to intravitreal anti-VEGF ocular disease therapy were included. Duplicate papers, literature reviews, expert opinion articles, case studies, and case series were excluded following screening by two independent authors.

Results

Data from a total of 409,215 patients across 52 studies were analysed. Treatment regimens included pro re nata, monthly and treat-and-extend protocols; study durations ranged from 4\u00a0months to 8\u00a0years. Of the 52 studies, 22 included a breakdown of reasons for patient non-adherence/non-persistence. Patient-led non-adherence varied between 17.5 and 35.0% depending on the definition used. Overall pooled prevalence of patient-led treatment non-persistence was 30.0% (P\u2009=\u20090.000). Reasons for non-adherence/non-persistence included dissatisfaction with treatment results (29.9%), financial burden (19%), older age/comorbidities (15.5%), difficulty booking appointments (8.5%), travel distance/social isolation (7.9%), lack of time (5.8%), satisfaction with the perceived improvement in their condition (4.4%), fear of injection (4.0%), loss of motivation (4.0%), apathy towards eyesight (2.5%), dissatisfaction with facilities 2.3%, and discomfort/pain (0.3%). Three studies found non-adherence rates between 51.6 and 68.8% during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to fear of exposure to COVID-19 and difficulties travelling during lockdown.

Discussion

Results suggest high levels of patient-led non-adherence/non-persistence to anti-VEGF therapy, mostly due to dissatisfaction with treatment results, a combination of comorbidities, loss of motivation and the burden of travel. This study provides key information on prevalence and factors contributing to non-adherence/non-persistence in anti-VEGF treatment for macular diseases, aiding identification of at-risk individuals to improve real-world visual outcomes. Improvements in the literature can be achieved by establishing uniform definitions and standard timescales for what constitutes non-adherence/non-persistence.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42020216205.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02261-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10237080?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "31504435", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569", - "title": "Obesity causes cardiovascular diseases: adding to the weight of evidence.", - "authorString": "Hingorani AD, Finan C, Schmidt AF.", + "id": "31529485", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526", + "title": "The association of smoking and socioeconomic status on cutaneous melanoma: a population-based, data-linkage, case-control study.", + "authorString": "Gibson JAG, Dobbs TD, Griffiths R, Song J, Akbari A, Whitaker S, Watkins A, Langan SM, Hutchings HA, Lyons RA, Whitaker IS.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal", + "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", + "date": "2019-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/41/2/227/31731687/ehz569.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569" + "abstract": "

Background

Previous studies have identified an inverse association between melanoma and smoking; however, data from population-based studies are scarce.

Objectives

To determine the association between smoking and socioeconomic (SES) on the risk of development of melanoma. Furthermore, we sought to determine the implications of smoking and SES on survival.

Methods

We conducted a population-based case-control study. Cases were identified from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU) during 2000-2015 and controls from the general population. Smoking and SES were obtained from data linkage with other national databases. The association of smoking status and SES on the incidence of melanoma were assessed using binary logistic regression. Multivariate survival analysis was performed on a melanoma cohort using a Cox proportional hazard model using survival as the outcome.

Results

During 2000-2015, 9636 patients developed melanoma. Smoking data were obtained for 7124 (73\u00b79%) of these patients. There were 26\u00a0408 controls identified from the general population. Smoking was inversely associated with melanoma incidence [odds ratio (OR) 0\u00b770,\u00a095% confidence interval (CI) 0\u00b765-0\u00b776]. Smoking was associated with an increased overall mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1\u00b730, 95% CI 1\u00b709-1\u00b755], but not associated with melanoma-specific mortality. Patients with higher SES had an increased association with melanoma incidence (OR 1\u00b758,\u00a095% CI 1\u00b744-1\u00b773). Higher SES was associated with an increased chance of both overall (HR 0\u00b767, 95% CI 0\u00b756-0\u00b781) and disease-specific survival (HR 0\u00b769, 95% CI 0\u00b753-0\u00b790).

Conclusions

Our study has demonstrated that smoking appeared to be associated with reduced incidence of melanoma. Although smoking increases overall mortality, no association was observed with melanoma-specific mortality. Further work is required to determine if there is a biological mechanism underlying this relationship or an alternative explanation, such as survival bias. What's already known about this topic? Previous studies have been contradictory with both negative and positive associations between smoking and the incidence of melanoma reported. Previous studies have either been limited by publication bias because of selective reporting or underpowered. What does this study add? Our large study identified an inverse association between smoking status and melanoma incidence. Although smoking status was negatively associated with overall disease survival, no significant association was noted in melanoma-specific survival. Socioeconomic status remains closely associated with melanoma. Although higher socioeconomic populations are more likely to develop the disease, patients with lower socioeconomic status continue to have a worse prognosis.", + "laySummary": "This study investiages whether there is a smoking and socioeconomic status is linked to the risk of developing melanoma (a skin cancer). They used a Welsh database to find data on individuals who had melanoma and linked this data with smoking status and socioeconomic status on other national databases. They found that melanoma was less likely in those who smoked, but was associated with less chance of survival (due to health problems other than melanoma). Those in higher socioeconomic status had overall higher likelihood of survival.", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7383980?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36134690", @@ -17441,6 +17424,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztad037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393938; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10393938?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31504435", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569", + "title": "Obesity causes cardiovascular diseases: adding to the weight of evidence.", + "authorString": "Hingorani AD, Finan C, Schmidt AF.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/41/2/227/31731687/ehz569.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz569" + }, { "id": "36763324", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-023-00635-1", @@ -17560,23 +17560,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://content.iospress.com:443/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad210462?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad210462; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-210462; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8609677?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31744503", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y", - "title": "Bleeding in cardiac patients prescribed antithrombotic drugs: electronic health record phenotyping algorithms, incidence, trends and prognosis.", - "authorString": "Pasea L, Chung SC, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Shah AD, Alvarez-Madrazo S, Allan V, Teo JT, Bean D, Sofat R, Dobson R, Banerjee A, Patel RS, Timmis A, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-11-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Phenotype; Bleeding; Prognosis; Antithrombotic Therapy; Electronic Health Records", - "nationalPriorities": "The Human Phenome", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Clinical guidelines and public health authorities lack recommendations on scalable approaches to defining and monitoring the occurrence and severity of bleeding in populations prescribed antithrombotic therapy.

Methods

We examined linked primary care, hospital admission and death registry electronic health records (CALIBER 1998-2010, England) of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina or stable angina with the aim to develop algorithms for bleeding events. Using the developed bleeding phenotypes, Kaplan-Meier plots were used to estimate the incidence of bleeding events and we used Cox regression models to assess the prognosis for all-cause mortality, atherothrombotic events and further bleeding.

Results

We present electronic health record phenotyping algorithms for bleeding based on bleeding diagnosis in primary or hospital care, symptoms, transfusion, surgical procedures and haemoglobin values. In validation of the phenotype, we estimated a positive predictive value of 0.88 (95% CI 0.64, 0.99) for hospitalised bleeding. Amongst 128,815 patients, 27,259 (21.2%) had at least 1 bleeding event, with 5-year risks of bleeding of 29.1%, 21.9%, 25.3% and 23.4% following diagnoses of atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina and stable angina, respectively. Rates of hospitalised bleeding per 1000 patients more than doubled from 1.02 (95% CI 0.83, 1.22) in January 1998 to 2.68 (95% CI 2.49, 2.88) in December 2009 coinciding with the increased rates of antiplatelet and vitamin K antagonist prescribing. Patients with hospitalised bleeding and primary care bleeding, with or without markers of severity, were at increased risk of all-cause mortality and atherothrombotic events compared to those with no bleeding. For example, the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 1.98 (95% CI 1.86, 2.11) for primary care bleeding with markers of severity and 1.99 (95% CI 1.92, 2.05) for hospitalised bleeding without markers of severity, compared to patients with no bleeding.

Conclusions

Electronic health record bleeding phenotyping algorithms offer a scalable approach to monitoring bleeding in the population. Incidence of bleeding has doubled in incidence since 1998, affects one in four cardiovascular disease patients, and is associated with poor prognosis. Efforts are required to tackle this iatrogenic epidemic.", - "laySummary": "A phenotyping algorithm is presented to monitor bleeding in primary and hospital care. Model is well presented in the document and has potential to be scalable and applied to other conditions.", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37101398", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2868", @@ -17594,6 +17577,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2868; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2868" }, + { + "id": "31744503", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y", + "title": "Bleeding in cardiac patients prescribed antithrombotic drugs: electronic health record phenotyping algorithms, incidence, trends and prognosis.", + "authorString": "Pasea L, Chung SC, Pujades-Rodriguez M, Shah AD, Alvarez-Madrazo S, Allan V, Teo JT, Bean D, Sofat R, Dobson R, Banerjee A, Patel RS, Timmis A, Denaxas S, Hemingway H.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-11-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Phenotype; Bleeding; Prognosis; Antithrombotic Therapy; Electronic Health Records", + "nationalPriorities": "The Human Phenome", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Clinical guidelines and public health authorities lack recommendations on scalable approaches to defining and monitoring the occurrence and severity of bleeding in populations prescribed antithrombotic therapy.

Methods

We examined linked primary care, hospital admission and death registry electronic health records (CALIBER 1998-2010, England) of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina or stable angina with the aim to develop algorithms for bleeding events. Using the developed bleeding phenotypes, Kaplan-Meier plots were used to estimate the incidence of bleeding events and we used Cox regression models to assess the prognosis for all-cause mortality, atherothrombotic events and further bleeding.

Results

We present electronic health record phenotyping algorithms for bleeding based on bleeding diagnosis in primary or hospital care, symptoms, transfusion, surgical procedures and haemoglobin values. In validation of the phenotype, we estimated a positive predictive value of 0.88 (95% CI 0.64, 0.99) for hospitalised bleeding. Amongst 128,815 patients, 27,259 (21.2%) had at least 1 bleeding event, with 5-year risks of bleeding of 29.1%, 21.9%, 25.3% and 23.4% following diagnoses of atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina and stable angina, respectively. Rates of hospitalised bleeding per 1000 patients more than doubled from 1.02 (95% CI 0.83, 1.22) in January 1998 to 2.68 (95% CI 2.49, 2.88) in December 2009 coinciding with the increased rates of antiplatelet and vitamin K antagonist prescribing. Patients with hospitalised bleeding and primary care bleeding, with or without markers of severity, were at increased risk of all-cause mortality and atherothrombotic events compared to those with no bleeding. For example, the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 1.98 (95% CI 1.86, 2.11) for primary care bleeding with markers of severity and 1.99 (95% CI 1.92, 2.05) for hospitalised bleeding without markers of severity, compared to patients with no bleeding.

Conclusions

Electronic health record bleeding phenotyping algorithms offer a scalable approach to monitoring bleeding in the population. Incidence of bleeding has doubled in incidence since 1998, affects one in four cardiovascular disease patients, and is associated with poor prognosis. Efforts are required to tackle this iatrogenic epidemic.", + "laySummary": "A phenotyping algorithm is presented to monitor bleeding in primary and hospital care. Model is well presented in the document and has potential to be scalable and applied to other conditions.", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1438-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6864929?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35508365", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2021-044513", @@ -17628,23 +17628,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/156643/files/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.156643; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9977494; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9977494?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35038301", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/30523", - "title": "Requirements for a Bespoke Intensive Care Unit Dashboard in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Semistructured Interview Study.", - "authorString": "Davidson B, Ferrer Portillo KM, Wac M, McWilliams C, Bourdeaux C, Craddock I.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR human factors", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Development; Monitoring; Design; Disease monitoring; ICU; Interview; Intensive Care; Critical Care; Ehealth; Dashboard; Human-centered Design; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Intensive care units (ICUs) around the world are in high demand due to patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. As researchers at the University of Bristol, we were approached to develop a bespoke data visualization dashboard to assist two local ICUs during the pandemic that will centralize disparate data sources in the ICU to help reduce the cognitive load on busy ICU staff in the ever-evolving pandemic.

Objective

The aim of this study was to conduct interviews with ICU staff in University Hospitals Bristol and Weston National Health Service Foundation Trust to elicit requirements for a bespoke dashboard to monitor the high volume of patients, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted six semistructured interviews with clinical staff to obtain an overview of their requirements for the dashboard and to ensure its ultimate suitability for end users. Interview questions aimed to understand the job roles undertaken in the ICU, potential uses of the dashboard, specific issues associated with managing COVID-19 patients, key data of interest, and any concerns about the introduction of a dashboard into the ICU.

Results

From our interviews, we found the following design requirements: (1) a flexible dashboard, where the functionality can be updated quickly and effectively to respond to emerging information about the management of this new disease; (2) a mobile dashboard, which allows staff to move around on wards with a dashboard, thus potentially replacing paper forms to enable detailed and consistent data entry; (3) a customizable and intuitive dashboard, where individual users would be able to customize the appearance of the dashboard to suit their role; (4) real-time data and trend analysis via informative data visualizations that help busy ICU staff to understand a patient's clinical trajectory; and (5) the ability to manage tasks and staff, tracking both staff and patient movements, handovers, and task monitoring to ensure the highest quality of care.

Conclusions

The findings of this study confirm that digital solutions for ICU use would potentially reduce the cognitive load of ICU staff and reduce clinical errors at a time of notably high demand of intensive health care.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://humanfactors.jmir.org/2022/2/e30523/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/30523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009380" - }, { "id": "35776955", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac039", @@ -17662,6 +17645,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9442847; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9442847?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac039" }, + { + "id": "35038301", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/30523", + "title": "Requirements for a Bespoke Intensive Care Unit Dashboard in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Semistructured Interview Study.", + "authorString": "Davidson B, Ferrer Portillo KM, Wac M, McWilliams C, Bourdeaux C, Craddock I.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JMIR human factors", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Development; Monitoring; Design; Disease monitoring; ICU; Interview; Intensive Care; Critical Care; Ehealth; Dashboard; Human-centered Design; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Intensive care units (ICUs) around the world are in high demand due to patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. As researchers at the University of Bristol, we were approached to develop a bespoke data visualization dashboard to assist two local ICUs during the pandemic that will centralize disparate data sources in the ICU to help reduce the cognitive load on busy ICU staff in the ever-evolving pandemic.

Objective

The aim of this study was to conduct interviews with ICU staff in University Hospitals Bristol and Weston National Health Service Foundation Trust to elicit requirements for a bespoke dashboard to monitor the high volume of patients, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted six semistructured interviews with clinical staff to obtain an overview of their requirements for the dashboard and to ensure its ultimate suitability for end users. Interview questions aimed to understand the job roles undertaken in the ICU, potential uses of the dashboard, specific issues associated with managing COVID-19 patients, key data of interest, and any concerns about the introduction of a dashboard into the ICU.

Results

From our interviews, we found the following design requirements: (1) a flexible dashboard, where the functionality can be updated quickly and effectively to respond to emerging information about the management of this new disease; (2) a mobile dashboard, which allows staff to move around on wards with a dashboard, thus potentially replacing paper forms to enable detailed and consistent data entry; (3) a customizable and intuitive dashboard, where individual users would be able to customize the appearance of the dashboard to suit their role; (4) real-time data and trend analysis via informative data visualizations that help busy ICU staff to understand a patient's clinical trajectory; and (5) the ability to manage tasks and staff, tracking both staff and patient movements, handovers, and task monitoring to ensure the highest quality of care.

Conclusions

The findings of this study confirm that digital solutions for ICU use would potentially reduce the cognitive load of ICU staff and reduce clinical errors at a time of notably high demand of intensive health care.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://humanfactors.jmir.org/2022/2/e30523/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/30523; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009380" + }, { "id": "32518842", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15786.1", @@ -17696,23 +17696,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/4/4031/pdf?version=1676950066; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24044031; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9961357; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9961357?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36264615", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.122.003704", - "title": "Prevalence and Disease Expression of Pathogenic and Likely Pathogenic Variants Associated With Inherited Cardiomyopathies in the General Population.", - "authorString": "Bourfiss M, van Vugt M, Alasiri AI, Ruijsink B, van Setten J, Schmidt AF, Dooijes D, Puyol-Ant\u00f3n E, Velthuis BK, van Tintelen JP, Te Riele ASJM, Baas AF, Asselbergs FW.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Genetics; Dilated cardiomyopathy; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Whole Exome Sequencing", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are recommended to be reported as secondary findings in genome sequencing studies. This provides opportunities for early diagnosis, but also fuels uncertainty in variant carriers (G+), since disease penetrance is incomplete. We assessed the prevalence and disease expression of G+ in the general population.

Methods

We identified pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and/or HCM in 200 643 UK Biobank individuals, who underwent whole exome sequencing. We calculated the prevalence of G+ and analyzed the frequency of cardiomyopathy/heart failure diagnosis. In undiagnosed individuals, we analyzed early signs of disease expression using available electrocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging data.

Results

We found a prevalence of 1:578, 1:251, and 1:149 for pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and HCM respectively. Compared with controls, cardiovascular mortality was higher in DCM G+ (odds ratio 1.67 [95% CI 1.04; 2.59], P=0.030), but similar in ARVC and HCM G+ (P\u22650.100). Cardiomyopathy or heart failure diagnosis were more frequent in DCM G+ (odds ratio 3.66 [95% CI 2.24; 5.81], P=4.9\u00d710-7) and HCM G+ (odds ratio 3.03 [95% CI 1.98; 4.56], P=5.8\u00d710-7), but comparable in ARVC G+ (P=0.172). In contrast, ARVC G+ had more ventricular arrhythmias (P=3.3\u00d710-4). In undiagnosed individuals, left ventricular ejection fraction was reduced in DCM G+ (P=0.009).

Conclusions

In the general population, pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM, or HCM are not uncommon. Although G+ have increased mortality and morbidity, disease penetrance in these carriers from the general population remains low (1.2-3.1%). Follow-up decisions in case of incidental findings should not be based solely on a variant, but on multiple factors, including family history and disease expression.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10160737/3/Asselbergs_hcg-15-e003704.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.122.003704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36809311", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ejendo/lvad024", @@ -17730,6 +17713,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ejendo/article-pdf/188/3/290/49630912/lvad024.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ejendo/lvad024" }, + { + "id": "36264615", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.122.003704", + "title": "Prevalence and Disease Expression of Pathogenic and Likely Pathogenic Variants Associated With Inherited Cardiomyopathies in the General Population.", + "authorString": "Bourfiss M, van Vugt M, Alasiri AI, Ruijsink B, van Setten J, Schmidt AF, Dooijes D, Puyol-Ant\u00f3n E, Velthuis BK, van Tintelen JP, Te Riele ASJM, Baas AF, Asselbergs FW.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Genetics; Dilated cardiomyopathy; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Whole Exome Sequencing", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are recommended to be reported as secondary findings in genome sequencing studies. This provides opportunities for early diagnosis, but also fuels uncertainty in variant carriers (G+), since disease penetrance is incomplete. We assessed the prevalence and disease expression of G+ in the general population.

Methods

We identified pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and/or HCM in 200 643 UK Biobank individuals, who underwent whole exome sequencing. We calculated the prevalence of G+ and analyzed the frequency of cardiomyopathy/heart failure diagnosis. In undiagnosed individuals, we analyzed early signs of disease expression using available electrocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging data.

Results

We found a prevalence of 1:578, 1:251, and 1:149 for pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM and HCM respectively. Compared with controls, cardiovascular mortality was higher in DCM G+ (odds ratio 1.67 [95% CI 1.04; 2.59], P=0.030), but similar in ARVC and HCM G+ (P\u22650.100). Cardiomyopathy or heart failure diagnosis were more frequent in DCM G+ (odds ratio 3.66 [95% CI 2.24; 5.81], P=4.9\u00d710-7) and HCM G+ (odds ratio 3.03 [95% CI 1.98; 4.56], P=5.8\u00d710-7), but comparable in ARVC G+ (P=0.172). In contrast, ARVC G+ had more ventricular arrhythmias (P=3.3\u00d710-4). In undiagnosed individuals, left ventricular ejection fraction was reduced in DCM G+ (P=0.009).

Conclusions

In the general population, pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants associated with ARVC, DCM, or HCM are not uncommon. Although G+ have increased mortality and morbidity, disease penetrance in these carriers from the general population remains low (1.2-3.1%). Follow-up decisions in case of incidental findings should not be based solely on a variant, but on multiple factors, including family history and disease expression.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10160737/3/Asselbergs_hcg-15-e003704.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.122.003704; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9770140?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36529028", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104942", @@ -17798,23 +17798,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261142&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757902?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35210898", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2147/por.s353400", - "title": "Deriving a Standardised Recommended Respiratory Disease Codelist Repository for Future Research.", - "authorString": "MacRae C, Whittaker H, Mukherjee M, Daines L, Morgan A, Iwundu C, Alsallakh M, Vasileiou E, O'Rourke E, Williams AT, Stone PW, Sheikh A, Quint JK.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Pragmatic and observational research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-02-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Asthma; COPD; Respiratory Tract Infections; Electronic Healthcare Records", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Electronic health record (EHR) databases provide rich, longitudinal data on interactions with healthcare providers and can be used to advance research into respiratory conditions. However, since these data are primarily collected to support health care delivery, clinical coding can be inconsistent, resulting in inherent challenges in using these data for research purposes.

Methods

We systematically searched existing international literature and UK code repositories to find respiratory disease codelists for asthma from January 2018, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and respiratory tract infections from January 2020, based on prior searches. Medline searches using key terms provided in article lists. Full-text articles, supplementary files, and reference lists were examined for codelists, and codelists repositories were searched. A reproducible methodology for codelists creation was developed with recommended lists for each disease created based on multidisciplinary expert opinion and previously published literature.

Results

Medline searches returned 1126 asthma articles, 70 COPD articles, and 90 respiratory infection articles, with 3%, 22% and 5% including codelists, respectively. Repository searching returned 12 asthma, 23 COPD, and 64 respiratory infection codelists. We have systematically compiled respiratory disease codelists and from these derived recommended lists for use by researchers to find the most up-to-date and relevant respiratory disease codelists that can be tailored to individual research questions.

Conclusion

Few published papers include codelists, and where published diverse codelists were used, even when answering similar research questions. Whilst some advances have been made, greater consistency and transparency across studies using routine data to study respiratory diseases are needed.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=78337; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/POR.S353400; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34125897", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab449", @@ -17849,6 +17832,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007085; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007085; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819531?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35210898", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2147/por.s353400", + "title": "Deriving a Standardised Recommended Respiratory Disease Codelist Repository for Future Research.", + "authorString": "MacRae C, Whittaker H, Mukherjee M, Daines L, Morgan A, Iwundu C, Alsallakh M, Vasileiou E, O'Rourke E, Williams AT, Stone PW, Sheikh A, Quint JK.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Pragmatic and observational research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-02-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Asthma; COPD; Respiratory Tract Infections; Electronic Healthcare Records", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Electronic health record (EHR) databases provide rich, longitudinal data on interactions with healthcare providers and can be used to advance research into respiratory conditions. However, since these data are primarily collected to support health care delivery, clinical coding can be inconsistent, resulting in inherent challenges in using these data for research purposes.

Methods

We systematically searched existing international literature and UK code repositories to find respiratory disease codelists for asthma from January 2018, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and respiratory tract infections from January 2020, based on prior searches. Medline searches using key terms provided in article lists. Full-text articles, supplementary files, and reference lists were examined for codelists, and codelists repositories were searched. A reproducible methodology for codelists creation was developed with recommended lists for each disease created based on multidisciplinary expert opinion and previously published literature.

Results

Medline searches returned 1126 asthma articles, 70 COPD articles, and 90 respiratory infection articles, with 3%, 22% and 5% including codelists, respectively. Repository searching returned 12 asthma, 23 COPD, and 64 respiratory infection codelists. We have systematically compiled respiratory disease codelists and from these derived recommended lists for use by researchers to find the most up-to-date and relevant respiratory disease codelists that can be tailored to individual research questions.

Conclusion

Few published papers include codelists, and where published diverse codelists were used, even when answering similar research questions. Whilst some advances have been made, greater consistency and transparency across studies using routine data to study respiratory diseases are needed.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=78337; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/POR.S353400; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8859726?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36721180", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6", @@ -17866,23 +17866,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://health-policy-systems.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00956-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9888332; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9888332?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37319288", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264", - "title": "Evaluation of data processing pipelines on real-world electronic health records data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity.", - "authorString": "Pikoula M, Kallis C, Madjiheurem S, Quint JK, Bafadhel M, Denaxas S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-15", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The ever-growing size, breadth, and availability of patient data allows for a wide variety of clinical features to serve as inputs for phenotype discovery using cluster analysis. Data of mixed types in particular are not straightforward to combine into a single feature vector, and techniques used to address this can be biased towards certain data types in ways that are not immediately obvious or intended. In this context, the process of constructing clinically meaningful patient representations from complex datasets has not been systematically evaluated.

Aims

Our aim was to a) outline and b) implement an analytical framework to evaluate distinct methods of constructing patient representations from routine electronic health record data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity. We applied the analysis on a patient cohort diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Methods

Using data from the CALIBER data resource, we extracted clinically relevant features for a cohort of patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We used four different data processing pipelines to construct lower dimensional patient representations from which we calculated patient similarity scores. We described the resulting representations, ranked the influence of each individual feature on patient similarity and evaluated the effect of different pipelines on clustering outcomes. Experts evaluated the resulting representations by rating the clinical relevance of similar patient suggestions with regard to a reference patient.

Results

Each of the four pipelines resulted in similarity scores primarily driven by a unique set of features. It was demonstrated that data transformations according to each pipeline prior to clustering can result in a variation of clustering results of over 40%. The most appropriate pipeline was selected on the basis of feature ranking and clinical expertise. There was moderate agreement between clinicians as measured by Cohen's kappa coefficient.

Conclusions

Data transformation has downstream and unforeseen consequences in cluster analysis. Rather than viewing this process as a black box, we have shown ways to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate and select the appropriate preprocessing pipeline.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287264&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30729733", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12512", @@ -17917,6 +17900,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/50/3/795/37807880/afaa138.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa138; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8098797; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8098797?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37319288", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264", + "title": "Evaluation of data processing pipelines on real-world electronic health records data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity.", + "authorString": "Pikoula M, Kallis C, Madjiheurem S, Quint JK, Bafadhel M, Denaxas S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-15", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The ever-growing size, breadth, and availability of patient data allows for a wide variety of clinical features to serve as inputs for phenotype discovery using cluster analysis. Data of mixed types in particular are not straightforward to combine into a single feature vector, and techniques used to address this can be biased towards certain data types in ways that are not immediately obvious or intended. In this context, the process of constructing clinically meaningful patient representations from complex datasets has not been systematically evaluated.

Aims

Our aim was to a) outline and b) implement an analytical framework to evaluate distinct methods of constructing patient representations from routine electronic health record data for the purpose of measuring patient similarity. We applied the analysis on a patient cohort diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Methods

Using data from the CALIBER data resource, we extracted clinically relevant features for a cohort of patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We used four different data processing pipelines to construct lower dimensional patient representations from which we calculated patient similarity scores. We described the resulting representations, ranked the influence of each individual feature on patient similarity and evaluated the effect of different pipelines on clustering outcomes. Experts evaluated the resulting representations by rating the clinical relevance of similar patient suggestions with regard to a reference patient.

Results

Each of the four pipelines resulted in similarity scores primarily driven by a unique set of features. It was demonstrated that data transformations according to each pipeline prior to clustering can result in a variation of clustering results of over 40%. The most appropriate pipeline was selected on the basis of feature ranking and clinical expertise. There was moderate agreement between clinicians as measured by Cohen's kappa coefficient.

Conclusions

Data transformation has downstream and unforeseen consequences in cluster analysis. Rather than viewing this process as a black box, we have shown ways to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate and select the appropriate preprocessing pipeline.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287264&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287264; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10270623?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32979970", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31966-8", @@ -18036,23 +18036,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/camh.12571; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12571; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10083915?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33096553", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266", - "title": "Association between diet and periodontitis: a cross-sectional study of 10,000 NHANES participants.", - "authorString": "Wright DM, McKenna G, Nugent A, Winning L, Linden GJ, Woodside JV.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The American journal of clinical nutrition", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-12-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Diet; Periodontitis; Nhanes; Robust Regression; Treelet Transformation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Periodontitis is a major cause of tooth loss globally. Risk factors include age, smoking, and diabetes. Intake of specific nutrients has been associated with periodontitis risk but there has been little research into the influence of overall diet, potentially more relevant when formulating dietary recommendations.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate potential associations between diet and periodontitis using novel statistical techniques for dietary pattern analysis.

Methods

Two 24-h dietary recalls and periodontal examination data from the cross-sectional US NHANES, 2009-2014 (n = 10,010), were used. Dietary patterns were extracted using treelet transformation, a data-driven hierarchical clustering and dimension reduction technique. Associations between each pattern [treelet component (TC)] and extent of periodontitis [proportion of sites with clinical attachment loss (CAL) \u2265 3\u00a0mm] were estimated using robust logistic quantile regression, adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, education level, smoking, BMI, and diabetes.

Results

Eight TCs explained 21% of the variation in diet, 1 of which (TC1) was associated with CAL extent. High TC1 scores represented a diet rich in salad, fruit, vegetables, poultry and seafood, and plain water or tea to drink. There was a substantial negative gradient in CAL extent from the lowest to the highest decile of TC1 (median proportion of sites with CAL \u2265 3\u00a0mm: decile 1 = 19.1%, decile 10 = 8.1%; OR, decile 10 compared with decile 1: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.46, 0.99).

Conclusions

Most dietary patterns identified were not associated with periodontitis extent. One pattern, however, rich in salad, fruit, and vegetables and with plain water or tea to drink, was associated with lower CAL extent. Treelet transformation may be a useful approach for calculating dietary patterns in nutrition research.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-pdf/112/6/1485/34844146/nqaa266.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266" - }, { "id": "37072241", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321888", @@ -18070,6 +18053,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2023/03/21/heartjnl-2022-321888.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321888; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314020; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314020?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33096553", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266", + "title": "Association between diet and periodontitis: a cross-sectional study of 10,000 NHANES participants.", + "authorString": "Wright DM, McKenna G, Nugent A, Winning L, Linden GJ, Woodside JV.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The American journal of clinical nutrition", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Diet; Periodontitis; Nhanes; Robust Regression; Treelet Transformation", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Periodontitis is a major cause of tooth loss globally. Risk factors include age, smoking, and diabetes. Intake of specific nutrients has been associated with periodontitis risk but there has been little research into the influence of overall diet, potentially more relevant when formulating dietary recommendations.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate potential associations between diet and periodontitis using novel statistical techniques for dietary pattern analysis.

Methods

Two 24-h dietary recalls and periodontal examination data from the cross-sectional US NHANES, 2009-2014 (n = 10,010), were used. Dietary patterns were extracted using treelet transformation, a data-driven hierarchical clustering and dimension reduction technique. Associations between each pattern [treelet component (TC)] and extent of periodontitis [proportion of sites with clinical attachment loss (CAL) \u2265 3\u00a0mm] were estimated using robust logistic quantile regression, adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, education level, smoking, BMI, and diabetes.

Results

Eight TCs explained 21% of the variation in diet, 1 of which (TC1) was associated with CAL extent. High TC1 scores represented a diet rich in salad, fruit, vegetables, poultry and seafood, and plain water or tea to drink. There was a substantial negative gradient in CAL extent from the lowest to the highest decile of TC1 (median proportion of sites with CAL \u2265 3\u00a0mm: decile 1 = 19.1%, decile 10 = 8.1%; OR, decile 10 compared with decile 1: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.46, 0.99).

Conclusions

Most dietary patterns identified were not associated with periodontitis extent. One pattern, however, rich in salad, fruit, and vegetables and with plain water or tea to drink, was associated with lower CAL extent. Treelet transformation may be a useful approach for calculating dietary patterns in nutrition research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-pdf/112/6/1485/34844146/nqaa266.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa266" + }, { "id": "36929232", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.28675", @@ -18172,6 +18172,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28729-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28729-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907312; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907312?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35487318", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.04.067", + "title": "Implications of elevated troponin on time-to-surgery in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative: TROP-CABG study).", + "authorString": "Benedetto U, Sinha S, Mulla A, Glampson B, Davies J, Panoulas V, Gautama S, Papadimitriou D, Woods K, Elliott P, Hemingway H, Williams B, Asselbergs FW, Melikian N, Krasopoulos G, Sayeed R, Wendler O, Baig K, Chukwuemeka A, Angelini GD, Sterne JAC, Johnson T, Shah AM, Perera D, Patel RS, Kharbanda R, Channon KM, Mayet J, Kaura A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-27", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Troponin; Myocardial infarction; Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting; Timing-to-surgery", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Implications of elevated troponin on time-to-surgery in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction(NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative:TROP-CABG study). Benedetto et al. BACKGROUND: The optimal timing of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and the utility of pre-operative troponin levels in decision-making remains unclear. We investigated (a) the association between peak pre-operative troponin and survival post-CABG in a large cohort of NSTEMI patients and (b) the interaction between troponin and time-to-surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of 1746 patients (1684 NSTEMI; 62 unstable angina) (mean age 69\u00a0\u00b1\u00a011\u00a0years,21% female) with recorded troponins that had CABG at five United Kingdom centers between 2010 and 2017. Time-segmented Cox regression was used to investigate the interaction of peak troponin and time-to-surgery on early (within 30\u00a0days) and late (beyond 30\u00a0days) survival. Average interval from peak troponin to surgery was 9\u00a0\u00b1\u00a015\u00a0days, with 1466 (84.0%) patients having CABG during the same admission. Sixty patients died within 30-days and another 211 died after a mean follow-up of 4\u00a0\u00b1\u00a02\u00a0years (30-day survival 0.97\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.004 and 5-year survival 0.83\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.01). Peak troponin was a strong predictor of early survival (adjusted P\u00a0=\u00a00.002) with a significant interaction with time-to-surgery (P interaction\u00a0=\u00a00.007). For peak troponin levels <100 times the upper limit of normal, there was no improvement in early survival with longer time-to-surgery. However, in patients with higher troponins, early survival increased progressively with a longer time-to-surgery, till day 10. Peak troponin did not influence survival beyond 30\u00a0days (adjusted P\u00a0=\u00a00.64). CONCLUSIONS: Peak troponin in NSTEMI patients undergoing CABG was a significant predictor of early mortality, strongly influenced the time-to-surgery and may prove to be a clinically useful biomarker in the management of these patients.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.04.067" + }, { "id": "32975552", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573", @@ -18190,21 +18207,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/2771181/jamapediatrics_viner_2020_oi_200071_1611604170.25358.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7519436; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.4573" }, { - "id": "35487318", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.04.067", - "title": "Implications of elevated troponin on time-to-surgery in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative: TROP-CABG study).", - "authorString": "Benedetto U, Sinha S, Mulla A, Glampson B, Davies J, Panoulas V, Gautama S, Papadimitriou D, Woods K, Elliott P, Hemingway H, Williams B, Asselbergs FW, Melikian N, Krasopoulos G, Sayeed R, Wendler O, Baig K, Chukwuemeka A, Angelini GD, Sterne JAC, Johnson T, Shah AM, Perera D, Patel RS, Kharbanda R, Channon KM, Mayet J, Kaura A.", + "id": "35104366", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21042", + "title": "Vaccine hesitancy and access to psoriasis care during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from a global patient-reported cross-sectional survey.", + "authorString": "Bechman K, Cook ES, Dand N, Yiu ZZN, Tsakok T, Meynell F, Coker B, Vincent A, Bachelez H, Barbosa I, Brown MA, Capon F, Contreras CR, De La Cruz C, Meglio PD, Gisondi P, Jullien D, Kelly J, Lambert J, Lancelot C, Langan SM, Mason KJ, McAteer H, Moorhead L, Naldi L, Norton S, Puig L, Spuls PI, Torres T, Urmston D, Vesty A, Warren RB, Waweru H, Weinman J, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Galloway JB, Mahil SK, PsoProtect study group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", + "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-27", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Troponin; Myocardial infarction; Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting; Timing-to-surgery", + "date": "2022-05-03", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Implications of elevated troponin on time-to-surgery in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction(NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative:TROP-CABG study). Benedetto et al. BACKGROUND: The optimal timing of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and the utility of pre-operative troponin levels in decision-making remains unclear. We investigated (a) the association between peak pre-operative troponin and survival post-CABG in a large cohort of NSTEMI patients and (b) the interaction between troponin and time-to-surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of 1746 patients (1684 NSTEMI; 62 unstable angina) (mean age 69\u00a0\u00b1\u00a011\u00a0years,21% female) with recorded troponins that had CABG at five United Kingdom centers between 2010 and 2017. Time-segmented Cox regression was used to investigate the interaction of peak troponin and time-to-surgery on early (within 30\u00a0days) and late (beyond 30\u00a0days) survival. Average interval from peak troponin to surgery was 9\u00a0\u00b1\u00a015\u00a0days, with 1466 (84.0%) patients having CABG during the same admission. Sixty patients died within 30-days and another 211 died after a mean follow-up of 4\u00a0\u00b1\u00a02\u00a0years (30-day survival 0.97\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.004 and 5-year survival 0.83\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.01). Peak troponin was a strong predictor of early survival (adjusted P\u00a0=\u00a00.002) with a significant interaction with time-to-surgery (P interaction\u00a0=\u00a00.007). For peak troponin levels <100 times the upper limit of normal, there was no improvement in early survival with longer time-to-surgery. However, in patients with higher troponins, early survival increased progressively with a longer time-to-surgery, till day 10. Peak troponin did not influence survival beyond 30\u00a0days (adjusted P\u00a0=\u00a00.64). CONCLUSIONS: Peak troponin in NSTEMI patients undergoing CABG was a significant predictor of early mortality, strongly influenced the time-to-surgery and may prove to be a clinically useful biomarker in the management of these patients.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.04.067" + "urls": "pdf:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8757812/file/8757816.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9545500; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9545500?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37190768", @@ -18223,23 +18240,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A60E6D761449A937DCE08F3A075B236D/S2045796023000276a.pdf/div-class-title-the-mental-health-of-all-children-in-contact-with-social-services-a-population-wide-record-linkage-study-in-northern-ireland-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796023000276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10227534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10227534?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35104366", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21042", - "title": "Vaccine hesitancy and access to psoriasis care during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from a global patient-reported cross-sectional survey.", - "authorString": "Bechman K, Cook ES, Dand N, Yiu ZZN, Tsakok T, Meynell F, Coker B, Vincent A, Bachelez H, Barbosa I, Brown MA, Capon F, Contreras CR, De La Cruz C, Meglio PD, Gisondi P, Jullien D, Kelly J, Lambert J, Lancelot C, Langan SM, Mason KJ, McAteer H, Moorhead L, Naldi L, Norton S, Puig L, Spuls PI, Torres T, Urmston D, Vesty A, Warren RB, Waweru H, Weinman J, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Galloway JB, Mahil SK, PsoProtect study group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-03", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8757812/file/8757816.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9545500; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9545500?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "PMC8855010", "doi": "https://doi.org/", @@ -18274,23 +18274,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.7b00879; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5891819; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5891819?pdf=render; pdf:https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jproteome.7b00879" }, - { - "id": "37217302", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827", - "title": "External validation of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study.", - "authorString": "Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Omer Y, Wallis LA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Emergency medicine journal : EMJ", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "risk management; Triage; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Tools proposed to triage ED acuity in suspected COVID-19 were derived and validated in higher income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from 27 August 2020 to 11 March 2022, was conducted to assess the performance of the PRIEST (Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage) tool, NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score, version 2), TEWS (Triage Early Warning Score), the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS (Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score) in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was intubation or non-invasive ventilation, death or intensive care unit admission at 30 days.

Results

Of the 446\u2009084 patients, 15\u2009397 (3.45%, 95% CI 34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST scores achieved good estimated discrimination (C-statistic 0.79 to 0.82) and identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.41 to 0.64. Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions, with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

No risk score outperformed existing clinical decision-making in determining the need for inpatient admission based on prediction of the primary outcome in this setting. Use of the PRIEST score at a threshold of one point higher than the previously recommended best approximated existing clinical accuracy.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://emj.bmj.com/content/emermed/early/2023/05/22/emermed-2022-212827.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33543581", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16578", @@ -18308,6 +18291,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16578" }, + { + "id": "37217302", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827", + "title": "External validation of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study.", + "authorString": "Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Omer Y, Wallis LA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Emergency medicine journal : EMJ", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "risk management; Triage; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Tools proposed to triage ED acuity in suspected COVID-19 were derived and validated in higher income settings during early waves of the pandemic. We estimated the accuracy of seven risk-stratification tools recommended to predict severe illness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods

An observational cohort study using routinely collected data from EDs across the Western Cape, from 27 August 2020 to 11 March 2022, was conducted to assess the performance of the PRIEST (Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage) tool, NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score, version 2), TEWS (Triage Early Warning Score), the WHO algorithm, CRB-65, Quick COVID-19 Severity Index and PMEWS (Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score) in suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was intubation or non-invasive ventilation, death or intensive care unit admission at 30 days.

Results

Of the 446\u2009084 patients, 15\u2009397 (3.45%, 95% CI 34% to 35.1%) experienced the primary outcome. Clinical decision-making for inpatient admission achieved a sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.78), specificity of 0.88 (95% CI 0.87 to 0.88) and the negative predictive value (NPV) of 0.99 (95% CI 0.99 to 0.99). NEWS2, PMEWS and PRIEST scores achieved good estimated discrimination (C-statistic 0.79 to 0.82) and identified patients at risk of adverse outcomes at recommended cut-offs with moderate sensitivity (>0.8) and specificity ranging from 0.41 to 0.64. Use of the tools at recommended thresholds would have more than doubled admissions, with only a 0.01% reduction in false negative triage.

Conclusion

No risk score outperformed existing clinical decision-making in determining the need for inpatient admission based on prediction of the primary outcome in this setting. Use of the PRIEST score at a threshold of one point higher than the previously recommended best approximated existing clinical accuracy.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://emj.bmj.com/content/emermed/early/2023/05/22/emermed-2022-212827.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212827; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359554?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33517835", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2021.1876736", @@ -18461,23 +18461,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cea.13741; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.13741" }, - { - "id": "37477360", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/ypg.0000000000000349", - "title": "Schizophrenia polygenic risk score and type 2 diabetes onset in older adults with no schizophrenia diagnosis.", - "authorString": "Shamsutdinova D, Ajnakina O, Roberts A, Stahl D.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Psychiatric genetics", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

An association between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and schizophrenia has long been observed, and recent research revealed presence of shared genetic factors. However, epidemiological evidence was inconsistent, some reported insignificant contribution of genetic factors to T2DM-schizophrenia comorbidity. Prior works studied people with schizophrenia, particularly, antipsychotic-naive patients, or those during the first psychotic experience to limit schizophrenia-related environmental factors. In contrast, we controlled such factors by utilizing a general population sample of individuals undiagnosed with schizophrenia. We hypothesized that if schizophrenia genetics impact T2DM development and such impact is not fully mediated by schizophrenia-related environment, people with high polygenic schizophrenia risk would exhibit elevated T2DM incidence.

Methods

Using a population-representative sample of adults aged \u226550 from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing ( n \u2005=\u20055968, 493 T2DM cases, average follow-up 8.7 years), we investigated if schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PGS-SZ) is associated with T2DM onset. A proportional hazards model with interval censoring was adjusted for age and sex (Model 1), and age, sex, BMI, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, exercise, smoking, depressive symptoms and T2DM polygenic risk score (Model 2). According to the power calculations, hazard rates > 1.14 per standard deviation in PGS-SZ could be detected.

Results

We did not observe a significant association between PGS-SZ and T2DM incidence (hazard ratio 1.04; 95% CI 0.93-1.15; and\u20051.01, 95% CI\u20050.94-1.09).

Conclusion

Our results suggest low contribution of the intrinsic biological mechanisms driven by the polygenic risk of schizophrenia on future T2DM onset. Further research is needed.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/YPG.0000000000000349; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36243582", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.09.052", @@ -18495,6 +18478,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2022.09.052" }, + { + "id": "37653496", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9", + "title": "Empagliflozin is associated with lower cardiovascular risk compared with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors in adults with and without cardiovascular disease: EMPagliflozin compaRative effectIveness and SafEty (EMPRISE) study results from Europe and Asia.", + "authorString": "Vistisen D, Carstensen B, Elisabetta P, Lanzinger S, Tan EC, Yabe D, Kim DJ, Sheu WH, Melzer-Cohen C, Holl RW, N\u00fa\u00f1ez J, Ha KH, Halvorsen S, Langslet G, Karasik A, Nystr\u00f6m T, Niskanen L, Guleria S, Klement R, Carrasco M, Foersch J, Shay C, Koeneman L, Hoti F, Farsani SF, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, EMPRISE EU, East Asia Study Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cardiovascular diabetology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Cardiovascular disease; Type 2 diabetes; Heart Failure; Comparative Effectiveness; Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors; Empagliflozin", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Studies that have reported lower risk for cardiovascular outcomes in users of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors (SGLT-2i) are limited by residual cofounding and lack of information on prior cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study compared risk of cardiovascular events in patients within routine care settings in Europe and Asia with type 2 diabetes (T2D) initiating empagliflozin compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) stratified by pre-existing CVD and history of heart failure (HF).

Methods and results

Adults initiating empagliflozin and DPP-4i in 2014-2018/19 from 11 countries in Europe and Asia were compared using propensity score matching and Cox proportional hazards regression to assess differences in rates of primary outcomes: hospitalisation for heart failure (HHF), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke; and secondary outcomes: cardiovascular mortality (CVM), coronary revascularisation procedure, composite outcome including HHF or CVM, and 3-point major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE: MI, stroke and CVM). Country-specific results were meta-analysed and pooled hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) from random-effects models are presented. In total, 85,244 empagliflozin/DPP4i PS-matched patient pairs were included with overall mean follow-up of 0.7\u00a0years. Among those with pre-existing CVD, lower risk was observed for HHF (HR 0.74; 95% CI 0.64-0.86), CVM (HR 0.55; 95% CI 0.38-0.80), HHF or CVM (HR 0.57; 95% CI 0.48-0.67) and stroke (HR 0.79; 95% CI 0.67-0.94) in patients initiating empagliflozin vs DPP-4i. Similar patterns were observed among patients without pre-existing CVD and those with and without pre-existing HF.

Conclusion

These results from diverse patient populations in routine care settings across Europe and Asia demonstrate that initiation of empagliflozin compared to DPP-4i results in favourable cardioprotective effects regardless of pre-existing CVD or HF status.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10472675; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10472675?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33789468", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620x.103b4.bjj-2020-1647.r1", @@ -18513,21 +18513,55 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.103B4.BJJ-2020-1647.R1" }, { - "id": "37653496", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9", - "title": "Empagliflozin is associated with lower cardiovascular risk compared with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors in adults with and without cardiovascular disease: EMPagliflozin compaRative effectIveness and SafEty (EMPRISE) study results from Europe and Asia.", - "authorString": "Vistisen D, Carstensen B, Elisabetta P, Lanzinger S, Tan EC, Yabe D, Kim DJ, Sheu WH, Melzer-Cohen C, Holl RW, N\u00fa\u00f1ez J, Ha KH, Halvorsen S, Langslet G, Karasik A, Nystr\u00f6m T, Niskanen L, Guleria S, Klement R, Carrasco M, Foersch J, Shay C, Koeneman L, Hoti F, Farsani SF, Khunti K, Zaccardi F, Subramanian A, Nirantharakumar K, EMPRISE EU, East Asia Study Group.", + "id": "37477360", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/ypg.0000000000000349", + "title": "Schizophrenia polygenic risk score and type 2 diabetes onset in older adults with no schizophrenia diagnosis.", + "authorString": "Shamsutdinova D, Ajnakina O, Roberts A, Stahl D.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cardiovascular diabetology", + "journalTitle": "Psychiatric genetics", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-31", + "date": "2023-07-04", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cardiovascular disease; Type 2 diabetes; Heart Failure; Comparative Effectiveness; Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors; Empagliflozin", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Studies that have reported lower risk for cardiovascular outcomes in users of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors (SGLT-2i) are limited by residual cofounding and lack of information on prior cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study compared risk of cardiovascular events in patients within routine care settings in Europe and Asia with type 2 diabetes (T2D) initiating empagliflozin compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) stratified by pre-existing CVD and history of heart failure (HF).

Methods and results

Adults initiating empagliflozin and DPP-4i in 2014-2018/19 from 11 countries in Europe and Asia were compared using propensity score matching and Cox proportional hazards regression to assess differences in rates of primary outcomes: hospitalisation for heart failure (HHF), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke; and secondary outcomes: cardiovascular mortality (CVM), coronary revascularisation procedure, composite outcome including HHF or CVM, and 3-point major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE: MI, stroke and CVM). Country-specific results were meta-analysed and pooled hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) from random-effects models are presented. In total, 85,244 empagliflozin/DPP4i PS-matched patient pairs were included with overall mean follow-up of 0.7\u00a0years. Among those with pre-existing CVD, lower risk was observed for HHF (HR 0.74; 95% CI 0.64-0.86), CVM (HR 0.55; 95% CI 0.38-0.80), HHF or CVM (HR 0.57; 95% CI 0.48-0.67) and stroke (HR 0.79; 95% CI 0.67-0.94) in patients initiating empagliflozin vs DPP-4i. Similar patterns were observed among patients without pre-existing CVD and those with and without pre-existing HF.

Conclusion

These results from diverse patient populations in routine care settings across Europe and Asia demonstrate that initiation of empagliflozin compared to DPP-4i results in favourable cardioprotective effects regardless of pre-existing CVD or HF status.", + "abstract": "

Objectives

An association between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and schizophrenia has long been observed, and recent research revealed presence of shared genetic factors. However, epidemiological evidence was inconsistent, some reported insignificant contribution of genetic factors to T2DM-schizophrenia comorbidity. Prior works studied people with schizophrenia, particularly, antipsychotic-naive patients, or those during the first psychotic experience to limit schizophrenia-related environmental factors. In contrast, we controlled such factors by utilizing a general population sample of individuals undiagnosed with schizophrenia. We hypothesized that if schizophrenia genetics impact T2DM development and such impact is not fully mediated by schizophrenia-related environment, people with high polygenic schizophrenia risk would exhibit elevated T2DM incidence.

Methods

Using a population-representative sample of adults aged \u226550 from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing ( n \u2005=\u20055968, 493 T2DM cases, average follow-up 8.7 years), we investigated if schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PGS-SZ) is associated with T2DM onset. A proportional hazards model with interval censoring was adjusted for age and sex (Model 1), and age, sex, BMI, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, exercise, smoking, depressive symptoms and T2DM polygenic risk score (Model 2). According to the power calculations, hazard rates > 1.14 per standard deviation in PGS-SZ could be detected.

Results

We did not observe a significant association between PGS-SZ and T2DM incidence (hazard ratio 1.04; 95% CI 0.93-1.15; and\u20051.01, 95% CI\u20050.94-1.09).

Conclusion

Our results suggest low contribution of the intrinsic biological mechanisms driven by the polygenic risk of schizophrenia on future T2DM onset. Further research is needed.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01963-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10472675; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10472675?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/YPG.0000000000000349; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10501355?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35440446", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514", + "title": "Protocol for the COG-UK hospital-onset COVID-19 infection (HOCI) multicentre interventional clinical study: evaluating the efficacy of rapid genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in UK NHS hospitals.", + "authorString": "Blackstone J, Stirrup O, Mapp F, Panca M, Copas A, Flowers P, Hockey L, Price J, Partridge D, Peters C, de Silva T, Nebbia G, Snell LB, McComish R, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Breuer J.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-19", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Molecular biology; Infection control; epidemiology; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been a significant cause of mortality in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COG-UK Consortium Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections (COG-UK HOCI) study aims to evaluate whether the use of rapid whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, supported by a novel probabilistic reporting methodology, can inform infection prevention and control (IPC) practice within NHS hospital settings.

Design

Multicentre, prospective, interventional, superiority study.

Setting

14 participating NHS hospitals over winter-spring 2020/2021 in the UK.

Participants

Eligible patients must be admitted to hospital with first-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive test result >48\u2009hour from time of admission, where COVID-19 diagnosis not suspected on admission. The projected sample size is 2380 patients.

Intervention

The intervention is the return of a sequence report, within 48 hours in one phase (rapid local lab processing) and within 5-10\u2009days in a second phase (mimicking central lab), comparing the viral genome from an eligible study participant with others within and outside the hospital site.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary outcomes are incidence of Public Health England (PHE)/IPC-defined SARS-CoV-2 hospital-acquired infection during the baseline and two interventional phases, and proportion of hospital-onset cases with genomic evidence of transmission linkage following implementation of the intervention where such linkage was not suspected by initial IPC investigation. Secondary outcomes include incidence of hospital outbreaks, with and without sequencing data; actual and desirable changes to IPC actions; periods of healthcare worker (HCW) absence. Health economic analysis will be conducted to determine cost benefit of the intervention. A process evaluation using qualitative interviews with HCWs will be conducted alongside the study.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN50212645. Pre-results stage. This manuscript is based on protocol V.6.0. 2 September 2021.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e052514.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33130851", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216", + "title": "High-throughput multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis prioritizes apolipoprotein B as key lipid risk factor for coronary artery disease.", + "authorString": "Zuber V, Gill D, Ala-Korpela M, Langenberg C, Butterworth A, Bottolo L, Burgess S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-07-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Lipoproteins; Apolipoprotein B; Metabolomics; blood lipids; coronary artery disease; Mendelian Randomization; Risk Factor Selection", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Genetic variants can be used to prioritize risk factors as potential therapeutic targets via Mendelian randomization (MR). An agnostic statistical framework using Bayesian model averaging (MR-BMA) can disentangle the causal role of correlated risk factors with shared genetic predictors. Here, our objective is to identify lipoprotein measures as mediators between lipid-associated genetic variants and coronary artery disease (CAD) for the purpose of detecting therapeutic targets for CAD.

Methods

As risk factors we consider 30 lipoprotein measures and metabolites derived from a high-throughput metabolomics study including 24\u00a0925 participants. We fit multivariable MR models of genetic associations with CAD estimated in 453\u00a0595 participants (including 113\u00a0937 cases) regressed on genetic associations with the risk factors. MR-BMA assigns to each combination of risk factors a model score quantifying how well the genetic associations with CAD are explained. Risk factors are ranked by their marginal score and selected using false-discovery rate (FDR) criteria. We perform supplementary and sensitivity analyses varying the dataset for genetic associations with CAD.

Results

In the main analysis, the top combination of risk factors ranked by the model score contains apolipoprotein B (ApoB) only. ApoB is also the highest ranked risk factor with respect to the marginal score (FDR <0.005). Additionally, ApoB is selected in all sensitivity analyses. No other measure of cholesterol or triglyceride is consistently selected otherwise.

Conclusions

Our agnostic genetic investigation prioritizes ApoB across all datasets considered, suggesting that ApoB, representing the total number of hepatic-derived lipoprotein particles, is the primary lipid determinant of CAD.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37735103", @@ -18563,23 +18597,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v11i11e40707_app2.pdf&filename=4e6914231a45b12439d1932b760a7c34.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/40707; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9693706" }, - { - "id": "35440446", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514", - "title": "Protocol for the COG-UK hospital-onset COVID-19 infection (HOCI) multicentre interventional clinical study: evaluating the efficacy of rapid genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in UK NHS hospitals.", - "authorString": "Blackstone J, Stirrup O, Mapp F, Panca M, Copas A, Flowers P, Hockey L, Price J, Partridge D, Peters C, de Silva T, Nebbia G, Snell LB, McComish R, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Breuer J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-19", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Molecular biology; Infection control; epidemiology; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been a significant cause of mortality in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COG-UK Consortium Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections (COG-UK HOCI) study aims to evaluate whether the use of rapid whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, supported by a novel probabilistic reporting methodology, can inform infection prevention and control (IPC) practice within NHS hospital settings.

Design

Multicentre, prospective, interventional, superiority study.

Setting

14 participating NHS hospitals over winter-spring 2020/2021 in the UK.

Participants

Eligible patients must be admitted to hospital with first-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive test result >48\u2009hour from time of admission, where COVID-19 diagnosis not suspected on admission. The projected sample size is 2380 patients.

Intervention

The intervention is the return of a sequence report, within 48 hours in one phase (rapid local lab processing) and within 5-10\u2009days in a second phase (mimicking central lab), comparing the viral genome from an eligible study participant with others within and outside the hospital site.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary outcomes are incidence of Public Health England (PHE)/IPC-defined SARS-CoV-2 hospital-acquired infection during the baseline and two interventional phases, and proportion of hospital-onset cases with genomic evidence of transmission linkage following implementation of the intervention where such linkage was not suspected by initial IPC investigation. Secondary outcomes include incidence of hospital outbreaks, with and without sequencing data; actual and desirable changes to IPC actions; periods of healthcare worker (HCW) absence. Health economic analysis will be conducted to determine cost benefit of the intervention. A process evaluation using qualitative interviews with HCWs will be conducted alongside the study.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN50212645. Pre-results stage. This manuscript is based on protocol V.6.0. 2 September 2021.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e052514.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052514; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9019828?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35869974", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac224", @@ -18597,23 +18614,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ndt/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ndt/gfac224/45505736/gfac224.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac224; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10157789; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10157789?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33130851", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216", - "title": "High-throughput multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis prioritizes apolipoprotein B as key lipid risk factor for coronary artery disease.", - "authorString": "Zuber V, Gill D, Ala-Korpela M, Langenberg C, Butterworth A, Bottolo L, Burgess S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Lipoproteins; Apolipoprotein B; Metabolomics; blood lipids; coronary artery disease; Mendelian Randomization; Risk Factor Selection", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Genetic variants can be used to prioritize risk factors as potential therapeutic targets via Mendelian randomization (MR). An agnostic statistical framework using Bayesian model averaging (MR-BMA) can disentangle the causal role of correlated risk factors with shared genetic predictors. Here, our objective is to identify lipoprotein measures as mediators between lipid-associated genetic variants and coronary artery disease (CAD) for the purpose of detecting therapeutic targets for CAD.

Methods

As risk factors we consider 30 lipoprotein measures and metabolites derived from a high-throughput metabolomics study including 24\u00a0925 participants. We fit multivariable MR models of genetic associations with CAD estimated in 453\u00a0595 participants (including 113\u00a0937 cases) regressed on genetic associations with the risk factors. MR-BMA assigns to each combination of risk factors a model score quantifying how well the genetic associations with CAD are explained. Risk factors are ranked by their marginal score and selected using false-discovery rate (FDR) criteria. We perform supplementary and sensitivity analyses varying the dataset for genetic associations with CAD.

Results

In the main analysis, the top combination of risk factors ranked by the model score contains apolipoprotein B (ApoB) only. ApoB is also the highest ranked risk factor with respect to the marginal score (FDR <0.005). Additionally, ApoB is selected in all sensitivity analyses. No other measure of cholesterol or triglyceride is consistently selected otherwise.

Conclusions

Our agnostic genetic investigation prioritizes ApoB across all datasets considered, suggesting that ApoB, representing the total number of hepatic-derived lipoprotein particles, is the primary lipid determinant of CAD.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa216; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8271202?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37538742", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221469", @@ -18632,21 +18632,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221469; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394410; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394410?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35022215", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519", - "title": "Indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic on childhood infection in England: population based observational study.", - "authorString": "Kadambari S, Goldacre R, Morris E, Goldacre MJ, Pollard AJ.", + "id": "36828608", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00249-7", + "title": "The role of patient-reported outcome measures in trials of artificial intelligence health technologies: a systematic evaluation of ClinicalTrials.gov records (1997-2022).", + "authorString": "Pearce FJ, Cruz Rivera S, Liu X, Manna E, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To assess the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes for childhood respiratory infections, severe invasive infections, and vaccine preventable disease in England.

Design

Population based observational study of 19 common childhood respiratory, severe invasive, and vaccine preventable infections, comparing hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes before and after the onset of the pandemic in England.

Setting

Hospital admission data from every NHS hospital in England from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021 with record linkage to national mortality data.

Population

Children aged 0-14 years admitted to an NHS hospital with a selected childhood infection from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021.

Main outcome measures

For each infection, numbers of hospital admissions every month from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021, percentage changes in the number of hospital admissions before and after 1 March 2020, and adjusted odds ratios to compare 60 day case fatality outcomes before and after 1 March 2020.

Results

After 1 March 2020, substantial and sustained reductions in hospital admissions were found for all but one of the 19 infective conditions studied. Among the respiratory infections, the greatest percentage reductions were for influenza (mean annual number admitted between 1 March 2017 and 29 February 2020 was 5379 and number of children admitted from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 was 304, 94% reduction, 95% confidence interval 89% to 97%), and bronchiolitis (from 51\u2009655 to 9423, 82% reduction, 95% confidence interval 79% to 84%). Among the severe invasive infections, the greatest reduction was for meningitis (50% reduction, 47% to 52%). For the vaccine preventable infections, reductions ranged from 53% (32% to 68%) for mumps to 90% (80% to 95%) for measles. Reductions were seen across all demographic subgroups and in children with underlying comorbidities. Corresponding decreases were also found for the absolute numbers of 60 day case fatalities, although the proportion of children admitted for pneumonia who died within 60 days increased (age-sex adjusted odds ratio 1.71, 95% confidence interval 1.43 to 2.05). More recent data indicate that some respiratory infections increased to higher levels than usual after May 2021.

Conclusions

During the covid-19 pandemic, a range of behavioural changes (adoption of non-pharmacological interventions) and societal strategies (school closures, lockdowns, and restricted travel) were used to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which also reduced admissions for common and severe childhood infections. Continued monitoring of these infections is required as social restrictions evolve.", + "abstract": "The extent to which patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used in clinical trials for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is unknown. In this systematic evaluation, we aim to establish how PROMs are being used to assess AI health technologies. We searched ClinicalTrials.gov for interventional trials registered from inception to Sept 20, 2022, and included trials that tested an AI health technology. We excluded observational studies, patient registries, and expanded access reports. We extracted data regarding the form, function, and intended use population of the AI health technology, in addition to the PROMs used and whether PROMs were incorporated as an input or output in the AI model. The search identified 2958 trials, of which 627 were included in the analysis. 152 (24%) of the included trials used one or more PROM, visual analogue scale, patient-reported experience measure, or usability measure as a trial endpoint. The type of AI health technologies used by these trials included AI-enabled smart devices, clinical decision support systems, and chatbots. The number of clinical trials of AI health technologies registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and the proportion of trials that used PROMs increased from registry inception to 2022. The most common clinical areas AI health technologies were designed for were digestive system health for non-PROM trials and musculoskeletal health (followed by mental and behavioural health) for PROM trials, with PROMs commonly used in clinical areas for which assessment of health-related quality of life and symptom burden is particularly important. Additionally, AI-enabled smart devices were the most common applications tested in trials that used at least one PROM. 24 trials tested AI models that captured PROM data as an input for the AI model. PROM use in clinical trials of AI health technologies falls behind PROM use in all clinical trials. Trial records having inadequate detail regarding the PROMs used or the type of AI health technology tested was a limitation of this systematic evaluation and might have contributed to inaccuracies in the data synthesised. Overall, the use of PROMs in the function and assessment of AI health technologies is not only possible, but is a powerful way of showing that, even in the most technologically advanced health-care systems, patients' perspectives remain central.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/376/bmj-2021-067519.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00249-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00249-7" }, { "id": "31194737", @@ -18666,38 +18666,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008164; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6592570; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6592570?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36828608", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00249-7", - "title": "The role of patient-reported outcome measures in trials of artificial intelligence health technologies: a systematic evaluation of ClinicalTrials.gov records (1997-2022).", - "authorString": "Pearce FJ, Cruz Rivera S, Liu X, Manna E, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The extent to which patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used in clinical trials for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is unknown. In this systematic evaluation, we aim to establish how PROMs are being used to assess AI health technologies. We searched ClinicalTrials.gov for interventional trials registered from inception to Sept 20, 2022, and included trials that tested an AI health technology. We excluded observational studies, patient registries, and expanded access reports. We extracted data regarding the form, function, and intended use population of the AI health technology, in addition to the PROMs used and whether PROMs were incorporated as an input or output in the AI model. The search identified 2958 trials, of which 627 were included in the analysis. 152 (24%) of the included trials used one or more PROM, visual analogue scale, patient-reported experience measure, or usability measure as a trial endpoint. The type of AI health technologies used by these trials included AI-enabled smart devices, clinical decision support systems, and chatbots. The number of clinical trials of AI health technologies registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and the proportion of trials that used PROMs increased from registry inception to 2022. The most common clinical areas AI health technologies were designed for were digestive system health for non-PROM trials and musculoskeletal health (followed by mental and behavioural health) for PROM trials, with PROMs commonly used in clinical areas for which assessment of health-related quality of life and symptom burden is particularly important. Additionally, AI-enabled smart devices were the most common applications tested in trials that used at least one PROM. 24 trials tested AI models that captured PROM data as an input for the AI model. PROM use in clinical trials of AI health technologies falls behind PROM use in all clinical trials. Trial records having inadequate detail regarding the PROMs used or the type of AI health technology tested was a limitation of this systematic evaluation and might have contributed to inaccuracies in the data synthesised. Overall, the use of PROMs in the function and assessment of AI health technologies is not only possible, but is a powerful way of showing that, even in the most technologically advanced health-care systems, patients' perspectives remain central.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00249-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00249-7" - }, - { - "id": "34261736", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229", - "title": "Heart failure medication dosage and survival in women and men seen at outpatient clinics.", - "authorString": "Bots SH, Onland-Moret NC, Tulevski II, van der Harst P, Cramer MJM, Asselbergs FW, Somsen GA, den Ruijter HM.", + "id": "35022215", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519", + "title": "Indirect effects of the covid-19 pandemic on childhood infection in England: population based observational study.", + "authorString": "Kadambari S, Goldacre R, Morris E, Goldacre MJ, Pollard AJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-14", + "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-12", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Women with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) may reach optimal treatment effect at half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. This study investigates prescription practice and its relation with survival of patients with HF in daily care.

Methods

Electronic health record data from 13 Dutch outpatient cardiology clinics were extracted for HF receiving at least one guideline-recommended HF medication. Dose changes over consecutive prescriptions were modelled using natural cubic splines. Inverse probability-weighted Cox regression was used to assess the relationship between dose (reference\u226550% target dose) and all-cause mortality.

Results

The study population comprised 561 women (29% HFrEF (ejection fraction (EF)<40%), 49% heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (EF\u226550%); HFpEF and 615 men (47% and 25%, respectively). During a median follow-up of 3.7 years, 252 patients died (48% women; 167 HFrEF, 84 HFpEF). Nine hundred thirty-four patients (46% women) received ACE inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), 795 (48% women) beta blockers and 178 (42% women) mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs). In both sexes, the mean target dose across prescriptions was 50% for ACEI/ARBs and beta blockers, and 100% for MRAs. ACEI/ARB dose of <50% was associated with lower mortality in women but not in men with HFrEF. This was not seen in patients with HFpEF. Beta-blocker dose was not associated with all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

Patients with HF seen in outpatient cardiology clinics receive half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. Lower ACEI/ARB dose was associated with improved survival in women with HFrEF. These results underscore the importance of (re)defining optimal medical therapy for women with HFrEF.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To assess the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes for childhood respiratory infections, severe invasive infections, and vaccine preventable disease in England.

Design

Population based observational study of 19 common childhood respiratory, severe invasive, and vaccine preventable infections, comparing hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes before and after the onset of the pandemic in England.

Setting

Hospital admission data from every NHS hospital in England from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021 with record linkage to national mortality data.

Population

Children aged 0-14 years admitted to an NHS hospital with a selected childhood infection from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021.

Main outcome measures

For each infection, numbers of hospital admissions every month from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021, percentage changes in the number of hospital admissions before and after 1 March 2020, and adjusted odds ratios to compare 60 day case fatality outcomes before and after 1 March 2020.

Results

After 1 March 2020, substantial and sustained reductions in hospital admissions were found for all but one of the 19 infective conditions studied. Among the respiratory infections, the greatest percentage reductions were for influenza (mean annual number admitted between 1 March 2017 and 29 February 2020 was 5379 and number of children admitted from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 was 304, 94% reduction, 95% confidence interval 89% to 97%), and bronchiolitis (from 51\u2009655 to 9423, 82% reduction, 95% confidence interval 79% to 84%). Among the severe invasive infections, the greatest reduction was for meningitis (50% reduction, 47% to 52%). For the vaccine preventable infections, reductions ranged from 53% (32% to 68%) for mumps to 90% (80% to 95%) for measles. Reductions were seen across all demographic subgroups and in children with underlying comorbidities. Corresponding decreases were also found for the absolute numbers of 60 day case fatalities, although the proportion of children admitted for pneumonia who died within 60 days increased (age-sex adjusted odds ratio 1.71, 95% confidence interval 1.43 to 2.05). More recent data indicate that some respiratory infections increased to higher levels than usual after May 2021.

Conclusions

During the covid-19 pandemic, a range of behavioural changes (adoption of non-pharmacological interventions) and societal strategies (school closures, lockdowns, and restricted travel) were used to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which also reduced admissions for common and severe childhood infections. Continued monitoring of these infections is required as social restrictions evolve.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/21/1748.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/376/bmj-2021-067519.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-067519; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8753487?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32616598", @@ -18716,6 +18699,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/56/2/2001809.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01809-2020; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7331656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7331656?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34261736", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229", + "title": "Heart failure medication dosage and survival in women and men seen at outpatient clinics.", + "authorString": "Bots SH, Onland-Moret NC, Tulevski II, van der Harst P, Cramer MJM, Asselbergs FW, Somsen GA, den Ruijter HM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-07-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Women with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) may reach optimal treatment effect at half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. This study investigates prescription practice and its relation with survival of patients with HF in daily care.

Methods

Electronic health record data from 13 Dutch outpatient cardiology clinics were extracted for HF receiving at least one guideline-recommended HF medication. Dose changes over consecutive prescriptions were modelled using natural cubic splines. Inverse probability-weighted Cox regression was used to assess the relationship between dose (reference\u226550% target dose) and all-cause mortality.

Results

The study population comprised 561 women (29% HFrEF (ejection fraction (EF)<40%), 49% heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (EF\u226550%); HFpEF and 615 men (47% and 25%, respectively). During a median follow-up of 3.7 years, 252 patients died (48% women; 167 HFrEF, 84 HFpEF). Nine hundred thirty-four patients (46% women) received ACE inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), 795 (48% women) beta blockers and 178 (42% women) mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs). In both sexes, the mean target dose across prescriptions was 50% for ACEI/ARBs and beta blockers, and 100% for MRAs. ACEI/ARB dose of <50% was associated with lower mortality in women but not in men with HFrEF. This was not seen in patients with HFpEF. Beta-blocker dose was not associated with all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

Patients with HF seen in outpatient cardiology clinics receive half of the guideline-recommended medication dose. Lower ACEI/ARB dose was associated with improved survival in women with HFrEF. These results underscore the importance of (re)defining optimal medical therapy for women with HFrEF.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/107/21/1748.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319229; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8522453?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36854461", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073149", @@ -18733,23 +18733,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/380/bmj-2022-073149.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-073149; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9973128" }, - { - "id": "34244270", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008", - "title": "Protocol for development of a reporting guideline (TRIPOD-AI) and risk of bias tool (PROBAST-AI) for diagnostic and prognostic prediction model studies based on artificial intelligence.", - "authorString": "Collins GS, Dhiman P, Andaur Navarro CL, Ma J, Hooft L, Reitsma JB, Logullo P, Beam AL, Peng L, Van Calster B, van Smeden M, Riley RD, Moons KG.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-09", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine)", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

The Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model of Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis (TRIPOD) statement and the Prediction model Risk Of Bias ASsessment Tool (PROBAST) were both published to improve the reporting and critical appraisal of prediction model studies for diagnosis and prognosis. This paper describes the processes and methods that will be used to develop an extension to the TRIPOD statement (TRIPOD-artificial intelligence, AI) and the PROBAST (PROBAST-AI) tool for prediction model studies that applied machine learning techniques.

Methods and analysis

TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI will be developed following published guidance from the EQUATOR Network, and will comprise five stages. Stage 1 will comprise two systematic reviews (across all medical fields and specifically in oncology) to examine the quality of reporting in published machine-learning-based prediction model studies. In stage 2, we will consult a diverse group of key stakeholders using a Delphi process to identify items to be considered for inclusion in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 3 will be virtual consensus meetings to consolidate and prioritise key items to be included in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 4 will involve developing the TRIPOD-AI checklist and the PROBAST-AI tool, and writing the accompanying explanation and elaboration papers. In the final stage, stage 5, we will disseminate TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI via journals, conferences, blogs, websites (including TRIPOD, PROBAST and EQUATOR Network) and social media. TRIPOD-AI will provide researchers working on prediction model studies based on machine learning with a reporting guideline that can help them report key details that readers need to evaluate the study quality and interpret its findings, potentially reducing research waste. We anticipate PROBAST-AI will help researchers, clinicians, systematic reviewers and policymakers critically appraise the design, conduct and analysis of machine learning based prediction model studies, with a robust standardised tool for bias evaluation.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been granted by the Central University Research Ethics Committee, University of Oxford on 10-December-2020 (R73034/RE001). Findings from this study will be disseminated through peer-review publications.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019140361 and CRD42019161764.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e048008.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34751629", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1998671", @@ -18801,6 +18784,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjcimaging/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjci/jeab266/41764801/jeab266.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab266; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9365306; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9365306?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34244270", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008", + "title": "Protocol for development of a reporting guideline (TRIPOD-AI) and risk of bias tool (PROBAST-AI) for diagnostic and prognostic prediction model studies based on artificial intelligence.", + "authorString": "Collins GS, Dhiman P, Andaur Navarro CL, Ma J, Hooft L, Reitsma JB, Logullo P, Beam AL, Peng L, Van Calster B, van Smeden M, Riley RD, Moons KG.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-07-09", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Statistics & Research Methods; General Medicine (See Internal Medicine)", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

The Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model of Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis (TRIPOD) statement and the Prediction model Risk Of Bias ASsessment Tool (PROBAST) were both published to improve the reporting and critical appraisal of prediction model studies for diagnosis and prognosis. This paper describes the processes and methods that will be used to develop an extension to the TRIPOD statement (TRIPOD-artificial intelligence, AI) and the PROBAST (PROBAST-AI) tool for prediction model studies that applied machine learning techniques.

Methods and analysis

TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI will be developed following published guidance from the EQUATOR Network, and will comprise five stages. Stage 1 will comprise two systematic reviews (across all medical fields and specifically in oncology) to examine the quality of reporting in published machine-learning-based prediction model studies. In stage 2, we will consult a diverse group of key stakeholders using a Delphi process to identify items to be considered for inclusion in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 3 will be virtual consensus meetings to consolidate and prioritise key items to be included in TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI. Stage 4 will involve developing the TRIPOD-AI checklist and the PROBAST-AI tool, and writing the accompanying explanation and elaboration papers. In the final stage, stage 5, we will disseminate TRIPOD-AI and PROBAST-AI via journals, conferences, blogs, websites (including TRIPOD, PROBAST and EQUATOR Network) and social media. TRIPOD-AI will provide researchers working on prediction model studies based on machine learning with a reporting guideline that can help them report key details that readers need to evaluate the study quality and interpret its findings, potentially reducing research waste. We anticipate PROBAST-AI will help researchers, clinicians, systematic reviewers and policymakers critically appraise the design, conduct and analysis of machine learning based prediction model studies, with a robust standardised tool for bias evaluation.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been granted by the Central University Research Ethics Committee, University of Oxford on 10-December-2020 (R73034/RE001). Findings from this study will be disseminated through peer-review publications.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019140361 and CRD42019161764.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e048008.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273461?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32321827", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912957117", @@ -18852,23 +18852,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58699; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58699; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7527238; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7527238?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32071531", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001", - "title": "Predictors of clavicle fixation in multiply injured patients.", - "authorString": "Tinney A, Moaveni AK, Kimmel LA, Gabbe BJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of orthopaedics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-02-04", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Trauma; Operative treatment; Trauma Registry; Clavicle Fracture; Surgical Fixation; Multiply Injured Patient", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Clavicle fractures account for approximately 10% of all fractures in multiply injured patients. Our study aims to determine factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle fracture in multiply injured patients.

Methods

Major adult trauma patients from 2005 to 2014 with a clavicle fracture were included. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to determine the variables associated with fixation.

Results

1779 patients (median age of 47 and a median Injury Severity Score of 17) were included. 273 (15%) patients underwent clavicle fixation. Factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle included: year, younger age, ICU admission, or an associated humerus or scapula fracture.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7016330; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001" - }, { "id": "34000735", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab025", @@ -18886,6 +18869,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/2/457/37947593/dyab025.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab025" }, + { + "id": "32071531", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001", + "title": "Predictors of clavicle fixation in multiply injured patients.", + "authorString": "Tinney A, Moaveni AK, Kimmel LA, Gabbe BJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of orthopaedics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-02-04", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Trauma; Operative treatment; Trauma Registry; Clavicle Fracture; Surgical Fixation; Multiply Injured Patient", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Clavicle fractures account for approximately 10% of all fractures in multiply injured patients. Our study aims to determine factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle fracture in multiply injured patients.

Methods

Major adult trauma patients from 2005 to 2014 with a clavicle fracture were included. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to determine the variables associated with fixation.

Results

1779 patients (median age of 47 and a median Injury Severity Score of 17) were included. 273 (15%) patients underwent clavicle fixation. Factors associated with surgical fixation of the clavicle included: year, younger age, ICU admission, or an associated humerus or scapula fracture.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7016330; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7016330?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2020.02.001" + }, { "id": "34598995", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055219", @@ -18937,23 +18937,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-018-0236-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0236-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6123450; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6123450?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36669843", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364", - "title": "Implementation of a quality improvement programme using the Active Patient Link call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of childhood vaccinations: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation.", - "authorString": "Marszalek M, Hawking MKD, Gutierrez A, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Firman N, Robson J, Bedford H, Billington A, Moss N, Dezateux C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "immunology; Public Health; Preventive Medicine; Community Child Health; Quality In Health Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Call and recall systems provide actionable intelligence to improve equity and timeliness of childhood vaccinations, which have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will evaluate the effectiveness, fidelity and sustainability of a data-enabled quality improvement programme delivered in primary care using an Active Patient Link Immunisation (APL-Imms) call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of uptake in a multiethnic disadvantaged urban population. We will use qualitative methods to evaluate programme delivery, focusing on uptake and use, implementation barriers and service improvements for clinical and non-clinical primary care staff, its fidelity and sustainability.

Methods and analysis

This is a mixed-methods observational study in 284 general practices in north east London (NEL). The target population will be preschool-aged children eligible to receive diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and registered with an NEL general practice. The intervention comprises an in-practice call and recall tool, facilitation and training, and financial incentives. The quantitative evaluation will include interrupted time Series analyses and Slope Index of Inequality. The primary outcomes will be the proportion of children receiving at least one dose of a DTaP-containing or MMR vaccination defined, respectively, as administered between age 6 weeks and 6 months or between 12 and 18 months of age. The qualitative evaluation will involve a 'Think Aloud' method and semistructured interviews of stakeholders to assess impact, fidelity and sustainability of the APL-Imms tool, and fidelity of the implementation by facilitators.

Ethics and dissemination

The research team has been granted permission from data controllers in participating practices to use deidentified data for audit purposes. As findings will be specific to the local context, research ethics approval is not required. Results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and to stakeholders, including parents, health providers and commissioners.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/1/e064364.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36855161", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01161-y", @@ -18972,21 +18955,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13073-023-01161-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01161-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9976489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9976489?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36198485", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986", - "title": "Characteristics of enrolment in an intensive home-visiting programme among eligible first-time adolescent mothers in England: a linked administrative data cohort study.", - "authorString": "Cavallaro FL, Gilbert R, Wijlaars LP, Kennedy E, Howarth E, Kendall S, van der Meulen J, Calin MA, Reed L, Harron K.", + "id": "36669843", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364", + "title": "Implementation of a quality improvement programme using the Active Patient Link call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of childhood vaccinations: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation.", + "authorString": "Marszalek M, Hawking MKD, Gutierrez A, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Firman N, Robson J, Bedford H, Billington A, Moss N, Dezateux C.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of epidemiology and community health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-05", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-20", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Adolescent; Public Health; Child Health", + "keywords": "immunology; Public Health; Preventive Medicine; Community Child Health; Quality In Health Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Intensive home visiting for adolescent mothers may help reduce health disparities. Given limited resources, such interventions need to be effectively targeted. We evaluated which mothers were enrolled in the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), an intensive home-visiting service for first-time young mothers commissioned in >130 local authorities in England since 2007.

Methods

We created a population-based cohort of first-time mothers aged 13-19 years giving birth in English National Health Service hospitals between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2017, using administrative hospital data linked with FNP programme, educational and social care data. Mothers living in a local authority with an active FNP site were eligible. We described variation in enrolment rates across sites, and identified maternal and FNP site characteristics associated with enrolment.

Results

Of 110 520 eligible mothers, 25 680 (23.2% (95% CI: 23.0% to 23.5%)) were enrolled. Enrolment rates varied substantially across 122 sites (range: 11%-68%), and areas with greater numbers of first-time adolescent mothers achieved lower enrolment rates. Mothers aged 13-15 years were most likely to be enrolled (52%). However, only 26% of adolescent mothers with markers of vulnerability (including living in the most deprived areas and ever having been looked after as a child) were enrolled.

Conclusion

A substantial proportion of first-time adolescent mothers with vulnerability markers were not enrolled in FNP. Variation in enrolment across sites indicates insufficient commissioning of places that is not proportional to level of need, with mothers in areas with large numbers of other adolescent mothers least likely to receive support.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Call and recall systems provide actionable intelligence to improve equity and timeliness of childhood vaccinations, which have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will evaluate the effectiveness, fidelity and sustainability of a data-enabled quality improvement programme delivered in primary care using an Active Patient Link Immunisation (APL-Imms) call and recall system to improve timeliness and equity of uptake in a multiethnic disadvantaged urban population. We will use qualitative methods to evaluate programme delivery, focusing on uptake and use, implementation barriers and service improvements for clinical and non-clinical primary care staff, its fidelity and sustainability.

Methods and analysis

This is a mixed-methods observational study in 284 general practices in north east London (NEL). The target population will be preschool-aged children eligible to receive diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and registered with an NEL general practice. The intervention comprises an in-practice call and recall tool, facilitation and training, and financial incentives. The quantitative evaluation will include interrupted time Series analyses and Slope Index of Inequality. The primary outcomes will be the proportion of children receiving at least one dose of a DTaP-containing or MMR vaccination defined, respectively, as administered between age 6 weeks and 6 months or between 12 and 18 months of age. The qualitative evaluation will involve a 'Think Aloud' method and semistructured interviews of stakeholders to assess impact, fidelity and sustainability of the APL-Imms tool, and fidelity of the implementation by facilitators.

Ethics and dissemination

The research team has been granted permission from data controllers in participating practices to use deidentified data for audit purposes. As findings will be specific to the local context, research ethics approval is not required. Results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and to stakeholders, including parents, health providers and commissioners.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/12/991.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/1/e064364.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064364; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9872487?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32717063", @@ -19022,6 +19005,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104542; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104542; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8404035" }, + { + "id": "36198485", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986", + "title": "Characteristics of enrolment in an intensive home-visiting programme among eligible first-time adolescent mothers in England: a linked administrative data cohort study.", + "authorString": "Cavallaro FL, Gilbert R, Wijlaars LP, Kennedy E, Howarth E, Kendall S, van der Meulen J, Calin MA, Reed L, Harron K.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of epidemiology and community health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Adolescent; Public Health; Child Health", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Intensive home visiting for adolescent mothers may help reduce health disparities. Given limited resources, such interventions need to be effectively targeted. We evaluated which mothers were enrolled in the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), an intensive home-visiting service for first-time young mothers commissioned in >130 local authorities in England since 2007.

Methods

We created a population-based cohort of first-time mothers aged 13-19 years giving birth in English National Health Service hospitals between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2017, using administrative hospital data linked with FNP programme, educational and social care data. Mothers living in a local authority with an active FNP site were eligible. We described variation in enrolment rates across sites, and identified maternal and FNP site characteristics associated with enrolment.

Results

Of 110 520 eligible mothers, 25 680 (23.2% (95% CI: 23.0% to 23.5%)) were enrolled. Enrolment rates varied substantially across 122 sites (range: 11%-68%), and areas with greater numbers of first-time adolescent mothers achieved lower enrolment rates. Mothers aged 13-15 years were most likely to be enrolled (52%). However, only 26% of adolescent mothers with markers of vulnerability (including living in the most deprived areas and ever having been looked after as a child) were enrolled.

Conclusion

A substantial proportion of first-time adolescent mothers with vulnerability markers were not enrolled in FNP. Variation in enrolment across sites indicates insufficient commissioning of places that is not proportional to level of need, with mothers in areas with large numbers of other adolescent mothers least likely to receive support.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/12/991.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-217986; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664100?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32485082", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1924", @@ -19056,23 +19056,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673619313595/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31359-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6717081" }, - { - "id": "36929968", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02235-8", - "title": "Impact of the temporary suspension of the Bowel Screening Wales programme on inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective register-based study.", - "authorString": "Bright D, Song J, Hillier S, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of routine services in the UK National Health Service, including cancer screening. Following the reintroduction of services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who might benefit from tailored intervention.

Methods

BSW records were linked to electronic health record and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank Trusted Research Environment. We examined uptake in the first 3 months (from August to October, 2020) of invitations following the reintroduction of the BSW programme compared with the same period in the preceding 3 years. We analysed inequalities in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban and rural location, ethnic group, and uptake between different periods using logistic regression models.

Findings

Overall uptake remained above the 60% Welsh standard during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21 but declined compared with the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20 (60\u00b74% vs 62\u00b77%; p<0\u00b7001). During the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most deprived quintile. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Among low-uptake groups, including males, younger individuals (60-64 years), those living in most deprived areas, and ethnic minorities, uptake remains below the 60% Welsh standard.

Interpretation

Despite the disruption, uptake remained above the Welsh standard and inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities. However, variations associated with sex, age, deprivation, and ethnicity remain. These findings need to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in colorectal cancer screening such as co-producing information products with low-uptake groups and upscaling the use of GP-endorsed invitations and reminder letters for bowel screening.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, UK Medical Research Council, Administrative Data Research UK, and Health and Care Research Wales.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9691043; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02235-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35103964", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2140-0_6", @@ -19108,21 +19091,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1371/2815; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.1371; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7893854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7893854?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33382071", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176", - "title": "Corrigendum to: Using Natural Language Processing on Electronic Health Records to Enhance Detection and Prediction of Psychosis Risk.", - "authorString": null, + "id": "36929968", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02235-8", + "title": "Impact of the temporary suspension of the Bowel Screening Wales programme on inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective register-based study.", + "authorString": "Bright D, Song J, Hillier S, Huws DW, Greene G, Hodgson K, Akbari A, Griffiths R, Davies AR, Gjini A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia bulletin", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary disruption of routine services in the UK National Health Service, including cancer screening. Following the reintroduction of services, we explored the impact on inequalities in uptake of the Bowel Screening Wales (BSW) programme to identify groups who might benefit from tailored intervention.

Methods

BSW records were linked to electronic health record and administrative data within the Secured Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank Trusted Research Environment. We examined uptake in the first 3 months (from August to October, 2020) of invitations following the reintroduction of the BSW programme compared with the same period in the preceding 3 years. We analysed inequalities in uptake by sex, age group, income deprivation quintile, urban and rural location, ethnic group, and uptake between different periods using logistic regression models.

Findings

Overall uptake remained above the 60% Welsh standard during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21 but declined compared with the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20 (60\u00b74% vs 62\u00b77%; p<0\u00b7001). During the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-21, uptake declined for most demographic groups, except for older individuals (70-74 years) and those in the most deprived quintile. Variation by sex, age, income deprivation, and ethnic groups was observed in all periods studied. Among low-uptake groups, including males, younger individuals (60-64 years), those living in most deprived areas, and ethnic minorities, uptake remains below the 60% Welsh standard.

Interpretation

Despite the disruption, uptake remained above the Welsh standard and inequalities did not worsen after the programme resumed activities. However, variations associated with sex, age, deprivation, and ethnicity remain. These findings need to be considered in targeting strategies to improve uptake and informed choice in colorectal cancer screening such as co-producing information products with low-uptake groups and upscaling the use of GP-endorsed invitations and reminder letters for bowel screening.

Funding

Health Data Research UK, UK Medical Research Council, Administrative Data Research UK, and Health and Care Research Wales.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/47/2/575/36620724/sbaa176.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176" + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9691043; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02235-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9691043?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33652931", @@ -19175,6 +19158,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjqcco/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac016/43887262/qcac016.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac016; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9745666; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9745666?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33382071", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176", + "title": "Corrigendum to: Using Natural Language Processing on Electronic Health Records to Enhance Detection and Prediction of Psychosis Risk.", + "authorString": null, + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia bulletin", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/47/2/575/36620724/sbaa176.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965055?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa176" + }, { "id": "36798028", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14308", @@ -19192,23 +19192,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.14308; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14308; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10192248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10192248?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37419925", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7", - "title": "Optimal strategies for learning multi-ancestry polygenic scores vary across traits.", - "authorString": "Lehmann B, Mackintosh M, McVean G, Holmes C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Polygenic scores (PGSs) are individual-level measures that aggregate the genome-wide genetic predisposition to a given trait. As PGS have predominantly been developed using European-ancestry samples, trait prediction using such European ancestry-derived PGS is less accurate in non-European ancestry individuals. Although there has been recent progress in combining multiple PGS trained on distinct populations, the problem of how to maximize performance given a multiple-ancestry cohort is largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the effect of sample size and ancestry composition on PGS performance for fifteen traits in UK Biobank. For some traits, PGS estimated using a relatively small African-ancestry training set outperformed, on an African-ancestry test set, PGS estimated using a much larger European-ancestry only training set. We observe similar, but not identical, results when considering other minority-ancestry groups within UK Biobank. Our results emphasise the importance of targeted data collection from underrepresented groups in order to address existing disparities in PGS performance.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38930-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34386668", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2021.05.031", @@ -19277,6 +19260,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2023.05.039" }, + { + "id": "37419925", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7", + "title": "Optimal strategies for learning multi-ancestry polygenic scores vary across traits.", + "authorString": "Lehmann B, Mackintosh M, McVean G, Holmes C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-07-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Polygenic scores (PGSs) are individual-level measures that aggregate the genome-wide genetic predisposition to a given trait. As PGS have predominantly been developed using European-ancestry samples, trait prediction using such European ancestry-derived PGS is less accurate in non-European ancestry individuals. Although there has been recent progress in combining multiple PGS trained on distinct populations, the problem of how to maximize performance given a multiple-ancestry cohort is largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the effect of sample size and ancestry composition on PGS performance for fifteen traits in UK Biobank. For some traits, PGS estimated using a relatively small African-ancestry training set outperformed, on an African-ancestry test set, PGS estimated using a much larger European-ancestry only training set. We observe similar, but not identical, results when considering other minority-ancestry groups within UK Biobank. Our results emphasise the importance of targeted data collection from underrepresented groups in order to address existing disparities in PGS performance.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38930-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38930-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328935?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35048949", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac008", @@ -19311,23 +19311,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796319; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.12746; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796319; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796319?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37393610", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392", - "title": "Protocol for the automatic extraction of epidemiological information via a pre-trained language model.", - "authorString": "Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wang Z, Cao Y, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "STAR protocols", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Health Sciences; Clinical Protocol; Computer Sciences", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The lack of systems to automatically extract epidemiological fields from open-access COVID-19 cases restricts the timeliness of formulating prevention measures. Here we present a protocol for using CCIE, a COVID-19 Cases Information Extraction system based on the pre-trained language model.1 We describe steps for preparing supervised training data and executing python scripts for named entity recognition and text category classification. We then detail the use of machine evaluation and manual validation to illustrate the effectiveness of CCIE. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wang et\u00a0al.2.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36692937", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/42866", @@ -19345,6 +19328,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://mental.jmir.org/2023/1/e42866/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/42866; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9906314" }, + { + "id": "37393610", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392", + "title": "Protocol for the automatic extraction of epidemiological information via a pre-trained language model.", + "authorString": "Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wang Z, Cao Y, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "STAR protocols", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-07-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Health Sciences; Clinical Protocol; Computer Sciences", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The lack of systems to automatically extract epidemiological fields from open-access COVID-19 cases restricts the timeliness of formulating prevention measures. Here we present a protocol for using CCIE, a COVID-19 Cases Information Extraction system based on the pre-trained language model.1 We describe steps for preparing supervised training data and executing python scripts for named entity recognition and text category classification. We then detail the use of machine evaluation and manual validation to illustrate the effectiveness of CCIE. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wang et\u00a0al.2.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10328978?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31529100", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnz209", @@ -19431,21 +19431,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://content.iospress.com:443/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad181085?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad181085; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-181085; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6484273; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6484273?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36346654", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/38168", - "title": "Developing an Automated Assessment of In-session Patient Activation for Psychological Therapy: Codevelopment Approach.", - "authorString": "Malins S, Figueredo G, Jilani T, Long Y, Andrews J, Rawsthorne M, Manolescu C, Clos J, Higton F, Waldram D, Hunt D, Perez Vallejos E, Moghaddam N.", + "id": "36344532", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21663-w", + "title": "Atrial fibrillation prediction by combining ECG markers and CMR radiomics.", + "authorString": "Pujadas ER, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Szabo L, Morcillo CI, Campello VM, Martin-Isla C, Vago H, Merkely B, Harvey NC, Petersen SE, Lekadir K.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR medical informatics", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-08", + "date": "2022-11-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mental health; Machine Learning; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Natural Language Processing; Multimorbidity; Responsible Artificial Intelligence", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Patient activation is defined as a patient's confidence and perceived ability to manage their own health. Patient activation has been a consistent predictor of long-term health and care costs, particularly for people with multiple long-term health conditions. However, there is currently no means of measuring patient activation from what is said in health care consultations. This may be particularly important for psychological therapy because most current methods for evaluating therapy content cannot be used routinely due to time and cost restraints. Natural language processing (NLP) has been used increasingly to classify and evaluate the contents of psychological therapy. This aims to make the routine, systematic evaluation of psychological therapy contents more accessible in terms of time and cost restraints. However, comparatively little attention has been paid to algorithmic trust and interpretability, with few studies in the field involving end users or stakeholders in algorithm development.

Objective

This study applied a responsible design to use NLP in the development of an artificial intelligence model to automate the ratings assigned by a psychological therapy process measure: the consultation interactions coding scheme (CICS). The CICS assesses the level of patient activation observable from turn-by-turn psychological therapy interactions.

Methods

With consent, 128 sessions of remotely delivered cognitive behavioral therapy from 53 participants experiencing multiple physical and mental health problems were anonymously transcribed and rated by trained human CICS coders. Using participatory methodology, a multidisciplinary team proposed candidate language features that they thought would discriminate between high and low patient activation. The team included service-user researchers, psychological therapists, applied linguists, digital research experts, artificial intelligence ethics researchers, and NLP researchers. Identified language features were extracted from the transcripts alongside demographic features, and machine learning was applied using k-nearest neighbors and bagged trees algorithms to assess whether in-session patient activation and interaction types could be accurately classified.

Results

The k-nearest neighbors classifier obtained 73% accuracy (82% precision and 80% recall) in a test data set. The bagged trees classifier obtained 81% accuracy for test data (87% precision and 75% recall) in differentiating between interactions rated high in patient activation and those rated low or neutral.

Conclusions

Coproduced language features identified through a multidisciplinary collaboration can be used to discriminate among psychological therapy session contents based on patient activation among patients experiencing multiple long-term physical and mental health conditions.", + "abstract": "Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. It is associated with a higher risk of important adverse health outcomes such as stroke and death. AF is linked to distinct electro-anatomic alterations. The main tool for AF diagnosis is the Electrocardiogram (ECG). However, an ECG recorded at a single time point may not detect individuals with paroxysmal AF. In this study, we developed machine learning models for discrimination of prevalent AF using a combination of image-derived radiomics phenotypes and ECG features. Thus, we characterize the phenotypes of prevalent AF in terms of ECG and imaging alterations. Moreover, we explore sex-differential remodelling by building sex-specific models. Our integrative model including radiomics and ECG together resulted in a better performance than ECG alone, particularly in women. ECG had a lower performance in women than men (AUC: 0.77 vs 0.88, p\u2009<\u20090.05) but adding radiomics features, the accuracy of the model was able to improve significantly. The sensitivity also increased considerably in women by adding the radiomics (0.68 vs 0.79, p\u2009<\u20090.05) having a higher detection of AF events. Our findings provide novel insights into AF-related electro-anatomic remodelling and its variations by sex. The integrative radiomics-ECG model also presents a potential novel approach for earlier detection of AF.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2022/11/e38168/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/38168; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9682451" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-21663-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21663-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640662; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640662?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35748342", @@ -19465,21 +19465,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac130/44245961/dyac130.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac130; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908066; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9908066?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36344532", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21663-w", - "title": "Atrial fibrillation prediction by combining ECG markers and CMR radiomics.", - "authorString": "Pujadas ER, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Szabo L, Morcillo CI, Campello VM, Martin-Isla C, Vago H, Merkely B, Harvey NC, Petersen SE, Lekadir K.", + "id": "36346654", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/38168", + "title": "Developing an Automated Assessment of In-session Patient Activation for Psychological Therapy: Codevelopment Approach.", + "authorString": "Malins S, Figueredo G, Jilani T, Long Y, Andrews J, Rawsthorne M, Manolescu C, Clos J, Higton F, Waldram D, Hunt D, Perez Vallejos E, Moghaddam N.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "journalTitle": "JMIR medical informatics", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-07", + "date": "2022-11-08", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Mental health; Machine Learning; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Natural Language Processing; Multimorbidity; Responsible Artificial Intelligence", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. It is associated with a higher risk of important adverse health outcomes such as stroke and death. AF is linked to distinct electro-anatomic alterations. The main tool for AF diagnosis is the Electrocardiogram (ECG). However, an ECG recorded at a single time point may not detect individuals with paroxysmal AF. In this study, we developed machine learning models for discrimination of prevalent AF using a combination of image-derived radiomics phenotypes and ECG features. Thus, we characterize the phenotypes of prevalent AF in terms of ECG and imaging alterations. Moreover, we explore sex-differential remodelling by building sex-specific models. Our integrative model including radiomics and ECG together resulted in a better performance than ECG alone, particularly in women. ECG had a lower performance in women than men (AUC: 0.77 vs 0.88, p\u2009<\u20090.05) but adding radiomics features, the accuracy of the model was able to improve significantly. The sensitivity also increased considerably in women by adding the radiomics (0.68 vs 0.79, p\u2009<\u20090.05) having a higher detection of AF events. Our findings provide novel insights into AF-related electro-anatomic remodelling and its variations by sex. The integrative radiomics-ECG model also presents a potential novel approach for earlier detection of AF.", + "abstract": "

Background

Patient activation is defined as a patient's confidence and perceived ability to manage their own health. Patient activation has been a consistent predictor of long-term health and care costs, particularly for people with multiple long-term health conditions. However, there is currently no means of measuring patient activation from what is said in health care consultations. This may be particularly important for psychological therapy because most current methods for evaluating therapy content cannot be used routinely due to time and cost restraints. Natural language processing (NLP) has been used increasingly to classify and evaluate the contents of psychological therapy. This aims to make the routine, systematic evaluation of psychological therapy contents more accessible in terms of time and cost restraints. However, comparatively little attention has been paid to algorithmic trust and interpretability, with few studies in the field involving end users or stakeholders in algorithm development.

Objective

This study applied a responsible design to use NLP in the development of an artificial intelligence model to automate the ratings assigned by a psychological therapy process measure: the consultation interactions coding scheme (CICS). The CICS assesses the level of patient activation observable from turn-by-turn psychological therapy interactions.

Methods

With consent, 128 sessions of remotely delivered cognitive behavioral therapy from 53 participants experiencing multiple physical and mental health problems were anonymously transcribed and rated by trained human CICS coders. Using participatory methodology, a multidisciplinary team proposed candidate language features that they thought would discriminate between high and low patient activation. The team included service-user researchers, psychological therapists, applied linguists, digital research experts, artificial intelligence ethics researchers, and NLP researchers. Identified language features were extracted from the transcripts alongside demographic features, and machine learning was applied using k-nearest neighbors and bagged trees algorithms to assess whether in-session patient activation and interaction types could be accurately classified.

Results

The k-nearest neighbors classifier obtained 73% accuracy (82% precision and 80% recall) in a test data set. The bagged trees classifier obtained 81% accuracy for test data (87% precision and 75% recall) in differentiating between interactions rated high in patient activation and those rated low or neutral.

Conclusions

Coproduced language features identified through a multidisciplinary collaboration can be used to discriminate among psychological therapy session contents based on patient activation among patients experiencing multiple long-term physical and mental health conditions.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-21663-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21663-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640662; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640662?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2022/11/e38168/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/38168; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9682451" }, { "id": "32282926", @@ -19532,23 +19532,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/hmg/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/hmg/ddac153/45277324/ddac153.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddac153" }, - { - "id": "36701266", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036", - "title": "Gestational age at birth and body size from infancy through adolescence: An individual participant data meta-analysis on 253,810 singletons in 16 birth cohort studies.", - "authorString": "Vinther JL, Cadman T, Avraam D, Ekstr\u00f8m CT, S\u00f8rensen TIA, Elhakeem A, Santos AC, Pinot de Moira A, Heude B, I\u00f1iguez C, Pizzi C, Simons E, Voerman E, Corpeleijn E, Zariouh F, Santorelli G, Inskip HM, Barros H, Carson J, Harris JR, Nader JL, Ronkainen J, Strandberg-Larsen K, Santa-Marina L, Calas L, Cederkvist L, Popovic M, Charles MA, Welten M, Vrijheid M, Azad M, Subbarao P, Burton P, Mandhane PJ, Huang RC, Wilson RC, Haakma S, Fern\u00e1ndez-Barr\u00e9s S, Turvey S, Santos S, Tough SC, Sebert S, Moraes TJ, Salika T, Jaddoe VWV, Lawlor DA, Nybo Andersen AM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is associated with adverse developmental and long-term health outcomes, including several cardiometabolic risk factors and outcomes. However, evidence about the association of preterm birth with later body size derives mainly from studies using birth weight as a proxy of prematurity rather than an actual length of gestation. We investigated the association of gestational age (GA) at birth with body size from infancy through adolescence.

Methods and findings

We conducted a two-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 253,810 mother-child dyads from 16 general population-based cohort studies in Europe (Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom), North America (Canada), and Australasia (Australia) to estimate the association of GA with body mass index (BMI) and overweight (including obesity) adjusted for the following maternal characteristics as potential confounders: education, height, prepregnancy BMI, ethnic background, parity, smoking during pregnancy, age at child's birth, gestational diabetes and hypertension, and preeclampsia. Pregnancy and birth cohort studies from the LifeCycle and the EUCAN-Connect projects were invited and were eligible for inclusion if they had information on GA and minimum one measurement of BMI between infancy and adolescence. Using a federated analytical tool (DataSHIELD), we fitted linear and logistic regression models in each cohort separately with a complete-case approach and combined the regression estimates and standard errors through random-effects study-level meta-analysis providing an overall effect estimate at early infancy (>0.0 to 0.5 years), late infancy (>0.5 to 2.0 years), early childhood (>2.0 to 5.0 years), mid-childhood (>5.0 to 9.0 years), late childhood (>9.0 to 14.0 years), and adolescence (>14.0 to 19.0 years). GA was positively associated with BMI in the first decade of life, with the greatest increase in mean BMI z-score during early infancy (0.02, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.00; 0.05, p < 0.05) per week of increase in GA, while in adolescence, preterm individuals reached similar levels of BMI (0.00, 95% CI: -0.01; 0.01, p 0.9) as term counterparts. The association between GA and overweight revealed a similar pattern of association with an increase in odds ratio (OR) of overweight from late infancy through mid-childhood (OR 1.01 to 1.02) per week increase in GA. By adolescence, however, GA was slightly negatively associated with the risk of overweight (OR 0.98 [95% CI: 0.97; 1.00], p 0.1) per week of increase in GA. Although based on only four cohorts (n = 32,089) that reached the age of adolescence, data suggest that individuals born very preterm may be at increased odds of overweight (OR 1.46 [95% CI: 1.03; 2.08], p < 0.05) compared with term counterparts. Findings were consistent across cohorts and sensitivity analyses despite considerable heterogeneity in cohort characteristics. However, residual confounding may be a limitation in this study, while findings may be less generalisable to settings in low- and middle-income countries.

Conclusions

This study based on data from infancy through adolescence from 16 cohort studies found that GA may be important for body size in infancy, but the strength of association attenuates consistently with age. By adolescence, preterm individuals have on average a similar mean BMI to peers born at term.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34145643", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.17450", @@ -19601,21 +19584,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756821002816/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00281-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8732286" }, { - "id": "37670953", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113", - "title": "Lessons learned from using linked administrative data to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership in England and Scotland.", - "authorString": "Cavallaro FL, Cannings-John R, Lugg-Widger F, Gilbert R, Kennedy E, Kendall S, Robling M, Harron KL.", + "id": "36701266", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036", + "title": "Gestational age at birth and body size from infancy through adolescence: An individual participant data meta-analysis on 253,810 singletons in 16 birth cohort studies.", + "authorString": "Vinther JL, Cadman T, Avraam D, Ekstr\u00f8m CT, S\u00f8rensen TIA, Elhakeem A, Santos AC, Pinot de Moira A, Heude B, I\u00f1iguez C, Pizzi C, Simons E, Voerman E, Corpeleijn E, Zariouh F, Santorelli G, Inskip HM, Barros H, Carson J, Harris JR, Nader JL, Ronkainen J, Strandberg-Larsen K, Santa-Marina L, Calas L, Cederkvist L, Popovic M, Charles MA, Welten M, Vrijheid M, Azad M, Subbarao P, Burton P, Mandhane PJ, Huang RC, Wilson RC, Haakma S, Fern\u00e1ndez-Barr\u00e9s S, Turvey S, Santos S, Tough SC, Sebert S, Moraes TJ, Salika T, Jaddoe VWV, Lawlor DA, Nybo Andersen AM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-11", + "date": "2023-01-26", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Evaluation; Early Years; Administrative Data; Adolescent Motherhood; Cross-Sectoral Linkage", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

\"Big data\" - including linked administrative data - can be exploited to evaluate interventions for maternal and child health, providing time- and cost-effective alternatives to randomised controlled trials. However, using these data to evaluate population-level interventions can be challenging.

Objectives

We aimed to inform future evaluations of complex interventions by describing sources of bias, lessons learned, and suggestions for improvements, based on two observational studies using linked administrative data from health, education and social care sectors to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) in England and Scotland.

Methods

We first considered how different sources of potential bias within the administrative data could affect results of the evaluations. We explored how each study design addressed these sources of bias using maternal confounders captured in the data. We then determined what additional information could be captured at each step of the complex intervention to enable analysts to minimise bias and maximise comparability between intervention and usual care groups, so that any observed differences can be attributed to the intervention.

Results

Lessons learned include the need for i) detailed data on intervention activity (dates/geography) and usual care; ii) improved information on data linkage quality to accurately characterise control groups; iii) more efficient provision of linked data to ensure timeliness of results; iv) better measurement of confounding characteristics affecting who is eligible, approached and enrolled.

Conclusions

Linked administrative data are a valuable resource for evaluations of the FNP national programme and other complex population-level interventions. However, information on local programme delivery and usual care are required to account for biases that characterise those who receive the intervention, and to inform understanding of mechanisms of effect. National, ongoing, robust evaluations of complex public health evaluations would be more achievable if programme implementation was integrated with improved national and local data collection, and robust quasi-experimental designs.", + "abstract": "

Background

Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is associated with adverse developmental and long-term health outcomes, including several cardiometabolic risk factors and outcomes. However, evidence about the association of preterm birth with later body size derives mainly from studies using birth weight as a proxy of prematurity rather than an actual length of gestation. We investigated the association of gestational age (GA) at birth with body size from infancy through adolescence.

Methods and findings

We conducted a two-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 253,810 mother-child dyads from 16 general population-based cohort studies in Europe (Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom), North America (Canada), and Australasia (Australia) to estimate the association of GA with body mass index (BMI) and overweight (including obesity) adjusted for the following maternal characteristics as potential confounders: education, height, prepregnancy BMI, ethnic background, parity, smoking during pregnancy, age at child's birth, gestational diabetes and hypertension, and preeclampsia. Pregnancy and birth cohort studies from the LifeCycle and the EUCAN-Connect projects were invited and were eligible for inclusion if they had information on GA and minimum one measurement of BMI between infancy and adolescence. Using a federated analytical tool (DataSHIELD), we fitted linear and logistic regression models in each cohort separately with a complete-case approach and combined the regression estimates and standard errors through random-effects study-level meta-analysis providing an overall effect estimate at early infancy (>0.0 to 0.5 years), late infancy (>0.5 to 2.0 years), early childhood (>2.0 to 5.0 years), mid-childhood (>5.0 to 9.0 years), late childhood (>9.0 to 14.0 years), and adolescence (>14.0 to 19.0 years). GA was positively associated with BMI in the first decade of life, with the greatest increase in mean BMI z-score during early infancy (0.02, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.00; 0.05, p < 0.05) per week of increase in GA, while in adolescence, preterm individuals reached similar levels of BMI (0.00, 95% CI: -0.01; 0.01, p 0.9) as term counterparts. The association between GA and overweight revealed a similar pattern of association with an increase in odds ratio (OR) of overweight from late infancy through mid-childhood (OR 1.01 to 1.02) per week increase in GA. By adolescence, however, GA was slightly negatively associated with the risk of overweight (OR 0.98 [95% CI: 0.97; 1.00], p 0.1) per week of increase in GA. Although based on only four cohorts (n = 32,089) that reached the age of adolescence, data suggest that individuals born very preterm may be at increased odds of overweight (OR 1.46 [95% CI: 1.03; 2.08], p < 0.05) compared with term counterparts. Findings were consistent across cohorts and sensitivity analyses despite considerable heterogeneity in cohort characteristics. However, residual confounding may be a limitation in this study, while findings may be less generalisable to settings in low- and middle-income countries.

Conclusions

This study based on data from infancy through adolescence from 16 cohort studies found that GA may be important for body size in infancy, but the strength of association attenuates consistently with age. By adolescence, preterm individuals have on average a similar mean BMI to peers born at term.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004036; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879424?pdf=render" }, { "id": "29944675", @@ -19651,6 +19634,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.06.007" }, + { + "id": "37670953", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113", + "title": "Lessons learned from using linked administrative data to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership in England and Scotland.", + "authorString": "Cavallaro FL, Cannings-John R, Lugg-Widger F, Gilbert R, Kennedy E, Kendall S, Robling M, Harron KL.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-11", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Evaluation; Early Years; Administrative Data; Adolescent Motherhood; Cross-Sectoral Linkage", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

\"Big data\" - including linked administrative data - can be exploited to evaluate interventions for maternal and child health, providing time- and cost-effective alternatives to randomised controlled trials. However, using these data to evaluate population-level interventions can be challenging.

Objectives

We aimed to inform future evaluations of complex interventions by describing sources of bias, lessons learned, and suggestions for improvements, based on two observational studies using linked administrative data from health, education and social care sectors to evaluate the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) in England and Scotland.

Methods

We first considered how different sources of potential bias within the administrative data could affect results of the evaluations. We explored how each study design addressed these sources of bias using maternal confounders captured in the data. We then determined what additional information could be captured at each step of the complex intervention to enable analysts to minimise bias and maximise comparability between intervention and usual care groups, so that any observed differences can be attributed to the intervention.

Results

Lessons learned include the need for i) detailed data on intervention activity (dates/geography) and usual care; ii) improved information on data linkage quality to accurately characterise control groups; iii) more efficient provision of linked data to ensure timeliness of results; iv) better measurement of confounding characteristics affecting who is eligible, approached and enrolled.

Conclusions

Linked administrative data are a valuable resource for evaluations of the FNP national programme and other complex population-level interventions. However, information on local programme delivery and usual care are required to account for biases that characterise those who receive the intervention, and to inform understanding of mechanisms of effect. National, ongoing, robust evaluations of complex public health evaluations would be more achievable if programme implementation was integrated with improved national and local data collection, and robust quasi-experimental designs.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2113; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476150?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35579056", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.13814", @@ -19668,6 +19668,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10151289/1/Asselbergs_Lifestyle%20changes%20and%20kidney%20function_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.13814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9540114; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9540114?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36082669", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.122.19354", + "title": "Determining the Relationship Between Blood Pressure, Kidney Function, and Chronic Kidney Disease: Insights From Genetic Epidemiology.", + "authorString": "Staplin N, Herrington WG, Murgia F, Ibrahim M, Bull KR, Judge PK, Ng SYA, Turner M, Zhu D, Emberson J, Landray MJ, Baigent C, Haynes R, Hopewell JC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-09", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Blood pressure; Chronic; creatinine; epidemiology; Renal Insufficiency", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

It is well established that decreased kidney function can increase blood pressure (BP), but it is unproven whether moderately elevated BP causes chronic kidney disease (CKD) or glomerular hyperfiltration.

Methods

311 119 White British UK Biobank participants were included in logistic regression analyses to estimate the odds of CKD (defined as long-term kidney replacement therapy, estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]< 60mL/min/1.73m2, or urinary albumin:creatinine ratio \u22653 mg/mmol) associated with higher genetically predicted BP using genetic risk scores comprising 219 systolic and 223 diastolic BP loci. Analyses estimating associations with clinical categories of eGFR and urinary albumin:creatinine ratio were also conducted, with an eGFR \u2265120 mL (min\u00b71.73m2) considered evidence of glomerular hyperfiltration.

Results

21 623 participants had CKD: 7781 with reduced eGFR and 15\u2009500 with albuminuria. 1828 participants had an eGFR \u2265120 mL/min/1.73m2. Each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP and 5 mmHg higher diastolic BP were associated with a 37% (95% CI, 1.29-1.45) and 19% (1.14-1.25) higher odds of CKD, respectively. Associations were evident for both the reduced eGFR and albuminuria components of the CKD outcome. The odds of hyperfiltration (versus an eGFR \u226560 and <90 mL/min/1.73m2 were 49% higher (95% CI, 1.21-1.84) for each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP. Associations with CKD and hyperfiltration were similar irrespective of preexisting diabetes, vascular disease, or different levels of adiposity.

Conclusions

In this general population, genetic epidemiological evidence supports a causal role of life-long differences in BP for decreased kidney function, glomerular hyperfiltration, and albuminuria. Physiological autoregulation may not afford complete renal protection against the moderate BP elevations.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aefe90da-8a81-4cfa-981a-bb36eca6faa3/files/r6w924c60k; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.19354; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37321240", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(23)00113-x", @@ -19685,6 +19702,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S221503662300113X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(23)00113-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259832; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10259832?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36991119", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9", + "title": "An atlas of genetic scores to predict multi-omic traits.", + "authorString": "Xu Y, Ritchie SC, Liang Y, Timmers PRHJ, Pietzner M, Lannelongue L, Lambert SA, Tahir UA, May-Wilson S, Foguet C, Johansson \u00c5, Surendran P, Nath AP, Persyn E, Peters JE, Oliver-Williams C, Deng S, Prins B, Luan J, Bomba L, Soranzo N, Di Angelantonio E, Pirastu N, Tai ES, van Dam RM, Parkinson H, Davenport EE, Paul DS, Yau C, Gerszten RE, M\u00e4larstig A, Danesh J, Sim X, Langenberg C, Wilson JF, Butterworth AS, Inouye M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-29", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The use of omic modalities to dissect the molecular underpinnings of common diseases and traits is becoming increasingly common. But multi-omic traits can be genetically predicted, which enables highly cost-effective and powerful analyses for studies that do not have multi-omics1. Here we examine a large cohort (the INTERVAL study2; n\u2009=\u200950,000 participants) with extensive multi-omic data for plasma proteomics (SomaScan, n\u2009=\u20093,175; Olink, n\u2009=\u20094,822), plasma metabolomics (Metabolon HD4, n\u2009=\u20098,153), serum metabolomics (Nightingale, n\u2009=\u200937,359) and whole-blood Illumina RNA sequencing (n\u2009=\u20094,136), and use machine learning to train genetic scores for 17,227 molecular traits, including 10,521 that reach Bonferroni-adjusted significance. We evaluate the performance of genetic scores through external validation across cohorts of individuals of European, Asian and African American ancestries. In addition, we show the utility of these multi-omic genetic scores by quantifying the genetic control of biological pathways and by generating a synthetic multi-omic dataset of the UK Biobank3 to identify disease associations using a phenome-wide scan. We highlight a series of biological insights with regard to genetic mechanisms in metabolism and canonical pathway associations with disease; for example, JAK-STAT signalling and coronary atherosclerosis. Finally, we develop a portal ( https://www.omicspred.org/ ) to facilitate public access to all genetic scores and validation results, as well as to serve as a platform for future extensions and enhancements of multi-omic genetic scores.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/337957796/An_atlas_of_genetic_scores_to_predict_multi_omic_traits_s41586_023_05844_9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9" + }, { "id": "35144240", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/32543", @@ -19702,23 +19736,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/5/e32543/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/32543; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9150729" }, - { - "id": "36082669", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.122.19354", - "title": "Determining the Relationship Between Blood Pressure, Kidney Function, and Chronic Kidney Disease: Insights From Genetic Epidemiology.", - "authorString": "Staplin N, Herrington WG, Murgia F, Ibrahim M, Bull KR, Judge PK, Ng SYA, Turner M, Zhu D, Emberson J, Landray MJ, Baigent C, Haynes R, Hopewell JC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-09", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Blood pressure; Chronic; creatinine; epidemiology; Renal Insufficiency", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

It is well established that decreased kidney function can increase blood pressure (BP), but it is unproven whether moderately elevated BP causes chronic kidney disease (CKD) or glomerular hyperfiltration.

Methods

311 119 White British UK Biobank participants were included in logistic regression analyses to estimate the odds of CKD (defined as long-term kidney replacement therapy, estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]< 60mL/min/1.73m2, or urinary albumin:creatinine ratio \u22653 mg/mmol) associated with higher genetically predicted BP using genetic risk scores comprising 219 systolic and 223 diastolic BP loci. Analyses estimating associations with clinical categories of eGFR and urinary albumin:creatinine ratio were also conducted, with an eGFR \u2265120 mL (min\u00b71.73m2) considered evidence of glomerular hyperfiltration.

Results

21 623 participants had CKD: 7781 with reduced eGFR and 15\u2009500 with albuminuria. 1828 participants had an eGFR \u2265120 mL/min/1.73m2. Each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP and 5 mmHg higher diastolic BP were associated with a 37% (95% CI, 1.29-1.45) and 19% (1.14-1.25) higher odds of CKD, respectively. Associations were evident for both the reduced eGFR and albuminuria components of the CKD outcome. The odds of hyperfiltration (versus an eGFR \u226560 and <90 mL/min/1.73m2 were 49% higher (95% CI, 1.21-1.84) for each genetically predicted 10 mmHg higher systolic BP. Associations with CKD and hyperfiltration were similar irrespective of preexisting diabetes, vascular disease, or different levels of adiposity.

Conclusions

In this general population, genetic epidemiological evidence supports a causal role of life-long differences in BP for decreased kidney function, glomerular hyperfiltration, and albuminuria. Physiological autoregulation may not afford complete renal protection against the moderate BP elevations.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aefe90da-8a81-4cfa-981a-bb36eca6faa3/files/r6w924c60k; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.19354; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9640248?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31349307", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3233/shti190058", @@ -19736,23 +19753,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI190058" }, - { - "id": "34642218", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424", - "title": "Neurological injury from virtual reality mishap. ", - "authorString": "Warner N, Teo JT.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ case reports", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Consumer virtual reality systems are becoming increasingly popular with the increasing availability of devices and gamified technologies. Self-sustained injury risks exist with the use of this technology in the uncontrolled home environment, however, the public awareness of these risks may not be recognised. We present a case of a low- impact virtual reality fall resulting in spinal cord injury, hypoglossal nerve injury, vertebral artery dissection and traumatic brain injury.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://casereports.bmj.com/content/bmjcr/14/10/e243424.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31446406", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027577", @@ -19770,23 +19770,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/8/e027577.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6720244?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36991119", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9", - "title": "An atlas of genetic scores to predict multi-omic traits.", - "authorString": "Xu Y, Ritchie SC, Liang Y, Timmers PRHJ, Pietzner M, Lannelongue L, Lambert SA, Tahir UA, May-Wilson S, Foguet C, Johansson \u00c5, Surendran P, Nath AP, Persyn E, Peters JE, Oliver-Williams C, Deng S, Prins B, Luan J, Bomba L, Soranzo N, Di Angelantonio E, Pirastu N, Tai ES, van Dam RM, Parkinson H, Davenport EE, Paul DS, Yau C, Gerszten RE, M\u00e4larstig A, Danesh J, Sim X, Langenberg C, Wilson JF, Butterworth AS, Inouye M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-29", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The use of omic modalities to dissect the molecular underpinnings of common diseases and traits is becoming increasingly common. But multi-omic traits can be genetically predicted, which enables highly cost-effective and powerful analyses for studies that do not have multi-omics1. Here we examine a large cohort (the INTERVAL study2; n\u2009=\u200950,000 participants) with extensive multi-omic data for plasma proteomics (SomaScan, n\u2009=\u20093,175; Olink, n\u2009=\u20094,822), plasma metabolomics (Metabolon HD4, n\u2009=\u20098,153), serum metabolomics (Nightingale, n\u2009=\u200937,359) and whole-blood Illumina RNA sequencing (n\u2009=\u20094,136), and use machine learning to train genetic scores for 17,227 molecular traits, including 10,521 that reach Bonferroni-adjusted significance. We evaluate the performance of genetic scores through external validation across cohorts of individuals of European, Asian and African American ancestries. In addition, we show the utility of these multi-omic genetic scores by quantifying the genetic control of biological pathways and by generating a synthetic multi-omic dataset of the UK Biobank3 to identify disease associations using a phenome-wide scan. We highlight a series of biological insights with regard to genetic mechanisms in metabolism and canonical pathway associations with disease; for example, JAK-STAT signalling and coronary atherosclerosis. Finally, we develop a portal ( https://www.omicspred.org/ ) to facilitate public access to all genetic scores and validation results, as well as to serve as a platform for future extensions and enhancements of multi-omic genetic scores.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/337957796/An_atlas_of_genetic_scores_to_predict_multi_omic_traits_s41586_023_05844_9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05844-9" - }, { "id": "35804579", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12131679", @@ -19838,6 +19821,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-pdf/51/12/afac252/47589319/afac252.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac252" }, + { + "id": "34642218", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424", + "title": "Neurological injury from virtual reality mishap. ", + "authorString": "Warner N, Teo JT.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ case reports", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Consumer virtual reality systems are becoming increasingly popular with the increasing availability of devices and gamified technologies. Self-sustained injury risks exist with the use of this technology in the uncontrolled home environment, however, the public awareness of these risks may not be recognised. We present a case of a low- impact virtual reality fall resulting in spinal cord injury, hypoglossal nerve injury, vertebral artery dissection and traumatic brain injury.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://casereports.bmj.com/content/bmjcr/14/10/e243424.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513217?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33328048", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30218-1", @@ -19957,23 +19957,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2021.12.014" }, - { - "id": "31558464", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013", - "title": "Long-term impact of giving antibiotics before skin incision versus after cord clamping on children born by caesarean section: protocol for a longitudinal study based on UK electronic health records.", - "authorString": "\u0160umilo D, Nirantharakumar K, Willis BH, Rudge G, Martin J, Gokhale K, Thayakaran R, Adderley NJ, Chandan JS, Okoth K, Hewston R, Skrybant M, Deeks JJ, Brocklehurst P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-09-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Child; Asthma; Caesarean section; Eczema; Antibiotic Prophylaxis; Immune System Diseases", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

In the UK, about a quarter of women give birth by caesarean section (CS) and are offered prophylactic broad-spectrum antibiotics to reduce the risk of maternal postpartum infection. In 2011, national guidance was changed from recommending antibiotics after the umbilical cord was cut to giving antibiotics prior to skin incision based on evidence that earlier administration reduces maternal infectious morbidity. Although antibiotics cross the placenta, there are no known short-term harms to the baby. This study aims to address the research gap on longer term impact of these antibiotics on child health.

Methods and analysis

A controlled interrupted time series study will use anonymised mother-baby linked routine electronic health records for children born during 2006-2018 recorded in UK primary care (The Health Improvement Network, THIN and Clinical Practice Research Datalink, CPRD) and secondary care (Hospital Episode Statistics, HES) databases. The primary outcomes of interest are asthma and eczema, two common allergy-related diseases in childhood. In-utero exposure to antibiotics immediately prior to CS will be compared with no exposure when given after cord clamping. The risk of outcomes in children delivered by CS will also be compared with a control cohort delivered vaginally to account for time effects. We will use all available data from THIN, CPRD and HES with estimated power of 80% and 90% to detect relative increase in risk of asthma of 16% and 18%, respectively at the 5% significance level.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the University of Birmingham Ethical Review Committee with scientific approvals obtained from the independent scientific advisory committees from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for CPRD and the data provider, IQVIA for THIN. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at national and international conferences and disseminated to stakeholders.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/9/e033013.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37198662", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-023-00516-9", @@ -19992,21 +19975,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-023-00516-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-023-00516-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193800; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10193800?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35536740", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884", - "title": "Gaps in antihypertensive and statin treatments and benefits of optimisation: a modelling study in a 1 million ethnically diverse urban population in UK.", - "authorString": "Wu R, Rison SCG, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Dostal I, Carvalho C, Robson J, Mihaylova B.", + "id": "31558464", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013", + "title": "Long-term impact of giving antibiotics before skin incision versus after cord clamping on children born by caesarean section: protocol for a longitudinal study based on UK electronic health records.", + "authorString": "\u0160umilo D, Nirantharakumar K, Willis BH, Rudge G, Martin J, Gokhale K, Thayakaran R, Adderley NJ, Chandan JS, Okoth K, Hewston R, Skrybant M, Deeks JJ, Brocklehurst P.", "authorAffiliations": "", "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-30", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-09-26", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Hypertension; Preventive Medicine; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Primary Care; Health Policy; Quality In Health Care", + "keywords": "Child; Asthma; Caesarean section; Eczema; Antibiotic Prophylaxis; Immune System Diseases", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

To characterise gaps in antihypertensive treatment in people with hypertension and statin treatment in people with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large urban population and quantify the health and economic impacts of their optimisation.

Design

A cross-sectional population study and a long-term CVD decision model.

Setting

Primary care, UK.

Participants

All adults with diagnosed hypertension or CVD in a population of about 1 million people, served by 123 primary care practices in London, UK in 2019.

Interventions

Following UK clinical guidelines, all adults with diagnosed hypertension were categorised into optimal, suboptimal and untreated groups with respect to their antihypertensive treatment, and all adults with diagnosed CVD were categorised in the same manner with respect to their statin treatment.

Outcomes

Proportion of patients suboptimally treated or untreated. Projected cardiovascular events avoided, years and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and healthcare costs saved with optimised treatments.

Results

21 954 of the 91 828 adults with hypertension (24%; mean age 59 years; 49% women) and 9062 of the 23 723 adults with CVD (38%; mean age 69 years; 43% women) were not optimally treated with antihypertensive or statin treatment, respectively. Per 1000 additional patients optimised over 5 years, hypertension treatment is projected to prevent 25 (95% CI 16 to 32) major vascular events (MVEs) and 7 (3 to 10) vascular deaths, statin treatment, 28 (22 to 33) MVEs and 6 (4 to 7) vascular deaths. Over their lifespan, a patient with uncontrolled hypertension aged 60-69 years is projected to gain 0.64 (95% CI 0.36 to 0.87) QALYs with optimised hypertension treatment, and a similarly aged patient with previous CVD not optimally treated with statin is projected to gain 0.3 (0.24 to 0.37) QALYs with optimised statin treatment. In both cases, the hospital cost savings minus extra medication costs were about \u00a31100 per person over remaining lifespan.

Conclusions

Optimising cardiovascular treatments can cost-effectively reduce cardiovascular risk and improve life expectancy.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

In the UK, about a quarter of women give birth by caesarean section (CS) and are offered prophylactic broad-spectrum antibiotics to reduce the risk of maternal postpartum infection. In 2011, national guidance was changed from recommending antibiotics after the umbilical cord was cut to giving antibiotics prior to skin incision based on evidence that earlier administration reduces maternal infectious morbidity. Although antibiotics cross the placenta, there are no known short-term harms to the baby. This study aims to address the research gap on longer term impact of these antibiotics on child health.

Methods and analysis

A controlled interrupted time series study will use anonymised mother-baby linked routine electronic health records for children born during 2006-2018 recorded in UK primary care (The Health Improvement Network, THIN and Clinical Practice Research Datalink, CPRD) and secondary care (Hospital Episode Statistics, HES) databases. The primary outcomes of interest are asthma and eczema, two common allergy-related diseases in childhood. In-utero exposure to antibiotics immediately prior to CS will be compared with no exposure when given after cord clamping. The risk of outcomes in children delivered by CS will also be compared with a control cohort delivered vaginally to account for time effects. We will use all available data from THIN, CPRD and HES with estimated power of 80% and 90% to detect relative increase in risk of asthma of 16% and 18%, respectively at the 5% significance level.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the University of Birmingham Ethical Review Committee with scientific approvals obtained from the independent scientific advisory committees from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for CPRD and the data provider, IQVIA for THIN. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at national and international conferences and disseminated to stakeholders.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/12/e052884.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/9/e033013.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033013; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6773283?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37422075", @@ -20042,6 +20025,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/dote/article-pdf/35/1/doab058/42098674/doab058.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/dote/doab058" }, + { + "id": "35536740", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884", + "title": "Gaps in antihypertensive and statin treatments and benefits of optimisation: a modelling study in a 1 million ethnically diverse urban population in UK.", + "authorString": "Wu R, Rison SCG, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Dostal I, Carvalho C, Robson J, Mihaylova B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Hypertension; Preventive Medicine; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Primary Care; Health Policy; Quality In Health Care", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

To characterise gaps in antihypertensive treatment in people with hypertension and statin treatment in people with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large urban population and quantify the health and economic impacts of their optimisation.

Design

A cross-sectional population study and a long-term CVD decision model.

Setting

Primary care, UK.

Participants

All adults with diagnosed hypertension or CVD in a population of about 1 million people, served by 123 primary care practices in London, UK in 2019.

Interventions

Following UK clinical guidelines, all adults with diagnosed hypertension were categorised into optimal, suboptimal and untreated groups with respect to their antihypertensive treatment, and all adults with diagnosed CVD were categorised in the same manner with respect to their statin treatment.

Outcomes

Proportion of patients suboptimally treated or untreated. Projected cardiovascular events avoided, years and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and healthcare costs saved with optimised treatments.

Results

21 954 of the 91 828 adults with hypertension (24%; mean age 59 years; 49% women) and 9062 of the 23 723 adults with CVD (38%; mean age 69 years; 43% women) were not optimally treated with antihypertensive or statin treatment, respectively. Per 1000 additional patients optimised over 5 years, hypertension treatment is projected to prevent 25 (95% CI 16 to 32) major vascular events (MVEs) and 7 (3 to 10) vascular deaths, statin treatment, 28 (22 to 33) MVEs and 6 (4 to 7) vascular deaths. Over their lifespan, a patient with uncontrolled hypertension aged 60-69 years is projected to gain 0.64 (95% CI 0.36 to 0.87) QALYs with optimised hypertension treatment, and a similarly aged patient with previous CVD not optimally treated with statin is projected to gain 0.3 (0.24 to 0.37) QALYs with optimised statin treatment. In both cases, the hospital cost savings minus extra medication costs were about \u00a31100 per person over remaining lifespan.

Conclusions

Optimising cardiovascular treatments can cost-effectively reduce cardiovascular risk and improve life expectancy.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/12/e052884.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052884; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8719215?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36828609", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00252-7", @@ -20059,23 +20059,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00252-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00252-7" }, - { - "id": "34143303", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3", - "title": "National record-linkage study of hospital admissions for schizophrenia in childhood and adolescence in England.", - "authorString": "Seminog O, Hoang U, Goldacre M, James A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European child & adolescent psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2021-06-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Schizophrenia; Children; epidemiology; Electronic Records; Childhood Onset", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There is a lack of information on changes in hospital admission rates for childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), or on patient characteristics, to inform clinical research and health service provision.

Aims

To report age- and sex-specific incidence rates of hospital admissions and day patient care for schizophrenia (ICD-10 F20) and non-affective psychosis (ICD-10 F20-29), by year of occurrence and age, in childhood and adolescence.

Methods

Population-based study using person-linked data for England (available 2001-2016); time-periods in single years and 4-year groups.

Results

Hospitalised incidence for schizophrenia increased with increasing age, from 0.03 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02-0.05) and 0.01 (0-0.01) per 100,000 in, respectively, males and females aged 5-12\u00a0years, to 3.67 (3.44-3.91) in males and 1.58 (1.43-1.75) in females aged 13-17\u00a0years. There was no gender difference in hospitalised incidence rates in children aged 5-12, but in 13-17\u00a0years old, there was a male excess. Rates for schizophrenia were stable over time in 5-12\u00a0years old. In ages 13-17, rates for schizophrenia decreased between 2001-2004 and 2013-2016 in males, from 6.65 (6.04-7.31) down to 1.40 (1.13-1.73), and in females from 2.42 (2.05-2.83) to 1.18 (0.92-1.48). The hospitalisation rates for schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis, combined, in 13-17 years old decreased in males from 14.20 (13.30-15.14) in 2001-2004 to 10.77 (9.97-11.60) in 2013-2016, but increased in females from 7.49 (6.83-8.20) to 10.16 (9.38-11.00).

Conclusions

The study confirms that childhood-onset schizophrenia is extremely rare, with only 32 cases identified over a 15-year period in the whole of England. The incidence of schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis increased substantially in adolescence; however, the marked reduction in the proportion of those diagnosed with schizophrenia in this age group suggests a possible change in diagnostic practice.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34378227", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.14010", @@ -20110,6 +20093,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/articlepdf/2785704/jamaophthalmology_kuan_2021_oi_210068_1639510445.31311.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2021.4601; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8569599" }, + { + "id": "34143303", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3", + "title": "National record-linkage study of hospital admissions for schizophrenia in childhood and adolescence in England.", + "authorString": "Seminog O, Hoang U, Goldacre M, James A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "European child & adolescent psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2021-06-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Schizophrenia; Children; epidemiology; Electronic Records; Childhood Onset", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

There is a lack of information on changes in hospital admission rates for childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), or on patient characteristics, to inform clinical research and health service provision.

Aims

To report age- and sex-specific incidence rates of hospital admissions and day patient care for schizophrenia (ICD-10 F20) and non-affective psychosis (ICD-10 F20-29), by year of occurrence and age, in childhood and adolescence.

Methods

Population-based study using person-linked data for England (available 2001-2016); time-periods in single years and 4-year groups.

Results

Hospitalised incidence for schizophrenia increased with increasing age, from 0.03 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02-0.05) and 0.01 (0-0.01) per 100,000 in, respectively, males and females aged 5-12\u00a0years, to 3.67 (3.44-3.91) in males and 1.58 (1.43-1.75) in females aged 13-17\u00a0years. There was no gender difference in hospitalised incidence rates in children aged 5-12, but in 13-17\u00a0years old, there was a male excess. Rates for schizophrenia were stable over time in 5-12\u00a0years old. In ages 13-17, rates for schizophrenia decreased between 2001-2004 and 2013-2016 in males, from 6.65 (6.04-7.31) down to 1.40 (1.13-1.73), and in females from 2.42 (2.05-2.83) to 1.18 (0.92-1.48). The hospitalisation rates for schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis, combined, in 13-17 years old decreased in males from 14.20 (13.30-15.14) in 2001-2004 to 10.77 (9.97-11.60) in 2013-2016, but increased in females from 7.49 (6.83-8.20) to 10.16 (9.38-11.00).

Conclusions

The study confirms that childhood-onset schizophrenia is extremely rare, with only 32 cases identified over a 15-year period in the whole of England. The incidence of schizophrenia and non-affective psychosis increased substantially in adolescence; however, the marked reduction in the proportion of those diagnosed with schizophrenia in this age group suggests a possible change in diagnostic practice.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01817-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9663394?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "30183734", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202359", @@ -20178,23 +20178,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41709; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41709" }, - { - "id": "PMC9023380", - "doi": "https://doi.org/", - "title": "Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated with multi-mode transportation networks in China", - "authorString": "Xu X, Liu X, Wang L, Wu Y, Lu X, Wang X, Pei S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Fundamental Research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Complex Network; Spatial Spread; Human Mobility; Transportation Networks; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The spatial spread of COVID-19 during early 2020 in China was primarily driven by outbound travelers leaving the epicenter, Wuhan, Hubei province. Existing studies focus on the influence of aggregated out-bound population flows originating from Wuhan; however, the impacts of different modes of transportation and the network structure of transportation systems on the early spread of COVID-19 in China are not well understood. Here, we assess the roles of the road, railway, and air transportation networks in driving the spatial spread of COVID-19 in China. We find that the short-range spread within Hubei province was dominated by ground traffic, notably, the railway transportation. In contrast, long-range spread to cities in other provinces was mediated by multiple factors, including a higher risk of case importation associated with air transportation and a larger outbreak size in hub cities located at the center of transportation networks. We further show that, although the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 across countries and continents is determined by the worldwide air transportation network, the early geographic dispersal of COVID-19 within China is better predicted by the railway traffic. Given the recent emergence of multiple more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2, our findings can support a better assessment of the spread risk of those variants and improve future pandemic preparedness and responses. Graphical abstract Image, graphical abstract.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33560181", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989x21994035", @@ -20229,6 +20212,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009428&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009428; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8031124; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8031124?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "PMC9023380", + "doi": "https://doi.org/", + "title": "Assessing the spread risk of COVID-19 associated with multi-mode transportation networks in China", + "authorString": "Xu X, Liu X, Wang L, Wu Y, Lu X, Wang X, Pei S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Fundamental Research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Complex Network; Spatial Spread; Human Mobility; Transportation Networks; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The spatial spread of COVID-19 during early 2020 in China was primarily driven by outbound travelers leaving the epicenter, Wuhan, Hubei province. Existing studies focus on the influence of aggregated out-bound population flows originating from Wuhan; however, the impacts of different modes of transportation and the network structure of transportation systems on the early spread of COVID-19 in China are not well understood. Here, we assess the roles of the road, railway, and air transportation networks in driving the spatial spread of COVID-19 in China. We find that the short-range spread within Hubei province was dominated by ground traffic, notably, the railway transportation. In contrast, long-range spread to cities in other provinces was mediated by multiple factors, including a higher risk of case importation associated with air transportation and a larger outbreak size in hub cities located at the center of transportation networks. We further show that, although the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 across countries and continents is determined by the worldwide air transportation network, the early geographic dispersal of COVID-19 within China is better predicted by the railway traffic. Given the recent emergence of multiple more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2, our findings can support a better assessment of the spread risk of those variants and improve future pandemic preparedness and responses. Graphical abstract Image, graphical abstract.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/?tool=EBI; pdf:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023380/pdf/?tool=EBI; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9023380?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32352158", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.11580", @@ -20246,23 +20246,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-pdf/107/7/e220/35705126/bjs11580.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.11580" }, - { - "id": "37046260", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1", - "title": "Associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and health service disruptions in 10 countries.", - "authorString": "Reddy T, Kapoor NR, Kubota S, Doubova SV, Asai D, Mariam DH, Ayele W, Mebratie AD, Thermidor R, Sapag JC, Bedregal P, Passi-Solar \u00c1, Gordon-Strachan G, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Mehata S, Margozzini P, Leerapan B, Rittiphairoj T, Kaewkamjornchai P, Nega A, Awoonor-Williams JK, Kruk ME, Arsenault C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC health services research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Health Services; Health Systems; Pandemic Response; Health System Resilience; Covid-19 Restrictions; Health Care Disruptions", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in several countries. Yet, patterns in health service disruption according to country responses remain unclear.\u00a0In this paper, we investigate associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and disruptions in 31 health services in 10 low- middle- and high-income countries in 2020.

Methods

Using routine health information systems and administrative data from 10 countries (Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand) we estimated health service disruptions for the period of April to December 2020 by dividing monthly service provision at national levels by the average service provision in the 15\u00a0months pre-COVID (January 2019-March 2020). We used the\u00a0Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) index and\u00a0multi-level linear regression analyses to assess associations between the stringency of restrictions and health service disruptions over nine months. We extended the analysis by examining associations between 11 individual containment or closure policies and health service disruptions. Models were adjusted for COVID caseload, health service category and country GDP and included robust standard errors.

Findings

Chronic disease care was among the most affected services. Regression analyses revealed that a 10% increase in the mean stringency index was associated with a 3.3 percentage-point (95% CI -3.9, -2.7) reduction in relative service volumes. Among individual policies, curfews, and the presence of a state of emergency, had the largest coefficients and were associated with 14.1 (95% CI -19.6, 8.7) and 10.7 (95% CI -12.7, -8.7) percentage-point lower relative service volumes, respectively. In contrast, number of COVID-19 cases in 2020 was not associated with health service disruptions in any model.

Conclusions

Although containment policies were crucial in reducing COVID-19 mortality in many contexts, it is important to consider the indirect effects of these restrictions. Strategies to improve the resilience of health systems should be designed to ensure that populations can continue accessing essential health care despite the presence of containment policies during future infectious disease outbreaks.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33240510", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2020.26", @@ -20280,6 +20263,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2020.26; doi:https://doi.org/10.15420/aer.2020.26; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675143; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7675143?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37046260", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1", + "title": "Associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and health service disruptions in 10 countries.", + "authorString": "Reddy T, Kapoor NR, Kubota S, Doubova SV, Asai D, Mariam DH, Ayele W, Mebratie AD, Thermidor R, Sapag JC, Bedregal P, Passi-Solar \u00c1, Gordon-Strachan G, Dulal M, Gadeka DD, Mehata S, Margozzini P, Leerapan B, Rittiphairoj T, Kaewkamjornchai P, Nega A, Awoonor-Williams JK, Kruk ME, Arsenault C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC health services research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Health Services; Health Systems; Pandemic Response; Health System Resilience; Covid-19 Restrictions; Health Care Disruptions", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in several countries. Yet, patterns in health service disruption according to country responses remain unclear.\u00a0In this paper, we investigate associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and disruptions in 31 health services in 10 low- middle- and high-income countries in 2020.

Methods

Using routine health information systems and administrative data from 10 countries (Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand) we estimated health service disruptions for the period of April to December 2020 by dividing monthly service provision at national levels by the average service provision in the 15\u00a0months pre-COVID (January 2019-March 2020). We used the\u00a0Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) index and\u00a0multi-level linear regression analyses to assess associations between the stringency of restrictions and health service disruptions over nine months. We extended the analysis by examining associations between 11 individual containment or closure policies and health service disruptions. Models were adjusted for COVID caseload, health service category and country GDP and included robust standard errors.

Findings

Chronic disease care was among the most affected services. Regression analyses revealed that a 10% increase in the mean stringency index was associated with a 3.3 percentage-point (95% CI -3.9, -2.7) reduction in relative service volumes. Among individual policies, curfews, and the presence of a state of emergency, had the largest coefficients and were associated with 14.1 (95% CI -19.6, 8.7) and 10.7 (95% CI -12.7, -8.7) percentage-point lower relative service volumes, respectively. In contrast, number of COVID-19 cases in 2020 was not associated with health service disruptions in any model.

Conclusions

Although containment policies were crucial in reducing COVID-19 mortality in many contexts, it is important to consider the indirect effects of these restrictions. Strategies to improve the resilience of health systems should be designed to ensure that populations can continue accessing essential health care despite the presence of containment policies during future infectious disease outbreaks.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09363-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10096103?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34038519", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab084", @@ -20331,23 +20331,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/890337/2/0127%20IMPROVE%20mannarino%20Neutrophil%20to%20lymphocyte%20e%20suppl%20.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/biof.1801; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9299016; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9299016?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31302040", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009", - "title": "Risk for Heart\u00a0Failure: The Opportunity for Prevention With the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7.", - "authorString": "Uijl A, Koudstaal S, Vaartjes I, Boer JMA, Verschuren WMM, van der Schouw YT, Asselbergs FW, Hoes AW, Sluijs I.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JACC. Heart failure", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-07-10", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Heart Failure; Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors; Healthy Lifestyle; Life\u2019s Simple 7", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

The aim of this study is to determine whether combinations of specific Life's Simple 7 (LS7) components are associated with reduced risk for heart failure (HF).

Background

The American Heart Association recommends the concept of LS7: healthy behaviors that have been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease.

Methods

A total of 37,803 participants from the EPIC-NL (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Netherlands) cohort were included (mean age: 49.4 \u00b1 11.9 years, 74.7% women). The LS7 score ranged from 0 to 14 and was calculated by assigning 0, 1, or 2 points for smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose. An overall ideal score (11 to 14 points) was present in 23.2% of participants, an intermediate score (9 or 10 points) in 35.3%, and an inadequate score (0 to 8 points) in 41.5%.

Results

Over a median follow-up period of 15.2 years (interquartile range: 14.1 to 16.5 years), 690 participants (1.8%) developed HF. In Cox proportional hazards models, ideal and intermediate LS7 scores were associated with reduced risk for HF compared with the inadequate category (hazard ratio: 0.45 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.34 to 0.60] and hazard ratio: 0.53 [95% CI: 0.44 to 0.64], respectively). Our analyses show that combinations with specific LS7 components, notably glucose, body mass index, smoking, and blood pressure, are associated with a lower incidence of HF.

Conclusions

A healthy lifestyle, as reflected in an ideal LS7 score, was associated with a 55% lower risk for HF compared with an inadequate LS7 score. Preventive strategies that target combinations of specific LS7 components could have a significant impact on decreasing incident HF in the population at large.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009" - }, { "id": "34772649", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(21)00252-1", @@ -20382,6 +20365,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://mhealth.jmir.org/2022/1/e28095/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/28095; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8838593" }, + { + "id": "31302040", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009", + "title": "Risk for Heart\u00a0Failure: The Opportunity for Prevention With the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7.", + "authorString": "Uijl A, Koudstaal S, Vaartjes I, Boer JMA, Verschuren WMM, van der Schouw YT, Asselbergs FW, Hoes AW, Sluijs I.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JACC. Heart failure", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-07-10", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Heart Failure; Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors; Healthy Lifestyle; Life\u2019s Simple 7", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

The aim of this study is to determine whether combinations of specific Life's Simple 7 (LS7) components are associated with reduced risk for heart failure (HF).

Background

The American Heart Association recommends the concept of LS7: healthy behaviors that have been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease.

Methods

A total of 37,803 participants from the EPIC-NL (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Netherlands) cohort were included (mean age: 49.4 \u00b1 11.9 years, 74.7% women). The LS7 score ranged from 0 to 14 and was calculated by assigning 0, 1, or 2 points for smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose. An overall ideal score (11 to 14 points) was present in 23.2% of participants, an intermediate score (9 or 10 points) in 35.3%, and an inadequate score (0 to 8 points) in 41.5%.

Results

Over a median follow-up period of 15.2 years (interquartile range: 14.1 to 16.5 years), 690 participants (1.8%) developed HF. In Cox proportional hazards models, ideal and intermediate LS7 scores were associated with reduced risk for HF compared with the inadequate category (hazard ratio: 0.45 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.34 to 0.60] and hazard ratio: 0.53 [95% CI: 0.44 to 0.64], respectively). Our analyses show that combinations with specific LS7 components, notably glucose, body mass index, smoking, and blood pressure, are associated with a lower incidence of HF.

Conclusions

A healthy lifestyle, as reflected in an ideal LS7 score, was associated with a 55% lower risk for HF compared with an inadequate LS7 score. Preventive strategies that target combinations of specific LS7 components could have a significant impact on decreasing incident HF in the population at large.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2019.03.009" + }, { "id": "33531486", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21370-6", @@ -20399,23 +20399,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21370-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21370-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854714; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854714?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33289226", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426", - "title": "Association between gender and outcomes of acute burns patients. ", - "authorString": "Perkins M, Abesamis GM, Cleland H, Gabbe BJ, Tracy LM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "ANZ journal of surgery", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-12-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Burn injuries are a complex and serious public health concern. Where the total body surface area of the burn exceeds 50%, mortality rates as high as 48% have been reported. While the association between gender and burn injury outcomes has been explored, findings are inconsistent. Adult patients (>15\u2009years) admitted between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2018 to intensive care units of burn centres that provide specialist burn care in Australia and New Zealand were included. Raw mortality rates were examined and a multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to investigate the association between gender and time to in-hospital death. There were 2227 eligible burn injury admissions. Men comprised the majority (77.6%). The proportion of women who died in hospital was greater than men and the adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality were 34% lower in men (odds ratio 0.66; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.98). The unadjusted rate of in-hospital mortality for men was 44% lower than women (hazard ratio 0.56; 95% CI 0.41-0.76). After adjusting for confounders, there was no association between gender and survival time (hazard ratio 0.76; 95% CI 0.54-1.06). After adjustment for key differences in case-mix between men and women, there was an association between gender and in-hospital mortality and no association between gender and time to death. Our findings indicate that the worse outcomes observed for women are associated with different age and patterns of injury, and provide further information to direct and inform targeted prevention measures for vulnerable populations.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426" - }, { "id": "34850874", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083", @@ -20433,6 +20416,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-pdf/10/12/giab083/41395049/giab083.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8634578?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33289226", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426", + "title": "Association between gender and outcomes of acute burns patients. ", + "authorString": "Perkins M, Abesamis GM, Cleland H, Gabbe BJ, Tracy LM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "ANZ journal of surgery", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Burn injuries are a complex and serious public health concern. Where the total body surface area of the burn exceeds 50%, mortality rates as high as 48% have been reported. While the association between gender and burn injury outcomes has been explored, findings are inconsistent. Adult patients (>15\u2009years) admitted between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2018 to intensive care units of burn centres that provide specialist burn care in Australia and New Zealand were included. Raw mortality rates were examined and a multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to investigate the association between gender and time to in-hospital death. There were 2227 eligible burn injury admissions. Men comprised the majority (77.6%). The proportion of women who died in hospital was greater than men and the adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality were 34% lower in men (odds ratio 0.66; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.98). The unadjusted rate of in-hospital mortality for men was 44% lower than women (hazard ratio 0.56; 95% CI 0.41-0.76). After adjusting for confounders, there was no association between gender and survival time (hazard ratio 0.76; 95% CI 0.54-1.06). After adjustment for key differences in case-mix between men and women, there was an association between gender and in-hospital mortality and no association between gender and time to death. Our findings indicate that the worse outcomes observed for women are associated with different age and patterns of injury, and provide further information to direct and inform targeted prevention measures for vulnerable populations.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16426" + }, { "id": "34127232", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2021.102083", @@ -20484,6 +20484,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cei/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/cei/uxad008/49549101/uxad008.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cei/uxad008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10128160; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10128160?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32379357", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563", + "title": "A Bayesian hierarchical approach for multiple outcomes in routinely collected healthcare data.", + "authorString": "Carragher R, Mueller T, Bennie M, Robertson C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Statistics in medicine", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-05-07", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Observational Study; Multiple Outcomes; Direct Oral Anticoagulants; Safety Outcomes; Bayesian Hierarchy", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Clinical trials are the standard approach for evaluating new treatments, but may lack the power to assess rare outcomes. Trial results are also necessarily restricted to the population considered in the study. The availability of routinely collected healthcare data provides a source of information on the performance of treatments beyond that offered by clinical trials, but the analysis of this type of data presents a number of challenges. Hierarchical methods, which take advantage of known relationships between clinical outcomes, while accounting for bias, may be a suitable statistical approach for the analysis of this data. A study of direct oral anticoagulants in Scotland is discussed and used to motivate a modeling approach. A Bayesian hierarchical model, which allows a stratification of the population into clusters with similar characteristics, is proposed and applied to the direct oral anticoagulant study data. A simulation study is used to assess its performance in terms of outcome detection and error rates.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8563; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563" + }, { "id": "32426117", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010348", @@ -20518,23 +20535,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/12/6/958/pdf?version=1655284846; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12060958; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9225330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9225330?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32379357", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563", - "title": "A Bayesian hierarchical approach for multiple outcomes in routinely collected healthcare data.", - "authorString": "Carragher R, Mueller T, Bennie M, Robertson C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Statistics in medicine", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-07", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Observational Study; Multiple Outcomes; Direct Oral Anticoagulants; Safety Outcomes; Bayesian Hierarchy", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Clinical trials are the standard approach for evaluating new treatments, but may lack the power to assess rare outcomes. Trial results are also necessarily restricted to the population considered in the study. The availability of routinely collected healthcare data provides a source of information on the performance of treatments beyond that offered by clinical trials, but the analysis of this type of data presents a number of challenges. Hierarchical methods, which take advantage of known relationships between clinical outcomes, while accounting for bias, may be a suitable statistical approach for the analysis of this data. A study of direct oral anticoagulants in Scotland is discussed and used to motivate a modeling approach. A Bayesian hierarchical model, which allows a stratification of the population into clusters with similar characteristics, is proposed and applied to the direct oral anticoagulant study data. A simulation study is used to assess its performance in terms of outcome detection and error rates.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8563; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8563" - }, { "id": "34390586", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15423", @@ -20586,40 +20586,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.14073; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.14073; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9715795; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9715795?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34253559", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689", - "title": "Long-term trends in population-based hospitalisation rates for myocardial infarction in England: a national database study of 3.5 million admissions, 1968-2016.", - "authorString": "Wright FL, Townsend N, Greenland M, Goldacre MJ, Smolina K, Lacey B, Nedkoff L.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of epidemiology and community health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2021-07-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Record Linkage", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aim

To analyse the timing and scale of temporal changes in rates of hospitalised myocardial infarction (MI) in England by age and sex from 1968 to 2016.

Methods

MI admissions for adults aged 15-84 years were identified from electronic hospital data. We calculated age-standardised and age-specific rates, and examined trends using joinpoint.

Results

From 1968 to 2016, there were 3.5 million admissions for MI in England (68% men). Rates increased in the early years of the study in both men and women, peaked in the mid-1980s (355 per 100 000 population in men; 127 in women) and declined by 38.8% in men and 37.4% in women from 1990 to 2011. From 2012, however, modest increases were observed in both sexes. Long-term trends in rates over the study period varied by age and sex, with those aged 70 years and older having the greatest and most sustained increases in the early years (1968-1985). During subsequent years, rates decreased in most age groups until 2010-2011. The exception was younger women (35-49 years) and men (15-34 years) who experienced significant increases from the mid-1990s to 2007 (range +2.1%/year to 4.7%/year). From 2012 onwards, rates increased in all age groups except the oldest, with the most marked increases in men aged 15-34 years (7.2%/year) and women aged 40-49 (6.9%-7.3%/year) .

Conclusion

Despite substantial declines in hospital admission rates for MI in England since 1990, the burden of annual admissions remains high. Continued surveillance of trends and coronary disease preventive strategies are warranted.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/1/45.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "36689332", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021", - "title": "GBMdeconvoluteR accurately infers proportions of neoplastic and immune cell populations from bulk glioblastoma transcriptomics data.", - "authorString": "Ajaib S, Lodha D, Pollock S, Hemmings G, Finetti MA, Gusnanto A, Chakrabarty A, Ismail A, Wilson E, Varn FS, Hunter B, Filby A, Brockman AA, McDonald D, Verhaak RGW, Ihrie RA, Stead LF.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Neuro-oncology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Immune; Deconvolution; Glioblastoma; Neoplastic; Transcriptomics", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Characterizing and quantifying cell types within glioblastoma (GBM) tumors at scale will facilitate a better understanding of the association between the cellular landscape and tumor phenotypes or clinical correlates. We aimed to develop a tool that deconvolutes immune and neoplastic cells within the GBM tumor microenvironment from bulk RNA sequencing data.

Methods

We developed an IDH wild-type (IDHwt) GBM-specific single immune cell reference consisting of B cells, T-cells, NK-cells, microglia, tumor associated macrophages, monocytes, mast and DC cells. We used this alongside an existing neoplastic single cell-type reference for astrocyte-like, oligodendrocyte- and neuronal progenitor-like and mesenchymal GBM cancer cells to create both marker and gene signature matrix-based deconvolution tools. We applied single-cell resolution imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to ten IDHwt GBM samples, five paired primary and recurrent tumors, to determine which deconvolution approach performed best.

Results

Marker-based deconvolution using GBM-tissue specific markers was most accurate for both immune cells and cancer cells, so we packaged this approach as GBMdeconvoluteR. We applied GBMdeconvoluteR to bulk GBM RNAseq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and recapitulated recent findings from multi-omics single cell studies with regards associations between mesenchymal GBM cancer cells and both lymphoid and myeloid cells. Furthermore, we expanded upon this to show that these associations are stronger in patients with worse prognosis.

Conclusions

GBMdeconvoluteR accurately quantifies immune and neoplastic cell proportions in IDHwt GBM bulk RNA sequencing data and is accessible here: https://gbmdeconvoluter.leeds.ac.uk.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/neuro-oncology/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/neuonc/noad021/49522012/noad021.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33632741", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/db20-0895", @@ -20654,6 +20620,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82459-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82459-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7859412; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7859412?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34253559", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689", + "title": "Long-term trends in population-based hospitalisation rates for myocardial infarction in England: a national database study of 3.5 million admissions, 1968-2016.", + "authorString": "Wright FL, Townsend N, Greenland M, Goldacre MJ, Smolina K, Lacey B, Nedkoff L.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of epidemiology and community health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2021-07-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Ischaemic Heart Disease; Record Linkage", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Aim

To analyse the timing and scale of temporal changes in rates of hospitalised myocardial infarction (MI) in England by age and sex from 1968 to 2016.

Methods

MI admissions for adults aged 15-84 years were identified from electronic hospital data. We calculated age-standardised and age-specific rates, and examined trends using joinpoint.

Results

From 1968 to 2016, there were 3.5 million admissions for MI in England (68% men). Rates increased in the early years of the study in both men and women, peaked in the mid-1980s (355 per 100 000 population in men; 127 in women) and declined by 38.8% in men and 37.4% in women from 1990 to 2011. From 2012, however, modest increases were observed in both sexes. Long-term trends in rates over the study period varied by age and sex, with those aged 70 years and older having the greatest and most sustained increases in the early years (1968-1985). During subsequent years, rates decreased in most age groups until 2010-2011. The exception was younger women (35-49 years) and men (15-34 years) who experienced significant increases from the mid-1990s to 2007 (range +2.1%/year to 4.7%/year). From 2012 onwards, rates increased in all age groups except the oldest, with the most marked increases in men aged 15-34 years (7.2%/year) and women aged 40-49 (6.9%-7.3%/year) .

Conclusion

Despite substantial declines in hospital admission rates for MI in England since 1990, the burden of annual admissions remains high. Continued surveillance of trends and coronary disease preventive strategies are warranted.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/76/1/45.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8666807?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "37278928", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2", + "title": "Circulating Acylcarnitines Associated with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Severity: an Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study in MYBPC3 Founder Variant Carriers.", + "authorString": "Jansen M, Schmidt AF, Jans JJM, Christiaans I, van der Crabben SN, Hoedemaekers YM, Dooijes D, Jongbloed JDH, Boven LG, Lekanne Deprez RH, Wilde AAM, van der Velden J, de Boer RA, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of cardiovascular translational research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-06", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Metabolism; Biomarker; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Acylcarnitine; Mybpc3", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a relatively common genetic heart disease characterised by myocardial hypertrophy. HCM can cause outflow tract obstruction, sudden cardiac death and heart failure, but severity is highly variable. In this exploratory cross-sectional study, circulating acylcarnitines were assessed as potential biomarkers in 124 MYBPC3 founder variant carriers (59 with severe HCM, 26 with mild HCM and 39 phenotype-negative [G\u2009+\u2009P-]). Elastic net logistic regression identified eight acylcarnitines associated with HCM severity. C3, C4, C6-DC, C8:1, C16, C18 and C18:2 were significantly increased in severe HCM compared to G\u2009+\u2009P-, and C3, C6-DC, C8:1 and C18 in mild HCM compared to G\u2009+\u2009P-. In multivariable linear regression, C6-DC and C8:1 correlated to log-transformed maximum wall thickness (coefficient 5.01, p\u2009=\u20090.005 and coefficient 0.803, p\u2009=\u20090.007, respectively), and C6-DC to log-transformed ejection fraction (coefficient -2.50, p\u2009=\u20090.004). Acylcarnitines seem promising biomarkers for HCM severity, however prospective studies are required to determine their prognostic value.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2" + }, { "id": "33749694", "doi": "https://doi.org/", @@ -20672,21 +20672,21 @@ "urls": "" }, { - "id": "37278928", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2", - "title": "Circulating Acylcarnitines Associated with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Severity: an Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study in MYBPC3 Founder Variant Carriers.", - "authorString": "Jansen M, Schmidt AF, Jans JJM, Christiaans I, van der Crabben SN, Hoedemaekers YM, Dooijes D, Jongbloed JDH, Boven LG, Lekanne Deprez RH, Wilde AAM, van der Velden J, de Boer RA, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.", + "id": "36689332", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021", + "title": "GBMdeconvoluteR accurately infers proportions of neoplastic and immune cell populations from bulk glioblastoma transcriptomics data.", + "authorString": "Ajaib S, Lodha D, Pollock S, Hemmings G, Finetti MA, Gusnanto A, Chakrabarty A, Ismail A, Wilson E, Varn FS, Hunter B, Filby A, Brockman AA, McDonald D, Verhaak RGW, Ihrie RA, Stead LF.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of cardiovascular translational research", + "journalTitle": "Neuro-oncology", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-06", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Metabolism; Biomarker; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Acylcarnitine; Mybpc3", + "date": "2023-07-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Immune; Deconvolution; Glioblastoma; Neoplastic; Transcriptomics", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a relatively common genetic heart disease characterised by myocardial hypertrophy. HCM can cause outflow tract obstruction, sudden cardiac death and heart failure, but severity is highly variable. In this exploratory cross-sectional study, circulating acylcarnitines were assessed as potential biomarkers in 124 MYBPC3 founder variant carriers (59 with severe HCM, 26 with mild HCM and 39 phenotype-negative [G\u2009+\u2009P-]). Elastic net logistic regression identified eight acylcarnitines associated with HCM severity. C3, C4, C6-DC, C8:1, C16, C18 and C18:2 were significantly increased in severe HCM compared to G\u2009+\u2009P-, and C3, C6-DC, C8:1 and C18 in mild HCM compared to G\u2009+\u2009P-. In multivariable linear regression, C6-DC and C8:1 correlated to log-transformed maximum wall thickness (coefficient 5.01, p\u2009=\u20090.005 and coefficient 0.803, p\u2009=\u20090.007, respectively), and C6-DC to log-transformed ejection fraction (coefficient -2.50, p\u2009=\u20090.004). Acylcarnitines seem promising biomarkers for HCM severity, however prospective studies are required to determine their prognostic value.", + "abstract": "

Background

Characterizing and quantifying cell types within glioblastoma (GBM) tumors at scale will facilitate a better understanding of the association between the cellular landscape and tumor phenotypes or clinical correlates. We aimed to develop a tool that deconvolutes immune and neoplastic cells within the GBM tumor microenvironment from bulk RNA sequencing data.

Methods

We developed an IDH wild-type (IDHwt) GBM-specific single immune cell reference consisting of B cells, T-cells, NK-cells, microglia, tumor associated macrophages, monocytes, mast and DC cells. We used this alongside an existing neoplastic single cell-type reference for astrocyte-like, oligodendrocyte- and neuronal progenitor-like and mesenchymal GBM cancer cells to create both marker and gene signature matrix-based deconvolution tools. We applied single-cell resolution imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to ten IDHwt GBM samples, five paired primary and recurrent tumors, to determine which deconvolution approach performed best.

Results

Marker-based deconvolution using GBM-tissue specific markers was most accurate for both immune cells and cancer cells, so we packaged this approach as GBMdeconvoluteR. We applied GBMdeconvoluteR to bulk GBM RNAseq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and recapitulated recent findings from multi-omics single cell studies with regards associations between mesenchymal GBM cancer cells and both lymphoid and myeloid cells. Furthermore, we expanded upon this to show that these associations are stronger in patients with worse prognosis.

Conclusions

GBMdeconvoluteR accurately quantifies immune and neoplastic cell proportions in IDHwt GBM bulk RNA sequencing data and is accessible here: https://gbmdeconvoluter.leeds.ac.uk.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10398-2" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/neuro-oncology/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/neuonc/noad021/49522012/noad021.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10326489?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32355555", @@ -20705,23 +20705,6 @@ "laySummary": "\"Been and Sheikh\u2019s editorial about COVID-19, outlines the importance of two natural experiments: a- how different countries responded to the pandemic and its effects and b- impact of improvements in air quality on human and planetary health.\"", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7179980; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7179980?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35297548", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369", - "title": "Beacon v2 and Beacon networks: A \"lingua franca\" for federated data discovery in biomedical genomics, and beyond.", - "authorString": "Rambla J, Baudis M, Ariosa R, Beck T, Fromont LA, Navarro A, Paloots R, Rueda M, Saunders G, Singh B, Spalding JD, T\u00f6rnroos J, Vasallo C, Veal CD, Brookes AJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Human mutation", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "data sharing; Clinical Genomics; Beacon; Data Discovery; Rest Api; Ga4gh", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Beacon is a basic data discovery protocol issued by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). The main goal addressed by version 1 of the Beacon protocol was to test the feasibility of broadly sharing human genomic data, through providing simple \"yes\" or \"no\" responses to queries about the presence of a given variant in datasets hosted by Beacon providers. The popularity of this concept has fostered the design of a version 2, that better serves real-world requirements and addresses the needs of clinical genomics research and healthcare, as assessed by several contributing projects and organizations. Particularly, rare disease genetics and cancer research will benefit from new case level and genomic variant level requests and the enabling of richer phenotype and clinical queries as well as support for fuzzy searches. Beacon is designed as a \"lingua franca\" to bridge data collections hosted in software solutions with different and rich interfaces. Beacon version 2 works alongside popular standards like Phenopackets, OMOP, or FHIR, allowing implementing consortia to return matches in beacon responses and provide a handover to their preferred data exchange format. The protocol is being explored by other research domains and is being tested in several international projects.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/53310/1/Rambla_2022.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35004880", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.763361", @@ -20756,6 +20739,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.06.037" }, + { + "id": "35297548", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369", + "title": "Beacon v2 and Beacon networks: A \"lingua franca\" for federated data discovery in biomedical genomics, and beyond.", + "authorString": "Rambla J, Baudis M, Ariosa R, Beck T, Fromont LA, Navarro A, Paloots R, Rueda M, Saunders G, Singh B, Spalding JD, T\u00f6rnroos J, Vasallo C, Veal CD, Brookes AJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Human mutation", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-08", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "data sharing; Clinical Genomics; Beacon; Data Discovery; Rest Api; Ga4gh", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Beacon is a basic data discovery protocol issued by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). The main goal addressed by version 1 of the Beacon protocol was to test the feasibility of broadly sharing human genomic data, through providing simple \"yes\" or \"no\" responses to queries about the presence of a given variant in datasets hosted by Beacon providers. The popularity of this concept has fostered the design of a version 2, that better serves real-world requirements and addresses the needs of clinical genomics research and healthcare, as assessed by several contributing projects and organizations. Particularly, rare disease genetics and cancer research will benefit from new case level and genomic variant level requests and the enabling of richer phenotype and clinical queries as well as support for fuzzy searches. Beacon is designed as a \"lingua franca\" to bridge data collections hosted in software solutions with different and rich interfaces. Beacon version 2 works alongside popular standards like Phenopackets, OMOP, or FHIR, allowing implementing consortia to return matches in beacon responses and provide a handover to their preferred data exchange format. The protocol is being explored by other research domains and is being tested in several international projects.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/53310/1/Rambla_2022.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24369; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9322265?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34095541", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i2.1134", @@ -20773,6 +20773,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1134/2643; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i2.1134; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142954; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142954?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34873059", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118", + "title": "How immunity from and interaction with seasonal coronaviruses can shape SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology.", + "authorString": "Waterlow NR, van Leeuwen E, Davies NG, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Eggo RM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Immunity; Coronaviruses; Cross-protection; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "We hypothesized that cross-protection from seasonal epidemics of human coronaviruses (HCoVs) could have affected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission, including generating reduced susceptibility in children. To determine what the prepandemic distribution of immunity to HCoVs was, we fitted a mathematical model to 6 y of seasonal coronavirus surveillance data from England and Wales. We estimated a duration of immunity to seasonal HCoVs of 7.8 y (95% CI 6.3 to 8.1) and show that, while cross-protection between HCoV and SARS-CoV-2 may contribute to the age distribution, it is insufficient to explain the age pattern of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the first wave of the pandemic in England and Wales. Projections from our model illustrate how different strengths of cross-protection between circulating coronaviruses could determine the frequency and magnitude of SARS-CoV-2 epidemics over the coming decade, as well as the potential impact of cross-protection on future seasonal coronavirus transmission.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8670441; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8670441?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36298714", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102159", @@ -20791,21 +20808,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/10/2159/pdf?version=1665465973; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9611624; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9611624?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34873059", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118", - "title": "How immunity from and interaction with seasonal coronaviruses can shape SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology.", - "authorString": "Waterlow NR, van Leeuwen E, Davies NG, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Eggo RM.", + "id": "35259281", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524", + "title": "Biological mechanisms of aging predict age-related disease co-occurrence in patients.", + "authorString": "Fraser HC, Kuan V, Johnen R, Zwierzyna M, Hingorani AD, Beyer A, Partridge L.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-01", + "journalTitle": "Aging cell", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-08", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Immunity; Coronaviruses; Cross-protection; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "keywords": "Aging; Genetics; Age-related Disease; Multimorbidity; Aging Hallmarks", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "We hypothesized that cross-protection from seasonal epidemics of human coronaviruses (HCoVs) could have affected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission, including generating reduced susceptibility in children. To determine what the prepandemic distribution of immunity to HCoVs was, we fitted a mathematical model to 6 y of seasonal coronavirus surveillance data from England and Wales. We estimated a duration of immunity to seasonal HCoVs of 7.8 y (95% CI 6.3 to 8.1) and show that, while cross-protection between HCoV and SARS-CoV-2 may contribute to the age distribution, it is insufficient to explain the age pattern of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the first wave of the pandemic in England and Wales. Projections from our model illustrate how different strengths of cross-protection between circulating coronaviruses could determine the frequency and magnitude of SARS-CoV-2 epidemics over the coming decade, as well as the potential impact of cross-protection on future seasonal coronavirus transmission.", + "abstract": "Genetic, environmental, and pharmacological interventions into the aging process can confer resistance to multiple age-related diseases in laboratory animals, including rhesus monkeys. These findings imply that individual mechanisms of aging might contribute to the co-occurrence of age-related diseases in humans and could be targeted to prevent these conditions simultaneously. To address this question, we text mined 917,645\u00a0literature abstracts followed by manual curation and found strong, non-random associations between age-related diseases and aging mechanisms in humans, confirmed by gene set enrichment analysis of GWAS data. Integration of these associations with clinical data from 3.01\u00a0million patients showed that age-related diseases associated with each of five aging mechanisms were more likely than chance to be present together in patients. Genetic evidence revealed that innate and adaptive immunity, the intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway and activity of the ERK1/2 pathway were associated with multiple aging mechanisms and diverse age-related diseases. Mechanisms of aging hence contribute both together and individually to age-related disease co-occurrence in humans and could potentially be targeted accordingly to prevent multimorbidity.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108395118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8670441; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8670441?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145565/1/Hignorani_Biological%20mechanisms%20of%20aging%20predict%20age-related%20disease%20co-occurrence%20in%20patients_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33903145", @@ -20841,23 +20858,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2204233; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614055?pdf=render; pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f91f9722-f207-4d97-aa64-58636b323acc/files/r6969z144v" }, - { - "id": "35259281", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524", - "title": "Biological mechanisms of aging predict age-related disease co-occurrence in patients.", - "authorString": "Fraser HC, Kuan V, Johnen R, Zwierzyna M, Hingorani AD, Beyer A, Partridge L.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Aging cell", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Aging; Genetics; Age-related Disease; Multimorbidity; Aging Hallmarks", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genetic, environmental, and pharmacological interventions into the aging process can confer resistance to multiple age-related diseases in laboratory animals, including rhesus monkeys. These findings imply that individual mechanisms of aging might contribute to the co-occurrence of age-related diseases in humans and could be targeted to prevent these conditions simultaneously. To address this question, we text mined 917,645\u00a0literature abstracts followed by manual curation and found strong, non-random associations between age-related diseases and aging mechanisms in humans, confirmed by gene set enrichment analysis of GWAS data. Integration of these associations with clinical data from 3.01\u00a0million patients showed that age-related diseases associated with each of five aging mechanisms were more likely than chance to be present together in patients. Genetic evidence revealed that innate and adaptive immunity, the intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway and activity of the ERK1/2 pathway were associated with multiple aging mechanisms and diverse age-related diseases. Mechanisms of aging hence contribute both together and individually to age-related disease co-occurrence in humans and could potentially be targeted accordingly to prevent multimorbidity.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145565/1/Hignorani_Biological%20mechanisms%20of%20aging%20predict%20age-related%20disease%20co-occurrence%20in%20patients_AOP.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13524; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009120?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33127858", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1681/asn.2020050679", @@ -20875,6 +20875,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/jnephrol/32/1/127.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1681/ASN.2020050679; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7894659; doi:https://doi.org/10.1681/asn.2020050679" }, + { + "id": "35504525", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025", + "title": "How traditional informed consent impairs inclusivity in a learning healthcare system: lessons learned from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort.", + "authorString": "Groenhof TKJ, Mostert M, Lea NC, Haitjema S, de Vries MC, van Dijk WB, Grobbee DE, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, van der Graaf R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-30", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025" + }, { "id": "36819459", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/jendso/bvad020", @@ -20909,23 +20926,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(22)00358-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00358-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9573849" }, - { - "id": "35504525", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025", - "title": "How traditional informed consent impairs inclusivity in a learning healthcare system: lessons learned from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort.", - "authorString": "Groenhof TKJ, Mostert M, Lea NC, Haitjema S, de Vries MC, van Dijk WB, Grobbee DE, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, van der Graaf R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-30", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.025" - }, { "id": "37270201", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2023-322616", @@ -20944,21 +20944,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/early/2023/06/02/heartjnl-2023-322616.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2023-322616; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511984; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10511984?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35953815", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6", - "title": "Dynamic early warning scores for predicting clinical deterioration in patients with respiratory disease.", - "authorString": "Gonem S, Taylor A, Figueredo G, Forster S, Quinlan P, Garibaldi JM, McKeever TM, Shaw D.", + "id": "33144367", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20x101109", + "title": "Evaluating a cardiovascular disease risk management care continuum within a learning healthcare system: a prospective cohort study. ", + "authorString": "Groenhof TKJ, Lely AT, Haitjema S, Nathoe HM, Kortekaas MF, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, Hollander M, UCC CVRM study group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Respiratory research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-11", + "journalTitle": "BJGP open", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-12-15", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Risk Prediction; Clinical Deterioration; Early Warning Score", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The National Early Warning Score-2 (NEWS-2) is used to detect patient deterioration in UK hospitals but fails to take account of the detailed granularity or temporal trends in clinical observations. We used data-driven methods to develop dynamic early warning scores (DEWS) to address these deficiencies, and tested their accuracy in patients with respiratory disease for predicting (1) death or intensive care unit admission, occurring within 24\u00a0h (D/ICU), and (2) clinically significant deterioration requiring urgent intervention, occurring within 4\u00a0h (CSD).

Methods

Clinical observations data were extracted from electronic records for 31,590 respiratory in-patient episodes from April 2015 to December 2020 at a large acute NHS Trust. The timing of D/ICU was extracted for all episodes. 1100 in-patient episodes were annotated manually to record the timing of CSD, defined as a specific event requiring a change in treatment. Time series features were entered into logistic regression models to derive DEWS for each of the clinical outcomes. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was the primary measure of model accuracy.

Results

AUROC (95% confidence interval) for predicting D/ICU was 0.857 (0.852-0.862) for NEWS-2 and 0.906 (0.899-0.914) for DEWS in the validation data. AUROC for predicting CSD was 0.829 (0.817-0.842) for NEWS-2 and 0.877 (0.862-0.892) for DEWS. NEWS-2\u2009\u2265\u20095 had sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 54.2% for predicting CSD, while DEWS\u2009\u2265\u20090.021 had higher sensitivity of 93.6% and approximately the same specificity of 54.3% for the same outcome. Using these cut-offs, 315 out of 347 (90.8%) CSD events were detected by both NEWS-2 and DEWS, at the time of the event or within the previous 4\u00a0h; 12 (3.5%) were detected by DEWS but not by NEWS-2, while 4 (1.2%) were detected by NEWS-2 but not by DEWS; 16 (4.6%) were not detected by either scoring system.

Conclusion

We have developed DEWS that display greater accuracy than NEWS-2 for predicting clinical deterioration events in patients with respiratory disease. Prospective validation studies are required to assess whether DEWS can be used to reduce missed deteriorations and false alarms in real-life clinical settings.", + "abstract": "Many patients now present with multimorbidity and chronicity of disease. This means that multidisciplinary management in a care continuum, integrating primary care and hospital care services, is needed to ensure high quality care. To evaluate cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) via linkage of health data sources, as an example of a multidisciplinary continuum within a learning healthcare system (LHS). In this prospective cohort study, data were linked from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort (UCC) to the Julius General Practitioners' Network (JGPN) database. UCC offers structured CVRM at referral to the University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht. JGPN consists of electronic health record (EHR) data from referring GPs. The cardiovascular risk factors were extracted for each patient 13 months before referral (JGPN), at UCC inclusion, and during 12 months follow-up (JGPN). The following areas were assessed: registration of risk factors; detection of risk factor(s) requiring treatment at UCC; communication of risk factors and actionable suggestions from the specialist to the GP; and change of management during follow-up. In 52% of patients, \u22651 risk factors were registered (that is, extractable from structured fields within routine care health records) before UCC. In 12%-72% of patients, risk factor(s) existed that required (change or start of) treatment at UCC inclusion. Specialist communication included the complete risk profile in 67% of letters, but lacked actionable suggestions in 86%. In 29% of patients, at least one risk factor was registered after UCC. Change in management in GP records was seen in 21%-58% of them. Evaluation of a multidisciplinary LHS is possible via linkage of health data sources. Efforts have to be made to improve registration in primary care, as well as communication on findings and actionable suggestions for follow-up to bridge the gap in the CVRM continuum.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://respiratory-research.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bjgpopen.org/content/bjgpoa/4/5/bjgpopen20X101109.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20X101109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880177?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32119825", @@ -20978,21 +20978,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30074-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30074-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7097845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7097845?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33144367", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20x101109", - "title": "Evaluating a cardiovascular disease risk management care continuum within a learning healthcare system: a prospective cohort study. ", - "authorString": "Groenhof TKJ, Lely AT, Haitjema S, Nathoe HM, Kortekaas MF, Asselbergs FW, Bots ML, Hollander M, UCC CVRM study group.", + "id": "35953815", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6", + "title": "Dynamic early warning scores for predicting clinical deterioration in patients with respiratory disease.", + "authorString": "Gonem S, Taylor A, Figueredo G, Forster S, Quinlan P, Garibaldi JM, McKeever TM, Shaw D.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BJGP open", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-12-15", + "journalTitle": "Respiratory research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-11", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Risk Prediction; Clinical Deterioration; Early Warning Score", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Many patients now present with multimorbidity and chronicity of disease. This means that multidisciplinary management in a care continuum, integrating primary care and hospital care services, is needed to ensure high quality care. To evaluate cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) via linkage of health data sources, as an example of a multidisciplinary continuum within a learning healthcare system (LHS). In this prospective cohort study, data were linked from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort (UCC) to the Julius General Practitioners' Network (JGPN) database. UCC offers structured CVRM at referral to the University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht. JGPN consists of electronic health record (EHR) data from referring GPs. The cardiovascular risk factors were extracted for each patient 13 months before referral (JGPN), at UCC inclusion, and during 12 months follow-up (JGPN). The following areas were assessed: registration of risk factors; detection of risk factor(s) requiring treatment at UCC; communication of risk factors and actionable suggestions from the specialist to the GP; and change of management during follow-up. In 52% of patients, \u22651 risk factors were registered (that is, extractable from structured fields within routine care health records) before UCC. In 12%-72% of patients, risk factor(s) existed that required (change or start of) treatment at UCC inclusion. Specialist communication included the complete risk profile in 67% of letters, but lacked actionable suggestions in 86%. In 29% of patients, at least one risk factor was registered after UCC. Change in management in GP records was seen in 21%-58% of them. Evaluation of a multidisciplinary LHS is possible via linkage of health data sources. Efforts have to be made to improve registration in primary care, as well as communication on findings and actionable suggestions for follow-up to bridge the gap in the CVRM continuum.", + "abstract": "

Background

The National Early Warning Score-2 (NEWS-2) is used to detect patient deterioration in UK hospitals but fails to take account of the detailed granularity or temporal trends in clinical observations. We used data-driven methods to develop dynamic early warning scores (DEWS) to address these deficiencies, and tested their accuracy in patients with respiratory disease for predicting (1) death or intensive care unit admission, occurring within 24\u00a0h (D/ICU), and (2) clinically significant deterioration requiring urgent intervention, occurring within 4\u00a0h (CSD).

Methods

Clinical observations data were extracted from electronic records for 31,590 respiratory in-patient episodes from April 2015 to December 2020 at a large acute NHS Trust. The timing of D/ICU was extracted for all episodes. 1100 in-patient episodes were annotated manually to record the timing of CSD, defined as a specific event requiring a change in treatment. Time series features were entered into logistic regression models to derive DEWS for each of the clinical outcomes. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was the primary measure of model accuracy.

Results

AUROC (95% confidence interval) for predicting D/ICU was 0.857 (0.852-0.862) for NEWS-2 and 0.906 (0.899-0.914) for DEWS in the validation data. AUROC for predicting CSD was 0.829 (0.817-0.842) for NEWS-2 and 0.877 (0.862-0.892) for DEWS. NEWS-2\u2009\u2265\u20095 had sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 54.2% for predicting CSD, while DEWS\u2009\u2265\u20090.021 had higher sensitivity of 93.6% and approximately the same specificity of 54.3% for the same outcome. Using these cut-offs, 315 out of 347 (90.8%) CSD events were detected by both NEWS-2 and DEWS, at the time of the event or within the previous 4\u00a0h; 12 (3.5%) were detected by DEWS but not by NEWS-2, while 4 (1.2%) were detected by NEWS-2 but not by DEWS; 16 (4.6%) were not detected by either scoring system.

Conclusion

We have developed DEWS that display greater accuracy than NEWS-2 for predicting clinical deterioration events in patients with respiratory disease. Prospective validation studies are required to assess whether DEWS can be used to reduce missed deteriorations and false alarms in real-life clinical settings.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bjgpopen.org/content/bjgpoa/4/5/bjgpopen20X101109.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20X101109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880177; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7880177?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://respiratory-research.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02130-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9367123?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33866023", @@ -21079,23 +21079,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e057909.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057909; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8961119; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8961119?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32838035", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236", - "title": "Rapid translation of clinical guidelines into executable knowledge: A case study of COVID-19 and online demonstration.", - "authorString": "Fox J, Khan O, Curtis H, Wright A, Pal C, Cockburn N, Cooper J, Chandan JS, Nirantharakumar K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Learning health systems", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2020-07-14", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Covid\u201019; Rapid Learning Systems", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

We report a pathfinder study of AI/knowledge engineering methods to rapidly formalise COVID-19 guidelines into an executable model of decision making and care pathways. The knowledge source for the study was material published by BMJ Best Practice in March 2020.

Methods

The PROforma guideline modelling language and OpenClinical.net authoring and publishing platform were used to create a data model for care of COVID-19 patients together with executable models of rules, decisions and plans that interpret patient data and give personalised care advice.

Results

PROforma and OpenClinical.net proved to be an effective combination for rapidly creating the COVID-19 model; the Pathfinder 1 demonstrator is available for assessment at https://www.openclinical.net/index.php?id=746.

Conclusions

This is believed to be the first use of AI/knowledge engineering methods for disseminating best-practice in COVID-19 care. It demonstrates a novel and promising approach to the rapid translation of clinical guidelines into point of care services, and a foundation for rapid learning systems in many areas of healthcare.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lrh2.10236; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35916366", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.76272", @@ -21113,6 +21096,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.76272; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76272; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9391041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9391041?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32838035", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236", + "title": "Rapid translation of clinical guidelines into executable knowledge: A case study of COVID-19 and online demonstration.", + "authorString": "Fox J, Khan O, Curtis H, Wright A, Pal C, Cockburn N, Cooper J, Chandan JS, Nirantharakumar K.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Learning health systems", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2020-07-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Covid\u201019; Rapid Learning Systems", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

We report a pathfinder study of AI/knowledge engineering methods to rapidly formalise COVID-19 guidelines into an executable model of decision making and care pathways. The knowledge source for the study was material published by BMJ Best Practice in March 2020.

Methods

The PROforma guideline modelling language and OpenClinical.net authoring and publishing platform were used to create a data model for care of COVID-19 patients together with executable models of rules, decisions and plans that interpret patient data and give personalised care advice.

Results

PROforma and OpenClinical.net proved to be an effective combination for rapidly creating the COVID-19 model; the Pathfinder 1 demonstrator is available for assessment at https://www.openclinical.net/index.php?id=746.

Conclusions

This is believed to be the first use of AI/knowledge engineering methods for disseminating best-practice in COVID-19 care. It demonstrates a novel and promising approach to the rapid translation of clinical guidelines into point of care services, and a foundation for rapid learning systems in many areas of healthcare.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lrh2.10236; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10236; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7323421?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31757515", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2019.09.015", @@ -21130,23 +21130,6 @@ "laySummary": "This population-wide study used datalinkage methods to create a matched cohort study between 1998-2016. The study estimated hazard ratios and compared the risk of major fractures and any fracture in people with and without atopic eczema. Findings suggest that people with atopic eczema have an increased fracture risk.", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091674919312515/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2019.09.015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014587; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7014587?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31361079", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361", - "title": "Animal-vehicle collisions in Victoria, Australia: An under-recognised cause of road traffic crashes.", - "authorString": "Ang JY, Gabbe B, Cameron P, Beck B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-07-30", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Injury; Prevention; Traffic; Motor Vehicle", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Non-fatal injuries sustained from animal-vehicle collisions are a globally under-recognised road safety issue, with limited data on these crash types. The present study aimed to quantify the number and causes of major trauma events resulting from animal-vehicle collisions.

Methods

The study was a retrospective analysis of major trauma cases occurring in Victoria, Australia, between 2007 and 2016, using data from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. To identify animal-vehicle collisions, Victorian State Trauma Registry injury codes were combined with text-mining of the text description of the injury event.

Results

Over the 10 year period, there were 152 major trauma patients who were admitted to Victorian trauma-receiving hospitals due to vehicle collisions with animals. The crude population-based incidence rate for animal-vehicle collisions increased by 6.7% per year (incidence rate ratio 1.07; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.13; P = 0.02).

Conclusion

Development of systematic recording methods of animal-vehicle collisions will improve reporting of these crash types to assist future studies in implementing effective countermeasures.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1742-6723.13361; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361" - }, { "id": "35802687", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270668", @@ -21165,38 +21148,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270668&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270668; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9269978; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9269978?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34426417", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385", - "title": "Review of study reporting guidelines for clinical studies using artificial intelligence in healthcare. ", - "authorString": "Shelmerdine SC, Arthurs OJ, Denniston A, Sebire NJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ health & care informatics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "High-quality research is essential in guiding evidence-based care, and should be reported in a way that is reproducible, transparent and where appropriate, provide sufficient detail for inclusion in future meta-analyses. Reporting guidelines for various study designs have been widely used for clinical (and preclinical) studies, consisting of checklists with a minimum set of points for inclusion. With the recent rise in volume of research using artificial intelligence (AI), additional factors need to be evaluated, which do not neatly conform to traditional reporting guidelines (eg, details relating to technical algorithm development). In this review, reporting guidelines are highlighted to promote awareness of essential content required for studies evaluating AI interventions in healthcare. These include published and in progress extensions to well-known reporting guidelines such as Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-AI (study protocols), Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-AI (randomised controlled trials), Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-AI (diagnostic accuracy studies) and Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model for Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis-AI (prediction model studies). Additionally there are a number of guidelines that consider AI for health interventions more generally (eg, Checklist for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging (CLAIM), minimum information (MI)-CLAIM, MI for Medical AI Reporting) or address a specific element such as the 'learning curve' (Developmental and Exploratory Clinical Investigation of Decision-AI) . Economic evaluation of AI health interventions is not currently addressed, and may benefit from extension to an existing guideline. In the face of a rapid influx of studies of AI health interventions, reporting guidelines help ensure that investigators and those appraising studies consider both the well-recognised elements of good study design and reporting, while also adequately addressing new challenges posed by AI-specific elements.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "31345952", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855", - "title": "Do beta-blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system improve outcomes in patients with heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction >40%?", - "authorString": "Lumbers RT, Martin N, Manoharan K, Thomas J, Davies LC.", + "id": "31361079", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361", + "title": "Animal-vehicle collisions in Victoria, Australia: An under-recognised cause of road traffic crashes.", + "authorString": "Ang JY, Gabbe B, Cameron P, Beck B.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", + "journalTitle": "Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA", "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-07-25", + "date": "2019-07-30", "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Pharmacology; Meta-analysis; epidemiology; Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction; Systemic Review", + "keywords": "Injury; Prevention; Traffic; Motor Vehicle", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Non-fatal injuries sustained from animal-vehicle collisions are a globally under-recognised road safety issue, with limited data on these crash types. The present study aimed to quantify the number and causes of major trauma events resulting from animal-vehicle collisions.

Methods

The study was a retrospective analysis of major trauma cases occurring in Victoria, Australia, between 2007 and 2016, using data from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. To identify animal-vehicle collisions, Victorian State Trauma Registry injury codes were combined with text-mining of the text description of the injury event.

Results

Over the 10 year period, there were 152 major trauma patients who were admitted to Victorian trauma-receiving hospitals due to vehicle collisions with animals. The crude population-based incidence rate for animal-vehicle collisions increased by 6.7% per year (incidence rate ratio 1.07; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.13; P = 0.02).

Conclusion

Development of systematic recording methods of animal-vehicle collisions will improve reporting of these crash types to assist future studies in implementing effective countermeasures.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855" + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1742-6723.13361; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1742-6723.13361" }, { "id": "35177264", @@ -21233,38 +21199,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-pdf/42/4/e516/34469316/fdz172.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdz172" }, { - "id": "37206266", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698", - "title": "Biallelic deleterious germline SH2B3 variants cause a novel syndrome of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity.", - "authorString": "Blombery P, Pazhakh V, Albuquerque AS, Maimaris J, Tu L, Briones Miranda B, Evans F, Thompson ER, Carpenter B, Proctor I, Curtin JA, Lambert J, Burns SO, Lieschke GJ.", + "id": "31345952", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855", + "title": "Do beta-blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system improve outcomes in patients with heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction >40%?", + "authorString": "Lumbers RT, Martin N, Manoharan K, Thomas J, Davies LC.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EJHaem", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-30", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Genetics; Molecular diagnosis; Myeloid Function And Development", + "journalTitle": "Heart (British Cardiac Society)", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-07-25", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Pharmacology; Meta-analysis; epidemiology; Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction; Systemic Review", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "SH2B3 is a negative regulator of multiple cytokine receptor signalling pathways in haematopoietic tissue. To date, a single kindred has been described with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants characterized by early onset developmental delay, hepatosplenomegaly and autoimmune thyroiditis/hepatitis. Herein, we described two further unrelated kindreds with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants that show striking phenotypic similarity to each other as well as to the previous kindred of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity. One proband also suffered severe thrombotic complications. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of zebrafish sh2b3 created assorted deleterious variants in F0 crispants, which manifest significantly increased number of macrophages and thrombocytes, partially replicating the human phenotype. Treatment of the sh2b3 crispant fish with ruxolitinib intercepted this myeloproliferative phenotype. Skin-derived fibroblasts from one patient demonstrated increased phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT5 after stimulation with IL-3, GH, GM-CSF and EPO compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, these additional probands and functional data in combination with the previous kindred provide sufficient evidence for biallelic homozygous deleterious variants in SH2B3 to be considered a valid gene-disease association for a clinical syndrome of bone marrow myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmune manifestations.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313855" }, { - "id": "30972781", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232", - "title": "Early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease across England and Wales.", - "authorString": "Roberts SE, John A, Brown J, Napier DJ, Lyons RA, Williams JG.", + "id": "34426417", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385", + "title": "Review of study reporting guidelines for clinical studies using artificial intelligence in healthcare. ", + "authorString": "Shelmerdine SC, Arthurs OJ, Denniston A, Sebire NJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-04-11", + "journalTitle": "BMJ health & care informatics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-08-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There is a known shortfall in hepatology service resources across England and Wales.

Aim

To investigate early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease, overall and by cause of death, and to determine how mortality is related to admissions to transplant centres, transplant surgery, hospital size, consultant specialty, patient socio-demographics, seasonal and geographical factors.

Methods

Cohorts of people with a first unscheduled admission for severe liver disease across England and Wales from 2004, based on record linkage of national inpatient and mortality data.

Findings

Mortality for alcoholic liver disease and hepatic failure was 23.4% and 35.4% respectively at 60\u00a0days and 61.8% and 57.1% at 5\u00a0years. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were extremely high at 60\u00a0days (184 and 117 respectively) and remained highly increased at 5\u00a0years (16.7 and 6.3). Mortality at 5\u00a0years was most elevated from liver disease, viral hepatitis and varices. The 60-day mortality was significantly lower for patients seen by consultant hepatologists and gastroenterologists. Both early and late mortality were significantly reduced for patients admitted to transplant centres or larger hospitals, who received a liver transplant, or were resident in London. Early mortality was significantly higher for patients admitted in winter and autumn, while elevated mortality among the most vs least deprived quintile increased with longer follow-up.

Conclusions

The study shows a very poor prognosis for people with unscheduled hospitalisation for severe liver disease. The findings suggest that access to specialist expertise and services improves survival, both in the short and long term.", + "abstract": "High-quality research is essential in guiding evidence-based care, and should be reported in a way that is reproducible, transparent and where appropriate, provide sufficient detail for inclusion in future meta-analyses. Reporting guidelines for various study designs have been widely used for clinical (and preclinical) studies, consisting of checklists with a minimum set of points for inclusion. With the recent rise in volume of research using artificial intelligence (AI), additional factors need to be evaluated, which do not neatly conform to traditional reporting guidelines (eg, details relating to technical algorithm development). In this review, reporting guidelines are highlighted to promote awareness of essential content required for studies evaluating AI interventions in healthcare. These include published and in progress extensions to well-known reporting guidelines such as Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-AI (study protocols), Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-AI (randomised controlled trials), Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-AI (diagnostic accuracy studies) and Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model for Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis-AI (prediction model studies). Additionally there are a number of guidelines that consider AI for health interventions more generally (eg, Checklist for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging (CLAIM), minimum information (MI)-CLAIM, MI for Medical AI Reporting) or address a specific element such as the 'learning curve' (Developmental and Exploratory Clinical Investigation of Decision-AI) . Economic evaluation of AI health interventions is not currently addressed, and may benefit from extension to an existing guideline. In the face of a rapid influx of studies of AI health interventions, reporting guidelines help ensure that investigators and those appraising studies consider both the well-recognised elements of good study design and reporting, while also adequately addressing new challenges posed by AI-specific elements.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/apt.15232; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/28/1/e100385.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100385; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8383863?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36828655", @@ -21300,6 +21266,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02544-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02544-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9558944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9558944?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "30972781", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232", + "title": "Early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease across England and Wales.", + "authorString": "Roberts SE, John A, Brown J, Napier DJ, Lyons RA, Williams JG.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-04-11", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

There is a known shortfall in hepatology service resources across England and Wales.

Aim

To investigate early and late mortality following unscheduled admissions for severe liver disease, overall and by cause of death, and to determine how mortality is related to admissions to transplant centres, transplant surgery, hospital size, consultant specialty, patient socio-demographics, seasonal and geographical factors.

Methods

Cohorts of people with a first unscheduled admission for severe liver disease across England and Wales from 2004, based on record linkage of national inpatient and mortality data.

Findings

Mortality for alcoholic liver disease and hepatic failure was 23.4% and 35.4% respectively at 60\u00a0days and 61.8% and 57.1% at 5\u00a0years. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were extremely high at 60\u00a0days (184 and 117 respectively) and remained highly increased at 5\u00a0years (16.7 and 6.3). Mortality at 5\u00a0years was most elevated from liver disease, viral hepatitis and varices. The 60-day mortality was significantly lower for patients seen by consultant hepatologists and gastroenterologists. Both early and late mortality were significantly reduced for patients admitted to transplant centres or larger hospitals, who received a liver transplant, or were resident in London. Early mortality was significantly higher for patients admitted in winter and autumn, while elevated mortality among the most vs least deprived quintile increased with longer follow-up.

Conclusions

The study shows a very poor prognosis for people with unscheduled hospitalisation for severe liver disease. The findings suggest that access to specialist expertise and services improves survival, both in the short and long term.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/apt.15232; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15232; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6519290?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "37206266", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698", + "title": "Biallelic deleterious germline SH2B3 variants cause a novel syndrome of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity.", + "authorString": "Blombery P, Pazhakh V, Albuquerque AS, Maimaris J, Tu L, Briones Miranda B, Evans F, Thompson ER, Carpenter B, Proctor I, Curtin JA, Lambert J, Burns SO, Lieschke GJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EJHaem", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Genetics; Molecular diagnosis; Myeloid Function And Development", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "SH2B3 is a negative regulator of multiple cytokine receptor signalling pathways in haematopoietic tissue. To date, a single kindred has been described with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants characterized by early onset developmental delay, hepatosplenomegaly and autoimmune thyroiditis/hepatitis. Herein, we described two further unrelated kindreds with germline biallelic loss-of-function SH2B3 variants that show striking phenotypic similarity to each other as well as to the previous kindred of myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmunity. One proband also suffered severe thrombotic complications. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of zebrafish sh2b3 created assorted deleterious variants in F0 crispants, which manifest significantly increased number of macrophages and thrombocytes, partially replicating the human phenotype. Treatment of the sh2b3 crispant fish with ruxolitinib intercepted this myeloproliferative phenotype. Skin-derived fibroblasts from one patient demonstrated increased phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT5 after stimulation with IL-3, GH, GM-CSF and EPO compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, these additional probands and functional data in combination with the previous kindred provide sufficient evidence for biallelic homozygous deleterious variants in SH2B3 to be considered a valid gene-disease association for a clinical syndrome of bone marrow myeloproliferation and multi-organ autoimmune manifestations.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.698; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10188477?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35355205", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-022-00544-3", @@ -21453,23 +21453,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.17985; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.17985; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9804322; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9804322?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36228971", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011", - "title": "In simulated data and health records, latent class analysis was the optimum multimorbidity clustering algorithm.", - "authorString": "Nichols L, Taverner T, Crowe F, Richardson S, Yau C, Kiddle S, Kirk P, Barrett J, Nirantharakumar K, Griffin S, Edwards D, Marshall T.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-11", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Hierarchical cluster analysis; Clustering Methods; Latent Class Analysis; Electronic Medical Records; Multimorbidity; K-means; Multiple Correspondence Analysis", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background and objectives

To investigate the reproducibility and validity of latent class analysis (LCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), multiple correspondence analysis followed by k-means (MCA-kmeans) and k-means (kmeans) for multimorbidity clustering.

Methods

We first investigated clustering algorithms in simulated datasets with 26 diseases of varying prevalence in predetermined clusters, comparing the derived clusters to known clusters using the adjusted Rand Index (aRI). We then them investigated the medical records of male patients, aged 65 to 84 years from 50 UK general practices, with 49 long-term health conditions. We compared within cluster morbidity profiles using the Pearson correlation coefficient and assessed cluster stability using in 400 bootstrap samples.

Results

In the simulated datasets, the closest agreement (largest aRI) to known clusters was with LCA and then MCA-kmeans algorithms. In the medical records dataset, all four algorithms identified one cluster of 20-25% of the dataset with about 82% of the same patients across all four algorithms. LCA and MCA-kmeans both found a second cluster of 7% of the dataset. Other clusters were found by only one algorithm. LCA and MCA-kmeans clustering gave the most similar partitioning (aRI 0.54).

Conclusion

LCA achieved higher aRI than other clustering algorithms.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32142356", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201902-0286oc", @@ -21505,21 +21488,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13607863.2021.1893270?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2021.1893270" }, { - "id": "32524641", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556", - "title": "Selective recruitment designs for improving observational studies using electronic health records.", - "authorString": "Barrett JE, Cakiroglu A, Bunce C, Shah A, Denaxas S.", + "id": "36228971", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011", + "title": "In simulated data and health records, latent class analysis was the optimum multimorbidity clustering algorithm.", + "authorString": "Nichols L, Taverner T, Crowe F, Richardson S, Yau C, Kiddle S, Kirk P, Barrett J, Nirantharakumar K, Griffin S, Edwards D, Marshall T.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Statistics in medicine", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-10", + "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-11", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Electronic Health Records; Observational Study; Optimal Experimental Design; Selective Recruitment", + "keywords": "Hierarchical cluster analysis; Clustering Methods; Latent Class Analysis; Electronic Medical Records; Multimorbidity; K-means; Multiple Correspondence Analysis", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Large-scale electronic health records (EHRs) present an opportunity to quickly identify suitable individuals in order to directly invite them to participate in an observational study. EHRs can contain data from millions of individuals, raising the question of how to optimally select a cohort of size n from a larger pool of size N. In this article, we propose a simple selective recruitment protocol that selects a cohort in which covariates of interest tend to have a uniform distribution. We show that selectively recruited cohorts potentially offer greater statistical power and more accurate parameter estimates than randomly selected cohorts. Our protocol can be applied to studies with multiple categorical and continuous covariates. We apply our protocol to a numerically simulated prospective observational study using an EHR database of stable acute coronary disease patients from 82\u2009089 individuals in the U.K. Selective recruitment designs require a smaller sample size, leading to more efficient and cost-effective studies.", + "abstract": "

Background and objectives

To investigate the reproducibility and validity of latent class analysis (LCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), multiple correspondence analysis followed by k-means (MCA-kmeans) and k-means (kmeans) for multimorbidity clustering.

Methods

We first investigated clustering algorithms in simulated datasets with 26 diseases of varying prevalence in predetermined clusters, comparing the derived clusters to known clusters using the adjusted Rand Index (aRI). We then them investigated the medical records of male patients, aged 65 to 84 years from 50 UK general practices, with 49 long-term health conditions. We compared within cluster morbidity profiles using the Pearson correlation coefficient and assessed cluster stability using in 400 bootstrap samples.

Results

In the simulated datasets, the closest agreement (largest aRI) to known clusters was with LCA and then MCA-kmeans algorithms. In the medical records dataset, all four algorithms identified one cluster of 20-25% of the dataset with about 82% of the same patients across all four algorithms. LCA and MCA-kmeans both found a second cluster of 7% of the dataset. Other clusters were found by only one algorithm. LCA and MCA-kmeans clustering gave the most similar partitioning (aRI 0.54).

Conclusion

LCA achieved higher aRI than other clustering algorithms.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8556; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613854?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34364665", @@ -21538,6 +21521,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-03320880/file/1-s2.0-S1071916421002025-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.05.012" }, + { + "id": "32524641", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556", + "title": "Selective recruitment designs for improving observational studies using electronic health records.", + "authorString": "Barrett JE, Cakiroglu A, Bunce C, Shah A, Denaxas S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Statistics in medicine", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Electronic Health Records; Observational Study; Optimal Experimental Design; Selective Recruitment", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Large-scale electronic health records (EHRs) present an opportunity to quickly identify suitable individuals in order to directly invite them to participate in an observational study. EHRs can contain data from millions of individuals, raising the question of how to optimally select a cohort of size n from a larger pool of size N. In this article, we propose a simple selective recruitment protocol that selects a cohort in which covariates of interest tend to have a uniform distribution. We show that selectively recruited cohorts potentially offer greater statistical power and more accurate parameter estimates than randomly selected cohorts. Our protocol can be applied to studies with multiple categorical and continuous covariates. We apply our protocol to a numerically simulated prospective observational study using an EHR database of stable acute coronary disease patients from 82\u2009089 individuals in the U.K. Selective recruitment designs require a smaller sample size, leading to more efficient and cost-effective studies.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8556; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8556; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8432147?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37407123", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2023.01.016", @@ -21572,23 +21572,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/articlepdf/2807386/jamacardiology_aung_2023_oi_230032_1689092909.06174.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2023.2167; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10372756" }, - { - "id": "35477354", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5", - "title": "Performance of the SarQoL quality of life tool in a UK population of older people with probable sarcopenia and implications for use in clinical trials: findings from the SarcNet registry.", - "authorString": "Witham MD, Heslop P, Dodds RM, Clegg AP, Hope SV, McDonald C, Smithard D, Storey B, Tan AL, Thornhill A, Sayer AA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC geriatrics", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Quality of life; Validity; Sarcopenia; Responsiveness; Minimum Clinical Important Difference", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The Sarcopenia Quality of Life (SarQoL) questionnaire is a disease-specific sarcopenia quality of life tool. We aimed to independently assess SarQoL with a particular focus on its suitability as a clinical trial outcome measure.

Methods

We analysed data from the UK Sarcopenia Network and Registry. Measures of physical performance and lean mass were collected at baseline. SarQoL and the Strength, Assistance, Rise, Climb - Falls (SARC-F) questionnaire (to assess functional ability) were collected at both baseline and six-month follow-up. Global changes in fitness and quality of life at 6 months were elicited on seven-point Likert scales. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Responsiveness (Cohen's d and Guyatt coefficients) and minimum clinically important differences were calculated for participants reporting slight improvement or worsening in their global scores. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlating baseline SarQoL scores with measures of physical performance and functional ability.

Results

We analysed data from 147 participants, 125 of whom underwent follow up assessment; mean age 78\u2009years; 72 (49%) were women. Internal consistency was good; Cronbach's alpha was 0.944 at baseline and 0.732 at telephone follow-up. Correlation between baseline and follow-up SarQoL was weak (r\u00a0=\u20090.27; p\u00a0=\u20090.03). The minimum clinically important improvement ranged from 5 to 21 points giving trial sample size estimates of 25-100 participants. SarQoL scores were moderately correlated with handgrip (r\u00a0=\u20090.37; p\u00a0<\u20090.001), SARC-F (r\u00a0=\u2009-\u20090.45; p\u00a0<\u20090.001), short physical performance battery (r\u00a0=\u20090.48; p\u00a0<\u20090.001) and 4-m walk speed (r\u00a0=\u20090.48; p\u00a0<\u20090.001).

Conclusions

SarQoL has acceptable performance in older UK participants with probable sarcopenia and is sufficiently responsive for use in clinical trials for sarcopenia.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33328453", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19996-z", @@ -21640,23 +21623,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750020302405/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30240-5" }, - { - "id": "35585575", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4", - "title": "The impact of COVID-19 vaccination in prisons in England and Wales: a metapopulation model.", - "authorString": "McCarthy CV, O'Mara O, van Leeuwen E, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Sandmann F.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC public health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Vaccination; mathematical model; Public Health; Prisons; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

High incidence of cases and deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported in prisons worldwide. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of different COVID-19 vaccination strategies in epidemiologically semi-enclosed settings such as prisons, where staff interact regularly with those incarcerated and the wider community.

Methods

We used a metapopulation transmission-dynamic model of a local prison in England and Wales. Two-dose vaccination strategies included no vaccination, vaccination of all individuals\u00a0who are\u00a0incarcerated and/or staff, and an age-based approach. Outcomes were quantified in terms of COVID-19-related symptomatic cases, losses in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and deaths.

Results

Compared to no vaccination, vaccinating all people living and working in prison reduced cases, QALY loss and deaths over a one-year period by 41%, 32% and 36% respectively. However, if vaccine introduction was delayed until the start of an outbreak, the impact was negligible. Vaccinating individuals who are incarcerated and staff over 50\u00a0years old averted one death for every 104 vaccination\u00a0courses administered. All-staff-only strategies reduced cases by up to 5%. Increasing coverage from 30 to 90% among those who are incarcerated reduced cases by around 30 percentage points.

Conclusions

The impact of vaccination in prison settings was highly dependent on early and rapid vaccine delivery. If administered to both those living and working in prison prior to an outbreak occurring, vaccines could substantially reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality in prison settings.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34095527", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.581", @@ -21674,6 +21640,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/581/2923; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.581; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142962; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142962?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35477354", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5", + "title": "Performance of the SarQoL quality of life tool in a UK population of older people with probable sarcopenia and implications for use in clinical trials: findings from the SarcNet registry.", + "authorString": "Witham MD, Heslop P, Dodds RM, Clegg AP, Hope SV, McDonald C, Smithard D, Storey B, Tan AL, Thornhill A, Sayer AA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC geriatrics", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-27", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Quality of life; Validity; Sarcopenia; Responsiveness; Minimum Clinical Important Difference", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The Sarcopenia Quality of Life (SarQoL) questionnaire is a disease-specific sarcopenia quality of life tool. We aimed to independently assess SarQoL with a particular focus on its suitability as a clinical trial outcome measure.

Methods

We analysed data from the UK Sarcopenia Network and Registry. Measures of physical performance and lean mass were collected at baseline. SarQoL and the Strength, Assistance, Rise, Climb - Falls (SARC-F) questionnaire (to assess functional ability) were collected at both baseline and six-month follow-up. Global changes in fitness and quality of life at 6 months were elicited on seven-point Likert scales. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Responsiveness (Cohen's d and Guyatt coefficients) and minimum clinically important differences were calculated for participants reporting slight improvement or worsening in their global scores. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlating baseline SarQoL scores with measures of physical performance and functional ability.

Results

We analysed data from 147 participants, 125 of whom underwent follow up assessment; mean age 78\u2009years; 72 (49%) were women. Internal consistency was good; Cronbach's alpha was 0.944 at baseline and 0.732 at telephone follow-up. Correlation between baseline and follow-up SarQoL was weak (r\u00a0=\u20090.27; p\u00a0=\u20090.03). The minimum clinically important improvement ranged from 5 to 21 points giving trial sample size estimates of 25-100 participants. SarQoL scores were moderately correlated with handgrip (r\u00a0=\u20090.37; p\u00a0<\u20090.001), SARC-F (r\u00a0=\u2009-\u20090.45; p\u00a0<\u20090.001), short physical performance battery (r\u00a0=\u20090.48; p\u00a0<\u20090.001) and 4-m walk speed (r\u00a0=\u20090.48; p\u00a0<\u20090.001).

Conclusions

SarQoL has acceptable performance in older UK participants with probable sarcopenia and is sufficiently responsive for use in clinical trials for sarcopenia.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03077-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043890?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32651323", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-200338", @@ -21692,21 +21675,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/217500/1/217500.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-200338" }, { - "id": "36960327", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2147/clep.s384605", - "title": "Severe Mental Illness Among Adults with Atopic Eczema or Psoriasis: Population-Based Matched Cohort Studies within UK Primary Care.", - "authorString": "Adesanya EI, Henderson AD, Matthewman J, Bhate K, Hayes JF, Mulick A, Mathur R, Smith C, Carreira H, Rathod SD, Langan SM, Mansfield KE.", + "id": "35585575", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4", + "title": "The impact of COVID-19 vaccination in prisons in England and Wales: a metapopulation model.", + "authorString": "McCarthy CV, O'Mara O, van Leeuwen E, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Sandmann F.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-17", + "journalTitle": "BMC public health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-18", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Psychology; epidemiology; Dermatology", + "keywords": "Vaccination; mathematical model; Public Health; Prisons; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Existing research exploring associations between atopic eczema (AE) or psoriasis, and severe mental illness (SMI - ie, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, other psychoses) is limited, with longitudinal evidence particularly scarce. Therefore, temporal directions of associations are unclear. We aimed to investigate associations between AE or psoriasis and incident SMI among adults.

Methods

We conducted matched cohort studies using primary care electronic health records (January 1997 to January 2020) from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD. We identified two cohorts: 1) adults (\u226518 years) with and without AE and 2) adults with and without psoriasis. We matched (on age, sex, general practice) adults with AE or psoriasis with up to five adults without. We used Cox regression, stratified by matched set, to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) comparing incident SMI among adults with and without AE or psoriasis.

Results

We identified 1,023,232 adults with AE and 4,908,059 without, and 363,210 with psoriasis and 1,801,875 without. After adjusting for matching variables (age, sex, general practice) and potential confounders (deprivation, calendar period) both AE and psoriasis were associated with at least a 17% increased hazard of SMI (AE: HR=1.17,95% CI=1.12-1.22; psoriasis: HR=1.26,95% CI=1.18-1.35). After additionally adjusting for potential mediators (comorbidity burden, harmful alcohol use, smoking status, body mass index, and, in AE only, sleep problems and high-dose glucocorticoids), associations with SMI did not persist for AE (HR=0.98,95% CI=0.93-1.04), and were attenuated for psoriasis (HR=1.14,95% CI=1.05-1.23).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest adults with AE or psoriasis are at increased risk of SMI compared to matched comparators. After adjusting for potential mediators, associations with SMI did not persist for AE, and were attenuated for psoriasis, suggesting that the increased risk may be explained by mediating factors (eg, sleep problems). Our research highlights the importance of monitoring mental health in adults with AE or psoriasis.", + "abstract": "

Background

High incidence of cases and deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported in prisons worldwide. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of different COVID-19 vaccination strategies in epidemiologically semi-enclosed settings such as prisons, where staff interact regularly with those incarcerated and the wider community.

Methods

We used a metapopulation transmission-dynamic model of a local prison in England and Wales. Two-dose vaccination strategies included no vaccination, vaccination of all individuals\u00a0who are\u00a0incarcerated and/or staff, and an age-based approach. Outcomes were quantified in terms of COVID-19-related symptomatic cases, losses in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and deaths.

Results

Compared to no vaccination, vaccinating all people living and working in prison reduced cases, QALY loss and deaths over a one-year period by 41%, 32% and 36% respectively. However, if vaccine introduction was delayed until the start of an outbreak, the impact was negligible. Vaccinating individuals who are incarcerated and staff over 50\u00a0years old averted one death for every 104 vaccination\u00a0courses administered. All-staff-only strategies reduced cases by up to 5%. Increasing coverage from 30 to 90% among those who are incarcerated reduced cases by around 30 percentage points.

Conclusions

The impact of vaccination in prison settings was highly dependent on early and rapid vaccine delivery. If administered to both those living and working in prison prior to an outbreak occurring, vaccines could substantially reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality in prison settings.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=88236; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S384605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13219-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115545?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36958365", @@ -21742,6 +21725,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8629724?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36960327", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2147/clep.s384605", + "title": "Severe Mental Illness Among Adults with Atopic Eczema or Psoriasis: Population-Based Matched Cohort Studies within UK Primary Care.", + "authorString": "Adesanya EI, Henderson AD, Matthewman J, Bhate K, Hayes JF, Mulick A, Mathur R, Smith C, Carreira H, Rathod SD, Langan SM, Mansfield KE.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-17", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Psychology; epidemiology; Dermatology", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Existing research exploring associations between atopic eczema (AE) or psoriasis, and severe mental illness (SMI - ie, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, other psychoses) is limited, with longitudinal evidence particularly scarce. Therefore, temporal directions of associations are unclear. We aimed to investigate associations between AE or psoriasis and incident SMI among adults.

Methods

We conducted matched cohort studies using primary care electronic health records (January 1997 to January 2020) from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD. We identified two cohorts: 1) adults (\u226518 years) with and without AE and 2) adults with and without psoriasis. We matched (on age, sex, general practice) adults with AE or psoriasis with up to five adults without. We used Cox regression, stratified by matched set, to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) comparing incident SMI among adults with and without AE or psoriasis.

Results

We identified 1,023,232 adults with AE and 4,908,059 without, and 363,210 with psoriasis and 1,801,875 without. After adjusting for matching variables (age, sex, general practice) and potential confounders (deprivation, calendar period) both AE and psoriasis were associated with at least a 17% increased hazard of SMI (AE: HR=1.17,95% CI=1.12-1.22; psoriasis: HR=1.26,95% CI=1.18-1.35). After additionally adjusting for potential mediators (comorbidity burden, harmful alcohol use, smoking status, body mass index, and, in AE only, sleep problems and high-dose glucocorticoids), associations with SMI did not persist for AE (HR=0.98,95% CI=0.93-1.04), and were attenuated for psoriasis (HR=1.14,95% CI=1.05-1.23).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest adults with AE or psoriasis are at increased risk of SMI compared to matched comparators. After adjusting for potential mediators, associations with SMI did not persist for AE, and were attenuated for psoriasis, suggesting that the increased risk may be explained by mediating factors (eg, sleep problems). Our research highlights the importance of monitoring mental health in adults with AE or psoriasis.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=88236; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S384605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030004?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35410933", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057885", @@ -21760,38 +21760,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057885.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9002258; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9002258?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "30648344", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180", - "title": "A semi-active human digital twin model for detecting severity of carotid stenoses from head vibration-A coupled computational mechanics and computer vision method.", - "authorString": "Chakshu NK, Carson J, Sazonov I, Nithiarasu P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-02-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Computer vision; Blood flow; Systemic Circulation; Carotid Stenoses; Digital Twin; Biomechanical Vibrations; Face Video", - "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "In this work, we propose a methodology to detect the severity of carotid stenosis from a video of a human face with the help of a coupled blood flow and head vibration model. This semi-active digital twin model is an attempt to link noninvasive video of a patient face to the percentage of carotid occlusion. The pulsatile nature of blood flow through the carotid arteries induces a subtle head vibration. This vibration is a potential indicator of carotid stenosis severity, and it is exploited in the present study. A head vibration model has been proposed in the present work that is linked to the forces generated by blood flow with or without occlusion. The model is used to generate a large number of virtual head vibration data for different degrees of occlusion. In order to determine the in vivo head vibration, a computer vision algorithm is adopted to use human face videos. The in vivo vibrations are compared against the virtual vibration data generated from the coupled computational blood flow/vibration model. A comparison of the in vivo vibration is made against the virtual data to find the best fit between in vivo and virtual data. The preliminary results on healthy subjects and a patient clearly indicate that the model is accurate and it possesses the potential for detecting approximate severity of carotid artery stenoses.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33824583", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s298585", - "title": "There is No Fast Track to Identify Fast Decliners in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency by Spirometry: A Longitudinal Study of Repeated Measurements.", - "authorString": "Stockley JA, Stockley RA, Sapey E.", + "id": "36253349", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33675-1", + "title": "Systematic Mendelian randomization using the human plasma proteome to discover potential therapeutic targets for stroke.", + "authorString": "Chen L, Peters JE, Prins B, Persyn E, Traylor M, Surendran P, Karthikeyan S, Yonova-Doing E, Di Angelantonio E, Roberts DJ, Watkins NA, Ouwehand WH, Danesh J, Lewis CM, Bronson PG, Markus HS, Burgess S, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-29", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-17", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Lung function; decline; Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency; Obstructive Airways Disease", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

It is known that lung function decline in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD) varies. Those with a rapid decline are at highest risk of poorer outcomes but may benefit most from targeted treatments including augmentation therapy. Current evidence suggests rapid decliners can be identified after 3 years of serial follow-up. It would be advantageous to identify these patients over a shorter time period, especially in mild disease.

Methods

Post-bronchodilator spirometry was performed every 6 months for a total of 18 months (4 measurements) by PiZZ AATD patients (ex- or never-smokers) either without spirometric COPD or with mild COPD. Where possible, retrospective spirometry data were included. Decline was assessed using 2 (baseline and 6 month) or four measurements (including baseline, 6, 12 and 18 months) and compared to retrospective decline rates using annual measurements over 3 years.

Results

Seventy-two PiZZ AATD patients were included, with 27 having at least three years of retrospective, annual spirometry. 18-month progression obtained by linear regression showed variable degrees of change with 29 showing no decline, 8 showing slow decline and 35 showing rapid decline. Bland-Altman plots showed that there was no overall agreement between predicted rate of decline using data obtained over 6 months and that obtained over 18 months. Furthermore, there was no agreement between rate of decline from either 6 or 18 months' data when compared to data collected over 3 years. The positive predictive value for rapid decline with 18 months of data compared to 3 years was only 50.0%.

Conclusion

This study suggests serial lung function over 18 months cannot identify AATD patients who have rapidly declining lung function. There is an urgent need for different biomarkers to help identify these patients at the earliest opportunity.", + "abstract": "Stroke is the second leading cause of death with substantial unmet therapeutic needs. To identify potential stroke therapeutic targets, we estimate the causal effects of 308 plasma proteins on stroke outcomes in a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework and assess mediation effects by stroke risk factors. We find associations between genetically predicted plasma levels of six proteins and stroke (P\u2009\u2264\u20091.62 \u00d7 10-4). The genetic associations with stroke colocalize (Posterior Probability >0.7) with the genetic associations of four proteins (TFPI, TMPRSS5, CD6, CD40). Mendelian randomization supports atrial fibrillation, body mass index, smoking, blood pressure, white matter hyperintensities and type 2 diabetes as stroke risk factors (P\u2009\u2264\u20090.0071). Body mass index, white matter hyperintensity and atrial fibrillation appear to mediate the TFPI, IL6RA, TMPRSS5 associations with stroke. Furthermore, thirty-six proteins are associated with one or more of these risk factors using Mendelian randomization. Our results highlight causal pathways and potential therapeutic targets for stroke.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=68078; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S298585; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33675-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33675-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9576777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9576777?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32579178", @@ -21810,23 +21793,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/articlepdf/2767601/jamadermatology_mansfield_2020_oi_200037_1602515656.45058.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.1948; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7315391" }, - { - "id": "36253349", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33675-1", - "title": "Systematic Mendelian randomization using the human plasma proteome to discover potential therapeutic targets for stroke.", - "authorString": "Chen L, Peters JE, Prins B, Persyn E, Traylor M, Surendran P, Karthikeyan S, Yonova-Doing E, Di Angelantonio E, Roberts DJ, Watkins NA, Ouwehand WH, Danesh J, Lewis CM, Bronson PG, Markus HS, Burgess S, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-17", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Stroke is the second leading cause of death with substantial unmet therapeutic needs. To identify potential stroke therapeutic targets, we estimate the causal effects of 308 plasma proteins on stroke outcomes in a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework and assess mediation effects by stroke risk factors. We find associations between genetically predicted plasma levels of six proteins and stroke (P\u2009\u2264\u20091.62 \u00d7 10-4). The genetic associations with stroke colocalize (Posterior Probability >0.7) with the genetic associations of four proteins (TFPI, TMPRSS5, CD6, CD40). Mendelian randomization supports atrial fibrillation, body mass index, smoking, blood pressure, white matter hyperintensities and type 2 diabetes as stroke risk factors (P\u2009\u2264\u20090.0071). Body mass index, white matter hyperintensity and atrial fibrillation appear to mediate the TFPI, IL6RA, TMPRSS5 associations with stroke. Furthermore, thirty-six proteins are associated with one or more of these risk factors using Mendelian randomization. Our results highlight causal pathways and potential therapeutic targets for stroke.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33675-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33675-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9576777; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9576777?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34019073", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ibd/izab059", @@ -21845,21 +21811,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ibdjournal/article-pdf/27/11/1719/40784408/izab059.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ibd/izab059; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8528147; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8528147?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34688720", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029", - "title": "Methodological issues in meta-analyses of real-world clinical data to infer causality.", - "authorString": "Uijl A, Lund LH, Asselbergs FW, Savarese G.", + "id": "30648344", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180", + "title": "A semi-active human digital twin model for detecting severity of carotid stenoses from head vibration-A coupled computational mechanics and computer vision method.", + "authorString": "Chakshu NK, Carson J, Sazonov I, Nithiarasu P.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", + "journalTitle": "International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-02-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Computer vision; Blood flow; Systemic Circulation; Carotid Stenoses; Digital Twin; Biomechanical Vibrations; Face Video", + "nationalPriorities": "Applied Analytics", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "In this work, we propose a methodology to detect the severity of carotid stenosis from a video of a human face with the help of a coupled blood flow and head vibration model. This semi-active digital twin model is an attempt to link noninvasive video of a patient face to the percentage of carotid occlusion. The pulsatile nature of blood flow through the carotid arteries induces a subtle head vibration. This vibration is a potential indicator of carotid stenosis severity, and it is exploited in the present study. A head vibration model has been proposed in the present work that is linked to the forces generated by blood flow with or without occlusion. The model is used to generate a large number of virtual head vibration data for different degrees of occlusion. In order to determine the in vivo head vibration, a computer vision algorithm is adopted to use human face videos. The in vivo vibrations are compared against the virtual vibration data generated from the coupled computational blood flow/vibration model. A comparison of the in vivo vibration is made against the virtual data to find the best fit between in vivo and virtual data. The preliminary results on healthy subjects and a patient clearly indicate that the model is accurate and it possesses the potential for detecting approximate severity of carotid artery stenoses.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cnm.3180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.3180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6593817?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33824583", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2147/copd.s298585", + "title": "There is No Fast Track to Identify Fast Decliners in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency by Spirometry: A Longitudinal Study of Repeated Measurements.", + "authorString": "Stockley JA, Stockley RA, Sapey E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-22", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Meta-analysis; Causality; Observational; Sacubitril/valsartan", + "date": "2021-03-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Lung function; decline; Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency; Obstructive Airways Disease", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Background

It is known that lung function decline in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD) varies. Those with a rapid decline are at highest risk of poorer outcomes but may benefit most from targeted treatments including augmentation therapy. Current evidence suggests rapid decliners can be identified after 3 years of serial follow-up. It would be advantageous to identify these patients over a shorter time period, especially in mild disease.

Methods

Post-bronchodilator spirometry was performed every 6 months for a total of 18 months (4 measurements) by PiZZ AATD patients (ex- or never-smokers) either without spirometric COPD or with mild COPD. Where possible, retrospective spirometry data were included. Decline was assessed using 2 (baseline and 6 month) or four measurements (including baseline, 6, 12 and 18 months) and compared to retrospective decline rates using annual measurements over 3 years.

Results

Seventy-two PiZZ AATD patients were included, with 27 having at least three years of retrospective, annual spirometry. 18-month progression obtained by linear regression showed variable degrees of change with 29 showing no decline, 8 showing slow decline and 35 showing rapid decline. Bland-Altman plots showed that there was no overall agreement between predicted rate of decline using data obtained over 6 months and that obtained over 18 months. Furthermore, there was no agreement between rate of decline from either 6 or 18 months' data when compared to data collected over 3 years. The positive predictive value for rapid decline with 18 months of data compared to 3 years was only 50.0%.

Conclusion

This study suggests serial lung function over 18 months cannot identify AATD patients who have rapidly declining lung function. There is an urgent need for different biomarkers to help identify these patients at the earliest opportunity.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=68078; doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S298585; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8018552?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35381001", @@ -21878,6 +21861,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1010093&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010093; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9022822; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9022822?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34688720", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029", + "title": "Methodological issues in meta-analyses of real-world clinical data to infer causality.", + "authorString": "Uijl A, Lund LH, Asselbergs FW, Savarese G.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-22", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Meta-analysis; Causality; Observational; Sacubitril/valsartan", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.10.029" + }, { "id": "32611631", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000009814", @@ -21929,23 +21929,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ana.25642; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.25642; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6944510; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6944510?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "30745170", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005", - "title": "Identification of novel genome-wide associations for suicidality in UK Biobank, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders and polygenic association with completed suicide.", - "authorString": "Strawbridge RJ, Ward J, Ferguson A, Graham N, Shaw RJ, Cullen B, Pearsall R, Lyall LM, Johnston KJA, Niedzwiedz CL, Pell JP, Mackay D, Martin JL, Lyall DM, Bailey MES, Smith DJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-02-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Suicide is a major issue for global public health. Suicidality describes a broad spectrum of thoughts and behaviours, some of which are common in the general population. Although suicide results from a complex interaction of multiple social and psychological factors, predisposition to suicidality is at least partly genetic.

Methods

Ordinal genome-wide association study of suicidality in the UK Biobank cohort comparing: 'no suicidality' controls (N\u202f=\u202f83,557); 'thoughts that life was not worth living' (N\u202f=\u202f21,063); 'ever contemplated self-harm' (N\u202f=\u202f13,038); 'act of deliberate self-harm in the past' (N\u202f=\u202f2498); and 'previous suicide attempt' (N\u202f=\u202f2666).

Outcomes

We identified three novel genome-wide significant loci for suicidality (on chromosomes nine, 11 and 13) and moderate-to-strong genetic correlations between suicidality and a range of psychiatric disorders, most notably depression (rg 0\u00b781).

Interpretation

These findings provide new information about genetic variants relating to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Future work should assess the extent to which polygenic risk scores for suicidality, in combination with non-genetic risk factors, may be useful for stratified approaches to suicide prevention at a population level. FUND: UKRI Innovation-HDR-UK Fellowship (MR/S003061/1). MRC Mental Health Data Pathfinder Award (MC_PC_17217). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the University of Glasgow (MR/K501335/1). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. UKRI Innovation Fellowship (MR/R024774/1).", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396419300775/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36732776", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13040-023-00321-5", @@ -21964,21 +21947,55 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://biodatamining.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13040-023-00321-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13040-023-00321-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9893534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9893534?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35087703", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465", - "title": "Household Air Pollution and Respiratory Symptoms a Month Before and During the Stringent COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 in South Africa.", - "authorString": "Wright CY, Kapwata T, Abdelatif N, Batini C, Wernecke B, Kunene Z, Millar DA, Mathee A, Street R, Panchal R, Hansell A, Cordell R, Hey JV.", + "id": "36814324", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y", + "title": "Investigating associations between blood metabolites, later life brain imaging measures, and genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease.", + "authorString": "Green RE, Lord J, Scelsi MA, Xu J, Wong A, Naomi-James S, Handy A, Gilchrist L, Williams DM, Parker TD, Lane CA, Malone IB, Cash DM, Sudre CH, Coath W, Thomas DL, Keuss S, Dobson R, Legido-Quigley C, Fox NC, Schott JM, Richards M, Proitsi P, Insight 46 study team.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Annals of global health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-10", + "journalTitle": "Alzheimer's research & therapy", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-02-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Metabolites; Ageing; Brain imaging; Alzheimer\u2019s disease; Dementia; Birth Cohort; Polygenic Scores; Weighted-gene Coexpression Network Analysis", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Identifying blood-based signatures of brain health and preclinical pathology may offer insights into early disease mechanisms and highlight avenues for intervention. Here, we systematically profiled associations between blood metabolites and whole-brain volume, hippocampal volume, and amyloid-\u03b2 status among participants of Insight 46-the neuroscience sub-study of the National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD). We additionally explored whether key metabolites were associated with polygenic risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods

Following quality control, levels of 1019 metabolites-detected with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-were available for 1740 participants at age 60-64. Metabolite data were subsequently clustered into modules of co-expressed metabolites using weighted coexpression network analysis. Accompanying MRI and amyloid-PET imaging data were present for 437 participants (age 69-71). Regression analyses tested relationships between metabolite measures-modules and hub metabolites-and imaging outcomes. Hub metabolites were defined as metabolites that were highly connected within significant (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05) modules or were identified as a hub in a previous analysis on cognitive function in the same cohort. Regression models included adjustments for age, sex, APOE genotype, lipid medication use, childhood cognitive ability, and social factors. Finally, associations were tested between AD polygenic risk scores (PRS), including and excluding the APOE region, and metabolites and modules that significantly associated (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05) with an imaging outcome (N\u2009=\u20091638).

Results

In the fully adjusted model, three lipid modules were associated with a brain volume measure (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05): one enriched in sphingolipids (hippocampal volume: \u00df\u2009=\u20090.14, 95% CI\u2009=\u2009[0.055,0.23]), one in several fatty acid pathways (whole-brain volume: \u00df\u2009=\u2009\u2009-\u20090.072, 95%CI\u2009=\u2009[-\u20090.12,\u2009-\u20090.026]), and another in diacylglycerols and phosphatidylethanolamines (whole-brain volume: \u00df\u2009=\u2009\u2009-\u20090.066, 95% CI\u2009=\u2009[-\u20090.11,\u2009-\u20090.020]). Twenty-two hub metabolites were associated (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05) with an imaging outcome (whole-brain volume: 22; hippocampal volume: 4). Some nominal associations were reported for amyloid-\u03b2, and with an AD PRS in our genetic analysis, but none survived multiple testing correction.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight key metabolites, with functions in membrane integrity and cell signalling, that associated with structural brain measures in later life. Future research should focus on replicating this work and interrogating causality.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9945600; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9945600?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "30745170", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005", + "title": "Identification of novel genome-wide associations for suicidality in UK Biobank, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders and polygenic association with completed suicide.", + "authorString": "Strawbridge RJ, Ward J, Ferguson A, Graham N, Shaw RJ, Cullen B, Pearsall R, Lyall LM, Johnston KJA, Niedzwiedz CL, Pell JP, Mackay D, Martin JL, Lyall DM, Bailey MES, Smith DJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-02-08", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Suicide is a major issue for global public health. Suicidality describes a broad spectrum of thoughts and behaviours, some of which are common in the general population. Although suicide results from a complex interaction of multiple social and psychological factors, predisposition to suicidality is at least partly genetic.

Methods

Ordinal genome-wide association study of suicidality in the UK Biobank cohort comparing: 'no suicidality' controls (N\u202f=\u202f83,557); 'thoughts that life was not worth living' (N\u202f=\u202f21,063); 'ever contemplated self-harm' (N\u202f=\u202f13,038); 'act of deliberate self-harm in the past' (N\u202f=\u202f2498); and 'previous suicide attempt' (N\u202f=\u202f2666).

Outcomes

We identified three novel genome-wide significant loci for suicidality (on chromosomes nine, 11 and 13) and moderate-to-strong genetic correlations between suicidality and a range of psychiatric disorders, most notably depression (rg 0\u00b781).

Interpretation

These findings provide new information about genetic variants relating to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Future work should assess the extent to which polygenic risk scores for suicidality, in combination with non-genetic risk factors, may be useful for stratified approaches to suicide prevention at a population level. FUND: UKRI Innovation-HDR-UK Fellowship (MR/S003061/1). MRC Mental Health Data Pathfinder Award (MC_PC_17217). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the University of Glasgow (MR/K501335/1). MRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. UKRI Innovation Fellowship (MR/R024774/1).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396419300775/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.02.005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6442001?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "36066609", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x", + "title": "Towards automatic classification of cardiovascular magnetic resonance Task Force Criteria for diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.", + "authorString": "Bourfiss M, Sander J, de Vos BD, Te Riele ASJM, Asselbergs FW, I\u0161gum I, Velthuis BK.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-09-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Automatic Segmentation; Deep Learning", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Household air pollution (HAP) is associated with adverse human health impacts. During COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 (the most stringent levels), South Africans remained at home, potentially increasing their exposure to HAP.

Objectives

To investigate changes in fuel use behaviours/patterns of use affecting HAP exposure and associated HAP-related respiratory health outcomes during COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional online and telephonic survey of participants from an existing database. Logistic regression and McNemar's test were used to analyse household-level data.

Results

Among 2 505 participants, while electricity was the main energy source for cooking and heating the month before and during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4, some households used less electricity during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 or switched to \"dirty fuels.\" One third of participants reported presence of environmental tobacco smoke in the home, a source of HAP associated with respiratory illnesses. Prevalence of HAP-related respiratory health outcomes were <10% (except dry cough). Majority of households reported cooking more, cleaning more and spending more time indoors during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 - potentially exposed to HAP.

Conclusion

Should South Africa return to Lockdown Levels 5 or 4, awareness raising about the risks associated with HAP as well as messaging information for prevention of exposure to HAP, including environmental tobacco smoke, and associated adverse health impacts will be necessary.", + "abstract": "

Background

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is diagnosed according to the Task Force Criteria (TFC) in which cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging plays an important role. Our study aims to apply an automatic deep learning-based segmentation for right and left ventricular CMR assessment and evaluate this approach for classification of the CMR TFC.

Methods

We included 227 subjects suspected of ARVC who underwent CMR. Subjects were classified into (1) ARVC patients fulfilling TFC; (2) at-risk family members; and (3) controls. To perform automatic segmentation, a Bayesian Dilated Residual Neural Network was trained and tested. Performance of automatic versus manual segmentation was assessed using Dice-coefficient and Hausdorff distance. Since automatic segmentation is most challenging in basal slices, manual correction of the automatic segmentation in the most basal slice was simulated (automatic-basal). CMR TFC calculated using manual and automatic-basal segmentation were compared using Cohen's Kappa (\u03ba).

Results

Automatic segmentation was trained on CMRs of 70 subjects (39.6\u2009\u00b1\u200918.1\u00a0years, 47% female) and tested on 157 subjects (36.9\u2009\u00b1\u200917.6\u00a0years, 59% female). Dice-coefficient and Hausdorff distance showed good agreement between manual and automatic segmentations (\u2265\u20090.89 and\u2009\u2264\u200910.6\u00a0mm, respectively) which further improved after simulated correction of the most basal slice (\u2265\u20090.92 and\u2009\u2264\u20099.2\u00a0mm, p\u2009<\u20090.001). Pearson correlation of volumetric and functional CMR measurements was good to excellent (automatic (r\u2009=\u20090.78-0.99, p\u2009<\u20090.001) and automatic-basal (r\u2009=\u20090.88-0.99, p\u2009<\u20090.001) measurements). CMR TFC classification using automatic-basal segmentations was comparable to manual segmentations (\u03ba 0.98\u2009\u00b1\u20090.02) with comparable diagnostic performance.

Conclusions

Combining automatic segmentation of CMRs with correction of the most basal slice results in accurate CMR TFC classification of subjects suspected of ARVC.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.3465/galley/3414/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998324?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35866236", @@ -21998,21 +22015,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/jogh-12-05033.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05033; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9304921?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36814324", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y", - "title": "Investigating associations between blood metabolites, later life brain imaging measures, and genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease.", - "authorString": "Green RE, Lord J, Scelsi MA, Xu J, Wong A, Naomi-James S, Handy A, Gilchrist L, Williams DM, Parker TD, Lane CA, Malone IB, Cash DM, Sudre CH, Coath W, Thomas DL, Keuss S, Dobson R, Legido-Quigley C, Fox NC, Schott JM, Richards M, Proitsi P, Insight 46 study team.", + "id": "35087703", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465", + "title": "Household Air Pollution and Respiratory Symptoms a Month Before and During the Stringent COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 in South Africa.", + "authorString": "Wright CY, Kapwata T, Abdelatif N, Batini C, Wernecke B, Kunene Z, Millar DA, Mathee A, Street R, Panchal R, Hansell A, Cordell R, Hey JV.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Alzheimer's research & therapy", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-22", + "journalTitle": "Annals of global health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-10", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Metabolites; Ageing; Brain imaging; Alzheimer\u2019s disease; Dementia; Birth Cohort; Polygenic Scores; Weighted-gene Coexpression Network Analysis", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Identifying blood-based signatures of brain health and preclinical pathology may offer insights into early disease mechanisms and highlight avenues for intervention. Here, we systematically profiled associations between blood metabolites and whole-brain volume, hippocampal volume, and amyloid-\u03b2 status among participants of Insight 46-the neuroscience sub-study of the National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD). We additionally explored whether key metabolites were associated with polygenic risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods

Following quality control, levels of 1019 metabolites-detected with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-were available for 1740 participants at age 60-64. Metabolite data were subsequently clustered into modules of co-expressed metabolites using weighted coexpression network analysis. Accompanying MRI and amyloid-PET imaging data were present for 437 participants (age 69-71). Regression analyses tested relationships between metabolite measures-modules and hub metabolites-and imaging outcomes. Hub metabolites were defined as metabolites that were highly connected within significant (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05) modules or were identified as a hub in a previous analysis on cognitive function in the same cohort. Regression models included adjustments for age, sex, APOE genotype, lipid medication use, childhood cognitive ability, and social factors. Finally, associations were tested between AD polygenic risk scores (PRS), including and excluding the APOE region, and metabolites and modules that significantly associated (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05) with an imaging outcome (N\u2009=\u20091638).

Results

In the fully adjusted model, three lipid modules were associated with a brain volume measure (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05): one enriched in sphingolipids (hippocampal volume: \u00df\u2009=\u20090.14, 95% CI\u2009=\u2009[0.055,0.23]), one in several fatty acid pathways (whole-brain volume: \u00df\u2009=\u2009\u2009-\u20090.072, 95%CI\u2009=\u2009[-\u20090.12,\u2009-\u20090.026]), and another in diacylglycerols and phosphatidylethanolamines (whole-brain volume: \u00df\u2009=\u2009\u2009-\u20090.066, 95% CI\u2009=\u2009[-\u20090.11,\u2009-\u20090.020]). Twenty-two hub metabolites were associated (pFDR\u2009<\u20090.05) with an imaging outcome (whole-brain volume: 22; hippocampal volume: 4). Some nominal associations were reported for amyloid-\u03b2, and with an AD PRS in our genetic analysis, but none survived multiple testing correction.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight key metabolites, with functions in membrane integrity and cell signalling, that associated with structural brain measures in later life. Future research should focus on replicating this work and interrogating causality.", + "abstract": "

Background

Household air pollution (HAP) is associated with adverse human health impacts. During COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 (the most stringent levels), South Africans remained at home, potentially increasing their exposure to HAP.

Objectives

To investigate changes in fuel use behaviours/patterns of use affecting HAP exposure and associated HAP-related respiratory health outcomes during COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional online and telephonic survey of participants from an existing database. Logistic regression and McNemar's test were used to analyse household-level data.

Results

Among 2 505 participants, while electricity was the main energy source for cooking and heating the month before and during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4, some households used less electricity during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 or switched to \"dirty fuels.\" One third of participants reported presence of environmental tobacco smoke in the home, a source of HAP associated with respiratory illnesses. Prevalence of HAP-related respiratory health outcomes were <10% (except dry cough). Majority of households reported cooking more, cleaning more and spending more time indoors during Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 - potentially exposed to HAP.

Conclusion

Should South Africa return to Lockdown Levels 5 or 4, awareness raising about the risks associated with HAP as well as messaging information for prevention of exposure to HAP, including environmental tobacco smoke, and associated adverse health impacts will be necessary.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-023-01184-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9945600; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9945600?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.3465/galley/3414/download/; doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3465; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8757382?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33053479", @@ -22031,23 +22048,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104760; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7718112" }, - { - "id": "36066609", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x", - "title": "Towards automatic classification of cardiovascular magnetic resonance Task Force Criteria for diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.", - "authorString": "Bourfiss M, Sander J, de Vos BD, Te Riele ASJM, Asselbergs FW, I\u0161gum I, Velthuis BK.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-09-06", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy; Automatic Segmentation; Deep Learning", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is diagnosed according to the Task Force Criteria (TFC) in which cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging plays an important role. Our study aims to apply an automatic deep learning-based segmentation for right and left ventricular CMR assessment and evaluate this approach for classification of the CMR TFC.

Methods

We included 227 subjects suspected of ARVC who underwent CMR. Subjects were classified into (1) ARVC patients fulfilling TFC; (2) at-risk family members; and (3) controls. To perform automatic segmentation, a Bayesian Dilated Residual Neural Network was trained and tested. Performance of automatic versus manual segmentation was assessed using Dice-coefficient and Hausdorff distance. Since automatic segmentation is most challenging in basal slices, manual correction of the automatic segmentation in the most basal slice was simulated (automatic-basal). CMR TFC calculated using manual and automatic-basal segmentation were compared using Cohen's Kappa (\u03ba).

Results

Automatic segmentation was trained on CMRs of 70 subjects (39.6\u2009\u00b1\u200918.1\u00a0years, 47% female) and tested on 157 subjects (36.9\u2009\u00b1\u200917.6\u00a0years, 59% female). Dice-coefficient and Hausdorff distance showed good agreement between manual and automatic segmentations (\u2265\u20090.89 and\u2009\u2264\u200910.6\u00a0mm, respectively) which further improved after simulated correction of the most basal slice (\u2265\u20090.92 and\u2009\u2264\u20099.2\u00a0mm, p\u2009<\u20090.001). Pearson correlation of volumetric and functional CMR measurements was good to excellent (automatic (r\u2009=\u20090.78-0.99, p\u2009<\u20090.001) and automatic-basal (r\u2009=\u20090.88-0.99, p\u2009<\u20090.001) measurements). CMR TFC classification using automatic-basal segmentations was comparable to manual segmentations (\u03ba 0.98\u2009\u00b1\u20090.02) with comparable diagnostic performance.

Conclusions

Combining automatic segmentation of CMRs with correction of the most basal slice results in accurate CMR TFC classification of subjects suspected of ARVC.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02088-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998324?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30940752", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023232", @@ -22082,40 +22082,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003815&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003815; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8523052; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8523052?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36944376", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373", - "title": "The lipid linked oligosaccharide polymerase Wzy and its regulating co-polymerase, Wzz, from enterobacterial common antigen biosynthesis form a complex.", - "authorString": "Weckener M, Woodward LS, Clarke BR, Liu H, Ward PN, Le Bas A, Bhella D, Whitfield C, Naismith JH.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Open biology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Oligosaccharides; Lipid; Regulating; Polymerase; Wzy", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) is a carbohydrate polymer that is associated with the cell envelope in the Enterobacteriaceae. ECA contains a repeating trisaccharide which is polymerized by WzyE, a member of the Wzy membrane protein polymerase superfamily. WzyE activity is regulated by a membrane protein polysaccharide co-polymerase, WzzE. F\u00f6rster resonance energy transfer experiments demonstrate that WzyE and WzzE from Pectobacterium atrosepticum form a complex in vivo, and immunoblotting and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) analysis confirm a defined stoichiometry of approximately eight WzzE to one WzyE. Low-resolution cryo-EM reconstructions of the complex, aided by an antibody recognizing the C-terminus of WzyE, reveals WzyE sits in the central membrane lumen formed by the octameric arrangement of the transmembrane helices of WzzE. The pairing of Wzy and Wzz is found in polymerization systems for other bacterial polymers, including lipopolysaccharide O-antigens and capsular polysaccharides. The data provide new structural insight into a conserved mechanism for regulating polysaccharide chain length in bacteria.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "31413164", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019", - "title": "Allergic diseases and long-term risk of autoimmune disorders: longitudinal cohort study and cluster analysis. ", - "authorString": "Krishna MT, Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Zemedikun DT, Gkoutos GV, Nirantharakumar K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The European respiratory journal", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-11-14", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The association between allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders is not well established. Our objective was to determine incidence rates of autoimmune disorders in allergic rhinitis/conjunctivitis (ARC), atopic eczema and asthma, and to investigate for co-occurring patterns. This was a retrospective cohort study (1990-2018) employing data extracted from The Health Improvement Network (UK primary care database). The exposure group comprised ARC, atopic eczema and asthma (all ages). For each exposed patient, up to two randomly selected age- and sex-matched controls with no documented allergic disease were used. Adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRRs) were calculated using Poisson regression. A cross-sectional study was also conducted employing Association Rule Mining (ARM) to investigate disease clusters. 782\u200a320, 1\u200a393\u200a570 and 1\u200a049\u200a868 patients with ARC, atopic eczema and asthma, respectively, were included. aIRRs of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome, vitiligo, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, pernicious anaemia, inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis were uniformly higher in the three allergic diseases compared with controls. Specifically, aIRRs of SLE (1.45) and Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome (1.88) were higher in ARC; aIRRs of SLE (1.44), Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome (1.61) and myasthenia (1.56) were higher in asthma; and aIRRs of SLE (1.86), Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome (1.48), vitiligo (1.54) and psoriasis (2.41) were higher in atopic eczema. There was no significant effect of the three allergic diseases on multiple sclerosis or of ARC and atopic eczema on myasthenia. Using ARM, allergic diseases clustered with multiple autoimmune disorders. Three age- and sex-related clusters were identified, with a relatively complex pattern in females \u226555\u2005years old. The long-term risks of autoimmune disorders are significantly higher in patients with allergic diseases. Allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders show age- and sex-related clustering patterns.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/5/1900476.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019" - }, { "id": "36711167", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztaa016", @@ -22151,21 +22117,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-019-0214-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-019-0214-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6849160; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6849160?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36609282", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6", - "title": "A comparison of covariate adjustment approaches under model misspecification in individually randomized trials.", - "authorString": "Tackney MS, Morris T, White I, Leyrat C, Diaz-Ordaz K, Williamson E.", + "id": "31413164", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019", + "title": "Allergic diseases and long-term risk of autoimmune disorders: longitudinal cohort study and cluster analysis. ", + "authorString": "Krishna MT, Subramanian A, Adderley NJ, Zemedikun DT, Gkoutos GV, Nirantharakumar K.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Trials", + "journalTitle": "The European respiratory journal", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-11-14", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The association between allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders is not well established. Our objective was to determine incidence rates of autoimmune disorders in allergic rhinitis/conjunctivitis (ARC), atopic eczema and asthma, and to investigate for co-occurring patterns. This was a retrospective cohort study (1990-2018) employing data extracted from The Health Improvement Network (UK primary care database). The exposure group comprised ARC, atopic eczema and asthma (all ages). For each exposed patient, up to two randomly selected age- and sex-matched controls with no documented allergic disease were used. Adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRRs) were calculated using Poisson regression. A cross-sectional study was also conducted employing Association Rule Mining (ARM) to investigate disease clusters. 782\u200a320, 1\u200a393\u200a570 and 1\u200a049\u200a868 patients with ARC, atopic eczema and asthma, respectively, were included. aIRRs of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome, vitiligo, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, pernicious anaemia, inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis were uniformly higher in the three allergic diseases compared with controls. Specifically, aIRRs of SLE (1.45) and Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome (1.88) were higher in ARC; aIRRs of SLE (1.44), Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome (1.61) and myasthenia (1.56) were higher in asthma; and aIRRs of SLE (1.86), Sj\u00f6gren's syndrome (1.48), vitiligo (1.54) and psoriasis (2.41) were higher in atopic eczema. There was no significant effect of the three allergic diseases on multiple sclerosis or of ARC and atopic eczema on myasthenia. Using ARM, allergic diseases clustered with multiple autoimmune disorders. Three age- and sex-related clusters were identified, with a relatively complex pattern in females \u226555\u2005years old. The long-term risks of autoimmune disorders are significantly higher in patients with allergic diseases. Allergic diseases and autoimmune disorders show age- and sex-related clustering patterns.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/5/1900476.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00476-2019" + }, + { + "id": "36944376", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373", + "title": "The lipid linked oligosaccharide polymerase Wzy and its regulating co-polymerase, Wzz, from enterobacterial common antigen biosynthesis form a complex.", + "authorString": "Weckener M, Woodward LS, Clarke BR, Liu H, Ward PN, Le Bas A, Bhella D, Whitfield C, Naismith JH.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Open biology", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-06", + "date": "2023-03-22", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Randomized controlled trials; Iptw; G-computation; Tmle; Covariate Adjustment; Ancova; Misspecification; Aiptw", + "keywords": "Oligosaccharides; Lipid; Regulating; Polymerase; Wzy", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Adjustment for baseline covariates in randomized trials has been shown to lead to gains in power and can protect against chance imbalances in covariates. For continuous covariates, there is a risk that the the form of the relationship between the covariate and outcome is misspecified when taking an adjusted approach. Using a simulation study focusing on individually randomized trials with small sample sizes, we explore whether a range of adjustment methods are robust to misspecification, either in the covariate-outcome relationship or through an omitted covariate-treatment interaction. Specifically, we aim to identify potential settings where G-computation, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), augmented inverse probability of treatment weighting (AIPTW) and targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) offer improvement over the commonly used analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Our simulations show that all adjustment methods are generally robust to model misspecification if adjusting for a few covariates, sample size is 100 or larger, and there are no covariate-treatment interactions. When there is a non-linear interaction of treatment with a skewed covariate and sample size is small, all adjustment methods can suffer from bias; however, methods that allow for interactions (such as G-computation with interaction and IPTW) show improved results compared to ANCOVA. When there are a high number of covariates to adjust for, ANCOVA retains good properties while other methods suffer from under- or over-coverage. An outstanding issue for G-computation, IPTW and AIPTW in small samples is that standard errors are underestimated; they should be used with caution without the availability of small-sample corrections, development of which is needed. These findings are relevant for covariate adjustment in interim analyses of larger trials.", + "abstract": "The enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) is a carbohydrate polymer that is associated with the cell envelope in the Enterobacteriaceae. ECA contains a repeating trisaccharide which is polymerized by WzyE, a member of the Wzy membrane protein polymerase superfamily. WzyE activity is regulated by a membrane protein polysaccharide co-polymerase, WzzE. F\u00f6rster resonance energy transfer experiments demonstrate that WzyE and WzzE from Pectobacterium atrosepticum form a complex in vivo, and immunoblotting and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) analysis confirm a defined stoichiometry of approximately eight WzzE to one WzyE. Low-resolution cryo-EM reconstructions of the complex, aided by an antibody recognizing the C-terminus of WzyE, reveals WzyE sits in the central membrane lumen formed by the octameric arrangement of the transmembrane helices of WzzE. The pairing of Wzy and Wzz is found in polymerization systems for other bacterial polymers, including lipopolysaccharide O-antigens and capsular polysaccharides. The data provide new structural insight into a conserved mechanism for regulating polysaccharide chain length in bacteria.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220373; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10030265?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33372069", @@ -22219,55 +22202,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://pure.eur.nl/files/93233169/Identifying_distinct_clinical_clusters_in_heart_failure_with_mildly_reduced_ejection_fraction.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2023.05.024" }, { - "id": "36774358", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7", - "title": "Genomic and microenvironmental heterogeneity shaping epithelial-to-mesenchymal trajectories in cancer. ", - "authorString": "Malagoli Tagliazucchi G, Wiecek AJ, Withnell E, Secrier M.", + "id": "36609282", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6", + "title": "A comparison of covariate adjustment approaches under model misspecification in individually randomized trials.", + "authorString": "Tackney MS, Morris T, White I, Leyrat C, Diaz-Ordaz K, Williamson E.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "journalTitle": "Trials", "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-11", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key cellular process underlying cancer progression, with multiple intermediate states whose molecular hallmarks remain poorly characterised. To fill this gap, we present a method to robustly evaluate EMT transformation in individual tumours based on transcriptomic signals. We apply this approach to explore EMT trajectories in 7180 tumours of epithelial origin and identify three macro-states with prognostic and therapeutic value, attributable to epithelial, hybrid E/M and mesenchymal phenotypes. We show that the hybrid state is relatively stable and linked with increased aneuploidy. We further employ spatial transcriptomics and single cell datasets to explore the spatial heterogeneity of EMT transformation and distinct interaction patterns with cytotoxic, NK cells and fibroblasts in the tumour microenvironment. Additionally, we provide a catalogue of genomic events underlying distinct evolutionary constraints on EMT transformation. This study sheds light on the aetiology of distinct stages along the EMT trajectory, and highlights broader genomic and environmental hallmarks shaping the mesenchymal transformation of primary tumours.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36439-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33939952", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00949-1", - "title": "COVID-19 and disparities affecting ethnic minorities.", - "authorString": "Morales DR, Ali SN.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-30", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9755653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00949-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "36456017", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288", - "title": "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on timeliness and equity of measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations in North East London: a longitudinal study using electronic health records.", - "authorString": "Firman N, Marszalek M, Gutierrez A, Homer K, Williams C, Harper G, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Robson J, Dezateux C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-01", + "date": "2023-01-06", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Public Health; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Randomized controlled trials; Iptw; G-computation; Tmle; Covariate Adjustment; Ancova; Misspecification; Aiptw", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

To quantify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the timeliness of, and geographical and sociodemographic inequalities in, receipt of first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Design

Longitudinal study using primary care electronic health records.

Setting

285 general practices in North East London.

Participants

Children born between 23 August 2017 and 22 September 2018 (pre-pandemic cohort) or between 23 March 2019 and 1 May 2020 (pandemic cohort).

Main outcome measure

Receipt of timely MMR vaccination between 12 and 18 months of age.

Methods

We used logistic regression to estimate the ORs (95% CIs) of receipt of a timely vaccination adjusting for sex, deprivation, ethnic background and Clinical Commissioning Group. We plotted choropleth maps of the proportion receiving timely vaccinations.

Results

Timely MMR receipt fell by 4.0% (95% CI: 3.4% to 4.6%) from 79.2% (78.8% to 79.6%) to 75.2% (74.7% to 75.7%) in the pre-pandemic (n=33\u2009226; 51.3% boys) and pandemic (n=32\u2009446; 51.4%) cohorts, respectively. After adjustment, timely vaccination was less likely in the pandemic cohort (0.79; 0.76 to 0.82), children from black (0.70; 0.65 to 0.76), mixed/other (0.77; 0.72 to 0.82) or with missing (0.77; 0.74 to 0.81) ethnic background, and more likely in girls (1.07; 1.03 to 1.11) and those from South Asian backgrounds (1.39; 1.30 to 1.48). Children living in the least deprived areas were more likely to receive a timely MMR (2.09; 1.78 to 2.46) but there was no interaction between cohorts and deprivation (Wald statistic: 3.44; p=0.49). The proportion of neighbourhoods where less than 60% of children received timely vaccination increased from 7.5% to 12.7% during the pandemic.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant fall in timely MMR receipt and increased geographical clustering of measles susceptibility in an area of historically low and inequitable MMR coverage. Immediate action is needed to avert measles outbreaks and support primary care to deliver timely and equitable vaccinations.", + "abstract": "Adjustment for baseline covariates in randomized trials has been shown to lead to gains in power and can protect against chance imbalances in covariates. For continuous covariates, there is a risk that the the form of the relationship between the covariate and outcome is misspecified when taking an adjusted approach. Using a simulation study focusing on individually randomized trials with small sample sizes, we explore whether a range of adjustment methods are robust to misspecification, either in the covariate-outcome relationship or through an omitted covariate-treatment interaction. Specifically, we aim to identify potential settings where G-computation, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), augmented inverse probability of treatment weighting (AIPTW) and targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) offer improvement over the commonly used analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Our simulations show that all adjustment methods are generally robust to model misspecification if adjusting for a few covariates, sample size is 100 or larger, and there are no covariate-treatment interactions. When there is a non-linear interaction of treatment with a skewed covariate and sample size is small, all adjustment methods can suffer from bias; however, methods that allow for interactions (such as G-computation with interaction and IPTW) show improved results compared to ANCOVA. When there are a high number of covariates to adjust for, ANCOVA retains good properties while other methods suffer from under- or over-coverage. An outstanding issue for G-computation, IPTW and AIPTW in small samples is that standard errors are underestimated; they should be used with caution without the availability of small-sample corrections, development of which is needed. These findings are relevant for covariate adjustment in interim analyses of larger trials.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e066288.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06967-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9817411?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32738956", @@ -22286,40 +22235,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31286-1" }, - { - "id": "30928915", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085", - "title": "Comparison of revised Functional Capacity Index scores with Abbreviated Injury Scale 2008 scores in predicting 12-month severe trauma outcomes.", - "authorString": "Palmer CS, Cameron PA, Gabbe BJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-03-30", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Trauma Registry; Trauma Scoring; Functional Outcomes; Prediction Models; Abbreviated Injury Scale; Major Trauma; Functional Capacity Index; 12-Month Outcomes", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Anatomical injury as measured by the AIS often accounts for only a small proportion of variability in outcomes after injury. The predictive Functional Capacity Index (FCI) appended to the 2008 AIS claims to provide a widely available method of predicting 12-month function following injury.

Objectives

To determine the extent to which AIS-based and FCI-based scoring is able to add to a simple predictive model of 12-month function following severe injury.

Methods

Adult trauma patients were drawn from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. Major trauma and severely injured orthopaedic trauma patients were followed up via telephone interview including Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, the EQ-5D-3L and return to work status. A battery of AIS-based and FCI-based scores, and a simple count of AIS-coded injuries were added in turn to a base model using age and gender.

Results

A total of 20\u2009813 patients survived to 12 months and had at least one functional outcome recorded, representing 85% follow-up. Predictions using the base model varied substantially across outcome measures. Irrespective of the method used to classify the severity of injury, adding injury severity to the model significantly, but only slightly improved model fit. Across the outcomes evaluated, no method of injury severity assessment consistently outperformed any other.

Conclusions

Anatomical injury is a predictor of trauma outcome. However, injury severity as described by the FCI does not consistently improve discrimination, or even provide the best discrimination compared with AIS-based severity scores or a simple injury count.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50163/Download/0050163-25062019060819.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085" - }, - { - "id": "35983770", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2022.27.33.2100885", - "title": "Recording of 'COVID-19 vaccine declined': a cohort study on 57.9 million National Health Service patients' records in situ using OpenSAFELY, England, 8 December 2020 to 25 May 2021.", - "authorString": "Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Croker R, Hulme WJ, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Mathur R, Morton CE, Bacon SC, Smith RM, Evans D, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Walker AJ, Bates C, Hickman G, Ward T, Morley J, Cockburn J, Davy S, Williamson EJ, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Vaccination; Vaccine Hesitancy; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "BackgroundPriority patients in England were offered COVID-19 vaccination by mid-April 2021. Codes in clinical record systems can denote the vaccine being declined.AimWe describe records of COVID-19 vaccines being declined, according to clinical and demographic factors.MethodsWith the approval of NHS England, we conducted a retrospective cohort study between 8 December 2020 and 25 May 2021 with primary care records for 57.9 million patients using OpenSAFELY, a secure health analytics platform. COVID-19 vaccination priority patients were those aged \u2265\u202f50 years or \u2265\u202f16\u2009years clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) or 'at risk'. We describe the proportion recorded as declining vaccination for each group and stratified by clinical and demographic subgroups, subsequent vaccination and distribution of clinical code usage across general practices.ResultsOf 24.5 million priority patients, 663,033 (2.7%) had a decline recorded, while 2,155,076 (8.8%) had neither a vaccine nor decline recorded. Those recorded as declining, who were subsequently vaccinated (n\u202f=\u202f125,587; 18.9%) were overrepresented in the South Asian population (32.3% vs 22.8% for other ethnicities aged \u2265\u202f65 years). The proportion of declining unvaccinated patients was highest in CEV (3.3%), varied strongly with ethnicity (black 15.3%, South Asian 5.6%, white 1.5% for \u2265 80 years) and correlated positively with increasing deprivation.ConclusionsClinical codes indicative of COVID-19 vaccinations being declined are commonly used in England, but substantially more common among black and South Asian people, and in more deprived areas. Qualitative research is needed to determine typical reasons for recorded declines, including to what extent they reflect patients actively declining.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/33/eurosurv-27-33-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9389857" - }, { "id": "35115689", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00991-z", @@ -22338,7 +22253,24 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00991-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00991-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9883041?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00991-z" }, { - "id": "34753797", + "id": "36774358", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7", + "title": "Genomic and microenvironmental heterogeneity shaping epithelial-to-mesenchymal trajectories in cancer. ", + "authorString": "Malagoli Tagliazucchi G, Wiecek AJ, Withnell E, Secrier M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-02-11", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key cellular process underlying cancer progression, with multiple intermediate states whose molecular hallmarks remain poorly characterised. To fill this gap, we present a method to robustly evaluate EMT transformation in individual tumours based on transcriptomic signals. We apply this approach to explore EMT trajectories in 7180 tumours of epithelial origin and identify three macro-states with prognostic and therapeutic value, attributable to epithelial, hybrid E/M and mesenchymal phenotypes. We show that the hybrid state is relatively stable and linked with increased aneuploidy. We further employ spatial transcriptomics and single cell datasets to explore the spatial heterogeneity of EMT transformation and distinct interaction patterns with cytotoxic, NK cells and fibroblasts in the tumour microenvironment. Additionally, we provide a catalogue of genomic events underlying distinct evolutionary constraints on EMT transformation. This study sheds light on the aetiology of distinct stages along the EMT trajectory, and highlights broader genomic and environmental hallmarks shaping the mesenchymal transformation of primary tumours.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36439-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36439-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9922305?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "34753797", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0320", "title": "An Expanded Genome-Wide Association Study of Fructosamine Levels Identifies RCN3 as a Replicating Locus and Implicates FCGRT as the Effector Transcript.", "authorString": "Riveros-Mckay F, Roberts D, Di Angelantonio E, Yu B, Soranzo N, Danesh J, Selvin E, Butterworth AS, Barroso I.", @@ -22354,6 +22286,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article-pdf/71/2/359/640867/db210320.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0320; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8914280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8914280?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0320" }, + { + "id": "30928915", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085", + "title": "Comparison of revised Functional Capacity Index scores with Abbreviated Injury Scale 2008 scores in predicting 12-month severe trauma outcomes.", + "authorString": "Palmer CS, Cameron PA, Gabbe BJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2019-03-30", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Trauma Registry; Trauma Scoring; Functional Outcomes; Prediction Models; Abbreviated Injury Scale; Major Trauma; Functional Capacity Index; 12-Month Outcomes", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Anatomical injury as measured by the AIS often accounts for only a small proportion of variability in outcomes after injury. The predictive Functional Capacity Index (FCI) appended to the 2008 AIS claims to provide a widely available method of predicting 12-month function following injury.

Objectives

To determine the extent to which AIS-based and FCI-based scoring is able to add to a simple predictive model of 12-month function following severe injury.

Methods

Adult trauma patients were drawn from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry. Major trauma and severely injured orthopaedic trauma patients were followed up via telephone interview including Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, the EQ-5D-3L and return to work status. A battery of AIS-based and FCI-based scores, and a simple count of AIS-coded injuries were added in turn to a base model using age and gender.

Results

A total of 20\u2009813 patients survived to 12 months and had at least one functional outcome recorded, representing 85% follow-up. Predictions using the base model varied substantially across outcome measures. Irrespective of the method used to classify the severity of injury, adding injury severity to the model significantly, but only slightly improved model fit. Across the outcomes evaluated, no method of injury severity assessment consistently outperformed any other.

Conclusions

Anatomical injury is a predictor of trauma outcome. However, injury severity as described by the FCI does not consistently improve discrimination, or even provide the best discrimination compared with AIS-based severity scores or a simple injury count.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50163/Download/0050163-25062019060819.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043085" + }, { "id": "32817390", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000010463", @@ -22371,6 +22320,57 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/95/14/e1963.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000010463; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7682841; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7682841?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36456017", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288", + "title": "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on timeliness and equity of measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations in North East London: a longitudinal study using electronic health records.", + "authorString": "Firman N, Marszalek M, Gutierrez A, Homer K, Williams C, Harper G, Dostal I, Ahmed Z, Robson J, Dezateux C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Public Health; Primary Care; Paediatric Infectious Disease & Immunisation; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

To quantify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the timeliness of, and geographical and sociodemographic inequalities in, receipt of first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Design

Longitudinal study using primary care electronic health records.

Setting

285 general practices in North East London.

Participants

Children born between 23 August 2017 and 22 September 2018 (pre-pandemic cohort) or between 23 March 2019 and 1 May 2020 (pandemic cohort).

Main outcome measure

Receipt of timely MMR vaccination between 12 and 18 months of age.

Methods

We used logistic regression to estimate the ORs (95% CIs) of receipt of a timely vaccination adjusting for sex, deprivation, ethnic background and Clinical Commissioning Group. We plotted choropleth maps of the proportion receiving timely vaccinations.

Results

Timely MMR receipt fell by 4.0% (95% CI: 3.4% to 4.6%) from 79.2% (78.8% to 79.6%) to 75.2% (74.7% to 75.7%) in the pre-pandemic (n=33\u2009226; 51.3% boys) and pandemic (n=32\u2009446; 51.4%) cohorts, respectively. After adjustment, timely vaccination was less likely in the pandemic cohort (0.79; 0.76 to 0.82), children from black (0.70; 0.65 to 0.76), mixed/other (0.77; 0.72 to 0.82) or with missing (0.77; 0.74 to 0.81) ethnic background, and more likely in girls (1.07; 1.03 to 1.11) and those from South Asian backgrounds (1.39; 1.30 to 1.48). Children living in the least deprived areas were more likely to receive a timely MMR (2.09; 1.78 to 2.46) but there was no interaction between cohorts and deprivation (Wald statistic: 3.44; p=0.49). The proportion of neighbourhoods where less than 60% of children received timely vaccination increased from 7.5% to 12.7% during the pandemic.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant fall in timely MMR receipt and increased geographical clustering of measles susceptibility in an area of historically low and inequitable MMR coverage. Immediate action is needed to avert measles outbreaks and support primary care to deliver timely and equitable vaccinations.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/12/e066288.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066288; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9723415?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33939952", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00949-1", + "title": "COVID-19 and disparities affecting ethnic minorities.", + "authorString": "Morales DR, Ali SN.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-04-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9755653; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00949-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9755653?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35983770", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2022.27.33.2100885", + "title": "Recording of 'COVID-19 vaccine declined': a cohort study on 57.9 million National Health Service patients' records in situ using OpenSAFELY, England, 8 December 2020 to 25 May 2021.", + "authorString": "Curtis HJ, Inglesby P, MacKenna B, Croker R, Hulme WJ, Rentsch CT, Bhaskaran K, Mathur R, Morton CE, Bacon SC, Smith RM, Evans D, Mehrkar A, Tomlinson L, Walker AJ, Bates C, Hickman G, Ward T, Morley J, Cockburn J, Davy S, Williamson EJ, Eggo RM, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, O'Hanlon S, Eavis A, Jarvis R, Avramov D, Griffiths P, Fowles A, Parkes N, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Vaccination; Vaccine Hesitancy; Nhs England; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "BackgroundPriority patients in England were offered COVID-19 vaccination by mid-April 2021. Codes in clinical record systems can denote the vaccine being declined.AimWe describe records of COVID-19 vaccines being declined, according to clinical and demographic factors.MethodsWith the approval of NHS England, we conducted a retrospective cohort study between 8 December 2020 and 25 May 2021 with primary care records for 57.9 million patients using OpenSAFELY, a secure health analytics platform. COVID-19 vaccination priority patients were those aged \u2265\u202f50 years or \u2265\u202f16\u2009years clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) or 'at risk'. We describe the proportion recorded as declining vaccination for each group and stratified by clinical and demographic subgroups, subsequent vaccination and distribution of clinical code usage across general practices.ResultsOf 24.5 million priority patients, 663,033 (2.7%) had a decline recorded, while 2,155,076 (8.8%) had neither a vaccine nor decline recorded. Those recorded as declining, who were subsequently vaccinated (n\u202f=\u202f125,587; 18.9%) were overrepresented in the South Asian population (32.3% vs 22.8% for other ethnicities aged \u2265\u202f65 years). The proportion of declining unvaccinated patients was highest in CEV (3.3%), varied strongly with ethnicity (black 15.3%, South Asian 5.6%, white 1.5% for \u2265 80 years) and correlated positively with increasing deprivation.ConclusionsClinical codes indicative of COVID-19 vaccinations being declined are commonly used in England, but substantially more common among black and South Asian people, and in more deprived areas. Qualitative research is needed to determine typical reasons for recorded declines, including to what extent they reflect patients actively declining.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/33/eurosurv-27-33-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.33.2100885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9389857" + }, { "id": "37699620", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-074626", @@ -22473,6 +22473,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/9/e050647.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050647; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8450967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8450967?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33206055", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/19650", + "title": "Mobile Clinical Decision Support System for the Management of Diabetic Patients With Kidney Complications in UK Primary Care Settings: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.", + "authorString": "Alhodaib HI, Antza C, Chandan JS, Hanif W, Sankaranarayanan S, Paul S, Sutcliffe P, Nirantharakumar K.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JMIR diabetes", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-11-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Diabetes mellitus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Feasibility Study; Ehealth; Clinical Decision Support Application", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Attempts to utilize eHealth in diabetes mellitus (DM) management have shown promising outcomes, mostly targeted at patients; however, few solutions have been designed for health care providers.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to conduct a feasibility project developing and evaluating a mobile clinical decision support system (CDSS) tool exclusively for health care providers to manage chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with DM.

Methods

The design process was based on the 3 key stages of the user-centered design framework. First, an exploratory qualitative study collected the experiences and views of DM specialist nurses regarding the use of mobile apps in clinical practice. Second, a CDSS tool was developed for the management of patients with DM and CKD. Finally, a randomized controlled trial examined the acceptability and impact of the tool.

Results

We interviewed 15 DM specialist nurses. DM specialist nurses were not currently using eHealth solutions in their clinical practice, while most nurses were not even aware of existing medical apps. However, they appreciated the potential benefits that apps may bring to their clinical practice. Taking into consideration the needs and preferences of end users, a new mobile CDSS app, \"Diabetes & CKD,\" was developed based on guidelines. We recruited 39 junior foundation year 1 doctors (44% male) to evaluate the app. Of them, 44% (17/39) were allocated to the intervention group, and 56% (22/39) were allocated to the control group. There was no significant difference in scores (maximum score=13) assessing the management decisions between the app and paper-based version of the app's algorithm (intervention group: mean 7.24 points, SD 2.46 points; control group: mean 7.39, SD 2.56; t37=-0.19, P=.85). However, 82% (14/17) of the participants were satisfied with using the app.

Conclusions

The findings will guide the design of future CDSS apps for the management of DM, aiming to help health care providers with a personalized approach depending on patients' comorbidities, specifically CKD, in accordance with guidelines.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://diabetes.jmir.org/2020/4/e19650/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/19650; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36060542", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.939292", @@ -22507,23 +22524,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100248; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100248; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8672041; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8672041?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33206055", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/19650", - "title": "Mobile Clinical Decision Support System for the Management of Diabetic Patients With Kidney Complications in UK Primary Care Settings: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.", - "authorString": "Alhodaib HI, Antza C, Chandan JS, Hanif W, Sankaranarayanan S, Paul S, Sutcliffe P, Nirantharakumar K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR diabetes", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Diabetes mellitus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Feasibility Study; Ehealth; Clinical Decision Support Application", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Attempts to utilize eHealth in diabetes mellitus (DM) management have shown promising outcomes, mostly targeted at patients; however, few solutions have been designed for health care providers.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to conduct a feasibility project developing and evaluating a mobile clinical decision support system (CDSS) tool exclusively for health care providers to manage chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with DM.

Methods

The design process was based on the 3 key stages of the user-centered design framework. First, an exploratory qualitative study collected the experiences and views of DM specialist nurses regarding the use of mobile apps in clinical practice. Second, a CDSS tool was developed for the management of patients with DM and CKD. Finally, a randomized controlled trial examined the acceptability and impact of the tool.

Results

We interviewed 15 DM specialist nurses. DM specialist nurses were not currently using eHealth solutions in their clinical practice, while most nurses were not even aware of existing medical apps. However, they appreciated the potential benefits that apps may bring to their clinical practice. Taking into consideration the needs and preferences of end users, a new mobile CDSS app, \"Diabetes & CKD,\" was developed based on guidelines. We recruited 39 junior foundation year 1 doctors (44% male) to evaluate the app. Of them, 44% (17/39) were allocated to the intervention group, and 56% (22/39) were allocated to the control group. There was no significant difference in scores (maximum score=13) assessing the management decisions between the app and paper-based version of the app's algorithm (intervention group: mean 7.24 points, SD 2.46 points; control group: mean 7.39, SD 2.56; t37=-0.19, P=.85). However, 82% (14/17) of the participants were satisfied with using the app.

Conclusions

The findings will guide the design of future CDSS apps for the management of DM, aiming to help health care providers with a personalized approach depending on patients' comorbidities, specifically CKD, in accordance with guidelines.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://diabetes.jmir.org/2020/4/e19650/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/19650; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7710444?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37348789", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2023.05.046", @@ -22575,23 +22575,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/371/bmj.m3919.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3919; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610202" }, - { - "id": "35072137", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086", - "title": "Machine learning optimized polygenic scores for blood cell traits identify sex-specific trajectories and genetic correlations with disease.", - "authorString": "Xu Y, Vuckovic D, Ritchie SC, Akbari P, Jiang T, Grealey J, Butterworth AS, Ouwehand WH, Roberts DJ, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J, Soranzo N, Inouye M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Method; Machine Learning; Population Stratification; Polygenic Score; Blood Cell Trait; Disease Assocations", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genetic association studies for blood cell traits, which are key indicators of health and immune function, have identified several hundred associations and defined a complex polygenic architecture. Polygenic scores (PGSs) for blood cell traits have potential clinical utility in disease risk prediction and prevention, but designing PGS remains challenging and the optimal methods are unclear. To address this, we evaluated the relative performance of 6 methods to develop PGS for 26 blood cell traits, including a standard method of pruning and thresholding (P\u00a0+ T) and 5 learning methods: LDpred2, elastic net (EN), Bayesian ridge (BR), multilayer perceptron (MLP) and convolutional neural network (CNN). We evaluated these optimized PGSs on blood cell trait data from UK Biobank and INTERVAL. We find that PGSs designed using common machine learning methods EN and BR show improved prediction of blood cell traits and consistently outperform other methods. Our analyses suggest EN/BR as the top choices for PGS construction, showing improved performance for 25 blood cell traits in the external validation, with correlations with the directly measured traits increasing by 10%-23%. Ten PGSs showed significant statistical interaction with sex, and sex-specific PGS stratification showed that all of them had substantial variation in the trajectories of blood cell traits with age. Genetic correlations between the PGSs for blood cell traits and common human diseases identified well-known as well as new associations. We develop machine learning-optimized PGS for blood cell traits, demonstrate their relationships with sex, age, and disease, and make these publicly available as a resource.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36823471", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00753-7", @@ -22609,6 +22592,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00753-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614946; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614946?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35072137", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086", + "title": "Machine learning optimized polygenic scores for blood cell traits identify sex-specific trajectories and genetic correlations with disease.", + "authorString": "Xu Y, Vuckovic D, Ritchie SC, Akbari P, Jiang T, Grealey J, Butterworth AS, Ouwehand WH, Roberts DJ, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J, Soranzo N, Inouye M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Method; Machine Learning; Population Stratification; Polygenic Score; Blood Cell Trait; Disease Assocations", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Genetic association studies for blood cell traits, which are key indicators of health and immune function, have identified several hundred associations and defined a complex polygenic architecture. Polygenic scores (PGSs) for blood cell traits have potential clinical utility in disease risk prediction and prevention, but designing PGS remains challenging and the optimal methods are unclear. To address this, we evaluated the relative performance of 6 methods to develop PGS for 26 blood cell traits, including a standard method of pruning and thresholding (P\u00a0+ T) and 5 learning methods: LDpred2, elastic net (EN), Bayesian ridge (BR), multilayer perceptron (MLP) and convolutional neural network (CNN). We evaluated these optimized PGSs on blood cell trait data from UK Biobank and INTERVAL. We find that PGSs designed using common machine learning methods EN and BR show improved prediction of blood cell traits and consistently outperform other methods. Our analyses suggest EN/BR as the top choices for PGS construction, showing improved performance for 25 blood cell traits in the external validation, with correlations with the directly measured traits increasing by 10%-23%. Ten PGSs showed significant statistical interaction with sex, and sex-specific PGS stratification showed that all of them had substantial variation in the trajectories of blood cell traits with age. Genetic correlations between the PGSs for blood cell traits and common human diseases identified well-known as well as new associations. We develop machine learning-optimized PGS for blood cell traits, demonstrate their relationships with sex, age, and disease, and make these publicly available as a resource.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100086; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8758502?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33588321", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276", @@ -22626,23 +22626,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retram.2021.103276; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7857048; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7857048?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37339333", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104", - "title": "COVID-19 among adults living with HIV: correlates of mortality among public sector healthcare users in Western Cape, South Africa.", - "authorString": "Kassanjee R, Davies MA, Ngwenya O, Osei-Yeboah R, Jacobs T, Morden E, Timmerman V, Britz S, Mendelson M, Taljaard J, Riou J, Boulle A, Tiffin N, Zinyakatira N.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of the International AIDS Society", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mortality; HIV; South Africa; Cd4 Count; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

While a large proportion of people with HIV (PWH) have experienced SARS-CoV-2 infections, there is uncertainty about the role of HIV disease severity on COVID-19 outcomes, especially in lower-income settings. We studied the association of mortality with characteristics of HIV severity and management, and vaccination, among adult PWH.

Methods

We analysed observational cohort data on all PWH aged \u226515 years experiencing a diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infection (until March 2022), who accessed public sector healthcare in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Logistic regression was used to study the association of mortality with evidence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) collection, time since first HIV evidence, CD4 cell count, viral load (among those with evidence of ART collection) and COVID-19 vaccination, adjusting for demographic characteristics, comorbidities, admission pressure, location and time period.

Results

Mortality occurred in 5.7% (95% CI: 5.3,6.0) of 17,831 first-diagnosed infections. Higher mortality was associated with lower recent CD4, no evidence of ART collection, high or unknown recent viral load and recent first HIV evidence, differentially by age. Vaccination was protective. The burden of comorbidities was high, and tuberculosis (especially more recent episodes of tuberculosis), chronic kidney disease, diabetes and hypertension were associated with higher mortality, more strongly in younger adults.

Conclusions

Mortality was strongly associated with suboptimal HIV control, and the prevalence of these risk factors increased in later COVID-19 waves. It remains a public health priority to ensure PWH are on suppressive ART and vaccinated, and manage any disruptions in care that occurred during the pandemic. The diagnosis and management of comorbidities, including for tuberculosis, should be optimized.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.26104; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34348396", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001393", @@ -22661,21 +22644,21 @@ "urls": "html:https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2021/09000/Weight_Change_and_the_Onset_of_Cardiovascular.19.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001393; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318567; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8318567?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32814581", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7", - "title": "Seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya: an economic evaluation using dynamic transmission modelling.", - "authorString": "Dawa J, Emukule GO, Barasa E, Widdowson MA, Anzala O, van Leeuwen E, Baguelin M, Chaves SS, Eggo RM.", + "id": "37339333", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104", + "title": "COVID-19 among adults living with HIV: correlates of mortality among public sector healthcare users in Western Cape, South Africa.", + "authorString": "Kassanjee R, Davies MA, Ngwenya O, Osei-Yeboah R, Jacobs T, Morden E, Timmerman V, Britz S, Mendelson M, Taljaard J, Riou J, Boulle A, Tiffin N, Zinyakatira N.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-08-20", + "journalTitle": "Journal of the International AIDS Society", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Economic evaluation; Influenza vaccine; Cost-effectiveness; Low- And Middle-income Countries; Dynamic Transmission Model; Vaccine Timing; Vaccine Target Group", + "keywords": "Mortality; HIV; South Africa; Cd4 Count; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There is substantial burden of seasonal influenza in Kenya, which led the government to consider introducing a national influenza vaccination programme. Given the cost implications of a nationwide programme, local economic evaluation data are needed to inform policy on the design and benefits of influenza vaccination. We set out to estimate the cost-effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya.

Methods

We fitted an age-stratified dynamic transmission model to active surveillance data from patients with influenza from 2010 to 2018. Using a societal perspective, we developed a decision tree cost-effectiveness model and estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted for three vaccine target groups: children 6-23\u2009months (strategy I), 2-5\u2009years (strategy II) and 6-14\u2009years (strategy III) with either the Southern Hemisphere influenza vaccine (Strategy A) or Northern Hemisphere vaccine (Strategy B) or both (Strategy C: twice yearly vaccination campaigns, or Strategy D: year-round vaccination campaigns). We assessed cost-effectiveness by calculating incremental net monetary benefits (INMB) using a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of 1-51% of the annual gross domestic product per capita ($17-$872).

Results

The mean number of infections across all ages was 2-15 million per year. When vaccination was well timed to influenza activity, the annual mean ICER per DALY averted for vaccinating children 6-23\u2009months ranged between $749 and $1385 for strategy IA, $442 and $1877 for strategy IB, $678 and $4106 for strategy IC and $1147 and $7933 for strategy ID. For children 2-5\u2009years, it ranged between $945 and $1573 for strategy IIA, $563 and $1869 for strategy IIB, $662 and $4085 for strategy IIC, and $1169 and $7897 for strategy IID. For children 6-14\u2009years, it ranged between $923 and $3116 for strategy IIIA, $1005 and $2223 for strategy IIIB, $883 and $4727 for strategy IIIC and $1467 and $6813 for strategy IIID. Overall, no vaccination strategy was cost-effective at the minimum ($17) and median ($445) WTP thresholds. Vaccinating children 6-23\u2009months once a year had the highest mean INMB value at $872 (WTP threshold upper limit); however, this strategy had very low probability of the highest net benefit.

Conclusion

Vaccinating children 6-23\u2009months once a year was the most favourable vaccination option; however, the strategy is unlikely to be cost-effective given the current WTP thresholds.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

While a large proportion of people with HIV (PWH) have experienced SARS-CoV-2 infections, there is uncertainty about the role of HIV disease severity on COVID-19 outcomes, especially in lower-income settings. We studied the association of mortality with characteristics of HIV severity and management, and vaccination, among adult PWH.

Methods

We analysed observational cohort data on all PWH aged \u226515 years experiencing a diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infection (until March 2022), who accessed public sector healthcare in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Logistic regression was used to study the association of mortality with evidence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) collection, time since first HIV evidence, CD4 cell count, viral load (among those with evidence of ART collection) and COVID-19 vaccination, adjusting for demographic characteristics, comorbidities, admission pressure, location and time period.

Results

Mortality occurred in 5.7% (95% CI: 5.3,6.0) of 17,831 first-diagnosed infections. Higher mortality was associated with lower recent CD4, no evidence of ART collection, high or unknown recent viral load and recent first HIV evidence, differentially by age. Vaccination was protective. The burden of comorbidities was high, and tuberculosis (especially more recent episodes of tuberculosis), chronic kidney disease, diabetes and hypertension were associated with higher mortality, more strongly in younger adults.

Conclusions

Mortality was strongly associated with suboptimal HIV control, and the prevalence of these risk factors increased in later COVID-19 waves. It remains a public health priority to ensure PWH are on suppressive ART and vaccinated, and manage any disruptions in care that occurred during the pandemic. The diagnosis and management of comorbidities, including for tuberculosis, should be optimized.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.26104; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26104; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10281639?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32017129", @@ -22711,6 +22694,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejhf.2169; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.2169; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359985; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8359985?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32814581", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7", + "title": "Seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya: an economic evaluation using dynamic transmission modelling.", + "authorString": "Dawa J, Emukule GO, Barasa E, Widdowson MA, Anzala O, van Leeuwen E, Baguelin M, Chaves SS, Eggo RM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-08-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Economic evaluation; Influenza vaccine; Cost-effectiveness; Low- And Middle-income Countries; Dynamic Transmission Model; Vaccine Timing; Vaccine Target Group", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

There is substantial burden of seasonal influenza in Kenya, which led the government to consider introducing a national influenza vaccination programme. Given the cost implications of a nationwide programme, local economic evaluation data are needed to inform policy on the design and benefits of influenza vaccination. We set out to estimate the cost-effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya.

Methods

We fitted an age-stratified dynamic transmission model to active surveillance data from patients with influenza from 2010 to 2018. Using a societal perspective, we developed a decision tree cost-effectiveness model and estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted for three vaccine target groups: children 6-23\u2009months (strategy I), 2-5\u2009years (strategy II) and 6-14\u2009years (strategy III) with either the Southern Hemisphere influenza vaccine (Strategy A) or Northern Hemisphere vaccine (Strategy B) or both (Strategy C: twice yearly vaccination campaigns, or Strategy D: year-round vaccination campaigns). We assessed cost-effectiveness by calculating incremental net monetary benefits (INMB) using a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of 1-51% of the annual gross domestic product per capita ($17-$872).

Results

The mean number of infections across all ages was 2-15 million per year. When vaccination was well timed to influenza activity, the annual mean ICER per DALY averted for vaccinating children 6-23\u2009months ranged between $749 and $1385 for strategy IA, $442 and $1877 for strategy IB, $678 and $4106 for strategy IC and $1147 and $7933 for strategy ID. For children 2-5\u2009years, it ranged between $945 and $1573 for strategy IIA, $563 and $1869 for strategy IIB, $662 and $4085 for strategy IIC, and $1169 and $7897 for strategy IID. For children 6-14\u2009years, it ranged between $923 and $3116 for strategy IIIA, $1005 and $2223 for strategy IIIB, $883 and $4727 for strategy IIIC and $1467 and $6813 for strategy IIID. Overall, no vaccination strategy was cost-effective at the minimum ($17) and median ($445) WTP thresholds. Vaccinating children 6-23\u2009months once a year had the highest mean INMB value at $872 (WTP threshold upper limit); however, this strategy had very low probability of the highest net benefit.

Conclusion

Vaccinating children 6-23\u2009months once a year was the most favourable vaccination option; however, the strategy is unlikely to be cost-effective given the current WTP thresholds.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01687-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7438179?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31984563", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/jce.14368", @@ -22796,23 +22796,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/7/e036099.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036099; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380838; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380838?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32234121", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.12.2000256", - "title": "Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, February 2020.", - "authorString": "Russell TW, Hellewell J, Jarvis CI, van Zandvoort K, Abbott S, Ratnayake R, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-03-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Coronavirus; outbreak; Severity; Asymptomatic; Case Fatality Ratio; Cruise Ship; Covid-19; Infection Fatality Ratio", - "nationalPriorities": "COVID-19, Improving Public Health", - "healthCategories": "COVID-19, infection", - "abstract": "Adjusting for delay from confirmation to death, we estimated case and infection fatality ratios (CFR, IFR) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Diamond Princess ship as 2.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89-6.7) and 1.3% (95% CI: 0.38-3.6), respectively. Comparing deaths on board with expected deaths based on naive CFR estimates from China, we estimated CFR and IFR in China to be 1.2% (95% CI: 0.3-2.7) and 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-1.3), respectively.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/12/eurosurv-25-12-3.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33959646", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.658915", @@ -22830,6 +22813,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.658915/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.658915; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8093786; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8093786?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32234121", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.12.2000256", + "title": "Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, February 2020.", + "authorString": "Russell TW, Hellewell J, Jarvis CI, van Zandvoort K, Abbott S, Ratnayake R, CMMID COVID-19 working group, Flasche S, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-03-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Coronavirus; outbreak; Severity; Asymptomatic; Case Fatality Ratio; Cruise Ship; Covid-19; Infection Fatality Ratio", + "nationalPriorities": "COVID-19, Improving Public Health", + "healthCategories": "COVID-19, infection", + "abstract": "Adjusting for delay from confirmation to death, we estimated case and infection fatality ratios (CFR, IFR) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Diamond Princess ship as 2.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89-6.7) and 1.3% (95% CI: 0.38-3.6), respectively. Comparing deaths on board with expected deaths based on naive CFR estimates from China, we estimated CFR and IFR in China to be 1.2% (95% CI: 0.3-2.7) and 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-1.3), respectively.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/25/12/eurosurv-25-12-3.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000256; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7118348?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32478737", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3791/60794", @@ -22847,23 +22847,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.jove.com/pdf/60794/implementation-real-time-psychosis-risk-detection-alerting-system; doi:https://doi.org/10.3791/60794; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272223; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272223?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.3791/60794" }, - { - "id": "36764723", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254", - "title": "Associations of remote mental healthcare with clinical outcomes: a natural language processing enriched electronic health record data study protocol.", - "authorString": "Ahmed MS, Kornblum D, Oliver D, Fusar-Poli P, Patel R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Psychiatry; epidemiology; Telemedicine; Health Informatics", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

People often experience significant difficulties in receiving mental healthcare due to insufficient resources, stigma and lack of access to care. Remote care technology has the potential to overcome these barriers by reducing travel time and increasing frequency of contact with patients. However, the safe delivery of remote mental healthcare requires evidence on which aspects of care are suitable for remote delivery and which are better served by in-person care. We aim to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare in a large electronic health record (EHR) dataset and the degree to which remote care is associated with differences in clinical outcomes using natural language processing (NLP) derived EHR data.

Methods and analysis

Deidentified EHR data, derived from the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register, will be extracted using the Clinical Record Interactive Search tool for all patients receiving mental healthcare between 1 January 2019 and 31 March 2022. First, data on a retrospective, longitudinal cohort of around 80\u2009000 patients will be analysed using descriptive statistics to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare and multivariable Cox regression to compare clinical outcomes of remote versus in-person assessments. Second, NLP models that have been previously developed to extract mental health symptom data will be applied to around 5\u2009million documents to analyse the variation in content of remote versus in-person assessments.

Ethics and dissemination

The SLaM BRC Case Register and Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) tool have received ethical approval as a deidentified dataset (including NLP-derived data from unstructured free text documents) for secondary mental health research from Oxfordshire REC C (Ref: 18/SC/0372). The study has received approval from the SLaM CRIS Oversight Committee. Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed, open access journal articles and service user and carer advisory groups.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e067254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30863860", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz089", @@ -22898,6 +22881,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00330-022-09323-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-022-09323-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121487; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10121487?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36764723", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254", + "title": "Associations of remote mental healthcare with clinical outcomes: a natural language processing enriched electronic health record data study protocol.", + "authorString": "Ahmed MS, Kornblum D, Oliver D, Fusar-Poli P, Patel R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-02-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Psychiatry; epidemiology; Telemedicine; Health Informatics", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

People often experience significant difficulties in receiving mental healthcare due to insufficient resources, stigma and lack of access to care. Remote care technology has the potential to overcome these barriers by reducing travel time and increasing frequency of contact with patients. However, the safe delivery of remote mental healthcare requires evidence on which aspects of care are suitable for remote delivery and which are better served by in-person care. We aim to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare in a large electronic health record (EHR) dataset and the degree to which remote care is associated with differences in clinical outcomes using natural language processing (NLP) derived EHR data.

Methods and analysis

Deidentified EHR data, derived from the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register, will be extracted using the Clinical Record Interactive Search tool for all patients receiving mental healthcare between 1 January 2019 and 31 March 2022. First, data on a retrospective, longitudinal cohort of around 80\u2009000 patients will be analysed using descriptive statistics to investigate clinical and demographic associations with remote mental healthcare and multivariable Cox regression to compare clinical outcomes of remote versus in-person assessments. Second, NLP models that have been previously developed to extract mental health symptom data will be applied to around 5\u2009million documents to analyse the variation in content of remote versus in-person assessments.

Ethics and dissemination

The SLaM BRC Case Register and Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) tool have received ethical approval as a deidentified dataset (including NLP-derived data from unstructured free text documents) for secondary mental health research from Oxfordshire REC C (Ref: 18/SC/0372). The study has received approval from the SLaM CRIS Oversight Committee. Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed, open access journal articles and service user and carer advisory groups.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/2/e067254.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067254; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9923317?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31109684", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.05.004", @@ -22915,23 +22915,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.05.004" }, - { - "id": "36449515", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726", - "title": "Cluster detection with random neighbourhood covering: Application to invasive Group A Streptococcal disease.", - "authorString": "Cavallaro M, Coelho J, Ready D, Decraene V, Lamagni T, McCarthy ND, Todkill D, Keeling MJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS computational biology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-30", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The rapid detection of outbreaks is a key step in the effective control and containment of infectious diseases. In particular, the identification of cases which might be epidemiologically linked is crucial in directing outbreak-containment efforts and shaping the intervention of public health authorities. Often this requires the detection of clusters of cases whose numbers exceed those expected by a background of sporadic cases. Quantifying exceedances rapidly is particularly challenging when only few cases are typically reported in a precise location and time. To address such important public health concerns, we present a general method which can detect spatio-temporal deviations from a Poisson point process and estimate the odds of an isolate being part of a cluster. This method can be applied to diseases where detailed geographical information is available. In addition, we propose an approach to explicitly take account of delays in microbial typing. As a case study, we considered invasive group A Streptococcus infection events as recorded and typed by Public Health England from 2015 to 2020.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35115301", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-319641", @@ -22949,23 +22932,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10143945/1/Keane_T2DM%20metformin%20and%20risk%20of%20AMD%20BJO%2020220111%20clean.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-319641" }, - { - "id": "31747863", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551", - "title": "UVA and Seasonal Patterning of 56\u00a0370 Myocardial Infarctions Across Scotland, 2000-2011.", - "authorString": "Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Hastie CE, Cherrie MPC, Dibben C, Pell JP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of the American Heart Association", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-11-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Environmental factors; UV radiation; Myocardial infarction; epidemiology", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background Myocardial infarction exhibits seasonal patterning, with higher amplitude at increased latitude. Epidemiological evidence suggests that sunlight is protective against cardiovascular disease, independent of ambient temperature, but ultraviolet B-mediated vitamin D production has been discounted as causal. We aimed to determine whether ultraviolet A is associated with the seasonal patterning of myocardial infarction. Methods and Results Routine hospitalization data were used to determine monthly incidence of myocardial infarction in Scotland between 2000 and 2011. Small-area-level aggregated data were obtained on ambient temperature from the Meteorological Office and ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B irradiance from NASA satellites. Autoregressive distributed lag models were run for ultraviolet A and myocardial infarction, including adjustment for ambient temperature and ultraviolet B. Monthly incidence of myocardial infarction displayed winter peaks and summer troughs superimposed on the underlying trend, with a mean amplitude of 0.31 (95% CI: 0.21, 0.41) myocardial infarctions per 100\u00a0000 population per month. Ultraviolet A exposure was inversely associated with myocardial infarction independent of ambient temperature (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.01; P=0.015) and ultraviolet B UVB (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.02; P=0.004). Conclusions Further research is required to explore whether an ultraviolet-mediated mechanism different to vitamin D, such as nitric oxide-mediated vasodilatation, may play a causal role in the seasonal and geographical patterning of myocardial infarction.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.012551; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33372068", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038324", @@ -22983,6 +22949,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/12/e038324.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038324; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7772326; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7772326?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36449515", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726", + "title": "Cluster detection with random neighbourhood covering: Application to invasive Group A Streptococcal disease.", + "authorString": "Cavallaro M, Coelho J, Ready D, Decraene V, Lamagni T, McCarthy ND, Todkill D, Keeling MJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PLoS computational biology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The rapid detection of outbreaks is a key step in the effective control and containment of infectious diseases. In particular, the identification of cases which might be epidemiologically linked is crucial in directing outbreak-containment efforts and shaping the intervention of public health authorities. Often this requires the detection of clusters of cases whose numbers exceed those expected by a background of sporadic cases. Quantifying exceedances rapidly is particularly challenging when only few cases are typically reported in a precise location and time. To address such important public health concerns, we present a general method which can detect spatio-temporal deviations from a Poisson point process and estimate the odds of an isolate being part of a cluster. This method can be applied to diseases where detailed geographical information is available. In addition, we propose an approach to explicitly take account of delays in microbial typing. As a case study, we considered invasive group A Streptococcus infection events as recorded and typed by Public Health England from 2015 to 2020.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010726; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9744322?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "31747863", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551", + "title": "UVA and Seasonal Patterning of 56\u00a0370 Myocardial Infarctions Across Scotland, 2000-2011.", + "authorString": "Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Hastie CE, Cherrie MPC, Dibben C, Pell JP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of the American Heart Association", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-11-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Environmental factors; UV radiation; Myocardial infarction; epidemiology", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health, Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background Myocardial infarction exhibits seasonal patterning, with higher amplitude at increased latitude. Epidemiological evidence suggests that sunlight is protective against cardiovascular disease, independent of ambient temperature, but ultraviolet B-mediated vitamin D production has been discounted as causal. We aimed to determine whether ultraviolet A is associated with the seasonal patterning of myocardial infarction. Methods and Results Routine hospitalization data were used to determine monthly incidence of myocardial infarction in Scotland between 2000 and 2011. Small-area-level aggregated data were obtained on ambient temperature from the Meteorological Office and ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B irradiance from NASA satellites. Autoregressive distributed lag models were run for ultraviolet A and myocardial infarction, including adjustment for ambient temperature and ultraviolet B. Monthly incidence of myocardial infarction displayed winter peaks and summer troughs superimposed on the underlying trend, with a mean amplitude of 0.31 (95% CI: 0.21, 0.41) myocardial infarctions per 100\u00a0000 population per month. Ultraviolet A exposure was inversely associated with myocardial infarction independent of ambient temperature (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.01; P=0.015) and ultraviolet B UVB (coefficient, -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09, -0.02; P=0.004). Conclusions Further research is required to explore whether an ultraviolet-mediated mechanism different to vitamin D, such as nitric oxide-mediated vasodilatation, may play a causal role in the seasonal and geographical patterning of myocardial infarction.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.119.012551; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.012551; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6912961?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34931349", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15191", @@ -23000,23 +23000,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15191; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15191; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9303316; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9303316?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36869930", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6", - "title": "Cost consequences of unscheduled emergency admissions in cancer patients in the last year of life.", - "authorString": "McFerran E, Cairnduff V, Elder R, Gavin A, Lawler M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Neoplasms; Death; Palliative care; Emergency Care; Cost Consequences", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Cancer is a leading cause of death. This paper examines the utilisation of unscheduled emergency end-of-life healthcare and estimates expenditure in this domain. We explore care patterns and quantify the likely benefits from service reconfigurations which may influence rates of hospital admission and deaths.

Methods

Using prevalence-based retrospective data from the Northern Ireland General Registrar's Office linked by cancer diagnosis to Patient Administration episode data for unscheduled emergency care (1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015), we estimate unscheduled-emergency-care costs in the last year of life. We model potential resources released by reductions in length-of-stay for cancer patients. Linear regression examined patient characteristics affecting length of stay.

Results

A total of 3134 cancer patients used 60,746 days of unscheduled emergency care (average 19.5 days). Of these, 48.9% had \u22651 admission during their last 28 days of life. Total estimated cost was \u00a328,684,261, averaging \u00a39200 per person. Lung cancer patients had the highest proportion of admissions (23.2%, mean length of stay = 17.9 days, mean cost=\u00a37224). The highest service use and total cost was in those diagnosed at stage IV (38.4%), who\u00a0required 22,099 days of care, costing \u00a39,629,014. Palliative care support, identified in 25.5% of patients, contributed \u00a31,322,328. A 3-day reduction in\u00a0the mean length of stay with a 10% reduction in admissions, could reduce costs by \u00a37.37 million. Regression analyses explained 41% of length-of-stay variability.

Conclusions

The cost burden from unscheduled care use in the last year of life of cancer patients is significant. Opportunities to prioritise service reconfiguration for high-costing users emphasized lung and colorectal cancers as offering the greatest potential to influence outcomes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31671849", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214178", @@ -23034,23 +23017,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4178/pdf?version=1573119054; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214178; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6862192; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6862192?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36415305", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066", - "title": "Identifying unmet antithrombotic therapeutic need, and implications for stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation patients: a population-scale longitudinal study.", - "authorString": "Torabi F, Harris DE, Bodger O, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Gravenor M, Halcox JP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Anticoagulation; Atrial fibrillation; Electronic Health Records; Stroke And Systemic Embolism", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

Guidelines recommend anticoagulation (AC) in atrial fibrillation (AF) to reduce stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) risk; however, implementation has been slow across many populations. This study aimed to quantify the potential impact of changing prevalence of AF, associated risk, and AC prescribing on SSE hospitalizations and death.

Methods and results

We evaluated temporal trends of AF, CHA2DS2-VASc, antithrombotic prescriptions, SSE hospitalizations, death, and their associations between 2012 and 2018 in a longitudinal cohort of AF patients in Wales UK. Multi-state Markov models were used to estimate expected SSE rates given the AC coverage, adjusting for CHA2DS2-VASc scores. SSE rates were modelled for various past and future AC scenarios. A total of 107 137 AF patients were evaluated (mean age = 74 years, 45% female). AF prevalence increased from 1.75 to 2.22% (P-value <0.001). SSE hospitalizations decreased by 18% (2.34-1.92%, P-value <0.001). Increased AC coverage from 50 to 70% was associated with a 37% lower SSE rate, after adjustment for individual time-dependent CHA2DS2VASc scores. The observed AC increase accounted for approximately 80 fewer SSE hospitalizations per 100 000/year. If 90% AC coverage had been achieved since 2012, an estimated 279 SSE per 100 000/year may have been prevented. Our model also predicts that improving AC coverage to 90% over the next 9 years could reduce annual SSE rates by 9%.

Conclusion

We quantified the relationship between observed AC coverage, estimating the potential impact of variation in the timing of large-scale implementation. These data emphasize the importance of timely implementation and the considerable opportunity to improve clinical outcomes in the Wales-AF population.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/2/6/oeac066/48439565/oeac066.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34982094", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.1.3", @@ -23069,38 +23035,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.1.3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.11.1.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8742534; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8742534?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33591280", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/16348", - "title": "A Social Media Campaign (#datasaveslives) to Promote the Benefits of Using Health Data for Research Purposes: Mixed Methods Analysis.", - "authorString": "Hassan L, Nenadic G, Tully MP.", + "id": "36869930", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6", + "title": "Cost consequences of unscheduled emergency admissions in cancer patients in the last year of life.", + "authorString": "McFerran E, Cairnduff V, Elder R, Gavin A, Lawler M.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-16", + "journalTitle": "Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-04", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Medical research; Public Engagement; Social Network Analysis; Social Media", + "keywords": "Neoplasms; Death; Palliative care; Emergency Care; Cost Consequences", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Social media provides the potential to engage a wide audience about scientific research, including the public. However, little empirical research exists to guide health scientists regarding what works and how to optimize impact. We examined the social media campaign #datasaveslives established in 2014 to highlight positive examples of the use and reuse of health data in research.

Objective

This study aims to examine how the #datasaveslives hashtag was used on social media, how often, and by whom; thus, we aim to provide insights into the impact of a major social media campaign in the UK health informatics research community and further afield.

Methods

We analyzed all publicly available posts (tweets) that included the hashtag #datasaveslives (N=13,895) on the microblogging platform Twitter between September 1, 2016, and August 31, 2017. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, we determined the frequency and purpose of tweets. Social network analysis was used to analyze and visualize tweet sharing (retweet) networks among hashtag users.

Results

Overall, we found 4175 original posts and 9720 retweets featuring #datasaveslives by 3649 unique Twitter users. In total, 66.01% (2756/4175) of the original posts were retweeted at least once. Higher frequencies of tweets were observed during the weeks of prominent policy publications, popular conferences, and public engagement events. Cluster analysis based on retweet relationships revealed an interconnected series of groups of #datasaveslives users in academia, health services and policy, and charities and patient networks. Thematic analysis of tweets showed that #datasaveslives was used for a broader range of purposes than indexing information, including event reporting, encouraging participation and action, and showing personal support for data sharing.

Conclusions

This study shows that a hashtag-based social media campaign was effective in encouraging a wide audience of stakeholders to disseminate positive examples of health research. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the campaign supported community building and bridging practices within and between the interdisciplinary sectors related to the field of health data science and encouraged individuals to demonstrate personal support for sharing health data.", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Cancer is a leading cause of death. This paper examines the utilisation of unscheduled emergency end-of-life healthcare and estimates expenditure in this domain. We explore care patterns and quantify the likely benefits from service reconfigurations which may influence rates of hospital admission and deaths.

Methods

Using prevalence-based retrospective data from the Northern Ireland General Registrar's Office linked by cancer diagnosis to Patient Administration episode data for unscheduled emergency care (1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015), we estimate unscheduled-emergency-care costs in the last year of life. We model potential resources released by reductions in length-of-stay for cancer patients. Linear regression examined patient characteristics affecting length of stay.

Results

A total of 3134 cancer patients used 60,746 days of unscheduled emergency care (average 19.5 days). Of these, 48.9% had \u22651 admission during their last 28 days of life. Total estimated cost was \u00a328,684,261, averaging \u00a39200 per person. Lung cancer patients had the highest proportion of admissions (23.2%, mean length of stay = 17.9 days, mean cost=\u00a37224). The highest service use and total cost was in those diagnosed at stage IV (38.4%), who\u00a0required 22,099 days of care, costing \u00a39,629,014. Palliative care support, identified in 25.5% of patients, contributed \u00a31,322,328. A 3-day reduction in\u00a0the mean length of stay with a 10% reduction in admissions, could reduce costs by \u00a37.37 million. Regression analyses explained 41% of length-of-stay variability.

Conclusions

The cost burden from unscheduled care use in the last year of life of cancer patients is significant. Opportunities to prioritise service reconfiguration for high-costing users emphasized lung and colorectal cancers as offering the greatest potential to influence outcomes.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/2/e16348/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16348; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925154" + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07633-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9985568?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32685698", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3", - "title": "Estimating the overdispersion in COVID-19 transmission using outbreak sizes outside China.", - "authorString": "Endo A, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Abbott S, Kucharski AJ, Funk S.", + "id": "36415305", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066", + "title": "Identifying unmet antithrombotic therapeutic need, and implications for stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation patients: a population-scale longitudinal study.", + "authorString": "Torabi F, Harris DE, Bodger O, Akbari A, Lyons RA, Gravenor M, Halcox JP.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-10", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Branching Process; Overdispersion; Novel Coronavirus; Superspreading; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "keywords": "Anticoagulation; Atrial fibrillation; Electronic Health Records; Stroke And Systemic Embolism", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has now spread to a number of countries worldwide. While sustained transmission chains of human-to-human transmission suggest high basic reproduction number R 0, variation in the number of secondary transmissions (often characterised by so-called superspreading events) may be large as some countries have observed fewer local transmissions than others. Methods: We quantified individual-level variation in COVID-19 transmission by applying a mathematical model to observed outbreak sizes in affected countries. We extracted the number of imported and local cases in the affected countries from the\u00a0World Health Organization situation report and applied a branching process model where the number of secondary transmissions was assumed to follow a negative-binomial distribution. Results: Our model suggested a high degree of individual-level variation in the transmission of COVID-19. Within the current consensus range of R 0 (2-3), the overdispersion parameter k of a negative-binomial distribution was estimated to be around 0.1 (median estimate 0.1; 95% CrI: 0.05-0.2 for R0 = 2.5), suggesting that 80% of secondary transmissions may have been caused by a small fraction of infectious individuals (~10%). A joint estimation yielded likely ranges for R 0 and k (95% CrIs: R 0 1.4-12; k 0.04-0.2); however, the upper bound of R 0 was not well informed by the model and data, which did not notably differ from that of the prior distribution. Conclusions: Our finding of a highly-overdispersed offspring distribution highlights a potential benefit to focusing intervention efforts on superspreading. As most infected individuals do not contribute to the expansion of an epidemic, the effective reproduction number could be drastically reduced by preventing relatively rare superspreading events.", + "abstract": "

Aims

Guidelines recommend anticoagulation (AC) in atrial fibrillation (AF) to reduce stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) risk; however, implementation has been slow across many populations. This study aimed to quantify the potential impact of changing prevalence of AF, associated risk, and AC prescribing on SSE hospitalizations and death.

Methods and results

We evaluated temporal trends of AF, CHA2DS2-VASc, antithrombotic prescriptions, SSE hospitalizations, death, and their associations between 2012 and 2018 in a longitudinal cohort of AF patients in Wales UK. Multi-state Markov models were used to estimate expected SSE rates given the AC coverage, adjusting for CHA2DS2-VASc scores. SSE rates were modelled for various past and future AC scenarios. A total of 107 137 AF patients were evaluated (mean age = 74 years, 45% female). AF prevalence increased from 1.75 to 2.22% (P-value <0.001). SSE hospitalizations decreased by 18% (2.34-1.92%, P-value <0.001). Increased AC coverage from 50 to 70% was associated with a 37% lower SSE rate, after adjustment for individual time-dependent CHA2DS2VASc scores. The observed AC increase accounted for approximately 80 fewer SSE hospitalizations per 100 000/year. If 90% AC coverage had been achieved since 2012, an estimated 279 SSE per 100 000/year may have been prevented. Our model also predicts that improving AC coverage to 90% over the next 9 years could reduce annual SSE rates by 9%.

Conclusion

We quantified the relationship between observed AC coverage, estimating the potential impact of variation in the timing of large-scale implementation. These data emphasize the importance of timely implementation and the considerable opportunity to improve clinical outcomes in the Wales-AF population.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/2/6/oeac066/48439565/oeac066.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeac066; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9678205?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33836256", @@ -23119,6 +23085,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621001074/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.03.025" }, + { + "id": "32685698", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3", + "title": "Estimating the overdispersion in COVID-19 transmission using outbreak sizes outside China.", + "authorString": "Endo A, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Abbott S, Kucharski AJ, Funk S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Branching Process; Overdispersion; Novel Coronavirus; Superspreading; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background: A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has now spread to a number of countries worldwide. While sustained transmission chains of human-to-human transmission suggest high basic reproduction number R 0, variation in the number of secondary transmissions (often characterised by so-called superspreading events) may be large as some countries have observed fewer local transmissions than others. Methods: We quantified individual-level variation in COVID-19 transmission by applying a mathematical model to observed outbreak sizes in affected countries. We extracted the number of imported and local cases in the affected countries from the\u00a0World Health Organization situation report and applied a branching process model where the number of secondary transmissions was assumed to follow a negative-binomial distribution. Results: Our model suggested a high degree of individual-level variation in the transmission of COVID-19. Within the current consensus range of R 0 (2-3), the overdispersion parameter k of a negative-binomial distribution was estimated to be around 0.1 (median estimate 0.1; 95% CrI: 0.05-0.2 for R0 = 2.5), suggesting that 80% of secondary transmissions may have been caused by a small fraction of infectious individuals (~10%). A joint estimation yielded likely ranges for R 0 and k (95% CrIs: R 0 1.4-12; k 0.04-0.2); however, the upper bound of R 0 was not well informed by the model and data, which did not notably differ from that of the prior distribution. Conclusions: Our finding of a highly-overdispersed offspring distribution highlights a potential benefit to focusing intervention efforts on superspreading. As most infected individuals do not contribute to the expansion of an epidemic, the effective reproduction number could be drastically reduced by preventing relatively rare superspreading events.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15842.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7338915?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33692568", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00783-5", @@ -23137,21 +23120,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/05/23/2020.05.20.20108217.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00783-5" }, { - "id": "36947103", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070", - "title": "An Assessment of Quaternary Structure Functionality in Homomer Protein Complexes.", - "authorString": "Abrus\u00e1n G, Foguet C.", + "id": "33591280", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/16348", + "title": "A Social Media Campaign (#datasaveslives) to Promote the Benefits of Using Health Data for Research Purposes: Mixed Methods Analysis.", + "authorString": "Hassan L, Nenadic G, Tully MP.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Molecular biology and evolution", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-01", + "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-02-16", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Protein complexes; Coevolution; Neutral evolution; Ligand binding; Homomers", + "keywords": "Medical research; Public Engagement; Social Network Analysis; Social Media", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "It has been recently suggested that a significant fraction of homomer protein-protein interfaces evolve neutrally, without contributing to function, due to a hydrophobic bias in missense mutations. However, the fraction of such gratuitous complexes is currently unknown. Here, we quantified the fraction of homodimers where multimerization is unlikely to contribute to their biochemical function. We show that: 1) ligand binding-site structure predicts whether a homomer is functional or not; the vast majority of homodimers with multichain binding-sites (MBS) are likely to be functional, while in homodimers with single-chain binding-sites (SBS) and small to medium interfaces, quaternary structure is unlikely to be functional in a significant fraction-35%, even up to 42%-of complexes; 2) the hydrophobicity of interfaces changes little with the strength of selection, and the amino acid composition of interfaces is shaped by the \"hydrophobic ratchet\" in both types, but they are not in a strict equilibrium with mutations; particularly cysteines are much more abundant in mutations than in interfaces or surfaces; 3) in MBS homomers, the interfaces are conserved, while in a high fraction of SBS homomers, the interface is not more conserved than the solvent-accessible surface; and 4) MBS homomer interfaces coevolve more strongly with ligand binding sites than the interfaces of SBS homomers, and MBS complexes have higher capacity to transfer information from ligands across the interfaces than SBS homomers, explaining the enrichment of allostery in the former.", + "abstract": "

Background

Social media provides the potential to engage a wide audience about scientific research, including the public. However, little empirical research exists to guide health scientists regarding what works and how to optimize impact. We examined the social media campaign #datasaveslives established in 2014 to highlight positive examples of the use and reuse of health data in research.

Objective

This study aims to examine how the #datasaveslives hashtag was used on social media, how often, and by whom; thus, we aim to provide insights into the impact of a major social media campaign in the UK health informatics research community and further afield.

Methods

We analyzed all publicly available posts (tweets) that included the hashtag #datasaveslives (N=13,895) on the microblogging platform Twitter between September 1, 2016, and August 31, 2017. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, we determined the frequency and purpose of tweets. Social network analysis was used to analyze and visualize tweet sharing (retweet) networks among hashtag users.

Results

Overall, we found 4175 original posts and 9720 retweets featuring #datasaveslives by 3649 unique Twitter users. In total, 66.01% (2756/4175) of the original posts were retweeted at least once. Higher frequencies of tweets were observed during the weeks of prominent policy publications, popular conferences, and public engagement events. Cluster analysis based on retweet relationships revealed an interconnected series of groups of #datasaveslives users in academia, health services and policy, and charities and patient networks. Thematic analysis of tweets showed that #datasaveslives was used for a broader range of purposes than indexing information, including event reporting, encouraging participation and action, and showing personal support for data sharing.

Conclusions

This study shows that a hashtag-based social media campaign was effective in encouraging a wide audience of stakeholders to disseminate positive examples of health research. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the campaign supported community building and bridging practices within and between the interdisciplinary sectors related to the field of health data science and encouraged individuals to demonstrate personal support for sharing health data.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/molbev/msad070/49594873/msad070.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/2/e16348/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/16348; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925154" }, { "id": "32846977", @@ -23171,21 +23154,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6139/pdf?version=1598511551; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176139; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7504024; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7504024?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33788869", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258", - "title": "Using graphic modelling to identify modifiable mediators of the association between area-based deprivation at birth and offspring unemployment.", - "authorString": "Bogie J, Fleming M, Cullen B, Mackay D, Pell JP.", + "id": "36947103", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070", + "title": "An Assessment of Quaternary Structure Functionality in Homomer Protein Complexes.", + "authorString": "Abrus\u00e1n G, Foguet C.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-31", + "journalTitle": "Molecular biology and evolution", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Protein complexes; Coevolution; Neutral evolution; Ligand binding; Homomers", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Deprivation can perpetuate across generations; however, the causative pathways are not well understood. Directed acyclic graphs (DAG) with mediation analysis can help elucidate and quantify complex pathways in order to identify modifiable factors at which to target interventions.

Methods and findings

We linked ten Scotland-wide databases (six health and four education) to produce a cohort of 217,226 pupils who attended Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. The DAG comprised 23 potential mediators of the association between area deprivation at birth and subsequent offspring 'not in education, employment or training' status, covering maternal, antenatal, perinatal and child health, school engagement, and educational factors. Analyses were performed using modified g-computation. Deprivation at birth was associated with a 7.3% increase in offspring 'not in education, employment or training'. The principal mediators of this association were smoking during pregnancy (natural indirect effect of 0\u00b7016, 95% CI 0\u00b7013, 0\u00b7019) and school absences (natural indirect effect of 0\u00b7021, 95% CI 0\u00b7018, 0\u00b7024), explaining 22% and 30% of the total effect respectively. The proportion of the association potentially eliminated by addressing these factors was 19% (controlled direct effect when set to non-smoker 0\u00b7058; 95% CI 0\u00b7053, 0\u00b7063) for smoking during pregnancy and 38% (controlled direct effect when set to no absences 0\u00b7043; 95% CI 0\u00b7037, 0\u00b7049) for school absences.

Conclusions

Combining a DAG with mediation analysis helped disentangle a complex public health problem and quantified the modifiable factors of maternal smoking and school absence that could be targeted for intervention. This study also demonstrates the general utility of DAGs in understanding complex public health problems.", + "abstract": "It has been recently suggested that a significant fraction of homomer protein-protein interfaces evolve neutrally, without contributing to function, due to a hydrophobic bias in missense mutations. However, the fraction of such gratuitous complexes is currently unknown. Here, we quantified the fraction of homodimers where multimerization is unlikely to contribute to their biochemical function. We show that: 1) ligand binding-site structure predicts whether a homomer is functional or not; the vast majority of homodimers with multichain binding-sites (MBS) are likely to be functional, while in homodimers with single-chain binding-sites (SBS) and small to medium interfaces, quaternary structure is unlikely to be functional in a significant fraction-35%, even up to 42%-of complexes; 2) the hydrophobicity of interfaces changes little with the strength of selection, and the amino acid composition of interfaces is shaped by the \"hydrophobic ratchet\" in both types, but they are not in a strict equilibrium with mutations; particularly cysteines are much more abundant in mutations than in interfaces or surfaces; 3) in MBS homomers, the interfaces are conserved, while in a high fraction of SBS homomers, the interface is not more conserved than the solvent-accessible surface; and 4) MBS homomer interfaces coevolve more strongly with ligand binding sites than the interfaces of SBS homomers, and MBS complexes have higher capacity to transfer information from ligands across the interfaces than SBS homomers, explaining the enrichment of allostery in the former.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249258&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/molbev/msad070/49594873/msad070.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad070; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10118308?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31409800", @@ -23204,23 +23187,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11451-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11451-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6692500; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6692500?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33782427", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3", - "title": "Analysis of temporal trends in potential COVID-19 cases reported through NHS Pathways England.", - "authorString": "Leclerc QJ, Nightingale ES, Abbott S, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jombart T.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-29", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The National Health Service (NHS) Pathways triage system collates data on enquiries to 111 and 999 services in England. Since the 18th of March 2020, these data have been made publically available for potential COVID-19 symptoms self-reported by members of the public. Trends in such reports over time are likely to reflect behaviour of the ongoing epidemic within the wider community, potentially capturing valuable information across a broader severity profile of cases than hospital admission data. We present a fully reproducible analysis of temporal trends in NHS Pathways reports until 14th May 2020, nationally and regionally, and demonstrate that rates of growth/decline and effective reproduction number estimated from these data may be useful in monitoring transmission. This is a particularly pressing issue as lockdown restrictions begin to be lifted and evidence of disease resurgence must be constantly reassessed. We further assess the correlation between NHS Pathways reports and a publicly available NHS dataset of COVID-19-associated deaths in England, finding that enquiries to 111/999 were strongly associated with daily deaths reported 16\u00a0days later. Our results highlight the potential of NHS Pathways as the basis of an early warning system. However, this dataset relies on self-reported symptoms, which are at risk of being severely biased. Further detailed work is therefore necessary to investigate potential behavioural issues which might otherwise explain our conclusions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86266-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31446403", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026677", @@ -23256,21 +23222,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4655332/1/Estimating-treatment-effects-with-partially-observed-covariates-using-outcome-regression-with-missing-indicators.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/bimj.201900041" }, { - "id": "35861678", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/36989", - "title": "Developing a Long COVID Phenotype for Postacute COVID-19 in a National Primary Care Sentinel Cohort: Observational Retrospective Database Analysis.", - "authorString": "Mayor N, Meza-Torres B, Okusi C, Delanerolle G, Chapman M, Wang W, Anand S, Feher M, Macartney J, Byford R, Joy M, Gatenby P, Curcin V, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.", + "id": "33782427", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3", + "title": "Analysis of temporal trends in potential COVID-19 cases reported through NHS Pathways England.", + "authorString": "Leclerc QJ, Nightingale ES, Abbott S, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jombart T.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR public health and surveillance", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-11", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-29", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Phenotype; Surveillance; epidemiology; Public Health; Hospitalization; Social Class; Disease Management; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Electronic Health Record; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Bioportal; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Digital Tool; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Postacute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Following COVID-19, up to 40% of people have ongoing health problems, referred to as postacute COVID-19 or long COVID (LC). LC varies from a single persisting symptom to a complex multisystem disease. Research has flagged that this condition is underrecorded in primary care records, and seeks to better define its clinical characteristics and management. Phenotypes provide a standard method for case definition and identification from routine data and are usually machine-processable. An LC phenotype can underpin research into this condition.

Objective

This study aims to develop a phenotype for LC to inform the epidemiology and future research into this condition. We compared clinical symptoms in people with LC before and after their index infection, recorded from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We also compared people recorded as having acute infection with those with LC who were hospitalized and those who were not.

Methods

We used data from the Primary Care Sentinel Cohort (PCSC) of the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) database. This network was recruited to be nationally representative of the English population. We developed an LC phenotype using our established 3-step ontological method: (1) ontological step (defining the reasoning process underpinning the phenotype, (2) coding step (exploring what clinical terms are available, and (3) logical extract model (testing performance). We created a version of this phenotype using Prot\u00e9g\u00e9 in the ontology web language for BioPortal and using PhenoFlow. Next, we used the phenotype to compare people with LC (1) with regard to their symptoms in the year prior to acquiring COVID-19 and (2) with people with acute COVID-19. We also compared hospitalized people with LC with those not hospitalized. We compared sociodemographic details, comorbidities, and Office of National Statistics-defined LC symptoms between groups. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Results

The long-COVID phenotype differentiated people hospitalized with LC from people who were not and where no index infection was identified. The PCSC (N=7.4 million) includes 428,479 patients with acute COVID-19 diagnosis confirmed by a laboratory test and 10,772 patients with clinically diagnosed COVID-19. A total of 7471 (1.74%, 95% CI 1.70-1.78) people were coded as having LC, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.7-14.3) had a hospital admission related to acute COVID-19, and 6462 (86.5%, 95% CI 85.7-87.3) were not hospitalized, of whom 2728 (42.2%) had no COVID-19 index date recorded. In addition, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.73-14.28) people with LC were hospitalized compared to 17,993 (4.5%, 95% CI 4.48-4.61; P<.001) with uncomplicated COVID-19.

Conclusions

Our LC phenotype enables the identification of individuals with the condition in routine data sets, facilitating their comparison with unaffected people through retrospective research. This phenotype and study protocol to explore its face validity contributes to a better understanding of LC.", + "abstract": "The National Health Service (NHS) Pathways triage system collates data on enquiries to 111 and 999 services in England. Since the 18th of March 2020, these data have been made publically available for potential COVID-19 symptoms self-reported by members of the public. Trends in such reports over time are likely to reflect behaviour of the ongoing epidemic within the wider community, potentially capturing valuable information across a broader severity profile of cases than hospital admission data. We present a fully reproducible analysis of temporal trends in NHS Pathways reports until 14th May 2020, nationally and regionally, and demonstrate that rates of growth/decline and effective reproduction number estimated from these data may be useful in monitoring transmission. This is a particularly pressing issue as lockdown restrictions begin to be lifted and evidence of disease resurgence must be constantly reassessed. We further assess the correlation between NHS Pathways reports and a publicly available NHS dataset of COVID-19-associated deaths in England, finding that enquiries to 111/999 were strongly associated with daily deaths reported 16\u00a0days later. Our results highlight the potential of NHS Pathways as the basis of an early warning system. However, this dataset relies on self-reported symptoms, which are at risk of being severely biased. Further detailed work is therefore necessary to investigate potential behavioural issues which might otherwise explain our conclusions.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e36989/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/36989; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9374163" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86266-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86266-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8007605?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33788869", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258", + "title": "Using graphic modelling to identify modifiable mediators of the association between area-based deprivation at birth and offspring unemployment.", + "authorString": "Bogie J, Fleming M, Cullen B, Mackay D, Pell JP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Deprivation can perpetuate across generations; however, the causative pathways are not well understood. Directed acyclic graphs (DAG) with mediation analysis can help elucidate and quantify complex pathways in order to identify modifiable factors at which to target interventions.

Methods and findings

We linked ten Scotland-wide databases (six health and four education) to produce a cohort of 217,226 pupils who attended Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. The DAG comprised 23 potential mediators of the association between area deprivation at birth and subsequent offspring 'not in education, employment or training' status, covering maternal, antenatal, perinatal and child health, school engagement, and educational factors. Analyses were performed using modified g-computation. Deprivation at birth was associated with a 7.3% increase in offspring 'not in education, employment or training'. The principal mediators of this association were smoking during pregnancy (natural indirect effect of 0\u00b7016, 95% CI 0\u00b7013, 0\u00b7019) and school absences (natural indirect effect of 0\u00b7021, 95% CI 0\u00b7018, 0\u00b7024), explaining 22% and 30% of the total effect respectively. The proportion of the association potentially eliminated by addressing these factors was 19% (controlled direct effect when set to non-smoker 0\u00b7058; 95% CI 0\u00b7053, 0\u00b7063) for smoking during pregnancy and 38% (controlled direct effect when set to no absences 0\u00b7043; 95% CI 0\u00b7037, 0\u00b7049) for school absences.

Conclusions

Combining a DAG with mediation analysis helped disentangle a complex public health problem and quantified the modifiable factors of maternal smoking and school absence that could be targeted for intervention. This study also demonstrates the general utility of DAGs in understanding complex public health problems.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249258&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011734?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36063293", @@ -23290,21 +23273,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://joii-journal.springeropen.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12348-022-00304-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12348-022-00304-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443634; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443634?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33521535", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107", - "title": "Genetic risk of obesity as a modifier of associations between neighbourhood environment and body mass index: an observational study of 335 046 UK Biobank participants.", - "authorString": "Mason KE, Palla L, Pearce N, Phelan J, Cummins S.", + "id": "35861678", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/36989", + "title": "Developing a Long COVID Phenotype for Postacute COVID-19 in a National Primary Care Sentinel Cohort: Observational Retrospective Database Analysis.", + "authorString": "Mayor N, Meza-Torres B, Okusi C, Delanerolle G, Chapman M, Wang W, Anand S, Feher M, Macartney J, Byford R, Joy M, Gatenby P, Curcin V, Greenhalgh T, Delaney B, de Lusignan S.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ nutrition, prevention & health", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-05", + "journalTitle": "JMIR public health and surveillance", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-11", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Malnutrition; Dietary Patterns", + "keywords": "Phenotype; Surveillance; epidemiology; Public Health; Hospitalization; Social Class; Disease Management; General Practitioners; Ethnicity; Electronic Health Record; Medical Record Systems; Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine; Computerized; Bioportal; Biomedical Ontologies; Data Accuracy; Digital Tool; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Long Covid; Postacute Covid-19 Syndrome; Data Extracts", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There is growing recognition that recent global increases in obesity are the product of a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. However, in gene-environment studies of obesity, 'environment' usually refers to individual behavioural factors that influence energy balance, whereas more upstream environmental factors are overlooked. We examined gene-environment interactions between genetic risk of obesity and two neighbourhood characteristics likely to be associated with obesity (proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and availability of physical activity facilities).

Methods

We used data from 335 046 adults aged 40-70 in the UK Biobank cohort to conduct a population-based cross-sectional study of interactions between neighbourhood characteristics and genetic risk of obesity, in relation to body mass index (BMI). Proximity to a fast-food outlet was defined as distance from home address to nearest takeaway/fast-food outlet, and availability of physical activity facilities as the number of formal physical activity facilities within 1 km of home address. Genetic risk of obesity was operationalised by weighted Genetic Risk Scores of 91 or 69 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), and by six individual SNPs considered separately. Multivariable, mixed-effects models with product terms for the gene-environment interactions were estimated.

Results

After accounting for likely confounding, the association between proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and BMI was stronger among those at increased genetic risk of obesity, with evidence of an interaction with polygenic risk scores (p=0.018 and p=0.028 for 69-SNP and 91-SNP scores, respectively) and in particular with a SNP linked to MC4R (p=0.009), a gene known to regulate food intake. We found very little evidence of gene-environment interaction for the availability of physical activity facilities.

Conclusions

Individuals at an increased genetic risk of obesity may be more sensitive to exposure to the local fast-food environment. Ensuring that neighbourhood residential environments are designed to promote a healthy weight may be particularly important for those with greater genetic susceptibility to obesity.", + "abstract": "

Background

Following COVID-19, up to 40% of people have ongoing health problems, referred to as postacute COVID-19 or long COVID (LC). LC varies from a single persisting symptom to a complex multisystem disease. Research has flagged that this condition is underrecorded in primary care records, and seeks to better define its clinical characteristics and management. Phenotypes provide a standard method for case definition and identification from routine data and are usually machine-processable. An LC phenotype can underpin research into this condition.

Objective

This study aims to develop a phenotype for LC to inform the epidemiology and future research into this condition. We compared clinical symptoms in people with LC before and after their index infection, recorded from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. We also compared people recorded as having acute infection with those with LC who were hospitalized and those who were not.

Methods

We used data from the Primary Care Sentinel Cohort (PCSC) of the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) database. This network was recruited to be nationally representative of the English population. We developed an LC phenotype using our established 3-step ontological method: (1) ontological step (defining the reasoning process underpinning the phenotype, (2) coding step (exploring what clinical terms are available, and (3) logical extract model (testing performance). We created a version of this phenotype using Prot\u00e9g\u00e9 in the ontology web language for BioPortal and using PhenoFlow. Next, we used the phenotype to compare people with LC (1) with regard to their symptoms in the year prior to acquiring COVID-19 and (2) with people with acute COVID-19. We also compared hospitalized people with LC with those not hospitalized. We compared sociodemographic details, comorbidities, and Office of National Statistics-defined LC symptoms between groups. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Results

The long-COVID phenotype differentiated people hospitalized with LC from people who were not and where no index infection was identified. The PCSC (N=7.4 million) includes 428,479 patients with acute COVID-19 diagnosis confirmed by a laboratory test and 10,772 patients with clinically diagnosed COVID-19. A total of 7471 (1.74%, 95% CI 1.70-1.78) people were coded as having LC, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.7-14.3) had a hospital admission related to acute COVID-19, and 6462 (86.5%, 95% CI 85.7-87.3) were not hospitalized, of whom 2728 (42.2%) had no COVID-19 index date recorded. In addition, 1009 (13.5%, 95% CI 12.73-14.28) people with LC were hospitalized compared to 17,993 (4.5%, 95% CI 4.48-4.61; P<.001) with uncomplicated COVID-19.

Conclusions

Our LC phenotype enables the identification of individuals with the condition in routine data sets, facilitating their comparison with unaffected people through retrospective research. This phenotype and study protocol to explore its face validity contributes to a better understanding of LC.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/bmjnph/3/2/247.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e36989/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/36989; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9374163" }, { "id": "35410184", @@ -23323,23 +23306,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13069-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13069-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8996221?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36482104", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x", - "title": "Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality.", - "authorString": "Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Gill JMR, Th\u00f8gersen-Ntoumani C, Gibala MJ, Doherty A, Hamer M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Wearable devices can capture unexplored movement patterns such as brief bursts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) that is embedded into everyday life, rather than being done as leisure time exercise. Here, we examined the association of VILPA with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality in 25,241 nonexercisers (mean age 61.8\u2009years, 14,178 women/11,063 men) in the UK Biobank. Over an average follow-up of 6.9\u2009years, during which 852 deaths occurred, VILPA was inversely associated with all three of these outcomes in a near-linear fashion. Compared with participants who engaged in no VILPA, participants who engaged in VILPA at the sample median VILPA frequency of 3\u2009length-standardized bouts per day (lasting 1 or 2\u2009min each) showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 48%-49% reduction in CVD mortality risk. Moreover, the sample median VILPA duration of 4.4\u2009min per day was associated with a 26%-30% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 32%-34% reduction in CVD mortality risk. We obtained similar results when repeating the above analyses for vigorous physical activity (VPA) in 62,344 UK Biobank participants who exercised (1,552 deaths, 35,290 women/27,054 men). These results indicate that small amounts of vigorous nonexercise physical activity are associated with substantially lower mortality. VILPA in nonexercisers appears to elicit similar effects to VPA in exercisers, suggesting that VILPA may be a suitable physical activity target, especially in people not able or willing to exercise.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02100-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34750571", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00478-5", @@ -23357,6 +23323,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-021-00478-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00478-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8574944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8574944?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33521535", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107", + "title": "Genetic risk of obesity as a modifier of associations between neighbourhood environment and body mass index: an observational study of 335 046 UK Biobank participants.", + "authorString": "Mason KE, Palla L, Pearce N, Phelan J, Cummins S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ nutrition, prevention & health", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-10-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Malnutrition; Dietary Patterns", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

There is growing recognition that recent global increases in obesity are the product of a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. However, in gene-environment studies of obesity, 'environment' usually refers to individual behavioural factors that influence energy balance, whereas more upstream environmental factors are overlooked. We examined gene-environment interactions between genetic risk of obesity and two neighbourhood characteristics likely to be associated with obesity (proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and availability of physical activity facilities).

Methods

We used data from 335 046 adults aged 40-70 in the UK Biobank cohort to conduct a population-based cross-sectional study of interactions between neighbourhood characteristics and genetic risk of obesity, in relation to body mass index (BMI). Proximity to a fast-food outlet was defined as distance from home address to nearest takeaway/fast-food outlet, and availability of physical activity facilities as the number of formal physical activity facilities within 1 km of home address. Genetic risk of obesity was operationalised by weighted Genetic Risk Scores of 91 or 69 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), and by six individual SNPs considered separately. Multivariable, mixed-effects models with product terms for the gene-environment interactions were estimated.

Results

After accounting for likely confounding, the association between proximity to takeaway/fast-food outlets and BMI was stronger among those at increased genetic risk of obesity, with evidence of an interaction with polygenic risk scores (p=0.018 and p=0.028 for 69-SNP and 91-SNP scores, respectively) and in particular with a SNP linked to MC4R (p=0.009), a gene known to regulate food intake. We found very little evidence of gene-environment interaction for the availability of physical activity facilities.

Conclusions

Individuals at an increased genetic risk of obesity may be more sensitive to exposure to the local fast-food environment. Ensuring that neighbourhood residential environments are designed to promote a healthy weight may be particularly important for those with greater genetic susceptibility to obesity.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/bmjnph/3/2/247.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000107; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7841812?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "36482104", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x", + "title": "Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality.", + "authorString": "Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Gill JMR, Th\u00f8gersen-Ntoumani C, Gibala MJ, Doherty A, Hamer M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-12-08", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Wearable devices can capture unexplored movement patterns such as brief bursts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) that is embedded into everyday life, rather than being done as leisure time exercise. Here, we examined the association of VILPA with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality in 25,241 nonexercisers (mean age 61.8\u2009years, 14,178 women/11,063 men) in the UK Biobank. Over an average follow-up of 6.9\u2009years, during which 852 deaths occurred, VILPA was inversely associated with all three of these outcomes in a near-linear fashion. Compared with participants who engaged in no VILPA, participants who engaged in VILPA at the sample median VILPA frequency of 3\u2009length-standardized bouts per day (lasting 1 or 2\u2009min each) showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 48%-49% reduction in CVD mortality risk. Moreover, the sample median VILPA duration of 4.4\u2009min per day was associated with a 26%-30% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 32%-34% reduction in CVD mortality risk. We obtained similar results when repeating the above analyses for vigorous physical activity (VPA) in 62,344 UK Biobank participants who exercised (1,552 deaths, 35,290 women/27,054 men). These results indicate that small amounts of vigorous nonexercise physical activity are associated with substantially lower mortality. VILPA in nonexercisers appears to elicit similar effects to VPA in exercisers, suggesting that VILPA may be a suitable physical activity target, especially in people not able or willing to exercise.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02100-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9800274?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37730620", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02333-y", @@ -23391,23 +23391,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157920?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0206" }, - { - "id": "34155917", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.120.020246", - "title": "Antenatal Exposure to UV-B Radiation and Preeclampsia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.", - "authorString": "Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Cherrie MPC, Megaw LJ, Smith GCS, Stock SJ, Dibben C, Pell JP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of the American Heart Association", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-06-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "UV light; Preeclampsia; Seasonal variations; Environmental Exposures", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background Risk of preeclampsia varies by month of delivery. We tested whether this seasonal patterning may be mediated through maternal vitamin D concentration using antenatal exposure to UV-B radiation as an instrumental variable. Methods and Results Scottish maternity records were linked to antenatal UV-B exposure derived from satellites between 2000 and 2010. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between UV-B and preeclampsia, adjusting for the potential confounding effects of month of conception, child's sex, gestation, parity, and mean monthly temperature. Of the 522\u00a0896 eligible singleton deliveries, 8689 (1.66%) mothers developed preeclampsia. Total antenatal UV-B exposure ranged from 43.18 to 101.11\u00a0kJ/m2 and was associated with reduced risk of preeclampsia with evidence of a dose-response relationship (highest quintile of exposure: adjusted odds ratio, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.44-0.72; P<0.001). Associations were demonstrated for UV-B exposure in all 3 trimesters. Conclusions The seasonal patterning of preeclampsia may be mediated through low maternal vitamin D concentration in winter resulting from low UV-B radiation. Interventional studies are required to determine whether vitamin D supplements or UV-B-emitting light boxes can reduce the seasonal patterning of preeclampsia.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34425897", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-021-00249-x", @@ -23442,6 +23425,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213219819307536/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2019.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6947493; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6947493?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34155917", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.120.020246", + "title": "Antenatal Exposure to UV-B Radiation and Preeclampsia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.", + "authorString": "Hastie CE, Mackay DF, Clemens TL, Cherrie MPC, Megaw LJ, Smith GCS, Stock SJ, Dibben C, Pell JP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of the American Heart Association", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-06-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "UV light; Preeclampsia; Seasonal variations; Environmental Exposures", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background Risk of preeclampsia varies by month of delivery. We tested whether this seasonal patterning may be mediated through maternal vitamin D concentration using antenatal exposure to UV-B radiation as an instrumental variable. Methods and Results Scottish maternity records were linked to antenatal UV-B exposure derived from satellites between 2000 and 2010. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between UV-B and preeclampsia, adjusting for the potential confounding effects of month of conception, child's sex, gestation, parity, and mean monthly temperature. Of the 522\u00a0896 eligible singleton deliveries, 8689 (1.66%) mothers developed preeclampsia. Total antenatal UV-B exposure ranged from 43.18 to 101.11\u00a0kJ/m2 and was associated with reduced risk of preeclampsia with evidence of a dose-response relationship (highest quintile of exposure: adjusted odds ratio, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.44-0.72; P<0.001). Associations were demonstrated for UV-B exposure in all 3 trimesters. Conclusions The seasonal patterning of preeclampsia may be mediated through low maternal vitamin D concentration in winter resulting from low UV-B radiation. Interventional studies are required to determine whether vitamin D supplements or UV-B-emitting light boxes can reduce the seasonal patterning of preeclampsia.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.020246; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8403301?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "36082306", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004", + "title": "Workshop proceedings: GWAS summary statistics standards and sharing.", + "authorString": "MacArthur JAL, Buniello A, Harris LW, Hayhurst J, McMahon A, Sollis E, Cerezo M, Hall P, Lewis E, Whetzel PL, Bahcall OG, Barroso I, Carroll RJ, Inouye M, Manolio TA, Rich SS, Hindorff LA, Wiley K, Parkinson H.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have enabled robust mapping of complex traits in humans. The open sharing of GWAS summary statistics (SumStats) is essential in facilitating the larger meta-analyses needed for increased power in resolving the genetic basis of disease. However, most GWAS SumStats are not readily accessible because of limited sharing and a lack of defined standards. With the aim of increasing the availability, quality, and utility of GWAS SumStats, the National Human Genome Research Institute-European Bioinformatics Institute (NHGRI-EBI) GWAS Catalog organized a community workshop to address the standards, infrastructure, and incentives required to promote and enable sharing. We evaluated the barriers to SumStats sharing, both technological and sociological, and developed an action plan to address those challenges and ensure that SumStats and study metadata are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). We encourage early deposition of datasets in the GWAS Catalog as the recognized central repository. We recommend standard requirements for reporting elements and formats for SumStats and accompanying metadata as guidelines for community standards and a basis for submission to the GWAS Catalog. Finally, we provide recommendations to enable, promote, and incentivize broader data sharing, standards and FAIRness in order to advance genomic medicine.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31408247", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.287", @@ -23476,40 +23493,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ejp.1750; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1750" }, - { - "id": "36082306", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004", - "title": "Workshop proceedings: GWAS summary statistics standards and sharing.", - "authorString": "MacArthur JAL, Buniello A, Harris LW, Hayhurst J, McMahon A, Sollis E, Cerezo M, Hall P, Lewis E, Whetzel PL, Bahcall OG, Barroso I, Carroll RJ, Inouye M, Manolio TA, Rich SS, Hindorff LA, Wiley K, Parkinson H.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have enabled robust mapping of complex traits in humans. The open sharing of GWAS summary statistics (SumStats) is essential in facilitating the larger meta-analyses needed for increased power in resolving the genetic basis of disease. However, most GWAS SumStats are not readily accessible because of limited sharing and a lack of defined standards. With the aim of increasing the availability, quality, and utility of GWAS SumStats, the National Human Genome Research Institute-European Bioinformatics Institute (NHGRI-EBI) GWAS Catalog organized a community workshop to address the standards, infrastructure, and incentives required to promote and enable sharing. We evaluated the barriers to SumStats sharing, both technological and sociological, and developed an action plan to address those challenges and ensure that SumStats and study metadata are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). We encourage early deposition of datasets in the GWAS Catalog as the recognized central repository. We recommend standard requirements for reporting elements and formats for SumStats and accompanying metadata as guidelines for community standards and a basis for submission to the GWAS Catalog. Finally, we provide recommendations to enable, promote, and incentivize broader data sharing, standards and FAIRness in order to advance genomic medicine.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9451133?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "36330526", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331", - "title": "Levels of soluble complement regulators predict severity of COVID-19 symptoms.", - "authorString": "Tierney AL, Alali WM, Scott T, Rees-Unwin KS, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Clark SJ, Unwin RD.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in immunology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Complement; Mass spectrometry; Biomarkers; Factor H; Factor H-related Proteins; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide from COVID-19. One of the major challenges of patient management is the broad range of symptoms observed. While the majority of individuals experience relatively mild disease, a significant minority of patients require hospitalisation, with COVID-19 still proving fatal for some. As such, there remains a desperate need to better understand what drives this severe disease, both in terms of the underlying biology, but also to potentially predict at diagnosis which patients are likely to require further interventions, thus enabling better outcomes for both patients and healthcare systems. Several lines of evidence have pointed to dysregulation of the complement cascade as a major factor in severe COVID-19 outcomes. How this is underpinned mechanistically is not known. Here, we have focussed on the role of the soluble complement regulators Complement Factor H (FH), its splice variant Factor H-like 1 (FHL-1) and five Factor H-Related proteins (FHR1-5). Using a targeted mass spectrometry approach, we quantified these proteins in a cohort of 188 plasma samples from controls and SARS-CoV-2 patients taken at diagnosis. This analysis revealed significant elevations in all FHR proteins, but not FH, in patients with more severe disease, particularly FHR2 and FHR5 (FHR2: 1.97-fold, p<0.0001; FHR5: 2.4-fold, p<0.0001). Furthermore, for a subset of 77 SARS-CoV-2 +ve patients we also analysed time course samples taken approximately 28 days post-diagnosis. Here, we see complement regulator levels drop in all individuals with asymptomatic or mild disease, but regulators remain high in those with more severe outcomes, with elevations in FHR2 over baseline levels in this group. These data support the hypothesis that elevation of circulating levels of the FHR family of proteins could predict disease severity in COVID-19 patients, and that the duration of elevation (or lack of immune activation resolution) may be partly responsible for driving poor outcomes in COVID-19.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34954079", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108929", @@ -23527,23 +23510,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108929; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108929" }, - { - "id": "37538810", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008", - "title": "Impact of outcome adjudication in kidney disease trials: observations from the Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP).", - "authorString": "Herrington WG, Harper C, Staplin N, Haynes R, Emberson J, Reith C, Hooi LS, Levin A, Wanner C, Baigent C, Landray M, SHARP Collaborative Group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Kidney international reports", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Transplantation; Dialysis; Chronic Kidney Disease; Clinical Trials; Adjudication", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

We aimed to assess opportunities for trial streamlining and the scientific impact of adjudication on kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in CKD.

Methods

We analysed the effects of adjudication of ~2100 maintenance kidney replacement therapy (KRT) and ~1300 major atherosclerotic events (MAEs) recorded in SHARP. We first compared outcome classification before versus after adjudication, and then re-ran randomised comparisons using pre-adjudicated follow-up data.

Results

For maintenance KRT, adjudication had little impact with only 1% of events being refuted (28/2115). Consequently, randomised comparisons using pre-adjudication reports found almost identical results (pre-adjudication: simvastatin/ezetimibe 1038 vs placebo 1077; risk ratio [RR] 0.95, 95%CI 0.88-1.04; post-adjudicated: 1057 vs 1084; RR=0.97, 95%CI 0.89-1.05). For MAEs, about one-quarter of patient reports were refuted (324/1275 [25%]), and reviewing 3538 other potential vascular events and death reports identified only 194 additional MAEs. Nevertheless, randomised analyses using SHARP's pre-adjudicated data alone found similar results to analyses based on adjudicated outcomes (pre-adjudication: 573 vs 702; RR=0.80, 95%CI 0.72-0.89; adjudicated: 526 vs 619; RR=0.83, 95%CI 0.74- 0.94), and also suggested refuted MAEs were likely to represent atherosclerotic disease (RR for refuted MAEs=0.80, 95%CI 0.65-1.00).

Conclusions

These analyses provide three key insights. First, they provide a rationale for nephrology trials not to adjudicate maintenance KRT. Secondly, when an event that mimics an atherosclerotic outcome is not expected to be influenced by the treatment under study (e.g. heart failure), the aim of adjudicating atherosclerotic outcomes should be to remove such events. Lastly, restrictive definitions for the remaining suspected atherosclerotic outcomes may reduce statistical power.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34756707", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.102019", @@ -23561,6 +23527,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.102019" }, + { + "id": "36330526", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331", + "title": "Levels of soluble complement regulators predict severity of COVID-19 symptoms.", + "authorString": "Tierney AL, Alali WM, Scott T, Rees-Unwin KS, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Clark SJ, Unwin RD.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in immunology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Complement; Mass spectrometry; Biomarkers; Factor H; Factor H-related Proteins; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide from COVID-19. One of the major challenges of patient management is the broad range of symptoms observed. While the majority of individuals experience relatively mild disease, a significant minority of patients require hospitalisation, with COVID-19 still proving fatal for some. As such, there remains a desperate need to better understand what drives this severe disease, both in terms of the underlying biology, but also to potentially predict at diagnosis which patients are likely to require further interventions, thus enabling better outcomes for both patients and healthcare systems. Several lines of evidence have pointed to dysregulation of the complement cascade as a major factor in severe COVID-19 outcomes. How this is underpinned mechanistically is not known. Here, we have focussed on the role of the soluble complement regulators Complement Factor H (FH), its splice variant Factor H-like 1 (FHL-1) and five Factor H-Related proteins (FHR1-5). Using a targeted mass spectrometry approach, we quantified these proteins in a cohort of 188 plasma samples from controls and SARS-CoV-2 patients taken at diagnosis. This analysis revealed significant elevations in all FHR proteins, but not FH, in patients with more severe disease, particularly FHR2 and FHR5 (FHR2: 1.97-fold, p<0.0001; FHR5: 2.4-fold, p<0.0001). Furthermore, for a subset of 77 SARS-CoV-2 +ve patients we also analysed time course samples taken approximately 28 days post-diagnosis. Here, we see complement regulator levels drop in all individuals with asymptomatic or mild disease, but regulators remain high in those with more severe outcomes, with elevations in FHR2 over baseline levels in this group. These data support the hypothesis that elevation of circulating levels of the FHR family of proteins could predict disease severity in COVID-19 patients, and that the duration of elevation (or lack of immune activation resolution) may be partly responsible for driving poor outcomes in COVID-19.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1032331; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9624227?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31282950", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.1812", @@ -23612,6 +23595,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100334; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100334; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7881265; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7881265?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37538810", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008", + "title": "Impact of outcome adjudication in kidney disease trials: observations from the Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP).", + "authorString": "Herrington WG, Harper C, Staplin N, Haynes R, Emberson J, Reith C, Hooi LS, Levin A, Wanner C, Baigent C, Landray M, SHARP Collaborative Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Kidney international reports", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Transplantation; Dialysis; Chronic Kidney Disease; Clinical Trials; Adjudication", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

We aimed to assess opportunities for trial streamlining and the scientific impact of adjudication on kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in CKD.

Methods

We analysed the effects of adjudication of ~2100 maintenance kidney replacement therapy (KRT) and ~1300 major atherosclerotic events (MAEs) recorded in SHARP. We first compared outcome classification before versus after adjudication, and then re-ran randomised comparisons using pre-adjudicated follow-up data.

Results

For maintenance KRT, adjudication had little impact with only 1% of events being refuted (28/2115). Consequently, randomised comparisons using pre-adjudication reports found almost identical results (pre-adjudication: simvastatin/ezetimibe 1038 vs placebo 1077; risk ratio [RR] 0.95, 95%CI 0.88-1.04; post-adjudicated: 1057 vs 1084; RR=0.97, 95%CI 0.89-1.05). For MAEs, about one-quarter of patient reports were refuted (324/1275 [25%]), and reviewing 3538 other potential vascular events and death reports identified only 194 additional MAEs. Nevertheless, randomised analyses using SHARP's pre-adjudicated data alone found similar results to analyses based on adjudicated outcomes (pre-adjudication: 573 vs 702; RR=0.80, 95%CI 0.72-0.89; adjudicated: 526 vs 619; RR=0.83, 95%CI 0.74- 0.94), and also suggested refuted MAEs were likely to represent atherosclerotic disease (RR for refuted MAEs=0.80, 95%CI 0.65-1.00).

Conclusions

These analyses provide three key insights. First, they provide a rationale for nephrology trials not to adjudicate maintenance KRT. Secondly, when an event that mimics an atherosclerotic outcome is not expected to be influenced by the treatment under study (e.g. heart failure), the aim of adjudicating atherosclerotic outcomes should be to remove such events. Lastly, restrictive definitions for the remaining suspected atherosclerotic outcomes may reduce statistical power.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614871?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33653287", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-021-01384-1", @@ -23697,23 +23697,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43441-021-00263-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-021-00263-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885762?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37025302", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039", - "title": "Inclusion of minor alleles improves catalogue-based prediction of fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.", - "authorString": "Brankin AE, Fowler PW.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JAC-antimicrobial resistance", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Fluoroquinolone resistance poses a threat to the successful treatment of tuberculosis. WGS, and the subsequent detection of catalogued resistance-associated mutations, offers an attractive solution to fluoroquinolone susceptibility testing but sensitivities are often less than 90%. We hypothesize that this is partly because the bioinformatic pipelines used usually mask the recognition of minor alleles that have been implicated in fluoroquinolone resistance.

Methods

We analysed the Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: an International Consortium (CRyPTIC) dataset of globally diverse WGS Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, with matched MICs for two fluoroquinolone drugs and allowed putative minor alleles to contribute to resistance prediction.

Results

Detecting minor alleles increased the sensitivity of WGS for moxifloxacin resistance prediction from 85.4% to 94.0%, without significantly reducing specificity. We also found no correlation between the proportion of an M. tuberculosis population containing a resistance-conferring allele and the magnitude of resistance.

Conclusions

Together our results highlight the importance of detecting minor resistance-conferring alleles when using WGS, or indeed any sequencing-based approach, to diagnose fluoroquinolone resistance.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jacamr/article-pdf/5/2/dlad039/49747584/dlad039.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33837377", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01310-z", @@ -23731,6 +23714,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01310-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01310-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612986; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612986?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37025302", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039", + "title": "Inclusion of minor alleles improves catalogue-based prediction of fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.", + "authorString": "Brankin AE, Fowler PW.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JAC-antimicrobial resistance", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-04", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Fluoroquinolone resistance poses a threat to the successful treatment of tuberculosis. WGS, and the subsequent detection of catalogued resistance-associated mutations, offers an attractive solution to fluoroquinolone susceptibility testing but sensitivities are often less than 90%. We hypothesize that this is partly because the bioinformatic pipelines used usually mask the recognition of minor alleles that have been implicated in fluoroquinolone resistance.

Methods

We analysed the Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: an International Consortium (CRyPTIC) dataset of globally diverse WGS Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, with matched MICs for two fluoroquinolone drugs and allowed putative minor alleles to contribute to resistance prediction.

Results

Detecting minor alleles increased the sensitivity of WGS for moxifloxacin resistance prediction from 85.4% to 94.0%, without significantly reducing specificity. We also found no correlation between the proportion of an M. tuberculosis population containing a resistance-conferring allele and the magnitude of resistance.

Conclusions

Together our results highlight the importance of detecting minor resistance-conferring alleles when using WGS, or indeed any sequencing-based approach, to diagnose fluoroquinolone resistance.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jacamr/article-pdf/5/2/dlad039/49747584/dlad039.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10072237?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32735830", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3026(20)30228-3", @@ -23749,21 +23749,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3026(20)30228-3" }, { - "id": "36343994", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159", - "title": "Demographic, behavioural and occupational risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers: a retrospective observational study.", - "authorString": "Cooper DJ, Lear S, Sithole N, Shaw A, Stark H, Ferris M, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 collaboration consortium, Bradley J, Maxwell P, Goodfellow I, Weekes MP, Seaman S, Baker S.", + "id": "35639667", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac238", + "title": "Critical appraisal of artificial intelligence-based prediction models for cardiovascular disease.", + "authorString": "van Smeden M, Heinze G, Van Calster B, Asselbergs FW, Vardas PE, Bruining N, de Jaegere P, Moore JH, Denaxas S, Boulesteix AL, Moons KGM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-07", + "date": "2022-08-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Prediction; Artificial intelligence; Diagnosis; Prognosis; Machine Learning; Digital Health", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than the general population. This group is pivotal to healthcare system resilience during the COVID-19, and future, pandemics. We investigated demographic, social, behavioural and occupational risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs.

Design/setting/participants

HCWs enrolled in a large-scale sero-epidemiological study at a UK university teaching hospital were sent questionnaires spanning a 5-month period from March to July 2020. In a retrospective observational cohort study, univariate logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator regression model was used to identify variables to include in a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Among 2258 HCWs, highest ORs associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity on multivariate analysis were having a household member previously testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (OR 6.94 (95% CI 4.15 to 11.6); p<0.0001) and being of black ethnicity (6.21 (95% CI 2.69 to 14.3); p<0.0001). Occupational factors associated with a higher risk of seropositivity included working as a physiotherapist (OR 2.78 (95% CI 1.21 to 6.36); p=0.015) and working predominantly in acute medicine (OR 2.72 (95% CI 1.57 to 4.69); p<0.0001) or medical subspecialties (not including infectious diseases) (OR 2.33 (95% CI 1.4 to 3.88); p=0.001). Reporting that adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was 'rarely' available had an OR of 2.83 (95% CI 1.29 to 6.25; p=0.01). Reporting attending a handover where social distancing was not possible had an OR of 1.39 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.9; p=0.038).

Conclusions

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and potential vaccine escape continue to threaten stability of healthcare systems worldwide, and sustained vigilance against HCW infection remains a priority. Enhanced risk assessments should be considered for HCWs of black ethnicity, physiotherapists and those working in acute medicine or medical subspecialties. Workplace risk reduction measures include ongoing access to high-quality PPE and effective social distancing measures.", + "abstract": "The medical field has seen a rapid increase in the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction models. With the introduction of such AI-based prediction model tools and software in cardiovascular patient care, the cardiovascular researcher and healthcare professional are challenged to understand the opportunities as well as the limitations of the AI-based predictions. In this article, we present 12 critical questions for cardiovascular health professionals to ask when confronted with an AI-based prediction model. We aim to support medical professionals to distinguish the AI-based prediction models that can add value to patient care from the AI that does not.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063159.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/31/2921/45333809/ehac238.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac238; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443991; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443991?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32570434", @@ -23783,55 +23783,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200210" }, { - "id": "35639667", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac238", - "title": "Critical appraisal of artificial intelligence-based prediction models for cardiovascular disease.", - "authorString": "van Smeden M, Heinze G, Van Calster B, Asselbergs FW, Vardas PE, Bruining N, de Jaegere P, Moore JH, Denaxas S, Boulesteix AL, Moons KGM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Prediction; Artificial intelligence; Diagnosis; Prognosis; Machine Learning; Digital Health", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The medical field has seen a rapid increase in the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction models. With the introduction of such AI-based prediction model tools and software in cardiovascular patient care, the cardiovascular researcher and healthcare professional are challenged to understand the opportunities as well as the limitations of the AI-based predictions. In this article, we present 12 critical questions for cardiovascular health professionals to ask when confronted with an AI-based prediction model. We aim to support medical professionals to distinguish the AI-based prediction models that can add value to patient care from the AI that does not.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/31/2921/45333809/ehac238.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac238; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443991; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9443991?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "36351458", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02074-8", - "title": "Impact of diabetes on the effects of sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors on kidney outcomes: collaborative meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled trials.", - "authorString": "Nuffield Department of Population Health Renal Studies Group, SGLT2 inhibitor Meta-Analysis Cardio-Renal Trialists' Consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-06", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Large trials have shown that sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors reduce the risk of adverse kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with heart failure or chronic kidney disease, or with type 2 diabetes and high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. None of the trials recruiting patients with and without diabetes were designed to assess outcomes separately in patients without diabetes.

Methods

We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of SGLT2 inhibitor trials. We searched the MEDLINE and Embase databases for trials published from database inception to Sept 5, 2022. SGLT2 inhibitor trials that were double-blind, placebo-controlled, performed in adults (age \u226518 years), large (\u2265500 participants per group), and at least 6 months in duration were included. Summary-level data used for analysis were extracted from published reports or provided by trial investigators, and inverse-variance-weighted meta-analyses were conducted to estimate treatment effects. The main efficacy outcomes were kidney disease progression (standardised to a definition of a sustained \u226550% decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] from randomisation, a sustained low eGFR, end-stage kidney disease, or death from kidney failure), acute kidney injury, and a composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure. Other outcomes were death from cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular disease considered separately, and the main safety outcomes were ketoacidosis and lower limb amputation. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022351618.

Findings

We identified 13 trials involving 90\u2009413 participants. After exclusion of four participants with uncertain diabetes status, we analysed 90\u2009409 participants (74\u2009804 [82\u00b77%] participants with diabetes [>99% with type 2 diabetes] and 15\u2009605 [17\u00b73%] without diabetes; trial-level mean baseline eGFR range 37-85 mL/min per 1\u00b773 m2). Compared with placebo, allocation to an SGLT2 inhibitor reduced the risk of kidney disease progression by 37% (relative risk [RR] 0\u00b763, 95% CI 0\u00b758-0\u00b769) with similar RRs in patients with and without diabetes. In the four chronic kidney disease trials, RRs were similar irrespective of primary kidney diagnosis. SGLT2 inhibitors reduced the risk of acute kidney injury by 23% (0\u00b777, 0\u00b770-0\u00b784) and the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure by 23% (0\u00b777, 0\u00b774-0\u00b781), again with similar effects in those with and without diabetes. SGLT2 inhibitors also reduced the risk of cardiovascular death (0\u00b786, 0\u00b781-0\u00b792) but did not significantly reduce the risk of non-cardiovascular death (0\u00b794, 0\u00b788-1\u00b702). For these mortality outcomes, RRs were similar in patients with and without diabetes. For all outcomes, results were broadly similar irrespective of trial mean baseline eGFR. Based on estimates of absolute effects, the absolute benefits of SGLT2 inhibition outweighed any serious hazards of ketoacidosis or amputation.

Interpretation

In addition to the established cardiovascular benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors, the randomised data support their use for modifying risk of kidney disease progression and acute kidney injury, not only in patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk, but also in patients with chronic kidney disease or heart failure irrespective of diabetes status, primary kidney disease, or kidney function.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council and Kidney Research UK.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7613836; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02074-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613836" - }, - { - "id": "35967893", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577", - "title": "Factors influencing the mental health of an ethnically diverse healthcare workforce during COVID-19: a qualitative study in the United Kingdom.", - "authorString": "Qureshi I, Gogoi M, Al-Oraibi A, Wobi F, Chaloner J, Gray L, Guyatt AL, Hassan O, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.", + "id": "36343994", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159", + "title": "Demographic, behavioural and occupational risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers: a retrospective observational study.", + "authorString": "Cooper DJ, Lear S, Sithole N, Shaw A, Stark H, Ferris M, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 collaboration consortium, Bradley J, Maxwell P, Goodfellow I, Weekes MP, Seaman S, Baker S.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European journal of psychotraumatology", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-09", + "date": "2022-11-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Stress; Trauma; Anxiety; Mental health; Workforce; Healthcare; Ethnic Minority; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Infection control; epidemiology; Public Health; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been reported to be experiencing a deterioration in their mental health due to COVID-19. In addition, ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is imperative that HCWs are appropriately supported and protected from mental harm during the pandemic. Our research aims to add to the evidence base by providing greater insight into the lived experience of HCWs from diverse ethnic backgrounds during the pandemic that had an impact on their mental health. Methods: We undertook a qualitative work package as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes among Healthcare workers (UK-REACH). As part of the qualitative research, we carried out 16 focus groups with a total of 61 HCWs between December 2020 and July 2021. The aim of the study was to explore topics such as their experiences, fears and concerns, while working during the pandemic. The purposive sample included ancillary healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds to ensure inclusion of underrepresented and disproportionately impacted individuals. We conducted discussions using Microsoft Teams. Recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: Several factors were identified which impacted on the mental health of HCWs during this period including anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy); fear (of infection); trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death); guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones); and stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload). Conclusion: COVID-19 has affected the mental health of HCWs. We identified a number of factors which may be contributing to a deterioration in mental health for participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Healthcare organisations should consider developing strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors, including recommendations made by HCWs themselves.", + "abstract": "

Objective

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than the general population. This group is pivotal to healthcare system resilience during the COVID-19, and future, pandemics. We investigated demographic, social, behavioural and occupational risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs.

Design/setting/participants

HCWs enrolled in a large-scale sero-epidemiological study at a UK university teaching hospital were sent questionnaires spanning a 5-month period from March to July 2020. In a retrospective observational cohort study, univariate logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator regression model was used to identify variables to include in a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Among 2258 HCWs, highest ORs associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity on multivariate analysis were having a household member previously testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (OR 6.94 (95% CI 4.15 to 11.6); p<0.0001) and being of black ethnicity (6.21 (95% CI 2.69 to 14.3); p<0.0001). Occupational factors associated with a higher risk of seropositivity included working as a physiotherapist (OR 2.78 (95% CI 1.21 to 6.36); p=0.015) and working predominantly in acute medicine (OR 2.72 (95% CI 1.57 to 4.69); p<0.0001) or medical subspecialties (not including infectious diseases) (OR 2.33 (95% CI 1.4 to 3.88); p=0.001). Reporting that adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was 'rarely' available had an OR of 2.83 (95% CI 1.29 to 6.25; p=0.01). Reporting attending a handover where social distancing was not possible had an OR of 1.39 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.9; p=0.038).

Conclusions

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and potential vaccine escape continue to threaten stability of healthcare systems worldwide, and sustained vigilance against HCW infection remains a priority. Enhanced risk assessments should be considered for HCWs of black ethnicity, physiotherapists and those working in acute medicine or medical subspecialties. Workplace risk reduction measures include ongoing access to high-quality PPE and effective social distancing measures.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9364733; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e063159.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063159; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9644078?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34002035", @@ -23868,38 +23834,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://njl-admin.nihr.ac.uk/document/download/2034745; html:http://europepmc.org/books/NBK563908; doi:https://doi.org/10.3310/hta24570" }, { - "id": "35244709", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022", - "title": "Impact of oral anticoagulation on the association between frailty and clinical outcomes in people with atrial fibrillation: nationwide primary care records on treatment analysis.", - "authorString": "Wilkinson C, Wu J, Clegg A, Nadarajah R, Rockwood K, Todd O, Gale CP.", + "id": "36351458", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02074-8", + "title": "Impact of diabetes on the effects of sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors on kidney outcomes: collaborative meta-analysis of large placebo-controlled trials.", + "authorString": "Nuffield Department of Population Health Renal Studies Group, SGLT2 inhibitor Meta-Analysis Cardio-Renal Trialists' Consortium.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-01", + "date": "2022-11-06", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Bleeding; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Frailty; Outcome; Oral Anticoagulation; Oral Anticoagulation Prescription", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

People with atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently live with frailty, which increases the risk of mortality and stroke. This study reports the association between oral anticoagulation (OAC) and outcomes for people with frailty, and whether there is overall net benefit from treatment in people with AF.

Methods and results

Retrospective open cohort electronic records study. Frailty was identified using the electronic frailty index. Primary care electronic health records of 89 996 adults with AF and CHA2DS2-Vasc score of \u22652 were linked with secondary care and mortality data in the Clinical Practice Research Database (CPRD) from 1 January 1998 to 30 November 2018. The primary outcome was a composite of death, stroke, systemic embolism, or major bleeding. Secondary outcomes were stroke, major bleeding, all-cause mortality, transient ischaemic attack, and falls. Of 89 996 participants, 71 256 (79.2%) were living with frailty. The prescription of OAC increased with degree of frailty. For patients not prescribed OAC, rates of the primary outcome increased alongside frailty category. Prescription of OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary outcome for each frailty category [adjusted hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval, no OAC as reference; fit: vitamin K antagonist (VKA) 0.69, 0.64-0.75, direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) 0.42, 0.33-0.53; mild frailty: VKA 0.52, 0.50-0.54, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; moderate: VKA 0.54, 0.52-0.56, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; severe: VKA 0.48, 0.45-0.51, DOAC 0.58, 0.52-0.65], with cumulative incidence function effects greater for DOAC than VKA.

Conclusion

Frailty among people with AF is common. The OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary endpoint across all degrees of frailty.", + "abstract": "

Background

Large trials have shown that sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors reduce the risk of adverse kidney and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with heart failure or chronic kidney disease, or with type 2 diabetes and high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. None of the trials recruiting patients with and without diabetes were designed to assess outcomes separately in patients without diabetes.

Methods

We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of SGLT2 inhibitor trials. We searched the MEDLINE and Embase databases for trials published from database inception to Sept 5, 2022. SGLT2 inhibitor trials that were double-blind, placebo-controlled, performed in adults (age \u226518 years), large (\u2265500 participants per group), and at least 6 months in duration were included. Summary-level data used for analysis were extracted from published reports or provided by trial investigators, and inverse-variance-weighted meta-analyses were conducted to estimate treatment effects. The main efficacy outcomes were kidney disease progression (standardised to a definition of a sustained \u226550% decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] from randomisation, a sustained low eGFR, end-stage kidney disease, or death from kidney failure), acute kidney injury, and a composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure. Other outcomes were death from cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular disease considered separately, and the main safety outcomes were ketoacidosis and lower limb amputation. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022351618.

Findings

We identified 13 trials involving 90\u2009413 participants. After exclusion of four participants with uncertain diabetes status, we analysed 90\u2009409 participants (74\u2009804 [82\u00b77%] participants with diabetes [>99% with type 2 diabetes] and 15\u2009605 [17\u00b73%] without diabetes; trial-level mean baseline eGFR range 37-85 mL/min per 1\u00b773 m2). Compared with placebo, allocation to an SGLT2 inhibitor reduced the risk of kidney disease progression by 37% (relative risk [RR] 0\u00b763, 95% CI 0\u00b758-0\u00b769) with similar RRs in patients with and without diabetes. In the four chronic kidney disease trials, RRs were similar irrespective of primary kidney diagnosis. SGLT2 inhibitors reduced the risk of acute kidney injury by 23% (0\u00b777, 0\u00b770-0\u00b784) and the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure by 23% (0\u00b777, 0\u00b774-0\u00b781), again with similar effects in those with and without diabetes. SGLT2 inhibitors also reduced the risk of cardiovascular death (0\u00b786, 0\u00b781-0\u00b792) but did not significantly reduce the risk of non-cardiovascular death (0\u00b794, 0\u00b788-1\u00b702). For these mortality outcomes, RRs were similar in patients with and without diabetes. For all outcomes, results were broadly similar irrespective of trial mean baseline eGFR. Based on estimates of absolute effects, the absolute benefits of SGLT2 inhibition outweighed any serious hazards of ketoacidosis or amputation.

Interpretation

In addition to the established cardiovascular benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors, the randomised data support their use for modifying risk of kidney disease progression and acute kidney injury, not only in patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk, but also in patients with chronic kidney disease or heart failure irrespective of diabetes status, primary kidney disease, or kidney function.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council and Kidney Research UK.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851?pdf=render" + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7613836; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02074-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7613836" }, { - "id": "34596018", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.39.2001440", - "title": "Strategies to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 importation from international travellers: modelling estimations for the United Kingdom, July 2020. ", - "authorString": "Clifford S, Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Liu Y, Chan YD, Pearson CAB, Eggo RM, Endo A, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Edmunds WJ, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) COVID-19 Working Group.", + "id": "35967893", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577", + "title": "Factors influencing the mental health of an ethnically diverse healthcare workforce during COVID-19: a qualitative study in the United Kingdom.", + "authorString": "Qureshi I, Gogoi M, Al-Oraibi A, Wobi F, Chaloner J, Gray L, Guyatt AL, Hassan O, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-09-01", + "journalTitle": "European journal of psychotraumatology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-09", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Stress; Trauma; Anxiety; Mental health; Workforce; Healthcare; Ethnic Minority; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "BackgroundTo mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks from international air travellers, many countries implemented a combination of up to 14 days of self-quarantine upon arrival plus PCR testing in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.AimTo assess the effectiveness of quarantine and testing of international travellers to reduce risk of onward SARS-CoV-2 transmission into a destination country in the pre-COVID-19 vaccination era.MethodsWe used a simulation model of air travellers arriving in the United Kingdom from the European Union or the United States, incorporating timing of infection stages while varying quarantine duration and timing and number of PCR tests.ResultsQuarantine upon arrival with a PCR test on day 7 plus a 1-day delay for results can reduce the number of infectious arriving travellers released into the community by a median 94% (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 89-98) compared with a no quarantine/no test scenario. This reduction is similar to that achieved by a 14-day quarantine period (median\u2009>\u200999%; 95% UI: 98-100). Even shorter quarantine periods can prevent a substantial amount of transmission; all strategies in which travellers spend at least 5 days (mean incubation period) in quarantine and have at least one negative test before release are highly effective (median reduction 89%; 95% UI: 83-95)).ConclusionThe effect of different screening strategies impacts asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals differently. The choice of an optimal quarantine and testing strategy for unvaccinated air travellers may vary based on the number of possible imported infections relative to domestic incidence.", + "abstract": "Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been reported to be experiencing a deterioration in their mental health due to COVID-19. In addition, ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is imperative that HCWs are appropriately supported and protected from mental harm during the pandemic. Our research aims to add to the evidence base by providing greater insight into the lived experience of HCWs from diverse ethnic backgrounds during the pandemic that had an impact on their mental health. Methods: We undertook a qualitative work package as part of the United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes among Healthcare workers (UK-REACH). As part of the qualitative research, we carried out 16 focus groups with a total of 61 HCWs between December 2020 and July 2021. The aim of the study was to explore topics such as their experiences, fears and concerns, while working during the pandemic. The purposive sample included ancillary healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds to ensure inclusion of underrepresented and disproportionately impacted individuals. We conducted discussions using Microsoft Teams. Recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: Several factors were identified which impacted on the mental health of HCWs during this period including anxiety (due to inconsistent protocols and policy); fear (of infection); trauma (due to increased exposure to severe illness and death); guilt (of potentially infecting loved ones); and stress (due to longer working hours and increased workload). Conclusion: COVID-19 has affected the mental health of HCWs. We identified a number of factors which may be contributing to a deterioration in mental health for participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Healthcare organisations should consider developing strategies to counter the negative impact of these factors, including recommendations made by HCWs themselves.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/39/eurosurv-26-39-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583?pdf=render" + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9364733; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2022.2105577; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9364733?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33654696", @@ -23918,6 +23884,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/burnstrauma/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/burnst/tkaa044/37307900/tkaa044.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkaa044; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901708; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901708?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34596018", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.39.2001440", + "title": "Strategies to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 importation from international travellers: modelling estimations for the United Kingdom, July 2020. ", + "authorString": "Clifford S, Quilty BJ, Russell TW, Liu Y, Chan YD, Pearson CAB, Eggo RM, Endo A, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Flasche S, Edmunds WJ, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) COVID-19 Working Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-09-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "BackgroundTo mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks from international air travellers, many countries implemented a combination of up to 14 days of self-quarantine upon arrival plus PCR testing in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.AimTo assess the effectiveness of quarantine and testing of international travellers to reduce risk of onward SARS-CoV-2 transmission into a destination country in the pre-COVID-19 vaccination era.MethodsWe used a simulation model of air travellers arriving in the United Kingdom from the European Union or the United States, incorporating timing of infection stages while varying quarantine duration and timing and number of PCR tests.ResultsQuarantine upon arrival with a PCR test on day 7 plus a 1-day delay for results can reduce the number of infectious arriving travellers released into the community by a median 94% (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 89-98) compared with a no quarantine/no test scenario. This reduction is similar to that achieved by a 14-day quarantine period (median\u2009>\u200999%; 95% UI: 98-100). Even shorter quarantine periods can prevent a substantial amount of transmission; all strategies in which travellers spend at least 5 days (mean incubation period) in quarantine and have at least one negative test before release are highly effective (median reduction 89%; 95% UI: 83-95)).ConclusionThe effect of different screening strategies impacts asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals differently. The choice of an optimal quarantine and testing strategy for unvaccinated air travellers may vary based on the number of possible imported infections relative to domestic incidence.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.eurosurveillance.org/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/39/eurosurv-26-39-5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2F10.2807%2F1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440&mimeType=pdf&containerItemId=content/eurosurveillance; doi:https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2001440; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485583?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34535985", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/hep4.1805", @@ -23935,6 +23918,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/hep4.1805; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hep4.1805; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8793997; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8793997?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35244709", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022", + "title": "Impact of oral anticoagulation on the association between frailty and clinical outcomes in people with atrial fibrillation: nationwide primary care records on treatment analysis.", + "authorString": "Wilkinson C, Wu J, Clegg A, Nadarajah R, Rockwood K, Todd O, Gale CP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Bleeding; Atrial fibrillation; Stroke; Frailty; Outcome; Oral Anticoagulation; Oral Anticoagulation Prescription", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Aims

People with atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently live with frailty, which increases the risk of mortality and stroke. This study reports the association between oral anticoagulation (OAC) and outcomes for people with frailty, and whether there is overall net benefit from treatment in people with AF.

Methods and results

Retrospective open cohort electronic records study. Frailty was identified using the electronic frailty index. Primary care electronic health records of 89 996 adults with AF and CHA2DS2-Vasc score of \u22652 were linked with secondary care and mortality data in the Clinical Practice Research Database (CPRD) from 1 January 1998 to 30 November 2018. The primary outcome was a composite of death, stroke, systemic embolism, or major bleeding. Secondary outcomes were stroke, major bleeding, all-cause mortality, transient ischaemic attack, and falls. Of 89 996 participants, 71 256 (79.2%) were living with frailty. The prescription of OAC increased with degree of frailty. For patients not prescribed OAC, rates of the primary outcome increased alongside frailty category. Prescription of OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary outcome for each frailty category [adjusted hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval, no OAC as reference; fit: vitamin K antagonist (VKA) 0.69, 0.64-0.75, direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) 0.42, 0.33-0.53; mild frailty: VKA 0.52, 0.50-0.54, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; moderate: VKA 0.54, 0.52-0.56, DOAC 0.57, 0.52-0.63; severe: VKA 0.48, 0.45-0.51, DOAC 0.58, 0.52-0.65], with cumulative incidence function effects greater for DOAC than VKA.

Conclusion

Frailty among people with AF is common. The OAC was associated with a reduction in the primary endpoint across all degrees of frailty.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euac022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9326851?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35385889", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1515/dmpt-2021-0104", @@ -23952,6 +23952,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10135735/1/Asselbergs_10.1515_dmdi-2021-0104.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/dmpt-2021-0104" }, + { + "id": "34237806", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1515/dmdi-2021-0104", + "title": "Prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup. ", + "authorString": "Al-Rubaish AM, Al-Muhanna FA, Alshehri AM, Alsulaiman AA, Alabdulali MM, Alkhamis F, Alamri AS, Alali RA, Akhtar MS, Cyrus C, Claassens DMF, Asselbergs FW, Al-Ali AK.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Drug metabolism and personalized therapy", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-07-08", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "To mitigate the incidence of recurrent stroke in\u00a0patients, dual antiplatelet therapy comprising aspirin and\u00a0clopidogrel is usually administered. Clopidogrel is a prodrug and its bioactivation is catalyzed by cytochrome P450 (CYP)2C19. The main objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and assess the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup. This prospective (2018-2019) study was conducted on 256 patients (age 61\u00a0\u00b1\u00a012.5) clinically diagnosed with ischemic stroke who were genotyped using Spartan RX CYP2C19 assay. From the total patient group (256), upon admission, 210 patients were prescribed either aspirin, clopidogrel or dual antiplatelet therapy. Of the 27 patients with the CYP2C19*2 allele who were prescribed clopidogrel (18) or dual antiplatelet therapy (9), only 21 patients could be followed up for a period of six months post stroke event, in addition to 21 age- and sex-matched patients with the normal allele. The CYP2C19*2 allele carriers had a statistically significant increased risk of recurrent stroke compared to patients carrying the normal allele. This study shows the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in ischemic stroke patients in a clinical setting.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10135735/1/Asselbergs_10.1515_dmdi-2021-0104.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/dmdi-2021-0104" + }, { "id": "36545235", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/26335565221145493", @@ -23970,21 +23987,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/197084/1/26335565221145493.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/26335565221145493; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761229; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9761229?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34237806", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1515/dmdi-2021-0104", - "title": "Prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup. ", - "authorString": "Al-Rubaish AM, Al-Muhanna FA, Alshehri AM, Alsulaiman AA, Alabdulali MM, Alkhamis F, Alamri AS, Alali RA, Akhtar MS, Cyrus C, Claassens DMF, Asselbergs FW, Al-Ali AK.", + "id": "35869125", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0", + "title": "Minimising multi-centre radiomics variability through image normalisation: a pilot study.", + "authorString": "Campello VM, Mart\u00edn-Isla C, Izquierdo C, Guala A, Palomares JFR, Vilad\u00e9s D, Descalzo ML, Karakas M, \u00c7avu\u015f E, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Petersen SE, Escalera S, Segu\u00ed S, Lekadir K.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Drug metabolism and personalized therapy", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-08", - "isOpenAccess": "N", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "To mitigate the incidence of recurrent stroke in\u00a0patients, dual antiplatelet therapy comprising aspirin and\u00a0clopidogrel is usually administered. Clopidogrel is a prodrug and its bioactivation is catalyzed by cytochrome P450 (CYP)2C19. The main objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of CYP2C19*2 carriers in Saudi ischemic stroke patients and assess the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in a university hospital setup. This prospective (2018-2019) study was conducted on 256 patients (age 61\u00a0\u00b1\u00a012.5) clinically diagnosed with ischemic stroke who were genotyped using Spartan RX CYP2C19 assay. From the total patient group (256), upon admission, 210 patients were prescribed either aspirin, clopidogrel or dual antiplatelet therapy. Of the 27 patients with the CYP2C19*2 allele who were prescribed clopidogrel (18) or dual antiplatelet therapy (9), only 21 patients could be followed up for a period of six months post stroke event, in addition to 21 age- and sex-matched patients with the normal allele. The CYP2C19*2 allele carriers had a statistically significant increased risk of recurrent stroke compared to patients carrying the normal allele. This study shows the suitability of using genotyping to guide antiplatelet therapy in ischemic stroke patients in a clinical setting.", + "abstract": "Radiomics is an emerging technique for the quantification of imaging data that has recently shown great promise for deeper phenotyping of cardiovascular disease. Thus far, the technique has been mostly applied in single-centre studies. However, one of the main difficulties in multi-centre imaging studies is the inherent variability of image characteristics due to centre differences. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis of radiomics variability under several image- and feature-based normalisation techniques was conducted using a multi-centre cardiovascular magnetic resonance dataset. 218 subjects divided into healthy (n\u00a0=\u00a0112) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n\u00a0=\u00a0106, HCM) groups from five different centres were considered. First and second order texture radiomic features were extracted from three regions of interest, namely the left and right ventricular cavities and the left ventricular myocardium. Two methods were used to assess features' variability. First, feature distributions were compared across centres to obtain a distribution similarity index. Second, two classification tasks were proposed to assess: (1) the amount of centre-related information encoded in normalised features (centre identification) and (2) the generalisation ability for a classification model when trained on these features (healthy versus HCM classification). The results showed that the feature-based harmonisation technique ComBat is able to remove the variability introduced by centre information from radiomic features, at the expense of slightly degrading classification performance. Piecewise linear histogram matching normalisation gave features with greater generalisation ability for classification ( balanced accuracy in between 0.78\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.08 and 0.79\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.09). Models trained with features from images without normalisation showed the worst performance overall ( balanced accuracy in between 0.45\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.28 and 0.60\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.22). In conclusion, centre-related information removal did not imply good generalisation ability for classification.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10135735/1/Asselbergs_10.1515_dmdi-2021-0104.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/dmdi-2021-0104" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16375-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "32023934", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892", + "title": "Identifying Homogeneous Patterns of Injury in Paediatric Trauma Patients to Improve Risk-Adjusted Models of Mortality and Functional Outcomes. ", + "authorString": "Dipnall JF, Gabbe BJ, Teague WJ, Beck B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of environmental research and public health", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-01-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", + "healthCategories": "injuries and accidents", + "abstract": "Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric population and exhibits complex injury patterns. This study aimed to identify homogeneous groups of paediatric major trauma patients based on their profile of injury for use in mortality and functional outcomes risk-adjusted models. Data were extracted from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry for patients aged 0-15 years, injured 2006-2016. Four Latent Class Analysis (LCA) models with/without covariates of age/sex tested up to six possible latent classes. Five risk-adjusted models of in-hospital mortality and 6-month functional outcomes incorporated a combination of Injury Severity Score (ISS), New ISS (NISS), and LCA classes. LCA models replicated the best log-likelihood and entropy > 0.8 for all models (N = 1281). Four latent injury classes were identified: isolated head; isolated abdominal organ; multi-trauma injuries, and other injuries. The best models, in terms of goodness of fit statistics and model diagnostics, included the LCA classes and NISS. The identification of isolated head, isolated abdominal, multi-trauma and other injuries as key latent paediatric injury classes highlights areas for emphasis in planning prevention initiatives and paediatric trauma system development. Future risk-adjusted paediatric injury models that include these injury classes with the NISS when evaluating mortality and functional outcomes is recommended.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/892/pdf?version=1580475934; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33354439", @@ -24020,40 +24054,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1674/3300; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1674; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678979; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8678979?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32023934", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892", - "title": "Identifying Homogeneous Patterns of Injury in Paediatric Trauma Patients to Improve Risk-Adjusted Models of Mortality and Functional Outcomes. ", - "authorString": "Dipnall JF, Gabbe BJ, Teague WJ, Beck B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of environmental research and public health", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-01-31", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", - "healthCategories": "injuries and accidents", - "abstract": "Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric population and exhibits complex injury patterns. This study aimed to identify homogeneous groups of paediatric major trauma patients based on their profile of injury for use in mortality and functional outcomes risk-adjusted models. Data were extracted from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry for patients aged 0-15 years, injured 2006-2016. Four Latent Class Analysis (LCA) models with/without covariates of age/sex tested up to six possible latent classes. Five risk-adjusted models of in-hospital mortality and 6-month functional outcomes incorporated a combination of Injury Severity Score (ISS), New ISS (NISS), and LCA classes. LCA models replicated the best log-likelihood and entropy > 0.8 for all models (N = 1281). Four latent injury classes were identified: isolated head; isolated abdominal organ; multi-trauma injuries, and other injuries. The best models, in terms of goodness of fit statistics and model diagnostics, included the LCA classes and NISS. The identification of isolated head, isolated abdominal, multi-trauma and other injuries as key latent paediatric injury classes highlights areas for emphasis in planning prevention initiatives and paediatric trauma system development. Future risk-adjusted paediatric injury models that include these injury classes with the NISS when evaluating mortality and functional outcomes is recommended.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/892/pdf?version=1580475934; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030892; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7037699?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "35869125", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0", - "title": "Minimising multi-centre radiomics variability through image normalisation: a pilot study.", - "authorString": "Campello VM, Mart\u00edn-Isla C, Izquierdo C, Guala A, Palomares JFR, Vilad\u00e9s D, Descalzo ML, Karakas M, \u00c7avu\u015f E, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Petersen SE, Escalera S, Segu\u00ed S, Lekadir K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Radiomics is an emerging technique for the quantification of imaging data that has recently shown great promise for deeper phenotyping of cardiovascular disease. Thus far, the technique has been mostly applied in single-centre studies. However, one of the main difficulties in multi-centre imaging studies is the inherent variability of image characteristics due to centre differences. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis of radiomics variability under several image- and feature-based normalisation techniques was conducted using a multi-centre cardiovascular magnetic resonance dataset. 218 subjects divided into healthy (n\u00a0=\u00a0112) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n\u00a0=\u00a0106, HCM) groups from five different centres were considered. First and second order texture radiomic features were extracted from three regions of interest, namely the left and right ventricular cavities and the left ventricular myocardium. Two methods were used to assess features' variability. First, feature distributions were compared across centres to obtain a distribution similarity index. Second, two classification tasks were proposed to assess: (1) the amount of centre-related information encoded in normalised features (centre identification) and (2) the generalisation ability for a classification model when trained on these features (healthy versus HCM classification). The results showed that the feature-based harmonisation technique ComBat is able to remove the variability introduced by centre information from radiomic features, at the expense of slightly degrading classification performance. Piecewise linear histogram matching normalisation gave features with greater generalisation ability for classification ( balanced accuracy in between 0.78\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.08 and 0.79\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.09). Models trained with features from images without normalisation showed the worst performance overall ( balanced accuracy in between 0.45\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.28 and 0.60\u00a0\u00b1\u00a00.22). In conclusion, centre-related information removal did not imply good generalisation ability for classification.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16375-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16375-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9307565?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37391266", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(23)00087-0", @@ -24105,23 +24105,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006785&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006785; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6386417; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6386417?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33072403", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3", - "title": "Early- and late anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction: echocardiographic characterization and response to heart failure therapy.", - "authorString": "Kamphuis JAM, Linschoten M, Cramer MJ, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Teske AJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cardio-oncology (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Heart Failure; Anthracyclines; Cardiac Dysfunction; Cardiac Effects Of Cancer Treatment", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction (ACD) is a notorious side effect of anticancer treatment. It has been described as a phenomenon of a continuous progressive decline of cardiac function, eventually leading to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). This progressive nature suggests that patients with a delayed ACD diagnosis have greater compromise of cardiac function and more adverse remodeling, with a poor response to heart failure (HF) treatment. This study aimed to delineate the impact of a delayed ACD diagnosis on echocardiographic characteristics and response to HF treatment.

Methods and results

From the population of our cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, 92 ACD patients were included in this study (age 51.6\u2009\u00b1\u200916.2\u2009years, median cumulative anthracycline dose 329 [200-329] mg/m2), and a median follow-up of 25.0 [9.6-37.2] months after ACD diagnosis. Median time to ACD diagnosis for patients diagnosed early (<\u20091\u2009year) and late (>\u20091\u2009year) was 4.0 vs. 47.7\u2009months respectively. There were no echocardiographic differences between patients diagnosed early vs. late (LVEF 43.6\u2009\u00b1\u20094.9% vs. 43.0\u2009\u00b1\u20096.2% and iEDV 63.6 vs. 62.9\u2009mL/m2). Eighty-three percent of patients presented with mild LV dysfunction and in 79% the LV was not dilated. Patients diagnosed early were more likely to have (partial) recovery of cardiac function upon HF treatment initiation (p\u2009=\u20090.015).

Conclusions

In the setting of a cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, patients with ACD presented with a hypokinetic non-dilated cardiomyopathy, rather than typical DCM. Timing of ACD diagnosis did not impact HF disease severity. However, in patients receiving an early diagnosis, cardiac function was more likely to recover upon HF treatment.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cardiooncologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37210036", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.05.005", @@ -24140,21 +24123,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.05.005" }, { - "id": "34980174", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9", - "title": "Increased burden of cardiovascular disease in people with liver disease: unequal geographical variations, risk factors and excess years of life lost.", - "authorString": "Chang WH, Mueller SH, Chung SC, Foster GR, Lai AG.", + "id": "33072403", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3", + "title": "Early- and late anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction: echocardiographic characterization and response to heart failure therapy.", + "authorString": "Kamphuis JAM, Linschoten M, Cramer MJ, Doevendans PA, Asselbergs FW, Teske AJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of translational medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-03", + "journalTitle": "Cardio-oncology (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-10-13", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "liver disease; Geographical variations; incidence; Cardiovascular Risk; Electronic Health Records; Years Of Life Lost", + "keywords": "Heart Failure; Anthracyclines; Cardiac Dysfunction; Cardiac Effects Of Cancer Treatment", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

People with liver disease are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, there has yet been an investigation of incidence burden, risk, and premature mortality across a wide range of liver conditions and cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods

We employed population-wide electronic health records (EHRs; from 1998 to 2020) consisting of almost 4\u00a0million adults to assess regional variations in disease burden of five liver conditions, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), autoimmune liver disease, chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV), chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV) and NAFLD, in England. We analysed regional differences in incidence rates for 17 manifestations of CVD in people with or without liver disease. The associations between biomarkers and comorbidities and risk of CVD in patients with liver disease were estimated using Cox models. For each liver condition, we estimated excess years of life lost (YLL) attributable to CVD (i.e., difference in YLL between people with or without CVD).

Results

The age-standardised incidence rate for any liver disease was 114.5 per 100,000 person years. The highest incidence was observed in NAFLD (85.5), followed by ALD (24.7), HCV (6.0), HBV (4.1) and autoimmune liver disease (3.7). Regionally, the North West and North East regions consistently exhibited high incidence burden. Age-specific incidence rate analyses revealed that the peak incidence for liver disease of non-viral aetiology is reached in individuals aged 50-59\u00a0years. Patients with liver disease had a two-fold higher incidence burden of CVD (2634.6 per 100,000 persons) compared to individuals without liver disease (1339.7 per 100,000 persons). When comparing across liver diseases, atrial fibrillation was the most common initial CVD presentation while hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was the least common. We noted strong positive associations between body mass index and current smoking and risk of CVD. Patients who also had diabetes, hypertension, proteinuric kidney disease, chronic kidney disease, diverticular disease and gastro-oesophageal reflex disorders had a higher risk of CVD, as do patients with low albumin, raised C-reactive protein and raised International Normalized Ratio levels. All types of CVD were associated with shorter life expectancies. When evaluating excess YLLs by age of CVD onset and by liver disease type, differences in YLLs, when comparing across CVD types, were more pronounced at younger ages.

Conclusions

We developed a public online app ( https://lailab.shinyapps.io/cvd_in_liver_disease/ ) to showcase results interactively. We provide a blueprint that revealed previously underappreciated clinical factors related to the risk of CVD, which differed in the magnitude of effects across liver diseases. We found significant geographical variations in the burden of liver disease and CVD, highlighting the need to devise local solutions. Targeted policies and regional initiatives addressing underserved communities might help improve equity of access to CVD screening and treatment.", + "abstract": "

Background

Anthracycline-induced cardiac dysfunction (ACD) is a notorious side effect of anticancer treatment. It has been described as a phenomenon of a continuous progressive decline of cardiac function, eventually leading to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). This progressive nature suggests that patients with a delayed ACD diagnosis have greater compromise of cardiac function and more adverse remodeling, with a poor response to heart failure (HF) treatment. This study aimed to delineate the impact of a delayed ACD diagnosis on echocardiographic characteristics and response to HF treatment.

Methods and results

From the population of our cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, 92 ACD patients were included in this study (age 51.6\u2009\u00b1\u200916.2\u2009years, median cumulative anthracycline dose 329 [200-329] mg/m2), and a median follow-up of 25.0 [9.6-37.2] months after ACD diagnosis. Median time to ACD diagnosis for patients diagnosed early (<\u20091\u2009year) and late (>\u20091\u2009year) was 4.0 vs. 47.7\u2009months respectively. There were no echocardiographic differences between patients diagnosed early vs. late (LVEF 43.6\u2009\u00b1\u20094.9% vs. 43.0\u2009\u00b1\u20096.2% and iEDV 63.6 vs. 62.9\u2009mL/m2). Eighty-three percent of patients presented with mild LV dysfunction and in 79% the LV was not dilated. Patients diagnosed early were more likely to have (partial) recovery of cardiac function upon HF treatment initiation (p\u2009=\u20090.015).

Conclusions

In the setting of a cardio-oncology outpatient clinic, patients with ACD presented with a hypokinetic non-dilated cardiomyopathy, rather than typical DCM. Timing of ACD diagnosis did not impact HF disease severity. However, in patients receiving an early diagnosis, cardiac function was more likely to recover upon HF treatment.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://cardiooncologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40959-020-00079-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7557080?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31756303", @@ -24173,23 +24156,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.119.002711; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922071; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922071?pdf=render; pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.119.002711" }, - { - "id": "35641524", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0", - "title": "Development and validation of a multivariable mortality risk prediction model for COPD in primary care.", - "authorString": "Shah SA, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A, Simpson CR, Kotz D.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "NPJ primary care respiratory medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-31", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Risk stratification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is important to enable targeted management. Existing disease severity classification systems, such as GOLD staging, do not take co-morbidities into account despite their high prevalence in COPD patients. We sought to develop and validate a prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality in patients with diagnosed COPD. We constructed a longitudinal cohort of 37,485 COPD patients (149,196 person-years) from a UK-wide primary care database. The risk factors included in the model pertained to demographic and behavioural characteristics, co-morbidities, and COPD severity. The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. We fitted an extended Cox-regression model to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), used machine learning-based data modelling approaches including k-fold cross-validation to validate the prognostic model, and assessed model fitting and discrimination. The inter-quartile ranges of the three metrics on the validation set suggested good performance: 0.90-1.06 for model fit, 0.80-0.83 for Harrel's c-index, and 0.40-0.46 for Royston and Saurebrei's [Formula: see text] with a strong overlap of these metrics on the training dataset. According to the validated prognostic model, the two most important risk factors of mortality were heart failure (HR 1.92; 95% CI 1.87-1.96) and current smoking (HR 1.68; 95% CI 1.66-1.71). We have developed and validated a national, population-based prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality of patients diagnosed with COPD. This model could be used to detect high-risk patients and modify risk factors such as optimising heart failure management and offering effective smoking cessation interventions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-022-00280-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32810544", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.08.030", @@ -24208,21 +24174,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S0167527320335579/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.08.030" }, { - "id": "36093379", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079", - "title": "Epidemiologic information discovery from open-access COVID-19 case reports via pretrained language model.", - "authorString": "Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.", + "id": "34980174", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9", + "title": "Increased burden of cardiovascular disease in people with liver disease: unequal geographical variations, risk factors and excess years of life lost.", + "authorString": "Chang WH, Mueller SH, Chung SC, Foster GR, Lai AG.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "iScience", + "journalTitle": "Journal of translational medicine", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-05", + "date": "2022-01-03", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Virology; Machine Learning; Health Sciences", + "keywords": "liver disease; Geographical variations; incidence; Cardiovascular Risk; Electronic Health Records; Years Of Life Lost", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Although open-access data are increasingly common and useful to epidemiological research, the curation of such datasets is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Despite the existence of a major source of COVID-19 data, the regularly disclosed case reports were often written in natural language with an unstructured format. Here, we propose a computational framework that can automatically extract epidemiological information from open-access COVID-19 case reports. We develop this framework by coupling a language model developed using deep neural networks with training samples compiled using an optimized data annotation strategy. When applied to the COVID-19 case reports collected from mainland China, our framework outperforms all other state-of-the-art deep learning models. The information extracted from our approach is highly consistent with that obtained from the gold-standard manual coding, with a matching rate of 80%. To disseminate our algorithm, we provide an open-access online platform that is able to estimate key epidemiological statistics in real time, with much less effort for data curation.", + "abstract": "

Background

People with liver disease are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, there has yet been an investigation of incidence burden, risk, and premature mortality across a wide range of liver conditions and cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods

We employed population-wide electronic health records (EHRs; from 1998 to 2020) consisting of almost 4\u00a0million adults to assess regional variations in disease burden of five liver conditions, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), autoimmune liver disease, chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV), chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV) and NAFLD, in England. We analysed regional differences in incidence rates for 17 manifestations of CVD in people with or without liver disease. The associations between biomarkers and comorbidities and risk of CVD in patients with liver disease were estimated using Cox models. For each liver condition, we estimated excess years of life lost (YLL) attributable to CVD (i.e., difference in YLL between people with or without CVD).

Results

The age-standardised incidence rate for any liver disease was 114.5 per 100,000 person years. The highest incidence was observed in NAFLD (85.5), followed by ALD (24.7), HCV (6.0), HBV (4.1) and autoimmune liver disease (3.7). Regionally, the North West and North East regions consistently exhibited high incidence burden. Age-specific incidence rate analyses revealed that the peak incidence for liver disease of non-viral aetiology is reached in individuals aged 50-59\u00a0years. Patients with liver disease had a two-fold higher incidence burden of CVD (2634.6 per 100,000 persons) compared to individuals without liver disease (1339.7 per 100,000 persons). When comparing across liver diseases, atrial fibrillation was the most common initial CVD presentation while hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was the least common. We noted strong positive associations between body mass index and current smoking and risk of CVD. Patients who also had diabetes, hypertension, proteinuric kidney disease, chronic kidney disease, diverticular disease and gastro-oesophageal reflex disorders had a higher risk of CVD, as do patients with low albumin, raised C-reactive protein and raised International Normalized Ratio levels. All types of CVD were associated with shorter life expectancies. When evaluating excess YLLs by age of CVD onset and by liver disease type, differences in YLLs, when comparing across CVD types, were more pronounced at younger ages.

Conclusions

We developed a public online app ( https://lailab.shinyapps.io/cvd_in_liver_disease/ ) to showcase results interactively. We provide a blueprint that revealed previously underappreciated clinical factors related to the risk of CVD, which differed in the magnitude of effects across liver diseases. We found significant geographical variations in the burden of liver disease and CVD, highlighting the need to devise local solutions. Targeted policies and regional initiatives addressing underserved communities might help improve equity of access to CVD screening and treatment.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03210-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8722174?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35641524", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0", + "title": "Development and validation of a multivariable mortality risk prediction model for COPD in primary care.", + "authorString": "Shah SA, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A, Simpson CR, Kotz D.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "NPJ primary care respiratory medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Risk stratification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is important to enable targeted management. Existing disease severity classification systems, such as GOLD staging, do not take co-morbidities into account despite their high prevalence in COPD patients. We sought to develop and validate a prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality in patients with diagnosed COPD. We constructed a longitudinal cohort of 37,485 COPD patients (149,196 person-years) from a UK-wide primary care database. The risk factors included in the model pertained to demographic and behavioural characteristics, co-morbidities, and COPD severity. The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. We fitted an extended Cox-regression model to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), used machine learning-based data modelling approaches including k-fold cross-validation to validate the prognostic model, and assessed model fitting and discrimination. The inter-quartile ranges of the three metrics on the validation set suggested good performance: 0.90-1.06 for model fit, 0.80-0.83 for Harrel's c-index, and 0.40-0.46 for Royston and Saurebrei's [Formula: see text] with a strong overlap of these metrics on the training dataset. According to the validated prognostic model, the two most important risk factors of mortality were heart failure (HR 1.92; 95% CI 1.87-1.96) and current smoking (HR 1.68; 95% CI 1.66-1.71). We have developed and validated a national, population-based prognostic model to predict 10-year mortality of patients diagnosed with COPD. This model could be used to detect high-risk patients and modify risk factors such as optimising heart failure management and offering effective smoking cessation interventions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-022-00280-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-022-00280-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9156666?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36256701", @@ -24242,21 +24225,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurjcn/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/eurjcn/zvac098/47022353/zvac098.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvac098; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353909; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353909?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36423925", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591", - "title": "Rebound in asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions: a longitudinal population-based study (COVIDENCE UK).", - "authorString": "Tydeman F, Pfeffer PE, Vivaldi G, Holt H, Talaei M, Jolliffe D, Davies G, Lyons RA, Griffiths C, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.", + "id": "36093379", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079", + "title": "Epidemiologic information discovery from open-access COVID-19 case reports via pretrained language model.", + "authorString": "Wang Z, Liu XF, Du Z, Wang L, Wu Y, Holme P, Lachmann M, Lin H, Wong ZSY, Xu XK, Sun Y.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Thorax", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-11-23", + "journalTitle": "iScience", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-05", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Asthma; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Virology; Machine Learning; Health Sciences", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The imposition of restrictions on social mixing early in the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by a reduction in asthma exacerbations in multiple settings internationally. Temporal trends in social mixing, incident acute respiratory infections (ARI) and asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions have not yet been described.

Methods

We conducted a population-based longitudinal study in 2312 UK adults with asthma between November 2020 and April 2022. Details of face covering use, social mixing, incident ARI and severe asthma exacerbations were collected via monthly online questionnaires. Temporal changes in these parameters were visualised using Poisson generalised additive models. Multilevel logistic regression was used to test for associations between incident ARI and risk of asthma exacerbations, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions from April 2021 coincided with reduced face covering use (p<0.001), increased frequency of indoor visits to public places and other households (p<0.001) and rising incidence of COVID-19 (p<0.001), non-COVID-19 ARI (p<0.001) and severe asthma exacerbations (p=0.007). Incident non-COVID-19 ARI associated independently with increased risk of asthma exacerbation (adjusted OR 5.75, 95% CI 4.75 to 6.97) as did incident COVID-19, both prior to emergence of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (5.89, 3.45 to 10.04) and subsequently (5.69, 3.89 to 8.31).

Conclusions

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions coincided with decreased face covering use, increased social mixing and a rebound in ARI and asthma exacerbations. Associations between incident ARI and risk of severe asthma exacerbation were similar for non-COVID-19 ARI and COVID-19, both before and after emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant.

Study registration number

NCT04330599.", + "abstract": "Although open-access data are increasingly common and useful to epidemiological research, the curation of such datasets is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Despite the existence of a major source of COVID-19 data, the regularly disclosed case reports were often written in natural language with an unstructured format. Here, we propose a computational framework that can automatically extract epidemiological information from open-access COVID-19 case reports. We develop this framework by coupling a language model developed using deep neural networks with training samples compiled using an optimized data annotation strategy. When applied to the COVID-19 case reports collected from mainland China, our framework outperforms all other state-of-the-art deep learning models. The information extracted from our approach is highly consistent with that obtained from the gold-standard manual coding, with a matching rate of 80%. To disseminate our algorithm, we provide an open-access online platform that is able to estimate key epidemiological statistics in real time, with much less effort for data curation.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/12/29/thorax-2022-219591.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9441477?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32763829", @@ -24292,6 +24275,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26280-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26280-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688480; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8688480?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36423925", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591", + "title": "Rebound in asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions: a longitudinal population-based study (COVIDENCE UK).", + "authorString": "Tydeman F, Pfeffer PE, Vivaldi G, Holt H, Talaei M, Jolliffe D, Davies G, Lyons RA, Griffiths C, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Thorax", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-11-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Asthma; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The imposition of restrictions on social mixing early in the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by a reduction in asthma exacerbations in multiple settings internationally. Temporal trends in social mixing, incident acute respiratory infections (ARI) and asthma exacerbations following relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions have not yet been described.

Methods

We conducted a population-based longitudinal study in 2312 UK adults with asthma between November 2020 and April 2022. Details of face covering use, social mixing, incident ARI and severe asthma exacerbations were collected via monthly online questionnaires. Temporal changes in these parameters were visualised using Poisson generalised additive models. Multilevel logistic regression was used to test for associations between incident ARI and risk of asthma exacerbations, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions from April 2021 coincided with reduced face covering use (p<0.001), increased frequency of indoor visits to public places and other households (p<0.001) and rising incidence of COVID-19 (p<0.001), non-COVID-19 ARI (p<0.001) and severe asthma exacerbations (p=0.007). Incident non-COVID-19 ARI associated independently with increased risk of asthma exacerbation (adjusted OR 5.75, 95% CI 4.75 to 6.97) as did incident COVID-19, both prior to emergence of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (5.89, 3.45 to 10.04) and subsequently (5.69, 3.89 to 8.31).

Conclusions

Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions coincided with decreased face covering use, increased social mixing and a rebound in ARI and asthma exacerbations. Associations between incident ARI and risk of severe asthma exacerbation were similar for non-COVID-19 ARI and COVID-19, both before and after emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant.

Study registration number

NCT04330599.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/early/2022/12/29/thorax-2022-219591.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2022-219591; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10359556?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32639589", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.14458", @@ -24309,23 +24309,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bcp.14458; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.14458" }, - { - "id": "37671353", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133", - "title": "Public Involvement & Engagement in health inequalities research on COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of CIDACS/FIOCRUZ BAHIA.", - "authorString": "Dos Anjos Fonseca A, Pimenta DM, de Almeida MRS, Lima RT, Barreto ML, Ichihara MYT.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Brazil; Pandemic; Policymakers; Social Inequalities; Public Engagement; Community Groups; Public Involvement", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Health inequalities in Brazil have deepened on Covid-19 pandemic, and the most vulnerable people were the more affected. A multidisciplinary team from Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia developed a Social Disparities Index for Covid-19 (IDS-COVID-19) to support the evaluation of effects of health inequalities on the pandemic in Brazil. Public Involvement and Engagement were the pillars of this research because they allowed us to access first hand experiences about the social context in our country.

Objectives

This paper aims to describe our Public Involvement and Engagement experience by analysing our challenges, strategies, activities, results, and lessons learned during the construction of IDS-COVID-19.

Methods

The basis of the IDS-Covid-19 public engagement model was the participation of different social groups through methods and techniques that allow dialogue. Several activities and communication products supported the continuous interactions. Another guideline was the inclusion and the welcoming of participants from the beginning of the project to ensure that the participant's contributions could drive decision-making about the research.

Results

Participants made several contributions to the research as a new layer of information to the Index, and improvements were made to the interactive panel. They also compromised to support the dissemination and use of the product. Eight representatives of community groups and 29 policymakers participated in our engagement activities during the project. More than 500 people were in our open webinars. In addition, more than 140 news items about IDS-Covid-19 were published in national and international media.

Conclusions

We highlight as lessons learned the adaptation of some dissemination formats to the public, and the necessity of being flexible and accessible to participants. We strengthened the relationship with relevant stakeholders by exploring individual conversations by phone, WhatsApp, email, and interviews to produce a documentary that registered this whole experience. Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia has also embedded public engagement and involvement in the study agenda.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34906385", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.07.025", @@ -24343,23 +24326,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.07.025" }, - { - "id": "32247548", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003", - "title": "Electronic Health Records to Predict Gestational Diabetes Risk.", - "authorString": "Mateen BA, David AL, Denaxas S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Trends in pharmacological sciences", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-04-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Gestational Diabetes Mellitus; Machine Learning; Risk Prediction; Electronic Health Records", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Gestational diabetes mellitus is a common pregnancy complication associated with significant adverse health outcomes for both women and infants. Effective screening and early prediction tools as part of routine clinical care are needed to reduce the impact of the disease on the baby and mother. Using large-scale electronic health records, Artzi and colleagues developed and evaluated a machine learning driven tool to identify women at high and low risk of GDM. Their findings showcase how artificial intelligence approaches can potentially be embedded in clinical care to enable accurate and rapid risk stratification.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10097090/3/Denaxas_Electronic%20Health%20Records%20to%20Predict%20Gestational%20Diabetes%20Risk_AAM.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003" - }, { "id": "32907797", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3210", @@ -24394,6 +24360,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2019.09.007; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2019.09.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8352330; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8352330?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32247548", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003", + "title": "Electronic Health Records to Predict Gestational Diabetes Risk.", + "authorString": "Mateen BA, David AL, Denaxas S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Trends in pharmacological sciences", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-04-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Gestational Diabetes Mellitus; Machine Learning; Risk Prediction; Electronic Health Records", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Gestational diabetes mellitus is a common pregnancy complication associated with significant adverse health outcomes for both women and infants. Effective screening and early prediction tools as part of routine clinical care are needed to reduce the impact of the disease on the baby and mother. Using large-scale electronic health records, Artzi and colleagues developed and evaluated a machine learning driven tool to identify women at high and low risk of GDM. Their findings showcase how artificial intelligence approaches can potentially be embedded in clinical care to enable accurate and rapid risk stratification.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10097090/3/Denaxas_Electronic%20Health%20Records%20to%20Predict%20Gestational%20Diabetes%20Risk_AAM.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.003" + }, + { + "id": "37671353", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133", + "title": "Public Involvement & Engagement in health inequalities research on COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of CIDACS/FIOCRUZ BAHIA.", + "authorString": "Dos Anjos Fonseca A, Pimenta DM, de Almeida MRS, Lima RT, Barreto ML, Ichihara MYT.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Brazil; Pandemic; Policymakers; Social Inequalities; Public Engagement; Community Groups; Public Involvement", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Health inequalities in Brazil have deepened on Covid-19 pandemic, and the most vulnerable people were the more affected. A multidisciplinary team from Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia developed a Social Disparities Index for Covid-19 (IDS-COVID-19) to support the evaluation of effects of health inequalities on the pandemic in Brazil. Public Involvement and Engagement were the pillars of this research because they allowed us to access first hand experiences about the social context in our country.

Objectives

This paper aims to describe our Public Involvement and Engagement experience by analysing our challenges, strategies, activities, results, and lessons learned during the construction of IDS-COVID-19.

Methods

The basis of the IDS-Covid-19 public engagement model was the participation of different social groups through methods and techniques that allow dialogue. Several activities and communication products supported the continuous interactions. Another guideline was the inclusion and the welcoming of participants from the beginning of the project to ensure that the participant's contributions could drive decision-making about the research.

Results

Participants made several contributions to the research as a new layer of information to the Index, and improvements were made to the interactive panel. They also compromised to support the dissemination and use of the product. Eight representatives of community groups and 29 policymakers participated in our engagement activities during the project. More than 500 people were in our open webinars. In addition, more than 140 news items about IDS-Covid-19 were published in national and international media.

Conclusions

We highlight as lessons learned the adaptation of some dissemination formats to the public, and the necessity of being flexible and accessible to participants. We strengthened the relationship with relevant stakeholders by exploring individual conversations by phone, WhatsApp, email, and interviews to produce a documentary that registered this whole experience. Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia has also embedded public engagement and involvement in the study agenda.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i3.2133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10476697?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32900377", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01754-z", @@ -24428,23 +24428,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/71/707/e441.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X714161; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8041293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8041293?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36560629", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625", - "title": "Switching of Receptor Binding Poses between Closely Related Enteroviruses.", - "authorString": "Zhou D, Qin L, Duyvesteyn HME, Zhao Y, Lin TY, Fry EE, Ren J, Huang KA, Stuart DI.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Viruses", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Evolution; Complex; Virus receptor; Glycan; Daf; Binding Pose; Echovirus E11; Enterovirus Structure", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Echoviruses, for which there are currently no approved vaccines or drugs, are responsible for a range of human diseases, for example echovirus 11 (E11) is a major cause of serious neonatal morbidity and mortality. Decay-accelerating factor (DAF, also known as CD55) is an attachment receptor for E11. Here, we report the structure of the complex of E11 and the full-length ectodomain of DAF (short consensus repeats, SCRs, 1-4) at 3.1 \u00c5 determined by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). SCRs 3 and 4 of DAF interact with E11 at the southern rim of the canyon via the VP2 EF and VP3 BC loops. We also observe an unexpected interaction between the N-linked glycan (residue 95 of DAF) and the VP2 BC loop of E11. DAF is a receptor for at least 20 enteroviruses and we classify its binding patterns from reported DAF/virus complexes into two distinct positions and orientations, named as E6 and E11 poses. Whilst 60 DAF molecules can attach to the virion in the E6 pose, no more than 30 can attach to E11 due to steric restrictions. Analysis of the distinct modes of interaction and structure and sequence-based phylogenies suggests that the two modes evolved independently, with the E6 mode likely found earlier.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/12/2625/pdf?version=1669703629; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33933530", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.04.027", @@ -24513,6 +24496,23 @@ "laySummary": "The objective of this paper was to construct individualised dynamic predictive probabilities to monitor rapid Cystic Fibrosis (CF) disease progression. The results demonstrated how individualised rate of change estimates can be coupled with probabilitic predictive inference and implementation for a useful medical-monitoring approach.", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/sim.8443; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8443; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7028099; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7028099?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36560629", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625", + "title": "Switching of Receptor Binding Poses between Closely Related Enteroviruses.", + "authorString": "Zhou D, Qin L, Duyvesteyn HME, Zhao Y, Lin TY, Fry EE, Ren J, Huang KA, Stuart DI.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Viruses", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Evolution; Complex; Virus receptor; Glycan; Daf; Binding Pose; Echovirus E11; Enterovirus Structure", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Echoviruses, for which there are currently no approved vaccines or drugs, are responsible for a range of human diseases, for example echovirus 11 (E11) is a major cause of serious neonatal morbidity and mortality. Decay-accelerating factor (DAF, also known as CD55) is an attachment receptor for E11. Here, we report the structure of the complex of E11 and the full-length ectodomain of DAF (short consensus repeats, SCRs, 1-4) at 3.1 \u00c5 determined by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). SCRs 3 and 4 of DAF interact with E11 at the southern rim of the canyon via the VP2 EF and VP3 BC loops. We also observe an unexpected interaction between the N-linked glycan (residue 95 of DAF) and the VP2 BC loop of E11. DAF is a receptor for at least 20 enteroviruses and we classify its binding patterns from reported DAF/virus complexes into two distinct positions and orientations, named as E6 and E11 poses. Whilst 60 DAF molecules can attach to the virion in the E6 pose, no more than 30 can attach to E11 due to steric restrictions. Analysis of the distinct modes of interaction and structure and sequence-based phylogenies suggests that the two modes evolved independently, with the E6 mode likely found earlier.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/12/2625/pdf?version=1669703629; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122625; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9781616?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32200692", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2020.1744453", @@ -24599,21 +24599,21 @@ "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9536848; doi:https://doi.org/10.28920/dhm52.3.164-174; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9536848; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9536848?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.28920/dhm52.3.164-174" }, { - "id": "34040552", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996", - "title": "Optimising a Simple Fully Convolutional Network for Accurate Brain Age Prediction in the PAC 2019 Challenge.", - "authorString": "Gong W, Beckmann CF, Vedaldi A, Smith SM, Peng H.", + "id": "33605084", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.16388", + "title": "P62-positive aggregates are homogenously distributed in the myocardium and associated with the type of mutation in genetic cardiomyopathy.", + "authorString": "van der Klooster ZJ, Sepehrkhouy S, Dooijes D, Te Rijdt WP, Schuiringa FSAM, Lingeman J, van Tintelen JP, Harakalova M, Goldschmeding R, Suurmeijer AJH, Asselbergs FW, Vink A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in psychiatry", + "journalTitle": "Journal of cellular and molecular medicine", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-10", + "date": "2021-02-18", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Brain imaging; Predictive Analysis; Big Data; Deep Learning; Convolution Neural Network; Brain Age Prediction", + "keywords": "Histology; Pathology; Senescence; Genetic; Cardiomyopathy; Autophagy; P62; Phospholamban; Desminopathy; Sequestosome-1", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Brain age prediction from brain MRI scans not only helps improve brain ageing modelling generally, but also provides benchmarks for predictive analysis methods. Brain-age delta, which is the difference between a subject's predicted age and true age, has become a meaningful biomarker for the health of the brain. Here, we report the details of our brain age prediction models and results in the Predictive Analysis Challenge 2019. The aim of the challenge was to use T1-weighted brain MRIs to predict a subject's age in multicentre datasets. We apply a lightweight deep convolutional neural network architecture, Simple Fully Convolutional Neural Network (SFCN), and combined several techniques including data augmentation, transfer learning, model ensemble, and bias correction for brain age prediction. The model achieved first place in both of the two objectives in the PAC 2019 brain age prediction challenge: Mean absolute error (MAE) = 2.90 years without bias removal (Second Place = 3.09 yrs; Third Place = 3.33 yrs), and MAE = 2.95 years with bias removal, leading by a large margin (Second Place = 3.80 yrs; Third Place = 3.92 yrs).", + "abstract": "Genetic cardiomyopathy is caused by mutations in various genes. The accumulation of potentially proteotoxic mutant protein aggregates due to insufficient autophagy is a possible mechanism of disease development. The objective of this study was to investigate the distribution in the myocardium of such aggregates in relation to specific pathogenic genetic mutations in cardiomyopathy hearts. Hearts from 32 genetic cardiomyopathy patients, 4 non-genetic cardiomyopathy patients and 5 controls were studied. Microscopic slices from an entire midventricular heart slice were stained for p62 (sequestosome-1, marker for aggregated proteins destined for autophagy). The percentage of cardiomyocytes with p62 accumulation was higher in cardiomyopathy hearts (median 3.3%) than in healthy controls (0.3%; P\u00a0<\u00a0.0001). p62 accumulation was highest in the desmin (15.6%) and phospholamban (7.2%) groups. P62 accumulation was homogeneously distributed in the myocardium. Fibrosis was not associated with p62 accumulation in subgroup analysis of phospholamban hearts. In conclusion, accumulation of p62-positive protein aggregates is homogeneously distributed in the myocardium independently of fibrosis distribution and associated with desmin and phospholamban cardiomyopathy. Proteotoxic protein accumulation is a diffuse process in the myocardium while a more localized second hit, such as local strain during exercise, might determine whether this leads to regional myocyte decay.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jcmm.16388; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.16388; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957157; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957157?pdf=render" }, { "id": "30554166", @@ -24632,23 +24632,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043019" }, - { - "id": "33605084", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.16388", - "title": "P62-positive aggregates are homogenously distributed in the myocardium and associated with the type of mutation in genetic cardiomyopathy.", - "authorString": "van der Klooster ZJ, Sepehrkhouy S, Dooijes D, Te Rijdt WP, Schuiringa FSAM, Lingeman J, van Tintelen JP, Harakalova M, Goldschmeding R, Suurmeijer AJH, Asselbergs FW, Vink A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of cellular and molecular medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Histology; Pathology; Senescence; Genetic; Cardiomyopathy; Autophagy; P62; Phospholamban; Desminopathy; Sequestosome-1", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genetic cardiomyopathy is caused by mutations in various genes. The accumulation of potentially proteotoxic mutant protein aggregates due to insufficient autophagy is a possible mechanism of disease development. The objective of this study was to investigate the distribution in the myocardium of such aggregates in relation to specific pathogenic genetic mutations in cardiomyopathy hearts. Hearts from 32 genetic cardiomyopathy patients, 4 non-genetic cardiomyopathy patients and 5 controls were studied. Microscopic slices from an entire midventricular heart slice were stained for p62 (sequestosome-1, marker for aggregated proteins destined for autophagy). The percentage of cardiomyocytes with p62 accumulation was higher in cardiomyopathy hearts (median 3.3%) than in healthy controls (0.3%; P\u00a0<\u00a0.0001). p62 accumulation was highest in the desmin (15.6%) and phospholamban (7.2%) groups. P62 accumulation was homogeneously distributed in the myocardium. Fibrosis was not associated with p62 accumulation in subgroup analysis of phospholamban hearts. In conclusion, accumulation of p62-positive protein aggregates is homogeneously distributed in the myocardium independently of fibrosis distribution and associated with desmin and phospholamban cardiomyopathy. Proteotoxic protein accumulation is a diffuse process in the myocardium while a more localized second hit, such as local strain during exercise, might determine whether this leads to regional myocyte decay.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jcmm.16388; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.16388; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957157; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7957157?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35681241", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-022-01525-5", @@ -24666,6 +24649,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12933-022-01525-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-022-01525-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9185961; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9185961?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34040552", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996", + "title": "Optimising a Simple Fully Convolutional Network for Accurate Brain Age Prediction in the PAC 2019 Challenge.", + "authorString": "Gong W, Beckmann CF, Vedaldi A, Smith SM, Peng H.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Brain imaging; Predictive Analysis; Big Data; Deep Learning; Convolution Neural Network; Brain Age Prediction", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Brain age prediction from brain MRI scans not only helps improve brain ageing modelling generally, but also provides benchmarks for predictive analysis methods. Brain-age delta, which is the difference between a subject's predicted age and true age, has become a meaningful biomarker for the health of the brain. Here, we report the details of our brain age prediction models and results in the Predictive Analysis Challenge 2019. The aim of the challenge was to use T1-weighted brain MRIs to predict a subject's age in multicentre datasets. We apply a lightweight deep convolutional neural network architecture, Simple Fully Convolutional Neural Network (SFCN), and combined several techniques including data augmentation, transfer learning, model ensemble, and bias correction for brain age prediction. The model achieved first place in both of the two objectives in the PAC 2019 brain age prediction challenge: Mean absolute error (MAE) = 2.90 years without bias removal (Second Place = 3.09 yrs; Third Place = 3.33 yrs), and MAE = 2.95 years with bias removal, leading by a large margin (Second Place = 3.80 yrs; Third Place = 3.92 yrs).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.627996; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8141616?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35047183", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.01011", @@ -24751,23 +24751,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004221; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004221; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138823; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10138823?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31168069", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8", - "title": "The genomic basis of mood instability: identification of 46 loci in 363,705 UK Biobank participants, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, and association with gene expression and function.", - "authorString": "Ward J, Tunbridge EM, Sandor C, Lyall LM, Ferguson A, Strawbridge RJ, Lyall DM, Cullen B, Graham N, Johnston KJA, Webber C, Escott-Price V, O'Donovan M, Pell JP, Bailey MES, Harrison PJ, Smith DJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Molecular psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-06-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of psychiatric phenotypes have tended to focus on categorical diagnoses, but to understand the biology of mental illness it may be more useful to study traits which cut across traditional boundaries. Here, we report the results of a GWAS of mood instability as a trait in a large population cohort (UK Biobank, n\u2009=\u2009363,705). We also assess the clinical and biological relevance of the findings, including whether genetic associations show enrichment for nervous system pathways. Forty six unique loci associated with mood instability were identified with a SNP heritability estimate of 9%. Linkage Disequilibrium Score Regression (LDSR) analyses identified genetic correlations with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Bipolar Disorder (BD), Schizophrenia, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Gene-level and gene set analyses identified 244 significant genes and 6 enriched gene sets. Tissue expression analysis of the SNP-level data found enrichment in multiple brain regions, and eQTL analyses highlighted an inversion on chromosome 17 plus two brain-specific eQTLs. In addition, we used a Phenotype Linkage Network (PLN) analysis and community analysis to assess for enrichment of nervous system gene sets using mouse orthologue databases. The PLN analysis found enrichment in nervous system PLNs for a community containing serotonin and melatonin receptors. In summary, this work has identified novel loci, tissues and gene sets contributing to mood instability. These findings may be relevant for the identification of novel trans-diagnostic drug targets and could help to inform future stratified medicine innovations in mental health.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/185493/1/185493.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36580301", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.121.003542", @@ -24802,6 +24785,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7320/pdf?version=1602228180; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197320; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7579145; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7579145?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31168069", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8", + "title": "The genomic basis of mood instability: identification of 46 loci in 363,705 UK Biobank participants, genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, and association with gene expression and function.", + "authorString": "Ward J, Tunbridge EM, Sandor C, Lyall LM, Ferguson A, Strawbridge RJ, Lyall DM, Cullen B, Graham N, Johnston KJA, Webber C, Escott-Price V, O'Donovan M, Pell JP, Bailey MES, Harrison PJ, Smith DJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Molecular psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2019-06-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of psychiatric phenotypes have tended to focus on categorical diagnoses, but to understand the biology of mental illness it may be more useful to study traits which cut across traditional boundaries. Here, we report the results of a GWAS of mood instability as a trait in a large population cohort (UK Biobank, n\u2009=\u2009363,705). We also assess the clinical and biological relevance of the findings, including whether genetic associations show enrichment for nervous system pathways. Forty six unique loci associated with mood instability were identified with a SNP heritability estimate of 9%. Linkage Disequilibrium Score Regression (LDSR) analyses identified genetic correlations with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Bipolar Disorder (BD), Schizophrenia, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Gene-level and gene set analyses identified 244 significant genes and 6 enriched gene sets. Tissue expression analysis of the SNP-level data found enrichment in multiple brain regions, and eQTL analyses highlighted an inversion on chromosome 17 plus two brain-specific eQTLs. In addition, we used a Phenotype Linkage Network (PLN) analysis and community analysis to assess for enrichment of nervous system gene sets using mouse orthologue databases. The PLN analysis found enrichment in nervous system PLNs for a community containing serotonin and melatonin receptors. In summary, this work has identified novel loci, tissues and gene sets contributing to mood instability. These findings may be relevant for the identification of novel trans-diagnostic drug targets and could help to inform future stratified medicine innovations in mental health.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/185493/1/185493.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0439-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116257?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32735547", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/20169", @@ -24819,23 +24819,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/8/e20169/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/20169; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7450371" }, - { - "id": "36058413", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030", - "title": "A prospective study of risk factors associated with seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare workers at a large UK teaching hospital.", - "authorString": "Cooper DJ, Lear S, Watson L, Shaw A, Ferris M, Doffinger R, Bousfield R, Sharrocks K, Weekes MP, Warne B, Sparkes D, Jones NK, Rivett L, Routledge M, Chaudhry A, Dempsey K, Matson M, Lakha A, Gathercole G, O'Connor O, Wilson E, Shahzad O, Toms K, Thompson R, Halsall I, Halsall D, Houghton S, Papadia S, Kingston N, Stirrups KE, Graves B, Townsend P, Walker N, Stark H, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, De Angelis D, Seaman S, Dougan G, Bradley JR, T\u00f6r\u00f6k ME, Goodfellow I, Baker S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of infection", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Healthcare Workers; Sero-epidemiology; Risk Factor Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

To describe the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods

We conducted a prospective sero-epidemiological study of HCWs at a major UK teaching hospital using a SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay. Risk factors for seropositivity were analysed using multivariate logistic regression.

Results

410/5,698 (7\u00b72%) staff tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence was higher in those working in designated COVID-19 areas compared with other areas (9\u00b747% versus 6\u00b716%) Healthcare assistants (aOR 2\u00b706 [95%CI 1\u00b714-3\u00b771]; p=0\u00b7016) and domestic and portering staff (aOR 3\u00b745 [95% CI 1\u00b707-11\u00b742]; p=0\u00b7039) had significantly higher seroprevalence than other staff groups after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and COVID-19 working location. Staff working in acute medicine and medical sub-specialities were also at higher risk (aOR 2\u00b707 [95% CI 1\u00b731-3\u00b725]; p<0\u00b7002). Staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds had an aOR of 1\u00b765 (95% CI 1\u00b732 - 2\u00b707; p<0\u00b7001) compared to white staff; this increased risk was independent of COVID-19 area working. The only symptoms significantly associated with seropositivity in a multivariable model were loss of sense of taste or smell, fever, and myalgia; 31% of staff testing positive reported no prior symptoms.

Conclusions

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs is highly heterogeneous and influenced by COVID-19 working location, role, age and ethnicity. Increased risk amongst BAME staff cannot be accounted for solely by occupational factors.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/341240/2/1-s2.0-S016344532200514X-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32079223", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9020545", @@ -24870,6 +24853,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06315-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06315-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8844403; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8844403?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36058413", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030", + "title": "A prospective study of risk factors associated with seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare workers at a large UK teaching hospital.", + "authorString": "Cooper DJ, Lear S, Watson L, Shaw A, Ferris M, Doffinger R, Bousfield R, Sharrocks K, Weekes MP, Warne B, Sparkes D, Jones NK, Rivett L, Routledge M, Chaudhry A, Dempsey K, Matson M, Lakha A, Gathercole G, O'Connor O, Wilson E, Shahzad O, Toms K, Thompson R, Halsall I, Halsall D, Houghton S, Papadia S, Kingston N, Stirrups KE, Graves B, Townsend P, Walker N, Stark H, CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, De Angelis D, Seaman S, Dougan G, Bradley JR, T\u00f6r\u00f6k ME, Goodfellow I, Baker S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of infection", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Healthcare Workers; Sero-epidemiology; Risk Factor Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

To describe the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods

We conducted a prospective sero-epidemiological study of HCWs at a major UK teaching hospital using a SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay. Risk factors for seropositivity were analysed using multivariate logistic regression.

Results

410/5,698 (7\u00b72%) staff tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence was higher in those working in designated COVID-19 areas compared with other areas (9\u00b747% versus 6\u00b716%) Healthcare assistants (aOR 2\u00b706 [95%CI 1\u00b714-3\u00b771]; p=0\u00b7016) and domestic and portering staff (aOR 3\u00b745 [95% CI 1\u00b707-11\u00b742]; p=0\u00b7039) had significantly higher seroprevalence than other staff groups after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and COVID-19 working location. Staff working in acute medicine and medical sub-specialities were also at higher risk (aOR 2\u00b707 [95% CI 1\u00b731-3\u00b725]; p<0\u00b7002). Staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds had an aOR of 1\u00b765 (95% CI 1\u00b732 - 2\u00b707; p<0\u00b7001) compared to white staff; this increased risk was independent of COVID-19 area working. The only symptoms significantly associated with seropositivity in a multivariable model were loss of sense of taste or smell, fever, and myalgia; 31% of staff testing positive reported no prior symptoms.

Conclusions

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs is highly heterogeneous and influenced by COVID-19 working location, role, age and ethnicity. Increased risk amongst BAME staff cannot be accounted for solely by occupational factors.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/341240/2/1-s2.0-S016344532200514X-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436870?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31089183", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43861-9", @@ -24887,23 +24887,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43861-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43861-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517397; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517397?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34611362", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6", - "title": "Polygenic basis and biomedical consequences of telomere length variation.", - "authorString": "Codd V, Wang Q, Allara E, Musicha C, Kaptoge S, Stoma S, Jiang T, Hamby SE, Braund PS, Bountziouka V, Budgeon CA, Denniff M, Swinfield C, Papakonstantinou M, Sheth S, Nanus DE, Warner SC, Wang M, Khera AV, Eales J, Ouwehand WH, Thompson JR, Di Angelantonio E, Wood AM, Butterworth AS, Danesh JN, Nelson CP, Samani NJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Telomeres, the end fragments of chromosomes, play key roles in cellular proliferation and senescence. Here we characterize the genetic architecture of naturally occurring variation in leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and identify causal links between LTL and biomedical phenotypes in 472,174 well-characterized UK Biobank participants. We identified 197 independent sentinel variants associated with LTL at 138 genomic loci (108 new). Genetically determined differences in LTL were associated with multiple biological traits, ranging from height to bone marrow function, as well as several diseases spanning neoplastic, vascular and inflammatory pathologies. Finally, we estimated that, at the age of 40\u2009years, people with an LTL >1\u2009s.d. shorter than the population mean had a 2.5-year-lower life expectancy compared with the group with \u22651\u2009s.d. longer LDL. Overall, we furnish new insights into the genetic regulation of LTL, reveal wide-ranging influences of LTL on physiological traits, diseases and longevity, and provide a powerful resource available to the global research community.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00944-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33310109", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.006", @@ -24922,21 +24905,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.006; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.12.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725132; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725132?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "30848519", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945", - "title": "Impact of glycaemic control on fracture risk in 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes: a time-dependent analysis.", - "authorString": "Thayakaran R, Perrins M, Gokhale KM, Kumaran S, Narendran P, Price MJ, Nirantharakumar K, Toulis KA.", + "id": "34611362", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6", + "title": "Polygenic basis and biomedical consequences of telomere length variation.", + "authorString": "Codd V, Wang Q, Allara E, Musicha C, Kaptoge S, Stoma S, Jiang T, Hamby SE, Braund PS, Bountziouka V, Budgeon CA, Denniff M, Swinfield C, Papakonstantinou M, Sheth S, Nanus DE, Warner SC, Wang M, Khera AV, Eales J, Ouwehand WH, Thompson JR, Di Angelantonio E, Wood AM, Butterworth AS, Danesh JN, Nelson CP, Samani NJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-04-05", - "isOpenAccess": "N", + "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

To assess whether glycaemic control is associated with a lifelong increased risk of fracture in people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes.

Methods

People with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes between 1 January 1995 and 10 May 2016 were identified in The Health Improvement Network database. Longitudinal HbA1c measurements from diagnosis to fracture or study end or loss to follow-up were collected. A Cox proportional hazards model with HbA1c included as a time-dependent variable was fitted to these data.

Results

Some 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes were included. The estimated adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for HbA1c was statistically significant [aHR 1.007; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.002-1.011 (mmol/mol) and aHR 1.07; 95% CI 1.03-1.12 (%)]. An incremental higher risk of fracture was observed with increasing levels of HbA1c .

Conclusions

In people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, higher HbA1c is associated with an increased risk for fractures.", + "abstract": "Telomeres, the end fragments of chromosomes, play key roles in cellular proliferation and senescence. Here we characterize the genetic architecture of naturally occurring variation in leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and identify causal links between LTL and biomedical phenotypes in 472,174 well-characterized UK Biobank participants. We identified 197 independent sentinel variants associated with LTL at 138 genomic loci (108 new). Genetically determined differences in LTL were associated with multiple biological traits, ranging from height to bone marrow function, as well as several diseases spanning neoplastic, vascular and inflammatory pathologies. Finally, we estimated that, at the age of 40\u2009years, people with an LTL >1\u2009s.d. shorter than the population mean had a 2.5-year-lower life expectancy compared with the group with \u22651\u2009s.d. longer LDL. Overall, we furnish new insights into the genetic regulation of LTL, reveal wide-ranging influences of LTL on physiological traits, diseases and longevity, and provide a powerful resource available to the global research community.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00944-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00944-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492471?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34112101", @@ -24956,38 +24939,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12872-021-02020-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-021-02020-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8191101; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8191101?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36357634", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7", - "title": "Shared genetic risk across different presentations of gene test-negative idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.", - "authorString": "Downie ML, Gupta S, Chan MMY, Sadeghi-Alavijeh O, Cao J, Parekh RS, Diz CB, Bierzynska A, Levine AP, Pepper RJ, Stanescu H, Saleem MA, Kleta R, Bockenhauer D, Koziell AB, Gale DP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany)", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-11-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Paediatrics; Minimal Change Disease; Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis; Monogenic; Genetic Risk Score; Steroid-resistant Nephrotic Syndrome; Steroid-sensitive Nephrotic Syndrome", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Idiop athic nephrotic syndrome (INS) is classified in children according to response to initial corticosteroid therapy into steroid-sensitive (SSNS) and steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS), and in adults according to histology into minimal change disease (MCD) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). However, there is well-recognised phenotypic overlap between these entities. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown a strong association between SSNS and variation at HLA, suggesting an underlying immunological basis. We sought to determine whether a risk score generated from genetic variants associated with SSNS could be used to gain insight into the pathophysiology of INS presenting in other ways.

Methods

We developed an SSNS genetic risk score (SSNS-GRS) from the five variants independently associated with childhood SSNS in a previous European GWAS. We quantified SSNS-GRS in independent cohorts of European individuals with childhood SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS, and contrasted them with SSNS-GRS quantified in individuals with monogenic SRNS, membranous nephropathy (a different immune-mediated disease-causing nephrotic syndrome), and healthy controls.

Results

The SSNS-GRS was significantly elevated in cohorts with SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS compared to healthy participants and those with membranous nephropathy. The SSNS-GRS in all cohorts with non-monogenic INS were also significantly elevated compared to those with monogenic SRNS.

Conclusions

The shared genetic risk factors among patients with different presentations of INS strongly suggests a shared autoimmune pathogenesis when monogenic causes are excluded. Use of the SSNS-GRS, in addition to testing for monogenic causes, may help to classify patients presenting with INS. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "34173614", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x", - "title": "Evolution and effects of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: a population analysis in 189 care homes in one geographical region of the UK.", - "authorString": "Burton JK, Bayne G, Evans C, Garbe F, Gorman D, Honhold N, McCormick D, Othieno R, Stevenson JE, Swietlik S, Templeton KE, Tranter M, Willocks L, Guthrie B.", + "id": "30848519", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945", + "title": "Impact of glycaemic control on fracture risk in 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes: a time-dependent analysis.", + "authorString": "Thayakaran R, Perrins M, Gokhale KM, Kumaran S, Narendran P, Price MJ, Nirantharakumar K, Toulis KA.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The lancet. Healthy longevity", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "journalTitle": "Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-04-05", + "isOpenAccess": "N", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

COVID-19 has affected care home residents internationally, but detailed information on outbreaks is scarce. We aimed to describe the evolution of outbreaks of COVID-19 in all care homes in one large health region in Scotland.

Methods

We did a population analysis of testing, cases, and deaths in care homes in the National Health Service (NHS) Lothian health region of the UK. We obtained data for COVID-19 testing (PCR testing of nasopharyngeal swabs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) and deaths (COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), and we analysed data by several variables including type of care home, number of beds, and locality. Outcome measures were timing of outbreaks, number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in care home residents, care home characteristics associated with the presence of an outbreak, and deaths of residents in both care homes and hospitals. We calculated excess deaths (both COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), which we defined as the sum of deaths over and above the historical average in the same period over the past 5 years.

Findings

Between March 10 and Aug 2, 2020, residents at 189 care homes (5843 beds) were tested for COVID-19 when symptomatic. A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed at 69 (37%) care homes, of which 66 (96%) were care homes for older people. The size of care homes for older people was strongly associated with a COVID-19 outbreak (odds ratio per 20-bed increase 3\u00b735, 95% CI 1\u00b799-5\u00b763). 907 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recorded during the study period, and 432 COVID-19-related deaths. 229 (25%) COVID-19-related cases and 99 (24%) COVID-related deaths occurred in five (3%) of 189 care homes, and 441 (49%) cases and 207 (50%) deaths were in 13 (7%) care homes. 411 (95%) COVID-19-related deaths occurred in the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 19 (4%) deaths were in hospital, and two (<1%) were in one of the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. At the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 74 excess non-COVID-19-related deaths were reported, whereas ten non-COVID-19-related excess deaths were observed in the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. 32 fewer non-COVID-19-related deaths than expected were reported among care home residents in hospital.

Interpretation

The effect of COVID-19 on care homes has been substantial but concentrated in care homes with known outbreaks. A key implication from our findings is that, if community incidence of COVID-19 increases again, many care home residents will be susceptible. Shielding care home residents from potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and ensuring rapid action to minimise outbreak size if infection is introduced, will be important for any second wave.

Funding

None.", + "abstract": "

Aims

To assess whether glycaemic control is associated with a lifelong increased risk of fracture in people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes.

Methods

People with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes between 1 January 1995 and 10 May 2016 were identified in The Health Improvement Network database. Longitudinal HbA1c measurements from diagnosis to fracture or study end or loss to follow-up were collected. A Cox proportional hazards model with HbA1c included as a time-dependent variable was fitted to these data.

Results

Some 5368 people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes were included. The estimated adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for HbA1c was statistically significant [aHR 1.007; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.002-1.011 (mmol/mol) and aHR 1.07; 95% CI 1.03-1.12 (%)]. An incremental higher risk of fracture was observed with increasing levels of HbA1c .

Conclusions

In people with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, higher HbA1c is associated with an increased risk for fractures.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30012-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.13945" }, { "id": "37178708", @@ -25006,6 +24972,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470204523001560/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(23)00156-0" }, + { + "id": "36357634", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7", + "title": "Shared genetic risk across different presentations of gene test-negative idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.", + "authorString": "Downie ML, Gupta S, Chan MMY, Sadeghi-Alavijeh O, Cao J, Parekh RS, Diz CB, Bierzynska A, Levine AP, Pepper RJ, Stanescu H, Saleem MA, Kleta R, Bockenhauer D, Koziell AB, Gale DP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany)", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-11-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Paediatrics; Minimal Change Disease; Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis; Monogenic; Genetic Risk Score; Steroid-resistant Nephrotic Syndrome; Steroid-sensitive Nephrotic Syndrome", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Idiop athic nephrotic syndrome (INS) is classified in children according to response to initial corticosteroid therapy into steroid-sensitive (SSNS) and steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS), and in adults according to histology into minimal change disease (MCD) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). However, there is well-recognised phenotypic overlap between these entities. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown a strong association between SSNS and variation at HLA, suggesting an underlying immunological basis. We sought to determine whether a risk score generated from genetic variants associated with SSNS could be used to gain insight into the pathophysiology of INS presenting in other ways.

Methods

We developed an SSNS genetic risk score (SSNS-GRS) from the five variants independently associated with childhood SSNS in a previous European GWAS. We quantified SSNS-GRS in independent cohorts of European individuals with childhood SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS, and contrasted them with SSNS-GRS quantified in individuals with monogenic SRNS, membranous nephropathy (a different immune-mediated disease-causing nephrotic syndrome), and healthy controls.

Results

The SSNS-GRS was significantly elevated in cohorts with SSNS, non-monogenic SRNS, MCD, and FSGS compared to healthy participants and those with membranous nephropathy. The SSNS-GRS in all cohorts with non-monogenic INS were also significantly elevated compared to those with monogenic SRNS.

Conclusions

The shared genetic risk factors among patients with different presentations of INS strongly suggests a shared autoimmune pathogenesis when monogenic causes are excluded. Use of the SSNS-GRS, in addition to testing for monogenic causes, may help to classify patients presenting with INS. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05789-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154254?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31312209", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.00567", @@ -25041,21 +25024,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/1/e033318.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033318; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7045199; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7045199?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36210800", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2", - "title": "Feasibility and ethics of using data from the Scottish newborn blood spot archive for research.", - "authorString": "Cunningham-Burley S, McCartney DL, Campbell A, Flaig R, Orange CEL, Porteous C, Aitken M, Mulholland C, Davidson S, McCafferty SM, Murphy L, Wrobel N, McCafferty S, Wallace K, StClair D, Kerr S, Hayward C, McIntosh AM, Sudlow C, Marioni RE, Pell J, Miedzybrodzka Z, Porteous DJ.", + "id": "34173614", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x", + "title": "Evolution and effects of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: a population analysis in 189 care homes in one geographical region of the UK.", + "authorString": "Burton JK, Bayne G, Evans C, Garbe F, Gorman D, Honhold N, McCormick D, Othieno R, Stevenson JE, Swietlik S, Templeton KE, Tranter M, Willocks L, Guthrie B.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Communications medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-06", + "journalTitle": "The lancet. Healthy longevity", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-10-20", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epigenomics; epidemiology", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Newborn heel prick blood spots are routinely used to screen for inborn errors of metabolism and life-limiting inherited disorders. The potential value of secondary data from newborn blood spot archives merits ethical consideration and assessment of feasibility for public benefit. Early life exposures and behaviours set health trajectories in childhood and later life. The newborn blood spot is potentially well placed to create an unbiased and cost-effective population-level retrospective birth cohort study. Scotland has retained newborn blood spots for all children born since 1965, around 3 million in total. However, a moratorium on research access is currently in place, pending public consultation.

Methods

We conducted a Citizens' Jury as a first step to explore whether research use of newborn blood spots was in the public interest. We also assessed the feasibility and value of extracting research data from dried blood spots for predictive medicine.

Results

Jurors delivered an agreed verdict that conditional research access to the newborn blood spots was in the public interest. The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland authorised restricted lifting of the current research moratorium to allow a feasibility study. Newborn blood spots from consented Generation Scotland volunteers were retrieved and their potential for both epidemiological and biological research demonstrated.

Conclusions

Through the Citizens' Jury, we have begun to identify under what conditions, if any, should researchers in Scotland be granted access to the archive. Through the feasibility study, we have demonstrated the potential value of research access for health data science and predictive medicine.", + "abstract": "

Background

COVID-19 has affected care home residents internationally, but detailed information on outbreaks is scarce. We aimed to describe the evolution of outbreaks of COVID-19 in all care homes in one large health region in Scotland.

Methods

We did a population analysis of testing, cases, and deaths in care homes in the National Health Service (NHS) Lothian health region of the UK. We obtained data for COVID-19 testing (PCR testing of nasopharyngeal swabs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) and deaths (COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), and we analysed data by several variables including type of care home, number of beds, and locality. Outcome measures were timing of outbreaks, number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in care home residents, care home characteristics associated with the presence of an outbreak, and deaths of residents in both care homes and hospitals. We calculated excess deaths (both COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related), which we defined as the sum of deaths over and above the historical average in the same period over the past 5 years.

Findings

Between March 10 and Aug 2, 2020, residents at 189 care homes (5843 beds) were tested for COVID-19 when symptomatic. A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed at 69 (37%) care homes, of which 66 (96%) were care homes for older people. The size of care homes for older people was strongly associated with a COVID-19 outbreak (odds ratio per 20-bed increase 3\u00b735, 95% CI 1\u00b799-5\u00b763). 907 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recorded during the study period, and 432 COVID-19-related deaths. 229 (25%) COVID-19-related cases and 99 (24%) COVID-related deaths occurred in five (3%) of 189 care homes, and 441 (49%) cases and 207 (50%) deaths were in 13 (7%) care homes. 411 (95%) COVID-19-related deaths occurred in the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 19 (4%) deaths were in hospital, and two (<1%) were in one of the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. At the 69 care homes with a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, 74 excess non-COVID-19-related deaths were reported, whereas ten non-COVID-19-related excess deaths were observed in the 120 care homes without a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak. 32 fewer non-COVID-19-related deaths than expected were reported among care home residents in hospital.

Interpretation

The effect of COVID-19 on care homes has been substantial but concentrated in care homes with known outbreaks. A key implication from our findings is that, if community incidence of COVID-19 increases again, many care home residents will be susceptible. Shielding care home residents from potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and ensuring rapid action to minimise outbreak size if infection is introduced, will be important for any second wave.

Funding

None.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00189-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-7568(20)30012-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(20)30012-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7574931?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35434685", @@ -25091,6 +25074,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/366/bmj.l4892.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4892; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6719286" }, + { + "id": "36210800", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2", + "title": "Feasibility and ethics of using data from the Scottish newborn blood spot archive for research.", + "authorString": "Cunningham-Burley S, McCartney DL, Campbell A, Flaig R, Orange CEL, Porteous C, Aitken M, Mulholland C, Davidson S, McCafferty SM, Murphy L, Wrobel N, McCafferty S, Wallace K, StClair D, Kerr S, Hayward C, McIntosh AM, Sudlow C, Marioni RE, Pell J, Miedzybrodzka Z, Porteous DJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Communications medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epigenomics; epidemiology", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Newborn heel prick blood spots are routinely used to screen for inborn errors of metabolism and life-limiting inherited disorders. The potential value of secondary data from newborn blood spot archives merits ethical consideration and assessment of feasibility for public benefit. Early life exposures and behaviours set health trajectories in childhood and later life. The newborn blood spot is potentially well placed to create an unbiased and cost-effective population-level retrospective birth cohort study. Scotland has retained newborn blood spots for all children born since 1965, around 3 million in total. However, a moratorium on research access is currently in place, pending public consultation.

Methods

We conducted a Citizens' Jury as a first step to explore whether research use of newborn blood spots was in the public interest. We also assessed the feasibility and value of extracting research data from dried blood spots for predictive medicine.

Results

Jurors delivered an agreed verdict that conditional research access to the newborn blood spots was in the public interest. The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland authorised restricted lifting of the current research moratorium to allow a feasibility study. Newborn blood spots from consented Generation Scotland volunteers were retrieved and their potential for both epidemiological and biological research demonstrated.

Conclusions

Through the Citizens' Jury, we have begun to identify under what conditions, if any, should researchers in Scotland be granted access to the archive. Through the feasibility study, we have demonstrated the potential value of research access for health data science and predictive medicine.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00189-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00189-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9537278?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36962407", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292", @@ -25109,55 +25109,55 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000292; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021216; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021216?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32401709", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2", - "title": "COVID-19: a public health approach to manage domestic violence is needed.", - "authorString": "Chandan JS, Taylor J, Bradbury-Jones C, Nirantharakumar K, Kane E, Bandyopadhyay S.", + "id": "32909959", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3164", + "title": "Reporting guidelines for clinical trial reports for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the CONSORT-AI Extension.", + "authorString": "Liu X, Rivera SC, Moher D, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Public health", + "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-10", + "date": "2020-09-09", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "Chandan et al. comment on the effect the covid pandemic may have on domestic violence and propose surveillance for domestic violence is needed. ", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30112-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171?pdf=render" + "abstract": "The CONSORT 2010 (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement provides minimum guidelines for reporting randomised trials. Its widespread use has been instrumental in ensuring transparency when evaluating new interventions. More recently, there has been a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence (AI) need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate impact on health outcomes.The CONSORT-AI extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trials evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for clinical trial protocols: SPIRIT-AI. Both guidelines were developed through a staged consensus process, involving a literature review and expert consultation to generate 29 candidate items, which were assessed by an international multi-stakeholder group in a two-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed on in a two-day consensus meeting (31 stakeholders) and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants).The CONSORT-AI extension includes 14 new items, which were considered sufficiently important for AI interventions, that they should be routinely reported in addition to the core CONSORT 2010 items. CONSORT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention is integrated, the handling of inputs and outputs of the AI intervention, the human-AI interaction and providing analysis of error cases.CONSORT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness in reporting clinical trials for AI interventions. It will assist editors and peer-reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret and critically appraise the quality of clinical trial design and risk of bias in the reported outcomes.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m3164.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3164; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7490784" }, { - "id": "37075078", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223", - "title": "The association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events by age and frailty: A cohort study.", - "authorString": "Sheppard JP, Koshiaris C, Stevens R, Lay-Flurrie S, Banerjee A, Bellows BK, Clegg A, Hobbs FDR, Payne RA, Swain S, Usher-Smith JA, McManus RJ.", + "id": "35568032", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.04.009", + "title": "Whole-exome sequencing identifies rare genetic variants associated with human plasma metabolites.", + "authorString": "Bomba L, Walter K, Guo Q, Surendran P, Kundu K, Nongmaithem S, Karim MA, Stewart ID, Langenberg C, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Roberts DJ, Ouwehand WH, INTERVAL study, Dunham I, Butterworth AS, Soranzo N.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-04-19", + "journalTitle": "American journal of human genetics", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-13", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Sequencing; Proteomics; drug targets; Metabolomics; Endophenotypes; Loss-of-function; Metabolon; Wgs; Wes; Rare Genetic Variant", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Antihypertensives are effective at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, but limited data exist quantifying their association with serious adverse events, particularly in older people with frailty. This study aimed to examine this association using nationally representative electronic health record data.

Methods and findings

This was a retrospective cohort study utilising linked data from 1,256 general practices across England held within the Clinical Practice Research Datalink between 1998 and 2018. Included patients were aged 40+ years, with a systolic blood pressure reading between 130 and 179 mm Hg, and not previously prescribed antihypertensive treatment. The main exposure was defined as a first prescription of antihypertensive treatment. The primary outcome was hospitalisation or death within 10 years from falls. Secondary outcomes were hypotension, syncope, fractures, acute kidney injury, electrolyte abnormalities, and primary care attendance with gout. The association between treatment and these serious adverse events was examined by Cox regression adjusted for propensity score. This propensity score was generated from a multivariable logistic regression model with patient characteristics, medical history and medication prescriptions as covariates, and new antihypertensive treatment as the outcome. Subgroup analyses were undertaken by age and frailty. Of 3,834,056 patients followed for a median of 7.1 years, 484,187 (12.6%) were prescribed new antihypertensive treatment in the 12 months before the index date (baseline). Antihypertensives were associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation or death from falls (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21 to 1.26), hypotension (aHR 1.32, 95% CI 1.29 to 1.35), syncope (aHR 1.20, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.22), acute kidney injury (aHR 1.44, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.47), electrolyte abnormalities (aHR 1.45, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.48), and primary care attendance with gout (aHR 1.35, 95% CI 1.32 to 1.37). The absolute risk of serious adverse events with treatment was very low, with 6 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year. In older patients (80 to 89 years) and those with severe frailty, this absolute risk was increased, with 61 and 84 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year (respectively). Findings were consistent in sensitivity analyses using different approaches to address confounding and taking into account the competing risk of death. A strength of this analysis is that it provides evidence regarding the association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events, in a population of patients more representative than those enrolled in previous randomised controlled trials. Although treatment effect estimates fell within the 95% CIs of those from such trials, these analyses were observational in nature and so bias from unmeasured confounding cannot be ruled out.

Conclusions

Antihypertensive treatment was associated with serious adverse events. Overall, the absolute risk of this harm was low, with the exception of older patients and those with moderate to severe frailty, where the risks were similar to the likelihood of benefit from treatment. In these populations, physicians may want to consider alternative approaches to management of blood pressure and refrain from prescribing new treatment.", + "abstract": "Metabolite levels measured in the human population are endophenotypes for biological processes. We combined sequencing data for 3,924 (whole-exome sequencing, WES, discovery) and 2,805 (whole-genome sequencing, WGS, replication) donors from a prospective cohort of blood donors in England. We used multiple approaches to select and aggregate rare genetic variants (minor allele frequency [MAF]\u00a0<\u00a00.1%) in protein-coding regions and tested their associations with 995 metabolites measured in plasma by using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We identified 40 novel associations implicating rare coding variants (27 genes and 38 metabolites), of which 28 (15 genes and 28 metabolites) were replicated. We developed algorithms to prioritize putative driver variants at each locus and used mediation and Mendelian randomization analyses to test directionality at associations of metabolite and protein levels at the ACY1 locus. Overall, 66% of reported associations implicate gene targets of approved drugs or bioactive drug-like compounds, contributing to drug targets' validating efforts.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/337646/3/1-s2.0-S0002929722001574-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.04.009; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9247822; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9247822?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32909959", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3164", - "title": "Reporting guidelines for clinical trial reports for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the CONSORT-AI Extension.", - "authorString": "Liu X, Rivera SC, Moher D, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.", + "id": "32401709", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2", + "title": "COVID-19: a public health approach to manage domestic violence is needed.", + "authorString": "Chandan JS, Taylor J, Bradbury-Jones C, Nirantharakumar K, Kane E, Bandyopadhyay S.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Public health", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-09-09", + "date": "2020-05-10", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The CONSORT 2010 (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement provides minimum guidelines for reporting randomised trials. Its widespread use has been instrumental in ensuring transparency when evaluating new interventions. More recently, there has been a growing recognition that interventions involving artificial intelligence (AI) need to undergo rigorous, prospective evaluation to demonstrate impact on health outcomes.The CONSORT-AI extension is a new reporting guideline for clinical trials evaluating interventions with an AI component. It was developed in parallel with its companion statement for clinical trial protocols: SPIRIT-AI. Both guidelines were developed through a staged consensus process, involving a literature review and expert consultation to generate 29 candidate items, which were assessed by an international multi-stakeholder group in a two-stage Delphi survey (103 stakeholders), agreed on in a two-day consensus meeting (31 stakeholders) and refined through a checklist pilot (34 participants).The CONSORT-AI extension includes 14 new items, which were considered sufficiently important for AI interventions, that they should be routinely reported in addition to the core CONSORT 2010 items. CONSORT-AI recommends that investigators provide clear descriptions of the AI intervention, including instructions and skills required for use, the setting in which the AI intervention is integrated, the handling of inputs and outputs of the AI intervention, the human-AI interaction and providing analysis of error cases.CONSORT-AI will help promote transparency and completeness in reporting clinical trials for AI interventions. It will assist editors and peer-reviewers, as well as the general readership, to understand, interpret and critically appraise the quality of clinical trial design and risk of bias in the reported outcomes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m3164.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3164; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7490784" + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "Chandan et al. comment on the effect the covid pandemic may have on domestic violence and propose surveillance for domestic violence is needed. ", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30112-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30112-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7252171?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32935062", @@ -25176,23 +25176,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1383/2566; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1383; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7473253?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35568032", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.04.009", - "title": "Whole-exome sequencing identifies rare genetic variants associated with human plasma metabolites.", - "authorString": "Bomba L, Walter K, Guo Q, Surendran P, Kundu K, Nongmaithem S, Karim MA, Stewart ID, Langenberg C, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Roberts DJ, Ouwehand WH, INTERVAL study, Dunham I, Butterworth AS, Soranzo N.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "American journal of human genetics", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Sequencing; Proteomics; drug targets; Metabolomics; Endophenotypes; Loss-of-function; Metabolon; Wgs; Wes; Rare Genetic Variant", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Metabolite levels measured in the human population are endophenotypes for biological processes. We combined sequencing data for 3,924 (whole-exome sequencing, WES, discovery) and 2,805 (whole-genome sequencing, WGS, replication) donors from a prospective cohort of blood donors in England. We used multiple approaches to select and aggregate rare genetic variants (minor allele frequency [MAF]\u00a0<\u00a00.1%) in protein-coding regions and tested their associations with 995 metabolites measured in plasma by using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We identified 40 novel associations implicating rare coding variants (27 genes and 38 metabolites), of which 28 (15 genes and 28 metabolites) were replicated. We developed algorithms to prioritize putative driver variants at each locus and used mediation and Mendelian randomization analyses to test directionality at associations of metabolite and protein levels at the ACY1 locus. Overall, 66% of reported associations implicate gene targets of approved drugs or bioactive drug-like compounds, contributing to drug targets' validating efforts.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/337646/3/1-s2.0-S0002929722001574-main.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.04.009; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9247822; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9247822?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35861818", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.121.025473", @@ -25228,38 +25211,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:http://www.ajconline.org/article/S0002914921012418/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2021.12.022" }, { - "id": "30444743", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424", - "title": "Risk Factors for 1-Year Mortality and Hospital Utilization Patterns in Critical Care Survivors: A Retrospective, Observational, Population-Based Data Linkage Study.", - "authorString": "Szakmany T, Walters AM, Pugh R, Battle C, Berridge DM, Lyons RA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Critical care medicine", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

Clear understanding of the long-term consequences of critical care survivorship is essential. We investigated the care process and individual factors associated with long-term mortality among ICU survivors and explored hospital use in this group.

Design

Population-based data linkage study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank.

Setting

All ICUs between 2006 and 2013 in Wales, United Kingdom.

Patients

We identified 40,631 patients discharged alive from Welsh adult ICUs.

Interventions

None.

Measurements and main results

Primary outcome was 365-day survival. The secondary outcomes were 30- and 90-day survival and hospital utilization in the 365 days following ICU discharge. Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted to compare survival rates. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to determine risk factors of mortality. Seven-thousand eight-hundred eighty-three patients (19.4%) died during the 1-year follow-up period. In the multivariable Cox regression analysis, advanced age and comorbidities were significant determinants of long-term mortality. Expedited discharge due to ICU bed shortage was associated with higher risk. The rate of hospitalization in the year prior to the critical care admission was 28 hospitalized days/1,000 d; post critical care was 88 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who were still alive; and 57 hospitalized days/1,000 d and 412 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who died by the end of the study, respectively.

Conclusions

One in five ICU survivors die within 1 year, with advanced age and comorbidity being significant predictors of outcome, leading to high resource use. Care process factors indicating high system stress were associated with increased risk. More detailed understanding is needed on the effects of the potentially modifiable factors to optimize service delivery and improve long-term outcomes of the critically ill.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424" - }, - { - "id": "34226637", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1", - "title": "Effects of adiposity on the human plasma proteome: observational and Mendelian randomisation estimates.", - "authorString": "Goudswaard LJ, Bell JA, Hughes DA, Corbin LJ, Walter K, Davey Smith G, Soranzo N, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Ouwehand WH, Watkins NA, Roberts DJ, Butterworth AS, Hers I, Timpson NJ.", + "id": "37075078", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223", + "title": "The association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events by age and frailty: A cohort study.", + "authorString": "Sheppard JP, Koshiaris C, Stevens R, Lay-Flurrie S, Banerjee A, Bellows BK, Clegg A, Hobbs FDR, Payne RA, Swain S, Usher-Smith JA, McManus RJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of obesity (2005)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-05", + "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-04-19", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Variation in adiposity is associated with cardiometabolic disease outcomes, but mechanisms leading from this exposure to disease are unclear. This study aimed to estimate effects of body mass index (BMI) on an extensive set of circulating proteins.

Methods

We used SomaLogic proteomic data from up to 2737 healthy participants from the INTERVAL study. Associations between self-reported BMI and 3622 unique plasma proteins were explored using linear regression. These were complemented by Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses using a genetic risk score (GRS) comprised of 654 BMI-associated polymorphisms from a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of adult BMI. A disease enrichment analysis was performed using DAVID Bioinformatics 6.8 for proteins which were altered by BMI.

Results

Observationally, BMI was associated with 1576 proteins (P\u2009<\u20091.4\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5), with particularly strong evidence for a positive association with leptin and fatty acid-binding protein-4 (FABP4), and a negative association with sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). Observational estimates were likely confounded, but the GRS for BMI did not associate with measured confounders. MR analyses provided evidence for a causal relationship between BMI and eight proteins including leptin (0.63 standard deviation (SD) per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.48-0.79, P\u2009=\u20091.6\u2009\u00d7\u200910-15), FABP4 (0.64\u2009SD per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.46-0.83, P\u2009=\u20096.7\u2009\u00d7\u200910-12) and SHBG (-0.45\u2009SD per SD BMI, 95% CI -0.65 to -0.25, P\u2009=\u20091.4\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5). There was agreement in the magnitude of observational and MR estimates (R2\u2009=\u20090.33) and evidence that proteins most strongly altered by BMI were enriched for genes involved in cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence for a broad impact of adiposity on the human proteome. Proteins strongly altered by BMI include those involved in regulating appetite, sex hormones and inflammation; such proteins are also enriched for cardiovascular disease-related genes. Altogether, results help focus attention onto new proteomic signatures of obesity-related disease.", + "abstract": "

Background

Antihypertensives are effective at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, but limited data exist quantifying their association with serious adverse events, particularly in older people with frailty. This study aimed to examine this association using nationally representative electronic health record data.

Methods and findings

This was a retrospective cohort study utilising linked data from 1,256 general practices across England held within the Clinical Practice Research Datalink between 1998 and 2018. Included patients were aged 40+ years, with a systolic blood pressure reading between 130 and 179 mm Hg, and not previously prescribed antihypertensive treatment. The main exposure was defined as a first prescription of antihypertensive treatment. The primary outcome was hospitalisation or death within 10 years from falls. Secondary outcomes were hypotension, syncope, fractures, acute kidney injury, electrolyte abnormalities, and primary care attendance with gout. The association between treatment and these serious adverse events was examined by Cox regression adjusted for propensity score. This propensity score was generated from a multivariable logistic regression model with patient characteristics, medical history and medication prescriptions as covariates, and new antihypertensive treatment as the outcome. Subgroup analyses were undertaken by age and frailty. Of 3,834,056 patients followed for a median of 7.1 years, 484,187 (12.6%) were prescribed new antihypertensive treatment in the 12 months before the index date (baseline). Antihypertensives were associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation or death from falls (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21 to 1.26), hypotension (aHR 1.32, 95% CI 1.29 to 1.35), syncope (aHR 1.20, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.22), acute kidney injury (aHR 1.44, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.47), electrolyte abnormalities (aHR 1.45, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.48), and primary care attendance with gout (aHR 1.35, 95% CI 1.32 to 1.37). The absolute risk of serious adverse events with treatment was very low, with 6 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year. In older patients (80 to 89 years) and those with severe frailty, this absolute risk was increased, with 61 and 84 fall events per 10,000 patients treated per year (respectively). Findings were consistent in sensitivity analyses using different approaches to address confounding and taking into account the competing risk of death. A strength of this analysis is that it provides evidence regarding the association between antihypertensive treatment and serious adverse events, in a population of patients more representative than those enrolled in previous randomised controlled trials. Although treatment effect estimates fell within the 95% CIs of those from such trials, these analyses were observational in nature and so bias from unmeasured confounding cannot be ruled out.

Conclusions

Antihypertensive treatment was associated with serious adverse events. Overall, the absolute risk of this harm was low, with the exception of older patients and those with moderate to severe frailty, where the risks were similar to the likelihood of benefit from treatment. In these populations, physicians may want to consider alternative approaches to management of blood pressure and refrain from prescribing new treatment.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-00896-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10155987?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34796724", @@ -25296,21 +25262,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-03013-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10441728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10441728?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34859219", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275", - "title": "Maternal immune activation downregulates schizophrenia genes in the foetal mouse brain.", - "authorString": "Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Hamley JC, Knight JC.", + "id": "30444743", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424", + "title": "Risk Factors for 1-Year Mortality and Hospital Utilization Patterns in Critical Care Survivors: A Retrospective, Observational, Population-Based Data Linkage Study.", + "authorString": "Szakmany T, Walters AM, Pugh R, Battle C, Berridge DM, Lyons RA.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Brain communications", + "journalTitle": "Critical care medicine", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

Clear understanding of the long-term consequences of critical care survivorship is essential. We investigated the care process and individual factors associated with long-term mortality among ICU survivors and explored hospital use in this group.

Design

Population-based data linkage study using the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank.

Setting

All ICUs between 2006 and 2013 in Wales, United Kingdom.

Patients

We identified 40,631 patients discharged alive from Welsh adult ICUs.

Interventions

None.

Measurements and main results

Primary outcome was 365-day survival. The secondary outcomes were 30- and 90-day survival and hospital utilization in the 365 days following ICU discharge. Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted to compare survival rates. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to determine risk factors of mortality. Seven-thousand eight-hundred eighty-three patients (19.4%) died during the 1-year follow-up period. In the multivariable Cox regression analysis, advanced age and comorbidities were significant determinants of long-term mortality. Expedited discharge due to ICU bed shortage was associated with higher risk. The rate of hospitalization in the year prior to the critical care admission was 28 hospitalized days/1,000 d; post critical care was 88 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who were still alive; and 57 hospitalized days/1,000 d and 412 hospitalized days/1,000 d for those who died by the end of the study, respectively.

Conclusions

One in five ICU survivors die within 1 year, with advanced age and comorbidity being significant predictors of outcome, leading to high resource use. Care process factors indicating high system stress were associated with increased risk. More detailed understanding is needed on the effects of the potentially modifiable factors to optimize service delivery and improve long-term outcomes of the critically ill.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003424; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6330072?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000003424" + }, + { + "id": "34226637", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1", + "title": "Effects of adiposity on the human plasma proteome: observational and Mendelian randomisation estimates.", + "authorString": "Goudswaard LJ, Bell JA, Hughes DA, Corbin LJ, Walter K, Davey Smith G, Soranzo N, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Ouwehand WH, Watkins NA, Roberts DJ, Butterworth AS, Hers I, Timpson NJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of obesity (2005)", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-11-15", + "date": "2021-07-05", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Infection; Genetics; Schizophrenia; Immune; Maternal", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Susceptibility to schizophrenia is mediated by genetic and environmental risk factors. Maternal immune activation by infections during pregnancy is hypothesized to be a key environmental risk factor. However, little is known about how maternal immune activation contributes to schizophrenia pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated if maternal immune activation influences the expression of genes associated with schizophrenia in foetal mouse brains. We found that two sets of schizophrenia genes were downregulated more than expected by chance in the foetal mouse brain following maternal immune activation, namely those genes associated with schizophrenia through genome-wide association study (fold change = 1.93, false discovery rate = 4 \u00d7 10-4) and downregulated genes in adult schizophrenia brains (fold change = 1.51, false discovery rate = 4 \u00d7 10-10). We found that these genes mapped to key biological processes, such as neuronal cell adhesion. We also identified cortical excitatory neurons and inhibitory interneurons as the most vulnerable cell types to the deleterious effects of this interaction. Subsequently, we used gene expression information from herpes simplex virus 1 infection of neuronal precursor cells as orthogonal evidence to support our findings and to demonstrate that schizophrenia-associated cell adhesion genes, PCDHA2, PCDHA3 and PCDHA5, were downregulated following herpes simplex virus 1 infection. Collectively, our results provide novel evidence for a link between genetic and environmental risk factors in schizophrenia pathogenesis. These findings carry important implications for early preventative strategies in schizophrenia.", + "abstract": "

Background

Variation in adiposity is associated with cardiometabolic disease outcomes, but mechanisms leading from this exposure to disease are unclear. This study aimed to estimate effects of body mass index (BMI) on an extensive set of circulating proteins.

Methods

We used SomaLogic proteomic data from up to 2737 healthy participants from the INTERVAL study. Associations between self-reported BMI and 3622 unique plasma proteins were explored using linear regression. These were complemented by Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses using a genetic risk score (GRS) comprised of 654 BMI-associated polymorphisms from a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of adult BMI. A disease enrichment analysis was performed using DAVID Bioinformatics 6.8 for proteins which were altered by BMI.

Results

Observationally, BMI was associated with 1576 proteins (P\u2009<\u20091.4\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5), with particularly strong evidence for a positive association with leptin and fatty acid-binding protein-4 (FABP4), and a negative association with sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). Observational estimates were likely confounded, but the GRS for BMI did not associate with measured confounders. MR analyses provided evidence for a causal relationship between BMI and eight proteins including leptin (0.63 standard deviation (SD) per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.48-0.79, P\u2009=\u20091.6\u2009\u00d7\u200910-15), FABP4 (0.64\u2009SD per SD BMI, 95% CI 0.46-0.83, P\u2009=\u20096.7\u2009\u00d7\u200910-12) and SHBG (-0.45\u2009SD per SD BMI, 95% CI -0.65 to -0.25, P\u2009=\u20091.4\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5). There was agreement in the magnitude of observational and MR estimates (R2\u2009=\u20090.33) and evidence that proteins most strongly altered by BMI were enriched for genes involved in cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence for a broad impact of adiposity on the human proteome. Proteins strongly altered by BMI include those involved in regulating appetite, sex hormones and inflammation; such proteins are also enriched for cardiovascular disease-related genes. Altogether, results help focus attention onto new proteomic signatures of obesity-related disease.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/3/4/fcab275/41365065/fcab275.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-021-00896-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00896-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8455324?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36048760", @@ -25329,23 +25312,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1010294&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010294; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436054; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9436054?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35241573", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108", - "title": "Comparing antibiotic prescribing between clinicians in UK primary care: an analysis in a cohort study of eight different measures of antibiotic prescribing.", - "authorString": "Van Staa T, Li Y, Gold N, Chadborn T, Welfare W, Palin V, Ashcroft DM, Bircher J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ quality & safety", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-03", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "General Practice; Antibiotic Management; Healthcare Quality Improvement", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

There is a need to reduce antimicrobial uses in humans. Previous studies have found variations in antibiotic (AB) prescribing between practices in primary care. This study assessed variability of AB prescribing between clinicians.

Methods

Clinical Practice Research Datalink, which collects electronic health records in primary care, was used to select anonymised clinicians providing 500+ consultations during 2012-2017. Eight measures of AB prescribing were assessed, such as overall and incidental AB prescribing, repeat AB courses and extent of risk-based prescribing. Poisson regression models with random effect for clinicians were fitted.

Results

6111 clinicians from 466 general practices were included. Considerable variability between individual clinicians was found for most AB measures. For example, the rate of AB prescribing varied between 77.4 and 350.3 per 1000 consultations; percentage of repeat AB courses within 30 days ranged from 13.1% to 34.3%; predicted patient risk of hospital admission for infection-related complications in those prescribed AB ranged from 0.03% to 0.32% (5th and 95th percentiles). The adjusted relative rate between clinicians in rates of AB prescribing was 5.23. Weak correlation coefficients (<0.5) were found between most AB measures. There was considerable variability in case mix seen by clinicians. The largest potential impact to reduce AB prescribing could be around encouraging risk-based prescribing and addressing repeat issues of ABs. Reduction of repeat AB courses to prescribing habit of median clinician would save 21 813 AB prescriptions per 1000 clinicians per year.

Conclusions

The wide variation seen in all measures of AB prescribing and weak correlation between them suggests that a single AB measure, such as prescribing rate, is not sufficient to underpin the optimisation of AB prescribing.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/qhc/early/2022/03/02/bmjqs-2020-012108.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33986429", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89743-x", @@ -25363,6 +25329,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-89743-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89743-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8119673; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8119673?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34859219", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275", + "title": "Maternal immune activation downregulates schizophrenia genes in the foetal mouse brain.", + "authorString": "Handunnetthi L, Saatci D, Hamley JC, Knight JC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Brain communications", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-11-15", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Infection; Genetics; Schizophrenia; Immune; Maternal", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Susceptibility to schizophrenia is mediated by genetic and environmental risk factors. Maternal immune activation by infections during pregnancy is hypothesized to be a key environmental risk factor. However, little is known about how maternal immune activation contributes to schizophrenia pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated if maternal immune activation influences the expression of genes associated with schizophrenia in foetal mouse brains. We found that two sets of schizophrenia genes were downregulated more than expected by chance in the foetal mouse brain following maternal immune activation, namely those genes associated with schizophrenia through genome-wide association study (fold change = 1.93, false discovery rate = 4 \u00d7 10-4) and downregulated genes in adult schizophrenia brains (fold change = 1.51, false discovery rate = 4 \u00d7 10-10). We found that these genes mapped to key biological processes, such as neuronal cell adhesion. We also identified cortical excitatory neurons and inhibitory interneurons as the most vulnerable cell types to the deleterious effects of this interaction. Subsequently, we used gene expression information from herpes simplex virus 1 infection of neuronal precursor cells as orthogonal evidence to support our findings and to demonstrate that schizophrenia-associated cell adhesion genes, PCDHA2, PCDHA3 and PCDHA5, were downregulated following herpes simplex virus 1 infection. Collectively, our results provide novel evidence for a link between genetic and environmental risk factors in schizophrenia pathogenesis. These findings carry important implications for early preventative strategies in schizophrenia.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/3/4/fcab275/41365065/fcab275.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab275; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8633770?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "36408685", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.122.009526", + "title": "Multimarker Analysis of Serially Measured GDF-15, NT-proBNP, ST2, GAL-3, cTnI, Creatinine, and Prognosis in Acute Heart Failure.", + "authorString": "G\u00fcrg\u00f6ze MT, van Vark LC, Baart SJ, Kardys I, Akkerhuis KM, Manintveld OC, Postmus D, Hillege HL, Lesman-Leegte I, Asselbergs FW, Brunner-la-Rocca HP, van den Bos EJ, Orsel JG, de Ridder SPJ, Pinto YM, Boersma E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Circulation. Heart failure", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-11-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Prognosis; Biomarkers; Heart Failure; Growth Differentiation Factor 15", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Studies on serially measured GDF-15 (growth differentiation factor 15) in acute heart failure (HF) are limited. Moreover, several pathophysiological pathways contribute to HF. Therefore, we aimed to explore the (additional) prognostic value of serially measured GDF-15 using a multi-marker approach to more accurately predict HF risk.

Methods

TRIUMPH (Translational Initiative on Unique and Novel Strategies for Management of Patients With Heart Failure) is a prospective cohort of 496 patients with acute HF who were enrolled in 14 hospitals in the Netherlands between 2009 and 2014. Blood sampling was scheduled at 7 moments during 1-year follow-up. GDF-15, NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide), ST2 (suppression of tumorigenicity 2), galectin-3, troponin I, and creatinine were measured in a central laboratory. We associated repeated measurements of these biomarkers with the composite primary end point of all-cause mortality and HF rehospitalization, using multivariable joint modeling.

Results

Median age was 74 years, and 37% were women. Median baseline GDF-15 was 4632 pg/mL. The primary end point was reached in 188 (40%) patients. The average estimated GDF-15 level increased weeks before the primary end point was reached. The hazard ratio per 1 SD difference in log-GDF-15 was 2.14 (95% CI, 1.78-2.57) unadjusted, 1.96 (1.49-2.53) after adjustment for clinical confounders and 1.44 (1.05-1.91) when jointly modeled with all biomarkers. The adjusted HRs for NT-proBNP were 2.38 (1.78-3.33) and 1.52 (1.15-2.08), respectively. The multimarker model combining GDF-15, NT-proBNP, and troponin I provided a favorable risk discrimination (area under the curve=0.785).

Conclusions

Sequentially measured GDF-15 independently and dynamically predicts risk of adverse outcomes during 1-year follow-up after index admission for acute HF. NT-proBNP remains a robust predictor among potential candidates. Multiple biomarkers should be considered for stratification in clinical practice.

Registration

URL: https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/1783; Unique Identifier: NTR1893. (The trial can be found temporarily at https://trialsearch.who.int/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=NTR1893.).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.122.009526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.122.009526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9833118; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9833118?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32878619", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3", @@ -25381,38 +25381,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7467845?pdf=render; pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01726-3" }, { - "id": "36936592", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151", - "title": "Covid-19 variants of concern and pregnancy.", - "authorString": "Stock SJ, Harmer C, Calvert C.", + "id": "35241573", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108", + "title": "Comparing antibiotic prescribing between clinicians in UK primary care: an analysis in a cohort study of eight different measures of antibiotic prescribing.", + "authorString": "Van Staa T, Li Y, Gold N, Chadborn T, Welfare W, Palin V, Ashcroft DM, Bircher J.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ medicine", + "journalTitle": "BMJ quality & safety", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-02", + "date": "2022-03-03", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Pregnancy complications; Covid-19", + "keywords": "General Practice; Antibiotic Management; Healthcare Quality Improvement", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Background

There is a need to reduce antimicrobial uses in humans. Previous studies have found variations in antibiotic (AB) prescribing between practices in primary care. This study assessed variability of AB prescribing between clinicians.

Methods

Clinical Practice Research Datalink, which collects electronic health records in primary care, was used to select anonymised clinicians providing 500+ consultations during 2012-2017. Eight measures of AB prescribing were assessed, such as overall and incidental AB prescribing, repeat AB courses and extent of risk-based prescribing. Poisson regression models with random effect for clinicians were fitted.

Results

6111 clinicians from 466 general practices were included. Considerable variability between individual clinicians was found for most AB measures. For example, the rate of AB prescribing varied between 77.4 and 350.3 per 1000 consultations; percentage of repeat AB courses within 30 days ranged from 13.1% to 34.3%; predicted patient risk of hospital admission for infection-related complications in those prescribed AB ranged from 0.03% to 0.32% (5th and 95th percentiles). The adjusted relative rate between clinicians in rates of AB prescribing was 5.23. Weak correlation coefficients (<0.5) were found between most AB measures. There was considerable variability in case mix seen by clinicians. The largest potential impact to reduce AB prescribing could be around encouraging risk-based prescribing and addressing repeat issues of ABs. Reduction of repeat AB courses to prescribing habit of median clinician would save 21 813 AB prescriptions per 1000 clinicians per year.

Conclusions

The wide variation seen in all measures of AB prescribing and weak correlation between them suggests that a single AB measure, such as prescribing rate, is not sufficient to underpin the optimisation of AB prescribing.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000151.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/qhc/early/2022/03/02/bmjqs-2020-012108.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012108; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9606525?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36408685", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.122.009526", - "title": "Multimarker Analysis of Serially Measured GDF-15, NT-proBNP, ST2, GAL-3, cTnI, Creatinine, and Prognosis in Acute Heart Failure.", - "authorString": "G\u00fcrg\u00f6ze MT, van Vark LC, Baart SJ, Kardys I, Akkerhuis KM, Manintveld OC, Postmus D, Hillege HL, Lesman-Leegte I, Asselbergs FW, Brunner-la-Rocca HP, van den Bos EJ, Orsel JG, de Ridder SPJ, Pinto YM, Boersma E.", + "id": "34328441", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/29840", + "title": "Predicting Depressive Symptom Severity Through Individuals' Nearby Bluetooth Device Count Data Collected by Mobile Phones: Preliminary Longitudinal Study.", + "authorString": "Zhang Y, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, Laiou P, Matcham F, Oetzmann C, Lamers F, Siddi S, Simblett S, Rintala A, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Haro JM, Penninx BWJH, Narayan VA, Annas P, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Circulation. Heart failure", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-11-21", + "journalTitle": "JMIR mHealth and uHealth", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-07-30", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Prognosis; Biomarkers; Heart Failure; Growth Differentiation Factor 15", + "keywords": "Monitoring; Depression; Mental health; Hierarchical Bayesian Model; Bluetooth; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Digital Health; Digital Biomarkers; Digital Phenotyping", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Studies on serially measured GDF-15 (growth differentiation factor 15) in acute heart failure (HF) are limited. Moreover, several pathophysiological pathways contribute to HF. Therefore, we aimed to explore the (additional) prognostic value of serially measured GDF-15 using a multi-marker approach to more accurately predict HF risk.

Methods

TRIUMPH (Translational Initiative on Unique and Novel Strategies for Management of Patients With Heart Failure) is a prospective cohort of 496 patients with acute HF who were enrolled in 14 hospitals in the Netherlands between 2009 and 2014. Blood sampling was scheduled at 7 moments during 1-year follow-up. GDF-15, NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide), ST2 (suppression of tumorigenicity 2), galectin-3, troponin I, and creatinine were measured in a central laboratory. We associated repeated measurements of these biomarkers with the composite primary end point of all-cause mortality and HF rehospitalization, using multivariable joint modeling.

Results

Median age was 74 years, and 37% were women. Median baseline GDF-15 was 4632 pg/mL. The primary end point was reached in 188 (40%) patients. The average estimated GDF-15 level increased weeks before the primary end point was reached. The hazard ratio per 1 SD difference in log-GDF-15 was 2.14 (95% CI, 1.78-2.57) unadjusted, 1.96 (1.49-2.53) after adjustment for clinical confounders and 1.44 (1.05-1.91) when jointly modeled with all biomarkers. The adjusted HRs for NT-proBNP were 2.38 (1.78-3.33) and 1.52 (1.15-2.08), respectively. The multimarker model combining GDF-15, NT-proBNP, and troponin I provided a favorable risk discrimination (area under the curve=0.785).

Conclusions

Sequentially measured GDF-15 independently and dynamically predicts risk of adverse outcomes during 1-year follow-up after index admission for acute HF. NT-proBNP remains a robust predictor among potential candidates. Multiple biomarkers should be considered for stratification in clinical practice.

Registration

URL: https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/1783; Unique Identifier: NTR1893. (The trial can be found temporarily at https://trialsearch.who.int/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=NTR1893.).", + "abstract": "

Background

Research in mental health has found associations between depression and individuals' behaviors and statuses, such as social connections and interactions, working status, mobility, and social isolation and loneliness. These behaviors and statuses can be approximated by the nearby Bluetooth device count (NBDC) detected by Bluetooth sensors in mobile phones.

Objective

This study aimed to explore the value of the NBDC data in predicting depressive symptom severity as measured via the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8).

Methods

The data used in this paper included 2886 biweekly PHQ-8 records collected from 316 participants recruited from three study sites in the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom as part of the EU Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Central Nervous System (RADAR-CNS) study. From the NBDC data 2 weeks prior to each PHQ-8 score, we extracted 49 Bluetooth features, including statistical features and nonlinear features for measuring the periodicity and regularity of individuals' life rhythms. Linear mixed-effect models were used to explore associations between Bluetooth features and the PHQ-8 score. We then applied hierarchical Bayesian linear regression models to predict the PHQ-8 score from the extracted Bluetooth features.

Results

A number of significant associations were found between Bluetooth features and depressive symptom severity. Generally speaking, along with depressive symptom worsening, one or more of the following changes were found in the preceding 2 weeks of the NBDC data: (1) the amount decreased, (2) the variance decreased, (3) the periodicity (especially the circadian rhythm) decreased, and (4) the NBDC sequence became more irregular. Compared with commonly used machine learning models, the proposed hierarchical Bayesian linear regression model achieved the best prediction metrics (R2=0.526) and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 3.891. Bluetooth features can explain an extra 18.8% of the variance in the PHQ-8 score relative to the baseline model without Bluetooth features (R2=0.338, RMSE=4.547).

Conclusions

Our statistical results indicate that the NBDC data have the potential to reflect changes in individuals' behaviors and statuses concurrent with the changes in the depressive state. The prediction results demonstrate that the NBDC data have a significant value in predicting depressive symptom severity. These findings may have utility for the mental health monitoring practice in real-world settings.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.122.009526; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.122.009526; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9833118; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9833118?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/7/e29840/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/29840; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8367113" }, { "id": "35365070", @@ -25432,21 +25432,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07268-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8972713; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8972713?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34328441", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/29840", - "title": "Predicting Depressive Symptom Severity Through Individuals' Nearby Bluetooth Device Count Data Collected by Mobile Phones: Preliminary Longitudinal Study.", - "authorString": "Zhang Y, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, Laiou P, Matcham F, Oetzmann C, Lamers F, Siddi S, Simblett S, Rintala A, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Haro JM, Penninx BWJH, Narayan VA, Annas P, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB.", + "id": "36936592", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151", + "title": "Covid-19 variants of concern and pregnancy.", + "authorString": "Stock SJ, Harmer C, Calvert C.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR mHealth and uHealth", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-30", + "journalTitle": "BMJ medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-02", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Monitoring; Depression; Mental health; Hierarchical Bayesian Model; Bluetooth; Mhealth; Mobile Health; Digital Health; Digital Biomarkers; Digital Phenotyping", + "keywords": "Pregnancy complications; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Research in mental health has found associations between depression and individuals' behaviors and statuses, such as social connections and interactions, working status, mobility, and social isolation and loneliness. These behaviors and statuses can be approximated by the nearby Bluetooth device count (NBDC) detected by Bluetooth sensors in mobile phones.

Objective

This study aimed to explore the value of the NBDC data in predicting depressive symptom severity as measured via the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8).

Methods

The data used in this paper included 2886 biweekly PHQ-8 records collected from 316 participants recruited from three study sites in the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom as part of the EU Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Central Nervous System (RADAR-CNS) study. From the NBDC data 2 weeks prior to each PHQ-8 score, we extracted 49 Bluetooth features, including statistical features and nonlinear features for measuring the periodicity and regularity of individuals' life rhythms. Linear mixed-effect models were used to explore associations between Bluetooth features and the PHQ-8 score. We then applied hierarchical Bayesian linear regression models to predict the PHQ-8 score from the extracted Bluetooth features.

Results

A number of significant associations were found between Bluetooth features and depressive symptom severity. Generally speaking, along with depressive symptom worsening, one or more of the following changes were found in the preceding 2 weeks of the NBDC data: (1) the amount decreased, (2) the variance decreased, (3) the periodicity (especially the circadian rhythm) decreased, and (4) the NBDC sequence became more irregular. Compared with commonly used machine learning models, the proposed hierarchical Bayesian linear regression model achieved the best prediction metrics (R2=0.526) and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 3.891. Bluetooth features can explain an extra 18.8% of the variance in the PHQ-8 score relative to the baseline model without Bluetooth features (R2=0.338, RMSE=4.547).

Conclusions

Our statistical results indicate that the NBDC data have the potential to reflect changes in individuals' behaviors and statuses concurrent with the changes in the depressive state. The prediction results demonstrate that the NBDC data have a significant value in predicting depressive symptom severity. These findings may have utility for the mental health monitoring practice in real-world settings.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/7/e29840/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/29840; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8367113" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/bmjmed/1/1/e000151.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000151; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951363?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33306713", @@ -25482,6 +25482,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/6/e18185/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/18185; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7381072" }, + { + "id": "35880304", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664", + "title": "Telomere Length and Risk of Incident Fracture and Arthroplasty: Findings From UK Biobank.", + "authorString": "Curtis EM, Codd V, Nelson C, D'Angelo S, Wang Q, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Matthews PM, Tobias JH, Danesh J, Cooper C, Samani NJ, Harvey NC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Aging; Osteoporosis; Osteoarthritis; epidemiology; Leucocyte Telomere Length", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "We investigated independent associations between telomere length and risk of fracture and arthroplasty in UK Biobank participants. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was measured in baseline samples using a validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. We used, in men and women separately, Cox proportional hazards models to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) for incident fracture (any, osteoporotic) or arthroplasty (hip or knee) over 1,186,410 person-years of follow-up. Covariates included age, white cell count, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, and menopause (women). In further analyses we adjusted for either estimated bone mineral density (eBMD) from heel quantitative ultrasound, handgrip strength, gait speed, total fat mass (bioimpedance), or blood biomarkers, all measured at baseline (2006-2010). We studied 59,500 women and 51,895 men, mean \u00b1 standard deviation (SD) age 56.4\u2009\u00b1\u20098.0 and 57.0\u2009\u00b1\u20098.3\u2009years, respectively. During follow-up there were 5619 fractures; 5285 hip and 4261 knee arthroplasties. In confounder-adjusted models, longer LTL was associated with reduced risk of incident knee arthroplasty in both men (HR/SD 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88-0.97) and women (0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96), and hip arthroplasty in men (0.91; 95% CI, 0.87-0.95), but not women (0.98; 95% CI, 0.94-1.01). Longer LTL was weakly associated with reduced risk of any incident fracture in women (HR/SD 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93-1.00) with less evidence in men (0.98; 95% CI, 0.93-1.02). Associations with incident outcomes were not materially altered by adjustment for heel eBMD, grip strength, gait speed, fat mass, or blood biomarker measures. In this, the largest study to date, longer LTL was associated with lower risk of incident knee or hip arthroplasty, but only weakly associated with lower risk of fracture. The relative risks were low at a population level, but our findings suggest that common factors acting on the myeloid and musculoskeletal systems might influence later life musculoskeletal outcomes. \u00a9 2022 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/341783442/J_of_Bone_Mineral_Res_2022_Curtis_Telomere_Length_and_Risk_of_Incident_Fracture_and_Arthroplasty_Findings_From_UK_1_.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35212847", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-022-10425-5", @@ -25499,40 +25516,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00455-022-10425-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-022-10425-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9643178; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9643178?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32679111", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8", - "title": "COVID-19 pandemic and admission rates for and management of acute coronary syndromes in England.", - "authorString": "Mafham MM, Spata E, Goldacre R, Gair D, Curnow P, Bray M, Hollings S, Roebuck C, Gale CP, Mamas MA, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Luescher TF, Denwood T, Landray MJ, Emberson JR, Collins R, Morris EJA, Casadei B, Baigent C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-14", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Several countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have reported a substantial drop in the number of patients attending the emergency department with acute coronary syndromes and a reduced number of cardiac procedures. We aimed to understand the scale, nature, and duration of changes to admissions for different types of acute coronary syndrome in England and to evaluate whether in-hospital management of patients has been affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We analysed data on hospital admissions in England for types of acute coronary syndrome from Jan 1, 2019, to May 24, 2020, that were recorded in the Secondary Uses Service Admitted Patient Care database. Admissions were classified as ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-STEMI (NSTEMI), myocardial infarction of unknown type, or other acute coronary syndromes (including unstable angina). We identified revascularisation procedures undertaken during these admissions (ie, coronary angiography without percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI], PCI, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery). We calculated the numbers of weekly admissions and procedures undertaken; percentage reductions in weekly admissions and across subgroups were also calculated, with 95% CIs.

Findings

Hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome declined from mid-February, 2020, falling from a 2019 baseline rate of 3017 admissions per week to 1813 per week by the end of March, 2020, a reduction of 40% (95% CI 37-43). This decline was partly reversed during April and May, 2020, such that by the last week of May, 2020, there were 2522 admissions, representing a 16% (95% CI 13-20) reduction from baseline. During the period of declining admissions, there were reductions in the numbers of admissions for all types of acute coronary syndrome, including both STEMI and NSTEMI, but relative and absolute reductions were larger for NSTEMI, with 1267 admissions per week in 2019 and 733 per week by the end of March, 2020, a percent reduction of 42% (95% CI 38-46). In parallel, reductions were recorded in the number of PCI procedures for patients with both STEMI (438 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 346 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 21%, 95% CI 12-29) and NSTEMI (383 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 240 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 37%, 29-45). The median length of stay among patients with acute coronary syndrome fell from 4 days (IQR 2-9) in 2019 to 3 days (1-5) by the end of March, 2020.

Interpretation

Compared with the weekly average in 2019, there was a substantial reduction in the weekly numbers of patients with acute coronary syndrome who were admitted to hospital in England by the end of March, 2020, which had been partly reversed by the end of May, 2020. The reduced number of admissions during this period is likely to have resulted in increases in out-of-hospital deaths and long-term complications of myocardial infarction and missed opportunities to offer secondary prevention treatment for patients with coronary heart disease. The full extent of the effect of COVID-19 on the management of patients with acute coronary syndrome will continue to be assessed by updating these analyses.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31356-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33048945", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290", - "title": "Neurodevelopmental multimorbidity and educational outcomes of Scottish schoolchildren: A population-based record linkage cohort study.", - "authorString": "Fleming M, Salim EE, Mackay DF, Henderson A, Kinnear D, Clark D, King A, McLay JS, Cooper SA, Pell JP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Neurodevelopmental conditions commonly coexist in children, but compared to adults, childhood multimorbidity attracts less attention in research and clinical practice. We previously reported that children treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression have more school absences and exclusions, additional support needs, poorer attainment, and increased unemployment. They are also more likely to have coexisting conditions, including autism and intellectual disability. We investigated prevalence of neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (\u22652 conditions) among Scottish schoolchildren and their educational outcomes compared to peers.

Methods and findings

We retrospectively linked 6 Scotland-wide databases to analyse 766,244 children (390,290 [50.9%] boys; 375,954 [49.1%] girls) aged 4 to 19 years (mean = 10.9) attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. Children were distributed across all deprivation quintiles (most to least deprived: 22.7%, 20.1%, 19.3%, 19.5%, 18.4%). The majority (96.2%) were white ethnicity. We ascertained autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities from records of additional support needs and ADHD and depression through relevant encashed prescriptions. We identified neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (\u22652 of these conditions) in 4,789 (0.6%) children, with ASD and intellectual disability the most common combination. On adjusting for sociodemographic (sex, age, ethnicity, deprivation) and maternity (maternal age, maternal smoking, sex-gestation-specific birth weight centile, gestational age, 5-minute Apgar score, mode of delivery, parity) factors, multimorbidity was associated with increased school absenteeism and exclusion, unemployment, and poorer exam attainment. Significant dose relationships were evident between number of conditions (0, 1, \u22652) and the last 3 outcomes. Compared to children with no conditions, children with 1 condition, and children with 2 or more conditions, had more absenteeism (1 condition adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.28, 95% CI 1.27-1.30, p < 0.001 and 2 or more conditions adjusted IRR 1.23, 95% CI 1.20-1.28, p < 0.001), greater exclusion (adjusted IRR 2.37, 95% CI 2.25-2.48, p < 0.001 and adjusted IRR 3.04, 95% CI 2.74-3.38, p < 0.001), poorer attainment (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.92, 95% CI 3.63-4.23, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 12.07, 95% CI 9.15-15.94, p < 0.001), and increased unemployment (adjusted OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.49-1.66, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.83-2.45, p < 0.001). Associations remained after further adjustment for comorbid physical conditions and additional support needs. Coexisting depression was the strongest driver of absenteeism and coexisting ADHD the strongest driver of exclusion. Absence of formal primary care diagnoses was a limitation since ascertaining depression and ADHD from prescriptions omitted affected children receiving alternative or no treatment and some antidepressants can be prescribed for other indications.

Conclusions

Structuring clinical practice and training around single conditions may disadvantage children with neurodevelopmental multimorbidity, who we observed had significantly poorer educational outcomes compared to children with 1 condition and no conditions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32692755", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236193", @@ -25550,23 +25533,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236193&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236193; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373274; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373274?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35880304", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664", - "title": "Telomere Length and Risk of Incident Fracture and Arthroplasty: Findings From UK Biobank.", - "authorString": "Curtis EM, Codd V, Nelson C, D'Angelo S, Wang Q, Allara E, Kaptoge S, Matthews PM, Tobias JH, Danesh J, Cooper C, Samani NJ, Harvey NC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Aging; Osteoporosis; Osteoarthritis; epidemiology; Leucocyte Telomere Length", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "We investigated independent associations between telomere length and risk of fracture and arthroplasty in UK Biobank participants. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was measured in baseline samples using a validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. We used, in men and women separately, Cox proportional hazards models to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) for incident fracture (any, osteoporotic) or arthroplasty (hip or knee) over 1,186,410 person-years of follow-up. Covariates included age, white cell count, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, and menopause (women). In further analyses we adjusted for either estimated bone mineral density (eBMD) from heel quantitative ultrasound, handgrip strength, gait speed, total fat mass (bioimpedance), or blood biomarkers, all measured at baseline (2006-2010). We studied 59,500 women and 51,895 men, mean \u00b1 standard deviation (SD) age 56.4\u2009\u00b1\u20098.0 and 57.0\u2009\u00b1\u20098.3\u2009years, respectively. During follow-up there were 5619 fractures; 5285 hip and 4261 knee arthroplasties. In confounder-adjusted models, longer LTL was associated with reduced risk of incident knee arthroplasty in both men (HR/SD 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88-0.97) and women (0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96), and hip arthroplasty in men (0.91; 95% CI, 0.87-0.95), but not women (0.98; 95% CI, 0.94-1.01). Longer LTL was weakly associated with reduced risk of any incident fracture in women (HR/SD 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93-1.00) with less evidence in men (0.98; 95% CI, 0.93-1.02). Associations with incident outcomes were not materially altered by adjustment for heel eBMD, grip strength, gait speed, fat mass, or blood biomarker measures. In this, the largest study to date, longer LTL was associated with lower risk of incident knee or hip arthroplasty, but only weakly associated with lower risk of fracture. The relative risks were low at a population level, but our findings suggest that common factors acting on the myeloid and musculoskeletal systems might influence later life musculoskeletal outcomes. \u00a9 2022 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/341783442/J_of_Bone_Mineral_Res_2022_Curtis_Telomere_Length_and_Risk_of_Incident_Fracture_and_Arthroplasty_Findings_From_UK_1_.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4664; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9826022?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31220083", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002833", @@ -25585,21 +25551,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002833; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002833; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6586257; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6586257?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32371477", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473", - "title": "Rapid implementation of mobile technology for real-time epidemiology of COVID-19.", - "authorString": "Drew DA, Nguyen LH, Steves CJ, Menni C, Freydin M, Varsavsky T, Sudre CH, Cardoso MJ, Ourselin S, Wolf J, Spector TD, Chan AT, COPE Consortium.", + "id": "33048945", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290", + "title": "Neurodevelopmental multimorbidity and educational outcomes of Scottish schoolchildren: A population-based record linkage cohort study.", + "authorString": "Fleming M, Salim EE, Mackay DF, Henderson A, Kinnear D, Clark D, King A, McLay JS, Cooper SA, Pell JP.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Science (New York, N.Y.)", + "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-05", + "date": "2020-10-13", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The rapid pace of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents challenges to the robust collection of population-scale data to address this global health crisis. We established the COronavirus Pandemic Epidemiology (COPE) Consortium to unite scientists with expertise in big data research and epidemiology to develop the COVID Symptom Study, previously known as the COVID Symptom Tracker, mobile application. This application-which offers data on risk factors, predictive symptoms, clinical outcomes, and geographical hotspots-was launched in the United Kingdom on 24 March 2020 and the United States on 29 March 2020 and has garnered more than 2.8 million users as of 2 May 2020. Our initiative offers a proof of concept for the repurposing of existing approaches to enable rapidly scalable epidemiologic data collection and analysis, which is critical for a data-driven response to this public health challenge.", - "laySummary": "Drew et al. decribe the use of a smart-phone App to track Covid-19 symptoms reported by users to track, in real time, information on newly infected individuals. It has been launched in the UK and US and has 2.8 million users and is used to rapidly identify emerging hot spots for infection.", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/26b29c08-29bc-43d9-abb5-56c0c6af9efc/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Background

Neurodevelopmental conditions commonly coexist in children, but compared to adults, childhood multimorbidity attracts less attention in research and clinical practice. We previously reported that children treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression have more school absences and exclusions, additional support needs, poorer attainment, and increased unemployment. They are also more likely to have coexisting conditions, including autism and intellectual disability. We investigated prevalence of neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (\u22652 conditions) among Scottish schoolchildren and their educational outcomes compared to peers.

Methods and findings

We retrospectively linked 6 Scotland-wide databases to analyse 766,244 children (390,290 [50.9%] boys; 375,954 [49.1%] girls) aged 4 to 19 years (mean = 10.9) attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. Children were distributed across all deprivation quintiles (most to least deprived: 22.7%, 20.1%, 19.3%, 19.5%, 18.4%). The majority (96.2%) were white ethnicity. We ascertained autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities from records of additional support needs and ADHD and depression through relevant encashed prescriptions. We identified neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (\u22652 of these conditions) in 4,789 (0.6%) children, with ASD and intellectual disability the most common combination. On adjusting for sociodemographic (sex, age, ethnicity, deprivation) and maternity (maternal age, maternal smoking, sex-gestation-specific birth weight centile, gestational age, 5-minute Apgar score, mode of delivery, parity) factors, multimorbidity was associated with increased school absenteeism and exclusion, unemployment, and poorer exam attainment. Significant dose relationships were evident between number of conditions (0, 1, \u22652) and the last 3 outcomes. Compared to children with no conditions, children with 1 condition, and children with 2 or more conditions, had more absenteeism (1 condition adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.28, 95% CI 1.27-1.30, p < 0.001 and 2 or more conditions adjusted IRR 1.23, 95% CI 1.20-1.28, p < 0.001), greater exclusion (adjusted IRR 2.37, 95% CI 2.25-2.48, p < 0.001 and adjusted IRR 3.04, 95% CI 2.74-3.38, p < 0.001), poorer attainment (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.92, 95% CI 3.63-4.23, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 12.07, 95% CI 9.15-15.94, p < 0.001), and increased unemployment (adjusted OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.49-1.66, p < 0.001 and adjusted OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.83-2.45, p < 0.001). Associations remained after further adjustment for comorbid physical conditions and additional support needs. Coexisting depression was the strongest driver of absenteeism and coexisting ADHD the strongest driver of exclusion. Absence of formal primary care diagnoses was a limitation since ascertaining depression and ADHD from prescriptions omitted affected children receiving alternative or no treatment and some antidepressants can be prescribed for other indications.

Conclusions

Structuring clinical practice and training around single conditions may disadvantage children with neurodevelopmental multimorbidity, who we observed had significantly poorer educational outcomes compared to children with 1 condition and no conditions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003290; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7553326?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "32679111", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8", + "title": "COVID-19 pandemic and admission rates for and management of acute coronary syndromes in England.", + "authorString": "Mafham MM, Spata E, Goldacre R, Gair D, Curnow P, Bray M, Hollings S, Roebuck C, Gale CP, Mamas MA, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Luescher TF, Denwood T, Landray MJ, Emberson JR, Collins R, Morris EJA, Casadei B, Baigent C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Several countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have reported a substantial drop in the number of patients attending the emergency department with acute coronary syndromes and a reduced number of cardiac procedures. We aimed to understand the scale, nature, and duration of changes to admissions for different types of acute coronary syndrome in England and to evaluate whether in-hospital management of patients has been affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We analysed data on hospital admissions in England for types of acute coronary syndrome from Jan 1, 2019, to May 24, 2020, that were recorded in the Secondary Uses Service Admitted Patient Care database. Admissions were classified as ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-STEMI (NSTEMI), myocardial infarction of unknown type, or other acute coronary syndromes (including unstable angina). We identified revascularisation procedures undertaken during these admissions (ie, coronary angiography without percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI], PCI, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery). We calculated the numbers of weekly admissions and procedures undertaken; percentage reductions in weekly admissions and across subgroups were also calculated, with 95% CIs.

Findings

Hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome declined from mid-February, 2020, falling from a 2019 baseline rate of 3017 admissions per week to 1813 per week by the end of March, 2020, a reduction of 40% (95% CI 37-43). This decline was partly reversed during April and May, 2020, such that by the last week of May, 2020, there were 2522 admissions, representing a 16% (95% CI 13-20) reduction from baseline. During the period of declining admissions, there were reductions in the numbers of admissions for all types of acute coronary syndrome, including both STEMI and NSTEMI, but relative and absolute reductions were larger for NSTEMI, with 1267 admissions per week in 2019 and 733 per week by the end of March, 2020, a percent reduction of 42% (95% CI 38-46). In parallel, reductions were recorded in the number of PCI procedures for patients with both STEMI (438 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 346 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 21%, 95% CI 12-29) and NSTEMI (383 PCI procedures per week in 2019 vs 240 by the end of March, 2020; percent reduction 37%, 29-45). The median length of stay among patients with acute coronary syndrome fell from 4 days (IQR 2-9) in 2019 to 3 days (1-5) by the end of March, 2020.

Interpretation

Compared with the weekly average in 2019, there was a substantial reduction in the weekly numbers of patients with acute coronary syndrome who were admitted to hospital in England by the end of March, 2020, which had been partly reversed by the end of May, 2020. The reduced number of admissions during this period is likely to have resulted in increases in out-of-hospital deaths and long-term complications of myocardial infarction and missed opportunities to offer secondary prevention treatment for patients with coronary heart disease. The full extent of the effect of COVID-19 on the management of patients with acute coronary syndrome will continue to be assessed by updating these analyses.

Funding

UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Public Health England, Health Data Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31356-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31356-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7429983?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31242963", @@ -25635,6 +25618,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.auec.2020.07.007" }, + { + "id": "32371477", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473", + "title": "Rapid implementation of mobile technology for real-time epidemiology of COVID-19.", + "authorString": "Drew DA, Nguyen LH, Steves CJ, Menni C, Freydin M, Varsavsky T, Sudre CH, Cardoso MJ, Ourselin S, Wolf J, Spector TD, Chan AT, COPE Consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Science (New York, N.Y.)", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-05-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The rapid pace of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents challenges to the robust collection of population-scale data to address this global health crisis. We established the COronavirus Pandemic Epidemiology (COPE) Consortium to unite scientists with expertise in big data research and epidemiology to develop the COVID Symptom Study, previously known as the COVID Symptom Tracker, mobile application. This application-which offers data on risk factors, predictive symptoms, clinical outcomes, and geographical hotspots-was launched in the United Kingdom on 24 March 2020 and the United States on 29 March 2020 and has garnered more than 2.8 million users as of 2 May 2020. Our initiative offers a proof of concept for the repurposing of existing approaches to enable rapidly scalable epidemiologic data collection and analysis, which is critical for a data-driven response to this public health challenge.", + "laySummary": "Drew et al. decribe the use of a smart-phone App to track Covid-19 symptoms reported by users to track, in real time, information on newly infected individuals. It has been launched in the UK and US and has 2.8 million users and is used to rapidly identify emerging hot spots for infection.", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/26b29c08-29bc-43d9-abb5-56c0c6af9efc/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc0473; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7200009?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35762393", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyac117", @@ -25686,6 +25686,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/3/239/42296399/ehab759.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab759; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8790764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8790764?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "30585256", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6", + "title": "Personal radio use and cancer risks among 48,518 British police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study.", + "authorString": "Gao H, Aresu M, Vergnaud AC, McRobie D, Spear J, Heard A, Kongsg\u00e5rd HW, Singh D, Muller DC, Elliott P.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "British journal of cancer", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2018-12-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile phones have been classified as potentially carcinogenic. No study has investigated use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), a source of RF-EMF with wide occupational use, and cancer risks.

Methods

We investigated association of monthly personal radio use and risk of cancer using Cox proportional hazards regression among 48,518 police officers and staff of the Airwave Health Monitoring Study in Great Britain.

Results

During median follow-up of 5.9 years, 716 incident cancer cases were identified. Among users, the median of the average monthly duration of use in the year prior to enrolment was 30.5\u2009\u2009min (inter-quartile range 8.1, 68.1). Overall, there was no association between personal radio use and risk of all cancers (hazard ratio [HR]\u2009=\u20090.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93, 1.03). For head and neck cancers HR\u2009=\u20090.72 (95% CI: 0.30, 1.70) among personal radio users vs non-users, and among users it was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.23) per doubling of minutes of personal radio use.

Conclusions

With the limited follow-up to date, we found no evidence of association of personal radio use with cancer risk. Continued follow-up of the cohort is warranted.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0365-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35193912", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053884", @@ -25720,23 +25737,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31626-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31626-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283523; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283523?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "30585256", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6", - "title": "Personal radio use and cancer risks among 48,518 British police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study.", - "authorString": "Gao H, Aresu M, Vergnaud AC, McRobie D, Spear J, Heard A, Kongsg\u00e5rd HW, Singh D, Muller DC, Elliott P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "British journal of cancer", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2018-12-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile phones have been classified as potentially carcinogenic. No study has investigated use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), a source of RF-EMF with wide occupational use, and cancer risks.

Methods

We investigated association of monthly personal radio use and risk of cancer using Cox proportional hazards regression among 48,518 police officers and staff of the Airwave Health Monitoring Study in Great Britain.

Results

During median follow-up of 5.9 years, 716 incident cancer cases were identified. Among users, the median of the average monthly duration of use in the year prior to enrolment was 30.5\u2009\u2009min (inter-quartile range 8.1, 68.1). Overall, there was no association between personal radio use and risk of all cancers (hazard ratio [HR]\u2009=\u20090.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93, 1.03). For head and neck cancers HR\u2009=\u20090.72 (95% CI: 0.30, 1.70) among personal radio users vs non-users, and among users it was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.23) per doubling of minutes of personal radio use.

Conclusions

With the limited follow-up to date, we found no evidence of association of personal radio use with cancer risk. Continued follow-up of the cohort is warranted.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0365-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0365-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6354010?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34345870", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100286", @@ -25754,40 +25754,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100286; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100286; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261829; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8261829?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34347787", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809", - "title": "Developing a Natural Language Processing tool to identify perinatal self-harm in electronic healthcare records.", - "authorString": "Ayre K, Bittar A, Kam J, Verma S, Howard LM, Dutta R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-08-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Self-harm occurring within pregnancy and the postnatal year (\"perinatal self-harm\") is a clinically important yet under-researched topic. Current research likely under-estimates prevalence due to methodological limitations. Electronic healthcare records (EHRs) provide a source of clinically rich data on perinatal self-harm.

Aims

(1) To create a Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool that can, with acceptable precision and recall, identify mentions of acts of perinatal self-harm within EHRs. (2) To use this tool to identify service-users who have self-harmed perinatally, based on their EHRs.

Methods

We used the Clinical Record Interactive Search system to extract de-identified EHRs of secondary mental healthcare service-users at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We developed a tool that applied several layers of linguistic processing based on the spaCy NLP library for Python. We evaluated mention-level performance in the following domains: span, status, temporality and polarity. Evaluation was done against a manually coded reference standard. Mention-level performance was reported as precision, recall, F-score and Cohen's kappa for each domain. Performance was also assessed at 'service-user' level and explored whether a heuristic rule improved this. We report per-class statistics for service-user performance, as well as likelihood ratios and post-test probabilities.

Results

Mention-level performance: micro-averaged F-score, precision and recall for span, polarity and temporality >0.8. Kappa for status 0.68, temporality 0.62, polarity 0.91. Service-user level performance with heuristic: F-score, precision, recall of minority class 0.69, macro-averaged F-score 0.81, positive LR 9.4 (4.8-19), post-test probability 69.0% (53-82%). Considering the task difficulty, the tool performs well, although temporality was the attribute with the lowest level of annotator agreement.

Conclusions

It is feasible to develop an NLP tool that identifies, with acceptable validity, mentions of perinatal self-harm within EHRs, although with limitations regarding temporality. Using a heuristic rule, it can also function at a service-user-level.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253809&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "32781946", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405", - "title": "Key questions for modelling COVID-19 exit strategies.", - "authorString": "Thompson RN, Hollingsworth TD, Isham V, Arribas-Bel D, Ashby B, Britton T, Challenor P, Chappell LHK, Clapham H, Cunniffe NJ, Dawid AP, Donnelly CA, Eggo RM, Funk S, Gilbert N, Glendinning P, Gog JR, Hart WS, Heesterbeek H, House T, Keeling M, Kiss IZ, Kretzschmar ME, Lloyd AL, McBryde ES, McCaw JM, McKinley TJ, Miller JC, Morris M, O'Neill PD, Parag KV, Pearson CAB, Pellis L, Pulliam JRC, Ross JV, Tomba GS, Silverman BW, Struchiner CJ, Tildesley MJ, Trapman P, Webb CR, Mollison D, Restif O.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Proceedings. Biological sciences", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-08-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Uncertainty; Mathematical Modelling; Epidemic Control; Exit Strategy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Combinations of intense non-pharmaceutical interventions (lockdowns) were introduced worldwide to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Many governments have begun to implement exit strategies that relax restrictions while attempting to control the risk of a surge in cases. Mathematical modelling has played a central role in guiding interventions, but the challenge of designing optimal exit strategies in the face of ongoing transmission is unprecedented. Here, we report discussions from the Isaac Newton Institute 'Models for an exit strategy' workshop (11-15 May 2020). A diverse community of modellers who are providing evidence to governments worldwide were asked to identify the main questions that, if answered, would allow for more accurate predictions of the effects of different exit strategies. Based on these questions, we propose a roadmap to facilitate the development of reliable models to guide exit strategies. This roadmap requires a global collaborative effort from the scientific community and policymakers, and has three parts: (i) improve estimation of key epidemiological parameters; (ii) understand sources of heterogeneity in populations; and (iii) focus on requirements for data collection, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. This will provide important information for planning exit strategies that balance socio-economic benefits with public health.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34903266", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02561-2", @@ -25822,6 +25788,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621000056/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.01.003" }, + { + "id": "32781946", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405", + "title": "Key questions for modelling COVID-19 exit strategies.", + "authorString": "Thompson RN, Hollingsworth TD, Isham V, Arribas-Bel D, Ashby B, Britton T, Challenor P, Chappell LHK, Clapham H, Cunniffe NJ, Dawid AP, Donnelly CA, Eggo RM, Funk S, Gilbert N, Glendinning P, Gog JR, Hart WS, Heesterbeek H, House T, Keeling M, Kiss IZ, Kretzschmar ME, Lloyd AL, McBryde ES, McCaw JM, McKinley TJ, Miller JC, Morris M, O'Neill PD, Parag KV, Pearson CAB, Pellis L, Pulliam JRC, Ross JV, Tomba GS, Silverman BW, Struchiner CJ, Tildesley MJ, Trapman P, Webb CR, Mollison D, Restif O.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Proceedings. Biological sciences", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-08-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Uncertainty; Mathematical Modelling; Epidemic Control; Exit Strategy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Combinations of intense non-pharmaceutical interventions (lockdowns) were introduced worldwide to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Many governments have begun to implement exit strategies that relax restrictions while attempting to control the risk of a surge in cases. Mathematical modelling has played a central role in guiding interventions, but the challenge of designing optimal exit strategies in the face of ongoing transmission is unprecedented. Here, we report discussions from the Isaac Newton Institute 'Models for an exit strategy' workshop (11-15 May 2020). A diverse community of modellers who are providing evidence to governments worldwide were asked to identify the main questions that, if answered, would allow for more accurate predictions of the effects of different exit strategies. Based on these questions, we propose a roadmap to facilitate the development of reliable models to guide exit strategies. This roadmap requires a global collaborative effort from the scientific community and policymakers, and has three parts: (i) improve estimation of key epidemiological parameters; (ii) understand sources of heterogeneity in populations; and (iii) focus on requirements for data collection, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. This will provide important information for planning exit strategies that balance socio-economic benefits with public health.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7575516?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "34347787", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809", + "title": "Developing a Natural Language Processing tool to identify perinatal self-harm in electronic healthcare records.", + "authorString": "Ayre K, Bittar A, Kam J, Verma S, Howard LM, Dutta R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-08-04", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Self-harm occurring within pregnancy and the postnatal year (\"perinatal self-harm\") is a clinically important yet under-researched topic. Current research likely under-estimates prevalence due to methodological limitations. Electronic healthcare records (EHRs) provide a source of clinically rich data on perinatal self-harm.

Aims

(1) To create a Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool that can, with acceptable precision and recall, identify mentions of acts of perinatal self-harm within EHRs. (2) To use this tool to identify service-users who have self-harmed perinatally, based on their EHRs.

Methods

We used the Clinical Record Interactive Search system to extract de-identified EHRs of secondary mental healthcare service-users at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We developed a tool that applied several layers of linguistic processing based on the spaCy NLP library for Python. We evaluated mention-level performance in the following domains: span, status, temporality and polarity. Evaluation was done against a manually coded reference standard. Mention-level performance was reported as precision, recall, F-score and Cohen's kappa for each domain. Performance was also assessed at 'service-user' level and explored whether a heuristic rule improved this. We report per-class statistics for service-user performance, as well as likelihood ratios and post-test probabilities.

Results

Mention-level performance: micro-averaged F-score, precision and recall for span, polarity and temporality >0.8. Kappa for status 0.68, temporality 0.62, polarity 0.91. Service-user level performance with heuristic: F-score, precision, recall of minority class 0.69, macro-averaged F-score 0.81, positive LR 9.4 (4.8-19), post-test probability 69.0% (53-82%). Considering the task difficulty, the tool performs well, although temporality was the attribute with the lowest level of annotator agreement.

Conclusions

It is feasible to develop an NLP tool that identifies, with acceptable validity, mentions of perinatal self-harm within EHRs, although with limitations regarding temporality. Using a heuristic rule, it can also function at a service-user-level.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253809&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253809; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8336818?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37060915", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00510-x", @@ -25890,23 +25890,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/burnstrauma/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/burnst/tkz004/33423529/tkz004.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkz004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175773; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7175773?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33542327", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3", - "title": "Classification of paediatric brain tumours by diffusion weighted imaging and machine learning.", - "authorString": "Novak J, Zarinabad N, Rose H, Arvanitis T, MacPherson L, Pinkey B, Oates A, Hales P, Grundy R, Auer D, Gutierrez DR, Jaspan T, Avula S, Abernethy L, Kaur R, Hargrave D, Mitra D, Bailey S, Davies N, Clark C, Peet A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "To determine if apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) can discriminate between posterior fossa brain tumours on a multicentre basis. A total of 124 paediatric patients with posterior fossa tumours (including 55 Medulloblastomas, 36 Pilocytic Astrocytomas and 26 Ependymomas) were scanned using diffusion weighted imaging across 12 different hospitals using a total of 18 different scanners. Apparent diffusion coefficient maps were produced and histogram data was extracted from tumour regions of interest. Total histograms and histogram metrics (mean, variance, skew, kurtosis and 10th, 20th and 50th quantiles) were used as data input for classifiers with accuracy determined by tenfold cross validation. Mean ADC values from the tumour regions of interest differed between tumour types, (ANOVA P\u2009<\u20090.001). A cut off value for mean ADC between Ependymomas and Medulloblastomas was found to be of 0.984\u2009\u00d7\u200910-3 mm2\u00a0s-1 with sensitivity 80.8% and specificity 80.0%. Overall classification for the ADC histogram metrics were 85% using Na\u00efve Bayes and 84% for Random Forest classifiers. The most commonly occurring posterior fossa paediatric brain tumours can be classified using Apparent Diffusion Coefficient histogram values to a high accuracy on a multicentre basis.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82214-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30993728", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/cen.13990", @@ -25942,21 +25925,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S258953702030136X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100392; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7329705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7329705?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33659712", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2", - "title": "Healthcare use by people who use illicit opioids (HUPIO): development of a cohort based on electronic primary care records in England.", - "authorString": "Lewer D, Padmanathan P, Qummer Ul Arfeen M, Denaxas S, Forbes H, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Hickman M.", + "id": "33542327", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3", + "title": "Classification of paediatric brain tumours by diffusion weighted imaging and machine learning.", + "authorString": "Novak J, Zarinabad N, Rose H, Arvanitis T, MacPherson L, Pinkey B, Oates A, Hales P, Grundy R, Auer D, Gutierrez DR, Jaspan T, Avula S, Abernethy L, Kaur R, Hargrave D, Mitra D, Bailey S, Davies N, Clark C, Peet A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-01-01", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-02-04", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Drug dependence; Illicit Drugs; Substance Use Disorders; Electronic Health Records; Opioid Agonist Therapy", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: People who use illicit opioids such as heroin have substantial health needs, but there are few longitudinal studies of general health and healthcare in this population. Most research to date has focused on a narrow set of outcomes, including overdoses and HIV or hepatitis infections. We developed and validated a cohort using UK primary care electronic health records (Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD and AURUM databases) to facilitate research into healthcare use by people who use illicit opioid use (HUPIO). Methods: Participants are patients in England with primary care records indicating a history of illicit opioid use. We identified codes including prescriptions of opioid agonist therapies (methadone and buprenorphine) and clinical observations such as 'heroin dependence'. We constructed a cohort of patients with at least one of these codes and aged 18-64 at cohort entry, with follow-up between January 1997 and March 2020. We validated the cohort by comparing patient characteristics and mortality rates to other cohorts of people who use illicit opioids, with different recruitment methods. Results: Up to March 2020, the HUPIO cohort included 138,761 patients with a history of illicit opioid use. Demographic characteristics and all-cause mortality were similar to existing cohorts: 69% were male; the median age at index for patients in CPRD AURUM (the database with more included participants) was 35.3 (interquartile range 29.1-42.6); the average age of new cohort entrants increased over time; 76% had records indicating current tobacco smoking; patients disproportionately lived in deprived neighbourhoods; and all-cause mortality risk was 6.6 (95% CI 6.5-6.7) times the general population of England. Conclusions: Primary care data offer new opportunities to study holistic health outcomes and healthcare of this population. The large sample enables investigation of rare outcomes, whilst the availability of linkage to external datasets allows investigation of hospital use, cancer treatment, and mortality.", + "abstract": "To determine if apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) can discriminate between posterior fossa brain tumours on a multicentre basis. A total of 124 paediatric patients with posterior fossa tumours (including 55 Medulloblastomas, 36 Pilocytic Astrocytomas and 26 Ependymomas) were scanned using diffusion weighted imaging across 12 different hospitals using a total of 18 different scanners. Apparent diffusion coefficient maps were produced and histogram data was extracted from tumour regions of interest. Total histograms and histogram metrics (mean, variance, skew, kurtosis and 10th, 20th and 50th quantiles) were used as data input for classifiers with accuracy determined by tenfold cross validation. Mean ADC values from the tumour regions of interest differed between tumour types, (ANOVA P\u2009<\u20090.001). A cut off value for mean ADC between Ependymomas and Medulloblastomas was found to be of 0.984\u2009\u00d7\u200910-3 mm2\u00a0s-1 with sensitivity 80.8% and specificity 80.0%. Overall classification for the ADC histogram metrics were 85% using Na\u00efve Bayes and 84% for Random Forest classifiers. The most commonly occurring posterior fossa paediatric brain tumours can be classified using Apparent Diffusion Coefficient histogram values to a high accuracy on a multicentre basis.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82214-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82214-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7862387?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34062542", @@ -26009,6 +25992,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://tvst.arvojournals.org/arvo/content_public/journal/tvst/938366/i2164-2591-9-2-7_1597165820.03912.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.2.7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7346877; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7346877?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33659712", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2", + "title": "Healthcare use by people who use illicit opioids (HUPIO): development of a cohort based on electronic primary care records in England.", + "authorString": "Lewer D, Padmanathan P, Qummer Ul Arfeen M, Denaxas S, Forbes H, Gonzalez-Izquierdo A, Hickman M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Drug dependence; Illicit Drugs; Substance Use Disorders; Electronic Health Records; Opioid Agonist Therapy", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background: People who use illicit opioids such as heroin have substantial health needs, but there are few longitudinal studies of general health and healthcare in this population. Most research to date has focused on a narrow set of outcomes, including overdoses and HIV or hepatitis infections. We developed and validated a cohort using UK primary care electronic health records (Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD and AURUM databases) to facilitate research into healthcare use by people who use illicit opioid use (HUPIO). Methods: Participants are patients in England with primary care records indicating a history of illicit opioid use. We identified codes including prescriptions of opioid agonist therapies (methadone and buprenorphine) and clinical observations such as 'heroin dependence'. We constructed a cohort of patients with at least one of these codes and aged 18-64 at cohort entry, with follow-up between January 1997 and March 2020. We validated the cohort by comparing patient characteristics and mortality rates to other cohorts of people who use illicit opioids, with different recruitment methods. Results: Up to March 2020, the HUPIO cohort included 138,761 patients with a history of illicit opioid use. Demographic characteristics and all-cause mortality were similar to existing cohorts: 69% were male; the median age at index for patients in CPRD AURUM (the database with more included participants) was 35.3 (interquartile range 29.1-42.6); the average age of new cohort entrants increased over time; 76% had records indicating current tobacco smoking; patients disproportionately lived in deprived neighbourhoods; and all-cause mortality risk was 6.6 (95% CI 6.5-6.7) times the general population of England. Conclusions: Primary care data offer new opportunities to study holistic health outcomes and healthcare of this population. The large sample enables investigation of rare outcomes, whilst the availability of linkage to external datasets allows investigation of hospital use, cancer treatment, and mortality.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16431.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7901498?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33017023", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.3502", @@ -26026,23 +26026,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/100688542/NEU20_1602R_Merged_PDF.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.3502; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7536630; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.3502" }, - { - "id": "31053412", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006", - "title": "Severe burns in Australian and New Zealand adults: Epidemiology and burn centre care.", - "authorString": "Toppi J, Cleland H, Gabbe B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-04-30", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Mortality; Burn; Severe burns; epidemiology", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Studies describing the epidemiology of severe burns (>20% total body surface area) in adults are limited despite the extensive associated morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of severe burn injuries admitted to burn centres in Australia and New Zealand.

Materials and methods

Data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) were used in this study. Patients were eligible for inclusion if they were admitted between August 2009 and June 2013, were adults (18-years or older), and had burns of 20% total body surface area (TBSA) or greater. Demographics, burn characteristics and in-hospital mortality risk factors were investigated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis.

Results

There were 496 BRANZ registered patients who met the inclusion criteria. Over half of the patients were aged 18-40 years and most were male. The median (IQR) TBSA was 31 (25-47). Most (75%) patients had burns involving <50% TBSA, 58% sustained their burn injury at home, and 86% had sustained flame burns. Leisure activities, working for income and preparing food together accounted for over 48% of the activities undertaken at the time of injury. The in-hospital mortality rate was 17% and the median (IQR) length of stay was 24 (12-44) days. Seventy-two percent were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and 40% of patients had an associated inhalation injury. Alcohol and/or drug involvement was suspected in 25% of cases.

Conclusion

This study describes the demographics, burn injury characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of severe burn injuries in adults whilst also identifying key predictors of inpatient mortality. Key findings included the over-representation of young males, intentional self-harm injuries and flame as a cause of burns and highlights high risk groups to help aid in the development of targeted prevention strategies.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50368/Download/0050368-25062019091637.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006" - }, { "id": "33928785", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.049844", @@ -26061,38 +26044,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.049844; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.049844; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8667423; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8667423?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.049844" }, { - "id": "35279265", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7", - "title": "Global, regional, and national prevalence of, and risk factors for, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2019: a systematic review and modelling analysis.", - "authorString": "Adeloye D, Song P, Zhu Y, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I, NIHR RESPIRE Global Respiratory Health Unit.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Respiratory medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an increasingly important cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality worldwide. We aimed to estimate global, regional, and national COPD prevalence and risk factors to guide policy and population interventions.

Methods

For this systematic review and modelling study, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, and CINAHL, for population-based studies on COPD prevalence published between Jan 1, 1990, and Dec 31, 2019. We included data reported using the two main case definitions: the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease fixed ratio (GOLD; FEV1/FVC<0\u00b77) and the lower limit of normal (LLN; FEV1/FVCFindingsWe identified 162 articles reporting population-based studies conducted across 260 sites in 65 countries. In 2019, the global prevalence of COPD among people aged 30-79 years was 10\u00b73% (95% CI 8\u00b72-12\u00b78) using the GOLD case definition, which translates to 391\u00b79 million people (95% CI 312\u00b76-487\u00b79), and 7\u00b76% (5\u00b78-10\u00b71) using the LLN definition, which translates to 292\u00b70 million people (219\u00b78-385\u00b76). Using the GOLD definition, we estimated that 391\u00b79 million (95% CI 312\u00b76-487\u00b79) people aged 30-79 years had COPD worldwide in 2019, with most (315\u00b75 million [246\u00b77-399\u00b76]; 80\u00b75%) living in LMICs. The overall prevalence of GOLD-COPD among people aged 30-79 years was the highest in the Western Pacific region (11\u00b77% [95% CI 9\u00b73-14\u00b76]) and lowest in the region of the Americas (6\u00b78% [95% CI 5\u00b76-8\u00b72]). Globally, male sex (OR 2\u00b71 [95% CI 1\u00b78-2\u00b73]), smoking (current smoker 3\u00b72 [2\u00b75-4\u00b70]; ever smoker 2\u00b73 [2\u00b70-2\u00b75]), body-mass index of less than 18\u00b75 kg/m2 (2\u00b72 [1\u00b77-2\u00b77]), biomass exposure (1\u00b74 [1\u00b72-1\u00b77]), and occupational exposure to dust or smoke (1\u00b74 [1\u00b73-1\u00b76]) were all substantial risk factors for COPD.

Interpretation

With more than three-quarters of global COPD cases in LMICs, tackling this chronic condition is a major and increasing challenge for health systems in these settings. In the absence of targeted population-wide efforts and health system reforms in these settings, many of which are under-resourced, achieving a substantial reduction in the burden of COPD globally might remain a difficult task.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research and Health Data Research UK.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00511-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9050565" - }, - { - "id": "37208429", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w", - "title": "Rare variant contribution to cholestatic liver disease in a South Asian population in the United Kingdom.", - "authorString": "Z\u00f6llner J, Finer S, Linton KJ, Genes and Health Research Team, van Heel DA, Williamson C, Dixon PH.", + "id": "31053412", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006", + "title": "Severe burns in Australian and New Zealand adults: Epidemiology and burn centre care.", + "authorString": "Toppi J, Cleland H, Gabbe B.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-19", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "journalTitle": "Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-04-30", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Mortality; Burn; Severe burns; epidemiology", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "This study assessed the contribution of five genes previously known to be involved in cholestatic liver disease in British Bangladeshi and Pakistani people. Five genes (ABCB4, ABCB11, ATP8B1, NR1H4, TJP2) were interrogated by exome sequencing data of 5236 volunteers. Included were non-synonymous or loss of function (LoF) variants with a minor allele frequency\u2009<\u20095%. Variants were filtered, and annotated to perform rare variant burden analysis, protein structure, and modelling analysis in-silico. Out of 314 non-synonymous variants, 180 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were mostly heterozygous unless specified. 90 were novel and of those variants, 22 were considered likely pathogenic and 9 pathogenic. We identified variants in volunteers with gallstone disease (n\u2009=\u200931), intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP, n\u2009=\u200916), cholangiocarcinoma and cirrhosis (n\u2009=\u20092). Fourteen novel LoF variants were identified: 7 frameshift, 5 introduction of premature stop codon and 2 splice acceptor variants. The rare variant burden was significantly increased in ABCB11. Protein modelling demonstrated variants that appeared to likely cause significant structural alterations. This study highlights the significant genetic burden contributing to cholestatic liver disease. Novel likely pathogenic and pathogenic variants were identified addressing the underrepresentation of diverse ancestry groups in genomic research.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Studies describing the epidemiology of severe burns (>20% total body surface area) in adults are limited despite the extensive associated morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of severe burn injuries admitted to burn centres in Australia and New Zealand.

Materials and methods

Data from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) were used in this study. Patients were eligible for inclusion if they were admitted between August 2009 and June 2013, were adults (18-years or older), and had burns of 20% total body surface area (TBSA) or greater. Demographics, burn characteristics and in-hospital mortality risk factors were investigated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis.

Results

There were 496 BRANZ registered patients who met the inclusion criteria. Over half of the patients were aged 18-40 years and most were male. The median (IQR) TBSA was 31 (25-47). Most (75%) patients had burns involving <50% TBSA, 58% sustained their burn injury at home, and 86% had sustained flame burns. Leisure activities, working for income and preparing food together accounted for over 48% of the activities undertaken at the time of injury. The in-hospital mortality rate was 17% and the median (IQR) length of stay was 24 (12-44) days. Seventy-two percent were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and 40% of patients had an associated inhalation injury. Alcohol and/or drug involvement was suspected in 25% of cases.

Conclusion

This study describes the demographics, burn injury characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of severe burn injuries in adults whilst also identifying key predictors of inpatient mortality. Key findings included the over-representation of young males, intentional self-harm injuries and flame as a cause of burns and highlights high risk groups to help aid in the development of targeted prevention strategies.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa50368/Download/0050368-25062019091637.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.04.006" }, { "id": "32170038", @@ -26146,21 +26112,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2308-3425/9/8/237/pdf?version=1658976309; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd9080237; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410051; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9410051?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "30120083", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004", - "title": "Genome-Wide Association Study of Circadian Rhythmicity in 71,500 UK Biobank Participants and Polygenic Association with Mood Instability.", - "authorString": "Ferguson A, Lyall LM, Ward J, Strawbridge RJ, Cullen B, Graham N, Niedzwiedz CL, Johnston KJA, MacKay D, Biello SM, Pell JP, Cavanagh J, McIntosh AM, Doherty A, Bailey MES, Lyall DM, Wyse CA, Smith DJ.", + "id": "37208429", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w", + "title": "Rare variant contribution to cholestatic liver disease in a South Asian population in the United Kingdom.", + "authorString": "Z\u00f6llner J, Finer S, Linton KJ, Genes and Health Research Team, van Heel DA, Williamson C, Dixon PH.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", - "pubYear": "2018", - "date": "2018-08-14", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-19", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mood Instability; Gwas; Polygenic Risk Score; Circadian Rhythmicity; Relative Amplitude", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Circadian rhythms are fundamental to health and are particularly important for mental wellbeing. Disrupted rhythms of rest and activity are recognised as risk factors for major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

Methods

We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of low relative amplitude (RA), an objective measure of rest-activity cycles derived from the accelerometer data of 71,500 UK Biobank participants. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for low RA were used to investigate potential associations with psychiatric phenotypes.

Outcomes

Two independent genetic loci were associated with low RA, within genomic regions for Neurofascin (NFASC) and Solute Carrier Family 25 Member 17 (SLC25A17). A secondary GWAS of RA as a continuous measure identified a locus within Meis Homeobox 1 (MEIS1). There were no significant genetic correlations between low RA and any of the psychiatric phenotypes assessed. However, PRS for low RA was significantly associated with mood instability across multiple PRS thresholds (at PRS threshold 0\u00b705: OR\u202f=\u202f1\u00b702, 95% CI\u202f=\u202f1\u00b701-1\u00b702, p\u202f=\u202f9\u00b76\u202f\u00d7\u202f10-5), and with major depressive disorder (at PRS threshold 0\u00b71: OR\u202f=\u202f1\u00b703, 95% CI\u202f=\u202f1\u00b701-1\u00b705, p\u202f=\u202f0\u00b7025) and neuroticism (at PRS threshold 0\u00b75: Beta\u202f=\u202f0\u00b702, 95% CI\u202f=\u202f0\u00b7007-0\u00b704, p\u202f=\u202f0\u00b7021).

Interpretation

Overall, our findings contribute new knowledge on the complex genetic architecture of circadian rhythmicity and suggest a putative biological link between disrupted circadian function and mood disorder phenotypes, particularly mood instability, but also major depressive disorder and neuroticism.

Funding

Medical Research Council (MR/K501335/1).", + "abstract": "This study assessed the contribution of five genes previously known to be involved in cholestatic liver disease in British Bangladeshi and Pakistani people. Five genes (ABCB4, ABCB11, ATP8B1, NR1H4, TJP2) were interrogated by exome sequencing data of 5236 volunteers. Included were non-synonymous or loss of function (LoF) variants with a minor allele frequency\u2009<\u20095%. Variants were filtered, and annotated to perform rare variant burden analysis, protein structure, and modelling analysis in-silico. Out of 314 non-synonymous variants, 180 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were mostly heterozygous unless specified. 90 were novel and of those variants, 22 were considered likely pathogenic and 9 pathogenic. We identified variants in volunteers with gallstone disease (n\u2009=\u200931), intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP, n\u2009=\u200916), cholangiocarcinoma and cirrhosis (n\u2009=\u20092). Fourteen novel LoF variants were identified: 7 frameshift, 5 introduction of premature stop codon and 2 splice acceptor variants. The rare variant burden was significantly increased in ABCB11. Protein modelling demonstrated variants that appeared to likely cause significant structural alterations. This study highlights the significant genetic burden contributing to cholestatic liver disease. Novel likely pathogenic and pathogenic variants were identified addressing the underrepresentation of diverse ancestry groups in genomic research.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396418302925/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33391-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10199085?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35279265", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7", + "title": "Global, regional, and national prevalence of, and risk factors for, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2019: a systematic review and modelling analysis.", + "authorString": "Adeloye D, Song P, Zhu Y, Campbell H, Sheikh A, Rudan I, NIHR RESPIRE Global Respiratory Health Unit.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Respiratory medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an increasingly important cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality worldwide. We aimed to estimate global, regional, and national COPD prevalence and risk factors to guide policy and population interventions.

Methods

For this systematic review and modelling study, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, and CINAHL, for population-based studies on COPD prevalence published between Jan 1, 1990, and Dec 31, 2019. We included data reported using the two main case definitions: the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease fixed ratio (GOLD; FEV1/FVC<0\u00b77) and the lower limit of normal (LLN; FEV1/FVCFindingsWe identified 162 articles reporting population-based studies conducted across 260 sites in 65 countries. In 2019, the global prevalence of COPD among people aged 30-79 years was 10\u00b73% (95% CI 8\u00b72-12\u00b78) using the GOLD case definition, which translates to 391\u00b79 million people (95% CI 312\u00b76-487\u00b79), and 7\u00b76% (5\u00b78-10\u00b71) using the LLN definition, which translates to 292\u00b70 million people (219\u00b78-385\u00b76). Using the GOLD definition, we estimated that 391\u00b79 million (95% CI 312\u00b76-487\u00b79) people aged 30-79 years had COPD worldwide in 2019, with most (315\u00b75 million [246\u00b77-399\u00b76]; 80\u00b75%) living in LMICs. The overall prevalence of GOLD-COPD among people aged 30-79 years was the highest in the Western Pacific region (11\u00b77% [95% CI 9\u00b73-14\u00b76]) and lowest in the region of the Americas (6\u00b78% [95% CI 5\u00b76-8\u00b72]). Globally, male sex (OR 2\u00b71 [95% CI 1\u00b78-2\u00b73]), smoking (current smoker 3\u00b72 [2\u00b75-4\u00b70]; ever smoker 2\u00b73 [2\u00b70-2\u00b75]), body-mass index of less than 18\u00b75 kg/m2 (2\u00b72 [1\u00b77-2\u00b77]), biomass exposure (1\u00b74 [1\u00b72-1\u00b77]), and occupational exposure to dust or smoke (1\u00b74 [1\u00b73-1\u00b76]) were all substantial risk factors for COPD.

Interpretation

With more than three-quarters of global COPD cases in LMICs, tackling this chronic condition is a major and increasing challenge for health systems in these settings. In the absence of targeted population-wide efforts and health system reforms in these settings, many of which are under-resourced, achieving a substantial reduction in the burden of COPD globally might remain a difficult task.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research and Health Data Research UK.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(21)00511-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00511-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9050565" }, { "id": "36446465", @@ -26179,6 +26162,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/11/e065142.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065142; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709810; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9709810?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "30120083", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004", + "title": "Genome-Wide Association Study of Circadian Rhythmicity in 71,500 UK Biobank Participants and Polygenic Association with Mood Instability.", + "authorString": "Ferguson A, Lyall LM, Ward J, Strawbridge RJ, Cullen B, Graham N, Niedzwiedz CL, Johnston KJA, MacKay D, Biello SM, Pell JP, Cavanagh J, McIntosh AM, Doherty A, Bailey MES, Lyall DM, Wyse CA, Smith DJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", + "pubYear": "2018", + "date": "2018-08-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mood Instability; Gwas; Polygenic Risk Score; Circadian Rhythmicity; Relative Amplitude", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Circadian rhythms are fundamental to health and are particularly important for mental wellbeing. Disrupted rhythms of rest and activity are recognised as risk factors for major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

Methods

We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of low relative amplitude (RA), an objective measure of rest-activity cycles derived from the accelerometer data of 71,500 UK Biobank participants. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for low RA were used to investigate potential associations with psychiatric phenotypes.

Outcomes

Two independent genetic loci were associated with low RA, within genomic regions for Neurofascin (NFASC) and Solute Carrier Family 25 Member 17 (SLC25A17). A secondary GWAS of RA as a continuous measure identified a locus within Meis Homeobox 1 (MEIS1). There were no significant genetic correlations between low RA and any of the psychiatric phenotypes assessed. However, PRS for low RA was significantly associated with mood instability across multiple PRS thresholds (at PRS threshold 0\u00b705: OR\u202f=\u202f1\u00b702, 95% CI\u202f=\u202f1\u00b701-1\u00b702, p\u202f=\u202f9\u00b76\u202f\u00d7\u202f10-5), and with major depressive disorder (at PRS threshold 0\u00b71: OR\u202f=\u202f1\u00b703, 95% CI\u202f=\u202f1\u00b701-1\u00b705, p\u202f=\u202f0\u00b7025) and neuroticism (at PRS threshold 0\u00b75: Beta\u202f=\u202f0\u00b702, 95% CI\u202f=\u202f0\u00b7007-0\u00b704, p\u202f=\u202f0\u00b7021).

Interpretation

Overall, our findings contribute new knowledge on the complex genetic architecture of circadian rhythmicity and suggest a putative biological link between disrupted circadian function and mood disorder phenotypes, particularly mood instability, but also major depressive disorder and neuroticism.

Funding

Medical Research Council (MR/K501335/1).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396418302925/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6154782?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37723491", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01221-3", @@ -26247,6 +26247,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S417176; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10421744; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10421744?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35913736", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045", + "title": "Impact of cancer diagnosis on distribution and trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations in the USA between 2004 and 2017.", + "authorString": "Kobo O, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Gevaert S, Rana JS, Van Spall HGC, Roguin A, Petersen SE, Ky B, Mamas MA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Prognosis; trends; Cardio- Oncology", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background and aims

There is limited data on temporal trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations and outcomes amongst cancer patients. We describe the distribution, trends of admissions, and in-hospital mortality associated with key cardiovascular diseases among cancer patients in the USA between 2004 and 2017.

Methods

Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample we, identified admissions with five cardiovascular diseases of interest: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pulmonary embolism (PE), ischaemic stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter, and intracranial haemorrhage. Patients were stratified by cancer status and type. We estimated crude annual rates of hospitalizations and annual in-hospital all-cause mortality rates.

Results

From >42.5 million hospitalizations with a primary cardiovascular diagnosis, 1.9 million (4.5%) had a concurrent record of cancer. Between 2004 and 2017, cardiovascular admission rates increased by 23.2% in patients with cancer, whilst decreasing by 10.9% in patients without cancer. The admission rate increased among cancer patients across all admission causes and cancer types except prostate cancer. Patients with haematological (9.7-13.5), lung (7.4-8.9), and GI cancer (4.6-6.3) had the highest crude rates of cardiovascular hospitalizations per 100\u2009000 US population. Heart failure was the most common reason for cardiovascular admission in patients across all cancer types, except GI cancer (crude admission rates of 13.6-16.6 per 100\u2009000 US population for patients with cancer).

Conclusions

In contrast to declining trends in patients without cancer, primary cardiovascular admissions in patients with cancer is increasing. The highest admission rates are in patients with haematological cancer, and the most common cause of admission is heart failure.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/01GTEZMFA3PQ4FR2HWVVMJE1PP/file/01GTEZP5YQ68PC7TFPP52TS6QR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045" + }, { "id": "35193920", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055773", @@ -26281,23 +26298,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/falgy.2021.677677/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/falgy.2021.677677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974712; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8974712?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35913736", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045", - "title": "Impact of cancer diagnosis on distribution and trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations in the USA between 2004 and 2017.", - "authorString": "Kobo O, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Gevaert S, Rana JS, Van Spall HGC, Roguin A, Petersen SE, Ky B, Mamas MA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Prognosis; trends; Cardio- Oncology", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background and aims

There is limited data on temporal trends of cardiovascular hospitalizations and outcomes amongst cancer patients. We describe the distribution, trends of admissions, and in-hospital mortality associated with key cardiovascular diseases among cancer patients in the USA between 2004 and 2017.

Methods

Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample we, identified admissions with five cardiovascular diseases of interest: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pulmonary embolism (PE), ischaemic stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter, and intracranial haemorrhage. Patients were stratified by cancer status and type. We estimated crude annual rates of hospitalizations and annual in-hospital all-cause mortality rates.

Results

From >42.5 million hospitalizations with a primary cardiovascular diagnosis, 1.9 million (4.5%) had a concurrent record of cancer. Between 2004 and 2017, cardiovascular admission rates increased by 23.2% in patients with cancer, whilst decreasing by 10.9% in patients without cancer. The admission rate increased among cancer patients across all admission causes and cancer types except prostate cancer. Patients with haematological (9.7-13.5), lung (7.4-8.9), and GI cancer (4.6-6.3) had the highest crude rates of cardiovascular hospitalizations per 100\u2009000 US population. Heart failure was the most common reason for cardiovascular admission in patients across all cancer types, except GI cancer (crude admission rates of 13.6-16.6 per 100\u2009000 US population for patients with cancer).

Conclusions

In contrast to declining trends in patients without cancer, primary cardiovascular admissions in patients with cancer is increasing. The highest admission rates are in patients with haematological cancer, and the most common cause of admission is heart failure.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/01GTEZMFA3PQ4FR2HWVVMJE1PP/file/01GTEZP5YQ68PC7TFPP52TS6QR.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9603542?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcac045" - }, { "id": "35189884", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-07607-0", @@ -26349,6 +26349,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02948-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403838; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10403838?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33560344", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067", + "title": "Association of Metformin with Susceptibility to COVID-19 in People with Type 2 Diabetes.", + "authorString": "Wang J, Cooper JM, Gokhale K, Acosta-Mena D, Dhalla S, Byne N, Chandan JS, Anand A, Okoth K, Subramanian A, Bangash MN, Jackson T, Zemedikun D, Taverner T, Hanif W, Ghosh S, Narendran P, Toulis KA, Tahrani AA, Surenthirakumaran R, Adderley NJ, Haroon S, Khunti K, Sainsbury C, Thomas GN, Nirantharakumar K.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-04-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Metformin; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Infection", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Diabetes has emerged as an important risk factor for mortality from COVID-19. Metformin, the most commonly prescribed glucose-lowering agent, has been proposed to influence susceptibility to and outcomes of COVID-19 via multiple mechanisms. We investigated whether, in patients with diabetes, metformin is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 and its outcomes.

Research design and methods

We performed a propensity score-matched cohort study with active comparators using a large UK primary care dataset. Adults with type 2 diabetes patients and a current prescription for metformin and other glucose-lowering agents (MF+) were compared to those with a current prescription for glucose-lowering agents that did not include metformin (MF-). Outcomes were confirmed COVID-19, suspected/confirmed COVID-19, and associated mortality. A negative control outcome analysis (back pain) was also performed.

Results

There were 29 558 and 10 271 patients in the MF+ and MF- groups, respectively, who met the inclusion criteria. In the propensity score-matched analysis, the adjusted hazard ratios for suspected/confirmed COVID-19, confirmed COVID-19, and COVID-19-related mortality were 0.85 (95% CI 0.67, 1.08), 0.80 (95% CI 0.49, 1.30), and 0.87 (95% CI 0.34, 2.20) respectively. The negative outcome control analysis did not suggest unobserved confounding.

Conclusion

Current prescription of metformin was not associated with the risk of COVID-19 or COVID-19-related mortality. It is safe to continue prescribing metformin to improve glycemic control in patients with.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/106/5/1255/41848481/dgab067.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928949" + }, { "id": "32702311", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30392-2", @@ -26383,23 +26400,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(21)00005-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(21)00005-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808901; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7808901?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33560344", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067", - "title": "Association of Metformin with Susceptibility to COVID-19 in People with Type 2 Diabetes.", - "authorString": "Wang J, Cooper JM, Gokhale K, Acosta-Mena D, Dhalla S, Byne N, Chandan JS, Anand A, Okoth K, Subramanian A, Bangash MN, Jackson T, Zemedikun D, Taverner T, Hanif W, Ghosh S, Narendran P, Toulis KA, Tahrani AA, Surenthirakumaran R, Adderley NJ, Haroon S, Khunti K, Sainsbury C, Thomas GN, Nirantharakumar K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Metformin; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2 Infection", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Diabetes has emerged as an important risk factor for mortality from COVID-19. Metformin, the most commonly prescribed glucose-lowering agent, has been proposed to influence susceptibility to and outcomes of COVID-19 via multiple mechanisms. We investigated whether, in patients with diabetes, metformin is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 and its outcomes.

Research design and methods

We performed a propensity score-matched cohort study with active comparators using a large UK primary care dataset. Adults with type 2 diabetes patients and a current prescription for metformin and other glucose-lowering agents (MF+) were compared to those with a current prescription for glucose-lowering agents that did not include metformin (MF-). Outcomes were confirmed COVID-19, suspected/confirmed COVID-19, and associated mortality. A negative control outcome analysis (back pain) was also performed.

Results

There were 29 558 and 10 271 patients in the MF+ and MF- groups, respectively, who met the inclusion criteria. In the propensity score-matched analysis, the adjusted hazard ratios for suspected/confirmed COVID-19, confirmed COVID-19, and COVID-19-related mortality were 0.85 (95% CI 0.67, 1.08), 0.80 (95% CI 0.49, 1.30), and 0.87 (95% CI 0.34, 2.20) respectively. The negative outcome control analysis did not suggest unobserved confounding.

Conclusion

Current prescription of metformin was not associated with the risk of COVID-19 or COVID-19-related mortality. It is safe to continue prescribing metformin to improve glycemic control in patients with.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/106/5/1255/41848481/dgab067.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab067; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928949" - }, { "id": "37006331", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad041", @@ -26417,40 +26417,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/5/2/fcad041/49521070/fcad041.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad041; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10053643?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36998408", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340", - "title": "A longitudinal study reveals persistence of antimicrobial resistance on livestock farms is not due to antimicrobial usage alone.", - "authorString": "Smith RP, May HE, AbuOun M, Stubberfield E, Gilson D, Chau KK, Crook DW, Shaw LP, Read DS, Stoesser N, Vilar MJ, Anjum MF.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in microbiology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-03-14", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Sheep; Cattle; Pigs; Antimicrobial resistance; Longitudinal; Antimicrobial Usage", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

There are concerns that antimicrobial usage (AMU) is driving an increase in multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria so treatment of microbial infections is becoming harder in humans and animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors, including usage, that affect antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on farm over time.

Methods

A population of 14 cattle, sheep and pig farms within a defined area of England were sampled three times over a year to collect data on AMR in faecal Enterobacterales flora; AMU; and husbandry or management practices. Ten pooled samples were collected at each visit, with each comprising of 10 pinches of fresh faeces. Up to 14 isolates per visit were whole genome sequenced to determine presence of AMR genes.

Results

Sheep farms had very low AMU in comparison to the other species and very few sheep isolates were genotypically resistant at any time point. AMR genes were detected persistently across pig farms at all visits, even on farms with low AMU, whereas AMR bacteria was consistently lower on cattle farms than pigs, even for those with comparably high AMU. MDR bacteria was also more commonly detected on pig farms than any other livestock species.

Discussion

The results may be explained by a complex combination of factors on pig farms including historic AMU; co-selection of AMR bacteria; variation in amounts of antimicrobials used between visits; potential persistence in environmental reservoirs of AMR bacteria; or importation of pigs with AMR microbiota from supplying farms. Pig farms may also be at increased risk of AMR due to the greater use of oral routes of group antimicrobial treatment, which were less targeted than cattle treatments; the latter mostly administered to individual animals. Also, farms which exhibited either increasing or decreasing trends of AMR across the study did not have corresponding trends in their AMU. Therefore, our results suggest that factors other than AMU on individual farms are important for persistence of AMR bacteria on farms, which may be operating at the farm and livestock species level.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "34337345", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038", - "title": "Validation of Wearable Camera Still Images to Assess Posture in Free-Living Conditions.", - "authorString": "Martinez J, Decker A, Cho CC, Doherty A, Swartz AM, Staudenmayer JW, Strath SJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal for the measurement of physical behaviour", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-24", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Activpal; Autographer; Objective Measuring", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Purpose

To assess the convergent validity of body worn wearable camera (WC) still-images (IMGs) for determining posture compared with activPAL (AP) classifications.

Methods

Participants (n=16, mean age 46.7\u00b123.8yrs, 9F) wore an Autographer WC above the xyphoid process and an AP during three, 2hr free-living visits. IMGs were captured on average 8.47 seconds apart and were annotated with output consisting of events, transitory states, unknown and gaps. Events were annotations that matched AP classifications (sit, stand and move) consisting of at least 3 IMGs, transitory states were posture annotations fewer than 3 IMGs, unknown were IMGs that could not be accurately classified, and gaps were time between annotations. For analyses, annotation and AP output were converted to one-sec epochs and matched second-by-second. Total and average length of visits and events are reported in minutes. Bias and 95% CIs for event posture times from IMGs to AP posture times were calculated to determine accuracy and precision. Confusion matrices using total AP posture times were computed to determine misclassification.

Results

43 visits were analyzed with a total visit and event time of 5027.73 and 4237.23 minutes and average visit and event lengths being 116.92 and 98.54 minutes, respectively. Bias was not statistically significant for sitting but significant for standing and movement (0.84, -6.87 and 6.04 minutes). From confusion matrices, IMGs correctly classified sitting, standing and movement 85.69%, 54.87%, and 69.41% of total AP time, respectively.

Conclusion

WC IMGs provide a good estimation of overall sitting time but underestimate standing and overestimate movement time. Future work is warranted to improve posture classifications and examine IMG accuracy and precision in assessing activity type behaviors.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8320753; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038" - }, { "id": "34468736", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euab162", @@ -26486,21 +26452,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.045; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.11.045" }, { - "id": "32619549", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012", - "title": "Ultra-High-Throughput Clinical Proteomics Reveals Classifiers of COVID-19 Infection.", - "authorString": "Messner CB, Demichev V, Wendisch D, Michalick L, White M, Freiwald A, Textoris-Taube K, Vernardis SI, Egger AS, Kreidl M, Ludwig D, Kilian C, Agostini F, Zelezniak A, Thibeault C, Pfeiffer M, Hippenstiel S, Hocke A, von Kalle C, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Langenberg C, Lilley KS, Kuebler WM, M\u00fclleder M, Drosten C, Suttorp N, Witzenrath M, Kurth F, Sander LE, Ralser M.", + "id": "36998408", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340", + "title": "A longitudinal study reveals persistence of antimicrobial resistance on livestock farms is not due to antimicrobial usage alone.", + "authorString": "Smith RP, May HE, AbuOun M, Stubberfield E, Gilson D, Chau KK, Crook DW, Shaw LP, Read DS, Stoesser N, Vilar MJ, Anjum MF.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cell systems", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-02", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in microbiology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-03-14", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mass spectrometry; High-throughput Proteomics; Swath-ms; Antiviral Immune Response; Clinical Classifiers; Covid-19 Infection", + "keywords": "Sheep; Cattle; Pigs; Antimicrobial resistance; Longitudinal; Antimicrobial Usage", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global challenge, and point-of-care diagnostic classifiers are urgently required. Here, we present a platform for ultra-high-throughput serum and plasma proteomics that builds on ISO13485 standardization to facilitate simple implementation in regulated clinical laboratories. Our low-cost workflow handles up to 180 samples per day, enables high precision quantification, and reduces batch effects for large-scale and longitudinal studies. We use our platform on samples collected from a cohort of early hospitalized cases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and identify 27 potential biomarkers that are differentially expressed depending on the WHO severity grade of COVID-19. They include complement factors, the coagulation system, inflammation modulators, and pro-inflammatory factors upstream and downstream of interleukin 6. All protocols and software for implementing our approach are freely available. In total, this work supports the development of routine proteomic assays to aid clinical decision making and generate hypotheses about potential COVID-19 therapeutic targets.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

There are concerns that antimicrobial usage (AMU) is driving an increase in multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria so treatment of microbial infections is becoming harder in humans and animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors, including usage, that affect antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on farm over time.

Methods

A population of 14 cattle, sheep and pig farms within a defined area of England were sampled three times over a year to collect data on AMR in faecal Enterobacterales flora; AMU; and husbandry or management practices. Ten pooled samples were collected at each visit, with each comprising of 10 pinches of fresh faeces. Up to 14 isolates per visit were whole genome sequenced to determine presence of AMR genes.

Results

Sheep farms had very low AMU in comparison to the other species and very few sheep isolates were genotypically resistant at any time point. AMR genes were detected persistently across pig farms at all visits, even on farms with low AMU, whereas AMR bacteria was consistently lower on cattle farms than pigs, even for those with comparably high AMU. MDR bacteria was also more commonly detected on pig farms than any other livestock species.

Discussion

The results may be explained by a complex combination of factors on pig farms including historic AMU; co-selection of AMR bacteria; variation in amounts of antimicrobials used between visits; potential persistence in environmental reservoirs of AMR bacteria; or importation of pigs with AMR microbiota from supplying farms. Pig farms may also be at increased risk of AMR due to the greater use of oral routes of group antimicrobial treatment, which were less targeted than cattle treatments; the latter mostly administered to individual animals. Also, farms which exhibited either increasing or decreasing trends of AMR across the study did not have corresponding trends in their AMU. Therefore, our results suggest that factors other than AMU on individual farms are important for persistence of AMR bacteria on farms, which may be operating at the farm and livestock species level.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7264033" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1070340; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10043416?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "34337345", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038", + "title": "Validation of Wearable Camera Still Images to Assess Posture in Free-Living Conditions.", + "authorString": "Martinez J, Decker A, Cho CC, Doherty A, Swartz AM, Staudenmayer JW, Strath SJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal for the measurement of physical behaviour", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-02-24", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Activpal; Autographer; Objective Measuring", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Purpose

To assess the convergent validity of body worn wearable camera (WC) still-images (IMGs) for determining posture compared with activPAL (AP) classifications.

Methods

Participants (n=16, mean age 46.7\u00b123.8yrs, 9F) wore an Autographer WC above the xyphoid process and an AP during three, 2hr free-living visits. IMGs were captured on average 8.47 seconds apart and were annotated with output consisting of events, transitory states, unknown and gaps. Events were annotations that matched AP classifications (sit, stand and move) consisting of at least 3 IMGs, transitory states were posture annotations fewer than 3 IMGs, unknown were IMGs that could not be accurately classified, and gaps were time between annotations. For analyses, annotation and AP output were converted to one-sec epochs and matched second-by-second. Total and average length of visits and events are reported in minutes. Bias and 95% CIs for event posture times from IMGs to AP posture times were calculated to determine accuracy and precision. Confusion matrices using total AP posture times were computed to determine misclassification.

Results

43 visits were analyzed with a total visit and event time of 5027.73 and 4237.23 minutes and average visit and event lengths being 116.92 and 98.54 minutes, respectively. Bias was not statistically significant for sitting but significant for standing and movement (0.84, -6.87 and 6.04 minutes). From confusion matrices, IMGs correctly classified sitting, standing and movement 85.69%, 54.87%, and 69.41% of total AP time, respectively.

Conclusion

WC IMGs provide a good estimation of overall sitting time but underestimate standing and overestimate movement time. Future work is warranted to improve posture classifications and examine IMG accuracy and precision in assessing activity type behaviors.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8320753; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8320753?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0038" }, { "id": "31443926", @@ -26520,38 +26503,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673619316745/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31674-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6857444; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6857444?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33724919", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/26627", - "title": "Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Analysis of Public Attitudes on Facebook and Twitter Toward COVID-19 Vaccines in the United Kingdom and the United States: Observational Study.", - "authorString": "Hussain A, Tahir A, Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Gogate M, Dashtipour K, Ali A, Sheikh A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Vaccination; Public Health; Health Informatics; Natural Language Processing; Facebook; Social Media; Twitter; Sentiment Analysis; Infodemiology; Deep Learning; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Global efforts toward the development and deployment of a vaccine for COVID-19 are rapidly advancing. To achieve herd immunity, widespread administration of vaccines is required, which necessitates significant cooperation from the general public. As such, it is crucial that governments and public health agencies understand public sentiments toward vaccines, which can help guide educational campaigns and other targeted policy interventions.

Objective

The aim of this study was to develop and apply an artificial intelligence-based approach to analyze public sentiments on social media in the United Kingdom and the United States toward COVID-19 vaccines to better understand the public attitude and concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

Over 300,000 social media posts related to COVID-19 vaccines were extracted, including 23,571 Facebook posts from the United Kingdom and 144,864 from the United States, along with 40,268 tweets from the United Kingdom and 98,385 from the United States from March 1 to November 22, 2020. We used natural language processing and deep learning-based techniques to predict average sentiments, sentiment trends, and topics of discussion. These factors were analyzed longitudinally and geospatially, and manual reading of randomly selected posts on points of interest helped identify underlying themes and validated insights from the analysis.

Results

Overall averaged positive, negative, and neutral sentiments were at 58%, 22%, and 17% in the United Kingdom, compared to 56%, 24%, and 18% in the United States, respectively. Public optimism over vaccine development, effectiveness, and trials as well as concerns over their safety, economic viability, and corporation control were identified. We compared our findings to those of nationwide surveys in both countries and found them to correlate broadly.

Conclusions

Artificial intelligence-enabled social media analysis should be considered for adoption by institutions and governments alongside surveys and other conventional methods of assessing public attitude. Such analyses could enable real-time assessment, at scale, of public confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccines, help address the concerns of vaccine sceptics, and help develop more effective policies and communication strategies to maximize uptake.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26627/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/26627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023383" - }, - { - "id": "33825703", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1107/s2059798321000826", - "title": "Vagabond: bond-based parametrization reduces overfitting for refinement of proteins.", - "authorString": "Ginn HM.", + "id": "32619549", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012", + "title": "Ultra-High-Throughput Clinical Proteomics Reveals Classifiers of COVID-19 Infection.", + "authorString": "Messner CB, Demichev V, Wendisch D, Michalick L, White M, Freiwald A, Textoris-Taube K, Vernardis SI, Egger AS, Kreidl M, Ludwig D, Kilian C, Agostini F, Zelezniak A, Thibeault C, Pfeiffer M, Hippenstiel S, Hocke A, von Kalle C, Campbell A, Hayward C, Porteous DJ, Marioni RE, Langenberg C, Lilley KS, Kuebler WM, M\u00fclleder M, Drosten C, Suttorp N, Witzenrath M, Kurth F, Sander LE, Ralser M.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Acta crystallographica. Section D, Structural biology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-30", + "journalTitle": "Cell systems", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-02", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Models; X-ray diffraction; Protein Flexibility; Bonds; Refinement Software", + "keywords": "Mass spectrometry; High-throughput Proteomics; Swath-ms; Antiviral Immune Response; Clinical Classifiers; Covid-19 Infection", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Structural biology methods have delivered over 150\u2005000 high-resolution structures of macromolecules, which have fundamentally altered our understanding of biology and our approach to developing new medicines. However, the description of molecular flexibility is instrinsically flawed and in almost all cases, regardless of the experimental method used for structure determination, there remains a strong overfitting bias during molecular model building and refinement. In the worst case this can lead to wholly incorrect structures and thus incorrect biological interpretations. Here, by reparametrizing the description of these complex structures in terms of bonds rather than atomic positions, and by modelling flexibility using a deterministic ensemble of structures, it is demonstrated that structures can be described using fewer parameters than in conventional refinement. The current implementation, applied to X-ray diffraction data, significantly reduces the extent of overfitting, allowing the experimental data to reveal more biological information in electron-density maps.", + "abstract": "The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global challenge, and point-of-care diagnostic classifiers are urgently required. Here, we present a platform for ultra-high-throughput serum and plasma proteomics that builds on ISO13485 standardization to facilitate simple implementation in regulated clinical laboratories. Our low-cost workflow handles up to 180 samples per day, enables high precision quantification, and reduces batch effects for large-scale and longitudinal studies. We use our platform on samples collected from a cohort of early hospitalized cases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and identify 27 potential biomarkers that are differentially expressed depending on the WHO severity grade of COVID-19. They include complement factors, the coagulation system, inflammation modulators, and pro-inflammatory factors upstream and downstream of interleukin 6. All protocols and software for implementing our approach are freely available. In total, this work supports the development of routine proteomic assays to aid clinical decision making and generate hypotheses about potential COVID-19 therapeutic targets.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2021/04/00/qj5007/qj5007.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798321000826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.05.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7264033" }, { "id": "33184391", @@ -26571,38 +26537,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76816-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76816-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7661535; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7661535?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33782080", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512", - "title": "Impact of COVID-19 national lockdown on asthma exacerbations: interrupted time-series analysis of English primary care data.", - "authorString": "Shah SA, Quint JK, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A.", + "id": "33724919", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/26627", + "title": "Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Analysis of Public Attitudes on Facebook and Twitter Toward COVID-19 Vaccines in the United Kingdom and the United States: Observational Study.", + "authorString": "Hussain A, Tahir A, Hussain Z, Sheikh Z, Gogate M, Dashtipour K, Ali A, Sheikh A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Thorax", + "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-29", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Asthma; Asthma Epidemiology; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The impact of COVID-19 and ensuing national lockdown on asthma exacerbations is unclear.

Methods

We conducted an interrupted time-series (lockdown on 23 March 2020 as point of interruption) analysis in asthma cohort identified using a validated algorithm from a national-level primary care database, the Optimum Patient Care Database. We derived asthma exacerbation rates for every week and compared exacerbation rates in the period: January to August 2020 with a pre-COVID-19 period and January to August 2016-2019. Exacerbations were defined as asthma-related hospital attendance/admission (including accident and emergency visit), or an acute course of oral corticosteroids with evidence of respiratory review, as recorded in primary care. We used a generalised least squares modelling approach and stratified the analyses by age, sex, English region and healthcare setting.

Results

From a database of 9 949 387 patients, there were 100 165 patients with asthma who experienced at least one exacerbation during 2016-2020. Of 278 996 exacerbation episodes, 49 938 (17.9%) required hospital visit. Comparing pre-lockdown to post-lockdown period, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the level (-0.196 episodes per person-year; p<0.001; almost 20 episodes for every 100 patients with asthma per year) of exacerbation rates across all patients. The reductions in level in stratified analyses were: 0.005-0.244 (healthcare setting, only those without hospital attendance/admission were significant), 0.210-0.277 (sex), 0.159-0.367 (age), 0.068-0.590 (region).

Conclusions

There has been a significant reduction in attendance to primary care for asthma exacerbations during the pandemic. This reduction was observed in all age groups, both sexes and across most regions in England.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/9/860.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "34581777", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453", - "title": "G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 regulates thrombin signaling in platelets via PAR-1.", - "authorString": "Downes K, Zhao X, Gleadall NS, McKinney H, Kempster C, Batista J, Thomas PL, Cooper M, Michael JV, Kreuzhuber R, Wedderburn K, Waller K, Varney B, Verdier H, Kriek N, Ashford SE, Stirrups KE, Dunster JL, McKenzie SE, Ouwehand WH, Gibbins JM, Yang J, Astle WJ, Ma P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Blood advances", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-01", + "date": "2021-04-05", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Artificial intelligence; Vaccination; Public Health; Health Informatics; Natural Language Processing; Facebook; Social Media; Twitter; Sentiment Analysis; Infodemiology; Deep Learning; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The interindividual variation in the functional response of platelets to activation by agonists is heritable. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of quantitative measures of platelet function have identified fewer than 20 distinctly associated variants, some with unknown mechanisms. Here, we report GWASs of pathway-specific functional responses to agonism by adenosine 5'-diphosphate, a glycoprotein VI-specific collagen mimetic, and thrombin receptor-agonist peptides, each specific to 1 of the G protein-coupled receptors PAR-1 and PAR-4, in subsets of 1562 individuals. We identified an association (P = 2.75 \u00d7 10-40) between a common intronic variant, rs10886430, in the G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 gene (GRK5) and the sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. The variant resides in a megakaryocyte-specific enhancer that is bound by the transcription factors GATA1 and MEIS1. The minor allele (G) is associated with fewer GRK5 transcripts in platelets and the greater sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. We show that thrombin-mediated activation of human platelets causes binding of GRK5 to PAR-1 and that deletion of the mouse homolog Grk5 enhances thrombin-induced platelet activation sensitivity and increases platelet accumulation at the site of vascular injury. This corroborates evidence that the human G allele of rs10886430 is associated with a greater risk for cardiovascular disease. In summary, by combining the results of pathway-specific GWASs and expression quantitative trait locus studies in humans with the results from platelet function studies in Grk5-/- mice, we obtain evidence that GRK5 regulates the human platelet response to thrombin via the PAR-1 pathway.", + "abstract": "

Background

Global efforts toward the development and deployment of a vaccine for COVID-19 are rapidly advancing. To achieve herd immunity, widespread administration of vaccines is required, which necessitates significant cooperation from the general public. As such, it is crucial that governments and public health agencies understand public sentiments toward vaccines, which can help guide educational campaigns and other targeted policy interventions.

Objective

The aim of this study was to develop and apply an artificial intelligence-based approach to analyze public sentiments on social media in the United Kingdom and the United States toward COVID-19 vaccines to better understand the public attitude and concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods

Over 300,000 social media posts related to COVID-19 vaccines were extracted, including 23,571 Facebook posts from the United Kingdom and 144,864 from the United States, along with 40,268 tweets from the United Kingdom and 98,385 from the United States from March 1 to November 22, 2020. We used natural language processing and deep learning-based techniques to predict average sentiments, sentiment trends, and topics of discussion. These factors were analyzed longitudinally and geospatially, and manual reading of randomly selected posts on points of interest helped identify underlying themes and validated insights from the analysis.

Results

Overall averaged positive, negative, and neutral sentiments were at 58%, 22%, and 17% in the United Kingdom, compared to 56%, 24%, and 18% in the United States, respectively. Public optimism over vaccine development, effectiveness, and trials as well as concerns over their safety, economic viability, and corporation control were identified. We compared our findings to those of nationwide surveys in both countries and found them to correlate broadly.

Conclusions

Artificial intelligence-enabled social media analysis should be considered for adoption by institutions and governments alongside surveys and other conventional methods of assessing public attitude. Such analyses could enable real-time assessment, at scale, of public confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccines, help address the concerns of vaccine sceptics, and help develop more effective policies and communication strategies to maximize uptake.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/6/7/2319/1886257/advancesadv2021005453.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26627/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/26627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023383" }, { "id": "30537243", @@ -26639,21 +26588,55 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0141076820961776; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076820961776; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7809339; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7809339?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34632432", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-5247(21)00128-2", - "title": "Epidemiology of Mycobacterium abscessus in England: an observational study.", - "authorString": "Lipworth S, Hough N, Weston N, Muller-Pebody B, Phin N, Myers R, Chapman S, Flight W, Alexander E, Smith EG, Robinson E, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS, Hopkins S, Eyre DW, Walker TM.", + "id": "33825703", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1107/s2059798321000826", + "title": "Vagabond: bond-based parametrization reduces overfitting for refinement of proteins.", + "authorString": "Ginn HM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Microbe", + "journalTitle": "Acta crystallographica. Section D, Structural biology", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-01", + "date": "2021-03-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Models; X-ray diffraction; Protein Flexibility; Bonds; Refinement Software", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Structural biology methods have delivered over 150\u2005000 high-resolution structures of macromolecules, which have fundamentally altered our understanding of biology and our approach to developing new medicines. However, the description of molecular flexibility is instrinsically flawed and in almost all cases, regardless of the experimental method used for structure determination, there remains a strong overfitting bias during molecular model building and refinement. In the worst case this can lead to wholly incorrect structures and thus incorrect biological interpretations. Here, by reparametrizing the description of these complex structures in terms of bonds rather than atomic positions, and by modelling flexibility using a deterministic ensemble of structures, it is demonstrated that structures can be described using fewer parameters than in conventional refinement. The current implementation, applied to X-ray diffraction data, significantly reduces the extent of overfitting, allowing the experimental data to reveal more biological information in electron-density maps.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2021/04/00/qj5007/qj5007.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798321000826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8025884?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "34581777", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453", + "title": "G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 regulates thrombin signaling in platelets via PAR-1.", + "authorString": "Downes K, Zhao X, Gleadall NS, McKinney H, Kempster C, Batista J, Thomas PL, Cooper M, Michael JV, Kreuzhuber R, Wedderburn K, Waller K, Varney B, Verdier H, Kriek N, Ashford SE, Stirrups KE, Dunster JL, McKenzie SE, Ouwehand WH, Gibbins JM, Yang J, Astle WJ, Ma P.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Blood advances", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Mycobacterium abscessus has emerged as a significant clinical concern following reports that it is readily transmissible in health-care settings between patients with cystic fibrosis. We linked routinely collected whole-genome sequencing and health-care usage data with the aim of investigating the extent to which such transmission explains acquisition in patients with and without cystic fibrosis in England.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study, we analysed consecutive M abscessus whole-genome sequencing data from England (beginning of February, 2015, to Nov 14, 2019) to identify genomically similar isolates. Linkage to a national health-care usage database was used to investigate possible contacts between patients. Multivariable regression analysis was done to investigate factors associated with acquisition of a genomically clustered strain (genomic distance <25 single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]).

Findings

2297 isolates from 906 patients underwent whole-genome sequencing as part of the routine Public Health England diagnostic service. Of 14 genomic clusters containing isolates from ten or more patients, all but one contained patients with cystic fibrosis and patients without cystic fibrosis. Patients with cystic fibrosis were equally likely to have clustered isolates (258 [60%] of 431 patients) as those without cystic fibrosis (322 [63%] of 513 patients; p=0\u00b738). High-density phylogenetic clusters were randomly distributed over a wide geographical area. Most isolates with a closest genetic neighbour consistent with potential transmission had no identifiable relevant epidemiological contacts. Having a clustered isolate was independently associated with increasing age (adjusted odds ratio 1\u00b714 per 10 years, 95% CI 1\u00b704-1\u00b726), but not time spent as an hospital inpatient or outpatient. We identified two sibling pairs with cystic fibrosis with genetically highly divergent isolates and one pair with closely related isolates, and 25 uninfected presumed household contacts with cystic fibrosis.

Interpretation

Previously identified widely disseminated dominant clones of M abscessus are not restricted to patients with cystic fibrosis and occur in other chronic respiratory diseases. Although our analysis showed a small number of cases where person-to-person transmission could not be excluded, it did not support this being a major mechanism for M abscessus dissemination at a national level in England. Overall, these data should reassure patients and clinicians that the risk of acquisition from other patients in health-care settings is relatively low and motivate future research efforts to focus on identifying routes of acquisition outside of the cystic fibrosis health-care-associated niche.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research, Health Data Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, The Medical Research Council, and Public Health England.", + "abstract": "The interindividual variation in the functional response of platelets to activation by agonists is heritable. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of quantitative measures of platelet function have identified fewer than 20 distinctly associated variants, some with unknown mechanisms. Here, we report GWASs of pathway-specific functional responses to agonism by adenosine 5'-diphosphate, a glycoprotein VI-specific collagen mimetic, and thrombin receptor-agonist peptides, each specific to 1 of the G protein-coupled receptors PAR-1 and PAR-4, in subsets of 1562 individuals. We identified an association (P = 2.75 \u00d7 10-40) between a common intronic variant, rs10886430, in the G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 gene (GRK5) and the sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. The variant resides in a megakaryocyte-specific enhancer that is bound by the transcription factors GATA1 and MEIS1. The minor allele (G) is associated with fewer GRK5 transcripts in platelets and the greater sensitivity of platelets to activate through PAR-1. We show that thrombin-mediated activation of human platelets causes binding of GRK5 to PAR-1 and that deletion of the mouse homolog Grk5 enhances thrombin-induced platelet activation sensitivity and increases platelet accumulation at the site of vascular injury. This corroborates evidence that the human G allele of rs10886430 is associated with a greater risk for cardiovascular disease. In summary, by combining the results of pathway-specific GWASs and expression quantitative trait locus studies in humans with the results from platelet function studies in Grk5-/- mice, we obtain evidence that GRK5 regulates the human platelet response to thrombin via the PAR-1 pathway.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666524721001282/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00128-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8481905" + "urls": "pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/6/7/2319/1886257/advancesadv2021005453.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9006276?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33782080", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512", + "title": "Impact of COVID-19 national lockdown on asthma exacerbations: interrupted time-series analysis of English primary care data.", + "authorString": "Shah SA, Quint JK, Nwaru BI, Sheikh A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Thorax", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Asthma; Asthma Epidemiology; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The impact of COVID-19 and ensuing national lockdown on asthma exacerbations is unclear.

Methods

We conducted an interrupted time-series (lockdown on 23 March 2020 as point of interruption) analysis in asthma cohort identified using a validated algorithm from a national-level primary care database, the Optimum Patient Care Database. We derived asthma exacerbation rates for every week and compared exacerbation rates in the period: January to August 2020 with a pre-COVID-19 period and January to August 2016-2019. Exacerbations were defined as asthma-related hospital attendance/admission (including accident and emergency visit), or an acute course of oral corticosteroids with evidence of respiratory review, as recorded in primary care. We used a generalised least squares modelling approach and stratified the analyses by age, sex, English region and healthcare setting.

Results

From a database of 9 949 387 patients, there were 100 165 patients with asthma who experienced at least one exacerbation during 2016-2020. Of 278 996 exacerbation episodes, 49 938 (17.9%) required hospital visit. Comparing pre-lockdown to post-lockdown period, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the level (-0.196 episodes per person-year; p<0.001; almost 20 episodes for every 100 patients with asthma per year) of exacerbation rates across all patients. The reductions in level in stratified analyses were: 0.005-0.244 (healthcare setting, only those without hospital attendance/admission were significant), 0.210-0.277 (sex), 0.159-0.367 (age), 0.068-0.590 (region).

Conclusions

There has been a significant reduction in attendance to primary care for asthma exacerbations during the pandemic. This reduction was observed in all age groups, both sexes and across most regions in England.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/9/860.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216512; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8011425?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31234639", @@ -26673,21 +26656,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.118.038814; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.038814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6687408; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6687408?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34661196", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019", - "title": "Pericoronary and periaortic adipose tissue density are associated with inflammatory disease activity in Takayasu arteritis and atherosclerosis.", - "authorString": "Wall C, Huang Y, Le EPV, \u0106orovi\u0107 A, Uy CP, Gopalan D, Ma C, Manavaki R, Fryer TD, Aloj L, Graves MJ, Tombetti E, Ariff B, Bambrough P, Hoole SP, Rusk RA, Jayne DR, Dweck MR, Newby D, Fayad ZA, Bennett MR, Peters JE, Slomka P, Dey D, Mason JC, Rudd JHF, Tarkin JM.", + "id": "34632432", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-5247(21)00128-2", + "title": "Epidemiology of Mycobacterium abscessus in England: an observational study.", + "authorString": "Lipworth S, Hough N, Weston N, Muller-Pebody B, Phin N, Myers R, Chapman S, Flight W, Alexander E, Smith EG, Robinson E, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Walker AS, Hopkins S, Eyre DW, Walker TM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal open", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Microbe", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-08-06", + "date": "2021-10-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "coronary artery disease; Takayasu Arteritis; Pericoronary Adipose Tissue Density", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

To examine pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) and periaortic adipose tissue (PAAT) density on coronary computed tomography angiography for assessing arterial inflammation in Takayasu arteritis (TAK) and atherosclerosis.

Methods and results

PCAT and PAAT density was measured in coronary (n = 1016) and aortic (n = 108) segments from 108 subjects [TAK + coronary artery disease (CAD), n = 36; TAK, n = 18; atherosclerotic CAD, n = 32; matched controls, n = 22]. Median PCAT and PAAT densities varied between groups (mPCAT: P < 0.0001; PAAT: P = 0.0002). PCAT density was 7.01 \u00b1 standard error of the mean (SEM) 1.78 Hounsfield Unit (HU) higher in coronary segments from TAK + CAD patients than stable CAD patients (P = 0.0002), and 8.20 \u00b1 SEM 2.04 HU higher in TAK patients without CAD than controls (P = 0.0001). mPCAT density was correlated with Indian Takayasu Clinical Activity Score (r = 0.43, P = 0.001) and C-reactive protein (r = 0.41, P < 0.0001) and was higher in active vs. inactive TAK (P = 0.002). mPCAT density above -74 HU had 100% sensitivity and 95% specificity for differentiating active TAK from controls [area under the curve = 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.97-1)]. The association of PCAT density and coronary arterial inflammation measured by 68Ga-DOTATATE positron emission tomography (PET) equated to an increase of 2.44 \u00b1 SEM 0.77 HU in PCAT density for each unit increase in 68Ga-DOTATATE maximum tissue-to-blood ratio (P = 0.002). These findings remained in multivariable sensitivity analyses adjusted for potential confounders.

Conclusions

PCAT and PAAT density are higher in TAK than atherosclerotic CAD or controls and are associated with clinical, biochemical, and PET markers of inflammation. Owing to excellent diagnostic accuracy, PCAT density could be useful as a clinical adjunct for assessing disease activity in TAK.", + "abstract": "

Background

Mycobacterium abscessus has emerged as a significant clinical concern following reports that it is readily transmissible in health-care settings between patients with cystic fibrosis. We linked routinely collected whole-genome sequencing and health-care usage data with the aim of investigating the extent to which such transmission explains acquisition in patients with and without cystic fibrosis in England.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study, we analysed consecutive M abscessus whole-genome sequencing data from England (beginning of February, 2015, to Nov 14, 2019) to identify genomically similar isolates. Linkage to a national health-care usage database was used to investigate possible contacts between patients. Multivariable regression analysis was done to investigate factors associated with acquisition of a genomically clustered strain (genomic distance <25 single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]).

Findings

2297 isolates from 906 patients underwent whole-genome sequencing as part of the routine Public Health England diagnostic service. Of 14 genomic clusters containing isolates from ten or more patients, all but one contained patients with cystic fibrosis and patients without cystic fibrosis. Patients with cystic fibrosis were equally likely to have clustered isolates (258 [60%] of 431 patients) as those without cystic fibrosis (322 [63%] of 513 patients; p=0\u00b738). High-density phylogenetic clusters were randomly distributed over a wide geographical area. Most isolates with a closest genetic neighbour consistent with potential transmission had no identifiable relevant epidemiological contacts. Having a clustered isolate was independently associated with increasing age (adjusted odds ratio 1\u00b714 per 10 years, 95% CI 1\u00b704-1\u00b726), but not time spent as an hospital inpatient or outpatient. We identified two sibling pairs with cystic fibrosis with genetically highly divergent isolates and one pair with closely related isolates, and 25 uninfected presumed household contacts with cystic fibrosis.

Interpretation

Previously identified widely disseminated dominant clones of M abscessus are not restricted to patients with cystic fibrosis and occur in other chronic respiratory diseases. Although our analysis showed a small number of cases where person-to-person transmission could not be excluded, it did not support this being a major mechanism for M abscessus dissemination at a national level in England. Overall, these data should reassure patients and clinicians that the risk of acquisition from other patients in health-care settings is relatively low and motivate future research efforts to focus on identifying routes of acquisition outside of the cystic fibrosis health-care-associated niche.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research, Health Data Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, The Medical Research Council, and Public Health England.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/1/2/oeab019/41727950/oeab019.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666524721001282/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00128-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8481905" }, { "id": "32212911", @@ -26707,21 +26690,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.119.013684; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.013684; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7428631; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7428631?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35751107", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1", - "title": "Epigenomic analysis reveals a dynamic and context-specific macrophage enhancer landscape associated with innate immune activation and tolerance.", - "authorString": "Zhang P, Amarasinghe HE, Whalley JP, Tay C, Fang H, Migliorini G, Brown AC, Allcock A, Scozzafava G, Rath P, Davies B, Knight JC.", + "id": "34661196", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019", + "title": "Pericoronary and periaortic adipose tissue density are associated with inflammatory disease activity in Takayasu arteritis and atherosclerosis.", + "authorString": "Wall C, Huang Y, Le EPV, \u0106orovi\u0107 A, Uy CP, Gopalan D, Ma C, Manavaki R, Fryer TD, Aloj L, Graves MJ, Tombetti E, Ariff B, Bambrough P, Hoole SP, Rusk RA, Jayne DR, Dweck MR, Newby D, Fayad ZA, Bennett MR, Peters JE, Slomka P, Dey D, Mason JC, Rudd JHF, Tarkin JM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Genome biology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-24", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-08-06", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "coronary artery disease; Takayasu Arteritis; Pericoronary Adipose Tissue Density", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Chromatin states and enhancers associate gene expression, cell identity and disease. Here, we systematically delineate the acute innate immune response to endotoxin in terms of human macrophage enhancer activity and contrast with endotoxin tolerance, profiling the coding and non-coding transcriptome, chromatin accessibility and epigenetic modifications.

Results

We describe the spectrum of enhancers under acute and tolerance conditions and the regulatory networks between these enhancers and biological processes including gene expression, splicing regulation, transcription factor binding and enhancer RNA signatures. We demonstrate that the vast majority of differentially regulated enhancers on acute stimulation are subject to tolerance and that expression quantitative trait loci, disease-risk variants and eRNAs are enriched in these regulatory regions and related to context-specific gene expression. We find enrichment for context-specific eQTL involving endotoxin response and specific infections and delineate specific differential regions informative for GWAS variants in inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis, together with a context-specific enhancer involving a bacterial infection eQTL for KLF4. We show enrichment in differential enhancers for tolerance involving transcription factors NF\u03baB-p65, STATs and IRFs and prioritize putative causal genes directly linking genetic variants and disease risk enhancers. We further delineate similarities and differences in epigenetic landscape between stem cell-derived macrophages and primary cells and characterize the context-specific enhancer activities for key innate immune response genes KLF4, SLAMF1 and IL2RA.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates the importance of context-specific macrophage enhancers in gene regulation and utility for interpreting disease associations, providing a roadmap to link genetic variants with molecular and cellular functions.", + "abstract": "

Aims

To examine pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) and periaortic adipose tissue (PAAT) density on coronary computed tomography angiography for assessing arterial inflammation in Takayasu arteritis (TAK) and atherosclerosis.

Methods and results

PCAT and PAAT density was measured in coronary (n = 1016) and aortic (n = 108) segments from 108 subjects [TAK + coronary artery disease (CAD), n = 36; TAK, n = 18; atherosclerotic CAD, n = 32; matched controls, n = 22]. Median PCAT and PAAT densities varied between groups (mPCAT: P < 0.0001; PAAT: P = 0.0002). PCAT density was 7.01 \u00b1 standard error of the mean (SEM) 1.78 Hounsfield Unit (HU) higher in coronary segments from TAK + CAD patients than stable CAD patients (P = 0.0002), and 8.20 \u00b1 SEM 2.04 HU higher in TAK patients without CAD than controls (P = 0.0001). mPCAT density was correlated with Indian Takayasu Clinical Activity Score (r = 0.43, P = 0.001) and C-reactive protein (r = 0.41, P < 0.0001) and was higher in active vs. inactive TAK (P = 0.002). mPCAT density above -74 HU had 100% sensitivity and 95% specificity for differentiating active TAK from controls [area under the curve = 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.97-1)]. The association of PCAT density and coronary arterial inflammation measured by 68Ga-DOTATATE positron emission tomography (PET) equated to an increase of 2.44 \u00b1 SEM 0.77 HU in PCAT density for each unit increase in 68Ga-DOTATATE maximum tissue-to-blood ratio (P = 0.002). These findings remained in multivariable sensitivity analyses adjusted for potential confounders.

Conclusions

PCAT and PAAT density are higher in TAK than atherosclerotic CAD or controls and are associated with clinical, biochemical, and PET markers of inflammation. Owing to excellent diagnostic accuracy, PCAT density could be useful as a clinical adjunct for assessing disease activity in TAK.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjopen/article-pdf/1/2/oeab019/41727950/oeab019.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjopen/oeab019; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8508012?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31657946", @@ -26740,6 +26723,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201903-0673OC" }, + { + "id": "35751107", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1", + "title": "Epigenomic analysis reveals a dynamic and context-specific macrophage enhancer landscape associated with innate immune activation and tolerance.", + "authorString": "Zhang P, Amarasinghe HE, Whalley JP, Tay C, Fang H, Migliorini G, Brown AC, Allcock A, Scozzafava G, Rath P, Davies B, Knight JC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Genome biology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-06-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Chromatin states and enhancers associate gene expression, cell identity and disease. Here, we systematically delineate the acute innate immune response to endotoxin in terms of human macrophage enhancer activity and contrast with endotoxin tolerance, profiling the coding and non-coding transcriptome, chromatin accessibility and epigenetic modifications.

Results

We describe the spectrum of enhancers under acute and tolerance conditions and the regulatory networks between these enhancers and biological processes including gene expression, splicing regulation, transcription factor binding and enhancer RNA signatures. We demonstrate that the vast majority of differentially regulated enhancers on acute stimulation are subject to tolerance and that expression quantitative trait loci, disease-risk variants and eRNAs are enriched in these regulatory regions and related to context-specific gene expression. We find enrichment for context-specific eQTL involving endotoxin response and specific infections and delineate specific differential regions informative for GWAS variants in inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis, together with a context-specific enhancer involving a bacterial infection eQTL for KLF4. We show enrichment in differential enhancers for tolerance involving transcription factors NF\u03baB-p65, STATs and IRFs and prioritize putative causal genes directly linking genetic variants and disease risk enhancers. We further delineate similarities and differences in epigenetic landscape between stem cell-derived macrophages and primary cells and characterize the context-specific enhancer activities for key innate immune response genes KLF4, SLAMF1 and IL2RA.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates the importance of context-specific macrophage enhancers in gene regulation and utility for interpreting disease associations, providing a roadmap to link genetic variants with molecular and cellular functions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02702-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9229144?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34737870", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.15003", @@ -26774,23 +26774,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12859-022-04838-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04838-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9338519; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9338519?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32685697", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1", - "title": "The contribution of pre-symptomatic infection to the transmission dynamics of COVID-2019.", - "authorString": "Liu Y, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases nCoV Working Group, Funk S, Flasche S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-04-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Incubation period; Serial Interval; Covid-19; Pre-symptomatic Transmission", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: Pre-symptomatic transmission can be a key determinant of the effectiveness of containment and mitigation strategies for infectious diseases, particularly if interventions rely on syndromic case finding. For COVID-19, infections in the absence of apparent symptoms have been reported frequently alongside circumstantial evidence for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission. We estimated the potential contribution of pre-symptomatic cases to COVID-19 transmission. Methods: Using the probability for symptom onset on a given day inferred from the incubation period, we attributed the serial interval reported from Shenzen, China, into likely pre-symptomatic and symptomatic transmission. We used the serial interval derived for cases isolated more than 6 days after symptom onset as the no active case finding scenario and the unrestricted serial interval as the active case finding scenario. We reported the estimate assuming no correlation between the incubation period and the serial interval alongside a range indicating alternative assumptions of positive and negative correlation. Results: We estimated that 23% (range accounting for correlation: 12 - 28%) of transmissions in Shenzen may have originated from pre-symptomatic infections. Through accelerated case isolation following symptom onset, this percentage increased to 46% (21 - 46%), implying that about 35% of secondary infections among symptomatic cases have been prevented. These results were robust to using reported incubation periods and serial intervals from other settings. Conclusions: Pre-symptomatic transmission may be essential to consider for containment and mitigation strategies for COVID-19.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-58/v1/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31863937", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105333", @@ -26825,6 +26808,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10097154/3/Solebo_Liu%20AC%20Flare%20SR%20290919.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2019.1709650" }, + { + "id": "32685697", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1", + "title": "The contribution of pre-symptomatic infection to the transmission dynamics of COVID-2019.", + "authorString": "Liu Y, Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases nCoV Working Group, Funk S, Flasche S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-04-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Incubation period; Serial Interval; Covid-19; Pre-symptomatic Transmission", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background: Pre-symptomatic transmission can be a key determinant of the effectiveness of containment and mitigation strategies for infectious diseases, particularly if interventions rely on syndromic case finding. For COVID-19, infections in the absence of apparent symptoms have been reported frequently alongside circumstantial evidence for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission. We estimated the potential contribution of pre-symptomatic cases to COVID-19 transmission. Methods: Using the probability for symptom onset on a given day inferred from the incubation period, we attributed the serial interval reported from Shenzen, China, into likely pre-symptomatic and symptomatic transmission. We used the serial interval derived for cases isolated more than 6 days after symptom onset as the no active case finding scenario and the unrestricted serial interval as the active case finding scenario. We reported the estimate assuming no correlation between the incubation period and the serial interval alongside a range indicating alternative assumptions of positive and negative correlation. Results: We estimated that 23% (range accounting for correlation: 12 - 28%) of transmissions in Shenzen may have originated from pre-symptomatic infections. Through accelerated case isolation following symptom onset, this percentage increased to 46% (21 - 46%), implying that about 35% of secondary infections among symptomatic cases have been prevented. These results were robust to using reported incubation periods and serial intervals from other settings. Conclusions: Pre-symptomatic transmission may be essential to consider for containment and mitigation strategies for COVID-19.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-58/v1/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15788.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7324944?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35520099", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1718", @@ -26876,23 +26876,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14302; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14302" }, - { - "id": "35728939", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681", - "title": "Reductions in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0-4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic.", - "authorString": "Etoori D, Harron KL, Mc Grath-Lone L, Verf\u00fcrden ML, Gilbert R, Blackburn R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Archives of disease in childhood", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Child Health; Health Services Research; Healthcare Disparities; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To quantify reductions in hospital care for clinically vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Birth cohort.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

All children aged <5\u2009years with a birth recorded in hospital administrative data (January 2010-March 2021).

Main exposure

Clinical vulnerability defined by a chronic health condition, preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation) or low birth weight (<2500\u2009g).

Main outcomes

Reductions in care defined by predicted hospital contact rates for 2020, estimated from 2015 to 2019, minus observed rates per 1000 child years during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-2021).

Results

Of 3\u2009813\u2009465 children, 17.7% (one in six) were clinically vulnerable (9.5% born preterm or low birth weight, 10.3% had a chronic condition). Reductions in hospital care during the pandemic were much higher for clinically vulnerable children than peers: respectively, outpatient attendances (314 vs 73 per 1000 child years), planned admissions (55 vs 10) and unplanned admissions (105 vs 79). Clinically vulnerable children accounted for 50.1% of the reduction in outpatient attendances, 55.0% in planned admissions and 32.8% in unplanned hospital admissions. During the pandemic, weekly rates of planned care returned to prepandemic levels for infants with chronic conditions but not older children. Reductions in care differed by ethnic group and level of deprivation. Virtual outpatient attendances increased from 3.2% to 24.8% during the pandemic.

Conclusion

One in six clinically vulnerable children accounted for one-third to one half of the reduction in hospital care during the pandemic.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e31.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31650125", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30012-3", @@ -26910,6 +26893,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30012-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30012-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6798263; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6798263?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35728939", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681", + "title": "Reductions in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0-4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic.", + "authorString": "Etoori D, Harron KL, Mc Grath-Lone L, Verf\u00fcrden ML, Gilbert R, Blackburn R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Archives of disease in childhood", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-06-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Child Health; Health Services Research; Healthcare Disparities; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

To quantify reductions in hospital care for clinically vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Birth cohort.

Setting

National Health Service hospitals in England.

Study population

All children aged <5\u2009years with a birth recorded in hospital administrative data (January 2010-March 2021).

Main exposure

Clinical vulnerability defined by a chronic health condition, preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation) or low birth weight (<2500\u2009g).

Main outcomes

Reductions in care defined by predicted hospital contact rates for 2020, estimated from 2015 to 2019, minus observed rates per 1000 child years during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-2021).

Results

Of 3\u2009813\u2009465 children, 17.7% (one in six) were clinically vulnerable (9.5% born preterm or low birth weight, 10.3% had a chronic condition). Reductions in hospital care during the pandemic were much higher for clinically vulnerable children than peers: respectively, outpatient attendances (314 vs 73 per 1000 child years), planned admissions (55 vs 10) and unplanned admissions (105 vs 79). Clinically vulnerable children accounted for 50.1% of the reduction in outpatient attendances, 55.0% in planned admissions and 32.8% in unplanned hospital admissions. During the pandemic, weekly rates of planned care returned to prepandemic levels for infants with chronic conditions but not older children. Reductions in care differed by ethnic group and level of deprivation. Virtual outpatient attendances increased from 3.2% to 24.8% during the pandemic.

Conclusion

One in six clinically vulnerable children accounted for one-third to one half of the reduction in hospital care during the pandemic.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e31.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323681; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9271837?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34396248", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2020.07.001", @@ -27008,9 +27008,26 @@ "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30425-X" + }, + { + "id": "33323251", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30123-2", + "title": "A comparison of deep learning performance against health-care professionals in detecting diseases from medical imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Liu X, Faes L, Kale AU, Wagner SK, Fu DJ, Bruynseels A, Mahendiran T, Moraes G, Shamdas M, Kern C, Ledsam JR, Schmid MK, Balaskas K, Topol EJ, Bachmann LM, Keane PA, Denniston AK.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-09-25", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Deep learning offers considerable promise for medical diagnostics. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of deep learning algorithms versus health-care professionals in classifying diseases using medical imaging.

Methods

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched Ovid-MEDLINE, Embase, Science Citation Index, and Conference Proceedings Citation Index for studies published from Jan 1, 2012, to June 6, 2019. Studies comparing the diagnostic performance of deep learning models and health-care professionals based on medical imaging, for any disease, were included. We excluded studies that used medical waveform data graphics material or investigated the accuracy of image segmentation rather than disease classification. We extracted binary diagnostic accuracy data and constructed contingency tables to derive the outcomes of interest: sensitivity and specificity. Studies undertaking an out-of-sample external validation were included in a meta-analysis, using a unified hierarchical model. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42018091176.

Findings

Our search identified 31\u2008587 studies, of which 82 (describing 147 patient cohorts) were included. 69 studies provided enough data to construct contingency tables, enabling calculation of test accuracy, with sensitivity ranging from 9\u00b77% to 100\u00b70% (mean 79\u00b71%, SD 0\u00b72) and specificity ranging from 38\u00b79% to 100\u00b70% (mean 88\u00b73%, SD 0\u00b71). An out-of-sample external validation was done in 25 studies, of which 14 made the comparison between deep learning models and health-care professionals in the same sample. Comparison of the performance between health-care professionals in these 14 studies, when restricting the analysis to the contingency table for each study reporting the highest accuracy, found a pooled sensitivity of 87\u00b70% (95% CI 83\u00b70-90\u00b72) for deep learning models and 86\u00b74% (79\u00b79-91\u00b70) for health-care professionals, and a pooled specificity of 92\u00b75% (95% CI 85\u00b71-96\u00b74) for deep learning models and 90\u00b75% (80\u00b76-95\u00b77) for health-care professionals.

Interpretation

Our review found the diagnostic performance of deep learning models to be equivalent to that of health-care professionals. However, a major finding of the review is that few studies presented externally validated results or compared the performance of deep learning models and health-care professionals using the same sample. Additionally, poor reporting is prevalent in deep learning studies, which limits reliable interpretation of the reported diagnostic accuracy. New reporting standards that address specific challenges of deep learning could improve future studies, enabling greater confidence in the results of future evaluations of this promising technology.

Funding

None.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30425-X" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750019301232/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30123-2" }, { "id": "35849350", @@ -27029,23 +27046,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-pdf/50/18/e104/46501243/gkac612.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac612; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9561279; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9561279?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33323251", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30123-2", - "title": "A comparison of deep learning performance against health-care professionals in detecting diseases from medical imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Liu X, Faes L, Kale AU, Wagner SK, Fu DJ, Bruynseels A, Mahendiran T, Moraes G, Shamdas M, Kern C, Ledsam JR, Schmid MK, Balaskas K, Topol EJ, Bachmann LM, Keane PA, Denniston AK.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-09-25", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Deep learning offers considerable promise for medical diagnostics. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of deep learning algorithms versus health-care professionals in classifying diseases using medical imaging.

Methods

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched Ovid-MEDLINE, Embase, Science Citation Index, and Conference Proceedings Citation Index for studies published from Jan 1, 2012, to June 6, 2019. Studies comparing the diagnostic performance of deep learning models and health-care professionals based on medical imaging, for any disease, were included. We excluded studies that used medical waveform data graphics material or investigated the accuracy of image segmentation rather than disease classification. We extracted binary diagnostic accuracy data and constructed contingency tables to derive the outcomes of interest: sensitivity and specificity. Studies undertaking an out-of-sample external validation were included in a meta-analysis, using a unified hierarchical model. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42018091176.

Findings

Our search identified 31\u2008587 studies, of which 82 (describing 147 patient cohorts) were included. 69 studies provided enough data to construct contingency tables, enabling calculation of test accuracy, with sensitivity ranging from 9\u00b77% to 100\u00b70% (mean 79\u00b71%, SD 0\u00b72) and specificity ranging from 38\u00b79% to 100\u00b70% (mean 88\u00b73%, SD 0\u00b71). An out-of-sample external validation was done in 25 studies, of which 14 made the comparison between deep learning models and health-care professionals in the same sample. Comparison of the performance between health-care professionals in these 14 studies, when restricting the analysis to the contingency table for each study reporting the highest accuracy, found a pooled sensitivity of 87\u00b70% (95% CI 83\u00b70-90\u00b72) for deep learning models and 86\u00b74% (79\u00b79-91\u00b70) for health-care professionals, and a pooled specificity of 92\u00b75% (95% CI 85\u00b71-96\u00b74) for deep learning models and 90\u00b75% (80\u00b76-95\u00b77) for health-care professionals.

Interpretation

Our review found the diagnostic performance of deep learning models to be equivalent to that of health-care professionals. However, a major finding of the review is that few studies presented externally validated results or compared the performance of deep learning models and health-care professionals using the same sample. Additionally, poor reporting is prevalent in deep learning studies, which limits reliable interpretation of the reported diagnostic accuracy. New reporting standards that address specific challenges of deep learning could improve future studies, enabling greater confidence in the results of future evaluations of this promising technology.

Funding

None.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750019301232/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30123-2" - }, { "id": "34870142", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192", @@ -27063,23 +27063,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2021.100192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8628369; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8628369?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33941991", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339", - "title": "Multimodal deep learning from satellite and street-level imagery for measuring income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation in urban areas.", - "authorString": "Suel E, Bhatt S, Brauer M, Flaxman S, Ezzati M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Remote sensing of environment", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Segmentation; Satellite Images; Convolutional Neural Networks; Street-Level Images; Urban Measurements", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Data collected at large scale and low cost (e.g. satellite and street level imagery) have the potential to substantially improve resolution, spatial coverage, and temporal frequency of measurement of urban inequalities. Multiple types of data from different sources are often available for a given geographic area. Yet, most studies utilize a single type of input data when making measurements due to methodological difficulties in their joint use. We propose two deep learning-based methods for jointly utilizing satellite and street level imagery for measuring urban inequalities. We use London as a case study for three selected outputs, each measured in decile classes: income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation. We compare the performances of our proposed multimodal models to corresponding unimodal ones using mean absolute error (MAE). First, satellite tiles are appended to street level imagery to enhance predictions at locations where street images are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 20, 10, and 9% in units of decile classes for income, overcrowding, and living environment. The second approach, novel to the best of our knowledge, uses a U-Net architecture to make predictions for all grid cells in a city at high spatial resolution (e.g. for 3\u00a0m\u00a0\u00d7\u00a03\u00a0m pixels in London in our experiments). It can utilize city wide availability of satellite images as well as more sparse information from street-level images where they are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 6, 10, and 11%. We also show examples of prediction maps from both approaches to visually highlight performance differences.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31145509", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/gepi.22215", @@ -27114,6 +27097,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.120.021115; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.021115; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649290; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649290?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33941991", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339", + "title": "Multimodal deep learning from satellite and street-level imagery for measuring income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation in urban areas.", + "authorString": "Suel E, Bhatt S, Brauer M, Flaxman S, Ezzati M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Remote sensing of environment", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Segmentation; Satellite Images; Convolutional Neural Networks; Street-Level Images; Urban Measurements", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Data collected at large scale and low cost (e.g. satellite and street level imagery) have the potential to substantially improve resolution, spatial coverage, and temporal frequency of measurement of urban inequalities. Multiple types of data from different sources are often available for a given geographic area. Yet, most studies utilize a single type of input data when making measurements due to methodological difficulties in their joint use. We propose two deep learning-based methods for jointly utilizing satellite and street level imagery for measuring urban inequalities. We use London as a case study for three selected outputs, each measured in decile classes: income, overcrowding, and environmental deprivation. We compare the performances of our proposed multimodal models to corresponding unimodal ones using mean absolute error (MAE). First, satellite tiles are appended to street level imagery to enhance predictions at locations where street images are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 20, 10, and 9% in units of decile classes for income, overcrowding, and living environment. The second approach, novel to the best of our knowledge, uses a U-Net architecture to make predictions for all grid cells in a city at high spatial resolution (e.g. for 3\u00a0m\u00a0\u00d7\u00a03\u00a0m pixels in London in our experiments). It can utilize city wide availability of satellite images as well as more sparse information from street-level images where they are available leading to improvements in accuracy by 6, 10, and 11%. We also show examples of prediction maps from both approaches to visually highlight performance differences.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112339; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7985619?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33090454", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19597", @@ -27131,23 +27131,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4658151/1/Ascott-etal-2020_Atopic_eczema_and-obesity.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19597" }, - { - "id": "33434193", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487", - "title": "Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.", - "authorString": "Ramakrishnan R, Doherty A, Smith-Byrne K, Rahimi K, Bennett D, Woodward M, Walmsley R, Dwyer T.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Higher levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uncertainty exists on whether the inverse relationship between PA and incidence of CVD is greater at the highest levels of PA. Past studies have mostly relied on self-reported evidence from questionnaire-based PA, which is crude and cannot capture all PA undertaken. We investigated the association between accelerometer-measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA and incident CVD.

Methods and findings

We obtained accelerometer-measured moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activities and total volume of PA, over a 7-day period in 2013-2015, for 90,211 participants without prior or concurrent CVD in the UK Biobank cohort. Participants in the lowest category of total PA smoked more, had higher body mass index and C-reactive protein, and were diagnosed with hypertension. PA was associated with 3,617 incident CVD cases during 440,004 person-years of follow-up (median (interquartile range [IQR]): 5.2 (1.2) years) using Cox regression models. We found a linear dose-response relationship for PA, whether measured as moderate-intensity, vigorous-intensity, or as total volume, with risk of incident of CVD. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for increasing quarters of the PA distribution relative to the lowest fourth were for moderate-intensity PA: 0.71 (0.65, 0.77), 0.59 (0.54, 0.65), and 0.46 (0.41, 0.51); for vigorous-intensity PA: 0.70 (0.64, 0.77), 0.54 (0.49,0.59), and 0.41 (0.37,0.46); and for total volume of PA: 0.73 (0.67, 0.79), 0.63 (0.57, 0.69), and 0.47 (0.43, 0.52). We took account of potential confounders but unmeasured confounding remains a possibility, and while removal of early deaths did not affect the estimated HRs, we cannot completely dismiss the likelihood that reverse causality has contributed to the findings. Another possible limitation of this work is the quantification of PA intensity-levels based on methods validated in relatively small studies.

Conclusions

In this study, we found no evidence of a threshold for the inverse association between objectively measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA with CVD. Our findings suggest that PA is not only associated with lower risk for of CVD, but the greatest benefit is seen for those who are active at the highest level.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31702773", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btz796", @@ -27200,21 +27183,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12874-020-01163-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-020-01163-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7694355; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7694355?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36168404", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501", - "title": "Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 and after booster vaccination with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273: A population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK).", - "authorString": "Vivaldi G, Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Tydeman F, Talaei M, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.", + "id": "33434193", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487", + "title": "Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.", + "authorString": "Ramakrishnan R, Doherty A, Smith-Byrne K, Rahimi K, Bennett D, Woodward M, Walmsley R, Dwyer T.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet regional health. Europe", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-23", + "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-12", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Vaccination; Breakthrough Infection; Chadox1; Sars-cov-2; Bnt162b2; Mrna-1273", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Little is known about how demographic, behavioural, and vaccine-related factors affect risk of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to identify risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Methods

This prospective, population-based, UK study in adults (\u226516 years) vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 assessed risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection up to February, 2022, for participants who completed a primary vaccination course (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2) and those who received a booster dose (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273). Cox regression models explored associations between sociodemographic, behavioural, clinical, pharmacological, and nutritional factors and test-positive breakthrough infection, adjusted for local weekly SARS-CoV-2 incidence.

Findings

1051 (7\u00b71%) of 14\u2009713 post-primary participants and 1009 (9\u00b75%) of 10\u2009665 post-booster participants reported breakthrough infection, over a median follow-up of 203 days (IQR 195-216) and 85 days (66-103), respectively. Primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 (vs BNT162b2) was associated with higher risk of infection in both post-primary analysis (adjusted hazard ratio 1\u00b763, 95% CI 1\u00b741-1\u00b788) and after an mRNA-1273 booster (1\u00b726 [1\u00b700-1\u00b757] vs BNT162b2 primary and booster). Lower risk of infection was associated with older age (post-primary: 0\u00b797 [0\u00b796-0\u00b797] per year; post-booster: 0\u00b797 [0\u00b797-0\u00b798]), whereas higher risk of infection was associated with lower educational attainment (post-primary: 1\u00b778 [1\u00b744-2\u00b720] for primary/secondary vs postgraduate; post-booster: 1\u00b746 [1\u00b716-1\u00b783]) and at least three weekly visits to indoor public places (post-primary: 1\u00b736 [1\u00b713-1\u00b763] vs none; post-booster: 1\u00b729 [1\u00b707-1\u00b756]).

Interpretation

Vaccine type, socioeconomic status, age, and behaviours affect risk of breakthrough infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Funding

Barts Charity, UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.", + "abstract": "

Background

Higher levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uncertainty exists on whether the inverse relationship between PA and incidence of CVD is greater at the highest levels of PA. Past studies have mostly relied on self-reported evidence from questionnaire-based PA, which is crude and cannot capture all PA undertaken. We investigated the association between accelerometer-measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA and incident CVD.

Methods and findings

We obtained accelerometer-measured moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activities and total volume of PA, over a 7-day period in 2013-2015, for 90,211 participants without prior or concurrent CVD in the UK Biobank cohort. Participants in the lowest category of total PA smoked more, had higher body mass index and C-reactive protein, and were diagnosed with hypertension. PA was associated with 3,617 incident CVD cases during 440,004 person-years of follow-up (median (interquartile range [IQR]): 5.2 (1.2) years) using Cox regression models. We found a linear dose-response relationship for PA, whether measured as moderate-intensity, vigorous-intensity, or as total volume, with risk of incident of CVD. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for increasing quarters of the PA distribution relative to the lowest fourth were for moderate-intensity PA: 0.71 (0.65, 0.77), 0.59 (0.54, 0.65), and 0.46 (0.41, 0.51); for vigorous-intensity PA: 0.70 (0.64, 0.77), 0.54 (0.49,0.59), and 0.41 (0.37,0.46); and for total volume of PA: 0.73 (0.67, 0.79), 0.63 (0.57, 0.69), and 0.47 (0.43, 0.52). We took account of potential confounders but unmeasured confounding remains a possibility, and while removal of early deaths did not affect the estimated HRs, we cannot completely dismiss the likelihood that reverse causality has contributed to the findings. Another possible limitation of this work is the quantification of PA intensity-levels based on methods validated in relatively small studies.

Conclusions

In this study, we found no evidence of a threshold for the inverse association between objectively measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA with CVD. Our findings suggest that PA is not only associated with lower risk for of CVD, but the greatest benefit is seen for those who are active at the highest level.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7802951?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32294163", @@ -27234,38 +27217,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/europace/article-pdf/22/5/787/33178222/euaa039.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euaa039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7203633; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7203633?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36717723", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2", - "title": "A patient-centric modeling framework captures recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.", - "authorString": "Ruffieux H, Hanson AL, Lodge S, Lawler NG, Whiley L, Gray N, Nolan TH, Bergamaschi L, Mescia F, Turner L, de Sa A, Pelly VS, Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease-National Institute of Health Research (CITIID-NIHR) BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Kotagiri P, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Holmes E, Wist J, Nicholson JK, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Richardson S, Bantug GR, Hess C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature immunology", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-30", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The biology driving individual patient responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection remains ill understood. Here, we developed a patient-centric framework leveraging detailed longitudinal phenotyping data and covering a year after disease onset, from 215 infected individuals with differing disease severities. Our analyses revealed distinct 'systemic recovery' profiles, with specific progression and resolution of the inflammatory, immune cell, metabolic and clinical responses. In particular, we found a strong inter-patient and intra-patient temporal covariation of innate immune cell numbers, kynurenine metabolites and lipid metabolites, which highlighted candidate immunologic and metabolic pathways influencing the restoration of homeostasis, the risk of death and that of long COVID. Based on these data, we identified a composite signature predictive of systemic recovery, using a joint model on cellular and molecular parameters measured soon after disease onset. New predictions can be generated using the online tool http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/covid-19-systemic-recovery-prediction-app , designed to test our findings prospectively.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01380-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33493433", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30743-9", - "title": "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on radiotherapy services in England, UK: a population-based study.", - "authorString": "Spencer K, Jones CM, Girdler R, Roe C, Sharpe M, Lawton S, Miller L, Lewis P, Evans M, Sebag-Montefiore D, Roques T, Smittenaar R, Morris E.", + "id": "36168404", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501", + "title": "Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 and after booster vaccination with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273: A population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK).", + "authorString": "Vivaldi G, Jolliffe DA, Holt H, Tydeman F, Talaei M, Davies GA, Lyons RA, Griffiths CJ, Kee F, Sheikh A, Shaheen SO, Martineau AR.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Oncology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-22", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet regional health. Europe", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-23", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Vaccination; Breakthrough Infection; Chadox1; Sars-cov-2; Bnt162b2; Mrna-1273", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes is of increasing concern. However, the extent to which key treatment modalities have been affected is unclear. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on radiotherapy activity in England.

Methods

In this population-based study, data relating to all radiotherapy delivered for cancer in the English NHS, between Feb 4, 2019, and June 28, 2020, were extracted from the National Radiotherapy Dataset. Changes in mean weekly radiotherapy courses, attendances (reflecting fractions), and fractionation patterns following the start of the UK lockdown were compared with corresponding months in 2019 overall, for specific diagnoses, and across age groups. The significance of changes in radiotherapy activity during lockdown was examined using interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis.

Findings

In 2020, mean weekly radiotherapy courses fell by 19\u00b79% in April, 6\u00b72% in May, and 11\u00b76% in June compared with corresponding months in 2019. A relatively greater fall was observed for attendances (29\u00b71% in April, 31\u00b74% in May, and 31\u00b75% in June). These changes were significant on ITS analysis (p<0\u00b70001). A greater reduction in treatment courses between 2019 and 2020 was seen for patients aged 70 years or older compared with those aged younger than 70 years (34\u00b74% vs 7\u00b73% in April). By diagnosis, the largest reduction from 2019 to 2020 in treatment courses was for prostate cancer (77\u00b70% in April) and non-melanoma skin cancer (72\u00b74% in April). Conversely, radiotherapy courses in April, 2020, compared with April, 2019, increased by 41\u00b72% in oesophageal cancer, 64\u00b72% in bladder cancer, and 36\u00b73% in rectal cancer. Increased use of ultra-hypofractionated (26 Gy in five fractions) breast radiotherapy as a percentage of all courses (0\u00b72% in April, 2019, to 60\u00b76% in April, 2020; ITS p<0\u00b70001) contributed to the substantial reduction in attendances.

Interpretation

Radiotherapy activity fell significantly, but use of hypofractionated regimens rapidly increased in the English NHS during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in treatments for some cancers suggests that radiotherapy compensated for reduced surgical activity. These data will assist health-care providers in understanding the indirect consequences of the pandemic and the role of radiotherapy services in minimising these consequences.

Funding

None.", + "abstract": "

Background

Little is known about how demographic, behavioural, and vaccine-related factors affect risk of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to identify risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Methods

This prospective, population-based, UK study in adults (\u226516 years) vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 assessed risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection up to February, 2022, for participants who completed a primary vaccination course (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2) and those who received a booster dose (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273). Cox regression models explored associations between sociodemographic, behavioural, clinical, pharmacological, and nutritional factors and test-positive breakthrough infection, adjusted for local weekly SARS-CoV-2 incidence.

Findings

1051 (7\u00b71%) of 14\u2009713 post-primary participants and 1009 (9\u00b75%) of 10\u2009665 post-booster participants reported breakthrough infection, over a median follow-up of 203 days (IQR 195-216) and 85 days (66-103), respectively. Primary vaccination with ChAdOx1 (vs BNT162b2) was associated with higher risk of infection in both post-primary analysis (adjusted hazard ratio 1\u00b763, 95% CI 1\u00b741-1\u00b788) and after an mRNA-1273 booster (1\u00b726 [1\u00b700-1\u00b757] vs BNT162b2 primary and booster). Lower risk of infection was associated with older age (post-primary: 0\u00b797 [0\u00b796-0\u00b797] per year; post-booster: 0\u00b797 [0\u00b797-0\u00b798]), whereas higher risk of infection was associated with lower educational attainment (post-primary: 1\u00b778 [1\u00b744-2\u00b720] for primary/secondary vs postgraduate; post-booster: 1\u00b746 [1\u00b716-1\u00b783]) and at least three weekly visits to indoor public places (post-primary: 1\u00b736 [1\u00b713-1\u00b763] vs none; post-booster: 1\u00b729 [1\u00b707-1\u00b756]).

Interpretation

Vaccine type, socioeconomic status, age, and behaviours affect risk of breakthrough infection after primary and booster vaccinations.

Funding

Barts Charity, UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470204520307439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30743-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9499825?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34863512", @@ -27284,6 +27250,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.10.038; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.10.038" }, + { + "id": "36717723", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2", + "title": "A patient-centric modeling framework captures recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.", + "authorString": "Ruffieux H, Hanson AL, Lodge S, Lawler NG, Whiley L, Gray N, Nolan TH, Bergamaschi L, Mescia F, Turner L, de Sa A, Pelly VS, Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease-National Institute of Health Research (CITIID-NIHR) BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, Kotagiri P, Kingston N, Bradley JR, Holmes E, Wist J, Nicholson JK, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Richardson S, Bantug GR, Hess C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature immunology", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The biology driving individual patient responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection remains ill understood. Here, we developed a patient-centric framework leveraging detailed longitudinal phenotyping data and covering a year after disease onset, from 215 infected individuals with differing disease severities. Our analyses revealed distinct 'systemic recovery' profiles, with specific progression and resolution of the inflammatory, immune cell, metabolic and clinical responses. In particular, we found a strong inter-patient and intra-patient temporal covariation of innate immune cell numbers, kynurenine metabolites and lipid metabolites, which highlighted candidate immunologic and metabolic pathways influencing the restoration of homeostasis, the risk of death and that of long COVID. Based on these data, we identified a composite signature predictive of systemic recovery, using a joint model on cellular and molecular parameters measured soon after disease onset. New predictions can be generated using the online tool http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/covid-19-systemic-recovery-prediction-app , designed to test our findings prospectively.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01380-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01380-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9892000?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35247983", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02673-1", @@ -27318,6 +27301,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9904207; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj1541; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9904207; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9904207?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj1541" }, + { + "id": "33493433", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(20)30743-9", + "title": "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on radiotherapy services in England, UK: a population-based study.", + "authorString": "Spencer K, Jones CM, Girdler R, Roe C, Sharpe M, Lawton S, Miller L, Lewis P, Evans M, Sebag-Montefiore D, Roques T, Smittenaar R, Morris E.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Oncology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes is of increasing concern. However, the extent to which key treatment modalities have been affected is unclear. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on radiotherapy activity in England.

Methods

In this population-based study, data relating to all radiotherapy delivered for cancer in the English NHS, between Feb 4, 2019, and June 28, 2020, were extracted from the National Radiotherapy Dataset. Changes in mean weekly radiotherapy courses, attendances (reflecting fractions), and fractionation patterns following the start of the UK lockdown were compared with corresponding months in 2019 overall, for specific diagnoses, and across age groups. The significance of changes in radiotherapy activity during lockdown was examined using interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis.

Findings

In 2020, mean weekly radiotherapy courses fell by 19\u00b79% in April, 6\u00b72% in May, and 11\u00b76% in June compared with corresponding months in 2019. A relatively greater fall was observed for attendances (29\u00b71% in April, 31\u00b74% in May, and 31\u00b75% in June). These changes were significant on ITS analysis (p<0\u00b70001). A greater reduction in treatment courses between 2019 and 2020 was seen for patients aged 70 years or older compared with those aged younger than 70 years (34\u00b74% vs 7\u00b73% in April). By diagnosis, the largest reduction from 2019 to 2020 in treatment courses was for prostate cancer (77\u00b70% in April) and non-melanoma skin cancer (72\u00b74% in April). Conversely, radiotherapy courses in April, 2020, compared with April, 2019, increased by 41\u00b72% in oesophageal cancer, 64\u00b72% in bladder cancer, and 36\u00b73% in rectal cancer. Increased use of ultra-hypofractionated (26 Gy in five fractions) breast radiotherapy as a percentage of all courses (0\u00b72% in April, 2019, to 60\u00b76% in April, 2020; ITS p<0\u00b70001) contributed to the substantial reduction in attendances.

Interpretation

Radiotherapy activity fell significantly, but use of hypofractionated regimens rapidly increased in the English NHS during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in treatments for some cancers suggests that radiotherapy compensated for reduced surgical activity. These data will assist health-care providers in understanding the indirect consequences of the pandemic and the role of radiotherapy services in minimising these consequences.

Funding

None.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470204520307439/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30743-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7825861?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31653530", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.echo.2019.08.015", @@ -27369,23 +27369,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.03.002; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.03.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9097589" }, - { - "id": "36962800", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843", - "title": "Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health service utilization across regions of Ethiopia: An interrupted time series analysis of health information system data from 2019-2020.", - "authorString": "Mebratie AD, Nega A, Gage A, Mariam DH, Eshetu MK, Arsenault C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLOS global public health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The spread of COVID-19 and associated deaths have remained low in Ethiopia. However, the pandemic could pose a public health crisis indirectly through disruptions in essential health services. The aim of this study was to examine disruptions in health service utilization during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic across 10 regions in Ethiopia. We analyzed utilization of 21 different health services across all of Ethiopia (except the Tigray region) for the period of January 2019 to December 2020. Data were extracted from the Ethiopian district health information system (DHIS2). Monthly visits in 2020 were graphed relative to the same months in 2019. Interrupted time series analysis was used to estimate the effect of the pandemic on service utilization in each region. We found that disruptions in health services were generally higher in urban regions which were most affected by COVID. Outpatient visits declined by 52%, 54%, and 58%, specifically in Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa and Harari, the three urban regions. Similarly, there was a 47% reduction in inpatient admissions in Addis Ababa. In agrarian regions, the pandemic caused an 11% to 17% reduction in outpatient visits and a 10% to 27% decline in inpatient admissions. Visits for children with diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition also declined substantially while maternal health services were less affected. Our study indicates that disruptions in health services were more pronounced in areas that were relatively harder hit by the pandemic. Our results show that the Ethiopian health system has a limited capacity to absorb shocks. During future waves of COVID or future pandemics, the Ethiopian health system must be better prepared to maintain essential services and mitigate the indirect impact of the pandemic on public health, particularly in urban areas.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31492797", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032165", @@ -27403,6 +27386,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/9/e032165.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032165; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6731819; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6731819?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35834561", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039", + "title": "Associations between moderate alcohol consumption, brain iron, and cognition in UK Biobank participants: Observational and mendelian randomization analyses.", + "authorString": "Topiwala A, Wang C, Ebmeier KP, Burgess S, Bell S, Levey DF, Zhou H, McCracken C, Roca-Fern\u00e1ndez A, Petersen SE, Raman B, Husain M, Gelernter J, Miller KL, Smith SM, Nichols TE.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Brain iron deposition has been linked to several neurodegenerative conditions and reported in alcohol dependence. Whether iron accumulation occurs in moderate drinkers is unknown. Our objectives were to investigate evidence in support of causal relationships between alcohol consumption and brain iron levels and to examine whether higher brain iron represents a potential pathway to alcohol-related cognitive deficits.

Methods and findings

Observational associations between brain iron markers and alcohol consumption (n = 20,729 UK Biobank participants) were compared with associations with genetically predicted alcohol intake and alcohol use disorder from 2-sample mendelian randomization (MR). Alcohol intake was self-reported via a touchscreen questionnaire at baseline (2006 to 2010). Participants with complete data were included. Multiorgan susceptibility-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (9.60 \u00b1 1.10 years after baseline) was used to ascertain iron content of each brain region (quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and T2*) and liver tissues (T2*), a marker of systemic iron. Main outcomes were susceptibility (\u03c7) and T2*, measures used as indices of iron deposition. Brain regions of interest included putamen, caudate, hippocampi, thalami, and substantia nigra. Potential pathways to alcohol-related iron brain accumulation through elevated systemic iron stores (liver) were explored in causal mediation analysis. Cognition was assessed at the scan and in online follow-up (5.82 \u00b1 0.86 years after baseline). Executive function was assessed with the trail-making test, fluid intelligence with puzzle tasks, and reaction time by a task based on the \"Snap\" card game. Mean age was 54.8 \u00b1 7.4 years and 48.6% were female. Weekly alcohol consumption was 17.7 \u00b1 15.9 units and never drinkers comprised 2.7% of the sample. Alcohol consumption was associated with markers of higher iron (\u03c7) in putamen (\u03b2 = 0.08 standard deviation (SD) [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06 to 0.09], p < 0.001), caudate (\u03b2 = 0.05 [0.04 to 0.07], p < 0.001), and substantia nigra (\u03b2 = 0.03 [0.02 to 0.05], p < 0.001) and lower iron in the thalami (\u03b2 = -0.06 [-0.07 to -0.04], p < 0.001). Quintile-based analyses found these associations in those consuming >7 units (56 g) alcohol weekly. MR analyses provided weak evidence these relationships are causal. Genetically predicted alcoholic drinks weekly positively associated with putamen and hippocampus susceptibility; however, these associations did not survive multiple testing corrections. Weak evidence for a causal relationship between genetically predicted alcohol use disorder and higher putamen susceptibility was observed; however, this was not robust to multiple comparisons correction. Genetically predicted alcohol use disorder was associated with serum iron and transferrin saturation. Elevated liver iron was observed at just >11 units (88 g) alcohol weekly c.f. <7 units (56 g). Systemic iron levels partially mediated associations of alcohol intake with brain iron. Markers of higher basal ganglia iron associated with slower executive function, lower fluid intelligence, and slower reaction times. The main limitations of the study include that \u03c7 and T2* can reflect changes in myelin as well as iron, alcohol use was self-reported, and MR estimates can be influenced by genetic pleiotropy.

Conclusions

To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the largest investigation of moderate alcohol consumption and iron homeostasis to date. Alcohol consumption above 7 units weekly associated with higher brain iron. Iron accumulation represents a potential mechanism for alcohol-related cognitive decline.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9282660; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9282660?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33947203", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.053033", @@ -27421,21 +27421,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.053033; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.053033; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247549; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8247549?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35834561", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039", - "title": "Associations between moderate alcohol consumption, brain iron, and cognition in UK Biobank participants: Observational and mendelian randomization analyses.", - "authorString": "Topiwala A, Wang C, Ebmeier KP, Burgess S, Bell S, Levey DF, Zhou H, McCracken C, Roca-Fern\u00e1ndez A, Petersen SE, Raman B, Husain M, Gelernter J, Miller KL, Smith SM, Nichols TE.", + "id": "36962800", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843", + "title": "Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health service utilization across regions of Ethiopia: An interrupted time series analysis of health information system data from 2019-2020.", + "authorString": "Mebratie AD, Nega A, Gage A, Mariam DH, Eshetu MK, Arsenault C.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", + "journalTitle": "PLOS global public health", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-14", + "date": "2022-09-12", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Brain iron deposition has been linked to several neurodegenerative conditions and reported in alcohol dependence. Whether iron accumulation occurs in moderate drinkers is unknown. Our objectives were to investigate evidence in support of causal relationships between alcohol consumption and brain iron levels and to examine whether higher brain iron represents a potential pathway to alcohol-related cognitive deficits.

Methods and findings

Observational associations between brain iron markers and alcohol consumption (n = 20,729 UK Biobank participants) were compared with associations with genetically predicted alcohol intake and alcohol use disorder from 2-sample mendelian randomization (MR). Alcohol intake was self-reported via a touchscreen questionnaire at baseline (2006 to 2010). Participants with complete data were included. Multiorgan susceptibility-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (9.60 \u00b1 1.10 years after baseline) was used to ascertain iron content of each brain region (quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and T2*) and liver tissues (T2*), a marker of systemic iron. Main outcomes were susceptibility (\u03c7) and T2*, measures used as indices of iron deposition. Brain regions of interest included putamen, caudate, hippocampi, thalami, and substantia nigra. Potential pathways to alcohol-related iron brain accumulation through elevated systemic iron stores (liver) were explored in causal mediation analysis. Cognition was assessed at the scan and in online follow-up (5.82 \u00b1 0.86 years after baseline). Executive function was assessed with the trail-making test, fluid intelligence with puzzle tasks, and reaction time by a task based on the \"Snap\" card game. Mean age was 54.8 \u00b1 7.4 years and 48.6% were female. Weekly alcohol consumption was 17.7 \u00b1 15.9 units and never drinkers comprised 2.7% of the sample. Alcohol consumption was associated with markers of higher iron (\u03c7) in putamen (\u03b2 = 0.08 standard deviation (SD) [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06 to 0.09], p < 0.001), caudate (\u03b2 = 0.05 [0.04 to 0.07], p < 0.001), and substantia nigra (\u03b2 = 0.03 [0.02 to 0.05], p < 0.001) and lower iron in the thalami (\u03b2 = -0.06 [-0.07 to -0.04], p < 0.001). Quintile-based analyses found these associations in those consuming >7 units (56 g) alcohol weekly. MR analyses provided weak evidence these relationships are causal. Genetically predicted alcoholic drinks weekly positively associated with putamen and hippocampus susceptibility; however, these associations did not survive multiple testing corrections. Weak evidence for a causal relationship between genetically predicted alcohol use disorder and higher putamen susceptibility was observed; however, this was not robust to multiple comparisons correction. Genetically predicted alcohol use disorder was associated with serum iron and transferrin saturation. Elevated liver iron was observed at just >11 units (88 g) alcohol weekly c.f. <7 units (56 g). Systemic iron levels partially mediated associations of alcohol intake with brain iron. Markers of higher basal ganglia iron associated with slower executive function, lower fluid intelligence, and slower reaction times. The main limitations of the study include that \u03c7 and T2* can reflect changes in myelin as well as iron, alcohol use was self-reported, and MR estimates can be influenced by genetic pleiotropy.

Conclusions

To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the largest investigation of moderate alcohol consumption and iron homeostasis to date. Alcohol consumption above 7 units weekly associated with higher brain iron. Iron accumulation represents a potential mechanism for alcohol-related cognitive decline.", + "abstract": "The spread of COVID-19 and associated deaths have remained low in Ethiopia. However, the pandemic could pose a public health crisis indirectly through disruptions in essential health services. The aim of this study was to examine disruptions in health service utilization during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic across 10 regions in Ethiopia. We analyzed utilization of 21 different health services across all of Ethiopia (except the Tigray region) for the period of January 2019 to December 2020. Data were extracted from the Ethiopian district health information system (DHIS2). Monthly visits in 2020 were graphed relative to the same months in 2019. Interrupted time series analysis was used to estimate the effect of the pandemic on service utilization in each region. We found that disruptions in health services were generally higher in urban regions which were most affected by COVID. Outpatient visits declined by 52%, 54%, and 58%, specifically in Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa and Harari, the three urban regions. Similarly, there was a 47% reduction in inpatient admissions in Addis Ababa. In agrarian regions, the pandemic caused an 11% to 17% reduction in outpatient visits and a 10% to 27% decline in inpatient admissions. Visits for children with diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition also declined substantially while maternal health services were less affected. Our study indicates that disruptions in health services were more pronounced in areas that were relatively harder hit by the pandemic. Our results show that the Ethiopian health system has a limited capacity to absorb shocks. During future waves of COVID or future pandemics, the Ethiopian health system must be better prepared to maintain essential services and mitigate the indirect impact of the pandemic on public health, particularly in urban areas.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9282660; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9282660?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000843; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10021875?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33414548", @@ -27522,23 +27522,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.200958; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200958; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7735342; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7735342?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34888366", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245", - "title": "MOCOnet: Robust Motion Correction of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance T1 Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks.", - "authorString": "Gonzales RA, Zhang Q, Papie\u017c BW, Werys K, Lukaschuk E, Popescu IA, Burrage MK, Shanmuganathan M, Ferreira VM, Piechnik SK.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-11-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "image registration; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; T1 Mapping; Deep Learning; Shmolli", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: Quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) T1 mapping has shown promise for advanced tissue characterisation in routine clinical practise. However, T1 mapping is prone to motion artefacts, which affects its robustness and clinical interpretation. Current methods for motion correction on T1 mapping are model-driven with no guarantee on generalisability, limiting its widespread use. In contrast, emerging data-driven deep learning approaches have shown good performance in general image registration tasks. We propose MOCOnet, a convolutional neural network solution, for generalisable motion artefact correction in T1 maps. Methods: The network architecture employs U-Net for producing distance vector fields and utilises warping layers to apply deformation to the feature maps in a coarse-to-fine manner. Using the UK Biobank imaging dataset scanned at 1.5T, MOCOnet was trained on 1,536 mid-ventricular T1 maps (acquired using the ShMOLLI method) with motion artefacts, generated by a customised deformation procedure, and tested on a different set of 200 samples with a diverse range of motion. MOCOnet was compared to a well-validated baseline multi-modal image registration method. Motion reduction was visually assessed by 3 human experts, with motion scores ranging from 0% (strictly no motion) to 100% (very severe motion). Results: MOCOnet achieved fast image registration (<1 second per T1 map) and successfully suppressed a wide range of motion artefacts. MOCOnet significantly reduced motion scores from 37.1\u00b121.5 to 13.3\u00b110.5 (p < 0.001), whereas the baseline method reduced it to 15.8\u00b115.6 (p < 0.001). MOCOnet was significantly better than the baseline method in suppressing motion artefacts and more consistently (p = 0.007). Conclusion: MOCOnet demonstrated significantly better motion correction performance compared to a traditional image registration approach. Salvaging data affected by motion with robustness and in a time-efficient manner may enable better image quality and reliable images for immediate clinical interpretation.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35717168", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4", @@ -27556,6 +27539,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07490-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9206097; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9206097?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34888366", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245", + "title": "MOCOnet: Robust Motion Correction of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance T1 Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks.", + "authorString": "Gonzales RA, Zhang Q, Papie\u017c BW, Werys K, Lukaschuk E, Popescu IA, Burrage MK, Shanmuganathan M, Ferreira VM, Piechnik SK.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-11-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "image registration; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; T1 Mapping; Deep Learning; Shmolli", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background: Quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) T1 mapping has shown promise for advanced tissue characterisation in routine clinical practise. However, T1 mapping is prone to motion artefacts, which affects its robustness and clinical interpretation. Current methods for motion correction on T1 mapping are model-driven with no guarantee on generalisability, limiting its widespread use. In contrast, emerging data-driven deep learning approaches have shown good performance in general image registration tasks. We propose MOCOnet, a convolutional neural network solution, for generalisable motion artefact correction in T1 maps. Methods: The network architecture employs U-Net for producing distance vector fields and utilises warping layers to apply deformation to the feature maps in a coarse-to-fine manner. Using the UK Biobank imaging dataset scanned at 1.5T, MOCOnet was trained on 1,536 mid-ventricular T1 maps (acquired using the ShMOLLI method) with motion artefacts, generated by a customised deformation procedure, and tested on a different set of 200 samples with a diverse range of motion. MOCOnet was compared to a well-validated baseline multi-modal image registration method. Motion reduction was visually assessed by 3 human experts, with motion scores ranging from 0% (strictly no motion) to 100% (very severe motion). Results: MOCOnet achieved fast image registration (<1 second per T1 map) and successfully suppressed a wide range of motion artefacts. MOCOnet significantly reduced motion scores from 37.1\u00b121.5 to 13.3\u00b110.5 (p < 0.001), whereas the baseline method reduced it to 15.8\u00b115.6 (p < 0.001). MOCOnet was significantly better than the baseline method in suppressing motion artefacts and more consistently (p = 0.007). Conclusion: MOCOnet demonstrated significantly better motion correction performance compared to a traditional image registration approach. Salvaging data affected by motion with robustness and in a time-efficient manner may enable better image quality and reliable images for immediate clinical interpretation.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.768245; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8649951?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37117689", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00309-6", @@ -27573,23 +27573,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00309-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00309-6" }, - { - "id": "34645794", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8", - "title": "A cross-sectional analysis of meteorological factors and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 409 cities across 26 countries.", - "authorString": "Sera F, Armstrong B, Abbott S, Meakin S, O'Reilly K, von Borries R, Schneider R, Roy\u00e9 D, Hashizume M, Pascal M, Tobias A, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, MCC Collaborative Research Network, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Gasparrini A, Lowe R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "There is conflicting evidence on the influence of weather on COVID-19 transmission. Our aim is to estimate weather-dependent signatures in the early phase of the pandemic, while controlling for socio-economic factors and non-pharmaceutical interventions. We identify a modest non-linear association between mean temperature and the effective reproduction number (Re) in 409 cities in 26 countries, with a decrease of 0.087 (95% CI: 0.025; 0.148) for a 10\u2009\u00b0C increase. Early interventions have a greater effect on Re with a decrease of 0.285 (95% CI 0.223; 0.347) for a 5th - 95th percentile increase in the government response index. The variation in the effective reproduction number explained by government interventions is 6 times greater than for mean temperature. We find little evidence of meteorological conditions having influenced the early stages of local epidemics and conclude that population behaviour and government interventions are more important drivers of transmission.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25914-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33713332", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-021-00996-1", @@ -27607,6 +27590,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40620-021-00996-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-021-00996-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494654; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494654?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34645794", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8", + "title": "A cross-sectional analysis of meteorological factors and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 409 cities across 26 countries.", + "authorString": "Sera F, Armstrong B, Abbott S, Meakin S, O'Reilly K, von Borries R, Schneider R, Roy\u00e9 D, Hashizume M, Pascal M, Tobias A, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, MCC Collaborative Research Network, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Gasparrini A, Lowe R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "There is conflicting evidence on the influence of weather on COVID-19 transmission. Our aim is to estimate weather-dependent signatures in the early phase of the pandemic, while controlling for socio-economic factors and non-pharmaceutical interventions. We identify a modest non-linear association between mean temperature and the effective reproduction number (Re) in 409 cities in 26 countries, with a decrease of 0.087 (95% CI: 0.025; 0.148) for a 10\u2009\u00b0C increase. Early interventions have a greater effect on Re with a decrease of 0.285 (95% CI 0.223; 0.347) for a 5th - 95th percentile increase in the government response index. The variation in the effective reproduction number explained by government interventions is 6 times greater than for mean temperature. We find little evidence of meteorological conditions having influenced the early stages of local epidemics and conclude that population behaviour and government interventions are more important drivers of transmission.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25914-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25914-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8514574?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34503513", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02087-1", @@ -27625,21 +27625,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02087-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02087-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8431908; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8431908?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35188939", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/pts.0000000000000867", - "title": "Optimizing Hospital Electronic Prescribing Systems: A Systematic Scoping Review.", - "authorString": "Williams J, Malden S, Heeney C, Bouamrane M, Holder M, Perera U, Bates DW, Sheikh A.", + "id": "35103484", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.121.003553", + "title": "Genetically Predicted Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Coronary Artery Disease: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization. ", + "authorString": "Cupido AJ, Kraaijenhof JM, Burgess S, Asselbergs FW, Hovingh GK, Gill D.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of patient safety", + "journalTitle": "Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-01", + "date": "2022-02-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Considerable international investment in hospital electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems has been made, but despite this, it is proving difficult for most organizations to realize safety, quality, and efficiency gains in prescribing. The objective of this work was to develop policy-relevant insights into the optimization of hospital ePrescribing systems to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of these expensive digital health infrastructures.

Methods

We undertook a systematic scoping review of the literature by searching MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL databases. We searched for primary studies reporting on ePrescribing optimization strategies and independently screened and abstracted data until saturation was achieved. Findings were theoretically and thematically synthesized taking a medicine life-cycle perspective, incorporating consultative phases with domain experts.

Results

We identified 23,609 potentially eligible studies from which 1367 satisfied our inclusion criteria. Thematic synthesis was conducted on a data set of 76 studies, of which 48 were based in the United States. Key approaches to optimization included the following: stakeholder engagement, system or process redesign, technological innovations, and education and training packages. Single-component interventions (n = 26) described technological optimization strategies focusing on a single, specific step in the prescribing process. Multicomponent interventions (n = 50) used a combination of optimization strategies, typically targeting multiple steps in the medicines management process.

Discussion

We identified numerous optimization strategies for enhancing the performance of ePrescribing systems. Key considerations for ePrescribing optimization include meaningful stakeholder engagement to reconceptualize the service delivery model and implementing technological innovations with supporting training packages to simultaneously impact on different facets of the medicines management process.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2022/03000/Optimizing_Hospital_Electronic_Prescribing.36.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000867; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145750/1/CIRCGEN.121.003553.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003553; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612391; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612391?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "32150548", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605", + "title": "The influence of rare variants in circulating metabolic biomarkers.", + "authorString": "Riveros-Mckay F, Oliver-Williams C, Karthikeyan S, Walter K, Kundu K, Ouwehand WH, Roberts D, Di Angelantonio E, Soranzo N, Danesh J, INTERVAL Study, Wheeler E, Zeggini E, Butterworth AS, Barroso I.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PLoS genetics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-03-09", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "cardiovascular", + "abstract": "Circulating metabolite levels are biomarkers for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here we studied, association of rare variants and 226 serum lipoproteins, lipids and amino acids in 7,142 (discovery plus follow-up) healthy participants. We leveraged the information from multiple metabolite measurements on the same participants to improve discovery in rare variant association analyses for gene-based and gene-set tests by incorporating correlated metabolites as covariates in the validation stage. Gene-based analysis corrected for the effective number of tests performed, confirmed established associations at APOB, APOC3, PAH, HAL and PCSK (p<1.32x10-7) and identified novel gene-trait associations at a lower stringency threshold with ACSL1, MYCN, FBXO36 and B4GALNT3 (p<2.5x10-6). Regulation of the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex was associated for the first time, in gene-set analyses also corrected for effective number of tests, with IDL and LDL parameters, as well as circulating cholesterol (pMETASKAT<2.41x10-6). In conclusion, using an approach that leverages metabolite measurements obtained in the same participants, we identified novel loci and pathways involved in the regulation of these important metabolic biomarkers. As large-scale biobanks continue to amass sequencing and phenotypic information, analytical approaches such as ours will be useful to fully exploit the copious amounts of biological data generated in these efforts.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108731; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108731?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34991479", @@ -27659,21 +27676,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02684-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8740419; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8740419?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35103484", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.121.003553", - "title": "Genetically Predicted Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Coronary Artery Disease: Evidence From Mendelian Randomization. ", - "authorString": "Cupido AJ, Kraaijenhof JM, Burgess S, Asselbergs FW, Hovingh GK, Gill D.", + "id": "35188939", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1097/pts.0000000000000867", + "title": "Optimizing Hospital Electronic Prescribing Systems: A Systematic Scoping Review.", + "authorString": "Williams J, Malden S, Heeney C, Bouamrane M, Holder M, Perera U, Bates DW, Sheikh A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine", + "journalTitle": "Journal of patient safety", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-02-01", + "date": "2022-03-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Considerable international investment in hospital electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems has been made, but despite this, it is proving difficult for most organizations to realize safety, quality, and efficiency gains in prescribing. The objective of this work was to develop policy-relevant insights into the optimization of hospital ePrescribing systems to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of these expensive digital health infrastructures.

Methods

We undertook a systematic scoping review of the literature by searching MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL databases. We searched for primary studies reporting on ePrescribing optimization strategies and independently screened and abstracted data until saturation was achieved. Findings were theoretically and thematically synthesized taking a medicine life-cycle perspective, incorporating consultative phases with domain experts.

Results

We identified 23,609 potentially eligible studies from which 1367 satisfied our inclusion criteria. Thematic synthesis was conducted on a data set of 76 studies, of which 48 were based in the United States. Key approaches to optimization included the following: stakeholder engagement, system or process redesign, technological innovations, and education and training packages. Single-component interventions (n = 26) described technological optimization strategies focusing on a single, specific step in the prescribing process. Multicomponent interventions (n = 50) used a combination of optimization strategies, typically targeting multiple steps in the medicines management process.

Discussion

We identified numerous optimization strategies for enhancing the performance of ePrescribing systems. Key considerations for ePrescribing optimization include meaningful stakeholder engagement to reconceptualize the service delivery model and implementing technological innovations with supporting training packages to simultaneously impact on different facets of the medicines management process.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10145750/1/CIRCGEN.121.003553.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003553; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612391; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612391?pdf=render" + "urls": "html:https://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2022/03000/Optimizing_Hospital_Electronic_Prescribing.36.aspx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000867; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8855945?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37269091", @@ -27693,21 +27710,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10870547231172763; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547231172763; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10291103; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10291103?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32150548", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605", - "title": "The influence of rare variants in circulating metabolic biomarkers.", - "authorString": "Riveros-Mckay F, Oliver-Williams C, Karthikeyan S, Walter K, Kundu K, Ouwehand WH, Roberts D, Di Angelantonio E, Soranzo N, Danesh J, INTERVAL Study, Wheeler E, Zeggini E, Butterworth AS, Barroso I.", + "id": "35388009", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6", + "title": "Publisher Correction: Elucidating mechanisms of genetic cross-disease associations at the PROCR vascular disease locus.", + "authorString": "Stacey D, Chen L, Stanczyk PJ, Howson JMM, Mason AM, Burgess S, MacDonald S, Langdown J, McKinney H, Downes K, Farahi N, Peters JE, Basu S, Pankow JS, Tang W, Pankratz N, Sabater-Lleal M, de Vries PS, Smith NL, CHARGE Hemostasis Working Group, Gelinas AD, Schneider DJ, Janjic N, Samani NJ, Ye S, Summers C, Chilvers ER, Danesh J, Paul DS.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS genetics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-03-09", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-06", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "cardiovascular", - "abstract": "Circulating metabolite levels are biomarkers for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here we studied, association of rare variants and 226 serum lipoproteins, lipids and amino acids in 7,142 (discovery plus follow-up) healthy participants. We leveraged the information from multiple metabolite measurements on the same participants to improve discovery in rare variant association analyses for gene-based and gene-set tests by incorporating correlated metabolites as covariates in the validation stage. Gene-based analysis corrected for the effective number of tests performed, confirmed established associations at APOB, APOC3, PAH, HAL and PCSK (p<1.32x10-7) and identified novel gene-trait associations at a lower stringency threshold with ACSL1, MYCN, FBXO36 and B4GALNT3 (p<2.5x10-6). Regulation of the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex was associated for the first time, in gene-set analyses also corrected for effective number of tests, with IDL and LDL parameters, as well as circulating cholesterol (pMETASKAT<2.41x10-6). In conclusion, using an approach that leverages metabolite measurements obtained in the same participants, we identified novel loci and pathways involved in the regulation of these important metabolic biomarkers. As large-scale biobanks continue to amass sequencing and phenotypic information, analytical approaches such as ours will be useful to fully exploit the copious amounts of biological data generated in these efforts.", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108731; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108731?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29641-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32075790", @@ -27726,6 +27743,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/368/bmj.m331.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m331; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7190043" }, + { + "id": "35068290", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317", + "title": "Higher body mass index raises immature platelet count: potential contribution to obesity-related thrombosis.", + "authorString": "Goudswaard LJ, Corbin LJ, Burley KL, Mumford A, Akbari P, Soranzo N, Butterworth AS, Watkins NA, Pournaras DJ, Harris J, Timpson NJ, Hers I.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Platelets", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-24", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Obesity; Aggregation; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomization; Immature Platelets", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Higher body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for thrombosis. Platelets are essential for hemostasis but contribute to thrombosis when activated pathologically. We hypothesized that higher BMI leads to changes in platelet characteristics, thereby increasing thrombotic risk. The effect of BMI on platelet traits (measured by Sysmex) was explored in 33\u00a0388 UK blood donors (INTERVAL study). Linear regression showed that higher BMI was positively associated with greater plateletcrit (PCT), platelet count (PLT), immature platelet count (IPC), and side fluorescence (SFL, a measure of mRNA content used to derive IPC). Mendelian randomization (MR), applied to estimate a causal effect with BMI proxied by a genetic risk score, provided causal estimates for a positive effect of BMI on both SFL and IPC, but there was little evidence for a causal effect of BMI on PCT or PLT. Follow-up analyses explored the functional relevance of platelet characteristics in a pre-operative cardiac cohort (COPTIC). Linear regression provided observational evidence for a positive association between IPC and agonist-induced whole blood platelet aggregation. Results indicate that higher BMI raises the number of immature platelets, which is associated with greater whole blood platelet aggregation in a cardiac cohort. Higher IPC could therefore contribute to obesity-related thrombosis.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317" + }, { "id": "35482474", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21627", @@ -27761,21 +27795,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/375/bmj-2021-065834.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-065834; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8715128; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8715128?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35388009", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6", - "title": "Publisher Correction: Elucidating mechanisms of genetic cross-disease associations at the PROCR vascular disease locus.", - "authorString": "Stacey D, Chen L, Stanczyk PJ, Howson JMM, Mason AM, Burgess S, MacDonald S, Langdown J, McKinney H, Downes K, Farahi N, Peters JE, Basu S, Pankow JS, Tang W, Pankratz N, Sabater-Lleal M, de Vries PS, Smith NL, CHARGE Hemostasis Working Group, Gelinas AD, Schneider DJ, Janjic N, Samani NJ, Ye S, Summers C, Chilvers ER, Danesh J, Paul DS.", + "id": "35421974", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5", + "title": "An implementation framework and a feasibility evaluation of a clinical decision support system for diabetes management in secondary mental healthcare using CogStack.", + "authorString": "Patel D, Msosa YJ, Wang T, Mustafa OG, Gee S, Williams J, Roberts A, Dobson RJ, Gaughran F.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "journalTitle": "BMC medical informatics and decision making", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-06", + "date": "2022-04-14", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Monitoring; Diabetes; Clinical Decision Support; Pre-diabetes; Ehealth; Alerting; Cogstack", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Improvements to the primary prevention of physical health illnesses like diabetes in the general population have not been mirrored to the same extent in people with serious mental illness (SMI). This work evaluates the technical feasibility of implementing an electronic clinical decision support system (eCDSS) for supporting the management of dysglycaemia and diabetes in patients with serious mental illness in a secondary mental healthcare setting.

Methods

A stepwise approach was taken as an overarching and guiding framework for this work. Participatory methods were employed to design and deploy a monitoring and alerting eCDSS. The eCDSS was evaluated for its technical\u00a0feasibility. The initial part of the feasibility evaluation was conducted in an outpatient community mental health team. Thereafter, the evaluation of the eCDSS progressed to a more in-depth in silico validation.

Results

A digital health intervention that enables monitoring and alerting of at-risk patients based on an approved diabetes management guideline was developed. The eCDSS generated alerts according to expected standards and in line with clinical guideline recommendations.

Conclusions

It is feasible to design and deploy a functional monitoring and alerting eCDSS in secondary mental healthcare. Further work is required in order to fully evaluate the integration of the eCDSS into routine clinical workflows. By describing and sharing the steps that were and will be taken from concept to clinical testing, useful insights could be provided to teams that are interested in building similar digital health interventions.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29641-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29641-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986867?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37433797", @@ -27794,23 +27828,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38816-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38816-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10336136; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10336136?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34470746", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204", - "title": "Disruption in essential health services in Mexico during COVID-19: an interrupted time series analysis of health information system data.", - "authorString": "Doubova SV, Leslie HH, Kruk ME, P\u00e9rez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ global health", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-09-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Hypertension; Cancer; Diabetes; Maternal Health; Health Systems Evaluation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health systems around the world. The objectives of this study are to estimate the overall effect of the pandemic on essential health service use and outcomes in Mexico, describe observed and predicted trends in services over 24 months, and to estimate the number of visits lost through December 2020.

Methods

We used health information system data for January 2019 to December 2020 from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which provides health services for more than half of Mexico's population-65 million people. Our analysis includes nine indicators of service use and three outcome indicators for reproductive, maternal and child health and non-communicable disease services. We used an interrupted time series design and linear generalised estimating equation models to estimate the change in service use and outcomes from April to December 2020. Estimates were expressed using average marginal effects on the risk ratio scale.

Results

The study found that across nine health services, an estimated 8.74 million patient visits were lost in Mexico. This included a decline of over two thirds for breast and cervical cancer screenings (79% and 68%, respectively), over half for sick child visits and female contraceptive services, approximately one-third for childhood vaccinations, diabetes, hypertension and antenatal care consultations, and a decline of 10% for deliveries performed at IMSS. In terms of patient outcomes, the proportion of patients with diabetes and hypertension with controlled conditions declined by 22% and 17%, respectively. Caesarean section rate did not change.

Conclusion

Significant disruptions in health services show that the pandemic has strained the resilience of the Mexican health system and calls for urgent efforts to resume essential services and plan for catching up on missed preventive care even as the COVID-19 crisis continues in Mexico.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/6/9/e006204.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35991675", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335", @@ -27829,38 +27846,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100335; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9381845?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35068290", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317", - "title": "Higher body mass index raises immature platelet count: potential contribution to obesity-related thrombosis.", - "authorString": "Goudswaard LJ, Corbin LJ, Burley KL, Mumford A, Akbari P, Soranzo N, Butterworth AS, Watkins NA, Pournaras DJ, Harris J, Timpson NJ, Hers I.", + "id": "34470746", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204", + "title": "Disruption in essential health services in Mexico during COVID-19: an interrupted time series analysis of health information system data.", + "authorString": "Doubova SV, Leslie HH, Kruk ME, P\u00e9rez-Cuevas R, Arsenault C.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Platelets", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-24", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Obesity; Aggregation; epidemiology; Mendelian Randomization; Immature Platelets", + "journalTitle": "BMJ global health", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-09-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Hypertension; Cancer; Diabetes; Maternal Health; Health Systems Evaluation", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Higher body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for thrombosis. Platelets are essential for hemostasis but contribute to thrombosis when activated pathologically. We hypothesized that higher BMI leads to changes in platelet characteristics, thereby increasing thrombotic risk. The effect of BMI on platelet traits (measured by Sysmex) was explored in 33\u00a0388 UK blood donors (INTERVAL study). Linear regression showed that higher BMI was positively associated with greater plateletcrit (PCT), platelet count (PLT), immature platelet count (IPC), and side fluorescence (SFL, a measure of mRNA content used to derive IPC). Mendelian randomization (MR), applied to estimate a causal effect with BMI proxied by a genetic risk score, provided causal estimates for a positive effect of BMI on both SFL and IPC, but there was little evidence for a causal effect of BMI on PCT or PLT. Follow-up analyses explored the functional relevance of platelet characteristics in a pre-operative cardiac cohort (COPTIC). Linear regression provided observational evidence for a positive association between IPC and agonist-induced whole blood platelet aggregation. Results indicate that higher BMI raises the number of immature platelets, which is associated with greater whole blood platelet aggregation in a cardiac cohort. Higher IPC could therefore contribute to obesity-related thrombosis.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health systems around the world. The objectives of this study are to estimate the overall effect of the pandemic on essential health service use and outcomes in Mexico, describe observed and predicted trends in services over 24 months, and to estimate the number of visits lost through December 2020.

Methods

We used health information system data for January 2019 to December 2020 from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which provides health services for more than half of Mexico's population-65 million people. Our analysis includes nine indicators of service use and three outcome indicators for reproductive, maternal and child health and non-communicable disease services. We used an interrupted time series design and linear generalised estimating equation models to estimate the change in service use and outcomes from April to December 2020. Estimates were expressed using average marginal effects on the risk ratio scale.

Results

The study found that across nine health services, an estimated 8.74 million patient visits were lost in Mexico. This included a decline of over two thirds for breast and cervical cancer screenings (79% and 68%, respectively), over half for sick child visits and female contraceptive services, approximately one-third for childhood vaccinations, diabetes, hypertension and antenatal care consultations, and a decline of 10% for deliveries performed at IMSS. In terms of patient outcomes, the proportion of patients with diabetes and hypertension with controlled conditions declined by 22% and 17%, respectively. Caesarean section rate did not change.

Conclusion

Significant disruptions in health services show that the pandemic has strained the resilience of the Mexican health system and calls for urgent efforts to resume essential services and plan for catching up on missed preventive care even as the COVID-19 crisis continues in Mexico.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.2003317" + "urls": "pdf:https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/6/9/e006204.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006204; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8413469?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35421974", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5", - "title": "An implementation framework and a feasibility evaluation of a clinical decision support system for diabetes management in secondary mental healthcare using CogStack.", - "authorString": "Patel D, Msosa YJ, Wang T, Mustafa OG, Gee S, Williams J, Roberts A, Dobson RJ, Gaughran F.", + "id": "31699727", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030882", + "title": "Optical coherence tomography (OCT) in unconscious and systemically unwell patients using a mobile OCT device: a pilot study.", + "authorString": "Liu X, Kale AU, Capewell N, Talbot N, Ahmed S, Keane PA, Mollan S, Belli A, Blanch RJ, Veenith T, Denniston AK.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medical informatics and decision making", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-14", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-11-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Monitoring; Diabetes; Clinical Decision Support; Pre-diabetes; Ehealth; Alerting; Cogstack", + "keywords": "optical coherence tomography; Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography; Adult Intensive & Critical Care", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Improvements to the primary prevention of physical health illnesses like diabetes in the general population have not been mirrored to the same extent in people with serious mental illness (SMI). This work evaluates the technical feasibility of implementing an electronic clinical decision support system (eCDSS) for supporting the management of dysglycaemia and diabetes in patients with serious mental illness in a secondary mental healthcare setting.

Methods

A stepwise approach was taken as an overarching and guiding framework for this work. Participatory methods were employed to design and deploy a monitoring and alerting eCDSS. The eCDSS was evaluated for its technical\u00a0feasibility. The initial part of the feasibility evaluation was conducted in an outpatient community mental health team. Thereafter, the evaluation of the eCDSS progressed to a more in-depth in silico validation.

Results

A digital health intervention that enables monitoring and alerting of at-risk patients based on an approved diabetes management guideline was developed. The eCDSS generated alerts according to expected standards and in line with clinical guideline recommendations.

Conclusions

It is feasible to design and deploy a functional monitoring and alerting eCDSS in secondary mental healthcare. Further work is required in order to fully evaluate the integration of the eCDSS into routine clinical workflows. By describing and sharing the steps that were and will be taken from concept to clinical testing, useful insights could be provided to teams that are interested in building similar digital health interventions.", + "abstract": "

Objective

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of retinal imaging in critical care using a novel mobile optical coherence tomography (OCT) device. The Heidelberg SPECTRALIS FLEX module (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) is an OCT unit with a boom arm, enabling ocular OCT assessment in less mobile patients.

Design

We undertook an evaluation of the feasibility of using the SPECTRALIS FLEX for undertaking ocular OCT images in unconscious and critically ill patients.

Setting

This study was conducted in the critical care unit of a large tertiary referral unit in the United Kingdom.

Participants

13 systemically unwell patients admitted to the critical care unit were purposively sampled to enable evaluation in patients with a range of clinical states.

Outcome measures

The primary outcome was the feasibility of acquiring clinically interpretable OCT scans on a consecutive series of patients. The standardised scanning protocol included macula-focused OCT, OCT optic nerve head (ONH), OCT angiography (OCTA) of the macula and ONH OCTA.

Results

OCT images from 13 patients were attempted. The success rates of each scan type are 84% for OCT macula, 76% for OCT ONH, 56% for OCTA macula and 36% for OCTA ONH. The overall mean success rate of scans per patient was 64% (95% CI 46% to 81%). Clinicians reported clinical value in 100% scans which were successfully obtained, including both ruling in and ruling out relevant ocular complications such as corneal thinning, macular oedema and optic disc swelling. The most common causes of failure to achieve clinically interpretable scans were inadequately sustained OCT alignment in delirious patients and a compromised ocular surface due to corneal exposure.

Conclusions

This prospective evaluation indicates the feasibility and potential clinical value of the SPECTRALIS FLEX OCT system on the critical care unit. Portable OCT systems have the potential to bring instrument-based ophthalmic assessment to critically ill patients, enabling detection and micron-level monitoring of ocular complications.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-01842-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9009062?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/11/e030882.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030882; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858135; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858135?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32564639", @@ -27879,23 +27896,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060520931298; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7307394?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31699727", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030882", - "title": "Optical coherence tomography (OCT) in unconscious and systemically unwell patients using a mobile OCT device: a pilot study.", - "authorString": "Liu X, Kale AU, Capewell N, Talbot N, Ahmed S, Keane PA, Mollan S, Belli A, Blanch RJ, Veenith T, Denniston AK.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-11-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "optical coherence tomography; Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography; Adult Intensive & Critical Care", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of retinal imaging in critical care using a novel mobile optical coherence tomography (OCT) device. The Heidelberg SPECTRALIS FLEX module (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) is an OCT unit with a boom arm, enabling ocular OCT assessment in less mobile patients.

Design

We undertook an evaluation of the feasibility of using the SPECTRALIS FLEX for undertaking ocular OCT images in unconscious and critically ill patients.

Setting

This study was conducted in the critical care unit of a large tertiary referral unit in the United Kingdom.

Participants

13 systemically unwell patients admitted to the critical care unit were purposively sampled to enable evaluation in patients with a range of clinical states.

Outcome measures

The primary outcome was the feasibility of acquiring clinically interpretable OCT scans on a consecutive series of patients. The standardised scanning protocol included macula-focused OCT, OCT optic nerve head (ONH), OCT angiography (OCTA) of the macula and ONH OCTA.

Results

OCT images from 13 patients were attempted. The success rates of each scan type are 84% for OCT macula, 76% for OCT ONH, 56% for OCTA macula and 36% for OCTA ONH. The overall mean success rate of scans per patient was 64% (95% CI 46% to 81%). Clinicians reported clinical value in 100% scans which were successfully obtained, including both ruling in and ruling out relevant ocular complications such as corneal thinning, macular oedema and optic disc swelling. The most common causes of failure to achieve clinically interpretable scans were inadequately sustained OCT alignment in delirious patients and a compromised ocular surface due to corneal exposure.

Conclusions

This prospective evaluation indicates the feasibility and potential clinical value of the SPECTRALIS FLEX OCT system on the critical care unit. Portable OCT systems have the potential to bring instrument-based ophthalmic assessment to critically ill patients, enabling detection and micron-level monitoring of ocular complications.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/11/e030882.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030882; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858135; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6858135?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32040531", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228940", @@ -27931,38 +27931,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86331-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86331-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062687; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062687?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35380004", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1042/bcj20220105", - "title": "Development of a colorimetric assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity.", - "authorString": "Garland GD, Harvey RF, Mulroney TE, Monti M, Fuller S, Haigh R, Gerber PP, Barer MR, Matheson NJ, Willis AE.", + "id": "34910136", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab863", + "title": "Long-term safety and efficacy of anacetrapib in patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease.", + "authorString": "HPS3/TIMI55-REVEAL Collaborative Group, Writing Committee, Sammons E, Hopewell JC, Chen F, Stevens W, Wallendszus K, Valdes-Marquez E, Dayanandan R, Knott C, Murphy K, Wincott E, Baxter A, Goodenough R, Lay M, Hill M, Macdonnell S, Fabbri G, Lucci D, Fajardo-Moser M, Brenner S, Hao D, Zhang H, Liu J, Wuhan B, Mosegaard S, Herrington W, Wanner C, Angermann C, Ertl G, Maggioni A, Barter P, Mihaylova B, Mitchel Y, Blaustein R, Goto S, Tobert J, DeLucca P, Chen Y, Chen Z, Gray A, Haynes R, Armitage J, Baigent C, Wiviott S, Cannon C, Braunwald E, Collins R, Bowman L, Landray M, REVEAL Collaborative Group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Biochemical journal", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal", "pubYear": "2022", "date": "2022-04-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Coronavirus; Assay Development; Covid 19", + "keywords": "Randomized Trial; Cetp Inhibitor Therapy", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Diagnostic testing continues to be an integral component of the strategy to contain the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) global pandemic, the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes the 3C-like protease (3CLpro) which is essential for coronavirus replication. This study adapts an in vitro colorimetric gold nanoparticle (AuNP) based protease assay to specifically detect the activity of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro as a purified recombinant protein and as a cellular protein exogenously expressed in HEK293T human cells. We also demonstrate that the specific sensitivity of the assay for SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro can be improved by use of an optimised peptide substrate and through hybrid dimerisation with inactive 3CLpro mutant monomers. These findings highlight the potential for further development of the AuNP protease assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity as a novel, accessible and cost-effective diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 infection at the point-of-care. Importantly, this versatile assay could also be easily adapted to detect specific protease activity associated with other viruses or diseases conditions.", + "abstract": "

Aims

REVEAL was the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that adding cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor therapy to intensive statin therapy reduced the risk of major coronary events. We now report results from extended follow-up beyond the scheduled study treatment period.

Methods and results

A total of 30\u00a0449 adults with prior atherosclerotic vascular disease were randomly allocated to anacetrapib 100\u2009mg daily or matching placebo, in addition to open-label atorvastatin therapy. After stopping the randomly allocated treatment, 26\u00a0129 survivors entered a post-trial follow-up period, blind to their original treatment allocation. The primary outcome was first post-randomization major coronary event (i.e. coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization) during the in-trial and post-trial treatment periods, with analysis by intention-to-treat. Allocation to anacetrapib conferred a 9% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3-15%; P\u2009=\u20090.004] proportional reduction in the incidence of major coronary events during the study treatment period (median 4.1\u2009years). During extended follow-up (median 2.2\u2009years), there was a further 20% (95% CI 10-29%; P\u2009<\u20090.001) reduction. Overall, there was a 12% (95% CI 7-17%, P\u2009<\u20090.001) proportional reduction in major coronary events during the overall follow-up period (median 6.3\u2009years), corresponding to a 1.8% (95% CI 1.0-2.6%) absolute reduction. There were no significant effects on non-vascular mortality, site-specific cancer, or other serious adverse events. Morbidity follow-up was obtained for 25\u00a0784 (99%) participants.

Conclusion

The beneficial effects of anacetrapib on major coronary events increased with longer follow-up, and no adverse effects emerged on non-vascular mortality or morbidity. These findings illustrate the importance of sufficiently long treatment and follow-up duration in randomized trials of lipid-modifying agents to assess their full benefits and potential harms.

Trial registration

International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) 48678192; ClinicalTrials.gov No. NCT01252953; EudraCT No. 2010-023467-18.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article-pdf/479/8/901/932114/bcj-2022-0105.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20220105; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/14/1416/43292041/ehab863.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab863; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986460?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34910136", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab863", - "title": "Long-term safety and efficacy of anacetrapib in patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease.", - "authorString": "HPS3/TIMI55-REVEAL Collaborative Group, Writing Committee, Sammons E, Hopewell JC, Chen F, Stevens W, Wallendszus K, Valdes-Marquez E, Dayanandan R, Knott C, Murphy K, Wincott E, Baxter A, Goodenough R, Lay M, Hill M, Macdonnell S, Fabbri G, Lucci D, Fajardo-Moser M, Brenner S, Hao D, Zhang H, Liu J, Wuhan B, Mosegaard S, Herrington W, Wanner C, Angermann C, Ertl G, Maggioni A, Barter P, Mihaylova B, Mitchel Y, Blaustein R, Goto S, Tobert J, DeLucca P, Chen Y, Chen Z, Gray A, Haynes R, Armitage J, Baigent C, Wiviott S, Cannon C, Braunwald E, Collins R, Bowman L, Landray M, REVEAL Collaborative Group.", + "id": "35380004", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1042/bcj20220105", + "title": "Development of a colorimetric assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity.", + "authorString": "Garland GD, Harvey RF, Mulroney TE, Monti M, Fuller S, Haigh R, Gerber PP, Barer MR, Matheson NJ, Willis AE.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal", + "journalTitle": "The Biochemical journal", "pubYear": "2022", "date": "2022-04-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Randomized Trial; Cetp Inhibitor Therapy", + "keywords": "Coronavirus; Assay Development; Covid 19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

REVEAL was the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that adding cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor therapy to intensive statin therapy reduced the risk of major coronary events. We now report results from extended follow-up beyond the scheduled study treatment period.

Methods and results

A total of 30\u00a0449 adults with prior atherosclerotic vascular disease were randomly allocated to anacetrapib 100\u2009mg daily or matching placebo, in addition to open-label atorvastatin therapy. After stopping the randomly allocated treatment, 26\u00a0129 survivors entered a post-trial follow-up period, blind to their original treatment allocation. The primary outcome was first post-randomization major coronary event (i.e. coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization) during the in-trial and post-trial treatment periods, with analysis by intention-to-treat. Allocation to anacetrapib conferred a 9% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3-15%; P\u2009=\u20090.004] proportional reduction in the incidence of major coronary events during the study treatment period (median 4.1\u2009years). During extended follow-up (median 2.2\u2009years), there was a further 20% (95% CI 10-29%; P\u2009<\u20090.001) reduction. Overall, there was a 12% (95% CI 7-17%, P\u2009<\u20090.001) proportional reduction in major coronary events during the overall follow-up period (median 6.3\u2009years), corresponding to a 1.8% (95% CI 1.0-2.6%) absolute reduction. There were no significant effects on non-vascular mortality, site-specific cancer, or other serious adverse events. Morbidity follow-up was obtained for 25\u00a0784 (99%) participants.

Conclusion

The beneficial effects of anacetrapib on major coronary events increased with longer follow-up, and no adverse effects emerged on non-vascular mortality or morbidity. These findings illustrate the importance of sufficiently long treatment and follow-up duration in randomized trials of lipid-modifying agents to assess their full benefits and potential harms.

Trial registration

International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) 48678192; ClinicalTrials.gov No. NCT01252953; EudraCT No. 2010-023467-18.", + "abstract": "Diagnostic testing continues to be an integral component of the strategy to contain the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) global pandemic, the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes the 3C-like protease (3CLpro) which is essential for coronavirus replication. This study adapts an in vitro colorimetric gold nanoparticle (AuNP) based protease assay to specifically detect the activity of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro as a purified recombinant protein and as a cellular protein exogenously expressed in HEK293T human cells. We also demonstrate that the specific sensitivity of the assay for SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro can be improved by use of an optimised peptide substrate and through hybrid dimerisation with inactive 3CLpro mutant monomers. These findings highlight the potential for further development of the AuNP protease assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity as a novel, accessible and cost-effective diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 infection at the point-of-care. Importantly, this versatile assay could also be easily adapted to detect specific protease activity associated with other viruses or diseases conditions.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/14/1416/43292041/ehab863.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab863; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986460?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article-pdf/479/8/901/932114/bcj-2022-0105.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20220105; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9162461?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35000827", @@ -27998,6 +27998,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00293-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00293-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154235; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10154235?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "30082368", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755", + "title": "Validating injury burden estimates using population birth cohorts and longitudinal cohort studies of injury outcomes: the VIBES-Junior study protocol.", + "authorString": "Gabbe BJ, Dipnall JF, Lynch JW, Rivara FP, Lyons RA, Ameratunga S, Brussoni M, Lecky FE, Bradley C, Simpson PM, Beck B, Demmler JC, Lyons J, Schneeberg A, Harrison JE.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2018", + "date": "2018-08-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Public Health; Paediatrics; Trauma Management", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health, The Human Phenome", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Traumatic injury is a leading contributor to the global disease burden in children and adolescents, but methods used to estimate burden do not account for differences in patterns of injury and recovery between children and adults. A lack of empirical data on postinjury disability in children has limited capacity to derive valid disability weights and describe the long-term individual and societal impacts of injury in the early part of life. The aim of this study is to establish valid estimates of the burden of non-fatal injury in children and adolescents.

Methods and analysis

Five longitudinal studies of paediatric injury survivors <18 years at the time of injury (Australia, Canada, UK and USA) and two whole-of-population linked administrative data paediatric studies (Australia and Wales) will be analysed over a 3-year period commencing 2018. Meta-analysis of deidentified patient-level data (n\u22482,600) from five injury-specific longitudinal studies (Victorian State Trauma Registry; Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry; UK Burden of Injury; British Columbia Children's Hospital Longitudinal Injury Outcomes; Children's Health After Injury) and >1\u2009million children from two whole-of-population cohorts (South Australian Early Childhood Data Project and Wales Electronic Cohort for Children). Systematic analysis of pooled injury-specific cohort data using a variety of statistical techniques, and parallel analysis of whole-of-population cohorts, will be used to develop estimated disability weights for years lost due to disability, establish appropriate injury classifications and explore factors influencing recovery.

Ethics and dissemination

The project was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee project number 12\u2009311. Results of this study will be submitted for publication in internationally peer-reviewed journals. The findings from this project have the capacity to improve the validity of paediatric injury burden measurements in future local and global burden of disease studies.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/8/8/e024755.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34437535", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009723", @@ -28032,40 +28049,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/36/24/5632/36899551/btaa1079.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa1079; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023682; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8023682?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "30082368", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755", - "title": "Validating injury burden estimates using population birth cohorts and longitudinal cohort studies of injury outcomes: the VIBES-Junior study protocol.", - "authorString": "Gabbe BJ, Dipnall JF, Lynch JW, Rivara FP, Lyons RA, Ameratunga S, Brussoni M, Lecky FE, Bradley C, Simpson PM, Beck B, Demmler JC, Lyons J, Schneeberg A, Harrison JE.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2018", - "date": "2018-08-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Public Health; Paediatrics; Trauma Management", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health, The Human Phenome", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Traumatic injury is a leading contributor to the global disease burden in children and adolescents, but methods used to estimate burden do not account for differences in patterns of injury and recovery between children and adults. A lack of empirical data on postinjury disability in children has limited capacity to derive valid disability weights and describe the long-term individual and societal impacts of injury in the early part of life. The aim of this study is to establish valid estimates of the burden of non-fatal injury in children and adolescents.

Methods and analysis

Five longitudinal studies of paediatric injury survivors <18 years at the time of injury (Australia, Canada, UK and USA) and two whole-of-population linked administrative data paediatric studies (Australia and Wales) will be analysed over a 3-year period commencing 2018. Meta-analysis of deidentified patient-level data (n\u22482,600) from five injury-specific longitudinal studies (Victorian State Trauma Registry; Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry; UK Burden of Injury; British Columbia Children's Hospital Longitudinal Injury Outcomes; Children's Health After Injury) and >1\u2009million children from two whole-of-population cohorts (South Australian Early Childhood Data Project and Wales Electronic Cohort for Children). Systematic analysis of pooled injury-specific cohort data using a variety of statistical techniques, and parallel analysis of whole-of-population cohorts, will be used to develop estimated disability weights for years lost due to disability, establish appropriate injury classifications and explore factors influencing recovery.

Ethics and dissemination

The project was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee project number 12\u2009311. Results of this study will be submitted for publication in internationally peer-reviewed journals. The findings from this project have the capacity to improve the validity of paediatric injury burden measurements in future local and global burden of disease studies.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/8/8/e024755.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024755; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6078268?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33821553", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697", - "title": "The impact of disruptions due to COVID-19 on HIV transmission and control among men who have sex with men in China.", - "authorString": "Booton RD, Fu G, MacGregor L, Li J, Ong JJ, Tucker JD, Turner KM, Tang W, Vickerman P, Mitchell KM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of the International AIDS Society", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Modelling; Hiv Transmission; Men Who Have Sex With Men; People\u2019s Republic Of China; Key And Vulnerable Populations; Covid-19 Pandemic", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting HIV care globally, with gaps in HIV treatment expected to increase HIV transmission and HIV-related mortality. We estimated how COVID-19-related disruptions could impact HIV transmission and mortality among men who have sex with men (MSM) in four cities in China, over a one- and five-year time horizon.

Methods

Regional data from China indicated that the number of MSM undergoing facility-based HIV testing reduced by 59% during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside reductions in ART initiation (34%), numbers of all sexual partners (62%) and consistency of condom use (25%), but initial data indicated no change in viral suppression. A mathematical model of HIV transmission/treatment among MSM was used to estimate the impact of disruptions on HIV infections/HIV-related deaths. Disruption scenarios were assessed for their individual and combined impact over one and five years for 3/4/6-month disruption periods, starting from 1 January 2020.

Results

Our model predicted new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths would be increased most by disruptions to viral suppression, with 25% reductions (25% virally suppressed MSM stop taking ART) for a three-month period increasing HIV infections by 5% to 14% over one year and deaths by 7% to 12%. Observed reductions in condom use increased HIV infections by 5% to 14% but had minimal impact (<1%) on deaths. Smaller impacts on infections and deaths (<3%) were seen for disruptions to facility HIV testing and ART initiation, but reduced partner numbers resulted in 11% to 23% fewer infections and 0.4% to 1.0% fewer deaths. Longer disruption periods (4/6\u00a0months) amplified the impact of disruption scenarios. When realistic disruptions were modelled simultaneously, an overall decrease in new HIV infections occurred over one year (3% to 17%), but not for five years (1% increase to 4% decrease), whereas deaths mostly increased over one year (1% to 2%) and five years (1.2 increase to 0.3 decrease).

Conclusions

The overall impact of COVID-19 on new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths is dependent on the nature, scale and length of the various disruptions. Resources should be directed to ensuring levels of viral suppression and condom use are maintained to mitigate any adverse effects of COVID-19-related disruption on HIV transmission and control among MSM in China.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.25697; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31820220", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-019-09867-w", @@ -28118,21 +28101,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.031659; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.031659; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834661; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7834661?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33472714", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980021000197", - "title": "Diet and risk of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study.", - "authorString": "Wang SE, Hodge AM, Dashti SG, Dixon-Suen SC, Mitchell H, Thomas RJ, Williamson EM, Makalic E, Boussioutas A, Haydon AM, Giles GG, Milne RL, Kendall BJ, English DR.", + "id": "33821553", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697", + "title": "The impact of disruptions due to COVID-19 on HIV transmission and control among men who have sex with men in China.", + "authorString": "Booton RD, Fu G, MacGregor L, Li J, Ong JJ, Tucker JD, Turner KM, Tang W, Vickerman P, Mitchell KM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Public health nutrition", + "journalTitle": "Journal of the International AIDS Society", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-21", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Fat; Diet; Prospective Cohort Study; Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease; Carbonated Beverages", + "date": "2021-04-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Modelling; Hiv Transmission; Men Who Have Sex With Men; People\u2019s Republic Of China; Key And Vulnerable Populations; Covid-19 Pandemic", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To examine associations between diet and risk of developing gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Design

Prospective cohort with a median follow-up of 15\u00b78 years. Baseline diet was measured using a FFQ. GERD was defined as self-reported current or history of daily heartburn or acid regurgitation beginning at least 2 years after baseline. Sex-specific logistic regressions were performed to estimate OR for GERD associated with diet quality scores and intakes of nutrients, food groups and individual foods and beverages. The effect of substituting saturated fat for monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat on GERD risk was examined.

Setting

Melbourne, Australia.

Participants

A cohort of 20 926 participants (62 % women) aged 40-59 years at recruitment between 1990 and 1994.

Results

For men, total fat intake was associated with increased risk of GERD (OR 1\u00b705 per 5 g/d; 95 % CI 1\u00b701, 1\u00b709; P = 0\u00b7016), whereas total carbohydrate (OR 0\u00b789 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0\u00b782, 0\u00b798; P = 0\u00b7010) and starch intakes (OR 0\u00b784 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0\u00b775, 0\u00b794; P = 0\u00b7005) were associated with reduced risk. Nutrients were not associated with risk for women. For both sexes, substituting saturated fat for polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat did not change risk. For both sexes, fish, chicken, cruciferous vegetables and carbonated beverages were associated with increased risk, whereas total fruit and citrus were associated with reduced risk. No association was observed with diet quality scores.

Conclusions

Diet is a possible risk factor for GERD, but food considered as triggers of GERD symptoms might not necessarily contribute to disease development. Potential differential associations for men and women warrant further investigation.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting HIV care globally, with gaps in HIV treatment expected to increase HIV transmission and HIV-related mortality. We estimated how COVID-19-related disruptions could impact HIV transmission and mortality among men who have sex with men (MSM) in four cities in China, over a one- and five-year time horizon.

Methods

Regional data from China indicated that the number of MSM undergoing facility-based HIV testing reduced by 59% during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside reductions in ART initiation (34%), numbers of all sexual partners (62%) and consistency of condom use (25%), but initial data indicated no change in viral suppression. A mathematical model of HIV transmission/treatment among MSM was used to estimate the impact of disruptions on HIV infections/HIV-related deaths. Disruption scenarios were assessed for their individual and combined impact over one and five years for 3/4/6-month disruption periods, starting from 1 January 2020.

Results

Our model predicted new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths would be increased most by disruptions to viral suppression, with 25% reductions (25% virally suppressed MSM stop taking ART) for a three-month period increasing HIV infections by 5% to 14% over one year and deaths by 7% to 12%. Observed reductions in condom use increased HIV infections by 5% to 14% but had minimal impact (<1%) on deaths. Smaller impacts on infections and deaths (<3%) were seen for disruptions to facility HIV testing and ART initiation, but reduced partner numbers resulted in 11% to 23% fewer infections and 0.4% to 1.0% fewer deaths. Longer disruption periods (4/6\u00a0months) amplified the impact of disruption scenarios. When realistic disruptions were modelled simultaneously, an overall decrease in new HIV infections occurred over one year (3% to 17%), but not for five years (1% increase to 4% decrease), whereas deaths mostly increased over one year (1% to 2%) and five years (1.2 increase to 0.3 decrease).

Conclusions

The overall impact of COVID-19 on new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths is dependent on the nature, scale and length of the various disruptions. Resources should be directed to ensuring levels of viral suppression and condom use are maintained to mitigate any adverse effects of COVID-19-related disruption on HIV transmission and control among MSM in China.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/274F1A424FA99A10625C3447D256A318/S1368980021000197a.pdf/div-class-title-diet-and-risk-of-gastro-oesophageal-reflux-disease-in-the-melbourne-collaborative-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980021000197" + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jia2.25697; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25697; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8022092?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34593247", @@ -28152,21 +28135,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.09.027" }, { - "id": "36470992", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0", - "title": "Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF): improving the assessment and classification of MPN patients.", - "authorString": "Ryou H, Sirinukunwattana K, Aberdeen A, Grindstaff G, Stolz BJ, Byrne H, Harrington HA, Sousos N, Godfrey AL, Harrison CN, Psaila B, Mead AJ, Rees G, Turner GDH, Rittscher J, Royston D.", + "id": "33472714", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980021000197", + "title": "Diet and risk of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study.", + "authorString": "Wang SE, Hodge AM, Dashti SG, Dixon-Suen SC, Mitchell H, Thomas RJ, Williamson EM, Makalic E, Boussioutas A, Haydon AM, Giles GG, Milne RL, Kendall BJ, English DR.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Leukemia", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-12-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "journalTitle": "Public health nutrition", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-21", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Fat; Diet; Prospective Cohort Study; Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease; Carbonated Beverages", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The grading of fibrosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) is an important component of disease classification, prognostication and monitoring. However, current fibrosis grading systems are only semi-quantitative and fail to fully capture sample heterogeneity. To improve the quantitation of reticulin fibrosis, we developed a machine learning approach using bone marrow trephine (BMT) samples (n\u2009=\u2009107) from patients diagnosed with MPN or a reactive marrow. The resulting Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF) enhances the detection and monitoring of fibrosis within BMTs, and aids MPN subtyping. When combined with megakaryocyte feature analysis, CIF discriminates between the frequently challenging differential diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia (ET) and pre-fibrotic myelofibrosis with high predictive accuracy [area under the curve = 0.94]. CIF also shows promise in the identification of MPN patients at risk of disease progression; analysis of samples from 35 patients diagnosed with ET and enrolled in the Primary Thrombocythemia-1 trial identified features predictive of post-ET myelofibrosis (area under the curve = 0.77). In addition to these clinical applications, automated analysis of fibrosis has clear potential to further refine disease classification boundaries and inform future studies of the micro-environmental factors driving disease initiation and progression in MPN and other stem cell disorders.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To examine associations between diet and risk of developing gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Design

Prospective cohort with a median follow-up of 15\u00b78 years. Baseline diet was measured using a FFQ. GERD was defined as self-reported current or history of daily heartburn or acid regurgitation beginning at least 2 years after baseline. Sex-specific logistic regressions were performed to estimate OR for GERD associated with diet quality scores and intakes of nutrients, food groups and individual foods and beverages. The effect of substituting saturated fat for monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat on GERD risk was examined.

Setting

Melbourne, Australia.

Participants

A cohort of 20 926 participants (62 % women) aged 40-59 years at recruitment between 1990 and 1994.

Results

For men, total fat intake was associated with increased risk of GERD (OR 1\u00b705 per 5 g/d; 95 % CI 1\u00b701, 1\u00b709; P = 0\u00b7016), whereas total carbohydrate (OR 0\u00b789 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0\u00b782, 0\u00b798; P = 0\u00b7010) and starch intakes (OR 0\u00b784 per 30 g/d; 95 % CI 0\u00b775, 0\u00b794; P = 0\u00b7005) were associated with reduced risk. Nutrients were not associated with risk for women. For both sexes, substituting saturated fat for polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat did not change risk. For both sexes, fish, chicken, cruciferous vegetables and carbonated beverages were associated with increased risk, whereas total fruit and citrus were associated with reduced risk. No association was observed with diet quality scores.

Conclusions

Diet is a possible risk factor for GERD, but food considered as triggers of GERD symptoms might not necessarily contribute to disease development. Potential differential associations for men and women warrant further investigation.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41375-022-01773-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/274F1A424FA99A10625C3447D256A318/S1368980021000197a.pdf/div-class-title-diet-and-risk-of-gastro-oesophageal-reflux-disease-in-the-melbourne-collaborative-cohort-study-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980021000197" }, { "id": "32811694", @@ -28185,23 +28168,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2020.01.005" }, - { - "id": "35606928", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677", - "title": "Biomarkers of systemic treatment response in people with psoriasis: a scoping review.", - "authorString": "Corbett M, Ramessur R, Marshall D, Acencio ML, Ostaszewski M, Barbosa IA, Dand N, Di Meglio P, Haddad S, Jensen AHM, Koopmann W, Mahil SK, Rahmatulla S, Rastrick J, Saklatvala J, Weidinger S, Wright K, Eyerich K, Barker JN, Ndlovu M, Conrad C, Skov L, Smith CH, BIOMAP consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare.

Objectives

To perform a scoping review to identify and catalogue candidate biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis for the translational research community.

Methods

A systematic search of CENTRAL, Embase, LILACS and MEDLINE was performed for relevant articles published between 1990 and December 2021. Eligibility criteria were studies involving patients with psoriasis (any age, n\u2009\u2265\u200950) reporting biomarkers associated with systemic treatment response. The main outcomes were any measure of systemic treatment efficacy or safety. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second; studies meeting minimal quality criteria (use of methods to control for confounding) were formally assessed for bias. Candidate biomarkers were identified by an expert multistakeholder group using a majority voting consensus exercise and mapped to relevant cellular and molecular pathways.

Results

Of 71 included studies (67 studying effectiveness outcomes and eight safety outcomes; four studied both), most reported genomic or proteomic biomarkers associated with response to biologics (48 studies). Methodological or reporting limitations frequently compromised the interpretation of findings, including inadequate control for key covariates, lack of adjustment for multiple testing, and selective outcome reporting. We identified candidate biomarkers of efficacy to tumour necrosis factor inhibitors [variation in CARD14, CDKAL1, IL1B, IL12B and IL17RA loci, and lipopolysaccharide-induced phosphorylation of nuclear factor (NF)-\u03baB in type 2 dendritic cells] and ustekinumab (HLA-C*06:02 and variation in an IL1B locus). None were supported by sufficient evidence for clinical use without further validation studies. Candidate biomarkers were found to be involved in the immune cellular crosstalk implicated in psoriasis pathogenesis, most notably antigen presentation, T helper (Th)17 cell differentiation, positive regulation of NF-\u03baB, and Th17 cell activation.

Conclusions

This comprehensive catalogue provides a key resource for researchers and reveals a diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes in the included studies. The candidate biomarkers identified require further evaluation in methodologically robust studies to establish potential clinical utility. Future studies should aim to address the common methodological limitations highlighted in this review to expedite discovery and validation of biomarkers for clinical use. What is already known about this topic? Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare. What does this study add? This review provides a comprehensive catalogue of investigated biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis. A diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes was found in the included studies, serving as a key resource for the translational research community.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796396; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31815634", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-019-0972-4", @@ -28219,23 +28185,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-019-0972-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-019-0972-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6900858; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6900858?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35094586", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691", - "title": "The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium: Optimizing the use of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials.", - "authorString": "Snyder C, Crossnohere N, King M, Reeve BB, Bottomley A, Calvert M, Thorner E, Wu AW, Brundage M, PROTEUS-Trials Consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Clinical trials (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-31", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Clinical Trials; Protocols; Data Visualization; Patient-reported Outcomes; Reporting Methods; Measure Selection", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The assessment of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials has enormous potential to promote patient-centred care, but for this potential to be realized, the patient-reported outcomes must be captured effectively and communicated clearly. Over the past decade, methodologic tools have been developed to inform the design, analysis, reporting, and interpretation of patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials. We formed the PROTEUS-Trials Consortium (Patient-Reported Outcomes Tools: Engaging Users and Stakeholders) to disseminate and implement these methodologic tools.

Methods

PROTEUS-Trials are engaging with patient, clinician, research, and regulatory stakeholders from 27 organizations in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe to develop both organization-specific and cross-cutting strategies for implementing and disseminating the methodologic tools. Guided by the Knowledge-to-Action framework, we conducted consortium-wide webinars and meetings, as well as individual calls with participating organizations, to develop a workplan, which we are currently executing.

Results

Six methodologic tools serve as the foundation for PROTEUS-Trials dissemination and implementation efforts: the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for writing protocols with patient-reported outcomes, the International Society for Quality of Life Research Minimum Standards for selecting a patient-reported outcome measure, Setting International Standards in Analysing Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Endpoints Data Consortium recommendations for patient-reported outcome data analysis, the Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for reporting clinical trials with patient-reported outcomes, recommendations for the graphic display of patient-reported outcome data, and a Clinician's Checklist for reading and using an article about patient-reported outcomes. The PROTEUS-Trials website (www.TheProteusConsortium.org) serves as a central repository for the methodologic tools and associated resources. To date, we have developed (1) a roadmap to visually display where each of the six methodologic tools applies along the clinical trial trajectory, (2) web tutorials that provide guidance on the methodologic tools at different levels of detail, (3) checklists to provide brief summaries of each tool's recommendations, (4) a handbook to provide a self-guided approach to learning about the tools and recommendations, and (5) publications that address key topics related to patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials. We are also conducting organization-specific activities, including meetings, presentations, workshops, and webinars to publicize the existence of the methodologic tools and the PROTEUS-Trials resources. Work to develop communications strategies to ensure that PROTEUS-Trials reach key audiences with relevant information about patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials and PROTEUS-Trials is ongoing.

Discussion

The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium aims to help researchers generate patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials to (1) enable investigators, regulators, and policy-makers to take the patient perspective into account when conducting research and making decisions; (2) help patients understand treatment options and make treatment decisions; and (3) inform clinicians' discussions with patients regarding treatment options. In these ways, the PROTEUS Consortium promotes patient-centred research and care.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/160459757/17407745221077691.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35331425", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.09.001", @@ -28253,6 +28202,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.09.001; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.09.001" }, + { + "id": "36470992", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0", + "title": "Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF): improving the assessment and classification of MPN patients.", + "authorString": "Ryou H, Sirinukunwattana K, Aberdeen A, Grindstaff G, Stolz BJ, Byrne H, Harrington HA, Sousos N, Godfrey AL, Harrison CN, Psaila B, Mead AJ, Rees G, Turner GDH, Rittscher J, Royston D.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Leukemia", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-12-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The grading of fibrosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) is an important component of disease classification, prognostication and monitoring. However, current fibrosis grading systems are only semi-quantitative and fail to fully capture sample heterogeneity. To improve the quantitation of reticulin fibrosis, we developed a machine learning approach using bone marrow trephine (BMT) samples (n\u2009=\u2009107) from patients diagnosed with MPN or a reactive marrow. The resulting Continuous Indexing of Fibrosis (CIF) enhances the detection and monitoring of fibrosis within BMTs, and aids MPN subtyping. When combined with megakaryocyte feature analysis, CIF discriminates between the frequently challenging differential diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia (ET) and pre-fibrotic myelofibrosis with high predictive accuracy [area under the curve = 0.94]. CIF also shows promise in the identification of MPN patients at risk of disease progression; analysis of samples from 35 patients diagnosed with ET and enrolled in the Primary Thrombocythemia-1 trial identified features predictive of post-ET myelofibrosis (area under the curve = 0.77). In addition to these clinical applications, automated analysis of fibrosis has clear potential to further refine disease classification boundaries and inform future studies of the micro-environmental factors driving disease initiation and progression in MPN and other stem cell disorders.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41375-022-01773-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01773-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9898027?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "29966429", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487318785228", @@ -28270,6 +28236,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/134568/7/OArchangelidi_EJPC_accepted.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487318785228" }, + { + "id": "35606928", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677", + "title": "Biomarkers of systemic treatment response in people with psoriasis: a scoping review.", + "authorString": "Corbett M, Ramessur R, Marshall D, Acencio ML, Ostaszewski M, Barbosa IA, Dand N, Di Meglio P, Haddad S, Jensen AHM, Koopmann W, Mahil SK, Rahmatulla S, Rastrick J, Saklatvala J, Weidinger S, Wright K, Eyerich K, Barker JN, Ndlovu M, Conrad C, Skov L, Smith CH, BIOMAP consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare.

Objectives

To perform a scoping review to identify and catalogue candidate biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis for the translational research community.

Methods

A systematic search of CENTRAL, Embase, LILACS and MEDLINE was performed for relevant articles published between 1990 and December 2021. Eligibility criteria were studies involving patients with psoriasis (any age, n\u2009\u2265\u200950) reporting biomarkers associated with systemic treatment response. The main outcomes were any measure of systemic treatment efficacy or safety. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second; studies meeting minimal quality criteria (use of methods to control for confounding) were formally assessed for bias. Candidate biomarkers were identified by an expert multistakeholder group using a majority voting consensus exercise and mapped to relevant cellular and molecular pathways.

Results

Of 71 included studies (67 studying effectiveness outcomes and eight safety outcomes; four studied both), most reported genomic or proteomic biomarkers associated with response to biologics (48 studies). Methodological or reporting limitations frequently compromised the interpretation of findings, including inadequate control for key covariates, lack of adjustment for multiple testing, and selective outcome reporting. We identified candidate biomarkers of efficacy to tumour necrosis factor inhibitors [variation in CARD14, CDKAL1, IL1B, IL12B and IL17RA loci, and lipopolysaccharide-induced phosphorylation of nuclear factor (NF)-\u03baB in type 2 dendritic cells] and ustekinumab (HLA-C*06:02 and variation in an IL1B locus). None were supported by sufficient evidence for clinical use without further validation studies. Candidate biomarkers were found to be involved in the immune cellular crosstalk implicated in psoriasis pathogenesis, most notably antigen presentation, T helper (Th)17 cell differentiation, positive regulation of NF-\u03baB, and Th17 cell activation.

Conclusions

This comprehensive catalogue provides a key resource for researchers and reveals a diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes in the included studies. The candidate biomarkers identified require further evaluation in methodologically robust studies to establish potential clinical utility. Future studies should aim to address the common methodological limitations highlighted in this review to expedite discovery and validation of biomarkers for clinical use. What is already known about this topic? Responses to the systemic treatments commonly used to treat psoriasis vary. Biomarkers that accurately predict effectiveness and safety would enable targeted treatment selection, improved patient outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare. What does this study add? This review provides a comprehensive catalogue of investigated biomarkers of systemic treatment response in psoriasis. A diverse range of biomarker types and outcomes was found in the included studies, serving as a key resource for the translational research community.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796396; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.21677; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9796396?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35094586", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691", + "title": "The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium: Optimizing the use of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials.", + "authorString": "Snyder C, Crossnohere N, King M, Reeve BB, Bottomley A, Calvert M, Thorner E, Wu AW, Brundage M, PROTEUS-Trials Consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Clinical trials (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-31", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Clinical Trials; Protocols; Data Visualization; Patient-reported Outcomes; Reporting Methods; Measure Selection", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The assessment of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials has enormous potential to promote patient-centred care, but for this potential to be realized, the patient-reported outcomes must be captured effectively and communicated clearly. Over the past decade, methodologic tools have been developed to inform the design, analysis, reporting, and interpretation of patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials. We formed the PROTEUS-Trials Consortium (Patient-Reported Outcomes Tools: Engaging Users and Stakeholders) to disseminate and implement these methodologic tools.

Methods

PROTEUS-Trials are engaging with patient, clinician, research, and regulatory stakeholders from 27 organizations in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe to develop both organization-specific and cross-cutting strategies for implementing and disseminating the methodologic tools. Guided by the Knowledge-to-Action framework, we conducted consortium-wide webinars and meetings, as well as individual calls with participating organizations, to develop a workplan, which we are currently executing.

Results

Six methodologic tools serve as the foundation for PROTEUS-Trials dissemination and implementation efforts: the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for writing protocols with patient-reported outcomes, the International Society for Quality of Life Research Minimum Standards for selecting a patient-reported outcome measure, Setting International Standards in Analysing Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Endpoints Data Consortium recommendations for patient-reported outcome data analysis, the Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials-patient-reported outcome extension for reporting clinical trials with patient-reported outcomes, recommendations for the graphic display of patient-reported outcome data, and a Clinician's Checklist for reading and using an article about patient-reported outcomes. The PROTEUS-Trials website (www.TheProteusConsortium.org) serves as a central repository for the methodologic tools and associated resources. To date, we have developed (1) a roadmap to visually display where each of the six methodologic tools applies along the clinical trial trajectory, (2) web tutorials that provide guidance on the methodologic tools at different levels of detail, (3) checklists to provide brief summaries of each tool's recommendations, (4) a handbook to provide a self-guided approach to learning about the tools and recommendations, and (5) publications that address key topics related to patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials. We are also conducting organization-specific activities, including meetings, presentations, workshops, and webinars to publicize the existence of the methodologic tools and the PROTEUS-Trials resources. Work to develop communications strategies to ensure that PROTEUS-Trials reach key audiences with relevant information about patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials and PROTEUS-Trials is ongoing.

Discussion

The PROTEUS-Trials Consortium aims to help researchers generate patient-reported outcome data from clinical trials to (1) enable investigators, regulators, and policy-makers to take the patient perspective into account when conducting research and making decisions; (2) help patients understand treatment options and make treatment decisions; and (3) inform clinicians' discussions with patients regarding treatment options. In these ways, the PROTEUS Consortium promotes patient-centred research and care.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/160459757/17407745221077691.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17407745221077691; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9203669?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33185016", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/art.41593", @@ -28338,23 +28338,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(23)00007-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00007-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9998276" }, - { - "id": "37315048", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091", - "title": "LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting.", - "authorString": "Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-14", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Uneven vaccination and less resilient health care systems mean hospitals in LMICs are at risk of being overwhelmed during periods of increased COVID-19 infection. Risk-scores proposed for rapid triage of need for admission from the emergency department (ED) have been developed in higher-income settings during initial waves of the pandemic.

Methods

Routinely collected data for public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa from the 27th August 2020 to 11th March 2022 were used to derive a cohort of 446,084 ED patients with suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission at 30 days. The cohort was divided into derivation and Omicron variant validation sets. We developed the LMIC-PRIEST score based on the coefficients from multivariable analysis in the derivation cohort and existing triage practices. We externally validated accuracy in the Omicron period and a UK cohort.

Results

We analysed 305,564 derivation, 140,520 Omicron and 12,610 UK validation cases. Over 100 events per predictor parameter were modelled. Multivariable analyses identified eight predictor variables retained across models. We used these findings and clinical judgement to develop a score based on South African Triage Early Warning Scores and also included age, sex, oxygen saturation, inspired oxygen, diabetes and heart disease. The LMIC-PRIEST score achieved C-statistics: 0.82 (95% CI: 0.82 to 0.83) development cohort; 0.79 (95% CI: 0.78 to 0.80) Omicron cohort; and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.79 to 0.80) UK cohort. Differences in prevalence of outcomes led to imperfect calibration in external validation. However, use of the score at thresholds of three or less would allow identification of very low-risk patients (NPV \u22650.99) who could be rapidly discharged using information collected at initial assessment.

Conclusion

The LMIC-PRIEST score shows good discrimination and high sensitivity at lower thresholds and can be used to rapidly identify low-risk patients in LMIC ED settings.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287091&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33769566", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15459", @@ -28372,23 +28355,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bph.15459; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15459" }, - { - "id": "34767555", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832", - "title": "Educational and health outcomes of schoolchildren in local authority care in Scotland: A retrospective record linkage study.", - "authorString": "Fleming M, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Minnis H, Pell JP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-11-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Looked after children are defined as children who are in the care of their local authority. Previous studies have reported that looked after children have poorer mental and physical health, increased behavioural problems, and increased self-harm and mortality compared to peers. They also experience poorer educational outcomes, yet population-wide research into the latter is lacking, particularly in the United Kingdom. Education and health share a bidirectional relationship; therefore, it is important to dually investigate both outcomes. Our study aimed to compare educational and health outcomes for looked after children with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity, and comorbidity confounders.

Methods and findings

Linkage of 9 Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions, unemployment, and looked after children provided retrospective data on 715,111 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2012 (13,898 [1.9%] looked after). Compared to peers, 13,898 (1.9%) looked after children were more likely to be absent (adjusted incidence rate ratio [AIRR] 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24 to 1.30) and excluded (AIRR 4.09, 95% CI 3.86 to 4.33) from school, have special educational need (SEN; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.48, 95% CI 3.35 to 3.62) and neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (AOR 2.45, 95% CI 2.34 to 2.57), achieve the lowest level of academic attainment (AOR 5.92, 95% CI 5.17 to 6.78), and be unemployed after leaving school (AOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.96 to 2.29). They were more likely to require treatment for epilepsy (AOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.78), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; AOR 3.01, 95% CI 2.76 to 3.27), and depression (AOR 1.90, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.22), be hospitalised overall (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.23, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.28) for injury (AHR 1.80, 95% CI 1.69 to 1.91) and self-harm (AHR 5.19, 95% CI 4.66 to 5.78), and die prematurely (AHR 3.21, 95% CI 2.16 to 4.77). Compared to children looked after at home, children looked after away from home had less absenteeism (AIRR 0.35, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.36), less exclusion (AIRR 0.63, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.71), less unemployment (AOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.62), and better attainment (AIRR 0.31, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.40). Therefore, among those in care, being cared for away from home appeared to be a protective factor resulting in better educational outcomes. The main limitations of this study were lack of data on local authority care preschool or before 2009, total time spent in care, and age of first contact with social care.

Conclusions

Looked after children had poorer health and educational outcomes than peers independent of increased neurodevelopmental conditions and SEN. Further work is required to understand whether poorer outcomes relate to reasons for entering care, including maltreatment and adverse childhood events, neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities, or characteristics of the care system.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32951912", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2020.08.030", @@ -28406,6 +28372,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168827820336035/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2020.08.030; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8055539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8055539?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37315048", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091", + "title": "LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting.", + "authorString": "Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y, Wallis L.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Uneven vaccination and less resilient health care systems mean hospitals in LMICs are at risk of being overwhelmed during periods of increased COVID-19 infection. Risk-scores proposed for rapid triage of need for admission from the emergency department (ED) have been developed in higher-income settings during initial waves of the pandemic.

Methods

Routinely collected data for public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa from the 27th August 2020 to 11th March 2022 were used to derive a cohort of 446,084 ED patients with suspected COVID-19. The primary outcome was death or ICU admission at 30 days. The cohort was divided into derivation and Omicron variant validation sets. We developed the LMIC-PRIEST score based on the coefficients from multivariable analysis in the derivation cohort and existing triage practices. We externally validated accuracy in the Omicron period and a UK cohort.

Results

We analysed 305,564 derivation, 140,520 Omicron and 12,610 UK validation cases. Over 100 events per predictor parameter were modelled. Multivariable analyses identified eight predictor variables retained across models. We used these findings and clinical judgement to develop a score based on South African Triage Early Warning Scores and also included age, sex, oxygen saturation, inspired oxygen, diabetes and heart disease. The LMIC-PRIEST score achieved C-statistics: 0.82 (95% CI: 0.82 to 0.83) development cohort; 0.79 (95% CI: 0.78 to 0.80) Omicron cohort; and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.79 to 0.80) UK cohort. Differences in prevalence of outcomes led to imperfect calibration in external validation. However, use of the score at thresholds of three or less would allow identification of very low-risk patients (NPV \u22650.99) who could be rapidly discharged using information collected at initial assessment.

Conclusion

The LMIC-PRIEST score shows good discrimination and high sensitivity at lower thresholds and can be used to rapidly identify low-risk patients in LMIC ED settings.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287091&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287091; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10266677?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "34767555", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832", + "title": "Educational and health outcomes of schoolchildren in local authority care in Scotland: A retrospective record linkage study.", + "authorString": "Fleming M, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Minnis H, Pell JP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PLoS medicine", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-11-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Looked after children are defined as children who are in the care of their local authority. Previous studies have reported that looked after children have poorer mental and physical health, increased behavioural problems, and increased self-harm and mortality compared to peers. They also experience poorer educational outcomes, yet population-wide research into the latter is lacking, particularly in the United Kingdom. Education and health share a bidirectional relationship; therefore, it is important to dually investigate both outcomes. Our study aimed to compare educational and health outcomes for looked after children with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity, and comorbidity confounders.

Methods and findings

Linkage of 9 Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions, unemployment, and looked after children provided retrospective data on 715,111 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2012 (13,898 [1.9%] looked after). Compared to peers, 13,898 (1.9%) looked after children were more likely to be absent (adjusted incidence rate ratio [AIRR] 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24 to 1.30) and excluded (AIRR 4.09, 95% CI 3.86 to 4.33) from school, have special educational need (SEN; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.48, 95% CI 3.35 to 3.62) and neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (AOR 2.45, 95% CI 2.34 to 2.57), achieve the lowest level of academic attainment (AOR 5.92, 95% CI 5.17 to 6.78), and be unemployed after leaving school (AOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.96 to 2.29). They were more likely to require treatment for epilepsy (AOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.78), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; AOR 3.01, 95% CI 2.76 to 3.27), and depression (AOR 1.90, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.22), be hospitalised overall (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.23, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.28) for injury (AHR 1.80, 95% CI 1.69 to 1.91) and self-harm (AHR 5.19, 95% CI 4.66 to 5.78), and die prematurely (AHR 3.21, 95% CI 2.16 to 4.77). Compared to children looked after at home, children looked after away from home had less absenteeism (AIRR 0.35, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.36), less exclusion (AIRR 0.63, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.71), less unemployment (AOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.62), and better attainment (AIRR 0.31, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.40). Therefore, among those in care, being cared for away from home appeared to be a protective factor resulting in better educational outcomes. The main limitations of this study were lack of data on local authority care preschool or before 2009, total time spent in care, and age of first contact with social care.

Conclusions

Looked after children had poorer health and educational outcomes than peers independent of increased neurodevelopmental conditions and SEN. Further work is required to understand whether poorer outcomes relate to reasons for entering care, including maltreatment and adverse childhood events, neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities, or characteristics of the care system.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003832; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589203?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33692554", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03243-6", @@ -28440,23 +28440,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/47/2/405/36620462/sbaa126.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa126; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965059; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7965059?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa126" }, - { - "id": "32542387", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222", - "title": "Towards personalized guidelines: using machine-learning algorithms to guide antimicrobial selection.", - "authorString": "Moran E, Robinson E, Green C, Keeling M, Collyer B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-09-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Electronic decision support systems could reduce the use of inappropriate or ineffective empirical antibiotics. We assessed the accuracy of an open-source machine-learning algorithm trained in predicting antibiotic resistance for three Gram-negative bacterial species isolated from patients' blood and urine within 48\u2009h of hospital admission.

Methods

This retrospective, observational study used routine clinical information collected between January 2010 and October 2016 in Birmingham, UK. Patients from whose blood or urine cultures Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae or Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated were identified. Their demographic, microbiology and prescribing data were used to train an open-source machine-learning algorithm-XGBoost-in predicting resistance to co-amoxiclav and piperacillin/tazobactam. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictors of resistance and create a point-scoring tool. The performance of both methods was compared with that of the original prescribers.

Results

There were 15\u202f695 admissions. The AUC of the receiver operating characteristic curve for the point-scoring tools ranged from 0.61 to 0.67, and performed no better than medical staff in the selection of appropriate antibiotics. The machine-learning system performed statistically but marginally better (AUC 0.70) and could have reduced the use of unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotics by as much as 40% among those given co-amoxiclav, piperacillin/tazobactam or carbapenems. A validation study is required.

Conclusions

Machine-learning algorithms have the potential to help clinicians predict antimicrobial resistance in patients found to have a Gram-negative infection of blood or urine. Prospective studies are required to assess performance in an unselected patient cohort, understand the acceptability of such systems to clinicians and patients, and assess the impact on patient outcome.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443728; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222" - }, { "id": "31564467", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(19)30369-4", @@ -28474,23 +28457,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/77236664/Chandan_et_al_The_burden_of_mental_ill_health_associated_with_childhood_maltreatment_in_the_UK_using_The_Health_Improvement_Network_database_The_Lancet_Psychiatry_2019.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30369-4" }, - { - "id": "36401199", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6", - "title": "Patient characteristics associated with retrospectively self-reported treatment outcomes following psychological therapy for anxiety or depressive disorders - a cohort of GLAD study participants.", - "authorString": "Rayner C, Coleman JRI, Skelton M, Armour C, Bradley J, Buckman JEJ, Davies MR, Hirsch CR, Hotopf M, H\u00fcbel C, Jones IR, Kalsi G, Kingston N, Krebs G, Lin Y, Monssen D, McIntosh AM, Mundy JR, Peel AJ, Rimes KA, Rogers HC, Smith DJ, Ter Kuile AR, Thompson KN, Veale D, Wingrove J, Walters JTR, Breen G, Eley TC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Counselling; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Minimal Phenotyping", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Progress towards stratified care for anxiety and depression will require the identification of new predictors. We collected data on retrospectively self-reported therapeutic outcomes in adults who received psychological therapy in the UK in the past ten years. We aimed to replicate factors associated with traditional treatment outcome measures from the literature.

Methods

Participants were from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study, a UK-based volunteer cohort study. We investigated associations between retrospectively self-reported outcomes following therapy, on a five-point scale (global rating of change; GRC) and a range of sociodemographic, clinical and therapy-related factors, using ordinal logistic regression models (n\u2009=\u20092890).

Results

Four factors were associated with therapy outcomes (adjusted odds ratios, OR). One sociodemographic factor, having university-level education, was associated with favourable outcomes (OR\u2009=\u20091.37, 95%CI: 1.18, 1.59). Two clinical factors, greater number of reported episodes of illness (OR\u2009=\u20090.95, 95%CI: 0.92, 0.97) and higher levels of personality disorder symptoms (OR\u2009=\u20090.89, 95%CI: 0.87, 0.91), were associated with less favourable outcomes. Finally, reported regular use of additional therapeutic activities was associated with favourable outcomes (OR\u2009=\u20091.39, 95%CI: 1.19, 1.63). There were no statistically significant differences between fully adjusted multivariable and unadjusted univariable odds ratios.

Conclusion

Therapy outcome data can be collected quickly and inexpensively using retrospectively self-reported measures in large observational cohorts. Retrospectively self-reported therapy outcomes were associated with four factors previously reported in the literature. Similar data collected in larger observational cohorts may enable detection of novel associations with therapy outcomes, to generate new hypotheses, which can be followed up in prospective studies.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33678251", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.08.026", @@ -28508,23 +28474,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.08.026" }, - { - "id": "34192199", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049", - "title": "Staff-pupil SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways in schools in Wales: a population-level linked data approach.", - "authorString": "Thompson DA, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Marchant E, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Hollinghurst J, North L, Lyons J, Torabi F, Davies G, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ paediatrics open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Disease transmission; Schools; Public Health; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Better understanding of the role that children and school staff play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to guide policy development on controlling infection while minimising disruption to children's education and well-being.

Methods

Our national e-cohort (n=464531) study used anonymised linked data for pupils, staff and associated households linked via educational settings in Wales. We estimated the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for staff and pupils over the period August- December 2020, dependent on measures of recent exposure to known cases linked to their educational settings.

Results

The total number of cases in a school was not associated with a subsequent increase in the odds of testing positive (staff OR per case: 0.92, 95%\u2009CI 0.85 to 1.00; pupil OR per case: 0.98, 95%\u2009CI 0.93 to 1.02). Among pupils, the number of recent cases within the same year group was significantly associated with subsequent increased odds of testing positive (OR per case: 1.12, 95%\u2009CI 1.08 to 1.15). These effects were adjusted for a range of demographic covariates, and in particular any known cases within the same household, which had the strongest association with testing positive (staff OR: 39.86, 95%\u2009CI 35.01 to 45.38; pupil OR: 9.39, 95%\u2009CI 8.94 to 9.88).

Conclusions

In a national school cohort, the odds of staff testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection were not significantly increased in the 14-day period after case detection in the school. However, pupils were found to be at increased odds, following cases appearing within their own year group, where most of their contacts occur. Strong mitigation measures over the whole of the study period may have reduced wider spread within the school environment.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/5/1/e001049.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32680743", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2020.06.008", @@ -28543,21 +28492,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2020.06.008; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2020.06.008" }, { - "id": "34708157", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3", - "title": "Estimating the duration of seropositivity of human seasonal coronaviruses using seroprevalence studies.", - "authorString": "Rees EM, Waterlow NR, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Lowe R, Kucharski AJ.", + "id": "32542387", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222", + "title": "Towards personalized guidelines: using machine-learning algorithms to guide antimicrobial selection.", + "authorString": "Moran E, Robinson E, Green C, Keeling M, Collyer B.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-21", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-09-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Electronic decision support systems could reduce the use of inappropriate or ineffective empirical antibiotics. We assessed the accuracy of an open-source machine-learning algorithm trained in predicting antibiotic resistance for three Gram-negative bacterial species isolated from patients' blood and urine within 48\u2009h of hospital admission.

Methods

This retrospective, observational study used routine clinical information collected between January 2010 and October 2016 in Birmingham, UK. Patients from whose blood or urine cultures Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae or Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated were identified. Their demographic, microbiology and prescribing data were used to train an open-source machine-learning algorithm-XGBoost-in predicting resistance to co-amoxiclav and piperacillin/tazobactam. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictors of resistance and create a point-scoring tool. The performance of both methods was compared with that of the original prescribers.

Results

There were 15\u202f695 admissions. The AUC of the receiver operating characteristic curve for the point-scoring tools ranged from 0.61 to 0.67, and performed no better than medical staff in the selection of appropriate antibiotics. The machine-learning system performed statistically but marginally better (AUC 0.70) and could have reduced the use of unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotics by as much as 40% among those given co-amoxiclav, piperacillin/tazobactam or carbapenems. A validation study is required.

Conclusions

Machine-learning algorithms have the potential to help clinicians predict antimicrobial resistance in patients found to have a Gram-negative infection of blood or urine. Prospective studies are required to assess performance in an unselected patient cohort, understand the acceptability of such systems to clinicians and patients, and assess the impact on patient outcome.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443728; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7443728?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkaa222" + }, + { + "id": "33222494", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605", + "title": "Cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.", + "authorString": "Linschoten M, Peters S, van Smeden M, Jewbali LS, Schaap J, Siebelink HM, Smits PC, Tieleman RG, van der Harst P, van Gilst WH, Asselbergs FW, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-11-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Catalytic model; Seroprevalence; Waning Immunity; Seasonal Coronavirus", + "keywords": "Pulmonary embolism; Cohorts; Cardiac Complications; Patient Registry; Covid-19/coronavirus", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: The duration of immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still uncertain, but it is of key clinical and epidemiological importance. Seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoV) have been circulating for longer and, therefore, may offer insights into the long-term dynamics of reinfection for such viruses. Methods: Combining historical seroprevalence data from five studies covering the four circulating HCoVs with an age-structured reverse catalytic model, we estimated the likely duration of seropositivity following seroconversion. Results: We estimated that antibody persistence lasted between 0.9 (95% Credible interval: 0.6 - 1.6) and 3.8 (95% CrI: 2.0 - 7.4) years. Furthermore, we found the force of infection in older children and adults (those over 8.5 [95% CrI: 7.5 - 9.9] years) to be higher compared with young children in the majority of studies. Conclusions: These estimates of endemic HCoV dynamics could provide an indication of the future long-term infection and reinfection patterns of SARS-CoV-2.", + "abstract": "

Aims

To determine the frequency and pattern of cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Methods and results

CAPACITY-COVID is an international patient registry established to determine the role of cardiovascular disease in the COVID-19 pandemic. In this registry, data generated during routine clinical practice are collected in a standardised manner for patients with a (highly suspected) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection requiring hospitalisation. For the current analysis, consecutive patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 registered between 28 March and 3 July 2020 were included. Patients were followed for the occurrence of cardiac complications and pulmonary embolism from admission to discharge. In total, 3011 patients were included, of which 1890 (62.8%) were men. The median age was 67 years (interquartile range 56-76); 937 (31.0%) patients had a history of cardiac disease, with pre-existent coronary artery disease being most common (n=463, 15.4%). During hospitalisation, 595 (19.8%) patients died, including 16 patients (2.7%) with cardiac causes. Cardiac complications were diagnosed in 349 (11.6%) patients, with atrial fibrillation (n=142, 4.7%) being most common. The incidence of other cardiac complications was 1.8% for heart failure (n=55), 0.5% for acute coronary syndrome (n=15), 0.5% for ventricular arrhythmia (n=14), 0.1% for bacterial endocarditis (n=4) and myocarditis (n=3), respectively, and 0.03% for pericarditis (n=1). Pulmonary embolism was diagnosed in 198 (6.6%) patients.

Conclusion

This large study among 3011 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 shows that the incidence of cardiac complications during hospital admission is low, despite a frequent history of cardiovascular disease. Long-term cardiac outcomes and the role of pre-existing cardiovascular disease in COVID-19 outcome warrants further investigation.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjacc/article-pdf/9/8/817/49790126/ehjacc0817.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32285648", @@ -28576,6 +28542,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ehf2.12689; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373946; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7373946?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36401199", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6", + "title": "Patient characteristics associated with retrospectively self-reported treatment outcomes following psychological therapy for anxiety or depressive disorders - a cohort of GLAD study participants.", + "authorString": "Rayner C, Coleman JRI, Skelton M, Armour C, Bradley J, Buckman JEJ, Davies MR, Hirsch CR, Hotopf M, H\u00fcbel C, Jones IR, Kalsi G, Kingston N, Krebs G, Lin Y, Monssen D, McIntosh AM, Mundy JR, Peel AJ, Rimes KA, Rogers HC, Smith DJ, Ter Kuile AR, Thompson KN, Veale D, Wingrove J, Walters JTR, Breen G, Eley TC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Counselling; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Minimal Phenotyping", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Progress towards stratified care for anxiety and depression will require the identification of new predictors. We collected data on retrospectively self-reported therapeutic outcomes in adults who received psychological therapy in the UK in the past ten years. We aimed to replicate factors associated with traditional treatment outcome measures from the literature.

Methods

Participants were from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study, a UK-based volunteer cohort study. We investigated associations between retrospectively self-reported outcomes following therapy, on a five-point scale (global rating of change; GRC) and a range of sociodemographic, clinical and therapy-related factors, using ordinal logistic regression models (n\u2009=\u20092890).

Results

Four factors were associated with therapy outcomes (adjusted odds ratios, OR). One sociodemographic factor, having university-level education, was associated with favourable outcomes (OR\u2009=\u20091.37, 95%CI: 1.18, 1.59). Two clinical factors, greater number of reported episodes of illness (OR\u2009=\u20090.95, 95%CI: 0.92, 0.97) and higher levels of personality disorder symptoms (OR\u2009=\u20090.89, 95%CI: 0.87, 0.91), were associated with less favourable outcomes. Finally, reported regular use of additional therapeutic activities was associated with favourable outcomes (OR\u2009=\u20091.39, 95%CI: 1.19, 1.63). There were no statistically significant differences between fully adjusted multivariable and unadjusted univariable odds ratios.

Conclusion

Therapy outcome data can be collected quickly and inexpensively using retrospectively self-reported measures in large observational cohorts. Retrospectively self-reported therapy outcomes were associated with four factors previously reported in the literature. Similar data collected in larger observational cohorts may enable detection of novel associations with therapy outcomes, to generate new hypotheses, which can be followed up in prospective studies.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04275-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9675224?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31912232", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-019-02170-7", @@ -28594,21 +28577,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10104999/1/Harbers%20et%20al.%202019%20Adh%20do%20Dutch%20dietary%20guidelines%20and%20HF.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-019-02170-7" }, { - "id": "33222494", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605", - "title": "Cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.", - "authorString": "Linschoten M, Peters S, van Smeden M, Jewbali LS, Schaap J, Siebelink HM, Smits PC, Tieleman RG, van der Harst P, van Gilst WH, Asselbergs FW, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.", + "id": "34708157", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3", + "title": "Estimating the duration of seropositivity of human seasonal coronaviruses using seroprevalence studies.", + "authorString": "Rees EM, Waterlow NR, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Lowe R, Kucharski AJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-21", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Pulmonary embolism; Cohorts; Cardiac Complications; Patient Registry; Covid-19/coronavirus", + "keywords": "Catalytic model; Seroprevalence; Waning Immunity; Seasonal Coronavirus", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

To determine the frequency and pattern of cardiac complications in patients hospitalised with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Methods and results

CAPACITY-COVID is an international patient registry established to determine the role of cardiovascular disease in the COVID-19 pandemic. In this registry, data generated during routine clinical practice are collected in a standardised manner for patients with a (highly suspected) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection requiring hospitalisation. For the current analysis, consecutive patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 registered between 28 March and 3 July 2020 were included. Patients were followed for the occurrence of cardiac complications and pulmonary embolism from admission to discharge. In total, 3011 patients were included, of which 1890 (62.8%) were men. The median age was 67 years (interquartile range 56-76); 937 (31.0%) patients had a history of cardiac disease, with pre-existent coronary artery disease being most common (n=463, 15.4%). During hospitalisation, 595 (19.8%) patients died, including 16 patients (2.7%) with cardiac causes. Cardiac complications were diagnosed in 349 (11.6%) patients, with atrial fibrillation (n=142, 4.7%) being most common. The incidence of other cardiac complications was 1.8% for heart failure (n=55), 0.5% for acute coronary syndrome (n=15), 0.5% for ventricular arrhythmia (n=14), 0.1% for bacterial endocarditis (n=4) and myocarditis (n=3), respectively, and 0.03% for pericarditis (n=1). Pulmonary embolism was diagnosed in 198 (6.6%) patients.

Conclusion

This large study among 3011 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 shows that the incidence of cardiac complications during hospital admission is low, despite a frequent history of cardiovascular disease. Long-term cardiac outcomes and the role of pre-existing cardiovascular disease in COVID-19 outcome warrants further investigation.", + "abstract": "Background: The duration of immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still uncertain, but it is of key clinical and epidemiological importance. Seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoV) have been circulating for longer and, therefore, may offer insights into the long-term dynamics of reinfection for such viruses. Methods: Combining historical seroprevalence data from five studies covering the four circulating HCoVs with an age-structured reverse catalytic model, we estimated the likely duration of seropositivity following seroconversion. Results: We estimated that antibody persistence lasted between 0.9 (95% Credible interval: 0.6 - 1.6) and 3.8 (95% CrI: 2.0 - 7.4) years. Furthermore, we found the force of infection in older children and adults (those over 8.5 [95% CrI: 7.5 - 9.9] years) to be higher compared with young children in the majority of studies. Conclusions: These estimates of endemic HCoV dynamics could provide an indication of the future long-term infection and reinfection patterns of SARS-CoV-2.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ehjacc/article-pdf/9/8/817/49790126/ehjacc0817.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2048872620974605; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7734244?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16701.3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8517721?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33437953", @@ -28627,6 +28610,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589537020304028/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100658; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788440; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788440?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34192199", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049", + "title": "Staff-pupil SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways in schools in Wales: a population-level linked data approach.", + "authorString": "Thompson DA, Abbasizanjani H, Fry R, Marchant E, Griffiths L, Akbari A, Hollinghurst J, North L, Lyons J, Torabi F, Davies G, Gravenor MB, Lyons RA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ paediatrics open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Disease transmission; Schools; Public Health; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Better understanding of the role that children and school staff play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to guide policy development on controlling infection while minimising disruption to children's education and well-being.

Methods

Our national e-cohort (n=464531) study used anonymised linked data for pupils, staff and associated households linked via educational settings in Wales. We estimated the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for staff and pupils over the period August- December 2020, dependent on measures of recent exposure to known cases linked to their educational settings.

Results

The total number of cases in a school was not associated with a subsequent increase in the odds of testing positive (staff OR per case: 0.92, 95%\u2009CI 0.85 to 1.00; pupil OR per case: 0.98, 95%\u2009CI 0.93 to 1.02). Among pupils, the number of recent cases within the same year group was significantly associated with subsequent increased odds of testing positive (OR per case: 1.12, 95%\u2009CI 1.08 to 1.15). These effects were adjusted for a range of demographic covariates, and in particular any known cases within the same household, which had the strongest association with testing positive (staff OR: 39.86, 95%\u2009CI 35.01 to 45.38; pupil OR: 9.39, 95%\u2009CI 8.94 to 9.88).

Conclusions

In a national school cohort, the odds of staff testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection were not significantly increased in the 14-day period after case detection in the school. However, pupils were found to be at increased odds, following cases appearing within their own year group, where most of their contacts occur. Strong mitigation measures over the whole of the study period may have reduced wider spread within the school environment.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/5/1/e001049.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001049; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8111870?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34310590", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009098", @@ -28644,6 +28644,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009098&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009098; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8354454; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8354454?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36539756", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6", + "title": "ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA): a multi-centre prospective cohort study protocol.", + "authorString": "Denyer H, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Folarin A, Ramos C, Nemeth P, Bilbow A, Woodward E, Whitwell S, M\u00fcller-Sedgwick U, Larsson H, Dobson RJ, Kuntsi J.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-12-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "ADHD; Cardiovascular disease; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Medication Adherence; Remote Monitoring; Mhealth; Digital Phenotyping; Remote Measurement Technology", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Emerging evidence points at substantial comorbidity between adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cardiometabolic diseases, but our understanding of the comorbidity and how to manage cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD is limited. The ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA) project uses remote measurement technology to obtain real-world data from daily life to assess the extent to which ADHD medication treatment and physical activity, individually and jointly, may influence cardiometabolic risks in adults with ADHD. Our second main aim is to obtain valuable real-world data on adherence to pharmacological treatment and its predictors and correlates during daily life from adults with ADHD.

Methods

ART-CARMA is a multi-site prospective cohort study within the EU-funded collaboration 'TIMESPAN' (Management of chronic cardiometabolic disease and treatment discontinuity in adult ADHD patients) that will recruit 300 adults from adult ADHD waiting lists. The participants will be monitored remotely over a period of 12 months that starts from pre-treatment initiation. Passive monitoring, which involves the participants wearing a wrist-worn device (EmbracePlus) and downloading the RADAR-base Passive App and the Empatica Care App on their smartphone, provides ongoing data collection on a wide range of variables, such as physical activity, sleep, pulse rate (PR) and pulse rate variability (PRV), systolic peaks, electrodermal activity (EDA), oxygen saturation (SpO2), peripheral temperature, smartphone usage including social connectivity, and the environment (e.g. ambient noise, light levels, relative location). By combining data across these variables measured, processes such as physical activity, sleep, autonomic arousal, and indicators of cardiovascular health can be captured. Active remote monitoring involves the participant completing tasks using a smartphone app (such as completing clinical questionnaires or speech tasks), measuring their blood pressure and weight, or using a PC/laptop (cognitive tasks). The ART system is built on the RADAR-base mobile-health platform.

Discussion

The long-term goal is to use these data to improve the management of cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD, and to improve ADHD medication treatment adherence and the personalisation of treatment.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31233103", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btz469", @@ -28678,23 +28695,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/6/e060280.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060280; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9207897; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9207897?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36539756", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6", - "title": "ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA): a multi-centre prospective cohort study protocol.", - "authorString": "Denyer H, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Folarin A, Ramos C, Nemeth P, Bilbow A, Woodward E, Whitwell S, M\u00fcller-Sedgwick U, Larsson H, Dobson RJ, Kuntsi J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "ADHD; Cardiovascular disease; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Medication Adherence; Remote Monitoring; Mhealth; Digital Phenotyping; Remote Measurement Technology", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Emerging evidence points at substantial comorbidity between adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cardiometabolic diseases, but our understanding of the comorbidity and how to manage cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD is limited. The ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA) project uses remote measurement technology to obtain real-world data from daily life to assess the extent to which ADHD medication treatment and physical activity, individually and jointly, may influence cardiometabolic risks in adults with ADHD. Our second main aim is to obtain valuable real-world data on adherence to pharmacological treatment and its predictors and correlates during daily life from adults with ADHD.

Methods

ART-CARMA is a multi-site prospective cohort study within the EU-funded collaboration 'TIMESPAN' (Management of chronic cardiometabolic disease and treatment discontinuity in adult ADHD patients) that will recruit 300 adults from adult ADHD waiting lists. The participants will be monitored remotely over a period of 12 months that starts from pre-treatment initiation. Passive monitoring, which involves the participants wearing a wrist-worn device (EmbracePlus) and downloading the RADAR-base Passive App and the Empatica Care App on their smartphone, provides ongoing data collection on a wide range of variables, such as physical activity, sleep, pulse rate (PR) and pulse rate variability (PRV), systolic peaks, electrodermal activity (EDA), oxygen saturation (SpO2), peripheral temperature, smartphone usage including social connectivity, and the environment (e.g. ambient noise, light levels, relative location). By combining data across these variables measured, processes such as physical activity, sleep, autonomic arousal, and indicators of cardiovascular health can be captured. Active remote monitoring involves the participant completing tasks using a smartphone app (such as completing clinical questionnaires or speech tasks), measuring their blood pressure and weight, or using a PC/laptop (cognitive tasks). The ART system is built on the RADAR-base mobile-health platform.

Discussion

The long-term goal is to use these data to improve the management of cardiometabolic disease in adults with ADHD, and to improve ADHD medication treatment adherence and the personalisation of treatment.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04429-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9764531?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33905882", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102050", @@ -28712,6 +28712,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102050; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850869; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8850869?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36696816", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441", + "title": "Causal effects of maternal circulating amino acids on offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomisation study.", + "authorString": "Zhao J, Stewart ID, Baird D, Mason D, Wright J, Zheng J, Gaunt TR, Evans DM, Freathy RM, Langenberg C, Warrington NM, Lawlor DA, Borges MC, MR-PREG Consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Amino acids; Gwas; Birthweight; Causal Effect; Mendelian Randomisation", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Amino acids are key to protein synthesis, energy metabolism, cell signaling and gene expression; however, the contribution of specific maternal amino acids to fetal growth is unclear.

Methods

We explored the effect of maternal circulating amino acids on fetal growth, proxied by birthweight, using two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) and summary data from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of serum amino acids levels (sample 1, n\u00a0=\u00a086,507) and a maternal GWAS of offspring birthweight in UK Biobank and Early Growth Genetics Consortium, adjusting for fetal genotype effects (sample 2, n\u00a0=\u00a0406,063 with maternal and/or fetal genotype effect estimates). A total of 106 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms robustly associated with 19 amino acids (p\u00a0<\u00a04.9\u00a0\u00d7\u00a010-10) were used as genetic instrumental variables (IV). Wald ratio and inverse variance weighted methods were used in MR main analysis. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed to explore IV assumption violations.

Findings

Our results provide evidence that maternal circulating glutamine (59\u00a0g offspring birthweight increase per standard deviation increase in maternal amino acid level, 95% CI: 7, 110) and serine (27\u00a0g, 95% CI: 9, 46) raise, while leucine (-59\u00a0g, 95% CI:\u00a0-106,\u00a0-11) and phenylalanine (-25\u00a0g, 95% CI:\u00a0-47,\u00a0-4) lower offspring birthweight. These findings are supported by sensitivity analyses.

Interpretation

Our findings strengthen evidence for key roles of maternal circulating amino acids during pregnancy in healthy fetal growth.

Funding

A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found under Acknowledgments.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36719157", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2215/cjn.05080422", @@ -28746,23 +28763,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41397-023-00307-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-023-00307-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506906; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10506906?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36696816", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441", - "title": "Causal effects of maternal circulating amino acids on offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomisation study.", - "authorString": "Zhao J, Stewart ID, Baird D, Mason D, Wright J, Zheng J, Gaunt TR, Evans DM, Freathy RM, Langenberg C, Warrington NM, Lawlor DA, Borges MC, MR-PREG Consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Amino acids; Gwas; Birthweight; Causal Effect; Mendelian Randomisation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Amino acids are key to protein synthesis, energy metabolism, cell signaling and gene expression; however, the contribution of specific maternal amino acids to fetal growth is unclear.

Methods

We explored the effect of maternal circulating amino acids on fetal growth, proxied by birthweight, using two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) and summary data from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of serum amino acids levels (sample 1, n\u00a0=\u00a086,507) and a maternal GWAS of offspring birthweight in UK Biobank and Early Growth Genetics Consortium, adjusting for fetal genotype effects (sample 2, n\u00a0=\u00a0406,063 with maternal and/or fetal genotype effect estimates). A total of 106 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms robustly associated with 19 amino acids (p\u00a0<\u00a04.9\u00a0\u00d7\u00a010-10) were used as genetic instrumental variables (IV). Wald ratio and inverse variance weighted methods were used in MR main analysis. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed to explore IV assumption violations.

Findings

Our results provide evidence that maternal circulating glutamine (59\u00a0g offspring birthweight increase per standard deviation increase in maternal amino acid level, 95% CI: 7, 110) and serine (27\u00a0g, 95% CI: 9, 46) raise, while leucine (-59\u00a0g, 95% CI:\u00a0-106,\u00a0-11) and phenylalanine (-25\u00a0g, 95% CI:\u00a0-47,\u00a0-4) lower offspring birthweight. These findings are supported by sensitivity analyses.

Interpretation

Our findings strengthen evidence for key roles of maternal circulating amino acids during pregnancy in healthy fetal growth.

Funding

A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found under Acknowledgments.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9879767?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34091032", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118235", @@ -28780,6 +28780,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118235; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118235; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611820; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611820?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35505938", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417", + "title": "Multivariate profile and acute-phase correlates of cognitive deficits in a COVID-19 hospitalised cohort.", + "authorString": "Hampshire A, Chatfield DA, MPhil AM, Jolly A, Trender W, Hellyer PJ, Giovane MD, Newcombe VFJ, Outtrim JG, Warne B, Bhatti J, Pointon L, Elmer A, Sithole N, Bradley J, Kingston N, Sawcer SJ, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, and Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Memory; Cognition; Attention; Planning; Cognitive Assessment; Reasoning; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Preliminary evidence has highlighted a possible association between severe COVID-19 and persistent cognitive deficits. Further research is required to confirm this association, determine whether cognitive deficits relate to clinical features from the acute phase or to mental health status at the point of assessment, and quantify rate of recovery.

Methods

46 individuals who received critical care for COVID-19 at Addenbrooke's hospital between 10th March 2020 and 31st July 2020 (16 mechanically ventilated) underwent detailed computerised cognitive assessment alongside scales measuring anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder under supervised conditions at a mean follow up of 6.0 (\u00b1 2.1) months following acute illness. Patient and matched control (N\u00a0=\u00a0460) performances were transformed into standard deviation from expected scores, accounting for age and demographic factors using N\u00a0=\u00a066,008 normative datasets. Global accuracy and response time composites were calculated (G_SScore & G_RT). Linear modelling predicted composite score deficits from acute severity, mental-health status at assessment, and time from hospital admission. The pattern of deficits across tasks was qualitatively compared with normal age-related decline, and early-stage dementia.

Findings

COVID-19 survivors were less accurate (G_SScore=-0.53SDs) and slower (G_RT=+0.89SDs) in their responses than expected compared to their matched controls. Acute illness, but not chronic mental health, significantly predicted cognitive deviation from expected scores (G_SScore (p=\u200b\u200b0.0037) and G_RT (p\u00a0=\u00a00.0366)). The most prominent task associations with COVID-19 were for higher cognition and processing speed, which was qualitatively distinct from the profiles of normal ageing and dementia and similar in magnitude to the effects of ageing between 50 and 70 years of age. A trend towards reduced deficits with time from illness (r\u223c=0.15) did not reach statistical significance.

Interpretation

Cognitive deficits after severe COVID-19 relate most strongly to acute illness severity, persist long into the chronic phase, and recover slowly if at all, with a characteristic profile highlighting higher cognitive functions and processing speed.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility (BRC-1215-20014), the Addenbrooke's Charities Trust and NIHR COVID-19 BioResource RG9402. AH is funded by the UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology Centre and Imperial College London Biomedical Research Centre. ETB and DKM are supported by NIHR Senior Investigator awards.\u00a0JBR is supported by the Wellcome Trust (220258) and Medical Research Council (SUAG/051 G101400). VFJN is funded by an Academy of Medical Sciences/ The Health Foundation Clinician Scientist Fellowship. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S258953702200147X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32413819", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050", @@ -28798,21 +28815,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7204679; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.050" }, { - "id": "35505938", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417", - "title": "Multivariate profile and acute-phase correlates of cognitive deficits in a COVID-19 hospitalised cohort.", - "authorString": "Hampshire A, Chatfield DA, MPhil AM, Jolly A, Trender W, Hellyer PJ, Giovane MD, Newcombe VFJ, Outtrim JG, Warne B, Bhatti J, Pointon L, Elmer A, Sithole N, Bradley J, Kingston N, Sawcer SJ, Bullmore ET, Rowe JB, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, and Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.", + "id": "31780306", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(19)30298-6", + "title": "Pharmacoepidemiology research: delivering evidence about drug safety and effectiveness in mental health.", + "authorString": "Davis KAS, Farooq S, Hayes JF, John A, Lee W, MacCabe JH, McIntosh A, Osborn DPJ, Stewart RJ, Woelbert E.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EClinicalMedicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Memory; Cognition; Attention; Planning; Cognitive Assessment; Reasoning; Covid-19", + "journalTitle": "The lancet. Psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2019-11-25", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Preliminary evidence has highlighted a possible association between severe COVID-19 and persistent cognitive deficits. Further research is required to confirm this association, determine whether cognitive deficits relate to clinical features from the acute phase or to mental health status at the point of assessment, and quantify rate of recovery.

Methods

46 individuals who received critical care for COVID-19 at Addenbrooke's hospital between 10th March 2020 and 31st July 2020 (16 mechanically ventilated) underwent detailed computerised cognitive assessment alongside scales measuring anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder under supervised conditions at a mean follow up of 6.0 (\u00b1 2.1) months following acute illness. Patient and matched control (N\u00a0=\u00a0460) performances were transformed into standard deviation from expected scores, accounting for age and demographic factors using N\u00a0=\u00a066,008 normative datasets. Global accuracy and response time composites were calculated (G_SScore & G_RT). Linear modelling predicted composite score deficits from acute severity, mental-health status at assessment, and time from hospital admission. The pattern of deficits across tasks was qualitatively compared with normal age-related decline, and early-stage dementia.

Findings

COVID-19 survivors were less accurate (G_SScore=-0.53SDs) and slower (G_RT=+0.89SDs) in their responses than expected compared to their matched controls. Acute illness, but not chronic mental health, significantly predicted cognitive deviation from expected scores (G_SScore (p=\u200b\u200b0.0037) and G_RT (p\u00a0=\u00a00.0366)). The most prominent task associations with COVID-19 were for higher cognition and processing speed, which was qualitatively distinct from the profiles of normal ageing and dementia and similar in magnitude to the effects of ageing between 50 and 70 years of age. A trend towards reduced deficits with time from illness (r\u223c=0.15) did not reach statistical significance.

Interpretation

Cognitive deficits after severe COVID-19 relate most strongly to acute illness severity, persist long into the chronic phase, and recover slowly if at all, with a characteristic profile highlighting higher cognitive functions and processing speed.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility (BRC-1215-20014), the Addenbrooke's Charities Trust and NIHR COVID-19 BioResource RG9402. AH is funded by the UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology Centre and Imperial College London Biomedical Research Centre. ETB and DKM are supported by NIHR Senior Investigator awards.\u00a0JBR is supported by the Wellcome Trust (220258) and Medical Research Council (SUAG/051 G101400). VFJN is funded by an Academy of Medical Sciences/ The Health Foundation Clinician Scientist Fellowship. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.", + "abstract": "Research that provides an evidence base for the pharmacotherapy of people with mental disorders is needed. The abundance of digital data has facilitated pharmacoepidemiology and, in particular, observational research on the effectiveness of real-world medication. Advantages of pharmacoepidemiological research are the availability of large patient samples, and coverage of under-researched subpopulations in their naturalistic conditions. Such research is also cheaper and quicker to do than randomised controlled trials, meaning that issues regarding generic medication, stopping medication (deprescribing), and long-term outcomes are more likely to be addressed. Pharmacoepidemiological methods can also be extended to pharmacovigilance and to aid the development of new purposes for existing drugs. Drawbacks of observational pharmacoepidemiological studies come from the non-randomised nature of treatment selection, leading to confounding by indication. Potential methods for managing this drawback include active comparison groups, within-individual designs, and propensity scoring. Many of the more rigorous pharmacoepidemiology studies have been strengthened through multiple analytical approaches triangulated to improve confidence in inferred causal relationships. With developments in data resources and analytical techniques, it is encouraging that guidelines are beginning to include evidence from robust observational pharmacoepidemiological studies alongside randomised controlled trials. Collaboration between guideline writers and researchers involved in pharmacoepidemiology could help researchers to answer the questions that are important to policy makers and ensure that results are integrated into the evidence base. Further development of statistical and data science techniques, alongside public engagement and capacity building (data resources and researcher base), will be necessary to take full advantage of future opportunities.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S258953702200147X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9048584?pdf=render" + "urls": "html:https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/6650/1/Pharamcoepidemiology%20Lancet%20Psych%202019%20submitted%20version.docx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30298-6" }, { "id": "35288697", @@ -28831,23 +28848,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01750-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01750-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9205770?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31780306", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(19)30298-6", - "title": "Pharmacoepidemiology research: delivering evidence about drug safety and effectiveness in mental health.", - "authorString": "Davis KAS, Farooq S, Hayes JF, John A, Lee W, MacCabe JH, McIntosh A, Osborn DPJ, Stewart RJ, Woelbert E.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The lancet. Psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-11-25", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Research that provides an evidence base for the pharmacotherapy of people with mental disorders is needed. The abundance of digital data has facilitated pharmacoepidemiology and, in particular, observational research on the effectiveness of real-world medication. Advantages of pharmacoepidemiological research are the availability of large patient samples, and coverage of under-researched subpopulations in their naturalistic conditions. Such research is also cheaper and quicker to do than randomised controlled trials, meaning that issues regarding generic medication, stopping medication (deprescribing), and long-term outcomes are more likely to be addressed. Pharmacoepidemiological methods can also be extended to pharmacovigilance and to aid the development of new purposes for existing drugs. Drawbacks of observational pharmacoepidemiological studies come from the non-randomised nature of treatment selection, leading to confounding by indication. Potential methods for managing this drawback include active comparison groups, within-individual designs, and propensity scoring. Many of the more rigorous pharmacoepidemiology studies have been strengthened through multiple analytical approaches triangulated to improve confidence in inferred causal relationships. With developments in data resources and analytical techniques, it is encouraging that guidelines are beginning to include evidence from robust observational pharmacoepidemiological studies alongside randomised controlled trials. Collaboration between guideline writers and researchers involved in pharmacoepidemiology could help researchers to answer the questions that are important to policy makers and ensure that results are integrated into the evidence base. Further development of statistical and data science techniques, alongside public engagement and capacity building (data resources and researcher base), will be necessary to take full advantage of future opportunities.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/6650/1/Pharamcoepidemiology%20Lancet%20Psych%202019%20submitted%20version.docx; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30298-6" - }, { "id": "33782396", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22213-0", @@ -28880,24 +28880,7 @@ "healthCategories": "", "abstract": "

Objectives

To identify the potential opportunities and risks around future UK regulatory reform of medical devices.

Design

A mixed\u00a0methods approach, comprising a rapid literature review, one-to-one, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, a multidisciplinary stakeholder workshop, and a post-workshop survey.

Setting

United Kingdom.

Participants

32 key stakeholders across the medical device sector were identified both from the public and private sectors.

Results

Opportunities relating to regulatory independence were identified, including the potential to create and implement a regulatory framework that ensures availability of medical devices; innovation and investment potential; and safety to the citizens of the UK. The most significant risks identified included threats to the safety of individual patients and the wider health system arising from the delay in awaiting regulatory approval due to the shortage of approved bodies; and reduced competitiveness of UK market and device manufacturers. Recommendations were identified to mitigate risks, centred on harnessing broader cross-sector collaborations, promoting patient and public partnership, and maximizing international engagement.

Conclusions

The UK's medical device sector is at a time-critical juncture to construct a regulatory framework to navigate its exit of Europe and respond to Europe's transition to new medical device regulations whilst also addressing the ongoing demand for rapid approval for new devices in response to the global pandemic. Investment, capacity-building, and international engagement will play a central role in mitigating risks and maximizing opportunities for medical device regulation.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33939619", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/29072", - "title": "Predicting Risk of Hospital Admission in Patients With Suspected COVID-19 in a Community Setting: Protocol for Development and Validation of a Multivariate Risk Prediction Tool.", - "authorString": "Espinosa-Gonzalez AB, Neves AL, Fiorentino F, Prociuk D, Husain L, Ramtale SC, Mi E, Mi E, Macartney J, Anand SN, Sherlock J, Saravanakumar K, Mayer E, de Lusignan S, Greenhalgh T, Delaney BC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JMIR research protocols", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-25", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Primary Care; Hospital Admission; Electronic Health Records; Early Warning Score; Risk Prediction Tool; Covid-19 Severity", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

During the pandemic, remote consultations have become the norm for assessing patients with signs and symptoms of COVID-19 to decrease the risk of transmission. This has intensified the clinical uncertainty already experienced by primary care clinicians when assessing patients with suspected COVID-19 and has prompted the use of risk prediction scores, such as the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), to assess severity and guide treatment. However, the risk prediction tools available have not been validated in a community setting and are not designed to capture the idiosyncrasies of COVID-19 infection.

Objective

The objective of this study is to produce a multivariate risk prediction tool, RECAP-V1 (Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care), to support primary care clinicians in the identification of those patients with COVID-19 that are at higher risk of deterioration and facilitate the early escalation of their treatment with the aim of improving patient outcomes.

Methods

The study follows a prospective cohort observational design, whereby patients presenting in primary care with signs and symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 will be followed and their data linked to hospital outcomes (hospital admission and death). Data collection will be carried out by primary care clinicians in four arms: North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (NWL CCGs), Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC), Covid Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS), and South East London CCGs (Doctaly platform). The study involves the use of an electronic template that incorporates a list of items (known as RECAP-V0) thought to be associated with disease outcome according to previous qualitative work. Data collected will be linked to patient outcomes in highly secure environments. We will then use multivariate logistic regression analyses for model development and validation.

Results

Recruitment of participants started in October 2020. Initially, only the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC arms were active. As of March 24, 2021, we have recruited a combined sample of 3827 participants in these two arms. CCAS and Doctaly joined the study in February 2021, with CCAS starting the recruitment process on March 15, 2021. The first part of the analysis (RECAP-V1 model development) is planned to start in April 2021 using the first half of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC combined data set. Posteriorly, the model will be validated with the rest of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC data as well as the CCAS and Doctaly data sets. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee on May 27, 2020 (Integrated Research Application System number: 283024, Research Ethics Committee reference number: 20/NW/0266) and badged as National Institute of Health Research Urgent Public Health Study on October 14, 2020.

Conclusions

We believe the validated RECAP-V1 early warning score will be a valuable tool for the assessment of severity in patients with suspected COVID-19 in the community, either in face-to-face or remote consultations, and will facilitate the timely escalation of treatment with the potential to improve patient outcomes.

Trial registration

ISRCTN registry ISRCTN13953727; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13953727.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

DERR1-10.2196/29072.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i5e29072_app1.pdf&filename=e079f888f9036dd40808005eb7b49b6f.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/29072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8153031" + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-022-00394-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9007047?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35073907", @@ -28917,21 +28900,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-02218-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02218-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8787919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8787919?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33299071", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5", - "title": "Belief of having had unconfirmed Covid-19 infection reduces willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing.", - "authorString": "Bachtiger P, Adamson A, Quint JK, Peters NS.", + "id": "33939619", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/29072", + "title": "Predicting Risk of Hospital Admission in Patients With Suspected COVID-19 in a Community Setting: Protocol for Development and Validation of a Multivariate Risk Prediction Tool.", + "authorString": "Espinosa-Gonzalez AB, Neves AL, Fiorentino F, Prociuk D, Husain L, Ramtale SC, Mi E, Mi E, Macartney J, Anand SN, Sherlock J, Saravanakumar K, Mayer E, de Lusignan S, Greenhalgh T, Delaney BC.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "NPJ digital medicine", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-06", + "journalTitle": "JMIR research protocols", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-25", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Primary Care; Hospital Admission; Electronic Health Records; Early Warning Score; Risk Prediction Tool; Covid-19 Severity", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Contact tracing and lockdown are health policies being used worldwide to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19). The UK National Health Service (NHS) Track and Trace Service has plans for a nationwide app that notifies the need for self-isolation to those in contact with a person testing positive for COVID-19. To be successful, such an app will require high uptake, the determinants and willingness for which are unclear but essential to understand for effective public health benefit. The objective of this study was to measure the determinants of willingness to participate in an NHS app-based contact-tracing programme using a questionnaire within the Care Information Exchange (CIE)-the largest patient-facing electronic health record in the NHS. Among 47,708 registered NHS users of the CIE, 27% completed a questionnaire asking about willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing, understanding of government advice, mental and physical wellbeing and their healthcare utilisation-related or not to COVID-19. Descriptive statistics are reported alongside univariate and multivariable logistic regression models, with positive or negative responses to a question on app-based contact tracing as the dependent variable. 26.1% of all CIE participants were included in the analysis (N\u2009=\u200912,434, 43.0% male, mean age 55.2). 60.3% of respondents were willing to participate in app-based contact tracing. Out of those who responded 'no', 67.2% stated that this was due to privacy concerns. In univariate analysis, worsening mood, fear and anxiety in relation to changes in government rules around lockdown were associated with lower willingness to participate. Multivariable analysis showed that difficulty understanding government rules was associated with a decreased inclination to download the app, with those scoring 1-2 and 3-4 in their understanding of the new government rules being 45% and 27% less inclined to download the contact-tracing app, respectively; when compared to those who rated their understanding as 5-6/10 (OR for 1-2/10\u2009=\u20090.57 [CI 0.48-0.67]; OR for 3-4/10\u2009=\u20090.744 [CI 0.64-0.87]), whereas scores of 7-8 and 9-10 showed a 43% and 31% respective increase. Those reporting an unconfirmed belief of having previously had and recovered from COVID-19 were 27% less likely to be willing to download the app; belief of previous recovery from COVID-19 infection OR 0.727 [0.585-0.908]). In this large UK-wide questionnaire of wellbeing in lockdown, a willingness for app-based contact tracing over an appropriate age range is 60%-close to the estimated 56% population uptake, and substantially less than the smartphone-user uptake considered necessary for an app-based contact tracing to be an effective intervention to help suppress an epidemic. Difficulty comprehending government advice and uncertainty of diagnosis, based on a public health policy of not testing to confirm self-reported COVID-19 infection during lockdown, therefore reduce willingness to adopt a government contact-tracing app to a level below the threshold for effectiveness as a tool to suppress an epidemic.", + "abstract": "

Background

During the pandemic, remote consultations have become the norm for assessing patients with signs and symptoms of COVID-19 to decrease the risk of transmission. This has intensified the clinical uncertainty already experienced by primary care clinicians when assessing patients with suspected COVID-19 and has prompted the use of risk prediction scores, such as the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), to assess severity and guide treatment. However, the risk prediction tools available have not been validated in a community setting and are not designed to capture the idiosyncrasies of COVID-19 infection.

Objective

The objective of this study is to produce a multivariate risk prediction tool, RECAP-V1 (Remote COVID-19 Assessment in Primary Care), to support primary care clinicians in the identification of those patients with COVID-19 that are at higher risk of deterioration and facilitate the early escalation of their treatment with the aim of improving patient outcomes.

Methods

The study follows a prospective cohort observational design, whereby patients presenting in primary care with signs and symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 will be followed and their data linked to hospital outcomes (hospital admission and death). Data collection will be carried out by primary care clinicians in four arms: North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (NWL CCGs), Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC), Covid Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS), and South East London CCGs (Doctaly platform). The study involves the use of an electronic template that incorporates a list of items (known as RECAP-V0) thought to be associated with disease outcome according to previous qualitative work. Data collected will be linked to patient outcomes in highly secure environments. We will then use multivariate logistic regression analyses for model development and validation.

Results

Recruitment of participants started in October 2020. Initially, only the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC arms were active. As of March 24, 2021, we have recruited a combined sample of 3827 participants in these two arms. CCAS and Doctaly joined the study in February 2021, with CCAS starting the recruitment process on March 15, 2021. The first part of the analysis (RECAP-V1 model development) is planned to start in April 2021 using the first half of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC combined data set. Posteriorly, the model will be validated with the rest of the NWL CCGs and RCGP RSC data as well as the CCAS and Doctaly data sets. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee on May 27, 2020 (Integrated Research Application System number: 283024, Research Ethics Committee reference number: 20/NW/0266) and badged as National Institute of Health Research Urgent Public Health Study on October 14, 2020.

Conclusions

We believe the validated RECAP-V1 early warning score will be a valuable tool for the assessment of severity in patients with suspected COVID-19 in the community, either in face-to-face or remote consultations, and will facilitate the timely escalation of treatment with the potential to improve patient outcomes.

Trial registration

ISRCTN registry ISRCTN13953727; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13953727.

International registered report identifier (irrid)

DERR1-10.2196/29072.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-00357-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i5e29072_app1.pdf&filename=e079f888f9036dd40808005eb7b49b6f.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/29072; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8153031" }, { "id": "34139154", @@ -28950,23 +28933,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.005; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8201874" }, - { - "id": "36541441", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182", - "title": "Predicting sex, age, general cognition and mental health with machine learning on brain structural connectomes.", - "authorString": "Yeung HW, Stolicyn A, Buchanan CR, Tucker-Drob EM, Bastin ME, Luz S, McIntosh AM, Whalley HC, Cox SR, Smith K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Human brain mapping", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2022-12-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cognition; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; General Psychopathology; Deep Learning; Structural Connectomes", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "There is an increasing expectation that advanced, computationally expensive machine learning (ML) techniques, when applied to large population-wide neuroimaging datasets, will help to uncover key differences in the human brain in health and disease. We take a comprehensive approach to explore how multiple aspects of brain structural connectivity can predict sex, age, general cognitive function and general psychopathology, testing different ML algorithms from deep learning (DL) model (BrainNetCNN) to classical ML methods. We modelled N\u00a0=\u00a08183 structural connectomes from UK Biobank using six different structural network weightings obtained from diffusion MRI. Streamline count generally provided the highest prediction accuracies in all prediction tasks. DL did not improve on prediction accuracies from simpler linear models. Further, high correlations between gradient attribution coefficients from DL and model coefficients from linear models suggested the models ranked the importance of features in similar ways, which indirectly suggested the similarity in models' strategies for making predictive decision to some extent. This highlights that model complexity is unlikely to improve detection of associations between structural connectomes and complex phenotypes with the current sample size.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33737684", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85877-0", @@ -28985,38 +28951,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85877-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85877-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7973581; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7973581?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34173574", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039", - "title": "Schools and COVID-19: Reopening Pandora's box?", - "authorString": "Ziauddeen N, Woods-Townsend K, Saxena S, Gilbert R, Alwan NA.", + "id": "33299071", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5", + "title": "Belief of having had unconfirmed Covid-19 infection reduces willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing.", + "authorString": "Bachtiger P, Adamson A, Quint JK, Peters NS.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Public health in practice (Oxford, England)", + "journalTitle": "NPJ digital medicine", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-01", + "date": "2020-11-06", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Safety; Covid-19; School Re-Opening", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Schools in countries across the world are reopening as lockdown to slow progression of COVID-19 is eased. The UK government ordered school closures in England from March 20, 2020, later than the rest of Europe. A temporary and limited return for some year groups was trialled from June 2020. Teachers, school governors, the public and doctors have openly challenged the decision. The UK government has struggled to provide enough detailed information to convince the public, teachers and health practitioners, that effective systems for protection, including test, trace and isolate, are in place to prevent and manage outbreaks in schools. Risks of infection on reopening to children, staff and families must be weighed against the harms of closure to children's education and social development. The potential consequences, if the re-opening of schools is managed badly, is subsequent waves of COVID-19 infection leading to more deaths, further school closures and prolonged restrictions, losing any ground gained thus far. This article weighs the evidence for risks and benefits of reopening schools during the pandemic.", + "abstract": "Contact tracing and lockdown are health policies being used worldwide to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19). The UK National Health Service (NHS) Track and Trace Service has plans for a nationwide app that notifies the need for self-isolation to those in contact with a person testing positive for COVID-19. To be successful, such an app will require high uptake, the determinants and willingness for which are unclear but essential to understand for effective public health benefit. The objective of this study was to measure the determinants of willingness to participate in an NHS app-based contact-tracing programme using a questionnaire within the Care Information Exchange (CIE)-the largest patient-facing electronic health record in the NHS. Among 47,708 registered NHS users of the CIE, 27% completed a questionnaire asking about willingness to participate in app-based contact tracing, understanding of government advice, mental and physical wellbeing and their healthcare utilisation-related or not to COVID-19. Descriptive statistics are reported alongside univariate and multivariable logistic regression models, with positive or negative responses to a question on app-based contact tracing as the dependent variable. 26.1% of all CIE participants were included in the analysis (N\u2009=\u200912,434, 43.0% male, mean age 55.2). 60.3% of respondents were willing to participate in app-based contact tracing. Out of those who responded 'no', 67.2% stated that this was due to privacy concerns. In univariate analysis, worsening mood, fear and anxiety in relation to changes in government rules around lockdown were associated with lower willingness to participate. Multivariable analysis showed that difficulty understanding government rules was associated with a decreased inclination to download the app, with those scoring 1-2 and 3-4 in their understanding of the new government rules being 45% and 27% less inclined to download the contact-tracing app, respectively; when compared to those who rated their understanding as 5-6/10 (OR for 1-2/10\u2009=\u20090.57 [CI 0.48-0.67]; OR for 3-4/10\u2009=\u20090.744 [CI 0.64-0.87]), whereas scores of 7-8 and 9-10 showed a 43% and 31% respective increase. Those reporting an unconfirmed belief of having previously had and recovered from COVID-19 were 27% less likely to be willing to download the app; belief of previous recovery from COVID-19 infection OR 0.727 [0.585-0.908]). In this large UK-wide questionnaire of wellbeing in lockdown, a willingness for app-based contact tracing over an appropriate age range is 60%-close to the estimated 56% population uptake, and substantially less than the smartphone-user uptake considered necessary for an app-based contact tracing to be an effective intervention to help suppress an epidemic. Difficulty comprehending government advice and uncertainty of diagnosis, based on a public health policy of not testing to confirm self-reported COVID-19 infection during lockdown, therefore reduce willingness to adopt a government contact-tracing app to a level below the threshold for effectiveness as a tool to suppress an epidemic.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-00357-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-00357-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7648058?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33480434", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267", - "title": "Complex differences in infection rates between ethnic groups in Scotland: a retrospective, national census-linked cohort study of 1.65 million cases.", - "authorString": "Gruer LD, C\u00e9zard GI, Wallace LA, Hutchinson SJ, Douglas AF, Buchanan D, Katikireddi SV, Millard AD, Goldberg DJ, Sheikh A, Bhopal RS.", + "id": "36541441", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182", + "title": "Predicting sex, age, general cognition and mental health with machine learning on brain structural connectomes.", + "authorString": "Yeung HW, Stolicyn A, Buchanan CR, Tucker-Drob EM, Bastin ME, Luz S, McIntosh AM, Whalley HC, Cox SR, Smith K.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of public health (Oxford, England)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-01", + "journalTitle": "Human brain mapping", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2022-12-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Infectious disease; epidemiology; Ethnicity", + "keywords": "Cognition; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; General Psychopathology; Deep Learning; Structural Connectomes", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Ethnicity can influence susceptibility to infection, as COVID-19 has shown. Few countries have systematically investigated ethnic variations in infection.

Methods

We linked the Scotland 2001 Census, including ethnic group, to national databases of hospitalizations/deaths and serological diagnoses of bloodborne viruses for 2001-2013. We calculated age-adjusted rate ratios (RRs) in 12 ethnic groups for all infections combined, 15 infection categories, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses.

Results

We analysed over 1.65 million infection-related hospitalisations/deaths. Compared with White Scottish, RRs for all infections combined were 0.8 or lower for Other White British, Other White and Chinese males and females, and 1.2-1.4 for Pakistani and African males and females. Adjustment for socioeconomic status or birthplace had little effect. RRs for specific infection categories followed similar patterns with striking exceptions. For HIV, RRs were 136 in African females and 14 in males; for HBV, 125 in Chinese females and 59 in males, 55 in African females and 24 in males; and for HCV, 2.3-3.1 in Pakistanis and Africans.

Conclusions

Ethnic differences were found in overall rates and many infection categories, suggesting multiple causative pathways. We recommend census linkage as a powerful method for studying the disproportionate impact of COVID-19.", + "abstract": "There is an increasing expectation that advanced, computationally expensive machine learning (ML) techniques, when applied to large population-wide neuroimaging datasets, will help to uncover key differences in the human brain in health and disease. We take a comprehensive approach to explore how multiple aspects of brain structural connectivity can predict sex, age, general cognitive function and general psychopathology, testing different ML algorithms from deep learning (DL) model (BrainNetCNN) to classical ML methods. We modelled N\u00a0=\u00a08183 structural connectomes from UK Biobank using six different structural network weightings obtained from diffusion MRI. Streamline count generally provided the highest prediction accuracies in all prediction tasks. DL did not improve on prediction accuracies from simpler linear models. Further, high correlations between gradient attribution coefficients from DL and model coefficients from linear models suggested the models ranked the importance of features in similar ways, which indirectly suggested the similarity in models' strategies for making predictive decision to some extent. This highlights that model complexity is unlikely to improve detection of associations between structural connectomes and complex phenotypes with the current sample size.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267/36684631/fdaa267.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26182; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9980898?pdf=render" }, { "id": "30887727", @@ -29036,21 +29002,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ppul.24314; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ppul.24314; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6617805; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6617805?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34547359", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018", - "title": "Mixed evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis: A systematic review.", - "authorString": "Bajwa H, Baghchechi M, Mujahid M, Kang Dufour MS, Langan SM, Abuabara K.", + "id": "33480434", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267", + "title": "Complex differences in infection rates between ethnic groups in Scotland: a retrospective, national census-linked cohort study of 1.65 million cases.", + "authorString": "Gruer LD, C\u00e9zard GI, Wallace LA, Hutchinson SJ, Douglas AF, Buchanan D, Katikireddi SV, Millard AD, Goldberg DJ, Sheikh A, Bhopal RS.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology", + "journalTitle": "Journal of public health (Oxford, England)", "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2021-09-20", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "dermatitis; Socioeconomic status; Eczema; Atopic; Socioeconomic Position", + "date": "2022-03-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Infectious disease; epidemiology; Ethnicity", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Lower socioeconomic position usually portends worse health outcomes, but multiple studies have found that atopic dermatitis is associated with higher socioeconomic position. The nature of this relationship remains unclear.

Objective

To systematically review the literature on socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis and determine whether the association varies by patient or study characteristics.

Methods

A literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Embase databases. Individual-level studies addressing the association between all measures of socioeconomic position and the prevalence or incidence of atopic dermatitis were eligible for inclusion. Two independent reviewers screened all texts and extracted all data for qualitative synthesis.

Results

Eighty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the 88 studies, 42% (37) found a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position, 15% (13) found a negative association, and 43% (38) found a null or inconsistent association. Studies conducted in Europe, among children, and based on self-report of eczema were more likely to find a positive association with socioeconomic position.

Limitations

Studies varied both in terms of the measurement of socioeconomic position and the definition of atopic dermatitis, limiting quantitative synthesis.

Conclusion

The evidence of a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position is not consistent.", + "abstract": "

Background

Ethnicity can influence susceptibility to infection, as COVID-19 has shown. Few countries have systematically investigated ethnic variations in infection.

Methods

We linked the Scotland 2001 Census, including ethnic group, to national databases of hospitalizations/deaths and serological diagnoses of bloodborne viruses for 2001-2013. We calculated age-adjusted rate ratios (RRs) in 12 ethnic groups for all infections combined, 15 infection categories, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses.

Results

We analysed over 1.65 million infection-related hospitalisations/deaths. Compared with White Scottish, RRs for all infections combined were 0.8 or lower for Other White British, Other White and Chinese males and females, and 1.2-1.4 for Pakistani and African males and females. Adjustment for socioeconomic status or birthplace had little effect. RRs for specific infection categories followed similar patterns with striking exceptions. For HIV, RRs were 136 in African females and 14 in males; for HBV, 125 in Chinese females and 59 in males, 55 in African females and 24 in males; and for HCV, 2.3-3.1 in Pakistanis and Africans.

Conclusions

Ethnic differences were found in overall rates and many infection categories, suggesting multiple causative pathways. We recommend census linkage as a powerful method for studying the disproportionate impact of COVID-19.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8810617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267/36684631/fdaa267.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa267; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7928762?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "34173574", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039", + "title": "Schools and COVID-19: Reopening Pandora's box?", + "authorString": "Ziauddeen N, Woods-Townsend K, Saxena S, Gilbert R, Alwan NA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Public health in practice (Oxford, England)", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-11-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Safety; Covid-19; School Re-Opening", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Schools in countries across the world are reopening as lockdown to slow progression of COVID-19 is eased. The UK government ordered school closures in England from March 20, 2020, later than the rest of Europe. A temporary and limited return for some year groups was trialled from June 2020. Teachers, school governors, the public and doctors have openly challenged the decision. The UK government has struggled to provide enough detailed information to convince the public, teachers and health practitioners, that effective systems for protection, including test, trace and isolate, are in place to prevent and manage outbreaks in schools. Risks of infection on reopening to children, staff and families must be weighed against the harms of closure to children's education and social development. The potential consequences, if the re-opening of schools is managed badly, is subsequent waves of COVID-19 infection leading to more deaths, further school closures and prolonged restrictions, losing any ground gained thus far. This article weighs the evidence for risks and benefits of reopening schools during the pandemic.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100039; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7486860?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36208161", @@ -29069,23 +29052,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/43/37/3578/46535456/ehac426.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac426; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452067; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9452067?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34568585", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671", - "title": "Linking education and hospital data in England: linkage process and quality.", - "authorString": "Libuy N, Harron K, Gilbert R, Caulton R, Cameron E, Blackburn R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-09-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Bias; Data Linkage; Record Linkage; Administrative Data; Hospital Records; Linkage Error; Educational Records", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Linkage of administrative data for universal state education and National Health Service (NHS) hospital care would enable research into the inter-relationships between education and health for all children in England.

Objectives

We aim to describe the linkage process and evaluate the quality of linkage of four one-year birth cohorts within the National Pupil Database (NPD) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Methods

We used multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to link longitudinal records from state schools to the chronology of records in the NHS Personal Demographics Service (PDS; linkage stage 1), and HES (linkage stage 2). We calculated linkage rates and compared pupil characteristics in linked and unlinked samples for each stage of linkage and each cohort (1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00, and 2004/05).

Results

Of the 2,287,671 pupil records, 2,174,601 (95%) linked to HES. Linkage rates improved over time (92% in 1990/91 to 99% in 2004/05). Ethnic minority pupils and those living in more deprived areas were less likely to be matched to hospital records, but differences in pupil characteristics between linked and unlinked samples were moderate to small.

Conclusion

We linked nearly all pupils to at least one hospital record. The high coverage of the linkage represents a unique opportunity for wide-scale analyses across the domains of health and education. However, missed links disproportionately affected ethnic minorities or those living in the poorest neighbourhoods: selection bias could be mitigated by increasing the quality and completeness of identifiers recorded in administrative data or the application of statistical methods that account for missed links.

Highlights

Longitudinal administrative records for all children attending state school and acute hospital services in England have been used for research for more than two decades, but lack of a shared unique identifier has limited scope for linkage between these databases.We applied multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to 4 one-year cohorts of children born 1 September-31 August in 1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00 and 2004/05. In stage 1, full names, date of birth, and postcode histories from education data in the National Pupil Database were linked to the NHS Personal Demographic Service. In stage 2, NHS number, postcode, date of birth and sex were linked to hospital records in Hospital Episode Statistics.Between 92% and 99% of school pupils linked to at least one hospital record. Ethnic minority pupils and pupils who were living in the most deprived areas were least likely to link. Ethnic minority pupils were less likely than white children to link at the first step in both algorithms.Bias due to linkage errors could lead to an underestimate of the health needs in disadvantaged groups. Improved data quality, more sensitive linkage algorithms, and/or statistical methods that account for missed links in analyses, should be considered to reduce linkage bias.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1671/3248; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31163036", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217158", @@ -29103,23 +29069,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217158; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217158; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6548370; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6548370?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35614427", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6", - "title": "The association between childhood hearing loss and self-reported peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm: longitudinal analyses of a prospective, nationally representative cohort study.", - "authorString": "Butcher E, Cortina-Borja M, Dezateux C, Knowles R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC public health", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-25", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Child; Hearing loss; Cohort studies; Mental health; Self-harm; Depressive Symptoms; Peer Victimisation", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Childhood hearing loss (HL) predicts poor mental health and is associated with a higher risk of communication difficulties. The relationship of childhood HL with specific types of poor mental health (such as depressive symptoms or self-harm) and peer victimisation remains unclear.

Methods

We analysed data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a prospective observational cohort study of children living in the UK at age 9\u2009months and born between 2000 to 2002. Data were available on the children and their families at ages 9\u2009months, then at 3, 5, 7, 11, and 14\u2009years. Participants were 10,858 singleton children with self-reported data on peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm at age 14\u2009years. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to estimate odds ratios (OR) for HL with peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm. HL presence was examined in terms of any HL between ages 9\u2009months and 14\u2009years, as well as by HL trajectory type (defined by onset and persistence). Analyses were adjusted for potential sources of confounding, survey design, and attrition at age 14\u2009years. Interactions between sex and HL were examined in each model and multiple imputation procedures used to address missing data.

Results

Children with any HL had increased odds of depressive symptoms (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.09-1.60), self-harm (1.41, 1.12-1.78) and, in girls only, peer victimisation (girls: 1.81, 1.29-2.55; boys: 1.05, 0.73-1.51), compared to those without HL. HL with later age at onset and persistence to age 14\u2009years was the only trajectory associated with all outcomes.

Conclusions

Childhood HL may predict peer victimisation (in girls), depressive symptoms, and self-harm. Further research is needed to identify HL trajectories and methods to facilitate good mental health in children with HL.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36562446", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069048", @@ -29138,21 +29087,55 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-069048.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069048; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9403753" }, { - "id": "31196949", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018", - "title": "Educational and health outcomes of children treated for asthma: Scotland-wide record linkage study of 683\u200a716 children. ", - "authorString": "Fleming M, Fitton CA, Steiner MFC, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Pell JP.", + "id": "34547359", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018", + "title": "Mixed evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis: A systematic review.", + "authorString": "Bajwa H, Baghchechi M, Mujahid M, Kang Dufour MS, Langan SM, Abuabara K.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The European respiratory journal", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-09-05", + "journalTitle": "Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2021-09-20", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "dermatitis; Socioeconomic status; Eczema; Atopic; Socioeconomic Position", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Lower socioeconomic position usually portends worse health outcomes, but multiple studies have found that atopic dermatitis is associated with higher socioeconomic position. The nature of this relationship remains unclear.

Objective

To systematically review the literature on socioeconomic position and atopic dermatitis and determine whether the association varies by patient or study characteristics.

Methods

A literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Embase databases. Individual-level studies addressing the association between all measures of socioeconomic position and the prevalence or incidence of atopic dermatitis were eligible for inclusion. Two independent reviewers screened all texts and extracted all data for qualitative synthesis.

Results

Eighty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the 88 studies, 42% (37) found a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position, 15% (13) found a negative association, and 43% (38) found a null or inconsistent association. Studies conducted in Europe, among children, and based on self-report of eczema were more likely to find a positive association with socioeconomic position.

Limitations

Studies varied both in terms of the measurement of socioeconomic position and the definition of atopic dermatitis, limiting quantitative synthesis.

Conclusion

The evidence of a positive association between atopic dermatitis and socioeconomic position is not consistent.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8810617; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8810617?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.09.018" + }, + { + "id": "34568585", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671", + "title": "Linking education and hospital data in England: linkage process and quality.", + "authorString": "Libuy N, Harron K, Gilbert R, Caulton R, Cameron E, Blackburn R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-09-16", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", + "keywords": "Bias; Data Linkage; Record Linkage; Administrative Data; Hospital Records; Linkage Error; Educational Records", + "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The global prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing. The condition impacts physical and psychosocial morbidity; therefore, wide-ranging effects on health and education outcomes are plausible. Linkage of eight Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions and unemployment, provided data on 683\u200a716 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. We compared schoolchildren on medication for asthma with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity and comorbidity confounders, and explored effect modifiers and mediators. The 45\u200a900 (6.0%) children treated for asthma had an increased risk of hospitalisation, particularly within the first year of treatment (incidence rate ratio 1.98, 95% CI 1.93-2.04), and increased mortality (HR 1.77, 95% CI 1.30-2.40). They were more likely to have special educational need for mental (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.49-2.08) and physical (OR 2.76, 95% CI 2.57-2.95) health reasons, and performed worse in school exams (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06-1.16). Higher absenteeism (incidence rate ratio 1.25, 95% CI 1.24-1.26) partially explained their poorer attainment. Children with treated asthma have poorer education and health outcomes than their peers. Educational interventions that mitigate the adverse effects of absenteeism should be considered.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Linkage of administrative data for universal state education and National Health Service (NHS) hospital care would enable research into the inter-relationships between education and health for all children in England.

Objectives

We aim to describe the linkage process and evaluate the quality of linkage of four one-year birth cohorts within the National Pupil Database (NPD) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Methods

We used multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to link longitudinal records from state schools to the chronology of records in the NHS Personal Demographics Service (PDS; linkage stage 1), and HES (linkage stage 2). We calculated linkage rates and compared pupil characteristics in linked and unlinked samples for each stage of linkage and each cohort (1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00, and 2004/05).

Results

Of the 2,287,671 pupil records, 2,174,601 (95%) linked to HES. Linkage rates improved over time (92% in 1990/91 to 99% in 2004/05). Ethnic minority pupils and those living in more deprived areas were less likely to be matched to hospital records, but differences in pupil characteristics between linked and unlinked samples were moderate to small.

Conclusion

We linked nearly all pupils to at least one hospital record. The high coverage of the linkage represents a unique opportunity for wide-scale analyses across the domains of health and education. However, missed links disproportionately affected ethnic minorities or those living in the poorest neighbourhoods: selection bias could be mitigated by increasing the quality and completeness of identifiers recorded in administrative data or the application of statistical methods that account for missed links.

Highlights

Longitudinal administrative records for all children attending state school and acute hospital services in England have been used for research for more than two decades, but lack of a shared unique identifier has limited scope for linkage between these databases.We applied multi-step deterministic linkage algorithms to 4 one-year cohorts of children born 1 September-31 August in 1990/91, 1996/97, 1999/00 and 2004/05. In stage 1, full names, date of birth, and postcode histories from education data in the National Pupil Database were linked to the NHS Personal Demographic Service. In stage 2, NHS number, postcode, date of birth and sex were linked to hospital records in Hospital Episode Statistics.Between 92% and 99% of school pupils linked to at least one hospital record. Ethnic minority pupils and pupils who were living in the most deprived areas were least likely to link. Ethnic minority pupils were less likely than white children to link at the first step in both algorithms.Bias due to linkage errors could lead to an underestimate of the health needs in disadvantaged groups. Improved data quality, more sensitive linkage algorithms, and/or statistical methods that account for missed links in analyses, should be considered to reduce linkage bias.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/3/1802309.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1671/3248; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8445153?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35614427", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6", + "title": "The association between childhood hearing loss and self-reported peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm: longitudinal analyses of a prospective, nationally representative cohort study.", + "authorString": "Butcher E, Cortina-Borja M, Dezateux C, Knowles R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC public health", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-25", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Child; Hearing loss; Cohort studies; Mental health; Self-harm; Depressive Symptoms; Peer Victimisation", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Childhood hearing loss (HL) predicts poor mental health and is associated with a higher risk of communication difficulties. The relationship of childhood HL with specific types of poor mental health (such as depressive symptoms or self-harm) and peer victimisation remains unclear.

Methods

We analysed data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a prospective observational cohort study of children living in the UK at age 9\u2009months and born between 2000 to 2002. Data were available on the children and their families at ages 9\u2009months, then at 3, 5, 7, 11, and 14\u2009years. Participants were 10,858 singleton children with self-reported data on peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm at age 14\u2009years. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to estimate odds ratios (OR) for HL with peer victimisation, depressive symptoms, and self-harm. HL presence was examined in terms of any HL between ages 9\u2009months and 14\u2009years, as well as by HL trajectory type (defined by onset and persistence). Analyses were adjusted for potential sources of confounding, survey design, and attrition at age 14\u2009years. Interactions between sex and HL were examined in each model and multiple imputation procedures used to address missing data.

Results

Children with any HL had increased odds of depressive symptoms (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.09-1.60), self-harm (1.41, 1.12-1.78) and, in girls only, peer victimisation (girls: 1.81, 1.29-2.55; boys: 1.05, 0.73-1.51), compared to those without HL. HL with later age at onset and persistence to age 14\u2009years was the only trajectory associated with all outcomes.

Conclusions

Childhood HL may predict peer victimisation (in girls), depressive symptoms, and self-harm. Further research is needed to identify HL trajectories and methods to facilitate good mental health in children with HL.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13457-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9131522?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32887683", @@ -29171,6 +29154,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/79/12/1572.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217421; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7677485; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7677485?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34555069", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257361", + "title": "Predicting fracture outcomes from clinical registry data using artificial intelligence supplemented models for evidence-informed treatment (PRAISE) study protocol.", + "authorString": "Dipnall JF, Page R, Du L, Costa M, Lyons RA, Cameron P, de Steiger R, Hau R, Bucknill A, Oppy A, Edwards E, Varma D, Jung MC, Gabbe BJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-09-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Distal radius (wrist) fractures are the second most common fracture admitted to hospital. The anatomical pattern of these types of injuries is diverse, with variation in clinical management, guidelines for management remain inconclusive, and the uptake of findings from clinical trials into routine practice limited. Robust predictive modelling, which considers both the characteristics of the fracture and patient, provides the best opportunity to reduce variation in care and improve patient outcomes. This type of data is housed in unstructured data sources with no particular format or schema. The \"Predicting fracture outcomes from clinical Registry data using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supplemented models for Evidence-informed treatment (PRAISE)\" study aims to use AI methods on unstructured data to describe the fracture characteristics and test if using this information improves identification of key fracture characteristics and prediction of patient-reported outcome measures and clinical outcomes following wrist fractures compared to prediction models based on standard registry data.

Methods and design

Adult (16+ years) patients presenting to the emergency department, treated in a short stay unit, or admitted to hospital for >24h for management of a wrist fracture in four Victorian hospitals will be included in this study. The study will use routine registry data from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (VOTOR), and electronic medical record (EMR) information (e.g. X-rays, surgical reports, radiology reports, images). A multimodal deep learning fracture reasoning system (DLFRS) will be developed that reasons on EMR information. Machine learning prediction models will test the performance with/without output from the DLFRS.

Discussion

The PRAISE study will establish the use of AI techniques to provide enhanced information about fracture characteristics in people with wrist fractures. Prediction models using AI derived characteristics are expected to provide better prediction of clinical and patient-reported outcomes following distal radius fracture.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257361&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257361; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460020; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460020?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31588514", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzz151", @@ -29189,21 +29189,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article-pdf/100/2/332/32901113/pzz151.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzz151" }, { - "id": "34555069", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257361", - "title": "Predicting fracture outcomes from clinical registry data using artificial intelligence supplemented models for evidence-informed treatment (PRAISE) study protocol.", - "authorString": "Dipnall JF, Page R, Du L, Costa M, Lyons RA, Cameron P, de Steiger R, Hau R, Bucknill A, Oppy A, Edwards E, Varma D, Jung MC, Gabbe BJ.", + "id": "31196949", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018", + "title": "Educational and health outcomes of children treated for asthma: Scotland-wide record linkage study of 683\u200a716 children. ", + "authorString": "Fleming M, Fitton CA, Steiner MFC, McLay JS, Clark D, King A, Mackay DF, Pell JP.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-09-23", + "journalTitle": "The European respiratory journal", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-09-05", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The global prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing. The condition impacts physical and psychosocial morbidity; therefore, wide-ranging effects on health and education outcomes are plausible. Linkage of eight Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions and unemployment, provided data on 683\u200a716 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2013. We compared schoolchildren on medication for asthma with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity and comorbidity confounders, and explored effect modifiers and mediators. The 45\u200a900 (6.0%) children treated for asthma had an increased risk of hospitalisation, particularly within the first year of treatment (incidence rate ratio 1.98, 95% CI 1.93-2.04), and increased mortality (HR 1.77, 95% CI 1.30-2.40). They were more likely to have special educational need for mental (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.49-2.08) and physical (OR 2.76, 95% CI 2.57-2.95) health reasons, and performed worse in school exams (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06-1.16). Higher absenteeism (incidence rate ratio 1.25, 95% CI 1.24-1.26) partially explained their poorer attainment. Children with treated asthma have poorer education and health outcomes than their peers. Educational interventions that mitigate the adverse effects of absenteeism should be considered.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/54/3/1802309.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02309-2018; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6727030?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "37418234", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8", + "title": "A Systematic Analysis of the Clinical Outcome Associated with Multiple Reclassified Desmosomal Gene Variants in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy Patients.", + "authorString": "Nagyova E, Hoorntje ET, Te Rijdt WP, Bosman LP, Syrris P, Protonotarios A, Elliott PM, Tsatsopoulou A, Mestroni L, Taylor MRG, Sinagra G, Merlo M, Wada Y, Horie M, Mogensen J, Christensen AH, Gerull B, Song L, Yao Y, Fan S, Saguner AM, Duru F, Koskenvuo JW, Cruz Marino T, Tichnell C, Judge DP, Dooijes D, Lekanne Deprez RH, Basso C, Pilichou K, Bauce B, Wilde AAM, Charron P, Fressart V, van der Heijden JF, van den Berg MP, Asselbergs FW, James CA, Jongbloed JDH, Harakalova M, van Tintelen JP.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of cardiovascular translational research", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-07-07", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Genetics; Arrhythmia; Arvc; Composite Endpoint; Multiple Variants; Desmosomal Genes", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Distal radius (wrist) fractures are the second most common fracture admitted to hospital. The anatomical pattern of these types of injuries is diverse, with variation in clinical management, guidelines for management remain inconclusive, and the uptake of findings from clinical trials into routine practice limited. Robust predictive modelling, which considers both the characteristics of the fracture and patient, provides the best opportunity to reduce variation in care and improve patient outcomes. This type of data is housed in unstructured data sources with no particular format or schema. The \"Predicting fracture outcomes from clinical Registry data using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supplemented models for Evidence-informed treatment (PRAISE)\" study aims to use AI methods on unstructured data to describe the fracture characteristics and test if using this information improves identification of key fracture characteristics and prediction of patient-reported outcome measures and clinical outcomes following wrist fractures compared to prediction models based on standard registry data.

Methods and design

Adult (16+ years) patients presenting to the emergency department, treated in a short stay unit, or admitted to hospital for >24h for management of a wrist fracture in four Victorian hospitals will be included in this study. The study will use routine registry data from the Victorian Orthopaedic Trauma Outcomes Registry (VOTOR), and electronic medical record (EMR) information (e.g. X-rays, surgical reports, radiology reports, images). A multimodal deep learning fracture reasoning system (DLFRS) will be developed that reasons on EMR information. Machine learning prediction models will test the performance with/without output from the DLFRS.

Discussion

The PRAISE study will establish the use of AI techniques to provide enhanced information about fracture characteristics in people with wrist fractures. Prediction models using AI derived characteristics are expected to provide better prediction of clinical and patient-reported outcomes following distal radius fracture.", + "abstract": "The presence of multiple pathogenic variants in desmosomal genes (DSC2, DSG2, DSP, JUP, and PKP2) in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) has been linked to a severe phenotype. However, the pathogenicity of variants is reclassified frequently, which may result in a changed clinical risk prediction. Here, we present the collection, reclassification, and clinical outcome correlation for the largest series of ARVC patients carrying multiple desmosomal pathogenic variants to date (n\u2009=\u2009331). After reclassification, only 29% of patients remained carriers of two (likely) pathogenic variants. They reached the composite endpoint (ventricular arrhythmias, heart failure, and death) significantly earlier than patients with one or no remaining reclassified variant (hazard ratios of 1.9 and 1.8, respectively). Periodic reclassification of variants contributes to more accurate risk stratification and subsequent clinical management strategy. Graphical Abstract.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257361&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257361; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460020; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8460020?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8" }, { "id": "30649175", @@ -29240,21 +29257,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-00748-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00748-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8560804; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8560804?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37418234", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8", - "title": "A Systematic Analysis of the Clinical Outcome Associated with Multiple Reclassified Desmosomal Gene Variants in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy Patients.", - "authorString": "Nagyova E, Hoorntje ET, Te Rijdt WP, Bosman LP, Syrris P, Protonotarios A, Elliott PM, Tsatsopoulou A, Mestroni L, Taylor MRG, Sinagra G, Merlo M, Wada Y, Horie M, Mogensen J, Christensen AH, Gerull B, Song L, Yao Y, Fan S, Saguner AM, Duru F, Koskenvuo JW, Cruz Marino T, Tichnell C, Judge DP, Dooijes D, Lekanne Deprez RH, Basso C, Pilichou K, Bauce B, Wilde AAM, Charron P, Fressart V, van der Heijden JF, van den Berg MP, Asselbergs FW, James CA, Jongbloed JDH, Harakalova M, van Tintelen JP.", + "id": "35301688", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2", + "title": "Electrocardiogram-based mortality prediction in patients with COVID-19 using machine learning.", + "authorString": "van de Leur RR, Bleijendaal H, Taha K, Mast T, Gho JMIH, Linschoten M, van Rees B, Henkens MTHM, Heymans S, Sturkenboom N, Tio RA, Offerhaus JA, Bor WL, Maarse M, Haerkens-Arends HE, Kolk MZH, van der Lingen ACJ, Selder JJ, Wierda EE, van Bergen PFMM, Winter MM, Zwinderman AH, Doevendans PA, van der Harst P, Pinto YM, Asselbergs FW, van Es R, Tjong FVY, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of cardiovascular translational research", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-07-07", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Genetics; Arrhythmia; Arvc; Composite Endpoint; Multiple Variants; Desmosomal Genes", + "journalTitle": "Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-17", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mortality; Electrocardiogram; Arrhythmia; Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The presence of multiple pathogenic variants in desmosomal genes (DSC2, DSG2, DSP, JUP, and PKP2) in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) has been linked to a severe phenotype. However, the pathogenicity of variants is reclassified frequently, which may result in a changed clinical risk prediction. Here, we present the collection, reclassification, and clinical outcome correlation for the largest series of ARVC patients carrying multiple desmosomal pathogenic variants to date (n\u2009=\u2009331). After reclassification, only 29% of patients remained carriers of two (likely) pathogenic variants. They reached the composite endpoint (ventricular arrhythmias, heart failure, and death) significantly earlier than patients with one or no remaining reclassified variant (hazard ratios of 1.9 and 1.8, respectively). Periodic reclassification of variants contributes to more accurate risk stratification and subsequent clinical management strategy. Graphical Abstract.", + "abstract": "

Background and purpose

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is frequently obtained in the work-up of COVID-19 patients. So far, no study has evaluated whether ECG-based machine learning models have added value to predict in-hospital mortality specifically in COVID-19 patients.

Methods

Using data from the CAPACITY-COVID registry, we studied 882 patients admitted with COVID-19 across seven hospitals in the Netherlands. Raw format 12-lead ECGs recorded within 72\u202fh of admission were studied. With data from five hospitals (n\u202f=\u2009634), three models were developed: (a)\u00a0a\u00a0logistic regression baseline model using age and sex, (b)\u00a0a\u00a0least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model using age, sex and human annotated ECG features, and (c)\u00a0a\u00a0pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) using age, sex and the raw ECG waveforms. Data from two hospitals (n\u202f=\u2009248) was used for external validation.

Results

Performances for models\u00a0a, b and\u00a0c were comparable with an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.65-0.79), 0.76 (95% CI 0.68-0.82) and 0.77 (95% CI 0.70-0.83) respectively. Predictors of mortality in the LASSO model were age, low QRS voltage, ST depression, premature atrial complexes, sex, increased ventricular rate, and right bundle branch block.

Conclusion

This study shows that the ECG-based prediction models could be helpful for the initial risk stratification of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and that several ECG abnormalities are associated with in-hospital all-cause mortality of COVID-19 patients. Moreover, this proof-of-principle study shows that the use of pre-trained DNNs for ECG analysis does not underperform compared with time-consuming manual annotation of ECG features.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10403-8" + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37253531", @@ -29290,23 +29307,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/2/e040167.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040167; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7925902?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35301688", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2", - "title": "Electrocardiogram-based mortality prediction in patients with COVID-19 using machine learning.", - "authorString": "van de Leur RR, Bleijendaal H, Taha K, Mast T, Gho JMIH, Linschoten M, van Rees B, Henkens MTHM, Heymans S, Sturkenboom N, Tio RA, Offerhaus JA, Bor WL, Maarse M, Haerkens-Arends HE, Kolk MZH, van der Lingen ACJ, Selder JJ, Wierda EE, van Bergen PFMM, Winter MM, Zwinderman AH, Doevendans PA, van der Harst P, Pinto YM, Asselbergs FW, van Es R, Tjong FVY, CAPACITY-COVID collaborative consortium.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-17", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mortality; Electrocardiogram; Arrhythmia; Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background and purpose

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is frequently obtained in the work-up of COVID-19 patients. So far, no study has evaluated whether ECG-based machine learning models have added value to predict in-hospital mortality specifically in COVID-19 patients.

Methods

Using data from the CAPACITY-COVID registry, we studied 882 patients admitted with COVID-19 across seven hospitals in the Netherlands. Raw format 12-lead ECGs recorded within 72\u202fh of admission were studied. With data from five hospitals (n\u202f=\u2009634), three models were developed: (a)\u00a0a\u00a0logistic regression baseline model using age and sex, (b)\u00a0a\u00a0least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model using age, sex and human annotated ECG features, and (c)\u00a0a\u00a0pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) using age, sex and the raw ECG waveforms. Data from two hospitals (n\u202f=\u2009248) was used for external validation.

Results

Performances for models\u00a0a, b and\u00a0c were comparable with an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.65-0.79), 0.76 (95% CI 0.68-0.82) and 0.77 (95% CI 0.70-0.83) respectively. Predictors of mortality in the LASSO model were age, low QRS voltage, ST depression, premature atrial complexes, sex, increased ventricular rate, and right bundle branch block.

Conclusion

This study shows that the ECG-based prediction models could be helpful for the initial risk stratification of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and that several ECG abnormalities are associated with in-hospital all-cause mortality of COVID-19 patients. Moreover, this proof-of-principle study shows that the use of pre-trained DNNs for ECG analysis does not underperform compared with time-consuming manual annotation of ECG features.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-022-01670-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8929464?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32845538", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2020-0572", @@ -29341,23 +29341,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2666756821002828/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00282-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8676418" }, - { - "id": "35477539", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183", - "title": "Activation of innate-adaptive immune machinery by poly(I:C) exposes a therapeutic vulnerability to prevent relapse in stroma-rich colon cancer.", - "authorString": "Corry SM, McCorry AM, Lannagan TR, Leonard NA, Fisher NC, Byrne RM, Tsantoulis P, Cortes-Lavaud X, Amirkhah R, Redmond KL, McCooey AJ, Malla SB, Rogan E, Sakhnevych S, Gillespie MA, White M, Richman SD, Jackstadt RF, Campbell AD, Maguire S, S:CORT and ACRCelerate consortia, McDade SS, Longley DB, Loughrey MB, Coleman HG, Kerr EM, Tejpar S, Maughan T, Leedham SJ, Small DM, Ryan AE, Sansom OJ, Lawler M, Dunne PD.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Gut", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cancer; Colorectal Cancer; Adjuvant Treatment; Colon Carcinogenesis", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Stroma-rich tumours represent a poor prognostic subtype in stage II/III colon cancer (CC), with high relapse rates and limited response to standard adjuvant chemotherapy.

Design

To address the lack of efficacious therapeutic options for patients with stroma-rich CC, we stratified our human tumour cohorts according to stromal content, enabling identification of the biology underpinning relapse and potential therapeutic vulnerabilities specifically within stroma-rich tumours that could be exploited clinically. Following human tumour-based discovery and independent clinical validation, we use a series of in vitro and stroma-rich in vivo models to test and validate the therapeutic potential of elevating the biology associated with reduced relapse in human tumours.

Results

By performing our analyses specifically within the stroma-rich/high-fibroblast (HiFi) subtype of CC, we identify and validate the clinical value of a HiFi-specific prognostic signature (HPS), which stratifies tumours based on STAT1-related signalling (High-HPS v Low-HPS=HR 0.093, CI 0.019 to 0.466). Using in silico, in vitro and in vivo models, we demonstrate that the HPS is associated with antigen processing and presentation within discrete immune lineages in stroma-rich CC, downstream of double-stranded RNA and viral response signalling. Treatment with the TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) elevated the HPS signalling and antigen processing phenotype across in vitro and in vivo models. In an in vivo model of stroma-rich CC, poly(I:C) treatment significantly increased systemic cytotoxic T cell activity (p<0.05) and reduced liver metastases (p<0.0002).

Conclusion

This study reveals new biological insight that offers a novel therapeutic option to reduce relapse rates in patients with the worst prognosis CC.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/early/2022/04/10/gutjnl-2021-326183.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33829489", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.20140", @@ -29393,21 +29376,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/24492/1/Wright%20Crabb%20et%20al%20Ophthalmology%202020.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2020.03.029" }, { - "id": "34653419", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(21)00205-x", - "title": "Life expectancy and risk of death in 6791 communities in England from 2002 to 2019: high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data.", - "authorString": "Rashid T, Bennett JE, Paciorek CJ, Doyle Y, Pearson-Stuttard J, Flaxman S, Fecht D, Toledano MB, Li G, Daby HI, Johnson E, Davies B, Ezzati M.", + "id": "35477539", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183", + "title": "Activation of innate-adaptive immune machinery by poly(I:C) exposes a therapeutic vulnerability to prevent relapse in stroma-rich colon cancer.", + "authorString": "Corry SM, McCorry AM, Lannagan TR, Leonard NA, Fisher NC, Byrne RM, Tsantoulis P, Cortes-Lavaud X, Amirkhah R, Redmond KL, McCooey AJ, Malla SB, Rogan E, Sakhnevych S, Gillespie MA, White M, Richman SD, Jackstadt RF, Campbell AD, Maguire S, S:CORT and ACRCelerate consortia, McDade SS, Longley DB, Loughrey MB, Coleman HG, Kerr EM, Tejpar S, Maughan T, Leedham SJ, Small DM, Ryan AE, Sansom OJ, Lawler M, Dunne PD.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Public health", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-13", + "journalTitle": "Gut", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-27", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Cancer; Colorectal Cancer; Adjuvant Treatment; Colon Carcinogenesis", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

High-resolution data for how mortality and longevity have changed in England, UK are scarce. We aimed to estimate trends from 2002 to 2019 in life expectancy and probabilities of death at different ages for all 6791 middle-layer super output areas (MSOAs) in England.

Methods

We performed a high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data from the UK Small Area Health Statistics Unit research database using de-identified data for all deaths in England from 2002 to 2019, with information on age, sex, and MSOA of residence, and population counts by age, sex, and MSOA. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to obtain estimates of age-specific death rates by sharing information across age groups, MSOAs, and years. We used life table methods to calculate life expectancy at birth and probabilities of death in different ages by sex and MSOA.

Findings

In 2002-06 and 2006-10, all but a few (0-1%) MSOAs had a life expectancy increase for female and male sexes. In 2010-14, female life expectancy decreased in 351 (5\u00b72%) of 6791 MSOAs. By 2014-19, the number of MSOAs with declining life expectancy was 1270 (18\u00b77%) for women and 784 (11\u00b75%) for men. The life expectancy increase from 2002 to 2019 was smaller in MSOAs where life expectancy had been lower in 2002 (mostly northern urban MSOAs), and larger in MSOAs where life expectancy had been higher in 2002 (mostly MSOAs in and around London). As a result of these trends, the gap between the first and 99th percentiles of MSOA life expectancy for women increased from 10\u00b77 years (95% credible interval 10\u00b74-10\u00b79) in 2002 to reach 14\u00b72 years (13\u00b79-14\u00b75) in 2019, and for men increased from 11\u00b75 years (11\u00b73-11\u00b77) in 2002 to 13\u00b76 years (13\u00b74-13\u00b79) in 2019.

Interpretation

In the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy declined in increasing numbers of communities in England. To ensure that this trend does not continue or worsen, there is a need for pro-equity economic and social policies, and greater investment in public health and health care throughout the entire country.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Imperial College London, Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and National Institutes of Health Research.", + "abstract": "

Objective

Stroma-rich tumours represent a poor prognostic subtype in stage II/III colon cancer (CC), with high relapse rates and limited response to standard adjuvant chemotherapy.

Design

To address the lack of efficacious therapeutic options for patients with stroma-rich CC, we stratified our human tumour cohorts according to stromal content, enabling identification of the biology underpinning relapse and potential therapeutic vulnerabilities specifically within stroma-rich tumours that could be exploited clinically. Following human tumour-based discovery and independent clinical validation, we use a series of in vitro and stroma-rich in vivo models to test and validate the therapeutic potential of elevating the biology associated with reduced relapse in human tumours.

Results

By performing our analyses specifically within the stroma-rich/high-fibroblast (HiFi) subtype of CC, we identify and validate the clinical value of a HiFi-specific prognostic signature (HPS), which stratifies tumours based on STAT1-related signalling (High-HPS v Low-HPS=HR 0.093, CI 0.019 to 0.466). Using in silico, in vitro and in vivo models, we demonstrate that the HPS is associated with antigen processing and presentation within discrete immune lineages in stroma-rich CC, downstream of double-stranded RNA and viral response signalling. Treatment with the TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) elevated the HPS signalling and antigen processing phenotype across in vitro and in vivo models. In an in vivo model of stroma-rich CC, poly(I:C) treatment significantly increased systemic cytotoxic T cell activity (p<0.05) and reduced liver metastases (p<0.0002).

Conclusion

This study reveals new biological insight that offers a novel therapeutic option to reduce relapse rates in patients with the worst prognosis CC.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S246826672100205X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00205-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8554392" + "urls": "pdf:https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/early/2022/04/10/gutjnl-2021-326183.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326183; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9664095?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33407780", @@ -29426,6 +29409,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13063-020-04951-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04951-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788716; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7788716?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34653419", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(21)00205-x", + "title": "Life expectancy and risk of death in 6791 communities in England from 2002 to 2019: high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data.", + "authorString": "Rashid T, Bennett JE, Paciorek CJ, Doyle Y, Pearson-Stuttard J, Flaxman S, Fecht D, Toledano MB, Li G, Daby HI, Johnson E, Davies B, Ezzati M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Public health", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

High-resolution data for how mortality and longevity have changed in England, UK are scarce. We aimed to estimate trends from 2002 to 2019 in life expectancy and probabilities of death at different ages for all 6791 middle-layer super output areas (MSOAs) in England.

Methods

We performed a high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data from the UK Small Area Health Statistics Unit research database using de-identified data for all deaths in England from 2002 to 2019, with information on age, sex, and MSOA of residence, and population counts by age, sex, and MSOA. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to obtain estimates of age-specific death rates by sharing information across age groups, MSOAs, and years. We used life table methods to calculate life expectancy at birth and probabilities of death in different ages by sex and MSOA.

Findings

In 2002-06 and 2006-10, all but a few (0-1%) MSOAs had a life expectancy increase for female and male sexes. In 2010-14, female life expectancy decreased in 351 (5\u00b72%) of 6791 MSOAs. By 2014-19, the number of MSOAs with declining life expectancy was 1270 (18\u00b77%) for women and 784 (11\u00b75%) for men. The life expectancy increase from 2002 to 2019 was smaller in MSOAs where life expectancy had been lower in 2002 (mostly northern urban MSOAs), and larger in MSOAs where life expectancy had been higher in 2002 (mostly MSOAs in and around London). As a result of these trends, the gap between the first and 99th percentiles of MSOA life expectancy for women increased from 10\u00b77 years (95% credible interval 10\u00b74-10\u00b79) in 2002 to reach 14\u00b72 years (13\u00b79-14\u00b75) in 2019, and for men increased from 11\u00b75 years (11\u00b73-11\u00b77) in 2002 to 13\u00b76 years (13\u00b74-13\u00b79) in 2019.

Interpretation

In the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy declined in increasing numbers of communities in England. To ensure that this trend does not continue or worsen, there is a need for pro-equity economic and social policies, and greater investment in public health and health care throughout the entire country.

Funding

Wellcome Trust, Imperial College London, Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and National Institutes of Health Research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S246826672100205X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00205-X; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8554392" + }, { "id": "33602244", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01924-7", @@ -29495,21 +29495,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-022-02257-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02257-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246775; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9246775?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33725121", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250", - "title": "COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: characteristics and outcomes in a multinational network of cohorts across three countries.", - "authorString": "Tan EH, Sena AG, Prats-Uribe A, You SC, Ahmed WU, Kostka K, Reich C, Duvall SL, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Duarte-Salles T, Bertolin SF, Hripcsak G, Natarajan K, Falconer T, Spotnitz M, Ostropolets A, Blacketer C, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Alser O, Lane JCE, Dawoud DM, Shah K, Yang Y, Zhang L, Areia C, Golozar A, Recalde M, Casajust P, Jonnagaddala J, Subbian V, Vizcaya D, Lai LYH, Nyberg F, Morales DR, Posada JD, Shah NH, Gong M, Vivekanantham A, Abend A, Minty EP, Suchard M, Rijnbeek P, Ryan PB, Prieto-Alhambra D.", + "id": "37338017", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/jvh.13863", + "title": "Contribution of alcohol use in HIV/hepatitis C virus co-infection to all-cause and cause-specific mortality: A collaboration of cohort studies.", + "authorString": "Trickey A, Ingle SM, Boyd A, Gill MJ, Grabar S, Jarrin I, Obel N, Touloumi G, Zangerle R, Rauch A, Rentsch CT, Satre DD, Silverberg MJ, Bonnet F, Guest J, Burkholder G, Crane H, Teira R, Berenguer J, Wyen C, Abgrall S, Hessamfar M, Reiss P, d'Arminio Monforte A, McGinnis KA, Sterne JAC, Wittkop L, Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Rheumatology (Oxford, England)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mortality; Hospitalization; Open Science; Autoimmune Condition; Observational Health Data Sciences And Informatics (Ohdsi); Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (Omop); Covid-19", + "journalTitle": "Journal of viral hepatitis", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-20", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Mortality; Alcohol; Hepatitis C virus; HIV; Cohort; Cause-specific", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Patients with autoimmune diseases were advised to shield to avoid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but information on their prognosis is lacking. We characterized 30-day outcomes and mortality after hospitalization with COVID-19 among patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, and compared outcomes after hospital admissions among similar patients with seasonal influenza.

Methods

A multinational network cohort study was conducted using electronic health records data from Columbia University Irving Medical Center [USA, Optum (USA), Department of Veterans Affairs (USA), Information System for Research in Primary Care-Hospitalization Linked Data (Spain) and claims data from IQVIA Open Claims (USA) and Health Insurance and Review Assessment (South Korea). All patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, diagnosed and/or hospitalized between January and June 2020 with COVID-19, and similar patients hospitalized with influenza in 2017-18 were included. Outcomes were death and complications within 30\u2009days of hospitalization.

Results

We studied 133\u2009589 patients diagnosed and 48\u2009418 hospitalized with COVID-19 with prevalent autoimmune diseases. Most patients were female, aged \u226550\u2009years with previous comorbidities. The prevalence of hypertension (45.5-93.2%), chronic kidney disease (14.0-52.7%) and heart disease (29.0-83.8%) was higher in hospitalized vs diagnosed patients with COVID-19. Compared with 70\u2009660 hospitalized with influenza, those admitted with COVID-19 had more respiratory complications including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and higher 30-day mortality (2.2-4.3% vs 6.32-24.6%).

Conclusion

Compared with influenza, COVID-19 is a more severe disease, leading to more complications and higher mortality.", + "abstract": "Among persons with HIV (PWH), higher alcohol use and having hepatitis C virus (HCV) are separately associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We investigated whether the association between alcohol use and mortality among PWH is modified by HCV. Data were combined from European and North American cohorts of adult PWH who started antiretroviral therapy (ART). Self-reported alcohol use data, collected in diverse ways between cohorts, were converted to grams/day. Eligible PWH started ART during 2001-2017 and were followed from ART initiation for mortality. Interactions between the associations of baseline alcohol use (0, 0.1-20.0, >20.0 g/day) and HCV status were assessed using multivariable Cox models. Of 58,769 PWH, 29,711 (51%), 23,974 (41%) and 5084 (9%) self-reported alcohol use of 0\u2009g/day, 0.1-20.0\u2009g/day, and\u2009>\u200920.0\u2009g/day, respectively, and 4799 (8%) had HCV at baseline. There were 844 deaths in 37,729 person-years and 2755 deaths in 443,121 person-years among those with and without HCV, respectively. Among PWH without HCV, adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for mortality were 1.18 (95% CI: 1.08-1.29) for 0.0\u2009g/day and 1.84 (1.62-2.09) for >20.0\u2009g/day compared with 0.1-20.0\u2009g/day. This J-shaped pattern was absent among those with HCV: aHRs were 1.00 (0.86-1.17) for 0.0\u2009g/day and 1.64 (1.33-2.02) for >20.0\u2009g/day compared with 0.1-20.0\u2009g/day (interaction p\u2009<\u2009.001). Among PWH without HCV, mortality was higher in both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers compared with moderate alcohol drinkers. Among those with HCV, mortality was higher in heavy drinkers but not non-drinkers, potentially due to differing reasons for not drinking (e.g. illness) between those with and without HCV.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-pdf/60/SI/SI37/40544680/keab250.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jvh.13863; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jvh.13863" }, { "id": "31848017", @@ -29529,21 +29529,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.12.016" }, { - "id": "37338017", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/jvh.13863", - "title": "Contribution of alcohol use in HIV/hepatitis C virus co-infection to all-cause and cause-specific mortality: A collaboration of cohort studies.", - "authorString": "Trickey A, Ingle SM, Boyd A, Gill MJ, Grabar S, Jarrin I, Obel N, Touloumi G, Zangerle R, Rauch A, Rentsch CT, Satre DD, Silverberg MJ, Bonnet F, Guest J, Burkholder G, Crane H, Teira R, Berenguer J, Wyen C, Abgrall S, Hessamfar M, Reiss P, d'Arminio Monforte A, McGinnis KA, Sterne JAC, Wittkop L, Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration.", + "id": "33725121", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250", + "title": "COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: characteristics and outcomes in a multinational network of cohorts across three countries.", + "authorString": "Tan EH, Sena AG, Prats-Uribe A, You SC, Ahmed WU, Kostka K, Reich C, Duvall SL, Lynch KE, Matheny ME, Duarte-Salles T, Bertolin SF, Hripcsak G, Natarajan K, Falconer T, Spotnitz M, Ostropolets A, Blacketer C, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Alser O, Lane JCE, Dawoud DM, Shah K, Yang Y, Zhang L, Areia C, Golozar A, Recalde M, Casajust P, Jonnagaddala J, Subbian V, Vizcaya D, Lai LYH, Nyberg F, Morales DR, Posada JD, Shah NH, Gong M, Vivekanantham A, Abend A, Minty EP, Suchard M, Rijnbeek P, Ryan PB, Prieto-Alhambra D.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of viral hepatitis", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-20", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Mortality; Alcohol; Hepatitis C virus; HIV; Cohort; Cause-specific", + "journalTitle": "Rheumatology (Oxford, England)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-10-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mortality; Hospitalization; Open Science; Autoimmune Condition; Observational Health Data Sciences And Informatics (Ohdsi); Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (Omop); Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Among persons with HIV (PWH), higher alcohol use and having hepatitis C virus (HCV) are separately associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We investigated whether the association between alcohol use and mortality among PWH is modified by HCV. Data were combined from European and North American cohorts of adult PWH who started antiretroviral therapy (ART). Self-reported alcohol use data, collected in diverse ways between cohorts, were converted to grams/day. Eligible PWH started ART during 2001-2017 and were followed from ART initiation for mortality. Interactions between the associations of baseline alcohol use (0, 0.1-20.0, >20.0 g/day) and HCV status were assessed using multivariable Cox models. Of 58,769 PWH, 29,711 (51%), 23,974 (41%) and 5084 (9%) self-reported alcohol use of 0\u2009g/day, 0.1-20.0\u2009g/day, and\u2009>\u200920.0\u2009g/day, respectively, and 4799 (8%) had HCV at baseline. There were 844 deaths in 37,729 person-years and 2755 deaths in 443,121 person-years among those with and without HCV, respectively. Among PWH without HCV, adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for mortality were 1.18 (95% CI: 1.08-1.29) for 0.0\u2009g/day and 1.84 (1.62-2.09) for >20.0\u2009g/day compared with 0.1-20.0\u2009g/day. This J-shaped pattern was absent among those with HCV: aHRs were 1.00 (0.86-1.17) for 0.0\u2009g/day and 1.64 (1.33-2.02) for >20.0\u2009g/day compared with 0.1-20.0\u2009g/day (interaction p\u2009<\u2009.001). Among PWH without HCV, mortality was higher in both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers compared with moderate alcohol drinkers. Among those with HCV, mortality was higher in heavy drinkers but not non-drinkers, potentially due to differing reasons for not drinking (e.g. illness) between those with and without HCV.", + "abstract": "

Objective

Patients with autoimmune diseases were advised to shield to avoid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but information on their prognosis is lacking. We characterized 30-day outcomes and mortality after hospitalization with COVID-19 among patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, and compared outcomes after hospital admissions among similar patients with seasonal influenza.

Methods

A multinational network cohort study was conducted using electronic health records data from Columbia University Irving Medical Center [USA, Optum (USA), Department of Veterans Affairs (USA), Information System for Research in Primary Care-Hospitalization Linked Data (Spain) and claims data from IQVIA Open Claims (USA) and Health Insurance and Review Assessment (South Korea). All patients with prevalent autoimmune diseases, diagnosed and/or hospitalized between January and June 2020 with COVID-19, and similar patients hospitalized with influenza in 2017-18 were included. Outcomes were death and complications within 30\u2009days of hospitalization.

Results

We studied 133\u2009589 patients diagnosed and 48\u2009418 hospitalized with COVID-19 with prevalent autoimmune diseases. Most patients were female, aged \u226550\u2009years with previous comorbidities. The prevalence of hypertension (45.5-93.2%), chronic kidney disease (14.0-52.7%) and heart disease (29.0-83.8%) was higher in hospitalized vs diagnosed patients with COVID-19. Compared with 70\u2009660 hospitalized with influenza, those admitted with COVID-19 had more respiratory complications including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and higher 30-day mortality (2.2-4.3% vs 6.32-24.6%).

Conclusion

Compared with influenza, COVID-19 is a more severe disease, leading to more complications and higher mortality.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jvh.13863; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jvh.13863" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-pdf/60/SI/SI37/40544680/keab250.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keab250; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7989171?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33742045", @@ -29596,23 +29596,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-pdf/42/4/e541/34469388/fdz188.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdz188; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7685848; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7685848?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36084617", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243", - "title": "Machine learning integration of multimodal data identifies key features of blood pressure regulation.", - "authorString": "Louca P, Tran TQB, Toit CD, Christofidou P, Spector TD, Mangino M, Suhre K, Padmanabhan S, Menni C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-09-06", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Diet; Blood pressure; Genomics; Metabolomics; Machine Learning", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Association studies have identified several biomarkers for blood pressure and hypertension, but a thorough understanding of their mutual dependencies is lacking. By integrating two different high-throughput datasets, biochemical and dietary data, we aim to understand the multifactorial contributors of blood pressure (BP).

Methods

We included 4,863 participants from TwinsUK with concurrent BP, metabolomics, genomics, biochemical measures, and dietary data. We used 5-fold cross-validation with the machine learning XGBoost algorithm to identify features of importance in context of one another in TwinsUK (80% training, 20% test). The features tested in TwinsUK were then probed using the same algorithm in an independent dataset of 2,807 individuals from the Qatari Biobank (QBB).

Findings

Our model explained 39\u00b72% [4\u00b75%, MAE:11\u00b732 mmHg (95%CI, +/- 0\u00b765)] of the variance in systolic BP (SBP) in TwinsUK. Of the top 50 features, the most influential non-demographic variables were dihomo-linolenate, cis-4-decenoyl carnitine, lactate, chloride, urate, and creatinine along with dietary intakes of total, trans and saturated fat. We also highlight the incremental value of each included dimension. Furthermore, we replicated our model in the QBB [SBP variance explained = 45\u00b72% (13\u00b739%)] cohort and 30 of the top 50 features overlapped between cohorts.

Interpretation

We show that an integrated analysis of omics, biochemical and dietary data improves our understanding of their in-between relationships and expands the range of potential biomarkers for blood pressure. Our results point to potentially key biological pathways to be prioritised for mechanistic studies.

Funding

Chronic Disease Research Foundation, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Qatar Foundation.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9463529; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32135128", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3026(20)30031-4", @@ -29647,6 +29630,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.768972/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.768972; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043514; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9043514?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36084617", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243", + "title": "Machine learning integration of multimodal data identifies key features of blood pressure regulation.", + "authorString": "Louca P, Tran TQB, Toit CD, Christofidou P, Spector TD, Mangino M, Suhre K, Padmanabhan S, Menni C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "EBioMedicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-09-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Diet; Blood pressure; Genomics; Metabolomics; Machine Learning", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Association studies have identified several biomarkers for blood pressure and hypertension, but a thorough understanding of their mutual dependencies is lacking. By integrating two different high-throughput datasets, biochemical and dietary data, we aim to understand the multifactorial contributors of blood pressure (BP).

Methods

We included 4,863 participants from TwinsUK with concurrent BP, metabolomics, genomics, biochemical measures, and dietary data. We used 5-fold cross-validation with the machine learning XGBoost algorithm to identify features of importance in context of one another in TwinsUK (80% training, 20% test). The features tested in TwinsUK were then probed using the same algorithm in an independent dataset of 2,807 individuals from the Qatari Biobank (QBB).

Findings

Our model explained 39\u00b72% [4\u00b75%, MAE:11\u00b732 mmHg (95%CI, +/- 0\u00b765)] of the variance in systolic BP (SBP) in TwinsUK. Of the top 50 features, the most influential non-demographic variables were dihomo-linolenate, cis-4-decenoyl carnitine, lactate, chloride, urate, and creatinine along with dietary intakes of total, trans and saturated fat. We also highlight the incremental value of each included dimension. Furthermore, we replicated our model in the QBB [SBP variance explained = 45\u00b72% (13\u00b739%)] cohort and 30 of the top 50 features overlapped between cohorts.

Interpretation

We show that an integrated analysis of omics, biochemical and dietary data improves our understanding of their in-between relationships and expands the range of potential biomarkers for blood pressure. Our results point to potentially key biological pathways to be prioritised for mechanistic studies.

Funding

Chronic Disease Research Foundation, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Qatar Foundation.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9463529; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104243; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9463529?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32073627", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa002", @@ -29664,23 +29664,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/49/4/1380/34275416/dyaa002.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660154; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7660154?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33064085", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/17003", - "title": "Impact of Electronic Health Record Interface Design on Unsafe Prescribing of Ciclosporin, Tacrolimus, and Diltiazem: Cohort Study in English National Health Service Primary Care.", - "authorString": "MacKenna B, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Croker R, Goldacre B.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Diltiazem; Prescribing; Ciclosporin; Primary Care; Tacrolimus; Electronic Health Records; Clinical Software; Branded Prescribing", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

In England, national safety guidance recommends that ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem are prescribed by brand name due to their narrow therapeutic windows and, in the case of tacrolimus, to reduce the chance of organ transplantation rejection. Various small studies have shown that changes to electronic health record (EHR) system interfaces can affect prescribing choices.

Objective

Our objectives were to assess variation by EHR systems in breach of safety guidance around prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and to conduct user-interface research into the causes of such breaches.

Methods

We carried out a retrospective cohort study using prescribing data in English primary care. Participants were English general practices and their respective EHR systems. The main outcome measures were (1) the variation in ratio of safety breaches to adherent prescribing in all practices and (2) the description of observations of EHR system usage.

Results

A total of 2,575,411 prescriptions were issued in 2018 for ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem (over 60 mg); of these, 316,119 prescriptions breached NHS guidance (12.27%). Breaches were most common among users of the EMIS EHR system (breaches in 18.81% of ciclosporin and tacrolimus prescriptions and in 17.99% of diltiazem prescriptions), but breaches were observed in all EHR systems.

Conclusions

Design choices in EHR systems strongly influence safe prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and breaches are prevalent in general practices in England. We recommend that all EHR vendors review their systems to increase safe prescribing of these medicines in line with national guidance. Almost all clinical practice is now mediated through an EHR system; further quantitative research into the effect of EHR system design on clinical practice is long overdue.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/10/e17003/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/17003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7600019" - }, { "id": "36647047", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02722-5", @@ -29698,6 +29681,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02722-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02722-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843951; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9843951?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33064085", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/17003", + "title": "Impact of Electronic Health Record Interface Design on Unsafe Prescribing of Ciclosporin, Tacrolimus, and Diltiazem: Cohort Study in English National Health Service Primary Care.", + "authorString": "MacKenna B, Bacon S, Walker AJ, Curtis HJ, Croker R, Goldacre B.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-10-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Diltiazem; Prescribing; Ciclosporin; Primary Care; Tacrolimus; Electronic Health Records; Clinical Software; Branded Prescribing", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

In England, national safety guidance recommends that ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem are prescribed by brand name due to their narrow therapeutic windows and, in the case of tacrolimus, to reduce the chance of organ transplantation rejection. Various small studies have shown that changes to electronic health record (EHR) system interfaces can affect prescribing choices.

Objective

Our objectives were to assess variation by EHR systems in breach of safety guidance around prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and to conduct user-interface research into the causes of such breaches.

Methods

We carried out a retrospective cohort study using prescribing data in English primary care. Participants were English general practices and their respective EHR systems. The main outcome measures were (1) the variation in ratio of safety breaches to adherent prescribing in all practices and (2) the description of observations of EHR system usage.

Results

A total of 2,575,411 prescriptions were issued in 2018 for ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem (over 60 mg); of these, 316,119 prescriptions breached NHS guidance (12.27%). Breaches were most common among users of the EMIS EHR system (breaches in 18.81% of ciclosporin and tacrolimus prescriptions and in 17.99% of diltiazem prescriptions), but breaches were observed in all EHR systems.

Conclusions

Design choices in EHR systems strongly influence safe prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus, and diltiazem, and breaches are prevalent in general practices in England. We recommend that all EHR vendors review their systems to increase safe prescribing of these medicines in line with national guidance. Almost all clinical practice is now mediated through an EHR system; further quantitative research into the effect of EHR system design on clinical practice is long overdue.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2020/10/e17003/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/17003; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7600019" + }, { "id": "30382236", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-018-0229-6", @@ -29732,23 +29732,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-pdf/35/11/1916/28759353/bty837.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty837; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6546129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6546129?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32835195", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5", - "title": "The effects of physical distancing on population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.", - "authorString": "Drake TM, Docherty AB, Weiser TG, Yule S, Sheikh A, Harrison EM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30134-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33910683", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.04.033", @@ -29766,6 +29749,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.injuryjournal.com/article/S0020138321003429/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2021.04.033" }, + { + "id": "32835195", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5", + "title": "The effects of physical distancing on population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.", + "authorString": "Drake TM, Docherty AB, Weiser TG, Yule S, Sheikh A, Harrison EM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30134-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30134-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7292602?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32247823", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2020.03.032", @@ -29902,6 +29902,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/11/8/814/pdf?version=1629458822; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11080814; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8399452; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8399452?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32479194", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826", + "title": "Lipoprotein(a) in Alzheimer, Atherosclerotic, Cerebrovascular, Thrombotic, and Valvular Disease: Mendelian Randomization Investigation.", + "authorString": "Larsson SC, Gill D, Mason AM, Jiang T, B\u00e4ck M, Butterworth AS, Burgess S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Circulation", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Atherosclerosis; Lipoprotein(a); Alzheimer disease; Stroke; Heart valve diseases; Mendelian Randomization Analysis", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826" + }, { "id": "35255491", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04569-5", @@ -29953,23 +29970,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2020.00080/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2020.00080; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7343846; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7343846?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32479194", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826", - "title": "Lipoprotein(a) in Alzheimer, Atherosclerotic, Cerebrovascular, Thrombotic, and Valvular Disease: Mendelian Randomization Investigation.", - "authorString": "Larsson SC, Gill D, Mason AM, Jiang T, B\u00e4ck M, Butterworth AS, Burgess S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Circulation", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Atherosclerosis; Lipoprotein(a); Alzheimer disease; Stroke; Heart valve diseases; Mendelian Randomization Analysis", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.045826; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7614586?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.120.045826" - }, { "id": "33201485", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-020-01517-8", @@ -29987,6 +29987,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-020-01517-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-020-01517-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062648; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8062648?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32724101", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x", + "title": "Neonatal genetics of gene expression reveal potential origins of autoimmune and allergic disease risk.", + "authorString": "Huang QQ, Tang HHF, Teo SM, Mok D, Ritchie SC, Nath AP, Brozynska M, Salim A, Bakshi A, Holt BJ, Khor CC, Sly PD, Holt PG, Holt KE, Inouye M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Chronic immune-mediated diseases of adulthood often originate in early childhood. To investigate genetic associations between neonatal immunity and disease, we map expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in resting myeloid cells and CD4+ T cells from cord blood samples, as well as in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation, respectively. Cis-eQTLs are largely specific to cell type or stimulation, and 31% and 52% of genes with cis-eQTLs have response eQTLs (reQTLs) in myeloid cells and T cells, respectively. We identified cis regulatory factors acting as mediators of trans effects. There is extensive colocalisation between condition-specific neonatal cis-eQTLs and variants associated with immune-mediated diseases, in particular CTSH had widespread colocalisation across diseases. Mendelian randomisation shows causal neonatal gene expression effects on disease risk for BTN3A2, HLA-C and others. Our study elucidates the genetics of gene expression in neonatal immune cells, and aetiological origins of autoimmune and allergic diseases.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17477-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35606419", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01074-w", @@ -30022,21 +30039,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.00670-20; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00670-20; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7512152; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7512152?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32724101", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x", - "title": "Neonatal genetics of gene expression reveal potential origins of autoimmune and allergic disease risk.", - "authorString": "Huang QQ, Tang HHF, Teo SM, Mok D, Ritchie SC, Nath AP, Brozynska M, Salim A, Bakshi A, Holt BJ, Khor CC, Sly PD, Holt PG, Holt KE, Inouye M.", + "id": "37128097", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0092-z", + "title": "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Dietary metabotype modelling predicts individual responses to dietary interventions.", + "authorString": "Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Chambers ES, Mathers JC, Draper J, Beckmann M, Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Frost G.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "journalTitle": "Nature food", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "date": "2020-06-17", + "isOpenAccess": "N", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Chronic immune-mediated diseases of adulthood often originate in early childhood. To investigate genetic associations between neonatal immunity and disease, we map expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in resting myeloid cells and CD4+ T cells from cord blood samples, as well as in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation, respectively. Cis-eQTLs are largely specific to cell type or stimulation, and 31% and 52% of genes with cis-eQTLs have response eQTLs (reQTLs) in myeloid cells and T cells, respectively. We identified cis regulatory factors acting as mediators of trans effects. There is extensive colocalisation between condition-specific neonatal cis-eQTLs and variants associated with immune-mediated diseases, in particular CTSH had widespread colocalisation across diseases. Mendelian randomisation shows causal neonatal gene expression effects on disease risk for BTN3A2, HLA-C and others. Our study elucidates the genetics of gene expression in neonatal immune cells, and aetiological origins of autoimmune and allergic diseases.", + "abstract": "Habitual consumption of poor quality diets is linked directly to risk factors for many non-communicable diseases. This has resulted in the vast majority of countries and the World Health Organization developing policies for healthy eating to reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the population. However, there is mounting evidence of variability in individual metabolic responses to any dietary intervention. We have developed a method for applying a pipeline for understanding interindividual differences in response to diet, based on coupling data from highly controlled dietary studies with deep metabolic phenotyping. In this feasibility study, we create an individual Dietary Metabotype Score (DMS) that embodies interindividual variability in dietary response and captures consequent dynamic changes in concentrations of urinary metabolites. We find an inverse relationship between the DMS and blood glucose concentration. There is also a relationship between the DMS and urinary metabolic energy loss. Furthermore, we use a metabolic entropy approach to visualize individual and collective responses to dietary interventions. Potentially, the DMS offers a method to target and to enhance dietary response at the individual level, thereby reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases at the population level.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17477-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17477-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7387553?pdf=render" + "urls": "html:http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/80100; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0092-z" }, { "id": "34167318", @@ -30056,21 +30073,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.054302; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.054302; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360674; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8360674?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37128097", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0092-z", - "title": "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Dietary metabotype modelling predicts individual responses to dietary interventions.", - "authorString": "Garcia-Perez I, Posma JM, Chambers ES, Mathers JC, Draper J, Beckmann M, Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Frost G.", + "id": "32548911", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779", + "title": "A registry-based algorithm to predict ejection fraction in patients with heart failure.", + "authorString": "Uijl A, Lund LH, Vaartjes I, Brugts JJ, Linssen GC, Asselbergs FW, Hoes AW, Dahlstr\u00f6m U, Koudstaal S, Savarese G.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature food", + "journalTitle": "ESC heart failure", "pubYear": "2020", "date": "2020-06-17", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Prediction; Ejection fraction; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records; Hfpef; Hfref; Hfmref", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Habitual consumption of poor quality diets is linked directly to risk factors for many non-communicable diseases. This has resulted in the vast majority of countries and the World Health Organization developing policies for healthy eating to reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the population. However, there is mounting evidence of variability in individual metabolic responses to any dietary intervention. We have developed a method for applying a pipeline for understanding interindividual differences in response to diet, based on coupling data from highly controlled dietary studies with deep metabolic phenotyping. In this feasibility study, we create an individual Dietary Metabotype Score (DMS) that embodies interindividual variability in dietary response and captures consequent dynamic changes in concentrations of urinary metabolites. We find an inverse relationship between the DMS and blood glucose concentration. There is also a relationship between the DMS and urinary metabolic energy loss. Furthermore, we use a metabolic entropy approach to visualize individual and collective responses to dietary interventions. Potentially, the DMS offers a method to target and to enhance dietary response at the individual level, thereby reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases at the population level.", + "abstract": "

Aims

Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) is required to categorize heart failure (HF) [i.e. HF with preserved (HFpEF), mid-range (HFmrEF), and reduced (HFrEF) EF] but is often not captured in population-based cohorts or non-HF registries. The aim was to create an algorithm that identifies EF subphenotypes for research purposes.

Methods and results

We included 42 061 HF patients from the Swedish Heart Failure Registry. As primary analysis, we performed two logistic regression models including 22 variables to predict (i) EF\u2265 vs. <50% and (ii) EF\u2265 vs. <40%. In the secondary analysis, we performed a multivariable multinomial analysis with 22 variables to create a model for all three separate EF subphenotypes: HFrEF vs. HFmrEF vs. HFpEF. The models were validated in the database from the CHECK-HF study, a cross-sectional survey of 10 627 patients from the Netherlands. The C-statistic (discrimination) was 0.78 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-0.78] for EF \u226550% and 0.76 (95% CI 0.75-0.76) for EF \u226540%. Similar results were achieved for HFrEF and HFpEF in the multinomial model, but the C-statistic for HFmrEF was lower: 0.63 (95% CI 0.63-0.64). The external validation showed similar discriminative ability to the development cohort.

Conclusions

Routine clinical characteristics could potentially be used to identify different EF subphenotypes in databases where EF is not readily available. Accuracy was good for the prediction of HFpEF and HFrEF but lower for HFmrEF. The proposed algorithm enables more effective research on HF in the big data setting.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/80100; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0092-z" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7524089; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7524089?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35211795", @@ -30089,23 +30106,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-022-05440-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489583; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9489583?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32548911", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779", - "title": "A registry-based algorithm to predict ejection fraction in patients with heart failure.", - "authorString": "Uijl A, Lund LH, Vaartjes I, Brugts JJ, Linssen GC, Asselbergs FW, Hoes AW, Dahlstr\u00f6m U, Koudstaal S, Savarese G.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "ESC heart failure", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-17", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Prediction; Ejection fraction; Heart Failure; Electronic Health Records; Hfpef; Hfref; Hfmref", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims

Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) is required to categorize heart failure (HF) [i.e. HF with preserved (HFpEF), mid-range (HFmrEF), and reduced (HFrEF) EF] but is often not captured in population-based cohorts or non-HF registries. The aim was to create an algorithm that identifies EF subphenotypes for research purposes.

Methods and results

We included 42 061 HF patients from the Swedish Heart Failure Registry. As primary analysis, we performed two logistic regression models including 22 variables to predict (i) EF\u2265 vs. <50% and (ii) EF\u2265 vs. <40%. In the secondary analysis, we performed a multivariable multinomial analysis with 22 variables to create a model for all three separate EF subphenotypes: HFrEF vs. HFmrEF vs. HFpEF. The models were validated in the database from the CHECK-HF study, a cross-sectional survey of 10 627 patients from the Netherlands. The C-statistic (discrimination) was 0.78 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-0.78] for EF \u226550% and 0.76 (95% CI 0.75-0.76) for EF \u226540%. Similar results were achieved for HFrEF and HFpEF in the multinomial model, but the C-statistic for HFmrEF was lower: 0.63 (95% CI 0.63-0.64). The external validation showed similar discriminative ability to the development cohort.

Conclusions

Routine clinical characteristics could potentially be used to identify different EF subphenotypes in databases where EF is not readily available. Accuracy was good for the prediction of HFpEF and HFrEF but lower for HFmrEF. The proposed algorithm enables more effective research on HF in the big data setting.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.12779; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7524089; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7524089?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34346861", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000615", @@ -30123,23 +30123,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000615; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000615; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8549357; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8549357?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32303767", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040", - "title": "Real-World Clinical Outcomes Two Years After Transition to Psychosis in Individuals at Clinical High Risk: Electronic Health Record Cohort Study. ", - "authorString": "Fusar-Poli P, De Micheli A, Patel R, Signorini L, Miah S, Spencer T, McGuire P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia bulletin", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-04-18", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The objective of this study is to describe the 2-year real-world clinical outcomes after transition to psychosis in patients at clinical high-risk. The study used the clinical electronic health record cohort study including all patients receiving a first index primary diagnosis of nonorganic International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 psychotic disorder within the early psychosis pathway in the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service (NHS) Trust from 2001 to 2017. Outcomes encompassed: cumulative probability (at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months) of receiving a first (1) treatment with antipsychotic, (2) informal admission, (3) compulsory admission, and (4) treatment with clozapine and (5) numbers of days spent in hospital (at 12 and 24 months) in patients transitioning to psychosis from clinical high-risk services (Outreach and Support in south London; OASIS) compared to other first-episode groups. Analyses included logistic and 0-inflated negative binomial regressions. In the study, 1561 patients were included; those who had initially been managed by OASIS and had subsequently transitioned to a first episode of psychosis (n = 130) were more likely to receive antipsychotic medication (at 3, 6, and 24 months; all P < .023), to be admitted informally (at all timepoints, all P < .004) and on a compulsory basis (at all timepoints, all P < .013), and to have spent more time in hospital (all timepoints, all P < .007) than first-episode patients who were already psychotic when seen by the OASIS service (n = 310), or presented to early intervention services (n = 1121). The likelihood of receiving clozapine was similar across all groups (at 12/24 months, all P < .101). Transition to psychosis from a clinical high-risk state is associated with severe real-world clinical outcomes. Prevention of transition to psychosis should remain a core target of future research. The study protocol was registered on www.researchregistry.com; researchregistry5039).", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/46/5/1114/33777256/sbaa040.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040" - }, { "id": "34937765", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2021-044309", @@ -30192,21 +30175,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-019-1288-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-1288-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712144; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712144?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32750130", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894", - "title": "Development and validation of a universal blood donor genotyping platform: a multinational prospective study.", - "authorString": "Gleadall NS, Veldhuisen B, Gollub J, Butterworth AS, Ord J, Penkett CJ, Timmer TC, Sauer CM, van der Bolt N, Brown C, Brugger K, Dilthey AT, Duarte D, Grimsley S, van den Hurk K, Jongerius JM, Luken J, Megy K, Miflin G, Nelson CS, Prinsze FJ, Sambrook J, Simeoni I, Sweeting M, Thornton N, Trompeter S, Tuna S, Varma R, Walker MR, NIHR BioResource, Danesh J, Roberts DJ, Ouwehand WH, Stirrups KE, Rendon A, Westhoff CM, Di Angelantonio E, van der Schoot CE, Astle WJ, Watkins NA, Lane WJ.", + "id": "32303767", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040", + "title": "Real-World Clinical Outcomes Two Years After Transition to Psychosis in Individuals at Clinical High Risk: Electronic Health Record Cohort Study. ", + "authorString": "Fusar-Poli P, De Micheli A, Patel R, Signorini L, Miah S, Spencer T, McGuire P.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Blood advances", + "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia bulletin", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-08-01", + "date": "2020-04-18", "isOpenAccess": "N", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Each year, blood transfusions save millions of lives. However, under current blood-matching practices, sensitization to non-self-antigens is an unavoidable adverse side effect of transfusion. We describe a universal donor typing platform that could be adopted by blood services worldwide to facilitate a universal extended blood-matching policy and reduce sensitization rates. This DNA-based test is capable of simultaneously typing most clinically relevant red blood cell (RBC), human platelet (HPA), and human leukocyte (HLA) antigens. Validation was performed, using samples from 7927 European, 27 South Asian, 21 East Asian, and 9 African blood donors enrolled in 2 national biobanks. We illustrated the usefulness of the platform by analyzing antibody data from patients sensitized with multiple RBC alloantibodies. Genotyping results demonstrated concordance of 99.91%, 99.97%, and 99.03% with RBC, HPA, and HLA clinically validated typing results in 89\u2009371, 3016, and 9289 comparisons, respectively. Genotyping increased the total number of antigen typing results available from 110\u2009980 to >1\u2009200\u2009000. Dense donor typing allowed identification of 2 to 6 times more compatible donors to serve 3146 patients with multiple RBC alloantibodies, providing at least 1 match for 176 individuals for whom previously no blood could be found among the same donors. This genotyping technology is already being used to type thousands of donors taking part in national genotyping studies. Extraction of dense antigen-typing data from these cohorts provides blood supply organizations with the opportunity to implement a policy of genomics-based precision matching of blood.", + "abstract": "The objective of this study is to describe the 2-year real-world clinical outcomes after transition to psychosis in patients at clinical high-risk. The study used the clinical electronic health record cohort study including all patients receiving a first index primary diagnosis of nonorganic International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 psychotic disorder within the early psychosis pathway in the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service (NHS) Trust from 2001 to 2017. Outcomes encompassed: cumulative probability (at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months) of receiving a first (1) treatment with antipsychotic, (2) informal admission, (3) compulsory admission, and (4) treatment with clozapine and (5) numbers of days spent in hospital (at 12 and 24 months) in patients transitioning to psychosis from clinical high-risk services (Outreach and Support in south London; OASIS) compared to other first-episode groups. Analyses included logistic and 0-inflated negative binomial regressions. In the study, 1561 patients were included; those who had initially been managed by OASIS and had subsequently transitioned to a first episode of psychosis (n = 130) were more likely to receive antipsychotic medication (at 3, 6, and 24 months; all P < .023), to be admitted informally (at all timepoints, all P < .004) and on a compulsory basis (at all timepoints, all P < .013), and to have spent more time in hospital (all timepoints, all P < .007) than first-episode patients who were already psychotic when seen by the OASIS service (n = 310), or presented to early intervention services (n = 1121). The likelihood of receiving clozapine was similar across all groups (at 12/24 months, all P < .101). Transition to psychosis from a clinical high-risk state is associated with severe real-world clinical outcomes. Prevention of transition to psychosis should remain a core target of future research. The study protocol was registered on www.researchregistry.com; researchregistry5039).", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/4/15/3495/1751450/advancesadv2020001894.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894" + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-pdf/46/5/1114/33777256/sbaa040.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7505186?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa040" + }, + { + "id": "35353173", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407", + "title": "Inflammation and Brain Structure in Schizophrenia and Other Neuropsychiatric Disorders: A Mendelian Randomization Study.", + "authorString": "Williams JA, Burgess S, Suckling J, Lalousis PA, Batool F, Griffiths SL, Palmer E, Karwath A, Barsky A, Gkoutos GV, Wood S, Barnes NM, David AS, Donohoe G, Neill JC, Deakin B, Khandaker GM, Upthegrove R, PIMS Collaboration.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JAMA psychiatry", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Importance

Previous in vitro and postmortem research suggests that inflammation may lead to structural brain changes via activation of microglia and/or astrocytic dysfunction in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Objective

To investigate the relationship between inflammation and changes in brain structures in vivo and to explore a transcriptome-driven functional basis with relevance to mental illness.

Design, setting, and participants

This study used multistage linked analyses, including mendelian randomization (MR), gene expression correlation, and connectivity analyses. A total of 20\u202f688 participants in the UK Biobank, which includes clinical, genomic, and neuroimaging data, and 6 postmortem brains from neurotypical individuals in the Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA), including RNA microarray data. Data were extracted in February 2021 and analyzed between March and October 2021.

Exposures

Genetic variants regulating levels and activity of circulating interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-2, IL-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were used as exposures in MR analyses.

Main outcomes and measures

Brain imaging measures, including gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (CT), were used as outcomes. Associations were considered significant at a multiple testing-corrected threshold of P\u2009<\u20091.1\u2009\u00d7\u200910-4. Differential gene expression in AHBA data was modeled in brain regions mapped to areas significant in MR analyses; genes were tested for biological and disease overrepresentation in annotation databases and for connectivity in protein-protein interaction networks.

Results

Of 20\u202f688 participants in the UK Biobank sample, 10\u202f828 (52.3%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 55.5 (7.5) years. In the UK Biobank sample, genetically predicted levels of IL-6 were associated with GMV in the middle temporal cortex (z score, 5.76; P\u2009=\u20098.39\u2009\u00d7\u200910-9), inferior temporal (z score, 3.38; P\u2009=\u20097.20\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5), fusiform (z score, 4.70; P\u2009=\u20092.60\u2009\u00d7\u200910-7), and frontal (z score, -3.59; P\u2009=\u20093.30\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5) cortex together with CT in the superior frontal region (z score, -5.11; P\u2009=\u20093.22\u2009\u00d7\u200910-7). No significant associations were found for IL-1, IL-2, CRP, or BDNF after correction for multiple comparison. In the AHBA sample, 5 of 6 participants (83%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 42.5 (13.4) years. Brain-wide coexpression analysis showed a highly interconnected network of genes preferentially expressed in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), which further formed a highly connected protein-protein interaction network with IL-6 (enrichment test of expected vs observed network given the prevalence and degree of interactions in the STRING database: 43 nodes/30 edges observed vs 8 edges expected; mean node degree, 1.4; genome-wide significance, P\u2009=\u20094.54\u2009\u00d7\u200910-9). MTG differentially expressed genes that were functionally enriched for biological processes in schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy.

Conclusions and relevance

In this study, genetically determined IL-6 was associated with brain structure and potentially affects areas implicated in developmental neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8968718; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8968718" }, { "id": "34095526", @@ -30225,6 +30225,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.579; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.579; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142967; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8142967?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32750130", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894", + "title": "Development and validation of a universal blood donor genotyping platform: a multinational prospective study.", + "authorString": "Gleadall NS, Veldhuisen B, Gollub J, Butterworth AS, Ord J, Penkett CJ, Timmer TC, Sauer CM, van der Bolt N, Brown C, Brugger K, Dilthey AT, Duarte D, Grimsley S, van den Hurk K, Jongerius JM, Luken J, Megy K, Miflin G, Nelson CS, Prinsze FJ, Sambrook J, Simeoni I, Sweeting M, Thornton N, Trompeter S, Tuna S, Varma R, Walker MR, NIHR BioResource, Danesh J, Roberts DJ, Ouwehand WH, Stirrups KE, Rendon A, Westhoff CM, Di Angelantonio E, van der Schoot CE, Astle WJ, Watkins NA, Lane WJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Blood advances", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-08-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Each year, blood transfusions save millions of lives. However, under current blood-matching practices, sensitization to non-self-antigens is an unavoidable adverse side effect of transfusion. We describe a universal donor typing platform that could be adopted by blood services worldwide to facilitate a universal extended blood-matching policy and reduce sensitization rates. This DNA-based test is capable of simultaneously typing most clinically relevant red blood cell (RBC), human platelet (HPA), and human leukocyte (HLA) antigens. Validation was performed, using samples from 7927 European, 27 South Asian, 21 East Asian, and 9 African blood donors enrolled in 2 national biobanks. We illustrated the usefulness of the platform by analyzing antibody data from patients sensitized with multiple RBC alloantibodies. Genotyping results demonstrated concordance of 99.91%, 99.97%, and 99.03% with RBC, HPA, and HLA clinically validated typing results in 89\u2009371, 3016, and 9289 comparisons, respectively. Genotyping increased the total number of antigen typing results available from 110\u2009980 to >1\u2009200\u2009000. Dense donor typing allowed identification of 2 to 6 times more compatible donors to serve 3146 patients with multiple RBC alloantibodies, providing at least 1 match for 176 individuals for whom previously no blood could be found among the same donors. This genotyping technology is already being used to type thousands of donors taking part in national genotyping studies. Extraction of dense antigen-typing data from these cohorts provides blood supply organizations with the opportunity to implement a policy of genomics-based precision matching of blood.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/4/15/3495/1751450/advancesadv2020001894.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7422129?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001894" + }, { "id": "36204496", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/23992026211048421", @@ -30242,23 +30259,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/23992026211048421; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/23992026211048421; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9413596; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9413596?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35353173", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407", - "title": "Inflammation and Brain Structure in Schizophrenia and Other Neuropsychiatric Disorders: A Mendelian Randomization Study.", - "authorString": "Williams JA, Burgess S, Suckling J, Lalousis PA, Batool F, Griffiths SL, Palmer E, Karwath A, Barsky A, Gkoutos GV, Wood S, Barnes NM, David AS, Donohoe G, Neill JC, Deakin B, Khandaker GM, Upthegrove R, PIMS Collaboration.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JAMA psychiatry", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Importance

Previous in vitro and postmortem research suggests that inflammation may lead to structural brain changes via activation of microglia and/or astrocytic dysfunction in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Objective

To investigate the relationship between inflammation and changes in brain structures in vivo and to explore a transcriptome-driven functional basis with relevance to mental illness.

Design, setting, and participants

This study used multistage linked analyses, including mendelian randomization (MR), gene expression correlation, and connectivity analyses. A total of 20\u202f688 participants in the UK Biobank, which includes clinical, genomic, and neuroimaging data, and 6 postmortem brains from neurotypical individuals in the Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA), including RNA microarray data. Data were extracted in February 2021 and analyzed between March and October 2021.

Exposures

Genetic variants regulating levels and activity of circulating interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-2, IL-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were used as exposures in MR analyses.

Main outcomes and measures

Brain imaging measures, including gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (CT), were used as outcomes. Associations were considered significant at a multiple testing-corrected threshold of P\u2009<\u20091.1\u2009\u00d7\u200910-4. Differential gene expression in AHBA data was modeled in brain regions mapped to areas significant in MR analyses; genes were tested for biological and disease overrepresentation in annotation databases and for connectivity in protein-protein interaction networks.

Results

Of 20\u202f688 participants in the UK Biobank sample, 10\u202f828 (52.3%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 55.5 (7.5) years. In the UK Biobank sample, genetically predicted levels of IL-6 were associated with GMV in the middle temporal cortex (z score, 5.76; P\u2009=\u20098.39\u2009\u00d7\u200910-9), inferior temporal (z score, 3.38; P\u2009=\u20097.20\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5), fusiform (z score, 4.70; P\u2009=\u20092.60\u2009\u00d7\u200910-7), and frontal (z score, -3.59; P\u2009=\u20093.30\u2009\u00d7\u200910-5) cortex together with CT in the superior frontal region (z score, -5.11; P\u2009=\u20093.22\u2009\u00d7\u200910-7). No significant associations were found for IL-1, IL-2, CRP, or BDNF after correction for multiple comparison. In the AHBA sample, 5 of 6 participants (83%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 42.5 (13.4) years. Brain-wide coexpression analysis showed a highly interconnected network of genes preferentially expressed in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), which further formed a highly connected protein-protein interaction network with IL-6 (enrichment test of expected vs observed network given the prevalence and degree of interactions in the STRING database: 43 nodes/30 edges observed vs 8 edges expected; mean node degree, 1.4; genome-wide significance, P\u2009=\u20094.54\u2009\u00d7\u200910-9). MTG differentially expressed genes that were functionally enriched for biological processes in schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy.

Conclusions and relevance

In this study, genetically determined IL-6 was associated with brain structure and potentially affects areas implicated in developmental neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8968718; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0407; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8968718" - }, { "id": "37130615", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2022.0389", @@ -30293,23 +30293,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/11/e056601.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056601; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8573296; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8573296?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34732839", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0", - "title": "Stratification of chemotherapy-treated stage III colorectal cancer patients using multiplexed imaging and single-cell analysis of T-cell populations.", - "authorString": "Stachtea X, Loughrey MB, Salvucci M, Lindner AU, Cho S, McDonough E, Sood A, Graf J, Santamaria-Pang A, Corwin A, Laurent-Puig P, Dasgupta S, Shia J, Owens JR, Abate S, Van Schaeybroeck S, Lawler M, Prehn JHM, Ginty F, Longley DB.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2021-11-03", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Colorectal cancer (CRC) has one of the highest cancer incidences and mortality rates. In stage III, postoperative chemotherapy benefits <20% of patients, while more than 50% will develop distant metastases. Biomarkers for identification of patients at increased risk of disease recurrence following adjuvant chemotherapy are currently lacking. In this study, we assessed immune signatures in the tumor and tumor microenvironment (TME) using an in situ multiplexed immunofluorescence imaging and single-cell analysis technology (Cell DIVETM) and evaluated their\u00a0correlations with patient outcomes. Tissue microarrays (TMAs) with up to three 1\u2009mm diameter cores per patient were prepared from 117 stage III CRC patients treated with adjuvant fluoropyrimidine/oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) chemotherapy. Single sections underwent multiplexed immunofluorescence staining for immune cell markers (CD45, CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3, PD1) and tumor/cell segmentation markers (DAPI, pan-cytokeratin, AE1, NaKATPase, and S6). We used annotations and a probabilistic classification algorithm to build statistical models of immune cell types. Images were also qualitatively assessed independently by a Pathologist as 'high', 'moderate' or 'low', for stromal and total immune cell content. Excellent agreement was found between manual assessment and total automated scores (p\u2009<\u20090.0001). Moreover, compared to single markers, a multi-marker classification of regulatory T cells (Tregs: CD3+/CD4+FOXP3+/PD1-) was significantly associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (p\u2009=\u20090.049 and 0.032) of FOLFOX-treated patients. Our results also showed that PD1- Tregs rather than PD1+ Tregs were associated with improved survival. These findings were supported by results from an independent FOLFOX-treated cohort of 191 stage III CRC patients, where higher PD1- Tregs were associated with an increase overall survival (p\u2009=\u20090.015) for CD3+/CD4+/FOXP3+/PD1-. Overall, compared to single markers, multi-marker classification provided more accurate quantitation of immune cell types with\u00a0stronger correlations with outcomes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41379-021-00953-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31040096", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(19)30114-2", @@ -30344,6 +30327,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.034" }, + { + "id": "34732839", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0", + "title": "Stratification of chemotherapy-treated stage III colorectal cancer patients using multiplexed imaging and single-cell analysis of T-cell populations.", + "authorString": "Stachtea X, Loughrey MB, Salvucci M, Lindner AU, Cho S, McDonough E, Sood A, Graf J, Santamaria-Pang A, Corwin A, Laurent-Puig P, Dasgupta S, Shia J, Owens JR, Abate S, Van Schaeybroeck S, Lawler M, Prehn JHM, Ginty F, Longley DB.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2021-11-03", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Colorectal cancer (CRC) has one of the highest cancer incidences and mortality rates. In stage III, postoperative chemotherapy benefits <20% of patients, while more than 50% will develop distant metastases. Biomarkers for identification of patients at increased risk of disease recurrence following adjuvant chemotherapy are currently lacking. In this study, we assessed immune signatures in the tumor and tumor microenvironment (TME) using an in situ multiplexed immunofluorescence imaging and single-cell analysis technology (Cell DIVETM) and evaluated their\u00a0correlations with patient outcomes. Tissue microarrays (TMAs) with up to three 1\u2009mm diameter cores per patient were prepared from 117 stage III CRC patients treated with adjuvant fluoropyrimidine/oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) chemotherapy. Single sections underwent multiplexed immunofluorescence staining for immune cell markers (CD45, CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3, PD1) and tumor/cell segmentation markers (DAPI, pan-cytokeratin, AE1, NaKATPase, and S6). We used annotations and a probabilistic classification algorithm to build statistical models of immune cell types. Images were also qualitatively assessed independently by a Pathologist as 'high', 'moderate' or 'low', for stromal and total immune cell content. Excellent agreement was found between manual assessment and total automated scores (p\u2009<\u20090.0001). Moreover, compared to single markers, a multi-marker classification of regulatory T cells (Tregs: CD3+/CD4+FOXP3+/PD1-) was significantly associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (p\u2009=\u20090.049 and 0.032) of FOLFOX-treated patients. Our results also showed that PD1- Tregs rather than PD1+ Tregs were associated with improved survival. These findings were supported by results from an independent FOLFOX-treated cohort of 191 stage III CRC patients, where higher PD1- Tregs were associated with an increase overall survival (p\u2009=\u20090.015) for CD3+/CD4+/FOXP3+/PD1-. Overall, compared to single markers, multi-marker classification provided more accurate quantitation of immune cell types with\u00a0stronger correlations with outcomes.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41379-021-00953-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-021-00953-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8964416?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "30949070", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00109", @@ -30361,6 +30361,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00109/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00109; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6436079; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6436079?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34441449", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516", + "title": "Stability of OCT and OCTA in the Intensive Therapy Unit Setting. ", + "authorString": "Courtie EF, Kale AU, Hui BTK, Liu X, Capewell NI, Bishop JRB, Whitehouse T, Veenith T, Logan A, Denniston AK, Blanch RJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-08-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "To assess the stability of retinal structure and blood flow measures over time and in different clinical settings using portable optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) as a potential biomarker of central perfusion in critical illness, 18 oesophagectomy patients completed retinal structure and blood flow measurements by portable OCT and OCTA in the eye clinic and intensive therapy unit (ITU) across three timepoints: (1) pre-operation in a clinic setting; (2) 24-48 h post-operation during ITU admission; and (3) seven days post-operation, if the patient was still admitted. Blood flow and macular structural measures were stable between the examination settings, with no consistent variation between pre- and post-operation scans, while retinal nerve fibre layer thickness increased in the post-operative scans (+2.31 \u00b5m, p = 0.001). Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) measurements were the most stable, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of up to 0.92 for right eye FAZ area. Blood flow and structural measures were lower in left eyes than right eyes. Retinal blood flow assessed in patients before and during an ITU stay using portable OCTA showed no systematic differences between the clinical settings. The stability of retinal blood flow measures suggests the potential for portable OCTA to provide clinically useful measures in ITU patients.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/8/1516/pdf?version=1629792973; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "37188768", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04836-9", @@ -30413,38 +30430,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/4/e057579.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057579; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058801; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9058801?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34441449", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516", - "title": "Stability of OCT and OCTA in the Intensive Therapy Unit Setting. ", - "authorString": "Courtie EF, Kale AU, Hui BTK, Liu X, Capewell NI, Bishop JRB, Whitehouse T, Veenith T, Logan A, Denniston AK, Blanch RJ.", + "id": "36474045", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01233-6", + "title": "Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants and genes for coronary artery disease in over a million participants.", + "authorString": "Aragam KG, Jiang T, Goel A, Kanoni S, Wolford BN, Atri DS, Weeks EM, Wang M, Hindy G, Zhou W, Grace C, Roselli C, Marston NA, Kamanu FK, Surakka I, Venegas LM, Sherliker P, Koyama S, Ishigaki K, \u00c5svold BO, Brown MR, Brumpton B, de Vries PS, Giannakopoulou O, Giardoglou P, Gudbjartsson DF, G\u00fcldener U, Haider SMI, Helgadottir A, Ibrahim M, Kastrati A, Kessler T, Kyriakou T, Konopka T, Li L, Ma L, Meitinger T, Mucha S, Munz M, Murgia F, Nielsen JB, N\u00f6then MM, Pang S, Reinberger T, Schnitzler G, Smedley D, Thorleifsson G, von Scheidt M, Ulirsch JC, Biobank Japan, EPIC-CVD, Arnar DO, Burtt NP, Costanzo MC, Flannick J, Ito K, Jang DK, Kamatani Y, Khera AV, Komuro I, Kullo IJ, Lotta LA, Nelson CP, Roberts R, Thorgeirsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Webb TR, Baras A, Bj\u00f6rkegren JLM, Boerwinkle E, Dedoussis G, Holm H, Hveem K, Melander O, Morrison AC, Orho-Melander M, Rallidis LS, Ruusalepp A, Sabatine MS, Stefansson K, Zalloua P, Ellinor PT, Farrall M, Danesh J, Ruff CT, Finucane HK, Hopewell JC, Clarke R, Gupta RM, Erdmann J, Samani NJ, Schunkert H, Watkins H, Willer CJ, Deloukas P, Kathiresan S, Butterworth AS, CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-08-23", + "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-12-06", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "To assess the stability of retinal structure and blood flow measures over time and in different clinical settings using portable optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) as a potential biomarker of central perfusion in critical illness, 18 oesophagectomy patients completed retinal structure and blood flow measurements by portable OCT and OCTA in the eye clinic and intensive therapy unit (ITU) across three timepoints: (1) pre-operation in a clinic setting; (2) 24-48 h post-operation during ITU admission; and (3) seven days post-operation, if the patient was still admitted. Blood flow and macular structural measures were stable between the examination settings, with no consistent variation between pre- and post-operation scans, while retinal nerve fibre layer thickness increased in the post-operative scans (+2.31 \u00b5m, p = 0.001). Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) measurements were the most stable, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of up to 0.92 for right eye FAZ area. Blood flow and structural measures were lower in left eyes than right eyes. Retinal blood flow assessed in patients before and during an ITU stay using portable OCTA showed no systematic differences between the clinical settings. The stability of retinal blood flow measures suggests the potential for portable OCTA to provide clinically useful measures in ITU patients.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/8/1516/pdf?version=1629792973; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11081516; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8394026?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "37538507", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175", - "title": "PIK3R3 is a candidate regulator of platelet count in people of Bangladeshi ancestry.", - "authorString": "Burley K, Fitzgibbon L, van Heel D, Genes & Health Research Team@EastLondonGenes, Vuckovic D, Mumford AD, Genes & Health Research Team.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-14", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Blood platelets; Cardiovascular diseases; Bangladesh; Genome-wide Association Study; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Blood platelets are mediators of atherothrombotic disease and are regulated by complex sets of genes. Association studies in European ancestry populations have already detected informative platelet regulatory loci. Studies in other ancestries can potentially reveal new associations because of different allele frequencies, linkage structures, and variant effects.

Objectives

To reveal new regulatory genes for platelet count (PLT).

Methods

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed in 20,218 Bangladeshi and 9198 Pakistani individuals from the Genes & Health study. Loci significantly associated with PLT underwent fine-mapping to identify candidate genes.

Results

Of 1588 significantly associated variants (P\u00a0< 5\u00a0\u00d7 10-8) at 20 loci in the Bangladeshi analysis, most replicated findings in prior transancestry GWAS and in the Pakistani analysis. However, the Bangladeshi locus defined by rs946528 (chr1:46019890) did not associate with PLT in the Pakistani analysis but was in the same linkage disequilibrium block (r2 \u2265 0.5) as PLT-associated variants in prior East Asian GWAS. The single independent association signal was refined to a 95% credible set of 343 variants spanning 8 coding genes. Functional annotation, mapping to megakaryocyte regulatory regions, and colocalization with blood expression quantitative trait loci identified the likely mediator of the PLT phenotype to be PIK3R3 encoding a regulator of phosphoinositol 3-kinase (PI3K).

Conclusion

Abnormal PI3K activity in the vessel wall is already implicated in the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis. Our identification of a new association between PIK3R3 and PLT provides further mechanistic insights into the contribution of the PI3K pathway to platelet biology.", + "abstract": "The discovery of genetic loci associated with complex diseases has outpaced the elucidation of mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for coronary artery disease (CAD) comprising 181,522 cases among 1,165,690 participants of predominantly European ancestry. We detected 241 associations, including 30 new loci. Cross-ancestry meta-analysis with a Japanese GWAS yielded 38 additional new loci. We prioritized likely causal variants using functionally informed fine-mapping, yielding 42 associations with less than five variants in the 95% credible set. Similarity-based clustering suggested roles for early developmental processes, cell cycle signaling and vascular cell migration and proliferation in the pathogenesis of CAD. We prioritized 220 candidate causal genes, combining eight complementary approaches, including 123 supported by three or more approaches. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we experimentally validated the effect of an enhancer in MYO9B, which appears to mediate CAD risk by regulating vascular cell motility. Our analysis identifies and systematically characterizes >250 risk loci for CAD to inform experimental interrogation of putative causal mechanisms for CAD.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01233-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01233-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9729111; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9729111?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35386118", @@ -30464,21 +30464,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.840651; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8979334; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8979334?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36474045", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01233-6", - "title": "Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants and genes for coronary artery disease in over a million participants.", - "authorString": "Aragam KG, Jiang T, Goel A, Kanoni S, Wolford BN, Atri DS, Weeks EM, Wang M, Hindy G, Zhou W, Grace C, Roselli C, Marston NA, Kamanu FK, Surakka I, Venegas LM, Sherliker P, Koyama S, Ishigaki K, \u00c5svold BO, Brown MR, Brumpton B, de Vries PS, Giannakopoulou O, Giardoglou P, Gudbjartsson DF, G\u00fcldener U, Haider SMI, Helgadottir A, Ibrahim M, Kastrati A, Kessler T, Kyriakou T, Konopka T, Li L, Ma L, Meitinger T, Mucha S, Munz M, Murgia F, Nielsen JB, N\u00f6then MM, Pang S, Reinberger T, Schnitzler G, Smedley D, Thorleifsson G, von Scheidt M, Ulirsch JC, Biobank Japan, EPIC-CVD, Arnar DO, Burtt NP, Costanzo MC, Flannick J, Ito K, Jang DK, Kamatani Y, Khera AV, Komuro I, Kullo IJ, Lotta LA, Nelson CP, Roberts R, Thorgeirsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Webb TR, Baras A, Bj\u00f6rkegren JLM, Boerwinkle E, Dedoussis G, Holm H, Hveem K, Melander O, Morrison AC, Orho-Melander M, Rallidis LS, Ruusalepp A, Sabatine MS, Stefansson K, Zalloua P, Ellinor PT, Farrall M, Danesh J, Ruff CT, Finucane HK, Hopewell JC, Clarke R, Gupta RM, Erdmann J, Samani NJ, Schunkert H, Watkins H, Willer CJ, Deloukas P, Kathiresan S, Butterworth AS, CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium.", + "id": "37538507", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175", + "title": "PIK3R3 is a candidate regulator of platelet count in people of Bangladeshi ancestry.", + "authorString": "Burley K, Fitzgibbon L, van Heel D, Genes & Health Research Team@EastLondonGenes, Vuckovic D, Mumford AD, Genes & Health Research Team.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-06", + "journalTitle": "Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-14", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Blood platelets; Cardiovascular diseases; Bangladesh; Genome-wide Association Study; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The discovery of genetic loci associated with complex diseases has outpaced the elucidation of mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for coronary artery disease (CAD) comprising 181,522 cases among 1,165,690 participants of predominantly European ancestry. We detected 241 associations, including 30 new loci. Cross-ancestry meta-analysis with a Japanese GWAS yielded 38 additional new loci. We prioritized likely causal variants using functionally informed fine-mapping, yielding 42 associations with less than five variants in the 95% credible set. Similarity-based clustering suggested roles for early developmental processes, cell cycle signaling and vascular cell migration and proliferation in the pathogenesis of CAD. We prioritized 220 candidate causal genes, combining eight complementary approaches, including 123 supported by three or more approaches. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we experimentally validated the effect of an enhancer in MYO9B, which appears to mediate CAD risk by regulating vascular cell motility. Our analysis identifies and systematically characterizes >250 risk loci for CAD to inform experimental interrogation of putative causal mechanisms for CAD.", + "abstract": "

Background

Blood platelets are mediators of atherothrombotic disease and are regulated by complex sets of genes. Association studies in European ancestry populations have already detected informative platelet regulatory loci. Studies in other ancestries can potentially reveal new associations because of different allele frequencies, linkage structures, and variant effects.

Objectives

To reveal new regulatory genes for platelet count (PLT).

Methods

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed in 20,218 Bangladeshi and 9198 Pakistani individuals from the Genes & Health study. Loci significantly associated with PLT underwent fine-mapping to identify candidate genes.

Results

Of 1588 significantly associated variants (P\u00a0< 5\u00a0\u00d7 10-8) at 20 loci in the Bangladeshi analysis, most replicated findings in prior transancestry GWAS and in the Pakistani analysis. However, the Bangladeshi locus defined by rs946528 (chr1:46019890) did not associate with PLT in the Pakistani analysis but was in the same linkage disequilibrium block (r2 \u2265 0.5) as PLT-associated variants in prior East Asian GWAS. The single independent association signal was refined to a 95% credible set of 343 variants spanning 8 coding genes. Functional annotation, mapping to megakaryocyte regulatory regions, and colocalization with blood expression quantitative trait loci identified the likely mediator of the PLT phenotype to be PIK3R3 encoding a regulator of phosphoinositol 3-kinase (PI3K).

Conclusion

Abnormal PI3K activity in the vessel wall is already implicated in the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis. Our identification of a new association between PIK3R3 and PLT provides further mechanistic insights into the contribution of the PI3K pathway to platelet biology.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01233-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01233-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9729111; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9729111?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2023.100175; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10394561?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33627748", @@ -30514,23 +30514,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-021-01542-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-021-01542-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160055; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160055?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33589465", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637", - "title": "Community-based complex interventions to sustain independence in older people, stratified by frailty: a protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Crocker TF, Clegg A, Riley RD, Lam N, Bajpai R, Jord\u00e3o M, Patetsini E, Ramiz R, Ensor J, Forster A, Gladman JRF.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-15", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Preventive Medicine; Clinical Trials; Primary Care; Geriatric Medicine; Rehabilitation Medicine; Occupational & Industrial Medicine", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Maintaining independence is a primary goal of community health and care services for older people, but there is currently insufficient guidance about which services to implement. Therefore, we aim to synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people, including the effect of frailty, and group interventions to identify the best configurations.

Methods and analysis

Systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA). We will include randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people living at home (mean age \u226565 years), compared with usual care or another complex intervention. We will search MEDLINE (1946 to September 2020), Embase (1947 to September 2020), CINAHL (1981 to September 2020), PsycINFO (1806 to September 2020), CENTRAL and clinical trial registries from inception to September 2020, without date/language restrictions, and scan included papers' reference lists. Main outcomes were: living at home, activities of daily living (basic/instrumental), home-care services usage, hospitalisation, care home admission, costs and cost effectiveness. Additional outcomes were: health status, depression, loneliness, falls and mortality. Interventions will be coded, summarised and grouped. An NMA using a multivariate random-effects model for each outcome separately will determine the relative effects of different complex interventions. For each outcome, we will produce summary effect estimates for each pair of treatments in the network, with 95% CI, ranking plots and measures, and the borrowing of strength statistic. Inconsistency will be examined using a 'design-by-treatment interaction' model. We will assess risk of bias (Cochrane tool V.2) and certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation for NMA approach.

Ethics and dissemination

This research will use aggregated, anonymised, published data. Findings will be reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance. They will be disseminated to policy-makers, commissioners and providers, and via conferences and scientific journals.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019162195.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/2/e045637.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33532905", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-021-01539-w", @@ -30548,23 +30531,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-021-01539-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-021-01539-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160056; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8160056?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35764313", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345", - "title": "Long-Read Sequencing Identifies the First Retrotransposon Insertion and Resolves Structural Variants Causing Antithrombin Deficiency.", - "authorString": "de la Morena-Barrio B, Stephens J, de la Morena-Barrio ME, Stefanucci L, Padilla J, Mi\u00f1ano A, Gleadall N, Garc\u00eda JL, L\u00f3pez-Fern\u00e1ndez MF, Morange PE, Puurunen M, Undas A, Vidal F, Raymond FL, Vicente V, Ouwehand WH, Corral J, Sanchis-Juan A, NIHR BioResource.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Thrombosis and haemostasis", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-06-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The identification of inherited antithrombin deficiency (ATD) is critical to prevent potentially life-threatening thrombotic events. Causal variants in SERPINC1 are identified for up to 70% of cases, the majority being single-nucleotide variants and indels. The detection and characterization of structural variants (SVs) in ATD remain challenging due to the high number of repetitive elements in SERPINC1. Here, we performed long-read whole-genome sequencing on 10 familial and 9 singleton cases with type I ATD proven by functional and antigen assays, who were selected from a cohort of 340 patients with this rare disorder because genetic analyses were either negative, ambiguous, or not fully characterized. We developed an analysis workflow to identify disease-associated SVs. This approach resolved, independently of its size or type, all eight SVs detected by multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification, and identified for the first time a complex rearrangement previously misclassified as a deletion. Remarkably, we identified the mechanism explaining ATD in 2 out of 11 cases with previous unknown defect: the insertion of a novel 2.4\u2009kb SINE-VNTR-Alu retroelement, which was characterized by de novo assembly and verified by specific polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing in the probands and affected relatives. The nucleotide-level resolution achieved for all SVs allowed breakpoint analysis, which revealed repetitive elements and microhomologies supporting a common replication-based mechanism for all the SVs. Our study underscores the utility of long-read sequencing technology as a complementary method to identify, characterize, and unveil the molecular mechanism of disease-causing SVs involved in ATD, and enlarges the catalogue of genetic disorders caused by retrotransposon insertions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/s-0042-1749345.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32327693", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0921-5", @@ -30600,21 +30566,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://boris.unibe.ch/174991/1/nihms-1649425.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0653-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7711277; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7711277?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0653-z" }, { - "id": "34857859", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8", - "title": "A computational exploration of resilience and evolvability of protein-protein interaction networks.", - "authorString": "Klein B, Holm\u00e9r L, Smith KM, Johnson MM, Swain A, Stolp L, Teufel AI, Kleppe AS.", + "id": "33589465", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637", + "title": "Community-based complex interventions to sustain independence in older people, stratified by frailty: a protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Crocker TF, Clegg A, Riley RD, Lam N, Bajpai R, Jord\u00e3o M, Patetsini E, Ramiz R, Ensor J, Forster A, Gladman JRF.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Communications biology", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-02", + "date": "2021-02-15", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Preventive Medicine; Clinical Trials; Primary Care; Geriatric Medicine; Rehabilitation Medicine; Occupational & Industrial Medicine", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Maintaining independence is a primary goal of community health and care services for older people, but there is currently insufficient guidance about which services to implement. Therefore, we aim to synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people, including the effect of frailty, and group interventions to identify the best configurations.

Methods and analysis

Systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA). We will include randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs of community-based complex interventions to sustain independence for older people living at home (mean age \u226565 years), compared with usual care or another complex intervention. We will search MEDLINE (1946 to September 2020), Embase (1947 to September 2020), CINAHL (1981 to September 2020), PsycINFO (1806 to September 2020), CENTRAL and clinical trial registries from inception to September 2020, without date/language restrictions, and scan included papers' reference lists. Main outcomes were: living at home, activities of daily living (basic/instrumental), home-care services usage, hospitalisation, care home admission, costs and cost effectiveness. Additional outcomes were: health status, depression, loneliness, falls and mortality. Interventions will be coded, summarised and grouped. An NMA using a multivariate random-effects model for each outcome separately will determine the relative effects of different complex interventions. For each outcome, we will produce summary effect estimates for each pair of treatments in the network, with 95% CI, ranking plots and measures, and the borrowing of strength statistic. Inconsistency will be examined using a 'design-by-treatment interaction' model. We will assess risk of bias (Cochrane tool V.2) and certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation for NMA approach.

Ethics and dissemination

This research will use aggregated, anonymised, published data. Findings will be reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance. They will be disseminated to policy-makers, commissioners and providers, and via conferences and scientific journals.

Prospero registration number

CRD42019162195.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/2/e045637.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045637; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7887376?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "35764313", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345", + "title": "Long-Read Sequencing Identifies the First Retrotransposon Insertion and Resolves Structural Variants Causing Antithrombin Deficiency.", + "authorString": "de la Morena-Barrio B, Stephens J, de la Morena-Barrio ME, Stefanucci L, Padilla J, Mi\u00f1ano A, Gleadall N, Garc\u00eda JL, L\u00f3pez-Fern\u00e1ndez MF, Morange PE, Puurunen M, Undas A, Vidal F, Raymond FL, Vicente V, Ouwehand WH, Corral J, Sanchis-Juan A, NIHR BioResource.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Thrombosis and haemostasis", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-06-28", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks represent complex intra-cellular protein interactions, and the presence or absence of such interactions can lead to biological changes in an organism. Recent network-based approaches have shown that a phenotype's PPI network's resilience to environmental perturbations is related to its placement in the tree of life; though we still do not know how or why certain intra-cellular factors can bring about this resilience. Here, we explore the influence of gene expression and network properties on PPI networks' resilience. We use publicly available data of PPIs for E. coli, S. cerevisiae, and H. sapiens, where we compute changes in network resilience as new nodes (proteins) are added to the networks under three node addition mechanisms-random, degree-based, and gene-expression-based attachments. By calculating the resilience of the resulting networks, we estimate the effectiveness of these node addition mechanisms. We demonstrate that adding nodes with gene-expression-based preferential attachment (as opposed to random or degree-based) preserves and can increase the original resilience of PPI network in all three species, regardless of gene expression distribution or network structure. These findings introduce a general notion of prospective resilience, which highlights the key role of network structures in understanding the evolvability of phenotypic traits.", + "abstract": "The identification of inherited antithrombin deficiency (ATD) is critical to prevent potentially life-threatening thrombotic events. Causal variants in SERPINC1 are identified for up to 70% of cases, the majority being single-nucleotide variants and indels. The detection and characterization of structural variants (SVs) in ATD remain challenging due to the high number of repetitive elements in SERPINC1. Here, we performed long-read whole-genome sequencing on 10 familial and 9 singleton cases with type I ATD proven by functional and antigen assays, who were selected from a cohort of 340 patients with this rare disorder because genetic analyses were either negative, ambiguous, or not fully characterized. We developed an analysis workflow to identify disease-associated SVs. This approach resolved, independently of its size or type, all eight SVs detected by multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification, and identified for the first time a complex rearrangement previously misclassified as a deletion. Remarkably, we identified the mechanism explaining ATD in 2 out of 11 cases with previous unknown defect: the insertion of a novel 2.4\u2009kb SINE-VNTR-Alu retroelement, which was characterized by de novo assembly and verified by specific polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing in the probands and affected relatives. The nucleotide-level resolution achieved for all SVs allowed breakpoint analysis, which revealed repetitive elements and microhomologies supporting a common replication-based mechanism for all the SVs. Our study underscores the utility of long-read sequencing technology as a complementary method to identify, characterize, and unveil the molecular mechanism of disease-causing SVs involved in ATD, and enlarges the catalogue of genetic disorders caused by retrotransposon insertions.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02867-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/s-0042-1749345.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9393088?pdf=render" }, { "id": "30014898", @@ -30650,6 +30633,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114471; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8763409?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34857859", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8", + "title": "A computational exploration of resilience and evolvability of protein-protein interaction networks.", + "authorString": "Klein B, Holm\u00e9r L, Smith KM, Johnson MM, Swain A, Stolp L, Teufel AI, Kleppe AS.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Communications biology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks represent complex intra-cellular protein interactions, and the presence or absence of such interactions can lead to biological changes in an organism. Recent network-based approaches have shown that a phenotype's PPI network's resilience to environmental perturbations is related to its placement in the tree of life; though we still do not know how or why certain intra-cellular factors can bring about this resilience. Here, we explore the influence of gene expression and network properties on PPI networks' resilience. We use publicly available data of PPIs for E. coli, S. cerevisiae, and H. sapiens, where we compute changes in network resilience as new nodes (proteins) are added to the networks under three node addition mechanisms-random, degree-based, and gene-expression-based attachments. By calculating the resilience of the resulting networks, we estimate the effectiveness of these node addition mechanisms. We demonstrate that adding nodes with gene-expression-based preferential attachment (as opposed to random or degree-based) preserves and can increase the original resilience of PPI network in all three species, regardless of gene expression distribution or network structure. These findings introduce a general notion of prospective resilience, which highlights the key role of network structures in understanding the evolvability of phenotypic traits.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02867-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02867-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8639913?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32891970", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104689", @@ -30684,23 +30684,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjco.2021.05.020; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjco.2021.05.020; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8205551; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8205551?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37565978", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007", - "title": "Penetrance and Prognosis of MYH7 Variant-Associated Cardiomyopathies: Results From a Dutch Multicenter Cohort Study.", - "authorString": "Jansen M, de Brouwer R, Hassanzada F, Schoemaker AE, Schmidt AF, Kooijman-Reumerman MD, Bracun V, Slieker MG, Dooijes D, Vermeer AMC, Wilde AAM, Amin AS, Lekanne Deprez RH, Herkert JC, Christiaans I, de Boer RA, Jongbloed JDH, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JACC. Heart failure", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-08-09", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Myosin; Screening; Prognosis; Cardiomyopathy; Penetrance; Myh7", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

MYH7 variants cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), noncompaction cardiomyopathy (NCCM), and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Screening of relatives of patients with genetic cardiomyopathy is recommended from 10 to 12 years of age onward, irrespective of the affected gene.

Objectives

This study sought to study the penetrance and prognosis of MYH7 variant-associated cardiomyopathies.

Methods

In this multicenter cohort study, penetrance and major cardiomyopathy-related events (MCEs) were assessed in carriers of (likely) pathogenic MYH7 variants by using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests. Prognostic factors were evaluated using Cox regression with time-dependent coefficients.

Results

In total, 581 subjects (30.1% index patients, 48.4% male, median age 37.0 years [IQR: 19.5-50.2 years]) were included. HCM was diagnosed in 226 subjects, NCCM in 70, and DCM in 55. Early penetrance and MCEs (age\u00a0<12 years) were common among NCCM-associated variant carriers (21.2% and 12.0%, respectively) and DCM-associated variant carriers (15.3% and 10.0%, respectively), compared with HCM-associated variant carriers (2.9% and 2.1%, respectively). Penetrance was significantly increased in carriers of converter region variants (adjusted HR: 1.87; 95%\u00a0CI: 1.15-3.04; P\u00a0=\u00a00.012) and at age\u00a0\u22641 year in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 21.17; 95%\u00a0CI: 4.81-93.20; P\u00a0< 0.001) and subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 2.45; 95%\u00a0CI: 1.09-5.50; P\u00a0=\u00a00.030). The risk of MCE was increased in subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 1.82; 95%\u00a0CI: 1.15-2.87; P\u00a0=\u00a00.010) and at age\u00a0\u22645 years in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 38.82; 95%\u00a0CI:\u00a05.16-291.88; P\u00a0< 0.001).

Conclusions

MYH7 variants can cause cardiomyopathies and MCEs at a young age. Screening at younger ages may\u00a0be warranted, particularly in carriers of NCCM- or DCM-associated variants and/or with a family history of MCEs at\u00a0<12 years.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007" - }, { "id": "34455223", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102213", @@ -30718,6 +30701,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://manuscript.elsevier.com/S1361841521002589/pdf/S1361841521002589.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2021.102213" }, + { + "id": "37565978", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007", + "title": "Penetrance and Prognosis of MYH7 Variant-Associated Cardiomyopathies: Results From a Dutch Multicenter Cohort Study.", + "authorString": "Jansen M, de Brouwer R, Hassanzada F, Schoemaker AE, Schmidt AF, Kooijman-Reumerman MD, Bracun V, Slieker MG, Dooijes D, Vermeer AMC, Wilde AAM, Amin AS, Lekanne Deprez RH, Herkert JC, Christiaans I, de Boer RA, Jongbloed JDH, van Tintelen JP, Asselbergs FW, Baas AF.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "JACC. Heart failure", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-08-09", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Myosin; Screening; Prognosis; Cardiomyopathy; Penetrance; Myh7", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

MYH7 variants cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), noncompaction cardiomyopathy (NCCM), and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Screening of relatives of patients with genetic cardiomyopathy is recommended from 10 to 12 years of age onward, irrespective of the affected gene.

Objectives

This study sought to study the penetrance and prognosis of MYH7 variant-associated cardiomyopathies.

Methods

In this multicenter cohort study, penetrance and major cardiomyopathy-related events (MCEs) were assessed in carriers of (likely) pathogenic MYH7 variants by using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests. Prognostic factors were evaluated using Cox regression with time-dependent coefficients.

Results

In total, 581 subjects (30.1% index patients, 48.4% male, median age 37.0 years [IQR: 19.5-50.2 years]) were included. HCM was diagnosed in 226 subjects, NCCM in 70, and DCM in 55. Early penetrance and MCEs (age\u00a0<12 years) were common among NCCM-associated variant carriers (21.2% and 12.0%, respectively) and DCM-associated variant carriers (15.3% and 10.0%, respectively), compared with HCM-associated variant carriers (2.9% and 2.1%, respectively). Penetrance was significantly increased in carriers of converter region variants (adjusted HR: 1.87; 95%\u00a0CI: 1.15-3.04; P\u00a0=\u00a00.012) and at age\u00a0\u22641 year in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 21.17; 95%\u00a0CI: 4.81-93.20; P\u00a0< 0.001) and subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 2.45; 95%\u00a0CI: 1.09-5.50; P\u00a0=\u00a00.030). The risk of MCE was increased in subjects with a family history of early MCEs (adjusted HR: 1.82; 95%\u00a0CI: 1.15-2.87; P\u00a0=\u00a00.010) and at age\u00a0\u22645 years in NCCM-associated or DCM-associated variant carriers (adjusted HR: 38.82; 95%\u00a0CI:\u00a05.16-291.88; P\u00a0< 0.001).

Conclusions

MYH7 variants can cause cardiomyopathies and MCEs at a young age. Screening at younger ages may\u00a0be warranted, particularly in carriers of NCCM- or DCM-associated variants and/or with a family history of MCEs at\u00a0<12 years.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2023.07.007" + }, { "id": "34732073", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.121.034787", @@ -30753,21 +30753,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://leicester.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Statistics_on_mortality_following_acute_myocardial_infarction_in_842_897_Europeans_/10208480/1/files/18403874.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz197" }, { - "id": "35322056", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5", - "title": "Automated quality assessment of large digitised histology cohorts by artificial intelligence.", - "authorString": "Haghighat M, Browning L, Sirinukunwattana K, Malacrino S, Khalid Alham N, Colling R, Cui Y, Rakha E, Hamdy FC, Verrill C, Rittscher J.", + "id": "37286573", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38383-y", + "title": "Elevated plasma complement factor H related 5 protein is associated with venous thromboembolism.", + "authorString": "Iglesias MJ, Sanchez-Rivera L, Ibrahim-Kosta M, Naudin C, Munsch G, Goumidi L, Farm M, Smith PM, Thibord F, Kral-Pointner JB, Hong MG, Suchon P, Germain M, Schottmaier W, Dusart P, Boland A, Kotol D, Edfors F, Koprulu M, Pietzner M, Langenberg C, Damrauer SM, Johnson AD, Klarin DM, Smith NL, Smadja DM, Holmstr\u00f6m M, Magnusson M, Silveira A, Uhl\u00e9n M, Renn\u00e9 T, Martinez-Perez A, Emmerich J, Deleuze JF, Antovic J, Soria Fernandez JM, Assinger A, Schwenk JM, Souto Andres JC, Morange PE, Butler LM, Tr\u00e9gou\u00ebt DA, Odeberg J.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-23", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Research using whole slide images (WSIs) of histopathology slides has increased exponentially over recent years. Glass slides from retrospective cohorts, some with patient follow-up data are digitised for the development and validation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Such resources, therefore, become very important, with the need to ensure that their quality is of the standard necessary for downstream AI development. However, manual quality control of large cohorts of WSIs by visual assessment is unfeasible, and whilst quality control AI algorithms exist, these focus on bespoke aspects of image quality, e.g. focus, or use traditional machine-learning methods, which are unable to classify the range of potential image artefacts that should be considered. In this study, we have trained and validated a multi-task deep neural network to automate the process of quality control of a large retrospective cohort of prostate cases from which glass slides have been scanned several years after production, to determine both the usability of the images at the diagnostic level (considered in this study to be the minimal standard for research) and the common image artefacts present. Using a two-layer approach, quality overlays of WSIs were generated from a quality assessment (QA) undertaken at patch-level at [Formula: see text] magnification. From these quality overlays the slide-level quality scores were predicted and then compared to those generated by three specialist urological pathologists, with a Pearson correlation of 0.89 for overall 'usability' (at a diagnostic level), and 0.87 and 0.82 for focus and H&E staining quality scores respectively. To demonstrate its wider potential utility, we subsequently applied our QA pipeline to the TCGA prostate cancer cohort and to a colorectal cancer cohort, for comparison. Our model, designated as PathProfiler, indicates comparable predicted usability of images from the cohorts assessed (86-90% of WSIs predicted to be usable), and perhaps more significantly is able to predict WSIs that could benefit from an intervention such as re-scanning or re-staining for quality improvement. We have shown in this study that AI can be used to automate the process of quality control of large retrospective WSI cohorts to maximise their utility for research.", + "abstract": "Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common, multi-causal disease with potentially serious short- and long-term complications. In clinical practice, there is a need for improved plasma biomarker-based tools for VTE diagnosis and risk prediction. Here we show, using proteomics profiling to screen plasma from patients with suspected acute VTE, and several case-control studies for VTE, how Complement Factor H Related 5 protein (CFHR5), a regulator of the alternative pathway of complement activation, is a VTE-associated plasma biomarker. In plasma, higher CFHR5 levels are associated with increased thrombin generation potential and recombinant CFHR5 enhanced platelet activation in vitro. GWAS analysis of ~52,000 participants identifies six loci associated with CFHR5 plasma levels, but Mendelian randomization do not demonstrate causality between CFHR5 and VTE. Our results indicate an important role for the regulation of the alternative pathway of complement activation in VTE and that CFHR5 represents a potential diagnostic and/or risk predictive plasma biomarker.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08351-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38383-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247781; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247781?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "31204027", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.06.012", + "title": "Comparing the outcomes of isolated, serious traumatic brain injury in older adults managed at major trauma centres and neurosurgical services: A registry-based cohort study.", + "authorString": "Dunn MS, Beck B, Simpson PM, Cameron PA, Kennedy M, Maiden M, Judson R, Gabbe BJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Injury", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-06-10", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Traumatic brain injury; Functional Outcome; Older Adult; Tbi; Trauma Systems", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

The incidence of older adult traumatic brain injury (TBI) is increasing in both high and middle to low-income countries. It is unknown whether older adults with isolated, serious TBI can be safely managed outside of major trauma centres. This registry based cohort study aimed to compare mortality and functional outcomes of older adults with isolated, serious TBI who were managed at specialised Major Trauma Services (MTS) and Metropolitan Neurosurgical Services (MNS).

Method

Older adults (65 years and over) who sustained an isolated, serious TBI following a low fall (from standing or \u2264 1\u2009m) were extracted from the Victorian State Trauma Registry from 2007 to 2016. Multivariable models were fitted to assess the association between hospital designation (MTS vs. MNS) and the two outcomes of interest: in-hospital mortality and functional outcome, adjusting for potential confounders. Functional outcomes were measured using the Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended at six months post-injury.

Results

From 2007-2016, there were 1904 older adults who sustained an isolated, serious TBI from a low fall who received definitive care at an MTS (n\u2009=\u20091124) or an MNS (n\u2009=\u2009780). After adjusting for confounders, there was no mortality benefit for patients managed at an MTS over an MNS (OR\u2009=\u20090.84; 95% CI: 0.65, 1.08; P\u2009=\u20090.17) or improvement in functional outcome six months post-injury (OR\u2009=\u20091.13; 95% CI: 0.94, 1.36; P\u2009=\u20090.21).

Conclusion

For older adults with isolated, serious TBI following a low fall, there was no difference in mortality or functional outcome based on definitive management at an MTS or an MNS. This confirms that MNS without the added designation of a major trauma centre are a suitable destination for the management of isolated, serious TBI in older adults.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.06.012" }, { "id": "35605170", @@ -30787,38 +30804,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/8/e37668/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/37668; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384859" }, { - "id": "37286573", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38383-y", - "title": "Elevated plasma complement factor H related 5 protein is associated with venous thromboembolism.", - "authorString": "Iglesias MJ, Sanchez-Rivera L, Ibrahim-Kosta M, Naudin C, Munsch G, Goumidi L, Farm M, Smith PM, Thibord F, Kral-Pointner JB, Hong MG, Suchon P, Germain M, Schottmaier W, Dusart P, Boland A, Kotol D, Edfors F, Koprulu M, Pietzner M, Langenberg C, Damrauer SM, Johnson AD, Klarin DM, Smith NL, Smadja DM, Holmstr\u00f6m M, Magnusson M, Silveira A, Uhl\u00e9n M, Renn\u00e9 T, Martinez-Perez A, Emmerich J, Deleuze JF, Antovic J, Soria Fernandez JM, Assinger A, Schwenk JM, Souto Andres JC, Morange PE, Butler LM, Tr\u00e9gou\u00ebt DA, Odeberg J.", + "id": "35322056", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5", + "title": "Automated quality assessment of large digitised histology cohorts by artificial intelligence.", + "authorString": "Haghighat M, Browning L, Sirinukunwattana K, Malacrino S, Khalid Alham N, Colling R, Cui Y, Rakha E, Hamdy FC, Verrill C, Rittscher J.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-07", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-23", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common, multi-causal disease with potentially serious short- and long-term complications. In clinical practice, there is a need for improved plasma biomarker-based tools for VTE diagnosis and risk prediction. Here we show, using proteomics profiling to screen plasma from patients with suspected acute VTE, and several case-control studies for VTE, how Complement Factor H Related 5 protein (CFHR5), a regulator of the alternative pathway of complement activation, is a VTE-associated plasma biomarker. In plasma, higher CFHR5 levels are associated with increased thrombin generation potential and recombinant CFHR5 enhanced platelet activation in vitro. GWAS analysis of ~52,000 participants identifies six loci associated with CFHR5 plasma levels, but Mendelian randomization do not demonstrate causality between CFHR5 and VTE. Our results indicate an important role for the regulation of the alternative pathway of complement activation in VTE and that CFHR5 represents a potential diagnostic and/or risk predictive plasma biomarker.", + "abstract": "Research using whole slide images (WSIs) of histopathology slides has increased exponentially over recent years. Glass slides from retrospective cohorts, some with patient follow-up data are digitised for the development and validation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Such resources, therefore, become very important, with the need to ensure that their quality is of the standard necessary for downstream AI development. However, manual quality control of large cohorts of WSIs by visual assessment is unfeasible, and whilst quality control AI algorithms exist, these focus on bespoke aspects of image quality, e.g. focus, or use traditional machine-learning methods, which are unable to classify the range of potential image artefacts that should be considered. In this study, we have trained and validated a multi-task deep neural network to automate the process of quality control of a large retrospective cohort of prostate cases from which glass slides have been scanned several years after production, to determine both the usability of the images at the diagnostic level (considered in this study to be the minimal standard for research) and the common image artefacts present. Using a two-layer approach, quality overlays of WSIs were generated from a quality assessment (QA) undertaken at patch-level at [Formula: see text] magnification. From these quality overlays the slide-level quality scores were predicted and then compared to those generated by three specialist urological pathologists, with a Pearson correlation of 0.89 for overall 'usability' (at a diagnostic level), and 0.87 and 0.82 for focus and H&E staining quality scores respectively. To demonstrate its wider potential utility, we subsequently applied our QA pipeline to the TCGA prostate cancer cohort and to a colorectal cancer cohort, for comparison. Our model, designated as PathProfiler, indicates comparable predicted usability of images from the cohorts assessed (86-90% of WSIs predicted to be usable), and perhaps more significantly is able to predict WSIs that could benefit from an intervention such as re-scanning or re-staining for quality improvement. We have shown in this study that AI can be used to automate the process of quality control of large retrospective WSI cohorts to maximise their utility for research.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38383-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247781; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10247781?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08351-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08351-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8943120?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31204027", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.06.012", - "title": "Comparing the outcomes of isolated, serious traumatic brain injury in older adults managed at major trauma centres and neurosurgical services: A registry-based cohort study.", - "authorString": "Dunn MS, Beck B, Simpson PM, Cameron PA, Kennedy M, Maiden M, Judson R, Gabbe BJ.", + "id": "35584845", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904", + "title": "Reporting guideline for the early stage clinical evaluation of decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence: DECIDE-AI.", + "authorString": "Vasey B, Nagendran M, Campbell B, Clifton DA, Collins GS, Denaxas S, Denniston AK, Faes L, Geerts B, Ibrahim M, Liu X, Mateen BA, Mathur P, McCradden MD, Morgan L, Ordish J, Rogers C, Saria S, Ting DSW, Watkinson P, Weber W, Wheatstone P, McCulloch P, DECIDE-AI expert group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Injury", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-06-10", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Traumatic brain injury; Functional Outcome; Older Adult; Tbi; Trauma Systems", + "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The incidence of older adult traumatic brain injury (TBI) is increasing in both high and middle to low-income countries. It is unknown whether older adults with isolated, serious TBI can be safely managed outside of major trauma centres. This registry based cohort study aimed to compare mortality and functional outcomes of older adults with isolated, serious TBI who were managed at specialised Major Trauma Services (MTS) and Metropolitan Neurosurgical Services (MNS).

Method

Older adults (65 years and over) who sustained an isolated, serious TBI following a low fall (from standing or \u2264 1\u2009m) were extracted from the Victorian State Trauma Registry from 2007 to 2016. Multivariable models were fitted to assess the association between hospital designation (MTS vs. MNS) and the two outcomes of interest: in-hospital mortality and functional outcome, adjusting for potential confounders. Functional outcomes were measured using the Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended at six months post-injury.

Results

From 2007-2016, there were 1904 older adults who sustained an isolated, serious TBI from a low fall who received definitive care at an MTS (n\u2009=\u20091124) or an MNS (n\u2009=\u2009780). After adjusting for confounders, there was no mortality benefit for patients managed at an MTS over an MNS (OR\u2009=\u20090.84; 95% CI: 0.65, 1.08; P\u2009=\u20090.17) or improvement in functional outcome six months post-injury (OR\u2009=\u20091.13; 95% CI: 0.94, 1.36; P\u2009=\u20090.21).

Conclusion

For older adults with isolated, serious TBI following a low fall, there was no difference in mortality or functional outcome based on definitive management at an MTS or an MNS. This confirms that MNS without the added designation of a major trauma centre are a suitable destination for the management of isolated, serious TBI in older adults.", + "abstract": "", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.06.012" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/377/bmj-2022-070904.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9116198" }, { "id": "36244350", @@ -30871,23 +30888,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.07.066; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.07.066; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612892; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7612892?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35584845", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904", - "title": "Reporting guideline for the early stage clinical evaluation of decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence: DECIDE-AI.", - "authorString": "Vasey B, Nagendran M, Campbell B, Clifton DA, Collins GS, Denaxas S, Denniston AK, Faes L, Geerts B, Ibrahim M, Liu X, Mateen BA, Mathur P, McCradden MD, Morgan L, Ordish J, Rogers C, Saria S, Ting DSW, Watkinson P, Weber W, Wheatstone P, McCulloch P, DECIDE-AI expert group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/377/bmj-2022-070904.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070904; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9116198" - }, { "id": "30984759", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2019.00048", @@ -30974,21 +30974,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/11/4/460/pdf?version=1587647599; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11040460; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7230372; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7230372?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35509371", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2", - "title": "Single-cell multi-omics analysis reveals IFN-driven alterations in T lymphocytes and natural killer cells in systemic lupus erythematosus.", - "authorString": "Trzupek D, Lee M, Hamey F, Wicker LS, Todd JA, Ferreira RC.", + "id": "31782492", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293", + "title": "The association of fish consumption and its urinary metabolites with cardiovascular risk factors: the International Study of Macro-/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP).", + "authorString": "Gibson R, Lau CE, Loo RL, Ebbels TMD, Chekmeneva E, Dyer AR, Miura K, Ueshima H, Zhao L, Daviglus ML, Stamler J, Van Horn L, Elliott P, Holmes E, Chan Q.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-01", + "journalTitle": "The American journal of clinical nutrition", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-02-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Biomarker; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle); Type I Interferon (Ifn); Multi-omics; Single-cell Rna-sequencing (Scrna-seq); Abseq; Bd Rhapsody; Cytotoxic Cd4+ T Cells (Ctls)", - "nationalPriorities": "", + "keywords": "Hypertension; Blood pressure; FISH; Shellfish; Biomarkers; body mass index; Seafood; Metabonomics; Homarine; Intermap Metabolomics", + "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: The characterisation of the peripheral immune system in the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) at the single-cell level has been limited by the reduced sensitivity of current whole-transcriptomic technologies. Here we employ a targeted single-cell multi-omics approach, combining protein and mRNA quantification, to generate a high-resolution map of the T lymphocyte and natural killer (NK) cell populations in blood from SLE patients. Methods: We designed a custom panel to quantify the transcription of 534 genes in parallel with the expression of 51 surface protein targets using the BD Rhapsody AbSeq single-cell system. We applied this technology to profile 20,656 T and NK cells isolated from peripheral blood from an SLE patient with a type I interferon (IFN)-induced gene expression signature (IFN hi), and an age- and sex- matched IFN low SLE patient and healthy donor. Results: We confirmed the presence of a rare cytotoxic CD4 + T cell (CTL) subset, which was exclusively present in the IFN hi patient. Furthermore, we identified additional alterations consistent with increased immune activation in this patient, most notably a shift towards terminally differentiated CD57 + CD8 + T cell and CD16 + NK dim phenotypes, and the presence of a subset of recently-activated na\u00efve CD4 + T cells. Conclusions: Our results identify IFN-driven changes in the composition and phenotype of T and NK cells that are consistent with a systemic immune activation within the IFN hi patient, and underscore the added resolving power of this multi-omics approach to identify rare immune subsets. Consequently, we were able to find evidence for novel cellular peripheral biomarkers of SLE disease activity, including a subpopulation of CD57 + CD4 + CTLs.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-149/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Background

Results from observational studies regarding associations between fish (including shellfish) intake and cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood pressure (BP) and BMI, are inconsistent.

Objective

To investigate associations of fish consumption and associated urinary metabolites with BP and BMI in free-living populations.

Methods

We used cross-sectional data from the International Study of Macro-/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP), including 4680 men and women (40-59 y) from Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and United States. Dietary intakes were assessed by four 24-h dietary recalls and BP from 8 measurements. Urinary metabolites (2 timed 24-h urinary samples) associated with fish intake acquired from NMR spectroscopy were identified. Linear models were used to estimate BP and BMI differences across categories of intake and per 2 SD higher intake of fish and its biomarkers.

Results

No significant associations were observed between fish intake and BP. There was a direct association with fish intake and BMI in the Japanese population sample (P trend\u00a0=\u00a00.03; fully adjusted model). In Japan, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and taurine, respectively, demonstrated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values of 0.81 and 0.78 in discriminating high against low fish intake, whereas homarine (a metabolite found in shellfish muscle) demonstrated an AUC of 0.80 for high/nonshellfish intake. Direct associations were observed between urinary TMAO and BMI for all regions except Japan (P\u00a0<\u00a00.0001) and in Western populations between TMAO and BP (diastolic blood pressure: mean difference 1.28; 95% CI: 0.55, 2.02 mmHg; P\u00a0=\u00a00.0006, systolic blood pressure: mean difference 1.67; 95% CI: 0.60, 2.73 mmHg; P\u00a0=\u00a00.002).

Conclusions

Urinary TMAO showed a stronger association with fish intake in the Japanese compared with the Western population sample. Urinary TMAO was directly associated with BP in the Western but not the Japanese population sample. Associations between fish intake and its biomarkers and downstream associations with BP/BMI appear to be context specific. INTERMAP is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00005271.", + "laySummary": "Gibson et al.\u2019s study investigates whether having fish in diet will have an effect on urinary metabolism. They\u2019ve assessed dietary and BP measurement across Asian and Westerns and shown that the relationship was stronger in Japanese population compared to Western population and is highly context dependant. ", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997096; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997096?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31372838", @@ -31008,55 +31008,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-019-01308-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712110; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6712110?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34244281", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611", - "title": "Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers in the UK: UK-REACH ethico-legal research, qualitative research on healthcare workers' experiences and stakeholder engagement protocol.", - "authorString": "Gogoi M, Reed-Berendt R, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Wobi F, Gupta A, Abubakar I, Dove E, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-09", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Medical Ethics; Qualitative Research; Medical Law; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging evidence suggests that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds may be disproportionately affected. The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) project has been initiated to generate rapid evidence on whether and why ethnicity affects COVID-19 diagnosis and clinical outcomes in healthcare workers (HCWs) in the UK, through five interlinked work packages/work streams, three of which form the basis of this protocol. The ethico-legal work (Work Package 3) aims to understand and address legal, ethical and acceptability issues around big data research; the HCWs' experiences study (Work Package 4) explores their work and personal experiences, perceptions of risk, support and coping mechanisms; the stakeholder engagement work (Work Package 5) aims to provide feedback and support with the formulation and dissemination of the project recommendations.

Methods and analysis

Work Package 3 has two different research strands: (A) desk-based doctrinal research; and (B) empirical qualitative research with key opinion leaders. For the empirical research, in-depth interviews will be conducted digitally and recorded with participants' permission. Recordings will be transcribed, coded and analysed using thematic analysis. In Work Package 4, online in-depth interviews and focus groups will be conducted with approximately 150 HCWs, from across the UK, and these will be recorded with participants' consent. The recordings will be transcribed and coded and data will be analysed using thematic analysis. Work Package 5 will achieve its objectives through regular group meetings and in-group discussions.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been received from the London-Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority (Ref No 20/HRA/4718). Results of the study will be published in open-access journals, and disseminated through conference presentations, project website, stakeholder organisations, media and scientific advisory groups.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e049611.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "31782492", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293", - "title": "The association of fish consumption and its urinary metabolites with cardiovascular risk factors: the International Study of Macro-/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP).", - "authorString": "Gibson R, Lau CE, Loo RL, Ebbels TMD, Chekmeneva E, Dyer AR, Miura K, Ueshima H, Zhao L, Daviglus ML, Stamler J, Van Horn L, Elliott P, Holmes E, Chan Q.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The American journal of clinical nutrition", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-02-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Hypertension; Blood pressure; FISH; Shellfish; Biomarkers; body mass index; Seafood; Metabonomics; Homarine; Intermap Metabolomics", - "nationalPriorities": "Improving Public Health", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Results from observational studies regarding associations between fish (including shellfish) intake and cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood pressure (BP) and BMI, are inconsistent.

Objective

To investigate associations of fish consumption and associated urinary metabolites with BP and BMI in free-living populations.

Methods

We used cross-sectional data from the International Study of Macro-/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure (INTERMAP), including 4680 men and women (40-59 y) from Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and United States. Dietary intakes were assessed by four 24-h dietary recalls and BP from 8 measurements. Urinary metabolites (2 timed 24-h urinary samples) associated with fish intake acquired from NMR spectroscopy were identified. Linear models were used to estimate BP and BMI differences across categories of intake and per 2 SD higher intake of fish and its biomarkers.

Results

No significant associations were observed between fish intake and BP. There was a direct association with fish intake and BMI in the Japanese population sample (P trend\u00a0=\u00a00.03; fully adjusted model). In Japan, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and taurine, respectively, demonstrated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values of 0.81 and 0.78 in discriminating high against low fish intake, whereas homarine (a metabolite found in shellfish muscle) demonstrated an AUC of 0.80 for high/nonshellfish intake. Direct associations were observed between urinary TMAO and BMI for all regions except Japan (P\u00a0<\u00a00.0001) and in Western populations between TMAO and BP (diastolic blood pressure: mean difference 1.28; 95% CI: 0.55, 2.02 mmHg; P\u00a0=\u00a00.0006, systolic blood pressure: mean difference 1.67; 95% CI: 0.60, 2.73 mmHg; P\u00a0=\u00a00.002).

Conclusions

Urinary TMAO showed a stronger association with fish intake in the Japanese compared with the Western population sample. Urinary TMAO was directly associated with BP in the Western but not the Japanese population sample. Associations between fish intake and its biomarkers and downstream associations with BP/BMI appear to be context specific. INTERMAP is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00005271.", - "laySummary": "Gibson et al.\u2019s study investigates whether having fish in diet will have an effect on urinary metabolism. They\u2019ve assessed dietary and BP measurement across Asian and Westerns and shown that the relationship was stronger in Japanese population compared to Western population and is highly context dependant. ", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz293; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997096; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997096?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33444378", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417", - "title": "Probabilistic transmission models incorporating sequencing data for healthcare-associated Clostridioides difficile outperform heuristic rules and identify strain-specific differences in transmission.", - "authorString": "Eyre DW, Laager M, Walker AS, Cooper BS, Wilson DJ, CDC Modeling Infectious Diseases in Healthcare Program (MInD-Healthcare).", + "id": "35509371", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2", + "title": "Single-cell multi-omics analysis reveals IFN-driven alterations in T lymphocytes and natural killer cells in systemic lupus erythematosus.", + "authorString": "Trzupek D, Lee M, Hamey F, Wicker LS, Todd JA, Ferreira RC.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PLoS computational biology", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-14", + "date": "2021-01-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Biomarker; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle); Type I Interferon (Ifn); Multi-omics; Single-cell Rna-sequencing (Scrna-seq); Abseq; Bd Rhapsody; Cytotoxic Cd4+ T Cells (Ctls)", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Fitting stochastic transmission models to electronic patient data can offer detailed insights into the transmission of healthcare-associated infections and improve infection control. Pathogen whole-genome sequencing may improve the precision of model inferences, but computational constraints have limited modelling applications predominantly to small datasets and specific outbreaks, whereas large-scale sequencing studies have mostly relied on simple rules for identifying/excluding plausible transmission. We present a novel approach for integrating detailed epidemiological data on patient contact networks in hospitals with large-scale pathogen sequencing data. We apply our approach to study Clostridioides difficile transmission using a dataset of 1223 infections in Oxfordshire, UK, 2007-2011. 262 (21% [95% credibility interval 20-22%]) infections were estimated to have been acquired from another known case. There was heterogeneity by sequence type (ST) in the proportion of cases acquired from another case with the highest rates in ST1 (ribotype-027), ST42 (ribotype-106) and ST3 (ribotype-001). These same STs also had higher rates of transmission mediated via environmental contamination/spores persisting after patient discharge/recovery; for ST1 these persisted longer than for most other STs except ST3 and ST42. We also identified variation in transmission between hospitals, medical specialties and over time; by 2011 nearly all transmission from known cases had ceased in our hospitals. Our findings support previous work suggesting only a minority of C. difficile infections are acquired from known cases but highlight a greater role for environmental contamination than previously thought. Our approach is applicable to other healthcare-associated infections. Our findings have important implications for effective control of C. difficile.", + "abstract": "Background: The characterisation of the peripheral immune system in the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) at the single-cell level has been limited by the reduced sensitivity of current whole-transcriptomic technologies. Here we employ a targeted single-cell multi-omics approach, combining protein and mRNA quantification, to generate a high-resolution map of the T lymphocyte and natural killer (NK) cell populations in blood from SLE patients. Methods: We designed a custom panel to quantify the transcription of 534 genes in parallel with the expression of 51 surface protein targets using the BD Rhapsody AbSeq single-cell system. We applied this technology to profile 20,656 T and NK cells isolated from peripheral blood from an SLE patient with a type I interferon (IFN)-induced gene expression signature (IFN hi), and an age- and sex- matched IFN low SLE patient and healthy donor. Results: We confirmed the presence of a rare cytotoxic CD4 + T cell (CTL) subset, which was exclusively present in the IFN hi patient. Furthermore, we identified additional alterations consistent with increased immune activation in this patient, most notably a shift towards terminally differentiated CD57 + CD8 + T cell and CD16 + NK dim phenotypes, and the presence of a subset of recently-activated na\u00efve CD4 + T cells. Conclusions: Our results identify IFN-driven changes in the composition and phenotype of T and NK cells that are consistent with a systemic immune activation within the IFN hi patient, and underscore the added resolving power of this multi-omics approach to identify rare immune subsets. Consequently, we were able to find evidence for novel cellular peripheral biomarkers of SLE disease activity, including a subpopulation of CD57 + CD4 + CTLs.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-149/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16883.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9046903?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35861824", @@ -31092,6 +31058,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/72/714/e63.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8589464?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34244281", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611", + "title": "Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers in the UK: UK-REACH ethico-legal research, qualitative research on healthcare workers' experiences and stakeholder engagement protocol.", + "authorString": "Gogoi M, Reed-Berendt R, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Wobi F, Gupta A, Abubakar I, Dove E, Nellums LB, Pareek M, UK-REACH Collaborative Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-07-09", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Medical Ethics; Qualitative Research; Medical Law; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging evidence suggests that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds may be disproportionately affected. The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) project has been initiated to generate rapid evidence on whether and why ethnicity affects COVID-19 diagnosis and clinical outcomes in healthcare workers (HCWs) in the UK, through five interlinked work packages/work streams, three of which form the basis of this protocol. The ethico-legal work (Work Package 3) aims to understand and address legal, ethical and acceptability issues around big data research; the HCWs' experiences study (Work Package 4) explores their work and personal experiences, perceptions of risk, support and coping mechanisms; the stakeholder engagement work (Work Package 5) aims to provide feedback and support with the formulation and dissemination of the project recommendations.

Methods and analysis

Work Package 3 has two different research strands: (A) desk-based doctrinal research; and (B) empirical qualitative research with key opinion leaders. For the empirical research, in-depth interviews will be conducted digitally and recorded with participants' permission. Recordings will be transcribed, coded and analysed using thematic analysis. In Work Package 4, online in-depth interviews and focus groups will be conducted with approximately 150 HCWs, from across the UK, and these will be recorded with participants' consent. The recordings will be transcribed and coded and data will be analysed using thematic analysis. Work Package 5 will achieve its objectives through regular group meetings and in-group discussions.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been received from the London-Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority (Ref No 20/HRA/4718). Results of the study will be published in open-access journals, and disseminated through conference presentations, project website, stakeholder organisations, media and scientific advisory groups.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN11811602.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/7/e049611.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049611; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8275361?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33444378", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417", + "title": "Probabilistic transmission models incorporating sequencing data for healthcare-associated Clostridioides difficile outperform heuristic rules and identify strain-specific differences in transmission.", + "authorString": "Eyre DW, Laager M, Walker AS, Cooper BS, Wilson DJ, CDC Modeling Infectious Diseases in Healthcare Program (MInD-Healthcare).", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PLoS computational biology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Fitting stochastic transmission models to electronic patient data can offer detailed insights into the transmission of healthcare-associated infections and improve infection control. Pathogen whole-genome sequencing may improve the precision of model inferences, but computational constraints have limited modelling applications predominantly to small datasets and specific outbreaks, whereas large-scale sequencing studies have mostly relied on simple rules for identifying/excluding plausible transmission. We present a novel approach for integrating detailed epidemiological data on patient contact networks in hospitals with large-scale pathogen sequencing data. We apply our approach to study Clostridioides difficile transmission using a dataset of 1223 infections in Oxfordshire, UK, 2007-2011. 262 (21% [95% credibility interval 20-22%]) infections were estimated to have been acquired from another known case. There was heterogeneity by sequence type (ST) in the proportion of cases acquired from another case with the highest rates in ST1 (ribotype-027), ST42 (ribotype-106) and ST3 (ribotype-001). These same STs also had higher rates of transmission mediated via environmental contamination/spores persisting after patient discharge/recovery; for ST1 these persisted longer than for most other STs except ST3 and ST42. We also identified variation in transmission between hospitals, medical specialties and over time; by 2011 nearly all transmission from known cases had ceased in our hospitals. Our findings support previous work suggesting only a minority of C. difficile infections are acquired from known cases but highlight a greater role for environmental contamination than previously thought. Our approach is applicable to other healthcare-associated infections. Our findings have important implications for effective control of C. difficile.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008417; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7840057?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32108548", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881120907973", @@ -31161,21 +31161,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10552-021-01466-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-021-01466-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492588; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8492588?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35879886", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722002501", - "title": "Depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.", - "authorString": "Young KS, Purves KL, H\u00fcbel C, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Bristow S, Krebs G, Danese A, Hirsch C, Parsons CE, Vassos E, Adey BN, Bright S, Hegemann L, Lee YT, Kalsi G, Monssen D, Mundy J, Peel AJ, Rayner C, Rogers HC, Ter Kuile A, Ward C, York K, Lin Y, Palmos AB, Schmidt U, Veale D, Nicholson TR, Pollak TA, Stevelink SAM, Moukhtarian T, Martineau AR, Holt H, Maughan B, Al-Chalabi A, Chaudhuri KR, Richardson MP, Bradley JR, Chinnery PF, Kingston N, Papadia S, Stirrups KE, Linger R, Hotopf M, Eley TC, Breen G.", + "id": "31950891", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.96", + "title": "Predicting high-cost care in a mental health setting.", + "authorString": "Colling C, Khondoker M, Patel R, Fok M, Harland R, Broadbent M, McCrone P, Stewart R.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Psychological medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-26", + "journalTitle": "BJPsych open", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-01-17", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Depression; Anxiety; Ptsd; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Prediction; Natural Language Processing; Mental Health Service; Digital Health Records", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health is still being unravelled. It is important to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms. This study aimed to examine changes in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms using prospective and retrospective symptom change assessments, and to find and examine the effect of key risk factors.

Method

Online questionnaires were administered to 34 465 individuals (aged 16 years or above) in April/May 2020 in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one-third (n = 12 718) of included participants had prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety and had completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments (between September 2018 and February 2020), allowing prospective investigation of symptom change.

Results

Prospective symptom analyses showed small decreases in depression (PHQ-9: -0.43 points) and anxiety [generalised anxiety disorder scale - 7 items (GAD)-7: -0.33 points] and increases in PTSD (PCL-6: 0.22 points). Conversely, retrospective symptom analyses demonstrated significant large increases (PHQ-9: 2.40; GAD-7 = 1.97), with 55% reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic on a global change rating. Across both prospective and retrospective measures of symptom change, worsening depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms were associated with prior mental health diagnoses, female gender, young age and unemployed/student status.

Conclusions

We highlight the effect of prior mental health diagnoses on worsening mental health during the pandemic and confirm previously reported sociodemographic risk factors. Discrepancies between prospective and retrospective measures of changes in mental health may be related to recall bias-related underestimation of prior symptom severity.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8C3760ED596F1ED8B80F729AC5E47B9B/S0033291722002501a.pdf/div-class-title-depression-anxiety-and-ptsd-symptoms-before-and-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-the-uk-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722002501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Background

The density of information in digital health records offers new potential opportunities for automated prediction of cost-relevant outcomes.

Aims

We investigated the extent to which routinely recorded data held in the electronic health record (EHR) predict priority service outcomes and whether natural language processing tools enhance the predictions. We evaluated three high priority outcomes: in-patient duration, readmission following in-patient care and high service cost after first presentation.

Method

We used data obtained from a clinical database derived from the EHR of a large mental healthcare provider within the UK. We combined structured data with text-derived data relating to diagnosis statements, medication and psychiatric symptomatology. Predictors of the three different clinical outcomes were modelled using logistic regression with performance evaluated against a validation set to derive areas under receiver operating characteristic curves.

Results

In validation samples, the full models (using all available data) achieved areas under receiver operating characteristic curves between 0.59 and 0.85 (in-patient duration 0.63, readmission 0.59, high service use 0.85). Adding natural language processing-derived data to the models increased the variance explained across all clinical scenarios (observed increase in r2 = 12-46%).

Conclusions

EHR data offer the potential to improve routine clinical predictions by utilising previously inaccessible data. Of our scenarios, prediction of high service use after initial presentation achieved the highest performance.", + "laySummary": "This study uses data from a mental healthcare provider to predict 3 things: 1) extended duration of stay in a hospital, 2) the likelihood of needing to be admitted to hospital again after discharge, and 3) likehood of needing 'high intesity service' (high cost services). The authors developed a natural language processing model (a computer system than aims to interpret text and draw out useful information) to review the text, diagnoses, medications and the patient symptoms to work out which patients would fall within those 3 categories. They conclude that their model could be used to improve services through predicting users who will require the most intense and costly care.", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6EF9FC74DC5A744C9D841DD649992ABE/S2056472419000966a.pdf/div-class-title-predicting-high-cost-care-in-a-mental-health-setting-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.96; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7001466; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7001466?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34788413", @@ -31195,21 +31195,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/51/1/17/42555483/dyab149.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab149; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856003; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856003?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31950891", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.96", - "title": "Predicting high-cost care in a mental health setting.", - "authorString": "Colling C, Khondoker M, Patel R, Fok M, Harland R, Broadbent M, McCrone P, Stewart R.", + "id": "35879886", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722002501", + "title": "Depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.", + "authorString": "Young KS, Purves KL, H\u00fcbel C, Davies MR, Thompson KN, Bristow S, Krebs G, Danese A, Hirsch C, Parsons CE, Vassos E, Adey BN, Bright S, Hegemann L, Lee YT, Kalsi G, Monssen D, Mundy J, Peel AJ, Rayner C, Rogers HC, Ter Kuile A, Ward C, York K, Lin Y, Palmos AB, Schmidt U, Veale D, Nicholson TR, Pollak TA, Stevelink SAM, Moukhtarian T, Martineau AR, Holt H, Maughan B, Al-Chalabi A, Chaudhuri KR, Richardson MP, Bradley JR, Chinnery PF, Kingston N, Papadia S, Stirrups KE, Linger R, Hotopf M, Eley TC, Breen G.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BJPsych open", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-01-17", + "journalTitle": "Psychological medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-26", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Prediction; Natural Language Processing; Mental Health Service; Digital Health Records", + "keywords": "Depression; Anxiety; Ptsd; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The density of information in digital health records offers new potential opportunities for automated prediction of cost-relevant outcomes.

Aims

We investigated the extent to which routinely recorded data held in the electronic health record (EHR) predict priority service outcomes and whether natural language processing tools enhance the predictions. We evaluated three high priority outcomes: in-patient duration, readmission following in-patient care and high service cost after first presentation.

Method

We used data obtained from a clinical database derived from the EHR of a large mental healthcare provider within the UK. We combined structured data with text-derived data relating to diagnosis statements, medication and psychiatric symptomatology. Predictors of the three different clinical outcomes were modelled using logistic regression with performance evaluated against a validation set to derive areas under receiver operating characteristic curves.

Results

In validation samples, the full models (using all available data) achieved areas under receiver operating characteristic curves between 0.59 and 0.85 (in-patient duration 0.63, readmission 0.59, high service use 0.85). Adding natural language processing-derived data to the models increased the variance explained across all clinical scenarios (observed increase in r2 = 12-46%).

Conclusions

EHR data offer the potential to improve routine clinical predictions by utilising previously inaccessible data. Of our scenarios, prediction of high service use after initial presentation achieved the highest performance.", - "laySummary": "This study uses data from a mental healthcare provider to predict 3 things: 1) extended duration of stay in a hospital, 2) the likelihood of needing to be admitted to hospital again after discharge, and 3) likehood of needing 'high intesity service' (high cost services). The authors developed a natural language processing model (a computer system than aims to interpret text and draw out useful information) to review the text, diagnoses, medications and the patient symptoms to work out which patients would fall within those 3 categories. They conclude that their model could be used to improve services through predicting users who will require the most intense and costly care.", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6EF9FC74DC5A744C9D841DD649992ABE/S2056472419000966a.pdf/div-class-title-predicting-high-cost-care-in-a-mental-health-setting-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.96; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7001466; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7001466?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Background

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health is still being unravelled. It is important to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms. This study aimed to examine changes in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms using prospective and retrospective symptom change assessments, and to find and examine the effect of key risk factors.

Method

Online questionnaires were administered to 34 465 individuals (aged 16 years or above) in April/May 2020 in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one-third (n = 12 718) of included participants had prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety and had completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments (between September 2018 and February 2020), allowing prospective investigation of symptom change.

Results

Prospective symptom analyses showed small decreases in depression (PHQ-9: -0.43 points) and anxiety [generalised anxiety disorder scale - 7 items (GAD)-7: -0.33 points] and increases in PTSD (PCL-6: 0.22 points). Conversely, retrospective symptom analyses demonstrated significant large increases (PHQ-9: 2.40; GAD-7 = 1.97), with 55% reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic on a global change rating. Across both prospective and retrospective measures of symptom change, worsening depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms were associated with prior mental health diagnoses, female gender, young age and unemployed/student status.

Conclusions

We highlight the effect of prior mental health diagnoses on worsening mental health during the pandemic and confirm previously reported sociodemographic risk factors. Discrepancies between prospective and retrospective measures of changes in mental health may be related to recall bias-related underestimation of prior symptom severity.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8C3760ED596F1ED8B80F729AC5E47B9B/S0033291722002501a.pdf/div-class-title-depression-anxiety-and-ptsd-symptoms-before-and-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-the-uk-div.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722002501; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10482709?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36865374", @@ -31296,23 +31296,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01951-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01951-8" }, - { - "id": "31021418", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046", - "title": "'It's like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn't die': a\u00a0qualitative exploration of young people's adaptation to\u00a0eczema and implications for self-care.", - "authorString": "Ghio D, Muller I, Greenwell K, Roberts A, McNiven A, Langan SM, Santer M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-07-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Eczema is a common childhood inflammatory skin condition, affecting more than one in five children. A popular perception is that children 'outgrow eczema', although epidemiological studies have shown that, for many, eczema follows a lifelong episodic course.

Objectives

To explore the perceptions of young people about the nature of their eczema and how these perceptions relate to their self-care and adapting to living with eczema.

Methods

This is a secondary inductive thematic analysis of interviews conducted for Healthtalk.org. In total 23 interviews with young people with eczema were included. Of the 23 participants, 17 were female and six male, ranging from 17 to 25 years old.

Results

Participants generally experienced eczema as an episodic long-term condition and reported a mismatch between information received about eczema and their experiences. The experience of eczema as long term and episodic had implications for self-care, challenging the process of identifying triggers of eczema flare-ups and evaluating the success of treatment regimens. Participants' experiences of eczema over time also had implications for adaptation and finding a balance between accepting eczema as long term and hoping it would go away. This linked to a gradual shift in treatment expectations from 'cure' to 'control' of eczema.

Conclusions

For young people who continue to experience eczema beyond childhood, a greater focus on self-care for a long-term condition may be helpful. Greater awareness of the impact of early messages around 'growing out of' eczema and provision of high-quality information may help patients to manage expectations and support adaptation to treatment regimens. What's already known about this topic? There is a common perception that people 'grow out of' eczema, but for many people eczema follows a lifelong episodic course. Qualitative work has shown that parents can find that being told their child will grow out of eczema is dismissive, and that they have difficulty with messages about 'control not cure' of eczema. It is unclear how young people perceive their eczema and the implications of this perception for their adaptation and self-care. What does this study add? The message that many people 'grow out of' eczema has a potentially detrimental effect for young people where the condition persists. This has implications for young people's perceptions of their eczema, their learning to self-care and how they adapt to living with eczema and eczema treatments. What are the clinical implications of this work? Clinicians need to promote awareness among young people that eczema is a long-term episodic condition in order to engage them with effective self-care. Young people transitioning to self-care need evidence-based information that is specific and relatable to them.", - "laySummary": " ", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18046; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30928767", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2019.03.002", @@ -31331,21 +31314,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa49960/Download/0049960-14052019134527.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2019.03.002" }, { - "id": "32576090", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.029042", - "title": "Telemedicine Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety After Stroke: Proof-of-Concept Randomized Controlled Trial.", - "authorString": "Chun HY, Carson AJ, Tsanas A, Dennis MS, Mead GE, Calabria C, Whiteley WN.", + "id": "31021418", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046", + "title": "'It's like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn't die': a\u00a0qualitative exploration of young people's adaptation to\u00a0eczema and implications for self-care.", + "authorString": "Ghio D, Muller I, Greenwell K, Roberts A, McNiven A, Langan SM, Santer M.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Stroke", + "journalTitle": "The British journal of dermatology", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-24", + "date": "2019-07-28", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Stroke; Anxiety; Workflow; Telemedicine; psychotherapy", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background and purpose

Disabling anxiety affects a quarter of stroke survivors but access to treatment is poor. We developed a telemedicine model for delivering guided self-help cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety after stroke (TASK-CBT). We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of TASK-CBT in a randomized controlled trial workflow that enabled all trial procedures to be carried out remotely. In addition, we explored the feasibility of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor as a way of measuring objective outcomes in this clinical trial.

Methods

We recruited adult community-based stroke patients (n=27) and randomly allocated them to TASK-CBT (n=14) or relaxation therapy (TASK-Relax), an active comparator (n=13).

Results

In our sample (mean age 65 [\u00b110]; 56% men; 63% stroke, 37% transient ischemic attacks), remote self-enrolment, electronic signature, intervention delivery, and automated follow-up were feasible. All participants completed all TASK-CBT sessions (14/14). Lower levels of anxiety were observed in TASK-CBT when compared with TASK-Relax at both weeks 6 and 20. Mean actigraphy sensor wearing-time was 33 days (\u00b115).

Conclusions

Our preliminary feasibility data from the current study support a larger definitive clinical trial and the use of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor in anxious stroke survivors. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT03439813.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539?pdf=render" + "abstract": "

Background

Eczema is a common childhood inflammatory skin condition, affecting more than one in five children. A popular perception is that children 'outgrow eczema', although epidemiological studies have shown that, for many, eczema follows a lifelong episodic course.

Objectives

To explore the perceptions of young people about the nature of their eczema and how these perceptions relate to their self-care and adapting to living with eczema.

Methods

This is a secondary inductive thematic analysis of interviews conducted for Healthtalk.org. In total 23 interviews with young people with eczema were included. Of the 23 participants, 17 were female and six male, ranging from 17 to 25 years old.

Results

Participants generally experienced eczema as an episodic long-term condition and reported a mismatch between information received about eczema and their experiences. The experience of eczema as long term and episodic had implications for self-care, challenging the process of identifying triggers of eczema flare-ups and evaluating the success of treatment regimens. Participants' experiences of eczema over time also had implications for adaptation and finding a balance between accepting eczema as long term and hoping it would go away. This linked to a gradual shift in treatment expectations from 'cure' to 'control' of eczema.

Conclusions

For young people who continue to experience eczema beyond childhood, a greater focus on self-care for a long-term condition may be helpful. Greater awareness of the impact of early messages around 'growing out of' eczema and provision of high-quality information may help patients to manage expectations and support adaptation to treatment regimens. What's already known about this topic? There is a common perception that people 'grow out of' eczema, but for many people eczema follows a lifelong episodic course. Qualitative work has shown that parents can find that being told their child will grow out of eczema is dismissive, and that they have difficulty with messages about 'control not cure' of eczema. It is unclear how young people perceive their eczema and the implications of this perception for their adaptation and self-care. What does this study add? The message that many people 'grow out of' eczema has a potentially detrimental effect for young people where the condition persists. This has implications for young people's perceptions of their eczema, their learning to self-care and how they adapt to living with eczema and eczema treatments. What are the clinical implications of this work? Clinicians need to promote awareness among young people that eczema is a long-term episodic condition in order to engage them with effective self-care. Young people transitioning to self-care need evidence-based information that is specific and relatable to them.", + "laySummary": " ", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18046; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18046; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6972719?pdf=render" }, { "id": "37034358", @@ -31382,21 +31365,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18783-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18783-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7538915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7538915?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35908569", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01109-6", - "title": "Baricitinib in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial and updated meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "RECOVERY Collaborative Group.", + "id": "32576090", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.120.029042", + "title": "Telemedicine Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety After Stroke: Proof-of-Concept Randomized Controlled Trial.", + "authorString": "Chun HY, Carson AJ, Tsanas A, Dennis MS, Mead GE, Calabria C, Whiteley WN.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-01", + "journalTitle": "Stroke", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-24", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "keywords": "Stroke; Anxiety; Workflow; Telemedicine; psychotherapy", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

We aimed to evaluate the use of baricitinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) 1-2 inhibitor, for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus baricitinib 4 mg once daily by mouth for 10 days or until discharge if sooner (baricitinib group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality assessed in the intention-to-treat population. A meta-analysis was done, which included the results from the RECOVERY trial and all previous randomised controlled trials of baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936) and is ongoing.

Findings

Between Feb 2 and Dec 29, 2021, from 10\u2008852 enrolled, 8156 patients were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus baricitinib versus usual care alone. At randomisation, 95% of patients were receiving corticosteroids and 23% were receiving tocilizumab (with planned use within the next 24 h recorded for a further 9%). Overall, 514 (12%) of 4148 patients allocated to baricitinib versus 546 (14%) of 4008 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (age-adjusted rate ratio 0\u00b787; 95% CI 0\u00b777-0\u00b799; p=0\u00b7028). This 13% proportional reduction in mortality was somewhat smaller than that seen in a meta-analysis of eight previous trials of a JAK inhibitor (involving 3732 patients and 425 deaths), in which allocation to a JAK inhibitor was associated with a 43% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0\u00b757; 95% CI 0\u00b745-0\u00b772). Including the results from RECOVERY in an updated meta-analysis of all nine completed trials (involving 11\u2008888 randomly assigned patients and 1485 deaths) allocation to baricitinib or another JAK inhibitor was associated with a 20% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0\u00b780; 95% CI 0\u00b772-0\u00b789; p<0\u00b70001). In RECOVERY, there was no significant excess in death or infection due to non-COVID-19 causes and no significant excess of thrombosis, or other safety outcomes.

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, baricitinib significantly reduced the risk of death but the size of benefit was somewhat smaller than that suggested by previous trials. The total randomised evidence to date suggests that JAK inhibitors (chiefly baricitinib) reduce mortality in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 by about one-fifth.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.", + "abstract": "

Background and purpose

Disabling anxiety affects a quarter of stroke survivors but access to treatment is poor. We developed a telemedicine model for delivering guided self-help cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety after stroke (TASK-CBT). We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of TASK-CBT in a randomized controlled trial workflow that enabled all trial procedures to be carried out remotely. In addition, we explored the feasibility of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor as a way of measuring objective outcomes in this clinical trial.

Methods

We recruited adult community-based stroke patients (n=27) and randomly allocated them to TASK-CBT (n=14) or relaxation therapy (TASK-Relax), an active comparator (n=13).

Results

In our sample (mean age 65 [\u00b110]; 56% men; 63% stroke, 37% transient ischemic attacks), remote self-enrolment, electronic signature, intervention delivery, and automated follow-up were feasible. All participants completed all TASK-CBT sessions (14/14). Lower levels of anxiety were observed in TASK-CBT when compared with TASK-Relax at both weeks 6 and 20. Mean actigraphy sensor wearing-time was 33 days (\u00b115).

Conclusions

Our preliminary feasibility data from the current study support a larger definitive clinical trial and the use of wrist-worn actigraphy sensor in anxious stroke survivors. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT03439813.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673622011096/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01109-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029042; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7382539?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31504409", @@ -31415,6 +31398,23 @@ "laySummary": "Inflammation is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and is linked with a higher risk of cancer. This study investigates the relationship between inflammation and risk of cancer in patients with stable CVD. The study reports that low-grade inflammation, is a risk factor for incident cancer, markedly lung cancer, in patients with stable CVD.", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-pdf/40/48/3901/32523962/ehz587.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz587; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925382; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925382?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35908569", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01109-6", + "title": "Baricitinib in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial and updated meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "RECOVERY Collaborative Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

We aimed to evaluate the use of baricitinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) 1-2 inhibitor, for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Methods

This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus baricitinib 4 mg once daily by mouth for 10 days or until discharge if sooner (baricitinib group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality assessed in the intention-to-treat population. A meta-analysis was done, which included the results from the RECOVERY trial and all previous randomised controlled trials of baricitinib or other JAK inhibitor in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936) and is ongoing.

Findings

Between Feb 2 and Dec 29, 2021, from 10\u2008852 enrolled, 8156 patients were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus baricitinib versus usual care alone. At randomisation, 95% of patients were receiving corticosteroids and 23% were receiving tocilizumab (with planned use within the next 24 h recorded for a further 9%). Overall, 514 (12%) of 4148 patients allocated to baricitinib versus 546 (14%) of 4008 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (age-adjusted rate ratio 0\u00b787; 95% CI 0\u00b777-0\u00b799; p=0\u00b7028). This 13% proportional reduction in mortality was somewhat smaller than that seen in a meta-analysis of eight previous trials of a JAK inhibitor (involving 3732 patients and 425 deaths), in which allocation to a JAK inhibitor was associated with a 43% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0\u00b757; 95% CI 0\u00b745-0\u00b772). Including the results from RECOVERY in an updated meta-analysis of all nine completed trials (involving 11\u2008888 randomly assigned patients and 1485 deaths) allocation to baricitinib or another JAK inhibitor was associated with a 20% proportional reduction in mortality (rate ratio 0\u00b780; 95% CI 0\u00b772-0\u00b789; p<0\u00b70001). In RECOVERY, there was no significant excess in death or infection due to non-COVID-19 causes and no significant excess of thrombosis, or other safety outcomes.

Interpretation

In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, baricitinib significantly reduced the risk of death but the size of benefit was somewhat smaller than that suggested by previous trials. The total randomised evidence to date suggests that JAK inhibitors (chiefly baricitinib) reduce mortality in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 by about one-fifth.

Funding

UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673622011096/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01109-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9333998?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32514173", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0941-1", @@ -31432,23 +31432,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/85586; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0941-1" }, - { - "id": "33436814", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0", - "title": "A natural language processing approach for identifying temporal disease onset information from mental healthcare text.", - "authorString": "Viani N, Botelle R, Kerwin J, Yin L, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Receiving timely and appropriate treatment is crucial for better health outcomes, and research on the contribution of specific variables is essential. In the mental health domain, an important research variable is the date of psychosis symptom onset, as longer delays in treatment are associated with worse intervention outcomes. The growing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) within mental health services provides an invaluable opportunity to study this problem at scale retrospectively. However, disease onset information is often only available in open text fields, requiring natural language processing (NLP) techniques for automated analyses. Since this variable can be documented at different points during a patient's care, NLP methods that model clinical and temporal associations are needed. We address the identification of psychosis onset by: 1) manually annotating a corpus of mental health EHRs with disease onset mentions, 2) modelling the underlying NLP problem as a paragraph classification approach, and 3) combining multiple onset paragraphs at the patient level to generate a ranked list of likely disease onset dates. For 22/31 test patients (71%) the correct onset date was found among the top-3 NLP predictions. The proposed approach was also applied at scale, allowing an onset date to be estimated for 2483 patients.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80457-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31748235", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6055", @@ -31466,6 +31449,23 @@ "laySummary": "Kaura et al. used a large database of about a quarter of a million patients who had toponin measurements and concluded that there was an association between positive troponin results and mortality regardless of age ", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/367/bmj.l6055.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6055; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6865859" }, + { + "id": "33436814", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0", + "title": "A natural language processing approach for identifying temporal disease onset information from mental healthcare text.", + "authorString": "Viani N, Botelle R, Kerwin J, Yin L, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Receiving timely and appropriate treatment is crucial for better health outcomes, and research on the contribution of specific variables is essential. In the mental health domain, an important research variable is the date of psychosis symptom onset, as longer delays in treatment are associated with worse intervention outcomes. The growing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) within mental health services provides an invaluable opportunity to study this problem at scale retrospectively. However, disease onset information is often only available in open text fields, requiring natural language processing (NLP) techniques for automated analyses. Since this variable can be documented at different points during a patient's care, NLP methods that model clinical and temporal associations are needed. We address the identification of psychosis onset by: 1) manually annotating a corpus of mental health EHRs with disease onset mentions, 2) modelling the underlying NLP problem as a paragraph classification approach, and 3) combining multiple onset paragraphs at the patient level to generate a ranked list of likely disease onset dates. For 22/31 test patients (71%) the correct onset date was found among the top-3 NLP predictions. The proposed approach was also applied at scale, allowing an onset date to be estimated for 2483 patients.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80457-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80457-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7804184?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33012285", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01779-4", @@ -31483,6 +31483,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01779-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01779-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7533154; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7533154?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "30765456", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043014", + "title": "Crash characteristics of on-road single-bicycle crashes: an under-recognised problem.", + "authorString": "Beck B, Stevenson MR, Cameron P, Oxley J, Newstead S, Olivier J, Boufous S, Gabbe BJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-02-14", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Functional Outcome; Bicycle", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Compared with crashes with motor vehicles, single-bicycle crashes are an under-recognised contributor to cycling injury and the aetiology is poorly understood. Using an in-depth crash investigation technique, this study describes the crash characteristics and patient outcomes of a sample of cyclists admitted to hospital following on-road bicycle crashes. Enrolled cyclists completed a structured interview, and injury details and patient outcomes were extracted from trauma registries. Single-bicycle crashes (n=62) accounted for 48% of on-road crashes and commonly involved experienced cyclists. Common single-bicycle crash types included loss-of-control events, interactions with tram tracks, striking potholes or objects or resulting from mechanical issues with the bicycle. To address single-bicycle crashes, targeted countermeasures are required for each of these specific crash types.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Crash_characteristics_of_on-road_single-bicycle_crashes_an_under-recognised_problem/19807744/1/files/35209867.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043014" + }, + { + "id": "33617936", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012", + "title": "Global and national estimates of the number of healthcare workers at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.", + "authorString": "McCarthy CV, Sandmann FG, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of hospital infection", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-02-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195670121000712/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32784218", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20x712313", @@ -31518,55 +31552,55 @@ "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0092867419311201/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7202134; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7202134?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.004" }, { - "id": "30765456", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043014", - "title": "Crash characteristics of on-road single-bicycle crashes: an under-recognised problem.", - "authorString": "Beck B, Stevenson MR, Cameron P, Oxley J, Newstead S, Olivier J, Boufous S, Gabbe BJ.", + "id": "32656368", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2", + "title": "What settings have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 transmission clusters?", + "authorString": "Leclerc QJ, Fuller NM, Knight LE, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Knight GM.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-02-14", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Functional Outcome; Bicycle", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Transmission; Cluster; Coronavirus; Settings; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Compared with crashes with motor vehicles, single-bicycle crashes are an under-recognised contributor to cycling injury and the aetiology is poorly understood. Using an in-depth crash investigation technique, this study describes the crash characteristics and patient outcomes of a sample of cyclists admitted to hospital following on-road bicycle crashes. Enrolled cyclists completed a structured interview, and injury details and patient outcomes were extracted from trauma registries. Single-bicycle crashes (n=62) accounted for 48% of on-road crashes and commonly involved experienced cyclists. Common single-bicycle crash types included loss-of-control events, interactions with tram tracks, striking potholes or objects or resulting from mechanical issues with the bicycle. To address single-bicycle crashes, targeted countermeasures are required for each of these specific crash types.", + "abstract": "Background: Concern about the health impact of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in widespread enforced reductions in people's movement (\"lockdowns\"). However, there are increasing concerns about the severe economic and wider societal consequences of these measures. Some countries have begun to lift some of the rules on physical distancing in a stepwise manner, with differences in what these \"exit strategies\" entail and their timeframes. The aim of this work was to inform such exit strategies by exploring the types of indoor and outdoor settings where transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to occur and result in clusters of cases. Identifying potential settings that result in transmission clusters allows these to be kept under close surveillance and/or to remain closed as part of strategies that aim to avoid a resurgence in transmission following the lifting of lockdown measures. Methods: We performed a systematic review of available literature and media reports to find settings reported in peer reviewed articles and media with these characteristics. These sources are curated and made available in an editable online database. Results: We found many examples of SARS-CoV-2 clusters linked to a wide range of mostly indoor settings. Few reports came from schools, many from households, and an increasing number were reported in hospitals and elderly care settings across Europe. Conclusions: We identified possible places that are linked to clusters of COVID-19 cases and could be closely monitored and/or remain closed in the first instance following the progressive removal of lockdown restrictions. However, in part due to the limits in surveillance capacities in many settings, the gathering of information such as cluster sizes and attack rates is limited in several ways: inherent recall bias, biased media reporting and missing data.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Crash_characteristics_of_on-road_single-bicycle_crashes_an_under-recognised_problem/19807744/1/files/35209867.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043014" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33617936", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012", - "title": "Global and national estimates of the number of healthcare workers at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.", - "authorString": "McCarthy CV, Sandmann FG, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M.", + "id": "32987048", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.09.053", + "title": "Predicting 10-year risk of recurrent cardiovascular events andcardiovascular interventions in patients with established cardiovascular disease: results from UCC-SMART and REACH.", + "authorString": "Klooster CCV', Bhatt DL, Steg PG, Massaro JM, Dorresteijn JAN, Westerink J, Ruigrok YM, de Borst GJ, Asselbergs FW, van der Graaf Y, Visseren FLJ, UCC-SMART study group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of hospital infection", + "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", + "date": "2020-09-25", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Risk Prediction; Cardiovascular Interventions; Major Cardiovascular Events; Patients With Established Cardiovascular Disease", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Existing cardiovascular risk scores for patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) estimate residual risk of recurrent major cardiovascular events (MACE). The aim of the current study is to develop and externally validate a prediction model to estimate the 10-year combined risk of recurrent MACE and cardiovascular interventions (MACE+) in patients with established CVD.

Methods

Data of patients with established CVD from the UCC-SMART cohort (N\u00a0=\u00a08421) were used for model development, and patient data from REACH Western Europe (N\u00a0=\u00a014,528) and REACH North America (N\u00a0=\u00a019,495) for model validation. Predictors were selected based on the existing SMART risk score. A Fine and Gray competing risk-adjusted 10-year risk model was developed for the combined outcome MACE+. The model was validated in all patients and in strata of coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CeVD), peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Results

External calibration for 2-year risk in REACH Western Europe and REACH North America was good, c-statistics were moderate: 0.60 and 0.58, respectively. In strata of CVD at baseline good external calibration was observed in patients with CHD and CeVD, however, poor calibration was seen in patients with PAD. C-statistics for patients with CHD were 0.60 and 0.57, for patients with CeVD 0.62 and 0.61, and for patients with PAD 0.53 and 0.54 in REACH Western Europe and REACH North America, respectively.

Conclusions

The 10-year combined risk of recurrent MACE and cardiovascular interventions can be estimated in patients with established CHD or CeVD. However, cardiovascular interventions in patients with PAD could not be predicted reliably.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195670121000712/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.012; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7896121?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S0167527320338341/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.09.053" }, { - "id": "32656368", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2", - "title": "What settings have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 transmission clusters?", - "authorString": "Leclerc QJ, Fuller NM, Knight LE, CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Funk S, Knight GM.", + "id": "32934998", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v3i1.412", + "title": "Creating individual level air pollution exposures in an anonymised data safe haven: a platform for evaluating impact on educational attainment.", + "authorString": "Mizen A, Lyons J, Doherty R, Berridge D, Wilkinson P, Milojevic A, Carruthers D, Akbari A, Lake I, Davies GA, Sallakh MA, Mavrogianni A, Dearden L, Johnson R, Rodgers SE.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-05", + "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "pubYear": "2018", + "date": "2018-08-21", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Transmission; Cluster; Coronavirus; Settings; Lockdown; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "keywords": "Air pollution; Cognition; Asthma; Data Linkage; Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: Concern about the health impact of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in widespread enforced reductions in people's movement (\"lockdowns\"). However, there are increasing concerns about the severe economic and wider societal consequences of these measures. Some countries have begun to lift some of the rules on physical distancing in a stepwise manner, with differences in what these \"exit strategies\" entail and their timeframes. The aim of this work was to inform such exit strategies by exploring the types of indoor and outdoor settings where transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to occur and result in clusters of cases. Identifying potential settings that result in transmission clusters allows these to be kept under close surveillance and/or to remain closed as part of strategies that aim to avoid a resurgence in transmission following the lifting of lockdown measures. Methods: We performed a systematic review of available literature and media reports to find settings reported in peer reviewed articles and media with these characteristics. These sources are curated and made available in an editable online database. Results: We found many examples of SARS-CoV-2 clusters linked to a wide range of mostly indoor settings. Few reports came from schools, many from households, and an increasing number were reported in hospitals and elderly care settings across Europe. Conclusions: We identified possible places that are linked to clusters of COVID-19 cases and could be closely monitored and/or remain closed in the first instance following the progressive removal of lockdown restrictions. However, in part due to the limits in surveillance capacities in many settings, the gathering of information such as cluster sizes and attack rates is limited in several ways: inherent recall bias, biased media reporting and missing data.", + "abstract": "

Introduction

There is a lack of evidence on the adverse effects of air pollution on cognition for people with air quality-related health conditions. We propose that educational attainment, as a proxy for cognition, may increase with improved air quality. This study will explore whether asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis, when exacerbated by acute exposure to air pollution, is associated with educational attainment.

Objective

To describe the preparation of individual and household-level linked environmental and health data for analysis within an anonymised safe haven. Also to introduce our statistical analysis plan for our study: COgnition, Respiratory Tract illness and Effects of eXposure (CORTEX).

Methods

We imported daily air pollution and aeroallergen data, and individual level education data into the SAIL databank, an anonymised safe haven for person-based records. We linked individual-level education, socioeconomic and health data to air quality data for home and school locations, creating tailored exposures for individuals across a city. We developed daily exposure data for all pupils in repeated cross sectional exam cohorts (2009-2015).

Conclusion

We have used the SAIL databank, an innovative, data safe haven to create individual-level exposures to air pollution and pollen for multiple daily home and school locations. The analysis platform will allow us to evaluate retrospectively the impact of air quality on attainment for multiple cross-sectional cohorts of pupils. Our methods will allow us to distinguish between the pollution impacts on educational attainment for pupils with and without respiratory health conditions. The results from this study will further our understanding of the effects of air quality and respiratory-related health conditions on cognition.

Highlights

This city-wide study includes longitudinal routinely-recorded educational attainment data for all pupils taking exams over seven years;High spatial resolution air pollution data were linked within a privacy protected databank to obtain individual exposure at multiple daily locations;This study will use health data linked at the individual level to explore associations between air pollution, related morbidity, and educational attainment.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15889.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7327724?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/412/533; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v3i1.412; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7299475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7299475?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34645462", @@ -31586,21 +31620,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-021-02287-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513368; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8513368?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32987048", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.09.053", - "title": "Predicting 10-year risk of recurrent cardiovascular events andcardiovascular interventions in patients with established cardiovascular disease: results from UCC-SMART and REACH.", - "authorString": "Klooster CCV', Bhatt DL, Steg PG, Massaro JM, Dorresteijn JAN, Westerink J, Ruigrok YM, de Borst GJ, Asselbergs FW, van der Graaf Y, Visseren FLJ, UCC-SMART study group.", + "id": "31787481", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.10.061", + "title": "Association of physical health multimorbidity with mortality in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Using a novel semantic search system that captures physical diseases in electronic patient records.", + "authorString": "Kugathasan P, Wu H, Gaughran F, Nielsen RE, Pritchard M, Dobson R, Stewart R, Stubbs B.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2020-09-25", + "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia research", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2019-11-28", "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Risk Prediction; Cardiovascular Interventions; Major Cardiovascular Events; Patients With Established Cardiovascular Disease", + "keywords": "Mortality; Schizophrenia; Somatic; Comorbidity; Severe Mental Illness", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Existing cardiovascular risk scores for patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) estimate residual risk of recurrent major cardiovascular events (MACE). The aim of the current study is to develop and externally validate a prediction model to estimate the 10-year combined risk of recurrent MACE and cardiovascular interventions (MACE+) in patients with established CVD.

Methods

Data of patients with established CVD from the UCC-SMART cohort (N\u00a0=\u00a08421) were used for model development, and patient data from REACH Western Europe (N\u00a0=\u00a014,528) and REACH North America (N\u00a0=\u00a019,495) for model validation. Predictors were selected based on the existing SMART risk score. A Fine and Gray competing risk-adjusted 10-year risk model was developed for the combined outcome MACE+. The model was validated in all patients and in strata of coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CeVD), peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Results

External calibration for 2-year risk in REACH Western Europe and REACH North America was good, c-statistics were moderate: 0.60 and 0.58, respectively. In strata of CVD at baseline good external calibration was observed in patients with CHD and CeVD, however, poor calibration was seen in patients with PAD. C-statistics for patients with CHD were 0.60 and 0.57, for patients with CeVD 0.62 and 0.61, and for patients with PAD 0.53 and 0.54 in REACH Western Europe and REACH North America, respectively.

Conclusions

The 10-year combined risk of recurrent MACE and cardiovascular interventions can be estimated in patients with established CHD or CeVD. However, cardiovascular interventions in patients with PAD could not be predicted reliably.", + "abstract": "

Objective

Single physical comorbidities have been associated with the premature mortality in people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD). We investigated the association of physical multimorbidity (\u2265two physical health conditions) with mortality in people with SSD.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study between 2013 and 2017. All people with a diagnosis of SSD (ICD-10: F20-F29), who had contact with secondary mental healthcare within South London during 2011-2012 were included. A novel semantic search system captured conditions from electronic mental health records, and all-cause mortality were retrieved. Hazard ratios (HRs) and population attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated for associations between physical multimorbidity and all-cause mortality.

Results

Among the 9775 people with SSD (mean (SD) age, 45.9 (15.4); males, 59.3%), 6262 (64%) had physical multimorbidity, and 880 (9%) died during the 5-year follow-up. The top three physical multimorbidity combinations with highest mortality were cardiovascular-respiratory (HR: 2.23; 95% CI, 1.49-3.32), respiratory-skin (HR: 2.06; 95% CI, 1.31-3.24), and respiratory-digestive (HR: 1.88; 95% CI, 1.14-3.11), when adjusted for age, gender, and all other physical disease systems. Combinations of physical diseases with highest PAFs were cardiovascular-respiratory (PAF: 35.7%), neurologic-respiratory (PAF: 32.7%), as well as respiratory-skin (PAF: 29.8%).

Conclusions

Approximately 2/3 of patients with SSD had physical multimorbidity and the risk of mortality in these patients was further increased compared to those with none or single physical conditions. These findings suggest that in order to reduce the physical health burden and subsequent mortality in people with SSD, proactive coordinated prevention and management efforts are required and should extend beyond the current focus on single physical comorbidities.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S0167527320338341/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.09.053" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/124987758/AAM_Association_of_physical_health_multimorbidity....pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.10.061" }, { "id": "35017564", @@ -31619,23 +31653,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27950-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27950-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8752864; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8752864?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32934998", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v3i1.412", - "title": "Creating individual level air pollution exposures in an anonymised data safe haven: a platform for evaluating impact on educational attainment.", - "authorString": "Mizen A, Lyons J, Doherty R, Berridge D, Wilkinson P, Milojevic A, Carruthers D, Akbari A, Lake I, Davies GA, Sallakh MA, Mavrogianni A, Dearden L, Johnson R, Rodgers SE.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", - "pubYear": "2018", - "date": "2018-08-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Air pollution; Cognition; Asthma; Data Linkage; Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

There is a lack of evidence on the adverse effects of air pollution on cognition for people with air quality-related health conditions. We propose that educational attainment, as a proxy for cognition, may increase with improved air quality. This study will explore whether asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis, when exacerbated by acute exposure to air pollution, is associated with educational attainment.

Objective

To describe the preparation of individual and household-level linked environmental and health data for analysis within an anonymised safe haven. Also to introduce our statistical analysis plan for our study: COgnition, Respiratory Tract illness and Effects of eXposure (CORTEX).

Methods

We imported daily air pollution and aeroallergen data, and individual level education data into the SAIL databank, an anonymised safe haven for person-based records. We linked individual-level education, socioeconomic and health data to air quality data for home and school locations, creating tailored exposures for individuals across a city. We developed daily exposure data for all pupils in repeated cross sectional exam cohorts (2009-2015).

Conclusion

We have used the SAIL databank, an innovative, data safe haven to create individual-level exposures to air pollution and pollen for multiple daily home and school locations. The analysis platform will allow us to evaluate retrospectively the impact of air quality on attainment for multiple cross-sectional cohorts of pupils. Our methods will allow us to distinguish between the pollution impacts on educational attainment for pupils with and without respiratory health conditions. The results from this study will further our understanding of the effects of air quality and respiratory-related health conditions on cognition.

Highlights

This city-wide study includes longitudinal routinely-recorded educational attainment data for all pupils taking exams over seven years;High spatial resolution air pollution data were linked within a privacy protected databank to obtain individual exposure at multiple daily locations;This study will use health data linked at the individual level to explore associations between air pollution, related morbidity, and educational attainment.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/412/533; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v3i1.412; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7299475; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7299475?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32430455", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038530", @@ -31654,21 +31671,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/5/e038530.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038530; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239518; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239518?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31787481", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.10.061", - "title": "Association of physical health multimorbidity with mortality in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Using a novel semantic search system that captures physical diseases in electronic patient records.", - "authorString": "Kugathasan P, Wu H, Gaughran F, Nielsen RE, Pritchard M, Dobson R, Stewart R, Stubbs B.", + "id": "32360702", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068", + "title": "Comorbidities and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure across the ejection fraction spectrum: A blueprint for clinical trial design.", + "authorString": "Savarese G, Settergren C, Schrage B, Thorvaldsen T, L\u00f6fman I, Sartipy U, Mellbin L, Meyers A, Farsani SF, Brueckmann M, Brodovicz KG, Vedin O, Asselbergs FW, Dahlstr\u00f6m U, Cosentino F, Lund LH.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Schizophrenia research", + "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-11-28", + "date": "2020-04-30", "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Mortality; Schizophrenia; Somatic; Comorbidity; Severe Mental Illness", + "keywords": "Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Atrial fibrillation; Ejection fraction; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Trial Design", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Single physical comorbidities have been associated with the premature mortality in people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD). We investigated the association of physical multimorbidity (\u2265two physical health conditions) with mortality in people with SSD.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study between 2013 and 2017. All people with a diagnosis of SSD (ICD-10: F20-F29), who had contact with secondary mental healthcare within South London during 2011-2012 were included. A novel semantic search system captured conditions from electronic mental health records, and all-cause mortality were retrieved. Hazard ratios (HRs) and population attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated for associations between physical multimorbidity and all-cause mortality.

Results

Among the 9775 people with SSD (mean (SD) age, 45.9 (15.4); males, 59.3%), 6262 (64%) had physical multimorbidity, and 880 (9%) died during the 5-year follow-up. The top three physical multimorbidity combinations with highest mortality were cardiovascular-respiratory (HR: 2.23; 95% CI, 1.49-3.32), respiratory-skin (HR: 2.06; 95% CI, 1.31-3.24), and respiratory-digestive (HR: 1.88; 95% CI, 1.14-3.11), when adjusted for age, gender, and all other physical disease systems. Combinations of physical diseases with highest PAFs were cardiovascular-respiratory (PAF: 35.7%), neurologic-respiratory (PAF: 32.7%), as well as respiratory-skin (PAF: 29.8%).

Conclusions

Approximately 2/3 of patients with SSD had physical multimorbidity and the risk of mortality in these patients was further increased compared to those with none or single physical conditions. These findings suggest that in order to reduce the physical health burden and subsequent mortality in people with SSD, proactive coordinated prevention and management efforts are required and should extend beyond the current focus on single physical comorbidities.", + "abstract": "

Background

Comorbidities may differently affect treatment response and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure (HF) with preserved (HFpEF) vs. mid-range/mildly-reduced (HFmrEF) vs. reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction (EF), complicating trial design. In patients with HF, we performed a comprehensive analysis of type 2 diabetes (T2DM), atrial fibrillation (AF) chronic kidney disease (CKD), and cause-specific outcomes.

Methods and results

Of 42,583 patients from the Swedish HF registry (23% HFpEF, 21% HFmrEF, 56% HFrEF), 24% had T2DM, 51% CKD, 56% AF, and 8% all three comorbidities. HFpEF had higher prevalence of CKD and AF, HFmrEF had intermediate prevalence of AF, and prevalence of T2DM was similar across the EF spectrum. Patients with T2DM, AF and/or CKD were more likely to have also other comorbidities and more severe HF. Risk of cardiovascular (CV) events was highest in HFrEF vs. HFpEF and HFmrEF; non-CV risk was highest in HFpEF vs. HFmrEF vs. HFrEF. T2DM increased CV and non-CV events similarly but less so in HFpEF. CKD increased CV events somewhat more than non-CV events and less so in HFpEF. AF increased CV events considerably more than non-CV events and more so in HFpEF and HFmrEF.

Conclusion

HFpEF is distinguished from HFmrEF and HFrEF by more comorbidities, non-CV events, but lower effect of T2DM and CKD on events. CV events are most frequent in HFrEF. To enrich for CV vs. non-CV events, trialists should not exclude patients with lower EF, AF and/or CKD, who report higher CV risk.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/124987758/AAM_Association_of_physical_health_multimorbidity....pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.10.061" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S016752732031679X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068" + }, + { + "id": "35300523", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.056663", + "title": "Therapeutic Targets for Heart Failure Identified Using Proteomics and Mendelian Randomization.", + "authorString": "Henry A, Gordillo-Mara\u00f1\u00f3n M, Finan C, Schmidt AF, Ferreira JP, Karra R, Sundstr\u00f6m J, Lind L, \u00c4rnl\u00f6v J, Zannad F, M\u00e4larstig A, Hingorani AD, Lumbers RT, HERMES and SCALLOP Consortia.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Circulation", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Proteomics; Heart Failure; Drug Target Prediction; Mendelian Randomization Analysis", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Heart failure (HF) is a highly prevalent disorder for which disease mechanisms are incompletely understood. The discovery of disease-associated proteins with causal genetic evidence provides an opportunity to identify new therapeutic targets.

Methods

We investigated the observational and causal associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins, which were measured using affinity-based proteomic assays. First, we estimated the associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins with incident heart failure by means of a fixed-effect meta-analysis of 4 population-based studies, composed of a total of 3019 participants with 732 HF events. The causal effects of HF-associated proteins were then investigated by Mendelian randomization, using cis-protein quantitative loci genetic instruments identified from genomewide association studies in more than 30\u2009000 individuals. To improve the precision of causal estimates, we implemented an Mendelian randomization model that accounted for linkage disequilibrium between instruments and tested the robustness of causal estimates through a multiverse sensitivity analysis that included up to 120 combinations of instrument selection parameters and Mendelian randomization models per protein. The druggability of candidate proteins was surveyed, and mechanism of action and potential on-target side effects were explored with cross-trait Mendelian randomization analysis.

Results

Forty-four of ninety proteins were positively associated with risk of incident HF (P<6.0\u00d710-4). Among these, 8 proteins had evidence of a causal association with HF that was robust to multiverse sensitivity analysis: higher CSF-1 (macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1), Gal-3 (galectin-3) and KIM-1 (kidney injury molecule 1) were positively associated with risk of HF, whereas higher ADM (adrenomedullin), CHI3L1 (chitinase-3-like protein 1), CTSL1 (cathepsin L1), FGF-23 (fibroblast growth factor 23), and MMP-12 (matrix metalloproteinase-12) were protective. Therapeutics targeting ADM and Gal-3 are currently under evaluation in clinical trials, and all the remaining proteins were considered druggable, except KIM-1.

Conclusions

We identified 44 circulating proteins that were associated with incident HF, of which 8 showed evidence of a causal relationship and 7 were druggable, including adrenomedullin, which represents a particularly promising drug target. Our approach demonstrates a tractable roadmap for the triangulation of population genomic and proteomic data for the prioritization of therapeutic targets for complex human diseases.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34172543", @@ -31704,23 +31738,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8887739; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8887739?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32360702", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068", - "title": "Comorbidities and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure across the ejection fraction spectrum: A blueprint for clinical trial design.", - "authorString": "Savarese G, Settergren C, Schrage B, Thorvaldsen T, L\u00f6fman I, Sartipy U, Mellbin L, Meyers A, Farsani SF, Brueckmann M, Brodovicz KG, Vedin O, Asselbergs FW, Dahlstr\u00f6m U, Cosentino F, Lund LH.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of cardiology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-04-30", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Atrial fibrillation; Ejection fraction; Heart Failure; Chronic Kidney Disease; Trial Design", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Comorbidities may differently affect treatment response and cause-specific outcomes in heart failure (HF) with preserved (HFpEF) vs. mid-range/mildly-reduced (HFmrEF) vs. reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction (EF), complicating trial design. In patients with HF, we performed a comprehensive analysis of type 2 diabetes (T2DM), atrial fibrillation (AF) chronic kidney disease (CKD), and cause-specific outcomes.

Methods and results

Of 42,583 patients from the Swedish HF registry (23% HFpEF, 21% HFmrEF, 56% HFrEF), 24% had T2DM, 51% CKD, 56% AF, and 8% all three comorbidities. HFpEF had higher prevalence of CKD and AF, HFmrEF had intermediate prevalence of AF, and prevalence of T2DM was similar across the EF spectrum. Patients with T2DM, AF and/or CKD were more likely to have also other comorbidities and more severe HF. Risk of cardiovascular (CV) events was highest in HFrEF vs. HFpEF and HFmrEF; non-CV risk was highest in HFpEF vs. HFmrEF vs. HFrEF. T2DM increased CV and non-CV events similarly but less so in HFpEF. CKD increased CV events somewhat more than non-CV events and less so in HFpEF. AF increased CV events considerably more than non-CV events and more so in HFpEF and HFmrEF.

Conclusion

HFpEF is distinguished from HFmrEF and HFrEF by more comorbidities, non-CV events, but lower effect of T2DM and CKD on events. CV events are most frequent in HFrEF. To enrich for CV vs. non-CV events, trialists should not exclude patients with lower EF, AF and/or CKD, who report higher CV risk.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S016752732031679X/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2020.04.068" - }, { "id": "34468322", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/30083", @@ -31739,21 +31756,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2021/10/e30083/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/30083; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8494068" }, { - "id": "35300523", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.056663", - "title": "Therapeutic Targets for Heart Failure Identified Using Proteomics and Mendelian Randomization.", - "authorString": "Henry A, Gordillo-Mara\u00f1\u00f3n M, Finan C, Schmidt AF, Ferreira JP, Karra R, Sundstr\u00f6m J, Lind L, \u00c4rnl\u00f6v J, Zannad F, M\u00e4larstig A, Hingorani AD, Lumbers RT, HERMES and SCALLOP Consortia.", + "id": "33430602", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.120.007022", + "title": "Proteomic and Functional Studies Reveal Detyrosinated Tubulin as Treatment Target in Sarcomere Mutation-Induced Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.", + "authorString": "Schuldt M, Pei J, Harakalova M, Dorsch LM, Schlossarek S, Mokry M, Knol JC, Pham TV, Schelfhorst T, Piersma SR, Dos Remedios C, Dalinghaus M, Michels M, Asselbergs FW, Moutin MJ, Carrier L, Jimenez CR, van der Velden J, Kuster DWD.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Circulation", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-18", + "journalTitle": "Circulation. Heart failure", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-01-12", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Proteomics; Heart Failure; Drug Target Prediction; Mendelian Randomization Analysis", + "keywords": "Mutation; Genotype; Tubulin; Heart diseases; Proteomics; Treatment; Cardiomyopathies", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Heart failure (HF) is a highly prevalent disorder for which disease mechanisms are incompletely understood. The discovery of disease-associated proteins with causal genetic evidence provides an opportunity to identify new therapeutic targets.

Methods

We investigated the observational and causal associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins, which were measured using affinity-based proteomic assays. First, we estimated the associations of 90 cardiovascular proteins with incident heart failure by means of a fixed-effect meta-analysis of 4 population-based studies, composed of a total of 3019 participants with 732 HF events. The causal effects of HF-associated proteins were then investigated by Mendelian randomization, using cis-protein quantitative loci genetic instruments identified from genomewide association studies in more than 30\u2009000 individuals. To improve the precision of causal estimates, we implemented an Mendelian randomization model that accounted for linkage disequilibrium between instruments and tested the robustness of causal estimates through a multiverse sensitivity analysis that included up to 120 combinations of instrument selection parameters and Mendelian randomization models per protein. The druggability of candidate proteins was surveyed, and mechanism of action and potential on-target side effects were explored with cross-trait Mendelian randomization analysis.

Results

Forty-four of ninety proteins were positively associated with risk of incident HF (P<6.0\u00d710-4). Among these, 8 proteins had evidence of a causal association with HF that was robust to multiverse sensitivity analysis: higher CSF-1 (macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1), Gal-3 (galectin-3) and KIM-1 (kidney injury molecule 1) were positively associated with risk of HF, whereas higher ADM (adrenomedullin), CHI3L1 (chitinase-3-like protein 1), CTSL1 (cathepsin L1), FGF-23 (fibroblast growth factor 23), and MMP-12 (matrix metalloproteinase-12) were protective. Therapeutics targeting ADM and Gal-3 are currently under evaluation in clinical trials, and all the remaining proteins were considered druggable, except KIM-1.

Conclusions

We identified 44 circulating proteins that were associated with incident HF, of which 8 showed evidence of a causal relationship and 7 were druggable, including adrenomedullin, which represents a particularly promising drug target. Our approach demonstrates a tractable roadmap for the triangulation of population genomic and proteomic data for the prioritization of therapeutic targets for complex human diseases.", + "abstract": "

Background

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic heart disease. While \u224850% of patients with HCM carry a sarcomere gene mutation (sarcomere mutation-positive, HCMSMP), the genetic background is unknown in the other half of the patients (sarcomere mutation-negative, HCMSMN). Genotype-specific differences have been reported in cardiac function. Moreover, HCMSMN patients have later disease onset and a better prognosis than HCMSMP patients. To define if genotype-specific derailments at the protein level may explain the heterogeneity in disease development, we performed a proteomic analysis in cardiac tissue from a clinically well-phenotyped HCM patient group.

Methods

A proteomics screen was performed in cardiac tissue from 39 HCMSMP patients, 11HCMSMN patients, and 8 nonfailing controls. Patients with HCM had obstructive cardiomyopathy with left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and diastolic dysfunction. A novel MYBPC32373insG mouse model was used to confirm functional relevance of our proteomic findings.

Results

In all HCM patient samples, we found lower levels of metabolic pathway proteins and higher levels of extracellular matrix proteins. Levels of total and detyrosinated \u03b1-tubulin were markedly higher in HCMSMP than in HCMSMN and controls. Higher tubulin detyrosination was also found in 2 unrelated MYBPC3 mouse models and its inhibition with parthenolide normalized contraction and relaxation time of isolated cardiomyocytes.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that microtubules and especially its detyrosination contribute to the pathomechanism of patients with HCMSMP. This is of clinical importance since it represents a potential treatment target to improve cardiac function in patients with HCMSMP, whereas a beneficial effect may be limited in patients with HCMSMN.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056663; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9010023?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533?pdf=render" }, { "id": "33004356", @@ -31789,40 +31806,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621016093/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01609-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485022; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8485022?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33714592", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007", - "title": "Place and Underlying Cause of Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study of 3.5 Million Deaths in England and Wales, 2014 to 2020.", - "authorString": "Wu J, Mafham M, Mamas MA, Rashid M, Kontopantelis E, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Gale CP.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Mayo Clinic proceedings", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To describe the place and cause of death during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to assess its impact on excess mortality.

Methods

This national death registry included all adult (aged \u226518 years) deaths in England and Wales between January 1, 2014, and June 30, 2020. Daily deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared against the expected daily deaths, estimated with use of the Farrington surveillance algorithm for daily historical data between 2014 and 2020 by place and cause of death.

Results

Between March 2 and June 30, 2020, there was an excess mortality of 57,860 (a proportional increase of 35%) compared with the expected deaths, of which 50,603 (87%) were COVID-19 related. At home, only 14% (2267) of the 16,190 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, with 5963 deaths due to cancer and 2485 deaths due to cardiac disease, few of which involved COVID-19. In care homes or hospices, 61% (15,623) of the 25,611 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, 5539 of which were due to respiratory disease, and most of these (4315 deaths) involved COVID-19. In the hospital, there were 16,174 fewer deaths than expected that did not involve COVID-19, with 4088 fewer deaths due to cancer and 1398 fewer deaths due to cardiac disease than expected.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large excess of deaths in care homes that were poorly characterized and likely to be the result of undiagnosed COVID-19. There was a smaller but important and ongoing excess in deaths at home, particularly from cancer and cardiac disease, suggesting public avoidance of hospital care for non-COVID-19 conditions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025619621001397/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33430602", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.120.007022", - "title": "Proteomic and Functional Studies Reveal Detyrosinated Tubulin as Treatment Target in Sarcomere Mutation-Induced Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.", - "authorString": "Schuldt M, Pei J, Harakalova M, Dorsch LM, Schlossarek S, Mokry M, Knol JC, Pham TV, Schelfhorst T, Piersma SR, Dos Remedios C, Dalinghaus M, Michels M, Asselbergs FW, Moutin MJ, Carrier L, Jimenez CR, van der Velden J, Kuster DWD.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Circulation. Heart failure", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-01-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mutation; Genotype; Tubulin; Heart diseases; Proteomics; Treatment; Cardiomyopathies", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic heart disease. While \u224850% of patients with HCM carry a sarcomere gene mutation (sarcomere mutation-positive, HCMSMP), the genetic background is unknown in the other half of the patients (sarcomere mutation-negative, HCMSMN). Genotype-specific differences have been reported in cardiac function. Moreover, HCMSMN patients have later disease onset and a better prognosis than HCMSMP patients. To define if genotype-specific derailments at the protein level may explain the heterogeneity in disease development, we performed a proteomic analysis in cardiac tissue from a clinically well-phenotyped HCM patient group.

Methods

A proteomics screen was performed in cardiac tissue from 39 HCMSMP patients, 11HCMSMN patients, and 8 nonfailing controls. Patients with HCM had obstructive cardiomyopathy with left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and diastolic dysfunction. A novel MYBPC32373insG mouse model was used to confirm functional relevance of our proteomic findings.

Results

In all HCM patient samples, we found lower levels of metabolic pathway proteins and higher levels of extracellular matrix proteins. Levels of total and detyrosinated \u03b1-tubulin were markedly higher in HCMSMP than in HCMSMN and controls. Higher tubulin detyrosination was also found in 2 unrelated MYBPC3 mouse models and its inhibition with parthenolide normalized contraction and relaxation time of isolated cardiomyocytes.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that microtubules and especially its detyrosination contribute to the pathomechanism of patients with HCMSMP. This is of clinical importance since it represents a potential treatment target to improve cardiac function in patients with HCMSMP, whereas a beneficial effect may be limited in patients with HCMSMN.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.120.007022; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7819533?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32814899", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2635-8", @@ -31841,38 +31824,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10110799/1/Meyer_accepted_version.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2635-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116759; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116759?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2635-8" }, { - "id": "32032817", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172", - "title": "Distinguishing between paediatric brain tumour types using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging and machine learning: A multi-site study.", - "authorString": "Grist JT, Withey S, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.", + "id": "33714592", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007", + "title": "Place and Underlying Cause of Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study of 3.5 Million Deaths in England and Wales, 2014 to 2020.", + "authorString": "Wu J, Mafham M, Mamas MA, Rashid M, Kontopantelis E, Deanfield JE, de Belder MA, Gale CP.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "NeuroImage. Clinical", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-01-23", + "journalTitle": "Mayo Clinic proceedings", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-02-16", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Diffusion; Perfusion; Machine Learning", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "cancer and neoplasms", - "abstract": "The imaging and subsequent accurate diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours presents a radiological challenge, with magnetic resonance imaging playing a key role in providing tumour specific imaging information. Diffusion weighted and perfusion imaging are commonly used to aid the non-invasive diagnosis of children's brain tumours, but are usually evaluated by expert qualitative review. Quantitative studies are mainly single centre and single modality. The aim of this work was to combine multi-centre diffusion and perfusion imaging, with machine learning, to develop machine learning based classifiers to discriminate between three common paediatric tumour types. The results show that diffusion and perfusion weighted imaging of both the tumour and whole brain provide significant features which differ between tumour types, and that combining these features gives the optimal machine learning classifier with >80% predictive precision. This work represents a step forward to aid in the non-invasive diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours, using advanced clinical imaging.", - "laySummary": "Grist et al. team trained computers to analyse brain images from children for identification of tumours. They\u2019ve shown that applying analytical methods to enable machine distinguishes between the entire brain area and the tumour area in the images more than 80% improves how machine analyses the image to identify exact tumour area. ", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468?pdf=render" + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

To describe the place and cause of death during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to assess its impact on excess mortality.

Methods

This national death registry included all adult (aged \u226518 years) deaths in England and Wales between January 1, 2014, and June 30, 2020. Daily deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared against the expected daily deaths, estimated with use of the Farrington surveillance algorithm for daily historical data between 2014 and 2020 by place and cause of death.

Results

Between March 2 and June 30, 2020, there was an excess mortality of 57,860 (a proportional increase of 35%) compared with the expected deaths, of which 50,603 (87%) were COVID-19 related. At home, only 14% (2267) of the 16,190 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, with 5963 deaths due to cancer and 2485 deaths due to cardiac disease, few of which involved COVID-19. In care homes or hospices, 61% (15,623) of the 25,611 excess deaths were related to COVID-19, 5539 of which were due to respiratory disease, and most of these (4315 deaths) involved COVID-19. In the hospital, there were 16,174 fewer deaths than expected that did not involve COVID-19, with 4088 fewer deaths due to cancer and 1398 fewer deaths due to cardiac disease than expected.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large excess of deaths in care homes that were poorly characterized and likely to be the result of undiagnosed COVID-19. There was a smaller but important and ongoing excess in deaths at home, particularly from cancer and cardiac disease, suggesting public avoidance of hospital care for non-COVID-19 conditions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025619621001397/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7885692?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33531015", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9", - "title": "The importance of supplementary immunisation activities to prevent measles outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya.", - "authorString": "Mburu CN, Ojal J, Chebet R, Akech D, Karia B, Tuju J, Sigilai A, Abbas K, Jit M, Funk S, Smits G, van Gageldonk PGM, van der Klis FRM, Tabu C, Nokes DJ, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Scott J, Flasche S, Adetifa I.", + "id": "33879569", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118", + "title": "Mendelian randomization identifies blood metabolites previously linked to midlife cognition as causal candidates in Alzheimer's disease.", + "authorString": "Lord J, Jermy B, Green R, Wong A, Xu J, Legido-Quigley C, Dobson R, Richards M, Proitsi P.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "journalTitle": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-02-03", + "date": "2021-04-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "outbreak; Measles; Vaccination Coverage; Supplementary Immunisation Activities; Covid-19", + "keywords": "Biomarkers; Alzheimer\u2019s disease; Metabolomics; Causality; Mendelian Randomization", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine measles immunisation and supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) in most countries including Kenya. We assessed the risk of measles outbreaks during the pandemic in Kenya as a case study for the African Region.

Methods

Combining measles serological data, local contact patterns, and vaccination coverage into a cohort model, we predicted the age-adjusted population immunity in Kenya and estimated the probability of outbreaks when contact-reducing COVID-19 interventions are lifted. We considered various scenarios for reduced measles vaccination coverage from April 2020.

Results

In February 2020, when a scheduled SIA was postponed, population immunity was close to the herd immunity threshold and the probability of a large outbreak was 34% (8-54). As the COVID-19 contact restrictions are nearly fully eased, from December 2020, the probability of a large measles outbreak will increase to 38% (19-54), 46% (30-59), and 54% (43-64) assuming a 15%, 50%, and 100% reduction in measles vaccination coverage. By December 2021, this risk increases further to 43% (25-56), 54% (43-63), and 67% (59-72) for the same coverage scenarios respectively. However, the increased risk of a measles outbreak following the lifting of all restrictions can be overcome by conducting a SIA with \u2265\u200995% coverage in under-fives.

Conclusion

While contact restrictions sufficient for SAR-CoV-2 control temporarily reduce measles transmissibility and the risk of an outbreak from a measles immunity gap, this risk rises rapidly once these restrictions are lifted. Implementing delayed SIAs will be critical for prevention of measles outbreaks given the roll-back of contact restrictions in Kenya.", + "abstract": "There are currently no disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and an understanding of preclinical causal biomarkers to help target disease pathogenesis in the earliest phases remains elusive. Here, we investigated whether 19 metabolites previously associated with midlife cognition-a preclinical predictor of AD-translate to later clinical risk, using Mendelian randomization (MR) to tease out AD-specific causal relationships. Summary statistics from the largest genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for AD and metabolites were used to perform bidirectional univariable MR. Bayesian model averaging (BMA) was additionally performed to address high correlation between metabolites and identify metabolite combinations that may be on the AD causal pathway. Univariable MR indicated four extra-large high-density lipoproteins (XL.HDL) on the causal pathway to AD: free cholesterol (XL.HDL.FC: 95% CI = 0.78 to 0.94), total lipids (XL.HDL.L: 95% CI = 0.80 to 0.97), phospholipids (XL.HDL.PL: 95% CI = 0.81 to 0.97), and concentration of XL.HDL particles (95% CI = 0.79 to 0.96), significant at an adjusted P < 0.009. MR-BMA corroborated XL.HDL.FC to be among the top three causal metabolites, in addition to total cholesterol in XL.HDL (XL.HDL.C) and glycoprotein acetyls (GP). Both XL.HDL.C and GP demonstrated suggestive univariable evidence of causality (P < 0.05), and GP successfully replicated within an independent dataset. This study offers insight into the causal relationship between metabolites demonstrating association with midlife cognition and AD. It highlights GP in addition to several XL.HDLs-particularly XL.HDL.FC-as causal candidates warranting further investigation. As AD pathology is thought to develop decades prior to symptom onset, expanding on these findings could inform risk reduction strategies.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8072203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8072203?pdf=render" }, { "id": "34568827", @@ -31892,38 +31875,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/schizbullopen/article-pdf/2/1/sgab041/40430058/sgab041.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab041; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458108; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458108?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33879569", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118", - "title": "Mendelian randomization identifies blood metabolites previously linked to midlife cognition as causal candidates in Alzheimer's disease.", - "authorString": "Lord J, Jermy B, Green R, Wong A, Xu J, Legido-Quigley C, Dobson R, Richards M, Proitsi P.", + "id": "33531015", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9", + "title": "The importance of supplementary immunisation activities to prevent measles outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya.", + "authorString": "Mburu CN, Ojal J, Chebet R, Akech D, Karia B, Tuju J, Sigilai A, Abbas K, Jit M, Funk S, Smits G, van Gageldonk PGM, van der Klis FRM, Tabu C, Nokes DJ, LSHTM CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, Scott J, Flasche S, Adetifa I.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-01", + "date": "2021-02-03", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Biomarkers; Alzheimer\u2019s disease; Metabolomics; Causality; Mendelian Randomization", + "keywords": "outbreak; Measles; Vaccination Coverage; Supplementary Immunisation Activities; Covid-19", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "There are currently no disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and an understanding of preclinical causal biomarkers to help target disease pathogenesis in the earliest phases remains elusive. Here, we investigated whether 19 metabolites previously associated with midlife cognition-a preclinical predictor of AD-translate to later clinical risk, using Mendelian randomization (MR) to tease out AD-specific causal relationships. Summary statistics from the largest genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for AD and metabolites were used to perform bidirectional univariable MR. Bayesian model averaging (BMA) was additionally performed to address high correlation between metabolites and identify metabolite combinations that may be on the AD causal pathway. Univariable MR indicated four extra-large high-density lipoproteins (XL.HDL) on the causal pathway to AD: free cholesterol (XL.HDL.FC: 95% CI = 0.78 to 0.94), total lipids (XL.HDL.L: 95% CI = 0.80 to 0.97), phospholipids (XL.HDL.PL: 95% CI = 0.81 to 0.97), and concentration of XL.HDL particles (95% CI = 0.79 to 0.96), significant at an adjusted P < 0.009. MR-BMA corroborated XL.HDL.FC to be among the top three causal metabolites, in addition to total cholesterol in XL.HDL (XL.HDL.C) and glycoprotein acetyls (GP). Both XL.HDL.C and GP demonstrated suggestive univariable evidence of causality (P < 0.05), and GP successfully replicated within an independent dataset. This study offers insight into the causal relationship between metabolites demonstrating association with midlife cognition and AD. It highlights GP in addition to several XL.HDLs-particularly XL.HDL.FC-as causal candidates warranting further investigation. As AD pathology is thought to develop decades prior to symptom onset, expanding on these findings could inform risk reduction strategies.", + "abstract": "

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine measles immunisation and supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) in most countries including Kenya. We assessed the risk of measles outbreaks during the pandemic in Kenya as a case study for the African Region.

Methods

Combining measles serological data, local contact patterns, and vaccination coverage into a cohort model, we predicted the age-adjusted population immunity in Kenya and estimated the probability of outbreaks when contact-reducing COVID-19 interventions are lifted. We considered various scenarios for reduced measles vaccination coverage from April 2020.

Results

In February 2020, when a scheduled SIA was postponed, population immunity was close to the herd immunity threshold and the probability of a large outbreak was 34% (8-54). As the COVID-19 contact restrictions are nearly fully eased, from December 2020, the probability of a large measles outbreak will increase to 38% (19-54), 46% (30-59), and 54% (43-64) assuming a 15%, 50%, and 100% reduction in measles vaccination coverage. By December 2021, this risk increases further to 43% (25-56), 54% (43-63), and 67% (59-72) for the same coverage scenarios respectively. However, the increased risk of a measles outbreak following the lifting of all restrictions can be overcome by conducting a SIA with \u2265\u200995% coverage in under-fives.

Conclusion

While contact restrictions sufficient for SAR-CoV-2 control temporarily reduce measles transmissibility and the risk of an outbreak from a measles immunity gap, this risk rises rapidly once these restrictions are lifted. Implementing delayed SIAs will be critical for prevention of measles outbreaks given the roll-back of contact restrictions in Kenya.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118; doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009808118; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8072203; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8072203?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01906-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7854026?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31073125", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z", - "title": "Systematic review of clinical prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care.", - "authorString": "Daines L, McLean S, Buelo A, Lewis S, Sheikh A, Pinnock H.", + "id": "32032817", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172", + "title": "Distinguishing between paediatric brain tumour types using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging and machine learning: A multi-site study.", + "authorString": "Grist JT, Withey S, MacPherson L, Oates A, Powell S, Novak J, Abernethy L, Pizer B, Grundy R, Bailey S, Mitra D, Arvanitis TN, Auer DP, Avula S, Peet AC.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "NPJ primary care respiratory medicine", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-05-09", + "journalTitle": "NeuroImage. Clinical", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-01-23", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "The Human Phenome", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Diagnosing asthma is challenging. Misdiagnosis can lead to untreated symptoms, incorrect treatment and avoidable deaths. The best combination of clinical features and tests to achieve a diagnosis of asthma is unclear. As asthma is usually diagnosed in non-specialist settings, a clinical prediction model to aid the assessment of the probability of asthma in primary care may improve diagnostic accuracy. We aimed to identify and describe existing prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in children and adults in primary care. We searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL, TRIP and US National Guidelines Clearinghouse databases from 1 January 1990 to 23 November 17. We included prediction models designed for use in primary care or equivalent settings to aid the diagnostic decision-making of clinicians assessing patients with symptoms suggesting asthma. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full texts for eligibility, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. From 13,798 records, 53 full-text articles were reviewed. We included seven modelling studies; all were at high risk of bias. Model performance varied, and the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve ranged from 0.61 to 0.82. Patient-reported wheeze, symptom variability and history of allergy or allergic rhinitis were associated with asthma. In conclusion, clinical prediction models may support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care, but existing models are at high risk of bias and thus unreliable for informing practice. Future studies should adhere to recognised standards, conduct model validation and include a broader range of clinical data to derive a prediction model of value for clinicians.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-019-0132-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212?pdf=render" + "keywords": "Diffusion; Perfusion; Machine Learning", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "cancer and neoplasms", + "abstract": "The imaging and subsequent accurate diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours presents a radiological challenge, with magnetic resonance imaging playing a key role in providing tumour specific imaging information. Diffusion weighted and perfusion imaging are commonly used to aid the non-invasive diagnosis of children's brain tumours, but are usually evaluated by expert qualitative review. Quantitative studies are mainly single centre and single modality. The aim of this work was to combine multi-centre diffusion and perfusion imaging, with machine learning, to develop machine learning based classifiers to discriminate between three common paediatric tumour types. The results show that diffusion and perfusion weighted imaging of both the tumour and whole brain provide significant features which differ between tumour types, and that combining these features gives the optimal machine learning classifier with >80% predictive precision. This work represents a step forward to aid in the non-invasive diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours, using advanced clinical imaging.", + "laySummary": "Grist et al. team trained computers to analyse brain images from children for identification of tumours. They\u2019ve shown that applying analytical methods to enable machine distinguishes between the entire brain area and the tumour area in the images more than 80% improves how machine analyses the image to identify exact tumour area. ", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102172; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7005468?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32305733", @@ -31960,38 +31943,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16020.1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7883314; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7883314?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "36721385", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192", - "title": "Reduced circulating BMP9 and pBMP10 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.", - "authorString": "Dunmore BJ, Upton PD, Auckland K, Samanta RJ, CITIID\u2010NIHR BioResource COVID\u201019 Collaboration, EpiCov Database, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Gr\u00e4f S, Summers C, Morrell NW.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Pulmonary circulation", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Endothelial Cell Dysfunction; Bmps; Viral Infections And Pathogenesis", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Similar to other causes of acute respiratory distress syndrome, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by the aberrant expression of vascular injury biomarkers. We present the first report that circulating plasma bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), BMP9 and pBMP10, involved in vascular protection, are reduced in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/345820/2/pul2.12192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "34515361", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610", - "title": "Porin threading drives receptor disengagement and establishes active colicin transport through Escherichia coli OmpF.", - "authorString": "Francis MR, Webby MN, Housden NG, Kaminska R, Elliston E, Chinthammit B, Lukoyanova N, Kleanthous C.", + "id": "31073125", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z", + "title": "Systematic review of clinical prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care.", + "authorString": "Daines L, McLean S, Buelo A, Lewis S, Sheikh A, Pinnock H.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The EMBO journal", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-09-13", + "journalTitle": "NPJ primary care respiratory medicine", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-05-09", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cryo-electron microscopy; Outer membrane; Bacteriocins; Gram-negative Bacteria; fluorescent microscopy", - "nationalPriorities": "", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "The Human Phenome", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Bacteria deploy weapons to kill their neighbours during competition for resources and to aid survival within microbiomes. Colicins were the first such antibacterial system identified, yet how these bacteriocins cross the outer membrane (OM) of Escherichia coli is unknown. Here, by solving the structures of translocation intermediates via cryo-EM and by imaging toxin import, we uncover the mechanism by which the Tol-dependent nuclease colicin E9 (ColE9) crosses the bacterial OM. We show that threading of ColE9's disordered N-terminal domain through two pores of the trimeric porin OmpF causes the colicin to disengage from its primary receptor, BtuB, and reorganises the translocon either side of the membrane. Subsequent import of ColE9 through the lumen of a single OmpF subunit is driven by the proton-motive force, which is delivered by the TolQ-TolR-TolA-TolB assembly. Our study answers longstanding questions, such as why OmpF is a better translocator than OmpC, and reconciles the mechanisms by which both Tol- and Ton-dependent bacteriocins cross the bacterial outer membrane.", + "abstract": "Diagnosing asthma is challenging. Misdiagnosis can lead to untreated symptoms, incorrect treatment and avoidable deaths. The best combination of clinical features and tests to achieve a diagnosis of asthma is unclear. As asthma is usually diagnosed in non-specialist settings, a clinical prediction model to aid the assessment of the probability of asthma in primary care may improve diagnostic accuracy. We aimed to identify and describe existing prediction models to support the diagnosis of asthma in children and adults in primary care. We searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL, TRIP and US National Guidelines Clearinghouse databases from 1 January 1990 to 23 November 17. We included prediction models designed for use in primary care or equivalent settings to aid the diagnostic decision-making of clinicians assessing patients with symptoms suggesting asthma. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full texts for eligibility, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. From 13,798 records, 53 full-text articles were reviewed. We included seven modelling studies; all were at high risk of bias. Model performance varied, and the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve ranged from 0.61 to 0.82. Patient-reported wheeze, symptom variability and history of allergy or allergic rhinitis were associated with asthma. In conclusion, clinical prediction models may support the diagnosis of asthma in primary care, but existing models are at high risk of bias and thus unreliable for informing practice. Future studies should adhere to recognised standards, conduct model validation and include a broader range of clinical data to derive a prediction model of value for clinicians.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.15252/embj.2021108610; doi:https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-019-0132-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0132-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6509212?pdf=render" }, { "id": "30981377", @@ -32027,6 +31993,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e047709.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047709; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8240576; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8240576?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36721385", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192", + "title": "Reduced circulating BMP9 and pBMP10 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.", + "authorString": "Dunmore BJ, Upton PD, Auckland K, Samanta RJ, CITIID\u2010NIHR BioResource COVID\u201019 Collaboration, EpiCov Database, Lyons PA, Smith KGC, Gr\u00e4f S, Summers C, Morrell NW.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Pulmonary circulation", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Endothelial Cell Dysfunction; Bmps; Viral Infections And Pathogenesis", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Similar to other causes of acute respiratory distress syndrome, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by the aberrant expression of vascular injury biomarkers. We present the first report that circulating plasma bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), BMP9 and pBMP10, involved in vascular protection, are reduced in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/345820/2/pul2.12192.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/pul2.12192; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9881210?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "34515361", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610", + "title": "Porin threading drives receptor disengagement and establishes active colicin transport through Escherichia coli OmpF.", + "authorString": "Francis MR, Webby MN, Housden NG, Kaminska R, Elliston E, Chinthammit B, Lukoyanova N, Kleanthous C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The EMBO journal", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-09-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Cryo-electron microscopy; Outer membrane; Bacteriocins; Gram-negative Bacteria; fluorescent microscopy", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Bacteria deploy weapons to kill their neighbours during competition for resources and to aid survival within microbiomes. Colicins were the first such antibacterial system identified, yet how these bacteriocins cross the outer membrane (OM) of Escherichia coli is unknown. Here, by solving the structures of translocation intermediates via cryo-EM and by imaging toxin import, we uncover the mechanism by which the Tol-dependent nuclease colicin E9 (ColE9) crosses the bacterial OM. We show that threading of ColE9's disordered N-terminal domain through two pores of the trimeric porin OmpF causes the colicin to disengage from its primary receptor, BtuB, and reorganises the translocon either side of the membrane. Subsequent import of ColE9 through the lumen of a single OmpF subunit is driven by the proton-motive force, which is delivered by the TolQ-TolR-TolA-TolB assembly. Our study answers longstanding questions, such as why OmpF is a better translocator than OmpC, and reconciles the mechanisms by which both Tol- and Ton-dependent bacteriocins cross the bacterial outer membrane.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.15252/embj.2021108610; doi:https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021108610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8561637?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31062032", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz073", @@ -32061,6 +32061,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.researchprotocols.org/2022/2/e31885/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/31885; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8874931" }, + { + "id": "32080192", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y", + "title": "Author Correction: Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.", + "authorString": "Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-02-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14717-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35235826", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.051", @@ -32095,23 +32112,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/6/e028929.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-028929; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6577359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6577359?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32080192", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y", - "title": "Author Correction: Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.", - "authorString": "Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-02-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14717-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14717-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7033171?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34810237", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217629", @@ -32265,6 +32265,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01132-21; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01132-21; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8805635; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8805635?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32895551", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6", + "title": "Phenome-wide Mendelian randomization mapping the influence of the plasma proteome on complex diseases.", + "authorString": "Zheng J, Haberland V, Baird D, Walker V, Haycock PC, Hurle MR, Gutteridge A, Erola P, Liu Y, Luo S, Robinson J, Richardson TG, Staley JR, Elsworth B, Burgess S, Sun BB, Danesh J, Runz H, Maranville JC, Martin HM, Yarmolinsky J, Laurin C, Holmes MV, Liu JZ, Estrada K, Santos R, McCarthy L, Waterworth D, Nelson MR, Smith GD, Butterworth AS, Hemani G, Scott RA, Gaunt TR.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-09-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The human proteome is a major source of therapeutic targets. Recent genetic association analyses of the plasma proteome enable systematic evaluation of the causal consequences of variation in plasma protein levels. Here we estimated the effects of 1,002 proteins on 225 phenotypes using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization. Of 413 associations supported by evidence from MR, 130 (31.5%) were not supported by results of colocalization analyses, suggesting that genetic confounding due to linkage disequilibrium is widespread in na\u00efve phenome-wide association studies of proteins. Combining MR and colocalization evidence in cis-only analyses, we identified 111 putatively causal effects between 65 proteins and 52 disease-related phenotypes ( https://www.epigraphdb.org/pqtl/ ). Evaluation of data from historic drug development programs showed that target-indication pairs with MR and colocalization support were more likely to be approved, evidencing the value of this approach in identifying and prioritizing potential therapeutic targets.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/76368/1/Zheng_et_al_final_manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34796246", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofab496", @@ -32299,23 +32316,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000434; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000434; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8116680; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8116680?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32895551", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6", - "title": "Phenome-wide Mendelian randomization mapping the influence of the plasma proteome on complex diseases.", - "authorString": "Zheng J, Haberland V, Baird D, Walker V, Haycock PC, Hurle MR, Gutteridge A, Erola P, Liu Y, Luo S, Robinson J, Richardson TG, Staley JR, Elsworth B, Burgess S, Sun BB, Danesh J, Runz H, Maranville JC, Martin HM, Yarmolinsky J, Laurin C, Holmes MV, Liu JZ, Estrada K, Santos R, McCarthy L, Waterworth D, Nelson MR, Smith GD, Butterworth AS, Hemani G, Scott RA, Gaunt TR.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-09-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The human proteome is a major source of therapeutic targets. Recent genetic association analyses of the plasma proteome enable systematic evaluation of the causal consequences of variation in plasma protein levels. Here we estimated the effects of 1,002 proteins on 225 phenotypes using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization. Of 413 associations supported by evidence from MR, 130 (31.5%) were not supported by results of colocalization analyses, suggesting that genetic confounding due to linkage disequilibrium is widespread in na\u00efve phenome-wide association studies of proteins. Combining MR and colocalization evidence in cis-only analyses, we identified 111 putatively causal effects between 65 proteins and 52 disease-related phenotypes ( https://www.epigraphdb.org/pqtl/ ). Evaluation of data from historic drug development programs showed that target-indication pairs with MR and colocalization support were more likely to be approved, evidencing the value of this approach in identifying and prioritizing potential therapeutic targets.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/76368/1/Zheng_et_al_final_manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0682-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610464?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32591531", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16969-0", @@ -32333,6 +32333,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16969-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16969-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320010; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320010?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34039579", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721", + "title": "Changes in daily mental health service use and mortality at the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in 10 UK sites: a regression discontinuity in time design.", + "authorString": "Bakolis I, Stewart R, Baldwin D, Beenstock J, Bibby P, Broadbent M, Cardinal R, Chen S, Chinnasamy K, Cipriani A, Douglas S, Horner P, Jackson CA, John A, Joyce DW, Lee SC, Lewis J, McIntosh A, Nixon N, Osborn D, Phiri P, Rathod S, Smith T, Sokal R, Waller R, Landau S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-05-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mental health; Adult Psychiatry; Old Age Psychiatry; Organisation Of Health Services; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

To investigate changes in daily mental health (MH) service use and mortality in response to the introduction and the lifting of the COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in Spring 2020.

Design

A regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) analysis of daily service-level activity.

Setting and participants

Mental healthcare data were extracted from 10 UK providers.

Outcome measures

Daily (weekly for one site) deaths from all causes, referrals and discharges, inpatient care (admissions, discharges, caseloads) and community services (face-to-face (f2f)/non-f2f contacts, caseloads): Adult, older adult and child/adolescent mental health; early intervention in psychosis; home treatment teams and liaison/Accident and Emergency (A&E). Data were extracted from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 May 2020 for all sites, supplemented to 31 July 2020 for four sites. Changes around the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy (23 March and 10 May, respectively) were estimated using a RDiT design with a difference-in-difference approach generating incidence rate ratios (IRRs), meta-analysed across sites.

Results

Pooled estimates for the lockdown transition showed increased daily deaths (IRR 2.31, 95% CI 1.86 to 2.87), reduced referrals (IRR 0.62, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.70) and reduced inpatient admissions (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.83) and caseloads (IRR 0.85, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.91) compared with the pre lockdown period. All community services saw shifts from f2f to non-f2f contacts, but varied in caseload changes. Lift of lockdown was associated with reduced deaths (IRR 0.42, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.66), increased referrals (IRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.60) and increased inpatient admissions (IRR 1.21, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.42) and caseloads (IRR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.12) compared with the lockdown period. Site-wide activity, inpatient care and community services did not return to pre lockdown levels after lift of lockdown, while number of deaths did. Between-site heterogeneity most often indicated variation in size rather than direction of effect.

Conclusions

MH service delivery underwent sizeable changes during the first national lockdown, with as-yet unknown and unevaluated consequences.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049721.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34330923", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24930-y", @@ -32367,23 +32384,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsob.190297; doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.190297; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7241076; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7241076?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34039579", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721", - "title": "Changes in daily mental health service use and mortality at the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in 10 UK sites: a regression discontinuity in time design.", - "authorString": "Bakolis I, Stewart R, Baldwin D, Beenstock J, Bibby P, Broadbent M, Cardinal R, Chen S, Chinnasamy K, Cipriani A, Douglas S, Horner P, Jackson CA, John A, Joyce DW, Lee SC, Lewis J, McIntosh A, Nixon N, Osborn D, Phiri P, Rathod S, Smith T, Sokal R, Waller R, Landau S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mental health; Adult Psychiatry; Old Age Psychiatry; Organisation Of Health Services; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

To investigate changes in daily mental health (MH) service use and mortality in response to the introduction and the lifting of the COVID-19 'lockdown' policy in Spring 2020.

Design

A regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) analysis of daily service-level activity.

Setting and participants

Mental healthcare data were extracted from 10 UK providers.

Outcome measures

Daily (weekly for one site) deaths from all causes, referrals and discharges, inpatient care (admissions, discharges, caseloads) and community services (face-to-face (f2f)/non-f2f contacts, caseloads): Adult, older adult and child/adolescent mental health; early intervention in psychosis; home treatment teams and liaison/Accident and Emergency (A&E). Data were extracted from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 May 2020 for all sites, supplemented to 31 July 2020 for four sites. Changes around the commencement and lifting of COVID-19 'lockdown' policy (23 March and 10 May, respectively) were estimated using a RDiT design with a difference-in-difference approach generating incidence rate ratios (IRRs), meta-analysed across sites.

Results

Pooled estimates for the lockdown transition showed increased daily deaths (IRR 2.31, 95% CI 1.86 to 2.87), reduced referrals (IRR 0.62, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.70) and reduced inpatient admissions (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.83) and caseloads (IRR 0.85, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.91) compared with the pre lockdown period. All community services saw shifts from f2f to non-f2f contacts, but varied in caseload changes. Lift of lockdown was associated with reduced deaths (IRR 0.42, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.66), increased referrals (IRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.60) and increased inpatient admissions (IRR 1.21, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.42) and caseloads (IRR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.12) compared with the lockdown period. Site-wide activity, inpatient care and community services did not return to pre lockdown levels after lift of lockdown, while number of deaths did. Between-site heterogeneity most often indicated variation in size rather than direction of effect.

Conclusions

MH service delivery underwent sizeable changes during the first national lockdown, with as-yet unknown and unevaluated consequences.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/5/e049721.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049721; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8159668?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37173061", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.12.021", @@ -32401,6 +32401,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.12.021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356565; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356565?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31862893", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1", + "title": "Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.", + "authorString": "Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-12-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Recent genome-wide association studies in stroke have enabled the generation of genomic risk scores (GRS) but their predictive power has been modest compared to established stroke risk factors. Here, using a meta-scoring approach, we develop a metaGRS for ischaemic stroke (IS) and analyse this score in the UK Biobank (n\u2009=\u2009395,393; 3075 IS events by age 75). The metaGRS hazard ratio for IS (1.26, 95% CI 1.22-1.31 per metaGRS standard deviation) doubles that of a previous GRS, identifying a subset of individuals at monogenic levels of risk: the top 0.25% of metaGRS have three-fold risk of IS. The metaGRS is similarly or more predictive compared to several risk factors, such as family history, blood pressure, body mass index, and smoking. We estimate the reductions needed in modifiable risk factors for individuals with different levels of genomic risk and suggest that, for individuals with high metaGRS, achieving risk factor levels recommended by current guidelines may be insufficient to mitigate risk.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13848-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36434067", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04252-5", @@ -32436,21 +32453,21 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.11.024; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.11.024; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9686046; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9686046?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31862893", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1", - "title": "Genomic risk score offers predictive performance comparable to clinical risk factors for ischaemic stroke.", - "authorString": "Abraham G, Malik R, Yonova-Doing E, Salim A, Wang T, Danesh J, Butterworth AS, Howson JMM, Inouye M, Dichgans M.", + "id": "32546850", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9", + "title": "Genetic aetiology of self-harm ideation and behaviour.", + "authorString": "Campos AI, Verweij KJH, Statham DJ, Madden PAF, Maciejewski DF, Davis KAS, John A, Hotopf M, Heath AC, Martin NG, Renter\u00eda ME.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-12-20", + "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-06-16", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Recent genome-wide association studies in stroke have enabled the generation of genomic risk scores (GRS) but their predictive power has been modest compared to established stroke risk factors. Here, using a meta-scoring approach, we develop a metaGRS for ischaemic stroke (IS) and analyse this score in the UK Biobank (n\u2009=\u2009395,393; 3075 IS events by age 75). The metaGRS hazard ratio for IS (1.26, 95% CI 1.22-1.31 per metaGRS standard deviation) doubles that of a previous GRS, identifying a subset of individuals at monogenic levels of risk: the top 0.25% of metaGRS have three-fold risk of IS. The metaGRS is similarly or more predictive compared to several risk factors, such as family history, blood pressure, body mass index, and smoking. We estimate the reductions needed in modifiable risk factors for individuals with different levels of genomic risk and suggest that, for individuals with high metaGRS, achieving risk factor levels recommended by current guidelines may be insufficient to mitigate risk.", + "abstract": "Family studies have identified a heritable component to self-harm that is partially independent from comorbid psychiatric disorders. However, the genetic aetiology of broad sense (non-suicidal and suicidal) self-harm has not been characterised on the molecular level. In addition, controversy exists about the degree to which suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm share a common genetic aetiology. In the present study, we conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on lifetime self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour (i.e. any lifetime self-harm act regardless of suicidal intent) using data from the UK Biobank (n\u2009>\u2009156,000). We also perform genome wide gene-based tests and characterize the SNP heritability and genetic correlations between these traits. Finally, we test whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) for self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour predict suicide attempt, suicide thoughts and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) in an independent target sample of 8,703 Australian adults. Our GWAS results identified one genome-wide significant locus associated with each of the two phenotypes. SNP heritability (hsnp2) estimates were ~10%, and both traits were highly genetically correlated (LDSC rg\u2009>\u20090.8). Gene-based tests identified seven genes associated with self-harm ideation and four with self-harm behaviour. Furthermore, in the target sample, PRS for self-harm ideation were significantly associated with suicide thoughts and NSSH, and PRS for self-harm behaviour predicted suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Follow up regressions identified a shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide thoughts, and between suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Evidence for shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide attempt was not statistically significant.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13848-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13848-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6925280?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66737-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971?pdf=render" }, { "id": "36029521", @@ -32554,23 +32571,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S2211124723006241/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112613; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10243220; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10243220?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32546850", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9", - "title": "Genetic aetiology of self-harm ideation and behaviour.", - "authorString": "Campos AI, Verweij KJH, Statham DJ, Madden PAF, Maciejewski DF, Davis KAS, John A, Hotopf M, Heath AC, Martin NG, Renter\u00eda ME.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Scientific reports", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-06-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Family studies have identified a heritable component to self-harm that is partially independent from comorbid psychiatric disorders. However, the genetic aetiology of broad sense (non-suicidal and suicidal) self-harm has not been characterised on the molecular level. In addition, controversy exists about the degree to which suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm share a common genetic aetiology. In the present study, we conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on lifetime self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour (i.e. any lifetime self-harm act regardless of suicidal intent) using data from the UK Biobank (n\u2009>\u2009156,000). We also perform genome wide gene-based tests and characterize the SNP heritability and genetic correlations between these traits. Finally, we test whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) for self-harm ideation and self-harm behaviour predict suicide attempt, suicide thoughts and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) in an independent target sample of 8,703 Australian adults. Our GWAS results identified one genome-wide significant locus associated with each of the two phenotypes. SNP heritability (hsnp2) estimates were ~10%, and both traits were highly genetically correlated (LDSC rg\u2009>\u20090.8). Gene-based tests identified seven genes associated with self-harm ideation and four with self-harm behaviour. Furthermore, in the target sample, PRS for self-harm ideation were significantly associated with suicide thoughts and NSSH, and PRS for self-harm behaviour predicted suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Follow up regressions identified a shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide thoughts, and between suicide thoughts and suicide attempt. Evidence for shared genetic aetiology between NSSH and suicide attempt was not statistically significant.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66737-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66737-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7297971?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36697134", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.10.034", @@ -32622,6 +32622,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-24/v2/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15651.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7361507; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7361507?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34321180", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013", + "title": "The impact of distance on post-ICU disability.", + "authorString": "D'Arcy J, Haines K, Paul E, Doherty Z, Goodwin A, Bailey M, Barrett J, Bellomo R, Bucknall T, Gabbe BJ, Higgins AM, Iwashyna TJ, Murray LJ, Myles PS, Ponsford J, Pilcher D, Udy AA, Walker C, Young M, Cooper DJJ, Hodgson CL, ICU-Recovery Investigators.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Australian critical care : official journal of the Confederation of Australian Critical Care Nurses", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2021-07-25", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Quality of life; Mechanical ventilation; Distance; Disability; Intensive Care", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Nonurban residential living is associated with adverse outcomes for a number of chronic health conditions. However, it is unclear what effect it has amongst survivors of critical illness.

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to determine whether patients living greater than 50 km from the treating intensive care unit (ICU) have disability outcomes at 6 months that differ from people living within 50 km.

Methods

This was a multicentre, prospective cohort study conducted in five metropolitan ICUs. Participants were adults admitted to the ICU, who received >24 h of mechanical ventilation and survived to hospital discharge. In a secondary analysis of these data, the cohort was dichotomised based on residential distance from the treating ICU: <50 km and \u226550 km. The primary outcome was patient-reported disability using the 12-item World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0). This was recorded at 6 months after ICU admission by telephone interview. Secondary outcomes included health status as measured by EQ-5D-5L return to work and psychological function as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between distance from the ICU and moderate to severe disability, adjusted for potential confounders. Variables included in the multivariable model were deemed to be clinically relevant and had baseline imbalance between groups (p < 0.10). These included marital status and hours of mechanical ventilation. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted using distance in kilometres as a continuous variable.

Results

A total of 262 patients were enrolled, and 169 (65%) lived within 50 km of the treating ICU and 93 (35%) lived \u226550 km from the treating ICU (interquartile range [IQR] 10-664 km). There was no difference in patient-reported disability at 6 months between patients living <50 km and those living \u226550 km (WHODAS total disability % [IQR] 10.4 [2.08-25] v 14.6 [2.08-20.8], P = 0.74). There was also no difference between groups for the six major life domains of the WHODAS. There was no difference in rates of anxiety or depression as measured by HADS score (HADS anxiety median [IQR] 4 [1-7] v 3 [1-7], P = 0.60) (HADS depression median [IQR] 3 [1-6] v 3 [1-6], P = 0.62); health status as measured by EQ-5D (mean [SD] 66.7 [20] v 69.8 [22.2], P = 0.24); or health-related unemployment (% (N) 39 [26] v 25 [29.1], P = 0.61). After adjusting for confounders, living \u226550 km from the treating ICU was not associated with increased disability (odds ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval: 0.33-1.16; P = 0.13) CONCLUSIONS: Survivors of intensive care in Victoria, Australia, who live at least 50 km from the treating ICU did not have greater disability than people living less than 50 km at 6 months after discharge. Living 50 km or more from the treating ICU was not associated with disability, nor was it associated with anxiety or depression, health status, or unemployment due to health.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013" + }, { "id": "32505923", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102818", @@ -32639,6 +32656,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396420301936/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102818; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7276509; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7276509?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33087179", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9", + "title": "Reconstructing the early global dynamics of under-ascertained COVID-19 cases and infections.", + "authorString": "Russell TW, Golding N, Hellewell J, Abbott S, Wright L, Pearson CAB, van Zandvoort K, Jarvis CI, Gibbs H, Liu Y, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-10-22", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Surveillance; Situational Awareness; Under-reporting; Case Ascertainment; Outbreak Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Asymptomatic or subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infections are often unreported, which means that confirmed case counts may not accurately reflect underlying epidemic dynamics. Understanding the level of ascertainment (the ratio of confirmed symptomatic cases to the true number of symptomatic individuals) and undetected epidemic progression is crucial to informing COVID-19 response planning, including the introduction and relaxation of control measures. Estimating case ascertainment over time allows for accurate estimates of specific outcomes such as seroprevalence, which is essential for planning control measures.

Methods

Using reported data on COVID-19 cases and fatalities globally, we estimated the proportion of symptomatic cases (i.e. any person with any of fever \u2265\u200937.5\u2009\u00b0C, cough, shortness of breath, sudden onset of anosmia, ageusia or dysgeusia illness) that were reported in 210 countries and territories, given those countries had experienced more than ten deaths. We used published estimates of the baseline case fatality ratio (CFR), which was adjusted for delays and under-ascertainment, then calculated the ratio of this baseline CFR to an estimated local delay-adjusted CFR to estimate the level of under-ascertainment in a particular location. We then fit a Bayesian Gaussian process model to estimate the temporal pattern of under-ascertainment.

Results

Based on reported cases and deaths, we estimated that, during March 2020, the median percentage of symptomatic cases detected across the 84 countries which experienced more than ten deaths ranged from 2.4% (Bangladesh) to 100% (Chile). Across the ten countries with the highest number of total confirmed cases as of 6 July 2020, we estimated that the peak number of symptomatic cases ranged from 1.4 times (Chile) to 18 times (France) larger than reported. Comparing our model with national and regional seroprevalence data where available, we find that our estimates are consistent with observed values. Finally, we estimated seroprevalence for each country. As of 7 June, our seroprevalence estimates range from 0% (many countries) to 13% (95% CrI 5.6-24%) (Belgium).

Conclusions

We found substantial under-ascertainment of symptomatic cases, particularly at the peak of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in many countries. Reported case counts will therefore likely underestimate the rate of outbreak growth initially and underestimate the decline in the later stages of an epidemic. Although there was considerable under-reporting in many locations, our estimates were consistent with emerging serological data, suggesting that the proportion of each country's population infected with SARS-CoV-2 worldwide is generally low.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "30609404", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.11.014", @@ -32656,23 +32690,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929718304221/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.11.014; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6323624; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6323624?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.11.014" }, - { - "id": "34321180", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013", - "title": "The impact of distance on post-ICU disability.", - "authorString": "D'Arcy J, Haines K, Paul E, Doherty Z, Goodwin A, Bailey M, Barrett J, Bellomo R, Bucknall T, Gabbe BJ, Higgins AM, Iwashyna TJ, Murray LJ, Myles PS, Ponsford J, Pilcher D, Udy AA, Walker C, Young M, Cooper DJJ, Hodgson CL, ICU-Recovery Investigators.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Australian critical care : official journal of the Confederation of Australian Critical Care Nurses", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2021-07-25", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Quality of life; Mechanical ventilation; Distance; Disability; Intensive Care", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Nonurban residential living is associated with adverse outcomes for a number of chronic health conditions. However, it is unclear what effect it has amongst survivors of critical illness.

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to determine whether patients living greater than 50 km from the treating intensive care unit (ICU) have disability outcomes at 6 months that differ from people living within 50 km.

Methods

This was a multicentre, prospective cohort study conducted in five metropolitan ICUs. Participants were adults admitted to the ICU, who received >24 h of mechanical ventilation and survived to hospital discharge. In a secondary analysis of these data, the cohort was dichotomised based on residential distance from the treating ICU: <50 km and \u226550 km. The primary outcome was patient-reported disability using the 12-item World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0). This was recorded at 6 months after ICU admission by telephone interview. Secondary outcomes included health status as measured by EQ-5D-5L return to work and psychological function as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between distance from the ICU and moderate to severe disability, adjusted for potential confounders. Variables included in the multivariable model were deemed to be clinically relevant and had baseline imbalance between groups (p < 0.10). These included marital status and hours of mechanical ventilation. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted using distance in kilometres as a continuous variable.

Results

A total of 262 patients were enrolled, and 169 (65%) lived within 50 km of the treating ICU and 93 (35%) lived \u226550 km from the treating ICU (interquartile range [IQR] 10-664 km). There was no difference in patient-reported disability at 6 months between patients living <50 km and those living \u226550 km (WHODAS total disability % [IQR] 10.4 [2.08-25] v 14.6 [2.08-20.8], P = 0.74). There was also no difference between groups for the six major life domains of the WHODAS. There was no difference in rates of anxiety or depression as measured by HADS score (HADS anxiety median [IQR] 4 [1-7] v 3 [1-7], P = 0.60) (HADS depression median [IQR] 3 [1-6] v 3 [1-6], P = 0.62); health status as measured by EQ-5D (mean [SD] 66.7 [20] v 69.8 [22.2], P = 0.24); or health-related unemployment (% (N) 39 [26] v 25 [29.1], P = 0.61). After adjusting for confounders, living \u226550 km from the treating ICU was not associated with increased disability (odds ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval: 0.33-1.16; P = 0.13) CONCLUSIONS: Survivors of intensive care in Victoria, Australia, who live at least 50 km from the treating ICU did not have greater disability than people living less than 50 km at 6 months after discharge. Living 50 km or more from the treating ICU was not associated with disability, nor was it associated with anxiety or depression, health status, or unemployment due to health.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2021.05.013" - }, { "id": "33905495", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab291", @@ -32690,23 +32707,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3e48f9e0-d3c3-41ec-99ff-cc64d141d6cf/files/rcz30pt21m; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287915; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287915?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33087179", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9", - "title": "Reconstructing the early global dynamics of under-ascertained COVID-19 cases and infections.", - "authorString": "Russell TW, Golding N, Hellewell J, Abbott S, Wright L, Pearson CAB, van Zandvoort K, Jarvis CI, Gibbs H, Liu Y, Eggo RM, Edmunds WJ, Kucharski AJ, CMMID COVID-19 working group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-22", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Surveillance; Situational Awareness; Under-reporting; Case Ascertainment; Outbreak Analysis; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Asymptomatic or subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infections are often unreported, which means that confirmed case counts may not accurately reflect underlying epidemic dynamics. Understanding the level of ascertainment (the ratio of confirmed symptomatic cases to the true number of symptomatic individuals) and undetected epidemic progression is crucial to informing COVID-19 response planning, including the introduction and relaxation of control measures. Estimating case ascertainment over time allows for accurate estimates of specific outcomes such as seroprevalence, which is essential for planning control measures.

Methods

Using reported data on COVID-19 cases and fatalities globally, we estimated the proportion of symptomatic cases (i.e. any person with any of fever \u2265\u200937.5\u2009\u00b0C, cough, shortness of breath, sudden onset of anosmia, ageusia or dysgeusia illness) that were reported in 210 countries and territories, given those countries had experienced more than ten deaths. We used published estimates of the baseline case fatality ratio (CFR), which was adjusted for delays and under-ascertainment, then calculated the ratio of this baseline CFR to an estimated local delay-adjusted CFR to estimate the level of under-ascertainment in a particular location. We then fit a Bayesian Gaussian process model to estimate the temporal pattern of under-ascertainment.

Results

Based on reported cases and deaths, we estimated that, during March 2020, the median percentage of symptomatic cases detected across the 84 countries which experienced more than ten deaths ranged from 2.4% (Bangladesh) to 100% (Chile). Across the ten countries with the highest number of total confirmed cases as of 6 July 2020, we estimated that the peak number of symptomatic cases ranged from 1.4 times (Chile) to 18 times (France) larger than reported. Comparing our model with national and regional seroprevalence data where available, we find that our estimates are consistent with observed values. Finally, we estimated seroprevalence for each country. As of 7 June, our seroprevalence estimates range from 0% (many countries) to 13% (95% CrI 5.6-24%) (Belgium).

Conclusions

We found substantial under-ascertainment of symptomatic cases, particularly at the peak of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in many countries. Reported case counts will therefore likely underestimate the rate of outbreak growth initially and underestimate the decline in the later stages of an epidemic. Although there was considerable under-reporting in many locations, our estimates were consistent with emerging serological data, suggesting that the proportion of each country's population infected with SARS-CoV-2 worldwide is generally low.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01790-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7577796?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33623826", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16164.2", @@ -32792,23 +32792,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.123.030280" }, - { - "id": "36527096", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9", - "title": "\"Data makes the story come to life:\" understanding the ethical and legal implications of Big Data research involving ethnic minority healthcare workers in the United Kingdom-a qualitative study.", - "authorString": "Dove ES, Reed-Berendt R, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medical ethics", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-12-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Ethics; Public Health; United Kingdom; Healthcare Workers; Ethnic Minorities; Big Data; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The aim of UK-REACH (\"The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers\") is to understand if, how, and why healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) from ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. In this article, we present findings from the ethical and legal stream of the study, which undertook qualitative research seeking to understand and address legal, ethical, and social acceptability issues around data protection, privacy, and information governance associated with the linkage of HCWs' registration data and healthcare data. We interviewed 22 key opinion leaders in healthcare and health research from across the UK in two-to-one semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were coded using qualitative thematic analysis. Participants told us that a significant aspect of Big Data research in public health is varying drivers of mistrust-of the research itself, research staff and funders, and broader concerns of mistrust within participant communities, particularly in the context of COVID-19 and those situated in more marginalised community settings. However, despite the challenges, participants also identified ways in which legally compliant and ethically informed approaches to research can be crafted to mitigate or overcome mistrust and establish greater confidence in Big Data public health research. Overall, our research indicates that a \"Big Data Ethics by Design\" approach to research in this area can help assure (1) that meaningful community and participant engagement is taking place and that extant challenges are addressed, and (2) that any new challenges or hitherto unknown unknowns can be rapidly and properly considered to ensure potential (but material) harms are identified and minimised where necessary. Our findings indicate such an approach, in turn, will help drive better scientific breakthroughs that translate into medical innovations and effective public health interventions, which benefit the publics studied, including those who are often marginalised in research.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31792462", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0665-2", @@ -32826,6 +32809,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6922049?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0665-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6922049?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0665-2" }, + { + "id": "36527096", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9", + "title": "\"Data makes the story come to life:\" understanding the ethical and legal implications of Big Data research involving ethnic minority healthcare workers in the United Kingdom-a qualitative study.", + "authorString": "Dove ES, Reed-Berendt R, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medical ethics", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-12-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Ethics; Public Health; United Kingdom; Healthcare Workers; Ethnic Minorities; Big Data; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The aim of UK-REACH (\"The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers\") is to understand if, how, and why healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) from ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. In this article, we present findings from the ethical and legal stream of the study, which undertook qualitative research seeking to understand and address legal, ethical, and social acceptability issues around data protection, privacy, and information governance associated with the linkage of HCWs' registration data and healthcare data. We interviewed 22 key opinion leaders in healthcare and health research from across the UK in two-to-one semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were coded using qualitative thematic analysis. Participants told us that a significant aspect of Big Data research in public health is varying drivers of mistrust-of the research itself, research staff and funders, and broader concerns of mistrust within participant communities, particularly in the context of COVID-19 and those situated in more marginalised community settings. However, despite the challenges, participants also identified ways in which legally compliant and ethically informed approaches to research can be crafted to mitigate or overcome mistrust and establish greater confidence in Big Data public health research. Overall, our research indicates that a \"Big Data Ethics by Design\" approach to research in this area can help assure (1) that meaningful community and participant engagement is taking place and that extant challenges are addressed, and (2) that any new challenges or hitherto unknown unknowns can be rapidly and properly considered to ensure potential (but material) harms are identified and minimised where necessary. Our findings indicate such an approach, in turn, will help drive better scientific breakthroughs that translate into medical innovations and effective public health interventions, which benefit the publics studied, including those who are often marginalised in research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00875-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9756740?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36522333", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35454-4", @@ -32860,23 +32860,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.19191/EP20.5-6.S1.P179.088" }, - { - "id": "35523486", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258", - "title": "Using digital health tools for the Remote Assessment of Treatment Prognosis in Depression (RAPID): a study protocol for a feasibility study.", - "authorString": "de Angel V, Lewis S, Munir S, Matcham F, Dobson R, Hotopf M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-05-06", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Health Informatics; Depression & Mood Disorders", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Digital health tools such as smartphones and wearable devices could improve psychological treatment outcomes in depression through more accurate and comprehensive measures of patient behaviour. However, in this emerging field, most studies are small and based on student populations outside of a clinical setting. The current study aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of using smartphones and wearable devices to collect behavioural and clinical data in people undergoing therapy for depressive disorders and establish the extent to which they can be potentially useful biomarkers of depression and recovery after treatment.

Methods and analysis

This is an observational, prospective cohort study of 65 people attending psychological therapy for depression in multiple London-based sites. It will collect continuous passive data from smartphone sensors and a Fitbit fitness tracker, and deliver questionnaires, speech tasks and cognitive assessments through smartphone-based apps. Objective data on sleep, physical activity, location, Bluetooth contact, smartphone use and heart rate will be gathered for 7 months, and compared with clinical and contextual data. A mixed methods design, including a qualitative interview of patient experiences, will be used to evaluate key feasibility indicators, digital phenotypes of depression and therapy prognosis. Patient and public involvement was sought for participant-facing documents and the study design of the current research proposal.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the London Westminster Research Ethics Committee, and the Health Research Authority, Integrated Research Application System (project ID: 270918). Privacy and confidentiality will be guaranteed and the procedures for handling, processing, storage and destruction of the data will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. Findings from this study will form part of a doctoral thesis, will be presented at national and international meetings or academic conferences and will generate manuscripts to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

Trial registration number

https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PMYTA.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/5/e059258.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31113941", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10417-4", @@ -32894,6 +32877,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10417-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10417-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6529418; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6529418?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35523486", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258", + "title": "Using digital health tools for the Remote Assessment of Treatment Prognosis in Depression (RAPID): a study protocol for a feasibility study.", + "authorString": "de Angel V, Lewis S, Munir S, Matcham F, Dobson R, Hotopf M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-05-06", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Mental health; Anxiety Disorders; Health Informatics; Depression & Mood Disorders", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Digital health tools such as smartphones and wearable devices could improve psychological treatment outcomes in depression through more accurate and comprehensive measures of patient behaviour. However, in this emerging field, most studies are small and based on student populations outside of a clinical setting. The current study aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of using smartphones and wearable devices to collect behavioural and clinical data in people undergoing therapy for depressive disorders and establish the extent to which they can be potentially useful biomarkers of depression and recovery after treatment.

Methods and analysis

This is an observational, prospective cohort study of 65 people attending psychological therapy for depression in multiple London-based sites. It will collect continuous passive data from smartphone sensors and a Fitbit fitness tracker, and deliver questionnaires, speech tasks and cognitive assessments through smartphone-based apps. Objective data on sleep, physical activity, location, Bluetooth contact, smartphone use and heart rate will be gathered for 7 months, and compared with clinical and contextual data. A mixed methods design, including a qualitative interview of patient experiences, will be used to evaluate key feasibility indicators, digital phenotypes of depression and therapy prognosis. Patient and public involvement was sought for participant-facing documents and the study design of the current research proposal.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the London Westminster Research Ethics Committee, and the Health Research Authority, Integrated Research Application System (project ID: 270918). Privacy and confidentiality will be guaranteed and the procedures for handling, processing, storage and destruction of the data will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. Findings from this study will form part of a doctoral thesis, will be presented at national and international meetings or academic conferences and will generate manuscripts to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

Trial registration number

https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PMYTA.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/5/e059258.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059258; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9083394?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36269859", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206083119", @@ -32945,23 +32945,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352396422000627/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103878; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856886; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8856886?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36895957", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037", - "title": "Investigating genotype-phenotype relationship of extreme neuropathic pain disorders in a UK national cohort.", - "authorString": "Themistocleous AC, Baskozos G, Blesneac I, Comini M, Megy K, Chong S, Deevi SVV, Ginsberg L, Gosal D, Hadden RDM, Horvath R, Mahdi-Rogers M, Manzur A, Mapeta R, Marshall A, Matthews E, McCarthy MI, Reilly MM, Renton T, Rice ASC, Vale TA, van Zuydam N, Walker SM, Woods CG, Bennett DLH.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Brain communications", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-02-20", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Sodium channels; Neuropathic pain; Peripheral Neuropathy; Whole Genome Sequencing", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The aims of our study were to use whole genome sequencing in a cross-sectional cohort of patients to identify new variants in genes implicated in neuropathic pain, to determine the prevalence of known pathogenic variants and to understand the relationship between pathogenic variants and clinical presentation. Patients with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes (both sensory loss and gain) were recruited from secondary care clinics in the UK and underwent whole genome sequencing as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Bioresource Rare Diseases project. A multidisciplinary team assessed the pathogenicity of rare variants in genes previously known to cause neuropathic pain disorders and exploratory analysis of research candidate genes was completed. Association testing for genes carrying rare variants was completed using the gene-wise approach of the combined burden and variance-component test SKAT-O. Patch clamp analysis was performed on transfected HEK293T cells for research candidate variants of genes encoding ion channels. The results include the following: (i) Medically actionable variants were found in 12% of study participants (205 recruited), including known pathogenic variants: SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1): c.2544T>C, p.Ile848Thr that causes inherited erythromelalgia, and SPTLC1(ENST00000262554.2):c.340T>G, p.Cys133Tr variant that causes hereditary sensory neuropathy type-1. (ii) Clinically relevant variants were most common in voltage-gated sodium channels (Nav). (iii) SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1):c.554G>A, pArg185His variant was more common in non-freezing cold injury participants than controls and causes a gain of function of NaV1.7 after cooling (the environmental trigger for non-freezing cold injury). (iv) Rare variant association testing showed a significant difference in distribution for genes NGF, KIF1A, SCN8A, TRPM8, KIF1A, TRPA1 and the regulatory regions of genes SCN11A, FLVCR1, KIF1A and SCN9A between European participants with neuropathic pain and controls. (v) The TRPA1(ENST00000262209.4):c.515C>T, p.Ala172Val variant identified in participants with episodic somatic pain disorder demonstrated gain-of-channel function to agonist stimulation. Whole genome sequencing identified clinically relevant variants in over 10% of participants with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes. The majority of these variants were found in ion channels. Combining genetic analysis with functional validation can lead to a better understanding as to how rare variants in ion channels lead to sensory neuron hyper-excitability, and how cold, as an environmental trigger, interacts with the gain-of-function NaV1.7 p.Arg185His variant. Our findings highlight the role of ion channel variants in the pathogenesis of extreme neuropathic pain disorders, likely mediated through changes in sensory neuron excitability and interaction with environmental triggers.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/5/2/fcad037/49446967/fcad037.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35585198", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01772-9", @@ -32979,6 +32962,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01772-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01772-9" }, + { + "id": "36895957", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037", + "title": "Investigating genotype-phenotype relationship of extreme neuropathic pain disorders in a UK national cohort.", + "authorString": "Themistocleous AC, Baskozos G, Blesneac I, Comini M, Megy K, Chong S, Deevi SVV, Ginsberg L, Gosal D, Hadden RDM, Horvath R, Mahdi-Rogers M, Manzur A, Mapeta R, Marshall A, Matthews E, McCarthy MI, Reilly MM, Renton T, Rice ASC, Vale TA, van Zuydam N, Walker SM, Woods CG, Bennett DLH.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Brain communications", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-02-20", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Sodium channels; Neuropathic pain; Peripheral Neuropathy; Whole Genome Sequencing", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The aims of our study were to use whole genome sequencing in a cross-sectional cohort of patients to identify new variants in genes implicated in neuropathic pain, to determine the prevalence of known pathogenic variants and to understand the relationship between pathogenic variants and clinical presentation. Patients with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes (both sensory loss and gain) were recruited from secondary care clinics in the UK and underwent whole genome sequencing as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Bioresource Rare Diseases project. A multidisciplinary team assessed the pathogenicity of rare variants in genes previously known to cause neuropathic pain disorders and exploratory analysis of research candidate genes was completed. Association testing for genes carrying rare variants was completed using the gene-wise approach of the combined burden and variance-component test SKAT-O. Patch clamp analysis was performed on transfected HEK293T cells for research candidate variants of genes encoding ion channels. The results include the following: (i) Medically actionable variants were found in 12% of study participants (205 recruited), including known pathogenic variants: SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1): c.2544T>C, p.Ile848Thr that causes inherited erythromelalgia, and SPTLC1(ENST00000262554.2):c.340T>G, p.Cys133Tr variant that causes hereditary sensory neuropathy type-1. (ii) Clinically relevant variants were most common in voltage-gated sodium channels (Nav). (iii) SCN9A(ENST00000409672.1):c.554G>A, pArg185His variant was more common in non-freezing cold injury participants than controls and causes a gain of function of NaV1.7 after cooling (the environmental trigger for non-freezing cold injury). (iv) Rare variant association testing showed a significant difference in distribution for genes NGF, KIF1A, SCN8A, TRPM8, KIF1A, TRPA1 and the regulatory regions of genes SCN11A, FLVCR1, KIF1A and SCN9A between European participants with neuropathic pain and controls. (v) The TRPA1(ENST00000262209.4):c.515C>T, p.Ala172Val variant identified in participants with episodic somatic pain disorder demonstrated gain-of-channel function to agonist stimulation. Whole genome sequencing identified clinically relevant variants in over 10% of participants with extreme neuropathic pain phenotypes. The majority of these variants were found in ion channels. Combining genetic analysis with functional validation can lead to a better understanding as to how rare variants in ion channels lead to sensory neuron hyper-excitability, and how cold, as an environmental trigger, interacts with the gain-of-function NaV1.7 p.Arg185His variant. Our findings highlight the role of ion channel variants in the pathogenesis of extreme neuropathic pain disorders, likely mediated through changes in sensory neuron excitability and interaction with environmental triggers.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/5/2/fcad037/49446967/fcad037.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad037; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9991512?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31478583", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.1615", @@ -33013,23 +33013,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article-pdf/4/14/3284/1749738/advancesadv2020002230.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020002230; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7391156; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7391156?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020002230" }, - { - "id": "35296488", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552", - "title": "AlzEye: longitudinal record-level linkage of ophthalmic imaging and hospital admissions of 353\u2009157 patients in London, UK.", - "authorString": "Wagner SK, Hughes F, Cortina-Borja M, Pontikos N, Struyven R, Liu X, Montgomery H, Alexander DC, Topol E, Petersen SE, Balaskas K, Hindley J, Petzold A, Rahi JS, Denniston AK, Keane PA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Ophthalmology; Health Informatics; Medical Retina; Medical Ophthalmology", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Purpose

Retinal signatures of systemic disease ('oculomics') are increasingly being revealed through a combination of high-resolution ophthalmic imaging and sophisticated modelling strategies. Progress is currently limited not mainly by technical issues, but by the lack of large labelled datasets, a sine qua non for deep learning. Such data are derived from prospective epidemiological studies, in which retinal imaging is typically unimodal, cross-sectional, of modest number and relates to cohorts, which are not enriched with subpopulations of interest, such as those with systemic disease. We thus linked longitudinal multimodal retinal imaging from routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) data with systemic disease data from hospital admissions using a privacy-by-design third-party linkage approach.

Participants

Between 1 January 2008 and 1 April 2018, 353\u2009157 participants aged 40 years or older, who attended Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a tertiary ophthalmic institution incorporating a principal central site, four district hubs and five satellite clinics in and around London, UK serving a catchment population of approximately six million people.

Findings to date

Among the 353\u2009157 individuals, 186\u2009651 had a total of 1\u2009337\u2009711 Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care episodes. Systemic diagnoses recorded at these episodes include 12\u2009022 patients with myocardial infarction, 11\u2009735 with all-cause stroke and 13\u2009363 with all-cause dementia. A total of 6\u2009261\u2009931 retinal images of seven different modalities and across three manufacturers were acquired from 1\u200954\u2009830 patients. The majority of retinal images were retinal photographs (n=1 874 175) followed by optical coherence tomography (n=1 567 358).

Future plans

AlzEye combines the world's largest single institution retinal imaging database with nationally collected systemic data to create an exceptional large-scale, enriched cohort that reflects the diversity of the population served. First analyses will address cardiovascular diseases and dementia, with a view to identifying hidden retinal signatures that may lead to earlier detection and risk management of these life-threatening conditions.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e058552.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34252085", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162", @@ -33047,23 +33030,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009162; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8297940; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8297940?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37393924", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00860-7", - "title": "The unfinished agenda of communicable diseases among children and adolescents before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.", - "authorString": "GBD 2019 Child and Adolescent Communicable Disease Collaborators.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-06-29", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Communicable disease control has long been a focus of global health policy. There have been substantial reductions in the burden and mortality of communicable diseases among children younger than 5 years, but we know less about this burden in older children and adolescents, and it is unclear whether current programmes and policies remain aligned with targets for intervention. This knowledge is especially important for policy and programmes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to use the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019 to systematically characterise the burden of communicable diseases across childhood and adolescence.

Methods

In this systematic analysis of the GBD study from 1990 to 2019, all communicable diseases and their manifestations as modelled within GBD 2019 were included, categorised as 16 subgroups of common diseases or presentations. Data were reported for absolute count, prevalence, and incidence across measures of cause-specific mortality (deaths and years of life lost), disability (years lived with disability [YLDs]), and disease burden (disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs]) for children and adolescents aged 0-24 years. Data were reported across the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and across time (1990-2019), and for 204 countries and territories. For HIV, we reported the mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) as a measure of health system performance.

Findings

In 2019, there were 3\u00b70 million deaths and 30\u00b70 million years of healthy life lost to disability (as measured by YLDs), corresponding to 288\u00b74 million DALYs from communicable diseases among children and adolescents globally (57\u00b73% of total communicable disease burden across all ages). Over time, there has been a shift in communicable disease burden from young children to older children and adolescents (largely driven by the considerable reductions in children younger than 5 years and slower progress elsewhere), although children younger than 5 years still accounted for most of the communicable disease burden in 2019. Disease burden and mortality were predominantly in low-SDI settings, with high and high-middle SDI settings also having an appreciable burden of communicable disease morbidity (4\u00b70 million YLDs in 2019 alone). Three cause groups (enteric infections, lower-respiratory-tract infections, and malaria) accounted for 59\u00b78% of the global communicable disease burden in children and adolescents, with tuberculosis and HIV both emerging as important causes during adolescence. HIV was the only cause for which disease burden increased over time, particularly in children and adolescents older than 5 years, and especially in females. Excess MIRs for HIV were observed for males aged 15-19 years in low-SDI settings.

Interpretation

Our analysis supports continued policy focus on enteric infections and lower-respiratory-tract infections, with orientation to children younger than 5 years in settings of low socioeconomic development. However, efforts should also be targeted to other conditions, particularly HIV, given its increased burden in older children and adolescents. Older children and adolescents also experience a large burden of communicable disease, further highlighting the need for efforts to extend beyond the first 5 years of life. Our analysis also identified substantial morbidity caused by communicable diseases affecting child and adolescent health across the world.

Funding

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence for Driving Investment in Global Adolescent Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00860-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32862087", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.07.014", @@ -33081,6 +33047,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.atherosclerosis-journal.com/article/S0021915020303816/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.07.014" }, + { + "id": "35296488", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552", + "title": "AlzEye: longitudinal record-level linkage of ophthalmic imaging and hospital admissions of 353\u2009157 patients in London, UK.", + "authorString": "Wagner SK, Hughes F, Cortina-Borja M, Pontikos N, Struyven R, Liu X, Montgomery H, Alexander DC, Topol E, Petersen SE, Balaskas K, Hindley J, Petzold A, Rahi JS, Denniston AK, Keane PA.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Ophthalmology; Health Informatics; Medical Retina; Medical Ophthalmology", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Purpose

Retinal signatures of systemic disease ('oculomics') are increasingly being revealed through a combination of high-resolution ophthalmic imaging and sophisticated modelling strategies. Progress is currently limited not mainly by technical issues, but by the lack of large labelled datasets, a sine qua non for deep learning. Such data are derived from prospective epidemiological studies, in which retinal imaging is typically unimodal, cross-sectional, of modest number and relates to cohorts, which are not enriched with subpopulations of interest, such as those with systemic disease. We thus linked longitudinal multimodal retinal imaging from routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) data with systemic disease data from hospital admissions using a privacy-by-design third-party linkage approach.

Participants

Between 1 January 2008 and 1 April 2018, 353\u2009157 participants aged 40 years or older, who attended Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a tertiary ophthalmic institution incorporating a principal central site, four district hubs and five satellite clinics in and around London, UK serving a catchment population of approximately six million people.

Findings to date

Among the 353\u2009157 individuals, 186\u2009651 had a total of 1\u2009337\u2009711 Hospital Episode Statistics admitted patient care episodes. Systemic diagnoses recorded at these episodes include 12\u2009022 patients with myocardial infarction, 11\u2009735 with all-cause stroke and 13\u2009363 with all-cause dementia. A total of 6\u2009261\u2009931 retinal images of seven different modalities and across three manufacturers were acquired from 1\u200954\u2009830 patients. The majority of retinal images were retinal photographs (n=1 874 175) followed by optical coherence tomography (n=1 567 358).

Future plans

AlzEye combines the world's largest single institution retinal imaging database with nationally collected systemic data to create an exceptional large-scale, enriched cohort that reflects the diversity of the population served. First analyses will address cardiovascular diseases and dementia, with a view to identifying hidden retinal signatures that may lead to earlier detection and risk management of these life-threatening conditions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e058552.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058552; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8928293?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32184442", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0857-9", @@ -33098,6 +33081,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-0857-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0857-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7078216; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7078216?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37393924", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00860-7", + "title": "The unfinished agenda of communicable diseases among children and adolescents before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.", + "authorString": "GBD 2019 Child and Adolescent Communicable Disease Collaborators.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-06-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Communicable disease control has long been a focus of global health policy. There have been substantial reductions in the burden and mortality of communicable diseases among children younger than 5 years, but we know less about this burden in older children and adolescents, and it is unclear whether current programmes and policies remain aligned with targets for intervention. This knowledge is especially important for policy and programmes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to use the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019 to systematically characterise the burden of communicable diseases across childhood and adolescence.

Methods

In this systematic analysis of the GBD study from 1990 to 2019, all communicable diseases and their manifestations as modelled within GBD 2019 were included, categorised as 16 subgroups of common diseases or presentations. Data were reported for absolute count, prevalence, and incidence across measures of cause-specific mortality (deaths and years of life lost), disability (years lived with disability [YLDs]), and disease burden (disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs]) for children and adolescents aged 0-24 years. Data were reported across the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and across time (1990-2019), and for 204 countries and territories. For HIV, we reported the mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) as a measure of health system performance.

Findings

In 2019, there were 3\u00b70 million deaths and 30\u00b70 million years of healthy life lost to disability (as measured by YLDs), corresponding to 288\u00b74 million DALYs from communicable diseases among children and adolescents globally (57\u00b73% of total communicable disease burden across all ages). Over time, there has been a shift in communicable disease burden from young children to older children and adolescents (largely driven by the considerable reductions in children younger than 5 years and slower progress elsewhere), although children younger than 5 years still accounted for most of the communicable disease burden in 2019. Disease burden and mortality were predominantly in low-SDI settings, with high and high-middle SDI settings also having an appreciable burden of communicable disease morbidity (4\u00b70 million YLDs in 2019 alone). Three cause groups (enteric infections, lower-respiratory-tract infections, and malaria) accounted for 59\u00b78% of the global communicable disease burden in children and adolescents, with tuberculosis and HIV both emerging as important causes during adolescence. HIV was the only cause for which disease burden increased over time, particularly in children and adolescents older than 5 years, and especially in females. Excess MIRs for HIV were observed for males aged 15-19 years in low-SDI settings.

Interpretation

Our analysis supports continued policy focus on enteric infections and lower-respiratory-tract infections, with orientation to children younger than 5 years in settings of low socioeconomic development. However, efforts should also be targeted to other conditions, particularly HIV, given its increased burden in older children and adolescents. Older children and adolescents also experience a large burden of communicable disease, further highlighting the need for efforts to extend beyond the first 5 years of life. Our analysis also identified substantial morbidity caused by communicable diseases affecting child and adolescent health across the world.

Funding

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence for Driving Investment in Global Adolescent Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00860-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10375221?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33203906", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76518-z", @@ -33132,23 +33132,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjd.18778; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18778; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7496176; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7496176?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32935027", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093", - "title": "Health Data Linkage for UK Public Interest Research: Key Obstacles and Solutions.", - "authorString": "Mourby MJ, Doidge J, Jones KH, Aidinlis S, Smith H, Bell J, Gilbert R, Dutey-Magni P, Kaye J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-04-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Analysis of linked health data can generate important, even life-saving, insights into population health. Yet obstacles both legal and organisational in nature can impede this work.

Approach

We focus on three UK infrastructures set up to link and share data for research: the Administrative Data Research Network, NHS Digital, and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. Bringing an interdisciplinary perspective, we identify key issues underpinning their challenges and successes in linking health data for research.

Results

We identify examples of uncertainty surrounding legal powers to share and link data, and around data protection obligations, as well as systemic delays and historic public backlash. These issues require updated official guidance on the relevant law, approaches to linkage which are planned for impact and ongoing utility, greater transparency between data providers and researchers, and engagement with the patient population which is both high-profile and carefully considered.

Conclusions

Health data linkage for research presents varied challenges, to which there can be no single solution. Our recommendations would require action from a number of data providers and regulators to be meaningfully advanced. This illustrates the scale and complexity of the challenge of health data linkage, in the UK and beyond: a challenge which our case studies suggest no single organisation can combat alone. Planned programmes of linkage are critical because they allow time for organisations to address these challenges without adversely affecting the feasibility of individual research projects.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1093/1035; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32681152", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-020-0343-3", @@ -33166,6 +33149,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-020-0343-3" }, + { + "id": "32935027", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093", + "title": "Health Data Linkage for UK Public Interest Research: Key Obstacles and Solutions.", + "authorString": "Mourby MJ, Doidge J, Jones KH, Aidinlis S, Smith H, Bell J, Gilbert R, Dutey-Magni P, Kaye J.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of population data science", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-04-02", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Analysis of linked health data can generate important, even life-saving, insights into population health. Yet obstacles both legal and organisational in nature can impede this work.

Approach

We focus on three UK infrastructures set up to link and share data for research: the Administrative Data Research Network, NHS Digital, and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. Bringing an interdisciplinary perspective, we identify key issues underpinning their challenges and successes in linking health data for research.

Results

We identify examples of uncertainty surrounding legal powers to share and link data, and around data protection obligations, as well as systemic delays and historic public backlash. These issues require updated official guidance on the relevant law, approaches to linkage which are planned for impact and ongoing utility, greater transparency between data providers and researchers, and engagement with the patient population which is both high-profile and carefully considered.

Conclusions

Health data linkage for research presents varied challenges, to which there can be no single solution. Our recommendations would require action from a number of data providers and regulators to be meaningfully advanced. This illustrates the scale and complexity of the challenge of health data linkage, in the UK and beyond: a challenge which our case studies suggest no single organisation can combat alone. Planned programmes of linkage are critical because they allow time for organisations to address these challenges without adversely affecting the feasibility of individual research projects.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://ijpds.org/article/download/1093/1035; doi:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1093; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7482514?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35587468", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003981", @@ -33183,40 +33183,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003981&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003981; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9119501; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9119501?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33995410", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052", - "title": "Plasma Lectin Pathway Complement Proteins in Patients With COVID-19 and Renal Disease.", - "authorString": "Medjeral-Thomas NR, Troldborg A, Hansen AG, Gisby J, Clarke CL, Prendecki M, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Lightstone L, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Peters JE, Pickering MC, Thiel S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in immunology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-29", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Complement; Lectin; Coronavirus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "We do not understand why non-white ethnicity and chronic kidney disease increase susceptibility to COVID-19. The lectin pathway of complement activation is a key contributor to innate immunity and inflammation. Concentrations of plasma lectin pathway proteins influence pathway activity and vary with ethnicity. We measured circulating lectin proteins in a multi-ethnic cohort of chronic kidney disease patients with and without COVID19 infection to determine if lectin pathway activation was contributing to COVID19 severity. We measured 11 lectin proteins in serial samples from a cohort of 33 patients with chronic kidney impairment and COVID19. Controls were single plasma samples from 32 patients on dialysis and 32 healthy individuals. We demonstrated multiple associations between recognition molecules and associated proteases of the lectin pathway and COVID-19, including COVID-19 severity. Some of these associations were unique to patients of Asian and White ethnicity. Our novel findings demonstrate that COVID19 infection alters the concentration of plasma lectin proteins and some of these changes were linked to ethnicity. This suggests a role for the lectin pathway in the host response to COVID-19 and suggest that variability within this pathway may contribute to ethnicity-associated differences in susceptibility to severe COVID-19.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695?pdf=render" - }, - { - "id": "33932483", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015", - "title": "Probabilistic linkage without personal information successfully linked national clinical datasets.", - "authorString": "Blake HA, Sharples LD, Harron K, van der Meulen JH, Walker K.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Personal Information; Probabilistic Linkage; National Clinical Datasets; Patient Identifiers", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Probabilistic linkage can link patients from different clinical databases without the need for personal information. If accurate linkage can be achieved, it would accelerate the use of linked datasets to address important clinical and public health questions.

Objective

We developed a step-by-step process for probabilistic linkage of national clinical and administrative datasets without personal information, and validated it against deterministic linkage using patient identifiers.

Study design and setting

We used electronic health records from the National Bowel Cancer Audit and Hospital Episode Statistics databases for 10,566 bowel cancer patients undergoing emergency surgery in the English National Health Service.

Results

Probabilistic linkage linked 81.4% of National Bowel Cancer Audit records to Hospital Episode Statistics, vs. 82.8% using deterministic linkage. No systematic differences were seen between patients that were and were not linked, and regression models for mortality and length of hospital stay according to patient and tumour characteristics were not sensitive to the linkage approach.

Conclusion

Probabilistic linkage was successful in linking national clinical and administrative datasets for patients undergoing a major surgical procedure. It allows analysts outside highly secure data environments to undertake linkage while minimizing costs and delays, protecting data security, and maintaining linkage quality.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621001384/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443839" - }, { "id": "35188868", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2038863", @@ -33251,6 +33217,40 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22338-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22338-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8110798; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8110798?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33995410", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052", + "title": "Plasma Lectin Pathway Complement Proteins in Patients With COVID-19 and Renal Disease.", + "authorString": "Medjeral-Thomas NR, Troldborg A, Hansen AG, Gisby J, Clarke CL, Prendecki M, McAdoo SP, Sandhu E, Lightstone L, Thomas DC, Willicombe M, Botto M, Peters JE, Pickering MC, Thiel S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in immunology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-04-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Complement; Lectin; Coronavirus; Chronic Kidney Disease; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "We do not understand why non-white ethnicity and chronic kidney disease increase susceptibility to COVID-19. The lectin pathway of complement activation is a key contributor to innate immunity and inflammation. Concentrations of plasma lectin pathway proteins influence pathway activity and vary with ethnicity. We measured circulating lectin proteins in a multi-ethnic cohort of chronic kidney disease patients with and without COVID19 infection to determine if lectin pathway activation was contributing to COVID19 severity. We measured 11 lectin proteins in serial samples from a cohort of 33 patients with chronic kidney impairment and COVID19. Controls were single plasma samples from 32 patients on dialysis and 32 healthy individuals. We demonstrated multiple associations between recognition molecules and associated proteases of the lectin pathway and COVID-19, including COVID-19 severity. Some of these associations were unique to patients of Asian and White ethnicity. Our novel findings demonstrate that COVID19 infection alters the concentration of plasma lectin proteins and some of these changes were linked to ethnicity. This suggests a role for the lectin pathway in the host response to COVID-19 and suggest that variability within this pathway may contribute to ethnicity-associated differences in susceptibility to severe COVID-19.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671052; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8118695?pdf=render" + }, + { + "id": "33932483", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015", + "title": "Probabilistic linkage without personal information successfully linked national clinical datasets.", + "authorString": "Blake HA, Sharples LD, Harron K, van der Meulen JH, Walker K.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-04-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Electronic Health Records; Record Linkage; Personal Information; Probabilistic Linkage; National Clinical Datasets; Patient Identifiers", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Probabilistic linkage can link patients from different clinical databases without the need for personal information. If accurate linkage can be achieved, it would accelerate the use of linked datasets to address important clinical and public health questions.

Objective

We developed a step-by-step process for probabilistic linkage of national clinical and administrative datasets without personal information, and validated it against deterministic linkage using patient identifiers.

Study design and setting

We used electronic health records from the National Bowel Cancer Audit and Hospital Episode Statistics databases for 10,566 bowel cancer patients undergoing emergency surgery in the English National Health Service.

Results

Probabilistic linkage linked 81.4% of National Bowel Cancer Audit records to Hospital Episode Statistics, vs. 82.8% using deterministic linkage. No systematic differences were seen between patients that were and were not linked, and regression models for mortality and length of hospital stay according to patient and tumour characteristics were not sensitive to the linkage approach.

Conclusion

Probabilistic linkage was successful in linking national clinical and administrative datasets for patients undergoing a major surgical procedure. It allows analysts outside highly secure data environments to undertake linkage while minimizing costs and delays, protecting data security, and maintaining linkage quality.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435621001384/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.04.015; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8443839" + }, { "id": "34036180", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i2.1385", @@ -33302,23 +33302,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103253; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639388; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9639388?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36717224", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548", - "title": "Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC): a neonatal survey refined for real-time parent feedback.", - "authorString": "Sakonidou S, Kotzamanis S, Tallett A, Poots AJ, Modi N, Bell D, Gale C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-30", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Intensive care units; Child Health Services; Paediatrics; Neonatology; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Assessing parent experiences of neonatal services can help improve quality of care; however, there is no formally evaluated UK instrument available to assess this prospectively. Our objective was to refine an existing retrospective survey for 'real-time' feedback.

Methods

Co-led by a parent representative, we recruited a convenience sample of parents of infants in a London tertiary neonatal unit. Our steering group selected questions from the existing retrospective 61-question Picker survey (2014), added and revised questions assessing communication and parent involvement. We established face validity, ensuring questions adequately captured the topic, conducted parent cognitive interviews to evaluate parental understanding of questions,and adapted the survey in three revision cycles. We evaluated survey performance.

Results

The revised Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC) survey contains 28 questions (10 new) focusing on communication and parent involvement. We cognitively interviewed six parents, and 67 parents completed 197 PEC surveys in the survey performance evaluation. Missing entries exceeded 5% for nine questions; we removed one and format-adjusted the rest as they had performed well during cognitive testing. There was strong inter-item correlation between two question pairs; however, all were retained as they individually assessed important concepts.

Conclusion

Revised from the original 61-question Picker survey, the 28-question PEC survey is the first UK instrument formally evaluated to assess parent experience while infants are still receiving neonatal care. Developed with parents, it focuses on communication and parent involvement, enabling continuous assessment and iterative improvement of family-centred interventions in neonatal care.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://fn.bmj.com/content/fetalneonatal/early/2023/01/30/archdischild-2022-324548.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30681347", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.118.002328", @@ -33336,6 +33319,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002328; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002328; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6380958; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6380958?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.118.002328" }, + { + "id": "36717224", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548", + "title": "Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC): a neonatal survey refined for real-time parent feedback.", + "authorString": "Sakonidou S, Kotzamanis S, Tallett A, Poots AJ, Modi N, Bell D, Gale C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-30", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Intensive care units; Child Health Services; Paediatrics; Neonatology; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Assessing parent experiences of neonatal services can help improve quality of care; however, there is no formally evaluated UK instrument available to assess this prospectively. Our objective was to refine an existing retrospective survey for 'real-time' feedback.

Methods

Co-led by a parent representative, we recruited a convenience sample of parents of infants in a London tertiary neonatal unit. Our steering group selected questions from the existing retrospective 61-question Picker survey (2014), added and revised questions assessing communication and parent involvement. We established face validity, ensuring questions adequately captured the topic, conducted parent cognitive interviews to evaluate parental understanding of questions,and adapted the survey in three revision cycles. We evaluated survey performance.

Results

The revised Parents' Experiences of Communication in Neonatal Care (PEC) survey contains 28 questions (10 new) focusing on communication and parent involvement. We cognitively interviewed six parents, and 67 parents completed 197 PEC surveys in the survey performance evaluation. Missing entries exceeded 5% for nine questions; we removed one and format-adjusted the rest as they had performed well during cognitive testing. There was strong inter-item correlation between two question pairs; however, all were retained as they individually assessed important concepts.

Conclusion

Revised from the original 61-question Picker survey, the 28-question PEC survey is the first UK instrument formally evaluated to assess parent experience while infants are still receiving neonatal care. Developed with parents, it focuses on communication and parent involvement, enabling continuous assessment and iterative improvement of family-centred interventions in neonatal care.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://fn.bmj.com/content/fetalneonatal/early/2023/01/30/archdischild-2022-324548.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324548; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314049?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31382511", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11080454", @@ -33387,23 +33387,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673622005323/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00532-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9168805" }, - { - "id": "33705244", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277", - "title": "Stroke risk following traumatic brain injury: Systematic review and meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Turner GM, McMullan C, Aiyegbusi OL, Bem D, Marshall T, Calvert M, Mant J, Belli A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Meta-analysis; Traumatic brain injury; Stroke; Systematic review; risk", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Traumatic brain injury is a global health problem; worldwide, >60 million people experience a traumatic brain injury each year and incidence is rising. Traumatic brain injury has been proposed as an independent risk factor for stroke.

Aims

To investigate the association between traumatic brain injury and stroke risk.

Summary of review

We undertook a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library from inception to 4 December 2020. We used random-effects meta-analysis to pool hazard ratios for studies which reported stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury compared to controls. Searches identified 10,501 records; 58 full texts were assessed for eligibility and 18 met the inclusion criteria. The review included a large sample size of 2,606,379 participants from four countries. Six studies included a non-traumatic brain injury control group, all found traumatic brain injury patients had significantly increased risk of stroke compared to controls (pooled hazard ratio 1.86; 95% confidence interval 1.46-2.37). Findings suggest stroke risk may be highest in the first four months post-traumatic brain injury, but remains significant up to five years post-traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury appears to be associated with increased stroke risk regardless of severity or subtype of traumatic brain injury. There was some evidence to suggest an association between reduced stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury and Vitamin K antagonists and statins, but increased stroke risk with certain classes of antidepressants.

Conclusion

Traumatic brain injury is an independent risk factor for stroke, regardless of traumatic brain injury severity or type. Post-traumatic brain injury review and management of risk factors for stroke may be warranted.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17474930211004277; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35875883", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115", @@ -33421,6 +33404,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/cvr/cvac115/46855438/cvac115.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac115; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9384470?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33705244", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277", + "title": "Stroke risk following traumatic brain injury: Systematic review and meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Turner GM, McMullan C, Aiyegbusi OL, Bem D, Marshall T, Calvert M, Mant J, Belli A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-04-04", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Meta-analysis; Traumatic brain injury; Stroke; Systematic review; risk", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Traumatic brain injury is a global health problem; worldwide, >60 million people experience a traumatic brain injury each year and incidence is rising. Traumatic brain injury has been proposed as an independent risk factor for stroke.

Aims

To investigate the association between traumatic brain injury and stroke risk.

Summary of review

We undertook a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library from inception to 4 December 2020. We used random-effects meta-analysis to pool hazard ratios for studies which reported stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury compared to controls. Searches identified 10,501 records; 58 full texts were assessed for eligibility and 18 met the inclusion criteria. The review included a large sample size of 2,606,379 participants from four countries. Six studies included a non-traumatic brain injury control group, all found traumatic brain injury patients had significantly increased risk of stroke compared to controls (pooled hazard ratio 1.86; 95% confidence interval 1.46-2.37). Findings suggest stroke risk may be highest in the first four months post-traumatic brain injury, but remains significant up to five years post-traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury appears to be associated with increased stroke risk regardless of severity or subtype of traumatic brain injury. There was some evidence to suggest an association between reduced stroke risk post-traumatic brain injury and Vitamin K antagonists and statins, but increased stroke risk with certain classes of antidepressants.

Conclusion

Traumatic brain injury is an independent risk factor for stroke, regardless of traumatic brain injury severity or type. Post-traumatic brain injury review and management of risk factors for stroke may be warranted.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17474930211004277; doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17474930211004277; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8193616?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33516292", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30210-3", @@ -33625,6 +33625,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcfampract.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12875-019-1057-x; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1057-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918619; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6918619?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31806382", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023", + "title": "Variation in documented inhalation injury rates following burn injury in Australia and New Zealand.", + "authorString": "Tracy LM, Dyson K, Mercier LL, Cleland H, McInnes JA, Cameron PA, Singer Y, Edgar DW, Darton A, Gabbe BJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Injury", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2019-11-17", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Variation; Australia; New Zealand; Inhalation Injury; Burn Registry", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

The negative impact of inhalation injuries on in-hospital outcomes for burn patients is well known, but the burns community is yet to form a consensus on diagnostic criteria and clinical definitions. The diagnosis of inhalation injuries is consequently highly subjective. This study aimed to assess the variation in the rate of documented inhalation injury for adult patients in Australian and New Zealand burn units.

Methods

Data for sequential admissions collected from eight adult burn centres across Australia and New Zealand between July 2009 and June 2016 were extracted from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ). Inhalation injury was classified in two ways: (i) a field in the BRANZ data dictionary, and (ii) through a series of International Classification of Disease 10th Revision Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes. Variation in inhalation injury prevalence was assessed using descriptive statistics, funnel plots, logistic regression, and predicted probabilities.

Results

There were 11,206 admissions to BRANZ sites over the study period. Inhalation injury prevalence was the highest at Site D (13.1% for the BRANZ field and 11.8% for the ICD-10-AM codes), but there was significant variation between the contributing sites and the inhalation injury classification methods.

Conclusion

There is significant variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury among Australian and New Zealand burns units. The variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury across Australian and New Zealand sites reinforces the need for a consensus definition in the diagnosis of these injuries. Further work is required to improve data quality and reconcile the differences between clinical and ICD-10-AM coding prevalence before changes in clinical practice can be recommended from these data.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023" + }, { "id": "30835202", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.43657", @@ -33642,6 +33659,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.43657; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.43657; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6400585; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6400585?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31063847", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009", + "title": "Transcriptomic analysis of probable asymptomatic and symptomatic alzheimer brains.", + "authorString": "Patel H, Hodges AK, Curtis C, Lee SH, Troakes C, Dobson RJB, Newhouse SJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Brain, behavior, and immunity", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-05-04", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Human; Mitochondria; Brain; Frontal lobe; Astrocytes; Neuropathology; Alzheimer\u2019s disease; Gene Expression; Microarray Analysis; Gene Regulatory Networks", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Individuals with intact cognition and neuropathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are referred to as asymptomatic AD (AsymAD). These individuals are highly likely to develop AD, yet transcriptomic changes in the brain which might reveal mechanisms for their AD vulnerability are currently unknown. Entorhinal cortex, frontal cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum tissue from 27 control, 33 AsymAD and 52 AD human brains were microarray expression profiled. Differential expression analysis identified a significant increase of transcriptomic activity in the frontal cortex of AsymAD subjects, suggesting fundamental changes in AD may initially begin within the frontal cortex region prior to AD diagnosis. Co-expression analysis identified an overactivation of the brain \"glutamate-glutamine cycle\", and disturbances in the brain energy pathways in both AsymAD and AD subjects, while the connectivity of key hub genes in this network indicates a shift from an already increased cell proliferation in AsymAD subjects to stress response and removal of amyloidogenic proteins in AD subjects. This study provides new insight into the earliest biological changes occurring in the brain prior to the manifestation of clinical AD symptoms and provides new potential therapeutic targets for early disease intervention.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009" + }, { "id": "37414900", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02429-x", @@ -33659,23 +33693,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02429-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02429-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353935; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10353935?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31806382", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023", - "title": "Variation in documented inhalation injury rates following burn injury in Australia and New Zealand.", - "authorString": "Tracy LM, Dyson K, Mercier LL, Cleland H, McInnes JA, Cameron PA, Singer Y, Edgar DW, Darton A, Gabbe BJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Injury", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-11-17", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Variation; Australia; New Zealand; Inhalation Injury; Burn Registry", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

The negative impact of inhalation injuries on in-hospital outcomes for burn patients is well known, but the burns community is yet to form a consensus on diagnostic criteria and clinical definitions. The diagnosis of inhalation injuries is consequently highly subjective. This study aimed to assess the variation in the rate of documented inhalation injury for adult patients in Australian and New Zealand burn units.

Methods

Data for sequential admissions collected from eight adult burn centres across Australia and New Zealand between July 2009 and June 2016 were extracted from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ). Inhalation injury was classified in two ways: (i) a field in the BRANZ data dictionary, and (ii) through a series of International Classification of Disease 10th Revision Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes. Variation in inhalation injury prevalence was assessed using descriptive statistics, funnel plots, logistic regression, and predicted probabilities.

Results

There were 11,206 admissions to BRANZ sites over the study period. Inhalation injury prevalence was the highest at Site D (13.1% for the BRANZ field and 11.8% for the ICD-10-AM codes), but there was significant variation between the contributing sites and the inhalation injury classification methods.

Conclusion

There is significant variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury among Australian and New Zealand burns units. The variation in the prevalence of documented inhalation injury across Australian and New Zealand sites reinforces the need for a consensus definition in the diagnosis of these injuries. Further work is required to improve data quality and reconcile the differences between clinical and ICD-10-AM coding prevalence before changes in clinical practice can be recommended from these data.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.11.023" - }, { "id": "35876478", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2808.211787", @@ -33693,23 +33710,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/8/pdfs/21-1787.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2808.211787; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9328902; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9328902?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31063847", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009", - "title": "Transcriptomic analysis of probable asymptomatic and symptomatic alzheimer brains.", - "authorString": "Patel H, Hodges AK, Curtis C, Lee SH, Troakes C, Dobson RJB, Newhouse SJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Brain, behavior, and immunity", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-05-04", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Human; Mitochondria; Brain; Frontal lobe; Astrocytes; Neuropathology; Alzheimer\u2019s disease; Gene Expression; Microarray Analysis; Gene Regulatory Networks", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Individuals with intact cognition and neuropathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are referred to as asymptomatic AD (AsymAD). These individuals are highly likely to develop AD, yet transcriptomic changes in the brain which might reveal mechanisms for their AD vulnerability are currently unknown. Entorhinal cortex, frontal cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum tissue from 27 control, 33 AsymAD and 52 AD human brains were microarray expression profiled. Differential expression analysis identified a significant increase of transcriptomic activity in the frontal cortex of AsymAD subjects, suggesting fundamental changes in AD may initially begin within the frontal cortex region prior to AD diagnosis. Co-expression analysis identified an overactivation of the brain \"glutamate-glutamine cycle\", and disturbances in the brain energy pathways in both AsymAD and AD subjects, while the connectivity of key hub genes in this network indicates a shift from an already increased cell proliferation in AsymAD subjects to stress response and removal of amyloidogenic proteins in AD subjects. This study provides new insight into the earliest biological changes occurring in the brain prior to the manifestation of clinical AD symptoms and provides new potential therapeutic targets for early disease intervention.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.05.009" - }, { "id": "35131700", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102366", @@ -33727,23 +33727,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102366; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102366; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907871; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8907871?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32724858", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481", - "title": "Outcomes important to patients with non-infectious posterior segment-involving uveitis: a qualitative study.", - "authorString": "Tallouzi MO, Moore DJ, Bucknall N, Murray PI, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, Mathers JM.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open ophthalmology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Inflammation; Public Health; Treatment Other", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

Uveitis, a group of disorders characterised by intraocular inflammation, causes 10%-15% of total blindness in the developed world. The most sight-threatening forms of non-infectious uveitis are those affecting the posterior segment of the eye, collectively known as posterior segment-involving uveitis (PSIU). Numerous different clinical outcomes have been used in trials evaluating treatments for PSIU, but these may not represent patients' and carers' concerns. Therefore, the aims of this study were to understand the impact of PSIU on adult patients' and carers' lives and to explore what outcomes of treatment are important to them.

Methods and analysis

Four focus group discussions were undertaken to understand the perspectives of adult patients (=18) and carers (10) with PSIU. Participants were grouped according to whether or not their uveitis was complicated by the sight-threatening condition uveitic macular oedema. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using the framework analytical approach. Outcomes were identified and grouped into outcome domains.

Results

Eleven core domains were identified as important to patients and carers undergoing treatment for PSIU, comprising (1) visual function, (2) symptoms, (3) functional ability, (4) impact on relationships, (5) financial impact, (6) psychological morbidity and emotional well-being, (7) psychosocial adjustment to uveitis, (8) doctor/patient/interprofessional relationships and access to healthcare, (9) treatment burden, (10) treatment side effects, and (11) disease control.

Conclusion

The domains identified represent patients' and carers' experience and perspectives and can be used to reflect on outcomes assessed in PSIU. They will directly inform the development of a core outcome set for PSIU clinical trials.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/bmjophth/5/1/e000481.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30778056", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08797-8", @@ -33778,6 +33761,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-019-0657-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-019-0657-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7376231; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7376231?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-019-0657-y" }, + { + "id": "32724858", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481", + "title": "Outcomes important to patients with non-infectious posterior segment-involving uveitis: a qualitative study.", + "authorString": "Tallouzi MO, Moore DJ, Bucknall N, Murray PI, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK, Mathers JM.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open ophthalmology", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Inflammation; Public Health; Treatment Other", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objective

Uveitis, a group of disorders characterised by intraocular inflammation, causes 10%-15% of total blindness in the developed world. The most sight-threatening forms of non-infectious uveitis are those affecting the posterior segment of the eye, collectively known as posterior segment-involving uveitis (PSIU). Numerous different clinical outcomes have been used in trials evaluating treatments for PSIU, but these may not represent patients' and carers' concerns. Therefore, the aims of this study were to understand the impact of PSIU on adult patients' and carers' lives and to explore what outcomes of treatment are important to them.

Methods and analysis

Four focus group discussions were undertaken to understand the perspectives of adult patients (=18) and carers (10) with PSIU. Participants were grouped according to whether or not their uveitis was complicated by the sight-threatening condition uveitic macular oedema. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using the framework analytical approach. Outcomes were identified and grouped into outcome domains.

Results

Eleven core domains were identified as important to patients and carers undergoing treatment for PSIU, comprising (1) visual function, (2) symptoms, (3) functional ability, (4) impact on relationships, (5) financial impact, (6) psychological morbidity and emotional well-being, (7) psychosocial adjustment to uveitis, (8) doctor/patient/interprofessional relationships and access to healthcare, (9) treatment burden, (10) treatment side effects, and (11) disease control.

Conclusion

The domains identified represent patients' and carers' experience and perspectives and can be used to reflect on outcomes assessed in PSIU. They will directly inform the development of a core outcome set for PSIU clinical trials.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/bmjophth/5/1/e000481.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000481; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7375431?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33199917", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00725-7", @@ -33795,23 +33795,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7116530?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00725-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116530?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00725-7" }, - { - "id": "35347521", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w", - "title": "Knowledge translation concerns for the CONSORT-PRO extension reporting guidance: a review of reviews.", - "authorString": "Mercieca-Bebber R, Aiyegbusi OL, King MT, Brundage M, Snyder C, Calvert M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Quality of life; research methodology; Reporting; Patient-reported Outcomes; Research Waste; Consort-pro", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "This review of reviews aimed to appraise the use of the CONSORT-PRO Extension as an evaluation tool for assessing the reporting of patient-reported outcome (PROs) in publications, and to describe the reporting of PRO research across reviews. We also outlined how variation in such evaluations impacts knowledge translation and may lead to potential misuse of the CONSORT-PRO Extension. We systematically searched Medline, Pubmed and CINAHL from 2013 to 2025 March 2021 for reviews of the completeness of reporting of PRO endpoints according to CONSORT-PRO criteria. Two reviewers extracted details of each review, the percentage of included studies that addressed each CONSORT-PRO item, and key recommendations from each review. Fourteen reviews met inclusion criteria, and only six of these used the full CONSORT-PRO checklist with minimal justified modifications. The remaining eight studies made significant or unjustified adjustments to the CONSORT-PRO Extension. Review studies also varied in how they scored multi-component CONSORT-PRO items. CONSORT-PRO items were often unreported in trial reports, and certain CONSORT-PRO items were reported less often than others. The reporting of statistical approaches to dealing with missing PRO data were poor in RCTs included in all 14 review articles. Studies reviewing PRO publications often omitted recommended CONSORT-PRO items from their evaluations, which may cause confusion among readers regarding how best to report their PRO research according to the CONSORT-PRO extension. Many trials published since CONSORT-PRO's release did not report recommended CONSORT-PRO items, which may lead to misinterpretation and consequently to research waste.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31013802", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081325", @@ -33829,6 +33812,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1325/pdf?version=1555077276; doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081325; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517898; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6517898?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35347521", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w", + "title": "Knowledge translation concerns for the CONSORT-PRO extension reporting guidance: a review of reviews.", + "authorString": "Mercieca-Bebber R, Aiyegbusi OL, King MT, Brundage M, Snyder C, Calvert M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Quality of life; research methodology; Reporting; Patient-reported Outcomes; Research Waste; Consort-pro", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "This review of reviews aimed to appraise the use of the CONSORT-PRO Extension as an evaluation tool for assessing the reporting of patient-reported outcome (PROs) in publications, and to describe the reporting of PRO research across reviews. We also outlined how variation in such evaluations impacts knowledge translation and may lead to potential misuse of the CONSORT-PRO Extension. We systematically searched Medline, Pubmed and CINAHL from 2013 to 2025 March 2021 for reviews of the completeness of reporting of PRO endpoints according to CONSORT-PRO criteria. Two reviewers extracted details of each review, the percentage of included studies that addressed each CONSORT-PRO item, and key recommendations from each review. Fourteen reviews met inclusion criteria, and only six of these used the full CONSORT-PRO checklist with minimal justified modifications. The remaining eight studies made significant or unjustified adjustments to the CONSORT-PRO Extension. Review studies also varied in how they scored multi-component CONSORT-PRO items. CONSORT-PRO items were often unreported in trial reports, and certain CONSORT-PRO items were reported less often than others. The reporting of statistical approaches to dealing with missing PRO data were poor in RCTs included in all 14 review articles. Studies reviewing PRO publications often omitted recommended CONSORT-PRO items from their evaluations, which may cause confusion among readers regarding how best to report their PRO research according to the CONSORT-PRO extension. Many trials published since CONSORT-PRO's release did not report recommended CONSORT-PRO items, which may lead to misinterpretation and consequently to research waste.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03119-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9470606?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32558637", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000393", @@ -33897,23 +33897,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03753-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8860359?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35294976", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1", - "title": "Mental health service use among mothers involved in public family law proceedings: linked data cohort study in South London 2007-2019.", - "authorString": "Pearson RJ, Grant C, Wijlaars L, Finch E, Bedston S, Broadhurst K, Gilbert R.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-16", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Substance Misuse; Child Protection; Record Linkage; Maternal Mental Health; Family Court", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Purpose

Mental health problems and substance misuse are common among the mothers of children who experience court-mandated placement into care in England, yet there is limited research characterising these health needs to inform evidence-based policy. In this descriptive study, we aimed to generate evidence about the type, severity, and timing of mental health and substance misuse needs among women involved in public family law proceedings concerning child placement into care ('care proceedings').

Methods

This is a retrospective, matched cohort study using linked family court and mental health service records for 2137 (66%) of the 3226 women involved in care proceedings between 2007 and 2019 in the South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Trust (SLaM) catchment area. We compared mental health service use and risk of dying with 17,096 female-matched controls who accessed SLaM between 2007 and 2019, aged 16-55\u00a0years, and were not involved in care proceedings.

Results

Most women (79%) were known to SLaM before care proceedings began. Women had higher rates of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (19% vs 11% matched controls), personality disorders (21% vs 11%), and substance misuse (33% vs 12%). They were more likely to have a SLaM inpatient admission (27% vs 14%) or to be sectioned (19% vs 8%). Women had a 2.15 (95% CI 1.68-2.74) times greater hazard of dying, compared to matched controls, adjusted for age.

Conclusion

Women involved in care proceedings experience a particularly high burden of severe and complex mental health and substance misuse need. Women's increased risk of mortality following proceedings highlights that interventions responding to maternal mental health and substance misuse within family courts should offer continued, long-term support.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33075408", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.10.007", @@ -33931,6 +33914,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091674920314135/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2020.10.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566694; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566694?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35294976", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1", + "title": "Mental health service use among mothers involved in public family law proceedings: linked data cohort study in South London 2007-2019.", + "authorString": "Pearson RJ, Grant C, Wijlaars L, Finch E, Bedston S, Broadhurst K, Gilbert R.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-16", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Substance Misuse; Child Protection; Record Linkage; Maternal Mental Health; Family Court", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Purpose

Mental health problems and substance misuse are common among the mothers of children who experience court-mandated placement into care in England, yet there is limited research characterising these health needs to inform evidence-based policy. In this descriptive study, we aimed to generate evidence about the type, severity, and timing of mental health and substance misuse needs among women involved in public family law proceedings concerning child placement into care ('care proceedings').

Methods

This is a retrospective, matched cohort study using linked family court and mental health service records for 2137 (66%) of the 3226 women involved in care proceedings between 2007 and 2019 in the South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Trust (SLaM) catchment area. We compared mental health service use and risk of dying with 17,096 female-matched controls who accessed SLaM between 2007 and 2019, aged 16-55\u00a0years, and were not involved in care proceedings.

Results

Most women (79%) were known to SLaM before care proceedings began. Women had higher rates of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (19% vs 11% matched controls), personality disorders (21% vs 11%), and substance misuse (33% vs 12%). They were more likely to have a SLaM inpatient admission (27% vs 14%) or to be sectioned (19% vs 8%). Women had a 2.15 (95% CI 1.68-2.74) times greater hazard of dying, compared to matched controls, adjusted for age.

Conclusion

Women involved in care proceedings experience a particularly high burden of severe and complex mental health and substance misuse need. Women's increased risk of mortality following proceedings highlights that interventions responding to maternal mental health and substance misuse within family courts should offer continued, long-term support.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02221-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9477900?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33879482", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042949", @@ -34050,6 +34050,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://medinform.jmir.org/2021/4/e22397/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/22397; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8080148" }, + { + "id": "32423943", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974", + "title": "Study protocol for a multicentre longitudinal mixed methods study to explore the Outcomes of ChildrEn and fAmilies in the first year after paediatric Intensive Care: the OCEANIC study.", + "authorString": "Manning JC, Latour JM, Curley MAQ, Draper ES, Jilani T, Quinlan PR, Watson RS, Rennick JE, Colville G, Pinto N, Latif A, Popejoy E, Coad J, OCEANIC Study Investigators.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-05-17", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Qualitative Research; Statistics & Research Methods; Paediatric Intensive & Critical Care", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Annually in the UK, 20 000 children become very ill or injured and need specialist care within a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Most children survive. However, some children and their families may experience problems after they have left the PICU including physical, functional and/or emotional problems. It is unknown which children and families experience such problems, when these occur or what causes them. The aim of this mixed-method longitudinal cohort study is to understand the physical, functional, emotional and social impact of children surviving PICU (aged: 1\u2009month-17 years), their parents and siblings, during the first year after a PICU admission.

Methods and analysis

A quantitative study involving 300 child survivors of PICU; 300 parents; and 150-300 siblings will collect data (using self-completion questionnaires) at baseline, PICU discharge, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post-PICU discharge. Questionnaires will comprise validated and reliable instruments. Demographic data, PICU admission and treatment data, health-related quality of life, functional status, strengths and difficulties behaviour and post-traumatic stress symptoms will be collected from the child. Parent and sibling data will be collected on the impact of paediatric health conditions on the family's functioning capabilities, levels of anxiety and social impact of the child's PICU admission. Data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Concurrently, an embedded qualitative study involving semistructured interviews with 24 enrolled families at 3 months and 9 months post-PICU discharge will be undertaken. Framework analysis will be used to analyse the qualitative data.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has received ethical approval from the National Health Services Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 19/WM/0290) and full governance clearance. This will be the first UK study to comprehensively investigate physical, functional, emotional and social consequences of PICU survival in the first-year postdischarge.Clinical Trials Registration Number: ISRCTN28072812 [Pre-results].", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/5/e038974.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33328634", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03043-4", @@ -34084,23 +34101,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29931-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29931-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9385867; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9385867?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32423943", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974", - "title": "Study protocol for a multicentre longitudinal mixed methods study to explore the Outcomes of ChildrEn and fAmilies in the first year after paediatric Intensive Care: the OCEANIC study.", - "authorString": "Manning JC, Latour JM, Curley MAQ, Draper ES, Jilani T, Quinlan PR, Watson RS, Rennick JE, Colville G, Pinto N, Latif A, Popejoy E, Coad J, OCEANIC Study Investigators.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-17", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Qualitative Research; Statistics & Research Methods; Paediatric Intensive & Critical Care", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Annually in the UK, 20 000 children become very ill or injured and need specialist care within a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Most children survive. However, some children and their families may experience problems after they have left the PICU including physical, functional and/or emotional problems. It is unknown which children and families experience such problems, when these occur or what causes them. The aim of this mixed-method longitudinal cohort study is to understand the physical, functional, emotional and social impact of children surviving PICU (aged: 1\u2009month-17 years), their parents and siblings, during the first year after a PICU admission.

Methods and analysis

A quantitative study involving 300 child survivors of PICU; 300 parents; and 150-300 siblings will collect data (using self-completion questionnaires) at baseline, PICU discharge, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post-PICU discharge. Questionnaires will comprise validated and reliable instruments. Demographic data, PICU admission and treatment data, health-related quality of life, functional status, strengths and difficulties behaviour and post-traumatic stress symptoms will be collected from the child. Parent and sibling data will be collected on the impact of paediatric health conditions on the family's functioning capabilities, levels of anxiety and social impact of the child's PICU admission. Data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Concurrently, an embedded qualitative study involving semistructured interviews with 24 enrolled families at 3 months and 9 months post-PICU discharge will be undertaken. Framework analysis will be used to analyse the qualitative data.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has received ethical approval from the National Health Services Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 19/WM/0290) and full governance clearance. This will be the first UK study to comprehensively investigate physical, functional, emotional and social consequences of PICU survival in the first-year postdischarge.Clinical Trials Registration Number: ISRCTN28072812 [Pre-results].", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/5/e038974.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038974; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7239532?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34480422", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ehf2.13517", @@ -34237,23 +34237,6 @@ "laySummary": "This study linked genetic sequencing data and information on household income to identify parts of the genome that are more common in people who live in more affluent households. The authors identified 150 parts of the genome that were associated with income, and found that these genetic regions were more commonly expressed in the brain and testes. The results indicate that intelligence and income are causally linked, and suggest that genetics partly explain a small amount of variation (~2%) in household income in the UK.", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13585-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13585-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6915786; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6915786?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36053624", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543", - "title": "Use of parenteral nutrition in the first postnatal week in England and Wales: an observational study using real-world data.", - "authorString": "Webbe J, Battersby C, Longford N, Oughham K, Uthaya S, Modi N, Gale C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ paediatrics open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "epidemiology; Neonatology", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Parenteral nutrition (PN) is used to provide supplemental support to neonates while enteral feeding is being established. PN is a high-cost intervention with beneficial and harmful effects. Internationally, there is substantial variation in how PN is used, and there are limited contemporary data describing use across Great Britain.

Objective

To describe PN use in the first postnatal week in infants born and admitted to neonatal care in England, Scotland and Wales.

Method

Data describing neonates admitted to National Health Service neonatal units between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017, extracted from routinely recorded data held the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD); the denominator was live births, from Office for National Statistics.

Results

Over the study period 62 145 neonates were given PN in the first postnatal week (1.4% of all live births); use was higher in more preterm neonates (76% of livebirths at <28 weeks, 0.2% of term livebirths) and in neonates with lower birth weight. 15% (9181/62145) of neonates given PN in the first postnatal week were born at term. There was geographic variation in PN administration: the proportion of live births given PN within neonatal regional networks ranged from 1.0% (95% CIs 1.0 to 1.0) to 2.8% (95% CI 2.7 to 2.9).

Conclusions and relevance

Significant variation exists in neonatal PN use; it is unlikely this reflects optimal use of an expensive intervention. Research is needed to identify which babies will benefit most and which are at risk of harm from early PN.

Trial registration number

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03767634; registration date: 6 December 2018.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/6/1/e001543.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32880390", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa627", @@ -34271,6 +34254,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-pdf/105/12/e4230/41829325/dgaa627.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa627; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7499588; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7499588?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36053624", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543", + "title": "Use of parenteral nutrition in the first postnatal week in England and Wales: an observational study using real-world data.", + "authorString": "Webbe J, Battersby C, Longford N, Oughham K, Uthaya S, Modi N, Gale C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ paediatrics open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "epidemiology; Neonatology", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Parenteral nutrition (PN) is used to provide supplemental support to neonates while enteral feeding is being established. PN is a high-cost intervention with beneficial and harmful effects. Internationally, there is substantial variation in how PN is used, and there are limited contemporary data describing use across Great Britain.

Objective

To describe PN use in the first postnatal week in infants born and admitted to neonatal care in England, Scotland and Wales.

Method

Data describing neonates admitted to National Health Service neonatal units between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017, extracted from routinely recorded data held the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD); the denominator was live births, from Office for National Statistics.

Results

Over the study period 62 145 neonates were given PN in the first postnatal week (1.4% of all live births); use was higher in more preterm neonates (76% of livebirths at <28 weeks, 0.2% of term livebirths) and in neonates with lower birth weight. 15% (9181/62145) of neonates given PN in the first postnatal week were born at term. There was geographic variation in PN administration: the proportion of live births given PN within neonatal regional networks ranged from 1.0% (95% CIs 1.0 to 1.0) to 2.8% (95% CI 2.7 to 2.9).

Conclusions and relevance

Significant variation exists in neonatal PN use; it is unlikely this reflects optimal use of an expensive intervention. Research is needed to identify which babies will benefit most and which are at risk of harm from early PN.

Trial registration number

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03767634; registration date: 6 December 2018.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/bmjpo/6/1/e001543.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001543; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9422803?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35143473", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001531", @@ -34340,21 +34340,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://neurologyopen.bmj.com/content/bmjno/3/1/e000133.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjno-2021-000133; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8183200; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8183200?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33174830", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453", - "title": "Optimized use of Oxford Nanopore flowcells for hybrid assemblies.", - "authorString": "Lipworth S, Pickford H, Sanderson N, Chau KK, Kavanagh J, Barker L, Vaughan A, Swann J, Andersson M, Jeffery K, Morgan M, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Stoesser N, Walker AS.", + "id": "33248277", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.11.014", + "title": "Text-mining in electronic healthcare records can be used as efficient tool for screening and data collection in cardiovascular trials: a multicenter validation study.", + "authorString": "van Dijk WB, Fiolet ATL, Schuit E, Sammani A, Groenhof TKJ, van der Graaf R, de Vries MC, Alings M, Schaap J, Asselbergs FW, Grobbee DE, Groenwold RHH, Mosterd A.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Microbial genomics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-11-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Enterobacteriaceae; Hybrid Assembly; Nanopore Sequencing; Bacterial Genomics; Long-read Assembly", + "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2020-11-25", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Screening; Recruitment; trials; Multicenter; cardiovascular; Text-mining; Data-mining; Electronic Medical Records (Emrs); Data-collections; Electronic Healthcare Records (Ehrs); Lodoco2", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Hybrid assemblies are highly valuable for studies of Enterobacteriaceae due to their ability to fully resolve the structure of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, which are involved in the carriage of clinically important genes (e.g. those involved in antimicrobial resistance/virulence). The widespread application of this technique is currently primarily limited by cost. Recent data have suggested that non-inferior, and even superior, hybrid assemblies can be produced using a fraction of the total output from a multiplexed nanopore [Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)] flowcell run. In this study we sought to determine the optimal minimal running time for flowcells when acquiring reads for hybrid assembly. We then evaluated whether the ONT wash kit might allow users to exploit shorter running times by sequencing multiple libraries per flowcell. After 24\u2009h of sequencing, most chromosomes and plasmids had circularized and there was no benefit associated with longer running times. Quality was similar at 12\u2009h, suggesting that shorter running times are likely to be acceptable for certain applications (e.g. plasmid genomics). The ONT wash kit was highly effective in removing DNA between libraries. Contamination between libraries did not appear to affect subsequent hybrid assemblies, even when the same barcodes were used successively on a single flowcell. Utilizing shorter run times in combination with between-library nuclease washes allows at least 36 Enterobacteriaceae isolates to be sequenced per flowcell, significantly reducing the per-isolate sequencing cost. Ultimately this will facilitate large-scale studies utilizing hybrid assembly, advancing our understanding of the genomics of key human pathogens.", + "abstract": "

Objective

This study aimed to validate trial patient eligibility screening and baseline data collection using text-mining in electronic healthcare records (EHRs), comparing the results to those of an international trial.

Study design and setting

In three medical centers with different EHR vendors, EHR-based text-mining was used to automatically screen patients for trial eligibility and extract baseline data on nineteen characteristics. First, the yield of screening with automated EHR text-mining search was compared with manual screening by research personnel. Second, the accuracy of extracted baseline data by EHR text mining was compared to manual data entry by research personnel.

Results

Of the 92,466 patients visiting the out-patient cardiology departments, 568 (0.6%) were enrolled in the trial during its recruitment period using manual screening methods. Automated EHR data screening of all patients showed that the number of patients needed to screen could be reduced by 73,863 (79.9%). The remaining 18,603 (20.1%) contained 458 of the actual participants (82.4% of participants). In trial participants, automated EHR text-mining missed a median of 2.8% (Interquartile range [IQR] across all variables 0.4-8.5%) of all data points compared to manually collected data. The overall accuracy of automatically extracted data was 88.0% (IQR 84.7-92.8%).

Conclusion

Automatically extracting data from EHRs using text-mining can be used to identify trial participants and to collect baseline information.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435620311859/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.11.014" }, { "id": "35337642", @@ -34374,21 +34374,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750022000188/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00018-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8940185" }, { - "id": "33248277", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.11.014", - "title": "Text-mining in electronic healthcare records can be used as efficient tool for screening and data collection in cardiovascular trials: a multicenter validation study.", - "authorString": "van Dijk WB, Fiolet ATL, Schuit E, Sammani A, Groenhof TKJ, van der Graaf R, de Vries MC, Alings M, Schaap J, Asselbergs FW, Grobbee DE, Groenwold RHH, Mosterd A.", + "id": "33174830", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453", + "title": "Optimized use of Oxford Nanopore flowcells for hybrid assemblies.", + "authorString": "Lipworth S, Pickford H, Sanderson N, Chau KK, Kavanagh J, Barker L, Vaughan A, Swann J, Andersson M, Jeffery K, Morgan M, Peto TEA, Crook DW, Stoesser N, Walker AS.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of clinical epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2020-11-25", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Screening; Recruitment; trials; Multicenter; cardiovascular; Text-mining; Data-mining; Electronic Medical Records (Emrs); Data-collections; Electronic Healthcare Records (Ehrs); Lodoco2", + "journalTitle": "Microbial genomics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-11-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Enterobacteriaceae; Hybrid Assembly; Nanopore Sequencing; Bacterial Genomics; Long-read Assembly", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

This study aimed to validate trial patient eligibility screening and baseline data collection using text-mining in electronic healthcare records (EHRs), comparing the results to those of an international trial.

Study design and setting

In three medical centers with different EHR vendors, EHR-based text-mining was used to automatically screen patients for trial eligibility and extract baseline data on nineteen characteristics. First, the yield of screening with automated EHR text-mining search was compared with manual screening by research personnel. Second, the accuracy of extracted baseline data by EHR text mining was compared to manual data entry by research personnel.

Results

Of the 92,466 patients visiting the out-patient cardiology departments, 568 (0.6%) were enrolled in the trial during its recruitment period using manual screening methods. Automated EHR data screening of all patients showed that the number of patients needed to screen could be reduced by 73,863 (79.9%). The remaining 18,603 (20.1%) contained 458 of the actual participants (82.4% of participants). In trial participants, automated EHR text-mining missed a median of 2.8% (Interquartile range [IQR] across all variables 0.4-8.5%) of all data points compared to manually collected data. The overall accuracy of automatically extracted data was 88.0% (IQR 84.7-92.8%).

Conclusion

Automatically extracting data from EHRs using text-mining can be used to identify trial participants and to collect baseline information.", + "abstract": "Hybrid assemblies are highly valuable for studies of Enterobacteriaceae due to their ability to fully resolve the structure of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, which are involved in the carriage of clinically important genes (e.g. those involved in antimicrobial resistance/virulence). The widespread application of this technique is currently primarily limited by cost. Recent data have suggested that non-inferior, and even superior, hybrid assemblies can be produced using a fraction of the total output from a multiplexed nanopore [Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)] flowcell run. In this study we sought to determine the optimal minimal running time for flowcells when acquiring reads for hybrid assembly. We then evaluated whether the ONT wash kit might allow users to exploit shorter running times by sequencing multiple libraries per flowcell. After 24\u2009h of sequencing, most chromosomes and plasmids had circularized and there was no benefit associated with longer running times. Quality was similar at 12\u2009h, suggesting that shorter running times are likely to be acceptable for certain applications (e.g. plasmid genomics). The ONT wash kit was highly effective in removing DNA between libraries. Contamination between libraries did not appear to affect subsequent hybrid assemblies, even when the same barcodes were used successively on a single flowcell. Utilizing shorter run times in combination with between-library nuclease washes allows at least 36 Enterobacteriaceae isolates to be sequenced per flowcell, significantly reducing the per-isolate sequencing cost. Ultimately this will facilitate large-scale studies utilizing hybrid assembly, advancing our understanding of the genomics of key human pathogens.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435620311859/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.11.014" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000453; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7725331?pdf=render" }, { "id": "35112706", @@ -34424,23 +34424,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/8/e052629.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052629; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8395280; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8395280?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36845321", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2", - "title": "Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with COPD from the United States, South Korea, and Europe.", - "authorString": "Moreno-Martos D, Verhamme K, Ostropolets A, Kostka K, Duarte-Sales T, Prieto-Alhambra D, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Ahmed WU, Blacketer C, DuVall S, Lai L, Matheny M, Nyberg F, Posada J, Rijnbeek P, Spotnitz M, Sena A, Shah N, Suchard M, Chan You S, Hripcsak G, Ryan P, Morales D.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "COPD; Coronavirus; Epidemiology.; Sars-cov-2; Covid", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: Characterization studies of COVID-19 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are limited in size and scope. The aim of the study is to provide a large-scale characterization of COVID-19 patients with COPD. Methods: We included thirteen databases contributing data from January-June 2020 from North America (US), Europe and Asia. We defined two cohorts of patients with COVID-19 namely a 'diagnosed' and 'hospitalized' cohort. We followed patients from COVID-19 index date to 30 days or death. We performed descriptive analysis and reported the frequency of characteristics and outcomes among COPD patients with COVID-19. Results: The study included 934,778 patients in the diagnosed COVID-19 cohort and 177,201 in the hospitalized COVID-19 cohort. Observed COPD prevalence in the diagnosed cohort ranged from 3.8% (95%CI 3.5-4.1%) in French data to 22.7% (95%CI 22.4-23.0) in US data, and from 1.9% (95%CI 1.6-2.2) in South Korean to 44.0% (95%CI 43.1-45.0) in US data, in the hospitalized cohorts. COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort had greater comorbidity than those in the diagnosed cohort, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Mortality was higher in COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort and ranged from 7.6% (95%CI 6.9-8.4) to 32.2% (95%CI 28.0-36.7) across databases. ARDS, acute renal failure, cardiac arrhythmia and sepsis were the most common outcomes among hospitalized COPD patients. \u00a0 Conclusion: COPD patients with COVID-19 have high levels of COVID-19-associated comorbidities and poor COVID-19 outcomes. Further research is required to identify patients with COPD at high risk of worse outcomes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31331193", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041546", @@ -34458,6 +34441,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.119.041546; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041546; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749971; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6749971?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36845321", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2", + "title": "Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with COPD from the United States, South Korea, and Europe.", + "authorString": "Moreno-Martos D, Verhamme K, Ostropolets A, Kostka K, Duarte-Sales T, Prieto-Alhambra D, Alshammari TM, Alghoul H, Ahmed WU, Blacketer C, DuVall S, Lai L, Matheny M, Nyberg F, Posada J, Rijnbeek P, Spotnitz M, Sena A, Shah N, Suchard M, Chan You S, Hripcsak G, Ryan P, Morales D.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Wellcome open research", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "COPD; Coronavirus; Epidemiology.; Sars-cov-2; Covid", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Background: Characterization studies of COVID-19 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are limited in size and scope. The aim of the study is to provide a large-scale characterization of COVID-19 patients with COPD. Methods: We included thirteen databases contributing data from January-June 2020 from North America (US), Europe and Asia. We defined two cohorts of patients with COVID-19 namely a 'diagnosed' and 'hospitalized' cohort. We followed patients from COVID-19 index date to 30 days or death. We performed descriptive analysis and reported the frequency of characteristics and outcomes among COPD patients with COVID-19. Results: The study included 934,778 patients in the diagnosed COVID-19 cohort and 177,201 in the hospitalized COVID-19 cohort. Observed COPD prevalence in the diagnosed cohort ranged from 3.8% (95%CI 3.5-4.1%) in French data to 22.7% (95%CI 22.4-23.0) in US data, and from 1.9% (95%CI 1.6-2.2) in South Korean to 44.0% (95%CI 43.1-45.0) in US data, in the hospitalized cohorts. COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort had greater comorbidity than those in the diagnosed cohort, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Mortality was higher in COPD patients in the hospitalized cohort and ranged from 7.6% (95%CI 6.9-8.4) to 32.2% (95%CI 28.0-36.7) across databases. ARDS, acute renal failure, cardiac arrhythmia and sepsis were the most common outcomes among hospitalized COPD patients. \u00a0 Conclusion: COPD patients with COVID-19 have high levels of COVID-19-associated comorbidities and poor COVID-19 outcomes. Further research is required to identify patients with COPD at high risk of worse outcomes.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17403.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9951545?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33758017", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf9648", @@ -34475,6 +34475,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.science.org/cms/asset/e974db95-138d-4a9f-aa91-2f8f6c705f36/pap.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf9648; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8139426; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8139426?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33245137", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155", + "title": "Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.", + "authorString": "Perez-Cornago A, Crowe FL, Appleby PN, Bradbury KE, Wood AM, Jakobsen MU, Johnson L, Sacerdote C, Steur M, Weiderpass E, W\u00fcrtz AML, K\u00fchn T, Katzke V, Trichopoulou A, Karakatsani A, La Vecchia C, Masala G, Tumino R, Panico S, Sluijs I, Skeie G, Imaz L, Petrova D, Quir\u00f3s JR, Yohar SMC, Jakszyn P, Melander O, Sonestedt E, Andersson J, Wennberg M, Aune D, Riboli E, Schulze MB, di Angelantonio E, Wareham NJ, Danesh J, Forouhi NG, Butterworth AS, Key TJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-03-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Seeds; Fruit; Legumes; vegetables; Coronary Heart Disease; Nuts", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

Methods

We conducted a prospective analysis of 490\u00a0311 men and women without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6\u2009years of follow-up, n cases\u2009=\u20098504), in 10 European countries. Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-h recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD.

Results

There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined [HR per 200\u2009g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.90-0.99, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.009], and with total fruits (per 100\u2009g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10\u2009g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.020), total fibre (per 10\u2009g/day 0.91, 0.85-0.98, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4\u2009g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.022) and fruit fibre (per 2\u2009g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk.

Conclusions

In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/1/212/36449032/dyaa155.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31922447", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076819890551", @@ -34509,23 +34526,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://informatics.bmj.com/content/bmjhci/27/1/e100117.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100117; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7062357; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7062357?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33245137", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155", - "title": "Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.", - "authorString": "Perez-Cornago A, Crowe FL, Appleby PN, Bradbury KE, Wood AM, Jakobsen MU, Johnson L, Sacerdote C, Steur M, Weiderpass E, W\u00fcrtz AML, K\u00fchn T, Katzke V, Trichopoulou A, Karakatsani A, La Vecchia C, Masala G, Tumino R, Panico S, Sluijs I, Skeie G, Imaz L, Petrova D, Quir\u00f3s JR, Yohar SMC, Jakszyn P, Melander O, Sonestedt E, Andersson J, Wennberg M, Aune D, Riboli E, Schulze MB, di Angelantonio E, Wareham NJ, Danesh J, Forouhi NG, Butterworth AS, Key TJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "International journal of epidemiology", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-03-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Seeds; Fruit; Legumes; vegetables; Coronary Heart Disease; Nuts", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

Methods

We conducted a prospective analysis of 490\u00a0311 men and women without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6\u2009years of follow-up, n cases\u2009=\u20098504), in 10 European countries. Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-h recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD.

Results

There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined [HR per 200\u2009g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.90-0.99, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.009], and with total fruits (per 100\u2009g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10\u2009g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.020), total fibre (per 10\u2009g/day 0.91, 0.85-0.98, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4\u2009g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.022) and fruit fibre (per 2\u2009g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend\u2009=\u20090.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk.

Conclusions

In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/50/1/212/36449032/dyaa155.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa155; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7938513?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36812516", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000007", @@ -34560,23 +34560,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/tmi.13752; doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.13752; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115442; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9115442?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32156302", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2", - "title": "Temporal information extraction from mental health records to identify duration of untreated psychosis.", - "authorString": "Viani N, Kam J, Yin L, Bittar A, Dutta R, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of biomedical semantics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-03-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Schizophrenia; Mental health; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing; Temporal Information Extraction", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is an important clinical construct in the field of mental health, as longer DUP can be associated with worse intervention outcomes. DUP estimation requires knowledge about when psychosis symptoms first started (symptom onset), and when psychosis treatment was initiated. Electronic health records (EHRs) represent a useful resource for retrospective clinical studies on DUP, but the core information underlying this construct is most likely to lie in free text, meaning it is not readily available for clinical research. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a means to addressing this problem by automatically extracting relevant information in a structured form. As a first step, it is important to identify appropriate documents, i.e., those that are likely to include the information of interest. Next, temporal information extraction methods are needed to identify time references for early psychosis symptoms. This NLP challenge requires solving three different tasks: time expression extraction, symptom extraction, and temporal \"linking\". In this study, we focus on the first step, using two relevant EHR datasets.

Results

We applied a rule-based NLP system for time expression extraction that we had previously adapted to a corpus of mental health EHRs from patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (first referrals). We extended this work by applying this NLP system to a larger set of documents and patients, to identify additional texts that would be relevant for our long-term goal, and developed a new corpus from a subset of these new texts (early intervention services). Furthermore, we added normalized value annotations (\"2011-05\") to the annotated time expressions (\"May 2011\") in both corpora. The finalized corpora were used for further NLP development and evaluation, with promising results (normalization accuracy 71-86%). To highlight the specificities of our annotation task, we also applied the final adapted NLP system to a different temporally annotated clinical corpus.

Conclusions

Developing domain-specific methods is crucial to address complex NLP tasks such as symptom onset extraction and retrospective calculation of duration of a preclinical syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first clinical text resource annotated for temporal entities in the mental health domain.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32198138", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6927", @@ -34594,6 +34577,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/368/bmj.l6927.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6927" }, + { + "id": "32156302", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2", + "title": "Temporal information extraction from mental health records to identify duration of untreated psychosis.", + "authorString": "Viani N, Kam J, Yin L, Bittar A, Dutta R, Patel R, Stewart R, Velupillai S.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Journal of biomedical semantics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-03-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Schizophrenia; Mental health; Electronic Health Records; Natural Language Processing; Temporal Information Extraction", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is an important clinical construct in the field of mental health, as longer DUP can be associated with worse intervention outcomes. DUP estimation requires knowledge about when psychosis symptoms first started (symptom onset), and when psychosis treatment was initiated. Electronic health records (EHRs) represent a useful resource for retrospective clinical studies on DUP, but the core information underlying this construct is most likely to lie in free text, meaning it is not readily available for clinical research. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a means to addressing this problem by automatically extracting relevant information in a structured form. As a first step, it is important to identify appropriate documents, i.e., those that are likely to include the information of interest. Next, temporal information extraction methods are needed to identify time references for early psychosis symptoms. This NLP challenge requires solving three different tasks: time expression extraction, symptom extraction, and temporal \"linking\". In this study, we focus on the first step, using two relevant EHR datasets.

Results

We applied a rule-based NLP system for time expression extraction that we had previously adapted to a corpus of mental health EHRs from patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (first referrals). We extended this work by applying this NLP system to a larger set of documents and patients, to identify additional texts that would be relevant for our long-term goal, and developed a new corpus from a subset of these new texts (early intervention services). Furthermore, we added normalized value annotations (\"2011-05\") to the annotated time expressions (\"May 2011\") in both corpora. The finalized corpora were used for further NLP development and evaluation, with promising results (normalization accuracy 71-86%). To highlight the specificities of our annotation task, we also applied the final adapted NLP system to a different temporally annotated clinical corpus.

Conclusions

Developing domain-specific methods is crucial to address complex NLP tasks such as symptom onset extraction and retrospective calculation of duration of a preclinical syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first clinical text resource annotated for temporal entities in the mental health domain.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://jbiomedsem.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-020-00220-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7063705?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32435697", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0267-x", @@ -34679,23 +34679,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jmir.org/api/download?alt_name=resprot_v10i10e28873_app2.pdf&filename=4dda9f18456291d5d5d6facee1b77a71.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/28873; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8500349" }, - { - "id": "32553019", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391", - "title": "Genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in hospital sink drains and patients.", - "authorString": "Constantinides B, Chau KK, Quan TP, Rodger G, Andersson MI, Jeffery K, Lipworth S, Gweon HS, Peniket A, Pike G, Millo J, Byukusenge M, Holdaway M, Gibbons C, Mathers AJ, Crook DW, Peto TEA, Walker AS, Stoesser N.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Microbial genomics", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-07-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Wastewater; Antibiotic Resistance; Resistome; Sinks; Enterobacterales", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. are important human pathogens that cause a wide spectrum of clinical disease. In healthcare settings, sinks and other wastewater sites have been shown to be reservoirs of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella spp., particularly in the context of outbreaks of resistant strains amongst patients. Without focusing exclusively on resistance markers or a clinical outbreak, we demonstrate that many hospital sink drains are abundantly and persistently colonized with diverse populations of E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca, including both antimicrobial-resistant and susceptible strains. Using whole-genome sequencing of 439 isolates, we show that environmental bacterial populations are largely structured by ward and sink, with only a handful of lineages, such as E. coli ST635, being widely distributed, suggesting different prevailing ecologies, which may vary as a result of different inputs and selection pressures. Whole-genome sequencing of 46 contemporaneous patient isolates identified one (2\u200a%; 95\u200a%\u2009CI 0.05-11\u200a%) E. coli urine infection-associated isolate with high similarity to a prior sink isolate, suggesting that sinks may contribute to up to 10\u200a% of infections caused by these organisms in patients on the ward over the same timeframe. Using metagenomics from 20 sink-timepoints, we show that sinks also harbour many clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes including blaCTX-M, blaSHV and mcr, and may act as niches for the exchange and amplification of these genes. Our study reinforces the potential role of sinks in contributing to Enterobacterales infection and antimicrobial resistance in hospital patients, something that could be amenable to intervention. This article contains data hosted by Microreact.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31112426", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.118.002436", @@ -34713,6 +34696,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002436; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002436" }, + { + "id": "32553019", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391", + "title": "Genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in hospital sink drains and patients.", + "authorString": "Constantinides B, Chau KK, Quan TP, Rodger G, Andersson MI, Jeffery K, Lipworth S, Gweon HS, Peniket A, Pike G, Millo J, Byukusenge M, Holdaway M, Gibbons C, Mathers AJ, Crook DW, Peto TEA, Walker AS, Stoesser N.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Microbial genomics", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-07-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Wastewater; Antibiotic Resistance; Resistome; Sinks; Enterobacterales", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. are important human pathogens that cause a wide spectrum of clinical disease. In healthcare settings, sinks and other wastewater sites have been shown to be reservoirs of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella spp., particularly in the context of outbreaks of resistant strains amongst patients. Without focusing exclusively on resistance markers or a clinical outbreak, we demonstrate that many hospital sink drains are abundantly and persistently colonized with diverse populations of E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca, including both antimicrobial-resistant and susceptible strains. Using whole-genome sequencing of 439 isolates, we show that environmental bacterial populations are largely structured by ward and sink, with only a handful of lineages, such as E. coli ST635, being widely distributed, suggesting different prevailing ecologies, which may vary as a result of different inputs and selection pressures. Whole-genome sequencing of 46 contemporaneous patient isolates identified one (2\u200a%; 95\u200a%\u2009CI 0.05-11\u200a%) E. coli urine infection-associated isolate with high similarity to a prior sink isolate, suggesting that sinks may contribute to up to 10\u200a% of infections caused by these organisms in patients on the ward over the same timeframe. Using metagenomics from 20 sink-timepoints, we show that sinks also harbour many clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes including blaCTX-M, blaSHV and mcr, and may act as niches for the exchange and amplification of these genes. Our study reinforces the potential role of sinks in contributing to Enterobacterales infection and antimicrobial resistance in hospital patients, something that could be amenable to intervention. This article contains data hosted by Microreact.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000391; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7478627?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "34563995", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2021.09.006", @@ -34730,6 +34730,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2021.09.006; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2021.09.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8653908" }, + { + "id": "33323250", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30121-9", + "title": "Development and validation of multivariable prediction models of remission, recovery, and quality of life outcomes in people with first episode psychosis: a machine learning approach.", + "authorString": "Leighton SP, Upthegrove R, Krishnadas R, Benros ME, Broome MR, Gkoutos GV, Liddle PF, Singh SP, Everard L, Jones PB, Fowler D, Sharma V, Freemantle N, Christensen RHB, Albert N, Nordentoft M, Schwannauer M, Cavanagh J, Gumley AI, Birchwood M, Mallikarjun PK.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-09-12", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Outcomes for people with first-episode psychosis are highly heterogeneous. Few reliable validated methods are available to predict the outcome for individual patients in the first clinical contact. In this study, we aimed to build multivariable prediction models of 1-year remission and recovery outcomes using baseline clinical variables in people with first-episode psychosis.

Methods

In this machine learning approach, we applied supervised machine learning, using regularised regression and nested leave-one-site-out cross-validation, to baseline clinical data from the English Evaluating the Development and Impact of Early Intervention Services (EDEN) study (n=1027), to develop and internally validate prediction models at 1-year follow-up. We assessed four binary outcomes that were recorded at 1 year: symptom remission, social recovery, vocational recovery, and quality of life (QoL). We externally validated the prediction models by selecting from the top predictor variables identified in the internal validation models the variables shared with the external validation datasets comprised of two Scottish longitudinal cohort studies (n=162) and the OPUS trial, a randomised controlled trial of specialised assertive intervention versus standard treatment (n=578).

Findings

The performance of prediction models was robust for the four 1-year outcomes of symptom remission (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0\u00b7703, 95% CI 0\u00b7664-0\u00b7742), social recovery (0\u00b7731, 0\u00b7697-0\u00b7765), vocational recovery (0\u00b7736, 0\u00b7702-0\u00b7771), and QoL (0\u00b7704, 0\u00b7667-0\u00b7742; p<0\u00b70001 for all outcomes), on internal validation. We externally validated the outcomes of symptom remission (AUC 0\u00b7680, 95% CI 0\u00b7587-0\u00b7773), vocational recovery (0\u00b7867, 0\u00b7805-0\u00b7930), and QoL (0\u00b7679, 0\u00b7522-0\u00b7836) in the Scottish datasets, and symptom remission (0\u00b7616, 0\u00b7553-0\u00b7679), social recovery (0\u00b7573, 0\u00b7504-0\u00b7643), vocational recovery (0\u00b7660, 0\u00b7610-0\u00b7710), and QoL (0\u00b7556, 0\u00b7481-0\u00b7631) in the OPUS dataset.

Interpretation

In our machine learning analysis, we showed that prediction models can reliably and prospectively identify poor remission and recovery outcomes at 1 year for patients with first-episode psychosis using baseline clinical variables at first clinical contact.

Funding

Lundbeck Foundation.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750019301219/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30121-9" + }, { "id": "37043172", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-023-02511-3", @@ -34764,23 +34781,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/8/e036564.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036564; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7430489; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7430489?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33323250", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30121-9", - "title": "Development and validation of multivariable prediction models of remission, recovery, and quality of life outcomes in people with first episode psychosis: a machine learning approach.", - "authorString": "Leighton SP, Upthegrove R, Krishnadas R, Benros ME, Broome MR, Gkoutos GV, Liddle PF, Singh SP, Everard L, Jones PB, Fowler D, Sharma V, Freemantle N, Christensen RHB, Albert N, Nordentoft M, Schwannauer M, Cavanagh J, Gumley AI, Birchwood M, Mallikarjun PK.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Digital health", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-09-12", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Outcomes for people with first-episode psychosis are highly heterogeneous. Few reliable validated methods are available to predict the outcome for individual patients in the first clinical contact. In this study, we aimed to build multivariable prediction models of 1-year remission and recovery outcomes using baseline clinical variables in people with first-episode psychosis.

Methods

In this machine learning approach, we applied supervised machine learning, using regularised regression and nested leave-one-site-out cross-validation, to baseline clinical data from the English Evaluating the Development and Impact of Early Intervention Services (EDEN) study (n=1027), to develop and internally validate prediction models at 1-year follow-up. We assessed four binary outcomes that were recorded at 1 year: symptom remission, social recovery, vocational recovery, and quality of life (QoL). We externally validated the prediction models by selecting from the top predictor variables identified in the internal validation models the variables shared with the external validation datasets comprised of two Scottish longitudinal cohort studies (n=162) and the OPUS trial, a randomised controlled trial of specialised assertive intervention versus standard treatment (n=578).

Findings

The performance of prediction models was robust for the four 1-year outcomes of symptom remission (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0\u00b7703, 95% CI 0\u00b7664-0\u00b7742), social recovery (0\u00b7731, 0\u00b7697-0\u00b7765), vocational recovery (0\u00b7736, 0\u00b7702-0\u00b7771), and QoL (0\u00b7704, 0\u00b7667-0\u00b7742; p<0\u00b70001 for all outcomes), on internal validation. We externally validated the outcomes of symptom remission (AUC 0\u00b7680, 95% CI 0\u00b7587-0\u00b7773), vocational recovery (0\u00b7867, 0\u00b7805-0\u00b7930), and QoL (0\u00b7679, 0\u00b7522-0\u00b7836) in the Scottish datasets, and symptom remission (0\u00b7616, 0\u00b7553-0\u00b7679), social recovery (0\u00b7573, 0\u00b7504-0\u00b7643), vocational recovery (0\u00b7660, 0\u00b7610-0\u00b7710), and QoL (0\u00b7556, 0\u00b7481-0\u00b7631) in the OPUS dataset.

Interpretation

In our machine learning analysis, we showed that prediction models can reliably and prospectively identify poor remission and recovery outcomes at 1 year for patients with first-episode psychosis using baseline clinical variables at first clinical contact.

Funding

Lundbeck Foundation.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S2589750019301219/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30121-9" - }, { "id": "31160290", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.00400-19", @@ -34815,6 +34815,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S1074761322000462/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2022.01.017; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789571; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8789571?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37645200", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2", + "title": "An agenda-setting paper on data sharing platforms: euCanSHare workshop.", + "authorString": "Devriendt T, Ammann C, W Asselbergs F, Bernier A, Costas R, Friedrich MG, Gelpi JL, Jarvelin MR, Kuulasmaa K, Lekadir K, Mayrhofer MT, Papez V, Pasterkamp G, Petersen SE, Schmidt CO, Schulz-Menger J, S\u00f6derberg S, Shabani M, Veronesi G, Viezzer DS, Borry P.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Open research Europe", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-11-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "data sharing; Incentives; Science Policy; Open Science; Data Infrastructure", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Various data sharing platforms are being developed to enhance the sharing of cohort data by addressing the fragmented state of data storage and access systems. However, policy challenges in several domains remain unresolved. The euCanSHare workshop was organized to identify and discuss these challenges and to set the future research agenda. Concerns over the multiplicity and long-term sustainability of platforms, lack of resources, access of commercial parties to medical data, credit and recognition mechanisms in academia and the organization of data access committees are outlined. Within these areas, solutions need to be devised to ensure an optimal functioning of platforms.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31995663", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1111/cts.12725", @@ -34849,23 +34866,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00125-022-05714-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05714-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283161; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9283161?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37645200", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2", - "title": "An agenda-setting paper on data sharing platforms: euCanSHare workshop.", - "authorString": "Devriendt T, Ammann C, W Asselbergs F, Bernier A, Costas R, Friedrich MG, Gelpi JL, Jarvelin MR, Kuulasmaa K, Lekadir K, Mayrhofer MT, Papez V, Pasterkamp G, Petersen SE, Schmidt CO, Schulz-Menger J, S\u00f6derberg S, Shabani M, Veronesi G, Viezzer DS, Borry P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Open research Europe", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-11-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "data sharing; Incentives; Science Policy; Open Science; Data Infrastructure", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Various data sharing platforms are being developed to enhance the sharing of cohort data by addressing the fragmented state of data storage and access systems. However, policy challenges in several domains remain unresolved. The euCanSHare workshop was organized to identify and discuss these challenges and to set the future research agenda. Concerns over the multiplicity and long-term sustainability of platforms, lack of resources, access of commercial parties to medical data, credit and recognition mechanisms in academia and the organization of data access committees are outlined. Within these areas, solutions need to be devised to ensure an optimal functioning of platforms.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13860.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10445835?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31308017", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc18-2423", @@ -34900,6 +34900,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/7/e035968.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035968; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380883; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7380883?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34561430", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3", + "title": "Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) as a drug target for cardiovascular disease.", + "authorString": "Schmidt AF, Hunt NB, Gordillo-Mara\u00f1\u00f3n M, Charoen P, Drenos F, Kivimaki M, Lawlor DA, Giambartolomei C, Papacosta O, Chaturvedi N, Bis JC, O'Donnell CJ, Wannamethee G, Wong A, Price JF, Hughes AD, Gaunt TR, Franceschini N, Mook-Kanamori DO, Zwierzyna M, Sofat R, Hingorani AD, Finan C.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-09-24", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Development of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors for coronary heart disease (CHD) has yet to deliver licensed medicines. To distinguish compound from drug target failure, we compared evidence from clinical trials and drug target Mendelian randomization of CETP protein concentration, comparing this to Mendelian randomization of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). We show that previous failures of CETP inhibitors are likely compound related, as illustrated by significant degrees of between-compound heterogeneity in effects on lipids, blood pressure, and clinical outcomes\u00a0observed in trials. On-target CETP inhibition, assessed through Mendelian randomization, is expected to reduce the risk of CHD, heart failure, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, while increasing the risk of age-related macular degeneration. In contrast, lower PCSK9 concentration is anticipated to decrease the risk of CHD, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke, while potentially increasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease and asthma. Due to distinct effects on lipoprotein metabolite profiles, joint inhibition of CETP and PCSK9 may provide added benefit. In conclusion, we provide genetic evidence that CETP is an effective target for CHD prevention but with a potential on-target adverse effect on age-related macular degeneration.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25703-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33208942", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2927-z", @@ -34934,23 +34951,6 @@ "laySummary": "This study aimed to quantify (as genetic risk scores) the causal effects of obesity on leading causes of death, separately, in men and women. Analysis of genetic data for 228,466 women and 195,041 men showed that obesity causes coronary artery disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, type 2 and 1 diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic liver disease, and acute and chronic renal failure. The authors identified some important differences in these causal effects for men and women.", "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008405&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008405; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6812754; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6812754?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34561430", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3", - "title": "Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) as a drug target for cardiovascular disease.", - "authorString": "Schmidt AF, Hunt NB, Gordillo-Mara\u00f1\u00f3n M, Charoen P, Drenos F, Kivimaki M, Lawlor DA, Giambartolomei C, Papacosta O, Chaturvedi N, Bis JC, O'Donnell CJ, Wannamethee G, Wong A, Price JF, Hughes AD, Gaunt TR, Franceschini N, Mook-Kanamori DO, Zwierzyna M, Sofat R, Hingorani AD, Finan C.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-09-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Development of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors for coronary heart disease (CHD) has yet to deliver licensed medicines. To distinguish compound from drug target failure, we compared evidence from clinical trials and drug target Mendelian randomization of CETP protein concentration, comparing this to Mendelian randomization of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). We show that previous failures of CETP inhibitors are likely compound related, as illustrated by significant degrees of between-compound heterogeneity in effects on lipids, blood pressure, and clinical outcomes\u00a0observed in trials. On-target CETP inhibition, assessed through Mendelian randomization, is expected to reduce the risk of CHD, heart failure, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, while increasing the risk of age-related macular degeneration. In contrast, lower PCSK9 concentration is anticipated to decrease the risk of CHD, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke, while potentially increasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease and asthma. Due to distinct effects on lipoprotein metabolite profiles, joint inhibition of CETP and PCSK9 may provide added benefit. In conclusion, we provide genetic evidence that CETP is an effective target for CHD prevention but with a potential on-target adverse effect on age-related macular degeneration.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25703-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25703-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8463530?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33185739", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00395-020-00828-6", @@ -34968,6 +34968,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00395-020-00828-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00395-020-00828-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7666586; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7666586?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "31350032", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003", + "title": "Epidemiology of burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015.", + "authorString": "McInnes JA, Cleland HJ, Cameron PA, Darton A, Tracy LM, Wood FM, Singer Y, Gabbe BJ.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-07-24", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "Burns; Mortality; Australia; New Zealand; epidemiology; Fatality", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Knowledge of the epidemiology of burn-related fatalities is limited, with most previous studies based on hospital and burn centre data only.

Aims

To describe the epidemiological characteristics of all burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, and to identify any trends in burn-related fatality incidence over the study period.

Methods

Data from the National Coronial Information System, including data for pre-hospital and in-hospital burn-related fatality cases, was used to examine the characteristics of burn-related fatalities occurring in Australia and New Zealand from 2009 to 2015. Burn-related fatality rates per 100,000 population were estimated, and incidence trends assessed using Poisson regression analysis.

Results

Of the 310 burn-related fatalities that occurred in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015, 41% occurred in a pre-hospital setting. Overall, most burn-related fatality cases were fire related, occurred at home, and were of people aged 41-80\u2009years. One quarter of all burn-related fatalities were a result of intentional self-harm. The population incidence of all burn-related fatalities combined, and for NSW, decreased over the study period.

Conclusions

This study has identified the importance of examining all burn-related fatalities. If this is not done, vulnerable population subgroups will be missed and prevention efforts poorly targeted.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003" + }, { "id": "34812717", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000700", @@ -35003,21 +35020,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10044558/1/Lumbers_et_al-2017-.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012721.pub3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8140651; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8140651?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd012721.pub3" }, { - "id": "31350032", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003", - "title": "Epidemiology of burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015.", - "authorString": "McInnes JA, Cleland HJ, Cameron PA, Darton A, Tracy LM, Wood FM, Singer Y, Gabbe BJ.", + "id": "32283057", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.03.957", + "title": "Clinical Impact of Antibodies against Ustekinumab in Psoriasis: An Observational, Cross-Sectional, Multicenter Study.", + "authorString": "Loeff FC, Tsakok T, Dijk L, Hart MH, Duckworth M, Baudry D, Russell A, Dand N, van Leeuwen A, Griffiths CEM, Reynolds NJ, Barker J, Burden AD, Warren RB, de Vries A, Bloem K, Wolbink GJ, Smith CH, Rispens T, BADBIR, BSTOP Study Groups, PSORT consortium.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-07-24", + "journalTitle": "The Journal of investigative dermatology", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-04-10", "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "Burns; Mortality; Australia; New Zealand; epidemiology; Fatality", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Knowledge of the epidemiology of burn-related fatalities is limited, with most previous studies based on hospital and burn centre data only.

Aims

To describe the epidemiological characteristics of all burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, and to identify any trends in burn-related fatality incidence over the study period.

Methods

Data from the National Coronial Information System, including data for pre-hospital and in-hospital burn-related fatality cases, was used to examine the characteristics of burn-related fatalities occurring in Australia and New Zealand from 2009 to 2015. Burn-related fatality rates per 100,000 population were estimated, and incidence trends assessed using Poisson regression analysis.

Results

Of the 310 burn-related fatalities that occurred in Australia and New Zealand, 2009-2015, 41% occurred in a pre-hospital setting. Overall, most burn-related fatality cases were fire related, occurred at home, and were of people aged 41-80\u2009years. One quarter of all burn-related fatalities were a result of intentional self-harm. The population incidence of all burn-related fatalities combined, and for NSW, decreased over the study period.

Conclusions

This study has identified the importance of examining all burn-related fatalities. If this is not done, vulnerable population subgroups will be missed and prevention efforts poorly targeted.", + "abstract": "Ustekinumab is an effective treatment for psoriasis, but response varies between patients. The formation of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) may explain part of this variation by reducing the free ustekinumab level. Currently, published analyses of the clinical impact of ADAs are incomplete. In this observational cross-sectional multicenter study of 340 patients, we evaluated the impact of ADAs on ustekinumab level and clinical response as assessed by the PASI. Circulating ADA levels were measured using two assays: a drug-sensitive radioimmunoassay and a drug-tolerant ELISA. Circulating ustekinumab levels were measured using an ELISA. ADAs were detected in 3.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]\u00a0= 3.2-4.2) and in 10.6% (95% CI\u00a0= 7.9-13.9) of patients using the radioimmunoassay and drug-tolerant ELISA, respectively. At least 85% of the ADAs were neutralizing. Compared with patients negative for ADAs, ADA positivity in the radioimmunoassay and drug-tolerant ELISA were associated with lower median ustekinumab levels (-0.62 \u03bcg/ml [95% CI\u00a0=\u00a0-1.190 to\u00a0-0.30] and\u00a0-0.74 \u03bcg/ml [95% CI\u00a0=\u00a0-1.09 to\u00a0-0.47], respectively) and higher absolute PASI (6.6 [95% CI\u00a0= 3.0-9.9] and 1.9 [95% CI\u00a0= 0.4-4.0], respectively). Absence of detectable ustekinumab regardless of ADA status correlated with poor clinical outcome (median sample PASI 10.1, 6.5 [95% CI\u00a0= 3.9-8.8] compared with patients positive for ustekinumab). In conclusion, substantially reduced drug exposure resulting from ADAs formation is associated with impaired clinical response.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.07.003" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022202X20313701/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.03.957" }, { "id": "32597303", @@ -35037,21 +35054,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768?needAccess=true; doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15476286.2020.1777768; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746246; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7746246?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "32283057", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.03.957", - "title": "Clinical Impact of Antibodies against Ustekinumab in Psoriasis: An Observational, Cross-Sectional, Multicenter Study.", - "authorString": "Loeff FC, Tsakok T, Dijk L, Hart MH, Duckworth M, Baudry D, Russell A, Dand N, van Leeuwen A, Griffiths CEM, Reynolds NJ, Barker J, Burden AD, Warren RB, de Vries A, Bloem K, Wolbink GJ, Smith CH, Rispens T, BADBIR, BSTOP Study Groups, PSORT consortium.", + "id": "35484151", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29932-y", + "title": "Childhood body size directly increases type 1 diabetes risk based on a lifecourse Mendelian randomization approach.", + "authorString": "Richardson TG, Crouch DJM, Power GM, Morales-Berstein F, Hazelwood E, Fang S, Cho Y, Inshaw JRJ, Robertson CC, Sidore C, Cucca F, Rich SS, Todd JA, Davey Smith G.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Journal of investigative dermatology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-04-10", - "isOpenAccess": "N", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-04-28", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Ustekinumab is an effective treatment for psoriasis, but response varies between patients. The formation of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) may explain part of this variation by reducing the free ustekinumab level. Currently, published analyses of the clinical impact of ADAs are incomplete. In this observational cross-sectional multicenter study of 340 patients, we evaluated the impact of ADAs on ustekinumab level and clinical response as assessed by the PASI. Circulating ADA levels were measured using two assays: a drug-sensitive radioimmunoassay and a drug-tolerant ELISA. Circulating ustekinumab levels were measured using an ELISA. ADAs were detected in 3.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]\u00a0= 3.2-4.2) and in 10.6% (95% CI\u00a0= 7.9-13.9) of patients using the radioimmunoassay and drug-tolerant ELISA, respectively. At least 85% of the ADAs were neutralizing. Compared with patients negative for ADAs, ADA positivity in the radioimmunoassay and drug-tolerant ELISA were associated with lower median ustekinumab levels (-0.62 \u03bcg/ml [95% CI\u00a0=\u00a0-1.190 to\u00a0-0.30] and\u00a0-0.74 \u03bcg/ml [95% CI\u00a0=\u00a0-1.09 to\u00a0-0.47], respectively) and higher absolute PASI (6.6 [95% CI\u00a0= 3.0-9.9] and 1.9 [95% CI\u00a0= 0.4-4.0], respectively). Absence of detectable ustekinumab regardless of ADA status correlated with poor clinical outcome (median sample PASI 10.1, 6.5 [95% CI\u00a0= 3.9-8.8] compared with patients positive for ustekinumab). In conclusion, substantially reduced drug exposure resulting from ADAs formation is associated with impaired clinical response.", + "abstract": "The rising prevalence of childhood obesity has been postulated as an explanation for the increasing rate of individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In this study, we use Mendelian randomization (MR) to provide evidence that childhood body size has an effect on T1D risk (OR\u2009=\u20092.05 per change in body size category, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.20 to 3.50, P\u2009=\u20090.008), which remains after accounting for body size at birth and during adulthood using multivariable MR (OR\u2009=\u20092.32, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.21 to 4.42, P\u2009=\u20090.013). We validate this direct effect of childhood body size using data from a large-scale T1D meta-analysis based on n\u2009=\u200915,573 cases and n\u2009=\u2009158,408 controls (OR\u2009=\u20091.94, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.21 to 3.12, P\u2009=\u20090.006). We also provide evidence that childhood body size influences risk of asthma, eczema and hypothyroidism, although multivariable MR suggested that these effects are mediated by body size in later life. Our findings support a causal role for higher childhood body size on risk of being diagnosed with T1D, whereas its influence on the other immune-associated diseases is likely explained by a long-term effect of remaining overweight for many years over the lifecourse.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022202X20313701/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.03.957" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29932-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29932-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9051135; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9051135?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32095773", @@ -35070,23 +35087,6 @@ "laySummary": "The authors of this publication have developed a set of guidelines for planning, running and writing up research that uses mobile technologies in clinical trials. The guidelines they have put together should make it easer for patient experience to be recorded in clinical trials.", "urls": "pdf:https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/503957; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7011727; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7011727?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1159/000503957" }, - { - "id": "35484151", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29932-y", - "title": "Childhood body size directly increases type 1 diabetes risk based on a lifecourse Mendelian randomization approach.", - "authorString": "Richardson TG, Crouch DJM, Power GM, Morales-Berstein F, Hazelwood E, Fang S, Cho Y, Inshaw JRJ, Robertson CC, Sidore C, Cucca F, Rich SS, Todd JA, Davey Smith G.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-04-28", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The rising prevalence of childhood obesity has been postulated as an explanation for the increasing rate of individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In this study, we use Mendelian randomization (MR) to provide evidence that childhood body size has an effect on T1D risk (OR\u2009=\u20092.05 per change in body size category, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.20 to 3.50, P\u2009=\u20090.008), which remains after accounting for body size at birth and during adulthood using multivariable MR (OR\u2009=\u20092.32, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.21 to 4.42, P\u2009=\u20090.013). We validate this direct effect of childhood body size using data from a large-scale T1D meta-analysis based on n\u2009=\u200915,573 cases and n\u2009=\u2009158,408 controls (OR\u2009=\u20091.94, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.21 to 3.12, P\u2009=\u20090.006). We also provide evidence that childhood body size influences risk of asthma, eczema and hypothyroidism, although multivariable MR suggested that these effects are mediated by body size in later life. Our findings support a causal role for higher childhood body size on risk of being diagnosed with T1D, whereas its influence on the other immune-associated diseases is likely explained by a long-term effect of remaining overweight for many years over the lifecourse.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29932-y.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29932-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9051135; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9051135?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "36315390", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23834", @@ -35223,6 +35223,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12682-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12682-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6805929; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6805929?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "37248441", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1", + "title": "Genome-wide association meta-analysis of spontaneous coronary artery dissection identifies risk variants and genes related to artery integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation.", + "authorString": "Adlam D, Berrandou TE, Georges A, Nelson CP, Giannoulatou E, Henry J, Ma L, Blencowe M, Turley TN, Yang ML, Chopade S, Finan C, Braund PS, Sadeg-Sayoud I, Iismaa SE, Kosel ML, Zhou X, Hamby SE, Cheng J, Liu L, Tarr I, Muller DWM, d'Escamard V, King A, Brunham LR, Baranowska-Clarke AA, Debette S, Amouyel P, Olin JW, Patil S, Hesselson SE, Junday K, Kanoni S, Aragam KG, Butterworth AS, CARDIoGRAMPlusC4D, MEGASTROKE, International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC) Intracranial Aneurysm Working Group, Tweet MS, Gulati R, Combaret N, DISCO register, Kadian-Dodov D, Kalman JM, Fatkin D, Hingorani AD, Saw J, Webb TR, Hayes SN, Yang X, Ganesh SK, Olson TM, Kovacic JC, Graham RM, Samani NJ, Bouatia-Naji N.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an understudied cause of myocardial infarction primarily affecting women. It is not known to what extent SCAD is genetically distinct from other cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD). Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (1,917 cases and 9,292 controls) identifying 16 risk loci for SCAD. Integrative functional annotations prioritized genes that are likely to be regulated in vascular smooth muscle cells and artery fibroblasts and implicated in extracellular matrix biology. One locus containing the tissue factor gene F3, which is involved in blood coagulation cascade initiation, appears to be specific for SCAD risk. Several associated variants have diametrically opposite associations with CAD, suggesting that shared biological processes contribute to both diseases, but through different mechanisms. We also infer a causal role for high blood pressure in SCAD. Our findings provide novel pathophysiological insights involving arterial integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation in SCAD and set the stage for future specific therapeutics and preventions.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35460409", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac090", @@ -35258,21 +35275,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25833-8.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25833-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458460; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8458460?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "37248441", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1", - "title": "Genome-wide association meta-analysis of spontaneous coronary artery dissection identifies risk variants and genes related to artery integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation.", - "authorString": "Adlam D, Berrandou TE, Georges A, Nelson CP, Giannoulatou E, Henry J, Ma L, Blencowe M, Turley TN, Yang ML, Chopade S, Finan C, Braund PS, Sadeg-Sayoud I, Iismaa SE, Kosel ML, Zhou X, Hamby SE, Cheng J, Liu L, Tarr I, Muller DWM, d'Escamard V, King A, Brunham LR, Baranowska-Clarke AA, Debette S, Amouyel P, Olin JW, Patil S, Hesselson SE, Junday K, Kanoni S, Aragam KG, Butterworth AS, CARDIoGRAMPlusC4D, MEGASTROKE, International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC) Intracranial Aneurysm Working Group, Tweet MS, Gulati R, Combaret N, DISCO register, Kadian-Dodov D, Kalman JM, Fatkin D, Hingorani AD, Saw J, Webb TR, Hayes SN, Yang X, Ganesh SK, Olson TM, Kovacic JC, Graham RM, Samani NJ, Bouatia-Naji N.", + "id": "35820692", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881", + "title": "Clinical prediction models for mortality in patients with covid-19: external validation and individual participant data meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "de Jong VMT, Rousset RZ, Antonio-Villa NE, Buenen AG, Van Calster B, Bello-Chavolla OY, Brunskill NJ, Curcin V, Damen JAA, Ferm\u00edn-Mart\u00ednez CA, Fern\u00e1ndez-Chirino L, Ferrari D, Free RC, Gupta RK, Haldar P, Hedberg P, Korang SK, Kurstjens S, Kusters R, Major RW, Maxwell L, Nair R, Naucler P, Nguyen TL, Noursadeghi M, Rosa R, Soares F, Takada T, van Royen FS, van Smeden M, Wynants L, Modr\u00e1k M, CovidRetro collaboration, Asselbergs FW, Linschoten M, CAPACITY-COVID consortium, Moons KGM, Debray TPA.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-29", + "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-07-12", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an understudied cause of myocardial infarction primarily affecting women. It is not known to what extent SCAD is genetically distinct from other cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD). Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (1,917 cases and 9,292 controls) identifying 16 risk loci for SCAD. Integrative functional annotations prioritized genes that are likely to be regulated in vascular smooth muscle cells and artery fibroblasts and implicated in extracellular matrix biology. One locus containing the tissue factor gene F3, which is involved in blood coagulation cascade initiation, appears to be specific for SCAD risk. Several associated variants have diametrically opposite associations with CAD, suggesting that shared biological processes contribute to both diseases, but through different mechanisms. We also infer a causal role for high blood pressure in SCAD. Our findings provide novel pathophysiological insights involving arterial integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation in SCAD and set the stage for future specific therapeutics and preventions.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To externally validate various prognostic models and scoring rules for predicting short term mortality in patients admitted to hospital for covid-19.

Design

Two stage individual participant data meta-analysis.

Setting

Secondary and tertiary care.

Participants

46\u2009914 patients across 18 countries, admitted to a hospital with polymerase chain reaction confirmed covid-19 from November 2019 to April 2021.

Data sources

Multiple (clustered) cohorts in Brazil, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States previously identified by a living systematic review of covid-19 prediction models published in The BMJ, and through PROSPERO, reference checking, and expert knowledge.

Model selection and eligibility criteria

Prognostic models identified by the living systematic review and through contacting experts. A priori models were excluded that had a high risk of bias in the participant domain of PROBAST (prediction model study risk of bias assessment tool) or for which the applicability was deemed poor.

Methods

Eight prognostic models with diverse predictors were identified and validated. A two stage individual participant data meta-analysis was performed of the estimated model concordance (C) statistic, calibration slope, calibration-in-the-large, and observed to expected ratio (O:E) across the included clusters.

Main outcome measures

30 day mortality or in-hospital mortality.

Results

Datasets included 27 clusters from 18 different countries and contained data on 46\u2009914patients. The pooled estimates ranged from 0.67 to 0.80 (C statistic), 0.22 to 1.22 (calibration slope), and 0.18 to 2.59 (O:E ratio) and were prone to substantial between study heterogeneity. The 4C Mortality Score by Knight et al (pooled C statistic 0.80, 95% confidence interval 0.75 to 0.84, 95% prediction interval 0.72 to 0.86) and clinical model by Wang et al (0.77, 0.73 to 0.80, 0.63 to 0.87) had the highest discriminative ability. On average, 29% fewer deaths were observed than predicted by the 4C Mortality Score (pooled O:E 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.45 to 1.11, 95% prediction interval 0.21 to 2.39), 35% fewer than predicted by the Wang clinical model (0.65, 0.52 to 0.82, 0.23 to 1.89), and 4% fewer than predicted by Xie et al's model (0.96, 0.59 to 1.55, 0.21 to 4.28).

Conclusion

The prognostic value of the included models varied greatly between the data sources. Although the Knight 4C Mortality Score and Wang clinical model appeared most promising, recalibration (intercept and slope updates) is needed before implementation in routine care.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01410-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10260398?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-069881.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31289267", @@ -35292,21 +35309,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10724-w.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10724-w; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6616926; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6616926?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "35820692", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881", - "title": "Clinical prediction models for mortality in patients with covid-19: external validation and individual participant data meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "de Jong VMT, Rousset RZ, Antonio-Villa NE, Buenen AG, Van Calster B, Bello-Chavolla OY, Brunskill NJ, Curcin V, Damen JAA, Ferm\u00edn-Mart\u00ednez CA, Fern\u00e1ndez-Chirino L, Ferrari D, Free RC, Gupta RK, Haldar P, Hedberg P, Korang SK, Kurstjens S, Kusters R, Major RW, Maxwell L, Nair R, Naucler P, Nguyen TL, Noursadeghi M, Rosa R, Soares F, Takada T, van Royen FS, van Smeden M, Wynants L, Modr\u00e1k M, CovidRetro collaboration, Asselbergs FW, Linschoten M, CAPACITY-COVID consortium, Moons KGM, Debray TPA.", + "id": "31539079", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970", + "title": "Association of Untargeted Urinary Metabolomics and Lung Cancer Risk Among Never-Smoking Women in China.", + "authorString": "Seow WJ, Shu XO, Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Walker DI, Hu W, Cai Q, Gao YT, Xiang YB, Moore SC, Bassig BA, Wong JYY, Zhang J, Ji BT, Boulang\u00e9 CL, Kaluarachchi M, Wijeyesekera A, Zheng W, Elliott P, Rothman N, Lan Q.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-07-12", + "journalTitle": "JAMA network open", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-09-04", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To externally validate various prognostic models and scoring rules for predicting short term mortality in patients admitted to hospital for covid-19.

Design

Two stage individual participant data meta-analysis.

Setting

Secondary and tertiary care.

Participants

46\u2009914 patients across 18 countries, admitted to a hospital with polymerase chain reaction confirmed covid-19 from November 2019 to April 2021.

Data sources

Multiple (clustered) cohorts in Brazil, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States previously identified by a living systematic review of covid-19 prediction models published in The BMJ, and through PROSPERO, reference checking, and expert knowledge.

Model selection and eligibility criteria

Prognostic models identified by the living systematic review and through contacting experts. A priori models were excluded that had a high risk of bias in the participant domain of PROBAST (prediction model study risk of bias assessment tool) or for which the applicability was deemed poor.

Methods

Eight prognostic models with diverse predictors were identified and validated. A two stage individual participant data meta-analysis was performed of the estimated model concordance (C) statistic, calibration slope, calibration-in-the-large, and observed to expected ratio (O:E) across the included clusters.

Main outcome measures

30 day mortality or in-hospital mortality.

Results

Datasets included 27 clusters from 18 different countries and contained data on 46\u2009914patients. The pooled estimates ranged from 0.67 to 0.80 (C statistic), 0.22 to 1.22 (calibration slope), and 0.18 to 2.59 (O:E ratio) and were prone to substantial between study heterogeneity. The 4C Mortality Score by Knight et al (pooled C statistic 0.80, 95% confidence interval 0.75 to 0.84, 95% prediction interval 0.72 to 0.86) and clinical model by Wang et al (0.77, 0.73 to 0.80, 0.63 to 0.87) had the highest discriminative ability. On average, 29% fewer deaths were observed than predicted by the 4C Mortality Score (pooled O:E 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.45 to 1.11, 95% prediction interval 0.21 to 2.39), 35% fewer than predicted by the Wang clinical model (0.65, 0.52 to 0.82, 0.23 to 1.89), and 4% fewer than predicted by Xie et al's model (0.96, 0.59 to 1.55, 0.21 to 4.28).

Conclusion

The prognostic value of the included models varied greatly between the data sources. Although the Knight 4C Mortality Score and Wang clinical model appeared most promising, recalibration (intercept and slope updates) is needed before implementation in routine care.", + "abstract": "

Importance

Chinese women have the highest rate of lung cancer among female never-smokers in the world, and the etiology is poorly understood.

Objective

To assess the association between metabolomics and lung cancer risk among never-smoking women.

Design, setting, and participants

This nested case-control study included 275 never-smoking female patients with lung cancer and 289 never-smoking cancer-free control participants from the prospective Shanghai Women's Health Study recruited from December 28, 1996, to May 23, 2000. Validated food frequency questionnaires were used for the collection of dietary information. Metabolomic analysis was conducted from November 13, 2015, to January 6, 2016. Data analysis was conducted from January 6, 2016, to November 29, 2018.

Exposures

Untargeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomic profiles were characterized using prediagnosis urine samples. A total of 39\u202f416 metabolites were measured.

Main outcomes and measures

Incident lung cancer.

Results

Among the 564 women, those who developed lung cancer (275 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 61.0 [52-65] years) and those who did not develop lung cancer (289 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 62.0 [53-66] years) at follow-up (median [interquartile range] follow-up, 10.9 [9.0-11.7] years) were similar in terms of their secondhand smoke exposure, history of respiratory diseases, and body mass index. A peak metabolite, identified as 5-methyl-2-furoic acid, was significantly associated with lower lung cancer risk (odds ratio, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.46-0.72]; P\u2009<\u2009.001; false discovery rate\u2009=\u20090.039). Furthermore, this peak was weakly correlated with self-reported dietary soy intake (\u03c1\u2009=\u20090.21; P\u2009<\u2009.001). Increasing tertiles of this metabolite were associated with lower lung cancer risk (in comparison with first tertile, odds ratio for second tertile, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.34-0.80]; and odds ratio for third tertile, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.30-0.70]), and the association was consistent across different histological subtypes and follow-up times. Additionally, metabolic pathway analysis found several systemic biological alterations that were associated with lung cancer risk, including 1-carbon metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation.

Conclusions and relevance

This prospective study of the untargeted urinary metabolome and lung cancer among never-smoking women in China provides support for the hypothesis that soy-based metabolites are associated with lower lung cancer risk in never-smoking women and suggests that biological processes linked to air pollution may be associated with higher lung cancer risk in this population.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj-2021-069881.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069881; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9273913?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2751559/seow_2019_oi_190459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6755532" }, { "id": "31822727", @@ -35376,23 +35393,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7611696; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00887-y; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611696; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611696?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31539079", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970", - "title": "Association of Untargeted Urinary Metabolomics and Lung Cancer Risk Among Never-Smoking Women in China.", - "authorString": "Seow WJ, Shu XO, Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Walker DI, Hu W, Cai Q, Gao YT, Xiang YB, Moore SC, Bassig BA, Wong JYY, Zhang J, Ji BT, Boulang\u00e9 CL, Kaluarachchi M, Wijeyesekera A, Zheng W, Elliott P, Rothman N, Lan Q.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JAMA network open", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-09-04", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Importance

Chinese women have the highest rate of lung cancer among female never-smokers in the world, and the etiology is poorly understood.

Objective

To assess the association between metabolomics and lung cancer risk among never-smoking women.

Design, setting, and participants

This nested case-control study included 275 never-smoking female patients with lung cancer and 289 never-smoking cancer-free control participants from the prospective Shanghai Women's Health Study recruited from December 28, 1996, to May 23, 2000. Validated food frequency questionnaires were used for the collection of dietary information. Metabolomic analysis was conducted from November 13, 2015, to January 6, 2016. Data analysis was conducted from January 6, 2016, to November 29, 2018.

Exposures

Untargeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomic profiles were characterized using prediagnosis urine samples. A total of 39\u202f416 metabolites were measured.

Main outcomes and measures

Incident lung cancer.

Results

Among the 564 women, those who developed lung cancer (275 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 61.0 [52-65] years) and those who did not develop lung cancer (289 participants; median [interquartile range] age, 62.0 [53-66] years) at follow-up (median [interquartile range] follow-up, 10.9 [9.0-11.7] years) were similar in terms of their secondhand smoke exposure, history of respiratory diseases, and body mass index. A peak metabolite, identified as 5-methyl-2-furoic acid, was significantly associated with lower lung cancer risk (odds ratio, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.46-0.72]; P\u2009<\u2009.001; false discovery rate\u2009=\u20090.039). Furthermore, this peak was weakly correlated with self-reported dietary soy intake (\u03c1\u2009=\u20090.21; P\u2009<\u2009.001). Increasing tertiles of this metabolite were associated with lower lung cancer risk (in comparison with first tertile, odds ratio for second tertile, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.34-0.80]; and odds ratio for third tertile, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.30-0.70]), and the association was consistent across different histological subtypes and follow-up times. Additionally, metabolic pathway analysis found several systemic biological alterations that were associated with lung cancer risk, including 1-carbon metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation.

Conclusions and relevance

This prospective study of the untargeted urinary metabolome and lung cancer among never-smoking women in China provides support for the hypothesis that soy-based metabolites are associated with lower lung cancer risk in never-smoking women and suggests that biological processes linked to air pollution may be associated with higher lung cancer risk in this population.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2751559/seow_2019_oi_190459.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.11970; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6755532" - }, { "id": "33316211", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-3018(20)30305-2", @@ -35427,23 +35427,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25066-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25066-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8346545; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8346545?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "31477933", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x", - "title": "A method for genome-wide genealogy estimation for thousands of samples.", - "authorString": "Speidel L, Forest M, Shi S, Myers SR.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-09-02", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Knowledge of genome-wide genealogies for thousands of individuals would simplify most evolutionary analyses for humans and other species, but has remained computationally infeasible. We have developed a method, Relate, scaling to\u2009>10,000 sequences while simultaneously estimating branch lengths, mutational ages and variable historical population sizes, as well as allowing for data errors. Application to 1,000 Genomes Project haplotypes produces joint genealogical histories for 26 human populations. Highly diverged lineages are present in all groups, but most frequent in Africa. Outside Africa, these mainly reflect ancient introgression from groups related to Neanderthals and Denisovans, while African signals instead reflect unknown events unique to that continent. Our approach allows more powerful inferences of natural selection than has previously been possible. We identify multiple regions under strong positive selection, and multi-allelic traits including hair color, body mass index and blood pressure, showing strong evidence of directional selection, varying among human groups.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610517; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x" - }, { "id": "34767815", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2021.08.446", @@ -35461,6 +35444,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022202X21024738/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2021.08.446" }, + { + "id": "31477933", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x", + "title": "A method for genome-wide genealogy estimation for thousands of samples.", + "authorString": "Speidel L, Forest M, Shi S, Myers SR.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-09-02", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Knowledge of genome-wide genealogies for thousands of individuals would simplify most evolutionary analyses for humans and other species, but has remained computationally infeasible. We have developed a method, Relate, scaling to\u2009>10,000 sequences while simultaneously estimating branch lengths, mutational ages and variable historical population sizes, as well as allowing for data errors. Application to 1,000 Genomes Project haplotypes produces joint genealogical histories for 26 human populations. Highly diverged lineages are present in all groups, but most frequent in Africa. Outside Africa, these mainly reflect ancient introgression from groups related to Neanderthals and Denisovans, while African signals instead reflect unknown events unique to that continent. Our approach allows more powerful inferences of natural selection than has previously been possible. We identify multiple regions under strong positive selection, and multi-allelic traits including hair color, body mass index and blood pressure, showing strong evidence of directional selection, varying among human groups.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7610517; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7610517?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0484-x" + }, { "id": "32936291", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.3275", @@ -35563,23 +35563,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21505-9.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21505-9; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7902656; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7902656?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34600575", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0", - "title": "Application of ensemble clustering and survival tree analysis for identifying prognostic clinicogenomic features in patients with colorectal cancer from the 100,000 Genomes Project.", - "authorString": "Wei Y, Papachristou N, Mueller S, Genomics England Research Consortium, Chang WH, Lai AG.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC research notes", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-02", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

The objective of this study was to employ ensemble clustering and tree-based risk model approaches to identify interactions between clinicogenomic features for colorectal cancer using the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Results

Among the 2211 patients with colorectal cancer (mean age of diagnosis: 67.7; 59.7% male), 16.3%, 36.3%, 39.0% and 8.4% had stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 cancers, respectively. Almost every patient had surgery (99.7%), 47.4% had chemotherapy, 7.6% had radiotherapy and 1.4% had immunotherapy. On average, tumour mutational burden (TMB) was 18 mutations/Mb and 34.4%, 31.3% and 25.7% of patients had structural or copy number mutations in KRAS, BRAF and NRAS, respectively. In the fully adjusted Cox model, patients with advanced cancer [stage 3 hazard ratio (HR)\u2009 = \u20093.2; p\u2009 < \u20090.001; stage 4 HR\u2009 = \u200910.2; p\u2009 < \u20090.001] and those who had immunotherapy (HR\u2009 = \u20091.8; p\u2009 < \u20090.04) or radiotherapy (HR\u2009 = \u20091.5; p\u2009 < \u20090.02) treatment had a higher risk of dying. The ensemble clustering approach generated four distinct clusters where patients in cluster 2 had the best survival outcomes (1-year: 98.7%; 2-year: 96.7%; 3-year: 93.0%) while patients in cluster 3 (1-year: 87.9; 2-year: 70.0%; 3-year: 53.1%) had the worst outcomes. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log rank test revealed that the clusters were separated into distinct prognostic groups (p\u2009 <\u2009 0.0001). Survival tree or recursive partitioning analyses were performed to further explore risk groups within each cluster. Among patients in cluster 2, for example, interactions between cancer stage, grade, radiotherapy, TMB, BRAF mutation status were identified. Patients with stage 4 cancer and TMB\u2009 \u2265 \u20091.6 mutations/Mb had 4 times higher risk of dying relative to the baseline hazard in that cluster.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34543281", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003786", @@ -35598,21 +35581,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003786&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003786; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8496779; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8496779?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34876579", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0", - "title": "Biological heterogeneity in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension identified through unsupervised transcriptomic profiling of whole blood.", - "authorString": "Kariotis S, Jammeh E, Swietlik EM, Pickworth JA, Rhodes CJ, Otero P, Wharton J, Iremonger J, Dunning MJ, Pandya D, Mascarenhas TS, Errington N, Thompson AAR, Romanoski CE, Rischard F, Garcia JGN, Yuan JX, An TS, Desai AA, Coghlan G, Lordan J, Corris PA, Howard LS, Condliffe R, Kiely DG, Church C, Pepke-Zaba J, Toshner M, Wort S, Gr\u00e4f S, Morrell NW, Wilkins MR, Lawrie A, Wang D, UK National PAH Cohort Study Consortium.", + "id": "34600575", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0", + "title": "Application of ensemble clustering and survival tree analysis for identifying prognostic clinicogenomic features in patients with colorectal cancer from the 100,000 Genomes Project.", + "authorString": "Wei Y, Papachristou N, Mueller S, Genomics England Research Consortium, Chang WH, Lai AG.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "journalTitle": "BMC research notes", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-07", + "date": "2021-10-02", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) is a rare but fatal disease diagnosed by right heart catheterisation and the exclusion of other forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension, producing a heterogeneous population with varied treatment response. Here we show unsupervised machine learning identification of three major patient subgroups that account for 92% of the cohort, each with unique whole blood transcriptomic and clinical feature signatures. These subgroups are associated with poor, moderate, and good prognosis. The poor prognosis subgroup is associated with upregulation of the ALAS2 and downregulation of several immunoglobulin genes, while the good prognosis subgroup is defined by upregulation of the bone morphogenetic protein signalling regulator NOG, and the C/C variant of HLA-DPA1/DPB1 (independently associated with survival). These findings independently validated provide evidence for the existence of 3 major subgroups (endophenotypes) within the IPAH classification, could improve risk stratification and provide molecular insights into the pathogenesis of IPAH.", + "abstract": "

Objective

The objective of this study was to employ ensemble clustering and tree-based risk model approaches to identify interactions between clinicogenomic features for colorectal cancer using the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Results

Among the 2211 patients with colorectal cancer (mean age of diagnosis: 67.7; 59.7% male), 16.3%, 36.3%, 39.0% and 8.4% had stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 cancers, respectively. Almost every patient had surgery (99.7%), 47.4% had chemotherapy, 7.6% had radiotherapy and 1.4% had immunotherapy. On average, tumour mutational burden (TMB) was 18 mutations/Mb and 34.4%, 31.3% and 25.7% of patients had structural or copy number mutations in KRAS, BRAF and NRAS, respectively. In the fully adjusted Cox model, patients with advanced cancer [stage 3 hazard ratio (HR)\u2009 = \u20093.2; p\u2009 < \u20090.001; stage 4 HR\u2009 = \u200910.2; p\u2009 < \u20090.001] and those who had immunotherapy (HR\u2009 = \u20091.8; p\u2009 < \u20090.04) or radiotherapy (HR\u2009 = \u20091.5; p\u2009 < \u20090.02) treatment had a higher risk of dying. The ensemble clustering approach generated four distinct clusters where patients in cluster 2 had the best survival outcomes (1-year: 98.7%; 2-year: 96.7%; 3-year: 93.0%) while patients in cluster 3 (1-year: 87.9; 2-year: 70.0%; 3-year: 53.1%) had the worst outcomes. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log rank test revealed that the clusters were separated into distinct prognostic groups (p\u2009 <\u2009 0.0001). Survival tree or recursive partitioning analyses were performed to further explore risk groups within each cluster. Among patients in cluster 2, for example, interactions between cancer stage, grade, radiotherapy, TMB, BRAF mutation status were identified. Patients with stage 4 cancer and TMB\u2009 \u2265 \u20091.6 mutations/Mb had 4 times higher risk of dying relative to the baseline hazard in that cluster.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27326-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05789-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8487486?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32680598", @@ -35631,6 +35614,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2020.07.002" }, + { + "id": "34876579", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0", + "title": "Biological heterogeneity in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension identified through unsupervised transcriptomic profiling of whole blood.", + "authorString": "Kariotis S, Jammeh E, Swietlik EM, Pickworth JA, Rhodes CJ, Otero P, Wharton J, Iremonger J, Dunning MJ, Pandya D, Mascarenhas TS, Errington N, Thompson AAR, Romanoski CE, Rischard F, Garcia JGN, Yuan JX, An TS, Desai AA, Coghlan G, Lordan J, Corris PA, Howard LS, Condliffe R, Kiely DG, Church C, Pepke-Zaba J, Toshner M, Wort S, Gr\u00e4f S, Morrell NW, Wilkins MR, Lawrie A, Wang D, UK National PAH Cohort Study Consortium.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-07", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) is a rare but fatal disease diagnosed by right heart catheterisation and the exclusion of other forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension, producing a heterogeneous population with varied treatment response. Here we show unsupervised machine learning identification of three major patient subgroups that account for 92% of the cohort, each with unique whole blood transcriptomic and clinical feature signatures. These subgroups are associated with poor, moderate, and good prognosis. The poor prognosis subgroup is associated with upregulation of the ALAS2 and downregulation of several immunoglobulin genes, while the good prognosis subgroup is defined by upregulation of the bone morphogenetic protein signalling regulator NOG, and the C/C variant of HLA-DPA1/DPB1 (independently associated with survival). These findings independently validated provide evidence for the existence of 3 major subgroups (endophenotypes) within the IPAH classification, could improve risk stratification and provide molecular insights into the pathogenesis of IPAH.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27326-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27326-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8651638?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33197716", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2020.101871", @@ -35699,6 +35699,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.313226; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.313226; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6975521; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6975521?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34820659", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100028", + "title": "The Data Use Ontology to streamline responsible access to human biomedical datasets.", + "authorString": "Lawson J, Cabili MN, Kerry G, Boughtwood T, Thorogood A, Alper P, Bowers SR, Boyles RR, Brookes AJ, Brush M, Burdett T, Clissold H, Donnelly S, Dyke SOM, Freeberg MA, Haendel MA, Hata C, Holub P, Jeanson F, Jene A, Kawashima M, Kawashima S, Konopko M, Kyomugisha I, Li H, Linden M, Rodriguez LL, Morita M, Mulder N, Muller J, Nagaie S, Nasir J, Ogishima S, Ota Wang V, Paglione LD, Pandya RN, Parkinson H, Philippakis AA, Prasser F, Rambla J, Reinold K, Rushton GA, Saltzman A, Saunders G, Sofia HJ, Spalding JD, Swertz MA, Tulchinsky I, van Enckevort EJ, Varma S, Voisin C, Yamamoto N, Yamasaki C, Zass L, Guidry Auvil JM, Nyr\u00f6nen TH, Courtot M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-11-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Standard; Consent; Ontology; Data Access; Fair; Secondary Data Use; Ga4gh; Controlled Access; Automated Data Access; Data Restrictions", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Human biomedical datasets that are critical for research and clinical studies to benefit human health also often contain sensitive or potentially identifying information of individual participants. Thus, care must be taken when they are processed and made available to comply with ethical and regulatory frameworks and informed consent data conditions. To enable and streamline data access for these biomedical datasets, the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) Data Use and Researcher Identities (DURI) work stream developed and approved the Data Use Ontology (DUO) standard. DUO is a hierarchical vocabulary of human and machine-readable data use terms that consistently and unambiguously represents a dataset's allowable data uses. DUO has been implemented by major international stakeholders such as the Broad and Sanger Institutes and is currently used in annotation of over 200,000 datasets worldwide. Using DUO in data management and access facilitates researchers' discovery and access of relevant datasets. DUO annotations increase\u00a0the FAIRness of datasets and support data linkages using common data use profiles when integrating the data for secondary analyses. DUO is implemented in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and, to increase community awareness and engagement, hosted in an open, centralized GitHub repository. DUO, together with the GA4GH Passport standard, offers a new, efficient, and streamlined data authorization and access framework that has enabled increased sharing of biomedical datasets worldwide.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8591903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8591903?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35577541", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616", @@ -35717,21 +35734,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/107/10/e29.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9157329?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34820659", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100028", - "title": "The Data Use Ontology to streamline responsible access to human biomedical datasets.", - "authorString": "Lawson J, Cabili MN, Kerry G, Boughtwood T, Thorogood A, Alper P, Bowers SR, Boyles RR, Brookes AJ, Brush M, Burdett T, Clissold H, Donnelly S, Dyke SOM, Freeberg MA, Haendel MA, Hata C, Holub P, Jeanson F, Jene A, Kawashima M, Kawashima S, Konopko M, Kyomugisha I, Li H, Linden M, Rodriguez LL, Morita M, Mulder N, Muller J, Nagaie S, Nasir J, Ogishima S, Ota Wang V, Paglione LD, Pandya RN, Parkinson H, Philippakis AA, Prasser F, Rambla J, Reinold K, Rushton GA, Saltzman A, Saunders G, Sofia HJ, Spalding JD, Swertz MA, Tulchinsky I, van Enckevort EJ, Varma S, Voisin C, Yamamoto N, Yamasaki C, Zass L, Guidry Auvil JM, Nyr\u00f6nen TH, Courtot M.", + "id": "32907855", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3339", + "title": "Risk stratification of patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 using the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol: development and validation of the 4C Mortality Score.", + "authorString": "Knight SR, Ho A, Pius R, Buchan I, Carson G, Drake TM, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Gamble C, Green CA, Gupta R, Halpin S, Hardwick HE, Holden KA, Horby PW, Jackson C, Mclean KA, Merson L, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Norman L, Noursadeghi M, Olliaro PL, Pritchard MG, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Sheikh A, Solomon T, Sudlow C, Swann OV, Turtle LC, Openshaw PJ, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cell genomics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-11-10", + "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-09-09", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Standard; Consent; Ontology; Data Access; Fair; Secondary Data Use; Ga4gh; Controlled Access; Automated Data Access; Data Restrictions", + "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Human biomedical datasets that are critical for research and clinical studies to benefit human health also often contain sensitive or potentially identifying information of individual participants. Thus, care must be taken when they are processed and made available to comply with ethical and regulatory frameworks and informed consent data conditions. To enable and streamline data access for these biomedical datasets, the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) Data Use and Researcher Identities (DURI) work stream developed and approved the Data Use Ontology (DUO) standard. DUO is a hierarchical vocabulary of human and machine-readable data use terms that consistently and unambiguously represents a dataset's allowable data uses. DUO has been implemented by major international stakeholders such as the Broad and Sanger Institutes and is currently used in annotation of over 200,000 datasets worldwide. Using DUO in data management and access facilitates researchers' discovery and access of relevant datasets. DUO annotations increase\u00a0the FAIRness of datasets and support data linkages using common data use profiles when integrating the data for secondary analyses. DUO is implemented in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and, to increase community awareness and engagement, hosted in an open, centralized GitHub repository. DUO, together with the GA4GH Passport standard, offers a new, efficient, and streamlined data authorization and access framework that has enabled increased sharing of biomedical datasets worldwide.", + "abstract": "

Objective

To develop and validate a pragmatic risk score to predict mortality in patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19).

Design

Prospective observational cohort study.

Setting

International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study (performed by the ISARIC Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium-ISARIC-4C) in 260 hospitals across England, Scotland, and Wales. Model training was performed on a cohort of patients recruited between 6 February and 20 May 2020, with validation conducted on a second cohort of patients recruited after model development between 21 May and 29 June 2020. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (age \u226518 years) admitted to hospital with covid-19 at least four weeks before final data extraction.

Main outcome measure

In-hospital mortality.

Results

35\u2009463 patients were included in the derivation dataset (mortality rate 32.2%) and 22\u2009361 in the validation dataset (mortality rate 30.1%). The final 4C Mortality Score included eight variables readily available at initial hospital assessment: age, sex, number of comorbidities, respiratory rate, peripheral oxygen saturation, level of consciousness, urea level, and C reactive protein (score range 0-21 points). The 4C Score showed high discrimination for mortality (derivation cohort: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.79, 95% confidence interval 0.78 to 0.79; validation cohort: 0.77, 0.76 to 0.77) with excellent calibration (validation: calibration-in-the-large=0, slope=1.0). Patients with a score of at least 15 (n=4158, 19%) had a 62% mortality (positive predictive value 62%) compared with 1% mortality for those with a score of 3 or less (n=1650, 7%; negative predictive value 99%). Discriminatory performance was higher than 15 pre-existing risk stratification scores (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve range 0.61-0.76), with scores developed in other covid-19 cohorts often performing poorly (range 0.63-0.73).

Conclusions

An easy-to-use risk stratification score has been developed and validated based on commonly available parameters at hospital presentation. The 4C Mortality Score outperformed existing scores, showed utility to directly inform clinical decision making, and can be used to stratify patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 into different management groups. The score should be further validated to determine its applicability in other populations.

Study registration

ISRCTN66726260.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100028; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8591903; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8591903?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m3339.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3339; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116472?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31851298", @@ -35750,23 +35767,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-pdf/111/2/406/32447385/nqz301.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997097; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6997097?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz301" }, - { - "id": "32907855", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3339", - "title": "Risk stratification of patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 using the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol: development and validation of the 4C Mortality Score.", - "authorString": "Knight SR, Ho A, Pius R, Buchan I, Carson G, Drake TM, Dunning J, Fairfield CJ, Gamble C, Green CA, Gupta R, Halpin S, Hardwick HE, Holden KA, Horby PW, Jackson C, Mclean KA, Merson L, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Norman L, Noursadeghi M, Olliaro PL, Pritchard MG, Russell CD, Shaw CA, Sheikh A, Solomon T, Sudlow C, Swann OV, Turtle LC, Openshaw PJ, Baillie JK, Semple MG, Docherty AB, Harrison EM, ISARIC4C investigators.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ (Clinical research ed.)", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-09-09", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objective

To develop and validate a pragmatic risk score to predict mortality in patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19).

Design

Prospective observational cohort study.

Setting

International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study (performed by the ISARIC Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium-ISARIC-4C) in 260 hospitals across England, Scotland, and Wales. Model training was performed on a cohort of patients recruited between 6 February and 20 May 2020, with validation conducted on a second cohort of patients recruited after model development between 21 May and 29 June 2020. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (age \u226518 years) admitted to hospital with covid-19 at least four weeks before final data extraction.

Main outcome measure

In-hospital mortality.

Results

35\u2009463 patients were included in the derivation dataset (mortality rate 32.2%) and 22\u2009361 in the validation dataset (mortality rate 30.1%). The final 4C Mortality Score included eight variables readily available at initial hospital assessment: age, sex, number of comorbidities, respiratory rate, peripheral oxygen saturation, level of consciousness, urea level, and C reactive protein (score range 0-21 points). The 4C Score showed high discrimination for mortality (derivation cohort: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.79, 95% confidence interval 0.78 to 0.79; validation cohort: 0.77, 0.76 to 0.77) with excellent calibration (validation: calibration-in-the-large=0, slope=1.0). Patients with a score of at least 15 (n=4158, 19%) had a 62% mortality (positive predictive value 62%) compared with 1% mortality for those with a score of 3 or less (n=1650, 7%; negative predictive value 99%). Discriminatory performance was higher than 15 pre-existing risk stratification scores (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve range 0.61-0.76), with scores developed in other covid-19 cohorts often performing poorly (range 0.63-0.73).

Conclusions

An easy-to-use risk stratification score has been developed and validated based on commonly available parameters at hospital presentation. The 4C Mortality Score outperformed existing scores, showed utility to directly inform clinical decision making, and can be used to stratify patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 into different management groups. The score should be further validated to determine its applicability in other populations.

Study registration

ISRCTN66726260.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m3339.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3339; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116472; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7116472?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31980021", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1077-6", @@ -36005,23 +36005,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(19)30410-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30410-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7185492" }, - { - "id": "31115347", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/12412", - "title": "Health Data Processes: A Framework for Analyzing and Discussing Efficient Use and Reuse of Health Data With a Focus on Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.", - "authorString": "Hjollund NHI, Valderas JM, Kyte D, Calvert MJ.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", - "pubYear": "2019", - "date": "2019-05-21", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Data collection; Medical Informatics; Patient-physician Relationship; Patient-reported Outcome", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The collection and use of patient health data are central to any kind of activity in the health care system. These data may be produced during routine clinical processes or obtained directly from the patient using patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. Although efficiency and other reasons justify data availability for a range of potentially relevant uses, these data are nearly always collected for a single specific purpose. The health care literature reflects this narrow scope, and there is limited literature on the joint use of health data for daily clinical use, clinical research, surveillance, and administrative purposes. The aim of this paper is to provide a framework for discussing the efficient use of health data with a specific focus on the role of PRO measures. PRO data may be used at an individual patient level to inform patient care or shared decision making and to tailor care to individual needs or group-level needs as a complement to health record data, such as that on mortality and readmission, in order to inform service delivery and measure the real-world effectiveness of treatment. PRO measures may be used either for their own sake, to provide valuable information from the patient perspective, or as a proxy for clinical data that would otherwise not be feasible to collect. We introduce a framework to analyze any health care activity that involves health data. The framework consists of four data processes (patient identification, data collection, data aggregation and data use), further structured into two dichotomous dimensions in each data process (level: group vs patient; timeframe: ad hoc vs systematic). This framework is used to analyze various health activities with respect to joint use of data, considering the technical, legal, organizational, and logistical challenges that characterize each data process. Finally, we propose a model for joint use of health data with data collected during follow-up as a base. Demands for health data will continue to increase, which will further add to the need for the concerted use and reuse of PRO data for parallel purposes. Repeated and uncoordinated PRO data collection for the same patient for different purposes results in misuse of resources for the patient and the health care system as well as reduced response rates owing to questionnaire fatigue. PRO data can be routinely collected both at the hospital (from inpatients as well as outpatients) and outside of hospital settings; in primary or social care settings; or in the patient's home, provided the health informatics infrastructure is in place. In the future, clinical settings are likely to be a prominent source of PRO data; however, we are also likely to see increased remote collection of PRO data by patients in their own home (telePRO). Data collection for research and quality surveillance will have to adapt to this circumstance and adopt complementary data capture methods that take advantage of the utility of PRO data collected during daily clinical practice. The European Union's regulation with respect to the protection of personal data-General Data Protection Regulation-imposes severe restrictions on the use of health data for parallel purposes, and steps should be taken to alleviate the consequences while still protecting personal data against misuse.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2019/5/e12412/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/12412; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6547770" - }, { "id": "30842207", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314763", @@ -36039,23 +36022,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/files/30348534/Author_Accepted_Manuscript.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314763" }, - { - "id": "34307493", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574", - "title": "Automated Quality-Controlled Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Pericardial Fat Quantification Using a Convolutional Neural Network in the UK Biobank.", - "authorString": "Bard A, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Ardissino M, Lee AM, Pugliese F, Dey D, Sarkar S, Munroe PB, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Petersen SE.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-07", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Obesity; Neural network; Machine Learning; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Pericardial Fat; Automated Image Analysis; Epicardial Fat", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Background: Pericardial adipose tissue (PAT) may represent a novel risk marker for cardiovascular disease. However, absence of rapid radiation-free PAT quantification methods has precluded its examination in large cohorts. Objectives: We developed a fully automated quality-controlled tool for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) PAT quantification in the UK Biobank (UKB). Methods: Image analysis comprised contouring an en-bloc PAT area on four-chamber cine images. We created a ground truth manual analysis dataset randomly split into training and test sets. We built a neural network for automated segmentation using a Multi-residual U-net architecture with incorporation of permanently active dropout layers to facilitate quality control of the model's output using Monte Carlo sampling. We developed an in-built quality control feature, which presents predicted Dice scores. We evaluated model performance against the test set (n = 87), the whole UKB Imaging cohort (n = 45,519), and an external dataset (n = 103). In an independent dataset, we compared automated CMR and cardiac computed tomography (CCT) PAT quantification. Finally, we tested association of CMR PAT with diabetes in the UKB (n = 42,928). Results: Agreement between automated and manual segmentations in the test set was almost identical to inter-observer variability (mean Dice score = 0.8). The quality control method predicted individual Dice scores with Pearson r = 0.75. Model performance remained high in the whole UKB Imaging cohort and in the external dataset, with medium-good quality segmentation in 94.3% (mean Dice score = 0.77) and 94.4% (mean Dice score = 0.78), respectively. There was high correlation between CMR and CCT PAT measures (Pearson r = 0.72, p-value 5.3 \u00d710-18). Larger CMR PAT area was associated with significantly greater odds of diabetes independent of age, sex, and body mass index. Conclusions: We present a novel fully automated method for CMR PAT quantification with good model performance on independent and external datasets, high correlation with reference standard CCT PAT measurement, and expected clinical associations with diabetes.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35048991", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djac011", @@ -36074,21 +36040,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djac011; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djac011; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9086764; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9086764?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "33849854", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206", - "title": "Protocol for a scoping review exploring the use of patient-reported outcomes in adult social care.", - "authorString": "Hughes SE, Aiyegbusi OL, Lasserson DS, Collis P, Cruz Rivera S, McMullan C, Turner GM, Glasby J, Calvert M.", + "id": "31115347", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2196/12412", + "title": "Health Data Processes: A Framework for Analyzing and Discussing Efficient Use and Reuse of Health Data With a Focus on Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.", + "authorString": "Hjollund NHI, Valderas JM, Kyte D, Calvert MJ.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "journalTitle": "Journal of medical Internet research", + "pubYear": "2019", + "date": "2019-05-21", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Data collection; Medical Informatics; Patient-physician Relationship; Patient-reported Outcome", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The collection and use of patient health data are central to any kind of activity in the health care system. These data may be produced during routine clinical processes or obtained directly from the patient using patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. Although efficiency and other reasons justify data availability for a range of potentially relevant uses, these data are nearly always collected for a single specific purpose. The health care literature reflects this narrow scope, and there is limited literature on the joint use of health data for daily clinical use, clinical research, surveillance, and administrative purposes. The aim of this paper is to provide a framework for discussing the efficient use of health data with a specific focus on the role of PRO measures. PRO data may be used at an individual patient level to inform patient care or shared decision making and to tailor care to individual needs or group-level needs as a complement to health record data, such as that on mortality and readmission, in order to inform service delivery and measure the real-world effectiveness of treatment. PRO measures may be used either for their own sake, to provide valuable information from the patient perspective, or as a proxy for clinical data that would otherwise not be feasible to collect. We introduce a framework to analyze any health care activity that involves health data. The framework consists of four data processes (patient identification, data collection, data aggregation and data use), further structured into two dichotomous dimensions in each data process (level: group vs patient; timeframe: ad hoc vs systematic). This framework is used to analyze various health activities with respect to joint use of data, considering the technical, legal, organizational, and logistical challenges that characterize each data process. Finally, we propose a model for joint use of health data with data collected during follow-up as a base. Demands for health data will continue to increase, which will further add to the need for the concerted use and reuse of PRO data for parallel purposes. Repeated and uncoordinated PRO data collection for the same patient for different purposes results in misuse of resources for the patient and the health care system as well as reduced response rates owing to questionnaire fatigue. PRO data can be routinely collected both at the hospital (from inpatients as well as outpatients) and outside of hospital settings; in primary or social care settings; or in the patient's home, provided the health informatics infrastructure is in place. In the future, clinical settings are likely to be a prominent source of PRO data; however, we are also likely to see increased remote collection of PRO data by patients in their own home (telePRO). Data collection for research and quality surveillance will have to adapt to this circumstance and adopt complementary data capture methods that take advantage of the utility of PRO data collected during daily clinical practice. The European Union's regulation with respect to the protection of personal data-General Data Protection Regulation-imposes severe restrictions on the use of health data for parallel purposes, and steps should be taken to alleviate the consequences while still protecting personal data against misuse.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.jmir.org/2019/5/e12412/PDF; doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/12412; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6547770" + }, + { + "id": "34307493", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574", + "title": "Automated Quality-Controlled Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Pericardial Fat Quantification Using a Convolutional Neural Network in the UK Biobank.", + "authorString": "Bard A, Raisi-Estabragh Z, Ardissino M, Lee AM, Pugliese F, Dey D, Sarkar S, Munroe PB, Neubauer S, Harvey NC, Petersen SE.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-04-13", + "date": "2021-07-07", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Protocols & Guidelines; Quality In Health Care; Organisation Of Health Services", + "keywords": "Obesity; Neural network; Machine Learning; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; Pericardial Fat; Automated Image Analysis; Epicardial Fat", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are measures of a person's own views of their health, functioning and quality of life. They are typically assessed using validated, self-completed questionnaires known as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). PROMs are used in healthcare settings to support care planning, clinical decision-making, patient-practitioner communication and quality improvement. PROMs have a potential role in the delivery of social care where people often have multiple and complex long-term health conditions. However, the use of PROMs in this context is currently unclear. The objective of this scoping review is to explore the evidence relating to the use of PROMs in adult social care.

Methods and analyses

The electronic databases Medline (Ovid), PsychInfo (Ovid), ASSIA (ProQuest), Social Care Online (SCIE), Web of Science and EMBASE (Ovid) were searched on 29 September 2020 to identify eligible studies and other publically available documents published since 2010. A grey literature search and hand searching of citations and reference lists of the included studies will also be undertaken. No restrictions on study design or language of publication will be applied. Screening and data extraction will be completed independently by two reviewers. Quality appraisal of the included documents will use the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance) checklists. A customised data charting table will be used for data extraction, with analysis of qualitative data using the framework method. The review findings will be presented as tables and in a narrative summary.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical review is not required as scoping reviews are a form of secondary data analysis that synthesise data from publically available sources. Review findings will be shared with service users and other relevant stakeholders and disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations. This protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (www.osf.io).", + "abstract": "Background: Pericardial adipose tissue (PAT) may represent a novel risk marker for cardiovascular disease. However, absence of rapid radiation-free PAT quantification methods has precluded its examination in large cohorts. Objectives: We developed a fully automated quality-controlled tool for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) PAT quantification in the UK Biobank (UKB). Methods: Image analysis comprised contouring an en-bloc PAT area on four-chamber cine images. We created a ground truth manual analysis dataset randomly split into training and test sets. We built a neural network for automated segmentation using a Multi-residual U-net architecture with incorporation of permanently active dropout layers to facilitate quality control of the model's output using Monte Carlo sampling. We developed an in-built quality control feature, which presents predicted Dice scores. We evaluated model performance against the test set (n = 87), the whole UKB Imaging cohort (n = 45,519), and an external dataset (n = 103). In an independent dataset, we compared automated CMR and cardiac computed tomography (CCT) PAT quantification. Finally, we tested association of CMR PAT with diabetes in the UKB (n = 42,928). Results: Agreement between automated and manual segmentations in the test set was almost identical to inter-observer variability (mean Dice score = 0.8). The quality control method predicted individual Dice scores with Pearson r = 0.75. Model performance remained high in the whole UKB Imaging cohort and in the external dataset, with medium-good quality segmentation in 94.3% (mean Dice score = 0.77) and 94.4% (mean Dice score = 0.78), respectively. There was high correlation between CMR and CCT PAT measures (Pearson r = 0.72, p-value 5.3 \u00d710-18). Larger CMR PAT area was associated with significantly greater odds of diabetes independent of age, sex, and body mass index. Conclusions: We present a novel fully automated method for CMR PAT quantification with good model performance on independent and external datasets, high correlation with reference standard CCT PAT measurement, and expected clinical associations with diabetes.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/4/e045206.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8294033?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31730918", @@ -36107,6 +36090,23 @@ "laySummary": "Utilises data mining and routine data to identify a patients smoking status. Does not account for long term smoking behaviour and is limited by the smaller size the dataset.", "urls": "pdf:http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895435619304846/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.11.006" }, + { + "id": "33849854", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206", + "title": "Protocol for a scoping review exploring the use of patient-reported outcomes in adult social care.", + "authorString": "Hughes SE, Aiyegbusi OL, Lasserson DS, Collis P, Cruz Rivera S, McMullan C, Turner GM, Glasby J, Calvert M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-04-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Protocols & Guidelines; Quality In Health Care; Organisation Of Health Services", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are measures of a person's own views of their health, functioning and quality of life. They are typically assessed using validated, self-completed questionnaires known as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). PROMs are used in healthcare settings to support care planning, clinical decision-making, patient-practitioner communication and quality improvement. PROMs have a potential role in the delivery of social care where people often have multiple and complex long-term health conditions. However, the use of PROMs in this context is currently unclear. The objective of this scoping review is to explore the evidence relating to the use of PROMs in adult social care.

Methods and analyses

The electronic databases Medline (Ovid), PsychInfo (Ovid), ASSIA (ProQuest), Social Care Online (SCIE), Web of Science and EMBASE (Ovid) were searched on 29 September 2020 to identify eligible studies and other publically available documents published since 2010. A grey literature search and hand searching of citations and reference lists of the included studies will also be undertaken. No restrictions on study design or language of publication will be applied. Screening and data extraction will be completed independently by two reviewers. Quality appraisal of the included documents will use the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance) checklists. A customised data charting table will be used for data extraction, with analysis of qualitative data using the framework method. The review findings will be presented as tables and in a narrative summary.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical review is not required as scoping reviews are a form of secondary data analysis that synthesise data from publically available sources. Review findings will be shared with service users and other relevant stakeholders and disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations. This protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (www.osf.io).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/4/e045206.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045206; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8051391?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33004550", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2019-320185", @@ -36192,23 +36192,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929720302767/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.08.008; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7536643; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7536643?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "37221040", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700", - "title": "Coverage, completion and outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessments in a multi-ethnic nationwide cohort of UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH Study.", - "authorString": "Martin CA, Woolf K, Bryant L, Goss C, Gogoi M, Lagrata S, Papineni P, Qureshi I, Wobi F, Nellums L, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Occupational and environmental medicine", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-05-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Ethnic Groups; risk assessment; Health Personnel; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

There are limited data on the outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessment in healthcare workers (HCWs) or the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic and occupational factors with risk assessment outcomes.

Methods

We used questionnaire data from UK-REACH (UK Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers), an ethnically diverse, nationwide cohort of UK HCWs. We derived four binary outcomes: (1) offered a risk assessment; (2) completed a risk assessment; (3) working practices changed as a result of the risk assessment; (4) wanted changes to working practices after risk assessment but working practices did not change.We examined the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk variables on our outcomes using multivariable logistic regression.

Results

8649 HCWs were included in total. HCWs from ethnic minority groups were more likely to report being offered a risk assessment than white HCWs, and those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report having completed an assessment if offered. Ethnic minority HCWs had lower odds of reporting having their work change as a result of risk assessment. Those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report no changes to their working practices despite wanting them.Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with lower odds of being offered a risk assessment and having adjustments made to working practices.

Discussion

We found differences in risk assessment outcomes by ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk factors. These findings are concerning and warrant further research using actual (rather than reported) risk assessment outcomes in an unselected cohort.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/80/7/399.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34000257", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00897-7", @@ -36226,6 +36209,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00897-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00897-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8121538" }, + { + "id": "37221040", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700", + "title": "Coverage, completion and outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessments in a multi-ethnic nationwide cohort of UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH Study.", + "authorString": "Martin CA, Woolf K, Bryant L, Goss C, Gogoi M, Lagrata S, Papineni P, Qureshi I, Wobi F, Nellums L, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Occupational and environmental medicine", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-05-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Ethnic Groups; risk assessment; Health Personnel; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

There are limited data on the outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessment in healthcare workers (HCWs) or the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic and occupational factors with risk assessment outcomes.

Methods

We used questionnaire data from UK-REACH (UK Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers), an ethnically diverse, nationwide cohort of UK HCWs. We derived four binary outcomes: (1) offered a risk assessment; (2) completed a risk assessment; (3) working practices changed as a result of the risk assessment; (4) wanted changes to working practices after risk assessment but working practices did not change.We examined the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk variables on our outcomes using multivariable logistic regression.

Results

8649 HCWs were included in total. HCWs from ethnic minority groups were more likely to report being offered a risk assessment than white HCWs, and those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report having completed an assessment if offered. Ethnic minority HCWs had lower odds of reporting having their work change as a result of risk assessment. Those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report no changes to their working practices despite wanting them.Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with lower odds of being offered a risk assessment and having adjustments made to working practices.

Discussion

We found differences in risk assessment outcomes by ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk factors. These findings are concerning and warrant further research using actual (rather than reported) risk assessment outcomes in an unselected cohort.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/80/7/399.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10314065?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36215124", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1161/circgen.121.003598", @@ -36328,23 +36328,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(23)00195-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356620; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10356620?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32220655", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6", - "title": "The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study.", - "authorString": "Prem K, Liu Y, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Davies N, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Klepac P.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Public health", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-03-25", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

In December, 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus, emerged in Wuhan, China. Since then, the city of Wuhan has taken unprecedented measures in response to the outbreak, including extended school and workplace closures. We aimed to estimate the effects of physical distancing measures on the progression of the COVID-19 epidemic, hoping to provide some insights for the rest of the world.

Methods

To examine how changes in population mixing have affected outbreak progression in Wuhan, we used synthetic location-specific contact patterns in Wuhan and adapted these in the presence of school closures, extended workplace closures, and a reduction in mixing in the general community. Using these matrices and the latest estimates of the epidemiological parameters of the Wuhan outbreak, we simulated the ongoing trajectory of an outbreak in Wuhan using an age-structured susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model for several physical distancing measures. We fitted the latest estimates of epidemic parameters from a transmission model to data on local and internationally exported cases from Wuhan in an age-structured epidemic framework and investigated the age distribution of cases. We also simulated lifting of the control measures by allowing people to return to work in a phased-in way and looked at the effects of returning to work at different stages of the underlying outbreak (at the beginning of March or April).

Findings

Our projections show that physical distancing measures were most effective if the staggered return to work was at the beginning of April; this reduced the median number of infections by more than 92% (IQR 66-97) and 24% (13-90) in mid-2020 and end-2020, respectively. There are benefits to sustaining these measures until April in terms of delaying and reducing the height of the peak, median epidemic size at end-2020, and affording health-care systems more time to expand and respond. However, the modelled effects of physical distancing measures vary by the duration of infectiousness and the role school children have in the epidemic.

Interpretation

Restrictions on activities in Wuhan, if maintained until April, would probably help to delay the epidemic peak. Our projections suggest that premature and sudden lifting of interventions could lead to an earlier secondary peak, which could be flattened by relaxing the interventions gradually. However, there are limitations to our analysis, including large uncertainties around estimates of R0 and the duration of infectiousness.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, and Health Data Research UK.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30073-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7158905" - }, { "id": "30768153", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz015", @@ -36362,6 +36345,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article-pdf/115/10/1512/28981341/cvz015.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvz015" }, + { + "id": "32220655", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6", + "title": "The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study.", + "authorString": "Prem K, Liu Y, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Davies N, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Jit M, Klepac P.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet. Public health", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-03-25", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

In December, 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus, emerged in Wuhan, China. Since then, the city of Wuhan has taken unprecedented measures in response to the outbreak, including extended school and workplace closures. We aimed to estimate the effects of physical distancing measures on the progression of the COVID-19 epidemic, hoping to provide some insights for the rest of the world.

Methods

To examine how changes in population mixing have affected outbreak progression in Wuhan, we used synthetic location-specific contact patterns in Wuhan and adapted these in the presence of school closures, extended workplace closures, and a reduction in mixing in the general community. Using these matrices and the latest estimates of the epidemiological parameters of the Wuhan outbreak, we simulated the ongoing trajectory of an outbreak in Wuhan using an age-structured susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model for several physical distancing measures. We fitted the latest estimates of epidemic parameters from a transmission model to data on local and internationally exported cases from Wuhan in an age-structured epidemic framework and investigated the age distribution of cases. We also simulated lifting of the control measures by allowing people to return to work in a phased-in way and looked at the effects of returning to work at different stages of the underlying outbreak (at the beginning of March or April).

Findings

Our projections show that physical distancing measures were most effective if the staggered return to work was at the beginning of April; this reduced the median number of infections by more than 92% (IQR 66-97) and 24% (13-90) in mid-2020 and end-2020, respectively. There are benefits to sustaining these measures until April in terms of delaying and reducing the height of the peak, median epidemic size at end-2020, and affording health-care systems more time to expand and respond. However, the modelled effects of physical distancing measures vary by the duration of infectiousness and the role school children have in the epidemic.

Interpretation

Restrictions on activities in Wuhan, if maintained until April, would probably help to delay the epidemic peak. Our projections suggest that premature and sudden lifting of interventions could lead to an earlier secondary peak, which could be flattened by relaxing the interventions gradually. However, there are limitations to our analysis, including large uncertainties around estimates of R0 and the duration of infectiousness.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, and Health Data Research UK.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30073-6; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30073-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7158905" + }, { "id": "33444330", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003498", @@ -36498,23 +36498,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117689; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117689; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7903160; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7903160?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32979922", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4", - "title": "Diabetes as a risk factor for incident peripheral arterial disease in women compared to men: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", - "authorString": "Chase-Vilchez AZ, Chan IHY, Peters SAE, Woodward M.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Cardiovascular diabetology", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-09-26", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Sex difference; Diabetes; Cardiovascular disease; Peripheral Arterial Disease; Peripheral Vascular Disease", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Aims/hypothesis

Previous meta-analyses have suggested that diabetes confers a greater excess risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia, and heart failure in women compared to men. While the underlying mechanism that explains such greater excess risk is unknown, in the current meta-analysis we hypothesized that we would find a similar sex difference in the relationship between diabetes and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Methods

PubMed MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Embase were systematically searched for prospective population-based cohort studies, with no restriction on publication date, language, or country. We included studies that reported the relative risk (RR), and its variability, for incident PAD associated with diabetes in both sexes. We excluded studies that did not adjust at least for age, and in which participants had pre-existing PAD. In cases where sex-specific results were not reported, study authors were contacted. Random-effects meta-analyses with inverse variance weighting were used to obtain summary sex-specific RRs and the women: men ratio of RRs for PAD. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess study quality.

Results

Data from seven cohorts, totalling 2071,260 participants (49.8% women), were included. The relative risk for incident PAD associated with diabetes compared with no diabetes was 1.96 (95% CI 1.29-2.63) in women and 1.84 (95% CI 1.29-2.86) in men, after adjusting for potential confounders. The multiple-adjusted RR ratio was 1.05 (95% CI 0.90-1.22), with virtually no heterogeneity between studies (I2\u2009=\u20090%). All studies scored 6-8, on the Newcastle-Ottawa scale of 0-9, indicating good quality. Eleven of the 12 studies that met review inclusion criteria did not report sex-specific relative risk, and these data were collected through direct correspondence with the study authors.

Conclusion/interpretation

Consistent with other studies, we found evidence that diabetes is an independent risk factor for PAD. However, in contrast to similar studies of other types of cardiovascular disease, we did not find evidence that diabetes confers a greater excess risk in women compared to men for PAD. More research is needed to explain this sex differential between PAD and other forms of CVD, in the sequelae of diabetes. In addition, we found that very few studies reported the sex-specific relative risk for the association between diabetes and PAD, adding to existing evidence for the need for improved reporting of sex-disaggregated results in cardiovascular disease research.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "37291107", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38766-1", @@ -36532,6 +36515,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38766-1.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38766-1; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250394; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10250394?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32979922", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4", + "title": "Diabetes as a risk factor for incident peripheral arterial disease in women compared to men: a systematic review and meta-analysis.", + "authorString": "Chase-Vilchez AZ, Chan IHY, Peters SAE, Woodward M.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Cardiovascular diabetology", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-09-26", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Sex difference; Diabetes; Cardiovascular disease; Peripheral Arterial Disease; Peripheral Vascular Disease", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Aims/hypothesis

Previous meta-analyses have suggested that diabetes confers a greater excess risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia, and heart failure in women compared to men. While the underlying mechanism that explains such greater excess risk is unknown, in the current meta-analysis we hypothesized that we would find a similar sex difference in the relationship between diabetes and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Methods

PubMed MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Embase were systematically searched for prospective population-based cohort studies, with no restriction on publication date, language, or country. We included studies that reported the relative risk (RR), and its variability, for incident PAD associated with diabetes in both sexes. We excluded studies that did not adjust at least for age, and in which participants had pre-existing PAD. In cases where sex-specific results were not reported, study authors were contacted. Random-effects meta-analyses with inverse variance weighting were used to obtain summary sex-specific RRs and the women: men ratio of RRs for PAD. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess study quality.

Results

Data from seven cohorts, totalling 2071,260 participants (49.8% women), were included. The relative risk for incident PAD associated with diabetes compared with no diabetes was 1.96 (95% CI 1.29-2.63) in women and 1.84 (95% CI 1.29-2.86) in men, after adjusting for potential confounders. The multiple-adjusted RR ratio was 1.05 (95% CI 0.90-1.22), with virtually no heterogeneity between studies (I2\u2009=\u20090%). All studies scored 6-8, on the Newcastle-Ottawa scale of 0-9, indicating good quality. Eleven of the 12 studies that met review inclusion criteria did not report sex-specific relative risk, and these data were collected through direct correspondence with the study authors.

Conclusion/interpretation

Consistent with other studies, we found evidence that diabetes is an independent risk factor for PAD. However, in contrast to similar studies of other types of cardiovascular disease, we did not find evidence that diabetes confers a greater excess risk in women compared to men for PAD. More research is needed to explain this sex differential between PAD and other forms of CVD, in the sequelae of diabetes. In addition, we found that very few studies reported the sex-specific relative risk for the association between diabetes and PAD, adding to existing evidence for the need for improved reporting of sex-disaggregated results in cardiovascular disease research.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-020-01130-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7520021?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32956399", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003336", @@ -36702,23 +36702,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.13830.2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5968362; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5968362?pdf=render; pdf:https://f1000research.com/articles/7-210/v2/pdf" }, - { - "id": "34090494", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8", - "title": "A framework for handling missing accelerometer outcome data in trials.", - "authorString": "Tackney MS, Cook DG, Stahl D, Ismail K, Williamson E, Carpenter J.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Trials", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-06-05", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Clinical Trial; Missing Data; Accelerometer; Multiple Imputation; Wearables", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Accelerometers and other wearable devices are increasingly being used in clinical trials to provide an objective measure of the impact of an intervention on physical activity. Missing data are ubiquitous in this setting, typically for one of two reasons: patients may not wear the device as per protocol, and/or the device may fail to collect data (e.g. flat battery, water damage). However, it is not always possible to distinguish whether the participant stopped wearing the device, or if the participant is wearing the device but staying still. Further, a lack of consensus in the literature on how to aggregate the data before analysis (hourly, daily, weekly) leads to a lack of consensus in how to define a \"missing\" outcome. Different trials have adopted different definitions (ranging from having insufficient step counts in a day, through to missing a certain number of days in a week). We propose an analysis framework that uses wear time to define missingness on the epoch and day level, and propose a multiple imputation approach, at the day level, which treats partially observed daily step counts as right censored. This flexible approach allows the inclusion of auxiliary variables, and is consistent with almost all the primary analysis models described in the literature, and readily allows sensitivity analysis (to the missing at random assumption) to be performed. Having presented our framework, we illustrate its application to the analysis of the 2019 MOVE-IT trial of motivational interviewing to increase exercise.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33420068", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-020-00267-3", @@ -36736,6 +36719,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-020-00267-3.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-020-00267-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7794334; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7794334?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34090494", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8", + "title": "A framework for handling missing accelerometer outcome data in trials.", + "authorString": "Tackney MS, Cook DG, Stahl D, Ismail K, Williamson E, Carpenter J.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Trials", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-06-05", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Clinical Trial; Missing Data; Accelerometer; Multiple Imputation; Wearables", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Accelerometers and other wearable devices are increasingly being used in clinical trials to provide an objective measure of the impact of an intervention on physical activity. Missing data are ubiquitous in this setting, typically for one of two reasons: patients may not wear the device as per protocol, and/or the device may fail to collect data (e.g. flat battery, water damage). However, it is not always possible to distinguish whether the participant stopped wearing the device, or if the participant is wearing the device but staying still. Further, a lack of consensus in the literature on how to aggregate the data before analysis (hourly, daily, weekly) leads to a lack of consensus in how to define a \"missing\" outcome. Different trials have adopted different definitions (ranging from having insufficient step counts in a day, through to missing a certain number of days in a week). We propose an analysis framework that uses wear time to define missingness on the epoch and day level, and propose a multiple imputation approach, at the day level, which treats partially observed daily step counts as right censored. This flexible approach allows the inclusion of auxiliary variables, and is consistent with almost all the primary analysis models described in the literature, and readily allows sensitivity analysis (to the missing at random assumption) to be performed. Having presented our framework, we illustrate its application to the analysis of the 2019 MOVE-IT trial of motivational interviewing to increase exercise.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05284-8; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8178870?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33421867", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.053", @@ -36923,23 +36923,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18060-0.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18060-0; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453196; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7453196?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32543438", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355", - "title": "Impact of air pollution on educational attainment for respiratory health treated students: A cross sectional data linkage study.", - "authorString": "Mizen A, Lyons J, Milojevic A, Doherty R, Wilkinson P, Carruthers D, Akbari A, Lake I, Davies GA, Al Sallakh M, Fry R, Dearden L, Rodgers SE.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Health & place", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-12", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Air pollution; Asthma; poLLen; Data Linkage; Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis; Educational Attainment", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

There is some evidence that exam results are worse when students are acutely exposed to air pollution. Studies investigating the association between air pollution and academic attainment have been constrained by small sample sizes.

Methods

Cross sectional educational attainment data (2009-2015) from students aged 15-16 years in Cardiff, Wales were linked to primary health care data, modelled air pollution and measured pollen data, and analysed using multilevel linear regression models. Annual cohort, school and individual level confounders were adjusted for in single and multi-pollutant/pollen models. We stratified by treatment of asthma and/or Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (SAR).

Results

A unit (10\u03bcg/m3) increase of short-term exposure to NO2 was associated with 0.044 (95% CI: -0.079, -0.008) reduction of standardised Capped Point Score (CPS) after adjusting for individual and household risk factors for 18,241 students. This association remained statistically significant after controlling for other pollutants and pollen. There was no association of PM2.5, O3, or Pollen with standardised CPS remaining after adjustment. We found no evidence that treatment for asthma or SAR modified the observed NO2 effect on educational attainment.

Conclusion

Our study showed that short-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution, specifically NO2, was associated with detrimental educational attainment for students aged 15-16. Longitudinal investigations in different settings are required to confirm this possible impact and further work may uncover the long-term economic implications, and degree to which impacts are cumulative and permanent.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7214342" - }, { "id": "32554230", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107196", @@ -36974,6 +36957,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(20)30559-2; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30559-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7832571" }, + { + "id": "32543438", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355", + "title": "Impact of air pollution on educational attainment for respiratory health treated students: A cross sectional data linkage study.", + "authorString": "Mizen A, Lyons J, Milojevic A, Doherty R, Wilkinson P, Carruthers D, Akbari A, Lake I, Davies GA, Al Sallakh M, Fry R, Dearden L, Rodgers SE.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Health & place", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-05-12", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Air pollution; Asthma; poLLen; Data Linkage; Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis; Educational Attainment", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

There is some evidence that exam results are worse when students are acutely exposed to air pollution. Studies investigating the association between air pollution and academic attainment have been constrained by small sample sizes.

Methods

Cross sectional educational attainment data (2009-2015) from students aged 15-16 years in Cardiff, Wales were linked to primary health care data, modelled air pollution and measured pollen data, and analysed using multilevel linear regression models. Annual cohort, school and individual level confounders were adjusted for in single and multi-pollutant/pollen models. We stratified by treatment of asthma and/or Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (SAR).

Results

A unit (10\u03bcg/m3) increase of short-term exposure to NO2 was associated with 0.044 (95% CI: -0.079, -0.008) reduction of standardised Capped Point Score (CPS) after adjusting for individual and household risk factors for 18,241 students. This association remained statistically significant after controlling for other pollutants and pollen. There was no association of PM2.5, O3, or Pollen with standardised CPS remaining after adjustment. We found no evidence that treatment for asthma or SAR modified the observed NO2 effect on educational attainment.

Conclusion

Our study showed that short-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution, specifically NO2, was associated with detrimental educational attainment for students aged 15-16. Longitudinal investigations in different settings are required to confirm this possible impact and further work may uncover the long-term economic implications, and degree to which impacts are cumulative and permanent.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102355; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7214342" + }, { "id": "35187482", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab291", @@ -36991,23 +36991,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article-pdf/4/1/fcab291/42546494/fcab291.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab291; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8853724; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8853724?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "35304391", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610", - "title": "Results of a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial exploring the use of an electronic patient-reported outcome measure in the management of UK patients with advanced chronic kidney disease.", - "authorString": "Kyte D, Anderson N, Bishop J, Bissell A, Brettell E, Calvert M, Chadburn M, Cockwell P, Dutton M, Eddington H, Forster E, Hadley G, Ives NJ, Jackson LJ, O'Brien S, Price G, Sharpe K, Stringer S, Verdi R, Waters J, Wilcockson A.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMJ open", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-03-18", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Clinical Trials; Nephrology; End Stage Renal Failure", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Objectives

The use of routine remote follow-up of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing exponentially. It has been suggested that online electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) could be used in parallel, to facilitate real-time symptom monitoring aimed at improving outcomes. We tested the feasibility of this approach in a pilot trial of ePROM symptom monitoring versus usual care in patients with advanced CKD not on dialysis.

Design

A 12-month, parallel, pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) and qualitative substudy.

Setting and participants

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK. Adult patients with advanced CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate \u22656 and \u226415 mL/min/1.73 m2, or a projected risk of progression to kidney failure within 2 years \u226520%).

Intervention

Monthly online ePROM symptom reporting, including automated feedback of tailored self-management advice and triggered clinical notifications in the advent of severe symptoms. Real-time ePROM data were made available to the clinical team via the electronic medical record.

Outcomes

Feasibility (recruitment and retention rates, and acceptability/adherence to the ePROM intervention). Health-related quality of life, clinical data (eg, measures of kidney function, kidney failure, hospitalisation, death) and healthcare utilisation.

Results

52 patients were randomised (31% of approached). Case report form returns were high (99.5%), as was retention (96%). Overall, 73% of expected ePROM questionnaires were received. Intervention adherence was high beyond 90 days (74%) and 180 days (65%); but dropped beyond 270 days (46%). Qualitative interviews supported proof of concept and intervention acceptability, but highlighted necessary changes aimed at enhancing overall functionality/scalability of the ePROM system.

Limitations

Small sample size.

Conclusions

This pilot trial demonstrates that patients are willing to be randomised to a trial assessing ePROM symptom monitoring. The intervention was considered acceptable; though measures to improve longer-term engagement are needed. A full-scale RCT is considered feasible.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN12669006 and the UK NIHR Portfolio (CPMS ID: 36497).", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e050610.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32376654", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1203", @@ -37025,6 +37008,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/369/bmj.m1203.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1203; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7201936" }, + { + "id": "35304391", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610", + "title": "Results of a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial exploring the use of an electronic patient-reported outcome measure in the management of UK patients with advanced chronic kidney disease.", + "authorString": "Kyte D, Anderson N, Bishop J, Bissell A, Brettell E, Calvert M, Chadburn M, Cockwell P, Dutton M, Eddington H, Forster E, Hadley G, Ives NJ, Jackson LJ, O'Brien S, Price G, Sharpe K, Stringer S, Verdi R, Waters J, Wilcockson A.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMJ open", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-03-18", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Clinical Trials; Nephrology; End Stage Renal Failure", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Objectives

The use of routine remote follow-up of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing exponentially. It has been suggested that online electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) could be used in parallel, to facilitate real-time symptom monitoring aimed at improving outcomes. We tested the feasibility of this approach in a pilot trial of ePROM symptom monitoring versus usual care in patients with advanced CKD not on dialysis.

Design

A 12-month, parallel, pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) and qualitative substudy.

Setting and participants

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK. Adult patients with advanced CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate \u22656 and \u226415 mL/min/1.73 m2, or a projected risk of progression to kidney failure within 2 years \u226520%).

Intervention

Monthly online ePROM symptom reporting, including automated feedback of tailored self-management advice and triggered clinical notifications in the advent of severe symptoms. Real-time ePROM data were made available to the clinical team via the electronic medical record.

Outcomes

Feasibility (recruitment and retention rates, and acceptability/adherence to the ePROM intervention). Health-related quality of life, clinical data (eg, measures of kidney function, kidney failure, hospitalisation, death) and healthcare utilisation.

Results

52 patients were randomised (31% of approached). Case report form returns were high (99.5%), as was retention (96%). Overall, 73% of expected ePROM questionnaires were received. Intervention adherence was high beyond 90 days (74%) and 180 days (65%); but dropped beyond 270 days (46%). Qualitative interviews supported proof of concept and intervention acceptability, but highlighted necessary changes aimed at enhancing overall functionality/scalability of the ePROM system.

Limitations

Small sample size.

Conclusions

This pilot trial demonstrates that patients are willing to be randomised to a trial assessing ePROM symptom monitoring. The intervention was considered acceptable; though measures to improve longer-term engagement are needed. A full-scale RCT is considered feasible.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN12669006 and the UK NIHR Portfolio (CPMS ID: 36497).", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/3/e050610.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050610; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8935185?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36240095", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000201006", @@ -37076,23 +37076,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://jcm.asm.org/content/jcm/58/1/e01037-19.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01037-19; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6935933; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6935933?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36210437", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7", - "title": "Hesitancy for receiving regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH study.", - "authorString": "Veli N, Martin CA, Woolf K, Nazareth J, Pan D, Al-Oraibi A, Baggaley RF, Bryant L, Nellums LB, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-10-10", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Vaccination; Ethnicity; Healthcare; Hesitancy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Regular vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may be needed to maintain immunity in 'at-risk' populations, which include healthcare workers (HCWs). However, little is known about the proportion of HCWs who might be hesitant about receiving a hypothetical regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or the factors associated with this hesitancy.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of questionnaire data collected as part of UK-REACH, a nationwide, longitudinal cohort study of HCWs. The outcome measure was binary, either a participant indicated they would definitely accept regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination if recommended or they indicated some degree of hesitancy regarding acceptance (probably accept or less likely). We used logistic regression to identify factors associated with hesitancy for receiving regular vaccination.

Results

A total of 5454 HCWs were included in the analysed cohort, 23.5% of whom were hesitant about regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Black HCWs were more likely to be hesitant than White HCWs (aOR 2.60, 95%CI 1.80-3.72) as were those who reported a previous episode of COVID-19 (1.33, 1.13-1.57 [vs those who tested negative]). Those who received influenza vaccination in the previous two seasons were over five times less likely to report hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination than those not vaccinated against influenza in either season (0.18, 0.14-0.21). HCWs who trusted official sources of vaccine information (such as NHS or government adverts or websites) were less likely to report hesitancy for a regular vaccination programme. Those who had been exposed to information advocating against vaccination from friends and family were more likely to be hesitant.

Conclusions

In this study, nearly a quarter of UK HCWs were hesitant about receiving a regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We have identified key factors associated with hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, which can be used to identify groups of HCWs at the highest risk of vaccine hesitancy and tailor interventions accordingly. Family and friends of HCWs may influence decisions about regular vaccination. This implies that working with HCWs and their social networks to allay concerns about SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could improve uptake in a regular vaccination programme.

Trial registration

ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN11811602.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "30497795", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32207-4", @@ -37110,6 +37093,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673618322074/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32207-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6215773; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6215773?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36210437", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7", + "title": "Hesitancy for receiving regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH study.", + "authorString": "Veli N, Martin CA, Woolf K, Nazareth J, Pan D, Al-Oraibi A, Baggaley RF, Bryant L, Nellums LB, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "BMC medicine", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-10-10", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Vaccination; Ethnicity; Healthcare; Hesitancy; Covid-19; Sars-cov-2", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Background

Regular vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may be needed to maintain immunity in 'at-risk' populations, which include healthcare workers (HCWs). However, little is known about the proportion of HCWs who might be hesitant about receiving a hypothetical regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or the factors associated with this hesitancy.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of questionnaire data collected as part of UK-REACH, a nationwide, longitudinal cohort study of HCWs. The outcome measure was binary, either a participant indicated they would definitely accept regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination if recommended or they indicated some degree of hesitancy regarding acceptance (probably accept or less likely). We used logistic regression to identify factors associated with hesitancy for receiving regular vaccination.

Results

A total of 5454 HCWs were included in the analysed cohort, 23.5% of whom were hesitant about regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Black HCWs were more likely to be hesitant than White HCWs (aOR 2.60, 95%CI 1.80-3.72) as were those who reported a previous episode of COVID-19 (1.33, 1.13-1.57 [vs those who tested negative]). Those who received influenza vaccination in the previous two seasons were over five times less likely to report hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination than those not vaccinated against influenza in either season (0.18, 0.14-0.21). HCWs who trusted official sources of vaccine information (such as NHS or government adverts or websites) were less likely to report hesitancy for a regular vaccination programme. Those who had been exposed to information advocating against vaccination from friends and family were more likely to be hesitant.

Conclusions

In this study, nearly a quarter of UK HCWs were hesitant about receiving a regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We have identified key factors associated with hesitancy for regular SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, which can be used to identify groups of HCWs at the highest risk of vaccine hesitancy and tailor interventions accordingly. Family and friends of HCWs may influence decisions about regular vaccination. This implies that working with HCWs and their social networks to allay concerns about SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could improve uptake in a regular vaccination programme.

Trial registration

ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN11811602.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02588-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9548389?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33203707", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1328", @@ -37280,23 +37280,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/4/e027289.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027289; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6528002; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6528002?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "33033260", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5", - "title": "Prostate cancer evolution from multilineage primary to single lineage metastases with implications for liquid biopsy.", - "authorString": "Woodcock DJ, Riabchenko E, Taavitsainen S, Kankainen M, Gundem G, Brewer DS, Ellonen P, Lepist\u00f6 M, Golubeva YA, Warner AC, Tolonen T, Jasu J, Isaacs WB, Emmert-Buck MR, Nykter M, Visakorpi T, Bova GS, Wedge DC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature communications", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-10-08", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "The evolutionary progression from primary to metastatic prostate cancer is largely uncharted, and the implications for liquid biopsy are unexplored. We infer detailed reconstructions of tumor phylogenies in ten prostate cancer patients with fatal disease, and investigate them in conjunction with histopathology and tumor DNA extracted from blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Substantial evolution occurs within the prostate, resulting in branching into multiple spatially intermixed lineages. One dominant lineage emerges that initiates and drives systemic metastasis, where polyclonal seeding between sites is common. Routes to metastasis differ between patients, and likely genetic drivers of metastasis distinguish the metastatic lineage from the lineage that remains confined to the prostate within each patient. Body fluids capture features of the dominant lineage, and subclonal expansions that occur in the metastatic phase are non-uniformly represented. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis reveals lineages not detected in blood-borne DNA, suggesting possible clinical utility.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18843-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32664951", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-020-00895-5", @@ -37314,6 +37297,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://clinicalepigeneticsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13148-020-00895-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-020-00895-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7362435; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7362435?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "33033260", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5", + "title": "Prostate cancer evolution from multilineage primary to single lineage metastases with implications for liquid biopsy.", + "authorString": "Woodcock DJ, Riabchenko E, Taavitsainen S, Kankainen M, Gundem G, Brewer DS, Ellonen P, Lepist\u00f6 M, Golubeva YA, Warner AC, Tolonen T, Jasu J, Isaacs WB, Emmert-Buck MR, Nykter M, Visakorpi T, Bova GS, Wedge DC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature communications", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-10-08", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "The evolutionary progression from primary to metastatic prostate cancer is largely uncharted, and the implications for liquid biopsy are unexplored. We infer detailed reconstructions of tumor phylogenies in ten prostate cancer patients with fatal disease, and investigate them in conjunction with histopathology and tumor DNA extracted from blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Substantial evolution occurs within the prostate, resulting in branching into multiple spatially intermixed lineages. One dominant lineage emerges that initiates and drives systemic metastasis, where polyclonal seeding between sites is common. Routes to metastasis differ between patients, and likely genetic drivers of metastasis distinguish the metastatic lineage from the lineage that remains confined to the prostate within each patient. Body fluids capture features of the dominant lineage, and subclonal expansions that occur in the metastatic phase are non-uniformly represented. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis reveals lineages not detected in blood-borne DNA, suggesting possible clinical utility.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18843-5.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18843-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7545111?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32246132", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0603-8", @@ -37451,38 +37451,38 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://watermark.silverchair.com/giaa007.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAArgwggK0BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKlMIICoQIBADCCApoGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQM317Vywl4J0MoRskUAgEQgIICa7pwfJ56Mly4Anv1BPEAmwtKXOLcmFeMLRa66xhgPdK6Ci4Aw3rp4lJMizin326QALNQsODRERKONUxtXgEWVQAk130Fd7XbP6mDWd-0WqGT3cSidkfYveDUH3QNU5fMzLfCj598hrJEAk1z7LTkxKHEy9DQWfFNTCjY53IC7QawbMnwVvVq_lpTKlRP8_qZiTe8qiEKqWNVZ6woCjOc2Rro01EG5_atdzA8zpmJq2R4tx28FbVmIM7dsgYcT7L9DYQIcPQwJxaZSleSNtEyNXeo-WcHn_ezUiaRb0lthzfWPPdge5nY3tlFAelL_HeYo6jn4CkFdniFC28Gr7TuFnrJyj28_OsKYJICwvgwmNPj-T5rf9MGAMgBV3SLK6l87grZuO1r4Q8AfpvbJY9vHrDDayBzhuXMW_g2CFpQDYzMp4tGX8Yu3uS5qDWR81xG0Xqf5p0i0wsw1ZD1ZDA8tla87WrJCjbGwWjoXx2ihhyp6aXc4DC_8FCavms7sXqxQEsoVtDp6hvmpDsPPSvdGRAOjKeaQD2mWFi_3U7ndjd2_0dGVvsD5zDl0_GrRV8QEGNDocCzvibp-DyCby-tfRS4UsoqVA96Gs3ZgVtZzcQbcDt3C069xpbFOJD2rqJ4oyiGdUUh9uWDxgQFKiRvQZbblRH-htJ8tPKjv371GO1Wm6E-asCRSjCkT4vRP3lzDlab36iWZVp5vS5XoumjEnV9wxKBEqkYGywEdZUlG57ygWi11YTdMK3EYXbFqU0xFXvw34Sdl47d5bUDjYEEcxBciYLJqWhQKY9opr4bt5T3SCS107QDE4VOmd4; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7002876; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7002876?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34308406", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180", - "title": "Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy in United Kingdom healthcare workers: Results from the UK-REACH prospective nationwide cohort study.", - "authorString": "Woolf K, McManus IC, Martin CA, Nellums LB, Guyatt AL, Melbourne C, Bryant L, Gogoi M, Wobi F, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Gupta A, John C, Tobin MD, Carr S, Simpson S, Gregary B, Aujayeb A, Zingwe S, Reza R, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", + "id": "34051883", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01169-7", + "title": "Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.", + "authorString": "GBD 2019 Tobacco Collaborators.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "The Lancet regional health. Europe", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-07-19", + "date": "2021-05-27", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

In most countries, healthcare workers (HCWs) represent a priority group for vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) due to their elevated risk of COVID-19 and potential contribution to nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Concerns have been raised that HCWs from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant (defined by the World Health Organisation as refusing or delaying a vaccination) than those of White ethnicity, but there are limited data on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy and its predictors in UK HCWs.

Methods

Nationwide prospective cohort study and qualitative study in a multi-ethnic cohort of clinical and non-clinical UK HCWs. We analysed ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy adjusting for demographics, vaccine trust, and perceived risk of COVID-19. We explored reasons for hesitancy in qualitative data using a framework analysis.

Findings

11,584 HCWs were included in the cohort analysis. 23% (2704) reported vaccine hesitancy. Compared to White British HCWs (21.3% hesitant), HCWs from Black Caribbean (54.2%), Mixed White and Black Caribbean (38.1%), Black African (34.4%), Chinese (33.1%), Pakistani (30.4%), and White Other (28.7%) ethnic groups were significantly more likely to be hesitant. In adjusted analysis, Black Caribbean (aOR 3.37, 95% CI 2.11 - 5.37), Black African (aOR 2.05, 95% CI 1.49 - 2.82), White Other ethnic groups (aOR 1.48, 95% CI 1.19 - 1.84) were significantly more likely to be hesitant. Other independent predictors of hesitancy were younger age, female sex, higher score on a COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs scale, lower trust in employer, lack of influenza vaccine uptake in the previous season, previous COVID-19, and pregnancy. Qualitative data from 99 participants identified the following contributors to hesitancy: lack of trust in government and employers, safety concerns due to the speed of vaccine development, lack of ethnic diversity in vaccine studies, and confusing and conflicting information. Participants felt uptake in ethnic minority communities might be improved through inclusive communication, involving HCWs in the vaccine rollout, and promoting vaccination through trusted networks.

Interpretation

Despite increased risk of COVID-19, HCWs from some ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant than their White British colleagues. Strategies to build trust and dispel myths surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine in these communities are urgently required. Emphasis should be placed on the safety and benefit of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in pregnancy and in those with previous COVID-19. Public health communications should be inclusive, non-stigmatising and utilise trusted networks.

Funding

UKRI-MRC and NIHR.", + "abstract": "

Background

Ending the global tobacco epidemic is a defining challenge in global health. Timely and comprehensive estimates of the prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden are needed to guide tobacco control efforts nationally and globally.

Methods

We estimated the prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden for 204 countries and territories, by age and sex, from 1990 to 2019 as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study. We modelled multiple smoking-related indicators from 3625 nationally representative surveys. We completed systematic reviews and did Bayesian meta-regressions for 36 causally linked health outcomes to estimate non-linear dose-response risk curves for current and former smokers. We used a direct estimation approach to estimate attributable burden, providing more comprehensive estimates of the health effects of smoking than previously available.

Findings

Globally in 2019, 1\u00b714 billion (95% uncertainty interval 1\u00b713-1\u00b716) individuals were current smokers, who consumed 7\u00b741 trillion (7\u00b711-7\u00b774) cigarette-equivalents of tobacco in 2019. Although prevalence of smoking had decreased significantly since 1990 among both males (27\u00b75% [26\u00b75-28\u00b75] reduction) and females (37\u00b77% [35\u00b74-39\u00b79] reduction) aged 15 years and older, population growth has led to a significant increase in the total number of smokers from 0\u00b799 billion (0\u00b798-1\u00b700) in 1990. Globally in 2019, smoking tobacco use accounted for 7\u00b769 million (7\u00b716-8\u00b720) deaths and 200 million (185-214) disability-adjusted life-years, and was the leading risk factor for death among males (20\u00b72% [19\u00b73-21\u00b71] of male deaths). 6\u00b768 million [86\u00b79%] of 7\u00b769 million deaths attributable to smoking tobacco use were among current smokers.

Interpretation

In the absence of intervention, the annual toll of 7\u00b769 million deaths and 200 million disability-adjusted life-years attributable to smoking will increase over the coming decades. Substantial progress in reducing the prevalence of smoking tobacco use has been observed in countries from all regions and at all stages of development, but a large implementation gap remains for tobacco control. Countries have a clear and urgent opportunity to pass strong, evidence-based policies to accelerate reductions in the prevalence of smoking and reap massive health benefits for their citizens.

Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519?pdf=render" + "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621011697/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01169-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8223261" }, { - "id": "34051883", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01169-7", - "title": "Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.", - "authorString": "GBD 2019 Tobacco Collaborators.", + "id": "34308406", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180", + "title": "Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy in United Kingdom healthcare workers: Results from the UK-REACH prospective nationwide cohort study.", + "authorString": "Woolf K, McManus IC, Martin CA, Nellums LB, Guyatt AL, Melbourne C, Bryant L, Gogoi M, Wobi F, Al-Oraibi A, Hassan O, Gupta A, John C, Tobin MD, Carr S, Simpson S, Gregary B, Aujayeb A, Zingwe S, Reza R, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Pareek M, UK-REACH Study Collaborative Group.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "journalTitle": "The Lancet regional health. Europe", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-05-27", + "date": "2021-07-19", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Background

Ending the global tobacco epidemic is a defining challenge in global health. Timely and comprehensive estimates of the prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden are needed to guide tobacco control efforts nationally and globally.

Methods

We estimated the prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden for 204 countries and territories, by age and sex, from 1990 to 2019 as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study. We modelled multiple smoking-related indicators from 3625 nationally representative surveys. We completed systematic reviews and did Bayesian meta-regressions for 36 causally linked health outcomes to estimate non-linear dose-response risk curves for current and former smokers. We used a direct estimation approach to estimate attributable burden, providing more comprehensive estimates of the health effects of smoking than previously available.

Findings

Globally in 2019, 1\u00b714 billion (95% uncertainty interval 1\u00b713-1\u00b716) individuals were current smokers, who consumed 7\u00b741 trillion (7\u00b711-7\u00b774) cigarette-equivalents of tobacco in 2019. Although prevalence of smoking had decreased significantly since 1990 among both males (27\u00b75% [26\u00b75-28\u00b75] reduction) and females (37\u00b77% [35\u00b74-39\u00b79] reduction) aged 15 years and older, population growth has led to a significant increase in the total number of smokers from 0\u00b799 billion (0\u00b798-1\u00b700) in 1990. Globally in 2019, smoking tobacco use accounted for 7\u00b769 million (7\u00b716-8\u00b720) deaths and 200 million (185-214) disability-adjusted life-years, and was the leading risk factor for death among males (20\u00b72% [19\u00b73-21\u00b71] of male deaths). 6\u00b768 million [86\u00b79%] of 7\u00b769 million deaths attributable to smoking tobacco use were among current smokers.

Interpretation

In the absence of intervention, the annual toll of 7\u00b769 million deaths and 200 million disability-adjusted life-years attributable to smoking will increase over the coming decades. Substantial progress in reducing the prevalence of smoking tobacco use has been observed in countries from all regions and at all stages of development, but a large implementation gap remains for tobacco control. Countries have a clear and urgent opportunity to pass strong, evidence-based policies to accelerate reductions in the prevalence of smoking and reap massive health benefits for their citizens.

Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.", + "abstract": "

Background

In most countries, healthcare workers (HCWs) represent a priority group for vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) due to their elevated risk of COVID-19 and potential contribution to nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Concerns have been raised that HCWs from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant (defined by the World Health Organisation as refusing or delaying a vaccination) than those of White ethnicity, but there are limited data on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy and its predictors in UK HCWs.

Methods

Nationwide prospective cohort study and qualitative study in a multi-ethnic cohort of clinical and non-clinical UK HCWs. We analysed ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy adjusting for demographics, vaccine trust, and perceived risk of COVID-19. We explored reasons for hesitancy in qualitative data using a framework analysis.

Findings

11,584 HCWs were included in the cohort analysis. 23% (2704) reported vaccine hesitancy. Compared to White British HCWs (21.3% hesitant), HCWs from Black Caribbean (54.2%), Mixed White and Black Caribbean (38.1%), Black African (34.4%), Chinese (33.1%), Pakistani (30.4%), and White Other (28.7%) ethnic groups were significantly more likely to be hesitant. In adjusted analysis, Black Caribbean (aOR 3.37, 95% CI 2.11 - 5.37), Black African (aOR 2.05, 95% CI 1.49 - 2.82), White Other ethnic groups (aOR 1.48, 95% CI 1.19 - 1.84) were significantly more likely to be hesitant. Other independent predictors of hesitancy were younger age, female sex, higher score on a COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs scale, lower trust in employer, lack of influenza vaccine uptake in the previous season, previous COVID-19, and pregnancy. Qualitative data from 99 participants identified the following contributors to hesitancy: lack of trust in government and employers, safety concerns due to the speed of vaccine development, lack of ethnic diversity in vaccine studies, and confusing and conflicting information. Participants felt uptake in ethnic minority communities might be improved through inclusive communication, involving HCWs in the vaccine rollout, and promoting vaccination through trusted networks.

Interpretation

Despite increased risk of COVID-19, HCWs from some ethnic minority groups are more likely to be vaccine hesitant than their White British colleagues. Strategies to build trust and dispel myths surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine in these communities are urgently required. Emphasis should be placed on the safety and benefit of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in pregnancy and in those with previous COVID-19. Public health communications should be inclusive, non-stigmatising and utilise trusted networks.

Funding

UKRI-MRC and NIHR.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673621011697/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01169-7; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8223261" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100180; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8287519?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32690604", @@ -37586,23 +37586,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.65325; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65325; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192119; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8192119?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32461653", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z", - "title": "Evaluating drug targets through human loss-of-function genetic variation.", - "authorString": "Minikel EV, Karczewski KJ, Martin HC, Cummings BB, Whiffin N, Rhodes D, Alf\u00f6ldi J, Trembath RC, van Heel DA, Daly MJ, Genome Aggregation Database Production Team, Genome Aggregation Database Consortium, Schreiber SL, MacArthur DG.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-05-27", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Naturally occurring human genetic variants that are predicted to inactivate protein-coding genes provide an in vivo model of human gene inactivation that complements knockout studies in cells and model organisms. Here we report three key findings regarding the assessment of candidate drug targets using human loss-of-function variants. First, even essential genes, in which loss-of-function variants are not tolerated, can be highly successful as targets of inhibitory drugs. Second, in most genes, loss-of-function variants are sufficiently rare that genotype-based ascertainment of homozygous or compound heterozygous 'knockout' humans will await sample sizes that are approximately 1,000 times those presently available, unless recruitment focuses on consanguineous individuals. Third, automated variant annotation and filtering are powerful, but manual curation remains crucial for removing artefacts, and is a prerequisite for recall-by-genotype efforts. Our results provide a roadmap for human knockout studies and should guide the interpretation of loss-of-function variants in drug development.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2267-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33277303", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1137", @@ -37620,6 +37603,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/44/2/556.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1137; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7818328; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7818328?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32461653", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z", + "title": "Evaluating drug targets through human loss-of-function genetic variation.", + "authorString": "Minikel EV, Karczewski KJ, Martin HC, Cummings BB, Whiffin N, Rhodes D, Alf\u00f6ldi J, Trembath RC, van Heel DA, Daly MJ, Genome Aggregation Database Production Team, Genome Aggregation Database Consortium, Schreiber SL, MacArthur DG.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-05-27", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Naturally occurring human genetic variants that are predicted to inactivate protein-coding genes provide an in vivo model of human gene inactivation that complements knockout studies in cells and model organisms. Here we report three key findings regarding the assessment of candidate drug targets using human loss-of-function variants. First, even essential genes, in which loss-of-function variants are not tolerated, can be highly successful as targets of inhibitory drugs. Second, in most genes, loss-of-function variants are sufficiently rare that genotype-based ascertainment of homozygous or compound heterozygous 'knockout' humans will await sample sizes that are approximately 1,000 times those presently available, unless recruitment focuses on consanguineous individuals. Third, automated variant annotation and filtering are powerful, but manual curation remains crucial for removing artefacts, and is a prerequisite for recall-by-genotype efforts. Our results provide a roadmap for human knockout studies and should guide the interpretation of loss-of-function variants in drug development.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2267-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2267-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7272226?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "31719529", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12515-9", @@ -37790,23 +37790,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/aje/article-pdf/188/7/1319/28890395/kwz090.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwz090; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6601535; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6601535?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36065116", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321", - "title": "Brain injury in COVID-19 is associated with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses.", - "authorString": "Needham EJ, Ren AL, Digby RJ, Norton EJ, Ebrahimi S, Outtrim JG, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Leibowitz MM, Newcombe VFJ, Doffinger R, Barcenas-Morales G, Fonseca C, Taussig MJ, Burnstein RM, Samanta RJ, Dunai C, Sithole N, Ashton NJ, Zetterberg H, Gissl\u00e9n M, Ed\u00e9n A, Marklund E, Openshaw PJM, Dunning J, Griffiths MJ, Cavanagh J, Breen G, Irani SR, Elmer A, Kingston N, Summers C, Bradley JR, Taams LS, Michael BD, Bullmore ET, Smith KGC, Lyons PA, Coles AJ, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, CITIID-NIHR COVID-19 BioResource Collaboration, Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Brain : a journal of neurology", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-11-01", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Autoantibodies; Brain injury; neuroinflammation; Covid-19", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "COVID-19 is associated with neurological complications including stroke, delirium and encephalitis. Furthermore, a post-viral syndrome dominated by neuropsychiatric symptoms is common, and is seemingly unrelated to COVID-19 severity. The true frequency and underlying mechanisms of neurological injury are unknown, but exaggerated host inflammatory responses appear to be a key driver of COVID-19 severity. We investigated the dynamics of, and relationship between, serum markers of brain injury [neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and total tau] and markers of dysregulated host response (autoantibody production and cytokine profiles) in 175 patients admitted with COVID-19 and 45 patients with influenza. During hospitalization, sera from patients with COVID-19 demonstrated elevations of NfL and GFAP in a severity-dependent manner, with evidence of ongoing active brain injury at follow-up 4 months later. These biomarkers were associated with elevations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the presence of autoantibodies to a large number of different antigens. Autoantibodies were commonly seen against lung surfactant proteins but also brain proteins such as myelin associated glycoprotein. Commensurate findings were seen in the influenza cohort. A distinct process characterized by elevation of serum total tau was seen in patients at follow-up, which appeared to be independent of initial disease severity and was not associated with dysregulated immune responses unlike NfL and GFAP. These results demonstrate that brain injury is a common consequence of both COVID-19 and influenza, and is therefore likely to be a feature of severe viral infection more broadly. The brain injury occurs in the context of dysregulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses, with no single pathogenic mechanism clearly responsible.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-pdf/145/11/4097/47170622/awac321.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "33737413", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n628", @@ -37841,6 +37824,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103414; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8176919?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36065116", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321", + "title": "Brain injury in COVID-19 is associated with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses.", + "authorString": "Needham EJ, Ren AL, Digby RJ, Norton EJ, Ebrahimi S, Outtrim JG, Chatfield DA, Manktelow AE, Leibowitz MM, Newcombe VFJ, Doffinger R, Barcenas-Morales G, Fonseca C, Taussig MJ, Burnstein RM, Samanta RJ, Dunai C, Sithole N, Ashton NJ, Zetterberg H, Gissl\u00e9n M, Ed\u00e9n A, Marklund E, Openshaw PJM, Dunning J, Griffiths MJ, Cavanagh J, Breen G, Irani SR, Elmer A, Kingston N, Summers C, Bradley JR, Taams LS, Michael BD, Bullmore ET, Smith KGC, Lyons PA, Coles AJ, Menon DK, Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, CITIID-NIHR COVID-19 BioResource Collaboration, Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Brain : a journal of neurology", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-11-01", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Autoantibodies; Brain injury; neuroinflammation; Covid-19", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "COVID-19 is associated with neurological complications including stroke, delirium and encephalitis. Furthermore, a post-viral syndrome dominated by neuropsychiatric symptoms is common, and is seemingly unrelated to COVID-19 severity. The true frequency and underlying mechanisms of neurological injury are unknown, but exaggerated host inflammatory responses appear to be a key driver of COVID-19 severity. We investigated the dynamics of, and relationship between, serum markers of brain injury [neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and total tau] and markers of dysregulated host response (autoantibody production and cytokine profiles) in 175 patients admitted with COVID-19 and 45 patients with influenza. During hospitalization, sera from patients with COVID-19 demonstrated elevations of NfL and GFAP in a severity-dependent manner, with evidence of ongoing active brain injury at follow-up 4 months later. These biomarkers were associated with elevations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the presence of autoantibodies to a large number of different antigens. Autoantibodies were commonly seen against lung surfactant proteins but also brain proteins such as myelin associated glycoprotein. Commensurate findings were seen in the influenza cohort. A distinct process characterized by elevation of serum total tau was seen in patients at follow-up, which appeared to be independent of initial disease severity and was not associated with dysregulated immune responses unlike NfL and GFAP. These results demonstrate that brain injury is a common consequence of both COVID-19 and influenza, and is therefore likely to be a feature of severe viral infection more broadly. The brain injury occurs in the context of dysregulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses, with no single pathogenic mechanism clearly responsible.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-pdf/145/11/4097/47170622/awac321.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac321; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9494359?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33536631", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01575-z", @@ -37909,23 +37909,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060700; doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060700; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9662821; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9662821?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32207686", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363", - "title": "Characterising a healthy adult with a rare HAO1 knockout to support a therapeutic strategy for primary hyperoxaluria. ", - "authorString": "McGregor TL, Hunt KA, Yee E, Mason D, Nioi P, Ticau S, Pelosi M, Loken PR, Finer S, Lawlor DA, Fauman EB, Huang QQ, Griffiths CJ, MacArthur DG, Trembath RC, Oglesbee D, Lieske JC, Erbe DV, Wright J, van Heel DA.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "eLife", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-03-24", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "metabolic and endocrine", - "abstract": "By sequencing autozygous human populations, we identified a healthy adult woman with lifelong complete knockout of HAO1 (expected ~1 in 30 million outbred people). HAO1 (glycolate oxidase) silencing is the mechanism of lumasiran, an investigational RNA interference therapeutic for primary hyperoxaluria type 1. Her plasma glycolate levels were 12 times, and urinary glycolate 6 times, the upper limit of normal observed in healthy reference individuals (n = 67). Plasma metabolomics and lipidomics (1871 biochemicals) revealed 18 markedly elevated biochemicals (>5 sd outliers versus n = 25 controls) suggesting additional HAO1 effects. Comparison with lumasiran preclinical and clinical trial data suggested she has <2% residual glycolate oxidase activity. Cell line p.Leu333SerfsTer4 expression showed markedly reduced HAO1 protein levels and cellular protein mis-localisation. In this woman, lifelong HAO1 knockout is safe and without clinical phenotype, de-risking a therapeutic approach and informing therapeutic mechanisms. Unlocking evidence from the diversity of human genetic variation can facilitate drug development.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54363; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "32080354", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-020-0165-2", @@ -37944,21 +37927,21 @@ "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41397-020-0165-2.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-020-0165-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674154; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7674154?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "31462703", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z", - "title": "Elevated risk of invasive group A streptococcal disease and host genetic variation in the human leucocyte antigen locus.", - "authorString": "Parks T, Elliott K, Lamagni T, Auckland K, Mentzer AJ, Guy R, Cartledge D, Strakova L, Connor DO, Pollard AJ, Neville MJ, Mahajan A, Ashrafian H, Chapman SJ, Hill AVS, Sriskandan S, Knight JC.", + "id": "32207686", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363", + "title": "Characterising a healthy adult with a rare HAO1 knockout to support a therapeutic strategy for primary hyperoxaluria. ", + "authorString": "McGregor TL, Hunt KA, Yee E, Mason D, Nioi P, Ticau S, Pelosi M, Loken PR, Finer S, Lawlor DA, Fauman EB, Huang QQ, Griffiths CJ, MacArthur DG, Trembath RC, Oglesbee D, Lieske JC, Erbe DV, Wright J, van Heel DA.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Genes and immunity", + "journalTitle": "eLife", "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2019-08-29", + "date": "2020-03-24", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) disease is uncommon but carries a high case-fatality rate relative to other infectious diseases. Given the ubiquity of mild GAS infections, it remains unclear why healthy individuals will occasionally develop life-threatening infections, raising the possibility of host genetic predisposition. Here, we present the results of a case-control study including 43 invasive GAS cases and 1540 controls. Using HLA imputation and linear mixed models, we find each copy of the HLA-DQA1*01:03 allele associates with a twofold increased risk of disease (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.3-4.4, P\u2009=\u20090.009), an association which persists with classical HLA typing of a subset of cases and analysis with an alternative large control dataset with validated HLA data. Moreover, we propose the association is driven by the allele itself rather than the background haplotype. Overall this finding provides impetus for further investigation of the immunogenetic basis of this devastating bacterial disease.", - "laySummary": "This article presents a case-control study to investigate why healthy individuals develop life-threatening infections caused by GAS which is a particularly invasive infectious disease. They conclude that further research into the genetics behind this invasive disease may help bring about much needed progess in the development of treatments and vaccinations for the same.", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-019-0082-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814?pdf=render" + "healthCategories": "metabolic and endocrine", + "abstract": "By sequencing autozygous human populations, we identified a healthy adult woman with lifelong complete knockout of HAO1 (expected ~1 in 30 million outbred people). HAO1 (glycolate oxidase) silencing is the mechanism of lumasiran, an investigational RNA interference therapeutic for primary hyperoxaluria type 1. Her plasma glycolate levels were 12 times, and urinary glycolate 6 times, the upper limit of normal observed in healthy reference individuals (n = 67). Plasma metabolomics and lipidomics (1871 biochemicals) revealed 18 markedly elevated biochemicals (>5 sd outliers versus n = 25 controls) suggesting additional HAO1 effects. Comparison with lumasiran preclinical and clinical trial data suggested she has <2% residual glycolate oxidase activity. Cell line p.Leu333SerfsTer4 expression showed markedly reduced HAO1 protein levels and cellular protein mis-localisation. In this woman, lifelong HAO1 knockout is safe and without clinical phenotype, de-risking a therapeutic approach and informing therapeutic mechanisms. Unlocking evidence from the diversity of human genetic variation can facilitate drug development.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54363; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54363; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7108859?pdf=render" }, { "id": "31491683", @@ -37977,6 +37960,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105279" }, + { + "id": "31462703", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z", + "title": "Elevated risk of invasive group A streptococcal disease and host genetic variation in the human leucocyte antigen locus.", + "authorString": "Parks T, Elliott K, Lamagni T, Auckland K, Mentzer AJ, Guy R, Cartledge D, Strakova L, Connor DO, Pollard AJ, Neville MJ, Mahajan A, Ashrafian H, Chapman SJ, Hill AVS, Sriskandan S, Knight JC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Genes and immunity", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2019-08-29", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Understanding the Causes of Disease", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) disease is uncommon but carries a high case-fatality rate relative to other infectious diseases. Given the ubiquity of mild GAS infections, it remains unclear why healthy individuals will occasionally develop life-threatening infections, raising the possibility of host genetic predisposition. Here, we present the results of a case-control study including 43 invasive GAS cases and 1540 controls. Using HLA imputation and linear mixed models, we find each copy of the HLA-DQA1*01:03 allele associates with a twofold increased risk of disease (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.3-4.4, P\u2009=\u20090.009), an association which persists with classical HLA typing of a subset of cases and analysis with an alternative large control dataset with validated HLA data. Moreover, we propose the association is driven by the allele itself rather than the background haplotype. Overall this finding provides impetus for further investigation of the immunogenetic basis of this devastating bacterial disease.", + "laySummary": "This article presents a case-control study to investigate why healthy individuals develop life-threatening infections caused by GAS which is a particularly invasive infectious disease. They conclude that further research into the genetics behind this invasive disease may help bring about much needed progess in the development of treatments and vaccinations for the same.", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-019-0082-z.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0082-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7039814?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "32814572", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01712-9", @@ -38198,23 +38198,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-01852-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01852-x; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8888652; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8888652?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "32334655", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5", - "title": "Health sector spending and spending on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and development assistance for health: progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.", - "authorString": "Global Burden of Disease Health Financing Collaborator Network.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", - "pubYear": "2020", - "date": "2020-04-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "Better Care", - "healthCategories": "infection", - "abstract": "

Background

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 aims to \"ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages\". While a substantial effort has been made to quantify progress towards SDG3, less research has focused on tracking spending towards this goal. We used spending estimates to measure progress in financing the priority areas of SDG3, examine the association between outcomes and financing, and identify where resource gains are most needed to achieve the SDG3 indicators for which data are available.

Methods

We estimated domestic health spending, disaggregated by source (government, out-of-pocket, and prepaid private) from 1995 to 2017 for 195 countries and territories. For disease-specific health spending, we estimated spending for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis for 135 low-income and middle-income countries, and malaria in 106 malaria-endemic countries, from 2000 to 2017. We also estimated development assistance for health (DAH) from 1990 to 2019, by source, disbursing development agency, recipient, and health focus area, including DAH for pandemic preparedness. Finally, we estimated future health spending for 195 countries and territories from 2018 until 2030. We report all spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2019 US$, unless otherwise stated.

Findings

Since the development and implementation of the SDGs in 2015, global health spending has increased, reaching $7\u00b79 trillion (95% uncertainty interval 7\u00b78-8\u00b70) in 2017 and is expected to increase to $11\u00b70 trillion (10\u00b77-11\u00b72) by 2030. In 2017, in low-income and middle-income countries spending on HIV/AIDS was $20\u00b72 billion (17\u00b70-25\u00b70) and on tuberculosis it was $10\u00b79 billion (10\u00b73-11\u00b78), and in malaria-endemic countries spending on malaria was $5\u00b71 billion (4\u00b79-5\u00b74). Development assistance for health was $40\u00b76 billion in 2019 and HIV/AIDS has been the health focus area to receive the highest contribution since 2004. In 2019, $374 million of DAH was provided for pandemic preparedness, less than 1% of DAH. Although spending has increased across HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria since 2015, spending has not increased in all countries, and outcomes in terms of prevalence, incidence, and per-capita spending have been mixed. The proportion of health spending from pooled sources is expected to increase from 81\u00b76% (81\u00b76-81\u00b77) in 2015 to 83\u00b71% (82\u00b78-83\u00b73) in 2030.

Interpretation

Health spending on SDG3 priority areas has increased, but not in all countries, and progress towards meeting the SDG3 targets has been mixed and has varied by country and by target. The evidence on the scale-up of spending and improvements in health outcomes suggest a nuanced relationship, such that increases in spending do not always results in improvements in outcomes. Although countries will probably need more resources to achieve SDG3, other constraints in the broader health system such as inefficient allocation of resources across interventions and populations, weak governance systems, human resource shortages, and drug shortages, will also need to be addressed.

Funding

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30608-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7180045" - }, { "id": "33990564", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22752-6", @@ -38232,6 +38215,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22752-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22752-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8121846; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8121846?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "32334655", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5", + "title": "Health sector spending and spending on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and development assistance for health: progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.", + "authorString": "Global Burden of Disease Health Financing Collaborator Network.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Lancet (London, England)", + "pubYear": "2020", + "date": "2020-04-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "Better Care", + "healthCategories": "infection", + "abstract": "

Background

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 aims to \"ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages\". While a substantial effort has been made to quantify progress towards SDG3, less research has focused on tracking spending towards this goal. We used spending estimates to measure progress in financing the priority areas of SDG3, examine the association between outcomes and financing, and identify where resource gains are most needed to achieve the SDG3 indicators for which data are available.

Methods

We estimated domestic health spending, disaggregated by source (government, out-of-pocket, and prepaid private) from 1995 to 2017 for 195 countries and territories. For disease-specific health spending, we estimated spending for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis for 135 low-income and middle-income countries, and malaria in 106 malaria-endemic countries, from 2000 to 2017. We also estimated development assistance for health (DAH) from 1990 to 2019, by source, disbursing development agency, recipient, and health focus area, including DAH for pandemic preparedness. Finally, we estimated future health spending for 195 countries and territories from 2018 until 2030. We report all spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2019 US$, unless otherwise stated.

Findings

Since the development and implementation of the SDGs in 2015, global health spending has increased, reaching $7\u00b79 trillion (95% uncertainty interval 7\u00b78-8\u00b70) in 2017 and is expected to increase to $11\u00b70 trillion (10\u00b77-11\u00b72) by 2030. In 2017, in low-income and middle-income countries spending on HIV/AIDS was $20\u00b72 billion (17\u00b70-25\u00b70) and on tuberculosis it was $10\u00b79 billion (10\u00b73-11\u00b78), and in malaria-endemic countries spending on malaria was $5\u00b71 billion (4\u00b79-5\u00b74). Development assistance for health was $40\u00b76 billion in 2019 and HIV/AIDS has been the health focus area to receive the highest contribution since 2004. In 2019, $374 million of DAH was provided for pandemic preparedness, less than 1% of DAH. Although spending has increased across HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria since 2015, spending has not increased in all countries, and outcomes in terms of prevalence, incidence, and per-capita spending have been mixed. The proportion of health spending from pooled sources is expected to increase from 81\u00b76% (81\u00b76-81\u00b77) in 2015 to 83\u00b71% (82\u00b78-83\u00b73) in 2030.

Interpretation

Health spending on SDG3 priority areas has increased, but not in all countries, and progress towards meeting the SDG3 targets has been mixed and has varied by country and by target. The evidence on the scale-up of spending and improvements in health outcomes suggest a nuanced relationship, such that increases in spending do not always results in improvements in outcomes. Although countries will probably need more resources to achieve SDG3, other constraints in the broader health system such as inefficient allocation of resources across interventions and populations, weak governance systems, human resource shortages, and drug shortages, will also need to be addressed.

Funding

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30608-5; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30608-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7180045" + }, { "id": "35403197", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac055", @@ -38310,13 +38310,30 @@ "pubYear": "2020", "date": "2020-04-23", "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Cohorts; epidemiology; data management; Data Repository; Data Access; Data Platform", + "keywords": "Cohorts; epidemiology; data management; Data Access; Data Repository; Data Platform", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", "abstract": "The Dementias Platform UK Data Portal is a data repository facilitating access to data for 3 370 929 individuals in 42 cohorts. The Data Portal is an end-to-end data management solution providing a secure, fully auditable, remote access environment for the analysis of cohort data. All projects utilising the data are by default collaborations with the cohort research teams generating the data. The Data Portal uses UK Secure eResearch Platform infrastructure to provide three core utilities: data discovery, access, and analysis. These are delivered using a 7 layered architecture comprising: data ingestion, data curation, platform interoperability, data discovery, access brokerage, data analysis and knowledge preservation. Automated, streamlined, and standardised procedures reduce the administrative burden for all stakeholders, particularly for requests involving multiple independent datasets, where a single request may be forwarded to multiple data controllers. Researchers are provided with their own secure 'lab' using VMware which is accessed using two factor authentication. Over the last 2\u00a0years, 160 project proposals involving 579 individual cohort data access requests were received. These were received from 268 applicants spanning 72 institutions (56 academic, 13 commercial, 3 government) in 16 countries with 84 requests involving multiple cohorts. Projects are varied including multi-modal, machine learning, and Mendelian randomisation analyses. Data access is usually free at point of use although a small number of cohorts require a data access fee.", "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00633-4; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320955; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7320955?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "36693378", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002", + "title": "Loci for insulin processing and secretion provide insight into type 2 diabetes risk.", + "authorString": "Broadaway KA, Yin X, Williamson A, Parsons VA, Wilson EP, Moxley AH, Vadlamudi S, Varshney A, Jackson AU, Ahuja V, Bornstein SR, Corbin LJ, Delgado GE, Dwivedi OP, Fernandes Silva L, Frayling TM, Grallert H, Gustafsson S, Hakaste L, Hammar U, Herder C, Herrmann S, H\u00f8jlund K, Hughes DA, Kleber ME, Lindgren CM, Liu CT, Luan J, Malmberg A, Moissl AP, Morris AP, Perakakis N, Peters A, Petrie JR, Roden M, Schwarz PEH, Sharma S, Silveira A, Strawbridge RJ, Tuomi T, Wood AR, Wu P, Zethelius B, Baldassarre D, Eriksson JG, Fall T, Florez JC, Fritsche A, Gigante B, Hamsten A, Kajantie E, Laakso M, Lahti J, Lawlor DA, Lind L, M\u00e4rz W, Meigs JB, Sundstr\u00f6m J, Timpson NJ, Wagner R, Walker M, Wareham NJ, Watkins H, Barroso I, O'Rahilly S, Grarup N, Parker SC, Boehnke M, Langenberg C, Wheeler E, Mohlke KL.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "American journal of human genetics", + "pubYear": "2023", + "date": "2023-01-23", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Enhancer; Signal; Meta-analysis; Type 2 diabetes; colocalization; proinsulin; Gwas; Eqtl; Fine-mapping; Conditional", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Insulin secretion is critical for glucose homeostasis, and increased levels of the precursor proinsulin relative to insulin indicate pancreatic islet beta-cell stress and insufficient insulin secretory capacity in the setting of insulin resistance. We conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association results for fasting proinsulin from 16 European-ancestry studies in 45,861 individuals. We found 36 independent signals at 30 loci (p value\u00a0<\u00a05\u00a0\u00d7\u00a010-8), which validated 12 previously reported loci for proinsulin and ten additional loci previously identified for another glycemic trait. Half of the alleles associated with higher proinsulin showed higher rather than lower effects on glucose levels, corresponding to different mechanisms. Proinsulin loci included genes that affect prohormone convertases, beta-cell dysfunction, vesicle trafficking, beta-cell transcriptional regulation, and lysosomes/autophagy processes. We colocalized 11 proinsulin signals with islet expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data, suggesting candidate genes, including ARSG, WIPI1, SLC7A14, and SIX3. The NKX6-3/ANK1 proinsulin signal colocalized with a T2D signal and an adipose ANK1 eQTL signal but not the islet NKX6-3 eQTL. Signals were enriched for islet enhancers, and we showed a plausible islet regulatory mechanism for the lead signal in the MADD locus. These results show how detailed genetic studies of an intermediate phenotype can elucidate mechanisms that may predispose one to disease.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35104837", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04474-x", @@ -38351,23 +38368,6 @@ "laySummary": "This study looked at whether there is a link between gestational length of a child (the length of time of pregnancy) and the likelihood of permanent hearing impairment. The authors looked at data from over 19000 children from a study called the Millenium Cohort Study. They found that shorter gestational length did not increase the likelihood of childhood permanent hearting impairment. However, they found that children who had neonatal illness (illness in the immediate days after birth), if they were Bangladeshi or Pakistani in ethnicity, or if they were born to younger mothers.", "urls": "pdf:https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/105/2/187.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-315866; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7025723; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7025723?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "36693378", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002", - "title": "Loci for insulin processing and secretion provide insight into type 2 diabetes risk.", - "authorString": "Broadaway KA, Yin X, Williamson A, Parsons VA, Wilson EP, Moxley AH, Vadlamudi S, Varshney A, Jackson AU, Ahuja V, Bornstein SR, Corbin LJ, Delgado GE, Dwivedi OP, Fernandes Silva L, Frayling TM, Grallert H, Gustafsson S, Hakaste L, Hammar U, Herder C, Herrmann S, H\u00f8jlund K, Hughes DA, Kleber ME, Lindgren CM, Liu CT, Luan J, Malmberg A, Moissl AP, Morris AP, Perakakis N, Peters A, Petrie JR, Roden M, Schwarz PEH, Sharma S, Silveira A, Strawbridge RJ, Tuomi T, Wood AR, Wu P, Zethelius B, Baldassarre D, Eriksson JG, Fall T, Florez JC, Fritsche A, Gigante B, Hamsten A, Kajantie E, Laakso M, Lahti J, Lawlor DA, Lind L, M\u00e4rz W, Meigs JB, Sundstr\u00f6m J, Timpson NJ, Wagner R, Walker M, Wareham NJ, Watkins H, Barroso I, O'Rahilly S, Grarup N, Parker SC, Boehnke M, Langenberg C, Wheeler E, Mohlke KL.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "American journal of human genetics", - "pubYear": "2023", - "date": "2023-01-23", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Enhancer; Signal; Meta-analysis; Type 2 diabetes; colocalization; proinsulin; Gwas; Eqtl; Fine-mapping; Conditional", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Insulin secretion is critical for glucose homeostasis, and increased levels of the precursor proinsulin relative to insulin indicate pancreatic islet beta-cell stress and insufficient insulin secretory capacity in the setting of insulin resistance. We conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association results for fasting proinsulin from 16 European-ancestry studies in 45,861 individuals. We found 36 independent signals at 30 loci (p value\u00a0<\u00a05\u00a0\u00d7\u00a010-8), which validated 12 previously reported loci for proinsulin and ten additional loci previously identified for another glycemic trait. Half of the alleles associated with higher proinsulin showed higher rather than lower effects on glucose levels, corresponding to different mechanisms. Proinsulin loci included genes that affect prohormone convertases, beta-cell dysfunction, vesicle trafficking, beta-cell transcriptional regulation, and lysosomes/autophagy processes. We colocalized 11 proinsulin signals with islet expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data, suggesting candidate genes, including ARSG, WIPI1, SLC7A14, and SIX3. The NKX6-3/ANK1 proinsulin signal colocalized with a T2D signal and an adipose ANK1 eQTL signal but not the islet NKX6-3 eQTL. Signals were enriched for islet enhancers, and we showed a plausible islet regulatory mechanism for the lead signal in the MADD locus. These results show how detailed genetic studies of an intermediate phenotype can elucidate mechanisms that may predispose one to disease.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.002; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9943750?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34864818", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01736-6", @@ -38572,23 +38572,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30264-3; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30264-3; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7295519" }, - { - "id": "35023833", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802", - "title": "Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction.", - "authorString": "Gadd DA, Hillary RF, McCartney DL, Zaghlool SB, Stevenson AJ, Cheng Y, Fawns-Ritchie C, Nangle C, Campbell A, Flaig R, Harris SE, Walker RM, Shi L, Tucker-Drob EM, Gieger C, Peters A, Waldenberger M, Graumann J, McRae AF, Deary IJ, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Visscher PM, Cox SR, Evans KL, McIntosh AM, Suhre K, Marioni RE.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "eLife", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-01-13", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "Human; Prediction; Aging; Genetics; Proteomics; Genomics; Biomarker; epidemiology; Global Health; Epigenetic; Morbiditiy", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Protein biomarkers have been identified across many age-related morbidities. However, characterising epigenetic influences could further inform disease predictions. Here, we leverage epigenome-wide data to study links between the DNA methylation (DNAm) signatures of the circulating proteome and incident diseases. Using data from four cohorts, we trained and tested epigenetic scores (EpiScores) for 953 plasma proteins, identifying 109 scores that explained between 1% and 58% of the variance in protein levels after adjusting for known protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) genetic effects. By projecting these EpiScores into an independent sample (Generation Scotland; n = 9537) and relating them to incident morbidities over a follow-up of 14 years, we uncovered 137 EpiScore-disease associations. These associations were largely independent of immune cell proportions, common lifestyle and health factors, and biological aging. Notably, we found that our diabetes-associated EpiScores highlighted previous top biomarker associations from proteome-wide assessments of diabetes. These EpiScores for protein levels can therefore be a valuable resource for disease prediction and risk stratification.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71802; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "34582791", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007", @@ -38606,6 +38589,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929721003062/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8546043; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8546043?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007" }, + { + "id": "35023833", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802", + "title": "Epigenetic scores for the circulating proteome as tools for disease prediction.", + "authorString": "Gadd DA, Hillary RF, McCartney DL, Zaghlool SB, Stevenson AJ, Cheng Y, Fawns-Ritchie C, Nangle C, Campbell A, Flaig R, Harris SE, Walker RM, Shi L, Tucker-Drob EM, Gieger C, Peters A, Waldenberger M, Graumann J, McRae AF, Deary IJ, Porteous DJ, Hayward C, Visscher PM, Cox SR, Evans KL, McIntosh AM, Suhre K, Marioni RE.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "eLife", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-01-13", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "Human; Prediction; Aging; Genetics; Proteomics; Genomics; Biomarker; epidemiology; Global Health; Epigenetic; Morbiditiy", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "Protein biomarkers have been identified across many age-related morbidities. However, characterising epigenetic influences could further inform disease predictions. Here, we leverage epigenome-wide data to study links between the DNA methylation (DNAm) signatures of the circulating proteome and incident diseases. Using data from four cohorts, we trained and tested epigenetic scores (EpiScores) for 953 plasma proteins, identifying 109 scores that explained between 1% and 58% of the variance in protein levels after adjusting for known protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) genetic effects. By projecting these EpiScores into an independent sample (Generation Scotland; n = 9537) and relating them to incident morbidities over a follow-up of 14 years, we uncovered 137 EpiScore-disease associations. These associations were largely independent of immune cell proportions, common lifestyle and health factors, and biological aging. Notably, we found that our diabetes-associated EpiScores highlighted previous top biomarker associations from proteome-wide assessments of diabetes. These EpiScores for protein levels can therefore be a valuable resource for disease prediction and risk stratification.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.71802; doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71802; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8880990?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "35202437", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264341", @@ -38640,6 +38640,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc7611259?pdf=render; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00762-2; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611259; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7611259?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34773122", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x", + "title": "Author Correction: A genome-wide association study with 1,126,563 individuals identifies new risk loci for Alzheimer's disease.", + "authorString": "Wightman DP, Jansen IE, Savage JE, Shadrin AA, Bahrami S, Holland D, Rongve A, B\u00f8rte S, Winsvold BS, Drange OK, Martinsen AE, Skogholt AH, Willer C, Br\u00e5then G, Bosnes I, Nielsen JB, Fritsche LG, Thomas LF, Pedersen LM, Gabrielsen ME, Johnsen MB, Meisingset TW, Zhou W, Proitsi P, Hodges A, Dobson R, Velayudhan L, Heilbron K, Auton A, 23andMe Research Team, Sealock JM, Davis LK, Pedersen NL, Reynolds CA, Karlsson IK, Magnusson S, Stefansson H, Thordardottir S, Jonsson PV, Snaedal J, Zettergren A, Skoog I, Kern S, Waern M, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Stordal E, Hveem K, Zwart JA, Athanasiu L, Selnes P, Saltvedt I, Sando SB, Ulstein I, Djurovic S, Fladby T, Aarsland D, Selb\u00e6k G, Ripke S, Stefansson K, Andreassen OA, Posthuma D.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-12-01", + "isOpenAccess": "N", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00977-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x" + }, { "id": "33349334", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58242", @@ -38674,23 +38691,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/erjor/7/2/00049-2021.full.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00049-2021; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8107350; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8107350?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34773122", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x", - "title": "Author Correction: A genome-wide association study with 1,126,563 individuals identifies new risk loci for Alzheimer's disease.", - "authorString": "Wightman DP, Jansen IE, Savage JE, Shadrin AA, Bahrami S, Holland D, Rongve A, B\u00f8rte S, Winsvold BS, Drange OK, Martinsen AE, Skogholt AH, Willer C, Br\u00e5then G, Bosnes I, Nielsen JB, Fritsche LG, Thomas LF, Pedersen LM, Gabrielsen ME, Johnsen MB, Meisingset TW, Zhou W, Proitsi P, Hodges A, Dobson R, Velayudhan L, Heilbron K, Auton A, 23andMe Research Team, Sealock JM, Davis LK, Pedersen NL, Reynolds CA, Karlsson IK, Magnusson S, Stefansson H, Thordardottir S, Jonsson PV, Snaedal J, Zettergren A, Skoog I, Kern S, Waern M, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Stordal E, Hveem K, Zwart JA, Athanasiu L, Selnes P, Saltvedt I, Sando SB, Ulstein I, Djurovic S, Fladby T, Aarsland D, Selb\u00e6k G, Ripke S, Stefansson K, Andreassen OA, Posthuma D.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-12-01", - "isOpenAccess": "N", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00977-x.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00977-x" - }, { "id": "32573913", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12106", @@ -38726,38 +38726,38 @@ "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100029; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8774288; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8774288?pdf=render" }, { - "id": "34083753", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6", - "title": "Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000-2018.", - "authorString": "Bhattacharjee NV, Schaeffer LE, Hay SI, Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators.", + "id": "34661663", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639", + "title": "Association Between Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors and the Risk of Hospitalization or Death Among Patients With Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease and COVID-19.", + "authorString": "Izadi Z, Brenner EJ, Mahil SK, Dand N, Yiu ZZN, Yates M, Ungaro RC, Zhang X, Agrawal M, Colombel JF, Gianfrancesco MA, Hyrich KL, Strangfeld A, Carmona L, Mateus EF, Lawson-Tovey S, Klingberg E, Cuomo G, Caprioli M, Cruz-Machado AR, Mazeda Pereira AC, Hasseli R, Pfeil A, Lorenz HM, Hoyer BF, Trupin L, Rush S, Katz P, Schmajuk G, Jacobsohn L, Seet AM, Al Emadi S, Wise L, Gilbert EL, Duarte-Garc\u00eda A, Valenzuela-Almada MO, Isnardi CA, Quintana R, Soriano ER, Hsu TY, D'Silva KM, Sparks JA, Patel NJ, Xavier RM, Marques CDL, Kakehasi AM, Flipo RM, Claudepierre P, Cantagrel A, Goupille P, Wallace ZS, Bhana S, Costello W, Grainger R, Hausmann JS, Liew JW, Sirotich E, Sufka P, Robinson PC, Machado PM, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Yazdany J, Kappelman MD, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Allianc, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA).", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature human behaviour", + "journalTitle": "JAMA network open", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-06-03", + "date": "2021-10-01", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)-giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6\u2009months of life-is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization's Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of \u226570% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of \u226570% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.", + "abstract": "

Importance

Although tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors are widely prescribed globally because of their ability to ameliorate shared immune pathways across immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), the impact of COVID-19 among individuals with IMIDs who are receiving TNF inhibitors remains insufficiently understood.

Objective

To examine the association between the receipt of TNF inhibitor monotherapy and the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among adult patients with IMIDs.

Design, setting, and participants

This cohort study was a pooled analysis of data from 3 international COVID-19 registries comprising individuals with rheumatic diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis from March 12, 2020, to February 1, 2021. Clinicians directly reported COVID-19 outcomes as well as demographic and clinical characteristics of individuals with IMIDs and confirmed or suspected COVID-19 using online data entry portals. Adults (age \u226518 years) with a diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, or psoriasis were included.

Exposures

Treatment exposure categories included TNF inhibitor monotherapy (reference treatment), TNF inhibitors in combination with methotrexate therapy, TNF inhibitors in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy, methotrexate monotherapy, azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy, and Janus kinase (Jak) inhibitor monotherapy.

Main outcomes and measures

The main outcome was COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death. Registry-level analyses and a pooled analysis of data across the 3 registries were conducted using multilevel multivariable logistic regression models, adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics and accounting for country, calendar month, and registry-level correlations.

Results

A total of 6077 patients from 74 countries were included in the analyses; of those, 3215 individuals (52.9%) were from Europe, 3563 individuals (58.6%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 48.8 (16.5) years. The most common IMID diagnoses were rheumatoid arthritis (2146 patients [35.3%]) and Crohn disease (1537 patients [25.3%]). A total of 1297 patients (21.3%) were hospitalized, and 189 patients (3.1%) died. In the pooled analysis, compared with patients who received TNF inhibitor monotherapy, higher odds of hospitalization or death were observed among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy (odds ratio [OR], 1.74; 95% CI, 1.17-2.58; P\u2009=\u2009.006), azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy (OR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.30-2.61; P\u2009=\u2009.001), methotrexate monotherapy (OR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.57-2.56; P\u2009<\u2009.001), and Jak inhibitor monotherapy (OR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.21-2.73; P\u2009=\u2009.004) but not among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with methotrexate therapy (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.85-1.63; P\u2009=\u2009.33). Similar findings were obtained in analyses that accounted for potential reporting bias and sensitivity analyses that excluded patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis based on symptoms alone.

Conclusions and relevance

In this cohort study, TNF inhibitor monotherapy was associated with a lower risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among individuals with IMIDs.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01108-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614?pdf=render" + "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524310; pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2785080/izadi_2021_oi_210864_1633624160.94853.pdf" }, { - "id": "34661663", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639", - "title": "Association Between Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors and the Risk of Hospitalization or Death Among Patients With Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease and COVID-19.", - "authorString": "Izadi Z, Brenner EJ, Mahil SK, Dand N, Yiu ZZN, Yates M, Ungaro RC, Zhang X, Agrawal M, Colombel JF, Gianfrancesco MA, Hyrich KL, Strangfeld A, Carmona L, Mateus EF, Lawson-Tovey S, Klingberg E, Cuomo G, Caprioli M, Cruz-Machado AR, Mazeda Pereira AC, Hasseli R, Pfeil A, Lorenz HM, Hoyer BF, Trupin L, Rush S, Katz P, Schmajuk G, Jacobsohn L, Seet AM, Al Emadi S, Wise L, Gilbert EL, Duarte-Garc\u00eda A, Valenzuela-Almada MO, Isnardi CA, Quintana R, Soriano ER, Hsu TY, D'Silva KM, Sparks JA, Patel NJ, Xavier RM, Marques CDL, Kakehasi AM, Flipo RM, Claudepierre P, Cantagrel A, Goupille P, Wallace ZS, Bhana S, Costello W, Grainger R, Hausmann JS, Liew JW, Sirotich E, Sufka P, Robinson PC, Machado PM, Griffiths CEM, Barker JN, Smith CH, Yazdany J, Kappelman MD, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Allianc, Psoriasis Patient Registry for Outcomes, Therapy and Epidemiology of COVID-19 Infection (PsoProtect); the Secure Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD); and the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA).", + "id": "34083753", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6", + "title": "Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000-2018.", + "authorString": "Bhattacharjee NV, Schaeffer LE, Hay SI, Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators.", "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "JAMA network open", + "journalTitle": "Nature human behaviour", "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-10-01", + "date": "2021-06-03", "isOpenAccess": "Y", "keywords": "", "nationalPriorities": "", "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Importance

Although tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors are widely prescribed globally because of their ability to ameliorate shared immune pathways across immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), the impact of COVID-19 among individuals with IMIDs who are receiving TNF inhibitors remains insufficiently understood.

Objective

To examine the association between the receipt of TNF inhibitor monotherapy and the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among adult patients with IMIDs.

Design, setting, and participants

This cohort study was a pooled analysis of data from 3 international COVID-19 registries comprising individuals with rheumatic diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis from March 12, 2020, to February 1, 2021. Clinicians directly reported COVID-19 outcomes as well as demographic and clinical characteristics of individuals with IMIDs and confirmed or suspected COVID-19 using online data entry portals. Adults (age \u226518 years) with a diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, or psoriasis were included.

Exposures

Treatment exposure categories included TNF inhibitor monotherapy (reference treatment), TNF inhibitors in combination with methotrexate therapy, TNF inhibitors in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy, methotrexate monotherapy, azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy, and Janus kinase (Jak) inhibitor monotherapy.

Main outcomes and measures

The main outcome was COVID-19-associated hospitalization or death. Registry-level analyses and a pooled analysis of data across the 3 registries were conducted using multilevel multivariable logistic regression models, adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics and accounting for country, calendar month, and registry-level correlations.

Results

A total of 6077 patients from 74 countries were included in the analyses; of those, 3215 individuals (52.9%) were from Europe, 3563 individuals (58.6%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 48.8 (16.5) years. The most common IMID diagnoses were rheumatoid arthritis (2146 patients [35.3%]) and Crohn disease (1537 patients [25.3%]). A total of 1297 patients (21.3%) were hospitalized, and 189 patients (3.1%) died. In the pooled analysis, compared with patients who received TNF inhibitor monotherapy, higher odds of hospitalization or death were observed among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine therapy (odds ratio [OR], 1.74; 95% CI, 1.17-2.58; P\u2009=\u2009.006), azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine monotherapy (OR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.30-2.61; P\u2009=\u2009.001), methotrexate monotherapy (OR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.57-2.56; P\u2009<\u2009.001), and Jak inhibitor monotherapy (OR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.21-2.73; P\u2009=\u2009.004) but not among those who received a TNF inhibitor in combination with methotrexate therapy (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.85-1.63; P\u2009=\u2009.33). Similar findings were obtained in analyses that accounted for potential reporting bias and sensitivity analyses that excluded patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis based on symptoms alone.

Conclusions and relevance

In this cohort study, TNF inhibitor monotherapy was associated with a lower risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes compared with other commonly prescribed immunomodulatory treatment regimens among individuals with IMIDs.", + "abstract": "Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)-giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6\u2009months of life-is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization's Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of \u226570% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of \u226570% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.", "laySummary": "", - "urls": "doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29639; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8524310; pdf:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/2785080/izadi_2021_oi_210864_1633624160.94853.pdf" + "urls": "pdf:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01108-6.pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01108-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8373614?pdf=render" }, { "id": "32888493", @@ -39473,23 +39473,6 @@ "laySummary": "This study performs some genetic meta-analysis across large-scale european-descent studies which include over 72,000 individulas. The results of the analyses identify certain characteristics of the genes which increase the risk of hypothyroidism (insufficient production of thyroid hormone) and decrease the risk of thyroid cancer and a range of cancerous conditions. The findings expand current knowlege on these associations between the genes and their impact on diseases.", "urls": "pdf:http://www.cell.com/article/S0002929720300483/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.02.006; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7058826; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7058826?pdf=render" }, - { - "id": "34127860", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5", - "title": "Fine-mapping, trans-ancestral and genomic analyses identify causal variants, cells, genes and drug targets for type 1 diabetes.", - "authorString": "Robertson CC, Inshaw JRJ, Onengut-Gumuscu S, Chen WM, Santa Cruz DF, Yang H, Cutler AJ, Crouch DJM, Farber E, Bridges SL, Edberg JC, Kimberly RP, Buckner JH, Deloukas P, Divers J, Dabelea D, Lawrence JM, Marcovina S, Shah AS, Greenbaum CJ, Atkinson MA, Gregersen PK, Oksenberg JR, Pociot F, Rewers MJ, Steck AK, Dunger DB, Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, Wicker LS, Concannon P, Todd JA, Rich SS.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", - "pubYear": "2021", - "date": "2021-06-14", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "We report the largest and most diverse genetic study of type 1 diabetes (T1D) to date (61,427 participants), yielding 78 genome-wide-significant (P\u2009<\u20095\u2009\u00d7\u200910-8) regions, including 36 that are new. We define credible sets of T1D-associated variants and show that they are enriched in immune-cell accessible chromatin, particularly CD4+ effector T cells. Using chromatin-accessibility profiling of CD4+ T cells from 115 individuals, we map chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci and identify five regions where T1D risk variants co-localize with chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci. We highlight rs72928038 in BACH2 as a candidate causal T1D variant leading to decreased enhancer accessibility and BACH2 expression in T cells. Finally, we prioritize potential drug targets by integrating genetic evidence, functional genomic maps and immune protein-protein interactions, identifying 12 genes implicated in T1D that have been targeted in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases. These findings provide an expanded genomic landscape for T1D.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8273124; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "35385311", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl6579", @@ -39507,6 +39490,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12581&context=open_access_pubs; doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl6579; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986098; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8986098?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "34127860", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5", + "title": "Fine-mapping, trans-ancestral and genomic analyses identify causal variants, cells, genes and drug targets for type 1 diabetes.", + "authorString": "Robertson CC, Inshaw JRJ, Onengut-Gumuscu S, Chen WM, Santa Cruz DF, Yang H, Cutler AJ, Crouch DJM, Farber E, Bridges SL, Edberg JC, Kimberly RP, Buckner JH, Deloukas P, Divers J, Dabelea D, Lawrence JM, Marcovina S, Shah AS, Greenbaum CJ, Atkinson MA, Gregersen PK, Oksenberg JR, Pociot F, Rewers MJ, Steck AK, Dunger DB, Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, Wicker LS, Concannon P, Todd JA, Rich SS.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "Nature genetics", + "pubYear": "2021", + "date": "2021-06-14", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "We report the largest and most diverse genetic study of type 1 diabetes (T1D) to date (61,427 participants), yielding 78 genome-wide-significant (P\u2009<\u20095\u2009\u00d7\u200910-8) regions, including 36 that are new. We define credible sets of T1D-associated variants and show that they are enriched in immune-cell accessible chromatin, particularly CD4+ effector T cells. Using chromatin-accessibility profiling of CD4+ T cells from 115 individuals, we map chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci and identify five regions where T1D risk variants co-localize with chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci. We highlight rs72928038 in BACH2 as a candidate causal T1D variant leading to decreased enhancer accessibility and BACH2 expression in T cells. Finally, we prioritize potential drug targets by integrating genetic evidence, functional genomic maps and immune protein-protein interactions, identifying 12 genes implicated in T1D that have been targeted in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases. These findings provide an expanded genomic landscape for T1D.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "html:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8273124; doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00880-5; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8273124?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "33230300", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00713-x", @@ -39592,23 +39592,6 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:http://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140673620309776/pdf; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30977-6; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7566045" }, - { - "id": "35984822", - "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807", - "title": "Genetically predicted cortisol levels and risk of venous thromboembolism.", - "authorString": "Allara E, Lee WH, Burgess S, INVENT consortium, Larsson SC.", - "authorAffiliations": "", - "journalTitle": "PloS one", - "pubYear": "2022", - "date": "2022-08-19", - "isOpenAccess": "Y", - "keywords": "", - "nationalPriorities": "", - "healthCategories": "", - "abstract": "

Introduction

In observational studies, venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been associated with Cushing's syndrome and with persistent mental stress, two conditions associated with higher cortisol levels. However, it remains unknown whether high cortisol levels within the usual range are causally associated with VTE risk. We aimed to assess the association between plasma cortisol levels and VTE risk using Mendelian randomization.

Methods

Three genetic variants in the SERPINA1/SERPINA6 locus (rs12589136, rs11621961 and rs2749527) were used to proxy plasma cortisol. The associations of the cortisol-associated genetic variants with VTE were acquired from the INVENT (28 907 cases and 157 243 non-cases) and FinnGen (6913 cases and 169 986 non-cases) consortia. Corresponding data for VTE subtypes were available from the FinnGen consortium and UK Biobank. Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses (inverse-variance weighted method) were performed.

Results

Genetic predisposition to higher plasma cortisol levels was associated with a reduced risk of VTE (odds ratio [OR] per one standard deviation increment 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62-0.87, p<0.001). The association was stronger for deep vein thrombosis (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.55-0.88, p = 0.003) than for pulmonary embolism which did not achieve statistical significance (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.63-1.09, p = 0.184). Adjusting for genetically predicted systolic blood pressure inverted the direction of the point estimate for VTE, although the resulting CI was wide (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.70-1.61, p = 0.780).

Conclusions

This study provides evidence that genetically predicted plasma cortisol levels in the high end of the normal range are associated with a decreased risk of VTE and that this association may be mediated by blood pressure. This study has implications for the planning of observational studies of cortisol and VTE, suggesting that blood pressure traits should be measured and accounted for.", - "laySummary": "", - "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272807&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895?pdf=render" - }, { "id": "31664920", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-019-1187-z", @@ -39626,6 +39609,23 @@ "laySummary": "", "urls": "pdf:https://bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12872-019-1187-z; doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-019-1187-z; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6820948; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6820948?pdf=render" }, + { + "id": "35984822", + "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807", + "title": "Genetically predicted cortisol levels and risk of venous thromboembolism.", + "authorString": "Allara E, Lee WH, Burgess S, INVENT consortium, Larsson SC.", + "authorAffiliations": "", + "journalTitle": "PloS one", + "pubYear": "2022", + "date": "2022-08-19", + "isOpenAccess": "Y", + "keywords": "", + "nationalPriorities": "", + "healthCategories": "", + "abstract": "

Introduction

In observational studies, venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been associated with Cushing's syndrome and with persistent mental stress, two conditions associated with higher cortisol levels. However, it remains unknown whether high cortisol levels within the usual range are causally associated with VTE risk. We aimed to assess the association between plasma cortisol levels and VTE risk using Mendelian randomization.

Methods

Three genetic variants in the SERPINA1/SERPINA6 locus (rs12589136, rs11621961 and rs2749527) were used to proxy plasma cortisol. The associations of the cortisol-associated genetic variants with VTE were acquired from the INVENT (28 907 cases and 157 243 non-cases) and FinnGen (6913 cases and 169 986 non-cases) consortia. Corresponding data for VTE subtypes were available from the FinnGen consortium and UK Biobank. Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses (inverse-variance weighted method) were performed.

Results

Genetic predisposition to higher plasma cortisol levels was associated with a reduced risk of VTE (odds ratio [OR] per one standard deviation increment 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62-0.87, p<0.001). The association was stronger for deep vein thrombosis (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.55-0.88, p = 0.003) than for pulmonary embolism which did not achieve statistical significance (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.63-1.09, p = 0.184). Adjusting for genetically predicted systolic blood pressure inverted the direction of the point estimate for VTE, although the resulting CI was wide (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.70-1.61, p = 0.780).

Conclusions

This study provides evidence that genetically predicted plasma cortisol levels in the high end of the normal range are associated with a decreased risk of VTE and that this association may be mediated by blood pressure. This study has implications for the planning of observational studies of cortisol and VTE, suggesting that blood pressure traits should be measured and accounted for.", + "laySummary": "", + "urls": "pdf:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272807&type=printable; doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272807; html:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895; pdf:https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9390895?pdf=render" + }, { "id": "36050321", "doi": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32821-z",